"Catria, would you mind?" Palla asked her sister.
Catria sighed. "All right. Let's just get this over with..."
Palla cast her magic on Catria. The blue-haired woman stared at her sister as she and everything around her expanded in size, a now very familiar occurrence to the constantly resizing pegasus knight. Now a tiny fraction of an inch high, she scuttled into the hole. Palla crouched down, listening intently to the wall for any sign of problems for her nearly microscopic sister.
Inside the wall, Catria found another passage just like the corridors they had ventured through previously. She briefly wondered how these tunnels were made, and why.
The people here probably used the shrinking magic. she thought. She ventured further in with a shiver. The last time she was in a place like this, she had been attacked by a foe many times her size. Were there similar dangers in this much smaller passage? At least Palla was outside if she needed help.
The tunnel bent to the left. Judging by the distance, Catria guessed that this path was leading inside the stone door. There were thankfully no cobwebs, a much-needed reassurance in this foreboding place. The passage led to a dead end, with no notable features other than a handle of sort protruding from the wall. With nothing else to do, Catria pulled the handle, which slid towards her with a section of the wall. Something seemed to happen, a loud click echoing down the passage. Catria hurried back out the way she came. She thought it odd how the passage and the handle were the right size for her, despite the seemingly unpredictable growth and shrinking she had been subjected to.
Was it all part of some sort of plan? She didn't want to think about the implications of that.
Catria headed back out into the now giant corridor. She jumped and waved for her bigger sister to notice her. She was lucky Palla was watching for her, otherwise she would have a hard time getting noticed at such a small size. The green-haired girl lowered herself to the ground, staring at her tiny sister.
"Did you find anything in there?" She asked.
"Yeah, there was a handle of some sort," Catria answered, "I tried pulling on it, did anything happen out here?"
Palla glanced at the door. "I'm not sure, the door did make a noise though. I'll grow you back, and we can check it out together."
The elder sister stood and cast her magic at Catria, restoring some of her size. Despite her best efforts, Catria was still only knee high to Palla.
Palla led the way to the door, placing a hand on it. Nodding to her small sister, she pushed the door. It didn't open easily, but after some effort on Palla's part it started to move. The chamber behind the door was huge to the tiny girls, maybe thirty inches high. Pillars and ornate carvings decorated the walls. Of most interest to the tiny twosome was the Mila statue in the center of the room.
"Another upgrade?" Catria guessed.
"Indeed. But be careful—we may not be alone," Palla cautioned.
Standing before the statue, Palla could sense faint magic emanating from it. She had never been able to feel such things before; her time in this dungeon seemed to have improved her senses.
"Can you use it?" Catria asked.
"Yes, I think so," Palla replied, still studying the statue. She knelt before it, feeling the energy flow into her body. Catria stood facing the opposite direction, still worried about an enemy attack. She had no weapon, but at least she could warn her sister.
Feeling the flow come to a stop, Palla stood once more. She didn't feel very different, her body seeming to be the same as far as she could tell. But there was something different about her magic...
Loud crashes sounded throughout the room. Palla looked round to see several spiders amongst the dust, surrounding the sisters. Had they fallen through the ceiling somehow? She had no time to think about that, the enemies advancing on them.
"Palla!" Catria shouted, running to her sister's side. "We have to get out of here!"
Palla smirked. "I don't think so. You're going to get us out of this one!"
She cast a spell at her sister. Catria gasped, expecting to shrink again, but what happened was exactly the opposite. She quickly grew in size, overtaking her sister in height. She expanded until she was 20 inches tall, much bigger than anything else in the room but still with room to maneuver. Now size was in her favor for once. She quickly scooped up her sister in one hand, keeping her safe. Then she stomped on one of her foes, the force of her foot breaking it into several pieces.
"That's it, Catria!" Palla cheered from the hand she was clenched in. Catria turned as she felt something attach to her boot, a length of web sticking her to the floor. She pulled her foot free, and quickly squashed her attacker in response. Another spider jumped on her foot, but she kicked it against the wall. Confidence surging, she made short work of the two remaining foes.
"Well done!" Palla called up from her sister's clutches.
Catria looked to her with a smirk on her face. "Big sisters get it done, right?"
"Indeed they do," Palla nodded, smiling back.
The blue-haired girl carefully placed her sister on the ground. She fired a spell at Catria, shrinking her down to an inch tall.
"That statue gave me more control over my magic," Palla explained, looking up the the girl twice her height.
"I can see that. We should have plenty more options now!" Catra replied.
"Yes, you can fight without a weapon." Palla cast a spell on herself. She grew to an inch tall.
Palla sighed. "It seems this is still my maximum size..."
"I'm sure we'll find a way to grow you back," Catria reassured her sister.
Palla smiled. "Yes, no use dwelling on it." She looked towards the archway behind the statue, their next destination. "Shall we?"
Through the arch was another, smaller room, around 5 inches tall and wide.
"A statue?" Catria approached the only feature of this room, a small statue. Inspecting it, she could see it was of a woman holding a sword. "It looks like..."
"Celica!" Palla shouted. Alarmed, Catria looked at the face of the statue. Palla was right, it looked just like Celica!
"But... How?" Catria asked.
"I don't know," Palla answered, "magic of some sort?"
"It's creepy," Catria commented, "how can someone make a statue just like her, in a place like this?"
"What if it is her?" Palla suggested.
Catria turned to her sister. "What? How?"
"Well, think about it. What if Celica was turned into a statue? Anything's possible with magic."
"But that's... Horrible." Catria shuddered at the thought.
"I think we should take it with us. If it is her, maybe we can find a way to turn her back to normal."
"Yeah. No harm if it isn't her anyway, right?" Catria agreed.
Palla shrank the statue down to a size where it could comfortably fit in her hand. Picking it up, she decided to keep hold of it. Her dress had no pockets, and though she could ask Catria, part of it might break off if they weren't careful.
A click sounded as Palla removed the statue, a tile beneath it sliding upwards.
"Uh oh..." Uttered Palla.
"What now?" Catria sighed.
