WHEN YOUR CRUSH ALMOST CRUSHES YOU
“I did it, Twilight! It worked!” Sweetie Belle happily screamed with her adorably squeaky voice. In front of her there was what appeared to be a table for a dollhouse, but in reality it was a normal table which she had shrunk with her magic.
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were busy that day, so Sweetie Belle was spending her “Twilight Time” alone to practice a shrinking spell. And it was going surprisingly well so far.
Spike stopped sweeping the floor for a moment to applaud while Twilight praised the filly.
“Well done, Sweetie Belle!” the princess said. “See? I told you anything can be achieved with some patience and effort! So, are you ready to try the spell on a living creature now?”
“Oh yes, I am!” Sweetie Belle chirped. “But… who should I test it on? Owlowiscious is sleeping, I don’t know if disturbing him would be a good idea…”
“I can do it,” Spike said a little smugly, placing his broom against the wall. “After all, what are assistants for? Only… one condition: Twilight, please make me grow at once if it works, I don’t think I would enjoy, you know, being stepped on or something…”
“Of course, Spike,” Twilight said reassuringly. “You don’t have to worry. After all, I already tested the shrinking spell on you once and nothing bad happened, remember?”
“Yeah, you’re right, I almost forgot!” Spike said with a chuckle.
“Thanks for volunteering,” Twilight continued. “Now stay where you are and relax. Sweetie Belle, you can start as soon as you’re ready.”
Rarity’s little sister nodded with a determined look on her face. She focused with all her might, her horn sparkled for a few seconds, and then it shot a green ray right at the dragon.
Spike felt the tingling sensation of Sweetie Belle’s magic all around him, he closed his eyes and got ready to become a purple speck on the ground… then he opened them again, but the library and the two ponies in front of him still retained their normal size.
“Uuuuh… now what?” Spike asked in a puzzled fashion.
“Now we wait,” Twilight answered. “Normally it works right away, but sometimes it can have a delayed effect.”
“How long should it take?” Sweetie Belle asked her.
“Not any longer than a couple minutes. According to every book I read, the possibilities of the spell working after more than two minutes are equal to 0,01% or even less.”
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock… two endless minutes passed, and Spike still didn’t get any smaller. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle’s face got more and more concerned.
Three minutes…
Four minutes…
“Rats!” The little filly snapped. “I should have known it wouldn’t have worked! It went way too well with the table, so of course I had to fail with Spike!”
“Oh, don’t be so harsh with yourself,” Twilight said to a frowning Sweetie Belle, gently stroking her mane. “It’s always harder with living beings. Believe it or not, I actually failed too the very first time. We’ll practice a little more later, now let’s take a break, shall we?”
“I think that’s a good idea!” Spike said. “By the way, is it safe if I go for a walk? I need to take some fresh air…”
“Sure, Spike,” Twilight answered. “Even more than four minutes have passed and nothing happened, so trust me, you will be safe.”
“Alright then. See you later!”
And so Spike walked out of the library to enjoy a relaxing walk around Ponyville. It was such a beautiful day, but still there was almost nopony outside. Good thing for most ponies it still wasn’t time to stop working, so the dragon could enjoy some peace and quiet. Or so he thought…
All of a sudden, that tingling he had felt a little while ago came back, only much more intense. Spike felt funny, and his body started to ache, making him feel like some kind of deflating balloon. And just like that, the environment around the dragon changed drastically: Ponyville’s cottages were now replaced by a weird jungle where the trees were all green and smooth, and in front of him there was a weird object which he eventually recognized as huge mushroom… Spike realized the painful truth right away and slammed his foot in frustration.
“About 0,01% or even less, huh?” Spike grumbled to himself. “Well it looks like I’m the luckiest dragon ever! We can never trust any of those three fillies, if they can make anything go incredibly wrong they will just do it! Urgh, come on Spike, keep it together, if you can defeat a dark tyrant like King Sombra you can do this as well!” But his confidence was not easy to maintain.
“But HOW am I gonna get out of this unharmed?!” he wondered aloud, sitting under the giant mushroom. “Hay, I’m even smaller than a Breezie! If I just stay where I am, somepony will step on me, or some larger animal will probably try to eat me, and if I try to explore this ‘jungle’ and possibly try to get someone’s attention… what a shock, somepony will step on me, or some larger animal will probably try to eat me!”
The poor tiny dragon assumed the fetal position and started to weep softly. “Please, Celestia!” He said between the sobs. “If I get out of this, I promise I will never step on a bug for my own amusement again, Pinkie promise!”
Spike just remained where he was, overwhelmed by fear and despair and totally clueless about what to do.
***
Meanwhile, not so far from where little Spike was, Rarity walked out of the Carousel Boutique to go to the Ponyville spa, ready to be pampered and cleaned after a long day of hard work.
The elegant and beautiful unicorn trotted with her usual grace, humming a merry tune to herself, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the softness of the grass under her smooth hooves.
She usually watched her steps carefully in order not to get her lovely hooves too dirty, but right now she didn’t really care since she was going to take a nice bath anyway, so she just left her hooves free to step on anything that they could find. At one point she even felt a feeble crunch under one of her back hooves and she realized that she had squished a little snail, but instead of freaking out she didn’t let that ruin her peaceful mood and she just kept trotting and humming blissfully, eventually feeling the sticky remnants of the stomped snail getting off her sole, brushed away by the soft grass.
Deep inside, Rarity admitted that she actually enjoyed being free to tread on anything on her way, to her it almost felt like getting in contact with the earth. The tall grass cuddled and tickled her hooves, and when she stepped on a plant, a flower or an insect she could immediately tell what it was without looking at it. Too bad she was a fine lady and she couldn’t always indulge in such things.
***
In the world at Rarity’s hooves, Spike was still lying down at the shadow of the mushroom, trying to come up with a solution to his big problem… when suddenly, he felt some kind of strange vibration underneath him. And then, he felt another one… and another one… each time getting more intense and making a distant yet intimidating boom.
“Oh no!” Spike said, getting up on his feet. “Somepony’s coming, I know it! Who could it be? What do I do?!”
The thuds got even louder and closer, and this time Spike could easily hear a clip-clop of hooves and the soft rustling of grass and plants getting trampled by an unaware titan who was just trotting innocently, not caring about the entire forest she was destroying underhoof.
In the frenzy of the moment, Spike climbed up on the cap of the mushroom to see who was approaching.
There they were: four ginormous white legs, moving with an incredible grace and gentleness for something so huge and destructive. That coat as white as snow and the delicate movements immediately reminded Spike of somepony who was very dear to his heart… and his feelings were immediately confirmed when he looked at the giant’s muzzle.
There she was. Beautiful, sweet and gigantic Rarity. Even as a huge giant who could turn him into a pulp in the blink of an eye, she still was the most wonderful sight in all of Equestria, she still had her lovely and seductive eyes with their perfect make-up and her mane was just as soft and impeccable as ever. And her humming voice, although much louder than normal, remained the most beautiful and soothing sound in existence. Spike couldn’t help gasping, completely awe-struck by such an intimidating yet so amazing giantess. In fact, somewhere in the depths of his mind he had a feeling that she was somehow even more beautiful…
But there was no time to admire such a masterpiece of nature. Beautiful or not, Rarity was still stomping right in Spike’s direction and the dragon’s life was in danger. And the booming earthquakes caused by the unicorn’s hoofsteps were enough to stop his trance and convince him to do something.
“RARITYYY!” Spike screamed at the top of his lungs. “DOWN HEEERE!” But the giantess was way too distracted by her own beatitude; she just kept coming closer and closer, not hearing a thing and still smiling and humming placidly. The earthquakes were now so intense that Spike had to struggle in order not to fall off the mushroom, the dragon could now see Rarity’s chin but not her eyes... and then he saw the smooth and delicate sole of her gigantic hoof, coming down to squash him like an ant.
Spike jumped out of the hoof’s reach as quickly as he could, screaming in terror. Behind him, the mushroom got stomped on and flattened with a loud and disgusting splat. The impact was like the end of the world for Spike, it was like being locked inside of a box that someone was shaking vigorously.
For Rarity of course it was a completely different story: she just felt something smooth and squishy being crushed under her soft hoof with a gentle pop. The fashionista spontaneously giggled at the funny sensation it gave her, like some kind of weird massage to her adorable sole.
Confused and terrified beyond belief, Spike got up and just ran. Blinded by fear, he didn’t really pay attention to where he was going. Was he heading out of Rarity’s way? He didn’t know, and he was too scared to find out, all that he cared about was going as fast as his legs could allow him to go.
But his escape didn’t last very long, because soon enough he got face to face with another threat, and this one was somehow even scarier than Rarity’s stomping hooves: a beetle. A black, horrible and large beetle. It would have been one of the smaller types at Spike’s normal size, but now the dragon was nothing but food to that scary creature… and it did look rather hungry.
Spike gasped and fell on his bottom. He tried to crawl away from the insect, which was coming closer and closer with his jaws wide open… but when he felt the hard surface of a little rock against his back, the dragon lost every bit of hope and he closed his eyes, surrendering to his unhappy fate…
Crunch.
Spike opened his eyes. In front of him there was no longer that hideous monster, but the shining and gigantic back hoof of Rarity. One of the trampled beetle’s legs came out from underneath it, completely lifeless and not dangerous anymore.
Spike was totally overwhelmed by irrational joy and relief. He spontaneously clung to his giant white savior and started to caress and kiss its smooth surface. But that moment of heaven didn’t last for too long.
Rarity kept trotting, raising the back hoof that Spike was firmly holding. Thanks to his sharp claws, he was able not to fall in spite of the hoof’s perfect smoothness, but the movement was scary and dizzying nonetheless and every time the hoof landed the impact caused the scariest earthquake that he had experience so far.
The dragon screamed, feeling the moist warmth of tears invading his eyes once more. Hopeless and desperate, Spike tried to call the giantess again, his voice reaching a volume that he didn’t even know was possible: “RARITYYY! PLEASE, DON’T SQUISH ME! I KNOW I’M A WORTHLESS LITTLE BUG NOW WHILE YOU ARE AN ENORMOUS GIANTESS, BUT PLEASE, HAVE MERCY ON ME! I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT, I’LL WORK OVERTIME TO FIND GEMS FOR YOU, BUT DON’T STEP ON ME! I BEG YOU, MY HUGE GODDESS!”
Meanwhile, his claws never let the hoof go, like he was trying to cuddle it and placate its destructive power with all the love and affection that his small body could give…
***
Not even a gross beetle could ruin Rarity’s beautiful day. She simply stepped on it and kept trotting, enjoying the crunching sound it made and the tickling of its squashed body falling off her hoof when she raised it to take another step.
However, another bug clinging to the same hoof without even trying to go away was rather annoying, this time she had to do something about it.
Rarity stopped and grimaced. Luckily there was a bench close by, so she sat down to examine her rear hoof and crush the stubborn little insect. But when her hoof was close enough to her face, she noticed something really weird: not only this bug was unlike any other creature that she had seen before, but now that she was paying attention to it she could swear it was emitting a strange sound, like it was… screaming in terror!
Curiosity took the unicorn over, so she used her magic to levitate the little thing and delicately put it on the surface of one of her front hooves, so she could take a closer look at it.
Rarity gasped. “S-S-Sp-Spike?!”
No, that couldn’t be. To make sure she wasn’t going crazy, Rarity smelled the purple speck on her hoof carefully, inhaling slowly and deeply. Her nostrils looked like two menacing black holes to Spike, who assumed the fetal position once again and hugged his tail, hoping that the huge nose wasn’t going to suck him like a vacuum cleaner.
Rarity realized that she wasn’t wrong. That smell was unmistakable. On her hoof there was her favorite dragon, trembling and bawling his eyes out. Now that Rarity had noticed him, he seemed to be calming down slowly, but the terror inside of him was still too powerful for him to handle and his tears were almost creating a little lake on the giant hoof.
It was truly something heartbreaking to see. Rarity felt a lump in her throat, and a single tear slowly poured down her cheek.
“Oh dear! My poor little Spikey-Wikey!” She exclaimed. “What happened? How did you get so small?”
Spike had to make a huge effort to speak, he still couldn’t stop sobbing and he felt like his throat was all tied up, and Rarity’s giant muzzle tenderly looking at him gave him conflicting emotions: clearly she wasn’t going to hurt him now, and her voice was truly a soft and comforting caress; but still he couldn’t help feeling a little scared of those enormous shining eyes staring at him, he could clearly see his reflection in the pupils, two clones of himself inside of the blue irises reminded him of how small and helpless he was.
“I… *sniff*… Sweetie Belle… she was trying… *sniff* a shrinking spell… it went so wrong! I’m afraid, take me back to Twilight!”
Rarity listened closely to everything he said. Although his words were a little incoherent, she figured out what he meant quite easily. Spike’s sorrow still broke her heart, but the sheer cuteness of that tiny baby dragon made it explode! She spontaneously smiled from ear to her and brought the little creature close to her face to nuzzle him. “Shhh, it’s okay, sweetheart,” she whispered tenderly, like a mother consoling her foal. “Big Rarity is a good giant, she will take her little Spikey to Twilight immediately.”
Spike felt the softness of the giantess’ coat stroking him, miraculously slowing down his heartbeat and relaxing his little body, and Rarity’s fancy perfume helped greatly. The dragon dried his tears and cracked a smile.
The unicorn felt a small scaly head and a pair of tiny hands caressing and rubbing her nose. “Thank you, Rarity,” the dragon’s feeble voice said. “But you know, I think you don’t need to hurry. We can stay like this for a little longer, I’m actually really enjoying this.”
“Aww, you’re always such a darling!” Rarity cooed. She wanted to give the tiny dragon a big kiss, but she was too afraid to swallow him by accident.
It was actually pretty ironic: the same dragon that not so long ago had grown into a giant and wrapped his tail around her was now such an adorable and delicate little thing on her hoof. Yeah, the spa could wait for that day, consoling little Spike and eventually helping to grow again was much more important. She was the Element of Generosity after all.
