Author's Note

Should probably warn that this chapter contains sexually suggestive language, and graphic digestion. More so than previous chapters have. If you don't want to see that, you should skip the last two scenes, after the ==X==.

The Most Dangerous Games

Cloudsdale was a beacon long before the sun came up. It wasn’t bright enough to illuminate Equestria, but the weatherponies had set up enough ball lightning and rainbows to make it clearly visible from hundreds of miles away. And a good thing, too, since it wasn’t where they’d expected it to be. It had drifted halfway to Las Pegasus, and Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo had a long, hard flight to catch up.

Scootaloo didn’t do any of the flying, of course. She huddled close to Rainbow’s back in the darkness, and tried not to imagine that the world below them was gone, and nothing was left of Equestria except for Cloudsdale. In the darkness, her mind kept trying to trick her into thinking that she could see into the infinite empty distance whenever she looked down. Surely there should have been some sort of light? Or at least a texture to the darkness?

“Is the sun gone forever?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash said. “Twilight kept talking about rates of attrition and entropy and stuff, she didn’t say anything about the sun. Or about the world vanishing like that. She said ‘night would be bad’, so I guess it’s not night anymore?”

“Right. That was pretty scary at first, but this is fine. I’m not afraid of the dark.” Her death-grip on Rainbow’s neck probably meant that she wasn’t fooling anypony, but a bit of bravado never hurt.

Eventually, the sun did come up – or at least, a sun came up – and they made their final approach with the sunlight shining on their backs, and making the clouds glow. Swarms of pegasi flew here and there, emerging from their cloud-houses to greet the sun, some of them with a song.

Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo weren’t the only stragglers. They were directed to an open plaza near the center of the city, where they had to get in line to register for the games. The ‘Most Dangerous Games’, according to the banner over the registration table.

“Any idea what we’re signing up for?” Rainbow Dash asked the mare in front of them.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I think the losers get eaten? I mean, that’s the point, right?”

When they finally got to the head of the line, they were each given a badge with their name on it, and three black stars. They were also given a quick explanation. “You get three black stars. The ponies who competed yesterday only get two stars. You have to win a game to get a gold star to cover up each black star. Lose a game, and you get another black star. Anypony with black stars left at the end of the day is to report to the Rainbow Factory for processing.”

“Processing?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The mare hoofed over a pamphlet, and continued with her spiel. “You can also choose to let the winner of a game eat you. Keep track of how many ponies you eat. If you end up getting all your stars, your ration will be adjusted accordingly.”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow Dash said.

“There’s more details in the pamphlet. Don’t worry about the schedule; all the games run all day, until the clock,” she pointed to a huge clock made out of clouds floating in the sky overhead, the hands adjusted by a team of pegasi, “strikes six, at which point we’ll tally the points from the winners and decide who gets today’s grand prize. Today’s prize is the Wonderbolt of your choice as a meal.”

“What? They’re not competing?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The clerk shook her head. “There was a lot of grumbling yesterday about how it wasn’t fair for a professional team of fliers to be competing against amateurs.” She sighed. “Stupid if you ask me. If the point of the games is to pick the best pegasus, why are we making sure they get eaten first?” She paused, forcing herself into her professional demeanor. “If you have any other questions, ask any of the event proctors in the white hats. Next!”

Rainbow and Scootaloo headed out into the courtyard, where other newly registered pegasi were getting oriented and figuring out what events to enter. “I guess I’ll go find the races, and get my three victories in,” Rainbow said, flipping through the pamphlet. “If the Wonderbolts aren’t racing, it should be a piece of cake.”

“Um… right,” Scootaloo said. “I guess I can come cheer you on?” She waggled her wings, which she’d never been able to get off the ground with. “I don’t think I’m winning any races.”

“They’ve got some events you could win,” Rainbow said. “Mostly for foals, but, well.” She grinned and ruffled Scootaloo’s mane. “Battleclouds, Stare-down, Hush – take your pick.”

“I’d really rather stick with you,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t need any stars. We can just spend the day together, and then you can eat me instead of sending me off to the Rainbow Factory. Like you promised.”

“Come on, Scoots,” Rainbow Dash said. “You’re not really going to give up without a fight, are you? I know the most awesome filly in Ponyville could beat these Cloudsdale losers with both wings tied behind her back! We’ll just get our stars, meet back here for lunch, then have the rest of the day to hang out with the Wonderbolts before I claim my prize.” Rainbow Dash grinned.

Scootaloo groaned. “But those games are just dumb foals’ games!” She’d miss out on some of the last time she could spend with Rainbow Dash just to prove that she could beat some random filly in a staring contest?

“Hey, it’s a new world,” Rainbow Dash said, poking her with a hoof. “Those silly kid’s games are a matter of life and death!” She leapt into the air, and did a quick loop-the-loop to stretch her wings. “See ya later, squirt. I’ve got some races to win!”

===

Scootaloo took a number at the stare down, and the proctor told her to wait in the stands until she was called. She wound her way through the crowd of taller ponies until she found a vantage point where she could see the ongoing contests. It helped that almost everypony else could fly, and hardly anypony wanted the low seats you could get to by walking.

There were more than a dozen contests going on at the same time. They’d divided the arena up into squares and each held a pair of ponies locked in position, staring at each other, while referees in white hats prowled the lanes between the squares, watching for somepony to blink for too long or look away. When they spotted a loser, they’d blow a whistle, give out a gold star for the winner and another black star for the loser, and then hold up cards with numbers on them to assign the next pair.

Most of the contests were pretty short, but there were a lot of pegasi waiting their turn. After a few minutes, when most of the squares had turned over several times, Scootaloo noticed that one square still held the same pair as when she’d come in. Two grown stallions, with stony looks on their faces, neither of them willing to give any ground.

“Woah,” she said, “they’re good.”

“Yeah, hope I don’t have to go up against them,” said a mare sitting above her, who’d heard. “Even if I won, I’d waste so much time I’d never get all my stars.” Glancing up, Scootaloo could see that her badge had four black stars on it – she must have already lost at least one game. “They key is to go fast, so you can get in as many games as possible,” she said. “At least, that worked yesterday. The competition is better today.”

“Good luck, then,” Scootaloo said.

She grinned. “Unless I go up against you?”

Scootaloo shook her head. “I don’t really need to win, except to impress Rainbow Dash. She’s going to eat me later anyway. But she’s super-competitive, so I have to at least try to get my stars.”

“You should throw all your games, then,” the mare said. “There are ponies here who want to live.”

“No way!” Scootaloo said. “There’s no point playing if you don’t even try to win.”

Eventually, the long-running game ended. One of the stallions said something to the other, which Scootaloo couldn’t make out over the noise of the crowd, and the other one nodded. Then the first looked away, and the proctor blew his whistle. The two chatted with him after the stars were handed out, and then the three of them headed to a circle in the middle of all the squares.

The proctor picked up a megaphone, and announced, “For your viewing pleasure, Hard Line has volunteered to be eaten by his opponent, here in the stadium!” A cheer went up through the crowd. “Let’s all hear it for Steel Eye!” There was a louder cheer, and then it got quiet as everyone watched the pair. It was hard to make out the details from the stands, but Scootaloo had enough experience eating ponies to have a pretty good mental picture of what was going on, as Hard Line lowered his muzzle, and pushed his head into Steel Eye’s mouth.

There was a shrill whistle as one of the contestants turned to watch, losing her own game. It was followed by others every now and then, as the large brown pegasus slowly vanished into the distended grey-furred maw of his opponent. Steel Eye took his time, methodically arranging Hard Line’s limbs to slip easily into his mouth. He folded the forelegs under the wings, as the knees and shoulders made their way past his lips, and had the hind hooves join them around the time that the tips of the wings were swallowed. By the time the tail vanished into his throat, everyone in the stadium had their eyes glued on the scene, all the other squares having had one or other of their ponies give up on trying not to look.

When it was over, there was a bit of a shuffle as the proctors arranged a whole new set of numbers, and most of the winners and losers headed back to the desk to sign up for another game, some of them stopping by the circle in the center to give Steel Eye their regards. Scootaloo kept her eye on the new numbers as they came up, and sure enough, one of them was hers. She was finally going to get to play!

She was a little nervous as she walked out into the arena. She wasn’t afraid of being eaten, but even if the game had had no stakes she would have been afraid of losing in front of all these ponies. “So I won’t lose,” she said to herself, fixing a determined look on her face as she stepped into the square.

They had her up against a little colt, about her age, although he had his cutie mark. The proctor guided them into position, then said, “Okay. Scootaloo, Comet, bump hooves, and then we’ll start. Do you need me to go over the rules?”

“Nah,” Scootaloo said. The colt shook his head. He stepped forwards and held out a hoof, and Scootaloo bumped it, then the two sat back in their spots, gaze locked onto each other’s eyes.

“Three black stars, huh,” Comet said, after the contest went on for thirty seconds without a winner. “I hope you’re ready to get sent to the Rainbow Factory.”

“I’m not going to the Rainbow Factory,” Scootaloo said. “I’m going to win this.”

Comet smirked. “Please. I saw you walking across the floor to get here – you can’t even fly, can you? The Device was made for pegasi like you.”

“What kind of baby still believes in the Pegasus Device?” Scootaloo asked, snorting. “That’s just an old pony’s tale.”

“Oh yeah? Then why are all the losers getting sent there?” Comet asked.

“I don’t know,” Scootaloo said. “And I don’t care. I’m never going to have to find out.”

“You already lost once –“ Comet started.

Scootaloo interrupted him. “I didn’t lose! They just gave me an extra star because I didn’t get to Cloudsdale until this morning. I was too busy yesterday.”

“Busy doing what?” Comet asked. “Hiding under your bed?”

“Busy eating other ponies,” Scootaloo said, and lifted a hoof to rub her stomach.

Comet looked down at her belly, and the proctor’s whistle blew. “That’s not fair!” Comet screamed, as the proctor put a black star on his badge. “She tricked me!”

“Um… yeah?” Scootaloo said, smirking. “That’s only the entire point of the game? Hope you have fun in the Rainbow Factory.”

“There’s no Pegasus Device,” the proctor said, as he covered up one of Scootaloo’s black stars with a gold one. “But the vat where they mix up the rainbows used to be a really horrible way to die, if you fell in by accident. Now it’s a quick and painless way to go if you jump in of your own accord.”

“But the point isn’t for everypony to die,” Scootaloo said. “It’s for them to get eaten.”

“There’s a centrifuge where they separate out the melted pony, and then we mix it into some porridge for the winners,” the proctor said, as he looked up at the control booth where they flashed him the next pair of numbers. “It’s a lot faster than trying to eat everypony one by one before nightfall. If you want the full experience of getting eaten, just lose to somepony and make the offer. Most ponies’ll take you up on it.”

“How about it, Comet,” Scootaloo said. “It’s your only chance to avoid the Pegasus Device.”

Comet glowered. “I can still come back from this. Next time you’re going down!”

===

Rainbow Dash’s first race was embarrassingly easy. They tried to match up pegasi who had similar numbers of stars, which meant that while there were one or two other stragglers with three black stars, most of the racers had already lost once that morning. No one was in her class. The race was ten laps around a stadium, where all the pegasi waiting for their next chance to race (or who’d already gotten their stars, or who’d given up and just wanted to watch before reporting to the Rainbow Factory) were cheering from the stands. That part was cool, at least.

But finishing all ten laps before any of the other racers finished their first? That was kind of embarrassing. At least since the race had a dozen ponies in it, to qualify as a victory you just needed to be in the top six, so she wasn’t dashing all their hopes.

“Rainbow! You made it!” said a familiar voice as Rainbow and the other winners waited for their stars.

“Oh, hey there Flitter,” Rainbow Dash said. “Cloudchaser.” Both of them had one black star left, and three gold stars, two of which were presumably from the previous day.

Cloudchaser grinned. “We were wondering if you were going to join! It’s not a race without Rainbow Dash.”

“It wasn’t much of a race even with me,” Rainbow said, cringing a bit. She turned to the other ponies in the winners’ circle. “No offense, guys, but are any of you even racers?”

“It’s faster than cloudball,” one of them said. “Good way to work off a loss, since you get put up against easy marks.” He laughed. “Usually.”

“If we ask, we can get you in our next race,” Cloudchaser said. “They take requests like that, and it might be more of a challenge.”

“Awesome!” Rainbow Dash said. “I’d rather go up against some real competition any day.”

“Do you know if Derpy’s going to make it?” Flitter asked. “We were going to try for a whole race with Ponyville weatherponies, but I don’t think many of us made it past yesterday’s games. There’s no weather event, just racing and sports and, like, games for little fillies.”

“Not that those are any easier to win,” Cloudchaser said. “Raindrops lost five times at Hush before they made her stop.”

“Already ate Derpy, sorry,” Rainbow Dash said. “And I think Fluttershy went to Canterlot with Rarity.”

Cloudchaser and Flitter looked at each other, then Cloudchaser smiled. “Come on, let’s get you signed up into our group!”

===

The second race went better. For one thing, Rainbow Dash recognized half the ponies – Cloudchaser and Flitter, Cloud Kicker and Blossomforth from Ponyville, and Fluffy Clouds and Open Skies from the Cloudsdale weather team. The rest were weatherponies too, although not ones she knew personally. Knowing who she was racing against always made it more fun.

It was also a much better race. Cloudchaser and Cloud Kicker were almost on her level – Cloudchaser was even in the Wonderbolts Reserves. Rainbow had to actually work for it.

She still won, of course, and by a comfortable margin. She only lapped three of the other ponies, though, and none of them got lapped twice.

“Woohoo! Ponyville rocks!” Cloudchaser said, hoofbumping her as they walked into the winners’ circle to get their stars and bask in the cheers from the crowd. “And that was a real race, right Flitter?”

“Yeah, a bit too real,” Flitter said, stopping at the edge of the circle. “Came in eighth. Sorry, sis.”

“Ah, ponyfeathers,” Cloudchaser said. “So you wanna do it?”

“I don’t know,” Flitter said. “You’ve got all your stars now.”

“Well, yeah! But we said we’d win or lose as a team. And it’s not like Rainbow Dash didn’t beat me too.”

“What are you two talking about?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We may have had an ulterior motive, going up against you, Rainbow,” Flitter said.

“If we lost, we were going to ask you to eat us,” Cloudchaser said. “And if we won, well, then we’d have our stars and maybe ask you tomorrow. We didn’t think about if one of us lost. Come on, Flitter, let’s do it!”

The proctor put a gold star on Cloudchaser’s badge, covering up the last black star. She was safe for another day.

“Okay,” Flitter said. Cloudchaser stepped out of the ring, and put a wing over her back to encourage her. “Rainbow Dash, will you eat us?” Flitter asked.

“Sure, if that’s what you want,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Together?” Cloudchaser added, pulling her sister close and pressing her face up next to hers.

Rainbow Dash fluttered up into the air and hovered. “Uh…”

“We know it’s a lot to ask, but we wanted to be together at the end,” Flitter said.

Cloudchaser grinned. “And if anypony can do it, it’s you, Rainbow!”

==X==

Nopony batted an eye at a pony with all her gold stars volunteering to get eaten by one who didn’t. Their only question was, “Do you want to eat them privately, or in public?”

Flitter persuaded them to go for the latter. “Our other friends will want to watch, so we might as well put on a show.”

So, while the racetrack scheduled a bunch of three- and four- star races, that hardly anypony would care about except for the ponies racing, Rainbow Dash and the twins flew up onto a large fluffy cloud set out in the middle of the arena, under the eyes of a couple thousand pegasi.

“I’m actually kind of an amateur at this,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. “But I watched a little filly swallow Applejack, so I’m pretty sure it’ll work out fine. Just don’t flap.” She scowled. “Derpy wouldn’t stop flapping.”

Cloudchaser giggled. “You don’t have to literally swallow us at the same time! If we’re together in your tummy, that’s enough.”

“Oh! Heh, okay then. This’ll be a piece of cake,” Rainbow said, grinning. She reached out and pulled the two of them into a hug. “I’ll miss you girls. Really. I mean, not as much as Applejack and Twilight, but sort of on the second tier, you know?”

Cloudchaser licked her ear, and Rainbow Dash squeaked and backed off.

Flitter smiled. “Let’s get started. Everypony’s watching.”

The two of them turned to each other, and embraced, hooking a hoof over the other’s shoulder, and then, as Rainbow Dash watched in somewhat horrified bemusement, they kissed. They fell to the cloud, hooves all over each other, making out like a pair of teenage lovers. The crowd went wild.

Cloudchaser broke off from nibbling on Flitter’s cheek long enough to say, “Do me first,” and then lifted her tail as Rainbow Dash circled around behind her.

Rainbow Dash nosed under her tail, wondering for a second if she should give the ponies watching a real show – would anypony actually complain? She was pretty sure Cloudchaser wouldn’t. But after a single lick, she was just too weirded out, and caught Cloudchaser’s tail in her teeth instead, tugging on it as she ran the coarse hairs through her teeth.

Then she gathered up Cloudchaser’s hooves, pinned her tail between her thighs, and started to eat. It still ended up being sensual. Cloudchaser moaned, and wiggled her hips suggestively, as the hard bony length of her lower legs slid into Rainbow’s throat, and Rainbow reached forwards and took hold of her by her cutie marks to keep her from wiggling herself free.

After that, it was like a dance – Cloud would suggest a move with a bit of pressure, or Rainbow Dash by pressing harder on one side or the other, and then they’d move together, rhythmically driving her deeper and deeper into Rainbow’s throat. Soon enough, Cloudchaser’s hips were too close to Rainbow’s mouth, and her hooves slid lightly up her sides, keeping up the dance as Rainbow let her tongue play with Cloudchaser’s belly, exploring the fur and everything hidden underneath it.

Rainbow Dash felt Cloudchaser tense, and moved her hooves to hold her wings down, just in time, as she gave out a loud moan and tried to spread them. Rainbow was having none of that! As the pony quivered and wriggled in her mouth and throat, she kept a firm grip on her sides, and lurched forwards, taking the wings into her mouth, and letting her cheeks hold them in check.

Cloudchaser panted into Flitter’s cheek. “I didn’t plan on that,” she said, sliding into Rainbow’s maw faster now, as her body relaxed. “But wow.”

Flitter kissed her, and kept her hooves locked tightly behind her head, even as that meant they were drawn into Rainbow’s mouth as her lips overtook her sister’s shoulders. “Thank you, Rainbow,” she said, giving Dash a kiss on the nose, before lowering her muzzle and letting it follow her sister inside.

===

Flitter squeezed Cloudchaser tighter, as she saw Rainbow Dash’s teeth spread out to either side of her, and felt her tongue, somehow still warm and wet, sliding its way down her neck, rippling her fur with little licks as it tried to help push her in deeper. Most of the pull came from the tight throat muscles now firmly wrapped around her forelegs, though.

Cloudchaser grinned at her, as her head, squeezed between Flitter’s arms, gradually vanished into the tighter confines of Rainbow’s throat. “Lucky. You got to watch it all.”

“I think you got lucky enough for both of us,” Flitter said, closing her eyes as Rainbow’s uvula slid up her face, and the warm flesh of the throat behind it slicked down her coat and mane, the tightness working its way gradually down her body, contrasting with the brisk air of the outside world that still chilled her hindquarters.

For a while, her focus was on the warmth, the pulsing tightness surrounding her, filling her ears with the sound of Rainbow Dash’s heartbeat and the gentle rhythm of her breathing. It was easy to imagine that she was already a part of the pony devouring her, as not even the tiniest bit of space separated her from Rainbow’s living flesh. But then she felt her hooves slip into somewhere still damp and warm, but not as tightly packed, and with a sudden tug, Cloudchaser pulled her head through the sphincter and into Rainbow’s belly.

It was dark, but with Rainbow Dash so stretched out, there was enough light to see her sister curled up on her back on a bed of soft pink folded flesh, covered in smears of sticky liquid that oozed from the walls. Only Flitter’s head stuck out into the space; most of her was still in Rainbow’s throat – and her tail and hind legs were completely outside her mouth.

“Come on in,” Cloudchaser said, “the acid’s fine.” She ran a hoof along her side, and Flitter could see the tiny hairs of her coat coming free, like brushing lint off a cushion.

Flitter felt Rainbow Dash’s tongue teasing at her, as it worked closer to her belly, but she was having none of that. She lifted up her left hind leg, blindly, and worked the hoof into Rainbow’s mouth, as if she was climbing up onto a shelf. It took a few tries before she could get it in place, wedged behind Rainbow’s teeth, at which point she started lifting the other hoof. Rainbow Dash helped with that one.

Once they were both past her lips, she felt the world shift as Rainbow Dash lifted her thoat up, and she gave a surprised squeak as her hooves lost purchase, and she suddenly slid slickly down Rainbow’s throat, pouring out into her belly, pressed up against Cloudchaser awkwardly, limbs and wings flying everywhere.

They both had to laugh at that, and as Rainbow Dash burped and fell over on her side on the cloud, they wiggled around to get in a more comfortable position. Flitter ended up face to face with her sister, their bellies and chests pressed together. She’d tried to wrap Cloudchaser up in her wings, but along with most of their fur, the feathers had all fallen out before they got in position, so all she had left were little chicken nubs.

“You’re bald,” Cloudchaser said, stroking a hoof down her side. It felt… strange. There was no sharp edge to it anymore, but at the same time Flitter’s skin was more sensitive.

“You’re slimy,” Flitter replied, lowering her head to Cloudchaser’s neck, and nuzzling there as their bodies slid slickly against each other, pressed tight by the oozing stomach walls wrapped around them both.

Then they were quiet for a while, cuddled close together, feeling each other’s warmth and the occasional slick motion of Rainbow’s stomach as it kneaded at their sides and back.

After a while, Flitter tried to move her foreleg up to stroke her sister’s cheek, but it woudn’t move. She opened an eye and pulled harder, and watched as it tore free from Cloudchaser’s shoulder, taking some of her skin with it. It looked wrong, and after a second she realized that her hoof hadn’t lifted with it, and as she slid it up along the stomach wall, more of the flesh sloughed away from the bones. She let it fall, not able to feel anything from it anymore, and not wanting to accidentally poke out her sister’s eyes by mistake or something.

“I think we’re stuck,” she said quietly, wondering if her other eye was still there, pinned closed against the bottom of Cloudchaser’s chin.

“We’re melting together,” Cloudchaser said, and Flitter felt bits of her thighs and sides tearing off as Cloud shifted her hind legs. It didn’t hurt at all, not even after a warm gooey flow of organs started to slide out of her, squeezing out around the legs no longer holding them in.

Flitter gently kicked one of her hooves, tucked in against Cloud’s belly, and felt it push through the flesh like it was jelly, sliding into a pool of slick ropey intestines. She froze as Cloud gasped, and suddenly tensed around her, squeezing more of Flitter’s innards out the gaps torn in her sides.

“Keep doing that, please,” Cloud whispered, and Flitter relaxed, and let her hoof drift around, stirring through Cloud’s organs, which gradually shifted from firm lumps and ropy tubes into a warm, soupy mass, even as she gradually started to lose feeling in her legs.

At some point, she realized that she’d closed her eye, and it wouldn’t open. She realized that while she was still trying to move her limbs, and they had never actually gone numb, she had no sensation of whether or not they were responding, or of what they’d respond to. Everything was soft, oozing warmth, beneath her, beside her, inside her, and she had no way to tell which end was up, or even where her own body ended and the gooey mass she was floating in began.

Then, to tell which part of the floaty feeling was physical sensation, and which was her thoughts drifting off into a misty haze.

Slowly, gradually, painlessly, her mind dissolved, just like her body had, and then there was nothing left in Rainbow Dash’s belly but a soupy mass of nutrients and magical energy.