//------------------------------// // Chapters Four // Story: Twilight's Dreams // by Naptime //------------------------------// Growing up, playing pretend was one of the siblings favorite pastimes. Sometimes it seemed like the only way to pull Twilight away from her books. Even as a filly, the bookloving pony hardly had any interest in playing games or having fun. Instead, she preferred spending hours upon hours immersed in reading stories and characters that inspired her imagination. It wasn’t until Shining introduced her to the concept of playing pretend that she started to put down her fantasy books and played little fantasies of her own. Their games were naturally freeform, but Shining often followed his little sister’s lead. They would often play out scenes from her favorite books, taking on roles of mighty dragon slaying princesses and wise, gallant knights. The two would go on wonderful adventures together, sometimes taking place over the course of multiple days. Sometimes it was rescuing a defenseless prince from an evil sorcerer, sometimes a noble duel between wizards, and sometimes it was just a tea party. Whatever it ended up being, the two had a blast. Like many things, these games of make-believe started to wither as the two ponies grew up. It was only natural. The two siblings matured, got busier with life, and when Twilight moved to Ponyville it seemed as if those days were long since passed. But today, they both found themselves looking forward to the fun and they both brimmed with excitement. With lunch out of the way, the pair trotted to the center of the room where they assembled what they could to play with. Back in their childhood days they had real costumes and toy props, but today they’d have to make do with bedsheets and cardboard boxes, which Twilight’s nursery had plenty of. It was nothing a little bit of imagination couldn’t fix. Swords and armor were crafted from cuts of cardboard. Pillows served as building blocks for castles and caves. Blankets were spread out across the floor to serve as unpassable oceans or tarped over furniture to create shadowy forests. Before the two knew it, they had an entire imaginary kingdom spread out before them and in the center of it all sat Twilight Sparkle, Benevolent Warrior-Princess of the Five Realms with her loyal squire: Shining Armor. Once the two started playing, it was like they had never stopped when they were kids. Long forgotten games of their childhood came rushing back as they immersed themselves in the pretend world that surrounded them. There was no stopping them when it came to making up stories and games. Just like in their youth, fun fantasies materialized out of nothing. And much like in their youth, Shining Armor let his sister take the lead. Shining Armor couldn't have been more proud as he watched his sister take the lead in their games of pretend. She laughed, she giggled, she conjured up scenes of make-believe that even the greatest scribe with a hundred scrolls and a hundred years to fill them could never conjure up. There was a childlike energy in her movements as she pulled her big brother along in her adventures. There was a twinkle in her eye when she explained to him stories of an evil sorcerer stealing the kingdom’s gold or a mighty dragon terrorizing the nearby villages. In many ways it was like playing with Flurry. She too seemed to be a fountain of creativity when it came to playing pretend. Sometimes it utterly shocked Shining just how clever the little foal could be. All she needed was someone there to bounce ideas off of. The concepts were sometimes silly and sometimes unrealistic, but she had a knack for adapting the rules of reality to better fit her games. It was no different with his little sister. It was in this whirlwind of pretend and adventure and play that the two found themselves standing on the crest of a hill, overlooking an army of a thousand - no, TEN thousand - highly trained warriors clad in fantastical armor of rainbow shaded metal. The Benevolent Warrior-Princess of the Five Realms, Twilight Sparkle looked over this scene of warriors ready for battle and felt a very heroic and very warrior-princessly speech coming on. With her mighty sword held high, Twilight addressed her warriors with a moving speech that, like many speeches of its kind, could be felt as much as it could be heard. It was a rousing speech, an inspiring speech. The kind of speech that somehow transcended simple words and if one were to try writing it all down, one might struggle translating everything into the written word. The history books would remember speeches like this, even if they could never accurately transcribe such a speech. “And we will fight on! Fight until our last breath! And...A-and...” Twilight’s heroic speech petered out as a deep pressure began to swell inside her bowels. Her gut murmured with rumbling reminders of the inevitable. She lowered her mighty cardboard sword as she emitted a small groan of discomfort. "Is something the matter, my dear princess?" Shining so theatrically asked. Only when he didn't receive an answer, the dramatics were momentarily paused. "Twilight? You alright?" "Sorry,” Twilight winced, ”just felt a bit of pressure is all..." "I'll change you when you need it," Shining so casually reminded her. "Wh-what?!" "I can tell from your body language," the stallion shot his sister a knowing glance, "that's not just 'a bit of pressure'." Twilight paused. "I-I just want to make sure you're okay with all this..." "I change stinky diapers all the time, Twi," Shining rolled his eyes, "Cadance is always passing the chore off to me." “Oh...thanks,” Twilight mumbled back. There was something to be said about how her messy diapers were being passed off as ‘just a chore’. He had only been her caretaker for one day and Shining was already treating every babyish thing she did as an unavoidable occupational hazard. It all made her blush. “Now come on!” Shining interrupted with a prod of his cardboard princely scepter, ”don’t you want to play?” Twilight nodded as she felt her belly continue to churn. “Yeah...right!” Play returned shortly after that with Shining encouraging his sister along to keep the energy up. Needless to say, Twilight was a bit distracted. Her attention was visibly elsewhere as the two continued prancing around the room, fighting armies of devil dogs and saving thankful villagers. Or at least Shining pranced around. With Twilight’s churning gut and her diaper, hers was more of a cautious waddle. After every couple of steps or every couple of heroic swings of her mighty sword and her gut twinged with burning pain, cautioning her to be more careful in the future. Finally her body grew tired of putting up with the pressure and stopped the alicorn with a sharp spike of pain in her gut. Her cardboard sword dropped to the ground as her head lowered. With an involuntary - and arguably childish sounding - grunt, Twilight began to squat. Her tail started to rise, flagging in the air as more little grunts puffed out of her straining muzzle. Her bowels soon responded, plumping up the back of her diaper with a heavy and lumpy mess. Their games of pretend were understandably put on hold as the “Benevolent Warrior-Princess of the Five Realms” had to pause in the middle of her great battle with the Pillow Dragon to fill her diaper. The dragon as well as her faithful squire Shining Armor both waited patiently for her to finish, the latter of the two chuckling softly to himself as he watched Twilight’s diaper puff out with that distinct bulge he knew all too well. Immediately Twilight felt relief. The pressure and the pain deep inside her innards were instantly gone. In their place, her body rewarded her with a fluttery sense of wellness that almost worked paradoxically with the faint hint of embarrassment she could feel behind it all after just now submitting to soiling herself in front of her brother. "All done going poopoo?" Shining asked, in that all too familiar fatherly voice. It was getting dangerously close to cooing and baby talk at this point. And Twilight was a bit miffed/pleased about that. Frozen in place with her legs splayed out and her sagging backside jutting out slightly, Twilight found herself unable to look her brother in the eye. She dared not move out of fear of making things messier than they already were. All she could manage amidst the embarrassing aftermath was a slow and meaningful nod. In that moment she started to feel something deep inside her mind begin to twinkle. It felt distant, but also felt like if she just reached out with her hoof she could touch it. It was an indescribable sensation that floated just outside her vision, hearing, and touch all at the same time. For that brief moment, it almost felt like she was floating. And in that brief moment, her legs forgot their own strength and she began to fall backwards to the ground. "Whoops! Don't wanna do that!” Shining’s magic pulled Twilight into the air before her butt could hit the floor and do some damage, ”you sit down and it's only gonna make a bigger mess!" Again, all Twilight could do was a slow nod. She wore a distant look on her face. A contemplative expression of deep thought. It wasn't until late in the diaper change - somewhere amidst the army of wipes needed to clean the area of her stinky mess - did the mare stir from her deep thought and begin to speak. "I can't help feel like I was onto something there," she said carefully. Analytically. Like a scientist consulting her colleagues about her recent findings. "I was starting to really feel something there...almost like I needed to stay..." "You wanted to stay in your messy diaper?" Her consultant, Shining Armor speculated, just as he was tossing a brown hued wipe into a pile inside the open diaper. Being the experienced father that he was, he focused on breathing through his mouth, not his nose. "N-no! No! Not what I mean," Twilight furiously shook her head. "I-I was just...thinking out loud..." "Well say you're right," Shining continued, lifting Twilight's legs in the air so the old diaper could be replaced by a fresh one, "maybe I might have changed you too quick. Sometimes with Flurry she's sitting in it for a few and we don't notice until she's been stewing in it enough to stink up the place." “So you’re suggesting that if I’m to really get into the role, I need to...not be changed so soon?” "Hey, you wanted the full experience," her brother shrugged, "sometimes mommy and daddy are busy." The full experience, Twilight echoed. To willingly just...sit there in a messy diaper. Knowing full well that she should change and just...waiting for a bit...She was excited/disgusted by the concept. “W-well, not to the point where I break out in a rash...” Twilight finally said, just as a plume of baby powder was fading in the air and a new diaper was being taped around her waist, ”b-but maybe not immediately...?” "Say no more," Shining interrupted, "if it happens again, we're waiting till AFTER we finish our play!" "Right..." Twilight nodded in a half answer kind of way. Even with the information in front of her and even though a lot of it made sense in their own kind of way, she felt as though it'd be rather difficult to fully comprehend what she was really agreeing to. “Well, if you’re aiming for the full baby experience,” Shining started again, glancing up at the afternoon light that filtered through the nearby blinded window, “‘round now we’d be putting Flurry down for her afternoon nap. Shortly after her bottle to calm her down of course.” “A nap already?” Twilight whined. It felt like they were just getting started. She didn’t even feel all that tired. “Well...I guess if that’s how things are normally done...” “I’ll just lay you down in your crib for a bit. You don’t have to actually nap if you don’t want to,” Shining said, surprised to find that he used a similar line when convincing Flurry to take her nap not too long ago. “Right,” Twilight nodded, noticing as well. With a wisp of powder trailing behind them, Twilight was guided back into the crib where she easily nestled into the bundle of blankets. She took a moment to get properly settled in, bundling up in the fluffy blankets and ensuring her wings were properly splayed out underneath her to avoid any painful pinching further down the road. Eventually a bottle of milk floated into her field of view, freshly warmed to the perfect temperature. With a nudging hoof, she guided it the short distance it had left to travel to her muzzle which she almost automatically opened to latch onto the bulbous nipple. “Scooch over. I’ll keep you company,” Shining said, nudging the feeding mare in her side, “used to do this all the time when you were a foal.” The floating bottle drifted like a balloon overhead as Twilight shimmied across the crib’s springy mattress. At no point doing so could she find the time to stop her rhythmic suckling. Shining meanwhile clambered up and settled down beside her, laying on top of the bedsheets for obvious reasons. He had learned in the past that bundling up in blankets, even if it was intended for a short while, spelled bad news for him. He had a habit of dozing off when covered up in a blanket, even if he was just lounging on the couch or trying his hardest to convince Flurry to fall asleep. Today he wanted to avoid all that and opted for staring idly at the ceiling as his sister's gentle suckling sang into his left ear. No matter the age, it seemed that the warm milk had a mesmerizing magic to it. It coaxed Twilight into a sleepy haze even when ten minutes ago she was sure she wasn’t even tired. She sucked it down even when she was sure she looked silly doing it. Despite her initial reservations and against any logical assumptions she might have had, Twilight felt herself melting underneath the bobbing bottle. Nestled there against her brother, it felt as if nothing could harm her. It was like his presence would easily fend off any troubling thoughts or nightmares that tried to disturb her rest. The combined effort of the milk and the crib and Shining Armor and her diapers and the nursery all swelled up inside of her like a warm glow. The warm glow made her heart flutter and all she could think to do was smile wide. And soon, around the point where she had a quarter of the bottle left to drink, Twilight drifted off to sleep. After spending so long teetering on the edge of awakeness, the siren call of the warm milk and the soft blankets and the comfort of her brother, and the plush diaper finally won her over. Her last sip of milk dribbled out of the corner of her muzzle, streaking down the side of her face. It looked like she was going to take that nap anyway.