It had taken weeks of nonstop letter writing, political favours, and promises of making special appearances to different important events, but Twilight had done it: she’d secured an entire day with Stout Rangler, the mare who was the CEO of the food company that had helped Equestria after the Fattening Sleep.

With the full day ahead of her, Twilight wanted to confront the pony who had so changed Equestria’s economy. Twilight needed some sort of outlet: after all, she’d spent the last weeks with Spike and his new ‘servants’. As much as Twilight had tried to control herself, she’d failed miserably.

Spike was so massively obese it was getting harder and harder to find a part of his bed that wasn’t already taken up by his mass. Soon, very soon, he’d need a new bed.

Not that Twilight could judge, oh no. She’d finally outgrown her mobility cart, and had needed to special order one big enough for herself. When it had been delivered, the delivery ponies had needed to widen her doorway just to get it through.

Twilight was terrified of the fact that her magic, as powerful and strong as it was, was having difficulties in lifting her mass long enough for her to get settled into the red cart. Worryingly, her front hooves had finally disappeared into the folds of her legs, making them even more useless than they’d been.

Twilight could kind of move her legs if she focused hard. All she could do now was swing the pillow-like appendages like a pendulum. Useless, and heavy, just like the rest of her body. Even that simple movement was beginning to become impossible, as even getting her leg to shift at all under the pounds of fat around her joints was getting harder.

So, Twilight boarded the Friendship Express, and left for Stout Rangler’s business, settled in the big city of Manehatten. The busy metropolis would have been dangerous to her if the residents of the city had remained thin. Nearly everypony was using mobility scooters, or carts, to move around. Things had slowed a little in the city that never slept. It was frightening to see.

What was more frightening, was the movement of the buildings. It was almost imperceptible, but if Twilight really focused, she could see the buildings move minutely. In her other visits to Manehatten, she’d never noticed it before. It could have been a normal safety feature, since most tall buildings were built to sway in the breeze a little, or it could have been because of the obese ponies who made up the residents of the skyscrapers.

Twilight was taken through extra, extra, wide front doors, and waited in the cool air conditioning while ponies bustled about. All of the ponies Twilight saw were morbidly obese, panting for breath and wheezing heavily as they moved. Sweat-soaked clothes were not unusual on the physically ‘active’ ponies, while almost all the unicorns were using carts similar to Twilight’s.

Even though everyone had been slightly placated by their own immense obesity, it still gave them the excuse to ignore her while they bustled about around her, albeit in a comedically slow fashion.

“Excuse me” Twilight asked, looking over her plethora of chins as one green pony heavily huffed past her, their gut lightly caressed by a belly board.

“Pardon me” she asked once again to a unicorn, magically shoving a hayburger in their muzzle as their cart squeaked past at a brisk pace. Thankfully, there was a front desk, Twilight slowly maneuvering her immobile bulk across the tile floors towards the desk.

The receptionist seemed to be just in bad of condition weight wise as Twilight, or even worse considering she was practically filling up the desk space behind her that was probably meant to have multiple ponies rustling around doing paperwork.

“Uh… hello” Twilight asked once again to the desk pony, her grey fur resembling a pool of lard contained within the reception area. She looked over her glasses at Twilight with a mild dissatisfaction, her body rippling like a lightly disturbed pond.

“Yes?” she said in an out of breath monotone, clearly tired out by mere speaking. Twilight took a second to realize her name tag stuck to her overflowing flank, “Stern Seal”.

The magical unicorn then realized that her flank had a big red round mark that looked like a crest of sorts, but she’d grown so horrifyingly massive that her own flank fat distorted it to unrecognizable levels.

“Ohright… Stern Seal, uh…” she blabbered about, her own chins slapping together nervously, now that she’s gotten the attention of someone, “I… uh… have an appointment with Stout Rangler.” Stern Seal looked down, biting at a pencil resting on her chins and using it to flip a few pages of a book that rested partially in her folds.

“Twahliahgt...Shpahkle” she asked with the pencil still in her mouth.

“Yes, that’s me” Twilight whinnied thankfully. The grey pony looked over at her and then poked the pencil against a hodge podged button that was near her right facial cheek.

“Caller Rightup… Stout’s guest” she then finally spat the pencil out to where she could still get it, “Stout’s guest is here, bring down the big elevator.” With that she looked over at one of the more mobile looking ponies near the door and barked “AYE… get her to *huff* the big elevator, pronto.” She was already huffing and puffing by the light exertion, sweat dribbling down her forehead despite the heavy amount of air conditioning as two larger earth ponies bursting out of their well tailored uniforms escorted Twilight around part of the building to what looked like a very last minute add on.

The elevator itself was practically bolted onto the outside of the building, riveted against the foundation and structural members. Though it still looked like a lot of money was spent on making it ‘look’ less of an eyesore, but frankly, it wasn't enough.

Nervously, Twilight allowed herself to be guided into the elevator, though it was more like a mobile platform with how large it was. Thankfully, it was enclosed, but Twilight’s massive body still felt the increased pull of gravity when the elevator began its ascent.

Barely able to breathe under the new pressure, and praying that the elevator wouldn’t buckle underneath her weight, Twilight squeezed her eyes shut tight against the outside world. After what felt like eternity; the elevator dinged, and Twilight opened her eyes to the elevator doors opening.

She wheeled herself inside, feeling her heart began to calm after the harrowing experience in the elevator.

Sweet Celestia, she’d be happy when all the fatness was behind them. Twilight took a breath, and wheeled herself into the dimly lit office. It was hard to see at first, but her eyes quickly adjusted.

The office was spartan, with only a massive desk centered in it. Behind the desk was Stout Wrangler, but she looked so different that Twilight had to stop for a moment.

Twilight had thought herself enormous; but she was nothing in comparison to the sheer size of Stout. There was nothing in Equestria that could possibly move Stout now, even if something catastrophic happened.

Twilight swallowed, inching closer, “Hello?”

Twilight became aware of a slow, whistling sound. Pausing, it took Twilight a few moments to recognize it was Stout trying to breathe under all her fat. Twilight wasn’t sure what to say or do.

A low groan, or was it a grunt, answered Twilight’s question. Twilight sighed, “Is there a light we can turn on? I’d feel much better being able to see.”

There was a pause, then the audible click of a button, and the lights flicked on. Twilight winced reflexively, blinking back tears at the sudden light. Vision clearing, Twilight thought she was prepared to take in all of Stout’s form. She wasn’t.

Stout had no defining shape to her left. Just massive, massive rolls of fat that oozed over an impressive amount of the floor, or squeezed tightly against the heavy desk. Her limbs were unidentifiable from the rest of her oozing rolls, and Twilight wasn’t sure how Stout was even still breathing. Her coat was free of food stains, but it was matted and unbrushed, as was her mane.

Stout’s spherical head moved, drawing Twilight’s attention to the sagging cheeks and jowls that obscured what was still visible of Stout’s neck area. Another, wheezy whistling breath.

“Hi, Stout.”

“Hello,” Stout’s voice was slurred, her accent almost gone from the effort of simply speaking.

“I...uh. Need to talk to you about what your company is doing to Equestria.”

Stout blinked, utilizing the last of her mobility to look down at Twilight, “We’ve...been helping...ponies.”

“You’ve made them like this! Look at you, until all this you were normal-sized!”

“I barely had...two bit...to my name.”

“What about everypony’s health! I know ponies who honestly can’t handle having this much extra weight on them!”

“Which is...why we have...our mobility...devices.”

“But what about basic freedom? I can’t move under my own power! Neither can you, and neither can a growing portion of the population!”

Stout Wrangler jiggled in a way that made it look like she tried to shrug, “We have freedom…now too. We all slaved...away to put food...on the table. Now we can...all eat and...pursue what they...want.”

Twilight bit back a frustrated growl, “What about defense!? What if something, or somepony, tries to attack us!?”

Stout laughed, pausing to gasp and cough, “Against...what? Everypony else...is starting to profit from...our ingenuity and excess.”

With that, a projector screen slid down a portion of the wall to Twilight’s left. A click of a button, and a picture of obese griffons appeared. They were in an undemolished home, held up by Belly Boards. They were smiling.

Another click, and it was dragons. A teen dragon, using all fours, was using five Belly Boards to travel along a freshly-paved road.
Another click, and Twilight was confronted with a photograph of a group of zebras. The filly in the picture was so fat she couldn’t stand. Her belly spread under her like a mattress. The family was smiling, and several had Belly Boards. One had a mobility scooter.

“Equestria and the...lands beyond are...embracing this change. Our economy has...never been stronger. We’ve never been...richer. Everypony seems...okay with this...except for you.”

Twilight blinked, tearing her eyes away from the image in front of her to look back at Stout. Twilight tried to find words to protest, but came up blank.

Stout smiled, creating huge dimples in her sagging cheeks, “It’s okay Twilight...you can help us....shape this new...Equestria.”

“But my friends and-”

“Something terrible...happened. I won’t deny that...and I’m sorry...it happened.”

With another click the projector screen, and the image on it, disappeared. Stout Wrangler’s body made a sudden, growling noise. Stout laughed, pressing another button. How she was doing so, Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

“I’m hungry. We will eat...and I’ll help...settle your nerves.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but her own stomach growled hungrily. In her haste to get to the train; she’d missed third breakfast, “Thank you.”

Stout smiled again, “See? We can be...civilized.”

“Thank you,” Twilight replied reluctantly.

Several tense moments passed, and Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how quickly they would be fed. It took another minute to pass before Twilight heard the humming of the elevator. The doors opened, and what could only be described as an armada of ponies exited.

Servants of all types; pushing carts laden with food, carrying silver domed trays, or simply nice looking ponies, all entered the office.

Several of them surrounded Twilight, and much to her surprise, began to knead her flesh. At first, Twilight was alarmed, then she quickly realized it was a massage. A tray appeared before her nose, and Twilight inhaled the scent of ooey, gooey lasagna. Twilight moaned at the smell, and plunged in muzzle first before she could properly comprehend was was going on.

Stout chuckled, happy to be fed rather than feed herself, “My servants here are...quite amazing. I promise Twilight...nothing terrible is...happening here. We’re just trying...to create a better, larger Equestria.”

As Twilight sucked down another mouthful of the lasagna, she started to feel her tense body begin to relax under the warmth of the massage.

“This contentment...is what everypony feels...now. Soft, warm happiness. Isn’t this so much...better than before? No more stress, no more worries...just happiness.”

Twilight made a noise in the back of her throat, mind too busy focusing on the food before her to really care what was being said.

“This isn’t so bad...is it?”

Twilight came up for air, breathing heavily. She looked to the ponies of various sizes around her, then to Stout’s enormity. She let her gaze fall to herself, and groaned in ecstasy when a particularly hard knot was eased out of her back.

“I didn’t think so. Since you made the...trip all the way here. Is there anything...I can do for you? A new cart...perhaps?”

Twilight’s new cart was uncomfortable, Twilight was slowly admitting to herself. It wasn’t padded at all, and the corners pinched. The tray of lasagna was removed, replaced with a platter of garlic bread, heavy with garlic and cheese.

Twilight tore into the deliciousness. Her mind was quiet, too busy trying to process the sensations of the massage and the food before her.

“Or I could give...Applejack’s family...money so they could...build her a room...and maybe some...new technology...that would help her move. If you stop this...investigation...we can build a relationship...that helps all sorts of ponies...not just your friends.”

Twilight gulped down the last piece of garlic bread, licking her muzzle for stray grease. A pitcher of cooled milk was brought to her lips, and Twilight couldn’t argue. She began to chug the refreshing liquid.

“With your mind...and my resources...we can make Equestria...even more powerful than it...is now!”

Twilight couldn’t answer even if she wanted to. There was still half a pitcher left. Stout continued.

“We’ll start small...of course. You can help us...design new spells. Make old ones better, test out new technology yourself...All you’d need to do is...stop this wild goose chase!”

The last drop of milk was swallowed, and Twilight panted to catch her breath. She was tired, and overfull. This arrangement would allow her to make sure Stout wasn’t lying to her. Reluctantly, Twilight nodded.

“Okay.”

Stout beamed, “Good. When you go back...to Ponyville I’ll have...researchers sent to you. We’ll give you...some guidelines. I trust your work...so I know it won’t be...a waste of resources.”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied.

Another click of the button, and the massaging ponies stepped away from Twilight.

“Give Applejack my regards.”

Twilight, knowing she’d been dismissed, reluctantly rolled her cart into the elevator. Burping, she missed the conversation that took place behind her.

“Good job. You’ve certainly earned your dessert.”

“She was easy enough, though I wasn’t expecting you to stay in my back rolls like that. I do expect compensation.”

“I’ll order you chocolate ice cream then.”

“Oh good. When will you leave? When the building is officially declared Twilight free?”

“Whenever I’m done my nap, I expect. That meeting interrupted.”

“Why can’t you just find a bed.”

“Because you’re the softest thing I own.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you. She was dangerously close to discovering what we’ve done. We’ve come too far for this not to work now.”

It wasn’t until Twilight got to Ponyville that she fully realized what she’d agreed to. Twilight groaned, trying to ignore Spike greedily gobbling up fistfulls of gems. Why did I agree to this?

Author's Note

I'm so, so sorry this took so long. I'm glad this chapter is done, though. Hopefully I'll start updating more regularly now.

Thank you again to PhealGud who actually wrote a part of this chapter, and seriously helped me through the latter half.