Ab Initio-From the Start-Al Principio.

by Daxn


(Semplici) Nozioni

After counting how many foals needed a diaper change, and how many were capable to hold it in, Nutriz gathered the latter group, and Lux took the rest.

In the small changing room, Lux, after placing the garbage can near the changing table, and placing all the supplies on-hoof, called the first name of the list of the foals that came with her.

"Olive Oil!"

The greenish-black colt walked towards the teacher with insecurity, thanks to his diaper, which was full of bulges.

When Olive was near the changing table, Lux lifted him with magic, and put the colt on his back on the table.

Then the teacher untaped the dirty diaper, extracted some wipes, cleaned up the rump of the colt, turned the used diaper into a smelly and brownish ball, threw it away along with the wipes, extracted a new diaper from the nearby box, slid it under the colt's rump, took the baby powder, sprinkled it on the nether regions of Olive, then she finally taped the diaper on the colt's waist.

Lux lit up her horn, and, after lifting Olive Oil, put him the ground, and the colt trotted back to the group of waiting foals.

The teacher repeated the entire process with all other the foals, leaving Twilight for last.

"Twilight Sparkle, you're next," said Lux.

Twilight walked towards Lux, a blush and an awkward grin on her face.

"Could you please put yourself on your back, Twilight?" the teacher asked with her usual ordering-friendly tone of voice.

Twilight immediately complied, and let Lux take care of the whole thing, her face blushing even more.

The teacher, noticing this, gave a small sigh as she finished with Twilight's changing, then lent her a hoof up.

Twilight was about to leave, when Lux put a hoof on her shoulder.

"Twilight, you have nothing to be ashamed about," she said, her voice soft and gentle, as if she were talking to a foal who had scraped his knee, but treated it as a head injury.

The kind words did nothing to lighten the unicorn's mood. If anything, it increased the unicorn's annoyance, and made her snort some steam.

"Of course I don't," she said, her voice showing irritation . "I'm a full-grown mare, toilet-trained more than a decade a ago, and yet my mother put me back in diapers and tries to force me to use them!"

Lux shook her head. "Let me say something, Twilight."

Twilight's response was to glare at Lux.

The mare ignored the glare, and kept going "If I was in the same situation you are, I'm pretty sure the same would have happened to me."

Twilight's eyes widened. "What?"

Lux smirked a little. "I know more about adult ponies than others would give me credit, Twilight. I work in a kindergarten. Many think that means I know more about foals than I do other adults. However, in my time here, I've learned a few things they don't teach you in any school."

The purple pony paid attention completely to Lux.

"A lesson not taught in any school?" Thought Twilight.

The knowledge-devouring mind of Celestia's star student salivated at the chance to learn new information.

Lux nodded, her expression growing slightly uncertain. "I think I know how you mother's mind is at the moment..."

Twilight's ears dropped. The mention of her mother only brought her smacking back down to the cold hard reality of why she was even talking with Lux in the first place.

"Well, I have known a few ponies in my time who have had to deal with friends or family suffering the same mindset," Lux said.

Twilight's ears perked up again. Others had gone through something similar to what she was enduring? Now this was interesting information, that was sure.

"Well, after dealing with said ponies for a while, being forced to play along to ensure no damage was done to the one with said mindset, some time being forced to wear clothing like diapers causes their bodies to acknowledge the clothing and their purpose."

Twilight looked at Lux disturbed, her mind processing what that explanation implied.

"So... are you saying... because I've been wearing diapers and been unable to remove them, my body is going against my mind and believing I need to use them?"

Lux nodded.

"That's ridiculous Lux!" Said Twilight with slight anger "Unless said ponies received a very precise hit on their heads, it's unlikely they lost the control of their bowels all of sudden because they wore diapers."

"But they didn't. Or, at least, not that I know," Lux said with a tone of voice that expressed insecurity, before coming back up with security "but the fact they lost the control remains."

Twilight raised an eyebrow "Somehow, I got the feeling that you are making up excuses for soothe my predicament. If it is so, I don't need it: the thought that my father will return soon and won't tolerate any further shams from Velvet, and the fact that I could find some silver lining in the mountain of rotten hay that is my situation, is enough to make me pull through this."

Twilight, calmed down, smiled at Lux. "So, anyway, I'm sure it was nothing. I won't have anymore... accidents," she moaned at how much like a filly being potty trained that last part had made her sound.

Lux just chuckled. "I'm sure it was. Now, let's join the others, shall we?"

Twilight nodded and they left to join the other foals, who had started to become the slightest bit impatient as to why it took so long for the eldest amongst their classmates to finish getting changed.

"Dark Entropy..."


Now, with the changings finally done, Lux herded the foals and Twilight back into the hallways, merging with Nutriz's group.

As she walked back in the classroom, Twilight was thinking to what had just happened and her conversation with Lux.

"Well, that was fast," she muttered as she followed the others back into the classroom. "At least Lux didn't comment on what happened, and the foals didn't seem to notice anything..."


After herding all the foals back in the classroom, Lux moved the cardboard "clock"'s arrow towards a new sector. A sector that, in the past, would have pleased Twilight.

"Learning Time."

Then, from the door, a clap was heard, and every foal in the class paid attention to it, and so did Twilight.

At the door, Nutriz was standing up with a brown box in her magical grip. The teacher, walking slowly in, asked with a tone of voice that expressed simile-haughtiness, "Do you know what is in the box?" Nutriz asked the foals, which immediately started a rumble for answer.

Lux quickly intervened, and restabilised the order with a pair of shouts.

When the calm returned, Nutriz said, "Whoever wants to guess must raise his or her hoof."

Twilight decided to not participate in the guessing game that was going on, and spectated instead.

Hard Time raised his hoof.

"Is it a new set of blocks?" he asked.

Nutriz shook her head.

"No, it's not a toy. A hint: it's an important object."

Pearly Handle tried to answer. "An ivory spoon?"

"No," said Nutriz with a small smile. "It's not a cutlery."

A dark purple filly with freckles and light red mane in the last row raised her hoof.

"Is a wamp?"

Nutriz, after putting the box on the ground, shook her head again. "No. Anypony else?"

The foals remained silent and still, awaiting to see what Nutriz was hiding.

The teacher, after opening the box digging through some Styrofoam, took out the content. A content that made Twilight sigh with relief.

It was a green clock with red hands and big dark gray numbers.

"This is a clock. And, today, we will talk about time," said the peach-colored teacher, while the other one exited and quickly returned with a calendar in her grip.

"Do you know what day today is?" asked Nutriz.

Twilight kept the urge of answering to herself, since answering was like winning a race with a turtle. Unless you were Pegachilles, and you gave it an advantage.

The same dark purple filly from before raised her hoof and answered, "Monday."

The teacher gave her a small clap.

"Very good Mazamara. Yes, today is Monday, and it's what day of the week?"

The little filly looked at the teacher confused.

"I don't... know…"

Nutriz quickly nodded.

"Don't worry, you and the others will see, as soon as Lux comes back with the calendar."

As she said these words, Lux came back with a calendar and some papers in her magical grip. After giving the calendar to the peach-colored teacher, Lux put the papers besides Nutriz, while the latter leafed through the months' pages.

The teacher then took a red crayon from a nearby crayon box, and marked something on the calendar and, when she was done, she showed it to the class.

"Today is Monday, and Monday is the first day of the week. Tomorrow will be Tuesday, and…" the explanation and the recap of the activities for each day was done in the usual tone, and it kept going for a while, to the chagrin of some of the foals, Lex Populi included.

"Bowiing.." whispered the little filly, as her eyes slightly closed in boredom, threatening to fall asleep.

Twilight decided to help her to remain awake by giving her a small poke on the flank.

Finally, when Nutriz was done, she gave a silent signal to Lux for proceed with the next step. The other teacher, understanding the colleague, took the papers, and said.

"Please, form groups."

Twilight and the brightest of the foals immediately understood what they were going to do, and immediately took position on one of the seven tables, while the other foals struggled to understand what was going on.

To save some time, the teachers gently invited the foals to make a choice, and go with the group they liked the most and, if a foal didn't choose one of them or refused to do so, they'd assigned him or her to a random one.

Twilight's group was composed by Lex Populi, Bright Light, Pearly Handle, Olive Oil, Orvosti Ostoba, and a light green colt with rust red mane.

And Twilight, of course.

When everybody was ready, Lux and Nutriz gave to each filly and each colt one of the blank papers and a box of crayons. As Lux distributed, Nutriz spoke up.

"Please, draw an activity for each day. It doesn't have to be something you do here; just something you usually do in that day."

Since Twilight could not come up with anything to draw about right there and now, she decided to just listen to her group companions' banter, and look at their drawings.

The results were amusing, to say at least.

Pearly's parents were both head doctors at Canterlot Royal Hospital and even were the personal doctors for the Princess Luna during her first few weeks after being freed from Nightmare Moon.

From what Pearly had heard from her parents, Luna had been really weak and needed round-the-clock care.

Twilight vaguely remembered Celestia telling her something like that in a letter shortly after Luna's return.

The green colt, his name Deep Injection, would sometimes hang around the hospital and whichever of her parents was free would show her around, teaching her about how the hospital worked. Naturally, such contact with doctors was motive of both respect and persiflage among the foals.

Bright's mother was a police officer, head of Canterlot's Police Center. His dad was a part-time worker, doing odd-jobs, while spending most of his time as a househusband, so he tended to see more of his father than his mother.
He and his dad would normally just go out and have fun, spend time at a park or go to an amusement park, or just stay home.

Lex Populi's parents were both notaries. They weren't really famous in Canterlot, more infamous, since they were known to overprice a bit the notary deeds. Since her parents weren't exactly the freest of the ponies, Lux spent most of her time with an old nanny called Massarosina, who read to Lux many literature classics.

Olive Oil, as his name hinted, had a father who ran one of the most popular restaurants in all of Canterlot that wasn't strictly for only the nobles and snobby ponies. The mother claimed to be a dancer, but Twilight quickly understood that she was really an escort.
He spent most days when his dad was at work with a foalsitter, but whenever his dad was home, he'd show Olive how to cook and, because of that, despite his age, Olive knew how to cook several things Twilight could've only dreamed of being able to cook back when she was his age.

The pierse de resistonse, however, was Orvosti Ostoba. Her father was a judge in the Royal Courts, a work that boasted the grand total of twenty-four days of work over the course of a 365-days calendar. Orvosti's mother was in the House Guard, the only division of the military that had actual combat training. This only wasn't something really special for Twilight, but she almost fainted when she realized that Arma Smussata, Orovosti's mother's name, was actually a war hero.
Namely, five years prior, Arma Smussata got a Medal of Honor because she had deafeated alone a group of well-armed air raiders that were razing Borgo Cagamattoni, a pike and five javelins as only weapon. Arma just aimed and hit with the javelins the unprotected backside of the raiders. For this feat of courage, Arma Smussata was added to the (incredibily small) Book of Litalian War Heroes, and got a medal in a cerimony wherein Twilight partecipated.
Twilight couldn't believe that one war hero she had seen was going to be barely linked to her, thank to said war hero's daughter.

Twilight had her turn in telling what her parents did. But none of the fillies or colt seemed to think her father's job, notary, was very interesting.

And the less they knew about her mother, the better it was. The last thing Twilight wanted to damage their lives later on with memories of her mother, by making them neogignoskophobic and incapable to write something down without the approval of their Cavallonian Party.

She had to repress a shudder at the very thought of it.

After that, Twilight told them about her job as a librarian, which turned out to be a boring subject for the foals because they didn't have the same appreciation for perfect organisation as herself, so she stopped explaining it any further.


The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. Twilight spent most of it playing games with Lex, Bright and Pearly.

Twilight noted that she had a lot of fun... maybe more than she should have.

At one point she had to even remind herself that she herself wasn't a foal.

Was everything her mother had put her through starting to get to her?


When the day was over, Twilight left with all the other foals... only to groan when she saw her mother and a way too cheerful Pinkie Pie in a toddler harness with a lease on, the leash held in Velvet's magic waiting for her outside.

Twilight followed her mother as they headed home, Twilight half-heartedly responding to any questioned posed to her by either of the two ponies.

When they arrived home, Twilight decided she wanted to spend some time alone in her room, but Velvet wasn't having any of it.

Leading her daughter and Pinkie into the cameretta, Velvet told them they had half a few hours before snack time.

Just as she was closing the door, however, Twilight noticed a huge grin on her mother's face and realized her mother had noticed the different diaper colour she was wearing.

"Darn." Twilight groaned "She noticed it. I hope she doesn't suddenly decided that I can't go to the bathroom anymore, because it's going to end badly for her. Or for me, if she overpowers me somehow."

Thought that, Twilight decided to sit down in the middle of the room, while Pinkie pestered her with her requests to play a game.

Twilight hated to admit it, but Pinkie was making this a lot harder than it would have been without her, because, while Twilight sometimes appreciated Pinkie Pie's stu child-likeness, her antics were grating, especially in that particular situation.

"Come on Twilight, come here to play!" Pleaded Pinkie.

Twilight deadpanned with a frown "No thanks, Pinkie. This mornign was enough for me. Now, please, stop."

"Come on! Don't be such a grumpy pants!"

Twilight's brain and ears were pleading for mercy, so she stood up, and opened the door.

"Where are you going, Twilight?" Asked Pinkie Pie.

Velvet's daughter sniffed of superiority. "I'm going upstairs in my room, and I am going to lock that up until further notice."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie jumped on Twilight, causing both ponies to fall on the floor with a loud thud. Then Pinkie Pie embraced her purple friend in an unpleasant hug.

"PINKIE!" Shouted Twilight "What are you doing?!"

The pink pony, still keeping her friend tight in her embrace, answered "Stay here. Velvet might punish you if you go out!"

Twilight, annoyed, tried to free herself from her friend's unwanted hug.

"I don't care in the slightest. She wants to treat me like a three-years or two-years old? Well, then she must endure also the least pleasant parts of it!"

Finally, after moving the pink pony's hooves away from her neck with the help of her magic, Velvet's daughter opened the door, looked both at left and right, and ran towards her room.

Once she was at the door, Twilight unlocked it, took the key, clsoed the door behind her, and, finally locked herself in her room, finally free from any annoyance.

Twilight lied on her comically undersized bed with a sight, and looked at the white ceiling, her mind wandering freely and the following silence calming her down.

Silence that didn't last long.

Fifteen minutes later, a whailing, similar to the one of a restless spectre of a pony killed with a pike down his throat, was heard from below. The voice? Velvet's.

"Twilight Sparkle, get downstairs THIS MOMENT or else!"

The aforomentioned pony jumped on her four, and thought.

"I'm tired of this. She launches my dignity in the mud and I don't react. She extends her insanity to my friends and, after getting sabotaged by Pinkie, I listen to her words anyway. I try to keep my life less restrained and my motehr decides for me what I do.
This must end, NOW!"

Twilight gritted her teeth, and started to whip her tail. Images of her torturing Velvet formed, before rationality returned into Twilight's head, calming her down a bit.

"Calm, Twilight, calm. You father is on the way of return, and, when he returns, you will be free once again. There is no need to damage your mother now. Now, obey to this order and make her happy in the near future. You can retort something to her, if you want, but don't pis her off too much."

Sighing, she listened to her rationality, and, opening the door, she went downstairs. At the base of the staircase, there was Velvet, who was tapping her right hoof for signal disappointment. Twilight, rolling her eyes, went near her mother.

"Twily, for now I will forgive you," Velvet said with a tone of voice expressing annoyance "but, do it again, and your tushy will turn into a baboon's."

Twilight rolled her eyes and nodded at the same time.

"Now go wash your hands: dinner's ready."

Velvet's daughter went in the bathroom, and, with a bar of soap that was advertised as having a honey scent (but actually having the smell of paraffine) and some water, she cleaned her hooves up, before going in the dining room.

The table was set with the usual set of porcelains and glasses, and with the same set of cutlery Twilight had used since she came in that house, so nothing of really strange. However, the food was presented in a less normal way: for example, the pizza with peppers was made in a way tha resembled the face of a clown, the hay burger with salad and fries looked like a tribal hut, and the sugar-covered fruit salad was set so to look like a cat's face.

Of couse, the only one getting food that didn't semed coming out from a deraged artist's studio was Velvet, with her cream and peas fusilli and a gatò of potatoes.

Sighing, Twilight sat down, took a portion from each dish, and ate slowly.

After a while, when she as eating her portion of fruit salad, Twilight noticed that the "sugar" didn't tasted like sugar at all. In fact, it tasted more of willow's cortex.

"Mother, what did you put on the fruit salad? It tastes bad!" She exclaimed.

"It's sugar, dear." Said Velvet with an unsettling smile, one that caused Twilight to be suspicious.

The purple pony's mind tired ot understand the reason for that smile, and why the sugar didn't tasted like sugar. Then, while she thought, a gurgling sound came from her stomach.

The "sugar" was powder Dulcolax, with some pieces of Ten Herbs thrown in.

"Velvet, you marble humper!" Shouted Twilight in her mind.