Pinkie Pie looked plump. The party pony had always been plump, but now she seemed to carry a lot of extra.... plumpness... around her midsection. Twilight Sparkle assured herself that this was all a very scientific and wholly empirical observation, and that she would be required to gather far more visual data to strengthen her hypothesis. For all the boundless energy the bubbly mare spent celebrating, an appetite for baked goods always seemed to win out when determining her figure. Twilight could sympathize. Though she was much more sedentary, she often forgot meals altogether when she got into an academic groove, but even just the snacks seemed to stick with her regardless of time spent reading or out saving the world. And she wasn't doing her plot any favors by testing out Pinkie's latest experiments in patisserie, the likely source of the pink pony's prominent padding.

Pinkie dashed about the kitchen behind Sugar Cube Corner with weightless effort, however tight the blue apron seemed to be around her middle. Ovens hummed, spoons clanked, whisks rattled, and bowls clacked in a hurricane around the baker. There were already more than a dozen trays of cupcakes sitting across every available surface, and more in the ovens. The smell alone was divine, a thick buttery haze that seemed like it could fill the stomach just by the aroma. Never one to shirk presentation, Pinkie had busied herself heaping icing, fruit, and sprinkles of all varieties atop the confections, with an eye to make no two trays look alike. Her pink coat and frizzy mane were splattered with various shades of frosting.

Nearest to Twilight and farthest from the chaos of Pinkie's culinary arts sat a batch that had been sampled, three slots in a baking tin missing all but crumbs. The eight remaining seemed unassuming enough, crowned with white buttercream, rainbow sprinkles, and a Mareschino cherry. Pausing in her preparation, Pinkie nudged the tray towards Twilight, "Go ahead and try one!"

Twilight pondered and asked, "They look just like regular cupcakes? What did you need me to test?"

Pinkie grabbed one of the cakes, removing it from its wrapper as she tossed it into the air and caught it in her mouth. After only a moment to swallow it whole, she answered, "Oh, these have a super special, secret ingredient!"

Twilight looked around at the number of cupcakes that had already been baked, "I see... I hope my input isn't going to derail your progress..."

Pinkie appeared serious for the briefest of flashes, assuring, "I am confident in my process." With another quick motion, she disappeared another cupcake into her mouth and offered Twilight the tray a second time. "I just want to know what my friends think! Now try one!"

Twilight shrugged and levitated a cupcake from the tin, momentarily distracted by Pinkie adjusting her apron. That mare was getting really quite round... She huffed and switched to the task at hand, peeling away the cupcake wrapper and took a big bite, demolishing the cherry in the process. If the smell was divine, the taste was whatever existed above the realms of the gods. It filled her from horn to tail with warmth, contentment, and a feeling of heavy fullness. Despite that, she found herself eating the remainder and hungrily chomping down on a second in short order. Resisting a third then and there, she exclaimed, "Pinkie! These are amazing!"

The business-like Pinkie appeared again for a moment, calmly declaring, "I am confident in my process." The silliness returned and she took another cupcake and swallowed it in one gulp as she shifted back to decorating the new batches.

Despite the heavy feeling lingering from her first sample, Twilight couldn't help herself and gobbled two more before the obvious question entered her mind. It felt like she'd eaten a brick made of fluffy delicious, but it seemed to do little to stem her appetite. "Just what is this secret ingredient?" she asked, slightly louder to overcome kitchen clatter.

Pinkie glided to a stop, spun, and sped back towards Twilight. She was wearing roller skates. The earth pony winked at Twilight, "This is a special order for Celestia herself! She provided the secret ingredient: distilled sunshine!"

Twilight's left-brain engaged, summing up the situation. Celestia did like her cake. Celestia's favorite flavor was "More Cake", so the large order made sense. Celestia had better access to distilled sunshine than literally any other pony in Equestria. Pinkie and Celestia weren't exactly strangers, and the Princess liked to be the patron of small businesses like Sugar Cube Corner. The nature of sunshine would explain the filling warmth she was feeling, though with photons being weightless, it didn't account for the heaviness...

Twilight's hind-brain engaged, and she telekinetically seized and consumed an additional cupcake. Then another, leaving the tin empty.

Twilight's right-brain engaged, sneakily nagging, Pinkie Pie is super hot. She's looking hotter than usual. You should totally stare at her.

The purple unicorn's eyes drifted to Pinkie Pie still dabbling in decoration, and it began to dawn on her that Pinkie, somehow, wasn't just plump anymore. Her belly was big, Her blue apron just couldn't seem to navigate the added expanse of pink stomach that definitely wasn't there when Twilight had arrived. She resigned to a look back at herself, almost certain of what she was going to find there. Indeed, the feeling of heaviness wasn't just a sensation, it was the actual feeling of a swollen stomach poking out from her trunk. The sweat on her forehead from the heat of the ovens and the infusion of cupcake warmth turned suddenly cold.

"Uh... Pinkie...?" Twilight whined nervously, "Are you... ok?"

Pinkie found a spare moment to pirouette and roll back to Twilight with scarcely an effort, despite how large her middle had become. "Super perfect!"

Now Twilight found herself blushing, unable to peel her eyes away from the pink pony who looked positively pregnant. "Uh... your belly..." she said, meekly pointing a hoof.

Pinkie craned her neck back to look at herself, both high and low, stating without much apparent surprise, "Oh, I am getting pretty big, aren't I? I'm almost as big as Mrs. Cake was! Oh well, what can you do?"

An oven timer buzzing summoned Pinkie away. "Back in a jiff!" she quipped and left Twilight alone and befuddled.
More delicious scents wafted through the air, the fresh from the oven smell leaving Twilight hungry for more cupcakes. The unicorn didn't even have to resist the temptation, her entire being throwing an error after Pinkie's nonchalance, freezing the librarian in place.

With artful grace, Pinkie Pie found a resting place for each new tray of fresh cupcakes, never once losing her balance or her oversized stomach bumping and toppling an unattended kitchen appliance. The spectacle did something to rouse Twilight from her stupor, her right brain still urging her to look at the pretty thing. "Pinkie...?" she finally spoke, "Can I see the secret ingredient?"

The party planner rolled by, not even stopping. "Okey Dokey!" A spin had left her puffy pink hair in front of her eyes, but she nevertheless seized a large decanter and passed it to Twilight on a return across the kitchen.

Twilight examined the bottle, a solid glass construction in smoked black. The color was slightly insufficient to hide that the contents were glowing. It had no official label or seal, as one might expect from the royal apothecary in Canterlot. The only indication at all of what was inside was a piece of masking tape placed askew on the bottleneck, with "SUNSHIN" scrawled in black marker. The tape ran out before the full word did. Twilight knew the horn-writing anywhere: Celestia.

Twilight groaned recalling her mentor's infuriating lack of organization skills. She was too pregnant for this nonsense. The thought only registered briefly in her mind, as she proceeded to unstopper the bottle. The contents did cast light from the open bottle top, but not the spray of sunlight she was expecting. She carefully poured some of the contents into one of the empty cupcake basins, and instead of the light, wispy droplets of golden sun she expected, it was a heavy, thick cream that shimmered white, silver, and gold.

Twilight yelled to no one in particular, "Nightmare's frozen tits! This isn't distilled sunshine! This is ichor of life!"

Pinkie laughed at the sudden outburst, skating over to investigate. "Oh, that would explain it... wait... what would that explain?"

Twilight didn't know where to begin to explain the situation. Her thoughts seemed sluggish and her panic just wasn't giving her the boost she expected. "It's ichor of life! You can't just cook with it! It's too powerful! I don't even know where Celestia could get this much in one place! It's making us.... pregnant!"

Pinkie raspberried and broke into a fit of giggles. She slid from the kitchen and up beside Twilight. She nudged Twilight's swollen stomach with her nose, pushing herself backwards on her skates. "I would'a thought you knew how foals were made firsthoof."

Twilight tried to think, but the information flowing through her head seemed dogged. Pinkie wasn't that oblivious at the worst of times, so it shouldn't be that hard to make her understand. But that was the problem with ichor of life, wasn't it? One of the nastier side effect of having so much of the miracle of nature condensed into a paste is just how natural it made everything seem. That was life, what can you do? It acted as its own psychic filter. And here they both were, chowing it down and sucking in the fumes. And what pony even knew how it reacted with sugar or flour? There could still be more she wasn't noticing, besides being filled so full of life.

"Hey Twi?" Pinkie inquired, nosing Twilight in the stomach again, and rubbing her pink cheek against the swell. "Do you think it's twins? Because I think it's twins. And I should know, because I'm a twin. And I'm having twins, I think. AndI'mtakingcareoftwins. SoIreallyknowwhatI'mtalkingabout!
Besidesyou'rereallybigohwhatareyougoingtonamethemsayareyouhungrybecauseimhungryandimeatingforthreeandyoushoulddefinitelyeatifyoureeatingforthreeandweshouldreallyhaveababyshowericantbelieveIdidntplanonealreadymustbebabybrain~"

The party pony's speech grew faster the longer she spoke, and Twilight was already having difficulty keeping up. The first logical thing to do would be to get out of the magically infused haze, but Twilight's hooves were leaden, and she knew she was too pregnant for this nonsense. The only thing that snapped her back to focus was Pinkie casually grabbing a fresh tray of cupcakes and helping herself to another of the cursed confections. She began to shriek, "Pinkie! No! Are you craz-"

Pinkie was rather quicker with her reflexes, however, and managed to silence Twilight's yell with a cupcake stuffed into the unicorn's mouth. "Don't be a worrywart. I made plenty extra in addition to the order from Sun Butt."

Twilight ate the cupcake. Once she got a taste, she couldn't help it. The flavor was masterful in its overtones and undertones and the lingering notes once swallowed, to say nothing of the warm feelings of fullness and contentment that spread throughout her body. She knew she shouldn't be indulging, but the reason was starting to escape her. Pinkie, so cruel in her kindness, was offering another not a moment after Twilight had finished the first, She ate that one, too. Pinkie tossed a third in Twilight's direction, and she seized it in her magic field. The pregnant pink pony did a spin on her skates, and with an "Okey Dokey! Glad you like'em! Take as many as you want!" sped back into the kitchen to continue her work.

Twilight stood and calmly ate the cupcake caught in her telekinesis. She just couldn't remember what she'd been so worked up about. It probably wasn't good for her to get too excited in her condition. She dared one last cupcake, taking small, delicate bites to better savor the flavor. The sneaky little things were the perfect size to eat whole if a pony had a mind to, but she'd already eaten almost a whole tray by herself. That much sugar couldn't be good for her foals.

But Twilight wasn't relishing the thought of the walk back to the library, so she continued to hang around and watch Pinkie's antics. Pinkie's twins didn't seem to be slowing her down, Twilight scolded herself. But then, Twilight also didn't trust herself on roller skates, and she wasn't carrying two, she was carrying three.

Hanging around the bakery surrounded by treats was proving to be a mistake, though, as Twilight's hunger eventually got the better of her...

Twilight awoke face down in a scroll. A puddle of drool had formed and blurred the ink beneath it. A tin of six muffins, two of them missing, sat next to her on the desktop. Her candle had burned low, though not extinguished, and the library was still well within the grip of night. She jerked up, spat crumbs and cursed, trying to salvage the notes she'd made regarding the magic mirror she and Fluttershy had found in the Everfree. But the scroll was less spell matrices and more a tale of naughiness between a very pregnant purple unicorn and a very pregnant yellow pegasus. Twilight peered around suspiciously and banished the scroll to her pocket dimension of unspeakable secrets. But the content had knocked loose a thread of awareness, and Twilight's mind began simmering with her nighttime vision.

Nightmare's frozen tits. That was weird. And hot. Weird and hot.

Author's Note

I didn't do much proofreading of this, so sorry if it's full of mistakes!