Being stuck in a crummy illusion maze? Annoying.
Being stuck in a crummy illusion maze with a magically enhanced Rainbow Dash?
“Bwaaaahhhhhh. Kssshhhh. That’s me crushing a building. Check it, I’m gonna crush another. Psshhhhhkow! Dude, you’ve been holding out on me all these years! We coulda been like, building stuff for you to destroy. Being big is sick!”
…Yeah.
“You’re real menacing, Dash. Now let’s find a way out of here.”
“What? Come on, Spike. What if I start being small again when we leave?”
“What if.”
“Oooh, I get it.” Rainbow reared up slightly and slammed a hoof down on each side of Spike. “You’re jealous!”
“I’m not.”
“You’re used to towering over all of us, but now when I make you look tiny, you can’t handle it!” she declared with a smug smile.
“I really can.”
“Oh yeah?” Stomp, stomp. “Why do you want to leave so bad, then?”
“Because we are lost in a maze, our friends are probably lost in the maze, and Discord is also here somewhere—hopefully lost.”
“Ahhh, mazes are smart pony stuff. Twilight will find us easy.” Rainbow hefted her weight into a small hop, shaking the room as she landed. “Heh, easy. How’s the weather down there, squirt?”
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“I can’t tell if she’s mad or happy or what,” Fiddlesticks said.
“Oh, she went mad a long time ago,” Lightning Dust responded.
Twilight and her companions watched as the gargantuan Rainbow Dash pounded the floor around Spike, goading him with every impact. It was not working.
“Spike?” Rarity called out.
The drake turned his head, eyes lighting up at the sight of their group. “Twilight!” He dropped to his stomach and lowered his head down to them, causing everypony except for Marble to flinch. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Spike. How about you two?”
“We–”
“Hey, Twilight!” Mega-Dash’s greeting echoed around the stone room.
“We’ve been managing,” he grumbled.
“Who’s down there? I heard you say Twilight, and I see Pinkie and Rarity and… another Rarity. Ink?”
“Yup.”
“Don’t ‘yup’ with my mouth!” Rarity gasped. “Honestly, you’re not even trying at this point.”
“Hiya, Dashie!” Pinkie shouted. “We have Princess Cadance and my sister, Marble, and these two over here are a super cute couple, their names are Fiddlesticks and Lightning Dust, and we’re all trying to find where Discord is together!”
Dash awkwardly fell into a sitting position, causing the smaller ponies to catch some airtime. “Oh, hey Lightning. Long time no, uh… congrats on the mare. Anyway– Discord. I’m ready to roll out when you all are.”
A silence stretched from one side of the chamber to the other, punctuated by a quiet groan from Spike.
“Can you ‘roll out?’” Cadance finally asked.
The few doors dotted around the walls of the room were not big enough for Spike, let alone this Giga-Dash. There was a single hallway on the far side that could possibly fit the dragon, but in Rainbow Dash’s current state…
“Assuming this is also an illusion of some kind,” – Twilight idly tapped her chin while looking up at the pegasus – “she should be more than able to fit into any space she could normally. She only looks large.”
“You mean I’m not actually big? I just think I am?” Rainbow sounded genuinely disappointed at the suggestion.
“Exactly. But we did hear her stomping from the dungeon back there… maybe it affects everypony in the vicinity. But she also just caused enough force to physically move us. Did our brains make us jump because we expected to? Or did we perceive ourselves being lifted despite remaining on the ground? What if –”
“It’s chaos magic, darling,” Rarity interrupted. “Best not to think too hard about it. Rainbow, why don’t you try making your way down that hall behind you?”
“Uh, yeah. Okay,” Rainbow began pushing herself backward into the opening. “I can—guh—do that.”
“Need a push?” Spike chuckled.
“No. Go away.” Her hooves slipped against the floor, so she raised one to the ceiling.
It didn’t help.
“Maybe.”
Spike hoisted himself onto his claws and meandered over with a chuckle. “Any magic words?”
“You’re cooler than you look and… I don’t know, your scales are shiny. Start pushing already.”
“Good enough.” With Spike’s help, Rainbow was able to cram herself slightly further down the hallway before getting stuck. “Not so fun being dragon-size when you run into this problem, huh? Oof.”
“Yeah, this sucks a bit. I feel bad thinking about all the places you can’t go. Guess being a dragon isn’t as cool as I thought it would be.”
And just like that—pop! Dash’s inflated form popped like a balloon, leaving her normal-sized body to tumble through the air for a moment before she caught herself and glided to the ground. Twilight and the rest of the group met up with the ex-titan where she landed.
“That’s more like it. Nice wingspan, pipsqueak,” Spike teased.
“Keep talkin’, Gigantor.” Dash stretched her wings out, accompanied by a sigh of relief. “Whew! Thought I would be stuck like that! Alright, Twilight, what’s the plan?”
“Find Applejack and Fluttershy, make our way to Discord, and use the elements. Simple.” The princess’s wings rustled, causing Rarity to step forward and rest her side against Twilight’s.
“We’re with you, darling,” she whispered. “You can do this. We can do this.”
With that, they set off down the grandiose hallway. From somewhere within the castle-like structure, a gentle song floated through these stony veins of chaos.