“Okay...” The pony standing in the middle of the street sighed. “Okay, I can do this! It’ll be just like doing it at home, only better! I’ll have somepony that I can boss around!” With a guilty look, he corrected himself, “Or maybe politely but firmly make requests to. Somepony who will be taking care of my every need... watching me... s-seeing me l-like that...” Gulping, the pony’s knees wobbled as he looked up at the softly shaded pink-and-blue building.
For some reassurance, the pony looked down at the pamphlet he was magically carrying and opened it up to read the large, bold printed words at the top of the second page; We are discreet. Your secret is safe here.
Nopony would know what he was doing when he went in, nopony would know what he had done when went out. After all, it looked just like a regular old spa on the outside. At worst, some ponies that cared to look would think he’d gone to get a massage. The only ones that would know would be anypony that actually had taken a pamphlet for the place and the workers inside.
“I’ve got nothing to be scared of!” the pony told himself, grinning with resolve. “This is for me, I deserve it, I’m an awesome pony and I can do what I want here.” The brochure served to excite him even more, his tail flicking this way and that. Not all the services provided interested him, but there was enough that a pony with his tastes could enjoy it immensely. Particularly the note about being able to request almost anything caught his attention. He knew exactly what to ask for.
Taking one last breath to fill his chest with confidence, the pony trotted with his chin held high and stepped inside.
“Hello, and welcome to the Fontaine de Jouvence, where you’ll find that your cares are far, far away as you discover innocence again,” a baby pink pony said from the front desk, a Prench accent lingering in her words
The pony’s tail twitched between his legs and he nearly fled the building. “H-Hello!” he managed to squeak.
If the mare at the desk thought this behavior odd, her response was to smile wider than she already was. “Please, come up here and we’ll get you set up with a caretaker.”
“Heh, heh, right...” The pony gulped and did his best to smile back. It was earnest looking, if only he wasn’t shivering as he walked further into the room. “So, uh, yeah, I hear this is the place where all babes hang out.”
Airy laughter filtered through the room as the pony at the desk chortled. “Oh my, we have a funny one here. Err...” she blinked. “That was a joke, right? You know what this place is?”
Blushing, he snickered back. “Yeah, it was a joke. I know what this place is. It’s the, uh... it’s, ahem...” In a quiet voice that barely reached above a whisper, he said, “a nursery...”
The pony at the desk managed to make out what he said, her smile becoming knowing as it returned. “Ah, you do know. And we have a nervous nelly, yes? My name is Épingle Anglaise, head and proprietor of this establishment.” Épingle reached her hoof out to pat the pony’s shoulder. “You don’t need to be scared, dear. This is a place where it’s safe to be you.”
“Scared? What?” The pony turned his head as though insulted, his tail working back into a normal position. “I’m not scared of anything. After all, foals do it all the time.” Red flushed all over his face as Épingle giggled.
“Hmm, what does that make you, I wonder?” Épingle cooed as she grinned.
“Just a really weird pony,” he huffed, though he couldn’t help but grin with her.
Épingle slid a book sitting on the desk in front of her and cracked it open. “Name, please?”
“Starling,” he answered. Giving his most winning smile, Starling leaned over the counter. “B-But I don’t want that getting around. This’ll be secret, all incognito and stuff.”
“What happens in Fontaine stays in Fontaine, Mister Starling.” Épingle grabbed a quill and wrote something down in the book, presumably his name. “Let’s talk treatments. How much of a little one are you?” In a swift sweep of her leg, a series of smaller pamphlets that the one he was still holding were laid out, labeled with names such as ‘Play Pretend’, ‘Basic Babying’, and ‘Full-on Foal’.
Golden eyes read over each of the pamphlets carefully. The color drained from his face when he read the ‘Full-on Foal’ one. Were there really ponies that enjoyed being so utterly helpless? Épingle pulled that card away before he could horrify himself further.
“That one’s not for you, then,” she said, putting it away.
A few shivers went through his spine. “Y-You’re not going to do that to me, a-are you?”
“Oh, no, no!” The implication made Épingle panic as much as Starling tried to hide. “We would never force anything on you that you don’t want. The little one’s wishes are always the most important.”
A sigh of relief escaped Starling, nearly all the tension leaving with it. Still, there was a slight problem. “Well, that’s kind of a problem. I’m not exactly a ‘little one’.”
“Oh?” Épingle asked.
Starling pushed the ‘Playing Pretend’ brochure forward. “I’m not here for that forever foal stuff. I’m a big pony, and I like being big!” His hoof pointed to the sky for declaration of his bigness, though his resolve wavered. “I just, err...”
Épingle smiled again, resting her knees on the counter. “Just what, Mister Starling?”
“I just... you know!” He stomped a hoof. “Please don’t make me say it.”
“Hmm, sorry, but you need to use your big pony words to tell me what you want. I’m not a mind reader.”
Could have fooled me, Starling thought. There was some respect to be had for Épingle’s motherly playfulness, he begrudgingly thought. “I w-want... I want to be p-put in diapers.” Face scrunching at the word diapers, Starling shook as though in a blizzard.
Épingle laughed at his display, repeating her ‘comforting hoof on shoulder’ gesture. “Mister Starling, please calm down. We’re here to please you, no matter how big or little you are. Besides, you’re not exactly the first pony to come in here asking for diapers. Hmm...” Tapping her chin, she flipped through her book. “You’re also not the first client who wanted so little. I assume this will be a private experience, yes?”
“Eh heh, I thought you weren’t a mind reader,” Starling replied, still shaking. A boop was given to his nose.
“Private it is, then. You might not be a foal, but you are clearly a silly colt. We have just the pony for you.” The sound of hooves clacking together resonated through the room. “Drôle, please come here, we have a client for you!”
“Playtime iz now?” the new pony, a cream colored mare who entered through a door behind the counter, asked.
Starling sized up the new pony, from her clean-yet-wild cherry mane to her cutie mark of two ponies, in simplified caricatures, giving one another a hug. There was a bounce in her step Starling immediately liked, and her smile seemed more like a pony ready to play a game and less like a mother’s when compared to her boss’s. At least he assumed Épingle was in charge, given how she talked.
“Almost, Drôle,” Épingle said as she motioned to the only unicorn in the room. “This is Mister Starling, he’s come for not-so-foal time. Do you understand?”
Drôle tilted her head to the side, then glanced Starling’s way. When their eyes locked, Drôle lit up like a Hearth’s Warming tree. “Grape zmoothie pony wantz playtime, not foal time, oui? Poof poof diapers, be zilly!”
“Pfft, grape smoothie?” Starling laughed and swayed tail of two-hued purples, examining his hoof and the coat covering it. The only splashes of color on him not purple were his yellow eyes and his star-and-pencil cutie mark. “Guess I can’t exactly say you’re wrong. Yeah, I just want to be diapered and have fun. I’m a big pony, you know.” He stuck his tongue out and winked.
“Big pony, big diaperz, hmm?” Drôle asked, sending Starling’s playful expression into a corner to be replaced with flattened ears and scrunched lips. “Iz no problem for me how big or little you are. Private playtime, you and me, big puff tuzhy. You want ziz?”
Nodding, Starling shrunk into himself. This was the pony taking him to be diapered. Now that it was so close, so imminent, he couldn’t help but tremble before the thought. “Y-Yeah, please, miss Da- Ja... umm, however I say your name.”
The new pony let out an airy laugh before clearing her throat. “You zay like ‘Da-hole’, oui? But you zay fast, ‘D-hool’.”
“Da... Da-hooo... err, I’ll figure it out later,” he mumbled.
“Mmm, yes, it seems the perfect place is open.” Épingle wrote a few more things down before closing her book. “Please take Mister Starling to the colt room, Drôle.”
With an enthusiastic grin, Drôle turned around while brushing her tail against Starling’s nose. “Ziz way, pleaze, we have much fun for long time.”
Starling shivered some more, half in nervousness and half in anticipation. Giving Épingle a thank you and goodbye, he followed Drôle through the doors on the left side in the reception area. The room they entered was a lot like a bathroom, with a few oversized tubs lining the wall. Drôle ignored them, though, leading him to another door. This one looked like a broom closet, off to the side and away from the nicer looking doors the tubs led to.
“Where exactly are we going?” Starling asked.
“You want secret diaper time, yes? This special room, just for you!” The door was opened and Drôle walked inside, taking Starling’s hoof and tugging him inside.
It wasn’t at all a broom closet, and it certainly wasn’t the nursery Starling had been expecting. In one corner of the room was a bed shaped like a racecart, in another a shelf full of things like action figures and brick blocks. Decorating the walls were posters of popular action heroes, like the Wonderbolts and Daring Do. In the center of the room was a round desk that one or two ponies could comfortably sit at. Most notably, there was a lot of free space to walk around in. Or, perhaps, waddle.
It looked like a colt’s room, a ‘big pony’. Starling couldn’t help but snicker at the joke he’d been pulled into. But there was lots of room to play, so how could he complain? “Great, should have known you’d do something like this to me.”
“Do?” Drôle blinked, letting go of his hoof. “But we don’t ztart yet. What have I do?”
Shrugging, he said, “I’m just being silly.”
With a grin, Drôle poked Starling’s nose. “I love it when zey are silly ponies. Playtime is fun time! Come, we get diaperz for you and make you have fun time!”
“Jeez, which one of us is supposed to be excited about being in diapers?” Sticking his tongue out, Starling wandered around the room as Drôle went digging around in some cupboards. “So, umm, I just want to be clear, I’m not a foal. Eating and drinking ain’t a problem for me.”
“Oui, you are ze big pony. Big pony can be big. But...” Turning around, Drôle held up a huge diaper, plain white with blue leak guards and landing zone. “Big pony needs big diaperz.”
Starling blushed, tail flicking about again as his cheeks burned. “Well, if you’re gonna wear something that poofy, you might as well go all the way.”
Grabbing some bottles and tubes, Drôle nodded. “Oh yeah, much big for much fun. Now lay down and we make you have playtime.” She trotted over to an empty space on the floor, setting the supplies down and opening the diaper.
The diaper was massive, Starling had to admit. It had a good two or three inches on the brand he dared to buy from the secret supply shop, But he’d have been remiss if he hadn’t asked, “Is that really your biggest diaper?”
“Hmm?” Drôle looked up and blinked. “What is ze question? Iz big, non?”
Starling face flushed, but now that it was just the two of them, a playful and confident smile worked onto his lips. “You know, bigger.” Using his hooves for emphasis, he made a motion of something expanding between his grasp. “I want the biggest padding ya got. The absolute poofiest. Not just a bunch of diapers stacked together, although I might want to do that too. Make me feel the poof, you know?”
Using so many words to a pony still learning probably wasn’t a good idea, in retrospect. The Prench pony was lost, scratching her head as she tried to make sense of what has been said. “Poof? Poof... Oh!” Eyes lighting up, Drôle leaped to her hooves and tossed the diaper over her shoulder. “Oui, biggest! Biggest diaper for biggest pony! We have specialty, Fontaine special. You are not first pony who wantz ze big. Patience, I come back.” With that, the excited mare ran out of the room.
“Uhh... okay?” Starling said, snickering after her and taking a seat at the table. The wait wasn’t long, he found, as Drôle returned about five minutes later with a giant sack dragging behind her.
Grunting, Drôle tugged her spoils through the door and dragged it up to Starling. “Here we have ze biggest. Cuztomer say he want ze huge, cuztomer getz ze huge.”
Starling gulped and shivered as he watched his caretaker reach in and pull out what easily had to be the thickest, most bulbous diaper he’d ever imagined. At first glance it could have been mistaken for an overstuffed pillow. At the second glance, a packed bean bag chair. But as Drôle set it down and unfolded the noisy plastic garment it became clear that this huge piece of fluff was, indeed, a diaper. Easily half the size he was, massive to the point of being illogical.
And he was going to be put in it.
“Well?” Drôle teased, taking Starling’s hoof and pulling him closer. “Iz biggest for big pony?”
“Iz big for big pony,” Starling parroted, reaching out to touch the garment. Halfway to its intend journey, his hoof was halted by Drôle grabbing him.
“I zee in very big eyez, we make it good time. Tuzhy first.” With strength belied by her small size, Drôle picked him up as if he were light as a stuffed animal. Had Starling managed to keep any of his wits, he might have protested. As it was, his legs kicked rather foalishly as his sense of gravity was tipped by his rear being lifted up. “Hmm, you zure you not little one? You are playful like foal now!”
“N-Not a foal!” Starling huffed, though his smile stayed in place as Drôle teased and tickled his stomach. “Just h-hurry up and get it done, this is kinda weird.”
“Az you zay,” Drôle cooed back. The powder and cream was applied swiftly and without much fuss, practice shining through on the caretaker’s part despite Starling just about rolling away. Getting Starling’s tail through the hole in the back proved to be a challenge, part because the diaper was so huge, part because Starling couldn’t stop wagging it. Once that was done, she reached back and pulled the front of the diaper up, letting the leak guards wrap snug around his thighs. The more the diaper was wrapped around his lower half, the more Starling’s legs were forced apart.
Starling’s knees rubbed against only half the thickness his new garment provided. He was sealed up to the edges of his ribs, his stomach completely hidden. The inside was cotton soft, the outside smooth, noisy, making crinkles with the slightest twitch of his legs. Being the rowdy type, Starling made a show of kicking and squirming just to feel his diaper puff and bend and hear the myriad of sounds it made as he did so.
Drôle let out a laugh at Starling’s shenanigans, grabbing his hooves to keep him still. “Goodnezz, not even have ze tapez on! Let me finizh, oui?”
“Eh heh, sorry about that.” Starling flushed even harder, the smile at last fading as his snout scrunched up. The last step of the diapering proved easy, as Starling finally kept still. The sides of the diaper were lifted up to hug Starling snug, the tapes stuck tightly in place, trapping him in enough fluff to fill a sleeping bag.
“Zere, all done!” Drôle cheered, giving the thick diaper a generous swat. The attack was strong enough to have left a mark on skin, but against Starling’s mega-diaper it just sent a mild ripple.
“Come on, is that the best you can do?” Snickering, Starling rolled over onto his stomach, letting out a noise similar to a purr as he shifted against his diaper. Again he marveled at the girth of his new article, the very bottom of his diaper almost past his shins. He was already part of the way into a standing position; all he had to do was put his back hooves on the ground, give himself a push and he would be bipedal. Waving his bottom left and right to where he assumed Drôle was, he stood up the rest of the way and challenged, “It felt like a fly landed on me! Bet you can’t make me really feel it.”
“Iz challenge I hear?” Drôle replied, turning around so they were at each other’s back. Lifting her hind legs up, she said, “I make you feel all the poof!” before bucking Starling’s diaper, a loud twap! resounded from the kick.
Starling was caught off guard as the resulting shockwave rattled his insides and made his knees buckle. With an “Oof!” and the sound of air leaving a beach ball, he landed on the ground diaper-first. After the initial surprise settled, Starling’s tail flicked about as much as his restrictive garment would allow. “Ha! You call that a buck?” Starling taunt as he made another vain attempt to look behind him. “You’ll have to hit a lot harder if you expect to get through this big pony’s padding!”
An airy giggle flittered from outside his view, followed by the sound of hoofsteps and the opening and closing of drawers. “I zee we have big pony on tiny legs, want more punizhment. Aha!” A cupboard door slammed shut and Drôle pranced back to Starling, a large wooden paddle held in her jaw.
The color drained from Starling’s face, the smile vanishing. “Punishment? H-Hey, what are you doing?!”
“You want to feel it, oui?” Drôle replied, smirking around the handle as she turned around and flicked his nose with her tail. “We make you feel it!”
Starling’s legs flailed ineffectively, only succeeding in causing a cacophony of crinkles to emanate from the diaper that had immobilized him. “W-wait, stop!”
In the perfect position, Drôle pulled her head back and swung the paddle as hard as she could, the resulting thwack! leaving both their ears ringing. Starling’s tail curled as he covered his eyes, shivering in terror. Yet, after a few moments, the quaking pony realized there was no stinging pain. Instead there was a tingling sensation wherever the diaper hugged him tight.
“Still not feel?” Drôle asked before another whap! sounded out, the force shaking Starling to the core, but did nothing beyond a tickling feeling and a mess of crinkles.
The relief Starling felt was punctuated with a giddy feeling as he realized nothing could break through the wall of fluff that protected his buttocks. “What’s that? Hmm, I think butterfly flew by. All I feel is a gentle breeze~”
Drôle snorted, still grinning, and made several more attempts to breach Starling’s diaper, to no avail. Thwack after thwack, the paddle only reaffirmed how much fluff he now wore, and several minutes of this did little else besides take her breath away. When the smacks became little more than pats, Drôle surrendered and dropped the paddle, falling onto Starling’s diaper. “Ack, I give up. You win, no more feeling for you.”
“Aww, tuckered out?” Starling snickered and squirmed in place, his tail tickling Drôle wherever it managed to brush her. “What was it you said, big diapers for big ponies? Guess I’m just too much pony for you to handle!”
“Oui, too much,” she agreed, patting her comfy seat. “Maybe we rest here awhile before next playtime. Mmmm, lotz of pony for snuggle time.”
Something about the implication made Starling’s cheeks burns around his smile. Like she said, big diapers for big ponies. The moment of silly glee came and went quickly, though, leaving another kind of silly in its wake. His hooves pressed flat against the ground as he said, “You’re right, I think is is time for a rest. But you’re in my seat, lady.”
Drôle blinked and looked over Starling’s diaper. “Not in seat, on seat,” she replied, not realizing until it was too late that she’d left herself unable to flee as Starling tipped back. Up she went with his diaper, but didn’t stay up for long as Starling let gravity pull him into a sitting position.
Starling sighed and sunk into his fluffy chair, patting the plastic approvingly. “Now you’re under my seat,” the padded pony teased.
“Ooohhh, you are naughty pony!” Drôle cried out as she uselessly flailed under the diaper’s mass, the struggles against her ensnarement only creating more crinkles and laughs. Starling’s response was to bounce in place and knock the wind out of Drôle.
“I’m also a clever pony. Look at which one of us is stuck, cause it sure ain’t me!” Starling laughed some more and tilted back and forth, practically steamrolling the pony trapped underneath.
Drôle couldn’t help but laugh along with him, her pushing more along the lines of a hug. There was an equal amount of enjoyment on both ends of these shenanigans. The reign of Starling’s bottom over his assigned caretaker didn’t last long, however, as the unicorn teetered where he should have tottered. Balance lost, Starling was toppled over as Drôle gave him a shove. Starling thumped against the carpeted floor, dazed but no worse for the wear. When Drôle scaled the abundant white fluff to give Starling a smirk, he did pout.
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Starling grumbled.
“It provez you are silly pony.” Offering her hoof, Drôle pulled her charge onto his hooves with more difficulty than one might expect.
Starling stuck his tongue out when he was able to waggle his bottom about. “I still caught you first.”
Drôle harumphed and gently bopped Starling’s nose. The thick diaper proved to weigh just enough for her gentle touch to make him tip back like a tree, complete with a cry of, “Timber!”
The landing was considerably softer than a tree falling, and there was no question if Starling made a sound. Stuck on his diaper, Starling reached out to grab Drôle. “Come here so I can sit on you again!”
“Zilly pony, we be here all day if you keep that up.” Drôle tickled the tips of Starling’s hooves, just out of his reach. “We have much more to play, and lotz of time for play! First, zilly big pony needz to be drezzed.” Leaving Starling stuck in place, she trotted over to another cupboard, this one filled with articles of clothing.
A groan left Starling as he was presented a very long shirt-like object. It was a plain red onesie, complete with snaps at the bottom to trap him inside. “Didn’t I tell you I’m not into-” he started before Drôle shushed him with a hoof.
Drôle trotted back to Starling and gave a reassuring smile, patting his padding. “Oui, iz all about big diaperz. Ziz iz too, trust in me.” Leaning in and placing a kiss on his nose, she took his forehooves and guided them into the new outfit.
“Ugh, fine,” Starling grumbled, trying to look upset through his blush. The cloth slipped over his head and hugged his body as Drôle helped him back onto his hooves. Next she stepped behind his rump to reach over his diaper to grab one end of the onesie and between his legs to grab the other, having to press most of her body against the crinkly garment to achieve such a feat. Starling’s leg twitched as it was again shown just how huge his diaper was.
With many grunts and some creaking fabric, along with the occasional tease such as, “Ooohh, too big!” and. “We can’t hide zo much diaper!”, the snaps were cinched together. White plastic forced its way out of the spaces between. The onesie was clearly made for padding a couple inches smaller than what Starling was stuck in.
“Phew.” Drôle wiped her brow, poked Starling’s diaper for another creak, and trotted around to meet Starling eye-to-eye. “There, my zhooting Ztahling is dressed up nice and snugly. Warm and safe.”
Starling snicked, his face as red as his new outfit out of embarrassment and glee. Each of his movements were restricted (more than his oversized diaper had already had been) by the tight, overtaxed fabric. Every creak proved held the same message; your diaper is too big! I can’t hold it all! While Starling was a proud pony who didn’t like being wrong, waddling around the room proved that Drôle had known exactly what she was talking about.
“Uh-oh!” Drôle half-laughed as she ducked under the table. “It’z going to pop!”
“Looks like there’s too much pony to handle.” Ducking and covering his eyes, Starling jutted his bottom into the air and wriggled his joints, straining the onesie. With three pops! the snap burst apart, unholstering the white beacon. The padded pony fell to the ground, laughing and laughing. “No onesie can hold Starling for lo-ack!”
“Maybe not,” Drôle cooed as she tackle-hugged Starling tight, bringing her hooves to his sides for a tickle attack. “But you won’t ever ezcape me!”
“N-No, stahp!” Starling squealed as he rolled across the floor, an action made surprisingly easy by his round diaper.
“Nevah!” she shouted back, tugging the onesie off as the tumbled.
“I-I’m warning you, I’ll sit on you again!”
“Maybe I zit on you instead.” Doing just that, Drôle had her charge pinned down with his forelegs held at his sides and his forelegs dangling uselessly, not able to do much besides kick.
Grinning and snorting through the tickles, Starling asked, “I-Is it too late t-to call a truce?”
Drôle hummed, looking around the room as her tickle torture continued. “What iz ziz word, ‘truce’? Iz like touché? Zen I am ze winner, and you must make many laughz!”
“I-I’m laughing!” he said through his snorts. “P-Please, stahpeet, I c-can’t breath!”
The tickling came to a halt, giving Starling a moment to catch his breath and Drôle the chance to pick up and fold the onesie. Now free, Starling was able to roll himself into a standing position, though wobbling from the strain of too much laughter. He was too weak to resist the t-shirt Drôle slipped him into. A complaint or a gripe tried to form in his throat, but fizzled out as he sunk into his outfit.
“Maybe not little one,” Drôle cooed as she straightened out the bright red shirt. “But you make cute big one. Zhooting Ztahling is best crinkle bottom.”
Starling wiggled his bottom bottom and flicked his tail. “It’s pretty easy when I’m the only crinkle bottom.” The only diapered bottom around was Starling, wasn’t it? The chipperness he has been wearing with his diaper faded some as he looked around. “Yep, just me, the only pony in a diaper...”
“Hmm?” Drôle rubbed under Starling’s chin, eliciting another chuckle. “I zee little sad eyez. Iz zomezing wrong? Remember, just ask, I can make fun!”
“Eh, I dont think you can fix this,” Starling sighed, rubbing ons of his legs with the other. “Guess I’m feeling buyer’s remorse, cause I’m kinda lonely.”
Drôle poked his nose again, nearly making him tip onto his diaper again. “But I am here, zilly one, where is lonely?”
With a chuckle, Starling flicked his caretaker’s nose. “Yeah, but do you see any other crinkle-butts around here? No? Welp, guess it’s just me.” Sighing again, he took to waddling in a circle. “Might as well take advantage of all this free space at least.”
Watching her charge waddle around and mope, however slightly, was not something Drôle would stand for. “Wou want more crinkle-tush? Drôle can fix eazy with pie,” she said as she bounced back to the sack she had dragged in.
Starling stopped and watched as she reached into the bag and pulled out another super-diaper, expertly tossing it onto the ground in a way that made it flop open. Scratching his head, Starling asked, “What are you doing?”
The answer was shown instead of spoken as Drôle grabbed the supplies she had used on Starling and laid herself on the diaper. A few puffs of foal powder refreshed the scent in the room, a few squirts of rash cream, and it looked like Drôle was ready to tape herself in. “Excuse my, Stahling, but ziz zilly pony needz some help.”
“H-Huh? Oh!” Starling waddled over out of reflex, blushing all over again as he grabbed the front of the diaper and wrapped it around Drôle’s haunches.
“Zank you,” Drôle said before grabbing Starling in a hug and kissing his cheek. “What a helpful pony!”
“Anything for a fellow crinkle-butt.” Starling gave a hoarse chuckle as he stepped back and let Drôle stick the tapes in place.
She rolled over once secured in her diaper and stood up with a heave, wagging her tail and her rear each in a different rhythm. “There, now we both crinkle-tush! No more lonely for you.”
Starling’s broke out in another fit of laughter, free of tickling. “Y-You know,” he stuttered, “you didn’t have to do this.”
“Maybe not. But I like being ze zilly pony!” Drôle bounded next to the other diapered pony in the room and pulled him into a hug. “I not like ze other nounous here. Ze ponies come to play, and I love ze play. No little ones, just ze play, make my play pony happy! Besides, iz comfy!” Their diapers bumped together, nearly knocking Starling over.
With a huff, Starling bumped back and returned the snuggle, reveling in the resulting rustles. “You think you can out-silly me? I was the first crinkle-butt in this room, and now I really am the best!”
Thus ensued a mighty diaper-bumping-battle, in which insults such as, “Your diaper lacks poof!” were flung as easily as pillows. Speaking of throwing fluffy things, the remaining diapers in the sack were put to good use as ammunition. The carpeted floor turned white with padding, the only members of the battleground knocked about and buried underneath the mess.
When not chucking diapers, Starling and Drôle duked it out in diaper-to-diaper combat, bumping and swinging this way and that, trying to knock the other down to sit on and declare victory over. At one point, Drôle even got the idea to tackle Starling’s puffy rump and latch another diaper in place to hinder his movement. Starling easily stole the idea and fine-tuned it with unicorn magic to fasten a fresh diaper in place on her in kind.
The foal powder settled a few minutes after the combatants had run out of energy, leaving two ponies double-diapered and using even more of the undergarments as makeshift beds. Panting, Starling kicked Drôle’s diaper and poked her chest.
“Can I teach you what a truce means?” Starling said through his panting.
Giggling, Drôle pushed herself up and took a deep breath. “How about new playtime?” She grabbed his hoof and pulled him into a sitting position. “Like ze view on Mt. Crinkle-Bottom?”
“You may refer to me as Lord Crinkle-Butt the First,” Starling said as he sturck a pose. “From atop my seat of power and powder, I look down on the meager padding of others and scoff, for none can have a better diaper than mine!”
Drôle gasped and bowed. “Your majezty, I am in awe of your poofy power.”
“As my first royal decree... uh... umm...” Starling shrugged, smiling as he wiggled his hind legs. “I got nothing. Wanna just hug again?”
“Zome king you are,” Drôle playfully chastised as she waddled behind Starling and pressed her head against the back of his diaper and pushed.
Starling let out a yipe as he tumbled over and watched the world rotate on its axis. Thankfully the trip was short, just being moved to the table in the center of the room. His throne of diapers doubled as a fluffy bean bag chair, leaving Starling at the perfect level to rest his knees on the smooth surface. The next activity in Drôle’s improvised playtime was presented in the form of a stack of paper and a box of crayons.
The hug Starling had asked for was given once Drôle was sitting at his side. “Like to color, oui? Star pencil iz talent, zo now we make picturez.”
“I feel like I’m supposed to pout about being treated like a foal, but you caught with my pants down and my diaper jutting out.” With a snicker, Starling’s horn lit up and began to organize the supplies.
“An artizt should art,” Drôle replied, doing much the same with much less grace. “And I think ziz zilly pony never drew in pamperz. Now be free, draw what heart desires!”
A silly smirk worked onto his lips and he sunk into his diapers, his magic looking as if it had a mind of its own as it went to hastily tracing an image Starling was already seeing. By comparison, Drôle looked like a filly still learning how to draw within a picture’s lines as the crayons in her mouth quivered.
Minutes stretched on in relative silence as their pictures formed. When she’d made a rough field of grass and some decent outlines of ponies, Starling had already finished a cartoon rocket ship, several stars, and drawn two ponies riding said rocket ship. Drôle couldn’t help but giggle as she noticed the ponies in his picture rode on the outside of the ship, complete with some distinctive bulges in the bottom of their spacesuits.
“D-Don’t mock the artist in the zone,” Starling huffed as his picture slid away from him.
“Mock? Who mockz you? Iz good art!” Reaching over and putting the sheet back, Drôle marveled at her charge’s superior skills with colors and lines. “Iz zo pretty, iz, eh, cozy looking?” She scratched her head and scoffed. “My Equeztrian not good enough. You have fluffy style, would snuggle.”
Starling snickered, grabbing various shades of purple, peach, and blue to color the faces of the ponies in the space suits. “I’ll humbly accept that as a compliment and graciously allow you to see the finished product. Ta-da!” The picture levitated up, a little too fast for Starling to realize he looked like a colt showing their mother a picture they made in kindergarten.
The Prench pony marveled at the drawing, feeling the surface as though she might touch the night sky the rocket and its passenger flew through. “Artizt should art, and you art so well! Sweet as colt but with zkill of ze mazter. You have good talent. And space poniez look similar, hmm?” Drôle’s airy giggled filtered through the air, earning a kick at her diaper. “And big diaperz for big trip?”
“If you’re going to another planet, you need to be prepared, right?” Starling snickered and shrugged, letting his magic fade and the picture fall into her hooves. Winking, he added, “Don’t want to make too many stops.”
“Diaperz should be bigger, zen,” she teased.
“Bah, complaint, complaints! Fine, keep it until I have version two ready; revenge of the poof!”
Drôle blinked, glancing at the picture again. “I may keep?”
“Sure.” Starling initiated their next hug. “I did draw it with my new crinkle-buddy in mind.”
“Oh, oui, oui, crinkle-tuzhy-buddiez! I remember ziz day for long time, like long trip!” Drôle hugged the drawing to her chest, careful not to wrinkle it. The smile she wore became a smirk. “Hang it on my fridge for alwayz.”
Starling groaned and pushed her away, the force knocking them both over into a fit of giggles. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“No, I’m Drôle,” she replied before getting a face full of diaper. “Ack, no more rough play! Too tired for zat fun time.” Pushing the diaper away, Drôle yawned and smacked her lips. “You are not little one, but nap time zoundz like good time.”
Starling found himself agreeing with the statement. They weren’t kids with boundless energy, after all, and roughhousing for so long wore a pony down. A nap didn’t sound like a bad idea at all. “Oh, alright, you’re the boss...” Starling grumbled, trying to hide his smile.
“Good. Hmm, bed might be too small for such a big pony,” Drôle mused, patting his diapers as she stood up. “Diaperz not too zmall for big pony.”
“Eh?” Before Starling could formulate a proper question, Drôle rolled him up by the rounded underside of his padding. Instead of setting him up straight, Starling was positioned so he was laying on his diaper, sinking into it like an actual bean bag chair. The cool plastic accepted his weight, bending like foam until Starling was practically engulfed. “Mmm...” he hummed, closing his eyes and yawning himself.
Drôle set herself up in the same position, snickering as she sunk into the fluff. “Comfy?”
“Indubitably.” Stretching, Starling sighed and settled down for sleep. “Sleep tight, Droo... Dru... umm, sweet caretaker pony.
“Nice dreams, my Zhooting Stahling,” Drôle cooed before she clapped her hooves and the lights went out, allowing darkness to blanket them and drift off to sleep.
Starling sighed as he looked back at his haunches, already missing the weight that had been taken away not five minutes ago. Having his tail free to swish unhindered seemed so wrong now. Alas, nothing could last forever. One way or another a diaper always came off. Turning back to the front desk, Starling sighed through his smile. “Um, excuse me? Dr... Druu... umm...”
The baby blue pony looked up from her paperwork and smiled. “Drôle, oui?”
“Here!” the earth pony replied as she trotted through the double doors, a spring in her step. “Big pony room clean for next fun time.”
“Excellent, very good work. Now, Mister Starling,” Épingle began as she opened the same binder she had been using earlier. “If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind answering a few questions? We always wish to improve and make things better for our patrons.”
“Oh, sure!” he replied. “No problem at all. Do I fill out a form, or...?”
“Oh, no, just a few questions to answer, I’ll handle all the writing. First, how would you rate the way your caretaker?”
Turning to Drôle, who was giving him a hopeful smile, Starling smirked and said, “Hmm, and what I say here will affect her pay, right?”
“Naturally. Outstanding employees are rewarded.”
Starling tapped his chin while Drôle’s began to look more nervous. “Hmm, taking everything that happened into account...” He waited until a few beads of sweat broke out on the caretaker’s brow to announce, “She was fantastic in every way! Sweet, kind, cuddly, playful, and super silly. Ten out of ten, would snuggle again.”
“Why tease me zo?” Drôle lamented as she clutched her chest. “Next time Ztahling be triple padded, won’t even walk!”
“I’ll be looking forward to it~” Starling sang. “Hey, a little side note for your book? She knew what to do to make me happy, even when I didn’t.”
Épingle nodded sagely as she wrote in the binder. “Nothing new there. The best caretakers know what a charge wants before they do. Next, were the supplies and environment to your liking?”
“Are you kidding? How could anypony say no to diapers like those! But you might wanna liven the room up some. It was kinda empty.”
“That room isn’t used too often, I’m afraid,” Épingle said as she chewed on her pen. “But your suggestion will be taken into account. Did you enjoy the activities that were presented to you? Is there anything you particularly enjoyed or would like to play next time?”
Starling shook his head. “Nothing to add, just give me a diaper, some company, and we can come up with the rest, right?”
“Oui!” Drôle added.
“Very good to hear,” Épingle said with a snicker. “Not so nervous anymore, I noticed.”
Shrugging with a blush, Starling said, “Hey, when in the nursery, do as the foals do, right? Just go with it.”
“You really are a silly one.” Épingle turned to her employee. “And how was your charge? Was he well behaved?”
“H-Hey! I thought she was the one getting graded!”
Drôle stuck her tongue out before replying, “Ztahling waz zweetie pie. There iz zilly ztreak reaching to moon, but iz juzt for fun timez. Maybe not little one in heart, but iz pony of play.”
“And that ends our questionnaire.” Épingle shut the binder once the last few scribbles were put down. “We hope you had a wonderful time at the Fontaine de Jouvence, Mister Starling, and wish to see you again.”
“Sooner, not later,” Drôle demanded with a wink before trotting up to Starling, taking his hoof, shoving a folded piece of paper into his grasp, and placing a kiss on his forehead. “Mizzing you for whole time, more snuggle, oui?”
Smiling through his blush and nodding, Starling stole one last hug from Drôle before turning around. “I promise, I’ll be back to your wonderful business soon.” The door opened under violation of his magic, but he froze before placing one hoof across the threshold. “Hold on a second...”
“Yes, Mister Starling?” Épingle said, a tiny smile on her lips as she went back to her paperwork.
“You never asked me to pay!” Starling cried as he looked back at Drôle. “Aren’t you going to take my bits?”
“The first visit is free, Mister Starling. I noticed the brochure you had was a few weeks old, so I would assume that’s why you didn’t know.” Épingle said as she waved him off. “We want to make sure all of our first-time clients enjoy themselves, and the best way to do that is to remove the worry of whether it will be worth their bits.
Starling’s jaw hung open, unsure what to say. As if he couldn’t be floored anymore, Drôle has an addendum to add as she bounced up to him. “And good poniez get zpecial dizcount. Normally little one dizcount, but you get zilly pony dizcount!”
“Whoa... you’re serious?” Starling blinked as Drôle nuzzle him and helped him out the door.
“We don’t want bitz, zilly one. Smilez and joy best reward of all. I want to zee you again and again, man timez. I pay if you can’t.”
“Hey, it’s rude to let the mare pay the bill,” Starling teased, rubbing their noses together. “In that case, prep the room for next Tuesday, extra fluffy, and I expect you to be in top tickling form.”
Drôle saluted, offering a test tickle to his chin. “Will do, mon capitaine. Until next time.” With more more wave and goodbye, she trotted back into the Fontaine and closed the door behind her.
Starling sighed, looking back at the no-longer-nerve-wracking building, clutching the sheet of paper he’d been given to his heart. Thoughts of next week were already bouncing around in his head as he looked down at the crudely, if not lovingly, drawn ponies sitting in a bed of flowers, big white circles forcing them into sitting positions.
“Until next time,” he said before starting the trek home.
