That Bloated Feeling
Rarity yawned and rubbed her eyes. What an odd little dream, she thought to herself, blinking a few times to clear her vision. It had indeed been odd – apparently she’d managed to stuff a marshmallow the size of her head right down her throat with no trouble. Rarity glanced about, half-expecting her pillow to be gone, if she remembered the cliché correctly. Still there, she thought as she found her pillow under her head and very much not in her stomach. Still, she felt awfully bloated, and found it surprisingly difficult to get up from her bed. She brushed it aside as leftover sensations from her dream, trotting off to her kitchen to make some breakfast.
“Sweetie Belle?” Rarity called out. Her sister had come to visit for a few days, and she simply wouldn’t forgive herself if she didn’t make a good breakfast for the little filly. “Anything you want for breakfast, darling?”
No response.
“Sweetie Belle, are you hiding?” said Rarity, rolling her eyes. “I’m not that bad a cook; I only burned the milk that one time!”
Still no response.
“Ugh, what insolence,” Rarity grumbled. “I’m going to make hay hash! You don’t get to complain if you don’t like it!”
“Mmmph, mmmph,” a voice mumbled.
The alabaster unicorn looked about confusedly. “Sweetie Belle?” she called out again, worry creeping into her voice. “Where are you?”
“Mmmmph!” the voice continued, sounding panicked.
Rarity’s eyes darted about, heart beginning to race. “Sweetie Belle, this isn’t funny!” she whined, half-galloping around the room frantically. If only this bloat in her belly would go away…
The unicorn stopped in her tracks, eyes wide. Slowly, she leaned her head down to look between her forelegs. There, she found the source of her discomfort: her belly was literally bloated, distended and dangling like an overfull sack! Rarity lifted a hoof to prod tentatively at her heavy gut, her jaw hanging open. Whatever was in there felt rather firm, with an irregular shape to it. And it moved! Rarity gagged a little as she felt the lumpy mass stir about weakly, inadvertently torturing her already strained stomach. How did something this big fit down her throat, anyway? Why, this thing had to be about the size of–
“S-Sweetie Belle?” Rarity whispered to her belly. “Is… is that you?”
“Mmph mmph!” the belly squealed back, louder this time, squirming about more forcefully. Even through all that flesh and muscle, there was no mistaking that voice.
Rarity’s breaths turned shallow, and her heart leapt into her throat. Stay calm, stay calm, she tried to tell herself. Her horn glowed brightly as she tried to grab onto Sweetie Belle’s wriggling form and drag her back up her gullet. “Hold still, Sweetie!” she choked, “I’ll get you out!” Alas, Rarity’s own body betrayed her every heave and pull, her stomach remaining tightly shut around its captive. “Please please please let her go,” Rarity sobbed to her squealing, thrashing gut. Said gut disobeyed her, instead rippling about in an ominous gurgle.
“Sis! Please!” Sweetie Belle cried, loud enough for Rarity to make out the words.
Rarity practically crashed through the door of the Carousel Boutique, racing through Ponyville’s streets despite her added weight. “Everypony out of the way I swallowed my sister out of my way!” she wailed at the top of her lungs. It didn’t matter that everypony was staring at her like she’d gone mad, or that they were pointing hooves at her strangely distended belly. Her sister’s life hung in the balance, and there was only one pony in town who could help!
***
Twilight Sparkle was hoping to sleep in today. Three nights in a row of organizing and reorganizing books had left her completely drained. I can’t even pull all-nighters properly. How am I supposed to be a princess like this? she thought with grim amusement. But now was not the time for doubts; the alicorn needed sleep.
BANG BANG BANG
Or not.
“Twilight open up it’s Rarity I have an extremely urgent problem of the utmost urgency that requires your urgent attention! Urgently!”
Twilight trudged over to the door, creaking it open to find Rarity hyperventilating on the other side. “Is this really that urgent?” she mumbled, rubbing her baggy eyes.
“Absolutely without a doubt it’s the most urgent problem in the history of urgency!”
“Well, come in,” Twilight yawned, stepping aside for Rarity. The white unicorn barrelled into the room, prancing about in a panic.
“You won’t believe what I’ve done it’s the most awful thing ever!” Rarity wailed, flopping onto her side on the floor. “I’ve swallowed my poor sister! Gobbled her up in my sleep like she was a petite pastry!” Rarity sprawled out to show Twilight her bulging, squirming belly.
“Twlmphmph? Hlph mff!” Sweetie Belle cried from her sister’s confines.
Twilight was definitely awake now, cupping her hooves to her mouth in horror. “Oh Celestia,” she whispered, carefully approaching the hysterical unicorn. “Ok, Rarity, I think I can get your sister out, but you need to calm down. Can you do that?”
“Calm down?” Rarity asked incredulously. “Calm down?! In case you haven’t heard, my sister is trapped in my stomach! She could be digested at any moment! Turned into mush!”
“She’ll definitely turn to mush if you don’t calm down and let me help you!” Twilight shot back, quickly facehoofing when she saw Rarity only became more dramatic at her statement.
“Oh, Sweetie Belle! You were taken from us too soon, undeserving of such an acidic fate!” Rarity continued to wail, tears streaming down her face.
“Oh for the love of–” Twilight grumbled. “Rarity, I’m really sorry about this, but…” the alicorn took aim with her horn and blasted Rarity with a stunning spell. In a brief magenta flash, the unicorn lay unconscious on her side, immobile save for her writhing stomach. “Ok, Twilight,” Twilight said to herself, “now for the hard part.” The alicorn charged her horn with another spell and touched her forehooves to the appendage, the glow distributing itself onto each hoof. She then pressed each hoof into the ground – literally; they passed through the floor without incident! She pressed again, the hooves making contact with solid ground again. Satisfied with her hooves’ selective intangibility, Twilight trotted up close to Rarity’s belly, focusing on its prisoner intently.
<Sweetie Belle,> Twilight called out telepathically, <can you hear me?>
<T-Twilight? Yeah, I can hear you,> Sweetie Belle’s thoughts sniffled back.
<Ok, Sweetie Belle, listen carefully: you’re going to see a pair of hooves pass through into your sister’s stomach. Don’t panic; just grab onto them and concentrate as hard as you can on holding on. Can you do that for me?>
<I, sniff, I think so,> thought Sweetie Belle. <Please hurry. My eyes are starting to hurt…>
Twilight bit her lip as she pressed her hooves into Rarity’s belly, steadily working her way through layers of skin, fat, and muscle to enter Sweetie Belle’s prison. An agonizing few seconds passed by as Twilight waited, until she could feel two itty-bitty forelegs grasping her hooves tightly. <Ok, here we go!> she thought to Sweetie Belle, before heaving the filly up through Rarity’s flesh. Slowly, Sweetie Belle’s head emerged, her mane matted with slime and her eyes puffy and red. As Twilight pulled, Sweetie Belle’s upper torso also sprouted from her sister’s body.
“Twilight,” Sweetie Belle coughed, looking around blearily. “Ohmigosh, Twilight!” she squealed upon catching sight of her unconscious sister, and the fact that she was now sticking out partway from her body. Twilight let out a grunt as her progress slowed, Sweetie Belle starting to re-solidify as her concentration broke.
“No! Sweetie Belle! Stay focused on me! Don’t pay attention to anything else, just me!”
“I’m focused, I’m focused!” Sweetie Belle whined, quickly regaining her concentration – and in turn, her intangibility. With a few more heaves from Twilight, Sweetie Belle phased entirely out of Rarity’s body and into Twilight’s grasp. She coughed and sputtered, gasping at the sweet, cool air, but was in seemingly good condition otherwise. Aside from the coating of slime suffused through her pelt, of course.
“That’s it! That’s it, you’re home free,” said Twilight, patting Sweetie Belle on the back.
“My, my throat hurts,” the filly croaked. “How did I, ugh…”
“Shh, shh, don’t talk too much. Let your throat rest.”
“Ow, my head,” Rarity mumbled as she regained consciousness. “Twilight, was that really nece–” she stopped, poking at her now-vacant belly, and then catching sight of Sweetie Belle in Twilight’s forelegs.
“Yeah, it was kind of necessary,” said Twilight with a wry grin. “Anyway, I think I have something that belongs to you.” The alicorn diligently floated Sweetie Belle over to Rarity in a magenta aura.
“Morning, sis,” Sweetie Belle wheezed, smiling weakly.
Rarity sat dumbfounded for a second, gingerly raising her own forelegs to take Sweetie Belle into a gentle hug. A fresh tear rolled down her cheek as she stroked the filly’s mane. “Oh, Sweetie Belle,” she whispered, “my darling, darling Sweetie Belle… You smell atrocious.”
“It’s your tummy,” Sweetie Belle said with a snicker.
“Yes, yes I suppose it is,” Rarity sighed. “Now, let’s get you to a doctor, make sure you’re ok.”
“Ok, sis.”