Size Up Starlight

Starlight's eyes opened wide as she let out a sudden gasp. She hugged the air in front of her, unsure if she was alive or not. She looked around herself and found that she was laying against some Everfree trees and was sitting next to Trixie's performing stage, that was more or less half her size. She gave a sigh of relief, realizing it was all just a dream. She then noticed something blue and white resting on the bridge of her nose. It was her good friend Trixie, who gave a buckle of her adorably tiny little hooves before letting out a cute yawn. She had just woken up.

"Trixie has had a wonderful night's sleep on thy kind friend's nosey," Trixie commented, "She must remember to do this more often..." she stretched each leg in succession before facing Starlight, unsure whether to focus on one of Starlight's massive eyes or to look blankly in the middle of them. She decided to do the latter before continuing. "Trixie had a wonderful dream about getting wings, soaring through the skies while performing stunts and magical tricks! It was amazing." Trixie sighed in a bitter-sweet fashion, as the realization of it being just a dream slowly brought her back to reality. "Yes... It was such a wonderful, wonderful dream. But, Trixie must ask, how was your night, dear Starlight?"

Starlight blinked a few times, having to focus unnaturally at her tiny friend sitting extremely close to her face. "Well, it wasn't the best dream. I guess it wasn't the worst, but..." Starlight wanted to explain it better, but it was so bizarre and cryptic she felt she wouldn't be able to do it justice. "It was really, really weird." She shifted in place, stretching her arms slowly so that she didn't accidentally throw Trixie off her nose. "I was back at my village, giant and all, and they begged me to help them. Then there was a bigger version of myself, my... not so good old self, and she told me something about joining her in ruling equestria? I think I said no, and then I suddenly started growing and became super massive while my old friends were cheering me on in weird cult-like voices, and then I looked all over Equestria and... I don't remember anything else."

Trixie was rather interested in the dream. "Hmmm. If Trixie may interpret, perhaps you're worried about accidentally harming or overpowering other ponies with your current gigantic state. Honestly, if the great and powerful Trixie were to become the gigantic and towering Trixie, she would enjoy showing herself off to Equestria! No-pony would want to take their eyes off Trixie! Trixie would finally be the most popular and powerful- wh- Why are you giggling?!"

Starlight couldn't help but chuckle at Trixie's eagerness to be in her position. She honestly wouldn't mind trading her situation with Trixie if she knew how, but she also wondered what mayhem Trixie's flamboyant and attention-seeking behaviour would cause as a fifty foot tall performer. She probably didn't want to think of it after all.

"Erm, Trixie, if I may interrupt" Starlight asked cautiously, intending to change the subject "maybe we should get back to setting up your performance?"

"Oh, yes, that," Trixie responded. "Well, what I meant to say was that you've got a heart of gold, Starlight... As cheesy as that sounds... You're worrying more about how you might hurt other ponies rather than just enjoy how physically powerful you are." Trixie gave a comforting pat between Starlight's eyes. "After all, you're gonna be using your size to help Trixie for her next performance! It's going to be spectacular and mind-blowing!"

"Erm-" Starlight said anxiously, "Trixie, I thought we agreed that I was not going to let anypony else see me like this."

"Exactly!" Trixie exclaimed, "They're not going to SEE you, they're going to see something placed OVER you!"

Starlight paused with a confused look. "They're going to what now?"

"Well, if you remember our first performance together, you helped me to pull off the most daring magic trick EVER performed..." Trixie held her hooves up for dramatic effect, "the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive!" she let her hooves back down, almost bouncing with excitement on Starlight's nose. "And with your help, I'm going to OUT-DO that trick by doing it with an ursa minor!"

Starlight's eyebrow raised so far it almost left her face. "And where are we going to get an usra...?" Her voice trailed off as she saw Trixie's eyes gleaming bigger than ever before.

This was it. Trixie was using the puppy dog stare.

"Trixie, no..." Starlight retorted slowly.

"Trixie yes~" Trixie giggled back.

They stared at each other for a good ten seconds. Starlight then broke the silence.

"Erm, you see, I was kind of hoping that you'd end up telling me what you were thinking, because I have no idea what your idea is.'

Trixie snorted. "Well, the plan is to dress YOU up like an ursa minor, and I'll perform the trick on you! I shoot myself into your mouth, and you will teleport me out, and ta-daa! An absolutely bedazzled audience! Everyone will be clapping for Trixie!" Trixie lost herself again and began to imitate a fake cheering audience. "Wooo, the great and powerful Trixie has blown our little minds once again! Oooh, how did she do that? She must be even better than the legendary Hoofdini!"

Starlight groaned, laying back deeper into the trees behind her, which creaked and cracked violently under her shifted weight. She wasn't looking forward to this at all. "And I'm assuming you just thought of that now?"

Trixie shook her head, resting her rump on Starlight's massive nose to get even more comfortable. "Actually, Trixie has been thinking of many ways to perform this trick long before she arrived in Ponyville. This is just one of many ideas, and Trixie is absolutely ecstatic that you will most definitely be helping her!"

Starlight lowered her eyebrows, doing a bad job at hiding her frustration with Trixie. "Uh-huh. And how are you going to make me look like an ursa-minor, exactly?"

Trixie clapped her hooves confidently. "Oh Starlight, visual illusion magic is my speciality! I will spawn a magic hologram that wraps itself around you and follows your every movement. Then, you will use your magic to keep the spell going behind the scenes. Ursa minors are slightly blue and see-through like hologram spells, so it shouldn't be too hard to pull off."

Starlight rubbed her chin while looking cross-eyed at Trixie. "A hologram spell? Wait, couldn't you do that trick without me then?"

Trixie shook her head. "Absolutely not. While I am very great and powerful... Truth is, my magic would not be convincing on it's own, but if it follows your body movements, it will look stunningly real! Not to mention that you can trick the audience even further by knocking down a tree or something. If I did the hologram on it's own, it would look very rigid and fake, and that would definitely not do."

Starlight sighed. "Hmmm... I'm not comfortable with the whole 'shoot yourself into my mouth' part though." Her hooves rested on her belly in a comfortable position as she continued. "What if something goes wrong?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "It will be easy as cake, Starlight," Trixie assured, "It won't be any different than what we performed last time."

Trixie lifted herself over the side of Starlight's nose, sliding down Starlight's cheek all the way down her arm, giggling on her way down her living amusement ride. "After all, not only will you be helping your friend, but you will also be keeping yourself safe and hidden until we figure out what to do about your... situation."

She landed on top of Starlight's belly and then continued to walk down her leg, making Starlight feel slightly ticklish. Starlight bit her lip and sat still, trying not to laugh or jerk her leg, letting Trixie safely jump off near her hoof before letting off a sigh of relief. Trixie landed on the ground and walked into her performing wagon behind the stage.

"Well, I guess that's true," Starlight responded. Curious, Starlight stood up from the line of bent Everfree trees, leaving a mess of leaves and squashed wood at where she once sat. She walked in front of the stage and lowered her massive face down to the stage's level, peeping into the little side entrance of Trixie's little blue wagon. She saw Trixie reading from a piece of paper inside. Trixie then turned her head towards the window, let out a frightened yelp, and then fell back in surprise, hitting her body on something inside the wagon. Starlight was concerned, moving her head to try to see inside as much as possible from her restricted view. "Trixie, are you okay in there? What happened?"

Trixie stood up on her four legs, slightly dazed from hitting her body with the props inside. "Oh, apologies. Trixie is not used to seeing a big giant eyeball that watches her from the window." Trixie picked up the paper that she had dropped and walked outside onto the stage. Starlight raised her head slightly to give Trixie room on the stage, and watched Trixie very closely from above, covering up most of Trixie's vision below and casting her and the whole stage under a large shadow.

Trixie looked down at her paper as she began to explain. "Well, Trixie has planned a few acts before leading up to the finale." She squinted at the paper slightly, the darkness caused by Starlight's head not helping at all. "I will first perform some standard magic tricks of mine to get the audience's interest. I won't need your help in these, so you can probably just hide behind the trees or something. Then, when I give you the signal with my last trick using fireworks, I will introduce you to the audience as an ursa minor that I have trained myself!"

Starlight pressed her lips together thoughtfully. "Isn't that a little deceitful? To use me as a fake Ursa Minor?"

Trixie shook her hoof dismissively at the giant pink muzzle that obstructed her view from above. "Pshaw, Starlight, it's not called a magic TRICK for nothing! Don't you know anything about show-biz? Ugh. I hate explaining this out of my performing character, but for you I'll make an exception. The most important thing is that the audience is convinced that each magic trick is real so that they can enjoy the fantastic performance. It doesn't matter HOW you get them to be convinced. It's all in the performance, it's all an act, you should know this by now. Seriously, that's what an entertainer does. Put simply, I entertain."

Starlight backed her head away from the stage, feeling a little embarrassed. "You're right, Trixie. I guess I forgot. Sorry for making you break character." Starlight looked at eye-level with the stage's sign, which had a spectacular stylistic portrait of Trixie's face painted on. "This performance means a lot to you, and as a friend I shouldn't question that."

"Wonderful," Trixie said in a huffy way, "I can finally get started on my performance practice..." Trixie rubbed her tummy thoughtfully, "but first, I will eat some of those leftover apples from last night." Trixie jumped off the stage, walking past Starlight's giant hooves and walking to the apple cart from last night, reaching in and taking a nice juicy apple to bite into. She bit into it, savouring the taste, and then looked up at Starlight. "Dare I ask... Dear friend, aren't you hungry too?"

Starlight shifted in her place nervously. She didn't want to send Trixie on another painfully heavy errand, but at the same time her morning hunger was silently eating away at the back of her mind. Her eyes darted left and right for an alternate source of food, and then she quickly lowered her mouth onto one of the nearby trees. In one long suck she tore a mouthful of leaves straight into her maw, raising her head off to reveal that she had removed the tree of all it's green leaves and now left a dead-looking tree trunk in it's place. She chewed uncomfortably on the leaves and lone twigs that made their way into her mouth as she stared bashfully back at Trixie with an embarrassed grin.

"All good, Twixie, thankfs for asking," she said with her mouth full of leaves and her cheeks blushing. "We can starf practising nowf."