Hollow Hope

BLAM! ch-chunk.

The deafening explosion of the shotgun going off next to her made Cloudy's ears ring. She hated it. She hated the beast that tied her up. She hated the beast which, until a few moments ago, she was tied up to; and most of all, with every fiber of her being, she loathed the spidery freaks that were now crawling out of the metalwork.

BLAM! ch-chunk.

She had always hated spiders. Freakish little things. All they care about is hooking you in, sucking you dry, and then filling your corpse with their creepy crawly children. She kicks at the ropes again--at first, she thought she'd get out in seconds, but what had looked like a loose bundle of ropes turned out to be a twisted and tangled knot. And Sunny has her knife!

BLAM! ch-chunk.

BLAM! ch-chunk.

Behind them, Sunny ducked and stumbled--the mother of all creepy crawlies kept flailing its hooves, leaving him almost no room to maneuver the knife. He finally landed a single blow--carving a sickly red gash into the thing's side--but was rewarded with a hoof to his face.

BLAM! ch-CLACK.

"Sunny!" Torque shouted. "I'm not made of shells! Get on with it!" As Torque stuffed more buckshot into the gun, Cloudy finally freed a single hoof, and started tugging at all the others.

Sunny wiped some blood from his chin--cursing under his breath. The thing had busted his lip. This was, maybe, the first time he had been injured in years, and certainly the first time he'd been hurt in a fight. He had honestly expected that it would daze him--but instead, he is filled with a roaring rage--indignance, even. The beast hurt him. The beast was going to hurt the ponies he cared about! His townsfolk! Practically his family!

With an unholy howl, Sunny charged in--a hoof struck him in the side of the head, but he didn't even notice, barreling into the monster-mother and driving the knife into her belly. Stitches split open, scars bursting outward--and the thing howled in pain as a geyser of pus threw Sunny backward!

"Augh--!" He sputtered and coughed, spitting the filth out and retching.

BLAM! ch-chunk.

Torque kept firing. The little ones were hungry, and they were advancing as fast as she could fire--and the pause to reload only gave them more time to close the gap. Sunny galloped toward the monstrous mare once again, growling--

His world tumbled sideways as one of the monster's freakish offspring yanked his foreleg out from under him! He rolled to a halt, screaming in pain as the spider-thing sank its fangs into him.

"Shit--Sunny! Sunny!" Cloudy shouted, reaching out to him helplessly.

He wrenched the thing around--wrestling it to the floor as it tried to rip chunks out of him--and with a triumphant roar, he sank the knife into the thing's head. In its death throes, it released its grip on him--and he stumbled back into the fray. The mother was groaning, sagging, the flow of pus dwindling to a steady trickle--it looked ready to die.

"You--you can't take them from me!" Sunny howled, as he raised the knife. "I won't let you!"

He brought the blade down on the thing's scarred belly, slashing it wide open. Blood and pus washed out, coating the floor as the remaining spider-children scattered in fear. With a low rumble, the mare's twisted face fell still, staring blankly at Sunny.

He sank to the floor, dropping the knife, as his breath grew ragged. He had poured everything he had into ending this fight, and a nagging feeling in the back of his head reminded him that he was bleeding from one of his legs.

"Easy! Easy, Mayor." Torque arrived at his side, and lifted him off the floor, draping his injured hoof over her back. "That's it. Deep breaths. You gotta stay awake 'till we can wrap this thing up."

Cloudy--having finally freed herself from the ropes--trotted up next to them. "Hey, there's something in the gunk!" she said, pointing to a circular object, coated in slimy pus.

Sunny lifted it with his magic, letting the pus dribble off of it--revealing it to be a metal disk with a wriggling image of a snake embossed into it. He tilted and twisted it, peering at the writing. "I haven't a clue what this is," he muttered. "Can't make heads or tails of it--don't know what language this is--but I suppose it can't hurt to keep it."

"Mayor. You're bleeding," Torque muttered. "All over my coat, even."

"Oh," the Mayor replied. "So I am."

They started walking away--Sunny hoofed the knife to Cloudy, and Torque kept him upright while she kept the shotgun aimed ahead; and none of them noticed the tumor-bloated figure crawling out of the Mother's belly and into the darkness.