//------------------------------// // Chapter 3- A GIANT game // Story: The Royal Sisters' GIANT Break // by BottleH2O //------------------------------// A lone stallion panted with exhaustion as he continued to scale up the side of a mountain. He was determined to make it to the top. After all, this had been his goal for the summer. The stallion paused as he took a break, wiping some sweat off his brow as he took a water bottle from his pack and took a large gulp from it. A few minutes passed by as the stallion collected his thoughts and rested his sore muscles before starting back up again. “Almost there,” He thought “Just a few hundred more feet.” Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into even longer minutes before, after long last, he finally made it to the top. “Finally!” the stallion thought relieved, plopping down from exhaustion, a satisfied smile on his muzzle “Climb a 3000-foot-tall mountain, check.” The stallion shakily got back onto his hooves and looked around, taking in the view “It’s so beautiful, it’s not every day you get to see the kingdom from this high up.” The stallion reached into his bag again and took out a camera. He smiled to himself and began to take pictures of the view. “This is insane,” he thought “to be so high up, and see almost everything. I don’t think it can get any better than this.” Well, as we all know, never tempt fate because it will never miss an opportunity to mess with you. And unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), there is someone out there with a much better view of Equestria than our stallion has. And it looks like he’s going to meet them right now. The stallion fell to the ground as everything around him, even the mountain, began to shake. Thunderous THOOMS reverberated through the air. “What’s going on here? Is this some massive earthquake?” he silently wondered as he clung to the rumbling ground. The stallion looked around, trying to make heads or tails of the situation, then felt his mouth drop. Out over the horizion, a huge golden structure was rising into the sky, followed by the rest of it, revealing it was a massive crown, and the head the crown was on. The stallion’s jaw somehow managed to drop even further as he fully grasped what, or rather who he was looking at. Walking over entire cities, towns, and mountains was none other than Princess Celestia herself, in all her humongous glory. Celestia had her eyes trained on the ground as she stepped over another teeny town, no bigger than one of the jewels on her crown. After the visit to the beach, she and Luna had started to head inland, trying to find enough open space for their next fun activity. Which admittedly was a little difficult considering the two giants were larger than mountains and had to constantly watch their step for little cities and even smaller towns. While they were searching however, they discovered that they had grown even larger than before. Luna speculated that it was because they were having so much fun. The more fun they had, the larger they would get. Celestia stopped and looked around thoughtfully, observing her surroundings as she towered high over them. Whatever she was looking for seemed to be in this area, seemingly satisfied, the colossal monarch nodded her head with a smile. “Lulu, this place seems perfect! There are hardly any towns and cities around here, so we do not need to worry too much about squishing them. I’ll get started with setting up-” Celestia cut herself off as she just noticed that her sister was nowhere to be found. “Lulu? Where are you?” Celestia called out, looking around. “Just a second sister, I’ll be there in a moment!” came Luna’s reply. Celestia turned around behind her and found Luna kneeling on the ground conversing with the little denizens of the town she had just stepped over. Luna was poking her snout towards the quarter-millimeter tall houses and Celestia was able to make out several little dots crowding around it. Luna was trying to gently coax the tiny fillies and colts into coming closer. Celestia stifled a giggle behind a hoof as she slowly made her way over, trying to step lightly, as she kneeled in front of the town as well. “The poor things were so frightened when we walked by,” Luna said softly, now rubbing her muzzle gently against the tiny foals “I just stopped to make sure they were alright.” Celestia lowered her muzzle down towards the little town as well, calming the startled miniscule residents and murmuring comforting words to them. The timid denizens came out of their home, gazing up in shock at their princesses, looming above their entire town. It wasn’t long before they started cheering for them, their previous fear now gone. Beaming, the two titans stood back up, happy to put the minds of their little subjects at ease. Stepping over the town again, Celestia and Luna made their way to the clearing Celestia was looking at earlier. “Ok Tia, what activity do you want to do here?” Luna asked, gazing around at the mostly green, barren land. Save for a few cities spread sparsely around. Celestia simply grinned and lit up her horn, Luna averted her eyes as there was a blinding flash. When she opened them, she saw the Celestia had conjured up an enormous tennis net, spanning for miles across the country. The poles of the net were engrained deeply into the earth, with small (to them) cracks around the impact zone. Exposing the brown dirt underneath. “We’re going to play tennis! It’s been so long since I’ve played and I really want to stretch these bad girls again,” Celestia said happily as she flexed her arm muscles. There was another flash of light as two rackets, super-sized for the princesses, appeared in front of them. Luna grasped hers and gave it a few test swings, the displaced air from the swings clearing tons of clouds as she did so. Her racket had a deep midnight blue frame with an indigo handle. The wires in the frame were purple and formed a picture of her moon cutie mark in the center. Celestia’s racket had a yellow frame with a white handle. The wires in the frame were also white and formed her sun cutie mark in its center. Luna made her way to the other side of the net, the world shuddering as she walked, residents in a nearby city watched awestruck as her gargantuan hooves filled the entire sky as she stepped over the city. Luna took off her shoes and crown and left them neatly near one of the net’s poles, Celestia doing the same at the other end. “Tia, where is the ball? We have all the equipment except for that,” Luna said, now standing in the center on the other side of the net. Celestia gave a bashful smile, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof “Well, I have an idea I want to try…” she said trailing off, looking behind her at the ground. Luna raised an eyebrow. “I want to try making our own ball, and I think I know just how to do it.” Celestia set her racket on the ground (careful to avoid any residential areas) and turned around, stomping up to a little mountain, just barely as tall as her hoof. Celestia unfurled one of her wings from her side and lowered it slowly towards the ground, carving it deep into the dirt easily like it was pudding before curling it up again. Celestia tore the mountain out of the earth, leaving a gigantic crater at her feet, bits of dirt falling from the chunk of land and rock she held in her wing as she raised it into the sky and towards her face. The lone stallion watched in awe as the titan sized Celestia began to saunter slowly in his direction, each one of her colossal steps jostled the world with a tremendous THOOOOM! The stallion buried his head in between his hooves as he hugged the ground, trying to stabilize himself from the shaking as Celestia walked. Suddenly the shaking stopped, cautiously the stallion raised his head and looked around. Only for his jaw to drop again. Towering high above him was princess Celestia, chills ran down his spine as he realized that the entire mountain he was perched on, was as big as a single one of her hooves. The rest of the titanic ruler rose past the clouds and high into the sky. The stallion let out an “Eep!” as he watched Celestia lower one of her mighty wings towards the mountain he was on. There was a RUMMMBLE as said wing dug into the very crust of the earth. The stallion clung to the ground as a BOOM! reverberated through the air. He began to feel himself and the mountain rise into the sky. Looking upward he watched as the clear blue sky was replaced with the piercing gaze of Princess Celestia’s gargantuan purple eye gazing down at the mountain and him. Celestia held the puny mountain to her eye as she examined it, soaking in its details. There were adorable tiny trees sprinkled around sparingly on the dull gray rock. The mountain itself seemed mostly intact from when she lifted it out of the ground. “Hmmmm,” Celestia said to herself as she continued to look it over. “I believe this will work,” she thought. Then something caught her eye. A little fleck of blue clashing against the gray color scheme. “That’s odd,” Celestia thought as she squinted, bringing the mountain a little closer to her eye as she got a better look. Her eyes widened a little as she was just able to make out a speck sized stallion cowering down among the rocks. “Goodness!” Celestia boomed “I didn’t realize anypony was climbing this tiny rock. Are you alright my very little pony? The mite sized stallion slowly nodded his head. “Wonderful! Now, I was wondering, would you be so kind as to let me use this mountain dear?” Celestia asked, her gaze still on the stallion. The stallion silently nodded again still dumbfounded by the fact that he was currently on top a mountain that was being held in his princess’ wing. Who herself was standing at an immeasurable size, clouds floating past her chest, and was simply gazing down at him. It was all pretty overwhelming. Celestia smiled (though that went unnoticed by the stallion) “Excellent! I’ll just drop you off at the nearest town sweetie,” she rumbled. Celestia held out her hoof and turned the mountain upside down over it. She gave it a little shake and watched the tiny blue speck fall into the frog of her hoof. The stallion shakily got to his hooves, trying to stand on Celestia’s upturned hoof. Falling onto it was like falling onto the world’s most comfortable, soft, squishy, and fluffy bed. The underside of Celestia's hoof positively radiated a comfortable heat. Celestia was so gigantic that her hoof alone seemed to stretch on for miles, practically a landscape itself for one as small as the blue stallion. Celestia smiled warmly down at her catch as she made her way over to the closest city, which was one step away for her. She lowered her enormous hoof down to the edge of the city and watched as the stallion slid down her hoof and onto the ground. “Have fun dear!” Celestia said with a small chuckle and a wink as she made her way back to the net where Luna was waiting for her. "So, what exactly was your plan for the mountain Tia?” Luna asked. “I’m going to make a tennis ball out of it,” Celestia replied, holding the mountain in front of her on her wing. With a single smooth motion, she curled the tips of her wing backwards and crushed the mountain. Completely reducing it to rubble. With the aid of her magic Celestia worked on reshaping the rocky crumbs into a ball. It quickly came together, and with a final zap the entire mountain had changed into a mountain sized tennis ball, which Celestia had to make a little bigger so it looked proportionally like a tennis ball to them. With a smirk she picked up her racket and looked at Luna “Shall we play?” The ponies in the nearby cities watched as their two colossal princesses began a giant game of tennis. Celestia started out serving the ball, hitting it to Luna, who knocked it back with ease. Ponies were entranced as they watched these two titans play their game, hearing the wind whooshing by as they swung their massive rackets and the thunderous booms that echoed in the air when the gigantic green tennis ball struck the wires on the racket and sent back over the net. But what really had many nervous were the titanic players themselves. When Celestia hit the ball over to the left of Luna’s side of the net, residents in the nearby town watched fearfully as Luna’s gargantuan blue hooves thundered towards them getting closer and closer to the town, the ground shaking wildly with each one of her powerful steps when suddenly, she stopped just outside the town, her hoof looming high above it as Luna herself whacked the ball back over the net. The town barely avoided being squashed unknowingly by the moon princess. On Celestia’s side of the net, the minuscule denizens had to deal with the movements of the even larger sun princess, as she stormed back and forth across the land, deflecting the ball and knocking it back over the net. Residents in a city also had a very close call with the gigantic monarch. After Celestia had served the ball back to Luna she had started to take a few steps back. The citizens in the nearby city gazed up nervously as Celestia’s shadow fell over them, the princess completely oblivious to them, her hind hooves getting closer before it seemingly rose above the city. Celestia brought down her immense hoof and to their great luck, it just missed them, the alabaster pillar of white stretching far into the sky just outside the city. “Foul!” Celestia called out as the ball was launched to the left, out of bounds by Luna. The tennis ball hit the ground with echoing THUD and began to roll towards a city. In the city ponies stopped what they were doing and watched as the gigantic tennis ball, towering over even the biggest buildings, roll towards them. Panic broke out in the streets as the mite sized ponies ran for cover, trying to get out of the asteroid sized ball’s path. The ground began to shake again as a shadow fell over the city. A few ponies who were not running watched as Celestia’s huge white hoof descend from the sky and onto the ball halting its movement. Her wing came down from the heavens next and slowly grasped the ball in its wing tips before lifting it into the air and into the sky. The ponies cheered as Celestia turned around and walked back to the net to resume. It went on for this for quite some time, both titans passing the ball back and forth while the citizens tried their best not to get flattened by their ruler’s city sized hooves. Eventually both Celestia and Luna called it quits, the two of them sitting on their rumps, panting from exhaustion. Celestia wiped sweat off her forehead, grinning ecstatically “Now THAT is what I call a workout!” she exclaimed, while magicking their rackets, ball, and the net away. Luna snickered as she caught her breath “Agreed sister. I have not played a good game like that in a while. It was quite fun.” Celestia stood up and stretched, getting out all the kinks in her muscles. She then strolled over to her discarded crown and put it back on but magicking away her shoes as well. Luna doing the same “It’s a shame we had to stop though, it seems like my blood finally got pumped up. I feel like I can run a mile!” Luna said ecstatically. Celestia laughed “I feel the same Lulu,” She said, “Maybe we-” Celestia broke off as she and Luna began to feel a tingling sensation throughout their bodies. A yellow glow surrounded Celestia, and a blue glow surrounded Luna. And slowly they began to grow even more, the two titans rising further into the sky. After the tingling stopped Celestia opened her eyes and observed her new surroundings. Mountains were now only a fraction higher then ground level at her hooves, cities and town however were practically indistinguishable from the flat terrain. Buildings no longer poking up from the ground from the princess’ perspective. Celestia swore she could even make out a bit of the planet’s curvature over the horizon. She took an earth-shattering step forward and inspected one of the cities by her hooves, smirking a bit by how tiny it now was. She lifted her hoof and positioned it directly above the city, comparing its size. If she set her hoof down on the city, it would be completely engulfed, with plenty room to spare. Celestia turned back to Luna who was watching her silently “I still feel pretty energized from our game and from our last growth spurt. What do you say we work it off and go for a little jog? Around the world?” Celestia watched as a grin began to split across Luna’s face “That sounds like fun Tia.”