Lil’ Baby Blank Flank
Chapter One
It’s not fair…
Apple Bloom trudged along the muddy trail that lead to the front door of her home, Applejack staying close every step of the way as they entered Sweet Apple Acres. The filly’s head was bowed and her eyes brimmed with tears as she walked, the rain thoroughly soaking her rosy red mane and yellow coat, and she didn’t even glance back to her sister. The both of them stayed totally silent as they approached the house, the only noise between them being the spring shower splashing from their coats and the rustling of the bulky, white plastic bag that Applejack held in her mouth.
Once they had reached the front door, under a sloped area that came off the roof to shelter them from the rain, Applejack paused before opening the door. Her younger sister’s pitiful made her stop completely for a few moments as she looked away from the teary eyes, reaching for the doorknob. With a quiet creak, she nudged the door open and—
“It’s not fair!”
—flinched when Apple Bloom screamed. The filly exploded into tears as she bolted through the door. Applejack was left completely stunned as her sister ran upstairs in a blinding gallop, and she removed her hat, sighed heavily and shook her head as the sound of hooves thundering on wood echoed through the house. She dropped the white bag as she heard a door slamming shut above her; Big Macintosh came rushing to her from the kitchen.
“What happened?”
Applejack gave him an apologetic and disappointed frown. “The doctor said that after all those tests they did, they still don’t know nothin’ about Apple Bloom’s accidents.”
“They don’t?” The stallion ran a hoof through his mane, inhaling deeply before breathing out. “So what now then?”
“I asked if they had somethin’ that could help, like a medicine to treat it with but…” She paused, sighing as Big Mac’s concerned expression intensified. “…there’s nothin’ that can help her. They don’t know why she keeps doin’ it and they haven’t got any medicine that can fix it. They told her that the only things they could provide for her were these.”
She unveiled the bulky package to reveal a brightly decorated wrapper with an image of a blushing pegasus filly on the front. Above the picture of the pony were the words ‘Silly Filly’ in bold letters, and the little pegasus below these words was wearing a thick, white diaper. Big Mac stared at the package with his usual calm look, staying silent as Applejack gave him a worried glance.
“Just for the nights?”
“No,” Applejack replied, sighing. “All day too.”
Her face was buried in the pillow. Her eyes were totally dry of tears. She remained perfectly still after crying herself into calmness. However, Apple Bloom’s mind still worried away with a thousand thoughts at once.
Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Why is this happening? I… I can’t go to school in a diaper! What am I gonna do?!
A knock on her door brought her mind some short relief from the stress. She mumbled loudly through the pillows to allow the guest to enter, the door opening after a short while.
“How’re you doin’, sugar cube?” said Applejack gently. Apple Bloom didn’t even move; she just stayed absolutely still, staring into the darkness of the fabric that she relaxed her face on. It was some time before her sister spoke again.
“Are you hungry? There’s some apple strudel supreme cookin’ away down in the kitchen. You know it’s your favourite!”
This time, the filly replied with a short, sharp sigh before turning her back on the door- and Applejack- before curling herself up on the quilts. She tried not to look at the mare, who moved around to the side of the bed that her sister was looking at before sitting on it, the two ponies side by side.
“C’mon Apple Bloom,” Applejack said after a short silence, wrapping her foreleg around the filly. “It’s not gonna be that bad. I’m sure there’s plenty of girls your age that have the same problem—”
“How many do you know?”
Applejack blinked, pondering the question for a moment or two. Apple Bloom was right; there were none. The mare abandoned that approach, hesitating as she thought of something else.
“Well... what about if you wore a long dress? You know, to keep ‘em covered or somethin’?
Apple Bloom sighed, looking at Applejack with an expression that resembled mourning. “Look, I know you’re tryin’ to help but I might as well face it... my life is over.”
“Aw, now that’s just silly!” Applejack said with a slight smile, “Do you really think that it’s the end of the world because you need to wear a diaper?”
The awkward silence and Apple Bloom’s furrowed brows gave her the exact answer to her question. “Jus’ don’t rub it in,” the filly said, turning away from her sister. “And yeah it is! Everypony’s gonna laugh at me and I’ll never be able to show my face in town again... maybe even all of Equestria!”
“Everypony? Are you sure about that? What about Sweetie and Scootaloo?”
“They won’t laugh,” Apple Bloom explained, her voice filling with worry, “but they won’t wanna be with me knowing that I’m just some... some diapered freak!”
Without hesitation, Applejack gently wrapped herself around the filly for a hug. “No, don’t say that. You’re not a freak for somethin’ you can’t help, and you don’t know your friends as well as you should if you think they’ll abandon you because of it. Did they walk away when they noticed that you had an... uh... you know...”
Apple Bloom sniffed, preventing her from crying again. “No.”
“Right, and they didn’t poke fun at you either. They understood what was goin’ on. They may have been a little shocked at first, but that’s jus’ the way it is. But you an’ I both know that they’ll stand by you and help you every step of the way, jus’ like I will.”
Apple Bloom turned to Applejack’s warm smile and returned the hug, burying herself in her sister’s embrace. “I guess... I’ll try ‘em then.”
“Alright then, how’s this for you? For every week that you wear the diapers, I’ll wear one too for the whole of Saturday. How ‘bout that?”
Apple Bloom began to laugh at the image of her sister strutting into Rarity’s Boutique or working the orchard in a diaper. She was in a full fit of giggles at the thought, soon pausing after a little while. “You’d do that for me? You got yourself a deal!”
The two sisters shook on it and the filly agreed to come down for her desert with a carefree smile on her face.
She instantly regretted making the deal the second she stepped out from the front door the following morning. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were staring at Apple Bloom’s long, plain red dress, which stretched all the way over her flank, with confused eyes.
“So Apple Bloom,” Sweetie began, “what’s the occasion?”
“N-No occasion! I jus’ fancied a change of fashion, is all. It’s perfect dress weather!” she replied, pointing at the sky. Her friends looked upwards; it was a particularly overcast day, the clouds hinting at a light shower for lunchtime.
“Sure...” Scootaloo said. “So, how’d the doctor’s go?”
“It went fine!” Apple Bloom blurted out. “There’s nothin’ wrong! Everythin’s jus’ fine!”
Sweetie and Scootaloo exchanged looks as Apple Bloom gave them a wide, uneasy grin, with a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Sweetie asked. “The last time you wore something like a dress, you were hiding something. Remember the cutesenera?”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo added. “Is there something wrong?”
“N-No! Like I said, everything’s fine!”
Both Sweetie and Scootaloo gave her unimpressed looks, creating an awkward silence between the three of them. Apple Bloom bit her lip, her eyes shifting as she nervously dug her hooves into the decking. She sighed sharply, knowing that she had to tell them sooner or later. Slowly, she reached towards her flank and pulled back the dress; her friends gasped as a fresh, white diaper was revealed.
“A... diaper?!” the unicorn exclaimed, her voice cracking slightly.
“But why? What did the doctor say?” Scootaloo asked, sounding less shocked than Sweetie Belle. Her eyes were still wide.
Apple Bloom flustered, trying her hardest not to look at the both of them. She began to explain quietly, flushing as she readjusted her dress.
“They said there was nothin’ they could do. I have no choice. I have to wear one all day. It sounds unnecessary, but last night I... well, the diaper I woke up with wasn’t as fresh as the one I went to bed in.”
“Woah, spare the details!” Scootaloo cut in. “So you’ve got to wear diapers. Big deal! Like me or Sweetie care. I mean, like we care that you do have to wear... uh... I mean...”
“She means that we don’t care if you’re wearing them because you’re still the same Apple Bloom, am I right?” Sweetie Belle explained. Scootaloo nodded.
“Right, the diapers don’t change a thing!”
Apple Bloom looked at their friendly smiles before sighing and returning their gestures. “Thanks. I’m jus’ feelin’ nervous about goin’ to school like this, that’s all. I can’t hide ‘em forever!”
The three fell into an unsettled silence, the gloomy prospect of eventual discovery dawning upon them. The question arose: how were they going to hide Apple Bloom’s diaper without the dress? Whatever the answer was, it would have to wait. Applejack opened the front door and handed her sister her school bag.
“Here ya’ go sugar cube!” she said with a smile. “Your lunch, your books and a ch—”
She stopped herself, whispering into Apple Bloom’s ear. “A change if you need one. Oh, and give this note to Miss Cheerilee.”
She handed her sister a folded piece of paper, which she placed in the pocket of her bag, and gave her a quick hug.
“Applejaaaaack!” Apple Bloom groaned, blushing as she heard Sweetie and Scootaloo giggle at the family moment. Applejack backed away, smiling awkwardly at the trio of fillies as she bid them good day. The unicorn and pegasus couldn’t help but laugh at Apple Bloom’s embarrassment once her sister was gone.
“Yeah, like Rarity hasn’t hugged you in front of me and Scoots, Sweetie,” she said with a unimpressed glare.
It was a short walk from Sweet Apple Acres to the Ponyville Schoolhouse, but it was one that was filled with much silence between the three fillies. They had arrived very early in the morning compared to the other students, even though they had taken to reading the note that Applejack had given Apple Bloom, and the only others that were in the classroom with them as they creeped inside were—
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the blank flank patrol!”
—Diamond Tiara, sitting behind her desk whilst fawning over a pocket mirror that she always kept close to her; she took it out that often in lessons, Apple Bloom thought to herself. Silver Spoon was standing next to her pretty pink friend with an unamused and uninterested look on her face as she eyed up Apple Bloom’s dress, saying nothing. Scootaloo stepped forwards.
“Oh yeah, like we’ve never heard that one before. What are you two doing here? You’ve never cared about anything except your own faces.”
“True,” Diamond replied, clicking her mirror shut and placing it in her tiny, red bag- more of a shopping bag than one for school- before hopping from her seat. “We were dropped off because of my daddy’s urgent business. He’s working so hard, soon I’ll have a golden tiara that’s encrusted with diamonds. And what kind of money does your father make, Scootaloser?”
The pegasus filly prepared to retort, the angry glint in her eyes setting Apple Bloom on edge. She backed away, but not before Diamond Tiara spotted her at the back of the group. She only managed to get as far away as a couple of inches before she was standing directly in front of the rich filly.
“And why are you wearing that?” Diamond demanded contemptuously. Apple Bloom said nothing, moving in a circle as she was inspected by her worst enemy. She managed to keep the filly’s gaze on only the front of her dress before Sweetie Belle rose to the defence, standing directly in front of Diamond Tiara.
“It’s a present from my sister,” she said, making herself appear bigger by standing on the tips of her hooves. “It’s an early birthday gift from us.”
Whether or not her tactic worked was debateable; after giving Apple Bloom a curious look that made the earth pony filly sweat slightly, Diamond Tiara shrugged and returned to her seat.
“There’s no need to be so defensive,” she said as she sat down. “What’s there to hide under there aside from your blank flank anyway?”
Scootaloo and Sweetie prepared to answer back, but the chiming of a distant bell made them think again. Apple Bloom flinched, placing her back against the wall to disguise her diaper. She pulled her dress as far as it would go over the white garment as more fillies and colts filed into the room, taking their places at their desks. Miss Cheerilee was last to enter.
“Okay boys and girls,” she said, raising her voice over the chatter. Only Apple Bloom remained standing, trembling in front of the many young ponies in front of her; she counted thousands.
“Oh, what a lovely dress Apple Bloom!” said Cheerilee, making the filly’s head snap towards her with a yelp of ‘Huh?!’.
“T-Thanks Miss Cheerilee,” she responded, stumbling over her words. She suddenly remembered; she dipped her hoof into her satchel and pulled out the note that Applejack had written, handing it over to her teacher. She and her friends had already read it on the way to school, and she remembered the exact wording of it:
‘Please excuse Apple Bloom’s dress today, but she’s been having a problem lately. She may need to be excused during class to take care of some personal business for five minutes.
Applejack’
“Oh?” Cheerilee asked as she finished reading. She lowered her head and whispered into Apple Bloom’s ear. “What sort of problem?”
Apple Bloom wished that she could just curl up and shrink into nothingness right in front of her to spare herself the humiliation of having to explain. Applejack should have just said on the letter that she was wearing a diaper, she thought. That would have been much less painful for the both of them. Instead, she had to swallow her pride and whisper her explanation into her teacher’s ear.
“Ah,” Cheerilee whispered back, nodding. She gave Apple Bloom a comforting smile. “Don’t worry then. You may be excused if you need to, just raise your hoof. Oh, but could we please have a word after class?”
No! Apple Bloom’s mind screamed. All she wanted to do was finish the day and get back home as quickly as possible. But instead, she was put off by the sea of colts and fillies staring at her from behind their desks; she nodded and quietly walked to her desk, sitting down carefully to avoid making her diaper crinkle louder than necessary.
“Alright then children, let’s begin today’s lesson...”
If there was one good thing that came out of wearing a diaper, Apple Bloom thought as the dreary maths lesson dragged on, it was definitely the comfort she got from them. She hadn’t noticed it before, but it felt like a cloud had descended from the heavens and was now hugging her flank and rear in a gentle yet firm grip, the plush softness feeling bouncy against the cold, hard wood of her chair.
However, she was not focussing on the cheery voice of her teacher as she was educated on the intricacies or the complexities of the times tables, or the blissful comfort that her padding provided. She was busy scanning the room every few seconds to make sure that nopony was looking at her. Suspecting her. Trying to discover what her dress concealed. Her mind was put to rest though; many of the fillies seemed to be staring blankly at the backboard at the front of the class. Snips and Snails were sitting near the windows, getting ready for a round of ‘The Quiet Game’ (in which two ponies must compete to get the other to make a noise, usually through hitting them when they aren’t paying attention), and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were similarly bored, resting their heads in their hooves. Only the pony to Apple Bloom’s left- Diamond Tiara- seemed to give her the occasional glance.
“...and if all else fails, remember the ‘times rhymes’!” Cheerilee concluded. Everypony relaxed, the lesson finished but the day not over; Cheerilee walked over to the flipchart in the corner of the room and turned a page, taking a pen in her mouth and writing the word ‘Family’ in large, bold letters.
“Now then, for next week I’d like you all to prepare a short presentation for the rest of the class, all about your family. It can be about who they are, what they do together with you, what you like and even what you hate about them! I’ve already chosen who will go first: Diamond Tiara, Twist and Apple Bloom will be on Monday.”
Apple Bloom’s heart sank. She had only just gotten used to the idea of concealing her diaper with the dress, but now she would have nowhere to hide.
Especially if I have an accident! she thought.
...accident?
Oh no...
It hit her hard, like a bullet to the chest; she hadn't felt it before, but now there was no mistaking the warm and wet feeling in the middle of her diaper. She bit her lip as her eyes went as wide as craters from the growing feeling of warmth in the back as well. She rose from her seat just an inch, and she felt weighed down ever-so-slightly by a strange force. She gulped. She had messed herself and she knew it. She tried not to sit back down as her eyes darted left and right.
“For the last fifteen minutes, let’s have some quiet reading,” Cheerilee said. “Everyone, take out your books... and no talking!”
The class obeyed, reaching into their desks and pulling out the books that they had. Apple Bloom, however, could not. The sagging feeling was becoming intense as she slowly began to sweat, the faint smell of her own shame arriving at her nostrils. She knew that she had to act fast, raising her hoof halfway into the air as she waited for her teacher to confirm her gesture. It seemed like an eternity, but when Cheerilee did look from her own novel that she was reading, Apple Bloom gave her the most desperate and pleading look she could muster.
“Go on then,” Cheerilee silently mouthed at her, pointing to the door. Apple Bloom could definitely smell her own messy diaper now, making her gag silently as she began to creep to the classroom door. She had attracted the attention of one filly near the back of the room, making her break into a brisk walk as she hurried to the bathroom.
Oh no, the change!
In her haste, she had left behind her fresh, clean diaper and other changing supplies in her school bag next to her desk. She was already halfway to the door, but she had no time to think. Gasping, she dashed back towards her chair and grabbed the bag with her mouth—
“Ugh, what is that smell?!”
—freezing solid as Diamond Tiara made her question known to everypony in the room. She was shushed by Cheerilee, but not before the entire class began to mutter amongst themselves, some of them sniffing the air.
“It wasn’t me this time, I swear!” Snails declared. Apple Bloom, in a gut-wrenching panic, bolted for the classroom door with the bag in her mouth—
“Ah!”
—and the bag’s strap around her hoof. She was sent flying down the ailse between the desks, crashing to the floor as she tripped, landing with a deafening thud. She groaned, slowly blinking as she regained her bearings. Yet something was wrong... the room had became silent again all of a sudden. Her eyes drifted around the room, and she noticed everypony looking right at her.
Then her heart stopped. Her head turned back to her flank. Her classmates weren’t looking at her.
They were looking at her exposed diaper.
“She’s... She’s in a diaper!” Diamond Tiara yelled, first after a fit of giggles. Now, she was in full, roaring with laughter along with the rest of her classmates. Apple Bloom slowly stood as everypony stared and pointed at her, her face flushing as the cutting, childish, taunting laughter sunk in. She stood rooted to the spot as she was made a spectacle, the only ponies not taking the same enjoyment from her humiliation being Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon and Cheerilee. The magenta mare was shouting for her class to be quiet as she attempted to disperse the group surrounding Apple Bloom, but the mocking did not stop. The filly’s eyes welled up with tears as she heard Diamond Tiara call out something that echoed in her mind.
“She’s a baby blank flank!”
The entire class joined in with the chant, pointing and giggling at the diapered filly before them. Apple Bloom’s head darted about like a rabbit caught in headlights, her eyes filling with tears at every shout of ‘baby blank flank’. She could stand there no longer, breaking into a sobbing flood as she bolted for the door, galloping from the classroom with jeering laughter seeing her off.
She never looked back as she ran all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres, the downpour soaking her as she cried her eyes out.
“How long’s she been in there?”
Applejack stood outside the bathroom door, panting and dripping with rain. After a hard day’s work in the orchard, the last thing she wanted was bad news from her brother about Apple Bloom. Yet it came, forcing her to drop her baskets and sprint back to the house.
Big Mac shook his head. “Ten minutes.”
The mare stepped up to the door, knocking on it lightly with her hoof. “Apple Bloom, please open up. I wanna talk to you.”
She pressed her ear against the door, hearing her sister’s sniffles and quiet sobbing come from the other side. Looking back to Big Mac with a grave expression, she tried again.
“Sugarcube, please. You’ll feel better if you talk about it.”
“Jus’ go away,” the filly on the other side of the door said quietly, her voice filled with a childlike pain that even hurt Applejack upon hearing it. She sighed, trying the doorknob. Locked.
“I’m sorry ‘bout what happened but I can’t help if you won’t let me. Please, jus’ open up.”
She pressed herself to the door once again, backing away as she heard the click of the lock. In agonisingly slow motion, the bathroom opened to reveal Apple Bloom, without her dress and still in her messy diaper. She stood there with tears running down her cheeks, taking deep sniffles as she tried to compose herself in front of her sister. Applejack nodded to Big Mac, who trotted back downstairs, and entered the cosy room. She locked the door behind her, giving the two of them complete privacy.
Both of the ponies remained totally silent, Applejack looking down at her sister and Apple Bloom looking away.
“Apple Bloom,” Applejack said quietly, gently placing her hoof on the filly’s shoulder, “I know how awful it is for you right now, but the worst is over. Now that they know, you won’t have to hide behind that dress anymore.”
The sniffling filly didn’t acknowledge her. She kept her mouth shut as she tried to not look ashamed.
“I understand how you feel, but... I... I...”
“Why’d you make me go?” Apple Bloom mumbled, silencing Applejack. The mare sighed heavily, bringing herself down to the same level as her sister.
“Now you know that you had to face the world sooner or later, and it’s better that you did now than—”
“You don’t have to wear ‘em though!” the filly snapped, stepping back. “You don’t know what it’s like! They laughed at me... they humiliated me! They’ll do it over and over again and... and they’ll point and stare everywhere I go, callin’ me... they called me ‘baby blank flank’!”
“I’m sorry about that,” Applejack said, her voice wavering slightly, “but I’m tryin’ to help...”
“Applejack...” Apple Bloom paused for a long while, swallowing before she began again. “What if my special talent is just usin’ diapers!”
The mare’s eyes went wide as she tried to suppress a nervous giggle. “What? You think that there’s a diaper cutie mark out there? Please, don’t say that, ‘specially not to yourself.”
“But what if there is?! Everypony in my class already knows about my problem, and soon the whole of Equestria will too! If I can’t prove myself to be somepony that can do somethin’ right, other than mess a diaper in the middle of class, then... then what if my body decides that’s jus’ what I’m good at?!”
Applejack tried to think of the right answer. Nothing came. No words or any advice that she had learned from knowing her sister or her friends could help her. All she could do was try to give Apple Bloom a gentle hug to comfort her, but the filly turned away and slowly broke out into tears once more.
“Please... jus’ leave me alone.”
The both of them were left apart from each other, Applejack resting her back on the bathroom door as she ran her hoof through her mane, trying to think but unsure where to even begin. Apple Bloom was on the other side, crying quietly once more.
