"Cozy, you really need to stop trying to hold back what it is you need to do," Twilight lectured once the diaper change was finished. "We talked about this. Holding it in is gonna lead to infections, and then you're really going to need diapers."

Cozy just spat and stuck out her tongue yet again. "It wouldn't be a problem if you just let me use the bathroom again. I hate how you forced me into all of this!"

Twilight just sighed. "I've told you that I did this to spare you from being thrown into Tartarus. I thought for sure even a child as messed up as you wouldn't want that. Being in Tartarus is a fate worse than even death or being turned to stone."

The padded pegasus protested and pouted. "Well, I only have to put up with all of this until the end of the month," Then she added. "And if you even try to breastfeed me again, I'm gonna run away and never come back!"

"Oh, and where would you go, Cozy?" Twilight questioned.

Cozy Glow hissed. "Anywhere as long as it's far away from you!"

The young alicorn just shook her head. She had slowly gotten used to such claims by now, and knew that Cozy knew that escape would be impossible. Even if the filly somehow thwarted the security systems back at the castle, there was no way she'd be able to thwart the enchantment on her diapers and she would most definitely not want to be seen by anypony in her padded state.

Aside from that little back and forth argument, Cozy surprisingly behaved well (or at least decently) for the duration of her little playdate with the twins. Mrs. Cake was impressed, and so was Twilight. "I think that's worth another check on your 'Good Girl Scroll'," She declared as she discreetly brought the filly home that night. "So I think I'll go ahead and lower the requirement to five straight days of good behavior before we can start potty training you again."

"Assuming I still know how to potty like a big pony." The little pegasus muttered under her breath, hoping that would be true. She really didn't want to imagine the possibility of being entirely reliant on diapers for the rest of her life. "After all, what would your parents think after they worked so hard to get you out of diapers as a foal?" She thought to herself and shuddered at the mental images it conjured up as a result. There was a reason she hadn't talked about her parents and why she had lied about having their permission to attend the School of Friendship.

Twilight just cooed, tucking the filly into bed once again. "I'm sure you will if you keep resisting using your diapers as much as you do now," Then she kissed her charge on the forehead. "But I'll see what Starlight and Spike think tomorrow. And if you start acting up again I won't hesitate to keep it at ten days. So you'll need to decide how much you really wanna get your big girl privileges back."

Cozy only snorted and rolled over, turning away from the princess. "You know how badly I want them back, don't act like you don't know!" She thought before throwing the sheets over herself and closing her eyes. Today was a day she just wanted to forget, that way she wouldn't have to think about what had happened or how much she had actually not hated it like she made it sound like she did.

The padded pegasus woke up surprisingly early the next morning, even before the sun had come out. She briefly thought of again trying to make a run for it but quickly ruled it out. She knew of the precautions Twilight had taken to prevent it. And with the enchantments on her diaper Cozy knew she wouldn't be able to remove it no matter how much she wanted to or regardless of what she intended to do.

Still, there was nothing in any of that which prevented her from just wandering the hallways of the castle. No reason she couldn't maybe see about having an early breakfast that consisted of something besides pancakes or foal food. She still had the use of her wings to help her reach those tall shelves, even if it was harder to fly with a thick and bulky diaper weighing her down.

"I'll show Twilight and the others that they can't reduce me to a helpless little, diaper wearing baby!" Cozy thought to herself as she strolled through the hallways in the early morning darkness. She was still feeling very bad tempered about the events of yesterday, especially since she couldn't stop thinking about them no matter how hard she tried. Why did it matter so much that she had kind of enjoyed playing with other foals? Why had she not been completely repulsed at the idea of Twilight breastfeeding her?

The more the padded pegasus thought about such things the grouchier she became, and her mood soured considerably as a result. "Stupid diapers! Stupid princess! Stupid everything!" She now complained aloud while stomping her hooves before swinging them wildly about. "I hate them all!"

Suddenly, however, Cozy felt her hooves swipe at something and the next thing she knew there was a terrible crash. To her horror she suddenly saw what appeared to be the remnants of an old vase on the floor in front of her! In her state of blind rage and fury she had failed to take notice of her surroundings. And the consequences of it now lay before her moderate scarlet eyes.

Almost immediately feelings of regret, guilt and worst of all fear began to wash over the filly! If Twilight, Starlight or Spike stumbled upon this they would most definitely blame her for it. She was sure to be spanked for it and she wouldn't blame them, her own parents had spanked her over less even as Cozy had developed a tolerance. And worse than the inevitable spanks would be another x on her 'Good Girl Scroll', setting her back to square one and now having to endure at least five (more likely ten) days of trying to be good before she'd get a chance to use a bathroom again.

But as minutes slowly ticked by the padded pegasus noticed something: She couldn't hear the sound of hoofsteps or footsteps. She hadn't heard the faint voices of Twilight, Starlight or Spike wondering about the crashing noise. It appeared that they were all still asleep, none of them had heard and thus known none of them knew yet what had happened. That was just the sort of opening Cozy needed.

Zooming away as quickly yet quietly as she could, Cozy went to find some glue! "If I can just put that vase back together like it never broke, I won't be punished!" She thought in desperation! "I always was good at arts and crafts in kindergarten, my old teachers said so!"

Fortunately for the frightened filly, there was some glue readily available near the kitchen, not far from where she'd been when she had knocked over and broken that vase.

Unfortunately, Cozy couldn't remember what that vase was supposed to look like and had little clue what pieces should go where. The dim light of the early morning didn't help matters, and she wasn't about to try and turn on the hallway lights for assistance, that would surely give her away.

Cozy did her best to glue the vase back together to the best of her memory. It wasn't like Twilight ever paid attention to little details like that, who would notice a vase that wasn't exactly like it had been before? As long as it was in one piece what difference did it make?

After several minutes or so of gluing together pieces to form something akin to a pattern, the whole process hindered by the wobbling hooves of Cozy, it seemed like the vase was more or less "good as new". Anxiously, the padded pegasus tried to place it back where it had been before it had been knocked down. She couldn't leave behind any traces of the accident, no one could know. It had to be like it had never happened (even if Cozy herself would know better).

But then suddenly an all too familiar voice called out just as the first rays of Celestia's sun were starting to seep in through the castle windows. "Cozy Glow, what do you think you're doing?"

Frightened anew, the filly lost her grip on the vase she'd just glued back together and watched as it fell to the ground and shattered anew! All her hard work had been for nothing! "You ruined everything, again!" Cozy snapped and yelled as she turned to face the disapproving glare of Twilight.

The young alicorn just frowned as she examined the glue bottle and the broken fragments of what had been a poorly put back together vase. It didn't take a genius to deduce what had happened here. "I don't know what's worse, Cozy Glow," She remarked in a disappointed and angry tone of voice. "That you wandered out of your nursery without permission, or that you thought you could cover up the fact that you broke this vase."

"But... but..." Cozy stammered in disbelief.

Starlight happened upon the scene at that very moment, and she spoke not a word as she scooped up the vase fragments and the bottle of glue with her magic.

"All you had to do was come and get either Starlight, Spike or I," Twilight pointed out to her young charge. "Accidents like this happen. You're not the only one who's broken vases here without meaning to," Then she added. "But you chose to try and cover up your mistake. And now Starlight's gonna have to spend time trying to repair the vase to how it was."

Starlight then pointed out. "And I think you know what that means, Cozy."

The filly gulped and froze on the spot as she was pulled close to Twilight. "Please, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I don't wanna have to start all over again on earning back my big girl privileges!"

"I'm sure you are sorry, Cozy. And I'm not going to give you a mark because of this. But you still did bad things by sneaking out and lying. And for that you must be punished." Twilight explained as she rose up a hoof while her magic pulled down Cozy's diaper, exposing the filly's rump.

Starlight Glimmer respectfully looked away even as she could hear the swats on Cozy's rump when they landed.

Three quick swats were all it took to reduce the filly to tears.

Cozy was still in tears after Starlight went away to work on the vase, and Twilight left to prepare breakfast. Although the filly was relieved she was alone now and wasn't going to be marked down because of a stupid vase, she was still upset and still reeling from the impact of the spanks. It was like her parents all over again, except this time it was worse because she had been punished for not coming forward and telling her captors about the broken vase.

"When I resist they put me in diapers and treat me like a foal, and when I try to be independent they spank me and scold me," The filly thought to herself, even though it wasn't really true. "I can't win no matter what I do! Am I really destined to be like this for the rest of the month or even longer?!"

Suddenly, who should appear in the filly's line of vision but Spike? She hadn't seen the dragon or spoken to him ever since that little "incident". Against her better judgement she hissed at him through tears. "What do you want, dragon?! Come to stick the knife in some more?"

But to Cozy's surprise the little dragon replied. "You know, not everyone who comes to see you wants to laugh at you or look down on you. And then you wonder why you couldn't make true friends."

"I had friends until those creatures showed up!" Cozy hissed even more even as her attempt to appear in control was clearly not working.

Spike just came over, delicately putting a claw around the padded pegasus. "Look, you're not the only one who's had to deal with Twilight's tough love before. I've been in similar situations over the years, even long after I stopped being in diapers." As he spoke he could well recall the incident where he'd tried (rather unsuccessfully) to frame Owlowisicious out of jealousy for what the owl could do.

The padded pegasus was surprised by this statement. "What do you mean? Twilight isn't your mom! She never raised you!"

"And she's not your mom either," Spike pointed out. "But Twilight did still kind of raise me a little. And when she didn't it was usually her parents that did. And they spanked me if I did something really bad." He decided to leave out the fact that dragon scales had reduced the sting of the spanks enough to where they'd barely registered.

Cozy only sniffled (and this time it was genuine). "Why do you care? Why would you tell me this? You still hate me for what I did to your comic."

"Hate is a very strong word," The little dragon replied. "I don't like what you did or the way you behaved, but I can't bring myself to hate you for it. You're clearly misguided, and I wish I knew why. But I've had time to think, and I've come to realize that it's not gonna do me any good to stay mad at you. Twilight's started taking more of a hooves on approach to correcting your behavior."

The little pegasus whimpered. "Emphasis on the hooves."

Spike just explained. "Well, I think Twilight's been maybe a bit too hard on you. At least she should be offering you a bit more encouragement to change your ways," And he then declared. "I think you've been enough of a good girl to deserve a chance to prove yourself. If you want to be a big pony again you have to show that you can actually act like one."

Cozy's ears perked up ever so slightly. "Does that mean..."

The little dragon appeared to smile. "If you're up for it. I just thought I'd offer."

"How do I know this isn't all a trick? He could have found that magic plunger again for all I know." The young pegasus thought. But against her better judgement she lowered her guard and declared. "Well, I'm ready to try if you think I am."

"Splendid!" Spike eagerly declared! "Come on then, let's get you to a bathroom. Preferably one I didn't just finish cleaning."

The two approached a bathroom that looked similar to the one Cozy could've sworn that incident with the magic plunger had taken place in. But maybe all bathrooms in the castle looked the same?

Well, either way, she was soon in a familiar position. Her diaper removed, herself before a toilet as the lid was lifted up and no one but herself and Spike around. She was completely at the little dragon's mercy again.

"You need any help getting onto the seat? I think there's a step stool around here somewhere." Spike appeared to sincerely offer.

Cozy protested, instead opting to flap her wings. She didn't fully trust the little dragon in spite of all he'd been willing to do so far today. It took a little effort but she managed to get herself onto the toilet seat without trouble. It felt so weird to be sitting on it again after all this time. Had it really been so long since she'd used a toilet?

Strangely, despite the length of time that had passed and despite having gone in diapers so many times already, Cozy still found it easy to use a toilet. And it felt strangely more rewarding to do it now and wipe herself clean with toilet paper afterward.

"Okay, and now we flush," Spike instructed with a sincere smile. "Do you wanna do it or should I?"

The filly did it herself just to be safe. And once she'd flushed she hopped down, flew over to the sink and washed her hooves. "I guess you're not as bad as I thought you were, dragon." She told Spike afterward.

Spike just replied by putting Cozy's diaper back on and giving it a pat to ensure it was secure. "At least now we know you can actually be a big girl again when you prove you know how to behave like one."