There was a sound like raw thunder, and suddenly Fluttershy felt a lot more exposed than she had a second ago. She peeked from under her mane and noticed that the boulder behind which she had been hiding had crumbled. Her friends lay in a mismatched pile next to it, groaning from the blow they had shared. It was clear they were all but out of it for now.
And, towering above them all, there was the dragon. It was the headlights of a truck, and Fluttershy was the deer. The growl the creature emitted resonated in her very bones, which were shaking already to the point where she might disjoint something. Her wings clasped against her flank, refusing to obey even the most primal instinct to flee. There was no way out. This was it. There was no way out.
The dragon took a step that made avalanches erupt all around the mountain. It leaned towards the five ponies, who had regained enough sense to huddle together in the naked terror of prey. Fluttershy watched as the beast’s scaly lips receded, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth the size of her leg. Saliva ran rich along them, and the stench of rotting meat pushed to her nostrils, hinting at the dragon’s past dinners – in addition to the imminent one.
He’s going to eat them, realized Fluttershy, who was following the scene from behind her cover. Nausea washed over at the barest thought of it. To imagine her friends – Twilight, Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity – ending their days in the jaws of a ferocious monster, digested for the nourishment of its massive body… it was inconceivable. Simply impossible. And yet it was happening. Right before her eyes.
No. No. Not if she could help it. Not if she had a breath left in her. They were her friends. They were her world. She was not going to witness their demise. Not like this. Not like anything. Not even in the face of a dragon.
It wasn’t her mind doing the thinking, but her body, which had already flown to meet the dragon before she had even realized it herself. The stench of his breath was indescribable this close, but she wasn’t paying attention. She had no attention left to spare. It was all consumed by the drive to protect her friends and, in no small part, by the prospect of being consumed in the attempt.
He had noticed her, too. The enormous lizard eyes followed her fly above him, then promptly land on top of his muzzle. The double eyelids blinked. This was not a turn of events he had been expecting. The five ponies below them agreed, by the hear of their gasps and shouts. Fluttershy cared of neither. A force more powerful than her own will moved her now: she was only half-aware of anything happening around her. The words climbed her throat on their own, guided by Celestia knew what power fuelled her now.
“How dare you?” she said, marching along the dragon’s muzzle towards his forehead. “How dare you? Just because you’re big doesn’t mean you get to be a–”
Her world turned upside down, literally. In one remarkably swift motion, the dragon had pulled back its head, thus flipping the ground from under Fluttershy’s feet. She whirled around, weightless in the air, losing her sense of direction. Her friends’ shouts had suddenly turned to screams, and for a heart-freezing moment she thought the beast was on them. He wasn’t. She knew it the moment the huge jaws closed on her and turned off the daylight in one gigantic snap.
She got immediately squashed between the dragon’s tongue and palate. Saliva covered her body in seconds, from wings to feet, from tail to mane. It was very thick, like syrup or tar, and made her wings less than useless. Not that she could’ve used them effectively anyway, with the tongue pressing her. Its power wasn’t crushing, but the possibility wasn’t far away.
It then occurred to her that the dragon had just eaten her. Of course she had known it the moment the jaws had enclosed her, but only now did she become really aware that she knew. The dragon was eating her. The thought made no sense; it was insane. It was also her reality now; all of it.
She screamed, more in confusion and shock than in fear. All it helped was to make her swallow some of the saliva. It choked her throat, and burned. She started coughing uncontrollably. At the same time, the tongue shifted and turned her upside down. More gooey slime entered her mouth, from there to her throat. She had no choice but to try and swallow it down or asphyxiate. The tingling sensation spread further with the saliva; she could feel it all the way in her stomach now. The taste stretched her ability to keep conscious.
The tongue moved again, and this time Fluttershy lost all sense of which way it was rolling her. He was treating her like any other morsel, sucking flavour from her with every part of his mouth. At first she was terrified he’d crush her with those horrible fangs, but it didn’t take long for her to actually pray he would. Her condition was inequine. Coated in sticky, searing slime and swirling around like a cat in a washing machine, it was a miracle she didn’t pass out. A horrible miracle. Chaotic thoughts clogged her mind, spinning her like the dragon did.
After an incalculable amount of time, the whirlpool stopped. Fluttershy lay on the tongue, gasping for breath, trying to figure if she was still alive or not. She had no idea if she was imagining it or not, but faint noises carried to her ears from somewhere. Somepony was shouting. It sounded a bit like Rainbow, but the voice was muffled. A tiny bit of leftover reason whispered that it really was Dash; that they were fighting with the dragon to try and free her. Maybe there was still hope. Maybe she could–
A force like a hurricane yanked her backwards. The dragon had swallowed. Her eyes widened, and even with her throat filled with sticky goo she let out a shriek, which came out as a sorry whine. The darkness was still blacker than any midnight, but she could tell she was in the beast’s throat now, sliding deeper. And fast. The tunnel wasn’t a straight drop, but the slick, muscled walls had no trouble moving her down. She groped for a grip with her hooves, in vain. She was a leaf fighting against the wind.
The trip took longer than the tasting had. Or so she thought. A sense of time was something she hadn’t known for an eternity. She ended up in what she could only think was the stomach. The darkness here was just as impregnable as in the mouth, but the stench was doubly worse. Not that she could feel any more nauseated at this point. Again she found herself surrounded by some sort of liquid, although this time it wasn’t as thick. Instead, it burned much worse; it was like acid. And then she realized it was just that.
He’s digesting me. Oh my Celestia; he’s digesting me! Already she could feel how her fur left her skin; how her eyes were hurting; how her coat stinged. The pool wasn’t shallow enough to let her stand, so she had to try and swim. It was impossible; the saliva still covered her wings and limbs, not to speak of the flaming panic that dismembered all efforts of effective action. She thrashed in the stomach acid, vaguely attempting to find a wall.
Against all odds she almost managed that, but the dragon moved sharply, and the liquid sloshed around, submerging Fluttershy. She couldn’t surface again. Her lungs complained, not just for the acid but for the lack of air. She floundered one more time, gave it all the strength she had left, and then breathed out. The following intake was her last. For a brief moment the pain intensified, and then she blacked out.
The stomach made short work of her corpse afterwards. The acid she had swallowed dissolved her insides, which were softer, quickly enough. Next to digest was her skin and eyes. Her body disintegrated fast, and soon only shreds of her coat floated in the stomach, their distinct yellow shade fading fast. The bones were tougher, sinking to the bottom to be either passed on later or melting like the rest of her. Lastly, her mane, once a gorgeous sight, floated to the surface of the pool, where it soon broke down to numberless separate hairs. Those, too, would either liquefy and nourish the dragon, or mark the last resting place of Fluttershy, behind some bush.
