//------------------------------// // Day 138 // Story: The Weight of the Crown // by Non Uberis //------------------------------// “Shiny,” Twilight Velvet said, “would you go check to see if the food is ready yet?” “Just a moment, Mom!” The stallion’s voice called from the other side of the dining room where he was busying himself with reaching for the plates from the high cabinets. “I can do it,” Twilight Sparkle interjected, already in the process of lumbering around the table. “Oh, no, Twilight, that’s quite alright,” the older mare said dotingly, quickly shuffling to stand in her way, “you don’t have to worry yourself over something like that.” “Mom, I’m a princess,” she replied with a sigh, “I have to worry about things far worse than this on a weekly basis.” “You may be a princess, but you’ll always be my little filly, sweetie,” Twilight Velvet stated with a chuckle while reaching out to pinch the alicorn’s cheek. The supposed littleness being asserted here seemed harder to believe in when she had to distinctly reach upward in order to complete this gesture. There was some irony, no doubt, that Twilight Sparkle had occasionally thought she might one day look just like her mother, a plump old mare living comfortably into the latter years of her life. Now, she had considerably outstripped the grey pony, and that disparity was only going to grow larger over time. This meal they were about to have certainly wasn’t going to help much in that regard. “Well, if you must, go on ahead,” she finally said, relenting and allowing her passage, “and make sure neither of them are sampling too much of the food before it can even get to our plates either!” “Yes, yes, I know.” Twilight Sparkle replied, shaking her head with a smirk. Her hooves made muffled thumps against the carpeted floor as she waddled around to the kitchen doorway, from which there were the sounds of bubbling and clattering and a savory spicy aroma. She positioned herself at the threshold and leaned forward to poke her head through, just enough that she didn’t have to worry about the concern that doors had begun to pose upon her, or the space that she knew was at a premium inside the room. “Hey, cooking crew, how’s it going in here?” “Just about ready, Twily,” Night Light said without looking up from the platter he was preparing, pouring rice and steamed vegetables together. He used his magic for this, levitating the various morsels into position, as the broad expanse of his gut would have made it difficult for him to reach the counter anyway. He preferred this way anyway, as taking a step back helped him with picturing the presentation. “I hope that you’ve brought your appetite with you today,” he added with a smile curling across his muzzle, “we made sure to prepare enough for two princesses instead of just one.” “And don’t worry too much if you don’t,” Cadence added while tending to the pot on the stove, “I’ll gladly take the rest of your servings if you don’t want them.” “You’d eat the whole dinner if we let you, Cady,” Night Light commented, and they both laughed. Twilight Sparkle felt that she should laugh as well, and she wanted to, but she found herself distracted. Her eyes remained locked upon the pink mare, her huge mass taking up a significant portion of the kitchen, which her father already occupied a large part of. In much the same way that her perspective on Celestia had changed, there was some strangeness to be felt when she met with Cadence now, and this feeling had lingered since she and Shining Armor arrived from the Canterlot station. It wasn’t quite the same, however, because although she looked up to Cadence, her former foalsitter and now sister-in-law, she didn’t quite idolize her like the other Princesses. This was a more personal sentiment. She wanted to speak, but her mouth was dry suddenly. “Twilight?” She snapped to attention. “H-huh?” Night Light was standing in front of her with the platter between them. “I appreciate your eagerness to get your hands on the food,” he said with a chuckle, “but I’ve gotta get it to the table first.” “O-oh, uh, sorry.” Twilight Sparkle stepped to the side so he could pass her, and Cadence came out right behind him, a living boulder pushing aside whatever stood in her way. The moment had passed her by. When she came back to the table, she found that Shining Armor had finished putting out all the plates and utensils, and Spike had emerged from wherever in the house he had been hiding. They each took their seats around the table, their positions ordained by traditions that had only slightly been updated over the years—not that they necessarily had a choice in the matter, given that each family member had to have seats that were catered to their particular size. Twilight Sparkle’s own chair had already been retired, and the replacement which had been allotted for her was a tad snug as she sat down. Her growth had begun to take a particular direction beyond merely getting big all over, and perhaps it was only appropriate that the bookworm horse who spent most of her time sitting around and reading would experience a particular emphasis in the hips and buttocks; a little extra cushion wherever she sat, at the cost of occasionally getting wedged into the arms of chairs. Maybe Celestia was proud of her to be following in her bottom-heavy steps. “Here, Spike,” she offered to the dragon as he settled in beside her, bringing the platters closer to him so that he could take his fill. Being a family of unicorns meant that it was quite convenient for everypony to serve themselves, all except for Spike, so they would let have his share first. He was the youngest of the family anyway, so it only made sense to give him this preferential treatment. “Thanks, Twilight,” he replied, beaming up toothily at her before pouring some of the vegetables and a heaping helping of curry onto his plate, onto which he added hot sauce and a few rubies from a bowl he had next to his spot. The young drake had always had a more than healthy appetite, but even as he grew older he still hadn’t grown quite enough to catch up with the rest of the family, owing to his draconic metabolism burning up calories so much more readily. There was a hint of thickness to his frame, undeniably stocky, but it would be a few years longer before there would be any development on that end. Of course, in a few decades, he wouldn’t even be able to fit inside the building anymore. “And make sure you get enough to eat yourself, dear!” Twilight Velvet took her daughter’s plate for her and piled it high with food, to which she sighed in turn but made no attempt at objection. Sitting to Twilight Sparkle’s right at the head of the table, Twilight Velvet might have been the smallest pony in the household at this point, merely a chubby mare with heaping helpings of softness around her form, but even with two princesses under the same roof as her, nopony was going to question her authority here. “Careful, Twily,” Night Light chimed in with a chuckle while he worked on buttering some rolls, “your mother’s been waiting for this day for years now. She’ll make sure you eat until you can’t move anymore if you let her.” “Really, Mister Night?” She turned on him with a sneer. “I’m only serving my darling children the meals that they deserve. If you’re so insistent on this, perhaps I should give you another round of my famous twelve-course casserole. I don’t recall it going so well for you last time.” The older stallion clutched at his gut and groaned in an exaggerated manner that suggested equal parts regret and longing, and the others laughed. “So, Twily,” Shining Armor shot across the table while his mouth was still full of half-chewed food (Cadence narrowed her eyes at him, silently scolding), “how’s it feel now that you’ve been a princess for a few months?” “Um…” Twilight Sparkle glanced at Spike, who shrugged back at her, so she shrugged in turn. “I dunno, I still haven’t really had to do much yet.” “That’ll all be changing with the function coming up at least, right?” Night Light asked, “You’ll get to rub elbows with all the bigwigs in Canterlot. Nopony will be able to forget who you are any time soon.” “Just so long as she properly looks the part, of course,” Twilight Velvet added while at the same time adding another splash of curry to Twilight Sparkle’s plate. “Mostly my experience with being an alicorn is that it’s really…uh…” She pursed her lips for a few seconds before squeamishly finishing. “Heavy…?” “Nah, that’s just what being a Sparkle is like, and now you’re finally making up for lost time,” Shining Armor said proudly while rapping a fist against the side of his stomach, and then he reached over and prodded Night Light’s sprawling gut as well. “Isn’t that right, Dad?” The two stallions, sitting side by side, were very similar to each other in terms of overall size, son having come to match father. Where Night Light was mostly fat, though, his bulky, flabby body the result of spending so much time at home now that he was retired, Shining Armor reflected the training that he had undergone for years as a soldier, flesh bolstered and firmed by layers of muscle underneath the surface. The older stallion chuckled wearily. “Well, if that’s what she wants. With how great her appetite for books is, I think if she wanted to transfer that over to real food then she would’ve eaten us out of house and home by now.” Twilight Sparkle absently looked down at her plate, which, despite her mother’s attempts to refill, had still been nearly halfway cleared away. The sweet and spicy taste overflowing in her mouth told her that she had certainly been eating quite a bit. She was already scooping up another spoonful of rice and curry to bring to her mouth, to savor in the hearty, decadent flavor and the satisfaction that came from it sliding down her throat and into her stomach. She found herself wondering if food had always tasted this good, if there was something about being an alicorn that just allowed her to appreciate the texture that much better, or if it was simply a matter of not having been home to experience her father’s cooking in so long. “In any case…” There was something about Cadence’s voice—very likely to do with her alicornhood—so clear and melodious and powerful, that always made everypony in the room turn to look at her gently smiling face. “I’m sure Tia has already told you a great deal,” she said while looking across the table at her fellow Princess, “but you can always come to me if you ever need help with anything. I heard that you’ve been getting the hang of flying lately?” Her wings, visibly projecting behind her shoulders even while folded, twitched slightly. “Yeah, well…getting better at it, at least.” Twilight Sparkle smiled outwardly, though she shared another conspiratorial glance with Spike, who responded by patting her comfortingly on the thigh. Her understanding of the process she would need to undergo in order to achieve flight was largely complete, but she was having to compensate through magic more and more to make up for her weight. Despite Rainbow Dash’s patented awesomeness training, it wasn’t looking like she was going to be able to maneuver much better than a cannonball. “As long as you’re making progress, that’s good to hear,” Cadence replied, the radiant warmth of her countenance felt even at a distance, as if the heat of her enormous body was that of a furnace, “it’s not as easy being an alicorn as one might think. I’m sure you all might have thought that I, being a pegasus at birth—” Her wings flared out, seeming to fill so much more of the room all at once. “—would have had an easier time figuring it out, but it was actually harder. I had to unlearn just about everything I knew about flying so I could do it the alicorn way. I was tumbling over myself for months before I got the hang of it.” She laughed, and so did the rest of the table, many folds rippling in the process. “Thanks for the assurance, at least,” Twilight Sparkle said with feigned enthusiasm. She couldn’t resist her gaze shifting downward. Even with those huge wings, it was hard to imagine Cadence being capable of flight with how gargantuan she was. She sat as close to the table as she could, which was still farther away than her arms could reach, her gut mashed against the counter, a sprawling pink marshmallow mass that hung nearly to the ground even while she was standing. Not that her breasts, heavy globes the size of yoga balls that rested on top of that vast shelf, their enormity ill-concealed by the dress she wore, did much to help matters either. She would have been in a great deal of trouble without the horn she gained from her ascension, as reaching anything directly in front of herself was just about impossible. Yet Twilight Sparkle knew, implicitly, that a fate along these lines was what would soon await her as well. “Um…Cadence…?” She spoke so quietly that she thought she might have just been thinking it in her head (Fluttershy would be proud of her), but Cadence heard her regardless and looked expectantly in her direction, as did the rest of the eyes around the table. “Yes?” The way her smile creased into her cheeks, framed all around by her flowing tricolor mane, was just like Celestia’s. The lavender mare wasn’t sure if the sensation of sweat trickling over her brow was from her anxiety or the curry. “…N-nevermind, it’s nothing…” she hurriedly muttered before looking back to her increasingly empty plate. This wasn’t the right moment, surely. She should wait until after dinner. Or later tonight. Or tomorrow. But then there was a low hiss of “Twilight!” beside her as Spike pushed hard at her, shaking the wobbly meat of her leg. He glared pointedly at her with his fiery emerald eyes. He, of course, already knew what it was that she wanted to say, having had to listen to her agonizingly mull over it for days now, and he wasn’t going to have her putting it off any longer. “Twilight?” This time it was Cadence again, looking back at her with worry. The activity around the table was gradually slowing and quieting. Feeling the pressure upon her, there was nothing she could do now but to continue ahead. “Cadence…” Twilight Sparkle slowly worked through the words that had been in her head, eagerly awaiting to be let out into the world. “Did you…want this?” The other alicorn’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?” “You know, being…” She gestured vaguely to her with one hand. “The way you are now.” Cadence tilted her head quizzically. “Well…I suppose I never really thought I’d be an alicorn, but…I did always want to be able to make a difference in the world, so I’m really thankful to Celestia for giving me the opportunity to—” “No, no,” Twilight Sparkle interrupted with an exasperated sigh. “I’m not talking about being an alicorn. I meant…” She felt the pressure upon her all the more now. Cadence, Shining Armor, and Night Light each regarded her with uncertainty, their meals forgotten. Twilight Velvet, though, bore more distinct worry on her face, motherly intuition telling her that there was something very wrong here. “Fat,” she finally spat out. “Did you want to be fat?” The air of confusion and concern in the dining room seemed palpable. Everypony stared at Twilight Sparkle, who had to put all her effort into resisting the urge to look at each family member in turn, focusing instead on Cadence in particular. Cadence, in turn, looked back in surprise, her wings fidgeting again. Her hands clutched at her belly, seemingly protectively, yet her fingers clenched tightly at the pliant flesh. Then Shining Armor reached over to place his hand upon her, caressing her wrist, and her posture slowly relaxed. “To be honest…” she began with a sigh, her eyelids heavy, “no, I really didn’t. When I first came to Canterlot and saw how…large the ponies living here were…I didn’t exactly mind it, but I didn’t particularly care for it either. I hadn’t wanted to become like that, even if Princess Celestia was that way. And yet…” Another sigh, shaking her head. She looked down at the plate in front of her, which had been mostly emptied, crumbs and smears left behind. “As my time as an alicorn wore on, I found myself putting on weight, no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. I went to Celestia, and I had a talk with her much the same as the one you did. I…I didn’t take it very well.” “I’m…I’m sorry,” Twilight Sparkle murmured. “It’s fine, Twilight,” Cadence replied wearily, “this was a long time ago. I sulked for a while; I wouldn’t let Celestia speak to me, but I had to go on with my life eventually. As much as I hated it…I couldn’t deny who I was, and I knew that I wanted to help other ponies. There was no way I could just not be an alicorn.” Twilight Sparkle gave a hollow chuckle. “I suppose that was the same conclusion I came to in the end.” “That’s because you’re smart, Twilight,” Cadence said with a thin, warm smile, “you’re good at figuring things out, even if it takes you a while to get the bigger picture.” “She definitely knows a lot about ‘bigger’ now,” Spike commented, then snickered to himself up until the moment that a glob of curry was levitated onto his face by a magenta aura. “Did you ever…change your mind, though?” she then asked, “You seem okay with your situation now.” In her memories from her foalhood, she had always known Cadence to be a portly mare, something which had made it easier for her to look up to her on account of the similarities to her mother. “Well, of course.” Cadence laughed and smirked before looking up and around the table. “I met all of you.” “You never could resist my cooking any time you came over,” Night Light chimed in, patting his gut. “You were a part of the family even before you and Shiny got hitched,” Twilight Velvet added, her eyes misty. “And by the time we did get hitched—” Shining Armor stood so that he could shuffle over to Cadence and give her a kiss on the cheek and an affectionate nuzzle, leaning into her profound bulk all the while. “—I made sure to show her all the fun she could have with being overweight.” “It was perfect timing, considering that being exposed to the love of our relationship caused me to put on even more weight,” she replied before leaning over so they could kiss each other, muzzle to muzzle, their horns knocking together. Twilight Sparkle felt a shade of that sense of warmth in her chest, as love and friendship weren’t so dissimilar to each other and often intertwined. Spike cringed in disgust. “Why do they always gotta do that lovey-dovey stuff?” he muttered. In return, another wad of curry was delivered to his cheek by cyan light before he had finished cleaning up the first blow. “If we’re all done playing with our food,” Twilight Velvet interjected, swiftly levitating all the rest of the plates away before any more shenanigans could take place, “I suppose that means it’s time for dessert!” While still pondering this, Twilight Sparkle was betrayed by a loud groan from her gut. She was sure that she had eaten more than double what her allotted caloric intake for this meal should have been, yet she couldn’t deny a longing for more. “I’ll take that as a nod of interest,” Night Light mused with a grin while he stood and began to waddle back toward the kitchen, “you’re going to love the pie I made, Twily.” “H-hang on,” she interjected urgently. It may not be much, but she felt she had to do some form of activity to stave off the onset of her imminent tonnage. She gripped at the arms of her chair, pushing hard in order to free herself from the snug confines. “Let me lend you a—” But Twilight Sparkle failed to consider something: her gut was wedged up directly against the edge of the table. What’s more, it was packed full of undigested food, making it firmer, tauter, like a fleshy wrecking ball. And when she put her unfiltered force into standing up, this was directed straight into the table. A part of her was left to watch, in terrible slow motion, as she continued to move, unheeding of the way the whole counter was tipping over, slowly clattering as utensils and dishes slid away until finally culminating in a thunderous crash as it landed on its side and the whole mess splattered everywhere. Everyone could do naught but stare, aghast. Twilight Velvet was paler than usual, looking ready to faint. Slowly, Twilight Sparkle eased herself back into her seat, her cheeks burning up. “Um…maybe I’ll just…wait here,” she muttered, smiling sheepishly.