//------------------------------// // Unforeseen circumstances // Story: Sunflower's Day Off // by Reclusive //------------------------------// An off-white mare trotted happily down the streets of Upper Manehatten, her red ponytail bobbing in sync with her cadence as she hummed a light beat. It was a Monday, and on any other Monday, Specialist Sunflower would've been patrolling the quiet dirt roads leading from the city to Hollow Shades. But after the Canterlot Post published a picture of Sunflower's methods with a group of carriage thieves, Lieutenant Glitter gave the Specialist an order to stay on leave until, "The publicity died down," as she had put. All the better for me, Sunflower mused, those roads were really boring, sometimes... Walking by an apartment block, Sunflower came up to her first destination on what was sure to be a beautiful day of non-stop relaxation: the Sunrise Cafe. A quick glance through the storefront windows showed cloth covered tables and a number of filled seats. They're open. She could hardly be surprised — she had woken as late as her habits would let her, this morning — but she'd been blindsided in the past by their odd operating hours. Pushing open the door, Sunflower was assaulted by a whirlwind of wonderful scents — mostly caffeinated, but spiced with the scent of baked goods. As she walked up to the counter, the pony behind looked to her, and spoke. "The usual?" The barista had first met Sunflower when she was just a bald-maned recruit for the Royal Guards, and had started recognising her as a regular as of late. He expected her to take her usual black gruel, but— "Nope. Today's my day off!" She chirped with a sweetness that might have been a little too saccharine for the working ponies nearby. "I'll be taking an Equestrian Latte, and two of those wonderful scones down there." Sunflower gestured with a hoof. A minute later, the mare was seated at one of the tables outside, coffee in hoof. The ambience of the alley could only be described as quaint. Trapped as it was within the hard, deary, concrete slabs of Manehatten, the decor and design of the Cafe's extension had a way of making the rest of the world feel farther. As Sunflower took a sip, she appreciated the simple smells, the quiet chatter of nice ponies nearby, the spokes of horsedrawn carriages passing by. Her mind wandered... ... And then, it happened. As a projectile flew from Celestia-knows-where, a violet hemisphere of magic burst into existence overhead, a flower pot shattering into pieces a space above where Sunflower's head would've been. The SHIELD (Sherwood's Hexagonal Immunity to Enemies doing Light Damage) Stone was a standard issue item for every guardsmare on duty. Sunflower might've been off duty, but she was currently very glad she had forgotten to empty her saddlebags the night before. This accident — "Hey, stupid! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" — or, attempted assault? Turning to the source of the voice, she looked up to see a tawny stallion glaring at her from a window, another pot already in hoof. "This is for Swift Getaway!" More shards sprang out, as the remaining customers who'd been watching shuffled away from the conflict. Swift Getaway. She'd remembered his name from the paperwork she'd written from the Incident last week. Maybe this attacking stallion was a friend of his? A glint of reflected sunlight brought the mare out of her thoughts. The pony by the window was brandishing a gold-tipped spear — a ceremonial piece, most likely stolen from the Guard. Not particularly dangerous by most means, but good enough to pierce the shield. As the attacker reared back a hoof, Sunflower closed her eyes to focus on her horn. Acting on instinct, she felt through her saddlebags, and gave a ping of magic to her Emergency Response Rune. Within a fraction of a second, her barding materialised around her, and whew Her breath hitched as the size enchantment on her peytral activated. Sunflower leapt off her chair with a snap as the force of her growing weight broke the cheap furniture. Her horn rose above the quaint little 10-foot-tall coffee store, and her broadening hooves brushed aside the miniature tables that were hindering her movement. Her golden horseshoes tapped the glass window of the Sunrise Cafe with a loud tink, as her embiggening body filled the remaining space in the narrow, house sized alleyway. The ponies in the apartment block next door were exposed to a rather risqué view of her expanding flanks, with her enchanted undergarments tightening ever-so-slightly, as the limits of the spellwork began to show. Sunflower's waterfall of a tail spread about the cracking walls of the apartment block, and a large curl of hair swept inwards through the criminal's window, sweeping up the now-frightened stallion into a corner. Sunflower wasn't paying much attention to the minuscule sensations at her tail, though. She was still basking in the sheer pleasure of having ascended to a height of 50 feet. A bit shorter than the last time, but still so utterly entrancing, so empowering. She opened her eyes to a view like none other. Her hooves stood amidst the remains of tables far smaller than her enormous, carriage-sized hooves. Her fetlocks were about as tall as the cafe in front of her, and— Oh, whoops. Wrong side! Swiveling on her hooves, the stallion was freed of the confines of the ropes of Sunflower's tail as she turned herself to face the correct building, her hoofsteps leaving soft craters in the cracking concrete beneath her. The apartment in front of her, while much taller than the cafe, still barely came up to her chin. Craning her snout down a few meters, she peered in with a single window-sized eyeball to look for the tiny criminal who had tried to hurt her. Looking inside, she saw the pony frantically working with his keys on a door. Sunflower let out a booming chuckle. "Not so fast~" A crimson telekinetic field wrapped itself around the petty criminal, who could do little more than let out a yelp in surprise as he was carried out from her home by his tail. A little rat getting pulled from its hovel. Dangling dozens of feet in the air, the pony looked up to the eyes of the giant who had caught him. "Thought you could run, did you?" Sunflower raised a hoof to hold the pony. He was as light as a doll. "But I can't let any criminals run away, even when they're as cute and small as you." As Sunflower turned back her muzzle to face her rear, she heard a squeak. "Wait! Please don't put me in—" As Sunflower turned back to face him, her hoof jostled down in reflex, cutting off the pony's pleas. It took a moment for her to remember where the stallion was, and she raised her hoof from where it had been about to stomp flat on the ground. After a few extra seconds to hyperventilate from his near death, the captive in her hoof managed to sputter. "...p-please don't put me in your r-rear." Sunflower's smile thinned. As much as she'd wanted to... She sighed, and a gale of mocha-scented breath whipped the short-cut mane of the pony trapped at her horseshoe. "Don't worry, you won't be there." She turned her muzzle to open her truck-sized saddlebags. "Guard policy says I need to put bad ponies like you into a proper holding cell..." Dragging the stallion in, she ignored his flailing and frenzied protests, letting go of the criminal as he fell a dozen feet to the fabric interiors of her pouches. Sunflower clasped her saddlebags close, and let out a breath of relief. All in a day's... work. What was left of her smile vanished, as she realised her holiday had just been squandered by the little pony in her pouch. "Celestia darn it..." she muttered, slouching down against the apartment block in defeat, her rump thoroughly smushing what was left of the tables outside. The hardened brick walls of the building at her back yielded to the soft pressure of her fuzzy pony coat. She let her sore, tired hindlegs drop to the roofing of the Sunrise Cafe, with a minor creek of noise emanating from the reinforced steel holding up her weight, if just barely. She knew her cuirass was short — practically absent, really — and wouldn't be surprised if the patrons inside had a front-row seat to her pink panties from the storefront glass paneling. But she didn't care about any of that right now; she could only think about all the paperwork she'd be in for dealing with a crime off-duty...