“More.”

“I’m sorry Mistress, that was the last one from the shipment.”

“Oh, out so soon? A shame.”

Cherry had been spending most of the afternoon feeding Rotunda from the latest shipment of the fruits. It had been another wonderful meeting with Jock, they’d even managed a little more fun this time. He had urged her again about speaking to Rotunda about increasing the shipments so they could be together more. With her disappointed that they had run out, now seemed like the perfect opportunity.

“I hope this isn’t too forward Mistress but may I speak freely?”

The lardy mare raised an eyebrow and gave her an eyeballing before saying “Of course dear. What’s on your mind?”

“It is no secret you wish to gain, the fruits have provided amply for the past months. Would it be worth renegotiating the contract to up the supply? You sounded so disappointed just now to learn we had run out so quickly.” Cherry said with sincerity. “I well, may have heard rumours it was on your mind.”

“You hear a lot my dear, but to be expected in your line of work.” Rotunda said with a smile, shifting her massive bulk as best she could. The mare through continued eating of the fruits as well as other such delights weighed a healthy fifteen thousand pounds at this point. She cupped her flab in her even heftier hooves and indulged herself for a moment in her own immense size. Anything she could do to increase it would be a benefit of course. The thought that she had passed Farthest Reach in size now quite a little while ago was the talk of the colony. If she kept gaining well, she’d continue to be the talk of the colony.

“We shall make preparations. I do have a direct line to Sundrop. I’ll schedule a call for this afternoon.” Rotunda said. “Contact her aid and let them know I wish to speak to them.”

“Certainly ma’am.”

“Oh and bring me some more food whilst you’re passing the pantry, I am starving.”

“I will be back momentarily.”

Shutting the door to her private quarters Cherry did a small jump of joy as much as she could manage with her own heft once outside, bulbous frame jiggling as she came back down to the floor and steadied herself. Perhaps her movements had been a bit presumptuous. That was far too easy to convince her. At this point it was now down to Rotunda to convince Sundrop that they would up her deliveries. The call was important, Cherry thought about what she might interject with if for whatever reason it didn’t go Rotunda’s way.

In any case she made arrangements. Sundrop had a spare ten minutes at 3pm colony time. Between the present time and then she made multiple trips to the pantry to keep Rotunda well fed.

At the appointed time Rotunda turned on her portable vid-screen. On the other end a familiar lardy face greeted her.

“Good afternoon Rotunda, my my - you certainly have gained weight.” Sundrop said, observing what she could of the multiple chinned and spare tyre necked Rotunda in the frame of the vid-screen.

“Thank you Sundrop. It has been too long, I should make another trip out to see you at some point.”

“You’d be more than welcome of course. Or perhaps we could take another trip together sometime. Anyhow, I suspect this call isn’t about that. What can I do for you?” she asked. That was Sundrop, Rotunda thought to herself. Rather to the point.

“Well I am most gracious that you’ve kept up with our deal. I think you can see by my size it has benefited me immensely…”

“Indeed. You must be one of the biggest ponies on your colony by now.” Sundrop said with a grin.

“Yes, that’s why I’m calling. One of the biggest. Not the biggest. Of course that goes out the window as well when Equestrian’s visit.”

“Ah well, nopony rivals them for size. That is what keeps them in power after all…” Sundrop replied, she wasn’t giving anything away. She knew what Rotunda was going to ask but she wanted it to come from her.

“Indeed. Well, is there any possibility of upping the shipment? I think you can agree I’ve done you quite the favour by taking those reject fruits from you all this time, which I’d like to continue to do so.”

“Mmmm. Let me see. A moment.” Sundrop replied, Rotunda could see her gaze move to the side of the call as she observed another screen. “There might be some room, but you take all the reject fruits we produce Rotunda. I can only offer you regular fruits. We can’t spare any additional transports as well, it will mean more frequent visits from the pilot you have. It will have to be a weekly visit at minimum, maybe more which will go on the bill. Plus you’ll be paying for the extra fruits. But essentially it’ll double your gaining capacity. Will payment be a problem?”

Upon hearing double gaining capacity any rational thought of money problems vanished from the bloated mares mind. She simply answered “Of course not, I am just happy you can be so accommodating to me.”

“Well, you have proven your worth to us certainly. I’ll start sending through a new shipment order immediately. You really will be the envy of the colony. Speak soon, goodbye Rotunda.”

“Speak soon Sundrop.” she replied, the feed cutting off. “Well that was fruitful.”

The pun went unnoticed by Cherry who was smiling anyway. It meant more visits, more alone time. She didn’t even need to interject herself into the conversation and her mind skipped with delight as she made her way back to the pantry again to get Rotunda some celebratory snacks for having ironed out a new deal. She’d feed her up good tonight, oh yes.

In the pantry she bumped into Duster busy with another chore. It was a literal bump, she hadn’t noticed him at one of the many fridges pulling out a small snack for himself.

“Oh sorry! Didn’t see you there. How are things?” Cherry asked.

“Worrying.”

“Hmm?” her ears twitched a little. Hopefully it was a personal worry. “What’s wrong?”

“You haven’t heard about the garden staff?”

“No?”

“Oh, uhm. Well it’s just a rumour but I haven’t seen them for a few days now.” Duster started to say, trying to push his way past Cherry’s massive bulk, but she wedged him between a counter and herself. He was stuck. “H-hey, what’s this?”

“What’s the rumour.” was all Cherry asked, squishing her flab into Duster causing him to blush a little.

“Gah, well if you didn’t hear it from me you would have found out eventually…” he sighed, backing up so he was no longer wedged in Cherry’s flab. “Two of them were let go. I know they’re a team of five who look after the grounds but the head gardener was grumbling to me about it. Said it’s going to make much more work.”

“How come? Were they performing poorly?” Cherry enquired.

“No no, they’re some of the best. You know that’s all they employ here. Apparently it’s...money. The Mistress’s husband has been examining the finances. It has tipped from what I understand, at least that was the reason given for letting the two gardeners go. She is spending more than he earns. He’s trying to make savings around the estate.”

“Oh…”

“I don’t think we’re at risk but, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to keep your eyes open for other opportunities.” Duster finished, he finally got past now that the dejected Cherry was dwelling on his words. “I’ll see you later.”

Her mind was racing. She had just convinced even more spending and now she had heard this. Why couldn’t she have bumped into Duster yesterday! Who else was now going to be fired because their glutton of a mistress was spending far too much of the income on food? Could she reverse the decision? Sabotage it somehow? No. The deal was done. She had to speak to Jock and figure out what to do in the worst case scenario. Now he was coming more frequently, she’d get a chance sooner than before. In the meantime, she prepared the next meal for Rotunda. More money being consumed they apparently now didn’t have…