The door slammed behind them, and both ponies held it closed at the same time – panting, until the immediate fear went away.

“That was...” Clef began, then swallowed.

“I know,” Cloudy agreed. “I don't think I want to go back to our room any more.”

The two pegasi tried taking deep breaths, flaring their wings nervously, and then Clef began to pace back and forth.

“This seems almost random,” he said. “But we need to sort something out... to get out, I mean. It's not impossible we could random our way to an exit, but if we stick around here we'll never get out.”

“Right,” Cloudy nodded. “So we should keep going, but be ready to leave a room as soon as we see it doesn't offer a way out?”

“Exactly,” Clef said. He noticed his hoof was twitching in time with the music, and stopped it. “So...”

He glanced at the doors, then noticed one of the pictures on the wall between two of them. It showed Bagpiperix, wearing a fine suit from a century or two ago – complete with a top hat.

“That's kind of creepy,” he said. “Okay... this one?”

“Sounds good,” Cloudy agreed. “On three?”

Clef counted under his breath. “One, two, three!”

They turned the handle.

Almost immediately, the world turned on its side.

Completely astonished, the two ponies fell through what had suddenly become a trapdoor with a shared yelp, before hitting something oddly springy.

The ponies tried to stand back up, but found the springy material to also be rather sticky. Clef tried to raise his head to see what they were lying on, but was only able to turn his head a little bit to each side. That was enough to see that they were laying on a mish-mash of black bars. A few notes were dotted on the bars, making up some form of song. The musical bars shook as Cloudy struggled against the bars. “Ghhkk… ugh, I can’t move!” Cloudy said, attempting to flap her wings to free herself. Clef also struggled against the bars, wiggling them around and causing a few notes to fill the room.

As the two struggled, the bars seemed to wriggle more than they should have from their limited mobility. There was the hissing of air and paarps flowing around them as the bouncing of the musical score seemed more like steps. Cloudy stopped her wriggling, glancing around to spot the source of the steps. Her face turned white as she spotted, and let out a loud shriek. A large cartoony spider was crawling along the musical bar web, pipes blowing a tune out of its inflated abdomen as it approached Cloudy. She wriggled faster in a desperate attempt to free herself as the puffy spider approached. It looked down at her, grinning as it eyed the Pegasus. Two of its legs reached down to tug her free of the web, but rather than begin to spin more threads around Cloudy, the spider instead began to puff bigger as a plaid bubble ballooned out of one its pipes.

The spider reached up and removed the bubble, pulling it over to Cloudy. She watched as the bubble wrapped around her rear, spreading her legs wide before the spider dropped her down onto the web again. She rolled on her rump, looking down at what was unmistakably a plaid diaper wrapped around her flanks.

“Wh-what!?” she asked, blushing furiously. “What the heck is this for? Is this place just going to keep getting sillier?”

“Don't ask me!” Clef replied, squirming as he tried to get off the web – making more notes resound from the strings of the web, and causing the spider to step a little more deliberately. That didn't make it have much trouble, though, and it advanced on him with all eight legs taking turns to blow out music and to step forwards. “Help!”

“I can't!” Cloudy said. “I'm still stuck here!”

She tried to get free anyway, making an attempt to build up a bounce to let her get unstuck, but the web moved in perfect time with her – making her diaper puff in and out a little with the rhythm of her struggle, and producing a sequence of pffts and parps which made the pegasus pony feel a little light-headed.

As she made the web wobble, the spider reached Clef. It stopped, blowing a second bubble of plaid, and this one seemed to be a little bigger – and to have a different pattern, still plaid but with the odd musical note sprinkled in a few of the intersections of the lines.

Clef pulled his legs in and held them together, trying to deny the spider any chance to fasten the diaper on, but the puffy monster just blew a long string of notes in his face – then, when he was distracted, levered his hind legs apart and slipped the diaper on in a single smooth motion.

The stallion blushed at the sensation, whining a little, and squirmed to no avail.

The two ponies wriggled about in their padding, continuing to struggle against the web. Each time they bounced in place, however, their diapers just squeezed in on them and let out a paarp, making Clef blush as he tried to push the padding off his flanks. The spider just grinned, bouncing on the web in time with its playing and their struggles. The web shook harder and harder, the ponies suddenly bouncing up and down in the air. Then, with an especially loud paaarp, the spider flopped into the web, causing it to break and the three to fall through the air. Cloudy attempted to flare her wings to catch herself, but found some of the web still stuck to them.

Before the two knew it, though, a light below them appeared, and a moment later they found themselves falling through the ceiling of the hallway. Their diapers paarped and squeaked from the impact as they fell, but surprisingly absorbed any pain they might have received from the hard fall. Clef panted as he rolled back onto his hooves, looking down at the plaid diaper. Grumbling, he pushed his hooves into it in an attempt to remove it, but it did nothing but cause it to squeeze in on him, making him blush brightly.

Shaking his head, Clef wandered over to help Cloudy up onto her hooves. “Well… now what?” He asked, trying not to stare at her own padded rear.

“Now... ergh,” she blushed, noticing his occasional glances but not really able to bring herself to criticize him for it. “Now, I think... well, we kind of have to keep going. Apart from anything else, these things do kind of point out that we can't just stand around forever in this place.”

“Do you think it might go back to normal if we went to sleep or something?” Clef asked, grasping for another solution.

“It might, I don't know,” Cloudy admitted. “But I think it's more likely that if we did go to sleep we'd be... whatever happened to the others.”

Clef winced.

“You're right,” he said. “So... another door?”

“Yeah,” Cloudy decided after a moment. “But... not the next one, just in case.”

“Right,” Clef agreed, closed his eyes, and pointed. “That one.”

“That's a wall,” Cloudy chuckled.

Clef blushed, then pointed again. This one was a fairly long way down the corridor, and they got moving – diapered rears swaying from side to side at a walk, but producing musical parps and squeaks at a trot which got louder and louder the faster they cantered.

“Slow down,” Clef said, and they dropped back down to a walk. “I'd rather take longer than deal with that...”

After a couple of minutes, they reached the door.

Cloudy tapped on it with her hoof, gauging the sound, and glanced at her friend. “Can't hear anything,” she said. “Hopefully there's nothing dangerous on the other side.”

She turned the handle and pushed the door, which moved only an inch before getting stuck. Frowning, she pushed on it again, then harder – until she was leaning against the door, which abruptly gave way and made her fall into the room.

And through where the floor should be, as the door turned out to be several feet up on a wall.

Clef gaped for a moment, and the door slammed shut in his face.

Cloudy tumbled down, flailing her hooves as she instinctively flared her wings again. To her slight surprise, the webbing had vanished and she was able to open her wings to slow her descent. She landed softly on a cloud, noticing she was standing on a large cloud bank above a sea of storm clouds below her. There was the occasional flash of lightning and rumble of thunder as Cloudy looked over the side. Even in her current predicament, she didn’t dare drop into the middle of a raging storm like that. She was forced to waddle forward, her tail swishing across her diaper as she wandered up to a building of clouds in front of her. She wandered up to the door, pausing for a moment before she gave a soft knock.

There was no answer, but the door swung open to reveal a compact weather factory, tanks of water and rainbows in one corner, cloud making machines in the other, and in the middle sat a rather fat looking plaid dragon. “Ah, it’s nice of you to join me! Are you here to help out with the storm symphony?” He asked, beaming. Cloudy just jumped back, only to stumble and almost fall off of the cloudy walkway into the storm below.

“What’ve you done with my friends? And what’s with the… diapers?” She had to force the word out of her mouth. Even though it was obvious what she was wearing, it felt worse needing to acknowledge the puffy garments presence. Bagpiperix simply chuckled waving a claw dismissively.

“Oh, they’re fine, in fact, they’re going to be helping me out with this song too! But we really could use another alto. Why not help us out?” He leaned forward, plucking her up and carrying her inside.

“Hey, let me go!” Cloudy protested, wiggling, and producing a few peeping sounds as she did so. “I didn't agree!”

Bagpiperix just laughed. “Of course you did! After all, you're already wearing your uniform!”

Cloudy gave him a baffled look, then turned her attention to herself – blinking in surprise at the sight of a puffy jacket made of plaid-patterned material with a few high-visibility stripes stuck on top. “Huh?”

“It's important for health and safety,” he told her. “At least, when you're not properly puffy enough yet – when you are, why, it'll be impossible to suffer an accident!”

He shook his head, puffing his cheeks, and a descending scale of oom-pa sounds came from his spine pipes. “But we should definitely get started! Let's begin with a bit of cloud acclimatization!”

Before Cloudy could protest that she already knew how to do that, Bagpiperix picked up a large, fluffy cloud from the outlet of the cloud-making machine. He stuffed her into it, making her head pop out one side and leaving her diaper exposed from the other side, and gave her three pats on the rump which produced a three-note harmony.

Now free of his grip, Cloudy tried to spread her wings and fly – but the puffy cloud seemed to have different properties to normal, and her wings didn't get any traction on the thick material.

Cloudy wriggled her legs to try and push the cloud off of her, but no matter how much she tried to break free, the cloud held her snugly. “Now, to really understand clouds, it’d best to learn what it’s like to be a cloud! And it should give some experience for becoming puffy too.” Bagpiperix chuckled, booping Cloudy’s muzzle and causing her to drift backwards through the air. Cloudy tried to look around the puffy cloud at where she was drifting. She gulped as she saw the intake port for one of the machines meant to fill clouds up for rain. She doubled her efforts to free herself, but it was only a matter of time before the machine suddenly sprang to life, it’s whirrs and beeps playing in time with the song and she was sucked inside.

Bagpiperix bounced on his rump as he watched the machine work. Cloudy was pushed up into a glass container by a jet of air leaving her floating about. A few pads appeared, patting and squeezing her cloud to properly fluffy it up. Occasionally she received a light smack in the face by the soft pad or several pats on her rear, only adding to the music as she struggled. The bouncing tune made her mind a bit fuzzy, and she had a hard time remembering how she had been taught to remove herself from a cloud if she were to get stuck. Not that it would have helped in her situation, when she was pulled into several tubes, squeezed tightly as the fluffy cloud and diaper squeezed in on her tightly. Cloudy blushed, the rumbling of her diaper reverberating through the cloud as she slid slowly through the large pipes connecting the different parts of the machine.

After several moments she was pushed into another container, floating above several bright lamps. They began to glow, the container growing warmer and warmer as they did. Bagpiperix grinned as Cloudy wriggled about, her cloud and diaper starting to slowly expand from the heat. Her legs were further consumed by the fluff, preventing more movement as she glared at the large dragon.

“Stop it!” Cloudy protested, making the cloud wobble as she tried to make either herself or it move to get out of the embarrassing situation, then gasped lightly as the expansion of the cloud pressed more strongly on her diaper and it began to emit a squeaky whistling sound.

At the same time, despite the noise of escaping air, her diaper was still growing – so when the lamps shut off and a jet of air pushed her towards the exit of the chamber, she got stuck in the tube.

Blushing, knowing she was not only quite exposed but looked very silly, Cloudy wiggled about and began to move slooowly down the pipe towards the next chamber. She spotted Bagpiperix blowing on his tail, playing a tune which rose in speed and intensity as the air pressure built up behind her, then he took a deep breath and blew into a tube on the outside of the cloud machine.

That pushed her out of where she'd been stuck, with a long and tuneful sound like a slide whistle, and she came bursting out into a third chamber with big spikes tipped with round metal balls in each corner. They began to hum, then a series of little lightning bolts fizzed out towards her cloud.

Cloudy winced, expecting something painful – then gasped, starting to laugh as the electrical bolts turned out instead to be tickling her and teasing her with every little charge. The cloud began to puff up further, and her squeaks of surprised laughter also sounded like they were timed to fit in with the all-pervasive music.

It was getting harder for Cloudy to remember to be indignant as her treatment continued, the music keeping her distracted and the teasing making her actually like her predicament a bit.

Cloudy gasped and squeezed herself, trying to catch her breath as she was tickled mercilessly by the lightning bolts. Eventually the fizzling of the machine died down, leaving Cloudy still giggling a little and gasping for breath as she rolled around in the air. Even though the spikes were no longer shocking her, her cloud, and especially her diaper, were left with a faint pleasant tingling sensation. She giggled, feeling faintly happy as she drifted once again towards the outflow pipe. Squished and squeezed into the pipe, she blushed as her diaper was pushed once again into her rump, but the tingling now combined with the swelling and deflating of the tune, only making things more enjoyable. Bagpiperix continued to play, swaying his own rear left and right as he spotted her fall into the final container directly in front of him. She bounced on her rump, staring the dragon in the eyes as she sat in her diaper.

Bagpiperix took a deeeeep breath before blowing into his tail once again, claws flying across the holes. There was a rushing sound and water began to flow in from a few smaller pipes near the bottom of the container. The container began to slowly fill, seeping up as the water flowed up to Cloudy’s diaper. She blushed as she felt the warm liquid soak into her padding, causing it to swell up yet again. She wriggled and bounced in place, feeling like a warm wet blanket was being wrapped around her waist. Her wings flapped a bit as she weakly tried to lift herself out of the water, but her diaper continued to swell, weighing her down and causing her to flop against the back of the container. She watched as her cloud and diaper swelled, leaving her in a warm bath.

Her eyes lazily glanced back up at Bagpiperix as he serenaded her. It was so… cozy… and comfy… and the tune was very enjoyable. Why had she been so angry at him earlier? He was just trying to give her a good time. Mmmm, and it was a very comfy time she was having. Her hooves drifted down to squeeze and squish at her cloud and diaper, feeling them continue to balloon up from the warm liquid.

After more than three minutes of water flowing in and soaking in, the cloud – and diaper – were finally full of as much water as they could take. The inflow stopped, and then the base of the container opened out and dropped Cloudy out onto the floor with a wet splat and a long, high-pitched paaaarp.

“There we go!” Bagpiperix said, clapping. “Now you're properly acclimatized to being a puffy cloud! Or should I say, a puffy Cloudy!”

He reached down and unzipped the cloud – despite the lack of logic involved in a zip-up cloud – and Cloudy tumbled out, doing a somersault before landing sitting on her waterlogged diaper. She sighed wistfully, wanting to spend some more time in the cloud, then turned her attention to the water-filled diaper she was still wearing and poked it with her hoof.

Some water ran out around her hoof, and she frowned – thinking something had to be up. This wasn't...

“Now, let's get you into your proper outfit!” Bagpiperix said expansively.

Cloudy blinked, then remembered what had happened to her friends.

“W-wait!” she said, shaking her head, then tried to take off. Her wings flared, but the sheer weight of the waterlogged diaper meant she didn't budge more than an inch.

“There’s no time to wait, we can’t leave the song hanging!” Bagpiperix said, leaning down to scoop Cloudy up in his claws. Cloudy blushed as her padding was squeezed and she was forced to lean against Bagpiperix’s puffy body. The music wriggled its way into her mind, and she couldn’t help but find the steady swelling and falling of Bagpiperix’s gut to be oddly pleasant. Bagpiperix waddled over to the opposite end of the room, shaking his rear in time with the music from the pipes on his back. Stepping up to a vat of rainbow, he held Cloudy above it, allowing her to look down. At least, Cloudy had thought it was a vat of liquid rainbow. On second glance, it looked much more like plaid. She wiggled a bit, some water dripping from her diaper into the plaid as she squeezed her legs together.

“One…” Bagpiperix sang, tossing Cloudy up in the air.

“Two…” He threw her a bit higher, Cloudy glancing nervously down at the liquid.

“Three!~” He chuckled, letting Cloudy fall down into the vat of liquid plaid.

Cloudy tried to swim up to the surface, holding her breath and clamping her eyes shut as she fell into the odd material. Her diaper began to soak up more of the liquid, swelling bigger and bigger. But, despite already being so soaked with water, it began to swell even larger! Cloudy struggled to reach the surface, the plaid coating her as her diaper grew and grew. She thought she felt something else starting to coat her tail as she reached the edge of the vat, trying to hoist her now plaid self out of the liquid.

“Don't be silly!” Bagpiperix chuckled, seeing her trying to pull herself up onto the rim of the vat. “You're not nearly finished with plaid-day!”

He blew into his tail, making his belly swell up alarmingly, then pointed the tube at Cloudy and gave it a tap. All the air he'd put into his tail immediately blasted out again, forcing the pegasus to lose her grip and go right back into the vat.

Cloudy bobbed back to the surface a moment later, her diaper oddly enough acting like a float. This way up, it revealed her tail was no longer visible – subsumed within a large, plaid-patterned fabric tail like that of a dragon, or more precisely like that of one particular dragon.

Bagpiperix continued to bounce up and down on the balls of his feet, occasionally blowing on his tail, and the music resonated through the room – and the vat, making it churn and bubble in a way which somehow kept the plaid pattern intact.

Cloudy rolled over onto her back as another of the pulses of happy, cheerful music echoed in her ears, and that angle revealed that the diaper's swelling up wasn't just making it bigger – it was expanding up her body as well, covering her up to her foreleg shoulders.

Her hind legs, like her tail, had vanished beneath layers of plaid and of oddly draconic construction.

“You're coming along nicely!” the dragon tootled, pleased. “Before long you'll be a proper, puffy piper of a performer!”

Cloudy didn’t respond, too busy trying to keep her head on straight as the song flowed through it, causing her eyes to swirl a bit. As Bagpiperix continued to play, though, it became steadily more difficult to focus on whatever it was that she was trying not to do. She rolled over, her padding keeping her rear floating at the surface of the liquid as it quivered and ballooned in time with the song. Bagpiperix poked at her rump, giggling as it swelled in response, only for Cloudy to roll back over again. Now everything except her head was coated in plaid, and her claws rested gently on her belly. She looked up at Bagpiperix, a soft grin crossing her face as her eyes swam a bit. Pipes on her back wailed along with Bagpiperix, helping to keep the silly pony in a state of cozy bliss. A bubble in the plaid inflated up behind Cloudy, lifting her up into a sitting position before rolling her forward and causing her to flop into the plaid once again.

Cloudy’s tail flicked happily as she played along, another bubble appearing to lift her front half up out of the liquid. In place of a dazed pony now lay a giddy fat bagpipe dragon, leaning into the bubble as it swelled, lifting her up out of the liquid.

“Oooh, you look absolutely marvelous, Cloudy! And you sound even better, you’ll make an excellent addition to the band!” Bagpiperix cheered, popping the bubble and letting Cloudy fall to the floor. Her body shook and paaaarped, deflating slightly before Cloudy huffed herself up bigger, playing enthusiastically. There was nothing that could please her more than hearing what a wonderful player she was going to be. “But don’t get too excited, now. We still have one more member to get, and I think you’d do well to help introduce him to the band!”

Perking up, Cloudy giggled. “Of course!”

She took a step, then bounced outside – landing on her rump with a squeak with each impact, letting her move much faster than walking would do, and having a lot more fun as well.

A moment later, she looked up at the door, then took a deep breath and blew into her own tail the same way Bagpiperix had done. Notes whistled from the pipe-spines on her back, and she swelled up – getting bigger and bigger until she floated into the air and towards the door.

Clef stared at the door, which had just slammed shut and cut off the sight of his friend.

“Cloudy!” he called, grabbing the handle and twisting it. Depending on how far she had to fall, he might be able to catch her if he acted within a few seconds-

The door swung open easily, and he stared at the sight on the other side. An odd, plaid-patterned... something... in the shape of a dragon, which looked a lot like the plump monster that they'd met before but was much smaller.

“Hiya!” the dragon said, waving at him as it floated in mid-air – apparently held up by a puffed-up rear end. “This is great fun, Cleffy! You should try it!”

Clef's jaw dropped as he recognized Cloudy's voice, then he turned and bolted down the hallway.

Clef’s hooves thudded against the carpet of the hallway, his heart racing as he sprinted away from Cloudy. His rear swayed left and aright as he hurried away, the diaper spreading his hind legs far too wide to allow him to move normally. The padding squeaked and hissed notes out with his running, Clef trying to push the song out of his head. In a panic, he rushed up to another door, yanking it open as he dared a glance over his shoulder to see if the dragon was giving chase. As he went to rush through the door, however, he ran into something large and puffy. Rebounding off the balloon, Clef tumbled onto his padded rump and looked up at what he had hit.

Another puffy plaid bubble was swelling out of one of the doors, playing a song as another draconic face appeared, popping out of the room. The dragon grinned widely as he placed his claws on either side of the door frame, pushing himself into the hallway as he inflated. “Hey, Clef! Where’s your puffy belly! No pony likes a flat dragon!” The dragon winked. Clef let out a small squeak of fright upon realizing Violet was stuck in the door in front of him. At least, a puffy plaid dragon of Violet.

Clef scrambled to get back to his hooves, running down the hallway again as Violet and Cloudy followed him down the hall, a bouncy yet ominous tune slowly starting to play.

Puffy plaid musical dragons abound

Filling and swelling their bellies so round

They play their tune out that is so very grand

And would love a new pony to join in on their band!

Groaning, Clef did his best not to listen to the music – even though that went against all his training as a composer, not to mention the difficulty anypony would have in ignoring such a catchy tune.

He glanced behind him for just a moment, seeing the dragons bouncing after him – one of them using her belly, the other bouncing along on her diaper, and both of them producing the underlying beat of the music.

Looking back ahead, Clef's heart sank as he saw there was a dead end in front of him – with only doors to choose from, he had to pick one of them fast, and he skidded to a halt in front of one.

Or tried to skid to a halt. Instead the puffy diaper messed with his coordination, and he wobbled and nearly fell before coming to a halt facing the door one down from the one he'd picked.

The bouncing dragons – getting closer every second – made him too afraid to go back to the one he'd originally been aiming for, and he opened the door in haste before darting through. The moment he did, he bounced upwards as the springy floor rebounded, and he found himself sailing through the air towards something that looked suspiciously large and plaid.

Clef gulped as he fell through the air, his hooves flailing about as he tried to open his wings to fly. Instead, as his hooves waved wildly, his forelegs found a bar and wrapped around it instinctively. Clef found himself swinging around the bar, the world spinning around him. Clef tried to reorient himself, but the blur of colors combined with the song made it almost impossible. Closing his eyes, Clef let out a whimper before letting go of the bar. He spun about in the air, somersaulting several times before he landed with a paaaaaarp on the plaid object. There was a rush of notes, as well as a laugh as Clef bounced up and down on the material. Opening his eyes, he spotted yet another dragon, this one’s plaid pattern resembling High Bar’s coat and mane laughing and bouncing on his tail to keep Clef off balance.

Cloudy and Violet dropped down next to High Bar, both bouncing off the floor with a parp and a boing!, laughing along with the others as the song continued.

A world full of plaid, fat, draconic beasts

Who puff to the tune, and swell to the beat

But there’s just so much more than what you will first see

Before you are swept into our world full of glee!

Clef pushed himself off High Bar, running from the dragons who promptly began to chase after him as he sprinted towards yet another door. As he ran, Cloudy bounced a bit higher, floating up into the air. She aimed herself towards Clef, wiggling her rear before pouncing towards him as she tootled a quick, happy trill.

Trying to get something useful from the music, Clef listened for a moment before dodging to one side. It worked, just, and he avoided being caught by the bouncy dragon that had been his friend.

She batted her forepaw at him, and his desperate jump meant she didn't catch him – instead, the paw-buffet knocked him forwards with a squeak and a parp, letting him just about reach the door.

Slamming it closed behind him, Clef looked around for a moment – and saw two dragons coming at him, both of them looking familiar from the room he'd just left. Baffled for a moment, he shook his head on seeing them still approaching – then darted through the nearest other door.

Much to his surprise, this door led directly out into another corridor – one with a dragon right up close to him on his left, though the one on his right was a lot further away. Running to the right, he picked another door and went through it – finding another corridor, this time the reverse of the one he'd been in before.

The music picked up a new, faster tempo, and he could swear he heard a saxophone under the parps and toots of the dragons and the occasional hiss and squeak of his own diaper.

Back and forth, Clef dashed about, trying to find a door that wouldn’t lead him into yet another corridor. He ran through another, spotting two dragons charging down him on either side. Zipping to another, he ran through, only to bounce off the butt of a plaid dragon stuck in another door. A big bass drum bwoom accompanied his smack, along with a few rhythmic squeaks of his diaper as he bounced backwards on it as well. The dragon’s tail wriggled about, blowing a puff of air into Clef’s face, making his vision go a bit blurry. He rolled onto his back, eyes swirling as he tried to recover. Despite the song filling his head, Clef let out another yelp of surprise as he spotted Violet chasing him down. He jumped back to his hooves, sprinting down the hallway once again as the dragon tried to squeeze past the puffy rear after him.

He reached another door and threw himself into it, flying through. He suddenly found himself hovering above another dragon leaning into a puffy plaid chair, several stacks of books surrounding him. The dragon, sporting Myth Maker’s colors, hummed and glanced up to see Clef floating above him as he sang along to the song.

Your diaper will stretch and swallow your rear

And the loud bouncy song will fill up your ears

As Myth maker spun his musical tale, Clef felt his diaper begin to swell, and the music grew slowly louder and louder as well. He covered his ears, trying to block it out as his padding stretched bigger, spreading his legs wider as it did.

There’s no escaping from your puffy cell

In this dream-world of plaid you will forever dwell!

“Stop it!” Clef yelped. “Myth – snap out of it!”

The dragon kept singing along to himself, ignoring Clef's pleas, and the music pulsed through Clef's bones (and diaper) to make it so he could still hear it even with his ears blocked.

Trying everything he could think of, Clef wiggled his wings – managing to move a little despite the effect which was keeping him stuck in place.

Then Myth Maker opened a book, and Clef did a double-take as he saw what the book contained within it. Not words, like most of Myth's old books, but a complicated maze.

A moment later, Clef dropped into the book as if gravity had somehow been switched on again, and landed on his diaper with a resonant squeak which made the pegasus if anything more dizzy than the tumble had left him.

Looking around, and testing to discover if he could still walk – discovering he could, though it was definitely more of a waddle than anything else – he saw thick walls in all directions, forming a kind of grid. Some of them were solid, but others had cut-outs in them, and it looked like he was indeed inside a maze of some sort – with a red floor made of an odd kind of fabric, and a grid of sets of three parallel walls every ten yards or so.

Without any options, he began to waddle along to try and find a way out.

Clef waddled forward, gulping as he looked around nervously. His hooves sank into the puffy floor, each step making a soft wheeze and paarp fill the air. Clef wobbled a bit as his hind leg lifted high in the air from his diaper waddle. He looked around, trying to make sense of the array of colors surrounding him. He felt as if he was wandering in circles, and the repetition of the bouncy song was doing nothing to help.

A dragon who’s puffy, rotund and quite fat

Who loves swelling up, getting lots of rump pats

They’ll never be lost, always know where to go

For they’ll always be headed to another big show!

“Having a bit of trouble?” A voice echoed around Clef. It was Compass’s, and seemed to be coming from all directions. Clef spun in place, his hooves squeaking on the floor as he tried to spot the source. Clef hurried down one corridor of the maze, though with the wobbling of the floor and the size of his diaper, he couldn’t move very fast at all. The ground swelled a little in time with a blast of music, sending Clef flopping onto his belly, bouncing him through the maze as he became more and more lost. Flaring his wings, Clef tried to fly up to the top of the walls to climb up and see where he was, but the music grew louder, the hiss of air surrounding him as he felt something large, and somehow puffy and plaid looming over him…

In the distance, he could see the ground moving – rising up, the walls seeming to shrink as the perspective changed. Before long he was looking directly down on the walls in that part of the area, and they had a familiar – plaid – pattern to them, as the ground became a mighty hill with a tower on the end like a giant pipe.

The ground shifted again, making Clef look around to see what was going on – wings straining to hold up his giant inflated diaper – and another hill emerged in the other direction, with a strange structure on the peak.

Almost like-

-suddenly, the perspective snapped into place for Clef. That was no hill, and this was no maze.

This was Compass. All around him – the walls were the lines of the pattern on her plaid belly, the hills were her head and her new dragon tail, and the ground was the fabric material that made up her body.

Then she snorted hard, and the wash of air blew him off her belly entirely.

He went soaring through the air, disoriented and spun around as his diaper acted like a sail and caught the wind, then landed on another clothlike surface. This one didn't have walls to form a maze, but it still had the plaid patterns – instead, they seemed to writhe around his limbs like puffy prison bars, holding him in place.

Clef struggled against the patterns tugging on him, trying desperately to free himself. The patterns only held him tighter, pulling him into the puffy material. His hooves sank deeper as he fought against them, pulling him into the puffy cloth like quicksand. His diaper pressed worryingly comfortably into the ground, making Clef blush before it slipped down with him, the bars criss-crossing around him. Suddenly Clef found himself trapped behind pattern, as if he was stuck in a cushy, puffy, plaid prison cell. Everything swelled and stretched around him as he pushed his hooves into the bars to try and shake them. Another parp of tune played, and there was a satisfied laugh from all around him, the material growing bigger and tighter. Looking up, Clef tried to see who was laughing, though by the voice he was sure he knew.

Suddenly a draconic head looked down at him from above, lips curling into a smug smile as the tune echoed all around. “My my my, it looks like we have a naughty little band member here!” Bagpiperix laughed, his claws appearing and squeezing in on Clef’s cell. Clef whined as he felt the cushiness warp around him, squeezing him in all manner of ways as the dragon took another deeeeeeep breath. His belly began to expand, and Clef felt the material stretch around him as well. The more Bagpiperix inhaled, the more things squeezed around. “But we can’t keep you on my belly forever, now can we?” He laughed, inhaling again.

The perspective suddenly clicked in Clef’s mind, and he let out a surprised gasp as he flopped onto his rear. Rather than being trapped in a jail cell as he had predicted, he was now trapped on Bagpiperix’s belly. A living pattern, Clef was held securely behind Bagpiperix’s plaid pattern like prison bars. He pressed up against the pattern, whimpering as Bagpiperix squeezed his belly again, squishing the material around Clef to squeeze him again, his diaper being teased especially as Bagpiperix pressed around his new pattern’s rump.

“But I don't believe in life sentences,” Bagpiperix went on, poking and prodding his own belly – paying special attention to Clef's diaper, making the pegasus squirm from the stimulation as it made him feel oddly happy. “Not one bit! I think the only way to properly treat a band member who strays is reform!”

He inhaled, the bars pinning Clef tighter still to the big puffy belly, and the tunes hissing around them both grew louder and harder to ignore – with Clef no longer able to cover his ears, and with that horribly catchy tune just resonating louder and louder as it took over more and more of his concentration.

“No,” Bagpiperix went on. “But what could a novice like you bring to the band? You're not nearly creaky or squeaky enough, and you're terribly underweight~”

Clef wanted to protest, feeling oddly insulted by being told he wasn't sufficiently creaky to join in, but knowing he shouldn't be wanting to be complimented on his puffiness. Caught in a dilemma, he whined as the surface under him swelled yet again – one of the pipes pressing on his overinflated diaper, building up more and more pressure.

Then Bagpiperix gave him one last poke, and Clef went shooting across Bagpiperix' belly like he'd been shot from a cannon.

He bounced from some of the plaid lines and passed clean over others, going around in a random path accompanied by silly parps and twangs and squeaks, until he saw he was headed for one of the pipes making up Bagpiperix' spine.

Clef yelped, trying to cover his eyes as he flew towards the pipe. Everything squeezed around him especially tightly, Bagpiperix playing to his heart’s content. Clef suddenly shot out of Bagpiperix’s pipe, pausing only a moment as his thick diaper ballooned out of the end before the rest of him followed suit. Clef soared through the air, a part of him slightly disappointed he no longer was squeezed so snugly by Bagpiperix’s belly. It didn’t last long, however, as he found himself bouncing off of a large swollen sphere. A parp emanated from the sphere and his diaper, and he found himself falling towards another as well. Lines drew themselves through the sky next to him, revealing the spheres to be crinkly inflated notes that puffed up as Clef rebounded off them.

As Clef bounced along to the tune, the notes began to morph and swell, turning plaid, just as everything else had, though now becoming a variety of colors. They began to swell larger too, the song almost deafening as it played and swirled through the air around the musical Pegasus. Despite everything, Clef was finding himself… enjoying this! He couldn’t help but giggle as his rear bounced off another note, sending a shiver of pleasure up his spine, the music filling him up with a warm, fuzzy feeling. He bounced again, noticing the notes seemed a bit bigger, not to mention their sticks looked almost tail-like…

Clef continued to bounce, Bagpiperix following after him on the notes as they grew larger and larger, the myriad of plaid bubbles all playing along to the song.

Clef's head swam as he fell through the musical sky, note after note resounding louder than the general tuneful surroundings of Bagpiperix' song.

Unbidden, his talent started to work on the music, and he began to see the patterns – the way each note came from the last, and each bar from the one before, the whole structure of the music creeping into his mind as he listened and bounced and creaked and parped.

Then, all of a sudden, he was falling through the ceiling of a concert hall – landing on his rump with a paaaarp as the diaper let out a burst of music. He looked down and spotted that there were some pipes on the diaper, before the sound of a trill of musical scales made him look up again.

There were dozens – hundreds – of puffy plaid dragons, in rows in the stands or in the concert pit. Some were holding instruments – drums made of plaid bagpipes, stringed instruments with plaid bagpipes built into them – but most seemed to be ready to just play themselves.

And standing on the conductor's podium, which was gigantic, he saw Bagpiperix himself.

“And now,” the dragon announced, raising his own tail-pipe to act as a conductor's baton, “we're going to have a performance composed by our very own Double Clef!”

“But...” Clef began, then stopped.

The moment Bagpiperix had mentioned it, music had started to fill his head again. Taking the patterns he'd heard before and extrapolating them, writing entirely new pieces on the same theme, and he just had to get them on paper...

Clef tried to roll forward and waddle towards the conductor’s stand for some paper, but Bagpiperix simply tutted playfully, blowing a bit of air from his tail to push Clef back onto his padded rear. “Oh, you don’t need to write it down! Just play for us, and we’ll join in~” The dragon teased, winking to the stallion. Clef looked down at his thick diaper, which, he now realized, was so large his legs would never have reached the floor had he rolled forward. Tentatively, he placed his hooves onto the front of the diaper and pressed down. A soft wail sounded from the pipes on his diaper, making him blush and flick his tail a bit as the tune in his mind became a bit stronger.

He pressed down again, shifting a little left and right to alter the notes and rhythms of his song. A smile began to spread across his face as he pushed on his diaper, his eyes swirling as he began to pick up the pace, bouncing on his diaper enthusiastically. Clef laughed, pushing and massaging his padded behind as he played, Bagpiperix beginning to wave his own tail around as others began to join in. It was wonderful, absolutely marvelous! The best piece Clef had ever written! He bounced and rocked around, not noticing his diaper swelling larger as material began to creep up his belly and over his tail, the pipes continuing to paarp and squeak as he played.

Clef looked up at Bagpiperix, smiling widely as the fat, puffy conductor grinned back, squeezing his own gut to join in on the song. Clef could practically burst with glee! Seeing Bagpiperix loving his music so much only made him happier! And bigger! He had to keep playing, it was just too much fun! Bouncing and puffing and swelling and huffing, showing off what a wonderful new composer he would make!

Every note that sounded out into the room was just as he'd wanted it to be, with the dragons taking his melodic line and filling in all the other features to make it a perfect piece of puffy prelude before a truly squeaky serpentine symphony!

And the physical feelings of playing notes were just getting better and better as well, with each push making him feel wonderful and with a continual snug hug from his diaper even between the notes. It was as if all the air he was forcing out to play a note was coming back twofold, and he loved everything about it!

But the most happy thing of all was how proud he was of all the other diaper-dragons performing his music! It was such an honour to be the composer, performing his work in front of them all!

There was a pop! As his tail inflated up and began to play notes as well, and Clef noticed it mainly because it gave him more options for notes to play. There was a foop! As the diaper spread up past his belly, but the only thing that mattered was how it increased his capacity for long notes.

There was a boin-oing! As both hind legs became inflated plaid dragon feet, but that just gave him a way of performing more notes at the same time, as the music swelled and so did he.

Bigger and bigger, fatter and fatter, bouncier and creakier and ever-more inflated! Clef rolled backwards and stood on his tail, letting out a long wail of notes before dropping down onto his rear again to punctuate his song with a loud boom! He laughed as he played, a couple floomps leaving his hooves now cartoony dragon claws, allowing even more precise control over the squishings and squeezings of his belly. Everything was just as he wanted it to be, the concert hall filled to the brim with his music, flowing around him like a wonderful breeze, tickling his belly as he swelled up again, feeling the notes bounce around inside him.

The music continued to build, growing louder, faster, more complex as he played to a fantastic musical climax! He squeeed, squishing on his belly and squeezing his rump between his legs as a final bawoomph! left him completely as a large, puffy, plaid bagpipe dragon. The tune slowly faded away, but not completely. Just hidden enough that he could still enjoy it, dancing around in the back of his mind as he looked up to Bagpiperix. The conductor lowered his baton, grinning widely as he waddle up to Clef. Scooping the dragon up, Bagiperix gave a chuckle and huffed a bit of air into his tail to swell his new composer up as he bounced in place excitedly. With even more grand tunes to play, it wouldn’t be long before he had an even bigger band to share with the world!

“...and they were never seen again!” Pinkie finished.

She looked around at the others. “Spoo~ooky, huh?”

Twilight frowned. “I'd... hesitate to say that.”

“Why?” Pinkie asked. “Oh, I know! It's because you were trembling with fear over it!”

“...sure,” Twilight allowed. “Let's go with that.”

“What the heck was up with the dragon being the bad guy?” Spike complained. “That's... dragonist, I guess.”

“It's in the story!” Pinkie countered. “That's why!”

“Yeah, so, I don't think Pinkie should do any more scary stories,” Dash spoke up. “They go kinda weird places.”

She snorted. “Besides, they're totally not scary-”

There was the sudden wail of a bagpipe, and Dash jumped into Spike's arms. Surprised, the purple dragon wobbled before sitting down hard.

“Pinkie!” the blue pegasus protested.

Pinkie hid a pair of bagpipes in her mane.

Author's Note

And here we see what was going on all along.

There's other stories in the same basic format I have to upload in the future. Hopefully people are interested in seeing them!