The palace interior was a maze of looming arches and immense pillars. The entire structure left open as much as possible to allow for a pegasus to fly around, including several junctions that had been left without stairs. It took several attempts just to find a proper passage once the main staircase broke up halfway to the top due to such alcoves and halls, but after nearly an hour they could at last see what appeared to be the final stairway. A long, elegant piece spun from what looked like crystal ropes and stone, spiralling up to an exit that glowed with the light above. The feel of magic was strong in the air, and although no screams had come again, they all felt the fur on the back of their necks stand on end as something seemingly watched them.
“This is it...is everpony ready?” The doctor asked. “Once we’re up there, be vigilant and find anything that might aid us in dispelling the storm.”
“I’m more than ready doc.” Slick Slush held up a fist, but a gulp betrayed her nerves. “Let’s go be heroes...or at least just survive this.”
Keen and Spearmint, both oddly silent, nodded in agreement and they all moved. The stairs swayed slightly but it appeared to be apart of the design. The oddly frail looking material easily holding their weight as they climbed to the top. Upon reaching it they were all blinded by the glow present and had to shield themselves from it. Gradually they adjusted to the new light source, and as they lowered their hands they saw something frightening and incredible. The room itself was a large basilica-like area, a balcony filling half the space outside a circle of immense pillars that held a great domed roof overhead. The roof itself was obscured by an immense cloud of magic that wavered and swirled, something in the material gathering it and then shooting up into the heavens as the beam they had seen since first entering the valley. Trailing down the countless wisps of energy that fed the cloud, they could see that opposite the stairs was a large elevated platform leading up to a large throne...and it was there, sitting with hands upon the sculpted armrests and looking regal even now, was the form of Queen Elysium.
Despite having clearly changed some in her death, the beauty of the mare before them had only thinned and grown gaunt, not vanished entirely like the mummies far below. Her skin a light blue like the clear skies of a sunny day, her long and lush mane and tail flowing slowly in the magic wafting from her body like the ethereal manes of Princess Celestia and Luna. It flowed down and across the upper stairs to her throne, a giant curtain that had grown long after her passing or perhaps having been that lavish even in life. Atop her head was a crown that looked like clouds decorated by elaborate depictions of weather, with a small lightning bolt, a drop of rain, a beautiful snowflake and more wrapping around her head. Around her necklace was a gorgeous sapphire stone, glowing and pulsing faintly. Her robes were of the highest calibur imaginable, and even they too glowed with power as faint markings and designs flowed with magic. She could very well pass for an ancient unicorn queen...but her head was bare save for her regalia, and upon her back were two giant, majestic wings that put her body to shame. Each wingspan easily twice that of her own height, and as they moved closer they realized it was not a trick of the light that they saw her climb above them. This mare, this queen, was a giantess. Easily as tall as two stories, leaving them like foals before her as they halted halfway.
“By Celestia...look at her.” Doctor Absolute whispered. “She is gigantic...and those wings! How...is it the magic?”
“I couldn’t begin to say doctor. The Princesses are quite tall themselves, but…” Keen looked around, but found nothing save for the throne to gawk at. “Maybe the magic enlarged her before casting the spell? It’s a natural enough phenomenon when a living creature becomes empowered.”
“That throne is telling me she was always freaking huge.” Slick Slush pointed out. “Just look at it - I know royalty can get a little elaborate or grandiose, but her butt’s pretty nicely sized for that seat there. Maybe she was like their Goddess after all.”
“It...the high ambient magic at least explains why she is so startingly...preserved...but…” Taking his glasses off slowly, the doctor looked down as they reflected the light in bafflement. “Incredible..”
“We should probably spread out and try to find how to...ah, Spearmint? Is everything alright?” Following Keen’s words, the doctor and assistant both looked over at the other pegasus. She was standing, hands crossed before her chest as if praying, staring up at the Queen with her face blank. Her wings were halfway extended, as if about to take flight, and as they swapped between staring at their teammate and the ancient ruler they realized something interesting. For all intents and purposes, she actually looked like Elysium. The pegasus much slimmer and smaller of course, but there was no mistaking the same shade of fur and mane they shared, as well as even how their clothing seemed to match colors and coverage. It was eerie, which combined with her odd pose and silence, made the entire scene feel wrong. They just knew that they had stumbled into something and it had ensnared their friend Spearmint.
Then, Slick Slush gasped.
“Look!” She scream-whispered, a hand covering her mouth. Darting their heads over to Queen Elysium, both Doctor Absolut and Keen Sense recoiled and took a step back. For as blinded as they had been by the magic, they had not noticed at all that Queen Elysium’s eyes were open. And that they were aglow with white power, staring down at them, specifically Spearmint.
Slowly, with a great rumble of the storm above, the ancient queen’s corpse stood. Bones and flesh crackling as they moved from their eternal rest, wings shaking off a coating of frost that twinkled like hail upon the floor. Keeping them fanned out to full and blotting out the light, her hoofsteps thundered across the atrium like distant thunder as she slowly stepped down to the ground, her motions slow enough that everpony could move away. Everyone that is except for Spearmint, who stood there still in muted worship. As Elysium halted before the tiny pony, she continued to simply stare and watch her, head tilting down, then to the side, and then the other. The wisps of power from her body increased in number and size, swarming over the throne room and letting out little whistles of wind as they whizzed and zipped past. Slowly, both pegasi extended a hand to each other, fingers opening to touch. The world itself seemed to hold itself with bated breath over the alien moment that had graced it.
To the side, Doctor Absolut, stuck as the others in merely watching, did not watch how tightly he gripped his glasses. They slipped free of stunned fingers, falling and clattering to the floor like the final bell echoing over a valley. The sound heard across the entire basilica and throne room, which meant that Queen Elysium heard it and snapped her head over to him so fast they thought it had broken off. The silence grew somehow even stiller, all of them waiting for her reaction. They prayed and hoped that she would see them as subjects too, or ignore them for Spearmint.
But she didn’t. Upon seeing a unicorn in her presence, her angelic face twisted into the most demonic and feral mass of unholy rage that they had ever seen. The magic in the air spiked, thunder roaring outside as lightning struck against the edges of the balcony. Then, her mouth dropped open, distending far beyond what any living thing could have managed, and what came out was a howling blizzard and the scream of a banshee. Rising in pitch and fury until it clawed at their brains and made them want to curl up and die.
“DOC, RUN!” Keen Sense screamed, and the doctor obeyed. Rushing for the nearest pillar, he barely managed to duck behind it before a hand of ice and claws swiped through the air where he had been moments before. The gigantic mare’s movements swift as the wind, ice and snow howling from her mouth and coating all of her with black ice that crackled and shattered with every step. Her hoofsteps leaving cracks in the stone like ice atop a lake, she hunted the unicorn as he continued to run, swiping and flapping her wings for little hops that kept her on his tail no matter how fast he ran. Slick Slush and Keen rushed into the center of the room, trying to dodge out of the way of the rampant queen, but also trying to get Spearmint to respond where she still stood frozen.
“Speamint...Minty, Minty c’mon this isn’t funny girl.” Slick said in a rush, hands shaking the stiff shoulders of the mare. “Come on Spearmint, wake up! Keen, what’s happening to her?”
“I-I...I don’t know! She must be somehow entranced by the Queen, but why?” He said, trying to think amidst all the crashing and howling. “They were about to touch, why? Did they resonate because of their looks? Their species? Why not me then - gender?”
“Gah, don’t think, do! We’ve got to wake her up and get out of here!”
“We can’t! Don’t you see - we woke her up. Queen Elysium is awake, there’s no telling what she’ll do if we leave her here. She’s beyond the living and the dead, locked into this state by whatever was done long ago!”
Nearby a column shattered, sending debris through the air and across the ground. Slick screamed, but Keen shielded her with a wing and the small rocks bounced off his feathers. Looking over, they could see that the doctor was keeping ahead still, but that the Queen herself was growing more fierce and determined. Her swipes clawing and gouging out the stone that had remained untouched for so many thousands of years, her hooves soon cracking the very stone itself instead of whatever permafrost she was emitting. “Is...is she...getting bigger?” Slick choked out.
“I...think so...her power is awakening. She must be calling upon the storm!”
“Isn’t that a good thing? I mean we - DOC DUCK!”
Absolute dived to the ground, sliding for several feet before using his own magic to pull himself up. The spot he had dived through crackling with icy residue from a frost breath blast that the unholy queen had unleashed. “I could use a solution here you two!” He called in a rather shrill voice.
“We’re working on it!” Looking back to Spearmint, the earth pony bit her lip and groaned, before rearing back with a fist and punching the stunned pegasus.
“Ow!” Wings flapping furiously, Spearmint blinked and rubbed at her now swollen cheek. “Who...what? Slick Slush, did you just…?”
“Punch you? Yeah - doesn’t matter, we’ve got a bigger problem. And she’s getting bigger!” Turning the mare around, they all watched in shock and fear as the now four story Queen Elysium stopped for a moment and screeched. Her voice echoing and making the storm broil and roll outside in anger. “What the heck were you two doing just now before she turned into a living nightmare?!”
“I...I don’t know! I just...everything felt...so right…” The weather pegasus grew silent, watching Elysium as began to crawl on all fours, wings smashing and crashing into the pillars as she dug into the stone to charge Absolut Zero. The tips of her feathers began to grow ragged and sharp, odd bony protrusions pushing through to let her stab hundreds of times per beat of her wing. Something was splintering off her back along her shoulder blades, and going by the skeletal shape of it they could only assume it was a second pair of wings. Despite the increasing strike capabilities, the stallion luckily was no elder pony and could still zig and zag, but with the size difference rising it was only a matter of moments before he would be in range no matter how he tried. “It felt like...she was speaking to me...or...something…”
“What was she saying? Did you understand any of it?” Keen grabbed Spearmint and turned her to face him. “Think hard - we’re surviving on seconds here. Did she say something, anything, even in Pegacian? Can you think of the words?”
Spearmint thought hard about it, trying to not focus on the crashing, screams, cold or anything else. “I..I heard a voice...somehow past her…” She began haltingly. “The Queen...she was...empty...a void. She’s been lost for eons now to her anger and madness, but there was...something else...somepony else…”
“What? What the heck are you saying?” Slick looked ready to punch someone again. “Speak Equish girl!”
“I-I don’t know…!” He lips moved slowly for a second in silence. “Sertum...sertum...and dolor. I-I think there was another...but…”
“Sertum, and dolor? That’s...diadem...and pain.” Keen translated. Looking over, he could see the now massive five story Queen smashing her head into a pillar to try and knock it into the unicorn, causing the crown atop her head to crackle with magic and ring like a bell. Her muzzle was now as long and jutting as any canine, jaw still distended but now full of shards made of ivory and ice. “Could her crown be some kind of artifact? A crown to control the weather...could be possible.”
“So what? We take it off?” Slick looked at the Queen as well. “That’s...not going to be easy.”
“What choice do we have? If we don’t move now, the doctor could die, and then she might come after us. Celestia knows we’ve been lucky so far that she’s ignored us for her ancient enemy.”
“I would...really appreciate...some help!” Doctor Absolute shouted between breaths, screaming as two claws wrecked the back of his coat. “NOW PLEASE?!”
“I...could try stopping her.” Spearmint spoke up, face growing determined. “S-She was focused on me before, maybe I could get her to look at me long enough for you to steal the crown Keen? The air...it’s returning to normal. We can probably both fly now.”
“Good as anything. Go!” Breaking up, the three ponies raced ahead of the rampaging Queen and tried to get into position. As Doctor Absolut ducked behind another column to catch his breath, having luckily dodged out of Elysium’s sight for a moment, Spearmint began to flap her wings and gather the wind beneath them for flight. Slick Slush, not having a role per say at the moment, rushed around the throne room gathering as many of the rocks now strewn over it to throw in a pinch. Keen Sense meanwhile, coming up from behind the giant pegasus, flapped his wings and took to the air with a small struggle.
As the Queen roared, the force of which shook and rattled the palace, Spearmint made her move right as a giant clawed hand wrapped around the column and prepared to rip it out from behind the stallion. The little pony, barely the size of her head, was almost swatted aside until the Queen somehow realized who it was and went still. Her power and size continued to swell but for a brief moment, the demon was calm as the same trance-like state seemed to fall over them again. Shaking her head, Spearmint held her hands out to show she was unharmed, which made the monstrous Queen rock back slowly onto her hooves. Like an unhappy cat rearing up, but not ready to strike. Spearmint moved closer to the gaunt face of the queen and held her hands in prayer.
“Please...Queen Elysium…” She said softly. “The war is over...it has been for millenia. The land is dead, your people gone, the continent suffering. Please, find it within yourself to calm your rage, your sorrow. I know it’s hard...but hasn’t it been long enough? Haven’t you been here, alone, for too long?”
The Queen said and did nothing.
Biting her lip, Spearmint moved in closer, wings gently flapping to stay aloft as she pressed a hand to a cheek. “You’re not going to find peace like this. Please...let us help you…”
Although the flesh was dry and cold as ice, for a brief moment Spearmint felt as if something deep within the Queen responded to the touch. Something warm, and old, tired and strong. But then it passed, and the glowing eyes flashed with anger. Turning slowly she began hunting down the unicorn again, only for Keen to cry out as he slammed into the crown and knocked it off her head.
In a flash things changed, the storm and palace both rumbling ominously, lightning flashing as magical arcs of power began to spark from the crown. The Queen howled, rearing up onto her hooves and gripping her head to claw at the spot the crown once was. Keen Sense luckily dived out of the way, flying down to the crown, but the magical output kept him at bay as it turned unstable. Stomping her body around and around in a circle, the Queen began to shrink and grow in fluxes, smashing into all the pillars then falling to the ground and rolling around as something within her started to truly snap. The necklace she bore glowed and turned an agonizing red.
Looking between the Queen, the crown, and the necklace, Spearmint gasped as something clicked. “The other words! Keen! What does ‘lapis meam’ mean?!”
“What? Uhhh...soul! Soul stone!” He shouted back, yelping as magic whipped across his stomach. “I-I can’t grab the crown! It’s too big, and the magic…”
“Uhhh guys?! She’s going to bring the roof down on us at this rate!” Slick screamed, grabbing the Doctor. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Agreed. Spearmint, Keen - leave the crown and flee!”
“But the mission-!”
“The storm outside is growing worse. The entire valley is going to be destroyed, I just know it!” He cut the stallion off. “We must find the escape passage and hurry to the coast! Now, before the entire kingdom becomes our grave as well.”
“But…” Looking hurriedly between her friends as they rushed to the steps, the crown, and the screaming Queen, the pegasus had only seconds to decide before making her choice. All of her emotions rolling around in her heart like the storm, she made a decision as she thought back to that moment in the blizzard. When Stark Winter and Whisper had stood their ground to give them a chance. “...I’m here to rescue them, I can’t leave. Even if it’s a guess…” She said to herself, and dived toward the queen.
“Minty!” Keen called out, but he was too far away to do anything. As the Queen screamed and began to emit even more light from her eyes and mouth, the tiny little pegasus swept in and crashed right into her chest. Grunting as the Queen bucked back against her, she found purchase around the enlarged rope holding the angry red stone and used it to press her hooves against the queen and pull. Tugging and yanking upon the stone no matter how it hurt to touch, how hot it grew in her grip, until with a satisfying snap the ancient thread gave way. As she flew back, Spearmint felt something within her change as a new presence, a spirit, flew into her and made itself home within her heart. But there was no rage, no anger or sorrow. Just relief and a feeling of finality at something at last coming to an end.
With the Queen’s necklace gone, the giantess began to slow in her motions, the light fading from her eyes as the magic cut off and began to dissipate from her form. As she fell forward, the floor booming from the impact, her skin and hair began to flake away like glowing snow being blown away in a wind. An ethereal form was hidden under the mummified skin, smaller and more youthful, but clearly still Elysium as she may have been long ago. Like this the similarities between Spearmint and her were startling, a pair of mother and daughter even if one ignored the tens of thousands of years separating them. As she began to float and look over the ruined basilica, she smiled sadly at all that could be seen destroyed and then turned to look at the trio by the stairs. Her eyes locked onto Doctor Absolut Zero, then Slick Slush, then Keen Sense. Her mouth saying ‘I’m sorry’, even with no words coming forth, and then she turned to look at Spearmint.
Standing up slowly, Spearmint looked at the Witch-Queen of Cloudthage and bowed. The queen bowing back lower, before floating over and gently touching her chest. A warmth blossomed there, something stirring at the familiar touch, a farewell between two spirits long forced together by an act long forgotten to the annals of history. Tears flowed from their eyes as shared history was remembered, the good times and the bad. And then the giant spirit faded, Queen Elysium finally passing on to the other side to reunite with her subjects, leaving the crumbling throne room silent.
Or rather, almost silent. As the storm continued to destabilize and threaten to bring the entire continent down in mere moments, Spearmint turned silently to the giant crown and took long strides to its side. The magic struck her but didn’t phase her, and laying a hand upon the snowflake it began to glow with her own magic, slowly and gently overtaking the angry remnants of the queen’s rage that had powered it. Shrinking down slowly it soon rested in her hands like any old diadem might, and smiling sadly she ran a thumb over its surface as alien memories played in her mind.
“Spearmint?”
Turning, she smiled at Keen, who unlike the other two had braved walking over. “It’s...it’s you in there, right?”
“Mmhm.” She nodded, but it was distracted, distant. Like she couldn’t focus on the here and now, eyes dancing as they saw something he couldn’t. They flashed gold and she nodded. “...You might want to leave. She says I’ll have a lot of trouble handling it at first...I’ll need a lot more room than this.”
“What?”
“Go down one flight, take a left, and follow the windows.” She instructed, hurrying as the storm caused a portion of the balcony to collapse from a thunderstrike. “You’ll find the Queen’s Quarters, and once there touch the second mirror’s frame to open the passage. It should take you straight to the other side of the mountain. You should be safe there...I think. I’ll watch my step.”
“W-What?”
“No time - Go.” She said, repeating the same finality that her teammates had given their own orders hours ago. Lifting up the diadem, she set it upon her head and gasped as her eyes turned white.
Turning to run, Keen gave her one last parting glance over his shoulder and saw that she was moving over to the throne to sit. Her body glowing with a pure white aura of magic that built and built, her wings spreading out as some strange transformation began to overtake her. Grabbing Slick and Absolut, he followed her orders and found the queen’s bedroom in no time. The furnishing immaculate despite being made of wood and cloth, perhaps an enchantment placed upon them long ago. The mirror was found, the passage open, and as they rushed down it they could hear the palace behind them begin to rumble and shake even worse than before.
Back inside the throne room, a powerful transformation was underway. The diadem was a powerful artifact, its magic connecting Spearmint to the very air and space above Antrotica from coast to coast. It could reach further than that even, the surrounding oceans open to her to view, likely even to the nearest coastlines of the other land masses. It was clear this was how the Queen had kept vigil over Cloudthage, keeping it clear from Dominium invasion for so long. Memories not her own whispered about how terrible storms used to ravage any fleet that approached, building legends of the terrible cursed island to the south. About how, as madness overtook the Queen she had begun slacking on observing the outside world. How it led to the first invasion force, the withdrawal of the pegasi into the mountains. How years of siege whittled the already unstable mind of the Queen into the frothing, raging madmare that thought up the horrible final plan to kill everyone in pyrrhic victory. Now, back in the hands of a stable mind the crown could be used for good again, but first it needed to fix what it had already unleashed.
Focusing back on the continent, Spearmint’s vision saw how the storm was tearing the land apart across the ice and snow. In a fit of irony, all of this destruction could very well undo some of the strain on the land, let it stay above the waves. But only if the heart of the storm didn’t collapse, which was so far along now that there was no stopping it. She could merely mitigate it, redirecting or de-fanging its impact with something else in its place. Which her body was already growing in size and empowering itself like the Queen had been for. Having formerly been of normal pegasus height, Spearmint could hear the throne creak some as she sat her now gigantic body down into the well fitting seat. Her wings flared up and sighed loudly from feathers stretching larger, an odd sensation that she found pleasant as they doubled in size. Her looks were starting to shift and match that of Queen Elysium, something she didn’t miss but didn’t mind. The Queen had been gorgeous after all; as long as her mind remained safe and strong there would be nothing to worry about. And if she had to really do what she had to next at least there would be a small perk to it all, she thought with a wry chuckle.
Before that part however, there was something personal she had to do. Looking to the mountains, she roamed her gaze across it until she found the cave that they had slipped in through. Then further along where a battle was reaching its climactic finish. To her shock, joy and fear she saw that Stark Winter and Whisper were somehow still alive! Their bodies battered and bruised, bleeding from countless cuts, some even cauterized from what she could only assume was Stark’s sword in moments of necessity. They were back to back as half the pack circled them angrily, the rest down or half-melted in the snow. Neither pony would survive the next strike, this she knew, and so reaching through the crown Spearmint used another new power of hers to stop it. All beings born from the crowns powers also had a connection to her through it, which was why the Queen had been able to sick her hounds upon the numerous visitors to Antrotica over the millenia. The Frostwolves sensed her, stopping their prowls, and with a strong order they backed off until they could turn tail and run. Stark Winter collapsed as the threat passed, but Whisper still had some strength left in her to tend to him and so Spearmint left them alone. She was running out of time and the pressure rising in her could not be denied any longer.
Pushing off of the throne, Spearmint walked to the center of the room and looked around one last time. The floor was pulling away from her, her height swelling again to even greater levels, and the magic swirling in the air was thick enough to choke a normal pony. All of it pouring into Spearmint, the only way she could safely disarm the ticking time bomb that was the eye of the storm. Lifting a hand up to the domed roof, she willed the storm’s power to come to her, and it obeyed. The cloud rolling around in the center of the dome shot down into her, breaking up from cloud to dust, then little shimmery sparkles that clung to her form and made her swell faster. Her figure increased further, wings expanding bigger and wider, curves thickening to rival a princess. As the last of it swirled into her she lowered her hand and looked down at her form. Only to cry out in pain a second later as she surged up and banged into the dome. She was growing too fast!
Kneeling down, she bought the throne room a few more seconds as she tried to figure out her height. She had to be easily one-hundred feet tall, perhaps greater. The power of the storm was too great for even the Queen’s former size to contain, having gorged itself for thousands of years and even stealing from the world’s natural magical fields. It was enough to make her grow pale at the veritable ocean resting above her, but she also knew that it could all...fit. She just needed to let the process go on undisturbed, not try to hold anything back! Although, as she felt herself start to burst out of the tower, she realized that maybe holding back would be a good idea.
“Come on, we’re nearly there.” Keen yelled. They had rushed to the end of the tunnel and found themselves blocked by a massive overgrown wall of ice. It had taken them precious minutes to chip and smash away at it, but with Slick Slush’s strength they had broken a large chunk of it and were working to widen the gap.
“This is really...starting to drive...me nuts!” Slick protested, grunting as she swung a large rock to bash the ice. “Can’t something for once...just go our way? I want off of...this crazy continent!”
As the rock shattered at last on the next strike, the earth pony let out an enraged shriek, before choking it off as something outside blasted the mountainside. There was a loud rumble, both from far behind in the tunnel and just beyond the ice, before suddenly a wall of tumbling rocks passed by and struck the blockade. The weight and force shattered the ice completely and freed their escape, and they all piled out into the bitter cold air with relief.
“Perhaps we should take small favors like this as a sign it wants us off too.” Doctor Absolut remarked, before going silent as the rumbling increased from behind. “That...doesn’t sound good.”
“Oof!” Landing hard on her rump, Spearmint blushed as the castle was nearly wiped out by her collapse. After outgrowing the throne room and upper tower she had tried to climb down, but another surge in size had put her comparable to the palace itself. Which also had resulted in her tripping, sliding, and crushing most of the palace’s front under her now pleasantly plump rear. Standing up slowly to not ruin even more of the ancient ruins, she gulped as bones crunched loudly under her hooves, followed by the various tiles and stone to crack apart as hooves tried to find purchase. “Got to move out...get away…”
With slow measured steps she walked forward through the large parade grounds, but froze as she came upon the dense and clustered upper district. There was no way to walk through it at her size, now several hundred feet, and she could feel in her feathers that the power was coming in faster the longer she channeled it. Looking for a solution, she finally realized she would have to jump and bunched up her legs to surge into the air. The landing was as disastrous as she had expected but by some luck she crashed down outside the city walls. It decimated the countryside as the shockwave battered the walls, before finally settling as she took a few steps and crushed several pieces of the siege weapons and defenses underhoof. The walk through the valley was eerily quiet, the storm growing silent above as her own sounds began to overtake the stilled air. Thundering booms, howling winds, all just from her passing through as she made for the river. When she reached the riverside, her stride was so long that her hooves partially plunged into the ice as she climbed to over one-thousand feet. The chill barely affected her, but she still looked down and watched as the ancient waters shattered and began flowing free again from her touch. Her hoof diverting much of the flow, bending around it until her size choked it off too much to keep moving. She lifted her hoof and the water filled the new lake until it resumed the flow. “I’m changing the landscape...just by walking around.” She muttered out loud, wincing as her voice echoed back to her. “I’m like a storm myself now...I have to be so careful.”
Just then a powerful shudder wracked her body, and with a surge of vertigo she grew! Bigger and larger, doubling in height before tripling that too. She took a step back to steady herself and nearly crushed the city walls, then a step forward to avoid that which wiped out one settlement. Spearmint was beyond large, climbing into miles and easily the largest thing besides the mountains. Even those were starting to dwindle; very soon she would see over them, and there was still so much magic that she knew it wouldn’t be the end. Fearing for what was left of the once proud civilization, she hurried to the most clear section of the mountains and began to climb. The task made easier as hand grips became entire cliffs or rocky outcrops, then whatever her hooves slammed into to make one. Her head burst through the stormy clouds with a tingle of electricity as she gasped, then flaring her wings out she blew them all away and straddled the range to get over it.
“Ow. Dammit…” Stark winced, feeling the sting of alcohol as Whisper dabbed his wounds.
“Shush.” She scolded and put a bandage on his cheek. “...That should be the last one anyway. I’m almost out of supplies now, so we’ll have to reach the shoreline like this.”
Grunting, the stoic stallion pushed up onto his hooves and braced himself with his sword. The two fighters had luckily kept most of their insulated clothing intact despite the claws and fangs, but still there was enough bloodloss that other concerns could crop up if they weren’t careful. With the long trek ahead of them, they certainly needed all they could get. “Thank you Whisper, for everything. You fought well despite the odds.”
Nodding, she stood and tried to pull her coat closed. A large swipe from one of the Frostwolves had torn it open, thankfully missing her flesh but leaving it open. The shirt underneath even was sporting some tears, which made her sizeable chest even more noticeable much to Stark’s embarrassment. “Stark…” She paused, looking up as something rumbled loudly over the mountains. “Do you hear that?”
Lifting his head, Stark eyed the storm clouds above and grimaced. “Yes, and I dare say our friends have found the heart of this storm and done...something, to agitate it. The land is crumbling, and if the Frostwolves retreating is indication of anything, I’d say we’re in trouble. We-” Whatever he was going to say was cut off as a massive storm of wind and snow suddenly blew across the land from the west.
Turning their gazes in that direction, they stared in shock and fear as a gigantic creature lumbered over the mountains far above and beyond. The clouds parting from massive wings that blotted out the weak sunlight above them, as hooves as big as some cities shifted over the edges of the mountain tops. They could barely define the features of this giant being, the distance and size obscuring what they could actually see of it, but as one hoof came down on this side of the range they realized at last that it was a pony. A massive pony miles tall, and growing! Even as they came to stand on two hooves it lurched bigger and bigger in powerful spurts, something that in turn made the storm above the continent visibly weaken as they drew it into their bodies.
“What in Equestria…” Stark gulped. “I’m going to need a bigger sword.”
“No!” Whisper let out a startled gasp, hands rising to her mouth. “It can’t be...that’s Spearmint!”
“WHAT?!”
“Oh boy…” Speamint rumbled, noting how deep her voice had become. “I’m...freaking huge.” Looking nervously around, she took a cautious step past the mountains and winced as she felt it punch through several hundred feet of ice. The growing pony was now into the double digits of miles and still climbing higher, her growth rate now miles a minute and still rising as she did. The storm was weakening, the implosion finally averted, but now she was the biggest danger. She had to clear the areas she knew Stark, Whisper, Keen and the others were at. And the only way to do that was to walk around the continent and perhaps even dip into the ocean. But every step proved how dangerous the land still was, even to a being like her. False ground and icy traps crumbled with her hooves and weight, making her move at a sluggish pace that barely made ground over her growth. She was almost locked into place even, and groaning she felt herself climbing into the chilly upper atmosphere long before she could get her hooves wet again. “I can’t even move...will I sink Antrotica myself?!”
Surpassing ninety miles, Spearmint moved for the ocean one last time. Her legs stretching over the horizon, all eyes in the vicinity of Antrotica were now on her. Even the far-away captain of their transport ship could see her, slack-jawed in disbelief as he recognized the even more beautiful pegasus he had brought to the frozen shores some days ago. She managed to at last reach the coastline even as it vanished under her steps, and looking back she let out a startled shriek as she saw ice on the far side of the continent start to rise up. She was making it tilt! She quickly hopped into the ocean and prayed it didn’t cause too much damage, and although waves hundreds of feet tall did erupt from it, they mostly died against the land or icebergs littering the area. A huge sigh of relief from the pegasus signalled her surpassing five-hundred miles, and holding her hands close to her chest she gazed over the planet’s surface as she continued to grow on.
After another minute or two the growth came to a halt. Her size was unknown, at least in finer numbers, but turning slowly Spearmint could see Antrotica cast into her shadow and saw that it stretched as long as the continent. Knowing faintly that the land was around seventeen-hundred miles in diameter, she whimpered lightly and pulled her long tail closer to wrap safely around herself. Her form was as buxom, wide and thick as Princess Luna, and her wings were so large they stretched across the ocean and dangled their tips over the coastlines of two other continents. “I’m massive...a goddess…” She whispered, voice echoing over the world. “How am I ever going to get small again? There’s so much magic to get rid of, where can I put it?”
Crouching over the continent, she peered with her new senses and giant eyes to try and find all her friends. She could ‘see’ them peering up at her, agog, and with a deep blush on her cheeks she chuckled weakly and waved back to them. “Hi guys...I think I’ll take a different route home. Go on without me, eheh.”
Slick Slush fainted, making Spearmint facepalm and get laughed at by Keen Sense. “Why me…”
“Some would call it Fate, my little pony.”
“!!?”
Although the voice spoke ahead of it, Spearmint watched in fear as a giant shadow formed overtop of hers and stretched far, far beyond to almost the other side of the world. It was so wide and large she couldn’t even make out much of its shape, just that it was clearly behind her and far, far bigger than she was. Given her current height that was a terrifying thought. Turning back around slowly, she found herself staring at a pair of thighs and knees that were nearly as wide as her, with no gap between them to even see behind the figure. Tilting her head back, she paled as she saw a stomach toned by abs and two mighty mountains for a chest, with a toga-like garb barely covering any of it. Arms equally toned and buff, yet soft with supple flesh were resting on wide hips as whoever looked down posed in front of the empowered pegasus. “W-W-Who are you?”
Giggling, the force of their voice was felt even by Spearmint as the titanic body over her shifted and moved. Thighs folding back down to rest on legs that were more nestled in the ocean than on land itself. As they moved, the light of the sunset began to shine faintly around the edges of the wide, thick rump that spread and smushed against her rather large bottom-heavy figure. Yet still she was too big to let much of anything be seen, save for what a soon-seen glowing mane allowed for. The entire curtain of hair shimmering like a curtain of living rainbow, a curious fusion of what Spearmint saw every day from Rainbow Dash, and Princess Celestia herself. Yet there were also stars and other glowing objects shimmering in the depths of the mane that suggested this pony was somehow even greater than the Princess of the Sun. As if she held the cosmos in her mane and bathed it with light.
Wanting to take a step back to see her better, yet fearing where her hooves might fall, Spearmint gulped and just tried to crane her vision past the swell of the breasts. An action made easier by her strange visitor bending over some, allowing for a regal, long muzzle to be seen with a warm smile on her lips and in her glowing gold eyes. “Just call me Seraph dear, we’re all but family now. Oh, but it’s so good to see you too.” Reaching down, the pegasus had barely a second to squeak before two large hands grabbed her gently along the sides and lifted her up like a child. Holding her up to the mares head, she could finally see that she was an alicorn, not that there had been much doubt given she had seen wings earlier around the side of her waist. But the resemblance between her and Celestia was growing more and more unsettling, especially as without warning the ‘tiny’ pony was crushed into a bone-cracking hug between two breasts bigger than the mares head. “I just had to come down and welcome you in person!”
“Ack! Help...air…” Spearmint wheezed.
“Oh you don’t have to worry about anything silly like that hun. Just relax your muscles, there we go. Would be impractical to have to worry about that considering your size, hmm?”
“I-I don’t understand...who are you?”
Pulling Spearmint away, the self-named Seraph continued to smile with a now mischievous tilt to her lips. “I’m surprised, has it really been so long that nopony knows me? Surely my champion has mentioned me, no? Well given how my sister was treated, perhaps it’s for the better.” Sighing, she looks down past the mare in her arms, down to the continent below them and between her thighs. “We’ve been admittedly very absent ever since the fallout between the tribes. A shame it came to this at all, especially given the strain it placed upon my sister for so long.”
“I’m a little confused.” Spearmint said nervously. Something about the alicorn’s words were unsettling, sparking faint memories from the spirit. But the spirit was now at rest, their task of taming the storm done.
“Don’t worry about it dear, all of this I’m sure will be explained in time.” Looking back to the pegasus, the alicorn planted a soft kiss on her forehead and set her back down. “You have enough on your shoulders dealing with all of this below us. An entire continent has opened back up for the races of this world to explore. You embody the power of Storm and its spirit - I imagine you’ll want to shrink down at some point too. Ponies will have questions...and I think my being here is something best left until later. Don’t you think so?”
Somehow, Spearmint found herself agreeing readily with the suggestion by Seraph. It was bad enough there was one titanic pony straddling a part of the world. The much larger one, even if clearly the, pun not intended, bigger danger, could probably be ignored in favor of just letting the pegasus handle her own immensity. Nodding slowly, this seemed to make the alicorn happy as she slowly stood again.
“I’d love to see how big you can get once the power of Storm fully recovers. My sister never did like being ‘small’ around mortal races.” She giggles. Taking a few looks around the planet, Seraph then waved and winked. “Sorry to greet and run, but I must really prepare things for next time. Tell Twilight Sparkle that I’m waiting in Patria Primo, within the city held by the depths. I’m sure she’ll figure it out...in time.”
Then in a flash of sunlight she was gone. The land unmarred by her existence, yet both Spearmint and countless others would remember seeing that towering, gigantic alicorn. Looking around herself, the mare gulped. Suddenly she really wanted to get small and hide. But it wouldn’t be for several hours, maybe even a day, before she could get down in height enough to even move.
“This...is going to take a while…”