"There's a problem with the pipes running to the eastern Ponyville." the pegasus mare exclaimed to her coworkers and pointed at the map in the office, belonging to the Ponyville Maintenance Service. "The residents there have reported malfunction in faucets, bathrooms, showers, etcetera."
"So just a faulty water pipe, huh?" the earth pony mare across her asked, leaning back on her chair with her rear legs on the table. She brushed away a piece of her lime green mane away from her face, as well as some dirt off her bright orange coat. The grey-coated earth stallion next to the mare glanced at her, before returning his attention towards the pegasus.
"Define 'malfunction', Calambite. How bad is it?" he asked. He was a bit younger than both of his female coworkers, but already tried to put on a professional attitude.
Calambite, the light blue pegasus mare, looked over to the stallion. "Very bad. Not even a single drop of water can be extracted from anywhere in the homes. They're completely dry."
"Looks like just another mishap to the supply pipe. No need to worry, either of you." the earth mare on the chair said with a smirk. Somehow, she managed to reach out from her sitting position and rustled the stallion's charcoal-black mane with intensity. "Or are you scared that ponyville will turn into a desert, much like Saddle Arabia, Iokin?" she teased.
"Hey! My cousin's from Saddle Arabia!" Iokin snapped back.
Calambite face-hoofed. "Both of you cut that out." she told them. "We need to get this fixed soon. Otherwise, the mayor's gonna be on our flanks again. I don't know about you, but I don't want a repeat of that so called 'Sardine-and-Salad Day' competition. You know, that time when those discarded foodstuffs clogged up the sewage?"
Both earth ponies shuddered at the memory.
"Yeah, all that grease and oil leaking out onto the street. Ewww..." Iokin mumbled.
"So let's get on it!" Calambite exclaimed. "Get your suits on and meet me outside in ten minutes. Iokin..." she looked to the stallion, "...don't forget to grab the toolbox this time."
Iokin nodded and shimmied out of the office at her command.
"And, Trippy..."
The earth mare looked up from where she was sitting on the chair. She wasn't leaning on it anymore, and her rear hooves had gone down from the table to the floor. Calambite pondered for a second before resuming; "Eh, I don't know. I forgot. Maybe...uhh, when we get back you should take a shower or something. It's the only way to get the dirt out of your coat and mane."
Trippy rolled her eyes and exclaimed an annoyed "Fiiiiine." before standing up from the chair and leaving the office through the same door that Iokin had.
Ten minutes later, the three ponies had gathered, all wearing luminous green worker vests, and was heading for the eastern region of Ponyville, each one of them chatting merrily with each other about plans for later, some rumouring and other news. Soon, they had reached their destination: A hatch in the ground to a maintenance tunnel, leading to the pipe system where the problem was believed to lie.
Calambite lifted the hatch for the others and let them enter first before hopping down into the tunnels herself. All of them turned on the flashlights attached to their vests (although Iokin for some reason preferred to hold it in his mouth) and travelled a bit into the dark passage. Thin pipelines close to the walls surrounded them.
After a bit of walking, the small passage opened up, and increased in size. They had entered a larger room, containing multiple larger pipes as well as an incredible amount of thinner ones. Constantly there were sounds of water dripping, running, splashing and whatnot.
"Holy crap. It's been a while since I was down here." Trippy announced. "I didn't remember it being so... packed."
Calambite and Iokin could do nothing more than agree. The room was absolutely filled with pipes in all sizes, covering from ceiling to floor. There were a few lightbulbs hanging just overhead that gave light to just how many there were. Hundreds.
Calambite spoke up: "Well, I think that we are going to have to get to the other side of the room. The faulty pipe should be there."
As she spoke, she walked forward and tried to find a way past all the pipes blocking the way. She found a problem however. There was no easy way past.
She searched between the pipes, but it seemed like all gaps between them were just too narrow. Calambite huffed and took flight, hovering higher up in attempts to find a passage, but had no luck there either. After a short while of searching she gave up and landed next to the others.
"Uhm, problems?" Iokin asked and raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I see no obvious way past the pipes." Calambite proclaimed and gestured back to where she had just searched. "They are blocking our way!"
"What? Really?" Trippy exclaimed and walked past Calambite to have a look herself. "That can't be true, this is for maintenance! Does that mean we've got to go back?"
"This is odd, I know." Calambite replied, looking at Trippy over her shoulder. "The entrance we took down here is the closest one for at least a few miles. The odds for an inconvenience like this, I have no..."
"What about this then?" Trippy interrupted and pointed towards one of the pipes.
It was an odd sight compared with the other pipes which were neatly running across one wall to the other. This pipe was a T-shape, sticking out of the ground with one end of it pointing towards the ponies, and the opposite towards where they had to go. It was hollow, allowing them to look through it, and see that it led directly past the blockade of pipelines.
"I-I don't know about that one" Calambite said and eyed the pipe. "It seemed narrow when I looked at it..."
"Aww, come on! This is the perfect entrance for us! See here?" Trippy said and pointed into the pipe. The passage seemed not be affected by its T-shape, leaving it as a perfect cylinder opening. "See? It's completely smooth as well. This would probably save us an hour of precious time!"
Calambite swallowed. Time was indeed precious. Would they not have the problem fixed for the residents soon, the office would probably be delivered an angry letter from the townsfolk complaining about the poor service...again.
"I guess you're right, Trippy." Calambite said and walked up to the pipe. "Although I would like to go first. Make sure it's functionable and all."
Trippy shrugged, said "Suit yourself." and backed up to allow some space for Calambite. The pegasus mare took some time to eye up the pipe again. It wasn't very long, about her body length actually, but she'd have to crawl the entire way. Plus, it seemed narrow. Very narrow. But Trippy was right, it seemed possible.
Calambite picked up the red metal toolbox and placed it inside the pipe, before launching it through. The box slid all the way through the pipe and landed on the other side with a heavy clank, but remained intact. Calambite put one of her forehooves on the metal edge of the hole, removed her flashlight from the suit and handed it over to Trippy.
"I'm not gonna lie, this will be tight. But...let's do this."
She caught a glimpse of Trippy pretending to wave a small banner as a cheer as she turned back to the pipe and put her forelegs through. When she came up to her shoulders, the progress slowed down a little, but she still managed to progress. Her chest inched through slowly as well, and she soon had to catch a break in order to preserve energy.
"Everything alright?" both Trippy and Iokin almost asked in sync. They looked at eachother and grinned awkwardly before returning their gaze on Calambite.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Calambite replied as she reached her stomach. "It's just a little -ngh- snug!"
Luckily, all the crew members were pretty slim, so the stomach part didn't seem very hindering for the pegasus. Of course, she had to squeeze her wings tightly towards her body as they entered the pipe, but it didn't cause too much of a hassle.
As she squeezed in, Iokin, the only male in the trio, couldn't help but notice Calambite's rear move up and down as she tried to find the right angle to get inside. He blushed a little and tried to look away, but found himself occasionaly peeking back at her rump. Trippy on the other hand seemed more curious, and sometimes reached out a hoof like she would want to help her friend in her struggle, but held back just to avoid creating awkward situations.
As Calambite had almost managed to squeeze past her stomach, Iokin noticed that her rear, especially the hips, seemed slightly larger in proportion to the pipe's entrance. Trippy seemed to have noticed the same thing, and the two earth ponies glanced nervously at eachother.
The pegasus felt very compressed inside the pipe, but still had enough room to be able to crawl forward. With a few more heaves, she was able to pull the rest of her upper body inside. The ambience of the water running was muffled in the pipe, but she'd almost managed to reach the end of it.
"Yeah Trippy, you were right!" she called out triumphantly to her two companions just outside and continued pressing forward. "This way was a lot fast-" she began but halted as she felt no progression. She heaved herself forward a few times without any signs of progress. Calambite fumbled with her forehooves and managed to reach the edge of the pipe's exit, took hold of it and tried to pull herself in like that.
Outside, Trippy's and Iokin's thoughts were confirmed as they saw their friend's hips reach the hole. Their width, combined with her buttocks, were just enough to prevent them from entering. Muffled grunts could be heard from within the cylinder crawlspace, and the pegasus mare would occasionaly kick her rear legs against the ground, trying to get inside.
Calambite gave a few more heartly pulls, all without effect, before she heard Trippy ask; "Uhm...Calam? Is everything going okay?"
She sighed and took a short rest. "I'm not sure, I-I can't move any further." she replied and gave a hard shove. When she did, she felt her hips nudging the metal rim. She groaned and face-hoofed as she realized what the problem was.
Trippy opened her mouth and was just about hint on Calambite's predicament, when the pegasus suddenly called out; "It's my butt isn't it?"
The earth pony mare blushed slightly and nodded. "Yep..." she replied. Iokin was just staring at Calambite, speechless at the sight of her rear jamming the tiny pipe.
"Well that's just fantastic." Calambite muttered sarcastically for herself and tried to pull herself in again. Like before however, she was not able to make any progress. Feeling that her struggles were in vain, she stopped again and called out to the others:
"I'm not going to get through this on my own. You're going to have to help me if we are going to solve this mess."
Iokin perked up at this and noticed Trippy move closer to the trapped mare's rear. He followed her lead, and positioned himself at Calambite's right side. Trippy looked up at him. "So you're in on this too, huh?" she asked, a smug grin springing onto her face.
Iokin nodded and smiled sheepishly, slightly embarrassed by what Trippy might think of him, willingly putting up with touching his coworker's rear. "Figured you guys might need an extra hoof." he explained.
She giggled. "Surely." she replied before turning her attention towards the mare in the pipe. "Ready?" she called out.
Calambite heard her call, and grappled the edges of the pipe's end again. "Ready!" she replied.
Without hesitating, trippy lifted Calambite's left leg with one of her hooves, planted the other on the pegasus' rear and began pushing. Iokin copied her actions and did the same. Both of them heaved hard, aiming to force the mare's rump into the pipe.
Calambite gasped at the pressure applied to her backside at first, but quickly mustered her strength and pulled herself as hard as she could. Although it was rough, she felt herself slipping forwards slightly, inch by inch. The ponies pushing her must have noticed this as well, as they tried to push her even harder.
It wasn't until the struggle had been going on for a while that all three of them realized that the progress had stopped. Calambite's hips had partially entered the hole, but had now reached their widest part and was accompanied by her buttcheeks, squashed brutally to fit into the hole. The pegasus mare tried to pull herself in again, but felt like she was sitting like a rock. Iokin had given up due to fatigue and was standing aside, trying to regain some of his stamina. Only Trippy was trying to force her friend through the pipe now, grasping both of her rearcheeks and pushing with all her might.
Calambite appreciated her friend's eagerness to help her out, but felt like they had to stop and rethink their procedure. "Trippy, hold up for a moment!" she called out.
Trippy shoved her one last time before obliging and stepping back, panting lightly from her efforts. She saw Calambite's rear shifting slightly, as if the pegasus mare was trying to find an angle to be able to proceed. She was visibly straining, and audible grunts were heard from the pipe's interior.
"I don't know about you, but you seem pretty stuck to me." Trippy said and poked Calambite's rear playfully. Iokin noticed and looked away quickly, his face fading to a slight shade of red.
Calambite sighed and planted her front hoofes onto the pipe's insides. "I guess you're right." she said and began shuffling her way backwards.
Or atleast tried to.
She immediately felt her hips straining against the metal rim, refusing to move anywhere. The pegasus mare attempted to push herself backwards, only to discover that she couldn't. Her rump stuck fast in the hole and wouldn't budge an inch.
"Dammit!" she called out. "I can't go back either!"
Trippy perked up and threw herself on Calambite's rear, hindering her from continuing the struggle. "Going back? Don't give up so soon girl, not now when we've gotten you so far!"
"I told you, I can't get in any further than this." she shouted back. "If your pushing didn't help, then what will?"
"Just give me a little time to work with this." Trippy replied.
The pegasus mare hesitated, but obeyed and allowed the earth mare to do her work. I hope she's right about this. she thought.
Trippy began experimenting, comparing her friend's butt with the size of the hole and pushed on them lightly. She shone up when the cheeks budged a little, leaving some space for them to be crammed in. Through that small space she could see a bit of her friend's back, but not much else.
Wow, she really manages to fill up a lot! she thought and squeezed the backside again. Hmm... seems bigger than usual. Has she gained some? Hope not, or else this will be impossible. Hay, what if I'm this big? Would I be able to fit through here if I had to, or would I end up like Calambite? She looked over at her own rear for comparision. Maybe I should go the gym more often...
Calambite shuffled uncomfortably under Trippy's hooves, hoping that her friend would start pushing instead of feeling her up. The movements by the trapped mare managed to break Trippy's train of thought, and she regained her focus on the task at hoof.
"Oh, ehrm..." she started before turning towards Iokin, idly watching her groping Calambite's ass. "...Iokin! Could you help me with a thing here?"
Iokin nodded slowly and stepped up the mares. "So here's the thing: I can force a piece of your butt further between the edge of this thing and the...rest of you. Calam, you gotta push forward for extra space. Io, could you please push her butt down?"
Iokin naturally blushed to this assignment but olbiged nonetheless. Together with Trippy he set his hooves onto the mare's rear and pushed downwards, opening up some space for filling. Calambite pushed forward lightly, following Trippy's orders, interested in seeing what the earth mare could come up with.
Trippy pressed down the light-blue mare's butt also, whilst at the same time pressing them further into the tube. It took a while, but eventually they'd propped in enough of Calambite's rear to feel content with their work. For Calambite though, it felt like she'd been wedged even further.
"What now?" the stuck mare asked her companions after no longer feeling their hooves prodding on her rear.
"Now, we go back to pushing!" Trippy replied with enthusiasm, and slammed into the pegasus' behind, making her yelp in suprise. Iokin followed on quickly, slowly coming over the sensation of embarrassment from toying around with his friend's back part.
Trippy pushed on as hard as before. She felt Calambite's rump tense up and then budge inwards, both from the stuck mare pulling herself in and because the method that Trippy tried seemed to work.
Calambite strained and struggled, trying to wiggle herself in. She felt that she managed to slide her butt further in with her, but that her hips still held her in place. She focused on wiggling those specifically, but could not achieve much thanks to her compressed state. The others outside were going strong, but no matter how hard they pushed her, they were not able to unwedge her hips from the pipe's edges.
Finally, Iokin gave up from fatigue and sat down on his haunches to rest. Trippy was left to, alone, force her friend through the hole. She obviously wasn't giving up, grabbing both of Calambite's legs and leaning her entire body onto her rear. When she noticed that normal straight-on pushing wasn't working, she began to thrust her friend forward, attempting to force her through with many, hard shoves rather than one long.
Calambite had soldiered on as well, but eventually had to lay down to rest too. She let Trippy keep up with the struggling, until she felt herself being shoved on hard, and feeling an aching pain in her flanks. "Ow! Trippy, stop!" she shouted and felt the pressure leave her backside. She would've given anything to be able to massage her hips now. "It's not working, I'm still not moving." she said and looked down into the blank metal surrounding her. "We just got to face it, we can't fit me through here. Help me go back." she prompted.
"Nonsense, we're on the right track." Trippy said.
"But I'm too big! Do we need to make it any more clear? Just look!" she called out and pushed backwards, making her rump bulge out slightly. "My butt is especially the reason to why I'm stuck here! It's not getting through this...", she began struggling forward again in anger, "...stupid hole!"
"Well, all we have to do is to give it a big shove." Trippy suggested.
"You already tried that. It didn't work." Calambite replied and attempted to struggle out the way she came. Unfortunately for her, she wouldn't move in any direction, leaving her hopelessly stuck in the pipe entrance.
"Then we're just gonna have to shove harder!" Trippy exclaimed. She looked at the trapped mare and pondered for a moment before shining up and backing up a bit. Upon reaching a fair distance away from the pipe, she crouched down and prepared for a sprint. Iokin looked at her with a confused expression, but decided not to question the mare. Trippy took a deep breath and locked onto Calambite's rear. "Calam! Brace yourself!" she shouted.
Then she charged.
"What do-" was all Calambite could manage before Trippy reached her.
Right before arriving to Calambite, the earth pony mare jumped and let her hind legs go first, before letting them sink into Calambite's backside at full speed. The trapped pegasus let out a loud "OW!" and winced in pain, squrming inside the tight tunnel.
"Why the hay did you do tha..." she began, but noticed right away that something was different. The bottom section of her felt extremely compressed, but now it was the hind legs that were resting on the metal rim. She struggled forward and felt that she actually was able to move.
Trippy had just managed to groggily, from landing on her back, get off the floor when she heard her friend announce; "Hey, it worked!" Looking up, she saw that Calambite's rump had managed to go fully inside the pipe thanks to her bum-rush, and that she now was struggling to get further in. She cracked a grin and looked over to Iokin, who was just nodding approvingly in general. When he saw that Trippy was looking at him, he gave her a short applause, complete with more nodding.
Since her rear had now managed to go inside the pipe, there were no big struggles in trying to slide it through the rest of it. It just went kind of slow. Calambite evenually managed to squeeze her upper body through the pipe exit. Her progress only halted when she had to squeeze her hips out of the hole. Upon reaching that point, she grinded to a halt and had to tug harder.
"Come on..." she grunted, placed her hooves onto the metal rim and pushed hard whilst at the same time stretching out her upper body. Trippy and Iokin both looked at her nervously, before the pegasus mare, with some flapping of her wings, thrusted forward and fully slid out of the pipe.
"Yes!" all three of them shouted at the same time. Calambite was happy to be able to breathe normally again after feeling pressure from all sides. She landed by the pipe which she'd just gotten through after doing a small loop of success in the air. "Tightest squeeze of the year, guys!" she called out to the other two ponies. Trippy shoved the flashlight through the pipe to Calambite who took it in her mouth.
Alright, time to get to the task at hand! she thought, turned around...
*CLANG!*
...and immediately slammed her head into a very low-hanging pipe.
"Oh my gosh! Are you ok Calambite?" Iokin called out upon hearing the sound of his friend crashing into the metal.
Calambite only managed to see stars for a few moments until she regained her senses and shook her head. "Ow." she winced and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to watch were I'm going."
She picked up her dropped flashlight, plus the toolbox, and trotted further into the pipe maze.