"Who keeps stealing my cheese?"
Under the city of manehattan Clean slate and Blue bleach were busy repairing some pipes. Sewer maintenance is a full time job. Both had years of experience, so the smell didn't bother them and they knew where to step. Blue also knew a few spells that made the smell more bearable. The new suits introduced by the Twilight administration helped even more. Comfortable, resilient, light and more importantly waterproof.
They had both worked in the sewers for well over a decade, so very few things ever surprised or concerned them nowadays. They still remembered the crocodile infestation six years ago. So for something to induce concern, it had to be very bad.
Like having well over a hundred meters of pipes being horribly damaged with half of them simply missing. Fortunately it was in the older part of the sewers. Most had been filled with concrete and pillars that supported the new levels. So pretty much all of the damaged pipes were useless. All except for one which the to workers were currently repairing.
"Those are clearly bite marks." Blue stated aloud as he replaced a badly damaged pipe. He looked at the piece in his hoofs. It was covered in strange scratches that he recognised as bites from rats. Except that they were too big to be from actual rats. "Obviously not, have you seen the size of these...", Slate pointed at some claw marks on a wall. "No rat would ever be able to do this."
"Probably some big animal got into the sewers again. Crocodiles or maybe alligators this time." He then added. "We both know that there are no alligators on this side of the country." Blue answered with a snarky tone. "Yeah, yeah lets just finish this." They continued working in silence.
Blue lifted his ears, before looking around. "What are you doing?" Slate asked. "I heard something..." Something then skittered behind them. They both turned around. More skittering could be heard. "Definitely rats." Blue mumbled. "Stupid rats." His companion said in an annoyed tone.
"I never thought of them as stupid." Blue said aloud, to the confusion of his older unicorn companion. "What?" "Remember what happened Red Cloth?" Both ponies shivered. "Yeah, only something intelligent and petty could do something like that." He added. "Bucking rats." Slate sweared aloud. "Language." His coworker reprimanded playfully.
Both worked for the next hour with the occasional joyfull banther. Neither noticed as hundreds of beady, little eyes watched silently, hidden by the darkness.
Slate opened his eyes. He then looked around searching for the source of the sound. He then found a broken vase on the ground. He knew that this would happen, he had told his wife to put it somewhere safer. She was still sleeping soundly beside him. Looking at their alarm clock, he saw that it was a bit over two in the morning. He reluctantly stood up and went downstairs to the kitchen to go fetch some cleaning supplies.
After drinking some water he got something to collect the broken shards. As he turned around he saw his wife hurriedly step down the stairs. "Something bit me!" She half-shouted. Slate looked at his wife, she had a pretty nasty wound on her left front leg. "Wha..." Slate started to ask.
Skittering.
The unmistakable sound of rats running around, behind the furniture and in between the walls. Both ponies panicked and ran to their sons room. On the way their they noticed that most of the furniture had disappeared and that there were holes everywhere. They palled as they saw that the door had been chewed through. They quickly ran through, but it was already to late. A massive hole had been chewed into the floor and their son was nowhere to be seen.
The only thing visible were red marks on the ground. Slate's wife started crying at the sight and he felt weak. The skittering increased and it almost sounded like laughter.
The floor then crumbled and both ponies fell down. They landed on a pile of broken wooden furniture. Besides it was a pile of metal appliances and objects.
Slate held his wife in his arms. He started screaming for help, hoping that any of the neighbors had heard this. He didn't know that a simple silencing spell had been cast on their homes.
The screaming quickly stopped as the two ponies were buried under a tidal wave of vermin.
Blue moved deeper and deeper into the sewers. He felt mildly worried that Slate hadn't showed up to work. Slate had always been a diligent worker, always showing up to work. In Blue's mind something bad had to have happened to Slate for him not to show up. The fact that another dozen onduty workers also hadn't shown up didn't help.
Bang
Blue turned around. One of the many lights in the hallway had broken. It happened quite commonly in the older parts of the sewers. So he continued walking.
Bang
Another light broke, this time in front of him.
Bang
Bang
Bang
Bang
All light broke one by one until only the only one that remained was the one directly above him.
Bang
Blue was now surrounded by complete darkness. He couldn't even see his own hooves. But he could hear. The unmistakable sound of rats scurrying around.
He had no time to scream.