//------------------------------// // Twilight's Diet 2: Diet Harder // Story: Twilight's Diet 2: Diet Harder // by Klamnei //------------------------------// Twilight’s Diet 2: Diet Harder It was a perfectly normal night in Ponyville, save for the rather cool and harsh temperature for the time of year. It was supposed to be calm and serene, but instead, it was windy and chilly. It was the kind of day that’s best enjoyed indoors by a fire, drinking hot cocoa and eating graham crackers. Twilight was currently enjoying the fire, but the sweets were denied her at the moment. “Stupid diet.” She stared at the meager helping of ca rrots and celery Spike had brought her. She was six weeks into the blasted thing, and she swore those weeks had been the longest of her life. Jogging with Rarity, weight training with Rainbow, diet tips from Fluttershy, encouragement from Applejack and Pinkie, that’s all her life had been. Her mood throughout it all had been neutral at best and sour at worst, and while she was at least getting results, it was wearing on her. Grudgingly, Twilight munched on the vegetables. It was automatic at this point, a mechanical motion that she got no enjoyment from. She merely did it to lessen the emptiness in her stomach, but with such tiny portions, it didn’t do much. Twilight sighed. She wanted something with substance. Never mind that she’d lost twelve pounds and was two-thirds of the way to her goal; she wanted some freaking chili cheese hay fries. Or a Double Deluxe Ice Cream Surprise with extra caramel! And while she was at it, some chocolate cheesecake, spaghetti, deep-fried pastries, maybe a continent or two— Twilight hesitated. She looked up from the book she was reading, running a hoof down her face. Such thoughts came randomly since she’d had that hallucinogenic dream. She wished she could shake them, but with the constant, gnawing hunger, her brain seemed fixated on it. “Hey, Twilight?” Spike called from the other room. “Yeah?”   “I’m heading to bed. Do you need anything?” Yeah. Food. Lots of it. The more calories the better. Don’t stop cooking until told otherwise. Send word to every kitchen in Equestria, too. “No thanks,” Twilight called back. “Good night, Spike. I’ll be upstairs soon.” Spike’s response was preceded by a yawn. “Don’t stay up too late.” She left was left alone in the quiet of the study. Idly, she stretched her legs and cracked her neck with a loud pop, then put her book back up on the shelf. She looked at the clock, jumping as she realized it was almost midnight. “Didn’t realize it was that late,” she muttered. It’d only felt like she’d been reading for an hour, but the entire afternoon and evening had slipped away under her nose. She hadn’t meant to get that caught up in her studying, but unfortunately, such occurrences were more common than she’d like to admit. Twilight looked down at her half-eaten snack with distaste. She was sick and tired of healthy food. She wanted something real. Something with some actual substance, something that would actually fill her up! But they’d gone full-on health food with the stuff in the library, and even if she wanted to cheat, there wasn’t anything open this time of night. She was stuck with staying on the straight and narrow for now, and by morning, her resolve would return like it always did. Twilight closed her eyes, her mind returning to that lovely, lovely dream. She wished she could have it again. It had felt so good to eat whatever she wanted, to feast endlessly, to grow bigger and bigger without end until nothing could contain her— “Grrehehgh.” She held her head in her hooves. She needed to stop dwelling on that! The dream was a random occurrence, and she wouldn’t be able to recreate it. She knew next to nothing about such things, and it’s not like she knew anypony that did— Twilight stopped dead. One of her ears twitched slightly. She looked out the study window, up into the sky, where a crescent moon shone softly in the indigo sky. Twilight stood stock still, considering her options. Eventually, she set her jaw and nodded to herself. “Spiiiiike!” she called. “Mmhh… yeah?” came his sleepy voice. “There actually is one thing I need before you turn in.” A pause. “What is it?” Twilight smiled. “Can you send a letter to Princess Luna?” <(*_*<)  ^(*_*)^  (> *_*)> Two Days and a Few Correspondences Later- Twilight sat on the edge of her bed before bedtime in her loose, baggy pajamas. It was midnight again, and in her hooves was a newly-arrived letter. She read the message over again for the third time. Twilight Sparkle- Indeed, there is a way to recreate dreams. ‘Tis something I do for myself on a regular basis, actually. While the specifics of which would make for a lengthy letter, the simple explanation is that all creatures never truly forget the events or settings their subconscious creates. Instead, they are stored within the Dreamrealm—the place where all sleeping minds go upon entering Occulerius (you might be more familiar with the modern term, ‘REM Sleep’). It is a simple enough matter to call up and view the Dreamrealm’s recollection of a dream, or at least, simple for those who are familiar with such magics. Enclosed is a headband of my own design. It is set with an enchanted stone called an Undrae gem, one that I made myself. Simply put the garment on before you go to sleep, and think of the dream you wish to have. Once you fall asleep, the Dreamrealm will pull it from your subconscious, and you will have the choice of re-experiencing the dream from the beginning, or continuing it from where you last left off. I assume you’ll be able to take it from there. Pleasant Dreams- Princess Luna Within the scroll was a small cloth. Wrapped carefully inside was a thin, silver headband, set with a navy gem pulsing with starlight. Twilight lifted the headband up in her aura, inspecting it in the dim lamp light. “Beautiful…” She brushed her fetlock against the gem, finding that it was cool to the touch. The cloth was fine silk, and weighed next to nothing. She went over to the mirror on the wall and carefully put the headband on, situating it just below her horn. “Not bad. Maybe I should start wearing more silver.” Twilight chuckled to herself, reviewing to see if there was anything else to do before she turned in. Spike was already in bed, her checklists were filled out, and the only thing left to do was turn out the lights. “Well, then.” Twilight got into bed and shut off her lamp. “Here goes nothing.” She was worried that her excitement or nervousness might inhibit her trip to dreamland, but just like always, the softness of her mattress and feather pillow overtook her. Not even the discontent of being hungry was enough to keep her awake, and a few minutes later, Twilight was sleeping soundly, the Undrae gem glinting on her brow. <(*_*<)  ^(*_*)^  (> *_*)> Twilight hung in the immensity of space, at a loss of what to do. She’d just devoured the star of her homeworld, but still, her impossible hunger had not been sated. Her appearance had been altered by feasting on the sun’s cosmic energies, and now she looked like a veritable goddess. Her coat was blindingly white, so bright that it hurt one’s eyes to look at. Her mane and tail were dazzling, dancing flames that swept all around her body. Her eyes were a deep reddish-orange, the color of the star she’d just eaten, and most impressive of all, a pair of pristine, feathered wings had sprouted from her shoulder blades. And, of course, there was also her size. Twilight was a titan now, one billion times her original height, larger than anything in the solar system. Her eyes alone were larger than the distance between the Moon and the Earth. The Earth was smaller than a drop of her sweat, and she could’ve crushed a gas giant between her hooves. Her godly magic thrummed and coursed throughout her body, making her feel alive and vibrant, and she felt like she could do anything at all. Yet still, she still felt so very small. Twilight ignored her hunger pangs for a moment and looked out at the distant stars. They were very, very, very far away. So far, in fact, that even at her size, it would take weeks to fly to just one of them! Fortunately, she had an alternative. At random, Twilight spun her hoof around and stopped it, now pointing at a small, far-off star. Smirking, she focused on the pinprick of light, and her mighty horn flared to life. Her entire body glowed, for a moment resembling the star she’d just devoured. She wove her spell carefully, and then, she vanished from the solar system in the blink of an eye. FLASH! Twilight reappeared an instant later, dozens of light years away. Before her was the star she’d chosen, an orange dwarf slightly smaller than her awesome form. It wasn’t as bright as she’d expected, but then again, she was new to this. Perhaps she’d put more thought into her next teleport. Twilight eagerly made her way towards the orange dwarf, her own gravitational pull doing most of the work. She got goosebumps as she approached, the plasma’s warmth tickling her coat. The star’s bulk filled her vision, and she bent her head in and took a lick, shivering as the hot, roiling gases flowed into her mouth. They tasted like cinnamon. “Ohhhhh...” Twilight dove her head in and slurped at the star, letting the energy cascade down her throat. She was inhaling it more than anything else, using magic to siphon it into her mouth, swallowing without needing to chew. She sank into the celestial body and embraced it with her wings, wrapping around it like a feathery cloak. Twilight took her time with her meal, enjoying the sweet, spicy taste. Soon, she was swelling larger with every bite. Instantly, she addicted to the feeling again. She revelled in the warm tingling that suffused her body, and it was all she could do not to moan in delight. Soon, the star began to fall apart and lose consistency. A short while later, all that was left was the core. It was thicker than the outside part of the star, viscous and piping hot, like a bowl of soup on a cold winter day. Twilight closed her eyes and nibbled at it, relishing the unique, sharp, tart taste of hydrogen and helium. She savored it as much as she could, but her hunger got the best of her. She chomped it down quickly, the last of the star disappearing down her gullet. Twilight suppressed a burp and looked around, eager for her next course. She’d doubled again in size, just a little under two million miles tall. A good start, for sure. She cast a quick spell to see if there were any planets in this system, and sure enough, there were. A hoof-full of gas giants hung in distant orbit. Twilight quickly flew out to locate them, finding the first one rather easily. It was greenish blue and about the size of Jupiter, with three moons orbiting it in a strange, irregular pattern. Compared to Twilight, the planet was smaller than her cutie mark. Twilight ate the planet in a single bite. It tasted sour at first, but when she got to the thick, syrupy core, it became as sweet as candy. She ate the moons as well, though they were so small, they barely had any taste at all. Once done, she went out to the other seven gas giants and repeated the process, each one tasting similar as the first… but not quite as good. Now a good one-third bigger, Twilight considered her next course. She enjoyed eating this smaller fare, but it was more of an appetizer, if anything. What she wanted now was something… filling. She admired the beauty of the cosmos for a short while, contemplating her options and rubbing her grumbling stomach. She focused briefly with a quick scanning spell, searching to see if anything good was nearby, and sure enough, there was! About forty light years away was something promising, no more than a hop, skip and a jump away. With a wide, toothy smile, Twilight vanished soundlessly again, leaving only debris in the now-empty solar system. FLASH! Twilight’s eyes went wide. She suddenly wasn’t sure if she was seeing things, but she certainly hoped that she wasn’t! Before her was an absolutely tremendous star! A hypergiant among hypergiants, so big, that even at her stellar size, it made her feel utterly insignificant! “Oh, my…” Planet-sized globules of drool fell from Twilight’s tongue. The star was a stunning deep red in color, and its gravity was so strong, she could barely resist its pull. She hadn’t been expecting this. She’d just thought she’d found a large star in the area, not something so huge it made her feel like a gnat! The size of this thing boggled Twilight. She could barely even believe that a star this big existed! It was positively enormous! A part of her wanted to do some research, maybe figure out the consistency and makeup of the star for analysis— Her stomach quickly overrode that train of thought. “All right, all right…” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Sheesh.” She dove into the hypergiant star with a happy cheer. Upon entering, the gravity immediately pressed down on her, re-orienting her and giving her a sense of balance. It was like she was swimming in a delicious red ocean! The tickling wisps of energy felt like a mix between a jacuzzi and a nice, hot sauna, and it was a welcome change from the chilliness of space. Twilight opened her mouth and let the yummy energies flow into her, devouring it all as fast as she could, her body soon glowing with this newfound fuel. It took Twilight a while to eat the hypergiant. She went around the star in circles, making passes and ravenously eating the delectable celestial object without rest. It tasted wonderfully sweet—like vanilla with a hint of strawberries, and Twilight found that the more she ate, the more energy she had. She began moving faster and faster, her excitement building, her stamina never flagging even once. And all the while she ate, she continued to grow. She could feel her limbs lengthening, her frame widening, surging outward and upward as she became bigger and heavier at an accelerating rate. Five million miles tall. Ten million. Fifty million. One hundred million! Five hundred million! Twilight was reaching absolutely impossible sizes, but still, all she wanted was more... more... more! She could feel the power inside her, suffusing every part of her body, making her stronger, greater, more massive. Her stomach was relentless, stretching and groaning as it digested her gluttonous feast, but she couldn’t get enough. It got to the point that she couldn’t tell how long she’d been spent eating, but she didn’t really mind that. She just wanted to eat and grow as much as she could, for as long as she could. After a long while, Twilight’s mass surpassed that of the star. The plasma now began drifting towards to her, making it even easier to eat. Twilight giggled. Apparently, the star wanted to be eaten! She could grow even faster because of this and within minutes, she broke one billion miles in height! Not long after that, though, Twilight noticed that she wasn’t getting entire mouthfuls anymore. She’d eaten so much that there wasn’t much left of the star, and finally, she took a bite and found that there was nothing but void. “Mmmmmm...” Twilight wiped the last remnants of hydrogen from her lips. She was beyond titanic now, absolutely enormous in every respect. Her wingspan was so great, she could’ve touched the Sun with one wing, and Saturn with the other. Her pupils alone were over one hundred times larger than the Earth! Idly, she wondered how long it would be before she grew to a light year at this rate, but she knew she had quite a ways to go before that.  Luckily, she wasn’t left wanting for food. There was a whole galaxy’s worth of stars left to eat! With a shrug and a chuckle, Twilight teleported to the next star system, eagerly looking forward to her next meal... ...or at least, that’s what she intended to do. But before she could, she felt something strange tugging at her. It was faint, almost unnoticeable, but now, at her incredible size, she could just barely feel it. Twilight tilted her head. It was a... force, of some sort, something that tugged at her godly body, beckoning, almost taunting. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but one thing was for sure—if it was calling out to her, she wanted to see what it was! Twilight oriented herself towards the disturbance, instantly teleporting herself... FLASH! ...to the edge of nothing. Completely, and totally, nothing. It was a blackness within blackness, a hole within a void, an invisible entity from not even which light returned. It wasn’t bigger than her, not even close, but it was much, much, MUCH more massive! So massive, in fact, that it pulled at Twilight with monstrous strength, more than she could resist! “Eep!” FLASH! It was a close call, but Twilight managed to teleport a safe distance from the mighty gravity well. She used a few spells and calculations to plot out her location in space, and when she did, she realized with a start that she was in the center of the galaxy.  And if that was the case, that meant that this disturbance was... “Whoa...” Twilight stared in awe at the supermassive black hole. She hadn’t expected to come upon it yet, but now that she had, it greatly intrigued her. Black holes were known for their immense quantities of mass, but... there was nothing known to pony science that could break one up. They were considered to be the all-consumers, the ultimate form of oblivion. Nothing escaped their terrifying might. Twilight licked her lips. She always did enjoy a challenge. Twilight enshrouded the black hole in her colossal magic, giving it an experimental tug. Predictably, it was stubborn, not wanting to break apart. She focused harder, but it only resisted her more. It was a positive feedback loop, held together by its own gravitational pull, and any kind of force introduced just made it stronger. Twilight could feel the unbelievable amount of mass within the anomaly, so tantalizingly close and tempting.. Theoretically, she should be able to eat the thing, but diving right into it didn’t seem wise. Iff a method could be devised to gradually extract the mass out of the black hole, the whole thing would eventually disperse, and she could eat it at her leisure. But the amount of power to do that would be astronomical… Twilight eventually got an idea. Rather than teleport herself into the black hole, she’d teleport/summon a portion of the black hole to her. She selected a tiny, tiny fraction of the its mass, no more than a pinprick compared to her, and readied herself. The void around Twilight wavered and pulsed in response to her power, her horn glowing a stark white. With gritted teeth, Twilight cast the spell. A teeny-tiny, black, globular mass appeared on tongue, no more than (comparatively) the size of a flea. SPLORT! Without the black hole’s gravity, the matter was free to break apart, and break apart it did, filling up Twilight’s mouth like she’d just eaten a whole packet of pop rocks. “MMF!” Twilight cheeks puffed out, some of the matter squirting past her lips and going up her nose. She clutched her muzzle and used magic to recompress it, but she couldn’t hold it for long. Twilight ate the mass as fast as she could, her massive throat bulging, struggling with the mighty meal. But she refused to back down. There wasn’t anything in the universe she couldn’t eat, and she was going to prove it! GULP! Twilight straightened her neck and swallowed with all her might. She used magic for some extra oomph, until she got the matter down, sighing in relief as it fell heavily into her stomach. It fizzed and bubbled in her gut, filling her belly to the brim. Amazingly, she actually felt full for a change. “Ugh.” Twilight panted for breath. That was much, much harder than she thought. She hadn’t even gotten to enjoy the taste! True, she’d reduced the mass of the black hole, but it was still there. Twilight narrowed her eyes at her invisible foe. She could eat the whole thing using the same method, but she wanted this to be a pleasant experience. If she could just find a way to siphon it out... but how? She did a few mental calculations, carried the one, compensated for the curve of space-time... A one-way forcefield might work, but that’d be difficult to maintain, and there was no guarantee that— ...grummmmmble… ...why’d she feel funny all of a sudden? Twilight felt tingly... very tingly! It almost felt like when she was growing, except way, way, WAY stronger! It was a blooming warmth that filled every mile of her being, from her fluted horn all the way down to her immaculate hooves. Twilight let out a long, pleasured groan. Her body began to shake, her stomach gurgling yet again. Not with hunger, though… but with preparation. Twilight doubled in size. There wasn’t any ramp-up, nor gradual in any way. Just a titanic growth spurt in the span of a few seconds, from one billion to two billion miles tall. She then doubled again a few seconds later, to stand at a respectable four billion. She could now easily fill the space between the Sun and Pluto! But she wasn’t done there. She doubled once more to be at eight billion, and then again to be at sixteen! Twilight was now bigger than her entire home solar system, and yet the tingling feeling of growth was only intensifying, her body filled with raw, electric power. “OHHHH!” Twilight loudly voiced her approval as she kept doubling. Each surge of growth felt better than the last, her mind lost in a sea of bliss as her stomach digested the black hole matter. Thirty-two billion miles. Sixty-four billion. One hundred twenty-eight! Even the largest stars were like thimbles to her now, and planets were practically microscopic! She couldn’t believe how good she felt, and the growth was only accelerating! Two hundred fifty-six billion. Five hundred and twelve billion. One trillion! She was beginning to fill up the space between stars! But finally, at this point, the growth began to subside. She only grew a paltry additional seven hundred billion miles, and then her body finally came to a rest. Twilight came to her senses. She still felt somewhat dazed, but was able to focus through the afterglow. Her entire perspective had shifted, and she saw that she was hovering in a colorful disc of free-floating gases. It took her a moment to realize that she’d made a rather amusing mistake—even though she’d only eaten a tiny, tiny fraction of the black hole’s mass, that mass was still exponentially more than all the mass she’d eaten up to this point... combined. Over a thousand times more, in fact! Her stomach had eagerly gone into overdrive to use it all up, and the energy had made her already cosmic form grow bigger... and bigger... and bigger. Twilight giggled. “Whoops.” Granted, she hadn’t quite meant for that to happen, but she wasn’t about to argue with the results. She was still pretty small—not even a full light year yet, but that just made her more excited. Think of the studies she could do at this size! She could measure the unknown effects of spacetime! She could figure out what dark matter was! She could— Her stomach grumbled. —then again, maybe not. Twilight absentmindedly made shapes in the nebula gases while she pondered. She was big enough now that it’d only take a minute or so to fly between stars, which would probably be quick enough to keep her hunger satiated… Or, she could stay focused on the thing that’d made her grow so fast, and so quickly. That’d only been a tiny fraction of the black hole, after all. Twilight was never one to leave a task unfinished. The black hole wasn’t quite as daunting now, as her magic had grown proportionately with the rest of her. But she wasn’t about to get complacent. The anomaly was still thousands of times more massive than her, it's staggering gravity well roiling with waves of kinetically-generated heat. But while it was intimidating, it was also exciting. Rivulets of spittle fell from Twilight’s tongue at the thought of eating all that mass, shivering at the thought of how much it would make her grow. With a laser-like focus, Twilight cast her spell again. Another tiny mass appeared on her tongue, and it immediately tried to fizz up like the first had. She was ready this time, though, and easily kept it under control. She then eased up on the pressure just a teeny-tiny bit, allowing it fill her mouth so she could get a good taste. Twilight’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. The taste was like black licorice, which she absolutely loved. The texture was thick and creamy like ice cream, but it was also hot, like cocoa. She swished it around in her mouth, humming contentedly before gulping it all down, licking her teeth to get every last bit. Twilight wanted more. She cast her spell a third time, teleporting in another tasty mouthful of the black hole. It was utterly divine. She ate a fourth, fifth, and sixth, and by the time she’d eaten those, her body was absolutely thrumming with warmth and growth. Soon she wasn’t doubling in size, but tripling! “So good…” In no time at all, Twilight was so big didn’t even need to keep the matter compressed anymore. It wasn’t even close to filling her mouth, so she just let it form on her tongue and fizz up pleasantly before swallowing. Every new gulp just made her feel better, and she started to increase the amount she was teleporting, still wanting it to fill up her mouth. Twilight was a light year tall and still growing without any sign of stopping. She kept right on eating without nary a thought as she continued to triple in size, reveling in the delightful sensations and tastes. When she got to nine light years, she felt two spots of warmth on her flanks from brushing against the nearest local stars. They collapsed into her pure-white coat, making it glitter and sparkle with stardust. More stars quickly followed suit as she became larger still, and by the time she’d broken one hundred light years, her body was gleaming with the shining essence of the galaxy. A short time later, Twilight noticed that the black hole was beginning to break up. Realizing what was about to happen (and not wanting to waste any of the tasty treat), she quickly teleported to the anomaly and snapped it up in a single bite. An instant later, the black hole lost compression and burst in her mouth, filling it to the brim with thick, creamy goodness. She stopped it with her magic before any of it could come out of her mouth, but she almost didn’t, as she’d underestimated how much there still was. She quickly got it under control, though, and she happily chugged it all down in three giant swallows, suppressing a burp and patting her placated stomach. “That was good,” Twilight said, smiling dreamily. She smacked her lips and reveled in the last bits of matter on her tongue. She surveyed the galaxy from her location, and it was then she noticed that her perspective had shifted again. Billions of stars and solar systems stretched out before her in every direction, making up clouds of periwinkle blues, murky whites, pale reds, and deep oranges. They surrounded her in in long, curved arms, spiralling around her in an ornate, beautiful circle. Twilight was speechless. She simply hovered in space and stared, marvelling at the ocean of stars before her. She was now at an unprecedented scale, larger than anything else in the galaxy, and that thought pleased her greatly. Her eyes alone were each over a light year in diameter, and the width of a single one of her hairs was greater than her home solar system. Her gut was working merrily to digest the monumental feast she’d given it, and she felt warm, at peace, almost felt like she could drift off— She suddenly felt funny again. Twilight’s blazing eyes snapped open. The warmth in her body was turning into a blazing furnace, and she could tell what was about to happen. Now with goosebumps, she grinned and hugged herself, murmuring softly as she waited for it all to start. “Yes…” Her body surged, doubling in size again. Two hundred light years tall—over a quadrillion miles in height, and still growing rapidly. Two hundred became four hundred, the euphoric feelings only strengthening. “Yes!” Eight hundred light years. Hundreds of stars disintegrated into her titanic form, saturating her body and wings with color. Sixteen hundred light years. Her mane and tail now resembled great swirling nebulae, iridescent and dancing with divine power. “YES!” One final surge, and the sensations subsided. Now at just shy of three thousand light years, Twilight was truly a cosmic entity unto herself. With giddy awe, she took in her new size, marvelling as she realized she could only make out the brightest of stars below her. The ocean of stars was now a swimming pool, filled with teeny tiny dots of glinting light. Those lights were billions upon billions of solar systems, each of them filled with planets, planetoids, gas giants, anomalies, and various cosmic debris. It all looked absolutely delicious. With a wolfish smile, Twilight began with the stars closest to her, leaning in and eating tens of millions of them in a single bite. They tasted sweet and chewy, almost like cotton candy. She then flew around in a tight circle, eating up the nearby star clusters so they wouldn’t go to waste like so many had during her growth spurts. She used her magic to help her as well, collecting up hundreds of thousands of outliers at a time and greedily licking them up. From there, she worked on the spiral arms of the galaxy, following their trails until she’d gotten to the outer edges. By the second time she’d done this, she was over fifty thousand light years tall, with billions of stars passing her lips every time she opened her mouth. Twilight ate, and ate, and ate. More than three-quarters of the galaxy had fallen into her belly, but three-quarters wasn’t the whole thing. One more pass let her get that last few dozen billion stars, and with that, her home galaxy had vanished down her throat. Definitely not bad for the first course. Now at one hundred thousand light years tall—over six hundred quadrillion miles, Twilight turned to her next meal—the other galaxies in her local galactic group. “Hmm.” Twilight raised a hoof to her chin. Which one did she want to eat first? They all looked so appetizing, coming in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Some were oval-shaped disks that looked like flat, fuzzy hoofballs. Others were majestic spirals with blindingly bright centers. There were wispy ones, dense ones, big ones, small ones, and every other kind that you could think of. And that was just what was nearby! Far off in the distance, Twilight could see other clusters of galaxies, numerous beyond count. The mere sight of so many was enough to make her feel even hungrier, and she couldn’t wait to get started. Twilight decided to start small. Nearby, there was an orbiting dwarf galaxy; bluish-white and only twenty-five thousand light years across. She flew over to it and gave it a nibble, delighted to find that it had a robust, salty flavor. She eagerly dug in and finished it off in a dozen bites, then, growing larger, she teleported over to the next-closest one, a bright-green elliptical galaxy a few times her size. She couldn’t have that, of course, so she used her magic to compress the thing down until she could fit it all into her mouth. She gorged herself on the apple-sized ball, enjoying the buttery taste and swallowing it whole, devouring hundreds of billions of stars in an instant. She then hiccuped from her meal, her belly digesting the galaxy and making her triple to three hundred thousand years. A thought then occurred to Twilight. If she could do that with just one galaxy, what was stopping her from doing it with several? Heck, why all the galaxies in the group? Or the cluster? Or the supercluster? She certainly had the magic for it—she was so powerful now, she could feel a sizeable portion of the universe, immeasurably vast and filled with cosmic treats. After coming this far, she was pretty sure that her stomach could handle anything. Why not swing for the fences? Twilight decided she wasn’t going to rest until everything in the universe was in her belly. First thing was first, though. Before she could eat any of those yummy galaxies, she had to bring them all closer. That was a simple enough task; she could use the same spell she’d used with the black hole! Granted, it’d be on multiple targets on an exponentially larger scale, but the theory still applied! Twilight readied herself and stretched her senses outward, locating hundreds of galaxy clusters for megaparsecs around. Each one contained tens of trillions of stars, just waiting for her. She enshrouded these clusters in her magenta magic, and with a divine flare of her horn, she teleported them all to her. FLASH! Where there had once been empty space, there were now thousands upon thousands of scintillating galaxies. They circled soundlessly around Twilight, magnificent in size and grandeur. She was awestruck at their variation and intricacy. More than half of them were bigger than her, and she could feel their gravitational pulls warring with each other, fighting to see who’d become the new center. Twilight snickered. She decided to have some fun with this. Using magic again, she compressed about half of the galaxies down to a manageable size—a mere forty-five hundred light years each. They looked like grapes to her now, succulent, multicolored galactic grapes. She floated a cluster over and popped one into her mouth, rolling it around on her divine tongue. It didn’t have much of a taste, but when she bit down on it, it flooded her mouth sweet, tangy juices. “Ooh!” Twilight let out a happy squee as her tastebuds were blasted with cosmic goodness. She began her intergalactic banquet without further delay, taking two to three galaxies at a time and chewing them up slowly. The combined flavor of hundreds of billions of stars was positively scrumptious, sweet and sour and so very filling, yet despite all she’d eaten, she found herself starving, wanting more, and more, and more! It wasn’t long before a few galaxies at a time wasn’t enough. Twilight moved up to half a dozen, her ‘grapes’ now more like peas. A full dozen was soon nothing at all, and a few minutes later, she was big enough that she could stuff hundreds of galaxies into her maw at a time. Galaxies were now like couscous to her, sweet, tangy, delicious couscous, seeming smaller and smaller by the second. Twilight was buzzing, practically burning with growth. Her focus was entirely on the feast before her, and she barely even noticed how big she was getting. She soon reached one million light years. Then two million light years. Four million. Eight million! Her mouth kept getting bigger along with the rest of her, which meant she could eat that much more at a time. And eating more at a time meant she could grow that much bigger... faster… greater! Twilight could be measured in megaparsecs now; a unit normally reserved for calculating the space between galaxies! But still, she wanted more. The energies of the universe were hers to command, and they fueled her ascension to greater and greater heights. She finally lost all restraint and just funneled the rest of the galaxies of the supercluster into her mouth, almost inhaling them! They flew past her lips at impossible speeds right down her throat, and the result was a HUGE growth spurt a moment later. Twilight hummed and stretched her wings out as far as she could. She watched as her span stretched out farther… father… claiming more and more space for her own. When it was all done, she stood at a whopping twenty-four megaparsecs, or, in smaller units, seventy-eight million light years, or four hundred and fifty-eight quintillion miles... ...but even still, she was a mere speck compared to the rest of the universe. Twilight surveyed the luminous expanse around her, getting a feel for her new surroundings. The neighboring superclusters were banded together in long, sparkling filaments, stretching out like twinkling ribbons for thousands of megaparsecs. Millions of them surrounded her on all sides, each one containing hundreds of galaxy clusters, which in turn contained hundreds of galaxies, tens of trillions of stars, planets, and planetoids. It was at that moment Twilight got a sense of how big she really was. “Wow…” She looked down at her godly form. Her hooves alone were now over fifty times larger than her home galaxy, her rump bigger than the local galactic group. Her body was glowing brighter than a quasar, and her fiery mane and tail stretched out to illuminate the great cosmic voids. Her cutie mark was ablaze with all the colors of the rainbow, and her majestic wings thrummed with raw, immeasurable power. There was no darkness in Twilight’s presence, and combined with her exponentially amplified vision, she was able to see things that she couldn’t before. The Great Attractor was a bend in spacetime that resembled a whirlpool. Afterglows of gamma-ray bursts flashed far off in the distance, circling around themselves in delicate, multicolored rings. It was all magnificent. Even as humongous as Twilight was, in that moment, she didn’t feel like much at all. It really made her think about her place in the grand scheme of things, as well as what she should do with her life— Her stomach grumbled again. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Never happy for long, are you?” She patted her complaining tummy. “Oh well. At least you know what you want... I suppose that’s good enough.” Twilight wasted no more time. She teleported over to the neighboring megacluster, casting her spell again and bringing all the galaxies close to her. She didn’t need to compress them down this time; she just lined them up in an orderly fashion and sucked them all up. They tasted like sweet, juicy pieces of tiny candy, and the warm, tingling flowing through her body that followed each bite only spurred her on to eat more. Soon, that supercluster was digesting in her gut… But still, she was so very hungry. So she teleported off to eat another supercluster... And then another.... And another... And another, and another, and another. When Twilight grew past fifty megaparsecs, she stopped needing to teleport. She could fly through the endless expanse now, gobbling up megaclusters with but a flash of a magic and a few tremendous bites. At one hundred and fifty megaparsecs, those few bites became only one. Twilight didn’t even need magic to gather the galactic groups together now; they were close enough together that she could get all of them by just opening her mouth. The Great Attractor became nothing more than a memory as she scooped it up with her tongue. The Hydra Supercluster was next, followed by the Centaurus, the Hydra-Centaurus, and the Pavo-Indus. She began to make her way down the Sloan Great Wall, gobbling up the twinkling filament as fast as she could with gusto. Her stomach kept pace with her, digesting all that was put before it, making her grow astronomically every second. Five hundred megaparsecs. A puny size. She finished off the Sloan Great Wall and went for the next galaxy filament, and the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that! She was eating thousands of megaclusters at a time now, and the universe was becoming a smaller and smaller place to her. Twilight surged to the size of a gigaparsec. Still not enough. She grew even faster, devouring quasars, supermassive black holes, and plumes of free-floating gases all at once. Two gigaparsecs was barely a notch on her belt. Four was only notable because it meant she could eat multiple galaxy filaments. Their scrumptious tastes blended together on her tongue like a divine ambrosia, and each bite better than the last. Twilight kept right on growing. Eight gigaparsecs, then sixteen. Faster and faster she grew, lost in her feasting of galaxy filaments. Thirty-two gigaparsecs, and from there… the size of the observable universe. But Twilight could now see that there was much more beyond that. She’d barely made a dent in the filaments, millions of them still around her in all directions. They stretched out like strands of fine webbing, with her the center of it all.  Twilight couldn’t stop herself anymore. She wanted to eat it all, right NOW. With her magic, she gathered all the threads together, piling them all before her like a squiggly mess of multicolored pasta. Greedily, she pounced on her meal, cramming as much of it into her mouth as she could at a time. She used her hooves to sloppily stuff her face, her lips smacking, gobbling up everything as fast as she could. Her belly gurgled loudly and noisily as she devoured the universe. The energy flowed through her ceaselessly, empowering her to greater and greater heights. First she grew in spurts of a dozen gigaparsecs, but soon it was fifty, then over a hundred! She wanted everything! She would have everything! Her meal slowly shrank before her, the filaments looking less like noodles and more like wisps, but still she pressed on, eating them all that much faster as she ate more, and more! “Ahhhh...” Twilight ate the last bits of filament with a satisfied burp. She stretched out with her magic to see if there was anything left that she’d missed, but it seemed that she’d gotten it all. She eaten every little bit of baryonic matter in the universe, and now, there was nothing left but her. She had done it. She couldn’t believe it, but she had indeed eaten the whole thing. The universe was now a stark, bright white, illuminated by Twilight’s body, mane, and tail. The boundaries of the universe—for indeed there were boundaries—were filmy and opaque, and had a thinness to them like a fragile membrane. She hung alone gracefully in this white space, content and full at last, and now that she’d everything, she felt like taking a good long— She was interrupted by a familiar gurgling. “Oh, come on!” Twilight threw up her two hundred gigaparsec-long hooves. “I can’t still be hungry! There’s nothing left! I’m floating in nothingness, here!” But she realized with a start that that wasn’t true. Now that she’d lit up the universe, she could see that there was something left—a strange, translucent fluid, cool to the touch and pressing in all around her. It was almost gelatinous, really, and there was a heaviness to it that immediately fascinated Twilight. “Huh…” Twilight prodded and poked at the now-visible aether. “What do you know? I guess dark fluid theory is right, after all.” Twilight drank down some of the syrupy fluid. It didn’t have much of a taste, which would explain why she hadn’t noticed its presence before. But its viscosity was something else entirely. It was thick and gooey like a milkshake, and after swishing it around a bit on her tongue, she could detect the slightest hint of sweetness to it. It was actually quite a refreshing change after eating nothing but stars for so long. And considering that baryonic matter only made up ten percent of the universe, Twilight realized she wasn’t quite done just yet. “Heh… I was getting thirsty, anyways.” It was almost like when she was swimming in the mantle of her home planet. Twilight simply swam forward with her mouth wide open, the rich liquid cascading unimpeded down her gullet. Her body shone even brighter as she swelled bigger and bigger, filling up the remaining space in the universe. She grew to her first teraparsec, but still, she didn’t flag. One teraparsec became two, her growth per second only accelerating. Twilight just kept getting larger without stopping. However, as she reached the size of eight teraparsecs, she found herself getting a bit cramped for room. She’d been accidentally bumping into the boundaries of the universe now and again, but now, she couldn’t really turn around anymore. Her horn was brushing against one boundary of the universe while her flank was pressed up against the other, and the pressure was starting to build around her. “Hrmph.” Twilight let out a frustrated grunt. Her hooves were curled up into her barrel, and she couldn’t stretch her wings at all. “Could use a little more space, here—ouch!” She’d abruptly grown a few hundred more gigaparsecs. Great. Now she was completely squeezed into a ball. Twilight twisted and thrashed, but it wasn’t quite enough to break down the universe’s walls. She could feel another growth spurt coming, too, so she knew she needed to think fast. Twilight probed at the universe’s boundaries with her magic. They were solid, but they had a bit of give to them. She focused her godly power, and the entire boundary glowed with her deep pink hue. She pulled, hard, and with a ripping, tearing sound, Twilight rent a hole in reality itself. RIIIIIIIIP! She kept pulling, the boundaries peeling back like a stage curtain. She wiggled herself free and extricated herself, just as the growth spurt hit. When it was over, Twilight loomed over the remnants of her universe, now crumpled like a piece of stretchy fabric. “Well,” Twilight said mildly. “That happened.” Twilight picked up the torn boundaries of reality, munching away at them as she examined the new place she’d arrived in. She was in a new kind of void, one that felt so charged with energy that it made her skin prickle. It had an alien tone to it, as well—a mix of blue and gray. Twilight tried to process what’d just happened. She failed. So instead, she focused her attention on some strange sparks of light she’d noticed, twinkling enticingly off in the distance. Intrigued, Twilight teleported over to the closest one, not having the slightest idea what she might find. FLASH! The object was a transparent sphere of light about half her size. It was awash with dancing, beautiful colors that reflected off her enormous, blazing eyes. She could just barely make out shapes within the sphere, and while it was hard to tell due to them being so small, they almost looked like fine strands of material, reminiscent of a spider’s web— Twilight felt a chill. “Oh…” Twilight circled around the new universe a few times, taking in its size and dimensions. She couldn’t make out the specifics of what was within, but she imagined she was seeing was more of what she’d just emerged from. If that was the case, then it probably behaved the same, and more importantly, might even taste the same... Twilight poked the universe with her muzzle. The walls resisted, like the previous ones had. It looked like she was going to have trouble getting in there, but that wasn’t exactly what she wanted to do. More like the opposite! She licked at the outside of the universe a few times, testing its taste and texture. It didn’t taste much like anything. Twilight figured she may as well give it a shot. She focused her magic, pulling on the new universe’s boundaries. A few seconds later, a mighty tear formed that split the whole thing in half. CRACK! The contents of the universe spilled out into the void, splattering Twilight’s face. “Ack!” She recoiled, furiously rubbing her nose. The glittering globs of mass slowly drifted away, dispersing out into the new space. “Oh, no you don’t.” Twilight horn flared to life, and the floating blobs stopped. She put them back together, then reformed her telekinesis into a giant drinking glass. “Bottoms up!” She brought the magical construct to her lips, drinking down the contents of the new universe. This one was thick as well, but also frothy and foamy with a hint of fruity tang. Her stomach rumbled its approval and digested the new food without pause, making Twilight grow more with each thirsty gulp. By the time she was done, she’d grown to fifteen teraparsecs. Twilight licked a few hundred stray galaxy filaments off her arm, turning her gaze to the spheres of light off in the distance. There were a considerable amount of them, almost as many stars as there’d been in her universe! Maybe even more! And if each one of those bits of light really was a whole universe... Twilight moved to the next point of light. Sure enough, it was another universe. She didn’t experiment with this one, she just cracked it open like an egg and swallowed its contents. She then went to the next one and ate that too, continuing the process until she was big enough to fit a whole one in her mouth. Twilight fit the glowing sphere in her mouth carefully, her jaw creaking with the effort. She then bit down on the rubbery lining, and with a loud POP, the whole thing burst pleasantly in her mouth. It was quite a mouthful, almost more than she could handle! It took a few swallows to get it all down, but get it all down she did, the alien universe becoming just another part of her. Twilight grew faster and faster as she ate her way through the multiverse, gaining impossible amounts of new mass and weight from the shining spheres. She broke one hundred teraparsecs, each universe now less than a mouthful to her. At two hundred teraparsecs, she could eat half a dozen at a time. A half a dozen universes! And still, Twilight didn’t stop. At five hundred, she could eat several dozen universes, enjoying the feel of them all snapping and popping as she crunched down on them. The more and more universes Twilight ate, the more there seemed to be. There were so many, in fact, that she didn’t even need to move to eat more of them anymore! They just kept appearing all around her, seemingly winking into existence, and by the time she’d grown to a petaparsec, they looked like wisps of fog. Twilight had finally found a place that was seemingly infinite. Here, she could eat and grow to her stomach’s and heart’s content. She feasted and feasted until she was a thousand times larger, but even at an exaparsec, she still wasn’t full. Nor had she run out of food. “Twilight…” Another thousand times larger, now grown to a zettaparsec. She couldn’t even taste the spheres of light anymore, and hadn’t been able to for quite some time. She just floated through the ocean of universes, her mouth open wide as she sucked up the microbial morsels. “Twilight?” Still another thousand times, but even a yottaparsec wasn’t enough. She was now to a universe what her home sun had been to a pony. She was constantly tasting slurping down countless quantities of mass, their combined tastes were both delicious and robust. Fresh and unique flavors were always on her tongue, and it was almost enough to keep her satisfied. Almost. The multiverse kept stretching on into infinity, and Twilight kept right on floating through it, eating and growing and eating and growing and... “Twilight! C’mon! It’s time to get up!” <(*_*<)  ^(*_*)^  (> *_*)> “Mmh…” Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. She was in her comfy bed, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon. The Undrae gem was still on her brow, and amusingly, her pillow was damp from drool. Spike’s voice floated up from downstairs. “I’ve got your breakfast ready! You’ve gotta hurry! Rarity will be here in fifteen minutes!” Twilight made a noise of disgust. She hated getting up this early, let alone having to go outside and go jogging! How anypony actually enjoyed undergoing this kind of torture would forever be a mystery to her. “Uhhghghghh… coming…” Twilight reluctantly left her blanket’s warm embrace and staggered towards the door. She put the Undrae gem on her nightstand, then went downstairs and entered the kitchen. Spike beamed at her as he tended to a steaming pot on the stove. “Morning, morning, morning! Your breakfast’s on the table. How’d ya sleep?” Twilight yawned and slumped into her normal dining room chair. “M’was good... had a nice dream.” “Hey, me too!” Spike said. “I dreamt that I was a superhero that could phase through walls and communicate with animals! I fought a giant evil toaster that was going to destroy the city!” “That’s nice,” Twilight said, her eyelids still fighting to stay open. “I’ll bet you enjoyed saving the day.” “Heck yeah, I did!” Spike swung his spatula around like it was a sword. “No monster is a match for the handsome and courageous Super-Spike!” Twilight snickered. “My hero.” Spike looked over at her. “What was yours about?” Twilight blinked. For the briefest of moments, the memory of flying through the cosmos flashed before her eyes, accompanied by the taste of a black hole. “Uhhh… books!” she said quickly. “Yep. All about books! Reading them, organizing them, writing them, eat—er, editorializing them, stuff like that.” Spike stared at her for a few seconds, then shook his head slowly and sighed. “Shoulda figured… shoulda figured. All right, well, you’d better hurry up and eat. Rarity will be here soon.” Happy that she’d dodged the bullet, Twilight looked down at the food on her plate and found that Spike had made... Oatmeal. Nasty, bland, gloppy oatmeal. Twilight’s head hit the table with a thunk. “I wanna go back to bed.” The End