Cutie Mark Cry Babies

Scootaloo awoke the next morning to her Aunt Holiday gently nudging her awake.

“Scootaloo sweetheart, it’s time to get up.” She said.

Scootaloo’s eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the daylight streaming in through her window.

Almost immediately, her eyes shot open at what she saw.

While her room had looked slightly different when she arrived home yesterday, a few board games and toys lying on her shelves and on the floor, her room now looked much different.

More childish toys like dolls, dress up clothes, stuffed animals and much more lay on the floor around her room, as if it had recently been played with.

The walls of her room had gone from blue to pink, as well as her sheets and rug which had previously been green and yellow.

She even had a stuffed bear in her bed beside her.

Aunty Holiday could see the scared look on her niece’s face.

“Is everything ok Scootaloo? You didn’t have an accident did you?”

“WHAT?!?!” Yelled Scootaloo.

It was at that moment she became aware of something slightly bulky around her waist.

Pulling her sheets back, she found a pair of little fillies training pants around her waist.

The garment was pink on the sides, with designs of tiaras and hearts going from the crotch to the rear.

Thankfully Scootaloo was pleased to find she had not used them like her Aunt had suggested.

“Good job sweetie! Soon you won’t need those at night anymore. Only a few more days to go.” She said as Scootaloo watched her put a sun face on a chart by her door.

There were a few sun faces on their already, but some spots had rainclouds, making Scootaloo realize her Aunt now believed her to be potty training.

She had never felt so embarrassed!

“I don’t have to wear these during the day do I?” Asked Scootaloo, afraid to hear her Aunt’s answer.

“Of course not sweetie. You haven’t needed them during the day for a few months. You just gotta be careful about going before you go to sleep. Now hurry and get ready! We’ll need to head to preschool in a little bit.” Said Aunty Holiday as she left Scootaloo’s room, leaving her there in just her pull-up on her bed.

Preschool? Sweet Celestia why?

A little while later Scootaloo found herself being lead to preschool by her Aunty Holiday.

Breakfast had gone about the same as it had yesterday with her Aunt Lofty serving her cut up food again.

The only difference compared to yesterday was her Aunts seemed to be keeping an even closer eye on her, making sure she cleaned her plate and washed her hooves before she left.

As her and her Aunt walked through the streets of Ponyville she did notice ponies that passed her by seemed to smile at her or wave, probably to be nice to what they saw as a little filly walking by them.

Soon, she found her Aunt leading her up the walkway to a building she had passed countless times before without paying it any mind.

Ponyville Preschool. Scootaloo could see by the sign out front that the school catered to ponies two to four, and based on what her Aunt had told her that morning, she guessed ponies must see her as around three or four years old.

After her Aunt had lead her to a room inside and given her a hug and kiss goodbye, she had a moment to take in her surroundings.

She didn’t remember much from her time in preschool, but the room looked as much like a preschool classroom as she expected.

Little tables and chairs faced the front of the room with a chalkboard much like the classrooms at the schoolhouse, but posters of planets, math equations, and famous figures were replaced with popular children’s cartoon characters reminding ponies to be nice and share.

She was relieved to at least find Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle at a table waving to her. At least she didn’t have to suffer through preschool alone.

Plus at least here they would have some time to talk more since the day mainly consisted of playtime.

“What the heck is happening? Everypony thinks we’re four now!” Said Scootaloo as she took her seat next to Sweetie Belle.

“We were just talking about that. Me and Sweetie think our perceived age is half what it was yesterday.” Said Apple Bloom.

“Yeah yesterday we were at least still in school. Now we’re pretty much in daycare.” Said Scootaloo grumpily.

“It’s still school. Just, very basic material.” Said Sweetie Belle, trying to be optimistic.

“I say we just run away. There’s how many other active kids here. We could just sneak out the front door.” Said Scootaloo.

“And where do you suggest we go? On the lamb? It’s like we talked about yesterday. If anypony spots us we’re done for. You know how much trouble we’d probably get in as four year olds if we ran away? I can tell ya Applejack would whop my behind.” Said Apple Bloom.

“We can’t just sit here and do nothing! We might get even younger if we don’t do anything.” Said Scootaloo.

“We don’t have much of a choice. We’ll think of something Scootaloo, but right now we just have to play along.” Said Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo sighed. She knew Apple Bloom was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

The Crusaders settled in and tried not to be too bored at the overly simple lessons about colors and counting to ten the teacher went over with the class.

Scootaloo tried to fake paying attention as she tried to think of a plan her and her friends could put into action later when the teacher called on her.

“Scootaloo, what color is this?” Said the teacher as she pointed at a colored circle on the board.

Scootaloo was about to say the answer when she felt an odd feeling pass through her mind. The answer had been so obvious when she first looked at the color, but now she felt unsure.

“Uh, green?” She said nervously.

“That’s right. Good job Scootaloo.” Said the teacher as she moved on to the next kid.

Scootaloo felt a strange sense of pride fill her at getting the answer right.

It was such a simple question with an obvious answer for a pony her age but somehow knowing it made her feel proud.

She would find herself getting this feeling at different times throughout the day.

When she answered questions right, when the teacher asked her to help, every little bit of praise made Scootaloo feel special.

Before she knew it, Applejack was there to take them to Sweet Apple Acres for a play date.

As her and her friends walked behind Applejack, Scootaloo couldn’t believe how fast the day had gone.

Although she didn’t want to admit it at the risk of her friends thinking she was weird, Scootaloo had actually enjoyed her day at preschool.

She liked getting praise and attention from her teacher. She loved snack and nap time. She liked playing and singing with everypony.

It made her feel so fulfilled yet so wrong. She was almost a grown mare, yet she had enjoyed so much acting like such a little filly.

A small part of her was actually longing to tomorrow be back in pre-

“You ok Scootaloo? You’re awfully quiet.” Said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo immediate drew her attention to her friends who were now both staring at her.

“Oh yeah fine. Totally fine. Never better. Heh heh.” She said, trying and failing not to draw attention to herself.

Her friends seemed to buy her lie though and not long after the three of them found themselves having to chat with Applejack about all the fun things they did and learned in preschool that day.

Scootaloo did notice her friends seemed to speak with a bit of enthusiasm about their day when they first started to answer, but then toned their answer down to act like they’d been bored.

She wondered if maybe her friends had actually enjoyed their day together too, but didn’t want to risk sounding weird by bringing it up.

Luckily the three of them soon found themselves back at Sweet Apple Acres again and dropped off at their clubhouse by Applejack.

“You young’ins have fun now. I’ll be tending the field out back if ya need anything. I’ll be back to check on ya in a bit.” Said Applejack as she left the crusaders alone to inspect the state of their clubhouse.

The Clubhouse now looked more like a glorified playroom, with more toys scattered around the room then there had been yesterday, most of them dolls and stuffed animals.

A few costumes for dress up were in a trunk in the corner and a table with crayons and paper was opposite it.

The one thing that hadn’t changed though was the mirror on the wall.

Remembering what had happened yesterday, Scootaloo stood in front of it.

As she expected, staring back at her was a young version of herself, no more than three or four.

She looked puny in size compared to Scootaloo herself, but Scootaloo knew this was how the world currently saw her, a little filly barely out of toddlerhood.

The three of them again sat down and tried to figure out what to do about their predicament.

It seemed as though their perceived age was getting even younger now, and they didn’t want to think about what tomorrow would bring.

“We may not have much time left. We gotta figure out something now!” Said Scootaloo.

“But what can we do? There’s no way we can go off on our own without somepony catching us.” Said Sweetie Belle.

“Wait a sec. What day is it?” Asked Apple Bloom.

“It’s Friday. What does that matter?” Said Scootaloo.

“Don’t you see? We won’t have school tomorrow. So our families won’t be getting us up early to go to school. If we wait until our families go to sleep tonight and sneak out, we can maybe get to Canterlot if we walk and just keep an eye out and hide when ponies come the other way. We can maybe try and talk to Princess Celestia or Luna when we get there and see if they’ll help us.” Said Apple Bloom.

“But even if we make it there they’ll still see us as little fillies. They probably won’t believe us. Plus we’ll have to sneak past the castle guards to even try to find them.” Said Sweetie Belle.

“The way I see it it’s our best hope. I don’t think we can convince Twilight to help us, and she’d probably tell our families where we are. This way we can maybe try and escape if they don’t believe us and try something else when we think of it.” Said Apple Bloom.

“I think she’s right. They’ll be most likely to believe us, and it gives us a good amount of time to try and get away if they don’t.” Said Scootaloo.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “I guess you’re right. I just hope this works.” Said Sweetie Belle.

The three agreed to meet at the edge of town at the road that would lead them to Canterlot.

With any luck, they’d make it there a few hours before then sun came up.

With nothing else to do after that, the three of them found themselves drawing random things with paper and crayons until Applejack came and got them later to bring them back to her house and have Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle get picked up.

Scootaloo found her night at home even more embarrassing then her last night had been.

After dinner her Aunt Holiday had run her a bath and washed her. She’d even given her some bath toys to play with, which Scootaloo actually had a little fun with if she was honest.

After she had been dried off, her Aunt had brushed her teeth for her and tucked her into bed, then proceeded to read her a bedtime story.

It had been one Scootaloo had remembered hearing countless times as a kid, but as she laid in bed with her Aunt reading to her in a soft and comforting voice, Scootaloo began to feel herself getting sleepy.

She tried her best to keep her eyes open, but just couldn’t seem to. She was just too comfy to stay awake as her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep, her worries and thoughts of sneaking out forgotten as she drifted off to dreamland.