The Pig-Out

The Pig-Out

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Two Weeks Later (Week 27)-

It was around six a.m. when Gleaming’s eyes fluttered open, her mind emerging from the dark embrace of dreams. She sighed. Even on holidays, her body was hard-wired to wake up at a certain time. She supposed she could try to fall asleep again, but almost always that lead to her feeling sluggish for a few hours—

An uncomfortable pressure made itself known.

Never mind. She was up.

“Mmmm…” Her movement made Cadance hum beside her, turning over before going still. A gust of air escaped the covers as Gleaming crept out of bed, heavy with the scent of last night’s… activities. Cadance was an early riser as well, but after the romp they’d had last night, Gleaming guessed she was gonna be out a bit longer today.

Silently, Gleaming made her way to the bathroom, her steps thankfully soundless on the soft carpet. She swayed a bit thanks to her misplaced center of gravity, but she swiftly recovered. It was hard to move fluidly with the hefty mass between her legs, trying not to fight the inertia, keeping her motions smooth. To make matters worse, her hips had continued to widen, causing her gait to be even more like a waddle. A few of the books she’d read mentioned that the trick was “to move with a slow, heavy grace, almost as if you’re underwater,” but easier said than done.

The master bathroom was one of the few things in the apartment that could be called luxurious. It was a large, wide space (as large as the living room), with polished crystal floors, intricate light fixtures of gold and bronze, and cream-colored walls with wavy patterns. There was a bathtub, a sauna, and a jacuzzi in the room, with the first being your standard size, the second medium-sized and made of dry, sweet-smelling wood, and the third an immense heart-shaped recess, skillfully carved into the floor. There was also a giant walk-in shower with multiple sprayers, two opaque sinks marked with Gleaming and Cadance’s cutie marks, multiple medicine cabinets and drawers, and fuzzy towels of all sizes on various towel racks. Finally, in the far corner there was an unusual inclusion—a full-sized refrigerator, shiny and new, its hum barely audible, even in the morning silence.

Oh, and there was a toilet beside the bathtub, which Gleaming made a beeline for, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

After relieving herself, Gleaming flicked on the lights, squinting pre-emptively on reflex. The spots slowly faded away, leaving her staring at her reflection in the mirror. A tall, pregnant mare stared back at her, blue mane frazzled and mussy, her coat matted where she’d drooled in her sleep. Her eyes were red, irritated from the sudden light, her tail was a tangled, crusty mess, and her taut, blooming belly remained ever-present, bigger and more massive than ever.

“Morning, my little ones.” Gleaming patted her womb and admired herself, both straight-on, and from her profile. “You doing well in there?”

At just shy of seven months, she looked like she was overdue with twins. Her barrel resembled the lower half of a pear, weighty and deliciously full. She was certainly getting wide… wide and round, and while she’d never been much of a vain pony, there was something to be said about liking how one looked.

Curious, Gleaming reached in a drawer and pulled out a cloth measuring tape, along with a small notebook and quill. She carefully felt around for her pubic bone a second before unrolling the tape, then stretching it along her bulging underside.

“Four and a half centimeters…” Gleaming flipped open the book, marking the measurement down on a page labeled ‘Weekly Fundal Height’. “S’about right...”

Next, she stood up straight and tall, holding the tape from the ground to her withers. There were a couple ways to measure a pony’s height, but typically, most went with the earth pony way.

“Another quarter-inch? Really?” Gleaming double, then triple-checked the measurement, but each time it was the same. “Same as last week… jeez, I’m gonna catch up to Twily at this rate.”

She flipped the page and dutifully jotted down her findings, this one marked as ‘Weekly Standing Height’. She had a few other things marked here, including her height as a stallion, her starting height upon changing genders, the heights of everypony in the family, and lastly, amount Talia had forecasted at the party, highlighted in big, capital letters.

She stared at the ‘TWO TO FOUR’ a bit longer before looking back up at her reflection.The same bedheaded, bleary-eyed pony looked back at her, her expression pensive. She didn’t think she looked any taller, and when she compared herself to Cadance, there never seemed to be any difference. Not since they’d first noticed on Nightmare Night, anyway. But when Gleaming was around other ponies, there were a lot comments on how they now needed to look UP at her...

Gleaming eyes unfocused a moment, letting her imagination roam free. In her mind’s eye, a ghostly pair of appendages unfurled, their span broad and angelic—

A second uncomfortable pressure in her nethers flared, this one accompanied by a feeling of soreness.

“Ugh.” Gleaming shook her head. She looked around the bathroom, still a bit groggy. “Where’s that thing…” It took her a few seconds to remember that Twilight had taught her the spell for making a pocket dimension (like the one she’d used to bring all her books a few months back), and it’d proven to be a godsend. Gleaming’s horn flashed with the incantation, opening up a small hole in midair, and out floated a device comprised of tubes, nozzles, suction cups, and a segmented large container with measuring lines.

The logo ‘EZ-Milk XL’ glinted in the light as Gleaming set it down and re-read the instructions, mumbling quietly to herself.

In last week’s appointment with Talia, they’d decided to go ahead and cast the Lactation spell early. Gleaming had brought it up due to the discussion with her mother, and Talia’s simple response was, “Better more, than less.” It essentially meant a couple things, the most obvious being the need for the recently-purchased bras, but with Gleaming’s body needing energy to produce milk, she also needed to up her caloric intake again.

Using the mirror, Gleaming took the suction cups and aligned them with the newest change in her anatomy. Her breasts, once just in the starting stages of filling out, were now firm and orb-like, brimming with nutrients as they hung between her hind legs. Her engorged nipples were a deep pink, a stark contrast to her white coat, and she could see they were already on the verge of dripping, a tiny, tiiiiny droplet visible on their left side.

“Good timing,” Gleaming muttered. She brought the suction cups closer, feeling a tingling sensation as they floated near.

SHHHPP! The suction cups leapt forward, magically attaching and forming a vacuum seal.

It was at this moment Gleaming realized she’d forgotten to warm them up again.

“GAH!” She bit one of her hooves, fighting back the string of curses. She managed to keep silent as the device flared to life, the soft hum of magic filing the room, the tickling jolt of energy as the fucking freezing pieces of thrice-damned shit cleaned each of her breasts. There was a sudden, firm tugging...

“Ohhhhhh…” Gleaming’s muscles went slack. Her eyelids sank low as each one of her teats sputtered a few times, then began to spurt out two different-colored fluids. Her left was enchanted to produce thick, yellowish colostrum, and her right contained thick, creamy milk. Her drowsy mind sank back into a dull, contented haze, the cups gradually warming up, and her head dipped to rest on the cool bathroom counter.

She stood there in silence while the machine dutifully did its work, alleviating the pressure at a steady rate, never slowing or speeding up. The dairy flowed each into one half of the segmented container, filling almost up to the halfway point before starting to peter out, and a few seconds later, the flow ceased.

Ding!

“Mmrrhh...” Gleaming lifted her head. Damn it, she’d zoned out again. Whatever, at least she felt better. She looked over at the… ‘harvesting unit,’ she thought it was called? Something like that. She detached the tubes and lifted it up to see the precise amounts, careful to keep it nice and level.

“Two hundred fifty milliliters each, eh? Not bad.” Gleaming returned to her notebook and flipped to the back, where a chart labeled ‘Daily Colo/Milk Production’ had been started. She noticed that she’d been steadily producing more as her breasts got bigger, but that was a good thing. She wasn’t sure what the upper limit was going to be, though. She wrote down the date and amount she’d… ‘harvested’... ugh, she hated thinking of it like that, then floated the container over to the refrigerator, pulling out several sturdy-looking jars. With a bit of telekinesis the precious fluid was transferred, and Gleaming shut the jars tight, softly chanting out a spell.

“Moooooo.” Gleaming chuckled to herself. She checked to see that the Stasis spell had been applied, then etched the time and date on the lids. She put them beside the ones that’d already been filled, then put the milking machine back in the hole in dimensional space, pressing the ‘Self-Clean’ button as she did. She’d be milking herself again in about three hours or so.

Now it was time to weigh herself. The bathroom scale was propped up against the bathtub, last she checked… ah, it was still there. Gleaming retrieved it and made sure it was calibrated, then clambered on.

Eiiiiiight… no, nine pounds. A bit more than last week, but gaining a quarter-inch and the extra breast tissue was likely contributing to that. Stars alive, everything was growing...

“Oh, my!” Gleaming rubbed her belly, smiling softly. “You’re all getting so big!”

At first she’d dreaded weighing herself. She really wasn’t sure why, but seeing the increasing numbers brought about a feeling of vague... discomfort. Now, though, the numbers felt like progress—a sign that the lives blooming within her were doing well. Every time she saw them she got a fuzzy feeling, followed by a warmth that spread out to her whole body. Weight gain alone wasn’t a good indicator of the foals’ health, of course, but she liked to pretend.

Gleaming flipped back to the front of the notebook and logged the data in the final chart, marked ‘Weekly Weight Gain’. She then put everything back and rolled her shoulders, giving her reflection one final nod.

“Alright. Shower time.”

It was the absence of warmth next to her that roused Cadance. She wasn’t sure how long her eyes were open; only that one minute she was in la-la land, and the next she was staring into the dark shadows of her bedroom. On reflex, she reached out to her right for Gleaming... only to find nothing but a slight imprint. That was when true wakefulness came, and she sat up with a muffled yawn, stretching out her six limbs with a series of snaps and cracks.

Cadance smacked her lips a few times, scratching herself and wiggling her wings. She checked the clock and looked around, brushing her sweaty mane out of her face. At last she noticed that the bathroom door was closed, the light within pooling onto the bedroom carpet. Gleaming was always up at this hour, even when she didn’t need to be. Was practically something Cadance could set a watch to at this point.

“Ever the soldier,” she muttered. She took her time easing herself out of bed, reluctantly separating herself from the satin sheets. As she did, though, she suddenly became aware of a certain something enjoying the friction more than the rest of her. She gasped as that something swelled to its full, turgid length… followed quickly by its twin,ALSO becoming fully thick and erect in seconds.

“A-Ah…” Cadance had forgotten about the temporary addition she’d given herself, spurred on by an idea she’d had for a while. In an instant she found herself laying back down, her hooves straying beneath the covers to the dual-pronged tent she was pitching. A quick pulse of magic tossed the bedspread and blankets away while pulling the sheet tighter around her, a pair of wet spots seeping through.

“Yes,” Cadance breathed. She lay flat, all six of her limbs fully splayed. She began to rub against the tightened sheets, revelling in the smooth, delectable friction, spurred on by thoughts of her beloved mate. Gleaming’s thick, juicy rear, so firm you could bounce a bit off of it. Her gorgeous eyes and face, sultry and confident without even trying. Her full, fertile belly, filled with THEIR foals. Her bouncing, overfilled teats, now producing so much fresh milk, and stars above, her tight, moist cunny, molded to the perfect shape, squeezing and pulling Cadance deeper as the room echoed with desire—

Cadance sucked in a breath. She thrust faster, harder against the sheet, the wet spot turning into a wet patch. A musky scent filled her nostrils, dry, and earthy, laced with stale sweat and sex. It only made her more eager, her impassioned sounds becoming more and more frequent, and she wanted nothing more than to bury herself in Gleaming’s needy, willing folds…

...so why don’t you?

The thought made Cadance pause. It was a fair question, wasn’t it? Why settle for self-service when her partner was a few dozen feet away? Satin sheets were wonderful, but the heavenly, silky feel of Gleaming’s marehood, so tight and squeezing along her length, the scent and heat of their entwined bodies, accompanied by those lewd demands for more, one orgasm rolling into another as they went again and again, trying to outlast each other, fondling and kissing and nibbling and tugging and nipping and groaning and licking and pulling and pushing and sucking and thrusting and biting and fucking and—

Cadance ripped off the sheets. Her groin was left exposed to the air, revealing the smooth, dual-shafted marecock she’d given herself. Its bulbous, twin heads throbbed impatiently as she got up and trotted to the bathroom door, and she pushed the door open to encounter a wave of heat and steam.

Cadance didn’t bother to muffle her steps as she walked in, her attention laser-focused on one thing. She could hear Gleaming humming amidst the shower’s sprayers, her voice accompanied by foamy, sudsy splashes. Cadance poked her head inside and saw her beloved with her back turned, seemingly oblivious, enjoying the massaging spray of multiple showerheads while she rocked back and forth.

Cadance licked her lips. Some of the spells cast on Gleaming had increased her body’s elasticity, and right now was the perfect demonstration. Her tail was lifted and to the side for washing, leaving her hindquarters on full display. Trickles of water ran down and around her freshly-cleaned plothole and vulva, flawless and inviting, her big, engorged teats jiggling a bit with her movements.

Cadance’s twin shafts got even harder at the sight. She took a loud, clacking step inside the shower, but Gleaming didn’t react. She just kept humming to herself while continuing her ablutions, her eyes closed with a serene smile. Cadance took another few loud steps, but Gleaming still didn’t move. Her soaked, cerulean mane was plastered around her neck and shoulders, the three tones of blue blended together. Vapor and steam swirled around her like a fog, making her seem like an illusion, and as Cadance neared, she could smell a familiar, tantalizing sweetness, mixed the aroma of mint and rosemary.

“Oh, darn. What a shame.”

Cadance hesitated. Gleaming had opened her eyes, and was smirking slyly at the prowling pony princess.

“And here I was hoping I could shower in peace, with no gorgeous mares wanting to fuck me with their giant, two-headed cocks.” Gleaming’s smile turned lecherous. “I thought I could have a nice, quiet morning to myself for a change...”

Cadance didn’t reply. She was a mare on a mission, and her objective was in sight. Her gaze went back to that beautiful slit, and without further pause, she pressed her muzzle to it and began lapping.

“Mmmnnhh…” Gleaming’s eyes fluttered shut. “What a terrible inconvenience...”

Cadance serviced her with an expert technique, nosing Gleaming’s outer lips while flitting her tongue in and out. She started licking in circles, tasting Gleaming’s walls while flicking her clit, pressing deeper and harder, delighting in the sweet, sticky taste. Gleaming hummed and leaned into Cadance’s efforts, letting her explore to her heart’s content, revelling in the now third kind of pressure swiftly rising in her loins.

“Cady…” Gleaming let out a low nicker. “D-Don’t…nnggh... stop…”

Cadance’s dicks twitched and dripped freely onto the tile floor, bigger and harder than ever. The heated spray dampened her coat and wings, warming her body even more than her lust. She wiggled her tongue even more, her ears filled with Gleaming’s incredibly hot moans and pants, and Cadance put her hooves on Gleaming’s cutie marks and squeezed, her hooves barely sinking into those luscious, muscled flanks.

Gleaming moaned even louder, her back arching as she presented herself. But Cadance didn’t mount her just yet. Instead, she focused her attention on those full, heavy teats, still so very new and exotic. She started licking and nibbling, starting at their tops and working her way down, her slippery tongue and moist breath making Gleaming shiver and gasp. Gently, Cadance tugged at them with her teeth, watching the milky breasts wobble when she let go, almost hypnotic in their movements. She wrapped her lips firmly around them one at a time, suckling and slurping to taste the dregs within.

“Fuuuuuuck…” Gleaming cooed through the heady rush. “Oooh… ooooh, yes…”

Cadance buried her face between Gleaming’s breasts, feeling the soft, slightly-pink flesh slide against her cheeks. Her hard, fluted horn was pressed up against Gleaming’s marehood, its tip tantalizingly close to slipping inside, but not quite. Her muzzle brushed up against the underside of Gleaming’s belly, and she started smooching it with light pecks, its heat apparent even in the steamy shower. She remained like that for a minute, playful, yet needy, until she lit her horn with a telltale whum, causing it to suddenly vibrate with power.

Gleaming let out a throaty groan. The magic and vibrations tickled her cunny, making her feel so good. She could feel energy start to surge into her, saturating her very being, rising her to new heights. She was lighter than air, soaring amongst the clouds, but all she wanted was more… MORE...

“Please,” Gleaming mewled. She crouched lower, her grand ivory belly brushing the ground, her heart-shaped rear high in the air. That familiar ache was throbbing deep in her core, half-hunger, half-clench, and it only intensified as the seconds passed. Her wet mane spilled halfway over her face, her eyes staring at nothing, the dull pounding in her ears mixed with the running water.

Cadance’s horn pulsed, instantly doubling the amount of magic she gave Gleaming. Her own reserves felt more robust than ever, and it made her want to give that much more. That thought repeat over and over in her head, feeding the giddy, tingling tightness in her belly and stallionhoods, not noticing she really was amping up the flow. Eventually she pulled back and reared, her twin cocks primed and eager, spreading her wings wide as she settled atop her pregnant mate.

Cadance enveloped them both in a protective embrace, cradling Gleaming’s womb tight and sure, her downy feathers stroking and playing with her sensitive navel. She used magic to slather Gleaming’s plothole with a generous amount of pre, then with little ceremony, she pushed both her cocks forward.

“AhhhhhHHHHHH~” Gleaming’s moan started soft, then raised a whole octave, morphing into a pleasured cry. Pain and delight, panic and euphoria, a cocktail of endorphins engulfed her that blanked her thoughts. There was an odd, stretching burn in both tunnels, accompanied by a glorious tingling and fullness, making her want to squeeze and relax at the same time. She thrust back hard against Cadance’s advancing rods, invigorated by the electric jolts through her spine, accompanied by that wonderful weight pinning her down. Cadance’s hooves and wings were rubbing her all over, and even in separate holes Gleaming could feel the twin shafts pressed against one another, separated by a thin, strong lining. Alicorn magic was suffusing her more and more, making her eyes take on a slight glow, but even so empowered...

“Mine,” Cadance grunted. Her teeth were clenched as she snorted in Gleaming’s ear. She pushed and slid forward little by little, caught in the thrall of her mate’s velvety snugness, her unbelievable tightness and lusty cries. She bit Gleaming’s scruff and sank deeper, groping and fondling all the while, in love with the round, taut firmness of her belly, the supple skin tight as a drum. It was almost a sensory overload, and sure enough, seconds later Cadance felt the telltale signs of the point of no return, that coiling, giddy tightness starting to boil over.

Gleaming felt it, too. She neared her own first peak, as Cadance’s pushing became frenzied, emerging from the fog like a charging manticore. Her voice cracked when it hit her, exploding like a mass of fireworks and making little sparks jet from her horn. She was still flying high when Cadance’s lengths started twitching, not even halfway inside, but apparently at their limit. Both cockheads swelled, and Cadance yelled long and loud as she came, thrusting fast and hard, her medial rings slurping inside Gleaming with a lewd pop! Over and over Cadance coated Gleaming’s tunnels with gooey cum, and she greedily took it all in, her body flashing as it absorbed each virile load. Cadance’s magic also went wild, more and more pouring into Gleaming, faster and faster, who crooned low and deep as the glow in her eyes brightened.

But Cadance didn’t stop with just one round. When her orgasm was over she simply resumed a steady rhythm, her twin spears still hard as steel, plunging further into Gleaming’s moist depths. That tingling, insistent impulse was still there, buzzing and building up as fast as before, and Cadance’s goal was to be fully hilted before it broke again. Gleaming certainly didn’t mind. She squeezed and kneaded as best she could, lost in the sensation of being stuffed with twin marecocks, welcoming every inch she could take, every spark of magic Cadance gave.

Cadance started nibbling and nipping Gleaming’s ears, licking and sucking on their tips, whispering sweet nothings that Gleaming barely heard. Gleaming was more preoccupied with the feel of Cadance’s hot breath, fast and filled with grunting gasps, accompanied by those hard, flat teeth. The foals were starting to shift and move around from all the excitement, their fluttering kicks tickling the thick walls of her womb, and both Gleaming and Cadance could feel them, making a warm glow rise in their chests.

There was a meaty slap as Cadance achieved her intended goal, her hips pressed up against Gleaming’s plush rear. Just in time, too, as a few seconds later she felt her next climax, welling up with startling speed. With another loud yell she released more cum in thick torrents, flooding Gleaming’s depths nearly to capacity. Gleaming screamed in joy, the fresh waves of seed nearly overwhelming, her walls only barely managing to drink it all in, along with the power it held. Gleaming felt her own orgasm leap forth, and it almost bowled her over when it hit, making her vision go white.

If Cadance kept fucking her beyond that, Gleaming didn’t really remember. All she knew was that she was riding a sort of prolonged orgasm, an amazing high that didn’t go down, powered by the cumulative sensations that fueled both their lusts. Her world was a clouded sensation of warmth, weight, and fullness, accompanied by occasional bursts of wet, sticky heat deep inside her. Her mind was swimming in the best kind of way... her muscles were so relaxed from the warm water... her legs were standing on autopilot… and a part of her wished that it would never end.

But eventually...

“...love you, sweet Gleamy, “ she heard. “Oh, that felt so good...”

Gleaming blinked. She was still standing in a crouch, gently being coaxed to stand by a nuzzling, cuddling Cadance. Cadance had dismounted and removed her extra bits, and was standing in front of Gleaming with a huge, dopey grin on her face.

“There you are,” Cadance said, seeing Gleaming’s eyes refocus at last. “Welcome back.”

Gleaming chuckled. Gradually, she stood back up and straightened, rivulets of water cascading off her in sparkling sheets. “That’s one way to start a morning.”

Cadance smiled. She pressed their foreheads together, letting their horns cross with a click. “One of the best ways, in my opinion.”

“Mmmm.” Gleaming stifled a small yawn. “We’ve certainly made good use of this extra-large shower, haven’t we? Glad I let you talk me into splurging for it.”

Cadance giggled. “I knew we would.” She stepped away and summoned shampoos, conditioners, and a loofah. “Remember all those shower sexytimes we had when you lived with your parents?”

Gleaming’s face turned a bit pink. “I still can’t believe we never got caught...”

Cadance slathered shampoo on the loofah and started washing Gleaming’s back. “Well, we did cover our tracks. Soundproofing, vibration cancelling, odor removal, cleaning the shower extra well, one of us teleporting in and out each time, all of that.”

Gleaming couldn’t help but laugh upon feeling Cadance’s efforts. This was the third time this week alone she’d done this. “You really like touching me, don’t you?”

“I can’t stop,” she growled. Her gentle scrubbing went lower, moving the loofah in tight, slow circles along Gleaming’s left side. “It’s all so hot—how your body’s changing, how well it suits you, what it all means, everything. Stars above, I can’t get enough of you like this... I've never seen a mare take so well to pregnancy, but damn if it doesn’t push ALL my buttons.”

Gleaming rolled her eyes. “You’re incorrigible.”

Cadance stuck out her tongue. “And yet, you still married m—MMMMM!”

Suddenly, Gleaming darted forward to suck in that tongue, pulling Cadance into a fierce, passionate kiss. In a burst of magic she swept Cadance off her hooves, twirling her around and gripping her tight, the tables abruptly turned.

Gleaming broke the kiss and pulled away moments later, staring into Cadance’s star-struck eyes.

“Damn right I did,” Gleaming whispered. “And I’d do it all over again in an instant. Even if I’d known I’d get mind-controlled by a changeling queen, fight an evil sorcerer, put up with endless bullshit politics, become a mare and get pregnant, and endure whatever else is in store for us, I’d still marry you. Do you know why?”

The water fell around Cadance as she breathed hard and heavy, her heart pounding in her chest. She gulped as she looked up at the vision of loveliness above her.

“W-Why?”

Gleaming kissed Cadance again, as hard and demanding as before.

“Because we’re worth it.”

That Afternoon-

Each year in Equestria, on the night before the annual Running of the Leaves race, many communities had high-carb meals for ponies who were participating, ensuring that they had plenty of energy for the next day. These feasts were so common and widespread, they were considered by many to be just as much of the holiday as the race itself. In fact, certain dishes were even practically synonymous with the pre-race meal, and many ponies looked forward to having them every year.

However, the Running of the Leaves wasn’t celebrated in the Crystal Empire. It made sense why it wasn’t, as no change of seasons meant no need for a race. But Gleaming and Cadance still thought of it as a holiday, so they’d gone ahead and declared it as one, giving ponies the day off and everything. They were even in the midst of trying to come up with some actual, Crystal Empire-themed traditions (they were toying with the idea of being thankful), but until they thought of some, they just had the pre-race feast in the castle, complete with all the dishes they knew and loved.

Gleaming and Cadance sat side by side in their private dining room down by the kitchens, along with Spike, Twilight, Rainbow, Velvet, and Night. They’d been invited to share in the customary meal, as they were all also fond of the dishes, too. The normal table had been switched out for a big round one that could easily seat seven, and they were now all chatting amongst themselves, sitting on floor pillows while they waited for the food to be brought out.

“You guys should still totally have a race!” Rainbow said beside Cadance. She gestured out the west window, where the sunny plains beyond the city could just be seen on the horizon. “You have lots of room for it.”

Cadance looked out the window to where Rainbow was pointing. “It’s not a matter of room, Rainbow. It’s the whole purpose behind it. A race that’s basically preparing the land for winter wouldn’t go over well up here.”

“Winter is death to the crystal ponies,” Gleaming said. She played with her napkin, folding and unfolding it with magic. “Declaring today a holiday alone garnered us some funny looks. The race would be seen as macabre.”

Rainbow winced. “Yikes… erm, didn’t think of it like that, heh. And I suppose it wouldn’t go over very well if you tried to gloss over that little tidbit, eh? Just had a race for kicks?”

Cadance shook her head. “Our critics would have a field day.”

Twilight, who was on Rainbow’s left, frowned at this. “You... guys have critics? Really?”

Gleaming gave her a funny look. “Of course we do. Would be odd if everypony agreed with everything we did all the time.”

Twilight went eerily silent.

Gleaming blinked several times. “Wait, do you not?”

Spike laughed from Twilight’s left. “She’s the Princess of Friendship, Gleam-Gleam! Just about everypony gets along with her. Heck, she even turns her enemies into her friends half the time!”

Twilight suddenly became very interested in the floor. “I... don’t even mean for that to happen! Honest! It just kinda… does. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Trixie, Sunset Shimmer… there’ve only been a few times I’ve encountered someone who was truly irredeemable.”

Rainbow let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like, *Tirek*.

Twilight flicked her ears. “Yes, well… I’ve come to realize not everypony can be brought to the light. It’s always my last resort, but sometimes... you do have to use force.”

“And that force is a giant LASER BEAM!” Rainbow’s eyes flashed a second, letting a glint of power shine through. “Pchoooooo!”

Gleaming felt that pulse wash over her, sending a shiver up her spine. She always forgot that Rainbow and Twilight’s other friends all shared this new power.

“Sounds like you should sic these two on your naysayers, Gleaming,” Velvet said from Spike’s left. “You and Cadance might get more things done that way.”

You may as well have told Cadance that Hearth’s Warming was coming early. “Oh my gosh, that’s a GREAT idea!” She sat upright in her seat. “Twilight, Rainbow, would you? Oh, please, please say you will! You’ve no idea how much you’d be helping us!”

Twilight put a hoof behind her head. “We could… try? I suppose it’s worth a shot. I mean, if it’ll help you and Gleamy...”

Rainbow didn’t seem opposed, either. “Sure, I’m down.”

Night spoke up from Velvet’s left. “But would that count as… erm, what did you call them again, Twilight? ‘Friendship Problems’, or somesuch? From what you were saying earlier, those seem to be all you and your friends can influence.”

Twilight chewed on her lip. She exchanged a quick look with Rainbow, who leaned over and whispered in Twilight’s ear. Twilight nodded at this, then cleared her throat.

“I wouldn’t say ‘influence’, Dad. I mean, I get what you’re asking, but saying that we influence Friendship Problems makes it almost sound like we're magically forcing ponies to get along. That’s not what we do.”

Rainbow sat back in her chair. “Yeah, that’d kiiiiiinda be a rotten move. And besides, it wouldn’t do squat for the cause of the problem.”

Night conceded the point. “In your own words, then.”

Twilight looked over at Cadance. “I think it’s a lot like how your power works. When we encounter a Friendship Problem, we’re able to see what exactly is causing it, who it’s affecting, and how to solve it. The solution isn't always cut and dry, though—”

“—because the ponies never wanna do things the easy way,” Rainbow grumbled.

“Right,” Twilight said. “So we have to either come up with something else, or work out some kind of compromise. It’s usually the latter.”

Cadance smiled. “That’s exactly how my power works… well, one aspect of it, anyway. I can sense those kinds of problems, too, but only if the bond between the ponies is deep enough to be classified as Love. If it’s a more platonic relationship...”

Twilight smiled back. “You know? I think that Love and Friendship are very similar. It’s just that my domain’s more towards the middle of the emotional spectrum, while yours is on the deeper end. The bonds you can sense are more powerful, but there are less of them, so it evens out.”

“Yup!” Cadance said. “I’d also say that there’s a lot of crossover between Love and Friendship, so much so, in fact, that one can quite easily turn into the other.”

At this, Rainbow put a sky-blue wing around Twilight, pulling her into a warm, soft hug. “Don’t I know it.”

Twilight hummed and snuggled closer. “Case in point…”

Gleaming listened quietly, her thoughts their usual line of logic. If Love and Friendship were just different expressions of the same overarching concept, than said concept was most likely… Harmony? Boy, now THAT had some interesting implications. Would either one of them eventually become sensitive to the other’s domain? Would Twilight eventually become an empath? Could Cadance learn to use Rainbow Power? Could Twilight could attune herself to the Crystal Heart? Could Cadance wield one of the Elements of Harmony?

Or, wait... maybe the Crystal Heart itself was actually…

No, no, no. That was just silly.

“I think you two should look more into this,” Gleaming said to both of them. She adjusted herself with a grunt, trying to get more comfortable. “It sounds like you might be onto something, here.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Night said. He turned to Gleaming, that old, familiar eagerness in his face. “There’s a lot we could learn by studying the connection between Love and Friendship! For instance, if these two domains are so closely aligned, then it stands to reason that their foils, Hatred and Enmity, are closely aligned, as well! That could have huge implications for how we treat magical curses! What works for the one may work for the other!”

But before Gleaming could reply, Cadance cut in. “You’re not wrong, Ni—er, Dad. There is a connection between Hate and Enmity, but it’s not the same as the one between Love and Friendship. Enmity is just a weaker version of Hate. It doesn’t have any unique properties.”

Night furrowed his brow. “Uh… how, exactly... do you know that?”

Cadance’s face grew grim. “My predecessor was quite interested in the connection between the two forms of magic, as well as their relation to all the other aspects of Entropy. I still have his research notes in the archives beneath the castle. I went through them when I was trying to find a cure for my… condition.”

Night’s eyes about filled his head. “You do?!”

“You don’t want to see them, Dad,” Gleaming said quickly. “Trust me, they’re not pretty.”

Night coolly regarded them both a moment. “At least tell me what you found.”

Cadance’s eyes flicked over to Gleaming before answering. “When I discovered them, I magicked up a few copies and sent them to Twilight, Celestia, and Luna. They went over them as well, and after talking about it, we determined as a group that the information within is only useful for revising our laws on forbidden magic, and bolstering our national defense.”

Gleaming scooted a bit closer to Cadance. She remembered when they’d made that decision, of course. The nights your wife falls asleep sobbing in your arms tend to stick out.

Night pressed his lips in a thin line. “They’re THAT bad? You didn’t see a way to repurpose his work? Reverse-engineer it for something useful? I understand what he was using was incredibly dark magic, but there has to be SOME—”

“He was trying to find ways to counter, corrupt, overwhelm, or flat-out obliterate everything we stand for, Dad,” Twilight said flatly. “Spells to wipe out entire cities. Enchantments for complete and total memory wipe. Mass-produced mind-control armor. Instant death curses. Torture by advanced temporal shifts. Necromantic immortality. We found some practical applications for the stuff he researched, but… not much.”

Rainbow squeezed Twilight a little tighter. “She’s not exaggerating, Mister Night. Twilight showed the girls and me those books when Cadance sent them for feedback. I had nightmares for a week.”

“Sombra was a vile, ruthless megalomaniac,” Cadance said in a bitter tone. “He wasn’t interested in healing or helping other ponies. He only wanted to conquer, enslave, and destroy. If we hadn’t stopped him when we did, I truly believe Equestria would still be at war with him. Maybe someday we’ll figure out a use for his evil, but that day isn’t anytime soon.”

A heavy silence fell over the table, the weighty words sinking in. The dull sounds of clanking pots, sliding pans, and ponies moving inside the kitchen were all that filled the void, accompanied by the tantalizing smell of cooked food.

“Well, then.” Night chose his words carefully, his tone low and soft. “If he really was as bad as you say, I guess my only regret is I didn’t get a shot at him, myself. I’ll trust your judgment on this, girls. Good job killing the bastard.”

“Hey!” Spike put his claws on his hips. “I helped, too!”

Night winked, the ghost of a smile on his face. “That you did, Sport. I’m proud of you.”

Spike beamed.

Cadance bowed her head. “Believe me, the entire city feels the exact same way as you. But only an alicorn, or maybe an INCREDIBLY powerful unicorn could’ve gone head to head with Sombra in a duel. Anypony else would’ve been wiped out.”

Gleaming, Twilight, Spike, and Velvet’s gazes all conspicuously moved away from Night.

Cadance hesitated, then slowly raised her head at the silence.

“...what?”

BAM

“Zut alors!” the accented voice of a mare said from within the kitchen. “Ah, apologies, Madames! Ze door was just oiled zis morning! Not used to it opening so easily...”

Out rolled carts upon carts of food, each of them piled high with of Running of the Leaves Feast favorites. Cheesy potatoes with hash browns and sour cream. Green beans drizzled with soy sauce. Devilled eggs with nutmeg. Pasta with white alfredo sauce. Homemade stuffing. Jellied cranberries. Yams with brown sugar and marshmallows. Hoofolulu rolls and spinach dip. Caesar salad with thick slices of provolone. Sauteed brussels sprouts with onions. Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. Steamed wild rice with almonds. On and on the food kept coming, wheeled by various crystal ponies in chefs hats and aprons, all being directed by a small unicorn mare with a black, bushy mane.

“Oh hey!” Twilight said loudly. “The food’s here! It’s time to eat!”

“Alright!” Spike grabbed his fork and knife. “Let’s chow down!”

“Place the extra plates by Madame Gleaming,” the unicorn mare said. She watched as the first few carts were unloaded and placed on the table. “But where are the gemstones? Are zhey—ah, merci, Frappe. Give those to Monseigneur Spike. He mixes zem with his meal...”

Velvet watched somewhat dubiously as five extra carts full of food were wheeled over and placed in an orderly row beside her eldest daughter. The amount of things on them was far more than what could be placed on the table, but nopony seemed to be worried about this. “Gleaming, Honey… how much did you have them make?”

Gleaming licked her lips. “Enough.”

Cadance, who was still a bit thrown off, shook her head clear and grinned at Velvet. “Oh, trust me. It won’t go to waste.”

Velvet just sighed. “I... guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She’s eating for six, after all.”

“While nursing,” Gleaming said tersely. “And with a bunch of other things going on.”

Velvet pursed her lips. Her eyes drifted down to Gleaming’s pregnant belly, prominently protruding in all its glory. Its firm, heavy mass rose and fell in a steady rhythm, snugly wrapped in an extra-large maternity brace, complete with a matching bra for her rapidly-expanding breasts. She was so big she’d had to scooch her seat back several inches just to fit, and even with that, the top of her womb was grazing the table, tickling her every time she shifted.

Velvet shrugged. “As long as you can handle it, I guess. I just don’t want too much going to waste.”

Gleaming’s stomach rumbled mightily.

“Heh. No worries, Mom.” She leaned back on her wide, padded haunches, smiling and waving at the chefs she knew.

“Bon appetit!” The unicorn chef said, bowing with a sweeping flourish. “Just call for dessert.”

“Thank you, Cuisine!” Cadance called. “Alright! Let’s dig in!”

There was a small flurry of magenta magic as portions were distributed, globs of food floating around to rest on pony’s plates. Velvet helped Spike with his, and Twilight helped Rainbow with hers.

“Oh, cool!” Rainbow said, watching the glow of magic around her. She motioned at Twilight, Gleaming, and Velvet. “Your magic’s all the same color! I never noticed before.”

The three of them laughed.

“Technically, they’re not exactly the same,” Twilight said. She helped herself to the wild rice, picking out the almonds as she did. “Mom’s is the darkest, mine’s in the middle, and Gleamy’s is the lightest.”

Rainbow squinted at their glowing horns, trying to discern a difference. “Um… sure. If you say so.”

“It was a sore spot for me for a while,” said Night, whose own magic was a pale blue. “But at least NOW, we’ve got someone in the family whose magic is similar to mine.”

“Yeah!” Cadance’s horn flashed with baby blue magic. “Go Team Blue!”

Velvet, who was watching with a mother’s eye as Spike put rubies in his food, glanced over at Rainbow. “It’s not an uncommon thing, really. Although we’re not—some emeralds too, sweetie. You need more beryl in your diet—not sure WHY it occurs, exactly. It’s just one of those things.”

Gleaming might’ve commented on this, but she was already eating with gusto. She’d skipped a meal to prepare for this, and as a result, she was ravenous. She decided let the others chat amongst themselves while she gorged herself, her stomach happily churning away.

“Oh! I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Twilight said to Cadance. “Have you and Gleamy thought about foal names yet? You need to come up with five, after all.”

Cadance finished her bite of cabbage salad before answering. “Mmhmm! We need two boy names, and three girl names. We’ve gone through a few baby name books, and we’ve each picked out a few favorites from those. Buuuuut, we’re having trouble deciding from there. So far, we’ve only agreed on two.”

“Oooh! Ooooh!” Spike said. “You should name one of them after a superhero! Like Radiance, or Saddle Rager! That’d be so cool!”

Cadance winced. “That’s, um… we’ll… consider that, Spike. No promises, though.”

“Care to share the names?” Night asked. “I’m curious to hear what you’ve come up with so far.”

“Me, too,” Velvet said.

“Yeah!” said Rainbow.

“Pleeeeease?” Twilight asked with puppy dog eyes.

Cadance reeled at the onslaught. She turned to Gleaming for support, but Gleaming just motioned with a hoof, pushing her to continue.

“Okay, okay,” Cadance said, laughing. “We’ll tell you the two, but no others after that, alright? I want the rest be a surprise.”

There was a murmur of agreement at this.

Cadance gave Gleaming a smooch on the cheek. “You say the boy one, and I’ll say the girl one, okay?”

“Mmrph.” Gleaming, realizing that she needed to speak, took a moment to separate her face from her plate. She wiped herself off with a napkin, then said one word before diving back in.

“Vanguard.”

Night and Velvet brightened. “Oh!”

“Vanguard?” Twilight said. She murmured the name a few times, tilting her head back and forth. “Prince Vanguard… yeah! I kinda like that!”

Spike was indifferent. “Eh. Not as cool as Prince Saddle Rager.”

“Saddle Rager’s a mare,” Rainbow pointed out.

“So? It could be a boy’s name!” Spike said.

Cadance wisely decided not to comment on that. “Erm, yeah. That’s going to be the pegasus colt’s name. The crystal pony colt we haven’t named yet, and we’re also not sure what to name either of the alicorns. The unicorn filly’s the only other one we’ve decided on.”

Everypony’s eyes grew eager, their smiles slowly getting wider.

“We were originally going to go with a two part name, with the first part being Twilight.” Cadance looked at her mother-in-law, then her sister-in-law. “But after thinking on it, we realized having three mares in the family with the same first name would be confusing, so we went with a similar name, instead.”

Twilight and Velvet’s reactions were mixed, but not unpleasant. Velvet looked thoughtful at this, while Twilight seemed… relieved? Huh, weird. Perhaps the same thing had occurred to her.

“Our little unicorn’s name is... Eventide,” Cadance said. “Princess Eventide. What do you think?”

Velvet immediately went starry-eyed. “Ahhhhhh!”

Twilight squinted at Gleaming. “Knew it. So you finally get your way, eh?”

Gleaming donned a faux-innocent look as she chewed.

Spike, noticing Rainbow’s confused look, leaned in and spoke in a low tone. “Eventide is what Mom wanted to name Twilight at first. But Dad vetoed it, so they went with something else. Gleam-Gleam’s always wished they’d stuck with it.”

Rainbow nodded. “Got it.”

“I’d a feeling you were going to choose that.” Night said. He smirked despite himself. “Oh, well. I suppose it was inevitable.”

“It’s a pretty name, Nighty!” Velvet said, swatting him. “And unique, too! It’ll easily set her apart. I never understood why you didn’t like it.”

Night took the hit without protest. “It just doesn’t sound like a unicorn name.”

“Well, phooey on you.” Velvet took a sip of her wine and huffed. “I think it’s delightful! Good on you for advocating it, Sweetheart.”

Gleaming replied with a small salute. It’d pretty much been her prerogative since she’d learned Mom and Dad weren’t gonna use the name.

There was a lull in conversation after this. Everypony was more concerned on eating than anything else, as it’d been something they’d all been looking forward to. Gleaming in particular ate faster than anyone else, and by the time the others were only halfway through with their plates, she was almost done with a second.

Velvet paused in her eating to watch the display. As she looked on, Gleaming polished off plate two and got a new one to pile more food on, this time going for the cabbage salad, baked beans, some kind of rigatoni dish, and mashed potatoes. She didn’t skimp out on her portions, either. The plate was loaded high before Gleaming tucked back in, sucking it all down like a living vacuum.

“For pete’s sake, Gleaming!” Velvet finally said. “Slow down! You’re going to choke.”

Gleaming ignored her. She demolished the cabbage salad in seconds and moved on to the baked beans, not even noticing that all eyes were on her.

“It’s the alicorns,” Cadance explained to everypony. “They’re taking up a lot of energy. Far more than the other foals are. Gleamy is handling it fine, but as you can see...”

Rainbow frowned. “I thought that’s why you were doing those infusion thingies.”

“That’s just for magic development,” Twilight said. “Physically, we’ve found they need extra nutrients and calories, too. It’s been a challenge to balance out their needs with the other three foals’, but so far, they all seem to be getting along.”

In the time it took them to say this, Gleaming finished the baked beans and stared snarfing the rigatoni, the edges of her muzzle now stained with crumbs and sauce. The edge of her hunger pangs had been sated, but what remained was the familiar yearning grip of her stomach, signalling her in subtle ways to keep eating.

“How does that all work, anyway?” Spike asked. “Like, what do you mean that they’re ‘getting along’, or whatever?”

Cadance thought on how best to answer that. “Um, well... I can explain, but I’d rather not go into much detail. The specifics are… icky.”

Rainbow shuddered. “Can say that again.”

Spike just laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not that curious.”

Cadance pushed her bun around her plate, soaking up the gravy from her potatoes. “Basically, everything passes from the mother to the baby through a special organ that only forms during pregnancy. When there’s more than one baby, though, you want each of them to develop their own special organ, so they don’t have to share. We got lucky in that regard, and each of our babies are getting what they need.”

Gleaming raised her hoof in triumph.

“As for how they’re ‘getting along’...” Cadance motioned to her horn. “In a multiple pregnancy, a big problem winds up being that the babies don’t have enough room to grow. A lot of the spells we’ve cast are to help with that, so they aren’t fighting and pushing for space all the time. That eliminates a lot of problems.”

Spike nodded, crunching loudly on an emerald. “Makesh shense.”

Gleaming was only half-listening to all this. She was more focused on the yummy food in front of her, all of it tasting so good. Plate number three was completely devoured now, and she set atop the other two to start a stack. Now with a clean plate, she decided to go for the devilled eggs, wild rice, hoofolulu bread and spinach dip, another helping cheesy potatoes, oh! And some more of that cabbage salad. That really hit the spot…

It became something of a spectacle. Everypony at the table kept chatting about random topics, but their primary interest was on Gleaming. Gleaming was considerate and only went for the food on the carts beside her, leaving the stuff on the table for everypony else, but when it became clear that everyone had more or less gotten their fill, she started grabbing food from wherever was closest.

It was about halfway through the second food cart that Gleaming felt her belly pushing uncomfortably against the table, rather than just grazing it. She looked down in surprise, and abruptly realized that she needed to scooch back farther to accommodate her bulk. Naturally, she did just that, feeling the heavy mass of food shift inside her stretched stomach, but not in a bad way. Just enough to inform her that quick movements were a bad idea right now. She also felt a series of little nudges and twitches from the foals, almost as if they sensed their impending meal, and the sensation just made her want to eat more...

Velvet and Night just looked on in awe as Gleaming resumed stuffing her face. She had to have eaten as much than the rest of them had combined, and yet wasn’t slowing down. She was still plowing through the second food cart at a breakneck pace, shovelling as much she could into her ravenous maw.

“Well,” Velvet said mildly to Cadance. “I see you weren’t kidding.”

Cadance giggled. Leaning over, she nuzzled Gleaming and rubbed her belly, massaging her with the frog of her hoof.

It took another twenty minutes of non-stop eating before Gleaming started to feel full. She’d just finished the fourth food cart with a flourish, suppressing a belch as the latest plate clattered beside her. She’d started a second stack of plates to avoid the first from getting precarious, and honestly she’d lost count of how many she’d gone through. All she knew was that a warm, sleepy contentment was starting to fill her chest, but said contentment wasn’t quite as much as it could be, and her stomach was still egging her on for more.

Gleaming stretched her back with a pleasant hum, but then hesitated. There was a rigidness around her middle, constricting her and the foals in a way she didn’t like.

“Hmph.” Gleaming wiggled and shifted, fumbling with her ‘extra large’ maternity brace. Hah, extra large, her ass. She was gonna have some words with the Royal Tailor about that... and they were ALSO gonna have words about the zipper, because for some reason, it was really jammed on there.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Cadance looked on as Gleaming eased herself onto her hooves, still fiddling with the zipper. “Are you—oh. Here, lemme…”

It became obvious to the whole table that Gleaming’s brace hadn’t kept up with her binge. Not only was it just barely containing her enormous barrel, it left absolutely nothing to the imagination, the fabric clinging tightly her curves like a second skin. Even Gleaming’s bra was starting to look tight, the edges of white breast flesh starting to spill out the sides.

“Just teleport,” Twilight said, looking on. “It’s gonna rip if you keep on like that.”

Cadance and Gleaming exchanged a dumbfounded look, then laughed.

“Right,” Gleaming said. “Just, uh… yeah…”

FLASH!

A second later, Gleaming blinked back a few feet, leaving her overstretched brace to crumple and fall to the ground.

“Ahhhh…” She let out a happy sigh. “That’s much better.”

Now free of its fabric prison, Gleaming’s belly surged free, her insides gurgling as they un-squished. Her gluttony had only added to her girth, her wide, gravid gut getting rounder and fuller, like an oversized medicine ball of life. The foals had been getting rowdy from the sudden lack of room, flipping and turning about incessantly, but now they settled back down, placid and lazy.

Gleaming carefully walked back up to her pillow, measuring the feel of the new weight before settling—and immediately cursed under her breath. The crest of her womb was pushing up against the table again. She pulled the pillow even farther back and got a fresh plate, refocusing on finishing her scrumptious meal.

“Don’t mind me,” she said, mostly to herself. She chugged down some water, then pulled the final cart closer to her. “Keep talking about whatever.”

She assumed that that’s what they did as she resumed eating. The fifth cart was mostly filled with chilled fruits, flowers and herbs, although there were some plain vegetables arranged in assorted platters. Sweet cantaloupe and juicy honeydew, tangy oranges and giant raspberries, tart kiwis and sour green apples, crunchy carrots and sliced peppers, she ate it all with gusto. Her stomach was never quite satisfied with everything, even as it gradually filled up more of her lap, and so she kept going, delighting in the myriad of flavors assaulting her tongue. Next were the flowers and herbs—sweet chamomile and mild peppermint, daisies and daffodils sprinkled with oregano, catmint and rosehip, all of it vanished into her mouth. Finally, she finished off the tray with a few slices of watermelon, salting them lightly for that extra zing…

...and it was about at this point she realized everyone at the table was staring.

“Erm…” Gleaming swallowed with a loud gulp. “Something on my face?”

After a brief silence, it was Spike who spoke first.

“Holy hay, Gleam-Gleam!” he actually started clapping. “That was freaking nuts!”

“No kidding!” said Rainbow, clapping alongside him. “You can eat like a champ!”

Cadance and the others started clapping as well.

“I would estimate,” Twilight said slowly. “That you just consumed about a fourth of your own body weight in food. A fourth. In a single sitting, in only a half hour. That’s... insane.”

Gleaming rolled her shoulders, smirking as she used a toothpick and to clean her teeth. “I could still go for dessert, too.”

Twilight was almost lost for words. “Have… have you been eating that much at every meal?”

“Not every meal,” Gleaming said. “I pretty much just play it by ear. My metabolism’s crazy right now. In about twenty minutes, this extra belly's gonna be completely gone.”

Cadance leisurely stretched out her wings, wiggling them one at a time at Twilight. “Alicorns, girl. They’re hungry little munchkins! Haven’t you spoken with Doctor Talia at all? I’d have thought she told you about this.”

Twilight shook her head. “I haven’t had the chance yet.”

Cadance thought for a moment. “You should go with Gleamy to her next appointment, then. It’s next Thursday, first thing in the morning. You two can talk then.”

Twilight groaned. “Whyyyyyyyy does everything always have to be in the morning?”

“Because that’s when normal ponies do things,” Velvet chided. “I swear, between you and your father…”

Night put a hoof around her and kissed her cheek. “Love you, Dear.”

“Mrhghgh…”

Gleaming was starting to feel that familiar fuzziness creeping into her mind, the telltale signs of a food coma starting to settle in. She gave her head a fast shake and willed herself to focus, taking a quick look around to see if everypony else was done eating.

“Shall we call for Cuisine?” Gleaming asked Cadance. “I think she has pie and cheesecake.”

Cadance nodded. “That and more, I’ll bet. Are you thinking you’re gonna zonk out afterwards?”

“Heh…” Gleaming rubbed her neck. “Y-Yeah. Sugar crash always hits me hard...”

“It’s okay.” Cadance summoned a small, silver bell out of thin air, which she rang in a few light, clear notes. “We didn’t have anything planned for today, anyways.”

A moment later, Cuisine appeared from the kitchen door again, much more gentle this time so as to not smash the wall. Trailing behind her were two more food carts, both laden with desserts like pies, cakes, pastries, cookies, and candies.

Rainbow spoke to Twilight in an undertone.“Wanna place bets on how much your sister eats?”

“What?! Rainbow!” Twilight whispered back. “That’s not a polite thing to do!”

Rainbow just gave her a look.

Twilight chewed on her lip for a while, looking between the desserts, and the wolfish gaze of Gleaming, her sights currently set on a decadent pumpkin pie.

“...five bits says she can eat three pies on her own.”

“Ha!” Rainbow said. “Puh-leeze. More like she can eat another whole CARTon her own. You saw how much she just ate! She’s a one-mare eating machine!”

“Fine, fine, one whole cart.” Twilight extended her hoof. “Deal?”

Their hooves touched with a quiet clack. “Deal.”

“Hey!” Spike scooted a bit closer. “Can I get in on this?”