The Midnight Archives: The Midnight Library of Equestriaby DGGamesChaptersThe Cat Lady - Part 1The Cat Lady - Part 2The Cat Lady - Part 3WelcomeThe Cat Lady - Part 1"Scaredy-cat! Scaredy-cat!" The taunting voices rang in Octavia Philharmonic's ears as she pedaled fruiously down the alley that divided the new housing development from the old part of town. Her cheecks burning, she sped along between the high wooden fences until she reached the big open field known locally as the "Old Green". Octavia shouted defiantly back to Lyra and the rest of the gang: "I'm not scared! I just dont want to do it!" "Octavia's a big coward!" Lyra called. "Coward!" Colgate and Bon Bon shouted in unison, taking thier cue from Lyra. "Shut Up!" Octavia shouted, "Just shut up!" Colgate and Bon Bon took up the chant. Now the whole gang was yelling at her. "You're a coward! You're a coward!" Octavia pulled on the handlebars, lifting herself off the seat to boost the bike up over the curb and onto the grass. She pressed down hard on the pedals, struggling to keep up speed on the incline. At the crest of the round grassy hill, she brought her bike to a halt and turned around to look back. She was thirteen years old, tall and slim with corn-gold hair and a pale, freckled face -- except that right now her cheeks were flaming red and her blue eyesstung in the chilly wind. It had all started when Lyra had dared Octavia to throw pebbles at the Cat Lady's windows and then run off. She had refused. Then Lyra had called her a scaredy-cat and she'd ridden away, humiliated and angry. Octavia watched as Lyra and the gang rode thier bikes to the end of the alley. Lyra said something to the others, and they all brayed with laughter. Octavia's cheeks burned with embarassment -- Octavia knew they were laughing at her and she hated it. As she stared down at the jeering gang, she found herself wishing she had never distanced herself from Vinyl. Things had been so much simpler when she and Vinyl had been best friends. The rift had begun a couple months ago -- due to a stupid fight over a T-shirt. Octavia had borrowed it from Vinyl for a party, and when she gave it back, there was a stain on it that wouldn't come off. Vinyl said the T-shirt had been perfect when she had lent it to Octavia -- but Octavia was convinced that she hadn't stained it. Neither one would back down. Octavia had stormed off, telling Vinyl she never wanted to speak to her again. Then, to make Vinyl jealous, she'd started hanging around with Lyra and her gang, partly because everyone thought they were cool -- but also because she knew that Vinyl didn't like them. She thought that they were all stupid sheep -- blindly following Lyra. Octavia didn't like Lyra much: She was sarcastic and cruel -- and she was a bully too. But Colgate and Bon Bon were OK. Except for the way they always did everything Lyra told them to do. That often got really annoying. Octavia stared back down the way she had come. The new housing development stretched out, all neat, clean, and orderly in a big crescent to the left side of the Old Green. To the right sprawled the grubby, old industrial part of town. An alleyway was the dividing line between the old and the new. It was paved and had fencing along both sides. To the left, fancy wooden doors led into the yards of the new development, and to the right were and older, battered set of fences -- decrepit and entwined with vines and long spiky-looking weeds. It seemed to Octavia as if the people who had put the fences up didn't want anyone from the one part of town getting into the other. Not that it stopped the cats! There were plenty of cats. They came mostly from Mrs. Sparkle's house, a shabby place tucked away behind the fence that bordered the alleyway on the old part of town. Mrs. Sparkle was a little strange. She was known locally as the Cat Lady. Sometimes Octavia and the gang would look over the tall fence into her garden full of cats. And sometimes, Lyra would bang on the fence and shout to scare the animals. Octavia didnt like that -- she thought it was mean. The Cat Lady's house was a sanctuary for what seemed like hundreds of cats. They were everywhere. Black cats and tabby cats, ginger toms and calicoes, fluffy cats and scraggy cats, young cats and old cats -- from sleek and skittish kittens, all gleaming eyes and needle-sharp claws, to ferocious and curmudgeonly old bruisers that hissed and showed thier broken yellow teeth and anyone who came near. For as long as Octavia could remember, there had been dreadful stories about Mrs. Sparkle. Vinyl had first told Octavia those stories, years ago, when Octavia's family had moved into the neighborhood. "It's true -- it's really true," Vinyl had told her, wide-eyed, on that first day at school. "The Cat Lady kidnaps children." Octavia had not been convinced "Why would she do that?" she had asked. Vinyl's voice had dropped to a whisper. "She takes them down to her cellar and grinds them up to make cat food," Vinyl had said. "How else do you think she manages to feed all those cats of hers?" Octavia had stared uneasily at her. "I don't believe it!" Vinyl had laughed. "Ask anyone!" she had said. "But you'd better watch out. If you go near her house, she'll come shuffling out and she'll offer you candy to get you to go inside. Then, once you're in there, she'll give you a suspicious drink that will make you feel all sleepy and weak." "Then what?" Octavia had asked, her eyes widening in alarm. "Then she'll drag you down to her dark and smelly cellar." Vinyl had said. "And your head will go bump, bump, bump on the stairs. And you wont be able to do anything about it. She's got this huge old machine down there -- like a giant blender. And you'll be lying there helplessly while she turns it on. And it will start clanking and churning -- and you'll see a big grinding screw begin to turn way down at the bottom of the funnel. And then the Cat Lady will lower you really slowly into it, hooves first -- and the worst part will bethat although you cant move, you'll still be able to hear the grinder draw closer and closer!" Octavia hadn't really believed that the Cat Lady turned children into cat food in her cellar, but all the same she had always kept a watchful distance from the house. The Cat Lady didn't come out very often, but when she did, Octavia would watch her warily as she hobbled down the street, leaning on a thick cane, all shrowded up in a heavy, moth-eaten old coat and kerchief. And after all these years, Octavia still crossed the street to avoid getting to close to her house. A little while ago, she had confessed this to Lyra and the gang. "I know she's just a sad old lady," she had told them. "And i know the stories about her aren't true, but she still gives me the creeps." Lyra had mockeed her. "That's pathetic!" she had said. "What are you -- six years old?" The others had joined in laughing at her, though Octavia was sure that most of them were scared of the Cat Lady, too. "You need to grow up a little," Lyra had said. "I now how to cure you of being scared of the Cat Lady." She had mounted her bike. "Come on, everyone. Let's go have some fun." "What kind of fun?" Octavia had asked quickly. "We can throw stones at her front door for a start," Lyra had said. "That would be hilarious!" "I don't want to do that," Octavia had said. "What's the point? It's just mean." "Suit yourself, scaredy-cat," Lyra had said, laughing as she rode off. The others had followed her, leaving Octavia standing there all by herself. She had been angry at Lyra for making fun of her, and irritated by those two stupid girls who followed Lyra around like a bunch of zombies. She knew Vinyl was right about them, and this made the feelings of isolation and loneliness far worse. She had felt her stomach turn upside down, and hot tears had prickled behind her eyes, though she was determined not to cry. And now she was in the same position again, alone on top of the Old Green while the rest of the gang made fun of her. They're idiots, she told herself as she stared down at them. But if I don't do what they want they're going to make my life a complete misery. She frowned I'm going to put a stop to this once and for all, Octavia resolved, and she turned her bike around and rode back down the grassy slope. "Look, everyone! Scaredy-cat's back," Heather mocked. "What does scaredy-cat want?" Bon Bon chipped in. Colgate piped up as well. "You should run home to Mommy, Octavia," she said. "The Cat Lady might get you!" "Oh, shut up," Octavia snapped. "Or what?" Bon Bon said. "You're brave all of a sudden." Octavia ignored her. "I'll take your stupid dare," she said looking straight at Lyra. "It's no big deal. I think it's totally pathetic." Lyra just looked slyly back at her. "You have to go in through the gate," she said. "Right into the front garden." "Whatever," Octavia said, trying to sound as if she couldn't care less. I'll make it look good, but i'll miss the window and aim for the wall, she though. "I'll do it once," she said to the group, "but never again. It's totally pathetic and immature." Lyra stared at her and Octavia met her gaze for a moment. "Ok -- if you do it right." A slow grin spread over Lyra's face as she looked down at the others. "Did i tell you all about the time i went inside the Cat Lady's house?" she asked. "You didn't!" gasped Bon Bon Lyra nodded. "Yes, I did," she said. The others gazed at her in awe. "She'd gone out shopping and she'd left the front door open. So, I decided to go in and have a good look aroung." "What was it like?" breathed Colgate. Lyra looked at Colgate. "Disgusting!" she said. "It was all dark and stinky and really filthy. Every single room was filled up with big moldy heaps of old newspapers and magazines tied up with string. And there were supermarket bags full of garbage -- and black plastic bags with more junk spilling out of them. And there were opened cands of cat food all over the place. And the whole place reeked. It smelled like the cats were using the whole house as one big toilet." There were squeals and wails of revulsion from the rest of the gang, but Octavia suspected that Lyra was making all this up just to freak them all out. Lyra continued her ghastly story. "The carpets were all sticky and squishy underfoot," she said. "And the wallpaper was hanging off the walls in strips where cats sharpened thier claws. There were cats everywhere! And they were all staring at me, and some of them hissed at me -- but that didnt bother me. If any of those monsters had gotten anywhere near me, I'd have given them a good kick!" "But the Cat Lady might have come back and caught you!" gasped Bon Bon Lyra eyed her. "So what?" she said. "What's she going to do? I'm not afriad of her." She glanced again at Octavia -- rubbing it in. "Then I went upstairs," she continues. "I found her bedroom. Only she doesn't have a real bed like a normal person. There was just a big, round wicker basket on the floor, with dirty old blankets in it. That's where she sleeps. And there was a great big box of cat litter by the side of the bed." SHe gave the others a meaningful look. "And it had been used!" Colgate's eyes widened. "You don't mean...?" Lyra nodded. "It was her toilet!" There were yells of revulsion from everyone but Octavia "That was so disgusting that I just turned around and left right away," Lyra said. "The whole place made me feel sick." "I don't believe it can be that bad," Octavia interjected. "No one could live like that! And i don't believe for a minute thatr she sleeps in a basket!" Lyra shrugged "See for yourserlf," she said. "I know what i saw." She gave Octavia a taunting look. "So, when are you going to go?" Octavia looked defiantly at her. "After school tomorrow." Lyra smirked. "We'll be waiting." "I'll be there," Octavia said. She pushed down hard on the pedals and rode her bike quickly down the long alley that led to her home. She was well aware that Lyra was proabaly badmouthing her to the others and saying that she wouldn't turn up. Well this time, Lyra was wrong. But all the same, Octavia felt just a little bit shaky as she cycled along. Mostly she was angry about Lyra and her moronic gang, but there was also a small part of her that really wasnt looking forward to what she had agreed to do the next day. The Cat Lady - Part 2It was a dull, cloudy, and drizzly afternoon as Octavia pedaled away from school and into the old part of town. She turned a corner into the street where Mrs. Sparkle lived. She saw Lyra and the others standing there with their bikes on the other side of the road, waiting for her. Octavia cycled up to them and stopped. Lyra stepped forward. She was holding something in her hoof. It was a chunk of rock -- about the side of her hoof. "This is what you're going to throw at the Cat Lady's window," Lyra said. Octavia stared at the big rock. "You said pebbles!" Lyra shrugged. "So? It's a big pebble," she said. She glanced at the others, who nodded at her. "We've all agreed," Lyra began, "that if you want us to stop picking on you, this is what you have to throw at the Cat Lady's window.But it's up to you of course. You can always chicken out." Octavia knew that a rock that size would smash any window it was thrown at. SHe looked from face to face. They all had the same nasty, eager expression. If she refused to throw the rock, the taunts would start up again. If she agreed, they'd get a big kick out of the Cat Lady's window being broken. Either way, Octavia knew right at that moment that she hated and despised the whole bunch of them. But she couldn't back out. It was too late for that. She took the rock out of Lyra's hoof. "Throw it really hard," Lyra said with a mean sparkle in her eye. Octavia propped her bike at the curb. The rock felt huge and very heavy in her hoof. Without saying a word, she turned and walked across the street. She just wanted to get it over with. The houses were shrouded by tall evergreen tree, and it was gloomy and dark under the dripping branches. Mrs. Sparkle's house was set back from the cracked path behind an overgrown mess of hawthorn bushes. Octavia stared through the spiky branches -- trying to catch a glimpse of the old pony through the dirty windows. But it was too dark. SHe peered out from under her hooded jacket, the cold rain pricking her skin. She could feel the others watching her ash she came up to the broken wrought iron gate. It hung at an angle from the brick gatepost. On top of the post was a damaged and mottled stone cat. And there was the iron silhouette of a standing cat on the gate, its outlines eaten away by rust. Octavia edged past the gate. She took a deep breathand looked along the weedy gravel path to the old house. To one side, she noticed a rickety old shed, half hidden under the trees. As always, the house was in darkness. She looked at the gray bay windows. She tiptoed a little way along the pathavoiding the nettles, watchful and listening. She paused for a moment, looking down at the rock. It was black and jagged -- she guessed it must weigh over a pound. She glanced over her shoulder. She could hear a distant hissing coming from the gang. -- an indication of how they would behave toward her if she chickened out. She turned back to the house. She clenched the stone in her hoof. She lifted her arm up and drew it back, getting ready to throw -- aiming for one of the smaller side windows -- feeling really bad about herself. The gauze curtains moved. Octavia froze, her heart beating hard. Through the grime of the window, she saw a black cat's face staring at her with luminous green eyes. A second cat came and sat alongside the first, its face mottled brown and gold, its eyes yellow. They were watching her. She couldn't throw the rock at that window -- the cats would be hurt by the broken glass. Then more cats appeared at the other glass panels of the bay window -- until every grubby window had watchful faces staring out with yellow eyes, green eyes, and golden eyes. Octavia heard a rustling behind her. She guessed it was Lyra and the others, creeping up to the fence to watch. Her thoughts raced wildly as the cats gazed out at her. "I can't!" she breathed. Then she heard again the hissing from beyond the fence. If she didn't throw the rock, the gang would never let her forget it. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the frantic beating of her heart. The cats stared at her. She swallowed hard. She brought her arm right back and threw. But she deliberately aimed low, in order to miss the windows. The heavy chunk of rock crashed through the tall weeds under the windows. There was a dull, sickening thud and a horrible yowl of paid as the rock hit something hidden in the weeds, followed by a sad murmur. Octavia felt sick and sizzy. She was afraid to get any closer to the poor injured animal, but she knew she had to. She dropped to her knees, gently smoothing the lank weeds away from the pitiful littlle shape. Trembling, she reached out her hoof and touched the soft fur, careful not to startle the creature. Its narrow chest was rising and falling rapidly, and its eyes were completely shut. "Kitty...?" Octavia whispered, her voice hoarse, her throat tight and burning. "I didn't mean it." A painful sob cut up through her throat like a sharp stone. Her face was wet with tears. The injured cat's breathing became erratic. Octavia didn't know what to do. She knelt there, shivering and sickened -- utterly horrified by what she had done. Then the twisted little head turned and the eyes opened. The wounded animal looked up at her. Octavia screamed. She scrambled to her feet and ran helter-skelter back down the path. As she fought her way out through the broken gate, she heard at her back the fearful yowling and wailing of dozens of angry cats. Octavia was terrified. The gang was waiting for her, and Lyra was grinning. "You clobbered it," she said. "That was so cool!" "Get away from me!" Octavia shoved her hard. Lyra lost her balance. Her legs got tangled up in her bike and she fell over backward with a shout of anger and pain. Octavia didn't even notice the others -- they back away from her as she ran across the road to where she had left her bike. She threw herself onto it and pedaled away from that dreaful nightmare as fast as she could -- the tears stinging her cheeks as she sped homeward through the spireful rain. She managed to get indoors and up the stairs to the bathroom before she was sick. She kneeled with her head over the toilet bowl, her whole body racked with guilt. She heard her mother calling up the stairs. Octavia washed her face and dried it with a towel and answered back in as normal a voice as she could manage. "It's only me!" "Are you OK?" her mother called up the stairs. "Yes I'm fine," Octavia replied weakly. She was vaguely aware of some comments about making sure she put her bike away properly -- and then silence. She sat on the bathroom for with her cheek against the cold porcelain sink. Octavia closed her eyes, but then she saw again in her mind the thing that had terrified her in the Cat Lady's front garden -- the thing that had sent her running for her life from that horrible, horrible place. She levered herself to her hooves, flushed the toilet, and leaned over the sink. The sight of her own face in the mirror shocked her. Her skin was blotchy, smeared with the tracks of grimy tears and beaded with sweat. Her hair was sticking to her skin. She turned on the faucets and watched as the clear water gradually filled the sink. Then she turned off the faucets and plunged her face into the water. Lifting her head, Octavia looked again into the mirror. Now she was just pale -- her fair hair like tangled ribbons on her cheeks and forehead. The haunted look was beginning to fade from her eyes. Eyes. Like the eyes that had... No! She wouldn't think about that. A cold, hard determination was growing out of her misery. She was finished with Lyra and the gang. Absolutely finished with all of them. She shivered. She felt sweaty and cold, and her clothes were sticking unpleasantly to her. Her legs felt stronger now. She needed a shower. A long, hot shower to try to wash away her feelings of wretchedness and grief. And then she had something important to do -- something she should have done weeks ago. Octavia pushed open the gate and wheeled her bike up the path. She rested it against the wall and stepped up onto the porch. She took a deep bbbreath and pressed the bell. In the long pause before anyone came to the door, she had plenty of time to imagine all the unpleasant things that might be said to her when the door opened. There was the sound of a step behind the door. It swung half-open. Her ex-best friend Vinyl stood on the threshold. She was shorter than Octavia, and not so thin, her blue hair cut and framed around her round, friendly face. Not that her expression was at all friendly as she loooked at Octavia. She stared at her in the way she might stare at something nasty she found on the sole of her shoe. "Hello," Octavia said quietly. "Hello." Vinyl's voice was cold and expressionless. They hadnt spoken to each other for seven weeks and five days. Octavia's mouth was dry. She attempted a smile. "How are you?" she asked. Vinyl's voice was clipped and hard. "Fine. Thank You." she leaned against the door, staring into Octavia's face with a look of bored contempt in her eyes, as if waiting for Octavia to get this over with so she could go back to whatever she had been doing before the bell had rung. Octavia swallowed. "I came to say I'm sorry about the T-shirt," she said "Isn't it a little late for that?" Vinyl said. A voice called from somewhere in the back of the house. Vinyl's mom. "Who is it?" "No one," Vinyl called back. "Octavia Philharmonic." There was no response from her mother. Octavia took a long, deep breath. "Look," she said. "I came to tell you I'll give you money for a new T-shirt. I've got some saved up -- and you can have it all." Her heart was thumping. "I want us to be friends again." She swallowed hard. "But if you hate me -- and if you don't ever want to speak to me again -- then just say so and i'll go away right now and I'll keep out of your way forever." There was a long pause. Octavia wished the ground would open up and swallow her. This had been a bad idea. Vinyl would never forgive her. After a moment, Vinyl took a breath. "I might have been wrong about the T-shirt," she said. "Let's call it quits." she held the door wide. "Mom's made an apple pie. Want some?" Octavia and Vinyl sat crosslegged on Vinyl's bed, eating appppppple pie topped with a dollop of whipped cream. For a long time, Octavia was content to chat amiably with Vinyl, catching up on what had been going on over the past few weeks, amazed at how easily they had resumed thier friendship again. It almost felt as if the rift had only lasted a day or two. And it was such a relief to Octavia that she could just be herself -- ttthat she didnt constantly have to act tough and cool to impress Lyra and the gang. But gradually, Octavia found herself talking about Lyra's dare. Vinyl shook her head. "You're such an idiot sometimes," she said as Octavia explaied how she had given in to Lyra's never-ending taunts and had agreed to throw that stone through the old lady's window. Octavia looked at her. "I havent told you the worst thing yet," she said in a subdued voice. "You broke a window?" Octavia shook her head. "I deliberately missed the window," she said. "But i hit a kitten." she shrank from the look on her friends face. "I didn't see it," Octavia blurted out, tears hot on her cheek. "It was lying behind a lot of tall weeds." Vinyl's hooves came up to cover her face. "Was it badly hurt?" she asked. Octavia nodded, her throat tightening as the memory came flooding back. "Did you call a veterinarian?" Vinyl asked. Octavia shook her head. "It might have been too late." "Octavia!" Vinyl exclaimed. Octavia bit her lip. She couldnt look into Vinyl's face. As she spoke, she hardly recognized her own voice. "it was nearly dead," she breathed. "It was all twisted and helpless. But then... its head turned... and it... looked at me." She was trembling now, reliving the horror of that impossible moment. She stared into Vinyl's face. "Its eyes werent normal," she whispered, hardly daring to put into words the terror that had bbeen haunting her ever since. "What do you mean?" Vinyl asked in a low murmur. Octavia looked at her. "It didn't have a normal cat's eyes," she said. "Its eyes were -- Vinyl it had pony eyes! The Cat Lady - Part 3.....Derp... .read below. Oh and something to think about while before you complain... Rewriting a story with written consent word for word is harder than one thinks. And is much harderthan writing a fanfic. Rewriting, you wantjt as exact as possible. To share the experience. You cant just throw in whatever you want. And it takes me longer to do this than any other story WelcomeWelcome, reader My Name is DGGames curator of that secret institution: The Midnight Archives Where are The Midnight Archives, you ask? Why have you never heard of it? For the sake of your own safety, these questions are better left unanswered. However . . . as long as you promise not to reveal where you heard the following ( no matter who or what demands it of you ), I will reveal what I keep here in my ancient vaults. After many years of searching I Have gathered the most terrifying collection of stories known to ponykind. They will chill you to your very core, and make the flesh creep on your young, brittle bones. So go ahead, brave soul. Turn the Page. After all, what's the worst that could happen...... DGGames
The Cat Lady - Part 1"Scaredy-cat! Scaredy-cat!" The taunting voices rang in Octavia Philharmonic's ears as she pedaled fruiously down the alley that divided the new housing development from the old part of town. Her cheecks burning, she sped along between the high wooden fences until she reached the big open field known locally as the "Old Green". Octavia shouted defiantly back to Lyra and the rest of the gang: "I'm not scared! I just dont want to do it!" "Octavia's a big coward!" Lyra called. "Coward!" Colgate and Bon Bon shouted in unison, taking thier cue from Lyra. "Shut Up!" Octavia shouted, "Just shut up!" Colgate and Bon Bon took up the chant. Now the whole gang was yelling at her. "You're a coward! You're a coward!" Octavia pulled on the handlebars, lifting herself off the seat to boost the bike up over the curb and onto the grass. She pressed down hard on the pedals, struggling to keep up speed on the incline. At the crest of the round grassy hill, she brought her bike to a halt and turned around to look back. She was thirteen years old, tall and slim with corn-gold hair and a pale, freckled face -- except that right now her cheeks were flaming red and her blue eyesstung in the chilly wind. It had all started when Lyra had dared Octavia to throw pebbles at the Cat Lady's windows and then run off. She had refused. Then Lyra had called her a scaredy-cat and she'd ridden away, humiliated and angry. Octavia watched as Lyra and the gang rode thier bikes to the end of the alley. Lyra said something to the others, and they all brayed with laughter. Octavia's cheeks burned with embarassment -- Octavia knew they were laughing at her and she hated it. As she stared down at the jeering gang, she found herself wishing she had never distanced herself from Vinyl. Things had been so much simpler when she and Vinyl had been best friends. The rift had begun a couple months ago -- due to a stupid fight over a T-shirt. Octavia had borrowed it from Vinyl for a party, and when she gave it back, there was a stain on it that wouldn't come off. Vinyl said the T-shirt had been perfect when she had lent it to Octavia -- but Octavia was convinced that she hadn't stained it. Neither one would back down. Octavia had stormed off, telling Vinyl she never wanted to speak to her again. Then, to make Vinyl jealous, she'd started hanging around with Lyra and her gang, partly because everyone thought they were cool -- but also because she knew that Vinyl didn't like them. She thought that they were all stupid sheep -- blindly following Lyra. Octavia didn't like Lyra much: She was sarcastic and cruel -- and she was a bully too. But Colgate and Bon Bon were OK. Except for the way they always did everything Lyra told them to do. That often got really annoying. Octavia stared back down the way she had come. The new housing development stretched out, all neat, clean, and orderly in a big crescent to the left side of the Old Green. To the right sprawled the grubby, old industrial part of town. An alleyway was the dividing line between the old and the new. It was paved and had fencing along both sides. To the left, fancy wooden doors led into the yards of the new development, and to the right were and older, battered set of fences -- decrepit and entwined with vines and long spiky-looking weeds. It seemed to Octavia as if the people who had put the fences up didn't want anyone from the one part of town getting into the other. Not that it stopped the cats! There were plenty of cats. They came mostly from Mrs. Sparkle's house, a shabby place tucked away behind the fence that bordered the alleyway on the old part of town. Mrs. Sparkle was a little strange. She was known locally as the Cat Lady. Sometimes Octavia and the gang would look over the tall fence into her garden full of cats. And sometimes, Lyra would bang on the fence and shout to scare the animals. Octavia didnt like that -- she thought it was mean. The Cat Lady's house was a sanctuary for what seemed like hundreds of cats. They were everywhere. Black cats and tabby cats, ginger toms and calicoes, fluffy cats and scraggy cats, young cats and old cats -- from sleek and skittish kittens, all gleaming eyes and needle-sharp claws, to ferocious and curmudgeonly old bruisers that hissed and showed thier broken yellow teeth and anyone who came near. For as long as Octavia could remember, there had been dreadful stories about Mrs. Sparkle. Vinyl had first told Octavia those stories, years ago, when Octavia's family had moved into the neighborhood. "It's true -- it's really true," Vinyl had told her, wide-eyed, on that first day at school. "The Cat Lady kidnaps children." Octavia had not been convinced "Why would she do that?" she had asked. Vinyl's voice had dropped to a whisper. "She takes them down to her cellar and grinds them up to make cat food," Vinyl had said. "How else do you think she manages to feed all those cats of hers?" Octavia had stared uneasily at her. "I don't believe it!" Vinyl had laughed. "Ask anyone!" she had said. "But you'd better watch out. If you go near her house, she'll come shuffling out and she'll offer you candy to get you to go inside. Then, once you're in there, she'll give you a suspicious drink that will make you feel all sleepy and weak." "Then what?" Octavia had asked, her eyes widening in alarm. "Then she'll drag you down to her dark and smelly cellar." Vinyl had said. "And your head will go bump, bump, bump on the stairs. And you wont be able to do anything about it. She's got this huge old machine down there -- like a giant blender. And you'll be lying there helplessly while she turns it on. And it will start clanking and churning -- and you'll see a big grinding screw begin to turn way down at the bottom of the funnel. And then the Cat Lady will lower you really slowly into it, hooves first -- and the worst part will bethat although you cant move, you'll still be able to hear the grinder draw closer and closer!" Octavia hadn't really believed that the Cat Lady turned children into cat food in her cellar, but all the same she had always kept a watchful distance from the house. The Cat Lady didn't come out very often, but when she did, Octavia would watch her warily as she hobbled down the street, leaning on a thick cane, all shrowded up in a heavy, moth-eaten old coat and kerchief. And after all these years, Octavia still crossed the street to avoid getting to close to her house. A little while ago, she had confessed this to Lyra and the gang. "I know she's just a sad old lady," she had told them. "And i know the stories about her aren't true, but she still gives me the creeps." Lyra had mockeed her. "That's pathetic!" she had said. "What are you -- six years old?" The others had joined in laughing at her, though Octavia was sure that most of them were scared of the Cat Lady, too. "You need to grow up a little," Lyra had said. "I now how to cure you of being scared of the Cat Lady." She had mounted her bike. "Come on, everyone. Let's go have some fun." "What kind of fun?" Octavia had asked quickly. "We can throw stones at her front door for a start," Lyra had said. "That would be hilarious!" "I don't want to do that," Octavia had said. "What's the point? It's just mean." "Suit yourself, scaredy-cat," Lyra had said, laughing as she rode off. The others had followed her, leaving Octavia standing there all by herself. She had been angry at Lyra for making fun of her, and irritated by those two stupid girls who followed Lyra around like a bunch of zombies. She knew Vinyl was right about them, and this made the feelings of isolation and loneliness far worse. She had felt her stomach turn upside down, and hot tears had prickled behind her eyes, though she was determined not to cry. And now she was in the same position again, alone on top of the Old Green while the rest of the gang made fun of her. They're idiots, she told herself as she stared down at them. But if I don't do what they want they're going to make my life a complete misery. She frowned I'm going to put a stop to this once and for all, Octavia resolved, and she turned her bike around and rode back down the grassy slope. "Look, everyone! Scaredy-cat's back," Heather mocked. "What does scaredy-cat want?" Bon Bon chipped in. Colgate piped up as well. "You should run home to Mommy, Octavia," she said. "The Cat Lady might get you!" "Oh, shut up," Octavia snapped. "Or what?" Bon Bon said. "You're brave all of a sudden." Octavia ignored her. "I'll take your stupid dare," she said looking straight at Lyra. "It's no big deal. I think it's totally pathetic." Lyra just looked slyly back at her. "You have to go in through the gate," she said. "Right into the front garden." "Whatever," Octavia said, trying to sound as if she couldn't care less. I'll make it look good, but i'll miss the window and aim for the wall, she though. "I'll do it once," she said to the group, "but never again. It's totally pathetic and immature." Lyra stared at her and Octavia met her gaze for a moment. "Ok -- if you do it right." A slow grin spread over Lyra's face as she looked down at the others. "Did i tell you all about the time i went inside the Cat Lady's house?" she asked. "You didn't!" gasped Bon Bon Lyra nodded. "Yes, I did," she said. The others gazed at her in awe. "She'd gone out shopping and she'd left the front door open. So, I decided to go in and have a good look aroung." "What was it like?" breathed Colgate. Lyra looked at Colgate. "Disgusting!" she said. "It was all dark and stinky and really filthy. Every single room was filled up with big moldy heaps of old newspapers and magazines tied up with string. And there were supermarket bags full of garbage -- and black plastic bags with more junk spilling out of them. And there were opened cands of cat food all over the place. And the whole place reeked. It smelled like the cats were using the whole house as one big toilet." There were squeals and wails of revulsion from the rest of the gang, but Octavia suspected that Lyra was making all this up just to freak them all out. Lyra continued her ghastly story. "The carpets were all sticky and squishy underfoot," she said. "And the wallpaper was hanging off the walls in strips where cats sharpened thier claws. There were cats everywhere! And they were all staring at me, and some of them hissed at me -- but that didnt bother me. If any of those monsters had gotten anywhere near me, I'd have given them a good kick!" "But the Cat Lady might have come back and caught you!" gasped Bon Bon Lyra eyed her. "So what?" she said. "What's she going to do? I'm not afriad of her." She glanced again at Octavia -- rubbing it in. "Then I went upstairs," she continues. "I found her bedroom. Only she doesn't have a real bed like a normal person. There was just a big, round wicker basket on the floor, with dirty old blankets in it. That's where she sleeps. And there was a great big box of cat litter by the side of the bed." SHe gave the others a meaningful look. "And it had been used!" Colgate's eyes widened. "You don't mean...?" Lyra nodded. "It was her toilet!" There were yells of revulsion from everyone but Octavia "That was so disgusting that I just turned around and left right away," Lyra said. "The whole place made me feel sick." "I don't believe it can be that bad," Octavia interjected. "No one could live like that! And i don't believe for a minute thatr she sleeps in a basket!" Lyra shrugged "See for yourserlf," she said. "I know what i saw." She gave Octavia a taunting look. "So, when are you going to go?" Octavia looked defiantly at her. "After school tomorrow." Lyra smirked. "We'll be waiting." "I'll be there," Octavia said. She pushed down hard on the pedals and rode her bike quickly down the long alley that led to her home. She was well aware that Lyra was proabaly badmouthing her to the others and saying that she wouldn't turn up. Well this time, Lyra was wrong. But all the same, Octavia felt just a little bit shaky as she cycled along. Mostly she was angry about Lyra and her moronic gang, but there was also a small part of her that really wasnt looking forward to what she had agreed to do the next day.
The Cat Lady - Part 2It was a dull, cloudy, and drizzly afternoon as Octavia pedaled away from school and into the old part of town. She turned a corner into the street where Mrs. Sparkle lived. She saw Lyra and the others standing there with their bikes on the other side of the road, waiting for her. Octavia cycled up to them and stopped. Lyra stepped forward. She was holding something in her hoof. It was a chunk of rock -- about the side of her hoof. "This is what you're going to throw at the Cat Lady's window," Lyra said. Octavia stared at the big rock. "You said pebbles!" Lyra shrugged. "So? It's a big pebble," she said. She glanced at the others, who nodded at her. "We've all agreed," Lyra began, "that if you want us to stop picking on you, this is what you have to throw at the Cat Lady's window.But it's up to you of course. You can always chicken out." Octavia knew that a rock that size would smash any window it was thrown at. SHe looked from face to face. They all had the same nasty, eager expression. If she refused to throw the rock, the taunts would start up again. If she agreed, they'd get a big kick out of the Cat Lady's window being broken. Either way, Octavia knew right at that moment that she hated and despised the whole bunch of them. But she couldn't back out. It was too late for that. She took the rock out of Lyra's hoof. "Throw it really hard," Lyra said with a mean sparkle in her eye. Octavia propped her bike at the curb. The rock felt huge and very heavy in her hoof. Without saying a word, she turned and walked across the street. She just wanted to get it over with. The houses were shrouded by tall evergreen tree, and it was gloomy and dark under the dripping branches. Mrs. Sparkle's house was set back from the cracked path behind an overgrown mess of hawthorn bushes. Octavia stared through the spiky branches -- trying to catch a glimpse of the old pony through the dirty windows. But it was too dark. SHe peered out from under her hooded jacket, the cold rain pricking her skin. She could feel the others watching her ash she came up to the broken wrought iron gate. It hung at an angle from the brick gatepost. On top of the post was a damaged and mottled stone cat. And there was the iron silhouette of a standing cat on the gate, its outlines eaten away by rust. Octavia edged past the gate. She took a deep breathand looked along the weedy gravel path to the old house. To one side, she noticed a rickety old shed, half hidden under the trees. As always, the house was in darkness. She looked at the gray bay windows. She tiptoed a little way along the pathavoiding the nettles, watchful and listening. She paused for a moment, looking down at the rock. It was black and jagged -- she guessed it must weigh over a pound. She glanced over her shoulder. She could hear a distant hissing coming from the gang. -- an indication of how they would behave toward her if she chickened out. She turned back to the house. She clenched the stone in her hoof. She lifted her arm up and drew it back, getting ready to throw -- aiming for one of the smaller side windows -- feeling really bad about herself. The gauze curtains moved. Octavia froze, her heart beating hard. Through the grime of the window, she saw a black cat's face staring at her with luminous green eyes. A second cat came and sat alongside the first, its face mottled brown and gold, its eyes yellow. They were watching her. She couldn't throw the rock at that window -- the cats would be hurt by the broken glass. Then more cats appeared at the other glass panels of the bay window -- until every grubby window had watchful faces staring out with yellow eyes, green eyes, and golden eyes. Octavia heard a rustling behind her. She guessed it was Lyra and the others, creeping up to the fence to watch. Her thoughts raced wildly as the cats gazed out at her. "I can't!" she breathed. Then she heard again the hissing from beyond the fence. If she didn't throw the rock, the gang would never let her forget it. She took a deep breath, trying to calm the frantic beating of her heart. The cats stared at her. She swallowed hard. She brought her arm right back and threw. But she deliberately aimed low, in order to miss the windows. The heavy chunk of rock crashed through the tall weeds under the windows. There was a dull, sickening thud and a horrible yowl of paid as the rock hit something hidden in the weeds, followed by a sad murmur. Octavia felt sick and sizzy. She was afraid to get any closer to the poor injured animal, but she knew she had to. She dropped to her knees, gently smoothing the lank weeds away from the pitiful littlle shape. Trembling, she reached out her hoof and touched the soft fur, careful not to startle the creature. Its narrow chest was rising and falling rapidly, and its eyes were completely shut. "Kitty...?" Octavia whispered, her voice hoarse, her throat tight and burning. "I didn't mean it." A painful sob cut up through her throat like a sharp stone. Her face was wet with tears. The injured cat's breathing became erratic. Octavia didn't know what to do. She knelt there, shivering and sickened -- utterly horrified by what she had done. Then the twisted little head turned and the eyes opened. The wounded animal looked up at her. Octavia screamed. She scrambled to her feet and ran helter-skelter back down the path. As she fought her way out through the broken gate, she heard at her back the fearful yowling and wailing of dozens of angry cats. Octavia was terrified. The gang was waiting for her, and Lyra was grinning. "You clobbered it," she said. "That was so cool!" "Get away from me!" Octavia shoved her hard. Lyra lost her balance. Her legs got tangled up in her bike and she fell over backward with a shout of anger and pain. Octavia didn't even notice the others -- they back away from her as she ran across the road to where she had left her bike. She threw herself onto it and pedaled away from that dreaful nightmare as fast as she could -- the tears stinging her cheeks as she sped homeward through the spireful rain. She managed to get indoors and up the stairs to the bathroom before she was sick. She kneeled with her head over the toilet bowl, her whole body racked with guilt. She heard her mother calling up the stairs. Octavia washed her face and dried it with a towel and answered back in as normal a voice as she could manage. "It's only me!" "Are you OK?" her mother called up the stairs. "Yes I'm fine," Octavia replied weakly. She was vaguely aware of some comments about making sure she put her bike away properly -- and then silence. She sat on the bathroom for with her cheek against the cold porcelain sink. Octavia closed her eyes, but then she saw again in her mind the thing that had terrified her in the Cat Lady's front garden -- the thing that had sent her running for her life from that horrible, horrible place. She levered herself to her hooves, flushed the toilet, and leaned over the sink. The sight of her own face in the mirror shocked her. Her skin was blotchy, smeared with the tracks of grimy tears and beaded with sweat. Her hair was sticking to her skin. She turned on the faucets and watched as the clear water gradually filled the sink. Then she turned off the faucets and plunged her face into the water. Lifting her head, Octavia looked again into the mirror. Now she was just pale -- her fair hair like tangled ribbons on her cheeks and forehead. The haunted look was beginning to fade from her eyes. Eyes. Like the eyes that had... No! She wouldn't think about that. A cold, hard determination was growing out of her misery. She was finished with Lyra and the gang. Absolutely finished with all of them. She shivered. She felt sweaty and cold, and her clothes were sticking unpleasantly to her. Her legs felt stronger now. She needed a shower. A long, hot shower to try to wash away her feelings of wretchedness and grief. And then she had something important to do -- something she should have done weeks ago. Octavia pushed open the gate and wheeled her bike up the path. She rested it against the wall and stepped up onto the porch. She took a deep bbbreath and pressed the bell. In the long pause before anyone came to the door, she had plenty of time to imagine all the unpleasant things that might be said to her when the door opened. There was the sound of a step behind the door. It swung half-open. Her ex-best friend Vinyl stood on the threshold. She was shorter than Octavia, and not so thin, her blue hair cut and framed around her round, friendly face. Not that her expression was at all friendly as she loooked at Octavia. She stared at her in the way she might stare at something nasty she found on the sole of her shoe. "Hello," Octavia said quietly. "Hello." Vinyl's voice was cold and expressionless. They hadnt spoken to each other for seven weeks and five days. Octavia's mouth was dry. She attempted a smile. "How are you?" she asked. Vinyl's voice was clipped and hard. "Fine. Thank You." she leaned against the door, staring into Octavia's face with a look of bored contempt in her eyes, as if waiting for Octavia to get this over with so she could go back to whatever she had been doing before the bell had rung. Octavia swallowed. "I came to say I'm sorry about the T-shirt," she said "Isn't it a little late for that?" Vinyl said. A voice called from somewhere in the back of the house. Vinyl's mom. "Who is it?" "No one," Vinyl called back. "Octavia Philharmonic." There was no response from her mother. Octavia took a long, deep breath. "Look," she said. "I came to tell you I'll give you money for a new T-shirt. I've got some saved up -- and you can have it all." Her heart was thumping. "I want us to be friends again." She swallowed hard. "But if you hate me -- and if you don't ever want to speak to me again -- then just say so and i'll go away right now and I'll keep out of your way forever." There was a long pause. Octavia wished the ground would open up and swallow her. This had been a bad idea. Vinyl would never forgive her. After a moment, Vinyl took a breath. "I might have been wrong about the T-shirt," she said. "Let's call it quits." she held the door wide. "Mom's made an apple pie. Want some?" Octavia and Vinyl sat crosslegged on Vinyl's bed, eating appppppple pie topped with a dollop of whipped cream. For a long time, Octavia was content to chat amiably with Vinyl, catching up on what had been going on over the past few weeks, amazed at how easily they had resumed thier friendship again. It almost felt as if the rift had only lasted a day or two. And it was such a relief to Octavia that she could just be herself -- ttthat she didnt constantly have to act tough and cool to impress Lyra and the gang. But gradually, Octavia found herself talking about Lyra's dare. Vinyl shook her head. "You're such an idiot sometimes," she said as Octavia explaied how she had given in to Lyra's never-ending taunts and had agreed to throw that stone through the old lady's window. Octavia looked at her. "I havent told you the worst thing yet," she said in a subdued voice. "You broke a window?" Octavia shook her head. "I deliberately missed the window," she said. "But i hit a kitten." she shrank from the look on her friends face. "I didn't see it," Octavia blurted out, tears hot on her cheek. "It was lying behind a lot of tall weeds." Vinyl's hooves came up to cover her face. "Was it badly hurt?" she asked. Octavia nodded, her throat tightening as the memory came flooding back. "Did you call a veterinarian?" Vinyl asked. Octavia shook her head. "It might have been too late." "Octavia!" Vinyl exclaimed. Octavia bit her lip. She couldnt look into Vinyl's face. As she spoke, she hardly recognized her own voice. "it was nearly dead," she breathed. "It was all twisted and helpless. But then... its head turned... and it... looked at me." She was trembling now, reliving the horror of that impossible moment. She stared into Vinyl's face. "Its eyes werent normal," she whispered, hardly daring to put into words the terror that had bbeen haunting her ever since. "What do you mean?" Vinyl asked in a low murmur. Octavia looked at her. "It didn't have a normal cat's eyes," she said. "Its eyes were -- Vinyl it had pony eyes!
The Cat Lady - Part 3.....Derp... .read below. Oh and something to think about while before you complain... Rewriting a story with written consent word for word is harder than one thinks. And is much harderthan writing a fanfic. Rewriting, you wantjt as exact as possible. To share the experience. You cant just throw in whatever you want. And it takes me longer to do this than any other story
WelcomeWelcome, reader My Name is DGGames curator of that secret institution: The Midnight Archives Where are The Midnight Archives, you ask? Why have you never heard of it? For the sake of your own safety, these questions are better left unanswered. However . . . as long as you promise not to reveal where you heard the following ( no matter who or what demands it of you ), I will reveal what I keep here in my ancient vaults. After many years of searching I Have gathered the most terrifying collection of stories known to ponykind. They will chill you to your very core, and make the flesh creep on your young, brittle bones. So go ahead, brave soul. Turn the Page. After all, what's the worst that could happen...... DGGames
