Patched Scrape looked around at the crowd of ponies. The entirety of the town was sitting, standing, or laying down before her. Of course those laying were at the front, those sitting behind them, and those standing behind those. Despite the oddity of nearly four-fifths of the town being in some way a plant, ponies still upheld harmony and togetherness.

She opened her mouth, ready for the big speech she had planned, but it seemed insufficient. Taking a deep breath Patched Scrape pointed into the middle of the crowd. "Look! An elephant!" A few chuckles ran through the crowd, but more than Patched would have liked actually looked for the suddenly appearing elephant.

"There is a really strange plant growing in the caves just outside town. It is turning anypony who visits there into a plant-pony hybrid. It is—controlling us in subtle ways, but mostly ways that don't require much lifestyle change." Patched looked around. There wasn't shock on anypony's faces, although she saw one colt still looking for the elephant.

"Most of us are pregnant; the plant seems to be quite insistent we have more ponies in the town. Some of us are showing more than the standard pattern of behavior."

Patched Scrape gestured to Night Glider. "Some of us have grown much stronger, better able to protect others."

As Patched spoke, Night Glider built her bark over her body, forming a thick ablative armor. Everything became warmer in this form: Night Glider not only felt hotter temperature wise, but her body ached for her lovers. Patched had explained it was the plant's reward mechanism at work.

"I call this the warrior mutation." Patched Scrape tried to smile with her partner—looking not too unlike a timber wolf—standing beside her. "The next is what I'm calling a gardener. So far only unicorns, and the only thing affected is magic. The—incident last week was Starlight Glimmer coming to terms with that magic."

Starlight Glimmer tried to look as small and innocuous as possible. Patched had asked her to give a demonstration of her new magic, and if the small jungle growing around the town weren't enough then she pointed her horn at a potted tomato seedling. Concentrating as best she could, Starlight let—what was for her—the barest trickle of green magic out.

Patched reached out with her own magic to pluck a ripe tomato from the bush Starlight had grown. "As you can all see this is by no means all bad, but it is different." She used her magic to float the tomato to a colt who was staring at it—he had a horn and wings, all made from plant matter.

"There are others. Feeders, like Fresh Baked, seem to be pegasi who produce a lot of very nutritious milk." Patched Scrape didn't want to explain the other method of carbohydrate delivery with families present. "There is two more types we know of. The most common type being, uh, breeder." She gestured to herself. "Increased drive, ability to, uh, interact—with anypony…

"And the last. I haven't gotten a name for it yet, but you all know Sugar Belle. She—somehow—communicates with the plant, and can understand the words of ponies who have interacted with it just before they say them."

Sugar Belle stepped up and waved to all the ponies present. "Thank you for bearing with us, everypony. The reason for this town meeting is to make sure you all know exactly what's going on, and to offer you all a chance to—well—not become like this."

Plant-pony heads turned to look at friends and family that weren't converted yet. Patched could see most of the remaining ponies looking towards their kin nervously, but there were a few that just smiled. "Anypony who wants to leave, can. I don't think anypony can really stop the plant, but I know it's not that fair to—"

"I'm leaving." Summer Sojourn, a pegasus who hadn't been in town for more than a year, sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, but this just—just isn't my thing."

"Me either."

"Patched, Sugar, I like it here, but this is a bit too much."

More voices expressed the same opinion, and one by one the ponies wanting to leave separated from the main group.

"I'm staying. Short too." Spilled Milk was laying down at the front with her foals, each of which was adorned with plant horn and wings. One thought filled her mind: motherhood.

Short Fuse sat upright just behind his wife. He didn't call out his agreement to her statement—he didn't need to. All his attention was on Spilled and their foals.

"The plant stopped us coughing and hurting!" Curds stomped a little hoof. "It was nice to us!"

Clearing her throat, Sugar Belle got everypony's attention again—even those who had decided to leave. "This is still Our Town, and we're all still members of it. Our Town helps Our Townians, so let's make sure our friends have what they need."

The upbeat nature of Sugar Belle's rallying cry pushed everypony into a slightly melancholy mood. With the elephant asked politely to leave the room, nopony felt alone anymore.

Tight Squeeze was working in the kitchen with Sugar Belle. They weren't alone in the house, however.

Laying on the floor in the living room, Fresh Baked was stretched out on her side with one wing extended. Her limb, of course, hid where the little suction bells were attached to her teats.

Again and again she went to say something, but the utter relaxation of being milked caused her to close her mouth moments before she did. Hearing her former student—who now looked older than she did—working in the kitchen with Tight Squeeze somehow added to Fresh Baked's calm.

"Fresh? Did you want two loaves or four?" Tight Squeeze moved in perfect time with Sugar Belle.

Fresh Baked tried to respond. She opened her mouth to reply, but the machine Stinky Cheese had put together gave a particularly deep suck and stole her breath.

Tight Squeeze's ears twitched. He heard a weak groan from Fresh Baked, but somehow he heard her voice. "Five? Okay!"

Still working, it took Tight a fully minute to realize Sugar Belle had stopped and was looking at him curiously. He could tell, by her smile, there wasn't something actually wrong. "What's the matter?"

"Fresh? Can you tell Tight how many loaves did you get yesterday?" Sugar Belle waited for the tingle in her head again. She could see that Fresh Baked tried to say three, but the mare in the other room didn't actually say it. "How much was that, Tight?"

Confused, Tight Squeeze scuffed a hoof on the floor. "Uh, three. She said—"

Sugar Belle giggled, interrupting Tight. "No she didn't. She didn't say it at all. I felt her think it, but…"

"But then how did I hear her say it?" Setting his work down, Tight Squeeze looked at his wife. "Do you think I'm getting your thing too?"

"You're not getting my thing. I've been getting more hints from the plant, lately, and it might want more of a few specialty types, it is content with just me as, well, this." Using her magic, Sugar Belle reached out and held Tight's mouth closed. "Tell Fresh Baked you're coming in to take the milker off her." She kept her voice quiet, trying to keep her words from Fresh.

Tight Squeeze looked at his wife with a little confusion then tried to talk—she kept his mouth closed. Looking at Sugar, Tight let out a little groan.

"Just do it, please dear?"

Huffing a breath out his nose, Tight Squeeze focused on telling Fresh Baked her time with the milker was up. Not a moment after he tried the senseless exercise than a squeal came from the living room.

Fresh Baked stood, crouched over the milker while it still worked. Panic at its impending loss drove adrenaline into her body and made her able to function despite the machine still working on her teats. "P-P-Please don't! I'm almost done!"

Sugar Belle poked her head around the doorway. "Relax, Fresh. We were just testing something and needed a reaction from you. Did you know Tight didn't say anything?"

Looking at Sugar Belle, Fresh Baked was confused. "But I heard him. He said he was going to take the—the milker away…" Her voice grew less and less certain as she spoke. Fresh couldn't actually remember hearing Tight, but she knew he was going to tell her anyway.

Tight Squeeze had to squirm and pull back from Sugar Belle's magic. He managed to get his snout out of the glowing grip at last. "Wait. So you're telling me that the plant made us telepathic?"

"Yes. No. Well, Kinda. I think it's letting you work through me." The moment Sugar Belle said the words she felt an odd approval from the plant within herself. She groaned. "And it just confirmed it. I don't know how, or why, but it is using me to relay your thoughts."

"Wait. The plant is actually thinking?" Fresh looked at Sugar with shock on her face. "I thought, at the meeting, you said—"

"It doesn't really think. It uses me to think, I think. It's confusing, but I kinda get hints sometimes." Sitting down on her rump, Sugar Belle lifted a hoof and tapped the side of her head. "It's not like I actually know what's going on, and you'll excuse me if I don't ask Starlight to jolt me with her green magic."

Tight Squeeze gasped in mock surprise. "You mean my darling wife is aiding and abetting a plant monster in taking over Our Town?!" He lifted a hoof to his forehead in melodramatic pause.

Fresh Baked's rush that let her stand up was wearing off, but at the same time she felt the flow of her milk slow and then, finally, stop. She blinked in surprise a few times at the strange emptiness of her udder. Reaching under herself with a wing, she turned the pump off and pulled the unresisting cups free of her teats. "Y-Your turn, Tight."

"Let me change the tank first." Sugar Belle used her magic to detach the glass jug that was half full of milk and took it into the kitchen.

Staring at the machine, Tight gulped. "Of all the times to get nervous about being a stallion doing a 'mare thing', now is the silliest."

"You're pregnant." Fresh Baked was too, but it was a point she had to make.

"Well, yeah. But that seemed like a much better idea at the time. Fun, too." Tight circled around the machine, feeling where Fresh had been laying by the warmth in the floor. "It doesn't hurt?"

"Hurt? Silly, it feels great. Mind-numbingly good. You can just relax and let it do all the work." Walking up to Tight, Fresh Baked lifted a hoof and put it on his shoulder. "Just calm down. You're safe here."

Tight Squeeze looked at the machine and gave a sigh. The functions of it were obvious. A little magic-driven pump had some valves attached, and a pair of hoses that lead to the little cups. "I'm sure most stallions go their entire lives without having to worry about getting pregnant, being overfull with milk, or worrying about weight gain from pregnancy."

"But not you, dear." Sugar Belle returned with the emptied and rinsed jug. She set it into the machine and walked up to kiss Tight Squeeze. "Tight, calm down and let me help."

"O-Okay." Tight folded his legs and lay down, then pitched to his side. There was a little pressure on his belly, but he was otherwise comfortable. The noticeable bulge between his back legs was just as prominent as ever, of course.

A little sigh left Tight's mouth as Sugar Belle cupped his udders with her magic. The calm certainty of his wife's touch warred with his worry until the little machine gave a wheeze and the first cup touched his teat.

"Oooohhhh…" Tight Squeeze closed his eyes as he felt the first cup settle around his teat and start its repeated sucking-squeezing motion. Unthinking, he stretched the back leg on top of his udder back, giving Sugar Bell easier access.

When the second, greedy little cup grabbed Tight Squeeze's other teat, all thought fled for a moment. Then his milk started to flow in earnest. His worry about the machine evaporated in a wave of good feelings. The milking wasn't erotic, but he was enjoying it all the same.

"And he's out. I told you it wasn't terrible." Fresh Baked reached a wingtip—longer and greener than ever—out and booped Tight Squeeze on the nose.

Unable to voice words, Tight Squeeze focused what parts of his mind could concentrate on sending Fresh a message: —You were right, but you didn't mention it giving you an erection.—

Gritting her teeth to keep from saying her reply out loud, Fresh grinned. —Why do you think I was hiding myself with a wing?—

Author's Notes:

Fresh Baked: What happened the first time you used your new larger wings? Did the impact hurt?

"The opposite. The muscles are so strong and all work so well that I shot into the air. It was amazing; I felt half as heavy as I should." Smiling like the young mare she appeared to be, Fresh Baked giggled. "Landing was the problem. A last-second backstroke nearly shot me back into the sky."

---

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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