Sleipnir Colony - A Short Story Collection

The secretary sighed, she knew, any second now…

Bzzzzt!

A voice cracked through the speakerphone on her desk. “Is he here yet?” The pony on the other end asked, sounding a little impatient. This was the fifth time in the past twenty minutes the question had come through.

“Not yet, look I told you three times already. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from the front desk, okay?” She replied, seeing if it had finally sunk in this time.

“Yes, yes of course. Thank you.” The speaker cut off. Finally she might be able to get on with some work…

Bzzzzt!

“Oh for Celestia’s sake! I told you…” She started to say, but was cut off by a different pony this time.

“Um, I don’t know who else you’ve been talking to but I was told to notify you when the Planetary Governor arrived? His pad has just pulled up outside.” The voice on the other end said rather sheepishly.

“Oh of course! Tell him to wait there and the owner will meet him shortly.” The secretary replied, and the speaker clicked off once again. Leaning a fattened hoof forward positioned on her own pad behind her desk she moved it gently out, and a few feet to the right, clicking another button on the control console that activated a knocker on a door which simply read “DIRECTOR” on it. She shouted through. “He’s here! Waiting for you down at the lobby!”

The door opened, a double wide one at that. A second pad appeared holding a pony of even greater size on it. Striving Step, the director of Grav-PadTM hovered his own bulky self out of his office and passed the secretary, grunting a “Thank you.” as he piloted his pad down the hall and towards the lobby. Today was a big day, it wasn’t every day you had the Planetary Governor for the entire colony show up on your doorstep.

Below the upper offices on the assembly line in the factory, Charity was on the day shift, there had been a few whispers between her co-workers. Not much said but a few new parts had come down the line recently. Things she didn’t recognise but were fairly easy to put together. Thank goodness she was a unicorn, it was required to be at Grav-PadTM, not that the company had anything against pegasi and earth ponies, but to do certain jobs you needed magic. There was no way Charity could have fitted the parts together with her hooves. Nopony could, each worker of varying sizes having totally useless hooves these days.

Her idle thoughts of whispers were interrupted by her co-worker, Sherbet Sweets leaning towards her, she knew she was because every time she did she could feel her mass leaning into hers. A few idle pounds of flesh squished against her as she turned her head. “Something up Sherbet?”

“The rumours keep deepening, I hear there is a visitor coming in today! Somepony important!” She said with a small smile, her ears twitching to make sure nopony else on the line could hear their conversation. “All these new parts, and now somepony who is important. I think we’re finally getting those new pads they’ve been talking about for months. The biggest ones we make are quickly becoming not enough. I mean the new model that was released about three years ago that supports up to 6000ibs? That was fine then, but now, I think with those Equestrians visiting they’ve had to step up their game. Word is the Governor held a large banquet and is getting a bit too hefty for his pad, and it’s a top range one.” The mare finished, her voice becoming low. “I hear he’s pushing the director for an even greater pad, he wants to keep gaining and still be mobile.” She said, finishing with a little squeak as if the news was absolutely top secret.

“Well that’s no surprise, and technically Sherbet he lost the ability to be mobile years ago.” She giggled in reply. The mare watched as her friend leaned back, her fat moving away as the two continued their work. It made sense though, of all the ponies she knew of here on the colony he was the biggest. That was just how it worked, the higher the position of power usually the larger the pony was. Of course there was some exceptions for work requirements, but often it was that way. You could tell a ponies position in life by judging their size, it only made sense that the leader was the fattest and blubberiest of them all. She looked up, there was a walkway that was covered in glass on the sides that ran along the top middle of the factory from one side to the other. The glass was misted though, only vague shapes could be made out through it. But two visible shapes of two hefty ponies on pads were clearly making their way through it. ‘Maybe that’s them now…’ She thought, but looked back down and carried on with her shift.

Above, Farthest Reach and Striving Step were having a friendly discussion as they moved towards the prototype room. It was hidden away above the assembly line, where the most advanced pad technology was developed, the only access being the walkway, and an extremely large but heavy doorway used for deliveries. It was watched on a security feed at all times.

“I think you’ll be pleased Governor, we’ve made a number of advancements on the new pad. You’ll be the first to get one and try it out for future sales. Some endorsement from yourself could go a long way…” The director said, clearly trying to get his sales pitch in for the new technology. The governor simply smiled back as he replied.

“Of course Striving, I’ll be sure to tell ponies how pleased I am with it and your company, provided it works as you say. This one like the last is gratis I assume? Consider my good word payment.” He said, the two getting closer to the entrance to the room.

“Of course, of course… It was not cheap to produce, but we’ve done it. I’ll run you through the features…” Striving Step said, he pushed a fat hoof into his control console and the door swung open. Apart from a few working ponies and tables around the edge of the room, the centre was dominated by a raised platform, and on it, one absolutely huge Grav-Pad.

The two hovered their own close, and the Planetary Governor observed it. Striving Step started to list the details.

“It’s the biggest we’ve produced, a number of new features as well. The thruster amount has been doubled compared to yours, meaning much more stability. This pad should stay steady even at the largest weight it can take. You specified you should still be able to control it yourself, so the remote is on a small tiny pad itself that tracks the movement of your hoof. You shouldn’t have to lean more than a few centimeters forward to get control. It is also voice activated. You only need to tell the remote to move to a hoof and it will. The entire pad can also be controlled by voice commands, but testing found that tedious so we provided the remote. It is lined, as you can see with purple silk, the best we could find. It should be exceptionally comfy…” The director trailed off, seeing the Governor raise an eyebrow.

“What weight can it take?”

“Well as we said we doubled the thruster amount, made a few more adjustments to the gyroscopes…” He could tell the Governor was just looking for a number at this point by the expression on his face. Better to just tell him what he wants to hear rather than drag it out.

“8000ibs, we did some further testing, pushed it is still stable at 10,000. However after that the gyros start to struggle and the old dipping issue current models have starts to reappear. But, it’s the biggest one we’ve made yet.” Striving Step said proudly. He could tell the governor was pleased as he saw a big smile appear on his face.

“Excellent work Striving, you’ve out done yourself as usual. One day you shall rival the pad makers of the homeworld I hope. Their pads may be able to take more weight but, your technology seems to gaining on them fast. Even their pads at this size require a driver. I look forward to giving it a test. Have it brought to my home this evening, move it under the cover of darkness. I’d like to reveal it over a broadcast tomorrow and announce you will be putting them into production shortly. I’d still like a little edge though, not for another few months at least, by then I’ll have gained enough to really test it.”

“Of course, yes. No problem. I’ll have it moved tonight. I trust you are pleased?” He knew he was but he wanted to hear it for himself, Striving always liked to get a pat on the back, even at his level of work.

“Yes, pleased as punch. Now that you have this model sorted out, I expect you’ll be looking to work on bigger ones yes? I’d rather not stop eating if I can help it…” The director only nodded in return and the governor turned his attention back to the pad in front of him.

‘The five figure mark, I could make it, and still be able to move around with this. Those Equestrians were my dream size. One day if they make pads here that can support that sort of weight, I could die a very happy pony.’ He thought, but for now, this was more than adequate. He turned his pad, body jiggling slightly at the speed as he did so. The two left the room, shutting the door behind them to let the employees continue with their work.