Author's Note

This chapter took a little bit longer to do, but I like the direction that it went in. This chapter is heavily diaper themed, but there is no actual diaper content in this chapter, wearing or otherwise. Just a lot of good wholesome moments. Also because of how this chapter flowed together and the way that things played out. I have reordered some of the upcoming chapters to make the story flow better.

Petals of a Rose

It didn't take long for Octavia to make her way home from the clinic. Her mood was already a million times better than it was when she first left the house. That talk that she had with Tenderheart and getting all of that off of her chest problem to be exactly what she needed. She wondered if Lyra was going to pop by again, but then remembered that hey and Bon Bon had a delivery to make. Trottingham wasn't exactly close so they'd probably be starting there for the night.

She shrugged and started unlocking the door. As she walked inside she noticed that the mailbox was quite full. "Oh, I guess I forgot to grab it yesterday. Looks like Derpy's been here today as well," she said as she collected all of the envelopes and took them inside.

She sat down on the sofa and started to go through all the letters that they got. She sat the ones for Vinyl in a small stack and sat them on her turntable that she practiced with. When she started going through the letters for her, one of them immediately caught her attention. The first thing that she noticed was the fact that there was no address on the envelope. Just her name. That meant that or was placed there by somepony that wasn't the mailmare. The second thing that she noticed was the fragrance that was on the paper. It was a very floral aroma and was quite soothing. She opened the letter and pulled out the paper from inside.

"Octavia,

This is Roseluck, and I hope that you are doing well. I saw something by your door yesterday that was… well the last thing that I expected from a pony like you. NOT THAT THAT'S A BAD THING!!! I just mean you didn't seem like the pony that would be into something like that. I know that discovering that they left that package like that was probably a shock, and was quite careless on the pony delivering the package. However, I did want to let you know that no matter what other ponies might think you are not weird, and you are definitely not the only pony in Ponyville that indulges herself in such a way. I would love to discuss this more with you face to face, but only when you are ready to do so. When you are, just come by the shop and ask me about our 'floral bandanas' and I'll know exactly what you mean. I hope to see you soon…

R.L."

Octavia's jar dropped as she read the letter, feeling the blush on her face as she got over the shock of the letter. "No… way… Roseluck!? Her off all ponies? She's so outgoing and joyful with so much personality. I would have never thought she'd be that type of pony!" Octavia said to herself before her eyes went wide with realization. "Oh, that must have been what she meant," she said with a giggle before her nervousness started to come back a bit. "But… What if this is all a ruse? What if she's really just asking to come see her so she and whatever friends she gathered could make fun of me… I don't think Rose would be that mean… but what other things could she be hiding that I don't know about her?" she said, looking at the clock. Octavia remembered what Tenderheart had said and decided that she at least has to try to trust Roseluck. After all, Roseluck had never done anything to wrong her before so that had to be worth something right?

"Well, it's only three… if I remember their flower stall is open till six," she said, pushing herself up and straightening her collar. “I suppose I could at least go and pay the flowershop a visit. Besides, after a doctor’s visit like that I’m kind of craving some ice cream right now. I can always swing by Icy’s place if she’s still open when were done,” she said to herself as she started heading out the door.

The flower shop wasn’t actually that far from Octavia’s house. In fact, it was only three doors down towards the market place. She pushed the door open and was instantly greeted with the pleasant smell of lavender and vanilla. She took in a big sniff of the aromas and she let out a comforting sigh. “Ahh, I always love walking through those doors,” she said with a smile. This was far from the first time she’d been in this store, and would likely not be the last. She was quickly greeted by a pale magenta earth pony with a lime green mane and tail from behind the counter.

“Oh! Hey Octavia! Did you need some flower pieces for another performance? What kind of gig is it this time?” the pony said with a smile as she pulled out a notebook and a pencil before looking back to Octavia with a smile.

“Hey! Good afternoon Daisy! It’s great to see you again as well. I’m actually not here to place an order today,” she told her friend. She felt her heart twinge a bit when she saw the disappointment in Daisy’s face.

“Aww,” she said, setting the pencil down. “Did we get something wrong on the last one? I though the last arrangement came out amazing!” Daisy said with concern.

“Oh Daisy, the last arrangement you girls did for me was absolutely beautiful, and I can’t wait to order from you three again. I know that you’ll never disappoint me,” she said, watching the mare give a sigh of relief. “I’m actually here to talk to Roseluck about something though. Is she around?”

“Oh! Rosie’s in the back! Let me go get her,” Daisy said before pushing through the door. “Rosie!!!” she heard before Daisy got out of hearing range.

At this point Octavia’s heart was thumping in her chest… She wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. She started to hoof lightly at the ground and looked around her sheepishly, almost expecting everypony else to know exactly why she was here. There was nopony else in the shop at all. It was late enough in the afternoon that most ponies had already bought what arrangements they had needed for the day. She began to wonder if she should just leave… as long as she left before Rose came out she could use an excuse that something else had come up right? Unfortunately for her a soft voice could be heard calling to her and she looked up to see that soft yellow mare looking at her with those big chartreuse eyes.

“Octavia? Hello?” Roseluck said, waving a hoof in front of her face. “Are you even in there?” she asked, watching Octavia shake her head and giving off a small giggle. “There you are! Daisy said you were wanting to talk to me?” she asked while Daisy went back to the counter.

Welp, so much for trying to back out, she thought to herself before looking at Rose and nodding. “Yeah I was. I got a… brochure in the mail either yesterday or today about a um…” she said before feeling the words get stuck in her throat. Before she could say anything though she heard Daisy pipe up.

“Brochures? But I don’t remember sending out any brochures this week… and I would know! I usually write them!” Daisy said before noticing the immense blush that was now on Octavia’s cheek and the scowl that she was now getting from Roseluck.

“This was a special brochure that I made specifically for one of our favorite customers,” Rose said, trying to cover for Octavia just a bit. Rose knew exactly why Octavia was here at this point, but she was just waiting for the phrase to make sure that this was something that she actually wanted to do. “It offers very personal arrangements,” she told her sister.

“Oh… That’s weird, you usually run those by me first so that I can get the patterns right for them,” Daisy replied before shrugging.

“Yeah… I was actually here to inquire about the Floral Bandana… arrangement…?” Octavia said before looking back to Daisy as she heard her spit out the water that she was drinking. The look that Daisy had on her face was one of shock, knowing, and… did she…. See a bit of excitement in her eyes? No way… she must have just been seeing things…

Roseluck heard the reaction as well and gave her a much harder scowl, making Daisy shake her head and get back to counting the seeds she was working on before Octavia came in. Still she couldn’t help but let a part of her feel a tiny bit giddy. She knew exactly what that phrase meant and why she was here… and a billion questions started running through her mind.

After that Roseluck gave a very soft smile to Octavia before nodding to her. “Of course. The Floral Bandanas are actually quite popular around here. Please, come back into the back with me and we can discuss some of the personal matters that go into these particular kinds of arrangements,” she smiled, holding the door open for Octavia to enter.

Octavia herself smiled sheepishly at the two sisters before gulping a bit as Roseluck opened the door. She followed her through that door and then back through another door into a consultation room. She still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but at least so far nothing bad has happened. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be that bad after all. She heard the door click behind the two of them and then Roseluck locked the door behind them to show that the consultation room was occupied.

“So I assume that you got my note? I’ll be honest I’m kind of surprised that you actually showed up. After I dropped it off I honestly felt kind of silly writing it, and wondered if it would be in poor taste so soon after an unfortunate delivery… but I had already dropped it off, and I really didn’t want to be seen going through your mail to try to get it back. I… didn’t really feel like getting arrested today,” Rose said scratching the back of her head.

“Wait, so you didn’t want me to come?” Octavia asked hesitantly.

“What!? No! I mean yes! I mean… Ug… words are hard. Of course I wanted you to come to me, Octavia.”

“Please, we aren’t in a formal setting. Octy or Tavy is fine,” she reminded Rose with a smile.

“Right, sorry,” Rose blushed. “But Of course I wanted you to come. I just had second guesses about whether I should have written the letter or waited, or just ignored it, but I just happened to be on my way back from the flower stand in the market when I saw you looking distraught at the box and looking around. You looked… broken… and I couldn’t stand seeing one of my friends like that,” Rose added.

“Wait, you saw that? I wonder how many other ponies saw that…” Octavia blushed herself looking away.

“That really doesn’t matter at this point. What does, is to make sure that you are okay, and to make sure that you’re not alone in these things,”

“That does bring me a bit of relief to know that, but I must say that you weren’t a mare that I expected to be into diapers.”

“Oh, I’m not. I haven’t worn them since I was a foal,” Rose spouted off callously.

The tone behind the remark made Octavia pull back a bit. It sounded like condescending sarcasm and immediately her mind started going to ‘worst case scenario’. What if she had only brought her here to make fun of her. “I don’t understand… You called me here to help, and to say that I’m not alone, but then counter with that you don’t wear them and haven’t since you were a foal? What exactly are you trying to tell me?”

“Whoa, Whoa… easy there girl, let’s take this back to Lardo for a second here,” Rose countered. She giggled a bit as she saw Octavia’s jaw drop a bit from her word choice. “What? I took choir in school so I do know a little bit about music.”

“Just get to the point. If you’re going to make fun of me just get it over with so I can go home…” Octavia said courtly.

“What!? Why would I make fun of you? What kind of friend would I be if I let anypony do that to you, much less did so myself?”

“I was wondering the same question… but if you don’t have anything to do with diapers then that still doesn’t answer my question. Why did you bring me here to talk about something that you have no interest in!?” Octavia stomped.

“Octavia please calm down and let me explain! I never said that I wasn’t interested in diapers Tavy, I said I didn’t wear diapers.”

“What’s the difference? That sounds pretty similar to me!”

At that point Roseluck raised her eyebrow at Octavia. “Tavy… you do know that there are two sides of the spectrum right?”

“Spectrum? What spectrum? There’s a spectrum of ponies that wear diapers?”

“Yes, actually,” Rose replied. “You have your ponies that are like you. We call them littles. They are the ponies that enjoy wearing and using diapers among other possibly foalish activities to take them to a place where they can relax in a worry free environment.”

“Uh hu… wait, I’m not little! And I’m most definitely not a foal! I’m a grown mare that just happens to like diapers!”

At this point Roseluck facehoofed. “Will you just let me finish explaining before you keep jumping to the weird conclusion that I’m trying to make fun of you when I’m just trying to explain things?”

“Fine,” Octavia said, sitting in the chair and resting her head on her hoof. She was far passed annoyed right now and was ready for this mistake to be over with so she could go home and not come back to this flower store for a very long time.

“Thank you. Now like I said, you have ponies that are like you, and then you have ponies that are like me. We’re called caretakers,” she said as the moment of realization started to set in for Octavia. “Ponies like me help take care of ponies that identify as littles or if they just want to stay padded for a while and make sure that they don’t have to worry about anything else for the duration. I love helping other ponies relax, and you’d be surprised just how many ponies here in Ponyville I help do just that for! Though… don’t bother asking who, because I won’t say. When ponies come to me for that they are putting a lot of trust in me to keep them protected so There’s nothing anypony could do in order for me to rat them out,” she commented.

Hearing all that made Octavia raise her head back up a bit as all the pieces started to fit into place. She felt briefly relieved that her friend hadn’t called her out here to humiliate her, but then she immediately started feeling sick and couldn’t bring herself to look Roseluck in the eye. This was her friend… how could she have thought so poorly of her own friend to think that Rose would do all of those nasty things to her… She should have known that Rose was going to be supportive. That was the only thing that Rose knew how to be! And she yelled at her! Octavia could already start to feel the tears build up again.

Roseluck herself noticed the long profound silence herself before noticing the tear herself. “Tavy?”

“I’m sorry Rose… You were putting yourself out there to try to help me… and instead of trusting my friend I immediately presumed the worst, and then when we started talking… I thought my fears were coming true and I just started lashing out…” she said, letting her tears flow… “I don’t deserve a friend like you…”

The words that Octavia spoke… broke Rose’s heart. She wasn't sure what happened, but she could tell that at some point in Octavia’s life, somepony had hurt her, and hurt her badly. She wasn’t about to pry right now, but she did do the one thing that she felt she could. She walked over to the gray mare and wrapped her hooves very tightly around her neck. “I won’t pretend to know everything that’s going on in your life… but one thing that I do know, is that you are a good-hearted pony and you more than deserve every friend that you have, and that includes me… so don’t ever say that you don’t deserve friends, because that is simply just not true.”

Octavia felt the hooves around her, and her eyes shot open briefly before she melted into the hug. Roselucks soft coat against her own reminded her of Vinyl’s when they would snuggle together and she leaned into it. She only barely heard what she had to say, but when she did she looked up to her with a smile before she felt one of Rose’s hooves wipe the tears from her eyes. “Come on now little one,” she heard Rose tell her. “No more tears.”

“Thank you,” Octavia said to Rose as she pulled away from the hug as she wiped the rest of the tears from her eyes. “But I am still a bit confused… Why did you want to tell me all of this?”

“Oh, well I figured that part was obvious. I am offering to be one of your caretakers for when Viny’s not home,” Rose replied.

“Oh…” Octavia replied blushing immensely. “I… I don’t know about that…”

“I promise that I’m not going to get in between you and Vinyl. It can be whenever your shows pull you apart like they have been recently.” Rose added with a smile.

“Still… This is all very new to me.” Octavia replied.

“Tell you what… It's almost 4 o’clock now. Why don’t you come over and spend the night here and give it a shot over night. The store is closed tomorrow so if you enjoy it, we can extend it through tomorrow. If you find out that it’s not a side of things that you enjoy, then we can just drop the idea and I won’t ask you about it anymore,” Rose offered.

Octavia thought about the offer good and hard. “Well… I was going to go get some ice cream from Icy’s place, but after that, I suppose I could give it a try. I mean, it would beat staying home… alone again for another night…” Octavia answered.

Rose’s eyes lit up at the mention of ice cream, and more so when OCtavia accepted her offer for the evening. “Perfect! Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t you tell me what kind of Ice Cream you love, and I’ll go get it from Icy’s and you can go home and pack a bag for this evening. Bring what your comfortable with. I don’t know how quickly you go through diapers or if you use them at all. Some ponies just like to wear them, but bring an amount your comfortable with plus two. Don’t worry about the rest of the supplies I have plenty, and anything that you might like to play with.”

“Play?” Octavia inquired.

“Oh Tavy… I have so much to show you,” Rose said with a smile unlocking the door. “So… see you at six?” Rose asked, pulling the door open.

Octavia smiled as she pushed herself up from the table and started walking towards the door herself. With a small nod she replied to Roseluck. “I’ll see you at six,” she said as she started making her way out of the shop.

Roseluck smiled back to her and gave her a friendly way goodbye, but before she could turn to close the door Daisy was already on top of her practically pouncing on the cream colored pony. “Glack!! Daisy!”

“What’d she say! What’d she say! What’d she say!” Daisy asked excitedly, trotting in place directly on Rose’s back, electing a soft squeak from the mare as she hit a nerve. “Hehe… sorry,” she said in response to the glare that she was now getting.

Roseluck rolled her eyes a bit and then lightly pushed Daisy off of her so that she could stand up before taking a deep breath. “She said yes,” Rose said, watching Daisy’s eyes light up again.

“So that means…”

“Yup! You’ll have a new playmate tonight!” Rose smiled.

“Yay! Oh this is perfect! Octi is the… wait… TONIGHT!?” Daisy proclaimed, getting a nod from her sister.