Starlight Glimmer sunk deeper into her bed, exhaling as she suckled from the foal bottle of apple juice that was clutched in her left hoof. She gave her back legs a little wiggle, feeling the damp diaper fastened around her waist crinkle in response. It was a bright Saturday morning, and while it was nice to spend yesterday evening and overnight foaling out, she only had a few minutes left before she had to get cleaned up and ready for today's events.
She had just about sucked the bottle dry when there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Come on in." Starlight replied, knowing who it was already, and a second later, the doorknob turned, and Princess Twilight Sparkle walked in.
"Just coming to make sure that my little foal was up on time to get ready for today," Twilight began, seeing the now-empty foal bottle leave from between Starlight's lips. "But I can see you've already been to the kitchen already."
"Yep, I'm up. Just taking a few more minutes before I get cleaned up." Starlight told her mentor, blushing lightly at the cheeks. Twilight had accidentally discovered this side of her a couple of months ago, and after confiding in Princess Luna, she, Sunburst, and inadvertently Trixie, all decided to embrace this side of their friend. But Starlight didn't think she'd ever get used to Twilight talking to her in a motherly tone whenever she decided to participate.
"Starlight, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but... I mean, ever since your dad sent you that letter telling you when he was coming into town for a visit... You haven't seemed like yourself. Neither in this headspace or your normal everyday self."
With a sigh, Starlight rolled out of bed, magically sanitizing her empty foal bottle, setting it on her dresser, next to a small folded stack of three clean disposable diapers.
"I know... I know after the first weekend you decided to play with me that I said that I didn't see much of my dad growing up. But that was because... I didn't want to. After Sunburst left, he got so clingy with me, and the way he started to treat me, I'm not exaggerating when I say it was only two or three pegs away from... this." Starlight said, motioning to the diapers and bottle on the dresser as she levitated them with her magic, putting everything away in the chest in the back of her closet.
Twilight listened intently.
"The reason I was dreading the map sending me to Sire's Hollow last month was because I was afraid of returning to that, and when I got back here, I wondered if that's where this comes from. If a part of me longed for something like that... What if that's what prompted this side of me to develop? What kind of excuse would I have for telling my dad to knock it off if in the back of my mind, I loved it? How is that fair to him? How would I even explain this side of myself?"
"Well," Twilight began, not wanting to take too much of Starlight's time so she could get cleaned up. "Life isn't fair. This is a very personal side of yourself that you've decided to share with your closest friends, Starlight. But even if he's the origin point of these desires, it's not unreasonable to ask him to treat you like an adult mare unless you say otherwise. And as for showing him this side of yourself, letting him know that he may be the origin point, that is completely up to you. You've got to sift through your thoughts and make that decision on your own, whether it's on this visit or a subsequent one."
Starlight took this advice to heart. Out of the handful of ponies she had revealed her inner foal to, accidentally or otherwise, reactions had varied from shock to surprise, and to heart-melting in Trixie's case. But it was never negative. No one was ever repulsed or grossed out; the closest anypony had come to that was Spike, and even he didn't take long to say, 'You do you, Starlight'.
Starlight took a deep breath.
"Thanks, Twilight. I think I'd better get ready for today, and a shower would probably be quickest." She said, hoping Twilight wouldn't be disappointed that there wouldn't be any morning bath time.
"No worries, there's always next time." Twilight said, turning to leave. Punctuality trounced squeezing every last ounce of playtime out of a role play.
Starlight headed over to her bathroom, where she magically tore the tapes of her wet diaper, rolled it up, and deposited it into the wastebasket by the door before she turned the tub faucets to start a hot shower. She looked at herself in the mirror, letting her hair out of the twin pigtails she always wore when she was younger.
'So Starlight,' she thought to herself, 'What's it going to be?'
She stuck her front left hoof through the curtain to test the temperature of the water; she wasn't the only one who was given a bubble bath last night. Spike also took one, and she had heard rumors of what his baths did to the town's hot water supply. But she found the water just right, and so stepped into the stream, immediately getting a cloth and a bottle of coat wash to get rid of the faint smell of urine that had clung to her overnight.
'So Starlight,' she repeated over in her head, 'What's it going to be?'
She wasn't sure what she was more afraid of; her dad being repulsed at these desires of hers, her dad becoming overcome with guilt that his smothering had planted the seed of this side of her, or worst of all, that he might dive in head first and spend this visit babying her.
'Stop stressing,' she told herself. One of the benefits of ageplay was how the stress of everyday life just melted away with a foal bottle in hoof and a diaper snug around her waist. She didn't want it building back up the moment she got ready to return to her vanilla side. Those were, of course, the extreme outcomes that her nervous mind jumped to. It could of course be much more reasonable. He could see it for himself, ask some questions, and come to a more reasonable conclusion. Maybe. Hopefully.
'So Starlight, what's it going to be?'