What is a Tatzlpony?

by Skylight77

Chapter 40: Belly

Darkness. That was all she could see. Moist. It was all she could feel. Sliding… was all she could do. As she held Rainbow Dash for dear life, their bodies continued to slide down this throat. Fluttershy’s screams were muffled due to the lack of space. All they could do, was slide.

Eventually, they came to open space. Fluttershy’s screams returned, but only for a moment. Their bodies splashed down in a pool of liquid, falling head first. The impact caused them to separate. With squeezed eyes, Fluttershy held her breath, reaching out with her hooves, only to find that her grip around Rainbow Dash had given away. She couldn’t figure out where she went.

Forcing her eyes open, Fluttershy looked inside this murky substance, looking for Rainbow Dash’s body. A brief look to her left allowed her to find Rainbow’s body nearby. She was still unconscious. Fluttershy had to shut her eyes quickly. The liquid was hurtful to her eyes. Reaching out, she reached a hoof towards Rainbow Dash, managing to grab one of hers. And with her other hoof, she was able to grab some very squishy walls nearby, allowing her to drag them both up to the surface.

Upon breaking it, Fluttershy gasped and panted heavily. Using both her hooves, she was able to bring Rainbow’s head out of the liquid and allowed it to lay against the squishy moist walls. Slowly, Fluttershy opened her eyes. The moment she did, her breath halted as her eyes shrunk in utter defeat.

“No-o-o…” she said, tears quickly reforming in her eyes. “No-o-o-o-o!!!”

This was it… They had been swallowed whole by a tatzlwurm. The liquid that they laid in was its stomach acids. These walls were the insides of its stomach.

“Please nooo!!!” Fluttershy screamed as she picked herself up, attempting to get out of the stomach acids. “Let us out!!!” She treaded herself to the spot where they came in, the esophagus that led to its throat above her head. It had already closed up. Flying up to it, she placed her hooves against it and tried to pry it back open, but the walls were too slippery to get any grip on it. All she could attempt was to push herself back through, trying to endure the pain that shot out on her shoulder again.

Roaring sounded, followed by a tremor. The entire stomach started vibrating. And all of a sudden, the entire place thrusted, causing Fluttershy to yelp as her body was thrown back into the pool of stomach acid. Rainbow Dash’s body was thrusted into the pool as well. Flailing her hooves, Fluttershy struggled to right herself back up. She managed to catch Rainbow’s body before it got too far, and was able to drag them both back to the surface again.

Fluttershy gasped and panted again, bringing Rainbow’s head above the pool's level again. The tremors continued. A few more roars were released. Stomach acid came dripping down the walls and ceilings of this stomach, continuing to drench them both.

There was no forcing her way back up this throat. She had to try something else. Perhaps getting it to burp or vomit. But that would require a lot of force in order to upset its stomach enough. Groaning in pain, she decided to try what she could. Lifting her wings out of the pool, she flapped her wings, leaving behind a splash to thrust herself towards the esophagus, despite the limited space.

“Nngh!” Fluttershy grunted as she made impact using her hooves. But all that successfully managed to do was cause a squish, providing no reaction to the tatzlwurm. “Let us out! Please!!!” she cried.

Fluttershy pounded her hooves against the walls and the esophagus, doing whatever she could to upset the stomach. She even tried causing a lot of splashes in the pool of stomach acid. Bubbles started forming. When she saw that, hope welled in her, but short lived.

A loud roar came from the tatzlwurm, vibrating the entire stomach again. Fluttershy could only cover her ears at the sound of that roaring. It was causing the pool to stop bubbling altogether, negating all of Fluttershy’s work.

Fluttershy groaned in defeat. Her body was sore. Rainbow was unconscious. In short, there was no escaping, no way to get out of this stomach.

Soon, the roaring stopped. And what replaced it, were the painful cries that the tatzlwurm was emitting. It was still suffering. Even now after it had swallowed its prey, it continued to suffer very badly. If Fluttershy could, she would cry for the pain that this creature was feeling. But she was in pain as well. As she braced her hooves against her shoulders, all she could do was cry at her own fate, hers and Rainbow Dash’s.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen…” she sniffed. “No…” Then hiccupped. “It’s… it’s all my fault… All my fault…”

The temperature continued to increase as she sat in the pool of stomach acid, moping. Looking up, she asked. “Why?! I should’ve noticed it sooner! Why didn’t I?!” Her voice was agonizing in her despair. “Rainbow Dash!” she cried as she turned her body around to the walls. “I’m sorry! I’m sooo so-o-or-r-ry-y-y!!!”

Fluttershy buried her face against the walls. She openly cried… and cried… and cried. Her body shook and shivered as she cried. For a moment, she picked her face up from the walls to gasp. And then, she buried her face again, crying harder, shivering harder, pouring tears out faster. This was the hardest that she had ever cried. But nopony was around to hear it. Not even Rainbow Dash could hear it right now.

Fluttershy cried, and Rainbow Dash’s body laid motionless, her eyes not even twitching from the drops of the stomach acid dripping on her face. She was peaceful, while Fluttershy was loud. If she had more room, she would be kicking her hind legs out in despair. It was as if she was a little filly who had just lost her mother. But she was a grown mare, who led them both to their demise. All she could do, was cry. Cry in utter regret, defeat, and misery.

___

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

Fluttershy tried multiple techniques in her head to calm her crying down. It was very difficult, but eventually she managed to do it. Opening her eyes, she looked back up at the ceiling, sniffing as a few tears still dropped from her eyes. This was her fate… their fate. She had to accept it, as difficult as it was, maybe even impossible to.

Fluttershy looked back down, pausing for a second. Then she looked back to Rainbow Dash, still lying unconsciously against the walls. She stared at it. One, two, three, four, about five seconds, she slowly made her way to Rainbow, wincing over her sore body.

Once there, she stopped for a moment to catch her breath silently. One, two, three seconds passed before she gently grabbed Rainbow’s body into her hooves, getting Rainbow's front side to face her. Fluttershy looked closely at the nasty bruise that was on Rainbow's forehead. It was the size of a snapped off horn, and the marks on it clearly showed the wrinkles that represented a tree’s bark. There hadn't been a single movement from Rainbow Dash since that crash. She wasn’t even sure if Rainbow could wake up after that.

Not that it mattered. They were doomed anyway. Even if she could find a way to get out, that tatzlwurm probably brought them miles underground anyway. Fluttershy sighed depressingly and looked away. One, two, three, four seconds before she turned her eyes to her bag. She thought about the two Alpines Flowers that were in there. The cure to a tatzlpony’s toxin, and the cause of their doom. If they had just listened to X, if they had not gone out here to look for this garden, they would not be suffering this fate. Why didn’t she just listen? Because she was mad? Or was it because she couldn’t accept what X said as being true? Actually, her words hit Fluttershy far deeper now than it ever had.

"If you can change her back, why haven’t you? Why have you been hiding her instead? Do you… want to change her back?”

Fluttershy had the options to get Rainbow Dash restored. In fact, almost the first thing she did when she found Rainbow Dash as a tatzlpony, she went to Twilight to get her fixed. But as it was happening, Fluttershy hoped it wouldn’t work. Her wish came true. And ever since then, her mind had been avoiding the thoughts of turning Rainbow Dash back. Instead, all she wanted was to learn what Rainbow Dash was, what happened to her, take care of her, and enjoy her company while she had it. Now, she regretted it. She regretted all of it.

Instead of taking the time to feed Rainbow Dash and ask her what she was, she should’ve gone straight back to Twilight before Scootaloo visited. Instead of taking her back to her cottage to treat her injuries, she should’ve taken her straight to Twilight in the middle of the night. Instead of preparing a nice breakfast for Rainbow and Scootaloo the next morning, she should’ve skipped that and gone straight to Twilight. Instead of listening to Rainbow Dash’s concerns, she should’ve just said that tatzlponies were bad so that they would go straight to Twilight to fix it.

All these actions they should’ve done differently. But these actions at the time, they sounded very cruel. Fluttershy was only trying to be nice. Was all that kindness really what led to their downfall? If their predicament was any indication, then yes it was.

But what if they did go back to Twilight? They already tried it once. Would a second visit even have made a difference? Twilight was acting strange. It may have been for a short instance, but Twilight was acting strange. Fluttershy couldn’t deny that. The question was, why was she acting strange?

Maybe Twilight was involved in this. And maybe going back to her wouldn’t have solved anything. What exactly did Twilight want in this involvement? She couldn’t have possibly wanted this, could she?

Fluttershy sighed. Looks like she was never gonna get that answer now. It was only getting hotter in here, making her breath get heavy. The feathers on her wings were starting to droop. They would dissolve soon. Both of them would be reduced as a meal to this tatzlwurm. But she would probably sooner pass out from this heat before that happened.

Looking back to Rainbow’s bruise and then back to the bag again, one last thing came to mind. While they didn’t have any food left, they still had a few medical supplies in there. But there was only enough left for one. Fluttershy was still hurting from the injuries she suffered, but they were nothing compared to what Rainbow Dash had.

If this was the end, Fluttershy wanted to do one last act of kindness. Reaching into the bag, she pulled out the very few medical supplies she had left. She moved Rainbow Dash into a comfortable position. Taking some ointment, she pulled the cap off and spread it on one of her wing tips, using that to gently apply it to Rainbow’s head.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven strokes she used to apply it, all the while breathing heavily and carefully. Rainbow didn’t make any responses to the treatment. After returning the ointment to her bag, she pulled out the last of the bandages she had. She laid pressure against the bruise, wrapping the bandage around it and the back of her head.

One, two, three, four times she wrapped the bandage before it ran out. She tied the knot to the back of Rainbow’s head fimly. Normally, this would be the time where she would smile after her work was done. But there was nothing to smile about now. All she did was provide Rainbow Dash comfort before the end.

Sighing in exhaustion, Fluttershy took one last moment to take a look at Rainbow's sleeping figure. Even with her eyes closed, those red markings next to her eyes made her look adorable. Fluttershy wished she could take one last look into those eyes. As tempted as she was, she didn’t open them herself. But she did imagine them being open. And it was such a beautiful sight.

She was reminded of the last time she was looking into these eyes so deeply. That was actually back with Sly, back when he was manipulating her mind to dream about Paradise and Rainbow Dash. As she looked into these eyes, she desperately wished this had just been another dream. But she knew it wasn’t. Her body was in pain. Dreams couldn't hurt you like this.

Now that she thought about it, with all the dreams she’s been having, all of them had been ending with her getting swallowed. So… maybe this was what they were warning her about. She got lucky with the timberwolves, the snake, and the leopard. This time, she failed to avoid it.

As Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, there was one last thing she wanted to do. It related back to the feelings that she had for Rainbow Dash. She thought it was just the way she felt with all her pets. But her pets didn’t bring a feeling like this.

Slowly, Fluttershy closed her eyes and leaned her head forward. Pursing her lips together, she placed them against the bandage, the spot where the bruise was. And then, she kissed. One, two, three, four, five. She held the kiss on the bruise for five seconds before she separated with a silent but audible smooch. There was somewhere else she wanted to kiss, but she didn’t.

There were a lot of regrets that Fluttershy had right now. This was one of them. The rest lied a lot on her friends. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie… she would leave them too. She really wished she could apologize to them, apologize to all the friends that she made, apologize to all her animals too. If anything happened to her, she told them to go to the Sanctuary she built for them. At the very least, they could live on happily there.

But if there was anypony she wished she could apologize to the most, it would be Scootaloo. Because of her, Scootaloo was losing her sister in Rainbow Dash. They weren’t sisters by blood, but they were more than so at heart. A few tears escaped her eyes, imagining the moment when she would learn the crushing truth, when all her friends would learn the crushing truth.

Nopony was gonna find them out here. They were deeper in the Everfree Forest than they had ever been before. The only pony who knew they were out here was X. And she was currently being hypnotized by Sly. Even if by some miracle somepony else traveled this far, there’s no way they would find them both deep underground, and inside the belly of a tatzlwurm.

Right now, there was only one pony Fluttershy could apologize too, and probably the one she should apologize to the most. “I’m sorry... Rainbow Dash...” She took one more look at the ceiling, letting Rainbow’s body lay on her. The stomach acids continued to drip down on them. Her body was too sore to continue struggling. And the temperature was making it difficult to breathe now. "I'm... sorry..."

With the sounds of a gurgling stomach in her ears, Fluttershy slowly closed her eyes and laid her head back against the slimy walls of this belly, waiting for the inevitable. Eventually, she would enter the land of dreams, return to the Paradise she created in it. And this time, she would not be leaving it. If she didn’t enter it through this sleep, she would upon passing out from this heat. She exhaled one last breath, and then let herself fall to a slumber.

But just before she lost consciousness, she heard a groan.

Author's Note:

So... I'm just gonna repeat this line that I left in Chapter 25:

"Tags spoil everything."

Still pretty scared on how these chapters are gonna affect the story. I really wish I could stop leaving these chapters hanging on notes like this, but I can't write faster.

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Find any errors? Please notify.

Feed back and criticism are appreciated.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

Comments

[Marine Delight]

Well... this is somber...

But there's always a beacon of hope. Perhaps the next chapter will have Rainbow give one big push to get them out of the belly of the beast, both figuratively and literally. And I'm guessing it'll involve Fluttershy making a bold move of going against her instincts and giving herself (nearly) completely to TatzlDash.

[fractalman]

Om nom nom.

That is all.

[Detsella Morningdew]

I mean... as soon as they were swallowed, I knew something was up.

Stomach acid has a pH of 1 - especially if the creature is a carnivore. (The resting pH is around 4-5, but it releases acids like HCl when digesting protein.) It would be a lot worse than just burning your eyes.