//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Weighting for a Gain // by iceblazethequick //------------------------------// How dare they! What right do they have to criticize me! Me! Of all ponies, I'm the one they go after. Why me? There are celebrities, scandals, gossip, and they choose me, a designer from Ponyville, Ponyville of all places, to humiliate. I'm ruined! Rarity slammed her head down on the massage table, letting out a muffled groan of despair. She was currently laying in the Ponyville spa, which was well lit and fairly well-organized despite the number of beauty products the spa ponies kept track of. Beside Rarity sat Fluttershy, who was also trying to enjoy her spa treatment but was obviously concerned for her friend. It was a time in the afternoon when few ponies were out and about, much less going to the spa, so Rarity and Fluttershy were fortunately the only ponies around to hear this outburst. "What's the matter? Um, if you want to talk about it, that is..." Fluttershy asked her friend, her voice trailing off towards the end. She had never seen Rarity so upset before, and it wasn't like her to be late to a spa appointment. "Oh, Fluttershy dear, it's... Well, see for yourself." Rarity pulled out from her saddlebags a rolled up newspaper. Using her magical aura, she slowly unrolled it and passed it over to her Pegasus companion. As she read the headline of the front page, she cringed slightly. "Aspiring Designer in Ponyville Caught in Diet Scandal..." Fluttershy read aloud, watching as Rarity recoiled in disgust. "Can you believe it!? I've never been so insulted... I mean, I've put on a few pounds here and there from stress, sure, but not more than five! Ten pounds, max! Honestly, do you see the things they said about me in there! My reputation is destroyed!" Fluttershy quickly skimmed through the article, then glanced back at her friend. She didn't want to say anything, but Rarity's "here and there" weight gain was a bit more than five or ten pounds. In fact, as closely as Fluttershy could tell, her friend had put on nearly twenty pounds in the last month since Rarity had taken on new Canterlot clients and adopted stress eating to cope with the work. A few of her friends had discussed it once or twice, but after acting defensive towards Applejack for suggesting the idea of a diet, the rest of Rarity's close circle of friends had decided to let her work it out on her own. However, the way it worked out was not as most of them expected. Instead of curbing her gain, Rarity had continued to grow. After weeks of continuing her bad habits, Rarity had taken on the form of a plus-size model, looking not fat, but merely plump. Her face and most of her body looked the same, but her belly sank almost an inch lower than it previously had and it formed more of a roundness when she laid down, as could be clearly seen by Fluttershy. The biggest change, though, was in Rarity's lower body; her hips were noticeably wider, and most of her eating seemed to have gone to her rear, causing it to fold slightly at the point where it met her hind legs. While Rarity and a cheap tabloid had seen all this as a travesty, Fluttershy took a more... appreciative viewpoint. When her friends had tried talking to Rarity, Fluttershy had silently supported her the unicorn and reassuring her, not just because of their close relationship, but because Fluttershy was interested and even attracted to Rarity's larger form. She had even thought about Rarity in a more romantic fashion, and although she knew it was wrong, she still felt an irresistible urge towards the new, plumped-up pony. Fluttershy hooked a hoof around Rarity's neck and tossed the magazine into the trash bin in the corner. "Rarity, you look fine," she said, "and you need to stop worrying about those silly reports. No one reads those things anyway." As Rarity smiled back at Fluttershy, the yellow Pegasus used her mouth to pull a large package out of her own saddlebag. She unwrapped it to unveil a chocolate cake, fresh from Sugarcube Corner. Fluttershy pushed the box towards Rarity and told her: "I remembered that you had a big order to fill tonight, and I thought you might want a late-night snack or something while you sewed all those dresses." Rarity gave a halfhearted frown. "No, no, I am watching what I eat from now on! And anyway, that order was yesterday, remember? You dropped off some cupcakes for me last evening while I was working. Ah, doesn't matter now... The fact remains, I will not be indulging in this kind of guilty chocolate pleasure anymore!" The hungry gleam in her eye as she stared at the cake, however, said otherwise. ------------------ Rarity grunted as she tugged on one of the last seams of her midnight-purple dress, a determined expression on her face. "Ugh... Come... On... Just a little... Bit... More..." After each word she magically pulled the stitches of the dress together, trying to fit them into the fabric of the new dress. She had been having great success earlier; the dress looked as good in real life as is did in a sketch, and the fashionista was fairly satisfied with the overall look it would create for her new line of dresses for Canterlot's elite. Everything worked perfectly... ...until she had decided to model it. Rarity often tried on each dress she made, inspecting it for quality from every angle. This had never been a problem before, as Rarity's svelte figure matched those of the elite themselves. However, this was no longer the case. Two more weeks of eating for stress relief, little exercise, and a certain Pegasus had not done Rarity's body any favors. Or rather, they had done her body a favor; it just wasn't her slim body. As Rarity peered down to inspect the dress, her neck was no longer thin and narrow; although it was nowhere close to a double chin, a small padding of flab coated her neck and chest, resulting in a smoother appearance. Her belly now hung low enough to look as if she were slightly pregnant, and it showed as patches of white as it strained through the tight seams of the dress. Her lower body and rear had continued to grow wider, making it near impossible to tighten the dress on in the back her hips and rear now visibly curved outwards, straining the fabric around her flank. In addition to this, her rear itself had grown softer, meaning that it gave small, bounces or jiggles when she walked. It was due to these new features that Rarity found herself struggling to fit into the dress even with it fully loosened. She stopped and panted for a moment, trying to catch her breath, then pressed onwards. As she neared the point at which she could finally zip up the back end of the dress, with only part of her ample read poking out from beneath it, Rarity spotted a lone slice of cake from an earlier visit to the market. She licked her lips and, momentarily forgetting her dress situation, began to daintily shove the pie between her lips and down into her throat and belly. As the last bite of creamy filling was swallowed by Rarity, the dress gave a strained creak and stitches began to open. She heard a multitude of pops as seams began to burst open, and she saw a small bulge of her skin and flab pressing out through an intentional gap in the dress. When she tried to press that fat back into the dress, it had simply had enough. With a loud rip, the dress split open at Rarity's rear, her enlarged flank wobbling slightly before stopping. She sighed and began to take of the ruined garment. "Drat! I can't believe that cleaner shrunk my dress shipment again! I will simply have to go down there and give them a piece of my mind!" The bulky mare strode through her doorway, a small inch of room extra on each side, and with a frustrated sigh slammed the door after her sizeable rear assets.