Luna let out a long, calming breath. The wide expanse of night sky gradually took on an almost imperceptible hue of blue. She patiently watched in silence as her sister, Celestia, brought the light of a new day to Equestria. The city of Canterlot was bathed in an eerie indigo glow as the night gradually evaporated. A blanket of mist descended upon the palace gardens, and a light breeze rustled the leaves and grass. The sisters reveled in this moment of peaceful equilibrium as the city around them slumbered. Here and now they could simply enjoy each other’s company - a great rarity as of late.
Princess Celestia softly sighed. “This is my favorite time of day, you know. Feels like old times.”
Luna smirked. “Ah, yes - the times of old. Truly ancient, that bygone age the scholars refer to as, ‘last week’.”
Celestia almost chuckled but caught herself not a moment too soon.
Luna let out a yawn while the eastern horizon was colored by a bright palette of orange, pink and yellow. The first rays of the sun shone brilliantly, casting long shadows across the land while the birds began to sing their melodies. She stretched her neck to look up to Celestia’s calm visage, far, far above.
The light of dawn first illuminated the tip of Celestia’s enormous white horn among the castle spires before gradually moving down to her voluminous mane. Luna smiled when the sun finally shone upon her sister’s face, for Celestia took on a look of pure joy, inadvertently sending a low rumble through the ground. Luna laughed and hoped that the subjects slept through it.
“It’s getting early,” Celestia whispered as soft as she could. “You should get to bed.”
Luna nodded and rose, slipping all four hooves into her silver shoes. “Indeed. Braving the day court on but an hour’s sleep would not be wise.”
“I can still manage you know” Celestia repositioned her flank, sending another, stronger tremor through the ground. Luna couldn’t help but wince - half the city ought to be awake after that one.
“Perhaps, but in the interest of efficiency it is for the best that I continue to fill in,” Luna said.
She stopped at the huge pillar of fine white fur that was her sister’s forehoof, the sole of which could easily hold more than five ponies. Even lying down, Celestia’s massive body could more than fill the entirety of the palace’s Grand Hall. Indeed, her current predicament had made fulfilling her royal duties nigh impossible, until such a time as a new set of operations could be established. For now, it was up to the Lunar Princess alone to preside over Equestria’s happenings.
There was a sound at the far palace wall, where a pair of ornate doors swung open. A small gang of maid ponies trotted into the gardens, each towing three large catering carts the size of wagons. Although they maintained an impressive air of professionalism, Luna could still make out the tiniest hint of apprehension in their eyes. To their credit, they each nonetheless performed a quick curtsy to them both, and set to preparing Celestia for her day. Gigantic princess or no, they would remain loyal… and of course, a very generous bonus on behalf of the Lunar Court did not hurt.
Celestia lowered her huge head to the grass before the little ponies. Luna met her and laid a hoof on her muzzle as she looked into a violet, house-sized eye. “Good day, sister.”
Celestia beamed. She wished Luna the same before turning to what was essentially a great picnic. An impressive assortment of breakfast stuffs lay before her: pastries, fruits, oats, pancakes, entire loaves of toast, various kinds of potatoes, great pilings of hay bacon, with all the more being set out by the moment. In one motion Celestia’s pink tongue emerged from her cavernous mouth and scraped along the grass, scooping it all up at once and then retreating back to her hungry muzzle with a rumbling, satisfied hum.
Luna chuckled and trotted to the palace as the maids laid out the contents of another cart. Just as she made to enter the doorway, though, a quick shriek made her whip around. There, caught up to her belly in Celestia’s mouth, was a maid frantically beating against her enormous lips.
“Tia!” Luna yelled.
Celestia’s eyes went wide. She quickly plucked the poor pony from her maw and set her down in the grass, immediately apologizing profusely with a hoof over her muzzle. The little maid assured her that she was alright, and promptly went back to work, only a little damp from the mishap.
Luna looked on for another few moments, but when she was certain that everything was in relative order, she finally turned about and retreated into the confines of the palace.
Invoking the true power of the sun to defeat Equestria’s enemies was a colossal gamble, to be sure, but Luna was just thankful that her sister was still alive, and their subjects were safe. Well, relatively speaking. She still worried greatly for her sister, and the comparatively tiny ponies she now lived among, but they would just have to make do with these new developments, is all.
Somehow.
--
Twilight Sparkle did her best to refrain from laughing at Luna’s recounting of the morning’s events, but ultimately gave in, resting her forehead upon the cutie map as she giggled. Across from her, Luna quietly sipped her tea, nonplussed. It would certainly have been most humorous had not Celestia been in such clear distress from the mishap... you know, considering she’d very nearly eaten one of their subjects.
“I wish to help her, Twilight,” she said as Twilight calmed down. “I feel as though she’s losing hope. I want to show her that everything can be alright again, even if everything can’t be as it once was.”
A few minor events had occurred over the last week since Celestia had grown, effortlessly uprooting a tree with a flick of her hoof, accidentally smashing a gazebo under her rump, those sorts of things.Each incident was dismissed relatively easily, but it also seemed to chip away at her morale. This morning was the closest she’d come to really hurting somepony, and it was why Luna had made come to Ponyville seeking counsel from her friend and fellow princess.
“Heh - hm - yes, I understand.” Twilight nodded, her grin softening. “I think part of the problem is that she doesn’t have anything to do right now, and she has too much time to dwell on that.”
“Precisely!” Luna agreed. “She no longer possesses the opportunity to engage with ponies - not without the risk of one errant movement bringing destruction, anyway. Even standing upright has become a long chore lest she not accidentally damage anything, and we dare not let her walk about.”
Twilight frowned.“She’s been confined the entire time?”
Luna nodded with a sigh. “At her own request. We’re not certain of what to do next, Twilight. I hoped that you might be able to make a suggestion.”
Twilight sat back and tried to think, muttering the inner machinations of her mind aloud.
“Not had the opportunity to even walk around, let alone amongst ponies… hasn’t had the chance to get used to being giant, and there really isn’t a practical way to do so… needs the practice...”
Luna lowered her eyes to the table in thought.
“Some way to fit in, and learn how to move again,” Twilight continued, “And it can’t just be only a wide open space - she needs buildings, as well as ponies.”
Luna slowly nodded her head. “A place where there are no consequences for making a mistake…”
“How about the dreamscape?”Twilight suggested. “You can bring her there, can’t you? Is it possible to properly recreate all of the variables of the real world?”
Luna tilted her head and entertained the thought. “That… could work. It’d be a great challenge, admittedly, but also safer than just about anything else. It would give her something to look forward to, as well!”
Luna rose and triumphantly spread her wings. “Yes! A most splendid idea! Celestia will finally get the chance to practice moving about at her new size! Thank you, Twilight! I will keep you notified of our progress!”
Luna disappeared in a brilliant flash of light, leaving a waving Twilight behind. “Whew.” Twilight chuckled and let out a sigh of relief. - “that should be way easier than building a city in the middle of the desert.”
Princess Celestia gave a small nod to several ponies hauling their large dining wagons back into the castle. Dinner time had come and gone without incident, thankfully. The morning’s episode had left her very shaken and she’d been very careful to make sure that everypony was out of the way at all times. She looked about once more for Luna, but the doors leading to the castle gardens unceremoniously shut with no sign of her.
Luna must be especially busy, today. Indeed, Luna had not visited her even once. Perhaps it was selfish of Celestia to think that she could continuously break away from the mounting royal duties, but for her to miss their exchange of the heavens was almost inconceivable.
She must be utterly swamped - the poor dear. Gaze fixed downward, Celestia finished lowering the sun. The moon rose just moments later, along with a dazzling array of stars. Celestia smiled and craned her neck to admire as much of the beautiful night sky as she could. She carefully shifted her wings and lowered herself flat to the ground, trying to avoid triggering any earthquakes. Her efforts proved fruitful. As her huge body settled into the grass, her twitching ears picked up only a tiny rumble that rolled through the city.
I’m getting the hang of this. Celestia grinned as she recalled her first clumsy attempts at lying down… and the accidents that resulted. But her smile quickly faded at the thought of the destruction she obliviously caused in the past week - let alone today!
Oh, she must have been terrified! Celestia shut her eyes,bringing a hoof to her face as she remembered the horrible feeling of her maid’s tiny hooves striking her lips.
She was fighting for her very life. I - I almost ate her!
Celestia tucked her legs to her barrel and wrapped her tail about herself, shuddering at the thought of what the next mishap might be. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Would she demolish a swath of forest with her immense tail? Send her precious ponies flying with an errant beat of her mighty wings? Flatten a house under her giant hoof with but one careless step? What would be the tipping point that made everypony terrified of their giant princess?
With utmost care, Celestia unfurled a wing over her head. It was the best she could do,anymore. She’d never sleep in her own bed again. She sniffed and let out a quivering sigh as she shut her eyes under her makeshift blanket.
I don’t want to be a monster.
.
.
.
You don’t have to be.
Celestia woke with a start, squinting at a brilliant light shining through her feathers. Wait - had she missed the sunrise? Luna would have woken her, surely! Panic rose in her chest, but as she shifted a few primaries, she noted that there was no warmth to this light.
There was also no sound from the gardens around her...
Every ruffle of her individual feathers almost painfully reached her ears when Celestia brought her wing to her side. She was in a white, empty void, devoid of features or reference. Curious, Celestia rose to lay on her side, looking about. The slightest hint of gray marked the distant horizon, but there was nothing between it and herself save for a hard, white floor. Without thinking, Celestia finally stood, her hooves making a sharp clattering of clacks.
She froze. Her ears swiveled forward, and she let her hoof fall to the ground again.
The same clack from before met her ears.
No earth-shaking boom, no colossal tremor.
Celestia tilted her head and turned about, suddenly finding herself standing between two rows of large, identical gray boxes that stretched out to the horizon. She gasped at the sight and turned around once more, this time being met with two rows of cottages instead of colorless cubes! She chanced a glance over her shoulder, and saw that the previously featureless boxes had been replaced with cottages, as well.
“Huh,” Celestia muttered aloud. “Odd.” She ruffled her wings and walked forward, her steps still making normal sounds as she proceeded down the street. She glanced in a window, stopping short at the sight of firelight dancing on the pane. She blinked and opened the door, meekly inching her way inside the structure.
“Hello?” She called into the gloom.
“Sister!” Luna’s voice suddenly rang out just behind her. “Welcome!”
Celestia shrieked and fell to the floor.
“Wha - Luna?” Celestia picked herself up and whirled about. Sure enough, a very normal-sized Luna stood in the doorway, looking quite pleased with herself. “What is this?Why are we the same size? Where are we?!”
“Celestia, please.” Luna giggled. “Surely, you jest!”
Celestia only stared at her with a blank look.
Luna frowned and pointed a hoof at herself, then waved to the outside with wide eyes. Celestia shrugged and shook her head.
“You’re dreaming!” Luna flared her wings. “This is the dreamscape! I - wha - oh, come now! You’ve been here before!” She beat her wings and jumped away from the door. “Must I tell every pony, every time?!”
Celestia followed her outside, now seeing that the cottages had been removed from their neat rows, and strewn about the land.
“Ah.” Celestia clicked her tongue. “Of course.”
Luna put a wing about her sister’s withers. “Come! Let us get acquainted with the constructs. I’m most pleased with the level of detail I fashioned!”
Celestia looked to a passing house. “Er, it’s all very nice, Luna! But, to what end, exactly?”
Luna beamed. “Why, practice, of course!”
Celestia frowned.“Practice?”
“Indeed! You had no practical method to acclimate to your new size, did you not? Here, you can stomp about without fear of harming anypony, or anything. You can become comfortable with your giant stature, and then take it to the waking world!”
Celestia’s ears fell against her skull as she now looked to the houses with pursed lips “Are you sure?”
“Of course!” Luna exclaimed. “Deliberation on the part of dearest Twilight Sparkle and myself yielded no better alternative. This dreamscape is admittedly incomplete, as you may have surmised, but we can at least get started!”
Luna turned and began to delve into the intricacies of her architecture.
“And here you will notice that I - eep!” She squeaked as Celestia’s wing yanked her into a tight embrace.”
“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia said with a sniff. “Thank you so much…”
“Of ‘corf!” Luna muttered through her sister’s chest and patted her shoulder. She dramatically gasped in a lungful of air upon release and smiled. “Now, shall we begin?”
Celestia made to reply, but could only gasp as she felt her belly churn at the sensation of soaring into the sky. She bit back a yell and shut her eyes tight until the ride was over, opening them to behold another empty white void. However,she felt different.
Celestia looked down, her pupils shrinking at the sight of the dozens of tiny, thatched-roof boxes at her hooves. Her knees went weak at the sudden shift in height.
“Oh, dear...” She took a step to steady herself, and yelped at the great crash of a house being crushed under her hoof. She yanked her hind leg up in reflex, but the motion threw her forward, and her gigantic fore-hooves thundered upon more homes.
Even the smallest step was accompanied by a tremendous *THUD* that rattled Luna’s bones. She took to the skies, far from her sister’s panicking hooves. “Easy, sister!” She bellowed in the Royal Canterlot Voice. “A little to the left!” *CRUNCH* “Oh - mind your hind -” *CRASH* - “hoof…”
Celestia’s rampaging legs finally tripped over themselves. She yelped as she fell back onto her haunches, flatting most of the remaining cottages under her rump with an earth-shattering *BOOM*
“‘Tia!” Luna sped low over gargantuan hoof-prints that’d carved out huge holes in the ground. In almost each crater were the flattened splinters of what had once been a cottage. She gulped as she passed Celestia’s hind hooves, to which thatch and bits of wood clung, soaring through the valley that Celestia’s thighs created and over her vast belly.
“Perhaps a warning would’ve been prudent before restoring your true size!” She landed on Celestia’s chest, sinking waist-deep into the tufts. “Are you alright?”
The plush surface quaked as Celestia groaned, tilting her great head to focus on the tiny blue pony on her chest. “MAYBE… I CAN BE A LITTLE SMALLER, TO START?”
Luna smiled. “Of course!”
