Not a word was spoken as the Hunters trekked through the foul waters of the monsters' lair. The only sounds, the sloshing of their hooves through the muck and the distant echo of a great thundering drum. The only smell, the foul odor of the sewage they were wading through.
"I knew I should have stayed home today," one not-so-brave Hunter muttered, shivering as his hoof brushed against something in the muck. A quick shine of his headlamp revealed it to be nothing more than a bit of corn.
The breezie shook his head, looking about while trying to keep the light aimed low. Several of them had already blinded each other in the tight corridors while trying to make eye contact. They'd learned a bit better but only three of them had done this sort of thing before.
"When you lot decide to stop playing, let me know. We're getting close."
Yarn Holder resisted the temptation to roll his eyes at the gritty voice of Wasp, one of the hunt leads. While most of the Bigs would find the idea of slaying a dragonfly by ones self laughable, for a breezie it was a big deal. A single dragonfly could easily kill a group of the tiny creatures, with their crushing jaws and lightning-fast speed. So when a dragonfly slayer tells them something, breezies listens.
"How do you know?" another asked.
The hunter pointed to the muck, a small sliver of red shining in his light. Blood was in the water, a slight trickle winding its way from further ahead.
"It's close, and it's feeding."
The group continued on, weapons held tightly against the bodies of the new hunters while the veterans began to exhibit a strange calmness. They knew the battle ahead after all. They knew what to expect.
A little farther and one of the veterans cursed. His light shined on something in the muck and Yarn nearly dropped his magi-bolt caster. The bone-white, segmented form of the monster. Yarn shined his light, following the tail up the tunnel for as long as he could from his position, but the tail just kept going until finally disappearing around a corner.
"H-how big is this thing?" he whispered to Wasp
"Bigger than sixteen breezies standing nose-to-tail. That's a small one too, these things get huge. Do you think we'd need so many if they were easy to fight?"
"Listen up, do not touch it! They're blind and can't hear, but they react to touch. The moment you touch them, all tartarus will break loose. We need to reach the head undetected or we'll be in for a nasty fight. Or hunt. Some of them are smart enough to try to hide from us. Others will immediately start to scatter their form, turning a hunt into a weeklong clean-up detail."
The group carefully stepped around the tail, following the skeletal form for nearly five minutes before they reached the head. What Yarn saw at the end of their journey was the most terrifying thing he'd seen in his life.
The head was attached to the wall, blood dripping from where its mouth was, several suckers holding it in place as it slept. Was it asleep? Did these monsters sleep? Yarn wasn't certain, but he likely wasn't going to be sleeping for a while after this.
Wasp trudged up behind the monster, aiming his caster carefully right where one of the head-suckers were and fired...
...and the thing went ballistic.
It screeched, it's maw letting go of the walls even as blood flowed from the hole in its head. Its body flailed, churning the putrid waters as it coiled yards of itself into the space they occupied in an attempt to protect itself, either by cutting off access to its head or crushing the Hunters. A volley of bolts were fired, most striking the walls uselessly as the Hunters fell to disarray. A few more did strike the head though, cratering sections and even exposing the creatures brain. It lashed out with its maw in desperation, snagging a hapless breezie even as it died. Yarn gagged as the creature latched onto the breezie, quickly draining it of all blood and fluids and causing it to shrivel like a raisin.
The attack did nothing to save the beast though. Fluids, both its own and those stolen from the hunter, spilled out into the muck around them as the beast finally slowed. A bolt struck it's flailing head, then another, and a third. With a final hiss, the creature collapsed into the slime, dead at last.
Wasp wasted no time, slamming an array on its corpse that would stop it from falling apart. It would be the worse outcome after this battle, having to hunt down hundreds more of the demons that would spawn from the segments.
"T-that's it. Congratulations on your first hunt. Those of you, who wish may leave. As for the rest, we have to completely clear this place. Last scan placed two more of these things in the area. Next time, I want several bolts going into the head from the start, not just mine."
Yarn just nodded mutely. It was the most terrifying experience he'd ever lived through, and while he may do this again in the future if needed, for now he needed a shower. And a strong drink. Taking a coil of spider-silk rope, he tied it to the beast and began his trek back to the outside, his small group bringing the corpse with them.
<-(0)->
Celestia sighed in irritation as she watched the breezies going about their business.
"I warned you about this, Luna. I told you things had changed over the years and simple spells don't work anymore."
A few breezies stepped out of her sister's currently clamped open anus, dragging with them a tapeworm the length of a small garden snake. One was carrying a comrade, or what appeared to be the shriveled remains of one. Another dead Hunter. Wonderful. Wait, no marker, so it was a prospective hunter. Not as bad, but the solar alicorn would still never hear the end of that.
"H-how was I to know they'd become resistant to magic in the last, ugh, millennia."
"Maybe the pamphlet I gave you before you left? Maybe the warnings that were over the vacation brochure? Or perhaps the fact that I told you not to eat anything that wasn't cooked properly while overseas? Really Luna, this is not the first time you've ignored me for such a thing nor is it the first time it's come back to bite you. I cannot even say it is the first time it did so literally; remember your trip to Gallopolly?"
The dark alicorn shivered in remembered agony.
"Oh stars, the itching, the biting..."
"Magically resistant fleas. I told you about them seven times before you left and you ignored my warnings. Well this time you get to help the breezies with their latest troubles. Have fun killing the spiders near their homes, I heard there are hundreds of them by now. And remember, no pesticides. Some of those chemicals are toxic to breezies."
Luna shivered once more, her body attempting to clench shut as more tiny hooves marched into her bowels. It was so gross. Why in the world did such monstrosities exist anyway?
Author's Note
I'd apologize, but I don't want to. I have no idea why but this idea came to me a few days ago and I realized it would be excellent for the holiday.