Octavia yawned as she sat at the kitchen table, her mane uncharacteristically tangled and messy.
She rubbed her nose tiredly with a hoof, blinking slowly as she suckled on her pacifier.
“Mama!” She whined suddenly, the word coming out nasally and foalish.
“It’s coming! Impatient, aren’t ya?” Vinyl snickered, flipping the pan and sending the pancake flipping into the air. “Oh yeah, style!”
The big foal giggled, slumping on her seat and yawning cutely again. She ran a hoof over the bib around her neck, the only thing she was wearing other than her diaper. Her hoof banged on the table top. “Hungwy!”
Rolling her eyes at the foalish demand, Vinyl Scratch flipped the pancake a final time, landing it on the plate of other pancakes next to her.
“Pancakes for breakfast two days in a row, I’m spoiling you,” she grumbled with a small smile as she put some on Octavia’s plate and some on her own. “Now, can Octy feed herself or does she need Mommy- ”
Octy had already opened her mouth, sitting there with it gaping wide open expectantly.
Vinyl laughed, grinning widely at her. “I guess that answers that. Alright Octy, here comes the wonderbolt!” She sliced a piece of pancake up and the fork lifted into to her foal’s mouth. She chomped down on it happily, devouring each portion as it was fed to her.
I gotta remember this, Octy is better at being a foal when she’s still sleepy, Vinyl thought as she fed herself at the same time. She’s loosening up.
It was a warming thought, that Octavia was beginning to get more used to this. It was still a bit awkward at times, like when Vinyl had woken her and Octavia had looked all cutely embarrassed and flustered as Vinyl ‘hinted’ that if she needed to go potty, she should do it in her diaper before Vinyl pulled away covers.
“I hope when I see your diapee that little Octy has gone pee-pee in it, or Mommy might start doubting her foal’s enthusiasm,” had been her exact words. They had worked too, after a look of nervous anticipation on Octavia’s face. She had scrunched up her cute face with the most adorable look of effort as Vinyl got her out of bed, and lo and behold when her onesie was opened a warm, yellow diaper was waiting to be removed.
Octavia flushed as she let her friend turned caretaker feed her. She didn’t need to be fed, but with nothing pressing her time, she found it easy to relax and let Vinyl handle it. Some maple syrup drinked down her chin, onto her bib. Rather than politely wipe it up with a slightly embarrassed expression, as Octavia knew she would have done normally, Octy extended her tongue down, licking it up. A giggle distracted her, and she looked up to Vinyl’s amused expression.
Smiling, Vinyl kept feeding Octy as she began to eat her own serving. It really was a shame they didn’t have a more appropriate chair for Octy, that would make her look even cuter. She mentally added that to the list of things to look for at the store today. This ‘All-Ages Nursery’ would, she hoped, helped shorten that list. If they were going to do this long term, they were going to do it right.
“Don’t forget Octy, mama’s taking you to your favorite store later. So after breakfast we need to get you cleaned up. Can you take a shower on your own, or do I need to give my little foal a bath?”
Octavia chewed her mouthful for a bit, trying to decide. A blush lit her face as Octy answered, “I-I’d wike a baff pwease.”
The adorable lisp Octy had would have made a lesser mare squeal, but Vinyl just grinned. She was building up a resistance to Octy-based cuteness.
With a giggle of her own, Vinyl fed her another piece. “Well, what goes in gotta come out, so you’re the one who’s gonna be pooping it all out later. Just make sure you tell me before you need to go, okay babe?”
“Y-yeah Mommy,” Octy agreed, spraying bits of pancake over the table. “Gonna tewl Mommy when gotta go potty.”
Talking with her mouth full was horrible manners, Octavia knew that perfectly well. But a foal like Octy would have no idea, so she giggled as Vinyl wiped her face clean of pancake shrapnel. It was so liberating to be free of things like that. She could talk with her mouth full and all Vinyl did was give her a half-hearted warning around her own mouthful, not quite realising why when Octy burst into giggles again.
“Wha? Wh’s funny?” Vinyl asked. She was meant to be the one with a confusing sense of humour. That was part of her charm, finding funny in things Octavia didn’t. Heck, she’d pretend to be laughing at some joke Octavia didn’t get just to annoy her friend sometimes, which fittingly was quite funny.
Shaking it off as some private foal’s joke, Vinyl kept up the feeding until both plates were clean. Cleaner than Octy, at least. The big foal’s chin and bib had syrup all over them, which she was happily trying to lick up. Taking away the plates to rinse, Vinyl snickered at the foalish mannerisms her friend was managing now. More syrup she licked up, less work for the only adult there.
“Alright, let’s get you cleaned up. Up ya get Octy, come on,” Vinyl urged her. She took her foal’s hoof when she was standing, leading Octy to the bathroom. Leaving the messy faced foal to sit and wait, Vinyl start running the bath. Warm water, hotter than she’d use for a real foal of course, that she let only slightly fill before turning off the tap.
Striping off Octy’s diaper and bib, Vinyl helped her into the water.
“Now, sit down and let your Ma clean ya, got it?” Vinyl ordered. Octy nodded, fidgeting in the water that came up only to just about her cutie mark as she sat in it. A cloth floated up in Vinyl’s magic, a bottle of liquid soap squirting it before she put it down. Standing at the tub’s edge, she took the cloth and began to clean the foalish mare.
Being cleaned by somepony else was just one more thing for Octavia to add to the list of strange, wonderful new things she was getting to experience. She was happy to relax and let Vinyl clean her, closing her eyes and sighing happily as the cloth was run over her face. It felt so strange, being touched like this. Another pony was the one holding the cloth that was cleaning away the syrup on her face. There was such a difference between cleaning herself and this, like there was with diapering herself and having somepony else do it. It changed the act in some very special way.
All too soon, Octavia found herself being rinsed off by another cloth and being drawn out of the bath. She whined foalishly, shivering slightly until a towel was brought over.
“Hey, calm down, nearly done,” Vinyl soothed, nuzzling her. “Let’s get you dry, and then-”
“Diapee?” Octy gave her a pleading look.
Vinyl shook her head, chuckling. “No can do Octy. We’re going shopping, remember? You’re gonna have to be a big filly, at least until we get to the store, okay?”
Pouting like the foal she was happy to be at home, Octy nodded and let her mommy finish drying her. She didn’t have to worry about going out to the store with Vinyl right now, because so long as she was a foal her Mama was making decisions. All Octy had to do was sit there and let them happen.
So when she stepped from the apartment, both wearing saddlebags, and she went from being Octy to being Octavia, she got to have all those worries come crashing down on her. It was so much easier when she could just stop thinking and stop worrying about
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” she said nervously, coming to a stop.
Vinyl rolled her eyes. She had been expecting this. She wasn’t worried, for a very good reason.
“You know, maybe it’s not. But then again, even if you don’t go I still will,” the DJ said. She smirked. “Hey, ‘Tavi, did you remember to get your key for the apartment?”
Octavia scowled. “Of course I did, it’s right-” she shut her mouth as she realised she had let Vinyl do all of that. The unicorn grinned widely at the look her friend gave her. “Cheater.”
“Ain’t cheating if you never told me not to. Since we’re out, and I’m gonna go anyway, you might as well come with me,” Vinyl pointed out with a fiendish chuckle. “After all, this way at least you can certain the stuff I get you fits properly.”
Letting out a sigh of defeat, Octavia nodded. “Fine, fine. If you really must lower yourself to such crass tactics-”
“I must!”
“Be quiet! If you must do so, I suppose my only choice is to accompany you and keep you out of trouble. I can see it now ‘DJ causes disaster at Adult Foal Store - Classical Musician’s secret revealed!’” the fancy mare grumbled.
Vinyl grinned at her as they set off. “Come on ‘Tavi, if that happened why would you get caught up in it?”
“Because I always do? Honestly Vinyl, it’s like you can’t cause chaos without somehow dragging me in.” With each step, Octavia felt more and more like, well, Octavia. A full grown mare. An adult. An adult who could give her best friend a quite serious talking to.
“What about that time in Las Pegasus? You weren’t dragged into that, and I had a hoof-fight with that drag queen in front of the hotel owner,” Vinyl argued, although she wasn’t exactly making a good case for herself in general.
“I had to come and pay bail.”
“Huh….so you did.”
They trotted languidly through the city, enjoying the warm, bright summer’s day. The air was fresh, the ponies around them were colourful and polite. They were getting closer and closer to one place Octavia could find things to add to her fantasies. Nothing, Octavia was certain, could ruin this day.
}-{
Lyra ate alone in her tiny apartment, eating her breakfast. Normally she loved Apple Jacks, but one glance towards the bin reminded her of where she was going. Of what she was going to do. The bin held the torn remains of her curse. It had to be a curse. Lyra dropped the bowl in the sink when she was done, rubbing a hoof across her forehead.
I don’t have to go, she thought to herself. I don’t need to go...
One look towards the bin and Lyra knew she would give in. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. She had gone a month once before giving in and restocking. But that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how long it had taken, she had given in. She had given in and bought more, to her shame.
Once she had admitted to herself she would go back again, Lyra had no trouble deciding to get them today. It always made her anxious, wondering if she’d get caught on the way there, or the way back. She might as well go now, she decided, and get it over with. Once that was done, she could lock them away. Lock them away and forget about them for as long as she could.
Besides, she rationalised, she could control it better like this. She could prove to herself that she wasn’t doing it, that she was choosing not to be a freak, if she had them but didn’t use them. It all made perfect sense. If she didn’t have any, not wearing them didn’t mean anything. But if she had them she could prove to herself she was stronger than her addiction.
Her decision explained to herself far more than she should have needed, Lyra quickly pulled on her saddlebags and left her apartment, locking it. She stepped out in the light and winced, finding it too bright after her low light home, before setting off. She almost subconsciously kept to the shadows, feeling as though anypony who looked at her would somehow know what she was doing. That they would know what she was. It was irrational, but the idea that her strangeness somehow showed was one she just couldn’t shake.
Torn between her desire for that soft, reassuring padding and her desire to be normal, Lyra trotted through the city, trying to work out how she felt.
}-{
Octavia fell silent as they approached the store. It was normal on the surface, a pharmacy tucked into a normal, entirely ordinary street. Inside it seemed only to contain a range of items for your every medical need. Well, not every, but a lot. Amber’s Pharmacy supplied what you needed with experienced advice and helpful hooves. For those with embarrassing needs, Amber guaranteed privacy and discretion.
Privacy and discretion were very important, especially where her other store was concerned. Through a door at the back of the store, Amber All-Ages Nursery Store provided everything any adult foal could need. The owner’s understanding and cheerful nature helped many who found it an ordeal, although some more than others.
Vinyl went in first, glancing back at her friend. Just outside the door, Octavia hesitated. Her nervousness returned. Their bantering and bickering had made it go away, letting her relax, but now the grey mare found her nerves coming back.
“Maybe we shouldn’t-” she began.
“Too late!” Vinyl grabbed her by the hoof and yanked Octavia in.
“Welcome!” A cheerful orange pegasus greeted them as they stepped in. Well, Vinyl stepped in. Octavia was dragged in, but that was close enough. “Is there anything I can help you with- Oh! Octavia! Hi!”
Blushing, Octavia gave the pegasus mare a remarkably timid greeting for her. Having no compunctions, Vinyl was much more willing to meet this new pony.
“Hey, nice to meet ya. Octy and I are here for…” Vinyl glanced around just in case, but the sore was otherwise empty, then nudged Octavia. “Go on, tell her.”
The blue-maned pharmacist cocked her head to the side, looking at Octavia. She was not an adult foal herself, but she knew most in Canterlot. Her store was the only one there, and she went to great pains to reassure her customers.
“Uh, we, ah, we’re here to…” Octavia cringed, looking away with a flush under her grey coat.
“It’s okay dear. Do you want me to show you to the back store?” Amber asked gently.
Octavia nodded in relief. She didn’t have to say it. “Y-yes, please-”
“Hang on a sec! ‘Tavi, come on. There’s no reason to be embarrassed,” Vinyl said, putting a hoof around her friend. “I know it’s hard, but it’ll help. You’re acting all, you know, prissy about it. Just say it, there’s nothing wrong with it.”
Taking a moment, Octavia sighed. “I...suppose you have a point. Amber, we’re here for the...the back store.”
It wasn’t much, but it was more than she had managed. The first time, Amber had recognised the blushing, stuttering mare’s purpose and gently helped her.
“Well, alrighty then! Come on!” Amber said brightly, beaming at them and leading them back. A pale pink door led to a short staircase with a baby blue door. “Will you need any help?”
“Nah, Octy knows what she wants,” Vinyl said, grinning widely. “We should be fine.”
“Okie-dokie! I’ll be upstairs if you need me, just ring the bell if you want to make a purchase,” Amber smiled and went back up as her customers went into the back store. Octavia’s visits had been less frequent recently, usually only every so often to get more diapers. She hadn’t bought any clothes in ages either, which was such a shame considering some recent items. Amber hoped she and her friend found the dress, it matched the white and purple onesie Octavia had purchased.
Vinyl whistled as they stepped into the All-Ages Nursery store. It was like a foal store, except...bigger. Everything on offer was bigger. There was a sign with helpful directions, describing products and showing which aisle they were on. Amber had done her best to ensure customers could browse to their pleasure without feeling like she was watching them. A tug of the rope marked ‘bell’ would let her know they wanted to make their purchase, and it could all go ahead without customers to the upper store being the slightest bit aware.
“Wow, there’s a lot here! Diapers, diapers, diapers, disposable diapers, cloth diapers, foal powder, clothes, toys...seriously, damn!” Vinyl was clearly impressed, and trotted about the store looking. The fact it was an adult foal store, a place she had never stepped hoof in before, was ignored because Vinyl scratch did not let things like that stop her.
Octavia watched, looking around uncertainly. With just Vinyl, the mare who had changed her wet diaper, fed her and bathed her, she began to relax.
“Yes,” she agreed. “Amber does have quite the wide range of items. I’ve been coming here for quite a while, and she is constantly trying to get better quality and more options.”
“Cool, is she an adult foal too? Hey, this dress matches your onesie!” Already looking around, Vinyl floated over a dress in a purple that matched Octavia’s cutie mark, accented with white frills and trim. “Come on, try it on! I saw a changing stall over there!”
Giving a sigh that was mostly for show, Octavia agreed. It fooled nopony, Vinyl grinning at how eager Octavia was. Stepping into the changing room, she held out a hoof for the dress. Instead she got a whole pony.
“Not expecting me to let my little filly dress herself, now are you?” she asked cheerfully.
“Of course not,” Octavia blushed but stepped aside for Vinyl to come in. She had forgotten about her bowtie, so there was nothing to remove. It took her a moment to realise there was another dress, a soft pink foal dress. It was shorter, its color close to her bowtie’s, and decorated with a number of bows. “Really?”
Vinyl just gave her a cheeky grin in answer. “Never go in with just one thing to try on, Octy, keep up.”
The use of the foalish nickname sent a warm flush through Octavia. She let Vinyl slip the purple dress onto her, buttoning it up behind her. A sash just below her ribs was pulled up and tied into a bow on her back before she was turned to look at herself in the mirror. Octy didn’t have any foal dresses yet, but she was entranced by her reflection. She could just imagine her thickly padded rear framed by the frills of the hem.
A white leg curled around her neck and Vinyl grinned at the mirror. “How’s that? Love it?”
Octy nuzzled Vinyl, the sudden affectionate gesture taking the DJ by surprise. After a moment the unicorn laughed happily.
“Yep, you love it.”
Preoccupied with playing dress up, they didn’t hear the door to the upper store opening.
}-{
Amber gave the mint mare a warm smile. Lyra’s visits were always a bit sad. She just hated to see somepony looking so guilty when they were here. The best she could do was offer a kind smile and a non-threatening presence when she came in to get more supplies. Amber only knew her name from seeing a performance in one of Canterlot’s many parks where Lyra played quite beautifully. She hummed the tune to herself, going to the counter. This time it was just diapers, it seemed. She knew it was just diapers, given the way Lyra hurried straight to the diaper aisle. There were many patterns of behaviour with her customers, and when she was here for more supplies Lyra went to the diaper aisle last. It was delicate science.
Lyra looked up and down the range of brands. Amber had the best and the widest range of adult foal diapers. Being surrounded by this treasure trove of foalish items let her ignore the inevitable self-recriminations and guilt, at least for a little while. She could sink into the bubble of safety and relaxation. Perhaps she could get something to wear while she was here...
No! No, just new diapers, that’s all, Lyra thought, shaking her head in silent denial. She grabbed her favourite kind, the very thickest available. They were almost ridiculously big, and she could barely walk in them. Looking them over, she couldn’t help letting out a little squeal. The thicker they were, the longer she could use it. If she could use it longer, she would be able to space them out longer until she needed to get more. Not that she would, Lyra hastily reminded herself. She wasn’t even going to wear them.
Carrying two large packs out to the counter, Lyra thought about that. It really didn’t make any sense, spending all these bits and then not even opening them. For one thing, how could she know she got what she paid for? Yes, she didn’t intend to use them, but that wasn’t the point. It was the principle of the thing! As much as she trusted Amber, she still had to check the product.
By the time she reached the counter, Lyra had decided that she would at the very least open one of them. Not to use them, but to check. She had to make sure she got what she paid for, and not a lot of...of...of paper, or something. Lyra pulled out her bit purse and counted across the coins, and the thought struck her that, well, even if they looked right, she couldn’t be sure they would do what they were meant to. The lyrist nearly nodded to herself. That was just obvious. If she was going to open it, she was going to have to check to make sure at least one worked. The only way to do that was to, well, to wear it. There was nothing for it, Lyra decided. She would have to use one, just one, to make sure she had got what she paid for, and she might as well do it promptly when she got home. Strike while the iron is hot, really.
It was just the sensible thing to do.
Lyra was just deciding she would have to check both pack of diapers to really be sure, one pack stored in her saddlebag and the other levitating over to her other side’s bag, when the sound of a familiar voice became audible. She thought nothing of it, lost in her rationalising her desires to herself, until a moment too late.
“-need that much, really,” Octavia was saying as she stepped from between the aisles. She turned her head, looking to the counter where Lyra stood.
Lyra froze. Her magic just went off, the thick pack of diapers dropping to the floor. Their eyes met. Octavia froze too, her eyes going wide and her mouth dropping open in shock as they stared at each other.
She wasn’t sure exactly what happened. All Lyra remembered when she got home was the sound of her life crashing around her. Everything she loved falling apart. Everypony she loved rejecting her. She remembered the sting of tears in her eyes, but for all she knew that might have been something that got into them on her heedless, headlong gallop from the store. One moment she was staring into Octavia’s eyes, the next she was at home, curled up on her bed. A diaper so thick her back legs had no chance of meeting cuddled her rear, holding her in its tight embrace as she suckled on a pacifier and cried into her pillow, convinced her life was over.
I’m ruined...Bonnie...
}-{
“What the buck was that?” Vinyl blurted, dropping the many things her magic held. “Was...was that Lyra?”
Octavia wasn’t sure what to say, but she did manage a nod. She couldn’t believe it. Lyra. Lyra had been here, at the adult foal store. What could Lyra, who had hurt her so badly when she found out just this very secret, be doing here? Had she followed them, seeking something to hold over Octavia?
No, that makes no sense. She just ran from us, and...and I think she was crying! Octavia’s mind worked furiously, trying to work out what the flying feather was going on.
“What was she doing here?” Looking around in confusion, Vinyl’s sought sign of other ponies. Aside from them, the only other pony was a very surprised and distressed Amber.
The answer was sitting on the floor, the shiny plastic package emblazoned with Fluffy Foals Adult Diapers. Octavia approached the package of diapers she had seen Lyra drop. She stared at it, and started to tremble.
“How….how dare she…”
Vinyl looked up, staring at Octavia. She was even more confused. “What?”
“How. Dare. She,” Octavia snarled. “That...hypocrite! That dirty, filthy hypocrite!”
The door slammed shut as Octavia stormed out. It was a mistake to call her just angry. She was furious.
Vinyl stared after her friend. She looked down at the diapers Lyra had dropped. An idea slowly occurred to her as she stared at it. Hypocrite. She understood that. Octavia had been so hurt by how Lyra reacted when she found out, finding out that Lyra herself was into it must surely hurt even more!
...except... Vinyl took her purchases, along with Lyra’s diapers, to the counter. She reassured Amber but she was thinking about something else. She couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t so clear cut.
One way or another, Vinyl decided that she was going to find out exactly what was going on. Lyra and Octavia were both adult foals, or at the very least into the whole diaper thing. It was something they shared, and as shocking as that was, Vinyl did wonder one thing; If they shared this secret without knowing about it now...how long had they done so?