Finding Family

by daosoman

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Sad, Adventure, Human
Length: 4876

A Ponies After People side story. Eddie finds a journal in his home left by his mother after waking up 5 years after the event, detailing her adventures on survival.

Edward Murphy wakes up in 2020, 5 years after the event where most of humanity disappeared in the blink of an eye. those that were left behind were transformed into creatures of myth and legend, and small horses. He finds a ziplock bag on his kitchen table, containing a journal left by his mother in the event that he ever returns in her lifetime.

a side story to Starscribes wonderful story Last Pony on Earth.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-10 07:11:37 UTC

Prologue

Finding Family: A ponies after people side story

Prologue

Friday, May 22nd, 2015, early afternoon

Eddie sat quietly in the living room with his cat Ruby on his lap purring up as storm on his lap as he read through a few news stories on his phone. It was memorial day weekend and the Chicago Police Department were predicting fewer than average crimes this year due to the cooler temperatures expected during the weekend. Eddie scoffed at the idea. Just because it's cooler doesn't mean the thugs won't shoot each other over some stupid crap. At least with the holiday weekend I can hope for larger crowds, and larger tips at the restaurant.

Just as he was about to start on an article about some sort of presidential press conference, his phone rang. Ruby was stirred from her cat nap at the loud ringing that Eddie had set so that he could hear it over the noise of work. She looked at him indignantly and laid her head back down on his lap.

”Sorry girl, but I gotta take this,” Eddie said to the sassy gray and white cat on his lap who just closed her golden eyes and went back to sleep. Tapping the accept call button on his cell, he answered the call. “Hey what's up?”

“Is that how you answer your phone? Who raised you?” Shannon answered back to her one and only son. “Seriously, sometimes I wonder what your father would say to you if you answered a call from him like that!” If voices on phones could carry actual wrath, this voice could stop an army in its tracks!

After a moment of silence, both Eddie and his mother started laughing. ”You had me fooled there for a moment ma. You and I both know that Dad would probably be laughing a lot harder than both of us combined.” Eddie responded with the lingering thoughts of the police on his mind from earlier.

“You are so right. The only time your dad was serious was when he was Officer Murphy,”  Shannon said over the phone to her son. “Besides, I knew you were gonna answer like that, and I just wanted to channel good ol' Officer Murphy because it is his birthday on sunday.”

The hairs on the back of Eddie's neck stood on end as the feeling of a pit formed in his stomach. Damn it, how could I forget something as important as the old man's birthday! “Oh mom! I completely forgot! I just picked up a double shift at the restaurant because too many people took the weekend off for the holiday, and the tips are too good to pass up!” Eddie said in shame.

Shannon sighed “It's ok. Its completely understandable. Hell you forgot Mother's Day was a week ago and it didn't bother me. I understand that you have been under a lot of stress because of the that whole roommate problem and now you are burdened with the whole of the rent. But never forget that if you need to, you and Ruby are always welcomed back at my place. It's been quiet here.” She said quietly. She missed Eddie living with her more than she thought she would.

        As Eddie stood up to go look at the calendar in the kitchen, Ruby jumped off his lap and glared at him. Sorry girl, I’ll bring you some leftover salmon from work tonight to make up all this waking you up.

        Yep, Mother's Day was the 10th and today was the 22nd, 2 days before his father's birthday. Damn this whole month is just zooming by. It feels like just a few days ago when it was still April!

        Eddie grimaced and went back to his phone “Dang, sorry. How about this, we will go get dinner tonight, my treat?” He said panicked.  He hoped that feeding his mother would make up for the almost two weeks since mother's day that he didn't call his mom.

        Shannon shook her head at what her son was saying. “No no. You are hurting as it is right now. If we’re gonna have lunch then I’m paying.” She knew her son was struggling  financially. “And don't you have work tonight?”

        “Oh yeah. We can grab something to eat tomorrow then.” Eddie responded. “Your shift at the hospital gets out at 8 tomorrow morning right?” Shannon made a noise of agreement. “We can either catch an early or late lunch, it all depends on whether you want to get some sleep when you get home or if you want to stay up a little bit longer!”

        Shannon took some time to think about it. “I suppose I could stay awake a little bit longer tomorrow morning so we can get an early lunch. For now though, I’m gonna need to take a shower and get some rest. It was a messy night in the ER last night.”

        Eddie and Shannon said their goodbyes for the moment. “Love ya ma. See ya tomorrow.”

        Eddie hung up. It's been a few weeks since I had lunch with mom, better shave so she doesn't throw a fit about all the hair on my face.

        Eddie spent the next few hours eating lunch then cleaning his rather small apartment. He loved Ruby, his little fuzzball, so he could put up with her summer shedding. After he was finished with his afternoon cleaning, the only thing that needed cleaning was his body. he jumped into the shower off, then proceeded to shave. A short while later, he was off to serve fancy food to rich people. The whole night, he was thinking about his lunch with his mother and where he wanted to eat, perhaps that new Thai restaurant around the corner from his home.

        Little did Eddie know that that lunch would be postponed for a bit longer than anyone could ever predict…

***

Meanwhile in Equestria, a place far, far from Earth, a strange being was making the last preparations on a project that would save the people on the planet known as Earth from a cosmic wave of thaumic radiation. Princess Luna hung her head. "I hope to the creator that the people of Earth can forgive us for what we are about to do to them. I just wish that we had more time!" She sighed. According to the numbers, a great deal of people were going to be gone for a long time, and the people who are left behind will have a hard time adjusting to their changes, be they transformed into a pony, or one of the many other beings of this world.

The lunar princess turned to her aide. "Night Novel, Get the volunteers ready for their last briefings before they head to Earth.I want them up to date on what we can expect once they have hooves on the ground there."

Night Novel, a deep red pegasus pony with purple mane and tail, turned to her princess, "At once, Your Highness." she said as she took to the air to spread the word to the team leaders of the groups. Luna sighed, not knowing what the future held for both the people of Equestria and Earth, and that terrified her.

Five Year Later

Five Years Later

Thursday, July 16th, 2020

        Eddie was never a light sleeper. in fact it never took much to wake him from sleep, so when the sun's rays hit his eyes this morning, he started stirring. He felt weird, like he slept on his side and he layed on his arm funny, and it was all tingly.

        It was this time that he noticed that the tingling was not coming from any limbs he was use to having. His eyes shot open and he saw something that he was not expecting, a large sky blue mass on his face. Eddie yelped in shock to what he saw and fell out of bed and fell on that tingly something on his back and he sent out another yelp of pain this time.

        As he lay on the ground wondering what the hell he saw and fell on, Eddie lifted a hand to grab what ever was on his face and remove it, only to find another sky blue mass raising up to bat the thing on his face.

        Letting out another yell of surprise, Eddie started to back up from where he fell. It was this time that he notice that his bedroom door was closed. He never closed it ever, in the event that Ruby wanted to get around the apartment.

        Thoroughly freaked out Eddie started to take stock on what the hell was happening. His bed seemed bigger, his clothes seemed bigger too and felt itchy, and why was it so damn hot!  It was like 60 degrees all day yesterday! It feels like a damn sauna in this room!

        Eddie then hazzard another look at his “hands” again after calming himself down. All eddie had were two light blue stumps that looked a bit like the hooves of a horse, They were hard and a slightly lighter shade of blue than the fur above them, and had a little soft part underneath where his palm would be.

These hooves moved strangely too. Eddies knowledge of horses were pretty much limited to petting zoos, which Eddie had not been to since childhood, and his obsession with Lil’ Sebastian from Parks and Recreation. They could move much like his arms could. it freaked him out to say a little bit.

Eddie tried to stand up to look at the mirror in his bedroom on his dresser, but found that standing on two feet was no longer possible, not just because it was hard to get up and stay up, but because he lacked feet too. those too were replaced with sky blue hooves.

“Oh god! What's happened to me!?” Eddie shuddered as he heard his voice, it was a bit lighter, but not too much. A spike of panic sunk into him. “No, I can't panic now, I need to find out what happened, then I need to call mom. She can keep me safe until I can get this fixed!”

Stumbling his way to the dresser was harder than he thought, and it was at this time that he noticed that something was off. Despite his cleaning yesterday, everything was dusty and dirty. His now huge bed was stripped of sheets and was dusty and dirty. A huge amount of dust was under his bed.

Eddie got to the dresser, now in full blown panic mode as he hopped up to see his face in the mirror. What he saw, he didn't quite comprehend. The first thing that he noticed were the huge, golden eyes, a head of hair that was an orange red color that reminded him of a sunset, a set of sky blue ears that looked like they would fit in quite well at an anime convention and a face that he didn't recognize. the whole fact that all he could see from this angle was his head freaked Eddie out, as the day before, he was over 6 foot tall, and had trouble fitting his torso and head in frame.

Eddie started to hyperventilate. He fell to the ground as he lost his hold on the dresser, and fell to his side, falling on something on his back again.

“Jesus, what do I keep falling on!” Eddie almost yelled, almost losing his composure. He got up to find that he had not fallen on anything.

Looking back he noticed two small lumps underneath his shirt that he slept in. Just the act of looking made him realise how much his body had changed, moving his neck around like that would have been impossible.

Putting his panic on the back burner as curiosity took over. As Eddie struggled to take his tee shirt off, he felt something like the hair on his arm being pulled on, but it hurt much more. One last tug and he felt like he pulled something out.

 “JESUS GOD TITS! That fucking hurt!” Eddie yelled out, sure that he woke up the neighbors. It was at this time that Eddie noticed what he pulled out when he saw it in his now removed shirt. A large blue feather was resting on his now inside out shirt sitting in front of him.

Eddie sat in shock, looking at the large, blue primary feather. After a few moments he put two and two together and looked back at a set of wings paced on his back. not only was he transformed into a micro hors, but he also had a set of wings to go along with the freakshow that he had been transformed into.

What could have caused this? Am I hallucinating, no the pain was too real? Is this the scheme of some mad scientist bent on transforming people into miniature horses for his petting zoo of evil? The act of an alien force? Eddie sat and wondered, while still staring at his new wings.

Eddie needed to get a hold of his mom, she could help him. Looking as his nightstand to find his phone he found nothing but his glasses and a lamp that had way too much dust for Eddies liking.

“I know I left my phone on the night stand. The charger is right there.” Eddie said no nobody but himself, if only to calm himself down. “I must have left it in the living room or kitchen.”

Eddie got to the bedroom door and found his first obstacle, the doorknob.

“How the hell am I going to open this damn thing?” He said to the empty room. He could bash the door down, but that might alert the neighbors, and the last thing that he needed at this moment was nosy neighbors poking their noses in on what has happened.

Eddie, decided that his mouth would probably work the best. He gingerly  stood on his hind hooves and  gripped the door knob with his teeth and turned head. The door opened quicker than he thought it would and he fell into the living room where he got another shock. growing in his living room, next to the  broken balcony window, was a young tree, growing in detrus blown in.

Eddie stared at the sapling. “How, where did this tree come from. You didn't just sprout up overnight!” He yelled at the tree expecting it to answer. “ This doesn't make any sense! The dirt and grime, this fucking tree in my front room, im a small blue pegasus that can fucking talk. And where is Ruby?” Eddie said listening for his cat with her little bell, but his new, more sensitive tiny horse ears heard nothing. thats when he noticed he heard nothing at all.

Living so close to Midway International Airport, Eddie had always heard airplanes flying over, but he realised that he heard nothing. No buzz of traffic, no sounds of his neighbor upstairs who always had some type of music playing, no trains from the nearby train tracks, no emergency vehicles with their sirens blaring running up and down the streets to get to the car accidents or arrests or what not. It was dead silent. This combined with the filth of his once clean room and his new front room tree, made Eddie fear for his mother's safety. He needed to get a hold of her.

Looking around the room for his phone, he instead spotted something other than the tree and dust that was not there the other day, a ziplock bag, with a book and some various letter inside in it.

Eddie shakely trotted up to the bag and slid it towards himself with a hoof. The book inside was a notebook that had in big letters written “For Edward Murphy Only, From Shannon Murphy”

Putting the Pieces Together

Putting the Pieces Together

        Eddies pulse quickened at he looked at the ziplock bag on his living room table. His mother had been here, but when? He had arrived home after work at about midnight, gave Ruby that salmon he promised and went to bed. Nobody was here last night but his cat, but last night he had a clean apartment and no tree growing in his front room.

        “How long was I asleep?” Eddie wondered aloud. “When did mom leave this here for me? It looks like its been here a while.”

        Eddie had trouble opening the freezer bag, what with the fact that he now lacked fingers. He ended up putting the bag on the ground, placing a forehoof onto the bag and sliding the plastic zipper to the other side to get to the notebook that rested inside.

        Still struggling with his hooves, he managed to get the notebook and letters out of the bag and threw that to the side. “Probably not gonna need that again.” Eddie said to himself.

        The notebook was a simple,red, spiral notebook that Eddie remembered from his time in school. On the cover was written For Edward Murphy Only, From Shannon Murphy. “Mom left me a journal and some notes?” Each note was folded over a few times, with a number on each one, numbering from 1-3, and the words Read the journal first.

        Eddie sat down on his musty couch while carrying the journal the only way he knew he could, in his mouth. This is degrading, I’m not some dumb animal. I’ve been like this for 20 minutes and I already miss my fingers.

He opened the journal and started reading the writing inside pages...

***

        My dear son, if you are reading this, it means you have come back. If you arent my Eddie, you know it’s a federal offence to read another ponies mail, right? Too bad there is no real government anymore to knock you down a peg for doing that.

        By this point, you are probably scared and confused, lord knows I was that day that everyone woke up as something not human, well… Not everyone was there to wake up. A lot of folks just disappeared.  There are a few ponies with me that are keeping me sane, including a nice young mare that you might like Hell, she lived a floor above you, I can’t believe that you two never met.

        You may not like your new body, but give it some time to let the magic sink in, it's super helpful, even for the Earth Ponies. We would never have survived without our resident Earth Pony, Shield.

        Ruby is safe. When I made it to your place, I let Ruby out. She has been with me ever since I saved her from a slow and painful death.

Now, you probably have a few questions, some of which I plan on covering later on in this notebook. But right now you need to know one thing, you have been gone for at least two years. I plan on coming back every year, and leaving a note, keeping you up to date on my life. As of the time of you reading this, I have been back 1,2,3 times. I come back every year from my new home in Alexandria, a colony that setup in the remains of Pairs, Illinois.

        There is a chance, that you may never show back up in my lifetime, and I have accepted that. Hell there's a chance that you might come back in Painted Prism's lifetime. Prism is your younger sister, no she’s not mine, but she needed somepony to take care of her. I go into detail later in this journal.

        What I need you to do it to get to Midway. There is a colony there that I help set up. They should be able to get you to Alexandria. I just hope that I am still around to see you again with my own eyes again, even though you wont look like you did the last time I saw you.

I hope this finds your hooves.

With all the love of a mother, Shannon Murphy, AKA Trauma Center

        Five years…

        Eddie had been gone for five years. and he's not the only one who this happened too.

        “I guess that explains the mess and tree.” Eddie muttered to himself.“I guess I need to get to the airport. Midway isn't too far from here. just a few miles.” He said to the emptiness of the room.

Just as he was getting up, Eddie's stomach rumbled. “I guess I haven't eaten in 5 years.” Eddie said to himself, letting out a slight chuckle.

Still unsure of his steps, he made his way to the kitchen to find something to eat. I hope mom thought ahead to not just leave a book and note, but some food I can eat.

Sure enough, Eddie found a strange box on the kitchen floor. It looked like a cooler, but had a smaller box on the side, with a strange blue crystal on the side that was glowing.

As he got closer, a strange shiver was sent down Eddie’s spine, making his wings shootout unexpectedly. “Dang, these things are bigger than I first thought. Can I fly with them though.

Focusing his attention back on the box, Eddie opened it up and felt cold air billow out with his still outstretched wings, causing them to twitch. Dang these things are crazy sensitive. I felt the cold on the wings before i felt it on my face!

Peering into the cold box, Eddie found fresh fruit and veggies, Devouring the first apple on the top.

“So, I need to get to Midway. It's only like 6 miles away.” Eddie started planning on how to get to the airport. He figured that the best way to get to the airport would be to just get into his car and get onto Cicero and and head north till 55th, an easy, straight shot down to the airport.

Eddie then proceed to find his backpack in his bedroom closet and packed the rest of the somehow cold food and some shorts with him, he was not about to put on another shirt after how hard it was to take off.

He grabbed his keys for the car, but before he made it to the front door, he realised that in the five years he had been gone, the cars battery would be long dead…

“Looks like I’m hoofing it to the airport.” Eddie said, before realising that he had unintentionally  just said one of the worst puns that he had ever heard. It was at this time that he realised that facepalming was a lot gentler that facehoofing.

The Trek

The Trek

        Getting out of the apartment was easier than getting out of the bedroom. All Eddie had to do was walk out out the broken window, while being mindful of any glass shards.

        The 8 mile trip north to the airport was uneventful. The thing that unnerved Eddie the most was the man made noise. No noise from airplanes above, no cars zooming down Cicero avenue. But other noises reached Eddie's more sensitive pony ears. The sound of chirping birds, the sounds of dogs barking in the distance. The sounds of nature were calming to Eddie.

        After about an hour of stumbling down the road, not use to his newly arranged anatomy, Eddie got the hang of quadrupedal walking. A few more hours later, his trip was almost over.

        “I dont know what to expect when i get there. I hope the folks there are as welcoming as moms note makes them up to be.” Eddie said as he sat down to pull an apple out of his pack for lunch near the remains of a looted grocery store. “I wonder if mom and the group she was with were the ones that looted this place.” Eddie said as he looked at broken door and windows of the place.

        Finishing lunch, Eddie continued his trek, about 3 miles from his destination. “Better keep going, almost there!” Eddie said to himself as he slung his pack around his neck to continue, but before he could continue towards his goal, he heard a voice above him.

        “Hey down there!” Said a female voice.

        Eddie’s eyes shot up and his wings shot out in a defensive stance. Looking up, Eddie spotted the source of the voice hovering about 80 feet above him. The voice belonged to a creature that Eddie thought belonged in a fairy tale, a dragon! The beast dove down and with a mighty gust of wind landed in front of the scarred pegasus.

        The dragon was  yellow, about 15 feet tall , with large, leathery wings. It looked at the scared pegasus and Eddie looked at the monster in front of him.

        It was at this point that the smaller of the two passed out from shock

        “Huh, it's like the guys never seen a dragon before.” said the dragon.

***

A few minutes later, Eddie came to. His eyes immediately shot open and searched for the beast that was going to eat him. Oh god, I'm still alive! Was that a dragon?! Why did mom not warn me about dragons?

The dragon had the bright idea to fly to the top of the building that the pegasus decided to pass out in front of, as to not scare him again.

Eddie meanwhile was trying to calm down. If that dragon wanted to eat me, it totally would have. Why am I still alive?

“Hello down there, I didn't mean to scare you. Most ponies around here are use to me by now.” Said the same female that Eddie had heard from before the dragon showed up.

Looking up Eddie spotted a set of green eyes and a set of horns sticking out from the top of the store that Eddie had eaten lunch in front of.

Eddie eyed the obvious dragon hiding on the top of the building, and calmed down after it explained itself.

“Are you a d-dragon?” Eddie asked in fear of the beast that could most likely kill him if he crossed it.

“Uh, yeah. You new here or something?” The dragon said to Eddie sticking her long neck out further so she could see him better. “I've never seen you around here before.”

Eddie was calming down a little bit, but his wings were still stretched out. “ No, I grew up in this neighborhood, a few blocks west of the airport, but I moved to the suburbs a few months ago.” Eddie said.”Well, if my moms journal is right, it was a few years ago by this point.”

With this the dragon's eyes opened wide. “Wait, did you just wake up like that?” She said, almost to his eye level.

Eddie flinching back from the sudden excitement of the dragon. “Yeah, I woke up this morning in my apartment with the place all dirty and the window in my front room broken and a tree growing there. I found a note saying to head to the airport.”

The lady dragon, at hearing the news, had a big smile on her face, revealing rows of sharp, meat tearing, teeth. Eddie blanched at the view of those inch long flesh ripping chompers, fearing that he was next on the menu for this carnivore.

“Wait right here! I’ll send someone to pick you up!” She yelled to Eddie as she took off towards the north. “Risky owes me dinner!’ She said before she got out of hearing distance from the happy dragon.

“What just happened?” Eddie said to himself.

***

        About 5 minutes later, Eddie could hear a vehicle coming south down the road. He ducked into the grocery store, and waited. An SUV pulled into the parking lot of the store that Eddie was hiding in.

Then, a small horse hopped out of the first truck. The driver had a horn. I’m a pegasus, I met a dragon, and now there is a freaking unicorn that drives trucks. What could possibly come next?

The unicorn spent a moment looking around, for what Eddie could only guess was him. The unicorn was a dark brown with a grey mane and some kind of mark on its butt, or is it the thigh? The mark was a coffee mug with steam coming out of it. What does that mean?

“Hello? Is that blue pegasus still here? I know Angela can be intimidating, but she’s just a big softie once you get to know her.” Said the coffee colored unicorn. The voice was female. “Listen, I know you’re scared. I know I was when I woke up as a unicorn, but you aren't alone. We can help you settle in and get you up to date on what you missed while you were out. We have a settlement at the airport, we have food, fresh water and electricity.”

“I’m coming out, just don't shoot me or whatever.” Eddie said as he walked out of the store.

“Wouldn't dream of it.” said the unicorn. “Names Serina, but most ponies call me Mocha Latte these days.