Discord's School for Padded Princesses

Ember looked grumpy, though her attempt to look dignified was completely spoiled by almost everything about the entire situation in general and her part in particular.

Discord looked across at the class, humming a jaunty little tune to himself, then drew a clock on the chalkboard and looked at it.

Apparently not liking what he saw, he pushed the little hand around in a circle before nodding in approval. “Now, it's nearly time for the next lesson…”

He clicked his claws together. “I know! We'll do a re-enactment, to see how good your general knowledge of history is!”

Twilight, Starlight and Trixie all found themselves abruptly on a stage, still padded up and all of them with pacifiers in their mouths to prevent them from speaking out of turn.

Discord made a film screen appear, and indicated it with a flourish. “We will be discussing the rein of Tirek!”

“That foalish-” Nightmare began, then broke off as a ball of fluff shaped like a sun bounced off her ear. “Hey!”

Day Breaker laughed, and her counterpart retaliated with a plushy moon-shaped projectile. That made the other crinkle-suit react with a larger sun, and Discord blithely ignored the fight taking place.

“Tirek trapped three ponies in Tartarus,” Discord said, in a lecturing tone. “And each of our students here will be playing as one of them!”

Twilight and Trixie exchanged glances, not liking the sound of that, as the screen lit up.

An image of Tirek appeared behind the three ponies, glancing down as if staring through the screen at them. “Ahahaha, at last I have you three right where I want you!” He said, his voicework and pose just a little stilted. Trixie wondered when exactly Discord found the time to record this with Tirek, and if he was just as insufferable a director as he was a teacher. “But, you don’t appear to have any magic left! I suppose I’ll have to keep you locked up while I find where you’ve stored it all!” He snapped his fingers, a blue swirling vortex appearing behind him. Suddenly, Twilight, Trixie, and Starlight all began to float up in the air, their hooves kicking as they found gravity refusing to keep them safely on the ground. The vortex grew larger, Tirek stepping back as the ponies floated up, and with a flash, vanished into the portal.

The scene cut to show the three laying on a stone floor, a vast cave around them. They all looked about confused, only to notice the screen. Twilight rushed up to it, mumbling several demands at Discord as she pushed up against it. Discord simply yawned, clicking on a remote to fast forward through Twilight’s angry shouting. Eventually he hit play, allowing the scene to continue as normal. The three ponies were gathered around, Starlight’s Pocket Padding rustling as it twinkled and the pattern shifted about on it. With a puff of smoke, a mare popped up in front of them. She stood tall, her wings leathery and bat-like, flicking a tail that was thin and ended in a spade, rather than the normal fluffy pony tail. Two horns protruded from her mane, and short fangs could be seen as she smirked down at the group.

“Well, well, well, it appears we have some new visitors! Is that my dear princess Celestia, I see? Seems all those creatures you sent here finally got back at you, eh? And who are these joining you?” She asked, staring at the group.

Starlight, Trixie, and Twilight all looked back and forth between each other, unsure of who was meant to respond.

After a long moment, Twilight spoke up. “Um… they're…”

She stopped. “No, sorry, this feels too weird… I can't call you two my sister and niece...”

“So, your sister and her niece!” the Tarterian pony chuckled. “Well, I can see it runs in the family!”

Twilight worked through what the other pony had said, then noticed a logical problem. “Wait, did you just say I was Luna? But-”

“You'll love seeing what we have in store for you!” the monstrous pony laughed. “We've all spent so long thinking them up, to humiliate you as much as you humiliated all of us! And with three victims, we can even use more of them at once...”

Discord hit the pause button. The monster pony stopped, but none of the three 'students' did.

As soon as Trixie noticed, she cantered for freedom – only to bump into the side of the screen.

“Now, what was Princess Celestia punished with first?” Discord asked. “Better be quick!”

To rub it in, he began playing some music with a ticking clock sound included in it.

“Aren't you going to give us some kind of clue?” Starlight asked.

“This is a test,” Discord replied severely. “You'd better think fast, Princess Celestia.”

Between one word and the next, Starlight was dressed in a Princess Celestia costume. It was thickly padded all over, except that her Pocket Padding was the only diaper she was wearing, and the wings were little plush things which stood up by themselves.

Twilight made a little whimpering sound, then blushed when Trixie gave her a confused look.

“Uh… was it… padding fluff?” Twilight asked, looking over to Starlight apologetically.

Discord nodded enthusiastically, hitting play once again.

“So, Celestia, I hear you just looove your thick diapers, don’t you?” The demonic mare grinned down at Starlight. “Well, we’ll have you in the thickest padding you’ve ever seen!” She laughed manically as Starlight was suddenly hoisted into the air by magic and vanished in a flash of light. The scene cut away to show Starlight falling through the air, only to land in something thick and fluffy. The thing distended, only to bounce her back up into the air. Flailing her hooves around, Starlight was bounced up and down a few more times before the crinkly tarp came to a stop. Once Starlight’s bouncing ceased, it was easy to tell she was sitting in an overly thick padding mattress. The demon pony dropped down, hanging by her tail from a stalactite as she grinned down at the suited up unicorn. “My, my, but your padding is so thick already! Don’t you worry, we’ll get it nice and pumped up soon!” She snickered, poking at the starry black diaper. With a hiss of air, Starlight’s diaper began to balloon outwards, stretching in spurts, squeezing in each time it swelled with a hiss and a cartoony creeaaak! “That should be a good start! Don’t go anywhere, we’ve still got the others to serve!” She puffed away, Starlight struggling to right herself. The diaper hammock began to bounce her again, throwing her around in the air as her diaper stretched and grew larger and larger and larger!

“Now, how about our dear princess of the night?” The mare said, puffing up so her muzzle pressed into Twilight’s. The alicorn stumbled backwards, landing with a flump on her padded rear as a deep blue suit surrounded her, dressing her up in Luna’s colors.

“That doesn't look very impressive!” Nightmare Moon complained. “She's not nearly dark enough to be a proper Night Mare!”

“More like bed wetter,” Day Breaker replied, sticking her tongue out, and Nightmare Moon shoved at her – able to reach without Twilight in the way.

Back on the screen, Twilight-as-Luna squirmed a little – trying to think of something that wouldn't be too humiliating.

“Trixie knows!” Trixie said.

Twilight glanced back, looking suspicious.

“Princess Luna was stuck inside a giant plush copy of her own moon!” Trixie answered.

“Wait – no!” Twilight protested.

Discord's claw hovered over the unpause button. “I think you'll find that should be… yes.”

“No!” Twilight reiterated. “That's not my answer!”

“Are you saying you'd fail a test?” Discord asked. “Even knowing the right answer?”

Twilight went silent for a moment, and Discord unpaused the presentation before she could react. “Besides, that was Trixie's turn.”

“You spent so much time locked inside your moon,” the devilish mare laughed. “But I think you got to like it, didn't you?”

Before Twilight could answer, the spade-tipped tail of the monster pony wrapped around her waist. It barely made it, because of the thick puff of the suit, but it was still more than enough to haul her into the sky.

The screen followed them upwards, to the bare rock sky of Tartarus. Or perhaps it would be better to say the mostly bare rock, because there was a huge crinkly-plush moon hanging from the ceiling with a large zip on it.

On seeing the moon and the zip, Twilight began to struggle in her Luna-costume, though any attempt at fighting was made much harder by the way it covered her horn and wings.

The demon pony unzipped the moon, pulling apart the sides of the overstuffed celestial body before flicking her tail upwards. Twilight was tossed into the moon, sinking into the crinkly fluff and given only a moment to see the pony wink and blow her a kiss before pulling the zipper back up into place. Twilight struggled inside the fluffy moon, each wriggle and squirm accompanied by several loud crinkles from all around. The monster laughed, bouncing her butt into the moon and sending it rocking about on the string from which it hung. With a faint floomph, the moon grew just a bit puffier, the fluff obscuring the zipper.

“Twily! Come on, you can get out of that!” Shining yelled up at the screen, only to shrink down in his chair as Discord leaned over, shushing him loudly.

Twilight continued to struggle, but as she did, she found the moon to be shaking just a bit more than it should have been. A moment later and her face began to burn a bright red, her padding quivering and rumbling to massage her tenderly. Twilight whined, suckling on her pacifier as the moon squeezed in from all sides, the crinkly fluff cradling her gently as the bat pony hummed happily, sitting atop the orb.

“Just one pony left, and we have just the thing for a princess of love~” The pony snickered.

Once again, Discord paused the movie, but rather than turn to Trixie, he looked back at the classroom. “Cadence, I almost forgot you were still here! I suppose you wouldn’t be against sharing the experience with us? After all, I wouldn’t want to forget anything for our little reenactment!”

Cadence shook her head, not really expecting Discord to actually pay attention to her preference but not wanting to seem like she was agreeing with him either.

A moment later, she realized that the way he'd asked the question either yes or no could be agreement.

“Excellent!” the draconequus said, opening a nearby cupboard to reveal a single large button. He pressed it, and Cadence's seat launched her into the air with a spring-like boioioioiiiing sound.

A second or two later, she landed inside the re-enactment video next to Trixie, just as the Tarterian pony landed next to them. A puffy Cadence-suit formed around Trixie – and, just to rub it in, around Cadence herself as well, leaving her like a plus-sized puffy version of herself.

Discord hit pause again. “You've been doing very well so far – excellent performances! So, for the final question of the quiz, what punishment did Cadence receive?”

There was silence, apart from the quiet groans of both Gilda and Ember and the low bickering of Day Breaker and Nightmare Moon.

“Is it… something to do with love?” Cadence asked tentatively.

“Exactly!” Discord said, his tone obviously condescending. “It's just that!”

He unpaused, and the devilish pony's eyes began to glow.

“You're the alicorn of love,” she said, her voice taking on an odd echo effect. “And the thing you love more than anything else is soft, huggable, cute, adorable plushies!”

Cadence blinked, the words resonating in her mind.

She… now she thought about it, that was true. She did love cute plushies, from the little ones you gave to tiny fillies all the way up to great big ones bigger than even an adult pony.

And the idea of having lots of plushies to play with didn't seem like a punishment at all…

Next to her, Trixie's eyes glazed over a little and she began to wobble on her suited hooves.

The two ponies stumbled around a little, their eyes swirling with different colors as the bat-winged pony chuckled. “You just want to squeeze and snuggle with big fat plushies all day. Big and… bigger.” The pony grinned wider, stomping her hoof. A hole appeared below the ponies, sending them falling down into a separate room. All around them stood plushies, some just a bit bigger than their head, others already towering over them. Trixie waddled over to a fat giraffe, picking it up in her hooves and snuggling into it. Giggling, she squeezed it as it puffed up a bit, filling itself with more stuffing as she snuggled and cuddled it.

Cadence waddled over to a large plushie of Shining Armor, curling up to it as her eyes shimmered. She squeezed and snuggled it, flopping into its belly. Wiggling her padded rump, she grinned even wider as its gut began to swell up. A few other plushies began to grow, swelling up around the two ponies as plush hearts appeared above them, growing a bit bigger as well. Hearts began to fill the room as the plushies inflated, Cadence pushing her diaper into Shining a bit as she relaxed. Trixie looked over as she hugged her giraffe, whining as she saw just how big and fat Cadence’s plushie was. That was when something tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to glance over. An overstuffed plushie of the demon pony grinned down at her, patting her fat belly and grinning widely. Trixie squeed with delight, climbing up onto the plushie, snuggling and burying her muzzle into its gut as it began to swell outwards along with the others.

The screen zoomed out, showing all four 'Princesses' – Twilight-as-Luna squirming in her puffy, vibrating moon-prison as it moved overhead, Starlight-as-Celestia bouncing up and down with her padding now far outsized for the rest of her and her costume, and both Trixie-as-Cadence and Cadence-as-Cadence hugging and giggling as they enjoyed their wonderful plushies.

“Excellent work!” Discord pronounced, making check marks on the sheet. “Full marks!”

He left the screen running for the moment, turning back to the rest of the class. “Remember, you have to understand history to be a good princess – because otherwise you wouldn't know how you became one in the first place!”

The screen closed off, and suddenly the four re-enactors were back in their seats.

Starlight's diaper was smaller than the enormous scale it had taken on at one point, but it was still quite big and pushed her chair back. Twilight was no longer trapped inside the moon, but her Luna-suit – still on, except for the head – had inflated to squeeze her almost as tightly. And both Trixie and Cadence were snuggling plush toys as big as they were.

“Now, since we've covered that, we'll move on!” Discord told them all, the sound getting the attention of both Trixie and Cadence.

He produced a neatly organized timetable, and began pushing words and days around on it with a frown. “Now, was it sciences or arts next...”

“Do we get anything remotely resembling a choice?” Twilight asked a little bitterly, shifting to try and find the limits of the movement her giant Luna plush suit would permit.

Discord frowned, then brightened. “Oh, silly me!”

He snapped his claws, and a pacifier appeared in Twilight's mouth again to stop her from speaking. “That's better… and, to answer your question, no you don't. But someone else does.”

The 'pupils' exchanged glances, not sure how to take that.

“Of course, it is Us!” Nightmare Moon announced, smirking. “For who else could make such a consequential decision?”

Ember groaned, resting her elbows on her puffed-up belly and her head in her hands. “Mmm-mmf,” she mumbled, around her own muting pacifier.

“Not you either!” Discord took some glee in informing them. “No, this is a decision that can only be taken by someone who isn't either a Princess or a terribly good looking Draconequus!”

He cleared his throat, then spoke up. “For Science class, turn to page seven. For Arts class, turn to page nine.”

That just resulted in another exchange of baffled looks, as none of them had a book.

Spike stared down at the comic book he was holding, which had just frozen in place with a classroom scene. Discord's last few sentences hung in the air as speech bubbles, and he examined them for some kind of clue – then noticed he was currently on page six.

“Seriously?” he asked, out loud.

Another line of dialogue appeared. But of course. It's a choose-your-own-academy.

The young dragon thought about just closing the book, but realized that would probably leave them all trapped – he wouldn't put it past Discord. So he carefully used his claws to find what would be pages nine and ten, then opened them at once – and, true to form, there was another double-page spread of comic relating to Discord's 'Princess School'.

He had a moment to read the same speech bubbles from the previous pages, then the scene started moving again.

“You have chosen page 9.” Discord said, the digit sounding oddly disconnected from the rest of his sentence. “If you did not mean to select the arts, please go back to page 6 and try again. Alternatively, go to page 26 to speak with a representative. Of course, that will spoil the story, so you really shouldn’t do that.” The students all continued to look confused, but Discord simply snapped his claws as a remote plopped down into it, a slide projector clicking to show a few paintings.

“Now, as some of you may already know, Canterlot is host to some of the most influential and ground-breaking artists in all of Equestria! Music, theater, paintings, there really is everything! Some of the most iconic works belong to the stain-glass gallery in Canterlot Castle.” He clicked forward, showing a photo of one of Canterlot’s halls, light streaming down through the large windows. “Depicting famous events in Equestrian history, you’ll find masterpieces such as me, and er… well, the others aren’t nearly as interesting!”

Daybreak scoffed, crossing her puffy forelegs, and squeeze in on her belly a bit. “Not as interesting! I’d have you know there’s nothing finer than the stain-glass works of my regal puffy butt! Especially when it’s showing me crushing my wimpy sister, Nightmare.” She smirked over, wiggling her rump a bit. Nightmare rolled her eyes, sticking her tongue out at her sister as Discord chuckled.

“Oh, of course, how could I forget! The defeat of Nightmare Moon, the elements, Sombra’s defeat, there really are too many to list!”

The slideshow displayed stained-glass-window after stained-glass-window, going from Daybreak sitting on Nightmare Moon to half a dozen mares gathering together specially themed diapers to Sombra being forced to consume all his own dark smoke and swell up into a balloon, then cut back to a battle involving hundreds of inflatable griffins and forwards to show ponies being taken over by black Changeling-themed diapersuits that spread like an infection.

Twilight mumbled something, then raised her hoof to ask a question. Discord blatantly ignored her, instead pointing at Trixie and taking out the pacifier in her mouth.

“Huh?” Trixie asked, still hugging her soft toy from earlier. “Um, Trixie wonders what you want!”

“Oh, it's simple...” Discord said, smirking. “If you could give the class another example of the arts of Canterlot?”

“Trixie certainly can!” Trixie agreed. “For Trixie IS an example of the arts of Canterlot, as she is a performer on stage!”

“Wonderful!” Discord said, and the slide show clicked ahead again to show Trixie on a stage. The unicorn yelped in surprise to discover herself suddenly on the stage – diapered up and clutching a plush – then looked around nervously at the somewhat indistinct audience.

Trixie gulped, looking out of the screen at Discord, who simply tapped his hoof impatiently. Trixie attempted to stand up straighter, though there was only so dignified one could look when clutching a large plush and wearing thick pampers. “Uh, Ladies and Gentlecolts, be prepared to be amazed, astounded, and be-wild… be-willia… bewildered! Then, behold!” She posed dramatically, her horn lighting up as she lifted her hat off of her head and flipped it upside down. “Trixie shall now pull-“

“Of course, theater doesn’t always mean magic! There’s Canterlot musicals, comedians, historical dramas, and of course, classics like Shake Spear!” Discord clicked the remote as if flipping through channels, each button press causing the screen to flicker and for Trixie’s costume and the set of the stage to shift to what Discord was describing. She was left in an overly puffy petticoat, clutching a rubber skull in her hoof where her hat had been.

“But, Neigh, say I! For a skull by any other name would be just as grizzly, and-“ Trixie cut herself off, shaking her head to try and regain her senses. “Why is Trixie in such outlandish attire! Remove these from Trixie at once!” She demanded. As she continued to berate the draconequus, a hook appeared from the side of the stage, snagging around Trixie’s throat and yanking her off stage. The unicorn fell out of the side of the screen, her puffy dress rustling as she tried to rock back onto her frilled fluffy diaper.

Discord ignored her, instead moving on with his lesson. “One of my favorites of Canterlot has to be the operas and the concerts! Has anypony seen any good ones lately? Shining Armor?”

Put on the spot, Shining Armor shuffled a little – blushing as his diaper squished slightly. “Well, um… I suppose there was one I saw recently called the Ring Cycle?”

“Ah, the Ring Cycle,” Discord agreed. “A famously long opera, which has as a major moment in the story a battle between a silly foal and a great big puffy dragon!”

“That's… not how-” Shining began, but then found himself standing on a stage. His outfit had turned into a plastic set of armour, and he had a foam sword in his mouth.

Opposite him was a big dragon, clearly a costume being worn by a much smaller dragon, which was composed of layers of crinkly diaper material.

“This is outrageous!” Ember announced, crossing the puffy arms of her suit. “It's undignified and not properly reflective of the dignity of dragons!”

Shining was about to concur, but then the music started – and the singing, several voices singing over one another about the battle between Shining and the dragon Ember.

It sounded strange, not at all how the real opera went, and at the same time oddly compelling… Shining caught sight of two dozen Discords sitting in rows to the side of the stage, reading music and singing in harmony, but then his vision fogged a little as he looked up at the dragon.

It seemed much more real now, and so did the sword he was holding. He was still padded up, puffy and slightly damp, and his outfit was still a foal's costume of armour, but it felt like the middle of a really solid session of make-believe – it was easier to just go along with it, caught up in the excitement, as the opera flowed over him...

Shining lowered his stance, bracing himself for any incoming attack of the dragon. Ember rolled her eyes, the flop of her head causing the suit’s to bounce and snap its jaws a bit. Shining began to circle the dragon, Ember looking around for some way out. As she was distracted, Shining jumped in and jabbed the rear of her suit with the sword. Despite the puffiness of both her suit and the prop, Ember let out a yelp at the poke, and whirled around to face the stallion. “Oh, so that’s how you want it, huh? Alright, come try that again, tough guy!” Shining and Ember began to slowly circle each other, the music dropping down to provide a simmer of anticipation beneath the scene. Occasionally the dragon suit’s jaws would snap again, or Shining would take a few swipes and lunges with his padded sword, and the music would give a clash or a ring, though often with unfittingly bizarre instruments. The whole thing was rather comical, Trixie and Gilda couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at Shining’s ridiculous movements.

Despite the absurdity of it all, Shining was lost in fighting off what was, in his mind, a fierce and dangerous beast. He poked and slashed with his sword wildly, his attacks looking more like a foal swinging around wildly than any sort of trained guardspony. One jab managed to poke into the dragon’s belly, causing Ember to let out another yelp, the music building again. She glared at Shining through her costume, and suddenly began to charge towards Shining, who attempted to back up. Unfortunately, Shining lost his hoofing and was sent flopping onto his padded rump, plastic armor clacking about. Ember jumped into the air, Shining having just enough time to squeak with fright before the fat crinkly butt of Ember’s suit came flopping down on top of him.

Satisfied, Ember pat her belly reaching down to pick up the sword and pick at the suits teeth as she eyed the surprisingly tasty looking knight. Shining whimpered as the suit’s jaws reached down and clamped around him, only to slip down into its gut a moment later with a cartoony gulp!

Ember giggled slightly as Shining squirmed around inside the plushy faux-gut of the costume, tickling her, then she stood up and bowed to the audience.

The music came to a triumphant crescendo, then ended suddenly – sending both Shining and Ember back to their seats, looking very woozy and distant from the whole experience, with Ember still in her dragon costume – though it had been reduced in size somewhat, so she could actually fit in the desk.

Discord marked off a point in each of their columns on his sheet, then applauded. “Bravo! Wonderful example of an operatic performance!”

He shrugged. “Of course, we can't show the whole opera because it's far too long to fit into a single lesson… so that means we'll have to leave the princess and the sea monster for another day.”

Shining frowned slightly, then shook his head – the distant look in his eyes fading. “Huh? Wha-”

A pacifier interrupted him as Discord judged that he'd said enough. “Raise your hoof if you want to talk,” he reminded the unicorn, then addressed Gilda. “And can you think of a form of art?”

Gilda shook her head, then paused. “Uh… I… isn't there just, you know, actual art? The kind that goes in an art gallery, paintings and stuff?”

“That sounds like a wonderful example!” Discord agreed. His tail flicked across, changing the slideshow for a giant sketchbook, and he went through several dozen drawings fast enough to produce a kind of flickbook animation – showing Twilight, dressed in a very frilly dress, sitting down on a whoopee cushion.

“Now, let's all see how painting works,” he added.

With a flash of light, everypony found their desks in front of them to vanish and become replaced by an easel, along with a large white canvas sitting on it and several small cans of paint laying along its lower shelf. “And the best way to experience painting is first hoof! Now, before we begin, I want to remind you all that painting takes much practice, so don’t expect to be recreating the greats. Of course, if you do, I hope you don’t forget where you came from after you become unimaginably rich and famous! We do need the funding!” Discord joked before turning back to the board.

“Mmmppphh!” Starlight said, raising her hoof. Discord looked back over his shoulder as he continued to sketch out himself sketching himself sketching himself. Starlight’s pacifier vanished, allowing her to speak. “Uh, we don’t have any brushes, Discord.” She said, trying not to let her annoyance creep into her voice. Discord simply waved his paw dismissively and turned back to his drawing once again.

“Oh, you needn’t worry about brushes, Starlight! Just draw what you like! I’m sure it will come out wonderfully!” Starlight looked down at the tins of paint in front of her. Hoofpainting? Seriously? She hadn’t done this since she was a foal! She wasn’t about to get herself and her padding stained! Looking around, she noticed nearly everypony else looking just as displeased with the lesson as she was. All except for Nightmare and Daybreak, of course, who were busy rubbing their paint covered hooves over their canvases, occasionally flicking paint at each other, only to splatter it onto Twilight instead.

“No way am I going to be painting with my claws!” Gilda said. “Do you have any idea how humiliating that would be?”

“Of course he does!” Starlight groaned.

“I have to inform you that hoof-painting, or claw-painting in your case, is on the lesson plan,” Discord said simply. “So you're going to have to make marks to get marks.”

Gilda snorted. “That's all?”

“And those who don't want to paint on a canvas will instead be used as a canvas,” Discord continued, without missing a beat, as Daybreak carefully arranged her paint into a wobbly drawing of Nightmare pulling a silly face.

Nightmare glared at the canvas, then flicked some dark black and blue paint over Daybreaker, who retaliated with some white and gold paint.

“Used as a canvas?” Starlight said, blinking.

“That's right,” Discord confirmed. “All those prissy Princesses who don't want to hoofpaint will be put in a ball-pit full of paintballs, as remedial painting!”

With that threat delivered, Starlight hesitated only a moment more before reluctantly starting to put blobs of green paint on the canvas. She adjusted her posture unconsciously, sticking her rump out and wiggling it a little as she worked.

Meanwhile Trixie and Twilight had begun to paint as well, neither wanting their coats to end up as chaotically mismatched as Discord was. Shining and Cadence were coloring as well, though they had pushed their canvases together to try and draw one large picture. The only one still not partaking in the activity was Gilda, who simply sat with her front claws crossed grumpily. “Heck. No.” She grumbled. Discord shrugged, Gilda’s canvas and chair vanishing as she suddenly fell into an inflatable pit full of oversized balls. The gryphon struggled to stay above the surface, the colorful paintballs rubbing against her feathers and dyeing them all manner of colors.

Twilight ducked down as yet more paint flew over her head, the two sisters sitting on opposite sides of her having completely abandoned their attempts to humiliate the other through their pictures and instead beginning to toss paint about at an absurd rate. Discord didn’t seem to mind, instead licking his thumb and holding it up to his eye to gauge how his own sketch was coming out. Starlight continued to color as well, trying her best to keep the canvas as clean as possible despite the messiness of their coloring method. Unfortunately, her hoof bumped into one of her paint cans and knocked it off, spilling out onto her padding. She eeped, but before she could pick it up, the can sank into the fluff of her pocket padding. Suddenly Starlight her diaper shift and bulge, seeming to soak up more and more of the paint. The black padding began to shift colors, a bright red star appearing on its expanse as it ballooned bigger. She blushed, squeezing down on her diaper to stop its growth, only to knock the can of white paint onto it. Several galaxies now appeared on her diaper, the padding continuing to drink up the paint as Starlight tried to hide her growing rear.

“Well, well!” Discord chuckled, his arm reaching out from Starlight's canvas and pulling her through so she popped out of his own. “It looks like Starlight here has decided to do something avant-garde with her own display of painting!”

Starlight blushed as her diaper swelled out and took on more and more colours, whole constellations developing on it in a whirling nebula across the 'night sky', and then Nightmare threw a whole can of paint at it and made the whole effect much stronger as a dusting of purple stars added themselves to her butt.

Nightmare laughed enough that it was momentarily possible to see Luna, trapped inside the plush suit, then her crinkly maw closed and she contemplated Twilight's Luna-suit.

“I wonder if that works the same way...” she mused.

As she pondered, Ember blinked – yawning, then shaking her head as the fog she'd been dealing with started to clear.

She quickly realized she was in some kind of suit, like a pudgy version of herself, then saw that she'd been getting paint all over a canvas by using her own mitten-paws and plush-covered-tail as the medium.

Not quite sure what was going on, she looked around to see that everyone else was in pretty much the same situation – except for Gilda, whose padding, fur and feathers was now covered in all kinds of colours.

Strangely, her coat was mostly blue, but the feathers on top of her head – and the tuft of fur on her tail – were striped like a rainbow.

Gilda grumbled, trying to pull herself out of the pit, but every time she pushed her claws down into the sides of the inflatable pool, it simply sank under her weight, only to rebound a moment later and send her flopping back into the pit. Cadence and Shining continued to paint together, having created a mosaic of the crystal empire, albeit one that was rather sloppy and droopy as paint dripped down the canvas from their clumsy attempts at coloring. Cadence poked about at the canvas a bit, drawing out a rather silly looking Shining armor in puffy padding. Shining blushed, giving Cadence an embarrassed scowl. He drew out Cadence, in even puffier padding, along with a rather expansive dress. Cadence put Shining in some armor, and the two continued to pile on embarrassing articles of clothing, not noticing as their own diaper changed colors, swelling up slightly as a dress and armor puffed into existence around them.

Nightmare smirked over at Twilight, swirling around a can of black paint. She tossed it towards the alicorn, splattering her suit in the paint. Twilight let out a yelp, trying to stand up, but her puffy suit making her movements clumsy and wobbly. The black began to spread across Twilight’s suit, the Luna design becoming steadily more Nightmare-ish as it did. “Nighma- er, Luna, stop that!” Twilight said, turning to face the snickering crinkly princess. As she looked away, Daybreak watched as Twilight’s suit grew darker and puffier, becoming another Nightmare! Well, she couldn’t have this stand! Not in the slightest! She picked up pearl and orange paint, tossing it to Twilight. The paint splattered across her suit, now shifting it to look like another Daybreak. Twilight turned to face the offending alicorn, only to receive another splotch of black paint on her.

As the sisters fought over the purple pony, Starlight whined and wriggled in her thick padding as it reached the floor, lifting her up on its puffy expanse. Stars, galaxies, comets, and planets formed and swirled around on her diaper, becoming a magnificent display of the heavens upon a particularly helpless pony’s padded butt.

Trixie's painting was becoming more and more chaotic as she kept trying to work on it, with her attempts to add layering and shading just resulting in smearing what had originally been a fairly reasonable self portrait. The smears kept adding layers of padding as well, making the Trixie on the canvas resemble the Trixie doing the drawing more and more closely.

Up at the front, Discord made a few final strokes of his paintbrush-tail across the paper, then nodded to himself and put it up on the board – showing that it was a portrayal of the whole classroom, sitting obediently and paying attention to their handsome-looking draconequus teacher. And yet, something was odd about the painting, drawing the eye in and making the viewer inclined to stare rather than do whatever they'd been doing before.

Pleased with the result, Discord went around the whole group inspecting the results and checking them off on his score-sheet. Trixie's padded-pony got a check next to her cutie mark, as did the costume-contest-canvas of the two Crystal Empire rulers, and Discord gave Gilda full marks for having painted herself as Rainbow Dash.

Moving on to the two alicorn diapercritters fighting over Twilight's now-mismatched sleeper, he gave all three of them credit for the result – especially appreciating how Twilight's outfit was swelling up as it turned into a blotchy mix of Daybreak and Nightmare – then judged Ember's own drawing of a blobby gold-and-silver hoard as deserving of credit as well.

Finally he reached Starlight, and patted her on the rump before confirming on his paperwork that her diaper-display was just as worthy as the rest.

“Alright, settle down everypony! It’s time we move on to science!” Discord proclaimed, clapping his hands. Everypony’s canvases and paints vanished, as well as getting a rather swift clean up. That is, everypony beyond Twilight and her half and half suit, which still squeezed and snuggled her tightly, shifting colors between Nightmare and Daybreak. Starlight’s diaper was also left relatively unchanged, though it had been shrunken down juuuust enough so she wasn’t blocking the view of anypony sitting behind her as she sat upon her massive, crinkly, starry throne. Gilda rubbed at her still stained feathers, grumbling all the while as she watched as Cadence and Shining’s armor and dress were wiped clean.

Discord pulled a massive textbook out of nowhere, letting it fall onto his desk with a wham!, falling open as he ran a finger down a page. “Let’s see, we have Aeronautics, Agronomy, Amateur Witchcraft… Ah, this seems good!” Discord looked up from the textbook, grinning widely. “Our dear friend Starlight has shown some interest in Astronomy, so I say that seems a good place to start! It is in the “A” category of science, after all.”

Starlight gave a surprised look, shaking her head. “What? No I didn’t!”

“Your diaper doesn’t lie, Starlight! Nor does your name!” Discord chuckled, beginning to write on the chalkboard.

“But I didn't actually do astronomy,” Starlight protested. “I never bothered to-”

“That just means it's a chance to make up for lost time!” Discord informed her. “That's what the Discord Academy for Princess Students specializes in, making up for lost time! Time as a foal, time missing lessons, time not wearing diapers...”

He indicated Daybreak. “Time for an astronomy question!”

“The night is my domain!” Nightmare protested. “Ask not such night related questions to the boring day pony!”

Daybreaker stuck out her fabric-y tongue.

“What happens to a star when it gets older?” Discord asked Daybreak. “Answer quickly, now~”

“Why, 'tis simple!” Daybreak replied. “It becomes hotter, and swells up – the outer layer expanding to be far greater in size than it was before!”

As she spoke, the crinkly material of her surface began to grow – and to become redder, swelling up with every word and losing the harsh colours to a uniform dim orange-red colouring.

Suddenly, she was on Discord's projection screen instead of in the classroom, and clearly swelling up more and more with every second – the plush becoming thicker and thicker, until the real Celestia was probably just completely lost in an ocean of uniform, toasty warm red plush.

“It grows so much that it engulfs entire planets,” Daybreaker said, her voice drifting out of the screen. “Becoming less dense as it becomes larger, until it fills the sky...”

Daybreaker continued to inflate, her bloated, spherical form spinning slowly about in the sky. Every few seconds her head or tail would pass by, engulfed by her growing form as she continued to lecture the classroom. “The star swells, expands, becomes absolutely enormous compared to its original size!” Daybreak wriggled her hooves, her plush body beginning to creak, the seams running along her straining to hold in all the warm fluff inside. Twilight watched eagerly, finding Daybreak’s growth utterly mesmerizing. Some part of her tried to excuse it. She was hoping Celestia would be free, that Daybreaker would burst and reveal her mentor safe again! But Twilight knew what happened to massive stars… “Bigger… and bigger… until it… oh dear…” Daybreaker’s growth began to slow, now happening in sudden spurts, completely immobile, her plush skin now a shining crimson.

In a moment, less than a second, Daybreaker shrank, collapsing in on herself, though retaining her orb-like figure. A sudden flash blinded the classroom for a moment, only for mischievous laughter to fill their ears an instant later. Blinking, Trixie looked up at the screen as her vision came back to her. Instead of an overstuffed alicorn of the day floating through the night sky, a jet black spherical Nightmare could be seen laughing as she lazily drifted and spun about, squeezing her gut. “Ooohohoho! Until it collapses! Leaving nothing behind but a black hole! Bodies so heavy and dense, absolutely nothing can escape it!” Nightmare laughed, licking her lips as she gazed about at the skies around her. She began to inhale, grinning widely as a stream of starlight began to flow into her, bloating her up and up and up just as Daybreaker had!

The starlight and space-dust swirling into Nightmare's maw produced a spiralling disc, one which glittered like stars, and all the pupils watching found themselves unable to look away – mesmerized both by the swelling, crinkly Nightmare and by the spirals drawing their eyes in towards her maw.

“Anything that comes too close is drawn in,” her voice said, floating into the air and sinking into their minds. “Unable to resist the inexorable pull, tugging them down… down… deeper and deeper into the gravity of the black hole, so it becomes harder and harder to move away, until it enters the black hole itself.”

The spiral flickered and shimmered as it sucked up stars of several different colours, adding to the hypnotic effect which fixed them all to the screen.

“In the black hole, surrounded on all sides by the hole, so deep nothing can escape,” Nightmare said, her voice lulling them down into a trance. “So even moving away from the core is just moving closer… and deeper… unable to fight, unable to resist… until the end is inevitable...”

Twilight yawned, her mind associating the black hole with Nightmare with the crinkly critter's body with diapers with her own diaper, and forming the connection that diapers were irresistible and inevitable.

The swirling colors of the galaxy moved a bit faster as the camera seemed to become drawn into it as well, spinning and flowing along with the stars down towards the bottom of the whirlpool, where Nightmare hung, greedily guzzling away at the expanse. The night sky all around her seemed to melt away, becoming nothing but a swirling vortex to bloat the black hole bigger, which only made Nightmare all the more giddy. “Once inside, nothing can escape. Not that much of it would want to. Settling down into the black hole, feeling it squeeze all around as it grows and grows, swallowing everything it comes across…

The colors were now just a strange wobbly array, not even following a spiral as everything swirled and shifted around in a nonsensical, alluring manner. Starlight gazed up at the screen, leaning forward on her thick diaper, wishing she could be sucked down into it. Lost in its fluff, in its puffy embrace, with nothing but diaper poof all around…

Starlight was yanked out of her daydreams as the light to the classroom flicked on once again, the class groaning and complaining as the video ended. Twilight rubbed her eyes, blinking several times as she looked to either side of her. There were Nightmare and Daybreak, each sitting proudly as they had at the start of the video and yet… were they pudgier than they had been before? Trixie looked around as well, noticing Starlight seemed to be sitting much lower in her thick diaper than she was before the lights had turned off. She was sure of it…

“Excellent practical example of the main sequence stars,” Discord said, putting down some gold stars against several different symbols on his attendance sheet. “Now, let's move on to something a bit more down-to-Equestria – basic physics.”

There were a few rustles, and at least one squish, as the ponies, dragon and griffon shifted in their seats and made their padding respond.

“Firstly, we will look at an example of simple harmonic motion,” the 'teacher' continued, and reached into his own ear. He rummaged around, making a few slightly odd sounds, then produced a fine long chain with a flourish.

“There we go!” he said. “Can anyprincess tell me what this is? Hooves or other appendages up!”

Twilight raised her hoof promptly, though it was a little hard in her half-and-half suit. “Mmm!”

Discord removed her pacifier, and she spoke up. “It's a pendulum,” she said. “But you're using a pacifier as the weight.”

“Quite right!” Discord agreed, giving Twilight another approving check mark with a pen held in his tail. “Now, let's watch how the pendulum moves. First, when it's given just a little bit of a push.”

He blew on the pacifier, which began swinging back and forth on the chain.

“It's not moving very fast,” he pointed out. “So it's taking a long time to go back and forth. But if you speed it up, just a little, you'll see that it goes further – going back more, and forth more, so it takes just the same amount of time...”

Discord gave the pacifier a bit of a flick, causing it to swing higher on one side before falling back and swinging up on the opposite end. It continued to move back and forth. Back and forth. Gilda found her gaze to be following the pacifier as it swung about. She gave her head a bit of a shake, but she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the pacifier. “Now, eventually the pendulum would come to a stop if it were simply hanging here. But all one needs to do is give it that bit of extra energy and it can go practically forever!” Discord explained, his wrist flicking ever so slightly to keep the pendulum at its current rate.

Cadence watched as the pacifier moved back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. She felt like there was something… off about this. That she shouldn’t be so entranced by such a simple trick, and yet she found it far too easy to think about the pacifier and nothing else. She gave a few suckles on her own, shifting in her padding as her mind went a bit blank as she began to daydream…

“Of course, a pendulum can be made from anything so long as it’s got a good weight at the end of a rope! A pacifier, a coin, even a princess!” He chuckled, snapping his fingers. Ember found herself sitting in a foal bouncer at the front of the class, her padding pressed snugly into her by the seat. Discord gave her a push, sending her rocking back and forth slowly.

“M-mff,” Ember protested, trying to get out, but her minor struggles didn't do more than slightly alter the trajectory of her bouncer.

“The thing about a pendulum,” Discord went on, as Ember swung back and forth, “is that the same pendulum will always take the same amount of time to go back and forth. It's simple, reliable, and trustworthy, so you can trust it to do the same thing over and over.”

His voice took on an echoing quality. “Back and forth, always the same… always consistent… always reliable...”

Shining's eyes tracked the diapered-up dragon as she rocked back and forth, and he snuggled a little into his padding – adjusting his seating to be more comfortable, feeling a little drowsy as the regular motion absorbed any resistance Ember could throw at it.

“And it's just as relaxing to be the pendulum as to watch the pendulum,” Discord said. “So relaxing, so easy to just let your mind drift...”

Ember's struggles died down gradually, until she was just sitting there – watching a pendulum Discord had set up going in the other direction, so to her it was as if it was swinging very slowly indeed.

“That's why a pendulum is often used in psychological studies,” Discord told them. “Because the simple, harmonic movement of the pendulum can take over a mind… making it so that the one watching it can be told things… things they'll find it so easy to understand...”

...Trixie blinked, suddenly starting to wake up.

It was hard to do, as if her mind was wrapped in something cottony that made her thoughts slower, and she noticed – in a far-away way – that her diaper was wet.

“Now, who wants to volunteer for a demonstration of the water cycle?” Discord asked.

Trixie's hoof went up, and she looked at it in surprise – not sure why she'd just volunteered, and noticing that the other pupils had all reacted as quickly as she had.

“Oh, marvelous! It’s good to finally see some enthusiasm in the class!” Discord said, looking out at all the raised hooves. He scanned the room, trying to pick out the best candidate. “Gilda, why don’t you come up to the front!” Discord finally said. Gilda lowered her claw, blushing as she wondered why she had been raising her hand so eagerly. Still, she slipped out from her chair and waddled towards the front of the class room, trying to avoid eye contact with everypony she passed.

“Gilda, you should know a little about the cycle, you did live in Equestria’s weather capital for quite some time. What is it that clouds are made of?” Discord asked, smiling sweetly.

Gilda snorted, trying to keep her cool demeanor despite the overly puffy padding around her haunches. “Water, obviously.”

“And where does all that water come from?” Discord continued, undeterred by Gilda’s snide attitude.

“Lakes, ponds, pools, rivers, basically anywhere water is. We get pegasi to create cyclones by flying in circles to pull the water up to the tanks.”

“And how much would you expect those tanks to hold? 5 gallons? 10?”

Gilda snorted again, starting to become annoyed by the questions, not to mention Discord’s perpetually cheerful attitude. “50, and that’s the very smallest tanks!” She said.

“So, about… this large?” Discord asked, producing a 50 gallon jar of water hovering dangerously low above Gilda.

“Well, uh… yeah?” Gilda said, sounding a little more nervous now.

“And what do they do with older clouds?” Discord said, the water still hovering there.

“Fill them up with water, obviously-” Gilda began, then noticed she was now stuffed inside a giant cloud suit. “Wait, wha-”

Discord upended the jug, pouring the whole thing into her plush suit. “That's just right! They take the clouds which have already rained away, and then they fill them up with more water!”

He snapped his claws together to get Gilda's attention as her cloud-suit began to swell up. “How do the weather workers tell when a cloud's all full up?”

“Stop ittttt...” Gilda whined.

Discord shook his head. “No, that's not how they tell at all! I'll ask you again, in case you weren't paying attention. How do weather workers tell when a cloud is full?”

“Because it changes colour!” Gilda answered, hoping that would satisfy Discord. “It turns dark when it's full!”

“That's right again!” Discord nodded. “But your cloud's still white, which must mean it needs more water…”

Despite the weight of the water, Gilda felt herself starting to rise off the floor from some unknown lifting force. A string tied itself around her tail to keep her from flying all the way to the ceiling, but she found herself unable to get any traction on the floor – and with her wings wrapped uselessly in swelling cloud-plush.

Gilda squirmed about in the plush, but with how swollen it had already become, her mobility was rather limited. “Does anypony know how much clouds can normally hold?” Discord asked, turning back to the classroom. Shining raised his hoof, waving it about a bit.

“I think the average cloud holds about 200 gallons.” He replied. Discord nodded, making Shining grin and Gilda groan as another jug of water appeared above her and begin to pour itself over her. The plush cloud suit began to swell further, and Gilda could feel it squeeze in on her, somehow growing heavier despite her not dropping an inch from where she floated. Bigger and bigger she swelled, the jug never seeming to empty as it poured more and more water over her.

Eventually, though, the cloud suit began to darken, shifting from the pristine white to a grey, then a jet black. “Oh goodness, I think it’s going to storm here!” Discord proclaimed as Gilda wriggled about the little bit she could. Her suit suddenly quivered and rumbled, the sound of thunder filling the room as more and more water filled her up. “Now, would anypony like to tell me what happens when a storm comes?” Discord asked, splashing a bit of water onto Gilda’s head to stop her whining momentarily.

“It rains!” Trixie shouted out. Discord nodded, and Gilda blushed, suddenly feeling a bit of pressure growing as the suit swelled up and up and up.

“Ngh!” she groaned, trying to squeeze her legs together, but the sheer volume of her plushy outfit made it nearly impossible – and just resulted in a drip-drip-driiip of water falling out of the squeezed cloud.

The sound of the water worked through the last of her control, and Gilda flushed in embarrassment as she soaked her diaper – and, in sympathy, her cloud-suit unleashed a cloudburst.

The water fell all over the room, most of it drumming on an umbrella Discord raised over himself but some of the droplets falling on everypony in the audience – and on Ember – and more than one of the 'students' also found the raindrop sound provoking them to wet their diapers.

After at least thirty seconds, the cloud-suit was finally exhausted of water, and Gilda dropped back towards the floor.

“Now, once a cloud's all rained out, of course,” Discord went on, smirking. “What happens then?”

“It goes right back into the cycle again!” Trixie called, and Gilda – still blushing, and with a pacifier back in her beak – shot Trixie a venomous look.

“That's exactly right,” Discord agreed. “But you've got the idea, I'm sure.”

He produced a pocket fan and blew Gilda over to her seat, then gave approving marks to the students who'd done well.

“Let's see...” he added, opening a large book described on the cover as the Big Book Of Science. “What topic should we do next?”