There 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.