The Apple Does Fall Hard for the Tree

Chapters

Me oh my, I love pie!
Putting the brakes on.
Here comes the cavalry!
Confrontation.
Pie for breakfast?
Second Breakfast.
Will there be punch and pie?
Em-pie-thy
Deep dish fun
Slice of life à la mode

Me oh my, I love pie!

The sun had just about reached its zenith when Applejack heard the tinny clatter of the lunch bell at the farm house. She gave the tree she'd been bucking one last kick, then knocked the heaping bushel basket onto her back before trotting towards the tempting scent of cider and who knew what else. Trotting beneath the shade of the trees, a soft breeze rolled across her coat, cooling the light sweat she'd worked up.

~A pony's gotta enjoy lil moments like these,~ she thought to herself. Applejack reveled in the moment of pleasant breeze, sun-dappled shadow, and the crisp scent of ripe apples, and nearly ran nose-first into Fluttershy, lurking at the treeline overlooking Sweet Apple Acres' grazing meadow.

"Whoa nelly! Hey there sugar cube, what're you doin'? Playing hide and seek with Applebloom or the critters?" She grinned, the expression so natural her face simply relaxed into it.

Fluttershy mantled her wings about herself, meeting AJ's eyes only a moment before studying the grass and leaves. "N-no. I came by t-to..." With every word her nose dropped further towards the ground, pastel pink mane curtaining off more of her face.

Applejack flicked an ear, nonplussed. Fluttershy had come a long ways since she'd first met the cripplingly-shy pony, and this was a rare flicker of the old 'Shy. She almost never acted this way with her five closest friends anymore, and seldom even with her other Ponyville neighbors. "Fluttershy, are you alright? Yer actin' a mite strange today."

"APPLEJAAAACK! LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!" Applebloom hollered at the top of her tiny lungs from barely six feet away, almost teetering over from the force she was putting into the yell. She blinked when she spotted AJ standing just within the shadows of the orchard, her big sister's ears clamped down against her head. "Oh, there you ahrr. There's a scrumptious salad waitin' and one of Granny Smith's pies! C'mon!"

With a flounce of mane and tail, Applebloom galloped away, leaving AJ to roll her eyes and blow a strand of mane back into place.

"As I was sayin' before," she sighed, turning back to her friend, only to find Fluttershy on her back with all four legs in the air, rigid as a statue. That wasn't new; the timid pony had gone into shock around loud noises before. What WAS different was the big plush swell of tummy Fluttershy was sporting. The mound of buttercup-yellow pony pudge was hemmed in by her four legs, and AJ was shocked she hadn't noticed it, until she remembered how 'Shy had been holding her wings.

"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to go back to bein' a shrinkin' violet just because you put on a little weight."

"Eek."

Applejack blinked. "Ooookay. Ah've never seen a pony turn into a ball that fast before. Your hedgepig friends must be giving you lessons!" She gave her bushel of apples a bounce, sending it arcing up and off onto the grass without spilling a single apple before settling down on her stomach beside her friend.

"Fluttershy, I think your tummy is cute. Would I lie to you? Think of who's askin' you that, now."

From amongst the ball of pegasus feathers and pink mane, one blue eye blinked up at AJ. "D-do you really think so?"

"Ah do," she drawled firmly, and drew a fetlocked hoof across Fluttershy's head, between her ears. "The second ah saw it, the first thing that popped into my head was 'I wanna rub that belly.'"

Fluttershy giggled, and slowly uncurled from her ball. Now that she was looking for it, AJ could see she was a bit thicker all over. 'Shy had always been just a bit soft in the rump, but that was rather pronounced now, plush cheeks smothering each other as they fought for room beneath the pink cascade of her tail. Fluttershy's legs had all grown a bit plumper, as had her neck, and it took a smile to show off the new chubbiness of her cheeks.

"I, um, came by to buy pies actually, but...I really didn't want anyone to..." She poked the front curve of her belly with a forehoof, the soft-coated plushness yielding at the pressure.

"Sugar cube, it's alright, the Apple family isn't going to make fun of you for gainin' some weight. Heck, Granny Smith'll be proud of you! You know how she goes on about us runnin' around with no meat on our flanks." Applejack winked, and coaxed another smile from the pegasus.

"I, I suppose."

"Here, I'll walk with you. You'll join us for lunch, then I'll help you pack up your pies for the trot home."

Fluttershy nodded, though familiar signs of nerves had returned. Her ears were nearly lost in her mane, almost pinned to her head, and her wings stayed glued tightly to her back. She crowded AJ a bit as they crossed the grass towards the table spread with the Apple family's lunch, and it was plain 'Shy hadn't adjusted to her new size yet. Her soft flank pressed against Applejack, and the rustic pony felt warmth rising in her cheeks.

~Tarnation and taters, it's just Fluttershy. Settle down, girl. Still, wish she'd move on ahead a tad so I could get a better look at that...~ AJ almost stopped cold, but managed to turn it into a simple stumble and keep trotting on. Before she could figure out where these wild thoughts were welling up from all of a sudden, they'd reached the table and friendly voices were folding the two in an auditory hug of welcome. In seconds she and 'Shy had big bowls of Waldorf salad in front of them and tall glasses of dark, sweet cider. Three enormous steaming pies were spaced along the table, and baskets

of fresh apples were everywhere of course.

Fluttershy nibbled daintily at her salad at first, but seeing how AJ dug in with obvious appetite, she soon followed suit. While AJ passed on the pie, opting for a granny-smith apple instead, Fluttershy let Applebloom ply her with piece after piece of the sweet, cinnamon-sprinkled pastry until there was none left on the table to offer. When the two ponies shoved back from the table, the motion stirred a heavy belch from 'Shy's depths, leaving a blush burning on her cheeks. The Apples still at the table only applauded, and Granny Smith took a shaky bow.

"Glaaaad you enjoyed, child! C'mon back anytime, glad to have ya!"

"T-thank you everyone. I'd, um, love to buy some pies to, um, share with my friends tonight."

AJ had to hide her grin as Fluttershy's blush deepened to match many of the apples at the table. ~Uhhhhh-huh. 'Share' indeed.~

Bits changed hooves, and Fluttershy soon found herself in receipt of a dozen deep-dish apple pies, spread across three baskets. With a bit of rope, AJ helped sling two over her back, and the last 'Shy took in her teeth.

"I'll walk you back, hon. The apples can hold on a mite longer."

Fluttershy bobbed her head awkwardly, and set off for her cottage at a surprisingly brisk pace. It took a few minutes of trotting along beside her before Applejack deduced the reason for her speed.

~Good golly, she's still hungry, and those pies right under her nose are a stick'n carrot!~ She let the grin show this time, then gradually let 'Shy pull ahead to get a good look at the grounded pegasus in motion. Her belly bounced, slow waves rolling along her flanks with each beat of her gait. That rump of hers jiggled richly, flirting with AJ's gaze from beneath the obscuring waterfall of pink tail. If 'Shy noticed AJ falling behind or gawking, she gave no sign...her eyes (or at least nose and mind) on the prize.

When they reached the cottage, Fluttershy pushed right inside and shed the pies. AJ followed her in, and gaped at the interior. What had once been spotless and cozy had deteriorated into...well, the term 'den' fit the place best at that point. The windows had been curtained with heavy velvet, and dried or canned food overfilled the kitchen cupboards. Fluttershy's bed had been moved downstairs, extra blankets piled upon it.

"You, uh, been doin' some redecorating hon?" Applejack asked, peeking at the titles of some books stacked near the front wall. Most were cookbooks, and the others seemed to be naturalist guides.

"Um, not exactly? My bear friend Ursula heard me worrying about wrinkled withers, and told me I should try hibernation. She says it's wonderfully rejuvenating. So I found sitters for Angel and my other little friends, and gave it a try."

Fluttershy tried to sound casual about the whole thing while she carried a pie atop her head into the kitchen, and set it on the counter.

Applejack blinked at her, and took a few steps closer while the pegasus cut a big wedge out of the pie. The scent of cinnamon and caramelized apples spiked the air. "Have you been, uh, asleep for the past few weeks, then?"

Fluttershy blushed gently, and wagged her head. "Not...not quite. I kept waking up after a day or so, starving! I ate until I wanted to burst, and being so full made me sleepy, so I'd crawl back into bed. Um, that, um, kept...happening. I got a little better at staying asleep, but not by much. When I decided to give up, I trotted upstairs to find a bow, and saw myself in a mirror for the first time in three weeks."

Applejack was there when Fluttershy's head began to droop, the orange mare nuzzling her friend along her softened cheek and neck.

"Sweetness, you are gorgeous, and cute as a button from nose to tail. If you want to slim down, I'll help you; you won't have to ask Rainbow," she winked, and grinned as 'Shy shuddered at the thought of being at Dash's mercy. "but..."

~AJ, what are you doing?~

"Only change for your own sake, not 'cuz of what other ponies might think or say. How do you feel?" Applejack swallowed, and inside, scorned herself. It wasn't right to give her a push in this direction. It was all well and good to say that other ponies' opinions didn't matter, but this was Fluttershy, who could be crushed with a glance! She didn't need any handicaps in the social arena.

"I feel...really good," she whispered, so low AJ could barely hear her. "I love being...soft. It matches how I am inside, do you see?" She smiled, looking up to meet Applejack's surprised gaze. "A-and, um, n-no, you don't want to hear that," she laughed breathlessly, shaking her head and sending little wisps of her mane floating up from the rest.

"Go ooooooon," she grinned, outwardly just goading her friend, but inside hanging on every word. AJ had no idea why softened 'Shy was was having this effect on her, but she wasn't willing to break away and retreat. Instead she stayed, basking in the growing heat her pegasus friend was kindling in her.

"It feels naughty to be so big and plush...and to keep eating so much," 'Shy confessed, cheeks and even the insides of her ears burning. "Part of me wants to stop, but it's a very, very small part."

Applejack leaned over and fished a fork from the drawer beneath the counter, and an elastic band from a tray beside the flatware. Strapping the fork to one hoof, she dug into the big wedge of pie, splitting off the gooey tip. Applejack raised the morsel towards Fluttershy's lips, the spiced apples and golden crust glistening. "I don't think you should stop," she whispered, eyes half-lidded. "I really, really like seeing you this way, sugar cube. Too much, probably." AJ chuckled, letting her eyes roll off of 'Shy's and down towards the floor. She felt the bite of pie vanish from the fork, before the butter-colored pony slipped past her.

~Probably on her way to open the door and ask me to leave.~

Instead Fluttershy drew herself alongside her friend, raising her wings, and leaned into AJ, letting her rounded flank press into and mold against the other mare's side. Her downy wing drifted down slowly, uncertainly, before settling atop Applejack's back. "Really?" She whispered, and with every breath the plush pony took, her fattened flank swelled against AJ's bulk.

"Honest, hon, cross my heart. Seeing you plumped up, pretty as ever, it's makin' me want things I never really thought about." Applejack lifted a hoof, and after one false start, drew her fringe of fetlocks along Fluttershy's cutie-mark in a slow caress.

Fluttershy whimpered, the sound hardly escaping her snugly-clamped lips. "AJ, you have no idea what it's been like the last few days. I can't stop touching myself. Every hour, every minute I wanted---needed someone else to touch me, but---" She just turned her head to brush her soft cheek along Applejack's rump, the caress sending a sharp electric tingle racing up the earth pony's spine.

The orange mare returned the caress, a hot pant of breath escaping her lips as she felt the pillowy warmth of 'Shy's rear yield beneath the pressure of her muzzle. She gave her friend a gentle nibble, and was rewarded with an instant hike of that massive pink tail. The slightest slick sound registered as Fluttershy's thick half-moons flexed, and Applejack didn't bother holding back a croon of delight. Fluttershy was wet, her hidden folds loosing their nectar into the deep cleft of that glorious ass. Applejack was moist herself, and growing more-so by the second, which Fluttershy had plainly discovered if the gush of hot breath across her far more-accessible pussy was any indication.

"I, is it...? May I?" She whispered, her velvety nose resting against the muscled curve of AJ's rump.

~YES, gods yes, go wild darlin'!~ This was starting to feel dream-like, but in that rare sense when everything flowed just the way she wanted and no one and nothing resisted her will. Applejack tested the fabric of apparent reality.

"No."

Putting the brakes on.

Fluttershy immediately began backpedaling and wilting, collapsing in on herself amidst a miserable chant of “Sorrysorrysorrysorry--” but Applejack had expected that, and was ready with a pounce before the poor butter-colored mare could try and stuff herself under the couch.

“Fluttershy, I want to, you pro'ly don't know how much I do, but...you're actin' like a mare in heat, and t'ain't fair of me to take advantage of that.” She felt ridiculous reciting this little speech, sprawled across 'Shy's lusciously plush body, pinning her to the rug, one of her forelegs securing each of the pegasus'.

Fluttershy whimpered and squirmed beneath her, doing nothing to ease the ache in AJ's dribbling sex. “I kn-know what I want! What I need!” A hint of 'New Fluttershy' crept into her voice, assertive and demanding. “You're right here and you-you-you want me or...you say you do,” her voice softened, trailing down into a range so quiet AJ had to guess at every other word. “What could you be waiting for?” She squeaked at last, eyes squeezing shut, forcing a hot tear out of the corner of each.

It cracked Applejack's heart to see that, and she ducked her head down to cover 'Shy's lips with her own, head tipped to one side, allowing one pony muzzle to mesh with the other. Fluttershy's mouth was frozen and unresponsive for all of a second, before ravenous passion drove her back against AJ. She kissed the sweet pegasus as long as she dared, soft flexible lips massaging one another, wet tongues thrusting and swirling, before the pair separated with a gasp.

“S-Shy darlin', I'm gonna treat you like you deserve, and give you a proper chance to choose me, not just take me 'cuz I'm here, and convenient an'all.” She saw Fluttershy's eyes fill with hurt and her mouth open, brimming with protests. She covered her moist lips with a hoof. “I don't think I want just a fling with you, sugar cube. Call me greedy, but I want more, a lot more, and I don't think we oughta start this way if we want to build anything that'll last.”

Fluttershy's eyes grew wider by the second as AJ spoke, and the orange mare could swear her cheeks were about to catch fire by the time she finished. “You...want to date me, Applejack?”

“Call me old fashioned,” she sighed, gingerly lifting her other hoof from its pin against Fluttershy's and rolling onto her back beside the other mare. “Whaddaya say, 'Shy honey?” AJ turned her gaze from the ceiling towards her friend, only to find her lips brushed right into place for another kiss.

“Pick me up at six.” Fluttershy sighed the words over Applejack's nose and lips, longing warring with impatience in her voice. “Now, you'd better go. I have some pie to eat, and I d-don't know if we'd be able to...” Flutter's blush spread down her neck and up to her ears.

Applejack nodded in a bit of an orange and blonde blur, scrambling up and searching for her hat. “I reckon yer right hon; I don't know if our self control would outlast a dessert binge like that. I'll see you in a few hours!” She scooped up her fallen hat, jammed it on her head, then swung about to give 'Shy's cheek a tender brush of a hoof. “I'm...I'm right-glad you stopped by the farm t'day, 'Shy. Really opened my eyes to a lot, some things I should have noticed a long time ago.”

Before Fluttershy's blush could creep any further down her coat, AJ grinned, and slipped outside into the autumn afternoon.

Fluttershy was half up to her ears in the second pie when a knock on the door startled her upright, sugary apple goo shining on her face and crumbs of crust sifting off her chin. A quick swipe of her tongue took care of a lot of the mess, and a hoofed cloth finished the job before she raced to the door, heart thudding hard against her ribs.

~Is that AJ? Back so soon? D-did she...change her mind?~ Thoughts of dread warred with the excitement of seeing her special friend again, as she opened the door. Spike stood there, paw raised to knock again. Behind him sat a wagon piled high with cages of various sizes.

“Oh, there you are Fluttershy! I'm glad you're awake. Um, I hate to do this to you, but Twilight and I have been called away to Canterlot on urgent business, and we can't watch the animals the last week you'd asked us to.” Spike spread his talons helplessly. “I wish I could stay to help you unload, but we need to leave now, so...um, bye!”

“G-goodbye Spike...” 'Shy called softly to his rapidly retreating tail, before turning her attention on the wagon. It would take hours to properly unload and re-house her animal friends, so she'd better get started. Various squawks, chirps, barks and chitters chorused from the cages as she drew near.

“Oh, I missed you too my friends. Let's get you back into your homes so you can relax.” The sun rolled inexorably towards the horizon, six o'clock drawing closer, and 'Shy hadn't even gotten a start on getting ready for her date. ~I guess that quick trip to the spa is out.~

Applejack was right on time, and Fluttershy was so frazzled she actually considered playing sick for a moment. When she knocked again...the last blow hesitant instead of louder, 'Shy shook her head and flew across the living room, throwing open the door.

AJ stood there, resplendent in an especially cute little vest Rarity had made her a few months back (“For rodeos!” the fashionista had crowed, and no one had the heart to tell her such fine clothes wouldn't hold up five seconds through the competitions Applejack participated in) and a finer version of her Stetson. She hadn't gone all out, and for that at least Fluttershy was grateful.

“Uhh, 'Shy, are you alright?” AJ took a cautious step inside, waiting for the pegasus to move back and let her in completely.

Fluttershy squeaked and scrambled back a few feet, letting her friend in, then slipped past the earth pony to shut the door. “I'm, um, not quite ready yet. Sorry Applejack.” She stood on three legs, rubbing one foreleg with the other, knowing AJ was looking her up and down, seeing the twigs in her mane, the honey in her tail, and an orange stain on her flank where Angel had chucked a cup of carrot juice at her in a rage.

“It's alright sugar cube!”

'Shy let her eyes drift slowly up to meet AJ's, and saw nothing but affection and encouragement in that gaze.

“I made our reservations for seven so we could take our time strolling over. We'll just have to canter rather'n mosey, and we'll be fine. Do you want any help with your mane or tail, before you hop in the shower?”

Fluttershy let out a soft sigh, foreshoulders sagging as tension ran out of her, and pecked AJ on the nose. “Please.”

It was easy to see why Applejack had wanted the pair to take their time trotting to the restaurant. There wasn't a cloud over Ponyville, and Celestia was just setting the sun, letting Luna's stars really pop out and shine. Cool breezes washed over them, and Fluttershy crowded against Applejack, blushing at how much sooner her body pressed against the other mare's than it would have in the past. She would have to readjust her awareness of her personal space.

~There's more of me now, and...that's a good thing. AJ likes it, I like it, and...and...it doesn't matter what other ponies think.~ Even as she thought it, Fluttershy knew she was kidding herself. The eyes of her neighbors, and even worse, strangers, would be on her tonight. ~I won't look at them, I won't see them. I have somewhere else to rest my eyes tonight,~ she sighed to herself, leaning over to brush her nose along AJ's neck.

Strong, sweet, honest Applejack. She couldn't have asked for a better pony to reassure her she could still be beautiful. While it wasn't as if AJ couldn't lie, she was so terrible at it there wasn't much point in the exercise. ~As transparent as one of those crystal ponies,~ she thought, giggling.

“What's so funny, darlin'?” AJ asked, as the pair passed out of the residential portion of town and neared the town center.

“I was just thinking how lucky I am that, of our close friends, it was you who first saw me after I'd left the house.”

Applejack mulled that over for a moment, the two passing a number of ponies who didn't pay them much mind. Street lamps were being lit by a unicorn, and laughter drifted out of a second story window. The town felt relaxed tonight, not bustling by any means but just active enough that you felt the community was close at hoof if you needed something, even company.

“Well, I'm glad as can be Rainbow Dash didn't find you first. She'd have stuck both hooves in her mouth shoulder-deep in less than ten seconds flat, for sure. Twilight Sparkle would've tried to figger out an exercise regimen and diet on the spot. Rarity? I dunno, other than makin' a big 'ol fuss about needing to let out all of your dresses... On the other hoof, she'd get excited about designing new ones for you too.”

Fluttershy giggled, bobbing her head over each guess. “I think you're right, on all counts. What about Pinkie Pie?”

Applejack screwed up her face. “I don't rightly know! Wait—I know. She'd g-aaaaa-sp and demand to know if you'd been attending parties'n eating cake without her, or if you'd found some amazing new recipe you couldn't get enough of!”

The pegasus nodded, a gentle smile stretching her lips. “That sounds just right. Is this the place?” Applejack had paused outside the frosted glass doors to a restaurant she'd never been inside, but had passed a number of times. The sign read 'McGillaCuddies.' “Is this a...cow bar, AJ?”

“It started as one, but the food's so good they've been drawin' in anyone with hooves, pretty much.” AJ wedged a hoof into a handle and pulled open the door, letting 'Shy precede her into the restaurant.

Cow bars were known for providing large quantities of fodder for a good price, as well as enough cider to make even big bovines good and tipsy. A half-dozen cows were present tonight, ensconced in cozy-looking combinations of booth and paddock that allowed them to relax and socialize while eating. A scattering of ponies were in evidence, as well as a couple of goats and one donkey.

The earth pony barkeep winked at Applejack, and nodded towards a more conventional booth in the corner. Fluttershy let her mane hide much of the room from her, cutting down her peripheral vision until just Applejack was visible, following the orange beacon to their seats.

The booth was surprisingly plush and comfortable, even given her newly-enlarged dimensions. AJ nestled in beside her with a smile she couldn't help but return, and 'Shy brushed her velvety nose against the other pony's. “Thank you for this, Applejack. Maybe...maybe you're right about slowing down, building...well, us up properly.”

Applejack's ears flicked, and smiled in a way that seemed to promise an 'oh shucks' was coming, but it was cut off by the arrival of their waiter. Both ponies scooped up menus and scanned the bar's offerings.

“I'll have a small harvest salad, a small serving of buttered haystack pasta, and a bottle of 'Acres cider.” AJ skimmed the menu across the table back over towards the wall, and peeked at Fluttershy's. “I recommend the medium sizes for you, darlin'.” She whispered, raising a faint blush on 'Shy's cheeks.

“May I please have a medium harvest salad, a large-” Applejack gulped, “order of sweet potato and asparagus souffle, a large order of cheesy crispy Cuddie-fries, aaaaaand...” Fluttershy turned the menu over, “six bottles of cider, and the Devil Made Me Do It chocolate cake.”

“A slice or...?” The sweating waiter ventured cautiously.

“A cake, please.” Fluttershy smiled, setting aside the menu. She reached over and gently nudged Applejack's gaping mouth shut with a click. The waiter nodded, and kept nodding as he trotted off towards the kitchen. He was still nodding the tiniest bit when he returned with water and their cider.

Fluttershy felt giddy, and didn't waste any time grasping one of the bottles, slick with cool condensation. She tugged out the cork with her teeth, and tipped a good few swallows down her throat, letting the sparkly sensation of the precious cider tease her taste buds on the way down. She could see Applejack following her example beside her, and when a deep gurgle rumbled up from her barrel, both of them grew intensely flushed.

“Sounds like we arrived in the nick of time,” AJ whispered, sliding a foreleg back to caress 'Shy's soft middle.

“I hope I'll be able to squeeze out of this booth still, after dinner.” It was both a genuine concern but a calculated tease for her date, and seeing AJ stammer and bite her lower lip sent a thrill of pleasure through Fluttershy. ~Amazing how much I affect her.~ She bit her own lip, remembering the scent and humid heat of the mare just inches from her nose. ~It's definitely a two-way street.~

Their salads arrived in short order, though their waiter had to make two trips. Fluttershy's medium was too large to carry anything else with it. "Oh my," she murmured, peering over the rim of the...vat of greens that ended up in front of her. Applejack's salad would have been considered enormous in any of the restaurants she was used to, but the medium was like a joke! "I feel like I should be using a rake to eat this."

AJ laughed, and kissed her neck. "I can't wait to see wut the large is like. Do we sit in it and row the dish home afterwards?"

Fluttershy giggled, relaxing once more, and brandished the rather over-sized fork she'd found in her napkin. She tucked big wad after wad of fresh, emerald green leaves into her mouth, the light vinegar dressing doing an excellent job tying together the pine nuts, cool pickled beets, and roasted root vegetables. There was something else that added a nice bit of flavor, but she couldn't put her hoof on it until she happened to glance at Applejack. "Apple...peel?"

"A-yup! If you chop it into fine enough pieces, it's great in dishes like this. They chop it so fine here I'm not really sure ah've spotted a piece yet!"

Of course AJ finished her salad long before Fluttershy could, and after watching 'Shy plow her way through half the enormous bowl, Applejack gently stole her mini-pitchfork and secured it to her own hoof with its band. "Here hon, let me do the lifting for a bit."

Fluttershy relaxed back from the table's edge, and just opened her mouth for each forkful, feeling that heat flush her cheeks again. It didn't last long though. It was relaxing, being fed like this...and then slowly, exciting, as the pegasus stroked her forelegs across the front swell of her tummy. She didn't miss AJ's reaction to that self-caress, and actually had to move her head to make sure the fork landed in her mouth and not her ear when the other mare grew a bit too distracted.

"Sorry sugar! My my, got a case of the wanderin' eyes for sure." AJ shook her head, grinning.

"I love seeing you look at me like that," 'Shy whispered, using a volume low enough she wasn't sure whether even AJ could hear her. She wondered if she'd wanted her to hear, and when Applejack ducked her head but couldn't...or wouldn't tear her hungry gaze from Fluttershy's, she knew she had indeed wanted AJ to know. Applejack fed her faster, and it seemed like just moments later, the salad dish was empty. Fluttershy celebrated with another bottle of cider, sharing sips with AJ, while the waiter cleared their dishes and returned with the next course.

Two waiters in a harness pulled a cart the size of their entire table up to them, leaving it parked there. A gorgeous souffle big enough to contain three snugly-compacted ponies loomed over the pair, its heavenly aroma swamping them. Applejack's pasta was set anticlimactically on the table before her, not big enough to make a proper garnish for Fluttershy's entree. While both were still gaping at this mountain of food, a second cart squeaked out of the kitchens with the cheesy fries, which did fit on the table...barely. The fact that they were stacked four feet high helped in that regard.

"I think I'm in trouble," Fluttershy squeaked.

"Applejack? Fluttershy?! I didn't know you two liked bar food! We should have a party in here soon! If we time it right we can do it on square-dancing night and show everyone some fancy hoofwork! Wouldn't that be AWESOME?"

'Shy and AJ craned their necks past the souffle to see Pinkie Pie waving furiously at them. "Well," AJ whispered, "I guess we're gonna see how accurate my guesses were sooner'n expected."

Here comes the cavalry!

Fluttershy began to sink as low as she could in the booth as Pinkie bounced toward them like a doll of cotton candy and rubber come to intense, energetic life.

Applejack cleared her throat and stretched out a hoof towards the pink pony. “Pinkie, ah don't think--”

Pinkie stuck one of Fluttershy's cider bottles in AJ's hoof (how did she reach across the packed table?) and grinned. “I don't think you're relaxed enough either yet. Fluttershy! You look GREAT! Have you been off mastering the art of beauty sleep? Rarity talks about it allllll the time, and it did seem like every time I dropped by your cottage with a party invitation lately you were sleeping.” Pinkie hunkered down beside Applejack and stage-whispered in her ear. “She has the cutest little squeaky snore, really hard to hear, but if you're listening for it...”

Fluttershy just blinked slowly at Pinkie, overloaded as usual by the deluge of mile-a-minute speech, but hadn't the pink pony said something in there about her looking...great? 'Shy blushed gently, but the light tint in her cheeks became brick-red when the party-pony began discussing her snoring habits. “Um, Pinkie, please.”

“Pinkie, have you ordered yet? We just got our food as yew can see, and ah think we're having second thoughts. It seems a bit much for j, just the two of us. Would you like to do us a favor and help us tuck in?”

Pinkie tilted her head, listening, and as soon as the import of AJ's words registered her eyes grew wide and began shining. “I will take this delicious bullet for you, amigos!” She cried, and pulled a small spade from...somewhere. She thrust it into the massive souffle, opened her mouth unnaturally wide, and shoveled in what must have been two pounds of the savory entree. “S'GOOD!” Pinkie mumbled, her mane puffing up another degree or two.

Applejack grinned, and stuck her fork in the souffle, tearing off a piece of the browned crust half the size of one of Rarity's hats. She offered it to Fluttershy with an apologetic look. “Didn't mean to come away with quite that big a piece, hon.”

'Shy just giggled, and took a big bite out of the offered morsel. In a few seconds the fork was empty, and she left her mouth open, tongue lolling over her lower lip, playfully signaling for more. AJ was quick to oblige her, and the mountain of souffle slowly eroded before their eyes.

After a few dozen forkfuls of the souffle, AJ speared a number of the cheese fries, the cheese kept nicely molten with a warming spell built into its serving tray. Fluttershy delicately lipped the fries from the fork a few at a time, and couldn't help but groan in pleasure. “Oh goodness, these taste so good, they have to be awful for you.”

Pinkie giggled, shoveling up a mass of the fries and dumping them in her mouth. She mumbled around the greasy load, “You canf worreh abouf stuff like thaf when yo havinf fun!” When she swallowed, a lump as big as a grapefruit slid down the pink pony's neck.

~She must be made of rubber. I wish Twilight was here to see this. She'd be pulling her mane out trying to force the Pinkie puzzle piece to fit inside her idea of how physics and anatomy ought to work.~ Fluttershy glanced at AJ, who met her gaze and grinned, shrugging. It was the 'it's Pinkie Pie' shrug, and anyone who wanted to stay sane ended up adopting it quickly.

Fluttershy gently stopped AJ's next fork with a hoof. “Go ahead and try them yourself, AJ, and eat your pasta. I can, um, forage for myself for a moment.” She smiled, leaning over to plant a lightly greasy kiss on the orange pony's nose. They both froze for a second after, glancing Pinkie's way to see if she'd noticed, but the other earth pony had burrowed into the pile of fries and appeared to be reenacting a famous siege within.

“You think you can starve us out?! We have enough molten cheese in here to last us for WEEKS! You'll be the ones who show their tails in the end,” munching sounds cut off the speech, “U'lll see!”

Applejack nuzzled her dear friend's cheek with a contented sigh, then turned her attention to her own little entree. Fluttershy opened her mouth wide, and took a big bite out of the pile of fries before her, letting the mix of cheeses tease her taste buds with the sharpness of cheddar, the sour note of swiss, and the smooth rich decadence of colby. The herbs and spices played counterpoint to the thick, soft cheese, keeping the greasy mass from becoming overwhelming. The fries themselves were perfect, crispy on the outside but soft within, and salted just right. She swallowed, and went right back in for another bite, and another, and another. Grease shone on her muzzle, but for the moment she didn't care.

'Shy flinched back at pressure on her side, but a quick glance showed it to be Applejack caressing her swelling barrel again. Fluttershy leaned into that hoof, stomach emitting a soft “Glorp,” with the movement, and reveled in the soothing rubs as she resumed munching into Pinkie's fort. The pegasus and pink earth pony met each other half-way, Pinkie surprising 'Shy with a slurp to her shining muzzle.

“Guess what was at the center?! Sour cream!” Now Pinkie helped feed 'Shy, sheaves of fries doused in the cool cream slipping past her lips. Pinkie did her own share of the eating of course, and soon the fry fort collapsed atop her, the foundations too nibbled and gnawed to support the cheesy roof. Laughter rang through the restaurant as the three tried to corral the cascading fries somewhat, and it quickly became a game of funneling them into Pinkie's mouth. The party-pony's belly had certainly puffed up during dinner, but nowhere near as huge as common sense indicated it should have.

~Where does she...well, I suppose a lot of it is instantly burned off in the excited vibrating she's always doing,~ 'Shy giggled, chasing some of the fries by pouring cider into the upside-down Pinkie's mouth. Pinkie gargled it appreciatively before swallowing, and groaned, patting her gut with both forehooves.

“You two sure know how to order at this place. Didja get dessert? Huh? Didja-didja-didja?” Just as if she wasn't sporting a belly that suggested she'd eaten a few bowling balls, Pinkie sprang off her back and onto her hooves, even flipping to face the seated pair in a single blurred motion.

“W-we did order cake, actually.” Fluttershy admitted, biting back a moan when AJ kneaded a little deeper into her side.

At the mention of cake, Pinkie squealed like a filly, sprang off the table and onto the souffle cart, her impact setting it rolling towards the kitchen. She rode it like Scootaloo on her clever little scooter, even popping a wheelie halfway across the dining room, while calling back over her shoulder. “I'll let them know we're ready for desserrrrrrt!”

“Are yer ears ringin', hon? Ah feel like we just stepped out of Vinyl's club.” AJ shook her head until her ears flapped, then had to chase her hat as it made a break for the floor.

“Mmm, I'm glad she was here. I think that meal would've done me in without her help, and besides...she, she isn't treating me any differently at all.” Her smile grew so big, it rivaled one of Pinkie's, and AJ couldn't help but mirror it.

“Yer friends will stay your friends, sugar cube. The ones that count, anyhow. And you know us five count. Some of 'em might...well, pro'ly will say things they regret later, and maight even take awhile to get used to the idea of a softer 'Shy that's here to stay, but they'll remember soon 'nuf what's inside hasn't changed a bit.”

Fluttershy slipped a foreleg around Applejack's neck, pulling her in close with a cloud-soft sigh. “I know it, but I'm glad you're here to say the words and remind me, AJ. I...mmph.”

~Love her? Well of course I love her, she's my darling friend. But do I love her like...that?~ It was such a sticky thought, she was having trouble approaching it. Would she trade her life for AJ's? Of course! But, she would do so for any of her friends.

What about Applejack's happiness? Would she place it above her own? Her mind rebelled against the thought so sharply, Fluttershy blinked.

~Oh. I've been trying to overcome that, and admit to myself my own happiness is important. I don't have to put everyone first. I don't have to be a doormat.~ But now, this adorable orange mare gazing up at her... She shouldn't put everyone else first, but now she could choose to put one special pony's happiness before her own...

“A bit for your thoughts, mah Fluttershy.” Applejack brushed noses with her, sharing a warm breath with the plush mare.

She nuzzled up Applejack's muzzle, kissing her between the eyes, nudging her hat up and onto her neck so she could bury her nose in blonde mane. The scent of apples, hay, and grass tickled her nostrils. “I'll tell you later, my apple dumpling.” She tried out the pet name, and wrinkled her nose, grinning. It didn't fit, but it made her smile.

~I can't tell her I love her on our first date. That...just doesn't seem....no, I'll wait.~

The kitchen doors opened, and the squeaky cart reappeared, Pinkie and a waiter harnessed to it. They pulled with visible effort, while a towering confection so dark it seemed to absorb the ambient light loomed over them. Its shadow edged closer and closer, eventually eclipsing the staring couple in their booth. Even standing on their hind legs, neither of the ponies could have reached the top of that ridiculous cake, even assuming they were standing on the cart with it! Thick dark frosting shone dull and sullen, glistening beneath rivulets and curtains of drizzled raspberry syrup.

A waterfall crafted from fresh whipped cream cascaded down one side of the cake, and flat stones made of cookies had been placed around a 'pool' of the cream, turning the monstrous dessert into a bit of an art piece.

Flaked chocolate of different sizes had been used to decorate each tier of the cake, with chunks the size of bits on the lowest tier and airy delicate shavings on the highest. The thick smell of chocolate slapped them in the face, and likely filled the entire dining room within moments.

Pinkie ducked out of the harness, and dumped cake servers that could have been used in some kind of bizarre dessert-themed fencing match in front of her friends. “Who wants CAKE?!” The last word was a kind of manic screech. Pinkie was...passionate about cake.

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say 'Check please,' but somehow her lips and tongue converted the words into “I do.” ~Oh Celestia. They'll have to roll me home.~

Confrontation.

It was a very round and tired pegasus Applejack escorted home from McGillaCuddies, poor Fluttershy panting and groaning every few steps as her enormous sloshing stomach attempted to pin her to the ground, succumbing fully to gravity. In contrast, Pinkie had merely belched so loudly it echoed through the nearly-silent streets, and bounced off towards Sugar Cube Corner, rounded tummy jiggling. AJ doubted she'd show an ounce of extra pudge by morning.

~She's like some sorta fun-furnace. Put anything in and merriment comes out.~

Fluttershy wouldn't slim down overnight like that, and Applejack felt her legs wobble a bit at the knowledge she'd just helped bloat her friend up even larger tonight. The pegasus' wing lay folded over and around AJ, keeping her tucked in snug to 'Shy's side, pressed deep into her overfilled and well-padded tank.

“N-next time we try to binge anywhere near that much, c-can we do it at home?” Fluttershy whimpered. “The walk home is, mmph, hard.”

“D'yer legs hurt hon? Should I find a cart or somesuch? I can pull you home, I'm sure.” Applejack stopped atop a wooden bridge spanning a brook, the running water a welcome, natural sound after all the commotion from the restaurant. 'Shy seemed to enjoy it too, closing her eyes, leaning into Applejack.

“Um, not so much, it's...” 'Shy bit her lip, and tossed her head backwards towards her rump. “Everything...rubs together now.”

Applejack flushed, and just stood with her darling, listening to the brook and bathing in moonlight a long moment. Fluttershy's breathing eased, and she recovered some composure. Applejack hadn't lost much of her arousal though, not with a bloated Fluttertummy churning against her, so warm and soft molded against her side. “Erm, feel up to the last leg, honey-bun? I figger you must be tired. We've had quite a day.”

Fluttershy nodded, and nuzzled AJ's cheek before taking another step across the bridge, hoof striking the wooden planks with a hollow 'clomp' sound. The two mares walked in lock-step along lanes and paths to reach Fluttershy's cottage, within watermelon seed spitting distance of the Everfree Forest. The door swung open and 'Shy slipped in, making a beeline for her bed with its nest of blankets. AJ hurried after her, rearranging the mess to let Fluttershy slip in without getting tangled.

Applejack was about to tuck her in when she found herself tugged down against the butter-hued pony's underside, lips thoroughly plastered over her own. The sweet kiss went on over a minute, richly flavored with chocolate, and AJ started to feel light-headed before 'Shy released her...a strand of saliva hi-lighted by the moonlight spilling in through the open door.

“Thank you for tonight, Applejack. I couldn't have had a better time with anyone,” she whispered in an orange ear, before shyly plying it with her teeth. AJ shook, her tail hiking in an ages-old reflex, baring more slickness for Luna's moon to emphasize.

“I, I'll do it as often as you let me, Fluttershy. I'm yours,” she breathed, and felt 'Shy shudder at the words.

“My...? My...Applejack,” she tried the pair of words in her mouth to see how it sounded, while squeezing AJ tighter to her soft warm bulk. “And I'm yours,” she sighed beatifically, resting her chin atop the earth pony's head, sending her hat tumbling once again. “But you shouldn't stay,” 'Shy sighed in a far less delicate fashion. “Your family will wonder what happened.”

Applejack wanted badly to argue that point, to stay nestled in this exquisitely comfortable bed, tucked against her darling, her intoxicating meadow-scent in her lungs. 'Shy was right though. “Tonight that's true, but not forever. Soon hon, soon it'll be our choice alone whether we sleep alone or not. I dunno 'bout you, but for me, I don't ever want to spend a night I don't have to out of hooves' reach.”

“Just try and keep me from trapping you in my snuggle-nest, miss Apple!” Fluttershy giggled, a yawn interrupting the laughter. AJ licked her chin, winning her a squeak, then gently pried her way out of the pegasus' grasp so she could tuck her in.

“I adore you. I'll see you tomorrow, 'Shy.”

“Tomorrow,” came the drowsy agreement from just beneath the hem of the top blanket. AJ slipped quiet as she could out the door, shutting it securely behind, and trotted off for home with an ache in her loins but a molten fire blazing in her chest.

~Business hasn't shown me a rosy future. My adventurin' with the girls has surely done a heap of good for Equestria, and we'll surely do more, but it's too hard to grasp somethin' that big. I can see the family growin' older and havin' good times, but...I've never felt this...hope before. It's amazin' and it feels too good to be true, but Fluttershy's not going anywhere, and ah'm gonna do my best to make her—and us—so happy.~

Tears cooled on her cheeks as AJ neared home, and all the sappiest love songs and poems she'd heard over the years suddenly made sense. When you felt like this, you wanted the world to know, but only those whose hearts had been as brimful as hers felt right now would really understand the message trying to break through those poor words and maudlin tunes.

It was a bit strange slipping into the house so late, everyone long abed, with another early morning waiting for them. The Apple family normally did everything together. They ate their meals together, did the washing up together, washed themselves around the same time anyways, and hit the hay about the same hour. Often Applebloom tuckered out sooner of course, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer.

AJ put each hoof down carefully as she made her way up to the bedroom, but halfway up the stairs a broad rectangle of golden light pinned her to the wall. Big Macintosh stood in the doorway to the kitchen, an apple core hanging by its stem from his teeth. He just studied AJ for a moment, then tossed his head towards the living room couch.

~Well. I guess I'm breaking it to the family sooner'n I expected. At least I'm breakin' it to the one who keeps his trap shut best.~

The kitchen door swung shut after the big stallion passed through it, plunging the living room into darkness again. The siblings settled on the couch, each into the respective dents they'd worn into the old cushions. “Something happen today, AJ?” He ventured, toying with the apple core. Horse apples, his hooves were big. If she didn't know better, Applejack would swear Big Mac was still growing.

“You could say that, Big Mac. I, ah, had a talk with Fluttershy. You may've noticed at lunch she's got a little more meat on her bones than she used to.”

Instead of an “Eeeyup,” Big Mac simply raised his thick brows at AJ.

Flustered, the mare soldiered on. “She was worried what other ponies might think. You know how 'Shy is, so sensitive. I, um, I told her I thought she looked fine. And...more than fine. And I took her out on a d-d-d...”

“Date.”

“Yeah.” AJ sighed explosively, lifting her eyes again from her lap to her brother's gaze.

“You're not to do that again.”

Ice filled Applejack's stomach and bladder. “W...what did you say?”

“All of a sudden you chase a mare because her flank has some wobble to it? You ought to be ashamed of yourself for using one of your closest friends like that.” Big Mac levered himself off of the couch, each step making objects in the room quiver as he crossed to the door, opened it, and tossed his core in the bucket outside. “Tell her it's over, tell her why, and pray to Celestia she forgives you.”

Applejack leaped off the couch and stood with her legs braced apart, back arched and head down, glaring at her brother as he turned back from the door. “Now you listen here, Big Mac! I love that filly, and I'm going to spend the rest of mah life makin' her life heaven! I admit, ah'm confused about why I didn't feel so strongly for her until she'd gotten a little rounder, but now that my feelings are out, ah can't mistake them for anything else!”

Big Mac stared at her, only the whites of his eyes really visible in the dark room, the rest of his body a great looming shadow. “It's infatuation--”

“I knoooow infatuation when I feel it, and this is more! This took what I felt for 'Shy as a dear friend and built on it, deepened it! She could lose all the weight tomorrow, and I'd still want to be hers, and her to be mine!” She felt a surge of elation as the words rang true, the last shreds of her own doubt burned away. Applejack struck the floor sharply with a hoof. “I will fight anyone who tries to come between us, stranger, friend, royalty, or...kin.”

Silence reined in the room, apart from the old clock ticking away towards midnight. Big Mac smiled slowly at his fierce little sister, her sides heaving, every inch of her raring to fight. “Will you have the weddin' here on the farm?”

AJ's mouth opened to snarl out another challenge when the words registered, and she fell in a mental pothole. “I—wait—you were testin' me?”

Big Mac's smile faded. “If I thought for a second you weren't doing right by your friend, I'd have bucked you through walls until you got it.”

Applejack shuddered at his slow, matter-of-fact tone. “Big Mac...” She sagged back onto the couch, mouth dry, shaking as the unused adrenaline slowly broke down. She sat for a minute, maybe two, waiting for her heart to stop racing. “I don't like what you just did, but ah'm glad you're the pony you are.”

Her brother drew up beside the couch and simply touched his nose to her freckled cheek.

“Love ya, big brother. Are you...happy for us? I know, two mares, but--”

Big Mac snorted a firm stop to line of conversation, and erased the last worry-lines on his sibling's face. “Eeeyup.”

Pie for breakfast?

Fluttershy stretched grandly, legs and wings arching in six different directions, as she sensed morning warming into full-swing outside. Birds were singing, squirrels were chittering to one another, and they all could use her attention.

~In a moment,~ she thought, pulling her limbs back in from her stretch with a soft sigh and indulging in a few more minutes of warm bed-time. Tugging back the blankets, 'Shy smiled sleepily down at her belly, all the softer from last night's fun. Her barrel's pudgy curve actively pushed outward at her legs now, keeping them spread without a concerted effort on her part. She loosed a tiny grunt and squashed her limbs into her fat to straighten them, forcing her tummy to mound up even further.

She drew a forehoof along the soft buttery curve of her stomach, and didn't try to stop the moan that welled up out of her throat. Between her plump haunches, nearly buried by pillowy buttocks, her folds oozed with need kindled by just that simple caress. In barely a minute she felt delightfully slick back there, slippery warmth spreading between those supple cheeks, even dribbling syrup-like into the sheets.

Fluttershy glanced about the room, mane whispering across the sheets with the motion, searching for one of the objects she'd conscripted for faux-stallion duty back when these waves of lust first started. ~Ah-hah, there you are.~ The pegasus spotted the hairbrush laying half-beneath the bed, and rolled over, reaching down to retrieve it. Her wings quivered in the air, stiff with her arousal, anticipation making her fat-muffled folds wink. Hearing the quiet squelch of those thick nether-lips flexing set her cheeks aflame, yellow coat shading towards orange.

She had just scooped up the brush when a soft knock at the door sent it tumbling from her hoof again, something between a shriek and a gasp squeaking from the fat filly, hooves flying to her muzzle.

“Fluttershy, it's me. Ah brought some breakfast,” came AJ's voice through the door.

Fluttershy stopped labeling potential hiding places in her mind (many of which she could no longer fit in or beneath anymore) and heaved a relieved sigh. She tried to dismount from bed with a flap of her wings, but failed to account for their aroused condition, nearly face-planting off the bed with a windmilling of pastel-yellow limbs.

Giving her plumage a resentful glance, 'Shy carefully slid herself off the bed and trotted to the door, the way her belly swayed side to side making her cheeks burn. A turn of the handle, and Applejack was inside, saddlebags bulging with sweet-smelling treats.

“Ah didn't wake you, did ah honey? I tried to hold off, do some chores before headin' over. I know I would've wanted to sleep in a spell too after a supper like last night's,” she grinned, shrugging her burden off onto the kitchen floor.

“O-Oh no, I was awake. I'm so glad you're here, Applejack.” Fluttershy followed AJ to the kitchen, and slipped a foreleg around her fillyfriend, drawing her in for a hug. Their necks gently entwined, chins coming to rest in one another's manes. “I know we haven't been apart long at all, but I missed you. So much.”

AJ swallowed, and sniffled a tiny bit, running her own forehoof along the other side of 'Shy's neck. “Ah missed you too, darlin'. The second my eyes opened this mornin' I wanted to race over here, crawl into bed with ya, and hold you tight.”

Fluttershy smiled, a flutter of muscles in her stomach and a surge in her heart answering the naked affection in Applejack's voice. She pulled her head back far enough to give AJ's ear tip the lightest of nips. “Next time go with your gut, my sweet candied apple.”

~Mmm, no, that one doesn't work either. In fact, that might even be one of her relatives' names! It's still fun to try them out though,~ she laughed silently, feeling a chuckle shake Applejack's frame.

The earth pony gently disengaged from her, though couldn't resist pecking 'Shy's soft nose as she retreated, and drew back to open up the saddlebags, placing their contents on the counter. More of those addictive pies, preserves, apple bread, apple tarts, a few sealed boxes and sacks, and one jug wrapped in a thick cloth.

Fluttershy's mouth flooded with saliva at the sight of the breakfast Applejack had prepared, her nostrils flaring to drag in the different threads of fruity, spicy, and sugary scents wafting from each dish and package.

“I wasn't sure how hungry you'd be after last night, so ah was a lil conservative this mornin' ah'm afraid.” AJ's tone was apologetic as she took a knife in her mouth. She cut the apple bread into thick slices, revealing the fluffy interior, big buttery crumbs rolling across the bread's parchment wrapping. The scent of cinnamon-sugar, apples, and ginger spiced the air, tugging Fluttershy forward one step at a time, the odor acting like a nose ring it was so irresistible.

AJ met her halfway, bringing her a piece which gleamed with a sheen of freshly applied butter. 'Shy spread her lips for a bite, eyes locked to her love's every second while she chewed and swallowed. Appreciative groans brought Applejack's broad grin back to the surface, and it only grew bigger as Fluttershy polished off that slab of bread in short order.

Before the earth pony could return to the counter for another piece, Fluttershy stepped between her and the bread, drawing up alongside her, then circling around...brushing her soft body against Applejack's all along the way. She fetched up against her, cheek resting on AJ's cutie mark, her own near the orange mare's head, just as they'd stood yesterday afternoon in the cottage.

“There's, umm, an A-apple family delicacy back here that I'd rather start with this morning, if, if that's alright with you.” Fluttershy purred. She nuzzled past AJ's flank, around her haunch, to puff hot breath playfully at her blonde tail.

“S-sugar cube, I don't know if--” Applejack whispered, a tremor rolling through her body.

“I know, though,” Fluttershy countered. “I've c-chosen you. I love you. If I c-can come out and say it Applejack, can't you?” Fluttershy pleaded, and she felt Applejack's tremors subside.

Applejack let out a slow breath, raising a forehoof to stroke along the pegasus' back. “I love you 'Shy. I...wasn't totally sure I wasn't bein', you know...selfish, 'til last night, but I know for sure, it's you and not your body I want to spend mah life with.” She leaned into Fluttershy's bulk, and planted a kiss on each of her cutie-mark's butterflies. “Ah adore you, an' I wanna be with you always.”

“Always,” 'Shy sighed. “and luckily, my body's part of the deal.” She hiked her tail, twitching it so the luxurious length of pink hair flopped back over her haunch, well out of the way of the glistening femininity dribbling beneath. “Going to finally let me get at yours this morning, my love?” 'Shy crooned, before running the tip of her tongue along the toned curve of her (her!) mare's rump cheek.

AJ stammered and wobbled atop legs grown weak from the sensations both inflicted and threatened that Fluttershy worked upon her, but finally groaned, "Well, just a little taste, but I wanna do somethin' special for you, buttercup."

'Shy leaned slowly back in beneath AJ's tail, taking her time and savoring the moment. She was about to grow so much closer to her beloved, sharing something beautiful, yet at the same time, deliciously lewd and sinfully indulgent. Last night's ridiculous cake had been touted as the ultimate hedonistic treat, but she didn't believe for a second it would hold a candle to Applejack's nectarous slit.

Her breath puffed hot and fast against the sagging darkness of her lover's folds, nectar shining on the thick lips. 'Shy's tongue, rather delicately-pointed and shockingly hot, slid over one plump labial petal before she sank it into slippery, flexing darkness. She heard Applejack gasp, her earth pony winking with a gentle squelch around her coyly-probing tongue. Fluttershy startled and snorted, tongue flashing back out of reach of the suddenly-grasping pussy...then returned, bolder, sliding up and down between AJ's thick labia.

~She's soooo smooth inside, like the softest satin I've ever felt at Rarity's boutique. But, so much better, being hot and alive, and hungry for me. Mmmmph, and these lips, I could just play with them all day! So flexible, tender, squishy even,~ Fluttershy smiled to herself, before wondering how similar her own body was, all the while still exploring her beloved with her eager oral muscle.

Applejack moaned, the liquid sound pouring from her lips and barely traveling beyond them. Before the 'redecorating' it would have echoed, but the velvet hung up around the room tended to deaden sound. Fluttershy found herself abruptly tonguing air, opening her eyes to find Applejack had stepped away and turned to grin at her, the smile only broadening at the bit of a glisten visible on 'Shy's nose and chin.

"How do I taste, sugar?"

Fluttershy licked her lips and shivered, her wings rigid and straining towards the ceiling. A tickle along her leg distracted 'Shy and drew AJ's gaze as a scintillating strand of mare-need dripped from the pegasus' nethers to splatter the polished floorboards.

"Unbelievable," she breathed, eying AJ with frank hunger. When her figure expanded, more than one of her appetites had as well, it was becoming increasingly clear! "You're sweet, and tart, and sooooo smooth inside..." Her brow wrinkled ever so slightly. "But, umm,"

"I don't taste like apples," AJ grinned, and Fluttershy smiled through a fierce blush. "The couple'a stallions I've dallied with over the years expected the same thing. And yet..."

AJ blushed harder than Fluttershy, if that was possible, and stepped back towards the kitchen. 'Shy watched her pick up a pie pan in her teeth, carry it into the den, and set it on an armchair. The earth pony turned back towards Fluttershy to watch her friend, then flagged her tail and sat...working her firm behind thoroughly into the still faintly-warm dessert.

Fluttershy just squeaked as soon as she realized what her lover was doing, and another warm strand of Flutter-honey dripped to the floor. The plush pony was in such a hurry to investigate this newly-enhanced treat that Applejack actually bumped into 'Shy's nose as she carefully levered herself up out of the chair. Turning gingerly about, AJ revealed the gooey filling plastered all over her rump, sizable chunks of crust glued to her coat, though a good number fell to the floor once she'd stood completely.

"N, never even dreamed--" Fluttershy whispered, before licking a chunk of crust from AJ's rump. Her tongue flashed out again and again, working from the outside in, saving the best for last. The teasing 'Shy put AJ through made her slicker than ever, and Applejack's plump petals flexed in another juicy wink, flashing her shining pink interior at the mare. A voyeur would never have guessed the panting, groaning, pegasus working beneath AJ's flagged tail was chronically shy.

"Ohhh, Fluttershy...c'mon, sugar," Applejack urged, before biting her lip, leaning back towards that maddening tongue. “Ah'm about fit to be tied here...” She blinked. “Now don't go and get any ideas along those lines! Not yet, least-ways. Get the basics down fir-aaAAAHHH!”

Fluttershy leaned right back towards her lover, mind barely following her speech, their mutual efforts shallowly sinking the yellow pony's muzzle between those eager flexing labia. Her eyes widened, stiff wings beating the air in a panicky flurry of a half-dozen flaps, before Fluttershy opened her mouth and found she could take a breath. Hot, humid air soaked in the rich feminine scent of her friend rushed past her lips, along with a trickle of warm syrupy lust. Opening her mouth stretched Applejack's soft passage, forcing a rough-edged groan from up ahead. Smiling, her panic eased, Fluttershy tried nuzzling deeper.

She shuddered, wings straining towards the ceiling, her own tail flagging and buried folds winking in honeyed flex after flex. ~Feeling her folds slide up my face, squeezing me, oh Celestia—I can't wait to feel her do this to me.~

Fluttershy worked her jaw open again and again to stretch the elastic flesh of AJ's sweltering tunnel, fighting against the muscular clasp her lover held her in, all while glorying in the flavor swamping her taste buds. With her little muzzle squashed up inside the farm-pony, there was little where else for AJ's honey to go but down 'Shy's throat, who swallowed greedily for every drop.

Applejack scraped the floor with a hoof, shivering from nose to tail. Eventually those shivers dislodged her tail from its perch atop her rump, the soft bundle of blonde hairs falling atop Fluttershy's head. 'Shy smiled beneath the shadow, and nuzzled in more fiercely than ever, thrusting her tongue out to swirl around the barrel of her beloved's fluttering vagina.

~Mmm, feels...safe under her tail. I could spend hours here,~ she sighed to herself, before pulling her muzzle back until her nose just barely brushed Applejack's pussy, the now-forlorn lips winking, desperate to regain the fullness just-departed. Before AJ could say a word or take a step backward, she leaned back in, sinking her muzzle inside with a lewd and juicy squelch. Applejack cried out, tail twisting and flopping between her thirsty lover's ears.

Fluttershy pulled back again, not quite as far this time, then eased inside, using her face to pleasure her lover. AJ's lubrication dribbled down her chin and throat, the earth pony's musk clinging to her coat, perfuming her with lust. 'Shy's chest swelled, and her tongue-work grew ever more vigorous, responding to AJ's growing wetness and the increasing urgency of her moans.

~She's getting sooo worked up, and it's me who's doing that!~ The thought made her want to preen, hide, and hoard Applejack beneath her wing all at the same time, all while continuing this delicious dalliance.

Her muzzle now soaked in Applejack's thick, slippery honey, her bobs in and out were nigh-frictionless, allowing 'Shy to build up more speed.

“S-s-sugar, I—nnNNNFff!” Applejack bit down on her cry, forelegs collapsing, head lolling atop them. It looked like she'd been kicked in the head, though the groans sounded a fair bit more pleasant than such a state would warrant!

Still, 'Shy almost pulled back from Applejack's suddenly-clamping, sucking pussy to check on her. ~No. She's right where I want her, and I can do even better!~

Focusing and fighting the pressure of AJ's clamping, spasming tunnel, Fluttershy nuzzled ferociously into her beloved's heated and sloppy sex, tongue delving deeper than ever within that satiny furnace-hot closeness. She felt Applejack jerk beneath her, but with just her hindlegs left standing, there was virtually nowhere the pleasure-addled mare could go to escape the oral onslaught. AJ's tail twisted and flopped about atop Fluttershy's head, the hairs tickling pegasus ears, but 'Shy refused to be distracted.

AJ came again, teeth locked down on the cry trying to escape her, while every muscle in her athletic frame tensed and quivered! Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around her lover's hindlegs, locking the ponies together. Her hooves brushed against AJ's teats in the process, and the further arch that coaxed out of the orange pony's back made 'Shy burble a giggle into Applejack's pussy, just before a rich gush of marecum rolled up from the depths and over Fluttershy's lips. She swallowed reflexively, getting the next gush all over her muzzle, while her tongue bathed in the creamy texture and mellow flavor of her lover's most concrete evidence of pure ecstasy.

“N-no—no more, ohhhh dear Luna, no more,” AJ begged, dragging herself forward enough to let Fluttershy's muzzle slip free of her folds, ropes of cum and slickness drooping between panting lips and winking ones. 'Shy licked her lips, nose, and chin as thoroughly clean as she could manage, then stretched out on the floor beside AJ, nuzzling along her heaving side.

“I've never had an apple pie that delicious before, love.” Fluttershy cooed, heart still thudding hard against her ribs, her lover's musk making her dizzy. Nothing seemed to matter but staying close to this warm, sweet-smelling orange mare she adored.

“N-never served anypony anything like it before, neither,” AJ moaned back, lifting her head enough to swing it back, bumping her nose into the pegasus' chest. “Feel like I just ran a marathon, went five rounds with a minotaur, then bucked half of Sweet Apple Acres!”

Grinning, Fluttershy bent over her lover's face, soft mane trailing across her ears, her eyes, and on down along her muzzle. “Does that mean you're too tired to eat your own dessert, darling?” She saw Applejack's eyes spring open in the shade of her mane, the earth pony immediately rolling and scrambling.

Fluttershy giggled as AJ failed to lever herself up, flopping back to the rug. “Why don't you just lay back, and I'll bring you your sweet treat.” She blushed heavily with her own words, even as she got her hooves beneath her and rose, carefully shuffling about and stepping sideways to straddle her, plush, buttercup-yellow rump hovering above Applejack's muzzle.

~Talking about myself like some kind of confection, silly filly.~ 'Shy was set to start scolding herself, when a rope of her own slickness dripped from her looming ass to splatter AJ's nose, coaxing a desperate moan of unbridled lust from the mare below her. ~Well...she does sound hungry!~

Being hungered after, pursued, wasn't a totally foreign feeling. Fluttershy had received her share of catcalls and even a few rather alarmingly personal letters after her stint as a model for Photo Finish. It had all just made her uncomfortable, to put it extra-extra-extra mildly. ~But this is Applejack, not some strange pony whose intentions I can't guess. I know what she wants right now, and I can guess what she'll want after. My heart just wants to leap like Angel on the first day of spring when I think of what she wants for us, for the rest of our lives.~

Letting out a blissful sigh, every line of stress disappearing from her face and body, Fluttershy leaned back. Her big, bountiful rump headed straight down for AJ's face, soft pudgy cheeks parting around the other mare's eagerly-burrowing muzzle. The first hot flash of tongue against her soaked slit made 'Shy squeak at a pitch so high, not even the squirrels outside were certain they'd heard anything.

Fluttershy's rump dented beneath the press of AJ's hooves, and she started to rise, afraid she might be suffocating her lover, before the pressure eased...then returned. Applejack kneaded deep into the plush flesh padding 'Shy's behind, while between those cheeks her muzzle twisted, allowing her lips to pluck and kiss at fat lust-coated labia. Gradually, as she grew used to having somepony 'attending' to her beneath her tail, Fluttershy's squeaks sank back down into the audible range. They even began to modulate into groans, sighs, and cries, shockingly loud for the customarily demure 'Shy.

“A-Applejaaaaack! Yesssssss, yes-yes-yes-yes, don't ever leave that spot. MMMmmmm—nnnff OHHHhhh, unless you're leaving it for that one!” She ground her rump down against AJ's face, and like a ripe orange on a juicer, rivulets of warm honey ran down Applejack's cheeks, forehead, chin and throat, heavily dampening her mane and coat.

When the reality of what she was doing registered, and Fluttershy realized the birds just outside the cottage had stopped singing to listen to her squeals and moans, 'Shy's entire face turned orange with a raging blush. She strained to reach a colorful throw on a nearby chair, and tossed it over her head, huddling beneath the little blanket. It did almost nothing to muffle her cries, and it barely covered her to the brace of her rigid wings, but she still felt better panting in the darkness beneath it, somehow.

Applejack stopped kneading 'Shy's cheeks to press her hooves in between them and spread the soft mounds of pudge apart, allowing her to nuzzle in closer. Her tongue wasn't nearly so narrow as Fluttershy's, and the pegasus saw stars when AJ dragged her broad, pillowy tongue up the entire length of her overflowing slit. Applejack started with strokes so slow, 'Shy imagined she could feel every bump and groove on her lover's tongue, before working her way up to licks so smooth and swift it was like being lapped at by an enormous dog.

Each lick brushed the hot button of her clitoris, sending pulses of pleasure through the plush pegasus, making her softness quiver against the mare she'd climbed atop. It was almost a relief when AJ stopped a moment, letting her recover from the steady assault on that so-sensitive button...when she felt dextrous lips wrap around her clit, applying direct suction to the slick little pearl! Fluttershy gasped, nearly tearing the blanket off herself with a flail of her forelegs, her hindlegs quivering and half-kicking as her muscles went haywire.

“G-gentler, please?” She managed through clenched teeth, and felt Applejack ease off the suction somewhat, letting Fluttershy gasp for breath. “Ohhh, ohhh my. That's...I'm very sensitive there, love,” she whispered, tucking the blanket up under her chin, hiding in a pocket of it.

“S'alright love, I'll be more careful. Don't fret about it none, we're both learnin' the ropes.” AJ chuckled. “Again, not suggestin' anything with that word.”

~You know, Twilight mentioned something about patterns of speech like that when Rainbow kept denying knowing anything about all the weather instruments that had gone missing from the top of her tree...even when she hadn't asked Rainbow about them, or even mentioned them at all. Keep denying something, and the reality is...~ Fluttershy grinned in her little blanket-world, but didn't have the time to plot, for Applejack was renewing her attention to the pegasus' pink and black speckled pussy.

Applejack slipped her tongue up inside Fluttershy, just edging within, teasing the mare with slippery flick after flick. ~That feels lovely, but I want filled.~ She tried giving Applejack the hint by hunkering down further, pressing her winking folds in pursuit after that tongue, and that earned her another inch of the thrusting, squirming appendage...but no more! The heat burning between 'Shy's hips steamrolled any lingering reticence, and with a last shift, Fluttershy brought her full weight down right on AJ's muzzle.

'Shy groaned in incredulous bliss, feeling her lover's muzzle slip inside her with a sweetly naughty, slick sound. She took AJ in all the way up to her eyes, and it was a deliciously slow descent. ~Am I that much more snug than her?~ Fluttershy had to wonder, as the fifth second passed in her ooze downwards over her lover's face. Once she'd come to rest, 'Shy ripped her thick-walled canal around the earth pony, feeling the shape of Applejack with her most intimate muscles.

A firm stretching sensation registered, then a tickle of shifting air within her soaked passage, sending Fluttershy's head lolling backwards. "So that's what that feels like," she moaned, her stuffed pussy trying to wink around the big farm-pony blockage. AJ worked her jaw open and shut over and over, and swallowed noisily, keeping 'Shy's blush burning.

AJ's hooves hooked up over the top curves of the pegasus' fattened rump and pulled, forcing Fluttershy's bliss-battened eyelids to fly open again. Hesitantly, she ground her rump back down into her lover, and was rewarded with an incredible vibration deep in her satin-lined loins as Applejack groaned. Confidence bolstered, she ground back harder, moving her hindquarters in a small circle.

"SQUEaaaap---*!" She couldn't help but rise into the higher frequencies again when AJ slipped a hoof beneath her lush belly, teasing her right teat with her fetlocks. Fluttershy grinned, leaning all the harder back into her lover's face in retaliation, panting hard and fast. AJ wasn't idle inside her, working that jaw about and making her delightful tongue dance against nectar-sweating flesh. The occasional breath she felt snatched within her always forced a shiver to run up her spine, even as sweat began to dampen her buttery coat.

"A-applejack, I'm close," she crooned, brushing her tail across her lover's ears. "May I... May I cum with you inside me?" She whispered, unsure herself if she wanted AJ to hear her.

~She might say no... It's bound to get even tighter in there.~

AJ just lightly tweaked her teat, and patted her rump with her free hoof, reassuring the trembling pegasus. Relaxing once more, Fluttershy just focused on the pleasure. Every passing second of slippery activity beneath her tail seemed to pour another cup of warm bliss into a Fluttershy-shaped bowl, and it was nearly full! She quivered, and felt Applejack arch up into her underside, pressing herself into 'Shy's quivering plushness. That, and a last flurry of tongue-work poured the last cup, making Fluttershy's ecstasy overflow.

It was hardly her first climax, or even her first this week, but 'Shy had never felt anything near this magnitude wash through her before. Before she'd been meeting the physical requirements to peak, and sometimes mental ones when a fantasy was strong enough.

~Today for the first time the fantasy's reality, and my emotional buttons are getting...bucked!~ Any further thoughts dissolved in the hot flood of pleasure, muscles clamping down around Applejack's muzzle...relaxing, then clamping again in a fluttering just a bit slower than her racing heart's rhythm! She heard a splutter and a cough, and in a daze, managed to wedge her hindlegs beneath herself again and raise her rump from AJ's face. The great gasp she heard turned Fluttershy's head in alarm, but she had to actually step off of her lover to actually see anything. Her plush rump simply got in the way too much these days!

"Are you okay, Appleja--oh goodness!" Fluttershy stared at her beloved, barely managing to keep her hooves beneath her as the muscular tremors continued. AJ was absolutely soaked from ears to mid-chest, and gasping for breath like she'd just surfaced from a deep dive. "I had no idea this could be so dangerous..." 'Shy pressed a hoof against Applejack's neck to check her pulse, and prepared to help up her lover, brow creased with worry.

Applejack hauled her down against herself instead, Fluttershy lacking the time even for a squeak before she found her muzzle locked with AJ's, the most interesting flavor spreading through her mouth as her lover's tongue danced with hers. It was like some sort of dilute liqueur, hints of dandelion, a touch of salt, and...

~Oh,~ she realized, her blush renewing itself. ~I wonder how many times in a day my cheeks can take this before it just burns in.~

Brain plainly not working at one hundred percent, perhaps due to diverted blood flow, Fluttershy gave up on thinking and just sank into the kiss, letting her soft body smother her lover's. Her wings were gradually losing their perfect stiffness, drooping by degrees, soon mantling over AJ. Her freckled farm pony broke the kiss first, and left her nose resting against Fluttershy's.

"Ah love you, 'Shy. Trust me, won'tchu? Ah know mah limits, and...mmm, Luna's night, I came again myself while you had me trapped beneath that sweet honeypot of yours." AJ brushed a hoof along Fluttershy's burning cheek. "Think I've had more Flutter-butter than breakfast, this morning!"

Fluttershy was about to mumble a bashful reply when her stomach chose to respond again, vibrating down against AJ, groaning. She let her mane droop to hide her face, but AJ was beneath the fallen curtain of pink, and saw the little smile quirk the corners of the mare's mouth.

"Speakin' of breakfast, shall we get on with yours, m'love?"

Fluttershy sighed, the airy exhalation sending a few strands of mane dancing before her nose and mouth. "If this is a dream, don't you dare wake me up. No no, no pinching!"

Fifteen birds, four squirrels, a skunk, an elderly pair of badgers, three field mice, six butterflies, and one hungry and irate rabbit certainly heard the squeak this time.

Second Breakfast.

Fluttershy glanced between the stairs and the array of food on the counter a few times, prancing in place a few seconds. Ultimately she headed for the bed, while a bemused Applejack buttered slices of bread and laid them out on a cutting board.

“I-I thought about taking a shower after all of that messy—but wonderful—play, but then I thought I'd just get crumbs in my mane and everything afterwards, so I may as well just wait. Right?” It was embarrassing enough to expect to make a mess while eating breakfast that her pesky blush returned.

Applejack snorted a laugh, and tossed a hoof towards the bed. “Reckon you're right, buttercup. You get yourself all cozy, and I'll bring yer breakfast.” The orange mare swung her hindquarters just a little from side to side while she worked there at the counter, straw-colored tail and mane bobbing with her.

Fluttershy found herself watching for an embarrassing span of time before remembering herself, and scrambled towards the bed before AJ could catch her gawking like a slack-jawed filly. She sighed out in relief upon settling into bed, letting the mattress cup her weighty frame, giving her plump legs a break. Her eyes drifted back towards her lover, finding Applejack drizzling icing over some tarts from a small earthenware pot. Saliva seeped into Fluttershy's mouth, and a burble of need vibrated through the pegasus' depths.

AJ didn't keep her waiting long. The earth pony gripped a tray in her mouth by its molded handle, trotting over with a cheerful spring in her step.

~Goodness, she's adorable. It's a good thing she'll always be up before me, or I doubt I'd ever let her leave bed in the mornings.~ The unexpectedly dominant, possessive thought left Fluttershy's mouth agape, and AJ took that as an invitation to pop an apple tart into it, giggling.

“Kinda like the instructions on the mail slot at the post office. Open mouth, insert baked goods.” Applejack grinned as 'Shy blinked, then chewed, making happy sounds around the flaky dough and sugary, spiced apple mixture. The sweet icing was the perfect addition, a splash of ultra-sweet on top of the natural sugars of the fruit and the nose-tickling burn of the spices.

“Oh AJ, everything from your farm is so wonderful. Did you make these yourself?” Fluttershy managed to get a couple sentences out before another tart approached. She didn't hesitate to lean towards it, lips spreading, tongue helping guide the crispy-skinned treat in. While she chewed, taste buds washed anew in exquisite flavors, AJ finally responded.

“Ah whipped up most of this myself, yup. I'm no Granny Smith in the kitchen, but she taught me all I know.” Applejack curled a hoof around the handle of a mug, offering it to her fillyfriend once 'Shy had swallowed the latest morsel. Fluttershy took a long guzzle of cool milk from the mug before passing it back.

“You did a great job, love. I could eat these for every meal, and between meals!” The pegasus ducked her head a tiny bit, and for once it felt like her body wasn't sure if it should be blushing or not.

~It's true, I do love her tarts that much. And I do want to eat them that often. I certainly don't mind growing softer. What's there to blush about?~ Well, there was always the little matter of the rest of their friends and what they would think. ~They-they're my friends, and they love me. They might not understand, but we won't stop being friends.~ Borderline blush defused, she opened up for another tart, but AJ gave her a slice of bread instead, half the piece gone in a delicate but greedy bite.

“Ah'll be happy to make you a mountain of 'em, sugar.” AJ grinned down at her lover, ears turned to catch every happy sigh and 'mmm' Fluttershy murmured.

'Shy melted at the sheer love in those grass-green eyes, wings mantling and fluffing a bit. The pair shared a silent moment linked by their gaze alone, wordless affection beaming from pony to pony. Finally, Fluttershy shook her head, leaving her pale pink mane cutely mussed.

“Slip in here beside me, Applejack. Just pile the food on the nightstand there, drag it over. I want, no, need to be closer to you.” 'Shy scooted sideways on the bed, then shifted onto her flank. She laughed as AJ hesitated a few seconds, eyes glued to Fluttershy's tummy. “Hey, my eyes are up here you, um, silly filly! And they see a pie over there!”

“P-pie... Oh! Y-yeah.” Applejack snickered, shaking her head and set about moving the nightstand, pressing it into service as a sideboard. Soon it was crowded with food, and AJ clambered up into bed with her. Wriggling closer, sliding across the sheets, the earth pony wasn't satisfied until she was pressed deeply into 'Shy's buttery bulk.

“Oh goodness,” Fluttershy crooned, squirming at the feel of AJ's firm warmth sinking into her pudge, forcing her fat to mold against the earth pony's rather unyielding physique. “OhhhhHHhhhh, Applejack...” 'Shy let her eyes slide shut while the other mare's hooves dented her belly, kneading into her padding. It was a tiny bit uncomfortable at first, but she relaxed every muscle she could across her stomach, and soon it was nothing but divine. She could feel and hear her belly groan and burble while AJ massaged her, stomach surely warmer than ever as it worked on the first few 'bites' of breakfast.

“Mah beautiful, pudgy peg.” AJ sighed out, her warm breath splashing across Fluttershy's coat. “Can't rightly put into words how lucky I feel, you know?” She slowed, then stopped her kneading, dragging her fetlocked ankle across Fluttershy's barrel and flank.

'Shy shivered, loving every second of the slow caress. AJ's coat was a bit rougher than hers, but it actually felt good, scratching pleasantly here and there. “I still feel like I'm in some kind of lovely dream. Last week I don't know if I could even have brought myself to fantasize that one of my best friends would become my love, embracing even all this,” she gestured at the plump belly Applejack was stroking.

AJ latched onto the word 'embracing' and did just that, pressing her muzzle into her lover's furry coat. She sighed into the pegasus' fur, warm breath stirring Fluttershy's scent and splashing it back at her. "Ah'm listening. Just, you know, yer a mite irresistible is all." AJ inhaled deeply. "And you smell like the best meadow I ever rolled in; that doesn't help."

Fluttershy developed a bad case of the squeaks, and pinned Applejack's head into her plush underside, partially just so the farm pony wouldn't see her latest blush. “Um, a-anyways, as I was saying? About not even daring to dream about...? T-that would have been too much to hope for. To wish for on the other hand...”

“Was there a shootin' star last weekend ah missed?” AJ chuckled, leaning up to nuzzle beneath Fluttershy's chin, planting kisses along the warm length of her tender throat. “If I'd even known this, uh, quirk was in me ah'd've wished for someone just like you to adore, buttercup.” AJ collected a kiss between her eyes with a grin, before rolling over to fetch a pie from the nightstand. She'd already sliced it, so it was a wedge that emerged from the pan to kiss Fluttershy's lips.

~Kissed by pie,~ Fluttershy giggled in her head, while opening up to the wonderful dessert. The crust had that glorious crisp sugar glaze, glossy and smooth, cracking as her teeth bit off a large chunk from the wedge. Inside, the softened apples leaked flavor and syrup over her tongue. A different blend of spices than the tart's registered as she inhaled with the bite resting in her mouth. Their tart flavor mellowed by baking, the apples almost melted in her mouth as 'Shy chewed the pie with a soft groan. In no time it was gone, but AJ was ready, offering the wedge again. Just two more bites and it was eaten, saliva pooling in the pegasus' mouth as Applejack rushed the next slice to her.

The pie vanished much faster than the ones she'd eaten by herself. Despite her best efforts to get every bit of that lovely crust, some bits and crumbs did fall to the blankets or drop into the mass of her mane. AJ leaned in for a kiss after 'Shy swallowed the last bite, her sweet and spiced tongue twining with the other mare's, soaked with sugary saliva.

~She's as hungry for me as I was for that pie.~ The lovely thought settled in her mind, raising her blush again, and pushing her ardor up to match her lover's. Groan-vibrations, shared puffs of breath from close-pressed noses, the slick mash of lips to lips and the dance of tongue on tongue became her world for the next couple of minutes. 'Shy was dimly aware of Applejack's hooves stroking her elsewhere, and in a detached sense, knew her own were returning the favor, but most of her was bent on the nexus of oral affection.

When they broke apart at last, gasping, both reached up after a moment to brush each other's lips free of a bit of dangling saliva. “Think I've found my new favorite way to taste my baking,” AJ giggled. Her ears splayed to the sides, red rising in the farm pony's cheeks.

It just made Fluttershy's heart swell all the more to see her dear mare vulnerable and embarrassed. ~She's not super confident about any of this either.~

She leaned back over to brush her soft nose along AJ's. “Fluttershy as pie-pan? Does that make me, um, dishy?” She grinned weakly up at AJ through her lashes. Her grin stretched wider as Applejack's hoof connected with a freckled face.

“Ugh! Lucky for you I have somethin' to keep that wicked mouth of yours busy,” AJ muttered, scooping a sack off the floor. She upended it, sending a cascade of crimson, verdant, and golden apples rolling across the sheets. The familiar autumnal scent of ripe, raw, unprocessed apples filled the air.

Fluttershy giggled, hoofing at the colorful, roll-y swarm of fruit. “Your apples have never needed embellishment to be wonderful.” She paused to watch while Applejack scooped up a corer from amongst the apples, and deftly removed the seedy center column of a handsome Fuji. The farm-pony gave it a showy polish against her chest, before raising it to her lover's lips. 'Shy took a big bite, eyes widening at the feel of juice running down her chin. AJ was right there to lick it off, chuckling, leaving her to savor the crisp, tart flesh of the fruit. The second she'd swallowed, 'Shy opened for another bite, and simply finished off the rest of the Fuji with the second go. She knew her cheeks were bulging a bit with the greedy mouthful, but the only witness was Applejack.

~Far from judging me, I wonder if it's turning her on?~ She felt her wings begin to stiffen, unfurling of their own accord. ~M-maybe I should keep trying to tease her, until she can't take it anymore? That does sound like fun.~

Fluttershy bit the next apple, a granny-smith, in half when AJ offered it. Its juice and flesh were far more tart, the fruit hard and crunchy rather than just firm, forcing her tongue to endure that tartness with the extended chewing. She wrinkled her little muzzle, forcing giggles to bubble up from the other mare.

“Sorry, 'Shy. Yer just so gosh-darn cute, darlin'.” AJ shook her head, a broad grin plastered on her sweet, honest, perfect face. “You sure you want the other half?” She waggled it in front of the pegasus' nose, brows raised.

Fluttershy nabbed it with her lips, and gobbled it, crunching and munching away. “Maybe we could put some honey on the rest of the granny-smiths?” Fluttershy ventured, while she tapped a cute little golden apple. Applejack scooped it up and cored it, before Fluttershy devoured it with a single bite. It was softer than either of the previous apples, and tasted far more like the apple juice she bought at the store. Before AJ could select another, she leaned over to give her another kiss, sharing the flavors of the fruit with her. Natural sugars swirled in her saliva, basted playfully over Applejack's teeth and tongue. AJ responded with tender suction, tugging at 'Shy's lips, mouth, and tongue.

It felt like long minutes before Fluttershy surfaced from the kiss, eyelids cracking before drifting slowly open again. “Mmmnn. You may not taste like apples, not without help anyways, but I know what I like,” she sighed.

“I'd ask if you thought you might taste like 'em after being fed so many, but if I don't after eatin' 'em in some way, shape, or form at every meal for months atta time...” Applejack winked, and plucked another apple from the sheets. “This here's a Braeburn. Doesn't talk quite so much as my cousin, thank goodness.”

Fluttershy took a bite of the new apple, rolling the subtly different taste around in her mouth. It was very sweet, another 'crisp' type, and so refreshingly juicy! She found her cheeks burning again as some of those descriptors just naturally drifted over to the pony of the same name, in her mind.

~Is my mind perpetually stuck in the gutter now? Guttershy?~ The image of the new, feared persona sprang almost fully-formed into her head. A thick, heavy sweater covered up her wings to keep a constant wing-boner under wraps. Eyeglasses with tinted lenses concealed her eyes, letting her leer without being obvious about it. A snug pair of cargo shorts hid her rump, concealing padding to soak up the constant flow of her arousal. A perverted pegasus, creeping here and there, spying on attractive ponies, scribbling in a filthy notebook, taking clandestine photos for later private 'use.'

Fluttershy squeaked, and pulled a corner of the sheets over her head, sending some of the apples rolling here and there.

“Sugarcube? What's wrong? Bite your tongue or somethin'?” Applejack stroked her back with slow soothing motions.

“I-I-I-I'm a pervert!” Fluttershy quavered.

“A, uh, what now?” AJ lowered her head down, and 'Shy felt her love's ear brush against her nose.

“A-a p-p-ervert. I k-keep thinking of naughty things now, and...and what if I'm stuck like this?!” 'Shy heard her words running up into squeaking-range.

~I hope she got all that. It was hard enough to get out once.~

Applejack gently tugged the sheets off of her, and pulled Fluttershy's head against her chest. “Oh, hon. You're not Pundora's box. You remember that myth, right? Curious pony, opened up the box Celestia warned her not to, all the terrible plays-on-words escaped, and that's why most of our cities have ridiculous names t'day?”

Fluttershy nodded the tiniest bit. She remembered feeling sorry for Pundora.

“It's not like you won't be able to keep a lid on yerself when you go out,” AJ continued. “And in here? You can be the biggest pervert you want, and I'll love you all the same.” Applejack squeezed her tighter, nuzzling down into her mane.

“S'not as if I'm a blushing, vanilla innocent,” the orange mare mumbled, blushing again. “I'm plum-embarrassed myself sometimes that your pudge drives me to distraction. But you don't mind, I've noticed,” she grinned, “so I'm coming to terms with my feelings.”

Gradually, Fluttershy pried open her eyes again, and let Applejack pull her up from her cowering huddle and into a more casual lounge again. “I l-love being your p-p-pudgy peg, AJ.” She smileed up at her, cheeks fully as orange as AJ's coat. “And I hope you're right. I don't want to end up a sex maniac like Cloud Kicker.” Her eyes widened. “Not that there's anything wrong with Cloud Kicker! Please don't tell her I said I never want to be like her!”

AJ snorted out a laugh. “She's...yeah, that's a whole 'nother...yeah. Apple?” She offered another to her lover, who took the derailment good-naturedly, crunching into the fruit. In a few more minutes, Fluttershy finished shifting the apples from the sheets to her stomach, and AJ leaned off the bed to fetch a stack of slightly greasy white boxes tied with string.

'Shy watched as Applejack fumbled with the string, then opened the box to lift out a golden crusted, deep-dish pie. “More pie?”

“This is a savory pie, 'stead of a sweet one. It's shepherd's pie! Carrots, onions, and peas in a mushroom gravy. And underneath the crust, mashed potatoes!” AJ licked her lips while describing it, before slicing a fat wedge out of the pie for Fluttershy.

“This doesn't exactly sound like a breakfast food,” 'Shy murmured, but still opened her mouth for the slice. She got a glimpse of the colorful veggies in the cross-section of the pie, smothered in rich brown gravy, before the wedge slipped past her lips. AJ held it so she could take just a bite, but remembering her resolution to tease her lover, Fluttershy leaned forward to take the entire slice in one massive bite. She reveled in the look AJ gave her as she chewed, then just marveled at the flavors coursing over her tongue.

Rosemary, sage, the fresh green flavor of the peas, the smooth pungency of onion, and the bright taste of carrots mingled under a blanket of savory gravy. She swallowed without really thinking about it, and almost whimpered as the flavors faded, washed away by the flood of saliva her watering mouth produced.

“Another,” 'Shy pleaded, licking her lips. When AJ obliged, she made sure to take note of the mashed potatoes. The amount of butter lurking in them was plainly sinful, and she squirmed on the bed at the thought of how much fat just these two pieces must represent. Her stomach was starting to feel rather full...

~There's no way I'm leaving any of this shepherd's pie uneaten though. I'm getting every piece inside of me, even if I regret it afterwards!~

AJ kept up with her, feeding the pegasus slice after heavy slice, cleaning out the first pan in less than five minutes. She un-boxed the next one and got right to work on it, leaning past 'Shy to caress her heavy rounded flank each time her fattened Fluttershy was busy chewing. 'Shy savored those strokes almost as much as the pie, noting how much less her flank yielded with so much food packed away inside.

Pie number two went down just as fast as the first, but AJ didn't reach for number three as quickly. Instead she drew up the heavy stoneware jug she'd brought along, and offered Fluttershy a drink from it. “This is a special grade of Apple family cider, sugarcube. It hasn't rightly fermented yet, so it's more like juice really, with just a little tingle to it. We call it sparkling cider, and even the foals drink it durin' the holidays sometimes.” She jerked her head towards the window. “I didn't think you'd want to drink seriously this early in the mornin'.” AJ winked.

Fluttershy smiled her thanks, nodding. “I wouldn't want to be tipsy when feeding the animals. I might try to give the snakes acorns, and that would be bad for everyone involved.” Fitting her lips over the rim of the jug, she waited while AJ tipped it, then guzzled the cool liquid that poured out of its neck at last. It did tingle a bit, as advertised, but it had none of the actual bite of last night's booze. It was very sweet, and the tart flavor cut through the lingering salt from the gravy, cleansing 'Shy's palate nicely.

She gestured for AJ to lower the jug, and breathed a sigh. “Wonderful.”

Applejack winked. “Thought you'd like it. Ready for more pie?”

Fluttershy just opened her mouth again, grinning, and received another slice for her trouble. She was definitely feeling overfull by now, and breathing was growing to be a chore as her stomach took up room her lungs preferred to occupy. Sounds drifting up from her barrel signaled that her stomach was trying valiantly to process the giant meal she and AJ were stuffing it with, but when more kept arriving every minute, it was an uphill fight for sure!

'Shy couldn't help but let a groan escape after swallowing the first piece of pie number four, and AJ hesitated with the next serving. “Need a break hon? Want to just call that a wrap?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No, we're almost done, and it tastes too good to stop. Just promise me--” she grunted, squirming into what she hoped would be a more comfortable position on the bed, “--you'll give me lots of tummy rubs afterwards.”

Applejack snorted, and gave her the second piece from the last pie. “You'd have to try mighty hard to stop me from deliverin' those.” The orange mare teased her love by taking a bite herself from the third piece while Fluttershy was still chewing the second, and moaned with delight at the taste of her own cooking. “Mmmm-MM! No wonder y'can't get enough, 'Shy! I outdid myself with these.”

Fluttershy squirmed atop an increasingly movement-restricting belly, leaning towards that truncated slice. “Y-yes, it's divine. C-can I have that now, please?”

“Well since you asked so politely,” Applejack giggled, filling her lover's mouth yet again. Every time 'Shy swallowed, she imagined her flanks swelling outward just that tiny bit more. With every successful gulp too, the strain down in her depths grew harder to ignore.

Four more fat wedges of dense, heavy shepherd's pie and the last tin was empty. AJ lifted the jug to 'Shy's lips again, washing down the last of the massive breakfast, before brushing crumbs off the bed and snuggling in with her. Applejack's hooves got right to work, caressing Fluttershy's big soft belly, sweeping all along its curves.

The overstuffed pegasus' bloated stomach ached, and she felt enormous tension in her depths, like something would snap soon and leave her in dire straits indeed. Instead, as AJ kneaded into her cushy side, air bloomed up her throat. “BwaaaaaaaAARRRRRrrp. OH! Pardon me!” Fluttershy cowered just a little, wings mantling, and it just grew worse when she realized she'd silenced the birds outside again.

“Mmm, I'll give that a six out of ten. More cider might have nudged you to an eight. We'll work on it,” AJ laughed, kissing her buttercup pony's cutie-mark. “So, are you going to come over to the farm for lunch later?”

Fluttershy turned her head to stare at Applejack, incredulous, but her thoughts drifted out of her control. ~What might they be having today?~ She shook herself, as another pang from her belly reminded her she was in no state to swallow anything else.

“I think I'm going to just digest for awhile, if that's alright,” she groaned. AJ was kneading into her plush belly at that point, using little pressure, but it still made her feel like something in there was about to burst. Another air-bubble rolled up her throat, and this time Fluttershy managed to muffle the belch with a hoof. Some relief followed, and 'Shy's foreshoulders sagged.

“That's just fine, sugarcube. As soon as you're ready, I'll help you with your chores, and we can get a start on the day.”

~Ooof, a start? I just want to fall asleep! If I'd had AJ helping, maybe I could have hibernated successfully after all.~

“...C-chores? OH! My poor animal friends! They haven't had their breakfasts!”

Applejack watched, stunned, as the seemingly-immobile pegasus writhed off the bed and jiggle-dashed towards the door. “Fluttershy, don't you think we ought to wash up at least first, before we go out?”

'Shy stopped with a hoof extended towards her door, and reluctantly backed up into the kitchen, peeking at a reflective dish on the counter. Her mane had crumbs in it, there was a dab of gravy on her ear somehow, and her neck looked...gnawed-on.

Fluttershy turned slowly towards Applejack, ears splayed. “Last one into the tub is a sticky apple?”

Will there be punch and pie?

Still warm and damp from the shower, Applejack trailed Fluttershy as she skimmed the floor, wings a flurry of yellow in her rush to get out the door. AJ stepped outside into the afternoon, strong sunlight beating down making it warm for autumn. The whisper of dry leaves skittering in the wake of a breeze conjured an easy smile onto her face.

“I love this time of year,” she sighed, turning to 'Shy. The pegasus was already gone, circling around the cottage to a small shed full of various feeds, seeds, and whatever else her critters might snack on. “What can ah do to help, sugarcube?”

“Um, oh, would you feed Elizabeak and the other chickens? Then fix Angel a little salad? And fill the bird feeders? There are, um, twenty-eight of them spaced around the clearing here.” She shook her head the tiniest bit, and dug a hoof in the patchy grass before the shed. “Goodness, that actually sounds like quite a few when I say it out loud.”

Applejack chortled, and gave her lover a gentle swat on her soft pillowy rump, eliciting a squeak and a hop. “No worries hon. I'll be done in a jiffy. What does that leave you to do?”

“Well, that leaves everyone else that isn't near the cottage, and the animals who are sick and need some special care. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, the family of snakes beneath the dead oak tree, old Mr. Badger in the riverbank, the squirrel brigade, and--” Fluttershy counted on her primaries, but was fast running out of even those.

“Whoa nelly, that's some work load! I guess we'd better get st--”

“Applejack!”

Fluttershy and Applejack turned as one to see a tiny face tilted up at them, puckered in resentment instead of beaming with its usual cheerful grin. Applebloom looked tired; even her trademark bow seemed to droop. Her coat near each forehoof was bedraggled, even marred by a scratch here and there. Foalhood injuries weren't unusual, particularly for a Cutie-Mark Crusader, but the expression, fatigue and scrapes together were unsettling.

“Applebloom? What're you doin' here? Is something wrong?” Applejack trotted over to her sister, folding her legs to put her on the filly's level.

“Well yeah somethin's wrong! You hardly did any of your chores this mornin' and you left a big mess in the kitchen before just gallopin' off, and you've been gone forever! It's after noon now. I had to help Granny clean the entiiiiire kitchen,” the filly balanced on two legs, spreading her forelegs to convey the sheer vastness of the job. “--then helped repair apple baskets for hoooours.”

Applejack winced. ~This ain't just foalish whining. She really felt abandoned. I hate to think what Mac and Granny think of me.~

The farmpony reached over to ruffle Applebloom's mane and spoke in a low calm voice. “Ah'm sorry sugarcube. Ah got a lil carried away in the kitchen, and I stayed at Fluttershy's longer than I should've.”

AJ noticed Applebloom crane her neck to peer past her big sister at the pegasus, whose wings couldn't disguise her softer figure very well anymore.

“Well,” the filly muttered, eyes sliding slowly off of 'Shy before the yellow mare tried to hide in her shed, “if you come home now you'd be in time to help Big Macintosh buck the west field.”

“Ah'll come home straight away, after I say my goodbyes. Thanks for cleanin' up after me, pumpkin.” AJ smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She leaned towards the path, and Sweet Apple Acres, then fractionally back towards Fluttershy, muscles twitching beneath her coat.

Applebloom nodded with a sharp jerk, and called out, “Bye Fluttershy!” as she spun and dashed off.

AJ sighed, rising to her hooves and trudging back towards her beloved. “Well. Seems I forgot myself a mite, doesn't it?”

“It's fine, AJ. I've always gotten along great on my own, and I know you'll help when you can.” 'Shy leaned in to brush noses with the other mare, wings relaxing.

~There's no one left she feels self-conscious around. She really can just let her mane down around me.~ AJ couldn't help but let a soft sigh escape, before wrinkling her nose and focusing.

“T'ain't fine, sweetness. I want to be here for you! I want to do everything with you. But... Horseapples, as much as I must have believed it 'til Applebloom showed up, the rest of the world doesn't just stand aside for you when ya realize you're in love.”

Fluttershy nodded, then drew a hoof in an arc towards the yard around her cottage with all the hutches, pens, and perches. “We still have our responsibilities, my kissable apple c-crumble.” 'Shy fought the urge to hide behind her mane, and only a single wisp of it slid down across her eye.

'Shy blew the wisp back into the rest of her mane. “It would be the same with any of our friends, no matter who they might, um, grow a-attached to. Rainbow would still have her weatherpony duties, even if she did cut back on her personal training...and that's hard to imagine. Twilight has her studying along with the more urgent assignments, plus taking care of precious Spike. Rarity has a business to run. And Pinkie Pie...”

Both ponies just exchanged a Look and silently, mutually agreed that it was better to avoid even speculating how Pinkie would handle dating.

~Chances are it would involve siege weaponry and fried—dang it brain, I said no!~ Applejack gave her head a vigorous shake.

AJ moved closer to her special somepony, heat and a sharp twang of regret building simultaneously as a goodbye kiss loomed. “Anyways, I guess for now at least, this is--”

“Fluttershy! You are home!”

Their heads whipped about, before the pair ducked as one to avoid a careening pegasus and her flopping mailbag.

Fluttershy winced as the flying pony's wing clipped the roof of her shed, sending the gray, blonde-maned mare wheeling to a crash in the chickens' yard. By the time the lovers had reached the fence and slipped through the gate, their visitor had righted herself, and brushed most of the non-pegasus feathers off.

“Y'alright, Derpy? That looked a bit rough.” Applejack reached down to help her up, while Fluttershy hovered over the new arrival, checking for injuries.

Derpy grinned, one eye more or less focused on AJ. “Oh, I'm just fine, AJ. I'm even under-quota today!” Her grin faltered a little. “Though maybe knocking over that statue onto Carrot Top's cart should count as two, if I'm being honest.”

Applejack winced, while pulling the accident-prone mare to her hooves. Derpy was a real sweetheart, which was likely the only reason she hadn't been run out of town on a rail years ago. “Didja have a question for Fluttershy or somethin' hon?”

“Nope, not a question, just a letter.” Derpy dug around in her bag, and produced a pink envelope that appeared to be just as much glitter as paper. She hoofed it to Fluttershy with a renewed grin, then stretched out her wings.

“I dropped one of those off at Sweet Apple Acres too, AJ. Pretty sure it was addressed to you.” The mail-mare tapped her chin, then shrugged. “Sorry. That was too many impacts ago; I can't be sure. Anyways, I'd better get going! The next muffin batch is ready at three, and I have more stops!”

“Take care, Derpy. Say hi to your girls for me.” Fluttershy smiled, watching the other pegasus flap her way up above the tree-tops before making a wobbly beeline back towards town.

Applejack reached over to tap the envelope in 'Shy's hoof, making her squeak. “Well? Open 'er up, sugarcube. If ah got one too, unless ah miss my bet, Pinkie's throwing another...you know.”

Fluttershy started to smile while tearing the end off the envelope and extracting the invitation within, but the expression froze even before she finished opening it. “A p-p-party? I don't know if I'm ready for too many other ponies to s-see me yet.” She seemed to freeze in place, entering full-on statue mode.

Applejack sighed, drew the invitation from her paralyzed friend's grasp and read it aloud. “'Fluttershy! You wascally wabbit! Hop on over to Sugar Cube Corner tonight at seven o'clock for a short-notice treat-a-riffic awesomeblossomtastic dinghummer--' it goes on like this, 'of a party! Bring your appetite, because there's going to be a special dessert! This is a super SECRET special dessert too, so the guest list is really short! Just us six girls! Be there or be square-knotted and dragged over!'”

Applejack looked up from the invitation to find Fluttershy blushing deeply. “Heh. Thinkin' about that special dessert hon?”

'Shy's blush spread nearly down to her neck, and she shook her head a little. “Um, s-she... I-I really like it when—no. Yes!” Fluttershy fought a short verbal battle with herself, ending with a squeak and a familiar huddle. Her stomach squashed down onto the grass, spreading out in a buttercup-yellow pancake.

Applejack glanced over the invitation again, then cracked a grin. “Ahh. My little bunny likes actual pet pet names, does she?” When she looked up from the folded card again, Fluttershy was biting her lip.

“A-any animal names, u-usually. Oh my. Y-you should go, or I'm going to, um...keep you.”

Applejack giggled as 'Shy actually began pushing her towards the path, her wings standing perfectly rigid atop her back. “Okay hon. M'sorry. See you at the Corner tonight then?”

Fluttershy froze again. “I...I guess I should, shouldn't I? The longer I put this off the more awkward it will get.”

“Aww, don't think of it like a chore hon. Pinkie already knows, and you have me to lean on. It's a party, it'll be great. Plus, special dessert,” AJ grinned, winking back over a foreshoulder at her lover.

Though she fidgeted and ruffled her relaxing wings, Fluttershy at last dipped her head in a resigned nod. “I'll be there. I don't think I'll e-eat too much though. It would be kind of...embarrassing with everyone there.”

Applejack's eyelids drooped a bit, her smile bigger than ever. “Of course, darlin'. See you t'night!”

Em-pie-thy

Fluttershy darted from wispy cloud to wispy cloud, finding cover where she could, on her way to Sugar Cube Corner. While fewer ponies walked the streets at night, there were still enough out and about that she'd decided to make her approach from the air.

~Without Applejack with me, I don't know if I could handle somepony staring.~ She sighed as once again, she found herself fleeing instead of facing her problems. ~At least I'm on my way to face my friends though. That's a step in the right direction!~

Flying with a bit more confidence, the pegasus glided down to a landing on the street right in front of the bakery. Applejack was there waiting, her anxious face relaxing into a grin the instant she spotted the shadowy yellow blot in the sky.

“Glad ya made it, darlin'. Everyone else is inside already, so let's not keep 'em waiting any longer." Applejack paused, gazing directly into her lover's eyes. "Are...are you up for this?”

Fluttershy met that gaze with hardly a waver, before leaning in to peck AJ on the lips. “Let's do this.”

Applejack chuckled, tail swishing with new energy. She bounded over to the door and nudged it open, slipping inside to hold it for the other mare. Fluttershy stepped through, the laughter and conversation of her friends like familiar, well-loved music to her ears. With the hibernation attempt, it had been quite awhile since she'd seen them. Lips curled into a gentle smile, 'Shy trotted over to the table the girls were clustered around.

“Hi girls,” she murmured, half-expecting her greeting to go unnoticed under the buzz of their normal-pony-volume conversation. But four heads turned her way, and six eyes widened.

“Fluttershy!”

“Flutters! What the hay?!”

“My dear, what happened?”

“Now girls, don't go getting' your tails in a twist.” Applejack drew up beside 'Shy, her warm flank close enough to brush the rounded yellow one. “Fluttershy will explain if she wants, but what's im-por-tant,” AJ pronounced the word in three chunks, heavy as bricks, “is that she's still our Fluttershy, and that she's happy.”

'Shy studied Twilight Sparkle, then Rainbow Dash, and Rarity through a few wisps of mane that fell across her eyes. Respectively, they looked confused, dismayed, and...angry?

“Darling, you do realize you've just ruined your birthday and Hearth's Warming Eve presents, don't you? I'll have to have you in for new measurements, tout suite!” Rarity rose from her cushion on the floor, and crossed the few feet between them to throw her hooves around Fluttershy's neck, squeezing her ferociously. “And how dare you miss so many of our spa days? Do you have any idea how lonely it's been?” Tears threatened in the unicorn's voice.

Fluttershy patted and stroked at her best friend's coat. “I'm so sorry Rarity. I've missed you deeply.”

~It's been so hard not having Rarity around to talk to, the last week. It didn't matter so much earlier, with all the sleeping, but...~ Fluttershy gave her elegant friend a good tight squeeze of her own.

“So, I guess you don't have to tell us if you don't have to, but...how?” Twilight asked, gesturing helplessly at Fluttershy with both forehooves.

“Ooooobviously she was hibernating on the advice of her bear-friend as a treatment for wither-wrinkles, and it led to a cycle of gorging and sleeping, which everyone knows is the fastest way to put on weight. Duh!” Pinkie rolled her eyes, and like an acrobat, dodged every incredulous glance sent her way. “Speaking of weight, I'm tired of waiting to reveal my super secret dessert!” With that, the pink pony back-flipped away from the table to land behind the counter, then retreated into the kitchen.

Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy drew up to the table and settled down, while all five friends tried to ignore the clatter from the back of the bakery.

“Okay, so if that's the how, I'm afraid my next logical question is...why?”

“Why...am I h-happy, do you mean?” Fluttershy whispered, and after a moment of thought, Twilight nodded.

“I'm happy because I l-like being this, um, soft. You all know I'm mostly a p-push-over, and, um...”

“The gentlest, kindest, squishiest soul in all of Ponyville? Maybe all of Equestria?” Applejack prompted her, kindling a fiery blush in her yellow cheeks.

“Oh no, there's no way I'm that special." Fluttershy hunkered down under a good-natured glare from AJ. "Well, if you think so, maybe a little. Well, now on the outside, I...match? And it feels right. But even more wonderful than that,” 'Shy leaned over to nuzzle Applejack's cheek. “My special somepony loves how I am too.”

Now it wasn't just eyes that were wide, but mouths gaping open as well, when Fluttershy could bring herself to lift her gaze from the tabletop. In the same order as before, her friends' eyes reflected complete shock, fury, and glistening joy.

A sharp double-thump boomed through the bakery as Rainbow slammed her hooves down on the table. “Applejack! How could you encourage her?! Just, just look at her! She's a co--”

Applejack had lunged across the table and stuffed a hoof in Rainbow's mouth, but Rarity and Twilight had both had the same thought, leaving the cyan pegasus with a very full mouth indeed. The save came too late though; the word hadn't been completed but the thought had made it across.

Fluttershy let her mane fall completely across her face, screening her from the world, while hot tears rushed to her eyes. Just as unwelcome as the tears were the ugly thoughts that welled up a few inches behind those eyes.

~They're right. I am a cow. I'm enormous, a monster, and no one could ever love me. I shouldn't be out in public; what was I thinking?~

She shook her head, hard, sending tears scattering through the air.

~Applejack loves you. It's spitting in her eye to even think otherwise!~

“Rainbow, ah'm going to take my hoof out of your mouth, on the condition that nothing else feather-brained leaks out of it tonight. It took a lot for 'Shy to even come here tonight! She's very self-conscious around other ponies still, but thought her friends would be able to handle her and not call her names.” With that, AJ and the others removed their hooves.

Up until those last four words, resentment smoldered in Rainbow's eyes. Fluttershy could see it even across the table and through her mane. But when she realized she'd done what Fluttershy had feared a stranger would do to her, her agitated wings drooped, along with her ears.

“Sorry, Flutters. Guess...guess I wasn't really thinking. I'm just worried about you, y'know?” Dash spread her forehooves helplessly, before staring down at the table.

“Whoa, my friends disappeared and a whole squad of saddy-sad McTeary-pantses took their spots!” Pinkie pranced in, a huge platter balanced on her back while another rode atop her poofy-maned head. She bounced both off onto the table. The smaller platter bore an enormous pie, baked to a perfect golden brown with suspiciously colorful syrup oozing out of the vent holes in the crust here and there. The other platter was loaded down with a three-tier cake thickly frosted in white, and surrounded in a sea of adorable little tarts and larger cupcakes frosted in a variety of colors and (presumably) flavors.

“What was shakin' while I was bakin'?” Pinkie zipped from pony to pony, getting nose to nose with each of them, before parking herself in front of Twilight at last...hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Despite the unlikely perspective, the look she was giving the lilac unicorn was implacable.

“There's been some, um, friction over Fluttershy's new, er, figure.”

Pinkie gasped, and galloped along the ceiling until directly over Fluttershy, before falling and flipping to land on the pegasus' back. “Did you get the newest Wonderbolt action figure, Fluttershy?! Wax Lips told me he'd sold the last one already!”

Fluttershy, flattened to the floor beneath Pinkie, only squeaked in response.

“Pinkie,” Applejack sighed. “Twilight means the weight 'Shy's put on.”

“What about it? It's cuddly,” Pinkie sighed, sprawling out atop Fluttershy and hugging her loosely around the neck, her eyes sinking shut. Rarity and Applejack muffled snorts of laughter, and Twilight's lips twitched. Rainbow just shook her head with a couple short stiff jerks.

“But I don't wanna steal AJ's seat,” Pinkie said, dismounting, totally oblivious to the horrendous blushes on two pairs of yellow and orange cheeks she left in her wake. “It's time for the reveal!”

The lights in the bakery shut off with a snap, and before the other five ponies could make more than a cursory complaint, a spotlight shone down on Pinkie Pie, dressed in a safari outfit complete with pith helmet and hiking boots. “There I was, all alone in the Everfree forest, hunting for new and exotic ingredients and totally not lost after a Pinkie-copter crash at all, when I saw them!” Shielding her eyes and peering about while narrating, Pinkie gasped and pointed at something off in the distance.

“They were the most amazing, colorful berries I'd ever seen! They reminded me so much of you, Rainbow, that I wanted to call them Dashberries!” She pulled a small branch from her mane festooned with blueberry-sized fruit, each slightly squashed sphere striped with every color of the rainbow. “So, being the super-cautious smarty-smart pony that I am who never wants her friends to wind up in the hospital after eating baked bads, I paid a visit to Zecora to make sure these awesome-looking berries were safe to eat!” Pinkie bounced in place, humming, then mimed pulling open a door.

“Zecora! Are these Dashberries poisonous?” Pinkie squealed, hopping up and down. Everyone could imagine the almost infinitely-patient Zecora waiting for Pinkie to resolve into something more than a blur of pink before responding.

“'A prismaberry poison you? No chance of that. The risk dear Pinkie is--' OkaythanksZecorabyeeeeeee!” Pinkie 'slammed' the door and ran out of the spotlight's circle. A bare second later the door to the bakery slammed open, the spotlight having shifted, admitting a Pinkie carrying a bushel basket. She raced right to the kitchen and made a terrible racket. Then a rather suggestive moan drifted out to the other girls. “Oh Celestia, so goooooood. I can't eat anymore though! I only found one bushel of berries, and I have to let the girls try them.” She gasped so loudly, everypony felt the air currents in the dining room shift. “I'll throw a PARTY!”

The lights came back up, revealing Pinkie standing atop the table beside the treats. “And now you're all caught up! So sorry Dashie, they already had a name. We have prismaberry cake, prismaberry tarts, prismaberry cupcakes and prismaberry pie! I saved a few berries if you want to try growing them, Applejack. Dig in everypony!” Pinkie followed her own advice and took an enormous bite out of the top tier of the cake, getting creamy frosting all over her face in the process.

Twilight looked over the desserts, biting her lower lip. “I'm a little worried about you leaving before Zecora finished telling you about the berries, Pinkie. She mentioned a risk.”

Rarity selected a tart from the platter. “Oh, relax Twilight. If it had been something serious, surely Miss Zecora would have followed Pinkie into town to tell her.” She took a delicate bite of her tart, and swooned as she chewed. “Ohhh, darling, I can't believe what I'm tasting! It's like a...fruit spectrum! And they don't clash!” She turned the tart to show it to everyone at the table, revealing the vibrantly-colored interior. “And it's so gorgeous!”

Rainbow Dash didn't waste time slicing herself a big wedge of pie and digging in. After the first bite, her eye widened even further than her first glimpse of Fluttershy had elicited. The speedy pegasus cut two more slices of the pie and crowded them onto her plate before she even took a second bite of her first piece.

Applejack cut a big slice of cake from the first tier, and slid it over to Fluttershy, pairing it with a kiss on her cheek. “Here ya go sugarcube. Try and relax now, ya hear?”

Fluttershy had managed to relax a little during Pinkie's performance, and now that much of the attention was off of her, it was easier to just be here with her friends and not think of current events so much. She took a bite of cake, and mulled over the flavor. Rarity was right; it was like a fruit spectrum. 'Shy swore she could taste strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, kiwi, raspberries, oranges, grapefruit, and more...harmonious, worked into a dense, rich cake and covered in a fluffy layer of buttercream frosting. But as interesting as the flavor was, it just wasn't what she was after tonight. She glanced over towards the Corner's display case, and saw them.

A plate of brownies rested between a couple of cakes inside the case. They were so dark the big slabs of fudgy goodness were almost black, with shavings of chocolate and a sprig of mint atop each brownie. “P-pinkie?” Fluttershy beckoned the party pony over. “The prismaberry cake is very nice, but, it's been a long time since I've been in of course and I was wondering...since my favorite brownies are in the case, if I could...”

Pinkie giggled, and rocketed to the case and back again with the entire plate. “Of course! Anything you want in here is yours, Fluttershy.” Pinkie leaned in closer and stage-whispered, “Just means more prismaberries for us!”

Applejack finished the prismaberry tart she was nibbling on, and cocked her head at the brownies. “Somethin' special, there?”

“Oh yes,” Fluttershy sighed, lifting a brownie and letting it hover beneath her nose, its scent teasing her. “These are dark chocolate, lime, and sea-salt brownies. They're soooo rich, and complex. Normally I just eat one and, um, think about the taste for an hour it's so interesting. But it's been so long since I had one, and I am hungry, I think I'll have more than one.”

By now everyone was involved with their snacking, and it brought a smile to Fluttershy's face to see her friends all enjoying some sweet treats. Even Applejack was tucking in with a hearty appetite. 'Shy had started to feel a little guilty when she tended to eat everything AJ brought her, leaving nothing for the farmpony. She tried not to giggle at Rainbow, who looked like she might finish that huge pie by herself. Pinkie started a 'swordfight' with a fork, dueling Dash for the last piece.

“Want somethin' else from the case, love?” AJ asked, nuzzling up against her shoulder.

Fluttershy glanced down to find her brownies gone. The tang of limes and salt, plus the mild sweetness of the dark chocolate still lingered on her tongue. “Um, wow. I guess so. W-what about some custard donuts? And some cheese danishes? And maybe a coconut cake?”

Applejack grinned, and leaned in to rub noses with her before rising to fetch the food. Across the table, Rainbow had lost her duel, and had started making inroads on the tarts. Rarity had a big slice of cake in front of her and was plainly savoring every bite, while Twilight methodically devoured alternating bites of cake and tarts.

When AJ returned with two platters, one on her head and one on her back like Pinkie had sported earlier, Rainbow gawked. “Is that all just for Fluttershy? Come on Applejack!”

“SHHHhhh! Rainbow!” Twilight hissed, eyes darting between the two pegasi. The desperate, almost hunted look in her eyes was rather telling. Rainbow had voiced what she was thinking.

Fluttershy's head drooped, and she waved a hoof at Applejack. “N-nevermind AJ. I think...think I'll just go home.” Before Applejack could shed the trays and stop her, or Pinkie could stage some musical intervention, 'Shy rose and bolted out the doors. She didn't realize she'd been crying again until the cool autumn air hit the hot tears streaming down her cheeks.

Fluttershy beat her wings frantically, hating how hard she had to work now to get herself off the ground, but she couldn't bear to be there any longer. It wasn't a long flight home, and she couldn't quite get a good breath all the way there as she quietly sobbed across half of Ponyville, moonlight catching tiny teardrops that fell unnoticed on roofs and gardens alike.

Twilight woke the next morning feeling awful. After Fluttershy had flown the coop, Applejack hadn't said a word. She'd just stared at them with such a look of disappointment, she was sure she'd never forget it. Stiff with anger, the blonde mare had stalked out. Pinkie had seemed at a loss, and made herself busy packing them each a doggy-bag of prismaberry goodies to take home. Several times she saw the party-pony open her mouth to speak, then think better of it, subsiding with downcast eyes. By the time all the food was packed up it was nearly nine, so everypony had headed home. After a late-night snack of cupcakes, Twilight had hit the hay.

This morning she felt bloated, but worse than that she felt like a terrible friend.

~Certainly Fluttershy is an unhealthy weight, and can't be allowed to remain like that, but I handled the whole situation poorly and came across as little better than a stranger, when Fluttershy really needed the support of her friends.~

Twilight rolled out of bed and almost collapsed onto her stomach at the unexpected weight on her hooves. “What the hay?” Prying her eyes open fully, Twilight glanced at herself in confusion. “No. No no no no no...”

Her legs seemed puffy, swollen, and when she dipped her head down lower to peer beneath herself she saw that her stomach hung low, well-padded with fat. “Spiiiiiiiiiiiiike!” She dashed to a mirror, and whimpered. Her cheeks were rounded, and she sported a double-chin. Even her neck was padded.

~I don't want to think what my rump looks like! Is this an allergic reaction? Did this happen to the others? The berries!~

Spike sat up and yawned, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Mrph, wha--? What is it?”

“Bring me A Herbological History, volumes V through VIII, and Trail Blazer's Field Guide, Everfree supplemental volume!” Twilight rattled off the titles without turning from the mirror.

An ear-piercing shriek filtered in through a window one of them had left ajar the night before.

“I guess Rarity's awake,” Twilight mumbled.

Four tubby ponies gathered outside the door to Sugar Cube Corner, a few onlookers pausing to watch Twilight Sparkle bang away at the portal and yell.

“Come out Pinkie! We know you're in there!”

Rainbow's hooves barely touched the ground on either side of an enormous dome of cyan-furred fat. She had more in common with the clouds she kicked than a pony today, and her wings and eyes telegraphed nothing but pure rage.

Rarity had tailored herself a new cloak to hide the extent of her weight-gain, but judging from her double-chin, it was along the same lines as Twilight's.

Applejack had gotten away with just a bit of a potbelly and plumped up limbs, having eaten only a couple tarts and a cupcake, but she stood with the rest of the 'injured,' glaring at the bakery.

Just as Twilight's horn lit, promising impending property damage, the door creaked open an inch to reveal a watery blue eye.

“Sorry everypony. I guess the party went even worse than I thought last night. I didn't think that was even,” Pinkie sniffed, “possible!” She threw open the door, and seized Twilight around the neck, sobbing. Standing revealed in the light of morning, the pink pony was almost as fat as Rainbow, and her mane was dangerously limp.

Twilight sighed as she grew soaked in Pinkie-tears, patting her fattened friend with one hoof. “It's...fine. We'll figure out something. We should go see Zecora first, I suppose.”

Pinkie gasped, and released Twilight before vaulting right over the unicorn. It was as if that huge gut was merely inflated with helium, for how much it slowed her down. “That's right! Her unfinished rhyme!”

Rarity let out a snort, sticking her nose in the air. “I can't help but feel put out, really. She couldn't come to town and make sure Pinkie received the warning? This isn't exactly dangerous per se, but it is mortifying!”

Rainbow Dash glared at everyone and everything, jerking her head from side to side. A fair number of ponies on the street had stopped to gawk at the five girls, and a few of them were muffling laughter or hiding smiles. “What's so funny, huh? Y'got something to say, say it to my face!”

“Or what, you'll sit on us?” came a call from the sparse crowd. It was answered by popcorn-bursts of giggling.

“All right, that's it. Whoever said that, your ass is grass!” Rainbow tried to launch herself into the air, but only rose a couple feet before starting to fall back towards the ground. Her wings flailed, but she only gentled the belly flop; she couldn't prevent it.

Now the crowd was really giggling, and more ponies were joining to see what all the fuss was about.

“Oh my gosh, what happened?”

“They're huge!”

“I didn't know we were having an Elements of Harmony parade today. The balloons are so realistic!”

“Tch, don't they know that's soooo bad for them?”

Rarity's eyes were almost whirling as she searched for an escape route, and Pinkie's head drooped further with every audible comment and catcall from the crowd. Twilight winced, but not wholly for her own wounded pride, her eyes almost squeezing shut.

Twilight Sparkle dragged the squirming sprawled pegasus back into their midst in the grip of a violet field. “Rainbow, quit fighting me and look at them for a second. Listen to them.”

Dash stopped fighting long enough to glare at the jeering ponies. “What about them? They're just mean-spirited jerks who don't understand what's going on.”

“And what were you and I last night, when Fluttershy was here?” Twilight said, bearing down on every word like she could shove them into Rainbow's brain by forceful tone alone.

Dash snorted, struggling to her hooves, cheeks burning as she found it impossible to maintain any kind of dignity much less cool-ness in the process. “I'm just worried about Fluttershy! She can't stay that fat, just like we can't! It's bad for her, and--”

Rarity stepped in, pushing a hoof into Rainbow's marshmallow-y flank. “Rainbow Dash! Do you honestly think Fluttershy, with all she knows about medicine, isn't aware of any health risks?”

Twilight took a step back to make room for the other unicorn, eyes widening. ~I didn't expect Rarity to make an argument in support of Fluttershy's weight. And it's a good one.~

“She is a grown pony, who can make her own choices. It's frankly insulting of us to presume to dictate what she does with her body. Now, if she starts neglecting her animals," no one could hide a smirk at that impossibility, "or if it winds up getting us into trouble performing our duty as Elements, then we may have to have a little chat.” Rarity sounded embarrassed to even suggest such eventualities.

“I won't let her do this to herself! I mean, she won't even be able to go out outside! Look at how they're treating us!” Rainbow gestured to all the ponies still gathered about. A few cameras had appeared by now, and a flash going off had Rainbow ready to try another aerial assault. Applejack stopped her this time, a hoof on her trailing tail.

“Sugarcube, it's not up to you. All you're doin' by fightin' it is making 'Shy feel as bad as these strangers are makin' you. Y'have a point that it will be a mite awful for her for awhile, but that's part of her choice.” AJ let the steel in her voice give way to a pleading note, stepping off of Rainbow's tail to circle around, looking her in the eyes. “I know she can plow that furrow, if her friends back her up!”

“But...this...I feel so awful being this huge!” Rainbow choked out, turning her head and tucking it under a wing. Her friends couldn't help but stare. Rainbow had been angry, embarrassed, coy, even perhaps shy a time or two, but this was the first time she seemed ashamed.

Twilight trotted around and leaned against Dash's other flank, brushing her unoccupied wing. “I don't feel comfortable either this way Dash, but that's us. Fluttershy is her own pony, and she feels differently. Can't we respect that? I think you know she'd respect how we feel.”

It was a damp, squeaky voice that responded from beneath her wing. “I guess. Can...can we get away from this crowd now? I don't know if I can see them again without doing something dumb.”

Pinkie brightened a little, and pointed towards the murmuring mass. “Looks like it's being taken care of.”

Twin paths of disturbance ran through the townsponies towards the girls, cries of outrage and vague, muffled threats following until first Derpy shouldered her way out, and a few yards to the right Cloud Kicker popped into view. Both turned and planted their hooves, placing themselves squarely between the Elements and the gawkers.

“The show is over ponies! Don't you have shopping to do?” Cloud Kicker belted out the words like a challenge to a duel, not bothering to hide the anger in her eyes. Ponies at the front of the pack were cowed, but those further back couldn't read the dangerous body language she was giving off and ran their mouths.

“Yeah, we should see if Twilight and her friends left any food in the market for the rest of us!”

“Whassa matter? Did they promise you their leftovers, Miss Bicycle?”

Cloud Kicker scraped a hoof through the soil, her wings trembling against her sides with the urge to erupt into an aggression display. “How long has it been since these girls last saved your ungrateful lives? A week? Three? That's how long it takes to give yourself free rein to mock ponies who risk their lives for us more often than you change your horseshoes?” The lavender mare's tone grew more incredulous with every sentence, and ponies began slinking away from the mass, ears and tails low.

“C'moooooon, they look ridiculous, you have to admit!”

“Who're you, the fun police?”

Obviously a few still weren't getting the message. Cloud Kicker opened her mouth to roar at the diminished crowd but it was Derpy who hollered, fluttering up to hover a half-dozen feet above the hecklers.

“Someone looks funny, and you get to be mean? That's the rule? Where's that written? Did your mom tell you that was how it worked?” Derpy frowned, muzzle scrunched, eyes seeming to track two shamed ponies at once as they sloughed off from the group. “Is this the only way you can have fun? Teasing ponies who are different? They're your neighbors! Some of them are your friends!” Derpy's lip trembled, pointing back at the five ponies frozen before the storefront. “I know what it's like being laughed at. Some of you think I don't notice or I can't even hear you, but I can! It's not okay, and just because I'm not a foal anymore, it doesn't mean I can't be bullied! It doesn't mean you can't be bullies!” Derpy was crying now, eyes welling over, bobbing in the air as her wing-beats became erratic.

Cloud Kicker was at her side in a second, nosing her cheek, ignoring the dissolving crowd below. A cyan shape ponderously flapped up on Derpy's left, Rainbow straining for altitude with all her new bulk.

“Derpy,” Dash sighed, pressing her nose against the gray pegasus' neck, “thank you. Thank both of you. I don't deserve friends like you guys.”

All three pegasi slowly sank back to the ground, and Derpy turned to rest her chin atop Rainbow's neck, nestled in the riot of colors that made up her mane. “Of course you do, Rainbow! You prove it all the time. I'm happy I got to prove it for once,” Derpy grinned, and hugged Dash around the neck.

Cloud Kicker chuckled as Dash struggled to escape the enthusiastic embrace, and gave Rainbow a lazy swat on her rump as she trotted by. She had to stop and ogle the resulting ripples, before remembering to speak. “Uh. Need me to take over the weather crews for a bit, Dash, while you, er, sort things out?”

“Umm, I'll...let you know. We're going to follow up a lead, and then I'll have a better idea what to tell you. I could fix this by lunch, who knows?”

Dash didn't miss the dubious look on Cloud Kicker's face, and snorted, tossing her mane. “Really! You can't smother awesome beneath a few pounds of fat. C'mon girls, let's go grill Zecora.”

Twilight perked her ears at Pinkie, expecting to hear something along the lines of 'zebras kind of look like they've been grilled already, don't they?' but the pink pony just fell in line, eyes drifting towards her own hooves.

One by one the other Elements fell in behind Rainbow Dash, each of them passing the other two pegasi with a smile, nod, or word of thanks. Though they encountered a handful of ponies on their way to the edge of the Everfree, the five girls managed to avoid getting embroiled in another embarrassing confrontation.

Soon enough the shadowy latticework of the forest canopy took shape overhead, and Rainbow drifted back from the point position, letting Twilight take the lead.

“You know the way better,” Dash muttered in response to the glance Twilight shot her.

Twilight kept her smirk to herself, and trotted on ahead down a path spotted only rarely with sunlight. The Everfree was a dark and foreboding wood, but its bark was worse than its bite, at least here near its boundary with Ponyville. Though it was just a few minutes' canter along a fairly level path to Zecora's hut, everyone but Applejack was panting to one degree or another by the time they arrived.

~How embarrassing, to struggle with such a short trip! We've got to dump this weight!~ Twilight's urgency to regain her normal body was rising by the minute as she rapped on the zebra's door with one hoof.

Zecora opened the door, her imperturbable smile fading at the sight of the five fattened friends.

“What's this on my doorstep I've found? Five dear friends, but grown so very round!”

Pinkie somehow blurred and filled the small space between Twilight and Zecora, nose pressed against the zebra's. “Zecora! The prismaberries! You tried to warn me about them but I left before you could finish. What was the rest of your rhyme? What more do you know about them?”

Zecora winced, and stepped back from Pinkie into her hut, motioning everypony inside. The girls filed into the familiar home of the zebra, ever-exotic and fascinating with Zecora's pieces of art from her native land, and herbal ingredients perfuming the air. “Pinkie, the bag has given up its cat; the berries you found make the eater very fat.”

Rarity made a sound half-way between a gasp and a hurt cry. “Why didn't you pursue Pinkie, and make sure she was responsible with the berries? It would have saved us all a lot of trouble, not to mention one very precious set of silk pajamas.” Rarity struck the floor of the hut a petulant blow with one hoof.

Pinkie hung her head. She pulled a mask off the wall that featured a comically-drooping mouth, slipping it over her face. It would have been funny if Twilight didn't know the pony behind it was wearing an even more dismal expression.

Zecora frowned, settling back on her haunches. “Pinkie slammed my door when she took off like a shot, and the blow shook several objects into my potion pot. To forestall a greater disaster I had to remain; I apologize this has caused you all pain.” Zecora shook her head, squinting at the five ponies. “I find it strange though I must admit, that after a few berries you did not quit. The fattening starts in seconds, such an obvious sign! After the effect was apparent, why did you continue to dine?”

Twilight tilted her head, confused. “None of us gained any apparent weight until the next morning. But,” she glanced at Pinkie, still wearing the sad-mask, “the berries were baked into desserts. Maybe that had something to do with it?”

Zecora's eyes widened. “That it may! Heat could cause a delay. Prismaberries have not been studied much, yet. What I know would be intriguing to your vet.” The zebra squinted at the group of ponies. “Oh my, where is Fluttershy?”

“She...didn't eat many of the berries, and is a little...busy today.” Twilight shuffled her hooves, hoping Zecora didn't press the issue. She could hear the rest of her friends stirring just as awkwardly.

“Mm.” Zecora just shook her head the tiniest bit while wandering to a bookshelf. She pulled a volume out with her mouth, setting it down on a work table near the door. After flipping through its pages a moment, she tapped an entry with one hoof. “To prevent pre-hibernation bears from eating all their fruit, they developed a defense that made eating more, moot.”

Twilight thought for a second, then brightened. “I see! Bears eat a lot before they retire to their caves for the winter, but because they don't roam very far, they aren't good seed carriers for the berry plants, who prefer birds. I bet birds aren't affected by the berry's fattening agent.” Her face fell. “But that means it isn't a temporary magical effect, doesn't it? If it wasn't legitimate fat, the bears would starve during the winter, and if the effect was only temporary then they'd be back for more berries the next day anyways.”

Zecora nodded, her jewelry jingling. “I'm afraid these berries, for ponies there is no perk. To shed the weight will mean much hard work.”

A mixture of sighs, groans, and one “Come on!” filled the hut in the wake of that announcement.

Pinkie sobbed softly behind the mask, until Zecora gently took it from her, and the other girls surrounded the deflated party pony.

Twilight wrapped a foreleg around Pinkie's shoulders, squeezing her tight. “Pinkie, you have to stop blaming yourself for all of this. This isn't all your fault! You found something...”

“Awesome,” Dash supplied.

“...awesome, and wanted to share it with your friends. What happened with Fluttershy definitely wasn't your fault. You tried to show us how we ought to have perceived her...as the same kind, sweet pony we've known from the start, in a more huggable package.”

Pinkie shuddered a few more times in Twilight's grasp, making the unicorn squeeze her all the harder. When she finally stopped quivering, Pinkie raised her head enough to peer around at her friends, bright blue eyes shimmering behind wobbly discs of tears. “You d-don't hate me?”

“Pinkie, of course not! Just because we got mad you helped turn us into whales doesn't mean we'd stop loving you.” Rainbow rolled her eyes, and reached over to noogie the pink pony.

Rarity stroked a hoof along Pinkie's back, adding a pat now and then. “My dear, accidents happen. It's true that the results of this one are a tad more, er, personal and harder to remedy than a spilled punchbowl or a hole in the wall, but it's still nothing to lose a dear friend over.”

Applejack took her turn, trotting over and plopping down in front of Pinkie, looking her in the eyes. “You were the first, after me, to see Fluttershy after she'd gotten softer, sugarcube. You didn't bat an eye, and whether you knew it or not, that went a long ways toward encouragin' her to brave the rest of her friends. You set the best example y'could have. Ah'm...and Fluttershy is I'm sure, mighty grateful to ya.” AJ sniffled, and held Pinkie's gaze.

Slowly, with pinging sounds like springs releasing tension, straight hairs in Pinkie's mane began to curl. More and more wound themselves into cotton candy spirals, condensing into the bright cloud of poof all were accustomed to seeing bouncing atop Pinkie's head.

Pinkie sprang free of the various embraces surrounding her, and Twilight swore the hut's interior grew thirty percent brighter. “Well then, first thing's first! We go see Fluttershy and we don't leave until she knows for abso-positively-dum-tiddily-doe-toodly-lutely that we all love her just the same!”

Zecora chuckled, stepping over to brush a hoof along Pinkie's cheek. “And after soothing sweet Fluttershy, what will you do? How will you get your bodies as good as new?”

“Magic,” Twilight said, supreme confidence behind the single word.

“Grueling exercise,” Rainbow groaned.

“Running around Ponyville eight-hundred and forty zillion times!” Pinkie bounced up and down, which caused a rather fascinating lava lamp-like effect as her billowing fat rippled.

“Some light aerobics I suppose, and I'll get my dressing on the side for awhile.” Rarity blushed for some reason, looking anywhere but at the ponies and zebra sharing the hut with her.

“Enough with the talking, time to get walking!” Pinkie reared to crash through Zecora's door when she froze, and glanced back at the zebra. “Oh. Uh, I'm sorry I caused you some trouble last time I was here, Zecora. And, uh, was there anything else you wanted to say before I gallop off?”

Zecora laughed, nose pointed ceiling-wards. “No dear Pinkie; this visit's come to a pleasant end. Good luck soothing your troubled friend.”

Pinkie grinned, then vanished, a few stray hairs left hanging in the space she'd just vacated. The other ponies quickly said their goodbyes and raced after, though Twilight was very careful about closing the hut door behind them.

The purple unicorn caught up to the cloaked white one within a few galloping strides, and gasped out a question. "Rarity, you're handling this with a lot more aplomb than I expected. Are you sure everything is, um, okay?"

Rarity tossed back the hood of her cloak, and just flashed Twilight a dazzling smile. "Oh, I'll be fine, Twilight. I admit I was quite startled at first, but I am nothing if not adaptable."

Twilight grimaced when Rarity turned her attention back to the path. Was this the same pony who had gone into virtual paralysis for twelve hours after Trixie turned her mane green...? Her friends had matured and changed in the months since she had met them, but this felt wrong. Very wrong.

Deep dish fun

Applejack knocked on Fluttershy's door, biting her lip. The other girls fidgeted behind her, and Rainbow kept glancing back towards Ponyville, but none of the ponies who had gawked at them on their second trip through town had followed the five.

After a long moment of hearing nothing but birdsong, AJ rapped on the door again before leaning in close to the lightly-weathered wood. “Fluttershy, it's me, and the rest of the girls're out here too. We'd really like ta talk to ya for a spell.”

“Please, everypony, I-I need more time. I c-can't...”

Applejack sighed over the barely-audible protest from within the cottage. “'Shy, things have...changed since last night. I think all of us understand where you're comin' from a lot better now. Your friends are back in your corner, where they belong.”

The conviction in AJ's voice made the other four ponies' spines stiffen. Rainbow and Twilight nodded to themselves, and Rarity let her lips curve into a gentle smile. Pinkie merely bounced in place, wobbling like a pink pudding.

After what felt like an hour, the cottage door finally opened, and Fluttershy's head eased out. Her mane was tangled and mussed, and dark circles ringed her eyes. What they could see of her coat looked slept-on and un-groomed.

Applejack recovered from the sight of her lover, and treated her to a warm smile. “There's my lil ray of sunshine. Darlin', step out and chat with us for a spell.”

AJ stepped back from the door, and Fluttershy's eyes widened at the sight of her horizontally-enhanced friends. She flung the door open and was amongst them in a flat second, opening their mouths and looking into their eyes, prancing in place each time she paused before a pony.

“What happened, girls?! Were you stung by something? Did Discord do this? Are any of you having trouble breathing? W-why aren't you at the hospital?!”

Rainbow Dash pushed 'Shy's hoof off of her face as she tried to check pupil dilation, and clasped Fluttershy's cheeks in both forehooves. “Flutters, calm down! We're...healthy. Those berries Pinkie found turned out to be super-mega-ultra bear weight supplements or something. That's not the important thing here, though!” She released 'Shy, and backed up a step, taking a deep breath. “I was a real moron last night. I wasn't thinking straight when I said the things I did, and I sure wasn't acting like a friend.” Rainbow's ears wilted, and as her eyes flicked back towards Ponyville, a small shudder ran up from her hooves into her body. “I-It took a lot of Dash-bashing and a big fa—I mean, big object lesson to show me what kind of jerk I was being.”

Twilight sidled in beside Dash, hanging her head. “I was just as awful, Fluttershy. Worse even, because I was prepared to hide it and pretend everything was fine, but goad you later into 'fixing' yourself. You're not broken, Fluttershy. Don't let us or anyone else tell you otherwise.”

Rarity closed in on Dash's other flank, settling down before the butter-colored pony. “I shouldn't have left you alone for so long, my dear. You could have used my support far sooner. I know you realize life in Ponyville will be harder for you now, but you have all of us to lean on.” The gorgeous unicorn leaned in close, a hoof tenderly supporting Fluttershy's chin. “I'm sorry we ever gave you cause to doubt that you could count on us for that support.” The two beside her nodded, murmuring in accordance. “As for everypony else? You know it won't last forever, don't you? Ponies can get used to most anything. Some were wary of our precious Spikey-Wikey when he first arrived. If they can get used to a dragon, they can grow to accept a beautiful, softer Fluttershy.” Rarity let her hoof drop, but her sparkling gaze held her friend's for seconds that stretched out in comfortable silence.

“And anyone who can't, I'll just buck over the moon,” Applejack smirked, breaking the spell at last.

Fluttershy's wings quivered, and she sniffled delicately before leaning forward to nuzzle the three before her in turn. “I'm so sorry this happened to you, but... Is it awful of me to be glad too?”

Pinkie squashed herself in beside Fluttershy, and eyed the three mares before them. “Why, d'you think they look better this way? I would've thought Applejack'd be the one to say so first, though! What do you think, AJ? I've heard some of the Rainbow Dash fan-club call us the Mane six, but it's more like the Gain six now!”

Fluttershy tried to form protest after protest, but nothing passed her silently-working lips.

Applejack swept her hat from her head and simply hid behind it, grumbling. “Pinkie, I don't think that's what 'Shy was driving at!”

Pinkie's eyes widened, and she craned her neck out to peer with rapt attention at the mare right beside her.

After another moment of tongue-tied silence, Fluttershy managed to squeak out something intelligible. “I'm just so relieved you understand enough, that...I don't have to, um, go on a crash diet and go back to being, um, slim. I would look like the old me, but I could never be the old me again, and I d-d-don't know if I could ever have,” she reached up to swipe a tear from her cheek, “if I could ever have really truly forgiven you girls. I feel just terrible about that.”

Pinkie looped her forelegs around 'Shy's neck, squeezing her snugly. “I bet you would've been a bitter-betsy for awhile, but even if you don't trust your sweet self enough to think you could have, I think you would've managed it.”

Applejack returned her hat to her head, blush still fading from her cheeks. She cleared her throat, and the other five shifted to peer her way.

“Would you four mind givin' us some time together, now that that's outta the way? Y'all have some weight-loss plans to get started on anyhow, right?”

Twilight nodded, determination flooding her gaze. She stomped one hoof in what would've been an impressive display if it hadn't sent ripples quivering through her frame. “I'm off to the library to figure out how to slim down. If I learn anything that will help the rest of you, I'll let you know, but...maybe you shouldn't count on it if you know what I mean.” She shot Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash apologetic glances. Twilight leaned over to rub noses with Fluttershy, before backing up to a clear patch of grass and teleporting in a dazzling sphere of pink light.

Rainbow blinked the after-images away, and raised a hoof towards 'Shy. The other pegasus meekly bumped it with her own forehoof, before Dash took to the sky with rapid beats of her wings. “I'd better hit the old obstacle run, about a jillion times, before any of the Wonderbolts hear about this.”

The remaining ponies all shared a look, barely containing snorts of laughter as Rainbow bumble-bee'd off through the sky.

Rarity stole past Fluttershy and AJ into the cottage, returning with a brush. She put the yellow pegasus' mane in order in moments, then did the same for her tail. Hoofing the brush over to Applejack, she embraced her friend with a deep sigh. “Come to our next spa-date, won't you dear? And do drop by the boutique soon! I should have a few surprises waiting.”

“I will, Rarity. Oh, well, o-only if you want to.” Fluttershy smiled, watching as Rarity stopped next to Applejack on her way back towards the road.

“I know I can trust your word if you give it, Applejack. You'll treat my Fluttershy right?” Rarity murmured for the orange mare's ears only, her voice thick and eyes filmed with moisture once again.

“Ah'll spend the rest of mah days making her the second-happiest mare in Equestria.” When Rarity squinted at her, Applejack grinned back. “S'only fair. She's already made me the first.”

A tear spilled down Rarity's cheek, and she wiped it away with a royal purple hankie pulled from seemingly-nowhere. “You're a cornball, Applejack, really. I'd love it if—if you'd join our spa dates you know. I'm sure the massage at the very least would do your muscles a world of good.”

“Ah'll give it a try, Rares. Thanks for bein' understanding about all of this. I expected, uh, more hysterics t'be honest.” AJ rubbed the back of her head, a sheepish smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“Ah, well, you know that some of the most lovely ponies of all time were of the curvier sort. Mareilyn Monroe, one of my inspirations, was certainly not a dainty thing. Oh, and that celebrity chef from Trottingham, Neighgella Lawson! She's not a model exactly, but she could be, darling! She would never apologize for finishing the ice cream.” Rarity glanced back along her side, lifting one leg to pat at her thickened barrel. “No, I can't really say I'm entirely put out by this turn of events.”

Applejack could only stare, eyes as wide as cider mugs, mouth slightly agape. When Rarity arched a brow at her, she shook herself like a dog shedding water. “Uhh, yes! Good! Ah'm glad to hear it, Rarity. You uh, you enjoy then.”

Rarity laughed, and even that affected the earth pony, for the sound was huskier than she remembered it. Without another word, the plumped-up unicorn turned and trotted back towards town, perfectly-styled tail bouncing like a glossy, art-nouveau spring.

Pinkie was nowhere to be seen when AJ turned to glance around for her, though in the process she found Fluttershy giving her a puzzled look.

“What did Rarity say, AJ? You seem a little frazzled.”

“Oh, well...”

~Be honest you idiot. You can't lie worth beans anyhow, and you know it.~

“Rarity was just admittin' that she doesn't mind so much, bein' soft. Kinda, uh, surprised me.” Applejack dug her hoof in the grass a bit, dropping her eyes.

~Feel pretty lousy. First I've seen of Fluttershy in a whole day, and I stare at Rarity like that instead.~

Fluttershy nuzzled up beneath her chin, and leaned in against her lover. “That's nice to hear. I hope she finds someone as wonderful as I did.”

Pinkie squeezed out of the cottage and bounced her way over to the pair, a bit of flour dusted across her nose. “Cookies are in the oven! Be sure to take them out when the timer goes off. Or don't. Most ponies like them better when they aren't black and crunchy though. See ya later, love-birds!” The mass of pink pony blurred, and Pinkie was abruptly elsewhere.

Applejack nuzzled down into Fluttershy's mane, breathing in her meadow-scent, while the late afternoon sun sank low enough to put them in the shadow of the Everfree. The soft breeze that had been pleasant while the sun had shone on them was now a little chilly, and Fluttershy's wings fluffed upon her back.

“Ah do still have some chores t'day, but I think we can grab a moment for cookies and a cuddle.”

Fluttershy nibbled into the fur along AJ's throat. “That will have to tide me over until tonight,” she whispered.

Applejack knocked before nudging open the door to the cottage. Fluttershy had left it ajar to enjoy the breeze that filtered inside.

“Welcome back, App—oh goodness! You look exhausted!” Fluttershy finished the carrot she was in the middle of chopping, sweeping the orange discs into a bowl before slipping her hoof out of the knife and its brace. She trotted over to where AJ stood, swaying a bit, in the middle of her living room.

“Ah had a lot of chores to get done. Lot of stuff ah hadn't been taking care of properly the last few days. Plus, uh,” Applejack reached back with a foreleg to pat her modestly-thickened underside, “this slowed me down a tiny bit. More'n I'd expected, anyhow.”

Fluttershy's eyes took in AJ's sweaty mane, dust-dappled coat, mud-speckled legs and grass-stained fetlocks. “Well, um, would you like to take a bath, hon?”

Applejack nodded slowly, eyes drooping, and for a moment Fluttershy worried she'd actually nodded off on her hooves. “S'a good idea. Ah'll just go round to the pump and—“

Fluttershy snorted, circled around behind her lover, and planted her forehead against an orange rump. “Oh no, you musn't! You just head right upstairs and get into that tub. As if I'd let you drench yourself out in the dark and cold like that!”

~Mmm. This was all firm muscle before those berries. The muscle is still there, but there's a nice little bit of padding over it now.~ 'Shy blushed as the thoughts rolled through her head, feeling AJ's caboose through her forehead. ~Enjoy it while it lasts, filly. You know she won't hang onto any pudge for long, the way she works herself.~

“O-okay, I'm going! I'm going,” AJ laughed after a few propelled steps, moving towards the stairs under her own power.

Even Applejack's tail was quite a mess, sprinkled with crumbly bits of leaves. Since that blonde mass was bobbing right in front of her nose as Fluttershy followed the farmpony up the stairs, she took the opportunity to grasp the end of the red ribbon keeping it bound, and tugged it loose.

AJ paused halfway up the stairs to catch 'Shy with the ribbon dangling from her lips, and sighed. “Yer just too adorable, you know that?” Shaking her head, she clip-clopped up the last of the stairs and found the bathroom, biting and pulling the string for the light.

“Well, whip me hard and call me cream, that's one right-fancy tub, darlin'! When'd you have that put in?”

Fluttershy smiled, though the choice of colloquialism made her brow arch. She followed AJ's astonished voice into the bathroom. The tub in question was partially recessed, so it was easy to climb into but deep enough for a proper soak, just like some of the tubs at the spa in town. It was easily big enough for three average-sized ponies, paneled on the outside with polished wood and tiled on the inside with pretty mint-colored stone. “Do you like it? Lotus and Aloe helped Quick Fix design and install it. I've had it for a few months now, since I decided to start offering grooming as well as vet services.” She flushed a bit, slipping past Applejack to turn on the taps. “T-that's the official reason, anyways.”

“It's sure coming in handy tonight! Ah'm surprised Rarity doesn't drop by every other night with some excuse to use it!” Applejack grinned, watching steaming water pool in the enormous tub.

“She doesn't need to; she has her own,” Fluttershy giggled, then used a wingtip to brush AJ's stetson from her head, rolling it along her feathers to rest atop a pile of fluffy towels. “I missed you, you know.” 'Shy sighed the words against an orange, freckled cheek, before she nuzzled down into Applejack's mane. She caught up her last ribbon. One slow, steady pull, and the thick mass of the farmpony's mane tumbled free, releasing scents of sunshine, leaves, apples and woodsmoke.

'Shy let the ribbon fall to the floor, and nuzzled right into that blonde mass, feeling the sweat-damp locks cling to her nose and lips.

~It's like you've brought fiery autumn inside with you, not just on your coat, but trapped it in your blood, your sweat, your very bones. I love that wild core of you.~

“Ya do, huh?” AJ chuckled, craning her neck to peer at the pegasus.

'Shy squeaked, and ducked under her mane, which also put her under a good amount of Applejack's, given her proximity to the mass. From beneath curtains of straw and pink-colored hair, she mumbled, “That was aloud?”

Applejack bobbed her head just a bit, reluctant to dislodge Fluttershy. “Sure as sugar was, precious. Y'know I love your own wild side too, don'tcha?”

“W-what 'wild side,' love?” Fluttershy giggled, a hitch in the laughter.

AJ finally did move, gently nudging 'Shy aside so she could shut off the taps. “You spend almost as much time out of doors as ah do, hon. You work out in nature same as me, but you revel in it. Betchu'd rather roost in the trees with your bird pals, or cozy down in dens with the badgers and polecats if you could, wouldn't you?”

'Shy nodded, mingled manes bouncing a bit. “Oh, that would be wonderful! I have my animal friends over at the cottage for sleepovers sometimes, but they're never quite as comfortable there as they would be out in nature.” Steam filled the bathroom, a heavy humid blanket of heat that worked at every pore and soaked into their manes and coats.

Applejack smiled, leaning a fraction more of her weight into Fluttershy. “Barely a breath away from bein' a lost-pony from Neverland. Y'can't tell me that's not wild. Love your mild side too, a'course. I love every bit of you, buttercup.”

Fluttershy found herself panting, and knew her face must be glowing like she'd popped her Element into her mouth during a Harmony strike. Her wings were helplessly erect, but 'Shy tried to ignore them as she stepped over the edge of the tub and sank into the hot water within. She hissed, wincing, as she always did at first. The water level in the tub rose dramatically when she lowered her barrel down into the depths, and pride mingled with just a trace amount of shame trickled through her.

Applejack followed her in, picking up her hooves a few times and splashing a bit. “Ooh! Ahh! That's—ohh, no, never mind. Thasss...just perfect.” AJ's eyes sank shut, as she in turn sank down into the water. Soon both mares were resting neck-deep, just letting the heat penetrate their muscles and work its magic. Just the gentle lapping of water against the sides of the tub and two ponies' breathing disturbed the thick, hot silence.

Once Fluttershy felt like every muscle had properly turned to goo, she lifted one foreleg from the water, drops raining off the limb to plop and splash back into the tub. 'Shy tucked her hoof through the band attached to a scrub-brush, then worked it against a fat bar of soap. When the bristles bore a good bit of lather, she turned towards AJ, brandishing the brush. “Alright you, um, dirty girl. It's t-time to come clean!”

Applejack's eyes blinked open when her lover began speaking, and her cheeks ballooned with muffled giggles almost immediately after. Before Fluttershy had gotten to 'clean,' she was guffawing so hard AJ managed to dunk her nose into the water, she'd keeled over so far. Spraying and sputtering, Applejack tried to recover, but 'Shy decided to push her advantage.

Sloshing water over AJ, her bulk plowing towards the earth pony, Fluttershy drew right up against her lover, breast to breast, and tucked her chin down atop Applejack's neck to try to pin her. The brush meanwhile began to roam the gentle curve of her back, stiff bristles digging through that orange coat, stimulating the skin beneath.

“O-oh, sun and stars, that's good.” Applejack slumped into 'Shy, letting the pegasus support her while the brush ran along her back, making a few sweeping strokes before altering course. Soon it was making wide circular passes, scrubbing the sweat and dust out of the mare's orange fur. As the brush drifted down onto AJ's left side, she leaned into it. When Fluttershy swapped the brush to her other forehoof and did her lover's other side, she likewise leaned into that, following that stimulating scrubbing wherever it went.

“Um, alright now, time to turn around for M-M-M...” Fluttershy's entire face burned with the intensity of this blush attack. If the water weren't already hot enough to steam, 'Shy might have brought it there herself through body heat alone! “Mistress,” she squeaked at last, taking one sloshing step back in the tub and cowering behind both mane and scrubbing brush.

Applejack blinked without coordination at her lover, confused at the sudden distance between them, when the word finally registered. Shock, confusion, and mirth chased each other in rapid succession across her eyes while her ears flopped and twitched, trying to keep pace. Finally, AJ let her eyelids slide half-shut, leveling a smoldering gaze on Fluttershy. She turned in the tub, oh-so slowly, and gave her sopping tail a mighty flick to toss the mass onto her back.

“Whatever you say, Mistress. Please, be gentle with me?” One-eighth of a giggle escaped from tightly-clamped lips.

Fluttershy sighed, watching a small rivulet of suds slide down the slightly rounded curve of the apple-bottom before her. Nosing her way free of her own mane again, she drew in close, dragging her brush from the top of AJ's left rumpcheek down to the base of her hoof. “No promises, my pretty slave. Sometimes,” she paused, eyes lifted to travel left to right through empty air while her lips ghosted a few silent words, “a really filthy doormat needs to have the dirt beaten out of it.”

Applejack craned her neck to stare at 'Shy, mouth agape, but with herself on display she could do nothing to hide the juicy, urgent wink her nether-lips flashed at the pegasus. “Uhhhh. Wow, buttercup.”

Relaxing into a tiny smile, Fluttershy scrubbed her way up AJ's opposite leg, lingering on her right rumpcheek. She watched Applejack swing her head back and rest her chin on the edge of the tub, unwinding once again. Fluttershy's brush drifted, and slid over the trio of apples emblazoned on the other mare's flank. A soft hiss drifted back to her as AJ felt her cutie-mark scrubbed, leaning into the touch hard, biting her bottom lip. When 'Shy lifted the brush a fraction of an inch and Applejack tried to follow it, she spoke.

“Freeze.”

Applejack turned her head again, eying Fluttershy, ears back. “Huh?”

“If you move, I'll stop. I'll toss the brush, climb out of the tub, dry off, and go downstairs.” Fluttershy used a very matter-of-fact tone, but a little tremble on every sixth word or so gave lie to the seeming confidence.

“Well, alri—I mean, um, yes mistress.” Applejack slowly turned her head back around, widened her stance a little, and waited.

Fluttershy moved back in on the cutie-mark, but avoided it directly, scrubbing the coat around it. She drew close over and over, even nicking the edge of it a few times, but avoided the kind of contact Applejack had enjoyed so much before. AJ groaned over the teasing, and though muscles tensed a few times, she managed to remain still. Her sides began puffing in and out with quickened breathing though, and soft squelches teased 'Shy's ears as the farmpony winked again and again.

When at last she gave her lover's mark a good square scrub again, the low and loud moan rolling from AJ's throat startled her into dropping the brush.

~C'mon Fluttershy, get it together. Don't give her a chance to cool down when she's starting to really simmer...~

When she had retrieved the brush, Fluttershy secured it to her other hoof, and gave AJ's opposite flank the same treatment. To change it up a bit, she leaned in close, letting damp strands of her cotton candy-hued mane brush across AJ's sodden pussy lips. The shudders that rolled up her lover's back were delicious.

~I feel bad, guilty for even threatening to leave her alone and unsatisfied, but feeling so...in charge is kind of...nice? The best part is seeing and feeling Applejack love this.~

She had teased her darling enough. Now it was time to move in and get a taste of that dripping 'pie' that had been desperately flashing her for the past few minutes. Fluttershy discarded the brush, and laid a hoof atop Applejack's rump. “Mistress is going to be busy for a little while, slave, but you'll make yourself useful in the meantime. Grab the shampoo over there, and wash your mane. If it's not clean and rinsed by the time I'm done, you'll be punished.” 'Shy beamed. There had hardly been a tremor at all that time! She watched Applejack obediently reach for the shampoo, and that's when she buried her nose in the orange mare's folds.

Applejack squealed and knocked the shampoo onto the floor with her hoof, staring after it slack-jawed, brain disconnected while Fluttershy poured her tongue up into the hot, fleshy press of her sex.

Fluttershy felt her lover's juices soak into the fine fur around her nose, and ground her face into AJ's heated, flexing petals, while her tongue strained and twisted within the slick canal beyond. She withdrew her tongue, then rammed it back in, soon plunging the muscle back and forth while Applejack squirmed and bucked back into her muzzle. Water sloshed through the tub, the pair making amorous waves.

Ducking her head down beneath the water, Applejack soaked her mane through, rising dripping with a gasp. Little tremors rolled through her well-muscled frame. Her legs stirred one and two at a time, restive, but there was no part of 'Shy she could reach, no portion of her she could hold. Instead, she grabbed a brush on the end of a long wooden handle and a rolled up magazine from the shelf beside the tub and tried to pincher the shampoo off the floor. Between the seismic waves of bliss rolling up from her loins and the uselessness of her tools, the rescue attempt did not go well.

Withdrawing her honey-smeared nose, Fluttershy worked Applejack's lips and clit with her mouth and tongue for a moment. 'Shy tugged AJ's thick, pliable labia, letting the flesh stretch. First, she used just her lips to pull, but when those began to slip free Fluttershy brought her teeth into play, coaxing a mingled whimper-moan from AJ. When she noticed Applejack's breathing slowing a little, 'Shy turned her tongue on on the fat clit down below, smothering her firm pleasure-button with slow, sloppy licks. Fluttershy's own sex oozed thick rivulets of warm need, adding the essence of her lust to the bathwater. Swapping back and forth between lips, clit, and rapid flicks of her tongue into Applejack's gooey depths, 'Shy worked her lover into a literal froth. Every time Fluttershy used her teeth on a plump sex-petal, scraping along its warmth while she held it tugged out between her lips, she couldn't help but feel a thrill of triumph as the other mare whinnied, self-control lost.

Finally, Fluttershy stopped beating around the bush and focused her efforts. She pursed her lips, wrapping them around the shining nub of her 'slave's' clit, and sucked in long, firm pulses. AJ's cries started high, and only scaled upwards, until they choked off into nothing as she came with a tremble so violent her knees knocked against the side of the tub.

'Shy surfaced from the humid, pheromone-drenched zone beneath Applejack's tail to prop her chin atop an orange rump, panting with just the tip of her tongue showing between glistening lips. “A-all...clean...slave?” Fluttershy squinted at AJ, noting her wet but not-shiny mane. “I guess not. Well.”

Applejack shifted uneasily, watching Fluttershy sink down into the water, totally submerging herself. 'Shy rose, soaked, and nodded blindly towards the brush she'd used earlier on AJ. “Clean me up, my little slave. You aren't getting out of your chores again just because a punishment's coming.”

Applejack swallowed, any trace of laughter over Fluttershy's new role gone. She just appeared tense in 'Shy's eyes as she swiped wet mane out of her face and blinked at her lover, but it was the tension of a coiled spring, not a frayed rope about to let go. Fluttershy luxuriated in the feel of the brush running over her own soaked coat, and though she had to admonish the farmpony for slowing down once she'd reached her hindquarters, soon she was decently clean. She shampooed her own mane and conditioned it while Applejack worked, and another dunk in the steamy water left her sud-free and clean.

Nudging a submerged lever with a hoof, 'Shy set the tub draining, then heaved herself out onto the soft absorbent rug. Applejack followed a beat later, and shook herself briskly, goading an “Eeep!” from Fluttershy.

“Slave, that's what towels are for. You know, those floppy, limp things over there on the rack, useful for a moment, only to be dropped and trampled the next?” Fluttershy pointed out the canary-yellow towels hanging on the wall beside the tub.

Applejack winced and bit her lip, before shuffling over to the rack and selecting a couple of towels. Returning to her lover's side, she toweled off the butter-colored mare's back, barrel, neck and mane, before working on her rump and legs, settling on her haunches to use both forelegs for the task.

Fluttershy swayed a little into AJ's toweling, and as soon as she considered herself passably dry, tossed her head. Wet strands of mane whipped AJ's muzzle, and 'Shy snuck a peek back at her lover to be sure the 'vicious' lashing hadn't hurt the mare. “Wrap up my mane, slave.”

Applejack collected Fluttershy's lengthy mane, coiling the pink mass atop her head before winding the drier of the two towels around it. The moment she was done, 'Shy turned, forcing her out of her two-legged stance and back onto all fours. Fluttershy stood with her nose nearly touching Applejack's, breath huffing hot and heavy past her lips.

“On your back slave, down here on the rug.” 'Shy tossed a hoof aside to indicate the damp bathmat, a plush yellow thing decorated with butterflies and daisies.

Wet, shivering just a little, Applejack sank onto her stomach upon the rug and rolled onto her back. Her gaze flicked from Fluttershy to other points in the room, as well as her own belly and hooves, while her own breathing picked up.

Without another word, 'Shy turned and stepped over AJ, straddling her prone form. She hiked her tail, then began to lower herself, soft stomach brushing Applejack before pressing snugly down against her. A mere press became a smothering pressure, and the farmpony's moans made an answering groan strain to escape Fluttershy's own throat. Instead, she spoke, while her rump continued to descend towards AJ's face.

“A hot bath like that can be dehydrating. Let's see about getting some fluids down your throat, slave. You're not coming up again 'til you slosh.” Fluttershy cut off AJ's answering groan with her ass, pillowy-soft cheeks spreading around that sweet freckled face, dunking Applejack's muzzle in a sweltering slit.

Fluttershy squeezed her butter-ball cheeks tight around AJ when a flash of equine tongue teased her soaked insides, prompting her to grind her full weight down into the warm, wet frame of her lover. She could feel Applejack's every movement, every breath, blanketing her as she was.

~I'll be able to tell if she needs a break, right?~ Fluttershy thought, even as she braced her forelegs and leaned back, putting more weight on AJ's face, forcing her snug pussy further down around the farmpony's muzzle. Applejack's startled grunt buzzed her wet flesh, wringing a squirm from Fluttershy as well as a fresh wash of mare honey.

When Applejack's hooves pushed into her buttery bulk, 'Shy started to lever herself up, but the pressure retreated almost immediately, only to return a half-second later. AJ kneaded her lover's bulk, grinding up into it shamelessly, as amorous as can be over her adipose. Fluttershy let a silent sigh escape her lips, settling back into place. After a few moments just soaking up the attention from hooves and tongue, 'Shy began to rock back into AJ's muzzle, exaggerating the motion to drag her stomach along Applejack's. Damp fur glided on fur, the clean scents of soap and shampoo thick in her nose.

Finally, AJ tapped 'Shy's flank. Fluttershy rose, pointedly not hurrying, until she heard Applejack gasp and fill her lungs. Two breaths more, and she sank down again, cutting off her paramour's moan with the juicy squelch of re-engulfment. Wriggling while settling back over Applejack, reveling in the feel of her muzzle sliding back up within her sopping passage, she crushed her pillowy ass gradually harder down onto her squirming lover. Fluttershy stopped only when she felt ears flicking against the ripe curves of her rumpcheeks. Curious, she tucked a forehoof down between AJ's hindlegs to brush it over her folds, finding them swollen and soaked once again.

“What a waste of a bath! Only two minutes out and you're already sticky again.” Fluttershy chided the pony beneath her, giving her an extra-hard, long grind to push home her 'displeasure.' More moans vibrated up through her pussy, thickly-cushioned walls squeezing Applejack's muzzle.

It wasn't long before Applejack needed another break for air. “Oh, goddesses, 'Shy honey.” Applejack panted hot and hard, greedily sucking down all the air she could before she found herself swallowed into that yellow crevice once more.

“Mistress, my love,” Fluttershy whispered, as she leaned back and reclaimed her toy. The feel of AJ's head smothered between her cheeks and dunked in her sex was enough to make her giddy, bouncing with more and more urgency atop her lover, the rest of her plastered flat to the rug by 'Shy's mass.

~Having her exactly where I want her, completely trapped and at my mercy... It's so naughty, and indulgent! I could picture Rarity doing something like this, but me? Oh goodness.~ Fluttershy barely noticed her blush returning, she was already putting out so much heat.

Just another minute's bucking on Applejack's muzzle was enough to set her off. Her body shook, rich jiggles wobbling through the fat padding her frame, while a reedy shriek poured from her lips. Something else poured from her nethers, right down Applejack's throat, AJ gulping rapidly to keep from drowning! Gush after fierce gush of hot, slippery cum sluiced down her gullet, leaving her belly awash in Fluttershy's liquid bliss.

Sliding her legs around AJ in a snug embrace, Fluttershy eased onto her flank, rolling AJ with her. Rounder-bellied, eyes rather derpified, and limp as Rarity after a massage, Applejack lay in Fluttershy's embrace and lapped mindlessly at her folds for long minutes while the pegasus came down from her peak.

When Applejack's licks began to elicit giggles and squirming, sensitized flesh protesting further stimulation, Fluttershy gently pushed her darling away and got to her hooves. "Clean yourself up a bit sweetheart, dry off, and come to bed."

'Shy giggled anew at AJ's rather drunken nod, and leaned down to brush noses with her, the scent of her own nectar ground deep into the mare's face. Before Applejack could draw her into a kiss, she slipped back, and trotted out of the bathroom.

~Now, where did I put that coil of rope...~

Slice of life à la mode

Twilight lay on the floor, two concentric halos of open books and one long scroll full of notes spread out around her. She stood and almost fell, legs stiff from hours lying prone while she studied.

“Ugh. Spike? Are you still awake?”

“Not,” Spike yawned, “really. Are you ready?” The little dragon slunk down from his perch in the bay window with its cozy seat, claws clicking on the wood floor.

“Yes. I think that a restoration spell with this block from a clean-up spell used as a prefix, with Starswirl's limitations against harm active throughout should provide the desired effect. The effects should also be permanent, so I won't bloat up again at midnight or something.” Twilight tapped various texts as she spoke, confidence rising in her tone as she talked out the procedure.

“Well that would sure be a disappointment, seeing as how it's nearly midnight now.” Spike yawned again, muffling it behind one paw. “What d'you need me to do?”

“I'll need a piece of chalk, a bag of silver dust, five pieces—no, six pieces of quartz, and a cookie.”

Spike was already on his way towards the cellar to fetch the components when the last item froze him in his tracks. “Is...that for the spell?”

“No, I'm just peckish. I've been studying for hours after all!” Twilight blushed at how defensive that came out, and let her head drop. “Sorry Spike. I know you're not trying to guilt me. It's just hard to forget how mean the townsponies were. I can't wait to look like my old self again.”

Spike tossed his arms in the air and grumbled a good-natured “Yeah yeah,” before disappearing downstairs. He only kept Twilight waiting a few minutes before returning with the supplies she had specified.

Taking them in her telekinetic grasp and shifting the books off onto a nearby desk, Twilight began her preparations. First she drew a circle with six breaks on the floor of the tree-house with the chalk. Six smaller circles filled in the gaps in the perimeter. Into each smaller circle, she placed a piece of quartz. Using the silver dust, she traced a smaller circle within the primary one, right around herself. By then, Spike had scared up a cookie for her and waddled out of the kitchen with it.

Twilight set the bag of dust and chalk aside, swapping for the cookie, which was gone in three bites. “Ahh, macadamia nut. Thanks Spike. Now, you might want to get behind something. This is a pretty rough amalgamation, and there's bound to be some thaumaturgic turbulence.”

Spike gulped. “Turbulence, huh?” Spike bent double to crawl beneath a heavy table, then pulled chairs in to make a cage around himself.

Twilight winced. She realized that when she threw around words like 'turbulence' it often meant a lot of extra clean-up time for poor Spike afterward.

~It will be worth it though. I'll help him out, if it's too bad.~

Twilight closed her eyes, summoning the formulas and structuring the theories in her mind, building the house of cards that was the start of every major magical effort. Her horn fluoresced as power gathered, coalescing and arcing at the tip.

~Safety first,~ she thought, invoking the limitations against harm. Especially vital when working magic upon the bodies of living creatures, this partially-aware spell would prevent any magic she worked from twisting her physical form to a lethal degree. The silver circle around her flared up, a column of coruscating white light encasing her in a pillar that stretched right up to the ceiling.

~Now for the experimental bit.~ The first part of the spell was something she had cast before; it had been familiar, and it came to her easily. She knew the 'smell' and 'texture' of the magic, though neither descriptor truly fit. Unicorns had other senses above the usual five that helped them comprehend and manipulate the ethereal fields. This next part Twilight had to fumble with. She knew how it should feel in only the most basic, primitive sense. As she folded and forged the spell, it developed character, blossoming in the direction she guided it even as it drained power from her inner reserves. Her horn flared brighter as she channeled more magic, feeding the demanding construct. Just as the spell was about finished, and it strained to be unleashed, Twilight fought to hang onto it while grafting a second construct to its gleaming matrix. A second, paler aura flared around the first enveloping her horn, and sweat rolled down her face as the effort involved doubled. Not only was she taxed physically by the magical drain of the working, but the mental effort of recall and suspension of three spells at once was exhausting!

Bright, lengthy arcs of power sparked from Twilight's horn, scorching the floor meters beyond both circles. Occasionally one would strike a piece of the quartz, and it would begin to spin. Before long, all six were whirling on the floor, shrieking like tiny teapots. The windows seemed to bulge outwards, and Spike whipped his head between them and Twilight, torn between the urge to open them and the desire to remain un-disintegrated.

Twilight yelped as she let the completed spell slip its leash, a deep magenta dome expanding over her to cover the outer-most chalk circle. Every light in the library guttered and blew out, from magical lanterns to flickering candles. The glowing dome pulsed once, twice, thrice, before vanishing with a pop and a whiff of burnt almonds.

Spike shoved the chairs he'd been cowering behind away, and scurried off to re-light lanterns and candles. Slowly the light level in the room rose, revealing Twilight in the center of a clean floor...no evidence of circles, dust, or stones left behind.

“D-did it work?” She whispered, her eyes squeezed shut. She heard Spike gasp, and her eyes flew open just in time to see him fall over, spasming with gales of helpless laughter.

“Oh-oh-oh-oh Luna's sky, T-Twilight!” That was all he could squeak out between the giggles.

Twilight patted herself down, and felt...no pudge.

~I'm back to normal! What is this silly dragon laughing about?!~

She rose from her haunches and immediately tipped forward onto her face. “Ow! What?!” Twilight lifted her head and for a moment thought she'd embedded her horn in the floor, but soon realized her head was simply very heavy. She soon managed to heave herself upright, and warily crossed the library to the window Spike had been resting in earlier. Her reflection was distorted. Her head was far larger than—wait.

~This window is flat glass, not curved at all. There's no distortion.~

“You look like those bobbleheads at Wax Lips' store!~ Spike choked out, before rolling onto his stomach and gasping for breath.

“Ponyfeathers.”

“R-Rainbow, don't you think you should take a break?” Scootaloo called up at the older pegasus, watching her run the obstacle course she'd crafted from clouds. The orange filly checked the clipboard on the grass by her hooves. This was Rainbow's 242nd run through the course today.

“No way! Look at me; I'm still a blob!” Dash paused long enough to slap her barrel with a forehoof, setting the pudge there quivering, before darting back into her latest circuit.

Scootaloo swallowed, and glanced around the field she stood in, but the two were fairly isolated out here. Rainbow hadn't even wanted Scootaloo tagging along, but she'd made her case to her mentor well enough. Somepony to fetch water and keep away certain school photographers was practically a necessity!

She hunched her shoulders a bit, before adding another hash-mark to the clipboard as Dash completed another trip through the course. Rainbow was working the weight off. Flying burned a lot of calories, calories Rainbow would normally be replacing by eating big nutrient-dense meals. Instead, she'd been drinking nothing but water and eating exactly zilch, at least as far as Scootaloo had seen.

Rainbow's mane was plastered to her neck with sweat, the brilliant colors looking painted-on instead of the awesome, fluttering riot of motion Scootaloo was used to seeing. Each trip through the course seemed to be getting slower, too. She winced as Rainbow clipped a cloud pillar with a wing, and tumbled through the air. She recovered, barely, and bobbed in the air as she flapped back towards the obstacle run.

“Rainbow, please? Just five minutes! Drink some water. I'll go get you a daisy sandwich!”

If Rainbow heard her, she gave no sign of it, and flew on. Scootaloo clenched her teeth, stomping one forehoof into the grass, pounding a patch of it flat. She swung her head around one last time, scanning for somepony, anypony. Coming up dry again, she heaved a sigh. Scootaloo turned and cantered towards her scooter, ears back, her jaw set, muttering. “There has to be someone you'll listen to.”

“Whoa, no! Whoooooooooah!”

Rainbow's voice startled Scootaloo into glancing up again. She was in time to see a blue blur plow straight through one, two, three pillars, then head straight for an elderly oak tree, wings fouled by a mass of fluffy cloud. She spun, completely out of control, struggling to even right herself much less pull out of the rapid descent.

Scootaloo jumped on her scooter, wings buzzing before her hooves had even settled atop the wooden plank. She took off across the grass, bouncing over hillocks and tufts towards the distant tree, heart beating so hard it felt like it was trying to outrace her there!

Rainbow beat Scoots and Scoots' heart both, crashing into the spreading branches of the left side of the massive tree. Leaves and twigs were still falling when Scootaloo arrived beneath Rainbow's suspended form, the filly shading her eyes to peer up through the limbs and crisp autumn leaves.

“Rainbow?! Are you alright?” Scootaloo sprang from her scooter, letting it tip over, standing on her hindlegs to stretch herself up the tree's trunk.

“Nnngh. Ye-yowch! No! No. Definitely no. I'm, ah, uh...horseapples.” Rainbow was silent for a long moment while Scootaloo fidgeted below. A sigh finally escaped the vague cyan spot in the branches twenty-five feet up. “Squirt, could you find someone on the weather team and tell them I need an air-lift?”

“Sure Rainbow. I'll be back soon!” The filly slid off the tree and made for her scooter.

“Don't bother, Scoots. You can meet up with me at Ponyville General instead. They'll...want to take a look at me,” Dash sighed again.

“O-oh. Okay Dash. They'll take good care of you! See you soon!” Scootaloo tipped her head down to fasten her helmet's chinstrap, and noticed something that made her blood run cold. A broad fallen leaf beneath the tree, yellow as the autumn sun, bore a couple spots of fresh, wet crimson. Scootaloo's wings beat in a frenzy, the filly sailing towards town, her throat and eyes burning.

Lyra stood and stretched, leaving her bench in the park. Suspending her lyre in her magic, she levitated it into her case, simultaneously transferring the bits today's busking had brought her into a latching compartment within it. Closing the lid and fastening the case, Lyra set her instrument atop her back and made her way along main street.

A puff of wind and a flash of pink at the end of the street brought a small smile to the unicorn's lips.

~I wonder what Pinkie's up to today.~

The wind and pink repeated, and after Lyra took another few steps, repeated again.

~What in Equestria...?~

By now she noticed several ponies loitering near the end of the street, the boundary of this side of town, watching whatever the notorious Pinkie was up to. She joined them, her errand forgotten, enduring another dozen gusts of wind before reaching the border of the town.

She spotted BonBon in front of an obscuring stallion, and trotted up beside her. “What's she doing?”

BonBon shook her head slowly. “I think...I think she's running around the town. Over and over. She bought some coffee from Coarse Grind earlier, and a sack of my super-sugar jawbreakers.” The confectioner screwed up her face in disgust. “She emptied the sack into her mouth, then used the coffee to wash them down like pills! She, um, started vibrating.” BonBon gestured to the pink blur as it passed by again. “Then, well, that.”

Lyra watched with the rest for a moment longer, counting twenty more revolutions. “Has she slowed down at all?”

BonBon shook her head. “I don't think so. She actually seemed to get faster for a bit. Huh. I have an idea.” She patted Lyra's shoulder, then took off towards home at a gallop.

Lyra counted nearly two-hundred revolutions before BonBon returned, three enormous sacks of sugar stacked on her back. “Give me a hoof with these, Lyra.”

The mint-colored unicorn followed BonBon to the very edge of town, and discovered with a shock that Pinkie's revolutions had started to carve a furrow in the ground. There was a half-foot drop-off from the street to the path the pink pony was following, now!

“Pinkie!” BonBon shouted the next time the blur ran past. She waited until she appeared again to continue. “I want to. Make some. Cotton candy. Can you. Run faster?”

Lyra turned to stare at BonBon. “Are you certifiable? That's not going to work!”

“It will if you use your magic to keep the sugar suspended in the air. No one's going to want dirty cotton candy, after all.” BonBon smirked, before ripping the seam on the first sack of sugar. Meanwhile, a soft whine rose from the trench outside the mouth of the street as Pinkie began to accelerate. She passed their position once every three seconds, then every two seconds, then once a second.

Soon Pinkie was passing them twice a second, and Lyra felt cold all over. “I feel like standing this close to energy like that ought to be dangerous.” She helped BonBon dump the sugar though, and caught it in her magical field, holding it suspended in the air above the trench. She struggled to keep Pinkie's passage through the cloud of sugar from dragging the grains with her, and heard BonBon squeal as the sweet cloud began to caramelize.

“She's running fast enough, producing enough friction, to melt sugar? What else is she producing enough heat to affect?” Lyra wondered aloud, watching the last of the sugar melt. Ribbons of molten sweetness hung in the air.

“Okay Lyra, now, this is going to be tough. Let the sugar follow Pinkie. I'm hoping it will get caught up behind her, and you can nudge it each time she goes by to keep it from hitting the walls of the...moat? Oh boy.” Indeed, Pinkie's increased pace had accelerated the destruction of the earth beneath her hooves. The furrow had become a broad ditch easily six feet deep.

Lyra let the sugar slip from her telekinetic grasp, and it fell in behind Pinkie like a sweet comet tail. She had the barest split-second to nudge the sugar the next time Pinkie came around, and the next, but as they watched the sugar was beginning to stretch into soft cottony threads!

“What is going on here?!” Mayor Mare's voice boomed out across the gathering of ponies, and Lyra missed the next nudge. Pinkie braked with a screech that had everypony present stuffing their hooves into their ears, 150 pounds worth of cotton candy enveloping her in an instant.

Mayor Mare stalked to the edge of the moat and stared down at a massive pink-tinged blob with baby-blue eyes. “Pinkie Pie! You've caused grievous damage to public property! We can't have a, a moat impeding passage to and from town!”

Pinkie's tongue appeared from within the cotton candy mass, and after a brief, astounding (if disturbing) scene, she was clean once again...as well as fit and trim. “Okie-dokie-lokie! Want me to fill it in? With dirt? Or water? Or jello? Or colorful rocks? Or what about pillows! Or I could just build a whole bunch of tiny bridges over it!” Pinkie bounced fully ten feet up over the edge of the moat, over and over, while she spoke.

BonBon and a couple of spectating foals pouted at the loss of her sugar, but most were fixed on the mayor and Pinkie at this point.

“With dirt will be fine, Pinkie.” Mayor Mare did hesitate at the mention of bridges, but chances were too good said-bridges would be a bit too whimsical to appeal to a majority of Ponyville.

Pinkie twirled in the air at the end of her latest bounce, then dashed off in mid-air, abandoning the rubber-neckers, candy-maker, and authority figures alike. It wasn't even a minute later before a faint rumble made ears flick and perk. Lyra stretched her neck out past the last building on the street, then quickly yanked it back.

“What'd you see?” BonBon pressed her, eyes wide.

“Oh, just Pinkie, surfing a tidal wave of soil on a spade.” Lyra coughed, and sat in the middle of the street. “BonBon, our insurance is paid up, right?”

BonBon snorted, and tossed her mane. “In this town? Are you kidding? They keep our policy in a wheelbarrow, both out of storage concerns and for easy access. It's pricey, but you have to admit they're worth it. They're not kidding, we're 'in safe hooves with Stall-State.'”

“Thank Celestia.”

Rarity slipped into her newest creation and pranced over to the nearest mirror, watching herself parade back and forth. Rich red silk trimmed in black hugged curves here and there, and billowed mysteriously elsewhere, letting the viewer guess at the shape beneath the striking dress. This was more of a donkey fashion, using such garish colors and that broad of a frill, but Rarity loved the flow and the breeziness of the design.

“Though, it certainly isn't appropriate for the season, is it?” Pouting, she caught up the dress in her magic and levitated it onto a ponyquin. “Something warmer, that accomplishes the same thing...” She glanced around the room, and found herself drifting towards a few bolts of soft flannel. Rarity cringed away from the stuff, but there was a bolt of blue that really wasn't all that...rough. Normally, this material only went into work-shirts for the town's stallions. It wasn't her forté, but she could provide superior quality and a custom fit, something the off-the-shelf goods at, say, Filthy's large store could not. Bringing in those stallions for those shirts might bring them in again when they needed a suit later, or a gift for their special somepony.

She unrolled a length from the bolt, memories of the fading and softening process she'd subjected it to briefly surfacing in her mind. Rarity clipped off enough material for a decent-length skirt, then eyeballed enough for a top. The skirt practically assembled itself on a table behind her, sheers and sewing machine making short work of the simple task, while she squinted at the larger piece of material. Different shapes floated before her eyes, superimposed on the deep blue flannel. Sleeves shortened and lengthened, flared and shrank. Buttons appeared and vanished like stones rising and disappearing in a stream.

Rarity finally laid the cloth upon a second work-table and pulled out a sheet of the translucent paper she used for her sewing patterns. While she used to know her measurements by heart, she hesitated twice while sketching out the new pattern.

~I'll have the new numbers down soon enough. I don't anticipate them changing much, and maintaining them will be rather fun. Fluttershy and I can do a little indulging together,~ Rarity giggled, shaking her head the slightest bit. A glimpse of herself in a nearby mirror brought a fresh smile to her face, eyes roaming the soft curves she'd been growing so attached to recently.

"Mmmm. As much fun as it is to run my hooves over my own body now, I can only imagine how much fun it is for Applejack to play with Fluttershy's new, softer self." She chuckled, drawing a forehoof along her breast and down along her underside, feeling the flesh beneath her warm white coat grow progressively softer towards her tummy. "Hush you naughty thing. One mustn't think of one's friends in such a light."

Opalescence strutted into the room and, despite her diminutive stature, still somehow managed to look down her nose at Rarity.

"Well, you know Opal, I'm no longer sure of that. Applejack obviously broke that unspoken rule, and look how wonderfully that turned out!" She winked at her cat, turning back to the mirror before she could catch Opal rolling her slitted eyes at the unicorn. Rarity swung herself around to, for the fourth time that day, admire her ample rump.

"It's so easy to get caught up in my work darling, but I must confess I feel rather...what's a good word for this mood? Vivacious! Vivacious, since acquiring these lovely curves; I'm, ah, suddenly quite interested in finding someone to share them with." She let her eyes linger on the smooth lines of rounded flank and plump buttock a moment longer, then cleared her throat with a dainty "Ahem."

"But, back to work, just now." Rarity recalled her thoughts on the new outfit. Soon the design in her head migrated to the paper, and she began cutting out the pieces she would need. A couple other bolts drifted down from a shelf to give up their own share of material. A couple lengths of elastic and a hoof-ful of large buttons followed Rarity along with the stack of cloth as she made her way to the sewing machine. She had just gotten it up to speed when someone rapped on the door.

“We're closed today, darling!”

~Ponies can read in this day and age, yes?~ Rarity let a huff escape her.

“Rarity, it's me!” Spike's voice drifted through the door. He was too short to peek in through many of the boutique's windows.

Rising from her work, the fashionista unlocked and opened the door with deft telekinesis. “Spike! Come in, my little gentledragon. What brings you to the shop today?”

Spike shut the door behind him and waddled over to stand just before her hooves, gazing up at her with concern plain in his eyes. “Are you...okay? You haven't done anything drastic, have you?”

“Done anything? Whatever do you mean? Oh, you mean my weight? I'm not even worried, darling!” She laughed, giving her mane a loft with one hoof. “I honestly don't mind the new look. I'm designing a new line around, er, curvier figures. I think I'll ask Mrs. Cake to model for me at some point, if I can pry her out of the Corner for a few hours. At any rate, why do you ask, Spike? Am I such a drama queen that you feared--”

Spike began frantically waving Rarity's words away. “No, no! Nothing like that! It's just, uh, well, the other girls have...” The little dragon rolled his eyes. “Twilight is a bobblehead, Rainbow is in the hospital with exhaustion and a pierced wing, and Pinkie is...well, she's probably just asleep. I know I'd be after digging a six-foot trench around the entire town and filling it back in.”

Rarity blinked slowly, then squinted. She shook her head slightly side to side slowly, then faster, as if building momentum could help her catch up with current events. “Pardon?”

Spike swiped a hand across his face from forehead to chin. “Never mind; the point is, they haven't been using their best judgment while trying to lose their weight and I was worried you'd have gotten into a mess like they did.” He sniffed once, and stepped in to hug one alabaster foreleg. “M'so glad you're alright.”

Rarity nuzzled down along the top of Spike's head. “There there, Spikey-Wikey. I'm just fine, nothing to fret about. The news on the rest sounds dreadful, though! I've been busy producing designs, so I'm woefully out of the loop it seems. I must go pay them a visit.”

Glancing around the shop, Rarity failed to spot anything that would solve any of her friends' current problems. None of her hats were big enough to hide a head of bobblehead-proportions. She had costume-wings but nothing that would help Rainbow fly again any sooner. Pinkie...very rarely had any wants much less needs, beyond more sugar than was good for her. Rarity grimaced.

~I'll think of something I can do to help. But at the moment just visiting and letting them know they aren't alone is what's important.~ Levitating Spike onto her back, she opened the door and slipped outside into the brisk Autumn evening.

~Grr. Really could have used that flannel outfit tonight.~