Tales from Tinies.

by MrAquino

A Helping Hand... or Talon

Author's Note:

More Jerec

A high school sophomore girl waved goodbye to a friend of hers as she headed towards the buses, ready to go home. Her brown hair was done in the now somewhat popular “fairy style”, which matched her T-shirt and jeans. “See ya Riley!”

The Junior boy waved back as he headed towards his own pathway. “Later Stacy.”

The two had been friends for a long time, and even with the vanishing going on, they always had a thought that it would never happen to either of them. Heck, there wasn’t even a single case that happening in their town so far. However, that didn’t stop everyone from looking up the warning signs. There are even some YouTube videos of people “vanishing”, one person had even streamed themselves vanishing to try and get as much as they could online before disappearing. Sadly, the video lost all connections after the flash, meaning that no one will know what happens to them after vanishing.

After an entire bus ride had gone by without incident, she walked the lonely path home. For whatever reason she got the idea to text Riley and pulled out her phone. However, upon looking at it, she noticed a soft glow coming from her. “Huh!? NO! NONONO!!” Panic began to set in and she started running frantically home, as if getting through the threshold of it would stop her. “HELP! MOM! DAD! HEEEELP!” The glow now becoming noticeable, even without looking at herself. Despair began to set in. Her time has come. She hastily typed out one final text and mass sent it to everyone she knew.

It’s hapening! This is the end! Nowhere, noone is safe!

A bright flash of light occurs, blinding her for a moment. She got a feeling like she’s falling, and suddenly, she stops landing in something cold. Opening her eyes, she looked around dizzily. She found herself on a snow covered landscape. She stood up and looks around even more. The snow covered plain suddenly became a snowy pine forest, and she found out exactly why she thought it was a plain in the first place.

“This forest is huge!” She yelled to no one in particular “Oh no! Oh no no no! This isn’t good!” She slowly turned around and around. She was but one tiny person in the middle of a vast forest, in the middle of winter. “I’m doomed…” She continued looking around, swallowing nervously. “Um, m-maybe I can find a hole near one of those trees.” She said, her fairly suppressed survival instincts kicking in. “I just hope I can find something to keep warm in... find some water... some food... and not end up as it.” She made her way to the nearest tree. What was probably ten feet, if she was normal sized, is now a few miles at her new size. “Or is it that this world is just really big?” She got to it and circled the tree, looking for any holes that she can easily access. “Um, I guess, maybe the next tree.” She said after spotting a web ridden hole. At this point, any residual warmth from the glow was gone, and she isn’t sure if whether or not she is shivering out of fear, or the nail biting cold. “Not going to survive by becoming spider chow!" A gust of wind blew at her "A-a-a-at the s-same time, I’m n-n-not going to s-s-survive ou-out h-here either!”

She headed towards the next closest tree, many miles away at her perspective. Two thirds of the way there, the cold really caught up to her. “S-s-s-so c-c-c-cold…” She trips, face planting in the snow. “S-s-stay a-a-a-awake…” She said, shivering as she got up. She walked a bit further before falling back down onto the snow, her eyelids becoming heavier. She rolls over, looking up into the sky. “M-m-maybe a-a-a n-nap w-w-will d-do s-s-some g-good a-a-after a-all.” She succumbed to the cold, her eyes beginning to close, and the last thing she saw before blacking out was a strange, winged figure approaching from the sky.

---

Stacy gasped and lurched up, going into a small coughing fit. All around her, she can feel warmth, and a strange feeling moisture. After regaining her composure, she looked around. Wherever she is, it’s not very bright. She can make out that wherever she is, it’s a strange red-pink color. The cave, or whatever it is, keeps shrinking and growing as the walls close in and then expand outward. Small puddles in the cave ripple as water dropped from the ceiling. She heard a strange wind every so often. The scary part though is a strange drum beat, repeating the same few notes over and over again. “It sounds like a, like… A HEART BEAT!!!” She stood up, only to fall on her butt again from being unused to both the rocking motion and the slick texture of the wet floor. “I-I’ve been eaten! Oh no! S-Someone HELP ME!!!”

A loud female voice boomed all around her. “Oh good! You’re alive! I almost thought I was too late. Are you okay?”

“Who-where are you?! Can you help me?! I-I’ve been eaten alive!?” Stacy yelled back to whomever it is, before flinching at the noise of the stomach gurgling around her.

“Hey, don’t worry, you’re safe. I’m Gabby and I am helping you already. I’m just glad I got to you when I did, if I didn’t swallow you, you’d probably be frozen stiff.”

“Y-you s-swallowed me?! I-I’m inside you?!" She got up and began to slam her fists on the wall "LET ME OUT!!! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!”

The stomach shrunk a lot when a sudden gasp occurs. “Oh, you’re new here! Um, I guess I better explain the whole situation then.” Gabby replied. “Um, welcome to Equestria, more specifically to what little remains of the Griffon empire, namely Griffonstone. Your kind showed up in Equestria about a year or two ago, and a few months in ponies discovered that you tinies are tasty and at the same time completely safe within stomachs. Your kind is kinda a new diet craze among them. Here though your kind are used to help griffons feel full. Um… As I said I’m Gabby. Umm… So uh, yeah, don’t worry about digesting or suffocating or drowning or anything like that, you’re completely fine in there and uh, that’s kinda the jist of it.”

“S-so, what am I then, a snack?”

“To most griffons, yes. To me, no. I’m- I’m kinda different from most griffons. All I’m doing is helping you out. Don’t worry, as I said you’re not alone. There’s plenty of other... hue-manes back at my house. I kinda hide them there, and have built probably the only actual human village in Griffonstone. I wish you could have a village of your own, but the other griffons would quickly clear it out. So I hide you guys in my place so you can, at least, sort of, roam free. Griffonstone isn’t like any pony towns and there aren’t really many safe zones. We do have some, but it’s really only so that other griffons can have a chance hunting humans, besides the first one to stumble upon them.”

“Oh, um, well, I guess, uh, thanks Gabby… Uh, my name’s Stacy. Um, nice to meet you… sort of, a-and thanks f-for h-helping me.”

Gabby giggled around her. “No problem Stacy. It’s what I do. I love to help anyone in need! Name it and I’ll help you get it done! That’s what I do!” She giggled ecstatically before letting out a few excited whoops. “Oh I just can’t wait to build a little house for you! Oh, and you’ll need furniture, and food and supplies! Oh, there’s just so much to do! Um, are you fine staying in there for a while or would you rather bunk with me on the outside? I mean, you guys do feel great in there, but at the same time I love cuddling you little guys!”

"...Whatever works with you... I suppose." She pulled her phone out. It was from Riley

I think I'll be seeing you soon.