The pounding beat of the club echoed out and around the city block, the latest mix of the great DJ Wub Tub urging all to come and listen, to try and gain entrance to the party that was going on within. Droves of ponies stood in front of the club, in a long line, eager to try and get in. Begging the bouncer to be admitted now, or claiming to know the great DJ. Some even threatening with their reputation. It was a nightly ritual, and if our hero was here for recreational purposes he might have thought of joining in on the revelry and joy. Alas, the stallion Night Fall wasn’t here for something so simple. No, he was here on a mission of utmost importance.
Ponies had been going missing during the night life of Manehatten, vanishing without a trace for days to weeks at a time, before reappearing with no memory of where they’d gone, or what had happened to them. Night Fall had been asked to investigate the strangeness, and there was only one part of the story that ever seemed to line up between all of the victims. The last thing any of them remembered, was being at a club, partying, with DJ Wub-Tub as the master of the ceremony. So, it was only natural that Night Fall would come here looking for answers.
Though, Night Fall was not going to be attempting to sneak through the long line of ponies to get into the club. He didn’t have time to waste on something like that. Instead, Night Fall was entering into the club through less than legal means. His body was wrapped up in a heavy cloak, obscuring every bit of himself from the outside world, even his face. Now, typically, that would have only gotten Night Fall some odd looks, but it wasn’t the cloak that was important. It was the enchantment that the cloak had on itself.
Night Fall could see out of the cloak just fine, but nopony was going to be able to see him, sneaking in through the roof of the club. The cloak had served him well on multiple occasions, and this was going to be one of them. Sneak into the club, get any answers that he might be able to acquire, before going back to his own private HQ and figuring out what exactly was going on here. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d be able to catch the perp in the act? A little optimism never hurt to take on a mission, after all.
The rooftop door was easy enough to get past, especially without a bouncer to guard it. A simple lock pick was all that was required, before Night Fall was inside of the club, the music now directly assaulting him instead of being buffered by the building that housed the party. For just a moment, resting above in the catwalks of the club, he allowed himself to listen to that pounding, surging beat. It was definitely one of WubTub’s better mixes, even a passive listener could tell that. Night Fall stood there, tapping a hoof to the beat for just a moment or two longer, before shaking his head, and beginning the hunt for a way down. Maybe on another night he could enjoy the music, but on this night, it was business.
Soon enough, Night Fall found a ladder descending from the cat walks down to the main floors below, the stallion swiftly mounting and making his way down. He’d learn nothing just looming above the main party like that. If he wanted to get to the bottom of this, he was going to have to be amongst the party and all that were attending. Maybe he could notice something, someone out of place that others didn’t, simply because they had no reason to be looking for such things? As in investigator, Night Fall had to be on top of these sorts of things.
Upon reaching the main floor of the dance club, Night Fall swiftly took off his cloak of invisibility, stuffing it into his messenger bag, the lack of cloak now revealing the dark grey pegasus underneath. Night Fall was dressed about as casually as he could manage to be, especially when it came to fitting in at a club setting. Not that appearances were ranked very highly on the list of important things for the night. There were missing ponies at stake after all. It was almost funny, how despite the recent strings of disappearances, not a single pony among the dance floor seemed the least bit perturbed or worried. Did they know about what had been happening, or did they simply not care? Still, it wasn’t Night Fall’s place to judge, so he simply began to move forward, away from the dance floor and towards the back of the club. Maybe he could find some answers there?
To Night Fall’s surprise, there was no bouncer stationed at the door to the back area. In fact, it was left almost tantenizeningly ajar, beckoning in the curious and the investigative. It could have just been a coincidence, a lazy staff member going to and fro the main party area who forgot to close and lock the door, but if there was one thing that Night Fall had learned while working this job in this city, it was that coincidences did not happen. Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, Night Fall strode forward and into the back area.
What Night Fall found was so shocking, so groundbreaking, that if he were to reveal it it’d run the risk of shocking the whole of Equestria! It was a staging area, for putting Vinyl’s prepared snacks and meals before they were rushed out to her on the mainstage! Okay, so, maybe it truly wasn’t all that impressive in the grand scheme of things that Night Fall could have discovered, or at all for that matter, but that wasn’t what was important! In fact, nothing about this room was important in the least. Night Fall took a breath, before sighing out. Seems this time his hunch was wrong.
If Night Fall wasn’t so distracted by the sheer amount of food, he might have noticed the unicorn sneak up upon him from the back, heard her horn powering up, but he definitely felt what came next. A spell collided with Night Fall’s back, the stallion gasping out and lurching forward, placing his hands on the table. Night Fall spun to see the culprit, his eyes resting on a figure he had never expected. A mare of bright red hair, and light blue hide. Show Time, Vinyl’s manager...and she was getting taller with every passing second. No, because that’d mean everything else was getting bigger. Show Time wasn’t getting taller, Night Fall was getting smaller!
“Well, well, well! Another curious pony comes waltzing into the employee only section of the club, just cause I leave the door slightly ajar! Really, if ponies just kept their noses where they belonged I wouldn’t have this little operation! Yet, they always always always just adore stuffing their noses where they don’t belong. Tsk, tsk.” Show Time sighed, reaching down and picking up the little Night Fall, the stallion having been reduced to the size of a mouse, while the employee only door slammed closed thanks to another spark of Show Time’s magic. Night Fall could only glare and flail his limbs.
“So you must be the one making all the ponies disappear for weeks at a time!” Night Fall accused, which only made Show Time let out an impish little snicker, shrugging her shoulders.
“Yes, I suppose you caught me. Too bad it’s too late.” Show Time didn’t stand there and chortle or explain her plan, she was much too clever for that. No, instead all the mare did was pat Night Fall once upon the head, before lifting up one of the buns on a single sandwich, and dropping the micro sized stallion right there amongst all the condiments and food items. Night Fall glared up at the mare, but Show Time paid him no mind. She simply pressed the sandwich bun back down, before lifting up that tray and beginning to walk off. Night Fall was powerless to lift the piece of bread off of him, so instead was forced on the journey, taking note of the pounding bass growing louder with every step that Show Time took.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out where exactly Show Time was taking Night Fall, and as it became more and more readily apparent, the stallion couldn’t help but feel a shiver run up his spine, suddenly picking up the pace of his kicking and resisting of the sandwich. He knew where Show Time was taking him, and he had no intentions of figuring out exactly what the plan was for this sandwich. Was Show Time doing something different with him than the others?! Surely this couldn’t be how all those others ended up.
Of course, all of his struggling and worries would be proven useless soon enough. It happened as quick as a whip, really. The plate which the sandwich rested on was handed off, and before Night Fall could cry out, the sandwich was shoved into a dark, moist hole. Night Fall let out a screech of terror, but it was drowned out by the pounding sounds of bass and wubs. There was a gnashing sound to his sides, the stallion’s eyes widening as intense fear gripped him. He felt like the teeth were getting closer, or that the tongue was moving him in that direction, before there was a great suction, dragging him downwards.
Night Fall tumbled and twisted down the long, hot tube, eyes wide with panic. Part of the stallion told him that he should be suffocating, and yet it never came. Eventually, the wild ride down the dark, hot, moist tunnel came to an end, and out he was deposited, the stallion stumbling through the air before landing squarely on what had once been a piece of cake, now a ruin of its once former glory. Night Fall got up and brushed himself off, the pegasus getting out a match to see the surrounding area. A strange liquid bubbled below him, and all around he could see the debris of food and drink of earlier. The walls shook and shuddered in time with the pounding bass from above, and soon enough more debris and food chunks came falling down from the hole, dropping into the liquid below.
“Oh sweet Celestia...I’m...I’m…” Night Fall was in Vinyl Scratch’s stomach, as much as he didn’t want to admit it. The life of an investigator took you to many strange and odd places, but inside the stomach of somepony else was not one that Night Fall, or anypony in their right mind, would ever have expected to end up! Night Fall took a deep, calming breath, once more idly wondering how he could breath. How was he supposed to know that it was just another part of the spell Show Time had cast on him, the same spell which would ensure that when he did get out of Vinyl, he wouldn’t remember anything about this night, nor could he know about the part of the spell that was seconds from triggering.
Night Fall’s body suddenly lurched, the stallion falling onto his knees on the cake, eyes wide with shock. A few tense seconds ticked by, before there was a rush of magic, and the space which he was in felt a lot more cramped. Night Fall had been returned to his typical size, the stallion now filling up a lot more space of the large gut, food squished up against him from all different angles, the strange liquid doing no harm to his body. It sizzled and ate up the stallion’s clothes, but the rest of him was left perfectly fine.
Night Fall let out a small grunt, wriggling to try and get more comfortable in the tight confines of that gut, already starting to try and think of a way that he might escape the dangers of the belly. At the current moment in time, there was only one true escape he could think of, but there was no way that he was going to willingly go down that route! Of course, the thought of going out the way he had come down in wasn’t all too appealing either. So, all Night Fall could do was push and wriggle in that gut, trying to get the big girl’s attention. He even added some shouting into the mix.
On the outside, though, no one paid any mind to the slight increase in jiggle from Vinyl’s large gut. No one could hear the muffled shouts of Night Fall over the loud, pounding music either. The only person who noticed any of it was Show Time, sitting across the way with a smug smile on her face, eyeing up the large, white dome of belly, watching the small bumps and shudders to that gut thanks to the struggling of the pony inside. This wasn’t the most healthy or constructive hobby, Show Time had to admit, and yet the sight of it pulled her right back in. Not like anypony was ever hurt at the expense of her little games. If anything, Show Time had a feeling Vinyl subconciously enjoyed it. Either that or she was subconciously justifying it for herself. No matter the true answer, Show Time wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
With no other option presented to himself, Night Fall had no other choice but to get comfortable in the belly of the beast. Of course, there was a limit to how comfortable he could actually get. For one thing, the belly, while large, wasn’t exactly something he could move around freely in. He was forced into a semi-fetal position, with the very frequent sensation of either a soft drink pouring down on top of his head, or the occasional hail of food that was, probably not so surprisingly, mostly whole. Who had time for chewing when there was more food to be stuffed down one’s maw?
Time went by, and all of Night Fall’s struggling, shouting, kicking, and pushing was proven to be utterly useless. The great wubtub of a mare just didn’t notice it through all her sheer bulk, and anyone else simply assumed it was the natural jiggling state of the big party mare. The belly got more and more cramped, until what wasn’t taken up by Night Fall was covered mostly in food, burying the stallion up to his neck in the belly with the debris of all that food. Most of it was left whole enough that it was safe to assume he would not be starving while stuck in that gut. He could probably get fat himself if he so pleased, which he in fact did not. The sooner he escape, the better.
The belly was a humid, yet cozy place. If one was in the right conditions, or it was a little large, the gut could be a nice place to just curl up, pass out for a nice, long nap. That is, if you weren’t already privy to the knowledge that you were in a gut, and all the food around you was slowly being broken down and digested, even if you were spared. Small details like that just put a little damper on things. Since Night Fall knew exactly where he was, there would be no peaceful napping for the private investigator.
“Heck of a show, huh Vinyl?” Show Time asked her biggest star, walking next to the other mare, eyeing her occasionally shuddering gut every now and again, enjoying the sight of it. Enjoying what she knew was going on inside of the dome of white, furry flesh. Sure, there were more healthy ways to go about it, like going on the internet, but why get your kicks the lamest way possible when you had magic at your disposal?
“Yeah it was! Loved the crowd, music was great! Think something about the food was off, though. Makes my gut feel funny. I swear, I’m going to need to need better chefs or someone to check the food! This is getting a bit silly. Everytime I eat at a club, specifically, this happens but not at home. It’s kinda goofy, Showy.” Vinyl said, giving the white dome a quick pat. The manager only snickered slightly, all of this some form of inside joke to her.
“Oh, well, I’ll just cast a quick spell. Help out your stomach. I’m sure we can work out the whole mess with the food at the clubs.” Show Time smiled, before her horn lit up. A beam of magic shot out, hitting Vinyl on the gut. The DJ felt instant relief, the oddness ceased, along with some of the fullness as well.
“Thanks, Showy! That did the trick.” Vinyl smiled, finally getting to her dressing room. Show Time just smiled, giving a small wave as the DJ slipped into the room, closing the door behind her.
“Anytime, Vinyl!” Show Time smiled, before looking down, and opening her dress shirt pocket to reveal Night Fall, still covered in foodstuffs, who could only glare up at Show Time, unable to do anything else to the manager. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, my dear little snoop. We’ve got another show tomorrow night, and I’m sure there’s still plenty of fun I can have with you yet.” Show Time winked, before letting the pocket close, and heading for her own room.
Night Fall wouldn’t be seen again for a few more weeks.