“Explain yourself.”

“From the beginning?”

“Of course.”

They had found him wedged in the entry doors, almost burbling from overeating. It had taken a lot of grease and effort but eventually they had slid him free. In four days Fireflash had managed to eat what took most ponies four years. Putting him on the industrial scales made for the prison to weigh their inmates when they had gotten him back put him at nearly fifteen thousand pounds. He had doubled in weight, then again and then some. Lethal Force was keeping her cool. Fireflash would have expected her to be utterly filled with rage at his failing, throwing away freedom for the sake of food. However when she asked him her first question, her voice was eerily calm.

“Start at the first day.”

“Alright…” Fireflash said, starting to recount how he had ended up like this. “Well, please believe me. It really was my intention to do this. Nopony gives you a get out of jail free card AND lets you stuff your face!”

“So what changed?”

“Well...day one was going to plan. The owner, Di had already eyed me up and come over to chat about what I was doing. She clearly remembered me. I just stuck to the agreed script which you’ll have heard since you’ve probably listened back to the recordings already. Wait, why am I explaining all this then? You’ll know exactly what would have happened.”

“Just indulge me.” Lethal Force replied, not budging an inch.

“Oh...alright. So yes, it was all going to plan. I was making small talk with other customers, some of the staff at the counter and slowly finding things out. But I uh…”

“Yes?”

“I panicked okay? Once I found out the campaign was over and there was no snooping to do I well...I knew it was over. I knew that there was never going to be an opportunity like this again where you could use me to get information. I only really worked at Blubber King. When I noticed all the political paintwork had gone as well as all the fancy meals pertaining to the whole thing I decided to do what I do best.”

“Which is what exactly?”

“Eat!”

Lethal Force observed the jiggling Fireflash. He was too big to move on his own, belly bed and fat ass keeping him stuck in place. He had joined the ranks of the immobile by day two and was firmly wedged inside the store on day three. When day four rolled around and Di, the owner had ordered him out that was when they had gotten to him, hauling his blobby self out of the store and onto a wagon to be brought back to the prison. He was now one of their biggest inmates.

“Eat...yes, well that you certainly did.”

“Well you gave me a credit card with unlimited funds! I couldn’t help myself…”

“Funny isn’t it?” Lethal Force mused. “This all started because you couldn’t help yourself. As I recall you lost the job in the first place because you ate a large portion of the food for an upcoming days shift? Then you took part in the robbery as revenge and now you’re here, back to square one.” she said with a little bit of a satisfied smile. “You know you’re the perfect prisoner Fireflash. You commit crimes of not much note and land yourself in jail.”

“I’ve had the last laugh though.” came a voice from within that spare tyre neck.

“Oh?”

“Look at me! I’m so big I rival some of the largest ponies on the colony! I could be high society with this much blubber!” Fireflash said, laughing. “I’ve won! And you’ll have to keep feeding me! You can’t let me starve!”

“I suppose that’s true. You’ll make a great addition to the orbiting prison for sure. You know it’s nearly complete?” Lethal Force started to say. “You realise you’ll be there for the rest of your days for this?”

“I don’t care.” the blobby Fireflash replied. But as Lethal Force knew, he wasn’t an idiot. Even without being able to see his head, the pause let her know he was thinking about something. “Wait a minute…”

“What?”

“You sent me to spy on them. But, you must have known the political campaign was over? What was the point?”

“Well, of course we knew it was over. We just weren’t sure how deeply Blubber King’s involvement went. We had to be sure.”

“But...but that makes no sense! I told you that everything tied to Farthest Reach was gone, they even had taken away the fancy party political paint job! There was nothing left…” Fireflash said, a little bit of mystification in his voice as he struggled to work out why they had sent him to do this well after he could have done anything useful. “Unless…”

“Unless what? Go on.”

“My...my lack of self control. It’s always been my weakness. You knew I’d go overboard on as much food as I could eat. You bitch! You wanted to keep me here forever! If I wasn’t trapped in my own flab I’d…”

A smirk appeared on Lethal Force’s face, she knew she was safe, all she could see was Fireflash’s body angrily jiggling in front of her, it gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction.

“We’ll just add insulting a member of the police to the long list of crimes keeping you here shall we?” was all Lethal Force responded, making notes.

More expletives shot out from the chubby cheeks of Fireflash. A string of insults that just put a wider and wider smile on Lethal Force’s face the more he yelled in anger. Her own recorder was running the entire conversation, she had more than enough evidence to put him away for life and then some. It was a fitting end for such a bloated stallion.

“ENOUGH. Take him away. Let the blorpy blubber ball calm down.”

“I’ll get you for this! You haven’t heard the last of me! You’re all as corrupt as each other! Damn cops! You’re gonna get the ass smooshing of your life when I escape…!” was the last words she heard as the quivering, jiggling Fireflash was hauled away and the doors to the interrogation room shut behind her.

“If...if you escape Fireflash. That’s a very big if.” Lethal Force said to herself, starting to return to her office. She knew Fireflash wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t smart either. He hovered somewhere in between which almost made him the perfect patsy for sting operations where anything he gathered on their behalf was a bonus and she could land him in it to keep him on hoof whenever she needed him. In a few weeks he’d be transported up to the Sugarland and kept there until she could use him again.

In the meantime though, there was plenty of other work to do. The colony had a new Governor. Already whilst working for him she had gotten her officers started on keeping tabs on him. Cosmic Compass was just as corrupt as Farthest Reach had been when he first took the role. Her mind darted back to the conversation she had with him when he first took office, she’d need to do the same with the new one. He could indulge, but not at the expense of the colony.

She looked over the various reports on her holo-screen. A member of the aristocracy had been discovered penniless in her own home. Some anonymous tip off. Typical of the upper classes to eat themselves so far into obesity that they lost track of their money, appetite consuming their thoughts morning, noon and night. In the meantime she was being looked after. There was mention of a theft as part of the report, some kind of fruit. Nothing had been found on the property however.

A terraforming ship had passed by the system on its way back to Equestria, only showing up because it was quite a few months early on its return. She dismissed it quickly.

Finally, Blubber King seemed to have settled down. Apart from the obvious political ties it had now shedded and a small footnote report in the local holo-news about Fireflash getting stuck in the doors and the assistance he had gained from them, she read ‘Sleipnir’s valiant Officers, who freed the stuck pony’ it didn’t seem anypony was any the wiser about why he was truly there apart from to stuff his fat face. She felt a little bad about setting him up the way she had, but he was far too useful an asset to just cut loose. She was sure she’d need to come up with something other than freedom for his next little excursion however if she was to convince him to do her bidding.

There were still plenty of reports to read, Lethal Force decided to pick one to make a start on. Her work was never truly done.