Hollow Hope

"Hello!?" Sunny shouted, in unison with the young Earth Pony filly who had poked her head in.

Her coat was pale--and it took him a moment to realize that this wasn't the work of the mysterious grayness which had returned to the town. It worked well with the pink curls that framed her face, even though stray strands of mane had split off at frazzled angles. There were splashes of mud on her hooves, tinged a shade of red--Sunny hoped that it was merely the dense clay of the mountainside, and not something a filly's hooves shouldn't be covered in.

"Oh, thank Luna! I was starting to think I was all alone out here!" she said, sinking onto her haunches and leaning against a wall; she unclasped her saddlebags, letting them fall to the floor. "You've seen those things, right?"

"So I'm not going mad! Or, well, maybe everypony is," Sunny muttered. "I'm--"

"The mayor," the filly said. "Sunny Skies, right? My name's Cloudy." She offered him a hoof to shake, but--seeing as it was coated in all sorts of unfortunate things--they both quickly realized a hoofshake wasn't in order.

"I'd suggest staying put, but my wife--"

"My mom's out there, too," Cloudy says softly. "I hope she's okay."

"We'll find them. I'm sure of it," Sunny replies, hefting the wrench. "And...I'll make sure those freaks don't get to us. Or them," he said with a determined scowl, as the bell of the town's Celestian church began to toll.

"This doesn't look like Torque's workshop anymore," Sunny mumbled as he stepped through the door into yet another hallway. The wallpaper had changed three times over the course of their journey, and the wooden floor was now carpeted.

"I think this is the apartments on the other side of town," Cloudy said with a tilt of her head. "But how'd we get all the way over here? There's no way Torque's place connects this far out..."

She recoiled as her hoof touched a wet patch of carpet. Slick, oily, yellow-white pus stains were scattered across this section of the hall. The wallpaper, on closer inspection, was moldy; the paint on the ceiling was flaking off, revealing groaning rafters. As Sunny studied his surroundings, he realized that the halls had been getting progressively worse, and as he looked ahead, he saw that they would soon stop being hallways.

Up ahead, the carpet was tattered and torn to shreds; the ceiling fell away entirely; and the walls were replaced by railings and black void. Copper and steel, cold iron, and inky blackness.

"...you see it too, right?" Cloudy whispered.

"Yes," Sunny whispered back, as he took a step forward.

"You're not going in, are you?"

"Is there anywhere else to go?" Sunny said, glancing back at Cloudy as he trotted onward into Hell.

She followed him. What else could she do?

The hall gave way to steel grating and copper plating, and she followed him; they passed pumping pistons, metal pouring out of pipes that went to nowhere. An open trough ran under the grating, an aqueduct filled with what looked like blood. Sunny retched as they walked over it, but they pressed on.

Finally, there was a door, set into a rusted, stained wall of cast iron. Sunny glanced at Cloudy, and placed his hoof on the handle. They nodded, bracing themselves for whatever might come next, and he opened it.

On the other side was a cavernous room, with massive steel beams crossing the empty space above them. The walls were lined with pillars, or perhaps chutes, thrumming with mechanical motion. In the center of the room, a trough held what remained of something--something in flesh and blood, something which lived once.

Dangling above it on unnaturally long legs, a mangy beast dipped its head, ripping a chunk of flesh off of the prey. It twisted violently, and hurled the meat away, watching as it sailed through the air into a hole in one of the walls. As it turned back to its prize, its eyeless face froze in place, staring blindly--and Sunny got the unnatural feeling that it was staring directly at him. Its serrated, many-toothed mouth opened wide, in a vicious imitation of a smile; a low whine filled the air. Within moments, the thing had retreated through its hole, skittering away on spider-like legs.

"...what was that?" Sunny muttered, taking a step toward the hole from whence this macabre daddy-long-legs apparently came.

"Mayor?" Cloudy whispered, tugging at his shoulder and pointing--and Sunny's breath caught in his throat as he saw the apparently-dead pile of meat and bones slowly pick itself back up, groaning. It was a pony--emphasis on was. Chunks of its legs had been torn away--and there were similar signs of pain on its body, though they were covered by swollen, cancerous growths that made it sway grotesquely on its already-shaky hooves. Like the thing that was consuming it, its face was unrecognizable save for a single mouth that opened entirely too wide.

"Behind me," Sunny said, raising the wrench.

"You don't gotta tell me twice."

The monster's body began twitching, its legs shaking as it howled--and a moment later, Sunny saw it cross half the room in a split second. He blinked, and the thing was right on top of him, raising a hoof to strike--he dove sideways, as Cloudy ran for the opposite corner.

The thing howled again, and Sunny heard a wet thud as it smashed its hoof into the floor. Yellowed pus began dripping from its leg, falling through the floor-grates into the ever-present collection troughs, not one drop wasted. Another blink of an eye, and it was inches from Sunny--but this time, Sunny let the wrench fall, and bashed the thing across the face. One of its tumors burst, releasing more filth and making it screech in pain--it staggered back, and Sunny seized his opportunity, lunging forward and swinging the wrench again--this time making one of its forelegs crumple.

Sunny took a step back, huffing and gasping. The wrench's weight was starting to wear on his magic, and by extension, him. He watched, horror creeping onto his face, as the disgusting creature's leg snapped back into place, and it reared up, its head splitting open into a horrific mockery of a mare's happy smile.

"GOTCHA NOW, FUCKER!"

Cloudy leapt onto the thing's back, pummeling its head with all her might--scrabbling and kicking as it wheeled around. She slipped off, tumbling up against a wall with a pained grunt. She rolled to her hooves, but the monster was already upon her, and it reared once more--and this time, its hooves connected. Cloudy cried out, choking off a sob as the monster kicked her again.

Sunny poured his will into his levitation--he felt a twinge of pain as he strained his horn. The wrench rose again, and this time, he was swinging for the fences.

KRAK

As the wrench connected with the thing's head, Sunny could feel the bones shattering. It tumbled to the ground, a tangle of spasming limbs oozing bile. He brought the wrench down once more, a hammer against the anvil--again, and yet again, until the bastard's head was broken open, until its limbs finally stopped swinging.

"Haah...Princesses, that was..." Sunny sank to his haunches, dropping the wrench and squeezing his eyes shut as he gasps for breath. Cloudy sits next to him.

"We did it," she says, softly. "We're alive."

"Yeah. Yeah, we're alive." Sunny chuckles a little, despite himself. "Stuff me in an olive and call me a pimento. I'm alive."

"...you're a fuckin' dork, that's what you are," Cloudy said with a giggle and a wince. "C'mon, I don't even wanna look at that thing."

Sunny glanced at his handiwork, and quickly regretted it. "You're right. Do you think that hole leads anywhere?" he said. "That giant spider-thing went down it. And there's no other way out..."

"What if we run into it--I mean, maybe that's its nest!" Cloudy shouted, springing to her hooves.

"If it is, we're trapped in here anyway," Sunny said with a shrug as he stood up. "We might as well find out."