Shining's Surge

Shining Armour frowned into the cup of chamomile tea that sat cold before him. He studied his reflection on the surface of the still liquid. Blue eyes with dark circles underneath, two-tone blue mane, a horn on his forehead typical of a unicorn, and shaggy white fur. Many would call him handsome. He would call himself ‘not enough’.

Sitting across from him was Sunburst, a light orange furred unicorn stallion with bespectacled blue eyes, wild dark orange mane, an ever present scraggly goatee, white markings on his lower legs and nose, and wearing his blue star patterned cloak. He clacked his hooves together nervously in front of him and eyed the equally cold cup of chamomile tea beside him.

They were both in the central living room of Sunburst’s personal residence. Every available wall space and much of the floor was claimed by bookshelves heavily laden with historical texts detailing a wide range of topics.

Doors leading to a bathroom and kitchen could theoretically be found near the sections of the shelves dedicated to plumbing and a history of cooking, but, like most of the civilizations noted within the various tomes, could be considered lost.

A cordoned off area behind a poorly hung moon patterned curtain was the dedicated space for both Sunburst’s bed, which Shining knew was drowned in a sea of woolen blankets as per Sunburst’s obsessive need for warmth at night, and his newly built alchemy station, which was primarily used for Sunburst’s potion making that he picked up after stumbling across an old collection of potion recipes wrote by Mage Meadowbrook.

He had also repeatedly ‘forgotten’ to inform her of the existence of said text.

Sunburst found himself in this situation when Shining had arrived suddenly at his abode not ten minutes prior. He had burst through the door, swore for the first two minutes after a rather abrasive ‘hello’ then sat angrily glaring holes into the table.

Sunburst had made tea to give Shining time to gather his thoughts and talk when he was ready, but Sunburst was quickly realizing that if he was going to figure out what had soured his friend’s mood, he was going to have to speak first.

“So,” Sunburst began, “How are you?”

Shining Armour looked up from his attempt at glaring through solid crystal. He glanced over Sunburst’s body. Slender, but with some pudge due to his sedentary profession. An average sized stallion, Shining noted with resentment.

Shining himself was closer to the size of a mare barring the bulky muscle he had put on from long years of training in the guard. A fact pointed out to him on more than one occasion.

Said fact had never bothered him before until recently.

“You know,” Shining said conversationally, “There are a lot of downsides to dating a stallion the size of a push cart.”

Sunburst was startled to hear his friend finally speak. “Oh, are there? I thought everything was good with your beau?”

“This isn’t about Flash,” Shining replied, “This is about stupidly huge ponies and how being with one when you barely reach the average size of a mare is a pain in the flank.”

Sunburst coughed awkwardly. “Right, so you have a problem with, uh, big ponies then?”

“Yes. A lot in fact.” Shining snorted. “Like how they hog all of the bed space when they’re asleep and eat enough food to feed five full grown ponies.”

Sunburst nodded awkwardly in agreement. He levitated his cup of tea in the yellow glow of his magic, took a sip and frowned. “The tea is cold,” he declared, “Should I warm-”

“And it’s even worse when you’re the dominant one in the relationship,” Shining interrupted, “You choose to date a big dumb horse and they turn out to just want to follow your every command.”

Sunburst set his tea down and pushed it to the side. “Okay, I suppose not then. Every command?”

“Every command,” Shining repeated, “And despite being the supposed ‘sub’ he’s so demanding. ‘Put a collar on me, Shining’,” Shining mimicked in a mocking nasally voice, “‘Tie me up and rut me until morning, Shining’.” Shining snorted. “Stupid big hot submissive ponies.” Shining raised a hoof toward Sunburst. “Not Flash by the way.”

Sunburst fought to keep his gaze level as he felt his cheeks burn, “Of course, it isn’t. Also, I thought you liked that Fla-, sorry, big submissive ponies were super demanding?”

“Well, yeah,” Shining said in a tone of voice that suggested it was an obvious fact, “But I also like to complain about it too. Adds to the whole roleplay you know?”

“I don’t.” Sunburst shook his head. “I really don’t.”

“It’s alright, you don’t need to.” Shining leaned back and tapped his hooves idly on the table. “Now, let’s say, hypothetically, this is about Flash.”

“Oh?”

“I would say he’s been a huge pain in my flank as long as I’ve known him,” Shining growled.

“Oh,” Sunburst said helplessly as he had no idea where Shining was going with this conversation.

“Known Flash for over twenty years and been his colt friend for over a decade. My trusted Lieutenant for the same duration as I’ve been Captain of the Guard in both Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. I’ve been well respected as both.” Shining frowned. “Except I also happen to know what my subordinates say when they think I can’t hear them.”

Sunburst winced already having a general idea, “Dare I ask?”

“That it’s nice Flash Sentry is so tolerant of taking orders from a toddler,” Shining stated bitterly, “Or some variation. Years of effort and respect boiled down to a joke about my size.”

“I’m so sorry, Shining,” Sunburst said, “For what it’s worth, I think it hardly matters what size you are in the face of your many accomplishments.”

“Oh, I know.”

“You do?” Sunburst asked quizzically.

“Oh, yeah. I haven’t given a single fuck about what anypony says about my relationship with Flash since High School when I first realized I was always going to be a third of Flash’s full size.” Shining paused. “I mean a third of a big pony’s size.” Shining sighed. “Sorry, Flash’s size. Honestly, I don’t even know why I tried to talk to you about this as if it wasn’t about him.”

“It’s fine, Shining. You’re hardly worse than Starlight who likes to discuss issues that her ‘friend’ has.” Sunburst and Shining both giggled. “So just to be clear, you aren’t bothered by what others say about you?”

“Nope.” Shining shook his head. “Flash loves me as I do him. I won’t let some strangers dictate my relationship of over a decade with him.”

“That’s great.” Sunburst frowned. “But if everything is fine on that front, what’s the problem?”

Shining bit his lip nervously. “Can you keep this between us?”

“Of course, Shining. I wouldn’t even dream of telling somepony else about something that you told me in confidence.” Sunburst grinned. “And I do mean that literally.”

Shining smiled at the small joke, but soon settled to a downturned expression. “So, the other day I decided to try something new to add a twist to our evening romp.” Shining slid his tea cup back and forth with his hooves nervously. “Flash was laying on the bed and hadn’t seen me, so I decided to try and mount him while he wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh no, Shining did you-”

Shining’s eyes widened and he waved his hooves in front of himself, “No! It was consensual. It was something Flash and I had discussed previously since he loves it when I take charge in the bedroom like that. No, it was bad but not that kind of bad.”

“Then what was wrong?” Sunburst asked, “That seems like it would be-”

“He didn’t notice.”

Sunburst blinked in confusion. “I don’t think I’m following. What’s wrong with that?”

“I mounted him, Sunburst. I got up to the hilt and he didn’t notice.”

“Oh, Shining.”

“Once, I got over the fact that Flash didn’t even realize I was rutting him we ended up having the worst conversation of my life,” Shining groaned, “Turns out shortly after Flash was done his massive growth spurt back in high school, he found out that I was too small for him. He’s just been getting off on the roleplay and my pleasure from the intercourse.”

Sunburst winced.

“He stayed with me this long because he loves me. There’s a part of me that’s happy because it means he really does care for me, I’m not just a warm body to him.” Shining hung his head. “But, the fact that I haven’t been able to sexually satisfy my coltfriend in over a decade is kind of devastating.” Shining buried his face in his hooves. “Fuck, do you know how embarassing that is?”

“I can’t imagine.” Sunburst awkwardly rubbed one hoof along his opposite front leg. “Have you tried-”

“Toys?” Shining interrupted with a growl.

Sunburst gulped. “Well, yes.”

Shining glared at Sunburst then looked away with a huff. “Yeah, we have. But toys for us were supposed to be a supplement, not the only option.” Shining growled in frustration. “I know using toys isn’t the worst thing, but it doesn’t change the ego hit I’m taking from knowing my own dick isn’t good enough.”

Sunburst looked at Shining in sympathy before becoming thoughtful. “Do you want to break up with Flash?”

Shining slammed his hooves on the table, spilling both his and Sunburst’s tea onto the floor. “What? No! I’m not breaking up with the love of my life because we hit a road bump in our sex life!”

“But your size issue is still a problem, right?”

“Well, I mean.” Shining lowered himself back down with a thump. “There are toys like you said. I’ve been browsing stores all this week looking over possible options, but it's just frustrating because the root problem is me and I can’t change anything about it.”

“Well.” Sunburst stood up and made his way over to his alchemy bench behind the poorly hung curtain Sunburst wouldn’t let Shining fix. “If it’s just size that’s the problem...”

Shining looked at Sunburst curiously as he watched him browse through several cabinets filled with various colourful potions. “What are you looking for?”

“Well, as you know I’ve been recreating some ancient potions from Mage Meadowbrook’s time period.” Sunburst stopped. “Don’t tell her about that.” Sunburst continued his search through the cabinets. “And I happened to have made a potion last month that might - Aha! Here it is.”

Sunburst returned to the table carrying a bright blue potion in his magic. It was contained within a wide bottom flask stoppered with a large cork. Tied around the bottle’s neck with a string was a label. Shining couldn’t make out the tiny scrawl written on the paper.

“A growth potion,” Sunburst declared as he gently placed the potion in the centre of the table.

Shining peered closer at the concoction and tilted his head in confusion. “A growth potion? Like for plants?”

“For ponies.” Shining shot up with a shocked expression on his face. “This would solve your size problems.”

“Isn’t this incredibly hard to make?”

“Yes, and before you try to say something silly like how I shouldn’t waste a rare potion on your bedroom problems, you’re my friend, Shining.” Sunburst smiled warmly. “If a potion is capable of assisting you with your problems, then I’ll gladly give it to you.”

“That’s really kind of you, Sunburst. I’ll skip the ‘I’m not worthy speech’ then.” Shining eyed the potion warily. “I don’t suppose-”

“I could explain the specifics?” Shining nodded his head. “Of course. I wouldn’t have you drink some strange magic potion without explaining the details. That’s just irresponsible.”

Sunburst cleared his throat. “Now, when you drink the potion you need to be thinking of Flash while you do it so the potion knows the ‘target size’. Over the course of one week, you will slowly grow to be somewhat bigger than him. Nothing happens the first day as the potion will be warming up, but you will be very sore.”

“Why does it not activate instantaneously?” Shining asked.

“To give your body time to adjust between growth stages.” Sunburst smirked. “I presume you prefer to have your muscle tissue and bones stay internal?”

Shining gulped and nodded his head.

“I presumed so,” Sunburst said, “Now, I will have a reversal potion ready for you to consume should you not like the size change, however, you can’t take it until the full effect is complete one week from when you drank the potion.”

Shining mulled over the information he had been given. “Are you sure there are no additional side effects?”

“Besides the muscle, height, and dick growth?” Shining’s face flushed. “No, I guarantee it. I personally tested the potion a while back out of curiosity and I assure you it works very well.”

Shining gave a coy grin. “Is that why you told me you were busy two weeks ago?”

Sunburst chuckled nervously. “Yes, well I didn’t really want anypony to know I had attempted to see what it felt like to be the same size as Princess Celestia. For the record, I found being that tall is not something I enjoy.”

Shining snorted. “I can’t even imagine.” Shining blinked and a look of apprehension crossed his face. “Wait. If I become bigger than Flash then I won’t have to.”

“This is just an option, Shining,” Sunburst explained gently, “You don’t have to do it, if you don’t want to. There are other options that you've already looked into and even then I know Flash loves you too much to leave you over a problem like this.”

Shining stared at the potion for a moment longer before taking a deep breath. “I know, but even if we move past this, I’m always going to be thinking about how inadequate I am in the back of my head. It’s worth it to at least try.”

“Shining, you’re not-”

“I know Sunburst,” Shining interrupted, “But right now that’s what it feels like and a potential solution has presented itself. I’m not one to shy away from a challenge.”

Shining took the potion in his magic and lifted it closer to his muzzle. He uncorked the flask and took a whiff. Faint mint. Not the worst smell he’s ever been subjected to.

“Bottoms up.”

Shining chugged it in one go as he thought about Flash.

“Ugh.” Shining stuck his tongue out in disgust. “Tastes like sweaty stockings.”

“How would you even know what that tastes like, Shining?” Sunburst asked.

“You know damn well how I know that.” Shining glared. “Don’t kink shame me, Sunburst.”