The bigger it got, the more attention he was getting. It was getting hard to avoid it now.

Red had reached nearly 5000 pounds since the annual feasting session. He knew Ivory loved it, he loved it himself - but he had to know why so much of whatever he gained went straight into his flank. He had even seen a doctor about it. It had been a brief visit.

“I wish I had some sort of better explanation for you Red, but it’s just how your biology works. You have a makeup that sends most of your blubber back there. Usually it affects mares more than stallions and generally not to the degree it has had on you either. If you don’t like it, you can just stop gaining.” had been the diagnosis.

Well that was happening anytime soon. It wasn’t like it bothered the stallion, he just wanted to know why. At least now he had a why, he could gain more weight in confidence. Besides, he wanted to be nice and big for his marefriend.

The relationship with Ivory was going well, really well actually. Red wasn’t used to mares giving him so much attention. Usually it was for all the wrong reasons. But Ivory seemed to love that her stallion had more junk in the trunk than she did. Every date they had been on had involved a lot of eating. She seemed determined to plump him up. At one point after a particularly fun session after a meal she had asked him a question.

“Red, you ever heard of feeders and feedees?”

He had gone to his usual embarrassed self when anything vaguely sexual came up, ignoring the fact that she had just been spending a lot of time back there. “T-think so?” was all he could manage. Ivory had gone on to explain.

“Well it’s a relationship where one enjoys making the other gain. I think I’ve somewhat started the process off already by giving you big meals every time you come over. Also you were a heck of a size when we met anyway. Why not just make it official?” she had asked.

“Official? How so?” he had replied.

“Well next time we climb into bed, I’ll bring a big pile of food. How does that sound? Each time we have a little fun, you get to gain some weight. Wanna meet more often?” she had said with quiet giggle and slight grin. “Say a few times a week now? I know you can’t resist my food, or me…” she had smiled. “Plus you do look good in a little lingerie, I’d like to see more of that.”

“Sounds...delightful.” Red had replied. That had been a few days ago, they had already had another date since. It had certainly been very fulfilling. Red suspected the bed that Ivory owned had never seen so much gluttony. As he had eaten and gained he had felt the supports underneath begin to strain with the pressure of trying to keep two very hefty ponies from slamming through the beams onto the floor. At the end Ivory had said in her usual unsurprised and frank tone that she was going to invest in a much more sturdy bed if Red was going to keep getting bigger. “Anything for my tubby construction worker.” she had cooed as he had gotten back on his pad to make his way home.

Back at work and daydreaming in the present. He had lost track of what Foundy had been saying to him.

“You understand Red? We’re slightly behind schedule with this one? We need more houses going up faster. Can you think of any way to motivate your guys to get the job done quicker?” she had asked.

“Oh yes! Um. One moment…” Red thought, but in this situation he had to stick to his guns as site manager. “I’m sorry Foundy, my guys are working their flanks off as it is. We either need more workers or it won’t get done. We can’t skip safety regulations anymore, especially after the close call I had.”

The mare looked at him for a moment before her head went back down to look at some plans she had in front of her. “Yes I see what you’re saying. I’ll speak to my bosses, see what we can do about hiring more helping hooves. These houses are going up fast enough I suspect they can afford it.” she replied. “You seen these?” she asked, turning the plans around so Red could get a look over them.

“No, more houses? They all look so similar these days. We’re just putting them up as fast as we can to house gluttons.” he said.

“Indeed, but look at the dimensions.” she pointed a fat hoof to the top right of the chart where the floor spaces and other details were listed for the building. As a plan the build looked no different to most of what they were building already, the dimensions however were quite different. Red gasped a little. “These are nearly three times as big in floor space than what we’ve been building here. Why so generous?” he asked.

“Heftier ponies means heftier houses Red.” was all Foundy replied. “The firm is starting to think ahead for its clients that are going to be living on Sleipnir in ten, twenty, thirty or more years. Look at yourself. Look at the size of others. If most ponies keep gaining at the rate they are, we’re quickly going to become on the fattest colonies under the Empire. Why here? I don’t know, but other colonies did the same after a certain time period. You’ve never been off-world Red?” she asked.

“No, this has always been my home.” he replied. “I see no reason to leave.”

“Indeed, and so do most ponies. That’s why we need bigger houses. I’ve seen other colonies Red. There’s a point where they just give up on houses when the citizens get big enough. I mean you know on Equestria most of the royalty are the houses practically. Or even entire towns or cities. They’ve reached that level of size after so much gaining. Celestia and Luna occupy most of the former site of the city of Canterlot. They are the city of Canterlot, between the two of them. I don’t envy the ponies on Equestria trying to figure out what they’re going to do about the fact both of them are gaining on a mountainside that could collapse any day under their weight…” she finished off. “A problem for different ponies. Anyway that’s why. Plus these new places are offered as space to gain homes. The idea being it the prospective buyer fills the space and lives there for a good while. They might need bigger houses eventually, but not for years.”

“I see. Well good to know I suppose. At least ponies won’t be forced out of their home by their sheer size.” he said.

“Yes well...that’s coming, so I thought you had better know about it.” she said. “Anyway back to work, oh - how’s it going with the marefriend?” she asked.

“Well actually. We’re seeing each other more often. If it keeps up as it is I may even be a prospective buyer for one of these bigger houses.” Red laughed. Foundy just raised an eyebrow and rolled up the plans, putting them away.

“Sounds like it’s going well for you then. She’s obviously feeding you enough too.” his boss said with a slight grin, looking at his rump as she had a hundred times before. “I swear it grows every time I see you.”

“Perhaps.” Red just grinned back, powering up his pad. He had work to do, his team were currently finishing the build on the latest batch of houses and moving on to the next shortly. He had to oversee final preparations to make sure everything was just so. He powered his pad away towards the work site. Things were going well, for once in his life. No mishaps, work was good. He felt happy. The only thing concerning him was if he kept getting bigger and bigger he’d certainly need to look at a bigger pad, he’d heard the company was launching another line of them shortly that could support more weight. In the meantime he went back to daydreaming slightly, thinking of something fun for his next date with Ivory.