Knock knock.
“Who is it?” Starlight called out from her office, she levitated her quill down onto her desk, glad to have a moment's pause from filling out rather boring paperwork. The door was pushed open and Sandbar leaned his head round the door with a slightly nervous look on his face.
“Ah hello Sandbar! What can your guidance counselor do for you? Snack?” she asked in her usual friendly tone, offering up a small plate of biscuits towards the worried looking earth pony who didn’t move from his spot at the door.
“N-no thank you. Can you come with me, um, us? Some of the students are well, worried.” he confessed, his head disappearing from behind the door back out into the hall. Starlight just shrugged, putting the plate of biscuits back down on the desk and getting up from her chair. Walking out into the hallway, both Sandbar and Yona were stood on the other side of the door, which she promptly locked behind her.
“Two of you? What is it you’re so afraid to come into my office and talk to me about?” she was now genuinely curious as both creatures had looks on their faces that didn’t exactly boost her confidence.
“Yona and Sandbar worried, but it not just us.” Yona said, turning away from Starlight with her friend as they started to walk down the hallway. Starlight decided she should follow, it was probably another small disagreement. For a friendship school, it was somewhat troublesome how often creatures argued. Nonetheless as councillor she had a duty to look into all of these things. She decided to ask a simple question to try to get to the bottom of whatever issue was at the forefront of the students minds.
“So, what is the problem? Are you having troubles in one of your classes?” she asked.
“Not us, Head Mare. Yak and other creatures worried.” was all Yona said back, she was always of fewer words than the rest but at least she was giving Starlight replies, Sandbar on the other hoof was just silent throughout the whole walk. At least now she knew they were talking about Twilight. Finally the three of them reached the outside of her office.
“Can you uh, go in and talk to her? It should be obvious why. We’re worried for her health.” Sandbar said, his expression now more neutral than before. Yona just nodded next to him.
“Her health? Oh...wait.”
It was something Starlight had tried to ignore, but clearly now the students were starting to notice it as well. Not that Starlight had helped much. “Sure Twilight, have another bowl of hayfries! It’s no big deal!” or “Ah, I’m sure one little cucumber sandwich won’t hurt.” she remembered saying, particularly with a nervous little laugh. In fact every time recently she had met with Twilight to discuss lessons or problems in the school the mare had seemed to have had something edible in the vicinity or even in her maw. Clearly, the extra eating was starting to become more noticable.
Sandbar and Yona just looked at her, as Starlight sighed. “I guess I have been putting it off, okay, I’ll go in and talk to her. You two, not a word to your classmates, okay?” she instructed.
“Not like every creature else hasn’t noticed…” Sandbar said under his breath, quickly stopped from saying anymore by a nudge from Yona as he let out a small “Hey what was that for?”. They both turned tail, returning to their classes. Starlight meanwhile, nervously knocked on her tutors door, which was met by an equally cheery “Hello! Come in!” as she had done when Sandbar had knocked on her door.
Twilight was sat at her desk, grading papers, he usual position about this time of day. During classes was the generally a good quiet time to do this task as she wasn’t often bothered. All creatures were generally busy. Magically levitating a quill across the papers she had both her hooves free to be scooping up small bread-based party snacks that sat in a couple of bowls on her desk. Starlight giggled, it was like watching a paper-grading and eating machine going to work. Twilight paused her eating to speak. “Hey Starlight! What can I help you with?” she asked rather innocently. Immediately going back to stuffing her face with food after asking the question, Starlight herself took a few more paces towards her desk.
“Actually...I think it’s you that needs my help.” Starlight confessed. This revelation made the Head Mare stop eating again.
“I need your help? What with the grading? I’ve got it all under control, don’t worry.” Twilight carried on, oblivious to her friends words.
“Twilight, can you stand up for me? There’s something I need to see for myself.” Starlight said, watching as Twilight raised an eyebrow and looked at her friend, pushing herself backwards in her seat to give herself room to get on all fours.
“Alright, but I don’t see why. What’s this about exactly?” she asked, curious, slowly trotting around the desk so Starlight could move closer and get a good look.
“Just, don’t move. Please?” Starlight instructed, summoning in a tape measure and placing it around the midpoint of Twilight’s belly. As she measured, all it did was make Twilight grin.
“What’s this for? Rarity is making me another dress and she needs my size, again? I thought she had that on file.” Twilight said, Starlight now removing the tape and looking at her friend. There was no doubt about it.
Twilight was fat.
Well, fat, verging on obese. Starlight didn’t dare ask her to step hoof onto a set of scales for fear of them breaking under her weight. Her body in the past month or so had over doubled in mass, the once slender mare now sporting a low hanging tum that was very nearly dragging on the floor. The rest of her was chunky as well. Chubby cheeks adorned her face and even chubbier ones had taken residence on her flank. Overall she was much bigger than she had been. And the amazing thing was, she hadn’t even seemed to notice it herself, or Starlight guessed she might be in denial somewhat.
“Not a dress Twilight. I just wanted to confirm. In yourself, how do you feel?” she asked, wondering if a somewhat obtuse question would be met with an obvious answer.
“I feel fine, thanks for asking? Maybe a little hungry…” Twilight was now becoming curious which was obvious. There was no point hiding it any longer, Starlight thought it would be best just to get to it.
“Twilight me and the students are concerned. We’ve all noticed the weight you’ve gained recently, I don’t think I’ve really helped either…” Starlight said, Twilight breaking into a nervous laughter.
“Aha, what? You mean this little belly I’ve gained? It’s nothing!” Twilight replied, rubbing the back of her head trying to be candid. “Marking is stressful and I just eat to pass the time. What’s wrong with that?”
“Well, you’ve gained a little more than just your belly Twilight.” Starlight said, a small poof was heard as she summoned in a mirror and levitated it down to the floor in front of her friend. “Please tell me you can see the rest of what the extra eating has done to you.”
Twilight observed her own body, turning around. She frowned, it was clearly worse than she thought it was. “O-oh. I see what you mean…” was all she said, her head going towards the floor as she realised what Starlight was talking about.
“Twilight I’m really surprised, this is so unlike you not to notice such a drastic change. Were you just not paying attention at all those additional trips to the cafeteria, or have you not been seeing this belly of yours while marking?” Starlight enquired.
“No...I knew, I guess I just didn’t want to admit it to myself…” Twilight said, bringing her head back up with a pained look on her face. “I knew it was happening but, nopony said anything! I didn’t think any of you minded! Plus I was rather enjoying the food…” she confessed. Starlight trotted over and placed her hoof underneath her friends chubby chin and smiled.
“Well, we did, but sometimes Twilight it’s hard to tell you these things. Yes you’re our friend, but you’re our boss too. Sometimes we have to know when to tell you things. I held off because I knew it would hurt your feelings.” Starlight said, still smiling. “And well, I’m not the only one who noticed. Yona and Sandbar actually asked me to come talk to you.”
“Oh gosh, the students noticed!?” Twilight said rather shocked, some small tears forming in her eyes. “What am I going to do?” she asked Starlight.
“Well first thing, I think we can help you cut back on the meals. Plus I have another idea, an exercise regime!” she excitedly suggested, Twilight giving her a bit of a blank look back in return.
“Really? Isn’t that best suited to oh I don’t know, Rainbow Dash? That seems more her thing.” Twilight asked.
“Come on, what sort of a councillor and friend would I be if I didn’t help you personally! Besides, I can always ask her for tips anyhow.” she said, walking around Twilight and towards her desk. “I think a good start would be if I confiscated these, don’t you?” and with a poof the two bowls of snacks Twilight had been eating completely vanished.
“I suppose...so what’s the plan?” Twilight asked, slightly forlorn her snacks were now out of bounds.
“Tomorrow we can start, you’ve got marking to do for the rest of the day. I’ll come find you in the morning. I might have to look at some gym equipment...hmm…” suddenly a thought struck Starlight. “Those snacks...where did they come from?”
Twilight just frowned. “Nothing gets past you does it?” the bloated mare said, trotting her way round her desk and opening a drawer. She levitated out a larger mix bag of party snacks, which Starlight promptly poofed away.
“Well done, I’m very proud. Now don’t forget, tomorrow. I’ll be here and we can help you start to get back to your regular self, okay? And every day until you’re back to normal.” she said, turning around and trotting out the door. Twilight levitated it shut behind her, taking a seat back at her desk and picking the quill up with her magic to continue grading. Starlight was clever, but she wasn’t as thorough as she thought she was, Twilight opened another desk drawer and pulled out a small bag of pretzels. It was clear Starlight and the rest of the school didn’t agree with her size, but perhaps in time, they might come around. She appreciated the concern though. The mare smiled, ripping open the bag and continuing her grading. She was curious to see just what Starlight had planned for a workout regime tomorrow.
-
Morning rolled around, classes went into session as they always did early on. Before Twilight had even made it to her office, she was stopped by Starlight in the hallway. “Now now, did you forget what I had planned yesterday?” she asked with a smile as Twilight’s chipper attitude immediately faded. She had been on her way to the cafeteria for some breakfast.
“No, of course I didn’t. But you can’t exercise on an empty stomach, right?” she said, it was a good point and one Starlight was prepared for.
“Of course not! But there’s not really anything in the cafeteria that will do you any good. I’ve done a little rearranging of my office, and waiting for you there is some healthy protein bars! Come on, you’ll learn to love the...crumbly, plain taste.” Starlight said through a forced smile. Reluctantly, Twilight followed behind her to her office. At least it wasn’t far away.
Starlight unlocked the door and the two of them went in, one trotting and the other waddling. It didn’t look too much different except for in one corner, Starlight had cleared some space in her office, at least to start some basic exercises before the aforementioned gym equipment arrived. Twilight looked at it, Starlight seeing that she wasn’t exactly over the moon.
“Protein bars first, exercise after okay? You’re right. I can’t have you doing this with nothing in that belly of yours.” she said, levitating a couple of the bars towards Twilight, unwrapping them for her as they travelled towards her.
“...Thanks.” was all she managed, taking the bars in her own levitation magic and twirling them around in front of her face. They looked so...bland. Boring, even. It was pretty hard to make food boring but somehow they had done it. She took a bite, Starlight already eating hers. She had a hard time not spitting them out, the consistency and taste of sawdust was immediately coming through. As best she could Twilight made her way through both bars, at least it was something. She finished way behind Starlight.
“Now then, first we’re just going to get you to do some very light stretches to ease you into it. Okay? Just follow my lead.” Starlight said, at the same time, she had levitated a small boombox onto her desk which began to play some rather generic dance music.
“Music, really?” Twilight asked.
“That’s not all!” Starlight replied, levitating out of a drawer in her desk a couple of leotards. One matching Twilights body colours and a similar looking one for Starlight. This time Twilight just stared at her and asked through gritted teeth.
“Really?”
“Well, you gotta be in the right frame of mind for this. I need to set everything up for a proper workout! We need the music, the clothes, everything! Actually the clothes was Rarity’s idea but she does have an eye for these things…” Starlight trailed off, forcing a nervous smile. She could see Twilight was less than happy at the moment. “Trust me, you’ll change your mind once we start, now follow my lead like I said before.” she said, giving Twilight a moment to get hers on.
Starlight took her place next to Twilight and began with some gentle hip rotations. “That’s it, you can feel the pounds burning off you r-right…?” she had but for a moment glanced over at Twilight who was doing the same motions she was but...her hips. The extra size they had gained combined with the tight leotard had completely drawn her attention.
Twilight wasn’t trying very hard, in fact she was rather un-elegantly huffing and puffing her way through the routine. But every time she moved her body, all that extra weight shifted around in a way that Starlight hadn’t quite anticipated. It was nothing short of mesmerizing, like watching a huge purple jello pony wobble around, Starlight was doing her best not to stare but it was incredibly hard not to watch the pounds of flesh trying to break free out of the thin material that was somehow holding its place.
“Starlight?”
She snapped out of her almost trance like state and realised that Twilight had stopped too, her body gently coming to a halt. The mare laughed a little nervously. “J-just catching my breath! No worries, lets try some uh...bent knee push ups! Just the front ones!” she said, trying her best to keep her cool. But as the exercises ramped up, the music faded and all Starlight could do was to continue to suggest little moves here and there to Twilight whose body was wobbling, jiggling and rocking back and forth with a rather blubbery finesse that she didn’t expect to see at all. Everything about her was just impossible to take her eyes off, but she kept trying to look elsewhere and stop looking. ‘She’s your mentor, what would she think if she knew you were staring at her the way you are? Get a grip Starlight, focus on the exercises.’
Eventually after thirty minutes, she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to call for a break.
“Okay, that’s enough. Take a breath.” Starlight said.
Twilight stopped her sit up crunches that she was doing and panted slightly. “You know you’re a bit of a taskmaster Starlight, there’s a lot more to this than I thought. Not that I really exercise much anyhow.” Twilight confessed, just flopping backwards onto her back to regain her composure. “You’re going to get me to do this every day? It’s going to interfere with my marking.”
“N-no, not every day, perhaps I was being a bit overzealous. And you’re clearly not used to this. But come back tomorrow. Then we can work out a more fitting plan that works around your schedule! Ahaha…” Starlight was starting to chatter frantically, it was always a bit of a giveaway she was trying to hide something. Twilight slipped the leotard off, her bulbous body almost bwoomping out as she removed the clothing.
“Okay well, I’ll be leaving you to it. I’ll see you later.” Twilight said, still giving Starlight a bit of an odd look, but she decided best to just leave it for now and make her way back to her office. Leaving Starlight behind rather flustered who had taken her own leotard off, sitting back at her desk and burying her head in her hooves to think.
‘Oh no...oh no. I wasn’t expecting THAT! And you’ve already told her now it can be every other day, she’s not going to get thinner with that attitude! But I don’t want her to get thinner...that body was, well it totally caught me off guard. W-what do I do? Twilight isn’t stupid, she’ll notice. But what if...what if I could disguise it. Yes, yes, Starlight you genius!’ her mind rattled with thoughts, tomorrow she would have a nice surprise prepared for Twilight, very nice indeed.
-
“Surprise!”
Twilight had entered Starlight’s office the next day, immediately she was completely confused.
“Wait...no boombox or terrible tasting protein bars? What’s this?”
The Head Mare observed what was on Starlights desk who was sat behind it with a fixed smile on her face. Just the leotards and...food. Quite a bit of it. None of it really looked that healthy.
“Eat-a-cise!” the pink mare exclaimed, extending a hoof to point out the various dishes on her desk.
“Eat a what? Starlight I may not be one for losing weight but I’ve not heard of this before.” Twilight enquired, levitating the leotard on and slipping into it. “C’mon, I actually feel like I lost quite a few pounds yesterday. Don’t tell me you’re trying some sort of crazy fad diet to help me out.”
“No, no crazy fad diet! This is the latest thing! I swear!” Starlight began to explain. After she had spent last night going through her options she suddenly had a thought. She knew Twilight was sneaking food, it was plain to see after she had pulled that bag out of her desk the other day. She had guessed that she probably had more hidden around her office too. So Starlight surmised that with a little logic and gentle prodding she could get Twilight to partake in this too. “Yesterday I got to thinking. There has to be a more enjoyable way to lose weight. And this is it! Eat-a-cise!”
“And where did you hear about this?” Twilight asked, questioning her students motives. “None of this food looks like it’s going to help me lose the pounds. In fact, I’d have to guess I’m actually going to gain!”
“Nooooo, why would I lie to you? The students told me about it! They’re concerned about you too, they just want to help! I’m here to help you too. So I’ll be doing this with you.” she said, doing her best to try to convince her. “Really, this is the latest thing, some of the students are even doing it. You must have noticed Yona has lost quite a bit of weight recently, she and a few others told me about this!”
Not wanting to appear rude, Twilight looked over the food again. “Well...it’s hard to tell with a Yak but i’ll take your word for it. So why the leotards still. Do we exercise as we eat?”
“Nope! None of what we did yesterday, we just sit and eat. The leotard is so you can uhm...really see the pounds falling off!” Starlight tried her best to think of a reason to wear them. “That figure hugging clothing will really show you just how much you’re losing!” she stammered, thinking ‘Well I can’t very well tell her I love seeing those big curves in something that brings out her size, can I?’
“Okay so...we just sit and eat?” Twilight asked.
“Pretty much! Much easier and less sweat inducing yesterday. I’ll join you.” the two mares sat on one of the couches in Starlight’s office and Starlight levitated the food towards them. They started to munch on some crackers. “Oh... we can talk, talking helps.” Starlight said.
“Indeed. So what makes this food so good that it’s going to help me lose weight? This all looks like pretty regular stuff.” Twilight said, taking a few bites of a cracker for herself.
“Well um, specially formulated? Again I don’t know. The students put me onto this, they supplied it!” she blurted out, she really was running out of excuses at this point.
“Starlight…”
“Yes Twilight?”
“I’m not daft you know and neither are you.” Twilight said very plainly, taking another bite of cracker and giving Starlight that look of confidence she did to anypony when she knew she was about to rumble their plans.
“W-what are you talking about! Eat-a-cise is a thing!”
“Maybe in your head. Or perhaps it was something you concocted when you were staring at me during the real exercise session yesterday? You did seem rather keen to get rid of me at the end.” Twilight said, still remaining calm but also continuing to take a number of bites out of the crackers she was levitating to her lips.
“Ugh fine, I made it up.” Starlight confessed.
“I know. I knew as soon as you nervously tried to introduce the concept of eating to lose weight. There’s a bunch of fad diets that try to do that and they never work...I should know…” Twilight said a little wistful.
“What do you mean, you should know?” Starlight asked, turning the conversation a little.
“That was what I was doing when you came to talk to me the other day. It was one of those stupid fad diets, just stick to snacking on those little party foods. Clearly it wasn’t working. But you came to me with good intentions and obviously were speaking to me on behalf of the school and my friends when you said we should do something to help me lose weight.” Twilight said. “I thought I’d try it your way, which seemed to be working, after only one day! You changed your mind so suddenly, why?”
“Um...yeah about that…” Starlight started to say, but she stopped again when Twilight just gave her that look.
“It was a rhetorical question Starlight. I know why. Don’t think I didn’t see you staring. You spent half that session yesterday hardly doing any exercise. The rest of the time your eyes were darting over my body as I was working some of that lard off. You know you’re not as sneaky as you like to think you are.” Twilight said, taking a small triumphant bite of another cracker. “I just want the truth.”
“Fine, well that is one of the pillars of friendship isn’t it? Honesty.” Starlight replied, still eating herself. “Truth is, I liked it. Well, that sounds a bit wrong. Not like I was staring at you, I mean the size. Before when the students pointed it out and I was seeing you get bigger I knew I had to do something about it, but I didn’t want to hurt your feelings by confronting you. It took a push from a couple of the students to get me into that office of yours the other day. Just seeing you sat there, stuffing your face with food, it wasn’t you.” Starlight was trying to make her words as gentle as she could, but she felt she needed to explain. “Then when I actually got you here, seeing you moving your body like that, how the nice formed fat was, especially in uh...that.” she said, pointing a hoof at the leotard Twilight was wearing. “Maybe I changed my mind, that it was something I considered maybe...I’d like to try.”
The only thing on Twilight’s face after the explanation was a big smile. It made sense at least as to why Starlight had tried to blunder her way through suddenly altering the diet plan and laying on a big spread of food for them both to enjoy. She just put one of her arms round her pupil and pushed herself closer to her, letting her blubber squish slightly against her body, it was making her blush.
“I think I can help with that.” was all she said, taking another bite of food.
“W-wha. Really? You’re not mad at me for trying to trick you into eating?”
“Starlight please, clearly one day of exercise isn’t going to help me lose all this pudge. And as for tricking me into eating well...I think I caught on as soon as you came up with the term Eat-a-cise.” the mare giggled. “Was that really your idea?”
“Well...I was having a bit of hard time coming up with something catchy.” she confessed.
“Clearly.” Twilight smirked, taking another bite of a cracker, she wanted to tease her student a bit. “So what was it during yesterday that caught your eye, the big hips?” she said with a smile.
“U-uhhh...should you really be asking me this? K-kinda personal…” Starlight said, suddenly flustered at the direct question. “Butyeahitwasthehips.” she said, the words quickly rattled off, trying to sound less concerned about it and not to give Twilight too much to go on.
“Hehe, well it was bound to be something. Probably the leotard too. I do agree, they bring out a nice figure for sure.” she said, finishing off the cracker with a last bite. The two of them sat there for a moment. Twilight did have a question though.
“What do you think everypony else will say when they not only notice that I’m still the same size, but you’re getting bigger, too? How are you going to handle that?” she asked.
“Yeah, good point, I guess as school counselor I think I’ll just simply explain that I wanted to get a perspective on both sides before I went with the wishes of everypony else. Seeing as you are the only one at the larger size it would be appropriate to get your perspective on the subject first by experiencing it for myself.” she said.
“Interesting, well I don’t think some of the students or my friends will completely buy that but at least they’ll respect your decision.” she said, levitating another lot of food up from the spread Starlight had now moved over a small table to place it on, both mares munching their way through the food. “Besides, the size hasn’t impaired me in my duties and I don’t think it will impair yours either.”
“No, I don’t think it will. I don’t exactly do a lot of sporty stuff, I think that’s best left to Rainbow.” Starlight said with a laugh.
“Well everypony has their talents, that’s hers.” Twilight replied. Her eyes were still looking at the food. “I think rather than every other day, I could fit in a visit to your office each day for this Eat-a-cise if you’re going to ply me with treats like this.” Twilight said, taking another cracker and adding some cheese spread to it with another small giggle before taking a bite. “I bet some of them might buy that too if you explain it how you did to me.”
“Perhaps, for now I’ll make sure we get a good feeding every day and that nopony disturbs us, if they found us sitting on our flanks just gorging on food the game would be up.” Starlight replied. Twilight just gave her another grin in return.
“Don’t worry I’ll make sure we’re not found out. Just keep us supplied with food and I’ll make our daily thirty minute meets for...exercise.” she giggled. Starlight raised an eyebrow at her. “What? Exercising your jaw counts! Besides, I kind of like the leotard too..” she said trailing off.
“Well good thing it’s stretchy, if you’re going to gain even more, I already had Rarity make you up an XL.” Starlight replied. “I’m just glad I was honest. It was just hard to be truthful, especially about this, you know? If you had asked me two days ago I’d have said you were mad if I thought this was going to be the conclusion.”
“I understand, perhaps also I can give you a few tips I’ve picked up with eating to gain a little. Now tip number one I’d say is have a good place to hide your food…”
Twenty minutes later when Twilight had left and Starlight had put the remains of the food away and removed the leotards she was sat back at her desk. She felt...good, surprisingly. She was thinking of other foods she could bring in for the next sessions. She felt full, but clearly this was going to be just the start of an interesting time with Twilight. As her mind pondered foods, Sandbar’s head peeked its way around the door as he had before.
“H-hey counselor Starlight? How was it?”
“Good Sandbar, you can stop worrying. I think you’ll see a change in Twilight and myself very soon.”
“Oh good, thanks Starlight.” was all he said, and vanished again, the door shutting behind him. He did wonder why the mare had mentioned herself, it was Twilight that needed to lose weight. No matter though, it quickly left his mind as he headed to his next class. Starlight leaned back in her chair and went back to her thoughts. Clearly there would be some explaining to do when she started to gain in weight and Twilight wasn’t getting any thinner. Perhaps she could think of something better than she had come up with, oh well. That wouldn’t be for many moons. Plenty of time to ponder her reasons and come up with interesting and exciting ways of eating...
