The bell over the entrance to Carousel Boutique jangled loudly. The melodious voice of the owner came ringing out from further within the depths of the building. “Coming!” This was followed up by a steady rhythm of heavy tromping hoofsteps that grew steadily louder as they approached until finally Rarity emerged into the foyer, business smile on full display, prepared to dazzle whoever might have entered.
There was a time when it would have been a particularly rare occurrence that an alicorn entered the boutique—for although Rarity had the esteemed honor of tailoring for all three of Equestria’s princesses in the past, it was usually in the setting of their palace halls rather than her own store. That had changed when her very dear friend Twilight Sparkle ascended to alicornhood, and for more reasons than either of them might have expected.
The lavender mare was wearing a baggy and very tacky maroon tracksuit, the kind of unfashionable outfit that most ponies would know not to bring within a block radius of the boutique. It was typically what she wore when she was exercising, especially for her regular flight training sessions with Rainbow Dash. However, the bulky garb showed no markings of sweat, suggesting that Twilight Sparkle hadn’t merely just been out for a jog, but at the same time, her listless, forlorn stance, her ears and wings drooping, gave the distinct impression that she was exhausted regardless. The uniform served an additional purpose, one which the two ponies were particularly aware of, and it seemed like it might be reaching the full extent of its usefulness in that regard, judging from the way it was stretched taut around her waist.
Detecting that the atmosphere was going to be particularly melancholic today, Rarity allowed her expression to soften—still smiling, but less exuberant, less forceful. She couldn’t suppress the nervous tic of her ears flicking. “I see that you are a little early for our daily check-in,” she said sympathetically, “I suppose that my newest ensemble didn’t last as long as we hoped?”
Twilight Sparkle gave a heavy, exasperated sigh and an emphatic shrug, arms flapping up and then clapping against her sides. There was a ripple through her form, discernible even through the layer of fabric. “Yup.”
Rarity clicked her tongue and sighed in turn. “Very well, come on back then, dear.”
She beckoned for the alicorn to circle around the front counter and follow her into the back of the building. Twilight Sparkle obediently did as she was instructed, hooves shuffling along the floor. She tried not to flinch when she felt Rarity’s hand upon her shoulder, followed by the unicorn sidling up beside her, walking in time with her. She knew that it was merely intended as a gesture of reassurance, something which she so desperately needed at the moment, and she longed for nothing more than to lean into the warm, soft, pliant embrace as she would have in the past, but nowadays it was increasingly becoming something which she desired to have on her mind. That might have been the absolute worst part of the whole situation that had been gradually evolving.
“So I suppose Regimen Delta was a bust, then?” Rarity asked while they entered the fitting room, breaking away to check on her supplies.
“No, it…I don’t know,” Twilight Sparkle muttered frustratedly as she came to stand in front of the array of mirrors, from which she had grown so accustomed to seeing her reflection peering back at her. She didn’t want to look at her face, to see the softening of definition which was present in her features. “I did everything exactly the way I had planned it, Rarity.”
“The exercise routine?” she queried.
“Ten-minute jog in the morning and after every meal. Assist Applejack with the harvest in the afternoon. Flight training with Rainbow Dash in the evening.” The lavender mare rattled them off of the top of her head effortlessly. “I should be burning calories like nopony’s business.”
“Well, you’re not taking in too many of those, are you?”
“Absolutely not, every meal has been measured down to the slightest grain of salt, I’ve been eating exactly as much as I should be.”
Rarity came over with her measuring tapes and her notepad, red spectacles perched upon her muzzle. There was concern and wariness etched across her face, but Twilight Sparkle also discerned a hopeful glimmer in her eyes as the corners of her lips curled faintly upwards. “Please don’t say it,” she murmured in exasperation before the words could come out.
“Come now, Twilight,” Rarity cooed, patting her on the back, just below the gaps in the suit where the wings slotted through (adjusting a pony’s whole wardrobe to account for the addition of new appendages had been another challenge for her). “You’re an alicorn now! You’re a princess! It only makes sense that you should really look the part. You’ve always been a Canterlot pony, now you’ll finally be able to measure up to their standards. Pretty soon, you’ll be on the same level of magnificent massiveness as Princess Celestia herself.”
Twilight Sparkle made no attempt to respond to this. Her gaze shrank away and her ears folded downward.
Likely sensing that there wasn’t going to be any further progress on this issue today, Rarity sighed and said, “Well, regardless, we are left with the problem of how to approach your present dimensions. If you would please extricate yourself from that gaudy suit, we may get this underway.”
Twilight Sparkle complied, all too eager to be free of the itchy cloth material anyway. She unzipped the front of the suit and peeled herself out of it, stripping down until she had nothing but her underwear on, and there was nothing that could be done to hide herself.
Despite Rarity’s longstanding efforts to convince her otherwise, Twilight Sparkle had never been especially invested in the sight of her reflection. The way she looked was not a matter of concern to her when there were so many others that were more vitally significant—her studies, her friends, occasionally saving the world, to name a few. It had never bothered her that she had been on the skinny side, relatively speaking. She had spent a significant portion of life being a little soft around the edges, a little pudgy, a little out-of-shape, an inevitability for one such as her who spent the majority of their free time cooped up in their study with books for company. It was a look that was born more out of negligence than any concerted effort.
It was an entirely different affair nowadays. For the early days, the only concern had been the obtrusive wings which now loomed behind her at all times, an unavoidable reminder of what she had become. So often, though, she had taken to wearing baggy, concealing clothes, like the damned tracksuit, because they made it easier to hide what was happening beyond her control, and because it was her only option for maintaining her decency in public. Standing before the mirror in naught but her undergarments, the truth was plain to see.
Twilight Sparkle was definitely no longer “pudgy”. Even “chubby” didn’t feel sufficient in describing the potbelly which jutted out past her waist and the sloping breadth of her hips and thighs. Chubby ponies didn’t have to deal with underwear riding between their rounded buttocks like this, or bra cups and straps digging into the soft flesh of their bosom. Chubby ponies also typically didn’t have to deal with their waistline increasing at a daily rate no matter how much they exercised and dieted.
There was only some slim consolation to be had in the fact that she was standing next to Rarity, who almost made her seem thin by comparison, though the margin between them was shrinking more and more. It only made sense that the mare who had dreamt all her life of leaving behind her country roots and making it big in Canterlot would go so far as to make herself big in order to fit into their decadence. Rarity was one of the largest ponies in all of Ponyville, and she carried all her weight in profound curves that made her particularly pleasing to the eye, swelling out and in and out again, and since she was her own tailor that meant she always had the best dresses to accentuate her frame. Today she dressed casually, with a crop top and jeans that clung closely to the shape of her chest and hips, a hint of the dollop of white flesh that was her stomach hanging over her waist visible underneath the overhang made by her bosom. She was the one who looked like a goddess deserving of reverence; standing beside each other, Twilight Sparkle only looked like some overweight shlub.
But Rarity caught the way the alicorn was listing as her thoughts got the better of her, and she patted her side, a clap that sent ripples through her form. “Come now, chin up, Twilight,” she said warmly, “it’s not the end of the world just because you’ve finally started gaining. Lots of ponies do it, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Now, here, we should get started.”
The first step was one which Twilight Sparkle could have done at home, but it was best that they do it here along with the rest of the process for the sake of consistency. The tracksuit hadn’t been the only thing that was out of place in the chic boutique; there was also a metal pad which sat upon the floor, having been brought here from its previous location in Rarity’s closet at the start of this whole rigmarole. The alicorn stood upon it, and she faintly heard the inner workings creak and groan in response. She had to suck in her gut in order to see the result on the display after the dial inside finished spinning about—every time she did this, she thought about how long it would be until she was no longer able to even do that much. The fact that the number was consistently climbing higher every time didn’t help matters.
“Two hundred and…seventy-eight pounds,” Rarity murmured, writing the number down. “That is less of an increment than the last time; your efforts weren’t in vain after all.”
“More weight is still more weight,” she grumbled under her breath.
Rarity shook her head and tapped the pen on the clipboard. “Glass half-full, darling, not half-empty.”
Twilight Sparkle stepped off of the scale and then stood as still as possible so that Rarity could go through her battery of measurements, starting with using her levitation to hold a tape completely vertical, one end on the floor and the other up toward the mare’s head. “Hmm…” She squinted, looking close; her natural eye for detail made it all the easier for her to take exact measurements. “It looks like you’ve gained another half-inch.”
There was another low groan in the alicorn’s throat. They had to account for more than just her width during these refitting sessions, as she had begun to experience intermittent growth spurts as well, gaining as much as an inch in height every week, stretching out her proportions yet further. Rarity would have insisted again that it only made sense, knowing that the alicorns of Equestria were considerably taller than the average pony by default, but that didn’t do anything to assuage her doubts in this situation.
“So, Twilight, what would you like to do about your wardrobe situation now?” Rarity then asked while the process of measuring went on, measuring length and width and breadth and circumference all across the lavender mare’s body, pen scratching away in the background.
“I’m…going to see about meeting with Celestia soon,” she eventually announced, a shudder wracking through her, “so I’m going to need something I can wear for the trip to Canterlot.”
“Ah, wonderful, darling!” Rarity patted her shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be able to provide you some much-needed guidance. As for the clothes, though, we are still facing the problem that it’s difficult to get you anything that will adequately fit as long as you continue to grow like this.”
“We can still extrapolate something approximate from the data we’ve taken so far, right?” Twilight Sparkle replied. “If I…maintain the schedule I had for this week, then the growth should stay constant, and we should know what to expect.”
Rarity gazed back at her shrewdly. Twilight Sparkle knew that she was stepping into territory that she wasn’t fully knowledgeable of, and the seamstress would be quick to make her dissatisfaction apparent if something fashionably incorrect was said in her presence. Eventually she replied, “Well, we certainly could, Twilight…but there’s no guarantee that it will be perfect. Making sure that clothes fit requires the utmost of precision, and accurate measurements are paramount in that regard.”
“I know, I know, but we don’t exactly have any better options.” She paused, and after a few more tapes wrapping around her thighs she said, “There’s something I’ve been thinking about, though.”
“Oh? What would that be?” Rarity asked curiously.
“What if it was possible to…make the clothes bigger?”
“Twilight, resizing clothes has always been an option, but the simple fact of the matter is that there’s only so much that can be done in that regard.”
“No, I mean like…magically.” With her arms free to move, Twilight Sparkle was able to gesticulate in the vaguely grasping way that only an experimental thinker could. “Imagine if you could take fabric and…feed it into a dress. The dress takes the raw material and adds it seamlessly to its design. That way, you can continue to make something as large as you may need it to be.”
Rarity tapped the end of her pen against her chin, her brow furrowed in thought. “I’m not sure I like it, to be completely frank,” she said with a shake of her head, and then she shrugged, “it seems like a stifling way to work with one’s wardrobe. That is to say nothing of the economic impact it could have on me if somepony didn’t have to come back to me for new clothes anymore.” She snickered and smirked, and Twilight Sparkle smiled sheepishly back. “I suppose, given the circumstances, though, that may be the best option available to you, assuming you can get it to work.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I can, I’m already working on it,” Twilight Sparkle said plainly, “I was also hoping I could get some rolls of fabric while I was here.”
That made Rarity outright laugh, her form jiggling. “Now that’s the kind of proactive Twilight I like to see.” With all of the measurements taken and noted, she leaned in and pulled Twilight Sparkle close for a hug. “But before I give you that fabric,” Rarity added, whispering into her ear, with a slight wiggle of her hips, “how about we go out and get some ice cream?”
“What, but…” Twilight Sparkle suddenly felt like the embrace around her was the grip of a vice. “Rarity, I’m supposed to be dieting, remember?” In spite of the severity of the situation which they had been discussing, she found herself unable to put much conviction into that assertion.
“Pish posh, darling, every mare deserves to splurge once in a while,” she replied with a scoff.