The Little Escape
“Rainbow, are you sure you can do it?”
Twilight Sparkle had just asked her question again following her proposal of an escape plan. The six ponies were all locked up inside one of Our Town’s vacant houses. Starlight Glimmer and her “citizens” were holding them back there until they admitted swearing allegiance to their strictly equalitarian ideology.
But Twilight had a plan to escape and try to get their stolen Cutie Mark back. The idea involved getting inside Starlight’s house to discover her schemes. Fluttershy was absolutely perfect for that role as she had already given a rather positive opinion on Our Town’s politics. She could therefore admit adhering with their ideology and get out before the other five. From there, she would be invited in Starlight’s place where she could investigate what were happening.
But this wasn’t enough. Fluttershy surely wouldn’t be allowed to access every room in Starlight’s house. Besides, it would then be difficult for her to communicate those information to her still-captive friends. They needed an alternative.
So, Twilight suggested that one of them would go with Fluttershy. But with a different fashion. She had to appear practically invisible and be able to access closed places without great difficulty. According to the young alicorn, the best solution was to shrink. To become small enough not to be noticed to the naked eye and sneak easily under doors or even through keyholes.
Everypony seemed to agree, even though the idea looked risky. Twilight couldn’t cast the spell on herself: she had to preserve her energy to carry out the whole operation and use her magic at full power. The choice could only be between Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash.
The four mares volunteered for doing this task and going with Fluttershy. Twilight decided that the most fit would definitely be Rainbow Dash. Even very small, she could quickly access every corner and fly everywhere to reach high places.
“I can do it, Twilight,” Rainbow replied without hesitation. “I may no longer have my Cutie Mark, but my wings are just waiting to fly. A little adventure should give them some good exercise.”
“Okay,” Twilight agreed. “You’ll have to hide in Fluttershy’s fur once shrunk. When you get at Starlight’s house, check everything inside it and go back on Fluttershy as soon as you spot a detail that could be useful to us. Fluttershy will bring you back here the next day where you can join us and get your regular height back. Is that okay for you?”
“Of course! Rainbow assured. What are we waiting? Starlight and the others will soon come to check our condition.”
“Well. Get a little closer while I prepare my spell.”
Rainbow approached Twilight and everypony encircled her. They were all standing up on all fours except for Fluttershy who stayed lay down, looking at the scene with a bit of anxiety.
“This spell will gradually shrink you until you get no taller than one millimeter (0.04 inch or 0 3/64 inch), Twilight explained as her horn sparkled. That’s one thousandth of your current height. We wish you good luck.”
“No problem!” Rainbow reassured, with her determined look and serene posture.
The spell concentrated in Twilight’s horn touched the blue pegasus and slowly began to take effect. Rainbow Dash was gradually losing a few inches before their very eyes. The other mares were looking at her, astonished, when she was already as tall as one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Her shrinking carried on, her mane well below the flanks of her friends standing up.
Twilight’s horn intensified, Rainbow Dash was now no taller than ten centimeters (4 inches) and looked more like some kind of stuffed animal that one of the mares could have cuddled with. She gazed at her friends as they were becoming bigger and bigger compared to her small stature, their hooves starting to severely match her height when she got to five centimeters (2 inches). The marks on the floor became more and more detailed; some small layered stones on the floor were now large enough to completely encompass her.
Rainbow Dash got neared one centimeter only (0.4 inches or 0 25/64 inches). She still had to shrink ten times her current height. She was already no taller than one of Rarity’s eyelashes and her size kept decreasing. Fluttershy’s hind hooves were just in front of her and protruded more and more, previously matching her own height, then the equivalent of a tree, before they reached the height of a skycrapper! Rainbow was no more than a very tiny blue dot in front of a hoof that was fifty times her size. Fluttershy was looking at her with a totally stunned look and barely didn’t dare to move, fearing a wrong movement would hurt her. Seeing one of her bravest friends shrunk to this point made her feel like she had suddenly grown taller. As for Rainbow, seeing herself so small in front of Fluttershy’s usual tiny hooves made her feel funny. As if she was no more than a grain of sand.
But it was practicaly the case. Rainbow Dash was now no taller than one millimeter (0.04 inches) and her shrinking had finally stopped. Her friends around her could only squint to roughly make out a tiny blue dot right in front of Fluttershy’s hind hooves. This tiny blue dot moved a little: it was as if it was trying to find its feet. Perhaps Rainbow had also tried to address the giants who exceeded her height a thousand times, but no sound could reach their ears.
Rainbow Dash took off from the ground and flew over Fluttershy’s now-huge hind hooves and reached the area that defined her flank only in a few seconds. Each stroke of her egalitarian Cutie Mark now seemed a hundred times larger, she could make out every single black hair composing it. She finally landed at the level of her back, just near the beginning of her tail. Fluttershy did try to look at Rainbow during her flight: the little blue dot seemed almost invisible as it moved. It finally disappeared completely once it passed her flank.
“She must have landed in your fur”, Twilight said, panting after casting such a difficult spell. “Good luck to you two for what comes next. Fluttershy, get ready to go out quickly. They should not take a look inside and notice that Rainbow’s missing.”
Starlight just arrived in front of the prison. It was time to move on to the spying part. Fluttershy couldn’t help but give out a tiny squeal of dread.
***
Once at Starlight’s, after pretending to be an adherent, Fluttershy couldn’t refrain from taking a few glances everywhere. She knew that Rainbow was accompanying her, huddled somewhere against her fur, so this reassured her a little.
“Fluttershy, Fluttershy… I’m a little disappointed with your attitude”, Starlight said, not turning back to her.
Starlight seemed to accommodate something nearby. Fluttershy, on the other hand, stood petrified by those words. That didn’t bode well.
“Maybe you think I’m naïve? Even though you declared yourself as an adherent of our project, you kept sweating and looking everywhere as we went to my house. That is not the positive attitude of Our Town. That is more the attitude… of an imposture!”
Fluttershy gasped and couldn’t reply anything, too stressed.
“I know what you’re plotting. They asked you to spy on me! But you won’t go any further, my dear, I can assure you.”
Her horn began to glow a sparkling turquoise blue. Fluttershy expected the worst. Once the spell casted on her, she noticed that the decor seemed to grow over the seconds. She already realized that she was only a few centimeters tall, and her heart was pounding furiously. In front of her, the huge Starlight seemed like she was looking for something on the table next to her and approached her big hooves.
Now reduced to one centimeter tall (0.4 inches) when the spell ended, Fluttershy only had time to see a kind of dome fall on her and imprison her with all its weight. She gave a small cry because of the thud it made. Giving it a closer look, she quickly realized that it was a thimble. A needle was surely triple her size now.
“I’m going to think about what I’ll do with you now that you can’t go very far,” Starlight said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Returning to her room and closing the door, Starlight left Fluttershy all alone, reduced to the size of an insect. Saddened by her fate, she remembered about Rainbow and began to panic. Did the spell work on her too? Noticing a very small blue dot hovering right in front of her muzzle, she could only realize the obvious.
“Oh no! Rainbow, you shrank too!” she shouted. “But then… if I might be only one centimeter tall, it means you should be…”
Very worried, Fluttershy noticed the blue pagasus escaping from the thimble through one of the holes.
“No, Rainbow, stay with me, it’s too dangerous! We could lose track of you! You may not be able to regain your normal height!”
Despite all her warnings, the tiny blue dot continued its way and Fluttershy could no longer distinguish it. The yellow pegasus sighed and waited patiently for her friend to return with concern.
***
Rainbow had not noticed the spell casted on Fluttershy. Every word from the giants surrounding her were just incomprehensible, they were so much deep and noisy! Outside of Fluttershy’s prison, the environment looked strangely even bigger than before. Looking behind her, she noticed a thimble on the ground, but Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Quickly understanding where the yellow pegasus was in fact, everything seemed much clearer to her… and frightening. She still had a mission to complete, even reduced to just one hundredth of a millimeter!
Thus, now no taller than a cell, Rainbow flied through the lock of the door facing her. Inside the room just behind, not even needing to hide thanks to her size that was making her totally invisible, she watched Starlight pondering while walking in circle. Lost in her thoughts, she stopped her walk and seemed to do something really suspicious mechanically. She erased her egalitarian Cutie Mark and applied on it a coat of paint again. Rainbow Dash was speechless: Starlight had kept her Cutie Mark and no pony else in the Village knew!
Time seemed to pass a little too fast for Rainbow and she didn’t react quickly enough to avoid the unicorn who was now walking dangerously towards her. She did try to avoid her at full speed, but she was so small now that she barely moved one millimeter. Jostled by the unicorn who didn’t notice her, she crashed on the floor. The door closed and Rainbow Dash stood lying there, invisible on one of the huge wooden floorboards.
When she came to her senses, she quickly took off again to rejoin Fluttershy. She could only observe with concern that Starlight had visibly decided to give Fluttershy her normal size back. Fluttershy was growing noticeably and gradually regained Starlight’s size. A thimble stayed on her mane a moment before falling back on the floor very quickly.
“I’m taking you back to your friend,” Starlight said. “I’ll set you all free once you’re done with your little tricks.”
Rainbow Dash did everything she could to rejoin her giant friend despite them already leaving the house. Fluttershy was even taller than earlier, her legs reaching heights that even Rainbow’s wings struggled to reach. The latter could no longer keep up to follow the yellow pegasus, she watched the door of the house close while she was still only halfway in the lobby. She had no choice but to go under the door to reach the outside. This passage seemed a little long to her, the bottom of the door looking like a ceiling several meters high. Leaving the house, she regained some height, avoiding insects that were a hundred times her size.
At her own pace, she struggled against the breeze, however quiet, to join her friends in their prison.
***
Rainbow managed to get to the house where her friends were imprisoned nearly thirty minutes after, where she would have took only thirty seconds at her normal size. Flying under the door, she discovered her giant friends standing there and talking to each other with their deep and loud voices. She tried to approach them, taking another three minutes from the door to do so. At her actual size, it seemed like she was just skimming the ground when she was so high in fact that she couldn’t see all the features on it. She flied just under Rarity’s belly; her big four hooves were like tall marble white pillars while Rainbow had some difficulties to even see where they finished up there. She tried to crane her neck up, but she quickly gave up and preferred focusing on her flight.
Once between all the ponies, Rainbow could only observe how impossibly huge they all were compared to her. Even being right next to them, Rainbow was completely invisible, the specks of dust on the floor were even like skyscrapers for her.
Losing patience, the blue pegasus began thinking about some solutions. She noticed Fluttershy was the only one lying on the floor when everypony else were standing up. If she had to get noticed by some eyes, these were obviously the easiest to join from the ground. Not wasting any more time, Rainbow dashed towards Fluttershy, her huge form growing even more as she approached her.
Finally, she stopped just in front of her friend, being still some micrometers off the ground. She remembered Fluttershy’s hooves being particularly tall earlier, but they were now in a complete other category. She was right in front of the tough edge of her right hind hoof, and just this narrow space was outgrowing her nearly fifty times. The rest of her hoof was very high, so much that she couldn’t see the end from where she was standing. She could see her huge soft bumps at the center of the hoof, looking like two impossibly large yellow hills which were particularly comfortable. Rainbow flied higher as fast as she could, only overtaking some millimeters from the ground. Next to the huge hoof, she was just some kind of particle passing by. She could even see each hair composing her fur, each one with a diameter ten times taller than her.
Slowly, Rainbow managed to fly higher from the hind hooves and began her ascension towards Fluttershy’s face. She passed just on top of her enormous flank; the egalitarian Cutie Mark was never so big and boring at the same time. It took a very long time to the minuscule blue dot to overtake the big, rounded shapes right under it.
She continued her ascension, avoiding the kind of long, wide, and pink strings which composed Fluttershy’s mane. She was so small that she could fly between everyone of them easily, even if they seemed so tidied up.
Finally, Rainbow came right in front of Fluttershy’s face. She was always the type of pony to be quiet and calm, so she wasn’t moving to much. Her muzzle was like a really long road covered of yellow grass. It raised later to become a very steep wall at the end. On both side of this wall were two impossibly big teal eyes, each one being at least one thousand time bigger than her. Despite that, Rainbow hoped being right in front of her muzzle would get her attention somehow so she began to wave and zigzag until she could get noticed by her giant friend.
***
“Oh my, it wasn’t supposed to go like that at all!” Twilight worried.
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said. “She didn’t want to stay with me and I’m afraid she didn’t join me when Starlight made me grow back.”
Inside the prison, Twilight looked very nervous about this stroke of bad luck that she had not foreseen. Pacing back and forth, she started to ponder.
“Well, Rainbow should find a way to get back to us… if she succeeds. If so, she might already be there with us… It would be impossible to see her because she should be no taller than ten micrometers, we would need a microscope for that… But hopefully…”
After those words, Twilight casted a spell that encompassed the whole room. The tone of the colours changed slightly to green and Twilight looked everywhere, seeking something.
“This spell can localize another one casted recently. And if Rainbow is here…”
A faint blue glow appeared suspended in the air. Just in front of Fluttershy’s muzzle. Everypony noticed it.
“Ah ah! Found her! Celestia, I am so relieved!”
Every colour returned to normal and only the blue glow remained. Twilight approached it and began to prepare her spell while the blue glow had joined the ground. Everypony gathered around the glow, including Fluttershy lying right in front.
Twilight’s spell touched the glow surgically, and little by little, something seemed to appear in its place. Growing more and more, Rainbow Dash’s silhouette finally stood out as she reached one millimeter again after having grown a hundred time her size. Fluttershy’s hooves, right next to her, still looked huge and the yellow pegasus watched her friend recover her size progressively.
This lasted for several seconds, with Rainbow Dash first outgrowing the dust balls on the floor, then Fluttershy’s hooves. She reached again the height of a Cutie Mark Crusader before finally returning to her normal size, face to face with Fluttershy.
“Well, that was tight!” she exclaimed, with a smile on her face, nevertheless. “I won’t do it twice!”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said. “I could never have foreseen such a situation.”
“Don’t worry,” Rainbow reassured her. I’m here now. Besides, I really liked this little trip in Fluttershy’s fur.”
Seeing her wink, Fluttershy couldn’t help but blush a little, not knowing why.
“Anyway, hang up, folks! I’ve got some news to give you!” Rainbow announced.
Following this very special plan, the Mane 6 managed to foil Starlight and save the Village. Twilight Sparkle decided to be little more careful with her transformation spells as a result of this adventure and wrote this lesson to Princess Celestia.
At least, until another time.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading my little story. ^^
