Chapters "Three hundred and ninety eight, three hundred and ninety nine... Four hundred!"
Starlight Glimmer levitated the last batch of dangerously blue flowers carefully into the large wooden cart behind her. She pat herself on the back, congratulating herself. "That should be more than enough Poison Joke to experiment with for a while. Now to get back to the castle..."
She took a step forward, and struggled to move the overloaded cart of magical, poisonous flowers. Dragging her hooves along for only a meter, she soon stopped to catch her breath. The awful creaking of the wooden cart's four wheels stopped as they depressed into the muddy ground, making Starlight look around herself nervously. It was dark inside the Everfree forest at this time, and she had spent all afternoon picking up all these samples which made her lose track of time. It could've been late in the evening, midnight, or even early morning. All Starlight knew was that she had to get home.
Starlight, being the unicorn that she was, and not too far unlike from her mentor Twilight Sparkle, quickly relied on using magic to solve problems quickly. "Oh, who needs to walk when you can teleport?" she said to herself, as she usually did, and turned around to face her cart which was full to the brim with blue flowers. Raising her head, she closed her eyes as she cast the spell on herself and her cart. There was a blinding flash, and when she opened her eyes, she found herself standing inside a familiar crystal library, back in ponyville. The cart had been teleported as well. Starlight hadn't noticed it, but a dim blue glow seemed to escape from the packed cart of poison joke behind her. Taking no notice of it, she swung her head around, and with a flick of her horn, the library's lamps and candles lit up, which dampened out the cart's weak mysterious blue light, making it even harder to notice.
"Oh, Twilight is going to be so proud of me!" she whispered to herself to no-pony in particular, her voice echoing around her as she beamed happily. Taking a good look at the collection of blue flowers she had collected, she continued talking to herself. "Not many ponies have attempted to study the effects and workings of poison joke. Sure, the zebras have experience with the stuff, but that's just not scientific enough. I'll hopefully be one of the first ponies to make a full, detailed, scientific report on them! And I've got more than enough to perform experiments with."
She carefully slid out of the heavy cart's handles and secured it in place. She made sure not to get too close to the flowers, and levitated a long tablecloth over them tightly to be safe. Her eyes drooped a little, clearly tired from the day's work. "Whew," she sighed to herself, "I'm beat. I better get some shut-eye and start experiments tomorrow." She yawned as she walked around the eerily empty castle, back to her room, and snuggled up in her bed to think about all the experiments she'd try tomorrow.
A rude knocking on her door eventually woke her up. Starlight opened her eyes suddenly, standing up in bed. She glanced over at the window, realizing it was daytime. She then turned her attention to the door, which was knocked on again. "Yeah...yeah.." She said groggily, "in a minute."
Starlight got up and walked up to the door, opening it to start walking downstairs, only to find Twilight standing in front of her excitedly in the doorway. Opening one eye and struggling to keep the other open, Starlight gave a half-hearted smile while staring in Twilight's general direction.
"Good morning, Starlight!" Twilight greeted in a cheery fashion. Starlight's eyes slowly glanced towards Twilight's glowing cutie mark, and then slowly looked back up as Twilight continued explaining. "I have just been called by the map to solve a friendship problem outside of Ponyville, so I wanted to let you know that you might be alone in the castle for a little while."
Starlight blinked her eyes in an unsynchronised fashion, licking her lips disinterestedly. "Yeah. Okay," She responded. She was about to turn around to get back into bed, before Twilight began speaking again.
"Which means I've decided to keep Spike in the castle to keep things running smoothly. And this time, he's fully in charge."
"Yeah," Spike said proudly, pointing at his chest with his adorable little claw, "which means I'm going to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't mess up and mind-control your friends again, and if things get out of hand, I can just send a letter to Twilight and she’ll pop back here in a flash!"
Hearing Spike mentioning her previous mistake made Starlight's ears droop down sadly. Twilight noticed this, and nudged Spike in the arm with her elbow. "Come on Spike, be nice." She turned her attention back to Starlight. "But he's right. I'm trusting him to make sure everything goes all-right until I get back. I'm sure you have some friendship lessons to catch up with, too."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Starlight snorted, but then remembered her recent research project. "But wait, Twilight, before you go, I wanted to tell you about my recent project."
"Of course, Starlight! What's it about?" Twilight asked with a friendly smile. Starlight, who was excited to talk about her recent research project, was beginning to wake up properly now.
"It's about poison joke," Starlight began. "You see, not many ponies have researched too much about poison joke, mostly because they can't get too close, since they'd risk being infected. The only knowledge we have is from observation, but I wanted to perform some in-depth experiments to see what really makes them tick."
Twilight was clearly impressed and interested. "That sounds like a potential break-through waiting to happen, Starlight. I noticed the covered cart in the library, and I assumed it was important for you so Spike and I left it alone. I'm assuming you collected some samples?"
"Yes, I've collected four hundred samples of poison jo-"
Twilight gasped. "Four hundred?! That's kind of a lot, isn't it?"
"Well," Starlight said, rolling her hoof in the air in explanation. "I'll need a lot of samples because of how varied the effects of poison joke can be. I'm sure it’ll be fine, I'm handling them with the utmost of care. Unicorn's promise."
Twilight squinted her eyes, clearly unfamiliar with the made-up saying. "Well, I trust you, Starlight. Just... be careful, all-right? Don't hesitate to contact me using Spike if anything bad happens. Oh, and I believe we have a book with information provided by Zecora in the library about Everfree flowers, if the need arises. Most importantly, it has the cures for each one, so do take a look."
"I'll be fine, Twilight. I might not be the best at friendship but I'm an expert at magic and scientific research. When have I ever messed up with something that wasn't friendship related, anyway? Haha...ha..."
Starlight's intensely nervous laugh trailed away into nothingness. Spike was jumping up on his tippy toes, eagerly wanting to answer that question with a long list, but Twilight pre-empted his movements and nudged him in the arm again to stop him from speaking. Spike, rubbing his scaly little arm in defeat, kept silent.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck, Starlight," Twilight said, wrapping up the conversation, "Do keep up with your friendship lessons though, if possible. If you get too worked up about this project, you might miss out on hanging out with your friends, and that might not end well..." Twilight rubbed her head nervously as she continued, "personal experience... trust me, hah..ha.."
Starlight, judging nothing of her mentor in friendship, simply shrugged. "Right... Okay then. Bye Twilight." Before Twilight could respond, Starlight gave Twilight a quick yet awkward parting hug, and quickly jogged downstairs. "Hope you have a good time, and stuff." Clearly, excitement was getting the better of Starlight, so she wasn't too bothered about Twilight leaving. After all, she was a grown mare, a powerful unicorn even, who could easily take care herself, right? She wasn't a little filly any-more, despite the fact that she'd secretly like to be one again. (But that's another story...)
Everything seemed to fade out of Starlight's mind as all her thoughts got replaced with the project. What would she find in these strange blue plants? Would she find a way to increase resistance to them? Could their effects be adjusted for beneficial purposes? The possibilities appeared endless, and she was determined to explore them all.
She entered the castle's library, and found that her cart of poison joke samples was left untouched next to the bookshelves. The cart's wooden planks where slightly bent outwards from the immense weight of compact flowers. Taking no notice of the cart's distress, Starlight prepared a long clear table in the middle of the library for her experiments. She also kept a book on Everfree flora nearby just in case she needed reference. She was about to sit down when a loud sound took her off-guard. It was the castle doors opening and closing, a sign that Twilight had left the building.
She looked down at the table and clasped her hooves together thoughtfully, getting herself to focus and ignore the distraction. Sitting down, she levitated one of the flowers from underneath the cart's cover, and brought the dangerous little flower onto the table at a safe distance from her face. She then looked over and opened her book, finding the article on Poison Joke. "So what's already known about it? It's blue, yeah, I knew that. It grows in the ever-free forest in large patches... Yup, already knew that. Now, according to the book, it acts much like poison oak, but it's effects are like that of a 'joke'. Okay then. So it pulls pranks on ponies based on their physical and emotional characteristics? That's a little strange for something as simple as a plant to achieve. Clearly these plants aren't sentient or anything, so there's got to be something else going on here." she levitated a microscope from a nearby table, and cut a piece of the poison joke's leaf under it. "Hmm, looks a lot like poison oak to me, just with a natural blue tint. I can't really see anything out of the ordinary here." She stopped for a moment, writing her observations on a notepad. "Maybe I should perform some magical tests, to see if there's any magic involved."
She stood up, and levitated the plant in the air. Her horn glowed, and sent a beam of warm air and concentrated onto it. "If this plant... is sentient... it will try to react and save itself from being burnt up." She increased the temperature of her magical beam onto the flower, causing it's blue petals to relax and loosen towards the ground. Finally, the flower simply melted onto the ground from the moderately intense temperature. "Well," said said to herself, "that was anti-climatic, but I should've expected that." She wrote 'does not react to pain' on her notepad, and was about to levitate another plant of poison joke from the cart when the door swung open.
"Hey Starlight!" a familiar little dragon said. "Twilight's probably waiting at the train station by now, so that means we're alone." Spike kept walking towards Starlight, taking a slight interest in the whole ordeal. "So whatcha doin’?"
A blue plant gently floated through the air under Starlight's levitation spell, as she explained. "Well, Spike. I'm doing some research on poison joke. I've got a suspicion that there's more to these little plants than what's been initially observed, and-"
"Right, right. That's pretty cool, Star." Spike said casually. Starlight wasn't sure if he wanted her to shut up, or was just trying to be nice. "Well anyway," he continued nervously, "I know I'm going to be in charge and all that, but I really, really wanted to hang out a bit with Rarity today..."
"You know, Spike, you don't need to ask me if you can leave or not." Starlight said in a monotone way. "I'm probably going to be in here all day anyway."
"Oh, right. But, what about your friendship lessons?"
Starlight bit her lip, as she usually did when she was uncomfortable or put on the spot. "I, err, uhh..." She stuttered, trying to think of an excuse. Suddenly, she remembered something. "Trixie! Right. Yeah. I was going to hang out with her later today. Since she's visiting for another upcoming show."
Spike folded his arms doubtfully. "Trixie." He dead-panned, raising an eyebrow.
"Trixie." Starlight reassured, biting her lip tenfold.
"Riiight... You have fun with that, Star. Remember, if anything bad happens, or if you think you're going to do something that might be bad, let me know first, okay? We wouldn't want you to accidentally cast some mind-controlling spell on your friends again-"
Starlight was visibly upset now. "I literally just saved the whole of Equestria a few months ago, give me a break already." She rolled her eyes and looked away from him. Spike looked down and kicked his feet, not wanting to leave just yet.
"Hey, Starlight?" Spike said, a little softer this time, "Sorry about that. I was going a little bit too far. I'm just looking out for you, like Twilight asked me to, okay?"
Starlight didn't look back at Spike, but she seemed to loosen up just a little bit. "Sure. Whatever. I get it."
Feeling that it was best to leave it at that, Spike left the room, leaving Starlight fully on her own. Hearing the big castle doors open and shut again made Starlight sigh, she knew Spike didn't meant to be hurtful.
However, science does not wait for friendship or drama, and Starlight quickly got absorbed into making further tests with these strange blue plants. It barely felt like minutes to Starlight when she found herself yawning and losing track of time.
"Wowie, that was quite a fun session, and the results are interesting so far. It seems as though these plants seem to have some kind of magic flowing within them, but I can't draw enough magic from a plant without killing it and losing it completely..."
She thought for a bit, until an idea hit her horn. "That's right! I'll extract as much power from all the plants at once, so I'll have enough to examine!" She focused on the cart, tossing the cover off with her magic, and shot a powerful beam into the middle of the pile of poison joke. She staggered slightly, as blue light seemed to increase in intensity from the cart. Starlight was extracting and trapping the plant's pure magical essence and packing them up into an increasingly large, blue ball. The powerful, bright blue ball of trapped magic was trembling in it's magical containment, making Starlight struggle.
She was about to regret trying to perform this, as she began to feel weaker and weaker, but she was instead amazed by the amazing sight of the collected pure magic of three hundred magical plants, floating above the cart and her head. It turned around in place with an almost blinding light, and it seemed to be getting bigger and more powerful as Starlight kept it afloat with her magic. She began to panic, realizing that through an unintentional feedback loop, her own magic was being collected and mixing with the floating ball, making it heavier and more powerful.
If Starlight didn't contain the intense concentrated ball of magic soon, it might blow up, and she had no idea of the magnitude of it's destructive impact. She sweated, trying her best to keep it as stable as possible, but she became much too tired, and passed out. There was a deafeningly big bang as Starlight and the massively unstable ball of magic that was almost as big as half of the entire library, crashed to the floor.
The alarming smell of fire entered Starlight's nostrils, waking her up. She opened her eyes, quickly taking in her surroundings. The library seemed fine, and so did she, but the cart in front of her had mostly disintegrated into a pile of burning ash which spewed thick smoke into the library. Jumping up on her four hooves she quickly ran out of the library, coughing as she headed for the kitchen. There, she quickly filled two buckets with water, ran back into the library, dousing the fire with water and quickly putting it out. She then opened some of the stained glass windows to ventilate the library properly. When the ordeal was over, she slumped into the corner, taking deep breaths.
"What... just happened?" Starlight said to herself between breaths. When she got her strength back, which seemed to take fairly quickly, she stood up and surveyed the damage to the cart. "Wow," she commented, as she looked at the black ashes and imprints of what once used to be flowers, "that must've been an intense blast, but..."
She looked towards the rest of the library, curious as to why everything else wasn't affected by the explosion. "A massive concentrated ball of energy coming apart would've torn this whole castle down... But it only affected the cart. How?"
Scratching her head with her hoof she stood there trying to make sense of it. "Hmm, maybe the ball of energy swooped back into the poison joke and caused it to explode. But there clearly wasn't an explosion, it just melted. Surely there was much more energy than that. Where did the rest of the magic go?" She took a good look around the library, to see if there was anything out of place, but to her surprise, everything was exactly how it was before the explosion, except for some dust that had settled from the cart's fire. "This is so strange, it's like something absorbed all the energy from the unstable ball of magic." She rubbed her hoof along the crystal floor thankfully. "Maybe this castle is better at absorbing unstable magic than I thought. Oh well. That's definitely enough experiments for me today. I can't let Spike or Twilight know this happened..."
With a flick of her horn, she threw a quick clean-up spell to get rid of the dust that had covered the library almost instantly, including the destroyed cart. "There. Good as new. Now, I really need to relax. Maybe now would be a good time to get back to my friendship lessons..."
She walked out of the library and then stopped in her tracks at the castle's main entrance. "Hanging out with friends. That's literally what this is." She shook her head. "Ugh. Whatever. I'll just go check and see if Trixie's arrived."
As she walked down the steps of the castle entrance, she remembered something. "Oh, right," she thought to herself. "I should probably tell Spike that I'll be out of the castle for the day. Trixie will be setting up by the Everfree forest clearance, so I'll just visit Spike and Rarity on the way there." She continued walking down the steps and into the main village of Ponyville.
The market was busy that day as Starlight passed through it, since it was a Saturday. Ponies blocked her way at every turn, and she kept apologizing half-heartedly as she pushed some ponies aside gently on her way. She suddenly failed to push a particular pony in her path, and crashed head-first into the big pony's cutie mark.
The cutie mark was a dumbbell.
"HEY, YOU SHOULD WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING..." The white, large and unnaturally bulky stallion said harshly as he spun around to look at her. Starlight, who had fallen on her rump, looked up and into the white stallion's blood-red pupils, expecting an argument or some other kind of conflict-
"...YOU COULD HAVE HURT YOURSELF, MISS. DO YOU NEED A HOOF? I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP ANOTHER PONY."
The big bulky stallion extended a hoof to Starlight, who accepted it and held his hoof to pull herself back on her feet. "Oh, thanks." She said, feeling a little calmer now as she dusted herself off. "I thought you were angry at me for a second there."
The white stallion looked appalled. "WHAT? ME? HA HA. NO, MISS. I'M STRONG, BUT I DON'T EASILY GET ANGRY AT PONIES. NAME'S BULK BICEPS. I UH... I TEACH OTHER PONIES HOW TO LIFT THINGS." He flexed his strong pecs unnecessarily, and picked up a cart nearby to demonstrate his strength. "SEE?" He gave Starlight a big smile, and Starlight tried to give a smile back. It became easier for her to smile once she realized that, attached to this big, bulky stallion, was a pair of tiny, useless wings. The stallion was a pegasus, and she found the irony kind of funny.
"Oh, yes." Starlight nodded, while looking at the suspended cart and back to Bulk Biceps. "Of course. Picking up things. That's just, erm, great. I'm Starlight Glimmer. Friend of erm, Twilight's. I should probably keep going on my way-"
Bulk Biceps let go of the cart to the ground gently, letting the pony who had been suspended from the cart's ropes to be free to walk away with it safely, a testament to the white pegasus' gentle nature. "THE PRINCESS? THAT'S PRETTY COOL. HEY, CAN I TRY LIFTING YOU UP?"
"Uh-" Starlight said, trying to process what he just said. "What?"
"PICK YOU UP. WITH MY HOOVES."
"Do you have to shout all the time?” Starlight rubbed her ears from Bulk’s lack of an indoor voice. “Okay, nevermind that. That was a little harsh. Okay. Fine. Pick me up and then let me go on my way, okay?" Starlight was getting visibly nervous. She really didn't want to be here, but hey, she's making new friends, and that's what Twilight wanted, right?
"DON'T WORRY," the big white stallion re-assured, "THIS WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTE. OR FIVE SECONDS. ME NOT GOOD AT COUNTING."
"WHY...IS...BRIGHT UNICORN...SO...HARD.. TO... PICK UP...?" He panted between breaths while appearing to tug to no avail. Starlight looked unamused.
"Is this your idea of a joke?" Starlight accused. "I mean, I don't really care about my looks, but you don't have to imply that I'm fat.'
Bulk Biceps kept tugging as strong as he could, trying to lift Starlight off the ground, his blood vessels popping out from his muscles. If he was pretending, he was doing really darn good at it. "N-NO, I DON'T LIE. I REALLY CAN'T PICK YOU UP!" He panted before letting go of Starlight and falling onto his rear. "I-... I DON'T UNDERSTAND. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE."
Starlight rolled her eyes. "Okay, seriously. Not funny, Mr Bulk. I'm leaving now." She walked past Bulk Biceps, who sat dazed and confused in the middle of Ponyville market square. Eventually, she had left Ponyville's main centre and began to reach the outskirts, approaching the familiar little boutique that belonged to Rarity. What Starlight didn't notice, however, was that her cutie mark had been unintentionally glowing during the whole interaction with Bulk Biceps, and it faded once she reached the boutique's door. With a knock knock knock using her hoof, she waited patiently until Rarity opened the door for her, causing the overhead bell attached to the door to jingle.
"Starlight, dear! We've just been talking about you." Rarity said, inviting Starlight inside. They left the door open, in case any customers wanted to come inside.
"We have-?" Spike blurted out, clearly trying to hide something.
"Oh shush, Spike. We have nothing to hide from our good friend." Rarity scolded as she lowered behind the reception desk. Spike stood next to the desk, looking up at Starlight and Rarity in a worried manner.
Starlight was curious, so she took a seat on a bench inside the boutique to ask about it. The bench creaked a little as she sat on it, it seemed smaller than usual. "Spike was talking about me?"
Rarity nodded. "Indeed, poor Spikey here has been feeling ever so sorry for making you upset today, he couldn't stop telling me about it. Isn't that right, Spike?" She looked over to Spike, who seemed more distressed than earlier. All he could do is nod. Starlight had almost forgotten that Spike had made fun of her earlier for a mistake she did in the past, and raised an eyebrow.
"To be honest, Spike," she said, "I almost forgot about all that. It's okay, Spike. I, like, really don't care about it." She smiled at Spike, and Spike smiled back and spoke to her.
"Thanks Starlight. I... I'll watch my mouth next time." He began to frown sadly again as he continued. "I didn't mean anything mean by it, you know?" He looked a little teary-eyed, and Starlight was honestly getting a little fed up with the petty melodrama at this point. She walked over to him and petted him a little harshly and quickly on the head.
"All is forgiven, yadda yadda. Can we get over this already?"
Spike winced in slight pain as Starlight's petting hooves felt a lot harsher than they appeared to move. He then nodded slowly and took a deep breath to reset his feelings. "Ow. Thanks. I needed that. Did you need something, Starlight?"
Starlight shook her head. "Not exactly, I just came here to tell you that I'm going to visit Trixie near Everfree, so that you won't freak out and look for me or something."
"Oh, okay." Spike nodded, getting comfortable next to Rarity behind the desk. "Thanks for letting me know. I'll probably be here for a little while. Lots of friendship business to attend to, you know?" He hugged Rarity's leg slowly as his focus fell on the white mare.
Starlight's eyes shifted between Rarity and Spike from over the counter, wondering how things could even work out between a pony and a dragon.
"Well, have a lovely day, darling." Rarity said, waving at Starlight. As Spike's eyes were almost literally becoming little hearts from looking at Rarity beside him, who was clueless to his advances, Starlight decided it was probably time to leave. She waved goodbye quickly and turned to the door, and as she left the doorway, she heard the door's bell jingle again overhead. She wasn't sure what caused the bell to jingle, but she didn't think much of it, and closed the door behind her, causing it to jingle again.
Rarity turned to Spike with a slight worried look. "Dear me, Spike. Is it just me, or did Starlight look a little different today?" Spike shrugged. His mind was far too lost in Rarity's eyes to pay attention to anything else at this point. "It's like she was wearing high heels or something, but I don't remember her wearing any. Oh well, I'm probably just imagining things. Where were we?" Rarity levitated a nearby dressing gown specifically made for dragons. "Ah yes, now I remember. Dress-up time, Spikey!"
As Trixie jogged into Ponyville, she noticed that many of the shops had started closing for the night. Finding the grocery stores closed, she decided that her best bet would be to contact Sweet Apple Acres. She wasn't close with Twilight Sparkle's other friends in Ponyville, so she knew she had to choose her words wisely if she had to talk to them.
She eventually arrived to the front entrance of Sweet Apple Acres. She had to act fast, so she pushed the gate open and ran towards the closest red building she could see. Some lights were still lit inside some of the rooms, giving Trixie some hope. She rushed up to the door, and knocked on it five times in succession.
The door was eventually swung open by an orange apple-farmer with a brown stetson hat. She looked annoyed, and her expression worsened upon seeing Trixie. "Ey, Trixie. Didn't think I'd see you hangin' around 'ere." Trixie took a deep breath, and put on the fakest smile that anypony could have ever faked in the equestrian history of fake smiles.
"Greetings, Applejack... Trixie... would like to... buy... your apples." Trixie's teeth clenched tightly as she finished her request, maintaining her big grin.
Applejack depressed her eyebrows suspiciously, squinting at Trixie's strange behaviour. "Yea... Trixie... Not sure if you noticed, but all the stores are all closin' for some shut-eye. Now if you excuse me, so am I-" Applejack began to close the door, hoping to be done with the annoying magician.
A painful crush was heard as Trixie wedged her hoof in the door. Thankfully, the end of hooves are quite tough and resistant to pain, but Trixie still winced. Keeping her big smile, Trixie pushed the door open again. "Well, yes, but, this is a slight emergency of sorts."
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Of sorts?"
Trixie nodded. "Yes. Trixie requires...err... simply needs to buy a large shipment of apples. Or any food really." She grinned at Applejack, and Applejack couldn't tell if it was a smile of friendliness, contempt or mockery.
"So what's this about a 'slight emergency o' sorts', Trixie? You didn' get no bugbears into town or something, did ya?"
Trixie suddenly lost her composure, taken by surprise at the accusation. "What? How dare you even imply-" Trixie gulped. She had more important matters to deal with, and getting defensive wasn't going to help her cause. She took a deep breath, and smiled again. "It's for our dear friend Starlight, she's doing an experiment... On... Uhh..." She paused to think. "She wants to perform some tests between, erm, apples and, erm, other Everfree flowers, to compare their, uhm, seeds! Yes." She nodded to herself, coming up with an elaborate lie. "Starlight needs an entire cart of food so that she can perform cross-experiments between Ponyville fruits and Everfree plants."
Applejack squinted her eyes even further, her muzzle almost touching Trixie's sweating face. Suddenly, she opened her eyes fully and pulled her head back with a genuinely friendly grin. "Well why didn' ya say so, Trix! I'hm always happy to lend a good ol' hoof to Twilight's friend." She walked out from the doorway, gesturing Trixie to follow her as Applejack winched herself up to her apple family cart, "I'll give it to yuh's for free. Honestly it's nice of yuh to be helpin Starlight like this, after all you're gonna be pullin a big load and it might be a lil' heavy for ya city folk."
Applejack continued walking as if the cart wasn't even attached to her, and prepared the cart under an apple tree. She backed up to the tree and bucked some fresh apples straight into the cart as Trixie watched. Trixie was secretly amazed as apples fell perfectly into a wonderful pile into the cart, filling it up rather well. Applejack prepared the loaded cart to be ready for Trixie to pull, and then offered to pull it herself. "Ey Trixie, you sure you can handle pullin' this here load? I can take it up to the castle if yah wants me to."
Trixie panicked. "No!" She screamed. She then quickly recollected herself with a nervous chuckle. "No, no, the Great and Powerful Trixie will show the magnitude of her friendship with Starlight by pulling this cart, all by herself!"
Applejack seemed a little confused. "Erm, Trix, it's really no problem, I don't want yuhs to hurts yer back or nothin-"
"Nonsense!" Trixie retorted. She then got up close to Applejack, trying to play it cool. "After all, you have clearly been working very hard and it's quite late, you deserve a rest, Trixie is certain that Starlight will send her regards later on to thank you for your... kind donation."
Applejack blushed. "Aw, shucks Trix, I didn't expect you to be all complimentin' and nice like that. Maybe yer right, I do need to hit the hay harder than a cow fallin' over in the field, woo-hoo! Have a nice day now." Applejack nodded politely, and walked back into her family's house, leaving Trixie alone with the cart.
Trixie gulped. If she thought convincing Applejack to give her the ridiculously large load of food was the hardest part, she quickly found herself to be absolutely wrong. She attached the cart's rope around herself, and tugged as hard as she could. Inch by inch the cart began to follow behind her, as she huffed and puffed. She needed to do this, for Starlight! She wasn't a strong pony by any means, and the ropes felt like they were almost trying to dig their way into Trixie's coat as she pulled as hard as she could, which wasn't very much. The wonky wheels of the cart weren't helping her situation either, often locking and un-locking unexpectedly.
She left the barn's gate, and the overall gradient began to change. She found herself finding it easier to pull the wagon as she went on, as the change in gradient worked in her favour. The sun had already settled when she left the barn, and Luna's moon had already risen into the sky and lit the way for Trixie across Ponyville's border.
She finally arrived at the Everfree's border, and walked alongside it until she found her performance stage and her wagon sitting alone in the moonlight. She looked around, unable to see Starlight anywhere. Curious, and slightly worried, Trixie untied her ropes from her, securing her heavy cart of apples in place and resting against it to catch her breath. Suddenly, she heard something rustle from above, and found a flurry of leaves falling onto her face.
"Oh Celestia, don't eat me, vile Everfree creature!" Trixie exclaimed, covering her eyes in fright. Feeling that she was still alive and intact, she eventually uncovered her eyes, taking a look at what was above her. She saw a big light-pink horn and a massive amount of purple hair with cyan streaks bobbing up and down behind the Everfree trees. There was another rustle, and she saw Starlight's massive head pop out from behind the trees. Trixie sighed in relief, realizing it was just Starlight. Starlight didn't seem to respond instantly, as her mouth seemed to have an Everfree tree trunk sticking out of it like an oversized popsicle.
"Oh, sowwy Twixie-" Starlight said with her mouth full. She spat out the tree, which was devoid of any leaves, as it banged behind the Everfree treeline and rested peacefully, "I got so hungry I started eating the leaves off these trees... Wait, what are those?"
Trixie covered her mouth to stifle her laugh, and then pointed to the big pile of apples she had just brought, in a rather dramatic fashion with both hooves. "Gaze in amazement, dear Starlight, as the brave and courageous Trixie has legally brought you a cartful of apples to cure you of your hunger pains!"
Starlight was amazed. "Wow, Trixie, I didn't actually think..." She suddenly changed her sentence mid-way, "I mean, I'm so, so happy that you did this for me, Trixie! You pulled this heavy cart all by yourself all to help keep my situation a secret, I can't imagine how heavy this was to pull for you! You really are a super amazing friend, Trixie." Starlight's mouth watered as she stared at the cart, another loud growl of her tummy setting off again, shaking the leaves of the trees she was resting against.
Trixie raised her hoof against her own chest proudly. "Was there ever any doubt? Haha." She then took an apple for herself, and then raised her arm grandly. "I know you're super-starving, so go on, dig-in! It's all for you."
Starlight's eyes gleamed happily. She revealed herself by stepping over the wall of Everfree trees, sitting in front of Trixie, with the cart laying prey between her lower hooves. She grabbed the cart with both hooves and raised it up to her muzzle, tilting it at the edge of her open maw as apples rolled and bounced onto her tongue. She closed her mouth and gave a loud juicy sound of a massive pile of apples being crushed simultaneously. Starlight's anxiety seemed to vanish just like the apples she had just swallowed. She ate almost all the apples in the cart, leaving about six specifically for Trixie. After getting to taste a few munches of pure apples, Starlight swallowed one final time and gave a long sigh, setting the cart down gently in front of Trixie.
Trixie had watched the whole ritual from below, and felt somewhat unnerved. It was like watching a living trash compactor the size of an entire room at work. She made a mental note to never get accidentally lost in whatever Starlight was about to eat.
Starlight Glimmer was too busy rubbing her belly to notice Trixie's frightened expression. "Oh, gosh. That really hit the spot. Gosh, Trixie, I'm so glad I became friends with you." She beamed with happiness, quickly picking up Trixie by surprise, making her yelp briefly. For one second, Trixie was standing on the ground next to an almost-empty cart, the next, she found herself surrounded and gently pressed against her friend's warm body. It was a gentle and giant hug, and Trixie, tired and triumphant, loved every second of it.
Starlight refused to let Trixie go, and suddenly heard her squeak under her fur. Starlight raised Trixie up in front of her face, and Trixie began to blush. "Well, Starlight. Trixie...wants to ask.. if it's alright to rest with you for the night. It was much warmer on your neck than inside Trixie's wagon, honestly..."
Starlight found Trixie's request incredibly heart-warming, and responded by rubbing her snout with Trixie's body softly. "Of course, Trixie. Normally I'd feel really awkward if anypony asked me for that, but somehow, being so big, I... love the feeling of being hugged by an adorable tiny pony."
Trixie enjoyed being the centre of attention of her massive friend, and simply hugged Starlight's nose back. "Trixie somewhat shares similar feelings, dear Starlight! But we must sleep now, for tomorrow holds a lot of preparation for my show! Among other arrangements." Trixie petted Starlight on the tip of her nose before cuddling up between Starlight's eyes. "Goodnight, Starlight Glimmer!"
"Hah... Nighty night, Trixie." Starlight gently petted Trixie's head carefully and then rested back on the Everfree trees behind her, her eyelids slowly dropping down as she saw Trixie in front of her eyes comfortably going to sleep. Trixie was resting on her big snout as if it were a giant luxurious bed, her legs and arms spread across her nose. Starlight eyes soon closed as she too began to sleep.
Part 5: Starlight Saves Our Town?
Starlight found herself standing on an old dusty pathway, with tiny dead little trees scattered around her, dwarfed by her gigantic size. Trixie was nowhere to be seen. As far as she could see around her in the darkness was fields of infertile, rocky plains that seemed to reach out into infinity around her. She had no idea where she was, so she began to take careful steps into the darkness. As her giant hooves crashed against the ground after each other, a thick mist began to settle on the flatlands around her.
"H-Hello?" Starlight called out, without moving her mouth. "Is anybody there?" She squinted her eyes as she trudged through the fog. She eventually noticed two lines of small, shanty houses facing each other, with an old wide pathway in between, only just big enough for her to fit both of her house-wide hooves between safely. She stopped in front of the familiar old village and bent down slowly to look at it more carefully. She then recognised the village.
It was her old village, or as it was named, "Our Town," a town that she once ran with a dangerously flawed ideology of equality. She cringed a bit at the memory, but she remained calm and rational. After all, enslaving the village happened a long time ago, and she had set everything right since then, and she was clearly not a threat to the village any-more. In fact, she soon found that she would end up being quite the opposite...
"Starlight, you have come to save us!" a tiny mare's voice exclaimed from below. Starlight's eyes darted to find the source of the sound. The windows of each house, which were all the same, were all closed and boarded up. Her focus then shifted to her left hoof, where she found a tiny pink-furred mare with dark-purple hair kneeling down and appearing to worship her.
Starlight was confused, recognising that it was Sugar Belle. "What do you mean?" Starlight asked "Are you all okay?"
"Oh, we need you to lead us, Starlight!" another weak voice came from afar, this time a white colt revealing himself from behind one of the houses. It was another inhabitant of the town, Double Diamond. He too kneeled towards Starlight's massive left hoof, sitting next to Sugar Belle. "Please, you must keep us safe!" He rested his head against Starlight's hoof, spreading his arms across to give her a tiny hug.
Things were getting very weird for Starlight. Weren't these ponies perfectly fine with living together without her guidance? Didn't they live BETTER without her? Starlight had always been uncomfortable with leading and asserting her power over ponies ever since she left the village, and she had slowly learnt to overcome this fear throughout the years, but this was too much. She was a giant pony now, who's size and magical power was unmatched by any other known equestrian entity, (well, maybe except for an Ursa Major) and now her old entire village was flocking to her hooves for protection and guidance. It was too much for her, so she took a careful step backwards. "Wh-What happened? Why do you all want me to lead you again? You know I'm a terrible leader. Why do you need me to keep you safe?"
The rest of the village ponies slowly exited their run-down homes, and formed a pastel-colored crowd at Starlight's front hooves, all staring up at her almost lifelessly. Altogether, they all began to chant in a creepy, monotone voice. "Only you... can stop her... from hurting us again..."
Starlight was visibly panicking now. She wanted to respond, but her train of thought was cut short as a loud deafening bang shook the ground, making the village ponies fall and some of the houses wooden supports crash into the dirty pathway. The mist surrounding the village seemed to get even more intense. A giant silhouette of a pony appeared to darken from beyond the mist behind the village, and with another loud CRUNCH, the big tree that stood at the end of the village got instantly squashed under a giant hoof of a different pony ahead of Starlight. Starlight could only see a wide grinning smile from beyond the shadowy mist. When Starlight realized that the fur colour of the giant pony was exactly like her own, she felt her face go pale and a shiver race down her spine.
As the figure grew closer, it became apparent that Starlight was staring at a giant clone of herself, but the other giant appeared more menacing, a mirror image of her older, dictatorship self. Even more horrifying was the fact that the giant towered over Starlight by twice her size, a whopping 100 feet or so.
The tiny ponies below scurried along like disturbed ants around Starlight's leg, frightened of the other giantess that was stomping onto their village. Starlight herself was considerably unnerved by the sight of her younger evil self approaching her. She gulped and attempted to be courageous. "I don't know who you are... or why you look exactly like me, but you need to leave these ponies alone!"
The other giant, who looked exactly like Starlight's past self, gave a menacingly wide grin as she looked down at Starlight. "We're not so different, you and I," it said, sounding exactly like Starlight's voice, but deeper and calmer, "We're both powerful, and we both just absolutely love to show it. So why don't you join me, Starlight Glimmer, and use your new... size... to finish what we originally started, hm?" Starlight's evil clone laughed a little, kicking one of the houses to smithereens effortlessly, scattering the little cabin's parts far out into the surrounding mist, making Starlight flinch before continuing. "We can build everything from the ground up... Make everything better than this mess... Make everypony..." She lowered her head down to Starlight's muzzle with an uncomfortably sly grin, "equally happier."
Starlight stared at the giant evil version of her with contempt. "This isn't who I am. I got rid of you long ago!"
The evil clone chuckled to herself, casually arranging her bangs in her purple hair while responding. "Oh, perhaps, but once you've become a giant goddess of a pony with indescribable raw power, you must admit, it's a little easy to get... tempted~" The clone approached Starlight, walking over the village as if it were nothing but grass. Starlight backed away from her towering evil self, shivering all over. Her village friends had now been clinging to her legs for safety, and suddenly began to call out to Starlight in unison, in a comforting but eerie way.
"We believe in you, Starlight Glimmer. We know you will keep us safe."
Starlight felt a rush of power surging through her body. It felt as if the supportive chanting from her friends was manifesting itself inside her.
"You will become a kind and generous goddess, Starlight Glimmer!"
Without being able to control it, she found herself quickly gaining height, much to her evil clone's surprise.
"What is this?!" the evil clone of herself exclaimed, "it's... it's not possible!"
Starlight was confused, and slightly alarmed. "I- I don't know!" she cried as she stepped backwards while growing taller, "I didn't even want to be a giant in the first place, and now I'm-" She found herself getting taller and bigger, causing her clone to stagger backwards in amazement and fear. The villagers were still hugging her hoof safely, chanting her on supportively.
"We love you, Starlight Glimmer!"
Starlight looked down at her smaller evil self as it appeared smaller and smaller as she grew, soon dwarfing her as her own head got surrounded by clouds that gently tickled her ears. Annoyed at the clone for attacking her town, Starlight swooped up her clone, who appeared as a tiny pink speck of dust, picking her up, and up, and up, poofing her past the clouds to look at her closely.
"You aren't who I am." Starlight said sternly. She looked at her tiny clone, barely visible, sitting on her elevated hoof. "And I'll never be you, ever, again."
The speck appeared to be shouting at her in retaliation, but she couldn't hear anything from it. Starlight shrugged, and gently placed it onto the ground. However, looking at the ground made her suddenly feel uneasy.
From this view, she could see almost all of Equestria. It was like looking at the cutie map, but it was real. She could only focus on Ponyville and the crystal empire before she felt extremely dizzy from sensory overload. Her legs gave way, and she lost her balance, tipping over like a massive tree before stumbling onto her side, destroying thousands of acres of land under her massive, continent-sized body.
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."
Tiny placeholder fireworks, which were very small and subtle flashes of multi-colored lights, fizzled around the beautifully crafted stage. The dark purple curtains glowed a slight pink, levitating towards the sides and revealed a mysterious figure. The blue-coated pony wore a strange purple wizard's hat that had turquoise and golden stars stitched onto it. She also wore a long cape that covered her body and rear legs, with similiar designs of stars and circles that matched her hat.
"Come one, come all, and witness another stunning performance by the great and powerful Trixie!" The figure stood on her hind legs, raising her front legs excitedly as another range of placeholder fireworks surrounded the stage again. The figure then held out a hoof, as if to tell the audience to be silent. There was dead silence as Trixie reached into her cape and brought out an adorable pink little teacup.
"Look closely, my wonderful audience, as the great and powerful Trixie performs a spell that has since been thought proven impossible by any form of unicorn magic... The never-seen-before Trixie Teacup Duplication trick! Watch as Trixie re-creates this tea-cup... OUT OF NOTHING!"
A single gasp from the audience was heard. Trixie raised her purple cape, showing that here indeed was no other hidden teacup on her. She then focused on the teacup, and began to roll it around in front of her with her hoof slowly. She made a sudden movement towards her cape that was hard to follow, and suddenly, with a pink flash of lighting, a pink teacup, identical to the first, appeared in her other hoof.
She showed the two teacups to the audience, and tapped them together to prove that they were indeed real and identical teacups. The sound of one pony clapping with their hooves was heard in the audience, causing Trixie to bow. "Thank you, thank you, you are a wonderful audience."
Starlight Glimmer enjoyed watching her friend's practice-run. She had been sitting in front of the performing stage, acting as Trixie's test audience. "That was great, Trixie. How did you manage to do that? I didn't think you perfected the teleportation spell by now."
Trixie grinned with a flick of her hoof. "A magician never reveals her secrets... but for you I'll make an exception. See, I didn't actually use teleportation, I used a transfiguration spell." Trixie held out her teacup once again. "When I held the teacup out, I also had some dust plastered on my other hoof. The audience can't see it, but it's just enough raw material for a transfiguration spell. I just wave my hooves around and cast the transfiguration spell, and bam, second, identical teacup in both hooves!"
Starlight clapped again, impressed with Trixie's practical thinking. "That's really smart actually. That means you can perform that trick pretty much anywhere, even out in the open where there wouldn't be any teacups to teleport."
Trixie pointed at Starlight, "exactly," Trixie continued, "it's a neat little trick I've been thinking about after I casted my first teleportation spell!"
"Ah yes," Starlight thought aloud, "your first teleportation spell, when you teleported the cutie map and I bottled up my anger..."
Trixie waved a hoof up towards Starlight's face. "Nuh uh uh, we're over that now Starlight. Besides, we aren't done here yet. We still have the grand finale..."
"Oh no..." Starlight whispered to herself. This is it. The lowest and silliest part of her life. First she enslaved a village. Then she mind-controlled her friends. Then she tried to turn herself and her childhood friend into fillies to play a petty board game. Now she's going to pretend to be an ursa minor. Where did things go so wrong?
Trixie began to explain. "Alright, Starlight, I'm going to cast a massive hologram and 'stick' each part onto your body. Stay still, okay?" Starlight nodded, and stood as still as possible, again towering over the stage and trees around her, forcing Trixie to really force her neck to face upwards. A pink glow blasted from Trixie's horn in a weak way towards Starlight's massive body, leaving behind a strange-looking blue texture that floated and wrapped itself around Starlight's figure. Starlight shivered slightly as she felt the hologram phase through her where the different parts connected. It felt very strange, almost ethereal and ghostly. Starlight's vision was tinted with a moving light-blue layer that surrounded her face. Suddenly, it blocked her vision entirely, and then dissipated back to it's transparent blue tint.
"And... d-... done!" Trixie gasped for breath after performing such a complicated spell. Starlight felt uneasy on her hooves. She turned around, and as if she was wearing it, the blue 3D hologram turned with her, covering her like a really thick disguise. Starlight could see everything outside with a blue tint. She wondered what she looked like, so she asked Trixie to bring a mirror.
After searching a little in her wagon, Trixie returned with a large mirror and pointed it up at Starlight. Starlight's jaw dropped, as what she saw was terrifying.
In the mirror she saw the face of a giant, sky-colored bear, with thick black eyebrows and deadly red eyes. Little white constellation markings floated around the bear's body, a true splitting image of a real ursa minor. The only difference Starlight found, was that the disguise seemed to end around her lips, revealing the inside of her actual mouth, with her harmless blunt teeth that could only belong to a herbivore. It was a smooth transition, the holographic disguise seemed to wrap itself quite realistically to her movement.
Starlight felt a slight fight-or-flight response build up in her body, as if she were staring into the face of a lion. She quickly dismissed her fears, because she knew it was herself, but the adrenaline that rushed through her body when she saw the hologram's face proved that the disguise was extremely effective.
"Wow, Trixie, this is... insane. My hairs are literally on their ends from looking at this." She looked towards Trixie, who was twitching and shivering at the same time.
"Y-Yes, Trixie has performed..." Trixie stuttered as she spoke, "very magnificently... and... and..." Trixie's legs began to wobble and shake as she stared at the mean, horrifying 'ursa minor' towering over her. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry Starlight, I can't stand looking at it! It's reminding me of when I was almost attacked by that horrifying thing!" Trixie's terrified legs gave way, causing her to fall to the ground in shock. "I can't help it, it's too scary! It's just too real!"
Trixie crawled up helplessly into a ball between Starlight's hooves. She covered her eyes, trying to overcome her irrational anxiety. Suddenly, she felt something warm and massive brush alongside her whole body and found herself being picked up gently. Opening her eyes, she saw a magical, dark blue wall pressing against her body. Trixie raised her head and saw that she was being hugged by the giant 'Ursa Minor'. Her feelings of terror subsided as she gave a sigh of relief, relaxing her arms to return the hug.
"Thanks, Starlight, I needed that." Trixie refused to let go of her friend, feeling much more confident now. "I don't know what got over me." Trixie rested rested her head against Starlight's chest comfortably. She then felt a familiar hoof pet her on her head in a very soft and timid fashion.
"It's alright, Trixie," Starlight reassured, "I guess your hologram worked a little... too well." She let out a little giggle, still petting Trixie's head. Trixie chuckled to herself, snuggling happily as she was surrounded by Starlight's arm and furred chest, which was expertly covered by the hologram to look like an ursa minor's.
They hugged for a while, getting much too comfortable to release each other. That is, until they heard another voice call out in the distance, which made Starlight's and Trixie's ears and tails stand on end.
"Starlight? Trixie? Are you around here?" called a little male dragon in the distance. Starlight knew that voice, almost dropping Trixie in her panic. Trixie was confused, scrambling around Starlight's raised arm to find her footing (or hoofing?).
"Who's that?!" Trixie whispered. Starlight began to sweat underneath the ursa-minor hologram. She quickly but gently placed Trixie onto the ground and rushed behind the everfree trees. She lied on the ground as flat as possible so that she could not be seen through the dense trees.
"It's Spike," Starlight hushed in alarm from behind the trees, "make sure he doesn't see me!" Starlight covered her eyes with her blue 'ursa minor paws', trying to breathe as lightly as possible. Trixie was startled, staring at where Starlight had just been sitting and then back to the stage, where she heard Spike the dragon approaching. She saw Spike peep his head around the corner, looking slightly worried. Trixie gulped and quickly put up a confident yet innocent facade.
Trixie arranged her wizard hat neatly on her head and spoke to the little dragon approaching her. "Greetings, little dragon," she welcomed, "have you arrived to take a sneak peek at Trixie's new upcoming performance?"
Spike didn't seem too interested, as he turned his head around looking for somepony else. "No offense Trixie, but no, not really. I'm looking for Starlight, she said she was going to hang out with you, but she hasn't come back yet. Have you seen her?"
Trixie huffed proudly in response, "Starlight is spending extended time with Trixie and is doing fine. At the moment she is helping the great and powerful Trixie find something for her performance, and she will eventually be back. Trixie will be more than happy to relay your message to her when she gets back." Trixie walked up right in front of Spike, preventing him from searching the area any further. "So, what would you like to tell Starlight?"
Spike looked up at Trixie, clearly uncomfortable with her invasion of his personal space. "I-err, just wanted to make sure that she's okay. She doesn't normally leave the castle this for this long without telling us..."
"Starlight," Trixie interrupted, "is doing just fine. Trixie would be offended on her friend's behalf if you thought she could not handle herself." She leaned her head closer still to Spike's face, almost booping his nose, "You don't think that, do you?"
Spike felt slightly intimidated, having to wipe off a sweat from his forehead. "N-No, Trixie. Definitely not saying that, nope. Absolutely not. I'm just looking out for a friend, that's all." His little eyes darted around, trying to find the nearest escape without looking too obvious. "If you see her, let her know that Twilight will be back tomorrow, and she might be worried if Starlight is gone for too long..."
Trixie raised her head, looking down at Spike. "Trixie will make sure to tell Starlight once she returns. Now please, leave the area, little dragon. No sneak peeks!" Trixie nudged Spike in the direction of Ponyville, being slightly rough with her pushing hooves.
"Alright, alright, I'm movin'!" Spike huffed under his breath, increasing his pace up to an uncomfortable jog to escape Trixie's constant nudging. He eventually was far enough from them to appear as a tiny speck in the distance, and eventually Trixie lost sight of Spike as he disappeared over one of the many little bridges surrounding Ponyville. She gave a long sigh of a relief and turned around to face the big dense wall of Everfree trees in front of her.
"Alright, Starlight" Trixie called out, "that annoying little dragon is gone. You can come out now."
There was a gentle stir that grew louder as Starlight pulled herself up from the ground. Yards of trees and leaves were disturbed in her movement, rustling loudly and violently as she rose high above the trees. Starlight's holographic disguise was still activated, so she still appeared as a massive blue ursa minor with a calm expression.
She stepped slowly and carefully over the trees and onto the flat patch of grass where Trixie and her stage stood, carefully maneuvering herself to avoid hitting anything. She smiled down at Trixie, who was only slightly shaken from all the movement, but not stirred.
"Thanks for stepping in for me, Trixie," Starlight thanked as she lowered one of her giant hooves next to Trixie, "I thought my heart was going to stop for a second when he started walking towards the forest!"
Trixie grinned, feeling rather confident about herself. She jumped onto the holographic bear paw beside her, phasing through the fake claws and landing on Starlight's real hoof underneath. Starlight raised Trixie up to be in level with her face, high up into the air with only her hoof to support her.
"Trixie is just that amazing, Starlight," Trixie said boastfully, "She has a great way with words as well as magic!"
Starlight nuzzled Trixie's whole body with just the tip of her nose. "Yeah, there's no doubt about that..." Starlight blinked and felt a slight rush of wind around her. In a quick flash, the 'ursa minor' hologram vanished as neither of them was supplying the disguise with any magic for a while. Trixie found herself pressed gently against the bridge of Starlight's nose. She was glad to see her friend properly again, and Starlight was similarly glad to be rid of the ugly disguise.
"Well," Trixie said, "we shouldn't waste too much time on congratulations, we have an act to practice!" Trixie slid off Starlight's nose and back onto her lifted hoof once again, looking up at Starlight's gigantic adorable blue eyes. "Now, tell me, what's the best growl you can make? You’ll need to really act your part as an ursa minor if we want to pull this off!"
Starlight blinked blankly for a few seconds, dumbfounded with the question. She took a deep breath and let out the harshest sound she could make. "Uhm... Grr..?" It was adorably bad.
Trixie shook her head quickly, "No no no, it needs to be loud, and scary! You have to really shake the audience up, Starlight!"
Starlight's ears flopped down as she felt her confidence drain from her even further. "...Rawr?" she tried again. Her voice cracked from the tension, sounding like a confused cat more than anything.
Trixie face-hoofed, realizing that this was going to be an issue. "I can't have a meowing ursa minor! Hmm, where am I going to get some good sound effects on short notice...?" Trixie looked around curiously while rubbing her hoof. Her face lit up suddenly as an idea flew up her horn making her tingle gleefully. "Oh yes! I could use a big round noisemaker that sounds like an ursa and you can levitate it just beside your mouth, underneath the hologram. Then all you will need to do is blow into it!"
"That's... a really smart idea actually, Trixie," Starlight congratulated. She then looked upward thoughtfully, "You might be able to get a good 'monster' noise-maker from a carpentry store, or at a store that sells exotic musical instruments, but I'm not sure. I... can't really help you find one though."
Trixie depressed her lips together with a furrowed brow as her eyes slowly trekked all the way from Starlight's muzzle down to her tippy toe hooves. "Yes... Trixie is well aware of your situation, Starlight..." She then turned around with a change of expression, looking more lively and confident. "But Trixie will, again, venture forth into Ponyvile to find a monster noisemaker for her act!"
Trixie looked triumphantly towards Ponville, standing straight on her four blue hooves. Her heroic pose was quickly shaken by a sudden little rumble. Trixie looked back at Starlight, sighing. "And... find some more food fit for a giant friend, I guess."
Starlight blushed, covering her hungry tummy with her front hooves as she sat against the everfree trees behind her. "Yup... Good luck, Trixie! I'll be erm, behind these trees, to make sure nopony sees me."
Trixie nodded and turned around. Before she could begin jogging towards Ponyvile, she found herself held from all sides by two gentle giant hooves picking her up quickly. Trixie could barely let out a yelp before finding herself nuzzled softly against Starlight's cheek, to which Trixie returned the hug happily.
"Thanks so much Trixie," Starlight thanked while rubbing her cheek against Trixie's entire body, "I feel like we're really bonding over this experience as friends."
"Indeef-" Trixie tried to respond, her muzzle being completely covered and rubbed by the slight pink fur on Starlight's face. Starlight eventually realized this, and, still blushing gently as before, she slowly let Trixie gently onto the ground to let her leave.
"Farewell Starlight, Trixie will do her best, as always!" And with that, Trixie ran off towards Ponyville. Starlight smiled as she rested against the everfree trees, letting out a deep sigh as she thought deeply about how caring and well-intentioned Trixie really was on the inside, despite her rough boastful exterior. Most importantly, she was glad to have her as a friend.
Trixie had spent a good few hours asking around for any stores that sold monster noisemakers, or any exotic musical instrument that sounded like a roar. They were very rare items, and she was about to give up as she was looking around in an old store that sold antique musical instruments. Trixie was so focused on trying to find the right instrument that she didn't realize that another pony had been standing in her way.
She bumped into the rump of a very fat orange colt. Trixie fell to the floor, the other pony completely unaffected from the crash, but appeared concerned for the dizzy performing artist below.
"Are you alright there, miss?" the orange colt asked, offering a large fat hoof. Trixie looked up, slightly repulsed by the roly poly curves on the colt in front of her, but acted kindly and accepted his hoof.
"Ugh, apologies," Trixie said, rubbing the dust off her shoulder. She then looked back at the fat colt, and noticed that his big round flank had a large stretched cutie mark of a tuba. "Trixie was wondering..." she began, "if you knew anything about big bassy horns that sound like a monster's roar?"
The big orange pegasus raised his eyebrows. "Oh, sure, I know a lot about 'em." He turned around to face Trixie, dwarfing her by ten whole inches in height, his wide girth also surpassing her body twofold, with embarrassingly useless wings that were clearly unable to cope with his enlarged frame in flight.
"Name's Jupiter Summers," he introduced politely, "I specialize in horns, especially bassy ones, as you can see." He indicated back to the picture of a yellow tuba on his rather large flank. He then faced Trixie. "I've collected a few roaring noisemakers in my career. They used to be used in classical plays, y'know. They've gone out of fashion with the magical age, though, with the invention of unicorn digital recordings. Anyway, I'm rambling, you said you needed one?"
"That would be much... appreciated," Trixie replied, keeping her head high despite being absolutely bored by the rambling fat colt wobbling in front of her face, "Trixie requires a deep, frightening roar for her performance."
The fat orange pegasus's eyes lit up. "That's wonderful!" he exclaimed, "I thought I'd never see the day that my old noisemaker would become useful again. I'll lend it to you for free, just make sure you return it when the performance is done." Jupiter turned around slowly, reaching behind an old dusty shelf, pulling out a large complicated machine on wheels. It was a strange design, and was almost as big as the fat orange pony himself in both height and width. It had a mouthpiece and lots of cogs, wheels and strange wind pipes that curled and twisted in many shapes, only to end up in a large round horn that Trixie could easily peep her head into.
"Wait, you run this shop?" Trixie asked as she held onto the noisemaker's handle. "Trixie didn't see you when she first walked in."
"Yes. I often wait out in the back room, I don't get many customers," the wide colt explained. "Anyway, just take care of it, it's quite old. Good luck with your performance, m'lady."
Trixie lowered her brow slightly, as she found Jupiter to be aesthetically unpleasing and wanted to leave quickly. "Well, thank you. Trixie will take good care of it." She walked the noisemaker towards the door, and then stopped to look back at the shop owner.
"Hold on," she asked, "Trixie couldn't help but notice your... shapely shape. Would you happen to know where one could buy a lot of cheap food for a low price? Asking for a friend."
"Hah, hungry eh?" the jiggly colt chuckled, "well I think Hayburger has some special discount offers they serve for large parties and events. They might give you a discount if you're related to royalty or something, but that's pretty rare in this town."
"Good enough," Trixie concluded, "Trixie must thank you for your efforts, mister Summers. Now Trixie shall make her leave."
And make her leave Trixie did as she pulled the noisemaker behind her outside the store, and began trotting towards Hayburger.
Later on Trixie arrived at the restaurant while hauling her unusual device. Hayburger had very few customers eating when she came in. She gave a sigh of relief as there was no que to order, so she simply went up to the counter directly. A dark beige Hayburger staff mare with dull brown hair quickly appeared to take her order from behind the counter. Her speech and facial expression looked extremely barren of any emotion.
"Hello, welcome to Hayburger, may I take your-"
"Trixie," the loud performer began as she lifted her chin up dramatically, "requires a large batch of... uhhh.... hay, for her great upcoming performance."
The Hayburger staff mare, who's gray-blue eyes appeared to show nothing but a hollow hull of empty thoughts and broken dreams, slowly answered almost automatically. "Hayburger serves parties and events at a discount cost of fifty bits per shipment of hay. All terms and conditions apply."
The staff clerk rested her hoof lazily on the counter as she stared at the bewidlered Trixie for a response.
"Well, erm- Well," Trixie stuttered, "Trixie is holding this... meeting for... the uh.. royal student of Princess Talkative- err- I mean- Twilight. Yes. Trixie requires this event for Starlight Glimmer, so erm, could you lower the price a teenzy inzy little bit?"
The dull-brown mare in front of Trixie didn't even flinch, which made Trixie's mind panic even more. The clerk slowly lifted her arms off the counter robotically and turned to look at a piece of paper written next to her. She then slowly looked up at Trixie. "Trixie Lulamoon?" the clerk asked monotonously.
"Y-Yes." Trixie hesitated.
The clerk slowly lowered the paper and nodded to Trixie. "Your name is on the official list of valid ponies related to the Princess, so your request is approved." The clerk then shifted back to Trixie with her elbow rested lazily on the counter and her head slanting against her hoof. "Five bits per hay bale."
Trixie gleamed happily, but then remembered last night where she strained her back to pull a heavy cart of apples for Starlight. "Could you get it... delivered?"
The clerk nodded.
"Great, could we get it delivered today?"
The clerk nodded again. It was literally the only movement she was doing now besides breathing and tracking Trixie with her dead eyes. The lack of emotion made Trixie uncomfortable. "Well, th-Thank you, miss..."
"Sour Seeds," the clerk answered while slowly passing Trixie a parchment, "take this paper around the back and tell the boys to get it delivered wherever, and... whatever."
Trixie hastily took the paper and left immediately. She was glad the confrontation was over.
Meanwhile, a hungry and fifty foot tall Starlight Glimmer had been laying around trying not to think about food. She had already eaten from some of the surrounding tall Everfree trees that had lined the performing area, and she feared that it would be careless to continue what was essentially mass deforestation of leaves. She had to throw all thoughts about the crunchy, savory taste of wonderfully thick bright green leaves out of her mind. The mountains of wet leaves with a sweet coating of natural tree sap, which to her size was looking more like honey on soft, melting slices of bread...
Starlight took a deep breath. "Exactly," she thought to herself, "I mustn't think of any of those things. I just need to hide here, behind the trees..." She looked around as lonliness tugged the sides of her mouth downwards into a frown, "with nopony to talk to... while starving..."
She sighed again from the lack of nourishment and boredom, leaning onto her side just behind the thick line of now barren-rooted trees in front of her. She rested her head sideways on the muddy ground with plenty of flora surrounding her. Suddenly, she noticed a large patch of tall flowers sitting right in front of her nose, tickling the edges of her nostrils with their blue petals.
Something made Starlight's brain snap with instinct.
She smashed her massive hoof down onto the flower patch and literally scooped the flowers into a big pile, straight into her open mouth. CRUNCH, the large, room-sized packed ball of plants vanished between her teeth. Starlight sighed through her nose, as her mouth was full, feeling wonderful once again.
She began chewing loudly until she suddenly heard some a group of hoof-steps walking towards the performing area. Her ears stood up and she stopped chewing her mouthful of natural food as she heard the footsteps grow louder. There were some muffled voices as well, along with the creaking sound of multiple wagon wheels creaking at the same time.
Starlight was hidden behind the trees, if only just. Laying on her side helped to hide her massive size, but she also had to make sure to hold her breath and breathe very slowly through her nose, while keeping her mouthful in her mouth to avoid gulping too loudly. She had to stay perfectly still.
She heard the ponies just beyond the trees talking, but could only make two deep-voiced colts and a very loud and annoying mare barking at them. She was very sure that the mare was Trixie, but she'd never heard the other two colts before. She kept waiting and waiting until she heard Trixie say goodbye to the two colts and waited for the sounds of cartwheels creaking to fade away fully.
Once there was silence, she slowly gulped her mouthful of plants and raised her head up slowly from behind the trees, slowly seeing Trixie alone near her performing stage, along with thirty large hay bales scattered around the field. She then finally noticed a strange machine on a little wagon which was roped around Trixie. Trixie looked around curiously below, seemingly confused. "Starlight?" Trixie asked, "Where are you? The coast is clear."
Starlight giggled. "Up here, Trixie. I see you've brought a lot of stuff!"
Trixie looked around and smiled in a friendly way up at Starlight. "Indeed! Trixie has brought, well, more food, but has also borrowed a monster noise-maker for our act!"
Starlight seemed interested. She wanted a better look at the machine, so she slowly and carefully lifted her massive hooves over the line of dead Everfree trees, who's leaves she had a eaten off of, and landed one hoof after the other in the little grass area next to Trixie. She kneeled down onto the grass with her massive body and lowered her head close to Trixie and the strange contraption next to her.
Starlight had never seen an orchestral noise maker before. It was heavy and large, consisting of many winding pipes and wheel-cogs, with a little mouthpiece at one end and a large, round open tube at the end. Starlight slowly levitated the strange machine up in front of her nose, inspecting it curiously.
"This looks so weird," Starlight commented, while rotating the noise maker weightlessly, "do you think it'l work?"
Trixie gave a mischievous grin. "Well, let's find out, shall we?"
Starlight arched back a little to give herself proper space to breathe, and then took a deep breath while holding the large noise maker in front of her lips with her magic. She then closed her lips around the noise-maker while keeping it in position, and blew.
The noise maker rattled her jaw as a terrifying roar came out the other end of it. It sounded even more terrifying than an ursa minor, and it surprised both of them. The low rumbling roar made it's way through the entire village nearby and disturbed birds all throughout the Everfree Forest, followed by a dying echo that slipped into an eerie silence.
Starlight, who was shivering from the intensity and realistic nature of the roar she had just created, levitated the noise-maker away from her mouth and looked down at Trixie with wide-open eyes.
"I... didn't mean for it to be THAT loud, Trixie!" Starlight stuttered at Trixie below. "...Trixie?"
Trixie was frozen in place. She looked and felt both petrified and absolutely ecstatic at the same time. She wanted to scream in terror and scream in absolute delight at the same time, and the conflicting emotions canceled out into complete shock. Starlight had to nudge Trixie's body with a massively tiny push to snap her out of it. After a good gentle nudging, Trixie shook her head quickly and gasped. Starlight was worried.
"Trixie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it THAT loudly!" Starlight began to apologize, but Trixie cut her off in excitement.
"That... was AMAZING!" Trixie cried with glee, "that was SO realistic, Trixie's tail felt like it was going to fall off with fear! This is exactly what Trixie was looking for!" Trixie was so excited that she began hopping around Starlight's hooves like a little filly.
"O... Oh." Starlight said with a slight hint of confusion.
Trixie then stopped and looked back up at Starlight. "Right, this means we're all set for the big day tomorrow!"
Starlight almost jumped, which was a good thing she didn't considering her size. "Tomorrow?!" Starlight cried in surprise. "You didn't tell me we were performing tomorrow!"
Trixie raised her snout confidently. "Trixie simply didn't want you to feel pressured during our practice sessions. See? Trixie is a good friend..."
"We practiced like... ONCE!" Starlight exclaimed.
"-And what a wonderful session it was, Starlight dear!" Trixie said grandly, "Trixie is certain that you will nail the role, with a little improv." She pet Starlight's hoof that was covering most of her view in a comforting way. "Just follow Trixie's lead and everything will go perfectly!"
Starlight sighed and rested backwards onto the mix of full and empty trees behind her. "Okay," Starlight huffed, crossing her arms, "I just really hope nothing goes wrong."
"Pshaw," Trixie said with a flick of her hoof in the air, "tomorrow will be great, perfect and an absolutely astonishing show for the audience, you just see!"
And with that, Trixie returned back into her wagon to prepare the last-minute preparations for the show as Celestia's sun began to settle in the distance. Starlight however wasn't too sure of it all.
"I really hope so," Starlight said with a doubtful sigh. She lowered the noise maker and levitated a large hay bale from one of the wagons that Trixie had gotten from Hayburger. As she was chewing the large packed hay bale, she began to wonder about how much trouble she was in. How long could she avoid Twilight before she was found out? She hoped it would be long enough to find herself a way to get back to normal before Twilight found her.
At least she was being sheltered by her good friend Trixie, even if it did come at the expense of being the undercover star of Trixie's show.
Well, it couldn't be that bad, could it?
Part 9: The BIG Performance
A large group of ponies had collected in front of Trixie's empty stage, seated on the grass in the early morning. Multiple voices echoed and overlapped each other incoherently as multiple curious stallions and mares discussed Trixie's previous events, and collectively wondered how she could possibly top her last act. Some ponies already took a biased skeptical view on the show before it even began, while other ponies were excited to see what Trixie could come up with next. The rest were simply there for the entertainment.
Suddenly, the lights in front of the stage dimmed, causing the early rising sun to dimly lit the stage with it's naturally red simmering haze. The chattering of the audience stopped as the sound of a fizzling was heard behind the stage. A loud bang soon followed, along with more bangs, as beautiful streaks of various colors flew up into the air and exploded into fantastic fireworks that appeared extremely bright in contrast to the early morning sky. They gasped as they stared at the flashes explode in the sky. Their attention was soon brought back to earth as an explosion of purple dust filled the stage.
When the dust dissipated, standing right in the middle of the stage, was a blue-coated mare in her now-iconic purple magician coat and hat. The fireworks stopped above, allowing the audience to focus more on the female performer standing on stage. The performer raised her hat dramatically and addressed the audience loudly.
"Come one, come all, and witness another stunning performance by the great, and powerful, Trrrixie!" The performer stood up on her hind legs, raising her front hooves to excite the audience. Most ponies began clapping as another small round of rainbow-colored fireworks set off just above the stage.
Trixie grinned as she saw the audience clapping their hooves excitedly. This was it, the stage was hers now, and the audience was caught right where she wanted them to be. She raised a quick hoof up, silencing the crowd.
"Look closely, you wonderful audience, as the great and powerful Trixie performs a spell that has since been proven impossible by any form of unicorn magic... the now patented... never-seen-before... Trixie Teacup Duplication Trick!"
The audience gasped as Trixie slowly pulled out an adorably pink little teacup from her cape. Her cape rose up as if a magical wind blew through it, showing the audience that there indeed was no other hidden teacup on her body.
"Watch, and hold your breath, as Trixie re-creates this tiny tea-cup.... OUT OF NOTHING!"
There was a loud commotion in the audience. Some ponies excitedly began discussing loudly if she could actually do it, while skeptical ponies instantly began to slander and heckle the trick as impossible. Either-way, the entire crowd was urging her on. Trixie had to raise her seemingly empty hoof to silence the crowd once again, posing dramatically as she did so.
She then appeared to focus intensely on the tea cup, slowly waving it around. She could see at the corner of her eyes that the crowd was following her cup, trying to carefully see what would happen next. This was exactly what Trixie wanted, so she made a quick movement of the teacup in front of the audience, and with a sudden puff of magic from seemingly nowhere (her horn was hidden under her hat) another duplicate teacup appeared in her other hoof. She then stood up proudly holding both teacups. The crowd went eerily silent.
A unicorn stallion in the audience suddenly stood up. "From my advanced research of magic, that puff of magic was that of an actual transfiguration spell! I can't believe it! She actually did it!"
With this, the crowd went wild. The skeptical hecklers were drowned out by the immense clapping and cheering from her audience. This was truly her best trick yet. Trixie took a polite bow in front of the audience as they cheered. "Thank you, thank you, you are such a wonderful audience!"
Trixie wished that the cheering would never end, but she had to get on with the grand finale. She couldn't lose their interest now, so she raised her hoof, again in a dramatic pose, causing the crowd to simmer down silently. The sun had risen father into the sky at this point, and the darkness had now been replaced with your average daytime visibility.
"And now, for Trixie's next trick... She will now re-perform the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive..."
There was a quick small groan from the audience, as they had already seen this trick before.
"...On a real, breathing, Ursa Minor!" Trixie finished. It definitely got the audience's attention, as they all gasped collectively and began talking.
"Ah great," a loud orange female earth pony grumbled from within the crowd, "It's gonna be this ol' nonsense again!"
"She can't possibly!" agreed the white unicorn beside her, "After last time, too!"
Trixie smirked. "These ponies have no idea..." Trixie rose a hoof, mostly to hide her own childish giggle from the crowd, and used her magic to set off a large explosion of fireworks, this time the fireworks exploded into the shape of an Ursa Minor, crouched on all fours, appearing to roar with it's mouth open.
The loud crowd soon became silent once again when a loud tremor shoot the ground beneath them. The tables which served food on the side shook, and one gluttonous pony even dropped her bucket of hay from the mini-earthquake.
Trixie grinned at the audience as the loud tremors repeated after each other, growing more intense every time. It became obvious that something massive, absolutely massive, was walking their way...
The audience were quick to huddle each other fearfully as they heard a massive roar that shook the entire field around them. Suddenly, they saw the head of a massive dark-blue bear peep out from the tops of the trees, looking down at the audience with a wide, grizzly look. It took careful steps over the tree-line, stepping next to the stage and perching it's rear onto the ground below like a trained dog, towering over the entire stage as if it were a dollhouse, all the while staring devilishly at the ponies below. Trixie gave a subtle wink up at the 'Ursa Minor', and then turned to inspect the audience.
There were no hecklers anymore, only petrified and amazed audience-members now. Trixie grinned even further, her plan was working.
"Now that Trixie has your attention, Trixie welcomes you to her trained pet. Excuse Trixie... her trained URSA MINOR." She turned to look up at the 'Ursa Minor', "Come now, Trixie's pet! Give a terrifying roar for the audience!"
The 'Ursa Minor' looked down at the audience. It twiddled it's 'thumbs' nervously for just a quick moment before arching forwards to release a loud roar that shook the entire audience once again. Even Trixie stumbled slightly on the stage from the shaking.
The audience screamed and huddled each other tighter. They were absolutely convinced that this 'Ursa Minor' was under Trixie's control.
With a purple glow, Trixie levitated her stage curtains to reveal the same cannon that she had used in her Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive performance. She pushed it forwards to the edge of the stage, and aimed it up at the 'Ursa Minor.'
The 'Ursa' rubbed it's 'paw' on the ground nervously. It didn't appear comfortable with the whole ordeal, but the audience was too distracted by the sharp zig-zag of teeth and permanent scowl on it's face to notice it's subtle body movements.
Trixie had finished positioning the cannon and began loading herself inside it. As she prepared, the 'Ursa' looked around at the audience shyly. Suddenly the 'Ursa' noticed a very particular purple alicorn within the audience and shivered a little, and then focused back on Trixie.
Trixie had been lighting the fire to her cannon and had no idea that the Princess of Friendship had been watching the whole time. She peeped her head out of the cannon one final time to face the audience.
"Watch in awe, as Trixie shoots herself into the gaping maws of this terrifying beast, and escapes from that box over there, completely unharmed!"
The audience, still huddled together for safety, stared on quietly.
The cannon's lit fuse began it's own countdown to launch, slowly eroding away from the tip and reaching the cannon's base. Trixie shoved herself deep into the cannon and prepared for the worst.
The 'Ursa', as practiced, opened her mouth wide open high above the stage, staying still and concentrated on the performer. Suddenly, another unexpected tremor shook the stage.
Trixie was extremely annoyed and whispered angrily from within the charging cannon. "Starlight, will you stop moving the stage? Focus!"
There was no response. Starlight Glimmer, who was disguised under her 'Ursa Minor' hologram, was frozen in place. She had obviously not caused the tremors. Her open mouth was now open in absolute shock and terror as another tremor hit the ground.
Something had approached the performance stage and casted a very, very big shadow on the whole thing. Starlight, under her disguise, had to look up to look at the eyes on this uninvited guest. The thing looked even more horrifying than her disguise did. It also looked like a giant bear, but it had a lot of folds and wrinkles, with two extremely sharp teeth that surpassed it's own jaw twice in size. It had it's own strange looking transparency to it's body, with many magical constellations floating in it's plentiful purple fur. Most frighteningly of all was the fact that this thing was standing at more than double than Starlight's height at a whopping one hundred and twenty feet when standing on it's two legs... and it didn't look very happy with the performance involving an 'Ursa Minor'.
It was an Ursa Major, and it was furious.
Suddenly, everything seemed to happen at once. The audience scattered away almost immediately at the sight of the Ursa Major, running in terror towards Ponyville, except for a very specific group of six ponies and their tiny dragon. The Ursa Major lowered a mighty claw down, smashing Trixie's stage into a smithereens with one hit. Just before the Major's massive claw struck, Trixie's cannon had shot Trixie out of the danger zone just in time, straight into the mouth of a bewildered and frozen Starlight Glimmer.
Starlight clenched her teeth tightly in terror as the stage became absolutely flattened by the massive Ursa Major claw in front of her. She backed away and suddenly felt a very strange tingly feeling tickling her tongue.
Starlight heard Trixie's frantic voice echoing inside her head, "TELEPORT TELEPORT TELEPORT TELEPORT!" Poor Trixie had been holding onto the tip of Starlight's tongue for dear life! Starlight quickly cast a teleportation spell, teleporting Trixie onto her nose for safety. She saw Trixie lay on her nose weakly, who's body was unfortunately wet and unsightly slimey now from the saliva that covered her. Trixie was just glad to be alive at this point and could barely concentrate on anything else at that moment.
Meanwhile the Ursa Major let out an ear-deafening roar towards the direction of Ponyville. As far as it was concerned, these evil ponies were using a poor Ursa Minor, one of it's kind, as some kind of plaything for a performance. It was absolutely furious, and it's eyes were red and set in an unimaginable rage. It immediately had Ponyville in it's sights and began slowly marching it's massive heavy body towards it for revenge.
Starlight, safe under the Ursa Minor disguise, watched terrified and helplessly as the Ursa Major slowly marched and smashed the ground with every step towards Ponyville. It was that moment that Starlight suddenly felt a strange feeling inside her building up, as if fueled by the intense fear of the moment mixing with a strong magic spell that she wasn't aware of. With a sudden trembling surge that shook the ground ever so gently, Starlight's entire body began to grow. Higher and higher she felt herself increase in size, which heightened her sense of danger. She watched the Ursa Major take closer steps towards Ponyville, and saw it tear off a roof from Carousel Boutique, a shop that Rarity, a friend of Twilight's, owned.
Her holographic disguise fell apart from her increased size, as she found herself growing even taller than the Ursa Major in front of her. Her hooves left large heavy imprints on the empty grass fields below her, imprints as large as streets themselves, as she soon began to cast a shadow over the Ursa Major as she stopped at two hundred feet tall. She didn't intend to start her growth, let alone stop it, she didn't seem to have any control over the growth spurt at all. But once it stopped, Starlight decided to use her situation to her advantage, to keep Ponyville safe.
To keep her friends safe.
Making one last check to see that Trixie was still safe on the bridge of her nose, Starlight then loomed over the now confused Ursa Major. The monster stopped in it's tracks, darting it's red eyes at the sudden pony-shaped shadow that covered half of Ponyvile under it. It then slowly raised it's head up to look at whatever was looming above her. The Ursa Major's view slowly began to comprehend that it was being stared down at by a giant light-pink coated pony which was, somehow, twice it's size.
"Alright, miss Major," Starlight began confidently while staring down at the bewildered Ursa Major, "We're either going to do this the easy way, or the hard way."
The Ursa Major furrowed it's ugly thick eyebrows angrily. It may have been outsized, but it seemed determined to not go down without a fight. It roared up at Starlight's face, and swung a dangerously sharp massive claw at Starlight.
Starlight jumped just in time to avoid the swing of the Ursa Major's claw, accidentally causing a large earthquake that shook a few signs off in Ponyville. She let out an honest "Oops!" and then faced the Ursa Major, lowering her head down while powering up a magic spell onto it.
The Ursa Major raised it's thick fat arms up, ready to absorb any damage thrown at it. After a few seconds of nothing hitting it, it looked at Starlight with an evil grin. That was, of course, until it realized it was floating upwards weightlessly.
Barely breaking a sweat, Starlight towered over Ponyville at two hundred feet, easily levitating up the hundred-foot Ursa Major with her magic. She took slow steps towards the edge of the Everfree forest, which barely reached up her to her calves at this point, and simply levitated the giant Ursa Major into the depths of the forest, finding a suitable cave for it to lay in peacefully.
Starlight's horn then stopped glowing from the levitation spell, and she let out a huge sigh which caused a strong gust of wind to flutter the leaves on many Everfree trees below her. She then turned around and, looking at the ground for every step she'd make, realized that a large astonished group of ponies, both from the performance and those who happened to be on the outskirts of town, were looking up at Starlight with awe and wonder. Little fillies dropped their ice cream and ponies had exited their homes to look up at this two hundred foot tall unicorn standing in front of Ponyville.
Starlight felt nervous. They didn't appear to be scared or anything, the towns-ponies just... stared up at her. She expected them to run in terror from her massive size, but somehow the lack of fear from these ponies made her feel even more awkward, because she didn't know what to say.
"Well..." Starlight began shyly, "I just wanted to say, to you all, that I'm, erm, sorry for scaring you all, and if there's anything I could..."
Before she could finished, a loud roar of cheering ponies echoed around her. These ponies weren't afraid, they were thankful! She could hear ponies calling out her name, and the realization hit her. These ponies KNEW she was still Starlight, and that they were thankful that she had just saved them from the almost-devastating Ursa Major attack. Starlight felt bashful and blushed intensely, she wasn't used to compliments, especially not from almost an entire town at once.
Meanwhile, on Starlight's furry nose, Trixie had dried herself off and was coming back to her senses. She looked over and had a great view of Ponyville from up upon Starlight's muzzle. Upon noticing that Ponyville was intact and well, she looked back between Starlight's eyes (she couldn't decide which one to look at, because they were too big) and asked, "Starlight, where did that big mean Ursa Major go?"
"Oh, well..." Starlight stuttered, still hearing the cheering happening below her hooves, "I had another random growth spurt, and I used it to my advantage to just levitate the thing back into the forest."
"Humm.." Trixie thought to herself, while making herself even more comfortable perched upon Starlight's big cute nosey, "it appears your magical abilities really do scale up with your size. But Trixie wonders, why did you grow again?"
"I've no idea, Trixie! I.. erm..." Starlight's voiced trailed off as she looked over at the other tiny pony specs on the ground still thanking her for saving them. "Okay, guys, really," she told them, "it really was nothing, you can stop thanking me now..." She turned her eyes back to Trixie, still blushing, "I really don't know."
Trixie rested her hooves behind her head, getting super comfy. "Did you eat anything strange, maybe?"
Starlight rubbed her chin, making sure not to hit anything else when putting her hoof back down. "Well, I did eat a bunch of flowers while you were gone, I was going a little nutty without food yesterday."
"Hmmm.." Trixie pondered, stressing her eyebrows thoughtfully, and then shrugged. "Trixie has no ideas."
Starlight groaned a little, but then felt something tiny poke one of her back hooves. She carefully arched downwards to look at who was poking her hoof. She gulped when she realized who it was.
It was Twilight Sparkle and her other friends.
"Oh boy." Starlight thought. She slowly turned herself around and lowered her head shamefully down near Twilight. Her head was bigger than houses and easily took up most of her friend's field of vision.
"Starlight..." Twilight asked softly, "What's... going on here?"
"Yeaah..." Starlight began silently "Well, it mighta, kinda, sorta, maybe have something to do with a spell I casted earlier to contain the magical energy of three hundred poison joke plants..."
"...And?" Twilight egged on, arching her eyebrow almost off her face.
"And it kinda maybe exploded in the library and is currently trapped inside of me, and somehow made me grow into a fifty foot... erm... two hundred foot tall unicorn."
"Uh-huh..." Twilight said with a gentle nod. She paused as if understanding it perfectly, with a neutral expression locking her face as she processed it carefully.
"UH HUH???" Twilight blurted out. "You WHAT?"
"Yeah.." Starlight said hastily while unintentionally balancing Trixie on her massive snout, "I guess I kinda really messed up again, huh?"
Twilight couldn't take this. She heaved her hoof in front of her chest and took deep breaths to try and cope with the insanity of the situation. "Four days. I've been gone for FOUR days." Twilight spluttered to herself in between panicked breaths.
"Yup..." Starlight said quietly in an embarrassed way, looking up ever so innocently. "A lot can happen in a few days."
Twilight looked extremely concerned all of a sudden. "Are you hurt? Do you feel like you're gonna explode? Do you feel weak? Have you hurt anypony by mistake? Do you feel like you're being taken over by an evil entity that slowly brainwashes you into becoming a super-evil being that will destroy everything?"
Starlight looked slightly confused from Twilight's worried rambling. "Uh, I'm going to have to check 'No' on all that. I feel fine, really. I'm just, erm, big."
"This is big, like REALLY big!" Twilight exclaimed while flailing her arms. "You won't even be able to fit inside Canterlot like this! Why didn't you tell me about this?!"
"I was... going to....?" Starlight lied adorably. Twilight groaned and face-hoofed in annoyance.
"Okay, listen," Twilight began, after calming down a little, "We'll take you to Zecora's to see if she can give you an antidote. We really can't have you being this big, it... it just won't be good for you. You can't join your friends inside buildings, you'd have to sleep outside when it rains, also you might scare everypony or accidentally hurt somepony!"
"Hey!" a random fat orange pony called out from afar, "That friend of yours just saved us all from an evil monster, give her a break!"
Fluttershy, who had been standing there this entire time, decided to speak up. "I, uhm, don't mean to interrupt you when you're upset, Twilight, but, uhm... Almost everypony in Ponyvile knows Starlight. Nopony's going to be scared of her."
Fluttershy looked up at Starlight's adorably giant face with a little shy smile, "In fact, I feel a little safe seeing one of my good friends being so big and, well, uhm, big."
Pinkie Pie bounced up from behind Twilight and landed right beside her excitedly. "Besides, don't you think it'd be cool to have a biiiig friend to play on! Imagine how fun it'd be to slide down her hair!"
"It's an absolutely fantastic and entertaining experience, better than Trixie's performances, she must admit!" Trixie called out, who was still snuggling up on Starlight's cute big nosey.
"See? Maybe you're over-reacting a little, Twilight." Pinkie Pie said confidently.
Twilight shook her head. "No no no. We're taking her straight to Zecora's, this is no way for her to live. She's our friend, not some kind of funfair ride. Come on girls, we're going to Zecora's hut right now."
"Well, I appreciate that, Twilight." Starlight admitted. "Those things you mentioned... Well I've been a little afraid that they might happen, so maybe it's best we find a cure. Do you maybe... need a lift?"
Twilight's friends seemed excited to ride on Starlight's back, but Twilight was visibly uncomfortable as Starlight levitated her onto her back.
"Come on Twilight, this really isn't thaat bad," Starlight reassured. "So I'm insanely tall. I'm sure it's temporary, and I really don't mind the attention and snuggling from ponies I trust."
"Well, it's just..." Twilight began to admit, "I'm just not used to it. I'm used to treating you as a friend and respecting your boundaries."
"I really appreciate that Twilight," Starlight said as she began walking into the Everfree Forest with her friends sitting comfortably on her back, "But you should understand that I really don't mind these things, so really, sit back and relax. I do owe you all after all the things you've done for me." Starlight stopped suddenly, giving Trixie a soft little boop with her massive hoof on her nose, "especially you, Trixie, you sweet little performer you~"
Trixie squirmed on Starlight's furry nose, enjoying the attention immensely. "Oh yes, Starlight, Trixie is more than happy to have front-row seats on the Starlight friendship express."
Starlight giggled and continued walking deeper into the Everfree forest towards Zecora's hut, taking very slow and careful steps so as to not step on anything. Deep down somewhere was the sound of a particular purple Alicorn making silent disappointed whispers to her friends about Trixie.
Part 10: Chaotic Explaination
Author's Note
I DON'T KNOW HOW To RHYME I CAN'T WRITE FOR ZECORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Part 10: Chaotic Explaination
A calm zebra named Zecora slowly raised a stone cup to her lips. She sipped the herbal tea that it contained, humming to herself innocently. She was at peace with nature in the middle of the everfree forest, sitting right outside her hut. Sadly, her peace did not go for long as it was soon interrupted by the ground shaking lightly under her hooves. She was almost thrown off-balance by surprise alone, causing her to quickly set down her mug of tea onto a nearby wooden stool and get herself ready for whatever was coming.
She heard another four loud shaky steps slowly approach her. Zecora began to panic, she knew that there were many dangerous animals in the Everfree Forest, but she had never heard the steps of something like this. She backed up towards the door of her hut, ready to escape.
Silence fell around her, making her feel tense."Zecora?"
"I can not see a trace," Zecora called out as her eyes darted between the cracks in the dark trees "stranger, please show a hoof, or a face!"
"I'm up here, Zecora," the mare's voice boomed from above.
Zecora's ears and brows raised in confusion, slowly looking up. There, up in the thick tufts of the trees, lay an immense amount of purple hair with a thin cyan streak in the shape of a large schoolhouse slide. Two pink ears twitched on either side of the head of hair, the thick trees working only too well to hide the rest of the stranger's body. Zecora squinted her eyes up at the moving technocolored hair and ears that poked out of the treeline above her.
"Is this a creature that is new? Do I, in fact, know you?" Zecora asked cautiously. The large mass above shook the ground lightly with a cute little giggle.
"Oh Zecora, it's me, Starlight. I just wanted to make sure you don't get startled. I'm going to come closer."
Zecora was quite confused. She soon saw the large purple mass of hair rise up from behind the trees, revealing the rest of Starlight's face, followed by her long equestrian neck, body and legs, which easily towered over the forest trees. Zecora was frightened, her head having to angle itself at an alarmingly high angle to see Starlight's face. Starlight had become so large, that to any normal pony from the ground, her pink legs and body seemed to bend inwards as they went higher, like a skyscraper.
A massive pink hoof rose from behind the treeline, slowly pressing down and destroying a large group of trees like twigs, giving plenty of time for the little critters to escape from the unfortunate destruction. When it eventually landed safely, Zecora began to register the sheer size and scale of the situation - Her own hut could barely compete in size next to Starlight's hoof alone.
Zecora stared up in awe at Starlight's massive height, speechless. Starlight safely levitated her friends down in front of Zecora's hut with her magic. Twilight was quick to snap Zecora out of her trance.
"Zecora we NEED your help," Twilight cried out in alarm while shaking Zecora violently, "our friend has become really big and we don't know how to change her back!" Twilight bounced around Zecora while flailing her arms and wings haphazardly.
"That is... quite... clear..." Zecora said between breaths, still staggering at Starlight's size, "but.. there is no need to worry, for the solution must be near." Zecora walked back to her mug of tea from the nearby wooden stool, taking a seat again while looking up at Starlight's massive face looming over her. "It will help me to know about your past, how did this start, and how long did this last?"
Starlight thought for a moment and took a careful seat onto a large pack of trees below her, crushing them unintentionally underneath her rump. "Hmmm," she thought, "it all started when I extracted the pure essence of magic from, like, a few poison joke plants..."
"THREE HUNDRED poison joke plants!" Twilight interrupted loudly. "What where you thinking ?!" Twilight swooped up in front of Starlight's nose, flapping her wings like an angry little bee, "you could've hurt yourself... or somepony!"
Starlight felt a little annoyed, but she didn't dare get upset with Twilight. "Listen, Twilight, I'm fine, really. You need to... what's that word again, Rainbow? Chillax?"
Rainbow Dash, who had been hovering silently next to Starlight's massive hoof, was about to respond positively until she saw Twilight focusing on her with daggers in her eyes. "Yeaah ... I'm not gonna say anything."
Zecora laughed to herself and gently asked them to focus. "Ponies, please, do not fall into a side-track, we must focus on restoring Starlight's original size back." The ponies silenced, and listened to Zecora speak again. "Now I suspect that this poison joke has a magical defect, similiar to Discord's chaotic effect." She held up her mug, showing the round hole on top to the others while pointing at it with her hoof as she continued. "The magic of Poison Joke does not lie within the bounds of reality, instead it uses magic of the... chaotic, speciality."
"So..." Twilight asked calmly, "do you think Discord could revert this spell?"
Zecora shrugged her shoulders lightly. "I do not know, I can not lie, but it would not hurt to try." Twilight pressed her lips tightly while coming up with a plan and then turned to the others.
"Alright, friends," Twilight began, "We've got to find Discord and ask for his help. When we're done with that we've got another problem to deal with..." She stared off at the distraught white unicorn, Rarity, huddled up against Starlight's roof in an almost catatonic state.
Zecora was curious. "What is wrong with her? Was she attacked by a horrific bear?"
"Not exactly," Twilight responded. "Her boutique in ponyville did. That terrible usra major tore the whole roof off and would have destroyed the rest of the building if Starlight hadn't stepped in and saved Ponyville."
"Well..." Starlight said, blushing a bit while carefully rubbing her hoof near the others below her, "it kind of attacked us because I was pretending to be an ursa minor for Trixie's show... so I kind of caused it to begin with..."
"Let's point hooves later, gals," Applejack interruped, "right now we need to find that discord fellow!"
The others silently agreed, but Fluttershy decided to speak up. "But where are we possibly going to find Discord?"
The other ponies stared at her slowly. Fluttershy felt nervous, and, looking up, even saw the same raised-eyebrow look on Starlight's face towering above her making her anxiety increase tenfold. "Wh-Why is everypony looking at me like that?"
Rainbow Dash face-hooofed, jumping next to Fluttershy abruptly. "You're like the only pony Discord actually cares about! I'm sure if you just call out for him loud enough he'l appear out of thin air!" The others nodded silently, and Twilight stepped forward to face Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy, we really do need Discord's help this time, and you might be the only pony who can grab his attention. We need you to call out for him as loudly as you're... comfortable with." Twilight gave an encouraging smile and patted Fluttershy's head. "We know you can do it, Fluttershy, just give him a shout."
"Oh... Okay... I'll try.." Fluttershy whispered doubtfully. She raised her head up, feeling more and more anxious with her friends staring desperately at her. She drew a deep breath, and...
"D-Discord...-"
It was an embarassingly low whisper. The others sighed, Rainbow Dash groaning the loudest of them all. "Come on, Fluttershy, I know you can do better than that!"
"Y-You're all putting me on the s-spot!" Fluttershy squeaked. The pressure was too much and she collapsed into a protective ball, huddling her own hooves and gave out a tiny scared yelp.
As soon as the tiny sad squeak vibrated out of Fluttershy's mouth, a dark blue and purple orb appeared in an instant and the troublesome draconequus landed protectively in front of the cowering terrified yellow pegasus. Discord stood in a tall angry posture facing the rest of the ponies. "If this is some kind of sick joke to summon me by hurting Fluttershy's feelings, then I'll have you know that I'm not amused in the slightest. I may be the spirit of Chaos but there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed." Discord was looming over the other ponies by just a few feet, he hadn't noticed Starlight towering over them all due to her sheer size.
"Cut it out, Discord, this is important! We need your help!" Twilight exclaimed. Twilight began flapping her wings nervously as she looked up at the tall chaotic spirit, a nervous tick she had developed when she wasn't in control of a situation.
Discord still appeared to be annoyed. "I was in the middle of carefully turning each of Celestia's in-door flower-pots into different flavors of cheese, just to see how long it takes for her to notice, and mid-way I end up hearing Fluttershy getting distressed and I've come here to find everypony pitting against her for whatever reason... And then you ask ME for help? What kind of friends are you, honestly?"
Starlight was getting bored of the pointless blabbering happening near her massive hoof and decided to step in, metaphorically. "Discord. Just stop and look up for a second, will you?"
"Starlight?" Discord asked. He looked forward, and couldn't see Starlight. "Wait, wasn't that Starlight I just heard?" He looked left, there was no one. He looked right, no other pony was there... So then he looked up.
Discord felt his grey heart sink as he began to take in the sight. The strange pink wall behind the ponies below him, that he hadn't paid attention to before, was actually a giant hoof. He began to crack his long windy neck just to keep following along the massive mass of pony standing in front of him. He eventually looked up high enough to see Starlight's cute but massive face staring back down at him from way up high in the sky.
Feeling a wave of disbelief, Discord simply plucked out his yellow eyeballs and gave them a very tough scrubbing and then plopped them back into his eyesockets, as if they were glasses. "Starlight...?" He gulped, "is it just me, or do you look a bit different than usual? Have you gained weight?"
"You could say that." Starlight chuckled from far away. "It's a long story, but uh, I was hoping you could help me get back to normal."
"Now now, don't be so hasty, my dear. I'll take a look." Discord said quickly. He flapped his wings and flew upwards to survey the absolute size of this unicorn. He could see that there was a blue pony who had been laying on Starlight's snout this whole time, but he didn't take much notice of Trixie. From Glimmer's perspective, he looked a little like a tiny flying chameleon. She bit her lip to contain her inner giggle.
Meanwhile Discord was investigating the situation much more seriously now. He tugged at his fluffy white beard and appeared to be moving his claws around as if touching some kind of magic aura that the others couldn't see.
The others were watching him anxiously from below. Fluttershy, who had recovered from her tiny breakdown, was watching him intently. "You know, I don't think I've seen Discord look so serious before." Fluttershy commented softly. "I like seeing this side of him. He really does care for us sometimes." She couldn't see it, but the other ponies rolled their eyes at the comment, especially Twilight, but they respectfully said nothing.
"Alright, well, this is an interesting and rare case of something being completely out of my control," Discord announced while slowly hovering down to the other ponies below. Starlight, who was curious to hear her 'diagnosis' kneeled down and hung her head just a few feet away from the heads of the ponies below, casting a big shadow on them and covering their view from above.
Discord leaned on Twilight, to her dismay, and pulled out a notebook and a pen, along with a pair of reading glasses, from behind Twilight's ear randomly. He then sat down comfortably on a nearby rock, writing something down. "It's very complicated, and as much as I hate being straightforward I'll let it slide just this once and put it in simple terms for you lot."
The other ponies leaned in curiously. Discord flapped through his notebook a few times and then began to explain. "I've detected that our friend Starlight here has an overdose of chaotic magic, one that is inherent to Poison Joke. It's a special kind of chaotic magic because it follows a very strict set of rules that allow it to break pretty much any other rule of magic or even... ugh... physics, but only in a very specific way. Unfortunately this means it's powerful enough to overrule even my fantastic abilities. As for Poison Joke itself, it's magic can only cause a physical effect that is ironic to the existence of the victim. In Fluttershy's case, it would be a ridiculously deep voice, because she's shy and doesn't want to be heard, the poor thing. That annoying Pink one that talks a lot..."
The ponies nodded slowly as they processed everything Discord had said, except for Twilight, who understood it immediately, her constant thirst for knowledge making her forget her feud with Discord and instead show legitimate interest in Discord's knowledge. Somehow, it made her respect him more. "Wait," Twilight bounced up suddenly, "so that must explain-"
"The stacked effect of three hundred poison joke plants?" Discord interrupted. "Yes, exactly. I predict she only would've become two feet taller with normal contact with the plant, since effects normally don't stack. Unless.." Discord looked up at Starlight's huge face with a suspicious rise of his eyebrow. "...you forced the magic out of each plant and carelessly absorbed it, didn't you, you silly power-hungry pony?"
Starlight gulped, blushing very hard above them. Discord was sort of right, it was because of Starlight's careless handling of the poison joke plants that got her into this mess. "W-Well.. maybe, but i'm not a power hungry pony! If I was I'd probably would've become tiny instead, like you said!"
"Fine, fine, don't get your giant mane in a twist, Ms Glimmer," Discord huffed, "Bottom of the line is, I can't really help you at all, but I really do love the irony. A unicorn, with already considerably strong magic, not wanting to stand out and definately not wanting to lead with brute power, and then she ends up as big as fifty ponies stacked on each other and has no other choice but to take the initiative of a gentle giant leader and heroine! It's just hillarious! Oh I could cry laughing for days on the irony alone, let alone the absurd magnitude! Oh hoh ho!" Discord wiped a laughing tear from his eye, which the tear itself appeared to have it's own mouth and was laughing tears of it's own, which flew off Discord's face and splashed into the ground.
Starlight's face frowned with increasing sadness as she realized that she might stay like this forever. "B-But.. I don't want to be huge... Discord, please! Can't you make me a bit smaller?" Starlight's lips began to wobble as her hope started to quickly run thin.
"No can do, Starlight." Discord huffed, folding his arms together in defeat. "I just don't have any authorization over the chaotic plants department. Literally nopony does. If it's any consolation to you, poison joke usually wears off in about three weeks, so multiply that by the amount of poison joke and you've got a good seventeen years before the spell wears off. Ten years if you spend all the years bathing in a literal sea of that poison joke antidote remedy stuff Ms Stripey here makes."
Starlight's eye twitched a bit in slight disbelief and mounting sadness. "S... S... Seventeen years..?"
Discord turned to face Twilight below her. "There, I told you everything I know, can I get back to my Canterlot cheddar extravaganza at the castle now? I have a lot of flowers to cheese-inate and I don't want to miss Celestia's cheesy reaction for even a second."
Twilight bit her lip, pointing upwards with her hoof. Discord looked confused, noticing the rest of the mane six backing up away from him and seeking shelter under Zecora's hut, along with Zecora. Discord looked up slowly and before he could turn his neck all the way up, a big heavy five-foot-long droplet of water smacked him right in the face. "What in Equestria just hit me? Wait... Oh no..."
It was too late. Before Discord could react, a terribly sad and loud wailing came from above, quickly joined by extremely dense rain pouring down on the area. Starlight was crying. Discord shook his face from the falling tears and quickly and comically took out a multicolored umbrella out from his white beard, cowering under it and feeling massive splashes splosh against the umbrella and spreading out around him like a waterfall. "Jeez, ease it up with the waterworks, lady!" he yelled. He was barely heard over the hopeless crying of the two hundred foot tall unicorn. Twilight and the others watched carefully below, feeling sympathetic for Starlight. She really was going through a lot right now.
Trixie, who had been taking extremely comfy refuge on the tip of Starlight's nose this whole time, decided to step in. "Awww, don't cry, Glimmy! Trixie thinks Starlight is three hundred times more awesome at this size, while just as gentle and kind as before!"
Starlight's crying slowed down quickly after hearing this. She rubbed her wet snout with her forearm, crossing her sad wet eyes to look at her best tiny friend standing supportively on top of her muzzle. "R-Really? I thought I was causing much more trouble than I'm worth... I was so worried about what Twilight would think, and now she knows that I've super duper messed up, like, really bad!"
Starlight quickly heard Twilight speak up from below. "Starlight, don't be too hard on yourself. You didn't know this was going to happen, it's not really your fault. We just have to be more careful and pay more attention so that we'll all stay safe and happy. That's what's really important. I'm just glad the effects aren't permanent or lethal." Twilight flew up into the air, taking thirty seconds to rise up in front of Starlight's nose. "I assure you that I'm not upset with you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay, that's all. A bit shocked and surprised, you know?."
Starlight sniffed and looked at the itsy bitsy important princess flapping her tiny wings between her eyes. "Oh, Twilght, I was so worried you were going to hate me for messing up. I'm glad to hear you say that, I really am."
"That's what friends are for, Starlight," Twlight announced proudly, "to look out for each other- Eep!"
Twilight quickly found herself surrounded by Starlight's hoof and gently pressed against her chin, like a very minimal hug. Initially bewildered, Twilight quickly felt comfortable against the giant pink fur of Starlight and happily hugged her back. "And it's still good to hear it isn't permanent. Just stay away from poison joke and you'l be fine." Twilight looked over Starlight's massive hoof and called out below. "Thanks for the info Discord, I really appreciate-..." She'd then noticed that Discord had already left. "Huh. Rude. Anyway..."
Twilight disengaged herself from Starlight's massive yet gentle hug, and flapped with her own wing power again around her. "Now that this is cleared, it means we'll just have to deal with Starlight being literally bigger than a town. Besides, we have another ordeal to worry about... We have to help fix Rarity's boutique!"
"I'm so glad somepony remembered about my boutique!" Rarity whined from below, "It's all I've been thinking about right now! Erm, I mean, besides trying to find out how to help Starlight, of course."
Twilight giggled at Rarity's shy honesty. "Well, let's head back to Ponyville. I suppose we've learnt enough here. Come on girls, and Spike, we have a shop to fix!"
"Trrrixie will simply continue to enjoy the view from here," Trixie announced to nobody in particular, as she sat extremely snug and cozy between the massive unicorn's eyes, on the bridge of her nose. She kicked both her feet back and lazily rested her head back against Starlight. "Yes, onwards! We must again ride on the great Starlight Friendship Express!"
Starlight giggled while gently levitating Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Spike onto her back and then spoke to Zecora. "Thanks for everything Zecora, you can continue with what you were doing now, I didn't mean to interrupt." Zecora bid them farewell and good luck. With Twilight now leading the way, flying carefully and closely to Starlight's face for close company, they all set off again back to Ponyville to start working on the boutique.
Part 11: Fixing the Boutique
Starlight slowly and carefully arrived near Ponyville by the afternoon. It had been a wild morning, so she decided to lay on the ground next to the boutique just outside of town to rest, while also allowing her friends to safely slide down her mane down onto the ground. Pinkie Pie found it extremely fun, while Fluttershy on the other hand didn't dare slide down at such speed and simply used her wings to gently hover down instead. The group huddled around the lower-half remains of the Boutique, surveying the damage. The roof of the beautiful building had been swiped off entirely, leaving a wobbling weak flight of stairs leading to nowhere. The upper half of the building had been smashed onto a tree next to the boutique, with wooden planks and white pieces of stone garbled into a compressed and unrecognisable mess. Thankfully, the rest of the boutique was unharmed, but Rarity appeared to be worrying about something else.
"Wait!" Rarity exclaimed, "Sweetie Belle was supposed to staying here today... oh dear!" Rarity jumped towards the broken building in horror. "Sweetie Belle, are you in there?!" She was about to run into the building but Rainbow Dash and Applejack were quick to hold her back.
"Hold on there, sugarcube!" Applejack warned, "we don't know if it's safe to go in yet, we don't want it collapsin' on yuh pretty face now!" Rarity sat on the floor, almost ready to tear up. She was about to explode into tears until she heard a squeaky little voice call out from behind the tree.
"I'm over here, Rarity!" the little filly's voice called out. Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little white sister, slowly revealed herself from behind the large oak tree, thankfully unharmed, but visibly shocked. She ran up to Rarity's arms, hugging her in distress.
"Oh I'm so glad you're safe, Sweetie Belle, you poor thing..." Rarity said, rubbing Sweetie's toothpaste-like mane calmly. "Are you okay? Were you inside when that evil Ursa struck?"
Sweetie Belle nodded slowly, "Yes I'm okay... I was playing in my room, drawing stuff, when I heard and felt some really loud shaking, so I looked outside and saw that huge thing walking right towards our home! So I ran outside and I hid behind this tree and I didn't dare move until you guys came!" Sweetie's heart was clearly still racing from the incident, and she quickly buried her face into Rarity's chest in fear while mumbling.
"Oh you poor thing!" Rarity exclaimed sadly, petting Sweetie on the head. "You're traumatized! Well, it was a very smart thing that you left the house, Sweetie!"
"That's very true, Rarity" Twilight added softly as she walked up beside them, kneeling down to Sweetie Belle's level to calm her further. "That Ursa Major was probably attracted by the colourful paint of the Boutique, so it was very wise for you to hide behind a dark tree."
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash added in while hovering near them, "running out there and hiding for cover was actually really brave of you, well done Sweetie Belle!"
"Great going, Sweetie Belle!" Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack cheered. Sweetie Belle, who had been silently sobbing on Rarity, slowly looked up and gave a sad but uplifted smile. "Really? I did good?"
"Absolutely, you can really take care of yourself, Sweetie! You thought fast and acted quickly in the horrible face of danger!" Rarity complimented while raising her hoof dramatically. She gave a gentle nudge on top of Sweetie's head, making Sweetie giggle a bit. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
Sweetie Belle had been so shocked from the Ursa Major attack that she hadn't even noticed the two hundred foot unicorn just laying casually next to them until the gentle giantess spoke up. "I'm glad to hear you're okay, Sweetie." Starlight said softly. "I'm sorry for the trouble."
Sweetie Belle looked to her right towards Starlight and then froze in her place. When she was hiding behind the tree, she hadn't seen Starlight or how she heroically got rid of the Ursa Major. She shivered, leaping behind Rarity for protection. "Aaah! A monster!"
Rarity gently nudged the back of Sweetie's head. "Don't be so rude, Sweetie Belle, that's Starlight! She's just... ummm... big, now. She saved us from the Ursa Major, you know."
Sweetie Belle couldn't believe her eyes. "Wow! Really?" She bounced excitedly towards Starlight's face, which was resting on the ground. "You're so huge, you've got Trixie just sitting on your nose! And.. and you managed to fight an Ursa Major?? Wow! That's amazing! I gotta tell my friends about this!" Sweetie Belle hopped around in ecstatic circles.
To Starlight, Sweetie Belle appeared like a tiny, adorable white flea that was hopping everywhere. It made Starlight giggle as she lay belly-down in front of them. "Oh, it was nothing, really. I just did what I had to do."
"Nothing?!" Sweetie squeaked loudly, "That wasn't a nothing! That was a huge SOMETHING!" She bounced against Starlight's cheek, hugging her fur tightly. "Thank you thank you thank you sooooo much for saving us!"
Starlight blushed. "First I saved Equestria from a hostile changeling takeover, and now I save Ponyville from a raging Ursa Major. I guess I am a... something."
Pinkie Pie enjoyed seeing Sweetie Belle get so excited. "Hey Glim, maybe this won't be so bad! You're like a real superhero now, Starlight! The Super-Starlight of Ponyville, woo! I bet the other ponies would love to know that they have a massive friend to look over them! Not to mention how comfy you are!"
Starlight blushed, especially from the last comment. She noticed that as time went on, she enjoyed the physical interaction of other ponies more and more. The fact that Trixie was still lazily laying comfortably on her nose supported this theory. Twilight, however, thought otherwise. "Pinkie Pie, that's inappropriate! She's not a funfair ride, she's our friend and we should be treating her as one."
"Naaaah, she loves it, totes can see it." Pinkie retorted with a sly grin.
"No, she doesn't," Twilight insisted, "no-pony wants to become a living funfair ride, and you're embarrassing her!"
"Nuh-uh!" Pinkie Pie replied, now with a slight hint of annoyance. "She totes said so, I ain't lying!"
"You are!" Twilight snapped.
"Could you two stop arguin' and focus on the matter at hand?" Applejack interrupted, moving between the arguing ponies. "We got a buildin' to start re-buildin and it ain't gonna be fixin' itself."
Twilight groaned. "Ugh, fine, we'l discuss that later. What are we going to do about this house? It's smashed to bits!"
"Maybe we could get Hard Hat and the Ponyville Construction Company to rebuild it?" suggested Fluttershy.
"The price would be through the roof," Rarity said with disgust, "especially with how you treated him last time, Fluttershy."
"Oh." Fluttershy whispered to herself. She had almost forgotten the time when she had problems with Hard Hat's opinions on what her animal sanctuary should look like, but that's another story.
The group pondered for a good while until Trixie, of all ponies, spoke up.
"Trixie has barely been paying attention to this boring conversation, but like, Starlight accidentally broke Trixie's performing wagon when she became fifty foot tall, and she used her crazy inflated magic to fix it, so she can probably fix this easily, just saying." Trixie finished speaking and laid back against Starlight's nose, lazily stretching her legs and arms sleepily.
The ponies blinked in a dumbfounded way. Even Starlight hadn't thought of it and was legitimately surprised that Trixie of all ponies would bring up a good idea.
"Oh yeah, her magic has become a lot stronger," Twilight noted while rubbing her chin, "maybe it's somehow scaled with her size.... and she's quite a powerful unicorn at that, so maybe fixing this house would be like putting together a doll house for her!"
"That's exactly what I said..." Starlight whispered to herself. "Okay then. I'll try." She slowly lifted herself off the ground, standing up high above Ponyville, out-sizing even the town hall in the middle of town. The unusual high angle made her feel slightly dizzy, reminding her of how she lost consciousness in her dream from viewing things from far too high. She could easily see the entire town from this angle, every tiny nook and cranny, every paved street and triangular hay rooftop of every building. She also noticed that most of Ponyville's population had stopped to watch her in awe of her immense size. Thankfully it was already clear that they weren't afraid of her, but the attention creeped up on Starlight's mind, making her feel very exposed. Becoming nervous, she gently lowered herself back down to level her face with the Boutique's remains instead. She focused very hard on it, trying to re-imagine how it's parts should be re-assembled back together from their broken remains.
"Don't mind the tiny interior details, dear," Rarity called out to her, not wanting to put too much pressure on the poor giant unicorn, "just focus on fixing the structure." Starlight pressed her eyebrows thoughtfully, letting her bright aqua magic flow through her massive horn and begin levitating the rubble hanging on the oak tree. Piece by piece she put each block and broken piece together, like a little unicorn filly playing with little toy bricks, but she was working hard to fuse each section into each other. The other ponies watched in amazement as the roof of the boutique slowly began to take shape, it's windows visibly holding together securely around the previously mangled structure. Starlight's tongue extruded from between her lips as she concentrated her magic delicately to re-create an almost exact replica of the roof's previous shape, with some slight creative liberty, of course.
The final statues of two ponies, which were thankfully unharmed, were moulded into place on each side of the roof, slid into the fancy winding supporting beams of the building, and the magic subsided as it was finally finished. Starlight sighed in relief and looked down at her friends with a gentle triumphant smile.
"Do you like it?" She asked her friends below. They looked up at her with even more amazement than before, even Applejack's jaw dropped. It looked almost exactly like it had prior.
"Do I like it??" Rarity exclaimed excitedly, "I LOVE it! It's perfect! You even fixed up some of the scratched frames that were there before! You mended it quite beautifully, it's like it was never smashed by that awful brute!" Rarity was so happy she quickly tip-toed on her hooves with a childish gleeful squee. "This means I don't have to pay for repairs!" Rarity bounced towards Starlight's gicantic pink hoof and hugged it with her arms spread wide. "Oh thank you sooo much!"
"It was really nothing..." Starlight said again, but she seemed concerned.
"Is somethin' eating ya, Starlight?" Applejack asked quickly, as she was very good at reading ponies like an open book.
Starlight shifted slightly in her position, now having two ponies, Trixie and Rarity, hugging a tiny part of her nose and hoof respectively, "These are really advanced spells I'm using here. I literally used a spell to morph each broken piece into each other like glue and then let it harden into shape again, that's really complicated for unicorn magic, but, I didn't strain at all."
"As we already discussed, dear Starlight-" Trixie said aloud while resting on Starlight's nose like a beach chair, "your magic is scaled up with your size, bla bla bla, you're strong and powerful now." Trixie rocked her leg back and forth, crossed on the other, as if she were sunbathing.
Starlight looked down at the repaired boutique, it really did feel like she was looking at a toy house from her angle. The roof of the building barely reached up past her knees when she stood up, and she had to keep herself crouched very low to even look at the building properly. It was very surreal for her. She held back all urges to poke and play with the building like a little filly - Ponies lived in there, after all, but it was undoubtedly tempting.
"I will sort out on fixing the interior later, at least I can handle that," Rarity reassured thoughtfully, "thank you so much for helping me, Starlight, I wouldn't want to put you through any more stress than you already have."
"Thank goodness that's over," Starlight huffed to herself. She then remembered Trixie lazily resting on her nose. "Wait, Trixie, aren't you bothered that the Ursa Major destroyed your entire stage? You seem to be taking it a bit too well. I can go fix it now."
Trixie snorted, "Trixie does not wish to further panic and stress her heroic powerful friend just after having Trixie's life saved by her." Trixie looked aside with a careful hint of embarrassment. "Trixie thinks... she has given you enough stress already, so... she is keeping silent for a bit." Starlight, looking cross-eyed at her friend, could see that Trixie certainly wasn't happy and appeared to be trying to hide her face. However, she knew Trixie too well, Trixie almost never admits any kind of fault unless she really feels bad for it, and even then, only when heavily pressured to. Oh dear, Starlight thought to herself, Trixie must be feeling responsible for the Ursa Major's appearance! The Ursa Major was likely drawn out of the forest with the Ursa Minor-sounding noise maker back at the performance. Oops...
"Well, you're more than welcome to continue lounging on my snout to relax, Trixie," Starlight said gently. She rose her free hoof up in front of her face, rubbing Trixie's face with extreme precision and care, so as to be comforting. Trixie couldn't help but giggle faintly as the house-sized hoof gently rubbed against her fur. Starlight is much too precious, Trixie thought to herself.
"Awww, they really care for each other," Fluttershy pointed out from below. "Uhm.. Starlight?" she asked while looking up at the massive pony.
Starlight's ears perked as he heard Fluttershy's faint voice from below. Ever since Starlight had accidentally outgrown Trixie's stage wagon, Starlight had been making an unconcious attempt to hear more carefully to make up for her immense size. She looked down at Fluttershy with a little smile. "What's up, Fluttershy?"
"You are... hehe..." Fluttershy giggled while brushing her legs together, "Well, actually, I really wanted to ask, if, uhm..." the shy yellow pegasus slowly retreated her face behind her long and plentiful light pink mane while nervously rolling the long ends of it repeatedly, "if I could take shelter in your fur for a bit? It really did feel snugly up there..." She squeaked in an embarrassed way as she finished her request. Starlight's heart melted. It was a very strange request, but somehow, Starlight couldn't say no.
"Well..." Starlight said slowly, "sure! Why not?" She lowered down her entire body to the ground, laying on her long tummy and lay only ten metres away from the boutique, which was still dwarfed next to her. Fluttershy meekly walked up to the side of Starlight's body, unsure how to climb up the massive pony hill in front of her. It was then she remembered that she could fly, so she fluttered up silently onto Starlight's front-right shoulder, and hugged it in a comfortable position. She pressed her embarrassed reddened smiling face into Starlight's fur, nuzzling it intently.
"Uh... Enjoying yourself?" Starlight asked with a nervous chuckle. Fluttershy hummed an agreement, too comfortable to respond aloud. "Alright then," Starlight said, "as long as you're feeling comfortable, I suppose. Definitely nothing weird going on here," she commented as she rolled her other free hoof in the air expressively. She looked back down to notice that Pinkie Pie's eyes had widened in complete amazement and intent. "Erm... and I suppose..." Starlight began, but was quickly cut off.
"I wanna try too!" Pinkie said excitedly, hopping her pink little hooves quickly against the ground, "I wanna play on Starlight's massive body!" She then stopped suddenly, looking slightly concerned. "Wow," Pinkie noted to herself aloud, "that does sound strange when you say it out loud." She then shrugged nonchalantly, "ehhh who cares, I wanna, I wanna!" Twilight was standing just a metre away behind Pinkie and was clearly cringing. Starlight remembered what Twilight had said about wanting to respect Starlight's physical boundaries.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to have just another pony snuggling me," Starlight said with an even more nervous chuckle. She slowly levitated Pinkie Pie onto her back, but the pink pony seemed to have different plans.
"I wanna ride in your hair, if that's like, totally okay with you, Starlight! It looks super fun!" Pinkie Pie called out cheerily, "I wanna ride down it like a slide! Whee!" The enthusiasm for such a specific desire made Starlight giggle a bit. She could already feel a tiny spec hugging her hoof, Rarity, along with Trixie resting silently on her snout, and Fluttershy hugging her neck while resting on her shoulder. She added Pinkie Pie to the collection of ponies adoring her, like an accessory, onto her ear, brushed against massive tufts of purple hair with cyan streaks as big and smooth as a river stream. Starlight felt slightly anxious having to stay more or less still, but at the same time, very happy to be appreciated by her friends. Starlight's ears suddenly perked as she heard a close-up whisper in one of them. Pinkie Pie was arching over the flap of her tall ear to whisper directly into her ear-hole up close.
"Hey Starlight!" Pinkie whispered in a harsh way, "I can tell Applejack down there would love to join in! She's doing that thing where she crosses her legs nervously and places her hat lower down on her face, you should really ask her if she wants to join!" She giggled and then let go of Starlight's ear, falling back onto her surrounding mane, laughing to herself.
Starlight was surprised. Laying on the ground with four ponies hugging her one way or another on some part of her body, she looked over to Applejack who, indeed, was subtly crossing her orange legs just as Pinkie had described. Having no doubt for Pinkie's vast knowledge of her close friends, she decided to ask. "Uh.. Applejack? Do you want to-"
"Yes-" Applejack blurted out, almost stumbling on her sudden words. Wide-eyed, Applejack's pupils shrank and darted from different directions as she regained a very stiff and straight posture. "What is it, Starlight?" she asked carefully.
Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Uh.. I was going to ask if you wanted to join in with the others. You're more than welcome. No need to feel embarrassed about it."
Starlight gave a friendly smile and tilted her head slightly, accidentally forcing Trixie to inconsequently roll over on her snout.
Applejack hesitated at first, and then felt relieved. "Yeah, yer' right... there ain't nothin' wrong or weird with a bit of snugglin' with a big friend who don't mind it." She quickly began jogging past Twilight and rested her face against the side of Starlight's belly, also giving her a tiny hug. The immense warmth and softness that enveloped Applejack seemed to make her much calmer and quieter, as it reminded her of a similiar feeling she felt only too long ago, but she didn't dare tell anyone.
Starlight sighed happily as her friends surrounded her joyfully, and then turned her attention to the last two ponies and friend who hadn't succumbed to Starlight's irresistible snugliness - Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and of course, their baby dragon Spike, who was too focused on Rarity to have any interest in Starlight's size. "I never realized," Starlight began talking to them, becoming a little too lost in thought, "how much I love being hugged by multiple ponies, and it's great, too, because my friends hugging me are having just as much fun, too, and I'm sure it's a great stress reliever for anypony. Isn't that right, Trixie?"
"Ooo, yes, absolutely!" Trixie cooed with a silly giggle, "You've got Trixie's one-hundred percent approval on that. Hugging your big snout makes Trixie's problems and stress just fly far far away..." Trixie rolled over a few times while rubbing the tip of Starlight's nose cheekily, "and honestly, Trixie finds very little reason to stop!"
Starlight tried not to sneeze or laugh from Trixie's naughty tickling, snorting from her snout haphazardly. "Yeah, exactly," Starlight continued, "what I mean is, Twilight, I think I could get used to being like this."
Rainbow Dash seemed pretty neutral on the whole ordeal. She wasn't particularly interested in fuzzy snuggling, the most she'd want to get comfortable with were beds made of clouds. She shrugged her arms while hovering above Twilight without much care. "Hey, whatever floats your boat, Starlight." She then made another look at Starlight, having to look up... and up... and up... just to be able to take sight of Starlight's massive horn towering above them despite starlight lying flat on the ground. She then looked back down at Starlight's cute massive eyes. "Or ship. Or cargo ship. Maybe an ocean liner would make more sense..."
"Don't be rude, Rainbow." Twilight snapped. "And Starlight, you're not thinking about this properly. You need to be able to sleep somewhere safely and comfortably, you're being... dare I say it... too selfless. Not to mention we probably need to figure out how to feed you, among other things. You’ll run everyone in Ponyville out of business if they feed you for free!"
Starlight frowned. She didn't like it when she was wrong and Twilight was right. Letting a massive 200-foot gigantic unicorn live as happily as a normal 4-foot pony was going to be a horribly tricky and resource-intensive task, something an area as small as Ponyville might not be able to fund for free. Thankfully, it was Spike, a practical thinker, that suggested something brilliant.
"Hey, if Starlight's completely fine with having ponies snuggle up around her giant body, why not make money out of it, like some kind of donation-based service?" Twilight stared at him with almost disgust, while Starlight held the complete opposite expression... She loved the idea, her face beamed with excitement. She couldn't deny it, she was starting to absolutely love being able to let other ponies snuggle up with her, as it patched over the many love-less traumatized years from her foal-hood where she had no friends to hug or even talk to. She realized it was possible to encourage other ponies to donate to literally just hug her, while of course knowing that they'd be funding a normal healthy lifestyle for her. After all, if there's one thing a pony loves to do, it's give each other friendly hugs. Who wouldn't want to hug a giant friendly pony anyway?
"I think it's a great idea." Starlight responded. "But how are we going to set it up?"
"Starlight, are you sure about this?" Twilight asked, showing extreme distaste for the idea, "don't you realize you might be looking at this the wrong way? Hugs aren't some kind of thing you can charge for a service, it's an action done between friends! This really doesn't sound right."
"I saved Equestria, Twilight," Starlight said in a cool way, "I think I can be everyone's friend. After all, like Spike said, it's a donation kind of thing, so that they can fund and help me, you know, live. I think that's pretty fair, and all I'd do is just sit back and let them snuggle up on me. It's the perfect plan, and it's a completely and strictly friendly thing. Nothing weird."
"I like the idea." Rarity said while resting her entire body in an adorable way against Starlight's hoof, looking up at Starlight's jaw from below, "As a mare who provides her own services at the boutique, I can tell you that you’ll need to get permission from the Royal council to set up what is technically a profit organization. I'd be more than happy to pitch in and set up the financial side of it, dear, because this feels wonderful and I’m certain ponies would be pouring in for the experience."
"Wait, the royal council?" Twilight yelped. "You don't mean..."
"It's quite unfortunate, darling, it's probably going to be a bit of an issue," Rarity noted, "But you'l have to ask Celestia herself. Formally. At Canterlot."
Starlight face-hoofed slowly. "Ohhh noooooo.... Celestia is going to have to know about this. I hope she takes it lightly... Her student's student becoming a town-sized monster of a pony..."
"Monster??" Pinkie Pie yelled from above, unfortunately very close to Starlight's ear, "more like an amazing pony! We all know Celestia super duper well, I'm sure she’ll love it!"
"I'd probably be a daily customer..." Fluttershy admitted quietly, her face reddening as she rubbed it against Starlight's long neck, "I get really stressed from taking care of all the wonderful animals at my shelter, so this would be a great way to relax..."
Starlight shook her head slightly in confusion, "Fluttershy, it'd be free for you girls, don't be silly. It's more of a donation thing anyway, just to encourage other ponies to help me financially with my new... erm... condition." She tilted her head slightly, resting ever so softly against Fluttershy's entire body that rested on top of her right shoulder. Fluttershy felt herself get gently surrounded by Starlight's fur, making her blush and childishly wobble her yellow hooves in the air while giggling.
"And Trixie will handle advertising," the blue magician laughed while still sitting comfortably on Starlight's nose, "after all, Trixie is very good at being very loud.... and attractive. Attracting ponies to performances I mean."
"Alright." Twilight huffed as she put her hoof down onto the ground. "I still don't fully agree with all this, but I suppose we don't have much choice. We will have to go to Canterlot right away, since it's almost evening and Celestia will soon be done with her duties." Twilight turned around, ready to start walking towards Canterlot, which sat on a tall mountain just over Ponyville. She looked at the white beautiful yellow-crowned city in the distance, high in the sky, then looked back at her massive town-towering unicorn friend with a hint of worry. "I just hope she fits somehow..."
Part 12: Confusion is Just a Few Steps Away
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Part 13: What Would You Do?
Author's Note
And I'm back! This chapter isn't that interesting but hopefully the next chapter is where the fun will start.
Part 13: What Would You Do?
Things wrapped up rather quickly that evening. Twilight had signed the papers for them to be officially able to accept donations to help Starlight Glimmer. They weren't sure how effective this would be, and were talking about it on their way home, riding on Starlight's back.
"How many ponies do you actually think are actually going to donate gold bits just to hug a giant pony, anyway?" Rainbow Dash sneered while flying close to the others, "like seriously, talk about being a one-trick pony, am I right?"
"Hah, get it?!" Pinkie Pie giggled loudly, "because all you'l do is hug her, and she's a pony! Great one, Dashie!" Pinkie hugged herself while falling back laughing, her head resting on top of Starlight's back. Rainbow gave an unsure half-smile, as she wasn't sure if Pinkie Pie was being sarcastic or not.
"No need to be rude, Rainbow," Rarity snapped, "we're doing this to help Starlight, after all." The white unicorn casually began to adjust her beautifully styled purple hair and then gave an accusing look at Rainbow Dash above, "you ARE going to help her, right?"
"I didn't say I wasn't!" Rainbow retorted with her hooves crossed, "I just think that ponies are going to quickly get bored of it after a while. Like, I just think that you should think of something that's a little more... entertaining and awesome. Like me ."
Applejack, who had been sitting quietly next to Rarity, raised an eyebrow. "Like you, huh? Yain't getting a little jelous or somethin', are ya?"
"What?!" Rainbow scoffed, "Me? Jelous? Never." Rainbow casually dived into a loop-de-loop as some exciting thoughts flew around her head, "I'm just saying, that if I were a two hundred foot tall pony, I'd use that extra height to pull off awesome stunts and amaze everypony in Equestria! Just imagine, the largest, fastest pegasus in all of Equestria, performing swift moves, roaring past mountains in seconds, racing all the way around Equestria and back without breaking a sweat! Nobody would be able to take their eyes off me! Now THAT, would be epic..."
"I think that would be rather wreckless, speeding around at that size, a pony like that could hurt somepony by just flapping their wings alone , Rainbow Dash!" Rarity criticized, and then began to speak rather elegantly, "A giant pony of that size should be more gentle... You know what would be absolutely divine? Just imagine, the largest dress in the entire world, tailored by the best fashionistas of Equestria, being worn by the most beautiful, stunning, tallest unicorn in all of equestria..." Rarity lay both hooves on her face in deep thought, losing herself a little, while Spike was nodding furiously in the background in silent agreement, "Rarity, the largest, most fashionable pony in Equestria, everypony would want to look up and be absolutely bedazzled by such a display!"
"...Beg pardon Rarity, but wouldn't it be a big ol' waste of bits just to make that dress? What are ye' gonna eat then? Fabric? " Applejack said snarkily, "Y'all ain't thinkin' about this practically." Applejack gently landed her hoof down on the pink fur below to get their attention. "Y'see now, if I were a darn tootin' 60-yard tall pony I'd make sure to be still helpin' out on my family's barn. Can you imagine how much apples Ah' could carry if I were towerin' like a Manehatten skyscraper? More than I can count, that's fer sure!"
"Oooh, ooh!" Pinkie Pie called excitedly, bouncing up and down in front of them, "Me next, me next!"
"Err..." Applejack responded in confusion, "This ain't a competition Pinkie, nopony's stopping ya from sayin-"
"Okay, okay" Pinkie Pie began, panting as if she were about to explode, "If I were a big big super big pink pony, I'd throw super big parties for other ponies... on my MANE!" Pinkie stopped, her arms spread out in a 'ta-da' pose in front of Rarity and Applejack, while Rainbow Dash planted her own face in her hoof in dismay. Rarity looked very confused, motioning with her hoof around as if to ask Pinikie to continue.
Pinkie shook her head. "What? Oh, that's all really. Wouldn't that be amazing??? "
Applejack shrugged. "Honestly I expected you to say a lot more than just that. "
Rainbow snorted with a slight smirk, "Hah, just Pinkie being Pinkie, I guess." She looked back and noticed Fluttershy laying down on Starlight's back, looking slightly worried, hiding behind Applejack. "Err, hey Fluttershy, what about you? What do you think about becoming a giant pony?"
Fluttershy shivered, "I think it'd be terrible.. what if I accidentally stepped on somepony? Or an animal! Oh dear.. I'd be ever so sad, I wouldn't want to frighten any of my friends either, nopony would want to talk to me! And- And then I would have to banish myself from Equestria and live in the ocean! It'd be ever so cold and even the animals wouldn't want to talk to me! Oh it'd be terrible..."
The others were quite surprised, and Rarity spoke up. "Er, Fluttershy dear, why don't we assume that none of those terrible things actually happen? I mean, with you being so gentle and careful and such."
"Oh-" Fluttershy said with a little smile, "Well, I suppose I'd be happy to make my animal friends feel safer at home, and it would be ever so wonderful to hug them all at the same time!" Fluttershy's adorable smile slowly raised higher and higher, appearing a little too happy as she continued, "and if any big bully threatens any of my friends or animals, I'll use my size to catch them... terrify them... and make them scream and beg for mercy..." Fluttershy slowly lost her focus and began staring at her hooves, mashing them together aggressively, "I'd make them wish they were banished to the moon when I'm done with those big bullies, I'd finally show them exactly what 'innocent little Fluttershy' can really do... ha-....haha...hahaha...ahaHAHAAHAha! " The other ponies watched silently as Fluttershy laughed slowly and maniacally while smashing her two hooves together. Only Luna could possibly know what was going through Fluttershy's head right now, and knowing it would probably rid any sane pony of a good night's sleep.
"Wow Fluttershy," Pinkie said grimly, "that's kind of dark. Is there anything you need to talk to us about?"
"What?" Fluttershy asked, snapping out of her little trance, and then blushed innocently with her hooves in front of her face, "oh, no, I'm fine." She turned her attention to Spike next to her to change the topic. "Uhm... what about you, Spike?"
Everypony focused on Spike for a response, but he simply lifted his head slowly and shrugged. "Oh, me?," he responded quietly, "Eh, been there, done that. I don't really want to think about it."
"Oh Spikey," Rarity said sympathetically, "I almost forgot about that, we're sorry to remind you about-"
"Oh!" Pinkie Pie interrupted, at the worst possible moment, "do you mean the time where Spike became suuuuper huge and started destroying ponyville because he got a little greedy and then the wonderbolts got involved and there was a loooot of property damage that we had to deal with afterwords?" She inhaled a large breath after speaking so quickly, "wowie! I sure wouldn't want to think about that if it happened to me!"
Spike gave an annoyed look at Pinkie, resting his face between his claws. "Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. "
"No problem, Spike!" Pinkie responded cheerfully, and then turned her head to look off into the distance, "hey, we're almost back to Ponyville! That was fast, and it isn't even bedtime yet! Isn't Starlight the awesome-est?" At this, Rainbow Dash crossed her arms indignantly while flapping her wings extra hard, and said nothing.
"Indeed," Rarity agreed,"It may not be as smooth as the train, but it's a lot faster."
"And snugglier," added Fluttershy, gently lowering her yellow hooves to rest on the pink warmness below her.
"Beats goin' by walk," Applejack laughed, and then became more serious and positive, "Starlight, I gotta say, you sure are usin' your strengths for good. Keep it up!"
Starlight, who had been quiet during the trip back to Ponyville, carefully looked back at her friends who were comfortably sitting on her back. "I suppose it's really just the right thing to do. I've caused quite a bit of trouble for you all before, I'm more than happy to repay the favor." She turned to look forwards again, noticing that Ponyville was only five more steps away from her, and it looked ever so small . Tiny little colored four-legged specks entered and exited their homes casually, some stopping and opening and closing their mouths in conversation, but Starlight was too far away to hear them. Her heart sank a little as she began to realize that she might never be able to walk into a village to talk with other ponies ever again, making her pause and frown with slight dissapointment. Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a gentle flapping next to her right ear and noticed Twilight Sparkle slowly flying alongside her cheek.
"I can tell that you're upset about being extremely tall," whispered Twilight, "trust me, I really wish I could help you, but I'll do anything I can to make you feel at home."
"It's not just that," Starlight sighed quietly, "the others... They all seem to think that being giant is fun or something... I think you're the one who's right. It's really not." She looked solemnly over Ponyville, watching the ponies below hapilly conversing, little fillies playing freely together in the little spaces between the wooden houses, unaware of the giant pony covering the night sky above them. "I feel like I'm going to be left out. All of my friends, and even you, you're all going to have to go back to your homes tonight, and I'm going to have to sleep outside, alone, for the next seventeen years at best." Starlight looked down at the ground, which was disappointingly farther away from her face than she wanted it to be. "That's why I agreed to the hug-a-giantess idea," Starlight sighed lightly, withholding a little tear in her eye. "I'm going to be really lonely, Twilight."
Twilight hovered silently next to Starlight's face, unsure of what to say. She looked beside Starlight's massive head to see her friends loudly joking and discussing something about the feasibility of making giant cupcakes as they were resting on Starlight's back, unaware of their little conversation. She then turned back to Starlight and gave her a wise and gentle smile. "You've got some of the best friends in all of Equestria, Starlight, and it isn't just us six. We'll see to it to make sure that you don't feel left out. As the princess of friendship, I promise." Twilight patted Starlight's cheek reassuringly, making Starlight feel a lot better.
"Thanks, Twilight. I really appreciate that." Starlight replied, closing her right eye slightly as she felt Twilight's tiny hoof rub her cheek. "As much as I enjoy their positivity, I think you're the one who treated this the most maturely. I suppose that's only natural for the princess of friendship herself." Starlight winked at Twilight and then stopped at the perimeter of Ponyville's border, just beyond the little lake that surrounded the outer half of the village, which appeared even smaller at Starlight's height. She gently lowered herself to the ground, resting her heavy arms on the grass ever so quietly and twitching her tail forwards to cover her flank, acting like a curved ramp to the ground. It became dark, and the moon had just began to slowly rise up and shed some ambient blue light down on Equestria. Starlight could see Ponyville's grassy streets slowly become empty as it's residents began entering their homes for a good nights sleep. To her surprise, they weren't bothered by her presence at all.
Twilight looked away bashfully, turning to view the others, who were now taking turns to slide down Starlight's purple tail to the ground safely (except for Rainbow, who insisted on flying) . "I wouldn't completely discredit my friends like that, Starlight," Twilight replied thoughtfully. "I did learn a lot from them, after all. I wouldn't be where I am today without them.” Twilight paused and looked up at the rising moon in the sky, and then turned back to Starlight. “I'll have to go home now, though. I'll make sure to be back here first thing in the morning to set up the fundraiser event - Come, Spike!"
As Twilight and Spike left for the Friendship Castle nearby, Starlight shifted her attention to look at her other cheerful friends below. "That was super-duper fun, Glimmy!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed loudly, "We should do that again sometime!" She bounced a few times in excitement, only to stop suddenly and let out a long, tired yawn. "Sheesh, I'm peeped. I wish I could stay and chat, but I got a bakery to maintain! See you all tomorrow, girls!"
"I must say that was rather enjoyable, well, minus the whole 'being-almost-attacked-by-the-royal-guard part, " Rarity concluded, "but like Pinkie, I do have a business to run and a home to sleep in, as it's getting rather late." She tried to look up at Starlight's eyes, which were far too high up to see normally from below, so she decided to just look at Starlight's general direction before leaving, "Dreadfully sorry that we can't accompany you tonight, I understand that you're going through quite a lot. You're doing well, darling, just stay positive, and everything will be alright," And with a gentle little pat on the tip of Starlight's massive hoof, Rarity turned around and made her way towards Carousel Boutique.
"Mighty sorry that yer' goin’ through all this trouble, Starlight," Applejack said sympathetically as she passed in front of Starlight's gicantic face, "but like Rarity said, keep yer' chin up and you'l do okay. Though uh-" Applejack stopped for a moment to take in the sight of the absolutely staggering mass of pure pony that quietly lay in front of her, when it suddenly clicked, "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, now I understand why Trixie done got that big load of apples a few nights ago!" the farmer exclaimed aloud, slapping her own knee, "you must have a big ol' appetite now, don'tcha? Well don't be shy to come over to Sweet Apple Acres for a big ol' bite, we've had a good crop this year and it'd be a shame for them extra apples to go to waste anways. Come visit now, y'hear?" Applejack laughed, standing on both hooves to pet Starlight's cheek comfortingly.
"Oh, yeah," Starlight replied slowly, blushing with embarrassment and tapping her massive hoof gently and nervously, "sorry about not being up-front about it, was kind of hiding my situation from Twilight and all that.. I'm glad to know that food won't be much of a problem now, you're too kind."
"Anythin' for a friend, Starlight, I'm just glad to have helped ya, even if I wasn't aware of how much at the time." Applejack politely raised her hat at Starlight and then adjusted it back on again, "See yah after the doodle-doo of the morning, Star! Have a good one."
Starlight waved as Applejack left, extremely thankful that food wasn't going to be a problem anymore. She then saw Rainbow Dash quickly flying close to her snout, landing between the bridge of her eyes, taking her by surprise. "R-Rainbow?"
"Hey, yeah, yeah," Rainbow began, "I don't really have much to say like the others, and I really want to get back home to get some sleep, but I don't want you to think that I don't care or anything."
Starlight smiled softly and began petting the tiny little blue pegasus with her hoof teasingly, as if she were petting a butterfly. "I understand, Dash. Thanks for the honesty, see ya." Rainbow Dash couldn't help but enjoy the little petting, but she made sure to not let anyone notice her big smile or how she raised her head to push playfully against Starlight's hoof above. After escaping Starlight's petting, Rainbow gave a friendly salute, and dashed off towards the sky quickly.
Starlight sighed, and was about to stand up when she suddenly saw a tiny blue pony pop into her vision at the corner of her eye. "Grrreetings, best friend of Trixie!" the little voice called, "Trixie has been napping in your mane and must admit, you are very comfy to rest on! However, Trixie must go ensure that her wagon is alright, as the stage in front of it was crushed by an ursa major, if you recall. Trixie was going to ask if you want to join and help, but Trixie remembers and understands that her poor friend Starlight has been put through enough trouble at the moment and deserves a peaceful night, so Trixie will do this task on her own!" Trixie climbed up Starlight's cheek and sat on top of her snout, "See? Trixie has become much more kind and understanding with the influence of her best friend Starlight!"
Starlight giggled a little, "Yes, I can see that, Trixie. I'm still glad that you helped me a lot during all this though, I'm very grateful." She then lowered her face to the ground and gently nudged Trixie off her snout onto the grass below safely. "Let me know if I can help when I wake up tomorrow, okay?"
"Trixie will make absolute sure that you-!" Trixie responded quickly, but soon caught herself and re-worded her sentence, "I mean... I will, thanks for the offer. See you tomorrow, Starlight. I hope you feel better." She bowed politely, and then turned around and ran quickly towards the other side of the village where they had set up the stage near the forest. It became obvious to Starlight that Trixie had been patiently and respectfully waiting to spend time with her before focusing on the aftermath of her wagon. The thought made Starlight respect Trixie a lot more.
Starlight sighed finally, lowering her head to the ground in the peaceful silence. "Well, I suppose this is going to have to be my sleeping spot now. I just hope it doesn't rain." Starlight told herself. She took a small glance at the sky, and then rested her shoulder onto the ground to try find a good sleeping position without potentially endangering any buildings around her in her sleep, in case she turned over unconsciously. As she twisted and turned, she heard a little 'eep-' near her ear and she froze.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt your nap," the timid, shy voice came.
Starlight blinked a few times, noticing a tiny spec of pink hair just visibly close to her left cheek, and upon further inspection she saw that Fluttershy was hugging the left side of her head. "Uh... Aren't you going home too?" Starlight asked.
Fluttershy shook her head slowly, "I don't need to be home tonight. Actually, I was wondering if I could, uhm... rest with you tonight. You're ever so comfortable, it's like nothing I've ever rested on..."
Starlight rolled her eyes and smiled gently, "I guess it wouldn't hurt. Sure, you can rest with me tonight. I'll make sure I won't turn over in my sleep - It's a very low maintenance spell I've been casting on myself every night that makes you stay still in bed without getting stiff joints - It was very useful for traveling unicorns sleeping near dangerous terrain and cliffs... except I guess I'm the dangerous terrain in this case."
Fluttershy gasped and pet Starlight's cheek sympathetically, "No, no, you're not dangerous terrain, you're a very good friend, and very thoughtful. Just because you're big doesn't mean you're bad - I'd say quite the opposite actually, but uhm... Maybe we should just rest, it's getting pretty late."
Starlight looked up, noticing the moon settling high into the sky above them. She wondered if she would ever be able to grab it if she stood up high enough - Nah , she thought to herself, don't be so silly . "You're right. Goodnight, Fluttershy, you can sleep, err- wherever makes you comfortable, I guess, just stay away from my mouth and you’ll be fine."
"Okay..." Fluttershy said. She carefully tiptoed along Starlight's head, as if it were it's own little mountain, and eventually found a snug spot behind Starlight's ear, making herself quite comfortable in the plentiful fur, using Starlight's massive ear like a cover, resting both little arms on top of it. "...Goodnight Starlight. Thanks for letting me sleep here."
"No problem Fluttershy," Starlight responded, "if anything, I should be thanking you for keeping me company, I thought I was going to be alone tonight."
"Celestia forbid that..." Fluttershy said drowsily, as the comfortableness of Starlight's ear proved too strong to resist, forcing her to slowly shut her eyes and quickly begin snoring ever so silently and peacefully behind Starlight's ear.
Starlight smiled, becoming equally sleepy on the grass. Her large body kept herself and Fluttershy warm despite the night being cold, and before she could count past five sheep, her eyelids slowly shut as she also fell asleep.
Part 14: A Little Reassurance
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. "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.
Part 3: The Performer and her Big Assistant
The sun was still shining that afternoon when Starlight arrived in the middle of a clear patch of grass by the Everfree forest's border. To her right, she could see Ponyville in the slight distance, a few stones throws away. Looking back to her left, the thick trees of the Everfree forest formed a wall of wood and darkness, marking the edge of it's territory. This is where she usually met Trixie to help her set up, so she called out to her while looking.
"Hello? Trixie?" Starlight called out while searching. As she walked a few steps, she suddenly spotted a violet four-wheeled wagon with shiny yellow brass stripes. It was unmistakeably' Trixie's travelling wagon. It had been apparent that she had just arrived recently, because it was still fully packed and nothing had been unloaded yet. "Oh hey, Trixie, are you in there?"
"Starlight, is that you?" A female voice from inside the wagon asked. The wagon shook left and right, along with the sound of some objects clanging and falling to the floor. Starlight raised an eyebrow at the apparent untidiness of Trixie's wagon. The window on the side of the wagon slid open, and Trixie, Starlight's blue-colored unicorn friend, popped her head out. She seemed quite happy to see her friend Starlight again.
'Oh, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you, Starlight! Or should Trixie say, Trixie's number one assistant, hmm?" Trixie shot a playful wink at Starlight, making her giggle.
"Nice to meet you again Trixie. I read your letter a week ago. You said something about a new magic show?"
"Indeed! The Great and Powerful Trixie has prepared a new act that will blow the minds of Ponyville away!" Trixie stood up on two legs from within the cabin, flailing her front hooves excitedly as she continued. "Trixie will finally get the recognition and fame that she rightfully deserves!"
Starlight smiled and gave an encouraging gesture with her hoof. "I'm sure you will, Trixie." Even though it was hard to see into the wagon, Starlight could make out some of Trixie's heavy boxes and wooden stage planks untidly stacked and packed inside the wagon. It was a mess, and that's only what Starlight could see from the small window. Trixie looked back at the boxes behind her, then turned around and gave an adorably sad begging look at Starlight while resting on the window.
"Would Starlight like to help the Great and Powerful Trixie unpack...?"
Starlight giggled. "Of course, Trixie. What are friends for?"
Trixie seemed ecstatic at her response, giving off a few high pitched horsey sounds that could only be described as extremely happy. She let the wagon's door open and fold out into a ramp in front, and then turned around to begin sorting something deep inside the wagon. Starlight walked around Trixie's wagon and walked up to the open entrance. The wooden violet ramp seemed to creak under her and bend, and Starlight had to duck under the entrance of the doorway to enter.
Entering the wagon, she felt strange, as if something was building up inside her. She ignored the feeling as she felt distracted by how her head seemed to rub and press against the roof of the wagon from inside, despite the fact that she was ducking.
"Trixie," she asked, "did you happen to get a new wagon? This place is horribly small..." Starlight's head pressed against the roof of the wagon, and to her horror, she realized that the wagon felt like it was shrinking around her body. "T-Trixie..."
Trixie, who was too busy looking inside a box to notice Starlight becoming increasingly uncomfortable behind her, snorted. "Nonsense, Starlight. The Great and Powerful Trixie has been using the same wagon long before since we first met. Now, it's time to move this box outside..." Trixie then closed the box she was inspecting and grabbed the box's handle with her mouth, and began to pull it backwards. Her movement was quickly interrupted when she felt something large and soft behind her. She didn't let go of the box, and spoke with her mouth muffled with the box's handle-piece. "Starlight, this is no time for any games, the Great and Powerful Trixie need to pull this outside!"
"T-Trixie, I'm, the wagon is..." Starlight was beginning to stutter. She could feel her body pressing against the inside of the wagon, as if she was growing bigger altogether. "Trixie..!"
"Starlight, what are you doing back there?" Trixie said in a muffled way. She was getting annoyed now, no matter how much she tried to back up Starlight didn't seem to budge. "What is it that is so important as to prevent the Great and Powerful Trixie from exiting her own wagon?
Her answer came in the form of a loud crunch, as the roof of the wagon collapsed as it was unable to hold Starlight's alarmingly increasing height. Trixie barely had a chance to look backwards before being pushed by a large light-pink rump behind her, pinning Trixie against the other end of the wagon. In seconds, the wagon exploded, flinging Trixie through the air majestically as fireworks from the wagon were set alight from the friction of Starlight's giant body rubbing against the fuses, exploding grandly around Trixie mid-flight. Trixie, trailing through the air at a fast speed and screaming for dear life, landed head-first into a nearby bush, the high impact and shock making her faint and lose conscienceness.
Trixie opened her eyes weakly, mumbling something about a great and powerful wizard named Hoofdini. Her vision was extremely blurry and dizzy as she tried to make out what was in front of her.
"Star..light..?" Trixie said weakly. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, trying to clear her vision. Trixie groaned, looking at the ground. She noticed that it was also light-pink, like Starlight's fur color. She then began to register that the ground was in fact furry and warm, and somewhat soft. Her dizziness subsided, and Trixie suddenly understood where she was.
She was standing on Starlight's raised forearm. More specifically, Starlight appeared to be the size of the entire friendship castle in comparison to Trixie, and towered over the Everfree forest trees nearby. Trixie held onto the edge of Starlight's forearm, daring to look down at the ground, only to find that she was about fifty feet above the field which she had just been standing in previously. She began to panic, and Starlight noticed this. "Trixie, listen, I'm sorry about the wagon. Just, calm down..."
Trixie couldn't calm down. She was hyper ventilating, this was too much for her. As a unicorn who couldn't fly or levitate herself she felt extremely anxious of heights, and this sight was triggering Trixie to snap.
"OH CELESTIA HOW AM I UP HERE AND HOW ARE YOU THERE AND OH I'm going to be SICK" Trixie spluttered nonsensically while clutching Starlight's elbow for dear life. "LET ME DOOOWN! AAA!"
Starlight grimaced at this sad display. While Starlight was equally confused and scared, Trixie seemed to be handling the situation far worse than her. However, being the quick-thinking unicorn that she was, Starlight knew she had to keep calm for her friend's safety. Panicking could be left for later, as she couldn't risk flailing her giant hooves and hurting Trixie. She took a deep breath and tossed her worried feelings aside to help her friend.
"Trixie, it's okay. Calm down." Starlight lowered her other massive hoof to gently pet Trixie on her head, letting Trixie rest against Starlight's hoof for comfort. "It's going to be okay, alright? Starlight's here."
Trixie looked at this massive mass of pony approach and slowly brush against her whole body. Calming down slightly, her mind tried to make sense of the situation in the most basic way possible: I am really far above the ground, I am standing on Starlight's arm, this is my friend Starlight, Starlight is big now, Starlight won't hurt me and Starlight wants me to calm down. The soothing sensations of Starlight's gentle petting was more than enough to placate Trixie and let her think more reasonably.
Trixie looked up at Starlight, who was grooming her fur protectively. "Starlight... If Trixie may ever be so blunt..." Trixie closed her right eye as Starlight kept slowly rubbing her fur unnecessarily, getting a little carried away. "What just happened?"
Starlight wasn't sure how to answer. "Erm. I'm not too sure. It might have something to do with a spell I casted earlier with three hundred poison joke plants." She smiled nervously, her hoof-rubbing getting a little more intense on the tiny-looking Trixie sitting on her forearm.
Trixie was not amused, but didn't mind the petting. "Right... Wait, didn't you say something about Trixie's wagon?"
Starlight stopped petting and blushed in a worried way. She knew that Trixie wasn't going to like the answer. "Erm. I kind of sat on it. By mistake."
Trixie stared at Starlight's big face blankly for a few seconds while processing what she had just said. Her neutral expression quickly turned into pure anger.
"You SAT on it?!" Trixie snorted while banging her front hooves on Starlight's forearm. "You SAT and DESTROYED Trixie's performing wagon?!" While she looked harmless and perhaps a little adorable banging about on her arm, Starlight still decided to treat Trixie seriously.
"It was a mistake, Trixie, honest!" Starlight lowered her head down to Trixie's level, clearly sorry for what happened. "I didn't mean to become a fifty or sixty foot giantess, you know! I couldn't help it!"
Trixie pressed her hoof against her own forehead tightly, letting out an extremely distressed and annoyed breath. "Okay. Fine. Trixie can live with this blunder." She raised her head to focus on Starlight's house-sized eyes. "Trixie must improvise, and the show must, go on."
Starlight seemed a little confused. "Wait, aren't you worried about me being, like, big?"
Trixie whipped her hair with a swish of her mane. "Nonsense, Starlight. That's your problem, after all. Trixie has a much bigger problem on her hooves, and she simply can not focus on helping you at the moment. In fact, Trixie demands that you help her instead!"
Starlight raised her left hoof to rub her own head in a nervous way. "Well, I guess I did kind of break your wagon and probably everything you needed for the show, so, I guess that does kinda sound fair in a weird way. I'm just worried what Twilight's going to say..."
"Twilight," Trixie interjected with a rude snort, "can call you all the names in Equestria, but if you haven't noticed, you're the bigger pony now, quite literally, and that simply means you have more power over her, so if Trixie were you, Trixie would start acting your size, and..." She ended with a very harsh and high-pitched voice, "START HELPING TRIXIE!"
Starlight bit her lip as she thought about it. "I... I guess..."
"Well," Trixie huffed, "you can start helping by lowering Trixie safely onto the ground! Trixie has felt that she has had enough coddling and comforting for now." Trixie crossed her arms together, deciding to admit something. "Which, yes, Trixie has enjoyed and appreciated immensely."
Starlight giggled a little, lowering Trixie to the ground gently. Trixie jumped off and quickly surveyed the damage of her flattened wagon. Everything inside it was almost definitely broken or unusable. It almost brought a tear to her eye, but instead, it brought an idea.
"Starlight..." Trixie asked thoughtfully, "Do you think you can... fix this wagon with your magic?"
Starlight rubbed the bottom of her muzzle with her hoof. "Hmm. I've never really trained too much in construction magic, but I could give it a shot. It's only fair since I broke it." Starlight stood up, towering amazingly over the nearby trees, and aimed her horn at the flattened wagon, powering up her magic. The ground shook slightly as turquoise magic built up in front of Starlight's horn, and Trixie let out an eep and scurried away behind Starlight's hoof for safety.
A powerful beam of turquoise magic hit the destroyed remains of rubble, making it float into the air. It's parts began to re-arrange themselves back into their previous positions, wooden shards merging back into full planks, and complicated contraptions coming together from their broken pieces looking as if they were brand new. The wagon gently lowered to the ground, good as new, as if it were never broken, and Starlight didn't seem to have broken a sweat over it. Trixie gasped in amazement at the immense display of magic, running up to her fixed wagon, dancing with pure joy at finding her fixed items inside.
"Oh, Trixie is most impressed!" Trixie jumped a few more times for good measure, and then bounced outside the wagon to look up at the giant unicorn friend of hers. "That must have taken a lot of magic!" Trixie said as she began to passively look for her wizard's hat, which she realized had fallen off from the blast earlier.
Starlight raised her eyebrows a little curiously. "Trixie, it's kind of weird, but that actually felt like it barely needed any magic at all. I think my magical abilities have scaled up with me, somehow. I felt like I was levitating a tiny cart and putting all it's parts back together, as if it were some kind of toy." Starlight smiled, and then quickly padded her wording. "Your magic props aren't toys, I didn't mean that, I just meant that it was super easy for me to levitate and fix."
Trixie found her hat sticking out between two nearby rocks, and put it on while Starlight was speaking. "So let Trixie get this straight; Not only are you the giant and gentle assistant, but a great and indescribably powerful friend?"
Starlight blushed, rubbing the back of her mane bashfully while looking away. "Y-Yes, you could say that, Trixie." She then sighed, letting her hoof back down with a slight shake of the ground. "But I'm still worried. What if Twilight finds out about this? What do you think she's going to do to me?"
Trixie rolled her eyes, "you're still worried about her? You really need to think realistically, Starlight. What is she going to do, shoot you with the elements of harmonics or something? Say 'you're a bad pony' when all you've doing is help your great and powerful friend? Lecture you to death?"
"Well, that last one does sound pretty plausible," Starlight said while chuckling nervously. Trixie found it quite hilarious, and continued after a good laugh.
"Well, as a good, good friend, Trixie will help you take cover from Twilight until you sort things out."
Starlight felt relieved, "oh, thank you Trixie, you have no idea how much that means-"
"Of course, that is, if you help Trixie with her magic show..." Trixie squinted her eyes up at a dismayed Starlight, "Trixie believes that she can make good use of your current... condition, for one of her magic tricks, which will also help you hide from your..." she urked her tongue to the back of her throat to withhold her disgust and contempt, "Tutor."
Starlight lowered her head to the ground, realizing that it was probably best to start keeping a low profile. "Right... So what do you have in mind, oh great and definately-not-black-mailing-her-best-friend magician?" Starlight didn't seem so keen on the idea, but what other choice did she have?
"You see, dear sizeable apprentice, some years ago, when Trixie first came to Ponyville, she... gave a spectacular performance about vanquishing an ursa major..."
Starlight seemed less and less happy about where this was going, and interrupted. "Oh, yeah, you told me about this. Two colts actually brought in an Ursa major to see you stop it, except it was an Ursa minor, and you still couldn't stop it, because you were bluffing at your performance, and then Twilight accidentally up-staged you and sent it packing peacefully. Why are you telling me all this exactly?"
Trixie lowered her eyebrows and frowned. She had remembered it much differently, but decided to roll with it. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. What Trixie was thinking was, what if, for my next act, the residents of ponyville actually got to witness the great and powerful Trixie actually vanquish an 'ursa minor', hmm?" Trixie stretched her neck up while gesturing towards Starlight's massive body.
"Trixie... Where are we going to get a..." Starlight looked at Trixie's maniacal expression, getting a little flustered. "Trixie, I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking."
"Oh Starlight," Trixie exclaimed with increasing excitement, "Trixie is thinking exactly what Starlight is thinking that Trixie is thinking!"
Starlight covered her face with her hooves as she was now feeling equally annoyed and embarassed. "Trixie, you wouldn't... Not after everything you've gone through..."
"Oh but Trixie insists! After all, how else can the great and powerful Trixie top her previous stunning act, the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive?"
Starlight groaned. She had to agree to help Trixie, or else she wouldn't agree to help hide her from Twilight and Spike. It was going to be a long afternoon.
Later that evening, Starlight and Trixie had cleared the wagon and had been preparing the stage. Trixie enjoyed pretending that Starlight was some kind of crane that obeyed her every whim. "A little to the left, Starlight!" she would say, "No, wait, a little more to the right!"
Starlight had since convinced herself that there was some greater good to come from all this, but she wasn't sure what it would be. Either-way, she didn't want to let her friend down, and she couldn't go back to the castle in this condition either-way, so she might as well be helping Trixie. She gently placed a large sign with Trixie's face painted on top of the stage, securing it in place and wiped her forehead. "Wow, that was kind of fun," she said aloud to Trixie as she stretched her aching arms and legs. "Helping you set up the stage with my hooves really reminded me of a doll-house play-set I used to play with when I was a little filly. I have to admit, it almost made me forget about how much trouble I'm in right now."
"Trixie is glad that she was able to help you relax in the end." As it was getting slightly dark, Trixie shook a bit as a slightly cold breeze tickled her body underneath her magician's skirt and hooves. She casually walked up to Starlight, who was sitting down next to the stage and yet still towering over it, and stood between her large resting hooves. "You know, Trixie is content with the effort that her friend is willing to go through for Trixie, but now... Trixie is feeling cold and uncomfortable in this weather, but as you helped Trixie so much, she does not want to abandon her good friend!" Trixie rested against Starlight's left leg, shivering a little. "Could Trixie... rest on you again?"
Starlight was glad to get some kind of congratulation for helping out. Because of her newfound powerful size, Starlight's body maintained enough heat to keep herself warm, so without any questions she picked up Trixie with her hoof and placed her safely on her shoulder. At first, Trixie clung onto Starlight's hoof tightly in fear of falling, but later felt immensely relaxed as she rested on Starlight's warm neck. She wrapped her tiny blue arms against the large light-pink wall that supported her weight effortlessly, and snuggled up quite adorably. She gave a tired little yawn while stretching her back, rubbing against Starlight's neck. Trixie began to speak in a slightly tired way, having handled all the smaller details on the stage that Starlight hadn't been able to handle at her size.
"Starlight... You're the best apprentice and friend ever... And don't tell anypony that Trixie said this, but you are absolutely amazing to snuggle with right now, Trixie feels incredibly comfortable enveloped in your endless coat..." Trixie snuggled up even further, rubbing her face happily, her eyes barely able to keep open. "Basically, you're the best, Starlight Glimmer."
A smile fell on Starlight's face, making her blush. This was a side of Trixie she rarely ever got to see before, and she enjoyed watching Trixie twist and turn in many different comfortable positions, each more comfortable than the last, on her shoulder. "That's really sweet of you, Trixie. I, err, don't think anypony's said that about me before. I really don't know what to say..."
Starlight's bashful response was cut short by a worryingly loud rumble that shook Starlight's body, taking Trixie by surprise and making her lose balance. "Wh-What was THAT?" Trixie exclaimed as she regained her posture on Starlight's shoulder. Starlight blushed again, except she didn't look too happy this time.
Starlight began to explain. "Oh no, I've been so busy today I forgot to eat... I haven't eaten at all today, Trixie, I'm so hungry..." She held her tummy, the hunger twangs beginning to kick in. Trixie looked up anxiously, somewhat relieved that it wasn't some kind of Everfree monster on the loose, but on the other hoof she couldn't leave her big friend in pain like this. She drew up some courage, and spoke reassuringly.
"Then the brave and caring Trixie shall go into Ponyville and see if she can find some food for her friend in need!" Trixie said bravely. She looked up at Starlight's massive cringing muzzle, and began to have second thoughts. "If...she has enough money to get enough food for her...that is!"
Starlight groaned, gently lying belly-first on the ground, making sure not to hit the stage or the wagon with her street-long legs. "Thanks for helping me out, Trixie. I really don't know what I'd do without ya."
Trixie carefully slid down Starlight's arm and onto the ground, turning around to face her friend's giant muzzle. "The Great and Powerful Trixie will do anything for her best friend, Starlight! You have helped Trixie, and now she shall return the favour!" She spun around, quickly picking up her personal saddlebags and darted off into the night. "Trixie will try her best, and she will cover up for you in case anypony asks!"
Starlight tried to wave goodbye, but felt another intense tummy rumbling that shook the trees next to her, disturbing some birds from their nests. She held her chest, and tried her best to stay put, hoping Trixie would come back soon.
