//------------------------------//
// Casino Generale/ General Chaos 
// Story: Ab Initio-From the Start-Al Principio. 
// by Daxn 
//------------------------------//

The day after, in Ponyville, with the Sun that had just risen for three hours ago, in the back shop of the Carousel Boutique, Rarity was giving the final stitches to the smocks that she had created under the suggestion given by Applejack while they were discussing about what to do about Twilight's punishment, and under the deadline of two days after the decision. Namely, today.

Said smocks, pretty simple in their design, were light pink like Sweetie Belle's old smock that didn't get lost during the time for some reason, and had several plissets on the flanks, with a pin shaped like the cutie mark of each of the four Rarity's friends keeping the ropes.


As Rarity finished sewing the name of Pinkie Pie on her smock, Rarity heard a trot come behind her. Surprised by that, she rotated her head, and saw her little sister Sweetie Belle walking towards her.


"Rarity..."


While she put down the smock, Rarity asked back to her sister with a slightly surprised tone.


"Uhu... Sweetie... don't you have school today?"


The filly answered with a squeak.


"No, today is Sunday, and so I don't have to go to school!"


Rarity folded the smock, and put it on the small pile of smocks that she had made in the past two days.


"Still, could you please explain why you came in the back shop at this hour?"


Sweetie Belle put her ears down, while speaking with an adorable and contrite voice that sharply contrasted with the one she had before.

"Well, it's about your visit to Canterlot..."


Rarity looked puzzled at her sister, thinking at what could have possible moved Sweetie Belle to remember something that Rarity was going to do.


"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"


The filly continued after several moments of silence.


"Applebloom and Scootaloo told me yesterday of what happened to Twilight, and your plans to go to Canterlot to try to..."


Rarity realized that her attempt to cover up the aftermath of Twilight's incident, as to avoid to worry Sweetie Belle, had failed, and now she was aware that Twilight was in Canterlot, attending to a Kindergarten's class.


"Cheer her up. Yes, cheer up." Continued the filly, while her sister kept staring at her.


Rarity sighed.


"And... why you came over here to say this to me?"


Sweetie Belle sighed.


"I don't know if you can still change your plans..."


Rarity's heart stopped for a second, at the thought of what could possibly be. However, she kept her composure and calm, and asked back with her usual tone.


"I think not... but depends in what way you mean 'change plans'. If you could be more specific..."


Sweetie Belle almost curled up into a ball.


"See, I wished to come with you... you know, with Scootaloo and Applebloom, so to apologize to Twilight for what we had done to her..."


Rarity felt a surge of homicidal rage towards Sweetie Belle, for the worry she had provoked with her attempt to captatio benevolentia for such a thing. However, she stopped such rage, thinking that at least Sweetie Belle showed some care about her sister's programs, and that she considered the idea of refusal.


"I am not very sure, Sweetie Belle... after all, the train will depart at noon, and thus there are only two hours left. I don't know if I can create a smock for you three, especially because I lack your measurements."


Sweetie Belle, after undoing her ball in a whim, slowly stood up on her four legs, her voice expressing irritation.


"Why would we ever need a smock? I didn't said I wanted to go back to Kindergarten! Nor Applebloom and Scootaloo want to do that!"


Rarity shook her head.


"I can imagine, but the smocks I created aren't for that purpose. They are for us to wear as moral support to Twilight."


Calmed down once more, Sweetie Belle asked.


"Show support to Twilight? How wearing a smock is..." Sweetie Belle stopped herself mid-sentence "Oh, right. You are right, but if you cannot make for us three some smocks, going without them will be fine."


Rarity answered with a small snort, and a hint of sarcasm in her response.


"Thank you, Sweetie Belle. OF COURSE we can let you go without smocks, but then you might look not..." She realized how much of a stupid and nonsensical statement she was going to make in front of her sister, and so decided to end it right there, right now. "Actually, nevermind. You take your money for three tickets, and I take some more money for the food. We will pay a visit to everyone else as soon we are ready."


Sweetie Belle nodded, and ran upstairs to take her money. Rarity put the five smocks in a blue bag with a brass button, and proceeded to throw away the scraps of her dressmaking.







One hour and half later later, after a rapid drop in at the Sweet Apple Acres to inform Applejack and Applebloom of the sudden change of plans, and a quick visit to Scootaloo's house (devoid of any kind of adult life), the five ponies were at the train station of Ponyville, waiting for the other three ponies to arrive at the station. While the three fillies entertained themselves with just their bodies and a fountain, the two adults talked.


"So, Rarity, do you have everything ready? Some money?"


Rarity pulled out a bag of bits out of her bag, as a silent proof she had them.


"Tickets?"


"Not yet. I thought that we should buy them only when we are reunited."


"Smocks?"


Rariy pulled out the five smocks she had prepared in the past two days.


"As you can see, with so little time, I had to make them pretty simple."


The statement caused Applejack to giggle, causing confusion to Rarity.


"What are you laughing at, darling?"


Applejack voiced her reason for laugh.


"You defined your smocks as 'simple', and yet they are full of plissets, they have triple sizing rope, and our names written in golden sew! If you call that simple, then my fields are just a iugero of terrain!"


Rarity gritted her teeth at Applejack's words, but said nothing, as to avoid starting a useless argument. As soon as Rarity quelled her arguing desires, from above, a blur soared in the vision range of Rarity, and hit the ground with a small shockwave, causing every living being in the range of twenty meters to get knocked down, and the roofs of the nearby buildings to get launched in the air, before returning in their positions.


Rarity coming back on her legs along with the others, after a fast fix to her mane, looked at the crash zone, and saw a cyan pony shape with a rainbow-colored tail waving in the weak wind.


Rarity identefied the shape as Rainbow Dash, and recognized the muffled sounds coming from Rainbow Dash as pleads of help. Rarity started to levitate the dirt around Rainbow's head, while Applejack d as if she was a root of a dead tree, namely, by pulling her out of the hole, to then throw her away in a random direction.


Fortunately for the stunned Rainbow Dash, Rarity caught her while she was in mid-air, painfully pulling out some hairs in the process, but ultimately avoiding some more serious pain. After catching her, Rarity put Rainbow Dash gently on the ground.


While Rarity trotted towards her stunned friend, she said.


"Next time you should be more careful, Applejack. It may have ended with a quick trip to the hospital."


Once she said that, Rarity lightly shook Rainbow Dash, causing the latter to come back to her senses. Naturally, the first thing she thought was about the stunt she had pulled.


"You saw that? I caused a small earthquake when I landed!"


Rarity slightly rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash's comment.


"And you risked to find one of your precious bones broken."


"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash jumped up, causing a cacophony of loud cracks coming from her body "See? I'm fine!"


Rarity, even though she wasn't a trained medical professional, could easily tell that those sounds were sign that a bone had been at least cracked, and that maybe some organs were compressed. And yet Rainbow Dash was showing no signs of pain or difficulties with moving, a sign that maybe she really was fine.


Rarity quickly decided to just ignore that detail, and move along.


"So, anyway, Rainbow Dash, did you call Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy already?"


"I did. I dropped at Fluttershy's place, and she is en route, however, I didn't find Pinkie at the Corner, and from your question I guess she isn't here either."


Rarity was going to answer the question, when Applejack intruded, and answered for her.


"No, she isn't here. I wonder where she is..."


Rarity, after drinking down her own gall once again, tried to politely reinsert herself in the discussion.


"True. But I know our friend Pinkie Pie enough to tell that she hasn't forgotten that. Maybe she is preparing... something."


"Yeah, but what?"


Applejack turned around, and saw a yellow shape with some pink shapes piled up on it flutter about the square towards the station. She recognized said shape as Fluttershy.


"Maybe Fluttershy can tell us." Applejack gestured to Fluttershy as to ask her to hurry up.


The yellow pegasus sprinted, covering the whopping distance of three and a half meters before coming back to normal pace, and, finally, after two long minutes, she reached her friends.


"Oh, hello. I hope I am not late..." Then she put down the three pink boxes she was carrying on her back. On them, there were the words "Pinkie's Special Surprise" written in bad calligraphy, and with the word "surprise" written with two "s".


Rarity looked with curiosity at the boxes, and pondered on their contents. Applejack directly asked.


"What's in the boxes, Fluttershy?"


Fluttershy looked with insecurity at the boxes she had put on the ground.


"I don't know. Pinkie just handed them to me while I was still getting ready, saying that I had to bring those boxes to you. I really don't know what they are, but they are pretty light in terms of weight."


Applejack stared at the boxes with a curious gaze, and shook them slightly, causing them to topple. Rainbow Dash, after getting near to the boxes, tried to unfold them, only to get scolded by Rarity.


"I don't think we should open them before the arrival of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash. After all, she could have sent them to us to do... something."


"Yeah, that was clear as the sky today, but why? I mean..."


Rarity tried to end her friend's phrase.


"They are almost taunting you to know what's in there?"


Rainbow Dash nodded.


Rarity levitated the boxes, and put them in her bag.


"Well, you are not going to find out before Pinkie arrives."


Rainbow Dash groaned an "Okay."


As soon as Rainbow Dash expressed her annoyance about not opening the boxes, a pink figure on the horizon arrived, humming a familiar tune as it hopped. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and the others immediately recognized the shape as the one of Pinkie Pie.


Overtaken by the impatience and curiosity typical for their age, the Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately snatched away the boxes, saying that Pinkie Pie had appeared on the horizon and that, therefore, she had arrived.


Rarity and Applejack did not even try to stop the Cmc from doing such action, because they were too busy going towards Pinkie Pie.


Sweetie Belle, after placing the boxes at the base of the fountain's steps, said.


"I am curious, and at the same time, afraid of what's in there... can I be the test pony?"


The other two fillies nodded without question.


Sweetie Belle slowly unwrapped the first piece of pink wrapping, revealing... another layer of wrapping. Then another, and another, and another.


"Umm... I don't think that by unwrapping it gently, we are going to get anywhere soon..." said Applebloom while she watched


"Yeah, I'm too curious to wait around! We shall take one each, and open it like a normal gift!" said Scootaloo, while already grabbing a package.


"Well... alright!"


Sweetie Belle handled the remaining package to Applebloom; then they proceeded to get off the layers very fast. What they found in them, however, didn't please them in the slightest.


The boxes contained pacifiers. Customized, ticked with the addressee’s name, colored, 8-years old sized, pacifiers.


"What? A pacifier? For ME? What am I, a baby?"


"Why did Pinkie give me such a gift? Why? Why? WHY?"


"A pacifier? Well, that's weird, but it doesn't seem so awful either. I mean, they look good, for one thing."


Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with an expression that mixed disbelief with disappoint.


While Applebloom kept staring, Scootaloo pressed her nuzzle to the one of Sweetie Belle, and stuttered gibberish before formulating a sentence.


"What's so awful about them? WHAT'S SO AWFUL ABOUT THEM? They are pacifiers, dummies, succhiotti, those are used by foals and by foals only!"


Sweetie Belle stepped back confused.


"And so?"


On the top of her lungs, Scootaloo expressed her frustration.


"AND SO? Do you understand that, if a pony like Pinkie Pie gifts something like pacifiers to us, this means she considers us foals? You know, she thinks we are lacking an important accessory?"


Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders.


"And so? We are foals. A little big, but until we have the 'signs of fertility', whatever they are, we are still technically foals."


Scootaloo facehoofed.


"Maybe according to the Bran's dictionary we are still foals, Sweetie Belle, but I think we can confirm that we don't need diapers anymore, and that we don't believe that if something is not there, it never existed."


Sweetie Belle, still with a tone of the one that didn't understand what was being said, expressed herself.


"Maybe Pinkie Pie wanted to pull us a prank?"


Scootaloo blocked herself, at Sweetie Belle’s simple and yet reasonable explanation about the pacifiers in the boxes, and the fact that those pacifiers had a name tag for them. Looking with a lost gaze to the sky, the filly said.


"Maybe you are right, Sweets..." Scootaloo glanced over the fountain, and noticed that Pinkie Pie was already talking with the others "But I think that Pinkie Pie has the answer. Come on, let's go."


Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked immediately towards the five mares. Applebloom took a bit loger to do so, thanks to her shock.


Once the three fillies had reunited with the five waiting adult ponies, Pinkie Pie immediately asked the Crusaders.


"Did you take the boxes? Did you open them?" Despite the stern words, Pinkie's voice was still cheerful like the usual.


Scootaloo stepped in.


"Yes we did, and we have a question for you..."


Pinkie Pie inclined her head sideways, and grinned.


"Yes?"


Scootaloo took three large breaths, and put her right hoof on her small chest.


"Pinkie Pie, would you kindly explain to me WHY IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING THAT'S HOLY YOU GIFTED US PACIFIERS?"


Pinkie Pie moved Scootaloo's chin up with one of her hooves, as to make eye contact with the filly.


"Silly Scootaloo, those are not gifts. Those are the dummies that might be used for our journey to Canterlot."


Everypony looked sideways at Pinkie Pie, after that statement. Realizing she had the eyes of her friends and their sisters on her, Pinkie Pie let out a hoof.


"Oh come on! Is it really that hard to understand?"


Rarity was the only one that had the bravery to express her and her companions' confusion.


"Er... yes, Pinkie Pie. I'm afraid that nopony understood your logic. Please, enlighten us."


Pinkie Pie pulled out a big floor lamp from nowhere, and turned it on with the same unponderable force. Rarity was not amused.


"Not in that sense, Pinkie Pie. I meant as: please, tell us why you thought that bringing in pacifiers for my sister and her friends was a good idea."


Pinkie Pie, after gasping and getting the floor lamp out of the way, took the remaining boxes she still had on her back, then swiftly handed them to each one of her companions. Left with one box, Pinkie Pie took it, and after putting it on her side, said.


"Okay everypony, listen up! While I was spending my time doing what I usually do, namely keeping this town happy and working, my flank started to feel funny, like when you..."


Rarity, immediately understanding what Pinkie Pie was going to say, cut Pinkie short to save the innocence of the three listening fillies.


"Yes, yes, we understand, go on Pinkie."


"Anyway, at first I thought it was just another way that my body expressed its approval for what I was doing. Then the feeling returned, this time followed by more trips to the bathroom." Pinkie Pie explained she didn’t have diabetes, despite showing some of the symptoms "Anyway, back on topic, I understood it only later on: it was my sense telling something, something I won't tell you to not ruin the surprise. After realizing that there was something being cooked in the oven" a rambling about cookies and ovens ensued "By the way, I decided to consult Sibilla" rambling about the prophet "I asked her about what to do, and she gave me the response 'ibis redibus non Urbe tuae amicae fractae.' I memorized the response, thouth about it, and decided that it was a response that gave me the green light for proceed. I bought my surprises for you before heading here, and here I am!"


During the overly-long explanation, Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep, Applejack had bankrupted a rival apple farm, Rarity managed to fix her mane three times in a row, and Fluttershy had saved three birds from certain death by falling. And they still had time to come back and fake to have listened to everything Pinkie was saying all along.


As soon as Pinkie shut her mouth, Scootaloo asked.


"And... was our surprise supposed to be pacifiers?"


"No!"


Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle sighed in relief.


"There are more things for you and my friends in the boxes!" Pinkie Pie said that in a cheerful tone, a tone that unsettled the three fillies and the four adult ponies.


Pinkie Pie shouted, with even more bio "Come on! Open them! Or shall I start?"


Unsurely, everypony started to unwrap their respective boxes, and they found a green plastic bag in each one of the boxes, with the name of the addressed written with bad calligraphy and misspelled.


Then Pinkie Pie slowly opened the top of the package, revealing the contents of the bag. Namely, light pink diaper.


The sight surprised, baffled and stupefied everyone.


"Is that... a diaper?"


"Yes, silly Dashie! Don't worry, you also have them!"


Rainbow Dash widened her eyes, and stared blankly at her friend, unable to tell if Pinkie had lost her mind completely, or if a grain of sanity still existed in her head. Applejack also stared at Pinkie, but with more sheer lack of understanding than Rainbow Dash. Rarity was more composed in her reaction, but no less creeped out.


"Pinkie, darling... I don't know what brought you to this conclusion, but... this is preposterous beyond belief."


Fluttershy just stared at the diapers, and said with a whisper.

"Pinkie, I know I've often stained your carpet with my pee after your jokes, but... isn't giving me diapers a bit too much? Who am I kidding, you show enough kindness towards me by sharing the humiliation with the others..."


"First, a pacifiers, then diapers? Pinks, what in the name of everything that is holy in this cursed land happened to you? We are not babies anymore!"


Applebloom cried slightly. "So, my fears have become true... I am a baby in the eyes of everypony else..."


In stark contrast, Sweetie Belle touched unsurely the adsorbent garments, before saying.


"They sure look comfy... I don't think that wearing them for a while would be too bad."


Pinkie Pie immediately proceeded to cancel any kind of negative emotion from the faces of Applebloom, by tickling her and telling her that no matter what she was going to be the baby of the Ponyville’s branch of the Apple family. And, despite the latter's resistance and lack of will to such act, Applebloom laughed, leaving Pinkie Pie free to act with Fluttershy and the others.


“Oh no, Fluttershy, those diapers are not for your little accidents you sometimes have when I pull a prank on you.” Pinkie Pie, somehow, wrapped around Flutterhsy's neck in a menacing manner, unsettling the pegasus. “As I said, Sibilla gave me a favorable response about bringing diapers for us to Canterlot.”


Fluttershy, giving puppy dogs eyes to Pinkie Pie and putting her ears down, asked with insecurity.


“B-but why? W-why you thought that i-it was a good idea?”


Pinkie Pie raised Fluttershy’s chin.


“It’s because my Pinkie Sense told me to do so. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know we are going to need diapers for everypony, and pacifiers for the fillies.”


Fluttershy decided to keep her mouth shut about the logic that Pinkie Pie was applying.


When Pinkie was done, she said.


“Now, do we have the tickets already? The train is coming, and it isn’t going to wait for us!”


The seven, too confused, tired, or incapable to understand the situation to act, simply followed Pinkie’s lead to the train station.