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When your mother is Twilight Sparkle, you have to be extra diligent with your studies, but today, some little worry in the back of Hex's mind was pushing her even harder, she barely noticed the sunlight seeping away at the end of the evening, books spread out around her on the grass as she scribbled notes and tried her best to memorise these dusty old tomes the princess kept safe in the castle library.
"Whilst I am sure the princess will appreciate your hard work, perhaps it is time to head inside? Night is nearly upon us and it may be a cold one tonight." the guard said carefully, cautious about interrupting his far larger and stronger charge.
"Oh, sorry I got a bit caught up in a particularly... yes, you are right, help me gather all these books up and we can return them to the library." Hex rose to her feet, a little awkward after laying in the same position so long, and instinctively crouched and stooped down as though to minimise the effect of her impressive size, not that it helped much when she towered so high above even the largest ponies in the castle grounds. The powerfully muscled half-centaur grabbed stacks of big, hefty books up in her strong hands, while the guard that was there to watch over her went to grab the last couple, only to pause a moment, a troubled expression across his face. Seconds later, the guardpony gave himself a quick shake and returned to the task in hand.
"Are you feeling alright there?" Hex's deep voice boomed even as she tried to keep it low and quiet.
"Oh, yes... my apologies, perhaps I am a little tired tonight. But not to worry, I am still up to the task of protecting you, miss Hex."
"I shouldn't worry about that, the only thing you need to protect me from is myself. I am the biggest threat out here, after all."
"You shouldn't speak of yourself like that. The princess has every right to be proud of you, she has done a fine job raising you these last two decades, and you are not in any way the kind of person you seem to think you are."
"Two decades since my father, yet again, almost destroyed this kingdom, before passing his powers on to me? Powers I don't understand and have no hope of controlling?"
"If you are feeling anxious or concerned, perhaps I should take these books back to the library for you while you speak with the princess, she always has a way of calming people down when dark thoughts threaten them."
"No, don't worry about me, this is just normal for my..."
With a loud crack, Hex's horns slammed into the tip of the huge, ornate arch that decorated the gateway out into the castle grounds, chipping shards of marble that fluttered down around her broad shoulders. She called out some particularly strong words that surely she could not have learnt around the castle at the impact.
Raising one hand to the archway, the powerful muscles of her other arm straining to hold the whole stack of heavy books, she inspected the chipped stonework. Not the first time she had damaged her home in such a manner, but this doorway had been some way above her head just this morning. Had she really grown that much so fast? Trying to fight back against the rising panic, she looked around at the familiar sights, trying to judge how much she had grown by since yesterday. Six inches? More? Was she growing elsewhere too, were those bulging biceps thicker and stronger today? Were her overly muscled shoulders wider across in the tight confines of the hallway than they had been when she passed this way in the morning? Was she still growing even now, head pushing up closer to that ceiling with every step, muscles swelling thicker and heavier and more powerful with each movement she made? Where was this new size and strength coming from?
"Perhaps we can ask to have the doorway enlarged, or I know that the entrance by the rose gardens is somewhat taller." her guard tried to be calm and reassuring, but only a few steps further down, Hex watched him stumble and almost drop his books, straining under the weight of just a couple of them. Was she somehow making him weaker, as she grew? Or had she just forgotten how much normal ponies could lift.
"I think I shall just retire to my chamber right away, you can return to your other duties or finish up for the evening. The library is on my way, let me take those books from you. There is nothing to guard against inside the castle, go on your way..."
Hex finished up a bit more roughly than she had intended, but if it protected him from any more harm... Her thick muscles bulged huge and powerful under the added weight as she hurried as fast as her long, strong legs could carry her and in moments she was in her private rooms, sitting with her back against the door, looking at her body in panic. It didn't look much different, but if the changes were starting, when, if ever, would they stop?

Some time later, dawn sunlight flickered in through the ornate windows, Hex groaned softly as the bright glow woke her, the huge creature rolling over in her bedcovers, trying and failing to find some position from which she was sheltered from the light. She tugged the bedcovers up hoping to shield her eyes, and felt the cool air against her feet, and legs. A gentle rapping on the door was what finally convinced her to give up, and Hex rubbed her eyes, let them adjust to the morning light, and looked around.
A couple of loud, sturdy impacts were enough to burst open her locked door, and two guardponies rushed into the room in response to her sudden screams, looking on in amazement at the sight just as much as Hex was. In just those few hours, she had shot up an extra foot or so in height, but her growth elsewhere was what made a real impression. Biceps as big as her head even while soft and relaxed, towering shoulder and back muscles framing her panic stricken face, a vastly expanded chest barely covered in the torn scraps of her clothes, while the bedsheets barely covered the mountains of her muscular thighs. Her formerly impressive strong and powerful physique had doubled in size overnight until she overflowed from the huge double bed and, tentatively climbing to her feet, her horns nearly brushed the high vaulted ceiling. Tearing her attention away from her huge body, or as much of it as she could see past her huge upper proportions, she turned to the two guards.
"Please, you need to call for... w-what's happening..?" she faltered, looking on in rising concern as the guards trembled, legs shaking under them. One crumpled to the ground, barding hanging loose from his now thin and weakened frame, the other managed barely to stay on his feet, struggling with the effort of holding himself up. He turned, made it a couple of steps towards the door, then collapsed as his body continued to weaken around him. As she watched, Hex felt herself grow, bigger, stronger, more powerful, her muscles swelling thicker around her, horns pushing up higher towards the ceiling. In just the few seconds it had taken for the emaciated guards to flop helplessly to her bedroom floor, she had drawn in all their former strength and added it to her own.
"No, you have to get out of here, get away, I can't control it, can't stop it..." she cried out, pointlessly as they barely had the strength left to keep breathing, never mind crawl towards the open door. Even now she was sure she could feel, almost see, the energy drawing in towards her from throughout the massive castle. Striding towards the door, squishing and squeezing her massive form through the opening, Hex fled down and down the steps of the building that seemed much too small, where once it had towered over even her form.
She ducked and peered into the library, her growing horns gouging chunks out of the stone archway that should have been a couple of feet above her head, somewhere in that huge space was surely the princess, her mother. If anyone could find a way to stop her, to defeat this newest threat to Equestria and its people, surely it was Twilight Sparkle? Beside the door she passed another pair of guards, already drained and shrunken, their weakened forms struggling to pull themselves out from under decorative armour that was now far too big and heavy for them. Already, Hex could feel multiple extra pounds of bulk adding to her bulging muscles, her chest seemed to swell bigger ahead of her with each desperate, panting breath, her arms bulged thick with impossible strength. She could have effortlessly lifted both guardponies with one hand, but afraid of how much extra harm should could cause if she actually touched them, instead the massive half-centaur hurried on, the building shaking with each footstep, shelves of books wobbling as she passed, tendrils of pure power and energy flowing towards her across the huge space from the many ancient and powerful magical artefacts in the room. Hex tried to pull away from where she was by now sure she could see that magical essence closing in on her growing body, but it was useless, one and then another brushed against her huge bulk and started pulsing centuries of stored magic into her, rapidly swelling her figure far beyond she had ever imagined even in her deepest fears of what she might become if she let go. The more magic she was draining, the faster her body pumped up, muscles squishing and squeezing against each other, pressing in around her head, until she struggled to see down past her own arms and cleavage, her thighs pushed against each other until her legs splayed awkwardly just to accommodate the mass. Her body, wider and stronger by the second, was rising up and up past the height of the towering shelves, brushing them aside effortlessly as she simply grew through the places they had been, hugely heavy, reinforced shelves tumbling and crashing away on all sides.

"Hex, is that... Oh, oh Hex, what happened..?"
"I can't make it stop, please, you have to help me, stop me before I destroy everything."
"Don't panic dear, you came to the right place. Whatever magic is causing this, there has to be a counter to it, somewhere in this library..."
The majestic Alicorn, now head and shoulders taller than any other pony in her castle, yet seeming tiny alongside the still swelling Hex, strode purposefully through her massive library, stepping over and around the toppled shelves and display pedestals, effortlessly grabbing and pulling in dozens of books, scrolls, tattered scraps of notes, and anything else that seemed of use, gathering them around her as she moved through the space, even as the gigantic, overly muscular half-centaur rose another few inches taller and wider, last torn shreds of her clothing falling away from a body far too big for it.
"Please, you stopped my father using his powers before, you must do so again now, before it's too late."
"No." the Alicorn said, unusual loud and stern, books dropping to the floor around her. "No, Hex, this is different. We can help you here, there will be some way to stop this, reverse this, until you can control your powers. You and your father are not the same."
"We have tried for years, what makes you think this time will be different."
"Because it must."
Twilight Sparkle stood at the centre of a swirling storm of books and scrolls as they spun around her, as she searched desperately from one to another for some hint or clue or idea of what she needed to do next. Her magical glow brighter and stronger than ever as she strained to find and match and counter whatever unknown, unfamiliar power was fueling Hex, was powering her daughter's relentless growth. She could feel something there, something dark and different and otherworldly, but definitely some form of magic, and if it was magic, she could control it and stop it. The princess threw everything she had at whatever that unseen force was.
Hex watched her mother at work, watched the immense power she wielded, the bright glow almost like a star in the centre of the library, watched as she gasped sharply, faltering, knees trembling, straining as though trying to stop herself being dragged forwards, watched as more and more of that intense, powerful light was drawn inwards towards where Hex was standing, watched until she couldn't see any more, as her own vast, rapidly surging, swelling muscles rose up and out around her, bigger, thicker, heavier, until they loomed over her head, until they cut off the sight of the battle going on below.
The whirling storm of books tumbled to the ground one by one, faster and faster as the pony princess looked up at the immense, towering figure of Hex, to which she barely came up to knee level, or at least where her knees would be, somewhere behind all that huge, impossibly thick bulging muscle mass. Finally, she managed to pull free of whatever that had been, crumpled to the floor, panting heavily. A half dozen scrolls drifted slowly, gently around her head as she pulled herself back up onto her hooves, watching Hex's huge, growing horns nearly graze the towering roof of that massive library building, watched one of her vast triceps effortlessly crushing through two stories of overlooking balconies, watched row after row of shelves casually brushed aside by thighs almost as thick across as her building filling height.
As she climbed to her hooves once more, a shimmering wall appeared between Twilight and her daughter, spreading outwards, curving around more and more of her impossibly huge bulk, like a ball of crystal glowing and flickering in the air, surrounding her, holding her inside, cut off from... Before the ball could close up all the way around, parts of it started breaking off, crumbling away, falling inwards, more and more until the whole thing collapsed.
"No, I can do this, I must..." Twilight muttered, bracing herself, throwing every scrap of concentration and effort at the task, rebuilding the glittering crystal wall, curving it around, enclosing Hex in its protective barrier, and again it started breaking up, faster and faster as she strained to rebuild it, to hold it up, watching Hex's growing horns crush into the decorative ceiling above, cutting through ornate stone vaulting and famous paintings, turning them into nothing but colourful rubble as it tumbled down around them both. Bigger and bigger she grew, until her bulging, flexing muscles were squeezed against the crystal wall, and then it ruptured apart, flung outwards, and the scraps drew back in towards the growing figure, powering yet more new swelling, rising bulk. Towering shoulder and back muscles crushed effortlessly through the already cracked roof, flexing arms tore through the walls, sunlight rushing in through the growing cracks, flooding the ruined library with its light.
Flopped weakened and helpless on the floor of her destroyed library, Twilight finally reached out with the power that had created the famous statue of Hex's father that now decorated the west gardens. She watched as the dull grey of stone spread along a foot almost as big as her own entire body, and almost entirely buried from sight under the muscular bulk of Hex's leg, watched it spread upwards little by little, her last failing effort slowing, stopping.

Muffled sounds coming from somewhere between Hex's huge shoulder muscles and breasts were the only sound other than tumbling, crumbling masonry and bookshelves.
"Please, you've got to stop this, stop me before I destroy everything. Someone must know a way... I need to get away. All I'm doing here is destroying, I need to find somewhere where you'll be safely far away from me, where I can't cause any more harm."
One room filling leg and then the other flexed and bulged as Hex strained to move her huge, impossibly proportioned body, stepping towards the already collapsing wall, brushing parts of it aside. A loose coating of stone crumbled and fell away, leaving no effect on her growing body.
Guards rushed into the room, or what was left of it, looking around at the chaos, at the collapsed and limp princess, at the huge, powerful figure looming over her, gigantic horns crushing through the roof with ease.
"Stop right there, what have you..." the guards' professional manner faltered and faded as they looked up, and up, at the figure as tall and wide as a building looming over them, muscles flexing and bulging in all directions with every slight movement, Hex's panic-stricken face lost from sight far behind her huge chest, only the now massive pair of horns rising into view past her bulk. Two of the guardponies rushed over to their fallen princess, trying to rouse her, while the others drew their weapons and looked at each other, standing in the shadow of a monster whose bloated calf muscles alone were bigger than themselves, and without a plan. As they advanced, Hex drew back, stepping away from the scene, ripping apart the remaining walls of the library as she effortlessly pushed through them, leaving a trail of chaos and destruction in her wake. One slow, lumbering step after another, struggling to move around her own unfamiliar bulk, she stumbled out of the building, into the courtyard, walls brushed aside to make way for her. The guards watched in confused astonishment as she seemed to be fleeing away from them, feeling tiny and weak in comparison, very weak, barely able to hold up the weight of their own armour and weapons, and yet this mountain of rock hard muscle was backing away from them? The guards continued pushing forwards, as best they could, as their own bodies drained and weakened of all their strength and energy until they fell one by one amongst their too big and heavy ceremonial barding.
Hex continued making her way, slowly, awkwardly, out into the tiny seeming courtyard. Even as tall as the palace, her legs bulged as wide as they were long, immense thigh muscles crushing and squeezing against each other with each step, desperate for more space to grow into. With Twilight no longer throwing her considerable magical reserves at the problem, Hex could feel her growth slowing again, but even so, inch by inch, she rose upwards and outwards, feeling the slow, steady, but constant drain of power from all around her. She had to get out of here, while she was still only as tall as the roof.
Her massive chest filled half of the view in front, while huge neck and shoulder muscles loomed even higher to either side, towering above her head until she felt trapped in between them. The ground around her feet was completely lost from view, and her vision of what lay ahead was reduced to a single deep crevasse that her powerful muscles squeezed tighter with each flex and each desperate, panic filled breath. She would need to rely on her memory of the area to find some way out of the palace without causing too much more destruction, and especially out of the city. In the tight space of the courtyard, Hex turned towards the safest route away, arms and legs splayed awkwardly, struggling to move past their own bulk, the half-centaur wobbled in place, stumbled, tried to catch herself with arms that wouldn't have reached past her own massive figure even had they not been so immensely muscled, and with a massive crash, fell straight through the roof of a nearby building.
Hex paused a moment in her struggles to pull herself back up onto her feet, recognising this sudden feeling rushing through her, this incredible flood of power and energy, similar to how she had felt moments before, as she swelled to fill the library. Looking up and around as best she could at the small part of the room not blocked from sight by her own mass, Hex spotted the cracked display cases, toppled pedestals, and scattered array of ancient and magical artefacts locked away in the vault, each of them now glowing with a powerful aura, thick tendrils of which spread and reached out towards her body.
The pure magical power rushed into her, fueling an intense growth, her whole body seemed to creak and groan with the speed it was swelling, taller, wider and heavier by the second, the pressure mounting inside her as her muscles pumped up and up as fast as they could, until it seemed like they should be tearing her body apart with the force inside, but instead only tore apart the study stone walls of the building she was rapidly crushing into dust around her.
As the mountain range of her muscles rose thicker and heavier around her head, closing up even more of her diminishing view of the world outside herself, Hex watched a magical sword, drained of all its power, rapidly rust and crumble away to nothing. Mystical jewellery of unknown power and ancient era followed soon after, the last scraps of whatever magic it contained now fueling Hex's own vast body, leaving the metal to fall apart. Before long, every last scrap of intense, powerful magic that had been secured inside that vault was gone, drawn into Hex's own body, as she grew upwards and outwards, her fallen figure sprawling across multiple buildings of the palatial complex, overflowing out of the grounds, with each breath her huge chest, looming higher and higher above her face, rose towards the height of the tallest towers. Squirming about, her immense strength and power fighting against the confines of her own bulk, Hex's muscles flexed and strained, struggling to pull her huge form up, up onto her feet again, until the peaks of her shoulders and back did loom high over those towers, her body grown to fill the entire palace, crushing it into ruins and rubble around her.

The half-centaur, body blown up big and thick enough to barely be recognised as a person any more, strained to look down on the city that spread out for miles around her, past breasts each bigger than a building. Somewhere down there were thousands of people and buildings she needed to avoid stepping on and crushing. Wobbling forwards in the closest her bloated legs could manage to a walk, she pushed her still rising strength towards the sole task of getting as far away from other people as possible. Once there, then she could plan what to do next.
One slow, awkward step forwards, and a crunch of trees and bushes being flattened under the bulk of her massive leg muscles as they bulged out all around where her feet should have been. Another step, legs splayed as wide as they could go to make room for their own mass, and a crash of a stone building crumbling to dust under her. Bit by bit, she dragged herself forwards, leaving a line of completely crushed and destroyed palace behind her, cut into the already tumbling ruins. The ground shuddered and groaned under her weight, the movement shaking already broken walls until they crashed down one by one.
Helpless to do anything about the moving mountain of chaos and destruction that was pushing on towards the city, the guards hurried into action evacuating as many people as they could from the path being carved, desperately trying to convince crowds of amazed and stunned onlookers to pull their attention away from the sight of the still growing ball of muscle, and towards moving out of the way, as the city was hit by a mild but persistent quake, rooves shaking, items falling off shelves, pottery and glass breaking, and worse destruction close to the moving epicentre as buildings shook until they started cracking and breaking, windows shattering, tiles falling to the ground, doorframes breaking. The guards struggled to get everyone out safely. Hex was oblivious to the chaos she was causing far below, only the tallest buildings, shaking gently from side to side, were still in her view. While she knew there must be some destruction below, she hoped it was minimal.
Disoriented and confused after her chaotic departure from the palace, Hex had picked the wrong direction, and was heading right into the centre of the city, still growing bigger and heavier and stronger with each passing moment, the line of flattened buildings and cracked pavement behind her slowly spreading wider as, step by step, she closed in on the busy city square and the towering, crowded buildings around it. Moment by moment, Hex grew taller on the power she was draining from all around her, rooftops disappearing from view past the immense chasm of her cleavage, until even the tallest spires of the city were barely within sight over the horizon of her own chest, until it seemed like the clouds themselves were closing in on her from above, confining her in all around. Looking up at the clouds so close to the peaks of her own mountainous body, Hex was distracted for a moment until she heard a much louder crashing and crushing sound from far below. Desperately, she tried to peer down and see where she was, what had happened, straining to pull her massive breasts out of the way to see past them, her arms so thickly muscled they could barely bend, never mind reach all that way around, she could only wriggle and struggle on the spot as moment by moment more of the ancient city centre crumbled to dust around her swelling thighs.
Hex continued growing, at an alarming rate, however big she got there always seemed to be more power to draw on to grow even bigger, even faster. Awkwardly waddling forwards, she pushed through the ruined city centre and out the other side, watching as she grew so tall the highest towers disappeared from view below her own body, until wispy white clouds were being brushed aside by the peaks of her own back and biceps as they ballooned upwards and outwards, the tiny speck of an airship bounced off her chest, and barely visible spots that looked like bugs at her scale fluttered around, the pegasi flying around Hex's growing muscles, none of them able to reach as high as the space where her head nestled before they tumbled, falling back to the ground, all power drained out of them to fuel the muscle mountain's unending growth.
Hex left the city behind, by the time her slow moving bulk had made it to the open countryside beyond, the guards had evacuated most of the ponies from the danger area, and the half-centaur herself was most of a mile wide, crushing multiple city blocks with each step, and almost as much in height, head now fully in the clouds as they swirled around the upper parts of her growing body. Making her way away from people, Hex sought out a desolate and unpopulated location, climbing over forests or down cliffs or across rivers would be no issue for her now, she would barely notice them against the size of her own legs, the only challenge was how slow and difficult each step was. Bit by bit, she left the city behind, picking up speed just from the ever growing length and strength of her vastly powerful legs, she set off into the wilderness.
It did not take long for her to realise the problem she now faced. Even as she moved away from the city, she could still feel immense power flowing into her body from all around, particularly from down below. It was as though she was pulling energy from the planet itself, and what that meant was something she really didn't want to find out, but was pretty sure she soon would.

The bigger Hex grew, the faster and more easily she could draw power and energy from the world itself. The ground cracked and shuddered and broke open, though whether from her own weight or from the draining of is essential power, she had no idea. By the time her head burst out through the top of the cloud cover, she was sprawled five miles or so wide across the landscape, one of her legs already pushing back against the ruined city she had left behind her, squishing and crushing ever more of it as she swelled outwards. Barely able to move, her miles tall body trapped by her own bloated and bulging muscles, Hex knew now that there was nothing more she or anyone else could do. She could only stand there, spreading out bigger and taller and wider by the moment, until she discovered the limits of the powers she had inherited, and if that was after the entire world was destroyed, then the world would be destroyed, there was no stopping it.
It certainly seemed, as mile after mile added to her bulk, each faster than the last, as the flood of energy rushing into her body from the planet itself grew until it seemed to be slamming forcefully into her, overwhelming her, forcing her bigger against her wishes, that this was the end of all things, the last day this world would see. The ground tore apart under her, collapsing under the weight as she outgrew mountains and spread across the country, rolling over one town after another, flattening forests, squeezing up against mountains and burying them under her muscular bulk. The deep shadow she cast over an entire continent was broken only by the glow of lava gushing to the surface as the world split open around her.
Body as big as a moon and with strength enough to tear a planet in half, Hex was able to push herself away from the shattered and breaking world, launch up into the air, leaving a massive crater behind where the continent had once been, flooded with cooling lava, the world torn and broken, but no longer being crushed under her weight. As she floated through space, taking up an orbit alongside the moon now smaller than herself, Hex allowed herself to relax for a moment. She might be the biggest and strongest thing ever, but there was a chance someone had survived the ruins she had left of that planet. Her relaxation did not last long.
As the muscle moon slowly orbited her former home planet, she looked down on the ruins, and saw the constant flow of energy from it, still pushing into her body, still powering her unending growth, still draining every last scrap of strength from the world itself to grow her body bigger and stronger and more powerful. The cracks she had left in the rock grew deeper and wider, the planet shattered into chunks of broken rock, drifting slowly apart from each other even as they were drained still further, breaking up, crumbling away, turning to dust before her eyes as everything the world had once been flowed into her, pushing her body far bigger, the moon bumped against her immense muscle mass, bounced off, broke apart and in moments it too was a scattering of rock and dust slowly fading away into nothing in the void of space. The entire world was no more, and with it, any chance of stopping whatever was causing this eternal growth.
The light of the sun against her body seemed too bright, as she floated through space. The star itself was fueling her growth even further, filling her up with all the light and life that should have kept the world going for unknown future ages, but was now going only to herself. Hex found she could no longer care, she floated in space, orbiting the sun as it pushed her to grow bigger and stronger, as the last dust that had once been her world disappeared to nothing, she resigned herself to her fate of growing for ever. She watched with no further care or concern, as she orbited around the sun, drawing on its light, until it had shrunk enough to orbit around her instead, watched that light flicker and fade and go out entirely, as all that the star had been and should have gone on to be disappeared, nothing more than fuel for her growing muscles. More stars flowed in towards her, feeding her their power too, dozens and then thousands, and then more than she could ever hope to count, tiny specks of light, each with entire world like her own, each fading and going dark in an instant, a tiny extra boost to her size, too small to even notice now, as countless world were destroyed in seconds. Her muscles spread out across the entire void of space, until the stars were too small and insignificant to see, or perhaps they had all already gone out to fuel her growth. Further and further she grew, until it no longer mattered that her muscles had grown so big and thick around her that she couldn't move, there was nowhere to move, she had filled all space in the universe with herself. And still, she felt power gushing into her from somewhere, forcing her bigger and bigger, the edge of the universe straining tight against the curves of her body.

Hex looked up at layer upon layer of broadly arcing muscle rising infinitely high and squeezing in close and tight, feeling herself press against the edge of reality itself. Creaking and groaning sounds surrounded her from all sides as she was forced inexorably and unwillingly bigger and tighter, until she couldn't tell which would burst apart first, her own body or the universe. The groaning only grew louder and more insistent as she splayed helpless and waited for the end, a loud thudding sound startled her, she looked around as though expecting to see anything but her own muscles and breasts, for the source of the sound. In those last moments she couldn't even see that as her body pressed tighter against her head, closing in around her. Was this the end? The thudding sound came again.
"Hex, are you there..?" came a voice from... somewhere...
The overly muscled half-centaur looked around in confusion, the darkness that had pressed against her face clearing, fading away, she blinked a few times and looked up from her position on the floor, it appeared to be her own bedroom, just as she had left it. No drained and weakened guards sprawled on the floor, no walls or doors ripped through by her growth. At another knock on the door behind her, she started pulling herself up onto her feet, plump, strong muscles bulging as she moved, but she could move, groaning softly at the ache in her joints from the awkward position she had been in. The stars, not absorbed into her growing body, glistened in their rightful place in the dark sky, her head rose as high as the door frame, but no further, and her mother was standing outside the room, concern clear in her voice.