A Game of Candy Land

 

"Oh, I don't think so," replied Princess Celestia.

 

Twilight frowned as the two alicorns walked side by side through the halls of Canterlot Castle. "But why would Discord want to spend a day with US? I'm sure my other friends would be more interesting to-"

 

Celestia stopped her with a brush of her wing. "My dear Twilight. Remember to be respectful of other ponies' wishes...especially your friends."

 

"I know, I know!" the purple princess sighed. "I just wish I knew what he wanted to DO with us..."

 

"I'm glad you asked!" said a voice from below them.

 

"WoAAH!" Twilight jumped in surprise as a pair of yellow eyes appeared on the red carpet beneath them. The carpet slithered away underneath their hooves, rolled into itself and sprouted four legs and a tail. The mischievous draconequus reassumed his usual form with a POP of magic.

 

"Discord!" Twilight said with a sigh of frustration.

 

"In the flesh!" he replied with a flourish of his claw. "And thank you SO much for agreeing to play with me. We're going to have SO much fun together!"

 

"Okay, Discord. Princess Celestia and I have cleared our whole schedules for today. Now what's so important that you want us to do together?"

 

"A shallow box appeared in Discord's arms with another POOF of magic. "Ta-daaa!"

 

The purple pony leaned in for a glimpse, recognizing the familiar title and colorful graphics on the box. "Candy Land?" she said, arching an eyebrow. "You want us all to play a board game for little foals?"

 

Discord pulled the box away from her. "Really, Twilight. This is Pinkie Pie's favorite game! I would think a Good Friend like you would know that."

 

Twilight's nose scrunched in irritation. "Well, Princess?" the draconequus said, turning his gaze towards Celestia. "You'll be a good sport and play with us, won't you?"

 

Princess Celestia glanced at the box, then met his gaze with a knowing smile. "Sounds delicious. Let's play!"

 

"Wonderful!" Discord shouted, leaping into the air

 

"Ugh. Fine. We'll play the silly board game." Twilight pouted. "Should we set up a table in the library, or..."

 

"Oh ho ho, no!" Discord chuckled. "I know a much better way to play..."

 

The draconequus snapped his fingers, grinning smugly. Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia gasped as a torrent of soap bubbles appeared from nowhere, enveloped them and the game box, and carried them towards the ceiling.

 

The castle hallway dissolved and disappeared. The two alicorns instinctively flapped their wings as lights and colors whirled around them. An instant later the bubbles disappeared, and solid ground reappeared underneath their hooves.

 

Princess Twilight blinked as she and Celestia found themselves standing in a sunny meadow. Bright green grass stretched as far as the eye could see, dusted with tiny sparkles that glistened in the light. Wispy, pinkish clouds rolled across the sky like puffs of cotton candy. The two ponies noticed a trail of wide, rainbow- colored tiles that began at their hooves and snaked off into the distance.

 

Twilight peered down at the grass. Upon closer inspection, the grass appeared to be dusted with tiny sugar crystals. A patch of flowers nearby turned out to be lollipops, growing straight out of the ground. And those clouds looked suspiciously edible... "On no..." Twilight said with a sinking realization. "This looks like the Candy Land box. He's put us INSIDE the board game!"

 

"Precisely!" Discord's voice called out from above them. The two ponies looked up to find him lazing atop a cloud.

 

"Let us out, Discord!" the purple alicorn declared. "We agreed to play a game, not get turned into one!"

 

"Oh, so sorry Twilight!" Discord said mockingly. "But the only way out is to win! I trust you remember how to play..." The draconequus chuckled, plunging a claw into the cloud and pulling off a hunk of cotton candy, which he devoured in one gulp. "Oh but don't worry. This is a game for 'little foals,' after all - I'll allow you BOTH to win, if you make it to the end together."

 

"So you're not even gonna play?!" Princess Twilight shouted up at him.

 

"Hmm? Oh heavens no, I don't care for board games. Anyways, good luck!" Discord arose from his cloud perch, spun himself around in a spiral, and vanished.

 

The purple princess pony sighed explosively. "I'm sorry, princess," she said, turning to Celestia. "I should have known Discord would-"

 

"Don't worry, Twilight!" Celestia interrupted with a comforting nod of her hoof. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Let's play!"

 

Two pink discs poofed into existence above them. On one side of each was a spinning arrow over a face of rainbow-colored wedges. Two flat handles on either side made the spinner resemble a wrapped piece of candy.

 

"Well, here goes..." said Twilight as she spun her arrow with a hoof. The spinner buzzed round and round, finally landing on a yellow wedge. The alicorn walked onto the rainbow-colored path, passing over a red tile, then a purple one, and then to a bright yellow one. She turned to face her mentor. Celestia spun her own spinner, then trotted past her student to an orange tile two spaces ahead of her.

 

"Great. stuck playing a game for fillies when I could be doing anything else to-HEY!" Princess Twilight spun her spinner and started to walk to the next tile, but her hooves refused to budge. She looked down to see the hard yellow tile soften into goop, rooting her in place. She was stuck!

 

"Ah! I can't move!" the purple alicorn complained, trying in vain to pull herself free. A rustling beside her caused her head to turn. A small shrub had sprouted from the meadow beside her. Tendriled branches crept towards her, then unfurled to reveal a half dozen yellow discs sprouting from their leaves.

 

"Huh?" she stared at the bush as it stopped moving, but continued to hold out its leaves insistently. Hesitantly, she reached out with her magic and plucked one of the yellow discs from the bush. It looked like a piece of sugar candy from the Ponyville fairgrounds. Cautiously, she took a bite, and was rewarded with a blast of sugary, lemony flavor.

 

"Hmm!" Twilight remarked to herself as she chewed. "Well, it is Candy Land after all..."

 

Princess Celestia watched as her student took another bite of candy. "Oh, how silly!" she said with a laugh, slurping up the orange-flavored candy on the bush beside her own tile. The two ponies happily crunched through their candy offerings. The empty bushes shrank away, and the tiles underneath their hooves turned solid again. "Finally!" the purple alicorn exclaimed, glancing at her spinner and trotting onwards to the next tile.

 

The two ponies took turns passing through the sugary meadows. Beside each tile they landed on grew a bush or flower bearing candies, waiting patiently to be eaten. Celestia and Twilight chomped and slurped down each offering, humming in approval at the delicious fruity flavors each different color contained. For the moment Twilight forgot her own annoyance at Discord. Playing a board game like this wasn't so bad, was it?

 

The grassy meadow slowly gave way to a copse of tall trees. A sign reading 'GINGERBREAD GROVE' was nailed to the closest tree. Twilight Sparkle entered first, and upon arriving at a green tile was overwhelmed by the spicy, sugary smell of gingerbread. She looked around for a bush or flower, but instead a tree overhead bent its branches towards her, revealing a collection of gingerbread cookies hanging from the limbs. Twilight snapped off a cookie shaped like a unicorn, admired its dainty green frosting, and popped it into her mouth.

"Mmm..."

 

In a moment Princess Celestia joined her, and the two began stripping cookies off the closest branches. As they ate, the branches parted, beckoning them to continue. The two ponies happily leapfrogged past each other through the forest, chomping through gingerbread cookies shaped like unicorns and pegasi, suns and books and magic sparkles. Birds made of marshmallow and pretzels flitted through the trees, adding their song to the noise of creaking branches and noisy chewing on the path below.

 

Finally they emerged from the trees into a shallow valley. A skyline of giant gumdrop mesas rose on both sides of the rainbow trail. The brightly-colored gumdrops grew smaller and smaller closer to the path, while the ones in the distance towered above them and appeared to be dusted with powdery sugar-snow. The gingerbread offerings ceased, and instead a cascade of gumdrops the size of tennis balls popped from the ground beside the trail and rolled in front of them, waiting to be devoured.

 

"Ooh, Princess..." Twilight said. "Look at those!" The purple pony trotted forwards, oblivious to the extra jiggle in her rump and barrel. A few dozen helpings of candy and gingerbread had softened her middle into a noticeable paunch.

 

Princess Celestia was already ahead of her, chewing through a mouthful of gumdrops. She turned back towards her student and smiled. "Indeed, they are most impressive!" Her own slender middle had also rounded into a plump white belly.

 

Twilight Sparkle failed to notice that as well. The purple pony hurried to spin her spinner and move forward, happily trotting past Celestia and wolfing down the selection of gumdrops that awaited her. Neither mare felt the slightest bit full or sick, despite inhaling multiple meals' worth of sweets. Something to do with Discord's magic, perhaps...

 

As Twilight chewed, the grumdrop hills beside her shuddered and moved apart. a narrow trail appeared and twisted off into the distance, paved with glistening pink taffy. A rock candy boulder stenciled with the words 'GUMDROP PASS' popped above ground beside it.

 

"Huh. This must be a shortcut, I guess," said Twilight. She looked back at her mentor.

 

"Go on, Twilight. I'll catch up in time!" Celestia called to her, trotting her own way further down the main path.

 

The purple pony shrugged and jogged down the shortcut. The trail was smooth, and she made record time through the sugar-dusted landscape without having to halt every few paces - although she did stop once to sample some particularly delicious-looking taffy flowers that were sprouting between the gumdrop rocks.

 

Twilight reached the end of the shortcut, stepping back onto the main path. The gumdrop hills had parted to reveal a shallow brown pond ringed with dark-colored bushes. A sign nearby read 'LICORICE LAGOON.'

 

The alicorn spun again, and trotted onto a green tile. Suddenly, the dark bushes came alive, and vine-like ropes shot towards her, wrapping around her legs. "Ahh! What's this?!" Twilight exclaimed. More slender ropes twisted onto the path next to her, spelling out a message in loopy cursive: 'LICORICE SNARE: LOSE A TURN.'

 

Princess Twilight looked closer at the vine-ropes, recognizing the familiar twists of the dark, ropy candy. "Ugh, I hate licorice!" she griped. Reluctantly, she took a few bites at the vines, shuddering at the spicy-sweet taste. The vines continued to hold fast. Twilight sighed. She was just supposed to lose a turn, right? Perhaps this snare would let her go on its own?

After a few minutes, the vines began to loosen their grip. The princess sighed with relief, shrugging her hooves free and retrieving her spinner.

 

"Hopefully this place will be over soon," Twilight said to herself. "I-whaaa!" Another set of vines snaked around her legs and pulling her upside down into the air. The pony flailed her hooves and wings as she found herself suspended from the craggy stump of a licorice tree. Twilight frowned grumpily as move vines curled into a message in front of her: 'LICORICE SNARE! LOSE A TURN."

 

After a few minutes of helpless swinging, the vines relaxed. Twilight shrugged her legs free of the snare, flapping her wings to right herself and land back on solid ground. "No more snares and NO more licorice. Okay?" she commanded her spinner as she took her turn.

 

The spinner mercifully obliged her, directing her to a purple tile much farther down the path. Twilight Sparkle trotted away from the lagoon, arriving at a large lake of thick brown goo.

The rainbow path cut straight through the lake, and around a small, bubbling waterfall. The air around her was suddenly heavy with the smell of rich chocolate.

 

"Hello, Twilight!" came a familiar voice from behind her. Twilight turned to see Princess Celestia bounding up the trail behind her. The solar alicorn stopped short two tiles behind her, stooping to chomp through a licorice bush beside her.

 

"Princess Celestia!" her student called out happily. Her eyebrows arched up as she took in her mentor. The white alicorn's belly was noticeably rounder than she remembered.

 

"Umm... are you feeling alright, princess?" Twilight asked tactfully.

 

"Hmm? I'm just fine, Twilight," Celestia answered, gulping down the last of the licorice. "The Peppermint Forest was most impressive. But what's this?"

 

The two mares turned their eyes to the lake ahead of them. Twilight took her turn and landed on a tile next to the shore. She pushed a hoof into the gooey brown lake and brought it to her lips. "Yup, it's chocolate all right," she declared after slurping the glop off her hoof.

 

"Oh goody!" Celestia sang out happily. The alicorn spun her spinner and practically galloped onto a tile ahead of her. The princess splashed her hooves into the shallow lake, dipped her head to its surface, and began to drink greedily. Her throat bulged as generous gulps of liquid chocolate disappeared down her throat.

 

"Ulp......ulp......ulp......"

 

After nearly a minute, the princess stopped drinking, pulled her head up and let loose a gentle wet belch. "Where to next?" Celestia asked her student. Her plump belly sloshed gently as she waded out of the lake. Her sun-adorned rump was now jiggling noticeably, and a soft double chin squished below her jaw.

 

"Around the waterfall, I guess," Twilight answered, pointing off into the distance. She dipped her own head to drink from the chocolate lake. The gooey liquid was sweet and delicious, and she had to stop herself from drinking more than a few gulps.

 

"Then off we go!" Celestia declared, licking clean her chocolate-stained muzzle. "Come, Twilight. The game awaits!"

 

---

 

Princess Twilight Sparkle trotted down the path, a tired frown fixed upon her face. It felt like they had been playing for hours. She and Princess Celestia had made it through the Chocolate Lake, through the towering Lollipop Woods, and had descended into and out of the Cupcake Cavern. They were now passing upwards through a desolate expanse of craggy, chocolate-brown canyons. The rocky outcrops were studded everywhere with rainbow-colored crystal formations that sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. A sign several turns ago had named this the 'ROCK CANDY BADLANDS.'

 

The purple pony's middle jiggled uncomfortably as she trundled forwards. Dozens of helpings of candy and cupcakes had fattened her belly into a ball of pudge that jostled against her flanks and hung nearly past her knees. Twilight had noticed she was putting on weight several turns ago. She was trying not to worry about it. It was just a game right? They had to keep playing to reach the end - even if it meant cramming down more sweets than most ponies ate in a year.

 

The alicorn sighed as she stepped on a blue tile and felt a familiar tugging on her hooves. She turned to a nearby crystal formation, opened wide and bit down, gnawing off a chunk of greenish-blue rock candy. Twilight's muzzle scrunched as she chewed and swallowed. Even though she still wasn't feeling full or sick, the novelty of eating sweets had long since worn off.

 

Their slowing pace wasn't helping things. Twilight Sparkle finished her candy, then craned her neck backwards to look for Princess Celestia. A forced smile turned into a grimace as she caught sight of her mentor trotting up a low hill towards her. The solar alicorn's barrel had thickened into a tubby gut that sloshed below her as she moved. Her neck and shoulders were noticeably thicker, and a soft double chin rounded out her face. Celestia stopped on the path two spaces behind her, leaned forwards and crunched her teeth into a rock candy boulder jutting up from the canyon floor.

 

Princess Twilight stood bemused as she watched Celestia eat. By all accounts her teacher was eating FAR more than she was. Could Discord have bewitched her appetite somehow?

 

"Are you...feeling alright, Princess?" the purple pony asked her.

 

Princess Celestia finished chomping through the candy boulder, then raising her head to regard her student placidly. "Yes Twilight, I've never felt better. Enjoying the candy?"

 

"Uhh...sure," the smaller pony replied quizzically.

 

"Oh, what's that?" said Celestia, pointing a hoof towards the path in front of them.

 

The canyon ahead of them appeared to open up into a vast expanse of flat white snow. Twilight and Celestia spun their spinners and advanced forward several spaces each, gulping down more rock candy in the process. Two turns later they had exited the canyon into a flat plain that glistened in the sunlight. Tall, flat mountains surrounded the plain and towered off into the distance.

 

Twilight dug a hoof into the glistening surface. To her surprise, it wasn't snow at all. Too soft and gloopy. And was that the smell of butter crème?

 

The two ponies came to a sign jutting from the ground. It read: 'CAKE MESA'

 

Princess Celestia gasped and suddenly rushed forwards. Twilight started as her mentor wobbled past her on the path. She blushed as she glimpsed the alicorn's rump, now swollen into two jiggling globes that distorted her solar cutie marks. The portly princess stopped on a yellow space several yards ahead of her.

 

"Oh YES!" Celestia cried, stepping off the path and plopping her blubbery rear onto the frosted terrain with a WHUMP. Her forehooves scooped up great glops of the stuff and shoveled them towards her mouth. "Mmph...shooo goo-mph," the princess drawled as her mouth was filled with cake.

 

Twilight cringed as she watched her mentor stuff herself. Celestia's belly seemed to swell imperceptibly larger with each mouthful of cake. Love handles of pudge slowly bulged over her flanks beneath her wings and flowing mane. Minutes passed, but the elder unicorn showed no signs of stopping.

 

"Princess, please!" Twilight exclaimed. "We have to keep moving!" Her horn glowed pink as she gingerly grasped the princess by her shoulders and pulled her away. Celestia mumbled a protest through a mouthful of cake as she was tugged onto her back and out of the small crater she had devoured around herself.

 

A moment later she was back on the path. "Sorry, Princess..." Twilight said as she released her magical grip. "But we can't stop now. We have to get out of here!"

 

Celestia belched softly as she looked up at her student. "You're right, Twilight," she finally replied. "Nnnf..." Celestia grunted as she rolled onto her side, wincing as her belly blubber smacked against the ground. Slowly she found her footing and hoisted herself back onto all fours.

 

"Besides," she continued, licking frosting from her plump cheeks. "I'm sure even tastier flavors are in front of us!"

 

Twilight sighed and scooped up her own hoofful of cake from the path besides them. The dessert was deliciously rich, with fluffy yellow cake underneath the vanilla-flavored ice cream. The junior princess took an extra moment to savor the exquisite taste.

 

"My turn!" Celestia called from behind, her belly jostling against Twilight's flanks as the solar alicorn brushed past her. In an instant she was several tiles ahead and had buried her muzzle into the edible surface of the mesa below them.

 

The plateau of cake seemed to stretch on forever. Two turns became four, then six and then ten. Celestia continued to pull ahead of her student as they played. Twilight Sparkle forced herself forwards, trotting past the craters her mentor had excavated to gobble down just enough cake to take her next turn. Even so, the bookish princess could feel herself growing heavier. A purple hoof prodded her flabby barrel as she gulped down her eleventh serving of cake. It was just a game, wasn't it? Just another of Discord's jokes. They'd make it to the end soon and this would all be over...

 

The cake around them did indeed change flavors as the ponies pressed onwards, from vanilla-scented yellow cake to strawberry and finally a dark chocolate fudge cake. The temperature began to drop as well. Twilight noticed her breath fogging the air in front of her as she swallowed more cake. The terrain in front of them had shifted from a flat mesa to round, rolling hills in pale pastel colors. Giant mountains resembling upside-down waffle cones jutted up from between them in the distance. The two ponies took their turns and trudged onwards as the rainbow path snaked around the hilly landscape. Twilight stuck her hoof into a nearby hillock and found it to be soft and damp. 'ICE CREAM PEAKS' declared an icicle-covered sign ahead of them.

 

"Can't have cake without ice cream!" Princess Celestia declared as she took her turn. She trundled ahead and buried her muzzle into a bank of ice cream beside the path.

 

"Oh, great..." Twilight Sparkle grumbled as she scraped up some ice cream and licked it off her hoof. The cool flavor of the chocolate-flavored hill was somewhat refreshing after so much crumbly cake.

 

"We can't stay here, Princess," Twilight said as she passed her mentor, still muzzle-deep in the ice cream hill. "I'm sure that over the next hill we'll b-wAAAHH!"

 

Twilight yelped as the tile she had trotted onto suddenly cracked apart under her weight. Her front hooves sank forwards into a morass of dark brown muck underneath. The muck was very warm, very thick, and smelled overpoweringly of chocolate. The purple alicorn flailed helplessly as she fell face-first into the hot goopy pool.

 

'HOT FUDGE HOT SPRINGS! LOSE A TURN' noted a sign beside the tile, half-buried in ice cream.

 

Twilight flailed lethargically as she struggled to pull herself out of the fudge. Rich chocolate flooded into her mouth, and she reflexively gulped down mouthful after mouthful. Her plump purple belly gurgled and sagged as it filled with fudge. The alicorn sank further forwards, pulling her back legs off the path until she was entirely immersed in the pool of fudge. Instincts took over as she kicked with all four legs, pulling her gasping head above the surface and slowly swam across the goopy hot spring.

 

Several tortured strokes later she had reached the other side of the pool. Twilight gasped as she flung her front hooves onto the shore. Her wings flapped as she strained to lift her fudge-coated body from the hot springs. Her fat barrel squashed against the shore as she pulled, eliciting a long, involuntary *BUUURP*. Finally she was able to plant her back hooves on solid ground.

 

"Well done, Twilight!" Princess Celestia called from the tile behind her. Her wings unfurled, and the solar alicorn slowly lifted herself into the air. Twilight watched as her immense mentor lazily glided over her head and landed two tiles in front of her. "Oof..." Celestia huffed as her blubber belly squashed against the ground. The princess recovered her footing and waddled forwards another space, only to promptly shove her plump muzzle into another bank of ice cream.

 

Twilight Sparkle grumbled and fretted as fudge dripped from her wings and mane. She fought the urge to lick the warm, delectable syrup off. NO! Only eat enough to play the game! She had to get them out of this twisted world. The next trap might not be so easy to escape - especially if she grew any bigger...

 

The two ponies pressed onwards through the Ice Cream Peaks. Twilight and Celestia took turns waddling past each other as they slurped down more frozen dairy. To Twilight's chagrin, her mentor continued to guzzle down far more ice cream than necessary. The elder princess was growing embarrassingly fat, with a blubbery barrel that sagged past her knees and a throne-destroying rear that jiggled heavily with every step. And despite her best efforts, the Princess of Friendship was growing plumper as well. A thick double chin jostled underneath her muzzle, and a chunky booty bounced in time with her sagging spare tire of a gut. The path underneath them stretched on for ages, winding through hilltops of vanilla and strawberry, chocolate and mint, peanut butter and orange sherbert...so many flavors and so many helpings that the studious princess lost count.

 

Finally, mercifully, the air warmed and the chilly peaks began to recede. The princesses emerged into a gentle valley carpeted with sugar-dusted clover. Celestia and Twilight looked like an absolute mess. Their candy-fattened bodies were stained and sticky with ice cream and cake crumbs. Twilight's hot fudge coating had dried and cracked apart, leaving patches of it stuck to her mane and coat like a ruined suit of armor. The purple pony tried to ignore how awful they looked as she scanned the valley floor.

 

Twilight gasped as she suddenly glimpsed what lay below them. "Hurry Princess, hurry!" she exclaimed, hurriedly taking her turn and scrabbling forwards only to wince as her belly smacked against her withers.

 

Ahead was a life-size gingerbread cottage, complete with icing trim along the eaves and lintels and candy tiles upon the roof. A wisp of smoke arose from a small chimney running up the back. A sign reading 'HOME SWEET HOME' was planted in the yard beside a front door made of hardened chocolate.

 

"We made it!" Princess Twilight exclaimed. "This gingerbread house is the end of the game. We won!"

 

"Congratulations, Twilight!" said Celestia, arriving behind her.

 

"You first, Princess," the purple pony said with a deferential bow.

 

Princess Celestia nodded her thanks, spun her spinner one last time, and waddled forwards towards the door. She pushed open the door with a hoof and peered inside. "Oh, I smell hot chocolate!" she remarked as she walked inside.

 

Suddenly there was a grating, scraping sound. Twilight Sparkle grimaced as she watched her bloated mentor's gut catch against the gingerbread doorframe. Celestia stopped short as her hefty belly was stuck halfway through the door. "Hnng...nnf!" the princess exclaimed as she feebly struggled to pull herself inside. Her fat flanks wobbled as her hooves pushed against the path for leverage, but it was no use. She was stuck!

 

"Oh no no no no..." Twilight moaned, rushing towards her. "Come on, Princess. You have to get through here. We're almost free!"

 

"I'm sorry Twilight," the alicorn replied. "But the door frame is too narrow. I can't move!"

 

Princess Twilight gingerly pressed her side against the solar alicorn's flanks. "Don't...worry, Princess!" she said, blushing slightly as she felt the warm weight of her mentor against her. "I'll...push you through!"

 

"It's all right though, we can rest here for a bit!" Celestia declared, breaking off a chunk of the chocolate door and crunching her teeth into it. "Mmmm..."

 

"Nnnnnn...NO!" the purple pony grunted through gritted teeth as she threw her back against Celestia's rump and pushed with all her might. Her own hefty belly wobbled incessantly as her back hooves kicked against the path. Forehooves squished deep into her mentor's chunky thighs.

 

The gingerbread doorframe creaked and flexed as Twilight pushed. Suddenly there was a *CRACK* as the cookie construction split in a shower of crumbs. Celestia gasped as she fell forwards, her barrel suddenly freed. The two princesses collapsed in a pile inside the gingerbread cottage.

 

"Well done, Princesses!" Discord's voice echoed around them. "You've both won our little game. Congratulations!"

 

Twilight Sparkle struggled vainly to locate the source of his voice, wedged as she was between her bloated barrel and her mentor's hefty tush. But as soon as the draconequus stopped speaking, the cottage around them began to distort and melt away. Twilight gasped silently as the walls and floor vanished into an inky blackness that swallowed them entirely.

 

---

 

"Welcome back, my not-so-little ponies!"

 

"Mrrh..." Twilight Sparkle murmured, stirring awake at the sound of Discord's voice. They must be back home - the smell of sugar and candy had finally vanished. The purple pony struggled to move, her back and chest enveloped in warm heavy pillows. She opened her eyes...

 

"WAAAH!" Twilight Sparkle exclaimed as a wall of purple pudge greeted her. The Princess of Friendship lay on her back in the Canterlot Castle reading room, as fat as she had been moments ago inside Candy Land. Twilight craned her neck up to see a familiar luminous tail waving above her. The princess was still propped up against the orbs of Celestia's still-massive rear.

 

Embarrassment washed over Twilight as she pulled herself sideways. Her fat purple belly sloshed and smacked against the tiled floor as she pressed her hooved against it and hoisted herself upright. She huffed with exertion as Princess Celestia awoke and began to do the same. A familiar draconequus stood in the corner, watching them both with an innocent smile.

 

"Discord, what have you done to us?!" the purple alicorn shouted. "We're enormous!"

 

"What ever do you mean, Twilight?" Discord said, tapping a finger to his chin. "It's only natural for piggy ponies who eat too many sweets to gain weight. Haven't you ever heard of 'calories in, calories out'?"

 

"You tricked us!" the princess retorted with a stomp of her hoof that made her barrel jiggle. "That game you trapped us in forced us to eat in order to play. Otherwise we'd NEVER have gotten this big!"

 

"Oh Twilight, you're being ridiculous," the draconequus replied. "I've seen sore losers before, but never a sore winner.

 

"Besides, I'm sure Celestia enjoyed our game. Isn't that right, princess?"

 

All eyes turned towards the other princess, who had finally rolled herself onto all fours. A small smile crept across her plump face. "Indeed, it was quite tasty. I enjoyed it very much."

 

"I'll bet you did," Discord said, wings flapping as he sailed through the room towards her. "Look at you, princess. You're fatter than you've been in centuries!"

 

The solar alicorn blushed as the draconequus pressed against her soft chest. "It's...true," she replied. "All those treats of yours...I've eaten so much."

 

"So much candy," Discord continued as his noodly body wrapped around her bloated barrel. His voice dropped an octave as the tip of his tail grazed her massive flank. "So much cake."

 

"I was so hungry. I wanted to eat it all." Celestia gasped as Discord's body constricted, gently squeezing her immensely fat belly.

 

Twilight Sparkle stared at the two, her face contorted in embarrassed confusion. "WHAT is going on?" she asked in bemusement.

 

"I'll tell you when you're older, Twilight," Discord said with a wave of his paw. "Now then, princess. What say I help you 'work off' this weight?"

 

Celestia blushed as he slipped a finger underneath her double chin. "Bold of you to assume I've had enough to eat," she said huskily. "But we'll see. If you have enough to satisfy my appetite."

 

Magic sparkled as Celestia rose into the air, cradled by the draconequus' body. "W-wait!" Twilight Sparkle shouted. "You can get rid of all this extra weight. Turn us back to normal!"

 

"What do I look like, a personal trainer?" Discord snapped. "Ask Rainbow Dash if you want diet tips. Oh, and do let me know when you'd like to play a game again. Toodles!"

 

Discord and Celestia vanished with a CRACK of magic.

 

Twilight Sparkle stood there for a moment, struggling to comprehend what just happened. A gurgle from her stomach finally interrupted. The princess sighed as the pulled herself together and waddled off to the castle kitchens.

 

"That's it. He's not invited to O&O game nights. Ever again!"