It's a Mad Cupcake World

It had been-it had been...Starlight didn’t know how long it had been since the cupcakes had overtaken Equestria. Days blended together after a while for her and the others. As Starlight and Trixie wandered across Equestria, they found themselves with other survivors. Aside from Mr. and Mrs. Cake there was Mrs. Harshwhinny, Coco Pommel, Sea Shores, Marjoram, and Carnation.

As Starlight and Trixie had directed the group to Canterlot, they’d found Mrs. Harshwhinny and Coco Pommel traveling the road. Once in Canterlot they’d found the others, all working together to try to break anyone out of their cupcake induced stupor. Since everypony had found each other, they vowed to stay together and try to find somewhere the cupcakes hadn’t hit. Or find a cure. Preferably both. So far they hadn’t had any luck.

Canterlot was...hard to see. For everyone. Guards that were still able to patrol now did so in mobility scooters or carts, too fat to even hold their weapons. The countless shops and businesses had all turned into restaurants-all of them large and packed full with obese patrons.

The few businesses left that weren’t restaurants had their workers and/or owners trapped inside, immobile. The one that was the most shocking to Starlight was Sassy Saddles, resting on her mattress of a stomach in the middle of the showroom floor, completely immobile.

Where they had found Marjoram, Carnation, and Sea Shores had been the palace. Which was the most affected by the cupcakes. Servants were immobilized, relying on unicorns to bring them the food they desired. The halls dilapidated and surfaces dusty. Esteemed guests were much like the servants, immobile and helpless.

Luna and Celestia took up most of the throne room, even though it had expanded from the cupcakes’ magic. Servants and the like always said that the throne room had always been huge, but in reality it had nearly tripled in size. They were mostly blind, only able to see a sliver over the fat of their faces. Their horns, when not directing the sun and moon, were focused solely on bringing an endless supply of food and cupcakes to their mouths.

Starlight had tried to talk to them, had even ‘booked an appointment’, but they only said to come back after lunch. The only problem with that was they never stopped eating.

After a couple of days, the group decided to leave Canterlot. Starlight enchanted Trixie’s wagon to make it large enough for everypony while not increasing its weight. It was larger on the inside, with enough space for her lab, some more cots, bedding, and other storage. It was still a little cramped, but it became home as they traveled from place to place.

It had been...a while since Canterlot, Starlight mused, staring up at the early evening sky. Coco was inside, creating some sort of outfit that would make any protection to the muzzle seem less conspicuous. Trixie was asleep after long day of scavenging a nearby orchard of whatever fruit was available. Marjoram, Carnation, and Mr. Cake were still preserving the fruits. Apples, somehow still untouched by the curse the cupcakes wrought.

Mrs. Cake and Mrs. Harshwhinny were near the fire, sitting in silence. They’d seen an immobilized family in the farmhouse up the road. It had been disheartening for everypony but those two seemed particularly touched.

The next town was Appleloosa she thought. They’d been heading south, parallel to the now defunct Friendship Express. Appleloosa, then maybe northwest to Vanhoover. Or perhaps east to the Dodge City. They’d need to discuss it before they reached Appleloosa, in case the city was already overtaken, but Starlight thought they could use a break. Plus she couldn’t handle Mrs. Harshwhinny right now. The mare was stubborn, but her experience in travel was invaluable. She had a map in her head, which is why they weren’t hopelessly lost.

“Starlight?” Marjoram’s quiet voice never failed to startle her, mostly because she could never hear him coming.

Sitting up a little straighter, Starlight turned to look at him. Tall, skinny, golden-coat with a white mane and tail, Marjoram was physically different from a lot of ponies. His golden eyes were tired though, and he looked triumphant.

“We got the canning done. Didn’t take long, not with my magic. We have them stored in the chest like you wanted. I uh...was just wondering what we’re planning on doing.”

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked. Harshwhinny seemed intent on making the decisions, not letting Starlight make them. Starlight, while better with authority than she had been, didn’t begrudge the older mare for this mindset.

“I mean we can’t afford to stop like this every time there’s food,” Marjoram explained, sitting himself down. He had a necklace of sorts around his neck, the metal and plastic of an inhaler reflecting the light of the fire. Childhood illness or something , if Starlight remembered correctly.

“We’ll need it,” Starlight defended. Though Marjoram had a point. They’d been here a while. Using a nearby stream for water and washing, and eating their fill of what apples hadn’t rotted off the trees or hadn’t been canned. She was getting a little sick of apples, really, “It’ll be good to have now, especially since we don’t know how long this will last.”

“Exactly, which is why we can’t spend all our time in the countryside,” Marjoram replied evenly, “We need to go into towns sooner rather than later. For uncursed food, medical supplies, books you might need, anything and everything else. We can’t keep staying out here. It’s going to be hard to see everypony like this, but we need to face reality.”

“I know, I know,” Starlight murmured, watching as Mrs. Cake and Harshwhinny seemed to start up a discussion, “Harshwhinny wanted to stay here though.”

“Harshwhinny isn’t in charge. It’s you that’s going to find a cure to this, not her. You that’s going to need to direct us for materials and other things. Not her. You’re the one that should be in charge.”

Starlight shook her head, “She’s kept us in food so far. I don’t envy her for that.”

“Rationing is only logical,” Marjoram sighed, “and I suppose we can’t expect everything from you. Not yet anyway. You’ll make this work, I’m sure you will.”

“Thanks,” Starlight replied, feeling oddly touched. She didn’t think Marjoram had spoken this much since they’d met, “It’s appreciated.”

Marjoram offered what she hoped was supposed to be a comforting grin, “I need to sleep. Don’t stay up too long. We need you.”

Starlight nodded, “I won’t be much longer.”

Marjoram left, leaving Starlight to stare up at the sky and hope.

___

Carnation screamed.

Starlight had been sorting out what food they’d found in Appleloosa when she heard the scream. Dropping a box of pasta, she sprinted toward the sound. Both seeing and hearing Sea Shores fly above her, looking down in between the apple trees to pinpoint her adopted daughter.

When Sea Shores descended, Starlight rounded a large tree and froze. She wanted to scream, but didn’t have the voice for it. Her mouth agape from shock.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake were surrounded by apple cores. Which was...understandable considering recent events. They all went hungry nowadays. Maybe not starving, but not comfortable either. The apple cores wasn’t the surprising thing. What was the surprising thing was the fact that the couple were completely immobilized by fat. Clothes had torn and shredded from the sudden inflation, leaving them both naked. Cutie Marks were overstretched and barely visible because of their faded nature.

Carnation was leaning into Sea Shores’ grasp, sobbing heavily. She’d spent a lot of time with Mr. Cake while helping cook up what food they had. This hit her hard.

Starlight circled the pair, finding them still eating apples. Much like the cupcakes, they bloated a little more with each swallow. Upon closer inspection, the apples looked like Sweet Apple Acres apples but more subtle. The candy coatings and extra toppings not so noticable.

“It’s spreading,” Starlight murmured, more to herself than anything. She inched back a little as Mrs. Cake’s mattress of a stomach expanded again, overtaking some of the discarded apple cores and coming very close to touching Starlight’s hooves.

“We’ll need to be more careful,” Shores said over the sounds of heavy breathing, audible chewing, and quiet sobbing, “They wanted some more apples for us to can. They must have gotten overexcited.”

Starlight nodded, swallowing past a lump in her throat. She needed to keep herself together. This was hard, but they could make this work.

“Okay. Now we know to be careful,” Starlight said slowly, moving back towards Carnation and Shores, “This is upsetting but we can move past this. We found a bunch of food in Appleloosa’s general store and-and..well, we have two fewer mouths to feed.”

Shores nodded, and Carnation seemed to get ahold of herself.

Starlight nodded, leading the group back to the wagon. They’d need to break the news. Today was a bleak day. Hopefully Dodge City would be better.

_____

Coco Pommel was a quiet mare, one that generally kept to herself unless she was excited about a new fashion idea or got pulled into a conversation. Marjoram was much the same, keeping to himself. He always made sure their first aid kits were stocked though, and knew how to do all of the day to day first aid they needed.

Harshwhinny was still trying to be in charge, and Starlight respected that. Without her, Starlight felt she might be a bit too controlling on their food rations. With Harshwhinny around, they rationed but it was a bit flexible. Whoever pulled the wagon got a bigger share, followed by foragers/scavengers, then everyone else.

It didn’t seem to matter. They were all losing weight in spite of their best efforts. They gained muscle too, taking turns pulling the wagon. Except for Marjoram, who lacked the physical strength to do so. He usually walked alongside though. The group could afford to take up the roads since no one else was travelling them. Too fat, too lazy to travel outside of their local area. Except for the group.

Dodge City had been disappointing. They’d found another survivor, some relative of Applejack or another, but they succumbed quickly. They’d fallen in a bakery on some foolish run for something or another. The stallion had gotten only a few crumbs of a cupcake, but a few crumbs was all it took.

Dodge City was a smaller settlement, and had had so little food that they’d only stayed for a day. Long enough to scavenge what they could and refill their water supply. After losing someone they’d just met, they couldn’t bare to see him pile on the pounds like they’d seen all over.

____

Carnation could sing and play guitar. Not as well as Applejack, but it helped ease tensions while on the road. Especially at night, when there was nothing but silence. It helped dull the memories of endless chewing, made it easier to remember what they were fighting so hard for.

Harshwhinny had succumbed to a cupcake in Vanhoover. Stress, they figured. Stress and an aching belly. Uncursed food was still hard to find, and even though they hadn’t really appreciated her while she was their, the conspicuous silence around the fire was keenly felt. Her constant travel knowledge was missed too. Thankfully Marjoram had looted those maps from the pharmacy. They knew where they were going still, but they missed the trivia and fun facts Harshwhinny always told.

Food was harder and harder to find as time passed. Fruits and vegetables, uncursed ones anyway, rotted in their fields. They needed to rely on food they could scavenge from stores, but they were harder and harder to find as their owners destroyed them from the inside out or had been turned into restaurants. Canned food seemed to be the highest survivors of everything, managing to survive even after being under hundreds of pounds of fat. There was a variety at least.

The group had lost even more weight as the rationing got stricter. Marjoram, who had been unhealthily skinny even before all this, seemed nearly skeletal now. Starlight happily gave a portion of her own food to keeping him going and she knew Shores and Carnation did the same. Trixie had relegated herself to pulling the wagon, and it was this endless exercise that stopped her from giving food over.

They’d been on a hillside outside of Ponyville, hoping to scavenge what they could out of everywhere they hadn’t thought to check last time, when Cloudsdale finally hit the ground.

Unbeknownst to them, as Sea Shores had stayed close to scout out towns, villages, and fields for them, the increasing weight of the pegasi residents had weighed the clouds down over time. Making it lower and lower to the ground as time passed and more weight piled on.

They stayed near Ponyville for several days, finding ample food in spite of the pain seeing the town in such a state. As they watched, the clouds touched down in a field near Sweet Apple Acres. By the time the group was ready to pack up and leave, the clouds had been smothered underneath the residents that had once lived on them.

After that they’d gone to the dragon lands, hoping for a miracle. Ember and the others were much like what Spike had become. Endlessly stuffing cupcakes and jewels into their mouths, laying wherever they’d been when they’d first been cursed. All so fat that their scales were constantly shedding. Unable to grow properly because of the fatty flesh oozing between the scales.

Even Ember, one of the smaller dragons, had turned into something that resembled a faceless blob than anything else. Her pale blue flesh poking out between her scales. Shed scales, empty sacks, and empty cupcake wrappers formed a carpet underhoof around her, and was starting to pile up around her like a landfill. It had been disgusting and terrifying. The group hadn’t stayed there long.

Coco Pommel succumbed there. She’d seen the mighty dragons, known for their bravery and spirit, and couldn’t take it anymore. She’d eaten four cupcakes before anypony could stop her. Laying on the piles of Ember’s trash, rapidly becoming immobile with how quickly she used her magic to shovel cupcakes into her waiting maw. Crying all the while, though she didn’t seem to remember why once the first round of cupcakes passed her lips.

It had been a stroke of luck that opened the way to the Zebra land. Enchanting the wagon to become a boat was honestly the hardest part. That and Carnation and Marjoram’s motion sickness, but that could be dealt with.

They’d hoped that the zebras would be safe because of their isolation. They’d been wrong.

Huts and buildings had been destroyed. Centers of knowledge and magic crushed underneath massive stripey blobs. Unseen magic kept them constantly eating, bringing food to their mouths. Starlight wasn’t sure if it was because of the zebra’s inherent magic or if it was Discord or something else.

They’d found some food at least, made it worth their while. Mostly dried fish and preserves, but they counted. Certainly better than nothing. They’d found books for Starlight’s research as well, and some harder to find ingredients. Marjoram had improved too, somewhat. Clearly finding what joy he could in the remnants of the Zebra culture.

It was so hard to leave. Mostly because they could see some of the blobs-that-were-zebras from the dock. Made it hard to leave ponies that were suffering but they needed to. There simply wasn’t enough resources.

They’d found another couple of survivors on their way to Griffonstone, but they’d taken one look at the fat griffons and had succumbed to the bounty of food. Shores and Carnation had looked tempted, while Marjoram had simply been staring at a pair of griffons that were so fat that their beaks were the only thing visible on their faces.

They’d found more food though. Still not enough, but for the core group it worked out better than they’d hoped. Especially with the others now succumbed to the curse.

They wanted to help survivors, but Starlight couldn’t focus on finding a cure if starvation was the first thing she thought about when waking up. Five ponies to care for was enough, any more than that was quickly bordering on impossible.

They’d decided to check on the changelings on a whim on the way back to Equestria proper after Griffonstone. There they found hope and despair in some strange, twisting mix that was almost as hard as seeing Canterlot or Ponyville.

The Changelings weren’t as bad off as some. Possibly because of the restricting chitin they all still had over their bodies. Colourful and bright now, not black, but still. Restricting all the same until they could be shed. Some were immobile, their chitins unable to grow back because of the weight being gained every day. A lot of them relied on mobility devices, looking uncomfortable in their own skins. The group didn’t stay long.

They’d found Starlight’s village almost by accident sometime after, bereft of other familiar landmarks except for the distant mountains, Starlight had a breakdown once she saw the state everypony was in.

Sugar Belle and Night Glider were bigger than any of the houses still left standing, endlessly fed by the now-somewhat familiar streams of magic that never stopped. Their faces gone, the only thing that made them identifiable was their colouring and what was still visible of their Cutie Marks.

Starlight had cried while Marjoram and Carnation went off to find supplies. They’d been lucky. They’d been wearing one of Coco’s earlier designs. The mouth covering had saved them from an onslaught of cupcakes. They’d been aimed at their mouths and heads, the frosting and crumbs had been evidence of that.

After that, after sprinting across the whole of Starlight’s village after a lengthy supply run, Marjoram’s body had had enough. He’d collapsed, finally out of what energy he’d had.

Carnation spent a lot of her time with him now, trying to distract him from the fact they were losing more and more weight with every day that passed.

After a few more weeks of travel, Carnation and Shores had reached a decision. They’d looped back around to Vanhoover from Starlight’s village, following what was left of the overgrown tracks. Trixie pulling the wagon, they’d come to a stop to view what was left of the city.

Carnation had been crying off and on since Marjoram’s body gave out, and Shores hadn’t been much better. On a quiet evening, they told Starlight their plan.

If they kept going like this Marjoram was going to die. Sooner than they wanted to think about. With his health problems, the lack of food and proper care was killing him quicker than being fat could. The curse may be destructive, but it was keeping everycreature alive, even when it had no right to.

Starlight promised to give Marjoram a dose of the cure as early as she could make it, even helping them pick their way over the crumbling concrete of the city so they could find a comfortable place to grow fat together.

If Marjoram was going down, so was Carnation. Shores didn’t have the heart to leave her children alone, even if it meant being brainwashed and fattened beyond all recognizability. Starlight and Trixie helped get them all settled and retreated back to the wagon before they could see the fattening begin, even though they could hear the echoes of the three ponies tearing into cupcakes all the way back to the wagon.

It took them a while before they forgot about the echoes of that ominous chewing.