//------------------------------// // The Only Chapter // Story: Let's Have a Battle // by Darth Link 22 //------------------------------// Adagio Dazzle was not happy. She had no magic, which meant that she actually had to work demeaning jobs to get the things she wanted now. She didn’t ever sell her body, she wasn’t that desperate to let human filth touch her, but she still needed money. It was why she wasn’t in a good mood after walking back from the office as the sun set. Luckily, she didn’t have to settle on a fast food joint. She was actually thanking Aria for having the foresight to set aside enough money to fake credentials, since it meant working as a secretary instead. Today had been another day of working in the corporate world, surrounded by idiots expecting her to make them coffee and type up memos and actually do work. And she had to actually wear a dress suit. Seriously, she couldn’t even show off her form. It was for this reason she changed back into her band clothes as soon as each shift ended. She walked through the neighborhood, silently snarking at everyone that passed her on the streets. She didn’t say anything, she had lost the ability to fight back if they cared enough to attack her for it, but it soothed her to imagine hurting others. Aria and Sonata were right behind her, Aria with her nose in a book, Sonata playing some mindless game on her phone. “Well, today was fun,” Adagio said. “Really?” Sonata said, looking up from her game. “I thought it was the worst.” “...Why do I let you keep hanging out with me?” “I think the real question is why do we let you hang out with us?” Aria cut in. “You’re bitchy to the extreme, and unlike before you can’t exactly add to our power base.” “Like you idiots could last without me,” the former siren grumbled, crossing her arms. “I’m the only one who comes up with any ideas.” “Except for putting money aside apparently.” “Shut up,” Adagio said. “Seriously, I’ve had a bad day at work.” “You always have a bad day. Maybe if you didn’t keep telling people who asked you to fax things to shove it, you’d at least have a tolerant time. I don’t like filling spreadsheets any more than you do, but it beats fast food.” “See, that’s the problem. We used to be poised to conquer Equestria and overthrow Celestia. Now look, I’m working as a secretary, you’re working in data entry, and I don’t even know what Sonata does at that company. Why would they even hire her anyway? She’s an idiot!” “Hey!” Aria said. “She’s not an idiot! “Check it out, guys, I found a secret in this game! You can actually pay money to get ahead! Now I can just spend money and beat the game quicker! Ha! I’m beating those game developers so good!” ... “Okay, maybe she’s a little dim, but...” “My ponytail is flippy!” Sonata declared, flipping her head and allowing her long ponytail to droop over the front, then the back. “But you two lack any ambition, any drive. If it weren’t for me, you two would never have made it to Canterlot High.” “Meaning we’d still have our powers,” Aria snarked. “A setback. I’ll get them back.” “Yeah, right.” “Well, do you want to stay like this forever?” “Not really, but let’s face facts: we're powerless. We’re not sirens, we’re humans. We’re probably mortal now. Look, we’ve got a good paying job, a good apartment... maybe it’s time we just accepted...” “If you finish that sentence, I will slap you.” The vitriol was enough to get Aria to stop, if only out of surprise and not fear. Adagio looked like she could kill with a look. “I’m going to get back on top, I just have to find something that will help me out.” “Oh, what,” Aria said, her gusto returning. “Do you think that we’re just going to stumble on something that will make us big and powerful?” “Pop!” The two sirens looked at Sonata, who was suddenly drinking out of a purple bottle. “...Sonata,” Aria said slowly. “What are you drinking?” “Whatever’s in this purple bottle!” “...Where did you get that purple bottle?” Aria asked. “I found it on a crate in an alley!” “...You just picked up and drank a random bottle you found lying in an alleyway?” “Yep.” “...Why?” “I was thirsty.” “...I... I...” Aria didn’t have the words. “Well, this might brighten up my day,” Adagio said. “Maybe she’ll get poisoned. Or drunk.” Sonata took another gulp. “Mmm... it hit the spot!” She said. She gave a little hiccup. Then, something unusual happened. Sonata grew a foot in height. Aria and Adagio took a step back at the sudden growth. Then Sonata grew another foot, and another. She ballooned up as well, her mass becoming bigger all over. By the time she was finished, she was over twenty feet fall and nearly three times as wide as she had been before. A few feet away, Lyra and Sweetie Drops were walking down the street when they noticed the inflated Sonata. “What the? What’s that?” Lyra looked where Sweetie Drops was pointing. “It looks like one of those sirens that nearly took over the school a few months ago, only... jumbo size.” “That’s odd.” “It is.” There was a moment of silence. “Should we... do something about it?” Sweetie Drops asked. “No. Let’s just let the Rainbooms take care of it.” And they walked away. Back at the scene, Adagio and Aria just gaped. “Holy... Sonata, you’re huge!” Adagio said, staring. “I know!” Sonata said, her voice deeper. “It’s so weird! My voice, it’s soooo boomy!” “This is crazy! This is surreal! This... this... this is perfect!” Adagio gave a wicked grin as she picked up the purple bottle and looked at it. “With this, I can finally tear Canterlot High apart!” “...How did Sonata’s clothes grow in proportion with her body?” Aria asked. “She drank a potion. There’s no reason that her clothes should grow too. I mean, what, are they magic clothes? They aren’t even the ones that appeared on us when we were banished here. For that matter, why were clothes suddenly on us when we got here? Nothing makes any sense...” “Shut up and drink this,” Adagio said. “Uh, no, I’m not doing that,” Aria said, putting up her hands defensively. “Why not?” “Because it’s some random bottle Sonata found in an alleyway. We don’t even know what the long term effects...” Aria was silenced as Adagio shoved the bottle into her mouth, forcing her to drink her share. By the time Adagio relented, she was coughing and spluttering for air. “Why you...” she began, but she immediately felt herself ballooning up. She got bigger, and bigger, much to her worry. Adagio started drinking soon after, and was already growing by the time Aria considered crushing her for doing this to her. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t believe she was in a band. That was amazing in and of itself. She had always heard of high schoolers having bands, but only the cool ones got in. She had never been cool. She had been the bottom of the school’s hierarchy at Crystal Prep. But here, she was popular. Only Sunset got more attention than her. Everyone loved her. The Rainbooms crowded her in as their seventh member. People smiled and said hi to her in the hallways instead of ignoring her or even deliberately shoving her like Crystal Prep did. Twilight sang the last line of Fluttershy’s song, and felt the wings on her back disappear. Why she was growing wings when her counterpart had to earn them baffled Sunset, but they were there regardless. Rainbow Dash let loose a few more licks of her guitar, finishing the rift and ending the song. Then, she lifted her guitar above her head, preparing to smash it on the ground. “Rainbow, that guitar cost six hundred dollars.” Rainbow Dash stopped, considering going through with it anyway, but eventually her logical side won out. As the song ended, her wings disappeared, and she and her bandmates fell to the ground. “Wow that was fun,” the cyan girl said. “What do you think, Fluttershy? It’s your song after all.” “I think I need to tweak that one a bit,” the yellow girl answered, looking over her notes. “I think it was just fine,” Applejack said. “I’m just glad there’s nothing bad going on for once,” Pinkie said. “Pinkie!” The pink girl blinked in response to everyone calling her name at once. “What?” “Pinkie, when you say that, something bad always happens.” Applejack said. “Watch: three, two, one..” There was a silence. “Huh. Guess it didn’t happen this time. But still, Pinkie, you never say that, it leads to things.” “I’m sorry, Applejack, but I’m just so glad we’re almost at our record for nothing freaky happening, and it certainly doesn’t look like anything bad would happen!” “Pinkie!” “What! See, nothing bad is happening, and nothing will! I am so emotionally invested in nothing bad happening! I am so confident fate will not intervene at this moment!” Everyone tensed up... and nothing happened. “See?” “Huh... guess you’re right,” Applejack said. There was a moment of silence. “So... you guys have a date for the Fall Formal?” Rarity asked. “Oh yes, Timber is coming to take me,” Twilight said. “He’s bring a carnation for me and a taser for Shining Armor when he tries to kill him for dating me.” “I’m going with Sandalwood,” Fluttershy said. When everyone stared at her, she went on. “Rainbow Dash kind of told him I liked him...” There was a chorus of “ahs”. “Well,” Sunset said, “I’m going to ask...” And then the door opened. Princess Twilight entered, her hair frazzled, and looking worried. “I need your help! I think I accidentally let something horrible loose in the human world!” The seven humans looked at the princess. “You’re a little off cue, Darling,” Rarity said. “What?” the Princess asked as Spike came rushing in at her side. “Nevermind. Look, I have a problem. A potion that I was working the kinks out of has been transferred into the human world. I need your help to find it!” “Okay, Twilight, calm down,” Sunset said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “How did this potion even end up here?” The Princess took a deep breath. “Okay, over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a potion that would allow any creature that drank it to bulk up. It was meant to be an experiment to make super strong ponies. We were making it because we were worried about going to war with the Changelings. But a few days ago, the Changelings had a change in leadership, so I decided to get rid of it. But... it got caught in another project I was working on. “I’ve been trying to find a way I can send objects straight to Sunset quickly, like with the journals. I’ve never been able to get the portals to go where I wanted to go. However, when I went to dispose of the potion, I tripped over an action figure a certain dragon left lying on the floor,” she glared at Spike, who gave a nervous smile. “I ended up letting the potion fly, and it fell into the teleporter I was using.” “Well, great,” Rainbow Dash said. “How do you even know that the potion is anywhere near here?” “It is. I doubt it would have left the city, given the settings I had on it. It should be around here, we just need to find it first!” Sunset took a deep breath. “It’s no problem. There’s nine of us, and I’m willing to bet we can get Flash and Vinyl to help up. We can have the entire city covered in a few hours.” “Is that going to be fast enough?” Twilight asked. “What if someone finds it and drinks it?” “Relax, Twilight, you’re worrying over nothing,” Sunset assured. “Unless some homeless bum finds it, no one is going to just drink some random bottle they find lying around.” At that point, Principal Celestia came in. “Girls... oh good, Princess, you’re already here. We have a problem. Those three girls who nearly took over the school are on their way back...” “Ooh, you mean Twilight, Sunset, and Cinch?” Pinkie asked. “...What? No, I mean the Sirens. They’re on their way here. And somehow, they all got over ten feet tall!” “...Well, there goes my last attempt to inject logic into anything,” Sunset muttered. “What are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked. “What do you mean?” Celestia asked. “Shoot them with magic stuff! That’s what you always do!” “...Good point,” Fluttershy said. Rainbow Dash activated her super speed and ran outside. Principal Celestia nodded. “While you’re all doing that, I’ll be inside, evacuating the school and pretending that I know nothing. I have plausible deniability.” With that, she darted away. “Okay, we need to get moving,” Sunset said. “Get it quick, Twilight, we’ll hold them off.” “Good evening. On tonight’s news, three large women are destroying Canterlot. When asked for an opinion, local scientists have said it’s just another example of the strange mass hallucinations that have cropped up recently. Scientists also predict that there will be property damage that just happens to correlate with the hallucinations. Scientists are amazed with all these hallucinations, and the coincidental property damage that always follow them, and are looking into string theory to explain them...” That news report played on the commons’ television as the girls ran out and confronted the trio. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata stomped to the front of the school, each grinning wickedly. “Well, well, well, hello, you pathetic little pests.” There was a tense silence “What the heck happened to them?” Pinkie asked. “We found a remarkable little potion!” Adagio said, her hands on the fat that had grown over her hips. “We...” “Yeah, yeah, we know that, but why did you balloon up like that? Princess Twilight didn’t say anything about ballooning up like that.” “I haven’t ballooned up,” Adagio said , missing Aria rolling her eyes. “Poink!” Sonata said, poking the fat on her belly. “Look! It makes little waves! Poink! Poink! Poink!” Adagio glared at her. “Will you stop... hey!” Pinkie had walked up to Adagio and poinked her in the stomach. “Hey, it does make waves!” “Will you knock it off!” Adagio demanded, causing Pinkie to step back in surprise at the vehemence in the siren’s voice. “But I want to know what it is!” “Pinkie, that’s fat,” Sunset said. “No it’s not!” Adagio claimed. “What’s fat?” Pinkie asked. The other girls all shrugged. “You know, excess calories stored for energy... happens when you eat too much,” Sunset said. They all stared at her blankly. “...What Snips has?” “Wait... that’s from eating too much?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I thought that was a birth defect!” “Is fat really that foriegn of a... well, now that I think about it...” “I’m not fat!” Adagio screamed, catching all their attention. “I’ll have you know that potion made me taller proportionally. I’m still have my figure.” ... “You live in a fantasy world, don’t you?” Aria said. “Oh for... look,” she said, reaching down and pulling Pinkie back toward her. “Now look, really look. We have the same basic figure. If it weren’t for the height, hair, face, and skin color, you could hardly tell us apart.” Aria hit her forehead with her palm. “Why do I put up with you? A thousand years and...” “Silence! Now then, where was I... oh yes, I’ve come to take apart the school! Me and my sisters are absolutely focused on crushing you!” “Adagio, it’s ‘my sisters and I,’” Aria corrected. “Hey, you know that really flappy skin on your elbow? Well now mine is extra flappy.” Sonata squeezed the fat on the elbow. “Now, what do you have to say about that? How can you...” And then, suddenly, there was a barrage of marshmallows coming at her. “What th...” Before Adagio could respond, the marshmallows did the most unexpected thing: they exploded. Adagio, reacting in pain and surprise, fell back onto her butt. “Marshmallows!” Sonata said. Aria, despite her earlier insistence, stepped forward. “Look, I really don’t want to be here, but catching the Princess is the only way I can turn back to normal, so...” And then Aria smacked Rarity across the face. Or she could have, had Rarity not summoned a shield to block. The white girl still skidded a bit, but Aria screamed in pain, clutching her even more swollen hand. Sonata attempted to flop down on Rainbow Dash, but she proved far too fast, and the large mass missed, causing the ground to shake. She next tried to roll over Applejack, but was surprised when Applejack stopped her by sticking her arms out and catching her. Then she pushed her, causing her to go rolling into Adagio, who had just managed to get to her feet. Both sirens hit the ground again. “What the?” In the same amount of time it took Adagio to come to that conclusion, several dozen squirrels came along and bit her, hanging off of her in several places. “Ahh! Their teeth were made to bite hard things! It’s the most painful thing I have ever experienced!” And then, what looked like a large, uprooted tree crashed into her, the squirrels scattering without being hurt. As Adagio recovered from the somehow bloodless pain, the Rainbooms just smirked. She glared at them. “How is this possible?” “Yeah, we have superpowers now!” Rainbow Dash said, standing tall, which she always looked for an excuse to do. “We can take you all on now!” Six of them powered up and showed off their powers while Sunset... sat there. The Sirens looked at her. “Well?” Aria said. “Well what?” Sunset asked. “What’s your power?” “I... can tell what other people are feeling.” There was a moment of silence. Then, the Sirens burst out laughing. “I’ll have you know it has several non-combat applications...” The Sirens kept laughing, and laughing, and laughing. And then suddenly they were struck by three magical blasts. There was a moment of silence as everyone looked at Sunset, who was standing there with her arms outstretched. “Huh... I can apparently do that, too.” “Wow, now we all have useful superpowers!” Rainbow Dash said. “Rainbow!” Rarity snapped. “Just because Sunset’s powers didn’t have any immediately obvious combat applications... “Blah, blah, whatever. We’re like real superheroes!” “Really? I thought we were magical girls,” Fluttershy said. “We seem to be a lot like Sailor Moon, or...” “Fluttershy, your nerd is showing,” Rainbow Dash said. “She has a point, Dash,” Applejack said. “We never see an all girls superhero team.” “Yeah, but we have all the classics: super speed, super strength, talking to animals...” “Really, Darling, do we have to compare ourselves to them? Superhero costumes are so tacky. Those cute little sailor outfits are where the real fashion is at.” “There’s more to being a hero than fashion,” Sunset said. “I think we’re like those girls in Madoka Magica,” Pinkie said. “Uh... Pinkie, have you ever watched that show past the second episode?” Twilight asked. “Nope!” Pinkie said happily. “You know,” Princess Twilight cut in, “regardless of what you are like, I’m pretty sure none of them would have just stood around and let the Sirens drink more of my potion. Like they’re doing right now.” The girls saw that the Princess had indeed been right. Sonata was now thirty feet tall, Adagio was reaching that height, and Aria was protesting this change. “Oh no, I’m not drinking any more...” Suddenly Adagio grabbed her by the collar and forced the bottle into her mouth, causing her to drink. Despite the attempts to push Adagio away, Aria grew to thirty feet herself. “Ooh, neat!” Pinkie said, reaching into her hair and pulling out more marshmallows. She flicked them in Adagio’s direction. They still hurt Adagio, but now they seemed to be little burns instead over anything that could cause any real damage. The siren still yelped in pain and complained about how much it hurt, but any long term damage seemed unlikely, especially the part where the burns just healed themselves. “What the...” Applejack said. “Oh my gosh, the potion’s self healing practice works at a large enough dose!” Princess Twilight said. “I’d think that was great if it didn’t mean I was about to get killed.” “No problem, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!” Rainbow Dash declared. “I’ll just give her all my power in one punch!” And then she ran at full speed toward them. She put all her power into a punch to Adagio’s leg. When she struck, her arm sank into the fat on her leg. The next thing she knew she was being rocketed several feet through the air. Adagio laughed. “Apparently this gives muscles an elastic ability!” “...You know what, I’m not even going to bother anymore,” Aria sighed. Then she lifted up her foot and hovered it over Applejack. “Ha, I can just catch your foot with my super...” The foot came down, crushing Applejack flat. When the foot lifted, she said in a daze “Uh... snupher... strrrr...” “This isn’t good,” Sunset said. Suddenly Rainbow Dash was back. “Darn! If only they were more solid...” “You would have broken your bones, and they would have hung in your arm like marbles in a sock,” Twilight said. “...Yeah, well, I don’t see you trying to levitate them!” “I know better than to think I can. They look as big as whales at this point! I can barely lift up more than three-hundred pounds! How about you? Why don’t you try finding a cable or something and wrapping it around her legs?” “Like what, genius girl? Do people usually leave large amounts of cable lying around?” “Well, go inside and get some extension cord at least.” “Fine,” and Rainbow Dash zoomed back inside. After a few seconds of Sunset trying to pummer the Sirens with magic blasts, and Rarity summoning shields and pushing them at them, only for them to bounce off, Rainbow Dash returned. “Surprise, surprise, there are no fifty-foot extension cords.” Rarity sighed. “So, none of our powers work, and those three aren’t going to stop unless they kill us. Great.” As she spoke, the Sirens advanced forward, which in turn caused the group to run back inside Canterlot High. The overgrown women were right behind them, each hitting their shins on the school building. After some grumbling, they all started attacking the building, tearing apart the school as best they could. As the school shook, the Rainbooms huddled together in fear. Things weren’t looking good for them. “Doesn’t this world have any police force?” Princess Twilight said. “Seriously, where are they?” Meanwhile, a few blocks away. A police car pulled up along the street. Over the buildings, they saw the three sirens wreaking havoc on the school. “You think we should do something about that?” “Eh, it’s blocks away.” “But it looks like the school’s being torn apart by three large women,” the first officer said. “You’re just having another one of those hallucinations that have been happening recently.” “You know, maybe they’re not hallucinations. Did you ever figure that maybe there really is something weird going on?” “Well now, that’s dangerous thinking. You best concentrate on your work.” Back at the school. “Does anyone have any ideas?” Sunset asked. “Princess Twilight, don’t you have any ideas? It is your potion.” “...Well, I guess I could go back to Equestria and get more. The seven of you could drink it and get big enough to fight them.” “Wait, you mean we’re going to have to get bloated?” Rarity asked. “Absolutely not. Can you imagine how horrible that would look? I refuse...” And then a big yellow hand reached into the school, nearly grabbing Rarity. The fashionista was knocked to the ground by the oversized fingers, which were reaching for anything they could get a hold of. “When I get a hold of you, I'm going to snap you in half like a twig!” Adagio called. “...The potion sounds good,” Rarity said. “I thought so. Now, I have more of the potion ready at my lab, and an antidote I’ve whipped up to it as well. But they’re blocking the way to the statue. You need to keep them busy while I sneak in.” “No problem,” Rainbow Dash said. Immediately, she sped out of the door, running past the sirens and shaking her arms “Hey! Hey! Look at me!” They didn’t look at her, because they hadn’t seen her leave and they couldn’t hear her over the sounds of the school being destroyed. Rainbow Dash thought a moment, then sped off to the cafeteria. She returned with a knife, which she plunged into Adagio’s ankle. To the leader of the Sirens, it was only a prick, but it was enough to get her attention. She turned, seeing Rainbow Dash. “Hey, hey look at me! Bet you can’t catch me!” “...Well, you’re obviously a distraction,” she said, then she went right back to destroying the school. Rainbow Dash fumed, but then, she had an idea. Without another moment’s hesitation, she sped off toward the city. “Where’s she going?” Sunset said. “She must have a plan,” Fluttershy said. “She wouldn’t just ditch us... right?” “Of course not,” Rarity said. “We just have to keep them busy.” “So... we have to distract them while Rainbow Dash gets a distraction ready?” Twilight said. “This will be fun.” At that moment, the roof of the school came up. The common area became littered with debris as the Sirens burst through the ceiling. Rarity brought up a shield, saving the seven of them from injury. The Sirens looked down at them, malicious grins on their faces. “Well, well,” Adagio said. “Now we can...” At that point, the flaw in their plan became obvious. Littering the common area with debris had given Twilight plenty of things to pick up and throw. What used to be part of an air conditioner struck the Siren on the forehead. The face, lacking the bulk of the rest of her body, was still vulnerable. “Ah!” Adagio cried, backing up and clutching her face. The others were so surprised that they didn’t block when Twilight did the same to them. Adagio shrugged off the pain and lunged in. “You little brat. Do you think...” Twilight hit her with a chunk of stone. Adagio cused and leaned back in. “Did you think...” Twilight hit her with a small piece of ventilation that cut her skin. Adagio cursed and leaned back in. “Did you think...” Twilight shot a piece of glass, which cut Adagio’s cheek. Adagio cursed and leaned back in. “Quit it!” The next chunk of stone hit Adagio in the eye. She really reared back and cursed at that. At that point, Rainbow Dash ran back into the school. She stopped just long enough to tell Princess Twilight “Get ready to run!” “Uh, okay,” the Princess Twilight said, just noticing that Rainbow Dash was holding a brown bag. The speedster of the Rainbooms ran to the roof, stopping just at the edge of where the Sirens had ripped it off. Then, at the top of her lungs, she shouted, “Hey, Sonata!” The blue siren, laughing with Aria at Adagio’s pain, looked at her. Then, from out of the bag, she pulled her secret weapon. “Taco!” she shouted. That also got her two sisters’s attention. “No, no, Sonata...” Adagio began. But it was too late. Rainbow Dash, with the kind of skill that only came from years of doing sports, lobbed the taco directly at Adagio. The blue siren bowled her sister over in an attempt to catch it. Wasting no time, Rainbow Dash ran down to the commons, picked up Princess Twilight bridal style, and raced her out to the statute, setting her down and telling her to go in. “...We probably should have just done that in the first place,” the Princess muttered before going in. Rainbow Dash grinned in triumph until she saw Aria looking at her with an expression of pure anger. “Do you mean to tell me that there was a way for us to get back to Equestria this whole time? We could have gone home at any time?” “I guess so,” Rainbow Dash said. There was a tense moment of silence. Then Aria screamed in frustration and started chasing Rainbow Dash. The speedster led her on laps around the school, actually slowing down a bit to make sure she didn’t get too far ahead of her. Despite having longer strides, Aria was having trouble moving with all the new bulk. Still, she led her on a lap around the school, and ended up causing her to run into the other Sirens, who had just gotten to their feet when they had been bowled over. They ended up back on the pavement, creating three more craters in the school’s parking lot. Meanwhile, in Celestia’s office, the principal and her sister watched the fight. “What’s the estimated property damage?” Celestia asked. Luna punched in a few more numbers in her calculator. “I’d say we’re looking at one hundred thousand at this point.” “Well then, it’s a good thing we still have a little insurance that Cinch will... ‘donate’ to our causes, isn’t it?” Back outside, the Rainbooms were determined to take advantage of the Siren’s temporary missteps. Twilight was levitating the smaller debris at them, hoping to cause a few cuts, while Applejack was throwing the bigger pieces. Pinkie was throwing any sugary treat she could reach in their faces, hoping she was at least disorienting them. Still, eventually the Sirens got it together and rose to their feet, rendering the attacks ineffective once again. Luckily, by that point Princess Twilight had come back through the portal. Before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash scooped her up and brought her inside the school, with the others not far behind. They all ran further inside, meaning the Sirens had to stop and destroy more of the building to get to them. “Do you have it?” Sunset asked. In response, Princess Twilight pulled out seven bottles of the same formula. She passed it around to each of the Rainbooms. “This is safe, right?” Applejack asked. “Yeah, sure, whatever,” Princess Twilight said. “Now, if my calculations are correct, I think I know the exact amount that you need to drink. You need to be careful, as drinking too much can result in unfortunate consequences...” “Drinking race!” Pinkie declared. “One two three go!” And she leaned back and downed the entire bottle in just a few seconds. “...Why?” the Princess said. The others watched in tensed anticipation, Pinkie finished, letting out a little burp. There was a moment of silence. Then, she began growing. She got bigger, and bigger, until she had hit the ceiling. “Pinkie, maybe you better head to the front before you get too big,” Sunset suggested. “Good idea,” Pinkie said, and she began moving toward the damaged part of the school, where the sirens were waiting. Adagio had bent down and was peeking in. Seeing this, Pinkie poked her in the eyes, causing her to rear back. As she moved, Princess Twilight spoke. “Okay, well, since she started without my permission, she’s going to miss this. I have just enough of an antidote for the three of them. You have to pin them to the ground, then force them to drink.” She pulled out three black bottles and handed them to Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy. “There should be no side effects to overdosing the antidote, so don’t worry about hurting the Sirens with them. Now, if we can formulate a plan while Pinkie is keeping them busy...” The rest just downed their potions over the Princess’s objections. Then they all began walking toward the broken part of the school. Princess Twilight sighed. “Well, there they go. Hmm. I guess I can only watch. What else is there to do?” At that point, Flash Sentry ran up to her. “Twilight! Are you guys doing something about whatever’s attacking the school?” “Huh? Oh, yeah, we are.” Flash looked, seeing the human Twilight, then looked back at the one he was talking to. “Wait a minute... you’re Princess Twilight?” “Yeah, that’s right... I came through to help out with this crisis.” She looked at him. “What are you doing?” “I was helping the teachers evacuate the students out, and I came to check on them.” He pointed to the Rainbooms. “...They’re all... bigger than I remember.” “My newest invention... which went haywire.” They watched the scene in front of them for a few minutes. “So... Twilight,” Flash began. “Sunset told me that it isn’t very likely you’ll come over here.” “That’s true,” Twilight said, not liking where this was going. “So... where does that leave us?” The Sirens were shocked at the seven larger women who came out and faced them. “What the... oh, I get it,” Adagio said. “Princess Twilight must have had even more of that stuff.” “That’s right,” Sunset said confidently. “And now that we’re buffed up, we can take you down.” “So, you think you can beat us?” “Uh, yeah,” Sunset said. “It’s seven against three. That’s at least two-on-one for each of you.” “Well, you might have the size, but we have...” She was cut off by Rainbow Dash running forward and slamming into her. Even with her girth, she was still too fast for Adagio. The cyan girl no longer had her super speed, but she still struck hard enough to send Adagio to the ground. As their leader fell, Aria turned to see, and was blindsided by Applejack, who hit her hard. She went stumbling to the ground, pinned under the cowgirl’s girth. Pinkie tried to do the same to Sonata, but as she got close she realized that the blue siren had pulled something out of her pocket. Something small she was moving to her lips... “Seriously? How much was in that bottle?” “I found more than one,” Sonata answered before downing the bottle. Pinkie jumped on top of her and the Siren fell back, pinned under a massive pink blob. Pinkie was joined by Sunset and Twilight soon after. However, it didn’t last, as Sonata grew, and grew, and grew. Soon the three on top of her went flying off, and she grew to fifty feet tall. Sonata went over to Adagio and lifted Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy off of her, tossing them to the side. She then gave Adagio the bottle, who downed it. By now Pinkie had recovered and was rushing toward Sonata. She tackled her and pulled her to the ground. In the struggle, Pinkie flipped Sonata onto her back, reaching for the potion. She only realized Sonata no longer had it when Adagio was throwing Applejack and Rarity off of Aria, The leader of Sirens pulled out the bottle. Aria’s eyes widened in terror. “No, no, no, please!” She was ignored. The bottle was shoved into her mouth, the contents forced down her throat. Adagio turned to the Rainbooms, who were now looking incredibly tiny compared to them. “Well girls, now what?” “Twilight! We need more potion!” Sunset called. There was no answer. “Twilight?” “So Sunset wanted you to just forget about me?” Twilight said. “And she didn’t even consult me about this?” “...I figured she did,” Flash said. “But I thought I might want to ask you about it.” “I should say so,” Twilight said. The two had both taken shelter in the drama room, waiting for the fight to end. They had chosen a couch to sit on, and both had started an awkward talk about their relationship. “Well... what are we right now?” Flash said. “Are we dating?” “Well, Sunset wasn’t wrong. I can’t leave Equestria. You’d have to come over there.” Flash sighed. “I guess we really need to have this talk... but are you sure we should do it now? Your friends are fighting those three.” “Meh, what’s the worst that could happen? They’ve survived worse. I’m sure they’ve already got them pinned.” Suddenly there was a loud rumble of something crashing into the ground. While Flash jumped, Princess Twilight just smiled. “See? They’re doing great!” Sunset moaned and groaned as she fell to the ground, coughing up the dust that got kicked up around her. Adagio laughed as she placed her foot on her opponent, laughing. She was quickly shoved off by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Adagio stumbled back, but regained her footing. “Aria, Sonata, help me!” Aria just huffed, the look on her face making it clear she really didn’t want to be there. Sonata played with the fat on her elbow. “Uh, you two are useless,” she whined. Meanwhile, Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped Sunset up. The bacon-haired girl didn’t have the most hopeful expression. “This isn’t looking good.” “:Relax, girls, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Rainbow Dash straightened up confidently. Applejack nodded. “We’ve tangled with monsters before and took them down. This is gonna be no different. We just need to coordinate better.” “You’re right. Applejack, Rarity, you take Aria. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Sonata. The rest of us will take Adagio. Once you get your target down, head off to help someone el...” And then Adagio tackled Sunset again. “You know, talking doesn’t stop us from attacking,” the leader said. It was a melee after that. Twilight and Rainbow Dash jumped Adagio. They all fell in a heap, and soon the three were rolling around the ground, crushing trees, cars, and various other things, but no people, because they were all conveniently evacuated, but there was a lot of collateral damage. Pinkie and Fluttershy attacked Sonata. Surprisingly, the airheaded Siren managed to hold her ground. Her feet slid back, but she stayed upright, matching them in strength. Applejack and Rarity ran toward Aria, who put her arms up defensively. “No, no, wait...” But the pair were too caught up in the moment to notice. They stuck her, sending her flying back into a building that was scheduled for demolition anyway. As she moaned, her opponents sat on her arms. “Okay, Rare, get it ready.” Aria’s eyes widened as Rarity pulled out her bottle. “No, no, no...” she cried, suddenly bucking against her captors. Caught off guard with just how ferocious it was, the two lost their advantage, and she was free. They also didn’t expect her to suddenly strike Rarity. The white girl hit the ground and found herself assaulted with several loud and audible slaps. By the time Applejack rammed into Aria, sending her rolling off, the girl’s face was bright red and in pain. “Ooh... my face. This isn’t going to look good, even after the Princess gives us an antidote.” “Keep it together, Rare. You still got the bottle?” Rarity’s eyes widened. “The bottle... I think I dropped it!” “Well find it quick! I’ll hold her off until you do!” As Applejack began rushing off to confront her opponent, Rarity frantically searched the rubble for the tiny bottle she needed. She pushed aside building parts, car scraps, and several pieces of metal in an effort to find what she was looking for. When she cut her finder on a piece of glass, she began to wail. “Oh my, this is hopeless! That bottle is so tiny, and I’m so huge, I’ll never... oh, there it is,” she said, picking up the bottle. However, at that point, something very odd happened, in this fight of former fish-women and magical teenagers that had magically grown into giant monsters.. Rarity began to grow some more. “What the?” And she grew. More, and more, and more. “What’s this? What’s going on?” Meanwhile, back at the school... “I just feel like we don’t communicate well enough,” Flash said. “Hmm,” Twilight said. “Maybe I could hook you up with a journal, like the one I gave Sunset. It could allow us to talk more and... wait.” Princess Twilight went into deep thought. “What’s wrong?” “Did I remember to tell the girls about the extra boost in the new batch? ...Eh, I’m sure they'll figure it out.” Meanwhile, Applejack had succeeded in, at the very least, knocking a lot of the fight out of the Siren. She had flexed her arms and punched as hard as she could, hitting Aria in the gut. The large woman felt very little with the layer of protection, but the wind was out. With Aria temporarily incapacitated, Applejack looked around for a more permanent solution. Seeing some power wires nearby, she ripped the pole out of the ground and gave a good yank, causing miles of wire to be uprooted. Meanwhile, across town, Principal Cinch was at her computer, rubbing her hands together. “Finally, it took months of watching Canterlot High, but I finally found proof of magic. Now I can expose CHS to the world, discredit Principal Celestia, and most importantly, get a win in the Friendship Games! Now I only have to hope there are no sudden power outages while I upload this online. It could permanently corrupt the files and...” Then the school went dark. “...Well, at least I have the back ups. Nothing bad could happen.” And then Dean Cadance came in. “Principal Cinch, the lights are out all over the school.” “I noticed.” “Oh, and three large women passed by Crystal Prep an hour ago. They didn’t do much, but the vibrations caused some coffee to spill in the records room. Don’t worry, it just spilled on and damaged some hard drive that just had a blank label on it.” “...Was it a brown label?” “Why, yes. Why?” Back at the fight. Applejack stopped because she thought she heard a cry. Shrugging it off, she brought her new cords up to Aria. After giving her a kick to the gut to make sure she stayed down, Applejack brought the cords around her ankles. It was a hard squeeze, as the amount of fat had made the ankles further apart than Applejack would have liked. Still, she managed to tie her legs together well enough to incapacitate her. But it ended up using more power line then she would have liked, and now she was out. Seeing Rarity come up to her, she spoke. “Rare, get me some more... wait, what happened to you? ...Nevermind, get me some more power lines.” Rarity nodded and walked over to another set, ripping it up as well. Meanwhile, across town, Flim and Flam were dealing with another customer. “So, this really works?” Don Sombra asked. “Really?” “Of course it does,” Flim insisted. “And if we’re lying, may the fates send us a sign!” And then the lights went out. There was a moment of silence as both parties contemplated this development. “...Would you call this a sign?” Don Sombra asked. “...No, not at all,” Flam said quickly. “I would say it’s just a coincidence.” “I think maybe it’s time you had a word with my associates,” Don Sombra said as three thugs surrounded the Flim Flam brothers, to their horror. Back at the fight, Rarity moved toward Aria, but seeing the pair come forward seemed to reignite the fight in the purple Siren. She stuck out her arm in between Applejack’s legs and swept, grabbing a calf and pulling. Her equilibrium interrupted, the cowgirl fell back, hitting the ground with her bottom. Aria would have attacked more, but avoiding Rarity was now top priority. So she scooted back, causing a wide ditch with her bottom while kicking into the air, desperately trying to knock the lines off. Sadly, Applejack was too experienced in tying knots, so the lines held. “Get away, get away, get away!” She backed up. Rarity jumped on her, trying to grab her arms. Aria kick and thrashed like a bronco, and eventually her two feet smashed into Rarity’s gut. But thanks to Rarity’s increased size, it did little more than bounce off. But she kicked again and again. Eventually, she got lucky, and hit Rarity in the face. As her opponent fell, Aria desperately looked for something to cut the telephone wire. Looking around, she saw a pair of large scissors as part of a hair salon’s sign. She considered getting on her feet and hopping, but deciding that would take too much time. So she settled for dragging herself across the streets. She had made good progress before Applejack recovered and began moving forward. Seeing her coming, Aria grabbed the nearest car she could find and threw it at her. The large buick certainly hurt, but it was brushed aside. “Son of a... that smarted,” she mumbled. She was cut off by another car hitting her on the forehead. Applejack fell back. Rarity ran forward. “Applejack? Applejack? Oh, no, I think she’s concussed!” “...No, no I was just stunned,” Applejack said, getting up. “That seems highly unlikely,” Rarity said. “You just had tons of steel thrown at you.” “Whenever somethin’ weird happens, I just say it’s magic,” Applejack said. “But...” “Magic.” “...Fine. Now let's stop Aria.” Sadly, the purple siren had reached the giant pair of scissors, and had pulled the decoration off the shop’s roof. It was at that point she learned how stupid it was to expect a giant pair of novelty scissors to actually be sharp. “Oh, come on,” Aria said, trying desperately to cut through her bindings. As she did, Her opponents came racing towards her. Seeing this, Aria initially panicked, looking around for what to do. As they got closer, she panicked and held up the pair of scissors. While they certainly weren’t sharp, they were still a small point that hit Applejack’s belly squarely. The wind was knocked out of her as she collapsed to the ground. In blind panic Aria swung her weapon around, hitting Rarity on the side of the head. Stars danced in Rarity’s vision. She managed to keep her equilibrium, but it was an arduous task, and she stumbled around, eventually crashing into another building that conveniently enough was scheduled for demolition too. Now free from attention, Aria started crawling away again. She hoped that the attacks would keep her opponents down long enough to come up with a plan. Sadly, at that point, she noticed that Applejack was growing, getting larger and larger. Whatever process that transformed Rarity before was working its magic on Applejack. Aria panicked. Desperately she searched the area, looking for anything sharp she could cut her bonds with. “Think, think, think,” she muttered. She realized there was likely little that was going to get her out of her current situation. Then, seeing a stop sign sitting on a street corner, she got an idea. Plucking it from the concrete, she immediately began using the side of the octagon to whittle the bonds away. She had managed to get halfway through before she was tackled by Applejack. They went rolling across the ground, and Aria found herself on her stomach. “Rare, bring the binds.” Aria panicked again, but by the time she had her bearings together enough to actually do something, it was far too late. Rarity was on top of her as well, and her arms had been forced behind her back. Still, she worked harder and harder, trying to wiggle free, her body squirmed, her legs kicked in two different directions. She stopped. Her legs were kicking in two different directions. That meant... that meant she was free! She immediately renewed her efforts. This time, she was successful in knocking her captors off. With one swift motion, she jumped to her feet, a surprisingly nimble motion, all things considered. “Ha! I’m free! And now I’m going to really teach you a less..” Her arms were tied behind her back. Applejack and Rarity had managed to do it. They had incapacitated her. She had been too excited to notice. “...Seriously? No, seriously?” And then she saw Applejack and Rarity glaring at her. Aria turned tail and ran as fast as she could, with the two girls following her. While all that was going on, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were taking on Sonata. Well, ‘taking on’ was kind of a loose term. Because at first, very little in the way of fighting occurred. It started out promisingly enough. Pinkie stepped forward and declared, “Okay, you big meanie, prepare to take your medicine!” Sonata stopped playing with the flappy skin under her elbow and looked at them. “Huh?” “I said, prepare to take your... wow, that skin really is flappy!” “I know, right?” Sonata said. Pinkie started squeezing her own flappy elbow skin. “This is amazing!” This went on for ten seconds before Fluttershy spoke. “Um, don’t you think we should... you know, get Sonata to take the antidote?” “Huh? Oh, right,” Pinkie said. She turned to Sonata. “Now like I said, prepare to...” “Her, check it out,” Sonata said, “you can make ripples in your body!” The blue siren had been poking herself in the stomach, sending the waves out. “Ooh, neat!” Pinkie said, poking her own belly and allowing the ripples to spread. After another ten seconds, Fluttershy said “We really should be focusing on stopping Sonata.” “Right, right, sorry,” Pinkie said, turning her attention back to Sonata. “Now we’re going to...” “And look, when I jump it causes a little earthquake!” Sonata said, hopping up and down and causing mini tremors. “Ooh! You’re right!” Pinkie said, doing her little hops and creating an earthquake so big it destroyed the abandoned warehouse district. “Can you please quit being so stupid and actually fight!” Pinkie and Sonata jumped back, actually embracing each other in fear as Fluttershy glared at them, fire erupting in her eyes. “Yes fine” “No problem” The two spoke right on top of each other. Fluttershy calmed down. “Oh my, guess I lost my temper again.” “Aww,” Pinkie said, putting a hand on her back in a comforting manner. “There, there, we all make mistakes.” “Like taking your eye of your opponent?” Sonata said. “Yeah, like that... wait...” Sonata crashed into them. Before Pinkie or Fluttershy knew it, they were both on the ground, crushed beneath a mound of blue fat. They pushed and punched against the mound, trying at least to pull themselves out from beneath the blubber. But Sonata kept herself steady, pulling out and using her cell phone to play some mindless flash game, a feat considering her phone hadn’t grown with the rest of her. “Will you guys quit moving around? I need to login every day or I miss out on the daily reward!” Pinkie managed to stick her head out, and began looking around for Fluttershy. “Fluttershy? Fluttershy? Where are you?” Fluttershy stuck her head out, taking a deep breath. “I’m okay... kind of. I think I’m lying on some broken glass.” “Just relax. If I can get my arm free...” With a great struggle, Pinkie pulled an arm free. Sonata, deciding where to place her new shop, didn’t notice. Pinkie reached over, touching the side of Sonata’s belly, and began raking her fingers across it. The change was instant. Sonata’s eyes widened, and chuckles began leaving her mouth. Seeing that her plan was working, Pinkie redoubled her efforts, causing the Siren to burst into laughter. Fluttershy managed to get her arm free thanks to Sonata wiggling around, and brought her arm onto Sonata’s belly, doubling the tickling and causing the laughter to get quicker and her eyes to burst into tears. “Get ready,” Pinkie said. “She’ll roll off of us soon, and we need to be on our feet then.” Sonata did roll. Right over Pinkie and Fluttershy, flattening them a bit more before rolling off of them completely. Pinkie and Fluttershy lay there a moment, dazed and confused. “Well... at least we’re free,” Fluttershy said. “Ugh...” Pinkie moaned. Then, suddenly, she began to balloon up as well, growing to fifty feet tall. The sudden expansion caused her belly to push Fluttershy, sending her rolling across the town. The two remained dazed for a bit longer. However, they soon remembered that they were in the middle of a dangerous, if not ridiculous battle, they got to their feet. Sonata had also risen, and was glaring at them. “That’s it, you’re going down!” Sonata turned around and ripped a building off the ground, then turned around and threw it at the pair. They both dodged, just barely noticing it was a chain coffee shop. Sonata then ripped up Flim and Flam’s pawn shop and tossed it. They dodged it again. Then she turned around and ripped up the pet shop. She turned around to throw it. She was slammed into by a flash of yellow. As she went tumbling across the ground, Fluttershy grabbed the pet shop and gently set it back into place. Then she opened the little door and called inside. “Everyone alright in there?” “Oh, thank goodness,” a man said, coming out. “I thought I was going to...” “I wasn’t talking to you,” Fluttershy said, picking up the man and setting him aside. She called in. “Are all you little animal friends okay?” She got a few chirps, barks, and meows of approval. Flutter breathed a sigh of relief... then she turned to Sonata. The blue Siren had recovered and was stalking toward Fluttershy, but all the fight went out of her when she saw Fluttershy. The yellow girl had fire in her eyes more intense than anything Sonata had ever seen. And then, she began to grow as well, ballooning up to fifty feet tall. Despite being the same size, Sonata wilted, feeling very small. “You... hurt... my animal friends!” “...I’m sorry,” Sonata said meekly. Fluttershy was like a shot. Sonata tried to run, but the yellow girl tackled her to the ground. Scared, Sonata felt herself being lifted up, over the yellow girl’s head. She was spun around before being thrown into the already demolished abandoned warehouse district. Sonata hit the ground, and was almost immediately pounced on, elbow first, by Fluttershy, knocking the wind out of her. By the time Sonata regained her composure, Fluttershy was already introducing her to a whole other kind of pain. The yellow girl had grabbed her leg and was pulling it backwards, in an unnatural direction. Sonata wailed and pounded the ground, and through her tears begged for mercy. Pinkie watched this all in shock. This whole thing had stunned her into silence, a real feat for anything. Then, shaking off her surprise, she ran over to the pair. Reaching into Fluttershy’s pocket, she pulled out the antidote bottle. The yellow girl didn’t notice. Pinkie held the bottle out in front of Sonata. “You can make this all stop if you just drink the bottle.” Sonata looked at her. “What does it do?” “It will make you the right size again.” Sonata’s eyes widened. “So she can smash me flat? No way!” Pinkie shoved the bottle forward, but Sonata dodged the attempt. Undaunted, Pinkie tried again and again, but Sonata refused to take it. Eventually, Sonata’s desire to survive overcame Fluttershy’s anger, and she was able to buck Fluttershy off. Pinkie moved in trying to shove her back to the ground, but Sonata’s adrenaline and survival instinct meant that Pinkie was simple pushed away. As soon as Sonata got to her feet, she immediately put as much distance between herself and the two girls as she could. She caught her breath and turned around, seeing her two opponents advancing on her. However, before they reached her, she heard her cell phone go off. Immediately, out of instinct, she put a hand up in a polite but firm stopping gesture. The action was so unexpected that the pair did stop out of the sheer audacity. Sonata pulled out her cell phone. Despite it still being tiny, she opened it up and answered it like it was nothing. “Hello? Really? Right now? I’m kind of in the middle of something. Well damn, I actually hired you because I expected you to be able to handle things when I was gone. ...Okay, fine. Approve the spending for the account, we’ll have to skim off the top of the vacation budget. Tell the clients from the other company that they best be ready to close the deal. No, I will not put this off any longer, either they take it or I walk. I don’t care how much they’re offering. Look, can you keep things together until tomorrow morning? ...Good. As soon as I’m done here, I’ll come in and see how much damage has been done.” And then she hung up. “I'm sorry, that was work. Now where were we? Oh yeah, this.” She grabbed both Pinkie and Fluttershy by the heads and smashed them together, leaving them both dazed and stumbling. Pinkie and Fluttershy stumbled back, just barely missing several building they nearly walked over. Sonata thought about pinning them again, but remembering how the last time ended, she decided to try another tactic. She aimed for Fluttershy first. She pushed her to the ground and started hitting her, again and again and again. Fluttershy, no longer motivated by protecting her animal friends, couldn’t muster up the strength to fight back. “Hey Sonata!” Sonata realized a split second too late that it was a bad idea to let Pinkie distract her. She should have just moved instead of turning to look. She saw the barrel of a large size party cannon. “What? How? What?” “Well, I’m carrying it in the hammerspace all the time, guess it grew with me,” Pinkie said with a shrug. Then she fired. A one ton ball of confetti struck Sonata in the gut. The poor girl went tumbling back, into the side of another mountain. Now dazed and confused, she was unable to react as Pinkie helped Fluttershy to her feet. The girl was bruised a bit, but otherwise okay. “What do we do?” Fluttershy asked. “Well, I think she’s stunned enough we can force her to drink. Here, take the bottle and pour it down her throat.” Fluttershy obeyed the instruction. She walked over to Sonata, hoping that she wouldn’t put up with too much resistance. However, they had underestimated just how stunned Sonata was. She was hurt, yes, and it certainly was enough to disable her attempts to fight back, but not completely. As she saw Fluttershy come forward, Sonata began to flail her arms. Fluttershy, seeing this action, prepared herself before going in. Sonata got a few lucky strikes, but Fluttershy managed to pin her arm to the mountain with her weight. She then brought the bottle up to Sonata’s lips. Sonata tried hitting Fluttershy with her other arm, but her inability to move her body stopped this. Next, she tried knocking the bottle away. This didn’t work out either, so she settled for pressing her free hand over her mouth in a last ditch act of defiance. “Come on, take it... take it...” Sonata shook her head stubbornly. “Now what?” “Leave it to me, Fluttershy,” Pinkie said. She walked over to the still pinned Sonata, and reached down to one of her legs, grabbing the knee high boot. With one swift yank, she pulled the boot and the accompanying sock off, leaving a bare foot exposed. Sonata’s expression changed to one of confusion, then utter horror when she realized what was going on. Pinkie was advancing toward the foot with an evil smirk. Sonata shook her head in a silent plea for mercy. “Are you going to take the antidote?” Sonata shook her head. “Too bad,” Pinkie said, and began tickling her. Sonata held on for a few seconds, but she couldn’t keep her composure. She started laughing, which required her to take her hand away from her mouth. Fluttershy didn’t go in right away, but waited until she was sure she had a clean shot. This, sadly, was her downfall. By the time she was ready to move forward, Sonata had gained enough of her bearings together to realize that the potion had worked its healing magic. She jumped up, her bare foot crushing Pinkie’s hand for a split second as she bounded forward, knocking Fluttershy to the ground. Sonata spoke as she stumbled forward. “All right, now you’re going to...” And then Sonata remembered why humans needed to wear shoes. Her bare foot stepped on a car, sending glass and broken metal every which way. “Ow!” She cried. Any progress made to regaining her balance was lost as she fell to the ground. Despite the pain in her hand, Pinkie saw this, and immediately realized what the best thing to do was. She ran over, ignoring any personal pain, and pulled her other shoe off. Sonata hadn’t realized what had happened right away. She tried getting up again, only to step in the debris of one building and got rocks pressed into her soles. She screamed in pain again, falling right back on her back. The combination of pain and shock meant she didn’t realize that Fluttershy was right above her until it was far too late. The antidote was in her mouth and she was swallowing it. When the bottle was removed from her lips, everyone held their breath, waiting to see if the effects would be everything Princess Twilight had promised. Then, Sonata let out a large burp, and she began to shrink. More and more, she diminished, until she was exactly the size she was before. Sonata looked at herself for a moment, then looked up nervously at the two still huge girls glaring down at her. “...I’m sorry.” Adagio was taking on three at once. Sunset, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash were not an easy combination. In particular, Rainbow Dash and Sunset were particularly aggressive. Luckily for the yellow Siren, there was a reason why she was the trio’s leader. The battle started with Sunset and Rainbow Dash running forward both at once. Adagio caught them both, and while she was pushed back at first, she eventually caused them to grind to a halt. With one hand a piece, she picked them both up, then tossed them away. They went sailing over the half destroyed Canterlot High, landing with a loud thud. That left Twilight all alone. She looked up at the large woman, who was coming toward her. “That leaves you, Princess.” “I... I’m not the Princess...” she stammered slowly. “Oh, I know, and that’s actually good for me. See, I need the Princess alive for my plans to work. Luckily, I can still get the satisfaction of killing her by killing you. But first...” Adagio spun her around. Then, with one hand, she grabbed Twilight’s underwear and gave her one serious wedgie. “Ha! Oh man, one thing I’m going to miss about this place is getting to do that to nerds!” “Ahh! Sunset, help!” Adagio laughed. “She can’t help y...” Adagio, as she spoke, happened to look up at where she had thrown Sunset and Rainbow Dash. What she saw froze her solid. Which didn’t make things any more pleasant for Twilight, but at least stopped her from getting in anymore pain. Sunset and Rainbow Dash were growing, to nearly fifty feet tall. And then, like lightning, Sunset rushed forward and smashed Adagio in the face. As the Siren went tumbling back, Sunset grabbed her friend and held her close. “Are you okay?” “...Yeah, I’m fine,” Twilight said. “Let’s just focus on taking care of her.” As they did this, Rainbow Dash ran past them, hoping to hit Adagio while she was stunned. Her aim was true, and she struck her opponent and sent her tumbling down. She was about to smack her some more when she heard Sunset call. “Try to roll her out of town, before we destroy the city.” She looked at her friends fighting, then added, “Some more.” Rainbow Dash nodded, and started pushing Adagio, rolling her like a huge log to the forest area. Sunset quickly joined her, and almost immediately after came Twilight. They managed to get her into the field before Adagio managed to swing her arms and pull one of Rainbow Dash’s legs out from under her. Rainbow fell, and in her flailing she managed to grab Sunset and drag her down with her. That left only Twilight active for a moment. Seeing Adagio recovering, the purple girl immediately rushed in and started slapping her opponent with several uncoordinated flailings of her arms. Adagio was more delayed by the suddenness of the attack and how annoying it was then any pain it caused. “Ow, quit it, quit it, nerd... stop it... stop it... I. Said...” She grabbed both of Twilight’s wrists in one large hand. “Stop.” Adagio lifted herself up, picking Twilight off the ground by her wrists and letting her hang in front of her for a moment. “Oh, this is going to be fun.” It was at that very point that the magic in the growth potion decided to activate for Twilight. Which made perfect sense. After all, Princess Twilight learned magic from Princess Celestia, and that mare enjoyed her humor. Unprepared for the sudden growth, Adagio was suddenly crushed. Twilight was on top of her, pinning her to the ground. “Argh! You stupid... get off!” she pushed the girl off of her. Adagio got to her feet, and glared at her opponent. Fueled by rage, she pulled her foot as far back as she could and gave Twilight’s gut the hardest kick it had ever felt. The effects were immediate. Twilight was sent rolling, plowing out of town and through a giant cluster of dead trees that were potential forest fire hazards. She eventually came to a skidding halt. Twilight lay in the grass, coughing. “At least this couldn’t get any more humiliating.” “Twilight?” Twilight tensed up, turning to see Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Daisy. She realized that Adagio had kicked her all the way to Camp Everfree. “How’d you get so big?” Twilight buried her head in her hands in frustration. Meanwhile, back at the fight, seeing Twilight get kicked really activated Sunset’s instinctive protectiveness of her. She immediately trashed Adagio, jumping on her and pounding away. Adagio tried reaching back and pulling Sunset off, but the orange girl was too hard to reach. Finally, she just fell onto her back, smashing Sunset into the ground. That had been what Rainbow Dash had been waiting for. She jumped on top of Adagio and began punching away at her face. Adagio yelled and cursed. Rainbow punched like a boxer, and even trapped beneath her Sunset was doing everything in her power to be a nuisance, grabbing her big frizzy hair and yanking as hard as she could. She roll onto her stomach, stopping the punches but letting Sunset have free reign with her attacks. Still, they didn’t hurt as much as punches to the face, so at least she could think more clearly. Unfortunately, they were both keeping their death grips on her, so the attack would always continue no matter what move she made. So, for her first move, she lifted up a bit, quickly grabbed Rainbow Dash’s head, and smashed it as hard as she could into the ground. As soon as she felt Rainbow Dash’s grip loosen, she rolled back onto her back. As she hoped, Rainbow was in too much pain to keep her grip, and ended up letting go. She then lifted herself a bit and slammed herself onto the ground. The move stunned Sunset, allowing her to get back up without either one hanging onto her. Adagio paused a moment, wondering to herself what to do. She made a decision rather quickly. She turned to Sunset and started rapidly punching her in the stomach. She was the most powerful, she’ll be taken down first. She had managed to get a few bruises before Rainbow Dash came to her rescue, tackling Adagio and sending her stepping back. Still, the double weight allowed herself to keep upright. Adagio picked up Rainbow Dash and slammed her on the ground. The cyan girl moaned in pain, but failed to do anything to get away before Adagio picked her up and slammed her into the ground once more. Adagio laughed. Sunset squealed in pain. “Princess Twilight, help!” Meanwhile, in the school, Flash and Twilight had moved on from talking to straight out making out. Twilight lay beneath Flash as the two kept up a continuous lip lock. Then, the Princess broke apart and looked around. “What’s wrong?” Flash asked, a little disappointed by the sudden stop. “...I thought I heard something,” Twilight said. “Like it was someone calling my name.” After a pause, Flash asked, “Do you think we should go check on the girls?” Princess Twilight shrugged. “Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Then they returned to the liplock. Back at the fight, Adagio was beating Sunset into the ground. “Ah, it’s nice to finally get things back on track,” she said, enjoying how black and blue Sunset was getting. “No need to worry about work or paying bills, just taking on little worms and smashing them beneath my heel! And once I make the Princess restore my magic, I’ll have you all waiting on my hand and foot. Now let’s see just how bad I can mess you up!” Then she threw her head back and laughed. And then Rainbow Dash did something unexpected. She simply tossed the bottle into Adagio’s wide opened maw. Adagio coughed and sputtered as the vial broke in her mouth. She gave a cry when the glass broke, cutting the inside of her mouth. They were small, so it was more out of surprise than pain, but it was still unpleasant. Then the foreign taste hit her tongue, tasting nasty even in such a small quantity. The whole thing fell down her throat. Then she started shrinking. “What? ...No, no, no!” She realized what was going on. She reached up, trying desperately to claw at the sky, as if she could grab it and keep her height. No luck, and soon she was the size of your average teenage girl. “No! No! All my muscle!” She saw Rainbow Dash glaring down at her. Sunset was rising to her feet. She was slow and clearly in pain, but the magic potion’s restorative properties were already healing her bruises. “You know what? Screw you, screw all of you! I’ll still find a way to get back at you! I’ll keep going, I’ll never stop! I’ll...” “Shut up,” Sunset said. She didn’t yell it, simply stated it. “It’s time to get to the hospital. Quickly.” “Are you threatening me?” She snarled. “No. But I doubt the glass you swallowed shrank with you, and I think you’ll want to go into surgery before the shards start tearing up your insides.” Adagio paused. Then, in a moment of realization, her eyes widened in horror. “Hospital sounds good.” As Rainbow Dash picked Adagio up, Sunset looked around and saw that Pinkie was helping Applejack and Rarity with Aria. “I hope they won’t have too much trouble.” Aria was pinned three ways, and she knew that the only reason it wasn’t four ways was because Fluttershy was busy looking for Sonata. Applejack held her legs down as she called to Rarity, “Alright, give her the drink.” Aria freaked out as the purple haired girl pulled out the vial. She thrashed, trying to get free, but to no avail. Rarity shoved the bottle towards her mouth, but she jerked her head away. “Come on,” she pressed the bottle up to Aria’s lips. “Just drink it. You lost.” “No way!” Aria said, saying it as loud as she could while keeping her mouth closed. “Come on, I promise we won’t squish you when you’re small again, we just...” “Wait, that will turn me back to normal?” Aria had stopped struggling and was now looking at Rarity intently. The fashionista, stunned by the sudden change in attitude, could only nod. Aria opened her mouth wide. Rarity poured it in. “Well folks, the devastation from the latest round of mass hallucinations has ceased,” the news reporter on the school’s somehow still functional television said. “Experts have said that the giant women fighting around town were, in fact, weather balloons. Sadly, it appears that not everyone has recovered from these hallucinations. Just listen to this one woman who was brought into the hospital following an injury.” “No, no, I’m telling you, there really were giant women! I was one of them!” Adagio yelled. She was being transported from the hospital to a white van while wrapped in a straitjacket. “There’s magic I tell you, magic!” “Ooh!” the giant Pinkie said, picking up the restrained Adagio. “Look, puffy hair!” she started squeezing the big poof on her head. “Hey, wait... stop it! Stop it! Put me down!” “Okie-dokie-lokie!” she said, dropping her down into the orderlies grip. “See, giant women! What are you not seeing! How do you all not know that magic exists yet!” The orderlies paid her words no heed as they tossed her in, to take her to the New Bedlam Asylum for Magic Believers. “In the meantime, we have here Sonata Dusk, billionaire and CEO of Sombra Industries.” Sonata was onscreen now, wearing a nice business suit. “We are dedicated to serving the community. That is why, effective immediately, we will be financing the rebuilding of Canterlot. Each CEO will be donating half of their salaries to start.” “...Why didn’t you tell us you were rich?” Aria demanded. “You and Adagio told me to just fork over my part of the rent and keep my mouth shut.” “And in other news, Principal Celestia of Canterlot High has taken the remaining weather balloons to her school until further notice.” The seven girls stood around the statue, looking impatient. Finally, Princess Twilight emerged, looking frazzled. “Finally,” Sunset said. “You have the antidote?” “Well, that’s the bad news,” Princess Twilight explained. “It seems that I used the last of my ingredients to make the three you used on the Sirens. It’s going to take me some time to turn you back.” “...How long?” Sunset asked. “24 hours.” That got a large collective cry of “What?” “Relax, with royalty priority shipping, the ingredients might get there beforehoof. Then I just need to mix it.” “So what are we supposed to do until then?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “I don’t know. Just hang around here and talk? Or maybe go to Camp Everfree and finally see about closing that leaking magic portal for good? Maybe use your size to help repair the city?” There was a moment of contemplation. “I think it’s more important to see which one of us can beat the other in these forms,” Rainbow Dash said. “Rainbow, could you try to be serious?” Rarity said. Applejack nodded. “Besides, we know who would win that. Me.” “Yeah right. Want to put your money where your mouth is?” “You got it!” Before anyone could stop them, they were on the ground wrestling. The Rainbooms started cheering and taking bets on who would win. “Well, they might be destroying the town even more, but at least they’re having fun,” Twilight said. The still tiny Princess Twilight nodded. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to do... Princess things...” Flash stuck his head out of the portal. “Hey, Twilight, are we still...” “Yeah, yeah,” Twilight said, before jumping in. The ingredients did get there quickly, and Twilight put them in the machine to cook. It would be a long process, so she asked Starlight to do it while she sat on the highest balcony of the castle, looking out at the stars. “So, how do you like being a Pegasus?” Princess Twilight asked. “It’s disturbingly comfortable. Still, flying’s going to be great, and I get to spend time with you.” “Such a charmer,” Twilight said. “And my real form doesn’t bother you?” “I think we all know my preference by now,” he said. They looked out at the stars for a little while longer. “You really think your student can handle the mixture?” “Relax, she’s not as talented as me, but she’s no slouch.” “I thought you said she fought you to a standstill?” “After I cast a very draining time travel spell. On even ground, she wouldn’t stand a chance. What’s the worse that can happen?” The next morning, the Rainbooms took their antidotes and shrunk back to the appropriate sizes. “See? No problem!” The next morning, Pinkie snuck out of her house early and found her way to Sonata’s mansion. The two met with a hug, and they quickly found themselves in Sonata’s kitchen. “I’m glad we’re besties now,” Pinkie said. “But I do miss all the fun stuff we could do while we were big.” “Well,” Sonata said, opening her refrigerator and pulling out some ice cream. “There is one way...” Pinkie smiled as she reached for her spoon.