“…I mean seriously Auntie; how could you expect me to not want to look as gorgeous as possible? Having those extra bits will do wonders for my perfect royal physique, just think about all the wonderful hooficures I could get, or all the heir styles the extra allowance could get me. Of course, with the perks of my wonderful new size, our tiny little ponies will need to work a little extra hard to cover my gargantuan hoofs! Hahaha!” Blueblood chortled at his observation, thinking about how humorous it would be to see a bunch of little specks tending to him, trying to give him a hooficure.
“Is he quite done yet?” Luna silently wondered, frustrated beyond belief. her hooves still covering her ears as she rolled onto her back, staring upside down at Titan Blueblood “He’s been prattling on all day about that incessive allowance of his! I might as well give the bits to him by this point to shut him up but he cast that incepted silencing spell on me so I CAN’T EVEN TELL HIM!”
Blueblood on the other hand, finally stopped his rambling, happy to have gotten to say everything he needed to, he was confident that his little aunts had gotten every detail he had to say. Beaming, he looked back up at the sky, verifying the sun’s position because, well, he left his pocket watch on his desk and it was now too small for him to check. “Wonderful! The others should be here in just a second!” Blueblood said happily.
“Others? What do you mean others?” asked Celestia in slight alarm. She had finally woken up as she gently nudged Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, and Spike, who all awoke groaning, before turning her attention back up at Blueblood’s enormous face in the sky “There were more ponies that became giants alongside you?” she asked with worry.
“Of course, auntie, good afternoon by the way, there were five other noble ponies who also became, uh, rather big,” Blueblood confessed with a bit of a sheepish grin on his face, happy to have kept the secret all day.
“So why aren’t they with you?” asked Rainbow from far below
“Well, let’s just say they had some business to take care of, BIG business if you will,” Blueblood chuckled at his own joke before continuing “In the meantime, I decided to pay everypony here a special visit first while they delt with their problems around the kingdom. Oh, and by the way auntie, I just know once they show up, they’ll all just hog you to themselves so I wouldn’t be able to get a word in, I’m glad you got to hear everything I needed before they arrived.”
“What do you mean they’re ‘dealing with their problems around the kingdom,” Celestia asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowed
“Oh, it’s nothing drastic, I assure you auntie. They, like me, felt like some changes and rules needed to be established so they went to make sure their business rivels got the message. They went to villages and cities like Manehattan,” Blueblood said
“They went to major cities?! How we’re we not notified about giant pony sightings there?” Celestia exclaimed, looking around wildly at the mane six around her, Spike, Luna, and the dozens of guards still stuck in hair gel.
“Oh simple, I was stopping the letters from everywhere they were visiting from reaching you while you were sleeping,” Blueblood said happily. He lit up his horn and a bunch of letters floated up to the tower the ponies were perched on. While Celestia, Twilight, Luna, and Spike began rifling through them, Blueblood turned his attention away from the capitol in his hoof and looked back down at his suit jacket pocket, smiling, he addressed the mail pony stowing away inside, who had been kind enough to wait until the nobles arrived.
“Thank you for waiting Ms. Derpy Hooves, I’m sorry it took much longer than I anticipated, I will be sure to compensate you for the extra time you spent here, safe travels back home,” Blueblood said
There was a rustling from inside the pocket and seconds later, the speck sized gray mare poked her head above the opening, grinning happily and give a small salute with her front leg, before flapping her wings and began the journey back to Ponyville for a good nap from all the flying she did today and a delicious chocolate muffin.
As Blueblood watched Derpy get further and further away, the others finished skimming through the letters neighboring cities and towns had sent in their initial panic upon seeing the titans.
“I can’t believe this! Those absolute ruffians Upper Crust and Jet Set are giants now?” Rarity exclaimed, lowering one letter she just finished skimming “And look, it says here they made quite a mess in the city. Absolutely no shame at all! Quite unbecoming of the noble class!”
“That’s not all, it looks like Mr. Enterprise Pursuit and his wife Lily Shine are giants as well, and that boxer Sturdy Step became big as well,” Twilight added
“What do we do? There has to be some way to fix this right? You know, like shrink them back down to normal?” asked Spike
“I wish that was possible dear Spike, but without the spell book used to make them grow in the first place in our possession, it would be nearly impossible to return them to their normal state. All we can do now is play along and see what they want from us,” Celestia said solemnly with Luna next to her, silently nodding furiously.
It wasn’t a moment too soon, because as soon as Celestia said that they all heard the chorus of thunderous THOOMS echoing through the air. And over the horizon, the enormous faces of four of the giant nobles rose into the sky as they stomped across the landscape towards Blueblood.
“Ah, and here they come now. Not a moment too soon,” Blueblood said, unaware of the growing apprehension Canterlot was beginning to feel. Within seconds the other giants had caught up to Blueblood, happy to have finally been reunited, their immense shadows looming over everypony in the capitol, making them feel even smaller than before.
“Hey, I think I just saw my second cousin Derpy pass by our legs just now!” a gigantic Lily Shine exclaimed happily
“Blueblood!” boomed Enterprise happily, slapping a huge hoof on his shoulder “Good to see you after so long lad!” he joked
Bleublood’s knees buckled under the huge stallion’s city sized hoof, he weakly looked back at Enterprise with a pained smile “Yes, ahem, it is good to see you too Mr. Enterprise. Where’s Sturdy Step?”
“Oh? I’m sure Ms. Sturdy will be along soon lad, don’t you worry,”
Down below, there were several tiny, high pitched cries of panic as the citizens of Canterlot beheld the immense forms of the newly arrived titans, and Blueblood’s knees buckling sent another massive quake throughout the tiny capitol, jostling the little residents.
The noise caught the attention of the rest of the nobles, the rest of them walking over to inspect the now hoof sized Canterlot.
“Awww, it’s all so tiny!” Lily said in a playful voice as she leaned in, the colossal snout slowly descending from the sky like an asteroid. Her nostrils flared, trying to pick up the exotic smalls of the miniature city, the powerful gales of wind blew several ponies, carts, and goods around while the others held onto the nearest structure for support. Lily’s echoing giggles of foalish delight booming through the air as the giant withdrew her great head.
Only for Jet Set and Upper Crust to take her place, the humongous couple smirking down at everypony, their eyes set on the little palace.
“Well, well, well dear, If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was little Rarity and her country friends all the way down there,” said Jet, looking at his wife
“Aww you’re right honey! Look at them, so small and tiny. They’re like little ants just scurrying around helplessly on the top of their little marble white anthill,” Upper Crust laughed condescendingly, her snooty smirk on full display before turning her attention to the princesses and Spike. “And what do we have here? The Queens of the ant hill and a purple flea are infesting this place as well, hmmm? My, my, Jet Set, will have to show these little insects who’s really in charge here now. The glorious nobility!”
“How absurd!” came Rarity’s small indignant voice from down below, the mare in question had her snout in the air defiantly “You two ruffians truly have no class!”
“Really my dear? I must protest, I’d say our grand new size goes along perfectly with our status,” Upper Crust said, laughing into her hoof pompously “We truly are the biggest and the best now, true nobility!”
“True ruffians more like,” Rarity said with another huff, the rest of the girls and Spike nodding their heads, muttering agreements as well.
The two snooty titans smirked again, their horns lighting up, all at once, glows surrounded the Princesses, the mane 6, and Spike as they were effortlessly lifted up off their safe haven in the castle with an “Eep!”and deposited in a heap on Upper Crust and Jet Set’s squishy, city sized hooves. The speck sized ponies and dragon shook their heads to clear it before turning their heads skyward to behold the giants looming above them in the sky.
“Alright, you two, that’s enough playing around, I believe it is time we finally got down to business,” Enterprise said in his deep voice, moving over to peer down at the tiny ponies held in their grasp.
“What do you want?!” Princess Celestia yelled up to the five giants. Blueblood opened his mouth again, but Celestia quickly cut him off “Not you Blueblood! We’ve been listening to what you want all day! I want to hear from the others now,”
Blueblood’s ears folded against his head as he pouted and backed away while Jet Set and Upper Crust leaned it, ginning “Well Princess,” began Jet Set “Do you remember a little while ago my wife and I came to you with a request to expand our businesses because we saw an opportunity to make new profits? Well Princess you turned us down, and because of you our business rivels took advantage of that and took sales away from our companies. Now both Upper and I have lost precious bits and we demand to be compensated for that! That is why you will pay us the number of bits that we had lost as well as give us new territories that we can use to renovate and expand our current businesses,”
“Indeed!” thundered Upper Crust, glaring down at the specks “The audacity! The two of us having to practically beg you last week for the extra benefits. Are we nobility or not?”
Celestia blinked before glaring up at the two giants again “You didn’t even complete the proper procedure to even procure new lands! The paperwork wasn’t even complete! That was why I turned you down!”
“Yes, yes, details. All we want now is the land and the bits we are owed, and we will be on our happy, gargantuan way little dear,” Upper Crust said, pointing her muzzle in the air haughty “With our new size and power we will practically own Manehatten as well as the airship business and hotel business.” Stopping her belief rant, Upper Crust looked at the sky dreamily “Oh, imagine how convenient things will be from now on, Jet. Traversing the entire kingdom with mere steps for meetings, being the most powerful Unicorns in existence, and owning the largest businesses in the kingdom. This will be a dream come true honey.”
“Agreed my dear,” Jet Set said, leaning in to nuzzle his wife. Far down below in Jet’s grasp, Spike and Rainbow were pretending to make retching noises as the colossal couple looked into each other’s eyes lovingly.
It was here that Enterprise and Lily stepped up make their requests, their larger shadows covering the tiny ponies below “I’m afraid Princess, that I am in a similar state of mind as Jet Set and Upper Crust here, I too will have to demand a compensation of bits that I have been denied because of your refusal to take my claims of somepony sabotaging my businesses seriously.” Enterprise said, lighting up his horn and depositing Celestia and Luna onto his great gray hoof.
Celestia looked up at him with some slight desperation in her eyes “Enterprise, please, you and Lily have always been some of the more levelheaded nobles out there, please reconsider what you’re doing,”
Enterprise shook his enormous head slowly, with a sad expression “I’m sorry Princess but unfortunately it is a little too late for that, the damage has already been done and my company stocks have gone down ten percent because of this, I must now have the bits to recover from this economic blow delt to me. Lily and I saw who was responsible for this, a young colt by the name of Stock Value. He had been hiring ponies to sabotage my meeting, cart unveilings, and overall make a general nuisance of himself outside my stores. When my wife and I went to go confront him about this, the poor colt just seemed to snap. We took him to a hospital, so, hopefully they’ll be treating him soon, but as it stands, I will need to financially recover as fast as possible.” He said.
Celestia and Luna then turned to Lily Shine, who up till this point hadn’t said anything to add.
“And what about you Mrs. Lily Shine? Why did you feel the need to take up such drastic measures to get our attention?” Asked Celestia, Luna nodding her head frantically.
“Well, if I’m being honest, it’s because I want to take photoshoots inside the castle for my next show because of all the attention it will garner in magazines and newspapers. So I came here to make sure that will happen!” Lily said
Celestia face hoofed “Lily, you’re currently bigger than a mountain, Blueblood is holding the entire capitol on his hoof right now as we speak, how were you planning to pull this off?” she asked.
“Yeah…maybe I didn’t think this through enough, but hey, I’m perfectly fine with getting photoshoots of me holding tiny cities and villages in my grasp. No pony has ever done that before. So yeah, I think I’ll just do that!” Lily said, her happiness sparking up again.
The other nobles chuckled at Lily’s enthusiasm as they surrounded the puny ponies again, their huge frames looming above them high in the clouds “So, what’s it gonna be princess?” Upper Crust asked in her usual snooty voice, smirking down at them.
“Yeah, are we going to get our benefits or not?” Jet Set added, popping up next to his wife, while the other giants looked down at the ponies expectantly.
Celestia looked like she was struggling to form a sentence, before finally opening her mouth with a sigh, a look of defeat in her eyes “I-I-alright, you win, I’ll see to it that you get everything you want,”
“YAY!” all the giants cheered happily, Enterprise was nodded approvingly, Lily and Upper Crust was prancing around in circles gleefully, Jet Set was doing what could only be described as a “happy dance” and Blueblood was struggling to keep Canterlot steady in his hoof amidst the world shaking around him, the Princesses, Mane 6, and Spike now safely back on the tower clinging onto the ground as the titans, unaware in the jubilation, shook the land around them, the rest of the citizens hiding out in their homes.
“Oh this is wonderful!” Lily said, ceasing her dance as she nuzzled up against her husband “I’m so happy for you sweetie, now you’ll definitely financially recover from earlier!”
Chuckling, Enterprise kissed her on the snout smiling “Thank you dear, I’m happy as well, both for the recovery, and that you finally get your exclusive photoshoots,”
“I think you guys forgot about something!” yelled a tiny voice from down below.
Lily shine broke apart from Enterprise and the two walked back over to Blueblood, leaning down together to look at the castle, there on the tower, Lily was able to identify the speaker as Spike, who was busy cowering behind Twilight as he stared up at the two enormous faces in the sky with slight fear “Oh, and what might that be dearie?” Lily asked the young drake, not unkindly.
“You-you guys are still really big! Don’t you guys want to, you know, shrink back down to normal?” Spike asked hopefully
Enterprise and Lily blinked, glancing at each other before looking back down at Spike “Well actually young lad,” Enterprise began “We were going to do it after the Princess-”
“Sorry little guy but we’ve all taken a liking to being giants!” Upper Crust interrupted, popping into view with Jet Set right next to her, blocking Blueblood’s face “like I said before, being ginormous really fits well with our noble status, we’re the biggest economically and socially, so why not literally as well? In fact, this worked so well, I can think of a few associates of ours that would mind becoming huge as well to, ahem, request their own benefits from the Princesses, now that we know how, we can make anyone we want into giants!”
“WHAT?!? YA’ALL WANT TO MAKE MORE OF THEM GIANT NOBLES?!” a tiny Applejack hollered up to Upper Crust incredulously “AIN’T THIS HERE GROWTH ENOUGH? YA GOT WHAT Y’ALL WANTED!”
“True, my itty-bitty little country girl, but you could never have too much as I always say, besides I can think of many associates of ours who feels like they are owed a favor or two from our dear Princesses because of how many times they have contributed to one of their charity events, and besides, since none of your magic actually works against us now, it’s not like you can actually stop us now, can you?” asked Upper Crust smugly.
“Oh that’s a wonderful idea honey, I can’t wait to get started!” Jet Set added approvingly, while Enterprise and Lily looked at each other with mild concern “I don’t think that will be necessary, do you?” asked Enterprise.
“Oh nonsense, it’ll be perfectly fine!” Upper Crust and Jet Set said as they both lit up their horns, looking around at the tiny capitol “All we need is the spell again and our associates and we’ll be all set to go, lets get started right away!”
“NOOOO!” dozens of little ponies (including the mane 6 and the princesses) down below cried out, not wanting more snooty nobles to become titans. But as the spells began to charge up, all of the titanic nobles began to glow again in a near blinding light.
“What’s going on? What’s happening to us?!” Blueblood asked in a panic as the familiar feeling of when your leg falls asleep, and you feel pins and needles began to envelop all of them again
Back at the forest, the forgotten spell book was vibrating violently, jostling left, right, up, and down. Spikes of Blueblood’s arcane lightning flickering off of it as the book opened again to the growth spell, and on the page in fine print was the very familiar warning from chapter 1:
Warning: The spell is incomplete; the use of unfinished magic will yield uncertain results. Must be casted with EXTREAM caution. The incomplete spell only lasts for a limited time before self-terminating.
…before self-terminating
Dun, Dun, DUNNNNNN!
The titanic nobles were in a panic as they saw the spell’s light engulf their entire bodies, and to their horror, they began to shrink.
With an anticlimactic POP! All of the, now, normal sized nobles and Canterlot were left suspended in midair, it took everypony a second to realize that just happened before gravity kicked in. With a shriek of fear, the nobles, Canterlot, and all of the ponies in the capitol began to fall from their immense height in the air, higher than the surrounding mountains.
“OH NO! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? WE’RE DOOMED!!” Twilight screamed over the rushing air as she clung to the ground, Spike holding onto her tail desperately. None of the others seemed to know what to do, the Princesses couldn’t use a levitation spell because Canterlot was just too big. It looked like all hope was lost, but like some miracle, at that moment, the elements of harmony began to glow from their discarded spot on the ground. They 6 gems slowly began to rise, glowing with their signature rainbow light, before a magic beam blasted out of them in full force, circulating the torn-out chunk of pony capitol and falling equines, with another blinding flash of light, Canterlot re-attached itself into the side of the mountain with little to no damage at all, and all of the falling ponies suddenly found themselves on stable ground, safely in the capitol.
Groaning, Spike, the mane 6, and the Princesses shakily got to their hooves at the top of their tower. “Is it…over?” asked Spike apprehensively. Celestia looked around at the others making sure they were safe “I believe so,” she said.
“Wow, that was wayyyyy to close for my liking,” Rainbow Dash said, trying to remove a still quivering Fluttershy from her back “I mean seriously, we fell out of the sky like a rock!”
“That was so much fun!” Pinkie exclaimed in her usual bubbly voice as she bounced “We got to go skydiving together as a group! I’m so happy!” Pinkie seemed to be completely unfazed by what just happened. Below, the rest of the citizens slowly came out of their homes now that the danger was over, and the guards shook themselves free of the hair gel, thanks to the elements of harmony freeing them with it’s magic.
“Where did those nobles get off to?! I’m gonna kick their sorry flanks into next Tuesday for freaking out everypony!” Rainbow growled, cracking her hooves, having finally removed Fluttershy from her rear.
“Oh, they’re right there, trying to sneak back downstairs!” Pinkie said innocently as she pointed to the door to the tower where the previously titanic nobles were trying to tip-hoof to. Upon hearing Pinkie say this, they froze up and slowly turned back around with sheepish grins.
“GUARDS!” yelled Princess Celestia
All at once the five nobles found themselves surrounded by dozens of fully armored unicorns, Pegesi, and Earth Ponies, all of whom were pointing either spears or their horns at them. “There was one more who was part of their group, Sturdy Step, find her as well!” the Princess commanded. A squadron of Pegesi nodded and took off, leaving the nobles with an angry Mane 6 and Princesses to confront them.
“Well, it’s a good thing their growth spell died out,” Twilight said “I don’t know what we would have done if it hadn’t ended itself. And it looks like the elements of Harmony cancelled out all the damage and spells Blueblood cast,”
Blueblood’s eyes widened “Wait, it did?!” he asked in fear
“Yes…” Twilight began slowly “Why would that matter?”
As if in response to that, the tower seemed to shake violently by itself, followed by an unholy screech of "bLuEbLoOd!!!"
All at once, the ponies, Celestia, poor Spike, and the guards was blasted off to the side from the very force of Luna’s royal canterlot voice as she advanced slowly and menacingly towards the cowering group of normal sized nobles, the mute spell from earlier had finally been broken. Her eyes were glowing pure white and her horn sparking with magic lightning.
“THY MADE US LISTEN TO THAT SPEECH FOR A FULL DAY! A. FULL. DAY!!! HOW IN HARMONY’S NAME CAN THOU SPEAK OF BITS FOR THAT LONG! THOU ART A PRINCE FOR GOODNESS SAKE! SHOW SOME CLASS THY UNRULY LITTLE WELP! WE SHALL THINK OF A PUNISHMENT FOR THOU MOST SEVEAR! THIS WE SWEAR!!!!”
Blueblood let out a squeaky “MEEP!” of fear and ducked behind Upper Crust and Jet Set, pushing them in front of him while the two scrambled to get back behind Blueblood and away from the pissed off moon Alicorn. Fortunately for them, Celestia intervened and attempted to calm down her raging younger sister.
After Luna had semi-calmed down, Celestia ordered for Blueblood and the Nobles to be taken to the dungeons for the time being while they tried to figure out their punishment. During that time, the guards had managed to locate Sturdy Step at a remote village called Oakenville. The poor mare was in hysterics as the guards carried her to the dungeons. She kept going on about how she wasn’t ready for the slammer and that she didn’t get a chance to finish helping her ‘little buddy.’
Luna, the mane 6, and Spike were all waiting in the throne room for Celestia when suddenly she burst in panting. Celestia looked at the assembled creatures in the room with a tired expression “Everypony outside is demanding justice Sister, they want the nobles to pay for frightening them and all of the damage they had done,”
Luna snorted “We say just feed them to the wolves and get it over with,” she said with a flick of her ethereal mane.
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed, pumping her hoof in the air “Let’s give them what they deserve!”
The other ponies and Spike were murmuring with agreement, but Celestia however looked thoughtful as she put a golden clad hoof to her chin.
“What is it sister?” asked Luna
“Well, we could do that Lulu, but, at the same time I don’t think that will be the appropriate action to take,” Celestia said
“WHAT?!” everypony exclaimed in shock
“Please hear me out. Punishment must fit the crime, what does throwing them in the dungeon for the rest of their days accomplish? All that will do is make them miserable and they’ll learn nothing from that,” Celestia said.
“Ok, but then what do you suggest we do Princess?” asked Twilight
“I’m glad you asked my fateful student,” Celestia said smiling at Twilight briefly before addressing the rest of the others present “I believe the best course of action here will be for the Nobles and Blueblood to give a public apology for everything they had done and personally pay for any and all damages they have caused all around Equestria. Any footprints they left behind as well as any damages to buildings they had caused in major cities. And to top it all off, they will all have to do 300 hours of community service each.”
“The reason why is because of how Jet Set and Upper Crust viewed those less fortunate than themselves. This way they get to experience the lives of other ponies from a different perspective, not from Canterlot looking down at everypony else, but grounded with the common folk. This way I truly believe they’ll learn their lesson in opposed to just locking them up in a room alone. But there is one thing I would like to address; according to reports Luna and I have gotten, it appears Ms. Sturdy Step did little to no damage wherever she went. And any damage she did cause, she fixed immediately, according to reports, at the worst she did was make a polite nuisance of herself, nothing serious. Therefore, I believe we should give her a reduced sentence. She will still be punished for her affiliation with the others, but her punishment will not be as severe. What does everypony think?”
The ponies and baby dragon present took a few minutes to think about Celestia’s proposal, but amazingly, it was Luna who broke the silence first “I agree sister,” she said, surprising everypony present
Celestia smiled “Wonderful Sister, thank you for-”
“But we wish to have a hoof in punishing Blueblood ourselves!” Luna interrupted while grinning devilishly.
Celestia stared at her before letting out a tired sigh “Very well Lulu, as long as it’s in the realm of reason than it’s alright.”
Shortly after the Princesses had reached a consensus, they instructed the guards to set up the announcement stage in front of the castle while they paid a visit to the dungeons. There they rounded up the nobles and told them what was going to go down, they agreed albeit reluctantly, but hey, this was still better than jail time.
The nobles were marched up to the front of the stage, in front of the entire population of Canterlot. From there they made their apology for everypony to hear, with some reluctance, however. The only ponies who seemed genuine in their apology was Sturdy Step, Lily Shine, and Enterprise Pursuit. Blueblood looked outright terrified as he kept looking over his shoulder at his Aunt Luna as she glared unblinkingly at him with predatory eyes and a wicked smile on her face as she concocted her plan for his punishment, as for Upper Crust and Jet Set, they just tried to blow it all off, that is until Luna gave them some “encouragement” by threatening to deal with their punishment herself like she was going to do with Blueblood unless they gave a more convincing apology. Something about the overly excited look in her eyes about dealing with their punishments herself was enough to convince the couple to try again.
Each one of the nobles were assigned their own parole guard, who will help them keep track of their punishments, they will make sure that the nobles one, pay for any of the damages they caused in full, such as the carts that Enterprise accidently crushed, the warehouse Jet Set squashed, any hoof print craters that were not filled, giant globs of hair gel, and any damaged buildings or houses they had ruined, Sturdy Step was exempt from this because she didn’t really damage anything or fixed what she did damage. The next task of the parole guard was to ensure that the nobles kept up with their community service hours and weren’t skipping out. And the final job they had was to keep a general eye on them, to make sure they didn’t try to meet up for another size related rendezvous.
Study Step however, had a specific request for Princess Celestia in regard to her community service hours. There was one particular place she had in mind to help, if the Princess could contact the owners and get their permission of course.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
A stallion’s ears perked up as he heard somepony knocking on the front door “Honey, could you get the door please?” He asked as he delicately continued to sew together the hat he was working on. “Ok dear!” came a mare’s voice as she walked down a flight of stairs. Unlocking the door, she was able to behold who was outside. “Honey, it’s our new recruit!” came the mare’s voice. The stallion blinked, before getting up from his pillow on the ground and abandoning his workplace. On his way to the front door, he called for his son so he could come see the hired help for himself. Once at the door, the stallion broke out into a smile as he beheld the pony at the door “Well, are you back for more exciting adventures on our humble cotton farm Ms. Sturdy Step?” he asked, “I hope you can keep up with us little guys,”
Chuckling, Sturdy stepped forward and shook the stallion’s hoof “I’m happy to be back sir and thank you for you and your wife to let me work off my community service hours here,” she said. The couple nodded and turned to Sturdy’s parole officer who had cleared his throat. “Mr. and Mrs. Turner, I trust you have seen and finalized all of the arrangements,” he asked in his gruff voice. Mrs. Turner nodded “Of course officer, Sturdy will be staying at our home with food and board while she works off her hours. The Princess was kind enough to compensate us for the time herself,”
The Officer nodded “Very well then, everything seems to be in order here. I’ll leave you all to get settled and then I’ll come back tomorrow when Sturdy starts her first day on the job,”
The family waved the officer goodbye and headed back inside their house, calling for their son again to meet their newest guest. There was a scurry of little hooves pattering their way down the stairs before the small coffee colored young colt came into the room. “Hey son, want to say hi to our new guest?” asked Mrs. Turner.
“Ok mom!” squeaked Thimble as he tried to look past his parents to see the mystery visitor. Smiling, his parents stepped to the side revealing Sturdy Step, who was grinning at him sheepishly “Hey kiddo, I’m back,” she said.
Thimble gasped loudly and ran forward, tackling Sturdy Step in a huge hug with all of his little might “You’re back! And you’re small like us now!” he said happily as he nuzzled into her chest. Stopping for a second, he pulled back and stared at her with wide curious eyes “Where did you go?” He asked, “A few scary looking guards came down from the sky and took you away with them.”
“Well, the thing is, I got into a little trouble kiddo, but your parents were kind enough to let me stay here for the time being so I can work out my community service hours,” Sturdy answered honestly.
Thimble blinked and cocked his little head to the side “So does that mean you’re grounded? That’s what happens when you get in trouble right?”
Sturdy and Thimble’s parents burst out laughing at the innocent question while Thimble looked around in confusion, wondering what was so funny “Yeah, you could say that,” Sturdy said grinning as she wiped a tear of laughter from her eye “For the time being I’ll be living here though,”
Thimble gasped again “Does this mean you’re gonna be my new big sister?!” he asked.
Sturdy nodded with a smile “Yeah, that definitely makes me your big sis Sturdy kiddo. And I’m more than happy to be here right now,”
All at once Thimble Turner began to jump up and down ecstatically “YAY! Sturdy’s my new sister!” he chanted, prancing around in a circle. Everypony laughed happily at the young colt’s enthusiasm as they all went together into the family room to get settled in, Sturdy happy to now be part of the family.
Blueblood awoke from his sleep with groan. Shaking the sleep from his head, he groggily looked around. He blinked sleepily as he only saw pitch blackness around him so he rubbed his eyes again, but this yielded the same thing. “Why is it so dark in my room? Shouldn’t Auntie Celestia have risen the sun by this point?” he wondered as he made to roll out of bed, only to roll completely onto his back “What’s going on here? Why aren’t I in bed?” Blueblood wondered out loud as he tapped the floor, which made a high pitch Tink! Tink! Tink! sound every time he tapped it. Shrugging, he began to walk forward, only to not get far before hitting his head against a seemingly invisible barrier with another Tink!
Clutching his head with a hoof, he reached out again and tapped the barrier. Only to freeze as his hoof came into contact with it again. “What is this?” he wondered “This is no magic barrier I’ve ever seen, it’s almost like it’s…glass?”
An unsettling feeling began to grow in his stomach as he felt around, trying to find out how far the glass wall spanned for, fear beginning to settle in now as he realized the glass wall made a perfect circle around him. “W-Where-Where am I?!” Blueblood yelled, now fully panicking.
Suddenly, he felt his entire world around him shake from the sound of earthquakes, Blueblood crouched down towards the ground to stabilize himself from falling over as the thunderous noise reverberated through the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Suddenly, sunlight poured in as something was removed from his glass prison. Blueblood squinted in the sudden bright light, trying to make out his surroundings as his eyes adjusted to the influx of light, but as soon as they did, he stared up and let out a high-pitched squeal of fright.
Towering above him, was the monstrous, mountainous form of his gigantic Aunt Luna.
But the fear didn’t stop there, because Blueblood looked past Luna in his panic and was able to make out the background setting. That being Luna’s room. A pit formed in Blueblood’s stomach as he realized what was going on. Luna wasn’t giant, he was tiny, like really, really, REALLY tiny. And his glass “prison” wasn’t even a prison, it was a glass jar.
Smirking, Luna tossed aside the black cloth she had been using to cover up the jar as she leaned down, pressing her muzzle against the smooth surface. “Well, hello down there my VERY little nephew,” she said grinning as she heard Blueblood squeak out in fright and back away against the back wall of the jar. Luna chuckled darkly at the sight, as her eyes began to glow with magic “I hope you’re ready to face your punishment dear nephew, I am, as they say, extremely unhappy with the way you and your associates acted yesterday. You not only scared many innocent ponies with your little stunt, but you just had to keep rambling on about your insipid need for bits. And for that, you will pay dearly by my hoof. And I will see to it PERSONALLY!” Luna declared loudly as she stood back up at her full height, towering over the jar while ignoring Blueblood’s incomprehensible squeaks of fear.
Magic began to swirl around Luna, engulfing her in a dark blue glow, down below Blueblood averted his eyes from the bright light, and when he opened his eyes again to look up at Luna, he promptly screamed like a little filly again.
Luna was gone, and in her place, grinning evilly down at him, was the titanic form of Nightmare Moon. “Oh yes, how I have waited for this,” Nightmare Moon hissed through her fangs.
“Wh-Wh-What are you gonna do to me?!?” Blueblood squeaked out in terror, his legs quivering uncontrollably “Oh my goodness it’s really true isn’t it? You really do eat foals when they misbehave don’t you Auntie Luna! You’re going to eat me too aren’t you!”
Nightmare Moon deadpanned at him “Of course not you silly little colt. One, that’s gross, and two, you’re probably spoiled rotten inside, pun intended. I have other plans for you,” she said, another devilish grin beginning to creep across her face
“L-l-l-like what?” Blueblood stammered
Nightmare Moon said nothing as she plopped down on her hunches, still grinning. The impact of her gigantic moons hitting the ground shook Blueblood off his hooves and onto the ground. As he got back onto his hooves, he looked upwards and saw that his mountainous aunt had materialized a skyscraper sized book into her hooves. Nightmare Moon glanced down at Blueblood with another evil grin “Your punishment I have laid out little colt is this: since you forced the entire population of Canterlot to listen to your boring speech about what you wanted to do with the extra bits, now I’m going to make you listen to the most boring book in existence, Moby Dick. You will remain shrunken down for the whole day as you listen to me read this to you! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Nightmare Moon cackled as she opened the book, ignoring Blueblood’s high pitched squeals of terror
“No! Not old, classic literature! Please! Anything but that!” He cried out. But his pleas fell on enormous deaf ears as Nightmare Moon began to read in the most boring, monotone voice she could possibly manage “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”
“This is going to be a long day,” sighed Blueblood as he plopped down on his stomach, holding his hooves over his ears as he tried, and failed to block out his titanic aunt’s loud, thunderous voice booming above him.
The campsite where this all started was left abandoned. In the excitement of the day, nopony even thought to go back to the place where it all started and recollect their belongings. The noble’s hooded cloaks laid forgotten on the ground, the campfire had long gone out, and a familiar spell book still lay activated, pulsing uncontrollably with wild energy.
…wait, what?
Slowly the spell book began to levitate, Blueblood’s magical residue still left on the book because he never ended the spell. It was still activated. And it was growing in power again, preparing to unleash one final growth spell to expel all the remaining magic inside it Blueblood foolishly left unchecked.
…The End?