The Wonderbolt Conspiracy

Twilight alighted in front of the Academy, thanking the two Wonderbolts that had escorted her and her friend to the premises. "Thank you for coming along, Fluttershy. I have to meet with Captain Spitfire, but why don't you look for Rainbow already while I'm working on my report?"

“A-all right,” Fluttershy replied, with a quick nod. “I hope she's doing well.”

“So do I, Fluttershy,” Twilight smiled. “And I'll come and see you later, but I do have to meet the Captain first.”

Fluttershy nodded again, and looked around at the buildings. “Um… if I were Rainbow Dash, where would I be?”

After checking overhead, in case any gigantic rainbow-coloured explosions were lighting up the sky, Fluttershy picked a building at random and knocked on the door.

There was no reply, so she tried to pull the handle down, but the door refused to budge – clearly locked.

“That's the outhouse,” her Wonderbolt escort told her.

“Oh!” Fluttershy blushed slightly. “Well then, where would I find my friend?”

“She's a recent applicant, right?” the Wonderbolt checked. “All right, follow me.”

Fluttershy trotted along behind him, wondering for a moment why the outhouse door was locked before putting it out of her mind.

The Wonderbolt led her over to another building, through the entrance hall and around several corners before halting in a large room that seemed filled with wardrobes and clothes racks towards the back, most of the actual clothes on them hidden behind curtains. A soft music was playing over the speakers and one of the lamps in the ceiling flickered irregularly.

The Wonderbolt looked around and frowned, then turned back to Fluttershy. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I thought they would be here to get suited up, but it looks like they already went on to the next station. I'm... not sure where that is, but if you'll wait here a minute I'll go and ask somepony for the schedule."

Fluttershy shuffled her hooves, looking down. "Oh, uhm, you really don't have to..."

"Oh no, I insist. It's no trouble at all." The Wonderbolt smiled and stepped around her, stopping at the door to give her another encouraging smile. "I'll be back in a moment, feel free to look around. There's a lot of old and silly costumes from all kinds of events, aside from the regular suits."

Fluttershy squeaked as he closed the door on her, shuffling her hooves nervously and looking around the room. She slowly shuffled over to a corner to wait without being in anypony's way, but froze when her hoof hit something light on the ground. It looked like a yellow and black headband with two long, flexible antenna with fluffy black pom-poms at the ends... it reminded her of a part of the bumblebee costumes her parents had dressed her in when she was a little filly.

“Oh, that's nice,” she said, picking it up with one hoof, then looked nervous. “Um… is it okay if I touch anything?”

There was no reply, so she put it back down again to be safe.

It did look nice, though.

“Hello?” Fluttershy called, trying to see if anyone was around, then looked back at the headband again.

The Wonderbolt had said she was free to look around, hadn't he? That had to mean it was okay to pick things up, at least. And if there were old and silly costumes around, then they wouldn't mind if she put one on?

That sounded right to Fluttershy, so she picked up the headband again.

It did look cuter still close up. The striped yellow and black bits were fuzzy and soft, and the antenna wiggled springily as it moved.

“I wonder if it fits,” she said, much more softly, and wondered if there was a mirror. Deciding to look for one, she put the headband on – taking a few seconds to make sure it did indeed fit, then sliding it down so it rested just by her ears.

She took a few steps forward and immediately squeaked and stumbled in surprise as the bobbing antennae sent a shivering buzz through her head, from one ear to the other. She quickly reached up to pull the headband off... then paused and blinked, rubbing her head as she tried to remember what she had been thinking about. She was careful not to move the headband, though, not wanting to disturb the nice buzzing that made her feel all happy and fuzzy in her head.

She tilted her head, antennae bobbing and buzzing louder for a moment as she tried to remember. It was something about the headband... Oh yes, she had been looking for a mirror! She trotted towards the curtains happily, a little confused as something felt off for a moment... Like she should be able to bounce and shake her rump much better than this.

Moving behind the curtain, she found a large mirror standing between several racks of outfits. She happily moved towards it to look inside, smiling and nodding her head a bit to watch the antennae bob up and down, up and down...

She simply stood there and watched, for several minutes until something behind her in the mirror caught her eye; something hanging on one of the racks, a spot of bright yellow and black stripes.

The fabric was slightly oddly placed, and Fluttershy wondered for a moment why she hadn't seen it already – but that didn't matter, and she turned around to have a look at it directly.

She saw in passing some of the other bits of costume on the rack – there was one which looked like a pair of bear paws, and a cute pair of fox paws, though she wasn't sure how that would be useful for a Wonderbolts show – and pushed them aside to get at the striped bits.

On seeing it, Fluttershy gave a little gasp. It was four little sleeves for her hooves, which were covered in thick yellow and black stripes like the stripes of a bee!

She pulled them off the hanger, inspecting them, and felt how fuzzy and soft they were – both on the outside, and inside as well.

Looking at them, Fluttershy wondered how it would feel to wear them. They'd definitely make her look more like a bee, which…

...the headband buzzed…

...would be good, and she smiled a little at the idea of dressing up like a good bee.

That thought seemed odd, and she frowned, but soon forgot why she was so concerned.

The headband looked nice, and felt nice, and the silly antennae bouncing up and down were so cute, so it would be good to put these bee-themed socks on, right?

Even if they did seem a bit thick…

The sleeves were a bit hard to put on, being rather tight for how thick they were, but once she'd managed to put one on she felt just how wonderfully soft they were. She put on the second sleeve on her foreleg, then struggled a bit more with the ones for the hindlegs, plopping down on her rump and then on her back. Once she'd managed to put them on, she giggled and kicked her legs, looking up as she noticed the antennae of her headband springing around at the edge of her vision.

She stayed like that for a few moments, giggling and just enjoying the sight of her antennae and cute striped legs. Eventually she stood back up again, however, looking around to find her way back.

She paused and frowned lightly, looking at the racks all around her and wondering where the way to the front of the room had gone. She glanced up and saw the curtain dividing it off from the costume storage...

...the headband buzzed again...

...then blinked and tried to remember what she had been thinking. She was looking for the exit, not a curtain.

She decided to turn left, heading further between the racks, coming past stacks of boxes full of more costume parts. She stopped at an intersection, about to turn around and try another way, before another bit of yellow and black caught her eye.

Walking over to it, she opened the flaps of one box to find a yellow and black striped shirt, made from the same soft and thick fabric as the sleeves.

On top of it lay what looked like a pair of flight goggles like the Wonderbolts used them, only instead of the normal clear glass these had the lenses tinted to resemble black and yellow spirals. Picking them up and holding them in front of her, Fluttershy found that while you couldn't look through them from the outside, but could see rather well from the inside, through both the black and the yellow parts equally. From both sides the lenses looked like they were swirling, getting faster and prettier the longer she looked at them.

After looking through the goggles for several seconds, Fluttershy put them back down. They looked nice, but…

...buzz, buzz…

...but she had to put the shirt on first, to get the proper look, and then she could put her goggles on!

Fluttershy carefully opened up the base of the shirt, and wriggled into it – still feeling like she should be able to wiggle her butt more – before settling it on her body, and cooing at the feeling of the soft, thick material.

It felt like it would keep her warm if it was cold, and that was good. And it was really comfortable, and it looked good too!

The pegasus giggled softly to herself, but before she had a chance to really give herself a fuzzy hug she remembered the goggles.

...her headband buzzed again, more insistently…

...and Fluttershy realized she really wanted to put the goggles on. They would help her see properly, and maybe they would make her feel more happy-buzzy like the headband!

Picking them up, having to take care because of her striped socks, and slowly put the goggles on – making sure she didn't bump her lovely buzzy headband as she did so.

Now everything had a black-and-yellow swirl wherever she looked, but it was so pervasive that she soon learned to look past it – consciously ignoring the spiralling patterns, but still noticing them somewhere deep down. And she felt more buzzy than ever before.

Maybe she'd look cuter in the mirror now!

Finding the mirror again was a lot easier than finding the exit, though Fluttershy didn't think about why that was. She was completely focused on prancing and shaking her rump, listening to the buzzing and looking at the faint yellow and black swirls all around her.

Arriving back at the mirror, she couldn't help but smile at the cute and happy bumblebee smiling back at her. She looked so cute with her comfy soft shirt, her soft sleeves, her cute antennae bobbing up and down and the pretty spirals covering her eyes. The spirals were so pretty, she just had to lean in for a closer look, staring at them with a dreamy smile...

Her headband buzzed to snap her out of her stupor, reminding her of something she hadn't really noticed before. She already had her bee head and eyes, her bee legs and her upper body with bee stripes, but her rump as well as her hooves and her wings were still depressingly pony-like. How could she be a good crinklebee without...

Fluttershy blinked, wondering where that thought had come from, but before she could think more about it the buzzing helped her focus again. Acting on a hunch, she trotted around the mirror, finding more racks and boxes behind it... and something that immediately stood out to her in one box.

She gave a happy gasp and eagerly opened the box, pulling out four thick and fuzzy black booties with soft insides, so fuzzy that they almost seemed round like the pompoms at the ends of her antennae. They were also deceptively sticky, perfect for any good bee to gather lots of pollen on them.

Fluttershy lay down on her back and put the first two booties on her hind legs, feeling them all fuzzy and comfy and warm, and she giggled at the feeling. They felt so soft and snug and wonderful, and made her a much better bee!

After that, she moved on to her front right hoof, but that was a bit more of a problem. She could only use one hoof to try and help her put it on, and her hind legs were not very helpful at the best of times let alone when she had fuzzy booties on.

The fourth one, on her front left hoof, seemed completely impossible. She was trying to move a very fuzzy thing with three other very fuzzy things on her hooves, and sometimes she lost track of which fuzzy thing was the one she was trying to get on her hoof.

After several minutes, Fluttershy was almost ready to give up, but…

...her headband buzzed…

...she decided to give it one more try, only to realize she'd already put it on!

Frowning for a moment, Fluttershy wondered when she'd managed that, but her headband's soothing buzz reminded her she shouldn't care about silly things like that. She rolled back onto her front, setting her antennae shaking up and down, and walked carefully back a few steps so she could see into the mirror again.

She looked a bit more like a crinklebee now, with her hooves covered, but she still wondered about how to handle the remaining bits…

...buzz, buzz...

Fluttershy blinked, looking at the rack of costumes she had... walked to? Hadn't she just been in front of the mirror...?

The buzzing in her head reminded her that of course she had walked over to the rack, for the next time of her costume. She smiled and pushed some dresses aside to pull out what looked like a big black and yellow ball of... something? Something plushy at least. She giggled as she had the idea to lay the ball down on the floor and unroll it, seeing that it was still several inches thick even at the edges.

She walked around it once, then turned her back towards it and shook her rump happily before plopping it down onto the soft padding, causing a cloud of ~~foal powder~~ pollen to surround her. She giggled and looked down, pulling up the soft crinkly fabric and fumbling with the sticky tapes until everything was nice and snug, leaving a thin coating of pollen on her booties.

She stood up and smoothed down her shirt so it was covering the tapes, then looked over her shoulder and shook her rump, gasping and giggling happily at the heavy feeling of her stinger moving left and right. Her butt was now twice as big behind her, crinkly and squeaky with a big yellow and black striped bumblebee butt extending out over a foot behind her actual butt. The stinger itself was black and blunted, looking a bit like the nipple of a bottle to her and making her feel a bit thirsty.

On a whim she sat down and pulled the stinger over in front of her, finding that she could just barely curl up to suckle on her own stinger. What was more, when she clumsily pushed down on the stinger she was rewarded with a squeak and a puff, her big bee butt puffing out a little more.

...buzz…

Fluttershy wasn't sure how long she spent puffing up her beehind, suckling happily, but by the time she stopped her puffed-up bumblebee butt was a lot bigger than it had been when she first put it on. It looked clumsy and silly, but it also looked really cute!

The pegasus wasn't quite sure why she'd dressed herself up as a bee, for a moment, but the buzzing made her feel all fuzzy and reminded her how much cuter she looked now.

She got up, and posed in front of the mirror – with her costume almost complete! She had the antennae, the swirly bee-eyes which made her feel giggly and dizzy, the torso, the legs, the big bee butt, the fuzzy little booties… she wondered how many legs bees had for a moment, then shook her head and made her antennae bounce again.

It was so good to just stare into her own swirly black-and-yellow spiral goggles and listen to the buzz and relax, but something wasn't quite right…

...buzz, buzz…

...and Fluttershy realized what it had to be! While almost all of the rest of her was as bee as a bee could bee, her wings were still pegasus-pony, which spoiled the whole look.

...buzz…

...Fluttershy blinked, looking up at the tall collection of open cubbyholes.

It looked like there were all sorts of miscellaneous costume parts here, packed in ~~foal powder~~ pollen, and right up near the top she could see some shiny insect-wings poking out over the edge!

She looked up at the wings for a moment, then tentatively put a hoof in one of the cubbyholes to start climbing upwards. For a moment she wondered why she didn't just fly up to grab them...

...buzz buzz...

...but then she felt silly for wanting to fly when she didn't even have her wings yet. Putting another hoof in one of the cubbyholes, she realized how easy her sticky booties made the climbing despite her clumsy big costume. Her big bee butt swayed left and right under her with every movement, yet it felt almost impossible that she might lose her grip and fall. She actually giggled as she moved another hole higher, knocking loose some pollen into her face that made her sneeze adorably.

It took her a minute of climbing, but finally she was high enough to see the wings: a pair of stiff, shiny bug membranes with just enough space in them to fit her wings into them comfortably. They shimmered in the light, rainbow glitter patterns seeming to play over the membranes with each movement.

Fluttershy smiled widely and reached out, grabbing them and hugging them to her chest in excitement before she came to the realization that just two hooves weren't enough to get a grip on the wall after all. She squeaked in surprise as she fell backwards, into a large pile of pollen that she'd knocked loose while climbing, landing on her stinger with a loud squeak and puff.

The smell of the pollen made Fluttershy feel all dizzy, something which her goggles and the buzzing from her headband helped with by soothing away her confused thoughts.

She rolled around a bit, giggling, then remembered the wings she'd gone after with a start and looked around for them. For a long moment, she couldn't see them, then spotted the edge of one poking out of the pile of pollen and began to dig them out.

By the time she managed, her sticky booties were coated in pollen just like they should be, and she had a pair of wings which she shook free of their coating of sweet-smelling dust.

Then she frowned, sitting down in confusion. How was she going to get her wings on?

...buzz…

She thought hard about it, the soft buzzing helping her concentrate, but she couldn't come up with a single idea. And when she thought too hard, even the buzzing didn't stop her feeling a little bit silly and scatterbrained.

Fluttershy racked her bee-rains for an idea, moving one leg absently to the sound of the buzzing, and her rump swayed back and forth...

...buzz… buzz…

...buzz…

...and she posed in the mirror, admiring her new shiny wings!

Not sure how she'd put them on, but – buzz – not really caring that much, Fluttershy twitched them a few times before fluttering them as hard as she could.

She barely managed to lift herself off the ground, having to work hard to get more than a few inches into the air, but that was just how bees were.

Fluttershy giggled and admired herself in the mirror one more time, looking over her nice buzzing and bouncing antennae, her pretty spiral goggles and the wings that drew faint rainbow reflections in the air every time she buzzed them. She looked over her booties, the black fuzz mostly covered by yellow pollen, and then at the big bouncy bee butt behind her that swayed and crinkled with each little movement.

Finally she turned around, picking up her black and yellow pacifier from a box next to her and enjoying the taste of sweet honey in her mouth as she suckled on it, waddling and buzzing her way back towards the curtain. She pushed through into the front of the room just in time for the Wonderbolt to return, smiling at him around the pacifier.

The Wonderbolt looked at her, now dressed in his own thick and crinkly suit, and smiled. "Ah, I see you found your costume. Once again, thank you for volunteering to become our mascot. I'm sure you're going to be the cutest and silliest Wonderbee we've ever had.”

Fluttershy smiled wider and buzzed happily in response, flapping her wings and trotting forward to follow the Wonderbolt so she could meet with the rest of the team.