The Story
The noise of the forest echoed loudly. That was no surprise of course, this was Everfree, the most primal spot in these lands. Here wild beasts of the sorts that haunted nightmares tended to dwell. From rampaging manitcores, their tails full of venom, to multiheaded hydra's, who's fangs would glint wickedly in the light. Such things made their home in these dark woods. Yet not everything here was truly an agent of destruction. Some, like the Serpent named Magnet, wanted only to be left alone.
Still another form walked the waning daylight in these woods. Her coat, a glossy ebony and ivory, shone like she was forged of delicate glass. She was not of course, as her bag at her side atested. The bag was full, and out of the top of it poked plants of ever persuasion. From those dark azure petals that marked the devious Poison Joke, to the bright crimson of Heart's Desire, and even a few golden trimmed Sage Blossoms, the zebra's pack overflowed with the day's conquest.
Stepping through the woods, her ears swiveled a bit, first one way, and then another, her senses sharp and alert for noise that grew too close. She made her way through the brush, her every hoofstep a loud crunch, until at last, her path brought her to her home, in an old hollowed out tree. The thing lived, of course, she would not have made her rest in a dead thing, but it looked ominous enough to scare away most ponies, and so few dared to approach it.
I of course, was a bit different. That was because I was a scientist. Well, sort of. My name is DawnChaser, because I'm always chasing the dawn. Literally. I'm chasing Celestia, the Princess of the Sun. Why? Well, because I want to dethrone her. That's a good reason to chase her, I think, and eventually, I will do it too. You just wait and see if I don't. That's a long term goal though, something I don't think I'll get to for years yet, and today is merely one step on the road to something special.
Today I decided to spy on Zecora. Well, nothing so gauche really. I had asked the zebra, through one of my associates, if I might study her potion making. She'd agreed of course, after all, she had nothing to hide. What I hadn't told her, because I'm like that sometimes, was that I didn't want to have her demonstrate her art as a brew mistress to an outsider. Instead I wanted to see her do it naturally. So I had placed an order with her for a potion, and then snuck into her home.
You might ask how one would fail to see a stallion who was only slightly shorter than the local farm boy, Big Macintosh, but that was simple. I had a spell that could create duplicates of myself...wait no, that wasn't the spell I was going to use. What about the one that let me make magical doorways that could hop across a continent? No, that wasn't it either. There was some spell I had...
AHA! That was the one. I could grow myself to huge proportions, or do the opposite, and shrink down to a size that could barely be seen with the naked eye. That last bit was the more important of the two, as I wandered into Zecora's home while she was out, and then surptitiously made my way up one of her walls, and hide in the rafters that crossed the ceiling of her home. Hiding myself such that I couldn't be seen by her from below, I gazed down at her home and waited.
She entered her home from her herb gathering with a loud sigh, as if the daily rigors of living in a place that could end an unwary traveler's life were growing mundane to the zebra, who placed her pack against a wall, and began to sort through the day's gains. She placed each flower, herb, and root into convenient bowls, jars, and other such holders, before turning from them to a large pot she had begun brewing earlier in the day to fulfill my request.
Said pot bubbled, churned, and otherwise made noise that indicated it was getting closer and closer to complete. She then turned away from the pot, and instead walked over to a nearby table. At first, I thought she was gathering more things to throw in the pot, as she pulled out a few green leaves, a large red orb, and some brownish sheet things. Of course, when she laid the green leaves on the brown sheets, I quickly realized she was making lunch, not brewing something strange.
That disappointed me a bit, as this was starting to get to the good part, and I knew that soon she would be putting in the final bits of the potion. Still, it was at least interesting to watch as she used the side of her hoof to cut into the red orb, a tomato I surmised, and place the slice of it on the lettuce. Then, suddenly, the bubbling of the pot became louder, and her eyes turned away from the meal before her, and instead her attention returned to the pot.
I, being curious about what was going on, leaned forward, trying to get a better view of the cauldron as she stood over it. My first clue that I had leaned a bit too far forward was when my forelegs suddenly were held up only by air, my second clue was the air rushing past my ears, as I fell. I was used to such things, one had to be with a shrink spell, and any number of experiments involving pegasi, so I did not scream or cry out. Not that I didn't try mind, it was just that the air was ripped from my lungs by my descent, causing me only to harshly wheeze as I plummeted towards the hard ground below.
Then my fall stopped. Suddenly and squishily, as my body impacted something both firm enough to support me, but also soft enough that it bounced. It was also wet, and looking down, I was startled to find that I had fallen right onto Zecora's sandwich, the tomato, bread, and lettuce having caught me, cushioning my fall so that I hadn't even been splattered or anything. That was so fortuitous that for a moment, I forgot where I was, but remembered when I heard the familiar sound of Zecora's hooves on her floor.
Quick as a Wonderbolt, I shot under a nearby lettuce leaf, figuring it was just leftovers that Zecora wouldn't notice, and then I began to creepy away. Being seen didn't bother me...well bother me too much anyway, but I still thought it best to leave before my presence was known. I was almost halfway off the table when I suddenly felt a familiar pressure above me, the feeling of a hoof grabbing my form, and then lifting me skyward, towards the titanic zebra.
For a moment I thought I had been a bit too quick in my flight, and that I had been spotted by Zecora, but that fear was replaced by an entirely new one as I was lowered not into some waiting bin, to be dealt with later, but instead back towards the red slice of tomato, the lettuce and myself being harshly dropped an inch or so above it. Then even as the light leaf began to settle over my form, I found the heavy weight of the second slice of bread being slammed home atop me.
My mind reeled a bit at the implications of my situation, driving all conscious thought from it. Luckily, that only lasted a second, everything in my brain spinning back up and devising plans on escape a heartbeat later. Unluckily, Zecora was quite hungry, and after a slurping sound as her tongue passed over her lips, she leaned forward, and chomped down, taking the sandwich in her jaws, and then lifting it upward, the pressure of her teeth holding me firmly, but not painfully, in place.
I would have bolted the instant she release her jaw's grip on my form, but unfortunately, such a release only happened as her tongue rose up to bar my way, her bread slipping along her slimy tongue, going just far enough inside her muzzle that she could close her mouth with a harsh clack, sealing me within her. Instantly her tongue rolled again, and the teeth parted, though her lips stayed firmly shut, as she started to chew her meal into a more swallow able form.
Of course, I avoided such action, dodging and rolling around her mouth, her teeth never coming close to me. That didn't mean I could escape however, as everywhere around me, her gnashing teeth slammed together, creating a kind of crushing trap. The only way not blocked by the white, grinding things led towards a place I would just as soon avoid. Not that I had much choice as Zecora, either not feeling me, or thinking it unimportant, soon tilted her head upwards, and I slid along her tongue's length, falling into a velvety pouch of flesh that seemed to fit to my skin, before it suddenly began to press me from above, and send me downward into her with a deep gulp.
The trip down Zecora's neck was tight, as the muscles in the walls contracted to drag me forward by creating a vacuum force ahead, while behind they constricted, pushing me down like a great had pressing against my hind legs. The tightness I felt, with its varying grip, had to be the rings she wore around her neck, as the bulge that was my body traveled down it, and then vanished with another wet gulp down into her chest, where the beating of her heart, and the roaring bellows that were her lungs surrounded me.
I was pressed past those organs, feeling the deep base of her heartbeat, as well as being squeezed between her lungs, before I finally was plopped out into her belly. I had expected, as usual(This not being my first time swallowed), to find a dark place that I would need to light with a bit of magic, but interestingly, the liquid in her belly was green as the potion she had been brewing, and like it, glowed with a faint light, casting a rather earthy and life like pale over everything, as I slid down into the mire.
Floating on it, I found my body was less dense than the liquid, which greedily sucked the remains of the bread, lettuce, and tomato beneath its surface, leaving me floating on my back, as everything began to sway with Zecora's walk back to the cauldron. A few gulps from above and some splashing told me she was sampling her brew, and for some reason, that was satisfying to me, as I lay there, knowing that in a few hours I would be free, and able to write an even more interesting paper on Zecora's potion making that I had thought, as I would see the effects of her inbiding her concoctions on her body first hoof.