“Late evening, sister?”
The words from Luna jolted Celestia to a more awake state, at least somewhat. She blinked. Only candle light illuminated the room with a pale imitation of her glorious sunlight. She pulled her head up from the book she had been reading, one of many found in Canterlot’s library archive, shutting it as she did so. Luna approached her, trotting over and observing the title of the book Celestia had been glancing over.
“Predictions and Prophecies. Wasn’t that one of Twilight’s favourites?” she asked, picking it up with a faint glow of her horn. Her levitation magic holding it hanging in the air just in front of her face as she scanned over the cover with her eyes.
“Indeed it was, most likely still is. Once she moved to Ponyville a number of the books she had in her house were returned here. This was one of them.” Celestia replied, standing up and yawning. She looked outside one of the many windows and noted it was dark. She wondered how long she had been asleep, she didn’t remember her head resting on the book...or her passing out…
“Don’t worry, we all lose track of time on occasion.” Luna said, levitating the book back into place in the gap on the shelf Celestia had removed it from. The book stopped glowing to indicate no more levitation magic was being cast on it, the object making a gentle fwump as it came to rest on the shelving. “Come, it is a beautiful night. There’s something I wanted you to observe too. It is...troubling.” Luna continued, turning around and leaving the library. Celestia got up and followed her out.
The two made their way around the castle up to the highest point, the balcony where they raised the sun and the moon each and every single day. It was a cool night, the air almost motionless with no breeze to speak of. Ponies were sleeping and the city below was quiet, save for the odd noise here and there that was too far out of earshot to clearly make out what it might have been. They gazed down on Canterlot until Luna pointed a hoof upwards at the sky.
“What do you see?” she asked Celestia.
“The stars, the same stars that grace us every night.” Celestia replied.
“Stars indeed. But what do you make of those ones?” Luna said, moving her hoof slightly to the right and a bit higher up to get a more accurate position on her pointing to make it far more obvious what Celestia was meant to be looking at.
“Hmmm...that is new.”
“Indeed, also why I use the word troubling.” Luna replied.
At the end of her hoof was almost a perfect line of stars. Celestia counted. Nine brightly shining stars formed a singular streak from top to bottom. If she was paranoid Celestia would have sworn they pointed directly to Equestria. But she wasn’t the sort of mare to jump to silly conclusions so quickly.
“Why troubling, exactly?”
Luna gave her a blank stare. “Troubling because as you say, these are new stars and they all perfectly form a line pointing at us. I know of nothing that could cause this. They certainly were not there last night when I observed the sky.”
“Well, I can think of an entity that could cause this.” Celestia said with a slight smile. “Does this not seem like the sort of harmless but fun trickery Discord might pull?”
“Perhaps, but usually there is a purpose or reason behind everything he does. I don’t see the purpose here.” Luna questioned, putting a hoof to her chin as she thought on the many possible reasons as to why this might have occurred and the outcome. She couldn’t come to a solid conclusion as she mused on it.
“We’ll keep an eye on it, but I am sure it will become clear in time. Until then sister, I have to sleep. It has been a long day and I am rather tired. Tell Kibitz not to wake me up too early will you? I think I have a quieter day tomorrow and I’d like some time to recover. Today was...taxing.” Celestia said, yawning to herself as she made for bed. Before the mare knew it, her head hit the pillow and she was out like a light.
Her dreams though were frantic, restless even. There was one prophecy in that book she had read about that stuck in her mind. She just didn’t want to worry Luna, and she wasn’t going to make her concerned without reason.
When the stars align across the universe, the Devourer will awaken to bring upon its end.
-
The door to the dining room opened with its usual creak.
“Good morning your Majesty. I have had the chefs prepare…”
Kibitz’s words were cut short as the grumpy Princess stomped her way to the table and sat down, taking tea for herself which was unusual. Usually she let one of the maids pour it, but this morning she was in no mood to wait.
“Yes thank you Kibitz, can you see somepony about getting the creak on that door fixed? It is rather annoying.” she snapped, giving him a glare that said do it now and get out of my sight.
“Right away Celestia.” he replied, vanishing off into the castle. Meanwhile the frowning Celestia sipped her tea and pulled a plate of food towards herself. It was all she could do to stave off her anger.
“Bad night?” Luna asked, munching on a small portion of food that she herself had.
“Bad? Well that’s an understatement. Dreams like I’ve never had. You weren’t poking around in my head last night were you?” Celestia asked, pulling more and more food towards her. Luna watched curiously as Celestia took more food than she had ever seen her take for breakfast before. Usually she was the hallmark of manners for everything. This was unusual, to say the least.
“No, I can honestly say I wasn’t. Other ponies had concerns of their own I had to attend to. You’ll be pleased to hear there was no major disasters during the night…” Luna said, trailing off as she noticed Celestia had already finished her first plate of food and was quickly digging into the second.
“Well I suppose that’s something. It was awful! I don’t think I got a wink of sleep. Sorry if I appear a bit grumpy…” Celestia carried on between mouthfuls.
“Understandable. I could have a look if you wanted? Inside your mind I mean while you sleep. If it’ll help.”
“I am hoping it was just a one off occurrence, but I’ll let you know.” Celestia said. The second plate was already consumed. She magically pulled a third across the table to herself and started to eat a hefty amount of bread and fruit. Luna just watched in amazement as she scarfed it down.
“Hungry?”
“Well I hardly slept, what do you think?” Celestia almost growled at her across the table. It was an indicator for Luna that she should probably stop down this line of inquiry.
“Well lack of sleep does make one hungry. Anyhow I must be getting to bed myself, it was a long night.”
“Mmm, sleep well. At least somepony can.” Celestia said between chews. Luna left her alone, but not before leaving a note for Kibitz to keep an eye on her. She was concerned.
-
The next day there was certainly an attitude improvement. It seemed Celestia had gotten a good nights sleep this time.
“Morning sister!” She beamed as she entered, the door now soundless as Kibitz had gotten it sorted out. Once more she sat down and spoke to Kibitz for a moment at the table before dismissing him on another errand. It left the two royal ponies alone to discuss things at the table as they had yesterday.
“Good morning sister, you seem in a better mood today.”
“Well I slept, for one thing.” she replied, today letting one of the maids actually bring her a cup of tea who she thanked for doing so. She took a sip, with Luna observing again as she did yesterday pulling several plates of food towards her, plus an extra one.
“Yes, glad you’re back to normal. It’s curious you know…” Luna started to say.
“What -chew- is?” Celestia asked, already making a good start on the food in front of her.
“Those stars, they were gone when I looked last night. As if they were never there. That portion of the sky is empty again.”
“Interesting. I suppose it was some sort of galactic blip? Or perhaps Discord thought better of his little joke.” Celestia mused, eating more food as she did so. The mare didn’t even really stop to think about it, she was more concerned with the next plate coming towards her.
“I don’t know. Do you not think it is strange a row of stars would appear and then just vanish without reason?” Luna carried on.
“Perhaps, or maybe we were both mistaken. Maybe they were never there to begin with and it was some cosmic event.” Celestia shrugged, her mouth full as she spoke. Luna observed one of the maids in the room look a little uneasy as she watched the grand ruler of all Equestria speak with her mouth full, showing the table with small specks of food as she did so.
“Perhaps...anyway. I have some things to do today. Since you’re feeling better I shall leave you to it.” Luna said, pushing her singular plate away and removing herself from the table. Kibitz had said apart from Celestia being a little grumpy and trying to sneak snacks throughout the day there was nothing out of the ordinary in her behaviour. Luna tried to forget about it, but she couldn’t help but feeling her sisters mood and those stars were somehow connected. Plus what was with the huge amount of eating? She didn’t want to get in the way, lest Celestia become angry with her. However it was worrying the mare. She’d observe, for now.
-
“Hnnngggg...G-Good morning Luna!”
Luna glanced an eye up from the breakfast table down towards the entrance. It had been about two weeks since Celestia’s appetite had well, exploded was probably the only word that could effectively describe it. Luna still sat there with her own measly single plate whilst the large table, now extended, was piled high with food. She had decided today was the day she had to say something to Celestia about all this. At least, once Celestia had pulled herself through the door frame and gotten into the room.
To say Celestia was large was now an understatement. She was large a week ago. But since then, every day her appetite had only grown with her. What had started a few mere weeks ago as her pulling a few extra plates towards her at the table and eating a bit more than she usually did had now turned into her ordering the chefs up extra early to cook and have ready a full table’s worth of food ready for her when she woke up in the morning. The maids now simply brought her an entire jug of tea rather than just a cup. It was becoming hard to see her sister opposite her due to the large piles of food blocking Luna’s vision.
Eventually though Celestia got in and waddled her way towards the table. She didn’t even have a seat anymore. Her giant plush ass was a seat on its own as she plonked herself down on her two cheeks and rested them on the floor, greedily looking over the food before her. Plates had since been discarded in favour of simply levitating food to her maw instead. Besides the good morning Celestia didn’t say much to Luna during breakfast these days. It was far more important to her that she eat.
“How are you this morning sister?” Luna asked.
“Fine.” came the response. It was a single word answer which gave her as little pause as possible between pushing food in her maw.
“Good breakfast?” Luna carried on.
“Great.”
Luna frowned. It seemed she’d have to continue pushing to actually get a decent conversation out of her totally food occupied sister.
“Celestia...have you actually observed how much food you have in front of you?”
“Mmmm…”
“...It’s enough to feed an entire town, twice over.”
There was no response, just the sounds of chewing from the other side of the table as Celestia tactfully ignored her sisters inquiries. Luna sighed, she was running out of ideas to actually get anything out of her now obese sister. One thing would work.
As Celestia went to consume another piece of food, Luna tactfully slapped it out the air using her own levitation magic and away from Celestia’s gluttonous mouth.
“Hey!”
“Have I got your attention now?”
“I suppose so, what was that for?!” Celestia responded with a slight hint of anger in her voice. “Didn’t I ever tell you it’s bad to waste good food. At least there’s plenty more…”
“Before you eat more sister, did you hear what I said? There is enough food to feed a town twice. The amount you’re eating is increasing each day, plus your size…”
“What about my size?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well for one thing, a few days ago you told the guards to remove your chair saying you don’t need it anymore. Even you must realise being so big a chair is no longer required to sit is something rather...unusual.” Luna said.
“Well I suppose so, but I fear if I kept trying to sit on one I’d break the furniture Luna. I’m just trying to be practical.” Celestia said, completely and willingly ignoring the actual point Luna was trying to make to her.
“Okay, well be that as it may it is not normal for ponies to be so huge they can use their own flanks as a chair. There have been murmurings around the court. Kibitz tells me you don’t even fit on the throne anymore. The daily advisory sessions with ponies trying to solve issues have turned into a joke. They keep coming each day just to see how much fatter you are, not to have their issues resolved. Even if they were coming for that, I’m also told you’re so preoccupied with eating you couldn’t get a word in between mouthfuls to do it anyway.” Luna retorted, staring at her sister across the table.
“Well what of it? I don’t hear ponies complaining.” Celestia simply replied, going back to her food. “Look Luna, don’t worry about me. I’ve just had a bit more of an appetite lately. I’m sure it will pass and I’ll be back to normal soon.”
“I hope so. You know this all started when those stars appeared…”
“Oh, the stars we still can’t verify were there? Look that was all in your head.”
Luna shot her a rather disappointed glance. “In my head!? YOU were there. We stood there together and observed them! How can you say that!?” she fired back.
“Well it was weeks ago Luna! I can’t remember every detail with the busy schedule of oh I don’t know, ruling Equestria. Sometimes things happen and I gloss over them okay? Nopony is perfect, not even us.” Celestia replied, half the food on the table having vanished already. She turned to one of her many maids. “Can you please inform the kitchen I’d like a second helping of well...everything.” she smiled at her, with the maid trotting off to do her duty.
“Fine. I’ll buy that line for now, but I’m keeping an eye on you sister. This is not normal.” Luna finished, leaving the room and making for her bed. She was tired and couldn’t quite deal with this at the moment. If her sister wanted to be a huge fat pig fine, let her! Soon enough she’d see the damage she was doing to her body and then she’d wake up and get on the treadmill. At least, she hoped.
-
Grrrrrrrrrrr!
Celestia’s eyes opened. It was an awful noise that had roused her from her sleep. Half awake she looked around the room in alarm but quickly settled back into her sleepy state when she realised she was completely alone. In fact, she almost dropped back to sleep but quickly was once again awoken.
GRRRRRRR!
She leaned forward, currently on her back. She couldn’t quite believe what she was looking at but her stomach was visibly shaking. The mare let out a gasp.
“Ahhh, ooohhh!”
It was painful. This was a new experience she had not felt before. But every time her belly grumbled there was a pain to it. She put her hooves forward and clutched her stomach, trying to quell the pain but no amount of rubbing would make it feel better. Every rumble sent a shot of pain through her body that she couldn’t sate. But there was something primal screaming in her brain telling her exactly what she needed to do to satisfy these overwhelming hunger pangs.
EAT.
But what was there to eat? The kitchens were well shut down. She looked around the room and hauled her massive, jiggling frame upright and off the bed onto the floor, her fat stomach bouncing on the tiles as she did so with a bwoommpphh. All that extra eating really had taken its toll on her.
Then something clicked, as if a signal had been sent. She was staring at her bed. Why did it suddenly look tasty? Furniture wasn’t edible. Or at least so the mare thought. Perhaps...perhaps she could just nibble on one the wooden hoofboard a little…
That first bite was difficult. She couldn’t lie to herself, beds were clearly not meant to be eaten. But with each bite it became easier and easier. The bed was, dare she say it to herself, actually rather tasty. As she ate she was actually finding she was enjoying it. The pangs of pain and hunger had stopped and she felt her stomach settle, at least while she was eating.
Before she knew it, the bed had vanished. She stood for a moment, rather satisfied with herself that she had actually managed to eat something like that. Quite a large object, the bulk of the bed had already added to her torso as she felt more weight on her. But only a mere moment after it stopped, her stomach growled at her again.
Grrrrrr!
The pain was back and with a vengeance. This time it was worse. She cried out in pain! Food! She needed food!
Everything in the room was quickly and efficiently devoured by the massive mare. The dresser, wardrobe and even the mirrors were gone. Celestia left nothing uneaten. Unlike the bed none of it had actually been a struggle. In fact she had enjoyed it, everything was as tasty as real food. Perhaps she was so hungry that her body was simply responding pleasurably to being filled with something. In any case her mind wasn’t focused on that right at this moment. She wanted more. The moment she stopped eating her stomach growled at her for more and her brain pounded the message that she had to eat. With an almighty amount of effort her horn glowed, the mare teleporting herself out into the world proper.
-
At first, she started with small things. Post boxes, sign posts. Anything she could break down and fit in her maw. But as she ate Celestia grew. Quickly she had eaten enough to be the size of a small house, her huge frame jiggling and wobbling as she now started to eat larger objects. Houses were now something that was completely within her eating ability.
Everything she came across was edible. A new, exciting form of food for her to eat and use as fuel to increase her bulk. The lardy mare was now beyond obese, her fat flanks starting to rival a warehouse for house as she dug into yet another house, her jaw making quick work of the materials as she swallowed it almost whole and devoured it. Before she knew it, she had quickly consumed an entire town’s worth of buildings and still wanted more.
Lakes became like a glass of water, entire forests and towns, then cities like a plate of food. With each one Celestia was becoming hungrier and hungrier, her size and body knowing no bounds as it grew and grew to accommodate her mountainous body. Her stomach stretched for miles to support a head that was encased by hundreds of growing rolls of flab that endlessly jiggled as she levitated a multitude of things towards her perpetually open maw, not even chewing now on what she ate. Her ass pushed up against mountains and then quickly crushed them, the Princess then taking their remains to eat for herself.
Eventually, she had consumed most of what was on the planet. But that wasn’t enough. With her growing size, her magic grew. She was finding she could easily rip up giant chunks of earth for her to eat. Nothing was safe from the impossibly huge mare’s appetite. Entire continents, oceans and mountain ranges vanished inside her as she started to consume the planet to try to quell that ever growing appetite she felt within her stomach. But nothing would stop her and with a few chomps and chews, Equestria vanished only to be replaced with a planet sized Celestia.
“UUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPP!”
The galaxy itself quaked with the cosmic belch that she let out, the hungry Celestia wondering what was next on the menu. The solar system looked good...lets start there.
Planets vanished into her maw, stars as well. Whole asteroid belts were like a small snack with planetary bodies feeling like a satisfying meal. With her magic, she was even able to break down stars into edible bodies for her to eat and enjoy. Nothing on even a galactic scale seemed to be too large for her to consume. Quickly the mare started to expand out of Equestria’s solar system and into others. Her ass stretched for what seemed like an eternity with her stomach not far behind as her body bloated out to take in galactic sized meals. The Princess felt as though she was in heaven, nothing could stop her.
One by one the stars that illuminated the night sky were winked out as Celestia consumed them all, every one as delicious as the last. She was eating at a rate of a star every minute by the end of her cosmic binge. She had no idea how much she weighed, or how big she was. All she could see of herself was an an endless white that seemed to cover everything before her. She had become everything. A massive unending blob of pony that wanted nothing more than to eat the galaxy and everything around her into nothingness. There was only one problem, there was only so much galaxy to consume.
Around her everything was dark, filled with the endless white void of her body. Everything except one last tiny wink of light that she reasoned was the very last star in existence. Now so huge, the final one was like eating a grain of sand to her. Tiny and hardly even registering as something in her maw, it vanished inside her.
As it did so. Something within her changed, a feeling. One that ripped throughout her whole body and sent waves of pleasure through her billions of rolls of flab and made her feel something she hadn’t felt since she started consuming things beyond food.
Serenity.
Suddenly, however, the feeling passed….she was expanding? Still? She wasn’t even eating. But her body was growing. Billions and billions of pounds of new fat was being added to her frame every second from what she could feel. Her body was growing, across infinity to cover everything. She had no idea why, but something was making her grow...grow...grow! Celestia was quickly overwhelmed by this new feeling, reasoning she could only let it happen and to ride out whatever the universe was doing to her. She couldn’t stop it, there was more of her than she ever imagined possible. Her vision faded, a black void filling her eyes until she could only stare down into the abyss of herself. She passed out.
-
“Hmmm?”
The mare opened her eyes. There was no longer an endless expanse of white before her in her vision. It was just...a meadow? She got up and observed herself. Curious, she was back to being the slender mare she had been before all this had begun. She didn’t even feel hungry.
What was this place? Nopony else was around. Just...natural beauty. She observed the flowers, the birds and the calm still waters of a nearby babbling brook. It was peaceful. She sat back down and thought to herself about what had happened. Was all of that real? It had felt so very real. Celestia was rather perturbed by the whole thing. She remembered it all. Consuming endless amounts of stars...planets. There had been a hunger. Some sort of feeling that she needed to devour everything. But that was no longer there. She felt like herself. She certainly looked like herself.
For now, she would just sit and try to make sense of it all. The meadow was gorgeous and she felt that she had as much time as she needed to ponder her experience. She smiled to herself, feeling a peace of mind that she had never felt before.
