//------------------------------// // Sk8er Boi // Story: Not\e/worthy // by YarnWeaver //------------------------------// Not\e/worthy Part of the PonyEarthVerse By: YarnWeaver Chapter 3: Sk8er Boi Saturday, P.E.07 - 10:16 P.M. La Marque, TX - Someone's Father My son has been kidnapped. My son has become a pony. My son has been kidnapped because he has become a pony. Father... Please give me the strength and the peace of mind to cope with this. The four of us had quickly mobilized after getting Jack's call. We were already on the road to the Walmart where Danny worked when my phone rang again. It was Walmart. My son had named me as his Emergency Contact after all. They told me basically what Jack had told me in his call. It wasn't long before we arrived at the Walmart in La Marque. A lot of what happened after that was a blur. I don't recall much, but I do clearly remember the exchange we had with the officers in the Security Office. "Security cameras in our break room confirm that, no sooner than 05:40 P.M. this evening, your son, our associate, Daniel Elijah Michaels was transformed into a pony. His change was witnessed by a half-dozen of his fellow associates. No more that twenty minutes later, a large group of similarly garbed men and women forced their way to the back of the store, kidnapped your ponified son, and fled the scene. No individual or group has yet to step forward to claim responsibility, but the investigation is ongoing." Then they showed us the security footage. Or...in this case, "HOOF-age"? Ugh. I hate it when that happens sometimes. Now is not a good time for puns. The four of us watched the video together. Frankly, I didn't know what to expect. I quickly spotted my son sitting at one of those fold out plastic, circular, white tables. Then I saw his lay his head down on his lunch box, hugging it as he did so. Then he started changing. At first it just looked like his shirt was becoming a little looser around him, but then I noticed what was happening to his face. His eyes were swelling up under his eyelids but never out growing them as his nose and jaw began stretching forward like rubber. Even his hair was changing. It went from that center part 'do that he always liked maintaining to a frazzled mess between his growing ears. I also took note that, one the whole, he was getting smaller. A lot smaller. It was then that I noticed that his right hand, the only one visible from the camera's viewing angle, appeared to be receeding into his wrist! It all became too much for me. My son was loosing his humanity right before my very eyes! "Wait. Back that up a bit." All eyes turned to Bartholomew, my youngest son (my wife and I had decided long ago to give all of our children Biblical names). He continued, "That guy there is texting someone, but he's staring right at Danny while he's doing it." Once I see it for myself, I'm not particularly surprised that he noticed it and not us. Barty was always a bit of a social butterfly as a boy. Always talking on the phone whenever he could. Always wanting to visit with friends. We may not have been financially capable of keeping up with the latest and greatest in technology, but he sure took to what we could afford with gusto. I'm still amazed at how fast he can type on those things without even looking at what he's doing. One of the store's managers who'd been called in for our briefing looked surprised, "Why, that's one of our Department Managers! Surely, he couldn't have..." I quickly searched the screen of the clip from where I stood. I could've been wrong, but everyone else in the video who seemed to be paying attention was either just sitting there with their jaws hanging low or else appeared to be trying to shoot a video of it with his or her camera phone. The officer seemed very interested in this new development as well, "Ma'am, " he was addressing the Manager in the room, "we're gonna need to ask that associate some questions about all this. Will you cooperate with the investigation?" "Oh, I will, sir. Absolutely." Then the cop told us it would be best to just relax and they'd handle the rest. Argh! I wasn't trying to rhyme! Stop doing that! Anyways, after we finished viewing the rest of the video (it was a quick snatch-and-grab, but they looked more than a bit disorganized in their execution), they thanked us for our help, told us they'd keep in touch with any breaks in the case and sent us back home. James, my eldest son, volunteered to drive for the trip back, and I didn't object. My wife and I had a lot to think about back on the property. 11:01 P.M. Santa Fe, TX Jimmy soon brought our early-model Ford F-150 into Superior Mobile Home Park, our home. It was actually more like a miniature traditional community that we owned and maintained. We'd inherited the business from my wife's father, and we've had to make a lot of changes and updates since. The aesthetic was nice, there were porches with porch swings on every unit, everybody had big yards to enjoy, and we even had a circular drive around a fairly large gazebo for events. There was even a large, open field for the kids of whomever rented here to play in however they wished. It was on the opposite side of the drive from the gazebo and a little farther down. We owned all of the units on the property as part of the business, plus a few empty slabs of cement with all the proper hook-ups to serve as RV parking spaces. We cruised along on the drive at a calm 10 mph. until we parked in the carport adjoining the largest double-wide unit on the property, our home. Once inside, I found my way over to my usual spot on the couch in the Family Room and sat myself down. Father... What am I supposed to do?! I already knew that Danny called himself a Brony or whatever. I am thankful that he had the courage to admit it, but I only saw it as the latest in a long line of cartoons that he really shouldn't have been watching for a man his age. Now, he's in a whole lot of trouble, and I..he..we all need your help, together. I know you've got a hand in this somewhere, Father. Please reveal to me your Will in this situation, and place a hedge of protection around my son as he faces the trials ahead of him. Amen. "Honey, what are we going to do about this?" Jennifer, my wife was sitting next to me, her left arm around me. "I don't know what else we can do but pray and hope God will deliver our son from the hands of the Enemy." Soon, James and Bartholomew had joined us in the Family Room, and we all prayed together, each one in turn. We ended with a song of Worship to God that he had laid on our hearts. Eventually, we broke our circle, and just sat together in silence for a while. Then Barty spoke up, "Well, there is one thing we could do to get a better handle on all this." We all waited for him to continue. "Maybe we could try to understand his position a bit better by seeing what he likes so much about the show in the first place? It is on Netflix." Bartholomew, are you really suggesting this?! He must have picked up at my extreme aversion to the notion, because he kept going. "Dad, whether we like it or not, Danny's a part of this whole thing that's been going on in the world. People all over the place have been turning into ponies; every calendar in the world now shows a week to be as long as a year; and I know this show has some of the answers as to what's behind all of this." Wait. How can you be so sure about that? Again, I hadn't said anything, but he still quickly deduced what I was about to say and cut me off. "He and I had a deal going. I wanted him to see more of Batlestar Galactica, and he wanted to share this show with me, so we decided on an exchange. I wasn't really interested in the show at all to start, but, partway through the first season, I found myself enjoying it." "I find that a little hard to believe, Barty." I replied. I mean, it's a show for little girls, for cryin' out loud! "I don't know, Damon, maybe we should." Darling? Are you serious?! James let out a huff as he went for the remotes to our T.V. and Cable Box and the game remote for the boys' Nintendo Wii. "Well, if we're really going to do this, we should probably start at the beginning. You know how he always like doing things in order." "Now hold on!" I interject, getting up, "How can you all be so sure that this isn't some sort of invasion? If what you say is true, and these ponies are showing up all over the place, taking over people's bodies while they sleep, and transforming them to fit their own likenesses, then that, to me, sounds like an attack! We were created in the Image of God, and they're changing that image!" For a moment there was silence. James was the one to break it. "Well, you do have a valid point, there Dad. When Danny tried to get me into the show, I flat out refused. I know I'm a sucker for cute things, and I didn't want this to become a new obsession for me." He looked like he was choosing his words carefully for a moment. "If it is an invasion, then shouldn't we still use every resource available to us to find out as much about them as we can?" I feel my wife tenderly put her hand on mine. "Let's watch it, Honey, for Daniel." Sigh...alright. For Daniel. "Okay." Jimmy turned on the T.V., Cable, and Wii system, and was soon on the Netflix loading screen. He then quickly found the show in the "Popular" section. Fifty-two episodes. He highlighted the first one. He hesitated, as if waiting for any further objections. I didn't give him any.