The Wonderbolt Conspiracy

Suddenly Frillda stuck out a mittened foreleg. “Wait, look!”

She pointed at where there was a faint red glitter in the air.

“A laser hallway?” Splash asked. “Those are kind of cool! Hey, Bumbleshy, quick, we need some more powder!”

“Um… okay?” Bumbleshy replied. “But… how do I do that?”

“Just sit down,” Splash told her. “I've seen this loads of times before!”

Bumbleshy sat down with a fwoomph, sending a big cloud of sweet-smelling foal-powder pollen billowing out in all directions, and the scent made Splash and Frillda feel a little light headed.

As it spread, though, filling the corridor, it showed up the laser beam Frillda had spotted – along with dozens more, not just red but in all kinds of colours. The beams weren't static, either, with some of them flickering and others moving back and forth as they traced out a route.

Worryingly, it looked like they were actually trapped in the middle of the cage of laser light, rather than at one end. But it was hard to try and work out how they'd got here, and harder to find a way out… the light show was very appealing, easier to just focus on for how nice it looked...

"I wonder if there's any reason for all of these being different colors... What if they call all kinds of scary guards?" Bumbleshy backed away from one laser nervously, watching it trace a slow line through the air.

"Don't worry, if they do call guards me and Frillda are going to pad them up." Rainbow grinned and confidently bounced her crinklebutt against the floor a few times. "I don't think the colors have any meaning aside from looking pretty, though. I mean, what would the different colors even... stand... for..." She trailed off as one red laser changed direction and hit her right in the face, focusing on her forehead for several seconds before moving on.

"Uh-oh..." Frillda took a step back, looking around. "I don't hear any shouts or alarms, maybe that one misfired. Splash, are you alright? Splash?"

Rainbow blinked a few times, pupils shimmering red as she turned her head towards Frillda, right in time to see her back turned to her, leaving Dash to watch the most soft, poofy and beautiful crinklebutt she'd ever seen. Her eyes drooped and she giggled, bouncing over and landing with her forelegs wrapped around Frillda's butt, hugging the soft plush pantaloons and nuzzling into them.

Frillda squawked, stumbling forward a little. "What the-? Splash, what do you think you're doing?! This really isn't the time for... time..." She turned her head to snap at her teammate, just in time to catch a yellow laser right in the face.

The laser focused on her forehead and Frillda's pupils shrunk to pinpricks, taking a yellow sheen around them. Her eyes drooped a little and she relaxed, slumping and grinning as she started to flood her diapers with a happy sigh. "Time for... soaking my pamps…"

Splash squished Frillda's much soggier diapers a few times, then blinked and shook her head. “Uh… h-huh, I felt kinda funny there for a moment...”

Bumbleshy's wings fluttered in anxiety, producing a buzzing sound. “I… really think this is a bad idea, um…”

Her voice trailed off as she noticed a pretty deep-blue laser which had pointed at her while she wasn't looking, and her eyes unfocused as she stared into the blue light.

It felt… really good. The blue light flooded through her, making her feel soft and relaxed and wiping away her concerns. The anxiety she'd had since entering the Shadowbutt base seemed to dissolve away…

...then it was gone, and Bumbleshy sighed – annoyed at the loss of the calming influence of the light.

Frillda squawked as she noticed that her diaper was much wetter than it had been a moment ago, but Bumbleshy was too busy looking for another one of those deep blue lights.

Part of her was also paying attention to what would be a good way out, but right now the blue light seemed important.

“Hey, 'shy, did that light do something to me?” Rainbow asked. “I feel kinda odd.”

“I… um, I don't think they're too bad,” Bumbleshy answered, spotting another blue light. It was a much paler blue, almost baby-blue compared to the deep blue she'd used before, but that was close enough, right?

She made to step into it, hesitated as she wondered if that was a good idea, and considered the pretty lights for a moment longer.

Before she could make a fully informed decision, the beam of light changed direction towards her, maybe sensing her intentions. Bumbleshy didn't move away, still too calm to feel anything else but curious excitement towards it, hoping for another wave of relaxation like the last one had brought her.

Her eyes immediately fixated on the light as it stopped right on her forehead, staying there a little longer than before. She did feel relaxed again, though in another way than before, feeling faintly dizzy and lightheaded this time. She thought she could see words or hear thoughts within the light, but that seemed just silly. Still, it definitely left her swaying in place and looking slightly dazed even after the light was gone, a baby blue shimmer around her pupils that were still faintly tinted deep blue from before.

Rainbow gave her a concerned look, stepping up to her. "Hey 'Shy, are you alright? That thing hit you right in the face there."

Bumbleshy blinked a few times, the voice of her friend snapping her out of the residues of her short trance. She turned around to face Rainbow, giving her a reassuring smile and a nod. "Ababagah. Abah gah buh."

Rainbow stared at her for a long moment, one ear flicking and a light blush on her face. "...what?"

"Gababuh?" Bumbleshy tilted her head slightly, giving her a mildly confused look. "Bugagamahhh."

Frillda let out a strangled squawk and a snicker, biting her talon for a moment before she fell over with a loud squish and even louder laughter. "Oh my storm, she sounds like a little foal! That's hilarious!"

Bumbleshy blinked, then huffed and pouted, fluffing herself up indignantly as the blue slowly started to fade. "Gababuh! Nawt a foal!"

Rainbow blinked as well, then puffed her cheeks up and swallowed, still unable to keep down a quiet snicker. "S-sorry, 'Shy, but you really do sound like one right now."

“Humph!” Bumbleshy mumbled, blushing about it profusely.

Maybe having something to put in her mouth would be nice right about now…

As she thought about that, Rainbow sniggered a bit more, then sat down with a crinkle. “Okay, so, uh… it does kinda look like each of those lights does a different thing. And there's so many lasers we can't get to the end without running into a few… so I guess maybe we need to work out what does what?”

“So long as someone else does the next one!” Frillda insisted. “That one I had was really embarrassing!”

“They're all kind of embarrassing...” Splash muttered. “And I wasn't keeping track of which colour did what… but we all got one.”

“Great,” Frillda said. “So what do we…”

Splash looked around as Frillda's voice trailed off, and spotted that she was looking into another yellow one. The yellow light tugged at Splash's vision as well, and she felt herself relax and wet her diapers just a bit before managing to look away.

Frillda had no such luck, soaking her diaper for a second time just after the first, and the pantaloons she was wearing puffed up a little more as she did.

“Da yellow 'wun makes you go peepee,” Bumbleshy said, trying to shake off the effect of her dose of the light blue light.

“Yeah, I got that,” Splash agreed. “And… I think the one I saw was red?”

She shot a sideways glance at the wall, and one of the lasers flicked across to beam straight into her face as she did.

It seemed to fill her with energy, making her want to move… whispering that she couldn't sit still, couldn't stand still, needed to move… and suggesting just how she could do that.

Rainbow Splash didn't need telling twice, and she started jumping up and down – then, when that didn't seem to take enough energy, bouncing up and down using her diaper as a spring!

There was an occasional squish, but she didn't care much about that…

Fluttershy squeaked and took a few steps back from Rainbow, not noticing a bright green laser coming up from behind her until she stepped right into it, pupils contracting and soaking up the color. The laser barely stayed a second, leaving Fluttershy blinking away the spots in her vision and confused as to what this one might have done... right up until she looked at Rainbow Splash again and a bright, warm feeling bubbled up in her chest without warning. She bit her lip, snickering and staring at the silly bouncing pony for a moment until she couldn't hold it back anymore, collapsing on the spot and rolling onto her back, kicking her little bumblebee legs in the air as she giggled helplessly at how silly her friend was looking.

Frillda snorted and blushed a little, looking away. "Well... alright then. Brown makes you... what, bounce around or something? And apparently green makes you mad." She caught a glare from the still bouncing Splash and rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, green makes you giggle. Like mad." She scoffed and turned around, looking at the colorful lights and trying to ignore how dizzy they made her at least long enough to pick out one they hadn't tried yet. "I guess that means it's my turn now. I really don't want to do this..."

She braced herself, then stepped right into a bright white beam, hoping that the lack of color meant it would be something boring and safe.

Immediately the light filled her vision and made her dizzy, swaying a bit in place before landing on her butt, feeling like she was surrounded by soft cotton white clouds from all sides, a feeling like soft clouds and warm milk all around her that she wanted to keep more than anything else. She wanted to soak it up and carry it around, looking around at all the clouds and trying to grab them to keep hold of them.

Gilda blinked her eyes, sluggishly coming back to awareness and looking down at the rather big plush baby bottle she had gotten from... somewhere, and was holding in her claws, nipple stuck in her beak as she suckled and gulped down something that tasted like warm milk but felt more like dense clouds. Looking down a bit further she noticed her belly already considerably bigger and squishier than before, filled up with enough of the clouds to make her think that they had to be compressed to fit into the bottle.

She reluctantly pulled the bottle away from her beak with a pop, struggling to get to her talons and blushing as she felt her belly squish against the floor with the first step, rubbing it with one talon and not noticing her other talon bringing the bottle back up to her beak to absentmindedly suckle on it again.

By the time Frillda was back on her mittened feet, Bumbleshy had stopped her giggling and Rainbow Splash had finally stopped bouncing – though she was still blushing about doing what in hindsight had seemed so silly.

“Ergh...” Splash mumbled. “That was kind of… well, it was fun, but really… yeah, and Bumbleshy laughing didn't help!”

“S-sorry,” Bumbleshy said, ducking her head for a moment and making her antennae bounce a bit. “It was just so easy to, to… to giggle, like Pinkie does… and it was just too nice to stop!”

“Yeah, that's about how I felt about the bouncing,” Splash agreed, trying to glance around without letting any of the flashy laser lights catch her eye. The foal powder Bumbleshy had already put into the air had certainly helped with seeing them, and her gigglefit had put enough extra in the air that it was relatively easy to tell what colour was where.

She spotted Frillda, and snorted. “Heh, I guess you're thirsty, Frillda?”

“Mmf – mf!” Frillda blushed, realizing she was suckling on the bottle again. “I… there was this white one, and...”

She looked down, very embarrassed.

Bumbleshy giggled again, then blinked. “S-sorry, that just seemed...”

A little green ring flickered in her eyes for a moment. “Hehe...”

“Right, so, uh… I think we can get to the end without hitting too many more beams,” Splash said. “Whose turn is it to hit a new one?”

“Can't be mine,” Frillda said quickly. “I just did one.”

Splash sighed, and stepped ahead into an oddly smoky grey light, wincing pre-emptively.

~~Good Wonderbutts obey Shadowbutts.~~

After a long moment, she relaxed a bit.

“This one seems okay!” she reported, looking more fully into it. “Uh… I'm not doing anything embarrassing, am I?”

~~Shadowbutts are better than Wonderbutts. Wonderbutts can't ignore Shadowbutts.~~

“Mff – I mean, uh, not that I can see,” Frillda said, then discarded her bottle and rolled it away across the floor to remove the temptation. She stepped forwards into it as well, and Bumbleshy joined the other two a few seconds later.

~~Good Wonderbutts are easily tranced. Good Wonderbutts can't help submitting to Shadowbutts. Good Wonderbutts only resist because they think it's fun. Good Wonderbutts have to give in eventually.~~

“It… seems fine,” Bumbleshy agreed. “So… we can get closer to the end this way...”

Rainbow nodded, taking point. "Yeah, that seems about right. The sooner we get through this hallway, the sooner we can be good Wonderbutts and ~~obey all the Shadowbutts here~~ free Twilightinkle."

She slowed down, groaning as another stretch of lasers barred their way. "Still more colors? Oh come on!"

Bumbleshy blushed and moved past her. "I, uhm... I'll shake some more pollen powder at them. Besides, I think it's my turn anyway." She turned around and wiggled her butt, shaking a nice big cloud of yellow foal powder at the lasers, then turned around to see if it would be enough... just in time to get hit by a deep purple laser.

The laser stopped fixed right on her forehead, staying there as Fluttershy's eyes opened fully and a soft, blank smile grew on her face. How silly she was, running around everywhere and trying to free princesses. Plushies didn't walk and do things, they just waited for hugs, said silly phrases and were as soft and snuggly as they could be. And bumblebee plushies could be very soft indeed.

"Shy? Are you alright? What did it do?" Rainbow Splash hesitantly stepped forwards as the beam moved along but Bumbleshy didn't seem to move, simply plopping down onto her rump and sitting there. She moved around her until she could see the blank, doll-like smile on her friend's face and tilted her head, more curious than nervous after all the other experiences with the lights.

"Shy? Hey 'Shy!" Rainbow waved a hoof in front of Bumbleshy's face, then, getting no reaction from her, poked her in the chest.

The Bumblebutt Plushie immediately perked up, sitting up a bit straighter as she opened her mouth in reflex for a cheerful "Hug me! <3"

Rainbow jerked back in surprise, taking in how her friend's face immediately settled back into that blank smile. She tilted her head, then chuckled a bit and moved in to pull her into a hug, squeezing her slightly and making the 'plushie' perk up again.

"Bumblebutt is your best friend~"

“Wow, what one was that?” Frillda asked, sniggering. “I kinda want to see what happens if you do it, Splash.”

“S-shush,” Splash protested, blushing, and gave Bumbleshy another half-involuntary squeeze.

“Shadowbutts are the best!” the Bumblebutt plushie said brightly, and Rainbow gave ~~it~~ her a concerned look.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I heard that too,” Frillda agreed. “You okay, 'shy?”

The Bumblebutt plush blinked slowly, then more rapidly. The deep purple light in her eyes began to die away, and then Bumbleshy shook her head a few times to try and clear it.

“You all right?” Splash repeated, then noticed she was still hugging and let go. “'Shy?”

Bumbleshy shook herself again, then nodded. “Y-yeah… I think I'm okay...”

“You were acting kind of like a plush!” Frillda volunteered. “And you said this really bizarre thing at one point, you said something about how Shadowbutts are the best...”

“I was?” Bumbleshy blushed. “That… w-well, maybe we shouldn't think they're awful? We still need to save Twilightinkle ~~from being a Wonderbutt~~, but...”

“Yeah, but they're still Shadowbutts,” Splash said, sticking her tongue out.

As she did, she was hit by a beam of yellowish-white light, almost creamy in colour, and yelped in surprise – leading to the other two glancing around in reflex and being caught as well.

With a clatter, a pair of pacifiers – one Wonderbutt and one larger Shadowbutt – landed on the floor, though none of the infiltrating Wonderbutts could see where they'd come from.

Three pairs of glassy, cream eyes blinked and locked onto the pacifiers, no questions of where they had come from crossing their minds at the singular want for the soft rubber. Frillda and Splash were the first to pounce, obviously snatching up a pacifier each and sitting back to pop them into their mouths and beak with a content sigh. Bumbleshy meanwhile took a step forward but cringed back at the determined pounces from her teammates, instead moving a hoof up to suck on that instead, ears perking up as she tasted the sweet pollen and faint traces of honey coating the big plushy mittens.

Rainbow and Frillda simply stayed like that for a moment, suckling away happily on their pacifiers that were glowing and faintly playing the Wonderbutts and Shadowbutts theme respectively before their eyes drifted toward each other. They tensed as they noticed each other's pacis, ears twitching in time with the melodies of their pacifiers as they got up and fluffed themselves up, circling each other.

Frillda flapped her wings and shook her padded butt aggressively to intimidate the lame scaredy cat Wonderbutt, while Rainbow Splash suckled on her red and blue paci and rustled her dress menacingly, not about to be outdone by that cheating no-good Shadowbutt.

They pounced at the same time, suckling and rolling and poofing across the floor for a good minute before the pacifiers ran out of power and they slowed down, Rainbow with her head stuck between the surprisingly soft floor and Frillda's loudly squishing diaper, with her own hindlegs wrapped around Frillda's neck to pull her face into Splash's own padding.

They stayed like that a bit before they blushed and quickly moved off of each other, suckling their pacis even faster in embarrassment as they tried to piece together what just happened.

"S-sorry, you just really looked like one of those Shadowbutts there."

"Yeah, and you looked like a lame-o Wonderbutt. I-I mean, uhm... you know."

Mutually agreeing not to talk about it, Splash and Frillda glanced around at the light filtering though the clouds of powder still hanging in the air. The paths of lasers in various different colours cut through the powder, yellow and red and green and blue, and a deep blue one flicked over them both for a moment – making both Splash and Frillda noticeably calm down, relaxing a bit after their earlier altercation.

It looked like there was a clear path for the next little bit, so they both waddled forwards. Then Splash came back and got Bumbleshy to come along, and all three waddled forwards.

“Oh!” Bumbleshy said suddenly, pointing. “Look, supplies...”

“Supplies?” Frillda repeated, looking through into a brightly lit room off to one side of the corridor. “Hah! I didn't know Shadowbutts wore this kind of stuff! It's all frou-frou and pink!”

“You mean frilly?” Splash asked slyly.

Frillda barely avoided squawking in indignation. “W-well, um… that's different!”

“I… I think this is supplies for Shadowbutts to use on other ponies...” Bumbleshy suggested.

“Different how?” Splash asked at about the same time.

“It's complicated!” Frillda claimed. “I don't expect you to understand!”

A beam of pink light flickered across her eyes, then a moment later moved across to Splash. It flicked back and forth between the pony and the griffin, successive waves of hypnotic energy pulsing into them both and instilling strong, insistent ideas.

Ideas about pink, about frills… ideas about the Wonderbutt uniform that didn't appear in any of the manuals, at least not the manuals they'd had a chance to see...

Bumbleshy glanced between her two teammates as they suddenly stopped, squeaking in worry as she noticed the pink beam of light coming from above the door and moving between the two. "Oh no! U-uhm... Frillda? Splash? Are you two..."

She trailed off as another beam of light hit her out of nowhere, this one somehow almost black with only rare flashes of yellow.

Meanwhile, the pink light finally turned off again, making Frillda and Splash blink away the ~~pretty~~ pink spots in their eyes. Frillda shook her head and ~~giggled~~ grunted, looking around. "Uh... what were we talking about?"

Splash made to answer, but gasped instead as she noticed what was in front of them. "Ohmygosh, Frillda, look! We found the jackpot!" She wiggled her rump and waddle-galloped into the room, looking around at everything and picking up various frilly fabrics to give them a closer look. "This has gotta be the best room in their whole base!"

"Eeeee~" Frillda squealed and pounced forward into a pile of dresses, popping back out on the other side holding several of them. "How am I going to pick any one of these? I want to try all of them on!"

"I found accessories!" Splash was bouncing on her butt in front of a slightly higher shelf, grabbing something with each bounce, trying on a sparkly pink tiara, a cute big frilly bib, a large pacifier with a big pink heart-shaped stopper, cute booties and more.

Bumbleshy blinked and slowly shook her head, feeling a bit dizzy and confused about what she was doing before she noticed the commotion in the room ahead. Sneaking up to the door she gasped, then snickered, watching the pony and griffon make foals of themselves. Dressing up frilly and silly like that, those two were just begging for somepony to bully them and play pranks and make fun of the big foalish prissy-butts they were.

Frillda was too busy trying to choose between different dress options at first, looking first to one and then another and then another, sure she was going to try them on but not sure which one to try on first, to notice how Bumbleshy was acting.

She wiggled her butt idly back and forth as she thought, then decided to try on one with orange and pink colours and big frilly feather-patterns on the ruffled layers of the dress – wiggling about as she squeezed it on, having a lot of trouble getting it over her big padded rump but driven on by the desire to find out just how she would look in it.

Would it go well with her colouring? She really hoped so!

There didn't seem to be a mirror, though, and once the dress was on the best she could do was twist around to see herself from a different angle – blushing lightly as she saw the way her butt made the dress flare, and how her tail held up the frills.

Maybe she could ask Splash?

She looked over at the pegasus, who was positively festooned in accessories. “Hey, Splash?”

“Mmhmm?” Splash asked, her pacifier wobbling a bit as she sucked on it. The glitter made it sparkle a bit, and Frillda blinked a few times before remembering what she was going to say.

“So, like… how does this look on me?” Frillda asked, posing.

“I think it looks just right,” Bumbleshy said, waddling over.

Frillda giggled, paused for a moment as she wondered where that giggle had come bubbling up from, then that confusion was driven away entirely as Bumbleshy waddled all the way up to get into her personal space.

“It makes you look like a silly little chick who can't even fly properly, that is!” Bumbleshy added. “But I don't think it's got the finishing touch… you need an even bigger diaper, or anypony who sees you might think you're a Wonderbutt or something!”

"W-what?" Frillda squawked in indignation. "Hey, I am a Wonderbutt! I'm, like, one of the best Wonderbutts! Not just some bumble-butt mascot like you!"

Bumbleshy smirked. "Oh really? Because you look like a prissy little chick trying to dress up like the big kids." She leaned in and looked Frillda right in the eyes, her own swirling dark and flashing yellow occasionally.

Frillda let out another squawk on reflex, suddenly not feeling quite as confident anymore. She waddled backwards to put some distance between them again, taking more steps back as Bumbleshy advanced until her hind-paws stumbled over something thick and soft.

Bumbleshy let out a small cry of victory, diving forward to pull up the diaper she'd guided Frillda onto. Frillda flailed her arms and flapped her wings but couldn't keep from falling onto her butt when Bumbleshy booped her beak and gave her a light push back, then immediately dove for Frillda's legs with something else soft.

Bumbleshy was all over her like a whirlwind, throwing up pollen as she moved that tickled Frillda's beak up until something was fitted over it. Finally Bumbleshy stepped back and giggled with a smirk, holding up a small hand mirror. "There, see? Now everyone will know what a silly little chick you really are~"

Looking down at herself Frillda could see that her butt and a good part of her lower body was hidden by a second diaper in egg-shell design, looking like she was still wearing half the shell of a giant egg. Not just a normal egg though, this one was orange like the dress it flared out even more than before, with pink glitter writing out "The Prettiest Duckling". She couldn't see how the backside looked but going by Bumbleshy's smug look it probably wasn't any better.

Her legs and paws were covered in long, thick orange plush socks looking like plushy chicken legs and ending in chicken feet with sparkly pink plush claws. Her wings were stuck in thick wide plush wings that made it harder to flap them and impossibly to get any air doing so. Covering part of her pretty dress was a frilly chicken-themed bib. And covering her beak was a bigger chicken plush beak with a large pacifier stuck in the front, the bulb going through into her actual beak.

She blushed in surprise before letting out an angry squawk at Bumbleshy, but the plush beak somehow made it sound more like a "buk-brawk!"

Bumbleshy giggled before turning away from the thoroughly pranked chicken, looking over at Rainbow Splash and her accessories and thinking up ideas to bully the pegasus, too.

Splash had been too busy focused on trying to find more and more shiny things, and had missed almost all of what Bumbleshy was doing. In fact, she didn't even notice Bumbleshy was advancing on her, plushy-stinger wiggling back and forth and bumble-butt swaying, until Bumbleshy poked her thick crinkle-butt to get her attention.

“H-hey!” Splash protested, blushing. “What was that for?”

“Well, you look like a really important pony,” Bumbleshy replied, mostly innocently but with a little smirk on her muzzle. “Aren't you?”

“I guess I do look important, heh,” Splash agreed, looking down at all the shiny things she was wearing – tiara, booties, necklace made of glittery pink hearts, frilly bib, pacifier…

“In fact, you look like a little prissy princess,” Bumbleshy went on. “You know, sort of like a Princess who's all dizzy and easily distracted, only much more easily distracted and much more of a baby. Isn't that right?”

“H-hey!” Splash replied, trying to fluff her wings out in embarrassment. “That's not it at all! These just… look nice, that's all!”

“I bet they look nice,” Bumbleshy said, turning and rummaging through the pile. The stripey stinger on the back of her outfit swung back and forth, and the movement distracted Splash a bit – drawing her eye, keeping her focused on that instead of objecting.

When Splash turned back, she sniggered. “See what I mean? You're so easily distracted...”

She gave Splash's nose a little boop, which made her blush. “And since you're so easily distracted, let's make sure everypony can tell what you really are...”

Splash wanted to object, but Bumbleshy held up a shiny jingly thing made of some bells on a long stick and shook it. Splash just had to focus on it, distracting her, and somehow by the time she wasn't being distracted any more Bumbleshy was halfway through putting a big pink onesie on her.

“H-hey!” Splash protested, trying to squirm out of Bumbleshy's grip, but the thing with the jingly bells got shaken in front of her again and she sort of forgot to.

“Don't you want to be a Princess?” Bumbleshy asked. “I bet you could show me by doing all sorts of big grown-up important Princess stuff that you're not a little prissy princess...”

She was shaking the jingly bell thing, and Splash sort of nodded a bit because it sounded so simple that way...

Bumbleshy kept talking, helping her into the suit. "Grown-up important princesses wear big, wide, beautiful dresses and gowns for one, big enough to hide their diapers for everyone." She jingled the bells a little and closed up the flap of the onesie over Splash's diaper, squeezing it a little as the flap barely stayed closed.

"Big grown-up princesses are regal and elegant and are dressed to make sure everyone sees that. They barely even waddle or stumble and they always keep their composure." She brought the bells a bit closer and plopped something on Splash's head, the jingling getting louder and drowning out whatever she was whispering in Splash's ear.

"Princesses give soft smiles and nods and are always polite and holding back. They don't giggle or snort or laugh and they certainly don't play any silly games." More jingling and more whispering that Splash was too focused to listen to. "They certainly wouldn't do any tricks and definitely not because someone else tells them to."

The bells finally pulled away, but Splash could still hear them jingling. A moment later Bumbleshy turned her towards a mirror and she found out why: She was dressed in a big, tight-yet-plushy pink onesie with rainbow frills. Over the onesie's booties were even thicker booties with little jingly bells around the ankles. Her wings had each feather individually colored each in a different color, making her look like a tropical bird, and then dusted in a generous amount of pink and gold glitter for good measure. Her tail had been squeezed into a big pink balloon which had then been pumped up and twisted and shaped into a big pink balloon tail resembling Pinkie Pie's. Her face was streaked with makeup making it look white with sparkly blue lips and pink-ringed eyes. And on her head was a big jangly-dangly jester's cap in rainbow colors like her mane with a shiny jingle-bell hanging from the tip of each of its arms.

Splash vaguely sort-of wondered for a moment where the mirror had come from, and where the silly duckling-chicken-griffon next to it had come from, but then she shook her head a little and there was a jingly-jingly noise from her hat.

“There, see?” Bumbleshy asked. “You look like a Princess, don't you?”

Splash frowned a bit, shifting her hoof, and there were more distracting jingly sounds from the bells around that hoof's ankle.

“I… guess, yeah,” she said, sort of distracted by the noise.

“That doesn't sound very Princess-y,” Bumbleshy teased. “Maybe you're just a silly prissy foal instead?”

She sat down with a puff of powder, her antennae wiggling. “I bet if you were a Princess you'd be able to do anything.”

“I am!” Splash protested, offended.

Bumbleshy picked some multicoloured balls off the piles of stuff on the ground, and lobbed them to Splash one at a time. Splash caught them, waddling about as she moved to try and catch first one and then the other, and her multicoloured, glittery wings waved about as she used them to help her stay upright.

The bells on her cap and booties jingled, making her feel a little dizzy, and even once she had all the balls she stumbled about a bit before regaining her balance.

“Go on, then,” Bumbleshy said. “Show me you can juggle.”

“But-” Splash protested.

“Or are you chicken?” Bumbleshy added.

The chicken in the corner gave an angry 'Buk-brawk!' and blushed, wiggling about a bit, and Splash shook her head – producing another jingle, which left her feeling light-headed.

“Go on, then...~” Bumbleshy said, and Splash pouted before starting to juggle.

Oddly, it seemed to be really easy. There was a continuous jingly jangly sound from her hat and her booties, and she giggled with delight as the coloured balls went up and down as she juggled them all over the place – bouncing them off her wing and her diaper as she got more and more confident, then even trying to do a hoofstand before wobbling and falling back down on her diaper with a flummph!

Even as she fell down though her hooves moved almost on their own, opening the flap of her onesie and catching the plush balls in it before closing it back up again, snapping the pressure button closed again over her padded butt now including a couple plush balls. She giggled and spread her arms proudly with a loud "Ta-dah~!" before blinking and blushing. "W-wait, what just...?"

Bumbleshy didn't give her any chance to say more, tossing a large inflated beach ball right at her head. "Not bad, but a proper princess needs better balance than that, don't you? I bet you can't balance on this~"

Splash yelped and fell over, glaring with a pout as she got up again and grabbed the ball. "Oh yeah? Well, watch this!" She flapped her wings as she jumped onto the ball and started rolling it around with small, quick steps and a smug smirk. She didn't even flinch when a second ball came flying, simply jumping up and landing on top of that one, now balancing on two large inflated beach balls on top of each other.

She didn't miss a step when the first diaper was tossed her way, either, catching it and the next one and then throwing one up when a third came flying. Before she knew it she was juggling half a dozen diapers while balancing on two balls and a silly grin on her face, completely focused on her juggling.

She didn't even think about it as she snapped the diapers open and tossed them up one by one, watching them flutter open and land on top of each other on the floor. She bounced up and down on her springy ball a few times before jumping high, flipping once and snapping her onesie flap open to have it flapping behind her like a very silly cape as she landed on top of the diapers with a loud floomph and a cloud of foal powder.

By the time the cloud dispersed enough to see through again she'd expertly made all the diapers "disappear", her onesie bulging and straining around her butt with white padding squishing out along the edges of the flap. "Ta-dah!"

“Well, that looks pretty good to me,” Bumbleshy said, and Splash giggled happily. “But… hmm, I think there's one more thing you might need to do to really convince me.”

She leaned closer, and whispered…

Frillda fluffed her wings angrily, waddling clumsily towards Bumbleshy. She tried to complain about how she'd been treated, but the beak-paci turned it into another 'Buk-brawk!' which made her blush at how chicken-y she looked and sounded.

“Let's keep going,” Bumbleshy said abruptly, getting to her hooves and turning. The plushy stinger on the back of her costume bapped Frillda in the face, showering powder in all directions, and Frillda spluttered in protest (making some loud chicken noises and flapping her wings uselessly as a result).

“Keep going?” Splash asked, her own wings opening for a moment as she waddled unsteadily after Bumbleshy. “...oh, right, yeah, we were here to do something! Heh, I completely forgot...”

Frillda tried to mumble something under her breath, and another loud 'Buk-Brawk!' came out of her beak-pacifier. She rubbed the top of her head with a mittened forepaw, then did her best to waddle after the other two.

Out in the corridor, there was the way they'd come – obvious because of all the shiny lasers – and another path, which Bumbleshy turned onto. Her stinger flicked back and forth, and Frillda followed it with her eyes – blinking a few times, waddling at the same back-and-forth pace, and feeling all dizzy and confused as she did.

She couldn't move as fast, and Frillda felt grateful when Splash fell back a bit and started helping her along.

“Better watch out for those traps they have here,” Splash said, giggling. “Don't want to fall into one!”

Frillda nodded agreement, brawking before remembering about the pacifier, and when they turned a corner it was to find Bumbleshy carefully making her way past a pool of water to the side of the hallway.

“This looks like a really obvious trap,” she said, turning once she was past, and Splash started helping Frillda through the same section of hallway. “You'd have to be a silly hatchling to fall in.”

She winked at Splash.

Splash blinked, then grinned and winked back. "That's right. You'd have to be a really clumsy and silly little hatchling for that." She pulled out her jingle-staff, holding it out to jingle it in front of Frillda's face.

"Yeah, bucawk! you'd have to brawk... wait, wha-bawk?" Frillda looked up to stare at the jingling bells, slowing down in her steps a little.

"That's right. A silly little hatchling... or a pretty little duckling. After all waterfowl love to swim. Pretty ducklings and silly chicken hatchlings... which one are you again, Frillda?"

"Which bok... huh?" Frillda frowned and shook her head, eyes immediately locking onto the bells again afterwards. "I... I'm not a buk-brawk duck!"

"Oh, my mistake. So you're a silly little chicken hatchling?" Splash grinned and moved the jingle-bells a little faster.

Frillda's eyes widened slightly and she started to suckle on her paci. "I'm bawk a... I mean I'm not a buckaawk! I'm not braaawk! I... bok bok buk-baaaawk!" She stumbled and swayed slightly.

"You buk-bawk because you're a silly little chicken hatchling~" Splash giggled. "A silly little chicken hatchling who just can't move past even such an easy trap without stumbling right into it~" She gave the griffon-chicken a little push, sending her tripping and tumbling over the edge with a chicken-squawk.

Frillda snapped back to awareness, clucking and bawking frantically and flapping her wings to get back onto dry land. She eagerly grabbed Splash's hoof to pull herself out of the pool, scrambling to pull her soaked, sagging diaper-eggshell out. Finally climbing out and sitting down with a squish, her diaper was now big enough to go up to her chest, leave only her wings and her chicken-feet open so she now looked like she was still three quarters stuck in her egg.

“That's… braawk buckaw-!” Frillda spluttered.

“Aww, looks like you're a duckling after all~” Bumbleshy giggled. “I knew it!”

“It's on your diaper, too,” Splash agreed, jingling her bells and almost falling into the pool of water herself before wobbling away again. “It says right there, you're the prettiest duckling!”

She giggled, and Frillda blushed before trying to shake herself dry. There was far too much water in her diaper to do anything close to that, though, and all she managed was to sway her diapered rump back and forth a bit and discover it was so heavy that moving it like that was likely to make her stumble back and forth.

“How can I – buk buk-braaawk – move properly?” Frillda demanded, stamping down her orange mittens. “This is really braawk heavy now!”

“But ducklings don't need to move fast,” Bumbleshy sniggered.

Frillda was about to try and protest again, but a door not far down the corridor from them creaked open.

Twilight came out, wearing her Celestinkle costume, and gasped when she saw Frillda, Splash and Bumbleshy.

“You found me!” she said, waving her plush wings about a bit. “Now we need to get out of here – follow me!”

“Buk-braawk I was just saying how braawk hard that is!” Frillda protested.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Splash asked, jingling as she shifted from hoof to hoof – unable to stay still.

“Twilight?” Twilight repeated. “No, I'm Princess Celestinkle. Why would the Shadowbutts be keeping someone called Twilight prisoner?”

She patted her plushy rump. “I'm clearly Princess Celestinkle.”

“But-but-buk-buk-braaawk,” Frillda began, then blushed.

“I'm clearly Princess Celestinkle,” the alicorn repeated. “Any foal can see that.”

When she put it like that, it was pretty obvious… especially with her shiny ~~plushy~~ colourful mane, and ~~her Shadowbutts uniform underneath~~ her ~~toy~~ royal regalia.

"R-right..." Bumbleshy nodded nervously, then frowned. "Wait, were we supposed to rescue Princess Celestinkle or Twilight Tinkle? Did I get something mixed up?"

Princess Celestinkle giggled and swished her shiny tail, drawing everyone's attention. "Don't worry about that, just follow me. I know where you can find everything you need to know~"

Frillda nodded along slowly, shuffling her feet to waddle after the alicorn slowly but steadily. Splash passed her with a bump of her rump, giggling and prancing ahead. Bumbleshy passed her too, flicking her plush stinger in Frillda's face with a smirk and making her cluck indignantly.

Princess Celestinkle led them down a corridor, then another one and finally to a slightly ajar door leading to a large Shadowbutt ~~nursery~~ barracks bedroom. The walls were covered in dark blue paint, glow in the dark swirly stars and Shadowbutt motivational posters. Three large cribs were taking up the middle of the room with a life-sized Shadowbutt plush in each one along with some blankets and pillows and a Shadowbutt mobile overhead, all three facing a large screen taking up most of the wall on the other side of the room.

"You can hide in here for a while." Princess Celestinkle smiled, ushering them towards the cribs before they could say anything and picking them up in her magic to lift them in, even the ~~unicorn foal~~ alicorn princess struggling a bit to lift Frillda and her big soggy diaper.

"Hey, wait! We're supposed to get back to the Wonderbutts, aren't we?" Splash squirmed around a bit before squeaking as the Shadowbutt plush grabbed her to hold her still with plush hooves.

"Of course, but right now there's going to be too many Shadowbutts around to get out unseen. Besides, after all this excitement you had I'm sure you must be tired, aren't you~?" Celestinkle cooed.

"I-I'm not... tired at aaaaall..." Bumbleshy yawned and squirmed in her own plushie's grasp, pouting a little.

"Y-yeah, besides, I caaaawk... I can't sleep while I'm braaawk in this soggy bok bok diaper!" Frillda complained, squirming a little but pretty much immobilized by her diaper wedged through the bars of her crib to both sides.

"Oh, don't worry about that. There's some options to help fussy little fillies calm down. Only the best for the Shadowbutts..." Princess Celestinkle giggled and flicked some switches, the light dimming and the mobiles overhead starting to spin slowly before the big screen flickered to life.

Hypnotic, entrancing, tinkling-and-twinkling music floated through the air, and Bumbleshy wiggled a bit – not so much trying to escape the grip of the Shadowbutt 'plushie', but getting a bit more comfortable as the music made her feel more relaxed and more pliant than ever before.

The screen showed a few swirling patterns at first, then resolved into a title card – one that described it as The Shadowbutts Show, With Nightwear And Woon.

A cartoonish locker room appeared, several packs of diapers and changing tables spread over it, and a moment later a pony trotted into view. Unlike the backdrop, she looked real enough, though she was big and plump and plushy and crinkly – ~~Luna in a Nightmare Moon plush suit~~ an alicorn with a starry, plushy blue mane, nearly-jet-black coat, a big purple splodge on her rump with a crescent-moon cutie mark, and a big bulge around her rump.

“Hello there, Shadowbutts!” she said, levitating in a plush that looked a lot like a cartoony Princess Luna wearing a Shadowbutts outfit and a big, multi-layered diaper. “I'm Nightwear, and this is Woon. Say hello, Woon!”

Her magic moved Woon a little, and she said “Hello, Woon!” out of the corner of her mouth.

Bumbleshy giggled at the simple joke.

“It's time to learn what Shadowbutts do to their Wonderbutt teammates,” Nightwear went on. “Obviously they have to sabotage them, but a smart and cunning Shadowbutt always does it so that the Shadowbutt can't be found.”

“Let's watch!” she added, moving Woon around.

The cartoon dissolved into a different scene, a Wonderbutts canteen with half-a-dozen padded-up Wonderbutts drinking milk, and this time there was a big plush Nightwear in the corner. Woon was a proper pony, and waddled into shot with a bright pink bottle before putting it onto the tray of a pony who looked a lot like Soarin'.

Soarin' took a drink from the bottle, then looked at it. “Hey, who put this pink bottle on my tray?”

There was an innocent look from Woon before she turned to the camera to give the audience a wink.

Soarin was already taking another sip from the bottle, blinking as his pupils started to turn pink. He gave a giggle and blushed before giggling again, shaking his rump a little as he walked off still drinking from the bottle.

There was a cut and the next scene showed Soarin prancing in a Wonderbutt suit with a frilly flared skirt, all the blue replaced with pink, suckling on a heart-shaped pacifier and giggling and posing at everypony he came across.

"Of course sometimes a Shadowbutt wants those dumb soggybutts to know who was pranking them." Woona continued as the camera cut back to the locker room. "That's why Wonderbutts know all the techniques needed to disguise themselves or make a Wonderbutt forget anything they're not supposed to remember."

The camera cut away again to Nightwear sucking on a pacifier that had a large fake mustache clipped onto the guard, pouncing a pair of Wonderbutts coming from training, squishing them under her butt and bouncing up and down a few times before bouncing away cackling like a cheesy villain.

Another scene showed Woona pretending to have dropped something, swinging her butt back and forth and up and down until all her teammates in the locker room were staring and drooling.

As she watched, Frillda giggled a little – imagining sneaking into where the Wonderbutts were practicing, playing all sorts of pranks on them.

Every time the narration told her something, it was… more than just the words, it was like she was learning life lessons she had to remember.

Maybe it was her drowsiness, dropping in and out of sleepiness, but she kept missing the places where the cartoon segments were linked. One minute Nightwear would be explaining how to convince a Wonderbutt to let you tweak their outfit as Woona demonstrated stuffing extra fluff into the Wonderbutt's suit to make it impossible to move normally, and then another minute Woona would be talking about how easy it was to make a Wonderbutt react in special funny ways to certain triggers.

Then there was a bit where Nightwear was waving something back and forth in front of Woona's face, talking about how all Shadowbutts also had to listen very carefully when they were told certain things, and Frillda didn't remember what any of the things or reactions actually were but she sort of had the feeling that she'd know them if they happened.

It was much too easy to just listen to Nightwear explaining all that…

...then there was a bit about how sometimes Wonderbutts could be observant enough to notice you if you were being careless and wearing your regular Shadowbutt outfit, but wearing a Shadowbutt outfit was very important if you were a Shadowbutt, so the only way to not be discovered was to wear a sleeper of who you were pretending to be over the top of your Shadowbutt uniform.

That made perfect sense to Frillda and she couldn't see any way it was impractical. After all, Woona and Nightwear both said so!

Eventually the show came to an end... or at least Frillda had to assume it did because she suddenly wasn't watching it anymore. She didn't actually remember how the show had ended, or how they had gotten out of that crib, or how they had ended up back at the Wonderbutt Academy, but then again it didn't seem all that important anymore either.

She looked over to see all those dumb Wonderbutts cheering and celebrating the return of Princess Celestinkle, carrying the fluffy plushy alicorn on their shoulders.

More importantly though, her two fellow sleeper agents were standing right next to her. On one side was Rainbow Splash, wearing a thick Wonderbutt sleeper with the dark purple of her Shadowbutt suit only barely peeking out along the edges of the flap over her butt. On the other side was Bumbleshy, smirking down at her in that annoying way due to the fact that she was a good head taller and several pudges bigger than them; an obvious result of having to squeeze her big puffy bumblebee self into a Shadowbutt suit and then put on another bumblebee suit on top of that as disguise.

Frillda huffed and shook her head to ignore the annoyance. They had more important things to do. With another nod at Bumbleshy and Splash she stepped ahead, ready to join the Wonderbutts at their party and try out all the much better and cooler Shadowbutt equipment they'd hidden in the poofy butts of their sleepers.

All sorts of odd, hazy thoughts were bouncing around in her head, most of them just indistinct suggestions she didn't really concentrate on. Things like how Mommy Spitfire was always in charge, no matter what, or how if she was told to be a good sleeper shadowbutt she'd forget all about how she was meant to be a shadowbutt until she was told to wake up as a shadowbutt again.

She was a good Shadowbutt, after all...

“…very impressed with your performance,” Twilight Tinkle said.

Frillda blinked, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. “Huh?”

“I think Frillda wasn't paying attention,” Mommy ~~giggled~~ smiled. “Please pay attention this time, Frillda. My new assistant is telling you some very important things.”

“But… um… wasn't I about to...” Frillda asked, then stopped.

Mommy had got out her shiny whistle and was swinging it in her hoof, letting it lazily move back and forth.

“It's time to be a good sleeper Shadowbutt,” she told them.

Frillda nodded. “Yes, Mommy Spitfire...” she mumbled, something Splash and Bumbleshy and Twilight Tinkle did as well.

“That's better,” Mommy smiled. “You were saying, Twilight?”

“Well, Mommy is very pleased with your performance,” Twilight resumed. “And she thinks you're ready to go and advertise in Ponyville for the next Wonderbutts show!”

"Ah... The next... Wonderbutts show?" Rainbow Splash blinked, swaying in place a little. Mommy Spitfire was always right of course, but she'd also never been to a Wonderbutts show... There'd only ever been Wonderbolts shows because... reasons. Good reasons, probably, or else Mommy Spitfire wouldn't have sent her foals out without their diapers to do boring un-padded flights.

Spitfire ~~smirked~~ smiled and nodded, making Splash feel a little proud for asking such a smart question. "That's right, Splash. We've finally had enough recruits and sold enough merchandise that I feel confident in doing some proper Wonderbutts shows soon. And since you're the most promising cadets of your class, I want to make you to advertise for them. We're starting with some free advertising in your hometown and some appearances as Wonderbutt mascots in the next Wonderbolt shows. My assistant will be with you to take care of all your needs."

Twilight Tinkle indeed stepped forward, holding her ~~etch-a-sketch~~ clipboard with a sparkly pink crayon clipped to it. "That's right. Any supplies and diaper changes you need, just let me know and I'll take care of it. I'll also help you as best I can with any additional advertising ideas you have."

The idea made Rainbow all blushy – going around Ponyville dressed up as a Wonderbutt?

But then she started thinking about it, and it was really hard to remember why the idea was embarrassing.

She was one of Mommy Spitfire's foals, after all… and she was proud to be one of Mommy's foals. And she was a good Wonderbutt, too… so why would it be embarrassing to be a Wonderbutt advertising Wonderbutt shows in Ponyville?

“What about if we have Splash showing off how well she can bounce on her butt?” Frillda suggested, and Twilight Tinkle made a note with her sparkly pink crayon. Seeing her doing that made Splash giggle, the idea of bouncing along the street really tempting.

The more Rainbow thought about it, the better this was going to be. Getting to show off as a Wonderbutt in Ponyville, telling ponies how proud she was to finally be a Wonderbutt like she'd always wanted…

This was going to be so awesome! She couldn't wait to get out there and show off!