Chapter 44: Remember
Breathing. Heavy breathing. The kind of breathing that could only be described as a giant monster, a giant, hungry monster that was gonna eat her. But there was no sign of that monster. All she could see was the black abyss surrounding her. It felt as if the entire abyss were walls, and those walls were surrounding her, making her unable to move from where she stood.
Fluttershy’s breath was heavy and her heart was beating fast. Her whines of terror were getting louder. No matter how hard she searched, she could see no signs of where that breathing was coming from. But it felt so close. The longer it breathed, the louder and more disturbed it got.
“Where is it?!” she said through her panicked breathing. “W-Where is it?!” The breathing turned into an angry, yet low growl. When she heard it, she closed her eyes and screamed.
Suddenly, she felt something entangle her. Her yelp was short lived as whatever entangled her wrapped around her mouth and silenced her scream. She found herself getting turned around where she would see the source of what had grabbed her. When she saw its silhouette, she squeezed her eyes and screamed through whatever was covering her mouth. Whatever grabbed her pulled her in quickly.
All of a sudden, it stopped.
“Shh…” she heard. Something was pressing against her body. She tried to push herself away, but something else wrapped around her body to keep her from leaving. They felt like hooves though. When she realized that, she slowly opened her eyes. And upon doing so, all she felt was fear. The silhouette was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was the one holding her, yet seeing Rainbow terrified her. All she could do was squirm in her attempt to push herself away while she whimpered louder.
“Shh…” Rainbow said again. She moved one hoof to Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Be quiet, Fluttershy. I need you to stay quiet.” When Fluttershy heard that voice, her panic began to calm down. The fear left her enough to focus her eyes on Rainbow without cowering away. It looked like Rainbow was pointing her head towards something, something below them. Fluttershy turned her eyes to it.
The abyss had faded away enough for her to see that they weren’t standing on ground. They were standing on something that was alive. Big, blue, and scaley. When she felt its body rumbling, she squirmed and tried to scream again. But all she could muster was a muffled squeak. Rainbow put in a stronger grip, even wrapping her wings around Fluttershy to prevent her from moving even further. Using her tongues, she stopped Fluttershy from screaming and turned her head to bring her attention back up.
“Shh…” Rainbow said one more time. “Please, Fluttershy. Stay quiet. Or else it’ll wake up.” Somehow, Rainbow was able to speak so perfectly, despite the fact that she was using her tongues to wrap around Fluttershy’s mouth. But Fluttershy paid no attention to that. All she could focus on were Rainbow's eyes, and the warmth that her body was providing. Looking into those eyes were scaring away her fear and calming her down.
The tongues suddenly unwrapped from her mouth, causing her to gasp. That was when Rainbow’s knotted tongue entered mouth and slithered down her throat, silencing her gasp.
“Stay quiet.” Rainbow repeated softly. “Stay quiet.” The more Rainbow repeated that, the more Fluttershy’s fear left her. It left her to the point she was no longer whimpering or squirming anymore. She no longer heard the breathing of the giant monster threatening to eat them. Everything was silent, except for their own breathing.
Watching Rainbow’s deep magenta eyes was now a peaceful sensation to her. It was like they held a blissful abyss that she wanted herself to get lost in. She suddenly found herself being pulled closer to those eyes. Rainbow’s tongues were pulling her closer. And when her mouth opened, Fluttershy’s fear returned.
But just as quickly as they returned, they left her. Rainbow’s lips didn’t wrap around her head. They wrapped around her own lips. Her eyes shrunk and her heart started beating a dozen times each second. Not out of fear, but excitement. The taste of Rainbow’s lips and Rainbow’s tongue registered in her mind. It was a wonderful and blissful taste. Something that was like candy, but didn’t taste like candy. And in the midst of that taste, she realized what was going on.
Rainbow Dash was kissing her… and she was kissing back.
”Am… Am I dreaming?” Fluttershy asked in her mind. ”Why does this feel so… wonderful?" There was no sign of Rainbow removing them from this position. It was silent, and the signs of monsters had all but evaporated.
”Please… don’t let this be a dream." Tears of bliss poured through her eyes as she closed them. With Rainbow’s wings wrapped so tightly around her, she was trapped. But she didn’t feel trapped at all. This trapped position felt more like a lovely safety blanket. A very warm and pleasant safety blanket that she was happy to be trapped in.
But by far the best part was the taste of that kiss. She found herself sucking on the tongue inside her mouth as she let her mind lose itself in it. Nothing else mattered to her anymore.
Nothing else mattered but the warmth and taste she was feeling right now.
___
Fluttershy opened her eyes to the sound of a low growl that sounded above her. She might’ve panicked if that growl was the first thing that came to her mind. But when she woke up, the first thing she saw was a sleeping Rainbow Dash. And it wasn’t just a sleeping Rainbow Dash. It was a sleeping Rainbow Dash that was not only laying on top of her, but also had her knotted tongue still lodged down her throat. The tongue wasn’t suffocating her, but it was making it a little difficult to breathe. As long as she breathed carefully, it wasn’t a problem.
”Was… Was I dreaming?" Fluttershy asked in her mind again. Before she could think on it further, the growling that woke her up earlier sounded again. Looking up with her eyes, they shrunk as they caught sight of what it was. It was the tatzlwurm that ate them earlier.
Fluttershy screamed inside as she hastily slid herself out from under Rainbow. It caused Rainbow’s tongue to roughly slide out of her throat and be pulled from her mouth with a pop. Rainbow was stirred awake in the process with a yelp. She too caught sight of the tatzlwurm.
As Fluttershy backed herself against Rainbow, she ended up groaning and holding her stomach in discomfort. Rainbow’s tongue had been lodged so far down that it felt like it had actually entered her stomach. Even after it was removed, it still felt like it was in her stomach. She could even feel the taste in her mouth.
As much as she wanted to focus on that, she couldn’t. The tatzlwurm in front of her was striking fear in both her, and Rainbow’s hearts.
”No…” Fluttershy whispered. She remembered what her dream told her.
“Please, Fluttershy. Stay quiet. Or else it’ll wake up.”
“No-o-o. Please don’t...” Fluttershy could only back up further into Rainbow as the tatzlwurm’s head drew closer. When Rainbow wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy, she felt that warmth again just like in that dream. This warmth brought her both comfort and regret at the same time.
”It’s my fault again…” Fluttershy said. ”My fault that Rainbow Dash got hurt. My fault that we got eaten. ...My fault that it woke up. It’s always… always..." She could feel Rainbow holding her tighter, feeling how tense her heartbeat was. It then clicked to Fluttershy how Rainbow was feeling too. Rainbow was feeling the same type of hopelessness that she was feeling. The type of hopelessness that led her to giving up. But when she was feeling that, Rainbow got mad at her.
What about now? It felt like Rainbow Dash was giving up too this time. She was just holding her tightly like they were both about to meet their demise. Why was that?
Fluttershy opened her eyes. She understood why. It was because of her. Rainbow told her to stay quiet so that the tatzlwurm wouldn’t wake up. But she failed to do even that. Now the tatzlwurm was staring them down, ready to pounce them at any second. And this time, they wouldn’t come back out.
But it wasn’t over yet. Fluttershy looked up at the tatzlwurm, fear filling deeply in her heart. She was the reason they were in this situation. And now she knew that she was the only one who could get them out of this.
Fluttershy placed her hooves on Rainbow’s. The moment she did that, the tatzlwurm’s growl got louder, loud enough for its breath to blow Fluttershy and Rainbow’s mane back softly. Despite the terror, Fluttershy didn’t remove her hooves from where they were. She endured the growl until it was over while Rainbow continued to hold her tightly.
It was then that Rainbow felt Fluttershy attempting to pry her hooves off. She looked at Fluttershy in concern, but saw just how confident her eyes were. They didn’t tear away from the tatzlwurm despite that growl. Fluttershy continued pulling at Rainbow’s hooves, until Rainbow decided to let her go willingly. To see that Fluttershy wasn’t scared anymore really surprised her.
But that wasn’t true. Fluttershy was beyond scared. Her heart threatened to break out of her chest as she took a step closer towards the tatzlwurm. Rainbow did everything she could to get them this far. Now it was her turn to finish it. And the only way was to face her fear and confront this tatzlwurm.
The tatzlwurm followed Fluttershy’s movements as she continued to walk along its body. Rainbow was holding her stance, ready to step forward if she ever needed to. But the more she watched Fluttershy’s movements, the more it felt like she didn’t have to. Fluttershy’s movements weren’t normal. Each step she made seemed to move in a very specific pattern. And the closer she was getting, the less aggravated the tatzlwurm seemed to get. It was almost like each step Fluttershy made was calming the tatzlwurm.
In fact, that’s exactly what Fluttershy was doing. Every time she took a step, she applied a different amount of pressure on its body. Some steps were made in between the blue scales covering its body, and reaching inside the soft and sensitive parts to its skin. She even used her tail to brush along and in between the sides of its scales. All these motions calmed the tatzlwurm to the point it was no longer growling.
Fluttershy eventually stopped moving. The growling didn’t return. Both her and Rainbow’s hearts were beating roughly. They could practically hear their own beatings from their ears. Despite her fear, Rainbow believed that Fluttershy knew what she was doing. It was like the roles were now reversed from when they were inside this tatzlwurm. She had to trust that Fluttershy could do this. Her memories told her she could. But her heart wouldn’t stop beating until she saw it.
Fluttershy started flapping her wings. Due to some of her feathers being lost, it was a little bit of a struggle. But applying more pressure allowed her to gain flight. The tatzlwurm followed to watch her as her altitude met them face to face. She kept a stern and confident expression as she closed her distance. One of her hooves reached out.
“There, there,” Fluttershy said as her hoof came into contact. “You can go back to sleep now, right?” The tatzlwurm just stared, unresponsive. “Something was wrong with your eyes. I think we were able to fix them. It must’ve been so hard to go so long without sleep. I’m sorry that happened to you. And I’m sorry that I disturbed your sleep. If you go back to sleep, I’ll try not to disturb you again. Is that okay?”
As Fluttershy was talking, she was gently rubbing her hoof along the top of the tatzlwurm’s face. Rainbow’s tension began to break as she saw the response from the tatzlwurm. It’s eyes were slowly closing while it’s growl… turned into a low purr? That’s what it sounded like.
All of a sudden, the tatzlwurm’s mouth opened. Rainbow nearly gasped when it shot its tongue out at Fluttershy. But all it did was lick Fluttershy. Fluttershy was caught by surprise from the response. With its tongue being so big, the lick splatted a lot of saliva on her face and caused her to fall down. When her fall was broken by Rainbow catching her, she began giggling. The tatzlwurm looked happy.
“Oh, thank you for understanding!” Fluttershy responded. The tatzlwurm turned its head back forwards and laid it down, no longer agitated with the two on its body.
“Awesome. Way to go, Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy closed her eyes. “I just said what needed to be said. Sometimes…” She cut herself off. Her eyes flung open in surprise as it now dawned on her who used those words. Removing herself from Rainbow’s embrace, Fluttershy turned around to look Rainbow face to face. “What… did you just say?”
Rainbow blinked. “Way to go?” she responded.
Fluttershy looked away slightly. That wasn’t quite the response she wanted. But hearing those words, maybe she could get it again, or at least a similar one. “H-How do you feel right now?”
Rainbow put a hoof to the bandage on her head. “Well… except for my head, not too bad. A little sore, but nothing I can’t handle.”
Fluttershy gasped internally as her whole body warmed from Rainbow’s tongue… or tongues... from Rainbow's words. The way she was talking, the way she was expressing her words, it was as if…
No. It was.
“R-Rainbow…” Fluttershy said as tears started escaping her eyes. She then threw herself at Rainbow, who held her hooves up in surprise. “Your memory. You remember!” Rainbow was looking down at Fluttershy both in embarrassment, and realization.
“Yeah… yeah, you’re right.” Fluttershy continued to pour her tears at her in utter joy. Rainbow slowly moved her hooves down to Fluttershy. “Come on Fluttershy. No more tears, please.” But those words only made Fluttershy cry harder and squeeze harder. Now her hugging was starting to hurt. “Gah… F-Fluttershy, still sore… that hurts!”
That was when Fluttershy hastily removed herself and gasped. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”
Rainbow was wincing slightly. “I said ‘nothing that I can’t handle’, but it still hurts you know,” she said.
“Sorry,” Fluttershy responded.
“It’s okay.” Rainbow turned and looked upwards. “Right now we have to think about how to get out of here.”
As much as Fluttershy wanted to agree with Rainbow, one look at her wings told her otherwise. “Rainbow, your wings,” she said concerned.
Also concerned, Rainbow spread her left wing out and examined it. The sight wasn’t exactly pretty to say the least. “Oh…” was all Rainbow could say. A lot of feathers had fallen off. There were very visible gaps in the center of her wing. Only two of her wing tips survived. She remembered just how much air was blowing through her wings when she flapped them earlier.
“Does it hurt?” Fluttershy asked.
“No,” Rainbow said.
“Can you still fly?”
Rainbow folded her wing back. “Worth a try.” She looked straight ahead and took a deep breath. And then, she began flapping. The amount of air that blew right through her wings was very apparent to her. Her body wasn’t going anywhere at normal speeds, so she flapped faster, and harder. Letting her front legs hold her balance, she lifted her hind legs and flapped as hard as she could.
Fluttershy was shocked and hurt in disbelief. To her, all she could see was a blur in Rainbow’s wings. When ever she saw Rainbow doing that motion, tons of wind would be blowing. She would struggle to even stay near Rainbow when she was flapping her wings that fast. But now... she was barely feeling anything. The wind she was feeling wouldn't even be enough to fan her.
In the end, Rainbow’s front legs left the ground and her body was starting to ascend slowly. She was hovering, but it looked like she was tiring herself quickly. Her eyes were squeezing while she was panting heavily. After hovering a good amount, she managed to open her eyes.
“*Pant*... y-yes, *pant*... I got it!” After saying that, Rainbow’s body dropped back down, landing on her legs and panting. “Kinda…” she finished.
Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in concern. “Oh dear…” she said. “You’ll have to wait until your feathers grow back then.”
“Yeah… I know…” Rainbow responded with a grunt. “I hate being grounded…” She then looked back up towards the ceilings of however far underground they were. Fluttershy noticed and too looked up, her ears dropping as she did.
“How will we get out of here?” Fluttershy asked. Rainbow lifted her front hooves and looked down at them. It looked like they had dried enough to become hard again. To test this, she clapped her hooves together, which resonated an audible clop.
“Now that I’m dry, I should be able to dig my way back up again. But…” Rainbow paused as she looked towards Fluttershy.
“But?” Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow sighed before responding. “See the thing is, if I were to dig right now, everything behind me would cave in. The only way I can get anywhere is if I move fast. Which means…”
Fluttershy gasped softly as she realized what that meant. “Which means I won’t be able to follow you…”
Rainbow nodded. “That’s right.” She then put some hesitation in her next words. “Buuut… there is one way I’d be able to take ya with me.”
Fluttershy’s ears perked up at this. She looked at Rainbow Dash, who looked back at her. Neither pony said anything. Rainbow was trying to keep her expression steady and calm while Fluttershy was trying to figure her out. This lasted for a good few seconds. Eventually, Fluttershy did.
Fluttershy gasped so loud and harshly. “NOOO!!!” she screamed as she quickly backed away. Rainbow could only flinch from that response. “No! Please, Rainbow Dash! No!”
“But Fluttershy-”
“I can’t go through with that again, Rainbow!” Fluttershy interrupted in terror. “I ca-an’t! Please! We have to find another way!”
Rainbow sighed. “I understand, Fluttershy. But what if there is no other way?”
Fluttershy didn’t respond immediately. She just kept taking deep breaths to settle her fear again. All she could feel was guilt. Rainbow managed to get them this far, and now they were stuck purely because of her own fear. But despite that, she couldn’t bring herself to face it again. So much did she want for there to be another way.
Fluttershy gasped as she uncovered her hooves from her face. Looking down, she realized there was another way. This other way also struck fear on her, but in a completely different way. Slowly, she looked towards the head of the tatzlwurm that they were still standing on, and was still sleeping. Rainbow followed Fluttershy’s vision and gasped as well. And when Fluttershy turned back to look at Rainbow Dash, the situation was very clear to both of them. It was either risk this, or go through with Rainbow’s idea.
Fluttershy gulped and looked down with her heart shuttering in both fear and guilt. If this didn’t work, everything they worked for would end in failure, and it would be all her fault. Could she really risk this? As much as she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to go through with Rainbow’s idea even more.
“Fluttershy…” Rainbow said softly. It sounded like Rainbow knew what she was planning to do. With all her hope, she slowly approached the head of the sleeping tatzlwurm again. No more words came from Rainbow. At this point, she wasn’t sure which was more selfish. Going through a route that was more risky, or a route that would traumatize Fluttershy even further. So, she let Fluttershy decide, and took a stance to keep her guard up in case things got nasty. She wouldn't admit it, but if things DID get nasty, nothing she could do right now would save them. But it was better than doing nothing.
When Fluttershy reached the tatzlwurm’s head, she lightly tapped on it. Once it started stirring, she started rubbing it to try and keep it calm. That’s when it opened its eyes, but slowly and calmly.
“Excuse me, mr. tatzlwurm,” Fluttershy started. “I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep, but… we’re stuck down here. And we really need to get back to the surface. Do you think you can help us get back up there? Pretty please?”
Rainbow watched anxiously for the tatzlwurm’s response at Fluttershy’s request. She wasn’t gonna question Fluttershy’s methods. But if anything happened, she would do whatever she had to do, no matter how futile it was.
Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. The first response that came from the tatzlwurm was a low but gentle growl, followed by its eyes closing. From the response that Fluttershy was making, it sounded like good news.
“Really?” Fluttershy asked with a smile. “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!” Hearing that, Rainbow sighed in relief and withdrew her stance. When the tatzlwurm turned its head back forwards, Fluttershy walked down its body back to Rainbow.
“So it’ll help us?” Rainbow asked.
Fluttershy nodded. “He’s very grateful that we were able to help it sleep again. He would love nothing more than to help us.”
Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Really?”
Fluttershy nodded again. Then her expression went nervous. “A-And… we should probably hold on to something... very tightly.”
Rainbow blinked. “Huh?” Almost immediately, she got her answer. The tatzlwurm, which, according to Fluttershy’s words was a male tatzlwurm, began squirming and stretching his body. Just from those movements, his body became very unstable to stand on. “Oh…” was Rainbpw’s response. She and Fluttershy quickly dropped down and grabbed on a set of the tatzlwurm’s scales. They then shut their eyes to ready themselves for what was next.
The tatzlwurm released a mighty roar, loud enough to shake the cavern they were in. It looked like it was getting ready to collapse. But that didn’t matter because the tatzlwurm looked ready to start burrowing out of there.
Rainbow and Fluttershy yelped when the tatzlwurm suddenly took off with a swift jolt. They heard nothing but intense crumbling as they held onto the scales as tight as they could. A lot of dirt was hitting their manes, but was otherwise not causing too much issue.
Rainbow soon managed to open her eyes to see how things were progressing. The first thing she wanted to make sure was if Fluttershy was hanging in there. She saw that Fluttershy’s eyes were staying shut tightly while she was gritting her teeth. It looked like she was okay otherwise, but this was going on for a while. They must’ve been really deep underground. But something told Rainbow they were getting close to the surface.
Once they broke the surface, the tatzlwurm let out a loud roar as dirt flew high in the air. The sounds of many animals nearby were heard. Some yelped in fear while running away. Others roared at the tatzlwurm as a sign of hostility. They even tried attacking it. Fluttershy was able to open her eyes in time to see this attack along with Rainbow Dash. She yelped as the tatzlwurm swiped its body around to knock them away. One got by. A tiger. It dug its claws into the tatzlwurms body and bore its fangs into the scales. But it was too thick to get to its flesh and skin. Next thing it knew, giant coils wrapped around and restrained it and pulled it quickly towards the tatzlwurm’s mouth. Resistance was futile as it roared and tried to flail away. Its roaring drowned out after the tatzlwurm swallowed it whole. That was when the tatzlwurm roared again, scaring away the rest of the tigers and their prey of bears. Rainbow was able to witness the whole thing, amazed at the sight of these dangerous predators running away in fear.
“Haha! Awesome!” Rainbow yelled as the tatzlwurm halted its rampage to a stop. “With this bad boy on our side, nothing’s gonna dare mess with us! Yeah!” Her celebration was finished with the tatzlwurm giving a growl of triumph. Besides the sounds of scared animals, all was quiet now. Looking up in the skies, Rainbow noticed something else that surprised her. “Whoa… The sun is setting already? How long were we asleep down there?” She turned around. “Hey, Fluttershy?” And then Rainbow stopped herself, noticing that Fluttershy was looking off somewhere in the distance with a sad expression. “Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy looked towards her. “Rainbow…” was all she said. She then pointed to where she was looking. When Rainbow looked, she understood why, sighing depressingly. The area she was looking was what used to be the garden of Alpine Flowers. All that was left wasn’t just wilted flowers, but an entire clearing destroyed and covered in a complete mess of dirt and branches.
After everything they went through to survive, now what were they gonna do?
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Interesting. Have you, perchance, ever heard of Hurroks? Nasty things, a cross between a traditional Pegasus and the Mares of Diomedes. They are distinguished by the presence of talons in place of hooves, hawk eyes, and a muzzle full of razor sharp teeth. While they can eat nearly anything, they have a particular preference for carrion.
.
.
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and people.
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Umm... that's not what my story is gonna be about. The daughter is just gonna be a normal looking pegasus with the diet of a predator. Otherwise, no, I have not heard of them.
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What part of the story gave you that conclusion? That's certainly not what I was going for.
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Ah, sorry to jump the gun then. You mentioned carnivorous pegasus, and I thought, "oh! I know that one!"
I'm looking forward to the story.
Finally!!! Rainbow and Fluttershy finally get out!
But they still need to figure out what is killing the Alpine Flowers and how to grow more. 
And Fluttershy still hasn't embraced the warm and cozy position of a tatzlpony's prey. 
And the Grand Galloping Gala is tomorrow! 
If it wasn't obvious, that last one was a joke. 
I can't help but wonder how close we are to the end, because I want to see how this resolves itself, but I don't want it to be rushed, either. 
Such is the conundrum of these chapter-by-chapter stories... 
Which is why I plan to release mine when I have everything settled. I hope the next chapter turns out well for you, and Happy early Nightmare Night! 
(Insert 1 Fluttershy into 1 tatzlpony Rainbow Dash's stomach.
)
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derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/4/3/1697980__questionable_artist-colon-smallhorses_fluttershy_rainbow+dash_animated_comfort_comfort+eating_comforting_comfy_cozy_cute_dashabetes_eating_end.gif
Pretend that's a tatzl Rainbow Dash. Else, Somepony Please Draw This! Make It A Request If You Have To!
Sadly, we've still got a ways to go. Or is that good news? Either way, I definitely want to get as many questions answered as I can before the end.
Is this story on hiatus or did the writer just stop.
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The writer has currently been continuously distracted by the holidays to write this story right now. He apologizes for the inconvenience and hopes to continue it at a better pace soon. Right now his next chapter is at 1,989 words though. The next chapter could possibly be released soon, once the Thanksgiving and Black Friday mess is over.