Author's Note
Artist: Cold Blooded Twilight
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https://twibooru.org/3395960
https://ponybooru.org/images/3729538
https://ponerpics.org/images/7114429
Carrying Weight
Rarity waddled down the dirt road of Ponyville leading to the village’s gym. Just as with the library, spa, and her gorgeous boutique, there was one and only one in the whole village.
Rarity held her head high, even as the rest of her threatened to drop so low it would scrape the ground. That wouldn’t happen, but Pinkie Pie had joked about it once and it had stayed in her mind ever since. Rarity huffed a little, and returned her attention to her flawless body. She looked back at herself and smirked, just a little, at her ability to turn heads even in her current condition, heavy with twin foals. Her attention lingered on her rear, spilling out of her long exercise socks just a little too much. Still, her body seemed less flawless, a little more like a marshmallow lately, which was her reason for visiting the gym this morning. She had her mane tied back in a ponytail, her tail curled a bit differently to help keep it out of the way, and these adorable exercise bands for her forelegs didn’t really help at all but they looked positively gorgeous. Her designer saddlebags didn’t hug her body as tightly as they once had, laying on her back more than hanging on as they should, but they held on well enough for moving about.
Rarity’s attention went from outward to inward as she took inventory of her precious cargo. The two foals slept in her belly, rocked to sleep by her walking, and hopefully they’d stay that way. She wanted her sleep schedule to sync up with theirs, for once.
Her fellow unicorn Twilight Sparkle had given her a pair of magical dampeners, or whatever they were called, to place around her belly to prevent magical outbursts, but they looked ghastly. They resembled the ugliest pair of earmuffs she’d ever seen. It would be one thing if she could wear them underneath a dress, but dresses weren’t appropriate gym attire. It would be another thing if they had them in her coat colour, but they only came in a drab black for some reason. It would be one final thing if they could comfortably hang underneath her belly and be just a little more discreet, but she could only get them to stay on if she laid them over her back before cupping them to both sides, where everypony would see them before her gorgeous mane and everything else.
She didn’t need them anyway. The twins were always such darlings on her morning stroll. She had eaten only a light breakfast this morning, and they were still asleep.
Unlike her weekly visits to the spa, Rarity had never set hoof in the gym before, despite Rainbow Dash’s repeated insistence. She had always been more of a dieting pony, a move around and stretch kind of mare. Well, moving around and stretching was only going to get harder if she continued sitting on her rear and sewing the day away, as fun as it was and as adorable as the little outfits for her darlings were.
She opened the gym doors, and retched at the stench that hit her. She had been prepared for musk, being around ponies like Applejack and Rainbow Dash for long enough generally prepares a pony for it whether she wants it or not, but it was already a hot day, and there were quite a few ponies in the gym presently. She should just leave and go for a gentle stroll in the fresh air instead.
“Hey! Rarity!” That was Rainbow Dash’s voice. Rarity could now see her unfortunately nearby, hovering in place with what looked like a very heavy weight held in her hooves. Rainbow gently breathed as she lowered herself to the ground, and set the weight to rest. She exhaled, and Rarity noticed she shook off the sweat rather than use the rag right next to her for the purpose. “So, you finally came to the gym.” Rainbow Dash eyed Rarity’s form up-and-down, once or twice. “Well good for you. I won’t give you any guff for waiting so long. So, what routine are you planning on for today?”
“Routine?” Rarity was planning on a nice lunch afterwards, but that wasn’t what Rainbow meant. “Um, I thought I’d have a look around first.”
Rainbow Dash got uncomfortably close, throwing a sweaty hoof over Rarity’s back as a kind of hug, and to guide her attention. “Here, why don’t you use one of the treadmills as a warmup? The watering trough’s over there in the corner.” Rainbow Dash was back to her routine before Rarity could gag at the mere thought of using the watering trough.
Still, the treadmill seemed like a good idea, although she couldn’t figure out why somepony would use it when walking around town was more scenic. Well, she was already here, and walked over to one. Her magic lifted her saddlebags and gently set them on the floor; she hovered a water bottle out of her saddlebags and into her mouth, taking a sip before setting it back down. The treadmill was very simple, mechanically. It had a hoofometer for measuring how far she walked, and not much else besides a button to reset the distance, a dial for speed, and a tiny slot for a magical crystal to start it. Rarity knew she could zap it as a unicorn and avoid spending any bits on a little crystal, which is exactly what she did after setting the dial to its lowest setting.
The tread moved slowly, and she found it effortless to keep up. It was too slow, really. She turned the dial two notches. Now she had to move quickly enough to feel herself jiggle and sway with each step. She inconspicuously looked around the gym, pretending to look at the equipment but really nervous that anypony were watching her; nopony seemed to be paying her much mind, and she sighed in relief, but was also just a tad disappointed. She shook that silly thought out of her head. She shouldn’t be putting on shows for anypony but her husband anyway. A kick knocked these thoughts out of her head, and she looked to her right side to see some foal movement.
She chuckled. “Sorry, little darlings, but you’ll just have to deal with it.” She kept walking. By now, she really felt like she was getting a workout, and thought about taking a break soon. She could feel some soreness building up in her rear back, and her horn was feeling stuffy for some reason. Just a little while longer and she’d rest.
“Whoa, watch out!” Rarity turned her head at some stallion yelling, and nearly fell off the treadmill at what she saw. A unicorn had taken a weight and was swinging it around magically, with ponies running and crouching out of the way. Rarity was about to turn the machine off and make her way outside to safety, when she noticed the treadmill was getting faster.
The same unicorn, or one with a very similar magical glow, was turning up the speed; Rarity followed the magical trail—it didn’t occur to her to wonder why there was a messy trail of magic at all—to get a look at the horrible unicorn doing this, only to see the trail make its way in her side. She gulped, and saw one trail coming out of her back near her rear, which explained the odd sensation from earlier. She now noticed yet another weight and her water bottle were also held in the same messy magical grip.
It didn’t occur to her that she could turn the treadmill off with her magic. Her horn wasn’t behaving itself right now anyway. Certainly everypony in the gym was watching her fat butt on the treadmill now.
“Hold on, Rarity, I’ll-” Rarity winced as a weight was thrown right into her gut, sending her flying back in the worst sense. “Ow.”
By now, most everypony had fled, leaving Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and a few stallions and mares left to withstand the chaos. Rarity huffed; her legs ached, her back ached, her horn ached, everything ached; Rainbow Dash was up and about by now, but most concerned with avoiding the remaining weights, one of which flew by and got stuck in a wall.
Eventually, the treadmill slowed on its own, due only to a lack of magical power. Rarity hopped off the treadmill, or rather she set one shaking hoof after another until all four were on the floor again; her rear collapsed to the floor, and then the rest of her fell so that she was lying on her side. She should’ve listened to Twilight and taken those stupid earmuff things with her. Rarity’s head shot up. She had taken them with her, they were in her saddlebags. Now the problem was getting to them. She channelled magic through her horn, and managed to focus on the pocket containing them. She stuck out her tongue in concentration as she felt around, certain she had found them, but unable to pick them up. They kept falling through her magic. She seemed to recall Twilight telling her they’d do that, now that she wondered why. “Ah, Rainbow Dash, ah, darling. C-Could you be a dear and give me those delightful earmuff looking things in my bag?”
“You’re worried about fashion now!?” Rainbow Dash was able to duck and crawl over to her.
“Um, about that, they actually go around my, um, my, oh how should I put this?” Rainbow Dash was about to yell again, so Rarity blurted out the first phrasing that came to her mind. “Just put them around my gut and they’ll stop this!”
Rainbow Dash nodded, fished in her saddlebags for a moment to find them, kept herself short as she walked over to Rarity with them in her mouth, and adjusted each cup end around her belly. Instantly, the magical trails began to dissipate, dropping the weights and everything else they were holding onto the floor. Rarity’s water bottle shattered as it hit the ground. Rainbow Dash wiped some sweat from her face with a hoof. Rainbow looked at Rarity to notice she was about to start crying. “Um, cheer up, or something. Don’t cry or anything.” Rarity tried her darnedest not to wail, but tears ran down her face regardless.
In the end, nopony was hurt, except for Rainbow Dash. Rarity’s pride was also bruised. She looked at the ugly magical dampeners, and how they clashed with her perfect white fur. She looked at the ugly gym walls with holes in them, and how her fashion sense had indirectly caused them. Their father would be delighted to know they had such strong magic, and aghast at the property damage she’d racked up.
Author's Note
Artist: Cold Blooded Twilight
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https://twibooru.org/3427411
https://ponybooru.org/images/3759353
https://ponerpics.org/images/7146912
Wingin' It
Rainbow Dash soared through the open skies, Ponyville below her. Perhaps “soared” were an exaggeration; “hovered” was better, “fluttered” perhaps. These thoughts raced through Rainbow Dash’s mind as she reflected on how her body couldn’t race at all in its current state, but she was going to correct that. She had gained just a little weight lately, and could feel it tossing and thrashing around in her belly. Nopony ever told her life would be easy as a mare, but she was determined to carry her burden with speed and style. Each tribe had some difference, even in the womb: Earth pony foals were really strong, unicorn foals could messily cast magic, and pegasus foals had two extra limbs to squirm with. She winced.
Finally, Ponyville’s gym was beneath her, and she slowly, steadily, embarrassingly lowered herself to the ground; it wasn’t with a swoop and a smooth slide to a halt as she could once do with ease, but instead a straight drop down as she slowed her flapping wings. She felt like she were carrying cargo, and didn’t dare turn her head to glance at herself and confirm that mental image.
Her hooves touched the ground, and she had to catch her breath. A glance behind herself without thinking made her take in the sight of her body once again. She wasn’t fat, but her cutie-mark had a slight curve as it wrapped around her rear that it didn’t have before. She already loved the shape that was inside her, but already hated the shape that she was in, and knew pregnancy was no excuse to let herself go like some mares did. Her husband had teased her about turning her into his fat broodmare, and it had been really hot at the time when they were making the foal, but she wasn’t going to let that happen! She’d keep up her exercise regimen as best she could and be back racing while the foal was still nursing.
Rainbow sauntered into the gym. It had been all too easy to avoid her usual visits, and she could feel the results jiggling on her butt with each step. Rainbow Dash was for once glad not everypony was looking at her. Now the question was what to do. She could take walks more often to keep her legs in good working order, and really shouldn’t do anything too stressful—pulling something and becoming unable to exercise at all would just make it worse, on top of possibly hurting her little passenger. Like her foal, she had two extra limbs on the average pony, and decided wing training would be best. They were the strongest part of her, and would need to get stronger if she didn’t want to risk grounding her home for a few months; they were also easy to exercise independently and, in the worst case, straining them wouldn’t stop her from burning calories some other way.
Usually, she’d have tied a weight to her body, or held one in her forehooves while she hovered, but could tell that clearly wasn’t going to work. It would probably be easiest to hold the weights directly against her wings. She put that thought through her mind’s eye, and winced at all of the ways it could go wrong. She’d need a spotter—she looked around for some horns—a unicorn spotter.
Fortunately, she saw Twinkle Shine, a fellow mare, and avoided the awkwardness of asking a stallion to spot her in her heavily-pregnant condition. She walked over to her while ignoring the foal movement that gave her rear steps a longer duration and wider swing for just a moment, and hoped Twinkle wouldn’t tease her. “Hey, Twinkles, mind if I ask you to spot me once you finish up here?”
Twinkle was stomping her hooves in place with weighted bracelets on each leg, and holding a weight in the air with her magic. She turned to Rainbow with a smile, which faded as she drank in the sight of her friend. “Um, sure, I guess?” Twinkle Shine lowered the weight to the ground and started to remove the bracelets via her magic. “Are you sure you should be exercising, like that?”
Rainbow huffed just a little, before she could stop herself. “I know what I’m doing. Pegasi have a proud tradition of athleticism.” Rainbow thought about adding to her argument, but decided against it; she was proud of herself for using a big word.
Twinkle Shine had another question as she followed Rainbow Dash to the weight rack. “Uh, what exactly are you planning to do?”
Rainbow grabbed a likely-clean sweat rag as they walked across the gym. She set her forehooves on an elevated platform before turning to answer her. “I’m just doing some wing endurance training.” She pointed to the nearby weights. “Just hover four of those weights over, two on each wing, and catch them if I start to drop ’em, alright?”
“If you’re certain.” Twinkle knew how Rainbow Dash acted when it came to feats of strength, but hesitated, prompting Rainbow to reassure her.
“I can totally handle it. I wouldn’t even need a spotter if it wasn’t for this little squirt. My mom told me she exercised when she was carrying me.” Twinkle thought that last little bit explained a lot, but decided to not argue with her. She started to hover over four weights; Rainbow extended her wings, widened her stance, and braced herself. Rainbow grunted as the magic dissipated and left only her wings holding them up. Twinkle kept her magic ready to call out and catch the weights underneath each wing if needed.
A few minutes later, Rainbow spoke. “Alright, could you grab ’em again real quick?” Once Rainbow felt relief and saw the weights lowered to the platform before her, she let her wings droop against her belly. Her belly relaxed in turn, allowing movement from her upset passenger to be seen. “Wew, thanks Twinkles. Just a few more sets and I’ll let you go.”
Rainbow Dash looked like she’d flown through a rain cloud. Sweat coated her body, and some had collected into a puddle beneath her. She was feeling the burn, and had just about had enough. Her foal had been exercising in her gut, kicking every time she relaxed the strong muscles lining her womb, and the strongest kicking yet was happening now. Rainbow felt her foal kicking so hard her muscles couldn’t hold it back. “Oof! Wing kicks... really hurt.” She heard Twinkle Shine gag.
Rainbow yelped when she felt her wings start to cramp and give out, but that was the entire reason Twinkle was there to help, and without asking she grabbed the weights in her magical hold and set them back on the rack after drying them off. Afterwards, she looked at Rainbow’s belly, still with a painful protrusion poking out from it. “Um, are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah.” Rainbow rubbed a hoof over her foal’s wing until it subsided. She exhaled. “My foal’s wings are so strong, so awesome!”
Twinkle Shine was never going to have a pegasus’ foals.
