Dream Cycle - Twilight

“All right, class, let's go over the material,” Twilight Sparkle said.

She looked out over the class, sort of vaguely paying attention to the ponies attending it – such as a pegasus with a shock of multicoloured mane, or a mostly-pink earth pony, or a slit-eyed filly alicorn with a night-dark coat – then down at her notes.

“First we have to discuss gathers,” she said, reading off from the bullet points and filling in the gaps. “Gathers are what make sure that diapers don't leak, by making sure that there's a seal between your legs and the material of the diaper…?”

She moved forwards a slide, then frowned slightly – wondering exactly why she was talking about this sort of thing. It didn't really seem like the sort of topic for her to be lecturing on.

“Miss?” asked a unicorn filly with a starry cape and a blue coat. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh!” Twilight said, shaking her head and blinking a little. “No, nothing's wrong, or I don't think anything is. Sorry….”

The name should have been right there on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't remember it. Blushing slightly, Twilight moved on to the next topic in her notes.

“The landing area is the name for the place on the front of the diaper which the tapes are stuck to,” she lectured, looking up at the image on the slide. “They're often decorated, and so are the tapes, which tends to be one of the main ways in which diapers are themed…”

This really did sound like an odd thing to be lecturing about… and she couldn't really remember coming into the lecture hall, either. In fact, she wasn't sure what class this was, or who was attending it, or when she'd learned the material herself.

And there was something familiar about the filly alicorn...

“That's not to say the rest of the padding can't be decorated, of course. It's quite common for patterns to either fade or appear as wetness indicators.” She clicked to the next slide, which had images of diapers and bottles of water, with the after picture's padding showing faded stars along its surface, not to mention showing off the sheer amount of water it seemed to have soaked up.

“...which should segue us nicely into absorbance! Diapers are able to soak up so much because of the clouds stuffed into them. This leads to thin diapers being able to swell deceptively big, and-”

Her spiel was suddenly cut off as she felt something smack against the back of her head. It wasn't painful by any means, but the sudden whap did make her jump a little as she turned around. A diaper had been tossed her way and now lay at her hooves, a few of the fillies in the class gigging. Twilight put on her best serious face, which was quite difficult given how confused she was at where any of the students would have gotten a diaper, and, again, why she was lecturing on them in the first place. Her horn alight as she lifted up the padding, looking around at the students. “Alright, who threw this? If you come forward I promise I'll be lenient.” She continued to look around, but nopony seemed to come forward. Though as she scanned the ponies, it wasn't hard to pick out a culprit. The black filly alicorn was wearing a smug smile and leaning back in her chair. A few more diapers could be seen poking out of her school bag.

Twilight did her best to give the alicorn filly a stern look, trotting slowly over to her desk. “What's that you've got in there, missy?”

“Nothing unusual,” the filly replied. “Nothing's wrong with having diapers in a diaper class, is there?”

There probably wasn't, but Twilight still looked stern. “There is something wrong with throwing a diaper at your teacher, miss…”

The name wouldn't come, but Twilight felt like she should know it. And she felt like if she did know the name she'd have a much better idea of what was going on.

...but she had no idea where that conviction came from, either.

The class giggled a bit at her pause, and the filly replied. “I was just giving you a diaper because you don't have one. And you need one to teach the class, don't you?”

Twilight had to admit, she didn't have a diaper. And as she inspected it, she wondered how quickly she could put it on and incorporate it into the lesson…

Then she saw the filly smirk, her eyes glittering, and suddenly something was really clear.

“Nightmare?” she asked.

“That's me,” the filly replied. “You did say Nightwear, right?”

Twilight blinked. Yes, of course she had – and that's what was going on! This was Nightwear Moon, who had all kinds of powers about dreams.

“I know what you're doing,” she said firmly. “This is a dream, isn't it?”

“And what if it is?” Nightwear replied, smirking again. “If it's not a dream, you're not doing the lesson… and if it is a dream, you're stuck in a dream with me, and I can make you do whatever I want.”

“Not everything you want,” Twilight replied firmly. “And – and I can get out of a dream!”

Nightwear simply laughed, while the rest of the class seemed rather confused. “If this is a dream, why in Equestria am ah still here?” A colt from the back asked. Nightwear waved her hoof dismissively and a pacifier popped into his mouth.

Twilight grew more confident as her horn started to glow and magic swirled around her. Nightwear looked just a tad worried as her magic grew brighter, but before she could do anything, Twilight suddenly vanished with a pop!

She opened her eyes, finding herself lying in bed. She let out a soft sigh, happy to have escaped the dream with Nightwear. She yawned, looking out the window to see the sun was only just rising above the horizon. Well, an early start to the day was always a good one, she supposed, so she tossed the covers of her back and slid out of bed.

As she made her way downstairs, however, she heard a bit of scuffling coming from the kitchen. “Spike? Are you up already?” She asked, walking into the kitchen only to gasp.

“Nightwear? What are you doing?!”

A little filly Nightwear was sitting up on the counter, several cookies already stuffed into her mouth, and she was still reaching into the jar to pull out more. Nightwear glared at Twilight, letting out a huge gulp as she swallowed all the cookies at once before sticking her tongue out at her. “I wanted cookies, so I'm getting cookies!” She declared.

Twilight hurried over, her magic trying to pull the jar from Nightwear. Nightwear did her best to keep her grip on the jar, but was easily shaken free as Twilight levitated the jar up to the highest shelf in the kitchen. “I told you before, if you have cookies so early you're going to spoil your appetite! You're not getting any pancakes now.”

Nightwear huffed, crossing her forelegs. “I want pancakes too!”

Twilight did her best not to groan, wondering just how much trouble Nightwear was going to insist on being. She knew she was supposed to be foalsitting the little alicorn, but did Nightwear have to be such a brat?

“Then you'll just have to learn to get on without them, won't you?” she asked. “Maybe you'll learn something.”

Nightwear pouted.

“Now, we're going to be going out today,” Twilight added. “Doesn't that sound nice?”

“Where?” Nightwear demanded.

“Manners,” Twilight warned. “We're going to go to the lake.”

She turned. “Now, come on, let's make sure you're properly dressed… we need to put you in a swim diaper so you don't end up trying to soak up half the lake.”

“The lake sounds boring,” Nightwear said. “I want to go to the play area!”

“No, we're going to the lake,” Twilight replied, then grabbed magically for Nightwear as the alicorn filly darted off upstairs. “Young filly, you get back here!”

Nightwear didn't listen, and Twilight found herself running up and down and around the castle trying to catch her charge.

Nightwear rushed into her room with Twilight close behind her, but not close enough – the filly was able to slam the door to momentarily impede her progress. Twilight grumbled as she opened the door, with Nightwear nowhere in sight.

Her brow furrowed as she stepped inside and locked the door behind her to prevent any further escape attempts, Twilight wandered over to Nightwear's crib and bent down to peer beneath it. As expected, Nightwear had chosen a better hiding spot, forcing Twilight to search the room further. The curtains hid no filly, and her closet seemed devoid of her as well, though it required digging through several oversized Wonderbutt plushies to make sure.

“Nightwear, if you don't come out here right now, we won't be going anywhere and you'll be grounded!” She called out. Given the subsequent silence, Nightwear was unfazed by the threat.

Twilight wandered over to Nightwear's wardrobe. It seemed unlikely that she could squeeze her way into one of the drawers and shut it behind her, but Twilight had found her in stranger places. Pulling open the drawers however only revealed the usual bottles of foal powder, wipes, and bulging thick diapers.

Twilight tried to remember why such a small filly needed such thick padding, but for the life of her she couldn't recall. Now that she thought about it, who was she foalsitting Nightwear for in the first place?

Before her mind could wander any further, she heard a clatter behind her and spotted Nightwear laying beside a now tipped over hamper, fluffy blankets strewn about and tangled around her.

“There you are!” Twilight said. “Now stop causing trouble and come over here so I can get you ready for the trip!”

Nightwear flailed about, trying to escape but only getting tangled in the blankets further, and Twilight chuckled before trotting forwards. She tried to pull some of the blankets aside but they all seemed to be joined together, so she headed into the mass to try and find Nightwear and get her untied.

There seemed to be an awful lot of the blankets, and she sort of got lost in them – covered in all sorts of fluffed-up duvets and comforters and multi-layered blankies, seeing only by the light of her horn and completely unable to locate Nightwear.

Then she noticed that her own hooves were getting mixed-up and tied up in knots, and a few seconds later she tripped over – ending up in a heap as some of the blankets slid around.

“Hmph!” she heard. “You're not meant to foalsit me, you're just a foal yourself!”

“What?” Twilight demanded. “I'm not – erf – you're the one who came in here first, young filly!”

Wondering how many blankets there'd been, because it seemed like an entire roomful of them, Twilight got back to her hooves and forced her way out of the pile.

“There you are,” she said, trying to look stern, but Nightwear just giggled.

“There's nothing funny about it, young filly,” she said, trotting forwards and sending the rest of the blankets sliding off to free her wings. “I can assure you...”

Twilight paused, flicking her backside back and forth a little to try and dislodge one last warm blanket. It didn't move, and Nightwear giggled more, until Twilight looked back to try and get it off with her horn.

It wasn't a blanket at all. Somehow, when she'd been trying to find Nightwear in all the blankets, she'd ended up with a thick, plushy diaper wrapped around her rear.

Twilight was taken aback for a moment, wondering where the plush diaper had come from, let alone how she had managed to get it wrapped around her flanks. But, then again, she was foalsitting, it was probably just one of Nightwear's spare diapers that had gotten lost in the blankets.

That did make sense, after all.

Regardless, she wasn't going to allow the offending garment to remain in place. As her horn lit up to remove the diaper, however, Nightwear suddenly pouted, drawing Twilight's attention back to her. “Hey, no fair! If I have to wear my diaper, you do too!” Nightwear whined.

Twilight looked a bit incredulous. “Don't be ridiculous, I'm not a foal, so I don't need a diaper. You on the other hoof, need to get into your swim diaper already!”

Nightwear crossed her forehooves and sat down, glaring up at Twilight. “Nu-uh! You were crawling around in all those blankets too! You're a foal too! And you said foals need diapers!”

Twilight let out a bit of a sigh. She wondered if this hill was one that was really worth dying on. After all, if Nightwear was willing to cooperate if she wore this plush padding, maybe it would make the rest of the day go better. She could probably hide it until Nightwear was distracted enough splashing around that she could remove it without the filly noticing. And, while she was hesitant to admit it, the plushie diaper was rather comfortable.

“...alright, Nightwear, but I mean it, we're going to miss out on all the sun if we stay here any longer! Now hurry up and get into your swim pampers.”

Nightwear cheered, dutifully waddling over to the drawers to pull out a set of padding with a rubbery, almost pooltoy like covering. Twilight waddled over, but Nightwear shooed her away, attempting to put on the odd swim diaper on her own. Twilight shrugged, figuring if it kept Nightwear happy and she did a good enough job, she could put on her own diapers if she wanted.

It took another ten or fifteen minutes to actually get to the point where they could actually go out the door, with Nightwear complaining about everything from the taste of the snacks they were taking (which she insisted that Twilight sample first) to the bonnet that Twilight said she should wear to protect her from too much sun. Nightwear got Twilight to show her how that would work as well, then tied it on her, and after that told her that because they only had one and that was too tightly tied then Nightwear would have to go without.

It was all very frustrating, but finally Twilight was ready to take her charge to the beach. So she opened the door, Nightwear suddenly eager to get there, and as they stepped out onto the street somepony looked at Twilight in surprise.

“Why on Equestria are you wearing a diaper?” she asked.

Twilight was about to reply, trying to explain, but suddenly realized how strange the whole situation was. How she'd ended up in a diaper which she hadn't removed, wearing a bonnet, and having eaten little crackers and cheese squares as if she'd only just moved onto solid food.

It was so embarrassing, and at first she couldn't think of something to say.

“This is like a bad dream,” she groaned, and Nightwear laughed.

Not giggling, but laughing – and when Twilight looked at her, the filly's eyes were bright and alive with triumph.

“That's right,” the little alicorn said. “And what do you do to dream? You sleep...”

The word echoed in Twilight's mind, and she closed her eyes…

Twilight was standing at the front of her class again, this time with several pieces of fabric, cotton, and sewing needles spread out on a table in front of her. She was stitching the tail onto a small plushie purple and green dragon, threading the needle carefully before pulling it taut, knotting it, and placing the limp toy down.

“...and that finishes the shape of our plushie. How is everyone doing so far? No pricked hooves?” Her gaze wandered the classroom as she watched her students busy at work. Most of them were finishing stitching up their own little plush ponies, such as one of her students, a stubby legged dragon who seemed oddly familiar, stitching button eyes onto a posh white unicorn. There were a few others, though, such as a rainbow pony admiring her gryphon plush, and her shyest student squeezing a plush bear.

“Alright, onto the most important part, the stuffing!” Twilight said, proceeding to pull the bucket of stuffing closer to her. “You want your plush to be able to hold as much as possible so they have an even bigger belly to cuddle, after all!” She began to demonstrate, stuffing the cotton down into the plush dragon's unzipped belly, filling his tail outwards, his head, limbs, and finally belly following suit. She continued to stuff as she looked around the room again, each student doing their best to match her technique.

As Twilight absentmindedly stuffed her plushie, she wondered if her dragon student had always been that pudgy. He didn't look bad with more belly to squeeze, but she was sure it hadn't been that big earlier today. Perhaps he just had a big lunch.

Continuing to look around the room, she spotted Nightwear in her seat, not paying much attention and instead focused on stitching something up around her own plush princess's rump.

“What's that you're doing?” Twilight asked her, trotting over. “That looks interesting!”

“I'm putting a diaper on it,” Nightwear told her. “That's because that's what princesses have.”

Twilight smiled, pleased that Nightwear was getting so involved with the class.

Something seemed a little odd, but she shook it off – watching as Nightwear's needle went in and out, in and out… then she started putting the stuffing in, putting more and more at once until the cotton-diaper was big and plump and obvious.

Twilight blinked a few times, realizing that it looked like it had a diaper almost as big for it as her big crinkly one was for her. That sounded a bit odd as well, as she wondered why she was wearing such a big diaper when she was teaching class, but before she could think much about it Nightwear finished and gave it to her.

“Here you go!” she said. “You can snuggle it when it's nap time!”

“Nap time?” Twilight repeated. “We don't have nap time.”

“Yes you do,” Nightwear replied. “It's next, remember?”

Twilight didn't remember that, but maybe she'd forgotten. She frowned, and Nightwear nodded – a motion she found herself repeating, nodding a little as if she wasn't sure whether to agree or just be tired.

“It's nap time,” Nightwear repeated, and Twilight yawned and closed her eyes-

Twilight awoke with a bit of a start, sitting up in bed as she tried to remember what her dream had been about... something about class... had she been dreaming about magic kindergarten again? She shook her head and tried to roll out of bed, only to realize there were large bars running around her mattress preventing her from doing so. She blinked as her bleary eyes came into focus to find herself sitting in a large crib. She was about to stand up and try to hoist herself out of the crib when she heard hooves on the other side of the door before it opened up and the lights turned on, temporarily blinding her.

“Oh, Twily, I didn't know you'd be awake already!”

Twilight blinked rapidly, trying to force her eyes to adjust as she felt magic surrounding her and lifting her up out of the bed. She heard a faint crinkle and looked downwards as a blush crossed her face. She was wearing a particularly puffy diaper, one which reached her knees and swallowed just a bit of her tail to make wagging it difficult. Once her vision had returned, she looked over to see it was Luna who was carrying her out of the crib. “L-Luna? What's going on? I...I'm not in another dream am I?” She shook her head, utterly confused and trying to make heads and tails of what was going on.

Luna simply gave a small chuckle as magic poked and prodded at Twilight's diaper, which only made the smaller alicorn blush brighter. “Perhaps you are, but it's not a nightmare, is it? I had hoped you would have liked it when you asked me to do this with you.”

“I – um – well-” Twilight began, spluttering a bit as she tried to marshal her scattered thoughts.

She was trying something with Luna? Why did it involve diapers?

“Um...” she tried, and Luna put her down on a table with a soft top. “H-hey!”

“Ssh,” Luna told her, putting a pacifier with a big heavy bulb in her mouth – effectively silencing her, at least for the moment. “Let's see if you've been a soggy filly during your nap...”

The implications of that made Twilight try not to squirm. If she'd been trying something with Luna and it was like this… did that mean…

“All dry,” Luna pronounced. “Who's a clever little filly?”

Twilight tried to turn away, embarrassed by Luna's comments, and the elder alicorn chuckled. “Now now, you know that mommy knows best in these situations – you don't want to get punished, after all. Or maybe you do?”

Twilight's ears went flat, and Luna picked her up again before putting her down on the floor. “Now, what do you want to do first?”

As Luna described several options, each one more embarrassing than the last, Twilight did have to squirm back and forth a little as she wondered how she'd got herself into this situation. She'd agreed with Luna to have a dream to experiment with this sort of thing? Really?

Luna listed off a few more, only to stop as she realized Twilight's reluctance to answer. She gave a soft giggle, patting Twilight's head gently. “Ah, of course, how silly of me. If I gave you a choice it'd ruin the illusion just a bit, wouldn't it? I must apologize, I'm getting a little used to the scenario myself, Twilight.” Her horn started to glow as she pulled a book from a nearby shelf and floated it over to Twilight. “How about we play out one of your favorite stories. I believe I remember you quite enjoying the very hungry manticore, about a greedy manticore that kept stealing everypony's food until he couldn't budge from all his pudge! We'll have to get you into your costume first!” Luna placed the book in Twilight's lap as she went to retrieve Twilight's costume.

Twilight flipped through the book, not remembering any story of the sort. As Luna had said, the story was quite simple, a manticore awoke one day and was very hungry, so he ate his way through a pony's bakery before stumbling down the street to drink the town's fountain dry, then decided he needed more, so he started to gobble up all the apples in the town's orchard! Each page was accompanied by a picture of the ever fattening manticore, and Twilight was wondering if she had really asked to be put in a situation like that. By Luna of all ponies. Surely she was remembering wrong, why would she have agreed to this?

“Oh, Twilight!” Luna sing-songed behind her. Twilight turned around and her face burned brightly as she saw Luna holding up a sleeper with lion paws and a big ruffled mane, equipped with a plush scorpion stinger over a flap meant for ease of access to the wearer's diaper.

“D-do we really-” Twilight begun, only for Luna to put a hoof over her muzzle.

“Now now, Twily,” Luna said, sounding amused. “You know that little ones are always eager to play dress-up, don't you?”

Twilight mumbled, trying to protest, but Luna just opened up the sleeper with a quick zrrrip sound. “Let's have that left forehoof! Can you show me which one that is?”

Twilight somewhat reluctantly proffered her left forehoof, and Luna helped the sleeper over that leg. The same thing happened with the other three legs, so that Twilight was wearing a big soft manticore sleeper that was just the right colour.

“That's better!” Luna chuckled. “And let's just check that stinger… yep, nice and soft! No danger of my little filly accidentally hurting herself!”

Luna really seemed enthusiastic about this, smirking slightly as she assured Twilight that she'd be just fine – as if Twilight was a real foal who needed to be carefully kept away from danger because she'd hurt herself if she wasn't.

Twilight found it a very embarrassing concept, and it didn't help when Luna retrieved the book.

“Now, remember, Twily,” Luna added. “The Manticore's job is to do what the book says! Do you think you can do that?”

Twilight mumbled something about the difference between being able to do something and wanting to do it, which Luna more or less ignored – going straight on to opening the book.

“Once there was a Manticore, whose tummy was rumbling all day...” Luna began, Twilight sitting on the floor in her suit, unmoving. Of course, even if the Manticore in the story wasn't doing anything except sitting like Twilight was, Luna wasn't going to let Twilight get out of acting the part. “Come on, Twilight make your tummy growl!”

Twilight whined, mumbling softly to try and imitate a softly growling stomach. Luna continued, talking about how his tummy grumbled louder, and she paused for Twilight's response, whose face burned brighter with each growl.

“So the Manticore decided that to stop his rumbling, he needed to fill his tummy! So he started to march, march, march through the forest to sniff out some snacks to gobble!” Luna continued. Twilight bit her lip, trying to only halfheartedly walk around, but Luna still waited.

“Come on, Luna, can't we just... skip the bedtime story?” She asked, the scorpion tail of her suit waving back and forth.

“Of course not, Twily, foals always get a bedtime story before bed! Now come on, march around so you'll get all tuckered out for beddy bye!” She teased.

Twilight's face burned brightly as she forced herself into a wider march, her hooves stomping on the ground. Despite the book describing the Manticore's marching as an intimidating sight to behold, Twilight's waddle was anything but. Her padded suit spread her legs and forced her rump to sway from side to side with each step, and her powerful stomping was reduced to soft trotting by the thick fluff of the paws. She was at least thankful it was a short book, and hoped that the Manticore's marching wouldn't go on for much longer…

“The Manticore prowled through the forest,” Luna continued, reading the book slowly and clearly. “Do you know what it means to prowl, Twily?”

“Of course I know what it means,” Twilight grumbled, trying to sound offended instead of embarrassed. “I read dictionaries.”

“It's a big word that a foal might not know,” Luna said, seriously, though there was a smirk occasionally showing through on her muzzle. “Can you show me how the manticore prowls, then?”

Twilight did her best to try and prowl, and realized as soon as she started that that way of moving meant being more hunched down – so the costume rump of her diaper was wiggling in the air a bit more, and that meant she had to try a bit harder to move.

It was making it so she was feeling at least a bit tired, just from how much work it was to move the big padded rump around, and that in itself was really embarrassing.

“And the Manticore prowled right into town,” Luna read. “He sniffed around, trying to find something to eat, and then he saw a pony with a treat!”

Luna looked at Twilight expectantly, and Twilight blushed before sniffing a bit.

That seemed to satisfy Luna, and she turned the page.

“The pony had the treat, but the Manticore wanted the treat! So he snuck up behind the pony, and took a deeeep breath.” Luna smirked. “And then he let out a great big roar, and the pony ran away and dropped his treat!”

“A roar?” Twilight repeated. “What – you mean you want me to make a roar noise? That's really – well, this whole situation is really embarrassing, but that's even more embarrassing!”

“Come on, Twily,” Luna said, giggling a little. “It's the Manticore's job to do what the book says!”

Twilight covered her face with a plush-suited paw for a long moment, then took a deep breath. She crouched down, wiggling her diaper a little without thinking about it, and roared.

It was more like saying “roar” than an actual roar, but as half-hearted as it was Luna applauded.

“That's right!” she said happily. “And you scared away the pony, so you get the treat he dropped!”

Luna put a big plushy apple in front of Twilight, who looked at it with confusion.

“But… this is an apple,” she said. “Manticores don't eat apples.”

“Story book ones do!” Luna told her.

Twilight rolled her eyes, figuring she should have known. She eyed the plush apple as Luna continued, “The Manticore greedily gobbled up the pony's treat, his belly grew as he began to eat!” Twilight's muzzle scrunched a little, but she bit into the apple, figuring she could just make believe she was eating it. After all, Luna wouldn't expect her to really eat a plushie, would she? The plushie tasted almost like the real thing, though its cottony surface seemed to mute the taste just a tad. As she chewed on the fluff, her eyes widened as she could feel her belly growing fuller. With every chew it was like she had swallowed a whole apple, and she couldn't seem to stop herself from chewing further. Her belly felt full, and it pressed against the inside of her suit.

“He ate up the treats, but he was still hungry, and so he prowled as his tummy growled again!” Luna continued. Twilight finally came to her sense and was able to spit out the apple, which puffed out of existence as it bounced off the floor.

Twilight started prowling again, getting a little more into the story. She wasn't entirely sure why as she did so. Perhaps she was thinking the more she got into it the sooner it would be over. Despite her hopes, the storybook continued in its repetitive manner, describing the Manticore sneaking up on another pony, this one carrying a cart of watermelon, and letting out another roar!

As Twilight roared, a few plush watermelons fell down in front of her, which she pounced upon to start to gobble up. She chewed on the plush material, her belly growing full, but she was still so hungry, she wasn't sure how she could be so hungry after eating so much!

The Manticore in the story roared again and again, sneaking up on ponies throughout the town, and Twilight earned herself a pile of plush carrots – then a big puffy pumpkin – then some pastries, too, and every time it happened it just felt easier for her to prowl about, wiggle her suited-up butt as she waited to pounce, then slip into the mindset of... not exactly of the big Manticore, but of a filly trying her best to imitate the big Manticore.

She giggled after a roar at one point, then blushed about it, but Luna smirked at her and Twilight sort of just went along with it.

Finally, at the end of the book, Luna related how the Manticore had eaten so much and was so plump now that he couldn't move!

Twilight found that really funny, somehow, and she giggled about it – then blushed, realizing she was really plump as well.

“There you go,” Luna said, closing the book. “A nice big snuggly Manticore, ready for a nice warm nap~”

Twilight smiled, feeling snug, and Luna gave her a bottle of warm milk before levitating her into the bed – which was a crib – and pulling a blanket over her.

In a sort of vague way, Twilight remembered how this was actually some sort of play session – or, something like that? - and that she wasn't really a filly, they'd just been…

...it was hard to focus, and she yawned.

“W-wait,” she said, squirming a little. “Isn't it, um...”

“Sssh,” Luna said, smirking again. “It's nap time.”

Twilight blinked a few times, wondering why she felt a little tired.

She looked around, then down. Everything seemed in place – the library stacks were just as they should be, the door was closed but not locked, none of the windows were broken, and her desk had the usual stamps and glue and other things a librarian needed.

Maybe she'd just had a long work day. She couldn't even remember what time she'd come into the Twibrary and started work for the day…

Twilight adjusted the items on her desk, making sure they were properly straightened out, until she heard the click of the door open. She looked up to see a pitch black mare trot in, her starry mane flowing around as she eyed the myriad of books. “Good morning! Or... afternoon? I'm sorry, I'm normally more collected than this,” Twilight said, trying to be as collected as she could be given her confusion. The mare simply pulled a book off a shelf and rifled through it before putting it back. “Anyway, sorry, is there something in particular you're looking for?” Twilight asked.

The mare trotted past her, and Twilight was sure she crinkled as she did so, and she looked a bit thicker than most ponies would, but she wasn't entirely sure why.

“Nothing in particular, just browsing at the moment,” she replied. She pulled down another book from the shelf, this time the science fiction setting, before flipping through it. Twilight looked down at her desk, figuring she could at least do her own reading while the mare went about her business. It would be more interesting than watching her wander around anyway, and most ponies didn't like her suggestions whenever she tried to offer them. So she went back to her own book, only to hear a bit of shuffling which made her look back up. The pony, which Twilight now noticed was an alicorn, was just putting a book back on the shelves, but Twilight was sure she had heard the scratching of quills before. Her eyes narrowed, and she was hoping whoever this pony was she wasn't vandalizing her books.

Twilight watched her intently now, following her as she wandered from the “Dislike” section, holding a few stacks of books, over to the “Like” section, putting them up in empty spaces there. Twilight wasn't entirely sure, but she could have sworn she caught something like the word 'diaper' along the spine of one of the books.

The mare now took books from her current section and wandered back over to the “Dislike” section.

“Hey, I organized those myself!” Twilight interjected, pushing herself away from the desk.

“Don't mind me, please. I just noticed a few pieces were in the wrong place. I'm sure somepony came through here and mixed them up accidentally, it happens,” the mare responded.

Twilight felt there was something wrong with that excuse, but she couldn't quite think of what. Perhaps someone had come through earlier and she forgot? It seems odd they would mix up books in completely the wrong section though, usually it was only a shelf or two over.

There were a couple of new books that Twilight had to process into the system, neatly writing down the book's title and author on the reference cards as well as pasting in the library name and the paper to stamp the due date on, but it was very hard for her to focus on sorting out An Odd Classroom Experience and Some Kind Of Play Session With Luna to properly file them.

The alicorn mare kept trotting back and forth, seeming to be moving things around the Twibrary, and it certainly seemed like she kept going over to a book on the shelf, opening it to have a quick look through and then trotting over to another shelf to put it back there.

Surely Twilight hadn't left the place that disorganized… she frowned, and left the books half-processed on her desk to come out and have a look.

The oddly puffy mare was holding a book called The Toilet, and Twilight followed her as she trotted over towards the Disgust section over by the window.

Then, to Twilight's shock, the mare calmly dropped the book out the window.

“Hey!” the twibrarian protested. “What was that for?”

“Oh, you don't need that anyway,” the mare said, smirking.

“But it's a book!” Twilight protested. “A book about… about...”

For some reason, she couldn't remember. She didn't have the first clue.

She couldn't even remember the title, even though she remembered seeing it, and a minute ago she was sure she could have told you about what was in the book!

“What's going on?” she asked. “Wait… this isn't right...”

The mare smirked, and Twilight sort of remembered that that mare smirking was bad news – she couldn't remember how, though, and it was all kind of fuzzy…

She blinked a few times, then realized – this was a dream! So that meant she needed to wake up!

Twilight lit her horn, and flared it – casting a spell to take her out of the dream-

Twilight shook her head, wondering why she felt a little dizzy, and took stock of the situation.

She was floating in space, wearing her spacesuit. This was part of the first Equestrian spacewalk mission, that was right.

“Huh...” she mumbled, wondering why she felt like she'd almost forgotten that.

“Ground control to Twilight Sparkle,” Luna's voice said. “Everything okay up there?”

“I'm fine, Luna,” Twilight replied. “That is, uh… I'm fine, ground control?”

“Just call me Luna or Princess,” Luna assured her over the radio.

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight replied. “So, um... I'm floating around... what was I doing again?” She asked sheepishly, wondering why it seemed so hard to recall.

“I hope you're not floating without your tether! You were going out to double check the solar panels for the station. Make sure there's no debris and they're all oriented properly,” Luna instructed Twilight. Twilight nodded, then gave an audible confirmation upon remembering she couldn't be seen. She looked down to see that there was as tether fastened securely to her suit, which looked just a bit bulbous around the rump for a spacesuit. But that could be focused on later, she had a job to do! Her eyes followed the tether to see a small space station floating around the sky with her, one that looked just a bit cramped all things considered. But then Twilight remembered she was the only one on this mission, so it only made sense for things to be built with one pony in mind. Her horn lit up as she started to pull herself along the tether towards one of the large solar panels sticking out beside the main body.

She tumbled around just a bit as she pulled herself along, spinning head over rump as her tether twisted around her hooves and bound her for a moment before she spun outwards and became untangled. “Everything alright up there, Twilight?” Luna called in.

“Y-yes, I'm fine!” Twilight wondered how she had managed to make it onto this expedition when she had so much difficulty navigating through space, but her thoughts were knocked out of her head by the force of her bouncing off the hull of the ship.

Thankfully, her padded rump had taken the brunt of the force and left her and the ship none the worse for wear, but it did force her to reorient herself once again. Her magic flashed as she pulled the tether taut before flying back to the ship and gripping a handle on the side. She let out a sight of relief as she was finally halted in her wild bouncing, and, as luck would have it, was now right beside the panels. She peered around them, spotting a small panel near them which showed a variety of numbers and bars, all of which were green. Twilight assumed that was reassuring.

“Looks like the first panel's good, I'll go check out the other one, Princess.”

“You already did that, Twilight! It's time to go back inside the ship. We need to make sure your personal equipment is good.”

“Of course.” Twilight blushed as she tried her best to swim through the sky towards the door, her legs wriggling around in her well padded suit. It was awfully comfortable, she wondered if she really had to take it off when she got inside. It wouldn't hurt to keep it on for a little longer, after all.

It turned out that trying to swim through the sky wasn't actually how you were meant to move around in space.

Twilight had wiggled around a lot before working that out, her blush gradually growing because she was sure she was supposed to know how to do this.

She must have had some kind of training… right?

It was a mystery, and Twilight was quite embarrassed by the time she finally worked out she had to just use her tether to pull herself closer to the ship before using hoof-holds to move over to the airlock.

That at least was a simple design. She had to spin the wheel until the colours lined up, then press the button in the middle.

“Well done, Twilight!” Luna told her, and Twilight wondered why Luna was so enthusiastic about her success before awkwardly squeezing through the door and closing it.

There was a hiss as the airlock pressurized, and after about thirty seconds Luna told Twilight that she could take off her helmet if she wanted. Twilight promptly did so, and had to squeeze all over again as she got from the airlock to one of the rooms in the spaceship.