The Wonderbolt Conspiracy

Twilight woke up slowly, feeling all muzzy.

She wasn't quite a hundred percent sure on what had happened… she could remember that she was being a crinkly Celestinkle cheerleader for the Wonderbutts, and then the Shadowbutts started doing things she was pretty sure were cheating!

That annoyed her a lot, but then some Shadowbutt cheerleaders had done something over on the other side of the field to Bumbleshy, then done a cheer for Twilight which had made her all dizzy, and picked her up to take her away while talking about a victory trophy…

Trying to look around to see where she was, Twilight felt a plush hug around her all at once with even the slightest movement – which reminded her that she was still wearing her cute Celly cheerleader outfit. It did let her know that she was sitting down, though, but she didn't know more than that.

“So, we got you at last, Celestinkle!”

The voice made her look around, until a light turned on – revealing she was sitting down in a cutesy pastel-painted throne, piled high with cushions. There was a bar across to stop her getting out, with a tray on top of it which could have been either a desk or a high chair food tray.

The speaker was revealed, as well – a smirking stallion in a Shadowbutts outfit, with a similarly dressed mare by the nearby light switch.

Twilight shook her head a bit, trying to blink the surprisingly persistent spots out of her eyes that had come when the lights were turned on. "What...? I'm not Celestinkle! What do you want from me?"

The stallion and mare both giggled, slowly trotting over to her, hooves barely making a sound in the soft booties that were part of their suits. "You can't fool us, Celestinkle. You're big and white and puffy and crinkly and you look just like the pictures. Who else would you be, some no-name Wonderbutt in a costume?"

Twilight blinked before nodding quickly. "I, uh... yes! That's exactly what I am! I mean, I wouldn't call myself no-name, but-"

"Do you think we're stupid? We're way smarter than those dumb soggy Wonderbutts. You can't fool us that easily. And now you're going to stay here while we taunt your team with our new trophy. And maybe if you're a good fluffstage and they pay well we'll let you go again." He drooled a little, shaking his rump. "We're going to get sooooo many diapers for you."

Twilight gasped in shock. Not only did they think she was Celestinkle, they were going to ransom her off for diapers. If they succeeded, they would win every cloudball game by default for months, winning practically by default with their massive poofbutts while the Wonderbutts would be dangerously low on diapers. She whimpered quietly. If they paid too much and didn't have enough left, some of the low-ranked foals like her might even end up having to... use the potty. Just the thought made her want to wet herself, both from fear and to assure herself that so far she was still nice and safe in a big, soft, absorbent padding.

“Nothing to say about that?” the stallion asked. “Well, that's fine, you don't really need to say anything for this bit – you just need to remember that the Shadowbutts have got you, and you're our trophy. Think you can remember that?”

“I'm not stupid,” Twilight protested, stung by the insult to her memory. She could remember everything Momma had said, after all!

“You're not?” the mare said, chuckling. “Well, you won't mind proving it, then, will you, Celestinkle?”

Twilight thought that over for a moment, then shook her head.

“Oh?” the mare asked, leaning closer. “You mean you do mind proving it? Because if you didn't want to prove it, well, we might think you were just scared!”

“I'm not scared, I mean, not of that!” Twilight protested. “I just-”

“Then you won't mind if we give you a quick test,” the Shadowbutt stallion said, picking up the thread of the conversation smoothly enough to leave Twilight confused – her attention bouncing back and forth between the two Shadowbutts, and trying not to make any mistakes in the conversation at the same time. “Just so we see if you're really able to remember you're our trophy or not?”

“I, um,” Twilight said, trailing off.

How had she ended up talked around in circles like that?

“I… guess that's okay?” she said, not wanting to be taunted again.

“Good!” the Shadowbutt mare smiled. “Now, pay attention!”

She turned on a projector, and the wall flashed several times before the image steadied down to a blank background.

“You're going to need to show you remember all the phrases after they come up on the projector,” the mare told her. “Ready?”

"I'm ready!" Twilight blinked, still confused. "I, uh, wait. Ready for what?"

"For your test of course. You mean you're not ready for your test?" The stallion leaned in, taunting.

"Oh dear, that won't reflect well on your grades at all~" The mare added. "If you don't show more effort you're going to fail. You might even have to be sent to... magic kindergarten."

Twilight's eyes shrunk to pinpricks at the thought, tunnel vision setting in as she thought about having to go to magic kindergarten. She'd heard foals there were expected to use the potty all the time, got only one short nap per day, got only one cookie with lunch and even that only if they ate all their alfalfa. Not even any warm bottles if you wanted a lighter meal.

Her eyes focused on the screen in desperation, taking in the first phrase, "Celestinkle is a little soggybutt." Her panicked mind completely ignored any protests that she wasn't Celestinkle or that they were calling her names, instead putting all its attention on memorizing the phrase.

After a few moments the screen went blank again, the mare and stallion moving up to either side of her. "Well? Do you still remember what it said?"

"I don't think she does," the mare smirked. "Look at the dumb soggybutt, she probably doesn't even know how to read."

"I do know how to read!" Twilight yelled back, pouting angrily. "It said Celestinkle is a little soggybutt! There!" She huffed and turned her attention back to the screen immediately, in case they were trying to cheat her out of her good grade by showing the next phrase while she was distracted.

She was going to make them regret calling her a dumb soggybutt. She was a smart soggybutt and she was going to prove it. Just to get a headstart on that, her eyes drooped slightly as she relaxed with a sigh, flooding her diapers and leaning into the seat with a faint squish. She'd show those dumb Shadowbutts.

The screen flickered a little as the next phrase came up, the letters spelling out the phrase that “Celestinkle loves her diapers.”

Twilight memorized that phrase as well, blinking a little from the flickering of the screen, and shifted a bit – making her diapers squish under her.

It was quite easy to remember the phrase, because she loved her diapers!

...but of course she wasn't Celestinkle, right?

“Ready?” the stallion asked. “It's going to go away in a minute, have you had time to read it?”

“Of course I have!” Twilight replied hotly. “I'm not a dumb soggybutt!”

The phrase went away, and Twilight promptly repeated it. “Celestinkle loves her diapers!”

“You do?” the mare said, patting her on the head with a plush-encased hoof. “That's so good to know… but what was the phrase?”

“That was the phrase!” Twilight insisted. “Celestinkle loves her diapers, that's the phrase!”

In her annoyance, she forgot to deny that she was Celestinkle before the next phrase came up – this one stating that “Celestinkle secretly wants to be a Shadowbutt.”

“What?” Twilight gasped. “But – I don't, I mean, she doesn't!”

“Is something wrong?” the mare asked. “Are you having trouble with the big words?”

“N-no,” Twilight answered. “But it's saying-”

“It sounds like you're having trouble with the test,” the stallion interrupted, shaking his head. “That doesn't sound like you're going to get a good grade, if you have trouble with such a simple task.”

“I'm not having trouble with it,” Twilight defended herself, then noticed the words had vanished from the screen.

“You're not?” the stallion asked her. “Then you should have no trouble telling us what it said?”

"Celestinkle secretly wants to be a Shadowbutt!" Twilight blurted out angrily, then blinked and shook her head, trying to shake the thought off. Of course she didn't secretly want to be a Shadowbutt. Even if Shadowbutts were the best. She blinked again, confused where that thought had–

"Well, soggybutt? What did it say?"

"W-what?" Twilight jumped a little, only catching a flash of the last phrase on the screen and fidgeting nervously. "I, uhm, it said... Shadowbutts are the best?" She cringed down a little, waiting for the taunting and laughter.

"Very good." The Shadowbutt mare praised her, surprising her. "Maybe you might actually not completely fail a test." If you can keep this up at least." She stuck out her tongue, turning around and shaking her padded butt at ~~Celestinkle~~ Twilight.

Twilight blushed slightly, trying to read the next phrase on the screen but getting distracted by the bouncing, shaking poof next to it every time she'd managed to read a word. Something about poofy butts, the poofiest diapers...

“Well~?” the stallion asked, and Twilight blinked – realizing the phrase had gone, at least ten seconds ago, and she'd just been staring at the crinklebutt the whole time.

“Um...” she began, frowning, and the stallion chuckled.

“Well, looks like you just got lucky last time-”

“No, I didn't!” Twilight insisted, trying to avoid focusing on the bouncing poof as it tugged at her attention.

“Well, then, what did it say?” the mare asked, without letting up on distracting Twilight. “Or are we going to have to mark it down as another fail, Celestinkle?”

“I-” Twilight began, flushing, then suddenly the phrase was there on the tip of her tongue. “Celestinkle loves the poofiest diaper butts she can find!”

“That's very close,” the mare told her, cooing. “I'm afraid it was that Celestinkle loves the poofiest diapers and butts she can find. But you nearly got it!”

The sudden switches from taunting to praise to taunting to condescension made Twilight blush all the harder, and before she could work out how to react the screen flickered again as another phrase came up.

This one was much easier to read, but Twilight still looked at it in confusion – the same phrase was on the screen three times in a row. She blinked, then looked aside at the Shadowbutt stallion to see if there was any hint there, and by the time she looked back to the screen it had gone blank.

“Um… my name is Celestinkle?” she said, a little dubiously.

“I think you missed something...” the stallion said. “Didn't you?”

Twilight blushed again, trying to figure out what she'd missed. Maybe she had to repeat it as often as the screen did?

"M-my name is Celestinkle... My name is Celestinkle?"

The stallion shook his head. "You're stuttering, dear, that's not something a good student does. If you got an answer not right, don't try to fumble your way through the rest of it. Good students start from the beginning."

Celes– Twilight puffed out her cheeks angrily, pouting at being chided over a technicality. "My name is Celestinkle. My name is Celestinkle. My name is Celestinkle!"

Celestinkle puffed her chest up proudly, almost sticking her tongue out at them.

The stallion just chuckled and stepped aside again, giving her free view of the screen and the new phrase on it: "Celestinkle secretly works for the Shadowbutts."

Celestinkle blinked and scrunched a bit. On one hoof she was pretty sure that she didn't work for those dumb Shadowbutts, on the other hoof the screen hadn't been wrong so far, so...

"It's so secret that not even Celestinkle herself knows about it."

She blinked again, giggling for a moment. That made sense, of course she wouldn't know about it if it was that secret.

After looking at the screen for a few seconds, Celestinkle remembered that she was supposed to be saying what was on it.

“Celestinkle secretly works for the Shadowbutts,” she read off. “It's so secret that not even Celestinkle knows about it!”

The message was replaced by another one straight away, and Celestinkle sort of lost track of how this had originally been presented as a test of her ability to remember things.

The shift to a test of whether she could read just seemed to make sense, and she wiggled about a little – feeling her diaper squish a bit and crinkle a lot – as she read off the next phrase. “Celestinkle knows just what to do when Wonderbutts are around!”

And she felt like she did. She couldn't name what it was that she'd know what to do, but she knew deep-down that she'd know when the time came.

It was an odd feeling, which got stronger as the screen flickered a few times, and Celestinkle thought about trying to trace where the feeling came from – before the Shadowbutt mare spoke up again.

“You're doing much better now,” she said, giving Celestinkle a pat on the head, as the Shadowbutt stallion trotted around to start waving his own padded butt back and forth – fragmenting Celestinkle's attention a bit more, making it harder for her to actually critically think about anything instead of just reacting as she'd been told to do.

Doing that also made it easier to accept simultaneously knowing that she was working for the Shadowbutts and knowing that that was something she didn't know.

The phrase on the screen changed again, and Celestinkle took it in before repeating it – barely even paying conscious attention, wanting to prove she could learn her lessons just right.

Flicker, change, read. Flicker, change, read. Over and over, phrase after phrase…

"Don't let your guard down, everyfoal." Rainbow Splash mumbled around the pacifier in her mouth, wiggling her way forward. Just like she'd thought, they had found the Shadowbutts' base easily because they were Wonderbutts and way smarter than any of them (and not because the other base was almost right next to the Wonderbutt Academy). They had even managed to sneak up to the building and find a vent ~~barely~~ wide enough to squeeze their crinklebutts through and were now totally successfully infiltrating the base.

They had come as prepared as possible, with ~~pretty~~ stealthy booties on their hooves and pacifiers in their mouths to muffle any sounds that might have given them away.

"I think we're almost there." She rounded another corner in the vent system and squeaked as her front hooves slid out from under her, the vent suddenly sloping downwards without warning or any hoofhold to speak of, her booties gaining no traction. She felt someone grab her hindlegs, slowing her down for a moment before they started to slip as well, until their whole group was slipping down the unexpected slide.

“W-whoah, hold on!” Splash yelped. “Not like that – yaah!”

She tried to twist sideways to wedge herself into the pipe, but her Wonderbutts uniform was so soft and smooth that it didn't help in the slightest. Then she went head-first into something odd, which seemed to be like one of those paper drums a pony might burst through in the circus. Except that it was fabric, not paper, and some of it continued to cling tightly to her all over even after she went through.

“Hey!” Frillda yelped, behind her, and then Bumbleshy squeaked in surprise, and Rainbow frowned momentarily – wondering how they could all have been caught by the same trap if Rainbow had gone through it first.

Then they all slid out onto a big pile of pillows in a dimly lit hallway, ending up in a heap with Splash's head resting on Bumbleshy's stinger and Frillda on top of both of them.

The griffin Wonderbutt wiggled off at Splash's urging, though not without considerable difficulty, and as she did so Splash finally got a look at what had happened to them.

Something about the slide they'd been in had got them stuck in poofy dresses, and by how hard Frillda was finding it to get around it was pretty clear the other two had dresses just as tight and restrictive as Splash was wearing. The light of the corridor – sort of like moonlight, which made sense she guessed – was just about bright enough to see most of the details of the dresses, and Frillda's one was made up almost entirely of clouds and clouds of frills while Bumbleshy's one was all striped in yellow and black.

Rainbow Splash was pretty sure her own dress was just as frou-frou as the others, and rainbow to boot, along with having big pillowy pantaloons over her diaper just like theirs did to make the poof even more obvious.

“W-what do we do now?” Bumbleshy asked. “Can we really sneak around like this?”

“We'll have to,” Rainbow Splash replied. “We've got to rescue Twilight, and these are kind of annoying but we can still do it!”

Frillda absentmindedly pawed at her dress, noticing that her cutie mark of a big frilly diaper had been printed onto her pantaloons just like a wet diaper over a splash of rainbow and a diapered bumblebee in a puff of foal powder had been printed onto the ones of her teammates. It implied that the Shadowbolts had been expecting them specifically to come to the rescue and prepared these traps and frilly outfits accordingly, which was kind of ~~concerning~~ nice of them. She grinned a little, getting lost in staring at her cutie mark for a moment before she snapped out of it again and moved ahead with newfound determination and wide, waddling steps.

"It's not like we have any choice. Besides, soft things make things quieter, so we should be even better at sneaking with these, right?" She turned around to them, obliviously waggling her poofy padded butt right at a strategically placed camera.

"That's right." Rainbow Splash straightened up a bit, stepping up to her friend and grinning. "Just wait, we'll have Princess Celestinkle out of this place faster than you can say 'diaper change'."

"Uhm..." Fluttershy waddled behind them, her own yellow and black dress throwing off a small cloud of foal powder pollen and her plushy booties leaving soft yellow hoofprints with every step. "Don't you mean we'll have Twilight out of this place?"

"That's what I said." Rainbow nodded, ear flicking as she hummed along with the quiet spy theme playing from hidden speakers along the hallway. "We'll have Princess Twilightinkle out in no time."

“O-okay, I was just wondering...” Fluttershy mumbled. “Are you sure it's this way?”

Her antenna bounced as she walked, the hum making her slowly relax as it harmonized with the spy music going on as well.

“Of course it's this way!” Splash replied. “What other way would it be?”

“Well, um...” Frillda frowned. “Don't corridors have two ways at least?”

Splash thought about that, then shrugged it off. “Eh, this way's got to be the right one.”

She turned a corner, and they kept waddling along.