The CMC walked into Sugar Cube Corner. It was empty of customers but the noise of them entering drew Pinkie's attention and she poked her head out from the back room.
"Hi girls. Oh, you're just in time." In one hop, she landed with her forehooves on the counter and looked down at them with a smile so wide she shouldn't have been able to keep her jaws together. "I'm coming up with new ideas for ice cream! Do you want to be the first to try some?"
They looked at each other for a moment before Apple Bloom stepped forward. "Um, sure. What do you have?"
"I've got: Tongue Twister Delight, Tongue Twister Snap, Mudslide milkshake, Dirt and Worms sunday, Banana Triple Split. Frozen Mudpie,-"
"Pinkie?" Apple Bloom interrupted. "You aren't actually putting dirt and stuff in your ice cream are you?"
She just giggled. "Of course not silly. It's just ground up cookies with some gummy worms and rock candy."
"Oh, ok." After a moment's thought she made up her mind. "I'll try the last one. A Mudpie?"
"I want a banana split." Scootaloo called out.
"What's the tongue twister thing?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Three scoops of ice cream. You wrap your tongues around all of them at once and get a bunch of different flavors. It's neat."
"I'll try that. The snap one."
"I'll be back in a jiffy." She spun around, somehow without her tail hitting anything, and hopped back into the kitchen.
They walked over to a table but any conversation was preemptively cut off by the sounds from the other room. Including what sounded like the use of power tools. They looked at each other and silently agreed not to question it.
As promised, Pinkie soon returned. An Ice cream cone in a holder was set in front of Sweetie Belle, with blueberry, bubblegum and strawberry stacked on top of each other. Apple Bloom got a bowl lined with broken waffle cones and filled with chocolate ice cream and cookie crumbs as well as a gummy worm and small 'gem' sticking out. Scootaloo got a mostly normal banana split but the banana was cut in half lengthwise to make a top and bottom with the bottom being cut in half again to make the sides, and three pieces of licorice were sticking out from in between.
"Let me know what you girls think."
Pinkie returned to the kitchen to continue her work while the three of them took a moment to look at what they got. With nothing left to do they started to eat.
Scootaloo was about to take a bite out of her banana split when she stopped and looked at it for a moment. "Hmm... I bet I can eat it all at once!"
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle quickly looked over at her.
"Why would you even want to do that?" Apple Bloom asked.
It was too late. Her tongues were already wrapped around it and pulling it into her wide open mouth.
"Scootaloo, NO!" Was Sweetie Belle's futile plea.
They watched in morbid fascination as the frozen treat disappeared down their friend's gullet. Some of the ice cream didn't fit and dribbled out of all three corners of her mouth.
Once it was pulled all the way down her throat, she smiled at them in triumph. "Didn't think I could do it did you?"
They glanced at each other for a moment.
Scootaloo suddenly clutched her head in her hooves. "AAAAAAAAAAAAA." She fell to the floor writhing in pain as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle could only watch.
She felt things wrap around her and lift her into a sitting position then something hard was pressed to her lips.
"Dink tiss."
She recognized Pinkie's voice and did as she was told.
By the time the glass was empty she was able to sit up on her own and open her eyes. "Thanks. What was that?"
"You' welcome." Pinkie patted her on the head with a tongue while another still held the glass. "Jus' a cup a warm wa'er." With that taken care of she bounced away, back behind the counter.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle quietly ate theirs at a more reasonable pace to give Scootaloo some time to recover.
Once they were finished they went back to Pinkie and told her what they though of her creations. With Scootaloo delivering the sage advice of 'Don't swallow things just because you can' and Sweetie Belle's excitement about how the poprocks tickled her tongues and her frustration at having trouble blowing bubblegum bubbles.
They were back outside when Scootaloo turned to the other two. "So what do we do now?"
Apple Bloom looked around as she thought about it. "I don't know but we need to make the most of it. We got school tomorrow."
"What do you think miss Cheerilee is up to?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Cheerilee finished writing tomorrow's lesson on the black board (a long discussion about everypony's changes.) and stepped back to check it over.
Well, that was easier then it used to be. She thought to herself.
Her eyes focused on the piece of chalk she was holding in front of herself. Maybe I've gotten too used to the taste of chalk over the years. Her tongue responded by giving the stick a light squeeze before she went back to checking her work.
Twilight finished reading one of the notes she received. "That's test number three. It will need some official testing in a controlled environment but I'm adding it for now."
She switched her attention to a scroll full of notes and managed to keep using her magic as she wrote. "High speed burrowing causes a loss of breath, resulting in a large gasp for air upon breaching the surface. This gasp includes the mouth being opened wide and the tongues being fully expelled from the throat in order to maximize air intake."
She stopped to think for a moment. "I guess it would be hard to breath under those circumstances. I wounder if this behavior could startle ponies. ...I wounder how badly this behavior will startle ponies." She looked outside. "But it's not like tatzlponies are digging holes at random."
Any further thoughts were cut off by a loud belch and burst of fire. Spike walked down the stairs and saw Twilight looking at him.
He broke the seal on the scroll he was holding and cleared his throat.
"Dear, Princess Twilight.
Yes I have also received a copy of the report. Not to worry as I have already sent a team to contain and analyses the situation.
Your friend, Princess Celestia."
Spike scratched the back of his head for a moment. "What's that all about?"
"An outpost has been infected with some strange illness and asked for help. But it looks like the situation has already been taken care of, or will be soon."
A young stallion was roughly shoved forward. "Go on. Go talk to her."
He frowned at his antagonist for a moment before refocusing his attention forward. He bit his lip as he took a few steps forward. "Sugar?"
The young mare in question stood up straight and her tail went stiff. Her head slowly turned as she looked behind herself. Her ears went back and she glared at him. "Oh, it's you."
He took another hesitant step forward. "I just wanted to apologize for what happened the other day."
"APOLOGIZE?" She spun around and yelled at him.
He backed up a couple steps and his eyes briefly looked at the strange mouth gaping at him.
Her anger melted into sadness. "I needed you and you left me."
"I-I know and I'm sorry." He looked at the ground. "I was scared. We all were."
She pulled in on herself as she looked away and hid her face behind her mane.
He moved closer. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"
After an uncomfortable silence, a tiny smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth for a moment. She looked at him and their eyes met. "Kiss me!"
"I uh... what?" He tilted his head to the side.
"Kiss me." She stepped closer. "If you can do that without running away screaming- we'll talk."
He smiled at her. He moved in closer but stopped at the last moment. "How exactly does this-"
Two of her tongues shot out and wrapped around his head, drawing him in the rest of the way. After a moment of shock wore off, he leaned into it. That's when something pushed past his lips and made it's way down his throat. He jumped and his eyes shot open, but she held onto him. Once he calmed down from the intrusion he got back into the kiss, and replied in kind. One tongue was placed on the back of her head just before her eyes opened in surprise.
"Dude. That is creepy!" Was heard not too far away and immediately followed by fading hoofsteps.
They ended their kiss and took another moment to completely separate.
She looked at one of her tongues for a moment before pulling it back down her throat. "You need to stop putting so much spice on your hayburgers."
"Hey, you know how I like them." He bit his lip. "So, are we good now?"
"I said we would talk. So lets go talk." She tilted her head to the side and started walking away. The end of her tail twisted around his neck for a moment and he followed after her.
Shining Armor stood on the edge of the training field (to avoid explaining why he would be limping across the field) and watched some sparing matches.
The tatzlponies had the advantage of surprise but the disadvantage of still getting used to their new bodies. One stumbled over their own tail while another spun around and used their tail to sweep the hooves out from under their opponent. One tried to dodge an attack by jumping forward and was halfway into the ground when the practice spear came down. A more heated fight looked to be about to end when the tatzlpony lost their spear. The normal crystalpony got cocky and went to finish it only to find themselves unarmed and off balance against a tatzlpony that now held a spear in it's tongues.
He sipped his coffee and gave a nod at the ponies trying to improve their abilities.
Somepony came up behind him. "Looks like you already had a sparing match against a tatzlpony, Sir. I trust you got in a few good jabs with your spear."
And there goes his coffee.