Phoenix Flu

Cannon Feather slowly woke up from a long nap, being somewhat exhausted from running around quite a bit. He then raised his head and, to his surprise, saw he was one of the first foals to have woken up, seeing most of his fellow soldiers were still fast asleep, snuggling into each other. Then, on closer inspection, he noticed that the foals had grown, some of them having teeth now chewing on the pacifiers, others with clean diapers, seeing they had regained control of their bladders. The effects of the “Phoenix Flu” seemed to be wearing off. The colt then laid his head back down, wanting to try to go back to sleep. But he just tossed and turned, unable to, then he heard his stomach growl. He tried to ignore the rumblings, but he just couldn’t. He looked over to see that Princess Celestia was lying with them but was sound asleep. The little colt wanted to eat ask her for some food at the same time. He didn’t want to disturb her. He then turned to see Sergent Bucket Bridle waking up, stretching his tiny limbs and yawning, “Morning.”

Cannon turned to see the sun descending across the sky and snickered, “It’s more like afternoon.”

“Yeah, forgot we had a nap…how long did we sleep for?”

“Probably for like a few hours, anyways I’m hungry.”

“Yeah, me too, but Princess Tia is sound asleep. It’ll be a while before she’s free.”

Cannon blushed, thinking about how embarrassing it was that the princesses of Equestria cared for them as babies. The way she had a wing around them and curled up with the other foals, some in her mane, others pressing their heads into her chest, she clearly was enjoying babying them more than she let on earlier, even though they were running her ragged. The little colt then wondered how Princess Luna was, seeing she was all alone in her room, then said, “Well, um…why do we go to Princess Luna? She might be awake still.”

“Yeah, but that means we gotta get to her room, and that’s gonna take a long time. Also, we might get in trouble. The princesses dun want us babies running around the castle unsupervised.”

“I know, but we're both hungry, and she’s all alone. We can at least see if she will let us have some milk.” He then crawled across the playpen, carefully not stepping on other foals and avoiding hitting any blocks or toys. They both then went up onto the plastic fence surrounding them, and the two babies worked together, climbing over it and plopping their padded flanks onto the ground. Then they heard.

“Hey, where are you two going!?”

They turned to see a little pegasus filly shad with a sea green coat and a tiny curly swirl of soft yellow and light blue for her mane. She had two bright yellow eyes. She was standing on her back legs, her forelegs going over the playpen's side, pouting. She snapped, “Princess Tia ordered us to stay in the playpen! We may be babies, but we still gotta listen to ta princess!”

Bucket held a hoof to his tummy and said, “Yeah, but we hungry, and we're just going to see if Princess Luna can feed us.”

“Yeah, please don’t tell on us.”

Then they heard a growl, and the filly blushed and said, “Fine, only if you let me join you!”

“Ok,” the other foals grumbled as they both went to help the filly. She quickly snapped, “Dun needs your help!” She then flapped her tiny wings and got over the playpen. “See, I didn’t need your help!”

“Ok,” the two colts grumbled as she came over, and the three trotted off. Cannon Feather looked at the filly and said, “So, my name is Cannon Feather. What’s your name?”

The filly threw her mane and said, “My name is Sea Breeze.”

“I’m Bucket Bridle.” The other colt replied.

“Well, Cannon Feather and Bucket Bridle, it's nice to meet you.”

She then waddled with them as Cannon asked, “So, Sea Breeze, how old do you think we are?”

The filly tapped a hoof to her chin and said, “I would say about two right now. I think tat the princess’ milk is restoring us to our original ages.”

They both blinked as they looked each other over, seeing that they had grown a bit, with Cannon feeling teeth again and the diaper feeling tighter around his waist. “Guess ya right. We are growing but super slowly. We're going to turn to adults soon, I guess.”

“Yeah, guess we are,” Bucket grumbled.

“Well, actually, Bucket, you older,” she pointed to his face, “you can tell less baby fat, and you're taller. I would guess you’re probably closer to three.”

Bucket took a moment to look himself over. " Yeah, I feel older. I guess I don't need this anymore.” He then ripped off his diaper, waddled over to them, and said, “So since I’m the oldest and the highest ranking, you two gotta do as I say!”
“Guess so,” Sea Breeze chirped. “But since we're breaking the rules, we can just blame you!”

This got a laugh out of Cannon Feather as Bucket Bridle pouted, seeming unable to come up with
a good comeback as they continued walking. Sea Breeze chirped, “The crazy part is we still have our memories. Ya, think if we regressed to foals. We would literally lose all our past experiences. I tink it would be cool to kind of start over ya know?”

Bucket Bridle was surprised, then said, “Huh, you thought a lot about this?”

Sea Breeze quickly replied, “Sorry, I rambled on.”

“It's otay! Tat’s cool to know…so, um, do you like being a baby again?”

The filly blushed, “Well, it's not like I remember much as a baby before, but I do say it’s quite relaxing.”

Cannon Feather laughed, then said, “Yeah, I mean, when was the last time you got to have a nap?”

Bucket then said, “Hmmm, probably not since preschool.”

“Exactly! We adults work so hard and do a lot we forget to have fun; maybe being a baby can teach ya to have some fun once in a while,” Cannon added.

Sea Breeze shrugged, then said, “I guess so…” She peered upwards at the massive stairs and asked, “Hey, ya two wana race up the stairs!?”

“Yeah, otay!”

The three foals then started their climb. They clambered up step by step, slowly and methodically, and both ran as fast as they could. Then they turned to see Bucket Bridle heaving, “You two are lucky you got wings.”

They both helped him up, and Cannon hugged him: “Yeah, but you're super strong! You can kick down an entire tower of blocks by yourself!”

Bucket blushed, then replied, “Thanks. Guess we should get going.”

They continued to trot through the halls, and then they came to Luna's bedroom. As they opened it, they saw the princess of the night waking up. She yawned, looked over at the three, and groaned, “What are you doing here? My sister should be watching you, foals!”

“We, hungry,” Bucket cried. Upon hearing the colt speak, Luna let out a surprise gasp and asked, “My goodness, you can talk now?”

“Yeah, guess so,” Bucket replied with a foal lisp and continued, “I tink my words are weird I sound like a toddler.”

“Yes, but at least we can communicate. My goodness, trying to find out what your babies want is quite difficult when all you do is babble and cry.”

She turned to the others and said, “So, how about you two? Can you try talking?”

Cannon and Sea Breeze tried with a mix of babbles. They got “Lulu” and “hungry” out as Luna let out a disappointed sigh and said, “Seems you two have some growing to do, but did you two say, Lulu?”

The two other foals shook their head and then tried saying her name, but once again what came out was a string of babbles and “Lulu.”

Princess Luna laughed, “Aww, you two are adorable. Come on, say it one more time.”

The two just pouted and crossed their hooves over their chests. Bucket Bridle then said, “Sorry for waking you up, Princess Luna, but these two are hungry. Can we have a snack?”

The other two foals nod and Luna put a hoof over her heart, “Of course, you can! Come, let’s go to the royal kitchen. I’m sure I can whip up something!”

She gathered the foals onto her back and trotted downstairs, taking a trip that took the foals about half an hour and a couple of minutes. She then spotted her sister shaking her head, “Sleeping on the job, but she was up rather early this morning and has been watching all these foals as well. I will let my sister rest.”

The princess then plopped the foals into their highchairs and started to make the two mashed carrots and yams while giving some boiled carrots and celery with some dressing. The foals ate their baby food rather greedily. She then got out some baby bottles filled with milk for the younger ones and gave Bucket Bridle. Despite being older, the older colt felt a bit embarrassed, seeing how his food still had to be cut up into bite-sized pieces and had a sippy cup. He took a few sips from his sippy cup and then asked, “So, um, Princess Luna? What’s happened? The other foals and I are still confused about what’s going on.”

“So, from what I learned, my sister’s phoenix, Philomenia, has a rare illness that has caused you and your fellow guards to regress into foals. My sister researched a cure, which was her milk, and she fed it to you earlier, seeing how you all are aging back. But I was hoping it would turn you all into adults instantly. It seems to be growing you back to your original ages, but slower than we anticipated.”

Bucket nodded, seemed to agree with Princess Luna’s logic, and said, “Guess so, but I’m a bit older than Cannon and Sea Breeze, so it’s why I’m aging faster than them.

“Well, you were older than them before you regressed, so maybe that’s why? Or you drank more milk than them?” She shrugged as she gave the colt a helping of steamed yams and said, “Who knows? All that matters is your growth, and you should eat your food.”

Bucket sighed, picked up a carrot stick, and grumbled, “I guess now I know how my son feels when he’s forced to eat his food.”

The others giggled as he said, " Well, at least I can eat solid food, unlike you babies!”

“Now, Bucket, don’t be rude.” Luna scolded. Then she went to feeding the younger foals, making faces to make them open up. She was able to spoon-feed them. This time was easier, as they seemed to have more control over their bodies and got most of it down. Then she heard a chorus of cries coming behind her.

“I hungry!”

“Me too!”

“Can I have a snack, Princess Luna?”

She then turned towards the kitchen entrance to see dozens of toddlers already starting to come towards her, all crying for food. She then went to work, giving them each a seat as she grumbled to herself, “Sister, you are going to owe me for this.”

An hour passed, and most of the foals that had woken up were happily snacking away, many now toddlers or slightly younger, but as Luna fed them, she saw that some were growing in front of her with teeth coming back and some literally growing taller before her very eyes. But after the foals finished their meal, they started to become more energetic, running around the kitchen and making quite the racket. The princess realized she had to think of something to get the foals to calm down. But at the same time, make sure the activity is quiet enough so that they didn’t wake up any foals still napping. Then an idea popped into her head, “Hey, everypony, quiet down!”

They continued to run around, arguing, and then Princess Luna cleared her throat and, in her Royal Canterlot Voice, shouted, “EVERYPONY PLEASE QUIET DOWN!” but it came out as a harsh whisper. This got the attention of the foals, and they turned to her as she said, “Some of your fellow soldiers are still napping, so while they nap, why don’t we do something quiet?”

She then gathered a bunch of scrolls and jars of ink and, with a quick spell, turned them into different colors. She then hoofed out and said, “Why don’t you paint me pictures?”

It didn’t take long for the foals to start smashing their hooves into the makeshift foal paint, splattering it all over the table, and making cute pictures of all kinds. Princess Luna was relieved that the foals were all actively engaged, and seeing the foals smearing the paint into cute pictures of all kinds, from their cutie marks to rainbows, others did ones with the princesses. The princess of the night took a moment to scrounge around the castle, finding a cabinet filled with arts and crafts supplies from the “sleepover with the princesses” they have with foals. She then gave them actual hoofpaint and some crayons, and others started making macaroni art. But she was still quite busy cleaning up messes, stopping fights and horseplay. Despite the amount of work, it was watching so many foals. She had to admit the regressed guards were quite cute, and seeing them make such adorable arts and crafts projects warmed her heart. She knew they would want to destroy them out of embarrassment when they turned back into adults. But she secretly was hoping they could store them away for the memories.

Princess Celestia woke up and saw that all the foals around her were gone; only Shining Armor lay snoring with a pacifier bobbing up and down. She saw his diaper was clean and removed it, seeing he probably didn’t need it anymore, then tucked him under some blankets before hearing some noises coming from the kitchen. As the princess entered, her mouth went agape upon seeing that many of the foals were clearly grown up now clearly, being around three or four years old and busy making art projects with hoof paint splattering it all over the massive dining table while some doodled with crayons, and some smashing macaroni into pools of glue. She then turned to see her sister wearing a heavy denim blue apron covered in food splatter and hoof paint. Her coat wasn’t safe either, with splotches of color splattered over her coat, and she looked rather frantic as she had to stop two foals fighting over some crayons. Upon seeing Princess Celestia, the mare snorted and stomped over towards her as she snapped, “Good morning, sister. Did you have a nice nap?”

The princess of the sun felt rather embarrassed for sleeping while she was supposed to be watching the foals, and she replied, “Luna, I apologize. I must have been quite exhausted and fell asleep without realizing it.”

“Obviously," the princess of the night scoffed, then threw out a wing and said, "As you can see, the foals are doing quite well; they’re busy doing arts & crafts; despite the mess, they're not running around, and getting themselves in trouble.”

Princess Celestia looked about, still somewhat amazed at what she saw, and said, “I see that, and I have to admit, sister, you are doing very well keeping the foals occupied, and it’s surprising to see my milk is already taking effect.”

“Yes, sister, but I was hoping they would have grown up instantly. Will we have to care for them until they are fully grown?”

Princess Celestia wasn’t sure, but seeing the foals around her, she would have to assume her sister answered her own question and said, “Well, the spell book I found didn’t exactly explain this part, but it’s been only several hours since they were given my milk, and the foals are already a few years older. I’m sure at the rate they’re growing, they will all be adults again by tomorrow morning.”

Princess Luna, still rather peeved, took off her apron, draped it over her sister, and said, “Well, since I’ve been caring for them while you napped, I think it’s only fair you watch them while I take a nap.”

“Fair enough, I imagine that they’ll tire with arts & crafts soon; I think having them play in the garden will help alleviate any excess energy as they get older.”

“The spell we casted should cover the garden, just keep an eye on them and don’t fall asleep this time,” Luna ordered as she left with a huff. Still agitated, Princess Celestia gently tied the apron around her, and she set to work filling in her sister’s horseshoes and watching the foals do their arts and crafts.