Micro Meddling (or, Journey to the Centre of the Cute)

by Lukington17

Chapter 2: Dangerous Playground

"Cwis?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't feel sweepy" Lulu let out a little yawn as she turned in her bed to face Chris.

"Yeah...and I think mummy and daddy won't be happy....I hope Cutea tidies up..." Chris thought aloud.

Lulu looked down. "I hope they are not mean to Cutea, she is alweady sad."

"Me too...hey, let's go bwush our teeth...at least they will be happy with us then," the green colt suggested. Lulu nodded and the two foals slowly made their way to the bathroom. They felt better as they brushed, with their teeth's hygiene intact, but were now fully awake. Having a moment of spontaneous creativity, the twins started blasting their horns' magic at their toothbrushes, making them double in size. "Haha, now we can't miss any of our teeth!" Chris laughed, as Lulu scrubbed her giant brush all over her muzzle and left Chris hysterical with her 'beard' of bubbly toothpaste. Lulu then mischievously zapped the soap to teleport it into Chris' mouth. "Ew!" he spurted it out, and tickled her back. There was no sound of movement from downstairs for now, so they opened the bathroom door. Keeping as quiet as they could, they had a playful race down the corridor, nearly getting their wings tangled as they soared through the hall. Laughing together, Lulu lost her balance and Chris went to help her up - they were at the doorway to the parents' bedroom, and Lulu picked up some scattered laundry and hurled it at Chris for a playfight.

"I'm gonna get you!" she cheered, and Chris picked up a plushie on the floor to protect himself.

"Not if I get you first, wuwu!" Chris smirked as he then fired the plushie at her. "Mummy and daddy's room is the best pwayground!" Chris zapped the filly and she suddenly turned green like him, causing them to burst out laughing. She zapped him back after they reversed it, and he in turn lost his wings. "Hey!" They continued to pillow-fight and explore their improving magic until they knocked some of their mother's beauty-products from the chest above. Chris noticed that framed photograph from earlier of the families together. As Lulu came to help pick things up, she looked as well. "...But what if...there's a better pwayground out there?"

"Where?" Lulu looked puzzled.

Chris pointed to Cutea in the photograph, "What if we actuawy went to Ewectric's pwayground?"

"Inside Cutea? How do we do that, we aren't cwever wike him."

Chris shook his head, "We don't need to be cwever, we have our magic!" He demonstrated by zapping the wardrobe into a totally different design momentarily.

Lulu shrugged, "yeah alwight, we can try it. It's pwobabwy the most awesome pwayground ever!" And so the twins faced each other and counted down from 10. As they zapped each other, they disappeared from normal sight, reducing their size to that of a crumb. Left behind were two marks on the carpet where the two had been standing. "It worked!" Lulu cried, and looking around from their view on the carpet they saw giant objects like the plushie and their father's bow-tie, towering over them. They wondered how big those toothbrushes would've seemed to them now... Chris hugged her and they flapped their tiny wings, heading along the corridor and down the stairs to the living room.

-----

Cutea was half-asleep in front of the television, the darkness broken by the blinking light of the screen on her and the sofa. Her phone kept buzzing and with a frown she ignored the calls of her coltfriend, no doubt drunk. Feeling hungry, she had made a big bowl of popcorn and was waiting for a commercial break to finish so she could watch a new Rom-Com she'd heard about from her friend Pastry. She turned her head when she heard what sounded like a loud ZAP from upstairs, but when silence came after, she grunted and turned back to the TV, munching on the popcorn. Glancing at the time - 11:13 - she yawned and thought of how she only had another hour or so before the parents were supposed to come back. She was looking forward to her brunch tomorrow with both Pastry and Sunshine, but was beginning to worry she wouldn't get enough sleep before it. I don't wanna be falling asleep at the table in front of my friends, she thought, and allowed her eyelids to close slightly.

What she didn't know was that the two tiny foals had reached the sofa, staring in awe up at the giant mare as they landed on her arm. She was utterly massive, her furs blowing slightly in the air and the sound of her breathing above almost deafening. Her blonde mane waved in their faces, and they twitched their noses as it made them sneeze. Chris began, "Okay, let's try and- "

The television suddenly blasted out music as the film's scene appeared to be in a nightclub, showing two enamoured ponies dancing. Cutea jolted awake. "Huh?" she said, looking around slightly before fixing her eyes on the screen. Seeing the two characters kiss among the dancers, she frowned with a small snarl. "Wish you'd take me out like that again..." she said aloud, glancing down at her phone's screensaver of her and Electric Blue, before shovelling some popcorn up.

Down below, the twins looked at each other feeling bad for their babysitter. "I hope he - aaaaah!" Lulu stopped and screamed; an immense piece of popcorn suddenly hurled downwards and crashed onto the arm next to them, rolling along like a giant ball before it tumbled down onto the ground at Cutea's feet. The enormous mare proceeded to pick it up and, assessing it with a raised eyebrow, she tossed it into her mouth with more. "She eats like you, Cwis" Lulu sniggered, and Chris huffed unamused.

"Okay, let's go" he said, taking Lulu's arm and flying up into the bowl of popcorn. Above them, Cutea's face remained fixed on the TV, with the steady movement of her chewing jaw almost hypnotic from this view. The salty smell of the giant surrounding popcorn kernels entered the foals' tiny nostrils, and they started nibbling at one themselves until the whole thing rumbled: Cutea had picked them up. Completely unaware of the tiny blue and green foals amongst the popcorn, the young mare tilted her head back and opened her mouth. "Oh wow, here we goooooo!" Chris shouted, as Cutea dropped the popcorn.

Tumbling down with the massive handful of popcorn, the foals' gazes were fixed on the view of Cutea's open mouth below: a huge cave that looked menacing, her tongue protruding with strands of buttery saliva dripping from the roof; the poor predecessor pieces of popcorn lying in mush on the surface of the tongue and in her teeth; the blackness at the back guarded by a long uvula dangling in the way. "Hold onto me!" Lulu yelled to her tiny companion, as the two locked arms. Cutea's jaws crashed shut behind them and everything got incredibly dark - fortunately for them, Cutea wasn't the most polite eater: she chewed with her mouth open and allowed the foals glimpses of light inside their moving locale. Spared a moment of panic, Chris sighed, "at weast we can see where we're going now...I think we have to go - aaaaah!" He was interrupted - as was their flight - as the mouth sprung into action. Cutea's tongue below them lurched up and smacked them, sending them hurtling towards the side of the mouth where the molars waited to grind together at the popcorn around them. The front teeth opened up wider to nibble at the soft bit of a newly-arrived kernel; the molar the foals had landed on was wet and slippery with saliva. "Look out!" The enormous tooth above came bearing down, and with a THUD it crashed onto their one, proceeding to grind as pieces of mush splashed down into the forming pool of saliva on the gumline below. Luckily, the foals were small enough to fit through the various dents and dips of the teeth's surfaces and avoided an unpleasantly early end to their adventure. As the mush seemed to be collecting on the tongue now, the foals watched as the enormous muscle tilted upwards and the bolus slid down under the uvula and into the expanding throat muscles. GULP! And with that, the mouth went quiet. The foals let each other go from the other's grip and they surveyed their humid surroundings.

"Cwis?"

"Yeah?"

"That was scawy"

"Yeah it was...but now take a wook awound you!" He gestured to the expanse of Cutea's mouth, and they did survey: the tongue rose up and down gently with the mare's breathing, her long lines of jagged teeth occasionally moving slightly or grinding, pieces of chewed popcorn scattered everywhere, and the throat opening and closing sometimes with the uvula above it swaying quietly. The foals braved a moment to sit on the edge of a molar. "I thought this would be a pwayground..." Chris sighed, "not a whirlpool machine!"

"Well it is somepony's mouth, Cwis...I think it was kinda fun" Lulu offered encouragingly, and at that exact moment the enormous front jaws opened slightly, the light pouring in and blinding them. "YAAAH!" They cried, caught off-guard by the sudden luminosity. A long, narrow and menacing spear came into the mouth, heading directly towards them. Its pointy tip came closer to their tooth, and Lulu looked below them. "Oh Cewestia, Cwis jump!" A giant fragment of popcorn had got wedged in their tooth and the next, and Cutea was using a toothpick. The two foals landed with a splash in the pool of saliva at the base of Cutea's tongue, watching as the fragment was dislodged and immediately swallowed. Trying to stay afloat in the waters of saliva, they were grossed out. "Now who's got Cutea spit all over their face?" Lulu taunted, and Chris splashed her as the huge tongue shifted above them slightly. The twins climbed up onto the side of the gumline and shook themselves dry, but again the mouth's quietness was disappointing. At least they could vaguely see where they were, owing to Cutea's lips being partially open. As the twins were beginning to despair of the idea of finding a giant playground, they heard the unnerving sound of other voices.

"Stupid mare, that's the third time this week."

"Haha, and nothing's gonna change!"

The foals, both terrified and strangely curious, found themselves shifting closer to the voices, which sounded gravelly and demonic. "Wuwu I'm scared..." Chris admitted, holding the filly's arm tight, but they persisted until they had reached the base of one of Cutea's molars, the giant off-white monuments that dominated the view upwards. Looking from the top downwards, they noticed the tooth was smooth except for one or two cracks here-and-there, but towards the bottom the tooth took a rather unpleasant turn into a yellowish-grey colour, before reaching the gumline where they stood. Chris, staring at the strange wall in-front of him, ventured to touch it, and it almost seemed alive in its reaction, slinking along the surface slightly to his touch. "Ew..." Chris retreated, asking Lulu what it was.

"I don't know, but - " Lulu started, but stopped when they heard the voices again. They turned and saw two grotesque figures: they were small white-and-grey mushroom-shaped goblin-like creatures, with deep yellow eyes and a menacing smile of hideous teeth. With the aid of headlamps they were licking and stroking this stained surface of Cutea's tooth and turned to face the foals.

"Invaders! ...Or should I say, fellow invaders" the first one spoke up.

"Yes mwahaha, what brings you troublemakers into this careless mare's maw?" the other asked teasingly. When Chris and Lulu remained quiet but asked who they were, it replied: "We're Plaque! We live off badly-kept teeth." They both sniggered and laughed, and as Lulu protested Cutea's obedience they retorted, "Ha! Barely ever brushes her teeth these days - and yet all this sugar today...mmmm...it regenerates us..." They were seemingly distracted by the very sight of the stains again, turning and licking them as suddenly a third one appeared. "See? The more bad the hygiene, the more of us! Come, brother" the three continued their foul play, and the two little foals not only felt glad for brushing their own teeth but also bad for Cuteamena. They were slightly bigger than these demons, and so Chris was about to break them up when suddenly the mouth opened up wide, light pouring in and making them all shield their eyes. "Yaaaaah!" Wondering what was happening, they watched as another piece of popcorn came flying in and landed with a splash on the moist tongue's surface. From their vantage point, they could see the saliva already secrete around it as Cutea closed her mouth. The demons then pushed the two foals over the edge. "Bye bye!" They taunted and waved, as another shouted "Enjoy the ride!" The foals held each other tight as they were sent hurdling right back into the action. Cutea's tongue tossed the popcorn around, the teeth grinding it into mush quickly. Holding each other and navigating, they managed to dodge the crashing chomping teeth as they were hurled around. Eventually, the poor twins got covered in heavy, saliva-drenched mush and found it impossible to move. They lay fixed on the tongue, atop an enormous taste-bud, until the mush all around them heaved and the tongue tilted upwards.

"This is it, Cwis! She's gonna swawwow us!" Lulu muffled through her coating, and Chris muffled something inaudible back. The immense muscle thrust upwards, groaning as it moved, and the twins started sliding down the tongue surface. They turned around and saw their view: Cutea's throat, opening up, with her breathing audible as she gulped loudly. The twins' coatings were removed and they began bumpily sliding down, twisting in and out of the taste-buds. "Hehe, this is kinda fun!" Lulu cheered.

Chris nodded as some pieces of food next to him tried to overtake, "Yeah it's wike a big race - way better than the swide in Ponyville pwayground!" The twins laughed as the larger-than-life slide that was Cutea's tongue jolted and sent all the mush down the throat. The gullet opened, and the twins looked down into its vast blackness, loosing ground on the mush which moved a lot faster along the smooth sides of the throat. All of a sudden, there was a loud *HACK* and some of the particles of food - along with the foals - were sent flying back up the chute: Cutea had something stuck in her throat. "Weeeee!" Chris cried out happily, the gust of air propelling them upwards until they landed with a THWACK into something soft. Chris opened his eyes from the shock and looked down to see Lulu calling for help. She was sliding down the surface of whatever this strange feature was, apparently with a bottom which hung because Lulu was about to plunge hundreds of feet down into darkness. "Grab my tail!" Chris shouted instinctively, offering it as he held the soft squelchy surface with both hooves firmly. As they both hung there on the uvula, the mouth opened once again. A semi-circular object appeared, as if being held to the mouth, and a deafening sound of rushing liquid. "Uh-oh..." They realised quickly that Cutea was having a drink. The liquid was reddish-brown, a pungent cola no doubt - and the foals could even have sworn they heard some tiny cheers coming from one of the molars. "Pesky pwaque germs" Chris muttered, but the soda came in too fast; the uvula swayed back and forth uncontrollably as the river of pop roared its way down underneath them.

"Weeehee!" Lulu cheered, enjoying the feeling of having them both swing around: indeed, it was way more intense than any swings they'd been pushed on. As the uvula swung rapidly and the last of the soda passed over her tongue, Cutea took the can from her lips and wiped them with a "Aaaah..." The sound of her voice was like infinity decibels to the tiny foals inside her throat, and coupled with the uvula vibrating they lost their grip and tumbled down the vast space into the throat once more.

"Wuwuuuu!" Chris shouted, as the two were separated in free-fall. Lulu tried to hover, but her tiny wings were not strong enough to resist the force sending them down. As they took a moment to survey the throat muscles expanding and contracting, they heard a loud gurgle coming from below. Chris turned to face his companion, and with an eyebrow raised he muttered, "You reawize what's waiting for us down there?" Lulu gave a knowing nod as they smelt the soda before them, reaching an opening sphincter below.