Chapter 6: The Snarling Jaws
The rat stared at the herd.
The herd stared at the rat.
The rat saw the entire herd.
The herd saw only one rat.
But numerous other rats, hidden in cracks in the walls and under pieces of trash, also saw the herd.
Smarty raised his hoof, ready to stomp on the 'munstah’s head… and that’s when the rats made a collective decision.
These shit-smelling fuzzy things were a threat.
And the rats exploded into action.
Within an instant, the ground of the dead-end had become carpeted in slippery grey fuzzy bodies, scampering and scuttling towards the herd at a blinding speed, squeaking and screeching as they ran.
Smarty, with one hoof still in the air, lost his balance from the sudden onslaught of rats and fell to one side, being practically carried away by the swarming pack, until he ended up falling off and landing in a corner of the room.
The rest of the herd were either screaming in fear, shitting in fear, or frozen in fear, but they were all completely terrified.
What finally broke them out of their stupor was the first rat reaching one of the stallions and sinking it’s sharp teeth into the stallion’s foot, easily puncturing through the skin, tearing through the soft bones and coming out the other side.
“OWIE! WEGGY HUWTY! BAD MUNSTAH!” The stallion cried, kicking his leg to try and shake the rat off, but only doing more harm to himself. After only a few seconds, the rat’s bite managed to tear through the rest of the stallion’s flesh, and his hoof went flying off from his leg.
The rest of the herd fared no better.
A (formerly) pale orange mare had been dogpiled by the rats, her eyes, tongue and ears all targed for vicious biting and chewing. A foal had already had it’s throat bitten out, killing it almost instantly as it drowned in it’s own blood.
In particular, one stallion attempted to charge the rats head on to defend the herd, but did very little to the liquid-like flow of rats coursing across the ground. In fact, all the stallion did was make himself a bigger target by centring himself among the rats.
One particularly ambititous rat spotted two tiny quivering blobs hanging from the stallion’s rear, and lunged forward, sinking it’s two large yellow front teeth directly into them.
“Eep! Nu! Nu huwt speshul wumps!” The fluffy squealed, thrashing wildly as the rat bit and chewed at his testicles. With a firm, blood-soaked grip, the large rat then turned and fled, dragging it’s fluffy prize with it as it scampered down into the dark tunnels.
“EEP! MUNSTAH STEAWIN’ SPESHUL FWIEND!” A bloated, pregnant mare wailed, watching him vanish into the black abyss in the distance. Before she could say anything further however, another rat leapt out from the darkness and bit into the mare’s leg.
“OWIE! MUNSTAH HUWT WEGGY!” She failed, falling onto her side and exposing her bloated, pregnant belly. The rat immediately took advantage of the opportunity and lunged forwards, biting and clawing at her soft, round stomach.
As she wailed and screamed, another rat came over, and sank it’s sharp teeth into one of her juicy, succulent eyeballs, tearing it out easily.
“SEESIE PWACE! MUNSTAH STEAW SEESIE PWACE! HEWP! NU CAN SEE!” She wailed, as blood gushed out of her gaping eye-socket.
Finally the rat clawing at her stomach struck gold, tearing through her skin and exposing numerous half-formed foals.
“GLURK!” The mare spluttered, feeling her own blood filling her organs. “NU! BABBEHS NU WEADY YET! NU TAKE… HORK!”
The mare promptly vomited out a torrent of her own blood as multiple rats began launching themselves into her guts, tearing and chewing at her fleshy organs, each one fighting to get at the tasty almost-foals hidden inside of her.
Meanwhile, in the corner, Smarty had been so overcome with terror he had resorted to the only thing that could make him feel better: suckling at his hoof like a foal, and imagining he was in a nicer place, giving special-huggies to a mare… or, if he felt indulgent, maybe even to a foal! Oh, what fun that would be!
Meanwhile, his herd were being torn apart. Limbs ripped off, eyes torn out, tongues bitten as they were exposed by terrified, agonised screaming… one particularly fat rat even managed to take an entire foal for itself, scampering off into the tunnels with it’s tiny screaming form clamped between it’s drooling, gnashing, blood-soaked jaws.
Screams and shrieks and squeaks and chirps echoed throughout the tunnels, travelling all across the town of Backwater Ohio. No human heard them, but the screams echoed far and wide, the endless screams of fluffy ponies being rended apart, ripped to chunks, and all while still alive.
But the rats, being smarter by the fluffies by several measurable levels, knew they had best quit while they were ahead and after the initial onslaught, quickly scampered away into various tunnels, pipes and crevices. Some grabbed foals and dragged them away, others simply grabbed chunks of the dismembered fluffies, but each rat made sure to grab a mouthful of something before scurrying away.
One rat even got lucky and snagged a whole eyeball for itself.
Within only seconds, the entire pack of rats had disappeared without a trace. The only evidence left that they had ever been there was the mass of bloodstains and corpses left in the dead-end. Even their nest had been destroyed in the chaos, but the rats didn’t care.
They had won their battle for survival, and come away from it with full bellies.
But the same could not be said of the herd.
All that was left was an exhausted, terrified, and heavily injured herd of four adult fluffy ponies, a few foals… and Smarty, who had not only been untouched by the rats, but was still suckling on his hoof, day-dreaming about how good it felt to give special-huggies to foals, especially when they screamed ‘nu’. Silly foals!
“Whu?” He suddenly asked, withdrawing his hoof from his mouth with an loud ‘plop’ sound that echoed around the suddenly still room. “Fighty ovah? Fighty ovah! We winsies!”
The herd were in a sorry state. Of the remaining four adults, there was Limpy, two mares and a stallion, with a handful of foals scattered between them. It wasn’t even clear whose foals they were anymore, they had either forgotten in the panic and terror, or had stopped caring enough to remember.
Every single fluffy, foals included, had been washed a murky shade of brown by now anyway. They hadn’t used names often within the herd, and at this point none of them could remember what colours the others had been before entering the sewer.
They were all the same hideous shade of utter filth.
Smarty picked himself up, still slightly stunned from the carnage. Bloodsoaked fluffy corpses lay everywhere. As for the surviving few, they were all covered in cuts, bloodstains, and one of the mares was missing it’s left eye, the socket trickling with blood.
Smarty, however, was completely untouched… thankfully.
“Otay hewd!” Smarty said, taking charge once again. “Time fow gu! Dis pwace smeww nu-pwetty.” He said, looking disdainfully at the multitude of foal and adult corpses. One of them was still wheezing for breath, but Smarty just ignored it and pressed on, heading back the way they came.
Across from the dead-end was a concrete bridge that led across a steadily flowing river of sewage. Smarty’s tummy was hungry, and his tongue was thirsty. He needed to find food and water… for him primarily, but also for his dummy herd.
“C’mon hewd!” Smarty yelled back. “We gu dis way! Find nummies n’ wawas!”
Smarty took several plodding steps before realising he was alone, and turned back, glaring at the rest of the herd.
“C’MON! DUMMEH STOOPID FWUFFYS WISTEN TO SMAWTY! SMAWTY KNOW WHAH HE DOIN’!”
Then, one of the foals turned and walked away, heading the opposite direction from Smarty, back down the route they had originally come.
“GET BACK HEWE STOOPID BABBEH!” Smarty screamed at it. “GET BACK HEWE NOW! SMAWTY WEADEW AND SMAWTY SAY GO DIS WAY!”
The foal ignored him. Smarty felt his rage buidling again.
“STOOOOOPID BABBEH!” He screamed, tearing off at a plodding, toddling run. “SMAWTY GIB YOU BIGGEST HUWTIES! GIVE YOU FOWEVEW SWEEPIES! SMAWTY KIWW YOO BABBEH! SMAWTY KIWW-”
Bop.
Smarty spun around on the spot, turning a full 360 degrees before coming to a halt. He was dazed from the spin, so much so that it took him a moment to realise his nose was bleeding.
And it was bleeding because… it HURT!
One of the mares had bopped his nose! The stupid mama of the stupid baby that wasn’t listening to him!
“Yoo no huwt babbeh!” The mama shrieked. “Yoo dummeh smawty! Biggest dummeh ebah!”
“SMAWTY SMAWTY!” Smarty argued back, with the eloquence of a poet. “YOO NU HUWT SMAWTY, DUMMEH MAWE! SMAWTY HUWT YOO TOO! BABBEH FIWST, DEN-”
“Shaddup dummeh.” One of the stallions said bitterly. “Yoo kiwwed baby in poopies. Yoo kiwwed mama an’ hew babbeh in wawa. D’en you kiwwed stawwion too. Yoo weft mama twapped in pipey! Yoo wed us to munstahs! You wowst smawty ebah!”
And with that, the stallion turned, following the tiny foal down the other tunnel. One by one, the rest of the herd turned and left too, abandoning Smarty.
“Y… yoo aww get back hewe NOW!” Smarty snarled, stomping his hooves on the bare concrete. “Get back hewe NOW! Ow Smawty gib you AWW sowwy hoofsies! Gib BIG owies! BIGGEST owies! FOWEVEW SWEEPIES!!!”
None of the four-fluffy herd turned back. Not even a single one of the assorted foals. After a few seconds, they had turned a corner and vanished completely. And at that point they could be ANYWHERE in the world!
“FINE!” Smarty huffed, spitting and spluttering. “SMAWTY GO AWONE! NO NEE’ STOOPID HEWD! NO NEED NUFFIN!”
He stormed off, stomping his tiny hooves against the concrete as he waddled away, making several turns down various tunnels… before suddenly realising he was lost. When he turned his head back… he couldn’t remember which route he’d taken.
Even if he wanted to go back to the herd, he couldn’t anymore. He had no clue where they were, or where he was. The tunnels seemed to go on for miles and miles, and never actually WENT anywhere. Smarty could, in theory, explore them for his entire life and never go to the same place twice.
And he didn’t even have a herd anymore. Nobody to beg him for help, nobody to scream his name when things went wrong… nobody to keep him warm at night, nobody to encourage him, nobody to test if nummies were safe, no foals to ‘enf’…
And for the first time, the very first time since he’d been born, Smarty was genuinely, truly, and completely…
Alone.
Note:
So funnily enough, the rat attack was going to happen in chapter 3, with Smarty being devoured and the herd left to their own devices… but honestly, it wasn’t as much fun without Smarty constantly leading them to terrible fate after terrible fate. So I took that entire part out, and saved it for chapter 6.
Then when I got to writing chapter 6… dammit, I just hate Smarty too much to kill him. Death is a mercy, and there are those who don’t deserve it. So instead I had Smarty cowering in the corner the entire time his herd were being slaughtered.
With that, this story will now diverge. The main plot will be resolved in the next chapter or two, but ‘Smarty Story’ will also begin here. Not sure how many of them I’ll do, it depends on how many ways I can come up with for torturing the worthless shithead.
Either way, I hope you all enjoy his misery as much as I do.
Now let’s make him suffer more.
