Twilight's Diet
Twilight had gotten a little plump as of late. It was understandable, considering she led a largely sedentary lifestyle comprised of reading, studying, and consuming a large amount of sweets. She got the occasional bit of exercise from being out and about with her friends, but those cocoas with the extra marshmallows on her late night study sessions had started to take their toll, and now she was a little rounder than she was comfortable with.
In theory, dieting was easy. Cut back on the sweets here, get a little more exercise there, and she'd be melting away the pounds before she knew it. Six weeks later, though, Twilight hadn't shed so much as a pound. She'd gone on daily jogs with Rarity, monitored her diet, heck, she'd even gone and tried some alternative solutions like acupuncture with Fluttershy. Nothing worked. Finally, she decided that if conventional solutions wouldn't help her, she'd turn to the grand possibilities that lie in the arcane.
Twilight stood in the musty basement of the library, carefully doling out a calculated mixture for a complex magical formula. She glanced back once at the thick spellbook before her, The Wonders of Magical Weight Loss, and yawned as she followed the next step of the concoction.
“How's it going, Twilight?”
Twilight looked up. Spike stood at the top of the narrow, rickety stairs, eyeing her and her work with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. He'd had enough mishaps by now to know not to sneak up on her while she was in the middle of an experiment, and had been patiently waiting for her to finish her delicate procedure.
Twilight smiled up at her assistant. “I'm almost done. I should be done by the time you're back from grocery shopping.”
Spike nodded and leaned on the railing. “You really think a Metabolism Potion is necessary? I mean, from what you told me, messing with your body like that can be dangerous.”
Twilight gave Spike a deadpan stare. “I've been trying to lose weight for six weeks and nothing's worked. I'm not trying to find an easy solution here, but I'm willing to try just about anything at this point. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Spike shrugged. “If you say so. Just try not to cause any explosions this time.”
“That was only once,” Twilight huffed, “and that wasn't an explosion, it was internal magical combustion.”
“Whatever you say, Rapidash,” Spike said with a teasing snicker. He waved and headed out the door. “I'm off. I'll be back in an hour.”
Twilight rolled her eyes and resumed her work. The Metabolism Potion itself wasn't very difficult in terms of creation; it was the acquisition of the ingredients that made it so uncommon. She shook her head in wonder as she perused the spell again. Three adult dragon scales? A prismatic couatl pinion? The eggshell of a basilisk? The apothecarist had stared at her like she had an extra head when she'd told them what she needed. Twilight was familiar enough with potion-making to not have a problem with making it herself, it was just that the cost of the items would be more than most ponies made in an entire year! Twilight suppressed a smile, grateful now more than ever for the annual research stipend she received from the Princess.
Twilight was now at the final ingredient of the spell, and it had been the most difficult to acquire of them all: a tiny drop of liquid hormones from the imbiber's pituitary gland. Such a thing could only be acquired by magic, and performing a spell like that on oneself was a very delicate process. With utmost care, Twilight poured the tiny drop of hormones into the mixture, which then began to bubble and froth. It shifted from an ugly brown to a lavender hue, the same as Twilight's coat. A powerful scent washed over Twilight, overcoming her with a wave of dizziness.
Blinking several times, Twilight shook her head clear and recognized the color of the potion as a telltale sign of success, according to the instructions. She cheered and held up the vial in triumph.
“That wasn't as bad as I thought!” Twilight took the potion in her magical grip and walked over to a full length mirror standing in the corner, where her round face and pudgy frame stared back at her.
“I'm supposed to drink this whole thing, eh? It's not a lot, but most potions usually are good for multiple doses. Maybe this one is different?” She shrugged and sniffed the potion. It smelled vaguely of cinnamon.
“Oh well, down the hatch! Goodbye, love handles!” Twilight downed the potion in one gulp.
She immediately gagged as the mixture hit her tongue. It had smelled pleasant, but the taste was a whole different story. It was like a mixture of rotten lettuce and moldy hay, and had a slippery, viscous texture that clung to her mouth.
“Blegh!” Twilight jerked her head and ran her teeth on her tongue, trying to remove the vile taste. Quickly leaving her laboratory, she went upstairs to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. She chugged it down without stopping, then poured herself a second. Then a third. Finally the taste was gone, and she sighed as she set the glass down and rubbed her mouth.
The spellbook hadn't said what the potion's effects were supposed to feel like, and so Twilight hadn't any clue if she was supposed to be feeling anything, or how long it would take to go into effect. She took a moment to examine herself, but didn't feel anything other than a slight burning in her stomach. Twilight figured that that would subside, especially since she'd just downed three glasses of water. The feeling persisted, though, making her feel like her gut was transforming into a furnace. Twilight suddenly felt warm all over, like she'd just been jogging. Another bout of dizziness took her, and she put a hoof to her head and sat down on the chair.
“I hope this is normal,” she mumbled. “I don't want to have to contact poison control... again.”
The warmth in her gut bloomed outward to fill Twilight's entire body, and with it, she felt a sensation of something in her being... used? Burned? Consumed? It was hard to explain. Twilight gasped as she felt another odd sensation, like certain parts of her were shrinking. Then, the saggy parts of her body became firm and toned as the Metabolism Potion consumed the fat reserves in Twilight's body.
“It's working!” she cheered as she felt the warmth spread outward. “It's really working! It's—”
Twilight stomach gave an audible rumble. It was true that her body was indeed removing her fat, but now it'd sensed that it'd just lost almost all it's backup energy, and it wasn't happy about it.
“Hehe,” Twilight blushed at the sound, even though she was alone. “I suppose that makes sense. Wow, I really am starving! Spike's out getting groceries, but he won't be back for a while... I'll just get a little something to tide me over.”
Twilight went over to the refrigerator and pulled out the daffodil sandwiches from last night. She'd been planning on saving them for the weekend, but she could always make something else. She munched on one as she brought the plate over to the table.
Soon, she'd polished off all four sandwiches, and her stomach was still voicing it's protests. Shrugging, Twilight magically reopened the fridge to see what else they had. A couple eggplants they'd bought a few days ago, half a dozen apples, a small helping of carrots, a single lettuce leaf, a gallon of milk and a gallon of orange juice, a dozen eggs, and an assortment of various condiments. She also recalled that there was also a square bale of hay in the pantry.
Twilight pulled out all the fruits and vegetables and hovered them over to her one by one. She ate each one of them in turn, finishing each one faster than the last, the fire in her stomach burning up each piece of food in seconds. Twilight then pulled out the jugs of milk and orange juice, and downed each one of them in turn, as well.
Twilight took a breath and wiped her mouth as she finished drinking the milk, but then stopped as she realized what she'd just done. It was supposed to be physically impossible for a pony to be able to drink a gallon of anything in one sitting, and yet she'd just drank two! Not only that, but she'd eaten a whole mess of food before that, and to top it off, she was still hungry! Starving, in fact!
Twilight's belly growled again as she bit her lip. “This has to be temporary,” she murmured. “I don't remember reading anything like this in the instructions, but I'm sure it's just a simple side-effect that can't last for long.” She suddenly chuckled. “Besides, if eating all the food we have is the price for losing all that fat, then I'll gladly pay it!”
Smiling, Twilight went to the pantry and brought the bale of hay over to the table. She didn't even bother preparing it, she just took off the twine and began happily munching away. Her stomach gurgled as it received the new food, burning it up almost as fast as she was consuming it. Soon, the entire bale was gone, disappeared down her gullet.
Twilight's gaze turned over to the discarded apple cores sitting on the counter. She'd never eaten an entire apple before, as she didn't like the toughness of the core or the seeds. She wasn't in a picky mood, though, so she brought one over and took a hesitant nibble.
Her teeth sank right into the core without any kind of resistance, cutting straight through in an even bite. She savored the strange texture for a moment before deciding that she liked it and polished all of them off. Next, she went for the eggs. She tried eating the things whole since she was experimenting, and they went down easily. She even found that it was a pleasurable sensation feeling them crack in her throat and slide the rest of the way down.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her stomach, hoping that such a unique inclusion to her palette might stave off the burning hunger. Nope. No more than a few seconds later, her stomach grumbled again, demanding yet more attention.
“You've gotta be kidd—”
Twilight's woes were interrupted by the groaning of wood. There was a sharp crack, and she yelped as the chair she'd been sitting on gave way, dumping her to the ground in a heap.
“Ow! What the—”
Twilight hadn't noticed, so focused was she on her voracious tasks, but now that she took a look around, things seemed a little... smaller, than she remembered. Even sitting on the ground, her chest was level with the table, and she realized she'd been hunching over more and more as she'd continued eating.
Twilight stared down at the ruined remnants of the chair, then at herself. Her body was smooth and healthy, and her coat sported a brilliant sheen. Her eating binge hadn't caused her to get fatter, but it'd definitely caused something else.
She put a hoof behind her head as she wondered the question aloud. “Am I... growing?”
Twilight got to her hooves and tried walking out the door, wincing as her horn banged the top of the door frame. Cursing, she quickly went to her loft on the second floor and examined herself in a mirror.
The reference was hard to tell, but Twilight guessed that she'd doubled in size. Her proportions hadn't changed in any way, she was just... bigger. A lot bigger. She'd guessed she was about six feet tall at the shoulder, with her neck and head standing up another foot. Her body took up the entire full-length mirror, with her horn actually disappearing off the top.
“I don't think this was supposed to happen... “ Twilight wanted to try and think of a way to try and reverse the effects, but her gut gurgled again as the hunger pangs intensified. She didn't even think she could go out and find something to eat, she needed something, anything, right now! Problem was, she'd gotten rid of all the old snacks she used to keep in her room, and there wasn't a speck of food left in the house. Twilight really had been trying to monitor her caloric intake, and hadn't tried to cheat ever since Spike caught her the first time. There wasn't anything left for her could eat, and now she didn't know what to do.
After all, this was a library, not a grocery store.
Although...
Twilight licked her lips as she eyed the many, many books that lined the walls of not only her loft, but the entirety of the building.
Twilight looked away, shaming herself for such a terrible idea. That was despicable! The worst crime a librarian could commit! She was desperate, yes, but harming the very books she loved, had taught her so much and were her sworn duty to protect? Never! Maybe she could find some kind of suppression spell, or a knockout spell so she could ride out the effects, or—
Twilight's stomach roared.
"Urgh..." She whimpered and fell to the ground with a loud thud, shaking the floorboards with her new weight. There was nothing for it. She was still in the thrall of the potion's effects, and she had to appease the demands of her body before she became an emaciated husk.
Twilight silently apologized as she hovered the first book over. It was a used fiction novel that hadn't been checked out in the entire time she'd been at the library. She'd never even heard of the author, the plot was shaky, and the characters were flat. Grimacing, Twilight opened up the book, and with a jerk like ripping off a band-aid, she tore out a page, crumpled it up, and put it in her mouth.
She almost groaned in unanticipated pleasure as the texture of the paper hit her tongue. It was like hay, with a hint of slight sourness due to age. The ink gave a sweet tint that tickled her tastebuds, and she eagerly crunched and gulped it down. She then tore out more pages, ready to eagerly devour more.
A part of Twilight's mind was amazed that she not only found paper to be delicious, but that she was able to get it down. That part was silenced as Twilight finished the pages and then chewed right through the cover. She sat in silence in her room, wrinkling her brow as she felt the rough texture slither down her throat.
“I... can't believe I just did that,” Twilight muttered, flicking a small piece of paper off her mouth. She started to examine her bookshelves, wondering which one to eat next. She didn't want to eat the books she actually liked, and thought maybe she could make some kind of in-depth, detailed, specific priority system that would let her dictate which tomes would be best fit for consumpt—
Twilight's stomach voiced another loud, insistent protest.
“All right, all right. Yeesh...” Twilight grabbed half a dozen books at random and started munching away.
Twilight tried to show some moderation at first, slowly chewing and savoring the taste of each book, but she finally gave in and started shoveling them into her mouth as fast as she could. Her muscles and bones groaned as the shifted under the accommodation of her new weight, slowly pushing out farther and farther as she continued her feast. As she grew, she found that she could put more and more in her mouth, finally making it so she could fit entire books at a time. Her teeth easily chomped straight through even the hardcovers with no problem, and soon, she found that she could even eat two and three books at a time. Her growth accelerated along with her increased food intake, and by the time she'd eaten all the books on the second floor, her body filled the entire loft.
Twilight burped as she licked her teeth and checked her stomach, wondering if that deplorable act had sated her at last. Unfortunately not. Her belly gurgled again, eagerly awaiting the next course. Sighing, she got to her hooves, cursing again as she banged her head against the ceiling.
"How much..." Twilight glanced at the mirror again. She saw that she could only see one of her legs and the underside of her barrel! She guessed that she'd doubled in size again, probably a little more, so that would put her around fifteen feet. Her tail was brushing the far window, and her hooves were halfway over the edge of the loft. Her horn was fully impaled in the ceiling, and she had to gingerly twist to get it out. It came free with a crunch, taking a sizable chunk of the ceiling along with it.
Curious, Twilight sniffed the fallen ceiling chunk and licked it. It was powdery and sweet, like a powdered donut. It crumbled and dissolved in her mouth like one, too. Grinning, Twilight ripped away a larger chunk of the ceiling and crunched away on it, savoring the taste. It was good, but she was still in the mood for books, and the ones in the loft were just her personal collection.
Not wanting to chance the staircase, Twilight teleported downstairs, landing atop the horsehead table in the center and shattering it to bits. Laughing, she laid back down and summoned forth entire shelves of books to rest in a pile before her so she could resume her literary feast.
Twilight attacked the pile, no longer taking any note to which books she was eating in any way. Her stomach didn't care after all, so why should she? She continued to grow as she ate, soon being able to take entire sections into her mouth. Twilight filled up the entirety of the library, but still her stomach pressed her on, the pile of books shrinking smaller and smaller as she grew bigger and bigger.
Twilight hummed as she polished off the last dozen books, only chewing once before swallowing. It was getting cramped in here. Her hooves, chest and rump were pressed uncomfortably against the walls, groaning against her bulk as she got bigger with each breath. She tried to stand, but found that that was impossible as her horn was brushing the ceiling again.
“I think I'm stuck,” Twilight said sheepishly. She looked around for a solution to her problem for a moment before remembering the taste of the ceiling.
“Well, if the ceiling tasted good, maybe the walls do, too!” Twilight focused with her magic, and with a ear-splitting snapping and crunching, a large piece of the wall broke away encased in a lavender hue. Twilight brought it before her and bit down, testing out its taste and texture. The bookshelves were chewy and smoky, and the walls and bark of the tree were bitter, like coffee. Which was good, because Twilight had always preferred her morning cups straight.
Twilight finished the first chunk of the wall and broke off another piece, creating a hole large enough for her to crawl out of. Her body swelled with each bite, causing the building to shift and groan against her increasing size. She found that she liked the taste so much though that she kept breaking off pieces, and soon, she'd devoured a fourth of the building. The building shook dangerously as it's foundations collapsed, but Twilight took note of this. Now that she had line of sight, she teleported out of the library and into the street beyond.
Twilight stared in dim shock as the library shuddered once, then fell in upon itself in a crumpled mass of debris and dust. She knew she should be frightened or upset, but actually found herself giggling when she realized she'd literally eaten herself out of house and home. Speaking of which, the familiar rumbling of Twilight's stomach insisted that she shouldn't such a tasty meal go to waste, and she should help herself to the remains post-haste. Understanding now that her hunger wasn't something to be reasoned with, she gave in and continued where she'd left off.
Twilight could feel herself growing as she ate. With each bite, the Metabolism Spell caused her stomach convert all it's contents into energy, which then encouraged the exponential continued growth of her body. She could feel hooves pushing the ground away, hear the sound of her body expanding outward and upward, and watched as stature became higher and higher with each bite. It felt amazing, like her body was filled with a pleasant tingling, and she soon found herself not worrying that she was thirty feet tall and had just devoured a building. She just wanted to know how big she could get.
It only took Twilight a few minutes to polish off the library, and now she sat on her haunches, wondering on what to do. The buildings around her looked tasty, but there were probably ponies inside them, and the idea of cannibalism wasn't very appealing. The library had actually been an enchanted tree that'd been converted into a building, and she'd really enjoyed the taste. Maybe she could find another building like that around town, or just find another tree or two to eat?
Twilight smiled as an idea hit her. She happened to know of a place nearby where there were lots of healthy, well-tended, mature trees, and even better, she'd been there before, which means she could teleport there! Which was good, because she was starting to draw a crowd of dumbstruck neighbors.
“Bye-bye, my little ponies!” Twilight jovially waved, then vanished from Ponyville in a flash.
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Twilight drooled as she stood on the far edge of Sweet Apple Acres. Hundreds of apple trees stretched out before her on the rolling fields, carrying upon them pieces of ripening fruit. Twilight again had a moment of conflicted conscience as she questioned the morality of devouring the main income for one of her best friends, but her stomach delivered a well thought-out, poignant rebuttal.
The ground shook as Twilight walked amongst the apple trees. She was now taller than most of them, though there were a few at eye-level with her, and a few rare specimens that still towered over her. Twilight decided to save those for last.
Not able to wait any longer, Twilight bent down, rotated her neck, and bit straight through the trunk of the nearest apple tree. It was a younger specimen, only a third her size, and the bark tasted like tough bread. The young tree fell over with a creaking rustle as it's trunk was consumed, coming to rest against Twilight's chest. She chuckled, then swallowed her bite and ate the rest of it in a few mouthfuls.
“Mmmm...” Twilight closed her eyes as she savored the tart taste of apples mixed in with the leaves and bark, feeling it slide down her throat and burning away in her stomach. She focused her magic on the next four closest trees, and with a deft tug, completely uprooted them from the earth, their long, spidery networks dangling helplessly in her grip. She hovered them over to her and hung them over her open mouth, letting the small granules of dirt hit her tongue and testing out the taste of the rich, fertile soil. It tasted like gritty chocolate.
Twilight nibbled each of the trees, trying out the taste of each one to see if there was a difference in taste. The younger ones were sour and had more kick. The older ones were sweeter and had a bolder flavor. She continued her connoisseur act for a little while before relenting to her gluttony and eating them all in a few bites. She then uprooted a dozen more and dropped them one by one into her eagerly awaiting maw.
It didn't take long for Twilight to outgrow the orchard. Her body shot up at a faster and faster rate as she continued to eat the trees, taking in more and more at a time as she grew. She tripled in size over the course of five minutes, standing at just shy of one hundred feet. She then shattered that barrier and tripled in size again over the next ten minutes as half of the orchard's tree fell prey to her appetite. At three hundred feet tall, Twilight could see out for miles, and it was at this point that she began to wonder where she would go next. She really did like the taste of plants, and was now considering it the staple of her diet. Although she'd discovered that dirt was pretty good too, as she'd eaten a lot of it while ripping up the trees.
Twilight felt a cool breeze hit her from the west. She turned, and her eyes widened as she saw the massive Everfree Forest spread out for miles as far as the eye could see. So lost had she been to her feasting that she'd completely forgotten about the gargantuan wood. There had to have been thousands, millions of trees in there, all of them different kinds, shapes and sizes.
All of them ripe for the devouring.
Absentmindedly, Twilight used her magic to rip out the rest of the trees of Sweet Apple Acres, mashing them together in midair to form into the shape of a giant apple twice her size. She heartily chomped away for a few minutes, chewing and swallowing and growing. Her size doubled again, bringing her to six hundred feet tall, and yet still her stomach didn't cease it's demands. Twilight didn't care anymore about repercussions. The sensation of growing felt too good, her stomach's demands were too strong, and all she wanted now was to grow bigger and bigger.
Twilight left Sweet Apple Acres, took two, smooth strides, and was at the edge of the immense Everfree Forest. Her hoofsteps caused massive tremors that made the birds from the trees fly up and away, and the forest itself grew quiet as it realized it was in the presence of a predator. Twilight took a moment to savor the sight of the gourmet before jumping over the canopy and landing in the forest, causing the earth beneath her to buckle. Trees fell beneath the shock of her leap, and animals fled from the giant, ravenous unicorn. Twilight focused, and took all the fallen trees that surrounded her in her magic, forming a clearing she could lay down in. She licked her lips, examining each one with a critical eye before shrugging and dropping them all into her mouth.
Twilight rolled the trees on her tongue, testing the taste of the different kinds. She found that she couldn't get a discernible taste between the species, as it all blended together into a single crunchy, earthy taste. Twilight was now so big that she didn't even need to chew the trees. She could simply swallow them whole, letting them fall almost a hundred feet through her esophagus and into the cavernous crucible that was her stomach.
With a toothy smile, Twilight reached down and continued eating the forest around her. She could take out sizable chunks of the earth with each delicious bite, or she could strip off the leaves of entire groves of trees with her lips alone. She alternated between these two things, sometimes just preferring the sour taste of the leaves instead of combined with the chewy bark and hearty soil.
Six minutes later, Twilight broke one thousand feet. Her head was now among the low hanging clouds, and she still couldn't see the other edge of the forest as she dipped down her head to consume even more of the forest. She was a titan, a giant among giants, but still, she wanted to become so, so much more.
Twilight squinted down at the forest below. She'd always been a powerful unicorn, but now that her magic had been growing along with her body, she got an idea. There was a deep rumbling from within Twilight like a coming thunderstorm, as if her stomach knew what she intended. She extended her will out as far as she could, and with a ripping, tearing cacophony, pulled up every single tree for one hundred miles. The floating arboreal conglomeration came together in a blob to float before her, much as she had with the trees at Sweet Apple Acres, but this was on an exponentially larger scale. Over a million trees hung helpless in Twilight's grip like a swarm of plankton before a whale.
Twilight opened her massive mouth, and with a sound like a tornado, sucked in the forest like a living vacuum. She didn't even bother to chew; she only made sure that her food didn't go into her windpipe. The colossal mass slowly disappeared down her throat as she eagerly claimed her scrumptious prize.
And Twilight grew. Her body pushed and expanded outward as she claimed the forest, surging through the clouds and atmosphere with astounding force. Two thousand feet. Four thousand. A mile. Two miles. Ten. Twenty miles tall. Her eyes were the size of Ponyville. Her head was the size of Canterlot Mountain. Her hooves sank deeper and deeper into the earth under her increasing weight, and all the while, her stomach never ceased in it's duties, nor fell silent from the bounty placed before it.
The Everfree Forest was gone. In it's place was now Twilight, who was trying to survey her surroundings through the cottony mass of fluffy clouds. Giggling, Twilight opened her mouth and inhaled, taking in the clouds with a single breath. The cool water vapor coalesced and trickled down her throat, and now with her vision cleared, she considered what to eat now that she was too big for the trees to satiate her. Her thoughts turned to the thick chocolatey taste that had always accompanied her feasting, and she grinned as she realized what she had to do.
Twilight lowered her two mile-long neck, pressed her lips to the ground, and took a long, slow lick. The topsoil was like a crumbling chocolate bar that got stuck beneath her tongue before melting into a sweet, gooey mass that slid down her throat. Humming, she took a few more licks, scraping away the layers of dirt and exposing the rock beneath. She figured she'd had to have eaten a few rocks by this point, but she hadn't been able to identify their taste, and was eager to find out.
Twilight raised one of her enormous hooves and brought it down with titanic force, shattering the bedrock in a massive explosion and sending out a shockwave that was felt all over Equestria. A cloud of dust accompanied the blast, and once it cleared, Twilight saw she'd made a crater that'd broken up the rock into manageable chunks. She took a few of the larger pieces up in her magic, each of them half a mile long, and calmly popped them into her mouth.
Twilight hadn't been sure she'd be able to do this, which was why she hadn't just tried to take a bite in the first place. She was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only did she have no trouble eating the rock, but the texture and taste was reminiscent of peanut brittle. Squeeing, Twilight ate every single piece she'd knocked loose, then raised her hoof again, bringing it down with greater force than the first.
There was a deafening crack. Twilight twitched as long, jagged lines of cracks formed around her, creating rifts in the land that stretched far out into the horizon. She recoiled as a spray of lava spewed out from a nearby fissure, and became gripped by fear as she felt herself begin to sink. Twilight forgot herself and tried to get away, but her first step plunged her hoof straight through the thin crust and into the boiling mantle below. The shifting of her impossible weight caused the crack to expand, and she let loose a terrified shriek as she fell head first into the liquid rock below.
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Twilight was quite surprised to discover that she wasn't dead. She opened her eyes, not expecting to see, and found that she indeed could, although everything was tinged with a thick, coiling red. The mantle was hot, but not unpleasant, like she was floating in a mountain spring. She was baffled beyond belief, and her mind was spinning with ridiculous questions.
How in Celestia's name was she swimming in the mantle of the planet?
Why didn't she feel the need to breathe?
Had the fault lines for the tectonic plates always been so close to Ponyville?
Does this mean that the potion's effects had somehow rendered her resistant, if not immune to extreme temperatures and environments?
I wonder what magma tastes like?
This last question was voiced by Twilight's stomach, and it was one that her brain was also admittedly curious about. Twilight had thought that the panic attack might've curbed her hunger pangs, but apparently they'd just been temporarily drowned out by the threat of imminent danger.
Twilight experimentally opened her mouth, letting the thick roiling magma spill in and seep down her throat. It was syrupy and sweet, and felt heavy as it sloshed down into her stomach. She suddenly felt ravenous, and the demands of her belly rose to unprecedented heights. She tried pushing forth once, twice with her hooves, and found that she could maneuver through the molten rock with little more effort than swimming in a pool. Twisting around, Twilight spun around a few times before surging forth with her mouth wide open, letting the molten rock cascade unimpeded down her gullet.
Twilight swam for what seemed like hours, losing all sense of direction, save for 'down', as she could feel the tugging of the planet's magnetic core below. The mantle was so big that she was sure that her hunger would run out before it did, but as time went on, the likelihood of that became less and less. The molten rock made her grow bigger and faster than she ever had before, doubling, tripling, quadrupling in size as she continued to feed on the planet's delectable nectar. One hundred miles tall. Two hundred-fifty. Seven hundred-fifty. The demands of Twilight's stomach were endless, and so she grew and grew bigger and bigger as she tried fruitlessly to appease them.
When Twilight broke one thousand miles, she decided to swim farther down. She felt the temperature rise as she descended, but it never became so bad that it was intolerable. She felt a jolt of surprise as she felt a new taste on her tongue. It was tangy with a metallic aftertaste, and her vision became tinged with bright orange. She realized she was in the outer core, and a few minutes later, she could see a large white rotating ball in the center of everything.
Twilight floated there for a few moments, staring in awe at the planet's inner core. Her skin tingled as she came close and felt the magnetic energies surging along and through the entirety of the planet. For the first time since she'd fallen into the mantle, Twilight got a sense of how enormous she truly was. Now with goosebumps, she slowly swam around the core like a shark circling it's prey. She smiled as the warm, thick nickel-iron mixture slid through her teeth, salivating in anticipation for what was to come. Her body continued to grow at a steady pace, and within a few minutes, Twilight loomed above the inner core, eying it with insatiable hunger. She enveloped the orb in an embrace, hugging it tightly to herself and feeling it slow to a grinding halt. Then, with a wolfish grin, she raised her head and bit down with gusto.
The core was solid, but it gave way to Twilight's jaws like a hot knife through butter. She groaned as a blissful taste flooded her mouth, her eyes rolling back into her head as she savored the divine flavor. She took a second bite, then a third, feeling her body grow and grow as she consumed more and more of the planet's heart. She took it slow, taking her time with it and savoring every bite, but before long the core was gone, vanished into her to become a part of her very essence. There was a sense of stillness as Twilight finished her latest meal, one that she couldn't place. Shrugging, she finished off the remains of the planet's tangy center and moved out back into the mantle.
Or at least, she tried to. Twilight had tripled in size from devouring the inner and outer cores, and her accumulated mass was now greater than that of the planet's. There was a sound like multiple gunshots, and a new sense of weightlessness, true weightlessness, overtook Twilight. She watched in awe as the planet shivered and broke into pieces, spilling her and the innards of the planet out into space.
Twilight floated in the vacuum for a moment, trying to understand what just happened. She tried to get her mind around it, but every time she failed at the scale of the entire thing. She decided to go with something she did understand, which was that she was still hungry, and that there was food all around her. After a few seconds of figuring out how to use magic to maneuver in the void, Twilight flew around the remains of the planet, eating the shattered remnants without a second thought other than they tasted vaguely like pie crust.
It took her a half hour to corral and eat all the broken pieces of the planet, but she eventually did it. There was a lot more than she realized, and by the time she'd eaten everything, it surprised Twilight how much bigger she'd become. She surmised that that her body was slightly behind her feasting, but it didn't seem to affect her appetite. As she moved about, Twilight took notice of a strange floating orb of rock a sixth her size that had slowly begun to circle around her from a short ways away. Realizing that it was the moon, she chuckled and flew over to the celestial body to hold it up in one of her hooves.
Now was truly a moment of truth. Twilight would find out what scholars and philosophers had debated on for untold centuries. She steeled herself and took a tentative nibble.
It was only a mild disappointment that the moon wasn't actually made of cheese. It did have a sharp, vaguely cheese-like flavor, but not actually the real thing. Twilight found that she didn't actually like the taste very much, but as there was little other food to be had at the moment, she ate it as quickly as she could without complaint.
Twilight now had a problem, one that she never honestly thought that she'd have, and one she wasn't sure on how to solve. She'd just eaten an entire planet and it's satellite, and if anything, she was even hungrier than she was than when she'd started. Confused, she tried to weigh her options in lieu of her rationality or logical thought when suddenly, a flare of warmth caressed the small of her back. She turned and beheld the sun, life-giver of their solar system, beckoning to her like a beacon on a starless night.
Twilight's eyes filled her head. Globules of drool dripped off and away from her lolling tongue. This was it. The answer to her hunger. She knew the size of the sun in comparison to the planet, and there was no way she'd be able to consume it all! Maybe if she gorged herself on it, she could think straight and then figure out what to do.
Twilight used her magic to propel herself forward, speeding through the void at blinding speeds. She felt the flares of the sun hit her with more and more frequency, each one making her feel a pleasant tingling. The immense star filled more and more of her field of vision, and she gaped in awestruck wonder as she finally got an idea of the size and scope. It was amazing. Humbling. Breathtaking. Intimidating.
Mouth-watering.
Twilight had no qualms about the sun harming her after swimming in the planet's core and floating in the vacuum of space, so she dove headlong into the sun to begin the feast to end all feasts. The first warm taste of spicy plasma sent a lance of electricity through her body, driving her hunger into a fever-pitch. She ate, and ate, and ate, and ate. Twilight lost all track of time. Her world was white, she was in a land of ambrosia, and she was a being of endless need.
“More...”
Twilight grew larger, larger, and larger still as she swam in the sea of fusion, her eyes glowing with equal parts power and desire. It wasn't enough. It was never enough. Hours passed, but her hunger always drove her on, without pause, without reason, without end.
“More!”
Twilight was larger than the biggest planet in the solar system, but had the hunger only worsened. Her mouth was like a black hole that sucked in everything around it without any hope of return. She moved faster and faster inside the star as she devoured it from the inside out, like a parasite consuming it's host. Her hunger was the hottest flame that burned away even the sun itself.
“MORE!”
Twilight was a living effigy of power. The very essence of a star coursed through her veins, and her body ascended higher and higher to ever climbing heights. The world was everything. Her hunger was nothing. She sought to fill a void that could never be filled.
“MORE!”
But there was no more. The light of the sun flickered and died, and where there was once a star, there was now a god. Twilight had consumed the sun in totality, and now the power of the heavens was at her command. Her coat was a stark white, ablaze with celestial fire. Her eyes were a deep red, each of them like miniature suns in their own right. Her mane and tail were ethereal, chaotic flames, and a set of immaculate, feathered wings had sprouted behind her shoulder blades. Twilight's uncontrollable desires had made her consume the very planet she had once called home, grow a million times larger from feasting on the brightest light in the sky, and become an alicorn, a divine being, caught trapped in the impossible immensity of space.
And yet, she was still hungry.
Twilight floated alone as she stared at her hooves, each them thousands of times larger than a planet and surging with the powers of creation. There had to be something left to eat. Despite what the scientists of the age had insisted, she knew she wasn't floating in nothing. Space may be a vacuum, but there was something that said vacuum was comprised of. Twilight could eat anything, therefore she knew that she could eat space itself. All she had to figure out was how.
“Twilight...”
Twilight flicked her ears once, but focused on her task at hand. She focused on the void, trying to understand it's workings and convert it into some kind of edible form. Soon she would never be hungry again. She would consume everything, and thereby she would be everything.
“Twilight?”
There was that voice again, echoing from all around her. Twilight looked around, but saw nothing but darkness. What was this? Who dared to interrupt the workings of a god? Was insanity already beginning to claim her?
“Twilight! Hey! Wake up!”
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“Mmh...”
Twilight blearily opened her eyes and was greeted with the visage of a familiar baby dragon, standing over her with a resigned look on his face.
“You didn't bother to sleep at all last night, did you? You're lucky I got you those shatter-proof vials for your birthday!”
Twilight blinked and took in her surroundings. She was in the library basement. The Metabolism Potion was on the floor beside her, corked and resting beside her on the uneven dirt floor. She was still overweight, and the hunger pangs were gone.
“What happened?” Twilight asked as she got to her hooves.
“Beats me,” Spike said as he helped her up. I just got back from grocery shopping and I found you passed out on the floor. Not for the first time, I might add.”
Twilight shook her head clear. Had it all been a dream? If so, it unlike any other dream she'd had. Hallucination might be a better word.
“I think the fumes of the potion made me loopy,” Twilight said. “I passed out after you left.”
Spike sighed. “You're going to hurt yourself if you keep pushing yourself this hard.”
“Sorry,” Twilight said earnestly, putting a hoof on her assistant's shoulder. “You're right, it was wrong of me to pull an all-nighter like that. I promise I'll try to take it easy from now on. Now, you said you just got done shopping?”
“Just got back.” Spike motioned with his head to the top of the stairs. “You wanna help me start dinner?”
Twilight cleaned off her workbench and covered it with a long, blue cloth. “Yes, I actually would. I have some ideas for a new diet I want to try.”
“Huh?” Spike stared at her, then over at the untouched expensive drought she'd been slaving over. “You mean you're not gonna drink the potion?”
Twilight glanced once at the glittering lavender potion, then shook her head and walked up the stairs.
“Nah. I think I'll stick to jogging.”
The End
