Sleipnir Colony - A Short Story Collection

CRUNCH!

“ROLLER!”

This was the third bellow of the day directed at him, The poor chunky pegasus had not exactly had his mind on the job for the past week. Every little thought in his head had been directed at…

“Roller!” He heard the words, thoughts fading and turned himself, and saw Foundy staring at him, incredulous and obviously not having lightened up since the earlier incidents. He could tell she was about ready to explode. He better not make it any worse.

“Y-yes Foundy? What is it this time?” He asked, perhaps the innocent approach was best?

“Don’t you Foundy me! This is the THIRD foul up of today! First, you send the delivery truck to the wrong end of the site so we have to BORROW a number of workers grav-pads, leaving them useless for hours to move the stuff to the right area. Second! You submit an expenses claim for over double what you’re allocated for a week! AND NOW YOU’VE KNOCKED OVER A VERY EXPENSIVE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT WITH THAT FAT FLANK OF YOURS!” The mare practically screaming in rage as she finished her tirade at her Site Manager.

“F-fat flank? I-I can’t have…” But he had, and a rather new and expensive looking Wall-O-Mount Matic was now laying on its side. He nervously grinned and blushed. “O-okay maybe I might have...um, I wasn’t looking?” He meekly managed to get out before his boss started another rant.

“WEREN'T LOOKING...WEREN'T…” She stopped, and took a deep breath, remembering his words from the previous weeks. She didn’t want to overdo anything, besides at her size it wasn’t good to let the blood boil too much. Being a Foremare was stressful enough as it was.

“Of course you weren't looking. Roller what have you been eating in the past few weeks?” Her mind ticked back the expenses receipts she had looked over and approved on his behalf. “Oh wait, of course I know the answer to that. Practically ninety percent of them have been from Blubber King! And it shows, I think you’re becoming the king of blubber yourself with that fat flank riding up your back. We could attach you to the crane and use you as a spare wrecking ball if we ever needed to!” She said, her voice just raised a little this time.

Roller couldn’t help but laugh a little, but noticing his chuckles were only further angering his boss, he stopped and decided to speak instead. “B-but Foundy, haven’t you been yet? I just...can’t stop. The food there is so good! Their servers are so polite! You don’t even have to carry your food! It’s just brought to your table and you eat! It’s the most amazing fast food chain on the colony!” He finished, slavering a little at the mouth, his mind now filled with thoughts of their menu.

“Yes I did go Roller, once on my day off. But that’s not the point. You’re so preoccupied with thoughts of your next meal that it’s impacting you ability to do your job! You haven’t made this many mistakes in one year of working for me as you have in one day! I want your mind here, and I want it focused, understand? Because the next mistake you make today, really will be the last. Got it?” She practically growled out the last words, sending him waddling away back to the job he was attending to. The mare breathed a sigh of relief, and went back to her site cabin. There was still a mountain of paperwork to do, most of it approving expenses claims…

Roller waddled his way back towards the new build, trying his absolute best to think of something else other than food...those delicious burgers, topped with that incredible, mouth watering sauce that seemed to sit on your tongue for days afterwards. It was so…

‘No, no! Don’t think about food! Come on! You’ve got a site to manage, now then - this build here. Let’s find out what’s going on.’ He thought, waddling his way up to observe what the worker ponies were doing.

A new house was going into place, it was mostly complete but still standing on raised foundation blocks. The idea was that the house would be built on the blocks as the material it was constructed out of was extremely light. Once built a final check was made, and then the customer would order what level of foundation they wanted based on their perceived future weight they aimed to achieve. The foundation was then poured in under the house and left to set with the blocks still in place, making it as solid as the customer needed.

It was much more profitable to build the house first, as most houses on an estate build were likely the same, and then find out later who was buying and what sort of foundation was needed rather than the very old traditional method of putting in a foundation first. Once ponies started getting as big and hefty as they were these days, old builds with the foundations placed first were often inadequate, and Roller had heard many a story of ponies unexpectedly crashing through the floor of their homes, having to be ungracefully pulled out from them.

The corner block though, as the final wall was just being put into place he could swear it wobbled just a little. He waddled himself a few steps further. As he did so the block...moved. That was never a good sign.

The closer he got the more it seemed to move, nopony else on the site seemed to notice it was shifting in position. It was the corner block too, if it moved out of position, even though the build was light the entire house would tip up and it would be a monstrous amount of work to get it back into place. Likely it would suffer damage too needing repairs. He only had one choice.

Waddling as fast as he could and uselessly flapping his wings, Roller moved himself into position next to the block as it continued to shift, he prayed he’d make it in time...just a few more seconds!

POP! As the block practically flew out of position, the pressure of the building sending it flying out.

CREEEAAAAAKKKKK! As the entire house started to shift. A few of the workers now noticing and trying to waddle out of the way of a house starting to tip.

FWOMP! As roller, in his desperate attempt to save the build, planted his gigantic flank in place of the block and felt the house press against his tush.

It squeezed it, it squished it, but somehow, his massive bulky rear was able to act as a replacement for the heavy block. He felt the immense weight of the house press against his cheeks as he cried out a little. The material was light, but assembled as an entire house it was still amazingly heavy!

He panted, but dared not move. Any sort of movement could destabilize the house. He felt his fat butt squish more, the blubber in his flank rippling as it held the weight of the house. He sighed and looked up, a number of construction ponies were stood staring, as one of their site managers had selflessly almost thrown himself under a collapsing house to try to save it.

Then he saw it, what he was dreading. Foundy, coming towards him at speed. It was unlike her to move so quickly, and it didn't take her long to get to him.

“What’s this?” She asked, her voice calm. For the moment.

“Um...instinct. I saw the house starting to tip when a block was working itself loose...am I fired?” He asked, his voice quivering a little. One more mistake, and this certainly seemed like one.

“Fired? FIRED!?” The mare let out a hearty belly laugh. She couldn’t help it. But noticing Rollers look of fear she abated, and calmed herself. “Fired? Are you kidding? You’ve just saved a very expensive build. A house tipping over would have cost us big time! Trust me, you’ve more than made up for those mistakes earlier.” She said, smiling at him through her fattened face.

He visibly breathed a sigh of relief, thank goodness. But then the next question immediately came to mind.

“Wait, the block that was in place is damaged. How many more are on site?”

“Oh, well - that’s it, we don’t have anymore. We’re expecting a delivery tomorrow. Think you can hold out until then?” She asked, now a little concerned.

“I-I guess, but what will I eat? I’m already starving…” He replied, he could feel his belly ripple beneath him as it cried out for a meal.

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep you fed. Wouldn’t want that fat butt to not be able to support the house right?” She grinned, although this made up for the other mistakes, the mare still had to have a little fun. They were actually expecting a delivery shortly, but he didn’t have to know that...yet.

“R-right.” he replied, and watched as Foundy issued some instructions to some of the builders out of earshot of him, he hoped it wasn’t more than a day, oh well, at least he could think about the next meal at Blubber King and not do anymore damage...he hoped.