What We Become

“Well we're in the middle of a desert now...wonderful.”, the man continued muttering to himself as he angrily paced atop the ridge he had climbed. His leather duster, along with the rest of his clothing, had been assaulted by the desert's sandstorms for days now and he had been covered in a fine layer of whiteish brown dust from head to toe. The desert's bright pastel colours betrayed it's unforgivingness. He had climbed the ridge hoping to see some sign of life somewhere close to him, but all he could see for miles was the a large, barren desert. He knew that there was a fairly good chance that him and his companion would die in this desert.

“God...I haven't seen this much nothingness since I lived in Vermont!”, chirped a groggy voice behind the man. The man turned around to be greeted by his companion, another man whom he had been transported with into this god-forsaken desert. His companion surveyed the hundreds of miles of sand dunes surrounding them. His expression was hidden by his metal helmet and polarized visor, but the man had known him long enough to guess that he probably had his usual idiotic grin plastered across his face.

“So you catch anything on the radar today?, the man inquired.

“Nothin' today, but I know that faint signal we got from Gaige's helmet was coming from the north...I think we should keep heading in that direction. I mean it's not like we really have any other options.”

“Look around you, do you really think Gaige is still alive out there? There's nothing for miles out here and in the state he was last time I saw him, I don't think he'd make it too far out there. Face it Dawson we're searching for a corpse at this point and it's a waste of time!”, the man yelled, his frustration with his companions naivete was growing with each passing day.

“Patrick...I'm not giving up on him. You know he would never give up on us if he were in this position!”

“No Dawson, he'd do what he needed to keep himself and whoever he's with alive and not go on some pointless wild goose chase for someone who might not even be alive!”

“That's bullshit! You know that if he thought there was even the slightest chance someone was alive, he would go after them! I don't care what you say I'm going after him and you can go shove your self preservation up your goddamn ass! I'm looking for something that really matters to me and I'll go alone if I had to”, Dawson stood defiantly facing Patrick. The positions of the two resembling that of an old west standoff.

“I suppose you're right...”, Patrick sighed in defeat. Even if he wanted to leave on his own he couldn't, Dawson had most of their supplies with him. “I'll go with your plan, but I swear if we run out of food here...it'll be your ass on the line!” Patrick hissed angrily. He didn't like the “plan” one bit, but Dawson was right, he didn't really have any better options. So the two silently continued on, further into the desert. We're dead men walking, Patrick thought to himself.

* * *

It was a beautiful fall afternoon on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres. The sun had finally emerged from behind the cloud cover and everything was glistening in the daylight. The grass rustled softly in the wind and the apple orchard was a collage of beautiful oranges, yellows, and reds. The trees of the Everfree forest swayed lazily a little ways away from the orchards perimeter fence, but a strange malicious air could be felt radiating from the forest. Despite the events that had transpired by the edge of the Everfree forest not two weeks before, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stood expectantly right at the edge of the dangerous forest. “I don't know Applebloom...we've been coming here every day for the past two weeks and we still haven't seen this weird monster thing you're telling us about. Are you sure it's even in here?”, Scootaloo asked while giving an exasperated sigh.

“Ahm sure it's in here! Mah sister swears she saw it run away into the forest right here!” Applebloom cried, she was very headstrong about this monster hunting business and she wasn't going to give up on it so easily. Esepecially since her sister, the Element of Loyalty, told her that there was a real monster that lives in the forest. “You can leave now if you want to, but ahm not leavin' 'til ah see mah monster!” , she continued.

“I'm with Scootaloo. Let's just go Applebloom...I don't like this it's scary.” Sweetie Belle whispered, not bothering to hide how terrified she was anymore.

“Hey don't say that too loud Sweetie! You know what they say about monsters don't you?”, Scootaloo asked malevolently. Sweetie Belle gulped and shook her head, “They can smell fear and when they smell fear do you know what they'll do?”, Sweetie Belle started shaking and shook her head again, “They'll eat you whole!”, Sweetie Belle squealed and began to gallop back towards Sweet Apple Acres as fast as she could. Applebloom proceeded to charge after her and drag her bag to the edge of the forest, much to Sweetie's chagrin.

“Scootaloo! What are you goin' around spreadin' nonsense like that! Are you tryin' tah give Sweetie a heart attack?”, Applebloom scolded. Scootaloo brushed her off and rolled her eyes sarcastically at her.

“Oh come on! Sweetie's just being a little diva, that was nothing! At least I didn't tell her about how the monster slowly rips open it's prey and toys with it until-”, Scootaloo's melodramatic tale elicited another high pitched squeal from Sweetie Belle.

“Scootaloo!”

“Alright fine, I'll stop!” Scootaloo huffed and sat on her haunches crossing her fore hooves in frustration. “You girls aren't any fun.”, she muttered to herself as she continued to sulk.

“Applebloom can I please leave now! I'm really scared!”, Sweetie Belle managed to get out as she began to cry.

“No! Nopony's leavin' here now! There ain't nothin' dangerous about this monster! We're all perfectly safe here and he's not gonna come out her an' eat us or som'n! Everything'll be fine!”,  as Applebloom scolded her two friends, she noticed that both of them where staring at her, eyes wide with fear. She looked a little closer and she was about to ask them why they we're staring at her so strangely when she noticed they seemed to be looking at something behind her. She whipped around to face a vicious and hungry looking timber wolf. Applebloom was frozen in place with fear. Her mind screamed at her to run, but her legs didn't want to cooperate. So she stood frozen, staring straight at the timber wolf as it stared back and snarled with drool dripping out of its' mouth. The wolf eyed Applebloom hungrily with it's horrible yellow glowing eyes as it dropped to a crouch and prepared to pounce on it's prey. The wolf launched itself into the air towards Applebloom with its claws extended out towards her. Applebloom could only watch in dismay as time seemed to slow to a crawl and the timber wolf sailed through the air towards her. Suddenly, the creature was knocked out of the air by a large metal pole that curved at one end. The wolf yelped as it was struck hard by the pole and fell to the ground in a heap. Applebloom's gaze scanned down the pole until her gaze met it's owner, what looked like a large monkey clad in a helmet and robes. It was the monster her sister had warned her about

“Bad dog! Sit!”, scolded the monster. The timber wolf had now brought itself back up its' feet, snarling at the creature who dared separate it from it's delicious morsel. The timber wolf pounced at his assailant, only to be beaten off by the metal pole once again. “Fucking Christ! You damn wolves are impossible to train!”, the monster yelled in frustration. The wolf righted itself as it flew towards the ground and landed on its' paws as it prepared for another pounce. This time, when the timber wolf launched itself at the monster, the monster was caught off guard and was only able to bring up one of its' arms in a meagre attempt to protect itself. As the timber wolf bit down hard on the monster's arm, the monster uttered a sharp cry of pain and begin flailing its' arm in an attempt to break the wolf's grip. The monster fell to the ground with the timber wolf on top of him as it desperately tried to keep the wolf's snapping jaws away from its' face. The two became a flailing mass of limbs as they struggled to overpower one another. The monster began thrashing at the wolf in a frenzy of desperation and after a few frantic blows the wolf had been knocked off balance. The monster took advantage of the wolf's daze and brought its' hind leg up and kicked the wolf off itself with a mighty grunt. As the wolf slammed into the ground the monster slowly brought itself to its' feet and roared at the wolf. The timber wolf was now crouching once again with its' ears pressed back as it slowly backed away. It gave one last enraged growl at the monster and then proceeded to flee back into the Everfree forest.

Applebloom and her two friends were still frozen in place. They were all awe struck by the helmet wearing monkey that had just tussled with one of the deadliest creatures to ever exist and it had easily overpowered it. Needless to say, the three fillies were now possessed with a new level of fear as they began to wonder what horrible fate the monster had in store for them. They continued to stand frozen in time gaping at what they thought would surely bring them to their doom.

* * *

Gaige's heart was pounding like an indian war drum inside of his chest. He had been exhausted by the encounter with one of those strange wooden wolves. The tussle with the wolf wasn't helping his existing injuries either, he could feel a dull throbbing pain in his ribs as he slouched over and clutched his side. Goddam these bruised ribs, as if I don't put up with enough shit, Gaige thought to himself as he grunted in pain. He pulled his arm away from his side to inspect the bite he'd received in the fight. It didn't look too bad, the wound was oozing crimson blood but its' size was fairly small, the bite mostly tore up his sweater. He pulled his sleeve up to reveal his bloodied forearm that had a few nice fang sized bloody pock marks in it. Well, I have time, might as well bandage it, Gaige thought to himself as he began rummaging through his bag. He pulled out what was left of his roll of gauze and dressed the wound sparingly using some medical tape to hold the Gauze together. Well, it's not as good as what Carol could do, but it'll hold for now, as Gaige was repacking his medical supplies, he could see three brightly coloured creatures in the corner of his vision. He looked towards them fearing for the worst, only for his gaze to be met by three small flabbergasted fillies. They each looked like they came up to his thigh and they didn't seem too terribly muscular. Gaige ruled out that they were a threat and got on with his business. He had apples to take and he had to get them while the field hands of the orchard were making their trips back to the barn. As he walked towards the orchard and began picking a bounty of apples, he heard a trembling voice stutter something behind him.

“You...you can't take those...those are ours!”, Gaige turned around to meet three trembling fillies standing a few feet away from him, watching him. Two of them had their mouths agape, but one of them, the beige one with the red hair with a bow in it, had a certain fire in her eyes as she stared at him with a serious expression. He could safely assume she was the one who had called him out. He stuffed the last of the apples he had picked into his bag and began heading towards the tiny trembling trio.

“What are you gonna do call someone to come get me?”, Gaige chuckled as he stood over the trembling fillies.

“Ah'll...Ah'll call for mah brother! He'll get you real good mister...er...m'aam...or whatever you are!”, the beige filly stated, doing her best to look threatening.

Gaige chuckled, “There's no one around for miles, all your field hands are over by the barn. Even if you ran there and got one by the time you got back here I'd be long gone. Oh, and for the record, it's mister.”

“Well...ah'll...ah'll get somebody!”

“Who...you're parents?”, Gaige laughed heartily, “I know the farmhouse is further than the barn, good luck with that little miss.”

“Don't even mention my parents! Ah hate mah parents and ah wish they were dead!”, the filly was now in hysterics.

“Hey don't ever talk about your parents like that!”, Gaige was suddenly angered by the filly's ignorance, “You have no idea how much you'll miss them when they're gone!”, with that remark Gaige felt a pang of sadness, he hoped to god that the filly would never have to go through what he did.

“And who are you tah tell me what tah do?”, the filly demanded, her fear disappearing, only to be replaced by her anger spawning from the mention of her parents.

“I'm a nobody...I was never here.”, Gaige cooly stated. He figured the field hands would start back towards the outer fields and he didn't want to be around when they got there, so he began heading back towards his forest sanctuary.

“Hey! I'm gonna tell Rainbow Dash you did this and then she'll beat you up for what you did!”, threatened a high pitched gravelly voice from behind Gaige. As Gaige turned around he could see the orange filly had stepped towards him, but at the sight of him turning to face her, she froze up in fear once again. Gaige walked right up to the petrified filly and crouched down on one knee.

“Oh yeah...her...Well you can go tell her that if values her good health and her face, she'll stay the hell away from me. I knocked her unconscious last time we met, I won't go so easy on her next time and if I ever see one of you, or any other pony come after me...they can consider themselves already dead.”, the filly's eyes grew wide with terror. Gaige noticed that one of the other fillies, a white and pink one, was trembling uncontrollably off to his left. I'm sure it won't hurt to have a little fun with that one, might send them a message. Suddenly, Gaige whipped over towards the white and pink filly with his crowbar drawn, “...Boo!”, he hissed. The filly squealed and galloped as fast as she could in the opposite direction and her two friends followed suit. Y'know...maybe dealing with these freak show ponies won't be so hard after all. Gaige thought to himself as he watched the fillies gallop off.

* * *

“I've looked for days now, there's no records of anything like this ever existing in Equestria!”, Twilight Sparkle let out a frustrated groan. She had been losing sleep for at least a week to searching in vain for information on Ponyville's new “Monkey Monster”.

“Twi, there has to be somethin' around here that explains this...this thing! Look again, there has to be a book on it, you have a book about everything here!”, Applejack pleaded, “We can't just sit here while this monster terrorizes the whole darned town! This thing's dangerous, didn't you hear about how it tried tah eat Sweetie Belle? We've gotta learn how to stop it!”

“There's nothing to learn Applejack! This monster isn't even supposed to be here! We can't figure out how to stop it!”, Twilight suddenly paused as she began tapping her chin with her hoof in deep thought, “Unless...”, the purple unicorns eyes lit up as a large smile krept onto her face, “I've got it!”, she exclaimed.

“Got what?, Applejack asked, cocking her head at her ecstatic friend.

“The monster scavenges for food here right? We've all heard stories of a big monkey breaking into ponies houses.”, Twilight stated, nearly bouncing with excitement, “Well, we're gonna make him a meal he can't resist. Get as much food as you can Applejack, we're going to bring the monster to the library!”

“Twi have you gone INSANE? Bring the monster here? What's that gonna do other than probably get us killed!”, Applejack yelled, confused by her friends plan.

“No, you see, the only way we can learn anything about this monster is if we can catch it. So, we put all the food we can in one place and get some royal guards to watch all the stores. This monster will be forced to come here to get its' food.”, Twilight excitedly explained, “And besides, do you have a better idea?”

Applejack paused for a moment and thought to herself, “No...Ah can't say ah do...”

“Well then that's the plan! Let's get to it!”, Twilight exclaimed, briskly trotting off towards the Ponyville market.

That mare ain't right, Applejack thought to herself as she followed her friend.

* * *

I can't believe I'm doing this

Gaige silently approached the massive tree that was the local town's library. He had seen them piling supplies into it. A whole truckload of food awaited him inside the darkened building. He regretted having to enter a building where he had no escape route if he was spotted. If he was spotted that would be it for him, there'd be nowhere to run. He wished he could have been scavenging in one of the many small buisnesses of the town, but the town's population had caught on to what he had been doing and posted guards at every store entrance. How much longer can I keep doing this, Gaige thought to himself. He didn't have much in the way of food and stealing a few apples at a time from the local orchard wouldn't suffice if he wanted to survive. Going into the library was a risky choice, but if he pulled it off he might not have to scavenge again for at least a month. If he could pull this off, he might actually be able to rest for a while. Well...I better get on with it.

Gaige crept up to the rather small purple door and knelt down in front of it, blending into the shadows like a ghost. He checked the door to see if it had a lock and like all the other houses in the town, it didn't. Funny, they must not get many thieves here. Either that or they do something horrible to thieves to deter them. Gaige shook his head, trying not to think about what the latter might be. He took a can of motor oil from his pocket and began applying droplets of the oil to the hinges. Better safe than sorry, He thought to himself as he finished lubricating the hinges. Gaige began slowly pushing the door in, moving it very deliberately and making sure there were no tripwires or other traps that were waiting for him on the other side. Usually the equines never thought to lay traps, but this time, he saw a series of snares set up for him to get caught in. A trap? These ponies are getting craftier. Gaige could now assume that the library was a set up, he was meant to get caught in one of their snares when he went in. Gaige would have been impresses, if the snares weren't so easy to avoid. The ponies underestimated him, as Gaige had dealt with much more dastardly traps back in the wasteland. He cut the snare closest to the door and simply hugged the left wall of the library and shimmied around the rest. His precious supplies were now only mere feet away. He crouched and glided over to where the supplies were sitting  atop a table in one glorious pile. Gaige's mouth began to water at the sight of that much food in one place. It had been at least 5 years since he had seen so much food in one place. It wouldn't hurt to have a bite, I mean it's not like anyone's around, and with that Gaige began gorging himself with the mass of food that lay in front of him. It was the greatest feeling he'd felt in five years.

After a good few minutes of stuffing himself, Gaige laid down on the closest armchair with a bloated belly. The chair wasn't so accommodating, as it obviously was made for tiny horses and not a massive six foot tall human. The uncomfortable feeling of sitting half curled up in a ball made him feel a bit of nostalgia. It reminded him of the family road trips he used to go on as a child, and how he always had to sit right in between two very space consuming people for hours on end. Man, I miss those, Gaige thought to himself. He missed a lot of things.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle tossed and turned restlessly in her bed. The monster had to try to get in soon. Any minute now, she would hear the sound of one of Applejack's snares being pulled taught. Only the sound never came. Twilight let out a sigh of ennui and rolled over in her bed once again. Maybe it's smarter than I thought. Twilight began to worry that all her efforts had been in vain. She couldn't imagine how angry the whole town would be if they had to go to the trouble to gather most of their food and place it in the library for nothing. It would just be another disaster caused by the town egghead. Element of magic, I might as well be the element of ineptitude, She thought to herself as she groaned and buried her face in her pillow.

A faint clanging could be heard from the first floor of the library. “Spike! Get away from the food! It's for luring the monster!”, Twilight instinctively yelled.

“I'm up here Twilight. What are you talking about?”, Spike groaned and rubbed his eyes groggily.

Wait...that means... Twilight shot out of her bed and galloped down the staircase towards the first floor. As she made it to the bottom of the staircase she could see her door swinging open violently and a shadow disappearing into the night. The food was all gone, save a few goods left lying on the floor. How did he get past the snares?, Twilight pondered, Never mind that it's getting away! I have to chase after it! She charged after the monster as fast as she could. She managed to get in three hoof steps before she felt something constrict her hind hoof. Oh no, the snare pulled itself taught and left Twilight dangling from the ceiling upside down. She let out a cry of pain as she could feel circulation being cut off from her hoof.

“What happened Twilight? What's wrong?”, Spike frantically asked as he rushed down the stairs. The scene that awaited him on the first floor was a strange one. Twilight was hanging from the ceiling by her hind hoof, the food was gone and the front door to the library had been swung wide open. Spike couldn't help but burst out laughing at the irony of Twilights situation. He lost control of himself as he began rolling on the floor chortling and snorting in attempts to breathe between his fits of laughter.

“Spike...please...just hit the alarm”, Twilights asked, her cheeks now burning bright red with embarrassment and contempt. The baby dragon did as he was told but not before laughing maniacally at the rather helpless purple unicorn for another few minutes. As the alarm began to sound and the noise of the entire town stirring from it's slumber flooded her ears Twilight thought to herself. Whatever you are...there's no way I'm letting you get away this time, Twilight knew that the monster had made many enemies and few friends and they were all coming for him. It was only a matter of time, the hunt was on.