Hollow Hope

"...ngh..."

Sunny sat up, clutching his head, groaning as the flickering light of the lamp stung his eyes. "What in Taurtaros...?"

"I'll tell you what," Glider purred, as she rose next to him. She wrapped a wing around his shoulders, and nuzzled his cheek. "Four times."

"Four...shots?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'shots'," she said with a wink. "C'mon, stud. Let's make it five."

"wha--No! I didn't--look, I was drunk, I was--"

"You were fucking hot is what you were."

"Oh my Princesses, you're still drunk."

"Nah, just horny. I'm ovulating, y'see."

"You're what!?"

Glider rolled her eyes. "It means you knocked me up, dumbass. Now are you gonna go for another round or what?"

"No! This isn't what I wanted at all!"

"Bullshit," Glider spat, her lazy grin twisting into an awful scowl. "It's exactly what you wanted. I can see it in your eyes. You think you can't have me--you think you're stuck with that prissy little bitch Petunia--so you chased what you couldn't have. Then you finally figured out--there's no such thing as a thing you can't have. You can just take whatever you want!" She smiled, then, baring her teeth. "And now you have me. And I want triplets."

"But, Petunia--"

"But Petunia! But Petunia!" She rolled her eyes. "If you gave a shit about Petunia, you woulda been calling her name instead of mine. Petunia can go to Taurtaros for all I care. And if you aren't gonna fuck me again, then so can you."

"F-fine!" Sunny yelped. "Get out, then! I--I don't even want to see your face anymore!"

"What a fucking hypocrite." Glider turned to leave, and flicked her tail across Sunny's face--hard enough that it stung. "At least I know what I want. You won't admit it. You don't even know what's good for you. Pathetic."

Sunny buried his head in his hooves as she walked out--though he couldn't help but stare at her ass, while memories of last night flickered through his head...

"Stupid. Stupid! Sunny, you absolute buffoon!" Sunny pounded his hooves on the wall, cursing his wretched decisions. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he had gone on like this for an hour already.

"How could you just let it happen!?" he asked himself; he had no reply to give, so he asked another question. "Why did you think it was a good idea to drink half the bottle!?" Still, no answers came to him. He slumped into his chair, and glanced at the photo of Petunia that he had set beside the bottle. He hadn't even noticed it during the previous night's antics. He hadn't even bothered to flip it over, to pretend he wasn't a married stallion. Then again, if he had actually flipped it down, wouldn't that be worse? Would it not be even more terrible to acknowledge how wrong he is, to try and sweep it under the rug--to be unable to look his wife in the eye, because he slept with another mare?

"Augh!" He tossed his head, springing up from the chair and stomping around the office yet again. He took no consolation from anything; no matter how he turned the events over in his head, he only found more ways in which he could have stopped it, if he had only wanted to.

And that was the worst realization of all: That despite himself, he had wanted it. Glider was powerful, and confident, and sensual; she was beautiful--no, sexual. He feared her, but more than that, he did want her. He felt disgusting for admitting it, but Glider was honestly a better lay than Petunia was. And this little twinge of doubt--this sneaking suspicion that he had been choosing wrong the whole time--this only made him even more remorseful, because he knew that cheating on Petunia was wrong--that he was wrong.

He simply could not shake that belief. He--Sunny Skies--was wrong on a fundamental level. Something was terribly, horribly wrong with him. At best, he was hallucinating; at worst, he was an unfaithful husband. He twisted and turned and prodded and pleaded with the events of the previous night, and could not find an interpretation that didn't end in him being simply a bad person--a bad father--a bad husband. He had torn apart three different families now--first his secretary's, then Petunia's, and now Glider was going to raise a foal by herself.

Sunny's heart stopped in his chest as he realized--there had always been a monster in Hope Hollow. Long before the Rakshasa, before the town had turned gray, there had been a terrible beast preying on those around it. Something had to be done about it. Something had to be done about him, before he ruined yet more lives.

He lifted the shotgun. For a moment, he hesitated; he wondered if he was truly doing any good by this.

Then again, he had already left Petunia in the dirt. Who cared if he was there physically? He certainly wasn't there emotionally.

He checked the chamber; it was still loaded. Sweat soaked his brow, ran down his cheeks. He closed the chamber.

And then he pointed the barrel at his head.

Being a unicorn, he could pick any angle he liked; for a moment, he found it morbidly fascinating, wondering what the effect would be if he chose to do it from the side, or pointed the thing up into his mouth in the classic way. He considered aiming for the neck, going for decapitation, but then he recalled why the guillotine was no longer in fashion. That had been one of the most colorful conversations he had ever had with Gilda.

He ultimately decides to position the shotgun directly behind his head. Staring down the barrel makes him nervous.

He takes a deep breath, and--