Rainbow's Curse

"I still don't see why you gotta do this," Rainbow Dash complained as Twilight tightened the clamp around her final hoof, leaving her suspended in the machine. Rainbow's legs were all held apart by metal clamps built into a metal ring about seven feet across, and her wings similarly bound. This left her doing an impression of the vitruvian pony, which Pinkie Pie helpfully pointed out. On her head a device shaped like a colander was held in place with a strap under her muzzle, with a dozen wires running from it. The wires were also stuck in place on various points around the diaper, Rainbow's torso, and her head, all running to a big machine in the corner of the room. Pulling tentatively at one of the clamps, Rainbow Dash found that her hoof was stuck firmly in place. "Can't you do the tests without locking me up like we're in a creepy horror movie?"

Twilight shrugged, rearranging a tangle of wires as she set up some kind of scanning device. "Can you stand perfectly still for twenty minutes while I run a scan?" She asked, before adding, "Pinkie, can you turn on the power?"

"Okey dokey!" Pinkie called from across the room, flipping a big switch which caused lights to turn on around the ring Rainbow was suspended in. Rainbow winced at the sudden light, making her blink a lot to keep her eyes from watering at the intensity.

"Uh, I guess not," she admitted, squirming and trying to get comfortable. It was difficult, though, with her limbs held apart and wet diaper sagging a little bit around her waist. She expected to be pretty stiff and sore by the end of this, though it was worth it to discover a counter-curse.

"Okay then," Twilight said, her horn glowing as she wired up the machine. Paper started spooling out with squiggly lines moving up and down measuring various frequencies and energies. "Can you say aaaah, please?"

"Aaaah!" Pinkie Pie said from across the room, still holding the switch in place. Twilight put a hoof to her forehead, sighing. "I meant Rainbow Dash," she explained. "You can let go of the switch now."

Rainbow obeyed next, opening her mouth to comply. "Aaa-mpph!" She said, as Twilight levitated the pacifier into her mouth, a long wire trailing from the end. "Wha'tha he''? She mumbled, glaring in annoyance and trying to spit it out.

Plugging in the wire trailing from the pacifier, Twilight said, "I need to get a reading on the pacifier too. Besides, the scan is going to take a while and you shouldn't talk or it'll mess up the readings."

"Can I talk?" Pinkie Pie asked, trotting up next to Twilight.

"Yes," Twilight agreed, "But keep an eye on the power readings while you do, okay?"

"Okey dokie!" Pinkie Pie hopped over to the machine, pressing the side of her face up against the little screen displaying the power readings to keep an eye on them.

Watching the squiggly lines the machine was making Twilight said to Rainbow Dash, "To get a reading on your brain activity, I'm going to keep talking to you. Don't answer any questions, just think about your answer, I just want to get a reading on your basic brain activity. Okay?"

"Yeth," Rainbow Dash replied, before mentally smacking herself. "Ah mean, uh..." Catching herself she stopped talking, suckling the pacifier to keep her mouth occupied. She had to admit, it felt pretty soothing. Not that she liked it, of course, but as long as it was in her mouth...

"Okay," Twilight said, "Something interesting we both can talk about... How about Daring Do?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. Twilight totally misunderstood who Daring's love interested should be, but otherwise she was as big a fan as Rainbow was.

Frowning, Twilight pointed out, "You can't shake your head either, Rainbow, you have to be still. I'm going to start it now, so don't move or make a sound, okay?"

'Then why did you ask my a question?' Rainbow Dash thought, but she didn't say it out loud.  She wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.

Minutes ticked by at an excruciatingly slow pace, first one, then five, then ten, as Twilight went on and on about the intricacies of the series. Rainbow Dash knew it all, of course, but she could handle a little recapping. It gave her something to listen to, at least, while she waited for the test to get done. She could hear machines whirring behind her and wanted to look to see what they were doing, maybe respond to some of Twilight's sillier fan theories, but she reminded herself to stay put. It was difficult, and getting more and more tedious as the seconds ticked by, but she could make it. Almost done. Just as the eighteen minute mark rolled around, though, a problem cropped up. "You've read the most recent one, right? Daring Do and the Unmasking of the Mysterious Mare?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash nearly jolted out of the contraption, but she reminded herself to stay still. It was out? Her pre-order still hadn't come in! How did Twilight get it? Wait, but that meant Twilight was a book ahead of her... She must know who stole the Golden Horseshoe! Still, she wasn't about to spoil everything, right?

Not noticing Rainbow's anxiety, Twilight continued chattering. "I'm sure you loved it, the surprise near the end was incredible. I couldn't believe that-" Rainbow Dash gulped, telling herself to stay quiet for the scan to run. She could make it through one little spoiler. "And the reveal when you find out who stole the horseshoe..." She raised an eyebrow, looking at the readings. "Hmm, Pinkie, come look at this... I'm getting an unusually high level of anxiety for a base reading. You must be really stressed out about this curse," she commented to Rainbow Dash.

'No, but you're about to ruin the ending!' Rainbow thought, a little annoyed, but she didn't say a thing. Just one minute left, she could last that. Right?

"So, anyways, I'd be curious to hear what you thought of the Mysterious Mare's identity. You know, this book pretty much answers all the mysteries raised in the last six books!" Noting down the readings, she added, "Wow, your base stress levels are off the charts! Where was I?" Feeling sweat beading on her forehead, Rainbow Dash struggled to stay quiet. She hadn't spoiled anything yet...

"You were talking about all the mysteries," Pinkie Pie reminded, to Rainbow's annoyance.

"Right," Twilight said, nodding.  "Anyways, who ever would have guessed that the pony pulling the strings behind the Pegasus Conspiracy would have been-"

"I HAVN' WEAD IT!" Rainbow couldn't take it any more, she wasn't about to let the series get ruined, even if it meant starting the test all over again. Twilight looked from her test, surprised to hear the objection.

"What?" She asked, confused.

Since the test was ruined anyways, Rainbow Dash saw no reason not to clarify. (It was  a bit of a struggle to talk behind the pacifier, that didn't count as a reason.) "I neva' gotha book in da maiw, I haven' wead it yet. Don' spoiw anythin'!"

Twilight realized the issue and blushed slightly. "Oh, sorry," she said, a little sheepishly. "Why didn't you say so when I brought up the book?"

"Cauth I- Uh, pathifiaw?" Rainbow Dash pointed out. Twilight removed the spittle-soaked pacifier and, free to speak, Rainbow continued. "Because you said it'd mess up the test if I spoke!"

A pause went by, and Twilight giggled. "I only meant it'd mess it up while you were moving! Obviously if you were responding to everything I said it would be no good, but it wouldn't ruin twenty minutes of data if you had to scratch your nose for a second!"

"I can't scratch my nose," Rainbow pointed out, a little annoyed. "You could have been a little more clear!"

"Sorry," Twilight said, though she sounded more amused than sympathetic. "But I think that's a long enough sample for a base reading."

"Finally! So you can you let me out?" Rainbow asked, tugging her foreleg against the clamp.

"Not quite yet," Twilight said. "Pinkie Pie, can you handle the data while I do this next bit?"

"Of course," Pinkie Pie said, moving to take Twilight's position, as the unicorn moved in front of Rainbow Dash.

"Um... What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked, not happy about being ignored.

"Well," Twilight said, deciding how to phrase what she was about to say. "I have a base reading, but now I need to see how the curse reacts to magical influence, if you understand what I'm saying."

Rainbow didn't understand what Twilight was saying. "Uh... What?"

"Duh!" Pinkie Pie said, rolling her eyes. "Twilight's gonna use a bunch of magic on your diaper to make you have an accident, so she can see what the machines say about it."

"Oh," Rainbow Dash said, nodding. Pinkie Pie had a helpful way of boiling things down to the most basic so anypony, even non-eggheads, could understand them. "Wait, what?"

"I'll change you right away," Twilight promised. "But I need to see what the machine says about the curse, and the only way to find that out is to get a reaction from you."

"You're kidding, right? Hey!" Rainbow protested, as she saw Twilight's horn start to glow.

"Do you want to find a counterspell?" Twilight asked, struggling to get an appropriate spell ready.

"Yes," Rainbow Dash said automatically, before thinking to add, "But I don't wanna have any more accidents to do it!"

Twilight shook her head. "Sorry," she said, and before Rainbow could protest any more she saw a magical glow form around her squishy diaper, and after a second the padding vanished.

It re-appeared, of course, and Rainbow Dash felt a tug on her bowels when it did. The need to go was upgraded from minor to extreme, though even without being able to cross her legs she was able to hold it. "Okay," she said, trying not to sound like she was panicking. "That's all you need, right? You can fix the curse now and I can use the bathroom?"

"No, Rainbow," Twilight said, her tone a little patronizing. "Even if I had all the data I needed, I wouldn't have the counterspell right away, that takes time. Now, hold still!" Pointing her horn at Rainbow, she started preparing another spell.

"Twilight," Rainbow Dash said, a little concerned, but the unicorn ignored her as her horn began to glow. "Twilight." She said again, more urgently, but there was still no response. There had to be something else they could try! "Twilight!"

Struggling to maintain the spell while she responded, Twilight said, "I can't figure out a counterspell if we don't do this. Hold still."

Rainbow Dash frowned, but wasn't sure what she could say. Being forced to mess herself was pretty crappy, but if it could get her out of diapers for good, it was probably worth it. As Twilight's horn glowed brighter and brighter, though, and Pinkie Pie retrieved a clothespin for her and Twilight's nose, Rainbow's self preservation started to kick in. "Wait-" She started to say, tugging at the clamps holding her hooves in a feeble escape attempt, but Twilight's magic was ready. For a moment her diaper glowed, but then it was vaporized into ash in  a surprisingly violent display of magic. Before Rainbow could blink, though, it had re-appeared once again, of course. At the very least, though, for one magical second her flanks had been diaper free.

When the padding re-appeared the inevitable happened, as Rainbow felt a new intensity in her gut that no amount of struggling would help. Her hind legs trembled for a second while she tried to hold it, but it was futile. Blushing profusely, Rainbow felt her tail hike up as her body decided it was time to go, filling the seat of the diaper with manure. Twilight averted her gaze, at least, and Pinkie Pie barely seemed to notice, but that didn't help particularly much with the embarrassment. Twenty or thirty seconds went by in near silence, the only noise being a slight crinkle of the diaper as the expanding mess forced the diaper's plastic back outward. By the time she was done, the diaper was sagging nearly below her knees and the tapes were straining to keep it from falling off entirely.

Even Pinkie Pie was a little taken aback, her tail twitching as she said, "Eeeew!" Sticking out her tongue and screwing up her face, she waved a hoof in front of her nose to help with the smell more than the clothespin would.

"Just... Please tell me you got everything you need," Rainbow Dash asked, feeling defeated. Sure, this had happened on purpose, but embarrassment aside the whole scenario was exhausting.

"Uh..." Twilight said, blinking. "Yeah. Yes, I got everything. Here, I'll let you out of there,  okay? Say when." She hit one button, releasing Rainbow's wings, and then reached for another to let out her hooves.

"Thanks, yes," Rainbow Dash said, feeling her wings free up and moving them a bit to get a little feeling to return. "Just let me out of here." Feeling her hind legs get released, though, she realized she wasn't flapping her wings and had nothing keeping her in the air. "No, wai-" She started, before her forelegs were released and she fell the couple feet to the ground. A second later, she landed on the seat of the diaper, yelping as she felt its contents squish against her plot.

As Rainbow Dash expected, it felt disgusting, turning an uncomfortable but contained mess into something smushed around her thighs and between her legs. What Rainbow Dash didn't expect was how good it would feel at the same time. It was obviously an effect of the curse, but squishing the contents of the diaper up between her hind legs sent a tingle of pleasure up her spine, making her blush harder than the actual messing had. She felt a sudden desire to squish the diaper some more with her hooves, but with Twilight and Pinkie there it would be rather awkward. Not wanting to explain why she was making the mess worse, she just chewed her lip and hoped they wouldn't notice what she had felt.

"Uh, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked, looking at the readings written in squiggly lines. With various dongles and wires still stuck all over Rainbow and the colander still strapped to her head, the machine was still picking up signals. "It's saying that Dashie's feeling all funny."

"Hmm?" Twilight asked, glancing over at the chart Pinkie Pie was gesturing to. "Funny how?"

"Right here," Pinkie Pie said, pointing to a long strip of paper with a spike near the end of the squiggle.

"Arousal? Uh, that's probably just an error. It doesn't give accurate readings if the subject's moving around a lot. Ignore that."

"Uh, hey, still need a change over here," Rainbow Dash said, trying to change the subject. as she got to her hooves, trying to stand as normally as possible and finding it rather difficult with a huge messy diaper weighing down her backside. "Please? This feels totally awful."

"Of course," Twilight said. "Pinkie Pie, would you mind taking all these data papers upstairs while I get her cleaned up?"

"Okey dokey!" Pinkie Pie agreed, nodding as she scooped up the reams of paper with all their zig zags of data. As she left, Rainbow Dash looked gratefully to Twilight.

"Thanks," the pegasus said, half-smiling. "It'd be really awkward to get cleaned up with her arou-"

"Rainbow Dash, I know the machine's results at the end weren't faulty," Twilight said, cutting off her friend.

"Uh... Oh," Rainbow said, blushing more than ever. "Yeah. That."

Twilight blushed herself, trying to pick the right words to prevent things from getting any more awkward than they already were. "Well... Rainbow, you're a great friend," she started, pausing for a second. "And I can understand why you might get excited when you know I'm going to be, uh, touching you soon. But I'm only doing it as a friend to help you with this curse, I just don't think of you that way, okay?"

Rainbow Dash blinked for a second, and then she burst out laughing. "Y-you thought I felt that way 'cause of you?" She giggled, putting a hoof to her mouth to stifle the laughter so the whole town wouldn't hear. "It was the diaper!"

"Oh," Twilight said, sounding relieved until she realized, "Wait, what?"

Catching herself, Rainbow clarified, "I think it's part of the curse, like when it makes my butt feel weird when my diaper's not wet. I wouldn't normally... Uh, why don't we just change the subject, okay?"

"Yes, please," Twilight said, blushing slightly less than she had a moment ago. "Uh, just lie down, okay?"

Dash complied, and Twilight summoned her changing supplies. Sliding a trash can over next to the changing pad, Twilight inhaled deeply in preparation for untaping the diaper. Holding her breath, cheeks puffed out slightly as she tried to keep from exhaling when she grabbed the tapes of the diaper with her magic, popping them open.

Rainbow Dash wrinkled up her nose as the odor hit her, no longer shielded by the padding. Twilight was a little better protected, not having to breathe in again for another twenty or thirty seconds at least. Putting a hoof to her nose and trying not to inhale anymore than she had to, Rainbow commented in nasal tones, "Hurry it up!"

Twilight didn't respond, her face turning purpler than ever as she held her breath. Quickly hefting the diaper, struggling a bit with its weight as she tossed it into the trash bin, the unicorn grabbed nearly a dozen foal wipes from the container. Wiping with them all in unison, her practice with coordinated magic coming in handy, she got her friend cleaned up in a matter of seconds before disposing of the wipes as well. Wheezing as she finally took a breath, the color returned to Twilight's face and she panted for a couple moments.

"You don't have to tell me to hurry," the unicorn commented, a little annoyed, as she levitated the tube of foal powder. More experienced than ever, she quickly applied the perfumed powder it in a perfect, precise layer. Raising Rainbow's legs with a hoof, she slid the diaper in place and taped it down, unfaded cutie mark colorfully emblazoned on the crotch in case anypony forgot who was wearing the diaper. The change was a little less awkward this time around, partly just because it had only taken a few moments, but mostly because it had started to feel a little more familiar.

"You're getting fast," Rainbow Dash commented. "I think you got me cleaned up in like ten second fl-"

"Whooooo's hungry?" Pinkie Pie called down the stairs. "I made lunch!" The smell of baked apples and fresh bread wafted down the stairs, making Rainbow wonder how Pinkie had managed to cook a whole meal that in the brief time she had been gone.

"That smells freaking awesome," Rainbow said, grinning as she got to her hooves.

"Sorry," Twilight said, a little apologetically.

"Why? I- Oh, darn it," Rainbow Dash realized she wouldn't get to taste any of it as long as the curse was in play. Flapping her wings to get up to the door, she groaned. "What's for me, Pinkie? Strained puke?"

"Nope!" Pinkie Pie said, happily. "I made something for you, too. Little foals can eat applesauce, right? I whipped up a little bitty bit."

Confused, Twilight said, "But how? I didn't have any apple-"

"Plus, since storebought formula doesn't taste yummy, like, at all, I mixed up a special batch." She beamed, hopping back towards the kitchen.

Now Rainbow was confused. "How did she know the storebought formula is gro-"

"Doesn't matter! It's gonna get cold!" Pinkie Pie called.

One lunch, one short break while Rainbow stretched the stiffness out of her legs and wings, and one incredibly boring afternoon of Twilight muttering over squiggly lines on paper while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow helped as much as they could. Getting a chalk board, Twilight marked down long notes and long, mathematical equations Rainbow couldn't understand which apparently were some form of magical formula. (But not the magical formula Rainbow had to drink instead of water, Pinkie Pie helpfully pointed out.) It was nearly eleven, and while snacking on leftovers had kept them from getting hungry, they were all pretty tired when Twilight announced that there was nothing more to be learned from their experiments.

"So, what did you figure out?" Rainbow Dash asked, once Twilight finally looked up from her squiggles. "You know the counter-spell, right?"

Twilight sounded a little surprised, even shocked, when she said, "I... Don't know. I've never seen anything like this, Rainbow Dash. It's almost like dark magic, but the spell isn't set up properly for any kind of black curses. I'm sorry, but I really don't know what to do."

"What?" Rainbow asked, hopping to her hooves. "But... You... I can't wear diapers for the rest of my life!"

"You won't!" Twilight assured her. "We'll figure this out. This happened right after the Hearth's Warming Eve party, right? Tomorrow, we'll try tracing this from where it started. If anypony did this to you at the party, then I'm sure we'll be able to find somepony who saw something."

"I saw all sorts of things," Pinkie Pie pointed out, "But I don't know who used any voodooo on Rainbow Dash. You think anypony saw more at the party than me?" She seemed stricken at the idea, as though the idea of anypony at the party experiencing something she hadn't was horrifying to her.

"It's worth a shot," Rainbow said, but she didn't sound too sure about it.

"Don't worry," Twilight insisted. "We'll get this solved. Look here, there's at least a little bit of a clue on the ambient magic scale, it's off the charts. The spell looks like it's designed to piggyback energy off of your metabolism. When it has to fight off my magic, it draws the energy from your digestive system."

"So... That's why I gotta go really bad when you try and take the diaper off?" Rainbow asked, trying to put it in laymare's terms.

"Pretty much," Twilight agreed. "Now, I don't know if this will be helpful for a counterspell, but it's really interesting. Look here, at the magikinetic chart," She added, pointing.

Rainbow looked at the squiggle, seeing nothing more than a squiggle. All she was hearing was a bunch of unhelpful egghead babble which amounted to nothing helpful. "Right," she said. "Look, Twilight, I can't just keep wearing diapers forever! You have to be potty trained to get into the Wonderbolts! I checked!"

"When did you have time to check th-" Twilight started, but Rainbow pulled a Pinkie Pie and cut her off.

"That doesn't matter!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "You have to fix this!"

"I'm doing everything I can," Twilight promised. "But unless we can find out what caused this, I'm clueless!"

Pinkie Pie looked confused for a second. "No you're not, you're Twilight!" She said, rolling her eyes. "Clue Less is a private eye who lives down by Sugarcube Corner!"

Twilight blinked, then moved on. "Aaanyways... I know you want to get this worked out as quickly as possible, but I need to get some sleep, and I think you do too. Once we've had some time to rest, we'll figure this out."

Rainbow wanted to get this solved right away, but Twilight had a point. Rainbow was pretty sleepy, and they weren't getting anywhere. A little rest would do them good. "Fine..." She said, giving a sigh.

Twilight nodded, glad that Rainbow wasn't going to make a fuss. "Pinkie Pie," she said, turning to her friend. "Thank you for your help, I couldn't have done it without you."

"Yeah, thanks," Rainbow said, a little less enthused. She hadn't forgotten about Pinkie's slip of the tongue just yet, but she didn't want Twilight to shut her up with the pacifier again.

"No problem!" Pinkie said, happily. "Just let me know if you need anything else!"

"Of course," Twilight said, before turning back to Rainbow. "Do you need a change before we head to bed?"

Rainbow considered the question. The pressure in her gut told her that using her diaper and getting a change would be smart, but she wasn't about to crap herself on purpose twice in one day. Besides, she thought she could hold it all night, and if she couldn't she could always wake Twilight up for a change. "I'm good," she decided.

This was the wrong decision, because Rainbow had made a few miscalculations. She harshly miscalculated how long she could hold it, but that wasn't a problem by itself. Twilight wouldn't like it, but waking her up for a change wouldn't be too much of an issue.

What she didn't expect when she woke up late that night, her bowels cramping to let her know it was time to go, was the onesie. That was new.