There were rumors about the Tower. Ever since the first scouts came back with the news of its existence, the word about its rediscovery had spread like wildfire. And everypony had something to say about it.

It was built by King Sombra to house his prisoners.

It had existed since the beginning of the Empire.

It predated the founding of Equestria.

It was built just before the Empire had vanished.

It warped the minds of anypony who got too close.

It held the secret of everlasting youth.

It was a weekend spa retreat that had fallen into disrepair.

Anypony who entered never left.

After a month, Shining Armor had just about enough of all the rumors. It wasn’t just him, either. Princess Cadence had many more things to worry about than an old building out in the woods, such as holding court, bringing the Empire’s denizens into the modern day, and countless treaties to sign and co-sign. It was exhausting work, so when all her citizens brought before her were concerns about this tower, she’d quickly grown fed up.

“Can you take care of this for me?” She’d asked him, all doe-eyed. He’d have done it even without the pleading, but he did love seeing that face.

Shining had rounded up the handful of guards the Crystal Palace could spare and went to put the mystery—if there even was one—to bed. Permanently.

“Come on!” he yelled to the soldiers behind them. He was too far ahead for his liking. Armor clamored and underbrush crunched as they trudged to keep up.

Looking up through messy treetops, Shining could see the tower stretching well over them. He estimated it had to be at least seven or eight stories high. From this distance he could make out its pristine surface. No imperfections, no sign of brick, mortar, or crystals. Just smooth and pearly white.

He shuddered. Creepy.

“Fly ahead,” he called back to the two pegasi in his group.

“U-Uh, what?” Came a pegasus who just dropped to the ground. Shining snorted; poor attempt to hide.

“Fly ahead,” he grunted. “Scout out the tower. I want some details by the time the rest of us get there.”

“Yes sir.” One took off. Then, after a pause…

“Yes sir.” Mumbled the other, flying after the first.

Good. Maybe they’d figure out something before the rest of them even made it to the tower. Shining wouldn’t complain if they could wrap this up early. Then again, it wasn’t fun to think this whole trip would be for nothing.

They’d been walking for two hours now. Judging by how far they still were, it seemed like they still had half an hour to go. A five hour round trip.

Ugh.

Shining held his distaste back from the rest of the guards, but he could feel theirs. They were undoubtedly tired. Coming all this way for what many thought were baseless rumors and superstition wasn’t exactly great for morale. Every now and then he caught whispers, murmurs of frustration from back there. He should whip it out of them, but he decided to let them moan in peace.

The tower drew closer and closer. Eventually they broke through the dense forest into a clearing. They were at its base.

Up close, it looked more like a column. Shining craned his neck back, taking in the whole of the featureless, giant cylinder. Another shudder rippled through him.

Seriously creepy.

“Finally.” Shining squinted into the sun as he watched the pegasi guards descend.

The not-so-eager one from before hunched over, nervously glancing back at the tower. “Can we go now?”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Report.”

The other pegasi saluted him. “We found only one opening anywhere on the tower’s surface, sir!”

“A window, near the top,” the other filled in.

He nodded. Already they had something. “And what did it look like inside?”

The two guards shared a glance. “Well… we couldn’t tell. It was too dark.”

Shining furrowed his brow. “Why didn’t you try going in?”

Both shook their heads. “It was way too narrow.”

“We’d never fit.”

“Not like this one would go in if we could.”

“Hey!” He shoved his badmouthing partner.

“Any other entrances?” Shining barked, putting an end to their squabble before it could really begin. He was surprised when they both shook their heads. Squinting, he thought, So no doors? “What about on top?”

“It was just flat, sir.”

“Hmmm…”

“Seriously, can we go? This thing’s giving me the heebie jeebies,” the cowardly guard begged.

“What about the surrounding area?” Shining asked, ignoring him. “Maybe there’s an underground tunnel nearby that leads in?”

“We didn’t check yet, sir.”

Shining didn’t blame him; they’d probably only just finished surveying the tower itself. He at least thought it was a credible theory. He seemed to recall something in his old history classes about how ancient buildings sometimes had entrances like that. Though, he did tend to sleep his way through those classes…

“Check the surrounding area just in case,” Shining said to the three guards. They saluted before jumping into action. No complaints or backtalk, they knew this was an order.

As they scattered across the clearing and beyond, Shining turned his attention back to the tower. It’s presence couldn’t be avoided, so he didn’t even try. He just took in the weirdness of the whole thing.

One window, no doors, he mused. What’s it like inside then?

He started walking around the base. The perfect circle shape curved away from him, forcing Shining to hug the wall as he maneuvered around. Even up close he still couldn’t detect any imperfection in the wall. It was still so smooth and plain. Like the shell of an egg.

He ran his hoof along the wall. It certainly didn’t feel like an egg. The material reminded his hoof of stone, but what kind of stone gave you a look like this he couldn’t say. Obviously magic had to be involved, but whose? This didn’t seem like the kind of thing ancient crystal ponies would have created. Or needed, for that matter.

Lost in thought, Shining almost didn’t realize when he stumbled upon an opening. In fact, he was half way past the modest oak door before he did a double take and turned around.

And there it was, so obvious about its presence that missing it was akin to an insult.

“Hey!” he barked at his spreading out contingent. “Over here—”

creak...

Unbidden, the door opened. It gave way to a dark expanse, so black even the light from outside couldn’t illuminate it. Shining should’ve called again for the guards, but his curiosity was piqued.

Knowing they’d be hustling to catch back up with him, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to take the first steps inside. His hooves traded crunchy grass for flooring. They clacked like they would against steel, but as far as he could tell the material was no different from the tower walls.

I can’t believe they missed this, Shining mused to himself as he made it all the way inside. Aside from the light pouring in from outside, he could see nothing. Not even his snout was visible. Must have done a lazy job of surveying.

creak...

His eyes bulged, and he turned around. The door was closing on him!

Almost shut, little more than a crack of light could get through. In another second, he’d be alone in the darkness.

“Wait!” He leapt for it.

SLAM!

He threw his body against the door, but he felt no oak when his shoulder made contact. It felt like just any other part of the wall. His hooves shot around, desperate to try and find the door, but he felt nothing.

I need to see. His sparked his horn to life, hoping to find a magenta-shaded door somewhere in this inky blackness.

But the second his magic flickered, it began pouring out of him. “What the—?!”

Tendrils of aura were pulled away from him. He tried to cut off his magic, but he couldn’t stem the flow. He could only watch as his magenta aura snaked through the air, around the room until…

Fsh!

Light. Shining had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, suddenly the room was alight. Visible.

It was a circular room, as wide as the tower itself. The walls were all undecorated, save a ring of torches that were now burning with bright, magenta fires. His magic. So that’s what had happened to him.

He lit his horn again and found nothing happened this time. Apparently now that the torches were burning, they had no need to steal more from him. But even still, he flicked his magic off just in case. Just losing a little of his magical energy had left him feeling faint; he didn’t want any more gone.

The rest of the room was mostly bare. A door sat across from him, the only one present. Whatever entrance he had used to get in was gone, or at the very least covered up by the wall.

Great. His attention was drawn to the only other fixture in the room. A podium, still made of that same pearly white material as the rest of the tower. He was starting to get sick of everything being so white.

Atop the podium sat something with a splash of color. A little white square, but one that had magenta lines on it. Even from this distance he could tell it wasn’t the same as everything else.

Having taken stock of his situation, Shining found that he could calm down a little now. Panic receded as logic took over. His guards would be here soon; they’d find the door and let him out. Whatever this strange tower had done with his magic hadn’t been malicious. At least, not as far as he could tell. He was safe.

For now.

Doubt crept in almost immediately. If the door had vanished on his side, who’s to say it hadn’t disappeared out there as well? His contingent weren’t exactly the sharpest spears in the armory, they may brush off his call as just their imagination when they didn’t see him. Then he wouldn’t be able to get out at all.

He shook his head. Calm down. Think. That’s what Twilight would do. His little sister would be in the middle of asking a dozen questions, forming hypotheses, and getting answers right about now. The least he could do was try something like that.

First things first was the door. He rounded the room’s circumference until he reached it. There was no handle, no lock, no knob of any kind. No hinges either, come to think of it. He tried pushing against it, but it refused to budge.

“Hmm…” He lit up his horn, firing a test beam of magic. Aside from leaving an ineffectual scorch mark, it did nothing to get it opened.

Still in a blast first, think later mindset, he turned his lit horn to one of the walls. The beam he fired ricocheted right off, bouncing around the room like a pinball on steroids. He yelped, needing to duck as the magical attack worked its way to his face. It smacked into the door, not even rattling the strange, wooden material. But it did leave another scorch mark.

Shining blushed a little at his rather girly cry for help. With any luck, nopony outside would have heard that. Though, this room being soundproof wasn’t actually a good thing either.

He could test more advanced attack spells on the door or the walls, but he had a feeling they would all end the same way. That meant there was only one other thing in the room to investigate.

His attention turned to the podium, and the strange item on top of it. He doubted either would help him escape right now, but he was supposed to be exploring the tower anyway. If he could glean some insight into its purpose then today wouldn’t be a total wash.

Approaching the podium, his eyes widened as he figured out what the item on top was. White plastic, and poofy. There was no question about it; it was a diaper.

“What?” His face contorted in confusion. Now right in front of it, there was no denying it. This thing was definitely a diaper. With lines of frills meant for the rear, and sized up far beyond what a foal would need. This one looked meant for an adult.

“This is just… creepy.” He took a step back, eyes catching a plaque just below the podium. The words were perfectly legible, not a hint of Old Ponish in them, despite the supposed age of this place.

To climb to this Tower’s next floor

You’ll need to get past that door.

Shining’s brow furrowed. A poem. Great. And it looked like the door behind him didn’t even lead outside. Not that he’d harbored much hope, but it wasn’t great to get the confirmation. He scanned down to read the rest.

It will open for a foal

Look the part, that’s your goal

If not you’ll be up a creek without an oar.

“Excuse me?!” He shouted. This thing wanted him to… With the… “NO!”

What kind of sick game was this? He looked around the room, half expecting Discord to appear out of thin air and explain his horrible joke. But no such thing happened. Shining was just alone…

With the diaper.

He shook his head. This was ridiculous! What was with this tower? At first he’d just thought it was creepy, but now it was well beyond that. Between stealing his magic, that stupid limerick, and now needing to wear a diaper to go on, he was definitely done. There was no way that was happening. He could wait right here for his guards to find him… which they would, right?

It wouldn’t be a situation where this room wouldn’t appear for anyone else on the outside, would it?

He shook his head again. No! He couldn’t let thoughts like that control him. Besides, going up the tower wouldn’t help at all. It wasn’t like there was anything up there that would help.

Except the window.

Shining blinked in realization. Of course, the window the pegasi had mentioned! If he could make it up there, then he could call for their help! But… to get out of this room…

His eyes dropped to the diaper. It sat there, almost tauntingly.

He gulped.

I shouldn’t have to do this.

But his only options were to wait indefinitely.

But I’m not a foal, what if it doesn’t open anyway?

Yet, the limerick said he merely had to look the part…

Yeah, but it’s a freaking diaper!

And it wasn’t like there was anyone around to see him put it on, was there?

He paused. And sighed. He hadn’t expected logic would leave him no other choice, but with the possibility of a rescue so uncertain, what could he do?

“Fine!” He shouted. “You want me to play your stupid game, Tower? Is that it? Well guess what!” His magic sprung to life, ripping the diaper from the podium. “I’m not even phased! Bring it on!”

He looked to the garment, pupils shrinking a bit. He could only bring his magic to grab a corner of the thing, the rest of the padding unfolding before him. It’s poofy interior somehow inviting, yet haunting, in a way reminiscent of how it had felt to look at the open door to the tower. He was very much phased by this.

With a heavy sigh, Shining looked a way and used his magic to direct the diaper behind him. It crinkled noisily as he gripped more sides, and aimed it at his rear. Squeezing his eyes shut, he brought the poofy thing against his rear.

Contact.

Soft contact.

He held it there for a moment, but nothing happened. Nothing, save for his cheeks growing bright pink.

Shining sighed shakily. It was just a diaper, what was he getting so worked up about?

That spur of determination got him to thread his tail through the hole of the diaper. He was too far in now to call it quits, and started wrapping it around his plot.

The sheer poofiness of the thing forced him to spread his gait as it came around. With the plush plastic engulfed his privates, he felt his eyelid twitch. It was weird. Not weird in a bad way like he was expecting, either. But also not quite weird in a good way? He didn’t know if that was worse.

He taped it all down, face now harboring more than just pinpricks of a blush. He looked back at it, the bulge quite noticeable past his armor. When he moved, the little crinkle noises it made was even more noticeable than the clinks of the metal plates.

Shining shuddered, tucking his tail between his legs. This was stupid. It was stupid and he knew it.

Worse yet, when he looked up at the door, it wasn’t open. Rushing to it, and stumbling into a waddle as he did, Shining tried to push it open. Nothing.

“Are you kidding me?” He cried. He should have known better than to trust a strange plaque in a creepy magic tower. Now he’d just put on a diaper for nothing. “Ergh!” He snapped his horn to life, ready to strip the thing from his bottom. But then he remembered.

Look the part, that’s your goal

The limerick’s instructions hadn’t just been to merely put on the diaper. And maybe, just maybe, that was important. He racked his brain, nowhere near the thinker his little sister was. Or is she my big sister now that I’m wearing a—

He shook his head. That was not the kind of stuff he should be thinking about right now. Besides, he was still an adult. Foals didn’t wear armor like his.

And the lightbulb went off.

“Of course!” Shining realized. If he had to look the part of a foal to get that stupid door to open, then of course it would be a stickler about it. His armor was the problem.

Finding it much easier to undress than to put on the diaper, Shining kicked off his boots, removed his helmet, and unbuckled his armor. The metal clanged against the floor as he dropped them all, now naked. Except for the diaper.

Shining bit his lip. It suddenly felt drafty in here. Maybe that was just because he wasn’t wearing his usual clothes. But it was also humiliating. At least when his armor had been on, the diaper wasn’t the only thing he was concentrating on. But now, it was hard to ignore the fluffy interior of the diaper. The way it flooded every little nook and cranny of his inner thighs. The plush way it wrapped around his stallionhood…

He shook his head. What was that draft?

Looking up, he found his answer. The door was open! The hingeless, knobless door had somehow swung wide open, revealing a set of stairs for him.

“Finally!” he gasped with relief. He smiled to himself, having figured it out. The plaque hadn’t been a trick after all. And now that the door was open, he could fix his ridiculous attire situation.

Shining stepped back into his boots, magic already alight to grab the tapes of the diaper. But the second his hoof was comfortable in the armor, he heard something.

creak...

His head shot up, just in time to see the door slam shut on him. “No!” he cried. “No no no!” He ran up to it, slamming his hooves against the wood once more. “Come on!” he groaned.

What had just happened? Had he run out of time to leave the room? Or had something triggered it to close?

His eye caught sight of the boot on his forehoof. Was this what had done him in? He kicked it off, hoping the door would be appeased.

It wasn’t.

“Oh come on!” Shining cried. “I did what you asked! Why did—” he huffed. He was just wasting his breath.

But had he really blown his one shot? If he couldn’t get up to the next level, there was no way he’d reach the top. And then what could he do?

Dejected, he turned around and shuffled back to the podium. Maybe that limerick held a clue for what he needed to do, or something? It was hard to think about it too much with his crinkly diaper constantly distracting him. He looked back to glare at it. Each step forced a waddle out of the stallion, and padding gently rubbed up against his body. It was making it impossible to stop blushing too.

Eyes shifting back to the podium, Shining froze. In the second he had turned away, it had changed.

Now a new diaper sat atop it, one even thicker than before. And pink. Really pink. Aggressively so.

He blinked in surprise, wondering where that had come from. Even Discord’s magic made noise when he snapped something into existence, but this had been silent. And fast. Was he actually not responsible for this tower in any way?

He got another shock when he checked the plaque. The limerick had changed on him.

Only bad little fillies disobey

And so they do not get to play.

The wording for this one was even more confusing than last time. Fillies? Not exactly a synonym for foal. Did this tower not realize he was a stallion? It should say colt there at the very least. And what did it mean by play?

The room has reset

One more chance you’ll get

To do whatever your King may say.

Shining’s blood ran cold. King. That was rather unambiguous.

Considering the tower’s proximity to the Crystal Empire, it must have some connection. This land had rulers of all kinds before, but all had been either Emperor, or Empress. Cadence was it’s first ever Princess, and it had only ever had one King.

Sombra.

So that’s who’s responsible for this place, Shining realized. He must have built it one thousand years ago, and set it to operate even in the event of his demise. But for what purpose?

Between “disobey” and “do whatever your King may say” Shining’s best guess was that this would be where he sent unruly subjects, possibly before he learned how to control minds. But was it just supposed to torture them? Or was it supposed to make them fall in line.

Shining was suddenly very apprehensive about continuing up the Tower. But he had already determined it was his best bet to escape. Maybe as long as he knew what was happening here he could resist whatever machinations this place had in store for him.

His attention turned back to the pink diaper. At least there was one part of the limerick he hadn’t needed to decipher. This was clearly his “one more chance” to move on.

The Tower was making him put on a second diaper.

At first, Shining hoped he merely had to swap his old one out for this one, but he very much doubted so. Naturally he was being punished for disobeying the first directive, so this was meant to increase his foalishness, right? And besides, this one was definitely bigger than the first. It could only mean he was meant to put it over that one.

And besides, he really didn’t want to screw up this last chance. If he couldn’t get out this time, he may actually be stuck.

Reluctantly, Shining’s magic took hold of the new diaper. He unfolded it, and cringed. Right along the seat of the thing, written in sparkly, cursive, purple lettering was the word SISSY.

His cheeks grew ever hotter. Of course. Of course.

He groaned, knowing there was no use complaining now. He wrapped this new diaper over his old one as begrudgingly as he possibly could.

The frills of his first diaper flattened. The padding on the inside now wheezed as air escaped it. It was squeezed over him ever tighter and more snuggly than before. His stallionhood twitched at the sensation and he ignored it.

He had to spread his hind legs out even further to accommodate the new padding. It was so thick that he worried for a moment he wouldn’t be able to walk at all.

Finally it was done, the tapes magically smoothed down.

Shining looked back at his massive, poofy, pink plot and cringed. Even not moving produced crinkles as the diapers settled against each other. His tail was strained between the two holes that he could barely even flick it.

Looking up from the padding, Shining was able to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the door was open. At least as long as he played by the rules then this tower would too.

He wobbled around, clumsily positioning himself towards the stairs. Shining spared a wayward glance down at his armor, scattered across the floor. It felt wrong to leave it behind, but even just carrying it with him could be considering breaking the rules here. He wasn’t eager to see what the tower had in store for him should he “fail” this floor a second time.

I can always come back for it. He reasoned with himself, tottering towards the stairs. Right now I just have to move on, and be prepared for whatever this place has in store for me.

And so he started climbing.

Author's Note

Phew, this chapter was a beast to finally get done. Had almost given up on this story entirely, actually, but I'm glad to see at least part of it is completed and out for the world to see. I guess I just couldn't give up on getting Shining into one of my fics, lol.

Expect the next chapter... sometime? I'm sorry to say that these fics, as much as I love writing them, can't be my main priority. At least for now. Maybe when I sort out my life a little better I'll be able to pump out the chapters on a more regular schedule. Until then, just know I'm working on whenever I can.