Sunburst didn't wake so much as drift into something resembling consciousness.

He groaned, his forehead wrinkling as he felt his thoughts emerge from their sluggish mire. His eyelids trembled, flecks of sleep sticking them shut. With a bleary yawn, he let them open, soft, golden light filtering through as his legs stretched out around him.

One of his legs brushed up against something big- something warm. Blinking drowsily, Sunburst glanced up at the strange, golden mountain rising above him with a nonplussed look. What on earth was that enormous, round bulge? Why was it on top of him? And why did it—he—feel so heavy?

The shape beside him shifted, and he felt a lighter weight push across his torso. As the great "mountain" jiggled and squished beneath an out-of-sight touch, Sunburst's mind began to catch up to speed, his mental gears throwing off their cobwebs as the memories of last night rushed back to him. The food—all of that good. He could nearly moan at the memory of it. But there had been something else—somepony else, hadn't there? Smacking his lips blearily, Sunburst grunted, heaved his neck upward, and remembered: Flurry.

The weight on his gargantuan stomach shifted, and he jolted upright.

"Oh, my gosh." Sunburst scrambled for the covers, making to pull them over himself—and then realized, just as they were halfway over his low-hanging gut, that the shape beside him was also beneath them. "Oh, my stars. Oh, no no no no no."

The shape beside him stirred. Rustling softly, Flurry Heart's pink-red tresses poked up from under the sheet as she turned over on the pillow. She yawned again, then slowly opened her eyes. There was a small smile on her face. "G'morning," she mumbled sleepily, and turned her smile up to him. She noticed the look of horror on his face a beat later.

The mattress creaked as Flurry pushed herself upright. "Whoa," she said quickly. Her hooves flew up into the air. "I am so sorry. I—"

Was that it? Was he about to be fired, jailed, exiled? Sunburst's mouth worked soundlessly, a series of choking sounds fighting their way up his throat as he struggled to keep his lungs from running out of his chest. "You—we didn't—"

"No!" Flurry shook her head rapidly. "No, no! We didn't." She gave him a crooked, guilty smile. "Really. You don't have to worry about that."

Sunburst groaned in relief. Sighing, he flopped back against his bed's headboard, though the impact of his great weight sent the whole bed shuddering and creaking in complaint. As his great belly ceased its own jiggling, he pushed both hooves up around its sides and took in a breath, very carefully not meeting his student's eyes.

"So," he said carefully, "I didn't, ah—take advantage?"

"No," Flurry said. "You're good there."

"Ah," he said. "Excellent."

There was a moment of silence between them. Then:

"What did happen last night?" Sunburst finally asked.

Flurry coughed into a hoof. "Oh. Um. Well, you kind of went nuts after I brought the cake out. Really getting into it, y'know." She offered him a sheepish grin, and he saw a blush flash across her cheeks. "Kind of awe-inspiring, really."

"Lovely," he said. "I don't remember a damned thing about it."

"Oh, well, you kind of fell into this kind of food coma at some point," she said. "Once you couldn't take any more, and you asked me to start feeding you—"

"—feeding me?"

Blushing madly, she continued, "—and then your chair sort of broke—"

He very nearly choked.

"—and I knew I couldn't just leave you there, so I used my magic to carry you up here, but by then it was really late, and my rooms are all the way across the palace, and I was really tired from carrying you, and you just looked so soft and warm..."

Flurry let out a quiet "eep!" when Sunburst's gaze turned onto her. She stared down at the sheets, curling the hem in her hoof.

"I—I really shouldn't have," she blurted. "I understand if you hate me forever or anything. I should—I should just go."

She made to get up. Sunburst held up a hoof. Flurry froze.

"You...fed me?" Sunburst couldn't tell if he felt horrified or horribly, terribly amused.

"Um," Flurry said. "Yes?"

"This was after the, ah..." He searched his thoughts, scratching the back of his neck. “Belly...rubs?”

They stared at each other for another moment, blinking. Sunburst felt something rising in his chest.

“Um...yes?”

“Hah!” Sunburst wheezed with laughter, chuckling, every inch of his big, pudgy body shaking in time with his guffaws. Flurry stared at him with her mouth agape, watching with obvious befuddlement as the fat unicorn bounced and snickered in his bed.

“I’m sorry,” Sunburst gasped, finally coming down with a final few giggles. His plump cheeks dimpled as he turned to face her. “It’s just—well, this is certainly not a situation I would have envisioned myself in a week ago, let alone six months prior.”

“Oh.” She cracked a hesitant smile at that. “I guess not.”

“Most certainly not,” he corrected her. “But in any case…”

He turned to his other side, groped for his glasses. All of a sudden, there was a weight on his face, right over the bridge of his nose. Blinking, Sunburst watched the bedroom come into view around him, his vision focusing as Flurry’s bright pink magic faded from his spectacles.

“Sorry,” she said, nervously. “I wasn’t sure where to put them.”

“That’s quite alright,” he said. Sunburst telekinetically adjusted his glasses, sliding them a half-centimeter down his muzzle until the room came into perfect focus. He cleared his throat, then gave Flurry a small, sad little smile.

“So,” he said. “You really are into...all of this.” He shuffled his shoulders against the headboard and gestured down to his great, wobbling gut. It stuck up over the rest of him by a good two feet, acres of soft, pliable fat arching above the rest of his pudgy form. It was, he had to admit, legitimately impressive.

Flurry bit her lip. “I think it suits you,” she said, after a long pause.

“Oh?” Sunburst said. He took it in both hooves, and shook it. It wobbled and rippled like a gelatinous mass; he froze, then belched as the contents of last night’s feast sloshed around in it. Flushing, he shoved a hoof over his mouth to cover it. “Oops.”

Flurry only giggled.

Chuckling himself, Sunburst let his hoof fall. “Carefully, now,” he said. “You’ll leave me thinking that it suits me, too.”

“Really?”

“I’ve never felt particularly attractive, I must admit,” he said. Shrugging, he added, “Perhaps an overly personal thing to admit to one’s student, but it is nice to be aware of at least one, ah, appealing feature.”

“Oh, really?” she said. Something in her eyes glittered. “Actually—“

“Let’s skip the part where you attempt to dance around your confession from last night,” Sunburst said. He gave her a sheepish grin, and chuckled at the redness of her cheeks. “You were about to evasively ask me if there might be anything more to it.”

“Was it really that obvious?”

“I’m an academic, Princess,” he said, smirking. “Not an idiot.”

She snorted. “Well. Then yes, I suppose I was.”

“At least you’re honest about it.” Grunting, Sunburst heaved himself to face her; at his girth and weight, doing so was no easy task. The mattress shook again beneath them as his great, soft flanks spread across it. “And to answer your question—I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, to entertain the idea now would be highly inappropriate,” he said, regarding her evenly. When she wilted at his words, though, he coughed, and added, “Though that’s not to say you aren’t a beautiful mare. You’ve inherited your mother’s looks, your father’s confidence, and the intelligence of your aunt.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Any stallion would be a fool to ignore that.”

She flushed deeper. Feeling more confident than he ever had been, Sunburst barrelled on.

“But”—he saw her cringe at the word—“the fact remains that you are underage, and my student.” He pushed his glasses back up his nose, licked his lips. “So long as you are under eighteen, and under my care, I absolutely wouldn’t even consider the idea.”

“Oh,” she said. It was such a small word, really, and yet so very, very heavy. After a moment, though, she brightened.

“Wait,” Flurry said. “‘So long as’—but what about after?”

There it was. “After what?” he said innocently. “After you reach your age of majority—after you graduate from my tutelage?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Why, then I’d just be a citizen of the Empire, and you, its newly-crowned heir.” A smile touched his lips. “While I’m sure there could still be some measure of awkwardness, there certainly wouldn’t be any danger of impropriety…”

“That...makes sense.” Flurry smiled at him; chuckling, Sunburst smiled back. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was forgetting something, though. She sighed. “But I do have to wait.”

“All ponies have to wait, Princess,” he said. “And I can’t promise anything.” He shrugged again. “But...the chance would be available, yes.”

“That’s all I need,” she said. Then, somewhat more shyly, she said, “And the belly rubs?”

“What about them?” he asked. Then it hit him. “Oh, you naughty mare. No—while I’m afraid I enjoyed our ‘snack’ last night greatly, that kind of...intimate setting is best avoided for now. Although,” he added thoughtfully, “I would be happy to continue taking lunch in the kitchens with my student.” He gave her a wink, and patted his belly. “A free ticket to that kind of cooking is never unappreciated.”

She giggled. “Alright, then,” she said. “Orders understood.”

“Is that fair?”

“Absolutely.” For a second, she sat a little straighter, and he caught a glimpse of the mare she would be—that she was becoming—in the glint of her eyes. Then she relaxed, and the smile returned to her face. “But in the meantime…”

She darted forward; before he could avoid it, she’d planted a kiss on his cheek. It was a chaste one—completely innocent; the kind that a niece might give an uncle, or a thankful student to a long-time mentor...but it left Sunburst blushing and sputtering all the same.

“I, uh—“

“A promise,” Flurry said. She grinned. “For the chance, at least.”

“For the chance,” he echoed, and smiled in return.

They sat there for a moment more. This time, though, the silence was comfortable—familiar, really. And then…

There came a knock on the door.

Sunburst frowned. Flurry blinked.

“Sunburst?” Shining Armor’s deep voice floated through the door. “Are you awake?”

Sunburst paled. Oh, fiddlesticks. He knew he’d forgotten something.

“Have you seen Flurry Heart at all today?” Shining rapped on the door again, and Sunburst flinched. “She wasn’t in her room, and I was wondering if she might have come to turn in an assignment or something.”

Slowly, Sunburst and Flurry turned to face one another. Their eyes met. Flurry gulped audibly. Sunburst just trembled.

Oh, dear.