“Princess Celestia.” Came a steely voice. It was one of Celestia’s palace guards, walking towards her before he bowed.
“What is it?” Celestia asked.
“There is a very large horse standing outside. He requests an audience with you.”
Celestia thought about what was said for a moment. It sounded very unusual indeed. Most horses or ponies in Equestria weren’t too large. She was one of the taller ones to be sure. Regardless, she nodded. “Thank you.”
Celestia walked out to the main doors of the palace and opened the door with her magical horn. Looking out, then up, she gasped. There, standing before her, with plenty of pegasuses crowded around his hooves, was a very large horse, each hoof being about the size of a carriage. Its coat was tan, and its mane and tail were red, orange, and yellow. Its eyes were almost brown.
“Hello your majesty,” the horse said, bowing its head.
--
Up on the balcony of the palace, Celestia talked almost face to face with the large horse. “Where did you come from?” She asked.
The large horse spoke. “I came from Manehattan. I worked at one of the factories.”
“Hmmm.” The princess said, “I hadn’t heard of a horse your size being in these parts.”
“Well, yes, ma’am, you wouldn’t have, because I only grew to this size over the past few months.”
“Oh.” Celestia said, nodding in understanding, “were you under a spell?”
The horse thought for a second. “Not that I can remember.”
“Well,” the princess said, “how about I try to shrink your size just a bit, if I may.”
The horse nodded. “Yes please your majesty.”
Celestia’s horn brightened, and a great light enveloped the large horse, who slowly started to shrink.
With a poof, the horse was the size of one of the larger horses, like one of the palace guards.
Celestia smiled at her success, then gasped as the horse shot up again, back to his normal size.
The horse looked around, a little distressed. “Oh, I’m sorry your majesty.”
Celestia smiled. “That’s quite alright sir.”
“Oh, please, call me Specks.” The horse said, bowing his head.
“Alright then, Specks,” Celestia replied, “I would like you to stay nearby if that’s alright. I’m not sure how I could acclimate you to life here with so many smaller ponies.”
Specks nodded, though looked very uncomfortable about all that had happened.
--
Twilight got the news from Princess Celestia early the next morning. After quickly rounding up her friends, they made their way to Canterlot. Upon walking through the city, Twilight’s companions were a little more than confused about why they were in Canterlot again. Twilight didn’t give them too many details.
“So, why are we here, Twilight?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah, you said something about a large horse being here?” Rainbow Dash said.
“That’s all the princess told me,” Twilight said, looking around for the horse the princess spoke of, “she said there was a very large horse here, and just wanted us to check him out.”
“Well, I certainly hope he hasn’t hurt anyone. I could just imagine if he were to walk about stomping on things—” Rarity stopped, gasping.
--
Specks stayed almost a stone-throws distance of Celestia’s palace, being watched over by the palace guards. It wasn’t that the princess feared Specks wouldn’t be obedient to her request, she’d figured he was a trustworthy horse. It was more for the protection of the inquiring populous of Canterlot, who might easily get themselves hurt in trying to study the large wonder.
Specks stayed in a sitting position and raised his head upon seeing six members of the populous come towards him. But only two of them were unicorns, he noted curiously. Two flew in the air, one more so than the other, and two of them didn’t have any outstanding features at all, like himself (accept for his size).
Specks felt so embarrassed by everything all he could do was give the gaping six a friendly smirk then turn his head away with a frown.
--
“H-hello sir.” Twilight said, a little dumbfounded. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends. The princess sent us to see if we could help you.”
The horse nodded. “The princess told me you’d come. I’m Specks.” Twilight nodded in recognition.
“So, how’d you get so big anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked.
The horse shrugged. “I grew this tall just over the past two months.”
“Did somepony cast a spell on you?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking very curiously at him.
“Not that I know of.” The horse said, face still downcast.
“Perhaps you’d been afflicted by that dreadful ‘poison joke’ plant?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know what that is.” The large horse replied.
Twilight’s horn began to glow. She brought it near the horse’s body and cast a memory spell. Images of the odd plants came to the horse’s mind, and after a few seconds, the spell left.
The horse shook his head. “Haven’t seen those flowers anywhere. I used to live in Manehattan. I came here to start over. To try my hoof at writing. It was on the road that I grew this way.”
“Manehat’n?” Applejack said. “Huh, don’t recon anyone could have foul played you there. Too many hoity-toity ponies there.”
The horse nodded, understanding.
--
Specks felt awful talking to the six ponies before him. He came to Ponyville in hopes of having a more secluded life because of his time in Manehattan. Now he was like some circus freak. He couldn’t keep his face from showing it, and he felt inclined to say something.
Specks sighed before he spoke. “I’m sorry I’m troubling you, or anyone. I didn’t want it to be this way.”
The purple one spoke up. “That’s alright. We just hope we can find a way to get you back to normal size.” All the other ponies nodded.
Specks smirked. “Thank you. I hope it won’t take too long.”
“Well, until then, you got a place to sleep?” The orange one asked.
Specks looked down at the palace guards. He really didn’t want to stay in the sitting position for too much longer. “Not really, no.” Specks replied.
“Well,” the orange one said, then spoke to her friends in hushed tones. Everyone seemed to agree, then she turned to him. “I’ve got a pretty big barn you could stay in if you wanted.”
Specks nodded. “Thank you. That’s a very nice offer.”
--
As Specks took the long road down to Ponyville, the six friends spoke rapid-fire as they flew down to Ponyville via a Pegasus-drawn carriage, with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash flanking them.
“How are we gonna’ get that big guy from crushing anyone?” Rainbow Dash said, being as blunt as usual.
“I think that’s the least of our worries,” Twilight chimed in, “If he stays on Sweet Apple Acres, everything should be ok. The tricky thing will be how to get him down to normal size again.”
“I’d never SEEN a horse so big!” Pinkie Pie noted. “We’ll have to throw an EXTRA big party for him.” She continued, thoughtfully tapping her fore-hoof to her chin.
“Pinkie, we don’t have time for that yet.” Then Twilight stopped herself. Perhaps she was over thinking things. If Specks wasn’t growing any bigger, than she wouldn’t have to worry about restoring him to normal size for at least a couple of days, giving her plenty of time to research.
“Well, maybe we could do something for him.” Twilight said, reconsidering.
“I agree.” Rarity said. “He looked simply mortified at his condition. Goodness knows how it must feel, to come to a place where you know no one and you’re suddenly the talk of the town.”
Twilight nodded, understanding.
“Applejack, are you sure your barn will be able to hold Specks?”
Applejack nodded. “Yep, I’m sure. There’ll probably be room to spare too.”
Twilight nodded. “Well, I’ll see what I can find out in the library. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on him for the next couple of days.”
“I just hope he doesn’t eat all our apples. I wonder how much that horse could eat.” Applejack wondered.
--
Specks knelt down in the Apple family barn. Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, and Applebloom all looked in awe at the large horse as Applejack settled him in.
“So, uh, the ground should be pretty comfy, I put up some hay for you to lie on.” The cowpony said with a smile.
Specks nodded. “Thanks.” He said.
“Your welcome.” Applejack said, then turned to the other three. “Alright now, enough gay-pin’ y’all, give the horse some privacy, alright?” That got the three off to do other things. AppleJack smiled back at Specks. “You don’t fret now, Sugarcube,” She said, putting a hoof on one of Speck’s large ones. “My friends and I’ll do all that we can to help you.”
Specks nodded again. “Thanks. I hope I don’t make any trouble.”
“Oh, you won’t, I’m sure.” Applejack said encouragingly.