After speaking to the very angry dragon, the group teleported back into the map room. They all looked like they had seen better days, especially Twilight. Each pony had tears rolling down their cheeks and puffy red eyes.

After about five minutes of constant sobbing, each pony finally regained their composure, or at least enough to be heard clearly.

"I knew Spike would be upset but I never would've guessed he'd be that... livid" Twilight said as she sighed dejectedly.

Rainbow Dash, trying to wipe any remaining evidence of sadness off her face responded angrily. "I can't believe he said all that to us! The worst part is, is that we did nothing to punish him. If he wanted to act like a bratty foal then we shoulda spanked him like one till he couldn't sit down properly for a week! He'd have to wear his precious diapers in front of us whether he liked it or not just to avoid the full pain.

Applejack scoffed at the rainbow mares plan. "Yeah that's a great idea Rainbow. If we'd done that then we would be proving his abuse allegations to be true. We'd also be humiliating him in the process. Let's face it, while we never intentionally meant ta harm the little guy, what he said was the honest truth."

"I never would've imaging our innocent little Spikey-Wikey could feel so awful. I guess you were right Fluttershy dear, we should've just left him alone" Rarity stated sadly while mascara ran down her face.

"Actually, maybe what we did was the right thing to do. Sure we could've done it differently to avoid hurting his feelings but Spike finally let out all this pain that he'd been bottling up inside himself for who knows how long." Fluttershy said quietly but confidently before dropping her voice to a shy whisper, ending with a squee. "Plus, Spike was sooo cute. We never would've gotten to see just how adorable he was if we didn't do what we did. I just wanna wrap my wings around him and rock him while cooing, telling everything's going to be alright."

Pinkie Pie who looked like she was melting onto the floor, added her thoughts in a mopey whine. "I wanted to hug and play with baby Spike too. I wish I could've turned his itty bitty frown upside down."

Everything was silent. The ponies felt terrible, Spike felt terrible, and they broke Spike's trust.

Twilight sighed as she hung her head. At that moment however, she spotted something. She spotted the book Spike had given her before they teleported away.

Out of curiosity, Twilight opened the book to a page that seemed too have been marked and widened her eyes in shock. "Wait girls, I found something!"

All the ponies looked at the purple mare in confusion before trotting slowly over to her. "What a book? No offense Twilight but I don't think reading is going to solve this problem" Rainbow Dash muttered sadly

"I think reading this book will. Look at this page, Spike marked it. He even underlined the topic!" Twilight cheered happily

After each pony read over the page a few times, things started to become clearer to the group of six.

Pinkie Pie read the text in her normal bubbly voice. "Look here!" The pink mare cleared her throat like she was preparing for a speech. "While this topic is still being learned about, these types of ponies commonly known as 'Forever Foals' are much more common then you think."

Rarity then took over reading "Most 'Forever Foals' are ponies who like to wear diapers to 'regress' to a state of childlike dependency. Some wish to take back a childhood they never had before. Ponies can become 'Forever Foals' in a number of different ways. Stress, trauma, unknown random attachment, and recommendations from others are the basic ways most individuals become 'Forever Foals'.

Twilight then pressed her eyes to the page attempting to swallow the knowledge of the page. "To many, this is a simple yet slightly unorthodox method of relaxation and stress relief. Other ponies may be 'aroused' by the loss of control and total dependency on another. 'Forever Foals' don't entirely know why they have these feelings but they mustn't ignore or force them away. Doing so could damage their mental and possibly even physical health which in turn could cause depression and anxiety.

After a few more minutes of reading through each detail throughly and then rereading, each pony finally had more of an understanding of the current situation.

"So... Spike is this.... 'Forever Foal?' This seems pretty harmless and sort of... sweet. While a bit strange, it certainly isn't dangerous. While I'm not into the whole idea of some of them using their garments, I don't see a huge problem with any of this. In fact, if this is more common than we realize, I could make a whole line of 'Forever Foal cloths, diapers included" Rarity stated positively with a glint of inspiration in her eyes.

Rainbow Dash spoke sadly at what she learned "It's kinda upsetting how we all sorta pushed Spike to be like this. I know I laughed at him earlier but I wasn't trying to be mean, I just got caught off guard at how he looked. Yeah it was kinda funny but I didn't stop thinking of Spike as a friend after I saw him.

"Ah don't think we pushed him to do this RD. Honestly, Ah guess ah didn't know what ta think at the time but ah didn't think any less of Spike" Applejack said with confidence in her voice.

Fluttershy then adoringly spoke softly and squeed in delight. "Dawww, I'd love to babysit Spike as often as I could. I can already imagine how cute Spike would be, all cuddled up in a warm blankie suckling on his baba.

"I wanna babysit him too! After a day with his Auntie Pinkie Pie I'm sure he'll be begging to pad up more often!" Pinkie Pie loudly stated in serious yet silly manner.

"T... This is all my fault. I should've just paid more attention to him and then he wouldn't have had to feel so terrible. I.... I don't care what it takes. I will do whatever I can to see my baby dragon happy" Twilight stated with no uncertainty in her voice.

Pinkie then started to chant. "Yeah, let's do this!"

With all the ponies in agreement, they smiled, put their hooves together, and cheered.

"FOR SPIKE!"

Author's Note

Hey everyone!

This was kinda short but I honestly just wanted to get this specific chapter out of the way. I've been feeling kinda sick too so that made writing all this a bit more difficult.

This chapter was meant to be informative, both to the mane 6 and to the readers. While I had done something similar last story, I wanted to go more in depth with the topic. My hope is that this will help readers and ponies form an understanding to the topic as a whole. This way many could really "connect" with this chapter.

I was kinda having trouble with this chapter. I felt like I was taking too long to get the next part of this out and even though I am actually pretty sick at the moment, I forced myself to finish this chapter so I can move on. I'll probably be taking a 12-16 hour nap after finishing this...

I've gotta ask though, in your opinions, is Twilight closer to a mother figure or a big sister? Twilight hatched Spike and technically "birthed" him but their current relationship points towards a brother sister relationship. I know it could work either way but I wanna hear everyone's thoughts on the matter.