This world was gritty. Almost right away, Maeve had trouble breathing. She was disoriented and confused from stepping through the rift. She had almost dropped her sword and now, in her muddled state, her wooden fingers gripped tight around it as she coughed.
Eyes watering, lungs burning, Maeve turned to check upon her companions, and was quite surprised. There were no small, fuzzy, goat sized equines with her. Twilight Sparkle was almost as tall as she was, strangely dark skinned, with dark brown hair. Twilight looked nothing like her equine self, and Maeve was confused as to how she knew that it was Twilight. Perhaps the most peculiar of all things was the fact that Twilight was wearing clothes. She was wearing a dress that was a vibrant lavender colour, about the same shade as her equine pelt.
Then there was Luna, for whom Maeve had to look up at. Luna was a giantess. Maeve, who failed to understand just how tall she was now compared to regular humans, now felt rather small compared to Luna, who towered over her by a good head and a half. But that was not the worst of it. Maeve had been living around tiny equines for far too long, and she had forgotten certain aspects of life around humans.
Princess Luna was gifted with the most enormous bosoms. Absolutely enormous bosoms. Maeve felt underdeveloped and inadequate standing next to Luna, she felt like a flat chested little girl. Without even thinking about it, Maeve raised her free right arm and covered her chest, a frown appearing upon her face. She glanced at Twilight and realised that Twilight was rather flat chested as well in human form, and while it did not make her feel better, at least Maeve did not feel worse.
Then there was Blueblood, whose transformation was also shocking in its own way. Blueblood wasn’t very tall, indeed, he was the shortest out of all of them, but he was heavyset, stocky, muscled, barrel chested, his arms were bigger than their necks, his legs were broad and sturdy.
His skin was a deep, dark, chocolate brown and his hair was a pale golden blonde. Maeve had never seen another human being that looked quite like Blueblood did during all of her years as a human girl. He was beautiful—no, he was handsome and seeing him made Maeve feel funny. She was already light headed and woozy from stepping through the portal.
The others were also taking a minute to recover, and that was when Twilight Sparkle also took notice of Princess Luna’s ginormous bosoms. The now very human Twilight Sparkle froze, wide eyed, and stared at Princess Luna’s cleavage, which threatened to go bursting out of the night blue dress that Luna was wearing.
“My eyes are up here,” Luna said in a low voice as she drew herself up to her full height. When she inhaled, the fabric of her dress strained to hold everything in, and several buttons appeared to be contemplating suicide. “Ugh, I seem to have an excess of big, pillowy mammaries. These are going to do nothing but get in way… how horrible.”
“Yeah, horrible,” Twilight muttered, her wide eyes unable to fight the strange gravity that held them in place. “So horrible… if you need some help with those—”
“Twilight Sparkle, now is not the time,” Luna snapped.
“Guh…” Twilight gasped.
Feeling a pout coming on, Maeve turned away and continued to feel her teenaged inadequacy. She slid her sword into its sheath, adjusted the crown on her head, coughed, and then focused on not rubbing her eyes, which she knew would make the problem worse.
Wobbling, Blueblood took a few steps, and his shoulder length pale blond locks bobbed around his face. He was wearing a white frock coat that was already getting gritty black flakes on it. When he tried to wipe the flakes away, the soot smeared his coat.
“I say, this is quite disorienting,” Blueblood said to himself. “Sorceress Maeve, are you well?”
“I’m fine,” Maeve blurted out, not wanting to admit that she was currently being eaten alive by jealousy of the worst sort.
“Twilight, are you well?” Blueblood asked.
“Uh, fine… Princess Balloona… uh…”
Rolling her eyes, Luna snorted. “When we get home, you are going to get what is coming to you, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna wiggled around inside of her dress and tried to get the fabric straining around her chest to relax a little. It looked… strained to say the very least.
A strange sound came from Blueblood, almost a cough, which was understandable, but then, Maeve realised that he was chortling. He was enjoying himself, a rare display of emotion, some reaction to the circumstances. For some reason, even though she did not understand why, hearing Blueblood’s repressed laughter made her feel better. She coughed, fanned the air in front of her face, and wondered what the falling soot flakes were going to do her hair.
“How did we get clothing?” Blueblood asked.
“I do not understand the magic of stepping from one world to another,” Luna replied as she began to have a look around. Luna, now a very, very tall human woman, made a gesture towards a group of humans now approaching. “I do not like the look of them… ruffians and ne’erdowells incoming.”
Maeve’s left hand settled upon the pommel of her sword. A scowl crept over her face. She was getting a bad feeling from the group of men approaching them. She didn’t trust men—well, she trusted Blueblood, but he was a pony. Maeve quieted her mind, everything was far too confusing right now.
“‘Ullo ladies… fancy meetin’ ya ‘ere in our alley,” one of the men said as he approached. “I is afraid t’ere is a bit of a toll for safe passage.” He smiled, revealing a black grin, many of his teeth were broken or missing entirely. “Oh by the gods… I’ve never seen anyt’ing like t’ose.” The man’s gaze was locked upon Luna.
Several of the other men began to chuckle.
Offering no warning, Maeve drew her sword. The laughter stopped and the men stood staring. One of them pulled out a dirty, rusty looking cleaver from inside of his waistcoat and stepped forward.
“Little lady, you’d better put that way before you get hurt,” the man warned.
Making a strange sound in his throat, Blueblood stepped forwards, his hands balled up into fists. He stood on wobbling, unsteady legs. An erant breeze blew through Blueblood’s golden locks.
One of the men, the man that had made a remark about Luna’s cleavage, eyed Blueblood. “We ‘ave ourselves a gentleman ‘ere, me boyos.”
Blueblood, a walking slab of muscle, scowled and a rumbling sound could be heard deep within his barrel chest. Blueblood’s shoulders were almost twice as wide as every other man present. The former pony, now musclebound brute, had fingers like sausages, large fingers, with broad, wrinkled knuckles.
“Oi, you better back off, darkie,” the man with the cleaver said. “Just walk away… or I’ll start cuttin’ off things’ you’ll miss. See if I don’t.”
Princess Luna stepped forwards, shoving Twilight aside. The giantess jiggled enticingly as she moved, and every head turned to look at her as her night blue dress made a valiant effort to keep her voluptuous, buxom body contained. She shoved her way past Maeve, eyeing Maeve’s sword as she did so, and she looked down at the short human male in front of her. Maeve was taller than he was and so was Twilight.
“Do these fascinate you?” Luna asked, and then inhaled as much as she dared. The fabric of her dress made a strange sound as it strained. “Are these the object of your desire?”
“Oi, boy ‘owdy,” the leader of the gang replied, his eyes now focused upon Luna’s heaving bosom. He raised his hands, wiggled his fingers, and went to grab himself a handful.
Moving with what had to be supernatural speed, Princess Luna raised a fist that was the size of a toaster, something that hadn’t been invented yet in this reality. Never once losing her peaceful, calm expression, she straight armed the grabby, would-be bosom snatcher. He was lifted bodily into the air and flew backwards for a good twenty feet, slammed into a brick wall, slid down the bricks, and then went still on the ground of the filthy alleyway. Luna might’ve looked human at the moment, but she still had every bit of her alicorn strength, which was considerable.
“Who else wants to touch?” Luna asked in a haughty voice. “Come at me, you mammary molesting miscreants!” She raised her other toaster sized fist and assumed a more combative stance. A button at the top of her dress made a heroic struggle to hold everything together, but was pulled taut across Luna’s heaving chest.
There was a clatter as the rusty, filthy cleaver one of the men was holding fell to the cobblestones. Maeve waved her sword around as she stood beside Luna. Blueblood had grabbed Twilight, pulled her closer to him, and was now looking rather menacing as he held one burly forearm around Twilight’s midsection, his jaw was clenched and he was every bit musclebound as Luna was busty, which is to say a lot.
With a cry, the men scattered, leaving the reality hopping travellers in peace.
Without knowing how she knew, Maeve knew which direction to go. It was like something tugging at her insides. She felt unsettled, a bit panicked, but was trying to hold everything together. She wanted to take deep breaths, fill her lungs, and calm down, but the air here was far too filthy.
Twilight let out a startled cry, which almost caused Maeve to jump out of her skin. The young girl looked up to see what the source of Twilight’s concern was. A silvery zeppelin drifted overhead, black smoke billowing from exhaust ports along the sides. Maeve had seen one before, a long time ago, when she was little. She remembered her mother saying that zeppelins would one day replace the big ships on the ocean.
The sky was an odd shade of pinkish green and the sunlight had trouble piercing through the smog. Massive smokestacks could be seen standing over the buildings all around them. Coughing, Maeve turned to her companions. Luna was eyeing her surroundings, now gloriously free of ruffians.
“This isn’t at all like when I stepped through the mirror and visited Canterlot High,” Twilight said to no one in particular. “I still sort of looked like me. The humans there were different… or maybe the humans here are different, I don’t know.” Twilight, now a human woman, let out a frustrated sigh. “My skin is a strange colour, I look a bit like Maeve.”
“You look normal to me,” Maeve said as she shrugged.
“Princess Luna has black hair.” Twilight reached out one hand to touch Luna’s hair, and then let out a hiss of surprise when Luna slapped her hand away. She cringed away from Luna, rubbing her slapped hand with the other.
“You… you have the same fixation with my ridiculous mammaries as those… those… hideous snaggle toothed brutes.” Luna’s eyes narrowed and her fingers twitched.
“We should focus upon the task that we are here to perform.” Blueblood took a step closer to Maeve, glancing around for danger as he did so. “We should not be focusing upon Princess Luna’s zeppelin sized mammaries.”
“Blueblood!” Luna stomped her booted foot and there was a splat as it struck the filthy, gunky cobblestones. “Has the world gone mad? I do not understand the fixation… these are awkward, in the way, and make my back hurt! I do not even understand what strange magic is holding them up!”
Maeve glanced down at her own chest, felt a pang of regret, jerked her head back up, and eyed the entranceway to the alley in which they stood. There were several doors here, some stairs, and the buildings were made out of red brick that had been stained a rusty grey from the soot that fell like dirty black snowflakes.
What they came for wasn’t very far away, Maeve could feel it. They were close. She felt something else… something that unsettled her. She didn’t know what it was, but she had the same feeling of revulsion going through her body as she did when she sniffed spoilt milk.
Maeve took off, which caused Twilight to let out a worried cry. Blueblood hurried after Maeve, fell into place at her side, and followed her. Luna and Twilight both took off, Luna’s long legs allowing her to move with a confident swiftness.
Standing in the alley entryway, Maeve came to a halt and took it all in. The streets were filled with wagons, cabs, coaches, and carts, all pulled by horses. Whips cracked in the air, urging the horses to hurry along. There were vendors on the sidewalks. Men and women walked along the sidewalks, some of the men had swords hanging from their belts, others had pistols. Many of the women had parasols to protect them from the falling soot.
The street was filthy, filled with sewage, garbage, and horse manure. Little shops could be seen, shops with filthy, sooty windows. An unpleasant stench hung heavy in the air. A cart filled with ash covered cabbages went rumbling past, pulled not by a horse but by a pair of donkeys.
“The Avonshire slasher kills another!” a paperboy shouted as he waved a dirty newspaper over his head. “Another strumpet found hacked to bits in the city of Avonshire! Read all about it! It’ll only cost ya two dings!”
It had been a long time since Maeve had been in a city like this. Crossing the street was going to be intimidating. She worried about her companions, and felt fretful for herself. She could feel her panic rising, welling up inside of her, threatening to overcome her.
Wearing a crown, Maeve expected to feel out of place, but her clothing and even her sword didn’t feel too out of place. None of the other women seemed to have swords, but the men did, so being armed seemed to be a common enough occurrence here. The only thing that made Maeve feel out of place was her height. Something had changed with her since her growth spurt. She was taller than most of the men around her. Her half elven heritage stood out now that there was something to contrast it with. Maeve thought about her pointed ears and hoped that the long tips were mostly hidden in the frizzy mess that was her hair. Luna was even taller than she was, Luna, by all appearances, was the tallest being in the entire crowd. She towered over all others and Maeve could not help but wonder how tall Celestia might be.
Filled with a strange sense of urgency, Maeve started forwards, Blueblood at her side.