After the awkward moment that happened during the changing time, Lux, Nutriz, Twilight and the foals came back in the classroom to start their routine again. The rest of the two hours weren't really notable for Twilight, since she remained in the corner doing the same thing she had done for the first three hours.
But finally, after two hours among the foals and the chaos, Twilight Sparkle was free to go home, and pass the rest of the day as an adult, since her father was in charge during the afternoon.
After she said goodbye to both the teacher and the foals, Twilight ran out of the building and walked towards her home. Strangely, the streets were as deserted as she found them when she went to Kindergarten.
Arrived at the gate of her house after few minutes, Twilight rang the bell, and waited for Sedula to open the gate .
As Sedula walked along with Twilight, the formed asked to the latter.
"So, Twilight, do you want some help with getting rid of the attire which your mother forced you to wear?"
The two entered in the house, and Twilight climbed the stairs.
"I'd wish to be alone for a couple of minutes, Sedula," said Twilight while walking the stairs "So, no thanks. If I need help, I'm going to ask for it directly."
The old valet nodded, and went to the kitchen.
"As you wish, Twilight."
Done with that, Twilight went to her defiled bedroom. There, she started her undressing: she loosened the string that kept the smock on her body, delicately got it off, then folded it, and put it in the wardrobe. As for getting off her unused diaper, Twilight placed herself back down on the bed, lifted her legs, untaped the garment with magic, slid off the diaper, and threw it in the paper bin in the room, even though it was clean.
Looking decent once again, Twilight went downstairs into the dining room, where the lunch was waiting for her.
The table was set with three seats with a white place mat with laces at the rims if front of each and a small bronze bell at the end of the table.
Twilight's one had a white soup dish with blue stripes, a light blue dinner plate under it. The cutlery was made of steel and had ivory handles, and transparent glass shaped like a stem.
The other seats also were set with that kind of dishes and cutlery, the only difference being the glass for Night Light, an Oktoberfest-sized jug, and Twilight Velvet's porcelain lacking the soup dish.
Twilight sat down on the red padded chair, followed by Night Light and Twilight Velvet. When everyone was settled down, Night Light lifted the bronze bell, then shook it, and proclaimed.
"Sedula, let's start with the First Course!"
The valet answered with a shout.
"Right away sir!" She came in the room with a big steaming bowl a moment later.
Sedula put the bowl in the middle of the table, and served Twilight a ration of peas and cream noodles. Twilight immediately started to eat up her ration in a pretty coarse manner, while Night Light ate his ration more slowly, puffing his chest like a pigeon.
As they ate, Twilight Velvet asked her daughter.
"So, what did you do at the Kindergarten, Twily?"
Twilight literally inhaled some noodles.
"What do you expect? I drew various things. After all, I could not really interact with the foals, since they have other interests, they likely don't understand a good part of my words, and they seem afraid of me."
Twilight asked Sedula to give her some more noodles.
"Somehow, I can understand them. If an adult had come in my Kindergarten class dressed like me, but acting and talking differently, I would have been unsure and afraid too."
Twilight Velvet stretched herself towards her namesake offspring to give her an unexplained kiss.
"Oh, my lovely daughter. Always so grumpy."
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Mother... morning's over. Now it's the time I act like an adult."
Twilight Velvet tightly hugged her daughter, to the latter's dismay and annoyance.
"But you are still my little foal."
"That would sound a lot less creepy and annoying, if I wasn't forced to act like one during the morning."
Night Light deflated his chest, and after gently placing the fork on the plate, he called Sedula to take away the soup dishes, and bring in the salad. Done that, he entered in the discussion.
"About morning and afternoon cycles. The Rotary Society has called. They want me at Romea for a meeting, and I've decided that, since I'm already there, I will pay a visit to all my relatives, and spend some time with them. I am going tomorrow morning."
Twilight's heart stopped for a second. If her father was at Romea, then it meant that Velvet had basically the total control over the day, and, since Night Light was the president of the Rotary at Canterlot, this meant that he could not avoid going, and thus, leaving home was inevitable for at least a day. Twilight still asked, as to know for how long she was going to be treated like a little filly full-time.
"So, how long is this… journey going to take?"
Night Light took some salad.
"Around a week. After the meeting, I'd wish to visit my mother, my father, aunt Lucky, aunt Eraclina, uncle Lionheart, uncle Italiota, uncle Benson..."
Twilight had a void at most of the names mentioned by her father, because she never had heard of them, let alone saw them. But the fact she had not seen a good chunk of the family from her fahter's side was not her concern right there, right now. She was mostly concerned of the pact done just the day before.
"And... about the 'Kid during the morning, Adult during the afternoon' rules?"
Velvet looked at her husband with puppy dog eyes, and started to whimper like a beaten dog. Sighing, Night Light fulfilled his wife's unspoken request.
"As much as it will annoy you, that rule is lifted until I come back."
From nowhere, an orchestra of brass played, and driven by a mysterious force Twilight went in the middle of the salon, and dramatically fell flat on her stomach.
Sedula ran towards Twilight, and asked if she was alright. Night Light scolded Twilight, saying that such reaction was uncalled for. Twilight Velvet kept eating her salad and her helping of tofu as if nothing was happening.
After that moment of commotion, Twilight said that she was no longer hungry, and that she had some important things to do. Before Sedula or Night Light could even ask what she was talking about, Twilight had already ran away into the library of the house.
Twilight opened the cedar wood door with a slam, and started to tear the books away from the shelves.
"'Pedagogy' no. 'Psychosis' no. 'How not to be a good Mother' no. '101 Things to tell a foal from a teenager' no. No, no, no, no"
Those were the only words that Twilight muttered, while looking for a book to do... something. Something to get out of that situation. Something that could tell her what to do. Alas, she did not find any books titled "How to Survive in the Magic Kindergarten as an Adult with an Insane Mother."
Even so, the frantic research served a purpose. It calmed Twilight down, and made her a bit more reflexive.
"Alright, Twilight. Think. You are going to be in the house with your mother. Now, this mother wants you to act like a foal, despite the eclatant clues that you are not, only because you are going to Kindergarten. What do you do?"
Twilight sat on the oak chair near the poplar desk of the library. Done that, she let her gaze wander, so to "catch" an idea
"Maybe I should run away, if this situation is so uncomfortable."
Self-satisfied, Twilight was starting to reorganized the books that she threw on the floor. As she reorganized, however, she spotted a problem in her solution.
"I don't have much money, and I cannot camp out in a tent for four months."
Sighing, Twilight muttered while rearranging the shelves. "If only I could enjoy the same activities that my classmates do... maybe I would bear my mother's behavior more easily."
An idea flashed in Twilight's head, and she jumped in front of the enlightenment. "Of course! I need to learn to act fully like a three-years old, if I want to get rid of this annoyance! After all, my mother seems to have a pretty idealized idea of the foalhood, and the problems that a parent faces with a three-years old foal with lacking control! The tantrums, the constant 'hurting', the constant need to ask her to go to the bathroom every ten minutes, the pickiness in the eating! After a week, she is going to give up, and finally let me live like the adult I am."
Twilight finished ordering of the highest row of books.
"Yeah... but how I can do that? I've burned down all the memoirs that I had of my foalhood, after I turned 13, and it's a miracle that I could not burn down Cadance, how I am gonna do that, if I have only a bare outline of how a foal acts and talks?"
Twilight remained in silent thought, as she ended reordering the shelves. After twenty minutes of thinking and rearranging, Twilight found the solution.
"But of course, my Kindergarten classmates. Just try to befriend them, and look at them. If you do it correctly, you should be able to copy them in times of need with your mother."
Satisfied with herself, Twilight went in her room, and passed the rest of the afternoon and the evening there, waiting for the Sun to set, and the dinner to be ready.
A dinner and seven hours of sleep later, Twilight woke up in her rather small bed. Looking outside the window, she realized two things: that the Sun was rising, and that Velvet was going to break in, and start the madness once again. And, this time, it was going to last for an entire day. Since she wanted to keep the dialogues with her mother at the bare minimum, until she figured out a way to wear down her mother's madness, Twilight decided to take the initiative, and diaper herself.
Twilight jumped out of bed and, while walking with a silent step, she reached the bathroom to complete the morning ritual, and free herself of the secretions that could try to exit at the worst possible moment.
Done that, she came back to the wardrobe in her room. Twilight opened it, and extracted the diaper box from the right corner of the piece of furniture. Done that, she walked back to the bed, put the box nearby, lied down, so to make the process easier, extracted one of the purple absorbent garments from the box, slid it under her back and taped it to her waist.
Now diapered and almost ready to go, Twilight levitated the pink smock that she had thrown in the middle of the room the day before, and put it on, fastening the rope and pulling the wrinkled parts of the smock. When she was finally dressed up and ready to start the day, Twilight went downstairs, and, while she waited for Sedula to arrive, she set the table with the usual choice of porcelains and cutlery.
After a while, Sedula Serva entered silently in the house. After greeting, and not receiving response from Twilight, the valet mechanically cooked the breakfast for every member of the family.
When finally everything was done, Night Light, half-shaved and with a dangling tie around his neck, arrived levitating a luggage from upstairs.
"Good morning, Twilight. Did Sedula or you prepare anything special for my departure?"
"No, father, nothing at all."
Sighing, Night Light started to gobble up cookies, and drank the coffee in the cup in one gulp, all while standing.
"That's a pity, but it's okay, since I am in a hurry. Take care of yourself, my daughter, and behave yourself." then Twilight's father ran towards the main door, breaking it.
After greeting her father, Twilight sat down, and quietly started to have her own breakfast, composed of coffee, eggs and bread, all while Sedula tried to fix up the busted door with the best of her abilities.
The peace of Twilight's breakfast was, not surprisingly, broken by a chirp, and hooves tip-tapping on the marble.
"Twiiilllyyy, where are you?"
Twilight grunted at the sing-song of her insane mother, and to avoid troubles. She also drank the coffee in one go, despite the hotness of the beverage, and the feeling of scorched wasteland it left in her throat.
"How is my precious filly doing?" Twilight Velvet sat on the chair with a whirl.
Twilight replied with an acidic tone.
"Very good. At least, until you came in."
Velvet started to eat the remaining biscuits.
"Oooh, we are grumpy today, aren't we?" Velvet, to Twilight's extreme annoyance, pinched her cheeks.
"But I think you are going to be happier, once at the Kindergarten."
Twilight nodded, and said with a sigh:
"Of course, mother."
It was only a half lie: while she wasn't happy to go to the Kindergarten and stay with the foals per se, she was content that, at least, she could study their behaviour, and learn how to mimic it when needed.
Twilight Velvet and Twilight Sparkle terminated their breakfast at the same time. Velvet immediately took away the dishes and the cups, and carried them to the kitchen, where Sedula slowly started to wash them.
Done that, Velvet started to skip towards the door.
"It's time to go, Twily."
Without questions, Twilight followed Velvet outside.
The streets were crowded, but, apart from the curious gazes of few ponies, no comments about Twilight's outfit and destination were made by anypony.
Once again in front of the decorated building, Velvet kissed her daughter.
"See you later," she said with her usual cheerful-and-yet-creepy voice. Twilight, after a moment of confusion and blushing caused by the kiss, united herself with horde of colts and fillies that were entering in the building, heading to their respective classes. Twilight, quite obviously, followed the stream that headed for the class of the "Chicks."
When Twilight entered in the class, followed by the few classmates left behind, Lux closed the door, while Nutriz did a quick name call of the foals that were there. Twilight used the name call as a way to identify each foal, and so track down the ones that could be suitable for her purposes.
At the end of the name call, Nutriz gave the explicit authorization to break loose to the foals. And they complied.
Now Twilight, the only one that remained in the center of the room, proceeded to look at the foals, and see their way of act.
Twilight chose the same corner she had used the day before for draw as an observation spot. This time, she took the black marker and three sheets of blank paper, in order to start to list up the foals that could help in her quest for examples of foals' misbehaving and tantrums.
In the confusion of the class, Twilight saw a scene that got her attention. A light blue colt with a straight red mane was bickering with a pink filly with white curly mane, presumably about the possession of a box of construction blocks, since the colt was keeping tightly a small brown plastic box a colorful block fell from everytime it was shaken. Their movements were visible and clear, allowing Twilight to note easily some possible gestures of an angry 2-years old, but they did not transmitte what the foals were actually saying between each other.
Twilight got nearer, so to be at hearing distance from the bickering between the foals.
The colt said with a strangely familiar voice, one that Twilight had heard some time before, but less raspy, "This box is mine. Hooves off!"
The filly answered with a high-pitched voice.
"No, it is mine and all mine!" She grabbed it, in the desperate attempt to either get it back, or appropriate herself of the blocks in the box.
The colt pulled the box towards himself.
"No! Mine!"
The filly answered with the same reaction.
"It. Is. Mine."
The response of the colt was unsurprising. Pulling of the box towards his chest he yelled:
"Mine!"
And they kept going for a while, before the filly had a burst of magic, one that caused the box to be pulled out of the colt's little hooves, causing him to cry in annoyance/fake pain, and the blocks contained in the box got scattered around the landing zone of the aforementioned box.
At that point, Lux Foal intervened.
"What's going on here?" she asked with a stern tone, one that basically made the legitimate question into purely rhetoric one.
The colt immediately jumped up on his hooves, and, with tears still going down his cheeks, he pointed at the filly and said:
"She stole my box!"
The teacher raised an eyebrow.
"Your box?"
The filly bursted in.
"It was mine!"
The teacher looked at the filly.
"If the box was his, then it cannot be yours."
The filly ignored the phrase of the teacher, and tried to defend her position with her lackluster oratory abilities alone.
"But it was really of me!"
The colt answered back.
"No, it was mine!"
The two foals stepped forward, as to start physical contact, when the teacher separated them with magic.
"So, you say it is yours." The teacher looked at the colt, and he nodded affirmatively "And it is yours." She looked at the filly, and she also nodded. "How about… it's of both?"
The two foals, with the same stubbornness they shared with the drunken and the students hated by every teacher in a school, answered with the most simple of the phrases.
"NO!"
The teacher, after hearing that response, looked at both the foals with a stern glance.
"If you don't want to share it, then no one gets it." The teacher levitated the box away from the reach of the little hooves of the foals. The colt concentrated himself and tried to pull the box out of the control of Lux , while the filly whined.
"And, if you keep trying to get it back, you will receive a time-out!"
The colt gave up, and sighed. The filly, on other hoof, had no sense of when it was time to surrender, and thus launched herself on the leg of Lux Foal, attempting to cause physical harm to the teacher, and, naturally, failing to accomplish her goal.
Lux levitated the filly and, without any other words, she carried her to the room at the opposite side of the classroom. Intrigued by this, Twilight tried to follow the teacher in her carrying, and see where she was going. Twilight stopped herself nearby the door to avoid getting in trouble.
Lux went through the hallway with the filly still firmly in her magic grasp. Even from that distance, Twilight could tell she had a smug face.
The teacher opened the door with one of her hooves, revealing the darkness behind the door. Lux entered with the filly, then she closed the door.
For a few minutes, nothing happened, leaving Twilight holding her breath from the suspense. She could breath once again when Lux came back from the room with the filly hanging her head low walking behind the teacher. The expression of the filly got Twilight's attention, because she had passed from a smug look to a shame-filled gaze, leaving Twilight wondering what could have caused that reaction.
Twilight returned back to the center of the room, and waited for Lux to come back with the filly.
When both were finally back in the room, Twilight decided to get an answer to her question, by asking directly the involved filly.
"Hello there, little one. What's your name?"
The filly answered with slightly broken voice.
"My name is Lecs Populli. What's your name?"
Like she was used to do, Twilight slightly bowed, and tended her hoof towards the filly.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. Can I ask you a question?"
Giggling, the filly asked back:
"Yes?"
"I saw you getting in trouble, and dragged by the teacher to the room at the opposite of this classroom. I saw you entering there with a sure defiant look, and you exited with a beaten one. Care to tell me what happened?"
The filly raised her smock, revealing a white diaper, with a red arrow pointing at the bottom of the filly, and the phrase "Spank me" over the arrow. Then, the filly sat down, revealing the front of the diaper, who had the phrase "I am a bad filly" over it.
Twilight somehow felt sympathy for the filly, despite the sheer lightness and absurdity of the punishment given to the filly.
"It's ok" Twilight revealed her purple diaper "I, an adult, also wear them. It's nothing that should make you feel embarrassed." Twilight knew that she had just told a lie to Lex, but since she was trying to win her, being honest on everything wouldn't be really useful.
The filly giggled at the sight, and, for some reason, started to poke the diaper, before asking if Twilight wanted to play a game.
Twilight felt a sense of embarrassment and insecurity, similar to the one she had felt when she had come in Ponyville to recruit the Bearers of the Elements. However, at the same time, she felt it different. she scolded herself
"Come on, Twilight, it should not be that hard. You managed to defeat the Chaos made flesh, you cannot be afraid of a filly! If you don't know how to act, just imagine it's Pinkie Pie, but without the reality-bending powers!"
Smiling awkwardly, Twilight asked Lex Populi for a second. Done that, Twilight started to write up her annotations about foals' behaviour and speech patterns.
"They tend to use the Argumentum ad Nauseam to get what they want. They tend to exaggerate the gestures. They may not be aware of the incoming punishments. They tend to change their mind often."
Once she wrote that, Twilight complied to Lex Populi's request of playing.
The day after, in Ponyville, with the Sun that had just risen for three hours ago, in the back shop of the Carousel Boutique, Rarity was giving the final stitches to the smocks that she had created under the suggestion given by Applejack while they were discussing about what to do about Twilight's punishment, and under the deadline of two days after the decision. Namely, today.
Said smocks, pretty simple in their design, were light pink like Sweetie Belle's old smock that didn't get lost during the time for some reason, and had several plissets on the flanks, with a pin shaped like the cutie mark of each of the four Rarity's friends keeping the ropes.
As Rarity finished sewing the name of Pinkie Pie on her smock, Rarity heard a trot come behind her. Surprised by that, she rotated her head, and saw her little sister Sweetie Belle walking towards her.
"Rarity..."
While she put down the smock, Rarity asked back to her sister with a slightly surprised tone.
"Uhu... Sweetie... don't you have school today?"
The filly answered with a squeak.
"No, today is Sunday, and so I don't have to go to school!"
Rarity folded the smock, and put it on the small pile of smocks that she had made in the past two days.
"Still, could you please explain why you came in the back shop at this hour?"
Sweetie Belle put her ears down, while speaking with an adorable and contrite voice that sharply contrasted with the one she had before.
"Well, it's about your visit to Canterlot..."
Rarity looked puzzled at her sister, thinking at what could have possible moved Sweetie Belle to remember something that Rarity was going to do.
"Yes, Sweetie Belle?"
The filly continued after several moments of silence.
"Applebloom and Scootaloo told me yesterday of what happened to Twilight, and your plans to go to Canterlot to try to..."
Rarity realized that her attempt to cover up the aftermath of Twilight's incident, as to avoid to worry Sweetie Belle, had failed, and now she was aware that Twilight was in Canterlot, attending to a Kindergarten's class.
"Cheer her up. Yes, cheer up." Continued the filly, while her sister kept staring at her.
Rarity sighed.
"And... why you came over here to say this to me?"
Sweetie Belle sighed.
"I don't know if you can still change your plans..."
Rarity's heart stopped for a second, at the thought of what could possibly be. However, she kept her composure and calm, and asked back with her usual tone.
"I think not... but depends in what way you mean 'change plans'. If you could be more specific..."
Sweetie Belle almost curled up into a ball.
"See, I wished to come with you... you know, with Scootaloo and Applebloom, so to apologize to Twilight for what we had done to her..."
Rarity felt a surge of homicidal rage towards Sweetie Belle, for the worry she had provoked with her attempt to captatio benevolentia for such a thing. However, she stopped such rage, thinking that at least Sweetie Belle showed some care about her sister's programs, and that she considered the idea of refusal.
"I am not very sure, Sweetie Belle... after all, the train will depart at noon, and thus there are only two hours left. I don't know if I can create a smock for you three, especially because I lack your measurements."
Sweetie Belle, after undoing her ball in a whim, slowly stood up on her four legs, her voice expressing irritation.
"Why would we ever need a smock? I didn't said I wanted to go back to Kindergarten! Nor Applebloom and Scootaloo want to do that!"
Rarity shook her head.
"I can imagine, but the smocks I created aren't for that purpose. They are for us to wear as moral support to Twilight."
Calmed down once more, Sweetie Belle asked.
"Show support to Twilight? How wearing a smock is..." Sweetie Belle stopped herself mid-sentence "Oh, right. You are right, but if you cannot make for us three some smocks, going without them will be fine."
Rarity answered with a small snort, and a hint of sarcasm in her response.
"Thank you, Sweetie Belle. OF COURSE we can let you go without smocks, but then you might look not..." She realized how much of a stupid and nonsensical statement she was going to make in front of her sister, and so decided to end it right there, right now. "Actually, nevermind. You take your money for three tickets, and I take some more money for the food. We will pay a visit to everyone else as soon we are ready."
Sweetie Belle nodded, and ran upstairs to take her money. Rarity put the five smocks in a blue bag with a brass button, and proceeded to throw away the scraps of her dressmaking.
One hour and half later later, after a rapid drop in at the Sweet Apple Acres to inform Applejack and Applebloom of the sudden change of plans, and a quick visit to Scootaloo's house (devoid of any kind of adult life), the five ponies were at the train station of Ponyville, waiting for the other three ponies to arrive at the station. While the three fillies entertained themselves with just their bodies and a fountain, the two adults talked.
"So, Rarity, do you have everything ready? Some money?"
Rarity pulled out a bag of bits out of her bag, as a silent proof she had them.
"Tickets?"
"Not yet. I thought that we should buy them only when we are reunited."
"Smocks?"
Rariy pulled out the five smocks she had prepared in the past two days.
"As you can see, with so little time, I had to make them pretty simple."
The statement caused Applejack to giggle, causing confusion to Rarity.
"What are you laughing at, darling?"
Applejack voiced her reason for laugh.
"You defined your smocks as 'simple', and yet they are full of plissets, they have triple sizing rope, and our names written in golden sew! If you call that simple, then my fields are just a iugero of terrain!"
Rarity gritted her teeth at Applejack's words, but said nothing, as to avoid starting a useless argument. As soon as Rarity quelled her arguing desires, from above, a blur soared in the vision range of Rarity, and hit the ground with a small shockwave, causing every living being in the range of twenty meters to get knocked down, and the roofs of the nearby buildings to get launched in the air, before returning in their positions.
Rarity coming back on her legs along with the others, after a fast fix to her mane, looked at the crash zone, and saw a cyan pony shape with a rainbow-colored tail waving in the weak wind.
Rarity identefied the shape as Rainbow Dash, and recognized the muffled sounds coming from Rainbow Dash as pleads of help. Rarity started to levitate the dirt around Rainbow's head, while Applejack d as if she was a root of a dead tree, namely, by pulling her out of the hole, to then throw her away in a random direction.
Fortunately for the stunned Rainbow Dash, Rarity caught her while she was in mid-air, painfully pulling out some hairs in the process, but ultimately avoiding some more serious pain. After catching her, Rarity put Rainbow Dash gently on the ground.
While Rarity trotted towards her stunned friend, she said.
"Next time you should be more careful, Applejack. It may have ended with a quick trip to the hospital."
Once she said that, Rarity lightly shook Rainbow Dash, causing the latter to come back to her senses. Naturally, the first thing she thought was about the stunt she had pulled.
"You saw that? I caused a small earthquake when I landed!"
Rarity slightly rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash's comment.
"And you risked to find one of your precious bones broken."
"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash jumped up, causing a cacophony of loud cracks coming from her body "See? I'm fine!"
Rarity, even though she wasn't a trained medical professional, could easily tell that those sounds were sign that a bone had been at least cracked, and that maybe some organs were compressed. And yet Rainbow Dash was showing no signs of pain or difficulties with moving, a sign that maybe she really was fine.
Rarity quickly decided to just ignore that detail, and move along.
"So, anyway, Rainbow Dash, did you call Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy already?"
"I did. I dropped at Fluttershy's place, and she is en route, however, I didn't find Pinkie at the Corner, and from your question I guess she isn't here either."
Rarity was going to answer the question, when Applejack intruded, and answered for her.
"No, she isn't here. I wonder where she is..."
Rarity, after drinking down her own gall once again, tried to politely reinsert herself in the discussion.
"True. But I know our friend Pinkie Pie enough to tell that she hasn't forgotten that. Maybe she is preparing... something."
"Yeah, but what?"
Applejack turned around, and saw a yellow shape with some pink shapes piled up on it flutter about the square towards the station. She recognized said shape as Fluttershy.
"Maybe Fluttershy can tell us." Applejack gestured to Fluttershy as to ask her to hurry up.
The yellow pegasus sprinted, covering the whopping distance of three and a half meters before coming back to normal pace, and, finally, after two long minutes, she reached her friends.
"Oh, hello. I hope I am not late..." Then she put down the three pink boxes she was carrying on her back. On them, there were the words "Pinkie's Special Surprise" written in bad calligraphy, and with the word "surprise" written with two "s".
Rarity looked with curiosity at the boxes, and pondered on their contents. Applejack directly asked.
"What's in the boxes, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy looked with insecurity at the boxes she had put on the ground.
"I don't know. Pinkie just handed them to me while I was still getting ready, saying that I had to bring those boxes to you. I really don't know what they are, but they are pretty light in terms of weight."
Applejack stared at the boxes with a curious gaze, and shook them slightly, causing them to topple. Rainbow Dash, after getting near to the boxes, tried to unfold them, only to get scolded by Rarity.
"I don't think we should open them before the arrival of Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash. After all, she could have sent them to us to do... something."
"Yeah, that was clear as the sky today, but why? I mean..."
Rarity tried to end her friend's phrase.
"They are almost taunting you to know what's in there?"
Rainbow Dash nodded.
Rarity levitated the boxes, and put them in her bag.
"Well, you are not going to find out before Pinkie arrives."
Rainbow Dash groaned an "Okay."
As soon as Rainbow Dash expressed her annoyance about not opening the boxes, a pink figure on the horizon arrived, humming a familiar tune as it hopped. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and the others immediately recognized the shape as the one of Pinkie Pie.
Overtaken by the impatience and curiosity typical for their age, the Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately snatched away the boxes, saying that Pinkie Pie had appeared on the horizon and that, therefore, she had arrived.
Rarity and Applejack did not even try to stop the Cmc from doing such action, because they were too busy going towards Pinkie Pie.
Sweetie Belle, after placing the boxes at the base of the fountain's steps, said.
"I am curious, and at the same time, afraid of what's in there... can I be the test pony?"
The other two fillies nodded without question.
Sweetie Belle slowly unwrapped the first piece of pink wrapping, revealing... another layer of wrapping. Then another, and another, and another.
"Umm... I don't think that by unwrapping it gently, we are going to get anywhere soon..." said Applebloom while she watched
"Yeah, I'm too curious to wait around! We shall take one each, and open it like a normal gift!" said Scootaloo, while already grabbing a package.
"Well... alright!"
Sweetie Belle handled the remaining package to Applebloom; then they proceeded to get off the layers very fast. What they found in them, however, didn't please them in the slightest.
The boxes contained pacifiers. Customized, ticked with the addressee's name, colored, 8-years old sized, pacifiers.
"What? A pacifier? For ME? What am I, a baby?"
"Why did Pinkie give me such a gift? Why? Why? WHY?"
"A pacifier? Well, that's weird, but it doesn't seem so awful either. I mean, they look good, for one thing."
Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle with an expression that mixed disbelief with disappoint.
While Applebloom kept staring, Scootaloo pressed her nuzzle to the one of Sweetie Belle, and stuttered gibberish before formulating a sentence.
"What's so awful about them? WHAT'S SO AWFUL ABOUT THEM? They are pacifiers, dummies, succhiotti, those are used by foals and by foals only!"
Sweetie Belle stepped back confused.
"And so?"
On the top of her lungs, Scootaloo expressed her frustration.
"AND SO? Do you understand that, if a pony like Pinkie Pie gifts something like pacifiers to us, this means she considers us foals? You know, she thinks we are lacking an important accessory?"
Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders.
"And so? We are foals. A little big, but until we have the 'signs of fertility', whatever they are, we are still technically foals."
Scootaloo facehoofed.
"Maybe according to the Bran's dictionary we are still foals, Sweetie Belle, but I think we can confirm that we don't need diapers anymore, and that we don't believe that if something is not there, it never existed."
Sweetie Belle, still with a tone of the one that didn't understand what was being said, expressed herself.
"Maybe Pinkie Pie wanted to pull us a prank?"
Scootaloo blocked herself, at Sweetie Belle's simple and yet reasonable explanation about the pacifiers in the boxes, and the fact that those pacifiers had a name tag for them. Looking with a lost gaze to the sky, the filly said.
"Maybe you are right, Sweets..." Scootaloo glanced over the fountain, and noticed that Pinkie Pie was already talking with the others "But I think that Pinkie Pie has the answer. Come on, let's go."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked immediately towards the five mares. Applebloom took a bit loger to do so, thanks to her shock.
Once the three fillies had reunited with the five waiting adult ponies, Pinkie Pie immediately asked the Crusaders.
"Did you take the boxes? Did you open them?" Despite the stern words, Pinkie's voice was still cheerful like the usual.
Scootaloo stepped in.
"Yes we did, and we have a question for you..."
Pinkie Pie inclined her head sideways, and grinned.
"Yes?"
Scootaloo took three large breaths, and put her right hoof on her small chest.
"Pinkie Pie, would you kindly explain to me WHY IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING THAT'S HOLY YOU GIFTED US PACIFIERS?"
Pinkie Pie moved Scootaloo's chin up with one of her hooves, as to make eye contact with the filly.
"Silly Scootaloo, those are not gifts. Those are the dummies that might be used for our journey to Canterlot."
Everypony looked sideways at Pinkie Pie, after that statement. Realizing she had the eyes of her friends and their sisters on her, Pinkie Pie let out a hoof.
"Oh come on! Is it really that hard to understand?"
Rarity was the only one that had the bravery to express her and her companions' confusion.
"Er... yes, Pinkie Pie. I'm afraid that nopony understood your logic. Please, enlighten us."
Pinkie Pie pulled out a big floor lamp from nowhere, and turned it on with the same unponderable force. Rarity was not amused.
"Not in that sense, Pinkie Pie. I meant as: please, tell us why you thought that bringing in pacifiers for my sister and her friends was a good idea."
Pinkie Pie, after gasping and getting the floor lamp out of the way, took the remaining boxes she still had on her back, then swiftly handed them to each one of her companions. Left with one box, Pinkie Pie took it, and after putting it on her side, said.
"Okay everypony, listen up! While I was spending my time doing what I usually do, namely keeping this town happy and working, my flank started to feel funny, like when you..."
Rarity, immediately understanding what Pinkie Pie was going to say, cut Pinkie short to save the innocence of the three listening fillies.
"Yes, yes, we understand, go on Pinkie."
"Anyway, at first I thought it was just another way that my body expressed its approval for what I was doing. Then the feeling returned, this time followed by more trips to the bathroom." Pinkie Pie explained she didn't have diabetes, despite showing some of the symptoms "Anyway, back on topic, I understood it only later on: it was my sense telling something, something I won't tell you to not ruin the surprise. After realizing that there was something being cooked in the oven" a rambling about cookies and ovens ensued "By the way, I decided to consult Sibilla" rambling about the prophet "I asked her about what to do, and she gave me the response 'ibis redibus non Urbe tuae amicae fractae.' I memorized the response, thouth about it, and decided that it was a response that gave me the green light for proceed. I bought my surprises for you before heading here, and here I am!"
During the overly-long explanation, Rainbow Dash had fallen asleep, Applejack had bankrupted a rival apple farm, Rarity managed to fix her mane three times in a row, and Fluttershy had saved three birds from certain death by falling. And they still had time to come back and fake to have listened to everything Pinkie was saying all along.
As soon as Pinkie shut her mouth, Scootaloo asked.
"And... was our surprise supposed to be pacifiers?"
"No!"
Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle sighed in relief.
"There are more things for you and my friends in the boxes!" Pinkie Pie said that in a cheerful tone, a tone that unsettled the three fillies and the four adult ponies.
Pinkie Pie shouted, with even more bio "Come on! Open them! Or shall I start?"
Unsurely, everypony started to unwrap their respective boxes, and they found a green plastic bag in each one of the boxes, with the name of the addressed written with bad calligraphy and misspelled.
Then Pinkie Pie slowly opened the top of the package, revealing the contents of the bag. Namely, light pink diaper.
The sight surprised, baffled and stupefied everyone.
"Is that... a diaper?"
"Yes, silly Dashie! Don't worry, you also have them!"
Rainbow Dash widened her eyes, and stared blankly at her friend, unable to tell if Pinkie had lost her mind completely, or if a grain of sanity still existed in her head. Applejack also stared at Pinkie, but with more sheer lack of understanding than Rainbow Dash. Rarity was more composed in her reaction, but no less creeped out.
"Pinkie, darling... I don't know what brought you to this conclusion, but... this is preposterous beyond belief."
Fluttershy just stared at the diapers, and said with a whisper.
"Pinkie, I know I've often stained your carpet with my pee after your jokes, but... isn't giving me diapers a bit too much? Who am I kidding, you show enough kindness towards me by sharing the humiliation with the others..."
"First, a pacifiers, then diapers? Pinks, what in the name of everything that is holy in this cursed land happened to you? We are not babies anymore!"
Applebloom cried slightly. "So, my fears have become true... I am a baby in the eyes of everypony else..."
In stark contrast, Sweetie Belle touched unsurely the adsorbent garments, before saying.
"They sure look comfy... I don't think that wearing them for a while would be too bad."
Pinkie Pie immediately proceeded to cancel any kind of negative emotion from the faces of Applebloom, by tickling her and telling her that no matter what she was going to be the baby of the Ponyville's branch of the Apple family. And, despite the latter's resistance and lack of will to such act, Applebloom laughed, leaving Pinkie Pie free to act with Fluttershy and the others.
"Oh no, Fluttershy, those diapers are not for your little accidents you sometimes have when I pull a prank on you." Pinkie Pie, somehow, wrapped around Flutterhsy's neck in a menacing manner, unsettling the pegasus. "As I said, Sibilla gave me a favorable response about bringing diapers for us to Canterlot."
Fluttershy, giving puppy dogs eyes to Pinkie Pie and putting her ears down, asked with insecurity.
"B-but why? W-why you thought that i-it was a good idea?"
Pinkie Pie raised Fluttershy's chin.
"It's because my Pinkie Sense told me to do so. I don't know what is going to happen, but I know we are going to need diapers for everypony, and pacifiers for the fillies."
Fluttershy decided to keep her mouth shut about the logic that Pinkie Pie was applying.
When Pinkie was done, she said.
"Now, do we have the tickets already? The train is coming, and it isn't going to wait for us!"
The seven, too confused, tired, or incapable to understand the situation to act, simply followed Pinkie's lead to the train station.