Hay Fever

A distant bang woke Withania with a start. She lifted her head up, the beanbag rustling under her body, and looked around. The lights in Twilight’s laboratory had dimmed, with the only sounds coming from some apparatus on one of the work benches humming quietly away to itself.

The bang had been a door closing somewhere upstairs, Withania realised, and she suddenly became aware that she was still in the castle - and then looking down at herself, remembering that she was still in the castle having eaten Princess Twilight Sparkle.

“Twilight?” she said to the reduced, but still prominent bulge in her belly, “You still going?”

There was no reply, vocal or otherwise. But while Withania listened, she heard - or felt - the faint buzz of sensation at the back of her mind. Twilight’s mental link was still going, just as she’d intended. Withania could feel a faint sensation of fluidity, of being formless and filtering through a passage, dissipating into a great, soft surrounding mass. Gently pressing her belly bulge, Withania could feel a soft mass still in there, but it seemed Twilight was no longer a pony, and at most of her had dissolved into the nectar.

Withania twisted onto her side and her eyes widened in shock as she saw her flanks, already significantly larger than they normally were. From her rump, across her hips, and up to her shoulders a layer of pudge had appeared, smoothing out her hardy earth pony frame into sweeping curves.

She cooed to herself, standing up to test-drive her luscious new shape. She was heavier on the hoof for certain, and her belly wobbled under her barrel, almost pulling her off-balance.

“Phew, well Twilight you certainly fit me like a charm,” she said, rubbing her hoof along the plush cushion of her flank, “At least I get a test drive for a bigger figure until the backup spell kicks in and siphons it all off again…”

She wondered what to do next. It was clear at this point that her body was set on digesting still - which was contrary to what the Tegmen Flower did. But I’m still half-pony, she thought, So it makes sense that I would digest prey. Unless there was another ability she hadn’t worked out yet. But for now Twilight had told her to let nature run its course - so that’s what she planned to do.

Looking around the lab, Withania looked at the see-through projection that was still displayed - more specifically at her digestive system and other nearby organs. Everything was simplified from what she knew should be natural. The intestine was shorter and wider, the stomach had more room to expand. Her reproductive system looked fairly normal, but she already knew from self inspection that the ever-present nectar was lining it all now.

I wonder if I can still bear foals… or if something else happens in that plumbing now...

Her musing was interrupted by a suddenly increasing sense of pressure from her rump. She was confused for a moment, truth be told she hadn’t needed to use a toilet since her transformation - tea, food, ponies, whatever she ate just seemed to get dissolved into more nectar, and her mass grew and evaporated as required. It certainly didn’t feel like a normal bathroom break either, although she couldn’t even guess what was happening now.

Looking around urgently, she spotted a tiled alcove with a shower mount and screen. It looked more like chemical spill emergency use, but that just meant it was easy to clean. She trotted over with her head low, slightly ashamed already about what might happen - but better she know what her body did now, rather than be ignorant.

Sitting on a plastic footstool that was in the corner, Withania pulled the screen curtain over the alcove. Just in case someone burst in right as she was squatting on a stool in a shower.

“Urrgh, I hope Twilight doesn’t want samples of whatever is about to haaaaAAAAAAH!”

She gasped as the pressure in her hind quarters suddenly surged, and with the burn of stretched muscle a lump suddenly escaped from under her tail, landing in a wet splat of nectar on the tile.

Withania sat still, mentally panting, but her body not automatically breathing for her. She winced and turned around, and her mouth dropped open.

A large seed the size of an apple, but resembling a chestnut sat with a slick coating of nectar on it behind the stool. She forgot about everything else in the room as she suddenly focused every part of her mind on question after question. What was this seed? Was it her own? Was it offspring? Was it just waste?

Before she could answer any of these questions, she became aware that the faint hum of Twilight’s mental link spell had suddenly gone silent. And that lead to the most likely answer to what was now in front of her.

“Twilight?” she asked, rather uselessly as she knew the seed wasn’t exactly going to start talking. But her memories of the night she’d been eaten by the alpha timberwolf flooded back to her. She hadn’t seen what she looked like as a seed, but she knew that there had been a seed, which had grown into a plant, from which she’d then come out of again.

Her body had done the same thing to Twilight.

The backup spell won’t fix this… this isn’t digestion, she thought as she picked up the shower head and rinsed the seed of nectar. I need to get back to the garden and regrow her… and hope she comes out as a pony and not like… well, me.

With decision came action, and after carefully trying the seed so that it wouldn’t absorb anymore water and swell, Withania popped it into a satchel she found near the door. Plodding up the staircase she nudged open a doorway into the main hall of the castle, looking around for which direction the front door might be in - and then immediately crashed into Spike, who also hadn’t been looking where he was going.

“Ooof!” he exclaimed, before picking up the quill and scroll that he’d be carrying in front of his face, “Oh hello - you must be Withania… Twilight told- woooah…”

He stopped talking as his eyes travelled past hers and down her sizeable flanks and hips, eyebrows raised and hands slowly dropping to his sides.

“Yes…” replied Withania shortly, “Did you water my garden for me?”

His obviously male stare seemed to be authentic, rather than her influence. With her flanks at his eye level, the size difference between them was probably big enough that he wouldn’t even make a bulge if he were in there. She wondered if the same thought was on his mind.

“Your garden…” he repeated, looking up at her as she paused, “Yes… and uh, Twilight sent me a letter explaining that she had to dash off to Canterlot for a day or two, and that if you needed anything else, just let me know…”

“I’ll do that,” Withania said giving him a wink. She began to walk down the hallway from the direction he’d come, making sure to give her hips a good sway as she did so.

“Anything at all!” he called after her. She smirked as she saw the main door way ahead of her. I think I might’ve just awakened a thing for bigger gals in the little guy… she chuckled to herself, and pushed the front door open.

She realised with a click of the brain that she hadn’t been covering her mouth in front of Spike. He was eyeing me up, but that wasn’t the same as how other ponies were acting - is that a dragon thing or has my breath changed after ‘catching’ something?

That would be a test for later, she thought. Plant Twilight first. Which wasn’t at all strange, planting a princess that she’d eaten and converted into a seed. She quickly trotted across town and found the safety of her greenhouse once again.

Taking out the seed and setting it on her work bench she inspected it properly. Judging by its weight it was fairly dense - probably packed with endosperm, a seed’s food supply, given that it could grow into a mature plant in a single night. Or at least she could - but then Withania was an earth pony with particularly strong earth pony magic. An unaided seed would probably be slower to mature, she’d better plant it as soon as possible.

Withania picked an empty plot in the middle of the garden outside. The original tegmen seemed to do just fine in this soil, so she dug a hole and planted the seed. If it was one thing she did know, it was growing plants. She quickly whirled around the greenhouse picking up a bag of compost, some additives, and the hose pipe. First she put a layer of phosphorus heavy fertiliser over the seed, adding a little boost of a growth potion that the tegmen flowers seemed to favour, then she turned over the soil around the plant to mix in the new soil and gave the whole plot a generous watering.

A sense of calm nullified her concerns as she worked, dropping her into her focused state of doing everything in her knowledge and power to help her plant friends do their best, her love and energy going into the work.

“Alright,” she said to patch, “I think that’s about all I can do. Time to sit down and watch the plants grow.”

She fetched a notebook and pencil from the greenhouse and gratefully sat down on her pudgy rump in front of Twilight’s allotment. The sun was perfect, warming and refreshing but not scorching. Withania normally preferred to be pottering around the greenhouse, reading, drinking tea, anything but nothing - however for now she felt quite peaceful just sitting under the sun with her eyes closed.

Four Hours

The regrowth plant - I honestly have no idea what to call it yet - is growing at such remarkable speed that I would assume it to be fauna on first discovery. I am aware that when I underwent this process, I grew to bloom within a single night. Either the additional sunlight, my care of this specimen, or a combination of both is certainly aiding its development. The leaves are fully grown and the bud has formed, but most of the plant’s efforts seem to be going into the stem at the moment. This makes sense as it needs to become significantly stronger to bear the weight of the flower and pony before blooming.

My memories of regrowing are dreamlike in nature, I recall sensations and emotions, but cannot visualise anything. As such I assume that the pony growing in front of me cannot see or hear me yet.

Withania disappeared back into her house to fetch a cup of tea, and upon returning noticed that the ground around Twilight’s plant was nearly dry already.

“Wow, I guess growing something this big this quickly soaks up a lot of water…” she said, half to herself, and half to the plant. The bud was turning lavender in colour, another confirmation that it really was Twilight in front of her. Another generous dousing of water from the hose and Withania resumed her seat and note taking. This process of growing, observing and taking notes wasn’t alien to her, she’d done it enough when developing the Magnus Tegmen in the first place - but the idea of sitting here and watering an alicorn princess flower plant was definitely a new top spot for her Odd Things I Have Done list. It would have been fun were it not for a swirling sensation of dread in the pit of her stomach that Twilight had been transformed.

She herself wasn’t really any the worse for wear, but she understood so little of her new nature, its permanence, long-term effects… The more she thought about it the more she realised how reckless it had been for Twilight and herself to start fooling around, assuming that the backup spell would just fix everything later.

Six Hours

As the stem rapidly grew in width and strength, the flower bud began to balloon in size. The overall plant has not grown tall like a normal tegmen, this seems to be due to its temporary nature - it has no need to compete for sunlight. I shall have to experiment on one at some point to see if it’s possible to continue growing the plant after blooming. My own flower wilted the moment I left it.

The petals are a luscious purple, with fringes of other colours, a delightful accent of the host. I would love to know if the pony inside is developing in size like a foal to an adult, or if they are akin to a shrunken pony and just get bigger until the flower blooms. Perhaps Princess Twilight’s see-through machine can be used to inspect the inside of the flower as it develops in a future experiment.

At current rates, I expect this specimen to bloom before sun-down. I think the plant has fully developed now, but there is an element of waiting for the host pony to ‘wake up’ as it were, for their mind to reach a state of readiness.

It was a couple of hours later that Withania spotted the lavender tips of Twilight’s flower curling. She was trimming the shrubs as a means of busying herself without needing to expend too much effort - her extra weight had its disadvantages of making everything more strenuous, but even the light exercise she had been working through today, along with not needing to eat or drink all day, seemed to be burning it all off at record pace.

Trotting over to the huge purple bud in the centre of the garden, she sat down to watch with anticipation as the petals slowly unfurled before her eyes. Beautiful midnight-purple and pink highlights streaked the inside of the petals, catching a satin sheen in the sunlight as they opened to catch the late afternoon rays.

Ruining the fairy-tale effect slightly was Princess Twilight Sparkle, sprawled out in the centre of the flower like a lazy Sunday morning, breathing nasally with her mouth open. Withania let out a sigh of relief as she saw this undignified pose - Twilight’s open mouth was dark pink like any normal pony. At least one trip through Withania’s insides wasn’t enough to alter someone.

“Twilight?” said Withania, leaning into the flower and giving her a gentle nudge on the shoulder. Twilight stirred and swallowed, her face scrunching up in the sunlight, then her eyes opened slightly to see who was waking her.

“Urrgh, Withania?” she mumbled, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She slowly looked around, although from her position her world was essentially the purple flower and a green earth pony leaning over the edge between the petals. “Where are we?”

“Uh, my garden,” admitted Withania, “I might’ve turned you into a plant seed. And regrown you in a flower. Turns out that happens if I digest a pony. Are you okay?”

Twilight blinked and stretched out slightly in her flower, looking up at the sun. “I feel… amazing. The best sleep I’ve had in my life. I can feel the sun, and the earth… and you leaning against me… Is this what you feel?”

Withania felt a warmth from Twilight’s smile as she probed her senses, experiencing the sensation of being connected to an entirely new extension of her body that reached into the ground below while soaking up energy from the sky above.

“Not all the time,” she replied, “I mean, I feel the sun like that, but the roots and leaves, that’s because you’re still connected to the flower you grew inside. It’s part of you at the moment - although you’ll have to leave it sooner or later. You’re still a normal pony, by the way, I was worried I’d accidentally transformed you, but it looks like one time isn’t enough.”

“Wait, I regrew in a flower?” Twilight suddenly exclaimed as her rational mind clicked back on again and she started thinking about what was happening. She shuffled forward towards Withania, who stepped back to give her space, and then promptly fell out of the flower onto the flagstones. Withania winced, seeing the vine between her legs snag and release. “Ow!” the princess yelped, although apparently more from hitting the ground. She scrambled to her hooves and whirled around to see the huge purple flower she’s spent the day inside.

“Amazing! Oh, it’s wilting- can you do anything to save it?”

“Not right now, I don’t know enough about how they work yet. These plants seem to be completely unstable, putting everything into a flower that blooms once and then immediately dies when the connection to the host pony is severed. I need to study this one to see what it needs to survive. However, I did make notes on it while you were growing. Growth rate, development stages, dimensions, what I did to plant and feed the seed, plenty of bedtime reading for someone like you I think!”

Twilight looked like her birthday had come early as she scanned the notepad that Withania handed to her. “This is amazing! Have you considered the possibilities here? A pony can be turned into a seed, along with all the durability of one, transported in stasis and then regrown in less than a day! And we can interface with a plant, feel its roots and leaves! There’s enough material here to keep me busy for weeks!”

“Aheheh, I’m just glad you’re okay,” said Withania self consciously, “I was actually really worried I’d done something terrible to you…”

Twilight lowered the notepad to look at Withania, tilting her head kindly. “Withania, you’re not a monster. You’ve turned into something incredible, we just don’t understand everything about you yet. But the more we discover, the more amazing you seem to be. I’m sorry if I rushed you though, I suppose something we should learn from this is that the backup spell isn’t perfect…”

“Quite. Look at all this pudge you gave me. I have to walk all this off now!” said Withania with a smile, leaning to one side to show off her curvy hip. “Not that I’m complaining…” she added hastily.

“Me either. We need to repeat this test with somepony else so I can measure everything!”

“Yea I think a day or two and I’ll be back to norm- wait, what?”