Fluttershy was whimpering with her hooves in front of her face. Clang had just lashed out his hoof at her. She was sitting there shivering with her hooves covering her face. It took a few seconds, but she realized her inevitable pain wasn’t coming. Instead she heard violent breathing, the breathing of somepony seething with rage. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the green hoof mere inches away from her face. Seeing how close it was made her whimper.
Clang suddenly retracted his hoof, still breathing his seething rage. He stared at his hoof. His eyes… they were surprised and filled with disbelief. But they held no regret. No fear. Just shock.
“That was all it took…” he said softly. A chuckle escaped his mouth. “All it takes. All bark and no bite.” His mouth grinned widely when his eyes turned to Fluttershy. “Mares and Stallion… They can nag all day long about their issues, complaints, and disbeliefs. And nothing you say will ever get them to stop talking. But once that hoof comes darting towards their face...”
Clang made a zip noise as his hoof went across his mouth. It made Fluttershy back away with her ears pressed against her head. Was Clang really that cruel?
“W-W-Why a-are you doing this?” Fluttershy hesitantly asked. She also wanted to ask why Clang seemed to cut himself when he was calling her old. There was no way she was older than Clang, but she was too scared to ask.
Clang’s sadistic expression went away and his fury seemed to calm down. “Let me give you a hint. You see that pony right there?” He pointed to the lying form of Rainbow’s body. “I’m not just after her because she’s dangerous. I’m after her because…” There was a pause in his voice.
“I was hired to capture her.”
Fluttershy gasped long and loudly as her eyes shrunk. Her legs started shaking as she realized what she was dealing with. “Y-Y-You me-e-ean…”
“Allow me to repeat myself. A few weeks ago, a special type of flower was discovered in the Everfree Forest. What is this flower? I don’t care. But my client certainly does. A dangerous creature appeared soon after this flower was discovered. That creature is the part that I care about. The part that involves my job.” Clang took a long blink with his eyes. “A creature that was described as a pony capable of swallowing another pony whole.”
Fluttershy’s breath got heavy as Clang continued.
“Why should I care for what a dangerous creature is capable of? Well… take a look." He pointed in Rainbow's direction, to which Fluttershy didn't want to look. "Defend yourself before you defend others. When you come across a predator that could devour you at any moment, what do you do? Because if you let that predator have its way, you’ll regret your decision for the rest of your life… if you know what I mean.” A grin came. "You can forget about protecting anypony after that."
Fluttershy took a large swallow of her breath. “B-But, that means the same for them, you know. T-They’re trying to survive just as much as you. If you leave them alone…” She went silent when Clang’s face turned serious.
“My client told me about you, Fluttershy. A pony who is soft and timid. A pegasus with a strong connection of animals that is stronger than even most earth ponies. A connection that even allows you to find those that are lost.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath. “Y-Yes. I take care of a lot of animals. Even some that everypony finds dangerous. But they’re not dangerous. They’re just misunderstood. Trying to defend their territory. If you don’t invade, they aren’t dangerous. And Rainbow Dash…” She paused for a second. “A tatzlpony, they’re not like those animals either. They’ve never harmed me. A tatzlpony is not dangerous!”
Clang just chuckled. “You’re wasting your breath trying to convince me. But tell me this.” His tone grew very low, and his expression went into a serious glare. “How much do your friends mean to you?” Fluttershy nearly backed away at what sounded like a threat. “How would you feel if your closest friends were suddenly taken away from you, forever?”
Slowly, Fluttershy’s head was turning left and right. “N-No… You wouldn’t-”
A smile crept on Clang’s face. “You wouldn’t like that at all now would you?” He then pointed a hoof to Rainbow Dash. “Because that’s exactly what a tatzlpony caused for my client. The life of somepony very close to my client was taken away." Fluttershy's heart split in two right then and there. "And it will happen again as long as she is still loose. That’s why my client was so desperate to hire me. That’s why this tatzlpony must be captured. So that this could never happen again!”
Fluttershy shook her head left and right even harder. “N-No… T-That can’t be right…” Her breath started suffocating. Nothing about this sounded right. Rainbow Dash would never do something like. Not her Rainbow Dash.
But… Rainbow Dash was a tatzlpony. Would a tatzlpony do something like that? She didn’t know. What did a tatzlpony do? Whenever she thought that, she was afraid. That was why Rainbow was afraid, why Rainbow wanted to know if a tatzlpony was bad.
Clang started walking forwards again, going towards Rainbow Dash to take her away. No. Fluttershy didn’t want that. She didn’t want her best friend to be taken away like that. Rainbow may be a tatzlpony, but she was still Rainbow. There was still reason to protect her. Something had to be wrong. So Fluttershy moved in front of Clang to stop him from walking.
“Move.” Clang said in a dark voice. Fluttershy was scared, but she would not move. It didn’t feel right, didn’t sound right. She wanted to say something. But what could she say? Would Clang even listen? Was it even right to listen to what Clang said in the first place? “I wasn’t hired to harm you. I was hired to do what it takes to capture that tatzlpony. But if you keep resisting, you’ll force my hoof. Now move!”
Fluttershy knew what to say. There didn't have to be a reason to say it. She spread her hooves apart. “No. I-I... I won't...” Her body shook. “I won’t let you take her!” Her breath was heavy as she stared Clang down. It didn’t matter if she was scared. Only Rainbow Dash mattered. The one who would take her away, was Clang. Clang took a stance, but she still refused to move.
Suddenly, his body moved. A red streak crossed her mind at that very moment. Time moved slow. She heard her own breath. Her hoof swung. It was stopped. Clang was right behind her.
Then... there was a loud smack. For that moment, time froze for a few seconds. Everything way gray. The sound of that smack echoed across her entire world.
And then, she felt it. The massive iron of a hoof banging against the back of her skull resumed time in the world. Her body fell straight to the floor, barely causing a bounce as a sharp pain filled her head.
Fluttershy gritted her teeth hard as the pain came. Her breath struggled to feed her lungs. It stuttered as she tried to endure the pain of an iron bar that clanged her head. Even her thick pink mane couldn’t begin to cushion that blow. With her teeth still gritted, her mouth forced itself closed from the pain. Tears formed in her eyes as her breath murmured. She tried so hard.
But, she failed. Fluttershy started crying from the pain. It was the crying of a little filly who had been harmed by a bully. She was a crying little filly again with her hooves over her head. That was all her mind could lead to from how much pain she was in.
“Do yourself a favor and don’t get up,” Clang said. “It would be a lot less painful for you if you stay-” An audible snapped sounded right then. Clang bopped his head back and gasped. Before he knew it, three black coils lashed out at him. “AHH!”
The coils wrapped around him, entangling his hooves and wrapping around his waist. It was Rainbow Dash. She was awake with a fury of fire in her eyes. The sight of Fluttershy on the ground, crying in pain, fueled her rage.
“GET OFF OF ME! LET GO!” Clang’s limbs struggled in the grips of Rainbow’s tongues. They kept sliding out of the grip of the coils. But with their flexibility and strength, Rainbow could keep them grabbing on and preventing him from going anywhere.
Fluttershy managed to lift her head off the ground. She could hear all the screaming and lashing going on. Barely being able to turn her head, she saw Clang completely wrapped in black coils. They were coming from Rainbow.
“GAH!” Clang struck at one of the coils with his hoof, causing Rainbow to wince. In that moment, he tried to get away, but Rainbow endured the pain and got her other two coils to restrain him by the hind legs. They dragged his body across the floor while he tried to stop himself with his forehooves.
Fluttershy’s eyes shrunk. She heard Clang yelling as his body was getting pulled in by Rainbow’s tongues. Clang turned his body and tried to strike one of the coils again, but the third one came back and wrapped around his hoof, halting it. He was about to be…
“N-No…”
Clang’s body was flung upwards before his lower body disappeared in Rainbow’s mouth. Rainbow’s eyes shook in their rage. They no longer held concern for Fluttershy’s fear of her tongues. This had to be done. One of her coils wrapped around Clang’s mouth, ceasing his yelling and turning them into muffles. As Rainbow was swallowing, there were visible pokes from the inside of her cheeks while Clang’s front hooves pushed against her mouth.
“R-Rain-bow…” Fluttershy hesitantly got to her hooves due to the pain on her head. With painful moans, a hoof to the back of her head, and the occasional stumbling of her hooves, she walked towards Rainbow. “Rainbow… no…” She tried calling out. But due to her pain, she could barely speak her voice. Seeing a pony getting swallowed before her very eyes became unnerving to her, no matter who it was.
Yet, Rainbow’s coils continued their slithering as she was swallowing Clang. It was a tighter fit for a muscular pony like this. She kept one tongue inside to try and restrain the struggles inside her. One was silencing him from the mouth and pulling him that way. And the last one violently slithered saliva around the edges of her mouth to provide an easier time to force Clang to slide through.
Clang’s head tried to shake through, but Rainbow’s tongue pressed harder. His hooves lost grip against Rainbow’s mouth and they slid through with an audible slosh, causing a bit of saliva to escape. He tried to stop himself from sliding through with his hind legs, but the walls inside Rainbow were too slippery. Squeezing her eyes tightly, Rainbow repeatedly swallowed hard, enduring whatever struggles he continued to do.
Clang’s eyes were wide. Fluttershy could see the fear in his eyes. That was the last she saw before his head disappeared to. Rainbow’s last swallow gave a very audible slosh. Her throat held a huge lump that slid down to her stomach, creating a large bulge that threatened to touch against the ground. The vision and sounds of that slide pierced at Fluttershy’s mind with intense unnerving. Her eyes shrunk, and the pain in the back of her head became more intense. She couldn’t take it.
“Noo-ho-hooo… Rainb-ohow!” Fluttershy bawled out and threw herself at Rainbow Dash. “You didn’t have to eat him Rainb-how! You didn’t… He didn’t deserve that!”
Rainbow held her ground, both at Fluttershy’s sobbing and the intense struggles that were pounding inside her stomach. The muffles were still there, but they were drowned out by Fluttershy’s crying.
“He didn’t have to… Ow… H-… He didn’t deserve…”
“Cage…” Rainbow Dash tried to say, but Fluttershy couldn’t hear because of her own crying from pain and panic.
“I know you were trying to defend me. But nopony… nopony deserved to have that happen to them. He didn’t deserve-”
Rainbow grabbed Fluttershy in her hooves in a firm grip and held her away. “Caaage!” she yelled.
Fluttershy heard her this time and went silent. With a few sniffs, she opened her eyes, seeing Rainbow staring at her with a firm expression.
“Find a cage and I’ll let him out!”
Rainbow’s words momentarily snapped Fluttershy out of her panic. She could hear muffling. It was coming from Rainbow’s stomach, which was showing visible resistance. In her panic, Fluttershy had momentarily forgotten everything she knew about a tatzlpony. What she heard from Clang, she momentarily thought it was true. When Rainbow swallowed Clang, she immediately thought the worst. Now that she realized Clang was still alive, her fear cleared from her mind. Then Rainbow’s words registered to her and she gasped.
“Oh! A cage! Right!” Fluttershy winced in pain again. She removed herself away from Rainbow to look for a way out. Except, Rainbow didn’t let her go. Confused, she tried to separate again. That was when Rainbow suddenly moved her body under Fluttershy, causing her to yelp. Rainbow thrusted her upwards, causing her to be carried by Rainbow on the back. With the massive pain on her head, she understood and allowed what Rainbow wanted.
“H-How… How do we... get out of-” Before Fluttershy could finish asking, a large and loud explosion came from the front door. Both Rainbow and Fluttershy flinched fiercely from it as smoke and light filled the area. With her wound, the mere sound of the bang hurt Fluttershy’s head as it rang in her ears.
“I told you, for the last time…” They could hear a deep and angry voice coming from the front door. It almost sounded like the voice of a mare, but old. They could see a silhouette in the middle of that smoke. Before they could wonder who it was, the silhouette emerged and shouted. “KEEP IT DOWN IN HERE! OR I WILL CALL THE AUTHORITIES TO TEAR THIS BUILDING TO THE GROUND!”
The voice rang in their heads like an obnoxious alarm clock ringing directly in their ears while dreaming. Rainbow suddenly felt a rumble in her stomach. But it wasn’t from movement. It was purely from yelling, which she could hear despite the muffling.
”Oh my gosh… SHUT UP OLD HAG! YOU WORK AT A BOMB SHOP FOR CELESTIA’S SAKE!” Rainbow had to put a hoof to her stomach to settle the rumbling. It felt like the force of that voice attempted to push itself out of her mouth.
The silhouette that revealed itself earlier was revealed to be, in a nicer way from Clang’s description, a light purple old mare with short and fluffy white hair. Her eyes were shut tightly with her face in wrinkles. And her Cutie Mark appeared to be a short string with a spark, signifying a fuse. For some reason, Short Fuse was the first name that came to their minds.
But before they could even ask, the old mare was already leaving the scene, paying no mind of whatever was inside. The smoke soon cleared up, allowing the light outside to shine brightly on them. Rainbow grunted when she started feeling her stomach kicking again. Now that she saw her exit out, she didn’t realize the struggling had paused.
“Let’s get, ah… to my cottage,” Fluttershy said. After Rainbow put some pressure on her stomach, she started running out.
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The silhouette of a pony was formed in a high window. It turned its head as it watched Rainbow and Fluttershy leave the building, following where they were going.