Twilight's Dream Voyage

“Oh dear… I didn’t mean to scare all of them away…” A familiar voice came from the forest. There was the sound of plants being pushed aside as a rather large, puffy creature stepped out onto the path. It was a mix of animals, much like Discord, with large wings and a long, slender body. The most striking feature, however, was the yellow and pink color scheme of the creature’s torso, and her familiar, striking eyes. “Oooh, I didn’t know a tour was going to be coming through today! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare away the animals, oh, you must be so upset…” Her voice trailed off, the creature shrinking down from embarrassment.

“Fluttershy?” Applejack asked, looking at the creature. The draconeques Fluttershy raised her head a little, tilting it to one side.

“Yes? Do I know you?”

“Fluttershy, we’re your friends!” Twilight explained, struggling against the bands. “This is a dream, we’re here to get you out of here!”

“A dream? Oh, yes, the Dream Safari, I know about that! They’re quite nice ponies, bringing tours through here. But, oh, you didn’t get your suits for the tour! I didn’t mean to ruin the experience for you! Ooh, m-maybe I can fix this! I can finish the tour for you! Get you some nice puffy suits all made up too!” She began to look a little more confident, climbing up into the stroller, her tail swishing happily. “Here, let’s get things started again.” Fluttershy snapped a claw, the cart beginning to roll forward once again.

“Fluttershy, what – but – wait,” Twilight said, trying to get in front of Fluttershy's continual revelations which kept messing up her grip on the situation. “Hold on a minute-”

The dragonequus Fluttershy stroked the top of her head with one of her mismatched paws, clearly thinking hard as she looked at Rainbow Dash. “I think something fast,” she began.

“Yeah, that's right!” Dash agreed.

“Dash!” Twilight hissed. “You're going to encourage her!”

“Well,” Fluttershy went on, still thinking to herself. “I suppose you are blue, and a fast blue thing... I know!”

Her tail flicked across, and there was a sudden shift from Dash's diaper – expanding outwards, getting larger and spreading across her body at the same time.

Within seconds, Dash found herself stuck inside a thick, padded sleeper made of crinkly diaper material – one which made her look like a big-pawed, puff-butted, thick-tailed, blue-furred cat.

“What the heck!?” Dash complained, completely caught off guard, and tried to wriggle out of the suit in some way – though the seatbelt was holding her even more tightly now she was stuffed into a four-inch-thick plush suit. “How does this make sense!?”

“Oh, that's a Romane Blue,” Fluttershy explained earnestly. “They're ever so fast when they're startled!”

“That’s not fair!” Dash cried out, continuing to wriggle about in her suit. Fluttershy looked over to the others, resting her head in her paws.

“Oooh, do me! Do me!” Pinkie proclaimed, bouncing in her seat, her hoof waving about in the air. Fluttershy’s gaze focused in on her. She grinned widely, looking quite excited at the prospect of suiting up Pinkie Pie.

“I think I know just the thing for you! Something big and bouncy and lots and lots of fun!” Fluttershy snapped her claws again. With a flash and a puff, Pinkie was suddenly stuffed into a rabbit suit, with large floppy ears and puffy white tail. Pinkie let out a myriad of giggles, rolling around as much as she could in the bindings. She wiggled her rear, making it crinkle and puff about. “Oooh, I say it fits you perfectly!”

“Well, the butt might be pretty big, but that just makes it better!” Pinkie giggled again.

“Oh, goodness, it’s dreadful! How do you expect to walk in that?” Rarity asked. Fluttershy’s eyes immediately switched over as she began to contemplate a puffy suit for the fashionista.

The stroller splashed through a small stream, though this time none of the passengers – pony or dragon – were paying much attention to where they were going, too busy focused on the Draconequus-suited Fluttershy and her 'helpful' actions.

“Well...” Fluttershy began, thinking out loud. “I imagine you're very concerned with how you look.”

“Of course I am!” Rarity said. “Why wouldn't I be? That's one of the most important things to be concerned about!”

“Don't give her anything she can use,” Dash warned, a little indistinctly. “She'll twist it and stuff!”

“Oh, goodness, there's lots of animals who care about how clean they are,” Fluttershy said, half to herself. “But maybe it should also be a real show-off – that sounds more like it!”

She snapped her claws, and a wave of glitter came cascading off her padded paw and engulfed Rarity. The sparkling, multicoloured glitter concealed the lone unicorn among the group for several seconds, and then it faded – showing that Rarity had been put in a kind of bird suit with a little feather crest.

It took a moment longer for everypony (and everydragon) to see the tail, though – currently collapsed down, the suit clearly had a huge fan built into it which would show a peacock's famous tail feathers once opened out.

“Isn't that a male thing?” Twilight asked, remembering a book about it. “I thought peahens were quite... drab.”

“Oh, it's perfectly all right to take liberties with a costume,” Fluttershy said softly.

Rarity let out a shriek, looking at her over the top suit. “Gaaah! It’s so… flashy! I can’t wear this! It’s… it’s…” Rarity’s voice died as she tried to think of a word to describe her frilly, puffy, swollen suit.

“Absolutely marvelous, I know!” Fluttershy finished her sentence, though Rarity was clearly unsatisfied with the descriptor Fluttershy had chosen. “There’s even a little special feature with yours!” Fluttershy winked. She leaned forward, pressing a claw into Rarity’s diaper. Her suit squeezed in, and Rarity let out an involuntary squawk. Rarity’s face turned a bright red and she tried to cover her mouth, but her hooves, now stuffed into the wings of the suit, could barely reach up to her chin.

Despite the embarrassing nature of the situation, Applejack couldn’t help but chuckle at Rarity, only to regret it a moment later as Fluttershy turned her attention to the farm pony. “Oooh, now this is a tricky one… what to make a hard-working farmpony…” Fluttershy tapped her chin, thinking.

Applejack shook her head, struggling against her binds as the stroller exited the forest, starting to make its way back towards the tour starting point. “N-nothing! I don’t need anything at all!” She said.

“Nonsense! You’ll look wonderful as a tough ox!” She laughed, pointing a claw at Applejack. With a floomp, a suit ballooned over her, covering Applejack in a puffy ox form.

Applejack blushed, crinkling, but tried to brush it off. “Ain't nothin' ah can't deal with,” she said, looking off into the distance.

“That was so a lie,” Spike pointed out. “You're terrible at lying, but that was bad even for you.”

“Aw... shucks,” Applejack groaned.

“Oh!” Fluttershy realized. “I almost forgot about the dragon here!”

She examined him closely. “I think... oh, goodness! I didn't realize, but you're such a little baby dragon, aren't you!”

“I'm not a baby dragon!” Spike shot back, stung. “I'm... I'm just short for my age!”

“What was that about bad liars?” Twilight asked.

“Well, there's only one thing a baby dragon should be dressed as,” Fluttershy told him, then giggled and flicked her tail across.

Spike looked down at himself, to see how bad it was, and at first glance he blinked – it looked like he wasn't wearing anything, even a diaper, but he could feel the soft material pressing in on him from all directions.

Then he re-focused, and realized he was in a giant, puffy sleeper... of himself.

“The only thing that makes a baby dragon cuter is a babier dragon!” Fluttershy told him.

Spike’s voice drained as he stared down at himself, unaware of any good way to argue against Fluttershy’s decision, as silly as it was. Fluttershy finally focused in on Twilight. “Ah, the last pony. Well, you are quite the bookworm, but worms aren’t very cute, if I may say so.” She said, leaning back against the front edge of the stroller. “I suppose the only next logical step would be an owl! They are very wise, but looking at that diaper, you might just be an owlet!” Fluttershy giggled. Twilight was about to retort when Fluttershy snapped her fingers once more. Twilight found herself sitting in an overly fuzzy suit, her hooves stuffed into short, floppy wings as her lower half was stuck in a crinkly, puffy diaper-like egg.

“Mmmpphh, Fluttershy! This isn’t right! You’re not a draconeques! This is just a horrible dream!” Twilight cried out. The stroller slowly came to a stop as they ponies were brought back to the tour building, their straps finally coming loose. Fluttershy’s wings unfurled as she floated upwards, waving to them.

“Come back soon! You’ve all been a real treat!”

“Somepony, stop her!” Spike shouted, trying to jump up and grab at Fluttershy’s dangling tail.

“Fluttershy, wait!” Twilight called, but Spike's attempt to grab the departing pegasus(?) failed, and none of the others could manage either magic or flight to bring her back to earth.

“Well... darn,” Dash said eventually, as their friend flew off into the distance.

“Okay, okay,” Twilight said, thinking hard. “Dash? Watch where she goes, you're the best at that. Everypony else... and Spike... here's what I'm thinking.”

She banged her hoof against the floor, producing only a sort of squishy sound, and blushed. “Ergh... anyway. It's pretty clear to me that we're going to need to get Fluttershy. Even if this is the end of the dream – and I don't know about that – if we leave without her and come back in we might just have to do the whole thing all over again before we can get her.”

“But darling, we can hardly walk in these things!” Rarity complained, shuffling in her peacock sleeper. “And it's... hideously tacky! I can't be seen in this!”

“Technically we c'n already see y'all,” Applejack pointed out.

“Not helping!”

“Okay, I saw it,” Dash reported, turning a little too fast and nearly falling over in her own cat-plush-suit. “Oh, come on... anyway, she went into a cave. It's not too far from here, maybe a few minutes' walk.”

Everyone else gave Dash an exasperated look.

“How much is that in waddle?” Spike asked.

Dash blushed. “...oh.”

“Well, no matter how long it is, it’ll be longer if we don’t get started.” Applejack said, wobbling unsteadily in her own suit. She swung one leg high in the air as she tried to take a step, her padding causing her rear to shake embarrassingly left and right. Ignoring the giggles from Rainbow Dash, Applejack continued in the direction Dash had indicated.

The others followed after her, their own rumps swaying in rhythm with Applejack’s. All except for Pinkie, who was too busy bouncing along on her rump to waddle. She occasionally wiggled her rear, the cotton-ball on her diaper twitching as her ears flopped along with each bounce. Of all the ponies, Twilight likely had the widest waddle due to the embarrassingly thick egg portion of her suit covering her rear. It was even more difficult attempting to keep pace with her friends, as she was forced to waddle on only her hind legs.

Spike walked along behind her, occasionally pushing on Twilight’s rear to try and keep her upright whenever she felt like she was going to flop over.

“Goodness, why must Fluttershy enjoy such extravagant designs? I can barely move with this tail!” Rarity complained, her tail swishing left and right, framing her padded rear adorably.

“Not too far now, just a bit further,” Applejack said, her own suit’s tail dragging along the ground. Suddenly, Twilight was about to fall back, but Spike gave her a push forward. Unfortunately, that push was a bit too strong, and Twilight was sent tumbling forward. She bounced off her belly, rolling on top of Applejack’s tail. Applejack attempted to take another step, but immediately tripped as her tail was snagged, tugging her back down onto her own padded rear. And to top things off, Pinkie continued to bounce along, jumping up to pomf her way on top of Twilight and Applejack, still giggling away.

“Pinkie, that's not helping,” Twilight mumbled, as Spike helped her get back up onto her hooves. “How are Rarity and Dash doing?”

“...not well,” Spike replied, looking over to the other two ponies.

Dash kept forgetting her wings were encased in plush and trying to flare them for takeoff, resulting in a kind of awkward stumble which half the time ended up with her flopping down on her belly, and the rest of the time she was stepping on the suit's tail as it seemingly deliberately got tangled with her legs.

She was, however, doing better than Rarity – the fashion-obsessed pony torn between bemoaning the tacky design of her sleeper and trying to make sure the tail didn't drag on the ground and get dirty. With her tail carried in her mouth she could move, sort of, but every time her rump waved from one side to the other it carried a serious risk of her falling over and back down the slope.

“I suppose we should just hope that we can get out of here as soon as we reach Fluttershy,” Twilight suggested.

“No, silly, this needs something else!” Pinkie said. “Something obvious!”

She waited.

Twilight coughed.

“...it's not obvious?” she said, saddened. “Well! I'll make it obvious! It needs a marching song!”

She coughed into her rabbit-paw-padded hoof, then began trying out lyrics.

“The rump, hee hee, a giggle and who and hay-”

“Ah wonder if there's a campsite around here,” Applejack said. “At this rate we'll be needin' one...”

Twilight just shook her head, wobbling a little now she was back on her hooves. Rainbow Dash continued to stumble forward as Applejack stood back up, resuming her waddle. Rarity looked over to the others, her tail still gripped in her mouth. The act of turning, however, set her off balance, and she was sent tumbling backwards, her rump crashing into Spike and squishing him into the ground. “Oooh, dumb costume! Clearly whoever designed this didn’t have practicality in mind!” She said. Spike muffled his agreement, squeezing Rarity’s padded rear slightly.

Pinkie continued onwards, oblivious to her friend’s trouble as she continued to sing to herself.

“Waddles, and sways, we’ll puffily march all day…”

“Come on girls, we can’t be stuck here all night. Who knows what other animals are hiding around here.” Twilight said, beginning to waddle forward once more. It seemed that for every step they took, though, the cave was the same distance away. The ponies could only march onwards, hoping that they would reach the top before they all flopped to the ground from exhaustion.

“With crinkle rumps, and silliness puffy play..."

The sun was setting by the time they reached the cave.

Twilight wasn't sure whether that was because the sun was setting unusually quickly because it was a dream, or if they'd actually been walking for hours. Her legs ached, along with muscles she'd never used that much before, simply from the effort of trying to walk on her hind legs – and she was in better shape than Rarity, who had just refused to keep going after Pinkie had reached the fourteenth repetition of her marching song.

Spike looked exhausted too, though he had carried Rarity up the second half of the hill so that was probably why.

“I... hate... this... place...” Dash ground out, sitting back on her diapered rump and groaning. “Are we done yet?”

“I'm afraid we do need to keep going,” Twilight said. “It's going to be night time soon, and I think that means more animals come out.”

As if in answer, there was a high-pitched laugh from down on the savannah.

“What was that?” Spike asked, nervously, then stumbled. Rarity went tumbling to the floor, and his face landed squarely in the massive poof of her diaper.

“I'd like to know as well!” Rarity agreed, the sheer thickness of the padding meaning she didn't even notice.

“I think it was a hyena,” Twilight hazarded. “But either way, this means we have to get out of trouble. Into the cave, girls.”

All the girls tried their best to hurry forward, Rarity practically dragging Spike along as he clung to her poofy rump. They thankfully were able to reach the cave with relative ease, though everypony collapsed once they had reached the darkness of the interior. As they all rocked on their puffy rears, the crinkling echoed all around them. Something stirred from deeper within the cave, a yawn joining in the crinkles. “H-hello? Is somepony there?” Fluttershy’s voice came out.

“Fluttershy, it’s us! It’s your friends! We’re here to rescue you from this dream!” Twilight explained.

“Rescue me? But, I’m not in any trouble. At least, not now. The animals are so nice, keeping all the scary things away.” Fluttershy responded. Twilight wobbled on her rear, trying to spot Fluttershy in the darkness.

“It’s all a trick, it’s Nightmare Moon! We need you to help us stop her!” Rainbow Dash shouted into the cave.

“N-n-nightmare Moon? Oh d-d-dear…” Fluttershy responded. There was the sound of fluff unfurling, and the Fluttershy draconequess stepped out of the darkness, looking down at her friends. She let out a gasp upon seeing them all in their costumes. “Oh my! Why are you all wearing such silly outfits? Did Nightmare do this?” She asked, worried.

“You could say that…” Dash responded.

“Nevermind, Fluttershy, come on, we’re getting out of here!” Twilight said, her horn beginning to glow as she attempted to dissolve the dream once again.

“Hey, Twi, what's up?” Dash asked, after a few seconds. “Aren't we normally gone by now?”

“I don't know what's going on!” Twilight replied, horn intensifying. “It's like there's a lot more resistance!”

There was another peal of laughter, and some plush hyenas came loping into the cave.

“Help!” Rarity cried.

Fluttershy padded forwards, costume tail flicking behind her, and stared down the hyenas. “No! No scaring friends!”

There was a flicker through the whole cave, and then the dream finally collapsed.

“Finally...” Dash said, then looked herself over. The costume was gone, though her diaper was as thick as ever. “...well, it's something.”

“What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked. “Um... if you have a plan, that is.”

“We sure do!” Applejack agreed. “Twi, tell Fluttershy the plan.”

“Right!” Twilight agreed. “Well – we've got all of us together, so that's good. We need to find Nightmare Moon now, so try and concentrate on something about her – that'll get us closer to the dream she's in. Come on!”

She began to canter, and the others got into motion behind her.

“How come we don't feel tired?” Spike asked.

“Magic?” Dash suggested.

Twilight was about to launch into a lecture on the nature of magic, then stopped and decided to just go with the explanation Dash had given. “...yes. Magic.”

They passed between two dream bubbles, then the path they were on collapsed and dropped them into a big bubble made up of lots of smaller ones.

The bubbles wobbled as they all descended into them, the world shifting and swirling around as they suddenly found themselves all sitting at desks in a schoolhouse. “Hey, Twilight, you didn’t accidentally take us back to your dream, did you?” Pinkie giggled, pushing Twilight playfully.

“I don’t think so… this doesn’t feel like my dream.” Twilight looked around, trying to spot anything. All around them sat a collection of fillies and colts, each talking amongst each other. Three familiar voices suddenly cropped up from the back of the room, causing the group to turn about.

“Applejack?”

“Rarity?”

“Dash?”

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were sitting in the back of the room, all looking curiously as the grown ponies sitting ahead of them. “What the hay are you doing here, sis?” Applebloom asked, tilting her head in confusion. Despite their bewilderment, none of them seemed to have noticed the thick padding wrapped around each pony’s rear, and were merely confused at their presence in their class.

“They probably needed remedial classes.” Another voice snarked. Diamond Tiara was smirking over at the CMC, Silver Spoon doing the same.

“My sister’s not dumb! You’ll see, I bet she-“ Sweetie Belle was cut off, Cheerilee speaking up at the front of the room.

“Settle down now class, we have a lot to cover today and I want to be sure we get through it all.”

“Um... there must be some mistake?” Twilight said, raising a hoof hesitantly.

“Miss Sparkle, please do not talk until you are called upon,” Cheerilee chastised.

“Oh,” Twilight winced, blushing. “Sorry...”

“Sorry?” Dash repeated. “Sorry? What are you sorry for?”

She stood up from her desk, pushing it back with a hoof. “You're treating us like schoolfillies!”

Spike coughed.

“And a schooldrake,” Dash amended.

“Miss Dash, do not talk back to me,” Cheerilee said sternly. “You already heard me tell Twilight off, so you had your warning – now, go and sit in the corner for a time-out.”

Dash looked ready to argue again, until a set of booties and a pacifier flew off Cheerilee's desk. The pegasus had just enough time to see a moon cutie mark on them all before the pacifier jammed itself into her mouth and the booties fitted themselves onto her hooves.

With the booties in control of her movements, Dash found herself marched over to a three-legged stool in the corner and sat on it, her complaints muffled by the pacifier.

“I hope there won't be any further interruptions,” Cheerilee said, as Tiara and Silver giggled and pointed at Dash.

“But-” Spike began, then subsided and spoke in a whisper. “How come she's not telling them off for bullying?”

“I think this is another of those dreams with rules,” Twilight whispered back. “And that means we're getting schooled...”

“That better not be whispering I’m hearing!” Cheerilee said, writing something down on the chalkboard. Twilight scrunched her muzzle, hoping she wasn’t about to receive the same punishment. Thankfully, Cheerilee seemed to continue with her lesson, drawing out a few graphs on the board. “Now, today we’ll be talking about supply and demand. It’s fairly easy, really, the amount of something that is provided naturally falls to how much is wanted of something in the economy. For example, let’s say… diapers!

Rarity bit her lip, hoping what was coming was not what she was anticipating. Scootaloo glanced over to Rainbow Dash, her face a bright red as she watched her idol fiddle with the foalish booties.

“Now, if I can have somepony help demonstrate…”

“Oooh, me me meeeee!” Pinkie bounced up and down in her seat, waving her hoof around wildly.

“How about you, Applebloom?” Cheerilee said. Pinkie’s ears flopped down as she leaned onto her desk, Applebloom walking up to the front of the class nervously.

“Now, Applebloom, how much demand might you put on diapers?”

“Uh… 5, I guess? I don’t know how many foals need in a day…”

“Five it is!” Cheerilee said cheerfully. Five diaper suddenly puffed around Applebloom’s rear, spreading her legs, causing the filly to blush.

“Now, suppose five diapers is here… and the equilibrium is here. How many more diapers would Applebloom demand?”

“Eight!” Silver Spoon shouted out. Eight more diapers were now around the filly’s rump, causing her to flop onto her rear as her face burned brightly. Applejack buried her face in her hooves, trying not to look at her embarrassed sister.

“Very good! Now, you can see that with these curves, 13 diapers is the natural equilibrium. But, thankfully, diaper puff is rather inelastic, meaning…” Cheerilee tilted one the lines until it was perfectly vertical. “Any number of diapers will do! It could be 13, 20, or 50!”

“I don't like where this is going,” Applebloom said softly.

“But, of course,” Cheerilee went on, “when there's more supply than demand, the situation is called a glut. A glut can result in falling prices, and when it does smart ponies stockpile so they have enough for when the supply falls below the demand!”

More diapers appeared around Applebloom's rump, making her wobble even compared to how she'd been before, and then Applejack jumped as a neatly-wrapped pack of fifty diapers thumped to the floor beside her seat.

“On the other hoof, when there is more demand than supply, the result is a raise in prices and a shortage situation.”

Cheerilee did not bother to use an example for this one, to the annoyance of many of her 'students' – especially Applebloom, who had to rock back and forth to get back into a position to be able to see the board.

“So that's our first topic,” Cheerilee summarized. “Now, let's move on to something else – history!”

Twilight blinked. What kind of lesson went straight from economics to history?

“As we all remember from last time, a thousand years ago there was a war between Sunbutt and Queen Moon. Sunbutt thought that ponies should be forbidden from wearing diapers, and she used an evil trick to lock Queen Moon away and try to stamp out diaper wearing for good,” Cheerilee explained.

Pinkie let out several giggle-snorts, wiggling in her seat. “Boy, Cheery, you sure have a silly idea of what history is! But I bet this version’s much more exciting!” Pinkie leaned forward, watching with rapt attention. Cheerilee gave a look to Pinkie, giving a bit of a smile.

“Well, Pinkie, surely you know about the great fluff wars and what trick Celestia used, don’t you?” She said.

Pinkie paused for a moment, tapping her chin and thinking. “Weeeeeeell… I heard that meanie-pants Sunbutt-“

“Pinkie, don’t talk about Celestia like that!” Twilight hissed. Pinkie continued.

“Knew how much Queen Nightmare loved her diapers and knew how much ponies loved their diapers! So she gave Nightmare a special diaper, as a gift, but Nightmare didn’t know that this was a mean gift! When Nightmare put it on, it started to grow and grow and grow! And Nightmare loved it, her diapers just kept growing! But then, gasp, they didn’t stop! It just kept growing!” As Pinkie spun her tail, she didn’t notice as her own padding began to grow, slowly at first, swelling up and pressing into the back of her seat.

“They grew sooooooo big, that Queen Nightmare started to float and sink into them! And before you knew it, Sunbutt had trapped Nightmare in her own diaper that looked just like the moon! And meanie Sunbutt bounced Nightmare up into the sky! Trapped in her own fluffy diaper, for everypony to see!” Pinkie’s own padding seemed to be rising higher into the air, lifting her rump up, tail twirling in the air. Diamond snickered as she watched Pinkie’s rump float up, her diaper swallowing up her flanks.

“And poor Nightmare was stuck there for 1000 years! Diapers, a thing of the past!”

“What about foals?” Fluttershy interjected.

“A thing of the past!” Pinkie continued, letting go of her desk to flip upside down, looking at Fluttershy.

“Very good, Pinkie! That was a marvelous review!” Cheerilee congratulated Pinkie, who just smiled, sitting on the ceiling.

“Pinkie...” Twilight groaned.

“Miss Sparkle, did you have something to share with the class?” Cheerilee asked.

Twilight shook her head, blushing. “No, Miss!”

Silver Spoon giggled, and parroted Twilight's 'no, miss' – something Cheerilee completely ignored.

“Now, we're going to move on to civics,” the teacher announced. “Perhaps Rarity can shed some light on the subject of the nobility?”

“Very well,” Rarity agreed, glad to have a topic she knew all about. “Of the three tribes, the Unicorns are the ones who have a conventional nobility – one with hereditary titles and lands – which is derived from their pre-unification way of life. The Pegasi prefer to give accolades to those who win their worth personally, through great achievements, and the Earth Ponies honour those... who...”

She trailed off, as Cheerilee shook her head in disappointment.

“Dear me,” the earth pony said, sighing. “It's no good trying to bluff your way through without having done the work. The very first thing you should have mentioned is that noble rank is denoted by the quality of the diaper cover!”

“What!?” Rarity asked, her expression becoming distinctly hunted. “But – what – this isn't-”

“Let's have a look at a few of the more common ranks,” Cheerilee added. “Come out here, please, Rarity.”

Rarity begrudgingly obliged, waddling up to the front of the class room. Sweetie Belle tried to avoid her gaze by taking sudden interested in a series of scratches on her desk that vaguely resembled Cheese Sandwich. Rarity stood at the front, facing the class, only for Cheerilee to instruct her to turn about. “Now, the lowest ranks, peasants, would be unlikely to have diaper covers, or would have very simple ones of a single dull color.” A cover popped into existence on Rarity’s padding, squeezing her diaper tighter on her rump. “They were often also fairly small, which unfortunately hid the thickness of their diapers as well. Now, the next rank would include local figures of authority. Stripes, polka-dots, and other simple designs were common.” Rarity’s diaper cover relaxed a little, letting her diaper bulge outwards (a bit larger than they were when Rarity had waddled to the front), shifting to match the descriptions of Cheerilee. “Plaid was a common pattern among Scotsmares as well.”

Sweetie Belle dared a glance up, seeing her sister in a brightly colored plaid cover, and immediately looked away again, blushing brightly as Silver Spoon and Diamond snickered.

“Nobility that were loyal to Queen Nightmare often had stars and moons patterned on their covers, and these often added a little extra bounce to pony’s rumps as well. Now, can anypony tell me what the nobility under Sunbutt might have worn? Sweetie Belle?”

Sweetie's face scrunched up as she thought, trying to remember – or guess. “Uh... I... wait, didn't she want to get rid of diapers completely? So none!”

Cheerilee sighed, shaking her head.

“Sweetie Belle, that's exactly the mistake I would have expected from a naughty filly who didn't do all the research she should have.”

Sweetie flushed, fidgeting a little in her seat.

“While it is true that Sunbutt herself wanted to eliminate diapers entirely, she could not do so openly because diapers had such strong support,” Cheerilee lectured. “Instead, especially before she rebelled against her sister, Sunbutt tended to try and make wearing diapers so inconvenient that it would trick ponies into not wanting to wear them.”

Rarity looked nervous. “Um-”

“For example,” Cheerilee went on, as if Rarity hadn't tried to speak up. “The lower ranks would have diaper covers made of stiff, translucent plastic, which rustled constantly and made it harder to hold conversations or sit down politely.”

The fashion pony frowned for a moment, then twisted to look at the diaper cover – and gasped at the terribly tacky low-qualify of the translucent pink plastic.

“Nooooo!” she wailed, sinking to her rump – and producing a storm of crinkle sounds as she did so. “The horror!”

“For the upper ranks, meanwhile,” Cheerilee went on, “Sunbutt ordered that her most high-ranking subordinates should wear diaper covers marked with her sun cutie mark – but so thick that they would often be even thicker than the diaper! This resulted in the Sunbutt nobility lazing around all day as it was too much effort to move.”

With another pop, the cheap plastic diaper cover was replaced by a plush one several inches thick.

Rarity let out a squeak of surprise as her rump was lifted into the air, the diaper cover spreading her legs even further. “And, of course, everypony in the nobility’s family had to wear them, otherwise nopony would know they were noble!” Cheerilee added. Sweetie Belle whimpered as she felt her own diaper lift up off her seat, her tail wrapped up in the fluff of a puffy sun-printed diaper cover. Sweetie’s face turned a brighter red as she watched Rarity attempt to waddle back towards her own seat, her rump swaying and bumping into Rainbow Dash, who toppled off her stool.

“Well, I suppose that will do for today, we’ll cover pegasi pacifiers tomorrow. We ought to move back to economics. Twilight, would you happen to know the most popular brand of diapers currently? The thickest ones out there?”

Twilight tried to ignore just how much they had jumped around, focusing on the question. “The thickest diapers… oh! Those are Super Clouds!” She responded.

“Very good, Twilight! I suppose you’re familiar with their new advertising technique, then?” Cheerilee asked, grinning widely. Twilight’s ears flopped down, looking ashamed.

“Oh, no, I just know the thickness of them…”

“In that case, let's have a look,” Cheerilee decided, trotting over to the windows and pulling a cord.

The blinds shut with a click, throwing the room into darkness, and a few seconds later a projector whirred into life.

“The Super Clouds advertising campaign which began a few months ago is what's called a multi-media campaign,” Cheerilee told the room, as the projector showed a still image of a packet of Super Clouds. “In addition to some new packaging which emphasized their brand-unique thickness, and some advertising posters and newspaper ads, the Super Clouds ran a number of TV spots which were intended to expand their audience.”

Twilight decided that was a fairly good description of a multimedia campaign, actually. Did that mean they'd gone back to business studies?

“Let's see the first,” Cheerilee went on, and the projector flickered once before showing the first ad.

It was... odd.

It started off by showing ponies wearing the diapers, and then showed them without the diapers and looking miserable. There was a peppy soundtrack, and then Twilight shook her head and realized she'd zoned out a little.

“Now, Twilight, what were the most important features of that ad?” Cheerilee asked.

Twilight blushed, looking down. “Um... I... actually didn't see most of it. I wasn't concentrating.”

There were plenty of giggles from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon at that admittance.

“Then let's watch it again,” Cheerilee said. “If you can't get it after this, we'll move on to the second.”

The projector whirred once more as the ad started again. Twilight tried to focus in more, watching as the ponies were waddling about happily in their thick diapers. The tune played, Twilight rocking her head a little along with it. The ponies were shown once more without their diapers, looking unhappy, but Twilight was unable to pick up on anything else in the ad. She was sure there had been more to it, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember a thing. “Well, Twilight?” Cherilee asked.

“Uh… um… they, seemed to, uh, be playing on the model of expectations? That when somepony wears their diapers, they’re happy?” She suggested.

“That is an aspect of the commercial, but I don’t think I would say it’s the most important one. Here, maybe the second one will help.” Cherilee fiddled with the projector for a moment before another ad began. This one had a similar bouncy tune, showing ponies frolicking around in their diapers. There was a cartoony bwoomp sound effect as one of the pony’s diapers grew to twice its size, which only seemed to make the pony happier as the others all watched with awe. As it played, however, Twilight found her mind becoming foggy, only picking up more of the silly sound-effect and happy tune, with the only other thing she remembered about the ad being the vague idea of ‘thick’.

“I… um, I… I’m not sure…” Twilight responded, Cheerilee smiling sweetly.

“Once more, then!” She started the projector up, playing the ad again. Then a third time, for good measure.

Twilight felt oddly detached, as Cheerilee moved on to the third advert.

Some part of her felt like she should be frustrated, annoyed at her inability to concentrate on the adverts and answer what should have been simple questions – but the rest of her didn't feel frustrated at all, too busy enjoying what were some very fun advertisements to watch.

This one was so detached from the topic of diapers at first that Twilight couldn't see where they were going. It was a group of ponies on the beach, complaining and moaning and looking very sad as the tide came in around them.

The music was nice, though, just as nice as it was for the other ads. Twilight spaced out a bit, and then the tail end of the ad was happy diapered ponies playing in the sand.

She shifted in her seat a bit, not sure what that was about.

“Twilight?” Cheerilee asked. “What was most important about that ad?”

Twilight frowned a little, unable to really concentrate about it. “Um... um... something about how diapers are good?”

She pouted, thinking there had to be something wrong with that.

“That's a good lesson to take away from it,” Cheerilee said, surprising Twilight a little with the praise. “Let's watch it again.”

The music came, the ad played, and Twilight felt oddly uncomfortable – but she wasn't sure about what.

“Now, let's have a look at the fourth main ad,” Cheerilee told them. “Then we'll move on to the second kind of ad, which was testimonials.”

This ad was even harder for Twilight to remember than all the previous ones. The only things that came to mind when she tried to recall the collection of pictures and sounds was this feeling of warm fuzziness and soft, padded rears. She didn’t even pay much attention to Cheerilee’s question, simply mentioning the ad made her feel all snug and cozy inside. Cheerilee seemed pleased with the answer, however, so she moved on to the next ad design. After showing the previous ads in one go, at Twilight’s request, that is.

“Testimonials are when they have somepony try out their diapers and see how they like them. Of course, practically everypony loved Super Clouds, so it was easy to find ponies happy to share their thoughts.” The projector clicked to the next slide (it had always been a slide projector, hadn’t it?), and revealed a picture of a pony wearing thick diapers, a block of text beside her.

“Super Clouds have got to be the best diapers I’ve ever worn! They’re the comfiest, the fluffiest, and they give me just the cutest waddle! I’d recommend them to everypony!” – Crinkly Pie

“Ah suppose I can see why these got so popular…” Applejack muttered, seeing just how much the pony in the ad had enjoyed her fluffy diapers. Fluttershy nodded in agreement, while Twilight continued to daydream about Super Clouds.

The next pony in the ad was a blue-coated pegasus, posing with her thick diapers out to one side.

“When I'm on the go, I don't have time to stop and go. So I wear the diapers which can let me go all day! There's no other diapers as good for a pony like me, and you can bet on that!” - Rainbow Splash

Twilight yawned, wondering why some of these seemed so familiar.

There was a faint sigh from behind her, and Twilight thought for a moment and realized Rainbow Splash must have wet herself. That was okay, at least she had Super Clouds to keep her dry, just like Crinkly Pie did.

Something sounded a bit wrong about that, but Twilight thought about it again – the soft tunes from the ad now filling the air of the classroom – and decided it was perfectly fine. After all, Rainbow Splash and Crinkly Pie were her friends, and ponies went to school with their friends.

Rarity raised a hoof to her head, trying to ward off a headache which was nagging at her.

It seemed to be from watching the adverts – which were fine adverts, and she was sure that the product they were selling was both understated and enjoyable, and she couldn't wait to try one on for herself!

She shifted a little in her seat, hearing the crinkle, and smiled a little.

What had she been thinking about?

Oh, that was right – the diapers her friends Crinkly Pie and Rainbow Splash were enjoying.

Something seemed odd about the name Crinkly Pie, as if Crinkly Pie should be called something else... shouldn't Crinkly Pie be Crinkly Pie?

Rarity shook her head, then saw the slide change again.

The words caught her eye first.

“If there's anything that a good diaper should be, it's perfect in form, function and fashion,” the text said. “And Super Clouds are ideal in all three areas! There's not a single fault, aesthetically speaking, with Super Clouds.” - Raritinkle.

Suddenly, she felt the need to use her diaper – urgently. The need pushed in on her, swelling up inside until she felt like she was about to burst, and she had a sudden realization.

She needed to hold on! She was Rarity, she was – she-

-she wet herself, sighing, and felt the Super Clouds soak up all the moisture.

Raritinkle wiggled a little in her seat, already forgetting what she'd been concerned about.

Behind Raritinkle sat Fluttershy, who was too busy trying to avoid the occasional glance from other ponies to notice the squishy rump that sat in front of her. She hadn’t been in a classroom in so long, and she had forgotten just how nervous they made her! Oooh, what if all the ponies started laughing at her? What if she got called on and didn’t know the answer? What if-

“Fluttershy, you might find this next one rather enjoyable.” Cherilee said, flipping over to another slide. Fluttershy looked up at the screen, shaking a bit as she hoped she wasn’t going to be asked any questions in front of the class like Twilight had been…

The slide showed a Pegasus not very dissimilar to Fluttershy, curled up under some blankets with her head peeking out. A storm was seen through her window, and a large bulge under the blanket gave away the thick diaper wrapped around the pony’s rump. “Oh, w-well, Super Clouds are so comfy and warm, they feel like a cloud around me! Which, I guess makes sense… But they’re very soft and fluffy, they make me feel safe and cozy whenever I’m worried about something!” – Floodershy

The Pegasus felt a little relaxed at the sight of the ad. She could certainly sympathize with the pony in the picture, there had been nights when she was too worried she could hardly keep her head out from under her pillow! And all those scary storms as a filly had probably not helped her bedwetting problem… Floodershy squeezed her legs, feeling the thick pampers between them. But with her diapers, she wouldn’t have needed to worry about that, or worry about anything! She could just enjoy the soft fluffiness as they grew warm and squishy…

Floodershy’s diaper grew soggy, bloating up slightly as Floodershy wet it, soaked and slightly sloshy.

Stuck in his seat like the rest of them, Spike's eyes wandered a little.

He felt really thirsty for some reason, like he'd been walking through a desert all day without so much as a sip of water. And the adverts were neat and all, but it was kind of hard to concentrate on them when he was feeling so thirsty...

The padded young dragon blinked, as he spotted a bottle of milk on his desk.

Had that been there before...?

Spike thought about it, a little suspicious, then shrugged and took a drink.

It was wonderful, and he drank the whole bottle down in a long series of gulps – not caring about how it would look to the ponies in the rest of the room.

As he lay back, thirst slaked, he saw another of the testimonials go up on the projector.

This one showed a hard-working Earth Pony with a cute bonnet next to her, wiping sweat from her forehead, and sitting on some slightly saggy diapers.

It looked kind of like Applejack, to him.

“When I'm out in the fields, I don't have time to go all the way back to the barn for every time I need to use the little filly's room,” the testimonial explained. “And only Super Clouds can hold all I need them to for a long work day.” - Soggyjack

Spike chuckled.

“Didn't know Soggyjack did a testimonial like that,” he said to himself.

Soggyjack couldn’t think of why she found the picture so appealing. Maybe it was the usefulness of not needing to waddle back to the barn all day long. And the comfiness of each squishy diaper wasn’t exactly something she’d decline either. She rocked left and right in her padding, enjoying the puffy crinkling and squishing from her padding. Her hind hooves rested on the large pack of diapers she had received earlier, her mind filling with thoughts of wrapping them around her waist and waddling about through her fields.

Spike watched as another slide clicked by, now showing a purple unicorn who was reading several books in bed. Twilight perked up when she saw the slide, her mind growing slightly less hazy and allowing her to focus in.

“Super Clouds are the absolute finest there is! I’ve run the numbers, and their thickness, cuteness, absorbency, they surpass every single diaper out there! The only thing better than one would be two, or three! They’re a huge hits with all my friends, and I love them too!” – Twilight Crinkle

Twilight Crinkle nodded. She had to agree, everything about her diapers were just so wonderful! They were so soft and comfy, everypony seemed to love them, Soggyjack, Raritinkle, Rainbow Splash, Crinkly Pie, and Floodershy all loved their diapers, so why shouldn’t she?

A part of her mind wondered why those names sounded so silly. But she figured it must be because she and her friends were silly! Anypony who loved such thick diapers would have to be.