//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 (Peek a Boo, I See You) // Story: Moving Day // by Timothy48 //------------------------------// Chapter 8 It was morning, and Allen had managed to fall asleep sometime during the night. As the sun’s rays peeked through his bedroom window and landed on his face, he slowly roused from his fitful slumber. Blinking away the sleep induced crud from his eyes, Allen gave a mighty yawn and stretched his sore and tired muscles. As he stretched, his leg bumped into the piece of angle iron he’d brought in the previous night. Looking down at it, he stared at it dumbly for a moment as his mind slowly booted up. Then suddenly, like an old truck slipping into gear, memories from yesterday tore through his mind. The strange horse creatures that had confronted then chased him and Reuben, him panicking and running home to lock himself inside and pray that whatever crazy dream he’d been dreaming would end already and that he would wake up back in the normal world. Unfortunately, from where Allen was sitting, last night did not appear to be a dream, if the detailed memories, sore muscles and piece of scrap metal lying against his leg was any indication. Grabbing the metal in his hand, Allen eased himself up, grunting in discomfort as his muscles protested from having been forced to lay against an uncomfortable surface all night. Creeping cautiously up to his bedroom window, Allen risked a look outside, but he didn’t spot anything immediately threatening. So relaxing slightly, he decided to leave the safety of his room, and try and at least get something to eat while he appeared to be alone. Allen made his way swiftly downstairs to the kitchen, his stomach urging him forwards by growling angrily at him to feed it. However, he took a moment to glance through each window that he passed on his way to the kitchen for signs of activity outside. Reaching the kitchen, he crept up to the sliding glass doors, and their partially drawn blinds, that lead out onto the back patio, and glanced through them. What he saw outside made him pause. For there, on the edge of his property beyond the boundary fence, a large billboard had been erected. Standing at least two stories tall, and at least half as wide, and on it, plain as day were five words that made Allen’s heart skip a beat, We’re sorry, can we talk? And if that hadn’t been enough, underneath the words, the English words, was a caricature of a human and ponies, where the ponies were giving the human gifts and then both the human and the ponies were giving each other fist bumps, or would that be hoof bumps? Allen wasn’t sure, and at that point, he didn’t really care. What he did know and care about was the fact that somehow these pony-like creatures could, at least, write English and were attempting to communicate with him. The sixty-four thousand dollar question though was, did they really want to talk to him or were they just trying to lull him into a false sense of security to make it easier to capture him? Noticing movement near the sign, Allen cautiously pulled on of the blinds to the side slightly to get a better look. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really make out what was going on out there, as whatever was moving was too small to see clearly from this distance. Pulling away from the window, Allen went over to a nearby shelf and grabbed a pair of binoculars from it. Walking back to the sliding door, he once more carefully pulled the blinds aside just enough so that he could see outside with them. Looking through the binoculars he saw several of the armor wearing, pony creatures milling about the sign. However, what really drew his attention was a pair of ponies sitting off to one side of the sign, both of them appeared to be unicorns, judging by the spiral horns protruding from their foreheads. One of them, was large, and sported a white coat and blonde mane, Allen assumed from its large stature and physique that it was a male. He had one hoof raised above his brow and was looking intently in the direction of the house. The other one was about a third size smaller than the first one, and probably a female. She sported a lavender coat, with a dark purple mane with several pink highlights running through it. And she was looking right at him through a fancy looking telescope. ~oOo~ The sun had been up for over an hour by this point and Twilight hadn’t moved from her spot behind her telescope since she’d taken it over two hours ago. Her back muscles ached from the strain of being bent over and stationary for the past two hours. In addition, the coffee she’d had earlier had worn off, and she found herself struggling to stay awake through sheer willpower. Unfortunately, willpower alone wasn’t going to be enough, and Twilight found it harder and harder to remain awake and alert. She was just about to take a break at that point when she thought she saw something move in the house. Adjusting her telescope, she focused on a pair of what she assumed were glass doors that lead out onto a wooden deck behind the home. Blueblood, noticing that something had caught Twilight’s attention, asked, “What do you see?” Biting her lower lip, her aches and exhaustion momentarily forgotten, Twilight replied, “I’m not sure, I thought I saw something move the blinds behind the glass doors at the back of the house, the ones that lead out onto the deck.” Blueblood brought a hoof up to his brow to help shield his eyes from the morning sun, and leaning forward slightly, tried to see what Twilight was talking about while cursing the fact that he didn’t think to have one of the guardsponies bring him a telescope too. After a minute or so of not seeing anything, Blueblood was about to say something when he heard Twilight let loose a gasp of surprise and excitement. Dropping his hoof to his side, he turned to look at her, and asked, “What, what did you see?” Leaning back from her telescope, Twilight replied in wide-eyed excitement, “I saw it! I saw the human through the blinds, it was looking back at us with a pair of binoculars!” By this point a large smile had appeared on her face, Blueblood meanwhile felt a frown tugging at the corners of his. Keeping his face neutral, he calmly asked, “Well, was there anything else that you saw?” Twilight’s smile waned slightly, and she replied, “Not really, I think the human saw me looking at it, and got scared, seeing as how it ducked back out of sight shortly after spotting me.” Blueblood placed a hoof to his chin and tapped it thoughtfully for a moment. At least they knew that the human was still in the house. However, it didn’t seem to be interested in coming out anytime soon, so the question now was, how did they get it to come out or at least talk to them without them having to do something drastic? Sadly, Blueblood didn’t have an answer to that question. Sighing, he turned to a nearby guard and said, “Report back to the command post that we have confirmation that the human is still inside the house.” The guard gave a quick salute and galloped off. “So, now what?” asked Twilight uncertainly. “Now, we go back to waiting,” replied Blueblood. Twilight just gave a nod and turned her attention back to her telescope, and by extension the house. They had made the human aware of their presence and intentions, now it was up to the human to make the next move, whatever it may be. ~oOo~ Back inside the house, Allen sat by the sliding glass doors, trying to figure out his next move. From the look of things, he felt reasonably certain that he’d been spotted. However, the ponies hadn’t really done anything other than that one armored one taking off into the distance. Allen figured that it was most likely a messenger, intent on relaying word of current events back to their higher ups or something. Regardless, Allen knew that he was running out of time, events were in motion and he needed to do something soon. The question however was, what should he do? Fiddling with the binoculars in his hands nervously, Allen wracked his brain for an answer to his dilemma. Sadly, his brain didn’t really have any good options at the moment. Can’t run, too much open ground. Can’t really stay here, too many ways to get in, and not enough people to defend the house. Plus I can’t get in the stupid gun safe since I don’t know where the key is, so defending myself is going to be much harder. Though... His gaze wandered back to the sliding glass doors to his left, and moving carefully, he brought his binoculars up to his face again and took another peek outside through the blinds. The sight that greeted him hadn’t really changed, the sign was still there with its friendly-sounding words and pictures on it, and the two unicorns were still standing near the sign, the lavender colored one again looking through its telescope. And once again, it looked like it spotted him if its ears perking up and the sudden straightening of its body posture was any indication. Feeling as though his mouth had turned into a desert, Allen forced himself to remain where he was, observing the ponies out beyond his property line. When the lavender unicorn saw that he wasn’t ducking out of view again, it raised one of its hooves and waved at him. Allen did not return the gesture, instead opting to remain still and continue watching. When the unicorn saw that he wasn’t waving back, it let its leg fall limply to its side, its ears turned down as if in disappointment. Allen continued watching, his thoughts flowing through his mind as if they were part of a powerful river that threatened to breach its banks and flood the countryside. Finally, Allen couldn’t stand the scrutiny anymore and pulled back away from the blinds. Leaning up against the wall, he let loose a shaky breath that he didn’t realize that he’d been holding and quietly said to himself, “Okay, let’s take stock of the situation here. I am alone in an alien world, surrounded by aliens, I have limited resources, and no way to get home or get help. I was chased home yesterday by the same creatures that are now saying that it was all a misunderstanding and that they just want to talk. They obviously outnumber me and could force their way inside whenever they want to, so the question is, why don’t they?” It was a valid question, if the ponies outside had the ponypower to breach his flimsy defenses, which it looked like they did, then they question becomes, why hadn’t they done so already? Did they think he was some kind of powerful being that could decimate them with but a thought? He shook his head-it didn’t make sense, if that had been the case, they wouldn’t have chased him yesterday. Therefore, the logical conclusion was that, maybe, just maybe, they were serious and that something else had been going on yesterday, and that he’d just had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because, as far as Allen could see, the ponies should have had no qualms about busting in his front door and taking him prisoner during the night or just simply bombarding his house with ranged weapons and killing him outright. At least, that is what Allen hoped was the logical conclusion; if he was wrong, then he was going to be in serious trouble. However, seeing as how his options were limited, to say the least, trying to open up communications with the ponies was probably one of his best options at the present. The sixty-four thousand dollar question however was, how was he going to talk to them? Just walking outside seemed kind of dumb, as apparently some of them could fly, which meant they could grab and drop him from on high if things went south, and even though he wasn’t entirely certain that the unicorns could do magic, he wasn’t ruling that possibility out either. So no, going outside did not seem like the best choice of action. “But if I can’t go outside, then how am I going to talk to them?” grumbled Allen to himself as he mulled over his options, “I probably can’t yell at them from the house as the road’s too far away for them to hear me well, and I am not going to just walk up to them after what happened yesterday, even if it might have been a misunderstanding. So the only real option that I can see is to get one of them to come to me. But, how would I do that?” Allen felt his frustration mounting as the seconds ticked by, and his tired mind failed to provide him with any good solutions. Shaking his head angrily, he decided to take another look outside at the ponies to see if anything had changed since he’d last looked. Bringing his binoculars up to his eyes again, he looked out towards the road to see that other than the either another guard showing up or the previous one returning, nothing had changed. The white coated unicorn was still standing, gazing at the house, and the lavender one was still bent over the telescope, and once again, the lavender pony seemed to become more alert, its ears perking forward and posture straightening up, when Allen reappeared. However, unlike last time, it did not try to wave at him again. Looking from the lavender pony up to the sign again, Allen was suddenly struck with an idea. If the ponies used English, or at least their equivalent of it, to communicate, and they had used a sign to try to get his attention, then why couldn’t he too? Of course he didn’t have access to a two story tall wooden billboard, but he shouldn’t need one as he already had their attention, and, if the lavender pony’s telescope was powerful enough, they should be able to read whatever message he wrote on a piece or two of paper. Now to just find some paper, and something to write with. Pulling away from the window, Allen set the binoculars down on the counter and quickly set off in search of paper and pen. Unfortunately, this proved much more difficult than he originally thought, as while he was able to easily find some note paper, each pen he found ended up not working. Leading to Allen becoming more and more frustrated as the search progressed and the minutes ticked by, finally after several minutes, Allen found a pen that seemed to work at first, but after writing the first few letters, it also ran out of ink. His frustration boiling over, Allen threw the now useless pen across the room, his face a mask of frustration. “Stupid, fucking pen!” he exclaimed angrily as he threw his hands up in the air, “Why is it that whenever I need something around here, I can either never find it or it doesn’t fucking work?!” Letting loose a frustrated growl, Allen angrily scrubbed his face with a hand as he tried to figure out what to do next. Casting his eyes around the room for an alternative, they finally settled on a whiteboard hanging on the basement door. Hope rising within him, Allen quickly crossed the room. Grabbing the black marker that went with the board, Allen wrote a couple of test words to check if the marker was still good, and seeing the letters appear in strong black marker ink, a smile blossomed on his face while he lifted the board from its mounting pegs on the door and brought over to the dining room table. Setting it down, he quickly wiped away the current writings and messages and wrote a short simple sentence. Satisfied with his work, he recapped the marker, and grabbing the whiteboard, went back to the sliding glass doors. Pulling the blinds aside slightly, he held up the whiteboard so that the ponies could see it clearly. With that done, all he had to do now was wait for their response, he just hoped that it was a good one. ~oOo~ Twilight was beginning to get worried now. It had been nearly a half hour since she had first noticed the human, and in that time, she’d seen it come back to the glass doors again. This time, it had remained at the door watching her with its binoculars for several minutes instead of ducking back out of sight when it realized that it had been spotted. Encouraged by this turn of events, Twilight had waved to it in the hopes that her friendly gesture would elicit a positive reaction. Sadly, that had not been the case, in fact, the human hadn’t even acknowledged her, electing to instead to just keep watching her and the others, leaving her feeling awkward for her efforts. Letting her hoof drop down, she felt her ears pin back in a mixture of disappointment and embarrassment. Several moments later, the human ducked back out of sight, and for the past twenty minutes or so, there had been no new changes. What was going on inside that house? Was the human panicking, or was it formulating a response to what they had done? Was it going to be a friendly or unfriendly response? Twilight just didn’t have the answers to those questions, and it left her feeling very nervous and unprepared, such as when Princess Celestia had on one occasion popped a surprise quiz on her on a subject she hadn’t really studied before. Her ensuing meltdown had been the talk of the castle staff and nobles for weeks, and even Princess Celestia, a mare who had had hundreds of students before Twilight, had been taken aback at Twilight’s volatile reaction to the simple pop quiz. Twilight herself didn’t really recall what had happened, and no one would tell her either; all she knew was that Princess Celestia had been required to sedate her with a sleep spell, and to make a note to both herself and all other teachers to never give Twilight a surprise test again. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of somepony clearing their throat loudly next to her. Giving a quick shake of her head, Twilight banished those old memories back to the dark corners of her mind where they had come from and refocused her attention on the present. Turning to the source of the noise, she saw that Blueblood was trying to get her attention, and feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment, she said, “I’m sorry, what was that again?” Blueblood waved her apology away with a hoof, “It’s alright, anyways, I think our human guest has decided to respond,” he said, pointing a hoof at the house where a white board had suddenly appeared in the window. Her heart beating faster, Twilight practically smashed her eye to the telescope lense and quickly made a couple of minute adjustments to bring the whiteboard into better focus. When she saw the words written on it, she let out a gasp of both excitement and astonishment. “What, what do you see?” asked Blueblood, a hint of excitement and impatience coloring his tone. “It’s...it’s in Equestrian!” exclaimed Twilight, her excitement building ever higher, like steam pressure in a boiler, “The human can understand Equestrian!” “But what does it say?!” exclaimed Blueblood in exasperation. “It says, ‘Okay, let’s talk.’” “That’s it?” asked Blueblood flatly. Pulling her head away from the telescope, Twilight nodded her head, “That’s it.” Blueblood sat down on his haunches and rubbing his chin thoughtfully said, “Alright, go get Ms. Heartstrings, let’s see if we can talk to our human guest finally.” Giving a single nod, Twilight leapt from her sitting position and took off at a brisk canter, leaving Blueblood alone with his thoughts. Let’s hope this goes better than last time.