Monster Trackers

Episode 1

Epilogue

Back in Bam’s basement, Spades is resting in a swivel chair leaning back as far as he can to get comfortable. Trying to wipe his face clean with a towel, but the goo appears to have slightly hardened, making it difficult to clean the fur of his coat. Bam is working on her invention at her little work station. Plugging her machine into the wall, and opening a compartment so she can reach inside with her tools.

“Well, Bam, I say we have a toast,” says Spades as he leans up from the swivel chair.

“Oh, yes! And I have the perfect thing!” Bam trots over to her set of sizzling beakers and test tubes, and pours two smaller beakers full of her bubbly, orange drink. “And what precisely are we toasting to?” Bam asks as she hands one of the beakers to Spades.

“Well, three things. First, to Mister Haystack, for being our first satisfied customer. And hopefully, not our last. Second, to the fact that with this money, we are finally on track. I have a really good feeling that soon we’ll be able to dig ourselves out of this basement in favor of a more . . . ‘professional’ location.”

“What’s the last thing?”

“The last thing would have to be . . . you, Bam.”

“Wha-Me?!”

“Hey, you saved me from being that bird bug’s breakfast. And after you managed to capture that thing on your own, I can honestly say you deserve it. Although . . . did you really have to bring a whole jar of that goop back with you?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I had to! Imagine how much we can learn from this!”

Spades sighs. “If you say so.” He then raises his beaker.

“Hold on, you forgot something!”

“What? What did I forget?”

“You forgot about Buggar!” Spades and Bam turn to see the creature still locked up in its cage far off in the corner of the basement. It glares and hisses at them as Spades raises an eyebrow and turns back to Bam who is simply looking on with a big smile on her face.

“What exactly are we going to do with this thing?”

“I say we keep him!”

“Okay, firstly, what?! Secondly, why?!”

“Come on, Spades! He’s actually kind of cute!”

“Cute?! Earlier you were just talking about that thing ‘insulting your intelligence’ and ‘teaching it a lesson’, and now all of a sudden it’s your new best friend?”

“No! He’s ‘our’ new best friend! Think about it. You’re good with animals, right?”

“I ‘know’ a lot about animals, I never said I was actually good with them. I’ll never forget that dog my parents used to have. Worst three months of my life as a kid.”

“Wait a minute, I never heard this story before! Why was it only three months?”

“That was how long we had him until he . . . disappeared.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well I’m not. Good riddance.”

“Seriously? He couldn’t have been ‘that’ mean.”

“Oh, but he could have. My parents named him, Cotton. You can probably guess why. This furball literally looked like a ball of hair that ran around the yard.”

“Aww, that’s sweet.”

“The only problem was that all that hair made it difficult to see the actual monster beneath it all. I swear to you that thing loved everypony else except for me. It’s like it had a grudge against me for some reason. That dog terrorized me in and out of the house. Chasing me down endlessly with that infuriating little bark of his.”

“Well, that’s just what dogs do. They like to chase.”

“Bam, this thing wanted blood. You have no idea how many times this little, furry demon bit, gnashed, and clawed at me. I have been afraid of dogs ever since. I don’t care how nice ponies say their dogs are, if one gets near me, I am heading for the hills. I feel like ever since that dog left, it’s been going around town and informing the others that I’m easy prey or something.”

“Okay, well, Buggard isn’t a dog. So, maybe you can train him to be civilized and ‘not’ want to spray us with digestive acids!”

“. . . How can you even try to make that sound exciting? And, so now it’s ‘Buggard’?”

“Yeah, when I look at him I think of calling him Edward, but then I start thinking: Hey, he kind of looks like a bug! So, I just combined the two and ‘bam’! We got Buggard.”

“Interesting. . . So, how about that toast huh?” Spades raises his beaker once again.

“Not until you promise to at least ‘try’ and train Buggard.”

“Not a chance.”

“Please!”

“There’s no way I’m going to even get near that thing. Besides, even if I ‘could’ get it trained, I don’t see the need for us to have some kind of ‘animal’ sidekick. You see that in all the cartoons, and it’s always just so cliché.”

“How about this?”

“Oh, geez.”

“I’ll make a sort of ‘dog collar’, where you can remote control it to send a small shock to Buggard in case he gets out of hoof.”

“I don’t know.”

“That way, you’ll be safe, I’ll be safe, and if it doesn’t work we’ll just shock him and get him back in the cage.” Spades looks on, unsure of what to say next. “Please, Spades! If it doesn’t work, I’ll never bring it up again.”

“. . . Fine, we’ll try.”

“Yes!” Bam clinks her beaker with Spades’, and they both sip from their beakers.

“I’ll tell you what. You’ve really nailed this orange stuff. It tastes great.”

“You see! I told you!”

“So, it just crossed my mind.”

“What?”

“Since we don’t have anywhere to put ‘Buggard’ . . . how is your Dad going to react knowing that he’s got a monster living in his basement? We’re lucky we snuck it inside without waking him up.”

“I’m not exactly sure. He’d probably trot out of the house screaming in terror.”

“Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”

“But! There is no need to worry about that happening. I’ve got the perfect plan.”

“And that plan consists of. . ?

“You’ll see.”

“. . . Alright, just . . . let’s make sure he doesn’t escape. We wouldn’t want to go through the trouble of capturing him a ‘second’ time.”

“You got it! Should I pour us a couple more cups?”

“You bet.”

Mister Haystack finishes taping a tarp around the window to keep the cold air from blowing in, at least until he can get a new window. He picks up the bucket of broken glass and makes his way downstairs, careful not to drop the bucket. Dumping the glass into a trash can in his kitchen, he hears a knock at his door. “Who could be knocking on my door at this time of night?” He whispers to himself. “Hello?! Who’s there?!” He shouts.

“Yes, hello!” A mare’s voice responds on the other side of the door. “We’re looking for a Haystack, a Mister Haystack!”

“Yeah, that’s me. Can I help you?” He asks, approaching the door.

“Oh, well, we got your message about some sort of ‘creature’ that’s been lurking around your home! We’re from Ponyville!” Mister Haystack opens the door, and finds two young mares standing on his porch. The one on the left is a Unicorn with a violet coat, and a darker, well-groomed mane with highlights of pink and red. The other is a sort of butterscotch yellow Pegasus who appears to be hiding herself by hunching over slightly with her long, pink mane blocking most of her face.

“You’re from ‘where’ now?”

“Ponyville,” says the violet mare. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my friend Fluttershy. We were sent here to take care of your ‘pest’ problem so to speak.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“A couple other youngsters from Ponyville said ‘they’ were sent here to take care of that creature.”

“But . . . that can’t be. Princess Celestia informed me that we would be the only ones to handle the job. Who were the two ponies that came here?”

“Oh, they were a couple of bright, young ponies. I’ll tell you what, they sure handled the job pretty well if you ask me. Took care of that beast in one night! Now I can finally sleep knowing that thing is far away from my property.”

“That’s incredible! I’m happy to know you’re safe, and that everything is under control.”

“Oh, you bet Miss. They came just this morning, and had that thing in a cage by night. They left only a few hours ago.”

“Oh, I hope that critter wasn’t in any pain,” says Fluttershy.

“Hey, those two sure seemed to know what they were doing! They were indeed professionals.”

“Did you happen to get their names? I’d really like to meet them in person.” Twilight asks.

“Of course, it was Professor Boozle and Doctor . . . Spuds I believe his name was, I could be wrong. They called themselves the ‘Monster Trackers’.”

“Monster Trackers?”

“I’ve never heard of them before,” says Fluttershy.

“Yeah, it’s strange. I’ve never heard of anypony calling themselves the ‘Monster Trackers’ in Ponyville. Nor have I heard of a Professor Boozle or Doctor Spuds,” says Twilight. “Did they give you any information on their whereabouts? Perhaps a business card?”

“Nope, I didn’t get anything like that,” says Mister Haystack. “I’m afraid that’s about all I know about ‘em. But wherever they are, I’m sure they’re busy cleanin’ up the town of any other creatures that may be lurkin’ around.”

“Well, I hope so as well. Anyway, again, I’m glad to know everything’s fine now. Sorry to have disturbed you this late at night.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble. Thank you for stopping by anyways. You ladies have a good rest of the night now.”

“You too, Mister Haystack.” He then closes the door, and the two mares leave the porch.

“The ‘Monster Trackers’ . . .” Fluttershy begins. “Why didn’t Princess Celestia just have them catch the critter instead of sending us?”

“That’s the problem,” says Twilight. “If these really are a couple of professionals like Mister Haystack claims, then I think Princess Celestia would’ve known about it. And if they said they were from Ponyville, then we definitely would’ve known about them, at least the name of their business. I think something shady is going on.”

“Why does it have to be shady? They came and caught the critter, and now Mister Haystack is happy. What’s so wrong about that?”

“It’s the fact that they apparently lied about where they were from that’s bothering me. If they really are a couple of ‘professionals’, then why would they have the need to lie?”

“Well, I guess you’re right. . . But, then, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try and confirm this with Princess Celestia tomorrow and find out just for sure who these ‘Monster Trackers’ really are and where they are. If ‘she’ doesn’t know, then something strange is definitely going on here.”

End of Episode 1