Cadence awoke from sleep to the sound of her alarm, her ears flicking as she blindly fumbled with her magic for the clock. She sighed as she sat up in bed, which was disappointingly empty with Shining off performing his early morning guard duties. With the city on alert from all the stories from Ponyville and Canterlot, it felt like she and Shining hadn't seen each other at all over the past week.
She climbed out of bed, heading to the bathroom to make herself presentable before she trotted down the steps to the dining halls. Guards stood at every entrance, their crystal coats gleaming in the sunlight. As Cadence headed into the dining hall, she was greeted by her usual breakfast, and a small sealed scroll. Curious, she unwound the ribbon in her magic and unfurled it. The writing didn't look anything like Shining's, and wasn't an update from one of her subjects either.
“Dear Princess Cadence,
We humbly request your presence in the ballroom. Our names are Octavia and Vinyl, we were in the Crystal Empire for a concert, and one of your subjects was present and found our music moving enough he requested a private performance.
We hope to see you soon.”
Cadence furrowed her brow, a tad confused. She had heard about some of the concerts playing in the city, but it was quite uncommon for any to receive a personal invitation for a performance here. The sound of the door opening caused her to look up to see Sunburst stepping in, his mane still frizzy from his pillow.
“Sunburst, did you hear about these two coming to play?” She asked, handing over the note. He read it over, scratching his head.
“I had heard some of the nobles going to a concert last night, I can only assume this is the one. Well, if they've already been admitted to the ballroom, they must have gotten the green light from the guards. It's only polite to pop in, I'd say.”
“Well, I've been needing a way to unwind,” Cadence admitted. “This last week has just been so stressful...”
“Yes, I know what you mean,” Sunburst agreed, closing his eyes and yawning. “Oh, dear… sorry, Princess. I was up late last night working on that spell-”
“It's all right, you don't need to apologize,” Cadence told him. “I know what you've been working on. Do you want me to get the coffee?”
“No, Princess!” Sunburst replied firmly, blinking a few times. “I'm awake, I'm awake… I'll be just a moment, that's all.”
“Well… don't overstrain yourself,” Cadence advised him. “We don't need you to get too much like Twilight!”
Sunburst chuckled slightly, and Cadence waited a moment more before trotting off to make her way to the ballroom.
The corridors of the castle were just the same as ever, and quite similar to one another, and Cadence didn't really need to pay much attention as she headed along them – catching sight of the occasional guard, who nodded to her before resuming their duties.
“I've never really understood why this place has quite so many rooms,” she said to herself. “We don't use half of them...”
Reaching the ballroom door, she opened it with a touch of magic and entered – wondering just what kind of musical performance she was about to witness.
The room was strangely empty initially, barring the few tables and chairs pushed up against the wall since they weren't being used. Cadence trotted in, wondering if she was perhaps early. There hadn't been a specified time on the letter, so perhaps she was meant to wait for word from someone when she was supposed to arrive.
As she was about to turn around, however, she heard something like a wheeze, followed by a strange resonating 'paaarp!'
Cadence spun about to see two pudgy dragons standing in the doorway, each sporting a colorful plaid hide. The gray one stepped forward, grinning as she rested her claws on her gut. “Ah, I'm so happy you've agreed to meeting us! It's an honor to play for nobility such as yourself.”
The white one chuckled as she followed the other one in, her tail, which sported a long pipe at the end, flicked back and forth with excitement. “Oh yeah, the reviews were absolutely rave!” She chuckled, the first dragon rolling her eyes and giving a bit of a sigh at her partner's comment.
Cadence's eyes went wide as she gazed upon the pair of puffy drakes, watching as they waddled forward, music flowing smoothly from the pipes along their back. She quickly came to the conclusion the rumors from Canterlot were true, and whoever these dragons were, they had to be part of the danger that had set the city on high alert. The first reached out a claw to shake Cadences hoof. “I'm Octavia, and my partner-”
Before either of the dragons could continue, however, Cadence's horn flashed with magic as she shot a beam towards them. With a squeak of surprise, the two vanished, leaving Cadence alone once again. She cantered towards the door, rushing to alert one of the guards, when, upon opening it, she was greeted once again by the duo.
“Come now, that's awfully rude! We didn't even finish our introductions, let alone the overture!”
“Yeah, she's right!” the other one agreed, as Cadence glanced left and right – even looking over her shoulder to see if somehow the dragons were in the room as well. “I'm Vinyl! Now, let's get this music flowing!”
She jumped into the air, and came down squarely on her rump. The movement drew Cadence' attention, and she watched in surprise as Vinyl swelled up slightly – then the tunes coming out of her pipes got louder, the sudden change enough to make Cadence shake her head in confusion.
Then she shut the door, which cut off most of the sound of the music.
Turning to look around, using a hoof to hold the door closed behind her, Cadence looked to see if the dragons were going to teleport in.
There was no sign of them, at first, and Cadence breathed a sigh of relief – then glanced back over her shoulder, feeling the door resonating faintly with the music.
From what she could hear of it, it was actually quite a good tune… but it wasn't really to her taste, so she shrugged it off and thought about what to do next.
There was another door to the ballroom, so maybe she could get out that way – if the dragons didn't split up, at least. Still, it was her best chance, and she broke into a canter to the other door and opened it with a tug.
No sign of dragons presented itself – except for the music, still faint in the background – and she trotted quickly towards one of the connecting corridors.
There weren't any guards she could see, unfortunately...
As she opened up the corridor, the sound of the music seemed to be growing louder. Cadence tried to hurry in the opposite direction, finding the halls of the castle oddly confusing despite them being to her own home. She turned a corner and came skidding to a stop as she realized she had somehow stumbled back to the front doors to the ballroom. The two dragons were rocking back and forth atop their rumps, their bodies periodically swelling and deflating to produce their song.
“I knew she'd come 'round!” Vinyl said happily upon spotting Cadence.
Octavia nodded, bouncing up off her rump and back to her feet. “Few can resist such a catchy tune.” She waddled up to Cadence, who was backing up again. “Now, come on, let's head back into the ballroom so we can put on a proper show.” Octavia swelled, then squeezed her belly, letting out a loud 'paarp!'. The music filled Cadence's ears as she stumbled a bit, which allowed Octavia to wrap her tail around her back and help her through the doors.
As the wave of music died down, Cadence's thoughts became clear, and she rushed forward out of Octavia's tail grip.
Her horn flashed again as she conjured up a pair of earmuffs and quickly shoved them over her head. They muffled the sounds of the dragons, allowing her to think more clearly. At least, they did until Vinyl bounced up behind her and tapped them. Suddenly their music was amplified, the earmuffs pumping the song directly into her head. Her eyes spun as she tried to remove the earmuffs, the wheezy, paarpy sounds echoing around as the dragons danced together.
The more she tried to pull the earmuffs off, whether by using her hooves or her magic, the tighter they held and the louder the music became – with a particularly loud burst every time the two dragons bumped rumps or bellies together, using the pressure that came with it to pulse their piping louder still.
After what felt like a minute, though it could have been five seconds or it could have been an hour, she gave up for the moment and turned to the door.
“Oh, Princess!” Octavia said, thumping her tail on the floor with a boom boom boom – a counterpoint to the rest of the musical performance. “You're leaving so soon? But we're not even into the fugue!”
Cadence reached the door, finding it stuck or locked, and turned to shoot a beam of magic at the nearer of the two dragons. It went straight into Vinyl's mouth, and the strangely plaid creature's fabric-like body swelled up as she swallowed the spell up – then let out a loud pulsing blast of music with all kinds of colourful magic streaming out of her pipes as she vented the energy of the spell again.
The beat of the blasts made Cadence's head spin, but it also unstuck the door. Cadence quickly turned, ready to run out of the door, then paused to look back – taking the opportunity to fire off another spell.
This time, rather than a spell to teleport the dragons away, she conjured a pair of giant boxes. One dragon got lifted up and dropped into each box, and Cadence spent the extra moment to tie them up with a ribbon before turning and galloping away down a corridor – not really caring which at the moment.
The music continued to resonate in her ears…
Cadence hurried down the hallways once more, and she found herself humming along to the music. Despite her initial thoughts, it was slowly growing on her. But she couldn't stick around, she had to get... somewhere. The more she jogged, the more Cadence couldn't remember exactly it was she was going. She remembered she needed to get someone, but she didn't remember who, or for what. Was it a guard? But why would she need a guard? Was she looking for someone to watch the performance with her?
Her jogging slowed to a more leisurely stride. She was no longer heading anywhere specific, just wandering the halls of the castle at her own pace. Her steps were starting to meet the beat of the music, and she was simply listening to the song as she let her mind wander.
She wondered what those puffy dragons were exactly. They didn't seem hostile, they were only trying to share their music, after all. Perhaps she ought to give them a second chance. She blinked, and found herself back at her bedroom. The music still played, and as she stepped inside, she was greeted by the two presents the dragons had been placed in. Unsure exactly why, she started to undo the ribbons on them, and before she could react they burst out, each posing dramatically to show off their bloated bodies.
“Ta-da!” Vinyl cried, giggling to herself as she fell back onto her butt.
Octavia looked down to see Cadence, who had been knocked back by their entrance. And was now headphone free. “Oh, goodness, Vinyl, you overdid things again.”
“That's what I do!” Vinyl replied with a chuckle and a ripple of sound.
Cadence blinked a few times, shaking her head and trying to shake off the effects of her long musical session. “I… w-wait, I was trying to...”
Why had she opened the boxes? It had seemed so sensible, but now she had no idea why she'd done it. And that music was just distracting, echoing, spinning her thoughts out of shape and-
She scowled, doing her best to ignore it. “How did you do that?”
“What?” Octavia asked. “We went in the boxes, we came out of the boxes. Seems pretty obvious to me!”
“Don't try and confuse me,” Cadence said crossly. “You were in the ballroom, now you're here… and you did that funny thing with the earmuffs?”
“That's how music works, silly,” Vinyl said, nodding her head and bouncing on her butt – going up and down, up and down in time with the tunes she was blasting out. “Once it gets into your head, a good tune doesn't want to leave!”
Cadence didn't like the sound of that, and she looked over to see if she could make it back to the door – not liking the idea of running away again, either, but knowing she had to do something.
“You're right!” Octavia nodded, the pipes running down her spine letting out echoing tunes as she shook them. “If you think about a tune, you end up thinking about it more and more until you memorize every last detail… but if you don't think about it, it keeps coming back whenever you're not expecting it. So you can't really escape!”
Running for the door in a burst of speed, Cadence pulled it open and bolted through – then skidded to a halt in complete bafflement.
She was still in her room. She'd gone out the door, and ended up coming back in the same door.
“And it's even easier to listen if the music's got lots of catchy little bits to it,” Vinyl said, bouncing back and forth and left and right. “It means when you think about it you get confused where you are, so you just go around in a loop…
Cadence looked back over her shoulder, staring back into her room, then looked down at her hooves, hoping to see them in the hallway, but, sure enough, they were still in her room. Vinyl patted her belly to let out a few drum like 'booms' as she continued, “Repetition really is the key. You listen to the song, and you enjoy it, so you listen to it again. And then listen to it again. The notes all blend together, and soon enough you'll have it bouncing in your head all day long. It's the best way to enjoy a song, not even needing to focus on it as you hum along.”
Octavia was standing on her tail, jumping up before landing back down with a smack to bounce up to Cadence and scoop her into her arms. “You ought to know that, Cadence.” She gave her a playful poke on her muzzle. Cadence shoved against Octavia's puffy belly, her hooves simply sinking in and doing little to push her away.
“Speaking of cadences, that's a good next lesson too! How the song ends is just as important as to how it begins. If you end it with the right combination of notes...” Octavia flopped on her rump, tootling out a tune, the rush of air from her tail blowing over Cadence as Octavia waggled it around, “It leaves you with a warm, happy feeling inside. The kind of feeling that sticks with you and makes you feel good no matter how bad of a day you've been having so far.”
“Makes me feel good?” Cadence parroted, then blushed – shaking her head briefly about having been drawn into responding, and trying her best to ignore the whole situation apart from what she needed to do to get away.
She flared her wings, trying to fly out of Octavia's grip, and flapped as hard as she could – trying to slide upwards, getting purchase on the air in the way she couldn't push away from the bouncy bagpipe-dragon. The effort made her wings ache, but she managed to get up into the air and away from her captor, and hovered up near the ceiling where neither Octavia nor Vinyl could get near her.
“That's right!” Octavia agreed, not put off by Cadence's escape. “If you're doing something else, it makes you feel good because you're enjoying it without thinking about it and that means you're enjoying what you're doing too! And if you're not doing anything else, you can just focus on the music and everything it does!”
“That's right!” Vinyl agreed, bouncing, and Cadence watched with worry in case the tootling dragon was able to reach her – but, fortunately, the ceiling was high enough to mean the bouncy bagpipe dragon couldn't reach her.
There was an uneasy stalemate, with Cadence doing her best to ignore what the draconic duo said, and as the music bounced around the room. It kept tugging at her attention, distracting her, and she shook her head before focusing again on the bouncing Vinyl below her.
“...building up,” Vinyl was saying. “Until… a drop!”
Cadence crashed into the ceiling with a thump, not too hurt because she hadn't had far to go, and realized suddenly that she felt like she was lying on the floor. But she could see the floor down there, and-
-the room was upside down?
Then Vinyl landed on top of her with a parp and a squishy floomph.
Cadence's cry of surprise was muffled by the plaid butt smothering her, with her continued protests remaining unheard as Octavia giggled and rocked back and forth on her rump, which was still somehow stuck to the ceiling. Not that Cadence was really questioning the strange logic at this point, it was something she was becoming slowly more and more forced to begrudgingly accept. A part of her was going to write an extremely stern letter towards a certain draconeques she knew, though, worringly, a much larger part was focused more on how surprisingly comfortable that big plaid rump was as it flattened her.
Octavia bounced up (or was it down?) to grab Vinyl's claws. Cadence's eyes spun as her vision returned to her, although hints of a plaid pattern seemed to linger at the fringes of her sight, which pulsed and shimmered along with the song the pair was playing. The two were clutching each other's hands, each pumping themselves up and down, gravity attempting to pull them in two directions at once. Consequently, they were left bobbing up and down. They positioned their tails outwards, the air rushing out making them start to spin slowly around and around and around.
“And when you don't need to pay attention to the music to enjoy it, you don't even need to worry about it stopping! You just get lost in the tune and it seems to start as soon as it ends, and continues to play over and over and over as it spins around and around and around!” The pair said together.
As Cadence watched, she suddenly found herself tripping over the corner of the room, falling onto the wall. It wasn't the dragons that were spinning, it was the room!
The room began to rotate faster, switching direction with a dizzying swerve, and Cadence found herself galloping along one wall to the next wall and then the next after that. She stumbled a few times, wobbling on her hooves as she jumped between the walls to avoid being bounced around like a ticket in a raffle machine, then began to find a rhythm as she took the same number of steps on each wall before moving on to the next.
Her hooves fell into a rhythm, two-four-six-eight-jump, and slowed down a little as she began to move to the beat of the music – looking up to see the two bagpipe dragons overhead springing apart and then pulling together again.
They looked like each one was falling away towards the floor or ceiling, while for Cadence those were the sides of the room and the walls were what she was walking on, and the confusing sight and the bouncing and the music confused her all over again.
The plaid light in the corner of her eyes seemed to be slowly growing, glowing, taking over more of her vision a little at a time, and the spinning walls changed as well – taking on colours, patterns, all becoming the same as it swirled around her.
One-two-three-parp-five-six-seven-jump, one-two-three-parp-five-six-seven-jump, and Cadence sank into that routine, cantering to the beat of the music and lulled by the lyrics all around her. She couldn't even hear what they were saying, too much of her attention stolen away by the music and by her general lassitude, but deep down they seeped into her mind – in a way that meant she could memorize every word, almost knowing what the next one would be before it was said and at the same time not knowing any of them at all.
Cadence continued along, starting to work more complicated maneuvers into her jog as the music flowing around became more complex. She started to bounce off the bed as it rolled past her, adding into the rhythm of one-two-bounce-parp-five-six-re-bound! She was becoming so lost in the pleasant tune she didn't even notice the patterned walls were becoming softer as well. Everything was swirling around her, the walls looking less like her room and more like a musical staff. She was no longer bouncing around her room, but along a sheet of music, like the little bouncing ball that told ponies about when to sing.
She blinked, and the two dragons were no longer twirling above her, but Octavia was leading her along the music as Vinyl bounced along behind her. Cadence followed Octavia's movements, making sure she landed on the notes just like the dragon did so she elicited the same notes to the pleasant song. Vinyl brought up the rear to keep her in time and make sure she didn't drag. Whenever she stumbled, she simply bounced off Vinyl's belly, flying forward and flopping into Octavia's rump to catch back up with the tempo.
The song continued to swirl and swell, building to a climax. Cadence found herself singing along with the dragons, still not entirely sure how she knew what the next words of the song were, and yet she could sing it just as well as them! She bounced and jumped excitedly, deciding that the dragons were right after all! Music was just so much fun, especially bouncy tunes like this! She closed her eyes to let herself sink into the tune all the more, and when it eventually came to a grand finale, she found herself back in the ballroom, sitting comfortably in front of the dragons who had just finished their performance.
“There, you see?” Octavia asked, with a flourish and a parp. “Don't you agree it was more than worth coming along?”
“I, well… yes!” Cadence agreed, as music sang in her ears and told her how to answer. “It was amazing, hearing your music, and… and… I don't really remember why I was so down on the idea to begin with?”
“Oh, that's normal,” Vinyl shrugged, a parping tune blowing out of the tubes running along her spine. “You start off not sure about it, then by the time you've listened to it enough times you really accept just how good it is! It's a simple process but an important one, and it's why this kind of music is always best to play even if the one you're playing it to isn't sure at first – they'll get to appreciate it!”
Cadence frowned for a moment, wondering how much sense that made, then the plaid in her eyes and the tune in her ears soothed her worries away.
It all made perfect sense…
“So I should show others how good the music is!” she decided, feeling like it was an idea she'd come up with all by herself. “I bet they'd enjoy it if they listened to it enough!”
She frowned. “Oh, but how do I do that? Are you going to be doing another performance?”
Octavia gave a thoughtful sigh, leaning back against her tail. “Ah, no further performances from us, I'm afraid. At least, not until we've spoken with our conductor to help gather up the other players. But I'm sure you can do it yourself, you've proven yourself quite a capable piper!” She said excitedly. She took a deep breath, her belly puffing out before she squeezed down and blew her cheeks out. From the tip of her tail ballooned a purple, lavender, and gold plaid mass of fabric, which muffled her music ever so slightly. Vinyl took a hold of a pipe on the mass, tugging and pulling before the mass popped free, causing her to flop backwards with a laugh and a paarp!
She sat back up and presented a large set of bagpipes to Cadence. The colors matched her mane, and she took the instrument excitedly, looking it over. “Oh my, I don't know what to say! This is quite a gift, you really needn't do all this for me.”
Vinyl laughed. “Ha! Come on, you said you wanted to spread the music, didn't you? Well, this is just the way to do it! Start playing your bagpiaper, and everyone will flock to hear it!” She leaned forward, giving a sly wink. “I bet there's a certain stallion you'd like to share it with too.”
Cadence blushed, squeezing the bagpiaper to her chest with a wheeze. “Shining would just adore your songs, I'm sure of it! Are you absolutely certain you can't perform for him?”
Octavia and Vinyl looked to each other, smirking just a bit. “Well... I suppose we could at least stick by, for moral support.” Octavia snickered. “But, trust me, with you playing, he's sure to fall in love with the songs all the more!”
“Could you?” Cadence asked, sounding relieved. “I'd love to be able to have some support, and, well… I'm not sure how good I'll be?”
“I'm sure you'll be great!” Vinyl assured her. “But if you really want to be sure, then we'll come along to give you tips if you have any trouble!”
She bounced up and down, blowing a blast of music on her pipes, and most of Cadence' worries dissolved into musical confusion.
“Let's head on over there right now!” Octavia suggested. “You should go first, Cady!”
The door swung open, and Cadence began to trot out – only for Octavia to blow a warning note, making her stop in her tracks.
“Huh?” Cadence asked, confused. “W-was there something I got wrong?”
“Sure there was!” Vinyl agreed. “You should be bouncing along, it's faster and more fun and it gives you practice as well! That's the best way to get around with a bagpiaper!”
“Oh, right!” Cadence realized, and shuffled the bagpiaper about a bit before jumping on it and starting to bounce. It made a parp-parp-parp sound, and after a bit of experimenting – and instructed a little by the music in her ears – Cadence began to bounce along through the corridors of the palace with the bagpipe dragons lolloping along behind her – bouncing themselves to add extra sound to the music, keeping it loud enough that it was a continuous blanket around Cadence and keeping her happy and head-rush-y from all the bagpiaper tones echoing from the walls.
Cadence bounced happily down the hallway, her familiarity with the castle allowing her to focus instead on the complexities of the music. She grinned as her rump sank into the bouncy air-filled fabric of the bagpiaper, cradling it comfortably with each landing. Despite her eagerness to show off the music to Shining, Cadence couldn't help but take the scenic route back to her chambers with just how much fun she was having bouncing up and down and up and down!
As she made her way down the halls, any guards she passed didn't seem to pay her any mind. She received a few quizzical looks, but none of them seemed too bothered by the sight. A few even hummed along to the song as the trio passed, swaying their steps in time with the songs.
After some time she was bouncing up to Shining's office door, but as she made to get back to her hooves, the feeling of the bagpiaper around her rump didn't leave. She looked over her shoulder, blushing a bit as she found the instrument now strapped to her rump like an overinflated plaid diaper.
Over her bagpiaper she could see Vinyl and Octavia coming to a halt, or, rather, as much of a halt as a pair of enthusiastic bagpipe dragons could come to as they continue to bounce up and down. Cadence peered through the keyhole, a grin spreading across her face as he saw Shining hard at work inside. She bounced eagerly on her hooves, her rump bobbing up and down as she tried to think of the best way to make her entrance.
She giggled, her horn alighting as a soft glow enveloped her. She crept slowly into the room, forcing herself not to squeeze her bagpiaper with her hind legs as she sneaked up behind Shining. She got up on to her hind hooves, placing her fore ones over Shining's eyes as she let out a playful “Guess whooo~”
“H-hey!” Shining laughed. “C-Cady!”
He shook his head a little, not enough to knock her hooves from his eyes. “That's not – hey! I'm working here, dear… I'm trying to work out the guard schedule.”
“That sounds boring,” Cadence replied. “Are you sure you can't leave it to somepony else? It can't take that long to explain to somepony like Sunburst, can it?”
“Well, he's got the smarts for it, maybe, but he's not got the training,” Shining replied, reaching up and pushing Cadence's hooves away. “I know this whole situation with whatever's going on at Canterlot is a problem, dear, but I do need to do this… it's the best way to make sure we're safe, at least until this problem either gets sorted out by Twilight or goes away by itself.”
His voice turned considering. “Though I guess maybe I could spend some time on… break?”
“You could?” Cadence asked, as her husband's voice trailed off. “Whatever do you mean? I thought you were just explaining how a firm soldier like yourself had no time to spare?”
“...Cady?” Shining asked, a little amazed. “What's that you're wearing?”
“Oh, this?” Cadence asked. “It's my bagpiaper, why?”
She giggled. “I know it's a bit strange, but I think it really works!”
Shining tried to think of a protest, but too many came to mind that he wasn't able to choose one. His shocked mind eventually ground back into gear and he finally settled on a “...what?”
“My bagpiaper, silly! It's puffy and comfy and makes wonderful music!” She promptly sat down, a rush of air blaring from her bagpiaper to produce a twitter of notes.
Shining's addled mind became just a bit more addled, but despite this he suddenly snapped to attention when he realized just what was wrapped around his wife's rump. He got out of his chair, hurrying over to her. “Cadence, we need to get you out of that thing now!” He searched for some way to remove the bagpiaper, some tapes or clasps or other means of securing it.
His hooves ran across her bagpiaper as he searched, which only made Cadence giggle. “Shining, if you were so eager to get closer, you could have just said so!” She wiggled her rump, letting out a few arpeggios.
Shining stumbled backwards as the received a face full of music. What was it he had been so worried about, again? Something about... Cadence and her bagpiaper... He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, only to see Cadence bouncing up and down in place, pressing her hooves into her plaid diaper to create a melody. “See, Shining, isn't this fun?”
“No, this isn't fun,” Shining replied, as sternly as he could – distracted more than a little by his wife, and by the music she was playing as well. “This is – this is dangerous! Don't you remember those stories we were hearing?”
He stamped a hoof on the floor, the clack sound helping his focus – a little. “This has to be some kind of plot!”
“Of course it's a plot!” Cadence interrupted him, bouncing again, then waving her plaid-covered rump around to show it off. “You could have a closer look if you want to be sure, though~!”
“Cadence, don't – can't you stand still so I can get that off?” the stallion pleaded.
“But why do you want me to take it off?” Cadence asked. “It's such a fun instrument – it plays all kinds of tunes! I bet you'd look great in one too!”
Shining shook his head. “No way!”
His firmness was shaken slightly by another bouncing round of parping as Cadence demonstrated a one-two-three buildup to a loud blast of music – the tune loud enough that it made Shining stagger on his hooves a little, dizzy enough to almost fall over.
“Aww, you're being no fun,” Cadence pouted. “Are you sure you're not going to be drawn into having a fun time?”
She winked. “I bet we could enjoy making music together...”
Shining blinked, then shook his head. “I – no, this is making me feel strange… I need to stay focused on what's important...”
Well, what could be more important than your wife?” Cadence replied, trotting backwards so her bagpiaper pressed into his chest. Her tail flicked back and forth to tickle his nose Shining tried to back up, but was pressed up against the wall by Cadence. She leaned backwards, compressing her bagpiaper into Shining and giving him another blast of music. Her mouth curled into a wobbly smile as she pulled back, only to compress Shining once again.
Shining let out a few whimpers, trying to push Cadence away, which only succeeded in adding to her song as he squished her diaper. He managed to pull himself together enough for his horn to flare as he suddenly conjured up a shield, pushing Cadence away to send her bouncing across the floor on her rump.
She flopped to the ground, taking a moment to laugh before she got back to her hooves, which now could only just barely reach the ground around her swollen padding. She looked over her shoulder, batting her eyelids. “Oh, come on, Shiny. I know how much you love my flanks, and now there's more cushion for them.” She giggled again, Shining's face turning a bright red.
“I, um – look-” Shining began, stuttering a little. “Cadence, I know you're feeling odd, because of whatever's going on-”
“I'm not feeling odd, I'm feeling fantastic!” Cadence interrupted. “And you'd feel just the same if you gave it a go...”
She winked at him. “Come on… for me?”
Shining wavered for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I can't...”
“Aww...” Cadence sighed, wiggling her rump and making it play a series of notes. “Sure? What's wrong with just giving it a try?”
She shook her bagpiaper back and forth, and up and down, each wiggle making the fabric compress in a different way – the lines of the plaid cross-hatching compressing together and moving apart in odd, entrancing patterns, drawing Shining's eye as he kept his shield up and sapping his concentration.
The music it played was distracting as well, simply because of how well performed it was – like Cadence was understanding the instrument on a deep, instinctive level, exactly how to use it to make appealing sounds which kept his focus drifting off into wiggles and parps. Even focusing on how deeply wrong that level of musical expertise coming about in the space of a morning had to be didn't help, and Shining's shield stuttered a little before firming up again as he did his best to ignore the distraction.
“Remember when you said you'd never be caught dead at the opera, but now you were just begging me to see Carmare with you? This is just a more personal opera!” Cadence sat back again, sinking as far down into her plaid padding as she could to produce a prolonged note to make Shining's mind fill with a bouncy, fuzzy sensation. Shining closed his eyes as he tried to block the music out and remember what was happening. Cadence was clearly not thinking straight, she wasn't really enjoying that thick, puffy, plaid set of pampers. The way she bounced up and down, wobbling back and forth and playing a bouncy, silly tune...
Shining opened his eyes to see Cadence leaning up against his shield, lowering her eyelids and staring her husband down. “Pleeeaaase Shining. You just need to try it, and if you don't like it, I'll drop the whole thing!” For emphasis, she dropped to her rump and parped once again.
And at that, Shining's shield flickered once again, and Cadence took that opportunity to pounce upon him. He tried to put his shield back up, but by the time he had, Cadence was now smothering him under her bagpiaper inside his bubble of magic.
“C-Cadence, plea-!” His cries were muffled as her padding swelled, filling his vision with the plaid pattern.
“Please?” Cadence filled in. “Please what?”
She wiggled her rump, producing another tune of squeaky parp noises, and giggled. “Well, whatever it was can't be all that important compared to enjoying yourself by listening to my music, can it?”
Shining tried to push the bagpiaper away, but just ended up putting more pressure on it and blowing out more music. That made his strength waver, and the parping note got a bit quieter – so his strength returned a little and he could push harder again.
The wobbly cycle repeated itself four times, a parp-oom-parp-oom-parp sound echoing out into the room, and Shining eventually recovered enough sense to stop pushing and doing Cadence' job of making music for her.
“Oh, Shiny, why did you stop?” Cadence asked, bouncing a little to make the plaid pattern of her bagpiaper sway back and forth. “You seemed to be enjoying yourself so much helping me make music~! Why, I bet you'd love it if you tried a bagpiaper of your own!”
She giggled. “Or was that what you were asking earlier? Did you perhaps want to give it a go? That sounds wonderful, I knew you'd come around eventually!”
With a powerful shove, Shining pushed hard enough that he could speak – though there was a continuous wailing note coming out of the bagpiaper the whole time, tugging at his attention and distracting his thoughts. “I don't want to give it a go because I don't want this at all! All this hypnotic music, these odd thoughts, they're doing things to you...”
“But I haven't mentioned any odd thoughts, Shiny!” Cadence pointed out. “Does that mean you're having odd thoughts?”
She gasped, wiggling her rump again for good measure. “What a scandal!”
Shining's face burned a deeper red, pressing deeper into her padding once again. “C-Cadence, you know that's not what I meant!” He protested, but the more she bounced in place and continued her song, the more Shining found his mind drifting to those odd thoughts. He thought about what it would be like to have a swollen plaid bagpiaper too. Cadence seemed to be having so much fun with hers, maybe he wouldn't mind joining in with his own music. Cadence rolled forward, and Shining lost his strength as her inflated padding smothered him once again. He stared into her rump, the lines of her diaper folding and creasing around his muzzle.
As he stared, he thought he heard Cadence's music change a bit. Somehow becoming just a bit more... complex? He wasn't entirely sure, but it was rather pleasant the more he listened to it. He grinned, imagining Cadence's diaper swelling bigger, the music growing louder and her hooves being swallowed up by the purple and gold padding.
It was at that time that he noticed he could feel her padding growing, and something else poking at his horn. Cadence leaned forward, allowing Shining to see around the curve of her diaper, but the sight only left him more shocked. Cadence's tail was now wrapped up in the same plaid material as her bagpiaper, and her hind legs looked suspiciously wooden and clawed.
The sight was odd enough that he managed to regain some of his concentration, and he closed his eyes to focus for a moment. “Cadence!”
“What?” Cadence asked, then sighed. “Oh, and you were enjoying yourself so much~! What went wrong now?”
“Your tail!” Shining replied, pointing. “And your legs! They're – that's new!”
“That's just part of the instrument, silly,” Cadence told him, the music flowing through and around her making it so she didn't have any reason to question the explanations she was giving. “You need the tail to play the long notes, of course!”
Demonstrating, she squished her padding down again, and a whole glissando of notes pulsed out – ending with a special extra-long note from the wooden tube at the end of her tail, which echoed in the air and made Shining's head swim for a moment.
“N-no, this isn't riiight,” he moaned, blushing. “I need to stop thinking like thiis… I need to-”
“-stop thinking?” Cadence suggested, finding the idea very funny, and giggling. “That sounds like a great idea! All those silly thoughts, they're more trouble than they're worth if you ask me! Why think when you can just get involved in music, join in the rhythm of the beat?”
She punctuated the last words with several bounces one after another, notes filling the air, and Shining almost thought he could see them flowing through her bagpiaper and being shot out of the tubes along her tail and her lower back – though they dissolved a moment later, leaving him to wonder if he'd imagined them.
Cadence shifted left and right in the bubble, her hind legs pressing against the inside wall of the shield as she continued to fill it. She was slowly running out of room, feeling Shining's horn poking into her plaid rump as it grew. Cadence paused just for a moment, wondering if she had thought that properly. She thought she had been wearing a bagpiaper, but she was certain she could feel Shining's horn pressing into her rump. She squeezed her plaid belly with her legs and let out more music, and she decided that, yes, it was her rump, and it was her belly she was squeezing. It just made sense after all, despite what she had just told Shining.
As she played, there was a sudden knock on the door, and she looked over, peering through the glimmering magic. She could just barely make out Sunburst stepping into the room, his muzzle buried in several notes and books. “Alright, Shining, I think I've got everypony's schedule requests and...” His voice died in his throat as he looked up to see Cadence with her plaid rump in a bubble, with Shining's hooves just barely visible pressing up against it.
Before he could speak up, there was a sudden blare of music as Sunburst was tackled to the ground amid a myriad of giggles and notes.
“Hold up there! You were too busy looking at your notes to listen to ours!” Vinyl said as she tumbled across the floor with Sunburst. Octavia was filling the doorway, squeezing her way inside.
“Oh, Cadence! It's so good to see Shining taking a liking to the music already! Don't mind us, we'll take care of this little distraction, you just keep having your fun.” She grinned and bounced over to Vinyl, joining in and filling the room with more music.
“Sunburst!” Shining mumbled, trying to speak past the bulk of the diaper in front of him. “Get mfff!”
His push made a rush of air flow though Cadence, and a parp and a toot pulsed out.
“I don't think he can hear you,” Cadence giggled. “There's quite a lot of dragon on top of him, after all… but there's quite a lot of me on top of you!”
She bounced and played, her whole body resonating with the notes, and Shining's horn resonated as well as the fabric pulsed with music in front of him… making him feel odd, a little dizzy, and making his mind wander before he pulled it back on track.
“I bet it's so hard to concentrate on that silly shield,” Cadence added. “Especially since it doesn't really have a point, does it? And come to think of it, I do like your shields but they're sometimes a bit boringly patterned...”
Shining tried again to push his wife off, but every time he did he just made the music louder.
At the same time, Sunburst got to his hooves with a gasp and a flash of magic.
“This is – this has to be that corruption that was hitting Canterlot!” he said, stammering a bit as he tried not to be distracted by Vinyl and Octavia – both bagpipe-dragons bouncing around on all fours, moving from side to side a little as they continued playing their music and their tails weaving like charmed snakes.
“Well, corruption is a bit of a silly word for it,” Octavia said. “Isn't it? It sounds very scary.”
“But there's nothing not to enjoy about a fun little plaid pipe performance!” Vinyl agreed. “Why not have a parp-along? Or perhaps fun-ifying?”
Sunburst couldn't help but follow the pair's tails as they wound they way around each other before uncoiling and swaying to catch his attention. He watched as they twisted together once again, only to pull back, with the tip of the fabric tied up in a knot. The tails stretched and stretched, moving closer to Sunburst as he bent backwards to watch it pass over him, only to stop. He scratched his head, sure that there was something that was going to happen as the tails stretched, only for his mind to snap to clarity just as the tails snapped back. He was suddenly squished between two very round bagpipe rumps, who promptly began to rub up and down against each other. Sunburst squirmed as he felt the air rush out of him... and rush out of him... and rush out of him! He tried to conjure a spell, but his flattening body could do little more than flutter slightly as he was squished into a thin pancake of a pony.
Shining was spared the sight of the intense smushing, but only because he was experiencing one of his own. His eyes spun and swirled as he tried to maintain his concentration on the shield, but the more Cadence bounced on top of him, the more he found himself admiring the pattern of her diaper, and the soft feeling of the air-filled fabric as it swelled and deflated on top of him. Cadence giggled as Shining's shield shimmered, glittering and turning from a cobalt blue to a bright white, crisscrossed with cobalt and navy blue stripes to form a pattern all too familiar to the plaid-minded princess. She buried her muzzle into the puffy fabric which now wrapped around her neck like a collar, her forelegs slowly being swallowed up in sleeves of bagpipe material to better allow her to squeeze and squish her form.
“I, h-huh, w-whaaa,” Sunburst wheezed as he reinflated. “How did that even happen?”
He frowned, distracted slightly from the situation. “Maybe some kind of magical field? Sort of like Discord uses, or like we assume Discord uses… a modified form of Clover's Synchronization of the-”
A loud oom-pa-paaarp aimed directly at his muzzle distracted him from his contemplations, as Octavia waggled her rump at him threateningly.
“Don't be sensible!” she admonished him. “Not everything has to make sense so long as it's fun! And if it's fun, what's the problem anyway – just enjoy it, that's my advice!”
“She's right!” Vinyl agreed. “And if you're still trying to work out what's going on, then maybe you just need another squeeze!”
“No, I don't need another squeeze,” Sunburst protested. “I – wait, there's this – hey!”
He trotted to the side as the two dragons began to pull apart again, winding up their spring-loaded squishiness. “Stop that!”
Octavia jumped, losing all grip on the ground, and bounced back towards Vinyl. The two contacted one another with a sudden burst of music, blowing notes of confusing cacophany into the air, and Vinyl bounced away – shooting right past the startled Starburst, before being pulled right back towards him to squish him between the two musical dragons all over again.
The resounding impact sounded a bit like someone had dropped a set of bagpipes tied to a rock from the top of Canterlot tower, and left Sunburst only a few millimeters thick as Vinyl and Octavia's rumps compressed against each other, the duo sinking into their plaid fabric before rebounding once again as Sunburst popped back to normalcy. He stumbled left and right, his mind swirling with various thoughts as he tried to piece together what had just happened.
“Aaah, ok, so they don't like sensibility. Perhaps this is a new type of draconequi? But, er, why the music?” He pondered, only to have Vinyl roll her eyes as she looped a tail around his waist while he was distracted. With a creak, she tossed him into the air, bouncing Sunburst back and forth to Octavia with her rear as he received a face full of music with each landing.
Cadence's head bounced against the top of Shining's plaid shield, causing her to rub the tender area with her claws. “Oh, Shining, you wouldn't mind giving me a bit more room, would you? It's so hard to bounce when this shield is so small!” She requested.
Shining gave a muffled response, his horn glowing as his shield glittered brighter. Rather than grow larger, however, the shield suddenly constricted, pressing the duo tighter together. Cadence let out a gasp of surprise as she was now filling the orb entirely, pressing her plaid body against the interior and stretching it like a particularly sturdy soap bubble.
Shining's hooves were rubbing along Cadence's curvy, bloated rear, his eyes shimmering and swirling a myriad of colors as he held his dear princess closely. Whatever it was that had been stopping him before, it seemed like such a silly thing when he could be curled up to his creaky, cushy wife, and wondering if he could be just as puffy too.
“Ooh, well, Shiny!” Cadence giggled. “I know this isn't what I asked for, but this could work well too!”
She huffed sharply, bouncing off the bottom of the shield, and carried the whole bubble with her – letting her bounce in the shield bubble as it became more and more plaid. Her movement made it move around as well, the lines of the plaid shifting in front of her and Shining and distracting their eyes to keep Cadence giggly and Shining confused.
Again and again, those tempting thoughts flowed through Shining's mind – pointing out with every parp that he could be just like Cadence, soft and puffy and musically talented, too!
He began to hum along with the musical puffing and parping that his wife was producing, the pressure ensuring he was sinking further and further into the plaid material, and a musical beat filled his mind…
...until suddenly he found himself landing on the floor as his shield burst with a bang. Bits went everywhere, then swirled together, and by the time Shining had got his bearings they had all vanished… or so he thought.
“Oh, wonderful!” Cadence giggled. “Look, Shiny, you're wearing a lovely new bagpiaper! I told you they were good!”
Shining looked down at his waist, sprawled as he was on the floor, and did a double-take as he saw a white-and-blue bagpiaper there – shimmering slightly with the material of his shield it had been made out of.
Then he did a double-take, looking back up at Cadence – now almost completely changed in appearance to look like the bagpipe dragons bouncing Sunburst between their poofy rumps at the other side of the room.
“Now we can learn to play them better together!” Cadence added. “Doesn't that sound fun?”
Shining stared up at Cadence, watching her rock back and forth, letting out wheezes with each wide sway. A smile crept across his face, and he found himself reaching out, trying to rock back onto his rump as he nodded excitedly. Cadence's grin grew wider as she lowered her tail down to Shining for him to grab onto. He clutched to the wood as he was lifted to his rump, then to his hooves, then up into the air! He dangled above the ground while Cadence bounced eagerly on her heels, squeezing his diaper between his legs.
Cadence giggled, flicking her tail back and forth. “Well, that's one part, Shiny! But you have to learn the most important part first: How to bounce!” She raised her tail up just a bit more before flicking it downwards. The sudden momentum caused Shining to lose his grip as he fell to the ground. With a loud paarp, he bounced off the floor as his flanks sank into the puffy fabric of his diaper, the pipes on the rump wailing out yet another part to the song that Cadence, Octavia, and Vinyl were already playing. His bagpiaper swelled up as it sucked in air and he rebounded back upwards.
“Having fun yet, Sunburst?” Octavia asked, catching the stallion, only to toss him into the air before smacking him with her tail back to Vinyl.
Any response couldn't be heard over the sound of bagpipes playing, but even if they had heard it, they likely wouldn't have bothered to listen when Sunburst was rattling on about semitones and the circle of 5ths. “I don't think we're getting to him very fast, Tavi!” Vinyl cried out, bouncing into the air so Sunburst flew straight into her gut. The pattern on her belly distorted before she took a gulp of air, bouncing him back towards Octavia.
“Well, you know what they say about drastic time-signatures!” Octavia responded, backing up as Sunburst arced in the air above her. She flopped back onto her tail, bouncing up and down, gaining height with each push as Sunburst reached the peak of his flight, hovering just above Octavia. She opened her maw, and with a final bounce, she flew upwards, and Sunburst had just enough time to let out a squeak of fright before her jaws snapped shut. Octavia dove downwards with the stallion in her mouth, down towards where Vinyl was waiting below with her mouth agape and an awaiting empty belly.
With a squoomph, Octavia landed in Vinyl's draconic maw – but she didn't manage to get all the way in, her head and shoulders easily passing through the oddly large mouth but her big rump and spines all getting stuck.
“W-whaaa!?” Sunburst asked, completely out of his depth and completely surrounded by bagpipe dragon. “What's-”
A blast of music drowned him out as Vinyl began bouncing, trying to jolt Octavia down into her big plaid-patterned belly, and Octavia wiggled her legs and tail to help out – resulting in musical notes and a gradually descending scale as she slowly made her way inside.
When only Octavia's plaid puffiness and her tuneful tail stuck out, Vinyl gave her one last big shove and Octavia went pop-parp! Right into Vinyl's puffy belly.
Inside, Octavia landed on a springy cushy bouncy surface which rippled with slow, languid 'waves' as she bounced to a halt. She wiggled around, finding the result very comfortable, and admired how much space there was.
Then she blew a loud, pure note, and Sunburst came right back out of her maw again.
“There we go!” the bagpipe dragon announced. “Now we've slipped into someone more comfortable-”
“This is – inside!” Sunburst realized, trying to stand up and stumbling backwards to sit back down awkwardly again. His second attempt didn't go much better as a ripple tripped him up, and he shook his head. “She must be bigger on the inside!”
“I'm sure she'd love that compliment!” Octavia giggled.
There was a surge of music, echoing from every angle around the pair as the walls and floor bulged inwards and bumped the duo into the air. The music faded and the walls returned to their original cushy shape, Sunburst falling back into the floor of Vinyl's belly. He sank deeply into the fabric, watching as Octavia fell down in front of him. She laughed as her wide rump caused Vinyl's belly to ripple, bulging and launching Sunburst back into the air to see her sinking into the plaid material, her arms and legs outstretched to embrace as much of the puffy surface as she could. As they bounced, Octavia began to sing, chasing after Sunburst as he tried to gain a hoofing on the ever-shifting floor, only to continually stumble, roll, and flop about helplessly.
Shining was eagerly bouncing around the floor, grabbing onto his hind hooves as his diaper creaked and squeaked. Cadence was leading him around Vinyl, whose belly had bulged outwards with the newest denizens, leaving her an even more bloated caricature than she had been before.
Vinyl licked her chops as she pressed deeply into her belly to compress the pair inside her. All the while, Shining was far too distracted by his inflating padding to notice they were now one dragon short. He attempted to stand up, only to flop forward and laugh as he realized his bagpiaper had grown too large for his legs to even reach the floor!
It rumbled and quivered with the song as his legs kicked in an attempt to right himself again. He was left struggling for so long Cadence made a full rotation around Vinyl, finding Shining's rump presented to her. “Oh, Shining, you really need to stop worrying about using your hooves like that!” She rolled forwards onto her belly so she could reach a claw forward and playfully press it down into his rump. “Just think about those bagpiapers swelling... bloating... inflating...”
With every word she pressed her claw deeper, squishing Shining's diaper into his rear tighter and tighter to make his face burn a bright red. His mind filled with thoughts of his padding matching her descriptions, and his horn glowed, music and magic flowing around, and into, his diaper to make it grow…
Sunburst found himself in a constant cycle of trying to stand up and being tripped, notes blaring with every one of his own hoof-falls and stumbles and face-plants down onto the trembling plaid surface all around him.
“You're still such a silly pony,” Octavia chided, shaking a claw. Then she twisted, flicking her tail up into her jointed hand, and swung it idly as she continued to talk. “You're always too busy trying to get control of a situation… why not just go with the flow? It'll be so much easier, and you might even learn something!”
“I – but you're trying to...” Sunburst began, doing his best to get to all fours again, only to stumble once more and land head-first into Octavia's plaid padding. The material and the air around her thrummed with music, and Sunburst found himself quite unable to think of what it was he was going to say.
“Well, that's a start!” Octavia giggled, bouncing a few times and sending rippling waves of movement through the cross-hatched material around them. Sunburst's attempts to stand up got quickly foiled, twice in a row, and he groaned.
“There has to be some kind of pattern,” the unicorn declared, then jumped in surprise as Octavia landed right in front of him – the bounce nearly launching him into the air.
“Of course there's a pattern!” she told him with a smirk. “This pattern! The pattern of crossed lines going back and forth, surely you've seen it?”
“Well, I didn't really mean that sort of pattern?” Sunburst asked.
“That's a bit dull,” Octavia criticized. “You should be fine with any sort of pattern, especially a pattern which can tell you all about this kind of magic if you're only smart enough to wear it...”
Sunburst felt slightly offended, standing up proudly and puffing his chest out, at least as proudly as he could stand as his hooves wobbled beneath him with every shudder of the floor. “Hey, I'm plenty smart enough!” He objected before he was sent tumbling onto his back again. Octavia laughed, patting her belly to add a 'bwoomp!' as the walls squeezed in tightly from Vinyl hugging herself before everything rooooolled to one side from her rocking back to relax on her thick tails.
“Come now, surely that pattern is interesting enough for you. See how straight lines become alluring curves with the bloat of a butt?” Octavia turned around, shaking her rump left and right for Sunburst to see. “And you know what else curves? Metronomes! They swing back and forth and back and forth to help you keep time, and it's very important to stay in time. Surely that's something you can appreciate?” Octavia smirked, continuing to swing her tail, making sure the pipe at the end aligned with one of the lines across her hide. It followed the curve perfectly, drawing Sunburst's gaze left and right.
“I... well... it is a rather nice match, isn't it?” He said, trying to find similar details. The lines criss-crossing did look at least a little like a musical staff, but more interestingly, was imagining how the pattern could change by contorting the surface. When Octavia's claw pressed into her gut to make it crease, or how her tail bulged with the contained music, requiring her to periodically release it towards Sunburst in a rush. Or how, were it not for the colors, Octavia blended into Vinyl's belly, as if she was really part of the puffy surface all around, able to warp and shift it with her own desires to bounce Sunburst about.
Left and right, left and right, then around and around and around as Octavia spun her tail in a circle. He felt like he was spiralling deeper and deeper in a whirlpool, falling further and further into the creaky surface of Vinyl's gut, imagining himself becoming big and bloated as well, becoming stuck within that pattern like a set of prison bars for Octavia to toy with by plucking the strings of the pattern and watch him bounce around like a pinball…
For a long moment, the sounds that Sunburst was hearing felt like they were filtered through thick cotton, or perhaps deep water. He felt like he was falling, dropping deep down into something or other, then suddenly he landed with a loud twang and a distant parping sound.
Taking a deep breath and gasping, though he wasn't sure why, Sunburst looked around – finding himself to be standing on a ribbon of deep, rich blue twice as wide as he was long. There were other ribbons of paler blue either side of it, perhaps a little narrower, and in the distance there were more sets of ribbons – some in the distance either high above him or far below him but parallel to the one he was standing on, and others which were at right-angles.
Everything below him was white, a puffy white which stretched away into the distance, and overhead he could see… something? A grey shape moving, which looked a lot like the drake he'd met before…
Sunburst shook his head, suddenly realizing the perspective. He was standing on one of the plaid lines of Vinyl's belly, and that was Octavia overhead!
He decided he must have somehow fallen in, and tried to jump back out, but all he managed to do was to make the ribbon bounce and vibrate again like it was part of a gigantic stringed instrument. His second bounce took him a bit higher, but not high enough, and the sound was a lot louder that time so he stopped and tried to work out what to do.
Maybe he wasn't high enough up? There were a lot of those ribbon lines which were higher than he was now, closer to the 'surface'.
He followed the ribbon he was standing on towards one of the perpendicular ribbons, hoping that perhaps the wall would help him reach the next highest level. The way vinyl's belly folded around itself, aided by the weight of Octavia, made it so the parallel line above him was slightly closer than it was in the middle. He gave another testing bounce, the same strange twang resonating through the air (if Sunburst could call it air, it was technically fabric he was in) as he slowly gained height. The music was growing louder with each bounce, and Sunburst tried to ignore it by calculating just what kind of angle he would have to jump at to reach the next level. This helped, if only a little, and his forehooves waved as he scrabbled to reach it. One more fall down, sinking into the ribbon like a particularly silky trampoline, and he rebounded, overshooting the ribbon just a bit, which allowed him to grab onto it.
He became tangled in the ribbon momentarily as he was met with a sensation not too dissimilar to trying to leap into a hammock from several feet away, but he quickly righted himself and was standing just a big closer to the “surface” of Vinyl.
He started to bounce again, the next level a tad higher than the previous one. He was bouncing up, up, up, but no matter how high he climbed, he couldn't quite reach it! It didn't help that he wasn't even entirely sure this pathway lead upwards... or downwards... or sideways? He shook his head, trying to think about how Vinyl's gut would bend to accommodate Octavia. The fat gray drake flopped down and shook Sunburst's world as it warped and contorted, which simply made her grin and giggle with delight as she watched him try to find his way out.
Sunburst jumped from place to place as best he could, trying to follow the confusing maze of ribbon-strings up and down and left and right and follow it higher and closer to the surface. At one point he accidentally bumped into the base of a ribbon and found the whole rest of the world flipped around so he could see a white sky overhead and a grinning Octavia below.
When he jumped to try and fall out, though, the world flipped over again and he found himself plummeting five levels down to land on a particularly taut ribbon and send a creaking, twanging puff through the entire area! It distorted all the other latticed ribbons, making everything shift confusingly, and when he finally landed properly after four more bounces Sunburst realized he'd lost track of where Octavia was – the big grey drake having vanished completely from the view of Vinyl's belly overhead.
“Having trouble with finding your way?” Octavia called, and Sunburst span around to see Octavia was bouncing gently on the ribbon one to the left of where he was.
“Well, it's – it's very confusing!” Sunburst protested weakly. “And I've tried to keep track, but things keep changing!”
“That's your problem, then, you're trying to keep track!” Octavia said, giggling. “You need to learn the ropes – or the strings, perhaps!”
Sunburst furrowed his brow, “I thought you wanted us to use those bagpiapers of yours.”
Octavia chuckled, poking at Sunburst's pattern and pushing him through another ribbon. “Well, of course, those are the best instruments, obviously! But getting a feel for the strings helps too!” Sunburst tumbled backwards, bouncing off a few more ribbons until he found himself flopping just below Octavia, whose overblown gut was causing the ribbons around her to bend downwards, blocking Sunburst from making any forward progress. “I could help you out, if you'd like.” Octavia grinned, squeezing her form to add some wheezing paarps to the twangs of her bouncing. Sunburst's mind went a little fuzzy again, which wasn't helped at all when he made a desperate leap for freedom, only to bounce off a wall and go skipping across a ribbon like a stone before sliiiiiiiding to a stop below Octavia again. He looked up at her, feeling every soft shift and bounce of her puffy rump making the ribbon he was on shake and bounce him softly.
It was oddly comforting, and Sunburst couldn't help but mutter a soft “...well, alright...”. After all, she was a big puffy bagpipe dragon already, surely she would know how to best maneuver this strange landscape and pull him free.
“Wonderful!” Octavia said, bouncing excitedly and clapping her hands together. She jumped into the air before rolling forward to land back on her belly, Vinyl's gut shifting all around her as the air rushed in and out of various parts. Sunburst was now staring directly into the giant dragon's grinning face as her tail flicked over her head. The rope tying the cloth to the pipe on her tail began to lengthen, growing slowly longer and snaking its way down to him.
Sunburst's mind ground back into gear, but by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late to stop it. The rope unfurled itself slightly, tying itself around each of his hooves and pulling him up to a standing position like a puppet.
“Whaa?” Sunburst asked, as his hooves moved without his input. “What's going on?”
“Well, what better way to learn than by doing?” Octavia asked. She began to blow a jolly tune on her pipes, parping up and down the scale, and Sunburst did a little jig – spluttering protests about how silly this all was.
“Of course it is!” Octavia told him, still using her rope to make Sunburst prance back and forth. “That's the point! You need to get used to how to move and stop thinking about what you're doing – just think about where you need to go, and go there! Watch, I'll show you!”
She bounced again, sending ripples through the fabric around them, and the ribbons shifted position – some going up, others going down, until they were in a whole new arrangement.
“To go over there, you just do this!” the drake explained, and began to lift Sunburst up before bringing him down again – building up a stronger and stronger bounce with each lift-and-drop.
Sunburst did his best to wriggle free, not liking where this was going at all and feeling very overbalanced with only his hind legs down to stand on, but his best efforts managed nothing.
Sunburst was bounced higher... and higher... and higher! He tried to cover his eyes with his hooves as he stared at the creaky white expanse below him, but they were too being pulled up and over his head, giving the impression he was performing a pirouetting leap. Which, he supposed, he was. He landed once again, but rather than simply being lifted upwards, he suddenly felt himself being flung forwards. He pressed into one of the ribbons standing perpendicularly to the one he had been bouncing on, which bent before sending him backwards with a harmonious pluck. He bounced off another ribbon, his hooves reaching out for one of the thinner ones against his will, which sent the world spinning around him as he twirled around the ribbon like a pole.
He was forced to let go, bouncing once again along another before he slid down a ribbon like a long slide, one which seemed to spiral with the strange way two swollen curves of Vinyl's belly pressed tightly together. With a final bounce, he found himself standing just where Octavia had pointed out. He posed dramatically, Octavia clapping politely as Sunburst couldn't help but marvel. He still wasn't really sure quite how but... he had ended up closer to the surface again. Perhaps he could try it himself?
Octavia helped bounce him again, but this time Sunburst had a bit more control of his own, only needing the occasional tug to pull him back on course as he ricocheted around the satin surface like a peculiar pinball. He laughed, finding this far more fun than he initially imagined, bouncing in every which direction as he embraced the ribbons and got tangled up in them, only for them to straighten themselves out and send him flying off again!
Sunburst had no idea quite how long he bounced around from ribbon to ribbon inside the strange fabric maze. Several times it felt like he was starting to get a hang of how it was all laid out, but the moment he thought about it too much it all seemed to just get complicated and confusing again and he completely lost track.
Eventually, though, he started to get how to navigate around – which was, ironically, to entirely forget about needing to navigate around and instead focus on where he wanted to go. It sounded like a really simple and even silly idea, but as soon as he started thinking about what he wanted and letting the details take care of themselves he slowly but steadily began to rise.
There were still bounces which sent him back down, parps echoing all around him, but eventually he came bursting out of the surreal fabric-maze and landed with a bounce and a ripple on the inside of Vinyl's clothy belly.
“I'm out!” he said, then blushed. “Or, a bit out… now, how do I...”
He looked around and especially behind him to try and see where Octavia was, then did a double-take and blushed all the harder.
There was a crinkly, puffy bagpipe-diaper wrapped around his hips as well now, and he couldn't remember getting it – but, then again, it had been so complicated that he might have been wearing one for ten minutes and not have noticed.
His horn lit as he tried to analyze it. “Hmm, maybe when I came out of the fabric-”
“What did I tell you about thinking too hard?” Octavia asked, from right where he'd been looking ten seconds ago.
Sunburst blushed as Octavia popped her head up from behind the curve of his padding, somehow hiding most of her bulk behind it, which only made the thick bagpiaper look even bigger. She patted Sunburt's rump, sending him stumbling forward as she seemed to inflate free to fill Vinyl's belly once again. “You don't need to think about anything, you just need to relax and listen to the song! It's such a lovely piece too, you'll never grow tired of it.” She grinned before sitting down with a 'flump', squeezing her own gut as she played a tune.
Sunburst's legs grew wobbly from both the bucking of the plaid floor and the music flowing in one ear and out another. He fell onto his own rump, the bagpiaper paarping as he landed. He wobbled on top of the crinkly fluff as he tried to keep his balance and avoid falling onto his back once again. Octavia had no such qualms, and happily rolled backwards and spread her arms, as if making a snow angel in Vinyl's fabric.
As Sunburst wobbled, he was able to maintain just enough concentration to realize there was... something about the music that was muddling his mind. He really should have realized before, and some part of him was sure that he had, but he just kept forgetting it because of that music! But if the music was able to do all this to him, then maybe...
He looked down at his padding, rocking back and forth atop it as his horn glowed softly. Slowly, ever so subtly, his bagpiaper began to change, the pipes vibrating softly as the fabric became especially silky and smooth. He started to bounce, and the bagpiaper made a strange sound, one that made Octavia pause in her playing. The music Sunburst was making was quite different... intriguing... she couldn't help but listen as he played.
As he captured Octavia's attention, Sunburst was sure it was working! His own music could take over hers! As he played, though, he failed to notice his bagpiaper swelling once again, rubbing him and encouraging him to press his hooves into it.
The orange-and-red bagpiaper creaked as it played Starburst's music, the notes of his own special song reaching out into the cavernous space and making it ripple slightly in time, and Sunburst reached up with a hoof to adjust his glasses slightly.
It looked like it was going well… he could hear more of the music he was playing than the music that Octavia had been producing, and on top of that he could also see Octavia slowing down… starting to sway a little from side to side, moving to the tune of his music rather than her own.
Simply to play the countersong meant he had to focus almost the whole of his attention on the music, both on hers and on his, and as Sunburst's bagpiaper grew and grew so he had to rock back and forth on it to play it… he didn't notice that he was swaying from side to side as well, falling into his own trap just as much as he was entrancing Octavia.
Or perhaps they were both falling into another trap altogether, the rippling of the fabric ground weaving in Vinyl's tune to both of their musical approaches.
The three songs continued to swirl through the air, becoming slowly intertwined like a tangle of plaid dragon's tails twisting into tight knots. Sunburst's hind legs squeezed together as they were slowly consumed by the ballooning, silky fabric. He couldn't help by smile as he listened to the collaborative song, each part seeming to mix and match absolutely wonderfully, and yet standing out just enough that he could focus on whichever part he wanted!
As he focused, Sunburst's rocking quickly turned into bouncing, lifting him up into the air before he came back down to sink into the cushy floor, only to rebound back up once again! He laughed as his tail was slowly wrapped up in plaid pattern. He flipped the snake-like tail around his rump to press his diaper tightly before falling back down, so the next surge of notes was all the louder.
Octavia followed Sunburst as he bounced around inside, transfixed by his growing bagpiaper. She hadn't had this much fun with one since she'd become a big cushy bagpipe herself! She slipped her tail under Sunburst as he bounced into the air so he landed back down atop it. She then flicked him up into the air, juggling him with several blasts of air from the pipes on her back to keep him rolling and tumbling around. Sunburst giggled, squeezing his bagpiaper as he slid down Octavia's back like a slide, only for her to loop her tail up to send him into the air. He hung at the peak of his arc for just a moment before diving back downwards, landing head first into her tail pipe.
Octavia grinned, puffing her cheeks up as she played, air rushing down her pipes in a descending scale before they reached her tail. With nowhere else to go, the air flowed into Sunburst's padding, bloating it faster and faster, the pony inside slowly bloating bigger as the plaid material coated more and more of him…
Air came seeping out of the pipes on Sunburst's padded-bagpipe fabric, letting out a little of the pressure, but most of the rest of it built up cartoonishly fast – swelling up and swelling up, the plaid patterns of orange-red-on-orange-yellow shimmering, until Sunburst was hidden entirely from view and it was only the plaid bagpiaper that could be seen.
After a long, long puff, Octavia paused and shook her tail from side to side. It moved with a bloated slowness, waving lazily with the air-puffed mass of the big blob of fabric and air on the end of it, and Octavia puffed up her cheeks… then jumped in the air.
She landed on her own padding and blew with all her might at the same time, and the bubble of plaid popped out of the end of her tail and went whizzing all over the place as it deflated – bouncing off the walls, letting out a descending bagpipe-wail of music, and spinning around and around in circles as it slowly shrank and became more defined.
Finally it went cannoning into Octavia from behind, knocking her rolling over and over in a jangle of pipes and plaid and puffiness, and when it stopped she bounced back to her feet to look Sunburst over.
The former unicorn was now entirely covered in brightly-coloured fabric and arcanely-wrought tubes, though he was still wearing his glasses.
“See?” Octavia asked, giggling. “Told you you'd have a lot more fun if you stopped thinking it through!”
Sunburst wiggled his new draconic tail, his talons drumming his tight belly with glee as his patterned hide stretched and shrank with each measure of the song. He nodded excitedly before bouncing back to his legs, finding waddling across Vinyl's gut an absolute breeze now. How did he ever find it so difficult? All he had to do was bounce, bounce, bounce along! He turned about, shaking his rump to show it off to the much larger Octavia. “You're right! It's much more fun getting to just float along on the song.” As if to punctuate his exclamation, Sunburst jumped upwards, his body swelling just a bit as he turned over to drift through the air on his back as if he was floating down a river, only to fall back to earth and tumble rump over pipes.
Octavia nodded in agreement, her bouncing starting to grow a bit more forceful. “Well, I'd say you're ready for your first performance! Come on, we have a real royal audience waiting for us!” Octavia cheered. She pounced upwards and spun a few times before pointing her arms and legs like a diver heading down into the water. She easily slipped through the plaid pattern of Vinyl's gut, and Sunburst eagerly followed suit.
Vinyl hiccuped, blushing brightly as her body grew just a bit. “Ooh, that was fast!” She hiccuped again, her upper body stretching upwards before sinking back into her gut. Another hiccup, and she could feel something swelling within her mouth. She clenched her jaws shut, her cheeks swelling up cartoonishly as she hugged herself and leaned back into her tail.
Hic!
Hic!
Hic!
Her body swelled bigger and bigger along with her cheeks, her toes wriggling excitedly as she could feel Octavia inflating free from within her.
Then all of a sudden there was a parp, and a pop, and a bang, and Octavia came tumbling out onto the floor. She rolled four times before sliding to halt by bouncing into the opposite wall, blowing a musical tune as she stopped upside-down, and a moment later Sunburst landed on top of her before bouncing clear.
“I, uhh...” Shining said, trying his best to think through the confusing sensations and sounds produced by his plaid padding. “Sunburst?”
He looked back and forth between Vinyl and Sunburst, trying to work out what had happened – he'd last seen Sunburst only moments ago, being stuffed into Vinyl's maw, and now he seemed to have been turned into a fully plaid dragon?
“Oh, Shiny, are you feeling all right?” Cadence asked, giving his bagpiaper a push to produce some loud music – accompanied by the other three bagpipe dragons, all of whom began jumping up and down on their rumps to provide a continual, parpy baseline. Vinyl began playing her belly like a drum, as well, while Sunburst brought his tail-pipe to his mouth to play it like a flute, and Octavia waved her own tail pipe around like a conductor's baton. “I know what would help you relax – a little bit of dancing with your schmoopy-boo!”
“I-” Shining's protests were cut off before they could even begin as Cadence took a hold of his forehooves and lifted him up off the floor. He wobbled unsteadily, hardly used to standing on his hind hooves, let alone with a thick cushion of air between them. Cadence did her best to keep him steady, however, her own pipes forming the melody to the song that Octavia, Vinyl, and Sunburst were backing. It was a slow waltz, allowing Cadence to carefully lead Shining around in a series of steps. His bagpiaper occasionally bumped into Cadence's belly, which made his face turn red as Cadence chuckled and winked in return.
Shhining stared up into Cadence's eyes as they waltzed around. Despite his initial reservations, Cadence was right; dancing was helping to take his mind off of things and just enjoy the way his bagpiaper cradled his rear, how his rump swayed left and right with each wide step, and how the song was accented each time it bounced against his fwoompy-boo. A smile slowly spread across his face as Cadence dropped Shining into a dip and one of his legs came up to press into her gut to steady himself. As if he knew what she was planning, he pressed down into it as she tugged him upwards, which helped her to lift him up above her head and pose dramatically. Shining giggled as Cadence's claws pressed into his rump and gave it a few squeezes before her grip loosened so he slid down to be pressed up against her belly.
The music changed tempo and time from a waltz to a tango, the two pressing themselves as tightly together as they started to march across the floor, one arm outstretched with the other reach around to grope and squeeze at the other's puffy plaid butt.
“I'm, um, not sure this is really...” Shining began, dancing as he did, and trying to work out how to express what he was thinking.
Something about the whole situation seemed off, and odd, and he tried to work out how to say it as Cadence swept him around in a circle before dipping him to the floor. Then she slipped, her puffy plushy plaid bulk squishing him to the floor with a musical accompaniment, and he went a bit hazy before shaking his head as she got off.
“It's like… I should be objecting to this,” he added, trying to put it into words.
“Why?” Cadence asked, giving him a tight hug before leading him off on an energetic flamenco dance to the accompaniment of three other bagpipe dragons. “It's a dance with your lovely wife!”
“What's wrong with that?” Octavia added.
“Yeah!” Vinyl said. “You should just relax and enjoy it!”
“Let that feeling of happiness swell up!” Sunburst instructed, as they switched tunes again to an Arabesque, and then a bouncy salsa where Cadence kept dropping to her rump with a loud parp and Shining felt he had to join in with a parp of his own to keep up. The notes echoed through the room, Shining starting to become a participant rather than just dragged along by the music, and yet that feeling of discomfort remained.
It didn't stop him from giggling as Cadence hugged him close, her musical blasts filling his head with echoes, then let go and let her plaid belly bounce him across the room. The three musicians gave him a soft landing, bouncing him between them, then inhaled and bounced him off to end up landing back on Cadence again.
Shining's legs were spread quite wide by his ever-inflating plaid padding. He wobbled to and fro, his tail quickly swallowed up by the stretching material as it grew bigger. The music changed styles once again to a flamenco, and Shining was barely able to stay on his hooves as he was forced to shift his weight from one hoof to the other in quick succession. Cadence seemed hardly bothered by this and didn't try at all, instead simply flopping onto her butt so her clawed feet could squish into her bloated form in time with the music. She let go of one of Shining's hooves to send him twirling outwards and leaning dangerously far onto one hoof for someone so off balance by a bloated plaid rump. She then pulled him back in, twirling him around to be wrapped up in her arms and pressed snugly into her soft belly before switching him to the other hand and spinning him back out again. She repeated this a few more times, before finally letting go with her arm outstretched and Shining attempting to cling to it. He lost his grip, and was sent spinning, spinning, spinning around and around and around in several circles. He spiraled out and around Cadence like a top, growing steadily dizzier with each rotation.
His spinning eventually slowed, and his hooves flailed for something steady to hold. They wrapped around the pipe of Cadence's tail, and a blast of notes filled his head as he inadvertently pointed the pipe directly at his face. Cadence flicked her tail upwards, whipping Shining around until he landed upon it, her draconic tail wrapped around the seat of his diaper like a snake. Cadence began to conga around the room, every final beat in the measure punctuated by her rump bouncing upwards, sending Shining bouncing up again, only to be caught by her tail. He was sure her butt was swelling upwards too, as there was more and more plaid fabric to sink into with each bouncy landing.
If Shining's head hadn't been so full of joyful tune, he might have noticed his bagpiaper creeping up his waist as his legs were coated in soft cushy mitts to match the claws of his wife. Instead, he was left patting his bagpiaper like a drum, not entirely sure why, but it sounded good as a beat to the song, so it made sense to do it.
Up and down, left and right, spring-in and spring-out, even sometimes going upside down… any effort Shining had to try and gain coherency in his thoughts was bounced out of him by the continual conga, blasts of music and momentary dizzying weightlessness which kept him confused and his head spinning around.
As the bagpiaper spread, though, the music flowing through it and making it puff up to his middle – his whole lower half now looking more bagpipe-dragon than anything – it seemed to get easier to make sense of it all. He just had to think bouncy, think crinkly, think plushy, think plaid!
Cadence let him go, spinning him around with a flick of her tail, then knotted her tail around his own new plushy bagpiaper-tail to tie them together. With a bounce and a stamp, a rustle and a parp, she began to do skipping-rope jumps – carrying Shining with her, so they both landed with a crinkle and a squeak and a parp!
“I can help!” Sunburst volunteered, waving his own tail around and producing a shower of magical sparks which bounced off the walls – each one producing a little note as it hit, and surrounding Shining with music and magic and shiny firework sparks.
They formed musical instructions, flowing past to a beat and jumping up and down as Shining did, and the sound that he made when he landed went from a simple squeaky parp to an involved and musical rhythm that built and built and built.
Shining and Cadence continued to jump-rope with their tails, each landing producing more paarps and creaks, crinkles and squishes as the duo laughed with enjoyment. The instruments swirled around them, accompanying the wheezing song of each bagpipe dragon, but never playing too loud to overtake them. Vinyl bounced into the air and took a hold of her tail, shoving the end into her mouth. She began to blow and blow, her part of the song muffled partly as she blew herself bigger and bigger. She floated above the bouncing pair, steadily inflating above them. Octavia jumped up after her, taking her tail and spinning her around tossing her to the ground. A great big bass drum BOOM filled the air as Vinyl smacked to the ground, followed by the creak of her body rebounding back into the air to CRASH against a cymbal before Sunburst shifted his magic to make the other squish in on her rump, pressing the air out of Vinyl in a rushing crescendo before she flopped back to the ground.
Cadence untied her tail from Shining's as they bounced upwards only to then squeeze into him and fall back to the earth, sinking into his plaid body a they landed. Shining squeaked as air rushed all around inside him, and his bagpiaper swallowed up his forehooves and head before receding to reveal a new cushy bagpipe dragon. Cadence clapped and laughed in celebration before pouncing forward to press herself into Shining, nuzzling into him. “See how much fun that was, Shiny? Oh just think of all the games and songs we can play now that you're properly paarpy and puffy!”
“You're ever so right, as always, Cady!” Shining replied, nuzzling back and feeling the lovely air-headed sensation of his body deflating with a wheeze of musical notes. “I shouldn't have doubted you – or Sunburst!”
He drummed his tail against his belly, producing a new sequence, then raised a claw. “I know what we should do! We need to make sure everypony in the Empire can enjoy this as much as we do!”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Cadence agreed. “But how do we do that?”
They turned to Octavia and Vinyl, looking expectant, and the two more-experienced bagpipe dragons considered – Octavia waving her tail absently like a wand, while Vinyl blew a few flute-like notes on her own.
“I know!” Sunburst pronounced, sitting back on his own cushy rump. “What we need to do to show the whole Empire how wonderful this is – we need to get to the Crystal Heart!”
“Of course!” Shining agreed. “The Crystal Heart!”
He bounced over to the door of the room, and opened it. “We'll have to hurry – everypony should know how wonderful this is!”
“W-what?” a guard asked, staring.
Shining blinked. “Whoops!”
“Don't worry, Shiny,” Cadence told him, bouncing up behind him. “I'm sure the guards will listen!”
Shining turned back to the guard, bouncing eagerly on his heels as he pressed his hands down into his pudgy belly. “We've got to get to the crystal heart right away! Everypony needs to know how much fun it is to be puffy and plaid!” His tail swayed back and forth as the four other dragons peered around him down at the guard. The guard was as little hesitant, mostly confused at first, as he poked at Shining's gut with a spear, which only made the dragon giggle.
“I... suppose that makes sense. Carry on, your majesty.” He stood aside, allowing the quintet to bounce down the hallways towards the entrance to the castle. Shining bounced up onto the railing of the spiral staircase, sliding down with Cadence and Sunburst following after. Vinyl and Octavia had decided to jump down the center of the spiral instead, bouncing off the ground with loud smacks and creaks, which were followed by Shining, Cadence, and Sunburst skipped along the polished floor after them.
Sunburst looked out a window as they passed by, pausing as he saw what was going on outside, only for the duet of music ponies to smack into him from behind. “What gives?” Vinyl asked, leaning over Octavia.
“Ooh, look! There's already somepaarpy at the heart! He's putting on a show!” Sunburst pointed towards the heart in the distance where a gathering of bagpipe dragons were all bouncing together. Nine dragons, two of whom seemed much larger than the others and more regal were playing their rumps and bellies while a tiny suited dragon bounced around in front of them like a cheerleader. A fat, red dragon was conducting them with his tail, waving it and his butt back and forth to show off.
“It's Bagpiperix, silly! He's performing the big number before Shining and Cadence perform the plaidening!” Octavia responded.
Sunburst nodded, wondering why he hadn't realized that sooner. They hurried after the prince and princess as they squeezed their way out of the door to bounce to the heart and the performers in front of it.
Bagpiperix continued to wiggle his rump and conduct the bagpipe dragons as the newcomers arrived, not needing to look as he led the performers on their one-two-three-four up-down-left-right oom-pa-pa-paarp parpformance, producing music so resonant that it hung in the air and seemed to make the very room feel faintly plaid.
“It looks like it's time for the main event!” he said. “Everyone give a big rump for the Royal Couple!”
One by one, then two by two, the bagpipe-dragons jumped in the air and landed in sequence – sending out trilling tunes which made it so easy to notice them and so hard to pay attention to anyone else. They came down either side of the royal bagpipe-dragon pair, forming a path of fast-moving plaid and musical mayhem which advanced steadily forwards around Shining and Cadence as they bounced their way to the Crystal Heart for the Plaidening.
Sunburst joined in opposite a blue-and-blue bagpipe dragon to make the numbers even, and the twelve bagpipe dragons forming the escort wiggled their rumps and blew their pipes in a royal fanfare as they advanced in two lines and as Bagpiperix conducted it all.
“With tubes made of wood to blow with a loud sound,
And rumps that make parps if they jump on the ground,
And musically safe if they happen to fall,
A dragon of plaid is the best kind of all!”
Shining and Cadence continued the bounce forward, flanked on either side by their parade of their new subjects. Bagpiperix took the lead towards the crystal heart, using his tail as it swished left and right with each rebound on his rump to keep time like a particularly plaid and parpy metronome. Cadence leaned into Shining, planting a kiss on his cheek as her overinflated belly fluttered. Their tails twisted together into a knot to keep their rears held snugly together as their procession continued. The group soon reached the crystal heart, and the lines of bagpipe dragons bounced into a circle around it. Bagpiperix got to his feet beside the heart, his claws waving about to instruct the dragons into their second verse.
“A bagpiper dragon's songs are far too grand,
They'll make you prance and pounce as you join in their band,
Nopony can resist the sound of their tune,
And everypone will be a big dragon soon!”
Shining and Cadence reached the heart, still playing along as they bounced eagerly on their heels. They each took a deep breath, their bellies expanding to double, triple their size! Bagpiperix waved his tail, and all the other dragons followed their lead. Their rumps crinkled, squeaked, and creaked against the ground as they ballooned bigger, each ready to let out a blast of music as the heart began to glow softly, looking almost plaid…
Bagpiperix let their stored, ready-to-blast air build up for the crescendo, postponing it longer and longer – setting up a series of notes which rose higher and higher through the scales, building anticipation more and more! The heart's glow started to resonate to the beat of the song, pulsing stronger and more plaid with every passing moment as Bagpiperix worked up his bagpipe-dragon assistants into a gradually rising crescendo.
“There's nothing quite like a bagpiper to be
For parping and bouncing along happily
If all were such dragons, they'd love it, that's true
And now we'll bring that amazing gift to you!”
All the dragons in Bagpiperix' backing band jumped up, at once – their massively plumped-up bagpiaper bulks rising and then falling in a massive multiple-note oom-pa-paaarp bounce!
Each impact sent a ring of visible plaid notes rippling out from where they'd touched down – grey and purple, white and blue, pink and yellow, rainbow-coloured, purple and green, yellow and orange – and those ripples crossed and recrossed before all surging down into the Crystal Heart itself.
And then they all surged outwards again, a massive blast of magical musical power which went through them all in an instant before rushing on outwards into the whole of the Crystal Empire!
The wave of energy pulsed outwards, spreading itself across the ground, lines running and criss-crossing this way along the roads to form a plaid pavement. Everypony in the Crystal Empire watched as the ground suddenly bucked upwards slightly, before seemingly deflating with a long, drawn out wheeze. Their hooves sank into the ground, like an oversized bounce house. There was another pulse of energy accompanied by a surge of music. As it passed over the denizens, they each suddenly fwoomped outwards with a puff of notes into bouncy plaid dragons. Many giggled, some squeezing their new puffy forms as others tried out their thick cushy tails, and soon they were all happily waddling down the streets, playing along with the song that now permeated the air.
Bagpiperix grinned as Shining and Cadence cuddled, each of his personal band gathering together to talk, the rainbow patterned dragon bouncing her hips into the rump of the orange and yellow dragon, who stuck her tongue out in return. He leaned back into his tail, relaxing as he gazed upon the newly parpy, plaid kingdom. Truly, it was a performance they'd never forget!
