The Weight of the Crown

by Non Uberis

Day 62

“Twilight?”

The voice calling out to her was almost lost over the sound of Twilight Sparkle’s heavy breathing, panting and gasping, whooshing through her throat and skull.

“Oh dear, you really are struggling.”

There was a shimmer, and she felt a tingling all across her body as golden light manifested around her. With an effortlessness that she could only wish to muster when she was trying to fly, Twilight Sparkle was lifted into the air, weightlessly drifting upward until her hooves were allowed to touch down on the floor once more. She looked down at the stairway she had just ascended, and the hall which extended from its base in the direction of the throne room. That was only the latest part of this journey, following the climb through the sloping streets of Canterlot up toward the palace. “I…I never…” she panted breathlessly, “considered…just how much…walking…there really was.”

“It is quite a lot, isn’t it?” Celestia admitted. “The altitude doesn’t help matters much either. I’m somewhat surprised that it became so popular to be overweight even with that difficulty in place.

That size still hadn’t been enough, though, to impede the Princess from making her own climb up the stairs, or from continuing to saunter forward at a plodding but steady pace. Twilight Sparkle had been around the alicorn for enough of her life that she had become desensitized to her bulk, but now she couldn’t keep her eyes from wandering. It was hard not to look when there was so much to take in. The flowing white gown which Celestia wore, made of enough fabric to form a balcony awning, couldn’t completely disguise the sheer breadth of the shelf that was her rear end, buttocks that could smother ponies and couches alike and required a throne that was more like a mattress. The sprawling globes wobbled within their cloth confines as her legs ground together with every step forward, as did her relatively smaller upper body; even from behind, Twilight Sparkle could discern the swells of belly and bosom jutting to either side and swaying about.

It was enough to take one’s breath away, and she hadn’t had much of that to spare in the first place.

“It’s just ahead here, Twilight,” she said, calling back over her shoulder. “Do you require any further assistance?”

“N-no,” the lavender mare hurriedly blurted out, “I’m…fine, I can…handle the rest of it.”

Oh how desperately she wanted to believe that, but her body was all too eager to betray her. The ache inside her flared up abruptly as soon as she began to walk once more, from her hooves up through her legs, heart and lungs burning. She might have hoped that gaining the strength of an earth pony would make tasks such as this easier, but she had already found that she still underperformed compared to Applejack or even Pinkie Pie—it was her capacity that had increased more than any innate power, and she still had to tap into that side of herself. Seeing Princess Celestia in motion now, though, really served to highlight the absurdity of it to her; she had difficulty believing that any amount of physical strength by itself would be enough to make it effortless to have that much mass attached to one’s frame.

With Celestia holding the (double-sided and very wide) door open for her, Twilight Sparkle turned and stumbled into the private chamber. The room was one part study and one part kitchen, the shelves and table on one side standing opposite to a counter with basic cooking amenities, ideal for making small meals and snacks while researching. The musty smell of old books was just enough of an incentive to give her the extra willpower to shuffle over toward the table. She used to be skinny enough that the oversized chairs of the palace would make her feel like a foal when she sat in them, now her rump filled the seat as snugly as the pants she wore, the waistband constricting uncomfortably against the underside of the gut now that she was reclining (despite her best efforts to make accurate estimations of her projected dimensions, Rarity’s warning had proven true and the new clothes had turned out to be ill-fitting for her, and, worse, ended up on the side of tight rather than loose). When Celestia came over to sit across from her, the chair she sat upon was more like a bench, ornately carved wood reinforced with metal, and it still groaned ominously under her weight.

“I suppose it would be for the best if we got straight to the point,” Celestia said while her horn glowed with magic once more. She didn’t even look at the motions of the teakettle floating around a counter that was set into the wall behind her, filling with water from a sink and then setting upon a stovetop to boil. “Perhaps you should start by telling me what you have learned on your own.”

“Um, well…” Twilight Sparkle took a moment to shift gears into presentation mode, summoning up all the information which she had been going over on the train ride to Canterlot. She shrugged off the messenger bag she’d brought with her and set it on top of the table with a heavy thud (that added weight admittedly hadn’t helped her during the climb), then removed a series of books and papers from it. With her magic, she lifted several the books and flipped them open to the relevant pages, keeping them held up to serve as visual aid.

“I have observed in my study of Equestrian history that references to you and Luna always seem to plainly depict that you are…fat.” The books showed pictures of ancient paintings, dating many centuries ago, even before Luna’s banishment. They depicted the alicorns in a number of regal and lavish contexts, but the clear trend among them is that they are shown to be exceptionally large—sometimes not quite in the manner they appeared today, sometimes in more impressionistic styles, but certainly always of a size larger than the ponies around them.

“And what do you suppose the reason for that might be?” Celestia said nonchalantly, at the same time that the teakettle began to steam and cry in the background, and she proceeded to levitate it over along with cups and saucers and teabags. “Many ponies in Equestria are of a decidedly heavy body shape, it has quite the appeal.”

“Yes, well, most of the reason that that trend has developed is because you, specifically, are overweight,” Twilight Sparkle asserted while flipping through more pages. “Many sources allude to the attractiveness which you demonstrate, which many in turn have sought to emulate on account of the great respect which is lavished upon you. It may not be unanimous appeal, but there has been a clear upward trend in rates of obesity among the Equestrian populace over the course of your reign. I even found…” She sifted through her notes. “That there was once a member of your cabinet who thought that you and Luna were unfit for rule because you were…um…” She had written down the exact words she found but she hesitated to actually say them out loud in front of the Princess.

“That we were slovenly pigs who had stumbled into the throne room on the way to the charnel house,” Celestia finished for her, and there was a dry chuckle in her throat. She poured tea for herself and then took a sip from the cup while the floating kettle did the same for Twilight Sparkle, adding a scent of lemon and honey to the room. “Lady Prim Proper, that was the one. She tried to rally a coup against us. We made a point of quashing her forces without any assistance from our retinue. It did not fare well for them, I assure you.”

Despite Twilight Sparkle’s knowledge of the mare’s fearsome magical prowess, in this case she couldn’t resist imagining her defeating her enemies simply by crushing them beneath her rear.

“But why, then, do you suppose that we are fat in the first place?” Celestia then asked, bringing the conversation back around.

“Well…” The mare desperately didn’t want to believe that it was true, but it was the point which she kept coming back to no matter how much she tried to reinterpret the circumstances. “It has to have something to do with being alicorns, right? Something about being an alicorn…just naturally leads to gaining weight.”

“And what do you think is the cause for that?” Celestia asked next.

Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips, her ears flattening, but she held her tongue regarding these leading questions. “It’s…likely something to do with an alicorn’s naturally increased magic, though I don’t understand how exactly. The best explanation I could come up with is that it’s…because the fat is used as storage capacity in some way, more fat means more magic to use, but…that just doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t?” Celestia asked between sips, sounding intrigued even though she certainly knew the answer already, “And why is that?”

“It’s…that’s just not how it works!” She spoke emphatically while slowly sitting up straighter in her chair. “We don’t store magic in ourselves. We channel it through the ley lines that run across the planet. It comes up through us when we cast a spell and then gets released and dissipates back into the ether.” She was starting to breathe more heavily again. A fire had been lit in her belly, a fire that was stoked by her very extensive fields of knowledge.

Celestia hummed, turning and churning her cup of tea. “You are indeed correct, my dear pupil,” she declared with a faint hint of pride, “I am glad that your studies have proven so fruitful in your endeavors.”

“O-oh, well…” Twilight Sparkle deflated slightly, still proving to be unable to resist the Princess’s praise. “It was just a little basic research…”

“But please, Twilight, do take care of yourself.” Golden light pushed the teacup in front of her a little closer. The alicorn smiled gently, reassuringly.

Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips, exhaling a huff of hot air through her nostrils, before she took the cup and saucer in her hands. It was still hot enough that she couldn’t just gulp it down, which was unfortunate because she had underestimated how much she needed that precious moisture in her system.

“It is true that we do not simply store magic within ourselves,” the older mare then said, clearly diving into her own prepared explanation regarding present circumstances, “body fat is nothing more than a series of triglycerides, after all, it would be inefficient to try to contain that much. The truth lies in the nature of how an alicorn channels magic.”

She held up an open palm, and within it she conjured three images spinning around each other: a pony’s hooves, a horn, and a pair of wings. “You see, Twilight, the process of becoming an alicorn is more than merely gaining the capabilities of all three pony tribes.” The three icons coalesced and merged together into the outline of an alicorn, and there was a faint rainbow light strobing around the horn, wings, and hands and hooves. “Ponies have tried, through varying means, to have all of these at once, and there have even been some who succeeded, but they still were not true alicorns. Alicorns are, in fact, so attuned to magic that it encompasses their entire being.” The image changed once more, the form of a pony becoming entirely comprised of the rainbow light. “Your whole body is now like a prism, concentrating and refracting magic to a degree that you never would have been capable of previously.”

There was a pulse within Twilight Sparkle’s skull while she listened with rapt attention. It was the surge of activity, the electricity coursing between neurons, that came from her brain going into overdrive about the implications of something that she had just heard. It took a great deal of willpower to silence those thoughts and focus on the matter that was directly at hand. Eventually, her brow furrowed, she muttered, “But…but why…do I keep getting bigger?”

“In a roundabout sense, your growth is actually more akin to that of muscles than fat.” Her eyes narrowed slightly, concentration intensifying, and her fingers flexed, and the alicorn image in her palm distorted, gaining depth, changing from a flat image to one that was three-dimensional. A current of light began to flow through it, circulating within the body before emerging and fading from the horn and wings and hooves. “The more that your body processes magic, the more capable it will become, and it will reflect this by expanding in order to better facilitate that process. However—” In the midst of the projected alicorn growing steadily bulkier, thicker, rounder as the flow of magic ran through it, Celestia spoke pointedly to deter Twilight Sparkle from the question that was inevitably on the tip of her tongue. “It is not merely a matter of the spells which you cast, as I’m sure you are concerned of. You see, the other factor, and the one which is perhaps even more significant, is the alicorn’s domain.”

“Domain?” Twilight Sparkle repeated, perplexed, “You’re talking about…how you’re connected to the sun, right? And Luna to the moon and Cadence to love?”

“Correct,” Celestia replied with that same pleased teacher demeanor once more, “much like how ponies have their cutie marks, alicorns have a particular kind of magic which they are most in tune with, be it the sun, the moon, love, or…” She began to gesture toward the pony across from her, but then she faltered, and her expression shifted—not just sad; there was a very distinct sense of worry etched across her features—and she sighed wearily. “This is where I cannot beat around the bush any longer.”

Twilight Sparkle felt a particular sense of weight manifest within her, buried heavily in the depths of her gut, not truly physical and yet so burdensome in its presence. Dread gnawed at her, feeling that some terrible realization was looming over her.

“Twilight…” Celestia lifted her hand, started to reach for her, only to realize that their positions didn’t exactly make that conducive. Golden light rose up from beneath her as magic manifested around her seat, lifting her whole body up into the air and rotating around the table so that they were closer to each other. Twilight Sparkle obliged by reaching forward to let her take her hand so that she wouldn’t have to stretch as far across the breadth of her hip and thigh. “You know that I’ve only ever wanted the best for you,” she said softly, solemnly, “I’ve always known that you would be capable of great things. You might not always think that you’re prepared for them, but I know without doubt that you will always find the solution to whatever challenge you face.”

“Celestia…” she murmured back. She felt her emotions welling up within her, ready to burst forth. There was a bittersweet warmth in her heart.

“So I must be honest with you when I tell you that…I may have given you too much this time.”

Twilight Sparkle blinked. “What?”

“I was prepared for these concerns to arise, and I was prepared to help you with them, but at this magnitude…” With another flash of magic, the scrolls that Twilight Sparkle had sent to Celestia appeared on the table before them. The letter was also accompanied by a transcript of the data she and Rarity had been keeping, and Celestia held that up, going over the numbers. “The rate at which your growth has been progressing…it’s far greater than anything we expected. You have already surpassed the weight Cadence had been at in the first year after her ascension.”

“Wait, wh-what?!” Blood pumped fervently through Twilight Sparkle’s veins. She wanted to panic, to jerk away, but the Princess’s touch was keeping her anchored in place, unable to decouple herself from her warmth. “It wasn’t supposed to be this fast?! But then…why is it happening so quickly?!”

“It’s because of your nature, Twilight, because you are so capable,” Celestia replied urgently, and she reached around herself, other arm crossing the breadth of her torso, so she could caress the mare’s wrist with both hands, desperate, pleading. “Your magic was already so great even as a unicorn, and now it is becoming bolstered ever further by your domain. Twilight…” They stared into each other’s eyes. “You are the Princess of Friendship, Twilight. Your domain is based upon your friendships with others.”

Everything became still and clear.

The lavender mare remembered her flight training sessions with Rainbow Dash. The pegasus would fly circles around her, though she would still stop to encourage her to continue forward, taking note of every breakthrough which was achieved.

Providing assistance for the harvest at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack didn’t much like when she used magic as a replacement for bucking individual trees, but she appreciated the support nonetheless, especially where financial planning was concerned.

Helping out at Sugarcube Corner wasn’t nearly as easy. Pinkie Pie may have been too much of a whirlwind of energy for her to keep up with, but that wasn’t going to stop her from trying, not when there was so much that needed to be done.

Sitting in Fluttershy’s cottage, calmly conversing over a light meal. It may not have been the most engaging activity, yet it was pleasant simply to be in the presence of another, to discuss each other’s interests and desires.

Standing in the boutique, listening to Rarity prattle on and on about fashion and occasionally tease her about some aspect of her wardrobe she had failed to consider before giving her a warm hug and then insisting that they do something to treat themselves. Oh how her heart would flutter and bloom every time.

She remembered that feeling, the warmth in her chest, expanding and magnifying.

“Oh,” she blurted out, “oh…oh…”

She might not have been sure, but she found herself distinctly feeling that her waistband had grown ever so slightly tighter in the time since she came to the palace.

“I would understand, Twilight, if…if you don’t think that it is fair for this burden to be placed upon you.” Celestia’s voice wavered, trembling. The façade of her resolve was failing, and to witness the Princess looking so demoralized was perhaps one of the most alarming things for any pony of Equestria. “I want you to know that I am willing to support you no matter what your decision is, even should you decide that you don’t feel up to the task that is presented to you or the difficulties which it may present. No matter what happens, Twilight…I will always care for you.”

Twilight Sparkle stared back at her, breathless, wordless, nearly thoughtless, at a loss for any form of response. She didn’t have to look down to be aware of the older mare’s sheer size, the extent of her bulk, so much larger than she was now, but it was apparent now that she would inevitably be approaching that threshold sooner rather than later. What would it be like, she had to wonder. There were already so many difficulties to be had with tasks and matters that would have been basic parts of everyday life, she wasn’t sure she was ready for what else she might have to face.

The younger alicorn stood laboriously from her seat. In doing so, she slipped out of Celestia’s grasp; she tried not to take in the look of forlorn anxiousness that overtook her face. She lumbered around the study, feeling the way her body moved, so inefficient, grinding and wobbling about. Her thighs were unavoidably pressed together, chafing against the interior lining of her pants. She was still plagued by the tightness of her clothes and the griminess of sweat that came after even light activity.

She clutched a hand over her chest. There was no pain, no strain left over from the exertion of the ascent to the palace, no shortness of breath. No, quite the opposite. That warmth which welled up within her was still present, its soothing calm spreading through her, quelling the doubt that had manifested in her mind. She had known this feeling before, the warm fuzziness of happiness, but it seemed so much more distinct now, even more after becoming aware of the exact source of it. It filled her with an impending sense of doom, the knowledge that a part of her life had ended and something new was about to take its place, yet she couldn’t deny the pleasant joy which it brought to her.

“I…I don’t think…there’s any going back from this,” Twilight Sparkle announced.

“We can find a way, if that’s what it comes down to,” Celestia insisted, with no smaller amount of clattering as she rose as well. “I don’t know if there is any existing way to…to undo an alicorn’s ascension, but I’m willing to put everything aside and—”

“No, Princess.” Twilight Sparkle turned back toward her, her expression solemn and morose, yet coolly determined. “Even if it was possible to do that, I don’t think there’s truly any way to avoid…becoming this. The pursuit of magic and friendship is too ingrained in me for me to stop now. I’m almost certain that I would just end up ascending all over again, sooner or later.” She looked toward the shelves of books that lined the study walls; she recognized many of the titles that were written upon their bindings, tomes that she had pored over in her relentless thirst for knowledge during the time that she had spent in the palace as Celestia’s pupil. “I could go back to the way things used to be,” she muttered, “holed up in my room, doing nothing but reading. After already experiencing what it’s like to have friends, though, there’s no way I could go back to that, and it certainly wouldn’t be fair to my friends either.”

Celestia seemed as if she wanted to be pleased with this revelation, but her worries lingered. “You are certain, then,” she asked warily, “that being this way does not bother you?”

Twilight Sparkle’s gaze drifted back down toward herself, along the sloping shelves that comprised chest and stomach and thighs. She was already beginning to experience struggles in holding her gut within the span of her arms, and she couldn’t even see her hooves while standing straight. “I honestly don’t know what I can say,” she replied with a beleaguered sigh, “I’ve never cared that much about the way I looked, no matter what it was like to grow up in Canterlot. I wish it wasn’t so…inconvenient. The part that bothered me most was that I couldn’t figure out why it was happening. I came to you with the hope that I could understand it better, and now…well, I can’t say I don’t understand.”

They faced each other, and Twilight Sparkle mustered the energy to put up a weak smile. “You are right about one thing,” she said wryly, “I’ve never been able to back down from a challenge before, and I don’t think I’m ready to do that now.”

Celestia chuckled heartily. “That’s the Twilight I’ve always believed in.”

They came together and embraced. Before, Twilight Sparkle would have had to rest her face upon the taller mare’s belly, throwing her arms wide around as much of its circumference as was within reach. Now, she was able to stand up to her bosom, and with her ear pressed to the soft mounds she could faintly hear the beating of her own heart within her chest. Soon, they might finally stand eye to eye with each other. Hugs might still be made difficult, though, if they each had their own frontal mass acting as obstruction.

“You know,” Celestia whispered with a hint of mirth, “your mother once expressed concern to me that you were still so skinny even though you were under my tutelage, she thought you would’ve plumped up some more.”

“What?!” Twilight Sparkle gasped in disbelief and then laughed. “It’s not like being fat is infectious or something!”

“Well, in a sense I suppose it is, under these circumstances,” she replied.

They continued to hold onto each other while they laughed, rippling from one to the other, the warmth of their bodies intermingling.

Author's Note:

A part of the appeal for this idea was that it would allow me to go into headcanon blahblah regarding the nature of alicorns and magic. This chapter also saw a significant amount of rewriting though because I didn't like the way I had written it originally, Twilight got too sad and mopey, as much as I want that to be a significant part of the story I thought it was too extreme and really distracted from the main point.

Celestia had to engage in so much self-restraint to not eat forty cakes throughout this whole conversation.

We're switching up the body emphases from Royal Radiance, just to keep you on your feet.

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Comments

[Shady Nail]

But why? Why would you do this?

[bahatumay]

Forty cakes? That’s as many as four tens!

[Judoon_Warrior]

11550850
Must be a slow meeting for her if it’s only that

[rikusorasephiroth]

11550850
And that's terrible.