Sierra was busy, lying on her tummy and coloring, when the letter was slammed down in front of her. She gave a little jump, glancing up to see Zoe standing over her with her arms crossed and her diaper drooping slightly.

"What is it?" Sierra sighed.

"Read it!" Zoe demanded. "You did still remember how to read, don't you?"

Sierra stuck her tongue out as she sat up, picking up the envelope. "I can read just fine, thank you!" It was a fair question, though. Even though Zoe was the one still in diapers, a fact that was quite evident because of her tendency to run around inside in just them and a t-shirt even in the winter, while Sierra had graduated to training pants that were sticking just slightly out of the back of her jeans now, Sierra was the younger of the two. The difference hadn't been that big when they first met, but now things were different.

She supposed they had been for a while. She tried not to think about how long things had been this way, with her hoping she'd come up with some way to change things back to the way they had been, but obviously that wasn't working. It had been back towards the end of summer that it had happened, and now here it was, almost Christmas, and she was still stuck. Due to a little mishap with her magic, she'd spent a week where she was supposed to be a camp counselor as a camper herself, diaper dependent and unable to speak, under the care of a former babysitting charge, Madison, who was meant to be a member of Sierra's cabin.

Madison and Sierra had switched ages, and Madison wasted little time in taking over as the adult, using Sierra's immature actions, a lot of which weren't even her fault, to justify keeping her as a kid. Zoe had also been a kid at that time, along with a couple of her friends, but once camp was over, Madison had changed them all back to adults. When it came to Sierra's turn, however, she just shook her head.

"You obviously aren't ready for the responsibility of being an adult, or having this," she said, waving Sierra's own wand. "But I don't think Zoe and the others are mature enough to take care of you, either, so I guess I'll just have to do it."

Madison didn't have any training with magic, but over the week where she'd had Sierra's wand, her powers had grown quite a bit, and it was no trouble for her to convince her family that she had grown up normally into her new age, or to get a nice little house for herself and Sierra, her "little sister", and for Zoe and her friends to come over and visit from time to time.

It was humiliating, being kept as a kid by her own babysitting charge. When the school year started again, Madison even enrolled her in third grade, and to try to get her ready, she put her through a strict potty training regimen, unaware and unbelieving that Sierra's incontinence had been caused by hypnosis, not an actual inability to use the potty. Fortunately, the hypnosis eventually wore off, but not after she filled many potty training charts with frowny faces, and even now Madison insisted she couldn't trust her in big girl panties. The girl Sierra used to diaper for bed now did the same for her, but instead of regular underwear, she got changed into Pull-Ups in the morning.

Sierra squirmed in place, feeling the slight padding of the training pants under her bottom. She was sure her classmates knew about them, which made them even more humiliating, but at least her teacher was nice and made sure they didn't tease her, even if she was the smallest kid in class. She had been doing well for a while now, and she hoped that for Christmas, Madison would give her some real panties, like she'd been hinting at.

But that was still a few days away. For now, she unfolded the letter from Zoe's envelope and started to read. "Dear Ms. Zoe," it said. "We regret to inform you that, once again, you have been placed on the naughty list. Your wish list has been disregarded, and you will be receiving a piece of coal instead. Please do your best to be a nice girl next year. Signed, Santa Claus." Sierra looked up at Zoe in confusion, only to find that the girl seemed genuinely upset. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" Zoe glared at her, snatching the letter away. "I haven't been naughty! This isn't fair!"

Sierra wanted to point out that she was pretty sure it could be argued that the girl really had been naughty, but instead went with, "Well, Santa isn't real, so who cares?"

"Then who's been leaving coal in my stockings all these years?" Zoe huffed. "Maybe you're just not nice enough for him to bring you presents!"

To be fair, Sierra had a brush with Santa before, but that had been in a whole other world, and even then she hadn't seen him directly. It had seemed like he was real there, but she didn't know that for sure. Here in the real world, or at least what she thought was the real world, she was pretty sure he didn't exist, although she'd had to pretend otherwise at school, just in case any of her classmates still really believed.

"Well, what does this have to do with me?" Sierra asked with a shrug. "If you're on the list, it's too late."

"Nuh-uh," Zoe shook her head. "Not when I have you. You've got magic! You can just pop up to the North Pole and fix the list!"

"Except I don't have my wand," Sierra reminded her. "I can't do anything right now!"

"I'll take care of that," Zoe told her. "You just have to promise me you'll do it if I get you what you need."

Sierra's ears perked up. She'd tried to get her own wand back, of course, but Madison was too crafty for her, and too good at finding places far out of Sierra's vastly shortened reach. She had no reason to try to keep it away from Zoe, though. She might actually have a shot at getting it!

"You can keep it, too, once you're done," Zoe promised. "But you have to promise you'll fix the list."

"I promise!" Sierra nodded quickly. This might be her best chance to go back to being an adult, so even if she had to go on some wild goose chase to earn it, she had to try.

"Good," Zoe nodded, taking the letter back. "Or else... Uh-oh, did somebody have an accident?"

Sierra gasped, clapping her hands to her backside as she felt her control vanish in the face of the hypnotic trigger. She felt the training pants under her jeans start to expand outwards, growing warm and mushy as she fought to stop it, to no avail. She squealed helplessly, knowing she was going to be in big trouble for this!

Zoe watched her with a grin, waiting until she stop her wiggling to say, "Are you ready to try the potty?", reversing the hypnosis and giving her back her continence, though it was too late to help these trainers. "I know you had such a hard time with potty training last time," Zoe said. "I'd hate for you to have to go through that again." Before Sierra could reply, Zoe shouted, "Madison! Sierra had an accident!"

Madison burst in, making Sierra quickly move her hands away from her bottom as she stared up at her, blushing bright red. Even if she'd done it years too early, Madison had grown up to be quite the beautiful young woman, much taller and more developed than Sierra ever was. Sierra was sure she'd have been intimidated by her even if she was an adult, too, but as a kid, even without hypnosis she found it hard to string sentences together in front of her, especially at a time like this.

"What did you do, Sierra?" Madison demanded, putting her hands on her hips and staring down at the girl.

"I-I... I just... It was..." Sierra stammered.

Madison grabbed her wrist, pulling her gently but firmly to her feet and unzipping her jeans, exposing her Pull-Up. "Your flowers are completely gone!" she pointed out before spinning the girl around. Sierra squeaked, trying to stop what she knew was coming next, but before she could say anything, she felt the back of her trainers being tugged outward to give Madison a peek inside. "Sierra!"

Madison turned Sierra back around as the girl's cheeks reddened even more and she tried to look down at her shuffling feet. Madison put a finger to the girl's chin, lifting it back up to force her to look her former charge in the eye. "This is no little accident, young lady," Madison informed her. "Do I need to start you a new training chart?"

"N-No!" Sierra shook her head.

Madison looked over at Zoe for a moment. "I know Zoe here just uses her diapers whenever she wants, and that's okay for her. She doesn't claim to be a big girl. You do. If you want to play with her, you can come ask me to put you in a diaper, and that's fine, too, but as long as you're in your training pants, I expect you to act like the big girl you say you are."

"But I..!" Sierra pouted.

"And to think you were doing so well," Madison sighed. "It's a good thing I didn't get you your Christmas present yet. I think you just proved you aren't ready for them."

"No!" Sierra stomped her foot unhappily, knowing that Madison was talking about big girl panties. "That isn't fair!"

"A tantrum, too?" Madison raised an eyebrow. "Come on, we'd better get you into a diaper for the rest of the day. I think you've earned it, and if you keep this up, you'll earn a nice, early bedtime, too."

As Sierra trudged reluctantly over to the changing table, she could see Zoe laughing silently to herself. She knew that girl had been the cause of all this, but at the same time, she was her best chance for helping Sierra put things back to normal. She was just going to have to help Zoe out if she wanted to ever be a grown-up again.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Days went by without another mention of it, and Sierra almost wondered if Zoe had forgotten, or realized that it was harder to get ahold of the wand than she expected, since she came over to visit almost every day afterwards. Then finally, on the night before Christmas Eve, Zoe announced, "I talked to Madison and I'm sleeping over tonight. Are you ready to do this thing?"

Sierra nodded grimly. She still wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do, since she had a feeling the note from Santa was likely from Lilly, trying to make her baby girl behave more next year, but it didn't really matter. She could just pop out somewhere, tell Zoe she'd done the job, then come home and have her wand, her magic, and her adult life back.

"Good," Zoe replied. "We'll do it tonight, after Madison goes to sleep."

That seemed simple enough, although Sierra was annoyed that, despite having a guest, Madison still made her stick to her usual bedtime of 8 pm. "But there's no school!" she whined as Madison taped her up into her nighttime diaper. "And it's almost Christmas!"

"That's right, it is almost Christmas," Madison said, slipping Sierra into her footed sleeper. It was made to look like a green elf suit, with striped "tights" going up the legs and leading down to the feet, which had pointy toes with a bell on the tip and a drop seat. "You should behave if you want Santa to bring you nice gifts."

Sierra rolled her eyes, but she could tell Madison had her mind made up, so she poutily crawled into bed and let the girl read her a bedtime story. Her intention was to stay up until Zoe went to steal the wand and gave it to her, but unfortunately, she was so used to her regular bedtime, and to getting lulled to sleep by Madison's voice, that she found herself drifting off. She fought to keep her eyes open, but before the story was even over, she was fast asleep.

Fortunately, Zoe didn't let that stop her. Sierra let out a small groan as she was shaken awake later on, her eyes blinking open to find Zoe standing over her. "Get up, sleepyhead! This is our last chance!" she hissed. "He'll have the list with him tomorrow, so it'll be too late! So wake up!"

"I'm up," Sierra yawned, stretching a little and wanting nothing more than to curl back up under her covers. "Do you have it?"

Her eyes perked up as Zoe pulled the wand out of her pocket. She sat up, reaching for it, only for the bigger girl to pull it away. "Do you promise you're going to fix the list?" she demanded.

"Yes!" Sierra nodded, staring up at the wand desperately. It had been so long since she'd held it!

"And do you promise not to do anything to me when I give you this?" she asked. Sierra hesitated for a moment before nodding again. "Sierra," Zoe said warningly, "Do you promise? I can use some hypnosis on you until you get back if I have to."

It was tempting to get a little revenge on Zoe for all the things she had done to her, but that hadn't worked out so well for her in the past, and honestly, since Madison had taken control, Zoe had mostly been pretty nice. And she was the whole reason Sierra had her wand back, after all. "I promise," Sierra said. She couldn't quite contain the squeal of excitement as Zoe handed over the wand. Immediately, Sierra cast a reversal spell on herself, undoing the regression spell she'd unwittingly used on herself months ago.

Growing back up was always disconcerting, but this time, watching her limbs lengthen and her baby fat melt away was amazing, even if it was a little harder to see under the sleeper, which was growing along with her. After so long, she'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be an adult! She could almost have believed that she imagined it all and she really was just a kid, until now.

"What are you doing?" Zoe asked, interrupting Sierra as she sat up on her bed, kicking her legs back and forth and marvelling at how much closer they came to actually reaching the floor. "You can't go into Santa's shop like that!"

Sierra resisted the urge to again tell Zoe that Santa wasn't real, so it didn't matter, instead asking, "Why not?"

"Because if you get caught, he'll know you're up to something!" Zoe insisted. "If he sees a little kid wandering around up there, he'll just assume you were too excited to wait for Christmas. It would be even better if you were younger."

"No way," Sierra shook her head, even though she had to admit Zoe had a point. Even though she doubted she would be going to Santa's workshop or anything, she would seem far less suspicious anywhere she went as a kid. People would just assume she was lost, and if she wound up somewhere wizard friendly, it would be even better. Kids could come into their magic quite young, and she'd heard many stories while she was at school of how her classmates, when they were kids, would steal their parents' wands and wind up in all kinds of odd places on accident.

"If you're going to do this, you're going to do it right," Zoe told her. "You have one shot at this, and I don't want you messing it up!" Zoe's eyes flashed, and Sierra knew she was on the verge of triggering her to make her do what she wanted. She obviously wouldn't be able to use the one that made Sierra only speak in baby babble, since that would keep her from being able to use her magic, but Sierra didn't want to spend this whole caper crawling around, which she could see Zoe saying would add to the authenticity, or incontinent, so she sighed and regressed herself back into an 8 year old. To make herself feel a little better, she also added a spell to turn her diaper into panties to make herself feel a little more mature, anyway. And it worked, the lack of padding seeming strange and exciting after so long in diapers and trainers.

"That's better," Zoe frowned, looking her over. "But I still think you ought to go smaller."

"I'll be fine," Sierra assured her. "Now, do you have the letter?"

Zoe nodded, pulling the envelope out of her pocket and handing it over. "You're sure you can find his workshop with this?"

"I'm sure," Sierra smiled. It was simple enough to track it back to where it came from, even if she was certain that was only going to lead her back to Zoe and Lilly's house. She might head to a clothes store after that, she mused, to find herself something more appropriate to wear. There would be plenty closed by now, so she could have her pick of things to change into once she went back home and made herself big again. She could just tell Zoe they were early presents from Santa or something.

She opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, tapping her wand against it as she started to cast the spell. She felt the room spinning around her, making her glad she was sitting down, since Apparating always made her feel a little queasy. After a few moments, her bedroom vanished, only to be replaced by somewhere completely unfamiliar. It wasn't Lilly's office at all!

She was seated at a large desk, a fancy feather quill pen sitting on it. Outside the window on the far wall, she could see nothing but white. All around the desk, she saw piles and piles of letters. There was more paper than she'd ever seen before there, in all different colors. Some of them were written on in crayon, some with pencil. Most of the letters looked clumsy, as if the people writing them weren't quite used to doing so, and she could see words from all kinds of different languages. Her hand was shaking a little as she reached out to grab one of the letters, even though she knew quite well exactly what was going to be written at the top.

Sure enough, she was right. "Dear Santa," the letter started, as did the next one she picked up, and the next, and the next. Zoe was right. There really was a Santa! And now, Sierra was there, in the midst of his workshop. She wasn't sure whether to be excited or scared. If Santa was real, he had to be a very strong magic user, and she could probably teach her all kinds of things! Then again, he was also a very strong magic user, and she had no idea whether he would see her as nice... or naughty.

Her current mission was especially troubling on that front. Breaking into Santa's workshop and changing his list were almost definitely not the sort of things that nice kids did. Would getting Zoe off Santa's naughty list land her there in the girl's place?

But at the same time, did it matter? If that was what had to be done to get her wand back, then she could go a year or two without presents. Of course, she had her wand back now, so technically she could just leave and be done with it, but she'd made a promise. She began to look through the desk, but there was no huge list to be found. She turned to the piles of envelopes, feeling pretty certain it wouldn't be in there. Then again, there was no way to be sure without looking.

She sighed as she stared at all the letters, knowing that moving all of them to make sure they weren't covering up Santa's list would take forever. She'd never get through them all, definitely not before Christmas! Then she remembered that she could use her magic again. She smiled and waved her wand, saying, "Accio Santa's list!" before she could think it through.

In an instant, every letter in the room, each a list meant for Santa, began to twitch, then fly forward towards her. She let out an involuntary squeal, hopping down out of Santa's chair as the envelopes began to rain down on her, bouncing off of her head and quickly covering the desk, and every surface around her, like a blanket of snow. By the time she landed on the floor, they were up to her ankles, and piling up fast. Quickly, she ducked underneath the desk, trying to take shelter from the falling mail, but it still continued to congregate around her, accumulating on both sides of the desk, forming walls that rapidly sealed her in. To make matters worse, she heard the sound of a door thumping open over the noise of letters raining down around her. Her heart began to thump even faster as she heard voices.

"What is going on in here? This is a mess! Santa won't be happy about this!"

"Don't look at me! I was out there with you!"

"Come on, we'd better get this cleaned up! He can't even get to his desk like this!"

Sierra suppressed a gasp as she heard letters being cleared away from in front of her, biting her bottom lip as she wondered how she was going to explain this. She turned around as best she could in the cramped space under the desk, only to hear someone begin working there, too! Her spell was still going, replacing letters even as the people outside tried to move them, but she could hear that they weren't coming as quickly now, and knew she had to close to running out, and then they would surely find her!

Deciding she could come back a little later, Sierra waved her wand to Apparate back home for long enough to give them time to clean up, but the spell fizzled out. Frantically, she tried again with the same result. She had trouble with that spell from time to time, but the only time she'd come across this was at school, where there was a magic barrier preventing it. She was stuck here! What was she going to do? They were bound to find her now! Was she going to be trapped at the North Pole forever?

Suddenly, she thought back to Zoe's advice. Maybe they wouldn't be mad at her if they found her now, but even as an 8 year old, she probably should have known better. If she made herself younger, though, then they wouldn't get mad at her! At least, she hoped not!

As much as she hated to, it seemed like the best bet that didn't involve abandoning her mission completely. If she was young enough, maybe they'd even give her a little tour of the workshop. Maybe they'd show her just what she was looking for! So as quietly as she could, she muttered the incantation, tapping herself on the nose and watching the small space under the desk suddenly grow much larger around her as she halved her physical age, transforming from a third grader to little more than a toddler.

A few minutes later, the wall of letters in front of the desk collapsed, revealing a woman with pointy ears and a green and white outfit not too different from Sierra's sleeper. If she'd been full size, the woman would have seemed short even to Sierra, but now she looked rather big. She was obviously an elf, even if she was also obviously not the kind of elf Sierra had gotten used to seeing at school. Sierra crawled away, but as she bumped against the letters behind her, she tumbled through, making the last few that hadn't been cleared away yet tumble down on her and the little man working on that side of the desk.

"Another one," the elf grumbled, reaching down and snatching Sierra's wand before she could even react. "Better get this before she makes any more of a mess."

"No!" Sierra whimpered, surprised to hear just how high and squeaky her voice now sounded. "That's mine!"

"I doubt it," the male elf said, just as his companion crawled under the desk to join them. "I'm sure this is your Mommy's."

"Give it back!" Sierra insisted, pulling herself to her feet and grabbing for it, determined not to lose her wand again so soon after just getting it back! Especially since, if she didn't, she was going to be stuck as an even smaller kid than she'd lived the past few months as!

"Now, now, don't be naughty," the female elf cooed down at her. "It isn't too late for Santa to change his list, and I'm sure you've been a good little girl up until now, haven't you?"

Sierra nodded, her thumb working its way up to her mouth. The elves were bigger than her, and there was no way she was going to be able to make them give her wand back, so she supposed she might as well play her part. Or at least that was what she told herself, since it certainly didn't have anything to do with finding thumbsucking to be comforting in stressful situations like this.

"I'm sure you have!" the lady smiled, tapping her on the nose. "How would you like to meet Santa, cutie?"

Sierra froze, her eyes widening a little. She really wasn't sure she wanted to do that, but as a child, would she? What should she say?

Fortunately, her reaction didn't seem to tip off the elf. "No need to be nervous, sweetie! He knows some little wizards and witches get too excited to see him. You certainly aren't our first little visitor."

"Come on, let's get her to the daycare," the male elf grumbled, grabbing Sierra's hand and starting to pull her out of the room impatiently. The hall beyond was painted bright red, decorated with silver and gold garlands, and looked quite festive. They walked past several open doors, beyond which Sierra could see more elves at work, some hammering away at simple toys, others wearing tiny goggles as they worked on electronics, more bent over sewing machines or with needles and threads, sewing together clothes and dolls dutifully.

"There's no need to be mean!" the other elf hurried to catch up. "It's almost Christmas!"

"Yes, it is, which means we have more important things to do than to take care of some human baby and reorganize the mail room!" he countered. The other elf sighed, gently picking up Sierra. She was surprisingly strong for her size, not seeming to have any trouble at all as she made her way down the long hallway, bouncing Sierra up and down on her hip.

"Do you want to be an elf?" the woman asked, looking at how the girl was dressed, tickling Sierra and making the girl giggle involuntarily. "I think you'd make a pretty good one!"

The other elf snorted, pushing open another door. The room on the other side was just as bright and cheerful as the hallway, but full of younger elves. They were dressed similarly to the pair of grown elves accompanying Sierra, other than an obvious diaper bulge under some of their pants or skirts. Some of them were sitting around at toy workbenches, tapping on them with plastic, toy tools, and others were playing like any other babies. There were all kinds of toys scattered about, including many stuffed animals, from tiny to almost as big as the adult elves.

Surprisingly, Sierra didn't see any adults there, watching them. At first she thought this would be simple to escape from, but after a moment, she noticed the biggest stuffed animals were moving around on their own, seeming to keep an eye on all the kids, especially the smaller ones.

"Are you a big girl?" the female elf asked, bouncing Sierra a couple more times, making Sierra realize she was checking to see if she was diapered. Quickly, Sierra nodded, although she wasn't sure that was the best choice as the elf began to carry her over to a collection of small, plastic potties.

"I don't hafta potty," Sierra said quickly.

"It's always good to try just in case," the elf said cheerfully, setting Sierra down on her feet and reaching for the zipper of her sleeper. "And this whole place is so new, and waiting to meet Santa is so exciting, I wouldn't want you to have an accident, so just try for me, okay?"

"But I don't hafta!" Sierra pouted, trying to squirm away. The elf already had her zipper, however, and Sierra's squirming just made the sleeper fall off her body as the woman unzipped it, leaving Sierra standing there naked except for her underwear. She was at least glad that she'd transfigured away her diaper, at least until she saw the elf staring at her. Worried she'd had an accident, she glanced down, only to see just what the spell had done.

She was wearing big girl underwear, sure, but the spell had simply flattened out the diaper to make them. They were thinner, sure, but otherwise they looked exactly the same, and there was no question of what they had been before. Sierra blushed and squirmed, glancing up to see the female elf shaking her head, and the male elf watching them both boredly.

"What happened here?" the woman asked. At first, Sierra assumed it was meant to be a rhetorical question, but even after a long, awkward moment, the elf didn't say anything more.

Her companion did, however. "Obviously it's just little kid magic," he rolled his eyes. "Get her back into a real diaper so she doesn't make a mess and let's get moving! We don't have all night!"

Sierra shook her head, and thankfully the other elf seemed doubtful as well. "I don't know," she mused. "She looks a little old for diapers, though it is hard to tell with humans."

Before Sierra could even answer, the man broke in with, "Of course she wears them! They don't make underwear that looks like that! She couldn't even fully change them into regular underwear."

"I don't weaw diapies!" Sierra pouted, stomping her foot. She couldn't believe she was here, in what was surely one of the most magical places in the world, and having to listen to little people debate about whether to diaper her or not, almost as if she wasn't even there!

"Is that true?" the lady knelt down in front of her. "Lying is naughty, you know, and Santa will definitely notice it if you do it here, so tell me the truth, sweetie. Do you need a diaper?"

Sierra started to shake her head, but stopped herself. She knew the elf was probably just trying to appeal to her as a little kid expecting to get lots of gifts from Santa, but she probably did have a point. Santa was much more likely to help her if he saw her as good, instead of naughty. "I-I do at night," she admitted. "But I weaw big giwl panties duwing the day!" It was difficult getting that many words out at once and keeping them intelligible, but she thought she did a decent job. And it was partly true, at least.

"See, I told you," the male elf sighed, grabbing Sierra and lifting her up, plopping her down on one of the changing tables right by the potties. Sierra blushed and squirmed as he yanked down her underwear, leaving her completely naked and ready as he pulled out a thick, white diaper, decorated with Christmas prints, under her bottom. "Let's just get this over with!"

"No! No diapie! I'm awake!" Sierra whined, finding herself no match for the bigger elf as he sprinkled baby powder onto her privates, no matter how much she squirmed and kicked.

"At least let her use the potty," the female elf said, shaking her head as she watched, picking up Sierra's sleeper.

"We don't have time for that," he replied, glaring down at her as one of her flailing legs connected with him. "Especially not now. She'll be fine."

"No diapie!" Sierra insisted, tears stinging her eyes as her demands were ignored, and she felt the thick diaper being pulled up between her legs, forcing her thighs apart.

"It's all right," the lady elf told her gently, walking up to her and patting her on the head. "Santa is busy, so it might be a little while before he can come visit you. This way, you can just take a nap if you want to while you wait. I'm sure it's very late for you."

"No! No nap, no diapew!" Sierra raged, only for the elf to grab a pacifier from the changing table and shove it into her mouth before starting to tape up the diaper. Sierra started to spit out the pacifier, only to realize it was candy cane flavored. That distracted her long enough for him to seal her diaper up nice and tight, then take her pajamas from the other elf and start maneuvering her back into them. Despite Sierra's attempts to get away, in no time she was zipped into them and lifted off the table to the floor, the diaper bulge making it obvious that these were even thicker than the ones she wore back home.

"I bet she's already on the naughty list," the elf grumbled, walking out of the room and taking Sierra's wand with him. "All that little brat is getting from Santa will be a stocking full of coal and a well-deserved spanking."

"I'm sure that's not true," the female elf assured Sierra, patting her on the bottom with a loud crinkle. "Now, you just stay here and Santa will be in when he can!"

Sierra stomped her foot, her face flushed from her embarrassing diapering. The elf smiled sadly at her, looking back at the doorway. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I know you don't want to wait, but you'll have to. I'm sure the teddies will help you feel better! They always helped me when I was a little girl at daycare! Have a merry Christmas, cutie!"

Sierra toddled after as the elf made her hasty exit, but her legs were too short and before she could catch up, the door had swung shut and one of the huge teddy bears had stepped in front of it, shaking its huge, fluffy head. It towered over Sierra, and didn't look threatening at all, but Sierra really doubted she would be getting past it easily, at least not without some planning.

Instead, she decided to take the elf's advice. Sniffling, upset at herself for getting into this situation, and the boy elf for putting her back in diapers, she waddled up to the bear, throwing her arms around its leg. After a moment, the bear sank to the floor, gently repositioning her, letting her cuddle up on her stomach over its lap as it rubbed her back. Despite everything, it was quite a comforting experience, so much so that she didn't notice as the bear began to unsnap the seat of her sleeper and slide her thick diaper down in the back, exposing her bottom, or a smaller stuffed rabbit walk up and hand it a hairbrush.

She was completely oblivious until the first smack of the hairbrush. She let out a loud yelp of surprise, pacifier dropping out of her mouth and a squirt of pee making its way into her diaper as she squealed, trying to squirm away. The large paw that had been rubbing her back a moment ago began pressing down on her instead, holding her in place as it raised its other paw, taking the hairbrush back with it before swinging it hard against her bottom again.

"No!" she whimpered. "What awe you doing?! I-I wasn't twying to wun away, I pwomise! Pwease, it huwts!" she sniffled, playing it up. It was painful, of course, and humiliating, but this was one time she could use her new age to her advantage and hopefully earn some sympathy."

The bear's voice was quite soothing and gentle, even as he thwapped Sierra's backside again in a way that was neither. "Lying is very naughty, Sierra. You were already warned about that, and you know better."

Sierra gave a little gasp at the sound of her name, certain she hadn't used it at all with the elves, let alone in this room. How could the toy know it? And if it knew that, did it know how old she really was? It definitely didn't feel like it was holding back, as each swing made her jump and squeal in pain, tears stinging her eyes after only the first couple. Surely it wouldn't be so harsh to an actual toddler!

"I'm sowwy!" she yelped. "Pwease, I'ww be good!"

"I'm sure you feel very silly, over my lap like a naughty little girl," the bear said, swinging its fluffy arm again. "Don't worry, everyone knows it's for the best."

"No, it's not!" Sierra insisted, quickly losing the battle not to burst into tears. "I didn't do anything! It's not faiw!" After the next thwap, it was too much, and the floodgates opened, leaving her sobbing as the spanking continued. After another couple of swings, the bear gave her a hug and stood her up, diaper still slid down, the seat of her pajamas still hanging open.

"Now, I want you to go stand in the corner for ten minutes, young lady," it instructed her. The smaller stuffed bunny that had delivered the hairbrush walked up to her, holding up a bottle full of juice. "And finish this bottle in that time."

Sierra couldn't believe this! Was she really being sent off to corner time like some little kid?! It was hard to tell through the black, plastic eyes, but she was relatively certain the bear wasn't joking, and since it hadn't loosened its grip on the hairbrush, she decided it would be better not to test her luck. Rubbing her exposed, now bright pink and quite warm, bottom, she took the bottle and walked to the corner, her other cheeks very red as well.

She sighed as she stuck the bottle in her mouth and began to drink, wrinkling her nose as she was able to tell right away that the apple juice had something extra in it. She turned to complain, but the huge teddy bear was still waiting, brush in paw, and she dutifully turned back to the corner instead, sucking on the bottle despite herself. That stupid bear was supposed to be comforting her, but it had only made things worse! What was she supposed to say now when Madison saw her freshly spanked backside the next morning?! How was she going to explain that?!

She had to shake her head and remind herself that, despite current appearances, she wasn't stuck with Madison anymore. Her wand was liberated, and assuming she could get it back from that elf, she could use it to be an adult again and do whatever she wanted. She didn't have to go subject herself to being ruled over by her former babysitting charge! She could undo everything the girl had done and make her into a kid again. She had to admit, that sounded like an awful lot of fun after everything Madison had put her through. She wouldn't hurt the girl, of course, but just seeing her back at her rightful age would be good enough.

But for now, she was stuck here at an elf daycare on the North Pole, showing off her shiny bum and drinking from a bottle as she stood in the corner. It wasn't hard to understand why she'd forgotten about her change of fortune, since it seemed a lot like business as usual at the moment.

She had no way of knowing what time her time out had started, or how much time had passed, but by the time she drained the bottle of the apple juice with the strange aftertaste, she was certain it had to be ten minutes. When she looked back over her shoulder, however, the bear was still waiting there threateningly, so she turned back around quickly and waited. She tried to be good and stand still, but in moments she was squirming impatiently, desperate to look at anything but that corner.

After another wait of what she was sure was more than ten minutes by itself, she turned again, asking, "Can I go now?"

"No, you may not," the bear replied.

Sierra stomped her foot and pouted, but reluctantly went back to her position to wait even longer. She was even more bored now, and worse still, her tummy was beginning to grumble ominously. That made time seem to slip by even slower as she looked down at the bottle in her hand, certain that was the reason. When she asked if she was done the next time and got the same answer, she tossed the bottle away angrily. "It's been way mowe than ten minutes, you stupid piwe of fwuff!" she whined, stomping her foot again. "Just wet me go! This isn't faiw!"

The bear began to walk towards her, stopping her mid-tantrum and making her spin back around. She could feel it continue to advance on her, making her wince as she feared she was in for another spanking, but instead when it got to her, it pulled her diaper back up, then re-fastened the seat of her sleeper. She gave a surprised yelp as the oversized toy picked her up, carrying her away from the corner.

For a few moments, she thought she had won as the daycare passed by underneath her, little elves looking up from their pretend toymaking to giggle as they saw her go past. Then Sierra saw the playpen the bear seemed to be heading for and started to squirm, fighting to get loose. She kicked and fought, but her blows bounced harmlessly off of the bear's soft skin, and with no trouble at all, it deposited her into the pen.

She got to her feet, frowning as she looked up to see how much taller than her the mesh walls were. "Wet me out!" she demanded.

"I was going to let you play with the children," the bear told her, "But your behavior only proves that you need a longer time out. Since I can't spend all evening keeping an eye on you, you'll just have to spend it in there, where you won't get into any trouble."

Before Sierra could protest further, the bear walked away, leaving her alone in her playpen. There were no toys in there, nothing to keep her occupied but watching the toddlers outside playing, knowing she couldn't join them even if she wanted to. She paced the playpen unhappily, not liking it much better than the corner at all, especially not when the first cramp hit.

She groaned, pressing her hands to her heavily padded bottom. She was sure now that the bottle had caused this, which made it even more unfair. "Wet me out of hewe!" she yelled, blushing as the only attention it earned her was the other kids turning and looking at her for a moment and giggling. "Mistew Beaw!" she tried after giving the kids time to get distracted, biting her bottom lip. "I'm sowwy, Mistew Beaw! I'ww be good if you wet me out!"

But the caretaker toy was nowhere to be seen. She looked around desperately, gasping as another cramp hit. She bore down as hard as she could, her now younger muscles unfamiliar and weaker than she was used to. She could feel the wave of mush struggling to escape and knew there was little time, but she was determined not to do this. This was Santa's workshop, surely the most magical place in the world! She wasn't about to fill her diaper here!

"Miss Kitty!" she called, spotting another of the large toys walking around closer to her. "Miss Kitty, pwease, hewp!"

Luckily, the stuffed cat approached while Sierra groaned, pressing her legs together desperately. She was surprised to feel how soggy the padding there was when she did it, realizing only then that by trying so hard not to mess herself, she hadn't been concentrating on other things, but it was too late to worry about that now. "Miss Kitty, pwease can you take me to the potty?" she begged once the cat had taken its time getting over to her.

"I'm sorry, Sierra, but you're on time out, so you can't leave the playpen," the cat told her.

"Fow how wong?" Sierra demanded.

"Since you couldn't stay in the corner for the required amount of time, you'll have to stay here until Santa comes to see you," the cat said.

"No!" Sierra shook her head angrily. "That's no faiw!" The news, coupled with a final, especially strong cramp, was enough to make her control slip at just the wrong time. She gasped, feeling the mass inside her start to push its way out into her diaper. Whimpering, she fought to stop it, but it had already started, and she could only slow it, feeling it as the mush gradually invaded her diaper, each little push and grunt making her diaper fuller and ickier, and making it harder to claim this was just some little accident.

This couldn't be happening! Not yet another messy accident, not now, with her on the brink of going back to being an adult! And with Santa on his way! She had no idea how long she'd have to sit there in the playpen in her droopy diaper, waiting, worrying. What would Santa do when he saw her there like that? Would he spank her again, like that elf had seemed to think she needed? Or would he put her into a fresh diaper that she knew she didn't need, no matter what it looked like.

"You meanie!" she cried, glaring at the stuffed cat. "You'we aww mean, you stupid piwes of fwuff! If I had my wand, I'd..."

"What would you do, Sierra?"

She knew who the voice belonged to even before she turned around, her eyes wide and face red from mortification and exertion. It was much deeper than that of the toys, or the elves, but still sounded as kind as they had, despite the disappointment evident in his tone.

"S-Santa?" she gasped, fighting even harder to stop what was happening in her pants, to even less effect. This couldn't be happening! Not only was Santa real, she was helplessly filling her diaper in front of him!

The big man in the red suit bent down, lifting her up easily out of the playpen and carried her over to a rocking chair. She could see the little elves staring at him, looking almost as shocked to see him as she was, and even more reverent. He plopped her on her still growing diaper on his knee, looking down at her seriously.

"In a way, I'm glad you came to see me tonight, Sierra," he said. "Now, do you have anything you want to ask me for?"

He bounced her slightly, making her wrinkle her nose and blush. She could feel the magical power emanating from him, but even without that, just messing her diaper as she sat on Santa's lap was humiliating enough. "I-I dunno," she replied bashfully, wishing he had just waited a little longer to show up.

"Would you like a dolly?" he asked. "How about a pony? I know you don't have room for a real one, but the elves make some very lovely stick ponies that I'm sure you'd have fun with. Or maybe a toy wand so you can practice your wandwork, since it gives you so much trouble?"

Sierra shook her head, blushing that he was suggesting toys to her like she really was some kid. She let out a sigh of relief as her body finally seemed to finish, leaving her in a diaper that was full to the brim, but making it easier for her to think straight. "I want youw hewp," she declared. "Hewp me switch ages with Madison again," she requested, adding, "And make Zoe a weal baby. That's what she wants!"

Considering how Zoe had responded to being made a kid, she doubted that was strictly true, but the girl might grow to like it. And it was her fault Sierra was in this position right now.

"Revenge is not a nice wish. And your situation with Madison is your fault," he reminded her sternly. "She merely stepped in when she had to, since you were unable to."

"I was unable because of Zoe's stupid hypnosis!" Sierra pouted. "That's why she should be a baby, not me!"

"That hypnosis was your fault as well," Santa said. "Do you want to know why I'm glad you came here tonight, Sierra?"

Sierra nodded, still sulking that he didn't seem willing to help her out.

"It's been very difficult deciding which list you belong on," Santa told her. "You're a good girl at heart, I can tell, but you've been quite naughty this year." Sierra opened her mouth to protest, but he just lifted his hand to silence her. "I know things have been hard for you, but how much of that has been your fault? Your magic has given you trouble because you refused to study and work as hard as you should have, instead breaking the rules for your silly duels, despite numerous warnings. And that isn't even mentioning the end of the school year! You left a trail of chaos across several dimensions. You plot against Zoe, who is naughty herself, yes, but it isn't up to you to punish her for it. You behave more like a bratty child than a young adult most of the time."

"That's not twue!" Sierra crossed her arms defiantly.

"And you refuse to try to mend your ways," Santa countered. "I've been debating for most of the year whether you deserve coal or presents. Your time with Madison almost had me convinced that you deserved presents, even if your good behavior came mostly from her, but the way you've acted here tonight makes me think I was wrong."

"B-But I was doing it fow Zoe!" Sierra protested, eyes wet with tears. She hadn't really expected to get anything from Santa, since she was certain he wasn't real until this evening, but now that she knew he was, she couldn't believe he was putting her on the naughty list!

"Oh, I know about Zoe," Santa sighed. "And she'll get what's coming to her as well, but that doesn't mean you don't belong on the list with her for agreeing to help her. She won't learn if she just tries to lie to fix her problems." His mind seemed made up.

"No, Santa!" Sierra whined. "I'm not naughty! Just make me a big giwl again, that's aww I want fow Chwistmas!"

"That might be what you want, but sometimes I need to give people what they need instead," Santa told her. "And you were so close to being on the nice list. Maybe then, I'd give you that gift. Another year or two with Madison and maybe you'll earn it."

"A yeaw ow two? No! She's just a dumb baby!" Sierra raged, glaring up at the clearly senile old man.

Before she could say anything more, she heard someone clear their throat and looked down to see the two elves from earlier. The male was grinning at her and holding one end of a huge roll of paper, one that Sierra could see trailing
behind him across the daycare floor, out the door. The girl was shaking her head, looking at Sierra with a crestfallen expression as she gave Santa a pen.

"Santa, no!" Sierra gasped, watching Santa lean forward, putting his pen on the empty space at the end of the huge list of names. "You can't!"

But he started moving the pen anyway, swiping it across the paper to make a large S. Desperately, Sierra reached out, trying to stop him, only to feel herself lose her balance and tumble forward. She tried to aim for the paper, to knock it out of Santa's reach, but instead she just fell down, towards the ground...

She woke up on the floor to find Madison standing over her, hands on her hips, Sierra's wand clutched in one of them. Sierra sat up quickly, wrinkling her nose at the feeling of the messy diaper under her bottom, halfway certain that had all been a dream. Madison looked even taller than usual, however, and when she looked down at herself, she could see that there had been at least one spell that was real.

"What did you think you were doing with this, young lady?" Madison demanded, brandishing the wand.

"I-I..." Sierra's groggy mind struggled for an answer.

"Well, whatever you intended, clearly you aren't ready for this wand," Madison smirked. "Unless you were so tired of third grade that you decided this was better?" She gestured down at Sierra's body.

"N-No!" Sierra shook her head. "I'm sowwy! I won't do it again! Pwease, change me back!"

Madison stood there for a few seconds, thinking, before saying, "I'll start asking around for the best daycare in the area once the holidays are over."

"No, not daycawe!" Sierra whimpered. "Madison, pwease!"

"You need to learn to accept the consequences of your actions," Madison said, picking her up, "instead of blaming them on everyone else. I can't believe you would do this to me on Christmas Eve, after I did all that shopping for you! Obviously, that stuff is all for a much bigger girl than you. We'll just have to go return it all once I have you in a fresh diaper."

"Diapew?!" Sierra pouted.

"Yes, a diaper," Madison said sternly. "A messy accident at night means a diaper. I think you ought to wear them for a while you get used to your new age, anyway. I'm sure you remember how much trouble you had last time. I'll just shrink what we have now to fit you, and when we run out, we'll see where you are and decide if you can have your Pull-Ups back."

Madison carried Sierra into the girl's bedroom, waving the wand as she entered. A magical whirlwind circled the room, shrinking the clothes in there, transforming her bed, with Zoe still fast asleep in it, into a crib, and changing all the toys into smaller, more toddler-friendly versions of themselves.

Obviously, if she wanted to, Madison could have just changed whatever she'd bought for Sierra into something she deemed more appropriate, but Sierra was certain that their task that day was more meant to demonstrate to Sierra that trying to take her own wand back was naughty. Not that it mattered anymore anyway, Sierra thought sulkily as her dirty diaper was cleaned up and she was taped into a new one. She was already on the naughty list.

Zoe woke up partway through the change, looking quite shocked to find herself in a crib, especially one much smaller than her own. She couldn't very well ask Sierra if she had succeeded in front of Madison, and Sierra wasn't sure if she would have told her anyway. She could just be surprised the next morning when she found coal in her stocking. Then again, from the look in her eyes as she saw the even smaller and cuter version of Sierra, the new regression might have been present enough for her.

"It's just too bad I don't have time to shop again," Madison said as they headed out to the mall, the backseat covered in shopping bags filled with toys. "Hopefully Santa will bring you something, or it's going to be a very boring Christmas tomorrow."

Sierra was sure that was just an empty threat. Madison had made it clear that she thought magic-created toys were cheating at Christmastime, but with this short a notice, surely she'd make an exception. That, or she'd find someone to babysit and head out after she put Sierra to bed. She wouldn't let Sierra go without presents on Christmas! Would she?

The further into the day it got, and the more stores Sierra toddled along at Madison's side to, the more she wondered. Having to squirm and wait in line after line, which made her glad for her diapers on more than one occasion, as much as she hated to admit it, and watching present after present be taken back made Sierra appreciate how much work Madison had put into Christmas in the first place. She really had wanted Sierra to have a good one. She'd gone a little overboard, and Sierra would have liked for the presents to be more geared towards her real age, rather than the one she'd physically been until the night before, but it was still very sweet.

As they reached the end of their returns, Sierra realized that the stores were getting ready to close. She hadn't even thought about them closing early for Christmas Eve, but sure enough as they drove home, she saw more empty parking lots than full ones. Would anything even be open after her bedtime? Her dad would probably bring her some presents, but unless Madison had already called him, he wouldn't know about this latest change. What would he think, finding her even younger?

Madison made her go to bed even earlier that night, although she claimed she was letting Sierra stay up, since her bedtime obviously ought to be earlier than it had been when she was eight. "You can't stay up all night, though! Santa needs a chance to come!"

"Yeah," Sierra sighed. She'd barely tolerated all of Madison's talk of Santa over the past month. She'd thought at first that the girl was just teasing her, though over time she realized that it was possible that Madison really did still think Santa was real. Now Sierra knew for sure he was, assuming she hadn't just had an incredibly vivid dream the night before, but it didn't matter. If he was real, she still wasn't getting anything from him.

Even knowing that, she found herself waking up super early the next morning, just like every Christmas. She turned over in bed, pouting at the sight of the crib bars surrounding her. She tried to go back to sleep, knowing there wasn't much to look forward to that day, but her bladder was very full, at least for as long as it took for her to sit up and start to call out for Madison to help her make it to the potty. By the time the words had left her mouth, it was already too late.

By the time Madison walked in, bleary-eyed, Sierra's bladder was empty, but her diaper was quite wet and squishy. Madison smiled at her, giving her diaper a pat through the elf sleeper, then picking up the girl to give her a change. "Good thing we're trying out diapers for now, huh?" she asked, then smiled as Sierra pouted in response. "Merry Christmas, Sierra. Excited?"

Sierra gave a little, unenthusiastic shrug. Madison smiled at her again, taping up the fresh diaper and fastening the sleeper back up. "Come on, let's go look at the tree. Maybe that will make you feel better."

Sierra doubted that, but she didn't have much of a choice since Madison had already picked her up again. The tree was at least nice and festive, and Sierra had enjoyed helping decorate it, so there was that. When they got out to it, however, she was shocked to see mounds of presents stacked up underneath, their shiny paper reflecting the twinkling tree lights. Sierra looked over at Madison with wide eyes.

Madison giggled. "I know I said it's cheating, but I couldn't let you get nothing for Christmas," she said, kissing Sierra on the nose and setting her down. "Go on, you'd better get opening!"

Sierra toddled closer to the tree, suddenly feeling bad that all she had for Madison was some pictures she'd colored and ornaments she'd made in class. Of course, it wasn't like she had money to go shopping, even if she could do that without Madison there, or even a wand to conjure a gift with, but seeing all of this still made her feel stingy. There were all kinds of boxes there, and while she knew they would be things a four year old would like, it was still more than Madison really had to do for her.

As she got closer, though, she noticed a box in the front with a different tag than the others. She crept a little closer, wondering if her dad had dropped his presents off last night, too, but the writing wasn't his or Madison's. The tag read, "To Sierra, From Santa," and she had to admit it looked quite similar to how the names from that huge list she'd seen the night before in what might have been a dream were written.

The box was pretty good sized, certainly bigger than a lump of coal would need. Had he sent her a whole crate of it instead? She was a little afraid, but she was also curious, so she ripped into the paper. As soon as she could see what it was, she looked back at Madison, sure this was a joke, but the girl looked just as confused as she felt. Sierra yanked the last of the paper away, leaving no doubt that it was a large package of diapers, sized just right for her current age.

Was it a joke? Did he know about Madison's little rule that she wasn't allowed to even think about getting her trainers back until she ran out of diapers? He was supposed to be able to hear and see everything, so it was possible, but would he really have done that to her?!

She blushed, shoving the package aside, only to notice a much smaller one hidden underneath it. She picked it up and looked at the tag. It was written in the same handwriting and said the same thing, but underneath had been added, "What you need."

The package was long and thin, and once she had torn off the paper, she saw that it was a box. It looked familiar, although she hadn't seen the original in quite a while. Her heart beat a little faster as she lifted the lid, simultaneously sure of what she would find inside, and certain he wouldn't have given it to her.

In a way, both parts of her were right. There was a wand inside the box, just as she'd thought, and it looked almost identical to her own. However, even before picking it up, she could tell it was just a plastic toy, with no actual power. Madison stepped forward quickly, but even before she got to Sierra's side, she calmed down.

Sierra pouted as she stared at the toy. She really wished it was the real thing, but maybe Santa was right. Maybe it really was what she needed. Maybe she needed to spend a little more time like this, and practising her wandwork and all that stuff she should have paid more attention to at school. She knew Madison would take good care of her, and she didn't have anything else to worry about now, not even the super simple third grade homework she'd been doing. The diapers would even assure she didn't have to think about her potty training for a little while, and even though she thought that was unnecessary, she supposed there weren't really all THAT many diapers in that package.

Then she looked back under the tree, spotting another package the same size as the first she'd opened, and with the same wrapping paper. Then she noticed another, and another, peppered in among the ones from Madison. How long did he think relearning her magic was going to take her?!

"Stupid Santa," she grumbled before raising a hand to her mouth. That was sure to push her towards the naughty list for next year, and if this was what he was going to bring her instead of coal, she definitely didn't want that! No, she was going to be an extra good girl that year! She was going to try her best, anyway.