Bagpiperix in Canterlot

The crowd erupted in cheers, quite amazed at the entrance of the puffy beast. Blueblood’s eyes widened, the memory of the actual ringmaster and dragon clown popping back into his head. He was sure they had just been a suit, but this beast was far too large to simply be a pony in a costume. The dragon pressed down on his belly, letting out a flow of music as he grinned, dancing along with the music that tooted out his pipes.

Celestia was looking a little apprehensive, she certainly hadn’t been expecting anything such as this at the show. Luna looked equally confused, scratching her mane as she chomped down on another piece of note candy. As another wave of music flowed over the crowd, though, Luna leaned back into her seat, shifting atop her puffy rear. Well, she hadn’t been to a circus in a while, perhaps this was simply a new act? And, after all, the dragon looked to be anything but dangerous. His curvy belly and cartoonish shape made him look almost cuddly, in fact!

The dragon picked up a few of the performers, tossing them about in the air and playfully batting them about with his tail. “I hope you’re just as excited for tonight’s show as I am! We’ve got plenty of big performances tonight! And a few guest stars too~” He said, winking up at the box seats. Blueblood’s stomach clenched at the dragon’s comment. A guest star? He would do absolutely no such thing! He wasn’t going to embarrass himself like this! As he was about to get up, though, the dragon flopped onto his rear, another particularly loud blast of music filling the tent. Blueblood’s head spun a bit, filled with the tune. What was it he was so upset about? He wasn’t planning on leaving the show so early, was he? He shook his head, trying to clear it.

“Sit down, Blueblood, it’s only just started.” Celestia advised, pushing down on Blueblood’s suit, which felt a bit thicker than it should have. Blueblood lowered his rear back into the seat, staring down as the circus continued.

“For our first act,” the dragon began, shifting his rear around and making a series of notes echo from the fabric roof. “For our first act, we have that old mainstay of any circus – that's right, it's the jugglers!”

Blueblood frowned. He was sure that it wasn't really jugglers who were the focus of a circus. Wasn't that… clowns?

The thought seemed odd, and he pondered it for a moment longer before shrugging it off. This circus, it seemed, had jugglers.

Out they came, half a dozen of them, each carrying four plaid balls. They began in a fairly simple way, each pony juggling their own four balls in a one-two-three-four pattern that, when put together with all six ponies together, alternated the sound of two balls being knocked into the air with the sound of four going up at once. Like music – and in time with the music as well, accompanied by the dragon waving his tail up and down like a conductor.

As their juggling went on, however, it got more and more ornate, extra complexities being added one by one. First they started swapping balls back and forth, exchanging them in simple patterns and then involved ones.

The balls began to grow larger, becoming more uneven, and each impact was accompanied by a musical note – adding to the music and reinforcing it, making it so catchy that Blueblood suddenly realized he was nodding his head along with it.

He quickly stopped, though it felt oddly like a good idea to keep nodding along with the music.

For the part of Celestia, she noticed with interest that the balls now looked an awful lot like miniature bagpipes.

She chuckled faintly. That was a very impressive bit of theming this circus had going on. After a while, it did start to become amusing by itself...

The jugglers continued their performance, now starting to dance in time with the music, spinning around as they threw the bagpipes back and forth. The dragon waved his tail to elicit louder sounds from one group and to quiet down others. His rear swayed left and right in time with the tune, Luna’s gaze following its swings as the dragon followed in the dance as well. The music grew louder and louder, the jugglers starting to struggle a bit to keep the bagpipes in time as they grew to be almost as large as the ponies themselves!

“Tempo, boys!” The dragon teased, smacking one of the jugglers in the rear with his tail. The juggler stumbled, flopping onto a bagpipe before rolling over to toss it to another pony. He was now stuck on his back, bouncing bagpipes around as the others danced in a circle, looking like a fountain of plaid bubbles boinging back and forth. The music grew faster and louder, the jugglers tossing their bagpipes frantically as the music built up to a crescendo. Then, with a giant cymbal crash, the bagpipes all tumbled on top of the pony on the ground, ending the piece in a large climax. The dragon applauded his little ponies as the jugglers dug about in the pile to retrieve their fallen friend, who was looking rather dizzy from the impact of the plaid orbs. “Oh, absolutely wonderful! I hope our gymnasts can compare!” He said.

Suddenly a small parade of ponies began to rush out of a flap in the tent, all donned in plaid leotards. The ponies began to flip and leap about as another tune started, a few other ponies rolling out obstacles and equipment for the gymnasts to leap between.

“Gymnast...” Luna pondered, wondering about the word. “Is that not related to a sporting and educational school?”

“No, it's not,” Celestia replied, wiggling her tush a bit as she got properly comfy on her seat. “It's a kind of acrobatics.”

“These new words for things...” Luna grumbled good-naturedly.

Meanwhile, down in the arena, the plaid-leotarded ponies were pinwheeling about with abandon. They did cartwheels, turning into blurs of multicoloured plaid, then a moment later one used another as a literal vaulting-horse to leap ten feet into the air, do a somersault, and come down to a perfect landing.

The boards and obstacles were incorporated into the routine as soon as they were laid out, with a jumping board clattering as three ponies vaulted off it in quick succession. The first landed with a roll, the second landed with a skid, and the third landed with a parp and a bounce on his rump – a sight which made Blueblood blink, confused.

How had they done that?

“That's the spirit!” The dragon chuckled, blowing a few notes from his pipes. “Now, let's see your work on the trampoline!”

Blueblood looked for the trampoline, and saw nothing. Then the dragon lay on his back and smoothed out his belly, forming an expanse of springy plaid fabric, and the acrobatic ponies began to vault one by one onto it.

The ponies sunk down surprisingly deeply into the dragon’s belly, only to rebound a moment later. Each pony flipped and tumbled in the air, a few posing as they reached the peak of their leap, the dragon giggling with each bounce. Every time a pony landed upon him, his pipes let out an extra paaarp of sound, Blueblood chuckling a little at the sound, only to scrunch his muzzle from embarrassment a moment later. As the ponies bounced about, Celestia couldn’t help but notice the rear of their suits seemed to grow each time they jumped off the dragon, their suits growing slowly thicker and thicker.

Celestia laughed at the sight, rocking back on her own swollen suit’s rear, finding the show far too amusing and silly. The acrobats must be very well trained to move about in such thick suits, she thought. One of the gymnasts bounced up to balance on the dragon’s muzzle, wiggling her rump for the audience before falling back onto his belly, embracing it tightly before bouncing off once again. A couple of the ponies jumping next to each other leapt up into the air, bouncing their butts together only for the suits to swell and push them away, one flipping over and landing on her rear while the other was caught by the dragon’s tail and tossed back up into the sky.

Luna leaned forward and rested her hooves on the railing of the box seats, absolutely enthralled by the show. Circuses certainly seemed to be much more captivating now than she had remembered them. This dragon, whoever he was, certainly knew how to put on a good performance!

The bounces, which had at first seemed almost random, began to synchronise more – turning a continual parp-parp-paaarp from the pipes of the dragon into more of a descending or ascending scale once every few seconds. The ponies' landing times got closer and closer together as their suits swelled up, until there was a great loud PARP as they all landed at once.

The resultant bounce was even higher than any had been before, and all the gymnast ponies – now suited in such thick bouncy costumes that it was hard to compare them to the leotards they'd begun with – landed around the dragon in a circle, each bouncing once or twice before they came to a halt.

At once, they ran together into six groups, and the dragon cleared his throat.

“Now, ladies and gentlecolts, please welcome my most skilful, useful – and air-ful – assistants!”

There was a drumroll, accompanied by a loud blast of music, and Celestia felt almost giddy as she waited to see who or what these mysterious assistants were.

Then she saw them – six dragons, like miniature versions of this one, each of them springing into the air and bouncing off one of the groups of gymnasts to reach the belly of the bigger dragon.

One of them had an oddly familiar colour scheme, still plaid like the head dragon but with light and dark purples making up the colour contrast.

And the second one she looked at seemed familiar as well, with white fabric and an amethyst purple cross-lining…

Celestia racked her brain for what it might be, trying to concentrate, and at first it was harder than she'd expected – as if she'd been feeling groggy, sleepy, though she wasn't sure why. Then she looked up at another burst of music, and saw the regular gymnast ponies – now back to their antics – forming a pyramid, with those half-dozen dragons at the top.

The dragons wobbled atop the pony pyramid, holding claws and tails twisted together to help keep them in balance as music flowed out of their pipes. A particularly pudgy pink one lay atop the ponies, its rear making the base of the dragon pyramid as a yellow and orange dragon leaned forward away from each other, their tails tied in a knot to keep them atop the pink dragon’s rump. Celestia noticed the yellow dragon appearing to blush, trying to hide behind its claws just a bit. Balanced between these characters was the white dragon, who squeezed its belly as the purple one balanced on its tail. At the very top of the pyramid stood a rainbow patterned dragon, displaying its bloated belly proudly as it swished its tail in time with the music. The first dragon clapped for the smaller ones, the audience joining in. “Oh, absolutely marvelous! You’ve really come a long way since Ponyville!”

Celestia’s brain sparked upon hearing those words. Ponyville. If they had come through there, surely Twilight would have written- Celestia gasped as she finally made the connection, seeing the purple dragon shifting in place, being especially careful to maintain its balance compared to the others.

“Twilight! What in Equestria has he done to you?!” Celestia jumped up out of her seat, her brain no longer groggy as she recognized the patterns of the other ponies, each one matching that of Twilight’s new friends. Twilight Spaarple looked up as she heard Celestia shout, only to give a wave before wobbling as the pyramid threatened to lose its balance.

“What is it?” Luna asked, rocking back and forth for a moment before getting up. “Is the performance not to thy liking?”

“That's – Luna, look!” Celestia demanded. “Those dragons at the top of the pyramid – look – they're not actually dragons! Those are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony!”

The moment she said that, there was a six-part paaaarp of music from the dragonified ponies, producing a literal musical harmony to accompany the words.

“We have to help them,” Celestia declared. “Luna, don't you agree?”

She paused. “Luna? Are you okay? Your uniform...”

“What?” Luna asked, blinking, then shook her head and seemed to recover somewhat. “It feels… oddly thick. Almost as thick as yours looks.”

Celestia did a double-take, looking back at her own outfit and comparing it to Luna's. Both alicorns were wearing puffy costumes, now, with their wings a little constricted by the soft plaid sleeves that also kept the base of their wings snug and warm, and the costumes were also a lot plusher than they'd been when they were put on. The rumps in particular were oddly overinflated.

“That doesn't matter,” Celestia said. “We need to rescue Twilight and her friends – come on!”

“Give the Princesses a round of applause, everypony!” the dragon called, right at that moment. “They're coming down to join in!”

Celestia’s wings began to beat as she flew up into the air. She wobbled about a little as she hovered in place, the suit throwing her off balance from the thickness hugging her rear. Shaking her head, she began to fly in, Luna jumping up to follow after her. Blueblood blinked as he watched his aunts fly up into the air, the crowd below cheering. He gave a soft gulp. Whatever was going on, if it had Celestia this upset, he wanted absolutely no part in it. Taking advantage of Celestia’s diverted attention, Blueblood quickly jumped out of his chair and began to hurrying down the steps of the bleachers towards the exit. With any luck, he’d managed to get back to the castle and warn the guards before something serious happened.

Celestia hovered in front of the pyramid, a look of concern across her face. “Twilight? Are you alright? Just stay calm, we’ll take care of everything!” She glared at the big red bagpipe dragon, her horn beginning to glow as she prepared a spell. She fired a bolt of magic at him only for the dragon to open his mouth and have it fly down his throat. He placed his hooves on his gut, when suddenly he ballooned outwards, growing almost twice his size in a second. He let out a long belch, laughing before winking to the other dragons.

“Alright dragons, just like we practiced!”

“Just like-” Celestia began, worried. “What do you mean?”

She looked around herself, backwinging a little to stay in the middle of the clear air, and tried to spot any possible ambush or attack.

A moment later, the pyramid of converted Elements of Harmony bounced up-and-down all at once, seeming to squish down to half the height it had had before and then explode outwards as all the plaid dragons making it up sprang back to full size.

Celestia had to react in an instant, and darted downwards to avoid what was probably Rainbow Dash. She reversed course at once, aiming to avoid being hit by I-think-that's-Rarity, but the extra bulk around her hips messed up her timing and she got body-checked by the converted form of her student.

Luna watched with astonishment as Celestia and the purple-plaid-dragon both went down the muzzle of a large cannon, one she was sure she should have noticed before now, and then returned her attention to what was going on around her. A pink plaid dandy dragon landed on her shield, not managing to break through it but squashing her towards the ground, and she only just managed to avoid being driven to land on a big plaid trampoline.

The Princess of the Night heaved upwards with her magic, sending the pink dragon flying away with a “Wheeee!” Luna watched as the Rain-blow Dash sung by on a trapeze, whapping Luna with her long tail. She spun about from the collision, though her suit protected her from much of the force of the blow, and wobbled in place before flopping onto her rear – only to find she was now balancing atop the piped tail of what used to be Applejack. The dragon grinned, taking a big huff before closing her mouth and letting out a loooong puff. Her cheeks swelled cutely as air rushed down and out her tail, blowing Luna up into the air. She flailed about in the rushing wind tunnel, flapping her wings desperately to try and stay balanced.

Meanwhile, Twilight’s rear was wiggling excitedly as it stuck out of the end of the cannon, her legs squeezing together to elicit several ‘paarps’ from her pipes. Another dragon, this one much smaller and looking more like regular dragon in a suit marched up to the base of the cannon. He took a deeeeep breath, his belly swelling outwards before he blew a spark of flame into the fuse of the cannon. It began to burn up quickly, Twilight squeezing Celestia into her belly as the flame burned up. With a bang!, the cannon shot Twilight up into the air, where she was bounced up and down on the largest dragon’s rump.

Blueblood tried to tear his eyes away from the show, hurrying towards the exit as the chaos continued. It wasn’t too long before he reached the flap in the tent and darted through it. Rather than finding himself standing outside in the fairgrounds, though, he found himself facing a large mirror, one that filled the halls of what looked to be an enormous maze.

“What on Equestria?” the pompous pony asked, startled. “Who gave permission for this to be put up! It's… well, it certainly doesn't fit the fire code!”

He shook his head, his plump uniform wobbling a little as he did. “Whatever! There must be a way out of here – the courtyard isn't that big!”

Picking a direction, Blueblood got moving.

As he cantered, he saw little flashes of what each mirror showed. The first few were just regular flat mirrors, showing him as he knew he was, but after that they began to look different – one making him look fatter, another showing him with the long legs of a pony like Fleur de Lis, and a third giving him a long neck.

Blueblood skidded to a halt, nearly running into a mirror that showed him as a little foal, and blinked at it. He wasn't sure how the mirrors did something like that, but he did his best to ignore it – looking first around one side of the mirror, then the other.

The path split, but neither of them took him in the direction he'd been going to start with. That seemed odd to him, because he'd thought he was taking a route with a long straight, but he shrugged it off and cantered down the left-hoof route.

Blueblood passed six mirrors in quick succession, each showing his uniform thicker and puffier and with a more poofy, crinkly rump. And, as he cantered past them, each became true – his rump expanding, becoming clumsier, though he was too focused to notice.

Back in the Big Top, Celestia flared her wings and tried to wrench herself away from the bouncing, trampolining pattern on the plaid-patterned dragon's rump. “Release my student and her friends at once!”

“Why should I? They’re having an absolute blast~” He laughed, bouncing them up in the air before smacking Twilight’s rump with his tail. Twilight giggled, letting go of Celestia as she was sent flying towards a target on the floor. Celestia bounced a few times before she landed squarely in the center, rocking on her bloated rear as she shook her head. She heard the sound of rickety wood bouncing up and down, causing her to look about. Her gaze turned upwards, and she spotted Rarity bouncing on a diving board, waggling her rear happily. She suddenly grabbed her legs with her claws and began to plummet down towards the earth. Celestia had just enough time to realize she should move before Rarity’s rear came crashing down on her, a huge wave of song filling the room as she bounce on her rear.

Luna continued to float in the air as Applejack blew up at her, her mind filled with the music blasting all around. Her wings suddenly caught the upward draft and she was sent bouncing over to where the pink and yellow bagpipe dragon sat. The Fluttershy dragon grinned, licking her lips as she began to prowl around Luna, taking playful snaps at her as she threatened to gobble up the alicorn into her soft, cushy belly.

“Cease!” Luna called, spreading her wings and preparing to take flight. “Fluttershy, I do not wish to harm you!”

She flapped down, only to discover that the material of her uniform had coated the lower sections of her wings – thickly enough that her wings just bounced back up again, without actually biting the air properly.

Fluttershy-dragon licked her lips again, giving a very quiet growl, and as she did the pipes running down her spine tootled in unison – producing a dissonant note, one which made Luna blink and take a step back.

“W-what?” she asked, feeling a sudden surge of fear as she looked at the Fluttershy dragon. It faded quickly, and she shook her head, but then her foe growled cutely again and there was another frisson of music and fear.

Somehow, in Luna's music-addled mind, the plaid dragon circling her had become a fearsome beast – one she could not fight, not because of friendship but because of a conviction of sheer, overwhelming force. Her uniform plumped up a little more, subtly reinforcing that sensation by pressing in on her and making her feel more restricted.

Blueblood found himself facing a dead end, mirrors in front of him and to both left and right.

The unicorn in the mirror ahead of him was wearing an astonishingly crinkly, plush outfit – like a costume made to make the wearer at least three times as wide around the waist as they had been before.

The one to the left was almost the opposite, wearing nothing but a thick, plaid diaper – one so large his hind legs barely touched the ground.

The one to the right was barely recognizable as a unicorn at all – they were wearing a thick, plush-crinkle costume which almost obscured their identity completely, though Blueblood could still tell it was him underneath.

And the mirror behind him – behind him? - showed a Blueblood playing a pair of bagpipes by bouncing up and down on them, producing hypnotic notes which threatened to overwhelm his mind…

Blueblood placed his hooves over his ears as he tried to block out the song, but his reflection only seemed to blow and bounce harder, looking over to another one and grinning smugly. The reflection rolled onto its thick, plump, plaid diaper, pressing its hooves down into it to rub it gently. Blueblood’s face turned a bright red as he felt hooves rubbing and squeezing on the rear of his outfit, the rump swelling slowly outwards as another reflection began to pump its suit thicker, Blueblood’s doing the same.

Luna backed away from Fluttershy, who growled once again, the audience finding the sound wonderfully adorable even as Luna gulped as she stared up at the giant, puffy beast. Her suit’s rear grew thicker again, hugging her comfortably as she flopped down onto it. Suddenly Luna heard the soft hiss of air, and what seemed like fog was beginning to roll in from… somewhere. Clouds of smoke began to build around Luna, obscuring much of the circus as it swirled around her. She could still hear the playful tune of the dragons and the occasional teasing growl from Fluttershy, causing her to gulp with fright. “My, my, my, looks like one of our princesses is a bit of a scaredy-foal~” The dragon’s voice echoed around Luna, the hissing of air continuing as Luna got to her hooves, her suit hugging her snugly as she tried to find some way out of the fog.

Celestia pushed Rarity's bouncing bulk off her with a shout of effort, using her rarely-displayed Earth Pony strength to send the alabaster-and-purple plaid dragon flying into the distance. Fortunately for Celestia, the shove also landed her back on the floor of the Big Top, instead of on the hide of the Big Dragon.

Mostly ignoring the loud paa-oo-arp sound Rarity made as she landed, Celestia got back to her hooves and looked around for some kind of help. No sooner had she begun to look, however, when the Twilight dragon bounced up – using her tail as if it was a pogo stick, to leave her foreclaws free to help her write.

“And the next performance,” Twilight announced, as Celestia got an odd sinking feeling, “is the escapology act!”

“The what!?” Celestia asked, and then Pinkie-Dragon and her clowns swarmed in on Celestia in a rush. They tossed silk sheets and skipping-ropes to one another as if they were jugglers, every one patterned in plaid and some with musical notes festooning them, and then they began to tangle Celestia up in it.

In only a few seconds, Celestia was trussed up like a very trussed up thing – all four of her hooves tangled in a kind of solid-plush musical scale, her wings ensnared in silken wrappings, big cartoonish padlocks placed around her knees, and skipping ropes everywhere. But the most eye-catching thing was that, under it all – and through a means she could not understand – she was dressed in foal's clothing, double-diapered with a onesie fitted with snaps over the top, and the whole thing secured with cartoonish padlocks.

Her horn was tangled up in more solid-plush musical notes, and she was hoisted into the air by one of the skipping-ropes – held as if she was in a foal seat.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” Twilight-dragon announced, tooting her pipes to get the attention of the audience. “The great Celestia will now attempt to escape her bonds!”

Celestia mumbled something, finding an odd object between her lips. It seemed a small thing, but whenever she pressed on it it let off a few quiet notes of music – in time with the beat that sounded through the whole big top.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Pinkie setting up a kind of timer mechanism – one which would release the rope once the time was up. And, below her, the gaping maw of the sinister-silly dragon.

Celestia struggled against her bonds, tugging her hooves left and right in an attempt to break free of them. Each pull caused her to swing a little in the air, her legs kicking about as well. Her horn began to glow as she tried to pull the bonds apart with magic. Instead, the notes around her horn began to pulse, massaging it in time with the music as it grew louder in her ears. She gave a muffled yelp, trying to stop the magic. Instead, it continued to flow for a moment, Celestia’s rear swelling up along with the massages, causing her to blush brightly. She kicked and squirmed as the time ticked slowly down, the dragon below her licking its lips in anticipation.

Blueblood was rocking back and forth on the rump of his suit, feeling it continue to grow as he was teased by his reflections, the music growing steadily louder and louder. He dared to open his eyes to look down at his suit, his hooves still pressing down on his ears tightly. His rump was huge! It was starting to press into each of the mirrors as a plaid pattern creeped up it, the reflections beginning to undergo the same transformation. One bounced on its rear, causing a few paaarps to fill the area as Blueblood whimpered, pressing down on the front of the suit. It crinkled softly, his hind legs starting to become wrapped up and resemble claws as he filled the room. He heard something above him, and glancing up, he was met by yet another mirror where a fat, puffy plaid dragon was squeezing his belly and bouncing on his rear, Blueblood feeling every poke and prod as he grew and grew and grew…

Luna looked around nervously, hearing that musically-accompanied growl seeming to come from all directions. She began to trot, then canter, then gallop – at a speed which should have gotten her across the Big Top in seconds even with the distinctive waddle imposed by her costume, which kept making her feel more and more like she was about to trip over without quite actually doing it.

There was foggy, smoky whiteness on all sides, and she tried to jump into the air to get clear of it – only to stumble, nearly falling, and keep going. Once she thought she saw one of the rings of the circus, but then the smoke closed back in again and nothing came of it.

Finally, after an amount of time Luna could not fathom, she tired – driven past endurance by the growl-parps and the sensation of something moving past the edge of the little area she could see.

Panting, she sat back on her rump, feeling the costume crinkle. She blushed at the reminder of what she was wearing – a very obvious diaper – and was about to stand up again when there was a PAAARP from all directions at once.

The fog swirled, eddying a bit, and she saw – all around her, six huge plaid-patterned dragons. They were so large compared to her, it made her feel like a foal again, and the outfit didn't help.

Then they pounced, all at once, squishing Luna from all sides with soft plushy plaid and creaky flapping fabric. Pinning her in place, preventing her from moving, and leaving only her head free to see what was going on.

“S-stop!” she protested, sounding more like a protesting filly than the Ruler of the Night.

The dragons all growled in unison, their song echoing all around as they played. Their tails twisted together, squeezing their rumps tighter into each other as Luna wiggled, feeling every rumble and vibration. And then the dragons began to inflate…

“Halfway there, and our princess hasn’t even gotten her hooves free!” Twilight claimed, watching as Celestia continued to struggle. She tugged and twisted in her bonds, biting her lip as another instinctive use of magic only made her situation worse. She bounced in place, the jump ropes squeezing in on her diaper as she did, growing tighter and tighter. Celestia looked down, her swollen rear almost completely obscuring the still waiting dragon below, mouth open wide. Suddenly, an idea sparked in her mind. It was going to be rather embarrassing, but she was willing to try anything to keep herself from falling prey to the monster below. Her horn began to glow brightly as Celestia intensified her magic. Her diaper practically exploded outwards, swelling up and up and up, her suit growing thicker and thicker as it squeeeeeezed in on her. Celestia shut her eyes, her face a bright red as she felt everything squeeze in on her so snugly. Despite this, the bonds began to crreeaaaaak as she swelled and puffed up, causing her to pant from the sensations of the squeezes and rubbings as she blew up and up. Her rear was enormous, much bigger than the dragon’s awaiting jaws, and the bonds threatened to snap, Celestia continuing to grow.

There was a pompous paarp from up above, and Celestia’s gave swung upwards to see the source. From the top of the tent, there spiraled a slide that had certainly not been there before. And something fat, puffy, and plaid was sliding down, laughing energetically as it blew out a tune to match the other dragons.

“And it looks like there's a new performer on the stage!” Twilight announced, as the dragon slid down the slide – becoming more visible as it got closer and entered the full lighting of the Big Top, showing a white-skinned cloth hide with plaid cross-patterns picked out in blue and gold.

The dragon emerged from the slide with a final creeeak, then landed on his rump and let out an almighty OOM-PA as he squished down and then sprang back to normal size.

“That's right!” the dragon announced, in an upper-class accent which bubbled with mirth. “It's Bluebutt here!”

Blue- Celestia stared. Blueblood?

“But I've only been here a few seconds and already there's a pony whose butt is bigger than mine!” 'Bluebutt' went on.

Celestia mumbled, feeling awfully embarrassed all of a sudden, and the music seemed to get louder in her ears – making her vision swim a little.

The rope above her creaked, drawing her attention, and she held her breath.

At first the only thing Luna felt was an increase in pressure, dragon-rumps squeezing tighter around her. Instincts long-dormant sprang to the forefront of her mind, telling her she was surrounded by predators and being squashed by them, trapped and engulfed and squeezed.

The pressure grew and grew, never getting more than slightly uncomfortable, but Luna's struggles did less and less as the wriggles she could manage fought against more and more contained pressure. Worse, each struggle produced more and more parping, thumping music, and she had no way of blocking it out – not with her hooves stuck between plump plaid-patterned plush-dragon padding.

After a while, though, she noticed that on each beat the pressure was getting a little less. As if something was making her feel more comfortable whenever there was that paaaarp and rump-rub-squash at the end of each bar of the music, even though it should just squish her tighter too.

Luna wiggled as best as she could between the dragon’s rears, feeling them squish and squeeze her about as they blew up. She pressed her claws into one of their rumps… claws? Luna looked down, noticing her body was now a deep blue plaid, crisscrossed with lighter blue, a few stars twinkling here and there on her belly. The music blew again, and Luna felt a bit less squashed. Why, of course she had claws! Any good dragon would have them. Along with a big, bouncy butt that she could see ballooning out between the behinds of the bagpipers surrounding her. She couldn’t help but grin, squeezing on her belly with her claws, feeling as she grew bigger and bigger, the squeezings of the other dragons feeling more like especially cozy hugs than anything dangerous. And the tune was so grand, she just had to shake her rear along with it~ She laughed, taking in a few gulps of air as she inflated, fog slowly drifting away to reveal her trapped between Fluttershy and Rarity’s rumps, growing fatter and fatter as they teased her.

Celestia whimpered, now spotting Luna bouncing along to the tune as well, swelling up and up and up! The ropes continued to creak, along with her swollen diaper. Bluebutt bounced his own rear into hers, causing her to swing back and forth as he took a few gulps to try and outdo Celestia’s swollen rump. “10!” The great red bagpipe dragon shouted as the counter ticked down.

“9!” Said Spike

“8! 7! 6!” Rarity, Fluttershy, and Luna added in.

Celestia pushed more magic into her horn, desperate to free herself before time ran out.

“5! 4! 3!” Bluebutt, Dash, and Applejack continued.

The creaks grew louder, her diaper weighing her down as she dipped dangerously close to the dragon’s open maw.

“2!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing on her plaid butt.

“1!” Twilight announced, licking her lips as her mentor dangled above her.

And then, the ropes snapped!

Celestia fell, squirming in a futile attempt to get free of her hugely inflated, restrictive costume.

As she did, she saw the maw of the dragon below, and took a little comfort in how it was clearly too small to actually swallow her down – right up until it opened its mouth far larger, swelling until it seemed to take up all the space in the Big Top. It was as if everything else shrank to a thin ring around the outside edge of the world, and the world was the red-purple-white-and-yellow dragon below her as his great black maw yawned open.

Plaid rose up around her, then became the backdrop for everything. Celestia dropped for an unknown amount of time, then bounced off something – making the plaid all around her wobble, and another sequence of musical notes start to play.

At the same time, one of the ropes tying her in place started to loosen! It was only a little bit, but Celestia was heartened – she just needed to work out what was causing it.

She bounced again, with another musical accompaniment, and the ropes slackened off a little more.

So she had to bounce! That was the key, Celestia realized – the more she bounced, the more she was free of the restrictions holding her in, and then she and Twilight would be safe together again.

Something about that seemed odd, but she bounced off the plaid three times in quick succession and the music made her somehow forget to be worried.

Bounce! Boing! Bwoomp! Celestia continued to bounce in place, the plaid pattern all around wobbling and shifting as she did. Soon she was bouncing in time to the melody, each beat punctuated by her butt landing softly against whatever it was she was bouncing upon. The restrictions grew steadily looser, and it wasn’t long before Celestia’s forehooves were free. She grabbed at her hind ones, not to attempt to free them, but to pull them up and allow herself to more easily bounce upon her butt. She laughed, humming along with the song that swirled around her, telling her she was safe and sound, big and round.

Was she round? She looked at herself. With all the magic she had pumped into her suit, she was practically one of the dragons herself! Her diaper was bloated and puffy, and even looked a bit plaid now that she was paying attention. That only made her giggle, imagining how silly she would look with a rear as big as Twilight’s, with the same cute plaid pattern. The red and purple around her shifted, wobbling and… swelling? Celestia wasn’t sure how to describe the way the pattern bent and wobbled, but it was certainly swelling! And swelling in towards her! She bounced again and again, now completely free from her bonds, though that didn’t stop her. It was just too much fun, bouncing and boinging and parading herself around as she grew. Her tail flipped back and forth, the pipe at the end wailing along with the song as the pattern all around began to press into her. She blushed, the puffy material hindering her bouncing a bit. All that did was make her bounce harder, dreaming of being safe with her dear student Twilight and her sister Luna again~

The great big boss dragon, Bagpiperix, blew happy paaarp notes on all his pipes in succession.

Everyone was having such a good time with his circus! Why, not only were all the performers having fun, bouncing and crinkling and blowing and singing, but the audience was in rapture!

And even the most stubborn of spectators was coming around to enjoy the music as well. Why, even now…

He took a great big breath, puffing his belly out, then stuck his thumb in his mouth and pushed. A little bubble of white material began to form at the tip of his tail-tube, with pastel pink and blue and yellow forming nearly-invisible glowing plaid patterns across it.

He took another big breath, then blew again – this time with his draconic assistants bouncing up and down on his belly, from little Spike to the newly-inducted Luna-Dragon, all of them jumping or springing up and down on his air-filled belly to force the air out along his tail.

The bubble of material grew, and grew, forming a great big plump sphere. Then it developed arms, legs, a head, a tail – a big, plaid dragon body, but with a twist.

As Celestia-Dragon formed, it wasn't just her draconic hide that was on display in all its plaid glory. There was a thick red-plaid diaper as well, giving her an extra-cute extra-plump butt, as well as serving as a reminder of who was really in charge.

Celestia fell onto her padded rear with a paaarp, giggling happily as she rocked back and forth, her music joining in with the others. The dragons all bowed, the audience applauding wildly at their performance, completely oblivious to their princesses now being fat, plaid, puffy bagpipe dragons. Bagpiperix grinned, looking out amongst the crowd. There were lots of ponies he couldn’t wait to have join his band~!