More Than A Midnight Snack

With a shudder, the train came to a stop in Ponyville station. Midnight sighed. Everything had been so good up until just yesterday. Her stomach grumbled in protest about the lack of food that it was used to getting on a daily basis, let alone being jostled along on a rickety train ride to another town.

She had been enjoying herself, on her thirty second...or was it the thirty third snack of the day? In any case, it was at that point her parents had rudely barged their way into her room without so much as a knock and started throwing all these accusations around. “You’re eating us out of house and home.” followed by “You need to get a job.” and “Honestly Midnight the size of you is disgusting for a pony who can’t even pay her way.”. Talk about mean and hurtful things to say. Of course Midnight had immediately protested but it was no use convincing her parents at this stage. Clearly the anger had been brewing inside them for a while and finally it was all being let out.

The solution they had decided on wasn’t great, at least for Midnight. “You’ve clearly had no success finding work in Canterlot. We have a solution…” it had started. This had culminated in Midnight having to pack her bags with whatever she could carry and practically being told to get out. Her parents weren’t heartless, they had given her some bits to live off. But only enough for a month at best, less so if she decided to start spending on food. Right now that didn’t seem like such a bad option with her stomach growling like it was.

In any case, here she was. For the first time in her life, poor, hungry and in a town she didn’t know. She had heard things about Ponyville. Of course Princess Twilight and her friends lived here, but she didn’t know much more than that. In any case, she had to make it work, the batpony was going to prove to her parents she had what it takes to survive on her own. She hopped off the train and set off into town.

The month had not gone well. ‘Taxing’ would be the best way Midnight could think to describe it at the moment.

The first thing that Midnight obviously needed was a roof over her head and somewhere to stay whilst she went job hunting. Therefore she had headed to the Ponyville Inn and booked in for an extended stay. That had taken most of the meagre amount of money her parents had given her. The rest had been going towards food. Midnight had started with rather lavish meals as some of the things the inn offered on their menu looked good and had tasted pretty good too. But of course with money dwindling, she had now resorted to finding a discount market to buy cheap junk food from to preserve what little she had left. Perhaps she should have done that from the start…

She had tried, at least to her knowledge, every job going in town but was disappointed to find that it had already gone to somepony else. She was sure her weight was a factor, especially in the physical jobs that caused the employers to turn her down. As of yet, she hadn’t really been able to find a job where a hefty frame was an advantage, but that was changing too.

As she had eaten less and less as the month had progressed the pounds she had spent years packing on at home had quickly started to drop off. She had gone around town looking for work and shopping for food but as time went on her saddle bags had started to feel very loose. She was actually now approaching the last few notches on the belt that held them on her body. She observed them, she had never been this thin. Whereas the notches on the belt towards the upper end were somewhat frayed from years of use, the lower ones looked pristine. She was even having to tuck the belt in now.

Right now, the mare was drowning her sorrows in Salem’s Spellbinding Treats with the most depressing thing of all. A glass of water.

She was contemplating her actions whilst staring at the glass with only a fraction of the water left in it. Like her money, it was running out. She could admit defeat and go back to Canterlot a failure but she wasn’t sure what her parents would do. Just kick her out again until she found something? She was about to run out of money for the inn and food anyway, what other choice was there?

“Can I get you anything else?”

The words came from the owner. Salem Cuisine. Whilst Midnight was a batpony, a creature somewhat rare outside of Canterlot, Salem was a little different to most ponies she had observed around town. A unicorn by the looks of it, but her tail was more akin to that of a mouse or some other creature. Long and hairless apart from the very end with a few white tufts that stuck out. Midnight wondered why that was so, but she didn’t want to ask and appear rude.

“I can’t really afford anything else...thanks for the free water Salem.” Midnight replied, blushing. Her stomach gurgled which it did frequently now she was somewhat thin. Salem raised an eyebrow.

“I think that’s the fifth time I’ve heard it do that and you’ve only been here half an hour. Are you hungry Midnight?” she asked.

“Well yes, but I have no money like I said.” Midnight moaned. “Perhaps I should just head home and admit this was all a failure.”

“What failure? You’re here in town with no money and no job?” Salem continued to ask.

“Yeah, my parents kicked me out at home saying it was high time I did something other than sit around eating all day. They packed me off to Ponyville with some bits and expected me to just magic a job out of thin air. As you can tell, it hasn’t gone very well.” Midnight explained, holding the belt of her saddle bags up to Salem. “This is how much weight I’ve lost.”

Salem observed the notches on the belt, noting the frayed nature of the some and the nearly new nature of others. It was obvious to her that Midnight had gone from being quite a bit larger than she was now to the regular looking pony that sadly sat before her. A thought struck her and the solution now seemed rather obvious.

“How would you like to work here?” Salem asked. She watched as Midnight raised her sad head from its current resting position on her counter.

“Work here? You’re looking for help? Everypony I asked for work turned me down…” Midnight replied.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about an assistant to handle the morning shift to give me a bit more free time in the day for other work. I know you’re a bit hard up right now and can’t keep living at the inn but I have some unused storage space, I’m sure it could fit a bed that you could stay in until you’re back on your hooves. You can keep living there if you want or move out, the choice is yours.” Salem said.

“Free lodging and a place to stay? I don’t think I need to think twice about it. Consider me your assistant!” Midnight happily exclaimed, leaning over the counter to give Salem an appreciative hug.

“It’s settled then, you go get your belongings from the hotel and bring them here. I’ll give you a hoof to get everything set up. Suppose I better find a bed as well.” Salem mused. “Come back after I close and we’ll get you settled into your new home.”

“Thanks Salem, I promise I won’t let you down whatever the job is! Ohhhh I can’t wait to get to work in a bakery!” Midnight said happily. She had been eyeing the treats Salem sold, hoping they were as good as they looked. The mare trotted out the door as instructed to gather her things in preparation to bring them over. Salem watched her go.

“Oh trust me, I know you won’t.” she said to herself under her breath.

Morning was...sweet?

Midnight sniffed at the air. She had never woken up to a wafting scent of sugar before. Not having eaten much food that smelt like that for around a month, it immediately made her perk up from her slumber.

“Morning, you crashed out last night.” Salem said. Midnight’s eyes went wide. Salem came in carrying a huge plate of food. Pancakes covered with what looked like a thick layer of syrup, haybacon and eggs. The batpony hadn’t seen food like this for so long she had almost forgotten what it was starting to look like. “Figured you could use a good wake up after moving all that furniture, it really tired you out huh?”

She watched as Midnight eagerly almost grabbed at the plate before remembering her manners and took it with more humility, thanking her for the meal.

“You’re welcome. Now while you eat I’ll run you through the day.” Salem said with a smile. It’s not like Midnight would have replied, her mouth was already full of food. “Now it’s just the morning shift. I’ll be here just after lunch but you’ll need to open around seven thirty to be ready for the first customers who arrive around eight. I’ll attend to any baking the night before. You’ll just have to put it out, I’ll show you how this morning.” Salem explained, taking a short breath before carrying on. “The day then is pretty routine. You just need to sell goods, look after the till, clean the few tables I have for those that decide to stop in. That’s all there is to it really.”

“That sounds okay, I am sure I can do that.” Midnight said, licking her lips. She had already finished off the meal and Salem watched as she gave her stomach a satisfied rub as it rumbled quietly. Clearly Midnight had been missing her food.

“There’s one last thing I’ll mention. Lunchtime can get busy and I imagine you’ll be hungry by then. We have a ‘Day Old’s’ section for stuff that is still good but starting to go over so it’s heavily discounted. If you want and the customers don’t notice, help yourself to a treat...or four to keep you energy up.” Salem said.

Midnight made a mental note. It wasn’t like she had any other source of food for the time being anyway. Salem wasn’t paying her much due to living in the shop but it was enough for now. “Day Old’s section, got it.” Midnight said.

“Just mark on the stock for that part what you eat.” Salem carried on. “That’ll go in The Book. Now, cleaning supplies are here.” Salem said, pointing to a small cupboard just outside the room Midnight was in to let her know where they were “Oh shoot, I have to take care of a delivery also. You think you can handle that? Oh, and I will have new opening times soon but I’ve not announced them yet, so don’t worry about that!” she said, already making for the door.

“U-Uh sure! Yes, I can clean no problem. Umm, Salem?” Midnight started to ask, but it was no good. The bell tinkled indicating Salem had already left out the front, the slightly nervous Midnight now having to deal with everything that had been somewhat explained, but not shown as promised. She could probably work out the till, put the food out and do the other things. Easy peasy right?

“Thanks! Hope you come back!”

The bell to the shop entrance tinkled once more as Salem reentered her bakery and a couple of ponies passed her leaving. She felt a little bad about leaving in such a hurry but the delivery was important. She got back a little later than she was expecting and the lunch time rush was pretty much over at this point. She saw Midnight cleaning a few of the tables by the looks of it, with no ponies at the counter the batpony was taking the time to do a little tidying.

“Midnight?” Salem asked.

The batpony looked up from her cleaning and stopped, putting the cleaning tools to one side. “Oh hey Salem. Sorry, it was quite busy just now!” Midnight replied, thinking she hadn’t heard her the first time.

“I know how it gets. Everything okay?” Salem continued.

“Yes, I wanted to ask you a couple of things. It was a bit of a whirlwind!” Midnight exclaimed.

“You’ve eaten?” Salem asked.

“Oh yes, some of the day old stock like you said. I marked it down.” Midnight confirmed.

“I see. Well, you’ll want a proper lunch. Really those are just snacks. You keep cleaning up and I’ll prepare you something proper in the back.” Salem said, vanishing behind the counter and into the back room prep area. Midnight carried on her cleaning, the store was mostly clean anyhow and it was just really the tables. Crumbs got everywhere…

Midnight helped herself to another donut from the day old batch when she heard Salem yell again. She was only part way through nibbling on it. “Midnight!?” she heard her yell, which forced her to rather quickly swallow what remained of the treat. The store wasn’t closed but nopony seemed to be entering. She’d hear the bell anyway.

When she made her way to the back room, like in the morning Midnight’s eyes went wide. Salem had prepared what could only be described as an absurd sandwich. It was at least five times as big as a standard one and three times as tall. Salem had placed it on several plates just to put it on something. Midnight looked at the filling. Hayham, daffodils, she was starting to run out of ingredients to try to name. The thing looked absolutely packed with mouth watering fillings. There wasn’t just the sandwich however, next to it was the biggest slab of brownie she had ever seen (in fact, really Midnight would have expected it to be cut into several pieces, not just left to stand as it was) and also the largest milkshake glass she had ever seen which was about an inch from overflowing over the top. Midnight stared, clueless at first as to how she was going to manage to eat it all. Her stomach however got the better of her, and a grumble from her belly pushed her forward to begin eating.

She took bite after bite of the delicious food. Midnight was quickly making her way through it all, the sandwich vanishing rather speedily down her hungry maw. She then moved onto the brownie which was washed down with the large milkshake. Her stomach gave a satisfied rumble, the massive meal put a few of those lost pounds back on her figure. She belched in to show her gratification.

“Uuurrrrppp!” the batpony burped. It took her a moment to compose herself after eating the huge mountain of food, but when she did she noticed that Salem was standing in the doorway between the bakeries kitchen and the small private living room. A light hum filled the air as magically, the unicorn held what was deemed as The Book aloft floating just in front of her muzzle. She was smirking and looking at the most recent page where Midnight had recorded what she had eaten as snacks while she had been working that morning and afternoon.

“You have quite the appetite. I said a snack or four, not the entire ‘Day Olds’ section. Customers like to buy from that as well.” Salem commented.

“Hey, look you left me with very little instruction! I was hungry and I panic eat when I’m nervous…” Midnight said, defending her eating as best she could.

“No no, you misunderstand me Midnight.” Salem carried on, letting up the teasing. “I know I said to make sure customers weren’t looking, but this is a good thing. If customers see you eating our produce, even the day old stuff it’ll bring more in. They’ll be convinced of its quality.” Salem explained, snapping the book shut with her magic and placing it down. “Plus it’ll be a boon for the early morning openings I told you about. Especially if you’re an early eater.”

Midnight pondered this. Was Salem giving her the opportunity to eat even more than she already had been? It was true she had eaten more and like a fool she had recorded it as instructed, but Salem probably would have noticed anyway the missing treats. “Alright, well I can try and openly eat somewhat in front of other ponies if you want. I still want to be able to eat when they’re not around though.”

“Fine, fine. Anyhow. The afternoon is getting on and you’ve worked over what I asked you to initially, take the rest of the afternoon off and go out and enjoy the sunshine. I can take it from here.” Salem said. Midnight just nodded and left the room, still a little suspicious but nonetheless, she wanted to get out and away from work.

Salem, waiting until Midnight had left (with the tinkle of the bell confirming it so) picked up The Book once more and cracked it back open to the page she had been looking at before. There was a big list, Midnight was quite the piggy of a mare it seemed. She smiled, there was a trend emerging in what she had eaten.

“And now I know what to make especially for you.” Salem said to herself.

It had now been two weeks since Midnight had started work at the bakery and a pattern had formed rather quickly in her day.

Every morning she was woken up by Salem bringing in a rather large breakfast. No need for an alarm clock when her wake up call was generally a huge stack of pancakes or other goodies to start the day. After the first day, Salem had started bringing in seconds as well which Midnight had no problem at all consuming. Before she had left Canterlot, a breakfast like this would have been pretty par for the course.

The morning shift was then routine also. Making sales and attending to customers wasn’t something Midnight was struggling with and neither was the request to eat some of the goodies in front of the other customers. She had quite quickly (despite her initial protests) taken to eating a number of treats during the day. She was just careful not to be eating when she had to speak. The advertisement tactic seemed to be working though and Salem had noticed an uptick in sales despite it being only a short time of Midnight doing this.

In the afternoon, Salem would come back from her morning out to make the two of them lunch after the rush. The lunch of course was even huger than than breakfast, with Salem making sure that Midnight ate the most of her fill and working from The Book where Midnight was still marking down what she ate during the day (and quickly now going through the pages due to the increased eating). It was rather easy using this method to prepare a large, fattening lunch that Midnight would never object to.

The day then ended for Midnight by Salem saying she had the afternoon off, as their agreement was still that she just worked the mornings to help out. However the difference here was that Salem had started passing her a bag of treats to eat as she was now once more waddling her way around town, having regained some of her former lost weight. When the day was over and the bakery was closed, Midnight would return. Often to yet another large meal which was often greasy and fatty in nature. Salem saying she liked to indulge herself in the evening with home made junk food. Of course the mare made sure that Midnight ate most of it. As a final treat, she’d then offer her any leftovers from the bakery that needed eating that day.

Of course due to all this, Midnight’s weight was back in just two weeks much to hers (and unknown to her) Salem’s delight. She loved having herself back to a size she was used to with a considerable wobble and a hefty belly. It felt all the more better. Right now, she was indulging in a large lunch that was leading to a food coma, the batpony rubbing her wobbly and rather soft belly in delight as she finished off her two Haybacon sandwiches, half of a triple chocolate fudge cake and a coffee that seemed to be comprised mostly of sugar and syrup. In fact if she tried to tip it upside down, she was sure it would fall out in a lump rather than ooze out as a liquid should.

“I see somepony is indulging again.” Salem said, the sudden and unannounced entry of the mare making Midnight jump a little in surprise, her wobbly wobbling from the sudden movement and shock.

“Well perhaps.” Midnight started to say.

“Oh no by all means do indulge, I mean why work in a bakery if you can’t enjoy some of the goodies right?” Salem said. “Well, not just bakery food. I don’t exactly bake sandwiches.” she smiled.

“Okay, perhaps I was. But I was just eating like you told me to…” Midnight replied. “Were you trying to catch me in the act?” Midnight asked.

“Of course not. Oh and besides dear it’s a business half-day today. I’m not sure if you knew, I had actually forgotten until I was reminded by one of the ponies I deliver to. We won’t have any customers this afternoon.” Salem said.

“Oh well, I guess you have an easy day.” Midnight replied. She let out a small belch as she finally finished the meal. “Urrpp!”

“Hmmm yes, although…” Salem started to say, seeing she was already catching Midnight’s attention. “I was wondering, would you mind helping me with something rather than waddling your way around town this afternoon?” she asked.

“That depends, what is it?” Midnight asked back.

“I was wondering if that voracious appetite of yours could be put to some use for me. A side project for the bakery.” Salem began to explain. “I have some new recipes planned to further increase the customer base, would you be interested in taste testing them?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t see why not.” Midnight replied, not wanting to pass up an opportunity to try something new and exciting. “Go on then.”

“Splendid. Give me a moment I just need to fetch them. This might take a while though, it’s quite a lot.” Salem said, vanishing out the room to get the samples. Midnight just shrugged and watched her go, making her way over to the couch and settling down. The furniture creaked in protest under her weight. The batpony ignored it.

She was in the middle of toying with a rubix cube to pass the time when Salem returned. She wasn’t kidding when she said she had ‘quite a lot’. There were several trays of brownies, a large triple chocolate layered cake, at least four plates of freshly baked glazed donuts and a large stack of cupcakes all being levitated into the room. Midnight would have questioned how Salem carried all this as she wasn’t exactly an alicorn capable of advanced levitation, but decided to keep her maw shut for the time being. At least until she had a chance to protest.

She dropped the rubix cube on her belly immediately, the toy making a light wob as it rolled off her frame. “W-wha!? I can’t eat all that! I thought for a test you’d just have one of everything!” she exclaimed, still amazed Salem had made so much of everything. “I know I can eat a lot but well...I just had a huge lunch and that’s another several lunches worth of food!”

“Midnight dear, I am well aware of that. You don’t have to eat everything here. Just some samples.” Salem said, magically separating one of each of the items (and taking a slice of the cake) for Midnight to taste. “Here.”

“Oh...okay.” was all Midnight replied, taking a bite of one of the donuts. It was amazing, so sweet and tasty.

But after the first donut there was another.

And another.

It was the same for the trays of brownies. It started with one, then two, then three. On and on until unknowingly, Midnight had consumed all of them. With so much food to eat and Midnight’s rather big appetite taking over the thinking for her she didn’t think to ask to stop with so much food, or even get a chance to interrupt as when one of the sweets vanished, Salem quickly presented another to fill her maw with. The cake slices were just the same and eventually the whole cake disappeared inside of Midnight, with the last of the food completely gone just a short time after she had started to eat. All in all, Midnight had been completely stuffed, rubbing at her engorged and gurgling stomach that tried to angrily protest, but only managed to blorp and glorp in response. She was so full, her belly felt absolutely tight as a drum with all the food she had eaten. Midnight herself was trying her best not to loudly belch, with low quiet ones leaving her lips along with satisfied moans. She felt another hoof on her belly.

“There there, that was quite the feast.” Salem said, gently rubbing her own hooves on Midnight’s large stomach. “Take a nap and snooze it off. I’ll get your thoughts on the treats when you wake up.”

Midnight would have protested, but with all that food she suddenly felt a wave of tiredness draw over her. Drowsy eyes quickly closed and before long her quiet belches were replaced with snuffled snores.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wake you in time for dinner.” Salem said with a smile.

Midnight was thinking back. Was it really a month ago that Salem had asked her to ‘taste test’ all those treats? It seemed like it wasn’t such a long time, but she checked on a calendar, it had been.

Routine had become well...routine, for lack of a better descriptor. Every day Midnight woke up to an incredibly large and varied breakfast that Salem presented to her. She would then start off the working day, snacking on food as she went often in front of the customers and extolling the virtues of what she was eating to them to make sales.

She would then spend the morning and a little of the afternoon managing the counter of course. Customers were starting to pick up as they saw the large bat pony grow in size who was always telling them how good everything was. It was encouraging sales.

Lunch would then often consist of whatever was in the ‘Day Olds’ section but this was increasingly just turning into Midnight’s lunchbox for the day. Customers were actually buying very little from it these days, but she always made sure to leave something for them if they wanted to.

When Salem came back in the afternoon, Midnight would then go out for her walk. Of course with her ever increasing size, the walk had turned to a waddle. Her massive belly now easily brushed the ground and her widened flanks were quite an impressive sight. Without knowing it, even on her walks often with a snack Midnight was advertising for the bakery.

Once back, Salem would always have more food to ‘taste test’. It had become a regular occurrence now. Midnight was finding it quite amazing that Salem always seemed to find new and exciting foods to add to the bakery roster and for Midnight to try first. But somehow she did it. Midnight wasn’t exactly complaining either, everything was delicious.

She would then snooze until dinner, which was another meal big enough to feed more than a family of ponies and then collapse back into bed waiting for the next day for it to all repeat once more, which it did without fail. The only real difference was now instead of a protesting bed to sleep on, she slept on a protesting couch. Her belly was now so large it got stuck in the entryway to the guest room more often than not.

The couch wasn’t the only thing that protested her weight. She had started to keep track of it by using a set of scales which clearly weren’t quite built for a pony of her size. Last time she had checked she had cracked the nine hundred pound mark. Midnight didn’t show it, but she was overjoyed at just how large she was. Only one hundred pounds to go until that magic four figure number. Salem had teased her relentlessly at the time, but she didn’t mind - it was part of the fun of being such a huge fatty. She had pretended to be all embarrassed about it just to play along for her amusement.

This morning though was different, routine had been broken. Usually when she was just opening her eyes to rouse from her slumber food was being placed on the kitchen table. But today Salem was crashing about as she darted around the kitchen seemingly in some sort of panic. The food was on the table, but Midnight could tell it was rather hastily put together as Salem seemed very preoccupied. As Midnight made her way to the table, the chair creaking under her weight she saw Salem’s ears pitch up as the noise made her aware Midnight had entered the room.

“Ah sorry for um, all this.” Salem said. “Once you’re done I need to talk to you.”

Midnight just nodded, starting to chew on her breakfast like normal. With her increased size her appetite had also grown, meaning the meal vanished rather quickly. A belch signalled she was done.

As soon as Salem heard the belch, she practically rushed back into the room carrying Midnight’s saddle bags. Before Midnight could protest, she found that Salem was already attempting to strap the bags around her now far too big stomach. With a lot of effort, some of it verbal, Salem managed to just about get the very last notch around and attached much to the chagrin of Midnight who was feeling rather uncomfortable with the belt cutting into her belly as it was. Finally, Salem somewhat calmed down now pulling away from her as the saddle bags were in place.

“I’m really sorry about this!” Salem began to explain. “We need to switch. The shop is closed for this morning and I need you to make my deliveries.”

Midnight had never done this before. “How come? Why can’t you do it?” she asked.

“I have to prepare the shop for a party, several old friends.” Salem said, that’s all she was going to tell Midnight. She wasn’t going to divulge into the fact it was Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance who were coming disguised. “It’s not a long walk today. I have a list of addresses where you need to deliver. I’ve already packed everything into the cart assuming I was going to do it myself. You just need to drop the stuff off.”

Midnight thought for a moment. “Okay. Well it doesn’t sound too hard.”

“Great!” Salem responded, levitating over her list of addresses. There weren't too many houses.

“Wait, why do I need my saddle bags if the deliveries are all on the wagon?” Midnight asked.

“That’s to keep you going, it’s snacks for the delivery.” Salem replied. Midnight just gave her another nod to indicate she understood. “Also kind of a sorry for just springing this on you like this.” she finished off with.

“Alright, well I’ll get going.” Midnight said, hauling herself off the chair, which creaked in relief as her weight was lifted from it. Midnight headed for the door. Salem just waved goodbye as she watched Midnight’s flanks brush against the frame. She was getting too big even for that now.

Midnight had to extend the wagon straps to fit her so she could pull it, but they fitted. Quickly, she started to question why she had agreed to this. It was difficult work, especially with her being so large. Her weight gave her a small advantage in that it added bulk to pull the cart with, but she was huffing and puffing her way through Ponyville under the heat of the summer sun. A hat or even ice cream would be great right about now, unfortunately her saddle bags contained neither. She did start to dig into the treats contained within almost immediately however.

Some of the ponies she came across in town made comments about her as she passed by at her slow waddle. Ones that came into the bakery ignored her, but those that were unaware were staring, whispering under their breath to partners or just making outright rude comments. “I didn’t know whales had evolved to walk on land.” “My goodness, is that a pony or an elephant?” “Gross, she must weigh more than the cart she’s hauling!” were some of the many that Midnight heard and she would have been insulted, except she was overjoyed more than anything. All it did was assure her that she was just that gigantic.

As she made her deliveries, she noticed that the occupants seemed to get bigger and bigger with each stop she made at their houses. The first ones had been somewhat overweight, but as she moved towards the final house, the lardy occupants took a large delivery of cakes and were about half Midnight’s size which was impressive. Not getting out much apart from her daily waddle around town she hadn’t really noticed the townsfolk getting larger.

Eventually however, she made it to the last house on her list. A rather large house on the edge of town that clearly housed some rich ponies. The order for them was the largest too. She estimated a quarter of what was in the cart overall. The gate however was open, and Midnight waddled her way up the drive and parked the cart, unhitching herself. The front door was quite intimidating, and wide.

She pressed the bell button and waited.

And waited.

Eventually after fifteen minutes had passed, the door eventually opened. Midnight was about to give up but from what she was greeted with, it was worth the wait. Plus she didn’t want to disappoint Salem by not making all the scheduled deliveries.

Before her, hardly able to move let alone waddle, stood a large pony even bigger than Midnight. At an estimate Midnight guessed they had easily passed that magic four figures long ago. The size of her was most impressive, the mare sporting a belly bed where her hooves just about could make contact with the ground around it and an ass shelf that was towering over the back of her head which consumed her tail between its cheeks. Clearly, the mare noticed as Midnight stared at her.

“Ah, good morning.” she said. “I assume Salem is busy? I am quite surprised that she has asked her assistant to make the delivery though at your size dear. Her last one was hardly able to leave the shop at your bulk, last I saw her she was roughly your size too. Perhaps a tad larger.” she said with a smile. The mare started to levitate her order off the cart and inside the house, she was a unicorn.

What was that comment though? Her last assistant? Salem had employed more than one?

Suddenly it clicked. Midnight’s growing size, the size of the ponies on her delivery route, the continual ‘taste testing’ of food and the extremely large meals that Salem fed to Midnight each day. The fact she was letting her eat almost anything and everything she wanted and practically feeding her. Salem was enabling her weight gain and finding ways of doing it without being totally obvious about it, that much was clear to her now.

Midnight hadn’t said a word to the large pony, but by the time she came back to reality from the recesses of her mind, the door was shut and the cart was empty. The mare had gone back inside.

In fact, it took Midnight, even with an empty cart, quite some time to make it back to the bakery. It was well gone lunch when she did so. She had been lost in the thoughts of what all this meant. Unhitching the empty cart she saw Salem locking the front door, the mare waddling over to her.

“Midnight! Oh thank goodness, you’re quite late. I was about to go out looking for you.” Salem said, relieved the mare had returned. “I thought there might be some issue with the delivery. Or you had gotten lost or stuck.”

“No just, met an interesting pony. They gave me something to think about.” she replied. Salem just unlocked the door, ushering her back inside, Midnight’s frame brushing the door again.

“Let’s have lunch shall we?” Salem said. She had prepared quite the spread, in fact it was more of a feast. The table was covered with countless fattening foods. Midnight wasn’t quite sure she could distinguish all the different variety but it was all fattening. “Dig in, I bet you’re exhausted after all that delivering.” Salem said.

Midnight hesitated. She had a question that had been burning in her mind since her chance meeting with that extremely obese pony she had to ask.

“Are you making me gain weight, Miss Salem?” Midnight asked. Curiosity had struck her, she needed to ask the question and wanted an answer that was more than just misdirection from Salem. Unfortunately the answer Salem gave was just a question.

“What makes you say that?” Salem asked. She wasn’t prepared to give anything away just yet, she wanted to see how Midnight responded.

“Because I don’t want to stop.” Midnight confessed. The words leaving her lips with but the merest hint of gusto behind them, as if a great weight had been lifted.

There was something about the words and just confronting Salem about it that released some sort of pent up hesitation from within her. Salem said nothing, Midnight just launched herself at the massive lunch meal. Now fully awakened to her gluttony, she tore her way through the huge meal meant for ten ponies in less than half an hour, hardly chewing or taking in what she was eating apart from the sheer lust to cram as much as she could down her throat as fast as possible. It was quite the sight to behold, Salem (without Midnight noticing, too lost in her gluttony) had closed up the bakery to watch the impressive display of Midnight gorging herself. It was only when the food ran out and there was nothing left on the table that Midnight stopped herself, just short of chewing through the wood.

With some restraint, Midnight stopped herself and looked up at Salem.

“Can I have some more? I'm still hungry…”

It had been three months since Midnight had finally released all her pent up hunger.

She had tried, somewhat to keep working and doing the job Salem had employed her to do. However as time had gone on, this had of course become impossible. Once Midnight had ‘cut loose’ on her eating, it had become a chore to keep doing so. She had gone from just scraping door frames to getting firmly wedged in them. It had reached a point where Salem had to keep teleporting her in and out of rooms, and out the bakery itself just to get her between places without some kind of destruction following in her wake. It was when Midnight could no longer even fit behind the counter anymore, her large squishy frame getting firmly jammed between the back wall and it that her job had come to an end. With a final teleportation spell, Salem had moved her to the back room where she had started her stay, simply to now eat.

And eat she did, that was all Midnight did these days, from when she woke up in the morning to when she eventually passed out in the evening, her sleep always brought on by a huge food induced coma that never failed to knock her out. Salem was keeping the practically 24/7 food guzzling Midnight fed, bringing her desserts, incredibly greasy junk food, gallons of soda, milkshakes and anything else that was just completely packed with calories. After a period of three months, it was showing.

That dream of hitting one thousand pounds was long in the past. Midnight now easily weighed five thousand. Her body had morphed to an unrecognisable blobby mass that filled the room she occupied. Her legs had long vanished into gigantic fatty sleeves of blubber that consumed them, only the tips of her hooves still visible on the outside. All she could really do was wiggle them to show pleasure, that she was enjoying herself. There was also a wiggle for discontent, when she felt she wasn’t being fed enough.

As for the rest of her, only a hardly visible, tuft of indigo fur barely poked out from between two wrecking ball ass cheeks. The monstrous ass shelf behind her so blubbery and blorpy that it was starting to creep forward over her head as it pushed her back fat up with nowhere else to expand. Her gigantic stomach, constantly growling for more food, had developed seemingly endless rolls of thick, soft blubber with more rolls forming each day. Despite all this, her impossible obesity consuming her, Midnight refused to stop eating and Salem refused to stop feeding her.

The only problem was it was seeming that Midnight was starting to reach her maximum bulk, a plateau of blubber somewhat. It was starting to seem that she might need to eat twenty four hours a day to keep her gain up, as no matter how much the food consumed batpony was eating, she was gaining less and less with each passing day. Even reducing her food comas that caused her to snooze, she was unable to keep it up. Even though her head was somewhat consumed by her fat like everything else, she could still speak to Salem.

“Please...huff...more...puff...bigger…” Midnight begged, just before Salem started to feed her once more for that day. Salem knew what she was getting at, she had noticed the weight plateau as well.

“I’ve noticed it too, you’re gaining less.” Salem said. “But I might have a solution.”

Midnight was intrigued. “What?” she simply asked.

“That day you made my deliveries all those months ago. The ponies I told you about that visited me? It was Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance.” she began to explain. “I don’t know how much you know about Equestrian history and they tend to keep this one on the hush, but it’s something that has come up before in discussion. An extremely long time ago, over a millennia in fact, before Nightmare Moon one of the big signs of being a capable ruler was one of two things. You were either a great warlord, conquering the lands around you as you pleased, or there was the other thing.” Salem paused. She let Midnight have a small amount of food, not wanting to starve the batpony before carrying on.

“You wore your lands.” she paused again. “As fat.”

She heard a small huff from inside the blubber of Midnight. Clearly she was interested. “When they did this, it wasn’t so much a problem for Luna. She was quite adept at managing her weight.” Salem continued to explain. “But with Celestia having her connection to the sun, her metabolism would burn off the excess calories at an extremely fast rate no matter what she did, at that point, she sought out me.” Salem said with a small smile on her face. “Back then, I was known as the Witch of Gluttony. She wanted an answer to her problem.”

At this point, Salem stopped explaining and her horn glowed. Instead, she decided it was best to demonstrate the solution she had provided Celestia rather than keep explaining to Midnight who was at this point, only interested in an increased gain. The magic extended around to the end of her tail, to the brush of fur at its tip. From it, her magic produced a somewhat ‘goop’. Up until now, in secret, Salem had been adding this goop to Midnight's food in small doses to help keep her growing, but now that her weight was starting to plateau there was only one more thing she could offer without diluting the goop.

It was time for Midnight to drink from the source.

“...Yes…” the batpony hardly hesitated before agreeing to drink it. There was still a levitating flow of food to her maw that she was chewing on, but she managed to get the words out between mouthfuls.

Salem with another smile of the acceptance, began her slow climb up Midnight's huge body towards her face. She took it slow, as with each step, her hooves sank deeply into Midnight’s fat. She was also causing her to wobble. The impossibly obese mare was jiggling constantly, right up until the moment Salem reached her sunken face.

“Once you start this, there’s no stopping, are you sure you want this, Midnight?” she asked, adding a small cooe to her tone and gently waving her goop dripping tail as a tease in front of Midnight.

“Yuuushhh...burrrppp...I wanna be...huff...bigger.”

“How much bigger?”

“Jus’ bigger...mmmmmpph...always bigger.”

Several more months had passed since Midnight had greedily agreed to consume the goop from Salem, the reach new levels of fat never thought possible. It wasn’t just a diet of the goop, it was even more mountains of food. As much as she could eat. It had of course, taken its toll on her.

Midnight wasn’t even aware of how big she was anymore, just that she was constantly growing. Her weight had quadrupled. Now at over twenty five thousand pounds (over 12 tonnes) she was no longer able to fit inside the bakery, Salem having had to use an immense amount of magic on a large teleportation spell to move her out quite a while ago. The only thing that still identified Midnight as a pony was a few, hardly visible tufts of her tail sticking out from her flanks which each weighed several tonnes on their own. They each sported a stretched out, partially faded cutie mark which was trying its best to keep up with her ever expanding size but failing to do so. Her fat sleeves had completely consumed her hooves, the mare no longer even able to wiggle them, her body completely encased in her own fat blubbery prison. Her immense, supremely soft belly bed kept her comfortable as it growled to always be fed. Her face had almost completely vanished in fat, only a small hint of it peeked out from between her cheeks, multiple chins and endless neck rolls. Her back fat had finally started to roll over the top of her head, her impossibly large ass pushing it all forward as it also searched for more room. It was rather interesting that even with no what seemed like unlimited space to expand seeing as Midnight was out of the bakery, her body still fought with itself for more room.

Salem was now attending to her full time, making sure that the batpony had her eating needs met which had become her full time job. She circled Midnight, using her magic to manipulate ghostly summoned hands that she was using to feed her. The unending flow of food and goop to her mouth needing to be carried there by something. Like music to her ears, she was enjoying the churning concern of gurgles, glorps and endless blorps coming from Midnight's stuffed gut. The feeling of all that flab as she climbed the batpony as well was wonderful. With every step she took, she felt her hooves encased in needy blubber that screamed out for more food. Hooves sunk into wobbling flab, Midnight’s burbling digestion getting louder and louder as Salem leaned her incomparable weight onto the immensity of Midnight. She thought that at her size, Midnight must have thought Salem was but a fly landing on her to please her, but it was all the small Salem could do to give what passed as a belly rub these days. After some effort, which got harder each day due to the ever increasing size of Midnight, Salem finally managed to get to her sunken, bloated face.

“And how is my little taste tester doing today?” she asked, expecting the answer she always got.

“Shtill...uuffff...too...mmmmppphhh...shmall...BWWOOOOOOAAAARRRPPPPP!” came a laboured, but needy reply from within the fact folds.

“Well, we’ll have to do something about that.” Salem smiled, preparing for another day of feeding Midnight.