//------------------------------// // A Bond Restored? // Story: Foal For A Day // by SuperPinkBrony12 //------------------------------// An uncomfortable, lengthy silence fell over the Rich family household, as no-one dared utter a word. Diamond, Spoiled, and Filthy all just stood still, each waiting for somepony else to pick up the baton and speak up first. Finally, it was Spoiled who broke the silence by awkwardly trying to force a smile, as she greeted her husband. “Oh, hello dear. What an…. unexpected treat to see you back home already. I thought you had a business meeting to attend?” “The meetin’ was cancelled, my client couldn’t meet with me because he was sick with the flu,” Filthy replied, numbly. “I thought I’d surprise the two of you by comin’ home early today, and this is what my eyes see? My mansion, turned into a day nursery?!” “Father, please, this isn’t what it looks like.” Diamond promised, even though she knew that was a bare-faced lie. There was no other way to interpret the spectacle her father was seeing right now. “Diamond, do you think I’m stupid or somethin’?” Filthy asked. “You’re wearin’ a wet diaper, there’s foal toys scattered about your bedroom, and I’m pretty sure those aren’t your silk pajamas layin’ on the floor!” “But Father, you don’t understand!,” Tiara pleaded again, her hooves waving frantically in the air. “I know this looks a bit weird, but there’s a perfectly good reason for all of this.” “Was this your little plan all along?” Filthy asked Spoiled, barely suppressing his anger. “To regress our daughter to a two year old foal again behind my back?” “I just wanted to prove to you that I could be trusted with our daughter, and this was the first idea that came to mind,” Spoiled nervously replied, feeling like a bug under a microscope. “Please don’t be angry. I can explain everything, but I need to get Diamond changed before she gets a nasty rash. It won’t do her any good to stay in a wet diaper much longer.” “Randolph can change her,” Filthy flatly told Spoiled. “You’re comin’ with me to my study, you have a lot of explainin’ to do, dear!” “Dad, wait!” Tiara shouted. She wanted to race up to him to keep him from leaving, but with her wet, constrictive diaper, she didn’t dare move an inch. “Don’t worry, Diamond, you’ll get your chance to explain soon enough,” Filthy replied without looking at her, as he led his wife away. “Once I’ve heard from Spoiled, and from you, I’ll decide how I’m going to deal with this… situation. In the meantime, I’ll summon the butler to get you changed. Please make sure you’re out of that diaper by the time I call for you again.” Tiara wanted to protest, but the filly quickly realized it was futile trying to argue with her father when he was in this kind of a mood. “I don’t think his ire is entirely due to this predicament,” she pondered, as Randolph entered the bedroom. “He’s probably more upset about his meeting being cancelled, but seeing his grown-up daughter in a diaper surrounded by foal products must have been a shock to the system,” then she sighed as she optimistically thought. “I hope he’ll listen to Mother, and to me.” “Shall we get you cleaned up, Mistress Diamond?” Randolph drolly asked the filly. “Yes please, I’d rather not get a diaper rash. It would clash most terribly with my coat.” Diamond replied, and accepted Randolph’s hoof as he escorted her out of her sleeping quarters. Aside from changing out of the dress she’d worn for the tea party, Spoiled didn’t do or say anything while following her husband to his office. “Maybe I should’ve just been honest with him from the start about what I wanted to do,” she told herself. “Now, thanks to my thick headedness, I may have destroyed my only chance to reconnect with my daughter. Nice going, Spoiled.” Filthy, for his part, didn’t do very much either. He simply led his wife to his study, and then locked the door behind her once they were both inside. As usual, the only source of light in the study, came from the crackling fire in the fireplace, which Filthy poked briefly with a poker before beginning what was sure to be a lengthy tirade. “Filthy darling, I can explain, really.” Spoiled began the defence. Without glancing upwards, Filthy uttered a single world. “Sit.” he commanded. “B-but Filthy-” Spoiled stuttered. “I said sit!” Filthy interrupted, raising his voice. Reluctantly, Spoiled obeyed. She sank into one of the comfy armchairs near the fireplace, all the while nervously thinking about how she was going to explain herself. Filthy sat down in the seat across from his wife, finally noticing how tense she seemed. “Deep breaths, Filthy,” he thought to himself. “You at least have to hear your wife out. There must be a logical explanation why she went to all of this trouble.” Minutes passed without either pony saying a word, they just stared at each other as if locked into a contest to see who would blink first. The only noise came from the consistent crackling of the fire. Eventually, Spoiled broke the impasse. “Well?” she remarked expectantly. “Well what?” Filthy asked in return. “Aren’t you going to bring out those divorce papers? You said you’d do so if I gave you any reason to suspect I couldn’t be trusted.” Spoiled spoke up, trying not to cry. She was certain that if she started sobbing, her husband would see it as crocodile tears (and Spoiled unfortunately had a track record for that kind of manipulation). “Maybe, but maybe not. That all depends.” Filthy mused. “Depends on what?” Spoiled waited for him to continue. “On whether or not I think you’re tellin’ the truth about why I saw what I saw, an’ if I think you had noble intentions...” Filthy explained. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were goin’ to diaper our daughter while I was away, and treat her like a foal? I thought you were goin’ to just spend some time gettin’ to know her, and do things she wanted to do. I don’t know if I would’ve said yes had I known your real agenda!” “I’ll admit, I should’ve told you the whole truth from the beginning,” Spoiled bowed her head. “But maybe it was for the best that I didn’t, because even if you had said it was okay, I don’t think Diamond would’ve agreed. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame her, at least not anymore.” “So you would’ve tried to force the scenario onto her, even if she wasn’t fine with it?” Filthy asked, feeling his anger levels rising. “The old me probably would’ve...” Spoiled admitted. “The old you?” Filthy remarked curtly, certain he had misheard. Spoiled nodded. “Somehow, doing all of this with my daughter has transformed me. At first, I only wanted to do this to prove to you that I deserved a second chance, like our filly got with her friends. However, as time went on, and I started doing more things with Diamond, I found myself getting genuinely attached to her. I played with her, spoon-fed her, even changed her when she had an accident. It dawned on me that I never gave Diamond a chance to truly enjoy her foalhood, simply because I never had a proper one myself.” “I know that all too well,” Filthy replied with a nod of recognition. “You almost didn’t want to be friends with me simply because I was still in diapers, whereas you’d already graduated from them when we’d first met. Even at an early age, you were a bit judgemental.” “But I’m glad I learned to look past that,” Spoiled said to her husband. “I realize now that I put a lot of pressure on our little Diamond to grow up too fast. She only gets to be young once, and I shouldn’t have tried to rob her of the opportunity to enjoy that limited time. But now, I truly feel like I’ve been able to correct that mistake, and I think it’s helped me to grow closer to our daughter than I would’ve ever thought possible.” “All that, despite the fact that she’s been wearin’ and usin’ diapers?” Filthy asked skeptically. “Oh, she hasn’t been doing it intentionally, and I have no plans to un-potty train her,” Spoiled vowed. “But I think we’ve truly started to connect, and develop the mother/daughter bond I foolishly robbed us of the chance to enjoy all those years ago. You were right, Filthy. There was a good pony inside of me, it just took until now for me to realize that.” Filthy was lost in thought for a moment, as he digested all the information his wife had laid on him. For years he had failed to notice her steadily worsening behavior, until his daughter had finally worked up the courage to tell him herself. Yet now, in the span of just a day and a half (in his absence no less), she had seemingly managed to turn it all around and change for the better. But the real question was: Is it true? “One final thing,” Filthy queried. “Have you been doin’ this out in public at all?” “No, not at all, I swear,” Spoiled informed him with a solemn shake of the head. “Even if a small part of me wanted some payback for being humiliated outside the school, I never took her outside the house in her diapers, though I did make sure she used the little filly’s room before going out to visit her friends.” “I see...” Filthy replied in a tone that made Spoiled feel incredibly uneasy. She only just suppressed the urge to shiver. “Can I go now, please?” Spoiled pleaded. “I’ve made my case, haven’t I?” “Indeed you have,” Filthy noted, without emotion. “Now for your sake, you’d best hope you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Because if I find out from Diamond that you’re still lyin’, I’m fillin’ out those divorce papers without a moment’s hesitation. Do I make myself clear?!” Spoiled gulped. “Of course, darling.” She reluctantly left the study without another word. Now it was all up to her daughter to determine her fate, and the very thought of that made Spoiled feel incredibly anxious. “What if she still hasn’t fully forgiven me for my past behavior, and tells Filthy I’m lying just to get retribution?” she thought, while chewing her hooves. She briefly considered paying her daughter a visit, and hopefully convincing her to put in a good word, but she ruled it out. “Trying to influence the outcome would only show Filthy I haven’t changed,” she realized. “It’s all up to Diamond now, and there’s nothing more I can do to change what she thinks of me.” As soon as Tiara was free of her damp plastic garment, she immediately paid a visit to the toilet. She was relieved to find that despite another accident, the control of her bodily functions hadn’t weakened. “At least Father will be glad to know about that.” she realized with some satisfaction. The pink filly then waited anxiously for her mother to emerge from Filthy’s study, because Tiara knew that would mean it was her turn to go in and speak to her father. Nearly half an hour of unadulterated tedium ticked by, before Spoiled emerged dazed from the study. “It’s all up to you now, Diamond.” was all she said, before trotting off somewhere. With great trepidation, Tiara made her way down the long hallway to her father’s study, and knocked on the door. “Come in.” Filthy called simply from the other side of the door. Slowly turning the doorknob, Tiara made her way inside the ornate room to approach her father. He was sitting in his favorite armchair, a great deal weighing heavily on his mind. The look on his face was difficult to read, but seemed to project an expression of absolute seriousness. “Father, I know you’re upset about the business meeting being cancelled, and Mother not being fully honest with you. But please, don’t be mad.” Tiara spoke up “I ain’t mad, Diamond, just frustrated,” Filthy explained, while taking in a deep breath. “Mostly, I’m just annoyed at myself for not noticin’ your mother’s behavior earlier and doin’ somethin’ about it. I had hoped the business meetin’ would take my attention away from things, and when it got cancelled, there was nothin’ to distract me from the role I felt I played, in lettin’ everythin’ get so out of control.” “But it wasn’t your fault, you had no idea!” Diamond protested. “I should’ve come to you sooner about Mother’s behavior, instead of keeping quiet.” “Well, there’s no point in arguin’ now about who’s to blame for the past. We can’t change it,” Filthy said seriously. “But what we can change, is the future. Which is why I have to ask, how do you really feel about all of this? You know, bein’ diapered and treated like a foal?” “I wish I had a straight answer for that, Father,” Tiara blushed, scratching the back of her head. “A part of me is still totally weirded out by the very thought of it, but another part of me really enjoys it. I want to believe that Momm… Mother’s change of heart is sincere, and that she truly wants to give me a second chance to enjoy my foalhood. But after everything she said and did, I don’t know if it’s possible for her to change.” “So you don’t know positively either way, huh?” Filthy seemed to sum it up. “Unfortunately, yes.” Diamond suddenly felt a little downcast. Filthy sighed, that was just going to make it harder for him to decide what his next course of action should be. He’d been counting on his daughter to tell him for sure one way or the other whether she liked being diapered and babied. But, hang on, maybe there was another question he could ask that would help him find an answer. “Your mother told me that she never took you out in public while diapered. Is that true?” he inquired, pensively. “Indeed it is,” Diamond nodded in response. “In fact, every time I expected her to do something, she always seemed to do the opposite. When I unintentionally burped in front of her, I thought she’d be mad, but she simply laughed it off. When I had an accident, I thought she’d punish me, but she comforted me instead and then cleaned me up. Lastly, when I wanted to go out and spend time with my friends, I thought she’d say no, but she agreed and allowed me to roam about without a diaper.” “Then what exactly did I see when I came home?” Filthy wanted further clarification. “Apparently Mother’s idea of ‘revenge’ was to tickle-torture me,” Tiara explained, with a little smile. “Because we’d been having a fake tea party with my stuffed bear Theodore, she accidentally made me wet myself. In fact, the only reason I had my first accident, was because I forgot to go to the bathroom before bed.” She blushed a bit, embarrassed to admit such a thing at her age. “Ah, now I understand,” Filthy felt everything start to fall into place. “Thank you for clearin’ that up for me, Diamond. Are you absolutely sure you don’t have a straight answer either way for how you feel about this ‘treatment’?” “Not really, though I suppose I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of it continuing. Just a little, anyway.” Tiara admitted. “Very well then. Please go and fetch your mother, I’ve reached a decision.” Filthy informed his daughter. “What is it?” Diamond asked nervously. The tension was beginning to affect her. “You’ll see soon enough, now please do as I’ve said.” Filthy instructed. Spoiled was quite surprised when she was notified that her husband wanted to see her alone back in his study. “You wanted to talk to me again?” she asked, crossing her hooves at the outcome. “I did, I’ve made up my mind about what to do next,” Filthy declared. “I have decided that… you can continue this ‘treatment’ of Diamond Tiara’s, if she so wishes.” “Really?!” Spoiled couldn’t believe her ears. “Oh thank you, Filthy darling!” she exclaimed with unbridled joy, happily embracing her husband in a hug while dancing around the room with him. “With a few minor conditions…”Filthy spoke up, interrupting the impromptu jig. “I trust you won’t find them too unreasonable?” “What are they?” Spoiled asked, as she tried to contain her excitement. “The first is that you never take our daughter out in public at any point while she’s diapered,” Filthy said seriously. “I don’t want ponies gettin’ the impression that she’s incontinent, or even worse... .” “That’s fair enough, I wasn’t going to take Diamond out in public while diapered anyway. I’d rather ponies not be repulsed by her stench should she should have another ‘accident’. When it happened while you were away, it reminded me of the time the drains were blocked.” Spoiled fanned her nose to emphasize the point. “The second, is that you are not to embark on this ‘treatment’ while we have guests, unless I say otherwise,” Filthy continued. “If it’s just one of her classmates and they promise not to spread rumors, that’s fine. Just to be on the safe side though, run all potential ‘visitors’ by me before you decide whether or not Diamond can be babied around them. The third and most important rule now: If Diamond tells she wants to halt the ‘treatment’ you stop it immediately! If you break any of these rules, I won’t hesitate to divorce you, do I make myself clear?!” “Yes, Filthy, I understand completely.” Spoiled confirmed with a slight nod . “Good. Now, inform Diamond of our terms, and then get her diapered,” Filthy instructed. “I’d like to see just how cute she looks with her padded behind.” “Well, he certainly seems to be getting into the spirit of things quickly enough…” Spoiled observed, as she left the office, before stopping for a brief second of thought. “Almost, I would say, disturbingly so…” That night, Spoiled was waiting outside the bathroom for her daughter to finish up her nightly visit to the toilet. Quite soon after, Spoiled’s ears picked up the telltale flushing sound. “Are you done now, my little Diamond?” she called lovingly. “Yes, Mother. I’ll be out shortly.” Diamond affectionately responded, and indeed she was. Once Tiara had exited the bathroom, Spoiled scooped her up and carried her to her bedroom. In a matter of minutes, she had diapered the filly, and slipped her into her pajamas. “Goodnight, my little Diamond.” Spoiled cooed with adoration, as she kissed her diapered daughter on the forehead, after tucking her comfortably into bed. “Goodnight, Mommy.” Diamond called in reply, just before drifting off. Despite her daughters’ voice being muffled behind the pacifier, Spoiled heard what she’d said clear as day, and just smiled. “We’ll worry about fixing her table manners and practicing her keys on the piano tomorrow,” Spoiled told herself, as she turned off the light and closed the door. “Then maybe if she behaves, I’ll fix her something special for lunch.”