Wicked Temptation

“Twilight! Spike!” Rainbow Dash grinned cheerfully. “Long time no see!”

Normally, Rainbow Dash was a light blue pegasus with a wild rainbow-coloured mane and tail, and quite a fit and athletic one at that. She was a proud weather pony and stunt pony for the Wonderbolts, but Twilight couldn’t help but think she more resembled a sluggish balloon rather than a swift flyer. Her wings were unfurled, flopped lazily against her berry-coloured mass. Her mane was even messier than usual from a lack of brushing. Her cutie mark, usually a rainbow thunderbolt striking from a white cloud, looked more like a fat grey rain cloud with its thunderbolt’s edges softened and thickened.

“That was… quite an entrance,” Spike commented as Dash slowly got to her hooves with a grunt. He peered under her belly, which was inches from the floor as she stood, and saw a crack in the ground beneath her.

“Sorry about nearly falling on ya,” she went on. “Thought I made that cloud good and strong, but I guess they don’t make ‘em like they used to, huh?”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Twilight said, trying not to stare at how Rainbow Dash was so large there was a thick roll of fat where her neck should be. “So, um, how are the Wonderbolts doing?”

“Oh, we’re still the best,” chirped Dash, her dimpled cheeks making her cocky grin look more endearing. “We’re taking a break right now, which works for me. Being awesome really takes it out of you, so all I wanna do lately is chill.”

Twilight thought drily that it wasn’t just being awesome that was wearing Dash out, by the looks of her.

“That, and my uniform’s gotten really tight lately,” Dash went on. “Must’ve shrunk when I washed it or something, because now I’ve gotta wait till Rarity finishes fixing it.”

“Fixing it?” Spike repeated. “Wait, did it…?”

“Got this urge to throw it on and go for a fly yesterday,” explained Dash, “but when I finally got the zip up… rrrrrrip! Right on the butt.” Twilight’s cheeks flushed and she had to avert her gaze when her friend wiggled her oversized flanks for emphasis, sending her buttocks slowly jiggling and bouncing like water balloons. “So Rarity’s gonna patch up the hole and gimme a bit of room to breathe while she’s at it.”

“Maybe you should quit stuffing your–” Spike blurted out, only stopping thanks to a slap on the back of the head from Twilight’s hoof. “Uhh, maybe you should switch fabric softeners…?”

“It’s not all bad,” said Dash with a shrug. “Pinkie’s been making this sick cake lately. Hey, you tried some yet?”

“Um, not yet,” said Twilight, before watching Dash fold one of her wings and produce a slice of that familiar dessert from beneath it.

“I’m not a sweets pony, but this is the best cake ever,” Dash beamed, grabbing the slice in her hoof and holding it toward Twilight. “Here, my treat.”

Twilight stared at the cake, her ears flopping down. It smelled just as good as the one Rarity offered her, and it felt just as tempting to grab it.

Eat me… she heard inside her head.

She shook her head. “Thanks, Rainbow, but I ate before I got here. Still pretty stuffed.”

Dash shrugged and crammed the slice into her own mouth. Black crumbs and purple frosting covered her muzzle as she chomped with an open mouth like a pig.

“You’ve probably got stuff to do before we all get together later,” she mumbled, before swallowing. “I’m gonna get back to chillin’.”

Dash’s wings flapped, prompting Twilight and Spike to step back. The pegasus’s chunky legs bended before she hopped into the air… getting about two inches off the ground before flopping back onto her stomach.

“Wumph!” Dash grunted. With a confused raise of her eyebrow, she tried again.

“Oof!”

And again.

“Gah!”

Her spherical form heaved up and down as she panted and wheezed with exertion. “Unh… I guess my wings are gettin’ a head start on chillin’...”

“Yeah, that’s totally what it is,” Spike said flatly.

Twilight frowned. As concerned as she was that her friends were succumbing to this weird cake, she never could stand by and watch them struggle. She unfurled her own wings and deftly leapt into the air, grabbing fluffy white clouds around the Ponyville airspace. As she flew, she grimaced at the fat purple ponies below. The town looked like a great big vineyard, and she wasn’t sure why. She saw the line at Sugarcube Corner had shortened a little, but she still had to wait a bit. She knew for a fact Pinkie Pie wouldn’t do this voluntarily, and she was determined to find out who was controlling her.

For the moment, she brought a large collection of white fluff back to Rainbow Dash and mashed them together to create a cloud the size of a carriage. She brought it down to the ground and, with a glow of her horn, helped the plus-size pegasus clumsily climb onto it.

“Oh, it’s so soft!” Dash sighed, almost disappearing into the cloud when she gratefully flopped down on it. “You’re a real one, Twi.”

“Being an alicorn has its perks,” Twilight said, allowing herself a proud smile. With some magic and a flick of her head, she sent the cloud gently rising up into the air. She could swear she already heard snoring from it as it lazily floated around.

“Seems she’s just the same too,” said Spike. “Y’know, besides the…”

Twilight rolled her eyes as Spike puffed out his cheeks and spread his arms out.

“I do know something for sure,” she said. “That cake isn’t Pinkie’s doing. At least, not voluntarily. Somepony’s gotta be using dark magic to make it speak to you like that.”

“Speak?” repeated Spike, blinking.

“When I looked at it, I could hear it talking to me,” Twilight explained, her wings ruffling as she shuddered. “Telling me to eat it. And I wanted to.”

“You sure you’re not imagining it, Twilight?” asked Spike. “I looked at it too, and I didn’t hear anything. Guess the evil cake curse doesn’t work on dragons,” he snorted.

Twilight rubbed her chin, her brow furrowing. “Doesn’t work on dragons,” she repeated quietly. “Or maybe it’s the other way around: it only works on ponies.”

She looked into the distance, in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

“And I know just the pony who can confirm it for sure.”