The next morning, after an uncomfortable night spent in their carts, proved fruitful. Skies looked better rested, and less liable to faint from exhaustion, and his team had returned from the nearby farms with a massive load of food. They were ecstatic to see other ponies, and horrified that what had happened to the griffons happened to Equestria as well.

As Rarity began to chat amicably with a chubby mare, Twilight’s attention was brought to Skies again, which confused Twilight immensely. Beyond his relatively normal weight, there was nothing different about this pegasus that warranted such a hostile feeling resting in the pit of Twilight’s stomach.

Skies approached Twilight, an eerie smile on his face, “Would you mares mind if I were to show Twilight here to the other room? I’m trying to figure out what happened here with the scientists we have, but I’m afraid we’ve run out of ideas. If Twilight can’t make a picture of this mess, then clearly it’s out of our league. If we can divert any attention that could be wasted on this problem elsewhere-”

Applejack beamed, “It’s alright, Skies. I’m sure Twilight won’t mind.”

Twilight did mind, but she wasn’t going to say anything in front of somepony she thought could have played a hoof in this. She didn’t want to raise any suspicions. Instead of shaking her head wildly like she wanted to, Twilight smiled.

“Of course I’ll take a look.”

“Thanks! Can you wheel yourself in, or do you need hel-”

“I’ve got it, thanks,” Twilight used her magic to roll herself toward Skies, “Where to?”

“Here,” Skies led the way into a hallway, and into another room. Once Twilight had wheeled herself into the room, Skies shut the door.

Twilight twisted her head around, trying to see what Skies was doing. Skies entered Twilight’s line of sight, a horrible smile marred his features. Twilight’s heart sunk into her stomach, and she tried to think of as many defensive spells as she could. She watched cautiously as Skies approached a high table that she couldn’t see the top of.

“I’m sorry, my dear. I can’t do this anymore,” Skies giggled, the sound bordering on hysterical, “This is too amazing, you girls really have no idea, do you?!”

Twilight’s horn sparked to life, but then fizzled. Twilight stared up to where she could see the tip of her horn, beginning to panic. She inhaled deeply, intending to yell, but Skies tutted.

“No, no, dear,” Skies soothed, “There’s no point. This room is completely soundproof-”

Twilight screamed, shouting for her friends. There was no reply, and Twilight’s panic only increased.

“What’s going on!?” She demanded.

“Much more than you know,” Skies smiled, “Like how I’ve just taken your magic away from you completely for just over an hour. This will be long enough for me to show you what I want to show you.”

“Show me?” Twilight tried to use her magic, but no sparks or anything even tried to come out of her horn. Her heart rate skyrocketed, and Twilight felt sweat begin to bead across her body, and collect in her rolls.

“I’m going to show you some of our plans, because I can’t hold the genius to myself,” another laugh, and Skies pushed a button. A door opened, revealing a hallway that sloped downward.

A magical field, blue in colour, rolled Twilight ahead of Skies. Twilight emerged from the corridor, feeling the fat that rolled over the edge of her cart feel free from the pressure of being squished against the walls. Twilight was horrified at the sight in front of her, struck dumb.

What Twilight had assumed to be an extension to the lab, was instead a massive underground complex, carved into the tree Griffonstone was perched upon. A few ponies bustled around, some chubby, but mostly relatively fit looking. A smattering of each of the three tribes, going from place to place, doing things Twilight couldn’t see from such a distance.

What really caught Twilight’s attention, however, was the three dragons that laid in the center of the room. Two of them had their heads in some device that Twilight couldn’t recognize, and the third was slightly separated from the other two. It wasn’t the devices, or even the fact that the dragons were there that made Twilight speechless: it was their size.

All three dragons were still clearly juveniles, though it was hard to discern how young they were due to their sheer sizes. All of them were immobile, fat blobs of dragon flesh spreading across large sections of the room.

The dragon that was separate from the other two was green, and as Twilight was wheeled closer, she saw why he was separate. The dragon was putting on enough weight that he was constantly shedding scales, the scales going so far as to separate a few inches, showing the pale green fatty flesh beneath them.

Now that she was closer, Twilight realized that the dragon’s talons were swallowed in paw fat. He was clearly blinded, his mouth open, and filled with a hose that kept him fed 24/7. The dragon’s belly was a mattress onto itself, rolling over the floor to cover more space than Twilight would have thought possible. His limbs were like pillows strapped to his sides; sacks of uselessness left to wallow in cushion upon cushion of fat. His tail was as wide as a medium sized tree, and looked just as immovable. Part of his tail was overtaken by hanging folds of fat flowing from the dragon’s meaty rear.

The other two dragons, one red, and the other a golden colour, were in very similar situations, though it was impossible to see their faces.

“What-what are you doing?!”

“We’re using the two over there to bake the scones, and this young green thing is shedding scales so badly it would be a shame not to use it.”

Twilight stared, open-mouthed at the sight before her, “I can’t believe this. How did you do this!?”

“We bribed them, of course. Promised to pay them in gold and jewels if they would fire the ovens for us. Did you know, that when subjected to a slow and steady mana drain, that dragons eat their own hoardes to try to replenish the lost magic?”

Twilight shook her head, still focused on the sight of the impossibly large dragons.

“It’s the same across all species that seem to live in this wide world of ours, actually,” Skies continued, the smile still firmly planted onto his face, “If you drain just the right amount of magic from anypony, if they’re pony or not seems irrelevant, their bodies begin to think they’re starving. So, it sends hunger signals to the brain, constantly, all the time. That’s how we got you all so wonderfully fat. Between the ‘starvation’ conditions, high calories, and just enough of a magic drain to weaken everyponies’ inborn magical abilities, ponies can gain weight at rapid speeds.”

“Why?” Twilight asked quietly, “Why tell me all this? Why go to all this trouble? Who are you!?-”

“Why?” Skies repeated dimly, “Because we want control! A pony who is fat is much easier to manipulate. Plus there is the added bonus that they can't run away. And look, we’ve succeeded. Not even dragons are immune to us! Zebras, dragons, griffons, ponies, farm animals, wildlife...everything and everypony is reliant on us and our sponsors to survive now! We’ll be rich, and nopony will be the wiser!”

“I’ll know!” Twilight protested, “You’ve just told me everything I need to know, I’ll tell Princess Celestia!”

Skies let out a peal of mad, raucous laughter, “This is the best part, I’m telling you.”

“What is?” Twilight suddenly felt very afraid, and very small (even though she had at least five-hundred pounds on this pegasus).

“You’re not going to remember any of this!” Skies held up a device Twilight couldn’t see very well. Was that a severed unicorn horn? No, wait, it’s a machine? What in Tartarus was going on?-

A flash of blue light, and Twilight’s worries disappeared

(LINE BREAK)

“When is Twilight coming back?” Applejack asked suddenly, voicing aloud everypony’s concerns.

The door to Skies’ room opened, and a dazed looking Twilight rolled herself back into the room, “Hi girls!” She said, her words slurring a little.

Skies looked alarmed, and gravely concerned, “Do you girls know? Does she suffer low blood sugar or something?! She just got very dazed and confused all of a sudden; I don’t even know if she remembers going over our plans for this place!”

“I don’t think she does,” Pinkie replied, “Though she can have one of my cakes if that would help!”

“Thanks, Pinkie!” Twilight said happily, “I love cake!”

Skies smiled, “Good. You sound better, I was getting worried for a minute there. Eat up. I’ll fetch you a drink.”

Twilight’s magic enveloped the proffered cake, and levitated it towards herself. Resting the monstrosity of a desert on a convenient fat roll, Twilight used her magic to cut a portion, and began to eat it. When Skies came back with a gallon of milk, Twilight took it as well.

She was well into the last portion of cake when her brain kicked back into gear. What am I doing? I’m supposed to be trying to lose weight, not eat more...wasn’t there something important I’m supposed to remember?

Idly chewing, Twilight mulled the thought over. It was almost on the verge of remembering, but not quite. In fact, it felt like magic had been involved-

“Ow!” Twilight jolted, her waves of fat jostling and smacking together as her meaty neck jerked away from the needle that Skies had just used to inject her with something.

Skies looked shocked momentarily, “I’m very sorry, but you were so disoriented. I thought, maybe the sugar boost would help-”

“Sugar boost?”

“It’s a special injection we’ve made for when somepony’s sugar tanks. We’ve needed to use it a few times, since we’re so busy all the time. I should have asked first, I’m sorry.”

Twilight stared at Skies, feeling like she should distrust him, but not knowing why. She sighed, “It’s okay. Thank you, for trying to help.”

Skies smiled and it seemed truly genuine, though a little sinister, “It’s not a problem, really. Will you be going back to Ponyville soon? To inform the Princess of our needs?”

“Yes. Of course,” Twilight licked the last of the cake crumbs off her muzzle, not noticing that she’d finished the cake and the milk, “Is it too late to leave now?”

“Of course not. Not if we hurry to the train station. I can go ahead, let the conductor know. Thank you so much, Twilight Sparkle. I really believe we’ll meet again.”

Twilight watched as Skies left, wondering why the pegasus was so suddenly steering them back to Ponyville. She set the thought aside, wondering what she had been thinking about before Skies had injected her.

Strange. I thought I was worried about something, but I have no idea what.

Author's Note

I'm really sorry this took so long. I haven't been able to type up much fatfiction recently, and even now I'm rushing to get this posted. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Please let me know what you think, and how I can improve this story. I like hearing what my audience thinks.