Something to Rave About

The Fountain of Youth had a much more intimate dance floor than most clubs. Maybe a little less than half the size of the smallest club Vinyl had played before tonight. But what they lacked in size, the club and its patrons made up for with sheer energy.

Ponies were bouncing off the walls, the pegasi quite literally. There wasn’t a still corner of the dance floor, as everywhere held a jumping, spazzing pony, or a stuffed animal being flung around like a rag doll, or just pointing their padded flanks skyward and shaking it, which Vinyl could only guess was a normal thing to do at one of these types of raves.

Even the ponies at the bar who had stopped themselves long enough to relax with a stiff drink were still bobbing their heads along to the music.

If Vinyl had to guess the root cause for all of this, she’d probably point a hoof at the diapers. All the ponies before her were decked out in foal paraphernalia in some way from pacifiers, to onesies, to bonnets and bibs, but diapers were a commonality on all fronts. She guessed being free to indulge in something they liked must’ve set off a trigger in their minds that turned everypony here into seizing lunatics just because a Countess Coloratura song was playing.

Vinyl was just glad the sickeningly poppy beats of ‘Razzle Dazzle’ was enough to drown out what was undoubtedly a cacophony of crinkling coming from the padding all around the room. Yet somehow in spite of everything, she still managed to catch the wrinkling sounds of plastic pampers whenever she moved her hind legs.

It was actually kind of impressive, Vinyl had realized. The clean sound of the subwoofers was angled just a little off center to bounce off the walls rather than fly straight to the back of the room. With some clever acoustics worked into the room’s architecture, including some dampeners high up on the walls of the room to work to smother the reverb, Vinyl caught only a modest volume of feedback. Unless she stuck her head way out in front of her turntables, then she was fine to forgo her usual ear plugs for the night, even though the trade off was listening to her ever present diaper more than she’d care too.

The stupid padding had only become more cumbersome as the minutes ticked by. It refused to sit as snuggly as it once had, sometimes too low, sometimes to high, and always uncomfortable. Vinyl had tried shoving it around, tugging it with her magic, and even once smacking it against the bars of the crib walls, but nothing made it any better. Her diaper’s padding seemed doomed to stay buried in her hindquarters as a permanent distraction.

“That’s just great,” Vinyl muttered under her breath. She levitated a new record from her bag, some electronic indie hit she’d been fond of for a while, and slipped it free of its cover. ‘Razzle Dazzle’ still had a little less than a minute left to go, which gave her just enough time to set up the next song.

As she leaned in to place the record, her diaper crinkled and scampered up her plot, as though it was trying to give her a wedgie.

“Grr,” Vinyl grit her teeth, more than fed up as she began fading out ‘Razzle Dazzle’ and let the new song pick up in its place.

The legion of diapered dancers who looked like they were at least trying to imitate the Countess’ moves before giving up when the next song came on. Now they’d decided flinging their bodies around at random was the best way to ‘dance’. Vinyl couldn’t help but think that maybe wearing extra thick padding was impeding their ability to dance.

As if to answer, her own padding rode up on her plot even further, as if to say ‘yeah, probably, got a problem with that?’.

And Vinyl did have a problem with that, as a matter of fact.

Grumbling, she pushed her diaper back down with her hoof. At this rate, she’d be wrestling with her padding all night. Not exactly ideal. In fact, they were far, far, removed from Vinyl’s ideal, but that was besides the point.

Looking up, Vinyl spotted the bar right across from her. Aside from two patrons already drinking their beer out of--ugh--foal bottles, the bartender wasn’t busy.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Time for a little distraction from this…” She wiggled her diapered rump, shivering as it once again began to climb her flanks. “...distraction.”

She raised her hoof, the puffed out sleeve of her onesie brushing against her cheek and eliciting a short groan, and waved down the bartender. It took a few seconds to catch her eye, but once Berry saw her, she nodded.

Vinyl lowered her hoof as Berry hopped over the edge of the bar. It was a pretty graceful leap, considering the two pillow’s worth of padding wrapped around her butt.

Now that Berry was on the other side of the bar, Vinyl got her first good look at the padding her fellow employee wore. She’d been operating under the assumption that they’d be the same, but one look at Berry’s flank made Vinyl realize just how lucky she was.

Her diaper was massive. It easily eclipsed Vinyl’s, probably reaching close to double the size of hers. As a result, Berry’s legs were spread to the point where they wouldn’t even have a chance to touch each other, even if she wanted them too.

Her resulting waddle as she made her way over to the turntables was easily more infantile than Vinyl’s. By comparison, Vinyl made walking in a diaper look easy.

But that wasn’t all that was different about hers. As Berry got even closer, Vinyl caught sight of a few lines of baby blue frills wrapping around the seat of her diaper. A rather foalish choice of design; Vinyl couldn’t believe this mare had let herself get put in that thing.

“Whatcha need?” Berry asked, raising her voice only slightly to be heard above the music. She brought a foreleg up to rest it against the edge of Vinyl’s crib-cage..

“Something strong enough to make sure I don’t remember tonight,” Vinyl called back, attaching a joking, you-get-where-I’m-coming-from type of smile.

Berry nodded, lips tightening. “Ah, I see. Another one-timer, huh?”

“Uh, yeah.” Vinyl was a little taken aback by such a disappointed, but casual, response. “You… work here full time?”

“Yep,” Berry said, to the tune of another nod. “I’m about the only bartender Pacific could find willing to.”

“Heh, I bet. Must not be easy to find ponies who’ll put up with wearing diapers as big as yours.”

“Uh huh.” Berry said, fore leg falling from the crib. “And even harder to find ones who like it.”

Vinyl narrowed her eyes, taken aback. “Wait… you like wearing diapers too?”

Berry gave her diaper a pat, her purple hoof sinking into the padding. “Sure do. Why? That a problem?”

“Uh…” Vinyl fought down the heat rising beneath her cheeks. Somehow she had to make this less awkward. Assuming that was possible. “No! I mean, it’s fine to like wearing diapers. I don’t, but like--”

“I can tell,” Berry smirked. “Given that you’re wearing an extra small, and all.”

Vinyl’s jaw dropped, and spent a good few seconds just dangling in mid air. “T-This is an extra small?” She asked, incredulously pointing to the covered padding ballooning off her flanks. “This?”

Berry chuckled. “Man, that never gets old.”

Oh thank Celestia. Vinyl relaxed a little. “Okay, I get it. Haha, you got me and all that.”

Berry snorted this time. “I just meant the reactions never get old. That really is an extra small.”

“What?!” Vinyl’s voice cracked. She tried squeezing her hind legs together, her diaper resisting all the way, even after she just barely managed to touch her legs together. Extra small, my flank.

“It gets better,” Berry insisted, tapping her padded rear again. “Mines only a medium.”

“A med--” Vinyl actually felt a little dizzy. “No way.”

“Yes way.” The look on Vinyl’s face must’ve been hilarious, because Berry couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

She opened her mouth for a retort, but snapped it shut. Suddenly, Vinyl was pretty fearful to hear what the large size was like.

Eventually, Berry managed to stop snickering long enough to speak again. “Well, anyway, what can I get you?”

Oh right. Somehow, Vinyl had been so engrossed in their conversation about diapers, that she forgot she needed booze. That… was not a good sign.

“What’s the strongest stuff you got?” She asked, needing a quick-fix for this whole situation.

“Uh…” Berry furrowed her brow. “I dunno about that. You’ve got the whole night coming up; you sure you want something strong now?”

“I can handle it,” Vinyl huffed. “What, you don’t trust me?”

“I don’t know what you can handle,” Berry retorted. “And I’d prefer not to be responsible for a smashed DJ tonight.”

Ugh. Vinyl flicked her tail in annoyance. Why did bartenders have to be so responsible? “Can I just have a beer, then?”

“That’s doable,” Berry nodded. She shuffled to turn around. “Gimme just a sec.”

Vinyl’s gaze shot to the bar and back. “Uh, real quick?”

Berry stopped and looked back. “Yeah?”

Vinyl fiddled her forehooves together. “Do you have any, uh… regular glasses?”

A small smile creeped onto Berry’s face. “What’s the matter, can’t handle drinking out of a foal bottle?”

Vinyl couldn’t stop the heat rising under her cheeks. Really? She was going to be teased about this? “L-Look, the diaper’s bad enough alright? I don’t want to have to drink out of a bottle too.”

Berry mercifully dropped her smug look. “Nopony’s going to judge you, you know. I mean, just look.” She pointed a hoof back over to the bar. A stallion in a bright pink diaper had his lips wrapped around a bottle’s rubber nipple and was suckling away. He seemed not to have a care in the world, with a dopey grin plastered on his face to prove it. And he wasn’t the only one, either.

But Vinyl just shivered, her diaper crinkling. Her self-respect hadn’t sunk that low; even if it was fine for everypony else, she didn’t want to have to. “C’mon, can’t I just have a regular glass, or something? You can’t have just--”

“Just foal bottles,” Berry confirmed for her with a curt nod.

Vinyl winced. Of course. Because why wouldn’t they?

She was quiet for a moment, eyeing the carpet as the records on her turntable spun away. They’d reached the second chorus of the song already, meaning there wasn’t much time before she had to do another quick switch with the records.

“Well?” Berry asked, head nudging toward the bar. “You still want something to drink, or…”

Vinyl squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t make it through the night without some kind of buzz going, she knew that much.

“Fine. Yes,” she grumbled.

“Coming right up then.” Berry waddled back to the bar, the sounds of her diaper eventually getting drowned out by the rest of the club.

Vinyl sighed once she was gone. “Great,” she mumbled to herself. “That’s juuuust great.”

But it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. After all, she could probably just take off the rubber part and drink it from the bottle to reclaim some semblance of normalcy.

Shifting back to face her set up, Vinyl felt her diaper pushing her hind legs apart. She frowned. Who am I kidding? Nothing about this night is normal.

Running on instinct, Vinyl moved to switch the tracks with the time she had left. She didn’t spend much time hunting down a good song from her collection; she just wasn’t in the mood to. Instead, she just grabbed the nearest Sapphire Shores album and set it up. No matter what, that could please a crowd, at least.

While it was nice to have internalized her DJ skills to the point where she didn’t even have to think before setting the new record spinning, tonight was probably the only night she wished that wasn’t the case. Without having her mind occupied by work, she was stuck thinking about other things. Or rather, stuck trying not to think about the fact that she was wearing a diaper, or performing in a club full of ponies wearing diapers, or any other diaper related thoughts.

She shuddered as her padding once again climbed up her rear, as if determined to constantly remind her, just in case she somehow forgot she was wearing a diaper.

If only, she thought, pulling the seat of her diaper with a telekinetic yank. She paid extra special care as she faded out the current song, accepting every meager distraction at her disposal.

By the time she was finished, she caught sight of a purple mare toddling toward the crib walls out of the corner of her eye.

“That was fast,” Vinyl said as Berry reached the edge of the pink bars.

“I try,” Berry modestly admitted. She held a foal bottle up, tilting it over the edge of the bars and pointing the nipple at Vinyl.

Forcing a shaky smile, she nodded her thanks. Vinyl grabbed the bottle with her magic, still hesitant to even touch it.

As she brought it closer, the soft lighting of the club revealed to her the perfect shade of gold inside the bottle, filled with fresh bubbles darting up to the surface. She felt her mouth water at just the sight.

“Whelp, go ahead. I can tell you need it,” Berry said, the look on Vinyl’s face possibly too blatant.

Ignoring that, Vinyl targeted her magic toward the bottle’s rubbery top. Pinching the edge, she pulled to remove it.

Berry’s eyes widened, seeing what she was doing. “Uh, wait a sec--”

Freed from the confines of the bottle, beer suddenly spilled out, leaping into the open air. “Woah!” Vinyl switched her magic off, letting the rubber nipple to snap back into place. It stopped the worst from happening and managed to seal the rest of the golden drink inside.

What had spilled out wasn’t much, thankfully. Some ran down the side of the plastic bottle, coating it in a thin layer of sticky booze. The rest splashed down onto the carpet, narrowly missing the subwoofer’s cables. It formed a dark stain in the floor, visible even in the soft lighting of the club.

Confused, Vinyl’s gaze darted back to the bottle. She held it up to the lights above, illuminating the beer inside the bottle. Unsurprisingly, she saw her drink rose far above the brim of just the bottle, and well into the nipple. It’d probably been even more full before the spill, too.

“Couldha used a warning,” Vinyl mumbled to Berry as she lowered her drink.

“I was trying to,” Berry said. “Didn’t expect you to try and take the top off.”

Vinyl flushed, caught red-hoofed. “Well what did you expect me to do? Suckle?”

Berry chuckled to herself. “It’s what I’m used to seeing, yeah.” Vinyl flushed again, embarrassed just by the fact that trying not to be a foal was making her the weird one. “Sorry for filling it up so much. I’ll put a little less in your next one.”

“You could just not put a nipple on the next one at all,” Vinyl huffed, setting the drink down on an empty spot on the turntables.

“Then I’d spill it,” Berry retorted, pointing back to the bar then patting her padded rear. “It’s not easy climbing over that thing with this on.”

Then take it off, Vinyl grumpily thought. “Fine.”

Her smile dropped. “Will that be okay? It’ll be easy taking off the rubber bits with your magic and all, right?”

“I said it’s fine,” Vinyl replied, trying hard to keep her voice as cool and smooth as it usually was. She nudged her shoulder toward the bottle before her. “I’ll just figure out something for this one.”

Her coolness was betrayed by the warmth on her cheeks, however. Still sober, Vinyl couldn’t play that off as having one too many drinks, and Berry was all too aware.

“You don’t have to be so self-conscious, you know.” Berry’s voice was more sympathetic now, which only served to annoy Vinyl further. She didn’t need anypony pitying her in her current state.

“‘Cause everypony here is doing it?” Vinyl shot back. “Yeah, no thanks. I’m not a frea--” She caught herself, probably too late. Clearing her throat, she looked away. “I’m not into this crap, alright?”

She could hear a heavy sigh come from Berry. “Message received. Here, give me the bottle.”

Vinyl turned, greeted by Berry’s outstretched hoof. Was she about to lose her alcohol life-line?

Me and my big mouth. “I—”

“Just give it here,” Berry cut her off. “I’ve got other patrons to get back to, you know.”

Tightening her lips, Vinyl kicked her magic into gear. Scooping up the bottle, she hesitantly returned it to Berry. She just hoped the bartender would still be willing to serve her later.

Once Vinyl’s aura left the bottle, she fully expected Berry to turn right around and disappear. Instead, Vinyl had to raise her eyebrows as Berry suddenly tipped her head back and pressed the rubber nipple to her lips.

She suckled, her cheeks ballooning as they filled with beer. Struck with second-hoof embarrassment, no matter how unnecessary it was, Vinyl just stared.

Berry eventually gulped, ripping her lips from the bottle to take a breath. She brought her head down, wiping her mouth with her foreleg. “There.”

She tossed the bottle back, forcing Vinyl to catch it with her magic. As the beer inside settled, Vinyl saw that it didn’t even reach the brim anymore.

Berry flashed her a sarcastic smile. “Rejoice, now you don’t have to be a freak.”

“Uh--” Vinyl tried to think of something to say, but Berry cut her off. She turned, tail swishing across the seat of her padding, and awkwardly sauntered away before getting a response.

Vinyl just stared, first at Berry, but then she switched to the bottle. A frown slumped onto her face. That had been nicer than she’d deserved, that was for sure.

Would it have really been so bad if you had to drink from the bottle? Came a innocent-sounding thought.

She grunted, dropping the bottle onto the table. Stupid. Like she was going to let some fleeting guilt convince her of anything. If she drank from that bottle would be the third lamest thing she’d have done all night, right behind wearing a diaper and being a general asshat.

And yet…

Even as Vinyl tampered with the volume dials, she couldn’t stop her eye from catching a glimpse at the bottle. Why had she just set it down like that? She should’ve slapped the top off and taken a chug already.

She definitely wasn’t putting off drinking it until she’d decided what to do. Because there was nothing to decide, obviously. She was going to drink it normally, and just apologize to Berry next time around.

So long as an apology was enough, that is.

Vinyl shook her head, chasing that unpleasant thought from her mind. It wasn’t worth considering anyway, right? Berry seemed pretty cool, she probably didn’t hold grudges or anything like that.

To take her mind off of it, Vinyl just focused on her work. Digging into her stash of records, she levitated out three that could follow the current song’s momentum. She stared them down, occasionally nudging one record above the others, only to squint, cock her head to the side and lower it again.

Eventually, her internal debate threatened to run longer than the current song. Trusting her gut, Vinyl snatched the middle one from the air and let the other two sink to an open corner of the table, letting them remain on deck while her pick stepped up to bat.

The familiar motions of switching records took over as she set it up. It wasn’t long before the sounds of a former top forty hit gave way to some classic dubstep, giving her a chance to step back and relax for a moment.

But that proved to be a mistake. As cramped as Vinyl was between her turntable and the walls of the crib, she didn’t exactly have wiggle room. Stepping back sent the seat of her diaper right into the bars, compressing the padding and pushing a tidal wave of floof into her undercarriage.

“Eep!” Came the most un-Vinyl-like sound from Vinyl’s mouth, as she leapt forward

And she still hadn’t even touched her drink.

Vinyl caught it out of the corner of her eye mid-switch, her jaw clenching. She couldn’t even look at it without flashes of that conversation returning.

Sweet Celestia, again with this crap? So what if she’d (almost) called Berry a freak? She knew all of… this, wasn’t normal. Everypony at the club did. Vinyl shouldn’t have to feel guilt for almost putting words to the thought.

The foal bottle just glared her down, tantalizing her with its contents.

Vinyl caved.

Fine! I feel guilty alright? She bit her lips, thoughts bleeding into her actions. It was a crappy thing to do, I admit it. That’s on me.

Her eyes darted back to the bottle, hoping that admitting that to herself would be enough to let her drink without her feeling like she needed to--

Her frown tightened. No, no it was not. Even looking at the bottle now, she still couldn’t bring herself to remove the top and take a drink. She could see the last of the bubbles rising to the top of the beer too. Feeling her mouth water, Vinyl swallowed.

Seriously, how much longer are you going to let this go on? A part of her asked.

She groaned. She sighed. She shuffled her hooves and looked out into the throng of dancing ponies. When the sight of shaking diapered plots became too much for her to stare at, she turned her head to the bar, only to briefly lock eyes with Berry and jolt away.

This is so stupid!

Vinyl’s horn lit up, wrapping the foal bottle in her blue aura and drawing it up to eye level.

It’s stupid. It’s so stupid.

It’s just a bottle; everypony’s drinking out of one.

But it’s so stupid!

She could keep going in circles all night, but that wouldn’t get her drunk. Or make her forget about wearing a diaper.

One more look down at the bottle finally forced her to admit defeat. Vinyl gave a heavy sigh.

“I guess it’s not so bad,” she mumbled under her breath, tilting the bottle’s nipple towards her lips. If this could wash away her guilt, she guessed it’d be worth it in the end.

She inched it closer, and closer, and closer. Puckering her lips, Vinyl tried to forced to open, but they didn’t seem to want to. In the end, she couldn’t blame them.

The bottle made contact, the rubber tip hitting her tightened lips. They were pushed back, but didn’t part, the last bastion of her resistance to this stupid idea.

With effort, Vinyl forced them to open. The tentative opening was quickly filled by the bottle, as Vinyl begrudgingly welcomed the nipple into her mouth. She could feel it was damp still, the warmth of Berry’s lips still present. Once it was in her whole body tensed, and froze up. She let it hang in her mouth, waiting for a wave of embarrassment to swallow her up.

But nothing like that happened. Instead, she just felt like an idiot for sticking a foal bottle in her mouth and doing nothing.

Unconsciously, her eyes scanned the room, looking for any smug looks being thrown her way. All she saw was the same spastic dancing as before. Nopony even spared a glance for the grown mare with a foal bottle in her mouth.

Which only left her with one last hurdle to climb.

Vinyl suckled, just once. It went by so quickly and was so weak a motion that it didn’t even mean anything. All of the beer stayed stuck in the bottle.

She groaned, an annoyed blush sparking to light under her cheeks. No more messing around, then.

This time, Vinyl put more force behind it. Her suckle brought only a few drops forth, the sting of the bitter drink hitting her tongue oh so satisfyingly. But she wasn’t about to let that be the end of it.

She followed that suckle up with another. And another.

Pretty soon, Vinyl had a good rhythm going, with a steady stream of beer to show for it.

There was plenty of time left on the current song, Vinyl didn’t need to pay any attention to it for a while. She was able to completely dedicate herself to suckling on her bottle, letting the world around her fade away.

Her eyelids drooped a little, the relaxing motions of her lips and cheeks lulling her into a calmer state. What had she even been so worried about before?

She gulped down a mouthful of beer, feeling the sting in her throat. That one was quickly followed up with another. Vinyl kept chasing down each gulp with more and more of the golden drink, as if she’d been dying of thirst for the whole night. In a way, she definitely had been.

Her head dipped to the right, her face flushing. Only, unlike the last eight billion times that had happened tonight, this time it was her cheeks warming up under the influence of alcohol. Already, Vinyl could feel the fuzziness that came from drinking, and her lips curled up.

One look down at the nearly empty bottle sticking out of her mouth confirmed it: she was tipsy.

Usually she had a higher tolerance than this. But then, usually bars served cheap swill that couldn’t be more watered down even if you emptied it into a river. The Fountain of Youth had some high quality booze tucked away; that was for sure. She suddenly found herself glad she hadn't been given the strongest stuff right off the bat.

Vinyl’s head continued dipping to the right as she polished off her bottle. It was moving on its own, but Vinyl wasn’t about to start telling it what to do. Eventually, it had her staring down the bar, as though her body was trying to tell her something.

After a few suckles of empty air, Vinyl was able to figure out just what that was: She needed more.

Funny, because now Vinyl was staring at the one mare in a position to do so. And she was staring back.

Dulled by the beer, it took Vinyl a moment to process that. But once she did, her face leapt from neutral to surprised and then to embarrassed. Finally, that feeling had caught up to her again.

She whipped her head around to face forward, spitting out the bottle in the process. Too late; she’d definitely been seen. Berry’s raised eyebrow look was already burned onto her retinas.

Dammit.

After everything that had happened, to be caught red-hoofed like that was… well, it may not be the worst thing that could’ve happened, but as far as Vinyl was concerned it might as well be.

What was she supposed to do now? Claim she was just messing around? That might work, especially if Berry had only seen her for a moment…

But not if she’d seen the whole thing.

Vinyl cringed, her ears folding down. It would be very hard to play off drinking all of her beer through the bottle as a joke.

Maybe we can just not talk about it. At all. Ever. Now there was an idea Vinyl could get behind. Shutting up wasn’t her strong suit, but she’d make an exception in this case, so long as Berry would too…

Oh, who am I kidding? After her little ‘freak’ comment, Berry was definitely going to go for some payback. Vinyl was looking at a whole night’s worth of teasing now. Even if she shut up, there’s no way Berry would.

Vinyl leaned back, too deep in sluggish thought to care when her diaper pressed against the bars of the crib.

Okay, what about--

“Hey.”

Vinyl’s ears flicked. Slowly, her head creaked over to look at the source of the voice. Berry was at the edge of her crib, a knowingly smug smile barely contained on her face.

“U-U-Uh…” Vinyl’s voice was shakier than her legs. She hadn’t expected to be ambushed like this.

“Need another drink?” Berry suddenly held up a new bottle, one brimming with the same golden liquid.

“I wasn’t-- I didn’t--!” Vinyl was at a severe loss for words, and she wasn’t drunk enough to use that as her excuse, either.

Berry just chuckled as she tossed the new foal bottle over to Vinyl. Slow to react, Vinyl fumbled her horn alight and snagged her new drink before it hit the ground. As she looked up, Berry was already turning away.

“Enjoy it, ‘freak’.” She winked playfully.

Vinyl wasn’t sure her face could get any redder. She just gulped, turning back around to face her equipment.

That could’ve been… a lot worse.

She looked at her new bottle, immediately seeing that Berry had gone back on her word. This one was as full as the last one had been, with no way to safely remove the top without beer spilling everywhere.

Vinyl should be mad at that, but… it really wasn’t that big of a deal. In fact, it might not even be much of a deal at all.

She’d never say this out loud, but suckling on that last bottle had been… nice? To an extent at least. If she had to do that for the rest of the night, then she probably wouldn’t complain.

And, if anything, she was already starting to forget about the glorified cloud resting between her legs, so that was a plus.

Vinyl licked her lips, her tongue dry. The booming sounds of her music still reverberated through the club; she still had a chorus and some change before she needed to get back to work.

“Well… bottom’s up,” Vinyl said, sliding the rubber nipple between her lips.