Hollow Hope

Sunny yelped as he sat up, throwing off the covers. Sweat rolled down his body, ice-cold, stinging his eyes; it hurt almost as much as the sunlight pouring in through the window.

He took a couple of deep breaths, his eyes darting 'round the room--searching for the next monster, wondering if the rakshasa had dragged him into yet another nightmare.

"...Sunny...?"

Petunia rose beside him, yawning. For a moment, he wondered if the rakshasa itself was just a nightmare--a terrifying experience that he would never share. But then, Petunia laid her hoof on his--and it was speckled with black oil and white stains.

"...we need to talk," she says softly.

Sunny knocked on the door. He waited; the address had been out of date, and he fully expected it to be wrong.

The door creaked open. He could see Cloudy lying on a bed in the back, still asleep. And before him--was his secretary. She was ragged, her mane a tangled mess, her eyes puffy and red. He could smell alcohol on her breath, and it wasn't even 10 AM yet.

"...what do you want."

Sunny almost laughed to himself. He had spent the entire ordeal thinking of her as merely his secretary, but now--now he remembered her name.

"Harvest Rose," he said softly. "I have a lot to apologize for."

"You do."

"And I have a lot I missed out on," Sunny continued, "and a lot that I ought to have done, that I didn't do. I can't change that. But what I can do..."

He held out a check. Rose took hold of it, squinted at it--and her eyes went wide when she read the amount.

"...I can be here for you now," Sunny said. "I can be here for Cloudy. I can't change what I've done, but I can make it right. I want to make it right."

"You know what?" Rose chuckled. Her eyes flickered between his face and the check, and every time she looked up there were more tears. "This is a good start."

He opened his hooves to her, and she wrapped her hooves around him. In the back, Cloudy sat up, yawning--and she smiled when she saw Sunny standing in the doorway.

"There's just one thing left," Sunny muttered, as he and Ramooh stopped on the bridge leading out of town.

"What is that?"

"Exactly the question I had." Sunny dug through his saddlebags, and pulled out the odd little stone circle he had found after killing the 'mother'; the snake carving in the center still seemed to wriggle as he turned it in his hooves.

"Ah. I recognize this," Ramooh said--he cleared his throat as he took it in one cloven hoof, turning it over. "It comes from a particular village, in the old country. The people of the village found tree branches in the river, which had been worn down until they looked like snakes; and these were said to bring fertility. Talismans like this make great souvenirs." He hoofed it back to Sunny, who stared at it with an odd sort of apprehension.

Without a word, Sunny threw the talisman out into the river. It skipped twice, and slipped under, never to be seen again.

"There are ponies who would pay good money for one of those," Ramooh mused.

"I've paid more than enough, thank you." Sunny shook his head, and turned back toward town. "Are you sure you don't want to stick around? We've got another Rainbow Festival coming up!"

"I have business in Canterlot," Ramooh said simply.

"Ah, well. I have to go check on Torque and Moody anyway," Sunny replied.

"I will write. Oh, and should you require advice on fatherhood--" Ramooh searched his saddle's many pockets, grumbling to himself. "Why do I not pack paper and pen at all times?"

"Oh! Allow me." Sunny produced a piece of cardstock and a pencil from his bags, and Ramooh scrawled out an address.

"My father, Daiya Krishna, was not perfect--no being in this world is perfect. But as a father, he is wise. You would do well to ask his advice."

And with that, he left; Sunny stood there and waved, until Ramooh rounded the bend in the road and vanished behind the trees. Sunny tucked the card into a pocket, and trotted back into town. He had his own business to attend to; he had a family to take care of.