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Sapphire began slowly waking up, her body slightly hotter than usual, a feeling of distress going on as her opening eyes adjusting for the clarity of the day alonside the pleasing sensation of her soft, warm diaper against her fur made her want to keep sleeping.

But all at once, she woke up for real, getting her head up to see if she was still herself.

'Oh god what did I do?!' She thought to herself, remembering of the previous day when she regressed her aunt, and went back to sleep while shoving off the owner's curse of her newly acquired scroll. 'I'm... still an adult? I could've swear I casted the curse on myself last night... Wait, did I- Ugh..'.

Too busy trying to recall her memories, she just now noticed she had put her diapers to good use throughout the night, which also had its tapes ripped open. Sapphire blamed this to be just 'cheap stuff', when in fact it was her hips that got wider.

Hastly, she got out of her now-too-short bed after cleaning herself right there with nearby wipes she had brought just in case, once again not noticing obvius clues about her body growth, like her bed woodframe giving audible squeaks because of weight increase. Being an alicorn who just reached her twenties, it would take a long time for her body to grow past that age, so shoe, clothing, and bed size weren't a concern.

"I must find that mare, I deserve an explanation." Sapphire muttered, "yet it's strange, I didn't regress, nor I feel the desire to, yet my bedroom feels larger." She opened her bedroom windows for fresh air to come in, which in turn caused some papers to fly.

Well, many papers, most of which were scatered around the floor.

"Where did it all com from?!" She quickly closed the window and tried to pick all the flying papers back into organized stacks with her magic, except two that she took for close inspection. "A formulary of request for street maintenance and somepony's job application for royal guard? That kind of stuff is aunt tia's job, why are they here?" She said, oblivious to the fact her magic was on autopilot, signing the documents on the floor with her own name.

"Your highness? Are you awake?" Asked a female voice from the bedroom door, possibly one of the many maids. "I have brought your early lunch as I was tasked to."

"Y-yes! Just a second please, leave it by the door if you may!" Sapphire answered, quickly grabbing her balled up diaper and wipes and throwing in the bathroom trash can.

"I.. I am required to get inside in order to check for anything that might endanger your safety Princess, as you yourself requested.." The maid awkwardly spoke, confused as it's something that should be obvius.

"Of... of course! Yes, please come in" Sapphire said, she doesn't recall ever requesting something like that, 'the hell is going on?!' she thought, the maid calmly walking inside with a cart with different groceries on top, the kind you'd sometimes expect for breakfast.

Sapphire took her time to slowly eat her breakfast, watching the maid walking around the room diligently for a few minutes before aparently finishing, and heading to the princess.

"All seems good your highness, now as per usual, time for your morning diaper change, which I see you had already attempted on your own." She said, her behavior going from a servant to a friendly one, a warm smile on her face as she grabs which is clearly a babysitting bag from underneath the cloth on the cart. "That's very cute of you, but please leave it to me next time Princess Saphy"

"Who do you think-" Sapphire was about to protest, it appears the maid was in fact her caretaker, which she also did not recall having, but despite a complete stranger giving her weird orders, calling her by her nickname, and bringing a ridiculously thick piece padding near her flank, she complied, laying down on her back with a feeling of trust towards this mare, and crumbs of bread in her muzzle.

"Good princess~" The caretaker said, similling while wiping, humming while powdering, and cooing while diapering.

---

After a few embarassing minutes, Sapphire went on with her day normally, or as normal as you'd expect from this world, she had been doing all the tasks that Celestia or Luna would do, everypony appeared to recognize her as the Canterlot princess, and nopony gave notice to obvious white pamps on her flank.

But perhaps it's for the best, now that she is freely walking around the castle(with her caretaker on her tail), a lot of information was gathered.

Firstly, it appears everything is just as she remembers except for a few details. Both Celestia and Luna are still babies, but the reasoning behind their regression is different. According to what she saw on the newspapers, ponykind believed that turning into a foal was part of an alicorn's life cycle to restore their magic levels, similar to a phoenix.

As much as Sapphire knows about her kind, which isn't much, it's untrue, but such headlines appeared to have prevented panic. When she asked what exactly happened, she was informed that Tia and Luna were just "taking a vacation" from leading everything. She doubted if they were saying the truth since she was partially responsible, but she can't talk to the baby princesses in order to confirm.

Secondly, she isn't necessarily the one in charge of Canterlot. Celestia might have had her goofy side like anypony would, but she was still a formidable leader, and as such, she had a well planned contingency protocol in case she was unable to rule for any reason, which consisted of dividing her power between different servants of hers, which were chosen by hoof.

It appears this 'special council' is doing a pretty good job so far, as for Sapphire, she was merely to keep appearances. If ponies learned that other regular ponies are the ones in charge, things could go south politically wise, so they're fed this white lie that they seem to gratefully believe.

And all of this leads us to our third and last finding, Sapphire's caretaker, whom is also part of the lie. Her job is indeed to take care of the princess, but also to keep an eye on her to make sure no unnecesarry information is leaked.

Now, you might be wondering, what about Sapphire's out of place growth and diaper? Well, she has no idea, but it's no fun staying in the dark, is it? So let's rewind a bit:

Around 3 days ago, walking around the city looking to buy a few toys for her baby mother, Sapphire headed into a public restroom. Away from her guards, which were both males, she was approached by the sink by a hooded mare.

The hood was probably enchanted as Sapphire couldn't really remember any features of this mare, including her height, voice, and fur color, and before she was able to call out for her guards, Sapphire's mouth was forced shut by magic. She couldn't remember what was being said, but she felt it was something among the lines of:

"You're looking for something. Yes?" The mare probably asked. "I have something better, something of your interest little princess."

"Hmmm?" Sapphire muttered, despite the situation being hella suspicious, she wasn't feeling endangered at the time.

"Good good" The mare might have said, proceeding to lift the right side of her cape, showcasing many different scrolls attatched. "What better gift to give a young one, other than a friend of their own? That's what I offer you today."

The mare closed her cape before Sapphire could properly analyze the scrolls, and soon after, the mare shoved a scroll into Sapphire's bag, while also taking all her money. Sapphire was imobile the entire time, restricted by magic, and so she stayed until the mare waved goodbye and disappeared after getting inside a toilet stall.

Immediately, Sapphire was released, and nervously checked the scroll given to her, although, upon opening, she felt dizzines as some of her magic was being drained, which was a mean to sign a curse. She then read through the curse's many topics, which resembled a complex contract you would expect from a company lawyer, but instead of copyright agreements, you're met with mentions of "chrono desaturation" and "bio-rythm hyper-management", probably some magic language mumbo jumbo.

Fast forward to one day ago, Sapphire was on her bed, clearly affected by the owner's curse. By now she had read the curse contract many times, understand only a portion of it, which she judged to be enough to cast on her aunt earlier this morning, thinking it would wear out after a day.

Believing on the mare's words she "remembers", and on the contract's supposedly safety clauses, Sapphire padded herself up before sleeping, in hopes she wouldn't give up to the desire to curse herself, as the curse demanded. But she was a novice at magic, didn't even go to magical college yet as she thought she could learn anything at the castle's library on her own, such ignorance being her demise, since what she thought was a safety clause, was in fact a condition.

The condition in question? Well, if we were to adapt a translation from the magical language to our own, it would be something like: "The act of pretending, talking, walking, acting, or thinking like an infant or closer without being one, is to be considered a sign of permission for the curse to take control over the owner."

Resuming everything, the mare lied, and Sapphire got cursed, that night she had become a foal during her sleep, comproved by the state of her diaper in the morning. Although, against anyone's expectations, she had grown back up in the morning, older than she previously was. Such outcome wasn't present in the curse, so what caused it?

The answer is simple!

You see, there are a handfull of alicorns through Equestria, and even fewer in Canterlot, if Sapphire were to become a foal alongside Tia and Luna, there would be no one else to lead the kingdom besides that council mentioned earlier. Of course with the right manipulation the ponies would certainly accept their leaders even as foals, but the fact is, at least one alicorn is to be there for the kingdom, that is an unkown rule set by magic.

Therefore, with the existence of such rule, and the curse trying to get away with the last adult alicorn in the region, both the curse and the rule interfered with each other into a most weird mix of both.

Fast forward to now, Princess Sapphire is a grown up like Celestia was, and she was required to wear diapers because, according to her caretaker, until today, Sapphire has always been a foal, one who got made older in order to temporaly fit the role of leader.

Initially Sapphire thought the curse might have affected everypony's memories somehow, but considering she couldn't find the cursed scroll, nor any register about her years in elementary or even pre-school, added to the fact she would ocassionally use her diaper without noticing, she believed reality around her was changed instead, which is crazy, but not entirely impossible with magic.

While pondering all these facts, Sapphire was walking around 'her' city, through the same area she had found the mare before.

It's late at night, she had just finished her given appointments of the day, tired, thinking it would've been better if the curse had worked as it should instead of this. And while near aimlessly walking around, she had decided to go to the same restroom she had met the mysterious mare in.

Of course, given her flank being bigger than the usual toilet could handle, and everypony believing she was just a foal on an adult's body, she couldn't get in the bathroom as usual since Sapphire "probably isn't potty trained" as she eavesdropped others saying.

So, as embarassig as she found it to be, she decided to walk close to her desired location, purposefully make her padding wet, and point that out to her caretaker once they're in front of the establishment.

It surprisingly worked! The caretaker now brought her inside, embarrasingly holding her by the hoof, and proceed to change her on the bathroom floor after laying down a big enough mat, and ensuring privacy. Afterwards, both Sapphire and the caretaker would wash their hooves, the latter making sure to explain Sapphire how to do it "like a big pony".

Sapphire was very, very ashamed inside her head, but she had to keep pretending to not attract attention, and it was worth it, since above the bathroom sink she was washing her hooves on, she found a flower, apparently made of crystal. She couldn't tell what kind of flower it was, but it was definitively left by the mare, Sapphire felt a weird aura coming from it, and when she showed it to her caretaker, she said it was weird to leave a flower around here, not giving thought to the fact it's made of cystal.

Sapphire put the flower in her mane to make sure she doesn't lose it, and goes back home alongside her caretaker. She was hoping to go straight to the library, but the caretaker was very strict about Sapphire's bed time, it's pretty weird when an adult pony, supposedly older than you and half your size, demands you to sleep, but so is her life now, and just as she thinks it can't get any worse, the moment she steps inside her room she is met not only with the same image of paper piles and foal supplies, but what was her bed is now an oversized crib, and what looked like a magic shield around it.

"Where is my bed?" Sapphire asked, fearing, yet expecting the following answer.

"What do you mean Saphy? It's right there! Now hurry up and go to your crib, you got a full day tomorrow as well." The caretaker replied, waiting patiently for the Princess to obey.

"C-could I have a run on the library first?"

"Oh dear, I'm afraid it's a tad too late for bedtime stories princess, our walk took too much time you see." The caretaker said, heading to the crib in order to lower one side.

"Nonsense, I'm still very awak-" Saphy protested, being abruptly interrupted by something soft beign shoved into her muzzle. Her caretaker, knowing better than to argue with a sleep-deprived adult-foal, prepared beforehoof a enchanted pacifier that should calm one's nerves down, leading them to a peaceful sleep.

As expected, it worked wonders, Sapphire's eyes becoming heavy and her movements clumsy, allowing her caretker to easily hold her hoof and guide her to the crib, where she laid down, and slept abliss. The caretaker lifted the crib side, turned off the light, and went away to her own bedroom for the night.

Hopefully tomorrow she would be able to search about this flower of hers, who knows what strange things may be happening without her knowledge...

One might even think this crystal flower looks like a poison joke, whatever that means.
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To be continued