//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 Eat, Sleep, Kill, Repeat // Story: Not What I had Expected // by Frosthowl //------------------------------// Furious, I threw my knife towards the nearest tree. The point of the knife hit the bark and dug deep into it. "MOTHER FUCKER!" I roared out due to losing my patience. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I went over to the tree and quickly pulled out the knife. I took a deep breath, trying to calm down from letting a 150-160 pound deer get away. The arrow I had shot at it, had missed its mark, and hit its shoulder instead of its lungs. There was no point in trying to recover the arrow or find the buck. It had most likely run to either Ponyville by now or as far away from this part of the forest as possible. "Today's not my day..." I sheathed the knife and started making my way back to the cabin. I had wasted a lot of energy today with barely anything to show for it. If I don't stock up on food...I’ll be forced to undertake more drastic measures in order to survive winter. The small fillies slowly made their way deeper into the forest with their butterfly nets dangling from their necks. Thinking it would be enough to subdue the towering human. "I heard rumors that it hunts and eats ponies during Nightmare Night! In fact it was responsible for the annual candy offering being cancelled." Scootaloo said as she lead the way for her friends. "Even the princesses are afraid of it. Imagine how much bits we’ll get when we capture the monster." "No way! T'ain't true!" Applebloom protested. "The princesses are supposed to be the most magical ponies in all of Equestria. Of course they ain't afraid of some furless monster!" "Rarity said that the monster knows Equestrian and has an awful sense of fashion." Scootaloo stopped in her tracks and faced her friends. "Once we capture the monster. We'll get our cutie marks and THEN!" Scootaloo jumped on a root, making her stand above her friends in a proud pose towards the sky. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders will be famous all over Equestria. We'll be able to expand and recruit more ponies to our club!" Scootaloo jumped down and kept leading the ponies to their destination. "Scootaloo do you even know where we are going?" Sweetie belle asked nervously as she kept her eye out for the Monster or any other animal. Scootaloo bristled. "Of course I-." She was cut off as she collided with a wall made out of cut down trees. Her friends stared in amazement while Scootaloo recovered from her collision. "See, I told you I could find it." The three fillies slowly made their way inside the mysterious house with their nets ready. They pushed aside the rickety old door that was propped up against the entryway and knocked it down. However to their disappointment there was no Monster in the house. "Look around, It might be hiding somewhere!" They split up and started searching every corner of the house. But they still couldn't find hide nor hair of the supposed human. "Darnit, where could it have gone?" The fillies regrouped at the table and saw a strange brown bag that had a red stain coming out of it. "What do you suppose it is?" Applebloom jumped up from the chair to the table and was about to open the bag. "WHAT THE FUCK!?" An angry male voice sounded behind the trio. The three fillies quickly turned their attention to the giant bipedal human standing behind them. It was wearing a black and muddy torn up shirt as well as black pants that were not torn up at all. But it was still stained by several different colors. The fillies stared in complete shock. None of them dared to move...until I had no idea what the fuck these pony kids were doing in my fucking house. But the real question is what I would do with them. "What are you doing in my house?!" I bellowed. But my question was interrupted as I was knocked off my feet. I flipped over and saw a Timber wolf. Larger than any I had ever encountered. The wolf lunged at me with its jaw of jagged splinters. I acted quickly and protected myself with my arm, as an alternative to having my throat ripped out. Its teeth sunk into the soft unprotected flesh of my arm and started gnawing on it like a rabid coyote. I let out a scream of agony as I desperately tried to get it to stop. "GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" I grabbed hold of the wolf and rolled it over to the ground, giving me the upper hand. I punched as hard as I could, dismembering its lower jaw, leaving it defenceless. While it was reeling in pain, I stood up as fast as I could, and curb-stomped its head, killing it instantly. The adrenaline was surging through my body and I quickly turned upon the ponies who had invaded my home and let loose a growl. The ponies gave a deafening shriek and ran away. Except the yellow one who was still in shock. I quickly looked over my wound and saw I had a pretty deep cut that would need stitching. I collected myself seconds later, and was just about to start screaming at the filly for trespassing, as well as leading the timber wolf to my property. But a loud howl soon caught my attention. I turned around and looked outside to see an entire pack of timber wolves, as big as the one I had just killed. "Oh crap!" I picked up the door from the ground and slammed it up against the wall. But I wasn’t fast enough. One of the wolves got their face through the door. It was desperately trying to grab hold of my arm and hand while I was pushing back against the, and blocking of the entrance. I quickly unsheathed my knife and slashed it in its eye, causing it to yipe and jerk away from the opening. I finally managed to seal off the opening making the pack unable to enter. "Hey kid! push that table over here!" I shouted at the pony, breaking it out of its initial shock. The pony did not respond but did do what I asked of it. She struggled to push the medium sized table over to me. When she managed to push it a bit closer to me I was able to drag it over the rest of the way and and use it as a blockade. With the danger finally over. I slid down the wall with the tension of the situation dying down. I looked down on my open wound and saw how it was continuing to bleed a large amount of my life’s fluids. While the human was bleeding out in his cabin, the joyful and happy ponies of ponyville were living their carefree lives, as far away from struggle as possible. In the heart of Ponyville, a group of mares were having a blast, talking and laughing about their daily events. Some of them were talking about what they were looking forward to this Winter. Others mentioned how they were going to miss the warm embrace of Princess Celestia’s sun upon their fur. "Its great to be back in Ponyville. I'm really going to miss Shining Armor though!" Twilight said as she took another sip of her chocolate milk. "I'm going to miss my sparkling mane!" Rarity cried out. Wishing she could enjoy another moment as a crystal pony. "Ah'm proud that we were able to help beat back Sombra. Ah'm also happy that Spike got his moment of fame." Applejack said and turned her gaze towards Spike who was swimming in a sea of gems. He emerged from below and began slapping the side of his head, causing some gems to pour out the other side. "Say again?" He said comedically. All of the ponies burst into a fit of laughter. But their laughter was cut short as the door swung open, and with it, came two galloping fillies who were shrieking from the top of their tiny lungs. Twilight stood up from her cushion and quickly used her magic to levitate the fillies into the air causing the pair to stop screaming and running in circles. "Girls! What's wrong!?" She asked them as her magical aura was dissipated around the two. "Rarity!" - "Applejack!" They both cried out. "One at a time girls!" Twilight said, calming them down a bit. It took a second before they continued. "Applebloom’s in trouble!" They said out loud in unison. "What!?" Applejack said afraid for whatever had befallen her sister. "What happened?!" Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo to answer, after all it was her idea to put themselves in danger in the first place. "We were gonna try to get our Cutie marks in monster hunting. We...we went and tried to catch the big scary human living in the forest..." Scootaloo was at the point of crying. She was so ashamed of how she had gotten one of her best friends in real danger. "We...we found its house and we were just about to investigate a strange looking bag when he came back and started screaming at us...right before he got attacked by a timber wolf!" Applejack was at the point of panicking. "TWILIGHT! You have to send a message to the princess and tell her to send help, my sister’s in danger!" Twilight nodded as she made an emergency parchment for human related trouble appear out of thin air along with a quill. She scribbled a few notes on it, detailing the situation. "Spike!" she cried, as she finished her frantic scribbling. The young drake quickly grabbed the parchment and took a deep breath before engulfing the whole thing in an emerald flame. It had been almost an hour, and you could still hear the wolves outside the house, they were persistent, they could smell my blood. They knew that I was injured and weakened. My axe was outside and with a large piece of venison in the house and two easy kills along with it, they wouldn't let an opportunity like this slip by. The pack would wait until I was too weak to hold the door or until we tried to make a run for it. While all of the wolves were circling the house, I was enjoying the euphoric sensation of bandaging my wound that continued to bleed quite profusely. I poured some alcohol on the gash to keep it from getting infected. I took a couple of sips and took a stole a few glances glances towards the frightened filly. "You gonna tell me what you guys were doing in my house already or should I haul your ass outside to the wolves?" I asked, making sure the filly understood that I was pissed. I had no compassion for ponies, especially ponyville ponies who act like the whole world is a fucking water theme park. She started to sniffle before responding. "We...we was trying to get our cutie marks in...monster catching..." She spoke, afraid of how I would react. I looked at the dropped butterfly nets on the ground. I inspected it closer as I picked it up from the ground. "The princesses must be really desperate if they sent you guys to capture me. Especially with broke ass nets." I snapped the net in half with the hand I was holding it with. I took a sip from the drink that I had saved for Christmas as a celebration drink. "You want some kid? It'll grow some hair on your balls." I said offering an obvious minor a sip of the bottle containing 45% alcohol. She quickly shook her head as she was still afraid of me. "Suit yourself, but its gonna be a long day." I leaned my head against the door whilst looking towards the roof. "God, I would kill for a smoke right now..." That statement did not help the situation between me and the filly, but I couldn't care less, after all, if the wolves don't go any time soon, I'll gladly hand over the brat to the wolves with the venison strapped to her back. "What made you guys think it would be such a good idea to come after me? Didn’t you see the warning signs painted with animal blood? You know you done fucked up right? You trespassed into my part of the forest, which means anything is free game…. I could kill you, legally." The yellow filly paled at this and started to shiver. "Please mister...don't hurt me." She said with tears starting to form around her eyes. "You've left me no choice. If I have to throw your piss colored ass out to the wolves to make a break for it, I will. You've cost me an arm and a leg today, you should be glad that I don't kill you myself, at least with the wolves, you have a chance to outrun them if you're smart." Applebloom didn't say anything, instead she backed off to the other side of the house, keeping her distance from me as far as possible. I stood up from the floor, making my way towards the bed and went down on my stomach to grab something from under it. When I felt a light jabbing against one of my fingers , I knew I found what I was looking for. I retracted my arm and with it came a needle attached to a spool of thread. I saw how Applebloom leaned closer to see what I had taken from under the bed. "What’s that for?" She asked curiously. "This is used to cause an unmeasurable amount of self inflicted pain, do you wanna try first?" I asked rhetorically as I presented the needle that was covered with smattering of old dried blood on it. She quickly went pale again and backed off to her corner of the house. "Suit yourself." I brought the needle and spool to the table and sat on the chair. I picked up the alcoholic drink from the floor and placed it on the table as well. I took a sip of the drink and put the needle in between my lips, sterilizing it with the alcohol in my mouth. I took out several inches of linen thread from the spool and started trying to thread the needle. I quickly succeeded and braced myself for what was coming next. "Hey kid, if you don't want to see some trippy shit, I suggest you look the other way." I turned my back on the filly and started pouring alcohol on the wound. "ARGH!!! MOTHER FUCKER!!!" The excruciating pain of the strong alcohol felt like it was tearing up the wound even more. I smashed my fist on the table to try and distract myself from the searing agony emanating from my wound. I was bottling up all my screams of pain as much as I could. My breathing rate quickened as blood and adrenaline started rushing through my veins. After a few seconds of letting the agonizing pain settle in, I placed the needle at the start of the wound. With a final deep breath, I dug the needle deep into my skin and pushed it to the other side of the wound. "ARGH!! FUUUUCK!!" In Canterlot. the day was reaching its point of twilight. Celestia was lowering her sun with her sister by her side, who was raising the moon. "There!" Luna said as she wiped sweat off of her forehead. Raising or lowering a Celestial body was not easy. "Now that we are done here, I will see to hunting down the monstrous human!" "Patience Luna, we do not know if it has done any harm yet. It’s not like him to harm any of our ponies unless they robbed him somehow. I doubt that a filly would be capable of pushing him to that point." Luna snorted. "I still say we should chain it to the dungeons like before. Just to be safe, we can't have a wild beast running amok in the forest, harming our precious ponies." Celestia gave her sister a strict stare. "We did that already, and he broke free, killed several guards and raided our kitchen and almost killed you! Don't forget that he spared your life and wishes to be left alone in his forest. If we hadn't been so brash, we could have spared those lives that were lost. Besides, I doubt that our guards could subdue him." "That's because our guards are undisciplined. Before my banishment, a hoof-full of my lunar guards could slay a Chimera or Manticore. Now, when the local wildlife stirs trouble, we need an entire battalion! I am telling you sister, this does not fare well in the safety of our nation." A male stallion behind the princesses cleared his throat, to alert them that he was in their presence. "Your majesties?" He uttered while he saluted them. Celestia hid her frown from the former Captain of the royal guard. "Aah Shining armour, I'm glad that you could make it." She spoke with her usual graceful voice. "Thank you Ma'am, I came as fast as I could when I received your message!" He put his hoof down as he replied. "What seems to be the problem?" "I recieved a message from your sister, Twilight, who is in desperate need of our help. I am assigning you to gather your best guards and make way towards Ponyville, I will be joining you as well. It seems that our human friend is suspected of foalnapping one of Ponyville's residents."