Blue Ambrosia never really enjoyed her time in the office. It was often stuffy and far too hot, she had reached a time in her life where windows mostly remained open due to her hot flashes that came and went. Ambrosia never liked to think of herself as an “older mare” but not only was her biology a constant reminder, but well, things ponies said as well. It was rather hard to escape it with so many interactions on a daily basis.
Ambrosia was the head of Uplift Milkshakes, part of the wider Uplift brand that encompassed gyms, gym equipment and other items related to weight gain run by her daughter Felicity and her friend Mags. Ambrosia mentally laughed, it was correct indeed, gyms and weight gain normally didn’t really go together but Ambrosia was a special mare who had passed her gifts to her daughter.
Originally it had started out with just the shakes which was a business Ambrosia had been running for quite some time. Felicity was quite the smart girl, one day a conversation about what she wanted to do with her life had strayed into odd ideas and the gym had come up. At first, it didn’t fit at all, but Felicity had tentatively suggested a gym that promoted weight gain, instead of weight loss. The shakes were a big factor, with Ambrosia originally only selling them out of a small local store the gyms had gone global, with her shakes going with them. She herself simply couldn’t take care of everything anymore like she used to, now it was a giant company employing hundreds of ponies. As much as she hated to admit it as well, she was old - she needed the help to keep going like she did. As much as she disliked the office, it was only really mentally taxing and not physically so.
Not that Ambrosia was in great physical shape to begin with. The shakes she made were all…interesting to say the least. You had to be creative to make a drink that caused weight to rapidly be piled on. The first shake had taken years to perfect, but once that was right and being sold, she began to focus on others and figuring out what she could do. Over the years she had built up quite the repertoire of shakes. The ones that added blubber did it in different ways, around the belly, or more towards the hips for others. Then there were the ones that caused inflation, ponies who enjoyed becoming large blimps for a period were repeat customers. A great seller was the Float Your Boat. Each of them had interesting names that Ambrosia had spent hours agonising over, eventually settling on something that represented what the drink did and was often at least a little funny. To the end of all this however, her figure was definitely on the larger side. Having two daughters hadn’t helped, but she definitely was a big girl - to put it bluntly.
In any case, the office was getting rather stuffy again - she was working late. Glancing out the window, street lights and other forms of unnatural lighting filled the roads outside the building. Most employees had gone home at this point besides a few of the night owls. She figured she'd stretch her legs and take a look around before heading off herself. She pushed her paperwork aside and left it for tomorrow her to deal with.
The large factory was an unfortunately necessary blot on the landscape to even deal with the production needed to keep all the gyms supplied. It sat on the lower plains outside of Canterlot. Close enough to the city it wasn’t too far to get there for anything required or to get home, but far enough away it didn’t bother the wealthy residents. It also housed all the research and development for the shakes. Prior to this Ambrosia had a small lab back at home which had…caught fire on several occasions. She sighed, she somewhat missed just being alone, experimenting with different mixes of liquids to see what she could come up with. Of course she did not miss being singed however. Another reason why she moved it away from the city and out of her own house, as well as passing her skills to and hiring ponies who wanted to work on such things. She had a small team of researchers who she trusted implicitly. For Ambrosia, back when she began doing all this, it was something she had stumbled across quite by accident but quickly came to love. The ponies that worked for her didn’t need to stumble anywhere, but they loved the work and showed an aptitude for creativity - which was a key part of making new and exciting milkshakes.
She walked along a large gangway that took her over the main production area, glancing down at it as she did so. Production had stopped for the night so nopony was around, large conveyors and machines below her were mostly silent apart from the odd one humming away on low power. Clean up had been done, ready for more tomorrow. She passed through a set of double doors which took her down some stairs and then to the research and development area. A wall panel and a few doors barred her entry, which was quickly overcome by tapping in the correct code at the door - causing it to open. The lab was like the production area, very quiet. The lights however were still on and a small portion of the machines were in use. One pony occupied the room.
‘Working the graveyard shift, Joy Ride?’ Ambrosia asked as she entered the room. Joy Ride looked up from his work, pressing his glaces further up the bridge of his snout to get a better focus on Ambrosia.
‘Lost in ideas again, as per usual.’ he responded. ‘I think I might have something though, look at this!’ he exclaimed, waving Ambrosia over to one of the machines. He then pointed to a bubbling liquid inside, it was a light yellow in colour.
‘I hate to ask, but what is it?’ Ambrosia said. Usually she was reasonably good at identifying what the lab was working on, but this one had her baffled. The consistency wasn’t right for a shake, the liquid inside looked more like one of those silly putty toys that younger ponies played with. It definitely veered on the more solid side.
‘A custard drink! You heat it up and the liquid becomes more well, liquidy.’ Joy Ride explained. ‘Warming for winter days!’
‘How quaint.’ Ambrosia grinned rather wickedly. ‘Come on, what’s the kicker?’
‘...Absolutely gigantic boobs.’ Joy Ride paused, he sensed Ambrosia wanted him to go on. ‘I mean we’re talking you literally can’t see where you’re going anymore they’re so big - block your vision. The drink gives your body reinforcement in the form of fat to support them, plus they weigh practically nothing.’
Ambrosia gave a small laugh. ‘Wonderful. Sounds like a best seller already. What about if a stallion drinks it though?’ she asked.
‘Same thing, doesn’t really matter which sex has it.’
‘Of course. This one your doing?’
‘Mostly, but I had a lot of help and input from the others. We’re a team.’
‘Right, how is the team?’ Ambrosia asked. It had been a couple of weeks since she had last found time to come down to the lab. It was another late night and she had only found Joy Ride and another pony, Ham Hock, working that evening. There were several others she hadn’t seen for a few months now. She kept trying to make a point to get down here but her busy schedule just prevented it, it was slightly annoying.
‘Good, we’ve got a few projects in the works. This has been the main focus though. We’re just trying to work out some kinks.’
‘Joy, we’re making drinks that are all about kinks.’ Ambrosia said with a dry smile. She liked to catch Joy Ride off guard sometimes, he could be rather serious. This time though, he laughed as he picked up on the joke.
‘Right, right - well, stability is the key. Unfortunately you know, generally you have two boobs. Right now in about half the tests only one boob gets bigger, so you end up looking pretty odd.’ he explained.
‘Mmmm, can’t be selling it on a one breast inflation - unless we permanently mark it as fifty percent off.’ Ambrosia laughed.
‘Well, best not.’ Joy Ride chuckled. ‘In any case, we’re pretty close to a fix. Should be ready to go in a week or two.
‘Good good, how’s the other thing?’ Ambrosia asked. She looked around, it was just her and Joy Ride - still when discussing sensitive subjects, it paid to be a little wary at least.
‘Ah, the other thing.’ he replied, giving a wink. ‘Still in the early stages. We’ve had some luck with the shake doing what you specified. It’s just ah, as I put it earlier…’
‘Kinks?’
‘Kinks.’ Joy Ride said. ‘There’s a lot going on with this one. The amount of alterations to the body you asked for is more than normal. We’re just trying really hard to make sure it’s stable.’ he explained.
‘Well, that’s what you’re here for, as well as to make some of the craziest milkshakes ever to grace this world.’ Ambrosia smiled. ‘When you think it’s stable enough, I’d like to try this one personally.’ she said. ‘I know, I know - stick to the office. I’d like to have some fun with the business I run once in a while though.’
‘You’re the boss, boss.’ Joy Ride replied. He moved himself over to a small sealed compartment in the wall, tapping at a keypad to gain access to the interior. ‘Just because of the nature of it we’ve got a smaller team working on it. Try to limit any issues and just have a small focused group putting it together. Anyway it’s…’ Joy Ride stopped, there was a slight quiver in his voice. ‘The vial.’ was all he said.
‘The vial?’ Ambrosia asked. ‘What vial?’
‘Project MILFshake - this is where we were keeping the vials. There were six total, all in various stages of ironing out the er…kinks. They’re not here.’ he said, rooting around the inside of the small compartment as if he was suddenly going to find them hidden somewhere. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Stolen?’ Ambrosia asked.
‘It would seem that way. I’ve been here all day though. All the team was in today. We had some ponies leave and enter with deliveries - but that compartment was accessed several times by a few members of the team. I just…’ he paused for a moment, searching in his mind. ‘I can’t think who would have taken them and when. I was so lost in my work that I wasn’t paying attention.’ he confessed. ‘Oh gosh, if anypony gets those shakes, even the small amount in the vials, they’ll…’
‘Uncontrollably expand like a heavily pregnant mare, I assume.’ Ambrosia said quite calmly. ‘You managed to get all those motherly traits packed in I hope. Huge hips, fat breasts, a giant belly to simulate a pregnancy?’
‘Well, yes - a “really big one” as you asked for!’ Joy Ride exclaimed. ‘That was the part we were struggling to get right, just how big ponies were getting drinking the shake. I can tell you very early testing was giving results on the uh…larger side.’
‘I did ask for that.’
‘No no, you don’t understand - too large. There’s a point where it’s pleasing, right? You want to get the balance right, like I said earlier. We hadn’t got there yet. We were just trying to get it to do what you wanted, then work on that. We had just gotten there today!’ he said.
‘Right, so you’re telling me somepony from this lab has six experimental shakes that are going to cause them - if they choose to drink them - to simulate a pregnancy so large they’ll basically be grounded.’
‘Er…maybe? We only managed one test.’ Joy Ride started rubbing his forehead. ‘I don’t know, in all honesty. To be quite frank anything could happen.’ Ambrosia could tell the stallion was panicking quite heavily. She decided to try to comfort him by putting an arm around him.
‘Look, relax. It’s not your fault. Pack your things up and go home and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll start to see if there’s any signs somepony here might have sold them on, or even drunk them themselves. Alright?’ she said. ‘Get some rest.’
‘Alright…’ Joy Ride started to put his things away, clearly defeated but listening to the advice of his boss seemed like the best thing right now. She walked with him out of the lab, outside the building and past the small security post which was occupied. The pony inside wished them both goodnight.
‘This situation will resolve in time. I take it, you've still got the notes?’ Ambrosia asked as they walked, the path ahead of them split. Ambrosia took a different route home to Joy Ride.
‘Yes, yes - we can recreate what we had. It will just add time.’
‘Well then, no problem. Hopefully we can recover what was lost and put this all behind us. Tomorrow you’ll wonder what you were so worried about.’ Ambrosia said with another smile, giving Joy Ride the best reassurance she could.
‘I hope so. Goodnight Ambrosia.’ Joy Ride said, wandering home.
Ambrosia was more worried than annoyed, it meant somepony in her lab was a thief - more than that, they were taking concoctions they knew weren’t stable. For what purpose? Were they just unable to wait themselves and wanted to, well, get big? Her lab staff signed agreements not to do anything like this. Ambrosia was rather determined to get to the bottom of this and find out where the vials went.
If the effects of the shakes were anything to go by, she’d find out soon enough.
-
Ambrosia didn’t sleep too well that night, she kept turning over in her mind who might have stolen the experimental shake mixture. She woke up tired, having gotten no more than a couple of hours of shut eye.
She got up and decided to make a coffee to wake herself up and then head out. It was a Saturday so even the boss got the day off. She didn’t particularly have any plans this weekend, Felicity and Blue were away - if they were around she would have met up with them. Still, it was rare to have time to herself. She’d take a walk around Canterlot perhaps, once she had her coffee and had woken up a bit. As it brewed, the smell of it being ready hit her nostrils and she poured herself a cup. Ambrosia sat herself at the table in her house and drank, the slight creak of the chair under her hips a reminder that she wasn’t the lightest mare. The chair seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when she got up to head out. She grabbed a coat and scarf, it was towards the end of the year and there was a chill in their air. Even blubber only kept you so warm.
There were a few ponies around. Ambrosia looked at her watch, just about nine in the morning. Stores were just opening up for the day and she thought she’d head herself towards the centre of the city. That was generally where most ponies tended to mill around or shop if they were so inclined.
She couldn’t help but think about the MILFshake vials that had been stolen. Her mind had been wondering all night what the perpetrator might have done with them. Taken them themselves? Sold them on? Heck they might have even been a mischief maker and given the liquid to others, either directly or covertly adding it to a drink they were sipping. Despite the name, the liquid hadn’t yet gone into milkshake form - it was still a concentrated amount in a vial, to up potency for testing purposes. She knew the lab and how it worked, they’d then distil it down once they had figured out the right things. As she rounded a corner, she saw a few mares standing talking. One was in the opened doorway of what looked like her home, with two friends outside who were looking at her quite aghast. Ambrosia slowed down, twitching an ear to pick up on the conversation they were having as she inspected the mare talking in the doorway.
‘I just…I dunno, it happened overnight!’ the mare in the doorway exclaimed. Her two friends seemed concerned, it was obvious to Ambrosia as to why. Her figure was exactly what the MILFshake was made to do. She had extremely huge hips, massive breasts that rested above an even bigger stomach that sported quite a large outie belly button. One of her friends touched it, seemingly quite in awe.
‘I mean, you didn’t go home with any guys…’ the one who was touching the belly button.
‘Flow, please - this wouldn’t happen overnight.’ the mare in the doorway seemed to sigh as she replied. By now Ambrosia had stopped and was quite obviously staring. The next words of ‘Excuse me, what are you looking at?’ didn’t come as a surprise to her.
‘Sorry - you say this happened to you overnight?’ Ambrosia asked. ‘Where were you yesterday?’
‘None of your damn business lady.’ the mare said. ‘I’ll talk to you later girls, when randos on the street aren’t listening.’ the mare said, shutting the door in not only Ambrosia’s face but her friends. The two of them seemed unphased.
‘Psst, typical of her. Rude.’ one said.
‘Whatever. Let’s go.’ the other one said. Ambrosia let them go, she knocked on the door - hoping the mare inside would open up. Thankfully, she did.
‘I already said it’s none of your damn business.’ the mare said, going to close the door again.
‘Please - I need to know how this happened to you.’ Ambrosia managed to say before the door was shut completely. The mare inside opened it a bit, raising an eyebrow.
‘Why?’
‘It’s just…important. Were you in a public space?’
‘Yeah, Club B.I.G - I didn’t know it was literal though!’ the mare exclaimed, giving her large hips a wobble. ‘You know the place?’
‘Actually - no.’ Ambrosia replied. ‘Believe it or not, I don’t go clubbing.’
‘Yeah, it doesn't look like your scene.’ the mare replied. It made Ambrosia frown, another reminder of her age. ‘There were tons of ponies there. I had a few drinks at the bar, somepony must have slipped me something!’ it seemed like an obvious enough conclusion. The thing was, if this one pony had been given the experimental mixture, it was likely many others had been as well. At least Ambrosia was right in one of her guesses, that the thief was a bit of a mischief maker and had distributed the concentrated mix around town. Thankfully, that precluded any other options - at least for the time being.
‘Where is it?’
‘Down Trottingham Street off the main square, hard to miss.’
‘Thanks.’ Ambrosia said, she turned to go.
‘Hey, lady!’ the mare yelled as Ambrosia walked away. ‘You know something about this then?’ she said, pointing to her largely pregnant belly.
‘Oh, no - just curious.’ Ambrosia said. She watched the mare roll her eyes and shut the door. She didn’t need to know.
The plan was to make her way to the club and talk to some of the staff who were probably still around cleaning up from last night. Perhaps they’d be able to tell her what had happened. With a name like Club B.I.G - it seemed fitting that the vials would be distributed there, the clientele would be getting big alright…
As Ambrosia walked on however she passed more ponies who were up and about. A number were…well, huge. They all exhibited the same traits, those massive swaying hips. Giant breasts that most seemed to be unable to find any clothing big enough to cover - even if they did, the most obvious thing was the belly, varying in size from each mare that she spotted. One that she saw seemed to have taken to the mixture more than others, she was surrounded by quite a few ponies, barely able to move herself. Her stomach was so large it was grounding her on the floor, with her massive ass the only real thing providing a counterweight. Ambrosia was impressed she had actually managed to make it out onto the street. It seemed like it had been a struggle however, behind her the doorway to her house was quite obviously demolished. The chatter from everypony she passed that had been afflicted though was the same thing, they all pulled on a common string - that they had been at Club B.I.G the night before. It gave Ambrosia more drive to seek it out.
She headed down Trottingham Street as instructed, as the mare she had been speaking to said, it would have been hard to miss. The club was the largest building on the road, in fact it looked quite out of place. It was styled to fit in with the rest of the buildings around Canterlot, however the size of it just made it look totally wrong for the area. Nopony was around, the few stores on this street were quiet. Ambrosia spotted one stallion, sweeping the street outside of the club and generally tidying up. Seemed like they had a bit of a wild night yesterday, as Ambrosia approached the stallion could be heard grumbling.
‘...Damn girls, always drinking too much…’ the stallion said as he swept. He stopped, looking up at Ambrosia. ‘Oh Celestia, look we’ve already had enough complaints. Go inside and talk to the management - I’m just here to clean up.’
‘Sorry? What are you inferring?’
‘Oh come on lady, the hips, the stomach? It happened to you as well.’
Ambrosia crossed her arms, she was a few words from hitting the guy over the head. ‘My what?’ she said. She watched as the colour drained from his face, clearly realising the error.
‘I uh…well! Look, go inside and talk to Rocky. I can’t say no more.’ the stallion said, putting his head down and starting to sweep away from Ambrosia. She decided not to pester him any further and just headed inside, looking for Rocky.
The club glitzy, with the Canterlot clientele they clearly tried to make it look expensive. Ambrosia assumed it probably wasn’t just that it looked expensive, the price of ten bits at the bar for even the cheapest drink confirmed her suspicions. A few other ponies were around working inside, when she told them who she was looking for, they pointed her up some stairs to the side of the dance floor. There appeared to be an office at the top, with a very angry mare blocking the doorway. Ambrosia had to wait on the stairs as the shouting match unfolded before her.
‘You ain’t heard the last of this!’ the mare angrily shouted. It was another one affected by the MILFshake - not the largest but certainly on the heftier side. She was wearing a pair of pants that barely covered much more than half her butt, with a top that she kept having to pull down on to cover anything at all. Forget about keeping her stomach hidden, the large belly that wobbled and swayed as she shouted wasn’t being covered up by anything, even a bedsheet at this stage.
‘Yeah yeah, look lady - we ain’t responsible! What, you think I like pissing my clients off for fun! It’ll probably wear off, just some prankster with a spell.’ came a dismissive voice from inside - Ambrosia assumed this was Rocky.
‘It better, or I’ll be back!’ the mare yelled, she slammed the door shut and turned to go back down the stairs, seeing Ambrosia. ‘You got off light.’ she quipped as she waddled her way past, Ambrosia had to push herself up against the railing to let the mare go by. She decided not to respond, the mare already seemed quite upset and a rebuttal would just make things worse. She went up and knocked on the door. From inside came a rather grizzled ‘Whhaaaaat!?’ as Rocky shouted back at her. Ambrosia let herself in.
The office was extremely well…ugly. Cheap art and overly tacky furniture adorned the room. The colours of gold and a deep red seemed to try to mimic royalty, but just came off looking like a cheap knock-off. A couple of chairs were opposite the desk, big enough for Ambrosia but clearly not for the mares that had been calling at the club this morning, each had their arms snapped off. Ambrosia spotted them hastily shoved in the corner of the room.
Before her sat Rocky, a mare who made the term “butch” look like it needed to man up. She was wearing a sleeveless vest which had a rather large and obviously fake gold chain covering some of it, hung around Rocky’s neck. The large desk the mare sat at prohibited seeing much more of her clothing. She had a crooked grin, looking at Ambrosia she sighed. ‘Well, at least you ain’t another one. All I’ve had are mares this morning wanting to know why they’re suddenly heavily pregnant, as if I’d know!’ Rocky lamented. ‘Getting sick of it. Anyhow, what can I do for ya?’
‘Tell me everything you know about last night.’ Ambrosia asked. ‘I’ll be straight with you. I run Uplift Milkshakes. One of our experimental mixes has found its way to your club and been distributed among your customers. Big hips, large stomach - it’s meant to simulate a phantom pregnancy.’ Ambrosia explained. ‘Am I assuming you’ve heard of what we do?’
‘Na, I’ve heard.’ Rocky said, leaning back in her chair. ‘We don’t allow your drinks in here, they cause problems. Evident by the mare you saw leaving my office.’
‘Then you probably want to get to the bottom of this as much as me.’
‘Obviously. Look, my guys and girls are good at what they do. Everypony is searched at the door, we check for anything they shouldn’t have. All the clients last night were clean, which means your drink got in here some other way.’ Rocky said. ‘Look I’m telling you stuff, how about you tell me some things? Maybe we can help each other.’
‘Alright…’ Ambrosia paused, she had to be careful not to give away absolutely everything. She’d sugar coat things a bit. ‘We found out last night one of our employees had stolen the mixture, which wasn’t quite finished. I’ve been coming across mares like the one you had in your office all day in Canterlot. The mix seems to be spent, I’m just trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
‘Right, also cute - she couldn’t get in my office, too big - just stood shouting at me from the door.’ Rocky rolled their eyes. ‘Anyways, like I said, my staff are good. However…’ Rocky paused. ‘The guy that works the bar? Ain’t my staff, at least not at the moment. Temp guy, my usual one has been off sick for a while. Seems like the obvious place to distribute from, no? We checked him of course but, perhaps last night something slipped the net.’ Rocky passed over a small card. ‘You’ll find him here.’
Ambrosia inspected the card. It was quite plain, it had a name, Twin Jet and then contact details, listing a few pieces of information about their bartending experience. Ambrosia got up. ‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t mention it, I don’t want this happening in my club again.’ Rocky said. ‘Talk to em, see what they gotta say.’
Ambrosia decided to leave Rocky in peace, as she came down the stairs, it seemed another mare - larger than the last one was waiting at the bottom. She was far too wide to fit herself up the stairway, her stomach bulged out a few feet wider than the rails on both sides.
‘Rocky up there?’ she asked, looking quite angry.
‘No, just speaking to her secretary. She went out.’
‘For Celestia’s sake. I got a bone to pick with her!’ the mare said.
‘I can tell, excuse me.’ Ambrosia left, quickly departing. Finally she had gotten a quip in her way for once.
-
The address for Twin Jet was a fair walk, they lived in an apartment block over the other side of town. The morning was moving on and more ponies were appearing. It seemed the MILFshake epidemic was becoming much more obvious the more ponies were starting to wake up to find themselves at quite the size. It seemed if it was Twin Jet who had given the mixture out, they had split it beyond the six original vials, likely to make more mares fall under the effects of it. Ambrosia was going to have quite the conversation with them when she found this bartender. She hadn’t heard the name before, not an employee who worked in the lab at least. They must have been passed it by somepony else.
Ambrosia entered the large central square of Canterlot, it was a fine place full of eateries and high end shops. She looked around as she crossed, there were quite a few mares of well…added size, they must have all been at Club B.I.G last night. Their imposition didn’t seem to stop them going on with their day. At least, most of them.
One, Ambrosia observed, was having some trouble getting into one of the stores. She was quite young, so definitely a club goer. Clearly however also pampered. Two helpers in her employ were quite frantically pushing on her flanks trying to squeeze her massive stomach through the door of the store so she could get inside. It was quite the spectacle, a fair few ponies had stopped to watch this going on - Ambrosia included.
‘Heave damn you!’
‘We’re trying Mrs Opulence!’ came the reply from one of the helpers.
‘Well, HEAVE harder!’ she commanded. The pushing wasn’t doing much good, so one of them took a few steps back and charged with some speed at her behind. There was a crunching of wood as her belly became more embedded in the doorframe, not getting through it as it seemed she hoped it would. A shrill voice came from one of the store workers.
‘Mrs Opulence please! We can simply bring the tarts out to you!’
‘No! I come in here every day, this BELLY isn’t stopping me today!’ she yelled back, there was more crunching and cracking as the wooden frame started to give way, unable to hold back the tide of stomach pressing against it. ‘I will pay for the damages!’
There were a few more moments of shoving, wobbling and wiggling. Even under the rather elegant dress this pony was wearing, Ambrosia could see her massively overblown rear wobbling up and down as she moved herself around. Finally, the mare made it inside.
CCCRRRUNCH!
The remains of the door frame finally decided it was going to give way to the huge, heaving belly that was fighting it. With her arms pumping the air triumphantly, Mrs Opulence - huffing and puffing no less - turned to the staff. ‘Two tarts and well, the additional bill for your door frame.’ she said quite calmly. Ambrosia just snorted, shaking her head before moving on. She was sure it wasn’t the last she’d see of ponies under the effects of the shake struggling about town.
Before she made it to Twin Jet’s place, she came across two mares arguing, amusingly, over who was bigger (to Ambrosia both looked about the same, but she wasn’t going to get involved). She was quite perplexed that as of yet she hadn’t come across any stallions, perhaps it was a girls club. That was until a few moments later when she spied the figure of one through the window of a house - he was just staring into a mirror, wondering what to do with himself it seemed. It wasn’t every day you grew breasts.
One mare was quite wedged in the doorway to her house, although unlike the rich pony in the square, wasn’t trying to get out. She was simply talking to a friend, asking if she could run some errands because very obviously, she wasn’t up to it.
Finally she observed one simply sitting on a park bench, seemingly quite relaxed and just letting her stomach flop out as she waited for the effects to go away. Ambrosia had a small thought that releasing this into the public like this might be a better way of field testing new shakes rather than having employees do it. She quickly dismissed the thought however, it wouldn’t be very safe. Besides, they’d trace it back to her, who else was making these sorts of drinks?
She finally arrived at Twin Jet’s place, finding their address on the small list of occupants by the door. There was a buzzer, which she pushed.
‘Yo, who’s after me?’ came the quite relaxed reply.
‘Got a delivery for Twin Jet.’ Ambrosia lied, she wasn’t going to tell him who she was, he’d never come to the door if he was complicit.
‘Awesome, be right there.’ there was a click as Twin Jet hung up on the other end, with footsteps becoming audible on the other side of the entrance. Twin Jet opened the door, Ambrosia quickly positioned her foot so if he tried to shut it, he couldn’t.
‘Ah crud, not today lady!’ Twin Jet shouted, Ambrosia however used her bulk to her advantage, shoving her way inside and looming above the startled stallion, who she had knocked to the floor in her haste to barge inside the foyer.
‘Yes today, actually. Get up.’ she commanded, Twin Jet doing so rather sheepishly. ‘You know why I’m here, or you wouldn’t have tried to slam the door in my face.’
‘Alright, alright. Well, you can’t have the vials back.’ Twin Jet said.
‘Obviously, half of Canterlot looks pregnant. I watched a mare so desperate for some quality tarts from a store in the square she destroyed half their shop frontage.’ Ambrosia said. ‘I don’t know you, but how did you get my experimental elixir? You were passing out at Club B.I.G, no?’ Ambrosia said quite accusingly.
‘Yeah, but I didn’t steal a damn thing. They were given to me. I was to just let it loose and the pony who asked me to do it said I’d be paid pretty well. Still haven’t got my money.’ Twin Jet moped.
Ambrosia suddenly had a thought, Twin Jet didn’t seem well…super bright. She wondered if she could easily play up to him, he’d accidentally spill the information she sought.
‘Oh you weren’t paid? Well I can sort that out.’ Ambrosia lied.
‘Really? That would be awesome. Joy Ride said to avoid a blue mare if they came knocking, but I guess today is my lucky day.’
Ambrosia narrowed her eyes. ‘Joy Ride, you said?’
‘Yeah yeah, he gave me the stuff. Told me just to distribute it to randoms at the club. Mixed it up into drinks.’ Twin Jet said. ‘...So, you can get me my money?’
‘Yes, don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back.’
‘Killer, thanks lady.’ was all the stallion said. He left the foyer and returned to his apartment.
Ambrosia left as quickly as she could, slamming the open door to the apartment complex behind her. She had one place she knew she wanted to go.
Joy Ride.
-
BANG
BANG
BANG
The sound of frenzied knocking punctuated the air, Joy Ride’s house was slightly outside the city limits. Ambrosia had jogged as quickly as she could to get there. Running was slightly out of the question, she was only capable of so much. ‘JOY RIDE! OPEN UP!’ she yelled. She wondered if he was even home. ‘I’m not going anywhere, so you may as well let me in! We can talk about this!’ Ambrosia said. She had known Joy Ride for a long time, perhaps appealing to his civil side would help.
Eventually, the door opened. There he was, oddly, still in the same clothing he was wearing when he had left the lab with Ambrosia yesterday. It didn’t actually look like he had gone to bed. ‘Ambrosia. I wish I could say this was an unexpected visit. Come in.’ he waved her inside. Joy Ride’s house was quite small, there were bits and bobs everywhere that Ambrosia didn’t really care to try to start identifying. She had only been here once or twice before, not stopping very long. It was the first time she had really come inside and taken a seat. ‘Tea?’ Joy Ride asked, Ambrosia simply waved away dismissively to say no thank you. Joy Ride took a seat near her.
‘You know you led me on quite the chase over Canterlot. Although it really wasn’t very hard to follow the trail.’ Ambrosia said. ‘Your little bartender friend spilled the beans without much convincing. Should have paid him.’
‘I was going to pay him later today, stupid idiot - couldn’t wait.’ Joy Ride shook his head. ‘He told you it was me, I take it.’
‘Reasonably directly. Just took a bit of coercion.’ Ambrosia said.
‘Huh, and I even told him to watch out for you.’
‘He said.’
‘Right.’ Joy Ride said. ‘Well now I’m fired, why should I tell you anything? We may as well drag it out across some sort of lawsuit in which you’ll ruin me, not that I have very much to ruin. It’ll cost you more in fees than you’ll get out of it.’
‘Who says you’re fired?’ Ambrosia replied.
‘You don’t need to say it. Come on Ambrosia, I stole the unfinished mixture. You want to know why? Well too bad.’ Joy Ride almost looked like he was about to sulk. ‘Like I said, why should I tell you anything?’
‘You’re right. You don’t have to tell me anything. But, we’ve been friends for such a long time, Joy Ride. You really think I’m going to make this easier for you if you’re all tight lipped and silent? I’d drag out a lawsuit just to get the truth, even if it cost me every bit I had.’ Ambrosia said. ‘So, let’s do this the easy way.’
She watched as Joy Ride considered his options in his head. Finally he rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. The honest reason? I was bored. That’s right. Bored. Bored of doing the same tests, the same refinements, the same stuff. Ambrosia wants another type of milkshake? Oh - this one has to make a pony inflate themselves as big as a skyscraper. Right, yes, totally. This isn’t absolutely insane.’ Joy Ride said, almost spitting the final words. ‘And I sit here and tell you I was bored of it. The insanity - it became drudgery. So I thought why not spice things up, let’s do a little test of our latest thing on the general population, cause a bit of a stir. See what would happen. Like you, earlier today I was out and about - didn’t go to bed actually. I wanted to see what would happen to ponies bright and early. So there, I wish I had a better answer for you Ambrosia, but I don’t. That’s the truth. I just wanted a little bit of variety.’ he stopped talking and folded his arms, it was followed by quite a defiant frown, he waited to see what Ambrosia would say.
‘Really? Boredom. Celestia’s sake Joy Ride, if you were bored why didn’t you come and talk to me?’ Ambrosia asked.
‘What, tell my boss who has us making probably some of the most interesting milkshakes in the world that I was bored? Do you know how insane that would sound? You’d have laughed me out of your office.’
‘Oh please Joy Ride, I’m not a child. I’d have taken you quite seriously. You didn’t need to resort to this.’ Ambrosia huffed. ‘You were lucky all it did was put ponies in comical situations, at least from what I saw. For goodness sake, we could have figured something out at work that didn’t involve an elaborate scheme to get it into public circulation.’
‘Well, that was fun for me too.’ Joy Ride said quite frankly. ‘It was fun.’
‘Fun.’
‘That’s right, fun.’
Ambrosia sat thinking for a minute. This wasn’t some insane scheme, although the methodology was a little mad. She looked around at Joy Ride’s house. There were tells here and there that he clearly wasn’t having the best time of it right now. Perhaps if she had visited more, or paid more attention to her employees she’d have spotted this sooner. It might have been prevented. In any case, she spoke. ‘You’re not fired.’
‘What.’
‘I said you’re not fired. However, you are going to take a leave of absence for a while. When did you last have a holiday?’ Ambrosia asked.
‘I er…holiday?’ Joy Ride seemed baffled. ‘I don’t think I have…’
‘You need one, clearly. I also want you to talk to a therapist. You can worry about that after you’ve had a break. If you do these things, you can come back - although I’ll be keeping an eye on you.’
‘Right er…thank you?’ Joy Ride seemed to say. It was an outcome he clearly wasn’t expecting to happen. He probably thought he was going to be arrested.
‘Don’t mention it, if this comes back to us - we’ll say it was an accident.’ Ambrosia said. ‘Besides…some of the observable effects were quite good. I think you and the team are nearly there with this one.’
‘Hmm, well. I won’t be doing it again, but thank you Ambrosia, for at least giving me a second chance.’ Joy Ride said, getting up to let her out the door.
‘Just please, relax and when you’re ready to come back, we can talk.’ Ambrosia finished, saying her goodbyes. ‘Now, I need some sleep.’
‘Me too, see you Ambrosia.’ and with that, Joy Ride closed the door, leaving Ambrosia standing outside.
She rubbed her eyes. It was rather silly, all this because he was bored? For Celestia’s sake, she had to make sure on Monday nopony else was going to go around releasing one of her experimental shakes because they were bored as well. Perhaps tighter controls on access to lab samples…er…sheesh. Her brain started to stop, the tiredness was taking over.
She turned to head back to her own place, but before she went directly there, she’d just make a small detour through the most populated parts of Canterlot. She was reasonably sure there would still be lots of ponies she could er, observe.
