Love is in the Air (And a Changeling's Stomach)
Widow's First Hearts and Hooves Day.
As Widow opened her front door, she took in the sight of Ponyville and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. Every house and business was decorated with beautiful paper heart designs, artwork and sculptures of the legendary Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and streamers and balloons in the perfect shades of red and pink to make one feel warmth and joy. The changeling couldn’t help but think that those colours meshed perfectly with her shiny violet exoskeleton, and lilac and aqua blue mane, tail and wings. Just one more sign that this was meant to be a great day, she told herself. Grabbing the saddlebag she had prepared the night before, which was stuffed to the brim on one side and empty on the other, she decided it was time to make the most of the big day. She noticed that it was getting a little tight
As she walked out of her house, she was immediately greeted with a cry of “Hey Widow! Happy Hearts and Hooves Day!” from her neighbours Hacksaw and Pine Planks, the carpenter pony couple who lived next door.
Widow smiled. “Happy Hearts and Hooves Day,” she returned. She reached into the stuffed side of her saddlebag and pulled out a card that said “Happy First Hearts and Hooves Day,” complete with drawings of a saw and wooden planks on the bottom that looked just like her friends’ cutie marks.
Hacksaw put a hoof to his chest and smiled. “Oh, thank you so much, Widow.” The unicorn used his telekinesis to place the card into a similarly similarly lopsided saddlebag.
“Before we forget, we also got this for you,” added Pine Planks, using his own magic to levitate a nightstand, painted the exact shade of Purple as Widow’s eyes.
Widow couldn’t believe it. “I’ve been looking for a new one of these," she said. And this is perfect, the colour is awesome!” Then her face faltered a little. “But isn’t this a bit much for Hearts and Hooves Day? I feel like I should pay you for something like this since it's so…”
Hacksaw raised a hoof to cut her off. “Nonsense. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t even be together this Hearts and Hooves Day.”
“Yeah, we would’ve kept worrying about whether the other pony liked us back and never confessed our feelings for years if you hadn’t gotten us together and pointed it out to us,” Planks elaborated.
Widow shrugged. “Eh, that was nothing, when you have the power to sense love, it would be cruel to not help two ponies crushing on each other get together.”
“Still, you helped us admit our feelings and we couldn’t be happier,” Planks said as he and his boyfriend held hooves. “You know what, the chair isn’t enough. Have a little snack, on us.”
Since there was no food present, Widow knew what they meant. “Aw shucks, thanks,” she said gratefully. She opened her mouth, and with a glow of her horn, she began to feed on the romantic love her neighbours felt. Her changeling magic allowed her to see it as a trail of pink energy, but she knew it was invisible to the unicorn couple. Young love always tasted refreshing and new, like an apple right after it was bucked off a tree. Very tasty to the changeling palette.
After taking a good drink (as she often described the sensation to her non-changeling friends) she licked her lips. “Thank you so much guys. I’m telling you, love always tastes best when it's from creatures you really care about.”
“I’m glad you think we’re tasty,” Hacksaw giggled. “So, I take it you and Minty or going to enjoy the Humongous Hearts and Hooves Festival together?”
“Not quite yet,” Widow explained. “This is my first Hearts and Hooves Day, at least the first one where I’m actually able to enjoy it instead of just waiting back at the hive for scouts to return with a massive amount of love to feast on, so she said I could take it all in this morning and then we could meet up for a romantic afternoon together.”
“Sounds Wonderful, see you later Miss Matchmaker,” Pine Planks called out as the pair of lovebirds trotted hoof-and-hoof down the street.
******************
“Wow, is Hearts and Hooves Day always this big of a deal?” Widow asked as she walked through the town square. It was full of ponies (and a few other creatures) exchanging cards and gifts, booths selling holiday themed snacks and trinkets, and tons of elegant decorations, including a large statue of Princess Cadence with an inscription that read “If you are willing to give love, others shall return it”. The lively chatter, scent of fresh sweets in the air, eye-catching decor, and sheer volume of attendees made the whole affair feel like more the biggest combination birthday party and wedding reception ever.
“Well, not always,” admitted Mr. Cake as his wife filled a bag with cream puffs from their booth’s display case they had set up for the day. “But this year Mayor Mare wanted to go all out so she hired Pinkie Pie to put together the biggest Hearts and Hooves celebration this town has ever seen.”
“She said she would give it ‘a thousand and ten percent’” Mrs. Cake quoted. “After that Cheese sandwich fella asked her to be her special somepony, she wanted every other creature in town to feel as happy as she did.” The baker pony gave a large, but soft smile, “she may be a bit eccentric, but that pony has the biggest heart out there. I’m proud of her.” Then she turned to Widow, “and I’m proud of you too. You did such a great job of babysitting Pound and Pumpkin last month.”
“Oh it was nothing. Taking care of two foals for the afternoon is nothing compared to looking after dozens of larvae in the hive when you’re on nursery duty,” Widow replied with a nonchalant wave of her hoof.
“Still, have these cream puffs on the house as a combination Hearts and Hooves/thank you gift,” the baker said, handing her the bag.
“Aww, thank you” Widow giggled. Then she reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a card with a drawing of a wedding cake with Mr. and Mrs. Cake as the customary bride and groom decoration on top, with the phrase Happy Hearts and Hooves Day to my favourite bakers written underneath.
“Oh, Widow, that is so sweet,” Mrs. Cake gushed, her eyes tearing up just a bit. “Not every customer would do this for us.
“So I say we give one of our most loyal customers a special treat.” Mr. Cake added. He pulled wife closer to him. “It's not something we baked, but it is something special we made together.”
Widow got where he was going and with a quick “thank you,” began to enjoy feeding on their love. Long-time married love always had a deeper, richer taste to it, like a demi glace sauce served at fancy restaurants. “Mmmm, that was so good! Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Cake, Happy Hearts and Hooves Day,” Widow called out as she quickly pranced away.
Widow didn’t say anything, but she wanted to leave quickly so she wouldn’t be tempted to drain too much love from the married couple. Changelings weren’t feared in Equestria anymore, not since the reformation, but she didn’t want to damage their reputation by being greedy.
Still, her love detection sense was flaring up like crazy. With every pony in town being in such a joyful, loving, and often romantic mood, everywhere she went there was some tempting tasty treat. It could be described as the same tantalizing feeling of being surrounded by the aroma of a fresh baked batch of one’s favourite cookies: the stimulation and knowledge that they tasted good compounded in extreme cravings.
It didn’t help that a lot of creatures around town were happy to let her feast. As Widow made her way around town giving out and receiving cards, many folks she encountered offered to let have “a little drink, compliments of them.” That cheerful hippogriff girl and moody griffon boy from the school of friendship were happy to share. The griffon boy’s love, like all love from grumpy folks with hidden hearts of gold, reminded Widow of lemonade-a blend of sour and sweet that some folks like his girlfriend couldn’t get enough of.
Later, she encountered Fluttershy hanging up little heart-shaped bird feeders as a gesture of friendship to her little feathery friends. Widow thought Fluttershy deserved a “champion of friendship to changelings” medal, as she always offered passing changelings a little snack when she saw them. Each time Widow saw her, she tasted something so pure and natural, like a salad full of all kinds of vegetables-fitting for a pony who loved nature with all her heart.
Just a while ago, she encountered Pinkie Pie and her coltfriend Cheese Sandwich, who had been patrolling the grounds to ensure all the guests and the Hearts and Hooves Festival were enjoying themselves. They were offering the few changelings who lived in town tastes of their love to help make sure they were having the most fun possible. The love from both of them, Pinkie Pie especially, was so overpoweringly bubbly sweet, that Widow felt like she had eaten a whole bag of sugar, a few pounds of popping rock candy, and washed them down with a barrel of cola .
With all these ponies being willing to share their love with her, Widow was feeling the effects. She always had a bit more pudge on her now that she wasn’t involved in changeling army drills and had a more stable food supply than when she was younger.
But now she wasn’t just a bit chubby. As she had allowed her body to actually digest the love instead of storing it so they could be brought back to the hive, she had plumped up all over. Her cheeks had some noticeable squish to them, even more so than a chipmunk carrying nuts. Her thorax (her midsection, not her king) had swollen immensely. It felt like big lumps of bread dough (one for each of her bands) had gotten stuck to her underbelly, and she could feel her back legs bumping into it with every step. She also felt the occasional dandelion tickle her underside, something she had never experienced before and found both funny and entirely unexpected. Her abdomen likewise had swelled with blubber. Widow found her buns jiggling with every step she took…something she was actually ecstatic about, because she always thought that having a bigger backside would be fun. Still, getting a bigger butt so fast affected her balance and almost caused her to fall backwards onto it a few times.
Lugging around her new lard was tedious and tiring, so Widow decided to take a rest. After all, she had just finished handing out all her cards, except for Minty’s, but they would be meeting up later anyway. She would have stopped at the bench that her neighbour Lyra Heartstrings always liked to sit on in a funny way, but with how swollen her stomach was and booty were, she wasn’t sure she would fit. Hence why she flopped down in a gazebo in the centre in the park. No pony was in there, so she was able to lie down without worrying about getting in the way.
However, there was one thing she didn’t count on…there were still creatures surrounding her. All around the park ponies were going to and fro, all with love on their minds. Couples were sneaking of to the privacy of bushes to exchange passionate kisses, tamer pairs of pony cuddled on the benches and nuzzled each other as they walked around the park paths, and foals in the playground, even those who thought love was icky, gave of the distinct (to changelings anyway) aroma of friendship-just as much a form of love as romance and familial.
Widow tried to ignore her instincts and cravings, but her senses were simply too overloaded to do so. Without even thinking she began passive draining. Unlike draining the love of one specific creature, passive feeding allowed them to collect a small amount of love from every creature around them. While this usually only brought them a tiny morsel, with so many ponies in the Hearts and Hooves Day Spirit, Widow was getting an even more steady stream than when she fed off couples directly.
There were so many wonderful tastes to savour. There was the warm, comforting taste that came from foals and their grandparents spending the day together, reminiscent of warm milk and apple pie. The friendship of the foals reminded Widow of peppermint- it tasted peppy and full of zest, just like a colt or filly at play without a care in the world. There were even some, like a red stallion in with a spiky blue mane wearing a chef’s coat hanging out with that rather plump stage magician Trixie Lulamoon, who clearly had…certain things on their minds which resulted in feelings of love which were as spicy as Appleloosa-style chilli with extra jalapeno peppers.
These flavours swirled together in her mouth, causing her tastebuds to dance with joy. Widow relished this feeling-she never got to indulge in this much love before. No ponies were getting hurt, or even noticing, so she could just sit there and take it all in. She was so busy enjoying her love feast her mind was a practical blank.
“Mmmm, the Cheerilee’s love for her students reminds me of that fancy sorbet I had last month, sweet ‘n’ fruity,” Widow mumbled without realizing she was speaking out loud. She didn’t care, all she cared about was the feast in the air around her, and the warm sunlight beaming into the gazebo making her feel all warm and cozy…..
*********************
“Widow! Widow, wake up!”
“Uh, huh, wha” the Changeling stammered as she blinked her eyes and woke up. As her vision came into focus, she saw the face of a mint green dragon with deep blue eyes.
“Oh Minty, there you are.” Widow stammered. “Oh no! I didn’t miss the rest of Hearts and Hooves Day, did I?” she asked in a panic.
Minty shook her head while wearing a sly smile. “No, it's still early afternoon. But I was wondering why you weren’t by the town hall to meet me like we planned, so I went looking for you. I heard from some ponies that you were in the park.”
Widow’s face fell, “I am so sorry Minty. I didn’t mean to miss meeting up with you…” she stammered. “I must have eaten too much love and fallen asleep. Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you.”
Minty chuckled. “Hey don’t worry. You didn’t flake on me on purpose, and we still have the rest of the day to spend together.” The dragon let out a giggle. “Besides, I’m happy you’ve enjoyed yourself so much. You clearly have the figure to show it.”
Widow sighed, “I know, I’m going to have to work off this love pudge for a few weeks.”
“Weeks? Try months? Minty snorted.
“Months, what do you…” as Widow trailed off, she finally realized what her girlfriend was talking about. Idly snacking so much love had caused her to balloon to truly enormous proportions. She suddenly realized that she could feel her cheeks jiggle as she spoke. She felt them with her front hooves, and realized they felt like mounds of modeling clay. As she removed her hooves from her face, they inadvertently touched her neck, which now had so many cascading rolls of fat it looked like a stack of donuts. Extra thick jumbo-sized donuts, to be precise.
As Widow reached her forelegs to feel her face, she noticed a rubbing sensation on their upper part. Turns out they had plumped up considerably too, now looking like she had a large water balloon stuck in each of them, and the rubbing she felt came from them brushing against her new neck rolls. In between those flabby forelegs, new deposits of fat resided. On her chest, with two round masses being mushed together-showcasing how positively overflowing with adipose she was now.
“Your belly looks nice and jiggly,” giggled Minty, as she gave her girlfriend’s gargantuan girth a grope.
Widow tried to see for herself, which wasn’t easy. When she began to Stand up, her leg muscles strained as they tried to lift her new heft off the ground. She ended up having to rapidly flap her wings at full speed to get back on her hooves, with a massive thud sound that rang out whenever one touched the floor of the gazebo letting her know she was very lucky that the boards didn’t just snap underneath her when they did so. She turned her neck towards her midsection, used her magic to pull her neck rolls out of the way so she could actually turn it, and took in the sight ice dragon had described.
While all changelings, even royals like Queen Chrysalis, had three bands around their midsections, Widow had never seen them all bloated with fat until they looked like mushy inner tubes before. Those rings of belly flab quivered with the slightest movement, and jiggled for a solid seven seconds after she had managed to stand up again. While Widow's new neck and face fat limited her field of vision, she could still tell that her thorax would probably be brushing against the grass a lot in the near future.
“Honestly, with how much love I ate today, I shouldn’t be surprised I have such a huge tummy now,” reasoned Widow.
“Don’t forget your butt!” Minty chimed in, “It's your biggest and best feature now.”
Widow could tell that both her glutes had greatly inflated. She could feel her tail droop down over the enormous curve her rump created, cascading down her backside like a waterfall. That massive curve was a result of her glutes expanding upward instead of just outwards and to the back. The top of each cheek was roughly at her eye level, a feat previously only achieved by Trixie and Pinkie Pie after they had started packing on pounds. Widow couldn’t help but wonder if her rear was even wider than theirs…after all, her adipose addled abdomen gave her more width than the spare-wagon wheels around her thorax…no creature she had ever seen had a backside that large.
While Minty playfully prodded her girlfriends prodigious posterior, Widow was still processing her new size. While changelings could turn into nearly any creature in the world, a change to the true form’s appearance was a big deal as it didn’t happen very often. “I think a walk to the town hall will help clear my head,” she finally said.
But when Widow tried to walk, she realized that her hindlegs had their motion restricted because her belly was in the way, causing her steps to be much smaller and frequent. Even lifting up one of her legs was difficult because of how heavy each of them were. Many more loud thuds were heard as Widow tried to make it to the steps of the gazebo, which miraculously held together as if the wood had been placed under a durability enchantment spell. However, she was unprepared to support the weight of her rear as she did so, and ended up sliding down the steps like she was tobogganing without a sled. With a great BOOM, Widow landed flabby face first at the bottom of the stairs.
Minty quickly ran around to greet her girlfriend. “Are you okay, Sweetie? You’re not hurt are you?”
Widow merely sighed and murmured “Yes, but I’m not sure how I’ll ever walk or fly again.”
Minty tapped her chin for a few seconds. “Does your weight impact your transformations at all?” she inquired, both feeling curious and hoping to help Widow solve her problem.
“I’m not sure, let me check.”
With a flash, the mint-green dragon was looking not at an obese changeling, but a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow mane, just like the one in the Wonderbolts show they went to a few months ago. After that, she gazed upon the exact likeness of Princess Cadnece (a fitting choice for Hearts and Hooves Day). After that came a bugbear, a basilisk, a magenta earth pony with three smiling daisies for a cutie mark, Dragon Lord Ember, King Thoraxand an ordinary black and white dog-all of which were their proper size with no signs of a ludicrous amount of fat anywhere on their bodies.
“I guess it doesn’t,” Widow answered as she changed back into her tubby true form.
Minty pumped he fist. “Perfect! This means that you can walk, fly, swim or whatever, whenever you want, and still stay nice and soft for your favourite dragon.”
Widow blinked in disbelief. “I thought you wanted to get fatter, not have me get fatter?” she asked.
Minty shrugged. “Who says I can’t have both? Besides, now I can do stuff like this.”
Using her claws and possible thumbs, Minty instantly started rubbing her girlfriend's belly. Widow felt her flesh buckle and squish under the pressure of the dragon’s hands. It was a marvelous sensation, somewhere between a massage and digestion aiding technique, which caused both her muscles and her stomach to instantly turn into content mush. Widow herself broke out into a content, happy grin as soon as Minty got to work.
“I knew reading those books on romantic eating and feeding sessions would pay off eventually,” the little dragon smirked. “Now they'll pay off all the time.”
“Okay, that was pretty incredible,” Widow sighed. Then her tone grew serious. “Still, I might lose some of this weight. You know, to make walking around town as myself easier.” Then she smiled, “But for today, I’ll just transform into skinny-me so I can go back to the Hearts and Hooves Festival with the love of my life, and then get more belly rubs afterward.”
“Sounds perfect!” Minty agreed, giving her girlfriend an affectionate pat on her well padded behind.
And so, with a quick change into a version of her who was only somewhat plump, the chonky changeling and her dearly beloved dragon went out to enjoy the rest of the most romantic (and to changelings, filling) day of the year. While they did exchange cards, each with a drawing of the other looking as cute as possible on it, it was safe to say that their mutual appreciation for Widow’s knew figure which really let them express their love for each other that day.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed this story, Happy Hearts and Hooves Day,
Widow belongs to Amepix, whose account can be found here: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/733421/Amepix
Minty belongs to Dontlookatme, who does not have a fimfiction account.
