Studying and Relaxing

Before the pair knew it, those two weeks of studying flew by. Soon Gallus found himself taking the exam he was dreading the most: Ms. Twilight Sparkle’s exam on Advanced Applied Friendship Theory.

It wasn’t that he didn’t study, it was just that he worried that studying wasn’t going to be enough. Ms. Twilight was already notorious for coming up with the toughest exams on the whole campus. Why couldn’t it've been a Pinkie Pie class? Or one of Ms. Fluttershy’s? Dread didn’t quite cover what Gallus was feeling.

It had already been an hour since the exam started and Gallus hardly made a dent! Ms. Twilight didn't pull any of her punches when she made up this test. Pages upon pages of questions that required the griffin to dredge up obscure information on friendship theory. If he hadn’t studied with Sandbar all those times, he would have very likely flunked the whole thing on his own. He used thinking muscles he never thought he had! And to make things more stressful, many classmates finished before the first hour was up, which only made him more nervous as the classroom grew emptier and emptier.

Gallus was one of the last students to leave the classroom by the end of it all. He groaned by the time he managed to drag himself out into the halls. He never thought he could be so exhausted just from a stupid test!

“Hey Gallus!” Sandbar came catching up with the hovering griffin, “how’d the exam go?”

“Please,” Gallus groaned, ”don’t...don’t talk to me about exams right now, alright?”

“Was it really that bad?”

“I don’t know, I definitely had a tough time,” Gallus replied, “might have just scraped by with a passing grade, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“I’m sure you did better than you think,” Sandbar smiled.

“Well whatever, class is over so all I want to do now is just relax and not think about a THING!”

“Heh, had the same idea myself!”

The pair scuttled back to the students' quarters, a separate building off the school's main campus that housed students who lived outside of Ponyville. It was a squat building, made up of four floors with about a dozen dorm rooms on each. The accommodations of each room were...livable by most standards. Each room was spacious enough to contain a bed, some living space, and each one came with its own connected bathroom. There was a closet and some space for storage, but most rooms came with the bare essentials and relied on the students to decorate them themselves.

Sandbar’s room was a perfect fusion of seaside furnishings and chill aesthetics. His bed was pushed to the corner as far as it could go to allow as much open space as possible. The living space was taken up primarily by a number of bean bag chairs, perfect for lounging and vegging out. The decor consisted of sea turtle shaped lamps and trinkets he brought from home. Colorful seashells sat on a shelf, each one with it’s own story to tell as a surfboard made of a bluish wood leaned in the corner next to a large paned window with thick blackout curtains.

“Finally,” Gallus exhaled as they entered. He immediately plopped himself down on one of the beanbags and groaned in exhaustion, “ya got any cloud tonic or anything?”

Cloud tonic was a pegasus-made carbonated beverage that came in a variety of carbonated fruity flavors. Best served cold, it's primary selling point was the tiny raincloud they trapped in every bottle that slowly refilled the bottle with tonic as the consumer drinks, effectively doubling the amount of liquid inside. It was considered a greenhorn mistake to accidentally let the fruity raincloud escape out of the top of the bottle because it was then impossible to coax it back in again.

“I’m sure I have a bottle or two stashed away in the closet somewhere," Sandbar replied, "I can look when I get back. First I gotta take a quick shower. Ms. Rainbow Dash’s athletics course left me a little rank.”

“Psh, wasn’t gonna say anything, but now that you mention it,” Gallus smirked.

“Yeah yeah, I don’t think I need a lecture from you,” Sandbar rolled his eyes with a quick laugh, “can you hang tight till I get out?”

“Might die of thirst, but I’ll manage,” Gallus replied before stretching his legs and slumping further into the beanbag’s cushion. And with that, the earth pony zipped into the bathroom moments before the shower could be heard running.

After quite a bit of waiting, it seemed that Sandbar’s definition of “a quick shower” was much longer than Gallus thought. A quick shower usually implied that it’d be...well, quick. What Sandbar was taking was, in fact, not that. Five minutes passed. Then ten. And before he knew it, Sandbar’s shower was reaching its twenty minute mark without any sign of slowing down.

Gallus emitted an aggravated sigh. Maybe he was going to die of thirst. Or maybe he was just being impatient. Either way he found himself waiting MUCH longer than he was prepared to endure. All his body wanted to do right now was relax, but if there was a promise of a delicious sugary cloud tonic waiting for him just ten feet away, then his mind wouldn’t let him fully relax until he found it. As tired as he was, his mind wasn’t letting him forget that he’d be even MORE relaxed if he had a nice bubbly drink to sip.

With an aggravated roll of his eyes, he finally submitted and rolled off the comfy beanbag Shouldn’t be that hard to find a bottle of tonic, right? He flung open the closet door and began his search. A couple outfits hung on wooden hangers to the left while the right side was mostly used for storage space. Cardboard boxes were stacked up high, each one marked with vague titles like "Holiday" or "Surf" written on the side in black marker.

Gallus ignored any box that wasn't titled anything related to food or drink, hoping that would somehow make his search easier. He pushed aside the box that said "Cooking" and nudged out of the way the box that was labeled "Sleep", eventually finding a box hidden behind the others.

This box was unmarked, bearing no tag or title that stood it apart from others. It was as plain as any other box and Gallus figured the drinks would be in there through sheer process of elimination. And a good thing too! He was kinda getting a little thirsty!

Pulling the box out of the closet and into the light, Gallus unfolded the box's top flaps. Much to his surprise, however, he didn't find any tonics or any drinks of any kind. Instead he found a plain white package made of a thick plastic, opened to reveal a row of neatly folded rectangles.

Utterly confused and possibly too curious for his own good, Gallus pulled out one of the plastic rectangles for a closer look. "What the...?" he mumbled to himself as he held the padded rectangle up in the air, allowing it to unfold itself to three times its length.

The plastic, padded thing appeared soft and fluffy on the inside while remaining smooth and stiff on the outside. Wings with tabs of tape hung off each corner of the plastic rectangle as well. A diaper?

Just as Gallus was in the midst of processing this discovery, Sandbar emerged from the bathroom, a blue towel wrapped around his head and his green fur fluffy and frizzy from being freshly dried. The pony only took a few steps into the room before his eyes shot open wide and his body petrified. Color drained from his face as he locked eyes with Gallus.

“S-so I guess..." Gallus shifted awkwardly after a few minutes of silence, "y-you weren’t joking when you said you wore...”

“I-I said I’d look for the tonics, man!" Sandbar stammered out with his face flush with red, "I-I didn’t want you to see...t-to see...!” A storm of emotions swarmed his face. Shock, fear, embarrassment, amazement, surprise.

“Y-you were taking forever!” Gallus replied in a knee jerk reaction. It was his first instinct to ensure that everyone else knew that this momentary invasion of privacy was in fact, not entirely his fault. Lucky for him, Ms. Fluttershy’s Introduction to Empathy and Insight 102 taught him some helpful lessons. “A-anyway, i-it doesn’t matter to me if you would rather be...wearing y’know...these,” he continued to say, still holding the open diaper in the air.

In a blush filled flash, Sandbar swiped the diaper out of Gallus's claws, “that s-stuff’s private, okay!?” The frazzled pony slammed the babyish garment back into the box and swiftly closed its flaps. “I-I just don’t want...I didn’t want you to see!”

Gallus’s griffin upbringing knew just what to say at this moment. It sounded something like ‘I was thirsty and you were taking forever to shower. I mean, who takes showers that long?’ Or maybe perhaps ‘you know, for a secret, you really didn’t hide it all that well. If you really wanted to hide it, you shouldn’t have left it buried in your closet where anyone could find it.’

“I’m sorry for snooping. I should have waited,” he said in place of all that, “you want to keep that stuff private and I should respect that as your friend.”

Sandbar passively nodded as he stared at the box under his hooves. His ears still warmed with blush. His petrified stillness was a result of a contradicting number of actions that grinded against each other like opposing clockwork. He wanted to run away, grab the box of diapers and hide inside his closet until everyone forgot he even existed. He wanted to yell, but not at Gallus, just...yell. He wanted to curl up and cry, just to relieve the coiled spring of stress that was building in his chest.

“Do you want...” Gallus chimed in, tapping into his small reservoir of friendship knowledge, “do you want me to leave you alone?”

“No...” Sandbar replied with a reluctant sigh, “no, that wouldn’t be fair.” He relieved the pressure he was pushing into the box with his forehoove. “You came over to hang out and relax. I couldn’t just kick you out because...” His words trailed off again. What was he even going to say after that? ‘I couldn’t just kick you out because I’m actually relieved you found this so I don’t have to worry about revealing it to you one day’? ‘Because deep down all I want to waddle around in big fluffy diapers’? “Because,” he ended up saying, “because I’m your friend and...I know you’d keep this secret if I asked you to...”

“Yeah, man, of course!” Gallus replied, “I’ll pretend I never saw the stuff! You toss that back in your closet and we’ll never talk about it again!”

“No...” Sandbar found himself saying amidst a sigh. He groaned at the clashing thoughts as they toiled inside of him again. He was a big bundle of nerves. A bundle of sensitive, easily upsettable nerves.

The truth of the matter was Sandbar really REALLY wanted to wear a diaper in front of Gallus. He had dreamt of this moment hundreds of times before. Maybe not Gallus specifically, but sharing this deep secret of his with ANYONE seemed like such a tantalizing idea! He wanted to do it so badly, but reality and worry always got in the way of fantasy. His heart was exuberant about the idea, but his mind would always be there to tug on the reins and keep him from doing something that he might regret.

“Do you wanna put a diaper on now?” Gallus came out and said.

“Wh-what?”

“I don’t know, I figure that if you’re really so embarrassed about it,” the griffin started, “then you either never wanna be seen wearing one or...you really wanna be seen wearing one.” He briefly paused to examine his line of logic. Yeah, yeah that sounded pretty sound to him. “So like, if you wanted to...you could put one on and see how you feel so you’re not worrying yourself sick wondering about it all the time.”

That seemed to shut the coiled spring down and for a brief moment Sandbar’s nervous little fidgeting stopped. Had he been left to his own devices, he might have very well just stood there, stammering out excuses and apologies, repeating ad nauseam about how awkward things might get and how he wouldn't want Gallus to feel weird. But something seemed to click when Gallus gave him the go-ahead.

“O-okay,” Sandbar found himself saying, which kind of surprised him.

“Then here,” Gallus replied, digging into the box again and pulling out the open diaper. “Put it on or don’t put it on. I promise I won’t laugh. I’m your friend.”

“O-okay uhm...I-I’ll be right back!” Sandbar exclaimed before grabbing the diaper and zipping into the bathroom.

“Right,” Gallus sighed before dropping back into his bean bag chair. Who knew convincing a friend to do what they already wanted to do could be so exhausting.

Sandbar was always a pony who aimed to please. He never wanted to end up in a situation where he let someone down or made a decision that was considered wrong. He was easy going, but frustratingly indecisive. It would always take him forever to cast the first vote. It was more difficult getting him to make a decision, any decision, than anything else.

It was obvious to Gallus that his friend really truly wanted to wear a diaper. For whatever reason it was, Sandbar was just looking for an excuse. Although in a weird way, Gallus kind of wanted to see him wearing it too. He couldn't quite explain why, but he'd be lying if he said this was a purely selfless act.

Moments later a plastic rustling could be heard as Sandbar emerged from the bathroom. He now wore the white diaper around his waist and the padding of the garment turned whatever angles of his backside into smooth, fluffy curves. He stood before Gallus ram rod and stiff at first, silently bracing himself for whatever was to come. Out of the dozen points of no return he had recently passed, this moment right here was the most most point of no return. He realized that there was definitely no turning back now. He was wearing a diaper in front of his best friend, out and in the open and laid bare to whatever ridicule or comments or jokes Gallus might throw at him. This was it.

“Huh,” was all Gallus could think to say. In any other situation he might have cracked a joke to break the tension, but even a cocky griffin such as himself couldn’t find the words. “So I guess...that’s not, like, a baby diaper from the store or whatever.”

“I know...it’s weird,” Sandbar shrunk back, lowering his head in shame.

“Psh, not as weird as some of the other pony stuff you do,” Gallus shrugged, "you ponies have like a THOUSAND different holidays throughout the year."

There was a heavy silence for a moment or two as the pair just stared at each other. Gallus was still trying to process it all while Sandbar was resisting every instinct to just run off and never return.

“I-It just started as something I did sometimes,” Sandbar suddenly started to explain in a stammered ramble, “you know, when I’m stressed out or worried.”

“Yeah?”

“A-and it helps. It really does,” Sandbar blushed, “look, I just put one on because you asked. I don’t expect you to understand all of this. It’s just a secret thing I do and since you’re one of my best friends I just...” his words trailed off as his head dropped to the ground. “It’s stupid, I know...”

“A little silly, maybe, but you’re more relaxed now that you’re wearing it. I can tell,” Gallus said, “your hooves aren’t digging into the carpet anymore, that’s for sure.”

“My...hooves?” Sandbar repeated to himself as he took stock. He noticed the coiled spring in his chest wasn’t there anymore and his heartbeat returned to a normal rhythm. “Yeah I...I guess you’re right,” he smiled softly.

There was another mark of silence. However this bit of silence felt...softer than the ones before it. There wasn’t a stressful tension hanging in the air. Instead it was more relaxed. More...softer.

"S-so uhm...y-you couldn't find the cloud tonics?" Sandbar started.

"No yeah, I didn't really know where to look," Gallus shrugged.

"I put them in the "Cooking" box. Because you cook food in the kitchen and that's where food's usually stored?"

Gallus rolled his eyes, "yeah...guess it's so simple when you explain it like that."

In an uncharacteristically silent fashion, Gallus watched the pony waddle over to the closet. The diaper around his waist crinkled up a storm, practically begging to be looked at the most. It was certainly a bulky looking thing, pretty thick too. It really had a knack for keeping Sandbar’s legs apart just so, forcing him to do this sort of cute, toddlerish waddle everywhere he went. His padded behind wiggled this way and that as he sorted through the small stack of boxes stashed in the closet. It made Sandbar kinda look kinda adorable, Gallus thought, kinda, in a way. It looked absorbent as well and for a moment he half wondered just how much liquid it could hold.

After quite some time had passed, Gallus finally realized he had been gawking at Sandbar's butt this whole time. He immediately broke away from the staring contest once he caught himself and instead threw his gaze over at a seashell lamp that hung on the rightmost wall of the room. This seemed like a much better opponent for the griffin’s gaze, only his stupid cheeks wouldn’t stop blushing.

“Here ya go,” Sandbar’s voice suddenly appeared beside Gallus, making the blue griffin jump a bit in his seat.

“Oh uhm...thanks,” Gallus cleared his throat as he accepted the bottle and idly popped it open. A puff of orange mist wafted out before he took a healthy chug of the sugary drink that bubbled inside.

“Sorry it took so long. I didn’t realize you were so thirsty,” Sandbar commented, carefully lowering himself down into another beanbag. His diaper rustled around him as it’s soft insides brushed against his butt like a cozy pillow.

Gallus glanced up at Sandbar, accidentally looking more at the pony’s diaper than anything else. “...yeah...” He simply said with another uncomfortable clearing of his throat. Now there were butterflies stirring up his belly. Luckily a cool gulp of tonic seemed to be enough to extinguish that problem.

He leaned forward in his beanbag and idly watched the bubbly liquid in his tonic bottle slosh about. It was everything he could do to not glance up at Sandbar and risk another staring contest with the pony’s diaper. He watched the little orange colored rain cloud inside slowly fill the bottle back up. His blushing ears swiveled forward to focus on the hissing of a hundred little bubbles popping in rapid succession. If he had devoted one hundred percent of his energy into focusing on the bottle, he might have very well been able to pull it off, however, in a brief moment of weakness, he let his curiosity get the better of him and his eyes drifted once again to Sandbar’s crotch.

“So like..." he blurted out, "so like when you wear...those things.” He shifted in his seat when his wings suddenly got uncomfortable to wear. All of a sudden he couldn’t even say the word ‘diaper’. “...Do you ever..." he paused greatly between words, not really knowing what he was asking until right before he asked, "ever, y’know, use them or whatever?"

Sandbar grew quiet as he swallowed a nervous gulp. He felt like a deer caught in headlights. He didn’t quite know what to say. If he was being perfectly honest, he could come out and say that he DID enjoy wet diapers - quite a bit actually - and to him it seemed wasteful to ever wear a diaper without using them as well. But he didn’t want to openly admit all that stuff in front of his best friend like some kind of obsessed weirdo. He didn’t want to suddenly overwhelm Gallus with the weird things he does. The griffin looked open and understanding right now, but he couldn't imagine how he'd react if he just laid himself bare and confessed every tiny detail of his private life.

No, that would just be too much...

But then again he couldn’t exactly lie. Not only would he have to lie - which was a skill he could never quite master - but he’d have to lie to his best friend. And even without trying he knew it’d be impossible to pull that off. Especially one that was convincing enough for an experienced liar like Gallus.

“U-uhm...y-yeah...kinda...” Sandbar answered kind of weakly, immediately plugging his mouth with his bottle of tonic before he accidentally elaborated. He chugged his cherry drink for a bit before he bothered to look up at the griffin.

Now it was Gallus’s turn to gulp. Hearing Sandbar admit such a thing made his feathers shiver, but he didn't quite understand why. He gulped down some more tonic to chill the warm butterflies that were once again growing in his belly. A cocky griffin like himself had never felt so nervous before. It was almost...exciting to hear Sandbar open up to him like that. It was like he was happy that he trusted him enough to admit such things. He felt closer to his best friend in a way. In a way the secret sharing was...fun.

"Cool, alright," was all he ended up saying. "Well u-uhm..." he tried to regain his bearings with a slight stammer, "like I said I don't mind like this whole diaper thing and all so if you ever, ya'know...need to go or...whatever..."

“You’re okay with me...going in diapers? You’re serious?”

“I mean whatever, I don’t care,” Gallus cleared his throat, quaffing his tonic and trying ever so hard not to stare at anything but the wall straight in front of him, “you do you. If you gotta go, I won’t stop you.”

Another heavy silence fell over the room as the two continued to avoid eye contact with one another. It was an awkward silence. An embarrassing one. There were a dozen and a half things the two wanted to say to the other, but too shy to start.

After quite some time, it was Gallus who finally broke the silence and blurted out what crazy thing his mind was focused on for some reason. “I mean that’s what diapers are for, right? It’d be a waste otherwise,” he added, mostly saying this rather unneeded information to himself.

Again. Another bit of silence.

Sandbar wallowed in the stillness of the moment. His cheeks and ears burned with a bright pink color as he stared down at the plush diaper that covered his crotch. The thing was glaringly white, almost challenging him to pee in it. It was as if wetting it would not only satisfy his own desire to do so, but to prove to the thing that he could, in fact, use it. A twinge from his bladder happily added to the decision, pooling it’s vote with the diaper’s, making the choice all the more obvious.

“W-well...now that you mention it,” he muttered with a blush.

Gallus nearly choked on his drink. For a brief moment his body tried to breathe in the carbonated beverage straight into his lungs. Hearing Sandbar made his cheeks flare up pink and his wings all tingly again. It almost made him smile too if he wasn’t currently coughing up tonic.

Regardless of what the griffin’s reaction was going to be after he got done coughing, Sandbar fell silent and focused. His attention concentrated on letting go of his hold on his bladder. It started with a subtle sigh as his legs slowly splayed apart. A muffled hiss turned gurgling rumbled from his crotch as a splash of yellow began to spread across his diaper. It was surprisingly easy for him to let it go once it got started. Even with Gallus there, he found peeing himself to be completely effortless.

Gallus tried his best not to stare. He didn’t know much about Pony social convention when it came to situations like this. Honestly, who would. So he thought it more polite not to stare. Or maybe, he thought, he was expected to stare. Did ponies like to pee while being watched? Was that like some friendly friendship thing he should have been doing? Would it be supportive of him if he watched his best friend pee into a diaper? Was he staring right now? Was he staring too much? He shook his head to clear the fog of questions when it got too thick. He ended up switching between half staring at the diaper and half staring at the ground where his back feet idly pawed the soft carpet.

Minutes later and the faint gurgling subsided. Sandbar's eyes fluttered open as he leaned back in his seat. The diaper now rustled less and now loudly squished with every move he made.

“W-wow,” Gallus muttered, “you really...y-you really soaked that thing...”

“Y-yeah...” Sandbar blushed with a little smile.

The pony looked down at the swollen diaper that bulged out his crotch. Despite all that tension and anxiety of doing it in front of Gallus, the feel of the wet diaper was always so relaxing and made all those worries seem silly. It's heated warmth, it's squishy consistency, even it's hefty weight. It all just felt so...softly. He dared not touch it though, despite really REALLY wanting to do that right now. Touching it with a hoof seemed...risky to do in front of Gallus. He instead opted to just squeeze his thighs together to revel in subtle sensations.

There were a number of things Gallus wanted to do right now. He wanted to fly around outside for a bit. He wanted to ask how it felt to pee in a diaper. He wanted to see how far the moisture traveled down the back of the diaper. And of course, he wanted to crack a joke or two. But even stranger, he wanted to ask if he could wear a diaper as well.

And after much pondering and thought, Gallus made a very valid and very rational decision.

“I-I just remembered I got...I-I gotta uhm,” he stood up even before his mind could conjure up a valid excuse, “brush up on my Animal Husbandry notes. Wanna be prepared for Ms. Applejack’s test.”

“Oh...” Sandbar replied, puzzled, unsure, and feeling a bit small, “w-well I can help you with that if you’d want...”

“No no, you’ve already helped me a lot as it is,” Gallus waved the pony off, “b-besides, I wouldn’t want to...cramp your style or whatever.” He rattled on as he inched towards the door, “I mean it’s already been exciting...f-for you I mean, to, you know, wear a diaper in front of me.”

"I-I really appreciate you letting me," Sandbar replied, finding it difficult to stand up from such a warm and comfortable spot.

Gallus took one last glance at Sandbar and then another, much longer glance at Sandbar’s...wet diaper. His stupid cheeks began to grow warm again and his stupid wings got all tingly again. “Th-thanks for the tonic. I’ll uhm, see you later,” he said with a forced smile before slipping out the door.