Morning broke over the east coast of New Zealand, shining light over a moderate sized farm and its flocks. The cries of sheep and cattle echoed around the hilly landscape and through the river. The yellow of dehydrated grass and trees slowly losing their touch on the land because of the recent downpour that saved it. Ocean waves broke on the beach that sat snug up close to the farm, producing a calming background noise.
Tom had never been great at mornings, leaving the heavier and more physical tasks to his brother while he dealt with the other problems, such as paperwork and bills. So as the sun started to show its light through his window to interrupt his sleep, he just kicked at the wall, knocking down the blinds and leaving his room in darkness again. After a short groan he shuffled about in bed and dozed off again.
Taylor on the other hand, had never been one for sleep. It might have been his hatred of waiting, but he was always doing something; whether it was building a new shed to tearing apart old cars, not that he ever knew what he was doing. When the sun eagerly pushed through his light curtains, he partially rose with it.
It didn’t take long to do his morning dressing and eating before he was out the door in his favourite red checker shirt and worn faded jeans. Then he stood there. He had already done everything yesterday so they could watch the shower. Well, bugger me.
With nothing better to do, he chose to sort through that old pile of junk they had in the barn, he was sure there were parts he could use for a water filter. Of course, they didn’t actually need one, but the same could be said for his other one he built, which currently sat in shed number fifteen.
He took in his surroundings, trying to see it in someone else’s eyes. There was no real point to this, other than a daydream he occasionally fed; leading a group of young female fans around his sheds and talking about all the priceless things he had made.
Taylor walked towards the barn and past all eighteen of his sheds, all set in a long row. As he walked, his mind drifted to his daydream and he began to talk to himself as if people were actually listening.
“Well, ladies, this is my first shed. It composes of my earliest creations and is quite the reminder of my younger times.” He smiled for the cameras, but the flashes never came. “I have an old go-kart, motor included, a rigged set of speakers to produce twice the normal sound, and an exact copy of my dad’s old rifle; made only from pictures.”
He winked at a tree. “In the next five sheds we have my teenage years, where I started to get a bit more,” he dropped his voice and gave an hard glare to a nearby sheep. “Dangerous.”
The sheep looked at the farmer and tilted its head in confusion, “Baa?”
“Hmm, yes, quite, Oh and over here…”
After a good fifteen minutes of chatting up trees Taylor finally reached the barn; the old wooden beams standing strong and shattered and dusty windows allowing small amounts of sunlight in. He walked up the cattle ramp and leap-jumped over the gate, as he walked a metal pinging sound echoed off his boots stand on the metal bars, most of them covered in blood. The slaughter corner always was a bit spooky, but such fears were long past Taylor as he marched along. Until he heard a whimper.
“FUCK, NO, I DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL YOU, MY BROTHER DID IT, DON’T HARM ME MISTER GHOST SHEEP!”
His sudden outburst was repaid by shrill screams, echoing off every gate and beam. That was enough for Taylor and he was gone before the scream had even reached the five second mark.
After they stopped and silence took the barn once again, a pink haired woman, scared out of bones, slowly stood from the pile of shaven wool and glanced around.
“I- I think it’s gone.”
^\/^\/^\/^
Tom had finally dragged himself out of his bed and was lying on the floor, fighting for control of his mussels. This was a regular thing, lying on the floor. He found himself there one way or another. There was no real point in getting up this early due to his brother doing everything, so he could just lie there for hours. Unfortunately, due to last night, he had a few notes he would have to take concerning the meteor and those ponies they found. If any of last night was even real.
After some grunts of effort, Tom finally stood. He zombied his way to the door, reaching out to grab the handle with his face forward and nose in the way. He opened the door and walked through towards the kitchen. He stretched out and released any leftover tension in his limps, yawning happily.
Sudden movement and Tom looked to his left, to be met with a frying pan moving at high speed. The force spun him into the wall, slamming his face into that, then falling face-first onto the wooden floor. Blood started to pool around on the ground, a broken nose no doubt; there was going to be hell to pay.
He rolled onto his back and faced the direction of his assailant, then let out a quick kick. His foot made contact and a body hit the floor, crutching his crotch, while managed to stand and kick the frying pan from their reach.
“Taylor, what in all hell is wrong with you?!” His voice was slightly muffled as he held a hand to his nose.
Taylor stopped rolling around to glance up. “Tom? Oh shit Tom it’s you!”
“No shit it’s me! What are you doing, you’ve broken my damn nose!”
It didn’t take long for Taylor to spring back up again, looking out windows and peeking around corners as he ran through the house. Once he had shut all the windows and locked the doors, he picked up his frying pan and stood in a corner.
“Dude, there are damn ghosts after me!”
Tom just groaned. “Ghosts, are you being serious? Are out all the things you have said to get yourself out of trouble, this is the worst.”
“Screw you, I’m being serious man!” Taylor glared at him, but went back to fearfully peeking around the corner. “Okay, I was in the barn when I heard whimpering. I went to check it out and found one of our old knifes when it started to fucking float in the air! Then, this screaming shit happened and bloody knifes started to appear everywhere! I could’ve died!”
Tom rolled his eyes and travelled to the kitchen, getting out a first aid kit and a mirror. After checking to see if his nose was displaced, he grabbed a few bottles of disinfectant and a bandage, then used the mirror as a guide and snapped his nose back into place. “GAH! I don’t care your balls were about to be chopped off, you’re talking bull and I’m sick of trying to talk you into going back to see for yourself.”
“So, what, you’re just going to leave them in there and do whatever to all our shit?”
“No, I’m going with you so I can prove there’s no one there and then slam your face into the wall,” he replied while finishing the bandage on his nose. It stuck out a fair bit, but there was never anyone else other than themselves on the farm so it didn’t really matter. He walked out the front door, grabbing a black shirt and a pair of jeans as he went. “Now let’s get this over with.”
Several minutes later they were outside the barn. No noise was coming from inside and no movement could be seen.
“Right, so who’s first?” asked Tom with a half-caring yawn.
“Well we’re not going through the gate, that’s for sure.” Taylor went around the building, leaving Taylor to chase after him. They rounded a few corners to the ladder that reached into the roof from the outside. “We’re going in through here, much less chance of the ghosts spotting us.”
“Damn it, you’re unbelievable.” Tom pushed past his brother and accented the ladder into the roof space. Taylor soon followed, though at a more slowed pace, carefully placing each foot to not make any noise.
The two walked the steel walkway that over looked the storage area of the barn and stopped to sit and watch. For about ten minutes nothing happened, then as Tom breathed in to talk.
“Those voices have done. Do you think they’ll come back?”
The two brothers looked at each other, eyes wide, and scanned the scene below for the owner of the voice.
“Don’t worry Pinkie, I’m sure after what happened they won’t be back for a while if they didn’t come in this time,” said another voice.
“Aww, I wanted to make some alien friends. Do you know how cool that would be to have alien friends? We could all be like, ‘Hey! Can we fly in your spaceship?’ and they’d be like ‘Yea, sure!’ then we could fly to the moon and see if we can find those space pirates Luna talked about!” This voice was the same as before, high pitched and very energetic.
After some rustling, four shapes came into view below them. At first it looked like pigs or something close, but in the small light they could just make out the slim bodies and rather curvy hips. It was a group of women, stark naked and walking on their hands and knees. One of the other interesting notes were their hair. One was pink and fuzzy, like an afro but in the wrong shape, another was a light purple with fancy curls, the one next to her was also purple, but darker with a streak of pink in it. The last was blond, nothing really fancy.
“Are ya’ll sure you can’t use your magic? ‘Cause I’m gettin’ sick of having to walk like this, it hurts a lot more than it should,” said the blond one.
“Oh I’m sorry Applejack, I can’t seem to focus any of my magic. I’m not even sure I have it all!” said the darker purple haired one sadly.
Tom leaned over and whispered into his brothers ear, “Can you believe this?”
“I know right? It’s really them! Except with tits! This, has got to be the greatest day, in my life. I could cry right now.”
Tom only blinked a couple of times before inwardly groaning, and returned to gaze at the scene below. The four below were soon joined by another two, one with a rainbow mess for hair and the other one with light pink, hiding behind the other.
The rainbow one yawned, stretching her arms and legs. “Hey, sup guys, what are you doing?”
“We are still trying to discuss what to do,” said the light purple one, whose accent was a posh American. “That hideous creature came back and we think it was with a friend, but –“
“Hey, I’m not hideous! I’m considered quite handsome by most of the girls I’ve met!”
Tom looked over at his brother, who was sticking his chest out with pride, before grabbing his legs and flipping him over the edge into the wool pile below.
Taylor squirmed around in the pile before finally getting upright and glaring at Tom. “What the fuck?! You just flipped me over the fucking railing!”
“Yes, I did, because you’re an idiot and need to learn to shut up.” Tom turned his attention from his fallen brother and looked at the six now terrified women. “So, what brings you lot here?”
The one with the posh accent looked between the two before speaking. “Now there, is an alien who knows how to dress!” pointing up at Tom. He couldn’t help but smile at the complement before receiving a metal object to the head and falling after his brother.
“Ha! In your face!” Taylor shouted in Toms face before he lost consciences.