Cupcakes Redux

Chapters

1. Baking
2. Basement
3. Stuffing
4. Guests, part 1
5. Guests, part 2

1. Baking

Sugarcube corner looks so much like it's actually made of candy, you could just about get a cavity if you stare at it too long. Living there would certainly be detrimental to anypony who was forced to adhere to the traditional laws of physics.

But then there was Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash shook herself from her thoughts as she circled down to the front door of the aforementioned establishment, answering a call from the aforementioned inhabitant.

"OK, Pinkie, I'm here. What --"

"DASHIE!" Pinkie had somehow appeared right behind her, possibly hovering in midair, but Rainbow was too busy jumping in the air, losing her balance, and crashing into a chair to see for sure. She now lay on her back on the floor, wings all askew and hind legs propped up against said chair.

"Oh sorry Dashie! Didn't mean to scare you!" Pinkie bounced over to help her up.

"Yeah I'm sure," RD muttered. "Anywhooves, what'd you want me here for? I'm missing some epic cloud-napping, the weather is AWESOME today."

"We're baking cupcakes!" Pinkie cried cheerily.

Rainbow cocked her ears away in an attempt to decrease any hearing damage caused by Pinkie's voice. "That's ... that's it? You bake cupcakes all the time!"

"But I wanted to bake them with you! We haven't hung out for a while and I ... I thought ... " Pinkie's voice trailed off, her gaze fell to the foor, and she began tracing small circles on the floor with her hoof. It is also worth noting that her hair drooped slightly.

Oh Celestia, thought Rainbow Dash, She's not gonna start talking to buckets of turnips again, is she?!

"OK, Pinkie Pie, I'd be happy to bake cupcakes with y--"

"YAAAAAAYYY!" Pinkie's shriek once again made RD's ears ring, but at least she was staying sane now ... well, relatively speaking.

=============

"♪♫ ... Add it to the mix! ♪♫"

Rainbow Dash was finally getting into a rhythm of mixing, pouring and baking alongside the frizzy bundle of energy that buzzed around her. She remembered Twilight saying something about science stuff that was only solid when you looked at it ... she didn't remember all the details, but she wouldn't have been surprised if it aplied to Pinkie as well.

The cupcakes were more than twice the size of traditional ones, and Pinkie was baking batch after batch of them until they covered most of the counter space in te kitchen. And thet's saying something, considering it's the kitchen of a bake shop.

"Wow, Pinkie, this is a lot of cupcakes. Are you planning on throwing a party for all of Ponyville?"

"Nah, I just have a few ... special guests coming, who will need ... some extra feeding."

Rainbow Dash processed this for a few moments and decided it was best no to ask.

=============

The last bit of frosting was smeared onto the last cupcake of the last stack on the last table.

Both ponies wiped their brows and gazed up at the fruits of their hard work.

"That is a lot of cupcakes," Rainbow said.

"Eeyup!" Pinkie agreed.

"Well, I better be off then. It was fun, Pinkie! Really, it was." She jabbed Pinkie's shoulder with her hoof.

"Oh! Wait! I have one more surprise for you!" She disappeared around a corner in a blur.

"Oh! Uh ... all right."

The pegasus let her eyes wander around the kitchen, taking in the display of sugary, fattening goodness. She now realized she was feeling quite hungry from all the hard work she'd done all afternoon. Surely one cupcake wouldn't be missed. After all, there were so many ...

Just as the tip of her hoof touched the side of one of the confections, something hard and flat slammed against the top of her head, sending her vision swirling for a few moments before she lost consciousness.

~*~

2. Basement

The first thing Rainbow Dash noticed as she came to was a slight musty smell, as if she were in a basement or cave. The next thing was a stiffness not uncommon after a nap. After yawning and smacking her lips, she turned to stretch out her legs and wings--

Except she could barely move them.

Her eyes snapped open to see a wooden beam structure above her, and the sound of dripping water a little more distant, possibly in the next room. As she continued to struggle to move, she realized she was lying on her back on a wooden table with her hooves shackled to each of the four corners.

"What the hay?!" She said involuntarily, and quite loudly. Her voice echoed slightly off the stone walls. Despite the musty smell, the place looked nicely kept-up, though was still obviously underground. Lined up against the walls were a bookshelf and a number of folding tables, all stacked with many of the cupcakes Rainbow and Pinkie had baked earlier.

Ah! Memories began to re-surface in Dash's mind. Mixing and baking, being about to eat one ... then blackness. What had happened? Had someone broken in? But who would rob a small town bakery? Unless ...

Rainbow's thought process was interrupted by a cloppity-clop-clop sound coming from around the corner. She craned her neck to see above her restrained body to locate the source of the sound.

To her great surprise and relief, it was none other than the crazy Pink one, bouncing up and down as if on a trampoline, likely because simply walking didn't burn off enough of the endless energy of hers.

"Oh thank Celestia! Pinkie, you're OK! Help me out of this!" RD strained against her shackles to emphasize her point.

"Oh yay! You're awake!" Pinkie bounded over to the helpless pegasus and rested her front legs across Rainbow's belly "How ya feeling?"

Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. "I--er--Pinkie, what's going on? Why am I tied up?"

"'Tied' up? Oh silly Dashie, these are shackles! If you were TIED up, that would mean I used ROPE. Well, I suppose 'shackled up' sounds rather silly. Oh! You could have said, 'chained up,' since shackles and chains are kinda similar, at least in that they're both made of metal. I wonder where the word 'shackle' even comes from! I'll have to ask Twilight next time I see her."

Rainbow's jaw dropped open. "You ... you mean ... YOU did this, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yep! So anyway, back to my original question -- how are you feeling?" She leaned over Rainbow's face with a huge, expectant grin plastered over her face.

"I ... uh ..." While Dash's primary cranial circuitry chewed over the ... rather odd circumstances she now found herself in, the smaller-yet-much-faster auto-pilot area of her brain kicked in to answer simple questions. "Mostly stiff."

"Not hungry at all?"

"I ... well, food is about the last thing on my mind right now, what ith being all ... shackled up right now." She waggled her hooves the best she could for emphasis.

"Surely you must be ... just a little?" Pinkie had stepped back from the table Dash was attached to and now sat on her haunches, looking up at the pegasus with the most soul-melting puppy-dog eyes anypony had ever seen.

Even under these circumstances Rainbow Dash was completely disarmed by this. "I ... you ... Pinkie, please let me go. This isn't funny. I--"

She was cut short by a deep growl from her stomach. She winced, both from a hungry cramp, and from the fact the Pinkie was now bouncing and squealing in such glee you'd think Princesses Celestia and Luna had both thrown her a party, inviting all of Equestria and filling twice the area of Canterlot.

"...Pinkie...?" RD did not know what to make of any of this.

Pinkie Pie now grabbed one of the cupcakes and held it near Rainbow's face. "Time for dessert!"

"Wha--UMFF!!" Rainbow started to say something, but then Pinkie took immediate advantage of her open mouth and crammed the entire cupcake in. Now remember, these are quite large cupcakes, nearly as large as a pony's head, so Rainbow Dash's mouth was now stuffed so full she couldn't even close it all the way. Her cheeks bulged with the soft, moist flesh of the cake, and a bit of the frosting oozed out and down the corners of her mouth. After much struggling, complete with grunts, moans, and a little choking, she managed to chew and swallow the whole thing.

Tongue lolling out and panting heavily, Rainbow Dash leaned her head back against the wooden surface of the table and took a few moments to catch her breath. When she looked up, she saw Pinkie Pie standing over her patiently, holding another cupcake on her hoof.

"Next course!"

As the cupcake grew to fill nearly her whole vision, Rainbow's mouth quivered slightly and a single tear ran down her cheek.

"Mommy ..."

~*~

3. Stuffing

Rainbow Dash lost count of how many cupcakes she had consumed after about ten. He muscles ached from straining against the shackles that pinned her to the table. Pangs of tightness shot up from her stomach as it was filled beyond the capacity it was designed for.

"Urgh ... Pinkie ... ponies ... aren't meant to ... eat this much ..." a noisy burp rumbled up from the depths of her abdomen.

"Yeah, I knooooow! It's so hard to pack in as much nummy treats as you want! I should talk to Princess Celestia about that, see if she can fix it! Hmm ... y'know, come to think of it, did she actually create ponies? I'm not sure. Twilight probably knows. Add that to the list of things to ask her!"

Rainbow Dash is again left speechless by the ramblings of the pink blur of energy. And of course Her slack-jaw is interpreted by Pinkie Pie as a request for more dessert. Sooooo ... in goes another cupcake!

Rainbow Dash moaned as her cheeks bulged with more sweets. As Pinkie shoved it all the way down her throat, the cupcake caused a visible bulge in Rainbow's neck that traveled down, before it too disappeared into her roughly-basketball-sized stomach. RD's legs twitched involuntarily as a response to the odd sensations of being sooooo stuffed, apparently much to Pinkie's amusement.

"Oh Dashie, you so cuuuuuute!" Pinkie smooshed Rainbow's face between her hooves, giving her a pucker-lipped "fishy-face." Rainbow mumbled and sputtered in response. Giggling like a schoolfilly (or perhaps a mad clown), she turned to RD's gurgling belly, kneading it with her hooves. She seemed to purr slightly as she did so, and Rainbow winced, writhed, and belched again.

"Awww! Poor hungry filly have a tummy-ache?" Rainbow Dash had no rational response to the question. Pinkie snuggled up to her "tummy" and nuzzled her face before backing up a step and examining her work. "I think you've had enough cupcakes for now, young lady."

Rainbow had a few moments to breathe a sigh of relief before Pinkie shouted, "PIE TIIIIIIIIME!!!" The plates on the tables clattered slightly from the force of her voice.

As Pinkie was lifting a slice of cherry pie over Rainbow's face, the pinned pegasus managed to squeak out in a raspy voice, "Pinkie ... WHYYYYY?"

"Why? Why what? I can't have my friends over to share yummy cake and pie with them? Sheesh Dashie, what are you talking about? Oh well, enough talking! MORE EATING!"

RD's sigh of resignation was cut short by her cheeks filling with ... filling. She did have to admit, the cherry pie was a welcome change of flavor, and was just about the best pie she had ever tasted. Come to think of it, the cupcakes were delicious as well. She hadn't noticed before because she was distracted by the whole tied-up-and-force-fed thing. Shackled-up-and-force-fed. Whatever.

Pinkie Pie held Dash's mouth shut as she chewed, finally swallowing the slice. RD's stomach grew almost-imperceptively larger.

This continued for quite a while, and every few slices, Pinkie would add an extra slice to each mouthful ... two, then three, then four ... until finally she was just packing them into Dash's mouth and cramming them down her throat as fast as she could. She continued to do this faster and faster, beginning to froth at the mouth like a mad dog as the pies gradually disappeared. When they, too, were gone, Pinkie stood with her front hooves on Dash's table, panting heavily.

Rainbow whimpered pitifully at the extreme fullness in her midsection, her legs and wings twitching as she hicupped and belched and generally made a scene. No matter, they were in Pinkie's basement, with no-one to see or hear.

Pinkie continued to stand over her, her face turning from her usual delusionally excited expression to an evil-genius maniacal grin, and she cackled a bit before breaking out into a laugh that would make Discord cringe.

Rainbow Dash's face contorted into an expression of horror as she pulled her head up to look down at herself. Her stomach had bloated out to a size nearly twice the diameter of a basketball and was beginning to squash a bit under its own weight. "Oh sweet Celestia ... have I really eaten THAT *groan* MUCH?! How is that -HIC!- even possible?"

"Oh, you say that like it was EASY!" Pinkie Pie leaned against said swollen belly as casually as if it were a park bench, her voice just as chipper and hyper as ever. "I really had to use some elbow grease once the pressure in your tummy got so much you couldn't swallow on your own anymore!" She posed as if making a muscle with her foreleg.

"Uh ... OK ..." Rainbow leaned her head back and tried to breathe normally. Of course, all she could manage were shuddering gasps and wheezes as the weight of her massive dessert pressed against her lungs. Still, she managed to relax her nerves enough to begin nodding off. There's nothing like a full stomach to make one sleepy, even under the strangest of circumstances.

RD wasn't sure how long she was asleep, but she awoke to the sensation of something poking around in her mouth.

"Whakl huhk?"

"Oh, you're awake! Sorry, I was hoping to have this all done before you woke up."

Still mostly asleep, Rainbow gagged as something smooth and cool was shoved down her throat. Any attempt at speaking just turned into incomprehensible sounds. She squirmed uncomfortably as the clear, flexible tube she now saw the Thing to be poked its way down into her already-overstuffed belly. She chewed absentmindedly at the tube, her mouth quite inhibited in its movement.

Her expression was a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and exasperation. NOW what?

"There!" Pinkie said from behind Dash's head, well out of her range of vision. "Now we can just throw a switch and let the magic happen! What's you favorite yogurt flavor?"

"Hrrumffh?" Dash managed to squeeze out around the tube.

"Sorry, didn't catch that. Oh silly me, I guess it doesn't matter since you won't be tasting it anyway! Sorry about that, but I've found this process works much better with the hose all the way down into your tummy; it saves all the messy coming-loose-and-splattering-all-over business. Here, let's start with strawberry-banana, it's a classic!"

Finally beginning to wake up enough to have rational thoughts, Rainbow Dash looked down at the tube just in time to see a thick, pinkish-orange liquid flow through it. Realization hit her and all she could manage was to roll her eyes.

Predictably, RD's belly swelled even more, at an almost visible rate, and Pinkie jumped on top, kneading her hooves into it and cooing sweetly. Rainbow just moaned absently, trying to find a happy place. Flying, the Wonderbolts ... OH NOOOO! How could she ever fly with the Wonderbolts now?! Even if she ever escaped, it would take her FOREVER to lose all this weight!

"Twi ... Twi-ighk! H-h...ELK!" She managed to squeak out around the hose. Pinkie just snuggled down into her ballooning stomach, curling up like a cat.

OK, new happy place time. How could she ... ever ... ugh ... what ... who ... when ... if ....

The adrenaline began to wear off, and the endorphins from her extreme fullness caught up with her. The sky-blue pegasus began to nod off again, her eyes fluttering as she tried to stay awake, to find ... something ... anyth ... a plan ... ugh, whatever.

*****

By the time she awoke, Rainbow's stomach was so huge and round, it was pressing against her chin and legs. She couldn't even lift her head up anymore, and all he could see was a huge blue curve ... oh sweet Luna, was that her stomach? Ooohhhhhhhhhh ...

"Heeeeeeeyy, Dashie!" Pinkie's voice was uncharacteristically soft and mellow, as if she had just awoken as well.

Rainbow's head jerked to attention as she heard a "click" and felt something move around her left front hoof. After a few moments, she strained to -- WAIT! She could move it! There wasn't much range of movement, as her enormous stomach was in the way, but she could move her hoof again!

Over the next minute or so, she had similar feelings in her remaining three hooves.

~*~

4. Guests, part 1

Rainbow Dash stretched and flexed her legs, and rubbed at her fetlocks where the shackles had held her firm to the table. Not like it made much difference now that she was--

"HURR-URR-URR- URKK--?!"

The offending feeding tube was pulled from her stomach, dragging up with it little bits of flavor from the various sweets her boulder of a stomach was filled with.

Now able to breathe a bit better, Rainbow Dash coughed and gasped, flailing a bit in vain against her immobile gut.

"Oooohhh, you're soooo biiiiiiig!" Pinkie's voice practically dripped with ... admiration? Guh, it's not like that's the weirdest thing that's happened today.

Suddenly Pinkie's voice turned to straining grunts as Dash felt pressure against the side of her belly. It took a while for her tired and confused brain to realize Pinkie was rolling her off the table. Rainbow rolled over slowly, then suddenly fell the few feet to he basement floor, her belly hitting with a mighty BLORP, sloshing around like a water balloon. The shift in pressure made Rainbow blush and moan, followed by a loud belch.

"There, Dashie, you're free!"

"Ugh ... ha ha, very funny."

"Go on, fly away sweetie!"

"You SUCK, you know that, right?"

"Oh my! Such a potty mouth! I would get some soap to wash your mouth out with, but I think more sweets would do the job better!"

You can likely imagine Rainbow Dash's expression.

As soon as Pinkie left the room, Rainbow Dash called out as loud as she could, "TWILIGHT! HEEEELLP! HELP ME! PINKIE'S GONE NUTS AGAIN, BUT WORSE THIS TIME! HEEEEEEEEELLLLPUMFFF!"

Predictably, a cupcake was shoved into her mouth. "My my, such a noisy guest. You're right though, more guests is always better! I'll go invite Twilight as well!"

Pinkie bounced out of the room.

Rainbow Dash swallowed the cupcake and watched the pink menace leave. Hah, like she had to worry about Dash getting away. Man, she had lost it this time! What was to become of poor Twilight now? She had an idea, and didn't like the look of it.

What to do, what to do? She looked around frantically. Stairs were not going to happen, but wasn't there that huge dumbwaiter the cakes used for big orders? It should be ... ungh ... Oh right, huge belly. How to walk?

Rainbow discovered that even though not all of her hooves could touch the floor at once, she could rock around until one of them could connect, then push off from the floor or a wall. One good roll later, and her head and stomach were both spinning.

"Oh ... oh man ... ugh, let's not ... urpff ... let's not try that again ... oooohhhhh, but I have tooooooo ..."

Some time passed before she was able to make her way, one nauseating roll at a time, to the dumbwaiter. Thank Celestia the thing was nearly the size of a freight elevator! Barely able to reach the ropes that controlled the thing, she managed to crank the thing up inch by inch, sweat rolling down her face, both from exertion and from fear that Pinkie would return. All she had to do was get out near the front door and somepony would be able to see her.

Little did she know that the somepony -- or rather, someponies -- would be none other than Spitfire and Soarin of the beloved Wonderbolts.

Spitfire noticed her first, her head sticking out the door and her stomach wedged firm in the jamb. "Oh hi, Rainbow Dash! Good to see you again! ... Er, um ... you're ... you seem to have ... that is to say ..."

"You're fat!" Soarin said with all the tact of a manure truck with a wobbly axle. "You're HUGE!" His eyes and mouth opened wide.

Spitfire elbowed him in the ribs. "Soarin! Be polite!"

"But I was--"

"Shush!"

"Okay."

Spitfire fidgeted, looking for the right words to mend the horrid breach of etiquette she'd just witnessed, while Rainbow Dash desperately tried to un-stick herself from the door-frame. OH GOSH OH GOSH they must think I'm such a slob! Oh no, they'll never invite me to fly with them now! Oh, my life is oveeerrrrrr!

Spitfire decided to roll with it. "So, uh ... as Soarin oh-so-tactfully pointed out, you do seem to have gained ... quite a bit of weight ... Is that part of ... some kind of diet plan?"

Something clicked in RD's mind. "Yes! Oh -- yes! It's called, uh ... heh-heh, erm ... carbohauling! Yeah, that's it! Carbohauling! Gain a lot of weight in a hurry, and lose it all again real quick! It's the latest rage, haven't you heard of it?"

Rainbow Dash's face was now beet-red and drenched with sweat, and she hoped against hope that her two resident idols would think it was from the exercise ... which, well, it technically was. That and cosmic-level embarrassment.

"Oh wow, no I haven't! Sounds pretty intense, though! Best of wishes to ya!" She gave a little salute before leaving. "Well, been nice seeing you again, but we don't have long in Ponyville, there's an appearance we can't be late for in Canterlot! See you around!"

Soarin continued to look at the immobilized Rainbow Dash as Spitfire turned to leave. Spitfire pulled him along with a wing. "Come on, lazybones, it's not nice to stare!" Soarin finally turned and took to the sky next to his fellow celebrity.

As soon as they were gone, Rainbow managed to shove herself all the way back into the house, rolling over once more and upsetting her stomach again. "Ugh ... oh man, that could NOT have gone worse."

Then, something popped in her mind. Oh duh! She was a prisoner! She needed help! With an adrenaline-powered burst from her hind legs, she once again rolled over to the door, ready to shout at the first pony she saw -- and found herself face-to-face with the pink menace herself. Pinkie held her ridiculously large hammer comfortably over one shoulder, and had a burlap sack hanging over the other. There was a wicked smile on Pinkie's face and labored breathing from within the sack.

"Well, I am indeed impressed! You actually managed to get out of the basement! You used the dumbwaiter, didn't you! He obviously isn't very bright if he let you pass! Heehee, see what I did there?"

Rainbow Dash barely heard her as she gazed at the sack. "Is ... is that ..."

"Oh right! Our next guest!" She tossed the sack to the floor in front of her rather roughly. The mouth of the sack opened just enough to show a pale purple horn poke out from under the thick fabric.

"Oh sweet Celestia ... Pinkie, what have you --"

"Oh right! Almost forgooooot!" She said in a singsongy voice that normally would have been charming, but now made the mood even creepier. She soon returned with a small ring held in her hoof.

"Can't forget this now!" She carefully slid the ring over Twilight's horn, and it clicked into place rather loudly near the base, letting off a briht yellow glow for a moment before dimming down to a dull gold color. Dash was afraid to guess what it--

"Can't have her using her famously-ubertastically awesome MAGIC to escape now, right Dashie?" She threw a hoof around Dash's shoulder as if they were bff's out on a playdate.

Dash lay on top of her belly, frozen in shock, as Pinkie dragged Twilight down towards the stairs.

"Crap on a cracker!"

~*~

5. Guests, part 2

Pinkie Pie hummed merrily to herself as she roughhoused Twilight Sparkle's limp form onto the table where Rainbow Dash had been held previously. Upstairs, Dash herself was torn between trying to help Twilight and again attempting to get somepony's attention outside ... which would, in turn, also help Twilight.

Welp, that makes that decision. Sorry, Twi! Rainbow thinks to herself as she once again blunders towards the front door. Surprisingly, she seems to be having less trouble than before with moving around with her big ball of a gut. She's getting the hang of how to roll so as to get where she wants to without causing unbearable nausea. Perhaps it's because of her natural athleticism that she's able to adapt so readily to a new situation. She certainly did not like the idea that she was getting used to being in this state.

Rainbow barely had time to make her way into the front room before a face appeared in the doorway.

"Rarity!"

Down in the basement, Twilight Sparkle began to regain consciousness. Her first thought was that maybe her return to the waking world would have been better delayed, considering the throbbing headache that coursed through her skull. It took a few more moments before she woke up enough to reach her hoof up to massage the offending bump on her temple.

Except ... her hoof refused to obey her commands. She pulled harder, only to feel a cool grip around her fetlock preventing her from fulfilling the task to which she had set herself.

Slowly, her eyes creaked open, seeming to resist as if they were connected to old, rusty hinges. She would not have been surprised to hear a grating squeak as light finally peeked through.

She was greeted by the oversized smile of a certain frizzy-haired pink pony and immediately groaned at the realization that something VERY STRANGE was likely being cooked up. She wasn't even halfway through reading the library's latest import, "The Science of Magic: a Deeper Look." Dang you Pinkie Pie, can't you at least have the decency to spare us your insanity until we're, like, BORED or something?

"Hey there, Twi-Twi Sparklepants! Are ya comfyyyyyyyyy?!"

Twilight's eyes widened as the fog finally lifted from her mind and she took in her surroundings. The first thing that she noticed was that she couldn't move any of her hooves. After some effort of twisting her head to look around, she was able to make out a sheeming metal band around her left fetlock, effectively bolting her to the wooden table she was laying on. After a bit of straining against the restraints, she relaxed a bit and found that she was surprisingly comfortable.

"P...P...Pinkie ... what is this?"

"This is my Lair of Noms! Most of the time when I share my treats with ponies, they only eat a little and then say they're full! They miss out on soooooo much more that my baking skills have to offer! Soooooo, I set up this place, which keeps my friends here until I decide that they've had enough!" She sat back on her haunches and tapped her front hooves together excitedly.

Twilight blinked a few times to straighten out her eyes, as they had crossed of their own accord as the gears in her brain processed this. "So ... you're ... going to force-feed me while I'm chained to a table?"

"Yep, pretty much!"

Twilight stared at her for a few moments with her mouth hanging open slightly. "... Ok, that's it, you've lost it. I'm out of here." Twilight reached out with her magic to break open the metal shackles that held her down.

Nothing happened.

"What?"

She tried again. She couldn't even reach out through the familiar aetherial plane to sense the objects she wished to manipulate. A chill ran up her spine.

"Oh! You tried to use magic, didn't you? Here, check this out!" Pinkie held up a mirror so that Twilight could see the ring around the base of her horn. It was yellow in color, though paler than gold, and very shiney. Alternating red and blue gemstones, three of each it seemed, encircled the ring, embedded in the metal. These pulsed with a soft glow in a pattern that gave the impression that the light was travelling around the ring in a lazy circle, much like lights ringing a carnival sign flashed in such a way to give that same impression.

In spite of the situation, Twilight's first thought was of how beautful the ring was. Maybe someday my wedding ring will look like that! Gazing at it was mesmerising.

However, her indulgance was quickly cut short as the mirror disappeared from her vision, replaced with Pinkie's face. Her face-splitting smile was the same one she wore most of the time she bounced around Ponyville, but today it carried with it more demented menace than Twilight would have thought possible.

"Pinkie ... erm ... where did you manage to get this? Rings like this are only ever issued to the police for restraining unicorn criminls, and even then only in large cities like Manehatten where crime is an ongoing problem. Not to mention, none of the ones I've ever seen look so ... artistic."

"Oh, you can find anything you want if you ask around the right dark alleys in Canterlot!"

Twilight was silent for a moment as that sank in. "You ... Pinkie, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! There are thieves and thugs and cutthroats in places like that! You could have been ... really hurt!"

Pinkie waved a hoof casually, brushing off the statement. "Nah, you just gotta know how to dress and act!" She pulled out a black hoodie from behind ... something ... and pulled it on, flattening her massive mop of hair to her head as she pulled the strings tight. Her voice became low and gravelly, her upper lip curled slightly, and one eye slid halfway closed, making her look ... well, like somepony you don't make eye contact with while walking through the nastier parts of town.

"Hey buddy ... I got this unicorn friend who I need to keep tied up ... got anything that can tie up magic?"

Twilight strained to keep a straight face, but ultimately failed, sporting a crooked, awkward smile and snorting. "Okay ... okay, that was pretty good. And between your Pinkie Sense and your inexplicable ability to defy all logic, I'm sure you can handle yourself."

"See? It's all good!"

Twilight must have blinked, or looked away momentarily, because the hoodie was gone. She hadn't even seen Pinkie take it off. She just sighed and focused her thoughts back to ... oh, right.

"Pinkie ... why are you doing this? I mean, I know you told me before, bu--UMFF!"

"Yummy yummy!" Pinkie said as she stuffed one of those huge cupcakes into the unicorn's mouth. She must have baked more at some point, because the tables were again covered. Or maybe ... ah well, it's Pinkie Pie.

Twilight gagged as her mouth was forced as far open as her jaw would allow, only containing half of one of those huge pastries, and when she bit off that half, her cheeks bulged more than she would have thought possible. Rather than protest, as she had been planning to do, the flavor was so soothing and pleasent that she couldn't help but chew and swallow the soft, spongey cake. Of course, as soon as she had, the other half was crammed in, and the cycle repeated.

After some time had passed, Pinkie let Twilight have a break to catch her breath, as it's hard to breathe while constantly chewing and swallowing. Twilight lay back on the table (though she hardly had much choice) and breathed heavily -- partly because she was out of breath, and partly because her now-bulging stomach was making it hard to force air into her lungs.

Pinkie leaned against the table and gently ran a hoof over the stretched belly of her friend, sighing happily as if she were stroking a pet.

Twilight, for her part, could only manage to hiccup and burp a few times, her face flushed red from the extreme pressure inside her. Her stomach was now a little bigger than a beach ball and stretched tight as a drum. After its contents had shifted around a bit to a more comfortable position, she exhaled gustily in a labored moan.

"Just about ready for the second course?" Pinkie aske sweetly.

Twilight's eyes snapped open and her already-labored breath caught in her throat. "Wh-what?!"

"Rarity!"

"Oh hello, Rainbow! How-- oh. I see she got you too."

"You've got to help me! Pinkie Pie-- wait, what? What do you mean, 'too'?"

"Ooohhhh ... that's right, you have't been in Ponyville as long as most of us. I'm sure you know that Pinkie has a few loose screws ... anyway, she occasionally gets obsessed with ponies eating her baked goods to the point where she feels the need to feed them herself ... and, well, you appear as if you know the rest." She gingerly patted Rainbow's bloated stomach.

"You ... what?! You know she does this ... and you're .. OK with it?! How could--"

Rarity put her hoof to Dash's mouth. "Oh shush dear, it's not like it's permanent ... at least, it wasn't for me ... although you are quite a bit bigger than I was ... oh well, I'm sure you'll be fine! Anyway, I should be off, just in case Pinkie decides I need a second trip down immobility lane ... and I have too much work to do at the boutique to risk that! Ta-ta, Rainbow dear!"

Rarity disappeared out the door, apparently forgetting whatever it was that she had come for to begin with. Rainbow simply stood there (or, more accurately, lay atop her monsterous gut) with her mouth hanging open. "What ... what the BUCK was that?!"

Author's Note

Wow, for the amount of time and effort I put into these chapters, they sure don't end up being very long. XD Anyway, at long last, enjoy! =P