The Wonderbolt Conspiracy

The door clicked shut behind Twilight as she entered Spitfire's office.

“It's an honour to have a visit from one of the Princesses,” Spitfire said with a smile. “Though I feel I should ask – what brings you here? I'm sure it's not a social visit.”

“Social visits are important,” Twilight replied. “They help to encourage an informal and friendly atmosphere.”

She coughed. “But… well, I actually am here for a reason. I wanted to do an inspection, partly because I've never actually come here before and so I wanted to see what it's like. And since I've only recently become able to visit myself...”

Spitfire nodded. “I see. Well – oh, do you mind if I call you Twilight?”

“I don't mind at all,” Twilight assured her. “Is it all right if I call you Spitfire, then, rather than Captain?”

“Spitfire will do for now,” Spitfire replied, smiling to make it a joke. “Now, what do you want to look at first?”

On seeing Twilight's mild surprise, she went on. “Since you are here for an inspection, it might be dishonest to suggest what to visit. You should have the opportunity to pick for yourself.”

“Oh – well, to be honest I'm not sure what categories of places there are,” Twilight admitted. “You can go ahead and suggest all you want.”

“Thank you, Twilight, that's very trusting of you,” Spitfire told her. “Let's see, what first...”

She stood up, shaking out her wings. "Well, there's the starting and landing strips, as well as the inner and outer cloud fields and laps if you want to stretch your wings. Our personal weather factory if you're more interested in technical engineering. Our storage rooms, our relaxation center. Our library and the classrooms." She smirked when Twilight's eyes lit up and her wings twitched. "I assume you'd like to visit those first for a thorough investigation?"

Twilight blushed and chuckled sheepishly. "Ah, well, I suppose it's not much of a secret, is it? But if you don't mind, I'd really like to review some of your teaching methods. This is an academy after all... and I didn't even know you have a library up here."

Spitfire chuckled and walked past her. "Well, of course. It's not too big, but it has all the books we need. Let's start with the classrooms, though, maybe we can run you through a mock lesson while we're at it."

"You would?" Twilight bounced a little in excitement before pulling herself together again. "I mean, uhm, if it doesn't disrupt the regular workings of the Academy."

"Nothing you need to worry about, Twilight. I'll personally play the teacher part, it's been some time since I got to do that." Spitfire walked out the door, smirking unseen by Twilight as she headed deeper into the compound towards their best classroom.

As Twilight trotted along behind Spitfire, she looked around at the walls – interested to see what kind of decorations the Wonderbolts would have in their academy. She knew that it was useful for education to avoid bland, boring hallways, just to make sure the students were in the right frame of mind.

It was quite a surprise, actually. The walls were painted in bright pastel colours, with a preponderance of Wonderbolts blue and yellow but others as well, and the room signs were in big, blocky letters.

“Do you like it?” Spitfire asked. “The walls, I mean. We thought it'd make sure ponies stayed in the right frame of mind.”

“I was reading about that recently,” Twilight admitted. “It's not quite what I'd have chosen, but if it works for you that's good.”

Making sure to stay a little ahead of Twilight, Spitfire casually swung the door to a room closed. Twilight made to look into it, but Spitfire called her on. “The classrooms are this way, Twilight.”

“Oh, right,” Twilight replied. “Sorry, I wanted to see what was in there.”

Spitfire indicated it with her hoof, and Twilight swung the door open.

It was a lecture room with rows of desks facing a blackboard, currently empty of everything but cupboards and other supplies.

“That's where we work out formation tactics,” Spitfire told her. “I hope that's up to standard?”

“Yes, sorry,” Twilight said, bobbing her head a little. “What you said kind of left me thinking about how to 'catch you out', but that's really bad manners...”

“Well, no harm done, Twilight,” Spitfire assured her. “Let's just get to the classroom, shall we? We don't want to be late for class.”

“Late?” Twilight repeated, worried, then relaxed slightly. “Wait, how could we be late if I'm the only one you're going to be teaching?”

Spitfire's smirk showed it was another joke, and Twilight chuckled as she thought about how much more subtle Spitfire's pranks seemed to be than Rainbow's.

The blue pegasus wouldn't know what she was getting into...

Spitfire led Twilight into the classroom, walking up to the front and waiting for the alicorn to take her seat at one of the desks, each of them slightly lowered and tilted back to make the one sitting in them feel smaller and looking up at the teacher. She waited patiently until Twilight was comfortable and had stopped fidgeting, then moved over to a panel at the side of the blackboard. "We here at the Academy have recently started applying something new. I know that sportsponies aren't always the best students or even very good at focusing on theory, which is why we installed this."

She turned a dial and the light in the room dimmed, making Twilight look around in confusion. "What's happening now? You're not just going to show me a video, I hope."

"Of course not." Spitfire chuckled, walking back to the blackboard and picking up a pen, writing her name on the board... in glowing, flowing rainbow colors. "We use fluorescent rainbow pens. Completely safe, easy to clean up, easy to see in the dark and they just grab your attention and hold onto it, don't they?"

Twilight gasped at the display and stared at it with a smile. "That's genius. I've never seen someone use rainbows like this." She blinked and blushed, leaning back. "Ah, I mean... it's quite an interesting teaching method."

Spitfire chuckled and smiled back. "You don't have to force yourself to stay professional. I regularly meet Princess Celestia, both in formal and informal meetings. I'm not going to be put off by a Princess acting a little more casually." She began to draw on the board again, drawing out various formations for stunt shows, cloudball games and military maneuvers and even a few weather patterns in between, all of them just happening to curve around each other and flow into spiraling, swirling displays of glowing rainbows, drowning out the rest of the room until there only seemed to be the rainbow patterns floating in the darkness all around Twilight, along with the occasional silhouette of Spitfire.

Twilight found herself blinking, occasionally at first but then more and more often, as the rainbow light swirled around her.

It was oddly pleasant, almost relaxing, and after a long moment just staring she shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment to recover her equilibrium.

“That's very impressive,” she said, looking at the board again, and the rainbow patterns began to draw her attention again. “I… huh, there seem to be quite a lot there...”

“Of course,” Spitfire replied. “You don't think Wonderbolts are just jocks, do you?”

“Well...” Twilight began, blushing. “I mean, my friend Dash is… not the most intellectual?”

“That's one reason we use rainbow pens,” Spitfire assured her. “They grab your attention and hold it, letting you focus on something so you remember it. The colours flow through the patterns one at a time, repeating it over and over so it won't drop out of your memory.”

She continued to draw examples, adding to the glowing column of rainbow light. “So even a pony who can't concentrate very well can just let themselves learn automatically, picking up everything they need to know...”

Twilight was very impressed by how much thought had gone into this whole process, and she sat back a bit – unconsciously relaxing a little from Spitfire's tone of voice and from the colours all around.

Spitfire watched her, barely visible in the shadows of the rainbows she was drawing. "Of course, we teach them some more study techniques besides that and based on that. For example, focusing on a specific color and following it through the patterns. For you, I'd recommend purple."

"Purple, right..." Twilight nodded and blinked slowly, trying to single out the purple lines. It was just so hard, the purple lines always blending into a new color after a few inches, the other colors swirling around them and trying to drown them out. "It's... kinda hard actually."

"Studying usually is," Spitfire chuckled. "Of course there are many techniques to combine with that. Your friend Rainbow is a prime example of another one... pegasi have a natural aptitude for picking out things subconsciously. Obstacles in flying for example, but also parts of a lesson you're not focusing on." She started drawing again. "So while you are focusing on one part of the board, your subconscious is picking up all the parts you aren't focusing on. Parts of the lesson that you memorize deep in your mind without noticing, thing you will know better than if you'd learned them regularly."

Twilight blinked slowly, swaying in her seat dizzily. She'd been focused on following the purple lines so much that she'd completely missed what Spitfire had said. It was probably important. "Uhm, I'm sorry... could you repeat that?"

“Repeat which bit?” Spitfire asked. “I hope you've been paying attention, Twilight.”

“I-” Twilight began, ready to react automatically, then paused and blushed. “Um… no, sorry, I sort of lost track for a bit. You said something..?”

“I was talking about how you can learn part of a lesson without focusing on it,” Spitfire told her, continuing to draw in the air – the rainbow trace following her pen, drawing Twilight's attention away and scattering it across the diagrams Spitfire was putting together. No one of them drawing enough of her attention for her to really identify it any more, but with Twilight's subconscious mind putting back together the lines traced out by the purple light.

Despite doing her best to concentrate, Twilight only muzzily followed the rest of what Spitfire was saying. About how she could learn more deeply if she let herself learn without focusing on something, about how she'd memorize bits of the lesson deep in her mind…

Part of her wondered what she'd be learning in this lesson. She couldn't quite pick out any one point, but maybe that meant it was working? It was certainly relaxing to just focus on the purple…

"And that's that." Spitfire smiled and turned the lights back on, grabbing a sponge and washing the rainbow lines away before Twilight could properly take them in.

"Huh? What?" Twilight blinked, shaking her head and trying to regain her bearings through the colors swirling in her mind. "S-sorry, did I drift off?"

"Not at all." Spitfire smiled at her. "You actually did very well in unfocusing your mind to take in the whole lesson. It's normal to feel a little dizzy from that, that just means that your mind is taking all that information in. It means you're a good cadet."

Twilight's eyes widened slightly and her wings twitched at those words, a pleasant shiver running through her mind and down her spine, making her feel all fuzzy and happy for a moment. "T-that's good to hear. Thank you, Mo- Miss Spitfire."

Spitfire's lips twitched with a smirk. "Please, no need for formality. I thought we agreed that I could call you Twily, and you could call me Mommy Spitfire."

Twilight blinked for a moment before a silly smile stretched over her face, eyes glazing over for a moment as purple danced through her mind. "A-ah, right... Sorry, Mommy Spitfire."

Spitfire bit down a wide grin at hearing that. "It's okay, Twily. Now, would you like to end the lesson with a test to see what you've learned?" She pulled out a test sheet and a colorful pencil, setting both down on Twilight's desk.

Twilight picked up the pencil, then used her magic to pick it up instead. She wondered for a moment why she'd gone to using her hooves, then shrugged it off.

The pencil was a nice purple, which kept her silly smile on her face, and she looked down at the first question on the test.

Describe the best approach to take when conducting a reverse kulbit loop under storm conditions.

Twilight did a double-take. That was… what?

That was way too hard! That hadn't been in the lesson, had it?”

“Um… Mommy Spitfire?” Twilight asked, raising a hoof.

“Yes, Twily?” Spitfire replied. “Is something wrong?”

“I don't think we covered this question,” Twilight replied, blushing at the very thought of asking for help with an exam. “Did we?”

“Of course we did, Twily,” Spitfire replied. “You need to avoid thinking about the answer, and you'll find that it just pops into your head – that's how our training method works.”

“Okay...” Twilight said, a bit dubious, and closed her eyes.

Purple loops traced themselves through her mind, other colours following them, and she looked again before writing her answer – trying not to think about it, just writing it down.

To her astonishment – and delight – the answer was right there, in purple pencil. It was quite technical and complicated, indeed looking at it made her head spin a bit, but it felt right!

Twilight felt a giggle slip out of her mouth, her eyes slightly unfocused as she let herself fall back into that fuzzy state of mind, letting the colors twist and loop through her mind and only half-aware of her reading the next question.

Name the different types of clouds viable for flight training and how to produce them.

She smiled with slightly unfocused eyes, her pencil wobbling and dancing in her magic as it wrote in loops and swirls, writing down a level of calligraphy she'd usually only see from Spike or Princess Celestia. Before long she was reading over her answer, only really seeing every other word but instead letting the flowing curves of purple run through her mind, somehow knowing without a doubt that the answers and equations she'd written down were correct and eager to continue the test.

Name the five muscles most vulnerable to cramps on long-distance flights.

Write down the pattern for Formation Flight #4.

Name all the colors of the rainbow.

Write down how much you love your Mommy Spitfire.

Write down the dresscode for a good little Wonderbutt Cadet like yourself, then hoof in the test and report to get your own uniform.

Finishing off the last word with a flourish, the purple lines hanging in her mind's eye for a long moment after the pencil stopped writing them, Twilight stood up and trotted up to the front desk.

“Finished, Mommy Spitfire!” she reported. “I'm ready to get my uniform now!”

“That's very good, Cadet Twily,” Spitfire replied, turning her smirk into a caring smile. “I'll mark your test while you get dressed. Your uniform is in the second cupboard from the left.”

Twily gave the test to Spitfire, then trotted over to the cupboard and opened the door with a creak. All the components of her uniform were there – in fact, there were at least a dozen each of every bit of the uniform, both the bits she had to wear at all times and the temporary parts.

Twilight took care to select the parts which were the right size for her – diaper, pacifier, Wonderbutts suit – and blushed a little as she fitted the diaper on, sure that it was part of the uniform but not sure why that fact sounded so odd to her.

Putting on the Wonderbutts suit only made her feel more odd – still contented, still sure she was doing the right thing, but at the same time oddly confused about the details of exactly why she had to wear a thick, oddly crinkly suit and an equally thick diaper. The pacifier had the same combination of soothing and incongruous, and by the time she was done she was moving from hoof to hoof nervously as she tried to work out what question to ask.

"There we go." Spitfire grinned, walking around Twilight to inspect her. "Looking like a proper Wonderbutts cadet, and with an almost perfect score to butt. I wouldn't have expected anything less from Rainbow Dash's friend."

"Really? Oh, I'm glad to eep!" Twilight squeaked and jumped as Spitfire poked her padded rear. "W-was that necessary?"

"Of course. I need to make sure your uniform is up to code after all." Spitfire chuckled and poked her again.

Twilight flinched and blushed. "O-oh, okay? I actually wanted to ask about that, I..." She trailed off, blinking and shaking her head as she tried to remember what it was she had been meaning to ask. Something about her outfit... She tried to relax and let her mind flow, feeling the purple colors bubble up through her mind again and make her smile.

"I wanted to ask... Is my uniform up to code? Is my butt poofy enough?" Something about saying that sounded off and made her blush, but this time she quickly realized why. "I'm sorry, that was a silly question. A Wonderbutt is never poofy enough, right?"

"A good answer, yes." Spitfire giggled. "I'm glad you've taken the lessons to heart so well. Maybe you'd like another one before we move on? I think you'd be very interested in learning some of the less common knowledge on the Wonderbutts' history and our relation to the Princesses."

Less common knowledge?

That sounded great to Twilight!

“Yes please, Mommy Spitfire!” she agreed, nodding eagerly.

“Then you'd better sit back down, Twily,” Spitfire invited, indicating the desk, and Twilight got into it again. She still wasn't raised up enough to look across at Spitfire, still having to look slightly up, and the pressure of her own weight pressed her down into her diaper and served as a constant reminder that it was there.

That fact still made her a little confused, but every time she began to even think of how she'd ask about it she just reminded herself that it was part of her uniform – the same uniform which had her cutie mark on it, so it had to be hers.

Spitfire stepped up onto a dais, raising the board a little as she did so, to restore the full benefit of the perspective trick built into the classroom. “Let's start with when the Wonderbutts were founded. Not many ponies know this, but the Wonderbutts are one of the oldest organizations in Equestria – our teaching methods have been updated over that time, but the material has hardly changed.”

Twilight had been aware of it, of course, but the way Spitfire was talking was in a peculiar lilting, soothing cadence. It made it sound almost like she was reading out a storybook rather than explaining historical details, and she found herself drawn in.

Spitfire began to draw diagrams as she spoke, helping to illustrate the tale she was telling. “We work very closely with Princess Celestia...”

Twilight listened eagerly as Spitfire began to tell her all about how the Wonderbutts worked with Celestia, about the tradition that had every new ~~Captain~~ Mommy or Daddy begin their duty by running Princess Celestia through a private one-on-one cadet training, all after being personally picked and trained by their predecessor, all the way back to Commander Hurricane's daughter Captain Pansy.

She watched as Spitfire outlined the various events and meetings she attended each year to spend some quality time with the Princess, reinforcing her training and occasionally teasing her a bit. How after the unexpected return of Princess Luna Spitfire herself had picked and trained some of her most ~~brainwashed~~ trusted cadets to form the Shadowbutts, who were officially the Wonderbutts' rival organization but who secretly kept Princess Luna in check for Mommy Spitfire.

For Princess Cadance there wasn't a full organization dedicated to her since her title had been more of a formality than an actual position of power for a long time. Instead Twilight was surprised and happy to find that the most ~~susceptible~~ dependable cadet in the Royal Guard had been picked to personally attend to her and over time brainwash her into a happy, eager and kinky part-time cadet. As a side effect, Queen Chrysalis had shown up in Spitfire's office not a week after the invasion on Canterlot and had since then become a valuable asset and eager poofbutt.

And of course for Twilight herself, Rainbow Dash had been supposed to be their way in and would be trained to brainwash first Princess Twilight herself and then the rest of their group.

The whole thing was so interesting to learn, and it explained so much, so Twilight soaked it up like a sponge. Spitfire's occasional explanatory diagrams pulsed in her peripheral vision, reminding her of little details or making it easier to accept important ones, and she nodded occasionally to show she was paying attention.

Discovering that her mentor was technically part of the same organization as her made her feel all warm and fuzzy, and only a small and unheard part of her mind even worried about how much Mommy Spitfire was talking about things like brainwashing… it just seemed to make so much sense when she explained it. After all, if this was what Princesses did, then it had to make sense!

Eventually, however, Spitfire's tale came to an end, and Twilight sat there with her eyes a bit glazed over for at least a minute more – part of her mind tracing purple spirals and patterns over and over, before she jumped a bit and steadied herself.

“R-right!” she said, stammering a bit as she blushed. “So… so what now?”

“Well, first I think my little cadet needs a change,” Mommy Spitfire commented, indicating Twilight's uniform.

The alicorn blushed more deeply, looking down, and saw that she'd wet her diapers during the long and entrancing lecture.

“Let's get you sorted out,” Spitfire went on. “Then maybe you can meet with the other cadets! How does that sound?”

Twilight kept up her blush, giving Mommy Spitfire a nervous smile and nod. "That sounds fun, Mommy. Are Rainbow and Fluttershy going to be there, too?"

"Well, I don't know about your other friend..." Spitfire walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a large and colorful changing mat, pushing some desks aside to spread it out on the floor and gesture for Twilight to lie down. "...but I'm sure that Rainbow Dash will be there, yes."

Twilight smiled a bit wider now, nervousness receding at the prospect of being with her friends again. She watched as Mommy Spitfire opened some clip buttons she hadn't noticed at the back of her Wonderbutts suit and began to peel off the soggy diaper, then grabbed a box of wipes. She moaned as Mommy Spitfire seemed to focus her efforts to wipe her clean on her marehood, blush returning in full force. "M-mommy..."

"Hold still, cadet, we're almost done~" Spitfire cooed as she pulled away and shook out a large cloud of foal powder onto Twilight's nethers, then pulled out a fresh diaper and a second, even larger and poofier one. "I think we should make sure that you won't need your next change quite as quickly. After all, there's no such thing as too much poof~"

“No, there's not,” Twilight agreed, remembering that part of the lesson, and watched with embarrassment and pleasure combined as Mommy Spitfire taped first one diaper and then the next around her rump.

Spitfire redid the clips, then let Twilight roll over onto her hooves. “Come along, now,” she said. “Let's go and meet your fellow Baby Wonderbutts.”

Twilight nodded, following Mommy out of the classroom – waddling at her heels, a permanent blush lighting her cheeks as every crinkle and wiggle reminded her of her padded state.

“You forgot your pacifier,” Spitfire said, hoofing a replacement to Twilight, and the alicorn winced.

“Sorry...” Twilight mumbled, taking it and starting to suckle on it – feeling a calm wash over her as she did, quieting her anxieties.

They trotted down the halls, Twilight waddling behind thanks to her padded behind, and as they went Twilight began to frown.

“Mommy,” she began. “How come the Wonderbutts are all secret? I didn't know any of this before...”

“That's simple,” Spitfire told her. “It's because everyone learns to keep the secret when they're a cadet, and they all want to be good cadets. Don't you want to be a good cadet?”

“I want to be a good cadet!” Twilight agreed, the answer springing automatically to her tongue and sending purple fireworks though her mind – drawing away the worry and diluting it in happy fizzy purple lights.

“There you are,” Spitfire said. “And since everyone's learned to be a good cadet, no-one – pony or otherwise – gives it away. Doesn't that make sense?”

Twilight didn't really notice that her actual question had gone fundamentally unanswered, and nodded. “Yes, it does, Mommy Spitfire...”

"There's a good filly." Spitfire gave her a smile as they stepped out of the building, walking (and Twilight waddling) across the clouds towards the runway where the rest of the cadets were waiting.

Spitfire walked down the line, leading the waddling Twilight past every other cadet, all of them padded and some suckling on their own pacifiers. "Everyfoal, this is Twilight Tinkle. She's joining us as an honorary cadet and Wonderbutt, so everyone give her a warm welcome."

"Hello, Twilight." The gathered foals mumbled dutifully around their own pacifiers, slumping a little with dopey smiles and drooling as they soaked their padding with a 'warm welcome'.

"I'm glad you all memorized Wonderbutt procedure so well," Spitfire chuckled. "Twilight, go on and take your place in line. We're going to run a few short drills before going inside for a short break, and then you'll all get to do a practice cloudball game."

The gathered cadets gave some cheers and giggles at that, until Spitfire stomped a hoof. "Wonderbutts, at attention!" Everypony and -griffin jumped up, turning around and raising their padded butts to wave them at Spitfire, tails swishing.

"Very good," Spitfire grinned. "And, give me five bounces!" She stifled a giggle at seeing grown mares, a princess and even a griffin turn around again and start bouncing on their padded, squishy rumps.

Some of the 'butts got the counting a bit wrong, giving six bounces instead of just five, but they all eventually stopped and took their positions again.

“Now, let's see you give a shake!” Spitfire instructed.

She watched as most of the cadets did as instructed, then trotted down to the end of the line. “What did you call that, cadet? Was that a shake or a shimmy or just a half-hearted wag?”

“Um...” replied the dragon she was addressing, blushing.

“That's what I thought,” Spitfire noted. “Cadet Twilight, come out here and show us how it's supposed to be done!”

Twilight waddled out in front of the rest of them, her cheeks lit slightly with a blush but eager to do what her mommy said, and paused for a moment before doing a little shake just as instructed. Her diaper crinkled noticeably as she did, with perhaps a little bit of a squish to it as well, and every other Wonderbutts cadet followed the movement back-and-forth.

Spitfire nodded, smirking. “That's right. Now, Cadet Ember, you give it a go.”

The dragon she'd singled out did the same thing, wiggling her diapered rump in front of the other cadets, and again the pendulum-like movement made them all follow it in a slight daze.

“Back to your position,” Spitfire instructed. “Now, pair off and show me some diaper squishes! Twilight, you join Splash and… Frillda.”

She saw Twilight blink slightly, a little surprised by the names, but her conditioning convinced her there was nothing wrong.

Twilight nodded and waddled over to the two, recognizing them as her friends. "Hey, uhm... Rainbow Splash and Frillda? How do you two like the Academy so far?" She giggled at their silly names, then at her own silly name and at their names again.

"That's us, yes." Rainbow Splash grinned and puffed out her chest and crinklebutt proudly. "Proud members of the Wonderbutts."

"Yeah, I guess it isn't so bad here," Frillda reluctantly admitted. "They got all the best outfits at least." She looked down at her own frilly outfit, preening.

Twilight Tinkle oooh'ed appreciatively, looking them over. "Wow, you really look the part, too."

"What part of squishes didn't you understand? I hope you don't talk that much during nap time!" Mommy Spitfire's voice carried across the field, making them squeak and jump in surprise before turning around in a hurry, the three of them bumping and squishing their diapers together. After a few squishes Splash and Frillda teamed up, moving to both sides of Tinkle to squish her between their big butts just like they would a Shadowbutt, leaving the alicorn foal dizzy for a moment.

"Good form, you two! Put a little more fwooomph into it!" Spitfire smirked as she watched the two squish the princess with even more gusto, squishing and squeezing her between their squish-butts until only Twilight's flailing legs were still visible. They finally moved apart, giggling as they saw a dazed Twilight still stuck to Splash's butt.

After a bit of teasing Frillda carefully prised Twilight off Splash's suit, and the griffin Wonderbutt spent a moment longer patting at Splash's rump before nodding. “Yep, that's about as repuffed as it's going to get!”

“Hey! I thought you were still getting Twilight Tinkle off!” Splash protested.

Frillda stuck her tongue out. “You didn't think you were getting away without being pranked?”

As Splash pouted, Spitfire blew her whistle – the sound instantly drawing the attention of the entire class.

“Good work!” she praised them, and happy smiles broke out on all the zonked Wonderbutt cadets – including Twilight, who was only just settling herself from her earlier experience. “You've done very well at your drills, now let's get in for your break!”

There were a few reluctant groans from the cadets who wanted to continue ~~playing~~ doing drills, but the idea of a break was still tempting – and, of course, Mommy Spitfire knew best. So the collection of ponies (and a few non-ponies) all waddled in a line back through the open door into one of the classrooms.

“What's a break like?” Twilight asked Splash, as they filed into the room.

“Eh, it'll be good,” Splash replied with a shrug. “Drink and something cool to watch, maybe? Dunno, it's usually good...”

Spitfire led them past the classrooms and into another large room, this one with colorful walls painted full of smiling suns, poofy Wonderbutts and foalish toys. The floor was padded and soft, making the cadets waddle and stumble even more as they sunk in a little, and lots of stuffed animals and toy chests were set along the walls for them to play with.

Spitfire led them over to a bunch of blankets and pillows in the middle of the room, a large and warm bottle of milk already prepared at each nap spot.

"Fluttershy, there you are!" Twilight gasped happily as she noticed Fluttershy already there, lying on her back and holding a large bottle in her clumsy booties as she drank from it, buzzing happily and kicking her legs into her large plush stinger.

The Bumblebutt looked up as she noticed Twilight and a moment later Rainbow and Frillda join her on the blankets, waving her plush antennae and buzzing happily in greeting. "Oh hello girlzzzzz. Doezzzzzn't thizzzz place feel juzzzt wonderful and safe?"

Rainbow giggled and pounced her stinger playfully, squeaking in surprise as Fluttershy's diaper was pumped up a bit but quickly starting to step and push and squeeze on the plush stinger as she realized how it worked.

Frillda watched them for a moment, totally not jealous of the filly's growing poof and quickly grabbing a bottle to start on her lunch instead and lie down for a well-deserved nap.

Twilight blinked as she looked at Fluttershy's costume, wondering why her friend was wearing such a silly bee costume – it was cute, of course, but it seemed a little odd.

When she made eye contact, though, the swirling yellow-and-black spirals on the Bumblebutt's goggles made her stare. They were oddly soothing, and after a minute or so Twilight felt relaxed enough that her concerns had all melted away and dissolved.

Smiling, glad to have… whatever had been bothering her… sorted out, Twilight flumphed down on the pillows she'd been led to, and began to suckle on her milk bottle as the lights dimmed.

“Now, remember to get a good sleep!” Mommy Spitfire instructed them all, turning on a big mobile hanging from the ceiling. “There's going to be a practice game later, so you'd all better be well rested… night night Wonderbutts!”

“Night night Momma,” the Wonderbutt trainees mumbled around their bottles. The mobile spun around above them, playing soft music, and sparkly lights circled overhead.

The mention of a practice game did make Twilight a bit anxious again, not sure if she'd be ready to take part, but the mobile was really relaxing...

The whole mobile was really big, with more pieces hanging off it than should be able to fit, all of them glowing softly in the dark and spinning around each other like watching a big silly galaxy in the night sky. There were a bunch of baby bottles, some pacifiers, diapers, rattles and plushies, along with a whole lot of Wonderbutt cutouts, each one more thickly padded than the last, crinkling and squishing softly as they spun overhead and occasionally bumping into other cutouts, grabbing a bottle, hugging a plushie, dropping into another diaper, suckling on a paci or squishing another Wonderbutt under their diaper.

Twilight slowly felt her eyes grow heavy, falling closed, but even then she could see the mobile clear as day, picturing herself and all her friends as the Wonderbutts spinning around in the air, being a good little cadet for Momma Spitfire and having the biggest poof to squish everypony else under it.

She kept dreaming like that for a while, slowly waking up to the same music as before playing slightly louder and all around her and a soft feeling of movement. She opened her eyes to look around at all the other Wonderbutts swinging through the air around her with happy, sleepy and silly expressions, each one sitting in a baby bouncer hanging from the mobile, spinning among the glowing colorful plushies and pacis and toys and occasionally squishing each other against their padded rumps.

It was just so relaxing to hang there, bouncing up and down gently and spinning around and around, completely surrounded by sparkly lights and symbols and pacis and Wonderbutts, that Twilight drowsed for a long time – dropping into sleep and coming out again, just a continual fog of near-sleep and near-wakefulness and lilting music.

Eventually it had to end, though, as the door opened and Momma Spitfire came through. The mobile slowed gradually as she began to give everyone a pep talk, telling them about the game.

Twilight was still drowsy enough that she missed a lot of what Momma Spitfire said, but she got most of the important bits – about how there was going to be a practice game against the Shadowbutts, and that every one of the trainees was going to be taking part somehow, and how she and Fluttershy in particular were going to be supporting from the sidelines!

For her part, Fluttershy buzzed a bit nervously at the idea of being the centre of attention like that, but as the mobile slowed down she thought about it a bit more. Buzzing feelings flowed through her, reassuring her, and her thoughts felt like they were wrapped in sweet sticky honey as she slowly came around to the idea.

After all, Momma Spitfire knew best, didn't she?

Spitfire grinned as she helped her cadets down from the mobile, which meant opening the latches on the seats and letting them fall out to land diaper-first on the padded floor or each other. She grinned even more as she watched them toddle around clumsily, still dizzy from all the spinning and bouncing as they made their way outside to the field.

"Cadet Twilight Tinkle, Cadet Bumbleshy, a moment please?" She pulled over a large box, pulling out a pair of yellow and black pom-poms covered in a generous amount of yellow pollen powder, and handing them to Fluttershy. "You two are going to be the cheerleaders for this event. Don't worry about steps or how you're doing, just be as peppy and happy and poofy as you can and you'll do fine."

She pulled out another outfit, this one a large padded plush suit of Celestia wearing a skimpy cheerleader outfit and a massive diaper over its already huge plush rump. "Cadet Tinkle, this is your mascot costume. I expect you to wear it with pride and poof."

Bumbleshy took the pom-poms with a dopey smile, pollen-powder already drifting off them in fine clouds as she bounced up and down a little, and nodded. “Thank you, Momma Spitfire!”

Twilight's reaction took a bit longer, as she stared at the padded-plush costume of Celestia.

The idea of dressing up in the costume was… nice, and tempting, and she nodded. “Y-yes, Momma Spitfire! Um… can you help me get into the costume, please?”

“Of course,” Spitfire agreed. “Now, just hold still, Cadet Tinkle...”

Twilight stilled, and Spitfire unzipped the costume before guiding Twilight's legs into the back. Each of the four legs went into one of the thick-plush legs of the Celestia costume, sliding in snugly over the smooth fabric before reaching the end, and then Spitfire heaved the costume's rump over Twilight's already-large diaper.

The force of the costume pressing in on Twilight's thick diaper made her blush and shift about a bit, wiggling to feel the pressure on her pampers, until Momma Spitfire put a hoof on her side to remind her to stay still.

Twilight's wings went into the plush wing-sleeves of the costume, which tightened just enough at the base that it would be hard to get her wings back out again without plenty of help, and then finally came the head. The head's thick, soft material surrounded Twilight's head and muzzle on all sides, reducing her field of view a little and making her feel light-headed from the extra cushioning around her, but she could still hear just fine – Bumbleshy's faint buzzing coming through loud and clear.

“There we go,” Spitfire said, looking over the costume and pushing into the diaper to test it. “You should be just fine for today's practice game!”

"T-thanks, Momma Spitfire." Twilight blushed a bit under the thick costume, finding it hard to speak clearly through the plush over her own mouth. Walking wasn't much easier, the plush and extra diaper making it impossible to keep her legs together while the thick plush hooves sunk in and crinkled a little with each step, making her waddle and stumble across the floor.

Spitfire chuckled and walked in front of her. "Looks like you're still a little clumsy in that costume. Don't worry, we got the perfect thing to help, some nice cheerful cheerleader marches." She slipped a pair of comically large headphones over the Plushlestia's ears, then another pair onto Fluttershy's antennae. The two mares tensed up for a moment before giggling and relaxing, bouncing on their hooves lightly as they fell into the rhythm of the cheers.

"Wonderbutts the very best,

Poofier than all the rest

Got the thickest padded butts

Bouncing high where others trot~"

They ended in a pose, waving around their pom-poms and their diaper-butts, giggling happily.

“Excellent!” Spitfire said, as Fluttershy sneezed from the cloud of yellow pollen-powder. “It sounds like you're both ready for the game, so let's head down there now.”

She knew that by now Soarin' and the others would have the new recruits ready to form up as a team, so she just indicated the door to go through and stood back to let the two new cheerleaders through.

Fluttershy and Twilight tried to go through the door at the same time, pushing it open easily enough but getting stuck as their padded-up butts wedged side-by-side in the door.

“What have we here?” Spitfire asked, trotting up behind them with a smirk. “A couple of baby cadets who got stuck in the door?”

Twilight mumbled something, and Spitfire nodded. “Well, you're lucky that your ~~Captain~~ Momma knows just how to sort out a problem like this,” she said, and gave both of them a shove on the crinklebutt at once.

Fluttershy and Twilight popped through the door, landing in a heap and getting a dose of Fluttershy's pollen powder all over them, which led in turn to a fit of giggles.

“Better hurry,” Spitfire warned. “You don't want to be late for the game!”

Twilight gasped at the thought of being late, quickly scrambling back to her hooves and waddling ahead down the hall, the pollen in her face making her dizzy and giggly.

She reached the exit soon enough, waddling out onto a large cloud field set up for the hoofball game. The two teams were already hovering in the air, two clusters of massive butts, one blue and yellow and the other black and yellow, both wiggling and swaying in the air.

The Shadowbutts had also brought a dozen cheerleaders for the game, all stacked up in a poof pyramid and yelling some cheers. Upon seeing Twilight and Fluttershy they turned their attention to them, jeering and taunting them instead.

Fluttershy squeaked timidly as she pulled back into herself for a moment, but the taunts were slowly drowned out by the cheerful music and the loud buzzing in her ears. After a few moments she could actually stand up tall again, buzzing up into the air proudly and shaking her padded pollen pooter at the Shadowbutts.Overhead, Rainbow and Frillda pulled together with a few of the others – including the two who she vaguely remembered meeting as dragons? - to form a waddling wedge in mid-air, but no sooner had they done so when the taunts of the Shadowbutt cheerleaders began to distract them and energize their opposition.

“Come on!” Rainbow called, but a moment later she got completely smooshed from two directions at once by a pair of Shadowbutt players' rumps – one coming from above and the other from below. They squished into her for a good second or two before letting her go, and Rainbow tumbled a bit before recovering and bouncing on the pitch to get back into the air.

Overhead she could see Lightning headed for the ball, until there was a foomp! from down below and a crinkly white cannonball shot into the air. It unfurled as it rose, forming a giant diaper which wrapped around Lightning and stopped her from continuing to play.

“Hey!” Splash shouted, pointing at the cannon that had fired and then at the Shadowbutts using Lightning as a replacement ball. “That's not fair!”

She tried to stamp her hoof, but it wasn't easy to do in mid-air. So she pouted instead, and looked for Mommy so she could complain – though, unfortunately, it looked like Mommy wasn't watching, or if she was it wasn't anywhere where Splash could see her.

She glanced down at the cheerleaders, Bumbleshy and Twilight Tinkle – though Twilight Tinkle was dressed more as Celestinkle at the moment – and smiled at their support, though it was mostly drowned out by the cheering of the more numerous Shadowbutt cheerleaders.

Over the course of the game, it didn't get much better. The two dragons were bumped around and then nefariously fed with cartoonish bombs when they yelped in surprise, causing one of them to cough large clouds of foal powder that made it harder to see for the Wonderbutts and made them dizzy whenever they breathed in to much of it. The other dragon had it even worse, getting a bad case of the hiccups and blowing bigger and bigger bubbles with each hiccup, filling the playing field with the bubbles for the Wonderbutts to trip over, bump into and get lost in the soapy rainbow shimmer they displayed.

The Shadowbutts of course capitalized on this distraction, stuffing a hose down the back of Rainbutt's suit and filling her padding with water until she was too heavy to fly.

Cloud Giggler got a pair of goggles and headphones stuck over her ears and eyes while she was distracted by a bubble and ended up hugging random clouds and giggling, stuffing some of them down her suit clumsily.

Thunderpants was hit by a sneak attack from above, one Shadowbutt flying a large mobile right over him to get him disoriented. He tried to escape at first but ended up flying around in circles, getting tangled up with more and more parts of it.

Wetter and Cloudsquisher were hit by particularly mean and sneaky cheaters, two Shadowbutts handing them big and pretty presents that turned out to contain nefariously fun toys, leaving them distracted for the rest of the game as they shook their rattles at each other, suckled their pacifiers and hugged their Wonderbutt plushies.

Finally Frillda was trapped and tangled up in a massive princess dress with enough frills and bows that she was barely able to fly anymore and Rainbow Splash herself was surrounded by half a dozen Shadowbutts who all squished her between their butts for what had to be minutes, singing taunts and nursery rhymes that all blended together with the crinkling and squishing. Of course an amazing Wonderbutt like Rainbow Splash was only dazed for a short while from it, but after that every time she came close to getting the ball back from them she suddenly got distracted by a more pressing... pressure, soaking her diaper and getting bigger and heavier and squishier the longer it went.

The game went on for another little while – Splash wasn't a hundred and twenty percent sure how long – but it never really turned around, with the Shadowbutts pulling out trick after trick and keeping the Wonderbutts on the back hoof while they racked up a three-digit score.

Finally, the whistle blew, and Splash came down for a landing as the game ended – though it nearly became a splashdown landing, as she forgot to compensate for her big, squishy diaper and came close to bouncing back into the air.

“That wasn't fair!” she complained, looking around. “They cheated!”

“Yeah,” Frillda agreed, trying to untangle herself from the dress she'd been stuck in. “This is kind of cute, but… but that wasn't fair!”

As the loss sunk in, some of the Wonderbutts were taking it badly – Thunderpants sniffling a bit – and Splash groaned.

“Well, I guess we'll have to… hey, where's Twilight gone?”

“What?” Frillda asked, finally getting her head out of the dress. “Isn't she over… huh?”

The Wonderbutt was pointing at an empty touch line.

Both of them looked over to the other touch line, where a giant crinkly flytrap plant was swaying gently back and forth. They could just about see a striped black-and-yellow stinger poking out of it.

“Bumbleshy!” Rainbow Splash called. “Come on, we've gotta get her out!”

She took off, with great difficulty because she still hadn't been changed, and looked around for a moment – no sign of the Shadowbutts.

They'd left really quickly after the game, which was… odd… because normally after a match that was that one-sided the winning team would have been taunting the losing team and calling them little foals for quite a long time.

Rainbow turned that over in her mind as she reached Bumbleshy's flytrap. She was sure there was something important about it, but she couldn't quite work out what.

Yet.

It took a good three minutes and several ponies to finally get Bumbleshy out of the exceptionally sticky flytrap, more than one Wonderbutt almost getting stuck in it alongside her. Splash had to reluctantly admit that the Shadowbutts really had some good gear for being cheating cheaters. Still that didn't answer the question of why they'd disappeared so quickly and what happened to Twilight.

"Bumbleshy, where's Twilight? Have you seen her?"

"Hmm?" Bumbleshy looked up from where she was licking the trap's sticky honey off her suit, blushing a bit as she realized everyone was watching and shuffling back slowly. "I, uh, I'm not sure. They got me early in the game and then everything got sweet and crinkly and spinny and I couldn't see anything... I think I heard them talk about Princess Celestinkle, and how they were going to have the best victory trophy ever."

Splash blinked, tilting her head and frowning in thought. She was pretty sure that Princess Celestinkle hadn't actually been at the game. She knew that for sure because she'd been all confused at first seeing Twilight's costume. Maybe the Shadowbutts got confused as well? Such stupid dumb cheaters, not even able to tell the difference between a princess and... well, another princess, but in a costume.

Rainbow Splash giggled at how dumb those Shadowbolts were and how dumb they would probably feel when they figured it out. She helped Bumbleshy clean up, happy that they got at least one victory about those soggybutts today, until she suddenly froze in realization.

"...ah! They foalnapped Twilight!"

With that realization, Splash went and waddle-flapped over to Mommy Spitfire – now on the field and totting around giving ~~commands~~ useful advice. She stopped for a moment by Cloud Giggler and took the headphones off, patting her on the head, then looked up as Splash flew a little clumsily down to land in front of her.

“Is something wrong, Splash?” she asked.

“Mommy!” Rainbow said. “I'm so glad you're – they took Twilight! We need to go and get her back!”

“Who did?” Spitfire said.

“The Shadowbutts, those cheating… cheats!” Splash replied hotly. “She was there, and now she's not there, and they said they'd taken Princess Celestinkle as a trophy! So they must have foalnapped her!”

She turned around. “Come on, we need to go save her!”

“Hold on, Cadet Rainbow Splash,” Spitfire said. “Who did you hear this from?”

“Bumbleshy,” Rainbow replied promptly. Something about the name made Mommy Spitfire smile a bit, but Rainbow didn't bother thinking about that. “She overheard it after they put her in a big fly-trap!”

“That does sound like a problem,” Spitfire agreed. “But I think you'd better wait a bit first, so we can see if we sort it out first.”

Rainbow's jaw dropped open. “But moomma!”

“The Shadowbutts are always stealing things,” Spitfire explained. “They'll probably get bored of her eventually. If they don't, we can go over and ask later – even if they want to keep her, they probably won't mind handing her back if we trade something in.”

Rainbow sat down on her still-squishy diaper and started to pout, but then Spitfire told her to get ready for a change and she sort of lost her train of thought for a bit.

By the time Frillda joined her, however, Splash was back into her sulk.

“What's up?” Frillda asked.

“Momma says we have to let them keep Twilight for a bit,” Splash explained grumpily. “Don't wanna.”

“What about if we do it anyway?” Frillda suggested. “Sneak out during naptime? Or even right now?”

That made Splash think for a bit.

“Yeah, sounds good!” she decided. “Come on, Bumbleshy!”

“Um, well… if you think zzzo,” Bumbleshy buzzed uncertainly. “D-do either of you know where to go?”

Splash paused for a moment, glancing at Frillda – who shook her head – then shrugged.

“Can't be too hard!” she decided. “The Shadowbutts can find it, and they're not nearly as smart as Wonderbutts!”