The Pit

There was a light in Bright's eyes, causing him discomfort. He was trying to sleep, but the pain he felt had made it difficult. Now not only that was hindering his efforts, but now this stupid little light was bothering him. He shifted over to his other side so the light was no longer shining right in his face, but found that it was still there.

"Welcome, fillies and colts, to the featured fight of the day!"

Bright knew that voice. Bright hated that voice. But what was that stupid, annoying, hateful voice doing in his cell?

"Yes, the time's finally arrived! Slasher's finally going up against a match that might be too much even for him!"

Bright sat up to see walls surrounding him and colored ribbon falling all around him.

"You wanted it, and you got it!" the announcer continued.

Bright got to his hooves and looked around him. How had he gotten into the arena? Why was he in the arena? But more importantly, where was his gear?

"Today, Slasher's going up against a true killer! A true murderer! A true stallion! It's our very own veteran guardspony, Gore!"

Bright paled when he heard that name. Gore... He was going up against a pony who could rip an iron gate right off of its hinges. But what was worse was that the last time that Gore had been with him he had wanted nothing more than to mutilate Bright.

"Now, let me be the first to welcome our challenger to the arena. Welcome, Gore the guardspony!"

Bright looked to the other side of the arena and saw a fully armored, fully armed, and very angry looking stallion that was as big as an apple cart. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but it almost looked as if Gore was foaming at the lips slightly.

"Well, without further ado... It's time for some murder!"

Gore took off faster than Bright could have imagined a pony that size could move. As he ran, he drew a short spear from a strap across his back and leveled it with Bright's head.

"22737!" a voice called from the crowd.

Bright looked up and saw the suited stallion waving a sword at him.

"Use this!" he yelled down to him, and threw the sword in to the arena.

"Hey, hey, hey, you big dummy! No cheating!"

The sword landed right at Bright's hooves, and he picked it up and took a defensive stance, waiting for Gore to get closer. Gore came at him like a train, hooves pounding on the ground like thunder, breath coming like the growls of a bear. He was only feet away from Bright when he swung the spear so hard that Bright could barely dodge it. Unfortunately for Bright, Gore was fast, and he spun on a hoof and jabbed Bright in the side with the butt of his spear hard enough for Bright to get launched halfway across the arena.

"Ooh, that had to hurt. Well, that's what you get for making me dateless in that last match, you mare killing bastard!"

Bright couldn't breathe. He tried, but he lungs wouldn't respond to his efforts. He could see Gore coming closer, so instead of trying to breathe, he just got shakily to his hooves and started circling around to the side of the huge guard, but a lack of oxygen made this difficult to do.

Gore suddenly charged Bright again, making him jump to the side. But Gore was still faster than him, and scored a small hit with the tip of his spear in Bright's shoulder before he could get away.

As Bright stumbled away from the giant of a pony, he could feel slight wisps of air entering his lungs. He took a deep breath and cringed at the pain it caused him, but even the pain was a welcome change to the complete suffocation he had just been feeling. Bright took another deep breath and steadied himself for another attack coming from Gore.

Just like Bright had expected, Gore charged forward and swung his spear hard enough to knock his head off, but this time Bright used his wings and flitted upwards and took a swing at Gore's head. It hit him, but just barely.

Gore swung upwards faster than Bright thought was physically possible and hooked Bright's wing with the curved prong on the back of the spearhead and pulled him back down to the ground.

Bright yelled in pain as the cruel, curved metal tore though his skin and tendons and went straight though to the bone. He was slammed on the ground of the arena and Gore stood over him menacingly, staring down at him with eyes like that of a shark. Cold, cruel, hate-filled... and seemingly soulless. Bright was scared. Genuinely and truly scared for his life. He took a blind swing at the guard's head... and he felt his sword stick. Bright looked to where his blade was, and saw that it was buried deep inside of Gore's neck.

The stallion gave a deep, threatening growl and pulled the sword out of his neck with a hoof, causing blood to pour out and cover the ground in a deep crimson. Gore raised the spear high, and stabbed down hard at Bright's head.

Bright saw this coming, and rolled to the side. Once the spear was buried deep in the ground, he kicked it as hard as he could and caused it to fly out of Gore's mouth. He leveled his back hooves at Gore's head before the huge stallion could react and bucked him in the head. When his hooves connected, it felt as if he had just bucked a block of lead.

Gore grabbed one of his hooves with his mouth and threw him away from him. But the way that he had thrown him, caused Bright to land next to the spear laying in the dust.

Bright took the spear in both hooves and stood on his hind legs, holding the spear in a threatening way. But because of his injured shoulder, he could barely hold the spear like this, let alone fight with it.

"It looks like Slasher's got a new weapon, folks. Does this mean that he has a chance to win this fight? Eh, I doubt it."

Gore started walking slowly towards Bright, looking like he wanted to do horrible things to the smaller pony.

"Stay back!" Bright shouted at him.

Gore continued walking forward.

Bright took a step back. "I said stay back, you big bastard!" Bright looked behind him to see that he was dangerously close to the wall of the arena.

Gore charged the second Bright looked behind him and plowed into him.

Bright yelled out in surprise, and swung the spear as best he could. He swung wide, completely missing Gore.

Once Bright hit the ground, Gore lifted off of his front hooves and then crashed down onto Bright's chest with his full weight. There was a hideous crunching-snapping noise.

Bright's vision started to get black around the edges.

Gore lifted off again, then started to come down.

Bright lifted the spear.

Gore came down.

Through the entire arena, there was a loud squelching noise as the spear went through Gore's head, pinning him upright with his hooves dangling down towards Bright. The shaft of the spear bent under the weight of the huge stallion, but it was strong enough to hold him up.

Bright coughed, blood coming out of his mouth and landing on his crushed chest. Bright stared up at the body of the guardspony that had wanted nothing more than to kill him.

Gore's leg twitched, causing a few drops a blood to land on Bright's face.

Bright lifted a leg to wipe away the blood, but a huge grey hoof grabbed his and nearly tore it off. Bright reeled at the unexpected assault on him. He looked up in a mixture of shock, terror, and unbelief to see Gore, still alive, and forcing the shaft of the spear through his head to get closer to Bright. He was almost within reach, and he would kill Bright when he got to him.

Bright started to move, but a loud snapping sound stopped him. He saw the spear break in half from the stress that the weight of Gore had put on it. And as Gore fell too quickly to stop himself, he landed on the broken bottom half of the spear. It tore into his stomach and pushed up inside of his rib cage, scrambling anything inside of his body that got in its way. When Gore's body hit the ground, Bright could see the tip of the broken shaft pushing the skin out at the base of his neck. Bright looked in disgust and horror at the mangled corpse of the guard; blood mixing with dirt and dust on the cold ground. But even in death, his eyes were still just the same. Just as cruel. Just as hate-filled. Just as soulless.

"Well... I guess we have our winner..."

There was no cheering. No horns... No drums. Just like before, only the wind blowing through the arena.

A door opened in the wall and Bright saw the suited stallion standing there, waiting for him.

Bright walked over to the pony standing there and looked at him. "Am I done yet?"

He looked at Bright with a hard expression. "What do you think, 22737?"

Bright looked at the ground, and a single tear fell from his eye. "I can't do this ant more. I just can't," he said softly as he walked into the room ahead of him.

The door leading to the arena closed behind him.

"Don't worry, after tomorrow, you'll be done."

Bright stopped. "What?"

"That's right," the suited pony said. "After tomorrow, you're done. No more Pit, no more fights, no more killing."

Bright turned to face the stallion. "So, I can leave? If I live, I can go back home?"

The stallion nodded. "Yes. I've arranged for you to be taken home if you survive tomorrow."

For the first time since he got here, Bright smiled. He could go home! He could see his family again! The smile died on his lips. But to see his family again, he had to take someone way from their family.

"Are you all right, 22737?" the suited pony asked him.

A grim look came across Bright's face. "I'm fine. And I'll do anything to be able to see my family again. No matter what."

The stallion just looked at him for a long time. Bright started getting a strange feeling from the unblinking stare that the pony was leveling him with.

Bright cleared his throat after a time. "So, I'll be needing to get some rest then."

The stallion continued to stare for a short time, then he simply walked over to a door on the other side of the room, and disappeared through it.

Bright sighed. As much as Gore scared him, he knew that that stallion wearing that black suit was immensely more dangerous. After all, Gore practically ran away screaming from him when Gore first tried to kill Bright.

There was a bed in the room, Bright saw. He wasn't lying when he said that he would need his rest. So he went over to the large bed and laid down. Bright could tell that this must have been where Gore had slept when he was still alive. There were bodies stuffed and mounted on the walls, heads nailed to plaques, even random body parts hung around like grotesque party decorations. But over in the corner of the room, Bright saw something that he would never have expected to be in Gore's room. In a corner completely devoid any blood or body parts, was a rack holding a black two-piece suit with a shallow fedora perched on top. Bright would have thought about why Gore would need a fancy-looking suit as a guard here some more, but he was claimed by sleep before he could get very far into that thought.