Size Doesn't Matter

by Pixel Berry

Chapter 7

“Sir? Sir!? Captain!? Are you alright?” A voice spoke, sounding a bit blurry. Shining Armor opened her eyes, his head feeling lightheaded. He rose, the rush causing him to fall and crash onto the floor. Some panicked voices picked him up and set him back into the bed he laid on.

“Please, try not to move, sir.” One of his lieutenants spoke. “The Doctor said you took quite a beating. Can you tell us what happened?” Shining laid back, his mind a bit fuzzy, but he remembered.

“They came.” He answered. “The Ant-Man and The Wasp-Woman… they took a piece of the Crystal Heart.” Various murmurs were heard.

“Yes… it's a good thing they only took a small piece. Any piece larger and the Crystal Empire would become a frozen wasteland.”

“Tried to fight them… they were strong… MUCH stronger than I thought.”

“Really? So you're saying that, despite being the size of an insect, they threw you into one of the pillars, rendering you unconscious?” Shining nodded. “Incredible!”

“... Call me crazy, but I don't think they're actually a threat.” Confused murmurs broke out.

“Can you explain?”

“When I tried to squish the Wasp-Woman, her partner saved her.”

“I'm pretty sure he just wanted her to-”

“He told her to get another piece. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save her… if they really hated each other and only used each other, surely, he would've left her. But he didn't… almost as if they were friends.”

“... Sir, I'm sure there are other factors behind this. Lime maybe she had him under a spell.”

“Or they're only doing this because they have to. If they were looking out for themselves, then there would only be one ‘threat’, but something tells me they're in this together. You can watch the footage in my helmet camera and judge for yourself, I've made mine.”

“... As you say, your highness.”

“... Are Cadence and Flurry alright?”

“Flurry's alright, your wife is just shaken. She reported that the Ant-Man was on Flurry's chest and making her laugh while the Wasp-Woman was sipping hot cocoa.”

“... They didn't run away? But… why?”

“We don't know, sir. Our staff is cleaning the mess as we speak… and Flurry wanted to share you this.” A piece of paper was handed to him. Shining took the paper and looked at it. It was a childish drawing of herself, having what looked like a tea party, but on the table was a stick figure drawing of the duo, but their names were written. Above the Ant-Man was “Jon” with a backward ‘n’ and above the Wasp-Woman’s was ‘Liss’. Despite being a baby, Flurry was exceptionally intelligent, getting the names of the ‘threats’. He only smiled.

“I should hire them as a babysitter when this is over.”

~-~-~

John and Liz sat by the doors to the furnace of the train. The conductor didn't see them, too busy shoveling coal to notice them. Surprisingly, it was pretty quiet inside, and their shards, despite glowing, were well hidden.

“So… when this is all over, what should we do?” John asked. “I mean… we'll be easy to find targets.”

“Well, perhaps we should try and fix some things we caused, but if they still think we’re bad, then I guess we should travel this world and see if there’s any way we can get back home,” Liz explained, messing with her own shard as it was rather smooth, and strangely cold even though they were in the engine room of the train.

“I'm down for fixing stuff we caused, but what if we're stuck here? What if there's no way for us to get home to our friends and family back home? Not trying to sound like a pessimist, just throwing out a possibility.”

“Well, it’s just a possibility. I don't want to think of the worst, seeing what we’re going through just to be normal size again.” Liz said, not wanting to think about that yet. “Let’s just focus on what we’re trying to do now. So what’s next?”

“Actually, the ants already got that covered. They have the blueprints to the machine and have set up our new base of operations within Manehatten’s dump. They'll be getting the necessary stuff to help us charge these gems up and place them in our suits, thus, allowing us to grow and shrink at will, nearly with no need to charge.”

“Well, that’s really good to hear. Let’s hope it won’t take months for this to be finished, I just want to walk around without nearly being stepped on… fatally at least.” She mumbled, unsure if being her normal height would be a good idea.

“Relax. All we gotta do is give them a nice treat. Pretty sure anything will do… but if I say, I think we should just turn ourselves in after fixing what we made.”

“Yeah, not like we have anywhere else to go.” She shrugged, resting her head on the crystal on her lap.

“I mean… if it's possible, we can be released on good behavior… assuming the justice system isn't as messed up as back at home.” He rested on his crystal shard. “Well, whatever happens, I just hope nothing insane happens.

~-~-~

Somewhere in the bowels of Klooge Town, underneath the desert town's roads, in its sewers, a hooded figure made its way through. Rats and spiders decorated the sewer’s brick and spiders, the only light coming in through the some of the entrances. Despite the horrid smell and diseases everywhere, the figure continued, not stopping for anything… until it stood at a wall. It's clawed paw touched the wall, glowing a light blue, with the bricks parting open, revealing a secret entrance that's lit by torches. They walked in, the entrance closing immediately as they entered, and growling was heard.

The figure strolled in, the hallway soon revealing large studies of sorts with arcane signals decorating the walls, floors, and ceiling. Books laid everywhere, along with some artifacts, and jars containing small versions of plants and creatures… with some of the creatures banging on the glass jars, begging to be free. But in the middle of it all, a large, blue dragon wearing armor, with under curved horns on the side of its head, was chained up, it's mouth covered by a muzzle. Its eyes opened, seeing the figure, and attempted to roar, but only a muffled growl came out.

“Shh… don't work yourself yet, oh mighty Torch.” The figure spoke with a woman's voice, which had a slight purr to it. “You have an easy task ahead of you; Send Equestria my message on who and what can use magic. Do this, and you'll be free. Don't, and… well…” Her hand glowed green. The dragon’s eyes glowed green, as it made a painful whimper. “You wouldn't want the current dragonlord to have a bad encounter with a roc, do we?” She added, holding a jar that had a small falcon inside. The dragon shook its head, not wanting it to hurt the Dragonlord. “Purr-fect. And don't you dare try to fight back! Do that, and you'll be in Tartarus much faster. Do we have a deal?” The dragon nodded. Its muzzle came right off, followed by the rest of its chains. Despite this being its chance to attack, maybe even eating the small figure, it didn't want to risk it; she was an already powerful sorcerer.

“What is your name… master?” The dragon asked in a deep, gruff voice that had a hint of rage in it. Saying ‘master’ had disgust in his tone. The figure took her hood off. Its head was a feline of sorts with a lion's mane.

“Katrina. And be sure to attack that city, Manehatten. Do what you see to get them to listen.”

“Y-yes… master…” The ceiling broke open, allowing him to fly out. It took that chance, the local residents running away from terror from the sight of a dragon. He flew past the town, heading Northeast to the pony city.

~-~-~

Both John and Liz arrived at the dumpster, with John rolling in a hot dog stand… with the weiner being replaced by a carrot. It took the two some time to find the dumpster, with Liz leading the way as John followed with his ‘Runaway cart’. The ants were more than happy to receive more food, as the machine was nearly completed. A jar of Twittermites was connected, with the only thing needed was a few coils and their shards.

“Care to help them finish?” John asked as the ants surrounded him. “I've got to help these guys get these… carrot dogs… inside their new home.”

“Eh, might as well.” She shrugged, not saying a word as she brought the two shards close to the machine while the ants still working helped bring the cords she was tasked to help them with. “Hope these twittermites won’t want to mate with me as well.” She said, shivering a little.

An ant shook its head, pointing to the jar. The Twittermites were all focused on her, having a ravenous look in their eyes.

“I am not making the same mistake again!” She said, letting the twittermites know that she won’t let them out. “And once I get back to normal size, I don’t think even one of you could last with me.” She added, more thinking out loud than anything else.

A few minutes had passed, but the machine was functional. It wasn't exactly the best-looking thing, but considering how it was made out of trash, the presentation was the least of their worries. John walked beside Liz, seeing the device, and the Twittermites charging it. He placed a hand on her shoulder, making a hug.

“Isn't it beautiful?” He asked. “Our hard work, finally paying off.” The ants walked to him and made angry clicks. “Uh… ok, you deserve the credit, ALL of it, in fact. Your sacrifices won't be forgotten, fair Ant-Hony, Ant-Onio, Ant-itkin, Ant-”

“If you do this, we're gonna die of old age!” Liz shouted.

“Uh… sorry. You guys better stand back.” The ants scurried a few inches away. “I mean more, like… a mile, at least.” Some confirmed clicks and the ants disappeared from sight. “... Ready?”

“As I'll ever be.”

The two went to the machine, both placing their shard in a tube and closing it tightly. John went to the lever and, with some silent tension, pulled it. A huge burst of light erupted, making John and Liz cover their eyes. As soon as it ended, the Twittermites, while still alive, were sluggish and dull, but their shards glowed even brighter. Excitement filled the duo as they took their shard out.

“...How do we put it in?” Liz asked.

“Our backpacks, of course!” John answered. He walked around and pressed a button on the back of Liz, making the compartment open up. Liz felt John place the shard in her backpack area, hoping he didn't destroy her wings. “Whoo! A perfect fit!” He shut her pack and turned to her. “Put the shard in! We'll grow big together!”

“Alright, alright. Not like I know how to do that anyways.” She mumbled, taking the shard left out for him and tried to do the same thing, it being fairly easy to open the backpack and find the obvious spot to place the shard, it clicks into place before she closed the pack. “Okay, I think I did it right.”

“Oh man, I'm so excited! At the count of 3, we'll press the right button on our hands and go back to normal! You ready?” Before she could answer, he began. “One.”

Liz was affected by his excitement, joining in. “Two.”

“Three!” They shouted in unison and clicked the button on their hands at the same time.

~-~-~

Everything was calm on the streets of Manehatten. Besides the sight of a runaway Carrot Dog stand, nothing crazy happened. But a deity must've overheard somepony wishing for something exciting to happen, as in Manehatten’s dump, two giants suddenly appeared out of thin air! Both were about the size of the local skyscrapers, towering over everything below them. Mass panic broke out, as the giants looked down at them.

~-~-~

“What the-!? What's going on!? What happened!?” John asked, surprised to see that the gigantic city they were in ned into a set in a Kaiju movie. The ponies below that they avoided ran in fear, their screams sounding high pitch to the duo. Liz looked at her wrist, seeing her personal computer.

“We have too much energy!” She shouted. “We're giants now! There was a miscalculation, and this happened! You should've taken the small shard, you idiot!”

“Hey! I was being safe in case it didn't work! For all we know, either those shards would've exploded from so much energy, or we may be midgets!” Their argument came to a halt as a roar was heard. They looked up to see a huge dragon, about as big as them was flying overhead. It's maw released flames that caused several building to catch on fire.

“Perhaps we should figure how to do this before that dragon fries us.” Liz suggested, figuring to just shrink down and flee instead of fight and possibly cause more problems on their ‘reputation’.

“Yeah. We should.” He cracked his knuckles and neck, picking up a boulder (now a rock for him) and chucked it at the dragon. It missed, but the dragon turned to see the two. “Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!?”

~-~-~

Despite Torch being considered ‘free’, Katrina watched through the eyes of the retired Dragonlord. She was taken back by the sight of the two giants, one male, and the other female. Were they the city's protectors!? Who were they!? … It didn't matter. They had to go.

“Torch!” She hissed “Change of plans! Destroy those two!!!”

~-~-~

The dragon roared at them, landing on the floor, making the floor shake. If flared it's wings and charged at them. John got into a sprinting position.

“What are you doing!?” Liz yelled. “You can't beat a dragon!”

“I know. That's why you're helping me.”

“What!?” John sprinted to the dragon, his stomps leaving a huge footprint in the floor, destroying a few wagons, luckily, with no pony on board. The sight turned into a clash between two titans, as John and the dragon were locked in arms with each other, both trying to overpower each other. Everything below ran out of the city as fast as their legs could take them.

The dragon delivered a headbutt to John, knocking him back, with it grabbing his legs and spinning in a circle. His head knocked the corner of a building clean off. Were it not for his helmet, John would most likely be in serious pain, if not, worse. He was thrown to the side, right into the city's central park, with the dragon leaping after him.

Liz watched the sight of John battling the dragon on his own, unsure if she should join or not. But her sight turned to see one of the buildings crumble, with a large crowd below it, mostly consisting of foals that looked like they were with some scouts and elderly folk. The building cracked, and it all began to tumble. Before she could even think if she could lift something huge or not, adrenaline kicked in, as she ran to the crumbling building. Before the piece of the building could fall, Liz interfered, using her back and arms to hold the falling structure up, preventing it from falling. The foals and elderly’s screams halted as they saw their giant savior, holding the architecture up with all her strength, but was obviously struggling to keep it up.

“G-go! Get… out of… here!” She winced but still kept on trying to keep the piece of building from falling on the ponies. With a final grunt, she was able to toss the chunk of building into the body of water that surrounded the city, the only way coming across being a large red bridge that looked a lot like the golden gate bridge back on earth. There were a large splash and a huge wave that most likely knocked some ponies by the edge off their hooves, but she would assume that no one got hurt. She turned to see John was still fighting the dragon but obviously struggling. It became apparent that she needed to help him.

John was running out of breath as he battled the dragon. He grabbed onto its right horn with his left hand, holding it down, right before using his right elbow to knock its head in. Needless to say, it didn't work as the dragon tripped him with its tail and got on top of John as he laid on his back. His reaction was quick when he stopped the dragon’s claws from slashing at his face, grabbing its claws with his hands. The dragon snarled at him, some drool covering his lenses.

“Ugh! Gross!” John yelled. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Liz approaching… holding a freight ship like a baseball bat. He smirked underneath, using his legs to kick the dragon off. It slid backward, roaring at John.

“Hey! Ugly!” Liz yelled. The dragon turned to Liz, only to see that she was already in a swinging position. She swung her ‘bat’ at the dragon, locking it into the ocean, though it broke upon impact. It fell into the ocean with a splash, with Liz tossing her broken piece into the water and offered a hand to John. John accepted it, with Liz helping him get back up. “What were you thinking!? You could've died!”

“I know, but I sorta knew this would happen.”

“Us becoming giants?”

“No. Heroes!” The water splashed as the dragon got up, turning to them with bloodshot eyes. John picked up some freights with his hand, crushing them a bit “Shall we? As a duo this time?” Liz nodded.

“Let's get his armor off first and see if he has a soft underbelly.”

“My thoughts exactly.” They both ran into the ocean, John using his makeshift brass knuckles to deliver a few solid punches to their opponent, all while Liz jumped onto the dragon's back and got him in a chokehold. Liz held on as the dragon tried to throw her off, using its wings to shake her off, but John used both of his hands to smack both sides of the dragon's head with his freighters. To add more insult to injury, John grabbed its horns, lurched it's head forward, right before using his right knee to knock it's front teeth out.

The dragon shook itself back, feeling it's cracked and missing teeth with its tongue, then growled loudly. It shook Liz off before throwing her at John. The two were thrown back a bit, splashing a bit, and slid back, with John’s head lightly tapping one of the columns to the bridge. Their opponent's glowed, with heat waves escaping.

“FIRE!!!” John and Liz shouted in unison, jumping out of the way as the fire hit the side of the bridge. Liz’ wings popped right out, allowing her to jump right over the beast (saddened she couldn't fly, but rather, jump higher and glide), and grabbed it in a full nelson. She used her knees to kick the dragon's back, the force of her kick causing the dragon's breastplate to fall off. Its underbelly was as it was to be expected; a different colored (it being yellow), and soft looking, but it was covered in deep scars that looked painful if touched. John could tell it was going to hurt.

“Hold still!” He shouted. John ran to the two, with Liz holding the struggling giant in place. With a jump, John drop kicked the dragon's underbelly, prompting it to bellow in pain, as old scars seemed to reopen. Liz watched as John got right up and backed up again, going for another one. She followed through, as the dragon continued to fight back. Her partner ran again delivering another dropkick, seemingly making the wounds hurt even more. Their opponent's movements dwindled, too much in pain.

“Uh… John?” Liz spoke.

“One more shall do it.” He spoke, getting ready for one more. John ran for the third one

“No! Please! No more! I surrender!” The dragon pleaded. John stopped his running but slid and fell over, landing on his bottom with a splash. Liz released the dragon, who flopped with a weak wheeze onto the walkway. The two humans stood, tired, but victorious.

“W-We did it,” Liz spoke, contemplating what happened. “John! We beat a dragon!”

“Indeed, we did!” John cheered before turning to their defeated opponent. “Alright, Mr. Dragon, what's the big deal attacking a city like that!?”

“Please… I didn't… mean to…” Their dragon huffed. Liz saw how much in pain the dragon was, helping it sit right up.

“You didn't mean to?” She asked. “Surely, you're mistaking a city for a medieval village, aren't you?”

“No… I was… forced to.”

“Forced?” John asked. “By who and what for?”

“Only did it… to protect… my daughter...she… she's watching.”

“Hey! Enough with the pronoun game! We need answers!”

“John! Shush up!” Liz yelled. The dragon’s eyes glowed green, making it sit erect. The duo stood back, unsure what was going on.

“Quite fascinating.” Their dragon spoke, a mixture of its own voice, and the voice of some woman. “You two have managed to defeat Torch, the oldest and mightiest, now retired, Dragonlord. I was going to have a roc devour his daughter, Ember, but you two have peaked my interest.” John grabbed the dragon by its shoulders.

“Alright! Who is this!?” He demanded, “Why'd you make this dragon attack innocent civilians!?”

“Ah, tsk tsk tsk. The name's Katrina, the sorcerer of sorcerers, and as for this, it was to have everyone know who I am. But it seems you will get that attention… I would normally hate it, but you have my respect. I only have one question: who are you?” Liz looked up to see small news carriages have pulled up, starting to take pictures and record the two. John smiled as this was their time to shine.

“Alright… we'll tell you Who we are. We're the Ant-Man and The Wasp! No task is too big or small for us, because together, size doesn't matter!” A ding was heard. John and Liz looked to their wrists, saying that their power was now at back to normal.

“... I will see you both soon, Ant-Man and Wasp.” Torch’s eyes went back to normal, but he fell onto his back. Liz placed her left hand on his neck, and the other on over his right claw.

“He's unconscious.” She concurred, relieved.

“Good to know,” John replied, turning to the crowd that gathered, cheering for them. “Hmm… should we join them?”

“Maybe… but maybe I’m getting really tired…” She said, starting to feel drowsy all of a sudden. Without any warning, she fell onto her back, nearly submerging under the water while Torch was still above, lying atop of her.

“Liz? You feeling… alright?” John asked, feeling lightheaded himself. That's when he remembered that being giant made them get exhausted quickly. With his remaining energy, he pushed Torch off and pressed Liz’ button for her, making her shrink back to her normal size. He picked her up before falling onto his chest, the crowd running away as his hand fell to the floor, opening with Liz inside of it. His vision became blurry, but he pressed the button on his suit, making him shrink back to his normal size. All he could see before passing out was some ponies arriving in armor, telling everyone to back away and get them out of their suits.

“... Balls.” He muttered before falling asleep.