Misty was tossing and turning, turning and tossing. The dreams were back again. The same dreams that had first tipped her off that she had in fact had a past before being taken in by Opaline, the same dreams that had foreshadowed the revelation that she was actually Alphabittle's long lost daughter and not an orphan as she had been led to believe.

Yet now, in light of all that happened, the dreams had changed. The mists that had blocked out so much had cleared away. Now Misty found herself face to face with the very last pony she wanted to see right now, a certain no good fire alicorn that she'd thought for sure had been defeated for good.

"Well, well, well," Opaline cruelly hissed, her eyes casting daggers at Misty. "To think that after everything I did for you, you would betray me in my hour of greatest need. All I wanted was a friend, Misty. That's why I took you in when you literally ended up at my doorstep. All I asked for in return was your complete, unending loyalty."

"But... but... you lied to me!" Misty snapped back, trying to pluck up courage. Was it her imagination, or did Opaline seem... taller, somehow? Was it the work of some sort of spell?

Opaline snarled with a fiery sneer, her horn glowing ominously. "You are an ungrateful little brat, Misty! No, you're worse than that! You're a pathetic, worthless foal!"

"I'm not a foal!" Misty bellowed, only to find that her words were high pitched and squeaky. Suddenly, it dawned on her! Opaline wasn't getting taller, Misty herself was getting smaller. She was actually regressing! In a matter of seconds, she went from being a confident and assertive young mare, to being a helpless, bawling infant.

The fire alicorn who now towered over the regressed Misty approached, horn still glowing and crackling with energy. "This time, there will be no mistakes! I will see to it that you remain weak and helpless forever, dependent on me for your every need! You won't even have free will! But then, isn't that why you've always acted like a foal? Because you're too afraid to ever make decisions on your own? Wasn't it better to 'pretend' you were a big pony and 'pretend' to be nice to me for so long?"

The now toddler sized (and aged) unicorn sniffled and sobbed. It was all she could think to do in this situation.

Just then, however, a voice bellowed and boomed like thunder from the distance! "You stay away from my daughter, you foal snatching monster!"

Opaline turned to face where the voice had come from, and growled into the distance. "Who dares to challenge me, the Great and Powerful Opaline Arcana?! Show yourself, if you're not afraid!"

In a matter of seconds, Alphabittle appeared, looking exactly the way he had appeared when Misty had last been a child. It was like he hadn't aged a day. And the look upon his face conveyed more than words the righteous anger that burned within him. He wasn't the least bit intimidated by Opaline. In fact, he looked like he could tower over even her. And when he spoke, every word he said shook the ground. "Misty doesn't belong to you, Opaline! She's not yours, and she never will be!"

"Dad?" Misty turned to face her savior with a blink of confusion. She was surprised when the word that lisped out was "Daddy".

Alphabittle smiled as he looked down at the mare turned foal. "It's okay, pumpkin," He spoke in a reassuring tone. "Daddy's here for you, just like he's always been," Then he turned back to Opaline. "Misty has a family! She's the only child I'll ever have! And I won't let you take her away from me, away from the only home she's ever known!" He then rushed towards her with bravado!

The fire alicorn could only roll her eyes. "Really? You think you stand any chance against an immortal pony like me? I'll cure you of your delusion soon enough!" And she immediately fired off a powerful blast from her horn! It struck Alphabittle head on!

But Alphabittle shrugged off the hit as if it were nothing. He continued to advance on Opaline, not flinching or faltering in the slightest, and showing no signs of damage as hit after hit bounced off him. Soon, he was face to face and snout to snout with the fire alicorn, hooves raised into the air. "If you ever come near my daughter again, I will be your end, Opaline! Do you understand?!" His voice sounded much more like a parent scolding their child for acting up.

Surprisingly, that single sentence was enough to make Opaline flinch and whimper. With tears in her eyes she ran away, sobbing hysterically. Just like that, she was gone.

Yet Misty found that she didn't return to her mare self when Opaline disappeared. The unicorn remained but a little foal as she saw Alphabittle, no her father, approaching her. "Daddy!" She exclaimed as she held out her hooves.

Alphabittle wasted no time in scooping the frightened foal up, holding her close. "Oh Misty, Daddy's so glad he found you! I promise you, I will never let you out of my sight again! I'll always be here for you, no matter what! You'll always be my little filly, forever!" Wiping away the tears falling from his cheeks, he then cooed. "Now come on, pumpkin. It's getting let, we need to get you home. It's not good for you to be up so late past your bedtime."

The dream ended but a second later, and Misty's eyes fluttered open. She sat up slowly in her bed within the Brighthouse. It had only been a day or so since her foaling out session in Zephyr Heights. She had long since gotten comfortable sleeping in just her diaper, especially since discovering that secret room in the Brighthouse that only she knew how to access.

Yet that dream had been playing in her mind again and again for a very long time. It had kept coming back ever since she'd first found out that Alphabittle was her father and always had been. And dwelling upon it reminded Misty of that unforgettable reunion, how Alphabittle had clearly wanted nothing more than to have his little filly back after all those years. At the time, she'd thought nothing of telling him that she didn't want to be treated in that way. Her thoughts then and there had been focused on so many conflicting emotions, and the threat of Opaline had been lingering in the back of her mind.

But now that the unicorn mare with a butterfly cutie mark thought more about it, the more a new feeling was gnawing away at her from within: Guilt. Given her discovered love of ageplaying, at least to the extent of wearing diapers and playing with her friends when they were also diapered. Heck, she'd once tagged along with two of said friends to a club in Bridlewood that had catered specifically to big foals like herself. Yet she'd had the gall to tell her father that he was wrong to try to treat her as younger than she was. With all that she had discovered about herself, who was she to tell her father no to treating her like a filly, or even a foal?

Misty still didn't know what had become of her mother, Alphabittle hadn't told her and she hadn't seen fit to ask. But if her dreams were anything to go by, her mother hadn't been around almost from the moment of her birth. Alphabittle had raised her on his own, which explained why her sudden disappearance had hit him so hard. Knowing that, it now seemed so obvious that he would've clung to the memories of a happier time, even if for a while they had been buried deep down inside him (requiring Izzy of all ponies to help bring them back to the surface). Yet she had denied him what he wanted most: A chance to start over, to pick up from where he had left off.

Try as she might, the once evil and misguided unicorn mare couldn't get those conflicting thoughts and feelings out of her mind. And so, she decided then and there that there was only one thing to do: She was going to have to go back to Bridlewood, find her father, and have a heart to heart confession about all of this. She'd put it off for far too long! If she ever wanted to soothe her guilty conscience and know a good night's sleep again, she had to do this! And she had to do it alone!

"I can't drag the others into this," Misty thought to herself as she sat in her bed, absentmindedly sucking on one of her hooves. "This is something I have to do on my own. Even Izzy can't know what it's like, she wasn't there when Dad and I spent that day in Bridlewood after we were reunited."

So, after hastily scribbling a note to let her friends know not to expect her back for at least a day or two, Misty set off for Bridlewood! It never occurred to her to try teleporting, despite how much more comfortable she'd gotten with using magic. She only just thought to make sure to take off her still spotless diaper first, rushing around behind the Brighthouse to bury it in one of the already full trash backs. She hated to waste a perfectly good diaper like that, but she could think of nowhere else to hide it to keep Hitch, Zipp, or Sunny from finding out accidentally about her secret. That was a conversation she'd rather avoid if at all possible.

Once her diaper had been discarded, Misty took a deep breath, and trotted away from the Brighthouse. With any luck, she would arrive in Bridlewood by the time the sun had risen tomorrow.

Next morning in Bridlewood dawned the same as any other day, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As the owner of the Crystal Teahouse, Alphabittle made sure to get up bright and early so he could open the place for business. There were sure to be lots of ponies waiting for their morning cup of tea to start their day, all of them counting on him to provide it for them.

Yet the tall and bulky stallion had only just switched the "Closed" sign to "Open", and begun wiping down the countertop he frequented while at work, when suddenly the bell above the door jingled. He looked up, and his eyes quickly fell upon his unexpected visitor: Misty.

"Pumpkin?" Alphabittle blinked, before remembering their last encounter and quickly coughing into a hoof as he corrected. "Er, I mean, Misty? Is... everything alright?"

Misty looked ready to burst into tears at a moment's notice. Yet somehow, she seemed to will herself to be strong as she trotted forward. "No, Dad," She said in a sorrowful, somber tone. "There's... something we need to talk about. And I think you know what that something is."

It was possible to notice a slight blush forming on the tall unicorn stallion's face as he quickly deduced where his daughter's conversation was going. So he hastily switched the sign back to "Closed", figuring he had nothing to lose since nopony else had come in yet (and hopefully wouldn't be coming in for at least a couple of minutes). After making sure the doors to his business were shut, he breathed slowly. "You're talking about that... event with Izzy and Pipp, aren't you? That little club I set up for ponies like them."

Misty gave a slow nod as she spoke slowly and sadly. "Yes, that."

"Hey, if you're talking about the fact that I saw you in diapers, it's okay," Alphabittle insisted. "We didn't know at the time. It didn't even dawn on me until after you'd left. And before I could really think about it, that's when you showed up again, not as a foal but as a full grown mare. I still remember what happened afterward," The realization suddenly dawned on him. "Oh!"

The reformed unicorn mare nodded, her eyes growing teary just a little bit. "Yeah. That's why I came here, why I sought you out. We needed to talk about stuff like that."

"What's there to talk about, Misty?" Alphabittle inquired, seeming to feign ignorance. "So you were in diapers that one time. So what? It's something you like to do. You're a grown mare, now. You can make your own life choices. And you've demonstrated that fact perfectly clear several times over."

But Misty could only shake her head. "But Dad, don't you see the problem?! Because of the diapers and the other stuff, I don't have any right at all to be telling you that you can't treat me as a filly again. You had a perfectly good reason. You wanted to get back something we lost because of my disappearance, something I once thought I never had. And I denied you that. I told you no, even though I'd already been acting like a foal and had enjoyed it. I didn't even move back in with you, I insisted on you treating me like an adult, like I was all grown-up."

"And you still are, pumpkin," Alphabittle replied. He didn't seem to sound bothered in the slightest. "So you like to wear diapers and act like a foal? So what? Izzy does that too, and I'm sure she told you how I had to practically raise her almost from birth. Hoofness knows, I thought I was prepared because of my experiences with you, but Izzy was a foal on an entirely different level!" A chuckle escaped his lips.

"It's not the same!" Misty protested as she stomped a hoof down! Her voice changed from one of sorrow to one of anger and frustration! "How can you act like it's no big deal?! It's a big deal! Here I am, revealing that I like to do exactly what I said I didn't like you doing to me, but going even further! I had no right to tell you not to treat me like a little filly, to treat me like something I sometimes liked to act like and be like. Don't you see how childish and immature that was?"

Alphabittle shut his eyes, deep in thought. "I won't lie, it definitely stung when you told me point blank that you weren't my little filly anymore, and didn't want me to keep pretending like you were. I thought a lot about that, and how to square it with that night at the club here in Bridlewood."

"So why doesn't it bother you?" Misty complained. "It bothers me! It bothers me even if you think it shouldn't!" She began to sniffle, all but rushing over to her father and burying her face into his chest. "Daddy, I don't want you to be sad because of me! I want you to be happy! How can I claim to be a big pony if the truth is that I don't always act like it?! How can I tell you not to treat me as younger than I am, when that's exactly what I like to do with my friends?! For pony's sake, I've actually worn and used diapers! And you're telling me that it was totally okay for me to tell you not to treat me like that, or treat me as slightly older than that?" She lifted her head slowly, her eyes now stained red with tears. "How can it be okay?! It shouldn't be okay. This isn't normal! This isn't right!"

To the surprise of Misty, her father's only response to her pouring out of her heart was to gently, delicately reach out a hoof. Slowly and with trained precision, he stroked her from head to tail to calm her down. "Misty Wisty," He lovingly cooed. "So what if it's not normal? I'd hardly call you normal after everything you've been through. You've been through so much in such a short amount of time. It's natural you'd seek comfort in something that makes you feel young, gives you the chance to let your worries drift away," He paused for a moment, reflecting on all she had said to him. "What happened during our last time together... I wasn't thinking about anything other than the fact that you'd come back. I let myself believe that all the years of sorrow and sadness didn't matter. But they did. I couldn't turn back the clock, no matter how much I might want to."

"Dad." Misty spoke slowly, her crying having ceased.

Alphabittle gently shushed his daughter, continuing to calm her down. "I know you're conflicted now, Misty. Part of you likes to be little, to be treated like a foal. But another part of you wants to be an adult, wants to shoulder all that responsibility. And that's totally okay. What matters most is what makes you happy. It doesn't matter what you feel on the outside, on the inside you will always be you. And I'll always be proud of you no matter what you do, no matter what you like. If it means that every now and then you get the urge to come rushing back to Daddy and just let him take care of everything, that's fine. I will always be here for you no matter how big or little you're feeling. And I have a feeling your friends feel the same way, even those who don't know about your 'little' secret." He delivered the last line with a knowing wink.

The once evil and misguided mare rubbed her eyes, drying the last of her tears. "So... is it okay to call you 'Daddy'?" She asked her father, looking him deep in the eyes. She started to blush. "I didn't exactly bring my... stuff with me. I kind of left in a hurry last night."

The tall, bulky unicorn stallion only chuckled, speaking in that fatherly tone of his. "That's okay, pumpkin. I still have some of your old supplies. I just couldn't bring myself to throw them out, even after Izzy outgrew them, there were just too many memories associated with them," He smiled. "And don't worry about using your diapers for a bathroom. Daddy doesn't mind changing you. I did it before, and I can do it again."

Misty all but threw herself into her father's arms right then and there. "Thank you, Daddy."

Alphabittle's smile grew brighter. "Just go upstairs and wait. Daddy has to take care of a few customers at his business. But then he'll have plenty of time to spend taking care of you."

Misty gave a firm nod and trotted away, her stomach now full of butterflies. The good kind of butterflies, mind you. She was amazed at how well that talk with her father had gone. Was that all it had taken to clear everything up? Just a good, firm talking and a teary confession?

Whatever it was, the full grown mare was glad it had happened. She couldn't wait to share this news with Izzy when she got back to Maretime Bay.

Time seemed to pass in agonizing slowness for both father and daughter. The wait was worth it, however, when Alphabittle at last came trotting up to what had once been Misty's bedroom when she was a child. It had remained untouched even after what had transpired during Misty's last visit to Bridlewood.

Misty was most surprised to be picked up by the magical hold of her father's horn. It really did make her feel little, surrendering control of herself to somepony else, somepony she trusted with all her heart.

"Okay, Misty Wisty," Alphabittle playfully cooed as he floated over a diaper that had clearly been magically sized up to fit a full grown pony. "Let's get you all nice and snug in your diaper wiaper." With what seemed like practiced precision, he floated the padding onto her rump and strapped her up, securing the tabs with tape.

Misty didn't fight back at all. She was already slipping into her little mindset, and it told her that it was perfectly okay to accept the diapering job from her daddy. That's what he was there for, after all. He would always be there for her no matter what, taking care of her every need.

Alphabittle then floated over an oversized plastic baby bottle, filled to the brim with milk. "Go ahead, pumpkin," He encouraged with a smile and a wink. "It's fresh and warm, just the way you like it."

The diapered mare didn't think twice and threw her hooves around the bottle's nipple. She then watched as her father appeared beside her, sitting on her bed and gently placing her onto his lap. It was just like he'd done many times before so long ago. She closed her eyes, listening to the beat of her father's heart and timing it to the suckles as she drank down the milk. Pretty soon, she felt the warm milk making her feel drowsy, and she drifted off to sleep.

Just as Misty was falling asleep, Alphabittle's ears picked up the sound of a faint hiss. He looked down at his daughter, seeing her diaper rapidly swell up and grow warmer, a damp patch spreading across the seat as the wetness indicators faded. He just smiled, waiting for her to finish. He'd make sure to change her into a fresh diaper before setting her down for a nap.