Starlight Glimmer: The Mane Oneby Neen RouterChaptersChapter 1: Friendship LessonChapter 2: The New SpellChapter 3: TogetherChapter 4: The Great and Powerful VisitChapter 5: River rescueChapter 1: Friendship Lesson"Today's friendship lesson is about boundaries," Twilight Sparkle announced to Starlight in the castle library. "Like a shield spell?" Starlight asked, ready to cast the spell, "I can do that easily." Twilight shook her head. "No no, that's not what I meant, but I understand why you're confused. A boundary is a kind of social limitation that ponies make with other ponies they don't know, or even trust. There's always different boundaries with different ponies. It's like... privacy." "I-I don't follow," Starlight admitted shyly, "How can I make new friends if I don't know what these....'boundaries'...are?" "I'll show you what I mean," Twilight explained, "let's do a little roleplay." Twilight's horn glowed as she levitated an old grey hat and coat around her. "I'll pretend to be a pony you don't know by wearing this hat and coat. I'll take it off when the roleplay is over. Now, show me how you would introduce yourself to a random pony." Twilight levitated the old hat around her head, covering her ears and upper mane, while the coat wrapped gently around her body, dragging along the floor. Starlight started to panic, she wasn't prepared for this. She moved forwards carefully, nudging the 'stranger' on the shoulder. "H-Hi, erm, hello there, I'm-" "What do you want, random pony?" the 'stranger' replied slowly her low voice. Starlight gulped, putting on her best smile. Twilgiht was definitely not going easy. "I'm uh, I'm Starlight Glimmer, it's nice to meet you. I like magic. I'm really good at it. Do you like magic?" "No." The 'stranger's voice sounded as cold as ever. "Oh, well, uhm-" Starlight's eyes darted left to right, coming uncomfortably close to the 'stranger's' face, "Pinkie Pie makes nice cakes, have you ever tried any?" A colder reply came this time. "Why are you talking to me? I don't even know you." Starlight got extremely flustered at this point. What kind of lesson was Twilight trying to teach her? Friendship was the answer to everything, wasn't it? Suddenly, it clicked. That's right! She thought to herself. Twilight's teaching me to keep trying no matter what! "Oh, don't worry about me, I'd like to know SOMETHING about you, stranger. I like kites, do you like kites? Reading? Anything?" Twilight sighed, taking off her disguise to stop the session. "Okay, that was good, Starlight, you kept your cool and you stayed friendly and positive." Starlight was relieved that it was over, but was still confused. "What..What did I do wrong then? I tried everything you've thought me, it always works when I meet one of your friend's friends!" "I know, Starlight. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, I was roleplaying a pretty harsh pony. Well, this all goes back to boundaries. The pony didn't really know you, and you were being a little too close. Being too close to ponies that don't know you actually makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes, respecting a pony means giving them some space until they want to get to know you better too. You can't just go up to a random pony and reveal your deepest secrets to them. They might feel overwhelmed or weirded out. Do you want to try again?" Twilight smiled as she finished her speech, resting her hoof on Starlight's back encouragingly. She knew this wasn't easy for her. Startlight rubbed her hooves together nervously. She still didn't get it entirely. "Could we have a break? I'd like to uhm, read up, on the topic, before trying again. If that's okay?" "Sure! This is a pretty difficult friendship lesson, so take all the time you need. Let me know when you want to continue. I'll be reading in the map room." Twilight waved goodbye as she walked out of the library, leaving Starlight alone. Starlight instantly started looking through different book covers in the library, really curious about these boundaries. She remembered how cold and reclusive she was when she first started living in the castle. Twilight taught her how to be more open with her friends, but now she was teaching her how to be closed and distant all over again. It didn't make much sense to her. The fact that every pony had their own boundaries confused her even more. How could she learn and memorize every single one? Surely this was impossible, you can't just read other ponies minds. ... Or can you? Chapter 2: The New SpellAltering the minds of ponies was one thing, Starlight found plenty of spells for that, but nobody had truly figured out how to look inside a pony's thoughts before. Failing to find any memory-viewing spells, she decided to look for possible spell combinations. "Hmm," she thought to herself aloud. "A morphing spell DOES allow you to link thoughts and memories on touch if you cast it weakly, but I don't want strangers to realize I'm touching them just to get to know their thoughts. That's just weird. Maybe if I combine a tiny morphing spell with a phase-through spell I can make contact with the stranger without them feeling it, so I can see what kind of boundaries they have before I even start the conversation!" She bookmarked the two pages, giggling to herself as she prepared a new empty scroll to write down a combined version of the two spells. "Starlight", she congratulated herself, "You're a genius." She didn't hesitate to write down the new spell with the nearby ink and feather on the table. Finishing, she decided the name of her new spell and wrote it at the top of the scroll. "Memory-viewing on touch spell, cast as weakly as possible only." Starlight held her new powerful scroll out proudly. All she had to do now was test it. She kept the scroll on the table and rushed through the castle hallways to get Twilight. The door to the map room burst open revealing an overconfident Starlight, her mane slightly spiked from her sprinting. "Twilight, I think I've got it now, let's try it again!" Twilight looked up from the large circular desk, surprised. "Of course." She levitated her book under her royal seat, standing up and following Starlight into the castle library. "I see you've been busy," she giggled, commenting on the pile of books and scroll on the large reading desk. She turned around, preparing the 'stranger' disguise from before. Meanwhile, Starlight looked at her scroll quickly, memorizing the two spells as well as possible. She began to cast it, when suddenly the library door burst open. Starlight gasped in surprise, causing a surge of magic to get used up in casting the experimental spell, losing control and casting it on herself fully. The rest of the main six flooded into the room with party blowers and confetti, Pinkie Pie rolling in with a big purple and light-blue cake on a trolley in the color of Starlight's hair. "Happy birthday Starlight!" They yelled. Starlight blushed, absolutely confused. She had gotten so focused on her studies she had forgotten it was her birthday! Fluttershy spoke up gently, "we wanted to uhm, surprise you by doing this in one of Twilight's lessons. We asked her permission and she said yes..." They all giggled, and Twilight set her costume back on it's coat hangar. None of them had noticed Starlight casting the spell on herself, and Starlight was so surprised she even forgot about it herself. "I knew this was going to be a stressful lesson for you, Starlight" Twilight explained, "so we don't have to finish it today. It's your birthday after all, let's celebrate!" Starlight blushed in her corner, forgetting about her magic spell entirely. "Aww, girls, I totally forgot today was my birthday. You're all way too kind..." Rarity had levitated a lovely chair behind Starlight, letting her sit down to take it all in. "We're always there for you, darling." Rarity commented, "It was Pinkie's idea, really. We're just so glad to make you feel at home here." "Yeah!" Pinkie Pie blurted out, "remember when I asked you when your birthday was?" "That was ages ago!" Starlight said in amazement. "I can't believe you've done this for me. All of you. You're all the best, really. I feel happy. I could just.. I..." She smiled and began to cry happily with her hooves near her face at this friendship overload. "D'awww" everyone cooed, approaching and surrounding Starlight Glimmer for a big group hug, wrapping their arms all around her. But their arms didn't stop there. They all suddenly panicked as they felt themselves fall forwards into each other, phasing through Starlight's body. Laughter turned to confusion and terror as they all vanished into Starlight's body. Starlight looked around, horrified, having no idea where her friends went. The chair broke under her suddenly, making her realize that her whole body was getting bigger. She rushed aimlessly in the room, desperately trying to find the scroll to try and reverse it. The room became smaller and smaller to her, accidentally crushing the big table under her hooves in panic. She could hear her friends screaming but she couldn't figure out from where. Suddenly her growth spurt caused her to hit her head with the roof, everything suddenly fading to black followed by a massive crash. Chapter 3: Together"Where are we?" "This is like, the TOTAL OPPOSITE of cool right now." "I CAN'T FEEL MY MANEEE" "I-I'm scared..." "Don't worry Fluttershy, I got ya!" "Hey girls, she's waking up!" Starlight opened her eyes, groaning while rubbing her hurting head. She found herself outside the castle laying on the grass surrounding it. She looked at her own hooves. Yup, still her own normal hooves. She shook her head again, taking a better look around. Looking closer at Twilight's castle she realized that it had a big hole in it's side. She could see the library she was in before, which confused her. What made a hole that big? Then she looked down, realizing she was a good thirty feet off the ground. She got frightened at first, thinking she was going to fall. "Woah! Wait.." Moving her feet along the ground she noticed she was standing perfectly fine. The realization then hit her that the castle looked a lot smaller, she was just half it's size! Suddenly, she heard Pinkie Pie's voice. "I've never seen the castle from THIS view before, wow! So cool!" Starlight looked around. It felt like Pinkie Pie was speaking right into both ears at once, but she couldn't see her anywhere. She couldn't find any of her friends. "Wh-Where are you all?" she asked in alarm. She heard Applejack respond in a similar way. "Well, I think we're all seeing exactly what you're seeing, Starlight. It's like we're inside your head." "Oh." Starlight nodded. ... "WAIT WHAT?!" She yelled. She looked back at her self, realizing her giant body also had a giant set of wings as well, getting even more alarmed. "When did I get THESE?!" "Calm down everypony" Twilight said from within her head, "I think we've all somehow merged into Starlight's body. If my assumptions are correct, we're all talking inside Starlight's consciousness." "Okay Starlight, what n' tarnation did you DO to us?" Applejack demanded. Starlight winced, it wasn't easy to get used to hearing her six friends talking over each other inside her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry please! I didn't mean for this to happen at all. I kinda..made a spell to look into ponies minds. Y'know, to uhm, to see what their boundaries are?" Everyone groaned. It hurt Starlight a little. "I'm pretty sure that meant NOT using magic!" Rainbow Dash scolded. "How am I supposed to fly when I'm stuck inside your big head, Starlight? This is totally uncool." "I didn't mean for THIS to happen!" Starlight sobbed. She sat on the ground suddenly, causing the ground to shake, and pressing her hooves against her face trying to keep back her tears. This was an extreme emotional whiplash to be happening on her birthday. "There there, Starlight," Fluttershy comforted from seemingly nowhere, "I believe you. I mean, maybe this isn't that bad. I'm sure you'l keep us safe." This cheered Starlight up enough to stop crying. Suddenly she felt her right arm come up and wipe her tears even though she didn't think about doing it. "F...Fluttershy, did you just move my arm?" "I..I think so. You just sounded so sad I wanted to wipe your tears for you." Fluttershy admitted. Twilight had never seen or experienced anything like this before. "This is interesting, it seems that if we try hard enough we can take some kind of limited control over Starlight's body. Let me try something..." Starlight sat upright stiffly, feeling extremely uncomfortable that her friends were treating her like some kind of puppet. Suddenly she saw her two arms spread out in front of her, and then pull back to her chest, giving herself a hug. It made her blush and feel warm inside. "We still love you, Starlight." Twilight said. "We're going to have to keep it together if we're going to get through this eitherway." "Thanks Twilight, Fluttershy, that made me feel a lot better," Starlight smiled, standing up on her four massive hooves. She looked at the castle next to her, clearly too small for her to fit inside. "I must have grown from absorbing you all, I'm kinda huge. I don't think going into town is a good idea. I don't know what to do." Twilight thought to herself, floating weightlessly inside the black void of Starlight's consciousness, seeing two big circular screens that broadcasted Starlight's vision. "Well, if you used some kind of morph spell to do all this, it should wear off. Morphing spells last at around a few days, tops. Let's just make the most of it. I mean, it's still your birthday, right? We can still have fun and... do...things, I guess?" Their conversation was interrupted by the castle doorbell being rung nearby, along with multiple tiny knocks on the main door in front. Starlight's massive body was hidden behind the larger castle. "Oh no!" they all thought in unison. "Who could that be!?" Chapter 4: The Great and Powerful VisitStarlight slowly and carefully leaned from behind the castle, trying to see who was knocking at the door. She strained her eyes and noticed a tiny purple triangle shaking about on the head of a blue pony in front of the doorway. It didn't notice Starlight, and was holding a tiny box, or at least, it looked tiny. Starlight was still adjusting to how small everything looked to her at her new size. She still couldn't make out what this blue thing was until it squeaked loudly. "THe GRRREAT and POWERRRFUL Trixie demands that somepony open this door, for she has a GREAT and POWERFUL gift for her GOOD and WONDERFUL friend!" Oh no, Starlight thought, it's Trixie! She can't see me like this! Her thought was interrupted by a chorus of annoyed groaning by her friends. "Oh great," Rainbow Dash complained, "As if my day wasn't going bad enough, now we have to deal with HER." "Please don't talk to her, Starlight" Twilight begged, desperately trying to avoid having to hear Trixie's screeching voice again, "m-maybe if you talk to her she'l be afraid of you forever, so uh, just leave her there and you won't get any problems!" Even Fluttershy tried to chime in, "Starlight... I...don't really, uhm.. like..." "She's a real meanie pants Starlight, can we not spend your birthday with her?" Pinkie interrupted. AppleJack shook her head too, "U'hm gonna be honest, but that there pony is only going to make things worse~" "QUIET!" Starlight shouted in her head. Her friends rattled around in her conscience like popcorn, dazed. She recollected herself, took a deep breath, thankful that Trixie didn't hear any of that. She raised one large hoof in front of the other, stepping carefully around the castle. Trixie lost her balance, letting out a yelp as she fell over and dropped her wrapped gift on the steps. She looked around her, confused as to why it became really dark all of a sudden. She looked up, seeing a massive hoof come crashing down in front of her, making her panic and fall backwards, scurrying into the nearest bush. "Help! The great and...Whatever! Trixie needs help!" She wailed, hiding in the bush, hoping that she would live to perform another day. Starlight lowered her head sadly, her hair brushing against the castle as she leveled eye-to-eye near Trixie's new hiding place. "Trixie, please, don't be like that. it's only me." Starlight looked sadly and closely at the bush, trying to be as gentle and slow as possible. Trixie slowly popped her head out of the bush, looking up at these two big adorable eyes looking down on her. She still shivered from head to hoof, unable to make sense of it. Her fight or flight response gradually faded and finally spoke. "Trixie demands an explanation!" she spluttered accusingly, "Trixie does NOT like to get spooked by her best friend. Goodness, what's happened to you?" She jumped out from the bush, recollecting her dropped hat and wrapped gift huffily. "It's..." Starlight was getting lost for words, trying to explain to her now tiny friend what happened. "It's... a little hard to explain. It's not just me, apparently I, erm, absorbed my friends...?" Trixie kept arranging her hat, still upset. "There is no excuse for giving Trixie the fright of her-" She paused as she made sense of what Starlight had just explained and froze. "Wait WHAT?!" "Yeah..." Starlight continued, "They're kind of stuck in my head, and it made me six times bigger. I think even more somehow, I don't fully understand it myself. I'm still me though, honest! Though the others have been saying...a lot of bad things in my head." She turned her attention to the others, "Which I would really appreciate it if all of you stopped complaining, please?" Starlight looked up angrily, as if she was trying to look at herself, gritting her teeth together impatiently. Her friends had been whining incoherently during the whole conversation, and Starlight was trying her best to block it out. Trixie shook her head quickly, taking multiple looks at Starlight towering over her, trying to make sense of it all. "Trixie feels she must reveal something important to you, Starlight. Trixie often feels inferior to many ponies, and hates it very much. But this whole concept interests Trixie. Every time, the better pony has always been Trixie's enemies, but today, it is an ally of Trixie that has the abilities and size to overpower anypony! We can rule ponyvile! No, Equestria! Everypony will bow down to Trixie and her great and powerful friend! They will all apologize for the mockery they have made of Trixie...I mean... us! You can crush anyone in your path, nobody can stop us!" An angry debacle instantly went off inside Starlight's head. "SERIOUSLY?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, flying around angrily in the black void. "I can't believe you're even friends with this pony, she's TERRIBLE!" "You can't seriously even CONSIDER what she's saying, Starlight!" Rarity yelled. "You've changed, Starlight, you're better than that." Twilight pleaded. "I know you have." Starlight sighed, trying to think clearly through the bombarding thoughts of her friends yelling in her conscience. "Trixie, I hate to be the one to say this, but that's a really selfish idea. I'm still terrified of leading anything. Being this huge is terrifying to me. I don't want to step on anypony. I don't want to hurt or overpower anypony. I've done enough damage by entrapping my friends inside my head today. Honestly... I'm hurt... I'm hurt that you'd even suggest something like that, Trixie. I thought you knew me better. I thought you'd treat me more than just... a tool..." Starlight stood up sadly, turning around and began walking away from the castle. She could barely believe that Trixie would just want to selfishly use her for her powers like that. Her friends often warned her of this, but she refused to believe it until now. "No, wait!" Trixie yelled, stumbling over her hooves from the shaking ground. "The great and powerful Trixie takes it back! I take it back! Starlight!" It was too late, Starlight had already walked a great distance away thanks to her large body, leaving Trixie alone in front of the castle. Trixie tugged her gift, deeply regretting what she said. "Trixie...thought she could be honest with her..." Trixie hiccuped, wobbling her lower lip against her wrapped gift, "No longer is she the Great and Powerful Trixie... but the Lonely and... Powerless... Trixie..." She held the gift tightly, the only bit of Starlight she could have left. She covered her face with her large performer's hat to hide her tears, leaving the gift in front of the castle door before running away towards her tiny poor home to rethink about what she said. Chapter 5: River rescueThere was a gentle breeze blowing through the everfree forest. There was a slight opening clear of trees where a fast flowing river divided the forest, the water glistening with sunlight. The river flowed beneath Starlight's room-sized hooves, reflecting her thoughtful face back up at her as she rested against the grass. "I can't believe she just wanted to use me for power. I thought we were over this. I thought I was her friend." She kicked a boulder into the stream as if it was a pebble, resting her front hooves on her knees, digging her head between them. "I thought she understood me." "I tried to warn you, to be honest." Twilight said, rubbing her hoof against the pitch-black walls of Starlight's conscience, "She's the kind of pony who you'd give a slight bit of power and she'l take the whole mile. I've seen her do it before, and she didn't change like you did. I was trying to protect you..." Fluttershy floated next to Twilight, trying to soften the blow. "M-Maybe she was joking? Like, maybe she didn't really mean it like that-" "Nuh-uh" Pinkie interrupted with a thrust of her neck, "I KNOW jokes, and that didn't sound like any kind of joke I've ever heard. She was real beans! Without the healthy part. Like, rotten beans. The kind of beans you know are rotten before you even open the can! That's like, a super bad bean." "Yeah," Rainbow continued, struggling not to giggle at her upcoming corny joke, "It's pretty difficult to bean-ice to her." All the ponies gave distasteful side-glances at Rainbow Dash, and Starlight would've if she could've, except for Pinkie Pie who started laughing out loud while rotating weightlessly around them. "HAHAHAH! I GET IT! You can't BE-NICE! BEAN! ICE! HAHAHA-" "Do I have to say it?" Applejack groaned, looking away. "That wasn' funny at all. That has to be your worst joke since...well... nevermind, no bad joke can top you pranking Fluttershy." This really offended Rainbow. "Seriously, you're bringing THAT up? That was ages ago! I haven't done it since the rainbow cupcake incident! You can come right here and I'll show you a funny joke or two called my HOOVES!" Rainbow helplessly flailed her hooves in the void angrily, the extra force rotating her whole body making her hollow threats look even more ridiculous. It was clear by now that being trapped in a weightless black void was starting to get the better of them. "Ya can't even fly in here, just give it up." Applejack huffed, not really feeling up to fighting back. Starlight held her head, she felt like she was getting a massive headache with all this arguing in her head. "Girls, come on, please, could you not fight in my head? I'm hearing everything you're saying and it's really....really...annoying." She leaned backwards feeling exhausted from hearing six ponies talk and argue in her head, resting her head against a few trees, unintentionally tipping them over causing them to de-root and fall on each other along the ground becoming slightly more comfortable to rest on, but causing a horrible crunching sound as she did so. Starlight realized her mistake too late, seeing animals running away safely from their destroyed homes, birds flying desperately from the treetops beside her. "Oh no, the poor animals!" Fluttershy cried out, "Starlight, you must be more careful!" Starlight didn't know if she could feel more miserable right now, her fears of being dangerous at her size were coming true. She uprighted herself, using her magic to re-attach the broken trees, hollowing some out from the inside without much thought. She then lowered down and used her hooves to pick up and free any trapped animals stuck under any fallen branches, carefully placing them near the river on the safe flat grass, much to Fluttershy's delight. "There, happy?" Starlight asked, sighing as she looked down at her work. "That was really kind of you, actually..." Fluttershy said, gleaming at such a display of kindness to animals, "You even saved the little critters!" she pointed out. Starlight finally smiled again, seeing how the animals were gladly running around their renovated little homes. She felt a lot better realizing that she could fix any damage she accidentally caused around her. In fact, she could really help improve things around her as well. Thoughts suddenly began rushing around her head about possible things to do with her new size, the thoughts visibly dashing back and forth around Twilight and the others. "Ooooh", Starlight said to herself excitedly, "I can improve things on like, a massive scale! I could really help Ponyville with things I never would've imagined!" Twilight and the others looked at the fast-moving 'thoughts" rushing about. One thought pictured Starlight standing beside a construction site, helping to bring and carefully place wooden planks around, or helping with controlled demolition. Another thought had her fighting off an angry ursa minor with her bare hooves, even scaring it away. She loved the thought of being cherished and thanked by the village ponies for saving them, having so many friends, so many friends... The sound of distant screaming snapped her out of it. She got up, looking around for the source, perking her ears up as far as possible. The distant screaming got louder, along with the river waves. It didn't seem like much at first, but she finally noticed that the river was flowing dangerously fast. Looking upriver, she noticed a small wooden boat that had been horribly set up in patchwork fashion, barely surviving against the surging waves. The source of the screaming came from three terrified fillies on-board. They were in trouble! Starlight sprung into action. Instinct kicked in, lowering her hoof down into the river in an attempt to stop them. The water divided at her hoof, surging around it, causing the tearing boat to sway around Starlight's hoof and continue even faster downriver. It actually made things worse as the smashing hoof caused a large ripple that overturned the boat, forcing the three panicking fillies to fall into the water, helplessly hanging onto the boat. Starlight panicked, running downriver, accidentally knocking down some of the trees that she towered over. She tried using her magic, but she couldn't get a clear view of the drowning ponies. "G-Girls, I don't know what to do!" She panicked, chasing the boat alongside the surging river. She could see the heads of the tree fillies bobbing up from the boat now and then desperately gasping for air. If Starlight didn't act soon they might be in really big trouble. "Oh!" Fluttershy called out as a thought in Starlight's head, "Stop them with your giant body by laying in the river, your soft fur will cushion them!" Starlight didn't even hesitate upon hearing this, jumping into the river, blocking it with her entire body across. She felt the waves crashing into her and building up pressure as her entire body blocked the whole river. Suddenly, the patchwork boat crashed against her body like a pea, her soft body cushioning the blow keeping what was left of it intact. Three wriggling bodies pressing against her legs soon after. She felt the three fillies hang onto her fur, climbing up onto her back. Starlight carefully lifted the tiny boat onto the shore and looked back to make sure the three fillies were safe. Upon making sure of this, she stood up from the river, the built-up water surging below her ankles downriver even harder. She took careful steps, trying not to lose her balance as the water fiercely attacked her hooves, as she reached the ground safely, laying down next to the grounded tattered boat facing the river. She could hear the fillies coughing and weakly muttering something weakly as they regained their postures, carefully sliding off her wet body to see who this mysterious giant heroine was... "Oh my stars, it's a giant pony, gals!" the yellow red-haired filly shouted to the others. "She's saved ah' lives! Come look!" The others walked up in front of her, the white filly dragging her weak orange friend towards the boat. "Woah!" the orange filly said as she was being dragged, "Our boat's saved too! Thank you, stranger!" This made Starlight blush. She suddenly cringed as a sharp voice pierced her brain. It was Applejack, and she was mad. "Ah can't believe that filly would keep doing stuff like this, I thought she was done playing these dangerous games!" She yelled in the nothingness. "Starlight, you tell 'er right now that she's in big trouble when I come back! Gosh that Applebloom and 'er friends!" Starlight shook her head, trying to focus and smile at these three weak little fillies below her. "Oh, it was nothing", she told them, rubbing the back of her neck nervously, "I just uh, did what any other pony would've done, really." "But that was SUPER AWESOME!" The orange one fluttered up suddenly. She buzzed her little orange wings like a bee, only achieving as little as a few hovering inches off the ground in excitement. "How you swept in, and blocked a WHOLE RIVER to save us! That's so cool! I've never seen a pony do that before!" "Wait a minute..." the white filly said, scratching her puffy purple-pink mane curiously as she took a closer look at Starlight, "Haven't we seen you before?" "Oh yeah!" the yellow red-haired filly pointed out, "It's miss Glimmer! The pony who saved Equestria from the changelings! We were there tha' graduation, remembers? Gosh I never got to speak to you face-tuh-face!" She looked up at Starlight, shadowed by the giant snout that covered her view. "I'm uh. I'm Applebloom. That orange one there's Scootaloo, and she's Sweetie Belle. We're the cutie mark crusaders!" "That sounds... nice?" Starlight replied. She decided to follow up what Applejack had said. "So, uhm." She looked at the boat and raging ravine, then back to the crusaders. "What were you trying to do here, anyway? Don't you...have your cutie marks?" The two fillies all looked towards Scootaloo, who started blushing from embarrassment. "Erm." She squeaked. "I started to miss the crazy stunts we used to do back in the old days, so I convinced them to go rafting with me." Glimmer was puzzled. Rafting? She looked at the small square wooden boat, which was clearly built by these determined trio of fillies. The boat looked horribly battered, as it was clearly almost broken to pieces held together by rubber bands and glue. Was this their idea of a raft? "At least the raft's okay." Scootaloo added as she wiped her forehead. "Glad we didn't lose that too." Apparently so. Starlight couldn't help but like the three fillies. They had this childish aura around them that reminded her of the childhood she wish she had. So innocent, too! They weren't even afraid of her, or asking a dozen questions about why she was a giant pony. They just accepted her for what she was there and then. "Starlight, stay focused!" Applejack cut in, her voice like a razorblade in the peaceful silence of Starlight's mind. "There ain't no way they can make their way home from here, we're deep in the everfree forest!" "Oh dear, we can't possibly leave them here, the poor fillies!" Fluttershy added. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "You better make sure Scootaloo's okay!" "I'm bored!" Pinkie Pie moaned. "I wonder how my animals are-" Starlight couldn't take any more of it, rising her head angrily towards the sky, shouting suddenly. "Can you all stop yelling at me all the time?!" She raised her whole body upwards, her hooves turning quickly in front of each other threateningly above the ground in anger. Gravity suddenly took over, as she found herself suddenly falling forwards into the river, causing a huge splash that flooded the surrounding trees around the river, causing her body to get even more damp and causing the three cutie mark crusaders to get swooped from the waves, holding desperately onto bushes and tree branches to fight the sudden flooding current. The water flowed back into the river as fast as it had splashed, draining from the ground. The cutie mark crusaders started shivering, scared and cold, having no idea why Starlight got so mad. Applebloom was the first who came closer to Starlight, who was face-first in the river, breathing from her nose in an annoyed way as the water teased her jaw. She stood up again, sighing, rubbing off the mud that came from the bottom of the river, shaking her head. Suddenly she noticed Applebloom staring up at her. Oh no, not again! she thought, I was getting on really well with them too. Do I have to convince ponies that I'm not going to hurt them every time? "Look... I didn't mean it at you, okay? I was... talking to myself, I guess." She looked around her, noticing how different the grass and dirt looked due to the water that splashed all over it. It was an awful muddy brown, as opposed to the original beautiful green grass that blossomed beautifully earlier. She backed out from the river, standing timidly yet towering immensely in front of Applebloom. "Okay...?" Applebloom responded carefully, taking some small steps back, "Sounds like you've got a lotta issues, miss Glimmer." She looked around herself, realizing that she had no other place to go other than getting lost in the trees. She turned back to Starlight, who was still emotionlessly staring down at her. "C-Could you help us get home?" she stuttered. "Oh yeah, that!" Starlight said, panicking a little. "Of course. I'll take you there. You're all from Ponyvile, right? I could drop you off there if you know your way around." She lowered herself onto the ground invitingly, lending out a large hoof near Applebloom. The other two cutie mark crusaders walked up, exchanging looks with Applebloom. They huddled up together, having an extremely silent meeting which Starlight couldn't overhear. Suddenly Sweetie Belle turned around and spoke. "Okay, we trust you! You did save us, after all-" "And Equestria!" Scootaloo added, showing no hesitation to climb up Starlight's wings like a ramp onto her back, making herself feel more than comfortable hugging Starlight's neck from behind. The other two followed, sitting on Starlight's back. "Okay," they said, "We're ready!" Starlight folded her wings like safety barriers on her sides, standing up high above the trees on all four hooves. She made her way through the forest, trying to take the least destructive route, giving the trio an extremely comfortable ride. So comfortable in fact, that she heard and felt the little orange pony snoring and cuddling up against her neck happily, followed by the slight giggling of the other two fillies watching. Barely an hour had passed until they reached the Apple Farm, found in the outskirts of Ponyvile. She used her wing to gently pick up the three fillies, even sleepy Scootaloo, off her back and gently placed them on a big soft haystack. The afternoon light, which had been blocked by Starlight's massive shadow on the trip, now shone on Scootaloo's face, making her twitch and wake up. The other two fillies thanked the giant alicorn, walked off into town to tell everyone about their great adventure. "Y'see Starlight, this isn't as bad as we thought it was," Fluttershy commented, "You haven't changed from your good old sweet self at all." Starlight was felt pretty happy about this, but found herself too tired to respond. She spun around carefully in the middle of the apple orchard, seeing nopony else. "Thanks Fluttershy..." She yawned in a very short, sweet way, deciding to rest her head on the biggest apple tree she could find and shut her eyes. Author's Note Will be continuing this story ofc, this is just the beginning.
Chapter 1: Friendship Lesson"Today's friendship lesson is about boundaries," Twilight Sparkle announced to Starlight in the castle library. "Like a shield spell?" Starlight asked, ready to cast the spell, "I can do that easily." Twilight shook her head. "No no, that's not what I meant, but I understand why you're confused. A boundary is a kind of social limitation that ponies make with other ponies they don't know, or even trust. There's always different boundaries with different ponies. It's like... privacy." "I-I don't follow," Starlight admitted shyly, "How can I make new friends if I don't know what these....'boundaries'...are?" "I'll show you what I mean," Twilight explained, "let's do a little roleplay." Twilight's horn glowed as she levitated an old grey hat and coat around her. "I'll pretend to be a pony you don't know by wearing this hat and coat. I'll take it off when the roleplay is over. Now, show me how you would introduce yourself to a random pony." Twilight levitated the old hat around her head, covering her ears and upper mane, while the coat wrapped gently around her body, dragging along the floor. Starlight started to panic, she wasn't prepared for this. She moved forwards carefully, nudging the 'stranger' on the shoulder. "H-Hi, erm, hello there, I'm-" "What do you want, random pony?" the 'stranger' replied slowly her low voice. Starlight gulped, putting on her best smile. Twilgiht was definitely not going easy. "I'm uh, I'm Starlight Glimmer, it's nice to meet you. I like magic. I'm really good at it. Do you like magic?" "No." The 'stranger's voice sounded as cold as ever. "Oh, well, uhm-" Starlight's eyes darted left to right, coming uncomfortably close to the 'stranger's' face, "Pinkie Pie makes nice cakes, have you ever tried any?" A colder reply came this time. "Why are you talking to me? I don't even know you." Starlight got extremely flustered at this point. What kind of lesson was Twilight trying to teach her? Friendship was the answer to everything, wasn't it? Suddenly, it clicked. That's right! She thought to herself. Twilight's teaching me to keep trying no matter what! "Oh, don't worry about me, I'd like to know SOMETHING about you, stranger. I like kites, do you like kites? Reading? Anything?" Twilight sighed, taking off her disguise to stop the session. "Okay, that was good, Starlight, you kept your cool and you stayed friendly and positive." Starlight was relieved that it was over, but was still confused. "What..What did I do wrong then? I tried everything you've thought me, it always works when I meet one of your friend's friends!" "I know, Starlight. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, I was roleplaying a pretty harsh pony. Well, this all goes back to boundaries. The pony didn't really know you, and you were being a little too close. Being too close to ponies that don't know you actually makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes, respecting a pony means giving them some space until they want to get to know you better too. You can't just go up to a random pony and reveal your deepest secrets to them. They might feel overwhelmed or weirded out. Do you want to try again?" Twilight smiled as she finished her speech, resting her hoof on Starlight's back encouragingly. She knew this wasn't easy for her. Startlight rubbed her hooves together nervously. She still didn't get it entirely. "Could we have a break? I'd like to uhm, read up, on the topic, before trying again. If that's okay?" "Sure! This is a pretty difficult friendship lesson, so take all the time you need. Let me know when you want to continue. I'll be reading in the map room." Twilight waved goodbye as she walked out of the library, leaving Starlight alone. Starlight instantly started looking through different book covers in the library, really curious about these boundaries. She remembered how cold and reclusive she was when she first started living in the castle. Twilight taught her how to be more open with her friends, but now she was teaching her how to be closed and distant all over again. It didn't make much sense to her. The fact that every pony had their own boundaries confused her even more. How could she learn and memorize every single one? Surely this was impossible, you can't just read other ponies minds. ... Or can you?
Chapter 2: The New SpellAltering the minds of ponies was one thing, Starlight found plenty of spells for that, but nobody had truly figured out how to look inside a pony's thoughts before. Failing to find any memory-viewing spells, she decided to look for possible spell combinations. "Hmm," she thought to herself aloud. "A morphing spell DOES allow you to link thoughts and memories on touch if you cast it weakly, but I don't want strangers to realize I'm touching them just to get to know their thoughts. That's just weird. Maybe if I combine a tiny morphing spell with a phase-through spell I can make contact with the stranger without them feeling it, so I can see what kind of boundaries they have before I even start the conversation!" She bookmarked the two pages, giggling to herself as she prepared a new empty scroll to write down a combined version of the two spells. "Starlight", she congratulated herself, "You're a genius." She didn't hesitate to write down the new spell with the nearby ink and feather on the table. Finishing, she decided the name of her new spell and wrote it at the top of the scroll. "Memory-viewing on touch spell, cast as weakly as possible only." Starlight held her new powerful scroll out proudly. All she had to do now was test it. She kept the scroll on the table and rushed through the castle hallways to get Twilight. The door to the map room burst open revealing an overconfident Starlight, her mane slightly spiked from her sprinting. "Twilight, I think I've got it now, let's try it again!" Twilight looked up from the large circular desk, surprised. "Of course." She levitated her book under her royal seat, standing up and following Starlight into the castle library. "I see you've been busy," she giggled, commenting on the pile of books and scroll on the large reading desk. She turned around, preparing the 'stranger' disguise from before. Meanwhile, Starlight looked at her scroll quickly, memorizing the two spells as well as possible. She began to cast it, when suddenly the library door burst open. Starlight gasped in surprise, causing a surge of magic to get used up in casting the experimental spell, losing control and casting it on herself fully. The rest of the main six flooded into the room with party blowers and confetti, Pinkie Pie rolling in with a big purple and light-blue cake on a trolley in the color of Starlight's hair. "Happy birthday Starlight!" They yelled. Starlight blushed, absolutely confused. She had gotten so focused on her studies she had forgotten it was her birthday! Fluttershy spoke up gently, "we wanted to uhm, surprise you by doing this in one of Twilight's lessons. We asked her permission and she said yes..." They all giggled, and Twilight set her costume back on it's coat hangar. None of them had noticed Starlight casting the spell on herself, and Starlight was so surprised she even forgot about it herself. "I knew this was going to be a stressful lesson for you, Starlight" Twilight explained, "so we don't have to finish it today. It's your birthday after all, let's celebrate!" Starlight blushed in her corner, forgetting about her magic spell entirely. "Aww, girls, I totally forgot today was my birthday. You're all way too kind..." Rarity had levitated a lovely chair behind Starlight, letting her sit down to take it all in. "We're always there for you, darling." Rarity commented, "It was Pinkie's idea, really. We're just so glad to make you feel at home here." "Yeah!" Pinkie Pie blurted out, "remember when I asked you when your birthday was?" "That was ages ago!" Starlight said in amazement. "I can't believe you've done this for me. All of you. You're all the best, really. I feel happy. I could just.. I..." She smiled and began to cry happily with her hooves near her face at this friendship overload. "D'awww" everyone cooed, approaching and surrounding Starlight Glimmer for a big group hug, wrapping their arms all around her. But their arms didn't stop there. They all suddenly panicked as they felt themselves fall forwards into each other, phasing through Starlight's body. Laughter turned to confusion and terror as they all vanished into Starlight's body. Starlight looked around, horrified, having no idea where her friends went. The chair broke under her suddenly, making her realize that her whole body was getting bigger. She rushed aimlessly in the room, desperately trying to find the scroll to try and reverse it. The room became smaller and smaller to her, accidentally crushing the big table under her hooves in panic. She could hear her friends screaming but she couldn't figure out from where. Suddenly her growth spurt caused her to hit her head with the roof, everything suddenly fading to black followed by a massive crash.
Chapter 3: Together"Where are we?" "This is like, the TOTAL OPPOSITE of cool right now." "I CAN'T FEEL MY MANEEE" "I-I'm scared..." "Don't worry Fluttershy, I got ya!" "Hey girls, she's waking up!" Starlight opened her eyes, groaning while rubbing her hurting head. She found herself outside the castle laying on the grass surrounding it. She looked at her own hooves. Yup, still her own normal hooves. She shook her head again, taking a better look around. Looking closer at Twilight's castle she realized that it had a big hole in it's side. She could see the library she was in before, which confused her. What made a hole that big? Then she looked down, realizing she was a good thirty feet off the ground. She got frightened at first, thinking she was going to fall. "Woah! Wait.." Moving her feet along the ground she noticed she was standing perfectly fine. The realization then hit her that the castle looked a lot smaller, she was just half it's size! Suddenly, she heard Pinkie Pie's voice. "I've never seen the castle from THIS view before, wow! So cool!" Starlight looked around. It felt like Pinkie Pie was speaking right into both ears at once, but she couldn't see her anywhere. She couldn't find any of her friends. "Wh-Where are you all?" she asked in alarm. She heard Applejack respond in a similar way. "Well, I think we're all seeing exactly what you're seeing, Starlight. It's like we're inside your head." "Oh." Starlight nodded. ... "WAIT WHAT?!" She yelled. She looked back at her self, realizing her giant body also had a giant set of wings as well, getting even more alarmed. "When did I get THESE?!" "Calm down everypony" Twilight said from within her head, "I think we've all somehow merged into Starlight's body. If my assumptions are correct, we're all talking inside Starlight's consciousness." "Okay Starlight, what n' tarnation did you DO to us?" Applejack demanded. Starlight winced, it wasn't easy to get used to hearing her six friends talking over each other inside her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry please! I didn't mean for this to happen at all. I kinda..made a spell to look into ponies minds. Y'know, to uhm, to see what their boundaries are?" Everyone groaned. It hurt Starlight a little. "I'm pretty sure that meant NOT using magic!" Rainbow Dash scolded. "How am I supposed to fly when I'm stuck inside your big head, Starlight? This is totally uncool." "I didn't mean for THIS to happen!" Starlight sobbed. She sat on the ground suddenly, causing the ground to shake, and pressing her hooves against her face trying to keep back her tears. This was an extreme emotional whiplash to be happening on her birthday. "There there, Starlight," Fluttershy comforted from seemingly nowhere, "I believe you. I mean, maybe this isn't that bad. I'm sure you'l keep us safe." This cheered Starlight up enough to stop crying. Suddenly she felt her right arm come up and wipe her tears even though she didn't think about doing it. "F...Fluttershy, did you just move my arm?" "I..I think so. You just sounded so sad I wanted to wipe your tears for you." Fluttershy admitted. Twilight had never seen or experienced anything like this before. "This is interesting, it seems that if we try hard enough we can take some kind of limited control over Starlight's body. Let me try something..." Starlight sat upright stiffly, feeling extremely uncomfortable that her friends were treating her like some kind of puppet. Suddenly she saw her two arms spread out in front of her, and then pull back to her chest, giving herself a hug. It made her blush and feel warm inside. "We still love you, Starlight." Twilight said. "We're going to have to keep it together if we're going to get through this eitherway." "Thanks Twilight, Fluttershy, that made me feel a lot better," Starlight smiled, standing up on her four massive hooves. She looked at the castle next to her, clearly too small for her to fit inside. "I must have grown from absorbing you all, I'm kinda huge. I don't think going into town is a good idea. I don't know what to do." Twilight thought to herself, floating weightlessly inside the black void of Starlight's consciousness, seeing two big circular screens that broadcasted Starlight's vision. "Well, if you used some kind of morph spell to do all this, it should wear off. Morphing spells last at around a few days, tops. Let's just make the most of it. I mean, it's still your birthday, right? We can still have fun and... do...things, I guess?" Their conversation was interrupted by the castle doorbell being rung nearby, along with multiple tiny knocks on the main door in front. Starlight's massive body was hidden behind the larger castle. "Oh no!" they all thought in unison. "Who could that be!?"
Chapter 4: The Great and Powerful VisitStarlight slowly and carefully leaned from behind the castle, trying to see who was knocking at the door. She strained her eyes and noticed a tiny purple triangle shaking about on the head of a blue pony in front of the doorway. It didn't notice Starlight, and was holding a tiny box, or at least, it looked tiny. Starlight was still adjusting to how small everything looked to her at her new size. She still couldn't make out what this blue thing was until it squeaked loudly. "THe GRRREAT and POWERRRFUL Trixie demands that somepony open this door, for she has a GREAT and POWERFUL gift for her GOOD and WONDERFUL friend!" Oh no, Starlight thought, it's Trixie! She can't see me like this! Her thought was interrupted by a chorus of annoyed groaning by her friends. "Oh great," Rainbow Dash complained, "As if my day wasn't going bad enough, now we have to deal with HER." "Please don't talk to her, Starlight" Twilight begged, desperately trying to avoid having to hear Trixie's screeching voice again, "m-maybe if you talk to her she'l be afraid of you forever, so uh, just leave her there and you won't get any problems!" Even Fluttershy tried to chime in, "Starlight... I...don't really, uhm.. like..." "She's a real meanie pants Starlight, can we not spend your birthday with her?" Pinkie interrupted. AppleJack shook her head too, "U'hm gonna be honest, but that there pony is only going to make things worse~" "QUIET!" Starlight shouted in her head. Her friends rattled around in her conscience like popcorn, dazed. She recollected herself, took a deep breath, thankful that Trixie didn't hear any of that. She raised one large hoof in front of the other, stepping carefully around the castle. Trixie lost her balance, letting out a yelp as she fell over and dropped her wrapped gift on the steps. She looked around her, confused as to why it became really dark all of a sudden. She looked up, seeing a massive hoof come crashing down in front of her, making her panic and fall backwards, scurrying into the nearest bush. "Help! The great and...Whatever! Trixie needs help!" She wailed, hiding in the bush, hoping that she would live to perform another day. Starlight lowered her head sadly, her hair brushing against the castle as she leveled eye-to-eye near Trixie's new hiding place. "Trixie, please, don't be like that. it's only me." Starlight looked sadly and closely at the bush, trying to be as gentle and slow as possible. Trixie slowly popped her head out of the bush, looking up at these two big adorable eyes looking down on her. She still shivered from head to hoof, unable to make sense of it. Her fight or flight response gradually faded and finally spoke. "Trixie demands an explanation!" she spluttered accusingly, "Trixie does NOT like to get spooked by her best friend. Goodness, what's happened to you?" She jumped out from the bush, recollecting her dropped hat and wrapped gift huffily. "It's..." Starlight was getting lost for words, trying to explain to her now tiny friend what happened. "It's... a little hard to explain. It's not just me, apparently I, erm, absorbed my friends...?" Trixie kept arranging her hat, still upset. "There is no excuse for giving Trixie the fright of her-" She paused as she made sense of what Starlight had just explained and froze. "Wait WHAT?!" "Yeah..." Starlight continued, "They're kind of stuck in my head, and it made me six times bigger. I think even more somehow, I don't fully understand it myself. I'm still me though, honest! Though the others have been saying...a lot of bad things in my head." She turned her attention to the others, "Which I would really appreciate it if all of you stopped complaining, please?" Starlight looked up angrily, as if she was trying to look at herself, gritting her teeth together impatiently. Her friends had been whining incoherently during the whole conversation, and Starlight was trying her best to block it out. Trixie shook her head quickly, taking multiple looks at Starlight towering over her, trying to make sense of it all. "Trixie feels she must reveal something important to you, Starlight. Trixie often feels inferior to many ponies, and hates it very much. But this whole concept interests Trixie. Every time, the better pony has always been Trixie's enemies, but today, it is an ally of Trixie that has the abilities and size to overpower anypony! We can rule ponyvile! No, Equestria! Everypony will bow down to Trixie and her great and powerful friend! They will all apologize for the mockery they have made of Trixie...I mean... us! You can crush anyone in your path, nobody can stop us!" An angry debacle instantly went off inside Starlight's head. "SERIOUSLY?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, flying around angrily in the black void. "I can't believe you're even friends with this pony, she's TERRIBLE!" "You can't seriously even CONSIDER what she's saying, Starlight!" Rarity yelled. "You've changed, Starlight, you're better than that." Twilight pleaded. "I know you have." Starlight sighed, trying to think clearly through the bombarding thoughts of her friends yelling in her conscience. "Trixie, I hate to be the one to say this, but that's a really selfish idea. I'm still terrified of leading anything. Being this huge is terrifying to me. I don't want to step on anypony. I don't want to hurt or overpower anypony. I've done enough damage by entrapping my friends inside my head today. Honestly... I'm hurt... I'm hurt that you'd even suggest something like that, Trixie. I thought you knew me better. I thought you'd treat me more than just... a tool..." Starlight stood up sadly, turning around and began walking away from the castle. She could barely believe that Trixie would just want to selfishly use her for her powers like that. Her friends often warned her of this, but she refused to believe it until now. "No, wait!" Trixie yelled, stumbling over her hooves from the shaking ground. "The great and powerful Trixie takes it back! I take it back! Starlight!" It was too late, Starlight had already walked a great distance away thanks to her large body, leaving Trixie alone in front of the castle. Trixie tugged her gift, deeply regretting what she said. "Trixie...thought she could be honest with her..." Trixie hiccuped, wobbling her lower lip against her wrapped gift, "No longer is she the Great and Powerful Trixie... but the Lonely and... Powerless... Trixie..." She held the gift tightly, the only bit of Starlight she could have left. She covered her face with her large performer's hat to hide her tears, leaving the gift in front of the castle door before running away towards her tiny poor home to rethink about what she said.
Chapter 5: River rescueThere was a gentle breeze blowing through the everfree forest. There was a slight opening clear of trees where a fast flowing river divided the forest, the water glistening with sunlight. The river flowed beneath Starlight's room-sized hooves, reflecting her thoughtful face back up at her as she rested against the grass. "I can't believe she just wanted to use me for power. I thought we were over this. I thought I was her friend." She kicked a boulder into the stream as if it was a pebble, resting her front hooves on her knees, digging her head between them. "I thought she understood me." "I tried to warn you, to be honest." Twilight said, rubbing her hoof against the pitch-black walls of Starlight's conscience, "She's the kind of pony who you'd give a slight bit of power and she'l take the whole mile. I've seen her do it before, and she didn't change like you did. I was trying to protect you..." Fluttershy floated next to Twilight, trying to soften the blow. "M-Maybe she was joking? Like, maybe she didn't really mean it like that-" "Nuh-uh" Pinkie interrupted with a thrust of her neck, "I KNOW jokes, and that didn't sound like any kind of joke I've ever heard. She was real beans! Without the healthy part. Like, rotten beans. The kind of beans you know are rotten before you even open the can! That's like, a super bad bean." "Yeah," Rainbow continued, struggling not to giggle at her upcoming corny joke, "It's pretty difficult to bean-ice to her." All the ponies gave distasteful side-glances at Rainbow Dash, and Starlight would've if she could've, except for Pinkie Pie who started laughing out loud while rotating weightlessly around them. "HAHAHAH! I GET IT! You can't BE-NICE! BEAN! ICE! HAHAHA-" "Do I have to say it?" Applejack groaned, looking away. "That wasn' funny at all. That has to be your worst joke since...well... nevermind, no bad joke can top you pranking Fluttershy." This really offended Rainbow. "Seriously, you're bringing THAT up? That was ages ago! I haven't done it since the rainbow cupcake incident! You can come right here and I'll show you a funny joke or two called my HOOVES!" Rainbow helplessly flailed her hooves in the void angrily, the extra force rotating her whole body making her hollow threats look even more ridiculous. It was clear by now that being trapped in a weightless black void was starting to get the better of them. "Ya can't even fly in here, just give it up." Applejack huffed, not really feeling up to fighting back. Starlight held her head, she felt like she was getting a massive headache with all this arguing in her head. "Girls, come on, please, could you not fight in my head? I'm hearing everything you're saying and it's really....really...annoying." She leaned backwards feeling exhausted from hearing six ponies talk and argue in her head, resting her head against a few trees, unintentionally tipping them over causing them to de-root and fall on each other along the ground becoming slightly more comfortable to rest on, but causing a horrible crunching sound as she did so. Starlight realized her mistake too late, seeing animals running away safely from their destroyed homes, birds flying desperately from the treetops beside her. "Oh no, the poor animals!" Fluttershy cried out, "Starlight, you must be more careful!" Starlight didn't know if she could feel more miserable right now, her fears of being dangerous at her size were coming true. She uprighted herself, using her magic to re-attach the broken trees, hollowing some out from the inside without much thought. She then lowered down and used her hooves to pick up and free any trapped animals stuck under any fallen branches, carefully placing them near the river on the safe flat grass, much to Fluttershy's delight. "There, happy?" Starlight asked, sighing as she looked down at her work. "That was really kind of you, actually..." Fluttershy said, gleaming at such a display of kindness to animals, "You even saved the little critters!" she pointed out. Starlight finally smiled again, seeing how the animals were gladly running around their renovated little homes. She felt a lot better realizing that she could fix any damage she accidentally caused around her. In fact, she could really help improve things around her as well. Thoughts suddenly began rushing around her head about possible things to do with her new size, the thoughts visibly dashing back and forth around Twilight and the others. "Ooooh", Starlight said to herself excitedly, "I can improve things on like, a massive scale! I could really help Ponyville with things I never would've imagined!" Twilight and the others looked at the fast-moving 'thoughts" rushing about. One thought pictured Starlight standing beside a construction site, helping to bring and carefully place wooden planks around, or helping with controlled demolition. Another thought had her fighting off an angry ursa minor with her bare hooves, even scaring it away. She loved the thought of being cherished and thanked by the village ponies for saving them, having so many friends, so many friends... The sound of distant screaming snapped her out of it. She got up, looking around for the source, perking her ears up as far as possible. The distant screaming got louder, along with the river waves. It didn't seem like much at first, but she finally noticed that the river was flowing dangerously fast. Looking upriver, she noticed a small wooden boat that had been horribly set up in patchwork fashion, barely surviving against the surging waves. The source of the screaming came from three terrified fillies on-board. They were in trouble! Starlight sprung into action. Instinct kicked in, lowering her hoof down into the river in an attempt to stop them. The water divided at her hoof, surging around it, causing the tearing boat to sway around Starlight's hoof and continue even faster downriver. It actually made things worse as the smashing hoof caused a large ripple that overturned the boat, forcing the three panicking fillies to fall into the water, helplessly hanging onto the boat. Starlight panicked, running downriver, accidentally knocking down some of the trees that she towered over. She tried using her magic, but she couldn't get a clear view of the drowning ponies. "G-Girls, I don't know what to do!" She panicked, chasing the boat alongside the surging river. She could see the heads of the tree fillies bobbing up from the boat now and then desperately gasping for air. If Starlight didn't act soon they might be in really big trouble. "Oh!" Fluttershy called out as a thought in Starlight's head, "Stop them with your giant body by laying in the river, your soft fur will cushion them!" Starlight didn't even hesitate upon hearing this, jumping into the river, blocking it with her entire body across. She felt the waves crashing into her and building up pressure as her entire body blocked the whole river. Suddenly, the patchwork boat crashed against her body like a pea, her soft body cushioning the blow keeping what was left of it intact. Three wriggling bodies pressing against her legs soon after. She felt the three fillies hang onto her fur, climbing up onto her back. Starlight carefully lifted the tiny boat onto the shore and looked back to make sure the three fillies were safe. Upon making sure of this, she stood up from the river, the built-up water surging below her ankles downriver even harder. She took careful steps, trying not to lose her balance as the water fiercely attacked her hooves, as she reached the ground safely, laying down next to the grounded tattered boat facing the river. She could hear the fillies coughing and weakly muttering something weakly as they regained their postures, carefully sliding off her wet body to see who this mysterious giant heroine was... "Oh my stars, it's a giant pony, gals!" the yellow red-haired filly shouted to the others. "She's saved ah' lives! Come look!" The others walked up in front of her, the white filly dragging her weak orange friend towards the boat. "Woah!" the orange filly said as she was being dragged, "Our boat's saved too! Thank you, stranger!" This made Starlight blush. She suddenly cringed as a sharp voice pierced her brain. It was Applejack, and she was mad. "Ah can't believe that filly would keep doing stuff like this, I thought she was done playing these dangerous games!" She yelled in the nothingness. "Starlight, you tell 'er right now that she's in big trouble when I come back! Gosh that Applebloom and 'er friends!" Starlight shook her head, trying to focus and smile at these three weak little fillies below her. "Oh, it was nothing", she told them, rubbing the back of her neck nervously, "I just uh, did what any other pony would've done, really." "But that was SUPER AWESOME!" The orange one fluttered up suddenly. She buzzed her little orange wings like a bee, only achieving as little as a few hovering inches off the ground in excitement. "How you swept in, and blocked a WHOLE RIVER to save us! That's so cool! I've never seen a pony do that before!" "Wait a minute..." the white filly said, scratching her puffy purple-pink mane curiously as she took a closer look at Starlight, "Haven't we seen you before?" "Oh yeah!" the yellow red-haired filly pointed out, "It's miss Glimmer! The pony who saved Equestria from the changelings! We were there tha' graduation, remembers? Gosh I never got to speak to you face-tuh-face!" She looked up at Starlight, shadowed by the giant snout that covered her view. "I'm uh. I'm Applebloom. That orange one there's Scootaloo, and she's Sweetie Belle. We're the cutie mark crusaders!" "That sounds... nice?" Starlight replied. She decided to follow up what Applejack had said. "So, uhm." She looked at the boat and raging ravine, then back to the crusaders. "What were you trying to do here, anyway? Don't you...have your cutie marks?" The two fillies all looked towards Scootaloo, who started blushing from embarrassment. "Erm." She squeaked. "I started to miss the crazy stunts we used to do back in the old days, so I convinced them to go rafting with me." Glimmer was puzzled. Rafting? She looked at the small square wooden boat, which was clearly built by these determined trio of fillies. The boat looked horribly battered, as it was clearly almost broken to pieces held together by rubber bands and glue. Was this their idea of a raft? "At least the raft's okay." Scootaloo added as she wiped her forehead. "Glad we didn't lose that too." Apparently so. Starlight couldn't help but like the three fillies. They had this childish aura around them that reminded her of the childhood she wish she had. So innocent, too! They weren't even afraid of her, or asking a dozen questions about why she was a giant pony. They just accepted her for what she was there and then. "Starlight, stay focused!" Applejack cut in, her voice like a razorblade in the peaceful silence of Starlight's mind. "There ain't no way they can make their way home from here, we're deep in the everfree forest!" "Oh dear, we can't possibly leave them here, the poor fillies!" Fluttershy added. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "You better make sure Scootaloo's okay!" "I'm bored!" Pinkie Pie moaned. "I wonder how my animals are-" Starlight couldn't take any more of it, rising her head angrily towards the sky, shouting suddenly. "Can you all stop yelling at me all the time?!" She raised her whole body upwards, her hooves turning quickly in front of each other threateningly above the ground in anger. Gravity suddenly took over, as she found herself suddenly falling forwards into the river, causing a huge splash that flooded the surrounding trees around the river, causing her body to get even more damp and causing the three cutie mark crusaders to get swooped from the waves, holding desperately onto bushes and tree branches to fight the sudden flooding current. The water flowed back into the river as fast as it had splashed, draining from the ground. The cutie mark crusaders started shivering, scared and cold, having no idea why Starlight got so mad. Applebloom was the first who came closer to Starlight, who was face-first in the river, breathing from her nose in an annoyed way as the water teased her jaw. She stood up again, sighing, rubbing off the mud that came from the bottom of the river, shaking her head. Suddenly she noticed Applebloom staring up at her. Oh no, not again! she thought, I was getting on really well with them too. Do I have to convince ponies that I'm not going to hurt them every time? "Look... I didn't mean it at you, okay? I was... talking to myself, I guess." She looked around her, noticing how different the grass and dirt looked due to the water that splashed all over it. It was an awful muddy brown, as opposed to the original beautiful green grass that blossomed beautifully earlier. She backed out from the river, standing timidly yet towering immensely in front of Applebloom. "Okay...?" Applebloom responded carefully, taking some small steps back, "Sounds like you've got a lotta issues, miss Glimmer." She looked around herself, realizing that she had no other place to go other than getting lost in the trees. She turned back to Starlight, who was still emotionlessly staring down at her. "C-Could you help us get home?" she stuttered. "Oh yeah, that!" Starlight said, panicking a little. "Of course. I'll take you there. You're all from Ponyvile, right? I could drop you off there if you know your way around." She lowered herself onto the ground invitingly, lending out a large hoof near Applebloom. The other two cutie mark crusaders walked up, exchanging looks with Applebloom. They huddled up together, having an extremely silent meeting which Starlight couldn't overhear. Suddenly Sweetie Belle turned around and spoke. "Okay, we trust you! You did save us, after all-" "And Equestria!" Scootaloo added, showing no hesitation to climb up Starlight's wings like a ramp onto her back, making herself feel more than comfortable hugging Starlight's neck from behind. The other two followed, sitting on Starlight's back. "Okay," they said, "We're ready!" Starlight folded her wings like safety barriers on her sides, standing up high above the trees on all four hooves. She made her way through the forest, trying to take the least destructive route, giving the trio an extremely comfortable ride. So comfortable in fact, that she heard and felt the little orange pony snoring and cuddling up against her neck happily, followed by the slight giggling of the other two fillies watching. Barely an hour had passed until they reached the Apple Farm, found in the outskirts of Ponyvile. She used her wing to gently pick up the three fillies, even sleepy Scootaloo, off her back and gently placed them on a big soft haystack. The afternoon light, which had been blocked by Starlight's massive shadow on the trip, now shone on Scootaloo's face, making her twitch and wake up. The other two fillies thanked the giant alicorn, walked off into town to tell everyone about their great adventure. "Y'see Starlight, this isn't as bad as we thought it was," Fluttershy commented, "You haven't changed from your good old sweet self at all." Starlight was felt pretty happy about this, but found herself too tired to respond. She spun around carefully in the middle of the apple orchard, seeing nopony else. "Thanks Fluttershy..." She yawned in a very short, sweet way, deciding to rest her head on the biggest apple tree she could find and shut her eyes. Author's Note Will be continuing this story ofc, this is just the beginning.
