They all knew just how utterly futile it would be.
 
The people of this city, and the rest of this region, knew that from the beginning. They knew from first-hand experience, having seen it when all this began, and it was not even that long ago. Which was why they could not fathom the reasons the people from the other region would dare to do what they did. They knew whatever they were, it would not matter. Because it would end all the same.
 
There was no stopping them from having their way with the world.
 
It was bad enough that the other province decided to rebel, but they had the gall to threaten those within their population who are still loyal to and loved their overlords. There were many good reasons to be loyal and faithful: Among the others of their kind, they had been the more benign ones, those who treated their Humans like actual subjects and worshippers. Many had either at best saw the ‘Teenies’ as servants or pets – at worst, little more than food and toys.
 
In the ‘Great Change’ which brought chaos to the world - and almost incidentally brought them about - they were the first who rallied the others to help fix the world with their newfound great sizes and godlike abilities… even if they, like all the rest, eventually went utterly mad with power once the reality of their nigh-omnipotence sank in. When the ‘Time of Ascension’ began and all the great goddesses asserted their dominion over the world, crushing all Human resistance and sweeping away the old world with all its nations, institutions, factions, differences and grievances, like the other benign goddesses they made the effort to protect the Humans while their peers battled and squabbled against one another for dominance, the world trembling and trampled beneath their footsteps and fury. When things had settled down a bit and all had carved out their own fiefdoms and territories out of the world, these benign ones were actually considerate enough to leave much of them intact and unchanged, even though there was nothing the Humans could do to stop them from remaking their domains in their own image with their phenomenal powers. Granted, they did make a lot of ‘customisations’, but mostly within the heart of their fiefdoms. At the periphery, just before the wild anarchy beyond the dominions’ boundaries and the playlands at the heart, the Human populations can continue living lives resembling those they had before.
 
Many of them still find it hard to believe it had only just been a few short years. Maybe it was not; time and space did not have that much meaning as it once was, not with reality seemingly warping in their powerful presence. Some felt like it all happened yesterdays, while others had troubled recalling anything before their rise. Now, it felt as if they were always in control. Always towering over them…
 
Life was good so long as you don’t tick them off - in some ways, it was even an improvement. They would grant you great favours if you serve and please them well, and protect you from their less lovable peers and other remaining dangers from the ‘Great Change’. They were nice and generous… but the rebels would soon learn that sometimes it is the nicest and most generous of them whom they should not had provoked.
 
It was not long before the Great Mistresses arrived in person. The ‘province’ had been unruly, and so it came to no surprise that it would receive their Mistress’ personal attention instead of sending some of their empowered, building/skyscraper-sized ‘Lesser-Mistresses’, the myriad of even smaller creatures and entities they could summon or create with their powers on a whim, or even just armies of their loyal and adoring Human thralls. What surprised them had been the other Great Mistress that came with her – she had been one of her close friends from before the Great Change and the Ascensions, and it seemed she had been invited to join her in putting the troublesome place in their place. Their Mistress didn’t need any help to do so, but it seemed she felt it would be much more fun to do so with her together.
 
With a snap of their Mistress’ fingers, all those who are still loyal and devoted to them were teleported over the mountains into the other province, where the Humans there would tend to them as she commanded. With them out of the way, the Mistresses grew themselves to truly towering heights, and with their normally fair visages twisted into faces of both contempt and glee, they brought their wrath upon the unbelieving and disobedient that remained.
 
Over the mountains and hills, the Humans/‘Teenies’ in their towns and cities of the nearby other province reacted differently. Some cowered in their homes, others tried to ignore it all and get on with their lives. The rest watched, outside on the streets or inside their buildings on their screens, transfixed by the horror show that followed. Whole villages and towns were crushed to dust under their heels and palms, while whole cities toppled with flicks of their fingers and toes. Hills were flattened under their backside, and new canyons and valleys were created in flat plains where their ankles and knees gorged into the earth. Mountains crumbled as they sat upon them, turning into shattered thrones upon which they could pause and behold the ruination they wrought. And that was when they do things physically; with their god-like magic and powers they toyed with the land they were sanctioning, unleashing scourges of divine retribution upon the traitors and heathens.
 
Against such might, all the rebels’ cause and efforts were laughable, and futile. As with the Time of Ascension, it didn’t take long for all resistance to be crushed. The fact that they lasted as long as they did was only because the Mistresses took their sweet time toying with them, finding amusement in their defiance. All the Mistresses were enormous beings with fickle whims and ravenous appetites, and it showed even in the benign ones. Many were crushed under their heels or backsides, and just as many were savoured and swallowed. In a few places they indulged in their more intense desires and hot-blooded passions, prompting parents and media to shield their children or censor their broadcasts.
 
There was no respite; they pause only to consider what whims and wishes they intend to follow through, and once they set their minds to it, there was no stopping them. With whirls of their fingers, a flick of their wrists, a flash of their eyes, they used their godlike power to humiliate and humble them further. The audience in the other province watched as their Mistress turned a metropolis into a collection of resplendent jewelry which she proceeded to add to her fashionable attire and stunning form – with the rebels still trapped inside the giant-sized gemstones and crystals. The other Mistress almost seemed to dance with delight as she conjured what look like dragons and phoenixes and lit whole forests and hills alight – with which she and their Mistress proceeded to roast marsh-mellows at their scales which they summoned from somewhere (probably their pink Mistress friend).
 
All the while, they laughed, seemingly reveling in their overwhelming supremacy - over the rebels, and over the world. So casually they chortled, bantered and talk, as if this was just a fun day out to them instead of divine retribution, and it probably was. The sheer dissonance between their disposition and their actions towards those whom they once were made them seem almost alien and transhuman in mind and thinking to the Teenies – but then again, by all metrics they are no longer human, were they? They are to Humans far, far more than what Humans are to ants, and that was the sad truth.
 
A sadder truth was that it really could had been a lot worse. They are among the benign ones, and it showed in some of the smaller details of how they carried out their sanctions. They did keep their word when it came to minimizing casualties – no one was allowed to die in their presence except if they willed it. Even now, for example, their servants are probably peeling the battered, sore and defeated rebels from where they were flattened into the dirt, neither crippled nor crushed to paste despite the mountainous masses that came upon them. Some optimists believe it’s thanks to the last remnants of their Humanity within them, while the cynics merely noted they merely wanted to preserve their playthings from their rough and non-tender mercies. In some ways, the fact that the Mistresses won’t allow them to die only made things worse for the rebels: The Mistresses are free to crush them again, and again, and again; as many times as they like. Those they devoured one way or another are condemned to squirm and struggle inside their bodies forever, assuming the Mistresses don’t just magically absorb immediately and make them a part of their colossal forms (The Mistresses could still let them out afterwards - if the Mistresses remembered to do so, that is). And when the rebels finally surrender, they would be expected to ‘make amends’ with servitude for their defiance and for threatening the colossal divines’ beloved faithful loyalists, meaning the Mistresses would most definitely be toying with them for a long, long time to come.
 
One shudder to imagine what the more cruel and sadistic ones are like if this was Mistresses being nice.
 
Now, their fun is almost over, and they were cleaning out the last of the rebelling cities. Their ruling Mistress was busy inspecting a city that she is planning to keep for her loyal, faithful subjects to repopulate, albeit with a few changes: even now, with the city and its remaining population in one of her hands, she was telekinetically picking out buildings and people she didn’t like, like boutiques and fashionistas she found garish (on top of disobedient – she had mandated fashion trends), and putting them in her mouth, savoring their struggle, their textures and their taste before she swallowed them. Two other cities she was giving them to her other Mistress friend as gifts, uprooting them from where they were with her divine magic. Said Mistress loomed over the more beautiful city in her palm, grinning deviously as she decided the dissenters’ fate. With a flash of power, the buildings disappeared, the whole metropolis teleported back to her palatial domain to be added to her collection – leaving only the terrified and cowed inhabitants who had defied them. Casually, she tucked her collar and slid them into her attire; she was going to have so much fun with them tonight.
 
The Mistress cracked a laugh as they shared another joke, the air echoing with their merriment for countless miles. They turned and looked down towards the other province with its cities and towns, and the Humans reeled, wondering for a terrible moment whether they will turn on them next.
 
The Mistresses smiled radiantly and gave them a wave. The Humans responded in kind: some genuflected in awe or terror, and others fainted. The rest gingerly smiled and waved back. They knew now they get to live another day in peace and ‘normality’ (give or take the racket from and addition of new statues and temples they will build to honour and appease their Mistresses). And with deep resignation, they dearly hope they could keep it that way.
 
The Mistresses were still at the very beginning of their reigns, yet an inevitability had dawned upon them and their subjects. Somehow, they all knew deep down there was no end in sight: the end of history and the world so predicted and prophesized by scholars and madmen had come, and from hereon now, there was only the rule of these giant goddesses. With each passing day they only grew more powerful – and more numerous, to the Humans’ horror, as they still hear the occasional ascensions and births, new Mistresses joining their ranks. And when the world has not enough room for them, they knew they have the power to seek new places to conquer and remake into their image - for new playgrounds and feasting-grounds to lord over, and new peoples to become new servants, worshippers, playthings, and morsels. They all knew now there will be no escape, not with the Mistresses’ great size and unlimited power. Not from their terrible and insatiable desires, wants and appetites. Everyone and everything, everywhere, will eventually be fed to or made to service their endless avarice, cravings, passions and ego.
 
The world belonged to the Great Mistresses, and Humanity will live under their heels forever. All will learn to either love them, or despair.
 
= = =
 
Well, that was strangely both horrifying and hilarious.
 
Having another writer’s block, and as usual my response was to take to GIMP and Inkscape for the time being. This started as a suggestion from one of my friends, which I tried and failed to make it work. But then I recalled some of the roleplaying and some unfinished writing projects we collaborated on, and my imagination started running wild.
 
Never thought that I would end up bringing it all to life like this, but here we go. Details are deliberately left sparse and ambiguous as is my style so readers and viewers’ imaginations can fill it in. More would follow if our inspirations keep coming; we have developed our ideas quite a bit about this bizarre and terrifying world, though it could be hampered by lack of SVG resources and my own still limited and novice skills.
 
Feel free to ask questions about this and post suggestions on how to develop this further. In fact, written drabbles and scenes and even far-art are encouraged!
 
Seaddle Skyline by jorobro serve as the foreground. Edited ‘Dance Magic’ Sunset Shimmer vector by seahawk270. Edited ‘Festival’ Rarity vector by digimonlover101. Miscellaneous cities and towns came either from official EQG backgrounds or clipart found on Google. MLP and EQG belongs to Hasbro. Please support their official releases.