//------------------------------//
// Bonus Chapter: The End of the Rainbow 
// Story: Predatory Instincts 
// by TheLostBrony 
//------------------------------//

An oppressive damp heat and crushing pressure surrounded Rainbow Dash as she was swiftly pulled down the gryphon's throat. Despite all the strength of being a full grown mare with years of athletic training on her side, it was no match next to the grip of the hungry predator's maw. 

She felt her wings pinned to her side, ceasing their panicked flapping and slicking her feathers with hot saliva. As she slid further, the firm tissue opened up in front of her, and her muzzle pushed through into a larger space. As soon as it was clear she took a deep shuddering breath, filling her lungs with damp stale air. 

In her panic, she hadn't even realized she had been holding her breath. Though the air she found was barely breathable, she would have expected the inside of a stomach to be a lot worse. Indeed, though she couldn't anything in the darkness, all she felt was the slickness of saliva on the pulsing walls. Where were the burning acids and the remains of Gilda's last victim?

The space tightened as Dash's hindquarters slipped in to join her, forcing her to curl up into a ball as her tail was spat out of the orifice somewhere above her, closing tightly to seal her in.

So this is it. She thought with a sob, feeling gentle pokes and prods through layers of flesh as Gilda gave her belly a series of rubs and pats with her talons. All her hard work and ambitions, only to end up as nothing more than a quick meal. Nothing more than nutrients for a hungry gryphon. Already it was becoming difficult to breathe again, and she knew it wouldn't be much longer before she passed out, and this nightmare would finally be over.

Suddenly, the chamber seemed to contract around her, shifting her around until her face was once again pressed into a ring of muscle. The squeezing increased, and before she knew it she was moving again. Going....up? Light pierced her eyes as a beaked mouth split open wide before her.

'Thud.' Rainbow gasped, soaked and shivering as she was roughly deposited onto the floor of her own house. She lay there in shock for several moments until she was roughly jabbed in the side by a talon. Slowly, she turned her head, looking up to meet Gilda's golden eyes as the gryphon glared down at her.

"Pathetic." Gilda mumbled, "Of all ponies, I would have expected more of a struggle out of you Dash."

"Y...you're a monster!" Rainbow spat, meeting Gilda's glare. 

"Of course prey like you would say that." Gilda retorted. "But the thing is it's only natural. Some gryphons might be happy with pony food, and the rare scrap of meat, but it's not who we are. We're predators, and you're food, and why would we deny our nature?"

"But I thought we were friends!" Rainbow shouted, pulling herself shakily to her hooves and giving her wings a few angry flaps in a futile attempt to shake of the cooling saliva that weighed them down.

"We were." Gilda grumbled. 

Standing nearly nose to nose, Gilda still dwarfed the shaking pegasus. It had never really occurred to Rainbow how much bigger Gilda really was, but now their difference in height was blatant and terrifying.

"Heh, I used to look up to you." Gilda continued with a chuckle, the irony of the statement not lost on her. "Ever since our time at Junior Speedsters, and all those times you've saved Equestria. It really is a shame I have to eat you, but now that you know my secret it can't be avoided. You're loyal to a fault, and I know you'd never be able to keep it to yourself."

With a shout Rainbow spun on her hooves and made a break for the door. She made it nearly halfway there in a mad uncoordinated gallop before something snagged her tail and threw her roughly back to the floor. She kicked out wildly with a back leg and connected with Gilda's shoulder, sending the gryphon tumbling to the floor behind her. 

Rainbow struggled to get back to her hooves, but a pair of taloned hands clamped down on her haunches with an iron grip.

"Still, I hoped there was a chance." Gilda spoke, continuing as if nothing had happened. "That maybe we could work through it. See, that wasn't even my stomach you experienced. I put you in my crop where you wouldn't be harmed."

She pulled Dash closer, bringing her haunches up to her beak. "Thought maybe a little time out would help us see eye to eye." 

A predatory glint flashed in Gilda's eyes, and she stuck out her tongue, drawing it across Rainbow's haunches in a long lick. "But I can see now that's not going to work, and to be honest I think I'm going to enjoy this. After all, I'll get to keep you with me forever."

Rainbow started to sob, tears streaking the already dampened fur under her eyes as warmth engulphed her rear once again. She thought of pleading, crying out, saying anything to make Gilda stop, but she knew it would be pointless. She was a mare of integrity, and the first thing she would do if she got away would be to put a stop to what Gilda was doing. She wouldn't make false promises or plead for her life, if for no other reason than to avoid giving that monster the satisfaction.

In short order her entire body had been consumed, leaving only her head visible. "I hope you choke." Rainbow growled as the beak once again framed her vision, light fading to dark as it was eclipsed by pink walls that wrapped around her face. As if in a final wave goodbye, Gilda's tongue lifted up to give her a light push on the nose, and she got one last glimpse of her living room before everything went black.

Rainbow felt her body plop down in the now familiar chamber, but unlike the last time, a second hole opened up beneath her, and she was squeezed through into what must be Gilda's actual stomach. When her head finally entered the crop she could hear the gurgling behind her, as if it was announcing what was to come. 

******************

It didn't take long for her to enter the stomach completely. As expected it was much more unpleasant. Unlike the relative cleanliness of the crop, she could feel a hot soupy substance occupying the space around her, thick with hard bits and chunks that had yet to be digested. It didn't take much to imagine what it had been, and as Rainbow's head began to go under and that realization came to her, there was nothing she could do but scream.

******************

Gilda let out a loud belch, catching a solitary cyan feather in a talon before it could flutter down to the floor. She reached down with the other to give her bulging gut a satisfied pat. Her satisfaction clashed with a spike of sorrow that brought a tear to her eye. 

"Well, at least you'll always be with me Dash."