//------------------------------// // Secret of the Ruins (Guest) // Story: Tales from Tinies. // by MrAquino //------------------------------// Kayla staggered to the entrance of the ancient castle. Leaning up against one side of the massive, ancient gates into the castle grounds, she stopped to catch her breath. It had taken her hours to get through the forest and across the rickety rope bridge to get there. She knew, of course, that everything in there was pony sized, but still, she had to find a way to make humans big again; she was tired of being thought of as nothing more than a mere toy or snack by the general population, and she was absolutely sure that the major portion of the human population agreed. Sure, there may be one or two people here or there that were content with being snacks or even liked it, but, they're weird. As soon as she felt ready, she headed in. The library she knew wouldn't have it, so she'd have to go deeper into the castle, where the secrets were kept. As she entered the darker corridors she pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. The little ray of light illuminated the halls for her rather nicely, but if she were with a pony, they'd have problems seeing about five feet. She wandered deeper and deeper. She came across a doorway and went in. Of course, to her, the room was massive, but to a pony, it would have been only an averaged sized bedroom. She started scanning the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately she found it: Two large, glowing yellow orbs were positioned on the wall, and when she shined her flashlight on them it suddenly outlined them with a shadow looking like that of a pony. Then, for lack of a better term, it blinked. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!!!" Kayla yelled as she started running. That definitely isn't a good sign, those glowing, yellow eyes. She rushed back into the hallway and behind her she heard a somewhat malevolent laughter. "Not good, not good, running, running, running! AHH!!"She rushed down the hall as fast as she could only to see behind her the set of yellow eyes, following her. She came to a fork, and started running to the right, but the eyes rushed ahead of her causing her to rush to the left instead. She made her way further, realizing rather quickly, that the owner of those eyes was purposefully guiding her somewhere and it was either running in the direction, or rush towards them and likely get caught by whatever it was. She continued until the eyes, once again, caused her to swerve in another direction. This time into another room, and as soon as she was inside the door slammed shut. "Oh no! This is the end game!" The room itself had a light source, just enough so that she could see the entire room, but there were still plenty of shadows cast about it. She turned around and looked at the door, the yellow eyes sitting on it looking down at her. She started to back away, at least until the shadow on the wall took a step off. A full three dimensional pony leg, made completely out of shadows, came off the wall, soon followed by more. The creature, whatever it was, was massive in size, far larger than any of the ponies she'd seen. Huge wings, a long horn, the figure that came off the wall suddenly became fairly familiar, too familiar. She'd seen it before, on a night the ponies called Nightmare Night, something similar to Halloween where the lunar princess would come down and assumed a form such as this, only this one was quite literally a shadow of its former glory. There were even sharp looking shadow teeth in its maw. It, she, came towards the human slowly and menacingly. Then the worst thing that could happen, did. Kayla tripped and fell backwards, and when she did, the shadow mare rushed forward. Oddly her fall was cushioned, when she hit the floor, almost as if she'd fallen on a mattress, but her feeling of comfort was short lived when one of the shadow hooves pressed down on her body with a very real feel to it. It also left her capable of still looking the creature in the eyes, whose head lowered for a closer look. The hoof removed itself, leaving her with nothing between her and the massive maw that hung just inches over her. Then came the malevolent voice of the creature, which even sounded the same as the real deal. "Looks like I win." The creature said before cackling. Then there was an odd change, but the cackles became a more gentle laughter of the lunar princess herself, then the playful giggles of a young filly. The creature itself went through a similar change, slowly shrinking down into the form of the average filly, only it was still an alicorn with glowing yellow eyes and a shadowy body. The shadow filly giggled as she pranced excitedly around her, cheering happily, before coming to a stop in front of her. "Let's play another game!" "Wait, you mean, that was a game!? I-but, I mean, I thought you were... I thought I was going to die!" "No silly! I we were just playing, 'Run from the Pony of Shadows'! All the ponies who come here play that with me! So how about another game?" Somehow I bet that they don't think it's a game when she chases them too. "Uh, sure, um, what games do you have?" "Chess, checkers, uh, tic-tac-toe, and some other board games. They're all really old though, I don't have anything new." The shadow filly looked down sadly for a moment. "But these old games are still really fun! Oh! My names Shade by the way." "Uh, I'm Kayla, n-nice to meet you." Shade trotted over to a bookcase, where she retrieved a chessboard and grabbed the checkers, and from the looks of it, the chess pieces and checkers were fashioned from gold and silver. She brought it over and arranged the pieces on the board. "Uh, don't worry, I'll move your pieces, just tell me where you want them." They played through a few games, ending with the victory of Shade. She had the obvious advantage of height on her side and could make out the entire board completely. As they played though, Shade had been curious, asking Kayla what she was and why she was so small, which Kayla answered to the best of her ability. In either case, the game was over, and the eager filly asked to play some more games. "Uh, no, you see, I came here looking for a way to make myself big again, I'm tired of being this small." Kayla spoke "Why?" Shade asked curiously, not seeing any reason for the girl to be tired of it. "You're so cute at that size." "Being this small is trouble. You already saw; you had to move the checker pieces for me. I also can't use anything that's pony sized, and don't even get me started on how the ponies view me as a snack, I've been eaten too many times." Kayla quickly threw a hand over her mouth but it was too late. "Wait, you've been eaten? Ponies eat you?" Shade asked, a more curious look appeared on her face. "Ye-yeah, whatever magic brought us humans here made us incapable of being digested, and tasty to ponies. If I could get my hands on whoever or whatever did this!" Kayla yelled, getting angry, not noticing that the shadow filly was getting closer, sniffing at her and licking her lips. "Urgh, but I can't, and it sucks, I'm so small I'm even a snack for- for... Shade? What are you doing? NO!" Kayla found herself being picked up in Shade's magic and brought up to the fillies mouth. Shade opened wide, and gently placed Kayla on her tongue. "No please, I don't want to be eaten! Not again!" Kayla pleaded, hoping that Shade would listen. Unfortunately the shadow apparently had a sense of taste as she hummed in satisfaction. The tongue started to slowly curve around her, twisting to get her taste on each taste bud. Then, the world started to tilt, and with plenty of experience she knew what was happening next. She rolled over attempting to grab at the tongue, and use her feet to keep her from going deeper, but as with past experiences, the throats muscles quickly overwhelmed her minuscule strength and endurance. The ride was quicker than usual, but that was a simple explanation. No, the real difference was what it was like within Shade's stomach. There were no gurgles, no heartbeat, there wasn't even the sound of breathing, just the noises that Shade deemed to make. It was all so different, the stomach didn't even move or churn, though the throat muscles had worked. She realized they only worked because that's what Shade wanted it to work. Stranger still, was that the body now surrounding her was somewhat translucent, the light that light up the room they were in, was also lighting up the oddly accurate insides of the Shadow. "Wow! It's no wonder ponies eat you!" Shade said with surprise in her voice. "Oh, um, sorry, I was just curious. Um, is it big enough in there for you? Do you want me to make it bigger? I can make it bigger if you want." "So what, you're just going to keep me in here or something?" Kayla said, with annoyance in her voice. "J-just for a while! You feel pretty good in there. Um, please don't be angry with me, um, but I've never seen any spells in here that could reverse the magic or make you bigger. So, um, I just figured you could be in there for a while, and then I'll take you up to the entrance so you can go home." Shade then hung her head. "Since you'll probably just leave me here, like everyone else." "Um, w-want to come with me?" Kayla asked, starting to feel a little bad for Shade. "You mean it?! Of course, um, but only if there aren't any unicorns." Shade shuddered. "Wait, why no unicorns?" "Um, well, I'm the product of a spell, and simple dispelling magic will kill me." The filly said mournfully. "Well, I know a pony who could probably help with that, I'll just have to introduce you to her first. She's not a unicorn anymore so, maybe she won't scare you." "Wait, she's not a unicorn, what is she?" "An alicorn." At that, Kayla felt a massive shiver run through the fillies body. "As I said though she's really nice, and can help you!" "O-oh-okay, but we'll go tomorrow morning." Shade went and laid down on an old bed she'd been using her magic to keep in good shape. "G-goodnight." Oddly enough, Kayla eventually fell asleep in the strange stomach of the shadow filly. Both hopped tomorrow would go well, and, well... it did.