//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Presents and Clowns // Story: Finding Shining // by Foal Star //------------------------------// The foals were watching Shining open his first present. He tore through the blue wrapping paper with his teeth and hooves. It was quite a struggle, but he eventually threw the paper out of the way and soon looked upon a normal looking brown box. He paused for a second, scared that his parents got him something super embarrassing. But then he pondered. “Wait, they didn't know I was a foal until they got here. Whatever it is it can't be that bad, at least it’s not gonna be like my second birthday party when they got me that stupid clown potty. I hated that thing, it was more scary than the toilet was to me at the time. What’s even worse is that they got rid of it and got a normal potty for Twilight.” He then opened the box slowly, revealing a familiar turtle plushie, and he gasped! He hugged it close as he shouted “Bwutus Fowce!”. Of course to everypony not a foal, all they heard was a cute squeal followed by foal babble. Twilight Velvet came over, kissed him on the forehead, and whispered, “You like your gift, Shiny?” Shining nodded and hugged his mom’s nuzzle, as she gave his diaper a few pats (which Shining didn’t mind, he was too distracted with his plushie). She then got up and went to get some other presents. Shining waited patiently, kicking about and trying to get comfortable. Then his mom came back with a lumpy package decorated with pink wrapping paper. She dropped the present in his lap and Cadence read the tag before dawwing, “Oh this is from Sun Stone.” A yellow crystal coated mare came from the crowd and with a light smile whispered. “I thought it would be cute for Shiny and Flurry.” Shining gave a polite smile, then he continued to tear through the pink wrapping paper, gulping as he thought “Please don't be something embarrassing, please!”, only to reveal a white sleeper with bunny ears and a fluffy tail. He groaned as the mares dawwed. Sunburst started to laugh out loud when Twilight Velvet came over and hugged Shining making him shout “Mom! I not gonna weaw tis! Is stupid!” Velvet just kissed him and cooed. “We'll dress you up later after we finish opening presents, Shining. And when you’re back to normal, we’ll give it to Flurry Heart as an early birthday present.” Shining turned to see Sum Stone looking down as he sighed and faked a smile as he hugged it, causing the mare to perk up abit. Twilight Velvet gently took the sleeper and went off to get the next present.” Shining waited, sweat starting to drip from his forehead as he looked upon the mares with hopes that they hadn't brought anything worse. His mom returned shortly with another present and placed it into Shining’s shaking hooves. He started to tear through the wrapping paper more slowly this time, and he groaned upon peeking inside the box. What was inside was more embarrassing than the bunny sleeper. It was a baby blue bib with “Mommy’s Little Prince” written on it, a blue foal bonnet with white frills, and a pack of “Little Prince” brand diapers (the kind that always had those stupid wetness indicators and printed wastebands). Turquoise’s mom asked. “So do you like them?” Shining just gave a small smile and reluctantly nodded, making every mare clap. Cadence replied to Turqouise’s mom. “How thoughtful of you, I'm sure Shiny will love his new brand of diapers. I’ll even let Flurry Heart try them on. Celestia knows she could use more diapers, I’m starting to think she’s going to be known as the Princess of Diapers.” Everyone laughed, but Shining only thought "Hopefully Cadence won't change me in front of everypony, being made to sit on your new potty on your second birthday is embarrassing enough, even if my parents waited until everypony went home to do it.” To Shining’s relief his mom went onto the next present and presented him with another box, this one wrapped in purple wrapping paper. He tore through it and opened the box to reveal a foal blanket with shields all over it. Smiling and seeing how cool it looked, Shining snuggled it, delighting in how warm it felt. Twilight came over and asked. “Hey Shiny, you like it?” Shining nodded with eagerness and babbled happily. “Tanks Twily I wove it! I’ww sweep wike a baby with tis!” Twilight didn’t understand what Shining had said, but hugged him anyways and kissed him on the forehead. “Happy birthday Shiny.” She cooed. The gifts kept on coming, as Shining was given all sorts of foalish stuff, foam blocks, a mobile, a ton of foal clothes, and tons of different types of diapers with different patterns. The whole time Shining stood there and endured one humiliating present after another. He just hoped he’d one day to be able to live the humiliation down (in his mind he wondered if perhaps this was his punishment for sticking Cadence with diaper duty all the time?). After he finished opening his last present (in which he showed off a poofy sailor suit) and made every mare coo all he could think was, “Please, Cadence don't make me have to wear this!” But Cadence immediately asked. “Now that all the presents have been opened, how about we dress our little prince?” The mares all came up instantly, huddling over Shining and getting him dressed up in foal clothes. They had him try on the sailor suit first, the sailor suit only came down to his belly, blatantly showing off his diaper. He just crossed his forelegs and let the mares daww at him, while Twilight Velvet took a lot of pictures, before Cadence picked him up and began taking the sailor suit off. She started to put on the bonnet and bib leaving him pretty much just in his diaper. The mares cooed even more and whispered about how adorable he looked, which just made Shining pout. After his mom was satisfied with the photos she got, Cadence took off his bib and bonnet, buttoned him up in the bunny sleeper, and put the hood over his head so the ears could flop over. She then placed him on the ground and whispered. “Go on show off your cute little sleeper.” Shining mumbled under his breath, but crawled anyways and let the mares watch and talk about how adorable he looked. He them heard the flashes of the camera from behind him, and could only hope the pictures would never see the light of day. Cadence then took him back into her lap and as she undressed him Twilight Velvet commented. “Well that was quite the adorable fashion show, I’ve got plenty of new pictures for my photo album.” Cadence giggled as she whispered lovingly. “Well don’t put your camera away just yet Velvet, there is one more outfit I would like Prince Shining to try.” She drifted over a small package covered in red wrapping paper. Shining especially weary after wearing the bunny sleeper, reluctantly ripped apart the wrapping paper and opened the box, surprised to see a suit that looked oddly similar to the one he wore on his wedding. But this one was made for foals, with the gold shoulder pads removed and there now being a button crotch at the bottom for obvious. Cadence nuzzled him as she cooed. “I had it made last night by Rarity, on one condition. I had to make sure I send some pictures with you in it to her. Don’t worry honey, she won’t share them with anypony. She just needs them for reference for her new foal fashion line.” Shining blushed and sighed. “So much for keeping this confined to the empire. At this rate it’ll be a miracle if all of Equestria doesn’t know about this by week’s end.” He thought, and let Cadence dress him up in the foal suit that looked similar on him as it did on his wedding, except for the button strap around his crotch leaving only his diaper peeking through the leg holes. The mares all applauded him as Cadence set him down and asked, “How about you go show off your new suit, honey?” Shining reluctantly obeyed and waddled around, showing off his suit to the other moms and their foals. Surprisingly, he soon started to enjoy the attention and jumped up and down, making his diaper crinkle quite audibly! Then Cadence came down to his level and asked “Shiny likes his new foal clothes, huh?” He nodded and hugged Cadence’s leg as she held him close and kissed him on the forehead. She then took him back into her lap, and he cuddled her belly as she gave his rump some gentle pats. She then put him down into the playpen as she said to him. “Now go play with the other foals while I get all this wrapping paper cleared away.” He looked up at his wife and gave her a smile before crawling over to play with the other foals. Once he met up with his friends Flurry babbled, “Wow Daddy, tat foaw suit wooks nice.” Shining blushed and whispered, “Tanks Fwuwwy, I wowe somthin wike tis when I mawied ya mommy.” Gemstone gasped, “Weawwy?! Ya weaw foaw cowthes on ya weddin day?!” Shining blushed and explained, “No, I wowe a suit fow stawwions.” Pumice giggled and babbled, “Tat wowd be funny if ya was in diapees at ya weading.” Flurry babbled, “I tink it wowd be awsome! Daddy, can ya hawe a weadin in diapees? I wanna have my weadin in diapees!” Sunburst gave an evil grin as he joked, “Yeah Shiny, wan ta do a weadin in diapees? We can use Fwuwwy Heawt ow one of hew fwiends fow Cadence!” Shining groaned and babbled, “No, I dun wan ta do a weadin in diapees. I’d wathew die!” Sunburst changed the subject, deciding that the more he teased Shining, the more he risked retaliation from the foalified prince (Sunburst doubted Shining had the strength or means by which to flush him down the toilet, but Sunburst preferred not to take his chances). ”Otay, wew I tink we gots to go get tat cwown befowe he weaves.” He suggested to Shining. Shining rolled his eyes, doubting that Sunburst was right about the clown. “Fine, bu we showud twy ta at weast jus wook in his bag and see if he even has ta potiowns fwist.” Flurry babbled, “Wew, I wants to go pway with him anyways. And I wan a bawoon diapee!” Shining sighed, “Awight, bu wait. Wet me twy tis fwist!” He went over to a piece of paper and drew on it making a letter as he babbled, “Hewo I Pwince Shiny. Sunnybuwst tinks ya tuwned me into a foaw, bu I dun and he gonna tawkwe ya. I tink ya funny and I wowd wan ya to come to Fwuwwy’s biwthday pawty, so pwease dun mind my fwiend, he’s cwazy. Fwom, ya pwince, Shiny.” He took the letter and placed it in his mouth and went over to Sunburst who commented, “Otay, so we gots ta get out of tis pwaypen without the gwon ups catchin us, or we suwey gonna get spankies.” Flurry laughed and said to the two, “I’ww handwe ta distwactiown, ya aw get goin and I’ww meet ya watwa.” She got up and flew off as Shining sighed, “I dun know abou you, Sunnybwust, bu I tink wew bein a bad infwuence on hew.” Sunburst muttered, “She jus wants ta hewp ya, and foaws wiww be foaws.” He then waddled off. Twilight, Cadance, and Twilight Velvet were looking over the photos of Shining in his foal clothes, all giggling at how cute Shining looked. They knew they could never show these to anypony (except of course Rarity and Night Light), but that didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy them. Flurry then jumped up onto her mother’s lap, and she giggled and hugged her little alicorn as she asked, “Do you think daddy looks cute in his new foal clothes?” Flurry nodded and bounced excitedly, making the mares laugh. Twilight Velvet picked her up and cooed, “Oh you’re just a little cutie, I wish you could stay this cute forever.” Flurry babbled happily, and tried to grasp her grandma’s nose. Twilight Velvet placed Flurry into her lap and let her nuzzle her belly. Twilight smiled as she commented, “You know, when she’s not making a mess or causing a disaster she really is cute.” Cadence scoffed, “Oh thanks, Twilight. Of course you would say that since you practically never have to take care of her. Let’s not forget I had to help your parents take care of you sometimes, Celestia knows the number of headaches you caused me were practically unending.” Twilight gasped, realizing her mistake! ”I’m sorry Cadence, I didn’t mean it like that! What I meant to say was…” But Cadence burst out laughing and exclaimed, “Oh, it’s fine, Twilight! You were actually a fairly well behaved foal and filly, though I admit you were quite the stinky one.” Twilight gave an exasperated sigh as Twilight Velvet looked around and asked, “Wait, where’s Shining?” Cadence looked up and saw that Shining, Sunburst and some other foals were missing and sighed, “They probably waddled off while we were looking over the photos. We should probably go find them before they cause trouble.” Then Flurry jumped off and started flying off as Twilight exclaimed, “Flurry was just trying to distract us! She’s in on the jail break!” She got up as Cadence replied, “I’ll go find Shining, he couldn’t have gotten far.” Twilight Velvet laughed as she commented, “Oh, I think I know where our little troublemakers are going, and what they’re up to..” The foals were crawling down the castle halls, and they came upon the clown laughing with some guards as he was telling jokes, “If you thought that Sombra was bad, you should've seen this bratty colt I had to throw a birthday party for.” One of the guards commented, “Yeah, he does sound like a jerk. But do you really remember Sombra? We can’t remember a thing about him that we want to remember.” The clown coughed and explained, “It was a joke. I don’t really remember anything about Sombra, I just heard about it from another town..” The guards both blinked and said at the same time, “Ohhh.” Though the exact details of the Crystal Empire’s past were not known, parts of it had slipped through the cracks. The clown sighed as he thought to himself, “I'm still really rusty. I’ve got to be more careful” Shining was looking down the hall at the clown as he asked, “So what's ta pwan?” Sunburst replied “Awight now we gots ta-”. But before he could explain the foals were crawling off and were coming up towards the clown, making one of the guards giggle “Looks like you’ve got followers.” The clown turned and smirked, “Wow, they thought my act was that good huh? Well fine, I suppose I can play with them a little more,” The clown pulled out a few balloons and made Gemstone a bouquet of balloon flowers. She started to bounce up and down giggling and laughing as the clown ruffled her mane. Then the other foals began shouting and whining as the clown cooed, “Do you all want some balloons little ones?” But they all just continued coming up to him. He started to back up, freaking out a bit as one of the guards laughed, “Looks like the foals are after you.” The clown began sweating as he started tying up some more balloon flowers and balloon animals for the foals, and to his relief they looked at him with newfound interest. He gave a balloon dog to Turquoise who squealed in laughter hugging them as the clown smiled, “Oh, is that all you foals want? Balloon animals and flowers?” They all nodded and started babbling. The clown laughed, he continued to make balloon animals and flowers and started hoofing them out to Pumice and Turquoise. He smiled as he thought, “For a second there those foals were acting a bit weird.” But before he could dwell on the matter, Flurry Heart jumped onto his face and started to tickle him, making him laugh! Soon, the other foals had drawn close! They all tackled the clown at once, pushing him over as they began to tickle his belly! He burst out into laughter shouting, “Stop it, that tickles!” Pumice shouted, “Good, becawswe I tickiwn ya ta most!” Turquoise shouted in protest, “Na uh, I am!” Gemstone teased them as she protested, “Na uh, I gonna tickwe ta cwown ta most!” Flurry was under the clown’s face, playing with his nose while unaware of the other foals. With all the other foals were distracting the clown, he was unaware that Sunburst was digging in his bag full of balloons. Sunburst looked through the saddle bags, finding only unused balloons, and groaned, “I don see anythin.” Shining helped look through (in case Sunburst missed something) and commented, “Yeah, I don see the potion. I tink tat ya was wong. The onwy cwown I didn’t wike, was the one on my owd twaining potty.” “At weast youw pawents got you a unique potty, I got the owd ‘My Witte Potty’ to twain with. Starwight used to tease that hew potty was coower than mine’s,” Sunburst groaned, as turned to see the clown was now just playing with the foals and sighed, “I tink tey fowgot why we hewe.” Shining laughed at that, and then he heard a whole bunch of mares shout ‘There you are!” Shining turned to see his mom, Twilight, and Cadence coming down the hall and he groaned, “Oh, we’we going to be in so much twoubwe.” Cadence took the foals in her magic and placed them all on her back as the clown got up. Twilight Velvet came up to him and asked, “Are you alright?” The clown snickered, “Oh, it’s fine, the little cuties just wanted some balloon animals.” He picked up his bags as Cadence replied, “Well it’s good to see that you and the foals are fine.” The clown nodded and said, “Indeed, now I better get going. I have another party to get to and I certainly can’t be late for that. Such is the life of the great Laughing Rump.” Cadence came up to Laughing Rump and said to him, “Well, I hope this experience hasn’t soured your experience here, because I would like to hire you again for Flurry Heart’s birthday party when it rolls around.” Laughing Rump smirked, “Of course I’ll come back, maybe Shining will be potty trained by then.” That made Twilight, Cadence, and Twilight Velvet laugh, but everyone else just gave light giggles as Laughing Rump sighed, ” My jokes need work.” After Cadence found the foals, the party came to an end. Most moms wanted to get home before their foals began acting up. Meanwhile, at the castle, Twilight Velvet was putting the foals to bed, tucking Sunburst and Shining into their crib, placing Shining’s new foal blanket over him, Shining now dressed in his bunny sleeper. She was kissing him goodnight and was tucking his Brutus Force doll into his hooves as Twilight mumbled, “I don’t get it, it took less than a few minutes for you to put them to bed, but it took me and Starlight hours to do the same..” Velvet joked, “You just don’t have the touch yet.” ”Um, the touch? I’ve never read anything about the touch.” Twilight nervously pondered. “You can’t read about it, it comes with experience. And I’ve got years of it.” Velvet explained and winked at Twilight. Just then Starlight came into the nursery and asked, “Hey, is everything alright? I heard about what happened with the clown.” Twilight and Twilight Velvet turned as Twilight explained, “Everything’s fine, Starlight. Hopefully nothing else crazy will happen today.” Suddenly, Spike came bursting through the nursery doors as he shouted, “Twilight! Starlight! I think I found the pony who turned Shining into a foal!” The sudden shout made the foals start crying, prompting Twilight to reply ”Spike, you woke the babies!” Spike blushed and backed up, “Sorry, guess I forgot. But you need to come quickly.” Twilight Velvet cooed at Twilight and Starlight as she told them, “Go ahead, I’ll get the little ones back to sleep.” So Twilight and Starlight went out into the hallway with Spike. Twilight then asked, “So Spike, you said you may have found the pony who turned Shining into a foal. How did you find this stallion or mare, and where are they?” Spike explained as he replied, “Well, I heard from ponies that a strange pony wearing a cloak was seen near the palace. Considering what happened with Sunburst and the fact that his parents are still working at the daycare, it can’t just be a coincidence!” Twilight nodded and as she asked, “Alright, but did they see where this pony went?” Spike nodded and said to Twilight and Starlight, “Yeah, the pony was spotted not too long ago, running towards the empire’s outskirts. We could catch him or her if we hurry.” Starlight agreed, but then she asked, “But what about the foals? We can’t just leave them unattended.” Twilight Velvet replied. “I’ll watch them, you two go on ahead. I need to wait for my husband to come back anyway.” Twilight turned and whispered, “Okay mom, just be careful. Shining and Sunburst are trouble.” Twilight Velvet giggled, “You should be the one being careful. If this pony could turn Shining into a foal, they might try to do it again.” Twilight turned and sighed, “Alright Starlight, let’s go. Spike show us where the pony went!” Spike saluted and replied. “Alright, Twilight, follow me.” Then he lead Twilight and Starlight as they ran off down the hall. Twilight Velvet returned to the foals and resumed tucking them in, putting on their mobile, and giving all the foals pacifiers. Shining whimpered. “I gonna get a spankie.” Flurry babbled, “No, Gwanma said she not gonna give us spankies. She nice.” Sunburst responded. “Yeah Shiny, ya goin ta be otay. I sowie fow chasin ta cwown, Shiny. I showud of wisten ta ya eawiwa.” Shining smiled and lisped. “It’s otay, bu my daddy is goin ta be mad.” Flurry asked. “Ya mean Gwanpa?” Shining nodded and Sunburst whispered. “Ya tink, he’ww give us aw spankies?” Shining shook his head and babbled. “No, he’ww onwy spank me. And his spankies huwt!” Just then, the nursery door opened, and Night Light strode in. Twilight Velvet came up and kissed her husband as she asked, “So how was your time with the stallions, including Shining’s old royal guard friends?” “It was good, but I thought I’d come by to see Shiny,” Night Light replied. “I’m sorry I missed opening presents.” He whispered. Twilight Velvet held him close as she whispered something in his ear, making him chuckle. He came over to the crib and picked up Shining, who began to kick about and shake all over. Then he heard a steady hiss and Shining started to cry. Night Light just held him close and cooed. “There, there, Shiny. It's alright, I’m not going to spank you,” Shining stopped crying, he just garbled “Daddy”, and hugged his dad’s fur as Night Light gave his son’s diapered rump a few light pats before setting him back into the crib as he commented, “I'm glad you like your Brutus Force. I thought that it was a bit foalish, but I guess now that you are a foal he's perfect. You used to never do anything without him, heck you wouldn’t sit on your clown potty unless Brutus was there to watch you.” Shining nodded and hugged Brutus Force close. Sunburst and Flurry began crying as Night Light came over to them and tickled them as he cooed. “Oh. do you two want attention as well?” He then pecked both foals on the forehead and asked. “Honey, want to change Shiny’s diaper? I think he peed himself a little.” Twilight Velvet prodded Shining’s padding, making him giggle as she said. “I suppose I’ll give him a quick change before his nap so he doesn’t get a nasty diapee rash, but at least he didn’t make a stinky.” She lifted Shining from the crib and placed him on the changing table, effortlessly changing his diaper that was so slightly soaked it could hardly qualify. After the change, she tucked him under his blanket and kissed him on the cheek. As the foals drifted to sleep Sunburst whispered. “Ya mommy and daddy awe weawwy nice, I hope we can pway with them afta owa nap.” “Me too Sunnybuwst, me too.” Shining babbled under his breath, sucking his pacifier contently.