Flash Story Collection

(Commission for: TheBronyDog, though, in this case, it's another trade story, however, I feel it's worth posting here just because I posted the first part. In this case, we pick up with Vinyl's preshow snack, having been living in her belly for long enough to have explored the city, which is kept up by some good tech. Still, it is a city inside a mare's stomach, not exactly prime real estate. 35 USD)

The ‘day’ started with the usual thing you’d come to expect of this city. The sound of a beating heart growing faster, the sound of roaring winds, like great bellows, getting deeper, and the world outside your window growing brighter, as you tried your best to ignore it, feeling like the world was just mocking you, as it slowly came to life outside, leaving you behind as it did so.

You couldn’t ignore it forever, of course. Soon, the smooth motion, the gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, lapping of the waves on the shore nearby, and the sound of the buildings at the edges of town moving, told you it was time to force your tired, aching body to movement, and so you rolled out of bed, and then stood up, towering above all your surveyed with a grin.

The apartment around you was...well outside, this would have been luxury incarnate. A door made of wood(REAL WOOD!), with a doorknob inlaid with glass, platinum, silver, and gold, done in a design that implied the four great Ladies who ruled the Heavens. It made it a bitch to turn sometimes, but a self cleaning charm at least meant it never rusted or was more difficult to turn one day to the next.

The place sparkled, as you walked out into it, showing you a space that was at once clean, and lived in. A few shirts clung to a door out of the way, a bit of the ceiling looked cracked, though you’d done your best to stucco over that, and the windows outside literally shined, giving you a view of the city that looked brightly lit, regardless of the fact that not a single building here had ever seen a single ray of sunlight.

It showed the boundaries of the city too. Where the streets turned from stone and concrete to something far more soft, with liquids that were far more caustic than anything that you’d normally find in such. Some of the buildings on the outer reaches had even already succumb to that stuff, one tower in particular leaning far to the side, only held up because it had fallen into a wrinkle along the wall.

That wall, the edge of the world entire, pulsed, both with blood flow, and light. The one around you had apparently drunk something last night that had given her a nice internal glow, one flowing through her veins, giving the whole city the feel of being in a rave, which was...it wasn’t pleasant, but in the end, it was better than the darkness, even if it was annoying that it was still going on this many hours later.

Checking some cupboards, you found some stuff stashed away the night before, a few things you’d meant to make a snack of in the night, but had crashed so hard you hadn’t. It made for a decent enough breakfast, that you scarfed down quickly, before walking to the edge of the room, and grinning, as you placed your hand on your best find in this whole town, smiling at it.

The thing was a board. A surfboard to the untrained eye, but to you, the thing was more than that. After all, as much as the waves here looked gnarly sometimes, they were made of stomach acids, and even with a good spell, someone your scale would be stripped to the bone in a second if you were doused in the stuff, which was the reason this was, in fact, a hoverboard.

The latest model too. Like, it had just come out a few months ago. You had to wonder, idly, what the owner was doing right now. Heck, what anypony who’d been living here was doing...anybody really. You’d found homes for ponies, all three tribes and even some crystal and bats, but also minotaurs, griffons, and even one for hippogriffs, but every one of them was abandoned and empty.

You had no idea why. The reason didn’t seem like panicked flight, or orderly leaving. In fact, you found signs of both, and sometimes in the same building, during your explorations. Sure, in your time here...hard to tell how much, but a few weeks at least, you’d only gotten into a few dozen buildings, but it seems random who had fled fast, and who had simply left slowly.

Normally, you might assume that the city, considering where it was, had never had anyone in it. But...well, feathers, hair, and even some food left on the tables said otherwise. Some people had lived here, made a home here, for a while if the forms you’d found in an office building were anything to go by, but then, all at once, or maybe a little at a time, they’d left, and so, you were here alone.

That did leave you time to explore, though you sometimes wished one of the entertainment units got outside signal. You had recordings and stuff, like some old kids videos, but you really wanted to know what was going on outside...and if anyone had noticed you’d disappeared into the belly of this singer. Had anyone else done the same? It was a big city after all, and you’d barely scratched the number of buildings.

That thought had to grab one of the light sticks from the cupboard beside the hoverboard, shaking it to charge the thing, as you walked towards the window, and then with a wave of your hand, opened it up, being assaulted the moment you did with the sounds of the world around you. Her body, moving and walking around. The thunder of her footsteps, muffled but there, as the city shook outside.

You smiled at that, and with a twist of your ankles, leapt out the open window, spinning in the air as you did so, and getting the hoverboard beneath you hooves. It was a thrill...though it helped that you had the thing set to assist mode, so it did most of the work for you, even angling itself along the side of the building you were sleeping it, so that you seemed to surf down it, landing on the main street.

Here, a few cars sat, most of them ajar, as you’d broken into them, finding no commus, no vids, not even any antique phones. No way to communicate with the outside. Better, they shook a little, showing that the city’s protective units weren’t working at full capacity, making you sigh to yourself, even as you felt the thrill shoot up your spine as you landed right amid the dusty streets, and shot off down them.

Whooping, hollering, and just making noise, you popped the end of the light stick, and swung it, as you tore down the street. Bolts of multicolored lights shot out of that end, like shooting stars, sailing into the air, just bright enough that they lit up the sky beyond even the glowing veins in the walls. Your voice, however, was drowned out by her body, leaving you to go quiet after a block or so, as you rushed down the street.

It took a bit, but you were soon on an ‘unharvested avenue’, the cars, a bit off center from the shaking, but otherwise unbroken into, showing you had work to do still...but first you dove down the rest of the road, which got a bit bumpy, as you felt the air grow heavier, the sound of the stomach and body around you growing louder too, as you exited the field that kept the place stable, and entered her body in its natural glory.

The air was sprinkled with droplets of acids, but you slapped on a mask and filter just as you got to the point where it would matter, slipping through the now rough roads, and making it around obstacles with a seeming expertise that was, in truth, down to the board’s excellent design, as you rocketed up a piece of road that had been raised by a piece of stomach lining rising beneath it.

Sailing up into the sky on your board, you looked down to find the sea of acids just starting to fill the streets below, washes of it bubbling and churning, as you looked towards your destination, a small hut like structure, one that seemed to have been built directly onto her flesh, and the waves that crashed against it found themselves repelled by a sparkling barrier of blue magic, signifying its importance.

Luckily, you’d found this place, one of a half dozen, but this one was the failing one. The reason the city was abandoned, maybe? Probably not. It was easy to fix, as you had discovered, sailing through the barrier, and then landing with a twirl, seemingly spinning the board beneath your hooves, so that it spiraled up, into your arms, just as you ducked through the door, as more acids washed over the shield.

Rushing through the door, you placed the board in the corner, even sticking it to the wall, as the building shook and shuddered. The body outside was moving, sharply, and while the city was protected from it, this structure could not be. That was because it was providing the protection for the rest of it, but it made for unsure footing, as you made your way to a glowing device at the center of the squat building.

The thing was pretty small, all things considered...really small, considering your scale, but still, it was only about the size of a small truck, and you quickly opened it up, to find the same two wires had come loose again, their mounting have corroded at some point, forcing you to lick your fingers, and join them back into place, while grabbing a tool from the door, and fixing the break.

That, luckily, caused the device to hum, and the strobing effect of its glow changed into a more constant blue glow, as the shield on the city went bright enough to block out most of the outside lights, almost allowing you to forget you were inside a stomach, at least, until there was sudden movement, one that caused you to fall, grunting, against one of the walls, before it turned again.

The wall turned floor shook, and then shuddered, like a bomb had gone off, leaving you to force yourself to rise, your body aching, as you made your way to a window, and looked outside, to find the stomach around you moving wildly, the shield on the building, and the foundation built into the stomach lining, being the only reason it hadn’t been shaken off completely, as waves of acids pounded against the shield.

Confused, you opened the door, just to peek outside, only to be blasted backwards, by not only a swinging motion to the world, one that made your stomach do flips, but a blast of sound, a moan that sounded almost painful to your ears, only for you to realize what it was, as the heat outside began to pour into the building, and the sound of the unicorn’s breathing began gasping, while her heart pounded.

Annoyed, you grabbed your board, and held onto it, pressing the button to lock it to the wall, as the world continued to twist, and shout if you considered her your world. The heartbeat growing faster with every pump, the breathing getting shallower, and even the heat of the belly getting denser, as outside, the unicorn was having a bit of morning fun, making you just sigh.

It took, what should really be, only a few minutes, as the walls of her belly quivered, and then pushed outward, as far as they would go, every muscle in her body going taunt, before she suddenly gave out a cry, and released herself, the sound of liquids flowing from somewhere far below you making you remember that it had been some time since you’d had companionship yourself.

Still, what felt like hours later, she was still long enough for you to grab your board, and hightail it for the city, almost falling into it, thanks to the way she was laying, and then giving out a growl as you landed on the street, the shifting of gravity making your stomach flip again, even as you tore down the road, intending on ignoring her for the rest of the morning, unless you had to harvest some food again from what she ate.