The less said about what AJ and Zecora have done to Bronze the past several days the better. But as a hint, it involved bullwhips, lots of rope, some enhancement potions for his stamina, and being subjected to impulsively gorging on older apples about to be made into preserves so he was helpless to resist sometimes. And now he was paying the price….

“I’m fa-ha-ha-ha~t!” Bronze wept to Rarity, Twilight and Trixie at Rarity’s boutique after telling them his woes. The three were actually spending the day together and were planning to go pick up Fluttershy soon for a spa date. “They won’t stop feeding me! I can’t resist AJ’s apples and Zecora’s potions are doing weird things to me! LOOK!” Bronze turned to the side and jumped his rear legs a bit, the mares blushing at how much his once-toned plot jiggled. “They’ve gone insane! They won’t leave me and my sexy tongue alone~!”

“W-well dear, I will be the first to admit that this is quite unfair to you, but consider it from their perspective. You’re essentially an embodiment of some of their strongest fantasies. So they’ve clearly had a lapse in judgement. You need to sit them down and remind them that you’re their special somepony, not just a stud to use and abuse.” Rarity said as she bit her lip, Bronze had gotten a bit pudgy, sure, but whatever Zecora was doing, he was now taller than her and the other mares and his wingspan was larger.

“Yes, and if you can’t convince them to cut back on indulging in, well, you, then I’ll organize an intervention. I don’t want your health to take a downturn just because your special someponies realized you could eat them out like a machine.” Twilight said, getting a bonk on the head from a faintly blushing Trixie. “Oh, sorry, that was inappropriate.”

“But it’s true though. Thanks girls. I’ll try to draw AJ away from her orchard so she can’t ambush me with succulent apple pulp or splash juice on me to get me going. It’ll be tougher to get Zecora away from her hut so she can’t shove potions in my face and flutter her gorgeous aqua eyes to get me to go along with it.” Bronze grumbled as he turned to head out, all three mares staring after his jiggly, but still oddly tight, plot.

“...Trixie is simultaneously disgusted by his plight...yet incredibly turned on by dat plot.” Trixie admitted as she summoned illusionary sunglasses and bit her lip, getting embarrassed agreements from the other two unicorns, who then laughed at catching the reference. The Internet was funny.

[@]

“Okay, how can I get them away from their sanctuaries of pleasure-slash-torment?” Bronze mumbled as he trudged to his usual meeting place with Bulk, considering his marefriends more-or-less monopolized his time so heavily the past week that he hadn’t been able to work out with him, Dash, or Gilda, and was barely even able to make time to pick up Vivian who was starting to get comfortable getting around on her own, so he wouldn’t have that excuse to get away from being ambushed by his silly smexy marefriends soon.

Then there was Mane-iac, who was starting to recover enough to actually try going out in public without a chaperone, but she needed somepony to encourage her at first and take baby-steps from there, and beings he had been the one to put her up someplace, Bronze felt it only reasonable he do that for her too, but he had to get his mares off his flanks long enough to do it.

“BRONZE!” Bronze flinched at Bulk’s emphatic shout as he came within view of their weight-training area by Whitetail Woods. “YOU’VE BEEN SLACKING BRO!”

“I know Bulk, and dang do I regret it, even if it was enjoyable.” Bronze sighed as he poked his bloated barrel. “So, let’s get to it. I’m going to double-up my cardio but I still wanna work on my muscles to help get some of my tone back.”

“YEAH~! GET ON THE BENCH!” Bulk cheered as Bronze rushed over to the overly muscular pegasus’s bench press, and Bulk got into spotting position just as Bronze began benching a respectable 75 pounds. “YEAH~! PUMP IT!” It might not be much to almost any pony, but Bulk was earnest in easing Bronze up the scale as his health improved. “Hm...you seem to need; MORE WEIGHT!” Bronze let the bar rest on it’s stand, and Bulk quickly added on another five pounds, but when Bronze just kept going, Bulk quirked his head thoughtfully. “MORE WEIGHT!”

Bronze was perplexed, it seemed that no matter how much weight Bulk put on the bar, Bronze could lift it just fine. ‘What the hell? Why am I...Zecora! You sly evil enchantress!’ “Bulk. I think-.”

“ZEBRA SHENANIGANS!” Bulk shouted, making Bronze cringe, but the alicorn was surprised to see the pegasus grinning. “Zebra stamina boosters and muscle enhancers. All natural, all benefit without nasty side-effects beyond retaining fat easier, and a boosted libido.” Bronze blushed at Bulk’s knowing grin. “It’s alright bro. Zebra remedies are known to be the best on the market, and there’s no shame with taking a safe health booster. I would’ve had some myself if I hadn’t already had a natural Talent for getting HUGE!” Bulk boasted with pride as he flexed his whole body.

“Well, I don’t know what to do then. Are there any exercises I can do to find my limit?” Bronze asked, and Bulk shook his head.

“Nah bro, there’s no equipment I got that can test that out. In all reality, considering your genes and how many your mare might’ve been making you chug, you might just be as physically strong as me, or as powerful as Princess Celestia for all I know.” Bulk shrugged, making Bronze wilt. “Hey bro, you can still come and lift with me if you want, you just don’t have to so often now. But now if you want a massage, you’ll have to put in an appointment with Aloe and Lotus first.” Bulk grinned, and they bumped hooves. “You go on and get in your cardio with the girls.”

“Thanks Bulk, you were an exceptional personal trainer and you’re a great friend. How about you, I, and Big Mac all go for a night on the town sometime?” Bronze asked, getting an emphatic-

“YEAH~!” Bulk agreed, before getting on the incredibly heavy 250 pound bar that Bronze had been at and began pumping it with ease. “SEE YA LATER BRONZE! ONE! TWO! THREE-!” Bronze warped away before he could start laughing at his buddy, figuring the field he usually met Dash and Gilda for his lessons would be a good spot only….

Bronze blinked. “Why is Dash making a rainbow tornado? I thought her Wonderbolt practice was in the morning before work….” Bronze mused aloud as he cluelessly watched the commotion that oddly included his other friends, until Pinkie Pie ran into the mess from someplace, promptly lost a couple of cymbals to the tornado, and the thing fell apart with Rainbow being thrown head-over-hoof through the air along with what looked like innumerable randomly colored balls, but he swapped her with the air just above the ground before she could pick up more momentum, and she crashed into him with an ‘oof’, sending them tumbling with her ending up on top of him. “Dash. We need to stop meeting like this.”

“Ow, yeah. You’re a nice landing pad colt, but I don’t wanna break something cuz dang. Whatever you’ve been eating, it’s made you really dense.” Rainbow hissed as she pulled away and off of the surprised stallion as she nursed her shoulder. “Buck, it was like I just shoulder-checked a boulder, and I’ve done that before.”

‘What? But how could I...Zecora...I’ve got to demand what she’s been doing to-.’ Bronze’s attention was taken by Applejack yanking Bronze to his hooves, the rest of his friends all gathering around them.

“Bronze! Use yer fancy warp magic to contain them varmints!” Applejack pleaded frantically, getting Bronze to realize the multi-colored balls were actually ball-shaped bugs.

“Sure.” Bronze’s horn began rapidly flashing, and soon all the critters were gathered into a closer area that he then wrapped his dark blue aura around, rapidly drawing them in tighter until compressing them with a sickening squelching crunch that turned the blue orb purple with blood, causing everypony to gawk at the brutal extermination with shock, Bronze included. “WHAT THE FLYING FLOCK?!” Bronze screamed out in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “I wasn’t even trying to do that!”

“Bronze! You just exterminated an entire plague’s worth of pests like it was nothing! I thought you weren’t focusing on your magic studies yet!” Twilight gushed as she teleported up to him, Bronze just now realizing he was still compressing the orb of dead bugs, and let the grisly remains fall to the grass, where Fluttershy promptly hovered over and wept about until Gilda guided her away. The two had surprisingly bonded recently, Bronze had yet to hear about how that happened.

“Twilight, I haven’t! This past week, the only change to my routine has been...um….” Bronze looked to AJ with a fierce blush, and the mare oddly looked...guilty? “AJ...do you know what Zecora’s been coaxing me into drinking?”

“Eenope!” Applejack scrunched her muzzle as her eyes unconvincingly looked everywhere but at him.

“AJ, you’re the worst liar I know besides Rainbow Dash. Spill.” Bronze practically demanded as Pinkie was complaining about something away from the group about ‘ruining her one-pony-band gig’.

“Zecora’s been feedin’ ya special brews that’ll speed-up yer...development….” Applejack blushed fiercely. “Yer just a colt right now she says. Usin’ them hydra glands you helped her get, she was able to figure out with samples of yer hair that usin’ some of her in-progress tonics wouldn’t hurt ya beyond a temporary bit of weight gain.” AJ kicked a hoof at his and Twilight’s gawking, Twilight was taking notes however. “She said ya needed lots of food, so Ah decided to keep gettin’ ya nice and full on older apples...and also so Ah could play with yer belly while it’s all sloshy and soft….”

“So wait. Bronze is rapidly growing, literally both physically and magically, into his potential as an alicorn?” Twilight eagerly needled AJ, who shrugged but nodded. “I’ve got to tell Celestia when she gets here! Soon you’ll be towering over us again Bronze! Maybe even bigger than the Royal Sisters if you’re lucky!”

“...Well...this does kinda explain more than recently too...like why I’ve been eating so much and hardly gaining any weight until this past week. And what was that about auntie?” Bronze asked, only for his sensitive ears to perk and he turned his attention to the sound of flapping wings and saw Celestia’s personal chariot flying in, but change direction towards them upon likely being seen. “Oh, right...she was supposed to be visiting today casually.”

“Is everypony alright?!” Celestia practically screamed as she neared, getting Bronze to flinch. “What caused all this blood? Is anypony hurt?!” Celestia frantically asked as her chariot landed and she jumped out, her hitched guards unhitching and flanking her in the air on alert.

Being the one most calm about the situation, Rarity tried to explain. “The blood is Bronze’s doing Princess. He-.”

“-Slaughtered so many innocent little buggies~! WA~ HA, HA, HA~!” Fluttershy wept, making Bronze shrink in on himself as Celestia blinked in shock at Fluttershy’s uncharacteristic outburst.

“I could’ve ended it without bloodshed, but unfortunately I’m the episode’s Just Ignore It target. FYI, I’m still going to do a one-mare-band. I just need a couple of cymbals and some maracas.” Pinkie pointlessly filled in.

“Princess Celestia. We were just victims of a plague of pests that were eating all of the food in town, and I mean all of it. We tried our best, but the solution came in the form of Prince Bronze Brave when he came into the situation, and unintentionally crushed them all to death with his telekinesis after rounding them up.” Twilight informed her mentor as Bronze tried to hide his larger bulk behind Applejack. “Also thanks to the conjoined efforts of Applejack and Zecora, his growth and overall capabilities have accelerated greatly, so they may have found a way for young alicorns to grow physically and magically into their aspects.”

“Truly?” Celestia asked, clearly impressed at the idea as she looked to Applejack. “I have heard many good things about this Zecora from my sister, beings she was one of the first to befriend her upon her return. Could you take me to this zebra shamaness immediately? As for my visit Twilight, I was originally going to have to cancel due to what seems to be a similar problem in Trottingham, but the local guard forces there have handled it capably. I will need to review the local guard contingent’s performance regarding this matter. As for the moment, take the time to relax or clean up the town if you wish, I was just coming to see how you were all doing anyhow.”

“Thank you Princess. We’ll get to cleaning things up, those bugs made a real mess of things.” Rarity said as she led the still despondent Fluttershy away alongside Gilda. The rest of the group all headed to town as well save Applejack and Bronze.

“Now then. I believe you and this Zecora have much to explain regarding using unsanctioned and possibly untested concoctions on my nephew.” Celestia did a 180, her gaze piercing and demeanor imperious as she glared down at Applejack, the mare and her stallion both cowering even though Bronze wasn’t the target of his aunt’s anger.

[@]

“It’s that simple?” Celestia asked in surprise as she closely examined a milky blue potion that Zecora had calmly offered up. Celestia had immediately forced Applejack and Bronze go lead her to Zecora’s hut, and once there, grilled the completely at-ease zebra about the situation. Zecora was more sheepish than ashamed or worried.

“Indeed Your Majesty, I would not endanger Bronze’s safety. I had been developing this potion with the notion of speeding along my mate’s recovery, but I had also made quite the discovery. It would seem that due to alicorns having such powerful natural regeneration that causes their immortality, that applying hydra’s accelerated regeneration merely coincided with it and increased capability. Come beloved.” Zecora waved the both worried and curious stallion over to her. “Would you allow me to harm you? For demonstration? I can assure you that you will be fine.”

“O-okay Tangy, whatever you say. I trust you.” Bronze said as he held out a hoof, and Zecora bit into him, making him hiss as she used her flat teeth to break the skin and moved away so everypony could see the bleeding injury, and the way it rapidly crusted over and flaked off to reveal no injury within the span of a minute shocked all of them. “Holy buck! I have a healing factor?!”

“That was impressive! I haven’t seen anything like that outside of regeneration spells.” Celestia praised as she used her magic to scan the beaker of potion she had been looking at before. “Hm...the only concerning ingredient is the hydra excretion, but Bronze has been taking this potion daily for a week by now. Any negative effects would’ve made themselves apparent, and the only one I can see is a bit of weight gain. But if this continues, his natural alicorn genetics should end up repurposing the fat due to his metabolism. The only reason I got fat at all was because of centuries of constantly eating cake.” Celestia giggled, only mildly missing her big jiggly plot over her currently svelte and muscular one.

“So we’re not in trouble Princess?” Applejack asked worriedly, getting a snort of amusement out of the pink-maned princess as she shook her head.

“Not at all. In fact. I believe Bronze’s cousin, Cadence, would greatly benefit from this potion as well. Are you capable of producing twice the amount so you can also supply one more alicorn, Zecora?” Celestia asked with a grin, getting the zebra to mirror it with her own beaming grin.

“Princess, I have enough ingredients to supply you and your sister too if you had need of it.” Zecora stated, getting Celestia to start talking business, considering she wasn’t going to force Zecora to produce an ‘alicorn booster’ without at least some compensation.

[@]

“And that’s why I’m bigger so fast Viv.” Bronze finished explaining as he continued to stuff himself with the massive dinner Jeeves had delivered comprised of a mix of vegetables and meats for himself and Vivian to enjoy, while Mane-iac was in the small hall bathroom, soaking in a bath that had a whole bottle of watermelon shampoo dumped in it. The mare’s body actually took nutrition from hair products as ridiculous as it seemed. She could eat normal pony food, sure, but she still needed to have daily baths with a whole bottle of shampoo added to keep her body stable.

“Whoa, so I wasn’t just imagining you getting a little taller over just a few days. Wish I could grow that fast.” Vivian snorted before she dove her beak back into the roasted rabbit she was gleefully stripping the meat off the bones with her talons and beak. “Mm...I’m just so glad to have meat again. Brave Wings was always so secretive about he and I getting meat smuggled into the mansion. Like we were committing a crime, pfft.” Vivian reminisced as she cracked open a bone to suck on the marrow.

“Hey now, don’t be growing up too fast cub. I don’t think I could handle two of us having an appetite this big.” Bronze joked, knowing that was false since Jeeves was mostly raiding the safe storages and underground bunker’s food on Terra for this, and it’d take several years for just him and any others he has over having feasts like this to deplete it, even if the majority were MREs, which made great light meals or snacks.

“Yeah, right. But what about Shampoo?” Vivian asked, getting Bronze to blink at her odd question. “Oh right, you haven’t gotten to talk to her today. Mane-iac finally decided on her name, beings she can’t remember what it used to be before the vat. She decided on Shampoo, considering she loves it so much.”

Bronze suddenly vanished, his scream of ‘NO WO AI NI~!’ echoing through the whole mansion, and shortly after the whole turkey of the meal was gone as well to wherever he was taking shelter, making Vivian roll her eyes at her foster father’s antics.

Author's Notes:

Remember the Hydra?
Remember the Glands?
Well, here's the results.

Bet some of ya thought I forgot Zecora's plans for those things huh?