Derpy gazes down at the tiny foal in amazement. She had just watched her own best friend, a professional manager in time traveling, turn into the lowest of ages. And it was all her fault. She knew that she shouldn’t have messed with those hourglass thingies! Even if she was interested in their anatomy and how the sand inside them would go down a different way if you turned it upside down.
“DERPY!!!” The brown foal squawked. His lab coat draped over his teeny-tiny torso like a disassembled tent as he squirmed about, visible punches and kicks seen in the white fabric. Derpy grinned and giggled nervously, “Heheh…I just don’t know…what went wrong?”
“You messed up the balance of both time and reality! Now my age has been altered! HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG?!”
Derpy couldn’t help but giggle softly to herself. Doctor Whooves’ voice sounded the same. Well, almost….it sounded like he had inhaled a full tank of helium. Then she looked down at his seemingly-innocent appearance. Big blue eyes were wide with anger and frustration. His light brown coat clashed with his chocolate colored mane and tail. His flank was barren of any cutie mark and he was much smaller than before.
Much smaller.
The gray Pegasus knelt down to the pouting foal and grinned, “Well, don’t worry! I can fix this!” She picked him up by the scruff on his neck with her mouth and cheerfully trotted over to the counter, where she quickly set him down. Doctor Whooves grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck with his stubby little hoof, “Derpy, I don’t have time for this nonsense!” He looked over to see Derpy’s hoof dip behind her wing and she suddenly produced a muffin. “…And I’m not hungry either!”
“Tsk tsk, you’re fussy. Muffins always make me feel better!” She stuffed the muffin into his mouth. Whooves gurgled, his voice muffled. He promptly spit the muffin out of his mouth and whined, “Derpy! This is not what I meant! We need to get to Canterlot! Only the Princesses know how to fix this sort of problem. I may be a time manager, but this is something I cannot fix on my own!”
Derpy shrugged, “Maybe you’re thirsty. Oh! I know! Foals like milk, right? Wait…we don’t have any milk…”
“DERPY!”
“Sorry! Okay, let’s go then.” The gray Pegasus gently scooped the brown foal into her forehooves and swooped out the door. She flapped her wings rapidly as she navigated her way towards the train station. Due to the disorientation in her eyes, however, her flying pattern was not as smooth as Whooves had initially hoped. She took many sharp turns and even began to fall at times, but thankfully she would fly right back up.
Whooves groaned.
~
The trainride to Canterlot was bitterly silent. Much to his ultimate dismay, Doctor Whooves was forced to sit on Derpy’s lap. He scowled and glowered at the ponies surrounding them. Although his attempts at expressing his frustration and indignities was misinterpreted by several amused pony mothers. They stared at him intently while tending to their squalling foals, as if they were confused by the nasty sneer on the brown foal’s face.
It took almost two hours worth of a trainride before the train came to an abrupt halt and the conductor shouted from the front of the train, “Everypony; we have arrived in Canterlot!”
“Thank goodness,” Whooves thought, internally heaving a sigh of relief, “I cannot wait for this to be fixed! I have no intention of spending the rest of my days in a foal’s body!
~
“The Princess will see you in a moment.” The guard solemnly spoke, moving aside from the royal doors to escort the two mortals in. It seemed impossible; the Derpy Hooves, the foolish klutz from Cloudsdale, was being allowed inside royal property. It seemed unlikely to happen.
Surprisingly, it was very likely.
Twilight knew about Derpy’s intolerably horrible past. With her eyes permanently crossed, she was shot daily with daggers of harsh comments by former classmates from her school years. Twilight’s generous heart melted and she was always happy to see Derpy. After all, she was a pony just like everyone else, and she was no different. She was one of Twilight’s side friends, in any case.
The doors slowly opened, revealing Princess Twilight’s quarters. The purple pony was talking with Princess Celestia about some importance about the kingdom when she heard the door creak open to reveal Derpy, with a foal in her arms.
“D-Derpy?” Twilight echoed in surprise of the unexpected visitor as her and Celestia’s heads jerked. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect a visit from you, not that you’re not welcome here.” She chuckled. Her eyes drifted over to the foal in the gray mare’s arms, “…A foal?”
“Not just any foal,” Derpy paused, “It’s Doctor Whooves.”
It was an ordeal trying to explain the earlier events to the two rulers. But after proving to the two mares that it was truly the Doctor, the terrible news was given by the white alicorn.
“I’m sorry; there is truly no easy way of saying this, but…so far there is no known cure.”
Whooves’ heart shattered.
"What?!" He screeched, "NO KNOWN CURE?! T-the books say--"
"That's what the books said, not the truth." Celestia explained, "Not even Starswirl the Bearded was able to comprehend it. It has been abandoned until somepony finds the time to complete it. Obviously that has not yet happened. May I ask what was going on when this occurred?"
"Well...it's kinda hard to expla--" "Oh for goodness sakes Derpy, enough stammering!" "Okay, fine. You see..."
Flashback to three hours ago:
"Oh wow Whoovesy, look at this! How does it do that?!" The gray pegasus exclaimed, excitedly fumbling with an hourglass. Doctor Whooves winced and galloped over, snatching the hourglass out of the mare's grip in panic. "Derpy, no touching! You could seriously damage the balance of time!" He retorted. He placed it back into her hooves and said with a straight face, "Now put it back where it belongs."
Derpy giggled and replied, "Like this?" She placed the hourglass on its side on its shelve. Whooves groaned and flipped it back up, "No, like this. You must pay attention if you're going to become my assistant!"
"Uhm, Whooves--"
"No further speaking, Derpy. Now I must show you the--"
"Whooves--"
"What did I just say? I'm still speaking to you! Now listen to m--"
"Whoooooves--"
"STOP INTERRUPTING ME!!"
"Whooves! You're shrinking!"
The Doctor looked down at his torso and gasped as the ground grew closer. He whimpered, "Oh no! I must have accidentally flipped the hourglass the wrong way! Quick, Derpy! Flip it back before I fade from existence!"
"You got it, boss!" Derpy giggled. She picked the hourglass up again and...dropped it. The hourglass plummeted mercilessly to the floor and crashed in an explosion of glass shards. The sand quickly poured out and pooled around the remains of the glass while Doctor Whooves' shrinking ceased, his lab coat draped over him like a tent.
Present Time:
"...And that's how it all happened." Derpy concluded with a grin. Celestia sighed, "Oh my. This situation has gotten much worse. Twilight, please go get the book." The purple princess nodded and trotted over to her large bookshelf. Using her magic, she levitated a book from one of the shelf's levels and carried it back over to the group, flipping it to a certain page. She gave the book to her mentor and watched as the elder mare scanned through the page, reading along, "It says that if the hourglass even has a single scratch or it is misplaced unproperly, it no longer holds the power to control the balance of one's age. The holder of the hourglass is responsible for all damage and must suffer the consequences. They will reduce in size and age until they are left as nothing but a pile of dust."
Celestia lifted her muzzle from the book and looked at Whooves, "Apparently that is not the case here." "Obviously," Whooves muttered. "I'm under a year old!" "Don't be rude, Whoovesy," chimed Derpy with a motherly note in her tone. The brown foal blushed and mumbled to himself incoherently.
Celestia turned to Twilight and asked, "Twilight, do you think you might be able to fix this?"
"I can try, but I can't promise results immediately. I'm a little rusty, but I will do it for you two." The purple mare smiled reassuringly, earning sighs of relief from Derpy and Whooves.
Suddenly a smile slowly crept up on Celestia's muzzle, "Oh, and you might consider diapering Whooves, Derpy. It appears that he has had a little accident."
Whooves' eyes sprang wide open and he looked below only to see a dark, growing stain on the floor beneath Derpy, as well as a small yellow arc that dribbled from his nether regions. He groaned, "Of course."
Caught in a Foal's Paradise
Whooves sighed. It had been over four hours since his transformation into a foal and yet nothing could be done. All he could do was accept his fate and try to will his way through until Twilight was capable of coming up with the solution.
As of now, Derpy had made her way back to Ponyville and walked into the market to buy some…”needed essentials”. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to tell Whooves that he was going to have to wear diapers and drink from bottles, no matter how much he protested. She internally shuddered at the thought of the tantrums he might put up.
Twilight did say that the longer Whooves remained a foal, the quicker he would accept his condition. If he remained a foal for over a period of a month, he would gradually slip away from the real world and mentally regress to the state of a real foal. If Derpy wasn’t careful, Whooves would occasionally emotionally regress and even begin to act like a foal for the next few weeks. Twilight reassured her that he wouldn’t be forever gone; it would only be temporary, unless his condition lasted for more than two months at the least.
Doctor Whooves sat inside the seat of the cart that Derpy pushed as she wheeled through the foal care section. Then she wheeled the cart further down the aisle and began filling the basket with baby food. Whooves groaned inwardly when he turned and saw the jars she had selected for him. Instead of getting the barely edible jars of chunky toddler-style food, she had elected to purchase food that was suitable for a toothless infant. Everything was of the "First Foods" variety, and had been pureed to a fine paste to make it easy for a pre-weaned infant to swallow.
She moved around the aisle and began putting other baby items in the cart: formula, baby wipes, shampoo, a large jar of nursery vaseline, foal powder, feeding spoons and bowls, wash cloths, waterproof lap pads, a teething ring, a rattle, a group of large plastic toy keys, and a pack of plastic feeding bottles.
“Derpy, honestly. Do we really need all of this stuff?” Doctor Whooves asked.
Derpy frowned, “Twilight said that—“
The former doctor interrupted her. “No offense to her Highness, but I don’t care what Twilight said! I am perfectly capable of making sure that I am competent enough to control my bladder and bowels, as well as eating regular food! We don’t need to waste bits on all of these items.” He grumbled.
“Aw come on Whooves. Foals can’t take care of themselves! I promise, I’ll take good care of you if you’ll let me!” Derpy pleaded, her wide crossed eyes sparkling.
Whooves saw her desperate expression and sighed, “Alright, if it means that much to you. Promise me you won’t go beyond the diapers and feedings, are we clear?”
Derpy heaved a sigh. “I promise.” Her ears drooped slightly. “It’s just that you’re so cute!”
“There will be no babying me and that’s final!” Said Whooves firmly.
“Okay…” Derpy whimpered. She then wheeled the cart to the cash register and paid with her bag full of bits. The mare at the register smiled when she saw the adorable brown pouting foal sitting in the baby seat, arms crossed defiantly over his chest.
“Oh, he’s so cute! What’s his name?” She crooned.
Derpy panicked. She hadn’t thought of this before. Grinning awkwardly, she put on a glib face and said in her smoothest voice possible, “Uh…his name is…B-Brownie! Yeah, Brownie!”
Whooves internally facehooved.
The mare chuckled as she rang up Derpy’s items, “Looks like little Brownie’s mommy wasn’t prepared for his arrival! She’s buying almost an entire nursery for him.”
Derpy giggled nervously, “Oh, uh, he’s not my son. He’s uh...my…my nephew! Yes, he’s my nephew. He’s staying with me for a while.”
The mare nodded understandingly, “Ohh, I see. Well, here you go!” She happily exclaimed, hoofing the groceries to Derpy. She smiled, “Oh, you might consider diapering Brownie. It’s not safe for foals to be without a diaper.”
“Don’t worry; I’ve got it all under control.” Derpy chuckled.
She placed the groceries into the cart and wheeled out of the market. Derpy then waved down a taxi and placed the groceries inside, settling Doctor Whooves on her lap. When the taxi began to move, Derpy laid Whooves on the seat next to her and pulled out the package of diapers. Whooves’ eyes widened in anticipation of what was to come and began to
squirm.
“No! Derpy, no! Don’t touch me! T-the diapers are not necessary! Please Derpy, don’t do this!” Whooves exclaimed, trying to crawl to the other side of the seat.
Derpy sighed. She was much bigger than him and she was perfectly capable of overpowering him. That being said, she picked him up by his tummy and pressed her free hoof onto his diminutive chest and easily forced him backwards to lie supine. The Pegasus quickly ripped open the package of diapers and removed one of the soft, crinkly, appalling pieces of cottony fabric from the packaging.
When Whooves locked eyes with the white, fluffy, thick garment, he whimpered in dread at the thought of those dreadful garments that would soon hug his abdomen. He sighed in utter defeat and lie helplessly on his back as Derpy took his ankles in one hand and lifted his legs to slip the plastic covered padding beneath his bottom.
Once the diaper was positioned, she let his legs down and effortlessly brushed away the tiny brown hoof which Doctor Whooves was still using to maintain the last shred of his adult dignity. Derpy pulled the diaper up between his legs with a tug so she could tape the sides, ignoring the protests of the infant who lay before her.
The diaper's strong fragrance of baby powder overwhelmed Whooves' hyperactive baby senses and threatened to make him swoon from sensory overload. His mind reeled from the powder's pleasant perfume that permeated his brain as she finished taping him securely into his diaper. Nothing else could have persuaded him of his transformation into infancy quite as convincingly as the sickeningly sweet miasma that arose from the disposable diaper to surrounded him with the odor of purity and innocence.
It seemed like an endless eternity until Derpy finally ended the process and encased the diaper, making sure the adhesive tabs were firmly in place. She looked into Whooves’ eyes and saw deep sadness and depression. To lighten his mood, she used the tip of her hoof to lightly brush against his protuberant tummy. Whooves wasn’t amused and looked on in disgust. A soft frown etched across his face as his bottom lip jutted out and he began to whimper.
Finally Whooves could take no more. His emotions had overloaded due to the stress of his sudden transformation into a foal and it was just too much for the poor colt to handle. When the storm of feelings reached its peak, the dam that had been building in Whooves’ eyes erupted and tears began to leak out of the borders of his eyes. Slowly but surely, the crystalline pity tears streamed down his cheeks in a relay race. Whooves’ whimpers escalated and he began to cry softly in anguish.
Derpy immediately noticed his distress and lifted the weeping foal into her hooves, gently patting his back to soothe him. The cross-eyed Pegasus never had much experience with foals before, so this was very foreign to her. But seeing her friend crying only made her generous heart sink and made her feel guilty for what she had done to him.
The former doctor buried his young head into the hollow of Derpy’s neck and he shivered as his weeping becoming increasingly louder. Despair filled him as his mind retreated to its darkest cave. Somewhere in the distance, Whooves could hear a baby bawling.
The rational part of his mind analyzed the sound and decided that the baby was frightened and angry. Whooves felt a wave of sympathetic pity for the baby who was crying its heart out. The baby's angry bawls had changed into a pitiful helpless wail that tugged at his heart strings. He wished that someone would help the little baby who was crying so desperately for attention to his needs.
Doctor Whooves froze when he heard Derpy’s voice say, “It’s okay, Doctor. Don’t be sad. I wish I had a muffin to make you feel better, because they always make me feel a lot better. But we don’t have any. I guess when we get home I can make you some nice warm milk that will make you feel alll better, okay?”
Whooves opened his eyes in shock and realized that he had been the source of the crying foal he had been hearing. He gasped to catch his breath and then began wailing again, this time in hopeless acknowledgement that he had returned to babyhood.
After a few minutes of wailing his frustration and sadness, Whooves’ breathing slowed and became abdominal rather than thoracic. His muscles relaxed and his eyes began to feel rather twitchy. Darkness consumed his vision and his breathing steadily became more passive, indicating a true state of sleep for a foal.
