Bagpiperix and the Royals

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!