Those who forget the past...
Twilight Sparkle rapped three times on the house’s front door. The crisis in Canterlot was dire enough for her to rush over to Zecora’s secluded home in the Everfree, but it wasn’t quite dire enough to be impolite about seeking her help.
A few moments passed. Just as Twilight wondered whether to knock again or simply enter, the door opened.
“Twilight Sparkle, so good to see,” Zecora said. “What brings a princess to visit me?”
“Bad news,” Twilight said. “I have to ask another favor, Zecora. Can you spare any more of that time-travelly... memory potion of yours?”
Zecora said nothing, but gave her a surprised look.
Twilight continued, “The Slime Kingdom is attacking Equestria! The other alicorns are holding back the invasion forces, but I don’t know how much longer they can last. Celestia told me the Slime Kingdom was banished thousands of years before even she and Luna were born. And all knowledge of how the Slime Queen was defeated has been lost since then. So—”
“Of that potion, I have no lack. Though your request took me aback, ’twas only that it was so fortuitous...” Zecora stepped back and beckoned Twilight enter. She then pointed at the far wall of her brewing room. “...Because, as you see, I have quite the surplus.”
On the indicated wall, glass bottles of the potion in question filled an entire shelf. The bottles caught what little sunlight came through the windows, glittering gaily. And the potion’s soft, milky whiteness made Twilight thirsty just looking at it.
“Dare I ask why you have so much?” Twilight said as she lifted one bottle and sniffed its opening.
“The mail-order service made a mistake. And these may expire, if any longer I take.”
“Expire?!” Twilight quickly pushed the bottle back into its place on the shelf. “Are these even safe to use, this close to expiration?”
“If you don’t use the potion before it’s too late, then ’twill turn to gas and dissipate. No other effects have been indexed.”
“Okay. That doesn’t sound too bad. Well, Zecora, it sounds like your nuisance will be Equestria’s salvation. I’ll find some way to make it up to you after this is all over.”
Zecora smiled and nodded. Pulling one bottle from the shelf and setting it in front of Twilight, she said, “For this to work, I need to know: just how far back do you wish to go?”
“My best bet is to see for myself just how the Slime Queen was banished the first time. That happened on August 12th, year 91 of the Pre-Pre-Classical Era.”
Zecora gulped, and began pulling down more bottles.
Twilight’s stomach sank as she looked at the growing line of potions on the floor before her. “So... Just how much do I have to drink to go back that far?”
Zecora said nothing. She grabbed the last bottle from the shelf, removed its stopper, then shoved the top into Twilight’s mouth.
Twilight’s eyes widened with surprise. Before she could react, Zecora reached with both forehooves, leaning Twilight’s head back and the bottle up, making it empty into her mouth as quickly as possible. Twilight swallowed rapidly—“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”—but even so, a trickle of the potion leaked from her lips and dribbled down her chin.
Twilight didn’t turn her head, but she moved her eyes to look at Zecora. When the bottle was almost empty, and Twilight’s belly felt almost full, Zecora met her gaze. The look Zecora gave her seemed apologetic.
Then, everything went white.
***
Twilight found herself at a location far too familiar for her liking: an empty field with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern replacing the ground, and single throne occupying the only hill.
Two tall alicorns stood before the throne, as the throne’s occupant reclined, cackling madly. “Oh, you two wish to dethrone me?! That’s too rich!”
“And so what if we do?” Luna called back to him. Celestia flared a wing and tried to stand between her sister and the embodiment of chaos, but Luna would have none of it. She pushed her sister’s wing away and stepped forward. “After all, what threat can two mere ponies pose to the master of chaos himself?”
“I’m not entirely sure that you’re mere ponies,” Discord said. “Besides, it only took one pony to banish the Slime Queen, all those millennia ago.”
At that, Twilight’s ears perked up. What luck! she thought. Maybe I don’t have to go back so far, after all. She stepped forward, to better hear what Discord might say next. But the next thing she felt stopped her in her tracks: the cold hardness of another glass bottle between her lips.
“But you’re right,” Discord continued. “If I stop you two now, it wouldbe much so much more boring than letting you try and seeing you fail.”
Though Twilight could feel the potion bottle in her mouth, she couldn’t see it at all. I must be split between two times, Twilight realized. I see and hear what happened in the past, but I still feel what’s happening to my body in the present. And she still tasted the present, as she discovered when more of the potion poured into her mouth. It was somewhat like milk, though sweeter, creamier, and slightly thicker. It had a something of an almond aftertaste, though this was difficult to detect when gulping it down so quickly.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Discord continued, “But before you go! I see from the looks on your faces that you’re not familiar with the story of the Slime Queen’s downfall.”
Twilight was now beyond full, but she tried to ignore that. She ignored the tightness in her belly, as the volume of liquid caused it to swell. She ignored the sensation of swallowing so rapidly, and the cold dribble down her jaw as more of the potion leaked from her mouth.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
“So I’m going to tell you all about dear old Slime Queen!” Discord said. “It’s a very funny story, let me promise you.”
“Ulp! Ulp! ...” Twilight swallowed and found her mouth empty. Wait, she thought. does this mean...
“The best part is,” Discord said, “in the end (spoiler alert!), her weakness turned out to be—”
Everything went white.
***
When Zecora pulled the second bottle out of Twilight’s mouth, she heard Twilight mumble something. She could not be sure, but it sounded an awful lot like, “Oh, come on.” Zecora shrugged, unstopped another bottle, and rammed it into Twilight’s waiting mouth.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight was seated somewhat unnaturally: her rump on the ground, with her back more-or-less at a right angle to the floor. Awkward as this was, it was the best position for Zecora to continue feeding potions to Twilight, given her current state.
Under normal medical procedures, it would be a huge mistake to give an unconscious pony any liquid to drink. Fortunately, the memory potion renders the patient merely semi-conscious—just cognizant enough that it is perfectly safe to pour drinks down their throat.
But Twilight’s expanding stomach—Zecora wasn’t aware of anything like that in any of the medical literature. It had only swollen slightly during the second bottle, enough that Zecora had wondered if it were merely an illusion. But Twilight’s paunch was now undeniably larger: about the size of a beach ball, and beginning to brush against the insides of her own hind legs.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Zecora prodded Twilight’s belly slightly. It sloshed as it gave. she thought in Zebraic.
When current bottle emptied, she pulled it out of Twilight’s mouth and stuck another, full one in its place.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Each gulp was a large bulge traveling down Twilight’s neck, adding more and more volume to her ballooning belly.
***
Twilight snorted and scowled, then felt yet another bottle between her lips. Zecora was getting faster, more efficient with the potions—popping each new bottle into place mere seconds after the last one emptied. And that was the frustrating thing. If Zecora hadn’t given that last dose of potion so quickly, Twilight could have listened in on a very interesting discussion between Star Swirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever. Oh well, she thought, looks like I’m going all the way back to the Pre-Pre-Classical. I might as well get there as quickly as possible.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
She subconsciously adjusted her stance, spreading her legs slightly to accommodate her widening belly.
Twilight was now in a crowded magical laboratory. A much younger Star Swirl was in mid-conversation with a unicorn who Twilight could only assume was his teacher.
“Of course,” Star Swirl the Not-Yet-Bearded said, “I wouldn’t ask you about the Slime Queen if this crisis were not truly dire.”
Twilight’s ears perked up. She walked closer to the unicorns, ignoring the pressure against the insides of her legs, and the way her expanding gut sloshed with every step.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Star Swirl continued, “I will swear whatever oath you wish—”
“I trust you, lad,” the teacher answered. “Now, the Slime Queen’s defeat was quite a simple matter, once her weakness was discovered. And that was—”
Everything went white.
Twilight restrained herself from thinking a string of ancient unicorn obscenities. However, her anger turned to confusion as she felt gentle pressure traveling up and down her neck, and onto the front of her belly. What the hay? she thought. Wait. Is Zecora... groping me?
A prod in the middle of her belly was the only response.
***
Zecora thought. She rubbed a towel on Twilight’s semi-conscious form, wiping up the potion that had spilled out of the unicorn’s mouth and dribbled down her neck, all the way onto the front of her expanding belly.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Zecora looked again at Twilight’s ballooning gut. The rearmost part was only a few inches away from resting on the ground, and the sides were beginning to spill around her hind legs. Zecora pressed one hoof firmly into the middle of Twilight’s belly. It sank in easily, almost up to her fetlock. This made the sides of Twilight’s gut squish out even further, and her rear legs spread slightly from the force.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight’s gut wobbled when Zecora pulled her hoof away. More liquid dribbled down Twilight’s chin, and Zecora resumed wiping it up, sighing.
***
Scenes from the past were now passing by too quickly for Twilight to react to them.
“Promise not to tell anypony? Well, I hid the treasure in—”
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight’s expanding gut pushed harder and harder against the insides of her legs.
“Now, class, today we’re discussing the war with the Slime Kingdom. How much do you know about the Slime Queen?”
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
When her legs began sinking into the sides of her belly, Twilight subconsciously widened her stance again.
“—course it’s not a scam! How do you think I still look so good? All you need for eternal youth is—”
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Widening Twilight’s legs only briefly relieved the pressure of her belly squishing against them.
“The Slime Queen? Who wants to know about that? Why do they—”
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight widened her stance further—and spread too far. Her hooves slipped on the intangible memory-ground. Of course, she only had a few inches to drop: her enlarged gut cushioned the fall, squishing outward and jiggling under her weight.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
What the hay? Twilight thought. Bouncing up and down on her water balloon of a stomach, she could no longer ignore her new girth.
Then an even bigger surprise distracted her: a familiar voice spoke. “Twilight? Hey, Twilight!”
Twilight kicked her legs, causing her belly to wobble further, until her hooves finally found traction against the ground. She stood up again and found herself, in defiance of all logic, face-to-face with Pinkie Pie. Her bright coat and manic smile were a marked contrast from the brown, grassy plain she and Twilight stood in.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Now, even with her hooves at the widest comfortable stance, Twilight’s gut was pressing firmly against her legs, squishing around their sides.
“What are you doing here?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up and down.
The bottle was removed from Twilight’s mouth and, miraculously, another one did not appear in its place.
“Pinkie Pie?” she said. “How are you time traveling?”
“I’m not time traveling! I’m oh my goodness Twilight! Are you trying to become a balloon?!”
Twilight glanced down at her swollen, sloshing belly. “Not exactly.”
“Good, because it doesn’t work that way. I’ve tried!”
Twilight wondered how best to ask Pinkie what the hay was going on, but she got distracted by another awkward prod in the middle of her stomach. Pinkie hadn’t moved, so it must have been Zecora’s doing. Then she felt a squeeze all the way around her midsection, as though somepony were hugging her. Then, she started—her stomach wobbling, her face flushing, her wings flaring, and her stomach jiggling again for good measure—from the unmistakeable sensation of a hoof against each of her rump cheeks.
“Zecora!”
“I’m not Zecora, silly! I’m Pinkie Pie!”
***
Zecora thought.
Twilight’s bloated form slumped, halfway into the wheelbarrow. For the time being, Zecora might be able to move her like this, but Twilight would certainly become unstable if—or rather, when—she ballooned any further.
She pulled on Twilight’s forelegs. At that awkward angle, it caused Twilight to slosh a bit, without otherwise moving at all. It was strangely hypnotic, but not very helpful.
There was only one thing left to do. With a sigh, Zecora placed both forehooves on Twilight’s rump and gave a strong push. Twilight wobbled and jiggled and slid a few inches further. Zecora continued pushing. After a few minutes of pushing and shoving on Zecora’s part—and plenty of sloshing and shaking and squishing and jiggling and wobbling on Twilight’s part—the round alicorn was securely inside the barrow. She was on her back, with her legs and wings poking out under the sides of her belly, and she was inclined just enough that said belly would not spill over her head as it continued to grow.
Twilight sloshed as Zecora wheeled her to the other side of the house. She squished and wobbled as Zecora checked her belly’s tautness again. This time, Zecora’s hoof sank all the way up to the pastern.
She popped a large funnel into Twilight’s mouth, then grabbed and held a rope pulley. At the other end of the pulley, a massive black cauldron turned, pouring a steady stream of the memory potion into the funnel, down Twilight’s mouth. Twilight’s gut resumed expanding.
***
“Are you okay, Twilight? You’re looking awfully pink!” Pinkie Pie leaned forward, uncomfortably close to Twilight’s face.
Twilight wobbled as she stepped back. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she said, trying her hardest to not react to the repeated pressure against her butt. She could clamp her wings to her side, but she couldn’t control the blush that covered most of her face. “As I was saying, I’m trying to get to year 91 of the Pre-Preclassical Era.”
“But this is year 73! You missed your exit, Twilight!”
“What?! But how—” Twilight’s string of questions was cut short as she felt another object—not one of the familiar glass bottles but something else—between her lips. Just as she identified the object in question as a funnel, the memory potion resumed pouring, filling her mouth even quicker than before.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
“Oh but don’t you worry, Twilight, ’cause auntie Pinkie’s got you covered!” Pinkie said. “It’s super-duper easy to get to whenever you want to visit! All you have to do is—”
Everything went white.
Twilight wanted to sigh, but she couldn’t even do that. She had to swallow too rapidly, and the flow of potion from the funnel was unrelenting.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Events from the past no longer appeared as distinct scenes to Twilight. Rather, they sped past, backwards. Empires were untoppled in revolutions, then gave away land until they shrank to obscurity; forests reverted to grasslands; tiny hills un-eroded into mountains, then sank into the tectonic plates—all these passed in mere seconds.
Everything, it seemed, shrank as Twilight rushed further back in time. Only Twilight grew larger.
The events of the past sped up further, until they were just indistinguishable blurs of light.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
The light could blur no further, so it stopped and did the opposite. It coalesced into a new scene: a long corridor composed of ever-shifting colors. And a bright light shined, beckoning from the end of the corridor.
Twilight tried to trot forward, to the corridor’s end, but thanks to her gut the best she could manage was a slow waddle. Her belly sloshed and jiggled in rhythm with her steps. Further and further it wiggled, until it was no longer clear whether she was shaking her belly, or it was shaking her. And her legs and gut didn’t just press against each other—every step required her to squish her belly out of the way with whichever leg she moved.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight’s massive girth was now making it difficult to move her legs. With every swallow of the potion, her belly was slightly larger, the pressure against her legs was slightly greater, and each step was slightly harder to take than the last.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Halfway down the corridor, she felt her belly brush against the floor, at the lowest point of its wobbling swing. After she’d traveled several feet further, her gut was earnestly bouncing off the floor, sloshing as it did. A few feet further, and her gut landed on the floor but didn’t bounce back—it simply jiggled as Twilight dragged it along.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! ... Mmmh?”
The flow of the potion ceased, and Twilight felt the funnel disappear from her mouth. She took advantage of the respite and continued pressing forward as quickly as she could. Of course, with her massive belly flat on the floor, squeezing around the sides of her legs, progress came slower—and with much more wobbling—than Twilight wished.
A strange vibration played along her wings and the entire length of her spine.
Now what? Twilight thought.
***
Zecora pushed the wheelbarrow and the semi-conscious, jiggling Twilight away from the now-empty cauldron. Shaking and sloshing, Twilight rolled into the back yard, up to the base of Zecora’s two thousand-gallon storage tank. The hose went into Twilight’s mouth before her gut finished shaking.
Zecora prodded Twilight’s belly once again, and her foreleg sank almost halfway to the knee. The belly sloshed again as she removed her hoof and opened the tank’s faucet.
Zecora pulled out her towel and resumed wiping up all the potion that dribbled out of Twilight’s mouth.
***
The force of the memory potion flooding once more into Twilight’s mouth made her pause. Her gut, however, took quite a few seconds to stop moving.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
How much of this stuff does Zecora have? she thought.
Twilight’s belly resumed inflating, and Twilight resumed dragging her sloshing, wobbling self forward.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Now, she swallowed even faster than before, and had less than a second of relief each time before her mouth filled with the potion again.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
One foot further down the hall, she found she was losing her grip on the ground. As her growing belly pushed her spine into the air, her hooves had less and less traction. A few inches later, she could no longer touch the ground with all four hooves. Kicking and jiggling, she rolled forward on her belly, planted her forehooves on the ground, and dragged her rotund mass with just those two legs.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
One inch down the hall. Two inches. Twilight’s spine began to feel funny. She glanced back and saw that her gut was now so large that, if she continued leaning forward onto her forelegs, she stood a very real chance of rolling forward and landing on her back.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight had no interest in discovering the metaphysical implications of smothering her astral-projected self under her own bloated belly. She pushed, rolling back until she was directly atop her wobbling, still-growing gut. None of her legs touched the ground, just the squishy softness of her belly.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
She idly flapped her wings, jiggling slightly at the motion. I wonder, she thought, if I can overload these babies with magic and fly myself over there. Wait, can I even use magic while I’m astral projecting?
She cast her levitation spell, but it did nothing.
***
Zecora felt the magical aura envelop Twilight, and she jumped back as the round body—beginning to resemble a royal purple water balloon—rose several feet into the air.
Then Twilight dropped.
With a crash and many cracks, the wheelbarrow broke to pieces beneath her. A single wheel rolled away from the wreckage, into the trees surrounding the yard. As Twilight’s massive belly jiggled and wobbled from the collision, Zecora rushed forward and removed the sharpest wheelbarrow scraps before any of them could cut the still-ballooning alicorn.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
The hose, at least, had remained in Twilight’s mouth, so the flow of potion down her throat continued unabated.
Zecora placed one hoof on the frontmost part of the inflating belly, where she could push back if it threatened to cover Twilight’s face.
***
Well, Twilight thought. Nothing to do now but wait.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight looked forward. She leaped with surprise at what she saw—or at least she tried to leap, but only succeeded in squishing her legs further into her own belly and jiggling her massive, round form. She rubbed her eyes with her forehooves and waited for her whole body to stop sloshing before she looked forward again.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
It was true: in spite of her huge stomach immobilizing her for the past few minutes, Twilight had somehow gotten closer to the corridor’s end in that interval. In fact, Twilight could now see the corridor moving around her, carrying the end towards her. She briefly wondered how this was possible, then dismissed that line of thought. No sense looking a horse’s gift in the mouth, she reflected.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
She relaxed and waited for the end to come. Her legs squished into her ballooning gut, which in turn continued spreading her legs further and further apart. Twilight’s belly was several times her old height, and its width was even greater, by the time the corridor’s end swept over her.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
Twilight was... nowhere. Aside from a single object—the source of the light Twilight had seen originally—a literal void surrounded her on all sides, extending infinitely. Artistic depictions of voids, as expanses of utter whiteness or blackness, failed to do justice to what Twilight saw: white and black are still things, and what she saw was literally nothing.
It hurt Twilight’s brain to look at the void for more than a few seconds, so she shook her head—causing her belly to wobble and jiggle beneath her—and focused her attention on the glowing object in front of her.
It’s the Singularity, she thought. I’m before the Big Bang, somehow. Before time and space as we know them existed.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp!”
My entire universe is contained inside that point of light...
Sloshing and wiggling, Twilight leaned forward, closer to the Singularity.
“Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! Ulp! ... Mmm?”
The flow of the potion stopped, and the hose disappeared from her mouth. At the same time, the Singularity dimmed slightly. Twilight squinted at it.
Its light isn’t uniform... There’s a pattern in there!
She reached forward, placing both her forehooves behind the Singularity, and she pulled it closer to her face. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did.
Something pressed against her lips. It felt familiar—but it wasn’t another of those cursed bottles or a funnel or a hose, and it wasn’t forcing more of that potion into her mouth, so Twilight thanked her stars and paid it no more mind.
That’s unmistakably a pattern on the surface of the Singularity. I think there’s a message in it...
Twilight’s stomach rumbled, and she felt the pressure inside her grow slightly. She needed to burp. And since she was more alone than any other pony ever had been or ever would be, she felt no qualms about doing so.
The Singularity shook in Twilight’s hooves and pulled away slightly. She pulled back and kept it from escaping. As she did, the pressure against her lips grew—and the gas escaped up her throat and out her mouth—but Twilight focused solely on interpreting the pattern.
***
Zecora thought,
With a rear hoof, Zecora kicked the faucet just right to shut it off, and with her free forehoof she pulled the hose out of Twilight’s mouth. She looked at where her other forehoof rested against Twilight’s belly. Thankfully, in spite of Zecora’s concerns, there had been no danger of that belly spilling onto Twilight’s head.
She prodded the massive gut one last time, then looked down. More of the potion had dribbled out of Twilight’s mouth, so Zecora bent down to wipe her face clean.
At that precise moment, the semi-conscious Twilight reached forward. She placed her forehooves on the back of Zecora’s head.
Zecora froze, and her one chance of escape slipped away.
Twilight pulled Zecora’s head towards her own. Their faces were upside-down, relative to each other, but their lips met. It was easily the most awkward semi-conscious accidental kiss in all of Equestrian history.
Then Twilight’s stomach rumbled.
The memory potion had been closer to its expiration date than even Zecora realized. In fact, it expired almost immediately after the alicorn and the zebra locked lips. Inside Twilight’s huge belly, the first molecules of liquid broke down to a gaseous form, starting a chain reaction of vaporization. The growing volume of gas expanded, causing Twilight to bloat slightly larger, until she opened her mouth to release it.
With a hiss, the gas escaped... right into Zecora’s mouth.
Her eyes bugged open and her cheeks puffed out. She pushed with her legs, trying to get away from Twilight, but the alicorn just tightened her grip on Zecora’s head. Their lips remained sealed together, and the gaseous potion rushed into Zecora’s body.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Zecora’s belly swelled larger than a beach ball, then two beach balls, then three. Her rump inflated as well—each cheek was now equal to Zecora’s normal width, and growing wider. The skin of her belly grew more and more taut and pressed maddeningly against the inside of her legs.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Zecora ceased pushing away and swung her forelegs wildly. She struck Twilight’s belly, but each time her hoof bounced away, producing a dense gloosh! sound.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Gloosh! Gloosh! Gloosh! Gloosh! Gloosh! Gloosh!
Fwooomp!
Zecora’s right foreleg felt funny, and now she could barely move it. Caught in Twilight’s grip, she couldn’t turn her head, but she could see from the corner of her eye that the leg had swollen with air to at least twice its original width. It now stuck straight out to the side. Frantically, she shook her left foreleg, twisting her pastern just the right way to slip her gold leg-bands off. And not a moment too soon: as she watched—Fwooomp!—her left foreleg inflated to the same size as her right leg. It, too, stuck straight out to the side.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
She tested her new, puffy limbs, and found the shoulder was the only joint that still worked. All these inflated legs could do was stick straight out. She could still wiggle them—point the entire leg-puff in a different direction—but even that articulation was growing limited as her inflating body swelled around the base of her legs.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Her rear hooves, at least, still touched the ground, but only for a few seconds more. Her inflating belly reached the ground and pushed against it, lifting her backside into the air. As her hooves left the ground, she kicked with those legs. That was the cue—Fwooomp! Fwooomp!—for each of them to inflate as well.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Zecora’s rump was large enough that each individual cheek was a surface her old self could have comfortably stood upon. Her new, inflating body was in no position to stand, however. She was spread-eagle, wiggling each of her puffed-out legs in futile circles. Though her legs grew wider—at least three times their original width now—their range of motion grew smaller and smaller as their bases sank further and further into her ballooning midsection.
Zecora’s neck began to sting.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Her gold hoop necklaces dug into the base of her neck. In her mind, Zecora chanted a Zebraic mantra, banishing the pain from her consciousness. She wasn’t in danger. Each necklace was not a continuous circle, so her inflating neck would widen the gap at the back of each hoop. Until they popped off, she could deal with a little bit of stinging.
The pressure was steadily lessening between her belly and the ground. The gaseous form of the memory potion was lighter than air, so Zecora’s weight shrank as her volume grew.
***
“For a good time,” Twilight read in her head, “be sure to call...” No, no, that can’t be the right translation.
She shut her eyes, resting them.
She was still very full of the liquid potion and quite sloshy. But enough of it had vaporized and escaped—and continued to do so—that Twilight was already shrinking slowly back to her normal size.
Twilight was certainly thankful that she wouldn’t be stuck with a massive balloon belly any longer than necessary. But, with the memory potion leaking away like this, she now had limited time to decipher this message she had discovered.
She opened her eyes again.
It says, “We apologize for the...” No, that’s not it either!
***
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Zecora was becoming increasingly like a blimp. Her legs had sunk over half their length into her still-growing sides. They squeaked as Zecora frantically wiggled them back and forth as far as they could go—only a few inches. Her rump was becoming indistinct, merging with her midsection.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Her neck swelled further. With a series of snaps and heavy thuds, her hoop necklaces popped off and fell to the ground, one by one. Freed from their weight, her body lifted into the air. Her head, however, remained in Twilight’s grip, so Zecora’s rump rose as high as it could.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Her midsection expanded further. She could no longer move her legs at all. In fact, she could not even see them anymore. Her ballooning body formed a horizon, over which her legs—her increasingly stubby, puffy legs—had disappeared minutes ago. But she could certainly feel as the tight, rubbery skin of her midsection swelled around her fetlocks.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
A similar sensation was at the base of her jaw—her neck had now merged with the rest of her round body, and was beginning to balloon around her head.
Sweat broke out on her brow. she thought.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
With thoughts of mortality on her mind, she didn’t even notice as her midsection swelled completely over the tips of her hooves. Each hoof squeaked slightly as it sank into her ballooning side, out of sight.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
***
“Copyright 1983 to 2010...” What the hay? No, no.
“Repeat to yourself, it’s just a show, I should really...” That can’t be right.
“I understand all destructive urges...” No, that’s just stupid.
***
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Zecora’s diameter was now several times her old height. Four sunken divots in her side were the only indication of where her legs had been.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Her head sank further into her ballooning body. As her own rubbery skin enveloped her, it pushed her ears down against sides of her head. It disheveled her mane, pushing a few strands of hair in front of her eyes. It even pressed against the sides of her inflated cheeks.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Unfortunately, as Zecora’s head sank further, that didn’t cause Twilight’s grip to loosen the slightest bit. Zecora’s rubbery skin just swelled around Twilight’s forehooves, pressing them all the tighter against the back of Zecora’s head. It was clear that every last molecule of memory potion in Twilight’s belly was going to pump into Zecora’s—nothing could be done about that. All Zecora could do was hope that she wouldn’t smother herself before Twilight ran out.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Blackness crept over the edges of Zecora’s vision. She briefly wondered if she was losing consciousness, but she still felt alert. No, this was her ballooning body, now swelling around her eyes. Her field of vision was limited to a three-foot-diameter circle, centered on the tip of her snout.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
Now the field of vision was just two feet in diameter.
Hisssssssssssssssssssss...
One foot in diameter.
Hissssssssss.
The hissing, and the flow of gas, stopped.
Zecora’s field of vision was reduced to a six-inch-diameter circle. But she wasn’t inflating anymore.
Twilight released her grip on Zecora’s head and pulled her forelegs free. There was a tremendous series of squeaks as she yanked her hooves out of the inflated folds of rubbery skin surrounding Zecora’s head, and Zecora’s whole body bobbed with the motion. Finally, Twilight pulled her lips away from Zecora’s and flailed her hooves, bopping them once or twice against the zebra’s round side.
***
“Developed for television by...” Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Twilight rested her eyes again. She had almost shrunk back to her old size, she could feel that. She had less than a minute to decipher this message, but she still hadn’t made any progress.
Come on, Twilight. You can do this.
She opened her eyes, and when she looked again at the Singularity, understanding immediately clicked into place.
Yes! Of course! That’s the message! It’s so simple, but so profound. It makes perfect sense! Everything makes sense now!
She released the Singularity from her hold and proceeded to dance her signature dance. The dance that, according to her best friends, looked more like a seizure—but the void wasn’t going to judge her, so she didn’t care.
She was so caught up in her celebration, she didn’t even notice that she had regained her original size again.
Booyah! I can even use this revelation to stop the Slime Kingdom—
Everything went white.
***
Twilight opened her eyes, back in modern Equestria. She briefly wondered how she had gotten here: she had begun this memory trip inside Zecora’s house, so why was she now lying prone in the back yard, amidst the pieces of a broken wheelbarrow? She decided she would rather not know.
Twilight teleported a few feet to the side, landing on her hooves, then turned to thank Zecora. But Zecora was nowhere to be seen. She spent a few minutes searching the house and its immediate environs, but she could not find the zebra. Stranger still, she found golden hoops of various sizes in the back yard—Zecora’s leg bands and necklaces, abandoned for Celestia-knows-what reason.
Twilight quickly penned a note, and stuck it to the door of Zecora’s icebox.
Dear Zecora,
Thank you so much for your help with that memory potion. I found just what I needed to save the day, and I couldn’t have done it without you. You may want to recheck your dosage equations, though. We overshot 91 PPCE quite a bit, and I actually wound up before the Big Bang! But I achieved complete enlightenment and total understanding of the meaning of the universe, so it all worked out. (Remind me to share it with you some day. It’s pretty interesting!)
But I’m not happy that you grabbed my butt like that. I hope you really enjoyed it, because that’s the only favor you’re getting out of me, in exchange for this adventure.
I found your necklaces and leg bands. I stuck them inside, underneath that empty cauldron. We wouldn’t want something stealing them from your back yard, right?
Anyway, thanks again for your help!
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. On second thought, if you still like my butt, then I’m definitely open to sleeping with you sometime in the near future. Just ask me before you get grabby next time, okay?
Twilight teleported back to Ponyville, to get some food and regain her strength to fly back to the front lines.
***
That afternoon, many Ponyville citizens noticed a round, black-and-gray object hovering over the Everfree Forest. Some wrote it off as an undiscovered creature native to the Everfree. Others simply wondered how a striped balloon of that size wound up in the wilderness like that. Only one pony thought to investigate further.
***
Zecora thought to herself.
Hovering thousands of feet above the forest canopy, Zecora truly resembled a striped weather balloon more than a zebra. The tip of her snout poked out from one side of her almost-spherical body, and her tail hung from the opposite side—the only remaining clues of her true, equine nature.
She felt four points of gentle pressure on her massive withers. Then they moved, traveling up and down her now-gargantuan back.
Some pegasus was walking on her.
Each hoofstep squeaked and tickled. Involuntarily, Zecora shook her whole body and her legs, immobilized as they were within her rubbery skin. This made her entire rounded body tremble and squeak harder.
The hoofs disappeared from her back. A familiar voice called out, “Hellooooooo, beautiful!”
Two sky-blue hooves reached into Zecora’s six-inch field of vision and pushed back the folds of skin that had inflated around her head. Zecora could see again, and she was looking right into Rainbow Dash’s face.
“Man,” Rainbow Dash said, “why didn’t you tell me you were into this kind of thing?”
Dash then angled her body to show off the saddlebag she was wearing. A bicycle pump was tucked into its pocket.
With half-lidded eyes, Dash said, “So, gorgeous, do you have room for any more in there?”
