“So, question,” Starlight Glimmer said.
“Trixie is listening,” Trixie replied, halfway underneath her cart with her horn glowing.
“How do you actually navigate?” Starlight asked. “You've been doing this for years, right?”
“Of course Trixie has been doing this for years,” Trixie confirmed. “Trixie is an experienced showpony!”
“I'm not doubting that,” Starlight assured her, as Trixie conjured a hammer out of thin air and started whacking at something under the cart – making the wooden contraption bounce up and down with each hit. “I'm just wondering if you could tell me where we are.”
“It doesn't matter, we are exactly where we need to be,” Trixie answered. “Trixie – oops.”
Trixie zipped out from under the cart with a fizz of magic, just before the cart's rear axle collapsed.
“...hmm...” Trixie said, frowning. “It appears as though the woodworm had been there for longer than Trixie thought.”
Starlight Glimmer sighed. “Now is it important? We need to fix the cart, and we're going to have to carry it to the nearest town.”
“Can't you teleport it?” Trixie asked.
“Not far,” Starlight answered. “Not with how much magic stuff is in there. And not unless I know where we are… so, nearest town.”
“Ah,” Trixie replied. “Trixie… is not sure...”
Starlight sighed, shaking her head. “Well, this is just great, we're lost in the middle of the woods and I don't even remember when we wandered into this place.”
“Trixie thinks it was a few hours ago... perhaps. There was some sort of sign, wasn't there?”
Starlight shrugged, walking around to the front of the cart. “Are you sure you don't have some sort of map?”
“Trixie doesn't need a map, Trixie knows just where we are! She just doesn't know the location of the nearest town in relation to us.”
“Well, I think we might just need to keep following the trail...” Starlight said, not particularly happy about needing to leave the cart alone. “Let's just hope it isn't too far until we come across someone.”
The pair began to trot down the road, and soon the cart was out of sight leaving them wandering within the dark woods.
As they trotted along they noticed there seemed to be the sound of more hoofsteps than there should have been. They paused, and so did the steps. They started up again, and so did the steps. They turned around, their suspicions confirmed. Standing behind them was, of all ponies, Thorax.
“Thorax!” Starlight said.
“Yes, I know,” Thorax replied.
Starlight frowned, not quite sure where to go from there, then shook her head. “Sorry – that wasn't very polite of me. It's nice to see you, Thorax.”
The changeling leader smiled. “It's good to see you as well, Starlight. What brings you and Trixie here?”
“I'm afraid we had a bit of trouble some way back down the road, and we were wondering where the nearest town was,” Starlight replied.
Trixie frowned, tilting her head a bit. “That seems odd...”
“What is it, Trixie?” Starlight asked.
“Oh, Trixie was wondering if something was odd about Thorax,” Trixie answered. “It seems as though he has put on a bit of weight...”
“That's not very polite,” Starlight sighed. “I'm sorry about my friend, Thorax.”
“She's my friend as well,” Thorax shrugged. “And I may have gained a little bit of weight.”
Now Starlight was looking, she had to admit that the colourful Changeling looked a little bit… softer, perhaps.
“What kind of trouble?” Thorax asked.
“Oh, well, Trixie's cart broke,” Starlight explained.
“It is our cart, not just Trixie's,” Trixie countered.
“Well, the important bit is that it's broken,” Starlight said. “So, um… can you help?”
“Of course we'll help our friends,” Thorax told them with a smile. “The hive will be very glad to have such important visitors.”
He tapped a hoof on the ground. “I'm afraid we're not really good at cart repair, but you can stay overnight and we'll see what we can do in the morning.”
“Trixie will gladly accept a place to sleep,” Trixie said, stepping up to Thorax. Starlight hesitated a moment, still trying to put her hoof on what exactly was different about her friend. She shook her head, reminding herself it really probably wasn't something worth worrying about, and she was thankful for the help.
“If it isn't too much trouble, Thorax. The cart's broken but we can still sleep in it,” she said.
Thorax waved his hoof dismissively as he turned about, starting to trot off into the woods. “Nonsense, it's not an imposition at all! Besides, we'll have more than enough room in the caves. I think you'll like how we've renovated everything after kicking Chrysalis out.”
They followed after Thorax, Trixie wondering how exactly one remodels a cave.
The group trotted through the dense forest, the light growing dimmer as the foliage grew thicker. As they continued there was some strange sound that could be heard just above their hoofsteps in the grass. Something... crinkling? Starlight couldn't pin where she was hearing the sound from or why it seemed familiar.
The path Thorax led them on was slightly inclined, going downwards most of the time, and the light gradually got dimmer and dimmer, but the brightly coloured Changeling was still easy enough to follow.
Starlight wasn't quite clear on how long they'd been walking for, or how far they'd gone, but it didn't seem all that important – it couldn't be far, her hooves didn't hurt, and this had to be the quickest option to get somewhere to spend the night anyway.
...right?
And that strange crinkly noise was always there, always just subtly on the edge of hearing, but about all Starlight could tell was that it seemed to be roughly in time with Thorax' steps.
“Here we are,” Thorax said, stepping a little to the side to indicate the cave mouth. “Welcome to our humble home!”
“Thank you again,” Starlight smiled. “That's very kind of you...”
She looked more closely, and Trixie did the same.
It looked as though the dripping walls of the hive had been changed, true to Thorax's comment – now they were soft-sided and soft-coloured, lit at irregular intervals by lights which highlighted how they looked almost… plush.
“Trixie thinks it looks… nice?” Trixie tried. “She is not an expert on interior design, but she thinks that it does look quite… soft.”
“We all decided we liked the material,” Thorax replied. “We just sleep anywhere, but we liked the idea of a nice soft bed, so we just made the whole hive as soft as possible!”
Starlight took a few tentative steps into the cave, her hooves sinking into the mattress-like material that was now the floor. "It certainly is comfortable." She remarked, a smile crossing her face as she walked along.
"Come along, I'll bring you to one of the sleeping chambers so you aren't sleeping in the front hall."
The warm lights hanging on the walls were quite inviting, and illuminated the soft appearance of the stalagmites and stalactites of the cave...
As they trotted deeper in, the odd crinkling grew louder, somehow echoing through the halls while every other sound was dampened. The trio turned a corner and came across a room where a small group of changelings were lying about, snoozing on the plush floor.
"Goodness, it must be later than I thought! I'm sure you'll find somewhere suitable, but I'm afraid I'll need to prepare to change the guards..." Thorax turned about, traveling down a separate path in the cave, squeezing between some tighter formations on his way out.
“Hey, wait, I wanted to… ask...” Starlight began, then trailed off. “Is… is this a sleeping chamber?”
“Trixie supposes that it is not as if we will need to look hard to find a bed,” her fellow unicorn shrugged. “It appears we are surrounded by a fine soft mattress.”
“You're right, but there isn't a blanket,” Starlight lamented. “I guess we'll just have to find somewhere to sleep where we won't disturb any of these changelings.”
“Trixie agrees,” Trixie said, more quietly, and followed Starlight as she headed towards one of the other exits to the plush-sided cave.
As she got close, however, the squishy floor compressed under her hoof – near enough to Starlight's rear hooves to make her lose her balance. Starlight wobbled to the side a bit, trying to stay upright, then lost her struggle and slowly toppled over onto one of the changelings snoozing on the floor.
“Oh, no, I'm so sorry,” Starlight said, rolling off and getting back to all fours. “I didn't mean to...”
She paused, finally processing what had just happened.
When she'd landed on the changeling – the changeling who was even now yawning and getting up, blinking a few times – it had felt soft. Very, very soft – almost plush, like the floor.
And it had made a loud crinkly noise.
“Huh?” the changeling asked, then spotted her and Trixie and brightened – literally as well as figuratively. “Hey, look!”
The other changelings began to wake up as well, rustling a bit as they did.
The large group of changelings stirred, several yawning while a few stretched, the room filling with the soft glow of their brightly colored bodies. The one that Starlight had fallen upon bounded up, grinning widely. "Oh, Thorax didn't say you two were stopping by!"
"Well we really hadn't planned on it, the cart broke and-" Starlight began, only to be cut off by the changeling.
"It sounds like you've had a bad day, then! Can I get you anything? Tea? Nectar? We have the sweetest syrup in some of the caves!" He chattered away cheerfully.
Another changeling trotted up, taking Trixie's hoof. "You must have been walking all day long! Come with me, I know just the coziest little crag in here where you can slip into..."
A third changeling bounced up, grabbing Trixie's other hoof. "No, no, you'll want to see our pool, it's right above natural heat vents, it's a veritable jacuzzi!"
The first changeling looked a bit upset. "Hey, now that's not fair, I saw them first, I should take care of our guests!"
Yet another stepped up, bouncing his rear into the first changeling's. "Too slow, puff butt!"
With all the changelings crowding around, Trixie could see not only were they oddly soft to the touch, but they all had what looked like seams running along their pudgy bodies.
“This is very nice of you, but-” Trixie began.
“Wait, wait,” Starlight said at about the same time. “Can you guys calm down? Sorry, but we just need to get some sleep-”
“Oh, sleep!” one of the changelings said. “That's just the sort of thing I can help you with!”
“Hey, if anyling is going to help them it should be me!” the first changeling replied, swinging his big and oddly puffy rear around to bump into the changeling who'd been speaking.
“What about me?” asked another changeling. “I'm the biggest!”
“But I'm the softest?”
“This seems kind of weird,” Trixie said quietly, as they watched the oddly soft-and-puffy changelings arguing back and forth and squishing into one another.
“Yeah,” Starlight agreed, also staring at what was going on as the colourful changelings squished into one another.
It was a bit difficult to make heads and tails of the group of changelings, their bright colors squishing and swirling together as they argued among each other. Bits of their quarreling could be made out, Starlight and Trixie getting all the more confused and steadily more worried by comments such as “I'd make the best bed!” “My butt's the pillowyest!” “I'm practically a sleeping bag already!”
“Perhaps we should leave them alone...” Trixie whispered to Starlight. The unicorn nodded in agreement, the two trying their best to slowly shuffle away from the group, who were too preoccupied with their quibbles to notice them leaving. They trotted to the edge of the room, but as they stepped into the tunnel, Trixie's hoof came down on a sewn-in plaid patch, a loud Paaaarp echoing somehow through the cloth caves.
The group of changelings looked over to see the pair standing, Trixie's hoof still slowly sinking into the patch. “Hey, come back! It's rude to walk out on hosts like that!”
Before the group could say another word, Starlight and Trixie turned around, bolting down the caves. The sound of crinkling and rustling could be heard as the swarm of changelings chased after the two, buzzing down the halls of the cushy cave.
“Which way are we going?” Trixie asked, as they hurried along a soft-surfaced tunnel – the surface crinkling and bouncing a little with every hoofstep.
“I don't know, but I think the important thing is to go somewhere those changelings aren't,” Starlight replied, glancing back over her shoulder.
“Turn coming up,” Trixie warned, and the two mares took a random choice at the intersection before cantering along the new route. This tunnel was more brightly coloured, blue and green, and it seemed to shift slightly as they moved along it.
“What do you think that was about?” Starlight said, more than a little worried. “What was up with those changelings?”
“Trixie has no idea – ah, I have no idea,” Trixie replied, catching her verbal tic. “They… seemed a bit odd...”
She turned to exchange a worried look with Starlight for a moment, then returned her gaze to the path in front of them.
Something about the way the path ahead of them was moving was a little odd… it was still the same blue-green mix, but it was as if part of it was bouncing up and down in front of them a little. Trixie couldn't make out what it was, no matter how closely she looked, and as she kept looking it sort of seemed to slide out of being important.
It was almost like something big and crinkly was bouncing in front of her, but that couldn't be what was going on… right?
The two continued their mad dash, trying to remember which way they had entered.
Had they even come in this path at all? Trixie certainly didn't remember any bouncing passages before. If it was even the passage that was bouncing at all.
As they ran, the bouncing seemed to fill steadily more and more of their vision, until it looked like the entire passage way was jumping up and down in front of them. It was only after the two hit something with a pomf and a rush of foal powder did they realize what had happened.
Starlight sat up, shaking her head to try and clear it of the dizziness from the cloud of powder around her. She looked up, realizing there had indeed been another changeling bouncing along on the floor, his front hooves holding onto his hind hooves as his rump sank into the cushy floor. What was more, this changeling looked particularly puffy, as if he had packed on several pounds of fluff around his middle.
The changeling looked over his shoulder, grinning widely as he turned about, still bouncing up and down. “Oh, hello! I didn't know we were having such special guests visit us today!” he said cheerfully. Trixe and Starlight were attempting to get back to their hooves, but each time the fat changeling landed, the floor beneath him sent waves lifting the two ponies into the air, and their impact sent him flying upwards again, like an oddly crinkly trampoline-seesaw.
“We're- oof! Not- oof! Staying -oof!” Starlight forced out, trying to grab a hold of Trixie's hoof.
The large changeling looked disappointed, bouncing a bit closer. “Awww, how come? We have lots of fun here, surely you'd enjoy to stay just a little while~”
“No, this is just – bizarre?” Starlight said, before getting bounced again. This time she bumped into the roof, which left her feeling a little dizzy.
Shaking her head as she kept bouncing up and down, up and down, she focused on the changeling in front of her.
It did seem very colourful, enough to draw Starlight's attention… making her frown, more than a little confused, as the shifting patterns of the changeling's surprisingly puffy body seemed to swirl with every movement he made.
“Bizarre?” the changeling repeated, sounding hurt. “But we're all about love – what could be wrong with that? And we love visitors, we want to show them a good time and keep them safe – isn't that good?”
Starlight raised a hoof, trying to work out how to object, but it took her a long moment to think of something – then, just before she began to speak, the big bulky changeling bounced her into the air again.
“Trixie feels dizzy,” Trixie said, staggering a bit on her latest landing.
“Oh, no!” the changeling gasped. “It sounds like you might be about to fall over! You need protection to make sure you don't hurt yourself!”
“But...” Starlight began. “I… wait, didn't you make us feel all-”
The changeling bounced again, colours swirling, and Starlight lost her train of thought.
It was something about changelings and safety?
Trixie scratched her head, only to bump it into the ceiling once more. “Trixie supposes... that makes sense?” She landed on the floor, flopping onto her back to stare up at the changeling hovering above her.
“Oh, wonderful! I have just the things!” The changeling said before flopping down to the floor. Trixie and Starlight were sent flying once again, too dizzy and disoriented by the bouncing to notice what the changeling was doing. When the duo came down once again, they landed on their rumps, sinking into the soft, crinkly floor once again. Or, at least, they thought it was the floor. Their rebound sent them back into the air just a bit, and as they reached the peak of their bounce, they noticed the warm feeling of the floor hadn't left. Looking down, Starlight found a thick bright blue diaper wrapped around her flanks. Trixie's rear was protected by an equally colorful crimson diaper, which crinkled softly as she came to a rest on the floor.
The changeling came down yet again, letting out several coos as he admired the two. “Aren't you two just adorable! And so much comfier, aren't you?”
Starlight was still confused, her mind swimming from the bouncing and the mix of colors. The diaper was rather comfortable... and soft... but... a diaper?” Something was definitely wrong here but...
There was the sound of crinkling behind them, causing Starlight to look behind her. The swarm of changelings were starting to catch up, and she and Trixie were still stuck bouncing on the floor!
“What do we-” Trixie began, blinking a few times. “Wait, um… follow me!”
Trixie wiggled about a bit, moving herself around as best she could, until the next bounce sent her forwards as much as it sent her up-and-down.
“How did you-” Starlight started.
“Trixie thinks you have to not think about it!” Trixie replied.
Starlight blinked, then tried to just focus on doing rather than thinking. It was a bit hard to get into the right mindset, but then suddenly it all made sense and she started bouncing along behind Trixie down the corridor.
“Wait!” one of the changelings behind them called. “You aren't nearly padded enough!”
Starlight shook her head, and concentrated on following Trixie.
Every bounce seemed to produce a little flash of red light, making Starlight blink, and her only relief was when Trixie had bounced around a corner… but those same times were when a blue flash lit the corridor instead, which made her feel a bit fuzzier in a subtly different way.
Still, it felt like they were managing to outbounce the changelings – somehow…
“Trixie can see a junction up ahead!” Trixie's voice floated back to Starlight. “Take the green path!”
Starlight nodded, but just then the bounce went wrong and she tripped over. Getting back up took a precious few seconds, and she started trying to canter instead – resulting in a massive waddle.
The tunnel around her shimmered with several different colours, and when she rounded the corner to see the junction it seemed like all the other tunnels were confusingly coloured as well. Starlight blinked a few times, then picked the one which seemed the most green and bounced down it – dropping lower with each little flash of blue light.
Trixie bounced up the tunnel she'd taken, climbing higher with each little flash of red light, until she finally decided she was probably safely away from the pursuing changelings.
Her bouncing slowly lost its height until she was sitting comfortably on the floor of the cave, looking behind her. To both her dismay and delight there was no longer the sound of crinkling behind her... but that also meant that Starlight wasn't following after her either. “...Starlight?” Trixie called warily, worried about attracting the attention of the changelings once again. She peered down the passage she had just bounced up, but could see no hint of her friend. Had she chosen a different path? Or worse... did the changelings already get her?
Trixie gulped, turning around and starting to slowly waddle through her passage way in hopes that she could at least find a way out and come back with some help to rescue Starlight.
Starlight was waddling slowly along as well, wondering just how far ahead Trixie had managed to bounce. She had chosen the right path, right? She wasn't going to turn around, not with the changelings chasing them but...
She shook her head, pushing forward as the passageway narrowed steadily. It wasn't long before Starlight was bending her head to duck under several stalactites, pressing her hooves into the tightening walls as her butt bounced against them with each wide waddle. She squeezed between a narrow plush crag, her butt wiggling before slipping through with an almost audible pop, sending her flopping to the floor.
Pulling herself to her hooves, Starlight glanced back at the obstruction before deciding she could probably slow down a bit and move more safely now – the changelings would have trouble getting through that.
Raising a hoof to her forehead for a moment, Starlight tried to think about the best course of action now. Would it be better to hurry ahead to catch up with Trixie, or would that just mean she might end up running into trouble all the faster?
Deciding on a compromise, Starlight began waddling quickly down the path ahead of her. There were no little flashes from her diaper to distract her, and the crinkling was much quieter this way, but even with that she couldn't hear Trixie ahead of her…
After a minute or so, however, Starlight found herself in a cavern where the tunnel widened a bit. It still only had two paths – the one she'd come in by and the one at the other end – so there wasn't any real risk of getting lost or turned around, but the surprising thing was the contents of the cavern.
It was one giant ball-pit, made of hundreds upon hundreds of what turned out to be slightly squishy plasticy balls, and when Starlight pressed one not only did she find that out but also that it lit up with an odd, multicoloured glow of light.
The unicorn slowly dipped her hoof into the pit, the balls squishing gently under her weight. Each one she pressed into illuminated, glowing softly in the light as she slipped further in, trying to reach the bottom.
As she reached further and further, though, her hoof failed to touch the bottom, and with a sudden slip she lost her grip on the edge of the pool, falling down into the mass of squishy orbs. Lights filled her vision as she slowly drifted down, soon finding herself seemingly floating in their embrace. She tried to push aside some balls, only for several more to fall down from above, lighting up in front of her in a myriad of colors.
Starlight found the colors oddly pleasant, not minding the flashes of light as she tried to dig her way forwards. Swimming through the ocean of bright spheres, a small smile crossed her face as the plastic balls pressed into her diaper, the colors swirling around her as she tried to remember which way it was back to the exit.
Trixie's path, meanwhile, had led her towards a passage that was lined with a prismatic substance. Like an enormously long mirror, her reflection could be seen on either side of her, stretching off into infinity. She continued forward, watching as her reflection waddled along, her rear swinging left and right with each step. Curiously (and Trixie would have to admitted, amusingly), the substance wasn't quite a perfect mirror. It seemed to change in color steadily, the entrance having been a bright blue, while now she was wandering into a violet hue. The color of the mirror tinted her reflections, as well as her own coat, making it looks like Trixie and her diaper were a deep purple, which made her giggle.
Kept interested and distracted by the mirror-effect of the wall, Trixie walked briskly along the tunnel with dozens of other Trixies either side of her.
It was kind of funny to see so many Trixies, colours slowly changing as 'they' moved, and Trixie let her mind wander a bit as she wondered which colour worked best. At various points she looked a lot like different unicorns she'd met, which gave her a bit of a laugh, and she was so focused on how she looked that she completely forgot to pay attention to where she was going.
Bumping into something soft and plush, Trixie rebounded and staggered backwards a couple of steps before falling backwards onto her diaper. All the other Trixies did as well, and the real Trixie shook her head before looking up at who she'd hit.
“Starlight!” she declared, getting to her hooves again. “Trixie is glad to see you!”
Starlight smiled. “I'm glad I found you,” she replied, wiggling her own diaper back and forth a bit. “And I guess it's a good thing we have these, or you might have been hurt!”
“...yes,” Trixie agreed, a bit more quietly.
It seemed a bit odd to emphasize that, but she had to admit it was true.
And Starlight's diaper certainly looked comfy in the mirrored light – it seemed bigger, big enough to almost fill the passage, so the prismatic mirrors meant that an infinite line of colourful diapers seemed to stretch out either side of Trixie's viewpoint.
“...weren't you behind Trixie?” the magician-pony asked, confused.
“Maybe, all these tunnels can get a pony turned around, can't they? I must have just found a short cut!” Starlight responded as Trixie got back to her hooves. Trixe supposed that made sense, and she shouldn't really be wondering how Starlight found her when they managed to stumble back into each other at all, should she?
“Did you find some way out of here, at least?” Trixie asked, trying to peer around Starlight's surprisingly large diaper to see further down the mirrored hallway.
“I sure did! Come on, it's this way!” Starlight said. Her hooves pressed into the floor as she started to waddle forward, each one crinkling just a bit as it did. Had Trixie looked just a bit closer, she might have noticed a few seams running along her friend's hooves, with a tape sealing the seams every few inches. As it was, she was too distracted by the way Starlight's diaper pressed into the mirrored surface, causing it to warp ever so slightly with each step. Trixie giggled, watching as her diaper seemed to swell and shrink every waddle, a wave of expanding and contracting puff flowing down the line of mirrors.
Starlight swam through the lights, her mind fuzzy as she tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing. There was a reason she had jumped into this pool of balls, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on what that reason was. As more lights filled her vision, she pondered and figured it must have been simply because the glowing orbs were so relaxing to stare at. She spread her hooves, sinking a bit further into them. As she did, she thought she heard someone calling her name.
“Starlight? Starlight, are you down there?”
Suddenly Starlight was staring at Trixie's face, who promptly grinned widely upon finding her friend. “There you are! I thought I told you to be careful. You never know what might happen if you get lost in something like these!” She said. Starlight watched as Trixie wrapped a crinkly hoof around hers, helping to pull her back up towards the surface. Or, was it down? Left? Try as she might, Starlight couldn't remember which way 'up' had been, instead trusting that Trixie knew where she was going.
“There we go!” Trixie announced, pulling Starlight out of the pool. “That's better!”
Starlight nodded. “Yeah… hehe...”
A giggle escaped her, and she glanced back at the pool – which was shimmering a bit, the colours only gradually fading even though the orbs were no longer being pressed.
“Come on!” Trixie said, giving her a crinkly hoof-poke. “We've got to get away from those changelings!”
“Huh… oh, yeah!” Starlight remembered. “That's right, that's what we need to do.”
Trixie nodded firmly. “And Trixie knows just what to do. This way.”
She walked up to one of the walls, reaching out a forehoof, and pulled part of the wall away – revealing a passage with soft-looking walls which looked like they'd squeeze them both tightly.
“We need to head through here,” Trixie explained. “Then I have an idea – they're looking for two unicons, right? So if they only see one unicorn they might leave her alone!”
Starlight blinked, confused by that logic.
“I don't think...”
“Come on!” Trixie said. “This way!”
She waddled towards the passage, and Starlight followed. About halfway there, though, Trixie stepped to the side.
“You should go first,” she said. “I'll push you to get you through!”
Starlight nodded, and attempted to squeeze past Trixie, only to realize just how small the crinkly tunnel was. Her hooves kicked and pushed against the walls, Trixie's belly already taking up at least half of the space they had available. “Mmpphh... Trixie... you don't think you could move aside a bit more, could you?”
Trixie gasped, pressing herself into the crinkly walls. “I'm as aside as I can be! Are you calling Trixie fat?” She cried, her foreleg coming across her forehead as she swooned dramatically.
Starlight was bounced about a bit in the narrow passage from Trixie's movements, pushing against the opposite side of Trixie's cushy belly to try and make her way past. Although it was hard to resist simply stopping in place to snuggle up to her too. Had her friend always been so cuddly and she'd just never noticed?
“N-no! I didn't meant that all, Trixie!” Starlight apologized, continuing to struggle.
Trixie giggled placing a hoof on Starlight's diapered butt. “It's alright, Trixie forgives you. On three... one... two...”
Before Starlight could prepare Trixie shoved against her butt, squeezing the smaller unicorn past her belly and through the narrowing tunnel. “Keep going, Starlight, I'll be right behind you!” Trixie declared happily, watching as Starlight maneuvered her way deeper into the caves with some difficulty.
“Now, which path was it again?” Starlight pondered, having made it to the end of the mirrored hallway. They were facing a trio of caverns, each looking identical to each other. Trixie wasn't paying much attention, too focused on the continued pulsing of her diaper, each slow wave sending a lovely shiver up her spine and making her giggle excitedly. “Ah of course, how silly of me!” Starlight eventually said. Her horn lit, and one of the patches on the ground vanished to reveal a tunnel directly downwards. Trixie peered over the edge to the crinkly slide below, Starlight standing on the opposite side of the hole as her. “Are you sure? Trixie thought the exit would be... well... up.”
“Of course I'm sure! Come on, follow me!” Starlight said. She stood onto her hind hooves, posing like a diver at the edge of a pool preparing to leap in. She jumped a few times on the puffy floor, fluttering her hind hooves just a bit before diving headfirst into the hole... only for her diaper to get stuck in the entrance. “Oh dear... a little help, Trixie?” Starlight called up on the other side of her swollen behind.
Trixie placed her forehooves on Starlight's rump, blushing a bit as she tried not to think about what she was doing as she started to shove on Starlight's rear. She was at least able to admire the frills on Starlight's rump, which helped distract her from needlessly observant thoughts like wondering how Starlight even managed to climb up this passage in the first place.
After several minutes of squeezing and squishing, forcing her way through the tunnel with more than a little help from Trixie behind her, Starlight finally managed to pop out of the other side of the tunnel into a wider cave.
“Phew...” she mumbled, looking back down at the hole she'd come up through. “Trixie, do you need some help?”
“I'm fine,” Trixie replied, crinkling her way up into the chamber herself. “There we go! Trixie told you we could make it!”
“Yeah, you did,” Starlight agreed.
“Was there ever any doubt?” Trixie pressed. “No? Then you know, of course, that Trixie knows best what to do in any situation of this sort!”
Starlight nodded, unwilling to deny the evidence. “Yeah, it does look like you do. So, uh… what now?”
The crinkly unicorn frowned, and was about to answer when there was a shout from down the tunnel.
“They're this way!”
“Oh, no!” Trixie cried. “There's only one thing we can do!”
“Back down the tunnel?” Starlight suggested.
“What?” Trixie replied. “No, of course not – we just need to convince them that they've come the wrong way! That means they can't find both of us – but if they find only one of us they might think it was all a massive mistake!”
“I'm not sure that-” Starlight began.
“Why not?” Trixie interrupted. “Isn't it possible that if they only found Trixie that Trixie might be able to trick them into thinking she was really a disguised changeling?”
Starlight was about to point out how that was kind of silly, and how there was no reason that just one of them would be easier to believe than both of them in making that convincing… but as she tried to come up with the words, she found herself distracted by the crinkly poof Trixie was waving back and forth.
It didn't seem deliberate, it was just what Trixie was doing while she waited for an answer, but somehow it made it so Starlight couldn't concentrate in the slightest on what she'd been about to say…
After several pushes and shoves, Trixie managed to squeeze Starlight's puffy rump down the tunnel, and before she could regain her balance she fell down after her. She bounced off the puffy walls of the tunnel, slipping down after Starlight. The tunnel widened slightly, and the pair were slipping down it like a slide. Suddenly the ground disappeared beneath Trixie, and she fell through the air before landing with a flumph on top of Starlight. Her eyes spun as she tried to recover from the impact. As she pushed herself off of Starlight (although she found a part of herself wanting to stay snuggled up to her crinkly friend), she heard something from around the corner. “Did you here that? I think they're over here!”
“Aah! They've found us!” Trixie yelped, looking around for a place to hide. Unfortunately the cavern they had dropped into was completely barren, with no other connecting passages other than the one they had dropped from and the one the changelings were approaching in.
“Quick, in here!” Starlight said. She bent down, opening her mouth widely.
Trixie paused, confused. “Trixie doesn't think that's how this works...”
“There's nowhere else to hide! Now, quick!” Starlight urged.
Trixie was still hesitant, and the logic behind Starlight's request just didn't seem to quite make sense, but Starlight was right in that she didn't have any other options. She bent down, looking up into Starlight's glimmering eyes for a moment before she slipped her forehooves into her awaiting maw.
“Okay, I… guess that makes sense,” Starlight admitted, most of her focus on Trixie's wiggling butt going back and forth. “But, uh… how are we going to do that?”
“That's easy!” Trixie replied, her horn flaring up with a bewitching green light. “Just hold still, and Trixie will hide you!”
Starlight was about to object, but the horn caught her eye – the pretty, shimmering patterns of green light drawing her attention and making her feel relaxed, unworried…
Part of her did wonder just why Trixie's magic was green, but that didn't seem to matter. It was probably some kind of trick, and they were relying on trickery to get out of trouble with the changelings so it had to be a good thing.
“Just relax,” Trixie added, her horn weaving from side to side slightly. “Trixie will keep you safe… relax… stay still… good...”
Starlight was a bit hazy on what happened next, but when that cleared she found herself with an all-over crinkly hug – soft, plushy material pressing gently into her on all sides, all around every hoof and leg, around her barrel, on both sides of her head and neck and especially around her diaper.
“H-huh?” she asked, blinking. “What's...”
“Ssh,” Trixie told her. “Trixie is going to try to make sure the changelings don't catch us!”
Starlight frowned, feeling like somewhere something had gone a way she wasn't expecting, but it was kind of hard to focus with such a warm, lethargic feeling all around her making her feel sleepy and scatterbrained.
Starlight's eyes were so... captivating. Trixie had never really noticed before just how pretty her friend's eyes were. She felt that warm sensation around her forehooves spread up them, soon wrapping around her head, chest, and down her legs. Trixie blinked, the shimmering of Starlight's eyes suddenly gone, instead replaced by something warm and soft, though equally colorful. She tried to wriggle about, but the warm plush feeling surrounding her just seemed to squeeze tighter. She squished her hooves up and down, coaxing the plush material to squeeze her again. Everything seemed so comfortable and cozy, she wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but she couldn't find a reason why that should bother her...
Starlight felt the material surrounding her moving, squeezing her around her belly and diaper as she was carried through the caves. Her head spun a little, hoping that whatever Trixie had in mind was going to work. She had gotten her through the cave so far though, so why shouldn't she trust her? Trixie waddled through the caves, her rump swinging left and right to bounce Starlight's back and forth. Her ears were full of a soft crinkling sound, and for a moment she forgot why she had needed to hide in the first place.
That is, until Starlight bumped into somepony. She shook her head, and saw herself standing in front of her.
“Huh?” Starlight asked, looking at… at herself? “What's going on?”
“Trixie could ask you that!” the other Starlight replied. “Why are you Trixie?”
“What?” Starlight asked. “I'm not Trixie!”
She held up a hoof to demonstrate, then blinked and stared at it.
It was big, puffy, slightly crinkly, and definitely blue.
“But...” she began, confused. “I didn't...”
“If you are Trixie,” the other Starlight said, slowly, “then who am I?”
“Starlight,” Starlight replied, looking at the crinkly purple-ish unicorn in front of her.
It was really confusing, and she waddled back a step before sitting down.
How did it make sense that she looked like one pony but she thought she was another? She felt dizzy, but how could she get that confused… how could she think she was Starlight, when Starlight was clearly right there in front of her, and she was clearly Trixie?
She put a hoof to her head, trying to remember, and thoughts bounced around in her head – some of them sort of like faint whispers in the back of her mind, but whispers which made sense as she started to puzzle out what was going on.
If she'd been Starlight, but she was now Trixie, then the only thing that really made sense was that either she wasn't remembering right and she was really Trixie… or that she was really a changeling who was trying to pretend to be Starlight and was now pretending to be Trixie.
Both of those seemed kind of possible…
“So, uh...” she began, getting back to her hooves and wobbling a bit – feeling the plushy hug all around her. “Either I'm actually Trixie or I'm a changeling, I guess...”
Starlight sat down opposite Trixie, also tapping her head. “That seems... correct? Well, I suppose it wouldn't be hard to find out. If you're a changeling, you could be someone else too!”
Trixie nodded, figuring that made quite a bit of sense. She focused, trying to think of somepony to be. She couldn't be Starlight, if Starlight was already here, and she was already Trixie, so somepony else... Of course, Twilight! She envisioned the purple pony in her mind, and with a sudden puff of foal powder, Twilight was standing where Trixie had been. She looked over herself, admiring her new darker coat, her highlights in her puffy mane, and her star cutie-mark on her flanks. Her legs were spread by her swollen rump, which Twilight wasn't quite sure if it was any bigger than it had been a moment before. But she figured such a silly question wasn't worth thinking about, especially when her rump was so comfortable.
“So you are a changeling!” Starlight cried, suddenly looking a bit nervous. “I bet you were sent here to catch me! Unless... am I a changeling too?” She pondered, looking over herself. Her mind wandered for a pony to become, and with another puff and a cloud of foal powder, Twilight was sitting across from Shining Armor, who was sporting an equally puffy rump and crinkly belly.
“Well, that… does explain it,” Shining decided. “But how could I forget that I was a changeling?”
“Maybe it's something changelings do when they're really well disguised?” Twilight suggested. “That might be how they manage to not give themselves away for so long?”
“Hmm… maybe?” Shining said, thinking about it. “But that would mean that if we transform into something for too long, then we might start to forget that we're Changelings...”
“That sounds kind of possible,” Twilight replied, frowning a little as whispers of thought suggested themselves to her. “Maybe we'd just get too caught up in the role we were playing, so we'd focus on that instead of anything else… perhaps we could avoid that by changing forms as often as possible?”
“That might work!” Shining agreed. “So what do you think would be good?”
Twilight thought about it, and blushed slightly. “Well, perhaps… Princess Crinklestia?”
She paused. “That… something about that sounded kind of odd, but I don't know what it is...”
“Probably because you didn't say it with enough reverence in your voice. Twilight does love Crinklestia. Even if Balloona is clearly better.” Shining Armor responded.
Twilight nodded, only to pause a moment later. Balloona better than Crinklestia? She screwed up her face, and with a 'floof!', she puffed into a crinkly Celestia, fit with regal plush attire, wings spread wide as she bounced a bit on the floor from her sudden increased weight. She shifted left and right on her thick butt, looking down at Shining Armor. She posed dramatically, smiling just a little smugly. “I think we can see who the better princess is here.”
Shining Armor puffed his cheeks up, looking up at Crinklestia in front of him. With a puff, Balloona was standing in front of her sister, trying to puff her chest up to outdo Crinklestia. “Indeed, I'm clearly the puffier one!” she said proudly. Indeed, while she was shorter than Crinklestia, her butt was almost twice as poofy, her tail flicking across it. Crinklestia looked down at Luna, her smug appearance dropping just a bit. With another puff, she grew bigger, her white skin taking on a slightly more red appearance as her regalia became sharper.
Daydiaper now towered over Balloona, her smug smile returning.
“How do you deal with that, sister?” Daydiaper demanded. “Clearly I am the better princess of puffiness – the largest, the most inflated, the most poofy!”
Balloona pouted, shaking her rump back and forth a bit and bouncing it to try and puff herself up, then scowled. “Perhaps, sister… but I still have a way to get bigger, puffier, poofier!”
She focused, imagining herself with a different colour scheme – with bewitching yellow eyes – but most importantly, with enough padding to contest Daydiaper's dominance!
There was a fwoof of powder, and when it cleared Nightwear Fwoomp stood revealed – big, plushy legs, thick diaper, hypnotic glowing yellow eyes…
The two alicorns faced off against one another, nearly evenly matched – both big, both thickly padded, and both with eyes which flashed with indignation and pride. Nightwear Fwoomp and Daydiaper stared at one another, both trying to win the clash by sheer force of will… and each looking through her own slightly swirly eyes at the slightly swirly eyes of her opponent.
“I'm the best ruler,” Daydiaper insisted. “I've got the biggest diaper!”
“Pfft, that's training pants at most,” Nightwear Fwoomp retaliated, waving her own cushy tush to emphasize it.
Daydiaper 'harumph'ed, continuing to stare into her sister's eyes. She could see Nightwear's diaper swaying left and right out of the corner of her eyes, the slow swishing only accentuating the shimmering of her eyes. Daydiaper found her own rump swaying left and right, trying to lord over Nightwear. Her own eyes glimmered brighter, her cheeks puffing up just a bit as she stared. She was clearly puffier than Nightwear! She'd show all those little ponies what a real diaper was!
Nightwear's own vision was filling more and more with the colors resonating in Daydiaper's eyes. She knew she was the puffiest, she certainly wasn't going to back down to some thinly cushed ruler like Daydiaper! Only she could be the true crinkly queen!
As the two stared into each other's eyes, everything else seemed to melt away. They were too focused on being the puffier one, the crinklier tush, the plumper padded princess!
They weren't sure how long they were standing there, so lost in each other's eyes and their domineering diapers.
It was only when they heard their names did they suddenly snap out of their trance.
“Daydiaper? Nightwear? What're you two doing here?”
The two blinked, shaking their heads as they suddenly realized just how dizzy they were. They looked over to see Thorax standing in front of them.
“Huh?” Daydiaper asked, blinking slowly as she tried to force herself to concentrate despite the shimmers dancing in her eyes. “I, uh...”
She yawned, then tried again. “Um...”
It seemed so hard to come up with an answer, every time she tried she just remembered Nightwear's eyes and her swaying diapers…
Nightwear wasn't doing much better, and it took her three or four tries before she ultimately gave up and mumbled a bit.
“Oh, dear, you do sound confused,” Thorax chuckled. “Well, that just means you need to relax a bit – I'm sure that'll help you think straight.”
“But, uh… hey,” Daydiaper began, trying to sound indignant. “Hey! That's not what happened – I'm not confused!”
“Yeah!” Nightwear agreed. “Except, um… no, I don't agree with her! I think?”
“Well, it sounds like you're confused to me,” Thorax declared. “I'm sure you'll relax more and think better after you've had a drink of milk… maybe a nap?”
Daydiaper shook her head, trying her best to rid her vision of all the dancing lights and the swinging diaper-butts which kept flashing through her mind when she tried to concentrate. “No, I'm not!”
She stamped her hoof, but the floor bounced slightly and she staggered into Nightwear – both of them falling over in a tangle of hooves and a loud plushy crinkle.
Thorax giggled to himself as the two crinkly ponies struggled to sit back up, and yet failing to even untangle themselves. “There, there, let's get you two off to bed.” Thorax bent down, helping them up to their hooves.
They leaned into him, still lightheaded and their minds full off airy fluff. They began to slowly walk through the caves, the plush surface causing them to occasionally lean into Thorax a bit more to maintain their balance. He gently led the two puffy princesses to a small room where two chrysalises were hanging from the ceiling. Thorax's horn lit up, and the chrysalises unzipped themselves to reveal the puffy interior.
“No... not confused...” Daydiaper mumbled as she slipped into the chrysalis.
Nightwear Fwoomp slid into the other, burying her muzzle in the walls of the chrysalis. They were slowly zipped up, the translucent walls revealing the two curled up inside their cushy cribs.
