//------------------------------// // Honey, I swallowed a kid. // Story: Tales from Tinies. // by MrAquino //------------------------------// Sirens wailed echoed across the streets, much more louder with the lack of cars around. A figure walked down the dirty, cracked sidewalk. His worn out sneakers clapped with every step he made, he wore a red hoodie and kept a baseball cap down enough over his head to hide his face. He fixed his eyes on the now closed Wal-Mart establishment, wishing partially it was still open; someone could get him some food inside, like a deli platter or an appetizer. Anything to help fill his empty, aching belly. At the sensation of the sharp pain in his stomach, he instinctively held his hand over his aching belly, tightening his fist on the scruff of his  ripped and worn shirt under his hoodie. The lights flickered from the McDonald’s, its gleam reflected on the wet sidewalk. If only the Vanishing never happened. With a groan, he headed to what was a new market center, which was more or less like the marketplace from Aladdin, just with more trash and the vendor holders more than likely carried a shotgun. With many people vanishing, it was harder for big businesses to maintain themselves and keep their employees, which left more independent business to open on the local streets. That is, if they could stay operational for the time being. Any second now, they would be taken from this Earth and away from their business, which seemed to happen every time at random intervals. The boy walked down into the marketplace, tormented by the many scents of food, making him drool and his stomach rumble. He could smell the ramen noodles cooked from one stand along the side, an open barbecue with freshly grilled meats and vegetables of sorts, and the sweet aroma of cakes, fruits and vegetables mixed into one pleasant scent. The boy focused on a stand that had fresh cooked chicken still steaming and sizzling on the grill. He stumbled like a zombie, licking his lips at the wonderful smell, his mouth salivating to the point where the drool nearly overflowed. The moment he saw the cook had his back turned speaking to another man for a moment, he neared the stand. Slowly his hands slipped out from his hoodie, his gaze set on the two men speaking to each other. He reached his hands out, feeling the heat emanating off the chicken. It was just in arm’s reach; all he had to do was grab it. “What are you doing!” An elderly woman’s voice shrieked. The boy froze. The two men quickly turned their attention towards him. The woman on the stand next to them looked in shock. The two men were engaged in a momentary stare down with the boy. Then everything went in slow motion as the two men lunged at him. The boy quickly grabbed the chicken and took off from the marketplace, running as fast as he could. “Get back here!” One of the men roared. Holding the chicken to his chest, the man reached out grabbing for the scruff of his hoodie, missing him at the first swipes. The boy huffed as he ran his tired body doing the best it could to keep going. He gagged loudly when he felt the scruff of neck choking him as the man held him up by the hood, making him thrash around. The man tried to drag him back to the stand but the boy fought back with a quick push back. The man stumbled, leaving him to almost trip on one leg, giving the boy enough time to fight back when he raised up his foot and kicked the man right in the crotch. The man shouted in agonizing pain, instinctively letting the boy go, held onto his groin area, and thrashed on the ground in pain, giving the boy the window he needed to escape. The sound of yelling filled the streets as the boy ran as fast as his weakened legs could carry him. He ran to a nearby street alley, slipping into the darkness and hid behind a dumpster. He listened closely to the clamour of footsteps clattering on the street and outraged cries pass the alleyway he was hiding in. Soon those footsteps and yells became echos and the sound faded away into nothing. The boy signed with relief a bright smile stretched across his face he leaned against the dumpster and took his first bite. Everything around him seemed to have disappeared as he savored his bite, the combination of its flavor brining him pure bliss. What was even more blissful to him was this was the first good food he had to eat in such a long time. It came to a screeching halt as he was tossed to the side. “You’ve screwed up now, kid!” the vendor owner yelled. “If there’s one thing I hate more than a lack of customers, it’s thieves!” The kid was met with a hard punch to his gut, making him to to the floor and wheeze. “Consider that as a warning. If you were older, I’d chop off your hand.” He walked away, leaving the kid alone, tearing up and breathing hard, right on the verge of throwing up his meal. Unfortunately, it did happened. Not only was he hungry again, but he felt even weaker than before. Before he could even get up, he noticed that his hands were glowing. The Vanishing was going to take him away. He screamed bloody murder before he disappeared from the cruel world, his distress echoing into silence. --- In Cloudsdale, right inside one of the cloud homes, a near-retired pegasus pony couple was getting ready for their day. Sitting down and eating some cereal was a fairly big stallion with a 5 o’clock shadow to his face, a pale blue-gray coat, and a rainbow mane cut short. Cleaning her dish was a mare with a cyan coat, and a mane colored light orange and scarlet. The stallion was busy reading the newspaper, more specifically, about an article about how Celestia’s Knights of Unification were able to stop an operation in Cloudsdale with the aid of their daughter, Rainbow Dash. “Can you believe our daughter saved those Tinies!?” the stallion cheered with a ton of excitement in his tone. “Hearing how those little fellow were able to take on a large group of ponies, this was certainly against them.” “And Dashie’s gotten a much better control of herself,” his wife added. “She’s certainly gone a long way to better herself and make a few more tiny friends.” “Our little Dashie has. To think the pony who discovered what Tinies taste like would vow to not eat any tiny again is… well… surprising, to say the least… just like the way we like it.” Unbeknownst to either of them, in a tiny flash of light, the boy fell a story in midair before he landed right in the stallion’s cereal. He fell to the bottom, but swam right up, gasping for air. Panic was all over the boy, as he was in the new world everyone was teleported to, but around him were huge, wooden structures of sort. But he sniffed the air. “Wait a minute.” He said to himself, looking at the white water he was in and taking a sip of it. “... milk?” He swam to one of the wooden structures, grabbing it and taking a bite. It was crunchy, sweet, and easy to chew on, despite it’s rough look. “Cereal!?” He looked around, seeing that he was inside a giant bowl, surrounded by giant cereal, all floating on milk. “W-wait… if I’m in a bowl of cereal… then that means...” His answer came in the form of a gigantic spoon came down, picking up both the cereal and the milk, causing huge waves that washed the kid away. He swam up, taking a deep breath, finding himself in the middle of a giant circle. Looking up, he only saw the silhouette that resembled a horse, with the light above blinding his eyes a bit. It wasn’t looking down at him, he knew; it was looking somewhere else. His heart stopped and dropped as the spoon descended into the milk and underneath him. The giant horse scooped him up with the spoon. How it held a spoon with a hoof wasn’t on his mind, as he saw himself being carried into the giant’s open mouth. “N-No! Stop!” The boy begged, trying to get the giant’s attention. “Don’t eat me! Look! Down here!” His pleas fell onto deaf ears, as the giant horse’s lips fell onto the spoon, with everything dumped into its mouth, including the boy. All around him, he could hear and feel heavy and warm breathing of the horse, even if everything was nearly pitch black. No time came as everything was being tossed around with the stallion chewing it’s food, tossing the boy around on its tongue, being covered in mush with near deafening crunches and teeth clacking. Any attempt at screaming was fruitless as a mix of mush, milk, and saliva got into his mouth, making the boy spit it out in disgust. A sense of dread fell upon him as everything came to a momentary stop, followed by the rising of the tongue, and the opening of the throat. The boy panicked; he knew that everything inside the giant’s mouth was about to be sent to its stomach. Frantically, he thrashed around and tried to grab ahold of the taste buds. He slipped a bit on the slick muscle, but he managed to barely grab ahold of the taste buds and watched with unparalleled horror as everything else the giant ate was swallowed down, no doubt about to be digested. “So, ready to visit Rainbow Dash?” The mare asked, putting on her orange-yellow sweater. “Soon, honey,” the stallion replied. “Just let me finish breakfast first.” He grabbed the bowl and chugged the rest of the milk down. The boy heard and felt the stallion talking, and dreaded what was going to happen. A waterfall of milk washed over the kid over, threatening the strength of his grip. He had hoped he could muster enough strength to hold on a bit tighter and maybe hide near the giant’s teeth and gums so the mouth would open to his freedom. Unfortunately, this world’s deity laughed at him like his last world’s deity did as he lost his grip and was washed down the throat. It took the boy a short flush down the throat before he had reached the entrance of the giant’s stomach, the sphincter opening up to welcome him to his supposed doom. The boy splashed into a large pool and swam up with another gasp for air. He began to hyperventilate as all around him, he saw that he was inside the belly of the best. Its stomach walls moved seemingly on it’s own, the ‘ceiling’ bounced in sync to it’s heartbeat, and the sound of it’s breathing and stomach gurgling was all he could hear. Everything was so huge, and he was small. He couldn’t comprehend how insignificant he was to the rest of the outside world. All he could do was swim to a dry spot, right near one of the walls, and hope he could last long before he would be digested, and hopefully get the giant stallion to notice. The boy threw a flurry of punches and kicks to the stomach walls in a desperate bid to be noticed. “GET ME OUT!!!” he screamed “LET ME OUT!!! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!” Outside, the stallion slipped on his button up shirt, and burped a bit. “Oof, something must’ve been in that cereal.” He spoke to himself, patting his belly, which pushed the boy back into the pool of acids. The stallion stretched out his wings, and his entire body. While he may not be entirely unhealthy, the doctors told him to take a couple of stretches each day, so his limbs and body won’t be so cramped. It made the boy freak out, believing that the stallion was either deaf, or didn’t care that he was in it’s stomach, probably about to be digested. Nonetheless, he ran to stomach wall and charged into it as if it was a locked door. “Get! Me! Out! Of! HERE!!!” Another burp escaped from the stallion, a bit louder this time. “Ugh… that’s enough stretching, I suppose.” He began to walk, rocking the kid in his stomach, who had to grab onto the wall for support. The stallion stopped by the mare, who read the newspaper article herself. “Alright, ready to go.” “Oh, I think Rainbow Dash will be pleasantly surprised to see us-” She paused as her ‘mother senses’ were tingling. Her ears flickered, as she could hear crying. “...Honey, what’s wrong?” Her husband asked in his concerned tone. “... Is there a tiny in our house?” She placed her ear right on his chest. “Hello? Anypony in there?” “Honey! What are you-!?” “Shush!” Past her husband’s heartbeat and stomach gurgling, she could hear the small boy inside, sniffling away. “Please… I’m sorry for what I did… I want to live,” the boy begged. “Honey?” her husband asked. “Is there something wrong with-?” “I’m so sorry about this, honey,” his wife spoke. Her left hoof clenched up like a fist, delivering a hard punch to his gut. Her right hoof followed up, delivering a hard uppercut below his bottom jaw, and with a flap of her wings, made him soar into the sky. He fell to the floor, coughing really hard, followed by his cheeks perking up, turning a sickly pale green. It was followed with him heaving up his cereal onto the floor, and shivering in that gunk, the mare spotted a tiny boy who choked and wheezed. When the boy turned around to face the giants who were facing him back, he screamed and got up to run away. The mare jumped into his path and scooped him up in her hooves and gently sandwiched him in between them, feeling the boy panic in her gentle, firm grasp, trying to break free in vain. “N-No! Not again! Please! Leave me alone! I-I-!” “Shh… it’s ok. Nopony’s going to hurt you,” the mare cooed to no avail. The boy still thrashed around in her grip, panicking with the only instinct to break free and run away. With only one recourse left to take, the mare brought her muzzle down to him, gently nuzzled him, and followed up with a gentle kiss that engulfed his entire body. Then the boy’s adrenaline from his fear and panic drained out of his body and replaced with a sense of comfort. The kiss felt both very gentle and genuine, but that wasn’t enough to entirely sway his fears. He looked back at her, still breathing hard, unsure if this display of affection was a trick or not. “Oh dear, look at you. You’re dirty!” the mare commented at his appearance. “You’ve been on the streets alone for a while, haven’t you?” He gently nodded. “Come along, you’ll need a bath and a fresh set of clothes.” She looked back at her husband. “We need to tend to our little guest here, honey, so we might need to cancel our surprise for Dashie.  Oh, and clean up your mess; it’s going to stain my rug.” “Yes, dear,” the stallion replied with a groan, clutching his gut as it threatened to toss his cookies again. She brought him into their bathroom, using the sink as their tub. She plugged up the drain and turned on the water, setting it to a temperature between hot and lukewarm, the steam rising from the growing surface of the water. “I am so sorry for what just happened. My Bowie’s usually so focused on the newspapers every morning, reading the news and whatnot about what’s happening in the world that he just doesn’t pay attention to what’s happening in real life.” The boy shyly looked away from the giant mare, who then realized something important that she nearly forgot. “Oh! Sorry, where are my manners! My name’s Windy Whistles. What’s yours?” “... B-Brendan,” he replied, her happy-go-lucky nature was rubbing off of him. “M-My name is Brendan.” “Ah, Brendan! That’s a very nice name. Tell me, what were you exactly doing in my husband’s celeral? It’s not exactly the best place for Tinies to be in.” “I-I didn’t know… I just got here in… uh… what’s this place?” “The land you are in is Equestria. More specifically, you’re in my home in Cloudsdale.” “...I don’t follow.” “It’s ok, you’ll get the hang of it.” She then turned around. “Go ahead, take your bath. I won’t look.” Brendan blushed a bit, but then he complied as he slipped his clothes off, leaving wearing nothing but his underwear. When he entered his bath, he immediately felt a soothing warmth flow through him, feeling much more relaxed than he was in years, contemplating how this was nice compared to the stallion’s stomach. “So… who are your parents?” Windy Whistles inquired, turning around when the Tiny boy was mostly submerged in the hot water. “I might not know much Tinies, but I’m sure we can find them.” Brendan dropped his head shamefully. “I… I never had any.” Windy Whistles’ eyes widened. “What!?” “Y-yeah… I was at an orphanage for most of my life. When the Vanishing happened, people didn’t want to take any of us because they weren’t sure when they were going, or if we were going next. I didn’t want to stay and wait for someone, so I escaped and have been on the road for a few weeks… until… you know… this happened.” “Oh, you poor thing. Is there anything I can do for you?” “It’s fine, it’s just… I just really need to process all of this now.” “Oh, but of course, dear.” Brendan looked to the massive door. “...You’re married to that guy?” “Well, of course. I wouldn’t marry him if I didn’t love him.” “What’s his name?” “Bow. Bow Hot Hoof. He’s a week away from retiring as coach for Cloudsdale’s hoofball team, the Thunderbirds.” “...And you?” “I’m just the team’s head cheerleader and nurse.” “Huh… that sounds cool. And Tinies? What are those?” “Oh, that’s what we call you. You’re all so small, and since we didn’t know what you were called, the term tiny felt very fitting. Don’t feel too bad, your kind’s been adapting here, even if you do all taste delicious.” Something about that statement chilled Brendan to the bone. “Wait, what? Delicious?” “Oh yes! See, our daughter accidentally found out how your kind tastes REALLY good, and it’s been sticking with us for a while now!” Brendan hesitantly got out of his bathtub and dried himself off with a towel. “Uh, th-that sounds nice, but I gotta go right now and-” Windy reached her hoof out to him. “Wait, don’t be afraid! We have eaten most Tinies like you, and yes it may sound scary, but in actuality, you’re very safe in our stomach.” Brendan was less than convinced by this statement. “...That’s a weak lie.” “No! Really! You’re fine!” Windy frantically tried to convince the boy. “Didn’t you even notice how you weren’t in real danger when you were in Bow’s stomach?” “No, because I was freaking out because I was afraid of being digested.” “...Well… touche… but still, I mean it! I Pinkie swear by it.” “...How? You don’t have any fingers.” Windy Whistles did the movements as she spoke it. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she chanted, “and remember, if you break a Pinkie Promise, then that’s the quickest way you can lose a friend’s trust.” “Forever~...” an ominous whisper could be heard around them. “...Is that normal?” Brendan asked “Oh, that’s Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. With her, what is normal anymore?” Windy retorted with a chuckle, though the reference flew over Brendan’s head. “Trust me, here in Equestria, practically anything you think can happen will most likely happen.” “Does that include you eating me?” Windy Whistles shrugged. “Uh… well… maybe not… unless you want me to, but-” Windy Whistle hummed brining a hoof to her chin and then looked down at him. “How about tonight?” “What? What do you mean?” “Tonight, I can at least let you in my mouth and keep you in there so you can get comfortable. Would that be ok? If not we can still find a place for you to sleep.” “N-No…” Brendan said unsure and doubtful. “…You can take me to a nearby orphanage and drop me off there.” “Uh… well… How about we all get to know each other a little better, would you like that?” Brendan looked up at her. He felt a tug at his heart, seeing how sweet Windy was being to him, the comfort he felt and the warmth of the hot water around him feeling like the very things that eluded him for many years was finally in his grasp. He relaxed himself and felt the tenseness of a hardened childhood wash away with the grease and grime on his body. Brendan gave Windy a small nod, the mare smiled brightly she leaned in closer to the boy, making him a bit worried. He calmed down when Windy lovingly nuzzled the side of his head. “I’ll give you your privacy now, so yell for me if you need me, okay?” As Windy made her way out of the bathroom, Brendan relaxed in the hot water, closed his eyes and smiled. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes.                                                          --- Half an hour had passed and Brendan had washed off all the dirt and the stomach juices from Bow’s belly. Windy wrapped Brendan up in a small towel and used her wing as a makeshift hand to hold the boy up to her soft warm chest. It was pretty weird to see a pegasus use its wings like fingers, but as she said, he should expect anything to happen. “Is he okay?” Bow Hot Hoof asked looked over at Brendan, his giant muzzle hovering above him. “He’ll be fine sweetie.” Windy held Brendan up to Bow who held out his hoof. Windy shifted her wing and let the boy slip off and into Bow’s hoof, feeling the soft texture of the frog underneath his seat. He didn’t know it would be this soft, not that Brendan knew much about horses in general. Still, it didn’t stop him from being scared when he was face to face with the stallion that ate him previously, making this meeting all the more awkward for the two. “Hi,” Bow said hesitantly, reluctant and nervous in his tone. “Uh... sorry about what I did to you at breakfast, little guy. I didn’t mean for you to get caught up in my cereal.” Bow used his wing to ruffle Brendan’s dark hair. Brendan didn’t necessarily like that, but the stallion’s kind expression made his heart melt a bit. All he could do at the moment was smile and nod. “It's no problem… I know you didn’t mean it.” Brendan patted the soft pad underneath him, assuring the giant stallion. “I’ve seen a movie before where the dad almost eats his shrunken son in the cereal, and I know he didn’t mean to almost eat him, just like you didn’t mean to actually eat me.” Bow smiled at that. “Aw, that’s the nicest thing to say to me after all the trouble you’ve been through,” the giant said, lowering his slightly unshaven muzzle over to nuzzle the boy. “Thanks for being so forgiving, little guy.” “This little guy is Brendan,” Windy Whistles said, nuzzling the boy as well, catching him by surprise, “and he’s gonna be staying with us for a little while before we drop him off at a Tiny orphanage. He insisted.” “Really?” Bow’s face fell flat with an empathetic look, as did his ears. “You really don’t have a mom or a dad in your life?” “N-No,” Brendan said, shaking his head, “but it’s fine. I’ve gotten by better without a mom or a dad in my life.” “No, it’s not fine. A child such as yourself needs a mom or a dad in their life,” Windy Whistles retorted. “What you need most of all is a family, so I think it’s best that you stay with us as your own surrogate family.” “Are you sure? I’d feel like such a burden to you guys.” “Hey, don’t worry about it,” Bow Hot Hoof assured. “We’ve had a challenge raising our own daughter ever since she was an ecstatic little foal, so I’m sure it’s no trouble keeping you around as our surrogate son.” Suddenly, a loud knock on the door made the giants jump. “Wonder who that could be?” Bow asked rhetorically as he shifted Brandan from his hoof and into Windy’s. He answered the door, and his face lightened up with a wide smile. “Dashie!” He grabbed the newly arrived pony and crushed her into an affectionate bear hug that, should that happen to Brendan, would turn it all into an unsightly mess. The pony, Brendan saw, had the same coat color as Windy Whistles, and the same colored mane and tail to Bow, though it was much longer and smoother in appearance. “It’s good to see you again, Dashie!” Bow exclaimed happily, unaware that his hug was turning the pony’s cyan face into a purple color from the lack of oxygen. “It’s… nice… to see you… too… Dad…” Rainbow Dash managed to wheeze out before her over-excited dad let her go, allowing her to catch her breaths. When her breath finally caught up, Rainbow Dash chuckled, turned, and gave her dad a hug. “So what’s going, you two? I was just waiting for you guys to show up for my last show and thought you were gonna meet me?” “Oh, believe me, Dashie, we were going to meet you,” Windy Whistles answered. “But something, uh… came up that needed our attention,” Bow said, clutching his belly and looking over to his wife. Rainbow Dash looked towards her mother as well, and then blinked in surprise when she spotted something her mother held in her hoof. It was a tiny human boy sitting in the center of her hoof, who traded a surprised look towards her as well. Feeling uncertain about being in the presence of the boy, Rainbow Dash scooted over to her father and leaned him in close to her. “Uh, you guys do know that I don’t eat Tinies anymore, right?” she whispered into Bow’s ear. “It’s a bit of a long story, sweetie,” Bow whispered back, “but to quickly summarize it all up, I accidentally ate him with my breakfast and your mother made me heave him out.” Rainbow Dash grimaced at the story. “Oh boy. Is he ok?” “He seems to be. Just look at him,” Bow told her, and they looked to see the boy silently conversing with Windy Whistles, most likely about how nervous he was about being around the younger pony. “He and your mother are getting along fine, and since he has no parents, we’re thinking of taking him in as our adopted son.” Rainbow Dash turned to him, surprised. “Are you serious!? But if you’re adopting him, that would mean that I’m going to be a big sister… again!” “That’s right,” Bow nodded. “Don’t you want another sibling in your life?” Rainbow Dash was hesitant to answer, unable to express herself with the shock and surprise of the news, as well as her newfound experience of not being able to consume Tinies again. “Well, yeah, I mean… I’ve always wanted to have a little brother of my own along with Scootaloo, but…” Rainbow Dash motioned to the boy, “but not a Tiny brother! I can’t keep myself controlled over the thought of eating a Tiny his size, and even if I wanted to, I can’t! Those groups of Tinies that are after the ponies who tasted them!? I don’t want them coming after me because I relapsed and swallowed another innocent Tiny!” Bow waved a hoof down and chuckled. “Don’t worry yourself, Dashie, you’ll be fine around him. As long as you maintain your self-control around him, I’m sure there’s nothing to fear. Besides, don’t you want to get to know him before we give him the option to drop him off at a local orphanage?” Rainbow Dash turned to the boy. From her own observation, he looked like he just experience familial happiness in such a long time. Plus, she had to be loyal to her friends and family, so turning down this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was a no-go to her. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Eh, what the hay? Might as well introduce myself to him.” For a moment, the pegasus in question nearly buckled down under her dad’s hard yet supportive back slaps. “Now there’s the Number One pony I know. Now go out there and make friends with the Tiny!” Rainbow Dash stifled a smirk; her dad really hadn’t changed. As ready as she could be, Rainbow Dash went up to the Tiny boy in the frog of her mother’s hoof with her trademark confident smile. “Hey, squirt, sorry I didn’t give you my name before. The name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus alive in Equestria. What’s yours?” “It’s Brendan,” the boy replied. “It’s nice to meet you.” “Same here.” Windy moved Brendan onto the coffee table. “I think I’ll leave you two alone so you can get to know each other a little more,” the maternal mare said, giving Brendan a soft, sweet kiss, “but first, let’s get you both a bite to eat. You two must be hungry after all you’ve been through.” With that, Windy Whistles turned and trotted out of the room with Bow by her side, leaving their daughter and their soon-to-be surrogate son alone with each other in the living room. Rainbow Dash settled down on the couch and exchange an awkward staring contest with Brendan. They were engulfed by a pregnant pause that almost seemed to last hours on end, when it was only mere minutes passing. “So… I heard you eat people?” Brendan inquired. “Yep,” Rainbow Dash said back. “I mean, I used to eat a lot of Tinies, but I don’t do that anymore. Had a really bad nightmare about it once. Anyways, you don’t have to worry about that because I’m not thinking of eating you.” Another awkwardly silent moment passed. “So, how’d you get here in Cloudsdale?” “I don’t know, really,” Brendan answered, wrapping the towel around him tighter. “One minute, I was laying in an alleyway all beat up by some angry vendors, then the next moment, I was landing in your dad’s cereal.” “Oh? So you’re really new here, aren’t you?” Rainbow Dash leaned forward making Brendan backup a bit. Her muzzle hovered over his head, and with a flare of her nostrils, the boy felt a gust of air being sucked into her nose, almost like he would be lifted off of his feet into the air while she captured his scent. Rainbow’s nostrils gave a sharp huff. “You’ve got that new Tiny smell alright, but you also got that greasy smell with some other stuff. Did Mom give you a bath?” Brendan nodded his head. “Yeah, I was dirty from… um, being alone in my world and being inside your dad’s stomach. It was really scary.” “Ah, sorry about what you had to go through there,” Rainbow Dash apologized sympathetically, “but don’t worry, you’re in good hooves. My mom and dad, they’re as nice as ponies can be… even if they’re a bit eccentric about me and a little bit overly supportive, they’re still good ponies.” “From what they’ve done for me so far, I can agree.” Rainbow Dash gave a pleasant smile to the tiny boy. “I like ya, kid,” she said, lowering hoof to Brendan and ruffling his hair again. “It’s a real shame that you’d wanna choose orphanage life over family life.” Rainbow Dash lifted her hoof and saw that her affectionate rub made his hair go shaggy. “Oh come on, your Dad already messed up my hair,” Brendan grumbled fixing his hair back to the way he liked it. Rainbow Dash stifled a snicker and burst out chuckling. To Brendan’s small size, it was like hearing laughter directly from a megaphone. “Alright you two, we got your food ready.” Bow and Windy came trotting in with a large bowl of pasta and a set of plates, including one small enough for Brendan. “We hope you like spaghetti,” Windy said. She laid down a heaping plate of spaghetti the size of a football field next to Brendan, who had a grateful smile on his lips. “At this point, I’ll be happy to have any type of food.” Brendan stood up from his seat, keeping his makeshift towel tightly wrapped around him. “Oh, that reminds me, Brendan, here you go.” Windy laid out the Tiny boy’s clothing, his hoodie, shorts, everything that he needed. “I took the liberty of washing your clothes while you were bathing, so now you have a fresh set of clothes.” Brendan took the clothes and quickly ducked behind the plate, out of sight for privacy. A couple of minutes later, the boy reemerged with his clothes on his back again. He couldn’t help but admire how clean they looked and felt; it had been months since he last had them washed and popped fresh out of the dryer. While Brendan admired, he couldn’t help but notice a certain article was missing from his only wardrobe. Brendan kept up his search while the giants prepared their plates, filling them up with pasta and sauce. When he looked up to the giants filling up Rainbow Dash’s plate of spaghetti, he spotted his favorite cap tangled in a single noodle. “Ah sweet! Thanks guys, I’m starving!” Rainbow Dash said, eagerly taking her plate to her, completely unaware of Brendan’s cap inside. Without so much as a single thought, Brendan lunged for the plate and jumped into the noodles, getting himself tangled inside as he wriggled through to reach his cap. Just as Brendan reached for the cap and clamped his fingers on the cap’s visor, his eyes caught onto to Rainbow Dash’s maw descending onto him, none the wiser that he was trapped inside the spaghetti. Suddenly, in a single scooping clamp, Brendan was trapped in humid darkness and lifted upwards and leveled by a vertigo force. Just like before when he was in trapped in Bow’s mouth, Brendan was thrown into utter chaos the inside of Rainbow Dash’s mouth. Her tongue tossed him and the bunch of noodles and sauce from one cheek to another. Her molars ground the noodles into a paste, compressing him, but thankfully not hurting him. Her saliva coated him with the liquified mush of wheat noodles and tomato sauce. “Mmm… mom, what did you add in this!? This is DELICIOUS!!!” Rainbow Dash asked in intense bliss. “Oh? I didn't add anything new,” Windy answered. “It's just my same old recipe.” “Well, for some reason, it’s better than the last time I had spaghetti with you! It's REALLY good!” Bow felt there was something missing… or someone. “Hey, where did Brendan go?” “Mmm~... what?” Rainbow Dash paused suddenly. “Oh, well, I could’ve sworn that he was on the table somewhere a minute ago,” Windy said. “He couldn’t have gotten too far.” While Rainbow Dash stilled her chewing to look over the table, she noticed a peculiar texture on her tongue. It was delicious, but it was also familiar… and moving. Her eyes widened; there was a tiny on her tongue! She broke out in a cold rain of sweat and her cheeks puffed up. Seconds later, she zipped to the sink and spat everything out, including Brendan. “T-TINY TASTE!!! TINY TASTE!!! TINY TASTE!!!” In a panic, Rainbow Dash turned and zoomed out the door, flying out into the open at the speed of Mach 5, leaving behind her signature contrail. While Bow and Windy looked at each other with surprise then out the thrown-open door where their daughter flew out, Brendan simply sat in the sinked and blinked. He took his hat and placed it on top of his mushy, soaked head. “Well… that just happened.” --- In a cave in some mountain, far far away from Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash hid herself away from the world. She frantically licked away at the bland rocks, trying desperately to get the taste of the tiny boy off of her palette. “Come on, Dash, you’ve gotta get rid of the taste!” she told herself, giving one of the rocks a few faster licks. “You can’t go back to your old self! You can’t go back to being ‘The Gulper!’ You’ve come so far, and you’re gonna throw it all over some kid! You can’t! You can’t!” With it, Rainbow Dash huddled herself in a corner of the cave, curled up in a fetal position and rocked herself. One of her magenta eyes twitched uncontrollably while panicked thoughts ran through her head. “Dashie? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash looked up and saw her parents approach her from the mouth of the cave. “Mom!? Dad!? How did you-” “Motherly sense,” Windy answered. “And we literally just saw you enter,” Bow added, pointing to the outside. It turned out that Cloudsdale was only a few meters away. “Oh.” Rainbow Dash’s ears flopped. “Um… maybe you guys should give me a minute while I try to get the taste of tiny out of my mouth. Rainbow Dash scooped up a bunch of smaller rocks and shoved them into her mouth, cringing at the flavor. “Dash, sweetie, this ridiculous! You don’t need to worry, Brendan’s fine,” Windy told her daughter, putting her hoof around her shoulder. “No, you don’t get it!” the Elemental of Loyalty snapped, rejected her mother’s hoof. “I tasted a Tiny! I swore I would never go back to eating Tinies ever again! Do you know what it was like, having a nightmare about your addiction to eating Tinies!? It was horrible! I was wracked with guilt for weeks!” “But, Dash, it was only an accident. You don’t need to beat yourself up over one little mistake,” Bow told his daughter who slumped over in shame. “Tell you what, Dashie, you come back home with us. We can sit down, relax, and have a nice soaghetti dinner.” “No! I’ll eat him! I don’t want to eat him!” Rainbow Dash shifted back holding her hooves up to her mouth almost like to block off the entrance of her mouth. “I don't want to eat any tiny! Even if they deserved to get eaten, I don’t want to eat them!” “But, Rainbow Dash, you really don’t need to hide yourself from me,” Brendan’s voice echoed off the cave walls, revealing himself riding on Windy’s back. “It’s okay.” “AHH! Why is he here!?!” Dash backed away, doing everything she can to stay away from him. “Brendan insisted on coming along,” Windy explained. “So that I can tell you that you might be overreacting a bit,” Brendan added. “Kid, you don’t get it! Tinies everywhere were scared of me for a reason! I’m the one who started the whole ‘Tiny eating’ trend, and I’m the one who kept eating Tinies like there was no tomorrow! Tiny kids your age are scared to come out because of me! It cost me some of my friends, and I can’t even afford to let that happen again!” “But… you spat me out, didn't you?” “Yeah, I did when I-” “Even when I tasted good?” Brendan asked, getting closer to Rainbow Dash “Well… yeah I did and you really tasted good too…” Rainbow Dash facehoof herself. “But, Dashie, don’t you see?” Windy chimed in. “See what? What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked in total confusion. “Sweetie, you had enough self control to spit him out and not just eat like your old self would,” Windy pointed out. “You’ve gained self control, Dashie. Do you think your old self would have done that?” “W-Well, no…” Windy and Bow walked over to Rainbow Dash and wrapped her up in their wings in a big, tight group hug. Brendan felt left out, so he climbed over Windy’s head of hair and onto her shoulder, where he gave Rainbow Dash’s left hoof a firm embrace. “Come on, Dashie, let's go home.” Rainbow Dash was then met with a kiss on the forehead from her father and a kiss on the cheek from her mother. With a smile, she felt a newfound state of peace, having no fear of the Tiny boy as she gently scooped up Brendan from her mother and placed him on her muzzle. Brendan hugged the soft fur of Rainbow Dash’s muzzle while the three pegasus ponies walked to the mouth of the cave and met with chilling winds that made the boy shudder. “You okay, kid?” Rainbow Dash inquired, noticing the boy’s shivering. “Yeah, I’m just a little cold,” Brendan insisted. “You look more than just a little cold. Are you feeling alright?” “I am, but it feels freezing up here, and…” Brendan looked into the tomboy pegasus’s giant magenta eyes. “Um, Rainbow? I asked your mom this earlier because she wanted me to try it, but… can you, you know, eat me?” Rainbow Dash nearly tensed at the question. “W-Wait, are you really sure about that?” “Yeah I think I’ll be safer in your belly. Your Mom and Dad already told me how it works.” “Well um… Ah, man, I don’t think… ” Rainbow Dash bit her lip nervously. “Go on, Dashie, it’ll be fine,” Windy encouraged. “It might be safer for him with this wind kicking up.” “Yeah, go for it, kiddo,” Bow added, slapping his own belly. “If he can survive being inside the belly of this pony, then he can definitely survive in yours.” Rainbow Dash nervously sighed and gulped a lump in her throat. It didn’t bother her parents much when she retired from Tiny tasting because of her newfound personal demons and they gave her their support, but now they encouraged her to do it again after she almost ate Brendan in her spaghetti. “O-Okay, if you insist…” Rainbow Dash scooped up Brendan with her hoof and tilted it flat as a platform, looking down at the young tiny boy. “You sure? I-it's alright if you don't want to.” “Come on, please?” Brendan pleaded, nearly to the point of making a pleading pout. Rainbow Dash sweated a little cold bullet. “A-Alright… f-feel free to back out of this if you’re afraid.” Reluctantly, she brought her hoof to her mouth and opened it, sticking her tongue out like a welcoming carpet. It was true that the sight of Rainbow Dash’s giant maw was intimidating, but with a deep breath, Brendan set foot onto the tongue. He laid down on the soft, spongy surface texture of the enormous tasting organ, it connecting with the roof of the mouth by shimmering webs of saliva. He slipped deeper inside the mouth and into the center of the tongue. On the inside, Brendan watched the light fade away to darkness as Rainbow Dash closed her mouth. He relaxed to the heat of the interior of the mouth; there was a certain humidity that didn’t dehydrate him, the heavy breathing from the back of the throat provided the warmth, and the tongue was as comfortable as a bed comforter. With a smile, Brendan snuggled into the foam-like taste buds. After a minute of processing the texture of the taste buds, Brendan crawled over to a couple of bigger lumps at the back of Rainbow Dash’s tongue. On his knees, Brendan climbed over the lumps and peered down the entrance of the esophagus. The muscles of that throat seemed to open up to his young appearance. Suddenly, the tongue shifted, throwing Brendan back to the center of the tongue before it lifted up to the roof. The saliva’s slickness enabled Brendan to slide down to the back of Rainbow Dash’s throat, which pushed her down with a single swallow. With that quick gulp, Brendan slipped down Rainbow Dash’s esophagus. The muscles squeezed around him, pushing him down before the loosened up a bit. Then he was sucked through a tight, puckered ring and dropped into the sauna that was Rainbow Dash’s stomach. As he fell into the muck, only emerging shortly after, Brendan took in the surroundings of his pegasus sister’s insides. The heartbeat echoed like a muffled bass drum beat. The thick, digestive fluid sloshed him around in a warm soup. The stomach’s moist walls undulated, and the entire chamber shook as the air provided inside escaped in the form of a belch. Rainbow Dash giggled at the burp, clearly embarrassed at how she released a mighty expulsion of gas from her maw in front of her parents. “Sorry about that,” the flustered pegasus said, turning to her belly. “Hey, Brendan, are you doing okay in there?” “Yeah, it’s pretty nice in here!” Brendan called back. “It’s actually not that bad at all.” “Well don’t get too comfy squirt,” Rainbow Dash chuckled. “Once we’re home, you’re coming out first thing.” “Don’t worry, I won’t,” Brendan said, smiling as his eyes felt heavy from the relaxing heat of his new sister’s stomach. The chamber rocked with Rainbow Dash’s outside movements, and felt himself lifted into the air like an airplane was taking off from the runway. With a deep, loud yawn, Brendan closed his eyes and snuggled up against the moist walls, enjoying the rocking that helped lull him into a deep, but quick nap.