Textbook Troubles

The magical hum of the notebook was familiar to Sunset Shimmer, probably a little too familiar these days. Part of her missed when it sat, covered in a thin layer of dust at the bottom of her locker back at Canterlot High. Now it was always near her person, carried about in a book bag that ensured whenever she heard that familiar sound, she had no trouble opening it up and reading the message within. She hadn’t quite adopted the term “Equester-text” that Pinkie had come up one time within the school canteen, but it seemed about appropriate enough to describe the way the words magically appeared on the pages. Like a very slow message, sometimes Sunset could read it as it came in, knowing that Twilight Sparkle was on the other end writing to her at that very moment. These days she would mostly leave the book alone until she heard the magical hum fade, reading the message in full before deciding a course of action. Right now, she was alone in her room at home. She gave it a few minutes, but the magical scratching of pen on paper kept going on for longer than it usually did. Sunset couldn’t help herself. Whatever Twilight was writing was detailed - not usual for her but she had gotten better at making her point concisely in recent times.

Sunset opened the journal, which these days was getting fuller and fuller. With its magical properties however, new pages appeared readily once the thing was filled up. The old ones were still there and Sunset leafed through them as she tracked through up to the latest purple penmanship that told her Twilight was still writing in the book.

She flicked over and found Twilight had filled a couple of pages, the pink of the magical writing fading out as she made it to the spread where Twilight had been spilling her thoughts. Sunset was still undecided if a horn with levitation magic was faster than her hands. Generally at the speed the letters went down, the horn seemed to be the superior writing tool. She noted the magic fade where Twilight had signed her name, then began to read the message she had written.

Dear Sunset Shimmer

I wouldn’t be writing this message to you if it wasn’t urgent. We have a problem here in Equestria and I don’t know if there’s anypony else I can turn to. You’re uniquely positioned right now in that you’re unaffected, being in the human world. I am just hoping that even writing this message isn’t going to cause us problems. The magic is incredibly powerful, it seems to be affecting everypony across the Kingdom. Even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have succumbed to it.

The text in the writing was extremely ominous, as if Twilight didn’t want to reveal to Sunset what was causing all of this. So far she had talked about magic and a very powerful spell, extremely vaguely. Sunset took a good look at the letter itself, the words appeared quite normal on the magical page. She was reasonably sure the magic hadn’t seeped through into this world. Still she could never be quite sure and decided to err on the side of caution, reading the rest of the message at arms length. She carried on going, it must have been quite serious if the Princesses were affected as well.

Equestria has been taken over by an extremely powerful magic spell of an unknown source. We have sent messages to the Yaks, Dragons, Gryphons and as many other kingdoms as we can get in touch with. None claim responsibility, nor do they want to help in case they too become affected. It affects each pony differently, with some only seeming to contract it in a minor way while others seem to be much worse. I myself have contracted the magical spell with a middling effect on me. It is extremely curious and because I am also affected, I have managed to use myself as a subject to see if I can produce a cure. So far I have not been successful and Starlight has been of limited help. No tome in the school or my castle has anything about this. I was hoping you could provide a unique perspective, having studied under Celestia before I did. She suggested I contact you while she also works to find a solution to our big problem.

Please could you come through the portal to Equestria as soon as possible. I’ll make sure Spike or Starlight are nearby on the other side awaiting your arrival. If this carries on, life in Equestria will be changed forever. I am unsure yet if that would be a good thing, or bad.

Twilight Sparkle.

The letter ended there. What annoyed Sunset was Twilight usually came straight out with details and was not a pony to beat about the bush and be so darned vague. She reread everything a couple of times over just to make sure nothing was missing and that she hadn’t seen the obvious. All she could come to the conclusion was everypony had been affected to some degree with powerful magic, although it didn’t seem like it was something that was life threatening or harmful, but that it would do damage to the kingdom if it wasn’t fixed. It was oddly urgent and then also…not urgent at the same time. The only thing that really stuck out was Twilight had called it “our big problem”. She looked at the journal for a few more minutes in case more magical scratchings appeared on the page, but nothing did. Sunset put it away in her bag and started to get her shoes on. There was no real reason to wait, all the message had done was make her curious to find out what was going on. Getting up, she set off for the portal in the statue outside of Canterlot High. It wasn’t far.

-

It was the same each time, opening the journal was enough to pass through the portal. Sunset pulled it out of her bag and walked forward as she always did. Nobody else was around at this time of day, it was after school hours. She made sure however she was quick, just in case there happened to be eyes watching her from a distance.

There was a brief flash of white light, which quickly gave way to a technicolour tube of lights that flashed passed Sunset’s eyes so quickly she barely had time to take it all in. She was never sure at which point during the travel process her body switched from one to the other, but it was generally towards the end as she was somewhat flung out the portal on the side in Equestria where Twilight had constructed the machine to allow easy passage between worlds. Sunset felt herself skid across the floor, but not too far - she bumped into something quite big and soft. Perhaps after all the mishaps, Twilight had finally decided to put down some cushions to allow for a softer landing? She blinked her eyes, her vision had blurred during the quite rough process of leaving her world and arriving in Equestria, but rather swiftly her sight was restored. She felt a hoof grab at her own, pulling her upwards as Sunset had come in with a crash.

‘Ah Sunset, Twilight said you’d be coming.’ it was a familiar voice, as Sunset’s vision returned to normal, she recognised it to be from Starlight Glimmer. She blinked a few more times and shook her head, trying to focus on where the voice was coming from, which appeared to be - as best as she could tell - from the large cushion that had stopped her smacking into the opposite wall upon her arrival.

The thing was, the cushion appeared to be living.

In fact it was wobbling.

It was also the same colour as Starlight Glimmer.

‘Starlight?’ Sunset asked. Now that her vision was completely back to normal, she swore that she was looking at Starlight, but there was a very obvious difference about Twilight’s friend. She was for lack of a better description, absolutely gigantic. What Sunset had actually crashed into was the side of Starlight’s right flank, which appeared to still be wobbling slightly from the impact of an entire pony hitting the side of her. Her massive cutie mark seemed to be quite stretched to cover the pink of her body, which Sunset guessed was ten…no, twenty, or somewhere in between those numbers bigger than the last time she had seen the mare. Starlight was facing her dead on, with the hoof that had pulled Sunset up now firmly on the floor. Her forelegs were quite squishy looking, with blubber having firmly taken a hold of the entire of Starlight’s frame all over. It was most evident however on her face, her belly and her flanks. Her body had adopted a sort of forward arched pose as the widest past of her, which were her bulging flanks seemed to press upwards and forwards down on her back. Her stomach was somewhat squashed into the floor as her four legs failed to keep blubber from pressing outwards beneath her. This all seemed to culminate in Starlight’s face, which sat atop a neck that seemed now only to be there to give support to a blorpy face that looked at Sunset with an expectant sincerity. Sunset was amazed Starlight could even move under her own steam, but the pony quite easily turned herself sideways to face herself towards the exit of the room, waving a fattened hoof in the process to point Sunset forward.

‘The one and the same.’ Starlight answered the initial question, she had watched Sunset’s eyes dart about from one part of her body to the next. It was more than obvious she had been quite unprepared for everything that had been going on, had Twilight been vague in her call for Sunset to help? It wasn’t like her, but judging by the look on Sunset’s face, she had been. ‘Oh dear. Twilight didn’t tell you?’ she asked.

The journal said there was a big problem. I didn’t realise she was being literal.’ Sunset said, giving herself a brush from the landing and standing on her own four hooves, getting once more used to the sensation of doing so. It always caught her off guard the first time she arrived back in Equestria. She had however gotten quicker at getting used to it each time she arrived.

‘Oh yes, quite literal as you can see. I’m one of the luckier ponies as well.’ Starlight said, her gigantic body wobbling and swaying as she started to move herself forward to trot with Sunset as she led her to Twilight. ‘Twilight is…well, you’ll see.’

‘What about the others?’ Sunset asked as they moved through the castle. ‘Rainbow Dash, Applejack? Everypony else?’

‘I’ll let her explain. All of them are affected as I am, just to differing degrees. As you can imagine all magical efforts and others are focused on this…affliction.’ Starlight said, the words somewhat laboured as she struggled to walk and talk at the same time. ‘I’m just glad we’re in the palace of friendship with the wide hallways. There’s a lot of ponies stuck at home.’

‘Oh that’s terrible.’ Sunset replied.

‘Well until we or they decide to knock a wall down to get out, we’re doing all we can.’ Starlight said in a reassuring tone. ‘In any case, Twilight is in the library - she’s still pouring over books, for I believe the third time now. I’ve been over them all myself, none have any sort of reference to well…this!’ she emphasised her exasperation with a gentle press of the fat on her chest. It wobbled slightly in response to being disturbed. ‘Oh and congratulations.’

‘Congratulations?’ Sunset asked, confused, she didn’t know what Starlight was giving her some sort of award for.

‘You are by far the thinnest pony in Equestria.’ she said with a grin. ‘Let’s hope you don’t end up getting this as well.’

Starlight rolled her eyes. They were nearly at the library. She was curious what Twilight had to tell her.

-

The library was a flurry of books being levitated around, with odd tomes and singular journals being magically floated around Twilight, who was in the middle of the library space, quite exasperated. Starlight was quite used to this sort of behaviour from her, Sunset stared at the totally focused Twilight, who hadn’t even noticed the pair of them entering the room despite the fact Starlight had opened the large double doors rather loudly. Twilight appeared to be muttering to herself, Sunset could hear her making dismissive sounds and saying the odd ‘No!’ now and again as she pushed another book away from her face to scan the next one that she brought in via her levitation magic.

Twilight was, at a guess, four or five hundred pounds bigger than Starlight. Her body retained a similar shape which was interesting to Sunset. She didn’t think ponies could really become this obese, but clearly their bodies reacted to it in a similar way for each one. The rough physical shape and posture was the same in Twilight. The flanks took priority with the vast majority of weight in each pendulous cheek, that rose roughly twice the height of the pony above and behind their head and back. The fattened back legs seemed to provide about half the support for it all, while the rest of the fat was propped up by a belly which seemed to give enough surface area spread on the floor to mean the front hooves could still be used to move and get at objects, although just about. Twilight looked as if she was a few meals away from her belly rising so high off the floor she would lose any form of mobility she had left entirely, save for perhaps being able to shuffle herself forward or use her monstrously big butt as a sort of pendulum to propel herself forwards. Sunset decided to greet her directly, a subtle cough or the like probably wouldn’t pull her away from the books.

‘Princess Twilight?’ Sunset said.

The chunky face of Twilight turned, seemingly with some effort to face Sunset. Her eyes lit up seeing the unicorn stood there. She’d have leaned in for a hug, but she would probably have ended up flattening the poor thing under her obscenely huge stomach.

‘Sunset! You came!’ Twilight said, moving all the books she had away and finishing up her spell.

‘You wrote to me not long ago, it sounded serious. I can see it is very serious.’ Sunset said, looking at Twilight, then Starlight. ‘You’re so…fat.’ Sunset came out with it, she thought it best not to try to dress it up.

‘Yes I am. Before you accuse me of too many hamburgers, this wasn’t a case of overindulgence.’ Twilight said, her expression changing to be rather flat. ‘We woke up like this a few days ago, didn’t we Starlight?’

‘Yup. You, me and the entire kingdom. Went to be thin as a rake on Wednesday, woke up the size of a house on Thursday. Most of us because the bed we were sleeping on gave way under our new size.’ Starlight said, rolling her eyes. ‘The carpenters will have enough work for months.’

‘Your letter was oddly vague.’ Sunset said.

‘Because we’re all still trying to figure out what has caused this. Equestria has somewhat come to a grinding halt because nopony can get any work done.’ Twilight explained. ‘Sorry for the lack of information before your arrival, I just needed you here.’

‘Understandable, considering what has happened.’

‘Well, I’m hoping you can help us get all this reversed. I can’t be a blob forever.’ Twilight said with a slight snort. ‘As helpful as this would be on cold winter nights to save on the heating costs.’ she paused for a moment. ‘As I said in my writing in the journal. We have no leads, none have claimed responsibility and none of the books in the castle are of any use. I have been in communication with Princess Celestia and Luna in Canterlot, they are having little to no luck as well.’

‘Hmm.’ Sunset said. It was a puzzler, a sudden overnight magical surge that affected everypony. Almost like it was an epidemic of some kind. There would have to be a cause or reason for it, things like this didn’t just happen randomly. To Sunset, there seemed to her, to be a course of action to take that might not have occurred to Twilight or Starlight. ‘You’re not having any luck with the books. Have either of you ventured outside the castle since this happened?’

‘Only to see what was going on in Ponyville.’ Starlight said. ‘We know from Celestia the entire kingdom is affected, we just wanted to see if it had taken hold of Ponyville also, which it has.’

‘I think we need to get out of the library and talk to ponies in town, see if there’s a common link somewhere beyond what has happened to you two. Books will only take you so far, or nowhere in this case.’ Sunset said. ‘We’ve got to talk to those affected and see if we can find anything else out. Not just me alone, even though I might still have the best mobility. Starlight can look after the library, Twilight - can you teleport?’ she asked, she didn’t want to put strain on Twilight by asking her to move far. To be quite honest, it looked like if Twilight tried to move herself even more than a few feet she’d be panting and sweating from the sheer effort of moving all her weight.

‘Yes, just short hops though. It’s a lot of effort to move…all of me.’ she said with a somewhat embarrassed grin.

‘Good enough. You and me can head into town. Let’s get some answers.’ Sunset said. ‘Meet me outside.’

-

Ponyville looked as picturesque to Sunset as ever. It was a rather pleasant day with sunshine providing a warm and pleasant heat.

It was the inhabitants who weren’t looking quite the same. At least those of them which were actually out and about. The town itself was oddly quiet, she suspected due to what she’d been told about many of them being unable to leave their homes. Pegasi and earth ponies were probably the most stuck, some of the unicorns could probably teleport like Twilight - but not all of them possessed magic to that tune. Any that were seemingly outside were the size of Starlight or smaller. Twilight, who was now using her levitation magic to move herself around rather than teleport short distances, was definitely the biggest of anypony in Sunset’s sight. What seemed to be happening was those that could still make their way outside and move around were mostly hauling carts of supplies to give to those stuck inside their homes. It was something Sunset knew the ponies of Equestria did well, to pull together when desperate times required it. Each one she looked at seemed to be making the best of it, although she could tell quite a few of them just weren’t used to hauling not only the food around, but their own hefty bodies.

‘We organised this right after the epidemic hit.’ Twilight explained, who had parked herself next to Sunset. ‘This is the new norm.’

‘We better talk to somepony. Is Pinkie in Sugarcube Corner?’ Sunset asked.

‘She is, stuck inside the bakery. I think actually she’s gotten quite a bit larger since this all began.’ Twilight explained, putting a fattened hoof to her chin as if thinking. ‘No, she definitely is.’

‘Was she one of the worst affected?’ Sunset asked.

‘No, she’s just the size of a small house and now with nopony coming by to buy the baked goods, somepony has to eat them before they go bad.’ Twilight explained. Sunset looked unamused.

‘Couldn’t have given them to the townsfolk?’

‘Sugar laden snacks to already obese ponies? Are you quite alright Sunset?’ Twilight asked with all sincerity.

‘No, but is anypony?’ Sunset asked back. Twilight didn’t answer. ‘I think let’s start with Pinkie, seeing as she’s a friend of ours.’

Sunset had no problem getting inside the bakery, Twilight however had to teleport in so as not to do any damage. She appeared next to Sunset, wheezing quite heavily as if the magic had winded her. After a few moments, she appeared to get her breath back. The interior of Sugar Cube corner was a large space, it had to accommodate not only a large bakers counter but also a seating area for the customers. Pinkie Pie was taking up most of the space.

‘Hey Twilight! Hey Sunset!’ she appeared completely unphased at the appearance of both, her hooves rooting around in a fat fold for something. ‘Now where did it…ah!’ she exclaimed, pulling a rather large cookie out and quickly devouring it as fast as she seemed to be able to chew. ‘Delicious! Got another whole tray here, want one?’ Pinkie offered them forward, placing the tray on one of her massive gelatinous rolls of blubber. Pinkie was definitely the biggest that Sunset had seen yet, she was Twilight’s size and then quite a bit more. Her back hooves wiggled happily in the sea of wobbling blubber that had made her quite immobile. Her stomach lifted her off the floor quite a number of hooves high, no doubt the diet of only bakery food hadn’t helped that. Sunset had spent too long looking, Pinkie prompting her for an answer. ‘Sunset?’

‘Oh uh, no thanks.’ Sunset waved a hoof dismissively. Twilight had taken a couple of the cookies while she wasn’t paying attention, only realising when she heard munching coming from the large purple pony. ‘Twilight told me everything that has happened, unfortunately, she and Starlight have hit a bit of a wall in terms of finding things out from books. What happened to you?’

‘Oh easy!’ Pinkie said, tipping the tray of cookies up and sliding them down her throat. It was quite impressive to watch, as if she had made a temporary conveyor belt of food for her to scarf down. Pinkie kept talking through chewing, which made her words somewhat muffled. ‘I wentsh to bedsh and wokesh upsh likesh this!’ she explained, then swallowed, returning her words to normal. She then pointed a flabby hoof at the roof, there was a large hole slightly smaller than she was. ‘Unfortunately, the bakery is an old building - couldn’t support little old me and my hugggeee belly!’ she said with a slight snort of laughter. She then appeared to be hunting around for the next snack. ‘Then I heard it had happened to everypony! No customers right? So I thought I better make sure all these lovely treats don’t go to waste!’ she exclaimed, pulling out another tray of food. This one appeared to have donuts on. ‘Want one?’ Pinkie asked, at least she was polite. Her manners didn’t seem to have been affected. Sunset once more just waved away the tray, with Twilight again taking a couple.

‘Right.’ Sunset just said. ‘This is what Twilight told me. You didn’t notice anything strange, or feel anything odd happen during the night?’

‘Can’t say that I did!’ Pinkie replied quite happily, tipping the tray of donuts into her mouth. ‘Wentsh to bedsh thinsh, woke upsh fatsh!’ her cheeks bulged as she chewed, with them slowly detracting until all the donuts were swallowed. ‘Sorry if you were hoping for more.’

‘We’re just talking to ponies. Figured I’d start with you.’ Sunset said. ‘Really? Nothing?’

‘Hmmm.’ Pinkie stopped eating to search her brain. ‘It’s affected everypony in Equestria, not just Ponyville - so it’s gotta be powerful right?’ Pinkie said. ‘You’ve got powerful magic, Sunset - can’t you use yours to like, I dunno, undo it?’

Sunset thought about the suggestion. Perhaps she was going down the wrong path trying to figure out what had caused it, that really didn’t matter now and it wasn’t going to reverse the damage it had done. Pinkie was right, they should be focusing their efforts on solving the problem and getting life back to normal as quickly as possible. Not chasing ghosts. She thought it was probably worth talking to a few more of the ponies in town first, perhaps also checking in on Applejack and Rarity, but Sunset figured she might have a solution. ‘Maybe, thanks Pinkie.’ Sunset finished.

‘No problem! Twilight, want a few treats before you go? Otherwise I’m gonna eat them all!’ Pinkie laughed. Twilight levitated herself forward, taking a few things that were offered up. Sunset looked rather bemused.

‘I’m helping her out, okay!?’ Twilight tried to say in defence, Sunset just raised an eyebrow.

‘Sure. Can we go talk to Rarity next?’

-

They had spent most of the day going around the town, Twilight looked absolutely exhausted having to keep her magic going to propel her about. They had spoken to both Applejack and Rarity, with Rarity already having begun work on a new line of clothes for bigger ponies. Applejack was quite happily making use of the added bulk by easily knocking the apples out of the trees in the farm orchard. ‘Ah wanna take advantage of this while ah can.’ she had explained. Both however had answered Sunset in nearly the same way as Pinkie had, that they had simply woken up this way and nopony knew why. They were just making the best of their situation.

‘Well.’ Sunset said, walking back into the castle and Twilight appearing beside her. She wheezed heavily once more, thankfully though this would be one of the last movements for her of this scale for the day. ‘I think we’re going to have to take a trip to Canterlot.’

‘I take it…huff…to see Celestia and Luna.’ Twilight asked.

‘Precisely. Pinkie was right. We can’t figure out the cause, so let’s work on a cure.’ Sunset said. They were now back in the library, Twilight teleporting into the same spot where Sunset had first seen her. Starlight was nearby, seemingly shelving some books. Sunset hadn’t seen Spike yet, she didn’t think it worth asking about him. ‘I like Pinkie’s optimism, but my magic isn’t nearly powerful enough. Combined with you, Celestia and Luna however…’

‘Well, it’s a better idea than anypony has had so far.’ Twilight said. ‘I’ll send a letter saying that we are on the way. Spike!’

As expected, Twilight’s faithful dragon companion appeared a few minutes later. Funnily, he looked absolutely normal. Completely unaffected by the epidemic he came running in, holding a quill and parchment. He said a quick hello to Sunset, taking the letter down and then leaving again as quickly as he had entered. He didn’t seem very keen to stick around.

‘I think he’s worried he’ll get this if he’s near us for too long, he’s mostly locked himself in his room.’ Twilight said. ‘I can’t blame him.’

‘Indeed.’ Sunset replied. ‘I’ll see what we can do about transport, maybe we can strap you down to a flat car on a train or something…’ Sunset said, Twilight going rosy red at the idea. ‘I mean uh…’ Sunset carried on, trying to save face. ‘Let’s worry about getting there later.’ she yawned, it had been a long day and she definitely could use some rest. The sun was starting to set as per her namesake. Twilight didn’t need prompting to offer her a spot to sleep.

‘The castle guest bedrooms are empty, pick whichever you like.’ Twilight said, she seemed to be getting a second wind now she was planted in one spot. ‘I’m going to spend a bit more time searching through the books again. I’ll see you in the morning.’ Sunset smiled and left, leaving Twilight to her research.

She found a suitable guest room quite quickly, on the upper floors. It looked down over the town. Sunset could still observe ponies even as the sun faded moving about. The pace of them getting around was obviously quite slow. She didn’t really envy them. It was all very…curious to say the least. Twilight’s books, the usual source of all knowledge, had absolutely nothing on this. It was clearly new magic - generally if it went wrong and was cast by a powerful magic wielder, it went wrong big time - no pun intended of course. Perhaps one of the Princesses, maybe even Twilight, had been experimenting and didn’t want to admit this was the cause of one of their errant spell casts. Still, as she had already concluded, there was no point dwelling on it. She was fairly certain pooling the resources of at least three Princesses plus herself would be sufficient enough magic to send a large reversal spell throughout Equestria. They’d just have to work together to figure that part out. Celestia was very wise and well learned, she’d surely be able to help. Sunset just didn’t like the idea that she too appeared to be looking for a solution and was coming up short. Four heads were better than two? She supposed? She yawned again, this time quite loudly. Clearly her tiredness was getting the better of her.

Sunset shut her eyes and started to drift off to sleep. By the morning hopefully they’d have an answer and be looking to travel to Canterlot.

-

A couple of days had passed since Twilight’s letter had been sent. The Princesses had replied quite quickly in the morning, agreeing it was a good idea for them all to meet in Canterlot. Trains for obvious reasons, were not running, so Celestia had sent some of her more unaffected guards with a large carriage to transport Twilight to the castle. Due to their size, it had taken a day to arrive, it then took a day to get Twilight to Canterlot on the return trip. Progress was slow. All Sunset could be thankful for was at least the guards and their added bulk meant that they had little difficulty hauling the hefty Princess, it just wasn’t the speediest.

They arrived at the castle to little fanfare. Sunset observed on their travels through the city to get to it they had mostly instituted a similar policy of food delivery to what was going on in Ponyville. She was sure she saw a few of the aristocrat ponies hauling carts, probably much to their chagrin.

Twilight had to teleport herself off the carriage and to the top of the castle steps. From there she could levitate herself inside. Thankfully, Canterlot Castle was built with the idea of having to receive large delegations of ponies all at once. This meant the extra wide doors and large hallways were also quite big enough to accommodate her as they moved through the palace to where the two royal sisters were working. Kibitz had met them at the door and currently, talking as they made their way along the grand corridors. He himself was quite large, but definitely one of the lesser affected ponies - he was able to move himself with much more ease.

‘They have both been quite entrenched in their work, as I am sure you have been Princess Twilight.’ Kibitz said, pulling his pocket watch out of his long red coat and looking briefly at the time. ‘I believe this is the…’

‘Third or fourth time they’ve looked over all their books?’ Sunset interjected.

‘Er, yes.’ Kibitz furrowed his brow. ‘But the letter you sent perked their spirits up, they seem quite hopeful for a solution once you have spoken.’

‘Hmmm, I wonder.’ Sunset said to herself.

‘Wonder what?’ Twilight asked her.

‘Princess Celestia was always…larger, I mean in height and size than most ponies. Luna also, just not quite as much. I wonder what sort of effect the epidemic has had on them both.’

‘You can see for yourself. Here we are.’ Kibitz said. He opened the large doors, Sunset recognised the entrance. It was Canterlot Castle’s quite well known royal library. It made the one back in Ponyville look quite small by comparison, most knowledge was centered here and preserved in the library. She was quite surprised nothing had yet turned up here, even with going over the many volumes it contained several times. Sunset had been here many times herself in the past, the shelves still looked the same as ever. Clearly though, they had been disturbed and the volumes they held not put back in proper order. She could already see Twilight quite beside herself, having to put aside the urge to start organising it all. They were here for a different reason.

Celestia and Luna were situated in a spot where the shelves converged, it was clearly not enough space. Several shelves around them were hastily pushed up against others to move them away to make more room for the two, who were at present, having an argument.

‘Move!’

‘You move!’

‘I’m larger than you, Luna - if you can’t move, how am I supposed to?’

‘Well perhaps if you cleared a few more shelves sister, we’d have ample space.’

‘And why can’t you do that?’

‘Because I cannot see them, they are behind your bulbous body somewhere. Otherwise I would!’

Their sisterly squabbling came to a halt with a cough from Kibitz. ‘Ahem, Princess Celestia and Luna. Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have arrived from Ponyville.’ he said. He rolled his eyes and leaned close to Sunset. ‘They have not stopped arguing for days. Perhaps you can both talk some sense into them.’ he said quietly. This also possibly explained the lack of progress. Sunset was aware the two of them didn’t always see eye to eye.

Princess Celestia’s remark that she was larger than Luna certainly held ground. It did seem that the bigger the pony was originally, the worse they were affected by all this. Twilight was very big, but Celestia was practically a small mountain on her own. Her fat and blubber was nothing short of putting being called “voluptuous” to shame. Her body shape and form resembled Twilight’s, just…bigger, everywhere. Her flanks practically brushed the high set roof as she wobbled them, either on purpose or they were just doing it due to her immensity. The large sun cutie mark on her flanks on its own was nearly the size of Twilight. There was so much white cellulite that it took a moment for Sunset to notice most of it was pressed up against the dark blue of Luna, which probably explained the argument they were having when she had arrived. Luna was smaller, but still far larger than Twilight. A somewhat middle ground between purple and white, it seemed the blue of Luna was having a hard time contesting the space each had made for themselves in the library. Sunset stared at the fat rolls of each princess as they came into contact, sloshing around like waves in an ocean slapping up against each other. Rising and falling with each small motion the pair made. It was oddly hypnotic in a way, Sunset had to draw her attention away from staring so she could focus on speaking properly to both of them. Everywhere she looked though, there was an immense amount of fat, even on their faces.

‘As far as I understand since I arrived, you’ve all been looking for a way to reverse this so everypony is back to normal. I think you might be looking for the wrong solution. What we need is a way to fix this right? Not undo the spell, or whatever caused all this - but put out magic strong enough to put everypony back to normal.’ Sunset explained.

‘Yes, you said as much in the letter. We’ve been looking for a spell that would do such a thing.’ Celestia replied.

‘Just not having much luck. It’s not as simple as getting four powerful magic users together. We need the right spell to channel through us so that we can perform it correctly.’ Luna followed up. ‘I wonder…’

‘No Luna, we’ve talked about that.’ Celestia replied, she suddenly looked quite stern.

‘Why are we wasting time Celestia poking through these old dusty tomes that a first year magic user could understand when we both know the real answer is in the archives. That’s where all the proper magic is.’

‘Yes, and by proper magic you mean magic that can cause just as many problems as it creates. There is a reason those books are there, Luna.’ Celestia said, her massive body jiggling as she spoke. Even the act of speaking seemed to cause her to shake. ‘We must find a solution here.’

Luna just rolled her eyes. Sunset suddenly had a thought. ‘Twilight, can you assist the Princesses? I need to ask Kibitz to fetch some luggage from the carriage.’

‘At once miss…’ Kibitz stopped, watching as Sunset motioned to him. He was quite adept at getting the gist of a wordless request. ‘Sunset, please follow me.’ they walked out of the library, Kibitz coming to a stop far enough away down the connecting corridor so they weren’t overheard. ‘I sensed you wanted to speak privately.’

‘I need to get into the archives.’ Sunset said. ‘Luna is right, I used to look at books in there. They’re wasting their time going through those books.’

‘But it would be…’ Kibitz started to protest. Sunset stopping him.

‘I know, against the rules. Kibitz if you don’t let me in, I’m getting in there anyway. I used to sneak in there all the time back when I was Celestia’s student.’

Kibitz paused to think about it, he clearly didn’t like it. ‘Very well, but this is because you’re trying to help this time. No funny business.’ he stated. ‘They will notice you’re gone.’

‘Let me in and buy me some time, who knows. They were arguing enough when we arrived, with Twilight there they’ll likely be quite enough of them to keep each other occupied. If they ask where I am, just tell them I was tired and went for a nap.’

‘Highly convincing.’ Kibitz said with a tone of sarcasm. ‘Follow me.’

-

The archives were quite similar to the last time Sunset had been here. She was after one particular spot however. While the archives had shelves stacked with books, she knew the real prize would be in the Starswirl the Bearded wing. It was where all the real magic was kept. The powerful stuff that only the highest authority in the kingdom should ever have access to or utilise. So naturally, she was the right pony for the job.

She absolutely wasn’t of course, but it didn’t seem like Celestia was going to budge from her ruling. Not that she had much choice, Sunset wondered if her levitation magic was even powerful enough to lift her. She hadn’t questioned how she and Luna had gotten to the library.

In any case, Sunset began to look through the tomes on the shelves. They were all ornate in one way or another, the bindings and designs on them were elaborate to keep the magic in them tied to the pages. It had been discovered quite some time ago that there was a connection to how a tome looked and its ability to store powerful magic. Sunset never understood it herself.

Eventually she pulled one off the shelves that as she leafed through the pages, seemed to hold a spell that would most likely give them the result they required. It was an old book, with a purple and silver lining that made it look quite regal. The parchment inside was quite thick and written in a form of ponish that looked old, but could still be understood by modern speakers. The spell described what she had thought about before they had come to the castle. It suggested the steps to channel magic from powerful magic users into another one to send a spell over the kingdom, which was perfect. There was just one problem as Sunset read down the page.

The pony who is the conduit for the spell must be the most powerful magic user of them all, to contain the wild magic and prevent surges. If this is not the case, they are likely to succumb or absorb the magic of the channelers in some form. Results of this vary wildly, caution must be taken by the casters and the conduit.

It was a fair warning. Sunset was reformed now, she’d figure out with the Princesses who was best to be the “conduit” the spell described. She couldn’t suggest herself now, could she. The spell specifically said not to, strange side effects. It would be terrible if she absorbed the effects of a huge fattening spell from Celestia, Luna and Twilight…

She wiped a small bead of sweat from her brow and shook the thought out of her mind. For now, she’d return with the tome to the three of them. She’d have to fess up of course she’d been somewhere Celestia had told everypony was not to be looked into, but she wouldn’t be able to argue with results.

-

‘I’ve found something.’

Sunset had returned to the library. Twilight, Celestia and Luna in the time she was gone seemed to have turned the place upside down even moreso. She was sure there wasn’t this many books strewn about the floor when she was here only an hour ago. She noted a few were stuck in various folds of fat of the princesses. Hopefully they weren’t too damaged.

‘In bed? I thought you went for a nap.’ Luna asked quite innocently.

‘No, I went to the Starswirl the Bearded wing. Celestia I know you said…’

‘No? Well, I thought you might.’ Celestia paused, it was a look that told Sunset she was about to get a lecture. Instead, all Celestia did was breathe out quite heavily through her snout and close her eyes for a moment, before reopening them. ‘What have you found?’

Sunset put the book down in the middle of the trio and opened it to the page she had come across, pointing to the spell. ‘See, we just need another powerful magic user. It specifies three casters and one to act as the conduit. You three are the casters and can channel the epidemic reversal through the magic of the spell as you’re all afflicted. We just need another powerful magic user who isn’t afflicted as they’ll act as the conduit for everypony to be made well, back to normal.’ Sunset explained, smiling.

Princess Celestia however nodded, then looked quite concerned. ‘Except like us, all the powerful magic users in Equestria have been afflicted, Sunset. There are none we can use as the conduit.’

‘Unless…’ Sunset started to say, she figured she’d at least see what their reaction was. ‘I am a powerful magic user. I may not be an alicorn, but I am quite sure I could act as the conduit. You know my magic is powerful, Celestia.’

‘True, but look.’ Celestia said, she magically lifted the tome closer to one of her fattened hooves, pointing to the part of the page that warned about whoever was to be the conduit. ‘The most powerful magic user, that suggests it should be me. But we can’t exactly channel a thinning spell through the fattest pony here, can we?’ she said metaphorically. Then there was a great sigh. ‘I am against it, what do you two think?’ she asked Luna and Twilight.

‘I think Sunset is more than capable.’ Luna said. That made one vote for and one against, just leaving Twilight, who looked at Sunset.

‘There was nothing else in the Starswirl the Bearded wing?’ she simply asked.

‘Not that could solve this problem.’ Sunset replied. She knew most of the books there anyway, she had been specifically looking for this one - she had come across it before, but never had gotten an opportunity to use the spell due to the multiple pony requirement to cast it.

‘I think…we have to try.’ Twilight said. ‘There isn’t a reversal spell of this magnitude. We’ve been looking for days. Equestria can’t keep up these emergency measures forever. We need a solution sooner rather than later.’

There was a great pause from Celestia, she was clearly thinking hard about all of this. She was outvoted however, which was something she couldn’t deny. She knew the wisdom from her two former pupils and her sister.

‘Kibitz, prepare the main banquet hall. Not for dinner, clear the space and let us know when it is empty. Then we can teleport there.’ Celestia said.

‘Of course.’ Kibitz replied, leaving the room. It left the four of them alone.

‘I don’t like it.’ Celestia said. ‘But I don’t think we have any other option here. I hope you know what you’re doing Sunset.’

Sunset wasn’t exactly sure what she was doing, but in time, they’d find out.

-

The banquet hall had been cleared of all furniture. The large space, usually looking quite busy, was rather roomy without any of the tables and chairs it usually hosted for guests. That was of course, until the three huge princesses teleported in and easily made it look small again. Sunset Shimmer watched the trio maneuver themselves to gather around the book and understand the spell and ensure their magic worked as intended. Sunset gave them all plenty of time to read and then reread the spell a few times over. Twilight was a stickler for details, she herself seemed to want to be absolutely sure. More so even than Celestia who had the most misgivings about doing this.

‘It is not a complicated spell, just highly magic intensive.’ Celestia said. ‘We will likely have to put all our effort and concentration just to make it work. Once this begins, we’re unlikely to be able to stop it. Not unless something goes terribly wrong.’

‘Sunset - you’re still sure about this?’ Twilight asked.

‘As much as I can be.’ Sunset lied, she of course, wasn’t sure. Maybe then her phrasing wasn’t a lie. ‘Perhaps we should do this before I change my mind.’ she bluffed.

‘Indeed.’ Twilight replied. The three princesses took their positions in the room. The spell called for the three of them to be placed at forty five degree intervals around the conduit. Celestia, Luna and Twilight positioned themselves as far back from Sunset as they could, before their huge bodies were going to start pressing into and likely damaging the masonry of the walls. Sunset suddenly felt quite small in the very centre of the room, with the three of them a good distance from where she was standing. The mare spread her hooves somewhat wide to try to give herself a better grip on the stone floor, waiting for the spell to start channeling through her.

‘I will begin the cast. Twilight, Luna, follow my lead.’ Celestia said. She uttered some words that Sunset couldn’t quite make out, but her horn glowed brightly. Then it became brighter, much more than Sunset had ever seen it get before. The intensity of the magic within her stirred, her eyes a fully bright white after a blink, pupils gone as the magic began to take over. A beam of light shot forth from her horn, darting across the room and with a quiet zap! hitting Sunset. A few seconds later, the same came from Twilight and Luna. They both exhibited the same thing, brilliant white eyes and their magic shone with a brilliance Sunset had never seen. Their bodies were, for a change, planted quite firmly on the tile flooring. Their usually wobbling rears and bellies now tensed up with the power of the magic flowing through them.

Sunset was hit quite quickly with the ferocity of the spell. It didn’t burn, more had a warmth to it that meant she had no issue passing it through herself and blasting the magic from her own horn upwards and outwards. It would pass through the roof of the room as if it didn’t exist, covering Equestria as the three princesses continued to cast. Sunset directed the magic as best she thought she could, but then she felt something. She had only been concentrating on the spell now it was flowing through her body. She wasn’t actually paying attention to her body closely.

What she had felt was her stomach, it had made contact with the floor within a few moments of the spell being cast. Having spread herself wide to steady her body, she had not felt it straight away, but now flesh was starting to press against flesh and looking down, Sunset watched as her slender stomach began to fill with the magical blubber of three princesses, all directed at her. She would have shouted out to stop it, but as Celestia said, they likely were so consumed by the cast they never would have heard her. Clearly not being an Alicorn, Sunset wasn’t able to redirect the flow of magic fast enough over the kingdom, despite her assurances. All she could really do now was manage the influx of magic as best she could and hope that by the time it was all over, she wasn’t the size of a small mountain…

The magic only seemed to be accelerating, Sunset felt herself and her body morphing and changing second by second as she began to grow quite rapidly. There was a light gurgle from her stomach, as if she was hungry. She felt it continue to push out from beneath her, quickly making her legs rather useless as they were lifted like pointless stumps off the floor and sank into her squishy stomach. Her flanks absolutely ballooned, feeling like heavy orbs of jiggling flesh, she could do little but wobble them around as she continued to fall victim to the mass injection of magic that poured her way. She didn’t even know if her cast across Equestria was actually doing anything, she had absolutely no way of knowing. She assumed once she saw Kibitz again she’d have an answer soon enough.

Fat rolls quickly gave way to even more fat rolls, which they themselves were piled on top of with more blubber. Sunset struggled to compare, but she was filling the room at a rapid pace, already reaching Twilight’s size as she felt the sides of her head and ears begin to brush up against a neck that was filling out with copious amounts of fatty flesh at a rate she had no idea was even possible. The sensation was indescribable, enhanced by the magic her mind was wrapped around the spell. All she could hear in her head was a voice that kept shouting “More, more! This isn’t even a taste of what you could be! There must be more!”

She felt her body tip forward slightly, her stomach beginning to weigh heavily on the tiled floor that could take a great deal of weight but was starting to give. Cracks were starting to form as she tilted forward slightly first, then back, the weight of her impossibly bulbous rear giving substantially more heft for the floor to attempt to put up with. Sunset tried to flick her tail, but only felt it brush up against flesh that resembled jelly, firmly sunk into the monstrous rear that was growing abnormally huge.

She had now surpassed the size of Luna and was quickly catching up, and going to overtake Celestia. Sunset felt her hooves begin to squish around fat from her stomach and bloated legs, her legs now resembling tyres more than what had once been quite shapely sticks. She had no mobility whatsoever, even too fat now to use her hooves to wobble her own body around. She had to put some effort into doing it which was laborious even to attempt. It was no wonder Twilight had been wheezing so much, Sunset felt her tongue lolling out of her mouth as the build up of magic needed some sort of release, which she was only too happy to oblige.

‘BBBBWWWWWwwwaaaaRRRRrrrppppppppPPPPP!!!’

Sunset felt as if she had eaten several banquets worth of meals, but it was a magical release that echoed throughout the room. It pierced the air and ruptured the stillness of it, causing Twilight to blink and for a mere moment, redirect her focus of casting from herself to Sunset.

‘O-Ohhhh, C-Celestia!’ Twilight shouted. She was looking at a mass of yellow flesh the likes of which she had never laid eyes on. Sunset was bigger than all three of the princesses combined, her huge mass of blorpy blubber had filled what space there was left in the room and was threatening to start to press into the three of them. Twilight tried shouting, but Celestia wasn’t paying attention to words. She only really had one option which was to break the cast and get the attention of her mentor that way. The spell, though, required a natural conclusion. They all knew this, it had been mentioned quite specifically in the book - breaking off early would have dire consequences. Did she risk it? Or did she hope that everything was nearly over and Sunset would just have to…well, take it.

She decided the latter was preferable, she didn’t want to end up hurting Sunset should a break in the cast cause a problem. Twilight stopped her protests and continued to channel, hoping it would be over soon.

The flow of magic was mightily strong. Sunset felt it surging through her flesh as it still continued to add pounds and pounds of meaty blubber to her frame. Her body, now almost hardly recognisable as a pony apart from the rough shape of her massive figure, was hardly able to keep itself still, as fat slapped against fat with the spell showing no signs of slowing down. Sunset wanted it to keep going forever, to keep getting bigger and bigger until she was lost in a sea of flesh that could overtake a mountain. Suddenly however, she felt nothing.

The spell had shut off, the natural conclusion was a quick and short judder from Celestia as the cast reached a quick end and natural conclusion. The princesses blinked a few times between them, their eyes returned to normal as did their vision. There was silence for a moment, the quiet only punctuated by a cracking noise as another tile under Sunset gave way to her bulk pressing down heavily on it.

Sunset had reached a size only describable by many thousands of pounds. She must have been over thirty easily, perhaps even verging on forty? No scale would be able to give an accurate representation without instantly being crushed under the weight it was trying to measure. She was a representation of near impossible obesity in its finest form, a belly that seemed to stretch out near endlessly in front of her, a shifting rear that now not only brushed but somewhat wedged itself into the vaulted ceiling above her. Her whole body could easily have rivalled a large estate of one of the richer ponies in Canterlot for size, and crushed it under her bulk with ease.

‘Oh my.’ Celestia said, she blushed slightly. ‘She’s quite a bit bigger than I am.’

‘That’s your first thought? Pst.’ Luna said quite dismissively. ‘Sunset? Are you alright?’

‘I’m…urrpp…f-fine…’ Sunset managed to sputter through her fattened cheeks. Her vision had been reduced somewhat, Her fat neck had formed up around her head and meant she had to crane her head forward to be able to see below her, most of her vision blocked by a large wobbling gut that covered a huge amount of the room. She could just about see Twilight, quite buried in the book trying to figure out what had happened to her.

‘Oh. Uh…’ Twilight started to say, then she pointed one of her fattened hooves to some of the writing further down the page. Celestia magically levitated it over to her head so she could see what Twilight was pointing at. She just nodded, passing it to Luna for her to read as well.

‘Well, there’s only one way to find out. Kibitz?’ Celestia called out. From the large double doors, Kibitz entered the room. He seemed to be his old self, his body now that of a slender if slightly aged pony rather than the massive fat stallion he had been just a few hours ago. ‘I take it you suddenly became quite thin.’ Celestia asked him.

Kibitz smiled, which was rare for him - it was even harder to make out under the tick moustache but it was certainly there. ‘Indeed! It was rather warm and tingly actually. The blubber vanished off my body in an instant! I…oh goodness.’ he stopped speaking, seeing the weighty Sunset in front of him. ‘Did she?..’

‘Indeed, I think Sunset has taken on all the weight of the ponies in Equestria.’ Celestia said. ‘That’s what you’re checking, right Twilight?’

‘Y-Yes…’ Twilight stuttered herself. ‘She hasn’t just absorbed the magic from all three of us, she’s absorbed the fat from all the ponies of the kingdom.’ Twilight said, quite exasperated.

‘Which explains why we’re all still gigantic, but Kibitz here is once more as fit as a fiddle.’ Luna said. ‘I didn’t know ponies could store so much blubber, quite frankly.’

‘Magic can do a lot of things, Luna.’ Celestia affirmed.

‘I know, I can see that quite plainly in front of us.’ Luna replied. ‘Sunset, we’ll figure out a way to return you to normal.’ she said, watching as Twilight flipped through the pages looking for some sort of spell that might get Sunset back to her old self. After a few moments of frantic flicking, she reached the last page and turned it over, closing the cover.

‘There isn’t a way, at least not in this book.’

‘I suppose another visit to the Starswirl the Bearded wing is in order then…’ Luna started to say. Before she could finish however, there was a fattened grunt from Sunset.

‘No…I, am fine.’ she wheezed, the toll of speaking with so much fat on her taking its toll.

‘You don’t sound fine.’ Celestia said.

‘I mean I feel…good.’ Sunset simply said, she didn’t have it in her to give a long and detailed explanation about it. She just did, she felt a feeling that told her this was nice. She had done a great thing for the kingdom, she felt like she could have kept going - but the spell had to stop somewhere. She wasn’t going to convince the three of them that this was actually a nice feeling, she wondered if any of them felt it themselves. Though she was sure they’d never actually admit it. She could only state how she felt and see if they’d simply believe her.

‘Good…’ Twilight parroted.

‘She’s been through a lot.’ Celestia said. ‘As have we all, I think for now it is best we attend to her and sort out Equestria, get things back to normal. We can figure out a way to fix this fully soon, but four large ponies is better than a whole population of them.’ Celestia finished, there was a coldness to the logic, but it got Twilight and Luna to agree with her. Celestia leaned her huge body down a little to speak to Kibitz. ‘Ask the castle staff to get her whatever she needs, I suspect before long she’ll be wanting a meal.’

‘Of course.’

‘I think also a lot of the largest cushions we have…the tiles won’t take much more without some sort of padding.’

‘Right.’ Kibitz confirmed. He left the trio alone. Celestia and Luna exchanged a few more words with Twilight, who was now left alone with Sunset as the two sisters teleported themselves out the room to attend to other matters.

‘Sunset?’

‘Mmmm?’

‘We’ll make you quite comfortable. A small contingent of staff have been assigned to you. Its been a long day. I think rest is best.’

‘Agreed.’ Sunset left, Twilight teleported herself out the room as well, leaving Sunset alone. It was…bliss, a warmth and feeling that she had never experienced before in her life. She didn’t really want them to find a solution if she was being honest. The idea of spending her time here in the castle, being pampered and fed as much as she could dream of was really quite an enticing thought.

Perhaps when Twilight or the royal sisters returned with a solution for her, she’d quite politely refuse. In the meantime, Sunset’s thoughts started to drift to parades, giant banquets in her honour, ponies lining up to thank her and bring her sweet treats and gifts.

It only made her want to stay like this forever.