The Princess Who Ate Ponyville

Twilight Sparkle stood in the center of her new library, a proud expression on her face. For once in her life, she didn't have to worry about dust filling the air during a reorganization, making her and Spike sneeze and cough and delaying the process for minutes at a time. When she wrote to Celestia about how much she missed the collection of books that Tirek had obliterated, Celestia had graciously offered to replenish it. She beamed, proud that she and Spike memorized their inventory and managed to shelve and sort the new collection in a single day. "Doesn't it look marvelous, Spike?" she asked.

Her faithful companion stretched his sore back and arms, then turned to look around at the multitude of shelves surrounding them. He sighed and looked back up at Twilight. "I guess, but I don't get it, Twilight. Celestia gave you a blank check for any books you wanted, and all you asked for were the same old ones from before. Why not spring for rare first editions or something?"

Twilight sighed and ruffled her wings. It was an excellent question, which brought up a temptation she had a difficult time resisting. "It's complicated, Spike. I didn't want to abuse my authority as princess, this particular configuration of books has some sentimental value to me, and it would be easier to test the new Dewdrop Decimal System on a collection that I'm intimately familiar with. I'll work on expanding it once I finish demonstrating to the princess the improved efficiency of the new and improved Ponyville library!"

She smiled and looked down at Spike, who blinked and looked back at her. Why was she looking at him like that? Then it dawned on him that she wanted prompting to continue. "Okay, how exactly are you going to test that? Asking me to move more books around?"

"No no no, you've worked hard enough," Twilight replied with a shake of her head. "I've got the system memorized, so I can look up a book by subject and find them in no time. This should cut down on my response time by five whole seconds!" She beamed and reared up for a second, while Spike just stared at her. "Though if I miscalculated and it turns out the system from the old library was better, I may have to ask you to help me move everything back."

Spike groaned. "Twilight!"

"Sorry, Spike! I'll get you some rubies from Rarity as a reward, okay?"

Before Spike could respond, there came the sound of hoofsteps on crystal and a knock at the library door. Twilight turned to face it. She felt a brief spike of excitement from hearing of a potential patron, one she could use to test her new sorting system. But then she and Spike let out loud yawns, and she remembered that they'd spent the whole day reorganizing. The sun had set hours ago, and it would be prudent of her to call it a night and get some sleep. "Sorry, but the library's closed," she called out to the pony behind the door. "We'll be open in the morning."

"I'm terribly sorry to have to disturb you, my faithful student," a familiar, maternal voice responded, "but I have urgent business that I need your help in resolving."

Twilight's forgot her fatigue as she zipped over to the door, knocking Spike over in the process. The door glowed purple as she opened it, revealing her beloved mentor, Princess Celestia. Twilight immediately smiled and stood aside, allowing the Princess to enter. "It's so good to see you, Princess! I wanted to thank you for helping me requisition the new collection!"

"I'm glad to see you as well, Twilight Sparkle," Celestia replied. "But we will have to wait until tomorrow to catch up on our personal affairs. Right now, there is a spell missing from the Royal Library, and I believe it lies in one of the tomes I sent you. The spell is called Lambent Barrel's Ravening Dweomer."

"Oh, I know that one!" Twilight exclaimed. But then her face fell and she furrowed her brow. "Actually, I don't. Not yet."

"Mmph. That's a first," Spike said. He had gotten up from the floor and was shuffling back up the stairs, intent on heading for bed.

Celestia frowned. "I suggest you change that as soon as you can. But since I need a physical copy of the spell so that I can spread the knowledge of how to cast it to the unicorns in Canterlot, I'm afraid I can't allow you to study it for too long."

Twilight's face relaxed as she considered the request. "Not a problem, Princess. I should be able to find and memorize it in no time thanks to the Dewdrop Decimal-"

"Then do it! Hurry!" Celestia raised her voice and interrupted Twilight, her eyes widening. Twilight stood still for half a second, stunned at Celestia's urgent tone, then took off for the arcane sciences section of the library.

Even as Twilight hurried to find the right book, recalling the decimal number for abjuration magic in half a second, she found that she had plenty of thought to spare, and as she flipped through the indexes of various books, little details accumulated in her mind, details about Celestia. It started with the abrupt shift in Celestia's tone, which didn't sit well in Twilight's mind. Then she remembered other things about Celestia. She had showed up in the dead of night, when she was supposed to be asleep. Twilight hadn't seen any of he royal guards that normally accompanied her when she visited Ponyville on official business. Her mane, normally flowing in the air on its own power and colored in vibrant pastels, looked dimmed and wilted as far as she could tell in the library candlelight. Most unusually, though Celestia wore most of her golden regalia, the gorget at the base of her neck was missing. What did it all mean?

She couldn't piece it together just yet, and since she had just found Lambent Barrel's spell in a compendium of his work, she decided she could ask Celestia more questions once she was done studying it. As she walked back to the main area, she kept her nose buried in the book and scanned the page, paying special attention to casting procedure. "Princess, I found the spell! It only took about..." Her voice died out when lowered the book, finding it deserted. Twilight looked around for Celestia, but found nothing except traces of dirt on the floor. The dirt made faint outlines of hoofprints, a trail which lead to the stairs up to the new bedroom Twilight and Spike shared. Those weren't there before Celestia had arrived.

An idea came unbidden to Twilight's imagination. Was Celestia trying to seduce her? The thought of it made her sweat. What would the princess see in her? Why would she want someone centuries younger than her, and why would she want to complicate their relationship with romance? It didn't make any sense. And yet... Twilight wasn't sure she'd turn her down. Once or twice she'd had dreams about this very scenario, dreams that resulted in her having to clean her sheets in the morning. She didn't dare tell anyone about them, especially not Celestia, and yet that dream might come true then and there.

Twilight practically floated up the stairs on the overwhelming power of hormones, a goofy grin on her face as she touched down on her bedroom floor. Sure enough, there was Celestia, standing with her back to Twilight. The darkness in the room rendered the Princess a silhouette. "P-Princess Celestia," she stammered, feeling butterflies in her belly and her heart rising up to her throat. "I-is this what I think it is?" She turned the on the oil lamp by her bed, to get a better look at Celestia. The princess turned to face her, and once Twilight saw her face her heightened emotional state switched from twitterpated to terrified.

Celestia herself looked much the same, save for one detail: Spike's tail wriggling and sticking out of her mouth. The rest of Spike was out of sight, but Twilight could guess as to where he was, given the fullness of Celestia's mouth and the bulge at the front of her neck. Normally her neck was slender and graceful, with just a hint of muscle tone, but now it was misshapen with the addition of an upside-down baby dragon. Twilight's stomach lurched when she noticed that she could see rough approximations of Spike's arms pressing against her gullet and hear his muffled cries for help. Tears came to Twilight's eyes. What she saw made her wish that she was in a nightmare, and that she would wake up before she had to come to terms with her beloved teacher devouring her number one assistant.

Celestia, in turn, just kept looking at Twilight, breaking eye contact only to tilt her head back and swallow. Her throat was cleared, and the bulge of Spike's body moved down her throat, down to her shoulders. That's why she left her gorget behind, Twilight found herself thinking. "P-Princess, why?" she asked, feeling tears come to her eyes.

In response, the princess lowered her head and fired a blast of golden light at Twilight. It numbed her whole body and caused her to float into the air. Twilight realized that Celestia wasn't done eating. She would make Twilight join Spike in her stomach. In her desperation, she tried to teleport away, but the sight of her horn drooping down into her line of sight, limp and flaccid, told her that she wouldn't be able to cast the simplest cantrip. The spell also made her wings lock up against her sides, preventing her from flying.

With Twilight helpless in the clutches of her magic, Celestia smiled and licked her lips. "Oh, Twilight. I was so lonely down in Tarterus. I thought I'd lost you forever. Let's never part again." Celestia opened her mouth and raised Twilight up to it, giving her a good, long look at its inside. Every tooth was perfectly shaped and whitened, befitting a princess, and her breath smelled as if it had been minty fresh prior to her mouth getting filled with dragon. Twilight's eyes were drawn to the very back, where she could see the warm, pink flesh of Celestia's throat, her dangling uvula, and the hint of a shadow at the very bottom, where the passage down the hatch was. She desperately wanted to look away, but Celestia's spell had even paralyzed her eyelids.

Before Twilight knew it, that open mouth rushed her, encompassing more of Twilight's vision before snuffing it out entirely. She could hear a pair of muffled pops as Celestia's jaw unhinged again, right before the princess shoved the rest of her head inside of her mouth. For a few scant seconds Celestia wrapped her lips around the top of Twilight's neck, swishing her tongue under Twilight's chin to taste her. Though the flesh pinning Twilight's ears to the curve of her skull muffled her hearing, she could still hear a sound emerging from the depths of Celestia's throat, a rich, deep "Mmmmm" that indicated how blissful an experience it was for the princess.

At this point Twilight's fear shifted briefly into the realm of incredulity. Her teacher was having fun with her, treating her like food and acting like it was an expression of love, of pleasure. Twilight, meanwhile, had her head trapped in an enclosed space full of thick, viscous saliva. It soaked into her mane, the fur on her coat, even inside her ears, and since all her other senses had been rendered nearly useless, she had to rely on touch and bring that warm, disgusting sensation to the forefront of her mind. Celestia's spell had even robbed her of the ability to react, to shudder and squirm and struggle. All she could do was fume.

Celestia tilted her head back and swallowed Twilight's head. Her powerful muscles pulled Twilight into her gullet, adding a tight feeling of constriction to Twilight's discomfort. With Twilight's shoulders and the front of her barrel being soaked and prodded by Celestia's tongue, Twilight almost didn't notice that the spell was starting to wear off. She was only allowed the slightest amount of movement, enough to twitch and move her eyes, but it was something. Though her horn was still limp, she could still see a faint glow coming from the surrounding flesh. It allowed her to see the inside of Celestia's gullet, a reddish-pink tunnel of rubbery flesh that stretched around her head before it resumed its natural diameter inches away.

She sighed and closed her eyes. The princess had already gulped down her ribs, and the rest of her would follow soon. Twilight's body wouldn't be anywhere close to ready for an escape by the time Celestia finished with her. Besides, there were so many unanswered questions she had, little details that didn't make sense to her. As she felt Celestia's mouth engulf her hocks, she resigned herself to do what she did best: think.

Celestia closed her lips and swallowed one last time. She felt Twilight's body passing down her neck, the bulge distending her skin less and less as it passed down to her collar. Once she felt Twilight hit her stomach, she smiled and looked down at her own stomach. It was still as svelte and toned as it was when she arrived, the Equestrian standard of female beauty. There was no indication that she had gorged herself at all.

She walked outside, onto Twilight's balcony, and glanced at all of the houses in Ponyville. There were so many sweet and innocent ponies living in town, and Celestia loved every one of them like a mother. The sun had to rise in five hours, so she only had so much time to show them that love. Equestria's sovereign ruler spread her wings and flew to the nearest house.

"Mmph, you were awesome, too," Rainbow Dash mumbled. She slept in a bed made of clouds, just like the rest of her house. The mattress was made of stratus and the pillows and blankets were made of a special Cloudsdale brand of woven cirrus. Had she been awake, Rainbow would maintain that there was no sleeping arrangement more comfortable than that. But in her sleep, she just laughed. "'s not professional, Soarin'! Quiddit!" She rolled over, taking a tumble with a pony who wasn't there, until she tumbled right out of the bed and onto the floor.

"Oww..." Dash rubbed her eyes, looking around her surroundings. Just her room, with barely enough light to see. No Soarin' in sight. Rats. Now she had to deal with being groggy in the middle of the night without any awesome dreams to keep her occupied. She stretched her legs and wings, then shuffled herself off to the kitchen to get herself some milk. Milk always helped her get back to bed.

As she poured it into the cup, her ears twitched. She thought she heard somepony setting hoof on the house. But it was only brief, and so she finished her drink in relative peace. After she drank it and set it down again, she noticed a sudden breeze behind her, one she knew from experience was air being displaced thanks to a pony making a sudden movement. With only a split second to react, Rainbow Dash dived out of the way, brushing her wing up against the side of her assailant, feeling the presence of feathers on her side.

Dash skidded around on her floor, bumping up against the wall and taking a glimpse at this other pony. She was still half-asleep, working on instinct and memory, so not only did she not turn on the lights while she was getting her milk, she failed to recognize the silhouette of another pony from her height alone. All she knew was that this pony had the nerve to attack her in her own home, and that pissed her off. Dash was in the mood to kick her ass first and ask questions later.

She took to the air and sped off towards the other pony at high speed. It wasn't anywhere close to what she needed to pull off the Sonic Rainboom, but Fluttershy had told her it was still too fast for ponies to see with the naked eye. That was exactly the kind of reaction Rainbow Dash hoped for, the kind that made her feel awesome enough to take on the world. She'd been working on her acceleration during takeoff, and it was finally starting to see some results.

The way Dash had it figured out, tackling the mystery pony like this would give her no time to react, knock the wind out of her, and put her in a prime position for Rainbow Dash to put her in a hold and interrogate her. Unfortunately, the other pony did have time to react, and the next thing Rainbow knew, she was lodged deep inside a warm, wet tunnel. With a panicked grunt, she struggled to back herself out, but something kept her from leaving, some hard and flat things rubbing up against her gaskins and something slimy sliding...

No! Nonononono! Dash was wide awake now, and struggling to escape. She kicked her legs and tried to flap her wings, but both her wings and front legs were tightly bound by the walls of this pony’s throat. Her throat, Dash thought. I’m being eaten alive! Please be a nightmare please be a nightmare pleasepleaseplease! She shivered and screamed, hoping somepony could hear her and pull her out. It wasn't until she felt the pony’s drool cover her hooves that she finally gave up.

The sound of Opalescence yowling and hissing slowly brought Rarity out of her state of blissful slumber. She sighed and sat up in her bed, pulling off her eye mask. "Of course," she mumbled to herself. "Because my week hasn't been frightful enough."

Rarity slowly walked down the stairs, feeling her head start to clear and her legs start to feel less numb. She had always required a minimum amount of beauty sleep, and on the rare occasions she didn't get it, functioning as her typical fabulous self became problematic. At the moment she felt surprisingly intolerant of Opal’s outburst, whereas she could normally be counted on to coddle her darling, precious cat. She took a deep breath, trying to put on her best face, and stepped back down into the main floor of the boutique.

A sky blue aura enveloped the switch to the nearest lamp and turned it on. "Opal, darling, what has gotten into you?" Rarity looked up and saw that Opal had sunk her claws into the leg of Princess Celestia. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, taking stock of the sight, before she started casting another spell. With it she pried Opal off of Celestia's leg and raised her to her stern, bloodshot eyes.

"We do NOT. CLAW. PRINCESSES," she whispered through gritted teeth. Opal looked completely bored with her owner's tone, yawning in her face. Rarity moved Opal aside and bowed to Celestia. "Please forgive my cat, your majesty. She doesn’t know any better, I promise you!"

"I-it's quite alright, Rarity," Celestia replied. She wiped the tears off her face and drew back the part of her leg that Opal had clawed. "I've dealt with cats like this quite a few times in the past."

"Oh, you have?" Rarity asked, before breaking out into a yawn. She still had the presence of mind to cover her mouth with a hoof, even when half-asleep.

"Yes, I'm afraid that cats were always more of Luna’s specialty. I was always more partial to dogs." Celestia tilted her head and gave Rarity an apologetic smile.

"Oh, I understand completely, your majesty. My friend Applejack is a dog pony herself. Now, if I may ask, what are you doing here at this hour?"

Celestia furrowed her brow in thought for a moment. "Well, my sister's birthday is right around the corner, and I thought that it would be a lovely surprise if you were to make a gown for her."

Rarity widened her eyes. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "A gown for Princess Luna? Oh my! Are you... Is there any chance I’m dreaming?"

Celestia chuckled. "Not at all. Will you be able to work on it?"

Before she could utter a barely restrained affirmative to Celestia's question, Rarity yawned again, and she rubbed her puffy eyes again. A strand of her purple mane fell across her face. "Oh dear, I would love to get started and work right away, your majesty... but I really must get some sleep. I'm absolutely no good to anypony in this state."

Rarity rose into the air, enveloped in the golden glow of Celestia's magic. "Of course, Rarity," Celestia said with a soft, kind voice. "Allow me to tuck you into bed."

The princess’s magic felt soothing to Rarity, like she was floating on silken air. It was only a matter of time before it made her drift off. "Oh, but I couldn't ask that of you," she mumbled, her eyelids slowly closing.

Celestia smiled and licked her lips. "I insist."

Rarity was too tired to protest any further. She closed her eyes and felt herself drifting back into sleep. Everything was going wonderfully for her, and her mind was so busy imagining new dress patterns to fit Luna’s figure that she didn't notice the warm, wet sensation creeping up her hind legs. Sleep had come, and with it a pleasant aura of relaxation. The panic of being devoured would follow soon enough.

Pinkie Pie had been awoken in the middle of the night by the rumbling in her stomach. She yawned and stretched her legs, getting out of bed and walking down the stairs to the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner.

From time to time she would get a craving for food beyond her normal diet, which was already excessive and would have caused health issues in a more normal pony. Sometimes she would fixate on having a specific food that day, like apple strudel or pistachio ice cream. Sometimes she felt the need to eat far more than a normal pony, occasionally causing her friends to wonder where she was putting it all. Then there were times, such as this night, when she woke up in the middle of the night, requiring what essentially amounted to a fourth meal of the day to get her back to sleep again.

The first time that happened. Mr. and Mrs. Cake had some polite but firm words for her about consideration for the sleeping habits of other ponies. Since then, Pinkie had to remind herself not to engage in her usual habits of skipping everywhere she went and talking in her normal enthusiastic voice. As long as she prepared her midnight meal in relative silence, the Cakes would tolerate her habit, even leaving a special surprised in the fridge from time to time.

As Pinkie Pie made a special extra-large hot fudge sundae, her ears twitched, taking in the silence of the night that she was taking care not to disturb. Normally she would just hear crickets chirping or the sound of the Cakes snoring in stereo, but instead she heard the sound of grunting and panting coming from their bedroom.

She giggled awkwardly to herself. Normally she wouldn't hear the two of them going at it, since they typically expressed their love for each other when they knew Pinkie was asleep. Hearing that intimate act reminded Pinkie Pie of how she'd butted herself into the life of Cranky Doodle Donkey several months before, and how disastrously that could have turned out for all involved.

So she hurried in finishing her sundae so she wouldn't have to eavesdrop on them any more than she already did. After piling on crushed peanuts, fudge, and whipped cream to a sundae that used up five whole cartons of ice cream, she extended her tongue and slurped up the whole thing in seconds. With a single gulp, it all went down her throat, giving her a chilly feeling that sent shivers down to her hooves. Still, she managed to taste every delicious flavor in the concoction, which made her smile from ear to ear and let out a contented little sigh. That smile remained on her face as she walked back to her bedroom, right up until she saw Princess Celestia in the hall.

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, frozen in each others' paths. Celestia's presence here in the dead of night would be confusing enough for Pinkie, but the princess had her mouth full of Cakes, too. The two of them were bound together inside Celestia's neck, Cup Cake's pudgy body squishing up against her lanky husband. Only their hindquarters were visible past Celestia’s stretched lips, glistening with sweat, legs squirming and kicking at the air. Carrot Cake's shaft, speckled with the same shade of orange as his freckles, was still stuck in his wife's pussy. The rest of their bodies were vaguely identifiable, mostly serving to extend Celestia's neck to the degree where Pinkie could see the individual white hairs of her coat among her stretched pink skin. More than half of the princess’s body weight consisted of her engorged neck now, forcing her to pull it back, awkwardly balanced on her hooves. Thinking about how silly the princess looked made Pinkie giggle all of the sudden, cracking a smile and breaking the tension in the air.

Celestia used her magic, enveloping the happy couple in a golden glow and shoving them down her throat. With only a few gulps, she flexed thick, sinuous muscles and pushed the Cakes down into her belly, briefly shifting her forelegs far apart to make room for them. Once they reached her stomach, they hit bottom and stretched her belly all the way down to the floor, but only for a split-second. Pinkie watched as the princess’s stomach bounced back into its normal shape, the mass of the Cakes seeming to vanish into nothing. It made Pinkie’s jaw drop.

She looked back up at Celestia's eyes, which were both visible to her now that the princess wasn't swallowing a pair of live ponies. Celestia cleared her throat and bit her lip, hesitating as she looked down at the witness to her latest meal. "Pinkie Pie-"

"Wooooow," Pinkie Pie said, her pupils growing to the size of dinner plates. "I thought I was the only pony who could do that!"

Celestia blinked a couple of times. "I beg your pardon?"

"Remember that National Dessert Competition and how the Cakes and I ended up mixing dishes with all the other competitors to create a Marzipan Mascarpone Donut Eclair Mousse Meringue Madness, or MMDEMMM for short?" Pinkie asked, rattling off words at considerable speed. "Remember when we got first place and I went aaaaaaCHOMP and gobbled it all up in one bite?"

The memory of that event flashed in Celestia’s mind, causing her eyes to twitch. She remembered that she only got one small slice of that marvelous dish before Pinkie Pie gobbled up the whole thing like a pig. She even looked like a pig after the fact, bloated and messy on that silver platter, as if she was presenting herself as an entree. The memory, the thoughts she somehow never had about it until this night, made her drool, before she gave Pinkie a strained smile. "Oh yes, Pinkie Pie, I do remember, and I do hope you enjoyed it."

Pinkie’s smile, by contrast, was somehow genuine even though it was far too large to fit naturally on a mare’s face. "Yessiree Bob, your majesty! Wait, yes-madame-ee. Is that a saying? Yes-madame-ee?" She tilted her head and blinked before standing up straight again. "Oh, well, I thought I was the only pony who could do that, but you’re super special good at it too! We could be food-gobbling friends! Oh wow, this calls for a party!"

Her enthusiasm caused the princess to blink. Her scrumptious student and those delicious friends of hers had told her of Pinkie Pie’s eccentricities time and again, and yet the plucky pony still found ways to surprise her. Pinkie wasn't helping matters by pressing an ear to Celestia's belly and then shouting, "HEY MR. AND MRS. CAKE! CAN I THROW A PARTY WITH THE PRINCESS? I WON’T LET THE OVEN BLOW UP AGAIN!"

Celestia gave Pinkie a nervous chuckle. "As delightful as the idea sounds, I’m afraid I have a tight schedule to keep. You'll simply have to settle for throwing a party inside my beMMMPH!"

As she was talking, Pinkie had taken an extra-bouncy leap into her mouth, ramming her head down the royal throat. The process of swallowing a pony, one of dozens that night, was reflexive this time, done with as much speed as Celestia could manage to get that tickling poofy hair of hers down past her throat. Once the deed was done, when the overly excitable, wriggling, squirming lump in her throat passed down into her stomach and vanished, she coughed loudly to soothe her pipes, thanking herself that she’d already attended to the infants sleeping in their crib. They were safe now. They were all safe.

An owl flew in through the window of Fluttershy's cottage. The caretaker of Ponyville's animal population was buried under the blankets and pillows on her bed, her presence only indicated by the shape she made and the faint whistling sound of her breath. The owl gave her a gentle peck on the shoulder. "Mmm... lower," she mumbled in her sleep. He obliged, pecking her again in the side. "Lower," she repeated, causing him to peck her back. "Um... lower... again... if you don’t mind..."

But the owl took to the air again, yanking the blankets off of her bed as quickly as he could. Fluttershy's reaction was immediate. She bolted up in bed, curling up and covering her barrel with her legs as her face turned red. Her widened eyes with pinprick pupils dated around the room until she saw the owl with her blanket. "Oh, Mr. Owl, you scared me!" she said, relaxing at the sight of one of her charges. "I was having the most wonderful dream! I was with R-"

"Hoo!" The owl hooted, interrupting her recounting.

She tilted her head and looked down at her body. "Oh, thank you for offering, Mr. Owl, but I'm not that hungry," she replied with a smile.

"Hoo!"

"Oh! The mailmare? What about her?" Fluttershy tilted her head and peered at Mr. Owl.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo!"

"The princess?" Fluttershy folded her ears back and bit her lip. "You don’t mean Luna, do you?"

The owl’s head swiveled around.

"Celestia?"

"Hoo!"

Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, Celestia and the mailmare." The blush started to return to her face. "You don’t mean that the two of them are..."

Another head swivel and hoot. This one sounded more forceful than the last few.

"Oh, it has to do with food? Did she empty her fridge?" Fluttershy gulped. It wouldn't be the first time she’d heard of the mailmare doing that.

"Hoo hoo-hoo hoo-hoo!"

A moment's pause came between the two, before Fluttershy gulped. "Oh, d-don’t be silly, Mr. Owl," she said with the awkward tone of a pony who just heard a tasteless joke. "That’s not physically possible!" She felt a bit light-headed at Mr. Owl’s revelation.

Come to think of it, she was light all over. Light enough to be floating over her bed, in fact. Was she supposed to be glowing like this, too? She blinked and looked around as she slowly rose, catching sight of a large shadow speeding toward her open window. It had a long, slender horn which glowed with the same golden aura, casting enough light for Fluttershy to see the aurora of Celestia’s mane whipping in the wind and her open maw, which reminded Fluttershy of a roaring manticore.

Before it had even occurred to her to scream, Fluttershy was halfway down Celestia’s throat. The poor girl had seized up inside of her, causing Celestia to swerve in flight. She dragged her wings, slowly coming to a stop on the edge of the Everfree Forest. The odor of sweat started to cloud the air around her like a fog, causing her to cough. As Celestia concentrated on swallowing Fluttershy, giving the bulge in her throat a gentle massage in hopes of relaxing her and easing her down, she felt her body aching, especially in the wings and jaw. How long had she been at her work? Three hours? Four?

And it had almost been a wasted effort, as well. The princess had devoured the local mailmare and her daughter when she caught sight of the owl hanging in the window, staring at her, seeing a small gray feather dangling from the royal lips. She could see alertness on its face, but more importantly, she remembered which pony that owl had spent much of its time with. It was the same pony who had befriended all of the local wildlife around Ponyville, every animal that lived in closer proximity to the peaceful town than the wild and dangerous Everfree Forest.

The owl only stayed for the barest fraction of a second before it flew off to Fluttershy's cottage, and Celestia had to take off and race to beat it there. It wasn't easy, and she had technically lost the race, thanks to the exhaustion of combing Ponyville for citizens to sequester in the hours before she was scheduled to raise the sun and the fact that, for all the power of her alicorn form, she wasn't nearly as fast as Rainbow Dash or any of the Wonderbolts. She thanked herself that she could sequester Fluttershy, at least, before the pegasus could fly off and warn other ponies that their monarch had gone mad with hunger.

Another pony filled her belly, causing Celestia to let loose a deep, booming belch that almost made her ears pop. It made her giggle to herself, imagining what it might look like if she made that kind of faux pas in the middle of a formal dinner. The satisfaction and humor of seeing look on the faces of Canterlot's nobility was tempting, though she had to balance it with the favors she might not be able to curry from them after that.

Perhaps she’d simply practice it on her sister, after her business in Ponyville was concluded. There weren't many ponies left to spirit away. She took off and flew back into town.

"You gimme back Apple Bloom right now, ya low-down, yellah-bellied, crud-suckin' monster!" Applejack shouted, wailing on Celestia's head with her forehooves. The princess had such an intense headache from that pummeling that she found herself unable to focus on casting even the simplest of spells. Nor could she physically push Applejack away or move aside, since her brother had pinned her to the floor in an inescapable foreleg-lock. Even though she possessed the strength of an earth pony, she lacked the leverage to apply it so long as Big Macintosh kept her in that position. The pair had her completely helpless.

How had she gotten so sloppy? Did she get greedy and overextend herself? Was it the fatigue coming from staying up all night and tiring herself out? She remembered that she made smart moves at the start of her feasting, immediately going for the pony most likely to stop her and immediately rendering her helpless before her appetite. But as the hours passed she found herself making more lapses in judgment. The able-bodied adults on Sweet Apple Acres should have been her first priority as well, but no, she had to devour the trio of fillies sleeping in the barn as noisily as possible. Now how could she possibly escape in time to raise the sun?

Only one solution presented itself to her. She cleared her throat and looked Applejack in the eye. "Applejack, please listen to me."

"Why should I?" Applejack yelled, tears in her eyes. She bucked Celestia in the nose, hard enough to draw blood. "You ate mah sister! I dun' care if yer the princess! Ya can't... just...” She finally gave Celestia's head a break, panting and sobbing on the floor. Big Mac let go of Celestia, allowing the princess to gasp and take a full breath. He went to hold and comfort Applejack, glaring daggers at Celestia on his way over.

"Apple Bloom will live," Celestia said with a cough, "but the only way you can free her and all of your friends is if you follow her inside."

Applejack blinked, gulped. "Mah friends?"

"The two of you are the only ponies in town I haven't... swallowed yet," Celestia said. "I know I'm asking you to be dinner, but please, trust me. You can do more good inside me than outside. Please."

The two apple farmers looked into Celestia's eyes, silent for a moment. Applejack recognized the tone of her voice. She'd used it on Twilight years ago, on the day they first met, when Twilight dangled off the edge of the cliff. Was Celestia implying that there would be pegasi to catch her, too? But this wasn't the matter of just letting go and falling; the princess was asking her to take the place of her famous apple fritters, or her apple pie, or—

She didn't notice that Big Macintosh had already taken the princess up on her offer until Celestia slipped her lips past his neck. The part of her that was horrified and betrayed that the princess needed to eat even more of her family felt distant, overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of what she saw. This wasn't like witnessing a silhouette swallow fillies in one gulp, like a fairy tale wolf. Celestia's horn glowed with enough light so that Applejack could see the contours of her brother's body, and Celestia's neck as fit around him like a sock. She shivered, unable to avert her eyes. The more Big Mac pushed himself down Celestia's throat, the less equine she looked, distorting the shape of her body into something Applejack couldn't describe. She saw the princess’s lips close around his hooves, and it dawned on her that he too, might be gone forever.

Celestia looked into the eyes of Ponyville's last remaining citizen, who tensed her body, quivering with frustration. "Fine," Applejack finally said, walking away to put her stetson on the mantle. "Jus' get it done with. I ain't food ta be played with 'r anythin' like that."

Applejack closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, preparing for Celestia's mouth engulfing her. But just like she asked, Celestia hurried through the process, pulling her deep into her throat with jerking gulps and constricting her with tight muscles. The surrealism of the situation was so much that Applejack kept imagining herself wrapped in dough, sprinkled in cinnamon like the dish the princess treated her as. Rainbow Dash once told her that she actually tasted like apples once, though she was probably kidding. Did Celestia taste apples, too?

She went down fast, vanishing into Celestia's stomach. Celestia took the time to rest on the bed in the room, looking down at her stomach, still slender and shapely, with no indication that the population of Ponyville was tucked inside. Now that the Bearers of Harmony were there, she was confident that they would be protected inside. It was better than what awaited them outside her body. Of that she could be certain.

Her task was all but over. All she needed to do was find and don her gorget, pick up Twilight's book, and take it home in time to raise the sun. She took off, departing the ghost town of Ponyville.