> Sweetie Belle's Big Problem
>  by Appleglenn
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> A Taste of the Big Life
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	Sweetie Belle was bored as usual. She had only been at the clubhouse for ten minutes and already she was wishing she had taken up Apple Bloom’s offer to have her help with the farmpony’s after-school chores. When Bloom had asked if she wanted to help, she said she couldn't because she and Rarity were going out to eat with mom and dad later tonight. Her sister would kill her if she showed up with even a speck of dirt on her. Now she thought that even a fight with Rarity would be better than this boredom. Scootaloo was with Rainbow Dash working on some wing exercises or something. Both girls said they would be at the clubhouse around four-thirty. Sweetie looked at the clock on the wall and it read 3:16. “Ugh, over an hour longer to wait.”
As often happened when Sweetie was bored, she was hungry. She looked around and saw an opened bag of veggie chips. “Mmmm. That'll hit the spot.” The salty snacks were a bit stale, but still pretty good. “Now I need a drink.” she thought as she headed to the little cupboard where they kept juice boxes. The filly frowned as she opened the door and realized they were out of juice. A little note in her own muzzlewriting had been left to tell Apple Bloom to bring more juice. The earth pony had written in the margin a little “OK” to let her know that she had gotten the message. Bloom was probably bringing some more this afternoon, but Sweetie really wanted a drink now. “Why does this stuff always happen to me!” she yelled out loud in her frustration.
Just then her eye caught a bottle of a pink liquid over by Apple Bloom's stuff. “Wonder what that is?” thought Sweetie Belle as she walked over towards the desk. It was about the size of a milk bottle and was stoppered with a wide cork. Sweetie's desire to quench her thirst was driving her crazy so she immediately reached down with her teeth to take off the cork. Then she thought, “No, this good practice with my magic.” Twilight said her magic was getting better but she needed to work on precise tasks before she would be ready to learn to write using it. Concentrating on the cork a pale green glow surrounded it and gently lifted it from the bottle. Sweetie smiled as she put the cork down, “Good job.”, Twilight would be proud of her. She bent over and sniffed the contents. It looked like pink lemonade but she noticed some bubbles. “Hmmm. Never heard of fizzy lemonade, and it doesn't smell like lemons.” For a moment she thought better of drinking this strange liquid, but then figured it couldn't hurt to take just a sip. Lifting the bottle with her magic she put it to her lips. It tasted faintly of strawberries and tingled her tongue. “Mmmm, tasty” she thought. She took another larger drink which filled her mouth with the tingly feeling. She was just about to gulp down some more when she realized that Apple Bloom might get mad at her for drinking her stuff. “I'll ask her when she gets here what this drink is and maybe she can get some more of it.” Gently stoppering the bottle Sweetie put it back where she had found it.
Even though she had only drunk a little her thirst was completely quenched. The tingly sensation still resonated throughout her mouth. She looked at the clock and it was just after three-thirty. Still nearly an hour until the rest of the Crusaders showed up. She might as well practice her magic like she was supposed to. Her horn lit up with the soft green glow and she focused on a book. Twilight had said that flipping pages in books was good practice. Of course everything with Twilight Sparke had to do with books, so this wasn't surprising. “Twilight could probably read books using her magic when she was a little foal.” thought Sweetie. She opened the book without much difficulty when a strange feeling overcame her. She suddenly felt super tired. With her inexperience sometimes using her magic a bunch made her tired, but she hadn't done anything other than open the bottle and book. She looked at the clock again, 3:37. She figured she might as well take a nap since focusing on her magic while tired was futile. She went over to her corner of the clubhouse where she had a small pile of pillows. The filly barely had time to arrange the pillows when her eyelids closed and she slumped down into the fluffy pile.
After what seemed like no time at all, Sweetie Belle became aware that she was awake. The nap had come on so suddenly that it took her a moment to remember where she was. She felt the wooden floor beneath her body instead of the pillows. She must have rolled off of the pillows when she fell asleep. She lifted her head from the floor and immediately felt her horn knock into something. “What the hay?” she said out loud in surprise at bumping her head. Opening her eyes she was astonished at how different everything looked.
The entire clubhouse seemed to have shrunk. Her head was now pushing up against the ceiling, her mane was entangled in the light fixture, and furniture had been knocked about. Beneath her front hooves was a pile of tiny pillows upon which she had laid down on earlier. “What happened!” she squeaked. Only her voice wasn't it's usual squeaky self. The surprised outburst rattled the glass in the windows with its unexpected volume. Then it dawned on her, the treehouse hadn't gotten smaller, she had gotten bigger.
“Oh no.” she thought as her mind instantly went to the fizzy strawberry liquid she had drunk earlier. It must have been one of Apple Bloom's plant growing potions. Why hadn't she thought of that when she saw it earlier. As usual she had done something without thinking about the consequences. “Dumb potion.” she cursed, but she was really mad at herself. Then the thought occurred to her, what if she stayed this way? What if nopony could change her back to normal? She'd be the biggest pony in all of Equestria. She could hear Rarity now, “Why oh why Sweetie did you ever have to drink that silly potion. Do you know how expensive it is to make dresses for a giant pony?” She could never seem to do anything that didn't make Rarity upset.
Dispelling that distressingly common thought she assessed her predicament. She could hardly move without breaking anything and she was afraid the entire clubhouse would collapse under her weight. She thought about yelling for help and then remembered how the windows had rattled when she had merely spoken aloud. She glanced at the tiny-looking clock on the wall which read 4:18. Scoots and AB would be here soon and would see what had happened to her. Silently she said, “What am I going to do?”
Just as this thought crossed her mind she violently hiccuped. As she hiccuped a loud belch came out of her mouth. A strawberry scent filled the air when she burped and the same tingly feeling she had when she drank the potion filled her mouth. A moment later she yelped as some of her hair was plucked from her mane. Some of the hairs had been ripped out after being stuck in the ceiling rafters. It was then she noticed that her mane was filled with cobwebs and dust from her unexpected growth high up into the normally unreachable parts of the clubhouse. “Wow, this place really could use a good dusting.” she thought. Her time around Rarity had conditioned her to think about such things even when faced with bigger problems.
She gently maneuvered her head so that she could look out a window. It seemed strange looking out the tiny window, but she wanted to know if either of the girls were about to show up early. She was careful not to smash anything in the room since she realized she could easily do so. Everything outside seemed normal as nopony was in sight. She sighed, “I guess I'll just have to wait for them and see if they can get help from Twilight or whoever.” Trouble always seemed to find Sweetie Belle even when she wasn't doing anything wrong.
At this depressing thought Sweetie hiccuped again. The same thing happened as before with a sweet smelling belch coming out at the same time. Fizzy drinks often caused Sweetie to do this, so she normally avoided them. “At least it's a nice smelling burp and that tingly feeling is good.” she thought trying to put a positive spin on the problem she faced. Just as she thought this she distinctly noticed the room change slightly. She wasn't exactly sure what it was, but things seemed different. “Probably just my mind trying to adjust to being big.” She looked at the clock and it read 4:21. Soon the other Crusaders would be here and she would have to tell them what happened. It was then that she realized what had changed, the clock didn't seem so small anymore. She slowly moved her head and noticed that it wasn't pressed up against the rafters anymore. She was definitely smaller than she was just a couple of minutes earlier. She was still huge, but she wasn't filling more than half the room anymore. The potion must be wearing off. At this positive thought she hiccup-burped again. This time she concentrated on what happened next. Sure enough a moment after the burp her body shrunk a little bit more. She was still larger than even a stallion like Big Macintosh, but at this rate she might be back to her normal size by the time anyone showed up.
Now that she wasn't a giant anymore she looked around and noticed the mess she had made of the clubhouse from her magical growth. Tables and chairs were pushed up against the walls and other objects littered the floor. Amazingly nothing had been broken. If this had happened to Apple Bloom she certainly would of smashed things to pieces since she was a bit of a klutz. Sweetie Belle didn't trust her own strength at this size so she began to straighten up the room using her magic. She noticed that at her new size her magic seemed proportionally stronger. She lifted the table like it was nothing and placed it back where it belonged. Hiccup! Again she belched and again she shrunk a little more. Looking at the clock it read 4:25. She was now just a little bigger than a mare. She had assumed that she would get into trouble for drinking the potion, but now she thought maybe she could fix everything and nopony would notice what she had done. She furiously began putting everything back in place. Physically moving stuff while simultaneously using her magic the place quickly began to look normal.
She was startled when she heard shouts from outside. Taking a peek through the window she saw Scootaloo and Apple Bloom with a wagon full of stuff in tow. “Hey Sweetie, come out and help us get these snacks and juice inside.” yelled Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle looked around. The place was looking good, but she still wasn't her normal size. Maybe she could force herself to hiccup, or burp, or whatever to make her shrink faster. “How do you make yourself burp?” she thought. Apple Bloom had burped the alphabet once, but Sweetie Belle had no idea how to do anything like that. Rarity said belching was uncouth and a lady should never do it in the presence of others. Well, nopony was around, but she still couldn't figure out how do make herself burp. She could hear the heavy clomp of Apple Bloom coming up the steps. Scootaloo continued to yell, “Sweetie, what are you doing? Come help us.” Sweetie glanced at the clock. 4:30. Well, the girls were right on time. Oh well, she was going to have to confess to drinking Apple Bloom's potion. “Hope she isn't too mad with me.” she thought. The door handle started to turn when suddenly Hiccup-Burrrrp!
As the door opened Sweetie Belle noticed herself shrinking back to her normal size. Apple Bloom slowly walked in the room balancing a box on her head. Scootaloo was right behind her with a bag of snacks in her mouth. Both looked at Sweetie Belle as they entered. Dropping the bag of snacks Scootaloo said, “What the hay Sweetie, we really could have used your magic to get these things up here.” Apple Bloom set the juiceboxes on the table, “Yeah Sweetie, y'all could've at least opened the door for us.”
Sweetie Belle rushed over to her friends and gave them a big hug. “I'm so happy to see you guys. You're just the right size for hugging.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other quizzically at this strange affection. “Ah'm happy to see ya too Sweetie.” said Apple Bloom, “Whatch'a been up to?”
“Oh, I've just been straightening up and dusting. This place was so dirty.” chirped Sweetie Belle as she noticed how disheveled she looked.
With Sweetie Belle beaming at her friends, Scootaloo said, “What's that long purple string hanging from the ceiling?
“Yeah, and is that strawberries ah smell?” said Apple Bloom as she sniffed.
Both fillies looked at Sweetie Belle. The unicorn gently avoided their gaze as she giggled, “Uh, yeah, strawberry air freshener, nothing but the best for the Crusader's clubhouse.”
The two of them only shook their heads. Scootaloo finally said “You're a mess Sweetie. Aren't you supposed to go out for a fancy dinner with your family tonight?”
“Yeah, hehe. Oh well, I guess Rarity will get mad at me.” Sweetie Belle said with a grin. “Worse things could happen than that. What's important is that the three of us will always be together as similar-sized friends.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom said in unison, “You're so weird Sweetie Belle.”