Daring Do and the Big Medicine

“Daring Do!” Ymalotl broke out in a big smile, then switched into Canterlot-accented Equestrian: “I didn’t recognize you! Wow, it’s been too long. What brings you here?”

“Oh, you know, same old, same old.” Daring chuckled. “Seriously, though, Ahuizotl thinks you llamas have some kind of ancient artifact of unimaginable power. So of course he—”

“Wants to steal it and use it to take over the world.” Ymalotl shook his head. “Oh, brother. That old chestnut...”

“So it’s not true then? Still, I had to check, just in case. And warn you.” Daring shrugged as best she could, with her legs bound. “So, why’d you tie me up like this? It’s a heck of a way to greet visitors.”

The smile fell from the llama’s face. “They’re for our safety. What I said before about death, and you needing to drink medicine—that was completely serious. On your way here, did you see a creeping vine with red flowers and yellow-spotted leaves? Did you touch it?”

Daring racked her brain. “Umm...”

“The wax on its leaves is a dangerous poison to llamas and ponies alike,” Ymalotl said as he walked over to one of the giant gourds. “Within a few days, any who touch it will lose their mind, become violent, and then die.”

“Oh. That’s no good.”

Ymalotl tapped the gourd’s side. For the first time, Daring noticed that both gourds had bamboo pipes, as thick as a pony’s hoof, emerging from their bases, rising a few feet, then ending in spigots. “Fortunately,” the llama said, “we have medicine to prevent that. And now that you’re awake, you can have your dose and be on your merry way!”

“Great! Thank you so mmmmrrph!” Daring got cut off by Ymalotl shoving a large funnel into her open mouth.

The llama grabbed Daring’s shoulders and pulled her along the pole, towards the gourds. One of the spigots was angled towards the pole; Ymalotl left Daring with her mouth-funnel directly underneath the spout. “Now, this might be bitter,” he said. “But you have to take the whole dose. A bit over a... quart, yes.”

He grabbed the handle and rotated it. The liquid, dark brown and thicker than water, slopped out of the spigot and down the funnel. A rich, dark scent filled Daring’s nostrils just as the fluid filled her mouth. This was a cocoa extract—sugarless, and with a much more intense flavor than the chocolates one could buy in Canterlot. Daring smiled around the funnel as she gulped down a mouthful. Sure, llama-style cocoa was relatively bitter, but she had developed a taste for the drink on previous trips down the Amarezon. From Ymalotl’s little warning, she’d been expecting something much worse.

As she swallowed her third mouthful, more hooves approached the door, and quickly. Another llama rushed into the room—dressed like Ymalotl, but with a yellow cloak, and smaller feathers in her hat. She was winded from running, but gasped out a message in Llamanese that Daring could mostly understand: “” Gasp. “ something ” Gasp. “ something something ”

Ymalotl regarded the newcomer. “”

“”

Ymalotl shook his head, then trotted out the door, muttering, “” The yellow-cloaked llama followed right behind him, and the two guards departed after her—leaving Daring, once again, alone in the room.

Okay, then, she thought, gulping down more of the cocoa. I guess I’ll just... take my medicine all by myself.

As she swallowed again, she noticed how full she felt. Hmm, I wasn’t keeping track. How much more makes a quart?

A bit over a minute passed, and Daring drank mouthful after mouthful. As her belly began to swell with the volume, she thought, Alright, that’s definitely a full dose. So now I just...

The situation finally sank in. Daring Do was bound and completely alone. She couldn’t shut off the flow of cocoa, and no one was around to do it for her.

Oh, horsefeathers. How much is in that gourd?

She gulped down some more as her belly bloated out further—pressing against the rope that bound her torso. Daring tried to turn her head, to get out from underneath the spigot, but the funnel was just too big. No matter which way she tried to turn, no matter how she twisted her neck, the funnel would catch on the spout, ensuring that every drop of cocoa flowed right into her mouth, filling her stomach even more. She was as large as a beach ball now, though squeezed in the middle by the rope over her wings.

“Rrrrrrrrr—” Gulp. “—rrrrrrrr—” Gulp. “—rrrrrrrgh!” Daring’s eyebrows furrowed in helpless rage. She reared her head back, then thrust forward—jabbing the pipe with the edge of the funnel as hard as she could.

Ow, she thought, as pain radiated from her teeth. Bad idea.

Her belly sloshed from the sudden motion, as it inflated further. The spigot also vibrated from the collision—then something inside it made a loud snap.

Suddenly, the cocoa poured out twice as fast as before.

Daring angrily murmured into the funnel, “Mmrr—” Gulp. “—rrrr—” Gulp. “—rrrr—” Gulp. “—rrrrrmmm!” Her belly inflated even faster under the sudden flood of cocoa. Her swelling torso would have hung to the ground, if she were standing up—and if that rope weren’t wound tight around her middle. Said rope frayed from the pressure as her stomach bloated beneath it, but it still held strong enough to dig deeper into her skin the larger she grew.

Daring scrunched her eyes shut and pulled her foreleg. She pulled with all her strength, until once again she felt the padding give and her hoof slide through. The motion set her huge belly wobbling once more—and that motion snapped several more strands in the center rope. Her belly bounced off her legs, and the inside of her haunches, as it sloshed back and forth. Daring ignored that sensation—and the maddening pressure building in her gut, and the intense stinging where the rope fought its losing battle to constrain her stomach—and focused instead on pulling on her hoof, over and over. With every hard-won quarter-inch, her huge belly shook harder from the effort, and the rope around it frayed even further.

Thanks to the funnel, Daring couldn’t see her hooves, but she could feel how close she was to freedom—and she was smiling. Then she pulled once more, and the smile fell off her face as the bond suddenly tightened around that hoof. She gave another yank, just to prove that this had actually happened; not only did the hoof refuse to budge, but the ropes and padding tightened around her other three hooves, too. Daring couldn’t see it, but her legs were thickening as they filled with liquid, just like her stomach.

She simply hung there in stunned disbelief for several seconds, inflating further from the relentless flow of cocoa. Then, with a muffled war-cry, she lunged, pulling furiously with her forelegs, over and over, in a futile attempt to free them. Her bloating stomach shook even harder than before—which proved too much for the rope around it. The last cords snapped, freeing her cocoa-swollen belly to wobble and jiggle and inflate even further. It completely filled the space between her limbs now, squishing against the wooden pole, against the insides of her legs—squeezing around them as it grew even wider. Her wings, now likewise unconstrained, shot straight out of their own accord. Then they, too, inflated—with a balloon-like gloosh, gloosh, gloosh, gloosh—each individual feather thickening into a fat finger-shape in rapid succession. Her back rounded out; she was beginning to resemble a furry balloon with limbs.

Daring ignored that, however. And she ignored just how good it felt to finally be rid of that rope around her torso. She even ignored the heightened sensitivity of the water bed that had once been her belly, as its side squeezed maddeningly around her legs. She was focused solely on yanking her forelegs free—the ropes’ increasing tightness merely spurring her to more frantic thrashing. Daring pulled and pushed and bucked her entire body, but her efforts grew more futile by the minute, as her legs inflated larger inside the bonds. Her gut wobbled and shook hypnotically as it continued expanding to the sides; her ballooning wings flopped back and forth from her motion.

The wooden pole that she hung from was beginning to warp now. It sagged down from the weight of the gallons upon gallons she swallowed—while between her legs, it bent the opposite direction as her bloating belly applied ever-increasing pressure upward.

“Hrr—” Gulp. “—rrrr—” Gulp. “—rhrr—” Gulp. “—rrrrh!” Daring’s growl of impotent fury would have been wordless even if there hadn’t been anything blocking her mouth.

Daring thrust forward hard enough to push the pole out of its holder on the wall, between the gourds. The end only lifted a few inches before slamming back down again. Daring’s gut sloshed even more from the impact. She thrust again, harder than before. The pole bounced off the side of the gourd—the one that wasn’t currently pouring endless gallons of cocoa down her throat—before landing back in its holder, creaking ominously as it bent even further from her weight. Daring growled as she shoved, harder still.

The pole’s end rose a full foot into the air, then bounced off that same gourd once more. This set the gourd rocking back and forth on its base, and rotating as it did. With ponderous motion, it spun inward until its spigot was directly above Daring’s mouth-funnel—then it finally slammed against the floor and came to rest.

The impact broke something inside the pipe. Cocoa poured out the second spout now. It started off as a trickle then quickly grew, until the flood of dark liquid from the second gourd outpaced that from the first. Daring’s ears folded back as her cheeks bulged out—she could barely swallow fast enough to keep up with the volume pouring into her mouth.

She swelled out a foot in every direction, and that was finally too much for the pole to take. The shaft simply snapped at both spots where her legs were tied, dumping her on her back, on the straw mats below. Daring was so round now that her back cushioned the fall, and her head never touched the floor. Her bulk sloshed from the landing, her belly bouncing the broken-off segment of the pole clear to the other side of the room. Her wings splayed out on the ground, their feathers swelling thicker and blunter with every further mouthful of cocoa she swallowed. Because of course her head was still underneath both spigots—and Daring, dazed, could do nothing more than gulp down gallon after endless gallon of the thick liquid.

Her hooves remained bound to each other, but not for long. Between the force of her enormous belly pushing her legs out as it inflated even larger, and the liquid building up inside her legs, the pressure on those ropes increased inexorably. Finally the bonds gave up, first on her hind legs, then her fore. Before Daring could even think of reacting, her legs splayed straight out—and when Daring tried to move them, they refused to budge. They were fat balloons now, too inflated to flex at all. The sensation of skin rubbing against skin—hair against hair—told her that her bloating belly had squished over the bases of her legs. Her torso was swallowing her limbs as it inflated ever larger.

Daring was completely unbound now, yet she was, if anything, even more helpless than before. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but the unrelenting flow of cocoa wouldn’t even let her do that. All she could do was swallow, and swallow, and inflate even more, and wonder just how large she would be when this was finally over...

———

Ymalotl and his small retinue trotted up to the cottage—the one on the outskirts of the city, where visitors could be quarantined until they received their medicine.

“” he said, “

Xchactlat, the llama in the yellow cloak, answered, “”

“” Ymalotl pulled aside the door curtain, and his jaw dropped. “”

The cottage interior seemed smaller, but only because a huge, brownish-gold balloon nearly filled the whole thing. At the widest point, there was only a foot of space between Daring Do’s bloated torso and the walls, and the top of her belly brushed against the ceiling rafters. Her legs had sunk into her sides, until only her hooves—inflated to three times their usual size—remained visible. Her wings, stretched across the floor, were filled so large they could have been Princess-size mattresses.

She had completely drained both gourds and swollen up with thousands of gallons of cocoa.

Daring’s face was barely visible around the great curve of her bloated body. She glared daggers at the llamas.

Ymalotl and Xchaclat exchanged glances. “” they both said.