Expanding Consciousness, Expanding Waistline

Discord snapped his fingers, and brownies appeared in the air—hundreds of them, enough to feed a few dozen ponies. He twirled his hand, and a nearby pink cloud unleashed a torrent of whole milk upon the brownies, completely soaking them. Then, at the flick of his wrist, the entire soggy mass fell into an oversized funnel, slowly disappearing down its length.

“Discord!” Fluttershy shouted at a volume that, coming from any other pony, would have just been normal speech. “You stop that, right now!” She hovered at his eye level, her furrowed brows and scrunched muzzle betraying how much she was piqued—possibly even peeved.

She was just impossible to understand, sometimes.

“But, my dearest Fluttershy!” Discord placed his hands, tenderly, on Fluttershy’s shoulders. Then he slowly rotated, turning Fluttershy with him until she faced away from the funnel. “Why would you ask me to stop when I’m doing all this for you?”

She answered, “That’s what I’m trying to explain! You’re punishing her over something that was just a big misunderstanding. But you’re not listening.”

“Well, I’m all ears now.” Discord’s entire body transformed into a giant, disembodied ear—and at the same time, unseen by Fluttershy, another massive lump of milk-soaked brownies materialized and slopped into the funnel. “Explain it to me.”

Fluttershy nodded, her expression softening a bit. Discord took that as the cue to transform back into his usual mishmash of a body. He looked into Fluttershy’s eyes and gave her a sincere smile, while his self-perpetuating spell loop continued dumping brownies and milk down the funnel, right behind her back.

“Okay,” Fluttershy said. “What you have to understand is…”

—————

“Fluttershy. It’s a blessing to see you again, my beautiful soul sister.”

Fluttershy found herself wrapped in a strong embrace, her muzzle buried in the dreadlocks of her friend’s mane. A mix of fragrances graced her nostrils, the ghosts of a half-dozen different incenses. “It’s nice to see you too, Tree Hugger,” Fluttershy replied, reciprocating the hug.

The two ponies remained in that position for a few seconds. They were on the front porch of Tree Hugger’s house: a one-story, ramshackle dwelling that appeared to have been kludged together from scrap metal and the leftover pieces of other houses. Every home in this rural neighborhood—or commune, as Tree Hugger insisted—was similarly eclectic.

Tree Hugger pulled back, looking at her friend with a gaze that was somehow both mellow and piercing. Her eyes saw into the depths of Fluttershy’s innermost being—and they said, Righteous.

“The stars and your chakras have aligned,” she intoned. “You’ve come just in time.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Fluttershy said, ducking her head gratefully. “I wouldn’t want to delay anypony.” She paused. “Wait… just in time for what?”

“Bad vibrations are harshing my flow. But now you can help restore cosmic bliss.”

“Oh. But what kind of bad vibrations?”

“You’re brilliant like a star in the sky. What kind of vibrations, indeed? Words don’t create meaning—they only constrict it.” Tree Hugger opened her front door, beckoning Fluttershy inside. “To perceive the truth, you need to see it.”

Fluttershy stepped inside and entered a mad dream of tropical forests. Potted plants dominated—they covered most of the floor; they were mounted on the walls; they even hung from the ceiling. The sun’s rays streamed in through a dozen skylights, but thanks to the thick canopy of leaves, less than half of that light reached the floor. Strung from the tree branches were colorful streamers, intricate dreamcatchers, and crystals scattering the light from above. Mirrors and paintings of jungle scenes hid the walls, heightening the illusion that this really was a hidden forest. And the smells were even stronger than Tree Hugger herself—a potent potpourri of burning incense, tropical flowers, damp soil, and a certain distinct something else.

Tree Hugger led Fluttershy deeper into the green sanctuary. At the center was a clearing with a couch and a coffee table—utterly covered with brownies. There were easily thousands of them, stacked to three times a pony’s height. The air even smelled of brownies here, because many of them had just come out of the oven.

“Mmmm, those smell delicious,” Fluttershy said. “Are these your ‘special’ brownies?”

Tree Hugger placed one hoof to her own chest and smiled serenely. “All of my brownies are made with the love of Mother Earth and the wisdom of the cosmos.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“And that’s what’s throwing my chakras out of alignment.” Tree Hugger sighed. “You know how I’ve been trading these brownies—a bit of a side business? Well, my last batch of the wisdom of the cosmos went a little funny. Some of the ponies who partook of my brownies had… side effects.”

“Oh dear. What kind of side effects?”

“Have you ever seen a mare with tits bigger than her head?”

“No… I’m sorry, should I have?”

“So these—” Tree Hugger waved a forehoof at the mass of baked goods on the table, “—are all the brownies I made with that batch. I can’t trade them… but if I just throw them away, that’s like slapping Mother Earth in the face.”

“Maybe they’d make good compost?”

Tree Hugger grabbed Fluttershy’s shoulders and stared directly into her eyes. “Slapping. Mother Earth. In the face.”

Fluttershy shuddered. “Well, when you put it that way…”

“That’s why you must help me restore balance, Fluttershy.” Tree Hugger wrapped one foreleg around Fluttershy’s shoulder—then turned and stepped forward, pulling Fluttershy with her until both their muzzles were just a foot away from the imposing wall of brownies. “Only you can help me eat all these brownies before they go bad.”

“Oh, dear,” Fluttershy said. “I’m not so sure…”

“But you can, Fluttershy! You have the heart of a star and the aura of a lioness! You would do anything to help out your friends!”

Tree Hugger leaned closer to the brownies—once again pulling Fluttershy closer as well—then leaned back again. Both ponies swayed, closer, then away, closer, then away. From this close, they smelled even more enticing. Fluttershy’s mouth was watering...

“But what about the side effects?” Fluttershy said.

“What side effects?”

“Um, you just said that some of the ponies who ate these brownies had side effects. But you didn’t exactly explain what they were.”

“Everything will be groovy. You already ate one of these, remember?”

“Actually, no?”

“You definitely did. And nothing bad happened.”

“I don’t think any of that actually happened.”

Tree Hugger released Fluttershy, then said, “Fluttershy. Time is an illusion. Yesterday is tomorrow, and tomorrow is today. Set your soul free to fly through space.” She held out a brownie, directly beneath Fluttershy’s nose. “Set the brownie free. Be the brownie.”

Fluttershy closed her eyes and breathed deeply of the warm brownie’s fragrance—the smell of chocolate, love, and wisdom. “Okay,” she said. Then she took the brownie from Tree Hugger’s outstretched hoof and popped it into her mouth. Flavor exploded across her tongue; what followed was a blur of chewing and swallowing and moaning. All too quickly, the brownie was gone, leaving behind just a few crumbs on her face.

“More.” Fluttershy flew to the top of the stack, grabbed more brownies and began devouring them.

“Righteous,” Tree Hugger said, through her own mouthful. She was already working on her third piece.

“Mmmmmmm…” Fluttershy moaned as brownie after brownie disappeared down her maw. Each one was a pleasant, comforting warmth in her stomach, which was already spreading to the rest of her body. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if this was the chocolate and sugar, or the wisdom of the cosmos (in her experience, wisdom didn’t kick in this quickly), or just the placebo effect—but either way, she didn’t mind. After eating two dozen brownies, Fluttershy had completely filled her stomach; her belly began to swell as she continued.

Tree Hugger, mellow once again, consumed her brownies at a more sedate pace. But she was only a little bit behind: already her belly bulged as if she had swallowed a basketball. It jiggled slightly as she reached for another piece; it visibly swelled with each mouthful of dessert Tree Hugger gulped down.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was finally slowing. She chewed each brownie for a little longer before swallowing; her pleased moans were a little quieter than before. She wavered in mid-air, clearly unused to hovering with a beach ball-sized belly weighing her down. Already, that belly was thick enough to brush against the inside of her legs. It wobbled with every flap of her wings and shook harder with every pleased kick of her hooves, as her legs squished into its soft sides.

Fluttershy took a full minute to chew her latest mouthful. When she finished, she didn’t grab another brownie; instead, she looked in awe at her own distended belly. “Oh my,” she said quietly. She landed, with much more force than usual, next to Tree Hugger. Her belly, hanging halfway to the floor, continued to wobble for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said, “but I’m feeling pretty full. I don’t think I can eat any more.”

Tree Hugger faced Fluttershy, her own gut shaking as she turned. “Sis, it’s all groovy. Every little bit helps.”

And little bit was accurate: the two ponies had barely made a dent in the stacks of brownies. To Fluttershy’s eye, the mass of dessert didn’t look any smaller than before.

Tree Hugger continued, “As long as you ate every bite you could—that’s all I can ask of you.”

“Oh… um…” Fluttershy cringed.

Tree Hugger looked at Fluttershy with half-lidded eyes and a serene smile.

“Maybe... I could fit a few more in,” Fluttershy said.

“Far out.”

Fluttershy took to the air again, though slower than before. With a sigh, she gulped down one more brownie, and then another, and then another. Her pace picked up as she found her second wind. Sometimes she would shove two or even three pieces into her mouth at once; when she swallowed, they slid down her throat as a thick lump, joining the even thicker mass of dough bloating her stomach.

As she swelled larger with brownies, her gut wobbled more and more beneath her; both the growing weight and the motion made her hovering increasingly erratic. She looked like she’d eaten two prize-winning watermelons. Even as she spread her hind legs to make room for her belly’s expansion, her haunches still squeezed into its sides.

After a few hundred brownies, Fluttershy felt a familiar burning in her flight muscles. She was getting too heavy to remain airborne. So Fluttershy slowed her flapping to descend—and found the floor rushing up, much quicker than she intended.

“Eeep!” She tried to brace for impact, but upon landing, her legs buckled under her own weight all the same. Fortunately, she only fell a foot before her bloated gut cushioned the impact, squishing a few feet to each side as she sank in. Less fortunately, she bounced off that squishy mass—not enough to launch her back into the air, but enough to tip her to the side.

“Oof!” Her shoulder bumped the coffee table before she regained her footing, jostling the huge pile of brownies. One stack in particular—the one nearest to Fluttershy— swayed back and forth precariously. She gazed, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as the leaning tower of brownies lost its balance and fell towards her.

And that’s when Tree Hugger acted. Moving at speeds normally expected from Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie, Tree Hugger zipped over to Fluttershy’s side and grabbed her head. With gentle-but-firm pressure, she held Fluttershy’s mouth open and leaned her head back, in just the right position. She caught the entire stack of brownies—over two dozen—in Fluttershy’s mouth before they could fall.

“Can’t let them touch the floor. That will soil their auras,” Tree Hugger said.

“Mmrrrrmm?” Fluttershy said, through her oversized mouthful of chocolatey goodness. It was definitely oversized: nearly half of this mass stuck out her open mouth, carefully balanced atop the brownies that did fit between her lips.

Tree Hugger placed one hoof on top of the stack.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Nmmmmmmm! Nmmmm!”

Tree Hugger shoved down, forcing all the brownie into Fluttershy’s mouth. Some of that chocolatey dough thrusted its way down her throat, adding a few more inches to her expansive belly; the rest bulged her cheeks out, until Fluttershy resembled one of her squirrel friends. Tree Hugger released Fluttershy but held one hoof over her mouth, as if preventing the brownies from escaping. Slowly, Fluttershy chewed the mass as much as she could. It took her three gulps to swallow those many brownies, each expanding her belly a few inches more—so that it squeezed against her legs even as she tried to widen her stance. Only a few inches remained between the floor and Fluttershy’s huge gut.

After swallowing, Fluttershy panted and rubbed her distended belly with one foreleg, her hoof sinking a few inches into its soft side. “I think…” she said into Tree Hugger’s hoof, “that’s enough… for me.”

Tree Hugger pulled her hoof away and blinked.

“I think that’s absolutely every bite I could possibly eat.” Fluttershy glanced over at the table—even now, she and Tree Hugger had eaten less than a fifth of the brownies. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help more but—”

“Peace,” Tree Hugger said. “It’s all good.”

Fluttershy sighed.

“I can help you, sis.” Tree Hugger held up another stack of two dozen brownies. “That’s what friends are for, right? Helping each other.”

“Wait, wha—Mmmmph!”

Tree Hugger shoved her extra-large hoofful of brownies into Fluttershy’s mouth, once again making her belly swell and her cheeks bulge to the size of softballs. “Hrrmm! Hrrmmm!” Fluttershy said, frantically, through her mouthful. Then her eyes widened again, as Tree Hugger grabbed another stack and stepped towards her. “Mrrrmmm!”

Tree Hugger pulled Fluttershy’s mouth open, shoved three dozen more brownies in, then forced it shut. Even as her cheeks swelled, Fluttershy swallowed reflexively, twice. As her gut expanded even further, she felt it brush against the floor. A quick glance down confirmed that her belly had grown to twice her usual width. She glanced back up just in time for Tree Hugger to thrust another load of brownies down her gullet.

“You are strong and beautiful,” Tree Hugger said. That mellow smile never left her face as she grabbed still more brownies and stuffed them into Fluttershy. “You can eat all the brownies you want, and don’t let anypony tell you otherwise.”

“Hmm nmm wwnnmm hhnnmm mmnnnmm…” Fluttershy whimpered, but her pleas went unheeded. As Tree Hugger approached with yet another serving of the desserts, Fluttershy tried to scramble away, backwards. But it was a very slow scramble. Her dough-stuffed stomach bulged to the sides, forcing her legs out at a wide angle: Fluttershy could only waddle awkwardly, and even then she had to squish her legs into the sides of her bloated gut with every step. And that gut dragged along the floor as she went, slowing her progress to a crawl. So Tree Hugger, walking at a normal pace with her merely beach-ball-sized stomach, had no problem catching up with Fluttershy and feeding her even further.

And that force on her face, added to Fluttershy’s own awkward footing, was enough to knock her off-balance. She tumbled backwards—or rather, thanks to her enormous belly, she rolled backwards, until she hit a particularly large ceramic pot housing a breadfruit tree. There she rested, sitting upright on her rump.

“Great idea,” Tree Hugger said. She circled around the coffee table and pushed, scooting it into place at Fluttershy’s right side. Then she trotted back to Fluttershy and leaped atop her belly, squishing that swollen stomach beneath her own weight. As Tree Hugger sat up and faced Fluttershy—straddling her yellow gut with her hind legs—her rump and haunches, and the bottom of her own gut, sank a few inches into the brownie-stuffed softness.

Fluttershy, who had been frantically chewing and swallowing all this time, finally gulped down her last mouthful. “Tree Hugger! I really, really, really think I’ve had enough now!”

Tree Hugger said nothing, and simply smiled serenely as she bounced up and down atop Fluttershy’s stomach.

“Um, Tree Hugger?”

“Whoa,” Tree Hugger finally said. “Did you ever notice that your belly is like a water bed? But without the water. Or the bed.”

“What?”

Up, down, up, down—Tree Hugger bobbed atop that pegasus belly. “It’s just like, ‘Look at me. I’m a boat. Floating peacefully on the ocean.’”

“But… I don’t want to be the ocean…”

Tree Hugger grabbed another heaping hoofful of brownies—from this perch, the thousands of still-uneaten brownies were within easy reach. “And, of course, we need to keep the ocean healthy…”

“No! No, pl—Uumph!” In spite of Fluttershy’s protests, the mass of brownies forced its way into her mouth. “Mrrrmmmhrrrrm!” Mere seconds later, it was followed by another hoofful, and then another, and another. Now that Tree Hugger, without moving from her perch atop that belly, could so easily reach both the brownies and Fluttershy’s thick-cheeked, wide-eyed face, she used that position to stuff Fluttershy even faster than before. Tree Hugger also ate some brownies herself—as if trying to pretend that this was still a joint effort to eat them all—but for every piece that passed her own lips, ten or twenty forced their way down Fluttershy’s gullet.

Fluttershy tried to fight back, flailing all four legs—but none of them could reach far enough, so all they did was squish into her belly and jiggle it even harder. She couldn’t even move from this position, pinned as she was between her bloated gut and the potted tree behind her. Already, her stomach was too thick for Fluttershy to wrap her hooves around, and it grew larger with every passing second, with each of the dozens upon dozens of brownies force-fed to her. She had already gulped down more than her weight in the desserts, and she was quickly approaching twice that much. Her hind legs spread unconsciously, pushed apart by her stomach’s continued expansion—even so, her haunches dug several inches into that stomach’s bloating sides. To her right side, her gut rested against the edge of the coffee table that bore her unwanted feast. Meanwhile, the farthest point of Fluttershy’s belly reached all the way to the tips of her hooves—then, with the next mouthful swallowed, grew an inch past her hooves, then another, and another.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…” Tree Hugger hummed a mantra to herself, bobbing rhythmically atop Fluttershy’s wobbling gut. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…” Her eyes were nearly shut, yet her movements were smooth, methodical, and efficient: grab a hoofful of brownies, eat one herself, shove the rest into Fluttershy’s mouth, repeat. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…” All the while, Tree Hugger slowly rose into the air, lifted by Fluttershy’s belly expanding beneath her.

On the other hoof, Fluttershy’s mumblings were far less serene. “Mmnnmm, mmhhrrmm…” she whimpered behind swollen cheeks, through the seemingly endless stream of chocolatey desserts that filled her to three times her normal weight and beyond. She frantically chewed her oversized mouthfuls—but with each new mass of brownies arriving seconds after the last, there just wasn’t enough time to eat any of them properly. “Mmmhhmmhhmmm…” Fluttershy couldn’t tell anymore if she was swallowing the rich dough, or if it was forcing its own way down her throat—filling her stomach ever larger—at its own rhythm. Her belly extended a few feet past the tips of her hooves, swelling farther with every passing second. Her legs spread wider and wider, forced even farther apart by the bloating mass of her stuffed gut. That gut also bulged around the coffee table’s edges—with a slight creak, that piece of furniture slid away, slowly pushed by Fluttershy’s continued expansion.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmm… Mmh?” Tree Hugger reached for more brownies but found only empty air. Her trance broken, she leaned a bit farther—then lost her balance and tumbled off the hill of Fluttershy’s belly, onto the table. She brushed her dreadlocks off her muzzle and quietly appraised this new development, with that serene expression not leaving her face for a second. There were more brownies still: just over a third of their original number remained uneaten. But they were on the far side of the table, which itself had been pushed away by Fluttershy’s expansion. In fact, the table was still sliding slowly, as Fluttershy swallowed the few dozen brownies still in her mouth, adding those last few inches to her enormous girth.

Tree Hugger glanced between Fluttershy, the remaining brownies, and the table beneath. Her smile widened, ever-so-slightly.

Fluttershy gulped down the last mouthful of brownies and panted. “Oh… oh dear.” She couldn’t see any more brownies—granted, she could barely see anything past her swollen gut—and she permitted herself to hope that she’d eaten the last of them. Because she didn’t think she could take any more. Actually, she didn’t exactly think that—she was finding it harder and harder to think straight, the ironic side-effect of the wisdom in the brownies finally kicking in—but she certainly felt like she couldn’t take any more brownies. Her belly tingled where her skin had stretched (everywhere) to contain that impossible volume of dough. That really seemed like a not-good thing. And all that dough felt as dense and heavy as a rock—which made Fluttershy remember Maud Pie and almost laugh.

Perhaps this was all just an illusion? Perhaps it was not Fluttershy’s body that was pinned down by a massively swollen belly, but her mind. She reached one foreleg out, half-expecting it to pass right through the yellow, furry globe before her. It did nothing of the sort. Her hoof sank a few inches into her own skin, then would go no further—and Fluttershy unmistakably felt the tingling increase in that spot, and the ripples that spread all across her gut from that point.

“Oh deeeaaar…” she murmured.

Fluttershy looked up—just in time to see the coffee table and its remaining brownies rise into the air. Tree Hugger lifted the whole table with her earth pony strength, effortlessly setting it atop Fluttershy’s massive belly. Fluttershy stared, open-mouthed, as the table wobbled slightly, yet none of the brownies fell.

“Whaaaaat—Mmmph.”

Fluttershy’s inquisition was cut short when Tree Hugger shoved a massive funnel into her open mouth. Tree Hugger then trotted around that huge, yellow stomach, to the chair she had placed opposite Fluttershy. As she stepped onto the chair, reared back, and placed her forelegs on the coffee table’s edge, Tree Hugger closed her eyes and resumed humming her mantra.

“Mhhhmm?” Fluttershy found it hard to think, but she could worry just fine without thinking. And she was getting a bit worried.

Tree Hugger pushed, tipping the table forward until its opposite edge touched the funnel in Fluttershy’s mouth.

“Mmmnnnmmm!”

Some of the remaining brownie stacks began to slide down the table; others lost their balance and fell. It was a chocolate landslide rushing straight towards the funnel and Fluttershy.

“Mmmmhmmmmhmmmm…” she managed to whimper before the first mass of brownies invaded her mouth.

What followed was, for Fluttershy, just a blur of chewing and swallowing, growing pressure in her mouth and her stomach, and delicious chocolate flavor.

She chewed reflexively, barely softening the pieces before they were forced down her throat, rammed deeper by the remaining mass of dessert. As the brownies poured in too fast for her to swallow, her cheeks began to bulge again—while her stomach resumed expanding with all the slices that she did manage to swallow. Her gut extended several feet past her hooves by then, and was brushing against Tree Hugger’s chair already. For her part, Tree Hugger leaned in, to keep the table tilted at the proper angle, her own swollen belly squishing against Fluttershy’s exponentially larger one. Every time Tree Hugger shifted her hind legs, both guts jiggled in unison.

Fluttershy’s forelegs subconsciously rubbed her belly—occasionally prodding it, sending more ripples across its wobbling surface—as it filled with four times her weight in dessert, rapidly approaching five. Her hind legs, meanwhile, had spread as far apart as they physically could; as her stomach widened even farther, her legs dug deeper into its sides, almost disappearing as that squishy stomach bulged around them.

At long last, the final brownie slid into the funnel. It was just in time—Fluttershy’s growing belly knocked over the chair, once more sending Tree Hugger tumbling. Likewise, the coffee table wobbled and slipped off that gut, landing upside down with a loud Crash! Tree Hugger wasn’t startled by the noise; she calmly rose to her hooves and trotted off to the kitchen.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, continued gulping down those last brownies. Her cheeks, swollen as big as her head, slowly shrank once again—their volume draining to her enormous belly, filling it even larger. By the time Fluttershy swallowed the last mouthful, she was bloated with just over six times her weight in desserts.

And that was when Tree Hugger returned from the kitchen, balancing on her back a stainless steel mixing bowl, larger than herself. Deftly, she hoisted the bowl up and set it on Fluttershy’s belly.

“Hrrrmm?” Fluttershy mumbled.

Tree Hugger climbed atop that huge gut herself. Tapping the side of the bowl, she said, “Almost forgot about the brownies I mixed but didn’t cook yet. Don’t want to let them go to waste, do we?”

“Nrrrmm! Nmmmm!”

Tree Hugger picked up the bowl and tipped it forward. After just a few degrees, the first drops of thick, brown liquid slipped over the edge, landing in the funnel. More drips followed, then a dribble, then a thin stream.

“Hmmhmmmhmmm…” Fluttershy moaned as the raw brownie batter poured down her throat. It settled deep in her stomach, the liquid quickly filling every crevice between the brownies. And then it kept pouring in, stretching her stomach even farther.

A thick stream of batter poured from the mixing bowl, now—the funnel almost overfilled a few times, but Tree Hugger tilted the bowl back to ensure that no batter was lost, that every drop poured into Fluttershy. Her aim was perfect, even as Fluttershy’s inflation pushed her higher and higher.

“Mmmmmmm…” Fluttershy pleaded, scrunching her eyes shut as gallons upon gallons of batter rushed into her with the force of a hose. She had swallowed over nine times her weight by that point. Her hind legs were still immobilized, with even her haunches digging a full foot into her gut’s bloating sides. At those spots, her skin’s tingling gave way to outright stinging. Fluttershy tried to reach down to massage those spots and relieve some tension—but her forelegs would barely move. Her inflating stomach bulged further around those limbs as well, trapping them more tightly with every passing second.

“Hhhmmmmm!” When she tried again to move her legs, all that did was slosh her gut as it swelled larger and larger. Fluttershy was completely pinned in place by her own expanding belly—filled with ten times her weight, and still counting. She was helpless to do anything but drink gallon after gallon of batter and inflate, inch after inch, foot after foot, larger than she ever thought possible. “Nnrrmmmmmm!” She was more brownie dough than pegasus—a receptacle to dump vast quantities of nearly expired desserts—a vessel to be filled, and filled further, swollen larger and larger until…

The flow of batter slowed to a trickle. Tree Hugger scraped the last coating off the bowl’s inside with a spatula—one last mouthful of batter down the funnel, to add a final few inches to Fluttershy’s mind-boggling girth.

“Hmmmmm…” Fluttershy was in a daze, barely noticing as Tree Hugger climbed back down with the bowl, then pulled the funnel out of her mouth. The world spun around Fluttershy—as Tree Hugger rolled her forward until she sprawled atop her own belly—and her only reaction was a bleary, “Whaaaaaaaaa?”

Tree Hugger gazed up at what her friend had become. Fluttershy was a tiny pegasus attached to a smooth, yellow blob of a stomach, stuffed with fifteen times her normal weight in brownies and batter. That belly was twice a normal pony’s height, and twice again as wide. From this position atop her stomach, Fluttershy’s legs were no longer pinned by its enormous girth—though they still sank into the sides a few inches.

“Groovy,” Tree Hugger said.

Fluttershy, overwhelmed by drowsiness from her excessive meal, lowered her head and closed her eyes. Her stuffed belly made an excellent pillow, and she fell asleep in seconds.