When they reappeared in Twilight's rooms in her castle, Twilight quickly checked that the door was still shut before unpacking the things they'd brought over.

“So, um… Fluttershy, you're the expert,” she said. “So what order do we do things in? Do we get Cadence dressed up first, or me? Would it make it harder for Cadence to help if she was wearing the costume?”

“Well...” Fluttershy began, thinking. “The suits aren't really built to stop unicorns – or alicorns – using magic, so… I guess it wouldn't matter. But the headphones can't go on after the suit does.”

“Are they built for ponies with horns at all?” Cadence asked. “I wouldn't want to damage them.”

“Oh – there is a hole for a horn,” Fluttershy assured her. “Rarity would never dream of making a mistake like that… if it was something about the design that just wouldn't work for the pony or non-pony she was designing it for, she might leave something out, but here...”

She checked on the Ladybug costume, moving it around to look at the head section, then nodded. “Yes, that one's got a little hole for the horn. I thought they did.”

Twilight was floating some paper next to her. “So we'll need to apply my – well, my diapers,” she said, doing her best not to stutter over the words. “And Cadence' ones as well. Then get into the suit – oh, but we still haven't decided whether I should put the suit on first or if you should!”

“Well, we will both need to get our pyjamas off, and change into these thicker diapers,” Cadence said, thinking about it. “Then… hmm. Do you think you'll be a good dragoness?”

Twilight squeaked slightly. “I… well, I don't really know, I've never done something like this before...”

“Then we'd better be safe rather than sorry,” Cadence judged. “I'll get myself suited up, and then we'll get you headphoned up and suited up.”

“If somepony is concentrating, they can think through the headphones,” Fluttershy contributed. “It just makes it easier to feel more like the suit...”

“That's a good point,” Twilight said, still fidgeting a little. “So, um… should we get started?”

“All right,” Fluttershy replied, unrolling the changing mat. “And… if you really just want to feel what it's like to wear the diapers, instead of use them, you should probably go to the bathroom too...”

After a bathroom trip for both Princesses – neither of them quite sure how far they wanted to go, and deciding to be safe rather than sorry – Fluttershy carefully diapered up Cadence, then moved on to Twilight.

“Do these diapers fit anypony?” Twilight asked.

“Not anypony, I think,” Cadence answered, using a little mirror to inspect herself. “This feels like it fits, but I'm not sure it would stay on all night if I was walking around without anything to keep it in place.”

She sighed. “And I'm only a little bigger than normal.”

“Well, um… I wasn't sure they had any bigger sizes,” Fluttershy said, blushing as she did her best to concentrate on taping Twilight's diaper on. “I never imagined, um… well, it was just an idea until Discord found out...”

She stepped back. “Okay, I… I think that's on.”

“I'm sure they must have some bigger sizes,” Cadence mused. “There are big stallions who might be interested, after all. I might need to look into that, if it's something we do more than once.”

Twilight stood up as Cadence wondered, and inspected her diaper a bit – pushing on it gently with her horn, checking it was properly seated.

“That seems quite snug,” she decided. “Thank you, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy nodded rather than speaking, and unzipped the ladybug suit.

Cadence stepped into it, wings flared out to stabilize her as she carefully put one hoof in at a time, and once she had all four in Fluttershy began helping her pull it up her legs. Getting the rump around the puffy diaper was a bit of a stretch, but once it was done Cadence sat down with a sigh and wiggled her rump slightly to feel it.

“That looks nice,” Twilight said, a touch wistfully.

“Don't worry, you'll be all set soon,” Cadence assured her.

“Hold on a moment,” Fluttershy asked. “I want to make sure I put your wings in the right places.”

Cadence held still, as requested, and Fluttershy carefully opened out the wing-cases to put Cadence's wings into them. The layer of soft plushy lining held the wing snugly and securely as Fluttershy zipped the suit up, letting them open and close freely without rubbing but without any give up and down, and Cadence shivered slightly at the tactile sensations.

“Okay, that should be good now,” Fluttershy said, adjusting the silk cover over Cadence's horn and stepping back a bit.

Cadence twitched her wings, and the ladybug wing-cases moved with them – making Twilight jump slightly, then blush at her own surprise.

“Does… does it feel comfortable?” the younger alicorn asked, to cover for her reaction.

“It does, yes,” Cadence agreed, nodding, and the antennae on the head piece of the suit bounced down in front of her. “Oh – heh, that caught me by surprise a little...”

She lifted a hoof, inspecting the little ball-shaped mitten at the end of it. “I… think this might make it hard for me to do anything with my hooves. At least I've got magic instead.”

“Can ladybugs use magic?” Twilight asked.

“Of course they can,” Cadence replied, with a wink.

She lifted the nearby mirror up in her magic, inspecting herself, and wiggled back and forth a little to see how the costume moved.

As she did, Fluttershy was opening out the dragon costume they'd picked out for Twilight. Now she was looking at it by the lights of her room, rather than her own horn-glow in Fluttershy's house, Twilight spotted something a little odd.

“Er… that tail's very big,” she said, lifting it with a hoof. “Is… is that a mistake? I can't possibly move that with my tail.”

“I think you might be able to move it a bit,” Cadence said, waddling over to inspect the suit. “Remember, Twily, alicorns have Earth Pony strength as well, and that includes the tail. But yes, you'll probably be pretty clumsy.”

“It's because that way you can stand on your hind legs,” Fluttershy explained. “It's like the squirrel costume… the tail's heavy enough to be a counterweight.”

“Ahh, I see,” Twilight agreed. “That's clever!”

She paused. “Um… though telling Rarity what I thought of it would kind of give away that I'd seen the costume...”

Shaking off the idea, Twilight stepped into the open back of the costume as Fluttershy held it out.

The ends of the legs felt strange, her hind legs engulfed in plushiness, and the forelegs going into the 'arms' of the suit. It was sort of like standing on top of a soft ball, making her wobble a little from side to side, and she blushed as Fluttershy helped pull the material up her side.

“Do I need to furl my wings so you can put them in the little dragon wing bits?” she asked.

“Actually, um… yes, but not right now,” Fluttershy explained.

Twilight looked around, trying not to let the fabric slide off, then stopped when she saw Fluttershy picking up the headphones.

“Right, I… I forgot about those,” the alicorn admitted.

She swallowed, and levitated them out of Fluttershy's hooves to put them on herself.

Somewhat to her surprise, there wasn't an immediate feeling of vertigo or a wash of mental influence or any of the other things she half-expected from the other times she'd been the subject of mind magic. There was just a faint, persistent hissing, like white noise, and she tilted her head to the side a little to try and hear any of the actual sounds in it.

As she did, Fluttershy did most of the work in putting on the dragon-head part of the dragon costume – much larger than Twilight's own head, it had enough space to fit her easily, and the headphones were just squished a little more onto Twilight's ears by the springy fabric.

It took a moment to line up Twilight's horn with the slot in the head for it, but once that was done Twilight was ensconced comfortably in the head of the costume and Fluttershy was sorting out her friend's wings. They went neatly into the sleeves, then Fluttershy zipped up the suit with the ease of experience, and stepped back.

“Um, there you go...” Fluttershy said. “How does that feel?”

“Mrrrawrr,” Twilight replied, wiggling, then blinked a few times and flushed under the costume. “I mean, uh… eep?”

“Aww,” Cadence smiled. “It sounds like a certain hatchling is happy?”

Twilight made an indistinct high-pitched noise, then looked back to see how the costume actually looked from the inside.

Having her in it definitely bulked it out, meaning that with the thick plush material she had the proportions of a baby dragon. Her tail was bigger, though, and she tried to give it a wag but could only make it sway from side to side a little.

“You know,” Cadence added. “When we saw one another earlier, we didn't do the dance...”

“Oh, r-right,” Twilight replied, remembering that they had indeed not done their sunshine-sunshine greeting. She'd been too grateful to wonder why before, given that it might have shown she was wearing a diaper, but now she thought about it Cadence would have been wearing a diaper as well…

“Sunshine, Sunshine,” Cadence began, her eyes twinkling, and Twilight joined in.

“Ladybugs awake, clap your hooves, and do a little shake!”

Their diapered rumps bumped together harder than expected after they both did a twirl, and Twilight fell forwards onto her front. It didn't actually hurt, just making her feel a little dizzy, and she shook her head before standing up again – wobbling a little as she did.

“Are you all right?” Fluttershy asked, nervously, as Cadence got up as well.

“I'm fine, thank you,” Cadence said, and looked over at Twilight. “Oh, well done, sweetie! You're learning to stand up!”

Twilight nodded proudly, then overbalanced despite the weight of her tail – thumping back down onto all fours again.

“Aww...” she pouted. “I wanted to be a big dragoness...”

“I'm sure you'll learn with more practice,” Cadence assured her.

“Hmm...” Mix-up mused, putting his paintbrush down with a clack.

Painting the cloud had gone faster than he'd thought – having everything in place in a room set-aside for it had gone pretty well, though the floor was now all multicoloured – but now he'd have to wait several hours for it to properly dry, before adding the final touches in the morning.

He cantered around the newly-painted cloud just to make sure, and nodded to himself.

It looked pre-tty good, if he said so himself!

Tail flicking from side to side, Mix-up was about to go and have a well-deserved rest… then paused, catching sight of himself in the mirror.

There was dried paint all over his coat, spots of it, and if he got into bed now he'd end up covering his sheets in broken-off blue and yellow paint. That probably wasn't the best way to start a meeting…

Shaking his head with a chuckle, he went to the shower – confident that the hot water enchantment he'd had installed two days ago would let him shower properly.

When he actually reached the shower room, however, he stopped.

There was something very important missing. His shampoo was nowhere to be seen, and a check of the cupboards showed it wasn't there either.

“Well… great,” Mix-up sighed, looking at himself in the bathroom mirror as he thought about what to do.

They'd cleaned though Fluttershy's house yesterday making sure they'd located the stuff that Mix-up had got since he'd moved in, so he could take it when he moved out again, but it seemed like they'd missed his shampoo. He could just borrow Fluttershy's, this once, but it didn't seem like a great idea to show up to a meeting with Spitfire herself smelling of butterflies and nectar.

Well, it wasn't that late yet. Hopefully he could go and ask Fluttershy if she knew where the shampoo was, and if that didn't work then maybe Princess Twilight's dragon friend had something he used. And he could do with stretching his wings after that long painting session…

Mind made up, Mix-up trotted to his porch and took off – winging his way towards Ponyville.

The dice clattered across the table, and Cadence held her breath – then smiled.

“Ooh!” Twilight said, wiggling back and forth a little. “That's a big number!”

“That's right!” Cadence agreed. “Can you tell me what it is, Twily!”

“I'm not stupid,” Twilight grumbled. “You got a five and a three! So you can… you can move that one to the house!”

Cadence lit her horn, and moved one of her pony-pieces five spaces along the board to reach the house.

“And that means I have three ponies in my house,” she declared, moving another of the pink pony pieces three spaces across the board. “So I'm winning.”

“Only by one,” Twilight protested.

Fluttershy picked up the dice, and rolled them. They bounced twice, and came to a halt – and Twilight giggled.

“Ooh, that means the dragon does something!” she said, pointing at the dragon-face on one of Fluttershy's dice. “I know it's your turn, but can I do it?”

She turned big, pleading eyes on Fluttershy. “Please? It's a dragon thing!”

“Well, um… all right,” Fluttershy decided.

Twilight giggled, and carefully reached out a plush-encased hoof to the dragon statue in the middle of the board. She bumped it twice, and the magic in it activated – sending it running and flying all over the place, knocking all their coloured pony pieces to different parts of the board.

Two of them – a yellow one and a pink one – got knocked off the board completely, and Twilight gathered them up in her forelimbs.

“So… they have to go back to the opposite side of the board from our houses, I think,” Cadence said, as the dragon returned to its perch and the magic animating it wore off. “Can you put them there, Twily?”

Twilight looked down at the two playing pieces, then shook her head.

“Is something wrong?” Cadence asked.

“They're mine,” Twilight replied with a pout. “The dragon got them, and I'm a dragon too, so I got them.”

“That's not quite how it works, sweetie,” Cadence said, but there was a smile on her muzzle. “Are you being a naughty dragoness?”

“No...” Twilight replied, looking nervous, then wiggled her rump. “I'm being a proper dragoness, 'cause proper dragonesses want to hoard things!”

She grabbed one of the cushions as well, and snuggled into it proudly. “See! They're mine, rawr!”

Fluttershy smiled, seeing how much Twilight was enjoying herself – even if it was due to the altered state from the headphones – and Cadence giggled.

“Well, I suppose maybe we'd need to offer a dragoness a prize for her to take part in the game?” she suggested.

“A prize?” Twilight replied, sounding interested. “I want a prize!”

She sat down on her diapered rear with an audible crinkle, though she didn't relinquish the toy pieces.

“...yeah, take the turning just up there,” Spike said, pointing. “I'd come with you, but – you know, I've got some urgent dice rolls to make.”

“Urgent dice rolls?” Mix-up repeated. “Don't dice just stay there until you roll them?”

“Not if Discord joins the game unexpectedly,” Spike muttered. “Besides, it'd be rude to keep the others waiting. When you're done, just go down to the front door – it opens outwards – or, hay, fly out a window if you want.”

“Thanks,” Mix-up smiled. “You'd better go back to your game.”

Spike vanished off down the corridor, and Mix-up climbed the stairs at a fast canter. He followed the instructions the dragon had given him, making his way with only a little uncertainty through the complexities of the castle, and finally came to a halt at the door.

He knocked, three times, and stood back to await a reply.

Nothing happened at first, except he heard a strange noise from inside, and then what sounded like Fluttershy saying something – though quietly enough it probably wasn't for him.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “I'm here to ask about-”

“Mix-up?” Fluttershy asked through the door, then there was a sound vaguely like a growl or a hiss and another short whispered conversation which he only caught the occasional word of.

“Is there anyone else with you?” asked somepony who Mix-up thought was probably that other pony who'd been invited to the sleepover.

“No, just me,” Mix-up answered. “Does it matter?”

There was a click, then the door opened, and Mix-up trotted inside before pausing and staring for a moment.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was looking at the floor, embarrassed, and completely ensconced inside a very familiar – and very crinkly – dragon costume. And… Princess Cadence, that was it… was wearing the ladybug costume Rarity had finished only a couple of days ago and that hadn't actually been worn yet. Until now, that was.

“Um...” he began, and Princess Cadence ushered him in and shut the door behind him.

Once the door was locked again, with quite a complicated spell shimmering on it, Mix-up decided to ask the obvious question. “So, uh… I didn't realize you were planning this?”

“We, um, weren't,” Fluttershy said softly. “It just sort of, happened… I noticed that both Twilight and Cadence were wearing diapers-”

“I, uh, y-you won't tell anypony about that?” Princess Twilight asked, frowning a little in concentration. “It'd be so embarrassing, and Princess Celestia would think I hadn't-”

“Ssh, calm down,” Princess Cadence interrupted her, padding over with a smile and nuzzling Princess Twilight. “It's all right, Mix-up here is a friend of Fluttershy, I'm sure he understands. You're wearing his costume, remember?”

“O-oh, right,” Princess Twilight said, blushing. “I, heh, I almost forgot...”

She sat down, and rubbed her head with a dragon-pawed forehoof. “I was kind of imagining that I was a dragon who got taught things by Princess Celestia, heh… it's so easy to just relax and… and forget...”

“That's all right, you need to relax a bit,” Princess Cadence assured her. “We won't mind, and you're clearly stressed enough that you need it. You're safe here, Twilight.”

“Yes, um… so I told them about the costumes, and about what happened with us,” Fluttershy resumed, as Cadence gave Twilight a caring, crinkly hug. “And one thing led to another, and… well, we went and got some costumes...”

She smiled. “But – oh, what was it? Did you need to ask something?”

“That's right,” Mix-up agreed. “I've kind of got dried paint all over my coat, and I couldn't find where the shampoo was. I thought I'd come and ask where it was, or pick some up in town instead.”

“Can he stay and play, Cady?” Princess Twilight asked brightly.

The short time to calm down seemed to have helped more than just letting the dragon-ified Princess get over her panic attack, leaving her much more comfortable, and she flapped her wings a little. “Oh, what about queen of the hoard?”

“Oh, that's a dragon game,” Fluttershy realized. “I think we might need to get Mix-up sorted out first?”

“No, I want to play now,” Princess Twilight said, standing up so her tail wiggled from side to side a bit. “Dragons want to play quickly, because they like instant gratification!”

Mix-up saw Fluttershy hide a little smile. “I'm sorry, Mix-up, but it looks like Twilight would like to play… I don't suppose you'd be able to take part?”

She glanced over at a pile of things in the corner. “We don't have another suit, but I wonder if Cadence would be able to help us pick one up from the cupboard? Or, um, maybe there's something here that would work...”

The stallion frowned, thinking about it and blushing slightly. “I, well… I don't really want to end up getting all lost in foalish thinking or anything, because I do have something to do tomorrow, but – well, I guess I could stay for a bit?”

“That would be lovely,” Princess Cadence smiled. “I'm sure Twily is glad to have you staying with us as well. Aren't you, dear?”

“Mm-hmm,” Princess Twilight nodded, doing her best to wag her big plush dragon-tail. “We can play!”

“Give Mix-up time to get diapered, first,” Princess Cadence advised.

“Aww...” Twilight sighed, sitting back down again. “Waiting sucks.”

Twilight knew that a baby dragoness sometimes growled, but she also knew it was very bad manners. So she did her best not to growl, or pout, and just wait patiently for Fluttershy to be finished so they could play.

The soft, all-but-inaudible hissing and whispering in her ears lulled her, making it so it was hard to concentrate on anything for long… not as a direct thing, but making her think like a young dragon, and she could remember how easily Spike had been distracted when he was a little baby dragon.

None of that reasoning was anything she was actually noticing, she just felt bored and twitchy and started to play with her tail for something to do. She put it in her mouth for a moment, nibbling on the fat plushy tail-spade, then got bored of that as well and turned to Cadence.

Cadence looked funny, with her big plushy love-bug-butt, and Twilight giggled before raising a paw. “Um… Cadence?”

“What is it, sweetie?” Cadence asked, giving her a hug, and Twilight relaxed into the hug with a sigh.

“I'm bored...” she whined. “How long is it going to be before we can play Queen of the Hoard?”

“Not long now,” Cadence told her. “It looks like Mix-up's just about ready.”

“Great!” Twilight perked up instantly, bouncing up and down on her haunches.

The pegasus stallion was indeed dressed up, wearing a thick diaper and a pair of purple pyjamas with a star-burst cutie mark sewn into them. Twilight wondered for a moment why they looked so familiar, not quite able to reconcile vague memories of wearing them herself with her current draconic identity, then ignored the problem and just smiled at how cute the result looked.

It was a good thing whoever the pyjamas were for was a little bigger than Mix-up to give space for the diapers, though it looked like they were straining a bit anyway.

Wiggling a little at the sight, Twilight stood up to waddle over to where the two pegasi were. Cadence helped her, supporting her with a little flash of magic, and Twilight made it five whole steps before wobbling and falling back onto her padded rump.

“Whoopsie!” Cadence smiled, and Twilight giggled before getting up on all fours instead and waddling the rest of the way to Mix-up.

“Come on!” she demanded. “You know how to play Queen of the Hoard, right?”

“Not really, actually,” Mix-up admitted.

Twilight huffed, then blushed a little. “Oh, uh… right! So there needs to be a pile of stuff, that's a hoard, and it's whoever can stay on top of it!”

“It's a good thing Twilight's rooms had so many spare pillows,” Cadence said, looking at the “hoard” that they'd set up – a rough mount of blankets, cushions and plenty of pillows, with more spread around the edge in case either pony fell off.

“I, um… think it's supposed to be for sleepovers, though maybe not quite like this...” Fluttershy suggested.

“Okay!” Twilight said loudly. “You know the rules, right?”

“Yeah, you told me earlier,” Mix-up replied.

“Right!” Twilight replied. “Then let's go!”

“By the way,” Cadence added, as Twilight clambered her way up the pillow-pile with difficulty – seeming to have trouble partly because of how her forehooves weren't actually clawed hands and didn't work that way. “Where did you find the outfit? I know you mentioned going back to your house, but we didn't actually do it – and that's definitely a Twilight-themed outfit, which is kind of cute.”

“Oh, well – that was sort of a guess,” Fluttershy admitted. “Rarity made me a set of pyjamas with my cutie mark on them, and I had a look to see if she'd made any for Twilight – and she had.”

She smiled slightly. “It's a good thing they're made of such high-quality material, though, because getting the diaper into them was quite hard. I think it helps that Rarity made use of a mildly elastic thread and a cross-weave, because it means the whole structure can expand quite a lot before it breaks.”

The pegasus mare noticed that Cadence was giving her a strange look, and blushed. “Or, um, that's what I think, anyway...”

“You're full of surprises, Fluttershy,” Cadence told her with a smile.

Twilight slid back down the pile of pillows, and pouted – growling a little, before shaking herself and looking back up at her opponent.

A part of her was feeling quite embarrassed by how much trouble she was having, but it was only a small part; the rest of her was enjoying the game while being frustrated about losing. Dragons were prideful, after all, and the subtle whispering in her ears was coaxing her to act just like how she felt dragons should be.

Putting her padded foreleg down with a faint poof, Twilight looked up at the slightly nervous pegasus atop the pile. Her rump wiggled back and forth as she considered what to do, then she grinned mischievously and started pulling pillows out of the hoard.

“Hey!” Mix-up complained, as Twilight took pillow after pillow away from what he was standing on. “Can you do that?”

“Dragons want to have hoards!” Twilight replied proudly. “And this is a hoard, so it's my hoard!”

She grabbed onto a mattress with both forelegs, wobbling as she pulled it out, and the pile Mix-up was standing on collapsed – sending him tumbling down towards Twilight, who yelped and got knocked over backwards onto her own pile.

It didn't really hurt, thanks to all the padding, but both of them ended up in a heap and buried in pillows.

Twilight felt like snarling, then suddenly had an idea! She grabbed onto Mix-up with both paws, catching him around the midriff, and held him tightly in place.

“I win!” she announced. “He's my plushy toy now, and that means there's only me, so I win automatically!”

Mix-up did his best to wiggle free, but he didn't have a chance against Twilight's-

-dragon strength, that was it. Twilight nearly giggled, realizing she'd almost thought of herself as having 'alicorn' strength, but that sounded silly! Dragons didn't have alicorn strength.

Cadence giggled. “Well, that's one way to do it… what do you think, Fluttershy? Is that allowed?”

“Of course it's allowed!” Twilight protested, still squeezing Mix-up against her plushy side. The pegasus tried to get away for a moment longer, then sighed and stopped. “I'm a dragon, and I did it, so it has to be allowed!”

“That's not quite how it works, Twily,” Cadence replied gently, and kept going as Twilight pouted. “But unless Fluttershy can see a problem with it..?”

“Um… not really, no,” Fluttershy replied. “I suppose if Mix-up really wanted to be let go then Twilight would have to, but if he doesn't mind I think it'd be very nice of him to stay…?”

Mix-up blushed, and didn't say anything.

“Well, he's part of my hoard now,” Twilight announced, then blinked a few times – yawning, stretching like a biped, and nearly falling over onto her back.

“It looks like you're all tuckered out,” Cadence smiled. “I was going to ask Fluttershy what else she could think of to keep you occupied, but if you're that sleepy then maybe it's time for bed?”

“I'm not sleepy,” Twilight protested. “Yawning isn't necessarily anything to do with feeling – tired~”

She yawned again, and did fall onto her back this time, though the thick layers of plush and poof kept her from getting hurt even before considering both her own alicorn toughness and the fact she'd fallen onto the pile of cushions, pillows and blankets she'd been fighting over.

“It does look like Twily is very tired,” Cadence said, loudly enough for Twilight to hear. “Fluttershy, what do you recommend for a baby dragoness who's all sleepy?”

“Well… perhaps some warm milk?” Fluttershy suggested. “But the best thing to do if you're all sleepy is to get some sleep.”

She thought about that for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, um, if you can give her a nice cuddle, I can get some milk, and then I'll read a story?”

“That sounds nice,” Twilight mumbled. “Is it a good story?”

Fluttershy glanced around, momentarily lost, and Cadence floated a book over from the bookshelf to her. Taking it in a hoof, Fluttershy read the title.

“The Brave Little Librarian?” she asked.

Twilight let out a cute rawr, smiling happily at the sound of it, and Fluttershy caught a wink from Cadence.

“It was her favourite,” the elder princess explained in a whisper, and Fluttershy smiled back. She put the book down on a convenient table, and trotted off to warm the milk.

As she did, Cadence moved over to where Twilight and Mix-up were – the former wiggling a little as she got herself comfortable on the piles of blankets, and the latter looking resigned but with a bit of a blush.

Picking up a few blankets and pillows with her magic, Cadence snuggled up to her friend on the other side from the pegasus she'd captured. The blankets went over them all, forming a cozy warm layer on top to keep them snug, and she adjusted it a little to make sure she was comfortable as well before relaxing with a sigh.

When Fluttershy brought out the milk a few minutes later, Twilight was already drowsing, and Cadence took it upon herself to hold the bottle in the right place so Twilight could drink it.

The dragoness-ified alicorn started to drink, and finished about half the bottle before gently drifting off to sleep.

“I've been wondering about how much rest she's been getting,” Cadence whispered. “You know what she's like for overwork.”

Fluttershy nodded.

Mix-up began to try and move out of his confinement, but Twilight mumbled something and pulled him a little closer.

“Sorry,” Fluttershy said softly, trying not to giggle. “I'll make sure to help get you out a little after dawn tomorrow...”

Mix-up sighed, resigning himself to a cozy evening.

Author's Note

And that's the end of that one.

If I do any more in this story thread I'll call it something slightly different and post it as a sequel.