As surprised as he was at his adoptive son and his two young friends coming home with six alien pony babies, Grim proved to still have plenty of supplies on hand from when he first started raising Ratchet from infancy.
The basket had come with a note detailing each of the six children and what their names were. The lavender one was Twilight Sparkle, the pink one was Pinkie Pie, the orange one was Applejack, the cyan one was Rainbow Dash, the white one was Rarity, and the yellow one was Fluttershy.
Each of the six infants had defining characteristics; Twilight loved books and had potent magical abilities connected to her horn, Rarity loved sparkly things and seemed to have a taste for fashion, Pinkie loved sweets and was constantly hyperactive as a result, Applejack was very dutiful and helpful, Rainbow had a love for daredevil tricks much like Hilda, and Fluttershy was very timid but loved animals.
Due to the nature of their six new visitors, Ratchet, Ben, and Hilda looked up books on them. Fortunately, Ben and Hilda had a few Old Earth books related to Unicorns and Pegasus. They figured out that Applejack and Pinkie Pie were 'Earth' ponies, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were 'Pegasus', and Rarity was a 'Unicorn'. As for Twilight Sparkle, she appeared to be a cross of a Pegasus and a Unicorn, an Alicorn, so to speak.
Since Ratchet, Ben, and Hilda were still kids, Grim took it upon himself to help the six babies with toilet training and the other essentials for babies to learn. Ratchet had opted to try and help by inventing what he called a 'Diapertron', which could handle changing a baby's diaper and cleaning them all at the same time safely and efficiently.
While the Mane 6, as Hilda had affectionately started calling them, didn't like the device all that much, it made quite a lot of bolts when Ratchet sent the design over to Gadgetron, who loved it, especially when Hilda suggested adding a personal touch so that infants would be more comfortable with the device.
The three best friends also got a good idea of just how potent Twilight's magic abilities were when Rainbow tried stealing Ratchet's Omniwrench, a multi-purpose wrench that he had on him when he first arrived on Veldin as a baby. When Hilda tried teaching the little pegasus girl the value of not taking other people's things without asking, Twilight seemed to get an idea.
With a flash of her horn, Ratchet's Omniwrench suddenly was duplicated six times, one wrench for each of the babies. In order to distinguish each wrench from the other, Ratchet wrote the same insignias that were on each of the babies' rumps onto the wrenches so they could tell which one belonged to whom.
Eventually, Grim decided that to better handle the six infants, two of them would each go to one of the three kids. Ratchet decided to take Twilight and Applejack, Ben picked Fluttershy and Rarity, and Hilda took in Rainbow and Pinkie.
As the six infants grew older, they imprinted on the three friends as their parents. As such, they took it upon themselves to raise them with love and care and help them learn how to control their unique abilities and skills. A lot of misadventures were had, especially when Fluttershy ended up taming a herd of Horned Toads and Twilight tried to reprogram a Thunder Soldier as a butler/bodyguard...to disastrous results.
The Mane 6 were now three years old and their talents were shining through more and more with each passing day. Twilight proved to be extremely intelligent and studious for her age, reading every holo-book Ratchet and Grim had on hand.
Pinkie was shown to be a master baker and also had a talent for throwing wild parties, which left everyone curious as to how she got the resources to throw them but they weren't complaining as every party Pinkie threw was a fun time for everyone.
Applejack was quite hard-working and had offered to help with whatever Ratchet and Grim were working on. She also had a good hand for farming, particularly with apples, which gave Grim the idea to make a small farm area for Applejack to grow some apple trees.
Rainbow always insisted on joining Ratchet, Ben, and Hilda on their adventures in town or exploring Veldin. She was already a natural-born flyer and often raced her adoptive parents on their Gyro-Cycles whenever she got the chance.
Rarity had a knack for seeing the value in things most others didn't. She was also shown to be quite business savvy for her age and had an eye for details, especially regarding clothes and other styles of fashion.
Finally, Fluttershy had endless kindness and love to give out to even the fiercest of animals. Though some animals simply couldn't be tamed, she still did her best all the same to befriend whatever creatures she could.
There was never a dull moment having the Mane 6 in their lives, but Twilight in particular would show an amazing level of technical know-how that made even Ratchet jealous and it would all come to a head one fine day...
Twilight was bored. Grim and Applejack had gone out to the Bazaar and Ratchet had been given a call to deal with some Horned Toads and Thunder Soldiers. In an effort to cure her boredom, she began looking through the Gadgetron Uplink to see if they had anything interesting to look at.
Her eyes eventually landed on "New Products in Testing". Curiously, she selected the hyperlink, revealing it to be restricted access and requiring a password to get through.
"...Please?"
"Password accepted."
Twilight gasped. "Wow. Daddy and Grandpa were right about that being the magic word!"
She began scrolling through the products that were still in testing and development, marveling at the technology. However, when she reached one, she noticed something odd in the schematics.
Quickly grabbing the help desk uplink, she got into contact with the one in charge of the particular weapon. Apparently, there was a cascade failure in the proton flux chamber, resulting in the prototype exploding and releasing an EMP, which coincidentally erased any data the scientists managed to gather from the tests on their computers.
Fortunately, Twilight had suggested inverting the charge in the proton collection chamber to apply a negative charge to the protons so they repulse the connected electrons. To cover for the energized protons going out back of the chamber, Twilight suggested they feed the exhaust port back into the energizing chamber, meaning the resulting electrical discharge would be twice as destructive, more controllable, as well as damage nearby targets instead of just what was shot. It would also increase ammo storage and at only a 10% increase in production costs.
The Gadgetron scientists were impressed by all this, especially when they learned Twilight had managed to gain access to the schematics despite only being a toddler, especially when they learned she was related to Ratchet.
They had offered her access to future in-development projects to look over and even submit her designs as long as she had a parent or guardian to sign off on it.
Needless to say, Ratchet and Grim were surprised by what Twilight showed them but figured this would help net in plenty of bolts. Ratchet had also figured Ben would love to be able to test out new weapons since he always had a fascination with them.
Applejack was a little skeptical about making weapons but Twilight reassured her that Gadgetron was a trustworthy enough company. She even offered the rest of the Mane 6 to submit their own ideas for Gadgetron weapons and other gadgets.
"Never a dull moment with the little ones, huh?" Ben chuckled as Twilight happily hugged Ratchet after he finished signing things up.
"Nope, never a dull moment at all."
It was a beautiful starry night as Ben was looking up with Fluttershy and Rarity nestled into his lap together. Fluttershy was holding a rabbit plushie that Hilda had gotten her for her second birthday while Rarity was just admiring the stars as they reflected in her crystal blue eyes.
"Papa?"
"Yeah, sweetie?"
"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"
Ben sighed. "I wonder that myself. It is one of life's great mysteries."
"Twilight has been wondering lately about why we arrived here. As in us, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash..."
"You came down from a falling star or something. Even then, I still have no idea where the star came from...or why it was carrying you girls." Ben admitted. "We don't know exactly what planet you yourselves came from or why you can use magic."
"Do you think...we were just created from a wishing star?" Rarity asked worriedly.
"No, everything comes from something," Ben said as he hugged the two close. "Somewhere out there is a star. Orbiting that star is a planet. And on that planet is the home of your people, where you come from. And someday...Ratchet, Hilda, and I are going to take you and the others there."
"R-really?" Fluttershy asked hopefully.
Ben smiled. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
It was a silly little promise system that Pinkie Pie had come up with when she first learned how to talk, a "Pinkie Promise", so to speak. Despite it, the family had all held it as a dear sacred vow all the same.
"Papa, we'll always be together, right?" Rarity asked.
"You, Papa Ratchet, and Mama Hilda won't ever leave us...R-Right?" Fluttershy added, hugging her plushie tighter.
"Girls, let me tell you something a wise man once said; look at the stars." The two looked up with Ben. "Those who came before us look down at us from those stars."
"Really?"
"Yes, so whenever you feel alone, just remember that our family members who came before us will always be there to guide you...and so will I."
Figured I'd cap the chapter off with a memento to the legendary James Earl Jones. RIP to the man who gave us Mufasa and Darth Vader.
Up next, Hilda learns a downside to having a party-planning pony girl with a love of baking...and quickly turns it into an upside!