Don't Fear The Storm

The waves rushed against the beach, as if each and every droplet tried to cling to the sand. The grains remained unmoved by the forces that went up against them however, and the water stood no chance of advancing any further than it did. Moments passed by just like that and slowly the water started to extend its reach. The grains could not withstand the strength of the tide.

The color of the sand shifted from its paling and bleak color to an ever darker tone as the waters washed over them. Then it withdrew again, only to return, swallowing all that surrounded those tiny hooves more and more. So maybe it wasn’t like the filly thought it to be. Maybe these sands were all that remained of her world. Maybe this beach was the last place where life still remained.

The storm might yet claim it all.

Did she feel the chill in her bones? Did she smell the salt in the air? In truth, she couldn’t tell, but at least her eyes worked, at least they allowed her to see what she wanted to see. As she remained on the sand, the water rose up to her knees as another wave hit.

Was she really amazed by the sight? Was she even the least bit afraid? In truth, she couldn’t tell, but at least nopony would be here to judge her for it.

Then, what silence she thought to hear became a noise, distant, somewhat familiar. It was like a voice, calling out to her, but whether it came from what lay before her or what remained out of sight, she couldn’t tell. All the filly could do was stand and feel the sand touch her hooves.

Did she really hear anything? Did she really think that anypony else would ever come here? In truth, she couldn’t tell, but the black clouds rose up before her.

As something moved across the horizon, the filly only closed her eyes. She didn’t know what it was and maybe, just maybe, she had long since stopped caring.

She was too far away from the storm anyhow.

Rainbow Dash had two things. The first thing was the worst headache that ever tore her skull apart and the second was thing was confusion, because she didn’t quite know what to make of this. Maybe she’d been wrong, maybe this was the best prank ever.

As soon as she’d said the word, Twilight turned around and went to the door, only to return swiftly, beaming as she did. Yet what she brought into the room left Dash’s mouth fall wide open. A stroller, that’s what she came back with, an actual stroller for her. Not a wheelchair, no, a stroller, one used for foals, with some cute rainbow designs adorning it. Rainbow Dash didn’t even want to look at them, if Twilight had thought she’d look at that, she was wrong. No, instead Rainbow Dash stared at her friend.

It was like she’d planned to make this dramatic reveal and as she smiled at Rainbow Dash the pegasus couldn’t help but notice how weird it was. It wasn’t a prankster’s smile, smug and self-indulgent, it actually seemed expectant of Rainbow Dash. Did she think that anypony above the age of 1 would be excited to see a colorful foal carriage? Did she think that Rainbow Dash of all ponies would find the idea of getting rolled around town in such a thing awesome?

Yet, another thing just occurred to her. It might’ve been the confusion blurring out the pain in her head, but only now did she notice how strange Twilight looked. Non-regal, small and without wings stretching out from her back. Yet with every step Twilight took, it seemed like she’d never been an alicorn.

She looked like the unicorn who recently came to town, one who tried to walk with a certain grace, but only barely managed to hide that awkward shuffling of a bookworm. It was like Rainbow Dash looked through a window back in time, to before the Equestrian Games, before Tirek. She lifted her hoof, touched her forehead, felt the bandages pressing against her coat.

“How hard did I hit my head?” She heard herself ask, but only barely managed to produce her voice.

The doctor seemed to catch on and walked up to her. “Is something wrong, Dash?”

She looked at him, then, studied his eyes. They were looking a confused child, she knew, because that’s always how he looked at her back whenever she was confused back in the old days.

Twilight, after placing the stroller close to the bed, stepped forward and looked at the doctor, eyes filled with worry. It was a strange look for Twilight, like when Spike had gotten into trouble and needed stitches or something. Both of them weren’t looking at a grown pony, a friend they knew.

Bile rose up, she felt her hoof shaking. What the hay? she thought, tried to find her breath. There was something wrong with what the two of them saw. The diapers, the appearance of this doctor, the way he’d called Twilight her “auntie” and the stroller. This wasn’t a prank. This couldn’t be a prank.

Rainbow Dash gulped and, eyes fixed on Twilight, asked the question she wondered about. “How old do you think I am?”

The question made Twilight raise an eyebrow, the doctor squinted his eyes, wondering what she was on about.

“What do you mean, sweetie?” Twilight asked.

“My age, Twilight,” she said and tried to keep her eyes on her friend’s. Twilight Sparkle looked confused, honestly confused. Again, Rainbow Dash asked the question. “How old am I?”

The light headedness seemed to grow. In a strange way, it was like she wasn’t even in the room, not really at least, and somebody in the distance was knocking against a wall. That wall, she knew, was the inside of her skull, and the knocking was the beating of a hammer. She saw how Twilight moved her mouth, how the doctor leaned in, but then her sight became blurry. She closed her eyes then and for but a split-second, she heard thunder roaring, smelled the petrichor and saw a spider making its web. Then came the sound from the farthest distance, at the end of a long, long road she knew she was not ready to take.

Twilight looked at the doctor, who gently touched Rainbow Dash’s shoulder and pushed her down into a lying position again. “It’s alright, just breathe, Dash. Can you do that for me?”

She knew his face, but couldn’t see it. He was there as she opened her eyes and at the same time he was not. The world in the corners of her eyes were made of black, like a spot of ink slowly spreading out. Rainbow Dash turned her head again, to where the window was.

The light of the sun faded as it was obscured by dark clouds and she saw a bolt of lightning running down in the distance. Dash blinked. She remembered her fall, but also something else, staring at her, talking to her.

“What’s going on, doctor?” Twilight asked, her voice suddenly shaking. “Is she alright? We need to do something. Doctor!”

She became loud for Rainbow Dash, for her friend. That’s how worried she was. Rainbow Dash looked at the darkness only she could see and thought to herself an apology she couldn’t bring out of her mouth.

“As I said, Miss Sparkle, her head got the worst of it, I’d say–”

She didn’t hear what he said next, instead her mind faded into the dark. Her last thought was an apology to her friends, because Rainbow Dash understood that she had messed up big time. In the corner of the room, however, the spider spotted a fly.

Yet, the moment Rainbow Dash felt herself come to, she couldn’t help but notice that the pain had subsided, that her eyes were only heavy from sleep and as opened her mouth for a yawn, it was the longest she’d let out in a long time. For the first moment, she took notice of how a blanket was spread over her body, spending a warmth she knew to need. She smelled a sweet, nostalgic scent around her. From where she knew it, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell. Her stomach felt a bit heavy, she noticed, and the feeling made her twitch a bit. As she moved, she felt herself hugging something soft, holding it close to her chest. After a moment or two, Rainbow Dash decided to open her eyes, although she only managed to do so slowly.

The headache was gone, for the most part, at least. It was still there, like a scratch, itching, being annoying, so she didn’t want to move around too much. As long as she didn’t move, it wouldn’t grow, and as long as it didn’t grow again, she was better.

Yet better wasn’t good, she noticed the moment thereafter. As the world came into focus she immediately noted that the padding between her legs felt so much more obvious to her now. It was bloated and soggy, which Rainbow Dash figured could only mean one thing.

Her eyes remained on the ceiling as she felt her cheeks grow warm. Whatever she held in her arms, she pressed it even closer to her chest. “I wet the bed,” she murmured.

No, that would’ve been one thing. She didn’t just wet the bed.

She wet a diaper.

Somepony had expected this to happen and gone out of their way to dress Rainbow Dash for the occasion. For all she knew they might’ve gone so far as to cover the mattress with a rubber sheet. Now that she thought about it, what if she leaked? What if a rubber sheet was necessary, too? What would her friends think of her? What would the Wonderbolts think? And what would Scoots think once she found out her idol turned into diaper-wetting foal.

Her arms moved up and she lifted whatever she held to eye-level with her. It was a plush toy, a pink and pale blue griffin like she used to own, when having plush toys was still age appropriate.

“April Storm,” she mumbled her old plushie’s name. “If I move my head, it’ll be a nightmare, huh?”

The animal didn’t move, so Rainbow Dash imagined it to say, “Yes.”

“Well,” the pegasus said, not knowing herself whether she was being sarcastic or not, “at least I have company to help me through the shock.”

April Storm didn’t move, so Rainbow Dash imagined her to say, “I’m with you all the way.”

It was either good or bad luck, but at least she wasn’t in the hospital anymore. The ceiling was clearly made out of wood and with the way the moon’s light went through the window to her left, she could make out the rest of the room quite easily. To her annoyance, she noticed that high bars prevented her from getting out of the bed.

Not only did somepony expect her to wet the bed, no, they also had the audacity to think that she’d fall out of it. She, the great Rainbow Dash, falling out of bed. If anypony saw her, her life would be pretty much ruined, the pegasus figured and immediately looked at the plush toy.

“I probably even look like a big foal beneath this blanket,” she whispered to the griffon.

“You look like the best flyer in Equestria,” she answered herself with an adjusted voice for April Storm.

Then she shook her head. “I must’ve really hit my head.”

Once more she tried to figure out where she was and quickly all the details in the room raised her awareness. The bed, the bookshelves, the way a stairway lead downstairs to her right, it was all so very familiar, so very old. She remembered this place, before the fires, before the beast known as Tirek it had been called Golden Oaks Library and it was Twilight Sparkle’s place.

This was where the unicorn had spent her nights, reading and sometimes probably sleeping. Not the castle, not her own house high up in the clouds. This was Twilight Sparkle’s library.

She let herself sink back into the cushion and the bed, rested there for a moment. After that, she moved her right leg a bit, enough to hear the sound, to feel the bed. Rainbow Dash was sure there was a rubber sheet beneath the one she lay on.

“I asked Twilight how old she thought I was,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, lifting the small griffon up high. “It must be pretty young, eh?”

She almost laughed, but felt herself shiver with fear. If somepony saw her, Rainbow didn’t know what she would do. Cry, perhaps, or maybe wet herself out of fear. The mare wasn’t quite sure, but at least she was in the clear about one thing, she wouldn’t be composed about it.

She still felt the thick padding between her thighs, pressing against her with a weight that told her that she used the garment without even noticing it. Who knew, maybe she even wore a onesie, maybe rubber pants. Maybe somepony had a foal phone in this room so they knew she was talking to a plush toy.

“What the hay happened to me?” She asked. “What happened to the world?”

Was it that the lightning had sent her to another dimension? One where the library never burned down and where Twilight never needed to become the princess of friendship. That sounded weird, though. Maybe Twilight was a unicorn by day, and an alicorn superhero by night.

Whatever was going on, it didn’t explain why she was dressed as she was. That was a problem, a huge one.

“At least the Wonderbolts still exist,” April Storm told Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus looked at the plush toy. “I’m pretending to be comforted by my plushie. … Celestia help me.”

Quiet were the moments that passed thereafter and it was a quiet that left Rainbow Dash wallowing in the horridness of this situation. This was just an all-around bad situation. The only thing she found relatively positive was that she felt more awake by the moment. What remnants remained of the headache weren’t bothersome, only merely annoying. Rainbow Dash knew she needed to be careful with that, a bandage was still slung around her head after all.

Who knew how long she’d slept, and who knew what would happen once she tried to get up? The first question was one she would’ve loved an answer for more than the second one. It had to have been in the afternoon when she woke up at the hospital.

And, now that she thought about it, Twilight must’ve brought her to the library.

She remembered that the unicorn had produced a stroller.

“No she didn’t,” Rainbow Dash immediately concluded, bars to her sides, wet diaper clinging to her. “I’m way too big for that thing anyway, right?”

Her eyes were fixed on April Storm, who kept her quiet and for a brief moment Rainbow Dash wondered whether it was because she didn’t have an answer, or because she’d been there and wanted to keep it a secret.

After all, Twilight couldn’t, wouldn’t have gone and used that blasted thing to drive her over here. If she did, would she chat up the flower trio, talk about how adorable her little “Dashie” looked with her cute widdle diaper, hugging her plush friend? What if Scootaloo had seen her? That filly looked up to her, and she, quite frankly, didn’t want the admiration to stop.

Anxiety rising, she stared at April Storm, who still kept her quiet, maybe as a way to tell her not to worry.

“If you lie to me,” Rainbow Dash started, only to look to both her sides again.

Now she was arguing with a plush toy. This wasn’t her night, after all.

But lying around quietly wasn’t something she usually did. After all, she was Rainbow Dash, the most active and fastest pony in all of Equestria. Usually, being her was awesome, but now that she found herself in the worst possible situation her existence seemed to be so miserable that it could’ve ruined her day. She was the Element of Loyalty, a hero to every colt and every filly in the town, she was an idol to her friends; and she was also an incredibly well-mannered, awesome and above all humble pony. On every other day, she loved to be herself. On every other day, she wouldn’t have wondered what she needed to do to change her diaper. The feeling of it was starting to get on her nerves as well.

Not that she wanted it changed into another one per-se, but she would’ve loved to get out of the one she wore and enjoy the freedoms of the adult pony dress code.

Think of something positive, Dash. You’re too smart to despair over a situation like this, she thought to herself and took one more deep breath. “Tell me something, April.”

“Okay,” the griffon started, “You’re in a crib, which is not that big a problem. Your blanket is warm, if you did wet, nopony’s gonna know because you can get rid of the diaper quicker than the sheets. Then you’ve got a ton of books, and Twilight, who’s still an egghead. She’ll hear you out, realize that you’re not a foal and help you get back to normal.”

Her own, slightly higher-pitched than usual, voice sounded against the silence in an unusual manner. No, it wasn’t that she pretended that her plush was talking to her, but rather it seemed like the world around her was unnaturally quiet.

Rainbow Dash didn’t really care about that, instead she just stared at April Storm.

“Did I just get an incredibly brilliant idea from a plush toy?”

No, she was not going to debate it. Rainbow Dash had a strategy, one that would get her out of the wet diaper and back into the normality of life. This was going to be easy. All she needed to do was get out of the crib, which, again, was easy-peasy, talk with Twilight and then hopefully get to do more awesome stunts in thunderstorms to save the day.

A bright smile formed on her face. “All the way,” she told herself, rose up into a seated position. Then, she looked at the darkness.

And the darkness looked back.

Rainbow Dash stared at a beast darker than the night, large enough that it seemed to almost scrape the room’s wall. The silhouette was hulking and deformed, its appendages long and muscled, ending in thin claws that rested on the ground. Its entire face was covered with tendrils, which wrung themselves around the bars of the crib.

The pale light of the moon shone through the windows, yet revealed nothing of the monster, it only allowed for Dash to see how the beast cracked the bars. The creature, if it had eyes, seemed focused on Rainbow Dash, who felt the headache act up again, digging itself into her brain like a saw. The pain and the fear combined led her to immediately conclude how to resolve this situation in a sound manner.

By screaming loudly.

She flailed with her arms, pushed herself with the back against the railing and pulled the blanket up to cover her face. Her nose was running, tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to hide from whatever that horror was. The filly heard the bars break and knew that the thing would come for her. What courage she always thought to possess emptied itself out of her body, or maybe it was something else. Rainbow Dash didn’t know why, but right now all she could do was wail and kick.

She felt something touch her leg, slithering upwards and pressing against the padding for a moment. As it did that, she felt a shiver run up her entire body. She edged closer to the wall, hoping it would swallow her whole instead of the beast.

Then, she heard a few steps and then came a loud sound, a bang and the tendrils were pulled away. Something smashed against something else, then again, and again. From beneath the blanket, she saw something light up.

The beast made a noise not unlike that of a dying whale who was being clawed open from the inside–not that Rainbow knew how she came up with that metaphor–and then the light intensified. It was warm and green and all familiar.

Slowly, she lifted her head up from her not-so-safe shelter to look at the most unusual savior. He held a small candle, alit with green dragonfire and stared at the darkness that remained in the corners of the library, but there was nothing in it anymore.

A silent moment followed, yet Rainbow Dash didn’t dare to say anything to break it. The purple lizard in front of her seemed cautious, his ears were perked and he seemed clearly ready to be jumped at from any direction. Nothing happened, but the way he stood there left Rainbow Dash amazed.

Spike looked way too cool at this moment to be Spike.

A moment longer went past them and only then did Rainbow Dash notice the strange feeling of something being pressed between the back of her diaper and her behind. Her tummy felt lighter, which was a relief, at least until the odor hit her nose. Her eyes widened. Did I just–?

Spike, at least, didn’t seem to notice.

“Well,” he said calmly and turned around. “Looks like he…”

The dragon made a dramatic pause, smiling as he prepared himself for what he was about to say.

“Couldn’t take the heat.”

Yet all Rainbow Dash could do was stare at that adorable, little face of his as he failed miserably at acting cool. No, even before that, did that cute dragon baby just beat up a monster that had managed to make her–she couldn’t even think it–soil her diaper.

“Not good?” He asked as she didn’t show any other reaction except befuddlement. “Well then, I guess… Uhm, right. Hello, to you. My name’ll be Spike for you.”

He took his steps towards her, over the broken shards of the crib’s bars and then stretched out his free arm in greeting. “And it looks like I’ll be the Guardian Angel who both changes your didees and protects you from those things. Pleasure to meet you.”