A Most Unusual Artifact

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There was a buzz at the door to the lab. Resplendent Relic had been expecting a delivery. She heard the low hum of the grav-lift of the delivery truck leave almost as soon as the buzzer had sounded. How odd, usually they waited so you could sign a delivery slip. Most artifacts she received required one as proof it had actually made it to its destination.

In any case, the package had been deposited in the scanner box outside the lab. Couldn’t be too careful these days. She trotted over to the screen and watched as the small, innocuous looking brown parcel was scanned up and down by the device. Should anything be amiss, the package would immediately be locked behind a blast-proof shield and could be safely disposed of.

SCANNING…

The process usually took a few moments. Through what she could see of it, there was just an address label and nothing more attached to the outside of the package.

SCAN COMPLETE. NO ANOMALIES DETECTED.

There was a fwsshh as the glass door unlocked itself and Reli was able to reach in and pull the now waiting package out. She carried it over to one of her free benches and started to unwrap it. Inside, a plain white box which was easy to open, packed in soft packing peanuts she gently removed it from the box.

It was a very old, very ancient statue. At least from a first glance of her eyes it looked to be anyway. Resplendent Relic was an Artifact Researcher and her work was well known across the many planets ponies had settled. Often she was sent things like this to study, usually however it was preceded by contact from the interested party as well as more information than this. She had never just gotten a relic before like this. A good thing the lab had a scanner to detect threats.

The statue was...odd, to say the least. It was a pony, clearly one who was more than partial to snacks and treats. The figure it depicted was vastly overweight. A pony so big she was planted on her belly, somewhat sunk into herself. There was no clothing added to the figure to speak of, or if there was over the centuries it had worn away. The only other real feature of note was a large pair of flanks she suspected could have acted as a counterbalance to the belly. How interesting. Reli started to ponder what kind of Goddess this pony was meant to represent. Statues of this era tended to do so. But a fat one? That was new…

She was immediately distracted by it, discarding her current study (a rather dull, ancient looking chest brooch) to take a closer look at the statue. As she started to work over the statue with her hooves, her ears picked up on a faint click from within. It seemed the object wasn’t completely solid as she first suspected. Now moving to the middle of the object, hidden from sight as Reli picked it up with her hooves was an almost impossible to detect hairline crack right along the centre of the figure's belly. Curiously, she pressed on the small outie belly button it sported.

As she did so, the button clicked. It seemed it was an actual button. Quickly taking her hooves off the figure she watched as the top flipped open, an internal hinge now revealing the objects true nature. It appeared to be a very clever forgery, or someone had actually gone through the trouble of desecrating such an old artifact to hide...a bomb.

She only had a split second to react, shielding her eyes as best she could but Reli pushed the statue as far away from her as possible before it detonated. There wasn’t a bang, or a loud explosion. There was more an ear splitting fwisz as blue light exploded off the interior device and covered the lab, spreading out the windows and exiting at high speed like a wave of glittering water that pushed into the surrounding blocks. Reli wasn’t aware, but the pulse engulfed the entirety of Iola city before it dissipated out. After it left the lab, there was silence.

“Hnnggg…” Reli got up, seeing that the only damage seemed to be to the small statue itself. The lab was unchanged and even the lights were on. She mused on it. The mare would have thought the blue wave to be an EMP blast of some kind but it didn’t even seem to have that effect. Perhaps a warning, or something else? Clearly the interior bomb had been shielded from being detected by the thick outer casing of the statue. She’d have to let their security firm know about this flaw in the detection device. When she picked the statue up, the thing itself now appeared to have served it purpose and only a charred exterior remained. Clearly a one time use, it had burned itself out. Reli would have thrown it out immediately but it still was attached to something that interested her, fake or real. She’d like to determine that before she got rid of it. For now the mare left it on her workbench, eager to get back to it later on.

She heard another familiar noise. This time it was a Bee-boop! as the lab door opened from a key card access from the outside. Reli smiled, it was Opulent Chips her marefriend entering. She gave her a hug.

“Did you see that!?” she excitedly exclaimed.

“The large blue flash? Yes - what was that?” she asked.

“This!” Reli said, pointing to the statue. “But the device burned itself out...no harm done. Dunno what it was for though.” Reli replied.

“Well you seem unscathed. Hungry? Remember we have a dinner date at The Spire.” Chippie reminded her (A nickname Opulent Chips was used to).

“Oh, of course. I’ll just shut everything down and pack up.”

It wasn’t long before the two were ready to leave, the lab locked up safely for the night. From a balcony on an adjacent building, the package sender smiled. Phase one was complete.

Iola city, the jewel on colony Araxis Prime. Of course, the colony sported many other habitation spots but Iola was where everypony wanted to be. A hub of commerce, research and trendsetter for anything cool on Araxis. Superscrapers pierced the skyline with ponies taking advantage of many of the luxuries to come out of Iola like self driving carriages, super luminal elevators and even teleportation pods for the wealthiest of citizens. Of everything in Iola however, The Spire was the hottest spot in the city. The tallest Superscarper built at a huge cost right in the centre of the Iola it was practically a self-sustaining city in itself. At the very peak, the finest restaurant in the whole of Iola city. Some historians speculate this is the point at which it all began, but many believe another location to be far more significant.

A excerpt from page 112 of ‘A history of Equestrian colonies, chapter 46: Iola city, Araxis Prime’ - 3rd revised edition

“You know you really don’t have to treat me to this restaurant so much. It must cost you a fortune.” Reli said to Chippie as the two entered and were ushered to their usual table.

“No more than it costs to rent that space for your lab so close to here, property near The Spire is expensive you know Reli.” Chippie smirked back.

Reli thought she had better keep her muzzle shut. She knew Chippie didn’t like it when she went on about money related things. She must have told her a hundred times to let her do what she wants with her money. Although Reli had stated her appreciation heavily for the prime lab spot she still felt she owed Chippie a debt.

The two were sat in Central, an apt name for a restaurant situated in the middle of everything. The views were spectacular. From the high vantage point and crystal clear windows Reli could always glance down and see the bustling city below. Floating, self driving carriages criss-crossed the skyways and she watched as ponies were whisked by in the super luminal elevators to some other part of the city. As per normal, her idle daydreaming was interrupted by a menu being brought over by one of the small robotic waiters and dropped in front of her face.

“Hmmm. You know I am feeling quite hungry today.” Reli said.

“Me too, as are apparently the rest of the diners.” Chippie responded. Looking around, it wasn’t hard for Reli to see exactly what she was talking about. Usually because of the location and exclusivity of Central, ponies often waited months for a spot to be able to eat here and went overboard with their meals (it was only due to Chippie’s status that the two were able to dine here so often) and as such, it wasn’t that odd to see a Pony order several plates of food. However today, all the diners didn’t just have several plates of food. They had several plates of food and were then ordering many more plates once they had finished with those. Within the space of a few minutes Reli observed one particular pony rapidly chew their way through a large meal and order seconds.

“I see what you mean, well, shall we join them for once?” Reli asked. Her stomach rumbled a little beneath the table, she was quite hungry. Perhaps the work in the lab had given her a bigger appetite today.

“Very well. Order what you want and I’ll do the same. On me.” Chippie replied. Without delay, Reli put an order of several dishes into her ordering pad. The beeps from Chippie’s own gave away that she was also doing the same. “Might as well eat as much as we want huh? We can always burn the energy off.” Chippie carried on.

“Yes of course.” Reli replied.

Whilst waiting, the usual discussion of what each was up to kept them entertained until the food arrived. Chippie didn’t reveal too much about her personal life, she felt that a lot of her high class functions she attended and various meets with ponies were on the boring side. Being rich meant being in a part of the world that others very rarely got to see and ponies like Reli were made to feel rather small when they brought it up. She took Reli on as many things when it was appropriate, but it wasn’t always. Plus, Reli was often buried in her work. Reli on the other hoof described in more detail what had happened when Chippie had arrived at the lab. It was a curious tale but it seemed that it was now all over. They may as well relax and enjoy the evening. The plates arrived and the two started to eat.

There is one particular block in the city where the outbreak can be traced back to, the home of what was then Artifact Researcher Resplendent Relic. An ordinary housing high rise by standards of the city, Historians do query why the most likely pony in the city to spot the issue arising at the time did not. Now lost to time, it is difficult to trace back as to how everything went so wrong.

Page 43, Araxis Medical Journal.

“Snrrrfffff!”

It was a snort, of such. Reli awoke at home. Of course she didn’t sleep in the lab, that would be a little too much. Chippie covered expenses for the apartment also. What the mare didn’t do for her…

Reli had to struggle to get out of bed. Odd, she didn’t usually have to actually make an effort. Getting up was something that generally took no gusto. However this morning it seemed the effects of the meal last night hadn’t gone away as she had hoped. Everything seemed like a blur once the alcohol became involved. She was sure between the two of them that her and Chippie had polished off several glasses of wine. No wonder she felt hungover. Still blurry eyed and wandering around the room after getting out of bed she stumbled towards her bathroom to freshen up and try to make herself at least feel somewhat normal. It would still take several hours for the alcohol to wear off however completely.

As she walked through the entrance to the bathroom (no door, just an archway) she felt her flanks brush against the side. Both sides. That was very odd...they never usually did that. She decided to dismiss it, at least until she got in front of the mirror and focused.

“Oh...Celestia, is that me!?”

Once the alcohol had really kicked in the remainder of the night had mostly been lost to Reli, even in memory. Clearly though from what she was looking at, they had continued to order more and more food as the evening had carried on. She was amazed she had put on so much weight, it looked as if the mare had eaten enough to feed a family and then had second helpings.

Never in her life had her ass been so huge that it was starting to slightly ride up behind her into her vision. Big bulbous wobbly cheeks were now slightly pinching the dock of her tail. It was no wonder she had felt them gently squish against the entrance to the room. She was easily twice as wide as she was before. Her stomach, which she gave a small pat, also sunk low towards the floor. In fact she hadn’t really noticed as she had trotted, thinking it was just her meandering towards the room in a sorry state that had caused her belly to brush the floor. Now she was aware it was due to the fact she had eaten so much her stomach hung low between her legs and squished into her hooves slightly. If this had happened to her, she was wondering how large Chippie was. In fact she seemed to somewhat recall she was the one who kept insisting on more food, from what little she could remember of their binge yesterday.

There must be something that caused all this? Reli was starting to panic somewhat. She was still hung over, but then she remembered. That now spent, innocuous looking statue that she had put aside in her lab. The large flash of light it had emitted could have been anything, but her mind was starting to make sense of things as she became more alert. The ponies at Central gorging themselves, her unusually increased appetite. The flash of light she had dismissed as having done nothing might well have done something. She needed to get back to her lab and get it analysed. For a smart mare, sometimes she was a little stupid. A modern device implanted in a seemingly ancient statue!? Of course something was up.

Waddling her way out of her apartment, giant stomach and hefty ass squishing against the exit once more as the exit door wasn’t much wider she knew she had to get to the lab. Getting there at speed would be a little difficult in this state but there was clearly more to it than she first thought.

Hunger in ponies once unleashed is an unstoppable force! Properly curated however it can be useful. I recall a tale that beset our colony centuries back of a hunger wave that swept through the city for reasons unknown. To these days I still wonder what set it off. Ah well, now back to our recipe for today…

Pony celebrity Chef Cheese Omelette speaking on ‘What’s Eating You?’ - A popular cooking broadcast on Araxis Prime.

“Hmmm...no, deadlock. That’s a false circuit…”

Reli had after some effort made it to the lab, it was generally a short trot from her apartment but today it had taken some extra time, she had to stop for a hot dog on the way. Despite the fact she had eaten a lot last night, her stomach was still growling for more. The device was proving complicated as well. It seemed to have burned out after use making examining it even more of a chore but she could still probe away at the circuits that remained to try to figure out what purpose it was meant to have.

Even after a snack that would have kept her fed for most of the day, it was still complaining. She could feel it rumbling beneath her as it seemed to ask for more to keep it fed.

“I can’t be still hungry…” Reli mused to herself. But her body was telling her otherwise. Pangs of hunger kept hitting her brain as she tried to work. It was becoming impossible to ignore.

“Hi Reli!”

The familiar voice of course belonged to Chippie, who had let herself into the lab. “You weren’t home so I figured you’d be here, mind if I interrupt?” she asked. She noticed as well Chippie had gained just as much weight as Reli, even a little more so. Her body reflected the food binge they had at Central the night before and she looked just as big and impressive as Reli. Before Reli had a chance to reply however to her query, Chippie placed a large basket of food on her workbench in front of her. It didn’t take much for Reli to start slavering somewhat, but she had to ask.

“Why the huge amount of food?”

“Because I’ve been STARVING all morning! And If I have I figured you would be too. Weird isn’t it!? We ate so much last night and I’m still hungry.” Chippie replied with a smile.

“Well, look, you’re right about that part. I don’t need to eat though!” Reli said, her stomach making a little confirmatory growl that ruined her argument. It just made Chippie give her a coy smile.

“You know you don’t need to try and hide it with me Reli, in fact I brought this food for you.” she teased, taking the lid off and pulling out a large slice of pie.

“Now wait...I...mffff!” Reli started to say, her continued protests interrupted by her maw being filled with food.

“Now that’s not much of a protest, it’s almost as if you want to eat.” Chippie continued. The food kept coming and apart from little noises from her lips, Reli didn’t stop chewing what was being pushed gently into her mouth. She knew it wasn’t forced, that Chippie was doing it with love and affection as she did with everything. This was different though, she had never shown any sort of draw towards eating. What had changed?

Reli was starting to wonder the same thing about herself, she had never shown much interest in eating beyond needing what she had to eat. Last night however and right now, she could feel lust, pleasure. So many wonderful feelings that made her want to keep chewing whatever was offered to her. As she ate, she felt Chippie start to wrap her free hooves around her stomach, subtly playing with her bountiful figure that was growing once more with the added food she was being fed.

“Mmmmm…” Reli managed to moan.

“I figured after our little binge last night you’d be up for more fatso, you’re really enjoying this and so am I.” Chippie teased. The mare was loving just how easily Reli was taking to eating such a large quantity of food. She had one more little surprise left, but it could wait until after the meal was done.

All Reli felt was more weight being added to her body, more pounds, more of her! And whilst all this was going on Chippie was attending to her most sensitive areas, running hooves between her folds, gently kissing her. She felt so loved, aroused by the attention. It was all she could do to stop herself doing more than just eating and moaning in lust.

“What a porker. I never knew ponies could eat like you, be as large as you are. This is a treat to be in love with somepony of such size. A few more pounds and your body will break scales.” the teasing kept up. With the food nearly consumed by Reli, Chippie was making sure to enjoy herself as much as possible by continually teasing Reli about her size. She could see it was working, with every mouthful the tint of rose on her cheeks got a shade deeper.

They were at it for quite a while, at least until the food vanished. Both were completely lost in their enjoyment of one another. The session was only brought to a halt by a familiar noise to Reli.

Fwisz!

The two were so lost in each other that both had failed to notice the burned out bomb was no longer burned out. The two abruptly stopped when a second wave of blue light as before burst forth and watched in awe as it consumed the lab and shot out the windows at speed before covering the entire city.

“I thought it was burned out!” Reli panicked, immediately but slowly getting up and waddling her way over to the object which now appeared even blacker than before. “It must have some sort of self repair…”

“Huh? Burned out? What are you talking about?” Chippie asked. The food was gone and the two had enjoyed themselves. Might as well call it quits now.

“This thing. It got sent to me yesterday anonymously. I thought it was an artifact. Look.” Reli explained, closing the lid to reveal the fat pony Goddess concealing the hidden interior device.

“You know if you carry on eating you’re gonna look like her.” Chippie teased. Reli just frowned.

“I think this is why we’re so hungry, and what you’ve said only confirms it. It keeps sending out these pulses over the city and I bet that’s what is making ponies want to eat so much.” Reli mused.

“Well, is that such a bad thing? We were enjoying it.” Chippie replied.

“I...uh.” Reli blushed. “Look I think I need to look at it more closely before it goes off again. It seems to be inert once more.”

“Sure, but you’ve got time. Anyway, I bought you a gift.” Chippie said.

“The giant amount of food wasn’t a gift?” Reli asked.

“A different sort of gift. Here. One for you and me.” Chippie continued, pulling out from the basket she had brought with her some clothing from the bottom. To Reli, it looked like some sort of sleek bodysuit. The material was stretchy as she toyed with it somewhat in her hooves.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“A slimming suit. Probably sounds a little shady I know, but considering how I was, I figured you’d be the same and could use one. It was a good price and I got it right outside the lab.” Chippie explained.

“There’s no retail stores around here, where outside the lab?” Reli asked.

“Didn’t quite catch the face, she was wearing a hood. But a mare of sorts. She saw me and said she had something for sale that might interest me. If the magic on these suits works like she said, I was interested, as fun as it is seeing you the size of a small cart.” Chippie teased.

“Hmmm, so it’s meant to slim me down just by wearing it I guess?” Reli asked.

“Exactly.” was all Chippie said, already putting hers on. “Go on, try it.”

Reli didn’t want to upset Chippie, but she was a little wary of a suit strangely procured from some random mare outside the lab. Still, what was the worst that could happen?

As she stretched the material over her body (which required quite a lot of stretching due to her size) she felt it snugly form to her shape. There was a light glow and the gentle hum of a magical aura which briefly shrouded the suit as the spell tied to the garment took hold. Within but a few moments, Reli was amazed. She and Chippie were back to their pre-binge bodies. Just as slim as they were before. Reli looked behind her, her flank had vanished from her vision and her tail was no longer pinched by her cheeks. It really did work.

“You need to keep it on, it’s somewhere between an illusion and physical spell.” Chippie said. “The seller explained to me that if you take it off, the spell will break and you’ll be as big as you were before. I figured though we can at least use them to get around more easily and break out the flab when we want some fun.” she said with a smile.

“Well, it’s something. I figured there was no magic strong enough to just vanish fat into thin air…” Reli said, a little disappointed but was glad to be back to a regular size. She gave Chippie a hug. “Thank you for thinking of me once more.”

“No problem cutie. Now, I need to run some errands. I’ll leave you to do your work. That was fun.” Chippie said, picking up the basket and making for the exit. “See you later.”

Reli went back to work, now more mobile than before with the aid of the bodysuit. Everything was just getting stranger and stranger. A device to make ponies eat? Being huge? A rather enjoyable experience eating even more? She had some idea of what it all meant, but perhaps some study of this statue would help more. What she had was only a theory. Knowing it wasn’t burned out (probably a fail safe mechanism to prevent ponies like her prodding about with it after it had gone off) she decided that the best course of action for the remainder of the day was to see if she could figure it out and disable it.

It was around this time news started to make it out to the other colonies about the problem besetting Araxis Prime. I was just a young filly but I remember the Extranet scans of ponies as big as houses! I couldn’t believe it. Still as fantastical as it may seem it was all real. Thank goodness for technology, I bet it saved some of the bigger ones from perishing…

An interview with Yule Tide, found in an Extranet article dating back 312 years.

“Mmmm...hmmm?!”

As Reli woke, she first was sure she was in some sort of fat-induced dream that was making her feel exceptionally heavy. However, as her eyes focused she was very much aware it wasn’t a dream at all. She tried moving, all she felt was huge amounts of squishy fat pressing into all of her hooves, even more so than yesterday. Currently, she was on her back (her usual sleeping position) and was incredibly lucky her bed was pushed up against her bedroom wall. It was the only way she could get enough leverage to actually push herself onto her hooves.

Sloooooossshhhh!

There was an audible slosh as her massive belly came into contact with her mattress, the bed creaking from the shifting weight it was trying to hold up. Reli could finally see herself. A huge stomach pushed forward from between her front hooves. Behind her, a towering mountain of blubber as her two flanks were no longer just pinching her tail, but had almost consumed it totally. She was double the size she was yesterday, even somewhat more. There was another thing too. The suit. She was still wearing it! She knew magic wasn’t to be trusted. Clearly it had amplified the blubber it was trying to hold back. Reli was seconds from ripping the thing off when she hesitated. What if it wasn’t the suit? What if as soon as she pulled it off, there was even more fat hidden underneath!?

She had no idea what to do. Jiggling her way out of bed she would have gone to inspect herself in the bathroom, but she was far too big to even get inside. She tried, but all that happened was her bulbous flanks instantly wedged themselves around the edge of the door. The entry to her apartment was a little wider, but not much. She started to panic that she'd be trapped inside. In reality, not pulling off the suit was the only thing that saved Reli from being completely trapped and filling the entire room. She was in fact, much larger under that suit that she could ever have imagined. It felt so taught on her though, clearly the material was struggling to stretch much more than it was already.

With a huge amount of struggle, effort and gusto Reli forced her way out her apartment, her flanks squishing hard against the frame which she nearly ripped off when she tried to put a little more effort into getting out. Thankfully she managed to wiggle her posterior out the door and then out the building into the street. It was early, so in the short trip to her lab she didn’t see any other ponies. She had to get there and study the artifact and turn it off. Had it sent out another pulse in the night causing her to just get bigger in her sleep?

Thankfully the lab had a double wide entryway so she managed to get in no problem. She had only spent maybe an hour looking once more at the statue and getting no further when Chippie waddled her own fat self into the lab. Reli was amazed, she was just as large as she was, her own bodysuit hugging her massive towering figure. Blubber gently rolled between her legs and her ass formed not just one, but several shelves behind her head, tail consumed between plump cheeks.

“Oh my…”

“I know I know, look after I left last night I might have indulged in a meal or...twenty.” Chippie said with a blush.

“No, I mean. It happened to you as well. I didn’t eat. This just happened overnight!” Reli said, waving a hoof towards her massive ass in a panicked state. “I think this thing went off again. Don’t take off the suit, I can’t work out whether it’s the artifact or the suit adding weight and if we take them off, we might be even bigger.” Reli explained.

“I doubt it’s the suit, I was told they keep weight off…” Chippie started to say.

“Yes, by a mystery street salespony who are all completely trustworthy.” Reli retorted. She saw Chippie just frown.

“Okay fine, point taken. But we have a date today, remember? It was supposed to be your off day.” Chippie said.

“I know, but this is...this is crazy! I have to figure out what’s going on!” Reli said, turning her attention back to the artifact. She was so consumed she didn’t notice Chippie had made her way behind her until she felt two hooves push into her massive flanks.

“H-Hey! Now is not the time Chippie!” she protested.

“Now is exactly the time! You need to relax! I can tell when you’re stressed. We’re going out on our date and that’s that!” Chippie yelled from behind her. Reli was a little impressed, despite having just as much weight and heft as her marefriend, she found she was quickly being pushed out the lab. Chippie’s will for a date must have been stronger than her physical strength to push back and stay looking at the statue. She sighed and just resigned herself to having to get back to it after the date, comically being pushed forward and out the front entrance.

Of course at that point we knew the chain was doomed on Araxis Prime. Ponies eating so heavily they did THAT to one of our stores? We didn’t open another buffet there for a hundred and fifty years as the financial damage set us back several decades. Even when we reopened, it was cautiously and portion sizes were limited!

From a news bulletin interview with Gristly Steak, current owner of the Ham Hog buffet chain.

“So where are we heading, somewhere romantic?” Reli asked. Clearly the city planners had some forethought for the amount of traffic paving would have to take as the two even at their sizes could comfortably waddle next to each other. Reli felt her bulbous and towering flank bump into Chippie’s, the sway of both their hips causing their bodies to come together as they moved.

“Even better and it’s only a short trot...waddle.” Chippie corrected herself. Eventually, they two came to a buffet.

“Well, it doesn’t look that romantic…” Reli started to say.

“Well, it’s my treat so I’m picking the spot. I thought we could try somewhere new. Besides we’d never fit in The Spire at this size. I doubt anypony would!” Chippie said.

“What do you mean, you doubt anypony would? I’ve hardly seen others.” Reli replied.

“Oh you’ll see plenty in here.”

As the two waddled in, Reli immediately saw what Chippie meant. It was quite the scene, like pigs going at a trough. Plenty of greedy ponies consuming endless amounts of food, the buffet was having to be restocked every few minutes to accommodate the vast eating. Curiously, all the ponies inside had the same sort of bodysuits as Reli and Chippie, just of differing colours. Clearly the mysterious salespony had made her way around the city to accommodate the growing obesity epidemic that was taking hold.

Space was at a premium, Reli and Chippie found a space, wedged right between two other ponies who hardly noticed as their flanks brushed together. It was rather nice actually. Despite her concerns about the huge size of everypony in the buffet there was something about being wedged between soft squishy fat that made Reli forget her concerns. Of course one was a stranger, but the other was Chippie. She leaned her massive flanks slightly more into her to show her appreciation. She was paying for all this after all…

The two started to eat...and eat...and eat. Under her bodysuit, Reli could feel herself packing on more pounds. Gaining more weight which was causing her to struggle to see, her fattening cheeks and belly pushing out in front of her was taking up more and more of her vision. Quickly she was consumed by the need to eat. Her brain conveniently forgot all her concerns about her size. Whilst the buffet had a traditional self serve system like most where ponies could just dig in, there were also drones flying around delivering food straight to the massive ponies mouths. Reli and Chippie were taking advantage of both, hardly stopping to talk or take a breath between mouthfuls.

As the two continued to eat, they found the squish got even squishier, their growing rears and bellies smooshing into one another. The added pounds were starting to take a toll on the bodysuits as well…

Shrriiiiippppp!
Riiiiiipppppp!

She had heard the noise around the buffet but it was muffled against fat. Now that her own bodysuit was starting to rip, Reli noticed it, the material no longer able to hold back the seemingly never ending tide of blubber that was pushing against the magical spell (which was not a particularly strong one, unbeknown to them). As the two ate more and more, more rips and tears in the material started to appear. The gashes were followed by a great spill of fat pushing out.

Whilst all this was happening, the unattended artifact rearmed itself for a third pulse. With nopony even in the lab this time it rippled its way throughout the city nearly unnoticed. Between her gorging, Reli briefly swore she saw a flash of blue light, but dismissed it as a trick of her eyes. This was until the cacophony of ripping and tearing suddenly increased as ponies practically began to explode out of their bodysuits. The fat wave of the artifact causing them to become even huger at a much faster rate than their immense appetites were capable of. Suddenly, the premium space in the buffet, any that was left at least, vanished as Reli felt herself completely squish up against Chippie and the pony next to her. She was aware she was even larger and now even more stuck than she was before, but the thought of eating and just adding to her size consumed her. That wonderful feeling of arousal at her massive size was driving her to keep eating more.

Reli felt motion, squishing and squeezing to be precise. It seemed that not all ponies were as preoccupied with eating as she was and some had panicked at the sudden weight increase whilst others were continuing to just gorge themselves silly. Of the ones that panicked, they were trying to escape the buffet through windows or out the front door. Of the others, they were taking full advantage of feeling the wonderful squish against their huge frames, purposefully jiggling and bouncing themselves against others to make rolls of fat crash back and forth. The building clearly wasn’t built for all this motion, especially from such big customers. Reli found she was being ‘squeezed out’ so to speak as Chippie and the stranger next to her rubbed and wobbled their fatness so close to her that she was pushed back from the buffet, much to Reli’s disappointment.

However, the respite from eating made things clear again. She quickly noticed that the building seemed to be coming apart as fat ponies spilled out into the street to escape the inevitable destruction and with no other choice, slapped Chippie’s flanks hard to get her attention.

“Hey! Ow! What gives!?” came a disgruntled voice.

“We have to get out! The building is collapsing!” Reli yelled, making a rather laboured effort to escape from the buffet, making sure that Chippie was in front of her and didn’t get distracted by all the left food. They were nearly out, but suddenly those extra wide doors to the buffet weren’t so wide.

“I’m stuck!” Chippie yelled. Her cart-sized ass was completely wedged in the frame of the door. With the building crumbling around her, Reli decided it was better to save her marefriends life than worry about causing property damage. With as much effort as she could manage, she leaned her entire weight onto Chippie’s rump to push her through the door, her hooves sinking deep into thousands of pounds of rump fat.

Crack! Pop!

The frame came free of the wall and Chippie popped out. With the added space, Reli was able to waddle her way out and get clear just as with a thundering crash the entire building came down. A wall of dust was kicked up and the two coughed for a moment before observing the wreckage.

“That was...quite the date. I never imagined we’d destroy the buffet that literally.” Reli said, trying to make light of what had been a rather stressful few moments.

“Well I’m glad you had a good time. Do you mind getting this door frame off my flank?” Chippie asked, pointing a blubber hoof to her rear where the remains of the frame still sat around it.

“Oh sure, steady yourself.”

“Why-”

Without saying anymore, Reli rocked her bulbous ass into Chippie which shattered the frame, exploding off her ass into a thousand pieces. Fat slapped and jiggled together as the two cart-sized rumps bounced off one another. Reli figured she’d at least put her added weight to some use.

“O-Oof...well that got rid of it.” Chippie said, blushing.

“Mmm well, I figured I might as well take advantage. Thank you for the date, even if it did end in destruction.” Reli replied.

Curiously around the time of this fat epidemic I remember that was when the now commonplace PADDs came into use. PADD meaning Pony Assisted Driving Device. I’m too old now to really remember it all, perhaps it was just fortuitous timing? Technology was advancing at a rapid rate after all.

From an Extranet forum post, source unknown.

“So now what?” Reli asked.

“Well, I suppose we could help clear up and tidy some of this wreckage we’re partly responsible for, but at this size it’s going to be hard going.” Chippie suggested.

“I suppose we should, I wonder who the owners are. I feel bad.” Reli frowned.

“It’s a big chain, don’t feel so bad.” Chippie said.

As they started to move towards the wreckage their wobbly advance was interrupted by a low whirring. Besides the two of them, a flat hovering platform appeared. It wasn’t just one, it was many. The objects had crane-like arms too. Reli and Chippie watched as the devices started to claw up debris and dumb it on the flat surface that gently hovered above the ground. The two breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the city council had turned up rather quickly to help clear up the mess. Reli wasn’t so sure about the council part though. The devices seemed to be under the command of one mare. Reli thought she would investigate, with Chippie trailing behind.

“You turned up quick. You on the council?” she asked. Unusually, this pony seemed to be the only thin one she had seen all day. Perhaps the pulse had not affected her.

“Council? Please my dear, I am a private contractor.” the mare gruffly replied.

“Well what are those things?” Chippie asked.

“PADDS. They’re for sale you know. I bet a couple of hefty mares like you could make good use of them to get around.” she said with a smirk, not even hiding her contempt for the pair of fatties.

Reli was just about to give her as much verbal abuse that she could muster when Chippie interrupted. “How much are they?”

“More than you can probably afford.” she retorted.

“Please, you don’t even know who I am do you?” Chippie said, bucking her rear slightly to show her now rather enlarged stretched cutie mark that covered her flanks.

“Wait...You’re Opulent Chips? Hmm, well I suppose if you’re paying…” the mare mused. “Come with me, I think we can work something out.”

Reli would have protested, but Chippie just waved her away with a hoof to say ‘let me handle this’ before vanishing with the mare. When she returned, two PADDs trailed behind her.

“You bought two that quickly huh?” Reli asked.

“Well I’m sick of walking...waddling, whatever! Look at the size of us Reli, Celestia knows we can’t work this off in a few days. It’s going to take months! A little help getting around wouldn’t be unwarranted. I got you one.” Chippie said.

“I’m surprised you aren’t more concerned about all this Chippie.” Reli said.

“Well, we need to deal with it. I’m dealing with it. Now then, I believe we have an interrupted date to finish.” Chippie said with a smile.

Iola City went from the jewel of Araxis to the garbage heap of Araxis in just a few days. You’d have thought some kind of virus or war had swept through the city. That damn bomb all in the name of making some quick cash was downright evil! I hope the pony that started it all got what was coming to her!

A drunken conversation between two unknown stallions. Araxis Prime starport bar. Recorded in the memoirs of a bartender by the name of One Shot. 3rd best selling novel of the last century.

It had worked, by Celestia had it worked. It was even more successful than she had planned for.

High Tide observed the destruction she had wrought around her. Iola had been far too easy to manipulate. The only crutch to her plans might have been the epicentre needing to be the artifact research lab, but she thought she had disguised the device well. She was the only regular sized mare left on the whole colony by now. It was something to behold.

The ponies had kept gorging and growing. That was exactly the device had been designed to do. By now in just a few days they were rivalling small buildings themselves. Those that could no longer fit inside their residential housing were stuck taking up most of the streets being as wide as them. It was the only place they could fit. For those that could still fit inside their homes, the homes themselves were trying their best to accommodate them.

Another distant crash pricked up High Tide’s ears and made her grin. That would be the third block today. The superscrapers were not built to take so much weight. They were starting to crack and fall at the bases, some in different points where particularly heavy ponies occupied the rooms. She watched as one was actually swaying from side to side, the hefty occupants causing the centre of its gravity to shift as they tried in vain to move around inside. She assumed that would be the fourth one to come down. Ponies were no longer just huge, they were whales. The high speed elevators had even become clogged, ponies trying to use them to get to another source of food. Once they backed up with enough blubber, they had succumbed like the superscrapers. On average, each of the city's occupants varied in size from large cart to small warehouse as they had spent days packing on the pounds at this point with varying success.

Selling the PADDs had been a huge triumph, oddly she had somewhat underestimated demand. In fact the only ponies she could see moving about were the ones who had bought her device. Overnight, High Tide had become the richest mare in the city. Even more than that snooty Opulent Chip she had sold a PADD to a few days ago. The rest were left to be stuck in their homes and on the streets. No pity for those that couldn’t afford to move.

She had set the device to pulse for two days before shutting itself off totally, it seemed adding the burn out look once it pulsed had fooled the artifact researcher as well. The only thing keeping High Tide from being affected was a magic spell to keep her shielded from the effects. Feeling safe as no pulse had now gone off in a number of hours, she had relaxed her magic and let the spell dissipate. She had made her money, recovering the device was somewhat pointless as it was probably now lost in the artifact lab never to be recovered. If the researcher who found it had any brains left beyond just wanting to eat, she would destroy it as soon as she got the chance rather than risk it keep fattening them up. Besides, she had the plans and everything needed to make more if required.

She had to dodge her way around fatties as she made her way through the city and was actually quite close to the lab, she saw one of her own PADDs coming towards her. High Tide had to duck off to the side, not seeing the pony operating it until it had passed as the front was piled high with food. When it did, she immediately recognised the cutie mark of Opulent Chips. Now looking more like a billboard advertisement than anything else. It seemed like the mare was too preoccupied eating to take note that she had just nearly flattened her, almost bumping into her in the process. It annoyed High Tide who yelled “Watch where you’re going fatass!” but she was completely ignored. The PADD did come to a stop for a moment, High Tide watching as fattened ears twitched trying to pick up the source of the sound. After a few moments though Chippie clearly gave up and carried on her way, being unable to see past the flab mountain around her and completely unable to place High Tide down on the street below her. The mare was simply far too big, the whale of a mare's senses obliterated by her need to eat and her monster fat rolls. High Tide wondered where all the food had come from and smirked as Chippie passed her, answering her query for her. There was a wagon attached to the back of her PADD, also filled with food. Carrying on and letting the food obsessed whale pass her, she continued her journey through the city. She thought to herself for a moment. Hmmm, perhaps best to keep the spell going. Just in case.

Log 412. It has been just over a year since the crisis in Iola City and indeed the rest of Araxis Prime, but we are covering the epicentre first. Ponies are starting to return to normal, yet some refuse. They say they like the size they are and have gotten used to it. These ones we are not sure what to do with yet, we can’t just thin them down against their will. Hopefully my boss will have the answer.

Logs from a pony employed to help with the Great Thinning of Araxis Prime.

The lab was quiet. It usually was as Reli was the only occupant, but now with her huge size taking up the majority of the large space inside, her flab muffled most noise.

She still hadn’t given up, despite every nerve in her brain firing telling her to keep eating more she was still curious about this device. It hadn’t gone off now for some time which was good, she assumed it was finally inert.

Once more she had flicked the Goddess statue open and stared at it, amusingly she was now many times bigger than the pony depicted on it. She would have never guessed at such a fate. Flabby, completely useless hooves were no longer going to help her and the only way she found she could actually interact with it was to manipulate the crane arm on her PADD gently to tinker with it. The artifact rested a few feet from her face on top of her stomach, her eyes intently staring at it as the crane arm fiddled with the mechanism.

There was a bit of a eureka moment as Reli finally realised the purposes of it. She had her hunches before but it all became clear. The fat pony on top, the hugely increased appetites, the fact that it spread out like a shock wave over the entire city. It was a flomb, not a bomb. She had read about them once and dismissed them as being fanciful tales from an Archaeologist who had found remains of one and didn’t know what it was so had made the whole thing up. An ancient weapon that had apparently been recreated. This one was similar to the one she had read about but not exactly the same. It had been remade with modern materials, it was only the outer casing made to look old that had fooled her.

A flomb (or flab bomb) was a device used in one particular conflict to essentially put the enemy out of action at home and stop fresh war materiel reaching the front line. Once placed in the enemy city and detonated, in a few days the citizens became unable to work and started to eat their own supplies at a rapid rate. A highly effective weapon that caused minimal casualties. At least back then anyway. It appeared somepony had unleashed one on Araxis Prime all these hundreds of years later. But why? That she couldn’t work out, but at least she knew what it was!

As she realised, she took her eyes off the crane arm manipulating it for one second. There was a chink. What Reli didn’t know is that the flomb also had a manual activation trigger inside the casing as a last resort. Her PADD crane arm had just pushed it.

The wave of blue light washed over her once more and Reli just sighed. Her mass started to increase once more, thousands of pounds of blubber starting to eat into her vision. It seemed she wasn’t quite done growing yet. The lab was large, but she felt her multi-ton flanks start to press against the lab walls. She hoped she wouldn’t destroy it…

Of course Araxis Prime returned to normal, but it would take years and the damage had been done. There is still some question about what or why the city was beset in this manner and even what caused it. Some accounts from the period note the correlation with the sudden appearance of a device capable of moving extremely large ponies, but this is often dismissed as just good timing. I think there is far more to this, as well as some Extranet data that points to a singular, still slim individual who was spotted selling these devices. Of course ponies were so much more petty back then, but I find it quite plausible this was all done in the name of money.

Extranet news interview with Professor Blue Flame of Araxis University, shortly before his death.

High Tide had secured her ship some distance away from the city on an undeveloped hill. It was amazing to her that even all these miles away she could now visibly see ponies. Thank Celestia she had re-engaged her magical shielding. That extra blast of the flomb would have turned her into one of them. Fat mountains jiggled in the distance, crushing the once proud superscrapers of Iola City. Only The Spire seemed to remain untouched, but High Tide could see several mountain sized bulks pressing up against it. It would only be a matter of time.

She thought the flomb had outperformed itself. A total success in her eyes. She had enough money now to see herself set for the rest of her days. So one little colony had to be her test bed. Big deal! Why stop here also? She had the means to make more.

High Tide got into her ship and left Araxis, looking for the next unsuspecting colony.

Back at the lab, there was no room anymore, the lab destroyed with the two ponies occupying it having long since spilled out into the surrounding area. Chippie had made her way to see Reli, eating all the while. She had managed to squish herself inside but that was about it, it was shortly after this another blast had gone off and the two had burst out the lab into Iola. At the time, wordlessly she had parked herself next to Reli and the two had begun to eat from her PADD and the cart full of food behind it. Reli had given up studying the device. She now only cared about eating. She was mountain sized and so was Chippie. Getting bigger and bigger seemed to be the only thing on the minds of the two mares, hunger was all they wanted to sate.

Reli had lost sight of the flomb long ago, which was now squished in her folds dangerously close to the remains of her PADD. The crane arm of which was just a few inches away from the manual trigger which was moving closer and closer every time her mammoth rolls jostled it...