{Teen}{Gore}{Dark}
I had never experienced problems in Carousel Boutique, until one night I heard something scurrying in the walls. Opalescence heard them too, but I could not convince my friends they were there.
Frustrated, I tore open the wall beneath the stairs. Behind the water heater I found a path down to a basement in my home I had never known existed. I went down with my friends to find the source of the rats in my walls.
A reimagining of “The Rats in the Walls” by H.P. Lovecraft
The last story as a part of one-shot week.
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My family had lived in Ponyville since it’s founding. Along with Sweet Apple Acres, my home was one of the oldest buildings in the town. There were a few halloween stories that centered around my boutique. Often these foal’s tales involved a mad seamstress who turned ponies into dolls, or a butcher who slaughtered and ate ponies in her basement.
Aside from my friend Dash constantly basing pranks on those silly stories, I never paid them much heed. Shortly after Twilight was coronated a princess, that changed.
I was up late sewing when I went up to check on Sweetie Belle. She was fast asleep in bed when I heard Opalescence hissing. Following it to the source revealed my cat hissing and clawing at the wall between my bedroom and Sweetie Belle’s room.
I put an ear to the wall and shrieked. Several sets of feet were scurrying around in the wall. My outburst woke Sweetie, who came out of her room and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Sweetie, there are rats infesting the walls! We need to get out of here at once,” I explained.
She leaned up against the wall and listened. “I don’t hear anything, I’m goinng to bed.”
I put my ear up to the wall and still heard them scurrying. “They’re still there!”
“No they’re not.” She groaned and shook her head. “The only noise is you being scared of the dark.”
I laughed nervously and headed into my room. Opal curled up on my bed as I slid down into the covers. It had been a very long day and I assured myself it was all in my imagination. Before I could get to sleep, I heard the rats again, behind the thick curtains near the window.
I timidly sat up, igniting my horn so that I could see. This woke Opal up, who immediately growled and jump from the bed, clear across the room, and attacked the curtains. By the time I levitated them away from the wall, there was nothing behind them. Any rats she may have been attacking were long gone.
That night I didn’t sleep well. Opal wouldn’t stop prowling the room. If I locked her out, she would claw at the door to get in. If I let her in, she would patrol the bed and keep me awake.
By morning not even three cups of coffee improved my mood. I headed immediately towards the library for assistance. I ran into Twilight outside the library. She was water the bushes around her house.
“Twilight, I need your help,” I said.
She turned around and dropped the watering can in shock. “Oh no, you look awful. What happened?”
“There are rats infesting my home. I need you to use your magic to get rid of them!”
“Oh, well. . .” Twilight bit her lip and thought about it. “I don’t really know any extermination spells, and I doubt Fluttershy would be happy if we hurt them. Maybe a spell to scare them out?”
“I don’t care how you do it, just do! They’re driving me crazy.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
I followed her back to my home and tapped a hoof impatiently as she scanned the house. She started on the ground floor and worked her way up to the third. Her magic illuminated the walls, allowing her to see through them. After two hours checking and double-checking the walls, we had not found a single rat.
She left to go get Fluttershy for her opinion, and no sooner had the front door close I heard the scurrying feet again. They raced under the floorboards towards the kitchen with Opal in hot pursuit. Upon entering the kitchen, I found the window open and two of the neighbor’s cats had let themselves in.
Together, the three cats explored the kitchen, looking for a way to get under the floorboards. Opalescence climbed on top of the sink and tried to climb down into the garbage disposal, so I trotted over and pulled her out with my magic. She tried to claw me, so I held her in mid-air with my magic and scolded her.
That was when I heard shrieks of agony from beneath the floorboard, and something akin to hundreds off claws scraping on wood. I turned in time to see the second of the neighbor’s cats crawl under the stove, beneath the floorboards. It too wailed in pain before falling silent.
I grabbed the plank of wood they had dislodged to get under the floorboards and jammed it back in place. The scurrying rats fled, and I closed the window before setting Opal down. She immediately went over to the stove and started clawing at it.
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy said. “Poor Opal seems all worked up.”
“When did you get here? Did you see that! The rats killed the neighbor’s two cats!” I shouted.
Fluttershy tried to calm down my pet as Twilight scanned the floor and walls. “Rarity, I’m not seeing any cats or rats, and no bones. Are you sure you saw that?”
“Yes I’m sure, look!” I tugged the loose floorboard and pulled it up. “Right there!”
Twilight knelt down and examined under the stove closely. “Sorry, there’s nothing there. Why don’t you come sleep at the library tonight to calm down?”
“I will not be run out of my house by these rats! I want them gone by the time Sweetie gets home from school!”
“Oh dear, I don’t know why Opal is angry, but I can tell there are no rats here,” Fluttershy said. “They have a particular odor, and I know all their habits and signs. I don’t see any indication you have rats.”
Twilight sighed. “Look, I’m sorry Rarity but there is nothing more I can do. I’m four hours late for a town hall meeting now, I wish I could help but I’ve already given you all the time I can.”
She walked over and hugged me, before letting herself out of the house.
The scurrying began again as soon as she left, and I saw Fluttershy glance directly at the wall. “There, you heard it! Right, Fluttershy?”
“I think so,” she said. “But, it’s gone now.”
“No it’s not, they’re under the floorboards, why can’t you hear them?!”
Fluttershy came over and draped a wing over me. “Let’s go upstairs and get some sleep.”
She led me up to my bed and tucked me in. Then she asked if I would like her to use hypnosis to help me sleep. I agreed, and stared into her eyes as she counted backwards from ten. Despite the rats clawing at the underside of my bed, I was able to fall asleep with Fluttershy there to keep me safe.
Days passed in this manner. I had pest control, all five of my closest friends, and even let the crusaders take a shot at finding the rats. No matter how many ponies looked, Opal and I were the only ones that seemed to notice them.
What bothered me the most was my neighbors. They claimed a day before their cats had died under my floorboards, a lovely pegasus couple from Canterlot had adopted them and taken them to live there. I grilled them and tried to catch them in their lie, to prove I had watched their cats get torn apart, but they had none of it. They slammed the door in my face and refused to talk to me.
I haven’t sewn a single dress in four days. I sit in my work room rocking back and forth, listening to the rats scurry along. I had to send Sweetie back to live with our parents until I sort this out.
The walls, doors, and floors of my house are covered in scratch marks. Opal’s claws have begun to bleed as she whittled them down chasing the rats. She hardly eats her cat food, and even a can of wet food is not enough to sate her apparent blood lust for the rats in my walls.
I decide I’ve had enough that morning and follow the sounds of the rats downstairs. I can hear them beneath the stairs in the small closet containing the water heater. I open the door only for the sounds to stop.
In my anger, I tear the planks of wood off the wall and bash the water heater. After a minute spent tearing it apart, I notice something glimmer in the wall. Stepping closer, I see a silver handrail and a set of narrow stairs.
I use my horn to light up the staircase, and take a few timid steps down it. Beneath my house is a basement that should not—can not exist. It is not in any of the blueprints for my home, my parents never mentioned it.
My first thought is to get Twilight and rub this in her face. I can hear the rats trapped in the basement. I close the door so they don’t escape, and run outside. When I run into her and Dash in front of the library, I ask Dash to round up all the girls. I demand they bring their elements, but Twilight talks to me condescendingly, telling my I’m over reacting.
Finally the six of us are back at my house.
“Right here,” I say, opening the door. “There is a path down into a basement that isn’t on any of my blueprints. Nopony ever told me this house had a basement.”
“Fascinating,” Twilight said. “I wonder if it was a new addition.”
Applejack fastens a construction helmet she brought over onto her head, complete with a small light. She had used them when excavating ground for her new apple cellar.
Soon the four non-unicorns are using these helmets to help them see. Twilight heads down into the basement first, and I follow her.
I scream as I feel something land on my back and dig into it. I turn in time to see Opal catapult off my back and vanish into the basement. As my heart slows down, I manage to find a couple light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. One of them still works and casts and eerie glow in the room.
There are no boxes or tools or household items in the basement. It is empty, save for another larger staircase heading deeper underground.
“Why do I get the feeling this is something out of a Daring Do novel?” Rainbow asks.
“Ah reckon ah ain’t ever seen anything like it,” Applejack adds.
“I can still hear the rats, can you?” I ask.
“No, I think it’s best we leave and—”
“Twilight,” Fluttershy interrupts. “I think I do hear something, and I don’t want Opal to get hurt. Let’s search it now.”
Pinkie giggles. “Yeah, it’s not so scary with these flashlights on our heads!”
“Alright, girls, let’s go.”
Twilight leads us down the steps. I lose count at seventy-two when I notice the glimmering of enchanted gemstones. They provide a soft illumination to the underground chamber we walk into. It must be hundreds of feet below Ponyville, and we all begin to gasp as the enormity of it hits us.
“There is an entire city down here,” I observe.
“This can’t be, how did an entire city end up underground?” Twilight asked.
“Granny ain’t never said anything about the Belle family minin’ or buildin’ underground,” Applejack said.
“What about the legend?” Dash said. She made an eerie ooOOoo sound. “The Ponyville Butcher, who lured ponies to their deaths in her basement. . . and ATE THEM!”
Dash pounces on me and I scream in horror, before throwing her off my back with my magic. She lands on the ground and starts laughing.
“That’s not funny!” I yell.
“Dash, stop that!” Twilight says. “Look, there’s a few buildings but it doesn’t look more than a few hundred feet across. I saw we split up, find Opal, and come back with more help.”
We all agreed and split into teams. Unfortunately, I got stuck with Dash. Fluttershy went off with Pinkie, and Applejack accompanied Twilight.
I lit the way as Dash hovered behind me. She had her legs crossed and was pouting because I refused to speak to her until she apologized for her stupid prank.
The first thing we passed were some stables, sized for a pony, but with wooden slats and locks on them. They would have been more suited to imprison a pony, then provide them a place to sleep. It was odd, since nopony would treat another like an animal.
Heading deeper into the cave I nearly stumbled into a dark pit. I stopped myself in time and looked down into the pit. There were piles of bones in the bottom that had been gnawed on. They were decayed and had no flesh left attached to them.
I heard Dash land, gasping and then letting out a frightened whimper. “R-Rarity, I d-don’t wanna l-look around a-anymore!”
As we looked into that pit, I counted at least two dozen ponies in it. Every bone had teeth marks and claw marks in it. This proved there were rats, and a great deal more than I had thought possible. There must have been enough to overrun the entire town, forcing Celestia to bury it.
I heard Dash scream and turned to see her against the wall, covered in rats. I ran to her aid, throwing them off with my magic but there were too many. I began to pound them with my hooves and bite them to try and save my friend.
They bit deeply into Dash, and her blood was splattering everywhere. It was not until I heard Fluttershy scream that I had stopped the rats from attacking Dash.
“Fluttershy?! Help, the rats! They’ve attacked Dash!” I yelled.
She just stood there staring at me, backing away slowly with a horrified look on her face.
“Fluttershy! Help!” I screamed.
I turned back to look at Dash, who lay lifeless on the ground.
“No,” I whimpered.
The rats had killed her, leaving a mangled body behind.
I heard Fluttershy squeal as she backed away from me and fell into the pit, and the clamoring of bones as she landed on them.
The rats were back, and I ran to Fluttershy’s aid. That was when Pinkie caught up and barred my path. She took one look at Dash and vomitted.
Twilight was not far behind, but instead of helping Dash I felt her use her magic to lock my hooves together.
“Twilight? What’s going on?” I asked.
I looked at myself and noticed all of Dash’s blood on me. “It was the rats! We need to get out of here!”
I lost consciousness as Twilight cast a spell on me. When I woke up, I found myself in a pristine white padded room. My forelegs were snuggly hugging my chest. That was the day I learned I had been put into an insane asylum, and I have been there since.
My friends claimed not to have seen any of the rats. I am sure the rumors of the Ponyville butcher have started up again, but I know they are lies. Everytime I try to tell my doctors about the rats, they get upset. They talk about my treatment and how I am setting it back.
I know Fluttershy was locked in the insane asylum too. She is in the room next to mine, and I can hear them talk to her on occasion.
They forbid me to speak to her.
One day when I demanded to know why, my doctor told me. She said that when Fluttershy found me, I had been chewing on Dash’s throat.
I screamed at her, calling her a liar. Once they had calmed me down and dragged me back to my room, my doctor told me that all four of my friends had turned on me.
All four of my friends claimed to have seen me gnawing on Dash’s corpse, and I had been admitted the same day.