It was a silly idea. An incredibly silly idea, possibly even an incredibly stupid idea, but as Cup Cake stared at the helium tank, she couldn't stop thinking about it. It was just sitting in the corner of the kitchen, a leftover of one of Pinkie Pie's parties that hadn't quite made it back into the storage closet. Next to it sat a big bag of deflated balloons, big ones, small ones, long ones that doubled as condoms whenever she and the hubby felt frisky...
But it had been a while since they'd last done it, leaving the pudgy blue mare high and dry. Her pussy ached for attention from Carrot's loving hooves, but aside from a little cuddling, the last time they had sex was before the twins were born. She was under no false impressions; She was thirty-five years old, reaching toward menopause with every passing day. Every day, her wrinkles grew deeper, her flank sagged more and more, and the layer of fat she'd cultivated – A natural result of her profession, and certainly not the result of an unrelenting greed for her namesake treat – Was beginning to take on the flabby look of an overweight old mare.
This helium tank presented... Possibilities. Picking up a balloon, Cup Cake turned it over in her hooves, stretching it, feeling the wrinkled surface. Then, pulling the end over the tank's nozzle, she cranked it open and watched it inflate. Every wrinkle disappeared, leaving it a smooth, drum-tight sphere. Could such a thing be possible? No, that was ridiculous – What kind of weirdo would even think that would work? But as she glanced down and saw the flab hanging down her forethighs, it almost felt like it was worth a shot. Anything to get back her looks.
The sudden bang shook her from her thought, as little scraps of colored rubber drifted down around her. The helium tank hissed its contents into the air, and she moved to turn it off... But the desire came back, and regardless of the balloon's fate, she pressed her lips against the nozzle and began to suck. The helium was cold, but not unbearably so. Her stomach filled up in an instant, as if she'd just plowed through a dozen cookies, but it wasn't enough, so she cranked the nozzle even further.
The flow turned from a trickle to steady flow, and as the mare squirmed from the cold, she quickly found herself rounding out. Her stomach stretched like an inflating balloon, growing as large as it had been during her pregnancy. All those wrinkles she'd been so worried about began to fade as helium sifted through her body, filling out every little pocket of loose skin. Already overweight, she was on a fast track to looking obese, but she wasn't worried – Carrot loved bigger mares, and as long as she didn't sag too much, she was happy. Shifting her hooves around, she realized that she felt much lighter than before, her aging joints no longer aching as her weight pressed down on them.
This was perfect! With a satisfied hum, she pulled away from the tank – Or at least, she tried to, but her lips were stuck! Her eyes grew wide as she realized what had happened – The nozzle was as cold as ice, it was like kissing a frozen pole! Letting out a grunt of alarm, which sounded more like a squeal through her helium-filled lungs, she took a step back without thinking. The tank fell to the floor, and with a little *tink* of snapping metal, the wheel came off and rolled under a counter. Cup Cake tried to grab it, but her limbs were quickly becoming too full to bend, and when she tried to crouch, she'd just spring back upright like a bent balloon.
That's what she was quickly becoming, she realized with growing alarm. Her body was rounding out, her belly pressing into legs as thick as tree trunks. Her flanks, those glorious, pillowy mounds that Carrot loved to stuff his face in, were turning into a pair of spheres that would've put Princess Twilight's hot air balloon to shame. Helium hissed from her nostrils and ears, and she thanked her lucky stars that her ponut was too inflated to let any out. She was getting big, far too big – If she didn't act quickly, she was going to fill the kitchen!
Her legs were too stiff to walk, so she was reduced to a kind of hopping waddle – Shifting her weight from left to right, forward and back, she managed to close the five feet to the back door in about a minute, by which point her cheeks were beginning to encroach upon her vision. Even her lips felt big – She could feel them pressing around the nozzle, nearly completely covering the little metal tube.
Fumbling with her rounded hooves, she managed to unlatch the door. It was a beautiful day outside, but to reach it, she'd have to squeeze through the doorway. Taking a waddle-hop step forward, her shoulders bounced uselessly against the door frame. A second attempt ended the same as the first – Celestia's mercy, she was trapped!
There couldn't have been much helium left in the tank, but if she didn't get it out of her mouth, she was liable to pop – Assuming she didn't destroy the kitchen first! She tried to take a step back, but her hoofbottoms were so round that she slipped and bumped against the counter, rattling a rack of knives. Fear leapt into her throat – Pinkie had used them to dispose of some leftover balloons the other day, and the memory of those pops filled her heart with dread.
At last, her hooves lost contact with the floor, as her swelling thighs forced them to stick out like toothpicks in the world's biggest orange... A blue orange... It wasn't a great analogy, but she was hardly a poet. Her body rocked back, her belly filling up most of her view, while her massive ass cheeks hit the floor with a hollow noise. Even her neck was like a spare tire, keeping her head locked in place, with nothing but the helium tank and her own immensity for company.
The tank was almost out, the hissing reduced to staccato spurts as the occasional bubble rose to the nozzle, but that was cold comfort to the spherical mare. She was stuck, well and truly stuck... Even as the nozzle of the tank began to warm, melting the icy seal and slipping from her lips, she couldn't call for help. Her lips were just too big, like a pair of fat sausages, and her necktire made it impossible to even move her law. Whimpering, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
“Wowee, Mrs. Cake! You're really big!”
Pinkie Pie's voice rose above the gurgling of her body. Cup Cake tried to turn her head to look at her, but all she got was a squeak of rubbery flesh – She still couldn't move.
“Mrphphhrrr!” She tried to scream for help, but her overinflated lips made it impossible to do more than mumble. A hoof pressed into her immense flank, and heat rushed to her cheeks. By Luna's luscious lashes, she could feel a certain wetness between her thighs... Thank Celestia, her rear end was too big for Pinkie to see it.
“Don't worry, it's not that weird!” She chuckled, running a hoof along the mare's cheek, “Sometimes, I like to stick the nozzle up my coochie and fill myself up and pretend I'm full of little babies! But sometimes I leave it a little bit too long and I have to pretend Queen Chrysalis kidnapped me and filled me up with all her little changelings and the big meanie's gonna make me explode to give birth to all of 'em!”
“Hrrlllmmhrrr?”
“Of course, I never let it go *that* far, I don't wanna pop! When ponies pop, it makes them die! KABOOM!” Pinkie slammed her hooves against the floor for emphasis, sending tremors across the blimped mare's body.
“It takes a pretty long time to deflate when I get like that, though. Judging by your size... It's gonna take at least a week, if not more...” Her tone changed here, and if only Cup Cake could turn her head just a few inches to the side, she'd have seen a smirk spreading across Pinkie's face.
“How would you like to help me out in the meantime?” She asked, tapping a hoof against the bloated mare's side.
Cup Cake hiccuped.
“All aboard the Big Blue Balloon! Only ten bits a ride!” Pinkie shouted, leaning against the basket of the hot air balloon. The crowd let out a chorus of excited cheers, quickly forming a line that stretched halfway across Ponyville's town square. Earth ponies, unicorns, even a few pegasi – Everypony enjoyed a good balloon ride, and with prices as low as Pinkie's, you couldn't go wrong.
One by one, ponies filed into the basket, dropping coins in the jar at Carrot Cake's hooves. The stallion glanced up at the balloon, then back down at the jar, which was already filling up after just a couple flights. There was something strange about the balloon, but he couldn't quite put his hoof on it... The shape was a bit unusual, and there were two big pink smears across the sides, crudely covered up with paint.
Turning to Pinkie, he asked, “So, how much did you say this thing cost again?”
“Nothing at all!” She chuckled, “A traveling circus troupe gave it to me! They had a griffon with no wings who could jump fifty feet in the air and catch a crossbow bolt in her beak!”
“Right...” He tried to ignore the mental image, “And my wife left with them?”
“Yep! Their chef got sick after accidentally poison joke, so until his tentacles turn back into hooves, she's gonna be baking all the tasty circus treats!” She licked her lips just from the thought, “Deep-fried chocolate chip cookies! Yum!”
Without any further ado, Pinkie climbed aboard and shut the door, leaving Carrot to guard the jar of bits. Pulling a cord, the oddly-shaped nozzle on the bottom of the blimp opened up and let out a deep, resounding noise like the sputtering of an untied balloon. Funny... As the balloon left the ground, Carrot almost thought he heard a hint of his wife's voice.
Sighing, the stallion scooped up the jar and headed back toward Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie wouldn't be back down for another hour or so, and he needed to get some work done in the meantime. Somepony had left a whole bag of balloons scattered around the kitchen.