Prey

The streets outside the walls weren’t the place you would want to go unarmed. I think then I understood why Loverboy filled his sack with so much ammo. Although I also bet he didn’t plan on carrying any more supplies. Black Widow had taken out a machete from her saddlebags. This puzzled me, since I thought she’d bring something more brutal or pain-causing.

We passed a lot of sad sights before we got to the pharmacy. Sights of massacres, failed missions, elementary schools filled with cocoons and half-eaten skeletons, blood stains on the streets where an ooze got its fill, and lastly, my home. I don’t like to talk about my home.

The pharmacy seemed relatively untouched, the windows were only cracked, not smashed. This was a bittersweet thought to me, since it meant we probably wouldn’t go back empty hoofed, but it also meant that the possibility of other survivor colonies outside of Ponyville was nil.

“Alright. This is the place. Let’s get this done quick, in case Preds come to us. Don’t grab anything except what we need.” I commanded.

“Alright. I’ll take point.” Black Widow said, using her magic to retrieve a plastic bag from her backpack and shake it out.

We entered the building silently, the only sound was our quietest breaths and our hoofsteps on the floor. The counters seemed to hold what we needed, so we got to work. We split up into three different aisles. I started picking up some painkillers, Loverboy was checking through vitamins, while Black Widow started stuffing antibiotics into her bags. Loverboy and I would take frequent trips to Black Widow, depositing different-colored bottles into her bag. After about fifteen minutes, we heard an odd sound, like hairs scraping against a surface.

Loverboy’s ear twitched. He placed a bottle he was carrying back down onto the counter, and took his loaded rifle out of its holster.

“Don’t go loud unless you have to.” I whispered.

He nodded, and headed towards the source of the noise, from the shadow-blanketed back of the store. His hoofsteps were slow and paced, and he stopped before he reached the counter. We all heard the sound again. He chambered a round, and a scuttling was heard, close by. Loverboy aimed into the area behind the counter, but it was too dark to see anything.

Too dark to see that the X4 spider that was out of his field of vision.

The spider emitted a loud screech, and lept. Loverboy screamed and fired a shot, but missed and broke a window. The spider sunk its teeth into his foreleg and Loverboy screamed in terror and pain, trying to hit the spider with the barrel of his rifle.

Suddenly, four grey objects flew by, one of them hitting the spider and sticking it to the counter, off of Loverboy. I knew Black Widow must have brought her throwing knives. The spider hissed a little more, lowering in volume until it curled up and died. Black Widow retrieved her throwing knives and grabbed Loverboy, who was now screaming wildly as he panicked.

“Shut up! You want that thing’s mom to find out we’re here!?” Black Widow whispered sharply as she tried to drag him to the entrance of the store as he hyperventilated.

I took up the bag of medicine that she had dropped and pushed the entrance door open. A lot of scuttling came from further inside the building, making me take out my pistol and firing into the blackness, only hitting two things. As they crawled out, I heard something odd; something that shouldn’t have been there. Hoofsteps, coming from the pharmacy. If a pony was in there, it would no doubt be eaten by spiders, wouldn’t it? Then a pair of large green eyes made itself visible, slowly trotting into the light.

It was a pony, but it was covered with a jet black outer casing instead of a coat of fur, and its mane was purple, but in thin, messy strands. It seemed to be about the size of a foal, despite odd spider-legs coming out of its sides seeming to make it bigger. Four hooves dragged it forward, and it suddenly spoke, only adding to my surprise.

“Leave them. You’ve done enough for now, my little ones.”

The spiders stopped, one that had jumped even shot a strand of silk back to prevent itself from colliding with me, and they all retreated into the back of the store with the spider-pony.

I was left dazed. Why didn’t I fire? Why didn’t I try to talk to it? Why didn’-

“Move your ass, Iron! We have an injured pony here!” Black Widow snapped me out of my pondering. I went to help up Loverboy, and we galloped back to the barricades.

“Open the doors! Open the doors now!” I yelled. Octavia, who was at the top of the barriers, nodded and commanded two of her soldiers to open them. We rushed in with an injured Loverboy, much to the shock of the crowd of onlookers.

“What happened?” Octavia asked, examining Loverboy, who was now sweating and barely breathing.

“We got attacked by spiders, and something I’ve never seen before, ma’m…” I said whilst Black Widow and a few medics took Loverboy to an infirmary.

Octavia almost said something, but then decided to keep quiet.

“Follow me. We need to talk, but we cannot risk frightening the others anymore.” She whispered to me while the guards shut the gate. I followed behind her, and before long we got to her home, which was a red and white patchwork tent.

“Alright, now tell me what happened.” She offered me a chair to sit on, and I told her everything, making sure to mention every detail I could think of about the spider-pony. Despite her normal resolve, when I talked about the hybrid, I think I saw her shake lightly.