There's a Monster Pony Outside My Window

by Halira


Chapter 17: Not So Restful Stop

The rest stop wasn't very active. There were only a few cars, and most of those had people sleeping in them. Everyone from their vehicle was taking a few minutes to walk around, go to the restroom, and grab some snacks. Then back in the car for a quick nap.

The elder Charlotte pulled a pack of beef jerky from the vending machine and pulled at the package to try to open it. Wendy stared at her, puzzled. 

"I thought you didn't eat meat," the younger version of her mother said accusingly as she watched her get the package open and pull out a piece.

"Correction, I said it doesn't always agree with my stomach," Charlotte replied, exasperated by all the questions her younger family constantly bombarded her with. "The early part of my digestive system when I'm not wearing this necklace can't handle it, but I expect I'm going to go at least the next twelve to fourteen hours with it on. That gives me more than enough time to complete the problematic parts of digestion, and I need the calories."

The younger woman was clearly not satisfied. "You don't have some herbivore objection to it?" 

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Herbivore objection? No, I don't. I don't eat meat as a pony because I can't digest it. I don't have any moral objection to it. I'm not even strictly an herbivore; I eat eggs, and other ponies have been known to eat bugs—which is something that I can't personally stomach because I get queasy just thinking about It. Eww! And don't even get me started on my daughter's baked tarantulas! Some things are not meant to be baked!"

"What about—"

Charlotte cut her off, irritation getting the better of her. "I know you're tired. You should finish getting your snacks, finish stretching your legs, and go back to the car to sleep. I know you have understandable curiosity about the future and ponies, but I need a break from your questioning. Do you recall dealing with incessant questions from four-year-olds? I don't mean to be rude, but that is what the five of you questioning me feels like. Actually, I should exclude Charlotte from that; she has been rather quiet throughout this. You should probably check on her. Take it from a great-grandmother; a child being quiet isn't necessarily a good thing."

Wendy put on a defensive look. "We aren't that bad, and I think we can be excused for asking questions since it's the future, and in this case, about something that impacts my daughter's safety."

"I will tell you more tomorrow. We have plenty of miles in the car where all we have to do for entertainment is talk. Right now, I need me-time. Please, take your leave."

Wendy grumbled to herself and stormed off towards the car while clumsily trying to pull a cigarette from her purse with her good arm.

It felt like dealing with a petulant child. She hated thinking of her parents that way, but many of these questions were ones that school-aged kids at home knew. The fact they were young enough to be her kids only reinforced the idea they were childlike. However, Wendy was right, they should be forgiven their ignorance and curiosity, and she would probably be just as inquisitive in their place, even more so. It didn't help much in assuaging her irritation, but she could keep her temper from boiling over due to something like this. 

She re-reminded herself that this Wendy and Charles were not her parents. Thinking of them as Wendy and Charles instead of their pony names, Dry Soil and Hook Line, helped differentiate them more. Still, it was unnerving at times, dealing with these young reflections of her parents. It was even more unnerving coping with the actual children. Even seeing them as human children, she still expected Amicus Curiae… Kristin to start adjusting her glasses—which this child didn't have or need yet— and then pontificate at length about how much legal liability she was facing due to her behavior and potentially illegal magic usage. Andrea, she half-expected to start cussing her out at any moment and telling her how being closely related to a mage who pulled crap like this had consistently derailed Andrea's career with the FBI because being sister to such a nefarious mage was too much of a security risk to give more than low-level security clearance, something Andrea always threw in her face when angry. 

Andrea's potential tirade paled in comparison to what Charlotte's daughters would likely have to say. Phobia always gave her that look of sad disappointment, and Lántiān had flat out smacked her more than once for her foolishness. She'd rather deal with Andrea's cussing and screaming for a week straight than have to face either of her daughters for an hour. It was degrading having her own daughters treating her like a child in need of a good spanking. At least her sons didn't do that.

There was going to be a lot of yelling when she returned home. All her friends and family were going to be furious that she had taken off on her own. It was one of her many weaknesses that she would charge in without thinking when her family was in danger. These humans were a divergent reflection of her family, not the real one, but try as she might, and much as she insisted it to them, she still saw her family. She hoped this human-child version of Andrea could keep her mouth shut for at least a little while. The elder Charlotte did not want to deal with the confused family dynamic. The longer it was a secret, the better. 

Oh well, dealing with pissed-off relatives was a problem for another day. Aside from the failed attempt to burn her alive, this trip wasn't that dangerous. Her last such undertaking, when she had tried to rescue her adopted granddaughter from the same group, had been much worse. A case of arson hardly compared to being tortured for hours on end. She had also been dealing with far more people and on their home turf before. This time around, there were three confirmed ponies and an unconfirmed number of humans, and they had no home-field advantage. She wasn't a gambler, but she liked those odds. She was the fifth-greatest unicorn mage alive and probably eighth or ninth among all mages—it was hard to be better than an alicorn. Still, she was pretty confident she was more skilled than the Crystal Empire's two princesses, although laughably outmatched in power. She had the skill and determination to beat a few loser fanatics. 

She watched Wendy puffing away at her cigarette a short distance from the car. Charlotte had dropped hints that she needed to stop; maybe she needed to be more direct and flat out say Hey, people always say you can get cancer from smoking those things, but I know for a fact you do. You got lucky, and turning into a pony saved you on what should have been your deathbed. You might not get lucky this time. She didn't want Wendy or the family to have to deal with that again. Unfortunately, those earlier hints would be a dead giveaway about Charlotte's identity if she came out directly about what would happen. Perhaps she could reveal the truth right before she left, when there was no opportunity remaining to deal with the awkwardness. 

You can be so reckless yet still somehow manage to be a coward. She mentally scolded herself. A mass of contradictions and hypocrisy, that was what she was. The most human pony was one of her many titles, and sometimes that title was used as a compliment and other times a curse, but no matter how it was interpreted, it was accurate. Ponies were supposed to know who they were; that was what a cutie mark was all about. Technically, she did know, even if her mark meant something else entirely. What she was was the most brilliant idiot in the world. 

She continued to munch on her food and walked away. She wasn't planning on going to sleep anytime soon, and she wasn't going to spend her entire time cramped up in the car. Her saddlebag's straps were adjustable in a way that let her convert it into an impromptu backpack—not perfectly, but enough to function as one. That meant she didn't have to worry about any of the kids or the adults, for that matter, getting into her stuff. The tablet password would have probably kept them from accessing files on it, and if they broke it trying to use it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Her anchor crystal was the more significant concern. If they broke that, she'd be sent straight back home with no way back. Even if she could somehow figure out a spell to do so, improbable as that was, it would be near impossible to make another crystal that would line up with this timeline since it had to be made from the same mooring crystal back home. It was best to keep it on her at all times. 

There wasn't much to look at; it was Kansas. It was a big stretch of flat plains, cows, farms, and telephone poles, interrupted by the occasional building or tree. In her own time, ponies had migrated to this region en masse to build farming communities. She'd never understood the draw of farming and rural life, maybe because she was a unicorn, but that excuse was weak. The truth was she was greedy, and the thought of giving up all the things human civilization had achieved for fields of wheat was unacceptable to her. She never willingly gave up an asset, even if she never intended to make use of it. 

Greedy, arrogant, egotistical, dishonest, quick to anger, reckless, vengeful, manipulative, not to mention envious, those faults and more all described her. Those traits did not add up to a good person, but her talent and mark meant that she was capable of making more from the sum of what she had been given. One plus one equals two, except for when she was involved. Those traits should not add up to a good person, but she tried her damndest to make herself more than the sum of her parts. 

Her breath caught when she suddenly saw a familiar black van parked on the path leading into the rest stop. She stared at it for a solid minute. One, two, three, four thaumic disturbances could be discerned. One was their anchor crystal, another she recognized as the disturbances an earth pony made, another a pegasus, and finally a unicorn, all hidden inside the van, but not from her human magic. She could make out two humans in the front, but neither was causing any thaumic disturbance, so they weren't magic-users; they might not even be from her time. 

Where was their nocturnal compatriot?

She turned her attention to the sky, and it didn't take long to find the mare circling the rest stop in the air, utterly confident that she would remain hidden on what was a cloudy night. Charlotte immediately averted her gaze. It was best the mare believed she was unnoticed. If the mare thought she had been discovered, there was no telling what they'd do. Right now, the fanatics were sitting and letting the mare keep watch over their prey. The most likely plan was for them to wait until they were confident everyone in the car was asleep, then make their move, or, failing that, continue to follow as they stalked their intended victim to a better place to commence an attack. 

Seemingly calmly turning around, she started back towards the car, making sure not to show any of the urgency that she was feeling. Moving too quickly would alert them that they had definitely been noticed. There was a possibility they already realized it, but she couldn't risk taking an action that would alert them if that was not the case. 

The kids were still walking around the car when she got back to it, along with their father; only Wendy had retaken her seat. 

"I know you're tired, Charles, but I think we need to cut this stop short," she said calmly, even smiling. "You have that thing I told you to keep close by where you can reach it, right?"

"I need rest," Charles protested, failing to take her hint. 

She looked at the kids. "Into the car, children. We're getting ready to go. It might get bumpy because if your dad isn't going to drive, I'll need your mom to do it. Oh, and sorry for this, I'm going to need to strip and don't have time to head to the restroom."

Wendy became the first human to realize what was going on. "What's wrong? Are they here?"

Charlotte nodded, still smiling. "Pretend to be calm," she quietly said. "Act like you are in no hurry, don't look up, and keep your voices down. If you get too loud, she'll hear you. She's up above us, and the van is at the entrance to the stop. If we rest here, Charlotte might not wake up. Charles, either get ready to drive or help your wife do it. We need to go, now."

They all started to look up.

"I said don't look up," she snapped while still trying to behave casually, no easy feat. It made all their eyes snap to her.

"What will you be doing?" Wendy asked fearfully. 

"I'm going to see if I can ground their eyes in the sky."