Twilight's Dream Voyage

The slide projector turned off, and Cheerilee tapped her hoof on the ground.

“Now, class,” she said, though about half the class was still deeply entranced by the ad campaign they'd seen. “We'll move on to the subject of nature studies!”

She drew a map on the chalkboard, hoof moving easily to shape out a diagram – a river, a swamp, some grassland, some trees and a mountainside.

“Who can tell me what animals you'd find in which places?” she asked, tapping them one at a time. “Anypony?”

Twilight Crinkle stuck up her hoof, and Cheerilee gave her a smile.

“That's very eager of you, but you've already answered a question – remember? Don't be a smarty-diapers, let the others join in!”

Twilight subsided a bit at the reminder, blushing, as Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara giggled.

Cheerilee looked out over the rest of the class, then made her choice. “Floodershy!”

“Um... yes?” the pegasus asked, shifting and making her diaper produce an audible squish-squish sound. “What, um, is it?”

“Just a quick nature quiz,” Cheerilee explained, and produced a collection of soft toys – Floodershy could see a frog, a leopard and a robin, and there were several more in the pile. “I'm going to hold up an animal, and you say where it's from!”

Floodershy felt a little nervous, and reached for the pacifier on her desk – then realized that wouldn't help her answer the question, and put it down again.

Cheerilee held up a robin.

“Um – sorry, but – have we started?” Floodershy asked.

Cheerilee nodded, and Floodershy noticed the soft-toy was getting slowly larger.

“Forest,” she answered quickly, and the robin toy went down again. It was replaced by a wolf toy, which picked up where the previous one had left off in terms of size.

“Forest again?”

The wolf toy was changed for a frog.

River, swamp, grassland, tree, mountain...

“Swamp?” Floodershy responded. Cherilee nodded, placing the frog down and lifting up a goat.

“A mountain.” Floodershy was slowly gaining more confidence. Cherilee set down the goat, now hefting up an alligator plush as large as her leg. “Um… well, an alligator could be found in both a river and a swamp… um…” Floodershy wriggled nervously, glancing between the plush and the pictures drawn on the board. “A… swamp?”

“I’m sorry, but crocodiles are more commonly found in rivers.” Cherilee said. She placed this plush down aside from the others, not noticing how it had puffed up a bit more.

“But, that’s an alligator, it’s teeth-“

“What about a bugbear?” Cherilee lifted up another plush.

“A b-bugbear? They’re from Tartarus, they don’t live in any of those places!”

“Don’t be silly Floodershy, these animals all have to come from somewhere!” Cherilee sing-songed, place the plush aside too. “How about an Ursa Major? Where do they live?”

Floodershy gulped, sinking into her chair as she looked between the choices she was given. None of them seemed right, but Cheerilee said they were? Was she wrong? She was never wrong about animals. She whined, fidgeting in her padding. “F-f-forest?”

“Correct,” Cheerilee told her, and the pegasus relaxed with a sigh – only to look up again as Cheerilee brought out the next one.

“Cerberus?” Floodershy said, astonished. “But... he lives just outside Tartarus, I helped take him back there...”

“I'm not hearing an answer,” Cheerilee said, in an encouraging tone. As if Floodershy should know, and the teacher was just trying to coax it out of her.

“...mountains!” Floodershy guessed, and the Cerberus plush puffed up so it was almost the same size as she was.

“I'm sorry, Floodershy,” Cheerilee told her. “Cerberus is most commonly seen on the plains.”

She put the plush down and picked up another one – this one actually larger than she was, a great big Manticore plush which nearly hid the teacher entirely.

“Is... is this the last one?” Floodershy asked, tentatively.

“That's right,” Cheerilee confirmed. “Come on, Floodershy, can you tell us where this critter is from?”

“...I... I think...” Floodershy began, suddenly drawing a blank.

She'd met a Manticore in the Everfree, hadn't she? But...

...but had she, or was that just a silly fantasy? She remembered fighting Queen Moon afterwards, so that couldn't be real!

Deciding that was only sensible, Floodershy looked at the Manticore plush as it slowly got larger and larger.

It was a flying creature, so it needed space to fly, and it had very bad camouflage for a grassland... that fur would be a mess if it got wet, so-

“Mountains!” she blurted out.

“No, silly,” Cheerilee told her, shaking her head and putting the plush down. “That's a very bad score on today's test. I think you need to study up on Manticores especially.”

Floodershy wasn't quite sure about the next few seconds, but then she was dressed in the Manticore plush like it was a suit – a suit which had a diaper around the outside to go with the diaper she was wearing inside, and which had her head sticking out of the open jaws of the monster.

Floodershy blushed and squeaked as she looked down at her suit, her oversized plush paws covering her mouth as she did. Her blush only grew brighter as Diamond and Silver laughed at her, poking her plush suit’s diaper. Floodershy covered her face, sinking further into her chair as she tried to ignore the fillies’ laughter.

“I hope you were all taking notes, there will be a quiz on this tomorrow! And I hope Floodershy’s studies up too, or we might be getting a class pet soon.” Cheerilee grinned, winking at the suited up pony. “As for our next lesson…” Cherilee began to draw on the suddenly blank board, drawing out several barrels and fruit. “Is a bit of chemistry! We’re going to learn how to make juice and cider.”

She turned back to her class. “Soggyjack, I believe you’ve made some cider before? Do you know what’s the most important step?”

Soggyjack looked a little confused, reading the oversimplified flowchart on the chalkboard. “Uh… getting’ the right fruit, I s’pose. Get the wrong fruit and everything’s ruined.”

“Nonsense! The most important part is the sugar! And the fizz!” Cheerilee explained. “After all, the more fizz there is, the bubblier you feel, and the bubblier you feel, the better it must be, right? Scootaloo, why don’t you and Soggyjack help me demonstrate?”

“Demonstrate, miss?” Scootaloo asked, puzzled. “I... don't understand.”

“An' nor do I,” Soggyjack agreed, shifting her weight a little.

“Well, it's quite simple,” Cheerilee told them both. “Come on up to the front, both of you.”

Scootaloo got to her hooves, and trotted up to the front of the class – her large diaper swaying from side to side, but relatively manageable. Soggyjack, meanwhile, had to waddle with her legs a little bowed from the sheer size of her damp diaper, and blushed with every squishy sound it made – accompanied by laughter from the two bullies to the side of the room.

“Good work,” Cheerilee praised Soggyjack as she arrived, as if just being able to get to the front of the room was a major achievement for her. “Now, here's your samples.”

She put ten sippy-cups on the front desk, in two rows of five.

“Two of these are just ordinary apple-juice,” she said. “Tasty, but not fizzy at all! And there's also two super-fizzy special Flim-Flam brand cider – and the rest of them are in-between. So, you're each going to note down how fizzy each cup feels to you on your side of the board, and then I'll reveal which was which so we can see if you agree.”

The two ponies stood opposite each other, each taking a cup. Soggyjack tentatively put the cup to her lips, taking a small sip. The juice flowed into her mouth, her eyes widening at the sweet flavor. She took a few more sips as Scootaloo took a sip from her own bottle. The filly let out a contented sigh, grinning as she took a few more sips, Soggyjack doing the same. Both ponies drank for a little while until they found the cups to be empty. “Well, what do you think?” Cheerilee asked.

Scootaloo popped the cup from her mouth, licking her lips. “Ooooh, that was so sweet! But there wasn’t any fizz!” She complained. Soggyjack nodded in agreement, looking mildly disappointed. Cherilee marked down the ponies’ responses before motioning to them to take another cup. They complied, drinking up a bit more. This next drink was just as sweet and tangy, but there was a bit more bubbliness to it. Soggyjack suckled happily on the bottle, feeling as the bubbliness landed in her stomach, making her feel warm and tingly inside. Scootaloo was drinking her own bottle, looking even more excited as she drank happily.

The bottles, despite being the same size as the first ones, seemed to have more cider in them, but even with the extra drink it wasn’t long before the two ponies were dropping the bottles, their bellies warm and fizzy. “That’s some of the best cider I’ve ever had!” Soggyjack said, smacking her lips as she eyed the remaining bottles.

“I’m guessing you haven’t found the fizziest yet, though! Come now, that’s a real treat!” Cheerilee said. Soggyjack picked up another bottle, sipping from it. This one was, as the other had been, even fizzier, and she only grinned wider as she started to drink from it. Her belly grew tinglier and fizzier, seeming to stretch out ever so slightly.

Sootaloo, on the other hoof, let out an excited giggle as she found her drink extremely fizzy and sweet. She couldn’t control her giggling as she enjoyed the drink, flopping onto her padded rump before rolling onto her back. She began to guzzle greedily from the cup, her belly starting to swweeell outwards as she drank and drank and drank.

“And it looks like Scootaloo's found the Super Fizzy Special,” Cheerilee said, patting the pegasus on the head. “How are you doing, Soggyjack?”

“Well,” Soggyjack began, then belched. “Sorry, miss...”

“Aw, looks like somepony might need a nap in a bit,” Cheerilee cooed. “But I don't think you've found the Super Fizzy Special yet!”

Soggyjack put down the bottle she'd been drinking, wanting to keep slurping up the apple drink but also driven by the promise of an even better one.

She tried the fourth bottle, which was sweeter than the one she'd just been drinking – but not enough, so after a moment Soggyjack lowered that bottle and picked up the final one.

One suckle, and she knew she was right.

The taste was exquisite, the fizz heavenly – the perfect cider drink, just like the best she'd ever made but then even fizzier! She sat down on her squishy diaper and threw her head back, trying to drink as much as possible as fast as possible, and her eyes glazed over from the sheer pleasure of it – not noticing as she swelled up, or as her diaper got bigger, or the bottle never emptied even an inch.

As she drank, the dragon at the back of the room scratched his head.

He was sure something wasn't right about this... but at the same time, he couldn't put his claw on what the problem was.

Maybe he was just imagining it. After all, AJ certainly did love her... cider....

AJ?

He frowned, fighting off a sudden headache.

What did the A stand for?

He thought for a moment, scratching his head as he watched AJ rock on her squishy diaper, the waistband stretching over her swelling belly. He glanced over to watch as Crinkly Pie sat on the ceiling in her inflated diaper…

Crinkly Pie? That didn’t seem right. Sure, she was crinkly, but Pinkie was pink! Wait…

As Spike looked around the room at his padded classmates, his headache grew stronger. This wasn’t right. Something was wrong. But… what?

Suddenly something clicked in his mind as he spotted Raritink- no, no, Rarity wiggling in her padded rump, watching her diaper swell as she wet it once again.

“Rarity! This isn’t right! It’s a dream! She’s trying to trick us!” Spike jumped out of his seat, going over to tug on Rarity’s hoof. She shook her head, drawn out of her stupor by Spike’s shouts.

“Spike’s, what going on? Why are we-“ Rarity’s expression changed as she suddenly realized what was going on. “Oh my goodness! We’ve got to get out of here!” Rarity looked up to see Dash struggling on her chair with her booties, rocking around in her wet diaper. Spike meanwhile was jumping up in the air to try and grab onto Pinkie’s mane and tug her back down to earth.

“Pinkie! Twilight! Snap out of it!”

“Spike!” Cheerilee admonished him sharply. “Do not disrupt my classroom!”

“He's gonna get in trou~ble...” Diamond Tiara sing-songed.

Spike looked over from trying to grab Pinkie, and saw some more of the moon-marked mittens and booties flying towards them. One got his left hand, and he hid his right under his armpit to keep it safe – realizing the whole situation was absurd but not sure of a better approach.

“Twilight!” he called. “Get us out of here!”

“But it's not home time!” Twilight replied, still sounding lost in the dream's logic. “I'll be truant! And then I'll have to go to Magic Kindergarten!”

“This doesn't look much different from a kindergarten now!” Spike countered.

Thinking fast, he spotted Fluttershy, and dove over to her – getting a bootie on his foot as well. “Fluttershy, can you get me over there?”

“Who's Fluttershy?” asked the entranced pegasus.

“Floodershy, then!” Spike groaned. “Just... I don't know, use your tail or something?”

Fluttershy's costume-tail twitched, then scooped Spike up and threw him at the wall. He hit it just next to the door, wobbled a bit, then pulled the fire alarm.

The sound of a bell ringing got to Twilight where Spike's words hadn't, as she heard something which sounded like school being out for the day and broke the spell.

Twilight had only a moment to take in the situation – complete pandemonium, with Cheerilee sending enchanted booties in all directions to try and regain control of the class – and activated her dream-walking spell.

This time, it worked.

They fell out of the dream, landing on a pathway made of solid imagination.

“That was dreadful!” Rarity groaned. “My name!”

“Yeah!” Dash agreed, eyes coming back into focus. “That was totally NOT cool!”

“We should probably come up with a plan in case we run into that kind of situation again,” Twilight suggested.

“Or, we could avoid the problem, by never going back there again,” Dash countered. “Anyone against? Right, it's agreed.”

“Um...” Fluttershy said. “You didn't let anypony speak...”

“Anyway!” Dash went on. “The sooner we're done with this the sooner we're DONE with this! Let's go!”

She began cantering along the path, and the others followed her – then they all slowed to a trot, as the waddle their diapers imposed made a canter impossible.

“Remember, we need to focus on finding Nightmare Moon,” Twilight said. “We need to move in close enough to her in the dream world that we can get at her!”

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, a dream slammed down on them from overhead and sent them all into it.

They landed in a bush with a loud craaash, sprawling over one another.

“Ow,” Dash complained.

“An' whose hoof is in mah ear, RD?” Applejack demanded.

“Watch out, we need to know where we are,” Twilight cautioned. “Anypony got an idea?”

She looked around. “...wait, where's Spike?”

Spike made a soft squeaking noise from underneath Rarity's diaper.

Before they could react, however, there was a shout. “They went this way!”

The group struggled to right themselves, the bush rustling along with the plastic of their diapers as they shuffled around. “I think I hear them!” Another voice shouted, their hooves thudding along the ground as they hurried towards the sound of the group. Pinkie Pie, momentarily forgetting what had just happened in their last dream (or perhaps, not caring about the consequences), popped her head up from the bush, waving her hooves to try and attract the attention of whoever was trying to find them.

“Hey, we’re over here! We could use a hoof or two!” She flopped forward as Rainbow Dash pushed up on her padding, sending her rolling over the top of the bush onto the ground. Rarity attempted to right herself, though Spike’s constant wriggles was making that more difficult than it should have been. Suddenly several beams of light focused in on the pile of ponies, causing them all to freeze.

“Oh my goodness, there they are! How in Equestria did we lose track of six ponies? Nurse Redheart will have my head for this!” One of the voices said.

“Hello? Who’s there?” Twilight asked, pushing herself free of the bush and brushing some of the brambles off her diaper. The light from the ponies’ flashlights blinded her for a moment, causing Twilight to lift a hoof up to shield her eyes.

As they adjusted, she was able to spot several ponies facing her, all in white coats and looking very concerned.

“There you are,” said one of the ponies, a stallion. “Now, stay calm... there's no need to panic...”

His hoof reached for something in a saddlebag. “You're going to be going back home now, okay?”

“Home?” Twilight repeated, utterly lost. “What do you mean home? What's that?”

“Amnesia again,” said another pony, more quietly. “Try to keep her calm.”

“It's a nice place,” the white-coated stallion told her, speaking soothingly.

“Where's a nice place?” Pinkie asked. “A nice place sounds nice!”

She tapped Applejack on the haunch. “Hey, AJ! They're taking us to a nice place! Doesn't that sound nice?”

Applejack groaned.

“Now!” said the white-coated stallion, and threw something from his saddlebag. It hit Twilight, and in a matter of seconds inflated outwards to engulf her.

Startled, Twilight found herself inside a small room – or a large cage? - with thickly padded walls.

“Hey!” she said, indignant. “Let me out!”

She could hear faint shouting through the padded walls, along with the loud crinkle of diapers. Then the walls of the cage expanded, pinning her in place so she could barely move.

“That's better,” said one of the other white-coated ponies. “Just calm down and we'll get you back in a minute.”

Twilight wiggled in her puffy confinement, but was unable to budge enough to do anything useful.

There was the sound of further crinkling and pomfs, with what sounded like Pinkie giggling beneath the noise of fluff. One of the ponies gave a sigh of relief, poking at Twilight’s cage as she did. “Alright, that should do for now. You have the rings ready for once they’re free, right?”

“Of course!” Another voice responded, sounding slightly offended. The first pony just gave a grunt as their horn alit. Twilight felt the tingle of magic surround her cage, lifting it into the air as she struggled against her puffy confines. The ponies began to trot away, each one carrying a few of the now trapped elements of harmony. Rarity pushed against the padded walls of her box, Spike squished rather snugly into her front by them. Fluttershy simply curled up as best as she could, the walls puffing out to keep her held comfortably no matter how small she made herself.

“Geez, better get the restraints for this one again, she’s really putting up a fight!” One of the ponies proclaimed. Dash was bouncing about in her confines, trying to push back on the walls as she was carried along, making her cage wobble and shake haphazardly. Pinkie’s cage was also wobbling about, though rather than grunts of annoyance, muffled giggles and snorts emanated from inside.

It wasn’t too long before the ponies arrived at their destination, placing the cages down on the floor as they rested. All except for Dash and Pinkie, whose continued to bounce about slightly.

“All right,” the stallion in charge said. “Let's get started. Make sure that ring's ready.”

He put his hoof on the release valve for Twilight's cage, then hit it.

The cage began to deflate immediately, shrinking to reveal an opening, and the unicorn he'd warned quickly slipped an inhibitor ring over Twilight's horn before she could react.

“Good!” the stallion said. “Now – jacket!”

“Stop it!” Twilight said, a spark of magic touching her horn before being drained away and making her yelp.

“No trying to escape, you might hurt yourself,” said a mare, draping a jacket over Twilight's back and helping her put her hooves into the sleeves. Still trying to work out what the ring had done, Twilight was startled as the mare suddenly pulled two straps tight and locked her forelegs around in a tight “hug” against her own chest.

“Is this a straitjacket!?” Twilight asked, then tried to struggle a little as the mare began to work on her hind legs. She instinctively tried to use magic again, and the tingle from the ring focused in her diaper for a moment.

“Cell T-1,” a stallion called, and one of the unicorns picked Twilight's now-restrained form up to take her to the nearby padded cell. “Let's start on the next one.”

As Twilight was carted off, the first pony stepped up to the cage containing Dash. “Be quick on this one,” he reminded. Pressing the release valve, the cage began to deflate, Rainbow immediately attempting to make a dash for freedom. Rather than fly free, however, she flew straight into the open jacket being levitated by the other pony, her hooves finding their way into the sleeves. One of the ponies tackled Dash, holding her down as they tied the straps across her hooves and wings snugly, leaving the Pegasus struggling on the floor. “Alright, cell T-2. She’ll need some time alone to calm down.” The stallion said as Dash was lifted up and prepared to be carried to her own cell.

Once more the pony pressed on the release valve, this time Rarity and Spike tumbling out onto the floor in front of him. “Ah! Who let the dragon out without protection? We don’t want to start a fire!” He said. Another pony rushed up, holding a small elastic band in her hoof. As Rarity and Spike were scooped up in more jackets, Rarity wriggled about a bit, looking up at one of the nurses.

“What in Equestria is going on here? Why am I being forced into such… unflattering clothing?”

Spike attempted to speak up as well, but quickly found the band placed around his muzzle. Spike’s eyes crossed as he looked down at it, grumbling to himself as he rolled backwards on his diaper.

“It's for your own good,” said one of the nurses, checking Rarity's padding was the appropriate thickness. “Now, hold still so we can put the limiter ring on.”

“Surely you don't need to do that?” Rarity asked, fluttering her eyelashes. “I'mhardly going to be violent... even if the clothing choice leaves a great deal to be desired, of course!”

“Of course it does,” the nurse said, in the tones of somepony agreeing just because they wanted to keep the other speaker calm. “Well, perhaps we can, but surely you want something to help you relax?”

Rarity was a little dubious about that logic, but ultimately gave a nod.

A moment later she found herself with a large pacifier in her mouth, and yelped in surprise.

“That's right,” the nurse told her, and checked the tightness of the straps for both of them. “T-3!”

“There's two of them, though,” the stallion said. “Wouldn't they rather have separate cells?”

Rarity shook her head quickly.

“Fine, then, T-3 it is,” he decided.

As the pony and the dragon were carried off, Fluttershy's containment cell was released.

She didn't even try to escape or cause trouble, mostly because she didn't feel like trying to be violent and partly because she did like the sound of a snug hug like that...

“Well, it’s good to see your little adventure hasn’t made you as rowdy as the others yet.” One of the nurses said sweetly, trotting up to Fluttershy. “Here, why don’t I help you to your room?” She asked, putting her hoof up. Fluttershy looked about a bit nervously, not to mention confused. Was she… not going to be restrained? Despite normally not liking anything tight and imposing, she had somewhat enjoyed the puffy cage on reflection. She stepped out of the cage and followed the nurse in the opposite direction the others had headed towards her own bedroom.

The stallion released another, Applejack sliding down onto the floor as well. “Ah suppose there’s no real explanation ah’m gonna get for any of this?” She asked. The nurse simply slipped a jacket over her, making sure to securely fasten any restraints.

“Where should we take her?” One nurse asked. The stallion tapped his chin, looking down at Applejack.

“Well… I suppose this is her first real offense… and she’s helped keep Rainbow in check before… perhaps a bit of company might help her calm down too.” He suggested. The mare nodded and began to take Applejack towards T-2.

As the stallion pressed on the final release, he was suddenly engulfed by a blur of pink as Pinkie Pie shot out and tackled him, giggling excitedly as she sat on top of the stallion. “Oh boy, that was super fun! And this is only the start! What else do you have? Ooooooh, I wanna try it all!” She beamed.

A little confused, the stallion made a signal for the nearby nurses to move in. “Well, we'll start with what we have right here,” he told her. “Can you put your forelegs out?”

Pinkie did so, but got distracted a moment later, and it took three tries before she kept them out long enough to put them into the jacket. That was quickly strapped tight, and the stallion breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he got back to work, fitting Pinkie with the various other pieces of paraphernalia they had available to restrain the really violent inmates. A double-thick diaper went on over her first, and a second strap was tightened to hold it in place – then both her rear hooves were put in tight-strapped boots, and joined together by a hobbling strut to boot.

A second set of straps were added to her jacket, to really tighten the self-hug she had going on, and like Rarity she got a pacifier – but this one was held in place by a set of wires, which held her muzzle closed and also went around the back of her head to hold it in place from that angle.

Pinkie was taken to cell T-4, carried as there was no way she was going to be able to move, and they used a pair of cloth hooks in her jacket to hang her from the ceiling – just to make extra sure she couldn't escape, or hurt herself.

Meanwhile, Rarity and Spike were being placed in their own cell, bouncing slightly on the cushy interior. “Now, I hope you two get along well and we don’t have any more of that nonsense about trying to get out! We don’t want you to hurt yourselves or somepony else, do we?” The nurse asked. Spike and Rarity shook their heads, and the nurse gave a small smile before turning and closing the door behind her. Rarity looked over to Spike, who was still looking down at the band around his muzzle indignantly.

“Here, I’ll help you with that Spike. It may be breaking the rules, but I’d say this kind of treatment is simply uncouth!” Her horn began to glow as she attempted to tug the band off Spike’s muzzle. Rather than the binding removing itself, Spike’s eyes simply went wide and he let out a mmppphh of surprise. His belly was growing warm, and he felt something familiar building in his gut. He was about to let out a belch of smoke, but as the heat travelled up to his muzzle, it simply rebounded off the band and landed right back in his belly. With a bwoomp, his belly expanded slightly, pushing his straitjacket out a little. Spike blushed as he looked down at his swollen belly before glancing over to Rarity again. “Well… I suppose we’ll have to find another way out of here. Let’s just hope Twilight’s having some better ideas…”

Two cells over, Twilight was leaning up against the wall of her padded cell, looking down at her diaper and jacket with annoyance. “Stupid ring…” She mumbled, pulling on her restraints. Despite knowing the outcome would not help, Twilight attempted to conjure up another spell to remove her bindings. The tingle of her horn focused in on her diaper once more, and Twilight bit her lip as a blush crossed her face. Her magic quickly faded, but as it did, she felt… empty. That feeling was so lovely… and it couldn’t really hurt to keep trying… could it?

As Twilight grappled with the question of why she was trying to get out – to actually remove her bindings, or just from the pleasant sensations the ring brought when she failed – Dash and Applejack were trying to share the same cell without running out of personal space.

“Ah know it ain't a big cell!” Applejack said, swinging her hips to shove Dash across the floor. “And that ain't a reason for y'all to take more than half of it!”

Dash struggled, trying to wriggle back across the room, and her diaper bumped into Applejack's own as they both lay on the floor. “But I wasn't! I was just going to take the top half, and you could have the bottom half!”

“That ain't fair at all!” Applejack replied, then her voice lowered. “An' git tryin' to work out how to get out of this mess!”

“How?” Dash replied. “What can we do?”

“That ain't my department!”

While they squabbled, Fluttershy was staring around her room.

It was... nice. Soft furnishings, thick and soft carpet on the floor, lots of cushions and soft toys everywhere, and a soft mattress for a bed with a thick, soft sleeping bag on top.

She knew part of the idea was that there wasn't anything here she could hurt herself with, but... she didn't think she'd mind staying here for a long time. Even if this was her regular room.

“Now, you can play with your toys for a bit before lights-out,” the nurse told Fluttershy. “You'll get a five minute warning, so get nice and tucked in to your sleeping bag before the lights go out.”

Fluttershy nodded, looking over to the collection of toys on display as the nurse left her alone. She slid over on her bed to pick up a small plush robin, squeezing its plump form in her hooves. She snuggled the toy, finding it too cute to not show at least some affection towards it. Looking back to the pile of toys again, she picked up a cuddly rabbit, lifting it up and down to make it appear as if it was bouncing along the bed. Her smile grew a bit wider as she began to come up with a silly story with the rabbit and the robin, going off on an adventure. Though, not a scary one, of course!

As Fluttershy crafted her story, Pinkie was swinging back and forth in her cell. She giggled and suckled on her pacifier, trying to squeeze her legs together to squish her thick diaper between them, only for the bar to prevent any movement. Her tail flicked back and forth as she wiggled her rump, Pinkie bouncing up and down in her cell. Her bindings squeaked a little as she did, Pinkie wiggling just enough to allow her to push off the floor and bounce back up into the air, laughing as she bounced about in her restrictive bouncer. As Pinkie fell through the air, the straps on her diaper squished down tighter and tighter. Pinkie’s eyes went wide as she suddenly felt a bit of pressure growing between her legs. Blushing, she began to bounce faster and harder in her cushy cell, suckling faster as she attempted to keep herself from wetting her diaper.

Twilight flopped onto her front in her cell, grunting as her magic died down once again. It was no use, her magical tuggings and yanks did nothing to loosen her bindings. And worst, it felt as if her diaper was a bit thicker, still tingling slightly as she rolled around the fluffy room.

The alicorn rolled over onto her back, groaning.

“What do I do now...” she said to herself, softly, and squeezed her legs a little – making her diaper creak and crinkle, and drawing her to blush again. “Surely Princess Celestia must-”

She stopped, blushing. “Wait... it's a dream, that's right. So no Princess Celestia, but... I need to work out what the end of the dream is?”

The lights dimmed for a moment, then came back on brightly.

“Five minutes,” a pleasant voice said over the speaker system. “Five minutes until bedtime.”

Applejack panted on the floor of her cell, too tired from constant struggles to do even the simplest thing to be able to muster up the strength to try again.

“Ah don't know what's with this place,” she said, shifting a little, then frowned.

“Say, RD?” she began. “Do y'all feel a little... softer in the ground, than before?”

“What?” Dash asked. “I heard all the words but what do they mean put together like that?”

Applejack sighed, but before she could explain Rainbow Dash yelped.

“We're sinking!” she said, worried. “What's going on!?”

Deciding not to voice her sarcastic remark, Applejack tried to force herself out of the steadily deepening depression. With her forehooves strapped up and her hind legs spread by the diaper, however, she didn't manage to do more than wriggle in place as she and her friend sank deeper.

Rarity gave a muffled cry, trying to use her hind hooves to push Spike off of her. The dragon had now swollen to fill a third of the cell, his belly rotund and bouncy. “Spike! Stop… swelling already!” Rarity said as she freed her muzzle.

Spike simply ‘mmpph’d in response, rolling backward as he wriggled his stubby legs in his diaper. He felt his belly grow warm once again, and with another bwooomp!, his gut surged out, now almost filling half the cell. Rarity pushed herself away from the inflating dragon as he whimpered. His straitjacket struggled to hold him in, the bindings and sleeves creaking along with his gut as he grew. Rarity looked around the room, trying to find some way to slow his swelling, or at least keep him at bay.

“Oh, I know it’s not your fault Spikey but… isn’t there anything you can do?” She asked, pressing her hooves against his padded rear as he ballooned out yet again to give herself as much room as possible. Which was steadily growing smaller and smaller, Rarity whining worriedly.

‘Oh no! It’s a big bad bear! What will we do?’ The robin said, flapping his wings in a panic.

‘I bet he’s not a bad bear! I bet he just doesn’t have any friends!’ The rabbit responded, bouncing over to the pillow cave in which the plush bear lived.

‘Grrr, who woke me from my hibernation?’ The bear growled as he wobbled out of his cave.

Fluttershy looked up as the door to her room as the nurse returned. “Five minutes, Fluttershy! I hope I don’t have to put you in bed myself!” She said. Fluttershy looked disappointed, but dutifully began to disassemble the plush cave and prepare to slip into her sleeping bag for the night.

Neither Applejack nor Rainbow Dash was the slightest bit bothered with how late it was, being far too busy being concerned with how deeply they had both sunk into the floor. The fluffy material seemed to be endless, no matter how far down they went, and kicking or struggling didn't seem to help out either – both pegasus and earth pony were stuck in a snuggly hug from all directions, getting tighter with every second.

Finally, however, some limit did seem to be reached – and both sprang back upwards, bouncing off the padded ceiling before falling back to the padded floor with a crinkle-crinkle-creeeak.

“Now that there is one hay of a ride,” Applejack mumbled, a little woozy, then caught sight of Dash. It looked as though the boisterous pegasus had somehow gotten herself stuck in a puffy, padded-up suit of herself, then been strait-jacketed up all over again.

“What in tarnation?”

Dash looked over, startled, and saw that AJ was in much the same state. Then both ponies looked at themselves, and yelped in surprise.

Dash tugged on her restraints once again, her swollen rear crinkling up a storm as she wriggled about helplessly. Applejack attempted the same, her diaper-like rump shifting and crinkling just as loudly. Applejack’s muzzle scrunched as she kicked her crinkly legs, accidentally pushing her hoof into Dash’s own behind. Dash glared back at her, bouncing her puffy rear against Applejack’s. “Now is not the time, AJ!”

“I ain’t trying to do that, Dash! This room is too small!” Applejack retorted. The two continued to struggle, oblivious to the steady inflation of the room giving them less and less room. The cushy walls pushed in, still with far more give than either would have thought possible, allowing the fluff to fold around them and push them closer and closer together, soon pressing their crinkly bodies together…

Pinkie bounced and trounced in her cell, suckling as she shook her rump left and right, trying desperately to stay dry. Though even as she did, she couldn’t help but blush and giggle at the situation. Attempting to squeeze her legs together again only made her blush brighter as she remembered the bars prevented any squishing. Her eyes clenched and she giggle-snorted as she finally felt herself let go. Her diaper began to swell, growing warm and squishy as it was soaked. Pinkie bounced, suddenly noticing it wasn’t just her diaper that was squishy. The walls, ceiling, and floor of her cell were now dripping wet as well, a few drops of water dripping down from the ceiling onto her. “Oooooheehee, now that’s silly!” She said, bouncing again as she felt the need to wet her diaper building again…

Some minutes after the lights had gone out in her bedroom, Fluttershy stirred.

She knew she had to help her friends... and if that meant being naughty, maybe that was okay. So she got out of bed – only to be quite startled and embarrassed when her sleeping bag came with her.

Thumping to the soft floor with a thankfully quiet sound, Fluttershy tried to pull the sleeping bag off so she could walk to her destination. Unfortunately, however, it seemed as though her diaper had become completely stuck in the interstices of the sleeping bag – and the zipper had unaccountably gone missing.

Blushing about how she looked – like a kind of puffy worm, wiggling along the floor – Fluttershy made her way towards the door.

She'd have to be quiet. And sneaky. And... naughty...

In Spike and Rarity's cell, the dragon was now so large Rarity found herself pinned between the wall and his diaper. She gasped, trying to think of something to do to help – then noticed the sleeve of Spike's straitjacket, and realized something that might just work.

She tugged on one of the seams with her magic. As she'd feared, Spike grew even larger – but, as she'd hoped, the seam was weakened just that little bit.

The straitjacket gave way with a tearing riiiiip sound, and Spike's hands were free. He reached up to the muzzle, and it came off just before he let loose an almighty flame-burp which surrounded them both.

When the green flames faded, they were – much to Rarity's disappointment – in the same place as before.

“Why didn't you think of somewhere to go?” she asked, wriggling herself out of the indentation she'd left in the puffy walls.

“I didn't think of anywhere,” Spike replied. “What should we do with-”

The muzzle snapped back into place. “Mmmf!”

Rarity tried to use her magic to help, only for the straitjacket to rise up and wrap itself around Spike all over again. Then he hiccuped, the flame caught in his mouth by the muzzle ring, and he began to swell up for a second time.

Hic hic hic! Spike bloated out further, quickly forced to spread his hind legs as he rump ballooned out further and his belly stretched underneath his jacket. Rarity gave an exasperated whine, trying to tug on Spike’s jacket again. As Spike grew larger, there was a thump at the door, causing both to freeze and look towards it. The sound of the handle jiggling a bit could be heard before the plush door suddenly swung open to reveal Fluttershy. She opened her mouth to remove her grip on the door handle, flopping onto the front of her sleeping bag to inch into the room.

“Fluttershy, thank goodness you’re here! We need to get out now!” Rarity exclaimed, trying to push herself over to Fluttershy as Spike hiccuped and waddled over to her as well.

“I’m just glad to see you’re ok. Well… mostly ok.” Fluttershy looked over to Spike, whose belly was still bulging out as he hiccuped again.

“We better hurry before Spike gets so big he can’t fit through the door!” Rarity said, trying to push herself onto her hooves and waddle to the door. “Here, maybe I can help with your… predicament.” Rarity offered, looking at the sleeping bag Fluttershy was stuck in. Her horn began to glow, and with a flash of light, the sleeping bag vanished from around Fluttershy. Almost. In its place she was now wearing an especially thick diaper with the same sleek, slightly slippery covering as the sleeping bag, lifting her hind legs up into the air a bit. Fluttershy wobbled towards the door. Rarity helping Spike make his way through. He became stuck for a moment, hiccupping and causing his rump to swell out into Rarity, but a few shoves soon had him bouncing into the hall, Rarity following after.

“All right, so the others are to either side of us, I think,” Rarity said, and pointed to one of the doors. “This one?”

She looked through the sliding door, nodded, and opened it with a quick flicker of magic. Twilight looked up, the glow of her own magic fading, and began to try and waddle her way over towards the door despite her extensive restraints.

“Is their magic blocker not working on you?” Rarity asked, having spotted Twilight's use of magic. “I thought it wasn't?”

“It's working,” Twilight replied, blushing a bit. “But it wasn't just cancelling out the magic completely, so I thought...”

She trailed off, not sure how to put it. Not sure if she could take the embarrassment of admitting it, either.

“Anyway, we should take the chance and get out of here,” she resumed. “Um... bit of help?”

The alicorn caught sight of Spike bouncing past the door, and did a double-take.

“Yes, we're... having problems ourselves,” Rarity summarized. “Just be as quick as you can.”

Leaving Twilight to do what she could, Rarity checked the door on the other side.

She stared at the struggling, crinkly forms of Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “What the...”

The two looked over at the sound of the door opening, still struggling to push away from each other. The walls had inflated so much they were now pressed into a tight embrace, their crinkly critter selves squished together. Even their straitjackets had seemed to fuse, the sleeves wrapping around the other pony to keep them held together. “Rarity, you’re good with clothes! Get this thing off already!” Dash complained, pressing against the wall behind her. Rarity’s horn lit up and she dragged the two ponies free of the padded cell, dropping them onto the floor. She tried to look over the tangled mess of straps and buckles holding the two together, but even with her knowledge of sewing, it was impossible to make any sense of their outfit.

“Alright, just hold still, this might sting a bit.” She said, her horn pulsing brighter. There was the sound of tearing, the jackets freeing themselves from the two crinkly ponies. Rather than remain free, however, the jackets immediately leapt onto their padded rears, tying themselves up again as they shifted shape. Rainbow Dash and Applejack now boasted two straitjacket diaper covers, straps and buckles twisted together to keep the two’s rears pressed snugly into the others'.

“That doesn’t really help, Rarity!” Dash complained, trying to pull herself away from Applejack. AJ was simply tugged along after her, their rumps crinkling as they rubbed together, a light blush crossing both of the trapped ponies’ faces.

“Well, I think that’s the best I can do, Dash. Come on, the sooner we find Pinkie, the sooner we can all get out of here.”

“I... think Pinkie's in here?” Fluttershy said, softly. “But it's hard to see if it's her...”

Rarity came over to look, and Fluttershy moved out of the way – using the slippery surface of her diaper to slide along the floor, and her forelegs to pull her along. It was almost like crawling, except a lot higher up.

Checking through the door herself, Rarity saw straight away why Fluttershy had been confused. Pinkie was completely dressed up in every kind of paraphernalia, and bouncing up and down on some kind of bouncer attached to the ceiling.

“That... does look like her,” Rarity agreed. “But-”

The alarms went off.

“Ponyfeathers!” Dash shouted, “Come on!”

She started trying to run, but that just led to Applejack stumbling over as Dash tugged her in an unexpected direction. There was a loud crinkle-crinkle-thump as they tripped over one another, and ended up facing one another in a tangled heap on the floor.

“Twilight, can you cast your spell?” Rarity asked, releasing Pinkie from the bouncer keeping her stuck. “We... might have trouble getting out of the building.”

“I don't know!” Twilight replied, panicked. “This thing on my horn – it's stopping any of my spells from working properly!”

“And you didn’t think to take it off? Dash asked. Twilight was about to claim that she couldn’t take it off by herself when she was still in her jacket, but was cut off by the sound of hoofsteps rushing towards them from down the hall.

Spike bounced over on his rump, reaching up and sliding the ring off Twilight’s horn and allowing her magic to flow freely. She quickly began to concentrate, a light surrounding them as she cast the spell. The nurses all leapt towards the group, but they were gone in a flash, leaving them all stuck in their puffy predicaments in the starry place between dreams. The jackets all melted away, Spike’s band disappearing and him deflating like a balloon, spinning around on the ground as Dash and Applejack’s coats returned to their normal selves. Of course, they were still all thickly padded, but they had started to grow used to the feeling of the fluffy diapers around their waists.

“Alright everypony, remember, concentrate on Nightmare Moon. We’ll find her eventually…” Twilight said, and they began to trot through the dreamscape. Bubbles floated around them as they all wracked their brains, focusing on the image of the jet-black mare.

“...hey, guys?” Spike said, after what felt like a minute or two of silently walking. “I just realized – we've met more than one black-coated villain-”

The moment he said that, the world seemed to invert around them as a dream snapped them up.

“Why would you say something like that?” Twilight demanded, as they appeared in a dark cave.

“Sorry,” Spike mumbled. “It just... occurred to me, you know?”

“Yes, and once you said it everypony was thinking of it too,” Twilight said, then sighed. “Well, I suppose we'll just have to find out what dream we're in now... and what the rules are.”

“It's totally Changelings, right?” Dash said. “I mean, it seems pretty obvious.”

“There's nothing obvious about Changelings,” Twilight reminded her. “They're cunning and sneaky.”

“I thought they were multicoloured and nice,” Pinkie said.

The others stopped, staring at her.

“Sorry, wrong season,” Pinkie apologized. “Forget I said it!”

“This kind of reminds me of tabletop games,” Spike volunteered. “A maze of twisty passages, that kind of thing...”

There was a clatter in front of them, and a Crystal Pony came running down the corridor.

“Whoa, hey!” Applejack called, getting the Crystal Pony mare's attention. “Easy, now.”

The mare slowed, looking at them, and sighed in relief. “Thank the Heart! Please, we need help – our rulers have been foalnapped by Queen Chrysalis!”

“Foalnapped? How could Cadence and Shining have been…” Twilight’s voice trailed off as she felt her own padding rustle a bit from her shifted weight. “Right. Which way are they?” Twilight asked. The crystal pony pointed back from where she had run from, where the cave grew slowly darker.

“Back there, there’s a whole army of changelings! Oh, please, you have to help them!” She begged, looking around nervously.

“Don’t you worry, we’ll find them.” Twilight gave a confident nod before starting to head into the cave, determined to save her brother. The others looked between each other, a little nervous as Twilight’s sudden recklessness, but swiftly followed anyway. As they trotted through the twisting caves, Spike noticed the floor felt a bit… softer than he would have expected a cave to be. Not to mention their hoofsteps barely seemed to echo through the tunnels, as if something was dampening the sound.

As they trotted along, Rarity suddenly stopped in her tracks, noticing something on the cave floor. There was an odd discolouration, a near perfect square placed in the ground, with what looked like stitches surrounding it. “Rarity, hurry up!” Pinkie proclaimed from her left. Rarity looked up and trotted after the pony, not noticing the group had trotted off in the opposite direction…

“Hey, where the heck’s Rarity?” Dash asked, looking behind her. Pinkie also halted in her tracks, looking back.

“Uh oh, Rarity shouldn’t be wandering around here by herself! What if she falls into an underground pool of changeling goo! She’ll be horrified! Her mane will never be clean again!”

Dash smacked her face, giving a groan of annoyance. There were the sound of hoofsteps from behind them and Rarity came trotting forward, looking distraught. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to fall so behind. Hurry, we don’t want to lose the others!” She said, trotting forward and leading Pinkie and Dash down a steep downward sloping tunnel.