The fields outside Ponyville were all beautifully blanketed in fluffy white snow, with more big flakes fluttering down from the cloudy sky. Not the ideal weather for a pegasus to be flying around in, so Dawn Flitter was more than happy to be in a comfy seat inside a warm train car.
Besides, it made it much easier for her husband to travel with her. She looked up at the tall, muscular earth pony beside her, his beige fur mostly hidden under a black overcoat. His focus was on a magazine he'd picked up in the Manehattan terminal.
Dawn licked her hoof and raised it to his dark brown mane, smoothing down a stray curl. The contact jerked him out of his concentration and he frowned down at her.
"C'mon, babe," he grunted in his deep Bucklyn accent, leaning his head away. "Geez, I thought Mama was fussy about my hair."
"We're spending Hearth's Warming Eve with my parents, sweetie," Dawn said with a smirk, "somepony needs to make you look presentable."
He sat back straight and pouted. "Hey, I spent nearly an hour in the bathroom gettin' ready."
"I know, I had to spend most of that hour bursting to pee."
"I let ya come in. Didn't even look."
"I know, and you're unbelievable." The pegasus mare shook her head and leaned up to peck him on the cheek. Her nose twitched as she picked up the smell of strawberries from him. "And is that my shampoo?"
His cheeks turned a hint of pink. "It smells nice."
She giggled and rubbed up next to him. "It suits you."
Back in high school, Dawn Flitter didn't think for a moment that she'd ever have a chance with a stallion like Al Forno. He was handsome, aloof, tough, and built like a stone wall. He was also foreign - his family moved from Bitaly - which attracted her to him even more. But being such an average mare, she was convinced she wouldn't have a chance. Oh, how she was proven wrong that one fateful day, when the two tried out for the school buckball team, and to her surprise, he approached her and asked if she would sit with him at lunch.
And it began. The two hung out more and more, getting closer and closer and learning little by little about each other. Dawn loved learning about Al, and didn't waste time deciding on her two favourite things about him. The first being that behind those muscles and that scary glower was the heart of a gentlecolt, opening doors for her, giving her his jacket in the rain and unafraid to put one of those tree trunk-like hooves around her in a public display of snuggles.
The second was that he was an amazing chef. Not long into dating, she discovered his family opened a bistro not long after moving, specialising in traditional Bitalian dishes, and invited her over to partake. Not only were his folks very friendly and inviting, but sweet Celestia the food was delicious! Al could cook anything for her; Lasagne, calzones, pizzas, risotto, and all other kinds of delights that made her so happy just by smelling them. She just couldn't get enough, and he was always more than happy to make it for her, even preparing her lunches for the day so she could save her bits.
So it was no surprise that Dawn really plumped up through high school. All those filling meals and her 'healthy' appetite quickly caught up to her, and students started to stare and whisper as she passed them in the halls. Specifically, how much junk was being packed into her trunk. Genetics had decided that most of those extra calories she couldn't burn off from buckball practice would be stored into her flanks, and a little into her stomach to give her quite a pear shape. She developed one mother of a rump that swayed and bounced side to side in her natural gait, in a way that caused other students to stare and Al to shiver and clench his hind legs when he felt his marefriend's cutie mark bounce against his own in the hallway.
Her physical activity had no hope of balancing out the sheer intake of carbs, and it was a sad day for her when she had been replaced on the buckball team after getting so out of shape, spending the prior year practically living on her coltfriend's meals. Luckily she still had Al to make it all better; not just by treating her to a large bowl of homemade gelato, but by making a pretty big confession.
"You, uh," he'd muttered, cheeks bright red after she'd urged him on multiple times, "you...you kinda suit havin' a bit of...paddin'."
At first, she had no idea what to think. But she took a moment to think; all the meals, all his encouragement to stuff her face and not mind how much she was eating, all the times she'd caught him looking at her rump. Al Forno liked larger mares.
At first, she'd wanted to slap him and yell at him for essentially fattening her up, but she thought about it further; he never forced her to eat, she always wanted to. And he'd approached her back when she was at a normal weight, skinny even. He liked her for who she was, and the extra cuddliness was just a fortunate side effect.
And so, she'd responded by giving him a peck on the lips. "You're lucky your food is so good then," she'd giggled and flashed him a sultry look.
And now here they were some years later, nine months into a healthy, happy marriage, and on their way to Dawn's foalhood home to spend Hearth's Warming.
Dawn's eyes blinked open when she felt something rubbing against her cutie mark, and she gave Al's hoof a gentle slap, causing it to shift straight up to her side.
"Ah-ah-ah," she muttered, "we agreed no 'snuggling' in public."
"Sorry hon," Al murmured, "can't help myself sometimes, y'know?"
Dawn giggled and leaned up to rub noses with him. "We'll have plenty of time to get frisky after dinner," she purred, in that suggestive tone that always made him shudder.
"A-are you sure your folks won't mind?" he whispered.
"You know they wouldn't," she said, smirking and gently gliding her hoof along her globular stomach. "Just, try to take it easy. I know how you get when I eat."
"I'll be good." The large stallion nodded, and the two exchanged a quick, soft kiss on the lips.
grrrooooouurrr...
Dawn's chubby cheeks turned a shade of pink as nearby passengers looked her way to find the source of that strange growling noise.
"My tummy knows how you get too," she murmured, giving her husband an awkward smile.
The train pulled into the Ponyville station in the late afternoon, and ponies emerged from the platform and into the town, scattering to tend to their holiday business. Glittering lights and decorations were strewn across roofs and wrapped around lampposts, and Hearth's Warming songs played softly over a tannoy.
The snow crunched softly beneath Dawn Flitter's hooves as she plodded along next to Al Forno. She hadn't thought about it before, but she was glad her folks owned a house in the town instead of in the likes of Cloudsdale. For one, it made it much easier for Al to visit, given earth ponies couldn't walk on clouds. Secondly, it made it much easier for herself since her wings hadn't gotten that much use in a long time, and had no hope of carrying her any further than a few inches off the ground for any longer than half a minute. Not that she minded; she preferred walking alongside her husband nowadays anyway.
But even so, she was glad her old home wasn't too far from the station; her hooves were aching by the time she got to the door. She gently rapped on the door, and only had to wait a minute or so for the door to open.
"Dawn!" chirped the older pegasus mare, and the two wrapped hooves around shoulders in a hug. "It's so good to see you!"
"Hey mom," said Dawn, smiling and nuzzling her shoulder, "happy Hearth's Warming!"
"Happy Hearth's Warming, honey." She lingered for a moment before breaking the embrace. "Oh, you've, um..."
"Grown?" Dawn giggled, and nodded up to Al. "You have this pony to blame."
Dawn's mother smiled, and Dawn stepped aside to let them hug. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Al."
"You too, ma'am," Al said.
"Oh I've told you not to call me that," she giggled. "You're legally allowed to call me Mom now."
Dawn's chubby cheeks squished with a warm smile. She was so happy her parents had taken to Al so well, even after her mysteriously starting to pork up after meeting him. Just a few months of dating and he was practically part of the family.
Dawn's mom stepped back inside from the doorway. "Well come in, you two. It's freezing out there!"
Dawn was more than happy to oblige, lumbering inside. Her ears twitched curiously and she looked over her shoulder. Had her flanks rubbed against the doorway? Nah, she was just imagining things.
The house was quaintly decorated in different nick-nacks and photos that Dawn remembered fondly, smiling as she walked through the main hallway. Tinsel and twinkling lights hung from the ceiling, and both visitors felt that little bit warmer seeing the Hearth's Warming tree in the living room.
"Wow," gasped Dawn, her hooves clopping heavily against the hardwood floor as she plodded, "it's like you never touched the place!"
"Never needed to, dear," her mom said, closing the door after Al had gotten inside, and started to slip past the two. "Your father and I were just getting the food ready."
"Who's that, Noon?" a stallion's voice called from another room. "Are they here?"
Noon Skimmer rolled her eyes and craned her neck with a smile. "Come see for yourself, Dusk!"
A few moments passed, and a pegasus stallion around Noon's age hovered in, glasses on his muzzle. He smiled once he saw his daughter and son-in-law and landed in front of them.
"You finally made it," he said, giving Dawn a hug and a kiss on the forehead, "happy Hearth's Warming, kiddos."
Dawn smiled ear to ear, practically squinting from her chubby cheeks. "You too, dad."
Al smiled and shook hooves with the patriarch. "Thanks for havin' me tonight."
"Don't worry about it. You're part of the family, you're welcome anytime."
Dusk Glider craned his head, getting a look at how his daughter had 'changed' since moving out. "I'd ask if he's treating you well, but...looks like you really took after your mom." He earned a swift slap in the back of the head from his wife's wingtips. "What?"
Noon narrowed her eyes. "These two don't need to hear about my 'pudgy days', Dusk."
He shrugged. "It's not my fault you wore it so well. Besides, you know I love you no matter what size you are."
She shook her head and allowed her husband to peck her on the cheek. "Sweet talker."
Dawn smiled warmly at her parents, while Al just awkwardly stared down at his hooves.
grrrruuuuooouuurrrrgle...
All ponies' ears pricked up from the low gurgling sound, and Dawn put a hoof to her spherical belly, cheeks flushing red.
"I haven't really eaten since lunch," she admitted with an awkward smile.
"Well that just means you have plenty of room for dinner, sweetie," Noon said warmly, then looked to her husband. "Speaking of which..." she darted her eyes toward the kitchen and back to .
Dusk blinked, then his eyes widened, pupils shrinking. "Oh, Tartarus!" he gasped, and swooped back through the doorway. "My roast!"
Noon shook her head with a smile. "He's a brilliant cook when he remembers he is one. Al, would you mind giving him a hoof in there?"
"Oh, sure." Al nodded and tromped after Dusk.
Once both mares were alone, Noon turned to her daughter with a wide smile.
"So, does he know yet?"
Dawn took a moment to wonder what she was talking about, then grinned upon realising. "Oh, I was going to tell him tonight, as a surprise."
"He'll sure be surprised alright," her mother snickered. "Your father certainly was. You should've seen his face when we got your letter!"
The plump pegasus giggled into her hoof. "I had a feeling you'd love to know."
"Sweetie, we're both so happy for you," Noon said softly, giving her dollop of a daughter another hug. "But you're sure you're ready?"
Dawn nodded. "Mmhmm. We've got our own place and plenty of bits coming in, we can handle it."
Noon nodded and led the way to the dining room. "Well let's go and get seated. The both of you must be hungry."
Dawn licked her lips with her an eager grin. Her stomach let out another gurgling grumble of hunger. "Oh, we're starving!"
Dawn and Noon got themselves seated at the dining room table, neatly prepared with plenty of room. Dawn sat at one side, her mother across from her, leaving the seats beside them for their husbands. Dawn tried not to draw attention to her own hunger, but when her belly let out a particularly loud, ravenous plea for whatever was causing those succulent smells to waft from the kitchen, she couldn't help but let out a desperate little whine of her own. She was so hungry! So hungry in fact that she'd forgotten how small the chair felt beneath her backside, having spent a good few moments squirming and wiggling to get comfortable, ignoring the chair's ominous creaks.
Luckily for her, her parents' Hearth's Warming Eve dinner was soon brought out, and it silently promised to sate her appetite. The plate in front of her held a generous helping of her dad's special oat roast, sided with sweetcorn and topped with a mountain of buttery mashed potato. She gave Al a knowing look, and her husband quickly looked away with a meek frown. His own plate was topped with a more reasonable portion. No points for guessing who handled hers.
Across the table were more helpings just waiting for her to dig into when she had emptied her plate, complete with a boat of hay gravy and a bowl of cranberry sauce.
Dawn was more than happy to dig in once everypony was settled. She poured gravy on top of her little feast, watching it dribble down to the plate like branching streams, and she took a large piece of the roast first. Her eyes widened with sheer delight and she didn't even try to fight the blissful moan as she swallowed it.
Al had taken a smaller bite of his own, and his own eyes widened, though more with admiration as he looked at Dusk. "You cooked the stuffin' into the roast?"
Dawn's father nodded, a proud grin on his muzzle. "Family trick, back from my old grandpa's days."
Al nodded, impressed, then looked to his wife, who was busy chewing a great mouthful, savouring the mix of flavours. It took him a few moments of staring at her glutting herself to remember he had his own plate to empty.
Dawn, meanwhile, had almost gulped down the mashed potato on her plate, and had gone for another bit of roast. Well, to her it was just a bit, but Al watched as she stabbed her fork right into the whole portion of roast and lifted it to her mouth, taking big messy bites.
"Want some more mash, babe?" Al offered, trying his hardest to not let Dusk and Noon see the smirk he was fighting to keep down.
Her answer started with a cute little burp. "'Scuze me. Oh, yeah please, honey! Oh, could you put some gravy on it too?"
"Anythin' for you," purred the large stallion and obliged to his wide wife's request. Some may have found it silly to see such a big, tough-looking pony cooing to somepony, but Noon found it simply adorable.
Of course, Dawn's requests for more helpings didn't stop there, as the feast went on.
"Could I get another bit of roast, sweetie? Little more...perfect!"
"Oh, I could use some more mash. Little more...little more...y'know what, just gimme the bowl~"
"Mmm, this could use some sauce. Nah, just drown it!"
And on and on she went, eating helping after helping that her husband offered to her with gusto. Perhaps at some point in her younger years she practiced the art of self-control, but that was back when she was a spry young pegasus whose wings could let her soar through the open sky. Nowadays, reduced to a stuffed turkey, it took her a moment to even remember the definition of the word 'restraint'.
Though, eating like she hadn't smelled food in months (when it was more like hours) had caught up to her at that moment; she halted her gorging as a piece of stuffing went down the wrong way in her throat, causing her to start choking and spluttering.
Al was quick to act, gently patting his wife's back until the small blockage came loose. The piece of stuffing was coughed back up onto the table, and she relaxed, panting and sweating.
"Careful, babe," he muttered, holding a glass of apple juice to her mouth for her to sip from it. "I know this stuff's really good, but it ain't worth chokin' to death over."
Dawn took a breath and looked up at Al, her awkward smile stained with sauce and gravy. "Sorry, hon," she murmured, putting on the puppy eyes.
Al shook his head and took a napkin in his hoof. Dawn giggled sweetly as he wiped her muzzle clean.
Dusk and Noon looked at each other, warm smiles of approval on their faces.
After what felt like hours of feasting, Dawn was laying down on the double bed in her old bedroom. Her parents had insisted on keeping it just how she left it, meaning the old buckball memorabilia, coltband posters and plush toys were still there. She was rather flustered at Al seeing all this now that they were both grown adults. She grew out of the Buckstreet Boys years ago, darn it!
But honestly, she was too distracted to get embarrassed by this time capsule of her athletic youth. The moment her gluttony-fuelled adrenaline wore off after the meal, she had doubled over and clutched her stomach in her hooves.
"T-too...too much..." she'd moaned, letting out little burps and hiccups in an attempt to ease the dull ache in her stomach. Al had insisted on taking her upstairs to rest for a while, which meant helping her up the stairs. Dawn had to remind him a few times he was meant to help by pushing her, not feeling her. Granted, his big strong hooves gliding across her gelatinous rump wasn't a bad feeling, but she wasn't in the right state to properly enjoy it.
Al gently climbed into the bed next to his wife, his face turning pinker and pinker the longer he stared. She was laying on her back, so that spherical belly of hers stuck right up into the air, rising and falling with every shaky breath. She moaned softly, scrunching up her face and letting out cute little burps and hiccups.
"Oohhh," she groaned, "Mom and Dad still make a mean Hearth's Warming dinner. I thought I was gonna explode!"
"So did I," Al murmured, eyes fixed on that lilac-coated dome as he softly put a hoof on it. "I've never seen you eat that much before, babe. Ya really went into a frenzy down there."
Dawn managed a little smile, and she opened her eyes to look at him. "Well, I was eating for two."
"I'll say," Al chuckled, "you ate more than both of us combined!"
Dawn couldn't help but giggle, punctuating it with a belch. "Well I did, but that's not what I meant." She gestured down to her belly.
"Huh?" Al blinked dumbly, following her gaze. His eyes widened and his heart quickened after taking a few moments to catch on. "Wait, babe, a-are you...?"
She nodded. "The results came a few weeks ago. It's a filly."
"Oh, ma che meraviglia!" he gasped, and Dawn's heart soared. Al only broke out the Bitalian when he was really happy or really upset, and he was wearing the biggest smile she'd seen on his muzzle since their wedding. "Dawn, babe, I can't believe it! Why didn't you say so sooner?"
"It was so close to Hearth's Warming," she explained, taking a pause to groan and burp, "s-so I kinda got you an early gift..."
"Wait, are we ready for this?" Al frowned, his eyes starting to dart around as he muttered. "We don't got any foal stuff in the house. We need a bed, clothes, food, monitors, diapers-a lot of diapers-"
Dawn snickered and hushed her husband with a soft kiss on the lips. "Let's worry about that after Hearth's Warming, okay? We're going to have another dinner at your parents' place, so it's gonna be a long day for us. If you know what I mean." She smirked and set one of Al's hooves on her middle.
The touch of the taut abdomen and soft fur made Al's thoughts settle down. He nodded and snuggled down beside her. "Yeah, you're right. We'll worry about it after tomorrow, huh?"
"That's the spirit," she sighed contentedly, then let out a little gasp when she felt one of her husband's tree stump-like hooves pressing against her cutie mark. "Oh!"
Al frowned and lifted his hoof away, then grinned as he felt her wingtips wrap around it and press it back into her soft, fluffy flesh.
"Go on then, big boy," she purred. "Mama needs some snuggle."
Al growled with lust and gently pulled his wife up against him, being careful to avoid putting pressure to her bump.
"Happy Hearth's Warmin', hon," he murmured, staring into her eyes.
"Happy Hearth's Warming, sweetie," she sighed, and the two closed their eyes and leaned in to lock lips.