In Sun's Light

Sunday

Gavin awoke to the sound of the door opening. Sunshine must have heard it too, she woke up with a tired "Huh?" Gavin walked over to the door, holding Sunshine, expecting to see Eric leaving, until he saw Eric behind him in the reflection of his door. Gavin's mom walked in.

"Gavin, I'm- Oh! You were just waiting here for me, huh?" Sunshine, who had not had time to fully wake up, was less motionless than she should have been. "What is that?" Sunshine realized her mistake too late, and froze.

"Umm... Don't freak out, mom, but-"

"You bought a pony? And what have you done to the poor little thing? Dyed it's mane pink and taped horns and wings to it? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Mom-"

"Don't 'Mom' me. We're taking this filly to the nearest shelter and then we're having a talk about animal abuse."

She scooped the filly out of Gavin's arms, and she started to struggle. Finally, she couldn't take it. "No! I'm staying with Gavin." Surprised, Gavin's mom loosened her grip enough for Sunshine to indignantly jump back into Gavin's arms and curl up.

"She just... She..."

"Yeah. Mom, meet Sunshine. Sunshine, this is my mom, Meredith."

"Nice to meet you, Meredith."

"She speaks. A pony that speaks. You speak! Hi Sunshine!"

Meredith took to Sunshine fast. Before long the two were laughing and sharing jokes like they had been friends for years. Gavin was glad, because it meant Sunshine was warming up to people and that his mom wasn't freaked out by an otherworldly talking pony living in his bedroom. She was generally one to jump to conclusions easily, so it was good that she liked Sunshine.

His chain of thought was broken by a shadow passing quickly over the window. Sunshine saw it too. They both went to the window and looked out, seeing nothing.

* * *

Graphite would have called the creature a cave crawler. It was about the size of a German shepherd, with three pairs of independently moving eyes. It's prehensile tail and long front arms were great for climbing. It yawned, it's long interlocking teeth bared as it threw back it's head. When it looked around again, it caught sight of a white and pink pony. It was enchanted to kill this target, as were the other twelve members of it's pack.

They would wait until dark, when thier vision was best. Then, this filly was thiers.

* * *

A large bump awakened Gavin from sleep. It sounded like something had hit his window, but he couldn't see a thing when he looked. Just shapes moving in the forest. Probably coyotes. He thought, before settling down again. He was nearing sleep when he heard something else. It sounded far more sinister. He looked out, and once again saw nothing. There was a deep scratch in his window.

"Gavin?... You're getting up a lot. What is it?"

"Nothing, Sunshine. Just heard something." He turned to face her. Her tired look turned to a tired smile, and then into a stare of horror. "What is it?" He turned back into the window just as six glowing white orbs, bioluminescent pupilless eyes, blinked out of existence. Something was terribly wrong. He grabbed Sunshine and went to the only place he knew with any kind of weapon. The kitchen.

* * *

The crawler ever so slowly, quietly, dug it's claw into the window seal before denting the metal, allowing it to pull the window out without too much noise. It did so, quietly setting it down in the grass with almost gentle grace before crawling into the house with a quiet hiss. Others followed. Thier eyes were well adjusted to the darkness of this structure, and the walls and cieling were easy for thier Gecko-like appendages to cling to. Thier claws slightly scratched the drywall as they moved.

* * *

Gavin heard a scratch. Something was coming. He couldn't see in the dark, so he grabbed a knife and flicked the light on, and was greeted by a dog sized creature blinking it's six eyes, interlocking fangs showing as it opened and closed it's mouth. The light had stunned it. It looked like a lizard straight out of hell. Considering the last few days, he wouldn't be surprised if it was. More were behind it, a lot more, and they too were adjusting to the light. Gavin commanded his limbs to move, but he was frozen by the sight of these creatures.

So he wasn't surprised when one lunged. Not at him, but at the white pony in his arms who was desperately making herself as small as possible against his body. He just barely dodged the attack, and knew he wouldn't be so lucky next time, and watched the creature slam into the fridge. Not fazed, it got up and lunged again, fiercely slashing at Sunshine. Gavin blocked it, and it started to attack him instead. It was lighter than he expected. He pushed it off, got up, and rammed it into the wall behind it. It coughed, but kept attacking, forcing him back to the ground with greater strength than he realized it posessed.

With a quiet hiss, it leapt on him again, and this time he used the only thing he could think of. He drove the knife home, into the creature's chest.

It shreiked in pain. The sound was earsplitting to Gavin. He heard Sunshine scream. She must have been more sensitive to high pitched noises. He tried to cover her ears as the thing died, but he had to use his free hand when suddenly he was being attacked by numerous monsters. They were all clawing, biting, and hissing, and it was getting harder and harder to evade thier attacks. One raked his chest, and it was his turn to scream in pain as the claws ran across his rib cage, doing no permanent damage but hurting. The creatures wrenched his arm wide and took Sunshine.

"No! No!" He yelled, struggling and watching in horror as the things started to play with her, gently batting her around, careful not to hurt her. Gavin's vision was flashing red as he crawled towards them, still holding his knife. Finally, one pinned her down with one clawed hand and started to cut into her chest with the other. It was going to start by eating her heart. Gavin's breath was on fire. He watched helplessly as it cut with one clawed finger, with surgical precision, into Sunshine's skin. She whimpered in pain, tears forming in her eyes as she feebly struggled, and it's mouth opened in a hiss of pleasure at her expense.

Right as its brain got blown out of its head by a 9 millimeter round. The others looked in the direction of the shot, as did Gavin, and saw Meredith, holding a pistol in one hand and a mystery novel in the other, reading glasses still on. One hissed, and she quickly shot it too, and then two more as they ran out, one in the leg and one twice in the chest. The one with the wounded leg limped out later than the others, and its pack mates instinctively eliminated it's weakness by tearing it apart.

"Gavin! Are you alright?!"

"Mom!..."

"Yes, I know." She switched the safety on and put the gun on the table before looking at Gavin's wound. "It'll be okay. It's not too bad." She helped him up and they cleaned the wound, put gauze over it and bandaged it. "Those were some thin claws."

"Sunshine."

"Right." She ran over and picked the filly up. The wound was the same basic form as Gavin's, but much more precise, so she could only think to do the same thing to Sunshine that she did to Gavin. "How am I going to explain this one?" She looked out the window that the creatures had come in through, and they were staring from the yard. She grabbed her gun and pointed it. "Go on! Get out of here!"

And they did. She counted eight. They were smart if they could recognize the gun. She pocketed it and took the dead creatures to the woods, one by one. The living ones watched her the whole time, silent, not coming close. They had the creepy ability to make thier eyes glow, flickering like fireflies. They could just turn it on and off whenever. Finally, she was done. She fixed the window as best as she could, and went inside. Gavin was asleep, holding Sunshine. So she went back to sleep too.