Hollow Hope

"I think we're getting closer," Sunny muttered, as he pushed open a metallic door. The floor was concrete, the walls riveted metal--save for one wall, which was papered over with the floral print of the town's newest motel. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, and Sunny beelined for it.

Scattered around the room, leaning against corners and braced against girders, were four paintings--a profile of Petunia, another one of Gilda, a somewhat worn-looking portrait of the secretary--and a painting of Gilded Glider.

"Who's this?" Torque said, as she peered at the image of Glider. "I haven't seen her around town. She looks familiar, though I can't put my hoof on it..."

"Never mind that," Sunny said, as he tugged on the next door; he heard a click, but it didn't move. "Looks like this is a dead end--"

He turned to leave, but suddenly the wallpaper burst open--three holes, all blasting thick, disgusting pus into the room. The gunk spilled onto the floor, rapidly coating it.

"Sunny!" Torque tried the door they came from, but scowled--it had locked itself! "Damn it all...! What in Taurtaros is going on!?"

Sunny's life flashed before his eyes. Drowning in pus was not his first choice, with regard to dying. He did not enjoy the prospect of getting that awful stuff in his mouth, let alone asphyxiating in it.

"We'll have to plug the pipes, or something--" Sunny grabbed the Gilda portrait, shoving it up against the wall--and to his surprise, iron clamps sprang out from behind the wallpaper, holding it in place. It bulged, but held; he'd bought them some time.

Torque grabbed the Glider painting, and placed it over the second hole; the clamps clunked into place. Finally, Sunny grabbed the portrait of his old secretary, and placed it over the third hole--

The painting burst open! Sunny howled as the horrific slime sprayed all over his face--he tossed the ruined painting aside, desperately trying to scrub it off.

"Dammit, Sunny--" Torque snatched up the painting of Petunia, and slapped it over the last hole. The clamps activated, and there was an audible clank as a drain opened in the floor. There were still puddles of pus at the end of it all, but they were safe.

Sunny brushed himself off, scowling at the papered-over wall. "...I was hoping we wouldn't have to use that one," he whispered, nodding to the Petunia portrait, which bulged slightly as it held back the tide.

"Well, m'afraid you didn't have a real choice in the matter. Now, c'mon--I think the door's unlocked now."

"How do you--" But Torque was right--she yanked open the door leading further in.

Riveted, plated walls gave way to concrete, gave way to rough-hewn stone.

"We're getting closer. We have to be," Sunny whispered.

"Shut up and turn off the flashlight," Torque whispered back, her head on a swivel. "It'll draw attention, and we ought to let our eyes adjust anyway."

As Sunny clicked the light off, his hoof slipped--and he clicked the radio on. For a moment, he didn't even notice--but then it began quietly emitting static.

"Sunny!" Torque cursed under her breath as Sunny fiddled with the flashlight. Up ahead, something lurched out of the darkness. It was impossible to tell what it was before Torque fired, and the deafening, blinding flash of the shotgun's muzzle flare was too fast and too bright to help. Sunny dropped the flashlight, clutching his ears as they rang.

"...know where we are now," Torque was saying, kicking the now-headless corpse over. "Keep moving!"

Sunny snatched the flashlight up, using the light from his horn to avoid tripping over the body as he ran after Torque.

Tunnel after tunnel--Sunny's ears were still ringing, and he wondered--will the shotgun's report deafen him, or will it drive him insane first?

Suddenly, Torque shot out a hoof, nearly punching him in the chest as she came to a short stop. "Out there!" she said under her breath--pointing out into the cavern ahead.

The first thing that struck Sunny was the thing leaning against the wall--a mound of flesh, with only vague resemblance to a pony. Its belly was distended to a cartoonish degree and covered in stitched-together scars; it flailed its pitiful hooves, moaning and gurgling as it rocked back and forth. It must've been twice the size of a normal pony. But the second thing that took Sunny's attention was far more important:

The daddy-long-legs thing was there. And it had Cloudy.

"Leggo! Let me go! Oh, fuck--" She cried out as the spidery thing slammed her against the wall, hissing softly. It held her there with one leg, and with the other it reached up to the corpulent mare's neck--pulling away a coil of rope. One end was attached to the enormous, swollen figure, and with deft motions, the daddy-long-legs tied the other end to Cloudy's neck, and wrapped the rest of the rope around her body loosely. Cloudy stared up at it, clutching a knife--shivering, whimpering, too scared to move as the daddy-long-legs leaned in...

It hissed sharply, tore the knife out of her hooves--and dropped her, scrambling away. The knife clattered on the stone floor, coming to rest in the middle of the room.

For a minute, Sunny laid in wait, hoping that the daddy-long-legs thing would not return. All he could hear was Cloudy's quiet sobbing.

Finally, he could bear it no longer. He nodded to Torque, who hefted her shotgun; and they quietly cantered out into the room. Sunny scooped the knife up from the floor with a quick burst of telekinesis, and ran to Cloudy as fast as he could manage safely.

"Sunny!?"

"It's all right, Cloudy. I'm here now. Let me just--"

Cutting a rope is not as easy as it looks. This particular rope--though frayed and moldy like everything else here--was quite thick, and to cut through such a rope in one swing, you would need a lot of force and a very sharp knife. Obviously, you can't just hack at a rope when your friend's tied up in it.

And as Sunny tugged and sawed at the ropes, the massive mare-beast stirred behind him.

"Uh, Sunny--"

"Ssh! The spider thing might hear us!" Sunny hissed, as he cut away another tangled length of rope. He was struggling to find the knot itself.

"But--"

Sunny scowled at Cloudy, and went back to sawing through the ropes, ignoring the low rumble emanating behind him. Finally, he freed one of her hooves--and she pointed with it, directly at the enormous, corpulent mare-thing.

Sunny turned to look at it. It glared back at him, opened its sickly, drooling mouth, and roared.

"Fuck!" Cloudy yelped.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Sunny muttered. The giant reared back with one of its awkward, lanky hooves--Sunny gave up on untangling Cloudy, and simply hacked away the length of rope that led away from her. The beast swiped at them, narrowly avoiding Sunny's head.

"I've got her!" Torque shouted, galloping up and biting down on the ropes. "Hold tight, kid! It's gonna be bumpy!"

They ran for it, Torque dragging Cloudy, Sunny lighting the way; the beast howled in rage. Out there, in the dark corners, twisted little freaks were crawling in--mutated, disfigured, each one about the size of a filly, each one bearing a mouth full of sharpened fangs. They had only reached the middle of the room, and now they were surrounded.

"Of course. Of fuckin' course," Cloudy whimpered.

"Wait. They weren't there before," Torque muttered. "They weren't there until--"

"The mother called them," Sunny said, glancing back toward the scarred, swollen belly of the monster--the visibly pregnant monster. He had to fight the urge to vomit.

"Sunny?" Torque whispered.

"You've got the little ones, right?" Sunny replied.

"Yep. You got the short straw, huh?"

"Drew it this morning,"