The Spirit of Imagination
Cocoa Powder's ears perk up at the sound of the door to his apartment opening. Turning toward the noise, he spots his roomie, Dusty Tome, opening the door, levitating their heavy saddlebags onto a nearby hook and arching their back with a groan. Cocoa smiles, pausing his movie and quickly cantering over to his exhausted roommate, delivering a nuzzle to their cheek.
"Hello, Dusty~" he chirps, "Long day at the library...?"
"Like you wouldn't believe..." Dusty manages to mumble under their breath. Taking a seat right there in front of the door, they twist and turn, barely audible snaps and pops coming from their tense joints and spine. Cocoa nods, heading into the kitchen.
"I believe it, Dusty, I believe it." he says reassuringly, as soft clinks from glass against glass, followed by something pouring, were heard. A quick sniff at the air confirms the librarian’s suspicions.
"Mmnn... Cocoa, is that what I think it is?" They call, standing up and licking their lips.
"I dunno! What do you think it is?~" Cocoa called back, still just out of sight, but Dusty could practically see the huge grin plastered on his muzzle.
"C'mon, don't tease me like that, I had a long day!"
Cocoa Powder comes back, balancing a steaming cup and saucer on his snout with ease, approaching Dusty before lowering his head down to allow their gaze to grace the chalice’s contents.
"Warm apple cider, for my hard-working roomie~"
Dusty takes another long inhale, taking an extra few moments to bask in the scent before levitating the cup and saucer off Cocoa's muzzle, taking a sip, and blinking in surprise! A warm, woody flavor was mixed with the smooth tartness of the apples!
"Cinnamon!" Dusty exclaims with a big smile. Cocoa gives another nod of confirmation, gently patting his roomie on the head with a hoof and mussing their scarlet and pink striped mane.
"Of course! Hard working ponies deserve only the best!"
Dusty's cheeks become pink as they giggle, follow Cocoa to the couch, and get comfortable. Without missing a beat, Cocoa unpauses the movie. The two of them would watch, Dusty sipping on their apple cider, Cocoa gently scratching behind their ear with a hoof. The perfect way to end a stressful shift.
It was so relaxing, in fact, that Dusty wasn't even a little bit surprised when they woke up the following morning still on the couch, their roommate having fallen asleep some time ago and their TV having gone into sleep mode. After dexterously managing to get out of the baker’s snuggles, Dusty goes to the kitchen and starts up their coffee machine. Idly walking over to their saddlebags, they open it up and levitate out several books from it, scanning the covers before stopping at one.
"Oh, for the love of Celestia..." they mutter, planting their hoof against the bridge of their nose and shaking their head. In their haste to pack up and go home, they had inadvertently picked up one of those silly graphic novel books based off of a newspaper comic. Absolutely nothing of merit, just brainless fun and one-liners. Foal stuff. Dusty pauses and gives a stern look at the book, as if expecting it to cower away from them. Their expression soon softens as they continued to stare, before letting out a defeated sigh.
"Eh... It's the weekend. I can set aside my studies for a while anyway."
Dusty walks back to the kitchen, opening the book and rifling through the pages until they stopped somewhere in the middle of the book, reading one of the 4 panel comics. It starred a young colt and a tall anthropomorphic tiger. Further reading showed that the tiger was in fact nothing more than a stuffed animal, as it would turn into a limp plush toy whenever someone else other than the colt was in the same panel. Dusty had to admit though... these comics were pretty funny.
Sitting at the table with their coffee, they sipped at their beverage as they read another one... and another... and another. Soon enough, they had gotten through their entire cup of coffee, only realizing when they went for a sip and found it bereft of the caffeinated majesty it had once contained.
"Oops. How long has it been...?" Dusty glances at the clock, seeing that they’d been reading the book for upwards of 30 minutes. A flash of scarlet runs across their muzzle.
"Long enough that my snuggle buddy disappeared..." Cocoa says, drawing their attention as they step into the room, rubbing the sleep out of his eye with a hoof, smiling. "Whatcha reading?" he says with a yawn, going over and pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"Oh, morning Cocoa... Just one of those silly books based on a newspaper comic strip."
"Oh is that Cotton and Paws? I love that series! His tiger was so cute!" Cocoa happily leans over Dusty’s shoulder, looking at the comics with a big smile.
"You like this stuff?"
"Of course I do! Sometimes, I used to pretend that my stuffed animals were real too, and we'd go on adventures!" He giggles, taking a sip of his coffee.
Dusty snorts, putting the book down. "And now you play Ogres and Oubliettes. So how much has changed?"
Cocoa sticks out his tongue playfully. "Absolutely nothing. I still like to pretend from time to time." He suddenly gasps, beginning to prance in place. "Omigosh! Dusty, we should play pretend!!"
"Wha-ha-hat? No, we shouldn't. I'm awful at pretending." Dusty slides their chair out from the table, standing up and going back for a second cup of coffee.
"Oh c'monnnn! Pleaaaaase?"
"No, no way!" Dusty giggled, putting out their hoof out to hopefully halt Cocoa's excitement, or at the very least, quell it. They didn’t want Cocoa to spill their coffee and get burned. Cocoa seems to stop, at least for a moment, before giving his roomie a huge grin. Dusty blinks, caught off guard by the sudden mood change before suddenly lowering their brow and frowning.
"Oh no."
The chocolate coated pony grinned wider, leaning forward to close the distance between the two of them.
"No, no! Don't you dare!" Dusty gave Cocoa the same look they gave the book when they found it, once again trying and hopelessly failing to overpower it’s childlike powers. Cocoa giggles before sprinting to the closet. Dusty covers their muzzle and lets out a groan, before calling after him. "Nooooo! That’s cheating!!"
Cocoa comes back, carrying a pastel blue and pink bag with a fuzzy blanket strapped to it. Setting it down, he removes the blanket from it’s clip, spreads it out carefully, making sure the adorable design of ABCs, 123s and teddy bears was completely visible. As the baker began to unpack everything from the bag, Dusty did their best to keep their eyes away from it as much as possible. Soon, everything was set out, and the librarian had to do everything in their power to ignore the scent of baby powder, the crinkling sound of diapers and- POMF! the teddy bear smacking them in the face.
"Hey!" Dusty shouts, scowling at Cocoa and turning pink immediately as their eyes widen. They looked and now they were trapped. Cocoa was smiling warmly at them, wearing a diaper, holding another one out to Dusty with glee. "You're a dirty cheat you know that?"
"I know~" Cocoa says as Dusty approaches, letting him pamper them up like a foal. "But there's something that you don't know."
"And what might that be?" They were trying incredibly hard to sound incredulous but the embarrassment in their voice just made them sound silly.
Cocoa smiles, shoving a pacifier into their mouth and patting them on the head. "You're great at pretending. And to prove it, I'm gonna be your loving caretaker all day today. Which means no books, no studying, and no stress."
Dusty blinks, cheeks reddening a bit more. They wanted to argue, but... a day to just relax and let somepony else pamper them and tend to their every need...? And how could they argue with Cocoa looking at them so lovingly? They could tell Cocoa really wanted to take care of them today... All it took was a silent nod of Dusty's head, and they went from stressed librarian to Cocoa’s foal.
Cocoa takes them to the couch, sitting them down and putting on a cartoon for them to watch together. Dusty lets out a soft snuff, suckling on the pacifier for only a few minutes before they began to relax. It wasn’t long before Cocoa stands up and heads to the kitchen. Dusty found themselves far too entranced in watching the colorful characters on the screen to hear what their caretaker was doing, so they jumped a bit when Cocoa sat down next to them again.
"Hungry?" he said, offering them a baby bottle full of what smelled and looked like baby formula. Dusty sneers a bit, looking away and crossing their forelegs. Cocoa didn’t let that bother him, smiling and shrugging, before setting it on the table in front of them and snuggling close to his foal for the day. It only took a few minutes of watching the cartoon for the scholar to slowly levitate the bottle over to them and begin to drink from it idly, not really paying any attention to what they were doing and working off of instinct. The brown stallion smiled at the sight of that, deciding it was better to let them enjoy it on their own and not tease.
Soon, the bottle was totally empty, leaving Dusty looking at it forlornly. Cocoa came prepared, however, and offered another bottle, which Dusty happily took and began to drink from. It took a moment but Dusty pulled the bottle's nipple from their mouth and looked at him, blushing before muttering a quiet "Thank you" and going back to drinking the formula. Cocoa just smiled, wrapping his foreleg around them and snuggling them close as a response.
The show eventually ended and Dusty stretches out, letting out a soft grunt. Cocoa takes the opportunity to scoop them up and take them to the blanket, sitting Dusty down and then sitting in front of them with a crinkly pomf.
"Do you mind if we play now?” he asks quietly, the baker’s big brown eyes full of hope.
“Yeahhh I guess… But how do we even start?” Dusty pauses, looking at their diaper. “I mean… aside from the obvious.”
“Well, you start by not overthinking it~” Cocoa says, as if he was some sort of expert on this kind of thing. Dusty couldn’t help but smile at the concept of their adorable baker roommate being an expert in playing like a foal. It fit far too well, which only made Dusty’s smile even bigger.
“Okay, so what’s that mean?” Dusty inquires, giving him a patient look.
“That means you stop asking questions, you silly goose!” The baker winks at him, then scooched a bit closer to Dusty. “Okay okay, just close your eyes.”
“I’m not falling for that trick, Cocoa Powder! I may be a foal for the day but I’m not a fool.” Dusty frowns, their expression hardening again.
“No no no, I promise, no pranks! Just close your eyes!”
Dusty scowls suspiciously at him, then sighs softly and closes their eyes. Their vision becomes totally blank as they heard Cocoa’s voice continue through the darkness.
“We’re sitting on a cloud, wayyyy up in the skies…” he began, before Dusty cut him off.
“I can’t walk on clouds, you goober! I’m not a pegasus like you!”
“Those rules don’t apply here, silly! This is a game of pretend! If we say that we can walk on clouds, we can!”
“Fine, but for the record, this game already makes no sense.”
“Noted~” Cocoa says with a saccharine grin, not that Dusty could see it. “Anyway, just picture the scene that I’m describing!”
Dusty nods, taking a deep breath and concentrating. “Alright.”
“We’re wayyyy up in the skies, sitting on a big, soft, fluffy cloud as big as a family sized carriage. You can hear birds chirping below you and the warm sun beaming down from above. A gentle breeze flows through every fibre of your coat. Not quite enough to give you a chill, just enough to keep you from getting too hot while you’re in this direct sunlight…”
The picture began to form in Dusty’s mind, as clear as day. Cocoa and Dusty were sitting atop a massive fluffy white cloud, the sun warming their coats and the big blue open skies above. They’d look down at the cottony terrain below his hooves, gently reaching down and pressing against it. It was firm, but springy. Not entirely unlike a memory foam mattress. It was kinda like sitting atop a big marshmallow that was cool to the touch.
“You stand up on all four hooves as you get your bearings. You’re afraid of falling, at first, but the brown stallion before you tells you that it’s okay! You don’t need to be afraid of falling! You can fly!”
“W-What? No I can’t! I’m a unicorn!” Dusty says before covering their mouth with a hoof. “W-Wait I… Did I say that in real life or did I say that in my imagination?”
“The stallion giggles at your silly question. ‘Does it matter?’ he asks, ‘Reality is as real or as fake as you want to make it!’ He’d stand up, spreading his wings and taking to the air. He hovers in place as he beams at you, waiting for you to take flight as well. ‘Well, aren’t you coming? Spread your wings and fly!’”
“I-I don’t have wings!” Dusty insists, their ears lowering against their head. “C-Cocoa, this game isn’t very fun.”
Dusty lets out a yelp as he feels Cocoa gently shaking him, the vision of the clouds and skies fading as they open their eyes. Cocoa’s concerned expression being the first thing they see, however, quickly dashes any comfort that may have offered.
“Okay, maybe that one was a little too intense.” Cocoa says, rubbing at his foreleg, “Do you maybe want one a bit closer to the ground?”
“I just don’t understand the game, Cocoa… What are the rules? What’s the objective? There’s gotta be something for me to go off of otherwise this game isn’t… really a game! It’s just…” They stop as they see Cocoa’s expression becoming more and more sour.
“It’s just what?” Cocoa snaps flatly, “It’s just nonsense?”
“...I wasn’t gonna say that specifically,” Dusty mumbles, looking away.
“Dusty, you’re too uptight,” Cocoa states, his ears flattening against his head, “You’re so caught up with the who’s and the what’s and the where’s when you shouldn’t be. Playing pretend doesn’t need rules.”
“But then how can you say that playing pretend is a game? Games have rules…” Dusty says, frowning and looking back at him. “Like… look at that game of poker we played the other day.”
“You won the most chips,” Cocoa said, looking at the blanket under them.
“Right, and I won because of the rules of the game saying that whoever has the most chips wins.”
“But we still pretended that those chips had monetary value despite being worthless pieces of plastic.”
There was a pause as Dusty tried to come up with an argument against that, then shook their head.
“Okay fine. What about… um… Monopoly!”
“Same argument. We weren’t actually trading deeds and real estate, otherwise we’d be living in a much nicer house than this.” Cocoa said, lowering his head a bit more and turning away.
“Oh… r-right. Um…”
“Dusty, you’re not incapable of imagination. You just get so caught up in these rules and objectives… What if I told you that the objective of the game was just to have fun?” Cocoa looked back at him. “It’s just… silly, goofy fun for the sake of fun. No rules to tie you down, nopony to tell you what you can or can’t do. Would you play then?”
Both ponies were silent for a few excruciating moments before Dusty lets out a heavy sigh, gently rubbing at the base of their horn.
“I’m sorry, Cocoa. I didn’t mean to spoil your game.”
“It’s okay, Dusty… I know you weren’t. And you didn’t spoil it. We can still play, you just gotta loosen up.”
“Then… how about we restart?”
Cocoa looks back up at him, smiling and nodding. Dusty closes their eyes and once again, it’s just Cocoa’s voice piercing the darkness and painting a picture for him.
“You’re sitting on a big, soft blanket in the park, the birds chirping above and you can hear ponies chatting in the distance as they walk down the paths…-”
“Wait, I thought I was up on a cloud?”
“You can be if you want~ Nothing stopping you from flying up there~”
Dusty nods, looking over their shoulders for a moment and spreading their wings nice and wide, taking to the skies in moments.
“The wind streaks through your coat as you soar up into the skies, a big fluffy cloud dead ahead of you! With the grace of a Wonderbolt, you swoop over it and land atop the bouncy platform, the spongy surface sinking a bit under the weight of your adorable padded butt.”
“Stay on topic, Cocoa…” the alicorn says, their cheeks reddening as they roll their eyes with a big smile.
“Heehee! Sorry! Anyway, you can see a group of pegasi nearby, they’re waving at you and telling you what gorgeous wings you have! They’ve never seen such a beautiful pony before~”
“Cocoaaaa!” Dusty says, covering their muzzle with both hooves and giggling.
“You blush and smile at them, giving them a friendly wave and thanking them for their kind words.”
“Where are you, though?”
“Hm?”
“I haven’t seen you yet!”
“Oh! That’s right! As you drift along atop your cottony raft, you begin to smell sweets! Cupcakes, danishes, muffins, brownies and pies! It all smells divine! You begin to scope out the sight of the smells and you spot a bakery just across the street of the park you were in only minutes ago.”
“Ooh~ I’ll have to check out this bakery!” Dusty coos, spreading their new wings once again and gliding down to the bakery.
“You step inside and all the ponies gasp at your majesty, bowing low to their new… um…”
“Cocoa?”
“Hold on, I’m trying to think of a gender-neutral term for this…”
Dusty giggles and shakes their head. “You can say it, Cocoa. I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure? I know that it’s a sensitive-”
“It’s okay, really. I want to hear you say it.”
“You step inside and all the ponies gasp at your majesty, bowing low to their new princess.”
“Heeheehee~ It’s okay, everypony~ No need for formalities.” Dusty says with a broad smile, the feeling of butterflies dancing in their heart.
“The humble baker comes from out of the kitchen, gasping and immediately tidying up his cluttered counter and messy mane, trying to pat out the flour covering his apron as you approach. He looks up at you in awe, swallowing hard and-”
“Ohhh no, Cocoa. If I’m being a princess, you’re not pulling this humble baker crap.”
“Oh. Um… Okay, then what do you want me to look like?”
Dusty mused for a moment, before developing a huge grin on their face and taking over the narrative.
“You’re… as big as a dragon!”
Cocoa’s eyes widened a bit as the bakery suddenly became quite cramped for him, forcing him to lay on his belly to stay within its confines.
“And we’re not in a bakery anymore, we’re in… ummm… a big nursery! Like… really big!”
The bakery transformed before their eyes into a massive bedroom perfect for a foal, or maybe just a really big baby.
“Annnd you’re… a plushie!”
Cocoa giggles, looking at his foreleg, watching as his fur became soft fleece and he developed seams across his body, then he looked down at the little librarian telling him how his story was being run.
“And you’re wearing a big pink hair bow!”
A comically large pink bow appears on the back of Cocoa’s head, tying his otherwise messy mane into a neat ponytail. Dusty grins up at their caretaker and opens their mouth to speak, but suddenly a candy-flavored pacifier gets shoved into their mouth, silencing them immediately.
“Okay, little pony. If that’s how you want to play this…”
Dusty lets out a soft eep as Cocoa suddenly scoops them up into his forelegs, cradling them.
“The big chocolate pega-plushie brings you to the closet. ‘After all,’ he says, ‘If you wanna be a big baby, then we’ll need to care for you like a big baby!’ And he swings open the closet with one of his big fleecy wings, revealing an adorable baby pink set of hoofie jammies, with golden cuffs around each leg! Cocoa would tuck you into the cozy pajamas, having to reallllly tug it over your diaper.”
The princess would blink at that notion, looking up at Cocoa curiously. “Wait, why would you be struggling so much to get it over my diaper? We’ve done this hundreds of times.”
“Well, yeah, we have. But normally your diaper isn’t so big!”
Dusty’s face would become even more red (if that was possible) as the diaper suddenly begins to expand like a balloon, forcing their legs apart more and more before stopping, easily around triple its original size!
“W-Wait, I don’t need a diaper THIS big!!” Dusty would protest, their horn flickering to life to remove it, or at least shrink it.
“Before you can cast a spell though, you feel a small metal ring slip over your horn, inhibiting your spells from being cast! The big plushie would giggle, finishing pulling the jammies over your cute padded butt and zipping it up nice and snug!”
Cocoa smiled, watching Dusty start to squirm in front of him as they screwed up their muzzle. He tried not to giggle at the sight. Dusty made the same face the first time they tried playing with diapers, and he would never let Dusty live it down. It was too cute!
“C-Cocoaaaa....” They whined, their ears flattening against their head as they tried their best to turn invisible. Cocoa didn’t feel like reminding Dusty that they could use magic to turn invisible any time. It was only in fantasy that the magic inhibitor was on their horn, after all.
“Your big caretaker gives you a biiiiig kiss on the snout, cooing happily about how cute you are in those jammies and how big your diaper has gotten! With a big smile, he’d sit down and smush you into his chest fluff and start to hum a lullaby…”
Right as Cocoa said that, he quietly snuck up to Dusty, then reached up jammed his roomie’s muzzle right into his warm chest fluff, then began to hum Dusty’s favorite lullaby, rubbing their back. They squirmed at first, fussing and letting out muffled protests, before eventually relaxing and letting Cocoa pull them up into his lap. Cocoa continued to hum, closing his eyes and gently rocking side to side.
“Then, when the big pegasus plushie finishes his lullaby, he…”
“Snrrrrk…”
“Um… Dusty?”
“...Snrrrrrrk.”
Cocoa looked down, carefully pushing Dusty away from his chest to find that the librarian fell asleep! The baker had to hold himself back from squeaking in glee, not wanting to disturb his baby. With a big smile, Cocoa carefully lifted Dusty onto his back and carried them to their bed, tucking them in and giving them a kiss on the nose.
“When the big pegasus plushie finishes his lullaby, he takes the sleepy princess to the crib, tucking them in, and saying ‘Sweet dreams, your majesty.’”
He turned and began to exit the room, stopping when he heard Dusty make a noise that sounded a bit like a coo. He looked over his shoulder, seeing Dusty getting cozy with a stuffed animal, smiling.
“S...Sweet dreams… pegaplushie…” They mumbled in their sleep, curling up.
The pegasus beamed, then turned out the light, closing the door behind him…
“I wonder how much a plushie that size would cost…”