The Gloaming

by Artichoke

Rating: mature
Tags: Slice of Life, Sad, Anthro, Changelings, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Fetish, Romance
Length: 3522

A young mare struggles with the reality of having a body she never really wanted.

When some ponies are down on their luck, they view it as a challenge, a test of their mettle and drive.
For one mare, however, the past few months have seemed less like an evaluation of her fortitude and more like a downward spiral into blackness.
With her own body hindering nearly everything she does, will she be able to find the light at the end? Or is it simply too late for her to find happiness again?

This was a speed write for the FatHorse discord server. As such it contains fathorse. Ye be warned.

Published 2018-11-20 14:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2018-11-20 14:50:01 UTC

Waning Light, Shining Lamp

Throughout the small apartment, the fading light illuminated its stark walls with an amber glow, diffusing softly into a tranquil dimness. Across one wall, a vertical stripe of the chromatic spectra, courtesy of a particularly prismatic window, provided a splash of color to what otherwise was a bland expanse of off-white. For the most part, silence pervaded, the hustle and bustle of the outside world restricted to little more than muted echoes. It was peaceful. It was quiet. Except, of course, for the regular, incessant wheezing emanating from the bedroom.

The brown furred mare’s expression was strained as she slept, her difficulty breathing obvious from the way she gulped air, the whistling respiration keeping her on the edge of consciousness. It was far from restful, but it was what she had learned to live with; after all, she didn’t have much choice.

Suddenly, a small rumbling began to permeate the room, growing in intensity until it overshadowed even the raspy snoring. Eventually, the angry reverberations were enough to rouse the pony from her nap, bringing her back to wakefulness with a surprised snort and a reflexive jolt.

For a moment, the mare looked around, trying to discern the source of the disturbance that had so rudely shocked her. She didn’t get any longer than a moment, however, as almost immediately she felt a large weight start to shift on top of her. Loosened by the jerky movement, a pair of fleshy orbs fell from their positions sitting atop her chest, and landed directly on her head.

She let out an annoyed mumble, along with a muffled “Every bucking time.” She had expected difficulties, how could she not? But nopony had told her one of the inevitabilities of having tits the size of beach balls was being assaulted every time she woke up. Her head was completely covered by the bouncing breasts, while her muzzle protruded into the her vast cleavage.

Bringing up her hands, she grabbed the offending globes, her digits sinking into their squishy surfaces. Pushing against them, she moved them back onto her chest, allowing her to view the sight that greeted her. Beyond the great mounds of her exceptionally large boobs, was the even greater mound of her humongous belly. The dome of fat towered well above her round face, despite how it spread out across the bed, squashed by its own weight. It almost seemed to leer at her, taunting her as she once again propped her big tits against it.

Extending an arm, she reached out to the nightstand beside her, the fatty sleeve encasing the limb wobbling as she felt around the wooden surface. Finally, she gripped a flat, rectangular object, pulling it in and holding it just in front of her snout. Using her other hand, its corresponding elbow nestled into the soft support of one of her breasts, she tapped the phone with a sausage-like finger.

As the screen brightened, the mare was forced to squint her eyes, her large pupils constricting from the burst of light. Focusing on the top of the screen, she was slowly able to make out the time as her vision cleared: 4:42 PM. Tilting her head, she gazed towards the window to her right, grumbling as she watched the last rays of day disappear, her surroundings seeming to darken by the second. Placing the phone back on the nightstand, she blinked away the last bit of fogginess from her vision, her eyes relaxing into the evening gloom.

“Ugh, I hate winter,” she whined to herself. At that moment, the rumbling that had woken her returned, accompanied with a constricting sensation washing through her insides. In a flash, her hands were pressing into the huge gut, massaging its folds in an attempt to quell the beast inside. “Yeah yeah, I’ll feed you,” she quipped, giving her belly a good slap as though reassuring it had been heard.

With a tired sigh, the obese mare began the process of getting up, a process that had steadily gotten more and more difficult over the last few years. Her hips, so wide as to hang from the edges of her queen sized mattress, provided far too much friction to move by herself. And likewise, her belly was much too heavy to allow her to lift her torso. The solution, she had found, was to use momentum to her advantage, shifting her weight sideways until she started to fall from the bed. Then, as she began to tip she swung her legs out underneath her, leveraging her abdomen up and placing her in a sitting position.

The bed frame shuddered as her rump landed with a basey thud. Then, pushing off from its edge, she lifted her butt up from the mattress, finally standing on her feet. Taking a second to catch her breath, she huffed and puffed from the exertion, the raspy wheezing again sounding with every breath.

As she stood there, her hands resting on the supple hips, her naked body’s girth kept her flabby arms propped out at an angle. The cutie marks that adorned her giant flanks had distorted as they stretched, now many times larger than her own head; though, they still maintained the vague shape of a pair of pulsing stars. Her backside swelled out several feet behind her, the big balls of fat swaying slightly as she panted.

After eventually recovering, and quickly adjusting the feathery wings on her back, she began to move towards the door of the room. Her thighs, so thick with fat, squished and rubbed together, forcing her legs apart. This gave her an extra wide stance and, as a result, a pronounced and lumbering waddle. Her belly, no longer spread out sideways, hung down nearly to her knees, completely covering her privates. Her cavernous navel lead the way, extending past the point where her short arms could reach.

As she reached the doorway, the mare was immediately faced with a problem, a problem that she had dealt with countless times, a problem that had only gotten worse as she had grown fatter. When she shuffled up to the opening it immediately became obvious that her loveseat-sized ass was far too big to fit.

As always, her strategy to proceed was simply brute force. Grabbing ahold of the trimming on both sides, she used as much strength as she had to lurch her enormous body forwards, ramming into doorway with the intent of squeezing herself through. Unfortunately, this was not very effective.

At first, not even the forward edges of her hips managed to force themselves in, as her fat thighs filled all the available space between the jambs. Again she attempted to lurch forwards, though not to any significant results. Eventually, she resorted to using her hands to fold the malleable flesh in on itself, slowly squishing through. The doorway creaked ominously as she worked her way to the other side, the strained wood sounding as though it was ready to splinter.

Finally, after several minutes, her gargantuan butt propped free from the confines of the exit, the incredible cheeks jiggling violently as she surged forward. After stumbling for a couple of steps she was able to mostly regain her balance, though her ass continued to wobble, the sloshing fat keeping her somewhat unsteady on her feet.

Once again the obese mare waddled, her wide hips brushing both sides of the hall as she went. Huffing to herself, she thought back to when she first had first moved in to this apartment, three years and many hundreds of pounds ago. She thought to how easy everything had been back then. How she hadn’t had to struggle just to move around. How she was able to fit through doors without exhausting herself.

As she waddled past the living room, she peered sadly into its dark, empty expanse. All the furniture that had once occupied the space was gone, bare walls and old carpet the only things that remained. She frowned, the bleak sight reminding her that everything she had known for the past few years was coming to an end.

Entering the kitchen and flicking on a light, she promptly shuffled her big body up to the refrigerator, her hefty belly pressing into its front panel. She reached for the handle, having to simultaneously twist and bend her abdomen, moving her protruding gut away from the door so as to be able to pull it open. In the process, her head was forced to tilt downwards, her bountiful boobs again smothering her face in soft titflesh.

She straightened as she pushed the door the rest of the way open, keeping it propped against one hip. Inside, the fridge was almost entirely barren, the empty glass shelves glinting off the overhead light. The only morsel that inhabited the frosty storage was a single, store bought, half eaten chocolate cake.

Upon spotting the cake, another growl ripped through her fat gut, compelling her to urgently grab the confection and lumber over to the counter, allowing the door to freely slam shut behind her. However, as she swung herself around, she had miscalculated the distance between herself and the refrigerator, ending up with her couch-filling ass slamming into the white box.

The impact sent her entire body undulating, ripples splashing back and forth through the sea of fat covering her frame. During the commotion, she nearly lost her grip on the cake, only just able to re-grab it before it could tumble to the ground. Once her body had calmed enough for her to move without the risk of toppling over, she looked over her shoulder and gave a disapproving scowl to the blubbery shelf expanding out behind her. Despite everything, she still sometimes forgot just how huge her butt really was.

Placing the cake onto the countertop, she removed the plastic cover, the sweet smell of chocolate and sugar wafting up into her nostrils as she did. Her belly grumbled yet again at the scent, and in response she rubbed a hand across its wide, round surface. After digging out a spoon from a neighboring drawer, the mare plunged it into the soft dessert, scooping up a large serving and quickly transferring it to her awaiting maw. In life, this particular cake had been about a foot in diameter, with the previous half, or as she had called it, lunch, providing enough sustenance to last her until now.

As she shoveled the calorie bomb down her throat, bits of frosting and cake coating her lips and chubby cheeks, the mare grimaced internally at the crime against basic health she was committing. There was nothing even remotely nutritional about the moist, spongy loaf she was wolfing down, and she was well aware of that. She was also well aware that there was nothing she could do to stop herself. She was addicted to sweets, addicted to sugar and fat and grease. Sure, she could eat “real food” too, but she always needed a fix afterwards. It was how she had become the way she was. It was why she was such a fat, helpless pig.

After emptying the last spoonful of cake into her jaw, chewing for only a moment before swallowing, she gave her big gut a couple pats, the gelatinous boulder quivering softly from her touch. With her mouth now thoroughly dried out, she reach up into one of the cabinets for a glass, her arm flab wobbling as she did. She would have prefered some ice cold whole-fat milk to pair with the chocolatey confection, but she had unfortunately guzzled the last of it earlier that day.

The bloated mare waddled over to the sink, bringing the glass up under the faucet with her turgid belly pressing heavily into the edge of the basin. As water filled the cup, she noticed a small glob of frosting sitting on the top curve of one of her boobs. Bending her head, she licked up the little treat, the remaining stain barely visible against the backdrop of her brown fur.

Once the glass had been filled, she brought it up to her lips and, with only three massive gulps, drained the entire thing. After setting the vessel in the sink while simultaneously releasing a quiet belch, she grabbed a paper towel from the nearby dispenser, using it to clean the mess from her face as well as her heaving bosom.

With her belly finally satisfied, she turned away from the counter and looked to the other side of the kitchen. Catching her eye was a red and white envelope underneath a tri-folded letter, sitting on top of the table nestled into the opposite corner. She hadn’t used that particular table for eating in a long time, ever since her growing backside had smashed one of its accompanying chairs. This meant that it had become the staging ground for unwanted mail, paper usually littering its surface. Now, however, the table was clean, save for this one item.

Plodding heavily over, the rotund mare grabbed the letter, leaving the previously opened envelope behind. After turning around, the process taking multiple steps as her lardy thighs squished and rolled into each other, she leaned back, her bulging rear pressing into the table for support. The wooden structure creaked as it struggled against the oppressive weight, meanwhile she slowly unfolded the letter, staring gloomily at the message it conveyed.

A few months ago, she had experienced the beginning of the end of the life she had lived since she was twenty years old. She had been trying to make her way to work, a cushy office job where she parked herself in a chair and sat in front of a computer all day, when a crushing realization was made: she had simply gotten too fat to fit on public transport. Combined with the fact that she hadn’t been skinny enough to drive a car for a year by that point meant that her only options had been walking (fat chance), or not going to work.

Unsurprisingly, she had been let go after the ensuing phone call, her only source of income drying up. And since then, she had only gotten fatter, making her even more unemployable. Her savings quickly diminished, leaving her with essentially nothing to her name. And that brought her to the notice that she was currently holding in her pudgy hand.

It was a warning, sent from her landlord, that if she didn’t pay last month’s rent by the end of the week, she would be evicted from the apartment. Gazing her tired eyes over the formal, yet disparagingly passive aggressive remarks of the letter, she heaved a wheezy sigh. This one slip of paper, as small as it was, represented the end of her independence. There was no denying it now, she was just completely incapable to taking care of herself. She was too much of a fat, greedy, insatiable cow to be a productive member of society.

She tossed the letter behind her, closing her eyes as she reminisced about earlier days. She had always been chunky, and she had accepted that with no issue. But as full as her body had been, her mind was even more so. She had such big plans; she was going to attend Manehatten U, get a degree in economics and make it big in the city.

A small tear ran down the mares round cheek as the bitter reality set in. None of that was going to happen, those dreams were dead. Standing alone in the dark apartment, the only source of light being the dim bulb recessed into the center of the kitchen’s ceiling, she drooped her head sadly, her flabby chin resting on the top swell of her extremely large breasts. And in that position she stayed, completely still, while the world moved on without her.

Suddenly, a noise from outside caused her ears to perk and her head to shoot up, the sound of tires on asphalt cutting through the brumous haze of despair choking her subconscious. Seconds later, the distinctive scratch of a key entering a lock, followed by the chunk of a deadbolt sliding out of place, echoed from the front of the building. Taking her prodigious weight off the table, its wooden supports seeming to groan in relief, she waddled forward until she could see the front door, down a hallway leading out of the kitchen.

Just as it came into view, the panel swung open, revealing a tall, masculine figure outlined by the headlights of the car outside, though any detail was masked behind the dark shadow covering their form. Once they came into the apartment and turned on a light, however, the newcomer’s identity was unveiled.

The stallion’s fur was a darker brown than the mare’s, while his mane and tail were even darker, almost black, compared to her bright yellow locks. Wordlessly, he approached her, grinning ear to ear as he came. Likewise, a relieved smile broke out across her own fat face, her cheeks creasing as her eyes again began to water, though this time due to a completely different reason.

Without even so much as a hello, the stallion swooped in and locked her in an embrace, doing his best to wrap his arms around what little of her whale-like body he could. In return, she wrapped her own arms around him, nuzzling a cheek into his sweatshirt covered chest while he rest his chin on the crown of her head. Releasing from the hug, he looked down and met his gaze with hers. As the mare stared into his caring eyes, she couldn’t help but notice the sickly green glow emanating almost imperceptibly from behind the bright blue orbs.

As he stared back into her own watery eyes, his smile began to falter, until a deeply concerned expression took its place.Placing his strong hands onto her squishy shoulders, he leaned in so as the tips of their snouts were nearly touching.

“Hey,” he said gently, “what’s wrong?”

Despite everything, the mare gave a soft chuckle in response, shifting her view down to where her humongous tits pressed firmly into his own chest. After another exhausted, emotional laugh, she sniffled slightly, clearing her nose of the mucus that had built up from before.

“Nothing, hun,” she responded, her voice still a little weak. “Just was...in a bad place, for a minute.” It was then that she felt a hand on her chin, lifting her head up so as to once again be facing him. The hand then moved to her bangs, brushing aside a stray group of hairs from her vision. All the while he smiled at her in the most reassuring way he could.

“It’s all gonna be okay now. You know that, right?”

She nodded happily, while simultaneously wiping moisture from the corners of her eyes. She did know that, and he had proven again and again that there was no reason to doubt it. He always made it okay. He always made everything okay.

Again releasing contact, the stallion walked all the way around her wide hips, a delightfully long distance, he thought with a private smirk, to the table behind her.

“So, you ready to go?” he asked as he grabbed the letter sitting where she had haphazardly chucked it. Turning around and moving back towards her, he wound back a hand and slammed it into the side of her colossal butt, sending the fatty mountains jiggling widely. “We gotta be quick so no one sees your fat ass out their naked as the day you were born.”

The mare giggled brightly at his antics, the sound comforting him as he walked back towards the front door, where a cardboard box was sitting just adjacent to it. This was the last of her belongings, the rest having already been brought to the house he owned just a few minutes outside the city. Just as he was about to lift it, a call from behind stopped him.

“Zee,” the mare said, waddling her blimp-like body towards him. As he watched her jostle and shake, she shuffled her weight up to him, pressing her immense belly into him, his body sinking slightly into its corpulent folds. She held her arms up in a request for him to lean into her, clearly in need of another hug.

The stallion happily obliged, again wrapping her up as best he could as she held the back of his head.

“I love you,” she said softly, more tears beginning to collect in the corners of her eyes.

For a moment, he leaned his head back, looking at her with a tender expression. Then, he brought his muzzle forward, connecting his lips with hers in an affectionate kiss. For several seconds, the two stayed that way, reveling in their intimate contact. As they separated, he pressed his forehead against hers, their eyes only inches apart as they stared amorously at one another. Huffing softly, the stallion smiled as he spoke the simple phrase that put all her worries at ease.

“I love you too.”