Two hours had passed as the sun continued its course over Foal Mountain.

“I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell."

Starlight closed her book and set it aside and finally rested her voice and eyes for a bit while her insides purred with gratitude for the story narration. She snapped a finger and Besom flying in to aid its master.

“Drinking water…please…” Starlight said with a dry throat.

The broom flew to the kitchen, used its long handle to carry the bucket by the handle and carefully flew back with it. Starlight took the cup floating inside and scooped some water out. She leaned her head back and glugged down a good amount of water. She dropped the cup back into the remaining drinking water and let Besom return it back to the kitchen.

“Hooooo….” The Spellcaster sighed. She was about to talk to her inside partner but its movements and sounds had quieted down a bit. So she took the time to recline back a bit and rest her eyes. But her body had its own plans as the swelling returned to make Starlight grow. Spurt by spurt, the Spellcaster’s gravid belly swelled again alongside her breasts that stretched the top half of her witches robe. But surprisingly, none of those feelings triggered Starlight to wake up as she held a soft smile during the process the entire time.

When the growth spurt ended, the recliner finally gave in and collapse into pieces with Starlight still on it. The force had knocked all of Starlight’s breath out of her system as she began to panic for her health. Taking deep breaths, the collapsed unicorn tried to bring herself up, but she was getting pinned by her growing weight.

“Sh-shadow! Wake up, I’m down!”

The creature reacted as the shadow around the spell caster showed the creature’s limbs telepathically moving pieces of collapsed wood out of the way and helping its mother onto her knees. She took deep breaths until her heart rate had stabilized a bit.

“Are-are you all right?”

A limb rubbed against the walls, it was still ok.

“Good,” she turned to her former resting place, now a pile of broken boards, “Think that last chug of water broke the chair. Great.”

Rubbing the back of her neck, she looked down at her body and realized what had really happened.

“That last growth felt a bit delayed,” Starlight noted, “The pace of these growth spurts must be slowing down.”

Something wet trickled down to the top of her stomach. She looked over at her mirror and witnessed the wet splotches dripping down from her swelling breasts. Hoping to stop her leakage, she waddled over to her emergency cloths and stuffed two folded, dry ones inside her stretching bra. Not the best fix but it was the only one she had.

The Spellcaster felt the need to climb to the roof of her tower, hoping to find a new way to pass the time.

“I’d like to share something with you, if you’re not still so ruffled from that fall.”

The shadow creature inside moaned, its pitch still getting lower, in agreement and let its shadowy limbs aid her climb upstairs.

“How about you, Besom?”

The broom flew to her side as all three climbed the tower. Once inside her treasure room, Starlight pointed at a roof hatch on the far side of the room. It required a key for its padlock but luckily the Spellcaster kept it safe inside a false brick wall in the treasure room.

“Can you pull out this brick, shadow?” she asked her womb.

The creature obliged. Starlight watched her shadow spawn limbs and pull out the brick. The broom watched from behind its master as if whatever was inside her helped commanded only the shadows of objects and people as the brick pulled itself out, collapsing onto the floor. The Spellcaster grabbed the key dangling in the back on a hook and looked up at the hatch and the ladder up to it. She questioned if she was capable of fitting through the hole.

“There’s no way that ladder’s going to hold all my weight, let alone have it capable of ho-OOOOOOOAH!”

She began hovering and was slowly brought up to the padlock. She looked down and spotted shadowy limbs stretching upwards towards her.

“Y-yeah, that’ll do!”

She undid the lock and put it and the key in her spare pocket. The creature pushed open the hatch and attempted to lift its mother through the narrow hole. Starlight closed her eyes and sucked in whatever gut she had left as she felt her belly rub against the concrete bricks, a possible note that this would be her only time she can do this.

Now back on her feet, the Spellcaster brushed off whatever dust got rubbed on her and looked out towards the surrounding landscape of Foal Mountain, her trusty broom alongside her while her mane danced around in the wind. She walked over to the edge of the Castle roof, looking down at the town she haunted.

“Picture, if you will,” Starlight began, “Down, down below this castle lies a town of ponies that make the same, sweet candy that I’ve been feeding us. Every year I go down there and collect my share of sweets by force using an old spell that made my appearance that of a shadow. My treasure sits right below us as we speak. It had been mostly uneaten until today and I think this year, we’re going to bring our A-game. And it’ll all be thanks to you. Normally, I never share my treasured sweets with anyone, but starting tonight after our raid, I can start making exceptions.”

The swelling womb groaned and purred in delight, but it scared the broom enough to step aside from its master. And it took a few more steps when Starlight’s belly growled its loudest growl.

“Boy, the thought of the candy’s actually making me a bit hungry myself,” she concurred with her onboard companion, “Think we should try out some more of that candy?”

The creature inside had the strongest hunger as it tried to pull itself along with Starlight back towards the hatch opening, causing Starlight to nearly fall over.

“Easy, easy!” the Spellcaster commanded its unborn child, “I can only move so fast.”

Besom swooped through the hatch opening while Starlight walked to its opening and turned around. She laid her arms out as more shadowy limbs grabbed her own and carefully descended the hatch, closing the door behind it. The creature picked up the padlock and locked the door while picking up the key and stuffing it behind the wall with the false brick.

“You’re really catching on,” she complimented her belly, “We’re all going to make a great team.”

The broom bent its handle again in confusion.

“Yes, even you, Besom. You’ve been neglected long enough.”

The broom jumped for joy and flew circles around its master and back down the other floors.

“While you’re down there, pick up a few pillows and sheets for us!” Starlight called to her broom.

She then swung her girth over to the massive treasure pile of sweets. Dozens of different kinds all waiting to be tasted and eaten. The longer she stared, the louder her stomach growled.

“So…where’d you like to start?” The Spellcaster said rubbing her womb.

Different pieces of candy lifted into the air by the shadowy force and were presented to its mother, meanwhile, Besom began dropping blankets and pillows up and down the floors.

“These will do.”

She grabbed the closest piece and tossed it down its mouth. Lime flavor. Her womb purred in acceptance for its favorite flavor.

“I’ve discovered I’m more of a grape kind of girl but whatever suits you”, she stated as she gobbled a grape-flavored piece of taffy.

Their hunger intensified, the shadow now instinctively brought up a newly unwrapped piece of candy every time a piece was consumed. When the last of the pillows and blankets came up, she lied herself down on them and let the shadow do its work, feeding her piece after piece of sweet, delicious candy.

Her self-composure slowly dissipated as she ate more and more candy. She lied on the floor, looking up at the pieces of levitating candy for both her and the belly creature. Nothing to do but open wide to satisfy her candy-craving needs. But the more composure she lost, the crazier her reactions became. Strange feelings of euphoria made her moan with delight and play with her swollen body, stroking it up and down and side to side. And stranger still, the creature itself felt the same feelings as it fed its mother. It kicked and squirmed like a rat trying to escape its cage.

The sugar rush felt like it would have no end. But the satisfied churns inside slowed the chewing process as the Spellcaster swallowed its last cherry gobstopper and drifted into either sleep or possibly a food coma.

Author's Note

Don't have much to say for this one except for some random old guy screaming "CANDY!!" at a convention hall.