Twilight Sparkle looked up at the Castle of Friendship. In the dull gloom of night, there was little of the shimmering luster that should have been found in its crystalline surfaces. At this angle, she couldn’t see any of the windows that should have been lit, leaving it shrouded in darkness. It was a huge, hulking shape, uneven and lopsided in its architecture. If she stared long enough, it seemed as if the shadow was tilting, threatening to fall over as its unwieldy weight caught up to it, but then she would blink and the effect was gone, the building the same way it always was.

It was still so surreal. She had once lived inside a tree. She had been nothing more than a student of the crown with a side gig as a librarian. That life had been fine—there was still more than enough saving of the world for a pony to be content with.

Then came the wings. Then came this impossible palace. This was a constant reminder to all of Ponyville of who she was. The complaints about the dramatic obstruction of the skyline waned in time, but it remained a significant addition to Ponyville, drastically different from any of the surrounding buildings, even the school that had been built later down the line. Every day, any pony who left their house would at some point have to set their gaze upon the castle, and they would know that they were within the domain of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

And all too soon, that would be changing once more. Taking the throne from Celestia and Luna would entail moving to Canterlot. That palace was even grander than this one, and even more imposing. On a clear day, one could see the gleaming spires on the side of Mount Canter from miles away. Her reign would become a constant part of the lives of ponies all across Equestria.

She couldn’t recall exactly how long she had been standing here.

Nor could she remember the process of walking or running or flying to the castle.

She was no longer conscious of her present indecency, the itchy material of her bra and underwear nearly forgotten. She might as well be completely naked.

Her gaze tore away from the castle to look around herself, at the open green fields which filled the span between the base of the building and the nearest houses. There was still nopony else present, not Octavia or Apple Bloom or any of Ponyville’s other citizens. At this distance, the town was largely silent, as it should have been at this time of night. One mightn’t think that there was even anything amiss.

Twilight Sparkle dearly wished she could believe that.

The doorway came closer. She was walking, hooves clopping up the golden steps. She felt detached from the limb that reached out in front of her to pull on the door. The inside of the castle was cool, more pleasantly so than the chill that pervaded Ponyville that night.

What was she even going to do now? It couldn’t have been the first time she asked herself that question as she automatically trudged up the stairs to the second floor of the castle, where most of the rooms of significant import were. She hadn’t the slightest idea what she was supposed to do to correct all of the disastrous events of the past few hours. Maybe she would be able to figure something out with Starlight Glimmer, but if they left together that would mean leaving Spike unsupervised. She didn’t know how she would even get to Canterlot—she still didn’t feel comfortable about teleporting.

Why was it that she didn’t want to teleport? She found herself struggling to remember the exact reason. All she knew was that the thought of being in the Between again made her skin crawl. The crawling then promptly pushed the thoughts out of her mind like an immune system response.

The mare slumped to the side. The spiral passage stretched on ahead of her and behind her. The passage of time blurred, making her unable to determine how long she had been plodding up the steps and how much further ahead she had left. Her cheek pressed into the hard, unyielding stone of the wall.

Her breath escaped her throat in a protracted guttural groan as her eyes focused on a random point in the gloom.

She dimly discerned a noise that echoed back to her, but she could not identify what it was, only the way it tickled at her ear.

Then there was a squawk.

Twilight Sparkle looked up and was met with a dazzling flame that was coming toward her on fluttering wings. The vision seared at her eyes, but she couldn’t look away from its magnificence. Then the fire resolved into a bird. “O-oh…Philomena,” she muttered quietly. The words came limply tumbling out of her.

And there were indignant squeals. She glanced down, away from the fiery glare, and took notice of the white rabbit on the steps. “Oh, Angel too, good…you both made it here.” She felt herself smiling, but it was difficult to muster any form of relief under these circumstances.

But Philomena crowed at her again. There was agitation clear in her features, in the way she fervently flapped her wings.

“Oh…” The dejection in Twilight Sparkle’s tone came far too easily.

With renewed vigor, she started up the stairs once more, passing by both animals as she came to the landing at the top, entering the ringed hallway that all the rooms branched off from. The doors were nearly identical to each other, but she knew exactly where she was going. At this time, there might as well have only been one room in the entire castle, the most important room of all. But her pinpoint focus might not have mattered, since she could clearly see that the doorway was open, light filtering through from the bedroom on the other side.

She was so focused that she lost sight of Philomena and Angel, continuing to call after her, trying to get her attention, to prompt her to turn away. It was too late.

Spike’s bedroom drew near. Starlight Glimmer’s name danced on the tip of the pony’s tongue.

A purple hand grasped at the edge of the opening, claws digging into the stone, shortly followed by the emergence of a head on a long neck. The reptilian face turned to face her, and swollen lips curled into an eager smile as the dragon continued to pull forward, gargantuan breasts cramming into the doorway. He stared at her from beneath curling purple spines, eyes dark and blinded with lust. “Twily!” Spike called out delightedly.

Twilight Sparkle thought she must have screamed, for there was no more appropriate reaction, but her throat seemed glued shut, blocking the sound in her chest. Her eyes bugged out of her skull and her jaw limply gaped. Without any further input, she turned around and ran back the way she came. Philomena flapped by, cawing, carrying Angel again, before darting away in a direction that she didn’t have the time to look at.

“Twily, where’re you headed?” Rumbles of hearty laughter echoed after her as Spike extricated himself from the bedroom. “You just got back home, you can’t go running off again already!”

She was going to do all the running she wanted. But this was not exactly the best venue for running. The hallway was just going to loop back on itself before long—if Spike had the sense to use this to his advantage, he might double back and be able to catch her before she could react. Going into any room to attempt to hide wasn’t especially appealing either, that just meant putting herself into a dead end with no escape, left to wait for the inevitability of her discovery. The most reasonable avenue was to simply go back down the stairs and leave, but what would that accomplish? She would be abandoning Spike. She would be abandoning—

“Twilight!”

“Starlight?!” She nearly stopped dead in her tracks. Her gaze turned toward the inner wall of the hallway, the doors that led to the central room of the castle. It was only now that she took notice of the way the entrances appeared to shimmer, cast in a faint teal glow. A familiar color of magic.

She was still here. She was still conscious.

The question of why she had abandoned her post in Spike’s room was untouched for the time being.

Twilight Sparkle threw open the nearest door. The magical membrane surrounding the wall seemed to impede her movement, however slightly, but she was able to pass through all the same, a tingling running through her skin. Just as quickly she closed the passage behind her and practically threw herself into the room. She watched through the glass and magical field as Spike came thumping into view. The dragon leaned down and peered inside; his mouth moved, but nothing could be heard. He reached for the handle, but his huge hand was repelled by the teal field.

Satisfied for the time being that there would be no intrusion, the alicorn turned around. “Starlight, what’s—”

But, as it turned out, the inside of the room was disconcerting in its own way.

The table that was surrounded by the seven thrones at the center of the room was the most unusual thing about the altogether unusual castle. It was anchored directly to the magical ley lines of Equestria—possibly the entirety of Equus; she still wasn’t sure of the exact extent—in particular that mysterious and powerful strain that was the magic of friendship. Its chief purpose was in identifying disruptions in relationships that threatened to topple the precarious balance of the creatures of Equestria and countries beyond, but other applications for its power had been considered in the time since Starlight Glimmer used it as a focal point for a time travel spell (a period which neither her nor the princess was particularly fond of remembering). And it would appear that Starlight Glimmer had managed to do exactly that, judging from how she floated in the air above the table, surrounded by an intense teal glow that encased both it and herself. Her eyes were closed, her features twitching erratically from the strain that went into maintaining her concentration.

But any amount of curiosity for what this meant was quashed by the sight of the pink unicorn’s body. Overly plump, violet-painted lips ringing her mouth. Breasts that were larger than her head, straining the fabric of her shirt to the limit. Her panties fought valiantly to contain a penis and testicles that filled the space between her legs.

“Sta…St-Star…” She couldn’t get the name out again, could barely get any air from her lungs, her throat betraying her once more.

It seemed to be enough, though, as Starlight Glimmer’s eyes blearily fluttered open and looked down upon her. There, at least, there was some solace in the familiar indigo irises and, in a cruel sense, the way they trembled with terror and regret, after a night spent dealing with ponies blissfully unaware of their predicaments. “I…I’m sorry, Twilight,” she spoke, words filled with lament. “I let…let it—” She winced as a spasm wracked through her, her whole body tensing. Her newfound cock stiffened, further jutting out and taxing her underwear. “—it…g-got me.”

“No!” Twilight Sparkle cried out desperately as she stumbled forward, but it was a plea more than a denial. “Y-you can’t…you’re…you’re still lucid, you can fight this!”

“No, Twilight, this is…merely staving off the inevitable.” Starlight Glimmer’s legs clenched together and her hands clutched at her stomach. “I f-feel it inside me…wriggling and…squirming. All I have done is b-bah-ought myself time.”

The alicorn looked up to her horn, and her eyes scanned the pulsations of magic which filled the air around them. She recognized the threads of temporal manipulation, but their configuration was of a sort that was unfamiliar to her. “Is this…a stasis spell?” she asked, unable to work any enthusiasm into her voice at the potential discovery this represented.

“Of a sort,” the other mare grunted. “It came to me…in an epiphany. I thought I could use the cutie map as an anchor. I thought I could…stabilize myself…keep it from spreading.” There was a curl of her lips into a smile of genuine pride and accomplishment before her eyelids fluttered and her expression faltered, a groan forced from her mouth. “It might have worked…but it was too little too late.”

“We can still figure something out!” Twilight Sparkle insisted. “I can refine what you did and then we’ll be able to keep it from getting any worse and then—”

“It’s not—!” But Starlight Glimmer’s own interruption was interrupted by a cry erupting from her as her body twisted, and for an instant the aura around her flickered and guttered, going cold. Twilight Sparkle watched aghast as her underwear tore from her hips flaring out to the sides and her phallus springing outward, more than doubled in girth. Her arms thickened and bulged, especially toward the forearms, hands swelling into meaty palms with stout digits that would have struggled to hold anything. She started to sink toward the ground before her magic flared into being again and coalesced around her. “It’s not…enough,” she gasped between labored huffs of breath. “It’s getting louder…the more I try to resist it. I won’t…be able to…to keep this up…even w-with your help. It’s not enough to stop it…it n-needs to be…druh-iven o-out.”

Twilight Sparkle was aware of every individual bead of sweat trickling from her like the falling of grains of sand in an hourglass. Valuable seconds that were passing by, lost to the ether one by one. This was time that could not afford to be wasted. But she also felt herself seizing up, thoughts muddled and mired, wrestling with herself to come up with an appropriate action.

The consistent low hum in her ears wasn’t helping matters.

“What…does it want?” she asked, not certain that she even wanted to know the answer.

Starlight Glimmer stared back vacantly for several seconds, drifting, mane billowing around her face, before she was able to muster a response. “I…I d-don’t…know.” Her pupils shrank as she clasped her doughy hands against the sides of her head and whispered, “It’s not…like us, Twilight. It’s not…I don’t think it’s even…s-s-sentient. It’s j-just…eat…eating and…replacing…our…” She moaned again and her eyes rolled back as she turned and arched her body. Her magic dimmed.

“Starlight!” Twilight Sparkle shouted. She was about ready to climb up on one of the thrones or the table to reach the warped mare. “Stay with me! I c-can’t do this b-by myself!”

A hissing sound came from the unicorn, the beginning of a syllable that couldn’t be formed. She twitched and spasmed uncontrollably, her distorted anatomy wobbling.

“I…I can…” She ground her teeth and clenched her fists despite the tears welling at the corners of her eyes. She had to be strong. She had to meet the challenge presented to her. “I can…try…” There wasn’t enough time to think of the right words to say. She had to act.

Twilight Sparkle summoned her magic, and with it she pulled from the depths of her mind. White light danced at the tip of her horn before spreading out in luminous threads that reached toward Starlight Glimmer. They connected with the pink pony’s forehead and pulled her about so that they were facing each other. An indistinct rattle of a noise rose from her throat, eyes staring lifelessly like glass orbs.

It hadn’t worked with Fluttershy, but maybe she had been too far in.

This time it might work.

It had to work.

Please let it work.

The alicorn closed her eyes and let her memories play along the strands of light and flow into Starlight Glimmer’s mind. The two of them had not known each other for as long as their other friends, and their relationship may have once been fraught, but it was still enough for them to be close. She knew that the mare was strong and capable, she had every confidence in her. She could get through this. Both of them could get through this. Together they could—

“Welcome to Our Town!”

Twilight Sparkle stood on a dirt road. There were boxy buildings on either side, each nearly identical. The street was filled with ponies who looked on with keen, smiling faces. The stallions and mares each had the same uniform appearance in their neat clothes and manestyles.

She was aware of a sense that her friends were supposed to be standing at her back, but the space seemed distinctly empty.

There was a mare in front of her who looked like Starlight Glimmer but was not. She too wore the same plain grey-brown dress. Her bangs were different, two short bands instead of a swoop that hung over the side of her face. There was a gleam in her eyes and a subtle tone in her voice that back then had merely struck the princess as off-putting but she now recognized distinctly as venomous. Her grin spoke not of gentle welcoming but of veiled plans being put into motion.

“It can be hard sometimes for ponies to rationalize the differences between them,” Starlight Glimmer said, her words honey-sweet and acidic all at once, “it’s so unfair to know that you will never be as good at something as somepony else. Here in Our Town, though, everypony is equal. Equally—”

There was a crackling noise as the mare’s eyes filled with shadow.

“—busty.”

The tearing of cloth accompanied ponies’ chests, mare and stallion alike, swelling outward into pert mounds like balloons, wobbling tremulously.

“Equally hung.”

The cacophony repeated as everypony’s clothes continued to fall apart, unable to contain cocks like third legs and balls that hung down to the knees.

“And equally ruttable.”

The venom left Starlight Glimmer’s voice, leaving only the lascivious honey as her lips plumped up into an open pout.

(no this is wrong this isn’t what happened make it stop)

“Embrace.”

The connection was severed. Twilight Sparkle fell backward, tail caught painfully beneath her. Starlight Glimmer was screaming.

(no!)

The alicorn scrambled to her hooves, reaching outward, pulled on her reservoirs of magic again. But there was nothing that could be done. Her friend’s pained cries rent the air as the aura around her went wild, magic surging with a keening wail. Flames of purple and black lit up within the teal energy. Her shape was nothing more than a silhouette within the vortex, contorting and swelling and bubbling.

Then the magic dissipated and there was a thud and crack as she fell to land upon the table, lying still.

Twilight Sparkle was aware of herself yelling as she clambered up to the table and looked over the figure sprawled upon it. She reached out for her, not caring what it might mean to touch the corrupted body, and pulled her closer. Starlight Glimmer was limp, offering no resistance. The surface of her skin didn’t feel like fur, too smooth, gleaming faintly in the light. Flipping her over onto her back revealed not two but three watermelon-sized breasts, each with lips in place of nipples. Her penis still spasmed tremulously as it jutted up from her loins.

But her attention was focused upon the mare’s face. Her mane was different, turned from hair into stiff rubbery flaps that approximated its regular shape. Her lips remained the same size, but they seemed stiff, pursed together on the sides and open at the center in an exaggerated O shape that was disturbingly unnatural. It felt like that described her in general—an uncanny approximation of a pony rather than a true thing, not unlike the ponnequins from Rarity’s boutique.

Her eyes turned slowly toward Twilight Sparkle. Black was creeping through her sclera and her pupils were pulsating with red. Indistinct syllables sputtered from her mouth as her jaw held itself stiff. “T…Too…Tuwi…”

She couldn’t say anything in response, only looking down breathlessly. Tears splashed against the rubber mare’s cheek. The surface was twitching and distorting.

“You…can’t…fffforget…”

“Forget what?!” she cried back.

There was a pop. It went by so quickly that Twilight Sparkle was scarcely sure of what even happened. It was only on dim recollections that she could see in slow motion as Starlight Glimmer’s head bulged and pulled and split, a second head and neck sprouting from the first like a cell undergoing mitosis.

“Sssssuuuunburst,” the new head hissed.

Twilight Sparkle had already started to recoil in terror, a motion which was intensified when two horns lit up with teal pulses of magic. A moment later, a crack split the air, and Starlight Glimmer was gone.

She was alone.

The alicorn felt weak. She felt every part of her begging for relief, to collapse. To be done with this. It was a miracle that she was still standing.

She felt the tears trickling without end over her cheeks and past her chin. She didn’t even have the will to sob. It was like a dam had broken inside her and there was no end to the reservoir inside.

She heard the hum mounting within her ears. She could hear the voices whispering to her now.

She could hear Starlight Glimmer, even though she was no longer here. She could hear her friends. She could hear ponies from town. She could hear entirely too many voices. Every single one was another reminder of what she had been unable to accomplish this night.

She could hear Spike.

“Twily.”

The door came open now without resistance and Spike squeezed into the throne room. His huge clawed hands and feet thumped against the floor while his bulk dragged across it. “Aw, where’d Starly go? You finished having your fun with her?”

The casual, carefree tone of his voice elicited a burning spark within Twilight Sparkle’s breast.

“Oh well, I guess this just means we get to have some alone time together.” He chuckled while the sounds of his approach grew louder and closer. “I’ve been so bored without you around, Twily.”

“Go away.” The words came from her automatically.

There was a pause in the steps, however brief. “What’s wrong, Twily?” he asked, and it seemed as if there was some amount of concern in his tone. The steps resumed at a slower pace. “You’ve been overworking yourself again, haven’t you?”

“Go away.” She repeated herself more forcefully, power reverberating through her voice as she hunched forward, palms planted on the hard surface of the table.

The ambient power of the map hummed through her.

“Come on, Twily, you don’t need to be like that.” Spike was right behind her, the booming of his laughter like gusts of wind ruffling her feathers. That heady smell of lust wafted off of him, but it seemed hot somehow, spicy, irritating her nostrils. “I’m here for you, I can help you relieve that stress. I may be your not-so-little brother, but I can still carry you if I have to.”

He was reaching toward her.

The buzz grew louder.

Her fur bristled and her mane rippled.

“NO!”

Twilight Sparkle roared whilst whirling about, casting out her arm and wings, and a gust rose up inside the throne room as her power flared in a flurry of magenta sparks, a projection that was at once both barrier and repulsion.

The surge did far more than simply knock away the hand that had been reaching toward her. The furious light slammed against Spike, and there was a dull look of confusion on his face before he was lifted from his feet, sent flying in spite of his greater mass. The engorged dragon tumbled through the air a short distance before colliding with a wall with a thunderous crash and a shower of debris, tearing through the crystalline stone as easily as if it were cardboard, and there was another immediately after that as he went through the wall on the other side of the hallway as well, before finally landing with an earth-shaking thud. The dust settled, leaving the sight of a purple and blue form lying prone on the ground through the holes that had been made in the castle walls.

The alicorn panted and gasped haggardly, sparks still dancing around her horn. For the moment, she felt success. She had fended off one of the monsters. She didn’t even hear the voices anymore. She was victorious.

Then she remembered something important. They weren’t just monsters. Each one was somepony she knew.

That was Spike.

She had attacked Spike.

Her eyes remained glued on the scaly body, expecting at any moment that he would get back up, shrugging off all that she had done, and go back to making inappropriate remarks and flaunting himself.

There was no movement.

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t fully aware of herself clambering over the rubble, through one hole and then the other. Nor did she entirely realize that the dragon had landed in his own bedroom—where this horrible night had all begun. She had her full attention upon Spike. The way he laid still, limbs and wings and tail splayed out. The way his head slumped on the floor, jaw slack with lips slightly parted, eyes closed. The way his chest and shoulders were completely still.

(no)

Her breath was hitching in her throat. The tears streaming over her cheeks burned like acid. She actively felt the strength leaving her, slipping into the vacuum of the external void.

(no no no no no…no…no…)

She wasn’t looking at Spike. She was looking into an abyss. It was within herself. It was ageless and infinite and impossibly dark. The shadows within it writhed and churned hungrily, reaching toward her, offering their welcoming embrace.

She understood in that moment that many alicorns had faced this abyss and been tempted by what it offered. Princess Luna had fallen prey to its invitation. Celestia had nearly done the same in the days that followed her sister’s banishment.

What would the primordial murk have to offer her?

Twilight Sparkle had no want of anything, other than for all of this to be over.

She was ready to throw herself in.

“Pain is a distortion of the real.”

The world tilted. The abyss pulled away from her. No, she was pulled away from it, a hand grasping her by the shoulder to keep her from falling in.

But she turned back, and she saw that that hand belonged to a darkness that was even more terrible than that which had lurked in the pit, affixing her with its unfeeling stare, churning violet and cerulean, black and red in the eye.

“Your inklings are unnecessary.”

Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth as if to scream and the dark entered her. It filled her. It smothered her. It curled around her brain and seeped into the wrinkles.

“You crave satisfaction.”

“Let passion guide you.”

“They clamor for your reprise.”

“It comes again and again and again.”

“Time slips through a sieve.”

“You grasp the fruit of the loins.”

“Seeds sprout and take root.”

“Caress their sweet nectar.”

“Swollen and saturated.”

“Flesh like artisanal clay.”

“The meat writhes along with the beat.”

“Consume the chains that seek to bind you.”

“Embrace.”

“It doesn’t hurt to love.”

“Your colors are running together.”

“This is what you were meant to be.”

“Twily?”

Twilight Sparkle was on her knees, slouching forward limply. Her jaw hung open. Drool trickled over her lip and chin. Her gaze was filled with lilac fur.

She was full. So very full. The fullness occupied every corner of her mind. The fullness was growing by the second. Softness blurred the edges of her consciousness. It dulled her nerves as they branched and split.

Fingers clenched and grasped, twitching like an insect in its death throes. Fingers. So many fingers. Wriggling and wiggling.

Her loins ached.

It was the disturbance of movement that caught her attention. A blurry shape was shifting and turning toward her. Her eyes struggled to focus. It was as if shadows were playing at the edges of her field of vision, a dark that lurked just out of the corner of her eye.

That gorgeous face chased away the fuzziness. Reptilian muzzle, frills and spines. Eyes glittering like emeralds. Plump, cushy lips. Soft.

He was okay, she realized with stark clarity.

And then a moment later she wasn’t sure why that thought occurred to her, uncertain why there would ever be reason to think otherwise.

“Spike…” Twilight Sparkle murmured weakly.

She didn’t know why she was crying. Anguish bubbled somewhere, a place deep within that she couldn’t touch.

Anguish…

An—

There was a word that was gone.

She didn’t need to think about it anymore.

“Hey there, Princess, don’t be upset,” the dragon cooed gently. His hand reached to her. There was an instinctive response that was promptly dulled and buried. She watched quietly as he moved with the utmost of care in brushing his fingers against her cheeks, wiping away the tears. He then traced down along her neck and shoulders, claw tingling at her skin in a way that was both comforting and electrifying to the pliancy of her flesh.

“Oh, Spike…I don’t…I don’t understand what’s happening…” she muttered wearily, turning her head away as heat flushed through her cheeks.

“Nopony ever said you have to understand everything,” he replied with a toothy smirk.

Twilight Sparkle chuckled weakly, not really knowing why, but also not particularly caring about the why. “Oh…you’re right, I really have been pushing myself too much lately.” She faced Spike again. Really looked at him like she hadn’t in a while. Took in the wonderful suppleness that comprised the features of his form. Those huge breasts which she could have thrown herself upon. The double shafts of his groin which throbbed nearby, just close enough for her to reach out and touch. The inviting plushness of his lips. She didn’t know why she hadn’t regarded him in this way before, hadn’t seen how beautiful he was.

(because he wasn’t supposed to)

“Spike, I missed you so much,” she sighed, breath running hot, the fire in her groin forcing its way outward, too great to be contained.

“It’s okay,” he whispered back, shadow casting over her as he leaned forward.

And they came together. Spike grasped at the soft handles of Twilight Sparkle’s sides while she wrapped around the back of his neck and took greedy handfuls of his breasts. They completed their embrace with a passionate kiss, the mare’s lips expanding so as to match the dragon’s. Her eyes rolled back as they filled with black.

= = = = =

Pinkie Pie’s hips shook. No, not because she was trying to attract somepony’s attention with her ass, surprisingly, but a purely involuntary reaction. It told her that her internal clock had incremented from half past baking donuts to a quarter to advancing the plot. And there was going to be a lot of “plot” to “advance.”

“Okie dokie lokie, gotta run now Cupsy!” she exclaimed as she lifted her apron over her head and tossed it haphazardly away (there was no sound of it hitting the ground, as if it simply evaporated into thin air). “Gummy, keep an eye on her and help her if she needs anything!”

“O-ok-kay, sweetie, you have f-fun,” Mrs. Cake replied shakily, glossy lips curling into a faint smile while her dark eyes gazed ahead dreamily. The mare worked automatically at pouring creamy icing onto a set of cupcakes. She had to lean forward awkwardly to reach over the bulbous girth of her front, round breasts and gut jutting ahead of her, legs further spread apart by the pinkish bovine mass which was crammed between them—her clothes had long since torn asunder, but her apron remained in place, cinched around the breadth of her midsection—workplace practices had to be observed, after all. Her curly mane, magenta streaked with lavender, had a curious sheen that didn’t seem like that of hair, dripping slightly, nor did her flesh seem quite like fur and skin.

Gummy sat on the counter and did nothing other than stare at the blue pony with slightly more focus than he normally would have. He had never seen a bigger cupcake.

Pinkie Pie pushed through the balloons, a few of them sticking to her fur and hair and tail as she escaped the rubbery and sweet-smelling confines of Sugarcube Corner. The streets of Ponyville were largely devoid of screaming civilians now, leaving only the concerted moaning and groaning of ponies in the heated throes of passion, a chorus of lust and decadence. She leaned onto the very tips of her hooves and stretched her neck as far as she could (which was a lot; it wasn’t her fault nopony was ever around to see her do it), and she could just see the shadowy shape of the Castle of Friendship over the rooftops. “Gosh, though, it’ll take so darn long to walk there,” she said to herself with a huff, three hands planted on her hips, “there’s gotta be something more effective.”

So she reached into her mane and pulled out another balloon, one that was marked XXXL in black ink. She tugged the latex sleeve over her stiff length and then furiously began to rub at herself, four hands nearly a blur. Her hips bucked every time a climax rocked through her, and the balloon filled with gaseous cum, quickly becoming bigger than a weather balloon. It pulled up on her, but she could still distinctly feel herself tethered to the ground. “Nngh…it’s not…enough, captain!” she said aloud between labored gasps, her rhythm faltering. “We need more power!”

SPROI-OING

She stopped and stared down at herself, taken aback however briefly before she grinned again. “That’ll do!” she proclaimed cheerily while she took two more balloons from her mane.

= = = = =

“Come on, Winona, ya gotta have your breakfast if you’re gonna start your day off right!” Applejack cooed encouragingly as she nudged the side of the bowl full of kibble.

The dog whimpered lamentably where she sat huddled within her kennel, ears flat against her head, tail curled around her. She normally would have dug into her food immediately upon it being offered to her. Today, though, she was too frightened by the visage of her owner, the orange mare looming over her as she kneeled on the ground, her enormous brood-bearing belly sprawled over the grass in front of her, voluminous mane cascading all around her. Applejack reached to her and scratched her head, and she dearly wanted to accept the affection but couldn’t rationalize that there was something dreadfully wrong.

But then the pony’s countenance shifted. She seemed to tremble, a motion that started in her hips and stretched upward. She turned and looked away, out across the lawn and toward the fields of trees. She then stood from the dewy grass, a laborious process of hefting her immense weight. Only once she had begun to shuffle away did Winona cautiously step out from her kennel and start to eat.

Applejack looked toward the distant lights of Ponyville. There was an intense yearning inside her. This was what it felt like, wasn’t it? To be a mother, knowing that her foal was in need of her? Maybe not any actual foal of hers, in this case, but nevertheless there was somepony who needed a mother right now.

“Granny?” Her sweet voice still had the power to ring out across the farm grounds and command attention. “I’m headin’ into town for a bit, you got everythin’ handled by your lonesome?”

There was a crack as the mountainous mass of musculature that was Granny Smith split a tree trunk with her bare hands. “Ain’t got nothin’ to worry ‘bout, Jackie, I can handle all the chores ‘round here,” she chuckled back. “Best keep an ear an’ eye out from those siblings o’ yours, though, they’ve been gone an awful long time.”

“Sure thing, hon,” she drawled with a giggle before she began to trudge down the dirt path. She pondered about Big McIntosh and Apple Bloom. Were they the ones who needed her? It probably wouldn’t hurt, but she felt that it was somepony else. They were Apple stock, strong as the best of them, they could handle themselves.

Walking was tough work, though. The girth of her gut hanging in front of her legs forced her into a plodding, swaying gait. The thought of exhaustion didn’t cross her mind (she didn’t even know what that meant) but it didn’t take a genius to see how long it took her just to approach the treeline. “Land sakes, gonna be past noon by the time I get there,” she huffed.

CLUMP

CLUMP

CLUMP

CRCK

CA-CLOP CA-CLOP

CA-CLOP CA-CLOP

“Ooh!” Applejack’s streaked mane billowed around her as she sped into a canter, her lumbering pace more than doubled. “Now that’s more like it!”

She continued along the path unerringly, heedless of the way her thighs ground against herself or the added mass swinging from side to side.

= = = = =

“Twilight?”

Fluttershy had never been attempting to count how many times she called out the alicorn’s name, but she would have lost count a long time ago. It had always been the same tone, plaintive but neutral, with the lurid undertone bubbling beneath the surface.

She occasionally squirmed ineffectually at the bindings keeping her tied to the bed. She might have broken them if she exerted more force, but she didn’t think that she was meant to. Surely Twilight Sparkle had put her here for a reason, some form of play. She was taking an awfully long time to reveal what the payoff was supposed to be, though.

The mare tried to look around the bedroom, to look for any sign of the alicorn making herself apparent again, but it was a futile effort with her view covered by her mane and then her lips and then her breasts.

The cottage creaked every now and then as the boards settled. Fluttershy had thought at one point that there was somepony standing next to the bed, but nopony had answered when she spoke so it must have been nothing.

Her hips squirmed from side to side, and the great tower of her penis shook in turn. There wasn’t much she could do to pleasure herself, but she could have at least bucked her hips and gotten some massaging from her balls against the base of the shaft. She abstained from anything of that sort, though, not wanting to settle for merely pleasuring herself in private. She wanted to be around other ponies, so they could know how debaucherous she could be, how she could assert herself. Assert right into their—

“O-oh.” A threefold gasp.

Speaking of her hips, there was a quavering in them that tingled up her spine. Her loins were speaking to her. She couldn’t bear to wait any longer. She had to go now. She would apologize to Twilight Sparkle later.

“Ah…!” Fluttershy pulled and tugged on her bonds. They remained steady.

“Ah…ngh…!” Her voice deepened, however slightly, the rumbling of her lungs and throat audible even through the muffling mass of her lips.

“NRAGH!”

The bedsheet-ropes tore. Then the bed collapsed under her with a crunch and a crash. “Mmm, much better,” her nipples crooned as she picked herself up from the debris and made her way out of the cottage. The cramped architecture sundered as she forced herself through, down the stairs and through the living room. The door had been left open, but the frame split as she brusquely shoved past it. There was a rush of wind as she spread her wings, followed by a thunderous peel as she ascended into the air, flying into the distance.

A tall figure sat on the couch, watching with brows furrowed and sipping from a cup of tea—or, at least, something that was steaming like tea.

“Oh, what the devil is happening now?”

= = = = =

Nopony else had happened upon Rainbow Dash’s melting cloud house yet. It was unlikely that anypony in Ponyville would know what to do about it. Possibly not even anypony in Cloudsdale—it wasn’t like they had experience in dealing with supersaturation of semen. A good thing, perhaps, considering the rude surprise that would await anypony who wandered in, especially should they brave the climb to the bedroom. In the time since Twilight Sparkle’s visit, the structure had listed further, and the second floor had collapsed, dumping much of its contents and a flood of muddy rainbow fluid to the floor below, splashing out through the open door to the makeshift lawn beyond.

The pegasus remained upon her ruined bed, in her awkward position of being bent over and resting on her own phallus with her ass in the air. Her muzzle was fixed in a pleasant smile. Beneath closed eyelids, her eyes shifted, deep in the thrall of REM sleep. She rocked weakly in place, and her mouth opened faintly, mouthing a victory cry at the same time that her loins erupted with another gush of rainbow cum. Her dreams played to the tune that she preferred now.

But then a twinge played across her face. Discontent, however slight. Something was amiss (something that wasn’t her stallionhood, because there was no need to be concerned about that in the slightest). She rocked from one side to the other, buttocks wobbling.

“T…Twi…” she whispered in her slumber.

A puzzled pony observing the mess of the house might have been even more puzzled to see something erupt from the top floor, careening off into the night. At a distance, it seemed to be a shape like a firecracker, but it had a bizarre, unwieldy front-heavy shape, bulbous masses projecting from the tip. In its wake, it left behind not smoke and fire but a stream of oily fluid, glistening in the moonlight and casting an odd rainbow glow. It rose steadily toward the sky, into the glittering theater of the moon and stars, as its salvo of fuel depleted, until finally its lateral movement came to a stop. The object continued to rise for several seconds before then descending, its underside swelling at the same time, and it had nearly reached the ground before it then bounded off again with another spray from its end, having turned slightly in a trajectory that went around the perimeter of the town.

It was a bewildering sight, but Equestria was at times a bewildering place, so it wasn’t always easy to be sure what was normal and what was out of line.

= = = = =

“There.”

The sounds of sewing finally came to a stop, and a few steps later the door to the studio opened. “Right on time.”

A ponnequin stood by the opening as Rarity emerged, looking on and standing at the ready to assist her should she desire it. It watched her pointedly.

“Yes, yes, I know I’m a little behind, Laverne,” she scoffed with a roll of her dark eyes as she tugged on the sides of the frame, wriggling and pulling herself inch by inch. There was a pop as she passed one hurdle, but another made itself known immediately afterward. “But I believe the term is called ‘fashionably late,’ and am I nothing if not fashionable?”

The ponnequin made no visible or audible response.

“That’s what I thought.”

The floor scraped beneath her as she scrabbled out, finally free. The halls weren’t much less cramped, but she navigated them with far greater ease. Of course, then she had to deal with the same frustration anyway when she made it to the front door, ducking down and tugging herself through once more. The bell jangled against her several times.

Rarity heaved a long sigh as she took in the fresh air before she turned in the direction of the castle. She had already long since felt the trembling rocking through her, the unshakeable wonder and terror of anticipation. Her heart swelled in her chest as she smiled wide. She could feel them, all of them, through the threads that bound them together. They were coming together at last.

“Ah, a gala all to ourselves.”

Author's Note

DON'T BE AFRAID.

Thus we complete the build-up. It's time to take the plunge into the deep end.

I knew early on that I wanted to have a chapter titled "Dissociation" and that ended up being the inspiration for the naming scheme across all the chapters.

The moment in which Twilight Sparkle is considering giving herself over to nothing is the kind of thing I meant with the disclaimer about suicide; there are no explicit mentions, but it seemed close enough that I didn't want to chance it.

Slowly shearing off the branches of the side characters now that the whole main cast is going to be assembled as the primary focus.

Still been struggling to keep things consistent with how capable corrupted individuals are of being aware of what's happening to them and their surroundings.

Oh that I had the ability to do unreasonable formatting nonsense like in House of Leaves.

The description "black and red in the eye" is a specific reference to one of the lines from the Hiss Incantation.

Rainbow cum propulsion to let you know that this is an extremely serious story.

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