Size Up Starlight

"Shhh Spikey Wikey, she's waking up!"

Starlight opened her eyes slowly, letting out a weak groan. Her lips felt dry as she smacked them together in a tired way. She noticed that her friends from yesterday were all standing close to her eyes, standing in front of a large bright-blue tent that lay flattened behind them, which seemed to take up a lot of land. Starlight realized that she was still a giant two-hundred foot tall unicorn, and that her friends were still tiny compared to her.

"Surprise!" they called out in imperfect unison to her, as Pinkie Pie set off some cheap fireworks behind them. Starlight yawned and set herself upright while laying down, looking rather confused at her friends.

"Wha...?" Starlight said drowsily in confusion, "uh, hello everypony. What's the occasion?" She found it hard to focus on her friends for quite a bit.

"You've been a big ol' sleepy-head, Starlight!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed from below, "It's the afternoon!"

Applejack, who was wearing two large orange construction saddlebags filled with tools on her back, walked up next to Pinkie Pie and looked up at Starlight with a smile. "We didn't want to wake yer up, so we went ahead and built ya a giant tent for ya to sleep in," she explained.

"Indeed, we worked very hard on it," Rarity added, "Think of it as a completely normal, cute little bed for you to snuggle in at night!"

Starlight raised her eyebrows in surprise. She placed a careful hoof down onto the ground to stand up and take a better look at the massive tent of fabric that lay before her. The tent was enormous, and she could tell that it could just fit her like a sleeping bag, if only a little smaller. She was beaming with sudden delight, unable to believe her eyes. "Wow, you did all this, for me?

"Yup!" Another cheery voice called from below, this time close to Starlight's left arm. Starlight saw Rainbow Dash swooping up next to her face. "We wanted to give you an awesome present to help you feel at home, but we couldn't have done it on our own." Rainbow turned slightly to face another group of stallions who were standing opposite them, in front of the apparent entrance of Starlight's new tent. By their orange vests and hard hats, Starlight could quickly tell that they were from the Ponyville Construction Company.

Starlight, feeling thankful, loomed over the group swiftly, accidentally scaring them. "Oh, hey!" Starlight called out excitedly, "Thanks a lot for making this for me." The group of construction stallions stumbled over each other in surprise as the large unicorn eclipsed the sun above them, and quickly scrambled over each other to recompose themselves.

One earth pony in particular, a greyish blue large stallion with bright blue eyes, stepped forward from the group to address her. "Err, apologies, ma'am, you took us by surprise. Either-way, I'm Hard Hat, and I'm glad to hear that you're satisfied with our work today. When we heard about your situation from Pinkie Pie back in Sugarcube Corner last night, my boys and I all sympathized with ya, especially since we saw you bravely save Ponyville from that terrorizing Ursa Major. We were more than happy to help out." He then turned his attention to the giant blue tent that they were working on, pointing a hoof to show it to Starlight while continuing, "so take this oversized blanket as part of Ponyville's gratitude to you, Starnight Simmer."

Starlight smiled awkwardly at them, "Uh- It's Starlight Glimmer, but thank you, I very much appreciate it. Uh... how much bits do you want from this? Must have taken you a lot to make this."

Hard Hat rubbed his large pointy chin and shrugged, "Oh, it's for free, ma'am. If you weren't the big brave unicorn you are, I probably wouldn't be here today, so I think that's only fair..." He then looked at Starlight's massive hooves, then up to her head, and hmmmed with his chin again, "although, we could do with some help with heavy-lifting at the construction site... Seems like something that would be up your alley, bein' big and all."

Starlight nodded quickly. "I'll do it," she promised, as it made her conscience feel better, "thank you soooo much!" She lowered down without much thought, landing an unintentionally massive smooch on Hard Hat's head quickly, her large lips accidentally pressing down against the heads of the other construction workers in the group at the same time, leaving them blushing quite a lot!

"Uh-I-Uh-No problem, ma'am!" Hard Hat stuttered, blushing intensely along with the other construction workers around him, taking off his hat shyly as he spoke, "a-anything for a k-kind mare, y'know!" His poor legs wobbled as he put his hard hat back on his short mane.

Starlight chuckled to herself, shifting her whole body backwards to turn her focus back to her friends below. "This is amazing," she said, "I didn't realize how far you'd go to make me feel at home. Thank you, thank you, all of you!"

"Aw shucks, Starlight," Applejack reassured, "Anythin' for a friend. Besides, it's Rarity you should really be thankin', she came up with the idea with us just after we left ya last night."

"Oh it's nothing, really~" Rarity said humbly, "I just thought about how horrible it would be to be forced to sleep on the cold dirty ground every night, it simply wouldn't do for a lady!" Rarity walked up to the edge of the blue tent, patting it lightly while looking back up at Starlight, "So I thought to myself, Starlight MUST have something to sleep in, or on, but we can't make a house that big to sleep in, so I decided to hit two birds with one stone and-"

"Two birds?!" Fluttershy spluttered from behind Pinkie Pie, "Don't say things like that, Rarity!"

"Oh... sorry," Rarity said in realization. She quickly corrected herself, "I decided to fix two problems at the same time by making a giant tent made out of stretchy, waterproof fabric. Like that, you've got a home AND a bed to sleep in! I couldn't make any special designs on it though, it would've been too expensive I'm afraid, getting enough fabric to stretch over two hundred feet wasn't an easy feat in of itself, so making a design for it was unfortunately out of the question."

Starlight laughed, "Rarity, it's amazing. It's exactly what I needed." She gently picked up Rarity with ease, rising the surprised little unicorn up... and up... and then gently rested her against her chest in a little hug. "Thank you so much!"

Rarity felt her entire body being slightly smothered against a skyscraper of pink fur. She hugged Starlight back, as best as she could, anyway. "I'm glad to hear that, Starlight dear! Why don't you try it out?"

Starlight's eyes widened along with her grin, much like a filly who had just received a new toy. She gently placed Rarity back on the ground and then walked in front of the entrance, waiting a moment to let the construction workers move out of the way. She then eagerly raised the top layer of the massive tent and slowly crawled into it, turning around inside it to poke her massive head out of the entrance like a cat in a bag. The tent was extremely cosy compared to the cold winds outside, much like a small sleeping bag, but she was too happy to care about it's size. She could finally walk inside something, that was more than enough for her. "It's perfect," Starlight finally announced to her friends. She tugged the warm blue cloth around her body happily, finally getting to feel something warm and cuddly encase her entire body once again, closing her eyes with glee. She heard a sturdy flapping of wings nearby and opened her eyes to see Twilight hovering and smiling at her, floating in level with her cheek.

"See? I knew you could count on them, Starlight," Twilight explained as she petted Starlight's big nose, "We will all help you through this, no matter what. We just each have our own ways of handling our friend's problems."

Starlight looked down at her friends slowly, nodding at Twilight. "I know that now." She then looked specifically at Applejack. "And speaking of that... Hey Applejack... about that offer..."

"Say no more, sugarcube!" Applejack called out, "I'll get yer breakfast to help ya start the day, the right way! Yee-haw!" The orange farmer jumped up and kicked her hooves together excitedly and quickly ran off towards the farm. As Applejack left, another pony walked towards them from Ponyville, a familiar blue unicorn wearing a purple cape.

"Trixie, hey!" Starlight called out cheerfully, "Check out my new little home that my friends made for me." Starlight snuggled up against the long stretch of fabric surrounding her whole body, only her massive head and the tip of her hooves appearing from under the cloth. Trixie cooed up at the sight, clearly impressed.

"Trixie must admit that this is very... cute, Starlight," Trixie noted, walking up closer and standing next to Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy, as if they weren't there. "Now, about Trixie's wagon- I mean... first things first, did you uh, did you have a good nights sleep, Starlight?"

Starlight looked up at the sky, trying to remember last night's dream. It was a distant, hazy memory for her. "I'm not sure, Trixie. I think I dreamt about becoming as small as an ant, which is ironic, and Twilight was there taking care of me. Oh, and for some reason, Rarity was forcing me to wear different dresses at some point." Starlight paused to giggle before continuing. "And then I was falling?" Starlight rubbed her head to no avail, she couldn't remember anything else. "I don't know. Probably wasn't important."

"Dreams are fickle things," snorted Trixie, trying to sound smart. "Anyways, Trixie has done a check up on Trixie's performing wagon and thankfully it's alright, only the stage got smashed and it didn't have anything too important on it anyway. The orchestral noise-maker we used was unharmed too, in fact Trixie has just finished returning it to Jupiter Summers at the classical music store up the road."

"That's great!" Starlight exclaimed happily, "Things are really turning out for the better today." She gave her large oversized blue blanket a tug against her face, rubbing her cheeks happily. A thought then popped into Starlight's mind, making her turn to Twilight and ask, "Hey Twilight, how are we going to pull off the whole donate-to-me thing properly?"

Twilight gave a silly little smile and revealed a clipboard that was hidden under her wing excitedly, "I'm glad you asked! I've been planning all morning." She levitated the clipboard out of her hoof and allowed it to float weightlessly in front of her nose. "First, we set up a little area where you can stay safely under," She gestured to the large blue tent that Starlight was wrapping around herself adorably, "Check." She continued onto the rest of the list, "Then we advertise in Ponyvile about hug-a-giantess, which your, err- wonderful friend Trixie here could handle. Then we let the ponies line up in front of the tent and Rarity and I could help regulate the entrance, ponies could donate any bits to enter and will be told what it's all about. Inside, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash can make sure that the ponies don't make you feel uncomfortable or act inappropriately." Twilight lifted a quill which had been nesting behind her ear, writing in the last step as she read it aloud, "And finally, Applejack and Pinkie Pie will... handle the food."

"Sounds great." Starlight said, nodding with a gentle smile. Her smile lessened slightly as she began to feel a tiny nagging sensation from her stomach, as she hadn't eaten anything for the past twelve hours or so. She couldn't wait for Applejack to arrive.

"Hold on, what's this about a noise-maker?" Twilight asked curiously. Starlight almost jumped at the unexpected question, while Trixie nervously rubbed the back of her head.

Starlight's cheeks reddened, warmed up even redder under the comfort of her large blanket tent covering her body, "Uh... I was gonna tell you eventually," she began shamefully, "Trixie was helping me to hide from you. We used a noise-maker as part of our disguise to make me look and sound like an Ursa Minor..."

Trixie silently bit her lip as Starlight explained their whole show to Twilight in detail. Starlight was afraid that Twilight would be upset at such trickery, but instead the tiny purple princess simply smirked up at her before making an unusual reply which almost sounded like a compliment. "That's devious~" Twilight soon rephrased herself with a bold, neutral look. "I-I mean, I see." She then shrugged with her wings, relaxing a little, "Well, it all worked out in the end, so no harm done. Oh look, here comes Applejack!"

Starlight turned her head. The tiny squealing of strained cart wheels would've gained Starlight's attention had she not been distracted by her conversation, but now Starlight noticed Applejack and her big red brother, Big Mac, approaching them. They were carrying two heavy carts, filled to the brim with a collection of apple and bread based pastries, some of which were steaming, warm and fresh. The smell did not take long to rise up to Starlight's nose, making her smack her lips hungrily. Applejack stopped her cart, appearing a little more tired than her brother did, having to swipe away a drop of sweat from her forehead before looking up at Starlight with a tired but friendly look. "Heya Starlight, I hope I didn' take too long. I had the family baking some treats for ya since this morning."

The immense smell coming from the uncountable pile of pastries invaded Starlight's nose, it almost smelt like Starlight had just entered Sugarcube Corner's kitchen on a busy day. Of course, she remembered that couldn't actually fit inside Sugarcube Corner for the next 17 years or so, but what the hay, food's food.

"Thank you, Applejack. I'm sorry to put you through all this trouble." Starlight stared at the collection of fresh pies and pastries that gently steamed in each wagon.

"You know it ain't a problem, Starlight," Applejack responded politely, "Just eat up and enjoy this here meal."

Starlight arranged her sitting position on the ground, covered up to her shoulders inside her little blue sleeping bag. She arched over slightly, closing her eyes happily and began nudging Applejack's full cart with both hooves quickly, rising the entire load up. What she didn't realize, however, was that Applejack had forgotten to take herself out of the cart's harness, and as the cart rose in Starlight's hooves, Applejack found herself flying upwards with it, dangling precariously from the harness around her waist. The others gasped silently, and Applejack was in such an awkward position that the harness pressed onto her belly, preventing her from calling out to Starlight. The cart rose quickly in Starlight's hooves, stopping just a few inches in front of Starlight's giant mouth. Applejack flailed her little hooves as she saw apple pies and various pastries roll off her tilted wagon and fall into the dark abyss that was Starlight's throat below. The ground being a hundred feet away from her dangling orange hooves didn't help calm her nerves, either.

"Whoa-nelly!" Applejack squeaked, feeling the harness tighten around her body as the cart launched back and forth above Starlight's open mouth. The cart, held in Starlight's hooves inches above her open mouth, was instantly emptied, and a loud deafening crunch surrounded Applejack's ears as Starlight's teeth crunched every single pastry at once. The frightened farmer held tightly to her harness, as it was the only thing keeping her from falling into certain doom.

"Starlight!" Big Mac called out in stern terror from below. "Open your big eyes!"

Starlight opened her eyes, surprised and shocked to see Applejack dangling precariously over her mouth from the cart that she was holding. She blurted out multiple apologies with her mouth full of food, quickly lowering Applejack and her empty cart back onto the ground. Large bits of chewed food rained from Starlight's mouth during her apology while she pet Applejack profusely to make sure that she was okay.

"Oh myh Celestiah-" Starlight squawked between bites, "I didn'f realfive you were still-f attatchf'd to the carf! Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry-f!!!"

Applejack's legs wobbled, suffering from a major mood whiplash. Starlight raised her hooves and gulped her food fearfully, looking down at Applejack with great concern. Big Mac rushed up to Applejack, comforting her physically and they gave her a moment to calm down.

"Starlight."

"Y-Yes, Applejack?"

"Watch what yer' eatin', when you're eatin'."

Starlight blushed, unsure if Applejack's dead-panned statement was a joke or a serious comment. Either-way, she dared not mock the farmer. "Sorry. I will," she responded in a guilty high-pitched tone.

The other ponies exchanged worried looks with each other. Well, all except for Trixie, who had an inappropriately sly expression. "Trixie thinks that this accident looked very entertaining and dramatic. Perhaps Trixie may have more ideas for future performances..."

Starlight cringed, the other ponies looked confused, and Applejack turned slowly and gave a very nasty, angry look at Trixie. She snorted loudly through her nostrils, deciding that it was best not to say anything mean to Trixie while Starlight was around. Big Mac appeared to share a similar sentiment with her little sister. Their attention shifted when they heard a tiny little thud on the ground.

"Oh the poor dear!" Rarity called out, "Fluttershy has fainted!" Rarity held up an unconcious Fluttershy from her shoulders, fanning her with her white hoof.

Trixie giggled in a low register, "Well done Starlight, you're going to be a real knock-out here in Ponyville~"

"Trixie!" they groaned angrily.