It takes a Kingdom to Raise a Draconequus

by Foal Star

Chapter Eleven: Hearts and Chaos

Discord was up, waiting for a breakfast of heart-shaped pancakes. And as he chomped away, he was wondering how to make this year's Hearts and Hooves Day special for his adopted parents. He turned to Snowflake and whispered. “Hey, so, I got something important to say.”

“Wha’s tat?” Snowflake asked.

“Well, I want to help Mommy and Daddy have a fun Hearts and Hooves day,” Discord explained. “They have been working so hard since coming to the Crystal Empire. Tey dun even has time fow themselves ‘cause they so busy taking care of us.”

Snowflake paused as she said. “Uh, do you know what that is?” The little lord of chaos then explained the holiday to his baby sister, who nodded along. “Tat’s coow, so what do you tink we shouwd do fow tem?”

Discord smirked as he took out a book. “I dun know how ta wead, but I saw ta pictures and thowt we can make a wuv potion to help tem wuv each other more!”

“Otay, sounds wike fun!” Snowflake cheered.

After breakfast, the two then went to work making the potion together in their room (Discord having secretly found a way to smuggle in the ingredients by poofing them into his diaper, pulling them out as needed), with Discord and Snowflake making quite a mess. But the two did their best to clean it up so that the grown-ups wouldn’t get suspicious. Then they wrote out some sloppy-looking letters, Discord using his chaos magic to try to make them look more formal.

The letters to Shining and Cadence told them to meet in the palace gardens. So they did.

Underneath a gazebo, the two babies waited, anticipating Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, looking exhausted. As they sat together, Snowflake got rather impatient and whispered to Discord. “Do ya tink tis wiww wowk?”

“Yeah, is gotta, we have been over tis,” Discord pouted. “Shining Awmow and Princess Cadence wove each other about. So I got tis romantic wunch aww set up fow tem, along with ta potion.”

“Hopefuwwy ya know what ya doing,” Snowflake replied in uncertainty.

“Yeah. We got the potion wight, and Mommy and Daddy will be hewe any minute. We already did the had part. So now we just gotta sit hewe and wait.” Discord explained.

Princess Cadence and Shining Armor soon came to the meeting spot, completely confused at being called out on such short notice. They soon spotted the lunch. Unknown to them, Discord and Snowflake were watching from afar, waiting to see what was going to happen.

The crystal couple looked around, then talked and laughed as if everything was normal.

“It’s cute that Discord thinks we don’t know he’s doing this,” Princess Cadence giggled. “He’s even smarter than Twilight was when she was just a filly.”

Shining Armor giggled back. “Probably even before then. I thought Twily was pretty smart even when she was in diapers. Discord is so smart; he could probably change his own diapers and make his own bottles, and he’s not even two years old yet.”

“Well, it would be a shame to let his hard work go to waste,” Cadance commented, eyeing the punch. Neither she nor her husband suspected anything was amiss about it.

“Yeah. He wouldn’t make anything that could hurt us; he loves us too much.” Shining replied. And as soon as the cups were full of punch, he and his wife drank it. Then they both gave each other confused looks as they made light talk, unable to take their eyes off each other. The two babies watched with anticipation, expecting to see something happen.

But the crystal couple eventually grew weary. Princess Cadence let out a yawn. “I think I might have to call it an early day and go to bed. I don’t know what it is, but I’m so tired.”

Shining Armor nodded back. “Same here, hon. Guess all that planning for the Equestria Games has worn us out more than we thought. It’s only gonna be more exhausting if we have to start potty training Discord.”

“Let’s hold off on that until we’re both fully rested and ready to commit to it,” Cadance suggested, and she and her husband went their separate ways.

As the two grown-ups faded from view, Discord and Snowflake groaned as they plopped down in disbelief, and Discord shouted. “What happened?! Did we mess it up or something?! Ta potion was supposed ta make tem wove each othew mowe, not tiwe tem out.”

“Maybe tey just too busy,” Snowflake added. “Ta potion didn’t wowk.”

Discord let out a sigh and shrugged. “Guess tat’s it. It was a good twy, though.”

“Duh, is obvious the speww we made didn’t work. I’ww wook over the book we got and see if we missed something.” Discord groaned. The foals went back to their nursery as the little lord of chaos wondered how his potion went wrong.

---

The next morning, Princess Cadence entered into her royal bathing chambers and started to groan as she wondered if all that candy Shining had given her yesterday was making her sick. Her belly felt heavy, almost like she was going to have a baby. But after waiting for a moment, the feeling seemed to die down, so she continued to go through her morning routine by hopping into the shower.

That was when the princess started feeling weird, like her body was becoming bigger. She felt as if her entire form grew, her back legs becoming stockier, and she saw in her bathroom mirror that she was taller. Then she turned to see her tail was now much shorter, and her face was pronounced like Shining Armor’s. She felt as if something was off: She wasn’t Princess Cadance; he was Shining Armor, and he should be out there to make sure that the empire was safe!

Shining then trotted out of the house and through the streets of The Crystal Empire, with the cool morning breeze going through his mane as he headed out to find the rest of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, that morning, Shining Armor was also waking up from his slumber and yawning as he stretched his limbs to get ready for work. But then he saw he felt something was off as he got out of his bed, feeling much lighter with a bounce to his step. He turned to see that his body was much longer, and his coat and mane were curling around his head. Looking in a mirror, he was surprised that he looked like his wife, Princess Cadance. In fact, he was Princess Cadance! And she should be out making sure couples were doing well in the Crystal Empire, spreading love as it was her duty! But first, she had two babies to care for, and she flew off to find her foals.

A little later, with the sun slowly shining through the window of Discord’s room, the little baby draconequus slowly woke up to see a white-coated mare tending to him. “Discord, it's time for a diaper change.”

The little baby was groggy and could barely make out the mare, but she assumed it was her sister and mumbled. But then he got a good look at the mare and blinked in surprise, seeing the familiar face of Shining Armor staring back at him. “Uh, Daddy?”

“I’m not Daddy, sweetie. It's Mommy!” Shining cheered as she lifted him out of the crib along with his sister’s.

Discord blinked again, seeing the voice sounded a bit like his mommy’s, but she had the same coat and mane color as his daddy’s. What was going on? “Um, Mommy, what are you doing, hewe?” He asked Shining.

“Getting you up to have some playtime. Now, come on! You don’t wanna be sitting in that soggy old diaper all morning, do you? What kind of Mommy would I be if I let you get a diaper rash?” The mare lifted Discord up and took him to a diaper change.

During the change, Discord got a good look at this strange mare, seeing the white coat with a savvy, blue-striped mane going down the side of her face that was curled and trialed around her right shoulder. Her cutie mark was a shield in the shape of a heart. In that instant, Discord realized that the love spell that he and Snowflake made had done this! Horrified and stricken with guilt, he cried. “I so sowwy, Daddy! I didn’t mean to tuwn ya into a girl!”

“Princess Cadence” blinked, looking confused, then asked. “What do you mean? You didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve always been a mare,” Soon afterward, she finished the change and cooed. “There we go. We’ll see what your daddy thinks about starting your potty train next week, okay, sweetie? And Snowflake, we’ll need to start buying more supplies for you. You can’t keep using Discord’s spare diapers all the time. You need diapers that fit you.”

Discord was stunned and nervous, seeing that he had to do something. Shining Armor now thinks he is his mom, Princess Cadence. He didn’t want the real Princess Cadence to see Shining Armor like this. But he knew he needed time to whip up a cure as soon as possible to get Shining back to normal. And he soon got to thinking that the best option was to keep him here. “Hey, uh, Mommy, awe ya busy today?”

The mare looked confused. “Well, no, actually. Hearts and Hooves Day was yesterday. But Shining Armor and I want to just hang out today.”

The little lord of chaos gave her some puppy dog eyes and then cried, “Pwease, I promise it’ww be quick!”

“Princess Cadence” placed both foals down in a playpen and started playing with them. After playing a ton of games, usually involving “Mommy” to chase them, she started to get tired and soon collapsed on the nursery floor, snoring. As she did so, Discord waddled to Snowflake and said. “Listen, we gotta make a new potion to change Mommy and Daddy back to nowmaw.”

“So, ya want to sneak tem messages wike we did yesterday?” Snowflake replied.

“Yeah! Wets get to wowk!” Discord chimed in.

---

“Shining Armor,” meanwhile, was busy trotting around the castle with various other guards just gawking at him, wondering who he was. The stallion was rather confused by the looks and shrugged. He’d always been this way. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, he heard something and saw a letter fall onto his head.

Opening the letter, Shining read that his wife wanted to meet him for lunch at the gazebo. His stomach growled, reminding him that he had skipped breakfast to get an early start on his patrols. “There’s no harm in taking a lunch break,” He said to himself, then trotted off towards the gazebo. “Everything’s nice and peaceful in the empire.”

Not long after the messages were given, Discord and Snowflake hid behind the same bush as before: Everything was the same as it had been yesterday.

Snowflake looked the most worried, however, and asked Discord. “Do ya tink this wiww wowk?”

“Of couwse I do, it’ww wowk…Hopefully.” Discord gulped, hoping he and Snowflake had managed to get the potion right this time (or, at the very least, able to undo what they had done).

Meanwhile, the white-coated mare looked over and said, “Oh, Shining Armor, I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you give me an invitation for lunch?”

The pink-coated stallion shrugged. “Not that I know of.”

“Right, you're not much of a talker,” The white-coated mare giggled. “But I assume you got an invitation from….me?”

“Yeah, I did weird, huh?” The pink-coated stallion replied. “And you got a message from me?”

“Well, I didn’t write one…. It seems somepony set this up…” The white-coated mare realized, looking all around. “But it would be a shame to let these dandelion sandwiches and punch go to waste.”

So the two sat down and drank the punch as the foals watched from the bush in anticipation. At first, the two grown-ups reverted back to how they had always been: Shining was Shining, and Cadance was Cadance. But then the two foals watched in horror as the ponies began to shrink in front of their very eyes, becoming babbling babies mashing their hooves into their half-eaten sandwiches!

Snowflake rubbed her eyes and cried! “Discowd, wha did you do?!”

“I…I didn’t mean fow tem to tuwn into foaws!” Discord gasped in horror! “I thought I got the cute down wike the book said!” He and Snowflake then rushed over to the foals as the little lord of chaos said to his sister. “We need to get these two to the nursery, now.”

“Yeah, who knows how long they’ll be like this whiwe we twy to turn them back to adults?” Snowflake replied. “Is so weiwd having Mommy and Daddy in diapees wike us.”

“Wight, but we gots no choice!” Discord declared. The two then hastily grabbed and led their regressed parents back to the castle, hastily poofing them into the nursery. With a lot of effort and struggling, they got the two squirming foals into diapers and had them playing with some foam blocks or doodling with crayons while Snowflake was keeping an eye on them.

Meanwhile, Discord was going through the book of potions as the pegasus snapped at him. “Ok, so wat did you do wrong tis time?!”

Discord's cheeks flushed pink as he realized his mistake. “I tink instead of a pegasus feather, I used a alicorn feather,” He picked up a white feather and explained, “I tought tis wowld make ta potion wowk.”

“Well, guess it made things worse!” Snowflake whined as she then tried to keep the babies from eating some crayons. “We need to do someting! I dun know how wongew we can keep tis up. Wha we gonna do if tey need a diapee change?”

“Just keep tem busy. I’ww whip up a cuwe, I pwomise!” Discord cried, and went to work looking for an age-reversal cure. He hastily pulled out a flask literally out of thin air with a bubbling blue potion. “I tink tis will work. Is from a zebra who makes potions, so she should have a cure.” He explained, then clumsily poured it into two foal bottles.

The bottles were then given to the regressed crystal couple as the foals chugged down on their bottles rather greedily. After guzzling their meals, the two foals gave loud burps, and then the babies watched as the two foals grew up to become adults again. But then massive trunks grew out from their noses, their bodies bloated until the floor couldn't hold their weight, and they crashed toward the ground!

The babies coughed as dust and debris flew all around them. They looked up to see massive white and pink elephants standing over them. Then, the elephants started running off towards the gardens, splashing around in a fountain and spraying each other with water from their trunks.

As the pair of elephants trampled off, Snowflake turned towards Discord with an angry look, and he collapsed on the ground and groaned. “Ok, we need hewp. And there’s onwy one creature tat can hewp us!” He had no choice but to teleport himself and his sister into the Everfree Forest.

As they came to a large hut. Snowflake whispered to Discord. “Awe ya sure ya want to do tis? Zecowa gonna be mad when she finds out ya took one of her potions.”

“I dun have a choice, it’s my fault they ended up as foaws and now ewephants,” Discord replied. “I have to deal with the consequences.”

“Yeah, but… we couwd just say tey stepped in poison joke or something,” Snowflake whispered.

Discord thought it over, wishing he could lie about it. Then he shook his head. “No, we need to tell Zecowa the truth so she knows how to cure them: We can't weave Princess Cadance and Shining Awmow as elephants forever. We gots to change tem back!”

“Yeah, ya wight.” The other foal grumbled. Then they went up to the hut, and Discord gathered the courage to knock on the door.

Zecora opened it, surprised upon seeing the foals. “Hello, you three. I apologize, but I wasn’t expecting company.”

The babies looked downwards, with Discord coming up to her and saying. “Zecowa, we have a problem, and we need your help.” He hastily explained all that he’d done.

“So I see. You turned your mother and father into elephants, so you have come to me,” Zecora replied.

“Uh yeah, that’s everything. Can you help?” Discord asked.

“Let me see,” Zecora put a hoof to her chin, deep in thought. “You first messed up the potion and had them swap lives. And you did this by sending letters that were lies. The cure for turning them back was almost right, but using an alicorn feather to turn them into babies frightened you. You made a proper age progression potion. But you added too much cloud, turning their species into elephants stampeding in motion.”

“So, can ya fix tem?!” Discord asked in a concerned tone.

“I believe I will,” Zecora firmly nodded. “But you need to stand by and help me, so for now, stand still.”

---

So, the foals worked with Zecora to mix a bubbling green liquid in the cauldron and then pour a small amount of it into a flask. “Now have the two drink this brew, and they’ll finally turn into ponies. It's true.” The zebra told the foals.

“Tank you, Zecwra!” Discord shouted.

“Yeah, tanks zebwa!” Snowflake chimed.

The foals then teleported back to the Crystal Empire with Zecora accidentally in tow. It proved very difficult to track down the elephants despite the trail of destruction they were unintentionally leaving.

At last, however, they managed to get the flask’s contents into the elephant's trunks, reverting them back into ponies.

Shining Armor looked down at Discord with an angry look. “Will you please explain what happened, Discord?”

“Weww, uh…” Discord gulped as the grown-up's eyes became fixed on him, causing him to wet his diaper in fright.

Zecora eyed Discord, telling him. “Discord, you will tell them the truth even if it means your doom. Or perhaps they will have you confined to your room.”

Discord was too ashamed of himself to talk at first, hoping just to bury all of this and forget about it. But deep down, he knew Zecora was right. So he sighed and said. “Ok, I’ve explain everything.” And he did.

After Discord finished the story, Princess Cadence blinked, looking surprised. “I wouldn’t believe what you just said if it weren’t for Zecora here.”

“Yes, I agree,” Zecora nodded. “Now it's time for their punishment, I believe.”

“Oh yeah, there’s no getting out of this one. You two are both grounded for a month,” Shining Armor replied rather angrily. “You can forget about playdates or any other fun things.”

The two babies groaned as Princess Cadance came over. “Dear, I think I have a proper punishment. Don’t you think they should help clean the place up? Their actions caused quite a mess in the empire,” Shining Armor and Zecora turned to her as she continued. “I understand what they did was wrong and that they probably deserve a more proper punishment. But in the end, they did the right eventually thing and helped turn you and I back to normal. Zecora’s hut is probably a mess too, so they can help clean that up. Unless there any objections?”

Zecora shrugged, “I can use a helping hoof. I’ll make sure they behave under my roof.”

Shining Armor was the most reluctant, but seeing Discord’s puppy dog eyes may have helped as he gave a slight nod, “Fine. But you're still grounded for a week, mister.”

Zecora then took the foals to help to clean up the mess.

---

Later that evening, everyone else was all fast asleep, except for Discord, as well as Zecora who was tucking him into bed. Discord looked at the zebra and whispered. “I sowwy fow causing ya twouble.”

“Don't fret. Everything is fine now, you should not have regret.” Zecora reassured him.

“But is not fine!” Discord retorted. “I got my sister and I in twoubwe, I and was the one who made tose dumb potions.”

Zecora turned and said softly. “I’m sure you are sorry, and you should remember, little one. Your actions can hurt those around you even if you think there will be none.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Discord blushed.

“You messed up, I admit,” Zecora continued. “But you decided to be honest and brave coming to me, which takes grit.”

Discord gave the zebra the book. “Teww me, can ya show me wha I did wong? Not the wove potion we twied, tat was a mistake…but I want to know how I swapped their gendews, ten tuwned them into babies, and ten ewephants.”

Zecora laughed. “I see you want to dabble in potion making? Is that what I believe you are saying?”

“Yeah,” Discord confessed. “I weawned my wesson about twying to experiment on my own.”

“It's fine to experiment as it advances the craft,” The enchantress told the little one. “But you need to know the fundamentals before you go on your own path.”

“Wiww…wiww ya teach me?” Discord pleaded.

“Of course, but not now for it's late. You used a lot of chaos magic cleaning up, and you cannot go in this state.” Zecora tucked him into his crib along with Snowflake.

Snowflake whispered. “Tanks again fow saving ouw fwanks.”

“No problem, but now you owe me one,” Zecora replied. “If either of you are going to be my apprentice, be prepared to work and wun.”

“I will, I want to make potions to help ponies and creatures wike you.” Discord yawned as he then curled up between his sister and slowly fell asleep.

Comments

[Sparkle91]

Will Baby Discord be involved with Equestria Girls?