It was Nightmare Night in Ponyville, a time much loved by the ponies who lived there, especially since its unintentional founder had returned. It was only the second Nightmare Night since Luna's return, and she could not be more excited.
“We—ah, that is, I am very grateful that you have once again decided to accompany us on this Nightmare Night!” Luna said to the purple unicorn walking beside her.
“It’s really no problem at all, Princess Luna. Honestly, I enjoy being with somepony who actually knows who I'm dressing up as!” Twilight Sparkle replied. She was wearing a dark gray flight jacket, matching side cap, a pair of black sunglasses, and a set of fake wings draped over her back.
Luna nodded. “Yes, tis a very good Commander Easy Glider costume. And please, just call us Luna.” The alicorn of the night herself was not currently wearing anything, but given her ability to magically take on the appearance of Nightmare Moon at a whim, she didn’t really need to be.
“Alright then, just Luna it is!” Twilight said with a smile. “So, what do you want to do first?” she asked. “We could do the spider tossing, pumpkin catapult, bobbing for apples—”
“Yes, that one!” Luna cut in, “Bobbing for apples! It was by far our favorite game last year, and we— I mean, I, practiced it quite a bit after last year’s Nightmare Night! I dare say that I am now a ‘pro’ at it!” She paused for a moment before looking uncertainly down at Twilight. “That is the correct term, yes?”
Twilight chuckled. “Yes, Luna, ‘pro’ is the right word. Bobbing for apples it is then! Lets go!”
It was only a short trip but they passed more than a few ponies along the way. They all stopped a moment to say hello to Princess Luna, and she was more than happy to return their greetings. When they finally reached the apple bobbing tubs, they were greeted by a few familiar faces.
“Princess Luna, Twilight! Over here, dear!” Rarity shouted out to them from beside a tub. Fluttershy, who was sitting next to her, simply flashed a shy smile in their direction.
Luna and Twilight quickly trotted over to the tub they were at. “Greetings, Rarity, Fluttershy! It is most enjoyable to see you this Nightmare Night!” Luna said.
“And it is a pleasure to see you as well, Princess Luna!” Rarity replied. She was wearing a golden tiara with a ruby set in the center, and a flowing sky blue dress. She looked every part a princess of one of the old pony tribes, though Luna didn’t recognize her as being any princess in particular.
“And Fluttershy!” Luna said softly, turning to the timid pegasus, “We— I hope you are not still afraid of us?”
“No, I’m not,” Fluttershy replied with a shake of her head, “Umm, just so long as you don’t start using the Royal Canterlot Voice again.” She was wearing a slinky red satin dress that seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. It was solid across her back with no hole for her wings, and there was a slit towards the end on one side to allow one of her hind legs to stick out. Combined with how her mane seemed to naturally cover one eye, Luna thought it was a surprisingly saucy outfit for the timid pegasus to be wearing.
“Fear not, Fluttershy, I know now not to use it in public. But enough pleasantries!” Luna shouted, though not at Royal Canterlot Voice levels, “I have come to bob for apples!”
Twilight couldn’t help but smile at Luna’s enthusiasm. “It’s her favorite game of Nightmare Night, apparently.”
“Well, you are in luck!” Rarity said. “Fluttershy and I were just about to bob for apples ourselves! We would be delighted to have you join us!”
“Most excellent!” Luna replied. “Though I must warn you all,” she continued, leveling a challenging glare at the other three ponies, “I intend to win!”
“Alright then! We’ll start at the count of three!” Twilight said as she levitated off her sunglasses. “One, two… three!” Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy all plunged their heads into the tub of water.
Luna hesitated only a second to lick her lips, then opened her mouth as wide as possible and plunged maw first into the tub. Her lips quickly made contact with something and she wasted not even a second in clamping her mouth shut around it. She was careful not to actually bite into it, though. She had found that swallowing the apples whole was much faster than chewing them. She gave a few powerful gulps, which would normally have been enough to send the apple down to her stomach, but was surprised to find that her throat and mouth were still full. She also thought that she felt something fuzzy tickling her throat. A quick examination of the thing in her mouth with her tongue revealed a smooth, almost satiny texture, which struck her as a bit odd. It also tasted a bit different than she was used to, but then again, the skin of the apple didn’t really have much of a taste to begin with…
She mentally shook her head. She didn’t have time to be questioning herself if she wanted to win! It was probably just some strange new breed of apple that had been developed during her thousand years absence. She gave another few loud gulps before lifting her head up out of the water.
She was surprised at the amount of weight still hanging from her mouth. This was an apple, right? Her curiosity overcame her urge to finish as quickly as possible. She cracked an eye open a tad, just enough to see a smooth, red, curved surface hanging out of her mouth, moonlight glinting off of it. That was all the confirmation she needed. She closed her eyes, craned her neck up into the sky to allow gravity to assist her, and continued gulping down the rest of the strange apple.
Had she observed the curved red surface just a bit longer, she might have realised it was actually Fluttershy’s dress draped over her flank, which was even now being sucked down Luna’s throat.
Twilight reluctantly lifted her head up out of the tub with nothing to show for her efforts. “Dang,” she said to herself. She turned to her friend. “Rarity, how—” She cut off when she noticed Rarity standing frozen in place, a look of abject terror plastered on her face. Before she could wonder what was frightening her friend so, she heard a loud, wet “gluk” noise to her other side. She turned to see Luna’s throat bulging out obscenely and a pair of yellow hooves and a familiar pink tail quickly disappearing down her gullet. A quick glance across the tub showed that Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Twilight’s eyes slowly widened in shock as she put two and two together.
Her look of shock quickly turned to one of annoyance as she brought a hoof up to her forehead, right below her horn. “Luna, you’re doing it wrong…” she mumbled to herself.
Twilight waited patiently as Luna slurped up the rest of Fluttershy’s tail. The lump in her throat quickly disappeared into her chest and her belly ballooned out all the way down to her knees with the pony filling it. Finally finished, Luna looked back down and shot both of them an excited, victorious look. “Ha! How about that? Did I win?” Her confidence sagged as she noticed the look of horror Rarity was giving her and the deadpan expression on Twilight’s face.
“No, Luna, you didn’t win,” Twilight said while continuing to glare at her.
“W-what?!” Luna replied, “But we just ate what was surely the largest apple in Ponyville!”
Twilight sighed in exasperation. “First off, Luna, you don’t have to actually eat the apple. You just have to get it out of the tub using only your teeth. Second, that wasn’t an apple you ate.” She paused for just a moment. “It was Fluttershy.”
Luna’s only response was an incredulous look back at Twilight. She slowly turned to look at the spot where Fluttershy was no longer sitting, then down to her stomach, which she only now noticed was massively distended outwards. “I… ate Fluttershy?” she asked as she blinked disbelievingly.
“Umm, y-yes…” came a timid response from Luna’s bulging belly, almost too quiet to hear through the layers of flesh.
Luna fell into a sitting position, her plot thudding into the ground. She stared at her massive gut a while longer before coming up to meet Twilight’s expectant glare. She gave a sheepish smile. “Um… oops?”
“Luna, really!” Twilight said, “How could you possibly think Fluttershy was an apple!?”
“W-well,” Luna frantically began, “she was wearing that red dress and it was smooth like an apple, and, and I actually had my eyes closed during the whole thing, and…” she trailed off and her head and shoulder slumped down towards the ground. “We suppose our competitiveness get the better of our common sense… We apologize…”
Twilight’s glare shifted into a understanding smile. “Aw, it’s alright, Luna. Mistakes happen.”
“Mistakes happen?” Rarity said, finally regaining control of herself. “Mistakes happen!? Twilight, how can you be so calm about this!? Princess Luna just devoured Fluttershy!” She was practically screeching at this point, “The poor dear will be digested alive!”
A startled “Eep!” came from Luna’s gut, but Twilight was shaking her head before Rarity had even finished. “No she won’t. We’re herbivores, Rarity. We can’t really digest meat much at all.” She placed a hoof on Luna’s bulging stomach. “At the very worst, you’re just going to experience some skin irritation, Fluttershy.”
“Oh, t-that’s a relief…” was the response from Luna’s belly.
“You are certain she will be fine?” Luna asked, concern and some guilt clear in her voice.
Twilight gave a brisk nod of her head. “Positive!” she said with a confident smile.
“Well… that’s good and all, but we can’t just leave the poor dear in there,” Rarity said. “Twilight, can’t you teleport her out?”
Twilight looked to the Luna’s bulging gut and brought a hoof up to her chin. “Hmm... no, I can’t… since Fluttershy is inside you, a normal teleport spell would just consider you to be one target. Trying to teleport only Fluttershy would result in both of you being teleported and nothing changing.” She continued to stare at Luna’s pegasus filled stomach for a while as she thought. A smile slowly spread across her face. “There’s a specialized teleport spell used by doctors to teleport foals straight out of the womb in situations when childbirth would be too dangerous for the foal or the mother… I bet I could get that to work!” Her smile slowly began to fade. “…Except I don’t know that particular spell well enough to try modifying it for this, so I’d have to do some research on it… and I don’t think I have a book on that at the library, so I’d have to send a request to the Royal Canterlot Archives…” Her smile faded entirely and she gave an exasperated sigh. “Aaaand they’re closed for Nightmare Night.” She looked back up at Luna’s stomach with an apologetic look on her face and placed a hoof against it. “Sorry, Fluttershy, but it looks like you might have to spend a day or two in there.”
“Um… o-okay…” Fluttershy replied.
“I am so terribly sorry, dear Fluttershy,” Luna said, both hooves on her belly. “Can you ever forgive us— er, me?”
“Oh, um, well… i-it was an honest mistake, so yes, I forgive you, Luna,” Fluttershy replied from inside the alicorn’s belly.
“Huzzah!” Luan shouted, and wrapped both hooves around her stomach in an attempt to hug the pegasus within. “I cannot tell you how grateful I am to hear that!”
“Fluttershy, darling, are you certain you’ll be alright in there?” Rarity asked, still concerned for her friend.
“Yes, I’ll be fine, Rarity,” Fluttershy replied. “It’s… actually not so bad in here. It’s very warm and soft and… well, I feel kind of… safe in here…”
Twilight chuckled. “As odd as it seems, there really are few places safer than being inside an alicorn.”
“I… suppose so…” Rarity reluctantly agreed, still not quite convinced.
Luna stood back up. “Well, I do not mean to be rude but… if everything is settled, then I would like to get back to enjoying the Nightmare Night festivities, if that would be alright.”
“Oh yes, of course,” Fluttershy quickly said, “I’d hate to put a damper on your second Nightmare Night, so please don’t mind me and just enjoy yourself.”
“Huzzah!” Luna shouted again, “Thank you, Fluttershy! I will be sure to swallow many candies for you to enjoy!” She shot a hoof forward. “Onwards to the spider tossing!” She trotted off, her sagging, pegasus filled belly barely hindering her ability to walk. Twilight was right behind her, but Rarity just stood there, still confused over everything that had just happened. After a few moments, she simply shrugged her shoulders and trotted off to join them.
Author's Note
So... I guess you all can consider this to be my late Halloween offering.
before anyone says anything, yes, I know that horses aren't really strictly herbivorous.
and for the record, Fluttershy was supposed to be dressed as Jessica Rabbit. Why would she pick such a character to dress up as? I dunno. I'm sure Rarity had something to do with it.
