There's a Monster Pony Outside My Window

by Halira

Chapter 10: Not Human

Wendy had sent her kids to their rooms. Her paranoia was in overdrive. There were levels of odd she could accept in neighbors, but finding one of them naked in their backyard bushes went well beyond what could be shrugged off—especially considering the woman had claimed to be there all night while her house burned without making any attempt to speak to the police and the other emergency services people that had been there. Something was seriously not right, and Wendy wasn't having her children get near the woman until she found out what.

Miss Newman had claimed to be completely naked, and that was mostly true. However, the older woman still had that same necklace hidden away under the sweater she was borrowing and had what looked like a miniature saddlebag that she was hauling around. Miss Newman never let that saddlebag out of her sight, and Wendy wondered if there was some sort of stash of illegal narcotics. It would be an explanation for why she behaved so strangely and hadn't spoken to the police last night. The bag showed burn marks on it, which made her believe it had been in the house when it went up in smoke. The older woman had taken the time to save that, but not to save so much as a pair of pants. It clearly wasn't clothing; otherwise, she wouldn't have been naked.

Now Miss Newman was in their living room, finally speaking to the police over the phone. It became immediately apparent that she was either lying to them or lying to the police.

"I will be happy to help you fill out a report," Miss Newman said over the phone. "I'm going to be contacting my landlord about the fire as soon as I'm off the phone with you. I guess I'm lucky I decided to walk down to the park. I'm sorry I got lost; it's a new neighborhood for me. No, no, I don't need any medical attention. I didn't have any sort of home insurance; you'd have to speak to my landlord about that. I don't have a clue. I'm going to see if he can set me up in a hotel in the meantime. I did pay him for this month's rent already and barely stayed a week! I hadn't even moved my stuff in yet! That was why I was so eager to be out of the house. I didn't even have a TV to watch or a book to read!"

Miss Newman paused as she listened to the police officer over the line. Who was she lying to? The police, them, or both?

"I'm sorry, but all my IDs were in the house, but my landlord has copies of everything. I had to have that all on file for getting the house. Do you want their number? I can also have them call you. As I said, I'm calling them as soon as I get off the phone with you," Miss Newman answered the officer after a long moment. Wendy found it highly convenient that the woman had lost all her identification in the fire. Was her last name even Newman? Was she a Soviet spy, a drug runner for a cartel, or something worse?

"I look forward to your visit, officer. I'm currently at the house across the street from mine—house number one-hundred. And please, let me thank you for your service. Goodbye for now," Miss Newman concluded and hung up the phone.

"Do you expect us not to tell them you weren't blatantly lying to them when they arrive?" Charles asked darkly, arms crossed.

Miss Newman looked at him. "Yes, and we will get to the reason why shortly. I have one more call to make. I told the officer I would be calling my landlord, and I meant that part."

Wendy shook her head. "How about you give us an explanation now before we kick you out of the house now and call the police back."

The older woman gave them a weighted look. "Very well, although I anticipate the answer will only lead to more questions."

"We're listening," Charles growled. Wendy wanted to echo that growl. Whatever was going on, she didn't want a part of it.

Miss Newman nodded and reached for her bag. Both Charles and Wendy tensed, worried she might be pulling out a gun. Instead, she opened the bag to reveal a Bible, what looked like a big chunk of quartz, and some thin rectangular thing. The woman pulled the rectangular object out of the bag and pushed a tiny button on the side. One side of the object lit up brightly. Was that a tiny television? Miss Newman had been caught in two more lies; she had a book to read and a TV to watch—be it an odd one. How did a TV that thin function?

"This is an electronic tablet; essentially a small computer with more processing power than any computer currently on Earth," Miss Newman explained as she flicked her fingers across the screen.

Wendy didn't buy it. "We don't need you making up any Star Trek science fiction shit. We want a real explanation."

"Oh, you better start believing in some science fiction because you're very much dealing with it. Well, science fiction to you, but the mundane for me," Miss Newman hummed.

She finished doing whatever she was doing with the device and turned it so they could see. On it was a picture of Wendy and Charlotte standing out on the sidewalk last night. The angle of the picture showed it had been taken from Miss Newman's house.

"It's a camera too?" Charles asked skeptically.

"Yes, and a few other things," Miss Newman confirmed and offered the device to Charles to hold. "However, I think you should take a closer look at the picture. In it, you'll see exactly what knocked your wife and daughter into the road last night. I don't think that was her original plan, but she saw an opportunity and took it."

Charles took the device in his hands. "An opportunity for what?"

Miss Newman gave Charles a dark look. "What almost happened? An opportunity for that to occur. This will be so much harder to explain if you two are asking questions you should know the answer to. However, I do need to apologize. I didn't think they would try anything with so many people walking about due to the holiday. I was wrong, and it could have gone very badly if I hadn't happened to have been looking out the window at that time. Sometimes we get lucky."

Wendy couldn't turn to see the screen well with her cast on and instead continued to focus on Miss Newman. "How did you looking out your window help?"

"How do you think you got out of the street?" Miss Newman asked with a raised eyebrow. "I got you out of it. I about had a heart attack trying to act fast enough." She looked at Wendy's cast. "I do hope that injury is the result of the initial attack and not my intervention. I didn't have time or the luxury to be gentle. I'm sorry for that."

The doctors had no way of knowing which fall had done it; she had landed on the shoulder both times. Wendy personally believed it was the first landing that had done it, and it was also how she knew she hadn't gotten her and Charlotte out of the road and forgotten about it. Still, everyone had been insistent that no one had been on the road next to them and that no one had seen Miss Newman last night. The door for Miss Newman's house had been open, though. Wendy remembered that clear as crystal.

Wendy looked at her husband, who was staring at the picture on the screen in quiet disbelief. "What's wrong? What's in the picture?"

He held it out to where she could see and pointed to a spot on the Myers' house's roof. "I think we owe our daughters an apology for not believing them. What the hell is that, Wendy?"

She looked at where he was gesturing. There was something up there. It was dark and hard to make out. She saw the outlines of bat-like wings, but that was no bat or bird.

Miss Newman approached them. "If you'll allow me." She swiped a finger across the screen, and another picture appeared—this one taken of higher in the air. The same thing was flying high above the tree. The form was a little clearer, showing it had a long hairy tail and had four legs tucked up under it. "That one was from the night before. I flipped her off. Between that, shooting at her twice, and saving you last night, I assume she and her compatriots were pissed off at me. That's the danger of painting a target on yourself; sooner or later, someone will shoot at you. I pissed off a group of ponies who were already out to do murder. That's why my house was on fire last night. It is also why there is no point in telling the police. I mean, what am I supposed to tell them that doesn't get me taken off to the looney bin if they don't believe or Area Fifty-One if they do?"

"These pictures could be fakes. You already proved you're a liar," Charles said defiantly. "And whatever that thing is, it isn't a pony. You're just saying that because Charlotte called it a vampire pony. And why do you keep referring to it as a she?"

"I did find it curious Charlotte jumped to using that term since it is the right one," Miss Newman hummed. "Well, partially right. That's no vampire, and the term pony refers to a species very different from ponies you are familiar with. Oh, and that is definitely a mare. There's at least two more running about that are stallions, although there could be others. I can only go by what I've seen, but I don't expect more due to the method of getting here's constraints. They also seem to have at least one human ally, possibly more, since I doubt any of them could properly drive that van."

"You talk about them like they are people. Are you claiming it is an alien invasion?" Wendy asked mockingly. This was all beyond ridiculous. Did Miss Newman seriously expect them to believe in stories this far-fetched?

"I refer to them like people because they are people, and you need to understand you aren't dealing with animals. You are dealing with intelligent beings who are here to do premeditated murder," Miss Newman hissed. "You need to take it seriously because I'm confident that they're going to attempt an attack on this house tonight."

"There's nothing you could possibly say or show us that would make us believe you. We aren't stupid," Charles asserted.

Miss Newman sighed. "I had hoped to avoid this, but I guess I'm going to have to resort to it to prove you need to listen."

The woman stood up and started taking off her clothes. Charles hastily turned his head so he wouldn't see anything inappropriate.

Wendy just gaped. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Giving you irrefutable proof that ponies are real. We need to make this quick, as the police are on their way, and there is no way I'd be able to explain this away," Miss Newman said as she took her shirt off. Wendy got a clear view of the necklace now. It looked like a piece of quartz wrapped tightly in gold chains. Miss Newman did not attempt to remove it as she moved on to taking the borrowed pants off.

Charles still was looking away. "How does stripping prove anything other than you're insane?!"

"Because I am a pony, one that is on your side trying to protect you, and you're about to see that once take this necklace off. Please try not to freak out," Miss Newman said in a tired voice as she finished stripping everything off except the necklace. "This necklace requires a day of downtime every week, and yesterday was that day. It's an unfortunate design limitation. That's why I spent the night hiding. I had to wait on the necklace to finish recharging before I could return to human form."

Wendy stood up with the intent to get the phone and call the police. The woman was clearly unhinged.

Then Miss Newman took the necklace off.

"CHARLES!!" Wendy screamed as she backed away from the creature now standing there.

Charles turned to look and started to scream something as well. However, both of their screams were cut off as the creature's horn glowed, and they found they could neither move nor speak.

"I expected that to happen," the creature said with Miss Newman's voice. "Luckily, I was ready to re—aaawww! Ow! What the hell!" The thing yelled in pain as an action figure collided with its head.

"Leave my mommy and daddy alone!" Charlotte yelled from the hallway.

Whatever had been holding Wendy and Charles ceased, and both of them immediately went into motion. Wendy grabbed Charlotte, and all three moved into Charlotte's room to find that Andrea and Kristin were already there. The three had been spying from Charlotte's doorway.

"Keep moving to the backdoor while that thing is dazed. We can get to the car from the backyard," Charles instructed.

"No! We need to go out the window. She'll be expecting us to make a run for the door!" Wendy shouted.

The door to Andrea and Kristin's room suddenly slammed shut and a blue glow covered Charlotte's window.

They all turned to see the red-furred creature behind them, wincing in pain from where it had been hit, but horn aglow again with blue light.

"I hope this is proof enough that ponies are real. Now, sit down on the bed and try to be calm. I'm not going to hurt any of you, but you need to listen to me if you want to survive the night," Miss Newman instructed with a growl.

Comments

[Jack14]

Finally some answers

[Charlie_K]

Well now... that happened.

[Jack14]

When is the next chapter

[bkam]

"This is an electronic tablet; essentially a small computer with more processing power than any computer currently on Earth," Miss Newman explained as she flicked her fingers across the screen.

This confirms it for me that Miss Newman has at least visited the future, as that would explain the Simpson's T-shirt. Also, hell yes!