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!
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