Fallout Equestria: Curse of Plenty

Chapters

Locked in the Land of Plenty
Taking the Bait
Under Pressure
Breaking Point
Movie Night
Grounded
Knock, Knock

Locked in the Land of Plenty

Author's Note

This is a collaboration brought to you by the lovely PhealGud and I. We've got an outline for this all completed, and we're working hard to finish this in a relatively timely manner.

As always, I'm open for commissions. You can check out this post for more details. Or feel free to swing by my patreon if you feel like it.

Pheal is currently closed for commissions, but is still selling unpainted models of 3D printed sculptures. His link is here.

Here is an example of his work, and here is his pre-made model catalogue.

We hope you all enjoy this lovely idea we've cooked up. I know we've been having a blast writing this thing.

Locked in the Land of Plenty

Gretchen crouched behind a scrabble bush, her small body pressed into the hard-packed soil. She had two ponies in her sights, a unicorn and pegasi. Both were unaware of her, and seemed intent on making camp in this clearing. The fruits of their labor were laid out, ammo, food, and some useful junk. A good haul that would keep the small black and tan griffon alive for another week, maybe two.

Gretchen rustled her wings, waiting to get the drop on these two dolts, peeking through the bushes with eyes surrounded with midnight blue eyeshadow feathers. The pegasus was huge, much larger than her own stunted body. Clearly he’d had access to plenty of food growing up, unlike her. She grit her beak, and shook her head. They would be easy pickings, one slit of the throat, and a single shot to the temple with her 10 millimeter. She just had to wait until they fell asleep, then she would ambush them-

“Hello, little bird,” A gruff voice sounded from behind her. Gretchen jumped to her paws, scrambling out of the bushes, taking to the air with a quick flap of her wings.

A gunshot cracked through the air, and an explosion of pain tore its way through her left wing. Gravity angrily snatched Gretchen out of the sky and crashed her into the clearing, almost right on top of the pegasus, who had drawn a gun in response to the flurry of motion off to the side of his chosen camping site.

The unicorn had dropped an overfull sack to the ground, her eyes wide with surprise and fear. Her aura, a turquoise colour, had gripped a crowbar tightly. Gretchen climbed to her talons, her beak grit in pain. She kept her damaged wing close to her body, hoping to slow the flow of blood until things were calmed down.

A raider, a strong brute of an earth pony covered in crudely welded metal armour and bones, burst out of the bushes as well, a huge grin on his scarred face.

“Well, what do we have here? You three trying to lay a trap for us or something? Not very clever, sending in your chick there to spy on us, I thought unicorns were smarter than that”

The pegasus, a moss-green stallion with sharp amber eyes, stood to his full height, using a battle saddle to direct his gun, “You’re going to have to do better than shoot some poor griffon.”

“Oh, that wasn’t me. Come on out boys!” Suddenly, figures were moving through the trees. Countless figures, all of them ravaged deviants armed and dangerous, silhouetted in the light of the setting sun.

The pegasus grit his teeth, snarling at the still-moving figures, the guns on his battle saddle twitching between different targets. He flexed his powerful wings, swinging around the two guns mounted upon his back, “Come on, cowards!”

Gretchen shot him a glare, her eyes narrowing. She was injured, and useless in a face to face battle. I better get out of here she thought. This idiot is going to get me killed.

“Cappy,” The unicorn said reluctantly, “Cappy she’s hurt.”

Cappy’s eyes flicked to Gretchen’s injured wing, that was already dripping blood into the dry soil. He nodded, flexing his wings again. The unicorn must have understood some signal, because she picked up the sack she’d dropped earlier. She threw it into what seemed to be the largest throng of raiders, just as Cappy looked Gretchen in the eyes, and yelled: “Run!”

They’d barely gotten out of the clearing when whatever was in the bag exploded, seeding chaos and sounding screams of pain and anger.

Panting, Gretchen was already winded, her short legs couldn’t really keep up with the strides of the others.

The unicorn looked back at Gretchen, “C’mon!! We’ve only-”

Whatever she said next was drowned out by more gunshots. They went wild, hitting the dirt and trees around the trio rather than coming close to hitting them. Regardless, it lit a proverbial fire under Gretchen’s feet, and she ran all the harder, tears lighting in her eyes with every jarring step that hurt her wing.

She didn’t want to focus on it, but she could hear the wild screaming and taunts coming from the raiders behind them. If they caught up with them...Gretchen didn’t want to think about what would happen. She may have qualified as a raider herself in some circles, but that wouldn’t be enough to save her now. In desperation, the griffon took out her gun and fired behind her, some kind of suppression just to slow them down. Anything, absolutely anything to give herself some kind of advantage.

“We’re….close!” Cappy called, turning towards a small game trail, “Come on!”

Gretchen growled deep in her throat, but the sounds behind her caused her to keep her breath for running. Hopefully, they would have some kind backup nearby-

Gretchen, used to seeing things from a distance while flying, saw the cliff before they’d broken out of the trees properly. Panic lit in her chest because it was fine for the unicorn and pegasus to fly to the top. If the unicorn couldn’t levitate herself, Cappy looked strong enough to carry her, but that left Gretchen trapped-

Then she saw it. A massive cave surrounded by cars and old military vehicles, but that didn’t matter. She ducked reflexively when another volley of gunshots were fired. They pinged off the metal of the cars, but she could tell from the sound of sizzling that a bullet had pierced the nuclear engine.

Lacking the air to say anything, she only hoped that the cave was full of mini nukes, or maybe an army-

She plunged into the darkness when the car blew up. She could feel the dust and debris behind her as she careened past a corner. Which saved her life, from the sounds of shrapnel driving deeply into the rock of the cave. While her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw signs painted in red, with empty boxes and cans around them.

BEWARE

TURN BACK

TRAP

There, ahead of her, was a platform. It connected to a mostly-circular, thick metal door. The unicorn was doing something to a panel with her magic, but Gretchen didn’t care. She’d heard stories of Stables, and knew they were bad luck. All of them were twisted in some way or another, and the signs were not helping.

She screeched to a halt in front of the door, heaving or breath, “No...way-we can’t..”

“It might be our only option.” The unicorn huffed, flicking her mane to the side, “Maybe with the car we’ve-”

The sound of maniacal laughter from the entrance shut the unicorn up. She punched a button, and loud alarms sounded off. There was a rumbling, and the door started to rumble shut. The unicorn, using her magic, threw Gretchen in first, jumping in behind. Cappy stayed behind until the last moment, providing gunfire.

Just after he slipped inside, the heavy metal door rolled to a stop and slowly slid into the hole. The alarms quieted, and the lights turned on. A cheery, automated voice spoke.

“Hello, and welcome everypony to Stable 30. We hope you’ll find burgeoning happiness here.” The voice was female, but that was all Gretchen could tell.

The trio lay, panting for breath on a cold, metal catwalk for a long time.They kept waiting for something, or someone to appear from the door at the end of the room, but nopony did. All they could hear was the humming of air conditioning in the background, their own winded breaths, and the drops of Gretchen’s blood hitting the metal below them.

“How did you know this was here?” Gretchen asked after she’d recovered her breath. She’d spent that time bandaging her wing, flexing it experimentally, grimacing from the pain. The bullet had passed clearly, and she didn’t think any permanent damage would come from it.

“Heard stories,” The unicorn replied, “We were out here trying to find this place. It’s supposed to be a paradise.”

“Too good to be true.” Gretchen scoffed.

“Well, we’ll be here for a little while, until those jerks outside leave,” Cappy butted in, “So, it’s got to be better than outside.”

“What if we’re stuck in here?” The griffon asked worried, her feathers fluffed up as the sudden thought had jumped to the forefront of her mind, “What if you can’t get the door open?”

“There’s got to be a way to open the door from in here,” The unicorn soothed, “There has to be. All the Stables do. Until then,we should clear the entire Stable. We don’t know what could be in here. Hopefully it’s just us.”

“Anyway, we will be here for a while, I”m Divinity, and this is Bent Cap. I just call him Cappy. It’s nice to meet you, though I wish it was through better circumstances.”

Gretchen looked at the two cautiously, she was on the cusp of murdering them in cold blood just a few minutes ago, and now she was locked in a strange Stable because of them. “You ponies can call me Gretchen.

“Yes, yes,” Cappy aid bluntly, “Let’s get this going. We don’t want anything getting the jump on us.”

Gretchen nodded, and waited for them to trot away before examining her .10 millimeter pistol. It was better in closer combat, and it was a gun she felt comfortable using with her talons. Though as she pulled the magazine out, she cursed to herself. It was empty, and she didn’t have any more ammunition on her. Divinity seemed attached to the crowbar, and Cappy had his battle-saddle still. Which meant that she was outnumbered, outgunned, and defenseless.

“Gretchen, you coming?” Divinity asked, looking back from the entrance.

“OH, SURE, NO PROBLEM” Gretchen yelled back, hiding her empty pistol worryingly before catching up with the other two.

So, they began their preliminary exploration of the Stable. It’s metal halls echoed their every footstep, betraying their location to anything inside. Incandescent lights illuminated the stable, blank silver halls turning into pastel rooms, with the main center hall large and open, painted in a lovely blue. Wide doors lined the walls, and the halls were large enough for significant two way pony traffic. The group looked at it all in awe, the stable was in fairly pristine condition, other than several flattened chairs, tables, and a sofa that was in the main hall.

“Wow… this… this is…” Divinity stuttered, looking at the open area.

“Creepy?” Cappy asked, looking over at his unicorn partner.

“AMAZING” Divinity whinnied, both Cappy and Gretchen shushing her.

“Are you trying to get me killed” Gretchen squawked quietly.

“Dont worry” the unicorn commented, pulling a rag from a saddle bag and wiping the floor near the hallway, revealing a thick layer of dust, “if there was ‘anything’ in here, the dust is so thick that it would have left hoofprints.” The three then looked behind them, noticing the light haze of kicked up dust behind them. “There’s not a single living thing in this entire Stable.”

“Well that’s not… bad” Gretchen commented, looking around. She didn’t know what was worse, thinking that someone else might also be in this stable… or being all alone.

Divinity smiled, “We should check anyway, since we’re going to be here for a while. We want to know the layout of the Stable after all. So, let’s keep going.”

Cappy nodded in agreement, “Let’s do this.”

The trio made their way through the Stable, cautiously peering around every corner and making sure they really were alone. They found several more pieces of broken furniture, but everything else seemed intact.

“Well,” Cappy said when the group found themselves in what had to be the kitchen. It was the last stop on their tour, and they were all very hungry after such a stressful day, “We’re safe in here for now, and we seem to be alone. This is probably a good thing. We can get what salvage we can from here and make a few caps. Rest up, take a bath. It’ll be like...a-a-I don’t even know.”

Divinity shrugged, setting her crowbar on a counter. Her eyes roamed the expanse of the large kitchen. An odd-looking machine took up most of one wall, humming and buzzing with power. Refrigerators, working ones, lined another wall. Counterspace lined the remaining two walls, interspersed with other large machines that seemed bolted to the floor. Divinity wasn’t sure what they did, but she wanted to find out.

Gretchen wandered over to the odd looking machine, not entirely certain if she wanted to be the one to use it for the first time. After all, all she’d heard about Stables was how dangerous they all were. It hummed ominously, a strange sound that one from the wasteland would have never heard before.

The hiss that sounded like a small torch approached, causing all three to jump and spin around to the entrance. Divinity attempted to magically grab her crowbar once more, only for it to clatter about loudly and clang on the ground before it hovered nearby the unicorn’s head.

“I thought we searched everywhere?” Cappy grunted angrily.

“We did” Divinity shuttered, “I made sure of it.”

“What a shoddy piece of work you are” Gretchen cawed, “because of your stupidity, they have us cornered in the kitchen.”

The shadow loomed closer, the hissing noise growing ever slightly louder until the intruder hovered in with it’s glowing eye stalks.

“Well hello Stable Dwellers, welcome to Stable 30!” it’s natural sounding voice greeted them, one of it’s three arms waving in a jovial manner, “my name is K3H73L, but everyone calls me Kehtel.” The Mr. Handy hovered closer to them, his torch and buzz saw pointed away, “my my, it’s been awhile since I’ve been activated, look at this dusty mess.” The three merely watched with some relief as the Mr. Handy began doing chores, cleaning up the floor in the kitchen.

*GRoooowwlllllll*

Divinity jumped back with a nervous giggle, looking at the other two staring at her. Kehtel on the other hand noticed this and began heading over to the massive machine covering the wall.

“Oh my, ‘someone’ sounds hungry” he commented, heading over to the device and turning a couple of knobs before pulling the lever like a slot machine. With a hiss and a whistle, a chute opened up and out slid a Hay Burger, with steam rising from it’s soft bun. “Please enjoy this meal while I prep everything so that ‘you’ can get signed in, and start your NEW life as a stable dweller.”

Divinity looked at the burger, her ears perked and her nostrils sniffed.

“Divinity, you don't know where that’s been, or how old it is.” Cappy warned her

“But it’s… it’s FRESH” the unicorn whinnied, holding the burger in her magical grasp before chomping down on it. “OH… OH MY… IT’S…” She squirmed, taking a seat at one of the tables to shove the tasty treat down her throat like there was no tomorrow.

Cappy looked back at the Mr. Handy with a self conscious glare before asking, “I wouldn’t mind a Burger myself.”

“Me too” Squawked the griffon.

Kehtel chuckled warmly, he turned the knobs again, and this time a whole platter of burgers slid out of the shute. Kehtel set them out on a table, and gestured grandly, “Here, enjoy these while we get everything ready for you.”

Divinity launched herself into a chair, using her magic to pull another of these ‘hay burgers’ to her muzzle. Not to be left behind or starved, Gretchen got into her own chair. Using her talons, she lifted the large burger to her beak. The smell was incredible, everything smelled so much fresher and...slightly different than usual? Gretchen tossed the thought into the back of her mind. If the unicorn was eating, so was she.

Gretchen took a large bite, then moaned at the flavours dancing across her tongue. It was incredible, unlike anything she’d eaten. The hay was crispy and light, and the bun was soft and warm. Some kind of sauce was drizzled over the hay, which added a bit of a kick that the hay and bun wouldn’t usually have.

This was unlike any of the bread she’d ever had, fresh or preserved. Same with the hay. Before Gretchen had realized it, her own hungry stomach had moved her to grab another burger.
Cappy followed suit, realizing he wouldn’t get to have one if he waited for much longer.

The trio ate in almost complete silence. No one spoke a word, too busy chewing or making little noises of appreciation. By the time the tray had been cleared, Gretchen felt as if she’d eaten a chunk of concrete. Heavy, and sluggish. Her stomach ached, uncomfortably full for the first time in her life.

“That was amazing,” Divinity broke the silence, leaning back in her own chair. She looked as dazed as Gretchen felt.

“Agreed,” Cappy hunched over the table, staring at the empty platter with wide eyes, “I can’t believe we ate all of them.”

“I’m not,” Gretchen grunted, rubbing her aching stomach absentmindedly, “I almost wish there was more.”

“There will be, miss!” Kehtel replied, suddenly appearing beside them. Gretchen jumped, no one seemed to notice. “Once we get you all sorted, of course. We’ve been so long without any-creature here it will take me a little while to bring things back up to snuff...I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you at all. I’m sure you must have expected more from Stable-Tec.”

Gretchen blinked at the robot for a long moment, “What do you mean, ‘get us sorted’?”

“I need to make you feel comfortable in your new home, of course. It won’t be a proper Stable-Tec experience otherwise.”

“Right,” Gretchen belched, not bothering to cover her mouth, “What are you going to do with us?”

“I’m going to give you your jumpsuits, and show you to the living area! I want you three all nice and settled before we start your first full day here.”

“First full day?” Divinity questioned, “What time is it?”

“Twelve o’six AM, ma’am. Horrible that the megaspells should fall at such an ungodly hour. Now, are you three ready?”

Gretchen groaned, standing up, “Let’s get this over with.”

Divinity and Cappy shared a look. Divinity got up first, stretching as she did so. Kehtel led the way through the stable, entering a portion they’d explored well. It was the living quarters, where the highest percentage of broken furniture was.

Gretchen picked what seemed to be the best room for herself. All of the furniture was intact, and it had an attached bathroom. With running water still in it. It was all too luxurious.

“Here you are, miss,” Kehtel said, hovering close to her. In one of his appendages, he held a plastic bag. It was clear, and she could see a blue garment inside. The number, emblazoned in an eye-catching yellow, was the number 30.

Tentatively, Gretchen took the bag, laying it on her bed, “What is this?”

“It’s your stable-issued jumpsuit, miss. You don’t need to wear it just yet, but I recommend you do before the radiation sinks through to your skin.”

Gretchen blinked. Then realized that the robot thought the megaspells had just dropped. She wasn’t sure what he would do if she told him the truth, so she kept quiet. She watched as Kehtel hovered away, her door sliding shut behind him.

She set her bags on the bed, and opened the bag that contained the jumpsuit. She took it out and laughed, dropping it to the floor. It was huge. Clearly meant for somepony, or some-creature, significantly larger than herself. Both in height and weight.

“That robot is nuts,” Gretchen snorted, “If he thinks I’m going to wear that. Whatever,” She stashed her most prized possessions under her bed, deigning to leave her barding on. If the ponies really were out to get her, which she figured likely, it was better to be prepared.

Gretchen’s overfull stomach continued to complain while digesting those wonderful hay burgers well after Gretchen had finally fallen asleep.

Taking the Bait

When Divinity woke up the next morning, she put on her normal outfit. While she appreciated Kehtel’s warnings about radiation sickness, she also wanted to be safe and comfortable. She couldn’t be either in a jumpsuit that looked like it had been made for behemoth ponies. She couldn’t help but wonder if ponies had been bigger before the megaspells dropped. It wouldn’t surprise her.

Divinity crept out of her quarters, and made her way toward the kitchen. She was hungry and thirsty, and she hoped Kehtel would be able to feed her more. She hoped the food from the night before hadn’t been a mistake or a fluke. Gretchen didn’t seem to have much food with her, and she knew she and Cappy didn’t have much food left. They’d had to leave most of their supplies back in the clearing.
Shuffling into the kitchen, Divinity was greeted by Kehtel. It looked as if he’d worked through the night, cleaning the place so everything shined under the fluorescent lighting. He spun around to face her.

“Good morning, ma’am. You’re the first to wake up on this fine day. Would you like some breakfast?”

“Yes, please,” Divinity smiled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a foreleg.

“Of course! Would you like to take breakfast in the entertainment room? There are many, many videos to assuage any boredom and homesickness you may be feeling right now. Or you can eat here.”

“Videos?” Curiosity piqued, Divinity stepped closer, “I’ll eat in the entertainment room if it isn’t too much trouble.”

“It’s not a problem, ma’am. May I ask your name? I need to start a record of everyone who is here.”

“I’m Divinity, the pegasus is Bent Cap, and the griffon is Gretchen,” Divinity replied.

“Excellent, ma’am. I’ll add that to the records while you eat. Is there anything you’d like this morning?”

Divinity’s mind pulled a blank. She didn’t know what ponies used to eat for breakfast. “How about you surprise me?”

“It would be a pleasure. The entertainment room is down the hallway, three doors on the left. Please make yourself comfortable, I’ll bring your breakfast the moment it’s done.”

Divinity nodded in agreement, then made her way to the entertainment room. It was one of the ones that they’d explored the night before, and Kehtel had cleaned it as well. An unsquashed couch was in front of a large monitor along one wall. Several bookshelves were half-filled with books. Several large chairs were scattered around, clearly meant for relaxing. There were four intact terminals in the room, the smallest one near the monitor.

Divinity sat on the couch, sinking into the plump cushions in a way that wasn’t possible on the surface. Divinity sighed, looking around. The amount of technology in the stable could earn her a lot of caps. She itched to take it apart and study how it all worked, but she wanted to see it all in action first. Celestia forbid she break something, especially if they were stuck down here for a while.
Just as Divinity’s stomach began to growl in earnest, Kehtel appeared, grasping a metal tray. He hovered over, setting the tray on a wheeled table, “Here you are ma’am. Cereal with milk, some toast with peanut butter, and some pancakes. With all of the accoutrements of course.”

The platter was huge, filled with more food than Divinity had seen for a whole day’s worth of rationing. Without really thinking about it, she used her magic to start eating. As she ate the thick toast with smooth peanut butter, she added whatever these ‘accoutrements’ were to the pancakes. A fat of some kind, old butter perhaps, and a delicate white powder. As well as a thick, brown syrup.

Taking a bite of a pancake, Divinity felt a part of her soul separate from her body. It was so sweet. Unlike Sugar Bombs, which just had a sweetness to them that made her teeth ache, these had flavour. Before she really knew what she was doing, Divinity had eaten the entire stack.

Divinity’s stomach felt heavy, but she felt compelled to keep going.

“Is there any preference for what you’d like to watch, ma’am? There are some wonderful documentaries about how fashion has influenced society in recent years.”

Divinity paused her eating, looking over at Kehtel with inquisitive eyes, “Are they from the Ministry of Image?”

“Of course they are! The Ministry of Image is doing it’s best to ensure the proper knowledge is spread all across Equestria.”

“One of those please. I don’t have a preference for what one.”

Kehtel went to the terminal beside the monitor and meddled with the controls for a few moments. Then, like magic, an image flickered to life before Divinity’s eyes. As she watched the bright blue skies and the paradise of the world two-hundred years gone, she ate the rest of her meal.

Bent Cap woke to the smells of something that smelled delicious. He didn’t really know what exactly it was, but it smelled amazing. Not bothering to put on his barding, Cappy left his room and made his way to the kitchen.

Gretchen was seated at the kitchen table, beak deep in some kind of...pie? Unlike the preserved pies Cappy had seen, this one steamed.
“Ah! Hello, sir. Miss Divinity has said your name is Bent Cap. Is that correct?”

Cappy looked over to Kehtel, who was busying himself by cleaning a refrigerator.

“That’s right. Most call me Cappy though, so feel free to do the same.”

“Of course, sir. You’re the last one to wake this fine morning, would you like me to prepare you some breakfast?”

“He’s not getting any of mine!” Gretchen squacked, her eyes narrow.

“Erm..sure. Please.”

“Would you like anything in particular today?”

“No..just surprise me please,” Cappy took a seat opposite of Gretchen. She was still glaring at him, slurping up the contents of the pie like it would be her last meal.

Cappy decided to ignore her, contenting himself to look around. Kehtel had been busy overnight. All the surfaces were now free of dust and gleamed in the light. Even the floors and walls outside had been cleaned, Cappy noted to himself, especially considering the Mr. Handy had only one real functioning arm while the other two had questionable purposes.

A tray of eggs, strips of fried hay, toast, and what looked like apples in some kind of sauce, was placed in front of Cappy. Curious, hoping for food as flavourful as the hay burgers the night before, he started eating.

Cappy wasn’t disappointed at all, much to his surprise, still expecting for there to be a ‘catch’ in this Stable. Everything was fresh, warm, and delicious. So like the food he knew, yet completely different. He finished the eggs, toast, and the apples, but couldn’t finish the hay. His stomach was too bloated and heavy.

“Thanks, Kehtel,” Cappy grunted, leaning back in his chair, “I think I’m done-”

“I’ll eat it!” Gretchen snatched the tray with her talons. She shoved the remaining hay into her beak at an alarming rate. Cappy didn’t really know what to do or say. She’d already eaten more than he had. The griffon kept eyeing Cappy, the pegasus thinking that she may be a bit loose in the head, or too heavily branded by the wasteland civilization. ‘Maybe she’s got a point’ Cappy thought to himself, seeing the griffon push food into her beak, groaning in slight pain, ‘maybe she’s preparing for when we finally get out of the Stable, already thinking ahead.’ He chuckled to himself, ‘a great survivor’.

“Miss Divinity is still in the entertainment room. Or I can take you on a tour of the rest of the stable if you’d prefer.” Cappy jumped, being interrupted from his own internal monologue.

“Can you show me where the systems are? I’d like to make sure life support and all other functions of our home are running properly.”

“Of course, sir. Follow me,” Kehtel led the way deeper into the stable.

Grunting, ignoring the pain in his stomach, Cappy did his best to follow, hoping not to hurt his overfull stomach as he walked. Behind him, Gretchen finished the last of her pie, and started to lick his platter clean. Crumbs stuck to her black cheeks and dark blue chest as she practically assaulted the platters with her tongue. She glared at Cappy as he trotted away, desperately attempting to ignore the pain of her overfull stomach. The smaller griffon pushed the plates aside so she could rest her head against the pleasantly cool table in a moment of weakness.

“They don’t know *ugh*...that I’m on to ‘em.” Gretchen groaned, rubbing her belly with her talons, “Playing nice and such, I bet they were looking for something to stab me with in the kitchen until that bucket of bolts arrived.” She huffed, her feathers fluffing in annoyance, “now it’s just a matter of time, playing nice and getting friendly so I don't suspect them. Clever.”

*BURRAAAAAP* A heavy blech escaped her beak, relieving some tension on her sensitive insides. Gretchen sighed in relief, her body sagging against the table. She’d never felt so...full before, and the pain almost felt good.

“Two… *huff* can play at ‘that’ game…” she grunted, “I’ll keep an eye on em, and make sure they don’t have alone time together to conspire against me, and that robot looks neutral, might want to keep it around as well. Hopefully the thing about robots attacking the aggressor is true and I can use him as a buffer to deter them from attacking.” Her mind swirled, numbed by the pain of her stuffed stomach, her beak grinding nervously. With a slight look of despair, she stared at the massive machine that provided them all food, and wished desperately she knew how to operate it. Just to get it to spit out something to deal with her immense belly ache.

Did it know how to make anything other than food? Was there pre-war food that would help with a stomach ache? Gretchen would need to ask. She’d need to ask Kehtel how to operate this machine too, in case the others took him out.

Gretchen was stuck down here, and Celestia would be damned before she just gave up.

Under Pressure

It had been a month. 31 days. Four weeks.

One month since they’d locked themselves into Stable 30.

Cappy climbed to his hooves from his seated position. No matter what he tried, he couldn’t get the stable door open. Divinity had used her magic, he’d used his mechanical expertise, and even Gretchen had given it a try. Nothing had worked. Divinity had even found some old manuals in the entertainment room, but nothing pertinent to open the door.

Cappy had even toyed around with the other systems, but didn’t want to take any risks. What if he shut off the life support but the door still didn’t open? There was no point taking their lives in his hooves.

Cappy sighed, giving up for the afternoon. At this point most of his days were spent staring at the stable door, glaring at the panel, and not doing much. He hated to admit it, but he wanted and needed the stable door to open. Almost regardless of what was out there now.

As a pegasus, he felt the need to fly. It was ingrained into his very being. Flying was an edge he had over most ponies in the wasteland, one he delighted in. Nothing felt as amazing as a bracing wind under his wings, seeing the ground beneath him blur into an endless stream of background information. High up in the clouds, Cappy could believe life hadn’t gone to hell.

The stable wasn’t built to accommodate fliers. Creatures with wings could live here, obviously. He and Gretchen were examples of that. Just because someone could live somewhere didn’t mean all of their needs had been taken care of, however.

The atrium was the largest room the stable had. It branched off in every direction the stable had to offer. It was clearly supposed to be another communal area for the residents. It was an empty expanse of cold metal and glass windows peering into other areas. Cappy had tried to fly, but the air didn’t move like it did outside. The air movement was the same, no matter what he did or how he flew. It was boring, and useless.

Cappy stepped into the kitchen and was yanked mercilessly from his thoughts. The number one reason why he wanted to get out of the stable was sitting in front of him.

Gretchen was naturally small in stature and weight. Obviously due to malnutrition, which was sadly a fate many lived with their entire lives. Her past screamed of a constant lack of food. She never shared, and even licked the other plates clean.

Cappy didn’t think she’d ever been able to have a reliable amount of food around her before. Much less an endless supply. A month of constant gorging showed clearly on Gretchen’s previously rail-thin appearance.

As the pegasus entered the kitchen, Gretchen’s frail physique quickly faded from his mind, replaced with her new one. What was once a thin griffon had bloated out to nothing other than obese. Despite the polite suggestions from Kehtel, the griffon still wore her raider armor, despite the fact that it continued to groan with the strain louder and louder every day. It looked uncomfortably tight, and Cappy was uncertain as to how she got it on every day.

She was currently eating, like most of the time he ran into her. Gretchen’s gaunt face had filled out with fluffy cheeks and a thick neck. Her body billowed out barrel like, pushing against the leather and metal that wrapped around her torso, and even with the armor constraining her body like a corset, she was still about twice as wide as she once was. When they first entered the stable, Gretchen’s armor would occasionally rattle and clatter, now it’s strained so much that it only groaned and squeaked. Her thick posterior was pinched constrained by leather straps, even to the point where it folded over several of them. Between straps, zippers, buckles, and holes her body desperately attempted to push its way out, bulging out past an inch. This gave her neck line a muffin top look, and her exposed chest a pigeon chest appearance, like feathered cleavage. The griffon’s wings would flap on occasion, though every time Cappy observed this, he could start to see the residual jiggle of fat that was starting to coat the appendages. Even her talons looked ‘fat’, though in reality were just dulled, constantly scraping against the hard metal that made up the floors of the stable.

Gretchen looked over to her next platter, her feathers partially covering the leather choker currently pinching into her thick neck, giving her another unnecessary chin. She glanced over at Cappy before returning to her meal, accompanied by the audible groans of her armor. With a heavy swallow, the griffon swallowed some of her food heavily, having taken a massive bite.

*Creeeeeeaaaak*

*SNAP*

With Gretchen wide eyed, the leather choker flung off her neck, reducing itself to a shredded strap. Her constrained two additional chins turning into one thick roll of dark blue and black feathers. Gretchen groaned, scratching her neck grumpily.

“I’ll get the bot to pick it up later” she sighed, before stuffing her beak once more, forcing her cheeks to bloat up even larger before swallowing.

There was an ominous groan quickly followed by two popping sounds. Her eyes widened in a frantic expression as she pathetically chirped, “ohno.”

The loud sound of tearing fabric heralded the sounds of more popping stitches. Or was it buttons? Buckles? Cappy wasn’t sure. With a mighty whip-ping sound, the rest of her outfit started to fail.

Her entire outfit fell apart catastrophically as fabric and leather seams pulled apart like zippers, a sea of black feathers pouring out. New flab now resting on other supports, overloading them to the point where they bent and snapped apart. The tongues of metal buckles bent and snapped off, flying away from her, or straps would stretch to half their width before popping in half. It was a total catastrophic failure of Gretchen’s armor as one structural failure turned into another, her blue and black feathers spreading out and sagging a little further past her knees now that they were not supported. The sudden violent shifting of weight sent Gretchen off balance and pushed her face into her food.

The griffon pulled herself out of her food frantically, looking over at Cappy in a combination of embarrassment and horror with cheeks flushed red. Before Cappy could even comment on it the griffon grabbed whatever she could of the remaining food and scrambled past him. The loud clattering of her broken metal armor dragged behind her due to one remaining armor shin guard still being firmly strapped to her leg.

“Oh boy… I hope that didn’t hurt her pride too much” Cappy commented as he watched the griffon fleeing to her room, getting a good view of her sizable ass cheeks wobbling with every step, “Poor thing.”

The familiar humming of the Mr. Handy, Kehtel, approached, another platter in it’s dexterous claw.

“Oh dear, looks like Lady Gretchen is in one of her ‘moods’ again.” It commented looking at the mess, with one of it’s three eyes, “I’ll deliver some ice cream to her room later to help cheer her up.” It took it’s time getting the broom to start sweeping up before acknowledging Cappy.

“Hello Sir. Cappy, I hope your making progress with your… project” He commented, the robot’s programing obviously made to be non confrontational, but also dissuasive of anyone leaving the Stables early.

“No, but I think there are a couple of other routes that I can attempt that might provide better results” he mentioned half heartedly to the robot. “By the way do you know…?”

“Oh, Mrs. Divinity is in the entertainment room,” Kehtel chimed in excitedly, “I just finished delivering her more popcorn with… as Mrs. Divinity puts it, ‘extra extra extra extra extra extra extra butter’, with a pinch of salt.”

Cappy sighed. Of course she was. She left the entertainment room to sleep and shower. Though, if Cappy were being honest, she tended to sleep in the entertainment room more often than not now. She took all of her meals in there, barely getting off the couch enough for Kehtel to clean around her.

“Is there anything I can get you, sir?”

“I’m okay for now, thanks,” Cappy replied, stepping over a remnant of Gretchen’s armour that Kehtel hadn’t swept up yet, “I’ll let you know when I want dinner.”

“Of course, sir!”

Cappy left Kehtel to the mess, staring at Gretchen’s closed door as he went. In spite of initial grumpiness, Gretchen had been nothing but nice to either him or Divinity. He was beginning to see her as a friend, and her behaviour was worrying him. He’d talk to her later, first he wanted to talk to Divinity. Maybe she’d thought up something while watching that mechanical documentary she’d watched earlier today.

Stepping inside the entertainment room, the first thing that struck Cappy was the smell. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it was strong. The popcorn she was so fond of smelled strongly, and she ate so much of it that the scent was sinking into the furniture.

Divinity’s monopoly on the couch hadn’t changed much. She kept to the left side of it, always willing to let Cappy or Gretchen watch something with her. Her grey coat was free of stains and grease, mostly because she used her magic to ensure every morsel of food went into her mouth.

Before entering Stable 30, she’d been average-sized for a unicorn mare her age. Running a touch toward the skinny side, perhaps, but that’s what happened when you were scavenging in the wastes. Between the two of them, they never starved, but life was hard.

All that hardship was buried under at least one hundred pounds of pure fat, however. After the first two weeks, she’d given up wearing her armour. There didn’t seem much point. They were safe, got along well, and after watching Gretchen’s armour begin to lose the battle, Divinity had just stowed hers away in a locker in her room.

Divinity carried her weight a lot better than Gretchen. Whether this was because of the size difference, or perhaps what Divinity was eating, Cappy wasn’t sure. Unlike Gretchen who bulged and had folds everywhere (though that could change now her armour wasn’t in the way), Divinity had gained fairly evenly throughout her body. This had given her a smooth appearance. She’d removed her garments a while ago, this combined with her current size made her smokey grey body look like a thick pony shaped storm cloud oozing across the couch like a heavy fog.

She may have carried her weight better, but that didn’t mean the effects of eating so much and doing so little hadn’t left their mark. Most of her muscles had atrophied as the weeks wore on, further encouraging her sedentary lifestyle. Where there had once been hard muscle in her shoulders and flanks, were now pounds of jiggling fat. Her barrel curved outward, soft and pliable, squishing into the one side of the couch to create a forced roll. Her plot sunk into the couch cushions, spreading out to cover a part of the next cushion even though she had obviously done her best to take up as little space as possible.

Divinity didn’t look away from her current viewing. Her mouth was full of greasy popcorn, and her magic held more near her muzzle. She waved absently, her small hoof providing a large contrast between it and her leg fat. The movement caused her chest to ripple, and that ripple carried over elsewhere in her expanded body.

“Just checking in,” Cappy said, sitting down on the other end of the couch, “Didn’t get it to work today.” Realizing he was staring down, like he did for hours every day leaning over consoles, Cappy made a conscious motion to stretch, wincing at his back and neck protesting at the movement.

When they got out, not if never if, looking down too much could kill him. He needed to be alert for everything, and his neck constantly leaning down could prevent him from doing that. He’d stretch his neck more. Surely that would work.

Divinity absentmindedly stroked his shoulder with a hoof, allowing him a good look at how her fat hung off of the leg. It was still fairly slender but it wouldn’t be long before they weren’t.

Divinity swallowed thickly, “That’s too bad, Cappy. I’m sure you’ll get it tomorrow.”

“Gretchen’s armour finally had it. Kehtel might still be cleaning it up. It was...rather spectacular, how it went.”

“Oh reeallly,” Divinity said with a growing smile, her eyes brightened up as she turned around to face Cappy. Though it was less ‘turn’ and more ‘slosh’ as her girthy gut wobbled and oozed over to the right of the couch while Divinity turned herself around. “Oh I wish I saw it with my own eyes, but I had ‘research’ to do.” She told him, her body still slowly sloshing from side to side, “Come on, tell me, what was it like.”

“It was… uh… like a big chain reaction of failing support systems” he commented scratching his head, trying to think of a better way of describing it.
“This is why I gave mine up,” Divinity smiled, slowly rolling herself back onto her back and towards the television. Her eyes quickly glued to what she was watching before. Her magical aura wrapped itself around her belly, proudly on display between her legs. She shook it, causing it to jostle and slap against her hind legs when she let go, “My belly would’ve torn mine a long time ago. I’m surprised hers didn’t give up sooner.”

“Me too,” Cappy huffed. There was a moment of relative silence, with nothing but the droning of the video going on, “What are you watching?”

“The video I watched earlier had a sequel. Nothing about the doors yet, but I’ve learned so much about stables today.”

“Of course,” Cappy watched as Divinity stuffed her muzzle full of popcorn again, “Well, I’m going to check on Gretchen. Try to get to bed before 3AM this time, okay?”

Mouth full, Divinity made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat. Cappy chuckled, heaved himself to his hooves, and traversed the way he’d come. Stopping outside of Gretchen’s door, he knocked.

Gretchen startled at the noise, pausing mid-lick on the last of the cheesy sauce she’d been engrossed in when her armour had finally given up. The remaining armour fragment had been violently tossed into the wall opposite her bed. Well…’violently’ tossed. She didn’t have the strength in her body to do much to it, but the action had still been cathartic.

Swallowing the last of the cheese, Gretchen squaked, “Come in!”

Cappy stepped into the room, and Gretchen’s minds eye couldn’t help but flash back to what he’d been a month before. A war machine, tall and well-built. Still fairly slim, mostly due to how pegasi gained muscle mass. Griffons could handle being a little beefier, but pegasi were usually lighter due to their wing size.

Trapped underground in a place where flight wasn’t really encouraged had effectively grounded him. He could fly, unlike Gretchen who’s wing still hadn’t quite healed fully enough, but the atrium wasn’t enough to do what he wanted. Gretchen could understand that, she’d seen him try and even grounded could tell she wouldn’t fly in there even if she wanted to.

Staying seated, reading or researching or fiddling with the various systems had dealt him another blow. Where before, Cappy had been tall and proud. A month of looking mostly down had taken that from him. He looked down most of the time now, and Gretchen was secretly pleased. It was harder for him to see her slip-ups. She knew all that looking down hurt him too, he was always complaining about his neck and back nowadays. Gretchen wasn’t sure whether to believe it, after all it was likely a ploy to get her to let her guard down. Regardless, Gretchen could get some satisfaction out of it.

Cappy caught himself looking down again, and righted himself. He winced as he did, rubbing at his neck with a hoof, “You okay?”

“Of course I am! I...was just shaken,” Gretchen said sweetly. She had to make sure they didn’t know that she knew what they were up to.

“Oh good. When we get out, you should really track down and find whoever made that armour. I didn’t expect it to last that long.” Cappy smiled, and Gretchen felt a thrill of fear run down her spine.

What would they do to her now she was left unprotected? With no armour, she would be easy pickings-

Cappy smiled, “I was just going to get some dinner. Did you want to come with? I know you’re always hungry.”

Gretchen’s emotions all flared to life. What could he be planning? Would he spike her food? Stab her while she wasn’t looking? Gretchen swallowed a lump in her throat, “No thanks. I-uh need to finish digesting this,” She gestured to her own empty platter.

“Cool. Wanted to double check.” Cappy offered a smile, the movement causing dimples in his fattened cheeks.

As he left, Gretchen couldn’t help but think about how his body had changed. Not only had his muscle atrophied due to lack of use, he’d also put on fat like herself and Divinity. Unlike herself and Divinity, he was so big it hardly seemed to matter. To save his armour, he’d found a mechanic’s jumpsuit. At the start of the month it had been far too big. It had hung off his frame, and he’d needed Divinity to alter it so he could wear it safely. Now though, it seemed they would need to undo those alterations soon.

The suit was still loose around the lower half of his legs, but it was stretched tightly over every other part of his body. The seams were creaking with strain, while the suit showed off every little roll and bulge he had.

Cappy’s plot had gained the most, followed shortly thereafter by his barrel and stomach. They’d cut wing-holes out of the suit, and they rested against his chubbier sides. Due to complete lack of use for over three weeks, they had built up some fat as well. Replacing the once solid muscle that made them up. It would be almost sad if that didn’t give Gretchen some kind of advantage if it ever came to battle.

She couldn’t fly. Even when her wing was fully healed, Gretchen would be too fat to take off. If Cappy continued to gain weight, he’d be in the same situation. Wasn’t much of an advantage, but Gretchen would take what she could get.

Cappy left, then staggered back to allow Kehtel access. The robot hovered in, a large bowl of ice cream held in his claw. He set it before Gretchen, who was still on the bed.

“Here you are, Miss Gretchen. I thought after all that trouble in the kitchen that something sweet would make you feel better.”

Gretchen kept an eye on Cappy until her door slid shut behind him, “Thanks, Kehtel.”

“It’s my pleasure! Would you like me to take the platter away?”

Gretchen eyed it, and was pleased to note that Cappy coming over hadn’t stopped her from licking it clean, “Please.”

Kehtel fetched the platter, “I’ll be with Cappy in the kitchen, miss. Just call if you need me.”

Gretchen made it two bites into her ice cream before she realized something was wrong. She’d just eaten a large meal, plus the ice cream she was now devouring. Why would Cappy invite her to eat when she’d just finished? No one would ask someone to have another meal with them after they just ate. She thought, slurping at the soft icecream with her beak, forgoing the spoon entirely. Unless...he wanted me to stay in here! Is he going to sabotage the machine!?

Like a griffon possessed, Gretchen slurped back the rest of the ice cream, ignoring the horrible paralyzing pain it brought to her throat and chest when she did so. Even with her armor stripped from her, the griffon’s poor belly had already grown taut and full with food and fat. If she pulled away at her feathers she would see her gut covered in angry stretch marks. Still, she needed to get to the kitchen two minutes ago, and she didn’t care that her stomach was stuffed so full she could hardly breathe. None of that mattered. What mattered was her continued survival.

Managing to climb to her feet, She waddled out into the hall, nearly in a frenzy. Moving as quickly as she could, which honestly wasn’t that fast. She tried to walk with her legs bowed out, just so she didn’t accidentally kick her own taught gut. With determination though she finally appeared in the doorway to the kitchen to find Cappy seated at the table, fork poised to enter his lips. He opened his mouth, and Gretchen cut him off with a loud belch.

“ON SECOND….thought,” Gretchen wiped away at the sweat beading on her forehead. The ‘run’ had taken more out of her than she’d thought, “I’d ‘love’ to hang out and have dinner with you!”

“Are you sure?” Cappy asked.

“YES!” Gretchen sat across from the pegasus, certain in the fact he wouldn’t try anything while she was right there, “Kehtel get me some baked spaghetti please.”

“Of course, miss. Excellent choice!”

Author's Note

Hello everyone!
Sorry for the wait, the last week or so has been rough for us in terms of writing, but we hope you enjoy this chapter as much as we liked writing it!

If you like this, and my other work, please check out my patreon and my commission info. Honestly a few dollars makes all the difference.

Pheal is still open for commissions, and you can check out his info here.

Breaking Point

Gretchen sat at the kitchen table, tapping a talon on the table. Two weeks had passed since her armour had failed, and she was only more certain that the ponies were up to something. She’d gotten up the night before to find Divinity watching a documentary about effects of malnutrition on the body.

Gretchen, even though she finally had enough weight on her that she could think otherwise, was clearly the reason why Divinity was watching such a thing. Not to mention Cappy was constantly on computers and consoles, and whenever she asked what he was doing, he gave some complicated answer that had to be made up technobabble. They were trying to find weaknesses, she was sure of it.

So, under the guise of solidarity, Gretchen had proposed the idea of shared meals together. It wasn’t perfect, but this allowed her to see them both in the same place for a decent amount of time. Three times a day. She could ensure her own food wasn’t tampered with, and made sure to eat all the leftovers before they left the table.

“Would you like an appetizer now while you wait Miss Gretchen?” Kehtel asked her, hovering near her immense body, “I’m sure Miss. Divinity and Mr. Cappy would be arriving shortly.” He then hovered back a bit, his eye stalks focusing on her, “and might I say, your Stable suit looks great on you.”

Gretchen looked down at herself. What had once seemed preposterous big for her, now fit snugly. She still had to roll the sleeves up, she was too short, but every other part of the suit was now snug. Her belly hung so low that she couldn’t even get the zipper up. The suit didn’t offer anything in protection, but it still felt better than wearing nothing. She was fat, and without the tight suit, she sagged everywhere. The only consolation was that she wasn’t the smallest griffon she’d ever seen before.

“Can you prepare some mozzarella sticks for me to wait with?”

“Yes, miss.” Kehtel floated over to the machine, punching in the order. Gretchen licked her beak, unsure of what to do.

If she left they could do something to Kehtel or the food, but if she stayed they could be plotting something.

The door hissed open, sliding upward to allow Cappy to come into the kitchen. He was rotating his head around, clearly attempting to get the joints in his neck to pop.

“Sorry, Gretchen. I know you like us all eating together. Didn’t mean to be late. Found a new section of the door code I haven’t looked at yet, got caught up in it.”

“It’s okay,” Gretchen lied, some part of her brain whirring with possibilities about where he’d been.

Cappy sat across from her, sinking into the chair like he’d always been part of the stable. Judging from his physique, it wasn’t hard to imagine he’d always lived there-that they’d always had.

“Have you ordered us a first course?”

“Err...just some mozzarella sticks.”

Cappy grinned, “Those are delicious.”

“I know,” Gretchen offered her own smile, hoping it didn’t come across forced.

The door hissed again, and Divinity waddled in. As was her usual, she took pride in her appearance. She was using her magic to keep herself more mobile, squishing her stomach fat smaller than it was naturally was to allow easier movement, like a magical invisible corset.

Panting, she smiled, “Sorry, everyone! Lost track of time. Research, y’know.” She plopped in a chair beside Gretchen, letting her magic go. Her stomach surged forward, easily threatening to overtake the knees of her hind legs when she sat.

Kehtel appeared with three baskets of mozzarella sticks, steaming and accompanied by little containers of marinara sauce.

“What else would you like?” Kehtel asked.

“Burgers,” Cappy muttered.

“Spaghetti,” Divinity smiled.

“French toast how I like it,” Gretchen had discovered she had quite a sweet tooth. Anything packed full of sugar was welcome. Her french toast was coated in icing sugar, syrup, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and even had a helping of ice cream to the side.

She closed her eyes, stuffing mozzarella sticks into her beak as she heard Kehtel use the machine behind her. He’d shown her how to use the machine, but she preferred not to. She didn’t want Divinity and Cappy to realize she knew how to use it.

With Kehtel behind her, and the trio busy stuffing their faces, Gretchen found herself able to relax. She could see them, and knew they weren’t doing anything to sabotage her while they were eating like this. The meals they shared together was the best times of her day, allowing her to relax and show off how hard she would be to starve out.

When Divinity and Cappy were done with their mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce, they slid their leftovers to Gretchen. There wasn’t a mozzarella stick left, but she licked up the crumbs and the marinara sauce with vigour. She would be hard to starve out, and Gretchen loved to remind them of it.

Soon after she’d licked the last of the crumbs off of her beak, Kehtel returned with a large tray on which he balanced their dinners. He served them in rapid succession. Gretchen’s french toast was barely settled on the table before she dug in.

As the sweet flavours caressed her tongue, she moaned with pleasure. Sugar danced along her tongue and overwhelmed her palette. The french toast was delicious, with a slightly crusty exterior, and a soft sweet interior. Though before she even got to that, she had to dig through inches of icing, syrup, and ice cream. Gretchen went slow at first to savor it, a rarity considering her appetite, but quickly accelerated as she chomped down on the towering concoction of supreme sweetness.

Divinity slurped her spaghetti, giggling at the amusing sight of Gretchen happily eating up her meal. Cappy himself gave a heartfelt smirk, his head craned down as he chomped on his burger, his shoulders almost rising above his ears as he ate.

Near silence reigned as Kehtel cleaned up the empty trays. The only sounds were slurping, chewing, and heavy breathing. No one talked, no one needed to. It was easier to focus on the foodstuffs in front of them.

Soon enough, the last of the sweet treats had disappeared down Gretchen’s gullet. As her stomach noisily tried to digest her massive dinner, she watched with hungry eyes as Divinity and Cappy ate through their own large portions.

Divinity gave up first, sliding her bowl toward Gretchen. Gretchen slurped up what was left of the spaghetti, using her tongue to lick the dish clean of all the rich marinara still clinging to the bowl. When Cappy finished his, there wasn’t anything more than crumbs left. Gretchen didn’t notice, or didn’t care. She still licked his platter clean.

“That was amazing, Kehtel thank you,” Divinity smiled. She leaned back in her chair, caressing her swollen belly with careful hooves.

Kehtel floated up a little higher, clearly pleased with the praise, “Thank you ma’am! I’m just glad I’m here to serve you three!”

Cappy stood, stretching as he did so. He rubbed at his own stuffed belly for a moment, then smiled at Divinity and Gretchen, “I’m calling it an early night. Gotta sleep this off. See you girls later! Don’t stay up too late.”

Divinity chuckled, “I’d never think of doing such a thing,” her voice was thick with sarcasm. Cappy rolled his eyes, and waddled out of the kitchen.

Gretchen belched, reducing some of the pressure in her stomach. Divinity burped as well, the sound a little less abrasive than Gretchen’s.

“Did you want to join me? I’m starting a new series tonight. Thought maybe you’d like to join me. We haven’t spent much girl time together,” Divinity said, smiling warmly at Gretchen.

Gretchen’s heart ran cold, but she kept her contented smile on her face, “Can I join you in a bit? I-uh-I want to stretch my legs a little first. Have a kink I’ve been trying to work out all day.”

Divinity nodded sagely, “I feel you. I’ll get it queued up and have Kehtel make us some snacks. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good!” Gretchen’s mind was spinning dizzily at the possibilities. She’s check the entrance first, where Cappy spent his days. Just to be sure he really was in his room. Then she would stay near Divinity for as long as she could stand. If Cappy was asleep, that was the best place for Gretchen to be.

They wouldn’t get the jump on her. Not if she still had breath in her body.

Divinity left first, and Gretchen watched as Divinity entered the entertainment room. Wincing at how overfull her stomach was, Gretchen moved as quickly as she could into the entrance room. This was difficult, slow going for her however. With her stomach so full, she could feel how her belly swayed underneath her and how that hindered her legs movements.

Sweating, panting for breath, Gretchen entered the entrance room. It was the same as it ever was. With the exception of having a couple more coffee cups scattered around than Gretchen remembered.

Slowing her pace, hoping to settle her breathing, Gretchen stalked around all the terminals. She wasn’t a mechanics pony, not like Cappy and Divinity, so nothing made much sense to her. Squeezing between two consoles, Gretchen stood facing Cappy’s work area.

A desk, a terminal, and an assortment of loose papers held together with a clipboard. Nosing her way through it, Gretchen was disappointed to realize she couldn’t understand any of the technical junk. Grumbling, Gretchen started going through the drawers of the desk.

Opening the top right hand side drawer, she was horrified to see a stash. Not ammunition or medicine. It was a stash of food. Pre-packaged treats that Kehtel could produce by the dozen when asked to do so.

The other drawers were also full of these treats. Sweat was streaming down Gretchen’s nearly spherical face, and was pooling uncomfortably in her neck rolls. She could feel sweat prickling along her skin elsewhere. This confirmed it. She’d found a stash of food they were hiding from her. Near the entrance. This proved they were up to something. Nopony could eat that much at once, so they had to be stockpiling for when Cappy figured out how to shut everything down to enable the stable to starve her-

Anger, fear, and adrenaline coursed through Gretchen’s massive body. She shut the drawers, careful not to disturb them. She didn’t want them to realize she knew what they were up to.

In spite of her stomach, so bloated that it hurt to press her legs against it so she could move, Gretchen started to waddle her way toward the entertainment room only to have a frightening revelation.

They are clearly stockpiling food and treats, and no matter how much she prepared for it, if they have hidden enough food, no matter how much of a weight advantage she had, they could still out last her. Or maybe one could outlast her… she still hasn’t 100% confirmed that both were in on it, but even the idea of a single pony operation to off the other two Stable Dwellers was slim, still she HAD to take it into consideration. Or maybe BOTH are plotting to off her, but separately. Maybe that’s why they haven't attempted a joint attack yet?

Her mind whirred, her heart painfully pumping in her chest, Gretchen had to do something. That was when a brilliant but risky idea came to mind. If their hidden stash of food vanished… then they would clearly keep the machine functioning and not risk damaging it unless they know they can starve her. This would also weed out if they were working together or not, because if they weren’t, obviously Cappy wouldn’t mention the missing treats afraid of tipping off Divinity. Though she groaned, feeling how stuffed her belly was already… and yet a bad stomach ache was much better than starving to death.

Gretchen returned to the desk and slowly began unwrapping the candy bars and opening up bags of chips, pushing them down her beak in hopes of getting it down faster. Though each morsel of food only made her gut complain louder and louder. The gryphon stuffed herself, emptying the first drawer with heavy pained wheezing.

“EEP” she squawked to herself, feeling the apex of her stuffed fat belly lightly tap at the cold floor. “Oh no… I’ve really gotten fat haven’t I?” she commented to herself quietly, touching her undulating orb of gut that desperately tried to pull her down. Still, that twang of fear forced her back into eating. She was a survivor, she was a fighter, years on the wastes have taught her to persevere no matter what the pain was.

Pushing herself through, she reached the bottom of the second drawer, desperately trying to hold in a belch. She was just about sick to her pained overstuffed stomach, the weight pulling her down heavily. Still, she made it, and now she needed to leave the crime scene.

Returning to Cappy’s desk, She got halfway there before realizing that by looking flustered she could appear suspicious.

Panting, wheezing for breath, Gretchen leaned against a wall, hoping to catch her breath enough to join Divinity in a minute or two.

“Hey, I don’t think I’ve seen you move that quickly since day one.”

Gretchen jumped upright, jerking her head around to stare at Cappy in fear. On his back was a small tray, where he’d rested a steaming cup and a plate of pastries. He saw her look, then chuckled.

“Apparently I can’t get to sleep anymore without something nearby to munch on. You have fun, okay? And don’t hurt yourself.”

Cappy entered his room, and Gretchen heard the lock engage. Relief flooded Gretchen’s system, and she resumed her previous position.

BURRAAAAAAAP! her belch ruptured through her beak, shaking both her and the wall she rested near, giving her a tiny bit of relief for that taut gut. After she recovered, she made her way to the entertainment room. There, Divinity was waiting. She held a controller of sorts with her magic. No snacks had yet to appear, but Gretchen figured Kehtel would be delayed with what Cappy had ordered.

“Hey! Did you get that kink worked out? Sit down, make yourself at home. I know I have.” Divinity whinnied with a pleasant smile, leaning her fat body over so she could pat her hoof against the open sofa seat.

“Oh uh URP uh… thank you” Gretchen commented, forcing her face into a pleasant smile in order to desperately cover up the pain.

“Anyway, you’re going to LOVE this” Divinity commented as she adjusted herself on the couch, “it’s this show called I Love Lusitano and it’s so funny and heartfelt, I’ve already watched the first couple episodes but I’ve got it set up so that you can watch them too.” Divinity seemed overly excited about this, jiggling up and down, sending her gut waving about.

Gretchen attempted to slowly sit down with her, though it was already very difficult due to her weight. She could already feel her fat ass on the cushions, spreading out and pushing heavily against the Unicorn, and she hasn’t even put her full weight on it yet. The couch groaned, taking the weight of the two with a slight bow in the middle. When the griffon finally sat down, she was taking up just around half the couch, her sides pushing her arms out like fleshy arm rests. With her stomach stuffed as it was, it kept its shape more, sticking out a bit further than usual. The familiar sound of Kehtel’s engine approached them from behind, presenting the two a massive tub of popcorn and large bucket sized sodas that rested in cupholders extended from the arms.

“Thank you Kehtel” Divinity commented, magically maneuvering the popcorn into her mouth before offering some to Gretchen. “You should absolutely have some, it’s delicious.” Gretchen quietly moaned in pain, seeing the popcorn hovering in front of her beak.

“Ih… uh… suuurreeee” she slurred, the pain slowly becoming overwhelming once more, and yet not enough to burst her cover. She then felt the popcorn enter her beak, poor Gretchen slowly chewing it, hoping to delay the inevitable. Yet she had to let the butter soaked popcorn slide down her throat. She swore it felt like she swallowed a lead baseball, feeling it hit her turgid tummy painfully. The griffon swore that she could already feel new stretch marks growing across her gut.

Kehtel bowed with his eyestalk saying, “if you need more snacks, you know how to call me.” The Mr. Handy slowly made his way out, his auxiliary eyes watching the black and white projector displaying the “I Love Lusitano” logo onto the wall.

“Those girls and their programs” Kehtel chuckled to himself, hovering away from the Entertainment Room and began doing his nightly roundup. He slowly explored the entire Stable, following one wall as if going through a maze, occasionally opening lockers, checking behind unlocked doors, before slowly hovering towards the entrance of the stable.

His eyes whirred, opening up the aperture to let in more light and get a better view of the darker hall. The massive gear that locked the Stable stood tall with the numbers “30” cast into it. Kehtel slowly made the rounds, quickly torching a radroach that had the unfortunate luck of appearing in front of him.

“Oh dear, I’ll have to see where that came from” Kehtel groaned before something glittering caught his eye sockets. As programmed, it made a beeline towards the shimmering silver wrapping caught under one of the drawers.

“Tisk tisk, Mr. Cappy is usually so clean” Kehtel commented as he pulled the chunk of wrapper out and opened the door, only to find that it was empty.

“Oh my, Mr. Cappy seems to have eaten all his snacks” the Mr. Handy nodded it’s body in disapproval, “well, I’ll make sure to refill his stash before I recharge for the night.”

“Oh well, a Mr. Handy’s job is never done,”

“Oh Mr. Handy, what would I ‘ever’ do without you?”

Gretchen’s eyes were glued to the moving black and white pictures on the screen. Everything was so different. Gretchen knew things had been different before the megaspells fell but...this was insane. And genius, she couldn’t help but admit to herself. Why lift a hoof when you had something like Kehtel to do everything for you?

“I Love Lusitano was brought to you by the good ponies of General Atomics International.”

The titular Lusitano pony giggled as the multi arm robot finished up putting away stained laundry, slowly filling it with an easy to identify box positioned perfectly for the camera.

“And Abraxo, for all your cleaning needs.”

Gretchen couldn’t help herself. Once the show started in earnest, after episode two like Divinity promised, she couldn’t tear herself away. She didn’t know how many ‘seasons’ there were or how many episodes there were, she never thought to ask.

In between episodes, she’d struggle to the attached bathroom. Kehtel brought an endless supply of differing drinks and foodstuff for the two obese creatures essentially living on the couch.

Gretchen lost all track of time, too focused on the show to even really remember why she’d agreed to this in the first place. The episodes flew by, blurring together in between naps, eating, and bathroom breaks. Even Cappy joined them sometimes, setting aside his research in favour of watching a few episodes with his friends.

Time was a blur as the episodes passed. There were no clocks in the room, and while Gretchen could have checked the time at one of the terminals, what was the point? There was good tv to watch, and nothing better to do except eat and watch the goings on of the characters Gretchen liked so much.

Then, Kehtel floated in front of the empty viewscreen, “There you are ladies. The entirety of I Love Lusitano in our entertainment library.”

“All of it?!” Divinity muttered around a mouthful of popcorn, “But-”

“How long have we been watching?” Gretchen asked, shifting her weight a little. The couch continued to groan underneath her, and she ignored it.

“Eight days, 17 hours, and 48 minutes, Miss.”

Gretchen squacked in surprise. Her mind felt like it had been kickstarted after taking a nap. How could she have let Cappy have full reign of the stable for this long? How many stashes could he have filled with food during her absence?

Rocking herself forward, Gretchen built up enough momentum to get her off the couch. Her joints ached at the rough treatment, unused to holding her up so so suddenly. Her front talons, long dulled because of the harsh metal flooring didn’t hit the ground first. Her stomach did.

In her carelessness, Gretchen had finally gained enough weight to have her stomach touch the the ground. Gretchen had to reach around her stomach to walk, the movement slow and awkward. How had she not noticed? Had this been the plan all along?

Two steps and Gretchen could feel how much of her flabby stomach was pressed into the ground. It wasn’t a small amount, that was for sure. If she had to guess, the area of her stomach touching the ground had to be the same size as one of Kehtel’s dinner platters.

Gretchen lumbered around the room, doing her best to try to reduce friction between her stomach and the floor. Nothing she did worked. She couldn’t suck in her enormous amount of flab to make that much of a difference, nor could she keep her belly sucked in for long. It was too much work.

Her stable suit was tight as well, tighter than she’d thought it was. The seams were digging into her sides, legs, flanks, and shoulders. That was with the front of it open, fully allowing her stomach to pool between her legs. She’d have to see if Kehtel had any larger ones.

“Is there anything in the stable that could lift Gretchen’s stomach?” Divinity asked with some concern, noticing Gretchen’s pained, worried expression.

Kehtel hummed for a moment, clearly thinking, “Perhaps there are several creepers left. They should to the job, I’d imagine. You wait here, miss. We’ll get this sorted!” Kehtel hovered away speedily, and the door shut again.

“Wow I didn’t realize you were gaining so quickly,” Divinity said after a moment.

“I didn’t realize how much we were watching!”

Divinity chuckled, “That happens to me all the time! I’m glad I wasn’t alone this time, though. Maybe next time we’ll watch something shorter.”

“Sure,” Gretchen lied. She wasn’t sure she could ever watch something with Divinity again.

A minute or so later, Kehtel came back. He had a long, flat board on wheels. One of his eye stalks focused on Divinity, “Ma’am, would you do me a most appreciated favour and use your magic to lift up Miss Gretchen’s stomach? I’d do it myself but I need my claw to position the creeper properly.”

Divinity’s horn lit up as she smiled, “Sure! Here you are!”

Gretchen’s body went cold, and she felt her heart skip a beat when she felt Divinity’s magic grasp her large stomach and hoist it up into the air. Gretchen held perfectly still as Kehtel positioned the creeper under her. Divinity gently lowered Gretchen’s stomach onto the board. It held, but Gretchen was certain she could hear the wheels squeak with her weight.

Waddling forward, Gretchen was pleased to note the board worked. Parts of the fat that hung off of the board gently brushed the ground as she moved, but it was much better.

Gretchen sighed, moving toward the door. Now she’d been shaken out of her stupor, she resigned herself to never again fall so deeply to the videos again. Resolved, Gretchen decided to start her search for the food stashes that were sure to have cropped up in her absence.

Gretchen would find them, then eat them so the restocking process would begin again. That would delay the plans, she was sure. She didn’t entirely know if Divinity and Cappy were working together, or if it was just all coincidental that they seemed to be aiding each other out in getting ready to starve Gretchen out.

Gretchen wouldn’t fall for their tricks again, and Celestia be damned if she didn’t save herself, even if she had to use more of these boards.

Movie Night

Divinity sighed, craning her head backward as far as she was able. The one bad part about her binging shows was the terrible pains she got in her neck and back from sitting for so long.

Slowly, then gaining speed, Divinity began to rock herself to build up enough momentum for her to get off the couch. She used her magic as a guide, so she could land with her belly firmly upon her creeper. Her joints ached fiercely when she got standing, and it took her a moment of adjusting her magic enough to allow her some movement.

Divinity’s magic had to be weaker, probably due to overuse she figured. For every day that passed, she found herself more and more unable to move around with just the one creeper. Unlike Cappy and Gretchen, Divinity had magic, and used it to help her move around. It was amazing she’d lasted this long. Her compassion was getting her into trouble though.

Partially her magic was used to help keep her belly from dragging the floor on both sides of the creeper, but also to help propel herself in the direction needed. Along with just pushing any debris and trash that could get caught under the wheels as she slowly tried to move around.

The off white unicorn slowly made her way out of the entertainment room, each instance becoming more and more rare as she’d get caught up in one show after another. Still, her back and neck pains was a problem, forcing her to at least get up and waddle around the Stable. It also didn’t help that staring at a projector for days on end slowly caused her eyes to hurt. Focusing on anything closer or further than the projector screen took a little longer than usual until her eyes properly adjusted. As she slowly waddled, the sound of the hard plastic wheels rolling against the floor made a reverberating rumble that made the shuttering pile of light grey fur and fat resemble more like a thunder cloud every time she moved.

Exiting her room, Divinity had to expertly thread the needle as the wide door was becoming a little on the narrow side for her.

“Ah, Mrs. Divinity, would you like me to help you with that?” Kehtel commented as he floated on by “you’re certainly up late.”

“Late?” Divinity asked, looking up at the clock and realizing it’s already around 11PM. Being locked in a room with no day night/cycle really messed up her mental clock as she only woke up from a long nap just a mere hour ago.

“Oh don’t worry, the others have been awake too” Kehtel said with a nod from one of his eyestalks, “seems like you lot are a bunch of night owls… oh, speaking of night owls.”

The unicorn could hear some ominous gurgling and the painful rumble of three sets of creepers under a mass of black and blue feathers. She could hear the griffon’s sides rubbing heavily against the door frame of the kitchen, her massive body oozing out in every direction, to the point where she practically had to straddle it in order to get all four limbs on the ground, if she wanted too. Which at this point she didn't, her wider than tall body created a chest prominent enough to hold a bit of food, allowing Gretchen to use her front legs to shove more food into her beak as she left, pushing herself forward with her rear legs.

From the size of her, it was clear that Gretchen was very much on her way to needing a fourth creeper in the next couple days. Her fat cheeks oozed over thick shoulders, her face almost seemingly sinking into itself, causing a severe decrease in peripheral vision. If her wings weren’t useless before, they were useless now, as they've grown plush looking with fat, even a layer of back fat had started to push over the base of her wings. The griffon looked like chocolate soft serve on a plate, pushing herself around while trying to stuff her beak.

All of it was barely contained in her suit, which was already starting to rip at some of the seams. It was completely unzipped and even then it was like a tight sausage casing partially covering her body. The fabric had stretched to the point where the “30” sewn onto it had partially ripped and distorted. Divinity could only guess for how long the suit would last.

“Hey there Gretchen” Divinity called out to her friend, the gryphon practically jumping, or in her case sloshing, in surprise as she was out of her restricted eyesight.

“Oh… *munch munch* heyh thehre” Gretchen replied as she desperately shoved what was left of her meal painfully into her gullet in hopes that Divinity didn’t see, only leaving crumbs and sauce smeared over her plethora of chins. Her movements were constrained, moving around within a body that was on its way to a four digit weight.

“How was dinner” Divinity asked, magically taking a napkin and wiping off Gretchen’s face, causing the bird to recoil before accepting the napkin pushing into her face rolls, smooshing her bloated face.

“Oh, it was grea… I mean… good” she squawked, trying to cut down hidden enthusiasm, her eyes glancing from side to side, “I… uh… need to get to my room.” Divinity then watched as Gretchen attempted to scutter away, her claws scratching at the ground as she desperately attempted to pull her body across the floor on her three overloaded creepers. Her entire body sloshing frantically, her massive flanks swinging side to side threatening to knock her over.

Divinity merely chuckled to herself, “Gretchen has always been an odd but fun character.”

“Yes, ma’am?” Kehtel said with artificial doubt.

“Oh, by the way, do you know where Cappy is? I might need help getting another creeper under me shortly” Divinity asked with a smile with thick dimples pushed into her cheeks.

“Oh certainly, Mr. Cappy is currently holed himself up in the Overseer's room, seems he just recently found something interesting.”

This caused Divinity’s ears to perk up, “Oh really? Please, show me the way.”

“Of course!” Hovering, Kehtel led the way toward the Overseer’s Office. It took them a long time, mostly having to pause because they needed to use the vault elevator, but even if the Mr. Handy got in, his jet might inadvertently burn off a small chunk of Divinity’s fur, so Divinity had to go up on her own, with Kehtel following after.

Making it to the second floor and into the Overseer’s office, the unicorn had to magically push away some tools strewn about the floor of the large and lavish office space. Craning over one of the interfaces was Cappy, his hunched over back and neck making him look less like a pony and more like an old donkey.

“Cappy? Kehtel said you found something?”

Cappy looked up, wincing as he did, “Yeah, It’s the terminal that was supposed to be used for the leader of the Stable. It took me forever to hack it, but it’s a goldmine of information.”

Cappy hunched back over the terminal. From this angle, Divinity couldn’t see his massive neck or multiple chins. She could, however, get a clear view of how much his fat-packed figure strained against the material of his jumpsuit. He’d unzipped the front, allowing his stomach to pool beneath his tree-trunk legs.

“What does it tell you about?”

“The sponsors of this Stable for one. Sparkle-Cola, Flim and Flam Co, and so many others. All of them food or drink related. There’s a message on here that might explain why but it’s been corrupted. I’m working on getting it fixed, but it’s gonna take me a while.”

“That explains why the food is so good, at least,” Divinity said, taking the time to look around a little as she did. It was a large room, one of the largest in the Stable. It wasn’t as packed with furniture as Divinity might have expected either, but it did have a huge semi-circular desk with a large chair behind it.

“Mmhmm,” Cappy replied, squinting to read some text on the screen, “Also there’s a backup food replicator in the entertainment room.”

“You mean I haven’t had to leave to eat my meals!?”

“Well, it says it’s hidden. The terminal near the projector is supposed to have control over it. Otherwise it’s supposed to activate during an emergency.”

“Huh,” Divinity said, her legs aching. She lowered herself into the expansive comfort of the Overseer’s chair and sighed. That was better, “Anything else?”

“Well, we obviously have a lack of exercise equipment. It says here it was delayed, and to check the corrupted document for more information. There’s another sponsor here too. The company that had a hoof in creating healing potions and healing bandages and stuff. Whinny Rapid Pharmaceuticals, that’s the name. Wonder what they have to do with this.”

“No clue, we haven’t found anything that would make line up with them.”

“Their products are in the infirmary, but that’s what you’d expect. Maybe they sponsored every Stable? That could make sense,” Cappy straightened up again, shrugging, “Who knows, though.”

“Still, none of these sponsors explain the widened doors…something seems suspicious” Divinity wondered, “by the way, need any help with anything?”

“Oh, no no, I have Kehtel helping me, speaking of…” Cappy commented looking at the robot.

“OH yes, right” Kehtel commented, holding out several candy bars, “fresh from the replicator.”

“Good good, I’ve been running out of my usual stuff surprisingly quickly, I suspect a radroach might be getting into it.”

“Yesss” Kehtel mumbled to himself, unheard by Cappy and Divinity, “a big… feathered… fat… radroach.”

Cappy hummed happily, shoving one of the bars into his mouth, “Th’nks, Kehtel.”

“It’s my pleasure, sir.”

“Do you mind if I stay here with you for a bit? I’m trying to work out a kink in my neck.” Divinity said, starting to search through the desk.

“Stay as long as you’d like, I’m going to try to get this other message legible.”

“Kehtel? Could you bring us some more snacks? I feel like we’re going to need them, especially if a radroach got in.”

“Of course, ma’am.” Kehtel hovered away.

Divinity sighed, leaning back. The mystery of what was hidden in that message had piqued her interest, and she hoped Cappy would be able to figure it out.

“Thanks, Kehtel! You’re a life-saver!” Cappy called after the robot.

Maybe the message will have the key to get out of here.

Author's Note

Hey, y'all. Sorry for the long wait but I hope the two chapter update will make you guys a little less irked? haha? Thank you for your patience, really. We both appreciate it.

If you like to support either of us, there are links in other chapters of this fic. If you have comments, suggestions or anything like that feel free to leave them here or PM one of us.

Two final things from the two of us: This was fun, and we're sorry it's taken us this long.

Hope you all enjoy!

Grounded

Gretchen reached around her gargantuan stomach, managing to dig her dull talons into a groove of the metal floor. With aching muscles, she did the same to her other front leg. Thus situated, she used the small amount of leverage to try to drag her body forward a bit. Her hind legs were effectively useless in this endeavor. For her to be able to plant them on the floor, she’d have to rock herself back, which would then leave her front legs unusable.

That didn’t stop her hind legs and tail from wiggling in some attempt to help her move, though they did nothing but send her many rolls and folds jiggling.

Gretchen was having severe difficulties moving, as evidenced by her having to literally drag herself across the floor. Not only that, but she got multiple meals from the kitchen, even having more sent to her room for her to gorge on later. All-night gorges were becoming more prominent in her daily life.

Cappy didn’t like that behaviour, Gretchen knew. He made it known. She’d even heard him tell Divinity that it was a ‘bit strange’. Divinity, however, seemed happy to see Gretchen enjoying herself, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.

As time wore on, Gretchen started cursing, yelling, and crying as she stuffed herself. It was endless, never ending. Crying was most common. Little hiccups, shaking rolls of fat with the near-silent sobs, and tears streaming down her fat cheeks to pool into her chins and neck rolls.

She could only imagine how Cappy thought it sad to watch, probably because she knew how much more work would need to be taken to starve her out, but Gretchen didn’t care. She was a survivor, and she was smart, and she had both these ponies figured out and she was bound and determined to outlast them all.

Reaching towards the next groove in the floor, Gretchen continued her journey towards the kitchen. She was hungry, and even though she could just ask Kehtel to bring her food, she thought it best to go to the source of the food. After all, Kehtel could get distracted by doing something for Cappy and/or Divinity. She didn’t want to risk it. It would take a long time to starve her out but she still needed Kehtel’s services.

It took a long time to drag herself to the kitchen. Getting into it was becoming more painful than getting out of bed.

Gretchen dragged herself to the door, then stared at the too-narrow doorway. It pinched, it bruised, it squeezed. It hurt to try to get through it and it was more and more difficult to get through it all the time. But this wouldn’t deter her, oh no. She was going to ensure she kept herself as fat as possible so Cappy and Divinity would never be able to starve her out.

Reaching out both front arms, wheezing, Gretchen encountered her first obstacle: her shoulders were too wide to fit through the door easily. Groaning, wheezing and grunting, Gretchen’s blunted claws scrabbled for purchase on the metal grooves. As she laboriously pulled herself forward, she growled at the door’s pinching. Her fat was pinched heavily, being pulled taut as she continued trying to drag herself forward.It pooled behind the door frame like maple syrup pooled around pancakes.

Gretchen groaned, her hind legs wigging as much as they could as she fought to get herself through.

Behind her there was a metallic sigh. Gretchen paused, trying to hear the telltale sound of Kehtel over her great, wheezing pants for breath.

“Oh dear, Miss Gretchen, not again. I’ll go around and help pull you in. I’ll get Divinity and Cappy, see if they can’t lend a hoof.”

If Gretchen had the air to yell ‘no’ she would have, but as was she couldn’t bring up the air to groan again. Goddesses she hurt, her front legs and shoulders aching from the work of getting her this far. But she couldn’t let Divinity and Cappy see her this vulnerable.

After a few more wheezing breaths, Gretchen summoned all the willpower she still had and began to try to move again. Trying to pull herself forward, even as she could hear the sound of creaking metal.

It didn’t take long for her to give up again. Not only could she not get herself forward, she lost the ability to move backwards a long time ago. She was wedged tightly, and it hurt. After a few seconds, wondering what sort of dastardly plan that could turn this to their advantage, she realized something. Gretchen would be able to watch them come and go, and make them burn more calories because they’d have to go the long way to reach the kitchen.

A few moments after that realization, Kehtel came in from the other door, tutting and whirring as he hovered. He used his grasper-arms to grab hold of Gretchen’s claws.

At the same time, Gretchen felt Divinity’s magic compress her sides and felt two hooves plant themselves in her sizable rear. Gretchen screamed, wiggling a little in protest.

“Sorry Gretch!” Cappy called, “But you’re stuck! Thought Kehtel already told you!”

Gretchen was panicking, whimpering and wheezing and flailing as much as her bloated body would allow. Trying to get out from these ponies influence. What would they do to her now she was in this vulnerable position?

As Gretchen burst into tears, trying and failing to be quiet about it, Kehtel gave the signal. As one, the trio worked to get Gretchen into the kitchen. Kehtel pulled, his engines and parts working and groaning hard to get the near-immobile griffon to budge. Divinity used her magic to compress and shape Gretchen’s fat in the hopes that would get them some room to move, while Cappy just pushed.

It took time, during which Gretchen alternated between cursing them out and sobbing, but they soon got her to budge.Then a bit more, and a bit more, until even her plot had made its way through the door. Leaving just her log-like tail and her dragging, fattened legs.

Cappy collapsed, panting and wheezing for breath as Divinity cheered.

“We did it!” Divinity beamed, watching as Gretchen continued to pull herself into the kitchen.

Even Kehtel looked a little worn from the experience, happy to leave the griffon to her own devices for a while as he checked on Cappy.

“We...did,” Cappy agreed, waving Kehtel off with a weak flop of a hoof. Kehtel bustled to check on Divinity, who directed the robot back to Gretchen.

The griffon lay on the floor, panting weakly, in front of the kitchen device. The one that gave them their food. She’d stopped crying for the moment, but looked concerned. Eyes were wide, still wet from the tears. As Kehtel approached, she growled.

“No…” She was breathing heavier than Cappy, wheezing so hard her whole body shuddered with the effort, “Mine.”

If Kehtel could have blinked, he would have. Instead, he hovered a bit, not wanting to get too close and risk another explosion of emotions.

“You okay, Gretch?” Divinity asked, waddling forward a bit. This earned yet another wheezing growl. Divinity paused, and unlike Kehtel, could blink in shock. After a moment, she swallowed dryly, “Don’t feel bad, Gretch, it was just a matter of time before something like this happened. Come on, after all that hard work I’m sure we could all use a nice, cold Sparkle Cola-”

Gretchen squawked, scrambling to the machine that dispenses all their meals, her claws scraping against the ground as she thrusted her torso forward in some attempt at movement. Even her heavy wings, now resembling large feathered oven mitts, attempted to flap and thrash herself towards the machine.

This was her last chance, they were going to lock her in some room and starve her, convince Kehtel something was wrong and put her in quarantine only to throw away the key. She was not going without a fight, if it was this difficult to get her massive body through the door, then she might be able to make it harder to get her out. NO, even better, to think they are going to starve her, HAH. Use their own plan against them, brilliant!

Her chaotic mind spun as her heart attempted to leap out of her chest. Both Cappy and Divinity taking a step back from her sudden outburst of movement. Gretchen’s immense ass sloshed and shook in front of them, her sunken in rear legs flailing and kicking, all the while her bloated tail bobbled above the two orbs like a car antenna on a rocky road.

“COM-”wheeze-”COMPUTER”-gasp-” she squawked, “EVERYTHING… GIMMIE-” wheeze “EVERYTHING.” Jowls jiggled and shaked from her demands, almost swallowing up her sunken in beak as she opened it up wide. She didn’t care how she was going to do it, pulling herself all the way up to the outlet of the machine, her fat pidgeon chest pushing into the counter way before her head made it over, causing her to roll her body even further forward, raising her ass in the air. She effectively stuck her head in the machine and slapped at the buttons with her sore sunken in arm, just wanting anything to come out.

Icing and cake bits pushed out, immediately being gobbled up by Gretchen before it was given any proper cake form. Soon it was mixed with a noxious mix of Sparkle Cola, syrup, and flapjacks. Gretchen didn’t care if all the sugar made her beak sting, as long as it was going down her gullet, it was doing its job, even as her wide back slowly began to expand outwards, bowing upwards, rolls growing deeper and more numerous.

“I think she snapped” Cappy commented with concern, “you think this is going to be a permanent thing?”

“I doubt it” Divinity replied, her smile somewhat forced by the absolute voraciousness of Gretchen’s gluttony.

“By basic calculations, Gretchen is probably suffering from an extended combination of claustrophobia and ‘Stable Fever’” Kehtel surmised, hovering behind the massive pile of feathered blubber, “it should be noted that recovery is purely determined by the patient's original mental stability, though average recovery is between two to four weeks, but has been noted to take longer or shorter.”

Divinity’s smile became a little more genuine, though still with an undertone of worry. “See, she will be fine, though I can't blame her. Going from the outside wastelands, able to explore the world without a single connection, being free as a griffon flying around in the sky, and then being cooped up in a Stable for I don’t know how long, must be a tough change for her.”

“You have a worryingly colorful view on the wasteland.” Cappy groaned, worried about Divinity’s naive outlook on life and how it’s probably gotten worse with her stay at the Stable.

Kehtel whirred for a moment, continuing to hover, but Gretchen was currently absorbed in her feast so it seemed unlikely they’d get through to her for a while. “Follow me you two. I think I’ll be able to get you those sodas.”

Gretchen, groaning and moaning about the nozzles, was oblivious to the noise behind her.

Kehtel flew off out of the kitchen, and Divinity and Cappy soon followed suit. Well….’soon’ was a bit of a misnomer with how heavy they both were, but they were making their way back to the entertainment room.

By the time Divinity and Cappy had hauled themselves in to collapse on whatever piece of furniture was available (namely two couches), Kehtel was already tapping away at the terminal, humming to himself.

Cappy stretched out his neck, wincing as the joints popped. Goddesses physical things like walking were hard enough, but trying to push the nearly immobile Gretchen through a too-tight door? That was rough. All his muscles, well the muscles that hadn’t atrophied completely away, burned from exertion, and Cappy was sure feeling the brunt of that exertion now. Sweat beading on his skin and pooling in and around his folds.

Divinity had it a little easier, having just used her magic, but still. The walk had not been kind on her, even with her magic pulling up as much of her excess flab as she could. She still needed belly boards, but...well, walking was more and more of an issue for her. Probably would continue being an issue, with how much she was eating. And with how little she was moving, which was significantly less than Cappy.

“There we are!” Kehtel exclaimed. Both occupants were about to ask what was going on before the wall near the other terminal in the room slid open. Revealing the second food generator they’d read about in the files in the Overseer's office.

“Oh,” Divinity said quietly. It hadn’t clicked, not really, that the backup system was here. Right at her hooves this whole time. Welp...no time like the present.

“Two Sparkle-Cola’s?” Kehtel asked. Both Divinity and Cappy nodded.

Soon, they were sipping on the cold, sweet liquid. Quite happy to cool down after their ‘hard’ day.

It didn’t take long for them to eat and drink any calories they’d been able to burn while getting Gretchen into the kitchen.

Knock, Knock

Some Time Later….

After Gretchen succumbed to Stable Fever or...whatever it was, Cappy had worked almost double time to get the Stable door to open. No luck thus far, but he’d cleared up a lot of errors and firewalls and whatnot in his way. His neck hurt even more because of all the work, and he worked tirelessly. So much so he didn’t see much of Divinity anymore. It was okay, though. Kehtel had more help now, and was happy to keep Cappy updated on everycreature’s conditions.

Divinity was...well, she wasn’t nearly as immobile as Gretchen was, but unless she used her magic and all the belly boards available to her she couldn’t move. Even with the belly boards and overextending her magic, her movement was limited. She was content though, now she didn’t need to move for food, and was happy to binge all day while she watched her shows.

Gretchen...Gretchen was someone he was more concerned with. She...well, she hadn’t moved from the kitchen. After just a couple of days near the primary food outlet for the Stable had had her gain enough weight she hadn’t been able to get her feet on the ground long enough to try to drag herself forward...or backward...or any kind of movement, really.

She was now so fat that her flab pressed down on all the buttons for her, keeping her completely fed all the time. No need to even speak. With every day, or week, that passed, her fat kept inching closer to the alcove where the nozzles and dispensers were. It wouldn’t be too long for her fat to enclose her head completely, creating a little alcove for her head and the machine.

Speaking of help, one of the secondary robots came in, breaking Cappy’s train of thought. As he watched it tidy up his snacks, he couldn’t help but think of the veritable army of them that were running day and night to keep Gretchen looked after. He watched them work sometimes, since Gretchen couldn’t turn her head to look over her shoulder to the door behind her. Nor could she look over to see the door off to her left. With every pound she gained, she lost more and more mobility. Not that she seemed to care. All she seemed to notice was how ‘they’ weren’t going to ‘starve her out’ or some such thing.

Cappy was still worried, and wanted to help her, but Divinity thought it best to leave her alone. Because every time they actually tried talking with her, Gretchen started yelling. Mostly incoherent, but still. Not good.

Speaking of, Cappy had worked on this long enough. He cleared his throat, earning the little robot’s attention with a chirp.

“I’d like to go see Gretchen, then Divinity if you don’t mind,” Cappy smiled.

The robot chirped, an apparent affirmative, before bustling out of the room. It didn’t take long for the little robot army to return. Some going behind Cappy, some in front, and two to each side. With all their might, it took them to maneuver Cappy’s hoof-made cart out of the room.

He couldn’t judge Divinity or Gretchen in any way. Not really. His limbs were now so coated in fat his hooves had been sucked into ‘sleeves’ of fat. He’d seen this happening, so between him and the robots they’d built him a custom-made cart to lay in. He would have flapped his wings to help push him forward, but they were so bloated with fat he didn’t think they could flap anymore.

In spite of his bulk, it didn’t take long for him to get dragged to the kitchen. There, the robots paused. Both for his request and also to give their overworked motors a break.

From the doorway, behind Gretchen, he could see Gretchen’s mass oozing across the floor. He must have made some noise or another, because he could audibly hear Gretchen spit out one of the nozzles. Pausing enough to screech something incoherent. Then:

“GO….’WAY!” Gretchen yelled in between great, heaving wheezes. “ALL….MINE!”

Gretchen was, to put it mildly, very large. Her limbs were so far beyond gone that you couldn’t see the stumps of her paws or claws. Unlike Cappy, who’s little nubby hooves were still visible. When she wasn’t shouting, her fat mouth was wrapped around the nozzles. Usually drinking...well, Cappy didn’t know what, but she was constantly eating or drinking something.

The aforementioned army of robots caring for her were hard at work. Keeping her clean, massaging what parts of her mass they could find, and so on. Trying to keep her content. Which was a hard job even before she’d started crying more often than she talked.

Motioning his robots forward, Cappy sighed as he was carted into the entertainment room.

Divinity’s mass was centered on the crushed remnants of her favourite couch, using her magic to mindlessly shovel her extra-extra-extra buttery popcorn into her mouth, the grease smearing across her muzzle. She drank little else but thick milkshakes and Sparkle Cola. Her stomach eclipsed her hind legs, her plot pushing against the remnants of the couch. It didn’t look comfortable, the armrests on either side were obviously pinching Divinity’s sides, making a roll appear there, but she said it was fine.

“Hey!” Divinity chirped around a mouthful of popcorn, “Wanna join me? Watching a new one today.”

Cappy sighed, thinking it over. He was hungry and he was bored. He’d worked hard so far so why not take a break? Maybe he could figure it out once he’d rested a while. “Sure.”

The robots helped wheel him into place, bustling about to do some tidying as one of Divinity’s went to get snacks for the two lardy ponies and yet another went to get the movie started.

In spite of Gretchen, maybe today would be a good one. Cappy thought, sipping at his drink. Maybe, after all this, he’d finally be able to get the door open.

(LINE BREAK)

Dr. Foaming Flask stared up at the closed Stable door with exhausted, red-rimmed eyes. Leaning against his compatriot as the pair took in the scene before them.

They’d left the Stable door open the last time they’d been here. Judging from the scene outside the tunnel, it was likely whoever was inside had escaped the Raiders. Barricaded themselves in without realizing they were sealing their doom, just in a different way.

“Well,” Sunlit Breeze huffed, “It’s good we came.” There had been some talk back home about whether to keep sending parties back to check the Stable.

“Yeah.” Flask huffed a sigh, pushing away from Sun to start activating the controls. “Oooh they really locked themselves in. Must have been in a rush.”

“Considering the battle outside I’m not surprised.” Sun said dryly, waddling forward with a huffing wheeze. Needing to stay in motion if he wanted to stay standing for this long. “We should have checked earlier.”

“We couldn’t, not with Ponderous Gut being so determined for us to leave the Stable behind.” Flask was bent over the console, his neck bent as his hooves worked at the buttons. Tongue poking out of his mouth as he worked.

Foaming Flask was a descendent of some famous pre-war scientist, if Sun remembered right. Somehow survive outside a Stable, or escaped from one. Flask was well-read and a genius in his own right. Always building things, always having ideas on how to improve life back in the ‘Waistland’.

Sun would occasionally wonder what normal Stable life was like, not the strange and unusual science experiment that Ponderous Gut and others claimed it was. Though if asked alone, some might describe it as paradise if it wasn’t for the lack of moderation.

“ThereWeGo” Flask blurted out, giving the console a good smack, causing alarms to loudly blair out wildly. Such strange noises still frightened Sun, it was very much still alien to him how such strange artificial noises could be so loud.

The huge gear slowly sunk in, metal on metal scraping against each other as it was placed on a pinion to be rolled out of the way. Sun looked on in awe, while Flask merely gave it a yawn, rolling his shoulders to cause a few audible pops.

“I’m going to regret this” Flask moaned, “I know there’s going to be one Roller in there at LEAST. If there’s any more than one I’m gonna call it quits and yell at Thunderclap to get them out.”

Sun whinnied, “Come on, it’s going to be at least another hour round trip, and my hooves are so tired.”

Flask merely glared at his right hoof pony, “I’ve pushed out all the original occupants of this Stable INCLUDING your mother, I at least deserve a little bit of leeway.”

Sun grumbled a bit, but as the door finally stopped trundling out of the way, his ears perked up.

“Sir, I think I hear someone” Sun exclaimed, trotting close to the edge of the platform, awaiting for the reinforced bridge to extend. What he heard was loud and extensive wheezing and huffing.

“LEAVE… “-wheeze-“I’LL…”-urp-“SURVIVE!” The loud gasping and wheezing was undercut by painful squeaking noises.

“I’m calling Thunderclap” Flask groaned, fiddling with a hodge-podge radio at his hip.

Sun sighed, stepping inside carefully. Ears swiveling around as he looked about the entrance. The Stable, while nothing new to him, was something fairly rare. Only coming to check it once or twice a year to ensure it was left undisturbed, or more often if they needed the scrap or technology.

It felt weird to be here now, knowing other ponies had lived here besides his parents.

Sun was a butterball of a pegasus. His ancestors had been several of the few pegasi that had been granted access to the Stable. His light blue coat and grey mane and tail resembled the sky, or at least what bits of it that could be seen from beyond the ever present cloud cover. His Cutie Mark was a smiling, cartoonish sun. He wanted to help people, and by helping Flask, he was helping them.

Flask followed after, pushing his glasses up his muzzle with a grimace. Ears perked for signs of trouble, “Any ideas?”

“Kitchen?” Sun suggested. They needed to go there anyway, see how the technology was holding up. See if Flask’s most recent lines of code could help make the food healthier and not as addicting.

“If she’s stuck there, we might not get her out.” Flask sighed, putting his radio away. Hearing the indistinct chatter that came from their little town. Thunderclap was heading out to meet them with a few others, good. They might need the help.

A monstrous, echoing belch prompted the two stallions deeper into the Stable. Trying to follow the sounds. The squeaking and whirring sounds grew louder as they rounded the final corner before the kitchen.

Neither Flask nor Sun were strangers to obesity, even at its most extreme, but this was something different and spectacular.

Flask had to hold himself from suggesting that they were witnessing a localized black hole as two immense orbs greeted them. Each one was practically on the verge of blocking the doorway in and grazing the ceiling. The immense black blobs wobbled and undulated slowly, like the heavily polluted waters of Geiger Pond, with additional rolls on the side to suggest that they were in fat, a set of massive plots. The rolls were practically at Flask’s head, suggesting that the hooves or paws were suspended several feet off the ground. Flask had to point out the hill of rolls at the top to suggest that it might have been a tail, which was difficult as it had been bloated to the point that it was now twice as wide as it was long, with a half sunken in puff of fur at it’s crater. The huge outstretched gut pushed several rows of tables and chairs out of the way, and would have spanned the length of a medium sized mobile home if one side wasn’t pressed up against the wall, causing its whole form to be lurched over onto its side. The sound of gulping and gobbling was undercut by wheezing and the sound of rushing oxygen closer up near the back of the dining hall.

Sun gulped loudly to himself, what was this creature? Some kind of heavily irradiated monstrosity? Has the vault been leaking radiation?

Flask continued up with curiosity, seeing scaled hairless arms that looked like someone tried using an entire sleeping bag as a sleeve, bunching up and forming many rolls, with a set of talons barely able to stick out, wriggling angrily.

“I think she’s a griffon,” Flask mumbled to himself, holding his breath as he attempted to peel back the rolls of white and blue feathers pressed against the wall. Until finally, bringing light to a face sunken into over a foot of her own chins, saw the gryphon’s face. Her eyes were squinting, massive cheeks the size of inflatable buoys and an avalanche of back fat forced her into a squint, with her dark blue eyeshadow accents being the only things suggesting where her eyes are. The beak licked up anything and everything that was being pushed into the cavern by the food production machine. Probably the most efficient way too, as her own jowls outreached her very beak. Some clear plastic tubes in her nostrils were providing her the air needed to withstand having her entire face, chest and back fat seal around the opening of the machine.

“Geh… away...” She huffed pathetically, that original outburst taking most of her energy.

“I dont… I dont think Thunderclap is going to be able to get her out” Sun whinnied, the breath taken away from such a magnificent/horrific sight.

“Not without removing a wall or two” Flask mentioned, “though knowing him, he will try anyway, just to prove me wrong.” The thin pony released the roll of flab, plunging the gryphon back into her self inflicted darkness. “Ponderous Gut might use this ‘rescue’ as an escape to properly gut the vault. Which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Though I’ll have to seriously put this griffon on a crash diet.”

“You mean the same diet you put DewDrop in for the past year? Tell me, how much weight has she lost?” Sun snickered, receiving a grumpy glance from Flask.

“She’s making… ‘progress’ to say the least” he grumbled, giving the immense griffon another poke in the gut, receiving some unhealthy sounding squawks.
“Uhuh,” Sun snorted, rolling his eyes. It was well known that Dew hadn’t lost any weight at all, in fact she’d probably gained a few pounds. She was supposed to be Flask’s assistant, but mostly she served as a wall to throw ideas against and...well like a mattress when Flask finally got to sleep.

Flask sighed, looking around, “Well, she can’t just be it. We have to be sure. Come on, we may as well take in the rest so Ponderous can blow it all out of proportion.” Padding his way through the other door of the kitchen.

WIth a heavy sigh, Sun followed after, wincing as the griffon continued her feast.

Searching the Stable took time, mostly for Sun to take a few breaks. The fat stallion was used to hard work, but that hard work usually consisted of sitting behind a desk and doing paperwork. At his size, moving around for any amount of time was hard on him, and they’d walked from Waistland.

Finally, towards the back of the Stable, they found the entertainment room. The door left open, letting the sounds of a movie, and the sounds of eating, to spill forth.

There were two ponies in the entertainment room, chewing loudly at various snack foods as the movie played on the screen.

The unicorn, a light grey blob that looked to be about half the size of Gretchen, obviously hadn’t moved in a while. Her coat stained with butter and crumbs, her chins sticky from soda and creators know what else. Eyes glued to the screen, completely absorbed in the movie on screen.

The pegasus, though...looked up when Flask and Sun approached. Hunched over, looking a lot like Flask. His eyes widened, staring blankly at them. He was in some sort of modified cart and was spilling over it, his plush sides rolling over the edge and hanging down. He was the smallest of the three creatures they’d seen thus far, only about the size of one of the griffon’s plot cheeks.

“Hello?” Sun wheezed out, peering around Flask’s withers to peer into the room.

The pegasus’s head raised, his neck obviously cracking at the movement. “No. Nonononono, you’re not real! I’m turning into Gretchen, Creators forgive me-”

“Hey, no, you’re-you’re okay!” Sun offered a smile, “No need to panic, we’re here to help-”

“We haven’t seen anypony-”

The talking got the unicorn to look over, squinting at the doorway. Her face brightened at the sight of new ponies, letting out a squeal and jiggling violently as she utilized her mobility and wiggled, “Oh! Oh! New ponies! Do you see that, Cappy? We’re saved!”

“No, no no, the door won’t open! We’re turning-”

Flask stepped forward and rested a hoof on Cappy’s flabby shoulder, shaking it harshly, “Hey! Hey! We’re here! We’re real-”

Cappy’s eyes almost popped out of their skull, and he wriggled frantically in his cart, the cart creaking at the sudden movement, “We’ve gotta get out, can’t stay down here-” Breaking off to cough weakly, breath wheezing as he huffed and puffed. Not used to this level of activity.

“Woah, there! It’s okay, the door is open and we won’t close it again.” Sun soothed, stepping through the doorway to stand a bit away, “You’re okay! We’re okay. Deep breaths there friend.”

Flask’s shaking turned into something more soothing, “It’s okay, deep breaths. You’re safe now. Been a long time since somepony came in, most of them saw the signs and turned around.”

“There were raiders,” The unicorn said softly.

“We thought so,” Flask replied, “With the battlefield outside. We’re just glad you all got here safe. Is there anyone else aside from you two and the griffon-”

There was a soft whirring as Kehtel entered the room. The robot paused for a moment as it noticed the two new arrivals.

“Oh! More residents! You’re late! I’m Kehtel, I see you’ve already met Miss Divinity and Sir Bent Cap! Please, follow me, I can get you settled in your Stable Tec authorized jumpsuits and bring you a meal! You must be famished-”

Flask scowled, going over to tamper with Kehtel’s wiring. The robot stopping mid-sentence and crashing to the ground.

Divinity shrieked, “Why did you do that!? I was going to ask him for some burgers! I’m starving!”

Flask quirked a brow, ears flickering. He snorted, “I hate to point this out, but you are far from starving.” He huffed a sigh, eyeing the two ponies critically. Trying to think of how they’d get them out. Cappy would be easiest to get out, and Divinity would be...rough. Gretchen might be impossible, at least for right now.

“I’m hungry!” Divinity whined, ignoring the giant bucket of popcorn nestled in between the rolls of her pigeon chest.

Flask huffed a sigh, rubbing his eyes. “Sun, could you?”

“Yeah.” Sun trundled to the proper terminal, punching in the required data and bringing a platter of burgers to Divinity as requested. Obviously trying to pretend his stomach wasn’t growling at the delicious scents.

“We have a team coming, they’ll be able to get you out of the Stable.” Flask continued, letting Sun ‘sneak’ back to the terminal and get what he wanted, “They’ll be here in a little over an hour. We can get you two out of here, I’m pretty sure, but your friend...She’ll be a challenge. She’s bigger than any of the ponies I got out of here twenty years ago.”

“Oh...so there were ponies here,” Cappy murmured, “We thought there were, but with Kehtel-”

“I forced his system into a reboot. Should have just deactivated him.” Flask huffed, “Then again, we don’t have people come up this way very much anymore. Haven’t found anyone in here for years. We usually come up once or twice a year to check the place, more often if we need things.” Flask rubbed at his eyes with a foreleg, looking exhausted, “We’ll have to hold a council meeting...I think it’s safe to say that you three will be with us for a while. And we’ll need a guard here for...Gretchen, was it?”

Cappy nodded, wincing as his neck flared in pain, the odd posture he was forced into by his rampant obesity starting to really come home to roost.

“She uh… didn’t take Stable life well” Cappy mentioned, shifting his girth, “though the fact that your willing to try and get her out is more than what I’d be willing to do.” Divinity firmly nudged Cap’s flank in opposition.

“Good, though weaning her off of the Stable food might be… difficult” Flask whinnied, “the addictive additive is quite effective in constant and increasing doses.”

“Additive?” Cappy asked, eyeing Divinity’s burger, watching as the mare gobbled it down without hesitation.

“Yeah, from previous documents, this Stable was made to test various dietary additives, specifically one developed by a snack food company to make their product ‘irresistible’. As you can tell, it works a bit too well.” He poked Divinity’s flank, watching his hoof sink a foot deep into one of her rolls.

“So… uh…” Cappy turned a bit self conscious, if not a little peeved at the fact he’d been tricked and drugged without even noticing there was something wrong with the food itself. “Other than the obvious, does this chemical have any other side effects?”

“Withdrawal is a real pain, I promise you’ll be desperately craving for the stuff for a month at least” Flask rattled off, taking a tape measure and measuring Cappy and Divinity with Sun’s help, “you’ll occasionally get the shakes, but thats temporary, along with coat discoloration, the only real permanent change in very rare situations is spontaneous cutie mark reassignment, but there’s only two recorded incidents of that happening.”

Cappy smiled nervously as he tried to look down at his own cutie mark.

“Sunny, go back to the entrance and radio in the news, we have a class four, a class eight, and class sixteen needing extraction” Flask commanded, “I’ll see if I can get the spare robots to cart them out the door to meet the crew. This might be an overnight job, so don't forget to ask for a sleeping bag.”

“Got it sir” Sunny whinnied, “I’ll just grab some snacks and…”

“No snacks” Flask barked, “your gut is on the verge of dragging already, and you didn’t bring a splash guard.”

“Awww, alright” Sunny moped as he began to head out. Flask on the other hoof began to leave the other two.

“I’ll check on Gretchen’s condition some more,” he informed them. “The reaction the chemical has on griffins is unprecedented so I’ll need to make sure it doesn’t have more serious effects.”

Such a statement was a lie and he knew it. Trotting to the canteen he could still hear her gorge her heart out, munching on whatever got within the range of her beak. His tired body slowly leaned into her feathery flank, feeling the soft fat yield to his own weight, causing him to sink deep into warm lard. A yawn escaped his muzzle, nuzzling deeper into the fur, the pony getting comfortable.

“Gretchen, you might quickly become a new favorite if you keep this up” he grumbled, slowly slipping into a deep nap, despite Gretchen’s audible groaning.

Author's Note

We did it! It's been a wild ride, it really has, but we've pulled it off. The final google doc for this entire fic is almost 60 pages long. It takes like a minute to load fully, it is a masterpiece.

Pheal speaks for both of us when he says: "That despite how long it took, I'm proud of how it turned out."

There has been some discussion about a potential epilogue, maybe a series of one-shots or an anthology series, but nothing has been set in stone. Guess it just depends on how much people want it and how much time we have to devote to any upcoming progress.

Thank you guys so much for your patience and support. This was fun, for the both of us. For me it was neat to chat with a friend and work on a project together. The banter has been excellent if I do say so myself, and it's neat to have a second person that you know is going to read it through and say if something is wrong or not.

Pheal says that messing with three types of coping mechanisms for ever increasing obesity and cabin fever was surprisingly fun.

Which is a fair assessment. We liked looking at these characters and seeing how we could...break them.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough. Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as we enjoyed writing it!