It was a pleasant evening as Verdant and Beanstalk stepped into the somewhat upscale building. The restaurant, Festivities & Food, was a place well known in Vanhoover for providing entertainment for patrons while they enjoyed quality meals.

“After you,” Verdant said as he quickly pulled out a seat for Beans at their table. The tall mare gave a chuckle before nuzzling the top of his head and taking her seat.

Soon a pony took the couple’s orders. Not long after, a voice rang out through the restaurant’s sound system. “Mares, gentle stallions and others. I hope you're hungry not just for our fine food, but also for an amazing magical show. Now, put your hooves together for Vanhoover’s mistress of magic, Hocus Pocus!”

A round of applause and cheers came from the audience, though Verdant swore he heard a single boo as a unicorn mare stepped out from behind a curtain.

The unicorn’s coat was a silvery blue while her short, curly mane was a golden color. The deep violet of her eyes was matched by the bowtie wrapped around her neck. Her clothes were a white button-up shirt topped by a black silk jacket.

“Is it just me, or does her outfit really draw attention to her flank?” Beans whispered into Verdant’s ear, making his eyes fall on her back half. For a mare her size, her rump was somewhat on the larger side. Upon her flank was the image of a top hat with a purple band and a silver star. Beside the hat was a wand with a large golden star.

“Wee bit, but if I had a flank that good, I’d want to show it off,” Verdant quietly replied, making Beans nod as she focused on the bowing magician’s rump.

“Thank you all for the warm welcome,” the mare on stage said as she stood up straight. “Welcome to tonight's show. I’m Hocus Pocus, the best magician in Vanhoover and I’ll be providing you with a night of entertainment.”

A second round of cheers rang out as Verdant and Beans’ order of cheesy garlic bread was placed in front of them. Just as Verdant and Beans started to dig in, Hocus Pocus spoke up once more.

“Now, for tonight’s first trick, I’m going to require a volunteer from the audience.” She said before sweeping her eyes over the dining room’s floor. Hocus spotted what she thought was a certain stallion raising his hoof, unaware he was reaching for a second breadstick. “Yes, you with the green coat and white muzzle! Please come onto the stage!”

Verdant was rather surprised to see the stage mare was pointing directly at him. Before he could offer a word of protest, Beans gave him a light push out of his chair. When he looked back, he saw her mouth the words, “Go on!”.

The shamrock stallion gave a slight swallow before he made his way onto the stage, where the magician offered him a warm smile. “Alright. Thank you for coming up here, Mister?”

“Verdant Range,” he nervously replied, only for the magician to give him a hearty pat on the back.

“Mister Verdant Range. Thank you for volunteering,” Hocus warmly said before looking between Verdant and the audience. “Now, have you ever been teleported before?”

“More times than I’d care to admit.” Verdant admitted as he rubbed his foreleg and let out a nervous chuckle.

“Well then, you shouldn’t have any problem when I use you for my disappearing act,” the silvery mare said as her horn started to glow a bright purple. “Are you ready?”

“R-ready as I’ll ever be,” Verdant said as he looked out into the audience and saw Beans giving him a reassuring wave.

“Alright. Prepare to vanish on the count of three.” Hocus Pocus slowly drew near as her horn’s glow grew brighter. “One… Two… Three!”

An explosion of purple smoke suddenly flooded the stage in front of Verdant as he felt his body start to tingle. He saw a pale violet light was encompassing his body and felt as if he was being gently squeezed all over.

Glancing down at his hooves for but an instant, he saw a mark on the floor growing closer and larger. In the instant when he realized he’d been shrunk, he felt himself being pulled off the ground at a great speed.

Looking to where he was going, he saw the now giant Hocus Pocus was holding her jacket slightly open with her hoof, letting him see a hidden pocket inside. Verdant was quickly pulled into the jacket before being gently set down in the dark pocket.

When he landed on his flank, he was rather surprised to see that one side of the hidden pocket had some letters stitched into it that glowed a faint white.

Relax, you’ll be fine in here. I don’t do any tricks that’ll put you in danger. In the meantime, feel free to take one of the below coupons to get a discount for 10% off your meal.

~ Hocus Pocus

At the bottom of her message was an arrow that pointed down to a small stack of papers that he could vaguely make out the ten percent message on.

“Well, I won’t turn down a cheaper meal,” Verdant said to himself before he picked up one of the coupons and stuffed it into his vest. “Still, me and shrinking never go well.”

“TAH-DAH!” Hocus’ voice boomed before a distant rumbling sound reached Verdant’s ears.

***

“Tah-dah!” Hocus said as the smoke dissipated, revealing she was alone on the stage. The display led to a stampede of applause from the audience, including Beanstalk.

“Thank you, folks. I’m sure Verdant will be going on a nice little trip through another dimension,” Hocus said as she took a small bow. “In the meantime, I’ve got plenty of tricks that will impress you all.”

For the next twenty minutes, Hocus Pocus enraptured her audience with a variety of sleight of hoof tricks. She had made several objects appear and disappear, seemingly smashed a watch to pieces only to have it be completely unharmed, and even levitated without the use of wires or any light coming from her horn.

Her last trick had her call a somewhat grumpy blue unicorn mare from the audience and had her pick a card from a deck while Hocus looked away. Once the card was picked and shown to the audience, put back into the deck and shuffled, the silver mare finally turned back.

“And now,” a grin crossed Hocus’ muzzle as the blue mare put the deck back in the performer's left forehoof while she pulled a throwing knife from inside her jacket and snatched it with her right. “We’ll see if I get this right.”

A mare from backstage quickly pushed a target onto the stage before Hocus tossed the deck of cards into the air, scattering them all about. Less than a second later, she threw the knife at the target.

When it struck the target, it had impaled a card right in the center, it was the Eight of Clubs. The audience gasped at the sight of the stabbed card.

“Was that your card?” Hocus said to the grumpy unicorn, who scoffed before heading for the stage’s edge.

“Lucky guess,” she said before she hopped off, leading to cheers from the audience once more.

“Thank you for joining me up here, Ma’am,” Hocus said before she hopped off the stage and started to walk up to Beans’ table. “And now that I’ve finished up with one guest on stage, I think I should call back our first guest.”

Hocus Pocus stopped in front of Beanstalk’s table, standing up on her hindlegs before she started doing some strange, fluid gestures with her forelegs.

Suddenly, she stopped. She held up a single foreleg before she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, revealing the shrunken form of Verdant, standing atop it like a model on a runway.

***

Verdant had a rather comfortable time in the pocket of Hocus, though he did find he was starting to get rather hungry as time went on.

Eventually, he heard the unicorn say she would finally, “bring him back” and he pondered how she’d do so.

Her gentle movements became more raucous as she stood upon her hindlegs and started to quickly move her forehooves.

Faster than the shrunken stallion could blink, he found himself being scooped up by her hoof and stuck into her mouth.

“Whoa, the hoof really is quicker than the eye,” he muttered to himself before Hocus opened her mouth wide and stuck out her tongue like a diving board.

Verdant gave a somewhat nervous wave as the audience cheered, with none cheering more so than Beanstalk.

Y’know, I wonder if Beans is bigger compared to me when she grew giant or- The shrunken stallion’s thoughts were interrupted as a flash filled the dining room along with a crackle of lightning so loud it was as if a volcano had gone off next to him.

Verdant had no time to react when Hocus’ head suddenly jerked back and her tongue flicked him backwards. He found himself being catapulted into the back of her throat before being swallowed down. He tumbled down her esophagus before he splashed into her stomach.

The shamrock stallion coughed and swam his way over to what he assumed was a chunk of carrot in Hocus’ belly as she said something that he couldn’t clearly make out due to having flooded his ears with stomach juices.

“Dammit. I was hoping for a week without getting eaten,” he grumbled aloud. “And to make it worse, I won’t be getting this on my sandwich tally.”

As Verdant started to shake the fluids from his ears, he saw something starting to poke out of the upper stomach valve. It seemed to be a sparkly blue silk cloth. More of the cloth started to pour down into the stomach where at the end, he saw one of the tips of the blue cloth was tied to an equally sparkly yellow one.

Acting quickly, Verdant leapt from the food chunks and swam up to the stomach wall. Once he could grab onto the cloth, he quickly wrapped it around his waist.

“Right, so how am I going to signaaah!-” The emerald pony suddenly felt himself being jerked upward by the cloth. He could barely process how quickly he ascended her throat when he found himself being pulled past her lips, dangling from the cloth in front of the audience.

***

As the audience gave a cheer for the trick with Verdant on her tongue, Hocus Pocus found her flank suddenly being struck by a jolt. It was shocking and somewhat painful, but the true issue was that her reflexes had caused her to accidentally swallow Verdant. She could practically feel the miniature pony falling down her throat before dropping into her stomach.

“Oh dear…” Hocus quietly whispered to herself as she fell to her hooves and the crowd gasped in horror.

“Miss Hocus,” Beanstalk nervously swallowed before continuing. “Can… can you throw Verdant back up?”

“Um… no, I can’t vomit,” Hocus said as she rubbed the back of her head. “Due to repeated practice of sword swallowing tricks and some things I used to do in high school, I don’t really have a gag reflex anymore.”

A second wave of gasps came from the crowd before the performer pony held up a hoof.

“But fear not, for I have a way to get him back,” Hocus said before waving a hoof in front of her face. At least I pray so…

Before anypony could ask what she meant, Hocus puckered her lips and a small bit of pretty silk cloth stuck out between her lips. Sitting down on her flank, she started to pull on the cloth, revealing it was attached to another silken cloth, but this one was green.

She quickly started pulling out more, revealing silken clothes in white, black, pink, orange, purple, yellow and finally blue, where the tiny form of Verdant could be seen dangling from the now damp cloth.

“Ta-dah!” Hocus triumphantly exclaimed as she plucked Verdant from the cloth with her magic and set him down in his chair.

With a brief flash from her horn, Verdant was suddenly returned to his original size. The crowd erupted into applause as Beans swept up the slightly damp stallion and placed a kiss on his cheek.

“Well, I hope you enjoyed the show, everyone,” Hocus said as she quickly reached into her jacket and pulled out three items that she set next to the couple’s plate. It was two backstage passes and a note that read, “Meet me after the musical act’s done. P.S. Return this note to me.”

“I wish you all a pleasant dinner and hope that you enjoy the soothing music of Melody and the Sweethearts,” she called out as she returned to the stage to go behind it.

As the crowd cheered for the band that started to come onto the stage, a blue coated unicorn mare mumbled to herself in annoyance as she munched on some peanut butter covered crackers.

“Best magician in Vanhoover. Bah!” She grumbled before angrily taking another bite of her crackers. “Hocus Pocus is nothing but a second rate hack. Her cards aren’t even worthy of being in a rookie’s deck, much less Trixie’s deck, but they might make a good coaster for my drink.”

***

After the acts had concluded and the green pony couple had enjoyed a delicious discounted meal, the two made their way backstage to Hocus Pocus’ dressing room. Beans gave a gentle knock against the door, to which the unicorn’s voice came from behind it. “Come in”.

Making their way inside, they saw the now naked unicorn mare was sitting back in a chair, her jacket carefully set up on a nearby coat rack.

“Ah, perfect timing,” Hocus said as she slid out of her chair. “I’d like to apologize for what happened with the trick you were in, Verdant. I’ve done that trick dozens of times before and not once have I ever swallowed a pony.”

“Eh, it’s no big deal,” Verdant sheepishly replied. “Honestly, I’ve been eaten about fourteen times.”

“Even I’ve done it once.” A faint pink tinge danced across Beans’ face as she spoke up.

“It’s gotten to the point that I’m a little used to it,” Verdant finished up.

“Well… That’s a bit surprising,” Hocus said as she trotted up to the couple. “Still, I want to make things up to the two of you beyond just giving you a discount coupon for this place. How about I take you two out for a fancy night on the town?”

“Hmm… Could you give us a moment?” Beans asked before she and Verdant moved to a corner of the room, turning so the unicorn couldn’t hear them.

“What do you think, Beans?” Verdant carefully whispered to the tall mare. “I think she’s pretty much asking us out on a date.”

“Me too, Verdant,” Beans replied before she quickly looked over her shoulder to the unicorn and turned back. “She is rather cute… What do you know about herding?”

“A fair bit since my family was a herd. My Dad had four mates and I had six sisters because of it.” Verdant quickly took a glance at the unicorn who was starting to look a bit nervous. “Just so you know, the choice of adding a mare to a herd is supposed to be the choice of the lead mare in the herd, so it would be your call… though I will say that she does seem rather nice and cute.”

“I see...hmm... I think we should go for it, okay?”

“Sure thing,” Verdant said with a nod. “I’m up for it if you are.”

“Alright,” Beanstalk replied before she and Verdant turned back to Hocus. “We’d love to, Miss Pocus. Would Friday at seven be alright?”

“Fantastic,” Hocus Pocus said as she walked up to the two. “Rest assured, I will make that night…” With a quick series of flicks of her right foreleg, the earth ponies saw various items appear in hoof before quickly being replaced with another. They went from a photo of a fancy restaurant to a red rose to a photo of the ocean to a firework to the business card of a hotel to a set of hoof cuffs. “Magical.”

A faint blush appeared on Verdant’s face while Beanstalk started to grin widely.

Author's Note

Hey folks, Happy Valentine's Day/Singles Awareness Day. I hope you've had a pleasant time this day... Or at least better than Verdant did here.

Been wanting to do this chapter for a while since I wanted to introduce Hocus Pocus for a fairly long time.

And now, time to vote for the chapter after next.

1. Swift Snort (AP): Verdant is training with his fellow soldiers on Butterfly Island and we see one of the misadventures there.
2. Lovely Nights and New Beginnings (Alternate Ending): Verdant was called upon to impregnate Cadance with Shining Armor's sperm. Well over a year after his successful mission, Princess Cadance calls him back to the empire. What could she want this time?
3. Dating Delights: Verdant goes out on a date with a fancy mare he met during a dating service and things seem to go swimmingly... until he learns she's a cannibalistic serial killer with a shrinking fetish.
4. Betty: The Last Cutesaur: Verdant is recruited by Daring Do to explore an island full of long lost flora and fauna, only to encounter a creature that supposedly went extinct eons ago.
5. Bibinba's Inside Story: While playing Marinara Party with some friends of his, Verdant accidentally lands on the wrong space and finds himself staring down an imposing longma.
6. Double Trouble in the Fire: A teleportation accident ends up sending Verdant to another universe where he meets Dr. Overdrive and a green mare with a white muzzle named Shamrock Meadow. When the two try to get him back home, things go awry and the emerald pony pair end up in the kitchen of Spitfire.
7. Dragon of the Wastelands: In the wastelands that were ruined by mega spells, a small band of ponies wish to reach the town of New Griffinstone. To get there, they hire an odd unicorn mare who goes by the name of Verdant Range.
8. Dog Day Afternoon: On a day out, Verdant finds himself stumbling upon a patch of Shrinking Violets... and a rather hungry Diamond Dog.
9. Happy Hearts & Hooves Day (AP): Verdant wants to give Erica a wonderful Hearts & Hooves Day. After learning she has a fetish for shrinking and vore, he knows what he'll do to make his special somecreature happy.
10. Death to Daybreaker: In a dark world ruled by Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon, two vicious tyrants who plot and scheme against each other, the Mare of the Moon decides to put an end to her sister once and for all. For this, she's going to need a rather skilled assassin.
11. Tales from the Mirrorverse - Digestions & Dragons: Set after the events of "Antacid's Creed", Verdant is assigned to Celestia's elite privateer, Magic Barrier. His first assignment: recover the treasure from a hibernating dragon's stomach.
12. A Verdant Sandwich: Verdant finally manages to teleport to Baltimare, however not only he shrunk, but he ends up not in the local lab, but in a sandwich being served in a place called The Carnivore's Cavern. Specifically, in a stratadon steak sandwich belong to a certain griffin with amber eyes and violet markings.
13. Sweet & Shining Strawberry Snacks: Another round of teleportation leads to another disaster for Verdant as he's teleported to a bowl of strawberries in the Crystal Empire just as Princess Cadance and Shining Armor are about to have a sexy little game.
14. Sailing into the Blue: In the war with the griffins, Captain Barrier comes up with a plan to allow them to infiltrate the Griffin Kingdom and turn the tide of the war. All they need is a boat, Verdant's knowledge of anatomy and a lot of Shrinking Violet potion.
15. Into the Sunset (EG): An accident involving a flower cart and High Gear's teleporter leads to the teen to be shrunk again and finding himself stuck in a salad in Canterlot.
16. Ponies and Portals: Verdant is poached by a mare who is competing against High Gear's project by working on creating long range portal spell. However, things go wrong and Verdant finds not only is he shrunk, but his body has become a strange creature with weird appendages and clothes... along with being in a package of peanut butter and crackers.

Remember, only one vote per person. Also, from now on, vote that only have a number will no longer counted and even deleted. I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I did this since it makes tallying the votes easier for me.

Next time, we get the Verdant of the Another Path timeline doing battle with his counterpart from the Mirror Universe in Verdant vs. Verdant: Battle of the Bug.

See ya then!