Uniting a Nation

Cheerilee went through the motions of teaching basic arithmetic to her class, writing the numbers up on the chalkboard and demonstrating how to carry the one. “Does anypony want to come up and give it a try?” she asked.

There was no response. “Anypony?” she asked again. “Scootaloo, would you like to come up and –“

“Just cut to the chase already!” Scootaloo said, slamming her hooves down on her desk. “You said you’d tell us what’s going on with all the adults, and why everypony’s acting so weird. So why are we learning math?”

Cheerilee frowned. “We’re trying to keep things as normal as possible, under the circumstances,” she said. “That means that lessons will continue for as long as they can.”

There was a knock at the door. She sucked in a sudden breath, then smiled for the children. “But it sounds like our special guest is here, so why don’t I turn things over to her.” There was mumbling behind her as she walked over to open the door, then stepped back to allow the other pony in. “Class, I believe you all know Princess Twilight,” she said, trying to remain calm.

“Hi Princess Twilight!” said the foals, in unison.

Twilight frowned at Cheerilee, then turned to smile at the class. “Hello, class! How much has Cheerilee told you about what I’ll be discussing today?”

“Not a lot,” Applebloom said.

“Nothing at all!” Sweetie Belle said. “And Rarity wouldn’t tell us either!”

“My daddy told me all about it,” Diamond Tiara said, with a smirk. “I guess he loves me more than your sister.”

“Did he,” Twilight said, raising an eyebrow. “Would you like to come up and help with the demonstation then, Diamond Tiara?”

The little pink foal froze in her seat. “No, I think I’ll let you and Miss Cheerilee give the lesson you were planning on for the others,” she said. “There’s need to hog all the attention for myself.”

Twilight nodded. “In that case, I believe we should start at the beginning.” Her horn sparkled, and an eraser lifted and started erasing the board while she drew a quick diagram with chalk. “How many of you are familiar with the multiversal theory of time travel? The ‘trousers of time’?”

Some of the kids snickered, but nopony raised a hoof.

“Well, then, I’ll explain,” Twilight said brightly. “The way the theory goes, is that if you travel back in time and change something, what you actually do is create a parallel universe. In one of the branches, things continue as they had before, while in the other,” she levitated the pointer to indicate the lower branch, “the changes you made take effect.”

“So time travel creates a whole new universe?” Applebloom asked, making a face. “That don’t sound right.”

“It isn’t!” Twilight said. “The amount of energy needed to create and sustain an entire universe is completely ridiculous! In order to build up that much magical energy, you’d have to have everypony in Equestria working together to charge the spell, and most of us aren’t even unicorns, let alone the sort of high-level unicorn that’s even capable of such a feat.”

“Tho time travel’s impothible then?” Twist asked.

“Unfortunately… no,” Twilight said. “We don’t know who or how, but somepony managed to travel back in time and change the past. It turns out that when you do that, the energy that determines which universe is real is transferred to the new, self-consistent timeline, and everyone in that universe assumes the time travel created a stable loop and ended up causing itself. We now know that that theory isn’t true either.”

The class stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Because we’ve been left behind, in a universe without enough energy to sustain its existence. The only thing keeping the world in one piece right now is the consciousness of the ponies in it, and that isn’t going to work for long.” Here, she drew an illustration of a dashed line around a group of pony stick figures, wavy lines emanating from their heads as if holding the dashes at bay. “Most of the rest of the world is already gone – it looks like only ponies have enough magic to maintain their surroundings under these conditions.”

The class continued to stare. Finally, Sweetie Belle said, “What?”

“It means that all of you are going to die,” Diamond Tiara said, with a smirk. “And you’ll never get your cutie mark, blank flank.” Silver Spoon chimed in for the last two words.

“Fortunately,” Twilight gave her a stern look, as she continued. “Discord visited from the real world, and gave us a solution, before leaving us forever. Unfortunately, it’s a Discord solution.”

“Wait, stop, she’s lying, right?” Scootaloo asked. “We’re not all going to die!”

“That’s… a matter that’s up for some debate,” Twilight said, scraping at the tiled floor with a hoof. “In order to save the world, we need to cast the spell to create a new universe, which requires uniting all the ponies in Equestria. This means that nopony’s magical energy is going to be lost, like it would be if they died normally. Unfortunately… there’s no sign that a pony’s consciousness, memories, or personality persists in any way, although since we have no way of measuring consciousness, it’s entirely possible that it’s simply merged with the pony that eats them.”

The class stared, again.

“Right! I should have mentioned that part first,” Twilight said, drawing a diagram on the chalkboard, of two stick figure ponies doing something that looked incredibly dirty. “Discord’s solution is for us to eat each other.”

“This is a prank, right?” Scootaloo said, shouting over the general hubbub. “You got all the adults to act all weird so that you could come in here and get us to fall for it.”

“I’m afraid not,” Twilight said. “Which is why we arranged for an in-class demonstration, so that not only will you be perfectly clear on just what is involved, but also so that you’ll have a good idea of what you need to do if you decide to be the one to eat another pony. Cheerilee, are you ready?”

Cheerilee startled, having zoned out in a corner while Twilight talked. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m ready,” she said, closing her eyes. “Twilight, you have my permission to eat me.”

Twilight’s hoof touched her muzzle. “Oh, so that’s why you were so nervous,” she said, softly. “No, Cheerilee, you don’t understand. We would never have asked you to allow yourself to be eaten for a demonstration. An order from a Princess is too much like coercion – we wouldn’t feel good asking ponies to be eaten by us.” At Cheerilee’s confused look, she smiled. “Which is why all of us – Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and I – have decided to be among the first ponies eaten. Cheerilee, the demonstration is going to be you eating me.”

“What?” Cheerilee asked, eyes wide. “But you said that you were going to give a lecture on the proper technique!”

“I am!” Twilight said. “And I could hardly do that with my mouth full, could I? Just be sure to start from my rear hooves so that I can talk the class through the entire process.”

Cheerilee nodded, still not focusing completely. She felt the relief that she wasn’t to be the meal washing through her, and shame that she’d rather being the one who survived for another day, even if it came at the price of another pony’s life. “How can you be so calm?” she asked.

Twilight smiled sweetly. “Because I want to do this, and because it has to be done. Because I’ve already eaten one pony, and I’m curious what it’s like from the other side. And because… it’s only temporary. Life is only temporary. Memories, knowledge – the part I enjoyed was making them, not having them. So nothing important is being lost.

“I might not remember, or even be the same pony, but I have faith that the essential part of me, the ‘me’ that’s experiencing all this, will be there in some form in the next world. So this isn’t goodbye forever, it’s only for a little while, until all of us are one.”

She held up a hoof, and Cheerilee raised her hoof to touch it. “Until all are one,” the teacher replied.

Twilight laughed, breaking the tension, and turned back to the class. “Now, class, what’s the first and most important thing you have to be sure of when you decide to eat another pony?”

None of them responded.

“Um… whether you should eat them headfirst?” asked Snails, from the back of the class.

“Good effort,” Twilight said, “but no. The most important thing to be sure of is that you have the pony’s permission. Discord’s magic is going to enforce this, so in theory you could assume you had permission and see whether you actually were able to eat them or not, but we encourage everypony to ask first, and be confident in their meal’s answer.” She turned to Cherilee.

“Twilight, may I eat you?” Cheerilee asked, after a second, realizing that she was being prompted.

“You most certainly may!” Twilight said, turning and lifting one of her rear hooves towards Cheerilee’s mouth.

“Now, the easiest way to start is with a pony’s hooves – whoa!” She broke off as Cheerilee lifted her other hoof, and placed both of them in her mouth, running her tongue over the sensitive bits on the inside. Twilight giggled, “Cheerilee, that tickles!” she said, squirming a little and trying to pull away, but Cheerilee had her firmly gripped by the haunches, and held her in place, slowly feeding the hooves into her throat.

“That was mean,” Twilight said, pouting. “But probably acceptable,” she said, to the class. “This is the last thing that the pony you’re eating is going to experience, so playing around with the process is okay, as long as you make sure that they enjoy it. Oh, wow,” she let out a gasp as her legs slowly slid down Cheerilee’s throat, enfolded in tight, wet muscles. “This is consistent with my expectations, but so much – so much more intense, you know?”

Cheerilee was unable to answer. Discord’s magic was at work, making her bones and flesh stretchy enough to take Twilight’s legs in, even as they got thicker and spread wider apart as her lips approached the princess’ rump, but it was still a tight fit, and she couldn’t talk. It was a miracle that she could even breathe! Or, more likely, another part of the spell.

“Right,” Twilight said, “I’m supposed to be explaining how to do this, aren’t I? The position we’re demonstrating is a standard rear-hooves first position, which is recommended if you’re friends with the pony you’re eating, since it lets them talk as long as possible. It’s important, after you put the pony’s hooves in your mouth, to feed them into your throat as soon as possible – it’s the throat muscles’ swallowing motion that gives you the strength you need to pull the rest of the pony inside. Oh!”

Cheerilee’s nose bumped against Twilight’s rear, under her tail.

“Now, here’s the first tricky bit,” Twilight said. “The tail. As it stands, Cheerilee’s set to fold my tail back against my spine, swallowing it pinned against my back or side. It might have been smarter for us to arrange for it to be eaten first, so that it could drape down against my legs. But it’s not too late!” She curled her tail around to the side of the teacher’s distended mouth, and Cheerilee took the hint and pressed it inside with a hoof, using her tongue to help it slip deeper in, then swallowing as it reached her throat. “There! Now my tail’s in a more comfortable position, and Cheerilee’s set to start swallowing my body.” She saw that Sweetie Belle was raising a hoof. “Yes? Sweetie?”

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

Twilight smiled. “There’s no pain,” she said. “Discord promised, and from what I’m feeling now, and from what I felt when I ate Roseluck to test whether he was serious when he said he’d made it so that ponies could eat each other, he seems to have made good on his word. Right now, Cheerilee’s feeling very stretched out, and I’m feeling a great deal of pressure on my legs and sides…” She shivered a bit as Cheerilee’s lips slipped slowly over her cutie marks, and the teacher’s tongue started to lick at her belly, teasing her a bit there. She’d skipped the lewder possibilities, this being a classroom with children present and all.

Twilight turned to another foal. “Yes? Silver Spoon?”

“So… like… you’re going to be dead after this, right?” she asked.

“I’m not going to be alive,” Twilight said, nodding and taking a step back as more of her body vanished into Cheerilee’s gaping maw. “This is the last time I’ll be able to talk to any of you.”

“Aren’t your friends gonna miss you?” Applebloom asked, without raising her hoof.

“Most of them are planning to be eaten soon as well,” Twilight said, folding her wings down so that they could slip easily into Cheerilee’s mouth. “Now, class, pay attention, because this is very important. If you’re a pegasus being eaten, you need to fold your wings and keep them folded! If you wait too long it’ll be the same problem as with a tail, only much worse since you have two wings and because they’re far more sensitive than a tail.”

Cheerilee’s lips slid up over her wings, but with the feathers pointing back, the pressure made them want to stand up straight and fight against being swallowed. “Ah! Careful Cheerilee, could you?” Cheerilee couldn’t nod, but she lifted her hooves up and used them to stroke Twilight’s wings, helping each feather slip inside, where the saliva gummed them down tightly, letting them slip down into the tapered opening of her throat with only a little ticklishness.

“If you’re eating a pegasus,” Twilight said, now only her head and shoulders, and her front hooves, sticking out of the teacher’s mouth. “Stroke the wings to get the feathers inside smoothly. Now, this next part is optional,” she said, lifting one forehoof up off the ground, and bending it so that her hoof prodded at Cheerilee’s lips. “It’s entirely reasonable to let your hooves stick out and be the last thing swallowed – it’s not an uncomfortable position – but if you want to be more compact, you can insert them like… so!” She twisted her hoof and pressed it in against her side until she managed to wedge it into Cheerilee’s mouth. “See? If you’re eating a pony, you can do the same thing.”

Cheerilee, set one hoof on the ground to support herself, and lifted up Twilight’s other hoof, stretching open her lip with her tongue to give it space to fit inside. As soon as both hooves were in, Twilight wriggled her shoulders and slid her forelegs inside the mouth, down the slick sides of her torso and directly into Cheerilee’s throat.

“Okay,” Twilight said. “Now as you can see, the widest part of my body is deep inside Cheerilee’s throat, and we’ve performed all the limb manipulation that we’re going to need in order for her to swallow me completely. At this point, to speed the process, the pony doing the eating can tilt themselves back and let gravity do the work.”

Cherilee reared up onto the desk, propping herself up with her hooves and lifting her head towards the ceiling. Faster than any of the foals could have imagined, Twilight’s head slid out of sight, and the massive bulge of her body in Cheerilee’s throat shifted down into the stomach, leaving the teacher’s belly huge and round. She grunted, burped, and sank to the floor, holding her forehooves against the bulge, feeling Twilight inside her shifting around to get comfortable, as her hind legs splayed out to either side.

“Any more questions?” came Twilight’s voice, from inside her.

Sweetie Belle shrieked.

“You’re thtill alive?” Twist asked.

“For a little while longer,” Twilight said, her voice muffled. “If you want to come up and feel Cheerilee’s belly, you’ll be able to feel that I’m still intact, inside her stomach.”

Cheerilee nodded, and the foals came up to poke at her full belly in wonder.

“I’m already being covered in her digestive juices, however, so over the next few hours I’m going to soften and dissolve,” Twilight explained. “At some point during that process, I’ll stop being able to talk… and a little while after that I’ll go to sleep, and, well, never wake up.”

“But you could still teleport out, right?” Applebloom asked, pressing hard against the teacher’s belly with a hoof.

Twilight laughed. “I could! But that would waste all of Cheerilee’s hard work.” She pressed her hoof back against Applebloom’s, and the little earth pony leapt back in alarm. “Eating a pony is exhausting! Being eaten, on the other hoof… wow. It’s really nice in here. It’s warm, and soft, and dark… and my wings were poking at something but I just had to wiggle a bit to get comfortable. It’s… it’s really nice.”

Cheerilee just breathed for a while, unable to stand, then croaked. “Alright, children –,” she coughed, and rubbed her throat a bit, then continued in a normal tone of voice. “Alright, class. That’s the end of Twilight’s demonstration, for now. At this point we’re going to combine recess, lunch, and homework.”

The colts and fillies groaned.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be a fun assignment!” Cheerilee said. “I want you all to go out into the schoolyard, and each of you choose a pony either to eat or be eaten by. Remember that they have to agree!” As her class nodded and murmured agreement, she added, “I expect half of you back here in one hour, at which point we’ll check in on Twilight again and see how she’s digesting.”

===

The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat outside in the playground, staring at each other. Around them, the rest of the class was pairing up – Rumble was eating Featherweight, Twist was cautiously putting her rear hooves in Truffle’s mouth, and Snips and Snails were trying to both eat each other, which seemed like a doomed enterprise.

“Well, fine,” Applebloom said, at last. “If my sister’s going to get eaten soon, then I guess there’s no point having me stay around to be sad about her. One of you can eat me.”

“Not me,” Sweetie said. “If Rarity’s going to be eaten then I want to be eaten too!”

“I don’t think I can eat both of you,” Scootaloo said. “Cheerilee said she wanted half the class back, so I think we’re supposed to pair off.”

“You’re not sad about Rainbow Dash?” Applebloom asked.

“Rainbow Dash is way too awesome to get eaten just like that,” Scootaloo said. “Twilight said most of her friends were going to get eaten soon, which means that some of them weren’t. Obviously she meant Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Sweetie Belle said.

“But if you two are going to get eaten, who am I going to play with?” Scootaloo asked.

“Rainbow Dash?” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo said. “That works. After class I’ll go find her and have her eat me, too. That way we can all be in this together, just like always.”

“Cutie mark crusader pony meals, yay!” they all shouted, clopping their hooves together.

“But which of us are you gonna eat right now?” Applebloom asked.

“Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, without hesitation. “Sorry, Applebloom, but I’ve known her longer.”

“That’s okay,” Applebloom said. “I’ll just find somepony else to get eaten by, if there’s anypony still lookin’.”

“Okay, but have them come over here and eat you with us,” Sweetie Belle said, as Scootaloo sucked on one of her hooves, trying to figure out how to fit the other into her mouth. “We should be together at the end.”

Somehow, she found herself over by Diamond Tiara, if only because all the fillies and colts who hadn’t already paired off were there. Most of the class had, and were scattered around the courtyard in various stages of ingestion, but a good half dozen were clustered around Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who had apparently designated themselves as the class matchmakers, and were assigning pairs. Peachy Pie was sitting next to Diamond Tiara, waiting nervously, while Silver Spoon was standing on her own, off to the side.

Applebloom was at the back of the line, so when she got to the font all the other ponies were already gone, running off to eat each other.

Silver Spoon looked at her, and pouted. “Tiara! You said you had something special saved for me!”

“And I do! I figured as long as I’m eating a peach,” she nudged Peachie Pie, who gave a weak smile, “you could eat an apple!”

“Ugh,” Silver Spoon said. “Do I really have to eat a blank flank?”

“Well, one of ya’ll has to do it,” Applebloom said. “If Applejack and Twilight are getting’ eaten, I don’t think I want to stick around.”

“Fiiine,” Silver Spoon said. “But you’ll owe me one, Apple.”

Applebloom gave her a look. “I won’t owe ya nothin’,” she said. “I’ll be gone.”

“Then we’ll take it out of your things,” Diamond Tiara said, smirking. “We’ll go visit your farm after your whole stupid family is eaten up, and take everything we want.”

“If we even want anything from a dirty stinky farm,” Silver Spoon said. “Ugh.”

“Fine by me,” Applebloom said. “Just come on over by Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. We wanted to get eaten together.”

“Um… no way,” Silver Spoon said. “Diamond Tiara already said that I could eat my pony with her.”

“Then you could both come?” Applebloom suggested.

“I don’t think I want to wear myself out walking all the way across the schoolyard,” Diamond Tiara said. “Eating a pony is quite exhausting, you know?”

Applebloom fumed. “Fine. Then eat me headfirst, ‘cause I sure as sugar don’t want to see the two of you any longer than I need to.” She shoved her muzzle up against Silver Spoon, who recoiled for a second, before opening her mouth and trying to take it inside. But while she managed to get her teeth around Applebloom’s nose and chin, her jaw wouldn’t stretch to take her inside.

“Come on, Apple,” Diamond Tiara said, “you want to get eaten, don’t you?”

Applebloom closed her eyes, and thought about the farm being empty, with only her watching the apples on the trees rot, without her sister or brother around to buck ‘em. With no Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle – just Diamond Tiara to come tease her every day. With things getting worse and worse as the world wore out, until the last few of the most stubborn ponies had to argue and argue until they finally decided who should eat who, at the end. Yeah, she didn’t want to be around for that.

With the filly’s lips pressed against her, she felt Silver Spoon’s jaw pop out of joint, and the lips stretched impossibly wide as they slid down her muzzle and up over her eyes, leaving everything dark. She went limp, and let Silver Spoon do all the work of getting the rest of her inside. It seemed to take forever, but it was a calm, quiet forever, the outside world muffled as the slick walls of Silver Spoon’s throat pressed against her ears, the little filly’s racing heartbeat pounding in them as she struggled to swallow her down. Everything getting all warm and wet and tight, until the whole world tilted and she slid down like a waterslide, into a snug little pouch in Silver’s belly, instinctively curling up into a little ball, as she felt herself start to slowly melt away.

She thought about what Twilight had said, about how the pony’s consciousness might merge with the pony that ate her, and thought about being Silver Spoon, and thinking horrible Silver Spoon thoughts. Spending the rest of her life with Diamond Tiara. Ugh. She really hoped that part wasn’t true.

===

After recess, half the class came back to the classroom.

Half the class plus one. Snips and Snails had tried to eat each other simultaneously, and had ended up having to have the other surviving foals – all bloated and clumsy from their own meals – pull them apart from already being halfway down each others’ throats. By the time that was done recess was almost over, so the two colts – fur all damp and slick on their rear halves from their failed attempt – came back to class to explain to the teacher.

Cheerilee just shook her head. “Okay, as make-up work, I want the two of you to find some other pony to eat you. Another pony besides each other this time!” She certainly didn’t want either of them to end up being the one pony left over who created the new world!

“Yes miss Cheerilee!” the two of them said.

“Now, class, let’s check in on Twilight.” Just from looking at her stomach, the class could tell that the pony inside had softened – instead of being stretched and lumpy, it was still stretched, but smooth. “Twilight? Are you still there?”

Something shifted inside her, but the only noise anypony heard was a faint gurgle.

“I think she’s still alive, but no longer able to talk,” Cheerilee said. “I can still feel her moving.”

A small purple glow appeared in front of Cheerilee, and Twilight’s faint voice came from it. “I’m mostly gone,” she said, sounding dazed. “Most of my body is soup… I don’t really have lungs anymore, or vocal chords… I can still use a little magic, though.”

“Twilight, I’m scared!” came Sweetie Belle’s voice, from inside Scootaloo. There were several other ‘me too’s from other pony’s bellies.

“It’s okay,” Twilight said. “It doesn’t hurt… just go to sleep…” There was a fizzle and a pop, and the purple light vanished in a shower of sparks.

The ponies who’d eaten their classmates looked shaken. Cheerilee gave them her best smile.

“Don’t worry class,” she said. “Soon, it’ll all be over, and there’ll be a new Equestria, full of new, happy ponies who can run and play and live in peace… but for now, I’m letting you out early. Go have fun, while there’s still time!”