Sleipnir Colony - A Short Story Collection

‘Oh dear...oh dear...what am I going to do?’

Poor Red Roller, his mind had been in a bit of a spin all week. Where did it begin, where did it begin?

That was a stupid question, he knew exactly where it had begun.

Firstly, there had been the support crane which he had saved by the skin of his teeth. Some enterprising management from himself in ordering his staff around had got that fixed in a jiffy. Foundy hadn’t noticed a thing.

But then the next day he had forgotten that his new pad had extra girth, and he still wasn’t quite used to the controls like he should have been. Having piloted it straight into a brand new wall that had left such a dent the construction crew had to spend a number of hours patching it up. Luckily nobody had snitched.

The remaining three days of the week had each been peppered with little mishaps. He had knocked his pad into a number of things causing delays, the worst one was that his new size and lack of piloting skills he had reversed his massive tush right up against a massive container with a lot of the work crews theodolites inside. Safe to say when he had moved forward again they weren't any match for his wrecking ball cheeks, in fact he may as well have taken the crane to them for all the damage he had done.

By the end of the week Foundy had had enough, calling him to her hut. He had got away with some things but not everything.

“I’ve booked you on a pad piloting course, why you didn’t do this when you bought the thing is beyond me. It’s like ponies who can’t use a computer or other technological device and have had no instruction. You need at least a basic knowledge before you hop in and go. I need you back here Monday so the course is tomorrow. I’ve taken the liberty of loading the address into your pad so hell, if you want you can snooze all the way there and it will autopilot itself. Just be awake at nine thirty in the morning when the class starts. I think that’s the least you can do to pay me back for this weeks worth of damage.” Her voice had been stern, not usual for when she was upset. He had just piloted his pad home saying “Of course Foundy.” as he had left for the day.

And now he was worried, firstly he was worried for his job because he knew his boss was rather upset with him.

Secondly, he was worried about tomorrow. It was Friday night, usually this was a time of pleasure for him when he would head down to Blubber King and pick up something to eat then relax at home. Usually weekends were a nice time for Roller where after working solid for five days he could really let his flab down.

But tomorrow, not tomorrow. He had to be up early for a start. Then he had to do a course! He knew she had her heart in the right place but it was like anything else, he’d have learned, eventually. Maybe after a few more expensive crashes. He just hoped there was some food there at least to compensate for his time. He had gone to sleep in a fitful dream, his big body shifting as much as it could on the bed as he tried to toss and turn. The only downside of being massively overweight (well there was a few others…) was being unable to easily move yourself if needed.

The next day as he opened his eyes, rather blearily he could see something in front of him. It was the rear portion of another pony on a pad. His eyes sprung open, he was definitely looking at a butt, not his bedroom as he had been when he went to sleep the night before. He leaned forward and pressed his controls.

9:15 AM

Well it had done as Foundy had said, the pad without his interference or piloting had just taken his straight to the main instruction centre. He wasn’t even sure where in town he was. Only that a pony of a little under his size was in front of him. He seemed to be in a queue.

As the pad in front moved to the side he came up to a booth, an equally large pony on the other side looked at him with a little disdain.

“Name?”

“Red Roller….yawn.” He was still waking up.

“Ah yes, last minute booking yesterday. Pilot yourself inside the lot, the instructor will be out shortly for a nine thirty start.”

“Oh um...thanks.” Now off autopilot Roller went back to what he was used to, but not before mis-piloting his pad forward slightly into the booth. The receptionist or whatever she was looked completely unconcerned.

“B-bet you get that a lot huh?” He said, blushing and trying to make light of the situation. Something nopony in the close proximity was at all.

“Don’t worry about it honey, it’s why you’re here. See?” She said, pointing a flabby hoof downward. A huge crash-mat was placed in front of the booth she was sat in, presumably to stop novice pilots destroying it.

Red Roller just piloted his pad into the lot as instructed. There were a number of other ponies present, some mares, a few stallions. All of varying weight. Some heftier than he was, others lighter. He blended in rather well.

“So what you here for?”

A voice next to him asked a question, a rather fat and portly pegasus mare on a pad of her own had parked next to him. Her wings obviously as useless as his and her body just quivered as it came to rest next to him.

“Oh um, work related incidents. Yourself?”

“Piloting under the influence.” She replied, like the receptionist she had no concern in her voice.

“I’m sorry, under the influence? Alcohol?” He asked.

“No stupid, food. I was loaded up with at least ten meals from Blubber King but I put em’ all on one side. I figured the stabilizers would take it. Guess not. They found me about five hundred yards from the place on my ass in the road.” She said with a small laugh. “Serves me right I guess.”

“Well...maybe, you had to do this?”

“Yeah, or it was a month with no access to fast food. Can you imagine?” Even though lots of her face was sunk into her massive body Roller made out a look of disgust on her. Clearly another food obsessed pony like he was. She was brash but he liked it.

“So work related? Come on you can be more specific big buns.”

“B-big buns?!” The stallion blushed a lot, it always made him do that when anypony commented on them.

“Kpppffttt, don’t be shy. Most of your fat is in your ass. Bet your back stabilizers have to work extra hard to keep those monster afloat.” She said, her expression going back to a slight smile.

“I guess...and well, I’m new at this. I kept bumping stuff and causing some damage. My boss put me on this course.”

“Makes sense...here.” The mare replied and tapped on her screen. An address popped up on Rollers screen, it had an address and a name.

Ivory Archer

“What’s this for?” He asked rather innocently.

“You’re nice, plus I want a better look at that rump after this. It’s pretty impressive. We could get something to eat, the pigeon food at this place is terrible. What’s your name?”

The stallion tapped on his own controls and sent his address across. She looked at it for a mere moment.

“Red Roller. Lemme guess, work on a construction site?”

“Yeah…”

“Well that was obvious, bound by name sweetie. Some of us get that in life. As you can see I probably don’t make a very good archer. I don’t think I could even grip a bow.” The mare said, trying a little to move her flabby arms and fat hooves to imitate an archer shooting a bow. She puffed a little as she did so. “See? Even that tired me out.”

Roller laughed slightly in response. “You’re nice too. Well, I’ll certainly take your offer for food up.”

The clock on his pad ticked over to 9:30 AM. He felt a little uplifted at the conversation, it was nice to meet a mare like Ivory, if he could just get through this training course, a hearty meal awaited him with company on the other side.