> Ab Initio-From the Start-Al Principio. > by Daxn > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Inizio/Start (Edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ponyville was in an uproar. Unicorns and earth ponies created a terrifyingly big rabble, trampling and stomping whoever was unfortunate enough to be in its way, while the pegasi were flying over that rabble in a compact formation, diving to the ground from time to time, looking for their prey. Said prey was a red stallion with a cheap doll in his mouth. He was, like pretty much everyone else there, determined in taking and keeping the doll, even if it meant going against all of the two hundred ponies living in the town. Twilight Sparkle was watching the scene with horror, since she knew that the cause of that situation was her own fault. Indeed, what started as an attempt to cause a "friendship problem" using an old doll from her distant past, three reluctant school-aged fillies and a "I Want it, I Need it" spell, had turned into a civil war without bloodshed for the toy. Since Twilight was busy staring at the mess she created with so few ingredients, she didn't notice the presence of five shapes hidden by the dust that were running in the opposite direction than the crowd. The identity of the shapes’ was soon revealed: they were her friends, namely Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. For some strange reason, they weren't attracted by the doll, nor were they trampled by the fighting ponies. The first pony to reach Twilight was Rainbow Dash. The cyan mare asked worried to Twilight, "What's going on, Twilight? The whole town seems in love with that heap of crummy fabric!" "Yes, I know and it's my fault!" the reply showed more panic than guilt "I've tried to create a 'friendship problem' for my weekly letter to Celestia, since I forgot to write one in the past days, but..." "But?" Twilight raised her voice. "The whole thing degenerated! I used one of my old dolls, a spell that allowed imitated mind control, and Cutie Mark Crusaders." Rainbow Dash only leered. Twilight, noticing that, rumbled. "Yes, you heard correctly: I used Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as one of the elements for my plotted problem. To do so, I just hid in the bush, waited for their arrival, teleported in their little game of ball - destroying the ball in the process - greeted them, offered the doll..." Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes in confusion, put her front hooves in, and said, "Wait, wait, wait! Calm down, Twi! I couldn’t understand a single word." Sighing, the purple unicorn started again, this time much slower. "Alright. I hid in the bush, I waited for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to arrive in the place, decided to teleport in the ball, destroying it. I greeted them, showed them the doll, and since they didn't appreciate it, I casted the 'I Want It, I Need It'." Rainbow looked around her, seeing the same gigantic fight among adult ponies, and asked "Aand... in what way is this brawl linked to three fillies fighting over an enchanted doll?" "I was getting there! I tried to separate them, but to no avail. I saw Big Macintosh passing by not too far away, and so I asked him for help. However, I forgot that one of the side effects of that spell cast on objects was the instant charming of the observer towards the object. Now, consider that the stallion has necessarily seen the doll. Now, you know that Applejack's farm is on the other side of the town, right?" Rainbow Dash nodded. "And so everyone else saw it!" Twilight screamed. Rainbow’s eyes widened. "And you did that... because you were late? This isn't something that a sane pony does!" The purple unicorn glared at Rainbow. "Do you have any idea of what we are talking about? I'm late for an assignment from Princess Celestia herself! The ruler of this land and the bringer of the sun, my mentor! If I don't fix it now, I'm in trouble!" "I still don’t see the problem…” Twilight grabbed Rainbow's fur. "DON’T SEE THE PROBLEM? She is my teacher, and as a student, I must comply with her order! Until now, I have always been a dutiful and punctual student. But if I fail, if I’m late for just one time, she might question my dedication and since she is my teacher, she might give me a test. And if I can’t pass the test? I will be punished like all the bad students, with the flunking. But Celestia isn’t subject to rules. She makes them ! So instead of letting me flunk, she can send me to... MAGIC KINDERGARTEN!" Rainbow Dash was left confused by Twilight's rant about Princess Celestia and being a good student, while the purple mare was picturing, once again, the scene of her in the middle of a group of 3-4 years old foals laughing at her failure. The other mares arrived at Twilight, but when they saw that their friend was staring at the sky, they said nothing, fearing that they could interrupt an important process. Suddenly, a blinding light spread in the marsh where the citizens were fighting and a unique voice resounded from it. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" It was Celestia's voice, and unlike on pretty much every other occasion, she sounded really angry at something... or somepony. The arrival of the solar goddess distracted the denizen of the town for a brief second, allowing Celestia to undo the spell casted on the doll; once that happened, every pony that fought for the doll stopped, and after looking at the mass of an old fabric with indifference or even disgust, everypony left the marsh, the only exceptions being Twilight, her friends, and Princess Celestia. The white alicorn walked dramatically slowly to Twilight. "Twilight, meet me in the Library. We have much to discuss," she ordered and then left without saying any other word. Sighing in defeat, the purple pony started to walk away, towards her home. "Goodbye, girls. If you care," she said sadly, "I’ll be in the Magic Kindergarten... back in Canterlot." Then she headed for her destination. The five mares gasped. "Magic Kindergarten?" whispered Fluttershy. "Canterlot?" asked a nonplussed Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie, after jumping incredibly high in the air, shrieked, "We're never gonna see Twilight ever again!" Rarity, as her usual, proceeded to place her left forehoof on her closed eyes, moaning, crying and pulling hairs of her mane like a prefica in the process, and then said with a voice bordering with the spirit of an opera character, for the third time that day, "Of the horrible things that could have happened, this is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" Applejack was more collected; after taking a look at the reaction of her friends, the orange pony sighed. "Uh, so what are we gunna do?" Rainbow stated with decisiveness, "We need to act, that's for sure! We can't leave Twilight hanging!" then she started to fly away… only to be pulled back by a force. Turning her head, the cyan mare saw her multicolored tail held by a blue aura, the same aura that engulfed Rarity's horn. "As much as you would like to take the matters in your hooves, I can't allow you to interfere. I think that I know you well enough to tell that you would only cause more problems than you would solve." "Interfere with what?” the Pegasus asked back. “And cause what troubles? Explain!" Sighing, Rarity spoke up. "I thought it was clear as day, Rainbow Dash. The Princess asked Twilight to have a private meeting with Twilight and Twilight only: it would be rude to step in violently." Rainbow Dash hovered near Rarity, raised her front hooves and moved them frantically. "Celestia might punish her! And, if Twilight gets punished by the Princess, we might not see Twilight ever again! You heard her, right?" Rarity sniffed with pride, and reasserted her mane as a way to show coldness and composure over the matter, sharply contrasting with the bit of drama performed by her less than a few minutes ago. "It's also true that our purple friend tends to lose the grasp on her mind when confronted with the inability to comply an order of a superior, and she tends to inflate the punishments that she may receive. Also, I don't think Princess Celestia would be more upset than usually after this accident. In fact, our coming might be only salt rubbed into a wound." Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves. "I’m still not convinced. I think that we have the right to know what’s gonna happen to our close friend, and not even the Princess’ll stop us from knowing." Rainbow Dash landed, and spoke to the other mares. "So, what do you think about that?Do we go to Twilight's Library now, or wait til tomorrow?" Applejack spoke up. "Ah think we should wait fer tomorrow. Interruptin’ Celestia while she talks ta Twilight would get us int’ trouble." Pinkie Pie, with a tone more serious than her usual, but still a bit cheerful, answered, "I think we can wait. If everything goes well, we can celebrate afterwards." "I agree with Applejack and Pinkie, Rainbow... if you don't mind..." Fluttershy whispered. Rolling her eyes, Rainbow said, "Rarity, you won. We’ll see tomorrow. Now goodbye, the soup cans are calling me." With that she left. Shortly afterwards, the other mares also divided. Meanwhile, at the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle was moving upstairs sadly; she was going to meet Princess Celestia to receive a punishment for what she had done to the town, and, maybe, for her lateness. Once Twilight reached the floor upstairs, she saw Celestia standing up in the middle of the room. The diarch didn't show any signs of anger or strong disappointment towards Twilight, and was once again in her calm and composed mood. However, this detail didn't decrease the terror that filled the purple pony. Twilight bowed down to the ground, and started to chant her excuses like a litany. "I am really sorry for the delay of my work, I’m a bad student..." Princess Celestia gently moved a hoof over Twilight's mouth. "There is no need to apologize like that; I'm not upset for your tardiness. What worries me and ultimately makes me act is your reaction to your tardiness." Twilight gulped, while the Princess went towards the window. "You could have sent me a letter apologizing for the lack of the Friendship report; even just sending the report next week would be fine." The alicorn suddenly turned, and pressed her muzzle on Twilight's, scaring the latter. Celestia said with a slightly hissing voice: “But you lost control of yourself. You arranged a plan to create a friendship problem, solve it, and write a report. Staging a problem wasn't exactly the assignment that I gave to you, but let's ignore that for now. Your plan included the unwilling participation of three fillies and, later on, the whole town." Twilight started to sweat profusely, and moved her eyes from right to left, as if she was looking for a way to get out from that situation. "Now, it isn't the first time you worried about the punctuality, nor is it the first time you overreacted to something. However, this... response from your part wasn't proper, and it was very irresponsible: you tried to trick me, you used as vectors of your plan three innocent fillies, you caused a gigantic fight and you worried your companions.” Celstia sighed. “As much as it hurts me and you to say this, I think that a relitation punishment might be helpful..." Twilight raised her head, and watched Celestia's eyes in sign of submission. "Is it what I think it is?" she asked, her voice quivering. Celestia answered as she reached the balcony: "Yes. You will attend the Magic Kindergarten for a term. You may pack up right now, since I will fill the papers as soon as I return to my room." Then, the white alicorn spread out her wings, got up on the balcony’s edge, and flew away, leaving a shocked purple unicorn behind. Twilight tried to say something, but no words came out from it. She was too shocked and desperate to say anything but gibberish about "failure," "humiliation" and the like. After about ten minutes of ranting and weeping, Twilight stood up again, and, sighing, proceeded to pack the luggage, while a "too-happy-for-the-situation" Spike helped her. > Mossa/Move (edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The dawn, with pink hoofs and golden mane, once again rose over Equestria, and with it every creature in Equestria. However, the rising wasn't at the same rhythm for everyone, nor was it pleasurable at the same level. Twilight Sparkle, once her closed eyes were hit by the rays of the light coming from the window, groaned, and rolled out of her bed onto the floor; she was too demoralized and drowsy to do anything more complicated than breath and crawl around like a slug. Meanwhile, the usually lazy late-riser Spike sprang out of his bed/dog basket cheerfully, went into the kitchen, and proceeded to make sandwiches and eggs for breakfast at a demonic pace, all the while singing happily a whole sonata of joyful songs. Twilight, still crawling, once out of her room, proceeded to do the insane task of descending the stairs without raising a single leg, but just slithering on the steps, simply ignoring the pain caused by doing such action. Finally, after ten minutes of slow and painful crawling, Twilight Sparkle woke up completely. She yawned, stirred, and got up on all fours. “So, Spike, is breakfast ready?” The dragon didn't say anything, and just served a plate of eggs while singing. “You seem pretty happy to make breakfast for me today, Spike. That’s unusual for you. Is something the matter?” “This is my third-to-final service I will do for you for four months. Then I will be absolutely free! Four months of pure freedom!” Spike chirped. Twilight pretended to not have heard that, and just ate the food without saying a word, since she wasn't in the mood for an argument with her assistant, nor she was interested to teach Spike some compassion and continence. Once she finished her breakfast, Twilight asked with a bored voice where her luggage was, and what were the departure times of the trains. At the first question, Spike answered by pointing to the luggage stacked up near the door; at the second question, he shrugged and said, “No idea. I haven't checked them yet, since last night I wasn't exactly fond about walking to the train station”. Sighing, Twilight Sparkle levitated the luggage, strapped them onto her back, slightly opened the door with a creak... and shutting them again, remembering she didn’t check if everything was in the suitcases. So, she put the baggage down on the ground, sorted them by size, asked Spike to take the list of the things to be packed in the suitcases, then proceeded to list everything that was contained in the bags. Once done with the control of her luggage, Twilight put the items back in their slots in the suitcases, closed the packs and then strapped some of them back on her back and the rest was levitated. When Twilight looked at the clock hanging on the wall just above one of her shelves, she saw that this entire operation took a whooping time of thirty five minutes and twenty seconds. In a hurry, she ran out of her house... and tripped on the step which caused her to hit the ground with her chin, and, somehow, sent the suitcases flying away from Twilight's body, opening in mid-flight, and landing softly in a puddle of mud. The reaction of the purple pony at the sight of her belongings scattered all over the place and/or covered in mud was one of pure rage and frustration. As she picked up everything that she had lost, and tried to save some papers from turning into a shapeless mass of wooden fibers, she said, “Those suitcases... they never stop breaking at the least convenient moment! And look at this! LOOK AT THIS! It will take me almost an hour to put everything back in the suitcases, and another hour to wash the luggage!” Meanwhile, Spike laughed under his fake mustache - which he put on for that moment - at Twilight's misfortune. However, as soon as his purple suspended superior noticed that, she gave him an order to help her with cleaning and picking up the pieces of the earlier disaster. ________________________________________ Two hours later, Twilight Sparkle and Spike were finally done with the travel supplies: the suitcases were clean once again, albeit a bit wet; the minor papers had been rewritten in a hurry; the damaged important papers muddled through; and the clothes changed. Twilight triumphantly strapped the last baggage to her back, opened the door, and came out of the Library once again, determined to reach the train station. As Twilight walked towards her destination, she thought about an issue that she had ignored until then: her parents. After all, the apartment in Canterlot that she had had before coming to Ponyville was property of Celestia, and was just on an extended loan. Surely, by then, that apartment had to be occupied by another pony, leaving Twilight with a single option, besides rent a very expensive flat - to live with her parents - and the prospect wasn’t exactly exhilarating. The reason lay in her parents’ behaviour. While Night Light, her father, was a strict parent, Twilight Velvet was a very overprotective and smothering mother. As much as Twilight loved them, their ways to act towards her were a tad bit annoying. Also, their reaction to the news that their younger offspring was now being sent back to the Kindergarten by her teacher was going to be ruinous. While Night Light would be very disappointed and worried about the costs of having their daughter in his house while having a minuscule pension, Twilight Velvet would burst in joy and happiness, since she was going to see her daughter every day... and have the possibility to treat Twilight Sparkle like a foal once again, thanks to the occasion. Twilight sighed sadly. Those four months were going to be very long and wearing. Her train of thoughts stopped when a loud scream came from behind her. “TWILIGHT!” She rotated her head quickly, and saw five familiar shapes that brightened her mood up. Her friends. Twilight ran towards them, and said, “Oh, sorry girls, I forgot to say goodbye to you!” The five friends looked at her a bit confused. Pinkie Pie recovered from her shock first and asked, “Goodbye? Why?” Twilight hung her head. “I'd prefer to not tell you, Pinkie... it's... a bit secret...” “Secret?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in disbelief. “What do you have to hide from us?” “Yeah, what?” Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “I... I don't know if to ask you... I don't want to intrude...” Fluttershy whispered. “Twilight, what concerns you? Why do you want to hold a secret?” Then the five friends stared at poor Twilight in pure curiosity, making the aforementioned pony sweat. In an attempt to cop out, she answered only: “It's... embarrassing. Really, really, REALLY embarrassing...” “What is so embarrassing that you can’t tell us?” Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy asked in unison. Once the question faded, Pinkie Pie chirped, “Wait, what does ‘embarrassing’ mean? Is that some kind of icing?” But every pony decided to ignore her. “Well...” realizing that she had no way to avoid the interrogation, Twilight decided to cut the bull's head, and proceeded to take a long breath before saying the big news. “Alright, girls, listen up: you remember the incident of yesterday, the one that saw the whole town trying to get a doll?” The five nodded. “Well, Princess Celestia decided that I needed a punishment for my misdeed, and sent me...” “And sent you?” They all leaned forward in anticipation. “To the Magic Kindergarten, in Canterlot.” The five friends gasped, and they all expressed their opinions, from the simple “that's awful” of Fluttershy, to the long and lyrical cry of Rarity, Twilight's friends had their turn to show their grief over the purple pony's departure. Once the atmosphere relaxed a bit again, Twilight Sparkle sighed, and returned to her walk. “The moment has passed; I am going to the station,” Twilight adjusted the luggage. “Goodbye, see you in four months.” The five answered back. ________________________________________ Four hours later, in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle had finally reached the neighborhood where her parents’ house lay. While she was walking in the empty paved streets of the area, Twilight looked around her to find out how much the neighborhood had changed since her moving to the “Ivory Tower” and later on to Ponyville. Not at all, apparently, since every building, street lamp, trash cans full of syringes and druggie spot were still there just like ten years ago. It seemed that the whole area had fallen into a temporal stasis, since she had left it, making her even more depressed. Finally, she reached the gate of her house, a three-floor villa, different from other buildings in Canterlot thanks to its “Liberty” style. For the first time in years, Twilight rang her old house's bell, and awaited response from whoever was in the house. After few minutes, a gray mare with straight black mane exited from the house's door. She walked slowly towards the gate... but upon seeing the visitor, she screamed “Twilight!” and rushed to the gate, opening it carelessly. Twilight recognized the mare. She was Sedula Serva, the valet of Twilight's household. Twilight could remember the times she was forced to interrupt her studies to let Sedula pass the rag, or when a filly Twilight ranted on the order of the books that the valet placed. Now, her biggest annoyance was likely to be the only light of sanity in the darkness of the days to come. Sedula, while hugging Twilight, exclaimed with a voice affected by old age, “Twilight! So much time has passed! What brings you back home?” Twilight, while gently taking off the valet's hooves, smiled weakly, and said, “The thing that brought me here isn't good...” Sedula pointed at the door. “If you don't want to talk about it, it's not necessary. Now come in, I'm certain that your parents will certainly want to see you.” Then she walked away. Twilight followed. The interior of the building was... different, from what Twilight remembered about her Canterlot's house: she didn't recall small ivory statues in niches around the walls, or expensive paintings, nor did she recall to have ever seen a big chandelier in the living room. A male voice called from upstairs. “Who is it, Sedula?” Sedula answered chirping, “It's Twilight, sir!” “Don’t be silly. My wife is in the bedroom!” The voice started to sound closer as the pony it belonged to made his way to the entrance hall. “Not Twilight Velvet, sir, but your daughter,” Sedula explained with a happy smile on her face. “Now you are just making a fool of me.” The sound of hooves treading the soft carpet stopped. “What would be Twilight doing here? She would certainly let us know before visiting. Anyway, just send whoever it is here.” The hoof steps echoed once more and vanished. The gray mare pointed at the stairs. Twilight understood, and went upstairs. Twilight's father was sitting on a red couch, and was drinking a glass of sprizt from a cocktail glass. He seemed pretty relaxed, joyful even. It's a pity that I am going to break his joy... thought Twilight. “Twilight? So it really is you! And I thought Sedula was just pulling my leg! What brings you here, my beloved daughter?” Night Light took a small sip and smiled at her warmly. “Feel free to sit down.” Twilight sat down on one of the red couches in the room. “Well... not a good thing.” The cheerful demeanour of Night Light disappeared in am instant. The sudden change to a cold stare scared Twilight to the core. The tone of the father got serious. “What happened?” Stuttering, she said, “I'm here because Princess Celestia punished me with flunking.” His eyes widened. “Flunking? But you are out of the school system!” “That's the problem! Since I finished my studies, flunking means starting all over again...” “You mean... you are in the Magic Kindergarten now?” Twilight nodded. Soon after that, Night Light was coughing fire. > Caduta nell' Abisso/ Downfall (edited) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once Night Light was extinguished by the combined efforts of both Sedula and Twilight Sparkle, the latter said, panting and with her mane slightly burned, “Listen, father, you didn't catch the meaning of my words...” The father, with his coat burned and his tail reduced to ashes by the self-combustion, started to twitch. “I didn't understand what?” he asked. “Princess Celestia decided that for your misdoings the best course of action was to force you to redo the whole education all over again. That is all. Also, she evicted you from your house, I suppose.” Twilight put her left hoof on her face, and said with an irritated voice, “Father, first of all, Celestia didn't evict me from my house in Ponyville. Also, I have to attend the Kindergarten only for a term, so I will be there for four months.” Night Light, clearly comforted from the news, sighed in relief and with a calmer tone he asked Sedula to get rid of the destroyed couch where he was sitting. The gray mare nodded, and slowly yet effortlessly moved the piece of furniture out of the room. Then, Night light returned his attention back to Twilight. “Well, the moment of rage has passed, proceed to explain the reason for your punishment.” Twilight sat down on one of the non-damaged sofas, and told the whole tale to her father, leaving nothing to the imagination. “To be honest, I'm not surprised to find out that the cause of your punishment ultimately was your incapability to deal with deadlines and authorities at the same time.” The purple pony looked unamused at her father. She was tired of being reminded of the cause of all her problems in the past two days, and the fact that her own father didn't say a word in her defence was even more depressing, even if expected, considering Night's personality. “Thanks for reminding me of the painfully obvious facts, Father,” Twilight replied with an irritated voice. “I'm going to unpack my luggage. Is my old room free? Or do I need to unpack my luggage in one of the guest ones?” Night Light, while walking out of the room, answered, “Ask your mother; she said that your old bedroom must be used only on special occasions.” Twilight was a bit surprised at that. “What special occasions? My mother wasn't prone to invite ponies in this house. I can’t really imagine what kind of occasions would trigger unlocking my bedroom. Or why my bedroom has to be locked in the first place...” “I don't know. So far she unlocks it once per month, carrying gray bags in, but she never lets me or Shining get in, and since we don't even dare to imagine what's there, we never tried to step in. I think you are the only one allowed to see it, but better ask her.” A bit freaked out by such information, Twilight nodded, and moved towards her parent’s bedroom, located on the third floor. As she ascended the marble steps, Twilight thought about the strange behaviour of her mother regarding her old bedroom. What could have triggered it, and, above all, what was so important that could possibly be in the room that it had to be locked and opened only scarcely for depositing something contained in gray bags? It was weird, it seemed wrong... it seemed just plain obscure and incredibly intricate for her mother. Her thoughts were stopped dead in their tracks at an acute shriek. “Twily! My beloved Twily!” A white and purple blur catapulted itself over the purple mare and knocked her to ground, drawing a grunt of pain. “Why did it take you so long to get back to me? You made me worry SO MUCH!” After saying this, the shape hugged her tightly. As she tried to fight off her mother, Twilight said: “Mother... please... stop...” Twilight Velvet, while still hugging her, cooed, “I can't! I'm so glad that you came back that I can't stop myself from snuggling you!” Desperate for air, Twilight fought with all her might to break free from her mother's snuggly iron grasp. Alas, she could have just as well been glued to her mother's chest and so after about a minute of struggling she decided to spare her remaining energy and wait for the hug to end on its own. When Vevet terminated her cuddling session with her reluctant offspring, she got back on her legs, and asked with an irritatingly sweet voice, “So, why have you come back to me, Twily? Are you in need of some love from me?” Twilight huffed, then she answered in annoyance, “No, mother, it wasn't because I missed you; I am here because Princess Celestia has stated that I need an extra term at the Magic Kindergarten in Canterlot, after a freaky accident that I'd wish to avoid recalling. Since my workplace-home has no dobut been given to somepony else in since I left, my only option was to return to live under this roof, and that's the only reason for why I am in this house.” Twilight Velvet looked with widened eyes at Twilight Sparkle and questioned, “And that is all? Well then, why you were so sad then?” The purple pony felt her jugular vein grow in size, and her teeth grind. “And that is all? AND THAT IS ALL? I made a mistake, Princess Celestia punished me, and starting tomorrow I will be attending Magic Kindergarten for four months with fillies and colts that are there to actually learn something! How can I not be at least upset?” The white mare put her left hoof over the purple mare's shoulder. “Aaah, now I understand, you don't want to go to the Kindergarten. Well, better go to your room, so we can have a nice talk in private. Oh, and I also have a surprise for you.” Then she levitated the luggage with magic. Twilight Sparkle's eyes widened, at the phrasing of her mother. If her father's words were any indication, her old bedroom was never opened for anypony, and was always locked. If Twilight Velvet decided to open it to her punished daughter, telling her that she needed to talk in the process, then either Velvet wanted to punish Twilight further... or just both metaphorically and factically sealed the door specifically for the purple mare's homecoming. While Twilight's mind buzzed with theories, the white mare delicately placed the baggage on the ground, levitated a copper key hanging from a hook on the wall, then she placed the key in the lock, unlocking the door. The old wooden door opened with a loud squeak of rusted hinges, revealing what was contained in the room. The walls were painted pink with white dots, the floor made of liliac moquette; a small poplar chair painted red was also there, along with a small blue table of the same material as the chair, a round wicker basket lay in a corner of the room, a big wardrobe near the window, with blue shutters and pink walls, a bookshelf with only three books... in other words, the room was furnished like one of a little filly. In fact, Twilight herself, while staring motionless at the interior of the chamber, could not believe that what she was seeing was her room. She remembered that before leaving her native home for her studies she had left a pretty spartan room behind, with a military-style bed and huge piles of books scattered all over the place. The white mare, blissfully unaware of the utter surprise of her daughter, chirped, “Look how I redecorated your room! It was so... depressing! I think it is so much better now, don't you agree?” The purple pony kept her jaw open in surprise. “Wow! I've never seen you so positively surprised! Now, come on, get on the bed, so we can talk.” Twilight Sparkle snapped out from her stupor, and decided to obey, since some talking could give her clues about what had happened while she was away, and why Twilight Velvet had forbidden everypony from entering the room. As she sat down on the bed, Twilight Velvet sprawled on the moquette and said, “Twily, sweetheart, I know you don't like to stay with the other fillies, but...” Twilight reacted in rage. “Fillies? Stay around them? Mother, I am a grown pony now, I shouldn’t have to attend to Kindergarten and interact with three-years-old fillies! I'm here just to do time for a penalty given by Celestia!” Velvet, seemingly unaware of the meaning of her daughter's words, giggled slightly, and said, “I know you are a big pony. But you still have to see the others of your age, if you want to be even more bigger.” Twilight flailed her hooves in desperation and skimmed saliva in wrath. “Mother... I mean... I am a mare, I am going to repeat it, I AM A MARE! A M-A-R-E! Not an ignorant three-year-old filly with difficulties in both control of the bodily functions and the social relations! If I am going to attend the Kindergarten, it's only because I got punished with the attendance itself, not because I need to do that! Do you understand that?” The white mare sniffed, and kept her amplomb. “Throwing a tantrum won't solve anything, Twily,” she said. “You must attend it.” Twilight Sparkle sighed. Her mother was just openly ignoring what she was saying, and was basically doing a conversation with herself. Clearly, Twilight Velvet went apeshit, and thought that Twilight Sparkle was a three-years-old. Twilight decided that trying to reason with her mother was impossible and that asking questions about the decoration of the room wasn’t going to reveal anything. Trying to play along her rules wasn't going to hurt at all, since nothing could go wrong, nor the things could get any more awkward. Naturally, the things COULD get even more embarrassing however. The white mare, noticing that her daughter calmed down, smiled and walked towards the wardrobe. She opened one of the shutters with her magic and pulled out a pink box. As the mare moved towards her daughter with the pack, she said, “Now, Twily, it's time to get the... 'protection' on. You can't keep it all yet.” Twilight Sparkle immediately understood what was going to happen soon, even without looking at the box - she was going to get diapered. Twilight Velvet put the box down, extracted a purple diaper with her magic, put it on the bed and unfolded it with her hooves. “Lay down, dear, and lift your rear legs.” By this point, the purple pony wished that she could kill her mother without losing the estate or going to prison. However, she still lifted her rear legs and didn't complain, thinking that by playing along with her mother the madness would stop soon. And so, the garment slide under her bottom and was taped on her waist. > Dentro/In > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After getting diapered by her less-than-sane mother, Twilight Sparkle proceeded to climb down the bed, and stood up, awaiting the next step of Twilight Velvet's farce/insanity game. As far as the purple pony knew, her mother could try to do... pretty much anything, from ridiculous and incredibly embarrassing dress-ups, to random acts of domestic violence masked as punishments for supposed “Runaway”, otherwise called “Having a life outside the parents’ home.” But Twilight Velvet was still terminating the first part of her madness. She took the box of diapers in her mouth, opened the wardrobe with her magic, and put the box back in. She closed the white shutters of the wardrobe and walked towards the bed once again, smiling at Twilight as she did so. “Since mommy is free today and wants to satisfy her precious daughter, I will give you a choice: do you want to go out for a stroll, Twily? Or do you want to stay at home? The choice is all yours.” Twilight reclined her head in a pensive position, thinking about exploiting of the opportunity that her mother was giving her. Her choice was between getting caught by her father, who was quite surely not involved in the sham... but if Night Light was out, then Twilight was going to be humiliated even more in public, and the mare felt that her dignity had eaten enough mud for the day. Meanwhile, the other option meant staying at home with her mother around, and since she wasn't in the open, with no escape ways... however, Night Light could still enter the room and try to stop the whole “you are a filly” affair. Twilight Sparkle tilted her head as she thought about what option to choose. Her mind was processing and trying to calculate all the possible outcomes of each choice. It would be easier, if it wasn't for the regular pokes by Twilight Velvet, who pushed Twilight Sparkle to make her choice before sunset. After around ten minutes of thoughts, quiet moaning, and concentration-breaking motherly pokes, Twilight came to a decision - go out from the house, and take a relaxing breath of fresh air. “I'd like to go outside. Take a breath would be wonderful, and it will be a great way to vent out the stress I've accumulated lately,” she said, the last words accompanied by a slight hiss and a scolding glare directed on her mother. The mother didn't pick up the bit of venom in the words of the daughter, and instead chirped happily: “Whatever you wish is an order!” and bounced out of the room. Twilight rolled her eyes and said on reflex: “I hope you don't really expect me to go out with the diaper in plain sight.” It took two seconds to her to realize what she just said, and what she just agreed to let her mother do: in shame, Twilight covered her mouth with her right hoof, and murmured “No”, hoping that Velvet was going to pick that. However, it was too late to retract the statement. The white mare asserted: “You are right, some mean filly would laugh at you, seeing you are still in a diaper. So, let's hide it.” Then she propelled herself towards the closet, opened it quickly with magic, scanned the clothes contained in the piece of furniture with her eyes, and pulled out a little blue box, with the label “Della Spora” on the side. Velvet put the box on the bed, slowly opened it, put the lid on the floor, and extracted a folded dress. The dress was, basically, a light gray-dotted pink full skirt full of laces and plissets, like pretty much any filly's skirt would be, this one just being adult-sized. Twilight Sparkle could only stare at her mother unfolding quickly the dress on the bed, and tidying up everything at a very fast pace. While she knew that getting dressed in ridiculous costumes and dresses was unavoidable, Twilight wasn't expecting to see her mother so eager to put such piece of clothing on her. As Twilight continued to stare at a wall, the white mare proceeded to dress up her in a vest, by adjusting the size of the waistline, and closing the chest buttons. Once the dress was put on, Velvet chirped: “Now you are good to go, dear!” Then she exited again. Twilight slowly got out of her stupor, sighed in annoyance and followed her mother out of the room, knowing that a world of ridicule coming from other ponies was awaiting her. Since she wasn't really happy about going outside dressed like that, and trying to change her mother's mind right there was going to be about as successful as trying to eat a soup with a fork, the only prospect of avoiding even more humiliation was her father's intervention. And, knowing him, it wasn't too far-fetched that Night Light would just laugh at the sight of his daughter in diaper and a comic attire, and let Velvet continue treating Twilight like a baby, maybe as an extra punishment, maybe from pure ignorance of the extent of the situation and its consequences. On other hoof, her father probably wasn't cruel enough to turn Velvet's decision to treat her daughter like a three-years-old into a punishment, nor so stupid to not notice how letting Velvet do whatever she wanted with her namesake offspring could be hurtful for the safety of every pony involved. Basically, it only depended on whether Night Light was at home or not, and whether or not he was still angry at Twilight for Celestia's punishment. While she pondered about this, walking with her head bend forward, the white mare skipped happily and hummed a variation of a popular tune, still unaware of the true feelings of her daughter about being treated like a little filly and be dressed like one. Twilight Sparkle followed her mother down the stairs, only to notice that her mother had suddenly stopped on the last step. The white mare turned her head, and said with her now-signature cheerful voice: “Honey, I'm going out with Twily now. Are you going to stay in the house, or do I need to take the keys?” Twilight Sparkle quickly realized that her mother was talking to Night Light. The masculine voice of the father answered: “I am not sure. I might stay in the house. But keep the keys in your bag, just to be sure!” Twilight Velvet nodded, and resumed her walking. Twilight Sparkle decided to use the chance, and ran towards the end of the stairs. Doing so, she knocked her mother to the floor, and cracked two of the marble steps in the process. While Velvet was busy getting up, Twilight Sparkle with bloodshot eyes appeared at the base of the staircase. Nonplussed and extremely confused Night Light dropped a pile of papers he levitated and stared at his daughter. “W-why you are... wearing such a weird dress, Twilight? It isn't exactly a mainstream attire, nor would I ever imagine you to like such kind of clothing.” The purple mare stopped dead in her tracks in front of the blue stallion and panted: “I didn't... choose this!... It was... my mother...” then theatrically collapsed. Night Light did a puckered face at the sight of her collapsing daughter. He couldn’t compute what he just saw, since the sight of his adult daughter dressed like a young filly, his wife telling her namesake to not get winded before going outside, and the marble getting cracked by something theoretically weaker than a pneumatic hammer was quite weird. The stallion asked his wife: “What's going on, Velvet? Why is our daughter dressed like this?” The white mare answered with a calm and almost soothing voice: “Oh, it's nothing. Twily just wants to go out as soon as possible.” Twilight Sparkle raised her head slightly and said, while still panting: “That's not true, father! She is treating me like a filly, genuinely thinking that I am one! She is convinced that I have some problems with going to the bathroom!” Twilight raised part of the dress with her magic, revealing her purple diaper. “Yes, father: believe it or not, your wife just put on me a diaper without my consent.” Twilight Velvet, keeping her tone of voice, moved towards her daughter and put her left hoof under her chin. “You know why you are wearing it, sweetheart,” said Velvet “it's for avoid causing damage with your little accidents.” Twilight glared at her mother in response. Night Light was still trying to process what was going on and what to do next, since the situation wasn't really something that usually happened in the household. On the one hoof he wished to give his own punishment to Twilight Sparkle, and letting his wife treat Twilight like a filly seemed appropriate. On another hoof, it was pretty clear that his daughter was stressed enough by Celestia's punishment, and Twilight Velvet's treatment was going to be the last straw needed for true insanity, if left unchecked. Since the verbal fight between a disgruntled daughter and a willingly deaf wife was going to end up into a physical confrontation between the two mares, the blue stallion tried to use his power as husband and father, saying: “Velvet, stop this sham right now! Twilight isn't a filly anymore, even if she acts like one sometimes.“ Night Light then glared at his daughter, who curled up slightly at the gaze of scolding “It doesn’t matter how much you wish she was, she simply isn't. So, free her from her diaper and her dress, and let her live like a mare she is.” Twilight Velvet whined: “But she is my precious little filly! She is! She is!” Night Light sighed. The attempt to use the verbal force had failed miserably. He quickly discarded the idea of physical violence, and tried to go for a diplomatic route, one that could save part of the dignity of Twilight, and trick Velvet into thinking that she is still in control: “How about... she is under your hoof during the morning, and during the afternoon she is under mine?” Then Night Light winked at Twilight Sparkle, hoping that his daughter was going to play by the rather favorable rules set by him. That was, if Twilight Velvet accepted. The white mare put her left hoof under her chin, and remained silent for five, long, stressful, minutes. In those minutes, Twilight Sparkle saw all the possible humiliations she could receive, in case of rejection of the proposal from her mother; while Night Light was thinking of a Plan B meant for avoiding of such scenario. Thankfully, Twilight Velvet didn't think it through, and said: “I accept: from when she wakes up until the lunch hour, she is mine; in the afternoon, if you aren't away, she is yours.” Twilight Sparkle rejoiced loudly, as she screamed and undressed herself with a single swipe of hoof, throwing the dress and the diaper on the floor, and ran into the small family library; Night Light resumed his paper-carrying; and Twilight Velvet, sighing, went back to her bedroom, ready to come back to her catatonic state she was in before her daughter's return. After an ample dinner, Twilight Sparkle went to her now-defiled bedroom, ready to have a decent night of sleep before the impending first day of Kindergarten. She entered the room walking slowly, and moved towards the small window. It opened with a loud squeak, letting in a cold breeze of mid-autumn air, and giving a relaxing sensation to Twilight. Slightly refreshed, she turned the light on by flickering a switch next to the night table, and once the light was gone, the mare placed herself under the light-pink blankets of the bed. The mare soon realized that, clearly, not every piece of furniture in the room was meant for a pony of adult size: her rear legs went over the edge of the bed, and almost touched ground, as if she was lying on Procuste's bed. Twilight retracted her rear legs towards her chest, trying to curl up. However, she felt compressed from doing so, and on the verge of choking to make it even worse, so she rather let her limbs touch the ground, despite how awkward it felt. She then put herself on her back, and stared vacantly at the ceiling, while her mind was buzzing with thoughts and considerations. “Why has my mother forced this on me? Why did she behave in such... unusual way? I mean, she has always been overprotective and smothering with both me and Shining, but this… this is insane! What got into her to get this idea, accumulate paraphernalia, and decorate my old room, for the off chance of my homecoming? Why did she just plainly ignore my qualms?” Twilight yawned. “I guess I will sleep on it. Maybe I will find the best course of action in a dream.” Then, the purple mare closed her eyes, and slipped into Luna’s Domain. > Primo Secondo Giorno / Second Day. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- For many, the next day comes by the soft light of the dawn, or the musical chirp of bird. For Twilight, however, the next day came with a shake, followed by a soft voice: "Wake up, sleepyhead. It's time to get ready for Kindergarten." Twilight recognized the voice: it was her mother's. Sighing, Twilight said: "One second, mom. I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness." Then, conquered once again by the tiredness, she dropped her head on the pillow like a stone. Seeing that her daughter was falling into sleep once again, Velvet decided to skip a passage, and pass directly to the diapering of her offspring. The mare went towards the wardrobe, opened it, extracted the diaper box, put the box at the side of the bed, moved the blankets at one side, took a purple diaper from the box, slid it under her daughter's bottom, and taped it. By the time Velvet had done this operation, Twilight had woken up and felt the absorbent garment wrapping up her nether regions. Realizing that, she tried to protest, only to recall what the terms of the pact between her mother and her father were. Groaning at the thought, Twilight jumped out of bed, landed on all four legs, and walked out of the room to reach the bathroom, and do her morning ritual of teeth brushing, bodily functions reliving (after removing the diaper, to avoid giving even crazier ideas to Velvet), and a quick shower. After doing those tasks in ten minutes, Twilight exited the bathroom, and went downstairs, towards the dining room where the breakfast awaited. While going downstairs, Twilight tried her best at abstaining from thinking to the upcoming day at the Kindergarten. For her, it was already humiliating and depressing to be at home with a crazed old harpy; thinking about a gigantic group of fillies and colts pointing and laughing at her for her failure surely wasn't something that boosted her morale. Alas, Velvet could not, or didn't want to pick up the signs of distress and annoyance from her daughter, and, while bouncing on the stairs, she chirped: "So, Twily, aren't you happy that you are going to meet some fillies that are the same age as you today?" Twilight, trying to not choke her mother with her bare hooves, gritted her teeth slightly, and said: "Once again, mother, I won't find any mare of the same age as mine at the Kindergarten." Even if she knew that it was useless to try to talk with Velvet, at least it was a way to vent her annoyance without breaking down. Velvet turned a deaf ear to Twilight's response, and kept going on, while her daughter returned to her attempts to suppress the anxiety of the upcoming day. Twilight reached the dining room, and saw the table already laid, and the food being brought at the table in green and blue ceramic plates by Sedula, who greeted Velvet and Twilight while they entered in the room. Twilight greeted the valet dryly, and sat at one of the red padded chairs near the table made of ebony. Twilight's seat was laid with a pretty colorful, and yet still adequate, selection of porcelains, cloths and cutlery, with a white place mat with blue borders, a white cup with green stripes, and the name of the owner in red Gothic types, a plate colored like a bulls eye, and a silver spoon with a horn handle. The selection of food wasn't very big: twenty chocolate chips biscuits, cold milk, a small jug of Neapolitan coffee, a small amount of mushroom ham and ten slices of toasted bread. Twilight picked ten cookies, put them in the plate, then tried to pour some coffee in her mug with the help of magic... for then see the jug fly at Velvet's direction, enveloped by a white aura instead of a purple one. "Twily, you can't drink coffee, you are too young for it," said Velvet, while pouring the coffee in her plain blue mug. Twilight, after hearing what her mother said, tried to change her mind, since she was, basically, addicted to caffeine, and needed her fix especially in the morning, otherwise she would be something akin to a zombie in few hours. Since the attempts of talking like they were both adults failed, Twilight thought that trying to talk and slightly act as if she was just a filly that happened to have a bigger body and a huge vocabulary would have more success. And so, she said with a slightly higher-pitched voice, so to mimic the one of a filly: "Mom. It isn't true that coffee will leave me tired. Please, give me some." "I don't want to see you bounce around like a rubber ball, Twily. I cannot give you coffee." Velvet said, shaking her head in deny. Twilight, who was desperately craving for caffeine, tried to reach a compromise, no matter how much the latter was humiliating. "But... not even the mix between milk and coffee? Not even a small sip? Pleeaaaseee..." Velvet looked her daughter in the eyes sternly... and passed the jug to her daughter. "Fine," she said "but you must add milk." Twilight smiled, and mixed the hot brown beverage and the cold white one, and drank it in a gulp. Done that, she started to slowly consume her cookies, and while eating, she thought about what it got to get her mother listen to her qualms and requests. Namely, she had to act and speak like a younger pony to get some coffee, and this was done, paradoxically, after hearing that she was too young to drink it. Clearly, Velvet was trying forced regression by subjugation on Twilight, starting from dresses and enforced speech patterns, to maybe reach the point where Twilight would act in every aspect as a three-years old. But, clearly, that stage wasn't going to be reached anytime soon, barring unusual changes in the punishment or in Twilight's mentality. But as long as it served its purpose, and didn't worsen her mental state, Twilight was ready to partially talk and act like a three-years old in front of her mother. When Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts, she saw Sedula carrying the plates and the place mats away, and Velvet levitating a small pink smock. Velvet said with a hint of happiness in her voice: "Now that you had your breakfast, let's get the smock on, shall we?" Twilight analyzed the smock with her eyes, to see how old it was, where it came from, and such. Judging by the slightly off patches, the washed-out pink of the "main" smock and the much brighter shade of pink of the smock's extension, and the presence of fuzz, it seemed that the smock was the same that Twilight wore when she was really a filly, just patched up with low-quality pink fabric. Twilight was going to say something about the outfit, but decided at the last second to stay silent, and let Velvet put the smock on her without putting up any fuss, since it was going to be useless. Once that was done, Velvet gestured to Twilight to follow her outside, and Twilight complied. Ten minutes of walking in strangely empty streets later, Twilight, accompanied by her mother, reached her destination: the Kindergarten's building. The structure was delimited by a rusty iron barrier and by a well-kept garden behind the barrier. In the garden, there was a small fountain covered in moss and a crumbling steel octagon. As for the building itself, it was actually pretty nice to look at: it was a two-floors square building with an architectural style between the Liberty and the Futurism, style that sharply contrasted with the rest of the buildings around, which had an older style. The walls were brightly colored, as much as an external wall can be brightly colored, and had a big murales over the entrance and spanning for the whole façade. Said murales represented a big tree stretching its branches with fruits towards the sky: over the trunk, the word "Knowledge" was written in red characters. At the base of the tree, fillies and colts of every race were depicted taking the fruits from the tree. Twilight wasted some time at the gate, looking at the artistic creation. When she was satisfied with it, sighing, Twilight entered in the courtyard as she thought "At least the building won't hurt my eyes when I look at it everyday for the next four months." Twilight walked towards her mother with closed eyes and biting her lips, the tension building up step by step, and the fear of what was coming increasing its intensity. Twilight heard some soft shrieks and giggles. Realizing that she was in the hall of the Kindergarten, she opened her eyes. The hall was also brightly colored, between several colored flashcards on the most various subjects, and the walls painted in red and yellow. Ten white cardboard arrows were attached to a metal pole in the middle of the hall: on each arrow there was a stylized animal that symbolized each class. Realizing pretty quickly that she had to follow a direction indicated by the arrows to reach her classroom, Twilight quickly asked her mother what class she was assigned. Velvet, after a small conversation with a custodian and a teacher about the papers regarding Twilight’s position, turned her head around and answered to her daughter. “Your class is the Chicks, Twily.” Twilight thanked her mother, and, moving as fast as she could to avoid getting accompanied by her mother towards the class, she followed the arrows that pointed towards the class where she was assigned. Few seconds later, Twilight reached her destination, a light yellow door with a cardboard plate that read “Chicks”. Slightly sweating in tension, Twilight knocked on the door, then lowered the handle. She opened the door, causing a sound wave of various noises to hit her ears; a wave of the unmistakable stench of corporal functions expelled and left there came right afterwards and hit her nose, followed by a surge of heat. Twilight’s senses were overloaded and in short circuit, leaving Twilight in a stupor. “So, you are Twilight Sparkle, the… ‘Odd addition’ to my class. Am I right?” Twilight shook her head to get out of her stupor, then looked at her interlocutor. The mare that spoke at her was a unicorn with a light peach-coloured fur and yellow mane, wearing a white apron with Clearly, she was the teacher of the class. “Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight answered, her senses slowly getting over the sensations felt beforehand. The teacher nodded, and put her right hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Very well then. Come in the class, so that I can introduce you to your new classmates.” Twilight reluctantly obeyed the teacher, stepping inside the classroom. The room, true to form, was occupied by many fillies and colts, who were minding their own business, playing with toys scattered around, drawing something with pastels and doing many other simple activities. Such indifference from the fillies and the colts in the class surprised Twilight, since she was expecting to get at least some attention from the little ones in the classroom, since they likely never saw a big pony wearing both a diaper and a smock like them. "That is, unless it is suddenly common to send adult ponies into Kindergarten classes." Twilight thought bitterly. The teacher clapped her front hooves to gain the attention of the foals present: as much as it seemed impossible, among loud noises and everything, the fillies and the colts immediately stopped dead in their tracks whatever thing they were doing and, like obedient puppies, they sat down looking at the teacher. Once every pony settled down, the teacher began to speak: “So, do you remember when I talked about your new classmate?” The foals answered in unison, as if they were a single pony with a stentorian voice: “Yes, Ms. Nutriz.” Nutriz gestured at Twilight, and continued talking to the foals. “Well, here she is.” Nutriz pointed to the embarrassed Twilight standing near the door “Twilight Sparkle, these are your new classmates!” Once the small presentation ended, Twilight still unsure about what to say to a bunch of young ponies, stuttered “G-g-ood m-morning…” The foals looked at Twilight confused, and, in the attempt to know, they broke their strangely disciplined silence, opting instead for chaotic rumble. Twilight left Nutriz to do her job, and calm down the foals; meanwhile, she tried to think about what else to say to the fillies and the colts, who were surely curious about seeing an adult in their same class and were going to cover her in questions. > Problemino/Small Accident > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to the efforts of Nutriz, the foals stopped the rumble, and went silent once again. "So, here we go. Twilight, something to say to your new classmates?" Twilight scrunched her face in insecurity, and looked at the floor, unsure about what to say. She was trying to come up with the words, she was trying to think what would have been appropriate in such a situation, what was right to say to a crowd of foals and what was wrong to say, what the conventional signs to do while talking were... it was all so much paradoxically difficult. After a pair of tense minutes, Nutriz asked: "Don't you have anything to say? Nothing at all?" Twilight started to scratch the floor, as if she was trying to dig. She wasn't sure about what to do, now that she had the authorization from the teacher to skip the introduction, and her mind divided in two completely opposite factions. One told her avoiding presenting herself would not be that bad manner-wise, since she was going to present to foals while begin an adult, and that the foals weren't really going to be offended if she refused to present herself publicly, since it was likely that nopony there would have noticed, so, for once, she could loosen her belt on the matter. The other one said that, while she was dealing with foals much younger than her and that they didn't know better, skip the presentation would set a bad example the foals by violating a social norm, even if an obscure one. Also, by assuming that the foals weren't aware of such convention, she was underestimating their knowledge, and therefore insulting silently their intelligence. Or, even worse, considering them unworthy of her attention. Naturally, Twilight didn't really think any of these, so, if she wanted to avoid to look like she was thinking such things, then she should present herself. While Twilight's mind was arguing over that, Nutriz kept poking the mare, hoping to get her out of her indecision into the normal course of the actions. Finally, tired of keeping Nutriz waiting for her, Twilight thought: "Let's ignore it for now. I can eventually apologize later if somepony gets offended. If they really want to know, they will ask me questions in a more relaxed situation. But now it's time to get to 'work'." She raised her head, and walking towards the crowd of foals she said: "Nothing to say, let's move on." Nutriz, with a sigh, said to the foals that they could dissolve the formation, and get back to their activities: they complied with a loud shriek. While some of the young ponies went back to the activity they were doing before receiving the order of grouping, others, predictably, circled Twilight and started to pull her smock in attempt to get her attention. The questions filled the air like a thick fog of gnats. "Why sad?" "Why you awe hewe?" "Mommy towd me that the big ponies went to wowk, not hewe." "I thought dat big ponies didn't wear nappies..." Another colt Twilight, seeing the faces of the questioning foals, some doing puppy dog faces, some simply asking with a cute frown, decided to just explain her whole story. After all, she decided not even one minute ago that she was going to tell everypony that asked, and she wanted to keep that half-promise. "Well, my story is complicated..." started Twilight while smiling weakly, "but I am going to try anyway. See, I am the pupil of an important teacher..." Twilight decided to omit that her mentor was Princess Celestia, so to avoid to accidentally tainting princess's imagine and spreading the news that Celestia had just punished her student in an unorthodox way. So, she decided to just make up the entire story basing it on her experience, so to avoid any possible reference to Ponyville incident. "Three days ago, while I was doing my studies for her, I realized that I forgot to do a report about what I had learned. I am a very organized pony, but I tend to break down easily if something goes wrong and do stupid things to fix the error. That time wasn't an exception. I tried to create it on the spot, but to no avail. So I tried to steal the work of one of my companions. However, my companion reported my misdeed to the teacher. The teacher scolded me, and decided to send me to the Kindergarten. And here I am, among you with a diaper and a ruined smock." She looked at her young audience again, and saw confusion and incredulity on their little faces. A white filly with a black spot on her face and a black mane said timidly: "I didn't undewstand, Twilight..." A green colt joined his female mate in the lack of understanding, and so did the other fillies and colts that grouped around Twilight. Twilight, smiling nervously, was not sure how to deal with their lack of , since she didn’t think about how to tell her story, and she was not unsure about the words. She tried to cop-out with the simplest of excuses, by saying "Bah, let it go. I am not sure if I can tell my story to you without causing further confusion to you." They fell for it. The white filly shrugged, and the others, flopping their ears, expressed their disappointment That done, the foals dispersed, leaving Twilight thinking about what to do while she was in the class. Looking around the room, which was in the usual lack of order typical for a Kindergarten class, Twilight noticed the presence of a small table in an corner of the room. Three fillies sat by the table, probably drawing something. Twilight decided to get to the table, and draw, at least to pass some time without feeling too silly. And so she did. After the rough start of the morning, Twilight was starting to feel a bit less embarrassed about being in the Kindergarten. Granted, she still wasn't happy about that, nor was she glad to stay there, but compared to the ideas that she had on the subject before, it wasn't so awful either. After all, she had imagined foals mocking her mercilessly, teachers behaving haughtily towards her... overall, a bad place. But none of those fears actually realized. The fillies and the colts were mostly indifferent, as if seeing an adult dressed like them wasn't a big deal deal, or if not indifferent, they seemed genuinely interested in finding out what happened to her, without any hint of sarcasm or attempted jokes. Nutriz was just uncomfortable seeing Twilight among the foals, but she wasn't disdainful towards Twilight. Now Twilight was just drawing various things on a piece of paper, waiting for the morning to end, and ignoring the various sounds emitted by the foals that minded their business around her. While she was coloring a part of her piece of bad art with a yellow crayon, Twilight felt pressure on her lower body, a sign that a bodily function of the same color as the crayon needed to be expelled. Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, and stared emptily at the light blue wall front of her. She knew that, sooner or later, this was due to happen. But Twilight had hoped that the stimuli wasn't going to kick in until five hours from the last drink. Namely, just after exiting from the building, finally free. But a small anticipation of the stimuli would not have been a big deal per se in any situation, since she always could get to the bathroom. But, as it was now, she was still under the rules of the Kindergarten. And she still remembered that one of those rules boiled down to "The use of the bathroom is limited from a certain hour to another." Twilight knew that said rule was made for the purpose of teaching the foals to get to the bathroom at intervals (over to the obvious purpose to not let them go without supervision), and so, maybe, the rule didn't apply to her. But, considered the fact that Nutriz treated Twilight as if she was really a filly attending to the class minus the size and the speech abilities, Twilight thought that the teacher was going to keep the same line even on the bathroom use. Either way, she was determined to not use the diaper that her mother "gently" put on her, as to avoid weirder processes in Velvet's mind when she was going to come back home. Twilight quit staring at the wall, and in order to distract herself from the sense of urgency, came back to drawing. For a while, it worked. Then she put down the crayon box for few seconds. When she tried to grab it with magic, she met resistance. "Hey! Gimme dat!" said a squeaky male voice. Twilight looked at the box of crayons, and saw a gray colt with a brown mane grabbing said box with his little hooves. Sighing, Twilight let the crayons get in the hooves of the colt. Now, left alone with her bladder pressing, Twilight looked around her, craving desperately for a wall clock somewhere in the room, so to know how much time was left before the end of the morning... or, at least, of the hour. She looked at the eastern wall, to find it devoid of any clocks. Her eyes jerked towards the western one, the one covered in shelves and books. However, from distance, she could not see the presence of one of the precious time-measuring mechanical devices. But she wasn’t losing hope, since it was possible that a clock was there, just covered by the books and the objects kept there. She walked towards the shelves, and once there, she started to look for a clock again. She looked behind the line of hardback small books. She looked behind three big dolls. She looked behind some boxes But, alas, no traces of the clock were found. While searching, Twilight felt the pressure on her bladder growing stronger and stronger. And, with the pressure, her desperation grew proportionately. Panicking she looked at the northern wall, the one that had the door. Nothing at all. Then she looked at the southern one, and finally she found a clock. Or, at least, the closest thing to a clock she could get there. Namely, a cardboard circle, divided in colored and labeled sectors, with some shapes in the sectors, and a purple arrow in the middle of the circle, hanging from a wall. Twilight could tell that the colored circle, along with the arrow, meant to represent a clock. Even if it wasn't what she was expecting, it was something that could give her a hint about how much time she had to hold on, before having free access to the bathroom. Twilight walked closer to the cardboard clock, and saw what "time" it was: "Free Playing," with a stylized drawing of a ball and a doll in the part to express the concept. The "Free Playing" part was followed by a smaller slice, labelled, unmistakably, as "Potty Time." This section, symbolized by an open diaper and a toilet, was the time that Twilight was waiting for impatiently. She cheered silently, for then noticing another teacher, her name Lux Foal, looking at her wristwatch. Twilight immediately moved away from the cardboard circle towards the middle of the room, then pointed her stare at the clock, waiting to see one of the teachers move the arrow to the next part, signaling that it was time to let the banks down. Each step of Lux appeared to last an eternity to the desperate Twilight. Lux reached the cardboard clock, and moved the purple arrow from the "Free Play" section to the "Potty Time" section. Twilight's eyes, like her surname, sparkled of joy, as she struggledh hard to not cheer. Lux clapped her hooves to call the attention of the fillies and the colts in the class, and, ocne she got it, she herded them for gudie them to the bathrooms. Twilight was so happy that the moment had arrived, that she forgot to keep the urine in the bladder, with predictable results The diaper became soggier and warmer as a result of the absorbed urine, and the purple of the garment shifted towards a lighter tone of the colour. Twilight stood immobile in the middle of the room, while the others exited. She didn't expect that she would use her diaper in a moment of distraction, much less she wanted to use it in front of foals and teachers that expected to see her use the washroom like a big girl. Twilight was going to freak out, until her rational part took control of her chaotic mind. “Stay calm! What is done is done! Don't act like a filly once again, and just humbly ask Nutriz or Lux to be changed. Even if they don't have adult-sized diaper, they will sure take care of your nether regions.” And so she got in line like everypony else in the class, as if nothing had happened. The group walked in line through the hallways until they reached the bathroom. Once there, Lux opened the door of the bathroom, then turned her gaze towards the foals. “So, somepony here needs a change, right? Lift your hooves if you do, please.” Like expected, some of the foals lifted their hooves to signal their need of a diaper change. A bit uncomfortable of doing that, Twilight blushed, grinned, then lifted her right hoof. Lux roll called the roll with half-closed eyes the ones that had lifted their hooves. She called some of the foals, then she realized that Twilight had lifted her hoof. The teacher stopped her call for a brief moment in confusion and doubt, for then resuming with a shrug. Done with the roll call, Lux Foal called the ones that lifted their hooves, and told them to follow her in the other room, leaving the group in the bathrooms to Nutriz’s. Twilight let the other foals pass in front of her, before she also entered the rather small room that served as a place for diaper changing. The room was furnished simply, with just a changing table with two drawers for baby powder and wipes, a waste basket in a corner, and piles and piles of boxes of diapers in another corner. The walls where light blue, with a badly-concealed rotor in the ceiling. As soon as every foal that claimed to have wetted or messed him/herself was in, Lux called the name of the first foal that entered in the room. “Pearly Handle.” A white filly with white coat and a mane colour similar to mother-of-pearl stepped forward, as she was then lifted on the table by Lux’s magic. Once there, Lux proceeded to clean up and change Pearly Handle into a new diaper. Then it was Olive Oil's turn. Then Lex Populi's. Then of Orvosi Ostoba's. And then another one. And then another one. And on, and on, until, finally, it was Twilight’s turn. When she was finally called by Lux, Twilight, blushing and lookign down at the floor, walked towards the teacher. The mare, after taking a quick look both at table and Twilight, told to Twilight to lie down on the floor, and Twilight slowly and uneasily complied. Lux quickly untaped the used wet diaper, slid it out, crumbled it into a ball, and threw it in the nearby waste basket. Done with that, Lux dried Twilight's nether regions with a pair of wipes, just before powdering it up. Twilight, thinking that Lux was done with it, started to get up... only to receive a tap on her rear left hoof, which clear was a silent order of staying down from the teacher. Unaware of Lux's intentions, Twilight kept lying on the floor, waiting to see something happen. Lux started to disassemble the piles of boxes in the corner, until she revealed a red-and-blue box. This box was labeled as "Diapers 35-40 Kg." Twilight snorted, at the thought that even the non-crazed teacher was going to put on her a diaper. Lux Foal had noticed Twilight's reaction, and, as she unfodled the diaper, she murmured. "It's only a way to trick the foals into not go in a tantrum over the diapering." Done with the diapering, Lux helped Twilight to get up on her hooves, and, done that, Lux playfully patted Twilight's diaper. Sighing, Twilight exited from the room, and, along with her younge classmates, she returned into the classroom. When she was finally back in the classroom, Twilight decided to look how much her dignity ate some more mud, by looking at the desingo f the diaper. The diaper was thankfully plain white, without any embarassing designs on it. > Piani/Plans > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Few Hours later, in Ponyville... The barn was ready and furnished to host a meeting. The chairs, created in few hours from wooden scraps, were barely standing up, a condition that made them suitable to be sat on. The table was a poker table with a missing leg, and was standing up thanks to the elaborate and overly complicated method of stacking books in place of the missing leg. The floor was littered with fine-quality hay. The five friends of Twilight were sitting on the chairs, and talking about the hottest topic of the moment. Where in Equestria Twilight Sparkle was, and if it was recoverable. So far, the meeting had decided that no, Twilight wasn't telling a lie, when she said that she was going to Magic Kindergarten for a term. Now the question was whether to try to save her from the punishment, or just visit her from time to time. Rainbow Dash beat the hoof on the table, causing it to tremble. "We must act! What Princess Celestia has done to our friend isn't right. It's downright wrong! It's..." Applejack huffed. "You repeated that statement ten times, Rainbow. Saying it again ain't going to work out. And we still are not convinced to go against Celestia..." Rarity interrupted Applejack. "Not directly, at least. Break one of the windows of the Kindergarten and attempt to foalnap Twilight seems pretty uncouth and foalish to me." Rainbow answered back. "And what's your plan, Miss 'It's unsure.' ? Are you going to invite Celestia to the spa, and hope that it's going to release Twi as result?" The white mare gave a huff of superiority. "No. My plan is simple, albeit not very exciting." The mares looked at Rarity in curiosity, and the latter started to talk with a voice that resembled the one used by the αγγελος. "My idea is to use a lawyer or a notary, and free our friend with legal cavils. As far as Twilight told me, she is out of the school system and, as such, she cannot obviously return into it unless Twilight decides so. And that's one point in favor of this solution, since it means Princess Celestia broke an unwritten law. Celestia also gave this punishment to Twilight without a provocatio ad populum, if she is considered anything but a true teacher to Twilight in legal terms; or she just sent her student several classes behind, something that a teacher cannot do. So, if we recruit a notary or, at least, somepony expert in Law, we should be capable to understand better what to do, and free Twilight in no time." Pinkie Pie said: "Boooring." "Well, in this regard, Pinkie is right. An attempt to solve this problem in legal way will cost us too much time. So much time, that we could just wait the end of the term." "Also, I don't like to get involved with loads and loads of fancy papers." Rarity rolled her eyes. "And what are your proposals, besides doing a dynamic entrance in the Royal Palace and foalnapping Twilight?" Pinkie Pie, slightly bouncing, spoke up. "We should get there, and have a huge party with Celestia. If we pull it off well, maybe she will free Twilight!" Rarity sniffed. "Maybe... maybe. But it's unlikely." Pinkie Pie huffed "Come on! But, whatever, I can do that when she is free once again. Any other ideas?" Applejack pounded her hood on the table, creating a crack. "We should visit her at very least. At least show that we still care for her." Rainbow Dash and Pinkie agreed. Fluttershy added with a timid voice "Mmm... I think that we can also come over with some gifts. Oh, and if you think it's alright, we can also visit her while wearing smocks, like if we are also punished like her..." "That sounds like a good idea." Applejack referred to Rarity, who had a lost gaze. "Rarity, can you please create five smocks for us? We had an idea..." Rarity, startled, jumped three meters in the air, and screamed an incoherent phrase in an unknown tounge. Done that, Rarity asked what was the question. "I asked you if you could create five smocks for us, since we have a plan." Rarity, smiling nervously, remaining silent. After three minutes of silence, Rarity spoke up. "Yes, I can do that. Surely, why not?" Applejack exclaimed: "Then it's decided! We will visit Twilight with smocks on!" Then Applejack pounded the hoof on the table again, this time breaking it with a loud crack, and causing Fluttershy to take cover and whimper. While the others tried to save Fluttershy from ingesting a makeshift cyanide pill, Rarity murmured "I am not sure about the smocks. I mean, we should fabricate documents about our position first, if we want to visit Twilight while she is in the kindergarten class. Also, I think that I am going to be the only one allowed in. Either way, this is going to end badly." Still the Apple Family's property, but in another part, three fillies, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo, were discussing in their clubhouse on a tree. "We tried that again and again, Scootaloo. Also, I don't really feel in the mood to get hurt badly and go to the hospital. I really don’t like syringes and such" Scootaloo, while doodling rainbows dripping blood on a piece of paper, said. "Then tell us what to do. I don't really want to resort to the magic accidents of Sweetie Belle to pass my time, especially if those come with other kinds of accidents..." Sweetie Belle, who was crawling on the floor in boredom and thoughtfulness, immediately jumped, and said with her squeaky voice. "I can't help it if that happens! And my magical accidents aren't so bad!" Then, while talking about that, Sweetie Belle remembered something. "Now that you make think about magical problems, what happened to Twilight? I didn't see her this morning, neither in the Library nor at the Corner." Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with incredibly surprised eyes, and open mouths. "What? What happened?" Applebloom moved her left hoof up and down slowly. "You are telling me... that you still don't know what's the big news of the past days?" Sweetie Belle reclined her head sideways to express her confusion. "What big news?" Applebloom hissed like a locomotive for few seconds, before frantically moving her front hooves up and down. "You know... the news that said that TWILIGHT HAS LEFT THE TOWN TO GO TO THE MAGIC KINDERGARTEN BY CELESTIA'S WILL?" Sweetie Belle put her hooves in front of her mouth. "Oh my gosh, that's... really bad. Was it for the incident with the doll?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes, while Applebloom twitched like during an epileptic attack on the floor. "Yes, Sweets, and what for otherwise?" Cracking with her voice, Sweetie Belle answered. "Who knows." That said, Applebloom stopped, and collapsed on the western wall of the clubhouse, panting like a bellow. For few minutes, there was only the heavy breath of Applebloom. Then, Sweetie Belle had an outburst of intelligence. "Wait a minute! Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, right?" Applebloom, still panting, answered. "Technically, Celestia is Twilight's mentor." "Whatever, I think that it doesn't matter much. What I am trying to say is, if Celestia is Twilight's teacher, then how could she send Twilight back to Kindergarten?" Applebloom expressed her opinion on the matter. "Duh, Celestia is the princess, she can do whatever she wants to. She can send Twilight back to Kindergarten anytime she wants to." Sweetie Belle answered back. "Are you sure? Sometime ago I've read some big books about the laws of Equestria, while I was bored while at the notary with Rarity. One of those books was called the... 'Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus' I think. It was full of big and complicated words, but, for the few things that I could understand, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are under the same law that regulates the citizens. This means that, as 'Private Citizen,' whatever it means, she is under the same law that every other pony is under too. And, if one of the princess happens to have an additional duty to the one of ruler of the nation..." Applebloom completed Sweetie's sentence "She is bound by the same code of rules that bounds the profession... I know this, but I don't get what is the goal of your lecture." "What I am trying to say is this: if Princess Celestia is Twilight's teacher, and Celestia is bound to the Teacher's Code Thingy or something like that, isn't the punishment of Princess Celestia a bit too much? Or downright wrong?" Applebloom looked quizzically at Sweetie Belle, while Scootaloo scratched her head. "I don't understand, SB. What's the connection between the rules that the teachers must follow, and Celestia's choice of punishment against Twilight? I mean, it's true that we never saw Cheerilee do something like that to any of us, even after the bigger fights during the recess; but I think that's a completely different thing." "Yeah, Sweets, what is the connection?" Sweetie Belle huffed. "Don't you understand, Applebloom? We got up on all sorts of things at school, and yet we never heard nor received the punishment of degrading. If such a thing even remotely existed, then why have we never heard of it, even if we should have? I think we should go deeper. We should go, and check if such a thing as 'degrading' exists." Scootaloo spitted on the floor. "Oh, come on! You are not really thinking that we are going to follow you in the pursue of books that we can barely lift, let alone understand!" Applebloom put her right hoof under her small chin. "Well, it does sounds like a good idea to me, since we didn't really organize something today. If for once we do something different, what hurt could it bring to us?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes, and walked towards her farm-breeded friend, "No hurt can come from that," Scootaloo took a pencil, and started to wave it like a cane "but reading books written in difficult words and on a cryptic subject matter is bound to cause one thing, and one thing only to me. And that thing is boredom." Sweetie Belle pouted. "You are always refusing to do any activity that is remotely connected to books and such. Culture doesn't bite, you know? Also, if you don't want to do it for ourselves, at least do it for Twilight. She is one of the few friendly adults in this town, and she has always been helpful. We should at least try to see if there is something we, as fillies, can do." Silence followed. The three fillies exchanged gazes of various kind and purpose. Sweetie Belle was looking at Scootaloo with puppy eyes; Scootaloo was looking at Applebloom with a stern gaze; and Applebloom was silently begging for help to Sweetie Belle. A long, unusually silent time passed, but it was finally broken by Scootaloo's words. "Alright, whatever," she said resignedly "But don't expect to see me do this everytime. Come on, let's get on my scooter." The other two fillies immediately took the helmets, and jumped on the wagon of the scooter. When finally Scootaloo was ready, she asked. "So, is our destination the Library? Or do you have a better idea?" "No, our destination is not the Library. Our destination is Ugodan Birokrat's office. He should be able to tell us what we are looking for, and hopefully he isn't too busy right now." Scootaloo opened her mouth to question Sweetie's decision, but decided to ultimately keep it shut. Even if she wasn't sure about that, and she wasn't really dedicated to do that, Scootaloo thought that if Sweetie Belle and Applebloom agreed that the best course actions was to contact Silver Spoon’s father, then she had no choice but let them try, no matter how awkward or even bad the things could go. So she proceeded to take speed with the scooter, and to move towards the office of Ugodan Birokrat. Ten minutes of motorized movement later on the strangely crowded streets of Ponyville, the three fillies finally reached their destination. The building that contained Ugodan's office was pretty simple in its design, because it was just a big gray square stretching towards the sky for three storeys. On the left side of the building, on a part of the building that had lost many flakes of plaster, showing the red and black bricks behind, there was a small parking lot for small vehicles. Scootaloo parked her scooter there. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom jumped down the wagon, and reached the doorbell, while Scootaloo secured the vehicle to the wall with a chain found there and the lock that she kept in her helmet. When the three were finally all in front of the door, and when they found the office's doorbell, they proceeded to create a pyramid with their bodies, in order to reach the button of the doorbell. Scootaloo placed herself near the doorbells. Applebloom climbed Scootaloo's back, and tried to stretch towards the buzzer, hitting accidentally three other buzzers, before pressing the right button. A female voice filtered by the radio spoke up, while Applebloom jumped down the back of a pained Scootaloo. "Who's there?" Sweetie Belle immediately answered. "I am Sweetie Belle. I am sister of Rarity, one of the Notary's clients. Can I enter?" Few seconds later, a loud thud, signaling that the door had been open from the inside, was heard. The three pushed the door, and entered in the building. The hall of the structure was not something really interesting, since it was a room that contained just a table made of down tree and acacia and a series of niches in the wall that kept the emergency keys for the occupiers of the building. Since the usher wasn't there at the moment, the three went straight to Ugodan's office. "Boy, this place looks depressing," said Scootaloo, whispering like if she feared to awake a gigantic beast lying in the walls of the room or in the stairs. While Sweetie Belle was climbing the steps, she spoke to Scootaloo. "If you consider this depressing, then a nice surprise will await you, once in the office of Ugodan." Scootaloo stopped for a moment at the base of the stairs. "What surprise?" Sweetie giggled. "If it's a surprise..." then she resumed her climbing along with Applebloom. Scootaloo was going to ask another question, but she decided to shut up, and just go along with the bizarre choices of her friend. Hopefully, the "surprise" wasn't going to be an unwanted "touching session." One flight of stairs later, they finally reached the glass door of the office. The big glass of the door had the words "Notarial Associated Studio Silver Stamp & Ugodan Birokrat." "Here we are," said Sweetie Belle "Brace yourself for what's coming." Then she pushed the door, revealing... A white hallway, with white floor, white walls, black sofas... and display cabinets containing toy soldiers and trains. LOTS of trains and toy soldiers. Toy soldiers and trains of any colour, kind, and size, of any time period and material, of any theme. All of this kept on the walls, both lateral and frontal, sharply contrasting with pretty much any other thing in the building or the office. Scootaloo's jaw dropped, and her eyes remained still. Ditto for Applebloom. Sweetie Belle playfully poked at Scootaloo. "Do you like it?" Scootaloo exited from her stupor. "I like it? Yes. But I am mostly surprised by this. I mean, I've always seen gray and dull offices, and those are the first thing that come to my mind when I think of 'office.' Also, the owner of this collection surprises me. Not even in my wildest dream I would have imagined that the father of a stuck-up filly had a collection of anything, let alone a collection of cool things!" Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. "It's 'talius pater, talius filius', not 'talia mater, talia filia', Scootaloo. If Ugodan is a nice pony, it doesn't mean that Silver Spoon is nice." "Still. He could have..." A creak from the other side of the room overpowered the sound of Scootaloo's words. From the other side, a stallion with black coat and a white spot on the muzzle, gray mane, curled up mustaches, entered in the waiting room. Applebloom hissed, and whispered to her friends. "He's coming. If we want his attention and benevolence, we should not say anything about his daughter and how she raised her." The other two fillies nodded, as Ugodan walked towards them, and greeted them all. "Ah, gospodica Sweetie Belle, it's a pleasure to see you!" “Good morning, sir Ugodan.” Then Ugodan noticed the presence of other two fillies in the room. “Uh, hello there, ždrebica cuta and ždrebica naranča. Are you with Sweetie Belle?” said Ugodan while getting near with a swinging movement, movement that upset Applebloom and Scootaloo. “They are my friends Applebloom and Scootaloo. Applebloom, Scootaloo, meet Ugodan Birokrat.” Applebloom stretched her hoof. “A-a pleasure to m-meet you sir…” Scootaloo silently stretched her own. Ugodan proceeded to shake their hooves, and, still with a swinging movement, he moved towards the door asking: “So, now we acquainted ourselves, can I kindly ask you to come in my studio? Once there, we can talk in peace, with my secretaries out of the way. Don’t worry about how much time you take to, I have plenty of time today.” Sweetie Belle nodded and walked behind the black notary. The other two stood there, unable to tell if going in the room was going to be a “stranger trap” that Sweetie Belle accidentally started, or the notary was just weird. “That notary seems a walking stereotype of… how it’s called… ‘micropedrast’ ?” Applebloom whispered in Scootaloo’s ear. “It’s ‘poularast.’ Anyway, yeah, it doesn’t seem so trustable. I am not certain if entering in that room is going to be something that I will regret.” “Me too. But I guess that, if he does something suspicious, we can always run away. Or jump out the window, if he locks the door.” Applebloom sighed. “Alright. Let’s do this.” And they finally entered in the room. Once the three were in the room, Ugodan took the key that was on the long table, and locked up the door. “There! And now, no one but us can exit and enter from this room!” The statement didn’t reassure Applebloom and Scootaloo, and made them smile awkwardly, and look around for an exit, while Ugodan Birokrat sat on the chair at the opposite end of the table. “Tell me, what is the reason that caused you to visit my small and cozy studio?” Sweetie Belle jumped over one of the red padded chairs. “We are here, Ugodan, because I, and my friends, have doubts about some laws.” Ugodan put his left hoof under his chin, and asked with the same unsettlingly cheerful voice: “Tell me more, I am interested to know.” “One of the friends of my sister, Twilight Sparkle, has been punished by her teacher, Princess Celestia, with being sent back to Magic Kindergarten, and attending to it for four months. Now, a doubt came to our minds: does the punishment of ‘degrading’ exist in the school system? Is the Princess authorized to do that?” Birokrat moved his chair closer to Sweetie Belle, alarming the other two fillies a bit. “Vrelo, the punishment of ‘degrading’, as you call it, doesn’t actually exist, if it’s what I understood, namely, the process of sending a student or a pupil back one or more grades for around a term. And, since the Princesses are bound by all the other laws, I’m certain that even if they happen to take another duty other than the one of a ruler, they still can’t create a punishment iz nikako without a good reason.” Ugodan moved towards the bookshelves full of books, and extracted the book labeled as “Una Natio Sancta ex Tribus Gentibus”, and another labeled as “Scholastic Law.” Done that, he put down the books, and, while flipping the pages, he continued talking. “So, tell me Sweetie Belle, what has Twilight done to be punished?” Sweetie Belle admitted. “I don’t remember. You should ask either Scootaloo or Applebloom.” The two unsure fillies had a shiver run down their spine, as Ugodan asked them to sit down, and to reply his question. Applebloom sat down slowly while looking around, and Scootaloo remained still, saying that she was fine as she was. Applebloom told the whole story to the notary, and, when she had done the telling, Ugodan started to flip the pages of the first book even faster, until he abruptly stopped. “Vrelo, what Twilight has done seems something akin to Breach of the Peace, and thus it IS punishable. Ipak, I don’t think that any judge and clerk worth his salt would waste time with a process against her. And the Constitution says that Celestia can judge only the gravest crimes. And Breach of the Peace isn’t one of those.” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Ok, understood. Is there anything that I can do to get Twilight out of this situation, now that I know she isn’t supposed to be punished like that?” Ugodan put the books back in their place. “Sue Celestia. You can do that, since she isn’t subjected to any immunities, but that’s very costly, and it takes a while for it to have effects. Otherwise, you can try to get a pettifogger to threat Celestia, but I don’t really suggest that because, in addition to being very expensive, it’s not certain that said pettifogger wouldn’t side with Celestia…” Sweetie Belle smiled while jumping down the chair. “Got it! Well, thanks Ugodan. Now, can you please open the door?” Without any other word, Birokrat unlocked the door, and let the three fillies out. Once out the room, Scootaloo and Applebloom dragged Sweetie Belle away, screaming “Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger!” > Osservazione/Observation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the awkward moment that happened during the changing time, Lux, Nutriz, Twilight and the foals came back in the classroom to start their routine again. The rest of the two hours weren't really notable for Twilight, since she remained in the corner doing the same thing she had done for the first three hours. But finally, after two hours among the foals and the chaos, Twilight Sparkle was free to go home, and pass the rest of the day as an adult, since her father was in charge during the afternoon. After she said goodbye to both the teacher and the foals, Twilight ran out of the building and walked towards her home. Strangely, the streets were as deserted as she found them when she went to Kindergarten. Arrived at the gate of her house after few minutes, Twilight rang the bell, and waited for Sedula to open the gate . As Sedula walked along with Twilight, the formed asked to the latter. "So, Twilight, do you want some help with getting rid of the attire which your mother forced you to wear?" The two entered in the house, and Twilight climbed the stairs. "I'd wish to be alone for a couple of minutes, Sedula," said Twilight while walking the stairs "So, no thanks. If I need help, I'm going to ask for it directly." The old valet nodded, and went to the kitchen. "As you wish, Twilight." Done with that, Twilight went to her defiled bedroom. There, she started her undressing: she loosened the string that kept the smock on her body, delicately got it off, then folded it, and put it in the wardrobe. As for getting off her unused diaper, Twilight placed herself back down on the bed, lifted her legs, untaped the garment with magic, slid off the diaper, and threw it in the paper bin in the room, even though it was clean. Looking decent once again, Twilight went downstairs into the dining room, where the lunch was waiting for her. The table was set with three seats with a white place mat with laces at the rims if front of each and a small bronze bell at the end of the table. Twilight's one had a white soup dish with blue stripes, a light blue dinner plate under it. The cutlery was made of steel and had ivory handles, and transparent glass shaped like a stem. The other seats also were set with that kind of dishes and cutlery, the only difference being the glass for Night Light, an Oktoberfest-sized jug, and Twilight Velvet's porcelain lacking the soup dish. Twilight sat down on the red padded chair, followed by Night Light and Twilight Velvet. When everyone was settled down, Night Light lifted the bronze bell, then shook it, and proclaimed. "Sedula, let's start with the First Course!" The valet answered with a shout. "Right away sir!" She came in the room with a big steaming bowl a moment later. Sedula put the bowl in the middle of the table, and served Twilight a ration of peas and cream noodles. Twilight immediately started to eat up her ration in a pretty coarse manner, while Night Light ate his ration more slowly, puffing his chest like a pigeon. As they ate, Twilight Velvet asked her daughter. "So, what did you do at the Kindergarten, Twily?" Twilight literally inhaled some noodles. "What do you expect? I drew various things. After all, I could not really interact with the foals, since they have other interests, they likely don't understand a good part of my words, and they seem afraid of me." Twilight asked Sedula to give her some more noodles. "Somehow, I can understand them. If an adult had come in my Kindergarten class dressed like me, but acting and talking differently, I would have been unsure and afraid too." Twilight Velvet stretched herself towards her namesake offspring to give her an unexplained kiss. "Oh, my lovely daughter. Always so grumpy." Twilight rolled her eyes. "Mother... morning's over. Now it's the time I act like an adult." Twilight Velvet tightly hugged her daughter, to the latter's dismay and annoyance. "But you are still my little foal." "That would sound a lot less creepy and annoying, if I wasn't forced to act like one during the morning." Night Light deflated his chest, and after gently placing the fork on the plate, he called Sedula to take away the soup dishes, and bring in the salad. Done that, he entered in the discussion. "About morning and afternoon cycles. The Rotary Society has called. They want me at Romea for a meeting, and I've decided that, since I'm already there, I will pay a visit to all my relatives, and spend some time with them. I am going tomorrow morning." Twilight's heart stopped for a second. If her father was at Romea, then it meant that Velvet had basically the total control over the day, and, since Night Light was the president of the Rotary at Canterlot, this meant that he could not avoid going, and thus, leaving home was inevitable for at least a day. Twilight still asked, as to know for how long she was going to be treated like a little filly full-time. "So, how long is this… journey going to take?" Night Light took some salad. "Around a week. After the meeting, I'd wish to visit my mother, my father, aunt Lucky, aunt Eraclina, uncle Lionheart, uncle Italiota, uncle Benson..." Twilight had a void at most of the names mentioned by her father, because she never had heard of them, let alone saw them. But the fact she had not seen a good chunk of the family from her fahter's side was not her concern right there, right now. She was mostly concerned of the pact done just the day before. "And... about the 'Kid during the morning, Adult during the afternoon' rules?" Velvet looked at her husband with puppy dog eyes, and started to whimper like a beaten dog. Sighing, Night Light fulfilled his wife's unspoken request. "As much as it will annoy you, that rule is lifted until I come back." From nowhere, an orchestra of brass played, and driven by a mysterious force Twilight went in the middle of the salon, and dramatically fell flat on her stomach. Sedula ran towards Twilight, and asked if she was alright. Night Light scolded Twilight, saying that such reaction was uncalled for. Twilight Velvet kept eating her salad and her helping of tofu as if nothing was happening. After that moment of commotion, Twilight said that she was no longer hungry, and that she had some important things to do. Before Sedula or Night Light could even ask what she was talking about, Twilight had already ran away into the library of the house. Twilight opened the cedar wood door with a slam, and started to tear the books away from the shelves. "'Pedagogy' no. 'Psychosis' no. 'How not to be a good Mother' no. '101 Things to tell a foal from a teenager' no. No, no, no, no" Those were the only words that Twilight muttered, while looking for a book to do... something. Something to get out of that situation. Something that could tell her what to do. Alas, she did not find any books titled "How to Survive in the Magic Kindergarten as an Adult with an Insane Mother." Even so, the frantic research served a purpose. It calmed Twilight down, and made her a bit more reflexive. "Alright, Twilight. Think. You are going to be in the house with your mother. Now, this mother wants you to act like a foal, despite the eclatant clues that you are not, only because you are going to Kindergarten. What do you do?" Twilight sat on the oak chair near the poplar desk of the library. Done that, she let her gaze wander, so to "catch" an idea "Maybe I should run away, if this situation is so uncomfortable." Self-satisfied, Twilight was starting to reorganized the books that she threw on the floor. As she reorganized, however, she spotted a problem in her solution. "I don't have much money, and I cannot camp out in a tent for four months." Sighing, Twilight muttered while rearranging the shelves. "If only I could enjoy the same activities that my classmates do... maybe I would bear my mother's behavior more easily." An idea flashed in Twilight's head, and she jumped in front of the enlightenment. "Of course! I need to learn to act fully like a three-years old, if I want to get rid of this annoyance! After all, my mother seems to have a pretty idealized idea of the foalhood, and the problems that a parent faces with a three-years old foal with lacking control! The tantrums, the constant 'hurting', the constant need to ask her to go to the bathroom every ten minutes, the pickiness in the eating! After a week, she is going to give up, and finally let me live like the adult I am." Twilight finished ordering of the highest row of books. "Yeah... but how I can do that? I've burned down all the memoirs that I had of my foalhood, after I turned 13, and it's a miracle that I could not burn down Cadance, how I am gonna do that, if I have only a bare outline of how a foal acts and talks?" Twilight remained in silent thought, as she ended reordering the shelves. After twenty minutes of thinking and rearranging, Twilight found the solution. "But of course, my Kindergarten classmates. Just try to befriend them, and look at them. If you do it correctly, you should be able to copy them in times of need with your mother." Satisfied with herself, Twilight went in her room, and passed the rest of the afternoon and the evening there, waiting for the Sun to set, and the dinner to be ready. A dinner and seven hours of sleep later, Twilight woke up in her rather small bed. Looking outside the window, she realized two things: that the Sun was rising, and that Velvet was going to break in, and start the madness once again. And, this time, it was going to last for an entire day. Since she wanted to keep the dialogues with her mother at the bare minimum, until she figured out a way to wear down her mother's madness, Twilight decided to take the initiative, and diaper herself. Twilight jumped out of bed and, while walking with a silent step, she reached the bathroom to complete the morning ritual, and free herself of the secretions that could try to exit at the worst possible moment. Done that, she came back to the wardrobe in her room. Twilight opened it, and extracted the diaper box from the right corner of the piece of furniture. Done that, she walked back to the bed, put the box nearby, lied down, so to make the process easier, extracted one of the purple absorbent garments from the box, slid it under her back and taped it to her waist. Now diapered and almost ready to go, Twilight levitated the pink smock that she had thrown in the middle of the room the day before, and put it on, fastening the rope and pulling the wrinkled parts of the smock. When she was finally dressed up and ready to start the day, Twilight went downstairs, and, while she waited for Sedula to arrive, she set the table with the usual choice of porcelains and cutlery. After a while, Sedula Serva entered silently in the house. After greeting, and not receiving response from Twilight, the valet mechanically cooked the breakfast for every member of the family. When finally everything was done, Night Light, half-shaved and with a dangling tie around his neck, arrived levitating a luggage from upstairs. "Good morning, Twilight. Did Sedula or you prepare anything special for my departure?" "No, father, nothing at all." Sighing, Night Light started to gobble up cookies, and drank the coffee in the cup in one gulp, all while standing. "That's a pity, but it's okay, since I am in a hurry. Take care of yourself, my daughter, and behave yourself." then Twilight's father ran towards the main door, breaking it. After greeting her father, Twilight sat down, and quietly started to have her own breakfast, composed of coffee, eggs and bread, all while Sedula tried to fix up the busted door with the best of her abilities. The peace of Twilight's breakfast was, not surprisingly, broken by a chirp, and hooves tip-tapping on the marble. "Twiiilllyyy, where are you?" Twilight grunted at the sing-song of her insane mother, and to avoid troubles. She also drank the coffee in one go, despite the hotness of the beverage, and the feeling of scorched wasteland it left in her throat. "How is my precious filly doing?" Twilight Velvet sat on the chair with a whirl. Twilight replied with an acidic tone. "Very good. At least, until you came in." Velvet started to eat the remaining biscuits. "Oooh, we are grumpy today, aren't we?" Velvet, to Twilight's extreme annoyance, pinched her cheeks. "But I think you are going to be happier, once at the Kindergarten." Twilight nodded, and said with a sigh: "Of course, mother." It was only a half lie: while she wasn't happy to go to the Kindergarten and stay with the foals per se, she was content that, at least, she could study their behaviour, and learn how to mimic it when needed. Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle terminated their breakfast at the same time. Velvet immediately took away the dishes and the cups, and carried them to the kitchen, where Sedula slowly started to wash them. Done that, Velvet started to skip towards the door. "It's time to go, Twily." Without questions, Twilight followed Velvet outside. The streets were crowded, but, apart from the curious gazes of few ponies, no comments about Twilight's outfit and destination were made by anypony. Once again in front of the decorated building, Velvet kissed her daughter. "See you later," she said with her usual cheerful-and-yet-creepy voice. Twilight, after a moment of confusion and blushing caused by the kiss, united herself with horde of colts and fillies that were entering in the building, heading to their respective classes. Twilight, quite obviously, followed the stream that headed for the class of the "Chicks." When Twilight entered in the class, followed by the few classmates left behind, Lux closed the door, while Nutriz did a quick name call of the foals that were there. Twilight used the name call as a way to identify each foal, and so track down the ones that could be suitable for her purposes. At the end of the name call, Nutriz gave the explicit authorization to break loose to the foals. And they complied. Now Twilight, the only one that remained in the center of the room, proceeded to look at the foals, and see their way of act. Twilight chose the same corner she had used the day before for draw as an observation spot. This time, she took the black marker and three sheets of blank paper, in order to start to list up the foals that could help in her quest for examples of foals’ misbehaving and tantrums. In the confusion of the class, Twilight saw a scene that got her attention. A light blue colt with a straight red mane was bickering with a pink filly with white curly mane, presumably about the possession of a box of construction blocks, since the colt was keeping tightly a small brown plastic box a colorful block fell from everytime it was shaken. Their movements were visible and clear, allowing Twilight to note easily some possible gestures of an angry 2-years old, but they did not transmitte what the foals were actually saying between each other. Twilight got nearer, so to be at hearing distance from the bickering between the foals. The colt said with a strangely familiar voice, one that Twilight had heard some time before, but less raspy, “This box is mine. Hooves off!” The filly answered with a high-pitched voice. “No, it is mine and all mine!” She grabbed it, in the desperate attempt to either get it back, or appropriate herself of the blocks in the box. The colt pulled the box towards himself. “No! Mine!” The filly answered with the same reaction. “It. Is. Mine.” The response of the colt was unsurprising. Pulling of the box towards his chest he yelled: “Mine!” And they kept going for a while, before the filly had a burst of magic, one that caused the box to be pulled out of the colt’s little hooves, causing him to cry in annoyance/fake pain, and the blocks contained in the box got scattered around the landing zone of the aforementioned box. At that point, Lux Foal intervened. “What’s going on here?” she asked with a stern tone, one that basically made the legitimate question into purely rhetoric one. The colt immediately jumped up on his hooves, and, with tears still going down his cheeks, he pointed at the filly and said: “She stole my box!” The teacher raised an eyebrow. “Your box?” The filly bursted in. “It was mine!” The teacher looked at the filly. “If the box was his, then it cannot be yours.” The filly ignored the phrase of the teacher, and tried to defend her position with her lackluster oratory abilities alone. “But it was really of me!” The colt answered back. “No, it was mine!” The two foals stepped forward, as to start physical contact, when the teacher separated them with magic. “So, you say it is yours.” The teacher looked at the colt, and he nodded affirmatively “And it is yours.” She looked at the filly, and she also nodded. “How about… it’s of both?” The two foals, with the same stubbornness they shared with the drunken and the students hated by every teacher in a school, answered with the most simple of the phrases. “NO!” The teacher, after hearing that response, looked at both the foals with a stern glance. “If you don’t want to share it, then no one gets it.” The teacher levitated the box away from the reach of the little hooves of the foals. The colt concentrated himself and tried to pull the box out of the control of Lux , while the filly whined. “And, if you keep trying to get it back, you will receive a time-out!” The colt gave up, and sighed. The filly, on other hoof, had no sense of when it was time to surrender, and thus launched herself on the leg of Lux Foal, attempting to cause physical harm to the teacher, and, naturally, failing to accomplish her goal. Lux levitated the filly and, without any other words, she carried her to the room at the opposite side of the classroom. Intrigued by this, Twilight tried to follow the teacher in her carrying, and see where she was going. Twilight stopped herself nearby the door to avoid getting in trouble. Lux went through the hallway with the filly still firmly in her magic grasp. Even from that distance, Twilight could tell she had a smug face. The teacher opened the door with one of her hooves, revealing the darkness behind the door. Lux entered with the filly, then she closed the door. For a few minutes, nothing happened, leaving Twilight holding her breath from the suspense. She could breath once again when Lux came back from the room with the filly hanging her head low walking behind the teacher. The expression of the filly got Twilight’s attention, because she had passed from a smug look to a shame-filled gaze, leaving Twilight wondering what could have caused that reaction. Twilight returned back to the center of the room, and waited for Lux to come back with the filly. When both were finally back in the room, Twilight decided to get an answer to her question, by asking directly the involved filly. “Hello there, little one. What’s your name?” The filly answered with slightly broken voice. “My name is Lecs Populli. What’s your name?” Like she was used to do, Twilight slightly bowed, and tended her hoof towards the filly. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can I ask you a question?” Giggling, the filly asked back: “Yes?” “I saw you getting in trouble, and dragged by the teacher to the room at the opposite of this classroom. I saw you entering there with a sure defiant look, and you exited with a beaten one. Care to tell me what happened?” The filly raised her smock, revealing a white diaper, with a red arrow pointing at the bottom of the filly, and the phrase “Spank me” over the arrow. Then, the filly sat down, revealing the front of the diaper, who had the phrase “I am a bad filly” over it. Twilight somehow felt sympathy for the filly, despite the sheer lightness and absurdity of the punishment given to the filly. “It’s ok” Twilight revealed her purple diaper “I, an adult, also wear them. It’s nothing that should make you feel embarrassed.” Twilight knew that she had just told a lie to Lex, but since she was trying to win her, being honest on everything wouldn’t be really useful. The filly giggled at the sight, and, for some reason, started to poke the diaper, before asking if Twilight wanted to play a game. Twilight felt a sense of embarrassment and insecurity, similar to the one she had felt when she had come in Ponyville to recruit the Bearers of the Elements. However, at the same time, she felt it different. she scolded herself “Come on, Twilight, it should not be that hard. You managed to defeat the Chaos made flesh, you cannot be afraid of a filly! If you don’t know how to act, just imagine it’s Pinkie Pie, but without the reality-bending powers!” Smiling awkwardly, Twilight asked Lex Populi for a second. Done that, Twilight started to write up her annotations about foals’ behaviour and speech patterns. “They tend to use the Argumentum ad Nauseam to get what they want. They tend to exaggerate the gestures. They may not be aware of the incoming punishments. They tend to change their mind often.” Once she wrote that, Twilight followed Lex Populi’s request of playing. > Casino Generale/ General Chaos > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. > E' accaduto il (non)imprevedibile/ Something happened. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three hours later, in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle was in her bedroom in bed, taking a nap enforced by Velvet, who claimed that, as little filly, she had to sleep for one hour after having lunch. Despite the clear indication that Twilight was not in physical need of a nap, she did not refuse, assuming that compared to the the dress-up, the stroll in the (thankfully deserted) park, and the dish arrangement of the lunch taking an enforced nap was not so bad, since it would let her relax and be alone for a while. During the hour of break, Twilight let her mind wander, letting thoughts on various topics and subjects stop and pass in a whim. Then she focused on a topic in particular: her friends in Ponyville. "What are they doing right now? Are they thinking about me? I mean, I know that they are not pulling out their manes in desperation. Maybe Rarity is doing that, but that's besides the point. Anyway, they are still going on with their lives; but do they miss me? Or don’t they? I mean, if a big threat to the State presents itself and said threat cannot be solved by Celestia, if they stop care about me, it's up to me and the others to fix it. But if they stop caring about me, our efforts are also hindered..." Twilight smacked herself with her left hoof, leaving a red mark on her face. "Stop worrying! They DO care about you, it's just a bit hard to trace your position! Stay sure that as soon as you come back from the Kindergarten, they are going to greatly celebrate your return! After all, if they don't care about you, how..." She sighed, and let her head sink in the pillow before the other part of her mind could finish its sentence. "And thinking that until few months ago, you would have never imagined having such kind of dilemmas..." Then an approaching sound of hooves reached Twilight's ears. Soon after that, the door opened, showering the bedroom with light, and revealing the thin silhouette of Sedula Serva. "Twilight, there are five mares and three fillies outside the gate, claiming to be your friends. Shall I let them come in?" Twilight sprang up, throwing the blankets up in the air, and said in surprise. "They are really here?" Sedula replied calmly. "I don't know, I have never seen them come here. To tell the truth, I thought they were kidding at first." As Sedula said that, Twilight was pulling out her diaper with pure glee to get it off and ignoring the harsh comment from her valet. Once she had done that, Twilight asked Sedula to lead the way towards the gate, all the while trembling and hopping at the same time. When Twilight was finally in the garden, she saw her five friends, wearing pink smocks and carrying eight green boxes, and three fillies waiting outside for her to open the gate. With even more joy, Twilight Sparkle ran to the gate, and unlocked it. As soon as she moved one of the gate's doors, she was trampled by the weight of three eight-years-olds and two mares, all trying to hug her, while the others showed their joy in other, more platonic, ways. Despite the pressure applied by the bodies of some of her companions, Twilight appreciated the manifestation of interest that her friends gave to her. When the hug finally terminated, Twilight said. "Uoho, thank you for your remembrance. Anyway, why you are wearing smocks?" Rarity, after stepping in and giving a prideful head shaking, answered Twilight's question. "It was Applejack's idea. As a way to show our interest towards you and our consternation towards your situation, w... she decided to make us wear smocks similar to the ones you would wear while in the Kindergarten." Twilight nodded and smiled. "If you thought it would have served, well, guess what, it did. Now..." Twilight saw that the CMC were not wearing the smocks "why Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom don't wear those smocks?" Sweetie Belle answered before her older sister could. "Because I and my two friends," Applebloom and Scootaloo also stepped in, "thought that to apologize to you would be the right thing to do." The three fillies immediately bowed and started to chant a litany that expressed their contrition, contrition that baffled Twilight, since she didn't see any kind of reason for an apology, since she was the one that exploited them for her ends. However, Twilight decided to let the litany go on and not question the logic that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had applied to draw a conclusion that they needed to apologize to her. When the monotonous chant ended, there was a brief awkward silence, quickly filled with Pinkie's request to get in Twilight's house. Since she didn't see any issues with letting them in, Twilight consented to her friends to receive xenià. "Come on, enter," said Twilight, while moving her right hoof backwards and forwards. The eight ponies entered in the garden of the villa and while walking towards the door they looked around them. In a few seconds, they reached the door. Twilight lowered the handle, revealing an upset Velvet behind the door. "Twily! You were not supposed to exit from your bedroom until half past three! And you got off your diaper! Now com..." Velvet stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh, I see, some of your friends have arrived. Well, next time you should warn me... but, anyway, they can come in." Having said that, Velvet ran upstairs. Velvet's daughter was going to just shrug it away, before realizing something. Her friends were wearing smocks, and Velvet recognized the five mares as Twilight's friends. This meant that, as Twilight's friends, they were also three years old fillies and, maybe, the CMC were either barely newborn, or just months old anyway. The realization froze Twilight in panic. Twilight's friends didn't hesitate to accidentally make the situation worse. "Twilight, darling, why this sudden mood shift?" Rarity got no response. Rainbow Dash was a bit more direct, with a shake and her question asked with stronger concern: "What's the matter, Twi?" "It's... it's..." "It's?" "M-my mother..." Rainbow Dash pressed her face on Twilight's. "Your mother? Come on!" Twilight moved her mouth, but to Rainbow's frustration and dismay no sound came out of it. Rainbow Dash got more aggressive with her questioning "Tell me! Tell me! TELL ME!" but she got no response from Twilight, who was altering between twitching on the floor and standing, as if she was possessed by an evil spirit. Or poisoned by a tarantula. Rarity intervened with Fluttershy's help. "Extracting information from Twilight with this rude and aggressive method won't bring you to anything." Rarity motioned to Fluttershy. "Come over here, Fluttershy. We are going to need your diplomatic abilities." Fluttershy reluctantly walked towards Twilight, unsettled by the rather concentrated looks of the CMC and of the other four friends on hers. She lightly touched the frantic Twilight, as to get her attention, and when Twilight stopped twitching to focus on Fluttershy, the latter said. "Twilight, could you please..." The phrase was not finished, because a loud crash was heard from the stairs, followed by a laughter that sounded manic. While the other seven ponies just went on lookout after those two noises, Fluttershy froze, and created a puddle of a liquid of the same color as her coat but more smelly on the marble floor of the room and causing Fluttershy to blush until she turned beet-red. Fluttershy's accident was overshadowed by the return of Velvet levitating a changing mat, a pack of diapers and a can of powder. "So, could you excuse me for a..." Velvet saw Fluttershy standing over the puddle of her own urine. A sinister shimmer appeared in her eyes. "I see that Twily is not the only one prone to 'accidents' here..." Velvet rolled out the changing mat in the middle of the big entrance hall of the house, and grabbed both her daughter and Fluttershy in the hallway. Rainbow Dash instinctively sprang towards Twilight Velvet to stop her, but Applejack held her tail in her mouth, saying that trying to do something would be risky. Rarity just stared at the scene going on in front of her eyes, unsure whether to laugh, be disgusted, or call the guards. Pinkie Pie, seemingly unaware of the situation, gladly handled Fluttershy's diaper box to Velvet. As for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they just watched, too confused and afraid to help. Twilight, still trying to process what to do or say to her friends, didn't react at all when Velvet forcefully put her on her back. Fluttershy tried to verbally object, but the sudden attack of insanity by Velvet caused her to just cower and look at Velvet with fearful eyes, wishing to say something, but incapable of doing so. Velvet terminated the diapering of Twilight in few seconds, thanks to the lack of reaction from her daughter. "You are free, Twily! Up next!" Twilight, back in her senses, fed up and sure that she was going to do the right thing, came back on her legs, and, after that, she quickly tried to dissuade her mother from inflicting the same humiliation she had suffered in the past days. Twilight lit her horn, and blocked Velvet's hooves. "Mother, you are taking this sham too far, and it's time to stop," said Twilight sternly. "Come on Twilight, let me walk," Velvet demanded with an extremely irritated voice. "Not until you end this insanity." Twilight's tone got sterner. Velvet, still maintaining a serene and yet insanity-telling face, answered back. "But you are my little filly, and so are your friends." Losing every hope to diplomatically end that, Twilight charged her horn to stun Velvet, and try to end it. However, from behind she felt a tickle; a tickle that caused her to lose concentration, and both let Velvet loose and uncharging her horn. When Twilight looked for the source of the tickling, she saw Pinkie Pie flat on her back rubbing her stomach. While Velvet immediately ran towards the scared Fluttershy, Twilight asked with bloodshot eyes to Pinkie. "PINKIE! Why did you sabotage my attempt to stop my mother?" Pinkie Pie giggled. "Because you and me don't want to see anybody hurt, silly." "And how am I supposed to prevent such humiliation to you, then? She isn't exactly a pony that listens to me." Pinkie Pie crawled at a fast pace under Twilight. "Humiliation? This isn't a humiliation, this is a very good thing!" Twilight raised one of her eyebrows. "A good thing?" Twilight pointed at diapered and blushing Fluttershy, and Velvet putting a white, lace-and-plissets decorated diaper on a whining Rarity. "Fluttershy and the others say otherwise." "It's because they never tried it!" Twilight sighed in frustration. "I don't know what you are trying to do, but if this is your fetish or whatever, it's okay with me, Pinkie Pie. However, this is not enjoyable for me, and therefore I am trying to get rid of her since I came back home." Pinkie pulled a pipe out of nowhere that created soap bubbles, as to pose as an intellectual. "A complicated case indeed..." Twilight took a look once again at the ongoing diapering of her friends. Now Rainbow Dash was pouting while wearing a blue diaper with her cutie mark on the front, Rarity was trying to make Fluttershy relax in that stressful situation, and Applejack was flat on her back with her hooves tied together by Velvet's magic. "Be quick to find a solution. I am not certain when the others are going to forgive me for this." Pinkie Pie threw the pipe away. "I don't know... I like this kind of thing. I also know few ponies in Ponyville that would love to do something like this, and who knows, maybe one of us starts to enjoy this too. Maybe I can convince her to come with me to Ponyville? I have an empty house where she could stay and indulge her craving." Twilight pondered it for a few seconds, before replying. "It's a deal that would benefit all three sides if my mother accepts. If she does, I am also for this idea. Now let's get back to our friends." The two mares did just that. On the left side of the hall, now each and everyone of the seven visiting ponies had a diaper on them. Applejack had an orange diaper with a green apple on the front, Scootaloo's one was also orange, but had a black question mark in front of a scooter's wheel as the frontal image, Applebloom had a yellow diaper with a pattern of apple shapes and, finally, Sweetie Belle had a white diaper with truly foalish designs. Now finally reunited, the four mares glanced at Twilight. “Twi… was this the thing you wanted to communicate to us before?” “Yes, it was.” Rainbow Dash replied with acidity. “Then next time BE FASTER WHEN TALKING!” Rarity put a hoof over Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. “I think we lack context here. Twilight, was this… sham staged?” “Yes… I mean, for me, not for you.” Twilight sat on her padded bottom. “You see, my mother is delusional, and thinks that I am a three years old filly. I don’t like it in the slightest, but since I have my salary suspended for a while, and my only option is to live over my mother’s wage and my father’s pension, I thought that doing whatever she wished to do with me was a wise, if ugly, choice to make. I also tried to make a pact between my father and my mother to divide the day in two parts, one where I live like an adult, and one where I live like a filly. Of course, the catch was that I acted like a filly only during the morning, when I was at Kindergarten and my mother could not interfere, while I acted like an adult during the afternoon, when I was at home. Alas, this pact was soon broken by my father’s departure for Romea. My mother saw it as a golden opportunity, and apparently fell in delusion even more, since she is seeing you all as fillies.” Rarity, Rainbow Dash and an eaversdropping Applejack nodded in understanding. “So, what shall we do? Shall we stop Velvet, and thus free you from this sticky situation?” asked Applejack, while slightly shaking her rear hooves, as to get them ready to kick. “Pinkie Pie has a plan how to free me from this predicament…” Pinkie Pie appeared behind Twilight. “My plan is to enjoy this opportunity together and, at the end of our visit to bring Velvet to Ponyville.” Rarity stared bewildered at Pinkie, as if she had put out the Sun with a whisper, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack asked in unison. “WHAT?” “Are you nuts, Pinks? Enjoy this? How can I enjoy something like being diapered by an old harpy and being treated like a filly, in the ill and in the good?” “Pinkie, I think that your basket lacks some apples… there is no chance in the Heavens, in Tartarus, in the Limbo or in Equestria, that we are going to stick with this plan, not at least with our minds still standing in our skulls!” Pinkie Pie lowered her ears, scrunched her face, and widened her pupils, as to get her friends to do her bidding. It didn’t work. “Pinks, no matter what faces you make, I am not going to do this. I simply won’t.” Applejack shrugged, while Rarity exited from her trance. “Er… Pinkie Pie’s idea IS actually a good idea, since I am not eager to knock out Twilight’s mother, even if she is insane, because she didn’t warrant knocking down for me.” Applejack pressed her nuzzle on Rarity’s, and asked with a voice close to desperation. “And what is the correct thing to do then, besides to do what she wants, Rarity?” Rarity shrugged. “That’s the only measured solution. Knocking down the host is rude and excessive.” Applejack sighed. “Always put manners first to your friend’s needs and sometimes safety.” Rarity drunk her gall, and answered. “That’s not true. But ok, if you think so, I have nothing against it. However, if we want to take a decision, we shall consult everypony.” Applejack agreed silently, and so did Twilight. Rarity proceeded to call the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were trying to calm down Fluttershy (and surprisingly doing it perfectly) and Fluttershy herself. Once all the ponies were gathered, Rarity gently asked Velvet to let them have few minutes alone. Velvet let them gather. Having done that, Rarity proclaimed. “Alright everypony, we have a decision to do. As you have noticed, Velvet has decided to put us in diapers, thinking we are foals. Our friend, Twilight, told us that Velvet is, in fact, delusional. She has been treating Twilight like a filly since the latter has come back home. Now, Twilight was going to just stun her mother, bring her to the asylum, and set us free, but Pinkie Pie proposed another solution for this issue: let Velvet treat us like foals, and then bring her to Ponyville, so to free Twilight once and for all from her mother.” Rarity sniffed. “So, raise your right hoof if you want to stun Velvet and avoid being treated like a foal.” Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Applebloom, and Scootaloo raised their right hoof. “Now, the ones that want to bring Velvet to Ponyville must raise their left hoof.” Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle, Rarity and Fluttershy raised their left hoof. Surprisingly, the only one that did not raise a hoof was Twilight Sparkle herself. Curious, Rarity asked. “What happened, Twilight? Weren’t you the one that wanted to make Velvet unconscious in the first place?” Twilight sighed. “I’m unsure. Shall I send my mother to the asylum and free you without further fuss, but basically spitting in the place where I eat; or send my mother to Ponyville, letting her vent out her delusion without causing harm to anybody, but forcing you to endure some forced regression.” Pinkie Pie extracted a coin from nowhere. “Waste time no further! Flip this coin, and choose on the side it comes out!” Twilight, even though unsure about using a completely random system for choose what to do next in that situation, did not decline. “Heads, stun, tail, regression” Twilight picked up the coin with her magic. “Ok, let’s do this.” Then Twilight threw the coin in the air... > Lanciata/Flipped > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The coin remained for few seconds in the air, before landing on the floor with the typical sound of gold hitting a hard surface. Twilight picked up the coin with magic, then put it on her hoof, and finally looked at the result. The coin showed tails. "So be it," whispered Twilight while grasping tightly the diskette made of gold. Twilight announced the result of the coin flipping to her anxious friends. "Alright girls, the result is tails. As I decided before flipping the coin, this means I am going to vote for going along with my mother's wishes of age play, here in my house and later on in Ponyville." Everypony nodded in understanding. "So, let's recap: who voted for stun my mother? And who wanted to satisfy my mother's wishes?" Pinkie Pie quickly listed the ponies' votes with an excited and cheerful voice. "Applejack, Applebloom, Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash voted for stunning Twilight's mother. Twilight, I, Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy and Rarity voted for bringing Velvet to Ponyville. It's four votes versus five. Do you know what it means? It means that today we are going to act like cute fillies!" Then Pinkie Pie, after taking the diaper boxes and the pacifiers on her shoulder, skipped towards the room where the nine ponies had left Velvet. The other four that voted for bringing Twilight's mother to Ponyville walked behind Pinkie Pie. The ones that voted for stopping Twilight Velvet's insanity rolled their eyes and sighed in defeat, walking with their ears lowered behind Pinkie Pie. The eight ponies, by following Pinkie's lead, reached a locked door down in the hallway "Just a minute, it has been a while since I've opened this room," said Velvet while unlocking the door. When she finished the phrase, the lock produced a clicking sound, a sign that the door had been unlocked, thus allowing Velvet to swing the door open, revealing a big room. The room, unsurprisingly considering the circumstances, appeared to be some kind of big cameretta, one that appeared to have been furnished and supplied very recently with toys, furniture and other stuff. Namely, there were a (clearly old) low table with crayons and pieces of paper atop of it; some brown boxes labeled as "building blocks"; a scaled-up changing table; and some wicker baskets by the walls of the room. "Come in," said Velvet with a huge smile, while gesturing with her right hoof. The nine ponies nodded at each other to confirm among themselves that they were really doing that. They were entering in Twilight's old cameretta and act ab mater cupidita, without any chances of getting out of that room before sunset. Earning that confirmation, they entered in the cameretta, and when they were all in, Velvet closed the door. While her mother closed the door and opened the window, Twilight gave a quick look at the room, trying to remember what was the original function, before the start Velvet's madness and the following preparations for an eventual homecoming of Velvet's precious "filly". The train of Twilight’s thoughts were immediately crashed when Velvet spoke up, and declared something to the nine ponies "So, now we are all in. Shall we start to play?" The phrase, one that was both to be expected and sudden, upset seven of the nine ponies, who were unsure about what to say to Velvet. Sweetie Belle on the other hand, sprang up in excitement, and jumped on the wickered baskets, toppling them and scattering dolls, peluches and other toys on the floor of the room. Pinkie Pie soon followed, when she managed to put down the diaper boxes and give the pacifiers to the legitimate owners. "When you are done, remember to put everything back in the baskets!" said Velvet with a falsely stern voice. As for the other five mares, after seeing Sweetie Belle and Pinkie Pie running head-on, they decided to follow their lead. Applebloom and Scootaloo, in front of the race of the mares towards Pinkie, decided to use the occasion to solve the question that bothered them since Sweetie Belle had found pacifiers in her box, namely, why Sweetie Belle appeared not only undisturbed by the idea of acting like a foal and being considered as such, but also eager to do so. The two friends of Sweetie Belle knew that she had always been more immature compared to the others and a sucker for younger fillies and related things, but they didn’t think that Sweetie Belle could or wanted to reach such levels, and they could not believe that those two things were the only motives driving Sweetie Belle to do that. And so they embarked in their quest to find out the answer to their question, by walking towards Sweetie Belle, sitting down near her, and getting her attention with a light poke. Sweetie Belle put down the dolls which she was playing with. "Oh, hey there," she said, "wanna play?" Sweetie Belle pointed at the small pile of dolls that was lying near her. Applebloom let out a suppressed chuckle and crossed her front legs, while Scootaloo looked unamused at Sweetie Belle. "Actually... we wanted to ask you a question..." said Applebloom, while she sat with a crinkling sound. Scootaloo soon followed Sweetie Belle nodded and grinned. "Okay, speak your mind." "My and Scootaloo's question is: why are you behaving like this?" Sweetie Belle lowered her ears, and half-closed her eyes. "What do you mean?" "I mean... when we received the infamous pacifiers' boxes, when we revealed their contents, you were pleasantly surprised, if not happy, to receive a pacifier as gift. Once we arrived here, when Twilight's mother asked us to come over and get diapered, you were giggling and blushing with glee as if there was no tomorrow, unlike... pretty much anypony else but Pinkie. And, now, we see you pretty accepting of this whole 'pretending to be foals' thing. Is there a reason for your behavior? We know that you like to stay around younger fillies, and it was not too far-fetched for us to imagine you desiring to be younger, but this?" Sweetie Belle apparently did not detect the underlying disgust of such statement, picking up genuine curiosity from her friend's words instead. "I don't know, really. I just like to stay around younger ponies very much; I sometimes thought about the idea of acting like a little filly, and when Twilight’s mother said we were going to behave like foals, I could not be not excited and happy!" "Eerr... makes sense..." said Applebloom with a large grin that expressed awkwardness. Scootaloo was a lot less delicate, in her confusion in front of the explanation. "Ok Sweetie Belle, I can understand your liking for younger fillies. It makes sense for one that still plays with dolls and has no hesitation into blindly trusting somepony..." Sweetie Belle fake-coughed at the "blindly trusting" part, and Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Meh, whatever. My point is, I can understand your immature antics.." Once again Sweetie Belle coughed, annoying Scootaloo even more. "ALRIGHT, I can understand that you are not all that interested in being a 'big pony'." Scootaloo's unicorn friend coughed once again, causing Scootaloo to briefly snap and frantically move her front hooves in rage. "Don't tell me it is not true!" Sweetie Belle coughed two times more, bended over, then quickly raised her head. "Sorry," she said "I had a coughing fit. Go on." Scootaloo nodded, and did just that. "Where was I? Ah, right, I was talking about why your liking of younger fillies is justified. Anyway, this whole regression thing, and your eagerness to get involved in it is pretty creepy and unsettling. I mean, why would you do that?" Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Because I like it?" Scootaloo facehoofed, while Applebloom, still wearing an unsure look on her face, came back in the discussion. "She's kinda right, and the justification of 'I like it because it feels right' seems legit to me. I mean, to me, going back to doing things that I've outgrew is terrifying, but tastes are tastes." Scootaloo waved her hooves in the air in a desperate manner. "I know, but there HAS to be a reason for this behavior, besides the pretty dry one that Sweetie Belle gave! Those personality quirks are not enough to...” Scootaloo sputtered angry and confused gibberish, in the attempt to express the concept she wanted to say. Sweetie Belle tried to end her friend's sentence before she exploded from the anger. “Justify my behavior about this whole situation?” Scootaloo slowed down her flailing, and nodded. "Yeah, it doesn't justify your behavior. I don't see how the two things are connected!" Applebloom shook her head. "Sometimes, there is no justification for what somepony likes or does. Something might be done out of instinct or feel, not under a rational reason. And Sweetie's decision is one of those." Scootaloo groaned in annoyance at the small lecture given by Applebloom. "Whatever, who cares, if I cannot get a decent explanation, then I should give up," Scootaloo thought. "Ok, ok, I understood, Sweets." Sweetie Belle smiled. "Good." Then she resumed her doll playing for a brief moment, before asking. "So... do you want to join me?" Applebloom put a hoof under her chin in a thoughtful manner, and after three minutes of thought, answered to Sweetie's question. "Sounds decent enough... count me in!" She then joined Sweetie Belle's game. Scootaloo crossed her front legs and pouted "No way, unless I see Rainbow Dash also behaving and playing like a little filly!" Soon after that statement, the voice of Rainbow Dash shrieked loudly. Scootaloo, surprised by the noise, looked behind her, and saw Rainbow Dash's tail getting grabbed by a giggling Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash wearing a small smile, one that made it clear she was not playing with Pinkie because she liked it, but because she wanted to satisfy her wishes. Sweetie Belle, who was also caught in surprise by the shriek, crack shouted this question to Scootaloo: "Does this counts? Do you want to join now?" Scootaloo sighed at the blissful ignorance of Sweetie Belle of hyperboles and her insistence. But, since her hyperbole just happened, now she had to do it. "Yes..." she said with an extremely annoyed voice, a tone of voice that Sweetie Belle picked up perfectly for once. "Oh, if you don't want to, it's not a big deal. I was just trying." Scootaloo looked around her. Seeing no chances to do something interesting, she decided to stick with her friend's idea. "Alright, let's do this," she said after a rather big sigh. "I don't have much else to do, aside from staring at the walls. And, who knows, it might be fun if done with you two." Sweetie Belle and Applebloom shouted a "That's the spirit!", before inviting Scootaloo to serve herself from the nearby pile of dolls. Play pretend with dolls, unless you are an actor or a little filly, is a hard thing to do. At least, so thought Scootaloo, while she tried to have fun by playing with some multicolored construction blocks and dolls made of cloth. She tried to come up with something, but Scootaloo's imagination did not take off in any way, leaving her with two masses of meaningless cloth in her hooves. This was not a case of complete stubbornness on Scootaloo's part, however; in fact, most of her brain was in favor of trying this relatively new thing. Of course, she wanted to get out from Twilight's house ASAP, but while she waited to go away, she wanted to try something that, no matter how weird it was, it was new with her two friends. However, a small but obstinate part of her mind refused to let Scootaloo try to be a foal. This faction would have been insignificant most of the times, but in Scootaloo's case that part of her brain, in a twist of irony, had hidden in a puerile way all the memories of Scootaloo's earlier time. To circumvent this part's obstinacy, Scootaloo looked closely at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, and mimicked them, as to learn how to do that. Alas, Scootaloo's mind was still locked down. Also, as a result of this attempt to get around its restrictions, Scootaloo was forced by that stubborn part to blush and grin with embarrassment. Since Scootaloo's behavior was very visible, it catched Sweetie Belle's and Applebloom's attention. "What's the matter, Scootaloo?" asked Sweetie Belle. "I-I don't know. I want to try to do this, but... something is blocking me." "What is that?" asked Applebloom Scootaloo lowered her ears, and looked at the ground in insecurity. "I feel incapable to do this. I mean... even if it still creeps me out a little, I want to try it. But part of my mind still refuses to let me." Applebloom silently nodded as a sign that she understood, but she was incapable to help, while Sweetie Belle asked. "Part of your mind refuses to let you try?" Scootaloo nodded. "If you really want to do this, and at the same time you feel too weird to do so, I'd suggest you to take it slow. For example, try to build something for us with the building blocks." Sweetie Belle pointed at the build black's boxes located near the pile of dolls and in the middle of the turmoil that was the "adult" part of the cameretta. "Then, slowly integrate your buildings in our game, then introduce your dolls.. and in few minutes, you will be able to get around that restriction." Scootaloo nodded, and grabbed the building blocks, and tried to build a wall. Somehow, her obstructive part gave no response whatsoever. Scootaloo proceeded to build even more walls, then she united said walls, her mind still calm. Slowly but steadily, Scootaloo created a couple of houses, and handed her creation to her friends, who immediately proceeded to integrate said buildings in their game. Soon enough, Scootaloo felt ready to do the next step. She slowly grabbed a cloth doll, and tried to retrieve her fantasy from its psychological prison. Scootaloo's reactionary faction tried to stop the filly from doing so, but failed. Scootaloo, finally getting the nulla aosta from her mind, felt some kind of energy from down her spine, that made her feel good, as she left behind her concerns and some of her dignity. She felt so absorbed, so concentrated in playing with dolls and construction blocks, that she didn't smell a faint scent of ammonia and a stronger smell of methane coming from Sweetie Belle. However, Applebloom did perceive said odors, and, when she looked at the source, she winced. It was Sweetie Belle's diaper. "Sweetie..." said Applebloom timidly. Apparently unaware of what she had just done, Sweetie Belle asked back to Applebloom with a smile. "Yes?" Still a bit shocked, Applebloom asked. "Did... did you just use your diaper?" Sweetie Belle looked and touched the front of her diaper, finding it soggy; then she looked at her behind, and saw a bulge. "Uh-oh. I didn't even feel it." An awkward silence followed. "I guess I should call Velvet." > Delitto e Castigo/ Crime and Punishment. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that statement surprisingly void of surprise Sweetie Belle slowly walked towards Twilight's mother. In that moment, Velvet was taking part in a game with the six mares, by moving the limbs of a plush and talking with a nasal voice, and, judging from the huge smile she wore, she was enjoying every second of the other ponies' discomfort in being treated like little fillies. That, or she was happy to indulge her craving, and she was not even paying attention to what "subtle" signals the mares were sending about their situation. And each one of the six mares was not sending the same messages in the same way either: while Pinkie Pie was, unsurprisingly, having the time of her life playing with blocks, dolls and plushies, while Rainbow Dash was playing with Pinkie just because Rainbow Dash wanted to make Pinkie happy AND because she was bored. Applejack's behavior was similar to Rainbow’s. However, unlike her cyan friend, Applejack was just standing among the other five mares, watching them playing, and mumbling some insults to Pinkie Pie and her stock. Fluttershy slightly trembled and often looked around her, while she was manipulating the dolls with insecurity. For some reason, Velvet appeared to have a liking for Fluttershy, because Velvet often stood beside her, and interacted more frequently with her. Twilight Sparkle was trying to loosen up, even if the thought that she got along with her mother's wishes was still bothering her. Rarity was the one that appeared to go along the flow of the event, even if not on Pinkie's levels. The fashionista was completely immersed in her pretended tea party with stuffed animals as guests. The sight of her sister Rarity, a very orderly, clean, collected and cultured pony, and said to be the most mature mare among the six friends, wearing a diaper and playing with dolls like a little filly and doing it willingly, if not eagerly, caused Sweetie Belle to chuckle. It seemed ridiculous, something that Rarity would never have done in any other circumstances. And yet it was happening. "Then again," whispered Sweetie Belle to herself, after a muffled laugh "you were doing something similar few seconds ago." After saying that to herself, the filly quelled her laughing riots, and carried on with her quest to get her diaper changed by Velvet. First step: get near to Velvet. Sweetie Belle mentally checked that part. Second step: try to get Velvet's attention. Sweetie Belle poked the back of Twilight's mother, and awaited response, also terminating another phase of her simple plan. Third step: actually get attention and communicate the news to Velvet. And here the donkey fell. Sweetie Belle tried to simply state "I used my diaper," but something in her mind told her that the phrase may not be... correct. But she had no idea about what to say that could sound "correct." As the filly tried to come up with something, the mare stopped for few seconds, and looked behind her. "Yes?" asked Velvet. Sweetie Belle tried to say something, but only a squeak came out from her mouth. Thankfully for the white filly, the smells were better at explaining than her words. Smelling the two foul stenches, and recognizing them, Velvet immediately picked up Sweetie Belle with her magic. "Did someone just made a stinky?" chirped Velvet "Don't worry, I am going to clean you up!" Velvet put Sweetie on the changing table on her back, and opened one of the drawers, extracting a can of baby powder, some wipes and rash cream. After placing said items in comfortable reach, Velvet undid the tapes, slid off the diaper, and cleaned up Sweetie's mess with wipes. As Velvet cleaned her, Sweetie Belle shivered from the cold air hitting her nether regions, and blushed, despite not knowing the exact reason for that. Velvet threw the wipes away, extracted a diaper from one of the boxes, and slided it under Sweetie's rump. Done that, the mare poured some baby powder on the lower parts of the white filly, the pleasant smell vanquishing the previous bad odors, and finally closed the garment around Sweetie Belle's waist. Velvet picked up Sweetie Belle with magic, and put her on the ground and patted playfully her padded behind. After the diaper change, Sweetie Belle trotted back to her two friends, and resumed her game. For a while, the three fillies enjoyed themselves without interruptions. Then Pinkie Pie came. The pink mare, after a long, totally-non-ridiculous and completely silent tiphooves walking, arrived near the pile of toys used by the three fillies, and swiftly stole some dolls and blocks, before taunting the fillies with "Come here and take them back!" Pinkie said that phrase giggling and smiling all the way, sign that she was just trying to liven up the things a bit, not trying to be strangely mean. The three fillies recognized it immediately as a taunt and an invite to get over here, and so played along with Pinkie's idea. "Give them back, Pinkie!" shouted Applebloom in false anger. "You mean-headed meanie!" shrieked Sweetie Belle while trying to hold a giggle. "Those were ours!" That was Scootaloo's phrase. Then the three fillies ran towards the group of adults to "try to take back what was theirs." The three fillies reached the group of six mares, and they shouted their claims together. "Give those toys back! They are ours!" Pinkie Pie pressed said items to her chest. "No! They are used by Fluttershy!" The mare handled some of the blocks and a doll she had stolen to the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy looked frankly confused at Pinkie's demeanor, while she grabbed those objects. "T-thank you, Pinkie… but why do you want me to get me involved? Pinkie Pie yelled and shouted. “Come on, don’t be a party pooper, play along!” Fluttershy was still confused, and the fact that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were pressuring to get the toys back didn’t help Fluttershy to calm her fragile nerves. Whining, Fluttershy decided to do the most logical thing to do, and give the toys to the Crusaders without further fuss. "Here... t-take them..." and she gave said items to the Crusaders, while she trembled. The three fillies immediately grabbed the items, and were going to leave the six mares to their games. However, before Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle could get too far, they heard the feminine-masculine voice of Rainbow Dash call them. “Give those to Fluttershy, or else!” Sweetie Belle blew a raspberry to Rainbow Dash, and the mare, clearly hurt in her pride, dashed over the three fillies, and stole away the toys. Applebloom, for some demented reason, decided to grab Rainbow Dash’s tail, causing the pegasus to crash down on the floor. Rainbow Dash did not take it kindly, and straight jumped over Applebloom with the intention to harm her. “I will… I will” uttered Rainbow Dash, while she slapped Applebloom with her right hoof, while the filly was trying to defend herself from the assailant. The other two fillies wanted to help their friend out, and joined the fight in the desperate attempt to get Rainbow Dash to give up. Naturally, the mare didn’t hear any of it, and kept fighting to the bitter end. Better yet, to the extremely padded, mouth-muffling, dark end. Suddenly, the bodies of the four fighters were enveloped in a white aura. Looking at the source of the aura, Rainbow Dash saw Twilight Velvet nearby with her horn lit, and an unamused expression on her face. “What happened here?” asked Velvet to the brawlers rhetorically. However, nopony picked the use of rhetoric by Velvet, and answered as if it was a genuine question instead. “They made Fluttershy cry by taking her toys!” shouted Rainbow Dash while pointing at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They shouted back accordingly “But she handled them to us in the first place!” “Not true!” “It’s true!” “Untrue!” “True!” This very interesting exchange lasted only for one minute or so, before getting abruptly interrupted by Twilight’s mother. “No matter! You four got in a fight, you four get punished!” And then Velvet quickly unlocked the room’s door, before somehow dragging out the mare with her magic, and using her authority to get the fillies to follow her. Despite her best efforts, Rainbow Dash could not get out of Velvet’s grip, despite the physical prowess of the pegasus, and the age of the unicorn mare, while the three fillies just pouted, knowing that struggling wasn’t going to solve anything. The mare dragged the pegasus along the hallway and two flights of stairs, until she reached her bedroom. Once in there, she opened the door and forced the four ponies to follow her in the room. The bedroom of Twilight’s parents, at a first glance, appeared to be furnished only by a rococò wardrobe with glass shutters, an oak desk with small marble statues and piled coins, and a chandelier. Going deeper in the room, however, it was possible to see two other sub-rooms, one on the right, one on the left. The one on the left had a comfortable-looking king-sized bed, two old canterali with marble shelves and bronze handles, two ground chandeliers at each side of the bed, and some pictures hanging on the wall. On the right, however, the room was too dark to see anything, besides the bathroom’s door. Velvet headed for the darker room, leaving the four ponies with themselves. Naturally, they did not miss occasion to complain. “Thank you a lot, girls,” said Rainbow Dash angrily, and yet almost whining, “Now we are going to get some beatings with a carpet beater.” Applebloom immediately answered to Rainbow Dash with the same level of pouting, teeth grinding and tail whipping. “You know, you could have asked Fluttershy first, before trying to fight us! After all, those toys were given by Pinkie without her request, and, before Pinkie Pie handled them, they were ours!” Rainbow Dash threw up her hooves in the air. “I don’t think so, since she was almost genuinely crying. Besides, even if it was true, how was I supposed to know that it was a matter of Fluttershy being confused and easily scared?” “I don’t know, but maybe you should think and ask before act!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Says the one whose free time rotates around one thing and one thing only and doesn' t double check…” Applebloom understood what Rainbow Dash was referencing, but before she could say anything about it, Velvet came back, pulling loudly… something. The mare huffed as she trailed the mysterious item. The eyes and the ears of Rainbow Dash and the three fillies perked up, and pointed at what Twilight Velvet was pulling. Then, the details of the object slowly revealed themselves to the light: the object had bars colored in blue and white, two panel were are each opposite end of the bars, with the visible side having animals engravings on it… “A crib! It’s a crib!” shout-squeaked Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo deadpanned. “Thank you Sweetie Belle…” Velvet ignored Scootaloo’s remark, and answered Sweetie’s exclamation instead. “Yes, you three are going to bed earlier! Let me place the crib, and you are set.” Then Velvet proceeded to put the crib near the true bed of the bedroom. Applebloom sighed, and said “At least it’s not spanking or caning,” Sweetie Belle deeply frowned, but deep inside cheered, while Scootaloo was waving her hooves uncoordinatedly, unable to form coherent sentences that did not ended with an insult over Velvet’s supposed true job. As for Rainbow Dash, she shrugged, saying that, since it didn’t affected her in the slightest, she didn’t care and that the three fillies got it easy, because the punishment that Velvet gave to the Crusaders was not “get their flank high thanks to a carpet beater.” Velvet finally adjusted the crib to be perfectly parallel to the bed, before telling Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and Scootaloo the rules of the punishment. “Now, since I know you have difficulties to sleep without your paci, I am going to give them to you anyway. However, that’s about it. When I feel that the punishment has served its purpose, then you will be free again.” Velvet then referred to Rainbow Dash. “As for you, missy, you must wait for me here, or else!” That said, Twilight’s mother ran downstairs to take the pacifiers for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Applebloom and Scootaloo looked each other in the eyes, unsure. "Did we screw up?" Applebloom shrugged. "Guess so." And they went silent once again. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle hopped over the bars of the crib, and proceeded to put herself under the sheets. "Better be ready," she said. "After all, there isn't much we can do, beside taking our punishment." After hearing those words, Rainbow Dash sprang up. "Well, if you want to take it, it's not my business. As for me," Rainbow Dash opened a window behind a curtain near the bed "I’m not gonna tag along with th..." Suddenly, Velvet entered in the room, taking Rainbow Dash by surprise. Velvet quickly left the pacifiers on the table, and pinned Rainbow Dash's tail to the wall with her magic. Rainbow could utter only a sentence, in that situation, and that sentence was “Crap." "What did I say to you before?" asked Velvet sternly. "Don't try to escape..." said Rainbow Dash with an almost-pleading voice, after some seconds of stern staring and tense silence. "And do you know what happens when you try to escape from my punishment?" "No." "Not a nice thing, that's for sure." Rainbow Dash's eyes slightly widened for few brief seconds, before coming back to normal, and she muttered "I hope it isn't what I think it is." Velvet ignored Rainbow's response, and gave the pacifiers to the three fillies. "Now that you three are set, sleep." While Applebloom and Scootaloo simply nodded and hopped in the crib, trying to get comfortable in the little available space, Sweetie Belle put a pacifier in her mouth, curled up in a ball, and started to suckle. Once the three fillies were in bed, Velvet quickly dropped the curtains, leaving the room immersed in darkness. "Now follow me," said Velvet to Rainbow Dash. "It's time to teach you a lesson..." > Delitto e Castigo Part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Velvet's request, Rainbow Dash followed quite meekly her downstairs, until the old mare returned to the entrance hall. "Just a minute," said Velvet, as she moved towards the big and old wardrobe near the entrance door. "I have to take something for you." The mare strongly wished to attack Twilight Velvet, and force the sham to stop dead in its tracks, even if she had agree to satisfy Velvet's completely non creepy desires. However, something back in Rainbow's head told her that attempting to fight Velvet was like trying to brawl one’s self image in a mirror: it was stupid, pointless, and likely to hurt. The mare tried several times to get the voice to shut up, but nothing could do the trick, and thus, she was forced to just stare at Velvet while she was shuffling items in the wardrobe. Not too later on, Velvet terminated her quest for whatever she was looking for. She levitated the item with magic, then looked back at Rainbow Dash, revealing the object in the process. The magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash widened, and she backed slightly. That item was a carpet beater. "That's what you get for disobeying me," said Velvet sternly, as she walked towards Rainbow Dash, and the blue mare just stared at her. Rainbow Dash now urged to fight back, and beat Twilight’s mother down. But at the same time, the pegasus could not bring herself to lay a hoof over Velvet, even if the latter was going to lay some hits with a beater. Suddenly, Velvet changed trajectory towards one of the sofas in the room. She sat upwards on the sofa, and said. "Get over here and bend over." After saying that double-entrede-filled sentence, Velvet looked sternly at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash sighed, and did what Velvet told her. Once Rainbow Dash was in position, Velvet undid the diaper's tapes, slid it off, put it aside, and raised the carpet beater. The cyan mare bit her lip, in attempt to dull the incoming rump pain... Rainbow Dash heard a swat, and felt a rush of pain. She hissed, as Velvet repeated the gesture five times. Then Velvet asked. "Are you sorry?" Rainbow Dash, feeling humiliated and a bit in pain, was going to say "Yes." However, the desire of fight back overtook the mare, and made her say. "No!" Then, since Velvet was just behind her, Rainbow Dash tried to kick the older mare with her mighty rear hooves. However, Velvet, clearly foreseeing that, blocked the two hooves just few inches from her face. Once she blocked the hooves, Velvet hanged the blue mare upside-down, and forced eye contact. "Do not even think to hurt me!" sad Velvet, while she slowly put Rainbow Dash back in position. "For this, I think I will escalate the punishment even more!" The blue mare gulped, at the thought about how that could get worse. However, her mind could not concentrate well on at, because meanwhile Velvet had resumed the swatting with the carpet beater. After twenty or so of those swats, Velvet freed Rainbow Dash, ran in another nearby room, and returned in the entrance hall with a rope. "Now, since you have been a bad filly, I think I will have to limit you some more." That said, Twilight's mother quickly tied the wings of the cyan pegasus to the body. Rainbow Dash, feeling almost mutilated by the block on her wings, tried to get free from the rope by buzzing them and mess it with her hooves, but to no avail: she was, literally, grounded. Velvet hastily put the diaper back on Rainbow Dash's rump, and said "Don't try to get free from these ropes until I tell you to do so. And now, unto the next and last phase of your punishment." Rainbow Dash was going to say something to the old mare, but she was caught by surprise by the firm magical grip of Velvet, and the following dragging to the starting point, the cameretta. Velvet lowered the handle of the door with her right hoof, and then opened the door, allowing to see what was going on in the room. Namely, Rarity was going around a frilly dress-wearing Applejack and praising-mocking the prettiness of the dress wore by Applejack. The farm pony just stared the ground and blushed. As for Fluttershy, she was peacefully playing with Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash greeted her five friends, as she was dragged in by Velvet. The five stopped dead in their tracks, and looked at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack with worry, the others with curiosity. "What happened, Rainbow Dash?" Asked Applejack. "I also wonder about what our dear friend Rainbow Dash endured," said Rarity. Before the other ponies could ask any more questions, Velvet said. "Your friend has been a bad filly, along with the other three young ones. As such, she is being punished. Ah, and the other three too." Rarity moved her face towards Velvet to express disbelief, Applejack looked sideways at Velvet, Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked puzzled, and, finally, Fluttershy did what she was used to do in such situations: worry. "Oh my gosh, Rainbow. What have you done?" "I tried to give back your toys, the ones that the CMC stole from you!" Fluttershy looked down to the floor and lowered her ears. "Actually... those toys were really theirs." Rainbow Dash uttered a "Darn" as Velvet dragged her into a corner that contained a stool. Once in the corner of the room, Velvet dropped Rainbow's rear hooves, and said. "Now sit on the stool, and face the corner for three minutes. Once the three minutes end, you are done." Sighing, Rainbow Dash nodded, and sat on the stool. Once the pegasus mare was on the stool, Velvet came back to the other five mares, and tried to make them ignore Rainbow Dash. Meanwhile, upstairs, Applebloom was sitting in the crib, and she was pressing the front part of her diaper, and moaning in desperation. "Gotta pee, gotta pee really badly," she whispered. Woken up by Applebloom's lament, Sweetie Belle asked. "Why are you moaning, Applebloom?" The yellow filly crawled towards her white friend. "Because I need to go to the bathroom, but the room is too dark to see where the door is!" Sweetie Belle shrugged. "Can't you try to figure that out, by opening everything that looks like a door? Besides, we have a diaper on us that we can use, and I don't think Velvet would let us go to the bathroom." Applebloom answered offended. "I don't want to play a guessing game. And I am a big pony, and as such, I must use the bathroom!" "I know, but do you realize what the actual situation is?" The white filly expressed politely her contrast. Applebloom, naturally, did not notice the politeness. "Yes, I do. But how is this connected to my wish to go to the toilette, instead of using a diaper?" "It's connected, since us three, our sisters and their friends are all diapered because Velvet sees us as little fillies. And, from what I could understand, Velvet sees me, Scootaloo and you as months-old." "And so what?" "This means that Velvet considers us as babies that still need potty training." Applebloom grew angrier. "I still can't understand why you think Velvet would get angry at me, if I try to use the loo!" Sweetie Belle remained more collected, but also raised the tone of her voice. "Because she would not think that you were 'watering the daisies', but that you were trying to escape!" Applebloom looked around her in disbelief, and hanged her mouth open for few seconds. Then she spoke up in rage mixed with confusion. "How did you reach this conclusion, Sweetie? And why are you so worried about Velvet's punishment?" Sweetie Belle answered with annoyance. "Did you see what happened to Rainbow Dash, when she tried to escape?" Applebloom slightly skimmed, as she answered with increasing annoyance. "And so? Trying to escape from the main door would be incredibly stupid anyway, so how can she mistake going to the bathroom as an attempt to run away or break the punishment?" "Once again, she considers us babies, and thus with limited intelligence and bowel control. It would not be impossible. In fact, it's dead cert." Applebloom huffed in extreme annoyance. "This discussion solved nothing! Now the pressure on my bladder has grown, and I went nowhere near the bathroom. Since I really don't want to use this, I am going to tempt luck." Sweetie Belle sighed and lowered her head. "As you wish. May the Energy be with you, because you don't know what you are going to do." That said, Applebloom climbed, not without some struggle thanks to the diaper and her weight, over the wooden bars of the crib, and started to walk towards the opposite part of the room, with her crotch in pain from holding the pee for too long. Each step looked like a small conquest to Applebloom, but she was still far from her location. But, deep in the yellow filly's heart, she knew she was going to use the bathroom like the big pony she was, and nothing was going to stop her. Except, maybe, a sudden scare. The door that appeared like a light high rectangular shape in the darkness suddenly opened with a loud creak, showering the room in natural light. Applebloom backed slightly, because her eyes were used to darkness by that point, and light hurt a little. Few droplets of the yellow liquid were adsorbed by the diaper. However, Applebloom's banks completely broke down when Velvet appeared, and, noticing Applebloom in front of her, sternly said. "Applebloom! What are you doing?!" The yellow filly felt her heart filling up with fear and surprise. She wished to say something, but nothing came out, and so she blocked herself. As a result, Applebloom also relaxed her bladder. She felt her urine exiting from her body and getting adsorbed by the diaper around her waist. When the filly realized that, another emotion, shame, was added to the mix of negative feelings that pervaded her. "So much for big pony!" her mind screamed at itself. The filly didn't know what to do, she was too ashamed to try to explain her behaviour, she was too scared to run away, she was too confused to try to formulate a reasonable thought... by that point, the only things she could do were cry, or stay there, and wait to calm down. Applebloom in a whim decided that the former was not a completely bad option. As soon as Applebloom curled up in a ball, and started to whimper and produce tears, Velvet, realizing the mistake, wiped her frown off her face, and picked up Applebloom with magic. Done that, she put the crying filly in her front hooves, and whispered in her ear. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Hush, please. I will get you changed." And started to rock her. Applebloom toned down her crying to sobbing, and, when she realized the reason for why she did that, she could not believe it. "Did I just stop crying because I was rocked like a little foal?" she whispered to herself. A very high-pitched and yet whispering voice suddenly spoke up in Applebloom's mind. "But it felt... good." Applebloom answered to the voice. "No, it didn't! I can't just have peed on myself, cried for it, and stopped crying because I was lulled a bit and got some sweet words! This didn't happen! No, it didn't!" The voice answered with a sneaky tone. "Come on, what fun is there in begin a big pony, if you can't be a little one sometimes?" Applebloom answered with passionate confusion. "That the others make fun of you! That... I can't describe it, it just feels wrong!" "But you just saw your close friend doing those 'wrong things.' In fact, you followed her in her ride without any questions." "But that was different. She didn't force me to use the diaper, when she used it. Also, I did it because..." "Tell the truth, while getting caught walking away by Velvet was not pleasurable, you DID enjoyed getting rocked!" "Not true! I don't even know why I started crying, I guess I realized it was stupid cry right there right now." "You knew it. It's just you don't want to admit it. Besides, it's late to try to uselessly save your 'dignity,' since we are already on the changing table." The yellow filly looked around her, and saw that, indeed, she was on the changing table of the cameretta, with Velvet pulling out the can of baby powder, a diaper and a wipe. The yellow filly sighed. "Alright... let's get this done." Velvet untaped the diaper quickly, threw it in the bin, cleaned the area with the wipe, threw away the wipe, powdered Applebloom's nether region, took a diaper, slid it under Applebloom's rump, taped it to the filly's waist, then put her down on the floor. "Well, that was fast. And at least I didn't..." She could not finish her sentence, becuase Velvet forecefully put her pacifier in her mouth. Applebloom sighed again. Velvet then exited from the room, and came back with a camera. > Proposta indecente/Obscene Proposal > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some minutes later, outside Velvet's house, in the backyard, Princess Celestia, in a break from her duties, was hiding in a bush, spying with a binocle what was going on in the cameretta of Twilight's house. From there, the Sun princess could see her student Twilight wearing a diaper, and carrying some dolls and toy bricks with her magic. Princess Celestia snickered at the sight. "Good, good." Soon after saying that, the other five bearers of the Elements of Harmony appeared, also wearing a diaper and carrying toys around. Celestia put the right hoof under her chin thoughtfully. "Well, that's more than what I was aiming for. But I guess I should not criticize this act of kindness from Twilight's friends. It's a pity that they can't stay with her for all of the four months." Suddenly, the eyes of the princess widened, her right hoof shooting up in the air, and her mouth left gaping open. She had an idea. "But of course! If they want to keep supporting Twilight in her punishment, I should aid them in their quest. I shall cover the losses from being out of business for a while, and find replacements for some of them! After all, my personal treasure is big enough to cover their losses, and I am sure that there are some ponies willing to do some of the Elements' jobs." A huge smile appeared on Celestia's face, and she started to buzz her wings happily. "Now I should only knock, talk about it with Twilight Velvet, proceed to issue the orders, and fill the papers!" Then Princess Celestia flew from the backyard of Twilight's house to the gate of the same house. Once there, she rang the bell. From the house, Velvet's gray servant emerged and after greeting the princess with a bow and a "Good day, Majesty," she opened the gate. "What do you wish, Lucifera Excellence?" Princess Celestia stepped in the garden, and answered to Velvet's servant with formality. "I'd wish to meet Madam Twilight Velvet, if she is at home." The gray mare, still nodding nervously and grinning unsurely, guided Celestia towards the front door of the house. "Yes, yes, she is in." Princess Celestia let the gray mare open the front door, and let the servant come in, before entering in the house herself. Once in the entrance hall, the gray mare put her left hoof near the mouth. "Madam, Princess Celestia has arrived. She is looking for you." "Princess Celestia? Give me a moment, and I will be there!" Velvet shouted back. While Velvet was getting ready, Princess Celestia closed the door behind her, to the valet's annoyance, and she walked down the hallway that led to the room where Velvet was. At the end of the hallway, from behind a door, Celestia could hear giggles and voices coming, sign that it was the house's cameretta, and the most likely location of Velvet. Then the door opened, revealing Velvet. The mare, seeing the princess right in front of her, bowed. "Good morning, Princess. What do you wish from me?" The sun alicorn looked causally at the ceiling and spoke with a falsely hesitant tone of voice. "I have something to talk about with you, and it's about your daughter." Velvet smiled, and walked towards the staircase. "Oh, I understand. Come on, follow me. We can talk about it in a proper room." Princess Celestia nodded, and followed Velvet upstairs towards the lavishly decorated living room. There, Celestia sat on one of the red sofas, and Velvet sat on the couch opposite Celestia's sofa. Silence followed. Velvet decided to break the ice first. "Do you want something to drink, Princess? Matè, coffee?" "A cup of matè would be nice. Yes, please." Velvet clapped her front hooves, then shouted, "Sedula, make two mates, please!" "Yes ma'am!" shouted the valet. Done that, Velvet passed to the subject matter. "So, why did you come over here to talk about my daughter?" Celestia answered with a soft smile. "I saw that Twilight's friends are helping her overcome her stress, and I found it quite nice. I am aware that they must come back home at sunset though. However, I find that such strict limitation should not exist for such act of kindness, and that it should be larger. So, I ask you: is it fine with you to host some of Twilight's friends for four months?" Velvet put her left hoof under her chin, and looked at the wall. For two minutes, she remained silent. "I would like to. However, I can't stay all day at home to look after them; after all, while I am near the retirement and I am able to easily model my workday to fit to my needs, I still need to work. And my husband doesn't like the idea very much to begin with, so I doubt that he would look after them." Princess Celestia frowned. "Oh, that's a pity. It would have been nice, to see the friends of your daughter support her." Meanwhile, Sedula Serva came, and left a trail with two cups of murky brown liquid, before leaving. Celestia levitated the cup near lips, and took a sip of the hot liquid. "Well, you can't get everything from life," said Velvet, before taking sip from her own cup. "I know. If only I could find a pony eager to take care of your guests and Twilight..." As soon as Celestia terminated that phrase, she remembered about Cadence and her past. Then she thought to the situation at hand. And the alicorn of the Sun had an idea. Namely, contact the Arciduchessa Mi Amore Cadenza, and ask if she would be willing to come back to her old job of foalsitter from time to time for the period of four months. Naturally, emphasizing the "See Twilight Sparkle again" part, since the Archduchess of Love expressed her desire to see Celestia's student one of those days. And, of course, omit the part of "foalsit adults acting like foals," to avoid immediate rejection, and be vague about it instead, so to not look like a liar to Cadance. The Sun princess mumbled to herself for a while, before looking at Velvet with an inquisitive look. "Wait. Do you remember Cadence? Twilight's old foalsitter?" Velvet nodded, as she drunk another sip of her drink. "Yes, I do. But isn't she an Archduchess now?" "Yes, she is. However, I've heard she wants to see Twilight again, and take a break from her duties as a member of the Council of Nobles. Of course, she is the chairpony of the Council now, but since she has been elected as result of an extended 'Seaside Government', I don't think that her occasional absence will affect the decisions of the Council too much," said Celestia with a tone between the expository and the friendly one. Velvet nodded, and took another sip of her matè, finishing her cup. Velvet dried her lips with her tongue, before coming back to the discussion. "That sounds very good, Princess. My only concern would be about her willingness to come back to her old work, but if I understood you correctly, she won't mind about it too much, as long she is with my daughter." The white alicorn leaned her head to the right, squinted her eyes, and flapped her left hoof in front of her face, and said with slight insecurity. "Yes... we can say that she will do it, as long Twilight Sparkle is involved." Velvet smiled. "That's good. " Velvet looked around for a brief second "Is that all, princess?" "Yes, it is," answered Celestia, before standing up, and walking out of the room. Only then Celestia realized she forgot about a simple but important part of her plan. Namely, the Bearers' thoughts about staying at Twilight's house, since she was sure that not everypony left in the cameretta was really willing to act like a little filly, let alone remain in Velvet's house for four months. And Celestia wanted to have at least partial consensus from the five mares. Celestia quickly returned into the living room. Velvet, surprised, asked with a worried tone. "Is something the matter, Princess?" Celestia huffed, and buzzed her wings for few seconds. "I need to see what your guests think about this." Velvet slightly pounded her forefront with her left hoof. "Silly me! How could forget to ask what ponies could stay and who not?" Velvet jumped down the couch "Let's go, then." And so the two mares headed for the cameretta's door. Velvet opened the door, and silently asked Celestia to wait few seconds outside the room, so to prepare the six mares and the three fillies in the room to the important and unexpected guest. The Princess walked few feet away from the door, so to not spoil the surprise. Then the mare lowered the handle with her magic, and opened the door with a creak, revealing the ongoing activities of the nine ponies there, the unusual uninteresting sight of Pinkie Pie double-diapering herself up, Fluttershy roosting over Rainbow Dash's shoulder, Twilight playing around with Rarity, and the Crusaders fooling around with a too-serious-for-the-situation Applejack. Since the nine ponies paid no attention to the door's opening, Velvet decided that clapping her hooves was a good idea to get their attention, even if the clap could get lost in the general noise. Velvet clashed her right hoof with her left hoof... and saw no response from the ponies. Velvet tried again. Nothing. The old mare tried five times, before decide to just call them. "Could I get your attention, please?" shouted Velvet. The three fillies suddenly turned around, and looked at Velvet perplexed. Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity looked at the door. Twilight sighed and murmured something about her mother, Rainbow Dash, for some reason, jumped in the air, and did the etruscan salute, before realizing what was going on. Fluttershy bravely squeaked and let out a "Eeep!" Once all the eyes of the nine ponies were on Velvet, the mare spoke up. "We have a special guest today, who wants to talk with you!" Everypony in the room looked sideways at Twilight's mother, as she gestured towards somepony in the hallway. The "somepony" was revealed to be Princess Celestia. Eight of the nine ponies exclaimed "Princess Celestia?" The last pony, Fluttershy, squeaked, blushed, and tried to hide herself in a corner from the embarrassment. "What do you wish from us,your Majesty? And what are the circumstances that brought you here?" asked Rarity with curiosity and disbelief. "Well, good morning, Princess. As you can see, we were not ready for your coming," said Applejack, as she stared at the ground and grinned awkwardly. "Why did you come over here? Oh, I know, it's because..." said Pinkie, before getting interrupted with a hoof in her mouth by a beet-red Scootaloo, who asked the Princess to ignore her. "Hello, Princess Celestia. Any reasons for interrupting your princess stuff?" asked almost casually Sweetie Belle, like if she was talking to a normal adult, instead of the ruler of the land. Princess Celestia, seeing the varying reactions, that spaced from "I am sorry for being in such a sorry state in your presence" to "I am dressing weirdly. So what?" Also, Sweetie Belle's reaction caused the Sun princess to mutter to herself "Blessed naivety." "Good morning, my little ponies. I can give you an answer about my reasons for getting here, and it involves you and your actions," said Princess Celestia with a friendly tone. Despite that, however, some of the ponies, especially the ones that started with "R" and liked to dress up, the ponies with a liking for (in lateral sense) bucking trees, and the ones with a whole zoo of animals in their house, tensed up, starting to either eat their hoofnails or curl up into a ball. "Don't worry, it's not a bad thing," said Celestia, to much relief of those three ponies'. "Actually, it's about something impressive you have done today. Namely, trying to help your dear friend Twilight Sparkle cope with her current predicament. Now, I know that some of you didn't expect to do this for my student. However, if the actions I have witnessed are of any indication, you have done this without protesting." Rainbow Dash raised her left hoof and moved towards the Sun alicorn to say something, but the blue mare was stopped both by Applejack's mouth-holding abilities and the classic of a hoof down the throat. "I've thought that this situation could be a perfect occasion for you all to learn something, and also support my personal student Twilight Sparkle in her four months-long punishment. Velvet agreed to give room and board to everypony, and I can cover the losses and hire substitutes for their jobs, for the ones that want to stay. So, my question is: who desires to stay here with Twilight Sparkle?" Suddenly, the room went silent. The nine ponies could not process correctly what Princess Celestia just said, either out of joy or disbelief. Velvet and Celestia decided to give few minutes to the six mares and the three fillies to think about it, before trying to elicit a response from them. After two minutes, Rarity was the first to exit from her stupor. "As much as I appreciated this experience, and I would not mind repeating it, I feel I must decline. There is so much to do back home, between dress orders, designs creation, housekeeping and so on, that I feel I can’t stay here without feeling guilty. Besides, something is more pleasurable, if awaited; and my sister Sweetie Belle needs to attend to her duty-right of school." Sweetie Belle squeaked at Rarity in annoyance. "Oh, come on! I want to stay here! School's boring, here is more fun and... pleasurable!" Rarity sniffed, then delicately forced eye contact with her little sister, then said with a mellow voice. "As I said, you would appreciate this more, if you did it more scarcely. Besides, Twilight goes to the Kindergarten now, and, if you want to fully support her, you should attend to the Kindergarten's classes with Twilight. Do you want to go to the Kindergarten again?" Velvet and Celestia were going to contradict the white fashionista, before seeing her wink towards them. Sweetie Belle lowered her ears and frowned. "No..." she said sadly. Rarity smiled. "Good, then you are going with me." Sweetie Belle nodded. Princess Celestia daawed, before moving on. "So, Rarity and Sweetie Belle don't want to stay. Anypony else is ready to give his opinion?" Pinkie Pie came out from her joyful silence, and sprang up. "YesIwanttostayherebecauseIlikethisverymuchandIamabletohelpTwilightatthesametime!" Then she started to tip-tap dance happily on the floor. Celestia laughed at Pinkie's euphoria, while the other ponies prepared to reveal their intentions. "I'd wish to leave..." said Fluttershy timidly. "Saying that I didn't like what Velvet enforced on us is an understatement. So, you can guess I want to go home and take care of my farm," said Applejack. "I am with my sister. Even if I found it bearable, with Sweetie's company," said Applebloom. Rainbow Dash wore a beeched face, as she hovered above the ground. "Of course I leave! After all, it's going to be four months with the same mare that spanked and grounded me! Why I would do that?". Celestia sgihed, at the sight of most of Twilight's friend copping out. "So, anypony else?" Scootaloo raised her left hoof. "I want to get out of here," she said laconically. Then Twilight raised her right hoof, blushing and lowering her ears. "Can I go home?" she asked pleadingly. Princess Celestia snickered, went near Twilight, and playfully knocked up the left ear of her student. "Nice try, Twilight." Velvet also went near Twilight, and clutched her daughter's neck. "But you are already at home, dear." Twilight snorted in annoyance. When this awkward moment terminated, the white alicorn came back to her listing. "So, we have already chose who stays and who leaves, right? Well, could you please tell me again what the decisions of each pony are?" And the eight ponies said once again whether they wanted to stay in or leave Velvet's house. > Ritorno alla Tenzone > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once the ponies expressed their desires, Princess Celestia, slightly disappointed, spoke up. "Well, it seems that you prefer occasional visits to your friends, instead of full-on support." Celestia winked. "Not that it's a bad thing. It's a way like any other." Rainbow Dash hovered above ground. "Can we go now?" she said. "Of course yes! Let's go!" said Applejack as she ran towards the door... and was stopped by giggling Celestia. Applejack kicked the air around her as she was pinned. "I thought we were free to go!" said Applejack with annoyance. The white alicorn answered with a playful tone. "I'd advise you get rid of your current attire before leaving." Applejack slapped herself with her right hoof, while the other seven ponies, as if they feared a counter-order from Celestia about doing so, slowly untaped their diapers and discarded their accessories; the leaving mares got off their smocks and folded them. Applebloom and Scootaloo left the pacifiers to Velvet, while Sweetie Belle decided to keep her pacifier and took two packs of diapers, saying that they could come in handy, if she and Rarity wished to try that again at home. When all the ponies were finally ready to leave Velvet's house, Twilight's mother quickly handed a small black velvet sack to Rarity. "There is the roll of film of your photos in there." she said with a big smile. Rarity grinned awkwardly, thanked Velvet, hastily greeted Princess Celestia, Velvet, Twilight and Pinkie, and left the house with the other six ponies quickly following behind her. When Twilight's friends left, Celestia went to the door. "Well, that was pleasurable while it lasted, now I must adhere to my duties as a ruler." She then flew off to the horizon,while Velvet waved to her. When she was done with the waving and came back in the house, Twilight sighed. "Well, it seems that matter, anti-matter and strange matter have met here in my house. And I am matter..." Some hours of forced naps, fought baths, some time in a dark corner, and a spartan and weirdly arranged dinner, it was, finally, time to go to bed. Twilight hoped that, at least in this, Velvet was going to give some freedom of action. Fat chance. It was five past nine post meridian, when Velvet decided to grab Pinkie's and Twilight's tails, and bring them into Twilight's room, to much of the two ponies' chagrin. While they were dragged up the stairs, Pinkie Pie and Twilight complained profusely. "But I am not tiiiireeed..." said the pink pony with a whiny voice, one that seemed to mock one of an actual foal. "Mother, once again. I don't need to go to sleep so early. I have to go to kindergarten at eight o'clock, not at six o'clock," said Velvet's daughter with a deadpan voice. Velvet entered in Twilight's room, and closed the door. "You need those hours of sleep, Twily and Pinkie. After all, you don't want to be tired tomorrow, right?" Twilight facehoofed. "I don't want to, but..." Velvet interrupted her daughter. "Then you got to sleep now with our guest." Twilight grunted, while Pinkie Pie continued her verbal fight. "But I am still full of energy!" An unfortunate, or maybe intentional, yawn followed. "See? You are sleeping on all your fours." Velvet extracted the small bed that lied under Twilight's. "Come on, let's get ready for sleep." While Pinkie Pie continued to argue, while pretending to be increasingly tired, Velvet's daughter sighed. "Unavoidable embarrassing pajamas en route in ten, nine..." As Twilight counted down, Velvet quickly unpacked the foldable bed and put sheets on it, then opened the drawer, extracted a lilac bag closed with sealing wax, destroyed the wax, opened the bag, and while she slowly revealed the content, she shouted: "Twily, put on your pajamas!" while levitating said article of night clothing out of its bag. Of course, said pajamas fit to the "theme," because it was white with a pattern of green kittens, blue hippos and pink elephants. "Just as expected..." said Twilight, while rolling her eyes in annoyance. However, tired of the fighting, she decided to just get over with it as soon as possible, so she put her front hooves in the sleeves of the shirt and tried to fit her padded bottom in the pants. Alas, the trousers were too small to fit the diaper in, so Twilight struggled for minutes and minutes, her rage intensifying at each attempt, before hearing the giggle of an old mare behind her. Twilight recognized it as her mother's voice. "Mother, would you kindly explain to me how I am supposed to wear this trousers, if I have a diaper on me?" Velvet terminated her giggle to reach to her daughter's face, pinch one of her cheeks, and say. "You are not supposed to wear diapers, while you sleep," Twilight sighed in relief. "It might be illogical," whispered Twilight to herself, "since she put me in diapers during the day, and now she is putting me out of them during the night. But, hey, it's not like she remembers that I was a bedwetter until I was seven, since, in her timeline, this date was never reached..." Twilight stopped mid-thought, when she arrived at that point. "Wait... the fact that she gave me a pajamas with trousers that won't fit if I wear a diaper doesn't mean she is putting me out of them for the night..." Twilight facehoofed at her own stupidity. "It means she is just changing the type!" And, while those words were thought, Velvet had left the room, and returned with a pack of pull-ups. "Come on Twily, let’s put this on you." Twilight took one of the pull-ups with her magic, feeling too annoyed and humiliated to even feel annoyance, humiliation, or modesty; and, after pocketing her hind legs in the garment, she pulled it up to her waist. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was quickly explaining to Velvet that, no, she had no nightwear with her, and that it wasn't so cold to warrant one. Still, Twilight's mother forced the wearing of the pajamas, and relative adsorbent garment-swapping. Once the two ponies were ready, Velvet raised the covers of the two beds as a silent invitation to get under them. The two mares complied without questions. Velvet smiled, as she tucked the covers on her daughter. “Do you want me to read a bedtime story to you?” Pinkie Pie was going ot raise her right hoof, before Twilight could answer for both with a grin. “No thanks, mother.” Velvet smiled, kissed Twilight’s forehead, turned off the light then exited from the room, and bid them goodnight. > Nuovo Giorno > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight, while she was slumbering, felt something strongly shaking her body, and her mother's voice profaning her ears with its shrillness, shrillness amplified by her ears' early morning sensibility. "Twily, wake up, or else you will be late for Kindergarten!" Twilight, groaning from both the sudden awakening and the annoying noise, rolled out of her comically undersized bed, then slowly rose on her four hooves, and tried to walk to the bathroom to free herself from the bodily functions, and get off the diaper, but, while doing so, Twilight stepped on the used pull-up of Pinkie, and slipped, causing her to fall flat on her stomach. Velvet, ignoning the struggling of her daughter, who was trying to get ride of the pull-up, lit her horn up. With a swift use of Velvet's magic, the pull-up was slid off Twilight's waist and threw it in the hallway. Done that, while her daughter struggled to regain balance, the older mare took a diaper from a box and, as if nothing was happening taped it on her daughter, who was now flailing her hooves around the floor as if she was on the ice. Then Twilight's mother, with a giggle, hovered Twilight slightly above the floor. Twilight immediately stopped her flailing and asked with annoyance "Put me down, please." Velvet did just that, then ran to pick up the smock. "Time to get the smock on!" said Velvet with glee. Twilight did not show the same level of enthusiasm, when she got her front hooves forcefully pocketed in the sleeves of the smock, the wrinkled rear part stretched out over her bottom, and the front buttons adjusted, however, she didn't put up a fight either. When Twilight's distressing dressing finally ended, she quickly walked out of her room along with her mother, to have some breakfast and get out of the liminary state where Twilight's mind resided at the time. Downstairs, in the dining room, Pinkie Pie, already in a gray dress, was eating her breakfast, her pace matched only by a water pump, and Sedula Serva just stood there, not even trying to stop Pinkie Pie from finishing every plate and drink up every cup on the table. In fact, she just brought away the emptied cups and the light blue plates. "Pinkie! It's not polite to eat before the others even arrive!" Velvet, apparently, cared only about Pinkie's rudeness, instead of the loads and loads of food she was eating. Twilight, fearing to be left without anything to eat, dragged the plates and the mugs towards her, and shoved the few cookies and brioches left down her throat, and, ignoring the scorching that steaming hot coffee left if drunk like that, she gulped the contents of the coffee jug, or at least what was left. Surprisingly, Twilight's mother didn't bat an eye, about the food race, but she glanced at Twilight when she saw her drinking coffee. Twilight saw in her peripheral field of vision her mother scolding her silently, and decided to go around the rule by simply throwing a swig of milk down her throat before doing the same with coffee. Because of the power of the almost insatiable hunger of Pinkie Pie and the quick eating of the remains by Twilight Sparkle, only the morsels and the bottoms of the jugs were left to Velvet to eat. Naturally, she did just that, inhaling the crumbs with her nose like she was a vacuüm cleaner, and diluted the mugs and jugs with sink water to drink the last drops of the liquids. When all the three ponies were done with their breakfast, Velvet sighed. "Well, I wasn't aware you two had such a big appetites. Well, I guess I should buy more food next time." Velvet suddenly raised her head, and pointed at Twilight "Now let's go!" Pinkie Pie perked up her ears at Velvet's phrase, and started to skip in place. "Where are you going? Can I go with you too? Please, please, please!" Velvet smiled at Pinkie's desire to follow her and Twilight in whatever they were going to do, and as she silently asked her daughter to wait for her at the garden's gate, the old mare looked at Pinkie with a look between the manic and the condescending. "I am going to bring Twily to the Kindy, so you can come, if you want to.” Pinkie Pie jumped high in the air and glided towards the stairs with glee, all while shrieking gibberish, Velvet following her. Once Twilight was reached by her mother and her pink friend, sighing, she started to walk at a very fast pace alongside them in the scarcely trafficked street that led to the Kindergarten's building. Few minutes later, Pinkie Pie, Velvet and Twilight were already there, near the front gate of the building, where the first little fillies and colts were heading through the gate, and, on the opposite side of the sidewalk, the parents were waving their foals. "False alarm: I could have had a slower and better breakfast, if my fixation on arriving on time didn't get the best of me, thanks to my mother's words," thought Twilight, while she slowed down. Another part of her mind, one that spoke with a deeper and raspy voice, tried to start another mental argument in Twilight's mind, by saying. "But what if you were tardy?" Twilight's other part was not having any of that, especially at that time of the day and after what she had been through in the past days. "What would have the supposed punishment been? Spanking? Yelling? Begin treated like a months old? The first two would be useless, the last would be too insane even for my mother's actual standards." Then the other part of Twilight's mind returned to the shadows that spawned it. When Twilight returned to reality, she noticed that Pinkie Pie was whining behind her. Curious, she looked behind her, and saw her pink friend down to her knees, and Velvet looking down into Pinkie's eyes. "But I want to go with Twiliiiight..." said, once again, Pinkie Pie in a whiny voice. "I've already told you can not. Don't make me say it again," said Velvet sternly. "I want to follow Twilight! I want to! I want to!" whined once again Pinkie Pie. "You can't Pinkie. Twilight’s a unicorn, so she has to..." Velvet's words were drowned by a loud chorus of shrieks. Realizing that she had to get in the class, Twilight left her mother dealing alone with Pinkie's tantrum. Twilight entered in the entrance hall, and after a quick glance to the metal pole with white arrows she followed the route to her class in the flash card-covered hallways. There, she found the class's door already open and with Lux Foal and some foals already inside. Twilight entered, and sat in a corner, waiting to see the day start. As she waited, she decided to immerse in her thoughts once more. This time, she thought about what to do now. "Well, it seems that all my plans to stop my mother from humiliating me failed. Not only she didn't stop, but she also managed to get my friend Pinkie Pie involved in this. And, apparently, Velvet's madness is contagious, because Pinkie Pie has started to behave like a little filly... not that it surprises me much, but still.." Twilight sighed. "If only I could make the best of this situation as Pinkie is doing. At least I wouldn’t be that much bothered by my mother's madness, and, maybe, avoid getting too much bored while I am here in the Kindergarten. But it's not really something I can find in books or is in my nature: I would need some lessons about this from Pinkie Pie..." Suddenly, a realization formed in Twilight's mind. "Wait a minute. Yesterday, while I was with my companions, I actually enjoyed playing with foal's toys. I was not really enjoying playing with the toys, but still I felt content, and if I saw one of my friends happy, I had the same reaction. I've learned times and times again that something unpleasurable gets better if you do it with ponies you like, so I should befriend the foals, and maybe I will be capable of bearing this ordeal not only for this week, while my father is away, but also for the rest of the four months!" The other part of Twilight's brain disagreed. "You stupid mare! By doing so, you are just doing what you mother wants you to do!" Twilight answered to herself with vigor. "My mother wants to see me act like a little filly in front of her eyes, not knowing that I am pretending . And what I am going to do is, likely, what Princess Celestia was asking me to do from the start, aside from stand down: adapt my recently acquired socialization abilities to weird situation." "Princess Celestia doesn't want that! She just wants your compliance now, she does not care for what you do here." "How do you know that? You were the first to suggest that I should have stalked three innocent fillies, force them to fight, and eventually get something to write about, and look what happened!" The other part of Twilight's mind was silenced by the statement. And it could not reply anymore, now that Lux had started to name call loudly every foal in the class, cloaking the thoughts. "Time to test everything I've learned so far," whispered Twilight to herself. And when she raised her head, Lux Foal was saying the last names on the list. “Sha Mat, Sitòn Ligostos… Twilight Sparkle.” The mare raised her hoof to signal her presence, and Lux checked the box. “Alright, everypony’s here. Get loose.” The foals broke formation, and formed little groups of three to four members among themselves; Twilight decided to try to join in one of them. Preferably Lex Populi’s group, since she was the first filly of the class she had contacted in the past days. > Nuovi Compagni > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After looking around the entire classroom, Twilight found Lex Populi in the southern part of the classroom, where the cardboard "clock" was located. The pink filly was building with blocks what it looked like a wall, while a green colt with white mane was giving more and more pieces to the filly, and another filly, this one with white fur and a mane color similar to the mother-of-pearl, was extracting dolls from a nearby basket: Twilight assumed that the white filly and thr green colt were friends of Lex. Once she recognized her future "minor companions," Twilight went near Lex Populi, and said "Hello, Lex." The little filly, after a brief moment of startling, recomposed herself, smiled at Twilight, and said "Hi, Tiligh!" After letting out a chuckle at of the mispronunciation of her name, the mare lowered herself to the filly's face level. "What are you doing?" Asked Twilight. "I’m biwding de walls off Romea!" Lex said proudly, while pointing at what she had constructed. Twilight looked at it, and saw just that: a series of walls with towers irregularly distributed within the borders, of course, begin a filly's block construction, it was not completely accurate in its style (especially the domes, which were not in use during the time thsoe walls were built), but it was eerily similar to the original, all things considered. For this reason, Twilight was genuinely impressed, and praised Lex's abilities. "Oh my, Lex!” she said, giving the filly a genuine smile. “That’s relaly good. How long did it take you to make it?” The filly frowned, turning to the cardboard clock. “Uh... dunno. It’s still pway time.” Twilight gave an inward chuckle. Of course Lex wouldn’t have known how long it took her. Not only was there no real clock in the room, but she was way too young to be able to read... though Twilight herself had been reading before she’d even started kindergarten herself. “What’s that supposed to be?” a very rude voice said from behind them. Twilight turned to see a colt with a brown coat, and light-brown mane and tail. He had a look on his face that reminded Twilight of several fillies back in Ponyville who’d been making Apple Bloom’s life miserable before she’d met Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “It’s de walls off Romea,” Lex said, Twilight noticing how quiet she’d suddenly become and recognising the look of a pony scared of something. This did not settle well in Twilight’s mind, bringing back a few of her own bad memories from when she was little and treated unfairly by others that were jealous of the fact she was Celestia’s person student. A loud crashing sound pulled Twilight from her thoughts and she saw several familiar blocks lying a her hooves. She turned saw that the colt had smashed Lex’s creation. “Wanna know wha’ I caw it?” he sneered at the cowering filly. “A big mess.” He laughed cruelling. The laugh sent a shock wave through Twilight’s mind, unlocking memories she’d thought she’d long put away, never to be seen again. “Ha! Whatcha gonno do, Sparkless?” one colt said, leering at her. “St-stop,” Twilight cowered, her hooves over her eyes. “Please. What did I ever do to you?” “You became Celestia’s personal student when you don’t even deserve it!” a silver-coated filly snarled, stamping Twilight’s model of Celestia into a lump of indistinguishable nothing. “Come on, where’s all that big magic we heard you used back at your exam?”another colt Twilight couldn’t see cut in, his voice dripping with mock-envy. “I bet that was just a fluke,” a filly out of her sight sneered. “Able to turn a dragon hatchling into an adult? Yeah, right, and I’m Nightmare Moon.” This was followed by a loud cacophony of laughter and the sound of a small filly crying. A small cry pulled Twilight from her horrid memories and her eyes widened. The colt was hanging in the air, suspended by the purple aura of Twilight’s magic, his eyes wide with fear. Twilight gasped, lowering the squirming foal and realising her magical hold on him. He ran off, crying for Nutriz, who looked up from her desk, having been writing out some forms. Twilight turned to Lex, who was staring at her with wide eyes. Twilight’s ears went flat against her head. Oh no. What had she been about to do to that colt. Had he not cried out and pulled her from within her mind... She shuddered as to what could have happened. What was worse, there was no way Lex would want to be her friend now. She was scared of her. That wasn’t a good start to any friendship. Fluttershy excluded because she was afraid of her own shadow. Twilight hung her head. “Sorry, Lex,” she said quietly and turned to go. “I understand...” “Tank you, Tiligh.” Twilight stopped and turned around. Lex walked up to her and nuzzled her chest. “I was weally scawed.” Twilight realized what was going on and returned the nuzzle. “What’re friends for, right? And call me Twily.” Unfortunately this friendship-making moment was cut short when Nutriz came over, the crying colt standing behind her, giving Twilight and Lex a smug grin that irritated Twilight. “Hard Time here says that you were being mean to him, Twilight,” Nutriz said, her voice very stern, taking the mare a little by surprise considering they were both adults, then remembered that for a long time she was no more than a student here, just like everypony else. From unbeknownst to her, Hard Time shot Lex a look that said she’d pay for what happened, from behind Nutriz’s legs, to which the small filly “Eep!” and a hissing sound could be heard. Nutriz took note of both the “eep” and the hissing sound, then returned her attention to Twilight. “Is this true? Did you hold him in your magic, planning on doing something not very nice to him?” A small part of Twilight’s mind wanted to remind Nutriz that she wasn’t a foal and she could speak to Twilight normally, but that was overshadowed by the desire to protect her newest friend and well as guilt over what she’d done to the colt even if he’d been a jerk. “I... I’m not sure what I was going to do after I’d encased him in my magic,” Twilight admitted, the guilt and worry about that apparent enough in her voice to make Nutriz lose her frown, to replace it with a slightly worried expression. Lex came a little closer to Twilight and her guilt turned to determination. “But he was making fun of Lexy and destroyed her blocks model of the walls of Romea!” she stated very clearly, which made the colt flinch, not having expected Twilight to care enough that she’d just try to get out of it and go away. “She was scared and I didn’t want to be.” Nutriz glanced back at Hard Time, a shooting him a quick glare, then turned back to Twilight, the concern from before back on her face. “But what possessed you to grab him in your magic?” Twilight looked to the ground, ashamed. “The way he was acting, and the way Lexy looked at him, so scared, so helpless... it... it reminded me of myself, when I was younger. It’s no excuse, and I hate to think what I might’ve done if Hard Time’s cry of alarm hadn’t snapped me out of it, but...” Nutriz now wore an understanding smile. She stepped forward and patted Twilight’s shoulder. “Well, no harm done to anypony and I’m glad you made a good friend. Now, go back to playing you two. If you’ll excuse me,” said, taking Hard Time in her magical aura, “there’s a little colt in need of a good spanking and some time in the Time Out Corner.” She walked off, Hard Time squealing and protesting as she took him through a door into another, much smaller room. Twilight turned to Lex and smiled. “Do you want to play? I promise I’ll do my best.” Lex’s eyes brightened. “Sure!” she cried, her voice full of excitement. “Come on,” she pulled Twilight by the hoof back towards the blocks, where the other two foals were waiting anxiously, “You godda meet Peawlie and Bwight Light.” Twilight spent the rest of playtime with Lex, Pearlie and Bright Light, playing princ and princesses. As time went on, Twilight realized her theory had been right. She was enjoying playing with Lex and the others, meaning her punishment wasn’t so bad as long as she had others to help her. “Aw, that’s so nice. Glad to see you having fun, Twily.” Twilight chuckled. “Yes, Pinkie, I know that— Pinkie? What in Celestia’s name are you doing here?” Twilight cried as Pinkie somehow popped out from a jack-in-the-box by Twilight’s back hooves, something that made the three foals’ eyes widen in utter bemusement. “Oh, I just wan’ed to see how you’re doing, Twily!” Pinkie cheered, pulling said mare into a bone-crushing hug. “Pinkie— you’re— joking me. Can’t— breathe!” she gasped, her eyes almost rolling into the back of her head. “Oopsie!” Pinkie let go out Twilight, who gasped once for almost ten seconds before she could start breathing again. “Pinkamena Diane Pie!” a voice Twilight had honestly hoped not to have to hear til after kindergarten called sternly. Pinkie suddenly looked very worried, her eyes darting left and right, looking for a hiding hole. But before Pinkie could find a suitable hiding spot, Twilight Velvet stepped into the room, giving the pink pony a very firm look. There was no noise from anypony. All the foals had stopped playing at the sound of the stern voice, all knowing what that tone implied. Somepony had done something bad. “My apologies, Nutriz. This one wanted to come in, even after I explained to her why she couldn’t and she must’ve gotten away from me without my noticing. Oh, goodness, how bad a mother does that make me sound, I can’t even keep track of one of the fillies in my care?” “That’s alright, Mrs. Velvet,” Nutriz said, though Twilight couldn’t help noticing a look similar to that of her friends when they’d seen what Velvet had done to them in her eyes. She obviously knew too well how mental unhinged her mother clearly was right now and was playing along for her own safety. “Pinkamena,” Velvet said, coming over to said mare and taking her ear in one of her hooves. “We will discuss this when we get home.” “Okay, bye, Twilight,” Pinkie said, waving to Twilight, followed by “Owie, owei, owie!” When the sound of Pinkie’s “Owies” faded away, Nutriz looked to her watch, got up and moved the cardboard clock to say “Potty time”. As she gathered all the foals and Twilight, Lex looked at Twilight a little confused. “Youw sistew’s kinda weird.” “Oh, Pinkie’s not my—” Twilight paused, thinking of her current living situation. “Well, considering the beagled state of my mother’s clearly delusional mind and the childish antics Pinkie usually enacts and that she’s staying at my house until futher notice...” She noticed Lex had a very confused look plastered on her muzzle. “Yes,” Twilight said simply. “For now, I would say Pinkie is, in all intensive purposes, my sister.” This seemed to somewhat satisfy Lex, who looked behind them and frowned. “You wet youwsewf.” “What?” Twilight cried, turning to look behind her, noticing the markings on her diaper had vanished, indicating wetness. “Oh, for Celestia’s sake! It must have happened when Pinkie startled me, and the fact that I didn't go to the bathroom before coming here didn't help.” "I don’t even wanna think what my mother will make of this," she thought glumly. "As far as she’s concerned both Pinkie and I are foals and this isn’t gonna help me pull her away from that ridiculous notion." She sighed. This is still gonna happen again. As the saying goes, “what happens in twos will always happen in threes”. When they reached the changing/bathroom and Nutriz asked who needed their diaper changed, Twilight reluctantly held up her hoof along with several of the foals, including Lex. > (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. > Brutte Situazioni > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight bent forward and moaned, as she held her stomach, trying not to use her diaper for the second time that day. Velvet, who happily kept eating her portion of non-tainted fruit salad, and giving some of the tainted one to Pinkie, hadn't or did not want to acknowledge the status her daughter was in. Or, at least, she acknowledged it after Twilight got up, and tried to run to the bathroom. Velvet magically pinned her daughter's tail to the table, and said, “Where are going, Twily? Pinkie isn't done yet.” Twilight quickly glared at Velvet, and tried to express her annoyance and keep it in at the same time. “M-mother, I have to go to the b-bathroom.” “Oh,” Velvet said, as she rose from the chair. “Alrighty, let's go to the bathroom. Follow me.” Twilight didn’t like the sound of the phrase "follow me," but she ignored that and concentrated herself on not messing herself and followed her mother to the bathroom's door. Velvet walked down the hallway, her pace tauntingly slow, while Twilight moaned as she walked behind her, wishing she could just pass over her mother, but knowing that doing so was going to be ruinous and very unclean for her. So, still with her increasing urge, Twilight walked behind her mother, each step a moan, and each moan a step. Finally Velvet reached the bathroom door, and, slooowly, opened it, ignoring the increasing moaning of Twilight and the noisy gas expulsions, also coming from Twilight. Velvet finally opened the creaking door, and said, "Go on." Twilight ran in the small bathroom, and, once near the toilet bowl, she enveloped the diaper's tapes in her magical grip, opened the diaper, and jumped on the toilet. "Mother, please leave me some privacy!" Twilight shouted to her mother, and her mother complied with a nod. Then nature took its course. As her body kept expelling wastes, Twilight looked at the wrecked diaper left behind, and saw a tiny brown stain on the white padding. She sighed with relief. "That was close. And, thankfully, I managed to keep myself clean enough," thought Twilight. "From now on, I should not accept my mother's foods if I don't see her eating them too, since she might have tainted them with laxative again." A knock on the door was heard. "Twily, are you done?" Velvet’s voice asked from behind the door. Twilight, feeling finally empty, said, "Yes, but don't come in just yet: I have to clean myself up." Naturally, Velvet wasn't going to have any of that "self-sufficient" idiocy. "No, wait for me," said the old mare, before opening the door, quickly grabbing a toilet paper roll with her magic. Sighing, Twilight accepted her fate, and let Velvet clean her up. Once she was clean and the toilet was flushed, Twilight exited from the bathroom... before getting dragged back in. "Aren't you forgetting something, Twily?" Velvet's daughter surely remembered, but preferred to forget that. "Yes, my diaper?" she said with an eye roll. Velvet smiled. "Good," and laid a changing mat on the bathroom's floor "Lay down." And Twilight did just that, used by now to the smell of the powder and the thickness around her waist. When Velvet was done, Twilight hurried out of the bathroom, not waiting for her deranged mother to escort her back to the table. When she returned to the table, she saw Pinkie standing, twitching from one hoof to the other. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what was going on. “Let me guess,” Twilight deadpanned as the pink mare wriggled. “You gotta go.” Pinkie blushed. “Nope. I... already went.” Twilight face-hoofed. How was she going to convince her mother to stop this when Pinkie Pie kept doing everything her mother was expecting? “Oh dear. Does somepony need their diaper changed?” Twilight leaped into the air, falling back down with a thump. Velvet was standing right behind her. How had she not heard her coming was something beyond her comprehension. Pinkie gave a sad pout, nodding. Velvet smiled, while she walked towards the pink pony with a swinging walk. “It’s alright, my little Pie. All foals have their accidents.” Twilight inwardly groaned. Her mother’s voice had become soft and gentle, as if she were really talking to a foal who had messed themselves and was trying to calm them down. And so Velvet escorted Pinkie Pie to the changing table in another room, leaving Twilight behind. At first, the purple mare was tempted to get revenge over her mother, by swapping plates, and thus giving the tainted food to her mother, while she ate the untouched one. Then she decided that, maybe, that wasn't worth the trouble, also because, as she could test, the taste of laxative was recognizable and strong. She fantasized about throwing the laxative-covered food in the trash, and replace the food with some of the untouched one. Then, again, the loss was going to be pretty noticeable. She thought about scratch the laxative out of the fruit salad, the only dish left to eat. Hearing the hoofsteps again, Twilight hastily decided to do that: she took a knife, and scratched the powder out of the fruits. Twilight knew that doing so wasn't going to cancel the effects of the laxative completely, but she hoped it would tone down the effects a bit. As she scraped, Velvet's hoofsteps grew nearer, along with the irregular bounces of Pinkie Pie. Twilight went faster and faster, until she realized she was turning the fruits into chips, and so stopped. After Pinkie was changed and returned to the table with Velvet, they finished what was left of dinner. Twilight smiled deceitfully, at her mother's ignorance of what she had done, and how she had thwarted her plan. Once dinner was over, Twilight, on Velvet's request, was stuck in the cameretta with Pinkie. Again, Twilight was remained about how Pinkie being here was not helping, as the pink mare tried many a times over to get Twilight to play with her, despite the fact she had said "no" several times over. Pinkie also resorted to questions that could have been armour-piercing, if they weren't so badly-worded that they came off as ridicolous. Twilight, on the verge to scream at Pinkie, thanked the Elysium when her mother finally opened the door and told the two it was time for bed. While Pinkie frowned and lowered her head, Twilight was about to rush up to her room, finally doing something in peace. But her mother held Twilight and Pinkie in her white magical aura. “Bath time first, honey~” she said in a sing-song voice, as she dragged them to the bathroom. "What this really necessary?" Velvet's dauhter asked to herself "I mean, I was going to wash myself before bed anyway, so why drag me as I was going to refuse?" Then Twilight's sight landed on the shrieking pink pony. "Oh, right." Said Twilight. Meanwhile, while Twilight was processing that, Velvet opened the bathroom's door, and let the two ponies down for a brief second, so allow herself to open the tap for the hot water. Pinkie Pie tried to sneak away, but the older mare was fast in stopping her. Meanwhile, Twilight got rid of the diaper she was wearing, picked some bars of paraffine-scented soap and a can of mane shampoo, and put said bars and said can on the border of the bath tub. Since Vlevet was still struggling into getting the diaper off Pinkie Pie, Twilight closed the tap, before the water could start to overflow. Done that, seeing that herm other still struggled, she helped her into keeping Pinkie still. When, finally, after several minutes of fighting, Velvet could get Twilight's pink friend out of her diaper and into the water, the washing began. Twilight’s next ten or so minutes were some of the most relaxing of her day, as her mother gently cleaned and brusehd her, while Pinkie shouted like a plucked eagle. However, like all the good things, the bath came to an end. Drying out her daughter and her daughter's firend, Velvet saw Twiligth running away: since she didn't wnat her to go away without her permission, she pinned her tail to the nearby wall. “Now, honey,” Twilight's mother said, a sweet tone in the her that made a shiver go down Twilight’s spine, “the last thing we want you making a mess in your bed.” For a second, Twilight debated on telling her mother to go jump off a cliff, when she remembered the laxatives her mother had tricked/forced her to eat. It would still be in her system and probably wouldn’t be out of it for another few hours, and she wasn't really sure wheter the things she ate after nearly messing herself were compeltely without traces of the Gluttonax. With a defeated sigh, Twilight nodded and allowed her mother to diaper her, followed by a more relaxed Pinkie. Twilight trudged up the stairs, Pinkie following behind as she bounced up and down. After her mother tucked the two of them in, she turned out the light, wishing her "little fillies" goodnight and closed the door. Twilight rolled onto her side, trying her best to ignore the soft cushion on her rump. "If this whole thing is some kind of prank of Princess Celestia’s, then it's a pretty disgusting and bad prank to pull, especially since she is my liege." Celestia smiled as she looked at the photos of Twilgiht wearing a diaper and dressed in a smock, like the fillies around her. She’d gotten somepony to go undercover and take pictures of Twilight while she was in Kindergarten, and each photo was cuter than the last. She chuckled to herself as she looked at a photo from three days ago, the one she’d taken herself when Twilight and her friends and her friends' sisters were all in the cameretta Velvet had set up. She felt a small tinge of longing as she saw Twilight smiling, unaware that she had been pictured enjoying herself. "If only I could have you as my own little filly, my faithful student," she thought sadly. Then another thought occurred to her and her smile retuned, with a slight frown. “Would she? Well, after a few months with her mother like that she might truly enjoy it. Maybe she wouldn’t mind if I made it more real.” Her smiled grew as she thought of the sound of tiny hooves running around the castle. “I’ll have to check with Twilight Velvet first, but if she’s okay with it, I think we could do that.” She nodded to herself and returned to looking the photo of the smiling unicorn. However, her smile quickly faded, when a thought passed in her head. "No, I should not do that. I cannot trick one of my most loyal and familiar servants into doing something she despise." Celestia put the photo back in the evelope while sighing "This was supposed to be a punishment for her, not some kind of wish fullfillment for me. If she is enjoying her time with the foals, maybe she has learned a lesson that I didn't plan to give her." As Celestia kept looking at the photos, she whispered to herself, this time with more hope. "I may ask her at the end of all of this. I might aks her how she felt, and, maybe, uncover the truth about her entire early life..." A knock came from the door, and Celestia looked behind her. "Who is there?" She asked. "Arciduchessa Mi Amore Cadenza, ha chiamato?" Said a feminine voice iwth a Flowerentian accent. It was, no doubt in that, Cadence. Princess Celestia quickly put all the photos back in the envelope, so to not arise uncomfortable questions, before answering. "It's open, my dear niece. Enter." Velvet sighed as she sat on the living room couch, her eyes far away. Her little filly was back. It was so wonderful. She had her little Twily and would be happy for as long as this lasted. She sighed a little. If only her little Twily wasn’t growing up so fast. In only four months her little girl would be out in the world, making her way. She wanted to cherish these last days. “I wish I didn’t have to lose you so soon, my little Twily,” she whispered, a few tears in her eyes. “Don’t grow up. I love you as you are, my little filly. You and my little Pie.” Velvet slapped her hooves on her cheeks and smiled. “What am I upset about? I’m never going to lose my Twily. She’s my little filly forever, and Shining her little guardian.” Wondering why she’d ever thought her little filly would ever grow up, she went upstairs and peeked into her fillies’ bedroom. Both of them were sound asleep, no doubt dreaming of the fun day they had and how much fun they’d be having tomorrow. Vevlet giggled, closed the door and went to her room, ready for a good night’s sleep after looking after her two bundles of joy for the day. > Lassativi, punture e madri pazze. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The dawn, with pink hoofs and golden mane, once again rose over Equestria. Twilight, hit by the rays of light slowly and wobbly rose up from her position. When she was finally sitting on her rump, she felt something squishy smearing her backside and a strong scent of methane filling the room. Yes, the laxative was finally out of her system, and, yes, it had brought the last remains of food with it, too much to her annoyance. Since she wanted to avoid further messes, Twilight went back supine, and gently rolled out of bed, and, once on the floor, she walked towards the bathroom on the tips of her hooves, trying to not make noise in the process. And that was easier said than done, since the full diaper tended to unbalance her quite a bit, thus almost forcing her to walk the normal but a pretty noisy way, too. But, thankfully for Twilight, she reached the bathroom before her mother could detect her. Once she was in the bathroom, Twilight untaped the diaper, carefully slid it out of her backside, crumbled it into a smelly ball, threw it in the bin, eliminated her remaning bodily wastes in the toilet, flushed it, and then she proceeded to do the rest of her morning ritual. Going out of the bathroom, she found Velvet walking towards her room. Since Twilight had already dropped her attempted silent walk, her mother could hear Twilight's hoofsteps, and, thus, making her realize she was awake. "Good morning, Twily," Velvet said, as she opened the door of the room, letting the stench flow out of the room into the hallway, making Twilight scrunch her nose, but leaving Velvet unflinched. Twilight's mother entered in the room, and exited few seconds later with Pinkie Pie levitating in her magical grasp, who looked like she was trying to go back to sleep. Twilight decided to get out of her way, and walked downstairs, to have breakfast before her mother could spike anything with laxative, with predictable results later on. Walking downstairs, Twilight saw Sedula Serva laying the table and placing the food. Twilight ran towards the table, and, while hastily greeting the valent, she jumped on the chair, and, placing one of the light blue dishes in front of her, she took ten chocolate chips biscuits, a couple of jam-filled donuts, and a piece of toasted bread. As for the drinks, Twilight took her named blue mug, and poured some milk from a pitcher into said mug, and, in a separate cup, she put the coffee. Then she neared the mug full of milk to her lips, opened her mouth, letting the milk slide over the taste buds of her tongue... and her taste buds detected the taste of cortex of willow. Quickly realizing that the milk was spiked with the "sugar," Twilight immediately let the mug slip out of her magical grip, shedding the undrunk milk on the table, and spat the milk over the floor. Unfortunately for Twilight, she managed to spit out only half of the big sip she had taken. With her tongue still detecting the taste of simil-aspirine, Twilight panted, and said. "That was way too close. That could have ended with the full effects. I just hope that the relaxing effects of the laxative won't bother me too much today..." Sighing, Twilight took the mug once again, and brought it in the kitchen for wash it, while Sedula silently cleaned up the puddle on the marble floor. "It seems that my mother has given orders to spike the milk to Sedula, or she had prepared the tainted jug overnight: otherwise, I don't know why the milk tastes like some kind of crude aspirine." Twilight put the cup in the sink, and turned the cold water spigot, letting a flow of cold water go down. The purple mare closed the spinot again, took a rag hanging on one of the kitchen's furniture handles, and, while she dried the porcelain, she kept whispering to herself. "Next time I will make the breakfast myself." Then, when she was done with her chore, she asked Sedula, "Sedula, could you please tell me where I can find the milk's carton?" The valet, while entering in the kitchen, said, "It's in the ice counter, miss Twilight. But why you won't use the milk in the jug?" Groaning, Twilight opened said counter. "Because my mother has poured laxative in said jug. I bet that she was going to take milk from this carton while I wasn’t looking." Sedula simply nodded, leaving Twilight with the carton of milk and the mug in her grip. Coming back to the table, Twilight put the milk in the now cleaned cup, and drunk a sip, the taste of willow overtaken by the more neutral taste of milk. Assured that weren't any other traps in the food, Twilight ate silently, dunking the biscuits in the milk and taking sips from the cup containing the Ethiopian beverage. She kept eating until she head hoofsteps coming from behind her. Realizing that her mother was coming, she stopped dead in her tracks, cleaned her mouth from the traces of chocolate, and awaited. Velvet entered in the room with Pinkie Pie bouncing behind her. Velvet gave a creepy smile to her daughter, before sitting down. "Did you have breakfast already?" she asked. Twilight, knowing that saying "no" was bound to make her mother spike something, decided to face a reprimand instead. "Yes, I already did," said Twilight, her mind ready for the onslaught of words bound to follow. Except that it didn't happen. "Oh, you had breakfast all alone? What a shame. Do you want to keep us company while we eat?" The question had only one possible answer, given the situation. "Yes," said Twilight dryly. Velvet nodded, and Pinkie, who was standing besides Twilight's chair, swiftly sat down near her friend. While she was there, she took the entire plate of surviving cookies and a donut. Meanwhile, Velvet poured coffee and milk in her brightly coloured mug, took some of the remaining food on the table, and ate her breakfast slowly, all while looking both at Twilight and Pinkie. The former just looked at the wall behind Velvet; her mind wandering elsewhere, the latter ate with enthusiasm. Suddenly, Velvet took with her magic a small but finely-decorated silver sugar bowl from the extreme end of the table, levitated it in front of her face, delicately put it down. "Sedula, a coffee spoon, please?" asked Velvet to the gray servant. The valet silently arrived at the table with an iron spoon in her grip, and immediately returned in the kitchen. Velvet, with the spoon in her magical grip, took out a small quantity of white powder from the sugar bowl, and poured it in a mug. Whether said powder was sugar or a look-alike was unknown to Twilight, but one thing was sure. She didn't want to find out herself. "Do you want some milk, Twily?" Velvet asked, and Twilight denied. Then Velvet asked, "Some milk, Pinkie?" The pink pony nodded vigorously at Twilight's mother. "Yes, I want some milky!" she said with cheer. And Velvet did just that: she poured some milk from the carton into the mug, stirred it, and gave it to the pink pony, who basically pulled the mug out of Velvet's control, before drinking the contentment in one gulp, and put the mug back on the table with a slam. Then, few seconds later, Velvet looked at her wristwatch, and, raising her head, she asked rhetorically, "Should we go?" Rolling her eyes, Twilight raised from the chair, stood up, and walked with her ears lowered to take the smock she had left in the entrance hall, while Velvet and Pinkie Pie basically flew to the door. The purple pony dressed herself up, and walked out in the streets, accompanied by her pink friend and her mother. The streets were not very populated at that time of day, so there was hardly any possibility for Twilight to get any indiscreet glances. Few minutes of walking later, the Kindergarten's building was in Twilight's sight. After a sigh of relief, Twilight hastily saluted her mother and Pinkie Pie, and ran into the foal's crowd, so to get as far as she could from her crazed mother. Twilight entered in the entrance hall, and after a quick glance to the metal pole with white direction arrows, she followed the route to her class in the flash card-covered hallways. There, she found the class's door already open and with Lux Foal, Nutriz and most of the foals already inside. The first thing Twilight did when she was in the class, after greeting the two teachers, was look for her little friend, Lex Populi. A pretty easy task, since she was with Pearly Handle, Orvosti Ostoba and Bright Light, standing near the shelves on the western wall of the room. From what Twilight could see, her friend was showing something to the other two foals. Getting nearer, Twilight could hear the words coming out from the two colts and the pearly-colored filly. "You did that?" "Yes, I did, no crying. The doctow said I was very bwave." Twilight was a little confused by the three foals' words, until she glanced upon Lex's left leg, and saw a pink band aid. Now the conversation was a little clearer. Twilight was going to greet Lex, but the latter basically jumped in her face. “Hewwo, Tilight. Wook there,” and pointed at the band-aid with her tiny hoof. Twilight, to satisfy her friend, looked at the band-aid. She gave the little pony a warm smile. “Did you go to the doctors’ clinic, Lexy?” Lex nodded, her smile spread from end to end of her muzzle. Twilight chuckled. “Cool. I bet you didn’t cry once.” She decided to pretend she hadn’t heard what they’d been saying and fain ignorance. Lex stuck her nose into the air, a smug grin on her face. “Uh-huh. I not cwy once. I’m bwave.” Twilight thought back to her own fillyhood and her times getting shots. She blushed, remembering that she’d always made a lot of fuss, then denied it when her brother had ask, just so he wouldn’t tease her about it later. Twilight’s mind clicked and she had to hold back an understanding smirk. There was a good chance Lex had been crying through it, but didn’t want to tell, and remembering her own times like that, she wasn’t going to squeal on her. Nutriz chose this moment to clap her hooves, getting everypony’s attention and all headed to the mat and sat down. Twilight sat with her group of friends, and awaited to know what Lux was going to teach that day. Today she started on basic mathematics. Twilight was slightly confused by that, then remembered that this Kindergarten was for fillies and colts who would move up into the more "prestigious" schools. Not like the Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns but close. Therefore so starting mathematics VERY early in their learning made sense. Wheter they were going to hate even more the subject clearly wasn't a concern to whoever established it. The next hour Twilight joined her friends in simple maths, assisting them whenever they were struggling. She felt more in control now than she had since she’d arrived in Canterlot, days ago. It was a good feeling, to be able to follow a plan, to have a rhythm, like she always had. After mathematics was done, Play Time was set and Twilight joined her group of friends in a game of School, with her as the teacher. At first they’d all been unsure, since learning maths hadn’t been too fun, but Twilight knew from observations she’d been making on how to ensure they found learning fun. And it worked. They enjoyed pretending to be learning in a big pony school, not realizing that Twilight was actually teaching them things they’d need to know later on when they left Kindergarten. Since these foals were helping Twilight through her punishment, giving them a head-start on their learning was the least she could do to repay them. Also, she was enjoying playing the role of teacher and had even forgotten why she’d been worried about coming today more than the other days. However, her memory was soon jogged by an uncomfortable churning in her stomach and she remembered. The laced milk. She’d gulped at least a mouthful before she’d noticed it had laxative taste and spat it out, meaning there was still some in her system and it had chosen this moment to let itself be known. Her face strained as she tried hard to hold on as what little of the laxative she had been unable to get out of her from the milk worked its power, making it harder and harder for her to hold on. “Curse you, mother,” she thought as the pain grew. “Why must I suffer your insanity like this? I am going to make you pay, in a way or in another.” “Uh, teacher?” Twilight glanced back at the foals, each of them giving her a confused look. Bright had been the one that had spoken. “Are you alright?” Twilight did her best to grin, though noticeable sweat was starting to appear on her face due to the strain. “I-I— I’m okay. J-just... having... a little...” She looked down, gritting her teeth. "For the love of Goddesses!" she thought. Why did her mother have to put her through this? This pain was horrendous! “Tilight?” Lex’s voice asked and Twilight felt a tiny hoof on her leg. She glanced to her left to see Lex standing there, worry on her face. Before she could say anything, however, Twilight could hold on no longer. Her strength spent, she let go of the tiny amount of hold she had left and felt herself emptying into her diaper, which slowly expanded and eventually bulged. Twilight flopped on the floor, both out of exhaustion and humiliation. Tears of frustration and rage blurred her vision as thoughts of torturing her mother, forcing her through a laxative spent month filled her mind. When she got home, she was going to use every second she could to figure out a spell that would force her mother to be incontinent for a whole month, maybe longer, let her see how it felt. Once Twilight had recovered enough of her strength, she got up, only to find all her friends had crowded around her, all with worried looks on their faces. “Are you alwight, Twi?” Orvosti Ostoba asked as Twilight got back up. “You wook wike you were in pain.” Twilight sighed and shook her head. “I’m okay. Just something I ate this morning that didn’t agree with my stomach eating it.” “Not to mention my mother’s insanity trying to worm its way into every nook and cranny in my life,” she thought darkly. After a few more times assuring her friends she wasn’t hurt (physically anyway, her mental state was on the brink of insanity), they continued playing School, Twilight doing her best to try and ignore the smell coming from her diaper, or the feeling of her leaving smooshing against her flank, coupled with the squelching sounds that followed. All too soon for her friends, but not soon enough for Twilight, did Nutriz move away from her desk and change the cardboard clock to say Potty Time. Twilight lined up with all the foals, the group for changes, that is, taking care to remain at the back, so none would notice the bulge in her diaper as she waited for her turn. When she went in, Lux gave her a confused look. “Again, Twilight? That’s every day since you started.” She paused, then asked hesitantly, “You haven’t... well... what we talked about before?” Twilight blinked, her face going bright red and shook her head violently. “What? No! No, no-no-no-no NO! I haven’t become incontinent.” The other mare raised an eyebrow. “So... how come you went in your diaper again?” Twilight looked away, fuming. “My mother laced the milk in our jug with laxtivies. I noticed it too late, having already swallowed two mouthfuls before I registered its taste.” “You know the taste?” Lux’s confusion returned. “How?” Twilight sighed. “Last night my mother thought it would be fun to put it on my fruit salad under the guise it was sugar. I figured out too late it wasn’t and had to suffer for it all night.” She heard what sounded like muffled chuckles and whirled around to see Nutriz doing her best not to laugh. “Lux!” she said angrily. “This isn’t a laughing matter! My mother is now forcing my body to use my diapers! At this rate I will become incontinent, not because of being forced to dress and act like a foal, but because my mother will have forced my body to process laxative so many times, that it will simply give up, and I’ll be stuck wearing diapers for the rest of my life and all because of her insanity!” “I-I— I’m sorry, Twilight,” she replied, still struggling not to laugh, some of it leaking into her words. “I-I-know I shouldn’t laugh, b-but-” She chuckled again, much to Twilight annoyance. “I-I just didn’t think Velly would g-go so f-far.” Twilight frowned, not in anger anymore, but confusion. “Velly? How do you know the nickname my dad gave her?” Once Lux had gotten a hold of herself, she indicated for Twilight to lay down so she could be changed. While she was changed, Nutriz explained how she and Twilight Velvet had been in College together. It was back then that Nutriz had learned she wanted to care for the raising of foals and to further their learning. Lux said that, even at the time, Velvet was a bit loopy, and that she fancied the in-training and much older notary, Night Light. Nutriz tried to put reason in Velvet's head, but failed, and the two started to go out togheter . Twilight’s eyes widened at this. Her mother wouldn’t have met her father if Nutriz had not been her mother’s collage friend and had tried to get some sense in her head. Basically, her mother's instability was the reason she was in the wordl in the first place. The very idea was such a shock to Twilight’s mind that she didn’t notice her changing had been finished until Nutriz nudged her, telling her to get up. Twilight was still reeling over the startling news of how her existence was owed to the kindergarten teacher as they all went back into the play room, when she felt a hoof tap her leg. She was so lost in her thoughts she jumped, only to see it was Lex, Bright and Orvosti Ostoba were looking at her, their heads cocked to one side. “Tilight?” Pearly asked as she stared up at the purple mare. “Why did you use youw dippee? I tought you were a big pony.” Twilight sighed. “How do I put this?” she thought, wondering how to explain a substance that makes you defecate earlier, even after you’d learned how to control yourself, before she decided the simple way was the best approach. “Remember when I said I ate soemthing my tummy didn’t agree with?” she asked, and received three nods in return. “Well, this morning, my mom gave me something nopony wants to eat, and put it in my milk: this yukky stuff makes you have to go, even if you’re a big pony.” All three suddenly became fearful. “Dere’s someting wike dat?” Orvosti Ostoba asked, his form quivering slightly. Twilight nodded, wearing a reassuring smile. “But don’t worry. Only big ponies can buy it and there’s no chance your parents would make you eat it.” The fearful expressions were replaced by grateful sighs and looks of relief. Bright frowned. “Why would big ponies buy someting dat makes dem go when dey don’t want to?” Twilight chuckled. “Sometimes it’s needed.” Lex Populi frowned now. “But, you don’t need it, do you, Tilight?” The purple mare shook her head, sighing. “No. My mother’s just a little... out of sorts and thinks I do.” Lex looked confused. “Is dat why you went befowe?” Twilight thought about what she meant for a moment, before she realized she was talking about when Pinkie burst of a jack-in-the-box and shook her head. “No. That time... You remember how you wet yourself when that bully scared you?” The pink filly nodded, looking a little upset about being reminded of that time. Twilight gave a small smile. “Well, you did that because you were scared. When a pony gets too scared and they already need to use the toilet, it causes them to go involuntarily?” “Inver... Inver... what?” Bright crossed his eyes and shook his head, trying to pronounce the large word. “When you don’t want to,” Twilight chuckled. “It’s means when you don’t want to. And when Pinkie Pie jumped out of that jack-in-the-box,” she pointed a hoof at said box, which was currently being used by another young colt, “she startled me and I went without meaning to.” “Oh,” the trio replied, though Twilight couldn’t help wondering just how much they actually had understood. > Uscita di Classe e di Testa > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was done with the explanation, she, along with the rest of the foals, followed the teacher back into the classroom. Or, supposedly, back in the class, because Nutriz and Lux didn't pass through the same aisles they did for getting to the bathroom and the changing room, and walked towards the entrance hall instead. "Where are we going?" Twilight whispered to herself "This isn’t the way to the class, so why we are going this way? Maybe they got distracted for a moment? Maybe..." Twilight walked towards the teachers, trying to overtake the long line of foals and talk with either Lux or Nutriz. However, as soon as the class was in the entrance hall, Lux and Nutriz stopped the line from walking further. Lux gave to the foals the order to stand up and wait for some time while she was away, while Nutriz remained there for enforcing the order. At this sight, a thought flashed in Twilight's mind, as she also stopped, and looked around her. "Hold on. Maybe they are doing this on purpose. Maybe they want to bring the foals outside..." Lux returned with a bundle of keys in her magical grip. "Follow me, we are going into the yard!" A collective cheer, hushed with struggle by Lux, came from the foals. Twilight backed slightly at the noise, before reassembling herself and, for some reasons that eluded Twilight, feeling almost sharing in the simple joy of the fillies and colts. When the calm was re-established, the line resumed walking, albeit with less organized and more trembling, if not bouncing, feeling to it, and Twilight, albeit not completely willingly, followed suit. A sense of worry grew in her mind. A part of her mind, with its hissing voice, asked fearfully, "Are you losing your mind? Are you..." Twilight mentally gulped, "regressing?" Twilight's rationality was fast into answering. "Nah, you’re just feeling in touch with your classmates, which is a pretty good thing, all things considered. After all, if you were really regressing, would you really sense that? The sole fact you still exist to worry about regression is an indicator that there is no need to worry about that." The other part was silenced by the statement, and let Twilight feel whatever she wanted to feel at the moment. After some walking in the hallways, Lux reached a green door placed at the end of a short aisle near the secondary entrance. There, she took one of the keys, put it in the keyhole, rotated, and unlocked it. All while Nutriz struggled into keeping the foals from making too much noise. Then Lux opened the door, revealing what was behind. Namely, a marsh of a garden, with several playground equipments present: jungle gyms, see-saws, small carousels, swings, bestie molleggiate... you named it, it was almost sure it was there. "Uh, I didn't see that," said Twilight to herself, while looking at the playground. "Guess I wasn't paying too much attention the first time around." Meanwhile, the foals rushed in the garden as a flooding creek. Twilight inserted herself in the flow. Time fled fast, and, finally, after one hour of games outside, the day was over. Twilight saluted her little friends and walked to the gate, where the foals' parents awaited for their offspring to come at them. Not surprisingly, Velvet was in the first row of the crowd: she was keeping Pinkie Pie in a toddler harness, with the leash firmly fastened to her right hoof; talking with a nearby mother, a light brown mare with a curly white-and-pink mane, about something. Twilight was pretty sure she knew what the two mares were talking about, considering her mother's mental state, and knowing how her mother described her was going to be more irking than fascinating. Then, again... She, after deciding that she wanted to know how her mother defined her, walked towards Velvet and the other mare, her eyes fixed on the lips of the two mares and her ears fixed on the words coming out from their mouths. Not that it served something, since it was too noisy to hear something, and the two mares, as if they knew they were watched, turned their heads sideways from Twilight. But Twilight just looked harder and harder, until she saw that the other mare stopped talking to Velvet, and looked and talked to somepony else instead. Realizing this, Twilight stopped squinting her eyes to concentrate, and just looked in front of her. She saw the mare talking to one of her Kindergarten's classmates, namely Lex Populi. A sense of fear filled Twilight's heart, at the thought of Lex seeing her mother's mental situation, and of Lex's mother realizing that one of her daughter's classmates was an adult. “Oh Celestia, what I am going to do now? What? What?” She thought with anxiety. Thankfully, the arrival of Lex Populi made her mother go away with he before Twlight could get nearer to them, meaning that she was out of danger... for now. After that ugly situation, Velvet, Pinkie and Twilight walked back home. The former asked to the latter how her day at the “Kindy” went, and the latter, with a grunt, answered with “Fine, until I exited and met you.” Thinking nothing of that, Velvet simply grinned and nodded. A couple of minutes of walking later, Velvet, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were back at home. Velvet opened the house’s gate, let Pinkie run in the garden like a madpony, and accompanied her disgruntled daughter to the entrance hall. While walking on the grass of her garden, Twilight smelled a good smell coming from inside, a sign that the food was going to be ready soon. “Oh, food is ready, already? Well, that’s good ne…” Something clicked in the mind of the purple mare, something about her morning. “Wait a minute… If my mother put laxative in the milk this morning, before even knowing if I was going to have breakfast alone or not… What’s stopping her from issuing Sedula to add some white powder to the pasta’s sauce? Or in the salad?” Only then Twilight realized she should have taken some food while on the way to home, from either a bar or a street vendor yet to be arrested for unlicensed use of public soil. “What an idiot. Now I have no choice, but eat the tainted foodstuffs that my valet created…” While she put a hoof on the stone floor of the entrance hall of her house, an idea flashed in her mind. “Or be fussy and eat only what she is eating in her plate. After all, it would be completely demented and self-damaging for her, to put the laxative both in my and her dish.” As her mother asked to raise her hooves to get her smock off, Twilight hummed. “That’s a good idea.” She thought. “It’s not like that doing so will bury an even deeper grave in the pigpen that is my current predicament.” Decided that, she quietly followed her mother in the dining room, where Sedual Serva was bringing in the meals out. Meanwhile, Velvet called Pinkie Pie back in the house. Once Pinkie was in the house, Velvet ordered to both her daughter and her guest to wash their hooves, before sitting at the table and eat. Twilight and Pinkie complied by washing their hooves with the same bar of paraffine soap, and drying their hooves on the same light blue towel. Done that, the two ponies took a seat the table and waited for Sedula Serva. Riccotta and spinach cannelloni was placed in front of Twilight, Pinkie and her mother, each accompanied by a wonderful Quinoa, pumpkin and broad bean salad. She glanced at her mother’s meal. It looked the same as hers and Pinkie’s and her mother seemed none too considered about her daughter’s stare. Twilight slightly grinned. “If she has ordered to Sedula to put the laxative in my and Pinkie’s dish only, this time she isn’t going to win,” Twilight took with the fork a small morsel of cannelloni, then carefully levitated it in her mouth. She started to chew the morsel and undo it with the tongue, trying to detect the taste of the laxative, but failing to find any traces. “No willow? No strange tastes? Did she really decided to abstain herself from pouring laxative in my plate?” Twilight inwardly shook her head. “Nah, she is more stubborn that that. Maybe I will find laxative in the dessert.” Thought that, she took another morsel. “Anyway, pasta’s safe, I should enjoy this respite while it lasts.” And started to eat a more normal pace like everyone else at the table. Of course, “everyone else” was pretty relative, considered Pinkie’s appetite and eating speed. In-between a bite or two, Twilight decided to quell her thirst, and drink water contained in a jug. After pouring water in her red glass, she drunk the water… and noticed that it slightly tasted like iron. Twilight, a bit disgusted by the taste, gulped the sip, but did not drink any further. “The tubes may be rusty, but, considered the situation, better be safe than sorry.” Thought that, she want back to eating her portion of pasta and quenelle. Once all the three were done, Sedula took the empty dishes away, and returned a couple of minutes later with the dessert: a Chocolate Mousse Box, or ”ciambellone.” Twilight was taken by surprise: her mother hadn’t given Twilight this kind of dessert since she was still a true foal. Twilight smirked. “My mother prepared a ciambellone for me and Pinkie? Well, while I’m sure she did that only because her mental state has degenerated, I won’t decline the possibility to eat again such a good treat.” Without a second thought on it, as soon as a piece of the dessert was put in her plate, Twilight grabbed her spoon in her magic and started devouring the chocolaty creation. However, as soon she took a spoonful of the dessert, Twilight noticed something she had never noticed before. Namely, the ciambellone’s crust tasted of almonds and chocolate, not of chocolate and normal dough. At first, Twilight didn’t notice this, too busy enjoying the good taste to notice anything odd. Then, when she had eaten half of her portion, a thought arose in her mind. “Wait a minute, almonds in the mixture for the cake? That wasn’t how my mother did it once!” She exclaimed to herself. “Then, again, more of a decade has passed since the last time I’ve eat this…” She decided to look at how the situation was going to evolve. She took note of Pinkie practically inhaling her own mousse box. Once she had finished, Pinkie thanked Sedula, complimenting that it was the best mousse box she’d ever had. The valet nodded, thanking her and taking the dishes into the kitchen. Twilight turned to her mother and only now did she notice a smile on her face, and her dish completely clear. Velvet’s daughter narrowed her eyes. “Why are you smiling like that, mother?” Velvet merely kept smiling. The purple mare was going to repeat that question out loud, when she noticed that her mother’s dish was still completely clean, without any traces of the ciambellone. Then she felt a strain on her lower part of the body. Twilight quickly put two and two together, and her eyes went wide. “Of course. My mother was clever, this time: she didn’t use the ‘willow laxative’ as surrogate sugar because she knew that I understood her game, nor she used it as flour because she knew that the taste was too suspicious to be in a pastry.” Twilight slightly clapped her hooves, as she held it yet again. “Well played, Velvet, well played.” Twilight was going to get up, only for Velvet to stop her with her magic. “Is something wrong, Twily?” she asked innocently. Twilight glared at the mare. “I need to go.” Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Go where?” Twilight grinded her teeth. “I need to use the toilet, okay?” Velvet nodded, getting up and releasing Twilight from her magic. “Very well. Come, Twily. We don’t want you to make a mess.” Twilight tried to run to the bathroom, but something slowed her down. It was like her legs had gotten heavier, making her movements slower. At first, she was surprised, but then she huffed, knowing that her slowness at the time was Velvet’s doing. Naturally, that wasn’t going to stop Twilight from trying. She forced her legs to keep moving, one hoof in front of the other. Her progress was hampered, however, by her mother, who, like before, was walking in front of her (though Twilight couldn’t remember when she’d gotten ahead of her), and was moving at a clearly deliberate slow pace. Twilight kept yelling in her mind curses directed to her mother, while she sweated for the struggle of keep it in and avoid pleasing her mother. She was metres from the bathroom. Velvet’s daughter silently cheered. But her cheer was premature: to her horror, a pink blur leapt over her and entered the bathroom, followed by her mother, who closed the door behind her. “Mother!” Twilight shouted, both in anger and fear. “Let me in!” “Pinkie needs to go, Twily,” her mother’s voice called back from inside. “She should be done in a minute or two. She is our guest, so be polite and wait like a good little filly.” Twilight snarled. “This makes no sense! You treated her as my sister few seconds ago, and now she is our guest? What, do you think you are foalsitting her?” She shouted at her mother, while, in her mind, she asked to herself if her mother was playing around. Velvet didn’t shout back, leaving Twilight alone with her sweaty face and her muscles tense, waiting for what was more than a few minutes, shifting from hoof to hoof every second, trying hard to hold on. “Why is she taking so long?” She whispered “Is hse testing for how long I can keep it? Well, if it’s so, then I will wait here, no matter how much it will take.” After two more minutes of pure torture Twilight let out a loud cry of anger and resentment as her bowels relaxed without her will to do so, partially the diaper, making it expand and slightly point towards the ground. “Damnit, I lost it!” Twilight sighed “There is no point to keep holding now.” And let the excrements exit from her anus, all while crying tears. Tears of wrath, resentment, and stress. Because she was forced to use her diaper, not for the use por se. When she calmed down a bit, Twilight tried to mentally recap everything. “So, basically, my mother used my liking for the ciambellone for lower my guard and make me ignore the taste of almonds. Also, I am starting to think that the water was spiked, somehow.” Twilight grunted. “If I taste almonds and willow in my food, it’s spiked. Got it.” Suddenly, the door opened, pulling Twilight from her thoughts as a happy-faced Pinkie bounced out the door, a new diaper fastened on her rump. Twilight saw her mother going out of the bathroom, sniffing and expressing false surprise at the perception of the foul smell. “Oh my, did somepony here had an accident?” Velvet grabbed the front hooves of a prone Twilight “Come in, I will change your diaper.” The purple mare sighed as she was dragged in, and put on the changing mat. Velvet was enjoying this, Twilight knew it. When Velvet terminated Twilight’s cleaning and taped a new diaper on her daughter’s backside, Twilight raised herself, and, following her mother, walked out of the bathroom, the annoyance still strong in her heart. “Now follow me to your room,” Velvet said with a cheerful voice “it’s nap time!” Pinkie Pie, who was waiting outside the bathroom, suddenly started to throw a fit. Since Twilight didn’t wnat to stand the scene that was going to ensure soon, she walked towards her room, not looking back at a whining Pinkie and a shouting Velvet. Once she reached the door of her room, Twilight turned the knob and entered in it. Already knowing the whole ritual, the purple mare decided to get ahead. Reaching the window, she lowered the curtains, so to block the sunlight coming from outside. She pushed aside part of the covers, and put a plushie in Pinkie’s bed. Done that, Twilight returned downstairs, where Velvet nad Pinkie were still fighting. Ten minutes later, Twilight finally got into bed, and she wrapped her covers around her. Velvet said in a sweet voice. “I hope you will sleep well, my little fillies.” Twilight vaguely heard Pinkie give some kind of silly, filly-like goodnight, before the lights went out, though she didn’t pay much attention, since her mind was elsewhere. Namely, it was concentrated on thinking how to hurt her mother. “Oh, that harpy! I will shove down her throat all the laxatives in this house!” She hissed “I will find a spell for turn her into a little filly, and then start to beat her up! I will tear her apart, limb by limb! I will mess her up so badly, that Discord will ask me questions about how I turned Velvet like that!” Her rage was also distorting her sense of reality. “Then, when my mother will regret that she didn’t take a contraceptive pill the night she had sex with my father twenty-five years and eleven months ago, I will pass to Spike, and chastize him, by turning him into the animal that represents him the most, the sloth. When I am done with him, I will get tit for tat on my ‘friends.’ After all, if they abandoned me while I was in danger and they could have done something, why I should bother into keeping them?” Then her rage reached its peak. “And, dulcis in fundo, I will make sure that Princess Celestia understands that I am no foal, and that she could have broadened that narrow sleeve, instead of dumping me to the psychiatric inmate that is my mother! I will…” Sense and reasons returned into her mind, causing her rant to stop. “No, wait. I ought not to pin blame on spike and my friends. After all, they didn’t contributed directly to my current situation: sure, they weren’t very brave, but that’s reasonable, all things considered. However, that doesn’t change the fact that my mother is pushing my limit too far, and Princess Celestia seems all too amused by my situation.” A tear formed in the corner of her right eye. But Twilight refused to cry. “I will be strong,” she said to herself with determination and passion “I won’t let Velvet break me for any reason, because my freedom is near. Soon my father will come back, and will dispense justice upon his spouse. Soon the only ‘foalish’ thing I will be completely forced to do without my consent will be go to the Kindergarten, and even that won’t be unbearable, thanks to the help of my ‘minor companions.’ All of this shall come.” With those thoughts in mind, Twilight drifted into a restless sleep, doing her best to ignore the padding around her rump. Some time later, Twilight went out of her sleep, awoken by a familiar voice coming from downstairs. “So, is Tvilatte uppèstair?” > La Fiorentina- Parte 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight remembered that voice: it was Cadance's. "What she is doing here?" Twilight asked to herself, as she slowly undid the covers, and silently moved towards the door "Was she contacted by my mother?" She shook her head at the thought. "No, that can't be right. Cadance is the princess of love, it's impossible that she went back to her old job on my mother’s demand." She put a hoof under her chin thoughtfully. "But why she is here now, if she wasn’t contacted by my mother? Unless..." Twilight's eyes widened and her heart was filled with fear, at the hypothesis she’d just formulated. "She heard the news of my homecoming, and she is insane like my mother!" The thought created a horrible imagine in her mind. The image of Cadance like Twilight remembered, wearing a disturbing smile on her face, and regressing Twilight to a two-years-old foal, but still the mind of an adult, and a mad cackling in the distance... But Twilight, realizing that demoralizing herself wasn’t a viable option in such situation, snapped pretty quickly from it. "Nah, that can't be. Cadance isn't a pony that would go insane like that; she likely doesn’t know such a spell, and surely won’t use it on me without my consent." A small smile grew on Twilight's face, replacing her fearful frown she wore before. "And, if this is just a random visit, this may be an excuse for me and Cadance to meet again after some many years." Reassured and encouraged, after shaking Pinkie Pie a bit for wake her up, Twilight opened the door and walked downstairs; smiling with the contentness that only a meeting with a beloved pony you hadn't see for a long time can give. At the base of the stairs, Velvet was waiting, her face still plastered with that doll-like insane smile. "Oh, Twily, why are you already here? And where is Pinkie?" "Yes, I am. I heard some voices downstairs and I wanted to know who was visiting,” said Twilight, while she walked the last steps of the marble staircase, trying to remain positive. “By the way, Pinkie is still in the bedroom, and she just woke up." "Very well, because I want to present Cadance to Pinkie, before I go away," said Velvet, before petting her daughter's mane, like if she was, indeed, talking to a toddler afraid of begin abandoned by their mother."Don't worry, I will return soon. But be nice with Cadance!" Twilight groaned, both at the petting and the words of her mother. Apparently, Velvet had forced an unwillingly Cadance to join the madness. While this happened, from upstairs came an increasing sound of trotting. Realizing that Pinkie was incoming, both Velvet and Twilight separated, and let the pink pony run down the stairs at full speed, before violently braking on the floor, leaving four scorch marks on the pavement. "What's going on? Why Twilight woke me up?" asked Pinkie while bouncing up and down. Twilight took notice that Pinkie hadn’t spoken proper English. She was really playing the part of a little filly. Twilight frowned. Somehow that didn’t make her feel any better, though she knew her mother was probably loving it. The latter answered, "I have to go away for a while," Pinkie Pie jumped immediately on Velvet's right leg, and forcefully teared up her eyes. But before any pleading word or tear could go out, Velvet said. "Don't worry,” Velvet said soothingly. “I won't leave you all alone. There is a foalsitter waiting for you in the other room." Velvet then rotated herself towards the south, where the dining/living room resided. “Let’s go, shall we?” Pinkie nodded sadly at Velvet’s statement, while Twilight smiled and nodded. A few seconds later, she, her friend and her mother reached the dining-living room hybrid. From behind a wall near the room Twilight had a perfect visual on the situation. She saw Cadance sitting on one of the yellow couches of the living room, sipping a cup of, presumably, tea or matè. She had yet to notice that her beloved Twilight and a new pony were also in the room. “Maybe I could use the ‘secret salute’ I used to do with her when I was a filly. After all, it won’t humiliate me much further,” Twilight put her left hoof on her chin. “Come to think of it, this is the perfect situation for use it, since everypony will be aware of it and I am already dressed like a little filly.” Twilight bitterly chuckled. “Hello, Velvet,” said Cadance. “So, is Twilight ready?” The aforementioned pony did not lose occasion for present herself: she ran past Velvet, jumped in the middle of the living, where the incaian wool rug was lying, and, while doing the gestures, she recited the ‘special salute.’ "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Once the salute was done, Twilight was capable to give a closer look to Cadance. The pink alicorn, not unlike a decade before, had her mane gathered in a ponytail, which was kept in place by a red ribbon and a golden pin representing a sheaf of sticks. Going down, around her neck, a silver necklace shaped like a heart was there, and a light blue silk shirt with yellow borders completed her look. As for her body, obviously, she was bigger, but she was also more sleekier and thinner than the last time Twilight saw her. “She has changed so much in appearance,” Twilight thought. “She looks like a pristine marble statue from a museum. I hope that, emotionally, she didn’t turn into one as well.” Cadance’s eyes went wide for few seconds, before returning to normal size, but slightly watered. Her mouth was trembling and let out some whistles of air in the attempt not to laugh. Then, finally, Cadance let it out, by letting out a crystaline heartfelt laugh. “Twily, oh, Twily, you haven’t changed!” Cadance said, the hilarity still shaking her body a little. Twilight smiled at her former foalsitter’s reaction. “No, she didn’t.” “You could say that…” said Velvet’s daughter with a hint of happiness. Cadance took a sip of her drink, before asking with a casual tone. "So, how it is going?" Twilight opened her mouth, but could not speak, because Velvet was faster than her. "She is doing pretty good: aside from few tantrums about the Kindergarten..." Cadence frowned her eyesbrows and looked at Velvet. "What do you mean?" Velvet walked around on the red sofa near the yellow couch, like if she was a shark circling around a wounded seal, and speaking with a voice that stressed the "s." "You know, Twilight has just started Kindergarten, and she doesn't want to go. Also, she seems back the a 'no' phase." The pink alicorn now was clearly uneasy about what was going on. Twilight felt sympaty towards Cadence's lack of understanding, and maybe horror, of Velvet's words that hinted delusion. "But... what... why?" "I don't know, Cadence, but I'm certain she will get over it soon. Now," she said, while she invited Pinkie to show herself "here's the latest addition to my household: Pinkie Pie." The pink pony was staring at the floor, looking pretty sad. Naturally, Velvet's daughter could tell that she was justing pretending to be sad. Cadence, however, lacked of a year-and-half acquaitance that Twiligth had, and so, after another little shock, apparently decided pay no attention to it, and pretend it was really a little filly, just for not cause unexpected problems. After that awkward presentation, when Velvet was finally out of their field of vision, Twilight, Cadance and Pinkie Pie headed towards the cameretta on the latter’s request. While they let Pinkie Pie choose her toys, Cadance decided to kill the time with Velvet’s daughter by talking. “She has been in this state… since when?” “I am not sure for how long she’s been in this state exactly,” said Twilight to her former foalsitter and actual ally, “but, since I returned to live in this house, five days ago, she has been treating me like a little filly.” Cadance mumbled and nodded in understanding. “Also, three days ago, she tried to get my five friends and their sisters involved with her madness, but managed to keep only one, Pinkie Pie.” “So… you are telling me… that your mother has gone insane?” “Well, of course. Otherwise, why would she do all of this, force me and Pinkie in diapers, treat me like a three-years old filly, and yank you from your current job, to much of your annoyance?” Twilight said in a voice with a hint of regret towards the possibility that her mother had disturbed Cadance’s work schedule. “Point taken. By the way, if you’re afraid that your mother has disturbed me in my job, don’t worry,” said Cadance with a wink. “I had nothing to do anyway.” Twilight tilted her head and squinted her eyes, trying to understand what the pink alicorn meant. Cadance noticed that. “You know, even if I am a princess and I am the Chairpony of the Nobles’ Council, that doesn’t mean I’m very busy. Especially because we are in a situation of misplaced ‘Seaside government.’ This means that I and the councillors are there only to create the balance laws at the start of the mandate and nothing else.” Cadance saw Pinkie in her peripheral vision closing the basket and getting near to Twilight. This made the princess-returned-foalsitter cut the conversation short with this phrase: “And I prefer to stay in a bizarre situation with my favourite little filly, than go to work and roll my hooves for ten hours.” Velvet’s daughter, after a brief moment of fear about “my favourite little filly” statement, decided to shrug it off as a simple joke, since Cadance showed the signs that she was still stable. Pinkie then dropped the huge pile of dolls, blocks and stuffed animals she had created on her back at Twilight’s hooves. The pink alicorn was quick in her reaction, since she asked, “So, what do you want to play, Pinkie?” The aforementioned pony did not waste time in thinking. She dug into the pile, and she took out three dolls that resembled the shapes of Cadance, Twilight and Shining Armour pretty closely. They were surely custom-made, even by looking to the paint-job, but their existence puzzled Twilight, because it seemed… strange. “Let’s play house!” Pinkie cried, hoofing the dolls. She held on to the Shining Armour doll, while giving Twilight and Cadance the dolls their doll doubles. “Cadance is the mommy, Shining Armour’s the daddy and Twilight’s the daughter.” Twilight was about to retort angrily at that, when something else Pinkie had said caught her attention. She’d just said Shining Armour’s name. Her brow furrowed. "How Does she knows my brother's name? Did she got that information from my mother whilst I was in Kindergarten?" Twilight sighed, deciding arguing with Pinkie would be useless. But before she could do more than sit up, she felt her bowels strain for a second, before she felt herself relieving in her diaper. She muttered curses under her breath. With the amount of laxative she’d ended up eating last night she would no doubt be using her diapers for most of the day. Though why she hadn’t gone in her sleep was confusing. Cadance seemed to have noticed Twilight going, because she raised an eyebrow. “Twilight?” she asked cautiously. “Did you just... um...?” Twilight growled. “Yes. Mother put laxative into mine and Pinkie’s dinner last night. It would seem it’s still not out of my system yet.” Cadance stared in horror. “Your mother fed you laxative? How long has she been doing this?” Twilight nodded grimly. “The last three days. I wouldn’t be surpised if we find any food she’s left for me and Pinkie to be filled with the substance” Cadance gave Twilight a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. If I’d known sooner, I might have been able to stop her.” Twilight shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Cadance. How were you supposed to know my mother was completely insane?” She narrowed her eyes. “How’s your aunt doing?” “Celestia?” Cadance thought for a minute. “She’s been acting odd for a few days.” Twilgiht tensed, asked. “Odd... how?” She thought, equally tensed as in her speech. “Don’t tell me that she is as insane as my mother. I’d rather face blindfolded Discord and Nightmare Moon joined together once again, than deal with her.” Cadance frowned. “She... she seems sad.” At once, Twilight became definitely worried. She motioned for Cadance to go on, saying “Tell me more. Even if she has forced this on me, she is like a second mother for me: I can’t let her down, if there is something that I can do.” Cadance sighed. “Well, she thinks I didn’t notice, but, since I am the Alicorn of Love, I could sense she wants something precious. I’ve only ever felt this feeling when passing couples where the mare wanted a new foal, or felt the empty nest syndrome.” Twilight’s eyes widened, at the possibility that Celestia wanted to be a mother. Cadance seemed to know what she was thinking and nodded. “After what happened in the village, when I was only an orphaned filly, and after my jumping up into nobility, Celestia took care of me, but I was never really like a daughter, more a niece, so I became just that. However, she would look at me at times with an expression that told me she wished I was her daughter.” Twilgiht looked down, her shoulders drooping: she’d always felt like a daughter to Celestia, and now Cadence revealed to her hints that, maybe, the wish wasn’t so one-sided. “Is this what Cadance was talking about? Did Celestia want to make me, Twilight Sparkle, her daughter?” Thought the purple mare, before giving gave an inward chuckle. “Well, before all of these, I would have take it without a second thought. But, after what happened to me in these last days, I fear that it will be a trap.” “Um, before we go on with this discussion any further,” Cadance said, creating a magical nose-peg and clipping it on her nose, “let’s get you changed first.” Twilight reluctantly nodded and followed her former foalsitter over to the changing table and let herself be changed. Knowing that the laxative was still in her system, she wasn’t going to risk going on the floor, so she forced herself to endure having to rely on diapers until she was free of the laxative. So she asked to Cadence to put a fresh diaper around her waist, instad of leaving her bare. Once she was changed, she got off the changing mat and thanked Cadance for putting up with such an experience. Cadance chuckled. “Well, it was certainly a... unique experience for me,” she said, leading Twilight back towards and impatiently bouncing Pinkie. “Now, let’s play along with your friend before she bounces through the roof.” Twilight nodded and they went to start playing dolls with Pinkie, knowing that, after this annoyingly foolish task, they could do something far more age appropriate for a unicorn her age. > La Fiorentina- Parte 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cadence and Twilight played house with Pinkie, trying to satisfy the latter's wishes. While Twilight played half-heartily with her doll duplicate, hoping to see it end soon, Cadence was more active in her playing, doing her best to entertain Pinkie and try to elicit a positive response from Twilight, by poking fun at her and Shining Armour. After several minutes, Pinkie was making Twilight and Shining dolls kiss on the mouth, when she stopped mid-action, her eyes widened, a hissing sound coming from her. "What's the matter, Pinkie?" Cadence asked, noticing that the pink pony stopped playing all of sudden. The sight of a slightly larger diaper caused Cadence to immediately acknowledge that Pinkie Pie had used her diaper. Without saying anything, Cadence swiftly took a teary-eyed Pinkie in her magical grip, and brought her on the changing table contained in the cameretta. Twilight, after a brief moment of confusion, internally cried with joy at Pinkie's accident, because it meant that, once Pinkie was changed, she could push for doing something else besides stay in the room, sit down, and play with dolls. So, while she waited, Twilight put the dolls backs in the baskets, and unbuilt the blocks, then put them in the boxes where those were contained, before getting thrown on the floor. Twilight was so concentrated in her putting things back in order, that she hadn't noticed that Cadence was done in changing Pinkie. In fact, Cadence had to fake a cough, in order to get Twilight's attention. After a startled jump, Twilight looked behind her, and, when she realized it was Cadence, she said while blushing a bit, "So, what's the plan?" Cadence put a hoof under her chin in a thoughtful manner. "Mmm... shall we go out for a stroll, and maybe have a coffee at the Black Cat?" "No!" shouted Pinkie. Ignoring her pink friend's reaction, Twilight answered to Cadence's proposal. "That's actually a good idea." Pinkie stomped her right hoof. "Not!" The pink alicorn looked Pinkie, and said, "Come on, let's go." Pinkie Pie reacted with the only way a toddler, according to stereotypes, reacts to a proposal she doesn't like and really doesn't want to do. Namely, by throwing a tantrum. She threw herself on her back, shrieked, and puffed out her cheeks, all while shouting "No" over and over again. Twilight lowered her ears and put her hooves in the pinna, trying to stop the shrillness from piercing her eardrums and turning them into earflautes, and said in a low voice "Please, make her stop, before I snap." The pink alicorn didn't fare any better, at first at least, since after a couple of minutes later, she decided to change Pinkie's mind about that. "But Pinkie, we have played with you, it's now our turn to do something else." Pinkie Pie barked, "No and no! I don't wanna go out!" And started to roll on the floor, too much of Twilight's annoyance. Cadence, after seeing her failure, turned around towards the door, took a haughty stance, and said, "Come on, Twilight, let's go." Twilight was going to say something about that, before understanding what game Cadence was playing with Pinkie. And so Velvet's daughter walked out of the room along with her former foalsitter, all while Pinkie still kept whining and thrashing her hooves around. Cadence closed the door behind her, sighed, and walked towards the living room. Twilight decided that it was the appropriate time to talk about how to "organize" that stroll. "So, I guess that Pinkie will give up soon. But..." Cadence wiped her frown from her face. "Yes?" "I think we have some small problems here: one is keeping Pinkie Pie from doing something she, or at least I will regret, the other," Twilight blushed, "is about my diaper." The pink alicorn looked a bit puzzled at Velvet's daughter. "What's the deal? You want to cover it?" "Yes," said Twilight, as she sat on one of the couches. "Usually, nopony sees it because it's under the smock. But now..." Cadence also sat down, before jumping on all fours yet again, her horn lighting up. "I have a solution," she said, as she enveloped the diaper into an aquamarine aura that made the adsorbent garment slowly fade from vision. "There. An invisibility spell. It's one of the tricks that I've learned while playing Poker." Twilight smiled at Cadence. With the diaper out of sight, she knew she’d feel a lot more comfortable about going out in public. They waited for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of Pinkie’s tantrum going on in the other room. Just when Twilight thought Pinkie must somehow be immune to the plan Cadance had for her, the door opened and a slightly sulky Pinkie walked out, her head held low. Cadance smiled at the pink mare-filly. “Yes, Pinkie?” Pinkie looked away. “Sorry. I’ll behave and go out.” Cadance nodded. “Good girl, Pinkie. Now, let’s get ready.” While Twilight decided to go without clothes, Pinkie wanted to wear one of the dresses Velvet had gotten them. After searching through Twilight’s now full of filly-like clothes filled closest, Pinkie chose a bright yellow frilly dress with white hems. Once the dress was chosen and put on, Cadance levitated a saddlebag onto her back, filling it with the supplies from the changing mat. Some fresh diapers, foal powder and foal cream and wet wipes. As they walked out the house, Pinkie now wearing a toddler’s leash and vest Cadance had strapped on her right after packing the saddlebag, Twilight glanced at Pinkie, a small smile coming on her face. Pinkie really did seem like a little filly, and wearing that dress, at a distance anypony could easily mistake her for a filly. At close range? That was another matter altogether After ten minutes of walking, the three ponies reached their destination: The Black Cat. It was a white wooden building, its architectural style resembling the more "germanized" style of the South of Equestria, with exposed girders, flower-covered balconies, and round windows. As for the bar in itself, it had several steel chairs and tables in the and out of the building; a granite counter with three small shop windows, one for sweet food, one of salted food, and one for ice cream. At that time of the day, the bar was full with ponies, either lonely ones that drunk some coffee and enjoyed some fresh air, couples doing lovebirds things, or mothers/fathers looking out for their sons and daughters running around. Cadence took her wallet out of the bag, and gave it to Twilight. "Here's the money," she said, "take a coffee, a Spite, two pizzette and whatever you want to eat." Then Cadence winked at Twilight. Velvet's daughter immediately understood the reason for the wink: Cadence was silently saying her that she could take food to eat not only there, but also at home, as a way to go around Velvet's tainting with laxative. Twilight put herself in the queue, and waited her turn to make an order. While she waited, she looked at how Cadence was faring with Pinkie and her antics. It seemed she was doing pretty good, considered that Pinkie was famous for doing anything, as long she believed she could that. But Cadance seemed a better mind manipulator than the pink earth pony mare, because she had tied the toddler leash to one of the table's legs, and had zipped Pinkie's mouth, likely for avoid that she could cause strange looks coming from the bystanders, if the diaper in danger to be expose at any moment was not enough to discourage Pinkie from doing eye-catching things. Twilight frowned, looking at the zip, before shaking her head. Pinkie was weird at times and something so strange as a zipper appearing on skin wasn’t something she wouldn’t cosider atypical to the pink party mare. Though she knew Cadance couldn’t have possibly zipped the zipper herself, that was pure Pinkie magic and only Pinkie could use it, so she must have convinced Pinkie to do so. After a while, it was Twilight's turn to make her order. The barpony was a light blue unicorn pony with a striped light red and green uniform, and asked with a voice resembling the one of a chain-smoker that once worked at La Trave who was a baritone, before his voice became weak, "What you desire?" "I'd like two coffees, a Spite," Twilight looked at the shop window with sweet food, and saw some tea cakes, two chocolate muffins and loads and loads of briches "three apricotbriches," then Twilight looked at the shop window with salted food, seeing some scones and pizzette "three pizzette, two salads and egg scones and three mushroom ham scones." Without batting an eye, the barkeeper took out with the tongs all the things Twilight had listed, put them on a paper tray, and then went briefly in the backroom to load the coffee machine, and returned two minutes later with two small cups steaming of coffee. "That would be twenty-six bits," said the barkeeper. "Holy..." Twilight murmured to herself, while widening her eyes and recoiling slightly at the sound of the price "it has gotten expensive!" But Velvet's daughter did not want to negotiate with the barkeeper and so took out the required amount of bits from the wallet and gave them to the light blue unicorn. The barkeeper swiftly took the money from Twilight's grip, and hastily gave Twilight's order to her. Twilight took the food and the two coffees and went back to the table where Cadence was sitting and Pinkie was running around. Twilight’s return made Pinkie stop running and hop up onto her seat as Twilight placed her Spite in front of her and the two coffees in front of herself and Cadance. “So, any plans on how we might be able to get your mother back to the sane world?” Cadance asked, levitating her coffee and taking a sip. Twilight sighed. “Sadly, I have been pondering just that over the last five days and come up with nothing. I believe she may just return to normal once this is all over though. It’s a slim chance, but after the week I’ve had, I’ll hold on to even the slimmest of chances.” Cadance nodded. “You’re a lot stronger willed than I am, Twilight. I don’t think I’d have lasted half as long if I were in your horseshoes.” Twilight sipped her own coffee, nodding slightly. “If not for my friends coming three days ago, I’m not sure I’d have made it myself. While Pinkie’s presence hasn’t helped me in my quest for put the light of reason back in my mother, rather, seeming to just reject it, I think it is allowing me to keep a sane mind myself, if only because at least I know how to NOT act for trigger my mother anymore.” Cadance smiled. “At least you have a friend to go through this with.” Twilight glanced at Pinkie, who was somehow blowing bubbles out her nose, giggling. “True. Though that friend seems to enjoy being a filly far more than me,” she thought. The shrill voice of a filly suddenly echoes in Twilight's ears. “Tiligh!” Twilight almost choked on her coffee and, spluttering, whirled around to see Lex and the light brown mare with a curly white-and-pink mane that was her mother. Once she’d cleared the coffee from her trachea, Twilight smiled at the small filly. “Hey, Lexy. I didn’t expect to see you today?” Cadance giggled. “Who’s this, Twilight?” Twilight looked at Cadance and did the introductions. “Cadance, meet Lex Populi. She’s one of the fillies at the Kndergarten I’m currently going to. And this is her mother... um...” “Fairy Floss,” the mare said, giving Twilight an odd look, one that expressed cautious doubts about the sanity of the looked at and some genuine concern. However, when she caught sight of Cadance she went into a small bow, saying, “Your Grace, it is an honour.” Cadance just rolled her eyes and put her hoof foward while waving it up and down. “Hello, Mrs. Floss. So your daughter is one of Twilight’s friends?” “Yeah!” Lex bounced, ignorante of the figure she had in front of her, giggling. “She’s weally fun. We played school yesterday, and Tiligh was the teacher and she was weally fun!” Cadance glanced at Twilight, giving her a look that said "Oh, you." The purple mare smiled sheepishly. “She did say it was fun.” “Hi, there!” Pinkie cried, bouncing down and meeting Lex, who hurried behind Twilight at once. “I’m Pinkie Pie.” “You’ve already met, Pinkie,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “We have?” Pinkie asked, cocking an eyebrow. “They have?” Cadance asked at the same time. Fairy Floss just nodded. “So this is the other strange mare my daughter mentioned several days ago.” Twilight looked blankly at Pinkie and deadpanned. “You met, albeit briefly, when you jumped out of that Jack-in-a-Box, remember?” Pinkie thought for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, yeah! That was the day your mommy pulled my ear.” Her ears drooped a little as she put a hoof to said ear. “That really hurt.” Twilight had to use all her willpower to stop herself from facehoofing, and turned to Lex instad, wearing a smile. “So, what brought you and your mother here?” Floss, seeming to have decided Twilight wasn’t as... eccentric as her mother and Pinkie, smiled and chuckled. “We were just passing by, but when she saw you sitting in her, she bound right in.” Twilight turned to Floss, nodded and smiled again at Lex. “Thank you, Lex. This was a nice surprise.” “Wanna come with me and Mommy?” the filly chirped excitedly, clearing wanting to hang out with her "big friend". Her mother, however, shook her head. “Honey, we have several errands I need to run first, and I’m sure Twilight has her own plans for today. She can’t just stop and leave them on a whim.” Lex frowned at her mother. “But she’s not on whim. She is sitting on a chaiw!” This caused all the mares (the ones not acting like fillies anyway) to chuckle. “I’ll see you on Thurdsday, okay, Lex?” Twilight said, giving as warm a smile as she could, so to try to make her to accept the fact. Lex’s ears drooped a little, but she nodded and followed her mother. Cadance smiled at Twilight. “So, you made some friends at kindy, huh?” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. Fillies can be really good friends.” Cadance nodded. “Say no more, Twilight. Say no more.” At that moment, a rumble came from Twilight's lower part, a sharp pain hit Twilight, who soon felt a mushy sensation under her bottom bottom and a smell that reached the noses of both Twilight and Cadence. Realizing what just happened, her ears drooped as she scowled. “Again? And why this time I've released them earlier?” Cadance nodded, glanced at Pinkie, then nodded again. She looked around and saw the changing rooms, which were connected to the hallway leading to the toilets. “Come on,” she said, getting up, taking Pinkie’s leash in her magic and leading the two towards the hallway. “We’ll use Pinkie as a diversion. Since she’s wearing a diaper and none can see yours, they won’t know you’re the one in need of a change, not her. They’ll just assume you needed the toilet at around the same time.” Twilight nodded, though she wasn’t any happier about it. "For how long this laxative will remain active?" She whispered to herself angrly "For how long I will have to put up with it?" Once in the changing room, Cadance lifted the invisibility spell, Twilight jumped on the changing table carefully took off her diaper. Cadance wiped Twilight down, applied the foal cream and powder, then put a new diaper on Twilight, did up the straps and finally cast another invisibility spell, hiding it from the sight. Minutes later they returned to their table, Twilight blushing out of frustration. “I’m sure it’ll be out of your system by tonight, Twi,” Cadance tried to reassure her as they sat down to finish their coffees and Pinkie her Spite. Twilight just glowered down at her flank, knowing and feeling the diaper there, even though she could not see it. "True, it probably would be out of my system by tonight, or at most, by tomorrow morning, but that still doesn't make it any less degrading for me to wear them just in case I release my bowels." Once they were done with their drinks, they headed out to enjoy the day, Pinkie bouncing alongside them, the leash stopping her from bouncing too high in the sky. The three walked in the park more orless silently, enjoying the fresh air and the sigh of the green around them. While they walked, Cadence and Twilight talked about their respective vicessitudes and adventures, and Pinkie, just like a little filly, looked at the nature around her with wonder and curiosity. For Twilight, this was the most pleasurable afternoon she had in those five days of suffering and humiliation. But even that afternoon came to an end: when the clock stroke seven o' clock, the three ponies went back home, where Velvet was waiting for them. Seeing her on the door, Cadence quickly nullifeid the invisibility spell she had cast on Twilight diaper, and freed Pinkie from the toddler leash. Done that, Velvet's daughter and Celestia's niece walked towards the door, while Twilight's pink friend reached it in two leaps. "Hello again Cadence," said Velvet "did my little fillies behaved themselves?" Cadence sheepisly smiled, and said. "Yes... more or less..." It was enought. Velvet said to Twilight and to Pinkie to go in the cameretta and wait there. > Notturnale. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The waiting in the cameretta was short and painless for Twilight, who, as soon as her mother opened the door of the cameretta, walked towards the bathroom for wash her hooves and finally eat some untainted food, under the shape of the scones she had bought earlier that day. But Velvet decided to give them a bath, instead of just let them clean their hooves. In the bathroom, Twilight got rid of the diaper she was wearing, picked some bars of paraffine-scented soap and a can of mane shampoo, and put said bars and said can on the border of the bath tub. Since Velvet was still struggling into getting the diaper off a trashing Pinkie Pie, Twilight closed the tap, before the water could start to overflow. Done that, seeing that herm other still struggled, she helped her into keeping Pinkie still. When, finally, after several minutes of fighting, Velvet could get Twilight's pink friend out of her diaper and into the water, the washing began. After clearing with the paraffine soap her body from the dirt and sweat she had acculumated while walking, Twilight put the diaper back on her waist, and went to the set dianner table where Sedula was waiting to bring in the dinner. Once Velvet, Twilight and Pinkie was sitting at the table, Sedual started to bring in food. Sedula came in the dining room, bringing in the parmigiana of eggplants some white bread and soft, feta-like, cheese. Twilight looked at the portions of the food, and saw that, while the parmigiana was enough for all three, meaning it was sure-fire free from laxatives, the bread and the chesse was not. Twilight deviously smiled, as she took her portion of parmigiana, and slowly started to eat it while watched by Velvet wearing her usual smile, and while also did eat her portion, albeit much faster. After a while, when Twilight was at three quarters of her portion, Pinkie took all the bread and all the cheese on the table, and, with the knife, sliced the bread in half and spreared the feta-like cheese on each slice. This, for some reasons, annoyed Velvet, who yanked the plate full of bread and cheese away from her pink host. While she exclaimed "Hey!" and tried to grab the plate mid-air, Velvet said, while keeping her chin high and trying to keep the dish as far as possible from the pink pony's mouth. "Nah-ah. You can't take all of it and leave Twilight without it." Twilight flailed her left hoof towards her mother while blushing, bit her lip, and producing some sweat from her forefront, the hope of not eating laxative still high in her mind. This time, Pinkie's desire to play the part was helpful: she did a puppy dog face and said. "But Twily said she didn't want theeemmm..." Velvet was unbreakable. "No, aks her first." The pink mare crossed her hooves and pouted, refusing to listen at Velvet's request of asking permission before taking all the food. Velvet slowly hovered the bread and the cheese over Twilight's dish, trying a tantrum-defeating tactic that Always worked. That is, if the other part wanted to cooperate. As soon as her mother put a piece of the likely tainted bread on the place, Twilight politely put it back on the plate, and said. "No thanks." Velvet rolled her eyes, and put the piece back in the plate. "Don't start, please." Sighing, Twilight let her mother put half of the cheesed bread on the dish, still hoping that it didn't mean that she had to eat it. Done that, Velvet turne her attention back to Pinkie, and, once again, tried to reason with her. Pinkie refused to listen to Velvet, and, finally, decided to enforce her demends. How? By stealing Twilight's plate, of course. Velvet's daughter, seeing that her mother was trying to snatch the dish mid-air yet again from Pinkie's grasp, decided to take the bread and give it directly to Pinkie. Her pink friend was quick in understanding, and ate in one go the bread, leaving Velvet with an empty plate. Twilight's mother was surely not amused, and, after putting the plate away, grabbed Pinkie's tail, and, after going on her four hooves and walking away from the table, she dragged a trahsing Pinkie near. "Pinkie!" She shouted "You were so rude! Say 'sorry' to Twilight!" Pinkie, realizing the looming threat of spanking, took a pleading and defeated stance, and said. "Okay, oaky," then she turned at Twilight, and, while giving a small wink, said "Sorry Twilight." Pinkie's wink leaft Twilight slightly baffled, because she didn't see the reason for that.wink. But soon the bafflment was overtaken by the relief of not begin forced to eat the laxative bread and cheese. "Good filly. But, since you have eaten all the bread, I won't give anymore food for tonight." Said Velvet sternly. Pinkie Pie sulked, and went back to her seat. Once the pink pony was back at her seat, Velvet immediately changed her expression on her face from angry to crazy calm. "Do you want anymore food, Twily?" The purple pony did not want to tempo her luck that night. "No thanks mother. I am full." Velvet nodded, and brought her and her daughter's dish in the kitchen. Twilight decided that, at that point, go to bed was the best option. So, she yawned, and stretched her hooves upwards. Velvet noticed that, and, while looming on her daughter, she said. "Are you sleepy Twily?" Twilight, trying her best to ignore the creepy stance of her mohter, nodded. "Well then, shall we go to bed?" Velvet said, while wlaking towards the stairs. Twilight, with a sigh, followed her mother in her defiled bedroom. There Twilight ran towards the wardrobe, opened it, quickly putt on herself a green pyjama, and launched herself under the sheets of her comically undersized bed. Twilight's mother asked. "Do you want me to.." Twilight answered rapidly. "No thanks." Velvet silently nodded, turned off the light, and closed the door. When the lights were off and the door closed, Twilight laid her head on the pillow and closed her eyes: as soon as she did that, she drifted into sleep. When Twilight opened up her eyes, darkness was all she couldsee around her. The only visible thing in front of her was a inlaid door that, judging by its colours, was made of some kind of glowering oxen horn. The door stipes decorated with two small marble statues, representing two blindfolded ponies keeping an hourglass in their hooves. Twilight was jarred, confused, speechless, in that situation. The fact that she appeared to be slowly dragged towards the door did not help the overall situation. “Where I am? Why the door is emanating light on its own? Why is it dragging me?” Asked Twilight to herself, as she tried to stand on her four hooves, but failed to do so due strangely slipperly floor and the constant but resolute dragging. After a couple of desperate tries, Twilight gave up, and let the mysterious force drag her towards the door which, when Twilight was nearby, opened inwards automonsly, revealing a red and mint green spiral spiraling clockwise. The sight of the spiral made Twilight flail around a bit in a vain attempt to run away, but the floor, once again, prevented her from doing so. Then her body was slowly enveloped by the spiral. Twilight closed her eyes, and waited. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in her hours, in the cameretta, to be more specific. Twilight found herself sitting atop of a purple and pink rug shaped like her cutie mark fused with Velvet's. Twilight decided to look at her surrondings: she raised herself on four hooves, and turned around. When she did that, she saw Shining Armour wearing a diaper, sucking a pacifier and playing with a diapered and pacifer-sucking Pinkie with the same look-alike dolls Twilight saw previously. Twilight walked with insecurity towards his brother and her friend, and said. "Ehm... Shiny, what are you doing here?" Twilight's brother looked at his sister, his face plastered with a smile that desperately wanted to be innocent, but came off as creepy instead, thanks to the size of the smile, the subject in question, and the dull eyes. "Sistah Twi!" Shouted Shining Armour with a squeaky voice, one that did not belong to the fully-grown stallion he was, but to a little colt. Pinkie had a similar reaction, a little bounce and a giggle to be more precise. For this reason, Twilight backed down, with disgust, which increased even more once she felt a mushy feeling on her backside, meaning that she also pooped herself. Shining Armour giggled wholeheartly and clapped his front hooves. "Twily did stinky!" "Yes, she do!" Said Pinkie while laughing like if there was no tomorrow. "Oh no, Shining has fallen!" Shouted Twilight, as her horror grew even more "I must flee!" She shouted, as she ran towards the cameretta's door. However, as soon as she was at few steps from the door, it suddenly opened, revealing Velvet, who had an even more crazier face then the usual she wore. Twilight froze in fear in front of her mother. Velvet lit up her horn, and picked up Twilight, somehow shrinking her to a thre-years old. "Oh, hello Twily. I see you are poopy," Said Velvet, as she brought her to the changing table "We can't be poopy, if we want Mommy Celestia to take us!" Twilight remained both frightened and confused by Velvet's phrase, and said nothing, as her mother placed her on the changing table and proceeded to take out the supplies. However, before her mother could change Twilight's diaper, Twilight noticed the arrival of another pony from the door. It was Princess Celestia, and had, dandling from her breastplate, some medicine cans. "Is my... precious Twily... ready?" Asked Celestia while salivating with a voice that sent shivers down the spine. Shining Armour saluted Celestia with "Auntie Cewestia!" And, strangely, the military greet. Princess Celestia gave the salute back to Shining, and started to walk towards Velvet. As she walked, Twilight could notice additional details about Celestia's apperance. Namely, Celestia's legs were long and thin, the muzzle slightly resembled a beak, the cans tied to the breast plate were tagged with things like "Regressione," "Umiliazione," "Lassativo," and "Follia." Also, the crown did not had the usual oval gem but one partially resembling a baby bottle. Since Twilight was too distracted into looking at her crazed mentor, she had failed to notice she was begin magically lift by Celestia. "What a foul smell!" Celestia said "How I can take a smelly foal as my personal student? I think I will just leave you here, where you belong..." Twilight's eyes filled with tears, and felt fear growing stronger and stronger. Then, the mercy hit. "Oh, don't worry Celestia. I think I will just keep her here... forever." Velvet said, before letting out an evil laughter. Twilight cried and cried, until another voice called from outsaid. "Not!" Said the voice, followed by the sound of hooves charging, and the appearance of a sleeky silouhette of an unicorn mare waving a giant stamp in her magical grip. Velvet froze in surprise, and was na easy prey for the stamp, who hit her head, and made Velvet wither and disappear in a cloud of dust. Then the mare hit a unprepared Celestia on the forehead with the stamp, destroying the crown, and causing the labelled cans to mysteriously fall off the chestplate and burst into flames when they hit the floor. Celestia herself collapsed on the floor uncoscious. Shining Armor proceeded to cover his eyes and cry, as the mare charged him, and made him uncoscious, somehow destroying the diaper and the pacifier in a cloud of blue smoke. The mare repeated the process with an equally-scared Pinkie Pie, who also lost the diaper and the pacifier. Twilight stared, her mouth agape, to the mare that had saved her. The unicorn mare was pink, her mane was curly and White, and, around flank, there was the cutie mark of a gavel in a laurel crown. No doubt: Twilight's saviour looked like a grown-up Lex Populi. Then the mare took Twilight in her magical grip, and brought her to the door, all without saying a word, and ignoring Twilight's questions about her identity and motivations. Twilight remained disappointed by the mare's silence, but she was still too grateful towards her to say something about that. When the mare stepped off with Twilight still in her magical grip, the latter could see a bizzarre scene going on in front of her: a crowd of ponies dancing and singing around a burning wooden statue. Twilight opened her mouth for ask something... Twilight woke up from her tormented slumber in her bed, covered in sweat. "What... ah, it was all just a dream," Said Twilight, as she cleaned up her face from the sweat with her left hoof. Then she sniffed the air, and felt the smell of methane, sign that she had soiled her diaper "Since I am already awake, I think I should clean myself." Twilight slowly jumped out of her bed, and walked slowly towards the bathroom. As she slowly walked down the hallway, she noticed that the Sun had yet to be raised, meaning she was still deep in the night. With this in mind, Twilight walked faster to the bathroom, since she was less worried about getting caught by Velvet. Twilight opened the bathroom's door and entered in the room. There, she lied down on the tiled floor, and untaped the diaper from her waist, and, done that, she took the nearby toilet paper roll for clean herself up. Thorwing the used pieces of paper in the toilet, Twilight then proceeded to throw the used diaper in the waste bin just under the sink. Once she done with that, Twilight took with her magic the can of baby powder and a fresh diaper to put on. When she was finally done, Twilight went back on her four hooves, and exited from the bathroom and went back to her bedroom. Once she had managed to avoid to step on a sleeping Pinkie and go under the blankets of her comically undersized bed, Twilight stared at the ceiling, and thought about the dream she had made. "That was a prettyintense dream. Btween my mother begin even more insane, Celestia losing her mind, and the horn door covering a whirwinding spiral..." Then, something clicked in Twilight's mind, at the mention of the door. "Hold on... an oxen horn door? Wasn't that... no... that can't be right." Said Twilight to herself with doubt "this whole thing is too absurd to happen. How it could happen?" Twilight realized something else and facehoofed at her moment of stupidity. "Right, the fact that I saw a door made of horn in a dream doesn't mean that the events happened in the dream will play out just like that. I have to interpeter them." Twilight put her right hoof under her chin thoughtfully. "First of all. My brother, in a twist of iron, acted like a foal younger than the age Velvet assigned to me, so I guess that means he won't help me because either he doesn't know, or doesn't want to act. The fact that Pinkie plays with him means that my pink friend is also not helping. Not that it was lost on me already." Twilight chuckled, before going back to think. "Next, a simple part to interpeter: in the dream, Princess Celestia resembled a stork, since she wants a baby. Nothing too surprising here." Twilight turned around. "Then, Celestia begin crazed like my mother in my dream. I guess she is trying everyth..." Twilight shook her head in disbelief,and said to herself "No, that can't be right. I don't think she is doing nothing at all against my mother because she wants me to break down and turn mentally into a three-years old. A more likely interpretation is that Princess Celestia is watching my moves, and that she hopes I will finally get over this and like my current predicament, and, at the same time, she hopes I won't break and be in the state Velvet wants me in for a long time, interpretation reinforced by the fact that in the dream she rejected me because I had used my diaper." Twilight sighed. "Velvet wants to keep me here until either gets cured or dies. Again, nothign too surprising. Onto the next part: the mare armed with a stamp and resembling Lex Populi..." Twilight smiled "well, that is a good omen iI guess. It means that, as long I keep contacts with my little friends in the Kindergarten, I won't fall down the spiral of insanity that brought my mother to her current state. As for the stamp used as weapon by grown-up Lex Populi..." Twilight wrinkled her face in concentration. "MaybeI will be vindicated by the law? Maybe Lex will be the one that will start to stop my mother entirely? But how? She is just a three-years old, and nopony hardly listen to three-years old... or, maybe, is just a random weapon, one derivated from her name, since the stamp is symbol of justice, and Lex means 'Law' in Old Equestrian?" Twilight shook her head. "Yes, it's that. About the cans on Celestia's breastplate... they looked suspiciously similar to..." Twilight was hit by a realization. "Laxative cans! But of course! I have to destroy the laxative supplies, if I want to halt Velvet's insane intention!" Realized that, Velvet's daughter jumped out of bed, and ran downstairs to the kitchen room, her mind devoid of any fear of relitation from her mother. In the kitchen, Twilight looked frantically in all the counters and on every shlves for the laxatives' cans, until she found them, in-between the sauces and dressings kept into a small oak locker above the stove. Twilight looked at the cans with a smile, and started to take them one by one. She took with her magic a small brown porcelain pot labeled as "Ten Herbs," and, while giggling wholeheartly, she shouted "Ten Herbs, begone!" And thre it on the floor, shattering the small pot, and spreading the dried pulvirized herbs on the kitchen's floor. Then she took the Gluttonax's metal can, opened it, poured the white powder it in kitchen's sink, and opened the water's tap, so to flow the powder down the drain. Done that, Twilight took the last laxative left, a small carboard box labeled as "Jarate Diuretic Pills. Taste: Iron." Twilight gleefully threw it in the trash can, and the pieces of the shattered pot with it. And, when she was done with the jarate, Twilight decided to do a spite towards her mother, before going to bed. She took some of the the brown powder that was once contained in the "Ten Herbs" pot, put the handful of dried herbs on the counter, then grabbed with her magic the can of coffee, got off the metal cap, and dropped the bornw herbs in the can. For make it less obvious, Twilight closed the can yet again, shook it, and put it back in its place. By this point, Twilight's desire of tevenge had been gratified, and now she felt lighter. "If everything goes according to the plan," she said, as she climbed the stairs "my mother will get a taste of her own medicine, and she won't be able to counter-attack for a while." Once she was back in her room, Velvet's daughter went under the covers of her undersized bed, dropped her head on the pillow, and, as soon as she closed her eyes, she went back to sleep. > V per Vendetta/ R for Revenge > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight woke up again, a lot more cleaner than the previous waking up and a lot more cheerful than the usual mood she had in the past days when waking up. She happily jumped out of bed, landed on all four legs, and walked out of the room to reach the bathroom, and do her morning ritual of teeth brushing, bodily functions reliving, and a quick shower. After doing those tasks in ten minutes, Twilight exited the bathroom, making room for Pinkie Pie, and went downstairs, towards the dining room, where the untainted breakfast, the first in two days, awaited. The ebony table was set, as usual, with a white placemat with blue borders for each pony, a green cup strpied with black lines for Twilight, a light pink cup with two ceramic daisies as handles, and a larg White and baroque-looking cofee cup for Velvet. As far the cutlery was concerned, it was the usual one. As for the food avaible that morning, Sedula Serva was bringing three bran muffins on a red ceramic plate, around twenty cookeis on a light green plate, and three brioches in a small wicker basket. Twilight sat on the red padded chair, and waited for Velvet and Pinkie, before starting to eat what Sedula Serva was bringing in. As she waited, Twilight remembered what she had done the night before, and said. "Sedula, please, don't make coffee for me. Just give me the milk, the untouched one, if possible." The valet simply said "As you wish, Miss Twilight," and asked nothing abut her reasons for refuse coffee that morning. Once the valet agreed to make one less coffee, Velvet's daughter sighed of relief, and started to rotated her mug around itself as a way to pass time. After three minutes, Velvet and Pinkie Pie finally showed up, greeted Twilight, and sat on the red padded chairs. As a way to be sure that her mother wasn't playing any tricks with food, Twilight looked at what Velvet was picking as food. She saw that Velvet took took five cookies and a brioche, while Pinkie Pie took a brioche, another five cookies, and one of the muffins. "Better safe than sorry," said Twilight, as she took the cookies and her brioche "I don't want to fall victim to the laxative yet again." As soon as Twilight filled her plate with the chosen food, Sedula Serva went back in the dining room, this time levitating a tray containg a pitcher of milk, the sugar bowl and the jug with the coffee. Grinning, Velvet's daughter fileld with the milk her mug, and she started to slowly eat her breakast, sure that she got away with that. Meanwhile, Velvet poured the milk and the coffee togheter, put some sugar in the drink, and stirred.As she did that, Velvet tried to start a conversation with her two fillies. "So, did you slept well, my little angels?" Pinkie Pie, who still had her mouth full of the muffin (eaten in less than twenty seconds) , answered to Velvet's question. "Yep. And you?" Velvet, while nibbled the brioche, answered with. "Yes, I slept the sleep of the rightful." Twilight snickered at the notion. "I think I've heard something going on downstairs last night, but, aside from that, nothing else happened. And you, Twily, did you had a good night?" "But of course. Sure, I've dreamnt that you held me in this state for the rest of my mortal life, but, aside from that, I slept well." Twilight said, as she ate some more food. Apparently, Velvet ignored the omment about the strange dream, and passed to another topic. "Oh, and before I forget that: since today is Thursday, you will eat at school." Velvet smiled yet again to her dauhgter "Don't worry, I am going to pick you up, once the day is over." At the words "eat at school," a victorious fanfare played in Twilight's mind, inciting her to do an hoff pump. But she contained herself: she didn't want to give too many clues about what happened last night to her mother. Once the fanfare was over, Twilight gave the last bite to the fourth cooke. Looking at her mother, she saw her drinking the coffee. "You wanted me to soil my diaper?" Twilight whispered to herself with a smirk, as she dunked the last biscuit in her cup "Now you shall soil yourself!" That said, Twilight drunk the milk in one sip, and passed to the last food left on her plate, the brioche. As she did that, Velvet had took a sip of her spiekd drink, and, apparently noticed that, since she stopped herself mid-sip, remaining with the cup still wetting Velvet's lips with the contenent, and with wide eyes with shrunken pupils. Pinkie Pie, noticing that, asked. "Mommy, is something wrong?" Velvet snapped out of her trance, and, after basically slamming the cup on the table, she ran towards the bathroom, saying. "No, no, it's just the coffee." Twilight smiled widely, at the sight of her mother running towards the bathroom. "Revenge is a dish best served cold..." she said to herself "or, in this case, at body temperature." That said, Twilight went towards the entrance hall for get ready with the smock. Shortly afterwards, while accompanied by Sedula Serva (who got the duty from Velvet to escort her daughter to the Kindergarten) Twilight reached the aforementioned building. After waving goodbye to Sedula, Twilight, like the usual, joined the crowd of little foals and fillies entering, and then followed the directions to her class, where Lux, Nutriz and all of her classmates were waiting. When finally all the foals were in the classroom, Lux proceeded to do the head count of the foals, and, when she was done with it, she said to the foals that they could loosen up, and the foals did just that. The first thing Twilight did, once the name call was over, was look for Lex Populi, Orvosti Ostoba and Pearly Handle, and join their group. Not that it took very long, since they were at the table in the corner of the room, either there drawing something, or pulling out some toys to play with them. Twilight walked towards her three "little friends" and, soon as Twilight was near, she saw Lex raising her head from the piece of paper, dropping the crayon on the table, and turn around, to salute. "Hewwo, Tiligh!" Twilight slowly sat down, so to get at eye-level with Lex, and answered. "Hello, Lexy!" Twilight looked at the piece of paper, and saw a shape drew on a piece of paper. Interested, Twilight asked, "What are you doing?" Lex took the picture and gave it to Twilight. It was a rather crudely drawn picture that looked like two unicorns, one small and pink, with a white mane and a black spot on the flank, and the other a purple adult pony with Twilight’s mane colours wearing a graduate cap on the head. Both ponies were holding each other’s hoof and smiling outwards: thanks to this detail, Twilight could realize that the drawing was supposed to represent her and Lex. The gesture of it was so sweet Twilight felt tears try to well in her eyes, but, since she did not want to accidentally send the wrong message, she forced herself to not shed any tears, and smiled at Lex. “Thank you, Lexy. I- it’s beautiful,” she said, nuzzling the small filly, who giggled in response. “If you two awe done being girwy, can we pway now?” Twilight and Lex turned to see Bright Light and Olive Oil giving them slightly impatient looks. They both giggled and went over to join the two colts. After an hour or so of playing games, Twilight heard a clapping. Turning around, she saw Nutriz holding in her magic grip a big roll of red paper, and Lux entering with four boxes containing pieces of paper. Twilight saw Nutriz unroll the roll, revealing what was written over it. “The Seasons.” “Alright class,” Nutriz said, while attempting to get the foals’ attention. “It’s time to learn about the seasons, so, everypony find a partner and sit down.” Twilight followed the fillies and colts to the mat and looked for a spot to sit down. “Tiligh! Here!” Twilight saw Lex waving eagerly to her, indicating to a spot next to herself. Understanding the cue, Twilight walked towards her, sit down near Lex, and follwoed the lesson with her. Lex could barely contain her excitement, at the thought she was sitting near Twilight, one of her favourite big ponies. Why did Lex admired Twilight? Because she was the smartest pony Lex knew, maybe even smarter than her mommy. Also, Twilight was very kind and welcoming, she had helped her against Hard Time... in short, she was great. Not only that, but Twilight was also friend with Princess Cadence, or, at least, that was what she understood the day before, when she saw Princess Cadence and Twilight sitting at the table of a bar. Lex wandered on with her mind, as Twilight answered a few of the questions about the seasons when the other fillies and colts didn’t have the answer to the questions given by either Lux or Nutriz. If she could, she’d have Twilight as her big sister. After all, Lex had always wanted a big sister, and Twilight was the closest thing she had. But, for the time begin, she could only hope that Twilight wanted to be her sister. As Lex thought this things about Twilight, she uncosciously leaned into Twilight and enjoyed the warmth coming from her body, and she he almost squeaked when, after noticing Lex leaning into her, Twilight wrapped a foreleg around her, brining Lex into a warm hug. Lex’s mind drifted off once again, thinking about the possibilites of having a big sister... “Lexy?” a voice seemed to say from far away. “Lexy? Lexy, wake up!” Lex jerked awake and looked at the source of the voice, and saw Twilight. Confused, she looekd around her, and saw that everyone in the class was looking at her, some giggling, some snickering, others looking just confused. Lex blushed when she realized she had fallen asleep, and asked. "What went on?" Before the teacher could answer to Lex's question, Orvosti Ostoba, who was sitting next to Lex, raised his right hoof and snickered. “De answew is Auwtum, Ms Nutwiz. Leaws faww in Auwtum.” Lux gave a glare to Orvosti Ostoba, before saying what he said was correct. Nutriz nodded, then looked to Pearly. “Pearly, can you tell me why Spring comes before Summer and Autum before Winter.” Pearly fiddled with her hoofs nervously. “Spwing bwings wife back to Equestwia and get us weady for how hot summer wiww be?” Nutrix nodded affirmatively at the filly's answer. “And what about Autumn?” Pearly, still nervous, gave a small, awkard smile. “Weww, da weafs need to be off da twees befowe wintew orw da twees get sick when it gets cold?” Snickering could be heard, but it stopped when Nutriz and Lux gave firm looks at the fillies and colts responsible. Half an hour later, the lesson was over and Lux escorted the children to the yard, to which they all the foals headed off to have fun, leaving the two teachers to talk about something that had been on their minds since the last week. Namely, their newest, temporary student, Twilight Sparkle. "I kind of can't help but feel uncomfortable with the presence of Twilight among the foals," Nutriz said "even if I know she doesn't bear any ill will to any of them, as confirmed by her actions towards Lex Populi's problems with Hard Time and the rest of the classroom, I always feel that her presence might be unhealty for the foals." "Considered your personality, Nutriz," said Lux while giving a small poke to her colleague "I would be surprised of the opposite. And at least you are not in high alert anymore, like when the letter from Celestia came, and when you read it, you started to talk about the worst case scenario of a Dangerous pony like if it was a sure thing." Nutriz smiled weakly "That's true. Sometimes I get too carriedo ver by my protective instincts." Nutriz looked at the sky thoughtfully for few seconds, before setting her eyes back on earth "By the way, I have yet to understand what is the deal with the diaper and smock." Lux sighed, and said in a somewhat solemn voice. "It's a bit long, but I will try to make it short for you. Basically, Twilight's mother, Velvet, has become more loopier than the usual, and decided that Twilight was her little foal. I don't know why it happened, by I think it's a mix of Empty Nest Syndrome and the occasion of Twilight going back to Magic Kindergarten as punishment. For what I've gathered, Velvet is increasing her efforts in treating Twilight like a little filly." Nutriz stared blankly at Lux. "Velvet? How do you know her? And how do you know she is doing that to Twilight?" "Because Velvet was one my study companion at University, before I changed my course of studies. She was famous for her histrionic actions, for example, chasing old stallions but rejecting them if they did the first move, or bring a sack of seashells in lecture room, saying it helped her concentrate." Lux gave a brief glance at what was going on in the yard, before going back to the conversation. "And I know what is going on in Twilight's house because she told me. And from what I've heard from her, Velvet is doing turk things, like pour laxative in food and lock her into a playroom, in her attempt to break Twilight's mind." Nutriz looked a bit surprised, if not shocked. "Wow. I am surprised that the worst thing that Twilight is suffering from her mother's 'treatment' is just her inability to control her bowels for a short time. I would suffer worse consequences, if faced with such situation." "I would too." Lux crossed raised her left hoof and made a circular gesture on her forefront "Let's hope that the situation doesn't gets worse and her sanity slips." Nutriz did the same gesture, and said "I also hope that, if only because that would be even more disturbing for everypony involved." That said, Lux looked up at the wristwatch she had. Seeing that an hour had passed, and it was time of change the foals, Lux rotated herself, clappedh er front hooves and gathered the filleis and the colts around her. Twilight, for the first time in days, gladly headed to line up with the fillies and colts that hadn’t used their diapers and were waiting to use the toilet during Cahgne Time. In her mind, yet another victorious fanfare played, as she thought. "Finally I can go to the bathroom like the adult pony I am, not like the little filly my mother thinks I still am." However, a male voice deraield her train of thoughts. “How can you be wike Tiligh when you pee yowsewf?” Twilight turned to see Orvosti Ostoba poking Lex’s wet diaper, a smirk on his face. And, if Lex's face was of any indication, she was pretty upset about that. Twilight, disreagarding the direction the file was going, walked over and asked, “Lexy, what’s wrong?” The filly looked at Twilight, tears brimming in her eyes. “I-I wan’ed to be w-wike you,” she sniffled, looking down. “You dinna pee youwsewf. I-I did.” Twilight, understanding the filly's fustration, gave a warm smile and nuzzled the small filly. “It’s okay, Lexy. When I was your age it took me a while too.” She winked “Don’t worry, I know you’ll get the hang of it soon.” Lex sniffled, a hopeful look in her eyes. “Y-you pwomise.” “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight said, going through the motions. Lex blinked, confusion playing across her face. “What... was dat?” Twilight blushed. “Sorry. That’s a special promise my friend Pinkie Pie came up with. It’s called a Pinkie Promise. It’s a special promise between friends that can never be broken.” “Newew?” Lex gave a small smile. Twilight nodded. “Never. Now, go on and get changed.” Lex was about to go, but she stopped and gave Twilight a hug. “Youw da bes’ big sistew ewew, Tiligh,” she said, before hurrying off to join the other fillies and colts who needed a diaper change. Twilight stood where she was for several seconds, Lex’s last words playing through her mind. "Sister?" She asked to herself "Did she just called me 'sister'?" She smiled at the cuteness and felt her heart flutter slightly. "Cosndiered what the drawing she did, how she mentioned she wanted do do 'just like Twilight', and how she speaks to me, I think she is turning in what Scootaloo is for Rainbow Dash. Not that displeases me, all things considered, rather, it almost flatters me. In fact, I would not mind to have her as a little sister, thought I know we are not related." Twilight joined once again the line of foals going ot the bathroom, when a realization occurred to her mind. “Then again, with the way my mother is acting, my father might want to separate,” she thought playfully, not really taking the thoughts floating through her head too seriously. “And, if Lexy’s mother and my father ever got together, I would be her older sister!” Giggling at the little fantasy she’d just imagined, Twilight headed for the line of ponies waiting to potty, giggling again as thoughts of herself as Lex’s sister played out in her mind. Once the foals were divided between the two groups, Nutriz lead the way to the bathroom, a simple room featuring ten or so squat toilets divided by twelve green screens and likewise doors. Since the foals were more than ten, Nutriz divided the group of foals in turns and made so that Twilight was the one of the first. Once the turns were decided, Nutriz ordered to the foals to get in the stalls, remove their diapers or pull down their pull-ups, and squat on the toilets. Nutriz helped some of the foals that had trouble into removing their garments, then closed the doors, and let the nature take its course. > Pomeriggio in Viola/ Afternoon in Purple. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Potty Time came to conclusion and the Teachers guided the foals back in the classroom, and let them few minutes of liberty, while Lux went to take some art supplies for Art Time. When she was back in the class, Nutriz decided to start to organize the tables to form one big table at the center of the room with the help of the foals. Once the tables were set, Lux dropped the supplies on the table, and said. "Please form groups." The brightest in the class understood immediately, and took position on their sides of the big table, while the rest of the foals needed some guidance to do so. While Lux sat at the desk for vigilance, Nutriz spoke to the foals, "So, class, it’s Art Time, and I want you to draw something about season. Specifically, something that you associate to a season.” Nutriz turned to a large chalkboard on the side on the classroom and began scribbling away. While many of the students lost their focus immediately and started copying the teacher’s sketch on the board, Lex had a clear inspiration in mind. Drawing her pencil from a small cup on the table, the little filly started etching away at the thin fabric like texture of the paper. Of course her accuracy in strokes were something hard to control, but she still managed to jot down a keen perspective of a white unicorn sitting on top of a hill, looking down at a budding garden field. Very carefully, the filly drew more and more cruedly drawn lines until the decent picture was brought into full perspective. It was Princess Celestia looking over a large row of budding flowers everywhere. Twilight who had been ignoring everypony else staired in amazement as she cast aside her shoddy drawing of a douglas furn. “Lex… It’s beautiful!” Twilights said, stunned by the sheer beauty of her friend’s work. It was so extraordinary for a foal to perform this well, especially after the crudily drawn sketch the violet unicorn received as giftthe same morning. “I think Pwincess Celestiah is the pwettiest princess…” Lex finished coloring Celestia’s mane, and then her solar cutie mark. Twilight smirked as she staired at her Princesses’ cutie mark, a stylized rose colored like the Sun. She shook her head as she got back to working on her poorly drawn pine tree. Why she was that bad at drawing all of sudden was a mystery. Desperate to find out how well she was doing compared to the other foals, Celestia’s Protégé looked nervously around the room. She was right, her drawing was at best slightly superior to theirs; and honestly that was being generous. “Oh my…” Lux said walking up behind Twilight, “You’re drawing, it lacks… coordination? It’s off, like you couldn’t keep the pencil straight. You’re using your horn aren’t you?” Twilight looked back, “Y-yeah, I know it’s bad I-I’m losing my punctuality... even if I thought it took longer for a mare, to forget how to write and draw precisely...” “Hmm…” the teacher said sticking the pencil in her student’s mouth, “I think your mother’s stress and food tampering might be weakening your muscles. Not to mention how under-stimulated you must feel. How long has it been Twilight?” “I don’t even remember, more or less a week. Not to mention I hadn’t written a letter in a really long time before that either…” Twilight said pulling out the pencil in her mouth, before putting it back in. “Twilight, draw me a seven…” Lux commanded. Sloppily, the mare drew two feebly connected lines between each other that could be taken as seven, but only with a bit of imagination. Nux’s eyes opened wide as she staired in disbelief, “Oh my... Twilight, I think we need to do more with your penmanship.” Blushing, the girl nodded, “I know, I’ll talk to my mother about it later…” Lux smiled, “Good. Also congratulations on staying clean all day. I see you and your mother are getting on equal grounds?” A sudden idea rang in Twilight’s mind as she thought back to the events of earlier this morning. Closing her eyes Twilight smirked, “Yeah, something like that Lux. I feel like my mother and I’ll have plenty to discuss tonight.” “Alright?” Lux said not quite knowing how to respond to that, “I’ll assume that’s a good thing. Anyhow- Lex my dear…” the teacher said astounded by her student’s artistic creation, “I-It’s beautiful!” “Yeah?” Lex asked, looking at Twilight for approval. Both Twilight and the teacher nodded, “It’s great Lex, you should really be proud of your work.” Lux complimented. Nutiz watched from the front of the room whist the room conversed amongst themselves. From what it appeared, Lex was getting quite the pep talk from Lux about her drawing. Smiling, the teacher waited for the conversation to end before clapping her hoofs, “It’s time to eat!” All the foals let down their pencils as they scurried around as they made their way towards the two teachers, forming two lines. Twilight joined one of them, and, while she followed the row down the colorful hallways, she thought at the foods she could find there, and she salivated, not because the food (since it was unlikely it was too good) but because she knew she could eat heartily without the risk of losing control of her bowels for a day. Nutriz opened the green metal door to the school canteen, letting the foals enter, still in an ordinate file. All the foals scrambled around the room as they got into their little close-knit school yard buddies and sat near each other on the low metal tables and long metal benches. Some of the foals even bothered to look at the rules to keep while eating, before sitting down. Of course, when Twilight decided to sit by a few of the foals she’d personally got familar with, her little surrogate little sister popped up right beside her to take a seat. Twilight smiled brushing her hoof through the young filly’s mane, “Oh, Lex! I didn’t know you were following me.” Lex blushed as she shook her head, as if to get rid of her friend’s subtle petting, “Yeah, I no wanna sit away fwom my sistah!” The mare nodded patting her friend on the back, “Cute. You remind me a lot of a certain little dragon I know…” “You know a dwagon?” Lex said, eagerly awaiting the food that was served on top of the table. “Yeah…” Twilight said, half focused on her friend, now that the food was tempting her. By the smell of it, it was spaghetti, or, at least something tomato based. Shaking her head she focused back on her foal friend, “I’ve met several dragons in my life, but that’s another story for another time. Come on, let’s eat up!” Lex frowned a bit, before noticing that her portion of past had begin served. Impatiently, the two ponies used a pair of tongs to transfer the spaghetti unto their plate. It was definitely a messy process. Who’s idea was it to have spaghetti for lunch? Messily, Lex picked up fork after fork of the tomato paste covered pasta that the entire room was eating. Twilight looked around the room, noticing that all the foal’s faces were covered in the red sauce. Trying to remain ‘adult’, Twilight spun the spaghetti into a neat little spiral before carefully lifting it to her mouth, since she really didn’t want to look like more a foal than she made herself out to be earlier. “I see somepony is being lady like?” Nutiz said walking right up behind Twilight. Responding immediately, Twilight did a 180 degree turn. She wiped her face with a napkin before nodding, “Uh-huh, I can’t stand being messy. You don’t even know how uncomfortable it is for me to have an accident, and I’d prefer to not get dirty myself in other filly-like ways, thank you very much.” “I could see that…” Nutriz said walking away. She turned her head and smiled, “Good job in staying clean today by the way!” Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned, “Thank you, Nutriz, I really needed that reminder." Twilight shook her head "Anyway, let's not bring us down." Disregarding the minor teasing, Twilight went back to pristinely eating her meal. It was actually good, mouthwatering good. Of course it was the first untainted lunch she’d had in a while. So it had better to be good, in Twilight’s mind. After a rather long session of dodging splattering tomato sauce and a series of face-wipings, Twilight set her fork down and patiently awaited the next dish. “Alright everpony! Who’s ready for the next course?” Lux said, carrying out several large patters of cheese cubes on blue plastic dishes. Twilight watched around her as all the foals grabbed the small cubes of mozzarella and swiss cheese. The offer was tempting, but she didn’t wanna risk it. Cheese, let alone dairy, took a lot of strength to digest. She was too cautious about how much her stomach could take, she’d just gotten her bodily functions back in control. “Not eating?” Lex questioned, unable to see why her friend denied food when she was so craving for it before. Smirking, Twilight closed her eyes, “It’s nothing Lex, I just don’t wanna go potty on myself again.” “But you are wearing a diapee.” Lex argued her point. Twilight opened her eyes, rubbing them with her hoofs as if she were tired, “That’s not the point, I can’t control where I go potty if my stomach is upset.” “Oh…” Lex said staring at Twilight’s tummy, as she was trying to find external signs of what Twilight was talking about “Okay.” Ignoring that awkward conversation, Twilight rested her head on the table and waited for the last course. Hopeful this time it was something a little bit more suited towards her stomach on the brink of self-destruction. Perhaps a nice salad, cake, perhaps a muffin? After several minutes of picturing food, Twilight’s teachers entered the room again, this time carrying trays with sliced bananas on them. The mares heart jump as she clapped her hoofs together. Bananas are really high in potassium, they’d really help her stomach get back in good shape! Eagerly, Twilight awaited as the serving trays were placed on the table. Lux did Twilight the favor of ‘helping’ the table distribute an equal amount of bananas to everyone. Twilight smiled munching away at the squishy fruit, her proper etiquette still there, but a bit less enforced. How could it be, this was the sweetest fruit she could of tasted. Except perhaps an apple, an apple would be just slighter better right now. Nutriz stared across the room from where she was standing, and gave a small wink to Twilight, signaling the choice of the fruit was an intentional choice for help her into get her stomach back into shape before it was too late. Time pasted on as the students were instructed to clean up their areas. In a good-willed but chaotic effort from the foals, the whole cafeteria was cleaned in 10 minutes. Once the cleaning was done, Nutriz, yet again, clapped her hooves, and herded the little fillies and colts around her, saying “Let’s go to take a nap!” Happily, Twilight followed her teachers back towards the main room with the rest of the foals. It was time to take a nap, a much deserved nap. Usually she didn’t like having to do foalish things, when her mother enforced them, but she was ready with her conscience to accept the double standard Obedient to the routine, Twilight and the rest of the foals gather on their individual sleeping mats. Unfortunately for Twilight, her individual sleeping space was comically undersized, but she was accustomed to sleep in beds small then her, so that was not such an issue. The lights were dimed and most of the foals were fast asleep. Even Twilight was tired, and could rest for three minutes, but her rest was cut short by something hugging at her side. “Lex! What are you doing here?” Twilight did her best to nullify her shout. “I wanted to nap with you!” She said nuzzling up against her friend’s side. “That’s very sweet and all but you know you’re supposed to stay on your-” Twilight’s sentence was cut short by the turning on of the lights. Nutriz trotted up the two agitated ponies, “Alright you two, we can’t have the both of you talking during naptime. I’ll assume this is your fault Lex.” Lex started to tear up, mortified that she was caught red handed, “I-I’m sowwy!” Nutriz sighed before crouching in front of the filly, “It’s alright Honey, just respect Twilight’s personal space from now on.” Lex nodded. “As for you…” Nutriz said pulling her student onto her hooves, “Your mother came by around noon and told me she wasn’t going to pick you up. Something about disciplining you. She also told me that if you don’t come back after school immediately, that you’re going to be in twice as much trouble.” Twilight’s eyes opened wide, “She knows what I did!” she said, as the full weight of what was inevitable sank into her mind. This was it, she was as good as dead, or at least diapered for the rest of her four months. Twilight trotted through the vacant streets of Canterlot wearing nothing but her diaper and smock. No one ever traveled through the roads she did at that hour, so that wasn't surprising. Seeing she was alone in the street, Twilight murmured to herself "And so that harpy got me, and menaced me of giving me a punishemnt. Good." She snorted "By this point, I would be surprised she would even think about what keeps me sane while I'm under her demented rule." Slowly, the mare walked towards the front door. She placed her hoof on the door knob as she turned it. “Mother I’m- Ahh!” Twilight said as Pinkie grabbed her from behind. Like a silhouette creeping from a child’s bedroom closet, Velvet levitated a plastic foal’s bottle filled with a mysterious creamy white liquid . She pitched her daughter’s muzzle as she shoved the bottle into her mouth. “Mmm?” Twilight sounded as she was forced to swallow an abundant amount of willow-tasting milk. After several loud and unwanted gulps, she finished the bottle and was released. The young mare shook her head and jumped back from the other two ponies, and asked a question she thought her mother was no going to answer “Mother! What’s wrong with you?” “What’s wrong with me?” Velvet said throwing the empty bottle at her daughter, but failing to hit her, “You spiked my coffee this morning, you ungrateful little brat. How come you can’t enjoy my love like Pinkie?” “Because this is not giving love, this is madness!” Twilight retorted. “Yes, it's madness because you’re a foal and your acting like you’re not!” Twilight gritted her teeth. “Because I’m not! No longer are the days where the world was dark and you were the only light in my life! Begone are the enemies I thought were creeping on me! It’s all gone! My Pre-cutie mark Foalhood is forever labeled as my darkest hour! What happened next has jsut been a stairway to the Elysium, until I tripped and went back to you!” “That’s enought Twilight! If you can’t see that I’m the only pony that matters in your life, then I’ll show you! From now on, no more friends, no more being out of my sight, and no more time alone! I’m done with your lies, and I can’t stand to see a little filly trying to act grown up. You’ll always be my foal Twilight. Now go to the cameretta, I’ll be up in a bit!” The youngest of the three mares ran trhought the hallway. Like a moody teenager, she slammed the cameretta's door shut, while her mind thought terribly depressing things about the life from now on. If she was going to read a book, her mother would read it to her. If she wanted to eat, she’d be fed. If she needed to use the restroom, she’d need her mother to clean up for her. It was like it was her and her mother’s life now, like when Twilight was a blank flank. “Ahh!” she screamed in frustration as she ripped her smock off her body and cried in her hoofs. When she finsiehd the tears, he stuggled hard to regain her composture, her mind still thinking about the possibilities of begin treated like a 3-years old and never be allowed to go out. Her depressing thoughts were dispelled by the light of reason and determination. “No, all of that won’t happen! I am Celestia’s Protègè, and by the Equestrian Diarchy, I won’t let this happen! I won’t let her let control my life again, like when I was a scared litty filly with no understanding of the wordl around me! I won’t let it happen!” She stomped her hoof on the ground. In this rant, another realization hit her. "My father will likely come Tomorrow, or in the next three days..." Twilight gasped of triumph and joy "My suffering is reachign an end!" Images of her father, wearing a battle armour and armed with a spear, charging a hydra with heads of Velvet, and winning, played out in Twilight's mind. "Just one day, and the balance shall be resotred. One... day..." Twilight’s mother bardged in the doorway and shut the nursery’s door behind her, “Now I’m sorry I have to do this. But I’ll need you to undo your diaper and lift your bottom into the air for the spanking.” Doing anything to defy her mother’s words, Twilight shook her head and ran around the room, in hope to get Velvet winded before she coudl get caught. Velvet’s detrimental desire to baby her daughter over-powered Twilight’s magic as she brought the younger unicorn to a halt and dragged her towards her. Unable to move, Twilight felt the cool air brush against her bottom as her padding was ripped from right underneath her behind. A series of blood curtaling swats made Twilight hiss, but she refused to cry or scream for several reasons, one begin not give in to Velvet's madness, the other becuase she knew that all of that was going to be accounted for, once her father was back. Like the unbelivably dynamic character Velvet had become, she re-did her daughter’s diaper. She laid next to Twilight, hugging her from the side. Delusional to her own actions, Velvet brushed her hoof through her daughter’s messy mane, “That’s right baby, let it all out. Mommy is there for you!” Twilight remained stoic, ignoring the hug and the petting from her mother. She did not want to give any joy to her mother after what happened. The only thing she wanted right there right now, was to see justice brought upon Velvet. However, her stomach was already feeling upset again… > Picco dell' Oscurità/ Peak of Darkness > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight felt the need to go to the bathroom and relieve herself. Carefully she tried to break away from Velvet's hug. But that wasn’t going to happen. "Where are you going without me?" Asked Velvet, as she stopped Twilight's fleeting hooves with her strong magic. Twilight groaned, at the ritual she was going to pass through for go to the restroom. "I am going to the bathroom, but, for some reasons I can't go there. Can you escort me there?" Velvet smiled, already forgetful of what had happened just few seconds before, already bent to act like an irritatingly sweet and creepy mother. "Follow me then," she said, as she passed in front of Twilight and unlocked the cameretta's door. Once they were out of the room and in the hallway, Velvet, as her custom, walked at snail-like speed, while her daughter behind her tried to not mess herself and not overtake her in a run to the bathroom. Fortunately for Velvet's daughter, the march to the restroom was not slow enough to stall Twilight all together, making her ultimately end up having an accident. Velvet slowly opened the door, and, when the door was open, Twilight propelled herself in, untapped her diaper violently, and sat on the toilet, all in matter of twenty seconds. As she sat on the toilet, Twilight tried to hold it in for a little longer for ask a favor o Velvet. "Please, Velvet, leave me some privacy!" Twilight's mother tilted her head on the left and grinned. "Why?" "Oh no." Twilight said to herself with annoyance mixed with slight fear ‘She wants to watch me use the restroom now too? Oh, this is just like when I was three for real!" Since Twilight was not in a position that allowed her to push for her desires, nor she really wanted to fight it, she just relieved herself, while Velvet watched. Once the Twilight ‘finished’ the last of her business, Velvet clapped her hooves and smiled, “Well done Twily, I’m so proud of you! You used the potty like a big filly!” Twilight groaned at the insulting compliment given by Velvet, and said, as she jumped down the toilet seat. "Please don’t patronize me, okay?" Ignoring her daughter's comment, Velvet said, while taking the roll of toilet paper with her magic. "Let's get all cleaned up now!" Twilight immediately understood what she had to do, and parted her legs, letting Velvet take care of the cleaning. The cleaning done, Velvet re-taped the diaper on Twilight's waist. Twilight was escorted by her mother back to the cameretta, where Pinkie Pie was idly stacking building blocks. Twilight glared at Pinkie; it was time to talk about everything that was one her mind. Pinkie Pie, apparently unable to process what Twilight's glare meant, smiled back at Twilight. Velvet left Twilight, and said. "Mommy is going to have a nap. In the meanwhile, stay here." And then locked the door behind her. Twilight looked behind her, saw that the door was closed, then looked sternly at Pinkie. "I hope you have your excuses ready, Pinkie Pie," she said, "Because you’ve been an absolutely horrible friend to me." Pinkie Pie looked confused at Twilight. "Why? What did I do?" Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned. "You tackled me, and let my psychotic mother force fed me!" "Oh," said Pinkie with a strangely shrill tone of voice, “Come on, it was a prank!" Twilight felt her very soul burst into flames. "A prank? A prank? That wasn't a prank, Pinkie! That was just helping my Mother in her relentless quest to turn me into a foal!" Twilight walked towards Pinkie with an angry stance, “She’s tearing me down. I know you’re so blinded by your own world, but not every pony wants to be a helpless foal…” Pinkie frowned as she was scolded more. Tears formed in Twilight’s eyes as she continued spilling her feelings,”I can’t tell if you even care about me! If any anypony that truly cares about me can do anything! Princess Celestia seems uncaring now, Cadence cannot grasp the true form of this insanity, and Lex is a three-years old with a great heart but no true power! My only hope is my father, and the Heaven knows when he will come back!” Pinkie looked at Twilight with eyes of a puppy dog that has been beaten with an oak cane, trembling lips, and ears lowered. She was clearly hit in the core. "B-but I am y-your friend. I-I just wanted s-some fun..." Twilight glared. "You still ARE my friend..." Twilight said, “But you’re just not helping me the way you could be. I get that you’re special talent is laughter, but this isn’t fun for me, none of this is fun for me!” Twilight, slightly calmed down, sighed. “Look, I am ready to forgive you, but…” Pinkie almost flattened herself to the ground, as she looked nervously to Twilight. "But...?" Twilight continued "You have to help me Pinkie. Take the bullet for me, eat my spiked food, ask to be taken out on a stroll, say you need a change if I need to use the restroom," Twilight loomed over Pinkie "And don’t even try to involve me in your childish games. I don’t want to be anymore of foal then I am. I’m loosing my patience with everypony recently, I-I can’t even think what’ll happen when this is all over. You better help me, if anything for the safety of the State, because it relies on our friendship." Pinkie Pie nodded quickly and grabbed Twilight's left leg "I understand, I understand!" Twilight lowered her head towards Pinkie. "Good. But are you going to help me?" Pinkie detached herself from Twilight's leg. "I-I don't know... on one side, I wanna live my foal hood carefree. When I was on a Rock Farm in Petra, I was never cuddled the way Velvet does, and, honestly, I hoped to take back the lsot time. On other hoof, I don’t want to lose you and the girls in Ponyville. I am one of the Elements after all and, as you said, it is my duty to be good friends with the gang.” Twilight gave a small smile to Pinkie, in the attempt to moderate the tension that built-up in the meanwhile. “So, your choice?” Pinkie Pie smiled sheepishly. “I don’t know. Can I give you an answer later? I won’t do anything too weird against you meanwhile, I swear.” As she said that, the door creaked, meaning that her mother had returned from her slumber. Twilight, after accepting silently the agreement, sighed as she watched her mother stroll right back in. “Four in the afternoon” Twilight read on the childish-looking wall clock, “That has to be one of the longest naps ever taken by my mother.” Carrying baskets containing dolls and blocks, the insane mother started to hand them out to both the adult-fillies, before taking a few for herself. The next few hours were spent with Twilight, Pinkie, and Velvet pretending the stuffed bear and lion were real and that they were ring masters in a traveling circus. The game roleplaying went on for a pretty long time. The whole performance Twilight spoke the bare minimum amount of words to keep her mother happy. Pinkie and Velvet on the other hoof did enjoy themselves in their game. The monotony was broken when Twilight, as she made a stuffed bear do a pirouette, noticed that Pinkie stopped for few second. The pink pony gave a concentrated frown, before resuming the game. Looking down a bit, Twilight noticed that Pinkie’s diaper got slightly bigger and lighter in colour. It seemed they both ignored that. Twilight desired to point out her friend’s wetness, but decided out of annoyance and boredom to see how long it took for Velvet to notice. After a couple of minutes, Velvet exaggerated her sniffing and moved the stuffed toy’s nuzzle accordingly, before touching with the stuffed animal’s arms to the front of Pinkie’s diaper; making it produce a *squish* sound. “I smell a wet filly in the audience..” said Velvet, while still doing the nasal voice she had used while she was playing properly “Shall we give her a change?” Pinkie Pie giggled at Velvet’s little act, walked towards the changing table, and letting Velvet bring her on the top and do all the procedure. Once the diaper change was done, Velvet looked at a Twilight. The young mare was pacing back and forth, clearly there was something on her mind. “One cent for your thoughts.” Velvet said. Twilight turned around to her mother, and decided to have some fun with her mother. “Nothing interesting, just thinking about how many ways I can shut you up before I lose my damn mind!” Velvet frowned at her daughter, “Such naughty language for such a little filly…” she said, levitating a pacifier out of a drawer, “You wanna see a neat little trick I’ve picked up from one of my nursing books?” Twilight closed her eyes, “why did she have to act like such a plot?” “No, I don’t to be honest…” Twilight said, knowing that’d Velvet’s punishment would bej ust a cruel regardless. A white pacifier that matched the design of her diapers appeared in her mouth. Confused, Twilight tried to open her lips only to find out that her mouth was being magically sealed shut, “Mmm-comeon!” she moaned behind her pacifier. “Son of a…” “Bad Twily, foals should never use such bad words!” Velvet interrupted, grabbing one of her daughter’s hoofs and swiftly escorting her to the corner of the room. Scornfully, Twilight waved her hoof, “Well young lady, I hope you’re happy with yourself! You’ve earned yourself a whole three minutes in the corner. Also, you can forget about eating big filly food tonight, clearly you can’t handle anything that a big filly puts in her mouth!” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Meh, whatever,” she thought “as long your ‘master plan’ is still less thought out than Rainbow Dash’s studying schedule, I can almost say I’m fine with it.” After several minutes of staring aimlessly at the corner of the room, Velvet sang, “Alright Twily, did you learn your lesson?” “Mmmhmm.” Twilight hummed, not really meaning it. What was there to learn, after all? Velvet sat down in front of Twilight and popped the magical pacifier out of Twilight’s mouth. “Happy?” Twilight said, rubbing her dry lips. The insane mother frowned, “No, I don’t like to punish my little filly…” Velvet said pecking her daughter on her cheek, “Let me go get you some chapstick alright?” the mare said trailing out of the room. Twilight watched patiently for her mother left the room before trotting up to Pinkie, “See what I mean? That’s not right.” The party pony raised an eyebrow, “Well you did tell her to ‘shut up’, not to mention you said a bad word. “I think you’re missing the point Pinkie, I-” “Twily…” Velvet said cheerfully strolling back into the room, “I got you that chapstick!” she said opening the top of it, “Pucker your lips baby!” Blushing, Twilight did as instructed by Velvet, and covered her dry lips into a slightly shiny film. Once she did that, Velvet added, “Hmm, perhaps I should let you babies play with each other while I am getting supper prepared?” “Yes!” Twilight yelled immediately, desiring to prove her point to Pinkie. Velvet smiled, “Awe, my littlest baby is hungry. Well, fear not, I’ll have supper made in ten minutes alright?” she said closing the cameretta’s door shut. “See what I mean?” Twilight said scootching near Pinkie, “She’s babying me at every turn, and it’s just getting worse day by day. I can use crude language if I want, I’m not really a foal remember?!” Pinkie nodded, “Yeah… but you still shouldn’t use it. You are living in her house hold Twilight, you should reall be behaving yourself.” Twilight groaned and looked annoyed at Pinkie “Didn’t we just have a discussion about that, Pinkie? She’s babying me, I’ve already grown up once, and I don’t want to grow up once again, not from the Dark Ages at least- or from the start; basically infancy.” “Of course you are, silly…” Pinkie booped Twilight on the nose, “You’re her daughter and her guest. While I think it’s really mean what’s she’s doing to you, you can’t blame her when you’re depending on her…” Twilight huffed annoyed, “But Pinkie, That’s not the point! I-I’m concerned for me and myself and her. I-I don’t want to send her to a mental house, not while I'm without my salary, but my situation is always getting worse…” “Twilight!” Velvet called as she opened the door, “You two hurry to the kitchen, I’ve got a big surprise for you!” Obedient to her insane mother, Twilight reluctantly trotted through the granite-paved hallways and into the kitchen. Her jaw dropped as she stared at the bizarre looking piece of furniture. “You just have to love it don’t you?” Velvet said lifting her daughter in a wide padded highchair, with the seat made of a pink cotton padding and the tray made of a pearly white Formica wood, “It’s really nice isn’t it? I ordered it on my way to your Kindergarten yesterday. It’s surprising how fast unicorn magic can work when you give the right amount of bits.” Twilight stared at the highchair, unable to comprehend how in the whole wide world any sane artisan would have accepted Velvet’s request without batting an eye. Smiling, Velvet levitated Twilight in the chair, leaned over and started doing the straps around her daughter’s chest, “Comfy, isn’t it? I thought of ordering one for Pinkie, but I think she’s more than capable of feeding herself.” Twilight tried moving around, but between the tray and straps, everything was too snug to move. Paying no attention to Twilight, Velvet grabbed the Pinkie’s dinner plate and served it in front of the pink mare, “There you go honey, a sandwich, biscuits, apples, and a cupcake for my sweet little angel.” Vevelt finished, nuzzling the side of her daughter’s face. “As for you my silly little filly…” Velvet said carrying on a small plastic plate, “Bread slices, foal food, and formula!” The plate was set in front of Twilight, but there was no silver wear. “How am I supposed to eat this?” the purple unicorn asked, shrinking in her padded seat. “Awh, Twily. You’re much too young to feed yourself like your big sister Pinkie. Now open wide and I’ll give your nommies!” Twilight cringed at the word "nommies" and at the mention of "Big sister Pinkie." Closing her eyes in defeat, she began opening her mouth, eating the food at the snail fast pace Velvet delivered it. Everything tasted worse than the last. The bread tasted of nothing but wheat, the banana baby food was ultra-sweet and the cheesy baby food was extra pungent. Worst of all was the spinach flavored baby food. Usually she liked her vegetables. But for some reason, someone thought of harnessing the full potential of the most malodorous vegetable into one concentrated mush. Now Twilight remember why she refused to eat the vegetables when she was a filly. Unable to take any more of it, Twilight swallowed her pride and shook her head when the finale spoon came, “Milk!” she exclaimed, while pointing at the bottle full of formula. “Aww, poor baby. Sorry, I know it doesn’t taste good, but you’ll grow big and strong from it.” Velvet said moving the spoon of green mush back up to the poor mare’s mouth. “Damnit…” Twilight thought to herself as she endured the last of the three spoonfuls of the baby mush, “Hopefully formula will wash it down… and only that,” she finished her thoughts with a slight smile. Without any warning, Velvet undid her daughter’s straps lifted Twilight from under the serving tray and unto her lap. Her position leaving her with no other option, Twilight hung her hoofs around Velvet’s neck as a bottle was brought to her mouth. It was around this time where Twilight started missing the highchair. There was a bit of a subtle closeness she had to her mother in that moment, which she really didn’t want to have. Trying to make the most out of the situation, Twilight closed her eyes and started suckling on the bottle at a decent speed. Atleast this time it tasted of nothing other than vitaminized milk, no tastes ascribable to laxatives could be found in the bottle, so, for Twilight, that might as well have been milk from Celestia’s teats. Pinkie “Daww’d” at the cute sight in front of her. With no more food to eat, she had nothing other to do than stair in admiration at her ‘little sister’. Twilight glared at Pinkie as if to yell “Not Helping!”. Eventually Twilight finished the bottle and was patted on the back. Twilight pressed inwards her stomach to simulate a burp and so be done with it. With that all behind her, Twilight hopped off of Velvet’s lap. She didn’t even have words to say to her mother. Quietly, she walked out of the kitchen to upstairs to her bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she collapsed on the undersized bed and closed her eyes. “Twily?” Velvet said bardging into the bedroom “What?” Twilight said stepping away from her. Velvet approached her daughter with a genuine smile and hugged her; not in a creepy-affectionate way like earlier either. “I-I’m glad you were so patient on my lap tonight.” she said brushing her hoof through her daughter’s mane. Twilight lifted an eyebrow as her mother broke away from the hug, “Umm, it’s alright mom…” she said, trying to break away from the petting. “Does my little Twily want help getting dressed?” “Umm…” Twilight looked over at the wardrobe across the room, “I guess it wouldn’t…” the mare thought a moment about how her blanket sleeper would warm her, and how that could have been turned into a trap “Actually, I’d prefer to stay in nothing but my diaper. Thanks.” Her mother walked towards her, “Wait, is there anything else I can do for you before you go to bed?” Twilight placed her hoof on her chin, “Uh, could you get me water? I’m still really thirsty.” Velvet smiled as she walked out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. Confused by the scene that took place, Pinkie trotted up to Velvet filling up a bottle filled with water. “W-what happened up there?” Pinkie asked, poking Velvet’s side. The bottle filled all the way up to the top and Velvet closed the lid, “Nothing sweetie, Twilight is just tired is all.” “Tired of what?” Pinkie asked. Velvet looked at her bottle before looking back at Pinkie with a small smile, “Just tired. Listen, once I get Twilight tucked in, I’ll read a story alright? I gotta go talk to your baby sister now.” Velvet trotted her way back to Twilight’s room. Slowly opening the door, she brought the bottle of water to Twilight, “Sorry, all the sippy cups were in the washer.” “It’s fine…” Twilight said with a sigh, “Please just leave…” She said as she pulled the covers over her top and used both hoofs to lift the bottle to her face. Turning away from Velvet, she slowly unscrewed the top of the bottle away, drunk the contenent in one gulp, and screwed the top back in. Velvet left the room with a smirk on her face. She closed the door to find Pinkie was impatiently waiting outside. “Is Twilight sick?” she asked curiously. “No, I think my baby just needed some rest. Come on, Balloon Bottom, let’s get you ready for bed too…. With an “Aaaww,” Pinkie Pie obeyed to Velvet’s request. Later on, Twilight Sparkle wake up in a strange room, with the floor made of what it seemed pure light, and the walls stretching to the infinite. “Where I am?” Asked Twilight to herself, as she looked around her. A feminine and powerful voice answered. “Welcome to the Dreamscape, oh ye faithful servant of my sister!" Princess Luna materialized from a blue-ish fog in front of an awed Twilight. “P-Princess Luna? I-is that you?” “Indeed, Crepuscoli Scintilla, faithful scholar for my sister Celestia. We are here, in your dreams, to give you support in this time of need! We have seen the prophetic dream that has visited you last night. While We could not interfere, for it is impossible for Us to do so. We could however percieve the martyrdom that your mind is suffering. Future visits in the dreams of other subjects related to you have proven it.” Twilight, after trying to not disassamble herself for the Traditional Canterlot voice, said. “I appreciate your interest in me, Your Higness. But, is there any reasons to visit me? I’m sure that there are many ponies that would love some respite from their nightmares…” Princess Luna started to walk around Twilight. “We know. But We want to make to one of our cleanser a favor. We can give to your mother Velvet, daughter of Woolburner, a nightmare based on her most intimate and enclosed fear. Or We can provide you a dream so good, that it will purify your mind of any scum it may have gathered, and heal any wound that your parent’s actions may have done!” Twilight backed down and stuttered, unable to compute what was going on around her…because it seemed too good to be true. Princess Luna was basically offering to her yet another way to get revenge on Velvet, or something capable of restore her sanity. Closing her eyes, Twilight thought for a bit about her choice, before deciding that she could always save the offer for an all-curing dream in case of bordeline mental breakdown, point that she had yet to reach. “I’d wish to give Velvet a strong nightmare, and reserve the healing dream for later, thank you very much.” “As you wish, Crepuscoli Scintilla. If you desire, you may stay on Our side, and attend to the mean sight of your mother feeling fear after her tyrannical actions in the daylight!” Twilight wasted no time. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She shouted. Luna’s horn glowed with a blue aura, and her and Twilight’s figures started to flicker . “So be it!” Shouted Luna, before disappearing with Twilight. A couple of minutes traveling in a multicolored tunnel later, Twilight and Luna reappeared in what it seemed Twilight’s house… but on fire and wrecked by a mysterious force. It was possible hear shouting and cries from the inside. Twilight put her hooves in front of her mouth in shock, before hearing a shout coming from the house. “Velvet! Come back here, or I will tear out your soul and use it as asswipe!” It was her voice. Curious, Twilight asked to Luna. “Princess, i-is that me?” Princess Luna silently nodded, before making her horn glow once again. “Farewell, Crepuscoli Scintilla. You shall wake up back in your flesh and see the despair on Velvet’s face after this vision. For now, take pleasure in attend to this nightmare.” Princess Luna disappeared once again, leaving Twilight alone in the dream. She decided to go to the door, enter, and see what was going on in the house. When she entered, she saw her mother crawling on the floor and with her face covered in blood. The walls had scorch marks, the marble statues lied broken on the cracked stone floor and the paintins were reduced to hanging crisps. From the hallway that brought to the entrance hall, another Twilight appeared. Better yet, Twilight-turned-alicorn appeared. She wore a golden breastplate with a spiky green gem in the center. She also wore a golden crown with rubies on each tip of the crown. Twilight looekd in awe at her dream counterpart, and made herself ask. “I-I’ m a princess in Velvet’s nightmares? But why?” The reason was soon explained by her dream coutnerpart who, after raisign Velvet with her magic. Velvet begged. “Twilight, Twilight, please, don’t kill me, I’m your old mother!” Dream Twilight shouted. “The fact you have generated me is just another reason for kill you! You have lived your pitiful life, you have used me as your little slave when I was just a mass of retarded flesh without any goals in life, and now it’s time to make you return to the ground that spawned you! You are old, you are weak, you do not deserve to stay in the realm of the living no more!” Then Twilight’s horn glowed strogner nad stronger, until a tounge of fire appeared on Velvet’s tail. The fire spread, until a screaming Velvet was reduced to a small pile of burning ashes. Twilight could not properly process what happened, that the scenario around her disappeared, and was replaced by the scene of a graveyard, a urn painted with scenes of ponies dancing over a cadaver towering over all the tombs, and a music playing from… somewhere. A music whose rythm was unhaerd of by Twilight, and with a lyrics that made Twiligth smile a bit... and wake up. Seeing that it was still late night, Twiligth decdied to let herself speculate. "So, that is her nightmare that Princess Luna has promsied to me, I g..." Twiligth stopped herself mid-sentence "Hold on... Luna said that the nightmare sent by her was going to contain my mother's most enclsoed and strongest fears. I saw a burning house, symbol of family life going to Tartarus; me begin somehow an alicorn, maybe even a princess; and her dying by my hoof..." Twilight put a hoof under her chin. "So, apparently her insanity HAS a basis..." > Caduta e Risalita/ Fall and Rise. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight went back to sleep, and woke up again three hours later by her own accord. Thankfully, without any intrusions from her mother to wake her up. Realizing she was alone in the room, she wanted to take the opportunity to relive herself. Twilight moved on the tips of her hooves, in an attempt to walk silently. It of course was made harder by the diaper that, while clean, would still crinkle with each step she took. But her attempt to silent walk was fleeting because when she opened the door, Twilight found Velvet waiting in front of the bathroom's door of the floor. "Darn," whispered Twilight to herself, as her mother turned around and looked at her with a tired and disturbed face. Twilight noticed an unusual lack of enthusiasm of Velvet’s eyes. Usually she couldn’t wait to see her baby girl in a diaper like she desired. Twilight's face passed immediately from showing an irritated frown to a proud smile. "The nightmare took its toll on my mother," she thought "It may have been a bit too brutal for Luna. But hey, Celestia basically gave a blessing to my mother to treat me like a little filly, so we are now even I guess." Velvet asked tiredly, "Good morning, Twily. Did you sleep well?" Twilight nodded, as she walked towards Velvet. "Yes, slept very well," faking an innocent question, she asked "and you, mother?" Velvet stared at Twilight with empty eyes. "Not very well," she said "I've dreamt you, being a big pony princess, reducing me to ashes, and some pony mocking me for that." "And I am delightful of that," thought Twilight. Meanwhile, from the bathroom, a shout came. "I'm done, mommy!" Velvet turned around once again. Lowering the door knob she opened the door, revealing Pinkie sitting on the toilet seat. Velvet, as her usual, clapped her hooves. "Good girl!" she said in a voice that tried to be as cheerful as possible, as she slowly levitated her off the toilet seat on the floor. Pinkie Pie for some reason giggled at that. Raising her dirty plot in the air, she allowed Velvet to clean it up with some toilet paper. Done, Velvet flushed the toilet and then ordered to Pinkie to wash her hooves; Pinkie did just that. Once her hooves smelled of paraffin instead of sweat, she left the bathroom, and happily skipped downstairs towards the dining room. "Come here, Twily," she said, her voice slightly less tired "let me show you how you can use the potty!" After a moment of cringing, Twilight sighed and walked up to Velvet. As soon as her daughter was in range, she untapped the diaper off her. Twilight jumped on the toilet. Velvet's daughter relieved herself in front of her mother, knowing well that it was useless to ask her to leave her alone in the bathroom for few minutes. When the last of her business was done, Velvet clapped her hooves like she did with Pinkie Pie. Of course, she had to add insult to injury with a patronizing comment, "Well done, Twi! Now get down and let me clean you up!" She said, as she took the toilet paper roll once again. Twilight just raised her backside, and let Velvet clean her up until her backside was properly prestine once again. The cleaning done, Velvet taped the diaper back on her daughter, "Twily, wash your hoofies, please." Twilight obeyed, opened the tap, and took the bar of soap. She started to rub it on her hooves while the water ran over them. When she was finally done, Velvet cheered "Alrighty, let's go downstairs for breakfast." Sighing in relief, the ‘youngest daughter’ thought to herself, "Hopefully she forgot to tamper with my food today." Velvet with her daughter at her side, went downstairs, and walked in the dining room. There, Sedula Serva was moving the over-sized high-chair from the kitchen to the dining room near the table. The table was set up with a red tablecloth, seven light blue plates containing around twelve bran muffins, sixteen chocolate biscuits, four brioches, a jug of milk, ten plain biscuits... and a baby bottle. "Oh," said Twilight to herself, while she climbed into the highchair. Velvet silently buckled her up "Making me eat foal food and forcing me to drink from a baby bottle was not just a punishment for yesterday? Why am I not surprised?" Twilight exited from her thoughts and looked at what was going on in front of her. Namely, Pinkie picked her food from the plates. Sedula Serva was serving coffee and milk in Velvet's cup, while Velvet meanwhile, set the biscuits on the tray of the highchair. Twilight broke a small piece of one of the biscuits and carefully put that tiny piece in her mouth, as to test for laxatives. While the biscuit was too sweet and thus pretty awful, it didn’t contain tastes of almonds or willow, meaning it was safe to eat. She just had to get over the awful taste of it. She was ready to do it too, considering how hungry she was. So, Twilight took the biscuit that she had broken and started to scarf it down, leaving behind only a handful of crumbs behind. Then she passed to the rest, eating them in the same unwillingly but desperately hungry way she had eat the first biscuit. Once she was done with eating her biscuits, Twilight paid attention to the table, only to see Pinkie enjoying the better foodstuff. Twilight frowned annoyed, and, after sighing, she said. “Ugh, I would like to imagine all of her food was comprised of nothing other than laxatives and diuretics, but I would delude myself. The truth is that she is enjoying some decent food.” As soon as those thoughts appeared in her mind, Velvet walked up to the highchair.. “And now, after those biscuits, have a nice bottle!” she said as she undid the straps of the highchair, before levitating Twilight from the seat onto the ground. Then, once her daughter was on the ground, she put Twilight on her lap. Like the predator she was, Velvet took the baby bottle and shoved it in Twilight’s mouth; forcing her to wrap her hooves around her mother and suckle. As she took the first sip however, Twilight felt a faint taste of almonds in the milk…. “Oh no, no, no, no, so much no!” Mumbled Twilight, while she tried to pull the bottle out her mouth to stop the flow of laxatives in her stomach. Failing to do so, she did not want to receive the full effects of the laxatives. She took few sips to store the liquid in her mouth, trying to spit the content on the floor. It was all in vain as most of the spiked milk managed to go down her throat anyway. After some seconds of useless damage control, she unwrapped her hooves from Velvet’ s neck around in the attempt to loosen the older mare’s grip. “What’s the problem, Twily?” Velvet asked to the struggling Twilight “You don’t want your milk?” With some effort, Twilight managed to spit out the baby bottle’s teat, turned her head on the left and she said. “No thanks, mother,” she said with an acid tone “The taste of almonds makes me prone to mess myself as does the taste of willow.” Velvet looked at Twilight with widened eyes, ears straight up, and with her lower lip bitten; so as to express her unpleased response. “What’s the deal?” Twilight smirked “Uncovered your little plan that you never bothered to cover up?” Velvet went out of her stupor. “But Twily, you gotta drink your milk, even if it isn’t very yummy...” Velvets said grabbing a napkin and whipping Twilight’s chin, “Otherwise, you would not be able to potty.” Twilight’s jaw dropped and hit the floor, cracking it. “So… the whole reason for why my mother has been stuffing my food with laxatives is because… she thinks I am constipated?” Twilight thought, “Holy Tartarus, this makes no sense at all!” “Why you would do that?” Said Twilight with a confused anger. As her jaw went back in position with Pinkie’s help, she shuffled her front hooves in her mane like a maniac, “Why do you keep lying to me? You just want me to use my diapers, I get it! Why make up excuses?” Velvet answered, “You might not understand, but it’s for your good…” Twilight snorted, “Of course I don’t understand! You are a puzzle wrapped in an enigma covered in foal powder and sent at the four corners of Equestria! Better yet, the enigma wrapping is solved, but the puzzle changes whenever you look at it!” Velvet walked up to Twilight with a creepy smile on her face. “What are you talking about, Twily?” Velvet’s daughter remembered that her mother wasn’t very sharp, or very interested into listening to her words, so her whole “enigma” comparison was just a waste of words and time. Twilight’s mother went nearer, speaking with a smile, while wrapping her daughter’s neck with her right hoof. “I guess it was just one of your outbursts, right?” Twilight groaned, “No, it wasn’t, but since you are not truly listening, I might as well say yes.” Velvet did not shy away from proving point, by gently removing her hoof, taking Pinkie’s right hoof, and walking in the hallway, saying. “Good, Twily, my baby. Shall you join Pinkie in the cameretta for the morning?” Twilight sighed and followed her mother down the hallway, without thinking too much about she was doing. But then realization hit… “Hold on… it’s Friday, why I am still at home? I should be at the Kindergarten!” Twilight paused a moment to think about what happened, as Velvet opened the door, and let a hyperactive Pinkie in the room. Of course Pinkie started to ravage the baskets and toy boxes with glee. “Mother…” Twilight asked. Velvet turned around. “Yes, baby?” “Wasn’t I supposed to be in Kindergarten today?” Twilight’s mother looekd at her offspring with an hint of confusion, before returning to her cheery grin. “No, Twily my dear,” said Velvet, while caressing Twilight’s mane in a way that felt too ‘uncomfortable’, “You’re too little to go to Kindy.” Twilight backed down, and looked at Velvet with outrage, surprise and confusion; all mixed into a cocktail that created an intense emotion in Velvet’s daughter. She could not believe what she was hearing. Her mind denied it with all its might, but to no avail: she DID heard her mother saying that she was too young for Kindergarten. “Now we have reached the lowest point,” murmured Twilight, as she looked at Velvet and mumbled “My mother won’t even let me serve my punishment, prioritizing her insane pleasure over my sacred duty as punished!” When confident enough to speak, Twilight closed her eyes. “Have you lost your tiny mind? I am supposed to go to the Kindergarten, it’s the reason for why I’m back home here in the first place. NOT because I wanted to get involved in your delusions!” Velvet faked an innocent tone of voice and put on her signature creepy smile once again “Oh, silly Twilight, who said that to you? Pinkie or Shining, I bet.” Twilight snarled and glared at Velvet, while scratching the floor with her rear left hoof. “No! Princess Celestia, The Raiser of the Sun, Duchess of Turrin; Idol of Canterlot, Manehattan, Bassavilla, and above all else Princess of Equestria. Lastly but not least, my teacher, has issued me to attend to Kindergarten for a term. It’s my punishment. If I don’t follow her punishment, I will be in even bigger trouble than before.” Velvet chuckled. “Do you still believe that? Princess Celestia doesn’t personally punish the foals that don’t go to school. Or in this case, Kindergarten; the entire story it’s false. You should trust your sister a little less.” Velvet’s statement left Twilight unable to speak, completely frozen at the sheer harshness of her mother’s statement. It was brutally blunt. “D-did she just disregard Celestia’s will? Did she just do that?” Rage and sadness hit the mare’s soul “I-I cannot believe this. What shall I do, now that she won’t let me go to the Kindergarten? What Princess Celestia will think, if she knows I didn’t attend to the Kindergarten anymore?” An horrible imagine spot of Celestia, gone mad, regressing Twilight to the status a three years-old for skipping a day. Treating her like a little filly, while forcing her to unlearn everything, appeared in Twilight’s mind. It was an image that she rationality somehow could not dispel, Cadence couldn’t be wrong after all… it was a likely scenario. Something that threatened to happen at any time and without warning. At this point, her mind head entered a slope where she thought Princess Celestia was regressing her, terrifying her, and in turn making her life even more horrible and bleak. Only Pinkie Pie’s help could Twilight back from her dark thoughts. “Hey, Twi, wake up!” Pinkie said shaking her ‘sister’s’ shoulder. “What’s the matter?” Twilight closed her eyes and gulped like she was drinking hard cider. With a heavy dead-ness in her voice Twilight placed her hooves over her eyes, “V-Velvet, s-she’s… she’s…” “What is it Twily?” Pinkie asked with a hint of concern in her voice. Unable to hold back the sheer panic and inconclusive thoughts in her mind, Twilight started to tear up, “Velvet… she’s going to end my life! Or take it away from me for that matter.” Pinkie raised her brow, “How’s that?” Twilight shook her head, “It’s like… just imagine…oh!” “Come on Twily, I promise I’m listening!” Calming herself, Twilight collapsed on the ground, “Velvet, she’s always been controlling, but with discretion from the Celestia’s order. S-she’s breaking the law now, she’s making me break the law! I don’t wanna break the law, I’m going to-” “Twilight!” Velvet called from the outside. Panicking, Twilight said as fast as she could, “She’s going to kill me… well, not me but my current life. I-I don’t want her to tear everything apart! I’ve worked so hard to become an independent mare! I don’t want to be bottle fed by her, or be forced to mess myself, and, especially, I don’t want to lose my mind like my mother clearly has!” “Well how do I help?” Pinkie asked. “I-I just need you to… to…” Twilight couldn’t think of the words in her haste, “I just need you to-” “Twily!” Velvet sang entering the nursery. “Damnit!” Twilight exclaimed slamming her hoof on the ground. Velvet raised an eyebrow, “Twily, you have to stop using naughty words, I need to clean your mouth out with soap one of these days… maybe get you a new pacifier while I’m at it…” Twilight felt more regret than fear at those words, above everything else. Regrets and ‘what ifs’ that could have made for better situations filled her mind “I should have lived in the streets, at least I would have avoided all of this…” or “What if I had made friends in Canterlot while I was still in secondary school, maybe I could have stayed with them?” Twilight closed her eyes and planted her face in her hoofs as she just gave up. There wasn’t really a solution to all of this, other than perhaps riding out Velvets insanity for just a little longer. Perhaps Celestia will be forgiving… hopefully. “So…” Velvet crouching in front of her lying daughter, “Is little Twily’s tummy all upset?” Twilight flared her teeth, ignoring her mother. Maybe if she acted dead, her mother would just walk away? Not likely. Standing up, Twilight sighed, “No mother, I’m just upset period.” “Aaww, well don’t fret, I have all sorts of things planned for you today my silly filly!” Velvet cooed, pinching her daughter’s cheek. Twilight looked down at her mother and sighed, “Funny how I used to always look up at you, when I was a filly. Sure, whatever. I’ll do whatever you want… I just don’t care anymore.” “So, tell me, what is your plan for me exactly?” Asked Twilight with a resigned sigh. Velvet grinned, as she put a hoof around her daughter’s neck “First, I’ve moved my appointments to the afternoon, so I am free to stay with you!” Twilight rolled her eyes, “So, first, we will play here in the cameretta. Then we will go out in the park for some fresh air. After that, we will go back home, have some nummies, you will take a nap, and then Cadence will come here.” Twilight grinned, the ‘to-do’ list could have been much worse, the park is one of the lesser populated places at that time after all, not to mention she had Cadance as some sort of silver lining to her day. Twilight nodded, “Alright, uh lets go?” she said. Really, the faster she was away from the cameretta the better. “Not yet, Twily...” Velvet said pacing towards the toy chest, “It’s too early. We can play for a little while, however.” Pinkie cheered, flailing her hooves around. “Yeah!” Twilight rolled her eyes and walked towards the padded play area, “Alright… whadda you wanna play ‘mommy?’ she said, patronizing her insane mother’s mental state. Velvet held up a fake stethoscope bear and smiled. “How about we play a Doctor? Maybe Doctor Sparkle can help a certain little baby with her achy tummy?” Twilight walked to her mother and sat on her padded rump grabbing unto her stomach. It was starting to ache her a tiny bit. Smirking she closed her eyes, “Joyious.” she finished with a sigh. A knock came from outside. Velvet turned around and saw Sedula Serva walking into the cameretta. “Madame Velvet, your husband is back.” Twilight’s jaw dropped and mood raised as her spirit filled with hope, her face generated a bitter smirk of revenge. This was going to be interesting… no, this was going to be perfect! Velvet remained happy, blissfully unaware of the risk she was galloping towards, exited from the room and walked up to the garden. “Come in Honey, Twily is right in the cameretta, and she really wants to see her daddy!” Night Light raised a curious brow, “Daddy? Cameretta? What?” he muttered under his breath "Something is boling in the pot..." "Oh, that's good to hear," said night Light while wearing an awkard smile "and I am happy that I am back home after that long meeting. Seriously, I thought they weren't goign to cut it." As he said that, Night Light walked in the house and dropped his traveling bag, which was picked up immediately by Sedula. His stomach rumbled. "Did you had breakfast, Nighty?" Asked Velvet with a mellow voice. "No, I didn't," he said "but let me see my beloved daughter first." Velvet took her husband's black tie in her magic and tried to drag him towards the dining room. "No no, take some food first." Velvet's husband, realizing that, yes, his sposue was hiding something, said, as he untied his tie and walked down the hallway that brought to the cameretta. "No thanks." "But..." "No 'buts' I want to see my dear Twilight," as she said that, he reached the camerettaì's door. Seeing it was unlocked, unlike the previous times, he opened it, and saw a diapered pink pony with a poofy pink mane wearing a paper nurse cap and using a toy syringe on her daughter, who was wearing a blue diaper with white stars on it, and was keeping a plastic thermometer in her mouth. Night Light turned around and saw Velvet. He glared. > Lux Noctis in Terram Velleris Victor Est. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight looked up at her father, joy and hope banishing resignation and despair in her heart, and her body charging up with energies. "Velvet, what just happened here? Why my daughter is in a diaper? Why there is a stranger in this house playing with her? Why the cameretta returned fully operative?" Night Light shouted, as he glowed his horn and walked in the room with a threatening look in his eyes. Pinkie Pie, unable to gave an appropiate response to the situation, dropped the toy syringe, and gave a textbook example of genuflexion towards Twilight's angry father. Night Light dragged Velvet in the cameretta by an ear.. but he wasn't going to give any respite to Velvet. "Come on, explain, I'm curious to know!" Velvet looked up at her husband, her eyes watered a bit. "You don't recognize her? She is Pinkie Pie, our second-oldest daughter!" Night Light's neck was inflated for a brief moment in surprise, then he went back to his state of enraging towards Velvet. Angrly, he let go of his wifes ears. "We have only two children, Shining Armour and Twilight..." Night Light, in a swift and sudden movement, pressed his nuzzle agaisnt Velvet's "and both of them are adults now." Velvet retreated, until she slipped and hit the floor with her back. "You are running too fast and have a bad memory, Nighty," Velvet sang, sweating profusely "They’re still little. Twily has yet be fully potty trained..." Night Light looked at Twilight, his face cringed, looking disgusted at his daughter infront of him. Since Twilight understood what he was implicitly saying with that look, she quickly decided to answer back, just for be sure of going in the right direction. It was time to tell him everything that happened while he was away, finally she was going to talk to a sane adult that wanted and could act. Twilight sat down and started talking of every experience she’s had in the past week. "She lies! Lies, lies, lies, lies! She stuffed me of laxatives and diuretics, only for make me go in the diaper, saying I was constipated! She has forced me to drink from a baby bottle in her lap! She has locked me up in this room for force me to play with toys! She has yanked Cadence from her job as Chairpony of the Council for use her as babysitter for me and my friend Pinkie! She has forced my six friends and their three little sisters, barely nine-years old, to endure this torture for an entire day! Worst of all, she has impeded me from serve my punishment, and go to the Kindergarten, on the grounds I was too young for it! She never once asked me how I felt about anything! She is unbelivably, completely, utterly, totally, extremly, unspeakbly, and shockingly mad!" Night Light's face got redder and redder, steam coming out of his ears, eyes squinting, angry gibberish coming from her mouth and eyes tearing. Fearing the worst, Pinkie ran out of the room in fear, while Twilight and Velvet stared with completely different expressions. Night Light burst into flames and grabbed his wife from the chest fur. Drawing his wife’s face nearer to his own, a fire in his eyes resonated to show his anger "What I have told you, Velvet? What I have told you, before I left this house for work last Friday?" Velvet, feeling the heat of the flames, sweated even more, and tried to look away from her husband. "Y-you told m-me t-that I-I could t-treat T-Twily in a-any w-way I wanted to..." Night Light grabbed the fur of Velvet even stronger, to the point she shouted in pain, all while Twilight smirked. "In a way that did not interfere with the punishment or degrade anypony else!" Shouted Night Light, spitting out a flame tounge that burned out some hair of Velvet's mane "You forced our daughter to live like a foal! You’ve forced her eight friends to act like foals! You even kidnapped one of them!” Twilight was going to reply that Pinkie Pie was actually there for her own will, but she refrained herself from that, and let the situation deleplov in her favour. "But..." Velvet said with a trembling voice, tears truly forming in her eyes. "There is no excuse! What you have done is already sick! But what really upsets me is you forced three little fillies to take part in your sick little game! Do you know the damage you might have done to them?!" Velvet shook her head, as her husband closed his eyes and huffed deeply. "This act alone is worthy of institutionalization, but, wait, there is more! You have brought the Archduchess Cadance in this mess without any reason but use her as babysitter. If she didn't knew you and was so patient, I bet she would have sent a squad of ponies in white to take you away!" Night Light's opened his fiery eyes again and staired into his wifes magenta one’s, "But, worst of all, you had no respect for your daughter..." he said, more with contempt than rage "You have filled her food with laxatives to make sure she’d always need diaper changes. You wanted to make her dependent on you. Not only that, but you wanted to make one of her friend’s dependent on you, and for what? I understand you miss your little filly, but Twilight needs to grow up. She’s a mare, a beautiful young mare, and you’re trying to hold her back because you don’t want to let her go. Is that it?" Velvet broke in crying, thing that gave a last burst of rage to Night Light. "Ah, now you cry. Was that it? Are you sad because Twilight isn’t always going to need you? Don’t be Velvet, there was a time when she needed you, but she’s over that. She’s strong now, Shining is strong now, and you just need to except that, because one day they’re going to need to be strong for their fillies, and their colts like you were for them, and you will be six feet under!" Then he let his wife from his storng grasp, amking her thump on the ground. Velvet cried a bit more, before raising her eyes from the floor and looking at her husband. “B-but… they… are not ready...” Night Light shook his head. “That seals it, you are compeltely delusional. I will likely send to a psychiatric hospital, so I may get back my wife, and not this regressing abomination that I have in front of me.” And Velvet wept. When Night Light’s rage lessened a bit, he and her true daughter looked at eachother. “Should we give her some time alone?” Asked Twilight. Night light nodded and walked towards the door with an haughty stance. “Yes. Come on, make me company while I have breakfast. I want to relax a bit, especially after what happened in the cameretta. Seriously, it rattled my nerves.” Twilight smirked and thought. “A bit more than that. Also, that scene destressed me in ways I thought impossible.” Night Light went into the living room, only to find Pinkie nervously waiting on one of the couches. "Is it..." she tried to say, before seeing Twilight's father in her direct line of sight, She ducked, but was spotted in vain. "Now you, Pinkie Cake, or whatever you are called. Get out of this house and never show up ever again, alright?" Pinkie walked away with her ears lowered, but, when she was near the entraace hall, she asked. "Can I bring Velvet's insanity furniture with me? I would have actually a sane and consensual use for it..." Night Light did not thought too much about it with snorting sigh. “Sure, whatever. Take anything foalish you want, we’re not going to have any more adult foals in here from now on.” Pinkie Pie ran immediately back in the hallway that contained the cameretta, and came out of it ten minutes later with the wicker baskets full of toys tied to her back. Then she did another trip, and brought out with Sedual serva the changing table, the wardrobeand everything else it was in the cameretta. Smiling she waved to Night Light as she walked out the doorway, “Hehe, goodbye Mr.Twilight’s Dad!” “Goodbye,” said night Light dryly. Twilight smiled at his fahter. “Father… you don’t know how much I am happy that you are back. I don’t know for how much longer I could have last.” While walking towards the kitchen, he said with an hint of acidity. “For a pretty long time. Are you not my daughter? Are you not a brilliant pony?” Twilight nodded proudly. “Yes, I am.” Night Light and smiled widely at his daughter. “See? You are indeed, blood of my blood!” He said entering the kitchen, opening a shutter containing the food, takign out two plates of salty foods, and sitting down at the table. Twilight watched carefully what her father was picking, for be sure it wasn’t laxative-laced, before remembering that her mother served to Pinkie normal food. The laxatives came were all in the formula. Unless his father had a secret liking for baby formula, it was unlikely he wasn’t going to have bowel problems. She sighed relaxed. As her father took out a couple of the random food items and started munching them down, Twilight sat down at hte table, and looked awkardly around the room. “So, father, what do you wanna do now with Velvet? I mean, shall we send her to Canterlot's Asylum?” Twilight’s dad wiped her face off, “Listen…” he said pausing briefly to think, “I am ready to do what's right, in exchange of part of my prestige. But I would like to find a way to avoid this." The mare’s eyes shot wide open, “Huh? B-but..” Night Light closed his eyes, “Twilight, my dear daughter, I know you are moved by Revenge and wrath now, but you must understand: I am still a big piece of Canterlot's scene. If your mother is istituzionalized, my clients may leave me out of fear.” Twilight nodded sadly. Night Light took a drink of water, “The other option of course is to stay under our care. You’d be living like Velvet’s ‘foal’ I suppose, but I’d play along and make sure she doesn’t overstep her boundaries, alright?" Twilight waved her hoof in frotn of her and frowned in diapproval. "Nah.-ah. I will not be Velvet's foal for a looong time!" Night Light sighed. "You have until night to decide, but I have to go to work now. My notary deeds, unlike your mother's, are never late. You may talk to me when I come back for lunch." Closing her eyes, Twilight relaxed. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her fleeting father, “I’ll talk to Cadance later about all this.” Night Light nodded, and stated matter-of-factly “By the way, feel free to ditch the diaper for now." A sudden pain in her stomach made Twilight cringe, reminding her why she was still in a diaper, “Ooh, uh. Actually, first I’m going to use the little fillies’ room. I will talk to you later, alright?” The dad nodded, “Very well.” Smiling, Twilight forgot her current decision for a brief moment. All that mattered was making it to the toilet. Quickly, she trotted through the kitchen and to the floor's bathroom. After several minutes of ‘doing her buisness’, Twilight relived herself and cleaned everything that was dirty, and, thankfully for her, all by herself. Idly, she stepped out of the washroom and fellowed the subtle cries of her mother from the end of the hallway. She walked there, attracted by a mysterious force, and opened the empty cameretta’s door and stepped inside. Looking down at her hoofs, Twilight squinted her eyes at her sobbing mother. She looked in absolute despair, she was no longer the insane caretaker she was earlier today, she was the mother that she had yet to see since Celestia first moved her out of her house... a pathetic wreck that Twilight could not help but feel good by looking at it, by the power of the Schadenfreude. A tiny part of Twilight made her want to reach out to Velvet and tell her that everything was going to be fine, but she just felt… angry. As if Velvet were an upset tiger or bear that just lost its cubs, and that started to make replacement babies with the guts and testicles of the unfortunate minotaurs that got hit by her irrational fury. Twilight inched back towards the door, looking around at all the things that wern’t there any more. Pinkie Pie took so much of the foal stuff, leaving behind only three empty shelves and the wallclock. Seeing all that emptiness made Twilight both feel good for the ending of her suffering, and a bit sad for psychological reasons concerning empty rooms with crying ponies in them. Closing her eyes, Twilight walked out of the door and muttered with scorn, “I hope you are happy…” and then slammed the door behidn her, before going in the living room, and lay on the couch. Left with nothing to do, she let the sleep take over her, as she lulled herself in choirs of victory, images of poneis dancing around bonefires, and many other joyful things that spontanously came to her mind. The nightmare was over. The darkness of the Forced Infancy had been banished by the light of Reason and Adulthood. The only thing to decide now was if either seal the Agent of the Darkness in the Asylum and force her to convert; or banish it into a lotus-eating machine, where she would be happy, but unable to do any further damage. “Twilight?” Cadance sang, nudging her friend’s shoulder, “Twilight, I umm…” “No!” Twilight said, waking up groggy from her blissfull sleep, “I-I’m up, sorry, I just-” she sighed, “I just need a moment. I was having a rapid-fire sequence of dreams, and did not want to be awakened.” Cadance smiled, “It’s quite alright… your father and I were just discussing what to do with you and Velvet.” Twilight’s eye opened wide, “What?” Night Light said solemnly “We’ve decided we’ll send my wife to Ponyville, along with Pinkie, so she may pose threat no more to your stability." Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Umm… I’m not sure how I’d feel about that. I don't find it sadisfactory.” “Come on Twilight, think of it! Velvet wouldn’t ever threaten you with diapers or discipline again! You’d be your own mare and she could live out all her fantasies with no boundaries!” Said Night Light with passion. Twilight close her eyes, “Well… I choose…” Twilight let her mind play out the various possible punishments she could inflict to Velvet for what she had done to her. She could ask to set up a crowd, and ask to stone her until either restoration of sanity or maiming. Or ask said crowd to take a turn into telling why she was a failure as a mother and then impeach her. Or maybe she could ask for improsment into a faraway dungeon. Or regress her into a powerless foal with adult mind and then beat her up until her ears bled. The idea of shipping her to the worst asylum of Equestria, the one in Fillydelphia, and let the unskilled nurses and doctors go overboard with their treatments seemed also an option. Twilight's thoughts were stopped when Velvet stepped into the room, gathering the attention of everypony around her. In a passive agressive tone of voice, she trotted up to her daughter, splitting both Night Light and Velvet apart. Frowing, she held back tears in her eyes, she tried to say something, but just looked away from her daughter. Angrily, she stomped her hoofs and turned away, “I can’t even look at you… you’re not my daughter.” Twilight, again, was not sure about how to feel about that... > Lettera d' Esilio/ Exile Letter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After seeing her mother talking to her like that, Twilight rolled her eyes and said. "Whatever mother, you are still rambling now, go back in the cameretta for dream about me begin your little foal," Velvet was going to say something, but Night Lgiht was quick to shutting her up with a stern look and a raised hoof pointed towards his wife's neck. Cadence, with a curvy movment, went near Twilight. Putting her left hoof under the purple pony's chin, she asked. "So, what is your decision, Twilight? All your wishes are orders right now, don't waste the opportunity." Naturally, Twilight didn't want to waste the possibility of choosing herself the punishment for her crazy mother, not after what she had suffered for those eight days with Velvet. "Okay, stone her until she is maimed is not a good idea. Regress her to a foal and abuse her is unfair, and would not really solve anything. So, the only viable idea seems ship her to the asylum." Twilight solemnly said. "Mother... you aren't the one you were once anymore," Velvet's daughter pointed at Night Light, then did a movement towards the door "perhaps you need some mind bleach for go back to your normal self. Asylum it is." Cadance raised an eyebrow, “I think you’re being too… ‘hasty’.” Cadance leaned in and whispered seomthing into Night Light’s ear. Twilight tried to understand what she was saying, but to no avail. However, judging by her father’s face, it was almsot a revelation. Night Light nodded, “Alright…” he said letting go of Velvet’s hoof, “Honey, let’s go upstairs to the bedroom and relax, alright? I think it’s time to give Twilight and Candance a little privacy.” And so, Night Light brought his wife up the marble stairs towards their bedroom. Left alone in the living room, the two mares stared each other in the eyes, before setting down on the couches. “Look, Cadence, I don’t know how you are thinking, but I am pretty sure that send Velvet to the Psychiatric Hospital is the best option for everyone involved. It would cure my mother’s madness, it would bring her away from me, and it would not involved anybody else in the mix.” Cadence gave a slightly disapproving frown to Twilight. “But did you consider what your father wants? How would your mother see all of that?” Twilight said with slight reluctance to her voice, “Yes, but…” “No,” said Cadence, with a calm and seriosu voice “You actually didn’t. Now, I can see why you are not prone to forgive your mother completely and I can’t really blame you for that.” Cadence slowly rose from the couch, and stood up in the dead center of the incaian carpet. Breathing deeply, she spoke, “However, you should not let your rage decide for you. She is your mother after all, and no matter how much pain she has brought to you, you cannot hate her.” Twilight raised her head and sighed. “Then what do I do? I just can’t deal with the way my mother acts like anymore. I want her to be back at her usual state of old mare that is watching her offspring grow strong and famous, while the tentacles of the oblivion streak her fur. I cannot understand how letting her go to Ponyville will solve anything. She’d probably just kidnap more unwilling ponies! No, the Asylum, where specialized doctors will help her get rid of her mental illness, is the way!” “It’s simple,” Cadence said “To get rid of her state, you don’t necessarily need to limit herself to the four walls of her room in the Asylum. You can also give her some freedom of movement.” At said declaration, Twilight squinted confused, while her mind tried to wrap itself around Cadence’s logic seemingly-inperscrutable logic. “What about the other ponies? What if she tries to kidnap them for her amusement? I cannot allow that!” The pink alicorn inoppritunely chuckled. “And you really think that other poneis would be easy to grab and force? No, it won’t happen. Pinkie Pie shall be sufficent for her, and if it won’t be enough, stay assured that, at such point, the shipping to an institute for mental health is guaranteed.” Twilight, still unable to understand, sighed. “Yes, but how this changes things? And, even if she was content with what she has, how leaving her to my friend will destroy the madness, if she fuels it instead?” Cadence stated matter-of-factly “Who said that your mother was going to Ponyville without somepony ready for help her in the journey of snap out of her obsession?” “Well, who’s that pony going to be?” Twilight asked, unable to comprheand what was going on in Cadance’s mind. Candance smirked, “Well, Pinkie Pie aside. I think it’d make sense for Velvet to stay in Ponyville for a little while and get some professional help. Of course, by that I mean see a therapist. Clearly she’s not completly delusional, she’s most likely denying something that she’s unwilling to admit. “I guess you’re right.” Twilight admited, nodding sadly. “Perhaps I’ll leave you with Night Light now. He probably wants to catch up with you, and you two outta make plans for Velvet’s departure.” Cadance said, hugging Twilight tightly. “Oh… Goodbye Cadance! I’ll see you later alright?” Twilight said, whiel she embraced Cadence. Cadence smiled, said “Maybe, maybe… for now, goodbye” and then interrupted the hug for leave the living room and the house. The purple mare was left alone in the room. At this point, Twilight decided to go in her parent’s bedroom, and try to help her father in making the luggages for Velvet’s travel to Ponyville. So she got up from the couch, stretched her frotn hooves a bit, and walked from the living room to her parent’s bedroom at the last flight of the marble stairs However, when she was just few steps away from the bedroom, Twilight saw her father exiting from the bedroom with a small bruise on his right cheek. Velvet’s daughter stopped herself on the stairs, rolled her eyes and sighed. “What happened? Lemme guess, she will not let me have a word with her?” Leading his daughter downstairs, Night Light sighed, “Yes, she’s in no state to talk right now. She’s in a bit of blind fury, and if I try saying anything to her, she’ll just continue to sob into her pillow, or randomly hit me, whichever is more comfortable for her.” “I see…” Twilight said, while going down said stairs “I almost feel bad for her, you know? I know I should be angrier, but I’m not…” “I think you just calmed down,” Night Light said “You’re not seething with anger, that’s for sure.” “True, but… I feel more sypathetique than earlier.. It’s kind of weird.” She said, while she landed on the wooden floor of the first floor. Night Light answered quickly to his dauhgter. “Meh, it happens, when you feel betrayed by somebody you love. If you ask me, I’ve lost what little romantic connection I had with her,” he said, while turning to walk up the first steps of the stairway to the ground floor “So don’t worry about my feelings for her. I’m fine with her living with Pinkie Tart…” “Pinkie Pie,” Twilight corrected him mid-way on the stairs. “Whatever, the point is: I don’t mind her going away and even open a buisness separated from me.” Twilight nodded while she stepped on the floor. “I understand,” she smiled, in an attempt to brighten up the mood a bit “But don’t let this bring us down. We found the solution to this situation, I’m free once again, you have your daughter in one piece and your house free of strangers. Your ex-wife, whom caused all of this for an obsession, is going to start a process towards recovery.” Night Light sighed relieved. “That’s true,” he said, while entering, once again, in the living room “anyway, what were you and Cadence talking about, while I was upstairs?” Twilight recliend her head for a second, before puttting it up again “We were talking about what punishment to give to Velvet. You know, whether or not sending her to Ponyville was really a good idea, or if it was a dumb one.” Night Light gently sat down on the yellow sofa and with a wave of his left hoof, invited Twilight to do the same. “And your decision was sending her to Ponyville, right?” Twilight nodded, before adding “But not only that...” she said, sitting down “We also decided that while just sending her to Ponyville with Pinkie was of no use for nopony in the short term. Sending Velvet to Ponyville for a while with my friend Pinkie Pie, while having her see a therapist would be better for us all. After all, if she doesn’t snap out by slow psycholgical work, she would not be something that you or me would want back, but it would be something that my friend appreciates deeply.” Night Light bowed his head. “Very true and correct, Twilight.” Then silence filled the room, the only sounds were theones of Sedula cleaning up the rooms upstairs, and of the mechanical clock ticking. The light of the Sun entered in the room, and made the marble shine in the eyes of the two ponies. Night Light decided to fill the silence with some chit-chat. “So, father, did anything interesting happened to you, while you were in Romea.” Nigth Light, whom was staring absently-minded at the white ceiling, after shaking his head for a brief while, turned around towards her daughter. “Not really: there was the usual banter between the usual suspects, there was the usual wave of newbie notaries that acted like shellshocked veterans or fanatics whose duty is to make the perfect deed to a propety, and I attended to the refresher course held by the Royal Notary. Overall, it was the same story as the past decade, we just agreed on minor points in how to handle certain situation and that’s it.” Twilight looked at her father. “So, nothing new on that front?” “Nothing new,” he said while nodding “Overall, refresher courses and meetings like that are just useless, when no peculiar situations given by new laws or major social changes are happening. Or if you are not overly senile.” Twilight smirked. “The return of one of the Diarchs was not big enough?” “Exactly. It wasn’t big enough to impact on my overall job. If with her return, say, all the last wills were probated only if Luna signed them, then this meeting would have been useful, because then we could have agreed how to keep our job going at maximum speed and respect the law at the same time.” “I see,” said Twilight, before wandering on with her eyes. “Bottom line, I went there and did nothing truly productive or interesting. Now, about my visits to my brothers…” Twilight leaned fowards in interest. “Yes?” “The situation is degenerating again. Grandma is throwing shingles from her apartment on the heads of aunt Eraclina, all because she thinks that she snatched me, aunt Lucky and uncle Benson from her hooves, and she keeps pouring money in the wallets of everypony.” Night Light’s voice got slightly more angrier “However, she never cared enough for us to begin worthy of our affection, but now she wants to buy it. Eraclina tried to give us an education and the mother figure that she did not provided to us, in fact, I would say that the entire family was and is constructed around her; when she dies, it’lll be a rush for a take of the biggest bite to her estate.” As the purple mare listened, something clickled in her mind. “Now that I think about it,” Twilight thought “Grandma’s situation is similar to what is happening right here, right now. But in somewhat reverse and smaller scale. There is my mother, Velvet, that wants to give me loads and loads of attention even without my consent, and disregarding my feelings about the kind of attention she gives to me. Then there’s my father, whom I feel more conntected to, and is basically considered a foal snatcher by my mother. Guess that history sometimes repeats itself with minal changes.” While Night Light was still ranting against the greed of Uncle Lionheart and Aunt Lucky, from the hallway, a trotting came. “Oh...” Night Light said, with a deadpan voice, while slowly raising “I guess she has calmed down.” Twilight also jumped down the couch, and followed heri father in the hallway, where Velvet had her head hanging low. “Calmed down?” Asked Night Light rhetorically. Velvet glared to her husband, but said nothing. “I will take it as a ‘yes,’“ said Twilight’s father “anyway, your dauhgter has something to say to you.” Looking nervously at the floor, Twilight tried her best not to toy with her mother more than the necessary, “Well mother, I’d like to propose you got to Ponyville for a while to get things sorted out. I think you know as well as we do that something wasn’t and is not right in your head. We’re thinking about letting you stay in Ponyville with Pinkie.” Velvet nodded, acting as if the news wasn’t surprising. Twilight thought that Velvet should have been glad of the response, because she and the other members of the family could have reacted worse. After all, there were mental asylums that would happily take care of her case, not to mention police and guard departments. “Now go upstairs and pack up.” Night Light said, “We will give you a letter to give to Pinkie. Don’t open and or read it for any reason, unless Pinkie gives you explicit permission. We’ll know if it that happend, so do not even think to do it..” With a sigh, Velvet nodded, and went upstairs again. “Now, Twilight,” said Nigth Light “you should write anote for your pink friend about the therapist. I don’t trust Velvet enough to let her go on her merry way and ingore the second part of the order.” Twilight wasted no time and went in the entrnace hall, took a piece of paper from a stash of blank pages. She went upstairs in Shining’s ex-room, now converted into scriptorium, took a quill and ink from there. Quickly she started to write her letter: “To my friend Pinkie Pie. While you may be overjoyed by the news of my mother joining you in your desires of regression. I have to inform you that she has not been sent to you because we just wanted to make you and her happy, but also because I and my father want to cure her mental illness. Find a therapist, send me a letter back with the price, and I will provide the mental care for her. Please do so, the fate of my mother’s sanity lies in your hands and that’s something I’m making you responsible for. Fail to comply, and there will be grave consequences. Consider yourself warned. -Twilight Sparkle.” With everything done, she folded the letter and put it in the envolope. She sealed it with some sealing clay, stamped it with a consumed stamp usually used for important notary deeds and then exited from the room with the letter in her magical grip. While Twilight was exiting, Velvet was already on the stairs; two luggages in her magical grip, and a large filly hat not unlike the ones that Rarity usually wore. “I’m good to go,” Velvet said. “Hurry up then,” shouted Night Light “The train will leave the station in twenty minutes!” Velvet complied, and trotted quickly down the stairs, at which point Twilight also went downstairs with her. Once in the entrance hall, Twilight gave the letter to Night Light. He was busy closing the three buttons of his black and white vest, while Velvet fixed a loose bronze hinge of a brown luggage. “Here’s the letter,” she said, “ take it.” “Thanks!” Night Light said, grabbing the letter and putting it in his coat pocket. “As for you Mother…” Twilight said, turning towards her maternal figure, “Have a safe trip. I’m sorry that all this happened, for you and myself included.” she finished by kissing her mother on the snout. “Ready to go?” Night Light said, heading into the garden Velvet turned around, waving a hoof to Twilight before walking down the stone path in pursuit of her husband. Twilight watched from the door as the two left the house. Weird, this was actually the first time she’ been without a caretaker all week. She grinned. “Freedom, at last!” she said with pure joy and sadisfaction, trotting towards the family library, finally free to enjoy the company of a book. The next day, at the Kindergarten... “They what?” Lux said covering her mouth. “Yes,” Twilight said grinning ear to ear, “They left yesterday, and I’ll never see Velvet again!” she said clapping her hooves together. Nutriz frowned at the purple mare's declaration "Twilight, I understand Velvet has been abusing you for a week now, but isn’t celebrating her absence a bit… cynical?” Twilight sniffed and pointed her nose in the air. "She is thankful that she has not been shipped to an Asylum. NOW she was going to be in deep trouble. Instead, I'm offering her a pony willingly to give in to her desires, and a therapist for slowly get over her obsession." Lux, whom, up at that point, just listened with wide eyes and an unbeliving smile “I can’t belive you got yourself out of that mess without lashing out!" then Lux poked gently Twilight's flank "And you managed to have no accidents today! Good girl!" Twilight smiled, perfectly capable to take the jest now. “Hehe, yeah." As hse said that, a doubt formed in Twilight's mind. "However, should I still wear diapers here?" The two teachers shrugged their shoulders. "Maybe. I mean, you probably don’t want to, and you have no obligations, so," Nutriz said. “I'd suggest to still wear them," Lux said "because we don’t want the non-stall trained foals to feel… ‘foalish’ and too inferior compared to a classmate." Lux chuckled "That being said, I doubt you’ll be using them anyway.” “Only if I wanna make your guys job harder for you!" answered Twilight. "Speaking of making things complicated, I apolgize I wasn’t able to attend yesterday. By the time the two left, it was nearly one in the afternoon." Nutriz bowed her head slightly. "Your father has already taken care of it. Also, we understand that, so no hurt done." Then the teacer looked behind her, seeing that the class was getting impatient "now go and join your classmates." “Gotcha!” Twilight said, walking into the class. Scanning the class for Lex, Twilight found her in a corner, apparently alone. “Hello Le…” The mare said, approaching the small filly occupied with a drawing, However, before Velvet's daughter could finish her sentence, the little filly jumped on her leg, hugging it tightly. “Tiligh! You wewe not hewe iestewday! I think wewe sick or..." she gasped "weawing!" Twilight smiled, “No Lex, I was just celebrating something. My mommy doesn't see me as a 'little filly' anymore,” Twilight nuzzled the little filly softly, calming her down “however, I’ll still be here for you!” “Yay!” Lex said. Twilight, feeeling even more upbeat, decided to see what Lex was drawing. It was a decently-drawn (for a kindergartener) image of Twilight lying on a hospital bed and keeping a thermometer (blessed naivety) in her mouth, what it was supposedly Pearly Handle giving her syrup, and Lex dressed like a nurse standing near the bed. Looking down, there was the phrase, written in green crayon "Get vll son." The drawing warmed Twilgith's heart, cuaisng her to smile happily. "This... is beatiful."Murmured Twilight, before turning down at a eagerly awaiting Lex. "Wan to pway?" Asked Lex to Twilight. Twilight, leaving the drawing on the table and planning ot take it with her, nodded extrmely eagerly. As she joined Lex with her little friends in a game of pretend involving the three Princesses and a random guard (that Twilight subtely turned into an expy of Shing Armour), Twilight's mind had a thought that made her frown a little bit. "I’m not really free now, am I?” She said, looking away from the ongoing game, but immediately going back to it. "No matter. Princess Celestia's punishment is good enough for me." > Confusione/ Confusion. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later the same day, Princess Celestia, whom had already retured in her chambers for the night, was sitting on her bed, and thinking about the events of the day. Specifically, what her Personal Student did to her mother. "It seems that Twilight Velvet is in Ponyville with the Element of Laughter now," Celestia whispered to herself, as she did circles with her hoof on the sheets "while I know that Twilight will still serve her punishment, as I've required to her, I cannot help but think that part of the charm of the punishment.... has disappeared." The Sun Princess sighed. "Also, I'm starting to think that my dream of having Twilight as a foal... will be impossible, and, unfortunately, they are growing strogner and stronger. I would go there, and regress her with my magic, but... there HAS to be a way to make her accept that." Celestia looked at the paintings hanging on the walls, and lowered her head sadly. Then, a positive thought that made Celestia smile appeared in her mind. "Or maybe she actually likes it, but didn't appreciate it because it was too sudden. Maybe, if I ask to her kindly, and leave her a choice about how foalish' I should treat her, she will accept." Images of Twilight, dressed like a little filly, jumping about and giggling, appeared in Celestia'smind, warming her heart. But then, the cold reality hit her again. "No, this would not happen…” her desires double thought it again “ Not in this situation, at least." Celestia decided to get under the sheets. "I will have to gas-light her a bit. Make sure that everything that would make her wish for affection falls into place. Try to get the little foals to convince her that begin a little filly is better than begin a mare." Celestia's smile turned into a wicked grin. "That's perfect, just perfect. I will start to organize my plan from Tomorrow. Elysium willing, by the end of her punishment, she will be my preciosu foal." And then, after a small evil chuckle, the Sun Princess let the sleep slowly take over her. Three days had passed, since Twilight managed to send her mother out of her house. Now Twilight Sparkle, after an hearty breakfast made of coffee, berry muffins and jam brioches. After dressing herself properly for the Kindergarten with a better smock and a diaper that wasn't meant to be used, she was now on her way to Kindergarten. As she walked down the streets of the city, a smile on her face, Twilight was thinking about the past days. Specifically, about her troubles with her mother. "It's kind of funny: when I walked this street for the first time with my mother, I was more worried about the reaction of my current classmates and the teachers, rather than my mother's antics. But now, I take it easy, if not gladly, the Teachers are not too concerned about my presence and my classmates either adore me or ignore me." Twilight chuckled, as the building came in sight. "Guess that I am not that bad with foals after all!" As soon as Twilight was few steps away from the enterance, the bell rang. The foals waiting outside waved "bye-bye" to their parents on the sidewalk at the opposite side, entered in the building in a dissonant chorus of shrieks. Twilight joined the horde of fillies and colts, going towards her classroom, ready to pass the morning with her "little sister" Lex and her little friends. “Goodmorning Everypony!” Nutriz say, letting the children into the classroom, “I see you’re all looking particularly peppy today! I’m glad to see you all smile!” It took a good fifteen minutes, but the class eventually got settled down as the students went to their favorite spots around the room. After the name call, Lex and Twilight decided they’d focus on playing with some blocks, an activty they’d both grown really fond of. “So…” Twilight said, popping a rectanglar prism untop of two squares, “Any plans for your weekend Lex? I heard you’ve been doing really well in school, are your parents doing anything special for you?” Lex accidently knocked her structure now, “Hehe, oops. Can ask you something?” “Ask me what, Lex?” Lex smiled, giddily jumping up and down, “Wanna come to my sleepover tomorrow?” Twilight smiled slightly, thinking at the posibility to meet her “minor friends” outside her unusual place of punishment. “Aww, why do you ask? Of course I will Lexy. I hope your parents won’t mind if I stay at your house for the night!” “Why would they?” Lex asked innocently. The mare raised a hoof and stopped herself, “Hehe, it’s not important. I’m sure they’ll be fine with it. Now, how many others will there be?” “Me, you, Owvosi, Pearly, Owive, Bwigt… seven, I think.” Lex said, with a concentrated voice. Twilight let out a small chuckle at the counting error. “We are actually six,” she said. Lex lowered her ears. “Oh, sowwy.” Twilight smiled at the little filly “Not that I mind one more pony. The more, the merrier, after all!” The little filly cancelled her contrite stance, and went back to her usual cheery self. “By the way, I should be there at… ?” “Seven o’ cwock.” Lex said, as she went back to stack up blocks. Twilight joined the game again, thinking at the upcoming event at Lex’s house, unaware of the signals sent by a certain colt with an hungarian name. “Twili! Twili!” He said, frantically movign around his hooves “Wisten! My daddy and mommy told me…” But it was in vain: Twilight was too adsorbed in the simple game with her friend Lex, for listen at Orvosti. The next day things were reletivley calm in the school house. Twilight seemed to be more contribed in her life, acting like a foal without really being called out for it. Strangely, activites like coloring, playing with dolls and building blocks seemed so much more relaxing when she didn’t have a mother breathing down her neck with a bersek-like perseverance. She rejoiced at her minor art pieces, her drawingand writing abilities has been restored, if not slightly improved, after the midn grinding that was life with Velvet. She was even able to give Lex tips on shading and all sorts of really advanced stuffs in drawing. Not that Lex improved that much in that regard. Lex held up her drawing, “Wike it?”. Twilight staired at it a moment, it defintly broke her train of thought. To be honest, she really thought she should mention something about all the bikering that’d been happening with Lex and Orvosti throughout the previous week, but it was probably just a passing thing. Reluctant to ignore her better judgement, Twilight smiled at drawing and then at the child, “Ooh! It’s pretty! Is that a forest?” Lex nodded with the drawing still in her mouth. She blew it out on the table and started ranting. “Uh-huh! It’s da Everfwee fowest! Wots of stowies happened tewe! Did you know dat Celestia and hew sistah had a catle tewe?” “They did?” Twilight faked ignorance on the subject, deciding it was best to humour her little friend. Smiling, Lex nodded. “Ooh yeah! You know, Owvosti tawks about the Princess and you often, you know? I’m suwpwised you didn’t know that she had a castwe in da fowest, you and Celestia seem wike you’re weawwy cwose.” Twilight’s eyes shot wide open, as she gathered what the child just said. “So, apparently Celestia was talking to Orvosti’s father of late. Interesting…” “Uh, do you know exactly what’s been going on with her? I mean Celestia? What’s she talking about?” Twilight inquired. The young filly thought a moment. “Well… Owvosti said something about Cewestia wishing to modify you. But I don’t wanna you to change! You awe so coow da way you are!” The heart of Twilight stopped for a brief second. The mare swallowed nervously. In her mind that sounded like either being regressed physically or mentally, something that obviously Twiligth wanted to avoid at all costs. “But no, Celestia wouldn’t stop low enough to make her really a filly… would she?” The answer that sprang up in Twilight’s head made her clentch her teeth and grip her pencil extra tight, before relaxing, and thinking that Lex had basically saved her adulthood by simply spilling the beans in a casual conversation. “Are you- Nevermind.” Twilight said, slamming the pencil on the ground. Maintaining her positive attitude, she hugged her friend. “Don’t worry Lex, I’m sure nothing will happen that I wouldn’t have done myself. I’m a big filly, I can handle whatever challenge the Princess wants me to overcome.” “Good. I’m weally happy I have such a stwong fwiend.” She said with a nod, still hugging onto Twilight’s leg. “Hehe, you wanna stop that? I think you’re being a little bit touchy, aren’t you?” Twilight said, patting her little friend on the back. Lex giggled, as she broke her contact. “Hehe- sorry. I was just weally weally worried. I can’t wait to hang out with you.” she said, breaking away from the hug. “Me too Lex…” the mare said, focusing again on her drawing, “Me too…” Nutriz came into the room, clapped her front hooves and called. “Potty Time! Form a line and follow me!” Twilight, like everyone else in the class, put herself in line. It was clear that she wasn’t too amused with the rumors spreading around about her. Lex tugged on the mare’s smock for get her attention. “Twilight, no diapee change?” “What?” the mare looked down at her slightly damp diaper, “Oh, what the?” “You wet youwself.” Teh filly stated, as her slightly bulgy diaper peeked out of the smock. “What just happened?” Twilight thought to herself, as she sighed towards Lex’s statment. Perhaps the accident was just stressed related, or perhaps just some sort of mental complex she’d developed in those months with her mom. It didn’t matter, at least it she only felt a little bit damp, meanign she could ignore it until home. “Hello again, Twilight,” said Night Light in a cordial voice “So, how it was your day, at the Kindergarten?” Twilight, trying her best to hide her slightly soggy diaper with her smock, said with a blush. “Pretty well, father,” she said, as she tried to hurry to the bathroom “I had my usual…” She was interrutped when, while going around the corner, she tripped, hitting the floor with her chin. Twilight quickly went back on her hooves, as her father rushed to her. “Are you okay?” Asked Night Light. “Yes, yes, nothing major..” she said, as Night Light looked sideways at her smock, before raising it, revealign the slightly soggy diaper underneath. “What do we have here? A wet diaper?” Twilight’s faher asked rhetorically. Twilight blushed even more, and said. “It was an accident! I wet myself because…. because...” She could not find any justifications for what happened. “So, an accident? Well, I guess that this sort of thing happen, while staying in a class full of little foals," he said, turning towards the kitchen’s door "but, anyway, I have to yet tell Sedula what do to today as lunch. If you want me, I am in the living room.” He turned away from his daughter and walked towards the kitchen. Twilgith decided to just go in her room, and think for a bit. Night Light was so… ‘hardened’. It was almost like he was so fixated on the idea of productiveness and reputation that he forgot about his family. He was so quick to cast his own wife out of his life for who knows how long. Then, again, he was the one that brought Twilight to greatness and glory, so his ways had a good reason to be so. Meanwhile, Velvet was just a crazy mare that hid her obsession under the façade of "compassion." Her actions were good por se, but were bad while she did them under the banner of her obsession with foalify her daughter. Twilight approached her bedside where her bag of diapers laid. Using her magic, she ripped off the diaper and vaporized it with her magic. “Shoot.” she muttered. It had just occurred to her, she needed wipes, or something.of that magnitude. Against her better judgement, she paced slowly down the stairs and the hallway and into the Cameretta. All that was left was the memoir of her life a week or so ago. Everything that Pinkie either couldn't carry or didn’t care to take was still there. Surprisingly, the room’s stock pile still remained mostly untouched. Then again, Pinkie probably didn’t want to stay in Night Light’s house any longer for look for the rest of the stash. Also, Sedula stacking the unsued foalish objects lying around had something to do with that. Twilight sighed at the sight of the vacant room, as she skimmed throught the stash of diapers, until she foudn some wet wipes. She lied on the back on the moquette floor, and used nearby wipes to erase her shame. She still couldn’t believe she had an accident, an actual accident at that, one that was actually all her own fault. Annoyed, she laid back on the floor, looking at the ceiling for the first time in days, and finding yet another trace of Velvet’s insanity. It was a display of several shooting stars in the sky. They were mesmerizing in their motion, their colorful appearance made her admire the craftsmanship all the more. Her world froze a moment, as she realized what she was doing. “Oh no….” she muttered under her breath, as her grin faded. Her hoofs became shaky, as she went back on her four hooves. Curiously, she reached over the front to where the wipes were and grabbed a diaper, holding it high in the air. She gave the puffy material a few experimental pokes as she closed her eyes. It was… soft. Not a big surprise. Giving into her curiosity, she pressed the material against her front end and wrapped it around her waist appropriate. The diaper wrapped properly around her waist, she trotted up to the cameretta’s window, striking a few poses on the refelction, before sitting down. Her rump mashed against the diaper’s soft padding as the imagery of what she was doing came back at her full swing. Her hoofs gripped the side tabs of the diaper, she got ready to pull and ripped it off her waist. The diaper plummeted on the ground below her as she stood up. Her eyes searched around the whole nursery, flashback of her and her mother’s moments together flashed back in her head like a some sort of stressed memory. In that moment, she felt closer to feel regret, and yet, she refused to let it win. How could she shed tears for her crazy mother, or for not acting like a foal, or for anything that had to do with infancy? That was madness. And yet she was pondering about it, like if refusing to act like a foal wasn’t something completely disgraceful and immoral. “But… I do something similar in front of Lex everyday… why this is different?” Asked Twilight to herself. Her other part answered quickly. “Because Lux is a little filly and, as such, you must treat her like one, and, if you want her friendship, even going to her level. Also, she admires your adulthood, and appears to be struggling for be just like you.” Her answer, any other time, was sadysfying. But then, it wasn’t. I just made more questions arise. Twilight was so adsorbed, that she faield to hear anything outside the room. > Assestamento/ Aftershock > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the voice grew stronger and nearer, Twilight kept thinking about was she was doing there, unsure wheter it was something good or bad. "Still, you wet your diaper. You must like it, at least marginally!" Said a part of Twilight's mind. "I-I don't know, maybe I got scared at the idea of getting regressed by Princess Celestia!" The tone of the other part slowly descended into the patronizing. "Oooh, sure, you got scared by the thought of Celestia regressing you. Just the idea makes you pee yourself. Not buying it." The other part answered resolutely. "Listen up, I don't know WHY I did it, but it's as sure as the sky that it wasn't because I wanted to do so! Understand?" As the other part was on its way to talk, a chill passed down Twilight's spine and brain, and made her curl up, and whimper, calling for “mommy”. Finally the cameretta's door opened, and Night Light walked in, shouting. "Twilight! Answer to me!" Twilight turned to her father, fear filling her heart for some reason. "Da- I mean, father, what do you want?" she said, still a bit confused by what had jsut happened. Without giving her respite, her father frantically removed her diaper, and grabbed her chest fur for shout directly in her face “Why are you acting like that!?” Making her feel at the mercy of his father’s fury attack. “Why? Why? You and me fought hard for your indipendence, and now you have decided that you don’t like it anymore? Why? Why? WHY?” He kept shouting, his mane starting lit up slightly. “I-I don’t know what are you talking about, father!” Twilight said, sweatign profusely. “You don’t know what are you doing? What are you, insane like my partner? No, you are not liek that. You know very well why, but you are afraid to tell me. I can see it!” “OF couse I’m afraid,” said Twiligth “you are assaulting me!” Night LIght dropped his daughter suddenly, and stoped gritting hsi teeth, and resorting to bellowing instead. “Okay,” he said, still a bit angry “proceed to explain.” Twilight sighed, “Ugh. I don’t know. It’s just- well a lot of stuff has been stressing me, and your yelling defintley didn’t help.” Night Light cooled down, “I’m sorry sweetie, but all this talk about diapers and infancy is starting to drive me a little bit off the walls. Honestly, I don’t know what everypony’s obsession with wearing diapers is all about.” Blushing, Twilight walked past her father and into the hallway, “I don’t know either. I just know that I’m stressed out and I’m starting to feel a bit insecure.” Stepping closer to his daughter, Night Light raised an eyebrow, “Alright, is there something going on that you’re not talking about?” Twilight nodded, “There’s word of Celestia’s weird yearnings going around, they’re probably just rumors, but are concerning none the less.” Twilight looked at the pictures on the hallway’s walls “Is it alright if I just have some times to think this out? I am going to a party later, and I doubt I will be able to think all that much, begin with my little classmates and all.” Curiously, Night Light raised an eyebrow, “You’re going to a party with a bunch of foals? Twilight, should I be concerned?” The mare chuckled a little bit, “No father, I’m doing it just because, you know, the foal hosting it considers me to be her big sister.” Twilight said, as she entered in the dining room “It would break her heart to not have me there, it would be extremely rude, and, more pragmatically, she helped and is helping me in my time of need, doing whatever she can do with her little power for make me feel normal.” The mare sat down “Get to her level for make her happy isn’t something to worry about. Shining did it when I was really a filly.” Night Light nodded. “That’s true, Twilight,” he said “though I still have the feeling that there is something not quite right with it.” Twilight shrugged her shoulders, “I doubt it, I’m sure everything will be alright. I mean, they are just foals, and it’s not like the parents won’t be there either.” Thinking about it for a moment, Night Light nodded, “I guess you’re right. Although I wouldn’t hope on having a lot of fun, since I doubt a mare like you is really going to fit in. But atleast there are grownups to talk to if you get bored, I suppose?” “Yeah, at least there’s that…” Twilight said, as the food, green lasagne and ricotta, was brought in from the kitchen. As Sedula gave a piece of the lasagna to Twilight, Night Light asked. “But what you can tell me about the invited ponies? Maybe I know them, and maybe I can tell you the patterns of soem of them.” Twilight, while slowly cutting her ration of food, said. “At this party, or sleepover, or whatever, there should be me, the host, Lex, Orvosti Ostova, Olive Oil, Bright Light, and Pearly Handle.” NIght Light, while she had his portion served, said. “Interesting. I know Bright Light, Orvosti Ostova and Lex. I am not sure about Olive Oil, and I’ve never heard of anypony havign a daughter named Pearly Handle.” Twilight said. “Well, if you know Lex and Orvosti already, I think I can skip to the others. Now, Olive Oil is son of a restaurant chain owner and…” Twilight blushed “a whore.” Twilight’s father took a bite from his dish “Oh, I think I know whom you are talking about,” he said “Deep Fryer and Lupanara. I know their names because, originally, Deep Fryer was married with another mare, but, once she found out that her husband cheated on her, she divorced, and let Deep Fryer marry Luapanara, the prostitute that had more emotional contact with. From what you are telling me, I guess that Lupanara has not stopped her work as harlot.” Twilight listened interested, not even touching the food in her plate. “If he didn’t change since the last notary deed he made with me, one year ago, I guess he won’t care too much about his son. I don’t know about Lupanara, but I doubt she would care too much either.” Twilight resumed eating, and processed the new information. Apparently, that was the reason for why Olive craved so much for his father’s attention. Resuming the conversation, the mare said “Wow, interesting, I understand why he looks for his father’s attention, and why he’s so easily embarrassed. Now, about Pearly Handle, she claims to be the daughter of the Head Doctors of the Canterlot Hospital. I cannot say for sure, though. The only thing I know, she seems very emotionally unstable, and prone to cry for help whenever the possibility arise. Also, almost paradoxically, she is a bit iatrophobic.” NIght Light shook his head. “I don’t think I know them, but I recognize her behaviour as result of overprotective parenting. In fact, I am not sure if she will actually come to that party of yours, or not.” Twilight scratched her chin, before taking another bite to her lasagne. “Well, hopefully, Lex has considered that.” Twilight’s mind was hit by an idea “by the way, you mentioned that you know Lex’s parents…” Twilight’s father nodded. “Yes, I indeed do. Fairy Floss and Rogito Notarile are, naturally, part of my district, and we are in fairly good terms ever since Rogito and I were just internships in my father’s studio, and Fairy Floss was still trying to get a degree in Engineering. Rogito is a pretty sensible and laid-back pony, I don’t think he will judge you too much. Fairy Floss is more up…” Twilight grinned. “I’ve actually already met Fairy Floss, while I was in the park with Cadence.” “Oh, alright” he said “then there should be no issue with that. Now…” Night Light sighed “Orvosti Ostoba… I know the mother, the father and himself. And I hate all of them.” Twilight looked shocked at her father, while putting her hooves near her lips. B-but why?” Night Light groaned. “I will mention one thing only, because I refuse to listen all the atrocities done by them. What is that? Arma Smussata is NOT a war hero, nor a cripple, nor anything. She was a janitor in the barracks of Canterlot, but, thanks to a clerical error, she was reported as crippled on action while doing heroics. From that day on, she has always been fawning about her non-existent heroics, while the true hero was likely signed up as a janitor.” Night Light extended his right hoof. “Listen to me… whatever they do… beware Orvosti’s family. They are ponies that do not keep their word.” Twilight, confused by the rant, nodded silently, and let her father go on. Five hours later, Twilight was on her way to Lex’s house, she passed in the relatively empty streets of the outer city, looking for the correct civic number, while her mind did its best to not think to what happened before the lunch. “Burana Street n° 21, that is the address…” murmured Twilight, passing about some old, liberty-styled, houses. “19… 20… 21!” She exclaimed, as she reached a solid iron gate, with a bronze bell as way of signal herself. Twilight grabbed the thread attached to the bell’s hammer and shook it, causing the hammer to hit the bell and thus make a ringing sound. Fairy Floss’ voice called from the house. “Who’s there?” > Saturnalia Puellorom. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight shouted back at the voice. “It’s me, Twilight Sparkle! Could you please open the gate?” Not even a minute later, the gate’s right door opened inwards with a loud clank, allowing Twilight to enter in the garden of Lex’s house. “Come on in, Twilight!” the voice said “Lex was waiting just for you!” Naturally, Twilight complied, and was accompionied by Lex’s mother as she walked in. “Like it wasn’t predictable!” Twilight said chuckling “I wouldn’t doubt her collecting my photographs and locks of my mane!” Fairy Floss chuckled back. “She doesn’t, not yet, but anything is possible!” The couple of ponies reached the door of the house. “Indeed,” Twilight went on, still giggling a bit at her own joke, while Fairy Floss turned down the knob and opened the door. “But so far, I think she has just tried to imitate me in other fields. You know, potty training, arts… things like that..” Lex’s mother stepped on the floor made of tuscan ceramic tiles. “Yes, she is trying to imitate you, honestly, I am thankful for that,” she said “I struggled so much to make her go to the bathroom at regular intervals! But now it’s a bit easier, she does it so much more pridefully now that she has her… ‘ personal example’ to follow." Twilight blushed a little, while still walking on the stairs, whose walls around were covered in paintings of landscapes and famous ponies doing the deed they were most remembered for. “Also, she is trying to improve her reading ability, though I doubt she will anywhere near to decent reading before Grade School!” As she said that, Fairy Floss reached a door near the end of the stairs: there, the mare turned down the knob of a wooden door, opening it, and revealing the room behind. In the room, in the far right corner, there was a low wooden table, set with a light blue paper tablecloth and with four orange bowls brim full of potatoes chips, popcorns, soft candies of every flavour, and little pieces of flatbread. Several bottles of fizzy drinks and water were still closed and waiting to be opened. Piles and piles of plastic dishes and glasses were stacked on a corner of the table. Twilight's little firends were all there, filling their dishes with the delicacies contained in the bowls. There was also a green cheapy sofa in the middle of the room, where a blue mare with gray mane, thick glasses, a back tutor, and a wrinkly face guarded the kids. Twilight showed no qualms in making her presence clear loudly. "Hello everypony!" As soon as Twilight's voice resonated in the room, four of the five little ponies stopped refilling their food and greeted Twilight with a simply “Hello.” Unsurprisingly, Lex’s reaction was more intense, because she left the full dish she kept in her mouth fall on the floor, and shouted "Tiligh!" as ran towards her "sister." Meanwhile, the old mare after giving a glare to Lex, said in a voice that, while shrill, could belong only to a revered mare "Gud evéning, Miss Twilaghtte." The purple mare greeted back the old mare with a slight bow, before returning her attention to Lex, whom was hugging Twilight’s left leg, and making a slight noise that sounded a lot like a cat’s purring. Chuckling at the unrestrained show of affection from Lex, Twilight petted her mane, and said while wearing a warm smile. “Well, hello there again, I see you’re happy to see me!” The filly interrupted the contact a bit with her eyes wide and with an incredibily happy smile on her little face, she said excitedly “Come in!” Twilight gladly complied, as the other foals had resumed filling their dishes with food. Twilight decided to do like them, and went to the low table to take a plastic dish and fill it with the oily flat bread contained in the bowl. As she did that, Twilight noticed in the corner of her eye that Orvosti was gesturing something towards her, but he failed to tell anything meaningful to Twilight, whom kept merrily taking food from the bowls. After filling the plate with flat bread, Twilight looked around the room for a spot to settle down, until she found a suitable spot near where Pearly Handle and Lex were chatting. “Hello!” Twilight said, sitting next to the two little little fillies, which were eating some soft mint-flavoured soft candies, and talking in-between each candy munching "What are you two talking about?" Lex turned around, a little smile on her face. "Books!" Pearly Handle slowly turned around, her face slightly red. "Y-yes, books... even if my daddy weads to me... I twied but can't." The mare smiled at the motherpearl-coloured filly's embarassment, and patted her head, before saying. "YOu still have time for learn how to read, Pearly. Anyway," Twilight took an interested stance, just in case of surprise in Lex's reading choices "what are you reading?" "Karw Chisew comes fwom Waw," stated the filly innocently. Twilight's eyes got a little bigger, and she turned slightly away. "Did you just said... 'Karl Chisel Comes Back from War'?" She asked to the little filly. The filly nodded, and Twilight, after yet another surge of surprise, sighed, and, faking a little smile, said. "Well, that's a pretty complex book. You know... for big ponies like me." "Dat is why I wead it!" She exclaiemd, excited, and clearly unable to read the discomfort of her favourite classmate. Twilight bitterly chuckled, before saying. "Well, that's very good, but.. I think there are better books for you," Twilight quickly thought about a reading that was both interesting, decently simple, and not too "mature", before finally finding a good book for Lex "maybe Porcus' 'Brief Mythological History of Litaly?' " "Bwef Mith-logical of Witaly?" Lex repeated slowly, her eyes squinted. "Yes, that," Twilight said quickly and clearly in embarassment. "Okie!" Lex said. Then, Twilight started to eat a piece of flatbread, and, while doing so, she thought. "Hopefully I've convinced her into chnaging the book. I think that she has a lot to learn, before reading about the adventures of a sex-crazed captain around Roostia. Also, begin originally in old Prench, it might be well beyond her abilities to understand what she is reading." That said, Twilight kept eating, as Lex returned to her conversation with Pearly. Naturally, Twilight could overhear the conversation. "She said 'wead the what-now' ?" Asked Pearly Handle. "'Bwef Mith-logicaw of Witaly,' dunno what is about." "Maybe... munstahts? Heawd dat 'mith-logic' means 'about munstas.'" Realizing that the conversation was heading into speculation, and since Twilight's did want to spoil the surprise, the purple mare got up, and started to eat flatbread while wandering around the room. Then, when Twilight walked near the couch, she felt something slightly pulling her tail. Turning around annoyed, she saw the wrinkly old mare, smelling of roses and medicines, actually pulling her tail, and wearing an inquisitive look. "So, iou are Twilaghtte Sparklè, righte?" Twilight stared dumbfonded, at the thick accent of the old mare, and, naturally, the mare did not take it well. "Icche c'è? Can iou not ùnderstande me?" Twilight, after some more silent thinking, finally understood both the previous and the current question asked by the blue mare. "Yes, I am Twilight SParkle and, yes, I'm sorry, but I can't understand you very well. What is your name, and why are you talking like that?" "Oimmena!" She exclaiemd, annoyed "So' Massarosina, the nanni of Lecse, do you not recognizze me?" "Well, no," Twilight said sheepisly, before getting her head back up again, an say a bit more assertively "but I had no way to say you were Massarosina, and not the grandma." Massarosina nodded and pointed her hoof. "Iou 'ave reahson, mi' error." "Anyway," she said "What do you wish from me?" Massarosina returned to her normal, calm-inducing, wrinkly face. "Vell, iou see, Lecs has bēn taken by the mad beo aboout iou. She réads tings like té versione integralle off 'Illiride' and 'Visconte Dimezzato.' Vas questioning iffe iou pus-shed her." Twilight's mind took a while in translating the words of the pidgin Equestrian that Massarosina was speaking now. "ugh, how does anypony understands her?" Twilight thought, as she still processed "Then, again, maybe the mother is from the same town of Massarosina, and she translates for her most of the time. Also, I still can make out something, with some effort..." Finally, after that struggle, the sentence made sense to Twilight, and she answered. "Well, not outright pushed her, but, yeah, encouraged." The old mare smiled. "Vell, ten, lette me tank iou: tàt figliola is gettinghe smarterre dai after dai. She àlmost k-nows moré tàn me!" Twilight, after few seconds of language processing, giggled. "Thank you." From the opposite side of the room, an excited shriek came. "Anypony fow da 'Bottwe Game'!?" Twilight and Massarosina turned around, and saw Orvosti putting a water bottle on the floor, while the foals gathered in a circle. "Oimmena, do not tell mé tei are going to broom between témselves!" Shrugging her shoulders, Twilight smiled a bit while walking towards the circle. “Meh, they’re all just little foals. They couldn’t think of much more than kissing or something." Massarosina,cafter a moment of confused silence, left her mouth open in sudden illumination, before closing it and nodding. Meanwhile, Twilight sat down in the circle, and waited the exposition of the rules from Orvosti... Apparently, according to Orvosti Ostoba, "The Bottle Game" was played like this: the spinner chose wheter ask a truth or propose a dare. Then the spinner spun the bottle, and then the pony pointed by the bottle's neck did or say what the spinner asked. And, surprisingly for foals of their age, they actually kept an order, by giving ghe ability to spin to the one that had previoslu done what had been requested. The highlights of this little game were that Bright Light was dared to wear two diapers at the same time and use them, Pearly Handle was forced by Olive to kiss Orvosti on the cheeck (and following cleaning ritual of Orvosti at the kiss), Olive was asked to drink as much fizzy drinks as he could, and Twilight was dared by Orvosti to wear a diaper, use it and enjoy "da gwon-up way." Surprisingly, there were adult diaper in Lex's house (according to Massarosina, it was because Lex was worried about the status of the bladder of her big friend). However, that was not the biggest surprise for Twilight: it was the idea of Orvosti knowing what a non-incontinent mare could do with a wet diaper. And that's why she was still awake long after everybody else at the party was asleep on the big inflatable mattress in the guest room. "How does he know that? He is a little colt, he cannot have possibily have learned that all alone." Twilight murmured to herself, watching Orvosti Ostoba, wearing a yellow pyjama brought from home and a peeking light blue diaper, while he was lightly snoring. "Somepony must have told him about that. But why do that? There is no pratical reason for tell a colt about female urine onanism, because he might start annoy his female peers." A mad idea hit Twilight's mind. "Wait, Orvosti is son of the Royal Judge. Maybe Princess Celestia asked his fahter to tell him about that, in the faint hope of..." Twilight facehoofed at herself. "No, Celestia isn't that insane, desperate, or stupid. She could not have done that. Then, again..." Twilight yawned and felt her eyelids getting heavy. "Maybe the night will bring me a solution," Twilight told to herself, while she closed her eyes "let's sleep now." > Giù negli Inferi, Su con gli Animi!/Down in the Underwordl, Up the Spirits! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The day after Lex's party at her house, and after a pretty normal day in Kindergarten, Twilight walked back home, where her father was waiting for at the lunch table. As Twilight sat on a padded red chair and Sedula brought the first course on the table, Night Light asked. "So, Twilight, my dear, how did the party go? And your day?" Twilight lend the dish towards Sedula, whom filled it with cream and peas maltagliati. "Really well, I have to say that," Twilight said "I actually had a lot of fun in staying around those foals." Night Light winced. "Really? Aehm..." "Yes, I know, I should not appreciate the same things they like, nor I should let my mind be shaped by their behavior, and I am aware that it may make look my efforts in the last days to resist Velvet pointless" Night Light's daughter said, as she slowly ate her food "however, for some reasons... I feel it's different, if they are involved. Maybe it's because, since they don't know better, you have to like that if you want them to be your friends, or maybe it's because they adore me and I want to make them happy by begin near them." Then Twilight added with a giggle "Also, their cheerfulness and view of the world warm my heart with cuteness." Night Light stared in shock. Twilight, with a bit of worry in her heart, started to shake her hoof in her father's face. "Father? There was no answer for few seconds. Then he reacted, by strongly shaking his head, and saying, disbelief in his voice. "You are telling me that you are starting to like to be in-between foals? And act like them?" Twilight shrugged her shoulders, as she finished her food. "Well, yes... while adult companionship is surely better, I am starting to don't mind the idea of going down the latter and enjoy theirs." Night Light looked around him, a look of utter disbelief and worry on his old face. "Excuse me," he said, as he hurried out of the room "I think I've heard one of my secretaries call me from the garden." Sedula Serva, without even batting an eye, looked at her master's confused daughter. "Shall I bring the salad for you, miss Twilight?" Sedula asked, while on the kitchen's door. "Yes, thank you very much." Twilight said dryly, as her mind chastised itself for what happened. "Should have see that coming, since he kicked out his wife for this. Then, again, I am not forcing anything on anypony... but still..." Ten minutes later, when Twilight's father calmed down he returned in the dining room an empty look on his face. "I am calm now, yes, I am," he said, as he breathed heavily and went back to his seat. "Sedula, proceed with the salad." "Right away sir!" Sedula said from the kitchen, as she add more vegetables to the mixture. As soon as Twilight got out of her thoughtd for concentrate on he father, she remembered a peculiar event that happened during the party. "Also..." The purple pony quickly realized the mistake she was going to do, by mentioning Orvosti Ostoba's masturbation dare at the party, and quickly siad. "Actually, nevermind." Her father said nothing, and just eat the salad silently, just like her tense daughter. The tension dissipated only when Night Light rose from the seat, and walked away outside towards his notarial studio. Left alone in the house with Sedula, Twilight idly walked towards the family library, and started to look for a book to read. "So, what what do we have here," she said, while she looked at the finely-engraved pinewood shelve containing the newer paperback books, near the door of the library. "Joe Landsdeal Apple antology..." She murmured to herself, while looking at the picture on the otherwise-red cover, representing a pack of cigarettes with arrow bolts contained in it "Not now." Twilight said, putting it back into place, and taking out a small green book with a grey gear in low relief on the cover. "Why Ming's 'Theory of the Democracy'... not in mood for politics right now." She said, quickly putting it back, before extracting a yellow book with a street light covered in blood as cover. "Camomilleri's 'The Web of the Whore Spider'... do I have really to think about it?" She said, hastily putting it back. Then Twilight looked at the rest of the shelve, only to see the latest medical and geographical atlas. Since she was not interested in them for now, she moved on to the next shelve, divided from the first by a small stone column. Also, those shelves had even finer carvings of blooming trees and flowers, and a bronze bust of Twilight's maternal grandfather stood proudly in a niche between the books. Twilight, after giving a quick look to the bust, went back to book-browsing. She took a book with a gray cover ruined to the point that it barely kept the book in and had its author's name scraped off, thus forcing Twilight to open the book delicatley and read a bit of thr yellowed pages, before judging whether read it or not. "Hemi Wingway's 'Farewell to Flight Shows.'" Twilight read in the preface. "Not very interesting," Twilight said to herself "but I should show this to Rainbow Dash someday, since it contains the history of the Wonderbolts. Who knows if that would be useful for her one day..." Then the purple pony put the book back. Scanning between the encyclopedias, Twilight passed in front of the bronze bust, and looked at thr reading possibilities kept around it. As she looked around, she saw that there was something looking like a file or a Bignami-like, hidden under the base of the bust. Noticing that, Twilight stopped her browsing for books. "Uhu?" Twilight murmured, while reclining her head "why there is a folder here? That is curious, very curious." "A folder for notary deeds?" Twilight told to herself "no, that can't be right. It's something else... but what? And am I really authorized to look inside? I think I should..." The other part of Twilight said annoyed. "For Celestia's sake, you are fully grown up now, you can look in it if you want to!" The purple pony liked those encouraging words from her other part. "I guess that see what is there by myself won't hurt me." Twilight said, as she slowly levitated in the air the bust, before carefully setting it on the floor, and taking the mysterious folder in her magical grip. The folder had been light green once, but now it was full of wet spots all over and a rectangular dirt stain on the place where the bust's base was. The red string that once kept the folder closed had rot on the extremities, leaving it hanging loose, and the stamp of House Velvet was fading into a red ink smear. "This folder... it looks really ancient," she said, opening the folder slowly like a chest full of relics, revealing the contenent inside... Crude drawings on yellowed paper and slightly faded photos. Twilight looked at the contents in disbelief. She would have dropped it, but she kept the grip in fear of destroying it accidentally. "W-what?" Twilight stuttered "o-old drawings? A-and photos?" After putting the folder on the poplar desk carefully, Twilight took one of the drawings and brought it to eye level. It represented a stick unicorn purple pony, clearly recognizable as a filly thanks to the size, frowning while four black and dark green ponies armed with syringes and knives surrounded her. The sight of made Twilight frown, and wince at the small flashbacks of fear and pain. The sight of made Twilight frown, and wince at the small flashbacks of fear and pain felt during that operation she had, at three years of age, for remove three big moles on her back, moles that menaced to turn into cancers very soon. Not that she knew anything about it, at the time: all she knew, was that she was forced to skip breakfast, dragged into hospital, brought in the Operating Room, received an injection, got her three moles cut off very painfully, and left for two days on a bed of hte hospital, still not knowing why all of that happened. She had been a traumatized by that incident, and the family legend said that she had stopped worrying about going back to hospital to repeat the experience only when she got her hooves on a medicine atlas five years later. Twilight hastily put it back in the folder for stop looking at it, and extracted a photo instead.    It was a faded photo that also had a coffee stain in the corner, but it was in good enough condition for tell what the subject was. Namely, it was a photo of Twilight sitting on the back of a bronze statue of a horse pharaoh at the entrance of a museum in Brilein. Twilight smiled at the picture of her younger self riding the statue.   However, when the purple pony tried to recall more precise memories of that time and when that happened, her mind went blank.    "Brilein... when I did went there as a little filly? I remember the time I went there alone for my Middle School Graduation..." Twilight concentrated, but she still did not remember anything about that time.   "Come on... Why I can't remember anything about the trip? My father always tells me that it was the first time I've started to read consistently and show my passion for books, I should remember some of it somehow." Twilight, dismissing it as just a lapse of memory, put an hoof under her chin, as she browsed with magic the drawings and photos contained in the worn-down folder. After a photo of a tiny gravestone, there was a crayon creation on old rice paper depicting a colorful classroom, with the words "First day of School!" dominating the higher part of the piece of paper. Behind this, there was a decent-looking pencil drawing of bat-winged, bull-horned or plainly beastly-looking ponies beating up a purple unicorn pony. Finally, behind this drawing, there was a photography of a metal shutter covered in graffitis, with the loosely-hanging cartel above the shutter stating "Orologiaio Lucchese&Sons" and a big piece of paper taped on the shutter stating "Closed for Investigations" and the gendarmerie's seal underneath. Twilight could remember very well the events attached to the gravestone and the demonic ponies, the death of her pet dog Helios and some bullies attacking her shortly after entering in Celestia's School respectively. However, the other photo and artistic creation had vague memoirs around them. "I can recall Helios, its death by poisoning, and the grief that strickened me shortly after as if it happened yesterday. I also remember perfectly those bullies, their names and families and the vexations suffed by their hoof," Twilight murmured to herself softly, as if she was reading an ancient book deep in the Royal Archives "but... this two events depicted here? The drawing has an obvious meaning and backstory, but it somehow it does not bring anything back to memory, despite begin mine. The photo... is cryptic, I recall this was owned by the father of one of my aggressors, but, aside from that, I remember nothing of it, nor why I took a picture of this." At this point, Twilight exclaimed to herself, realizing something. "I can recall only negative things from my past... from my Dark Ages... and yet I have the evidence of the contrary, but it's seemingly not backed by my mind. Maybe that's why I have called them Dark Ages, not too many years ago?" Twilight looked at the ceiling, thoughtful. "But what if that time of my life was not complete pain and suffering, and was actually pleasurable or, Tartarus, even joyful? Should I start to reconsider, to look for all the fragments of the times gone by, forgotten by me but not the ones that were at my side? And, if those won't be sufficent for me to have a clear and truthful picture of my past, or if he end results shows it was truly as bleak as I remember now, should I..." Twilight gasped at the idea she had just formulated in her mind. "Live it again with Lex and all your classmates?" Twilight shook her head violently, as if she was attacked by a rabid, nose-biting squirrel. "No, no, no! Don't fall back!" But the idea, the suggestion, still remained in her mind. Twilight lightly hit her head on one of the columns of the library a couple of times. But the crazy idea was still there. The purple pony painfully bit her lip, until a bit of blood was drawn. It worked: the idea withered away, as the pain on the tongue distracted her. With a sigh and a small spit of blood on one of the couches, Twilight collapsed on the floor, and whispered to herself. "That was very close." That begin said, Twilight got up, and put the bronze bust back into place. As she did that, she reconsidered her previosu reaction. "That idea por se may not be completely wrong, thought. I should start a little research about what happened in-between my birth and my first period, and see if I should look to my personal past as. I look it now or not." Twilight took a book with a simple white cover, the title written in black characters in a very baroque typeface. The book's name was "The Gothic War, by Porcus: Story of a Glaring Defeat." "But now let's relax with a nice reading." Twilight said, as she went in the living room with the book in her mouth, sat down on the one of the sofas, and read until sunset. And the Sun was slipped from beyond the mountains. Twilight was, once again, in the Kindergarten's class with all her little friends. Now, after the "Learning Time" about years and how to form dates, they were sitting in a circle, deciding what to play now. Since Twilight had no definite idea, she let her companions decide for her, and listened in the meanwhile to the various proposals. "Shaww we pway doctah?" Bright Light suggested, while bringing on a doctor playset. Pearly Handle looked away wincing, and said, while bringing on a kitchen playset, complete of plastic reproductions of foods and silverware. "No, no and no! Kitchen is!" Lex Populi brought on a book, five pieces of paper, and five crayons, and said. "Wat I am wistening to? Shoow iz beetah!" Then Orvosti Ostoba exclaimed. "How 'bout... man-stuwbation?" A chill passed down Twilight's spine. "Did he... no, there must be a misunderstanding here." She thought, worried. Twilight, wearing a large grin that tired to pass up as smile, looked at Orvosti, and asked, a hint of worry in her voice. "Masturbation? What is that about?" "Yeah, wat is tat?" Bright Light and Pearly Handle asked at the same time. With a voice that expressed excitement, lack of concern and non-understanding of the possibily horrible implications of what he was saying, the red colt with blue mane said. "Wike tis: it is game pwayed by toucing and twying pushing in vajina while having wet diapee. Goaw is push until you feew funny. Can be pwayed awone ow in two." When those words were spoken by Orvosti Ostoba, suddenly Twilight felt the class, the time and all matter stop still in that second. Her mind was warping unto itself, in the attempt to give an explanation to what Orvosti said. She flet htat her soul got tainted by simply hearing such a thing. "Yes, he mentioned this as euphemism during the party but... he didn't know what was that. He got fooled easily. However, now he knows, he knows..." Twilight thought, unable to think to a response to that "yes, basic sexual instincts are natural in foals, but this... this notion has been obviously been taught to him." A little poke on her flank brought Twilight to reality. Looking at the source of the poke, she saw Lex wearing a frown on her face. "You awwrigh, Tiligh?" Twilight took two deep breaths, before answering. "Yes, I'm fine... but Orvosti upset me a little." Lex looked sideways at her "big friend" and honorary sister. "Why?" Twilight lowered her ears, sighed, and said. "Because the game described by him is..." Twilight tired to find the words for explain to Lex without either begin too obscure, or causing her to become curious of the whole thing before the time. After few seconds of thoughtful and tense silence, Twilight kept going "a very, very 'grown up game' that fillies should not play." Lex, like the curious little monkey filly she was, asked, once again "Why?" "Because it is something you should play alone. Also, it is something that you and him were not supposed to know in the first place." Twilight said, her explanation for why Lex was not supposed to know clearly incomplete. For an adult, at least, because Lex instantaneity lowered her ears and looked at the ground. "I am in twoubwe?" She asked with an adorably contrite voice. Twilight smiled, happy that she did not have Lex's "sped-up forbidden knowledge" on her conscience, but still worried about Orvosti's status. "As long you don't do it, you are not in trouble, my dear Lexy." When Twilight looked at the circle again, she saw Pearly Handle wearing a face that was between the disgusted and the shocked, and the two colts arguing. "I touc Pewly!" Shouted Orvosti. "No, she not want!" Said Bright Light, pressing his green muzzle against Orvosti's red one. "No, I touc!" "No! No touc!" At this point, Orvosti had a magic surge that briefly levitated Bright light in the air, before slamming on the floor in a relatively violent way. Bright Light, begin a little colt, started to tear up, before erupting in a little cry of both pain and frustration, while Orvosti walked towards a frozen Pearly Handle, and Lex flailed around in the attempt to call either Lux or Nutriz. Twilight, at this point decided that it was time to intervene. Looking behind her, the purple pony saw Lux Foal coming in her direction, a stern look already on her face. Twilight quickly decided to keep Orvosti in the spot he was currently in with her magic, hopefully avoiding more unwanted chaos. The little colt, seeing his hooves blocked, tried to free himself by moving around his hooves, until the teacher arrived, at which point he froze in fear, and Twilight dropped the grip on his legs. "What happened here?" Lux asked. Bright Light, seeing that help had arrived, rose his head, turned to the teacher and, while sobbing, he said. "Tere was Owosti trying to man-stuwbate Peawly, but she no wanted." Lux winced a bit, then glared at Orvosti. "What do have to say about that, Orvosti?" The red colt flailed around furiously, as he spurted. "Wies! She wanted, she asked wat was man-stuwbation, and I was showing." Lux raised an eyebrow, before turning to Pearly. "Pearly, is that true?" "No!" She shouted. Lux quickly returned her eyes on Orvosti and, after glaring at him, she picked him up with her magic, and said, slight fury in her voice. "That was, really, really rude and naughty, Orvosti. Off to the Time-out corner and a spanking!" Then she brougth the squealing and struggling colt outside the class into the smaller and darker room that Twilight dubbed "The Pain Room." Once Lux and Orvosti were out of sight, Twilight sighed of relief. "Hopefully that will teach him a lesson for now and the future," she siad to herself, as hse watched a blushing and red-eyed Bright Light getting hugged by Pearly Handle "but now let's move on." "Yeah," Lex said, as she brought some blocks to play with "wet us go on." Few minutes after, everybody involved had already forgot about the incident. Everybody, except Twilight. As she played school with her classmates, the mare could not help, but wander on about what happened before. "How he does know that? Again, he could have figured that out all one. Somebody has to have taught him how to, or..." Twilight shuddered at the very thought of the assumption, before realizing something "but he said that mansturbation required a wet diaper to be done. Either his mother needs to wear them for medical reasons, or he isn't a tainted lily and I am just making unfair assumptions about his family." As she said that, she glanced on her right. There, she saw Orvosti, now wearing a black diaper under his standard-issue smock, talking with a dark purple filly, her name Mazamara. From what Twilight could tell, the filly was listening interested to the colt. Curious about what was going on, Twilight slowly moved herself towards the two (and thus begin followed by her "students) so to eversordrop the conversation. "Ah, I see, big fiwwies do tis" Mazamara said, while keeping a hoof under her chin "show me, pwetty pwease?" Orvosti nodded eagerly. "Suwe! Fiwst, did you wet youw diapee?" The filly touched the front of her diaper, which produced a telltale squishing sound. At this point, Twilight was alarmed, and wanted to look away, but could not. "Yep, wat now?" Said the purple filly. "Now, want me to man-stuwbate you, or want awone?" "Man-stuwbate me." Then Orvosti approached Mazamara, and started to touch the front part of her diaper. Like Julienne Caesar when he was murdered by his son Violent, Twilight put the smock over her eyes, and looked away. "Oh Celestia, oh Celestia, what is happening? What happened? O Tempora, O Mores!" > Anabasis > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The moment of disturb by Twilight was not lost on the foals, who asked, almost at the unison, “Wat is da problem, Tiligh?” Twilight, hearing these words, immediately realized what she had just done in front of her classmates, slowly got the smock over her eyes, put up a small, forced smile on her face, and said, “N-nothing, really...” Twilight sighed, as she tried to suppress the vision. “Let’s move on.” The foals looked at each other, silent and confused. Then Bright Light stood up, his hoof raised. “But... you looked like you saw a munstaw.” For a second, Twilight was going to tell him to shut up and think nothing of it. However, something clicked in her head, about the whole situation and how to explain it to the foals, and she turned around, talking a solemn voice. “Yes… I have seen a monster… An invisible one, one that appears when you least expect it.” The foals reclined their heads and squinted their eyes while wearing a little frown. “You see, this monster is called ‘Poulastry. It’s a terrible beast that turns fillies and colts into adults, and most adults into uncontrollable beasts trying to turn other foals into adults.” Lex weakly raised her hoof, and said, “And so?” Twilight slightly blushed at the little detail she forgot. “But it doesn’t make you an adult in a good way. It makes you one in a bad way. A very, very bad way. The foal looked at each other in confusion, before Bright gulped. “There’s a bad way to become aduwts?” Twilight nodded, her expression firm. “That’s right. And those that are made adults that way can become very bad ponies.” All of them hunched down, fear in their little eyes, . Lex even scooted closer to the mare and hugged her leg. “I-I don’t wanna be a bad pony!” Twilight smiled and nuzzled the little unicorn. “Don’t worry. As long as you don’t do what Orvosti is doing right now, you never will.” Lex looked up at Twilight, her eyes shining with worry, but the want to believe. “Pwomise?” “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight went through the motions, relaxing Lex. A groan of lustful pleasure that was rather uncomfortable to hear came from Mazamara, causing Twilight’s attention to return to the matter at hoof, and, doing her best not to shudder at the source of the moan, and instead take a good look at what was happening. Namely, Mazamara was pushing up and down, her hoof deep on the front of her diaper, emitting said disturbing moans in the process. Nearby, a light red filly with rust red mane was following with her eyes Orvosti’s gestures, which, judging where he was doing them, seemed to mimic the movements needed for “do the dirty deed” properly. Twilight stared at the scene for few seconds without blinking, before shaking her head with a shudder and turning to the more pleasant sight of the terrified foals. Then an idea appeared in Twilight’s mind. “Now,” Twilight said, turning to Lux’s desk, where the said mare had still yet to notice what was going on, “I need to speak with the teacher about something. I will be back shortly, okay?” Lex dropped the grip on Twilight, and said “Okay, Tiligh,” before going back to the group, which was quivering and talking at each other fearfully, likely at the idea of begin less-than-perfect foals. As soon as she was near to the desk, Lux raised her head from the papers, and asked “Yes, Twilight?” “Eerr…” Twilight bit her lip and lowered her ears “Orvosti Ostoba is… is…” Lux cancelled her serene smile, and wrinkled her face. “He is doing what?” Twilight looked at the floor. “He is… teaching masturbation to Mazamara and the other fillies…“ The teacher’s eyes expressed abject horror at Twilight’s words, and with her teeth she bit her lips. “Did… did I just heard that right, Twilight?’” Lux asked, her tone expressing concern. Twilight nodded slowly. The teacher put her left hoof on her mouth for a brief second, before taking a deep breath. “This… this is really bothersome and frankly disturbing,” Lux said, trying to control her current emotional state“I shall speak to his parents. Hopefully they will have an explanation for it.” Twilight nervously nodded. “Yes… I guess and hope… but what about now?” Lux sighed. “Let me deal with this,” she said, while getting up, and walking towards Orvosti and Mazamara. Due to her curiosity, Twilight followed the teacher, and started to listen to what she was saying to the two foals. “Orvosti,” Lux said seriously, tapping the shoulder of the colt “I have to speka to you for a moment.” Orvosti Ostoba turned around, his eyes wide, and his back already bent forward into submission. “Wat do you want, Miss Lux?” Lux Foal made eye contact with the student by lowering herself to ground level. “I want you to ask you a simple question, at which you must answer thruthfully,” Orvosti gulped and Lux took a heavy breath. "Where did you learn about it?" The colt quivered slightly. "A-about man-stuwbation?" The teacher silently and gravely nodded, causing Orvosti to look around him for escape routes, and answering only when he seemingly didn’t find any. “M-mommy. She teach me how to man-stuwbate, tewwing me to teach it to da otews and Twilight.” Just like Lux Foal, Twilight recoiled at the mention of her name in the same sentence that stated who told Orvosti about onanism. “Are you telling me the truth?” The teacher said a little distressed by the words of the little colt, and, naturally, the latter felt almost the same, since, with some tears in his eyes, he said. “Y-yes… am I in trouble?” Lux shook her head, as she walked away back to the desk. “No, you are not. If what you say is true, your mommy is.” “Why?” Lux turned around, and, walking back to the colt, he raised his chin with her left hoof. “Because it’s not something that fillies and colt of your age should do. It’s a grown-up thing, that other grown-ups can get in trouble for, if they share it with foals. Also, stop doing it, or you will still get a punishment.” Then she left an afriad Orvosti behind again. Said colt quickly hurried to the two fillies, trying to get them to stop masturbating carelessly. Twilight stared at the colt for a bit, her mouth agape, before closing said mouth. “Let’s get back to Lex and friends,” she said to herself with a sigh “It might be a good way to distract myself from that horrible notion Orvosti implied.” That said, Twilight walked back to Lex, who was talking to her other friends. “Hopefully they are calm now.” Twilight murmured to herself “I don’t want to dwell on that colt’s actions anymore for a while.” As Twilight got near, Lex interrupted her conversation, turned around, and asked. “Soo… what now, Tiligh?” With a forced little smile on her face, Twilight let out a sigh and said. “Resume playing? What do you think about that?” Lex nodded and, after soem brief moments of consultation, the other foals agreed. After some time passed into playing games, there was the familiar clap from Lux Foal. As soon as the clap was hear, the colts and fillies of the classroom walked up to the teacher and formed a line. Twilight let out a sigh, as she got up, and got in line like all her classmates, and walked down the colorful hallways, her midn attempting to suppress what hse had jsut seen by concentrating on the flashcards hanging on the walls instead. However, her midn kept recalling the events of that morning, and the sight of those flashcards, whiel eye-soothing, was not a strong enough brain bleach. Once the class was nearby the bathroom's door, Lux Foal said. “If you need a diaper change, raise your hoof and come over here!” Like a group of obedient little soldiers, the colts and fillies needing a diaper change riased their hooves, before wlaking over to the teacher. Until there, onthign surprising. However, Twilight noticed the absence of a certain pink little filly, in the midst of the foals going with Nutriz. “Tiligh! Wook! I am not wet!” The voice of Lex resonated in Twilight’s ears, and, when Twilgiht turned around, she saw Lex Populi standing behind her, her chest slightly inflated, her smile extending from ear to ear and her eyes slightly squinting in the lower part. Twilight looked over what little she could see from udner the smock, and saw that, indeed, Lex’s diaper was barely visible, unlike the other times, when it was more visible due to wetness and poop. Twilight smiled at Lex, and said, with some exaggerated pride in her voice. “Very good Lex! You are improving!” That said, she ruffed Lex’s mane a bit “Keep it up, and you will be out of diapers soon!” Lex let out a delighted squeal, as Nutriz herded the colts and fillies into the bathroom , where Nutriz divided the little horde into two groups, one of ten foals and the other of seven, and ordered the first ten to get into the stalls. Since they were in the same group, Lex whispered to Twilight “Potty near me, pwetty pwease?” “Sure!” Twilight said to her little friend, as she went in the stall right next Lex’s, and squatted over the toilet’s hole. As she did that, Nutriz went in each stall, and helped the foals in either taping their diaper off, or pull down the pull ups, and also helped them to get in the correct spot of the toilet. Only when everybody was ready Nutriz said the words. “Okay, go on.” Nature took it’s messy and loud course, as the colts and fillies relieved themselves at the unison, shouting a “Done!” whenever they felt empty, and trying to clean themselves up with the help of the teacher shortly after that. As one foal flushed the toilet and left the stall, another one from the other group entered and did his business, ensuing that, in the timeframe of five minutes, everybody was done, clean, and ready to go back to the classroom. Lex, once she had wiped her bum, and once Twilight was also done with her corporal functions, went at her side, following her back ot the classroom almost as if she was glued to her honorary big sister. Once the foals were back in the class, they were given some liberty, while Lux went to take some art supplies for Art Time. When she was back in the class, Nutriz decided to start to organize, as usual, a big table in the center of the room for Art Time. As per usual, groups were formed only after a lot of encouraging form the teachers and the smartest foals, but they were ultimately done in a decent amount of time. “Listen up class!” Nutriz said with verve, while Lux Foal went to the blackboard, scribbling and sketching. “We have been selected for a competition between other classes and kindergartens…” Twilight could only giggle, when the foals exploded into a choir of approval and interest, and Lux, stopping her drawing for a bit, hushed the foals up with just her left hoof and a hiss. “Anyways,” Nutriz continued, when the calm was restored and Lux had gone to take the supplies, as she pointed at the blackboard “it’s a drawing and storytelling competition, where we must create a story together, and illustrate it! Today, for this Art Time, I ask you to draw up a prompt, a incipit, to the story we are going to make. At the end of the Art Time, before going in the yard, you will vote for the one you like the most.” As soon as the teacher said those last words, Lux came back with twenty-four boxes of pencils and piles upon piles of blank sheets of paper. Lux distributed all of these to the foals, which immediately started to draw, but without actually consulting with each other. And, despite Twilight’s best efforts, at first the group of the mare acted the same way, leaving Twilight and Lex alone in their endeavour for a decent theme of choice, but Twilight managed in the end to tame the foals and get them to cooperate. After the passing of an hour, Nutriz clapped her hooves, while Lux collected the drawings for the vote. > Katabasis > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everybody in the class was eagerly awaiting to see what their groups had created, and if their work was better than the others’, and Twilight was no exception, because she whispered, "Come on, let the winner be about my old life before the start of this punishment, make it so, make it so..."  to herself, while the teacher gave a quick look to all the drawings given by the groups.   Suddenly Nutriz took five drawings, and, holding them up high in the air, she announced, "Here's the creation of Sha Màt, Sitòn Ligostos, Hard Time and Simplicius. It's about the Time of Legends!"   Every colt and filly in the class squinted their eyes to look at the five drawings that Nutriz was holding up, and Twilight followed suit.   The drawings were pretty crude, even for a kindergartener, featuring bodies shaped like octagons and hooves that spiralled over themselves. As for the subject por se, the drawings represented the main mythological events regarding the creation of the world, from how the earth and sky were formed, to how the seasons were born and then tamed by ponies.   The drawings specifically represented the Cosmic Egg as a literal egg, with a Cosmic Hen brooding its egg. There was the stylized representation of the giant pony Protòs separating earth and sky with a hind legs kick. And, finally, there was the representation of five unicorns raising the Sun for the first time, at least, as intention, since the drawing made it so that the unicorns looked constipated and in desperate need to be emptied like vacuum bags. Twilight winced in disgust at each and every one of them, muttering under her breath,   "There is no chance in Equestria THAT is going to receive any vote from anypony but the makers." Then Twilight turned to her little companions.“Am I right?”   Lex Populi and Pearly Handle were too busy looking at the drawings with squinted eyes and frowns to answer Twilight, while Bright Light was smirking.   “Not gunna win,” he said “Hawd Time’s dwawings are bad.”   “Indeed, Bright,” Twilight said while nodding and turning around. “Indeed.”   From her position, Twilight could see that the rest of the class' reaction was pretty much the same, with some foals claiming (in a low voice) that the drawings were ugly, some staring confused at them, and others too adsorbed into hoping to win to care about the current candidate.   "Now that you have seen it, how many like this? In that case, raise your hoof."   There was a lot of snickering and muffled giggles, but there was no raised hoof, aside from Hard Time’s group, all of whom save Hard Time were taking notice of the other foals’ reactions.   Nutriz shrugged, as she put the five drawings back on the pile. "I guess that it didn't inspire you too much," the teacher said, as she took another five drawings.   "Next up, Quarter Note, Voi, Ermerald Spoonful, Ruby Glasses, and Turrita. Their creation is about the great cities of Equestria!"   Nutriz held high the five drawings, each and every one of them representing the major landmarks of each city, like Canterlot’s Royal Palace, the Fatherland’s Altar and the Walls in Romea, the She Wolves’ Tolerance House in Trottingham and the Zarathustenschloß in Kölloren. While the first building's architecture was botched in the drawing, making the building appear less tall than the houses surrounding it and changing its style from Romean to a very crude Gothic, the other drawings were fairly correct and proportionate for ponies of that age.   “Uuuh… Celestia, those are good,” Twilight thought, while looking at the creations. “Sometimes I ask myself if this class is full of precocious foals, but whatever. The drawings are pretty cool, so I will give them credit for these.” Then she turned around towards her classmates “What do you think about them?”   “Buiwdings? How Booo-wiiing….” Lex commented, while she rolled her eyes and averted her eyes from the drawings to look at the ceiling.   “Shà Mat has luvs ‘awtitetture’, dunno why,” Bright Light scoffed. “It just sounds bowing to me…”   After giving a little glare to the colt, Twilight turned to the last one of her group, Pearly Handle, who was looking at the drawings with interest, giving only one comment. “Pwetty!”   Glad of Pearly’s appreciation, Twilight turned towards the rest of the class, which was arguing chaotically whether Shat Mat’s group creation was worthy of being submitted to the contest or not, each foal arguing with the other nearby and trying their best to prove their point to the other.   Lux Foal, apparently not appreciating the atmosphere of debate that was born in the classroom, hushed the foals with a loud hiss and some verbal invitation to stop it and let Nutriz announce the vote.   As the foals shut up, Nutriz cleared her throat, and then asked, “So, how many for this? Again, raise your hooves for vote.”   Twilight and Pearly immediately rose their hooves, along with the creators and another three foals.   ”Alright,” Lux said, as she scribbled the number of votes on the blackboard. “That’s nine votes for Great Cities as the theme for our project!”   Meanwhile Nutriz put away those five drawings, to takeout another five from the pile.   “The next drawings are of Orvosti Ostoba, Mazamara, Rusty Plate and Olive Oil. They are about...” Nutriz put the drawings closer to her eyes, before blushing and saying, “Eeer… the games Grown-ups play.”   Twilight, after hearing that title, moved her head forward closer, curiosity about the title moving her motives.   One of the drawings represented a dark gray pony with rum bottle levitating it over his mouth and spilling the liquid inside his mouth and on his fur. Even from that distance, Twilight could see that there were wobbly lines around the pony’s legs as manner to express inebriation. Twilight wavered a bit at the sight.   The second drawing had as subject a dark red stallion with a long brown ratty mane wearing a nurse cap and using a syringe on one of his arms. Twilight’s eyes got wider, and her heart started to pound in her chest faster.   The third one had a green mare with a long bronze mane hugging a light brown stallion while lying on a bed. Judging from how the mare was dressed and the expression drawn, Twilight could tell she was not exactly just hugging the stallion, nor she was doing it with her husband, making Twilight wince.   However, the art piece that got the biggest reaction out of Twilight and the foals was one with Princess Celestia sitting down in a diaper, which Twilight could tell was supposed to be wet thanks to a yellow stain, and a stallion pressing against the wet spot of the diaper. Even from that distance, Twilight could tell that Celestia’s face was scrunched up from the pleasure, meaning one thing only...   Since she was concerned and horrified, Twilight frowned and murmured.   "Sweet Luna! What kind of life do those foals live!? Who lets their foal see them have sex, and does not even try to explain it or cover it up? What kind of parents have the foals depicting a drunkard and a drug addict? Sure, they seemingly don't understand it, but that doesn't make it any less..."   Twilight let out a groan, before getting hit by a thought about the last drawing "Wait... Celestia, in a wet diaper, probably getting masturbated by a stallion? Is... no, no, I  can't believe it..."   Twilight looked at the ceiling with her mouth agape, unable to say anything, as her mind was trying to deal with the aftershock of her discovery and implications of the drawing representing Princess Celestia in a diaper.   At the sight of her big friend going catatonic, and after giving a look at the drawings submitted, Lex Populi jumped on the table, and pointed at the drawing depicting Princess Celestia in a diaper.   Twilight felt something poking her flank repeatedly, and asking her "Why awe you wike tis, Tiligh?"   The mare blinked several times, before she could look at the source of the voice, and saw Pearly Handle and Bright Light looking at her worriedly, and Lex Populi not too far away looking at the drawings and shouting "Man-stuwbation? Wit Cewestia? No possible!"   Twilight touched her forehead while bending over, murmuring. "Celestia in a diaper... getting masturbated... no, it must... no, it can't be a coincidence, after all, why would he... but..."   Twilight stopped ranting only when Bright Light, with all his might, slapped Twilight's face, saying, "Wake, Twi! Teww me wat is da issu! I can hewp you!"   Twilight shook her head violently, before rubbing the zone hit by the little colt.   "Bwigt!" Pearly scolded her classmate and walked near Twilight "Twi is dazzed! Be nice! Wike dis."   After saying that, the filly started to pet Twilight's mane. This action slowly relaxed Twilight's nerves, and made her slowly get back to reality, until she felt completely restored in her faculties.   "Thank you," Twilight said with a sigh. "I think I was in need of that. Thank you very much, Pearly."   The filly let out a squeak and stopped petting, and Bright Light decided to go on and ask again his question. "Wat is da issu, da probwem?"   Twilight sighed. "Remember Orvosti and what he was doing an hour ago?"   Bright Light nodded while frowning a little.   "Well, he represented Princess Celestia masturbating, and I thought that... ahem..."   "Wat?" BIrght Light said, as he rushed back to the table. "Must see!"   Twilight sighed, and followed him to the table, where she pointed at the incriminated drawing.   "See that one on the far left?"   Bright Light nodded, as he squinted his eyes.   "That's the one that bothered me."   The colt stared at it, then shrugged. "I dunno why dat’s a pwoblem."   Twilight was going to say something to the colt, but she shut herself up at the last minute, fearing that explaining it was going to be ruinous.   After that, the purple mare gave a look at what the teachers were doing, and she saw Lux Foal glaring at Nutriz, after face hoofing clearly  over the stupid error done by her colleague, and after hastily putting the drawings in the pile, she went on to shut the foals up with hissing and a couple of well-placed slaps.   Once silence was re-established and the foals were calm once again, Nutriz took more of the drawings in the pile, and said, "Well, let's say these didn't exist and move on. Next up... Twilight Sparkle, Lex Populi, Bright Light and Pearly Handle's work about... Twilight's adventures."   Then the teacher held up high the five drawings created by the combined efforts of Twilight and her little friends. The first drawing depicted Twilight with the other Elements Bearers with the title of the theme being held up by Pinkie Pie. Twilight, temporarily forgetful of her previous issue, smiled proudly at her creation or, better yet, at her sketch colored by her companions.   The other two drawings represented the defeat of Nightmare Moon and Discord. Originally Twilight was going to let the foals do that, but, when she saw how the foals thought Nightmare Moon and Discord were (a heavily-armoured warlord with a taste for dark-themed things and for foal flesh and a brown blob with tentacles respectively), she decided to sketch them too, and let the foals color up.   The last drawing had no intervention whatsoever from Twilight’s part, aside from her telling a censored version of her story so far, and it showed, because the art piece looked like an actual artistic creation of Kindergarteners. The drawing, representing a curled-up Twilight begin pointed by a much larger, faceless pony supposed to be the teacher, was cruder than the rest, with many proportion errors and random shading in places.   As Twilight bit her lip, Pearly Handle shook in anticipation, while Lex Populi and Bright Light flailed their little hooves around, shrieking, “Vote me! Vote me!”   The rest of the class, once again, was discussing on the pros and cons of picking that particular topic and if the drawings were a good enough start.   “Now that you have discussed,” Nutriz proclaimed as Lux hushed the foals up, “let’s vote!”   Twilight, Pearly, Lex and Bright Light raised their hooves along with other five foals, while the rest of the class remained with their hooves down.   Lux Foal wrote down the number of votes on the blackboard, as Nutriz set the drawings back into the pile, saying, “It’s a draw so far! Let’s see if the next one will be the winner!”   Then Nutriz proceeded to take out the five drawings. “These ones were made by Skydiver, Kurika, Vitriol Ink and Cobalt Arrow and it’s about… the equine body!”   As per procedure, Nutriz levitated the drawings high in the air, so that all the class could see them.   Twilight looked at them, and, for the first time that day, she felt stunned in a positive way. All the five drawings were near-perfect reproductions of  an apparatus of the pony body, and they were drawn so well, that Twilight thought the colts had traced it all from an actual anatomy book, instead of using their memory or even taking guesses.   The rest of the class was equally impressed so, with a collective hoof-raising, all the foals voted for the idea coming from Skydiver’s group, and with a loud cheer at that.   “Well, that was a plebiscite! Equine Body it is!” Nutriz proclaimed, as she clapped her front hooves “Congratulations, Skydiver, Kurika, Cobalt Arrow and Vitriol Ink! You have made it!”   The four little ponies, naturally, rose up on the table and inflated their little chests, as the rest of the class repeated their cheer for them.   When said cheer died down, Lux Foal said, “And now, let’s go all outside!”   Naturally, the foals formed an ordinated but vibrating line, and followed their teachers to the yard.   Once Nutriz and Lux had gotten all the foals ready, they went out and the foals started enjoying playtime on the playground equipment.   Twilight herself stayed with Lex, Pearly and Bright and they all went to sit on a bench. While Twilight could tell they all were eager to go running around and play like the foals they were, she could also tell that, even though they had all voted for Skydiver, Kurika, Cobalt Arrow and Vitriol Ink’s drawings, they still felt sore about losing. “So, Tiligh?” Lex asked, looking up at the pony she now saw as her big sister. “What’s gonna happen now?”   Twilight blinked, not sure what the little filly meant. “What do you mean, Lexy?”   Lex looked down, a slightly sad look coming across her little face. “Awe you gunna stay?”   Again, Twilight felt confused, before she udnerstood , and had to stop herself from facehoofing. Lex was talking about after the term was over.   Twilight tried her best to wear a warm smile. “I’ll be heading back to my acutal home in Ponyville.”   Tears welled in Lex’s eyes and trickled down her muzzle.   Twilight leaned forward and nuzzled her, to which the filly responded by wrapping her forelegs around the purple mare’s neck.   “I dun wan you ta go,” she sniffled into her fur.   Twilight felt a few tears forming in her eyes. She really had become attached to Lex, as if she really was the filly’s older sister. "Is this how Rainbow Dash felt about Scootaloo, and how Rarity and Applejack feel about their own sisters?" Twilight wondered, as she returned Lex’s hug, cooing to her in a comforting way she could vaguely remember her mother doing when she was little, and that Always worked in making her feel better.   “I will still come for visits,” she whispered, gently stroking the filly’s mane. “And maybe your mother will bring you to Ponyville sometimes. I’d love for you to visit.”   Lex sniffed a bit of snot back up her nose, and looked up at her with hopeful eyes. “Pwomise?”   Twilight winked, pulled back and began the usual motions. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”   After this Lex cheered up immensly and went to play near the swings, leaving Twilight smiling form the bench alone. The mare couldn’t help but think what had made the young filly think about that in the first place. "Was it because of the pictures and they’d made her think about what I would do after I will leave?" She thought "Well, makes sense. That was my adult before the punishment, and she thinks that, once all of this is over, I will forget about her." Twilight smiled a little more, before getting up and following Lex. "But I will never forget a second of the time spent toghter with her, even when the Princess Celestia will relieve me from my punishment and let me back in Ponyville. Yes, there are parts I'd wish to forget" Twilight groaned a little to the flashbacks of her crazy mother "but her? She was too supportive and kind with me for just dismiss her once all of this is over. Albeit young, she is one of my friends now, and she seesme as her big sister, and I woudl not trade her for anything, not even get Celestia's forgiveness this instant." As Twilight rose her head and saw a smiling Lex pointign at the swings, a little illumination came to Twilight. "She reminds me so much of the bond I had with Princess Celestia when I was jsut a little bit older than her... true, it woudl be easier for both of us cut this bond, but it's too precious for me now to do so."   Smiling at the thoughts of that, she, Lex and the others proceeded enjoy their time outside.       As the mare and foals headed towards the playground, Celestia, disguised as a simple unicorn mare with a white coat and blue mane watched, her eyes misty and a littlejoyful sobing.   She hadn’t expected to see that scene between Twilight and the little filly that had become so close to her. She knew they were close, but she hadn’t expected it to be that close. They were like sisters, caring for one another and happy whenever the other was around.   She closed her eyes, wearing a warm smile. “Good work, my faithful student,” she whispered, “Good work.”   Suddenly, Princess Celestia heard he sound of squeaky wheels behind her, and she turned around. "I hope that my son is doing well," said a skinny light red mare with a spiky white and orange mane, while she trotted aided by a wheelchair. Princess Celestia could recognize the mare as the mother of Orvosti Ostoba, who Celestia had chosen as the foal that was going to make Twilight more willing to undergo regression. Princess Celestia decided to keep her disguise up for a bit longer, and moved away, so to let the mare look beyond the fence from the hole in the bushes, thus avoiding that Celestia coudl be seen. The mare in a wheelchair set herself near the hole, and looked intently in it. Seeing that Orvosti's motehr was too busy, Celestia sighed, and lit up her horn, so to teleport away from there in a flash of light. As Celestia teleproted away the mare muttered "I hope that he has done his duty well, otherwise, his dinner and his toys may be at risk..."     > Manichei e Maniaci/ Messalians and Messed Ups. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time flew, as Twilight ran around chasing foals, using the playground equipment at her best and overall enjoying her time outside with her little classmates. Alas, that time had to end with the ringing sound of the bell.                  The two teachers immediately accompanied the foals to the exit gates, where the parents were eagerly awaiting for their offspring to come back to them and bring them home.                  "Bye bye, sistah Tilight," Lex Populi said, as she sped off to her mother.                  "Bye Lexy, see you tomorrow!" Twilight said, as she waved towards her honorary little sister, and towards the other members of her Group, who however did not answer due to their inability to see Twilight from their positions.                  As Twilight went on her merry way towards home, she saw a wheelchaired mare in the crowd tending her hoof towards Orvosti Ostoba, shortly followed by Nutriz. Twilight was going to ignore that sight, until…                  "Wait a minute," she thought "Orvosti said his mother taught him to do that. Now that Nutriz is talking with Orvosti's mother, I should get there, and see what is her justification, and give my witness if needed..."                  And so Twilight walked towards the two mares and the little colt.                  "Ma'am Arma, there is something we must discuss about your son..."                  "What's that? Did he try to glue one of his classmates to the wall again?" Arma Smussata said with a scornful tone, after letting out a little snort and rolling her eyes. Also, those words made Orvosti quiver a little.                  "Actually no," Nutriz said gravely. "Today, during Playtime, he tried to... it is difficult to say..."                  Lux Foal took a deep breath, and Twilight tried to guess the teacher's words by whispering them.                  "Constantly trying to masturbate one of the fillies."                  Arma Smussata's attitude changed in a whim, making her ears perk up, pupils shrink, and her whole body recoil.                  "Say what?" The shock could be heard from Arma's words. However, Twilight could feel it was not the kind of shock she expected to see from Arma at the news.                  "There is no easy way to say this... your son has tried to masturbate one of the fillies of his class," Nutriz said a bit hesitantly.                  "Elysium, this is... horrible!" Arma Smussata said while still recoiling and blushing a little. "Don't worry; I can assure you I will have a nice talk with him about this..."                  That said, Arma Smussata grabbed her son by one hoof, and dragged him away. As he was dragged away, Orvosti started to tremble and his eyes to water up.                  Seeing that the issue got resolved quickly, Twilight sighed and walked away towards her home.                  "Orvosti's mother’s behaviour was a bit strange," she whispered to herself. "Then again, I don't know the standard reaction to such news, so I guess that it was a normal reaction."                  Twilight idly enjoying the warm weather as she trotted down the street towards her house. Upon arriving she entered the kitchen getting quick glass of water.  As she took a glance about the room she saw a note on the table from her father stating “Be back by dinner.”                  After reading the note, Twilight went up the stairs to the bathroom and removed her smock and diaper.  Relieved to feel normal again, she look a out of the window, watching a nest of birds in a nearby tree, and what neighbouring ponies did in their gardens. Some minutes of watching, she came at a simple decision.         “You know what? I think I will have a walk in the park after eating something here."                  Twilight went downstairs to the dining room.  Sedula had just brought in the table cloth and the cutlery. Seeing that the table was not yet made Twilight looked at her and asked.                  "Why are you setting the table only now, Sedula?"                  The gray servant mare put down the tablecloth, flattening it out before laying the dish and the cutlery in their places.                  "I thought that today you were eating at the Kindergarten, and since your father left, I didn't set the table. I'm sorry for that, I didn't even start to cook any food!"                  "It's fine Sedula," Twilight said with a sigh, "I actually wanted to go out now. I will eat outside the house. I will be back in a while."                  Sedula Serva, with a nod, immediately brought away the cloth, cutlery and dish. Meanwhile, Twilight went to her room to take some money from a miniature safe sitting ontop of her room's desk. That done, she set herself on the way to the nearest sandwich shop.                                    One hour, twenty minutes and five bits later, Twilight was sitting on a bench, looking up at the sky while eating the last bite of a mushroom and feta flatbread. The sky had a few straggler clouds, but other than that, it was a perfect clear day, the kind she hadn’t been able to enjoy when her mother was—                  “No, Twilight,” she thought sternly, giving her head a shake, as she gulped the last bite “Stop thinking about that, you aren’t being held by your mother’s crazy delusions anymore. Just focus on the here and now and make it through the rest of your time dealing with Princess Celestia's punishment.”                  Sighing, she took another glance up at the clouds. The blue made her feel so at ease and calm. It reminded her of that blanky she’d had when she was a little filly. She’d loved that blanky like it was—                  Twilight shook her head again.                  "Why am I remembering about that right now? Why do I keep going back to thinking about my foalhood and its objects?"                  Twilight thought about it for a few minutes staring at a cloud that looked lik                  "Maybe if I have a walk my mind will make it stop going back to it." She thought. "Yes, it's a good idea."  Twilight slowly rose from her bench, stirred her legs, then she made the first steps onto the nearest dirt path.                  Twilight walked in-between the trees orderly field at the sides of the path, around the little lakes, over the soft grass, into a little field of delicate white and violet flowers. She walked for minutes and minutes, and minutes and minutes, and every time it seemed that her mind was finally at peace, it immediately linked something around to Twilight's past, no matter how feeble the memory and the link was.                  "Gah!" Twilight said, shaking her head as response to yet another thought connected with her foalhood "How long have I been walking like this anyway?"                  Twilight immediately looked to the horizon at the districtual clocktower, and she saw it was half past four. The sight of the hour made Twilight groan.                  “Ugh, I’ve been walking for two hours to no avail. Why can't I just let it go and fade away like you did for all these years?" She murmured to herself, as she turned around heading back home.         As soon as the words had left her mouth, she heard a familiar voice from above.                  “Hey, Twi, what’s up?”                  Twilight’s head shot up, She had but a moment to see a multi-coloured blur coming straight at her before said object plowed into her sending her toppling to the ground.                  Twilight blinked up at the magenta eyes looking down at her. “Rainbow Dash?”                  “The one an’ only.” Dash smirked climbing off of her.                  Twilight got up and looked her pegasus friend in confusion.  “Dash, what are you doing here in Canterlot?” Twilight asked.                   “The rest of the gang asked me to come and check up on you. You know, to see if you’d recovered after your mom’s... uh...”                   Dash looked away, as if worried to say whatever she was trying to say.                  “Her psychotic attempt to make me a foal again?” Twilight deadpanned “Dash, you don't have to restrain yourself in insulting my mother. Trust me, after what she put you and the girls through you have just as much right as I do.”                  “Oh,” Dash still had a titubant expression.                  “Um, do you know what she’s been doing since she left?” Rainbow Dash asked unsurely.                  Twilight eyes narrowed a bit as her heart skipped a beat. “No... please tell me she has not turned everypony in Ponyville into her foals.”                  Dash gave a weak chuckle and shook her head. “Nah, nothing like that, though...” She paused for several long seconds hesitating to say what was to come next.                  “Though what?”  Twilight’s eyes could not open any wider, so she resorted to slow recoiling for express her uneasiness.                  Dash gulped. “Well... she’s been doing what you told her to, seeing a shrink and all, but... that’s not all she’s been doing.”                  “I am sure I will regret asking it,” Twilight sighed, lowering her head, “but what’s it she has been doing?”                  Dash scuffed a hoof against the ground. “Well... she and Pinkie have started a... well... I’m not really sure what to call it, but it’s a sorta shop where ponies who... wanna go through foalish stuff...”                  “Can do it.” Twilight finished, letting out an exasperated breath.                  “Well, at least she doesn’t think of those ponies like foals, if she’s running a business...” She continued.                  Dash remained silent, refusing to meet Twilight’s gaze.                  “Oh, sweet Celestia,” Twilight facehoofed again. “She does, doesn’t she?”                  Dash nodded slowly.                  “And... remember how Sweetie Belle enjoyed being treated like a foal?” Rainbow Dash added after few seconds of silence.                  “She is doing what?” At this rate, Twilight was going to flop over and hit the grass with her back.                  “You see, at first, Sweetie was just spending... um, Foal Time, in a room at Rarity’s. She even somehow got that snobby filly, Silver Spoon, to join her.”Dash nervously looked away and shrugged as she said this.                  Once those words were spoken, Twilight stopped falling backwards for jump forward.                   “Wait. We’re not talking about the same Silver Spoon who mercilessly teases the Crusaders for not having their Cutie Marks, are we?” Twilight asked, her curiosity and surprise now perking.                  Dash nodded.                  “It's actually the same one. Turns out she’s one of those Forever Foals, too.”                  Twilight's eyes widened “Please tell me that’s not the term we are using now?”                  Dash shrugged. “It’s what your Mom and Pinkie’s business is called.” She chuckled. “It kinda stuck as nickname for the clients...”                  “So, does this mean Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle are friends now?” Twilight groaned.                  Dash frowned. “Um, that’s kinda hard to tell. I mean, as Silver Spoon put it, there's a truce between her and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but they don't claim to be friends either. In fact, Rarity told me she has seen Sweetie Belle call Silver her friend only during Foal Time.”                  “Sure, of course." Twilight said after facehoofing.                  "Any other ponies I should know of acting like this now?”                  Dash frowned and shook her head.                   “Sorry, Twi. I know a few of them myself and, for their own privacy, I’m not gonna say anything.”                   “Fair enough,” Twilight nodded “I respect your and their wishes."                  “Though, after she learned about their Foal Time, Pinkie convinced Velvet to let Sweetie and Silver into Foal’s Forever coming in with a discount, and Pinkie is covering Silver’s pay.”                  Twilight blinked, confused.                   “What? I would have thought that a filly like Silver Spoon could have easily afforded to pay for herself.” Twilight exclaimed.                  Dash looked away.                  “Her parents know, but won't let her. They’ve already made it clear that, if their daughter is gonna have a weird and/or disgusting liking, that she will have to pay it for herself from her little allowance and not get it paid by them on demand.” Dash said.                  “I can understand,” Twilight muttered, thinking of her father’s reaction when she’d been sitting in the empty cameretta, wearing a diaper and talking to herself.                  “Tilight!”                  Both mares turned at the small voice, and Twilight saw another pony she hadn’t expected to see again so soon.                  “Hello Lexy,” she said, as the little pink filly pounced and hugged Twilight                   “I didn’t expect to see you here!”                  “Me neifer!” the little filly cheered, looking up at the older pony with widened eyes and a bright and wide smile “Hey, you wanna pway?!”                  “Twi?” Dash’s voice caused Lex to notice the cyan mare and press herself a little closer to Twilight. “Who’s this little filly?”                  Twilight giggled, as she waved her hoof towards her little friend.                  “Oh, this is Lex Populi, one of my Kindergarten's classmates, one of the first to contact me and treat me as an equal.", Twilight patted the filly's head to get her attention                  "Lexy, this is Rainbow Dash, one of my old friends." She said while pointing at the mare with rainbow mane.                  Lex looked uncertainly from Twilight to Rainbow, then loosened her grip and gave an unsure smile to the Pegasus. “Um... Hello, Miss Wainbow Dass.”                  “Uh, hey, kid,” Dash replied, cocking her head to the side.                  “Uh, Twi? How come she’s hugging you like that? Kinda reminds me of how Scoots hugs me. I mean, ya know, if we decide to get sappy, which isn’t often, ya know...” Rainbow Dash said unsurely.                  Twilight smiled. She knew Dash and Scootaloo weren’t those for letting others see the tender bond they shared, just playing it off as a “Heh, Yeah, we’re cool about it” kind of thing.                  “Well, it’s like with you and Scootaloo. Lex is like my little sister to me.”                  Dash’s jaw dropped. “What? But— How?”                  Twilight chuckled. “Like I said, it’s like you and Scootaloo. We just... kinda became like sisters to each other, really. Not that I midn it.”                  “Tilight’s the best big sistaw ewew!” Lex declared while bouncing on the spot, her eyes shining brightly. “She’s smawt, funny and fun ta be wit.”                  Dash sneered.                   “Okay, I get the smart part, but funny? Twilight? You sure you’re talking about the same mare, kid?” Rainbow Dash said.                  “She is!” Lex glared at Dash, pulling away from Twilight and facing the other mare, stomping a hoof as if about to charge.                  Dash held up her hooves in surrender. “Whoa, whoa. Okay, okay, she is.”                  Lex Populi immediately calmed down, and returned her adorant look to Twilight.                   Shortly after that, another distant voice called.                  "Lecs, vere are ioù?"                  Twilight immediately recognized the voice as Massarosina's, but she still could not understand her very easily. However, apparently, Lex could.                  "I'm hewe wit Tilight, Masawosina." The filly said while turning around to face the old mare.                  "Oh, see," Massarosina said from afar, before moving towards the filly.                  Twilight waved and grinned awkwardly at the old mare.                  "Who's her? And what the buck she is saying?" Rainbow Dash asked.                  Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash at the use of the vulgar word, before carrying on.                  "She is Massarosina, Lex's nanny. She just asked Lex where she was... I think." Twilight said.                  "You don't say?" Rainbow Dash deadpanned, while pointing at the incoming old mare.                  "Good daì, Twilightte Sparklè," Massarosina said "See tàt Lecs is wit ioù e an anoter marè, her namè is..."                  Twilight just nodded and grinned awkardly, as Rainbow Dash tilted her head.                   "Excuse me ma'am, but can you speak a bit better, please? I can't understand you." She said.                  Massarosina glared at the cyan mare.                  "Oimmena, ioù giovini are stupidi or deahffe? I have said how are ioù caalled." Massarosina lamented, to much of Dash's chargrin, who distorted her face even more in the attempt to understand.                  "What she is saying, Twilight? I just cannot understand her at all!"                  "I am actually unsure at this point..." Twilight murmured to Dash as she blushed a bit embarrassed in front of her inability to understand "I think she just asked if we are deaf or stupid. Then she asked about your name, but that's just my guess."                  Meanwhile, Massarosina was seemingly growing impatient, and Lex was looking in curiosity at Twilight and Rainbow Dash trying to decipher what Massarosina was talking about. Seeing this situation, Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her head.         "My name is Rainbow Dash, ma'am Massarosina. I am Twilight Sparkle's friend, if you are wondering."                  "Rainbove Dashe?" Massarosina said.                  "It's 'Rainbow Dash.' R-a-i-n-b-o-w D-a-s-h."                  "That wat I 'ave said!" Massaroina exclaimed.                  Rainbow Dash shook her head, and looked at the distant clock tower. Suddenly the cyan mare's eyes widened, as she leaped foward, and started to flap her wings hard.                  "Sorry, I must go now, or else the train will go without me!" She said while zooming off to the horizon, and, as response, Twilight waved goodbye accompanied Lex.                  After doing that, both Lex Populi and Twilight turned around towards Massarosina.                  "Ergo, wat do ioù vant to do nov, Lecs? Vant stai con Twilaghtte?" Massarosina asked to Lex Populi.                  "Yes! Wanna go to wit Tiligh in to da pawk!" Lex said cheerfully with a big smile, causing Twilight to chuckle a little.                  "Bene, quindi we go," Massarosina said while walking down one of the paths in the park. The little filly and the purple mare followed suit, talking between each other while walking.                  After a rather short walk under the poplars, Massarosina, Lex and Twilight finally reached their destination, a small playground surrounded by a simple picket fence and with a twisted ropes on two doorframes as gate. As soon as this was in her sigh, Lex ran off towards the fence, leaving Massarosian and Twilight behind.                  Or, better yet, Massarosina was the one truly left behind, because, shortly after Lex's run, Twilight shrugged her shoulders, said "Might as well enjoy it..." and ran after Lex, thusly reaching and overtaking the filly. Once Twilight was in the playground area, she stopped and waited for Lex, who was slowing due her running.                  "No faiw!" She whined, as she walked towards Twilight.                  "Well, am I or am I not your older sister?" Twilight said with a chuckle to her honorary sister Lex, who turned her frown upside down in a whim, as she also stepped in the playground.                  "Do we wait for Massarosina? Or do you want to play now?" Twilight asked after few seconds of silence between Lex and her.                  "Let's go now!" The filly exclaimed, before rushing off to a nearby slide. Seeing this, Twilight also walked towards the slide and stood there at the base, so to keep Lex under her watch until Massarosina arrived. Only then the old mare arrived Twilight, after seeing that Lex was not doing anything strange, and that the queque for the slide was almost non-existant; she decided to join her honorary sister in her games out of some kind of impulse Twilight had then and yet she didn't quite understand. As Twilight came out from a nearby public restroom, she saw this going on in the playground. "Lecs, comme on, go, mamma is vahiting for ioù!" Massarosina said to Lex, who was roosting atop of a steel octagone. "No! I dun want to go!" Lex said. "Ma is late! Té Sun is getting set daun, and everìonne is going 'ome!" "Nah-ah." Lex said, while shaking her head. "Uh... guess I will have to intervene," Twilight thought, as she walked into the playground "after all, I do not think she will listen to Massarosina." As she thought that and walked, Massarosina tried to climb to the octagon. However, due to the old age and the bust, she fell on her back, causing Lex to blow a raspberry to the old mare and giggle shortly after. "Lecs, if ioù go on, I give ioù tottò!" Massarosina said, as she got back on her hooves. "Dun cawe!" Lex said, still with her tongue sticking out. "Lex!" Twilight said sternly while trying to look in Lex's eyes "Get down now!" The filly recoiled a little, and remained silent for few seconds, before going back to her previous stance. "Make me!" She taunted. Twilight complied, as she engulfed Lex in her magical aura, and, in spite of the filly's efforts to break free, effortlessly put her on the ground near a stern-looking Massarosina. "Don't do it a next time, Lex, okay?" Twilight said to the filly.  Lex after some more wriggling around, silently nodded to Twilight. "Good," she said. "Now I must go. See you tomorrow Lex, and goodbye Mrs. Massarosina!" "Goodbie, Twilightte." "Bye-bye Tilight." And, once the salutations were done, Twilight set herself on the trip back home. The Sun began to set, the sky becoming a rusty red hue, thus turning the farthest trees and buildings into just the shapes of what they actually were. The few ponies still out during dusk were mostly stallions or mares going back home from work, a few joggers, and the odd-out vagrant dressed in rags and carrying a guitar around his waist. Overall, it was a relaxing and beautiful view, one that made slipping into those thoughts of the past hard for Twilight. However, as she walked on, and those sights blended with the incoming darkness, Twilight's mind started to wander off on those mental grounds yet again, with thoughts like “Sure playing with Lex was a lot of fun. Maybe you could try to do that more often?” or “Isn't Lex the cutest little thing, just like you in your foalhood?” “Okay,” Twilight murmured to herself, closing her eyes for a second as she walked, shaking her head once more “this is really, really confusing. Why did I started to slowly remember my Dark Ages, or, at least, pieces of it, and why is there a part of me seeing them as actually pleasurable?” Twilight walked past a luxury apartment block neighboring her villa. “I am thinking that my mind wasn't all that well-restored after my mother after all... it's necessary some mind cleansing from Princess Luna.” Twilight said to herself, as she reached the front gate of her house. However, before she could pull the rope of the gate's bell, a counter-thought attacked her mind. “Don't do it! It would just worsen your relations with Lex Populi!” Twilight, taken aback by that mental scream, recoiled slightly and murmured to herself. “First of all, you don't have to be so loud. Second, yes it may true, but...” suddenly, Twilight was at loss of words. “But what? I know that it may be annoying, begin constantly reminded about a period of your life you want to forget, but, if those memories happen to be happy, connected with positive things, and help you in establishing a good relationship with another pony, why ditch them all together? Sure, you got that 'pro-foal' part from a minor mental trauma, but that doesn't mean you have to completely eradicate it, if it happen to improve yourself.” Twilight nodded at herself. “Yes that... makes sense, actually. Maybe I should limit that part's freedom, but, otherwise, I should let it be.” And, with her mind finally free of a dilemma, Twilight shook with her magic the rope, causing the gate's bell to ring. Shortly after, Sedual Serva came out from the house, and opened the gate. “Welcome back, Miss Twilight,” the valet said while moving aside for let Twilight walk in “where have you been? Your father was waiting for you.” “I have been around,” Twilight said with a shrug, before actually walking on the stone path to the house's door. Once Twilight had stepped inside the house and had gone upstairs, she saw her father sitting on the couch reading th newspaper, and the dinner table already set with everything, bread bowl included. “Good evening father,” Twilight said with a hint of respectfulness “had a good day in the studio?” Night Light, with a roar that matched the one of an old and tired lion, got up from his couch and left the newspaper behind, as he went on all his fours. “A good day overall,” he said as he reached his red padded chair by the table “got to ratify the last will of three old nobles, and had to approve a plan for renovate a piece of real estate attached to several miles of land. And you, my dear daughter?” Twilight let out a sigh, and went to take the seat in front of her father’s while wearing a nervous grin. “Mine was also very good, since, after a decent time at Kindergarten, I went to have lunch at Adone, enjoyed a little walk, and met one of my friends, who gave me some news about Ponyville and Velvet…” “What?” Night Light exclaimed, his eyes widened and his fork dropped in the soup plate “Yuu have news about my wife? Tell me, I want to know for many reasons.” Twilight blushed, chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. “See, according to my friend’s sources, Velvet has been seeing a shrink with various degrees ofsuccess. However, she also… ummmm… started to cash on her obsession.” Night Light recoiled with his chair and stared speechlessly at his daughter his mouth hanging open in shock. “Ummm… should I have had to soften the blow, father?” Twilight asked with a hint of worry in her voice. As soon as she said those words, Twilight’s father shook his head violently. “No, that can’t possibly be,” he declared “is she trying to sell ponies to other madponies with the same obsession? Oh Elysium, the consequences would be beyond ruinous!” Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Actually, she is just offering her services to some ponies that want to be treated as foals. You know, like Pinkie Pie.” “That’s a different kind of wrong and ruinous!” Night Light exclaimed “How is she going to go back to normal, if she keeps doing exactly what her insanity compels her to do? It is nosensical! Also, who would take me seriously, if they knew that my wife feeds baby bottles and changes soiled diapers to fully grown adults or…” he shuddered “fillies and colts that have outgrown them?” “Well…” Twilight said while looking around the room “if the shrink didn’t forbid it, maybe it means she can do that freely. Maybe it’s even her therapy.” “Her therapy?” Night Light scoffed “What kind of quack would ever suggest to let a mentally ill not only do whatever they please, but also help them in doing it? And, even if this was true due to some obscure mechanism, how does that change the prestige hit I will take?” “I think that your prestige is partially compromised anyway,” Twilight deadpanned in a moment of bravery “Since it is unlikely that nopony has noticed and talked about my presence in the Kindergarten’s class, and my diaper wearing for a week.” “That is different, because you are my adult daughter, and your actions affect my prestige less. But Velvet is still  married with me, and, if she does something shameful, my reputation takes a worse hit.” Twilight looked at Night Light, as she processed up what her father just said, before acknowledging it fully. “Oh. I see. Still, it makes little sense to me.” She said a bit unsure. “It doesn’t have to make sense to you,” Night Light said with authority and a hint of frustration “this makes sense to me and everybody else, so why ignore it?” “Fair enough, father.” Twilight said as she took the little bell “But let’s get something to eat now, shall we?” “Very well.” Then Twilight shook the bell, spreading the ringing sound through the house. Shortly after, Sedula Serva came in with a bowl of steaming pasta alla Norma, put it on the table, and started to give the ration to Night Light. In this moment of silence, Twilight tried to contemplate about how to tell his father about the rest of her day, while the delicious smell of tomato sauce, eggplant and sheep cheese tired to distract her. It was only when her food was actually in her plate that Twilight reduced her thinking efforts for eat. In a few minutes however, Night Light’s plate was empty, and, as he cleaned up his mouth with the napkin, he asked. “Okay, now that we have filled our stomachs, I think we can resume our discussion about my wife…” Twilight, who was still eating a few tortiglioni, had to quickly chew and gulp them before answering. “Didn’t I gave up?” she pointed out. “Oh, right. Then tell me what happened after that, what you did for the rest of the afternoon…” Twilight grinned awkwardly. “After that, I… I…" “Hmm?” Her father said as he sipped water. "I played with Lex Populi. Pretty enjoyable to be honest." Twilight said with a sigh. Night Light stopped dead in his tracks hsi drinking for stare at his daughter, and, after a few seconds, he gulped the water and said. "Very well tehn, I guess that, until it doesn't turn into regression desires, I can let you do that... but now I'm not hungry anymore." After saying that, Twilight's father got up, and walked upstairs, likely to his bedroom, leaving Twilight alone with Sedula, who had jsut brought the salad in alogn with the dressings. Sihing, Twilight silently took her portion of salad, put the dresses on it, and ate it, her own chewing as only noise accompaying her mean meal. Once Twilight was done with her dinner, she got up, letting Sedula Serva clean up the table. As Twilight walked to her room, she thought. "Well, it seems that my father is also trying to understand all of this. Thankfully he didn't ask me about what I actually did during the morning, otherwise, this dinner might have turned really violent in a whim," Twilight said, as she wentto the bathroom to reliever herself and brush her teeth clean. "Anyway, now it's time for me to lie down and read somethign beforesleeping and hopefully forget about what happened today..." She thought as she took a random novel from her room's bookshelves, and put herself under the covers. > De Pederastia > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Five days had passed since Orvosti's masturbation incident, and everything was seemingly back to the usual, in the class of the Chicks.   Twilight, Lex Populi, Orvosti Ostoba and all the other foals, after the roll call was done by Nutriz, were waiting for the teachers for start the first lesson of the day. While Lux Foal was out taking the needed materials, Nutriz was going in-between the rows of foals.   "So, class, has somepony here ever measured his or her height and length, or has ever weighed themselves?" She asked.   Twilight smiled, as she saw the orderly group of foals suddenly turn into a quivering group of foals, raising their little hooves in the air and saying with their squeaky voices "Yes!" or "Me!"   Seeing that they were too many, Nutriz hushed them with the usual hiss and hoof in front of her mouth.   "Raise your hooves silently!" She shouted sternly to the noisy foals, who immediately stopped trying to get one over the head of the other, and just kept their hooves up in the air for Nutriz to see.   "Ah, there are many here!" Nutriz said with a hint of cheerfulness "Well, today, everypony will be measured!"   Twilight saw that, as soon as Nutriz pronounced that, Lux Foal had come back, a scale on her back, and two heavy-looking disassembled contraptions tied to her sides, along with a rolled-up flashcard. Once she was far enough in the classroom, Lux put the scale on the ground while Nutriz untied the two non-assembled machines, and put the pieces on the ground, before she took the rolled-up flashcard, stole a marker from the desk's pencil tube and rushed back to the foals.   Since Nutriz was just writing down the names of the foals, Twilight and a handful of her little classmates looked at what Lux Foal was assembling all by herself. Specifically, she was assembling a height and length scale: the latter was orange and without any decorations, while the former had a cartoony forest landscape background of the measurer in itself.   As soon as Lux was done in assembling, she gestured silently towards Nutriz, who in turn quickly said, "So, now that we have written down everybody's names, I think we can start measuring ourselves. I will pick as the first pony..."   Twilight and all of the foals turned around to Nutriz, and waited to see who was the first one to be picked in-between them, and, after a rather short wait, Nutriz chose by pointing her hoof in the crowd and saying, "Olive Oil! Come over here!"   The aforementioned colt got up, and walked with a steady trot towards Nutriz and Lux and, once he was there, Lux helped the colt to pull down his pull-up, before he was allowed to step onto the scale. Nutriz leaned to watch the scale's needles, before taking the black marker back in her magic, and scribbled in Olive's weight slot.   "Twenty-six kilograms! You are a pretty pump little colt, I have to say that." Nutriz exclaimed as she wrote. "Now, let's see how tall and long you are!"   As she said that, Lux got Olive Oil in position for measurements and told him to stay still with a gesture of her hoof. And, once Nutriz took a good look at the meters, she went back to the flashcard-table to write down the measurements.   "Fourty-six centimeters in height and twenty-two centimeters in length!"   Olive Oil simply smiled, as he tried to put the pull-up back on him crotch, before going back in the midst of his classmates. Once Olive Oil was back into place, Nutriz started to call the next one.   "Twilight Sparkle!" Twilight blanched. “What? She’s calling me? Why?” Nutriz tapped her hoof impatiently. “Twilight Sparkle?” Noticng all the foals looking at her, and knowing this wasn’t going to end unless she did so, Twilight reluctantly got up and walked over to the scales. Using her magic she whipped off her diaper and step onto the scale. Nutriz leaned to watch the scale's needles, whilst Twilight felt her face burning. This was so embarrassing.   Nutriz, oblivious to Twilight’s discomfort, took the black marker back in her magic, and scribbled in her weight slot.   "Twilight, you are next!" Nutriz exclaimed as she wrote. "Now, let's see how tall and long you are, big filly!"   Twilight inwardly groaned. Nutriz had clearly meant it as a joke, but it felt like she was teasing her, not helped by the snickers of the foals she could hear coming from behind her   Nutriz waited for her to get in position for measurements and told Twilight stood still. With a good look at the meters and a small, cheeky smile, Nutriz went back to the flashcard-table to write down the measurements.   "Why she had, of all my classmates, call me between the first ones?" Twilight thought, still blushing, as Nutriz wrote down the measurements. With that done, Twilight was about to head back to her seat, when a cough from Nutriz made her turn around. The mare nodded to the diaper Twilight had tossed aside and Twilight blushed furiously as she gave Nutriz a 'If the Princess wasn’t forcing me to do this...' look, levitated her diaper on her back, and was about to slip herself back into, when Lux took it off her flank and laid it open on the floor Twilight was certain that Big Macintosh would have been jealous of the colouring of her face in that moment, as she stomped back there, laid down and allowed herself to be diapered by the teacher Once Lux had fixed the diaper securely on the purple mare, she got up and went back to her seat, fuming at the indignity of it all, barely noticing as Nutriz called the next one. “Pearly Handle!”         After that hour of various body measurements and comparisons, Nutriz declared "Learning Time" to be over by letting Lux announce it while she changed the position of the hands of the clock.   The announcement scattered the previously-orderly class of foals, as they rushed to form their usual game groups or they sat in the corner to draw relatively quietly.    Twilight was no exception to the former, since she followed Lex, Olive, Bright and Pearly in their usual playing spot.   “What do you want to play today?” Twilight asked with a smile to her little friends, who brought in some toys.   “Buiwd anyone?” Lex said as she dragged in a box of blocks.   “Chawioties!” Bright Light exclaimed, as he brought in a hoofful of toy chariots.   “I wanna…”   However, before Pearly Handle could express her request to play with dolls, Orvosti Ostoba jumped over the pearl-colored filly and he exclaimed. “No pony pways wit her naow! I need hew!”   “Hey, you rude!” Olive Oil exclaimed.   “Yeah!”   Twilight recoiled and looked surprised at the colt for a brief moment, before reacting.   “Orvosti! What are you doing?” Twilight said sternly “You should not do that!”   “Whatewer,” he siad “I need you.”   “For what? For what kind of purpose you need me so urgently, that you have to jump over Pearly and yell?!”   “No time,” he said, grabbing the hem of Twilight’s smock “just wisten.”   “No, you listen, Orvosti,” Twilight said frowning while looking for eye contact with the colt. “You can’t just burst in, and tell ponies to do something for you. It’s mean!”   “But… I will be in trouble if I don’t do it! “   The colt’s statement made Twilight pass from her annoyed state, to a worried one.   “He will have problems if he doesn’t do what? I have the feeling he isn’t lying…”   “What it is?” Twilight asked.   “Weww, you see, mommy wants me to teww you ‘bout Age Pway and diapee wubbing.” Twilight froze on the spot, once she managed to understand what Orvosti was saying behind his lisp.   “Come again?”   The colt shrugged and looked Twilight in the eyes.   “Diapee wubbing and Age Pway. I dunno why she castigates me fow not pwaying wif you, but mommy wants it fwom me, so I do it.” He said submissive and grinning awkwardly.   Twilight rose her chin and stared at the colt.   “This… is awful. No, beyond awful. No, it’s even more than that... gah!" Twilight thought, before quickly saying “Are you completely sure, Orvosti? Are you telling me the whole truth? You’re not trying to play a trick on me?”   The colt nodded. “I am saying twuth.”   Twilight’s heart stopped for a brief second, before restarting at full speed.   “Oh Celestia. Can I know what those are about? Don’t do it, just try to describe me.”   Orvosti Ostoba put a hoof under his chin.   "Age Pway is wike House, but onwy one is in diapee, and, then diapee is took off, tere awe many kisses, hugs, and naughty bits awe smashed and should feew funny. Diapee wubbing should do some stuff similar to man-stuwbation, but I dun get how."   Twilight's heart stopped for a second, only to restart at full speed shortly after.   "This can' just have been made up by him. He cannot have simply thought up those," she thought. “This is somepony else’s doing, likely his mother, and I must act. But what can I do?” “Mommy told me I was meant to hewp you wearn Age Pway, but... I messed up,” his ears drooped as he said it. “Mommy didn’a wan’ you gedding da wong idea.” Twilight blinked. "The wrong idea? The wrong idea?The wrong idea?" Twilight thought, as she frowned and let out a snort "What kind of idea I could have gotten wrong? That his mother has told him about masturbation and that he should teach it to others? How am I getting the wrong idea from that?" As she thought that, Twilight let her mind wander free at the various scenarios that could have happened with Orvosti and his mother, thusly causing her to slowly paw the ground. "D-did I-I do s-something?" The quivering voice of Orvosti said, snapping Twilight out of her mindless annoyance, and causing Twilight look at him, worry emanating from her eyes. "Definitely not you, Orvosts. Your mother, thought, did something immensly wrong..." "Wat do you mean?" Orvosti asked curious, as he stared with wide eyes at Twilight "Wat she did?" "Now, answer me truthfully, Orvosti, because it's pretty important. What did your mother do, once you came back from here after talking about masturbation to me, before she told you that I was getting the wrong idea about Age Play?" The colt shivered a little, as he got up from his prone position. "Mommy spanked me, and took me toys away. She said tat, if no towd you 'bout west of Age Pway, me tushy was going to tuwn red and sowe fow weeks." Suddenly, Twilight felt her rage build up in her heart again, and her eyes started to glimmer. "So, not only his mother has told him about sexual practice, not only she has told him to talk me about it, but she made him do it under the treath of punishment in case of non-compliance? What kind of mother does that? What kind of force would drive a mother to..." Twilight had a sudden image of Princess Celestia. An image of Celestia going to the colt's mother for a "little chat," promising the mare everything she wished for, in exchange of his son's innocence in the vain puruse of convincing Twilight to bend to Celestia's will... "No! Stop it! My teacher is well above this kind of deals! She cannot have suggested such a despicable thing, not in this wordl!" Twilight whispered to herself, after a violent shake of her head. However, there was somethign that felt so... plausible, in that idea. "I need confirmations, I need to ask him directly!" "Orvosti?" Twilight said to the colt who, meanwhile, had gathered a little crowd that was tying to get informations out of him "Coudl you please tell me how did you learn about Age Play, and if your mother has ever mentioned Princess Celestia?" As Orvosti walked outside the Group of curious classmates, he siad. "Yes, mommy tawked 'bout Cewestia a lot, when tewwing me Age Pway, saying tat bits 'wewe at sta-ke' watevevew tat means, and tat she couwd buy me many stuff wit tat bits. Cewestia awso cawwed me and mommy, and showed me..." The colt hesistated for a moment, causing Twilight's mind to shut off everything else, for focus on what Orvosti was going to say. "Don't let it be that, don't let it be that..." Twilight begged in her mind. "A big book, I think it was cawwed 'De Pe-de-westia' or sumeting wike that. Den gave it to mommy, saying somethign I dun wemembew." At the mention of the book, Twilight let out a hiss of rage and gritted her teeth... then she felt her head getting light and spinning around faster and faster, and her mind started to produce fuzzy and confused images of Celestia and Orvosti's mother exchanging looks and words, and Celestia giving a big, leahter-covered and bronze-cornered book to Orvosti's mother, tellign her to follow the tips contained in it for do her job. "Index... prohibited... books..." Those were Twilight's words before blacking out. > Stupidi Segreti/ Stupid Secrets. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight's eyelids felt heavy on her eyes, and her head felt empty, as she regained consciousness after fainting. "Ugh... what happened?" The said to herself. "You fainted while in class, Twilight," the familiar voice of Nutriz said in the darkness "You have been out for a couple of hours, you have been brought to the Infirmary and then here in the Nap Room, and your classmates have been told that you had a streak of sleep, so that they would not worry about you." Twilight groaned, as she got up from her sleeping pad. "Thank you Nutriz," she said a bit acidic "I would not have guessed that I fainted and got transported elsewhere." "Well, you asked, I answered." Nutriz said, as she lit up the room, thusly showing finally the full form of the teacher. Twilight rubbed her eyelids, let out a yawn, and then walked towards the door. "By the way, do you mind if I ask you why did you faint?" Nutriz said while escorting Twilight t the classroom "I mean, the nurse said that it wasn't result of any lack of sleep, or a low of sugars..." Twilight let out a sigh and frowned, as the images of the event happened two hours prior echoed in her mind with all its squeamish glory. "Orvosti Ostoba did it again... and more." Nutriz's gaze turned into a worried one. "Oh dear... what did he do this time?" "Well, he burst in during a game, and said that he needed me alone with him for speak about diaper rubbing and Age Play. And, considered how he described those, there is little left to doubts..." Nutriz cringed while still walking. "Well... that's extremely troubling. Maybe I should talk about it with the headmaster..." "That sounds like a reasonable idea," Twilight said "Thought that's not why I fainted. I lost consciousness out of the shock of him..." Twilight gulped and shivered a little, at the recurring images of Celestia and Orvosti "it was because he said that his mother was pushing him out of Celestia's orders, and that Celestia gave his mother a book..." "Which book?" Nutriz said as she opened the class' door. "The 'De Pederastia.' One of the few books that are in the index of the Prohibited Books, and I'd say for very good reasons..." Nutriz launched a confused look at Twilight. "Twilight... if that is that concerns you the most, be aware that little foals tend to change their tales often, thinking that they have to appease the listener by saying what the listener wants," Lux said "there may be bits of truth, but he may have made up the Celestia's part, if you asked it aggressively enough." "But... how he could have invented the book's name, in Old Equestrian, out of thin air? It's impossible!" "Well, maybe he mispronounced another title, or he confused books. Also, last time I've heard of that book, was when Lux talked about weird trends going on, and how she was involved in one of them, I don't remember the context." Then Nutriz noticed that Lux was furiously gesturing at her "But now join your classmates. You will have the entire afternoon at your disposal for think about that." Twilight looked at the ground, feeling a bit flustered as she joined her usual classmates in their current activity. "Okay, let's be logical here," Twilight murmured to herself, as she took a crayon "Nutriz just said that Lux had read it some time ago. How Lux could have gotten access to one of the last existing copies in Equestria, without getting caught by the simply possession or by talking about its topic with Nutriz? Unless Nutriz and Lux are both closet poulophiles with great lock picking and sneaking skills, there will be no reason for them to get into possession of the book. But the book somehow gave tips to Orvosti's mother on what to do..." Twilight instinctively wrote with a crayon on a piece of paper just under her "I will have to go deeper..." Once she was out of school and at home without the Kindergarten's uniform on her, Twilight sat at the lunch table, where his father was already sipping some water, while Sedula brought in a bowl full of steaming tortiglioni alla Norma. "Yes... the Royal Library should do well... naturally, if I didn't lose the card after the baggage incident..." She murmured to herself, as Sedula put some pasta in her dish. "What are you mumbling about, my dear daughter?" Night Light said, as he calmly ate the first sporkful of pasta. "I am thinking," Twilight said, her fork still clean "thinking about where I can find a certain book for my purposes." "What book?" Night Light asked while still eating his food "Maybe we have it in our library." "I don't think we have it, father," Twilight said "it's the 'De Pederastia,' a book that has been added to the Index of Prohibited books a long time ago." Night Light kept eating silently for a bit, before actually reacting with a head raise and a disappointed stare. "And thankfully. The last thing I wanted was to have you taking a depraved route with that liking of yours." "Father!" Twilight exclaimed, offended by the implications "What do you think I am and I am becoming?! I don't even dare to think about having sex with little foals, especially not with foals that got their innocence gutted for my amusement!" Night Light resumed eating calmly. "That was not what I was talking about, but it's good to know that you don't want to go that way." Twilight raised her hoof to reply, when something hit her. Namely, how her father answered to her rebuttal of poulophilia. "He said that it wasn't talking about the possibility of begin a poulrast, and said it dismissively..." Twilight put down the fork, and put her left hoof under her chin thoughtfully "okay, the last can be chalked up to my father begin weird in his choice of bursting into rage, but the fact he said that he wasn't talking about that? Surely he must know something about it, if he could comment about me not finding it, but he is seemingly talking about it as if it was a different book... yes, I think that I will have to see for myself, before I actually go on and take all of this to the People's Chamber, or, heck, even to the Night Court." As she finished thinking that, Twilight noticed that Sedula had already filled her dish with salad and minced carrots. Twilight took the oil and salt, dressed the salad, and ate it slowly, as she laid out the plans for reach the Royal Library. Once Twilight was done in eating her salad, she got up, and said. "See you later, father, I'm going out for a while," she said, as she walked outside the dining room. Her father answered; some salad leafs still in his mouth. "See you. I will be at work until eight o' clock." And, with a nod, Twilight walked off to her bedroom. "Alright," she said, as she walked in her room, and opened up her new-old poplar closet and, after a quick scan with her eyes, Twilight found the baggage and the suitcases she had brought with her from Ponyville lying in a dark corner of the closet. "Let's see if I have left the Library Card for the Royal Library in there," Twilight said as she got out the suitcase, and put them on the floor. "First, let's look at the baggage," Twilight said as she unlocked the bronze locks. As she opened the lid, Twilight uncovered a little swarm of gnats that flew in her face, and little else. "Baker receipt, quill receipt, high-speed penalty of when my bother used to go on a scooter and in the wrong way, used toilet paper..." Twilight shook her head. "No library card here." Then Twilight took one of the gray metal suitcases with steel closings. Once she opened it, Twilight found the Library Card sitting on a bed of old newspapers and shaped foam right in front of her eyes. Twilight immediately took with her magic and put it in a nearby saddlebag. "Okay, let's put this on," Twilight said, as she took some money from her safe, put it in the saddlebag, and buckled the aforementioned accessory on her back "aaaand I am set! Let's go!" That said, Twilight walked out of her room and house into the streets leading to the Royal Palace Complex and, thusly, the Royal Library. As Twilight left her silent neighborhood and reached the busy and crowded main street passing in the middle of the quaint historical part of the city, she kept checking her saddle bag for the card and bits, just to be sure there not stolen during the journey. An hour of crowd-sailing later and a paper-check from the guards, Twilight was finally in the gardens just in front of the Royal Palace Complex. "Okay," Twilight said, after taking a deep breath "it will be hard to explain if they ask me, but I have to do it." That said, she walked down the path made of granite passing in the middle of a well-kept lawn filled with statue of all the materials, their styles ranging from the Reconstructed Classical to the Contemporary. Twilight walked onto the granite stairs of the entrance near the stone railing of said stairs, until she reached the front of the immense bronze door leading to the lowest floor of the Royal Library. Twilight breathed deeply, lit up her horn, engulfed one of the brass knockers, and then knocked the door with a loud and echoing banging sound. Shortly after that, the door started to squeak lightly and open inwards, revealing a dark brown unicorn with dark gray mane and a red landsknecht-like dress. "Yes?" He said, his voice expressing annoyed tiredness. "I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's student," Twilight took her card out from the saddlebag and handed it to the stallion "and I am here for research purposes." The unicorn looked at the front of the card with disinterest, then flipped it the other way, and still scanned it, his eyes still not showing any emotion besides irritation. "Seems true enough," he said, as he handed the card back to Twilight "do I have to help you, or do you wish to handle book searching alone?" Twilight stepped into the library proper, as she put her card back in the saddlebag "Thanks, but no thanks. It's a... delicate research." "Whatever you say," the unicorn said while walking back to his position, represented by a cheap oak table covered in filled and empty forms, pencils, quills, pens and writing knives scattered around, half-torn green rags that once made the top of the table, and a couple of Accounting books towering upon the forms. The chair of the unicorn dressed like a landsknecht was a light green pillow that had seen better days. But the state of the unicorn's seat was not the actual concern of Twilight: she had to look for that book, and try to understand how Lux Foal could have gotten in possession of one copy and talked about its contenent with Nutriz, and why her father said that he wasn't referencing having sex with foals, despite the book's title leading to think otherwise. So Twilight passed through the alabaster and cedar flap leading to the actual library. "Alright... if I am not mistaken, and the 'De' is ignored, I should find it under the letter 'D,'" Twilight to herself, as she gave a quick glance to the bronze plates hanging on the fresco-painted ceiling with slightly rusted steel chains with the letters etched on them, so to see which row was which. Not that they were very near, since it took around twenty minutes for Twilight to pass over the "A," "B," and "C" sections of the library, and she felt a bit winded, once she had reached the engraved hanging plate that signaled the start of the section collecting the books starting with "D." "Uff... I remembered this Library smaller," Twilight said, as she started to scan the first shelves "but whatever, I have finally reached it, so I might as well look for it." And, with that said, Twilight started her quest for find the De Rerum Pederastia in the fine bookshelves of Canterlot's Royal Library. "Delirium: A Report from the Deep, no; Deluded&Insane: a Guide, no; De Rerum Natura, no... De Pederastia!" And so, finally, after an hour consumed in her quest for it, Twilight had it in her hooves. The book had an aquamarine cover with reddish typefaces as title, and golden yellow flower motives all around the borders. Despite the supposed age of the book, the cover was in near-pristine conditions, and the pages were not yellowed. "Curious," Twilight said to herself in a low voice, as she put the book in her saddlebag and went down the ladder "this copy shows little to no damage, for begin a book that is more than one hundred years old. I prefer think that it was protected thanks to a preserving enchantment unknown to me, but who knows..." Once she was on the floor, Twilight quickly put the discarded books back in their places, for then go to reach the ancient scriptorium of the Library. And, a little later, deeper inside the bookshelves alley, Twilight reached the scriptorium, a circular area devoid of bookshelves, but filled by stone desks placed in a concentrically around a podium, with two minotaurs and three ponies of each race holding carved in the marble as if they were keeping the podium on their backs. Seeing that the only five ponies there were sitting in the outer rings, even if they were reading some tomes intensely, Twilight decided to sit in the inner ring of the desks. There, on one of those, Twilight put the book down and sighed. "So be it." And then she slowly revealed the very first page of the forbidden book. On the first cover, there was this written in red ink. "1288's reprint. Reprints of this edition: 1285, 1288, 1292, 1295." "Wait, this book got reprints? Recently no less?" Twilight thought stupefied and shocked "Holy..." Since the next page was just the repetition in black characters of the title, Twilight flipped to the next page, namely the index of each part. Some of the titles sent a chill down her spine. "How to Introduce Kids to the Sexy Times? Diapers, Scat and Watersports, not only Parenting Unpleasantries? Best Ways to Teach them the various jobs?" Twilight felt the desire to puke at the idea of ponies still reading it and applying its teachings, at the idea of Celestia encouraging its reading, and the simply existence of such a foul book still in her days. But Twilight quickly dominated herself. "But... no, I have to read the preface first, because, otherwise, what I have seen today makes no sense whatsoever." So Twilight flipped all the pages between the index and the preface. She looked at the title, written in flowery typeface, and to the short text of the actual preface, written in italics. Then she started to read what was written in there. "This book is written for all ponies that want to learn the trade of Infantilism Domination and also make said Learning part of the sexual experience. I am fully aware of the unfortunate title, but, after all, what's a better title for such a gathering of hints on this topic, than the title of a raunchy and now-illegal gathering of hints on a very similar topic?" Twilight's jaw dropped, as her mind felt enlightened by those words. "Wha- Why- Wow!" Twilight murmured "So, there are two books of the same title. And it seems that the non-banned one is more famous or infamous than the banned and once-widespread one. That's why Nutriz had no problem in talking about it with me and Lux, and my father considered my rebuttal of poulastry irrelevant to his argument." Another realization hit Twilight. "And, most likely, that's the book the Princess gave to Orvosti's mother. After all, I think that all she wanted was to..." Twilight snapped herself back. "That's still awful actually. But, hey, at least she didn't want him to be actually taught like..." A part of Twilight sowed the seed of doubt in her mind. "How can you tell that? How can you be sure that Princess Celestia did not plan to ruin Orvosti's innocence?" "Pro quis causa prodest?" She answered to herself "Princess Celestia isn't a pony that wakes up one day and says that she wants to ruin somepony's life. However, considered how my father portrayed Orvosti's mother, it's more likely that she either misinterpreted Celestia's wishes, or that she did all of that on purpose." "We will see who was right," The other part said "We will see..." > Chiarezza è Stata Fatta/ Clering has Been Done. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After making the discovery of the existence of two different books with the same title, and after exiting form the Library, Twilight's day passed without anything truly notable happening, since she had enclosed herself in her family's library for look at the books that Twilight thought more likely to contain quotes and fragments from the banned version of the "De Pederastia," from old yearly reports to fiction novels, passing through literal essays, for comparison purposes. However, despite this research, Twilight found nothing truly noteworthy. When Twilight had raised her head from the old book detailing every book ever banned and legalized during all Equestria's history from the creation of the Index to fifty years before Twilight's birth, she saw that the Sun was begin set. "Wow, I really got carried away!" Twilight commented, as she got up from the armchair and went out of the family's library "Sure, didn't find much about it, but, hey, after all, I was looking for a banned book in a list that is older than me, it's not like I could find the current coordinates." That said, Twilight made a quick trip to the bathroom, before going for the dining room, where she saw Sedula Serva settin up the table. "Hello Sedula." Twilight said, as she went towards one of the yellow sofas of the living-dinign room. "Good evening, Miss Twilight." The older mare said, as she put the blue plates for Twilight and her father down "Went anywhere interesting this evening?" "No, Sedula, I didn't," Twilight said while sitting down, and watching the various paintings hanging on the walls "just went to the Royal Library for my research." "I thought that your studying duties were suspended." Sedula said while putting down the cutlery with ivory handles and some carvings "But, the more you know..." Twilight let out a little groan at Sedula's comment, before starting focus on her current work of table-setting before her father's arrival at home. Sedula had just put the stem glasses on the respective places, when a strong door slam signaled the return of Night Light at home. Suddenly, Sedula's actions stopped begin slow and relaxed and became hasted and fast, as she almost threw the small white jugs of oil and vinegar, the bronze salt dispenser and the intricately-decorated silver pepper grinder; and, when she was done with that she ran into the kitchen for quickly put the oil-covered pans onto the stove, and broke a couple of eggs for the omlet. Seeing that Sedula had went in a hurry for his father's arrival, Twilight got up and camly went to her red padded chair at her usual table spot. As soon as Twilight's butt was on the chair, Night Light managed to get in the dining room. "Good evening daughter," he said while dropping his coat and a notary deeds collection on the floor "did you do something during this afternoon?" Twilight groaned a little offended at his father's comment, before actually replying. "Good day father. Yes, I actually did something this evening," Twilight said "specifically, I went to the Royal Library for dispel my doubts about what's actually written in the 'De Pederastia.' I actually found out it was better than I thought." Night Light stared in her daughter in the eyes, his face frowning and the rest of his face's muscles moving for express disappointment. Twilight quickly picked up the meaning of that, and said annoyed. "What's the deal? Would you have preferred me saying that having sexual relations with foals was better than consensual Age Play between adults?" Night Light groaned, as he sat down and looked at Twilight in the eyes. "And how does that relate to that book?" Twilight facehoofed with both of her hooves. "Since the book I've found today had the same title of another old book that was banned, I was convinced that the former was the same thing as the latter. Turns out, the banned one is the oldest, and the newer one is widespread and, naturally, not prohibited." "I still don't get how that is connected with having sex with foals," Night Light said while filling his glass with the wine brought on the table by a rushing Sedula "please explain." Twilight groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. "Maybe that the older book was about poulastry and poulphilia and was prohibited for that, while the newer one is not about that, but about a certain aspect of Infantilism and Age Play revolving around domination of he sexual partner. In short, one is a fetish and one is a mental sickness." "I guess," Night Light said, sipping his wine and letting Sedula serve his omelette in the plate "But that doesn't answer to my question of wheter you looked for it because you wanted to step up your liking of infantile things or what." Twilight took a deep breath, before starting her narration. "No, father, I did not look for it because I wanted to 'step up' my vague appreciation of foalish matters. Rather, I wanted to know why you were unfazed by my negation of poulphilia and more concerned with my possible interest in Age Play, and how my Kindergarten's teachers could talk about a book that has been on the Index for a long time." As Night Light calmly cut a piece of his omelette, he interrupted his daughter. "Since you were a librarian, I thought you were aware of its existence and topic. But I guess that all this acting like a foal has molded up your memory a bit," Twilight cringed at her father's comment on her memory "see, the 'De Rerum Pederastia' has been in the list of the best-sellers for a while now. The reasons elude me, somebody says it's because Princess Celestia declared it to be her monthly book choice, some say it's thanks to the title, but, whatever is the case, it has been popular. My secretaries used to whispered about it from time to time, and I even got a client that insisted in making me borrow a copy of it, despite my refusal to read it or make it fall in Velvet's unstable hooves." "Uhu, interesting." Twilight stated, after she had listened to his father about the book "It seems that I should restock my library back in Ponyville more often." "I guess." Night Light said, as he went back to eating. Twilight, now finally noticing the egg in her plate, also started to eat. Not that she stopped er from talking in the pauses between a morsel and another. "So, anyway, since I was convinced it was the book I remembered to be, I was left a bit confused. The fact that, during lunch, you said that you weren't talking about the possibility of me begin sexually attracted by foals after I mentioned the book also made me arch my eyebrows a bit. So, once I finished my lunch, I simply took my Library Card and went to the Royal Library, and went to check what the book was actually about, and, well, the rest is history." "Oh," Night Light said, as he cleaned up his face and took a pice of bread for clean up his plate "thought it was way smuttier." "It was not smutty in any sense of the word," Twilight said as she took some salad, and ate it silently. Later on the same night, Twilight had fallen asleep in a quick manner in her bed. And, when Twilight opened up her eyes, darkness was all she could see around her. However, from the darkness, Twilight could hear the squeaking of a chair and the sound of whispered gibberish in the distance. "Where am I?" Twilight asked to herself, as she got up, and walked straight forward into the darkness "I don't think that I will have answers if I stay here, that's for sure." As she walked forward, a dim light started to shine around Twilight, showing that she was walking on a black-and-white checkered floor and that she was going towards what it looked like a simple wooden arch. "Uhu, where those lights are coming from?" she commented while turning her head towards the supposed sources of light, only to find nothing that could actually emanate light. And yet the light was there and, in fact, for each step that Twilight took, the light got stronger and stronger, until it was just a little bit brighter than actual daylight. "And the light increases its intensity too!" Twilight said, before noticing that she was standing just in front of the arch, which was bringing a seemingly white empty space into view. "Well, I think that I will have to go that way," she thought, as turned her head around to see the darkness enveloping the alley she had just walked down "I don't think that I can go back from where I started anyway." "Let's go." she said, as she put an hoof forwards in the room. All of sudden, the room changed completely. The white floor was replaced by a greenish dirty ceramic floor, the walls became light gray, the ceiling became the usual broken polystyrene typical of run-down offices, and the light was provided by a wooden ceiling fan-lamp. On one side of the room, there was a younger Twilight, likely not older than four, sitting on an examination bed and keeping in her hooves a brown envelope closed with a light green lace tied up on a steel ring. "I-it's me there?" Twilight asked to herself, still standing under the arch "No way." All of sudden, filly Twilight rose her head, saw her adult self, and smiled at her. "Hello, Big Twilight. What'ca doing?" Twilight looked at her younger self surprised and wondering. "H-how do you know me?" "Dunno," filly Twilight answered "I just know it." "That makes sense," Twilight thought "I mean, she could ask me the same question... also, I wonder what she is doing here. Maybe I can ask her..." And with that decided, Twilight walked towards her younger self, put herself to face level with the filly, then asked in a calm tone. "So, Twily, my dear, what are you doing?" Filly Twilight's eyes shone and her smile stretched as much as it could on her innocence-filled face. "I'm waiting for mommy to come to pick me up." "Oh, okay, makes sense." Twilight said "But what were you doing previously? You know, before you come here to wait for be picked up by your mother?" "A nice stallion asked me to lay down on a bed and put some kind of heavy apron over my waist, saying that he was going to pictures of my body while I was hugging with a colt." Twilight looked confused at her filly self, before slowly realizing what the filly's words were implying, and start to sweea a little. "Care to give me the pictures?" "Of course!" The filly said as she handed over the envelope. Twilight took the envelope in her magic, and carefully undid the lace's node for open it up. After doing that, Twilight carefully slide the contents on the floor, only to reveal some X-ray sheets. "Mmm... X-ray shhets. Makes sense. But what are they showing?" Twilight murmured to herself, while the filly watched without saying a word "There is only a way to find out, and that is find a decent light..." That begin said, Twilight turned her head around and saw a wall lightboard and a table made of fòrmica just behind her. "Uhu... it wasn't there before, but whatever." she said, as she went there with the then-unreadable sheets, took one of them and put the rest on the table. She put the aforementioned sheet udner the grib of the luminous board and finally gave it a good look. Twilight noticed the appearance of two images in the same sheet and a label over them. " 'Pre-excited Stage?' " Twilight murmured to herself, as she saw that the sheet actually contained two X-rays, specifically, the low-frencency radiography of a colt's pelvis and the coleography of a filly. "What?" Twilight murmured to herself "What does 'pre-excited stage' even means? And why those two foals got their pelvises X-ray like this for multiple times? Seems wasteful and dangerous... " Then Twilight took the second sheet. "Then again, maybe the next sheets will show me the reason for these." That said, she pinned the second sheet on the board. What she saw made her regret that instantly. "Is he... in her... no, please, no, not even in my dreams!" She shouted, as she jumped and looked away from the sheet. "Why? Why?!" The room and everything in it, filly Twilight included, started to disassemble and recompose itself in a radiology room, where filly Twilight and a gray colt did the deed on the bed while the X-ray machine clicked on the side of the bed. The sight made Twilight desire to puke an run away, but said desire became near to be set in action, as a robotic and far away voice asked "Please, proceed to show oral intercourse." The colt deattahed himself form the filly with a satisfied groan, whiel the filly kept moaning of pleasure for a bit. Twilight averted her eyes, her face green and her cheecks puffed out, trying to get out of her sight the chilling and mean display of madness. "Please, make it stop!" Twilight pleaded to whatever entity was merely watching that scene unfold. As soon as Twilight said those words, there was a joyous tang coming from above Twilight, followed by an echoing shout. "Vade retro, incubum!" Surprised by the development of the events, Twilight turned her head around, and saw Princess Luna blasting away with ease the two lustful foals and all the equipment around them. "Princess Luna?" Twilight whispered to herself, while she cancelled the nightmare's setting away for make room for the Dreamscape's wonderful sight. "Yes, Crepuscoli Scintilla, We are in your dreams once more!" She declared with her stentorian voice "Your troubled sleep was as luminous as a fixed star in Our sight, bringing us to intervene." Twilight got up on her fours only to bow at the Princess. "Thank you very much, Princess Luna." "That is is no concern. However, this time We do not understand what is the deep cause of your suffering, of what brought you to dream two little children fornicating. We feel a sense of guilt, a sense disgust towards happenings of the days past, a primal and irrational fear of violation. So, for help Us in understand your pain, we need you to reveal what is sickening you during this time." Twilight took a deep breath, before starting to explain Orvosti Ostba's entire story, how he told Twilight about getting punished at home failing in doing his task and how everybody reacted. At the end of the tale, Princess Luna's face was wearing a frown of bewilderment. "Sexual attraction towards foals is still an accepted practice? It surprises Us how the world changed little, since We were imprisoned in Our celestial body." Twilight blushed, at the thought of contradict Luna. "Actually... it is not, Excellence. It has not been so for around a century, and it is one of the highest crimes that a pony can commit." "It has been so for such a little time? This is a most interesting thing to behold. " Princess Luna said while she looked with widened eyes at Twilight for a few moments, before recomposing her demeanor. "But do not let Us not wander off the topic at hoof. If We understood all correctly, and forgive Us if we do not, your issue is with this young companion of yours, that is begin compelled to edify you upon the various lewd uses of a diaper?" Twilight nodded with a lowered head and a slightly red face. At the sight of the nod, Princess Luna quickly stated. "We feel that the solution for your intricate case lies upon heartening you that you are not directly responsible for the actions of that colt's mother, for you did not wish him to be instructed about indecent acts and be chastised for his failure to transmit his acquired knowledge to you. However, if you wish, We can bring you into the dreams of the colt, so that you may see what is truly happening to him, and thusly put your soul at peace." Twilight's heart felt a little lighter and smiled as she thought. "Visit Orvosti's dreams? That's a good idea. It would prove or disprove Luna's words about all of this not begin my fault after all, it would give me further clues about the truth of this issue, and it would allow me to soothe his pain, whether by simple sweet talking and hugging, or by mind cleansing by Princess Luna." "Of course I want to visit his dreams!" Twilight said "After all, visiting him sounds a way better option than remain in my mind to idly chatter." "T'was not idle prattle, but helpful words of mine. However, if you wish..." Luna’s horn glowed with a blue aura, and her and Twilight’s figures started to flicker . “So be it!” Shouted Luna, before disappearing with Twilight. A couple of minutes traveling in a multicolored tunnel later, Twilight and Luna reappeared in a different version of dreamscape, one where the floor looked like an orange moquette, and the stretching black infinity was replaced by a more soothing light blue tone and some hills in the distance. However, Twilight's attention was upon a little snoring figure lying down on the floor, a figure that Twilight recognized as Orvosti's. "Okay..." Twilight murmured to herself as she got near, thusly noticing little details like him wearing a white diaper and that he was wearing a beige shirt that was too big for him"how do I communicate with him?" Princess Luna answered indirectly to Twilight's question by going near him, and gently shaking him up. The colt slightly stirred, and rose his head up... before jumping away with a shrill shout, followed by an hiss that echoed in the relative emptiness of that place. "Fear not, my child, for I am the Rectifier of Nightmares and the Night Guide of all my subjects, be them foals that have barely witnessed the light, or be them elders ready to join their lost loved ones in the Elysium!" Princess Luan said with the Royal Canterlot VOcie, oen that made Orvosti tremble and attempt to hide under his nightshirt. "W-wat did I d-do?" he said in a quivering voice "P-pwease... dun huwt me..." Princess Luna kept saying. "For what We could ever process you, oh my little subject, for you are not felonious?" Twilight smiled at Luna's attempts to calm down Orvosti and let her heart warm up a bit, beofr walking towards the two saying. "Princess, Your Highness, he cannot understand you very well. In fact, he is begin scared by your tone and language," then Twilight lowered to Orvosti's eyes level and she started to pet his mane, before going on speaking with "Orvosti, there is nothing to be worried about now. you are not in trouble, me and Pricness Luna just want to help you out." Orvosti nodded fearfully at Twilight, causing her to giggle a little, and to Luna to look a little offended at Twilight. "We do not appreciate this interruption of Our speech," Luna said "but We will tolerate it for now." "I know, but I felt that it was necessary to act for the mental well-begin of your little subject," Twilight said to Luan in her most polite tone, as she kept streaking Orvosti's mane. "We understand." Princess Luan said "But let Us not lose ourselves in this matter." Twilight nodded, as she turned to the colt, who, in the meanwhile, had stopped trembling and was just sniffling a bit. "Calm now, Orvs?" Twilight asked to the colt, and the colt nodded. "Very well then, because I have a few questions for you. Answer me truthfully, because, in the Dreamscape, Princess Luna and I can see if you are lying." Twilight said, before giving a quick wink to Luna, who was raising her hoof in objection about the statment. "Wat awe da questions?" "Well, first, what did your mother do this afternoon with you, after Kidnergarten?" "She put diapee on, den anothew diapee on me and towd me to 'wub da two diapees aftah wetting.' I did tat wif hew, den mommy took some beads on stwing, and said dey wewe fow 'gwon-up punishment' and den showed me how use dem when you naughty, wike toys in special box." Twilight looked sideways at Orvosti, before quickly realizing what he was talking about, thusly making her stare at him disturbed. "Uuhh... your mother is... is... really mean." Twilight said, trying to keep a hold upon her language, as Princess Luna remained there, deep in thought. "You say?" Orvosti asked with wide eyes and a surprised frown. "Yes, trust me, she isn't doing anything nice to you." Twilight shook her head "But, anyway, let's move on, before I start a rant against your mother. The second question is, does your mother reads some book insistently?" "Yes," the colt quickly answered "something wif a some kind of bwue as covew and a red houwgwass ovew it." Twilight gulped at the description of the book's cover. "O..okay, very well, let's move on... third question: did Princess Celestia ever tried something similar to what you do with your mother?" "No." He answered dryly while looking away. Twilight sighed of relief. "Very well then. Fourth and final question: do you think me and the Princess can do anything for help you?" Orvosti looked around him unsurely, murmuring something unintelligible, and, overall, seemingly shifty in his lack of response. "Nothing?" Twilight asked in the attempt of exhort the colt to answer in the gentlest way possible, but receiving only silence from the colt. Seeing the lack of response form the colt, Twilight decided to give him a quick hug. Princess Luna suddenly shook her head and said. "Gah! We do not realize what would the use of several beads transfixed on a string as punishment-giver. But, let Us not lose Ourselves. Twilight, We are pained to announce that Dawn with pink hooves is going to be raised soon. Make haste in your decisions, so that we may leave before it's too late." Twilight took her courage with her two hooves, as she broke the hug and got up for look in Luna's eyes. "Princess Luna, Your Excellence, can I ask you a favor for me and this colt over here?" "What is it?" Princess Luna said, as she averted her eyes form Twilight's. "Could you please cleanse Orvosti's mind from all the damage and filth it has gathered due to what is happening to him?" Twilight said, as she got up with a sigh. "It will be done at once!" Princess Luna declared, as she lip her horn with a blue aura, and created two magical filaments, filaments that reached a confused Orvosti, before starting to dance over his little head... "It... it huwts! Oooww!" And moan while twitching in pain. Feeling that trying to soothe his pain could have interfered with the process, Twilight limited herself to smile emphatically to the struggling colt. This went on for two good minutes, before Princess Luna dropped the spell. "That has been done." she said "Not let us leave." "Bye-bye, Orvosti, we will see in Kindergaten this morning..." she said sadly, as Princess Luna's horn glowed blue once more and enveloped both the lunar princess and Twilight in the same aura, making them both disappear shortly after. > Nec Flexa, Nec Fracta, Sed Mutata/ Nè Piegata, Nè Spezzata, Ma Cambiata/ Not Bent, Not Broken, But Transformed. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As per her custom, Twilight rolled out of bed, and went to the bathroom to do her morning ritual before breakfast.   As she brushed her teeth, Twilight vaguely felt that she was forgetting something, but she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it.   Once she was out of the bathroom, she dressed in her "Kindergarten uniform", composed by the smock and diaper, once done Twilight went downstairs to the dining room where her breakfast was awaiting.   Her father walked into the dining room with a newspaper in his magical aura.   "Good day, father."   "Good day, Twilight, my dear," he said with an unusually content tone of voice. "Are you happy that this is the end of your punishment?"   Suddenly Twilight realized what that feeling was.   "Oh, I almost forgot. Yes, of course I’m happy my punishment is over," Twilight went to sit down on the table, while Sedula brought in the tray with the coffee and the brioches, "but, at the same time, I am a little bit sad that I will have to deal with saying goodbye to Lex Populi and the other foals I've grown fond of."   Night Light slightly cringed, as he sat down and took a brioche from the tray. "Uuummm... Okay. I can kind of understand you don't like leaving some ponies behind," he said "however, you must do it sometimes. I mean, look at me and Velvet. Once we loved each other and were on thought alike, but now, while we may still love each other, we couldn’t be any more distant."   Twilight took a cup of coffee, feeling a tangle in her throat at the comparison.   "That is very different, father. Velvet was objectively insane and a danger..."   "And she had to go. In this case, you like each other, but you have to leave now," he interrupted after taking a bite from his brioche "just get over this 're-discover foalhood' matter, and go back to your glorious present without any doubts. If you really want to keep in touch, write to her."   Twilight sighed as she took a sip of her coffee. He really could've said that less heartlessly. Sure, she had grown fond of the foals, but she’d never said she wanted to be a, like her friends called them, “Forever Foal” with them.   "Even after three months, you still can't wrap your head around it, can you?" she said, before taking one of the pastry creations. "But your suggestion of write to her sounds very good. I will keep that in mind."   Silence lingered as the family ate their respective breakfasts. Night Light kept his face towards the newspaper, an occasional crinkle of paper heard whenever a page was turned.   Twilight, on the other hand, simple ate her meal, trying to not think too much about the upcoming event of that day.   "Well, I think it's time for you to go now," Night Light said suddenly from behind the wall of words printed on paper.   Twilight got up, and walked into the kitchen, taking a quick gander at the clock, a mere quarter to eight.   "Bye father, bye Sedula, have a nice day!" Twilight called out as she headed out of the garden and down the familiar road leading to the Kindergarten. Ten minutes of walking later, she arrived in front of the Kindergarten's building, where a big group of foals was entering while waving goodbye to their parents. Twilight, like the usual, joined the crowd of little foals and fillies heading for class, where Lux, Nutriz and all of her classmates were waiting.   So far, Twilight found nothing unusual.  However, once she got a look inside the room, she saw that the room was dressed up, with yellow and green garlands hanging on the ceiling, and a small table with red paper cloth sat in the middle of the room, its surface full of in bowls of snacks and juice boxes. Twilight couldn't help but smile a bit at the going away party of sorts.   “Surprise!” Lux Foal exclaimed before giggling, “Do you like it? I’ve organized it all after Lex Populi, Olive Oil and many others of your classmates asked for it.”   “Yes, I do like it!” Twilight exclaimed with a chuckle. “I must thank them; this lifted my spirit so much!”   Lex ran up and gave Twilight a hug on Twilight’s foreleg, causing the mare to recoil a little for the impact.   “Suwpwise, Twiligh!” The filly said, as she got hugged back by a giggling Twilight.   “A little bird told me that you thought this up because I’m leaving!”   “Had to say goodbye to big sis,” Lex said, before frowning a little “Would have be sad if not.”   “Aaaw, how sweet of you,” Twilight said cooing a little, before breaking the hug. “But let’s go on and enjoy our last day together here, shall we?”   Lex Populi nodded with a smile, before running off to the toy boxes. Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she joined Lex, Olive, Pearly and several other foals in the party games arranged, inlucding pin the tail on the pony. Twilight had quickly glanced around upon seeing said game, to make sure she wasn’t going to receive a surprise pink party pony party crasher that had an slightly worrying eagerness for it. However, upon seeing no sign of Pinkie Pie, Twilight had relaxed a bit more and joined in with the others. The game ended with Olive being the winner, Twilight being second and Lex and Pearly tying for third, while Orvosti was last, somehow getting his tail pin pinned to the wall near the toilets.   Twilight looked around as all the foals played, having more fun than usual; ate the snacks and so on. It made her wonder if, maybe, she would have liked being a Kindergarten teacher herself, before she remembered that it was more than simply teaching foals that would be required and shelved the idea away. A small tug on her leg made her look down to see Lex looking up at her, a few tears in her eyes betraying the smile on her face. The mare leaned down and hugged her honorary little sister. “I promise, Lexy, I’ll write to you as often as I can. Your mommy can read them to you and she can write what you want to say to me in your own letters.” Twilight said. Lex looked up, her eyes wide. “We can do dat?” Twilgiht chuckled and ruffled the filly’s mane before nuzzling her. “Definitely. And I promise to come for visits when I can. I want to keep in touch with you, Lexy. Nothing will ever change that, little sister.” Lex gave a small squeal as she tried to pat away Twilight’s playful noggie and gave a wide grin at being called “little sister”. “Now, come on,” Twilight said, nodding to the table where many foals were enjoying the snacks provided. “If we don’t hurry all the snack will be gone and we won’t get any.” Lex nodded and hurried towards the table, Twilight following behind, a small, sad smile on her face as she realized she wouldn’t get to see that happiness from the filly for a long while.     The school day soon ended, Twilight taking one last look at her “Goodbye Party” before leaving for the last time. As she walked out of the gate towards her home, she noticed that Lex and her mother, Fairy Floss were still there, talking to each other, or, more accurately, with Fairy stroking Lex’s back and Lex looking down at the ground.   Noticing the sadness of the little filly, Twilight, desiring to rectify Lex’s mood, walked up to the two.   “Good day, Ma’am Fariy Floss,” Twilight greeted, looking down at Lex with a curious eye.  “What’s the matter with your daughter?”   Fairy Floss hushed her offspring, before turning her head to Twilight. “She’s just sad you have to go is all.”   “I kind of share the feeling too, to be honest,” Twilight said with an awkward smile.   “What can I do to make her feel better,” Twilight thought. “I already told her we’d talk via letters, but...” she blinked, before realizing something she’d forgotten about their communications arrangement .   An idea from earlier that day returned in Twilight’s mind.   “The address! I haven’t gotten her address. Well, now’s as good a time as any."   Thought that, Twilight smiled brightly, and ruffled Lex’s mane as she looked into Fairy Floss’ eyes.   “Could you please tell me your address? I’d like to become pen pals with your daughter.”   The mare gestured with her front hooves towards Twilight.   “Sure. It’s Burana Street n° 21. Yours, Twilight?”   Twilight thought for a moment and replied.  “Romea Street n° 1, Ponyville.”   Lex’s frown suddenly turned upside-down at the mention of the two addresses, as she hugged Twilight’s leg once more.   “Can I send dwawings?”   “Sure, why not Lexy?” Twilight said “I’d love to receive them. Oh, and letters are welcome too!”   The filly giggled, as she detached herself from Twilight and started to prance away, waving bye-bye in the meanwhile.   Twilight felt happy as she turns her gaze towards the castle in the distance. Without delay she headed off to home.     Twilight reached her house’s gate, and rang the bell. As usual Sedula answered.  However, as soon as Twilight started to walk on the stone path to the house, Sedula said something that gave her reason to pause.   “Miss Twilight, Her Majesty Princess Celestia is waiting in the house for you. She didn't tell us why. She says it’s a private affair between you and her.”   “Why does Celestia want to see me in my house?” she thought as she nodded to Sedula and stepped in the entrance hall. “To officialize that the end of my punishment is here, okay, but why is she being secretive about it?”   As she thought that, Twilight walked upstairs to the dining-living room and there she saw Princess Celestia sitting on one of the yellow couches and sipping a cup of a hot drink.   “Hello Twilight, did you enjoy your last day of Kindergarten?” Celestia asked with a motherly and yet unsettling tone.   Twilight, sensing something akin to Velvet’s madness, took the necessary cautions.   “Princess Celestia, my last day in the Kindergarten was very pleasurable. However, the implications you are making about it are most likely incorrect.”   Celestia looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, before turning to Twilight, and saying with a mellifluous tone, “Oh, and what would those be?”   “That I am interested in becoming your little and precious filly to take care of. As much you would like it to be reality, and as much it sounds tempting to my ears, I have a duty and a whole range of pleasures accessible only by begin an adult, and I don’t feel that those pleasures can be ignored so easily.”   “But Twilight, you will have more time to do the remaining pleasures, and you will get your innocence back! Would not that be wonderful?” Princess Celestia said, grinning widely to Twilight, her voice still mellow.   But Twilight did not feel the charm of the voice. If anything, it reminded her of all the horrible things she’d thought the princess could’ve have been involved into during the time of her punishment.   Twilight took a deep breath and faced her mentor. “Princess, I am not a Forever Foal, nor do I wish to be a foal again. Indeed, my time spent with my new foal friends was enjoyable when I didn’t have to worry about my mother, and I even gained a sisterly relationship with one of the fillies, but I am not and never will be your little foal. I have responsibilities, ones you gave me, I might add, to attend to and I will not throw them away to role play, or, worse, regress. I also have Spike to think about. He is like my son and a son cannot be cared for when his mother is acting like a child. Even then, are you so sure that I would not grow bored of those activities, without any drive to wish to go back to them? Are you so sure I will not feel regrets in not doing anything? Begin completely free of workload, and thus responsibility, and, thus, without any of the benefits coming with it? Are you so sure I would sacrifice the friendships I’ve worked hard to forge to be more than a mere duty to the realm? On top of that, you say I will get my innocence back? My innocence is still intact and with me, princess. It always will be, as it is with all ponies. Aging is a natural part of life and I am not going to go against the natural order just so you can spoil me like a foal. Also, I have my concerns that you have decided, surely against better judgment, that the innocence and overall the life of a colt, his name Orvosti Ostoba, yet to be mature, was less worthy than the hopeless pursue of my acceptance of regression and return to a parody of innocence. So, that would make you the last pony able to speak on the subject." Twilight said, before adding with a little smirk "But I am certain that you know nothing about it, and thusly discharging you form this accusation, right?" Celestia’s smile cracked a bit as she replied. “But you would be taken care for, and if you accept, your mind will be free of every truly negative thought and any worry. It would be the best thing that a pony can experience! Also, how did that colt lose his innocence anyway?” Twilight inflated her chest. “It would not be, for that inactivity of both intellectual and physical variety is dangerous and sign of foolishness. Also, to lose my independence, begin forced to be taken care of, is the worst thing that could happen to me. Also, if I am powerless, you will be weakened, ” Then Twilight leaned towards Celestia “after all, two Elements of Harmony do not accept to be controlled by the same master.” The princess looked at her sides worriedly, and, with it, she rocked the teacup, thus spilling the hot liquid all over the place. “Aehm… the Elements were not exactly my first thought, when I proposed this... also because I was preparing myself to find a replacement for them anyway.” “They should have,” Twilight said “after all, they are the first line of defense when it comes to most threats.” There was no reply for few minutes, as Celestia blinked and stopped the rocking motion for remain standstill. Then she closed her eyes and sighed. “Are you certain, Twilight, that is what you want? To remain an adult with responsibilities, duties, and everything in-between?” Celestia said after sighing.   Twilight nodded. “Yes, princess. You told me when you made me your apprentice that I had a great future ahead of me, but I cannot reached said future by living in the past. We must move forward, both of us.”   Twilight sighed and shook her head.   “Besides, I must now watch over my mother and see that she does not deteriorate due to her new line of work, but gets better. Being back in Ponyville, I will be able to keep a closer eye on her and let my father know of her progress.” “Not to mention keep my library doors locked whenever I go to sleep to prevent her from trying to pull me back into it,” she thought nervously.   Celestia sat for several moments, keeping her eyes closed. After a time, she finally spoke. “If that is your answer, Twilight, I suppose I have no other choice.”   Celestia got up, walked towards Twilight, leaned down and nuzzled her, like usual.   Twilight returned the gesture; sad to have dampened her mentor’s hopes, but glad they could put it behind them, all the same. “And, I promise I did not know what Orvosti’s mother was doing to him until now. I promise she will be dealt with and he will not have to worry any further.”   Twilight was glad the young colt wouldn’t have to be put through that anymore and thanked her mentor for it, keeping to herself how glad she was to hearthe alicorn had known nothing of it til this morning and had played no part in it beforehoof.   Princess Celestia got up from her couch, and nodded, as she left the house with her head lowered, while Twilight went upstairs. As Twilight went upstairs, and gave a quick look outside the window, she saw Celestia stopping at her house’s gate. “I do look forward to your next letter. “ Princess Celestia shouted, before opening her wings wide and taking off towards the castle with her usual grace and style. Twilight sighed and headed up to her room to begin packing for her trip home. As much as she was worried about whether she’d have to keep an eye out for her mother to stop her from being pulled into being treated as a foal again, she was glad to be heading home at long last, as she put off her “Kindergarten Uniform” for the last time, and put her few things she had brought from Ponyville at the start of her four months of punishment in the suitcase. After the four-and-half-hour long train ride, courtesy of a delay, Twilight arrived at Ponyville’s station. Taking a quick look out the window she could already see some her friends awaiting on the platform. grabbing her luggage in her magic, Twilight jumped down on the platform while the announcer kept repeating “Please mind the gap. Please mind the gap…” like a broken record. Twilight located her friends and walked towards them. Better yet, she attempted to, since Rainbow Dash and Rarity had rushed to Twilight while the others followed not too far behind. “Welcome back, egghead!” Rainbow Dash cheerfully greeted. “It’s good to be home with you again. I’m sure Spike missed me too.” Rarity grinned “Actually, he didn’t. He kept trying to date me more and more, until he started to live in a trashcan with the rats. To be perfectly frank, it was disgusting, so I had to force him to stay with FLuttershy, since the substitute librarian was a saurophobe.” Twilight at first blinked at hearing about Spike’s odd behaviou,r before chuckling a bit “Oh Spike is rather silly at times.” She looked around for a second noting the absence of a certain pink party pony. “Where’s Pinkie?” Everybody started to grin awkwardly and look away, expressing that something was boiling in the pot. Everybody, but Applejack, who, after looking around, said. “Ah dunno. That girl has been actin’ weird since yer mother arrived. Ah mean, she started a shop for adults actin’ like young ones, and she started to work in more and more.” Twilight nodded. “Yes, I’m aware, but…” Then the sense of the phrase came to Twilight’s mind. “Wait you said she started to dedicate more and more time to that business? That means…” Twilight’s pupils shrunk to pinheads “Oh no.” “Twiiiillllyyy….” a familiar voice echoed from the distance. “It seems that, soon, my mother will see a squared Sun…” Velvet, jumping from behind a bench ran up and gave her daughter a bear hug. “Welcome home.” Twilight groaned “One more word, and you are off to a mental hospital. I will repeat and spell it: one… more…word.” Velvet chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about that, Twily..." Twilight prepared herself to shout the banishment words, before Velvet could continue. "My therapist says that, as long I keep going and take my pills, you are not at risk of motherly love." Twilight smiled to Velvet, as her mind sang to itself a song of celebration. Song that also worked as statment of her new mentality. > Bonus Chapter- Lance Possibilmente spezzate+ Adapted song lyrics. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Celestia returned to her chamber and used her magic to move the portrait of Starswirl the Bearded from the wall, revealing a hidden compartment. Opening it, she levitated out an old chest she’d kept hidden behind the picture for many years. Unlocking it, she fished around in the chest and pulled out a worn book, the one containing the spell that Starswirl never finished. Celestia looked out the window of her study at the late afternoon sky. “If Twilight can prove she is able to finish this spell, my dreams may not yet be lost,” she thought, levitating the book and walking over to the window, looking out in the direction of Equestria’s north. “I know he will return soon, just as Luna and Discord did. My spymasters were never wrong. This is a perfect opportunity: if Twilight can prove herself then, she will be ready to finish the spell.” Celestia turned and walked to a door she kept locked, one only she was permitted in, unlocked it and went in to find a nursery, themed perfectly for Twilight. She smiled. “Once she will finish the spell, it will take her some time, but, in those terms, she will be an infant and want to come.” She giggled. “Oh, Twilight. You always think you can outsmart me, but you can’t.” With that, she walked out the nursery, closing and locking the door behind her and placed the book on one of her shelves, ready to send it the moment Twilight was ready and returned to her duties, knowing the day would come when she would get her little filly. She just had to wait, something she was very experienced at doing. Twilight's song: Hooves up, out of here! I will not be a jailbird But I will fly away like a hummingbird Or like a light buzzard flying away from a golden cage Without negotiating anything with the one That has decided to scalpel away Of our hopes and in our days For our life I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free! From the virus of regret From the nursery rhymes and the cribs From lies, from love debts, from intromissions from unusual punishments and preaching Let's slip away! I leave my prison without passing the "Start" tile! I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free! From what weakens you, and everything that regresses you From what weakens you, and everything that regresses you From what weakens you, and everything that regresses you From what weakens you, and everything that regresses you From the mares that are not masters of their own impulses. From everybody that taints my mind. I will break free because I am fed up! I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free I'm free I'm free I'm free Free, free, free! FREE! > The Lost One (Scrapped Chapter) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight looked up at her father, joy and hope banishing resignation and despair in her heart, and her body charging up with energies. "Velvet, what just happened here? Why my daughter is in a diaper? Why there is a stranger in this house playing with her? Why the cameretta returned fully operative?" Night Light shouted, as he glowed his horn and walked in the room with a threatening look in his eyes. Pinkie Pie, unable to gave an appropiate response to the situation, dropped the toy syringe, and gave a textbook example of genuflexion towards Twilight's angry father. Night Light dragged Velvet in the cameretta by an ear.. But he wasn't going to give any respite to Velvet. "Come on, explain, I'm curious to know!" Velvet looked up at her husband, her eyes watered a bit. "You don't recognize her? She is Pinkie Pie, our second-oldest daughter!" Night Light's neck was inflated for a brief moment in surprise, then he went back to his state of enraging towards Velvet. Angirly, he let go of his wifes ears. "We have only two children, Shining Armour and Twilight..." Night Light, in a swift and sudden movement, pressed his nuzzle agaisnt Velvet's "and both of them are adults now." Velvet retreated, until she slipped and hit the floor with her back. "You are running too fast and have a bad memory, Nighty," Velvet sang, sweating profusely "They’re still little. Twily has yet be fully potty trained..." Night Light looked at Twilight, his face cringed, looking disgusted at his daughter infront of him. Since Twilight understood what he was implicitly saying with that look, she quickly decided to answer back, just for be sure of going in the right direction. It was time to tell him everything that happened while he was away, finally she was going to talk to a sane adult that wanted and could act. Twilight sat down and started talking of every experience she’s had in the past week. "She lies! Lies, lies, lies, lies! She stuffed me of laxatives and diuretics, only for make me go in the diaper, saying I was constipated! She has forced me to drink from a baby bottle in her lap! She has locked me up in this room for force me to play with toys! She has yanked Cadence from her job as Chairpony of the Council for use her as babysitter for me and my friend Pinkie! She has forced my six friends and their three little sisters, barely nine-years old, to endure this torture for an entire day! Worst of all, she has impeded me from serve my punishment, and go to the Kindergarten, on the grounds I was too young for it! She never once asked me how I felt about anything! She is unbelivably, completely, utterly, totally, extremly, unspeakbly, and shockingly mad!" Night Light's face got redder and redder, steam coming out of his ears, eyes squinting, angry gibberish coming from her mouth and eyes tearing. Fearing the worst, Pinkie ran out of the room in fear, while Twilight and Velvet staired with completely different expressions. Night Light burst into flames and grabbed his wife from the chest fur. Drawing his wife’s face nearer to his own, a fire in his eyes resonated to show his anger "What I have told you, Velvet? What I have told you, before I left this house for work last Friday?" Velvet, feeling the heat of the flames, sweated even more, and tired to look away from her husband. "Y-you told m-me t-that I-I could t-treat T-Twily in a-any w-way I wanted to..." Night Light grabbed the fur of Velvet even stronger, to the point she shouted in pain, all while Twiligth smirked. "In a way that did not interfere with the punishment or degrade anypony else!" Shouted Night Light, spitting out a flame tounge that burned out some hair of Velvet's mane "You forced our daughter to live like a foal! You’ve forced her eight friends to act like foals! You even kidnapped one of them!” Twilight was going to reply that Pinkie Pie was actually there for her own will, but she refrained herself from that, and let the situation deleplov in her favour. "But..." Velvet said with a trembling voice, tears truly forming in her eyes. "There is no excuse! What you have done is already sick! But what really upsets me is you forced three little fillies to take part in your sick little game! Do you know the damage you might have done to them?!" Velvet shook her head, as her husband closed his eyes and huffed deeply. "This act alone is worthy of institutionalization, but, wait, there is more! You have brought the Archduchess Cadance in this mess withotu any reason but use her as babysitter. If she didn't knew you and was so patient, I bet she would have sent a squad of ponies in white to take you away!" Night Light's opened his fiery eyes again and staired into his wifes magenta one’s, "But, worst of all, you had no respect for your daughter..." he said, more with contempt than rage "You have filled her food with laxatives to make sure she’d always need diaper changes. You wanted to make her dependent on you. Not only that, but you wanted to make one of her friend’s dependent on you, and for what? I understand you miss your little filly, but Twilight needs to grow up. She’s a mare, a beautiful young mare, and you’re trying to hold her back because you don’t want to let her go. Is that it?" Velvet broke in crying, thign that gave a last burst of rage to Night Light. "Ah, now you cry. Was that it? Are you sad because Twilight isn’t always going to need you? Don’t be Velvet, there was a time when she needed you, but she’s over that. She’s strong now, Shining is strong now, and you just need to except that, because one day they’re going to need to be strong for their fillies, and their colts like you were for them!" Then he let his wife from his storng grasp, amking her thump on the ground. Velvet cried a bit more, before raising her eyes from the floor and looking at her husband. “B-but… they… are not ready...” Night Light shook his head. “That seals it, you are compeltely delusional. I will likely send to a psychiatric hospital, so I may get back my wife, and not this regressing abomination that I have in front of me.” And Velvet wept. When Night Light’s rage lessened a bit, he and her true daughter looked at eachother. “Should we give her some time alone?” Asked Twilight. Night light nodded and walked towards the door with an haughty stance. “Yes. Come on, make me company while I have breakfast. I want to relax a bit, especially after what happened in the cameretta. Seriously, it rattled my nerves.” Twilight smirked and thought. “A bit more than that. Also, that scene destressed me in ways I thought impossible.” Night Light went into the living room, only to find Pinkie nervously waiting on one of the couches. "Is it..." she tired to say, before seeing Twilight's father in her direct line of sight, She ducked, but was spotted in vain. "Now you, Pinkie Cake, or whatever you are called. Get out of this house and never show up ever again, alright?" Pinkie walked away with her ears lowered, but, when she was near the entraace hall, she asked. "Can I bring Velvet's insanity furniture with me? I would have actually a sane and consensual use for it..." Night Light did not thought too much about it with snorting sigh. “Sure, whatever. Take anything foalish you want, we’re not going to have any more adult foals in here from now on.” Pinkie Pie ran immediately back in the hallway that contained the cameretta, and came out of it ten minutes later with the wicker baskets full of toys tied to her back. Smiling she waved to Night Light as she walked out the doorway, “Hehe, goodbye Mr.Twilight’s Dad!” “Goodbye,” said night Light dryly. Twilight smiled at his fahter. “Father… you don’t know how much I am happy that you are back. I don’t know for how much longer I could have last.” While walking towards the kitchen, he said with an hint of acidity. “For a pretty long time. Are you not my daughter? Are you not a brilliant pony?” Twilight nodded proudly. “Yes, I am.” Night Light and smiled widely at his daughter. “See? You are indeed, blood of my blood!” He said entering the kitchen, opening a shutter contaiing the food, takign out two plates of salty foods, and sitting down at the table. Twilight watched carefully what her father was picking, for be sure it wasn’t laxative-laced, before remembering that her mother served to Pinkie normal food. The laxatives came were all in the formula. Unless his father had a secret liking for baby formula, it was unlikely he wasn’t going to have bowel problems. She sighed relaxed. As her father took out a couple of the random food items and started munching them down, Twilight sat down at hte table, and looked awkardly around the room. “So Dad… what do you wanna do now? I mean, we can’t send Velvet to an insane asylum, are you aware how terrible that’d be on your reputation? But, we need to do something about this obsession of hers!” Twilight’s dad wiped her face off, “Listen…” he said pausing briefly to think, “I know you’re not going to like this, but can you bear with her for just a few months longer?” The mare’s eyes shot wide open, “Huh? B-but...” Night Light closed his eyes, “I’m sorry Twilight, but I can’t jeprodize my entire political career because you got yourself in a tangle with your insane mom. Now I’ll give you the option to drop out of Celestia’s patronage, but that’ll mean you’ll need to start earning your keep…” Night Light took a drink of water, “The other option of course is to stay under our care. You’d be living like Velvet’s ‘foal’ I suppose, but I’d play along and make sure she doesn’t overstep her boundairies alright? You have until night to decide, I have to work on some papers alright?” “B-But Dad!” Twilight said sitting up straight in her seat. A sudden pain arrived in her stomach as she tried to object, “I-I don’t want to be a foal any longer!” Night Light smiled back at his daughter, “Well, we can always look for libarian jobs in Canterlot…” Closing her eyes, Twilight relaxed. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her fleeting father, “I-I’ll talk to Cadance later about all this.” Night Light nodded, “Good girl. By the way, feel free to ditch the diaper for now. Actually, you might wanna leave the house all together at the moment.” Twilight ran up to her dad and hugged him, “Thankyou!” she looked at her dad’s smile and returned one. A sudden pain in her stomach made her cringe, “Ooh, uh. Actually, first I’m going to use the little fillies’ room. Um, talk to you later alright?” The dad nodded, “Understood!” Smiling, Twilight ignored her current decision. All that mattered was making it upstairs. Quickly, she trotted through the kitchen and back upstairs to the bathroom. After several minutes of ‘doing her buisness’, Twilight relived herself and cleaned everything that was dirty, and, thankfully for her, all by herself.. Idly, she stepped out of the washroom and fellowed the subtle cries of her mother. She opened the empty cameretta’s door and stepped inside. Looking down at her hoofs, Twilight squinted her eyes at her sobbing mother. She looked in absolute dispear, like her life was over. For the first time in a week and maybe her whole life, Twilight frowned at her mother with a sympathique expression on her face. She was no longer the insane caretaker she was earlier today, she was the lonely mother that she had yet to see since Celestia first moved her out of her house. A part of Twilight made her want to reach out to Velvet and tell her that everything was going to be fine, but she just felt… scared. As if Velvet were an upset tiger or bear that just lost it’s cubs. Twilight inched back towards the door, looking around at all the things that wearn’t there any more. Pinkie Pie took so much of the foal stuff, leaving behind only three empty shelves nad the wallclock. Closing her eyes, Twilight walked out of the door and muttered, “Sorry…” With a heavy heart, Velvet’s daughter trotted down the stairs and into her father’s study. Being carefuly not startle him, she opened the door slowly and crept inside… “D-daddy?” Night Light raised an eyebrow and turned her chair to look at Twilight, “Yes dearest?” He paused, looking at her small phyique, “Twilight, you’re still wearing a diaper?” Twiligth blushed a little bit, “Hehe, yeah… those laxatives are a pain. Would mind if we discuss some of mother’s issues some more?” “Like here foal obsession?” Velvets asked, adjusting his glasses. Twilight nodded, “Where’d it start?” Night Light climbed on top of his study’s couch. The room itself looked ultra-offical for any study she’d ever seen. All the furiture made out of wood, shelves of volumes of books, and all the furniture padding, green and red to match the room’s cozy feel. Clearing his throat, Velvet helped his daughter climb up next to him, “Listen, back when Velvet and I were first married. No, when we first had Shining, there were some… ‘issues’.” “Issues like what?” Twilight asked, tensing up in her seat. “Well you see, your mother never had given birth before. At that time, they medical magic wasn’t as good as it is now. Velvet… well Velvet almost died giving birth to Shining dear.” Twilight yawned as she got more comfortable on the plush couch, “Y-You’re saying that she almost died? What saved her?” Night Light closed his eyes, “We don’t know. Velvet prayed to Celestia durning that operation that she’d do anything she could to protect her children as long as she lived…” Twilight’s heart seemed to almost stop in that moment, “I-I didn’t know.” Night Light nodded with a small smirk on his face, “It’s alright, now you know why Velvet feels this ‘protective over you…” the stallion looked at his daughter, “Twilight, you’re shaking.” Tears formed in Twilight’s eyes as she collasped in her hoofs, “D-Daddy! I didn’t know!” “It’s alright baby…” Night Light cooed, hugging unto his daughter. He smiled a bit as he wrapped a hoof around her neck. Slowly he brought her into a hug, “Funny, I haven’t held you like this since you were a child Twily.” Twilight’s sobs continued to lesson as she fell into some silent rest. It didn’t take long for her to calm down completly. Smiling, Night Light hoped off the couch and threw a blanket over his daughter, “You rest as long as you need to kiddo. I’ll be right over here, working on my notes if you need me.” Before Twilight’s dad finished the sentence, Twilight seemed to be completly out of it. Perhaps it was the warm atomsphere of the room, or maybe the sincere concern from one of her parents from once, but it was enough to put Twilight to sleep. *** “Twilight?” Cadance sang, nudging her friend’s shoulder, “Twilight, I umm…” Night Light looked at Twilight and back to Cadance before shrugging, “I don’t know, you’re free to leave if you’d like.” “No!” Twilight said, waking up groggy from her sleep, “I-I’m up, I just-” she sighed, “I just need a moment.” Cadance smiled, “It’s quite alright… your father and I were just discussing what to do with you and Velvet.” Twilight’s eye opened wide, “W-what?” Nightlight smiled, “We’ve decided we’ll invite Pinkie Pie back as her perminate daughter. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Umm… I’m not sure how I’d feel about that.” “Come on Twilight, think of it! Velvet wouldn’t ever threaten you with diapers or dicipline again! You’d be your own mare and she could live out all her fantasies with no boundries!” Night Light sang cheerfully. Cadance nodded, “It does sound like quite a deal doesn’t it Twilight? I’m sure your mother will be so caught up with you, that you’ll hardly hear from her. Twilight close her eyes, “Well… I just I choose…” Velvet stepped into the room, gathering the attention of everypony around her. In a passive agressive tone of voice, she trotted up to her daughter, splitting both Night Light and Velvet apart. Frowing, she held back tears in her eyes, she tried to say something but just looked away from her daughter. Angrily, she stomped her hoofs and turned away, “I can’t even look at you… you’re not my daughter.” Twilight cringed as she and the rest of the ponies in the room looked confused at Velvet, “I-I’m sorry… I just.” Night Light moved his head close to his duaghter, turning it so Twilight could give him her private answer. Closing her eyes, Twilight frowned, “Daddy I… I chose…”