Maxilla smiled.  Rune had been incredibly receptive to his hypnotherapy, and only three sessions in Maxilla had rendered him deep and obedient enough to begin the submission therapy regimen.

	"You're doing excellent, Rune," Maxilla said as his belly, full of souls, glowed and gurgled brightly under the entranced Rune's touch.  Who says that an appointment can't be pleasurable for the therapist as well.  "No stresses, no worries, no fears...just complete and utter mental peace under my spell..."

	His belly suddenly rumbled, and with an explosive belch Maxilla spit up a single bone.  Rune Chisel seemed too entranced to even notice the morbid little event, completely obsessed with obeying Maxilla's command to rub and ponder his cutie mark-filled belly.

	"Oops, I guess there was a little bit unprocessed that your rubbing dislodged.  Probably Applejack, earth pony bones are unusually hardy.  She's actually my proudest conquest.  A true hero, charmed into becoming one with me forever.  Tell me, Rune, how do you feel in your worship of my voracious power?"

	Rune’s hooves were steadily busy working over Maxilla’s glowing belly. Even getting asked a question by his master didn’t make him slow down his efforts at all. The colorful swirls of Maxilla’s therapy traveled through his eyes. His voice was slow, almost not here at all. “It’s beautiful… Even such a hero could do nothing. To keep her out of her destined place. Another proof even the greatest of all ponies is nothing but food for even the most common of all changelings.”

	Rune pressed his face into the belly listening to the noisy sounds of digestion within. “And against one as splendid and handsome as you. She especially had no change. Should even have tried resiting in the first place. Just one session of your therapy and look how much she has improved!” Runes hooves pressed even harder into that churning belly. ”Thank you for teaching me all this, master. This is were we all belong.”

	Maxilla giggled.  He always did love the little power high once a patient was deep in submission therapy.

	"My, such adoration," Maxilla said with a coo.  "You know, I can tell that you're speaking from the heart.  Usually, patients who get this far tell me that they feel like they should be afraid, but they're not.  A little suggestion to make them not reveal my appetite, though I feel it is a bit of an open secret that us changelings devour ponies as we please.  You, however..."

	Maxilla's tongue, wispy tongue snaked out of his maw, curling and caressing Rune's cheek and ear.

	"Desire this truly...and who am I deny deny you?  Because you've been such a good patient, I'm going give you a free upgrade to your treatment...digestion therapy~"

	Maxilla's tongue wrapped around Rune's neck, squeezing tightly and firmly pulling the handsome stallion's face into his gaping, glowing maw.“I-i am not desiring this truly. I am pretty sure deep down I am afraid and what to run away.” Rune stammered, in truth not entirely sure this was the case. Whatever part would have been capable of doing so were well smothered by Maxilla’s mental magic. They had no effect on Rune’s active mind.

	“You just helped me to understand that my opinion this doesnt matter at all. In fact, it is wrong for a pony to even assume it does! If a changeling wants me, he deserves to have me, any pony really. And they should be happy they got to satisfy a changeling and thankful he choose them to do so.” The powerful glowing throat of Maxilla easily took golf of Rune and begann gulping him down. Even if Rune would have resisted he would likely have had no chance. Even more so now that he is accessing and stroking Maxilla’s throat on his way doing, as well as he could in this situation.

	“Also thank you for making this a free upgrade! Would have been a while to earn all the funds to afford this. This is a great and incredibly generous gift from you, master.”

	Rune was fearful?  Maxilla tried to avoid truly unwilling prey, but the instant Rune's face slipped into his throat, he knew that he was in too deep to let Rune go now.  Best to just finish him off.  In the state he was in now, he'd love it, anyway.

	With a mouth full of stallion, Maxilla gulped hard, sucking Rune into his tight, squishy throat.  By now, Rune would be surrounded by enthralling bioluminescence, deepening his trance.  Powerful muscles squeezed into him with almost bone-crushing force as Maxilla used both his hooves and his magic to guide his patient...no, his lunch...into his greedy gullet.  Gulp after gulp claimed Rune's body relentlessly, and Maxilla lost himself to the sheer pleasure of devouring a delicious prey.  Rune was sweet and spicy, no doubt due to his work with magical tools, and Maxilla ravenously devoured him.  With a final slurp of his tail, Rune's fate was sealed as he fell into Maxilla's already engorged stomach.

	"Ah, you were delicious, Rune.  I would have loved to taste you every single day.  Almost makes me regret swallowing you all the way.  Almost~" Maxilla said, hugging his own belly and the form of Rune within.  "Now, struggle as you digest.  Feel what it's like to be totally helpless as you are claimed completely.  Melt into bliss~"

	The stallion was in no state to even think about disobeying one of his master’s orders. Imeadetly he started squirming, pressing his hooves into the deceptively soft walls of the changeling’s stomach. Despite the slight yield they had, they were completely unmoving below that. He could do nothing to truly move them, in fact, they started moving on their own and begann kneading his body. Rune hardly could formulate word right now, but there was little need, conquered like this, Maxilla had a free view into Rune’s thoughts.

	Rune kept up his struggle, Master asked for it and so it had to please him. And pleasing Maxilla was the highest duty in Rune's life! There was nothing that brought the pony greater delight than fulfilling that. Even the immense pleasant digestions were just a bit below that, if just barely. Though, as his flesh softened, it only kept increasing! Yet Rune was determined to try to keep the former pleasure of obedience higher in his mind than the pure selfish feeling of bliss. It might be a losing battle, but he had to try. All to serve his master.

	Would his master even remember him at all once all this is over? Rune wasn’t sure, once the bug had his pleasure and nutrients, there technically was no point in doing so. Those two things were the only thing of value Rune could provide, everything else that didn’t serve directly to his master's benefit was by definition worthless. The best he could probably hope for was his master claiming a neat trophy, pleasant looking or comfy enough that Rune could even forgotten please his master just a bit more.

	Maxilla cuddled his own belly, feeling Rune get softer and softer, while his cutie mark became more and more clear on his belly.  Even as his body liquefied, Maxilla's greedy flesh couldn't wait to draw Rune's soul into it.  To seal it away, forever...a part of Maxilla's powerful, perfect body...

	Soon, Maxilla's stomach was completely soft and rough, and a quick pat made him see nothing but a shadowy vat of pony soup, with a few bones silhouetted against the light of all those souls.  How many did Maxilla have inside of him now?  100?  200?  He had lost count, but he was sure that he hadn't cracked 1000 just yet.  Either way, Rune was another one added to his count, and Maxilla watched with glee as his cutie mark floated and bounced around, no doubt interacting with some of the other souls that Maxilla had drawn out from deep within his body.  It was a long and arduous process, but for such a good patient, Maxilla would spare no expense for a positive experience.

	"Dr. Maxilla, your 2PM appointment has arrived," barked the intercom, his secretary's blank, monotone voice perking up his ears.

	"2PM?  Already?  I must have been enjoying myself more than I thought," Maxilla said.  He gazed down as his belly with a look of concern.  He couldn't present himself to a patient like this, and it would take almost half an hour for him to seal away the souls he had swimming in his belly.

	Maxilla shrugged.  He could make the patient wait...or he could simply digest these souls and not have to worry about it.  The choice was clear, and his belly began to gurgle once more as its inner light brightened to a burning intensity.  He could feel the souls being consumed by pleasure, the cutie marks being disintegrated bit by bit.  Maxilla didn't care what they were feeling, though; the fact that soul digestion was the most intensely pleasurable thing one could experience was simply a happy accident.  If it was mind-numbing suffering, he'd have done it all the same.  They'd be gone forever, and why should he care about something that no longer existed?  Their entire beings, decades of life and a few more months of afterlife, ended in less than a minute.

	Maxilla patted his belly as the light within faded, and nothing remained except his usual flexible purple exoskeleton.  Without a second thought, he got up, trotting out to the lobby where a stone-gray mare with a straight purple mane with matching eyeshadow was sitting.

	"Ah, Ms. Pie, good to see you again.  Sorry for the delay, I had to finish off a few things first.  Please, step into my office so we can begin your next session."