Reflections

by Mogarshy

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Adventure, Profanity, Dark, Alternate Universe, Gore, Original Character
Length: 3024

A colt and a pegasus find themselves alone on a highway. It's strangely quiet, isn't it? [ An apocalypse story that isn't zombies. ]

A colt, a pegasus, and a unicorn find themselves alone on a highway. It's strangely quiet, isn't it?

An apocalypse story that isn't zombies.

The description updates along with the story.

Cover art by myself.

Published 2018-04-16 15:10:11 UTC
Last updated 2020-04-17 03:54:29 UTC

Backwards

The sun finally hovered above the horizon, daylight giving the colt a better view of his surroundings. Still eerily silent and lonely. Lazy beams of sunlight warmed his freckled cheeks as he sat there, thinking. He knew he couldn’t sit on the bus all morning, but he was reluctant to jump down. It was a bright yellow beacon in case help came along the road.

At the same time, it could also attract trouble. He decided to give it one last good look over before he left. He turned, bracing himself against the window he had exited the night before, and slowly leaned in.

The stench had gotten worse. The mangled bodies of ponies littered the bus, some still tangled in their seat belts. Flies buzzed around the outstretched hooves of maybe thirty dead ponies. Most of them were unrecognizable. Blood, guts, and discolored scraps of fur covered the seats and the walls. Most of the blood gathered down into the middle, like a macabre kiddie pool.

The colt swallowed hard, and looked at the seat he escaped from.

The mare sitting next to him was still there, her head smashed against the window into a slushy of gore, with shards of glass stabbing out of her gaunt cheeks and mouth. He whimpered, pulling himself out of the window and taking a couple shaky breaths. The fresh air welcomed him, reminding him he had survived.

Was it fate that had saved him, or fate that had doomed everybody else? He didn’t want to dwell on it.

He tossed his bag down first, and slid down the bus after it. The colt figured going back the way he came from would be easier. He remembered passing through small towns occasionally through the long stretches of farmland.

He swung the bag back onto his back, shook his head clear, and headed west.

Forwards

All the colt heard was the occasional crunch of a crisp autumn leaf underhoof or items shifting around in his bag. Not even a bird chirped. The silence wasn’t unwelcome, it was just unnerving. His mind wandered, as it tended to do, to the darker side.

What if he was really just dead, like everypony else on that bus, and this was him wandering around as a ghost? Or, or, what if the zombie apocalypse started and he was the last pony alive?

Of course, the logical part of him just rolled its eyes. Zombies were comic book fodder, there was nothing realistic about reanimating the dead. He glanced down at his hooves and didn’t find them transparent or unfeeling, so that ruled out the spirit realm.

He sighed at himself. How long had he been walking anyways? A mile, maybe? He really should have been reading all of those signs he passed.

When the colt looked back up, somepony was looking back, gazing right into his eyes.

The scream that followed was nothing short of manly. He stumbled backwards, instinctively raising a hind leg to buck, but paused. There was nopony there. Panting, he stood back on all fours, lost. Was he just imagining things?

A single brown feather floated down from above, landing onto his nose. The colt looked up, and there was a pegasus, flying above him.

They both stared at each other for a moment. And then the pegasus started laughing.

“Oh man - you, you should have seen your face! Bwahaha!” They guffawed, landing in front of the colt with a gust of wind. The pegasus was short, caramel brown, and pudgy. There was no cutie mark on their flanks, and the colt estimated they were somewhere between 13 and 14 years old.

He frowned at them until they finally calmed down. “Sorry, sorry, it was really funny...” They mumbled, shuffling awkwardly on all four hooves, watching as the earth pony blew their stray feather off his nose with an irritated huff.

“Hilarious,” The colt finally deadpanned, voice wavering from disuse. It was the pegasus’ turn to frown, but they seemed more confused rather then offended. With a quick ruffle of their wings, they shook off the frown and offered that cheesy grin again, extending a hoof.

“I’m Francis, by the way, but my friends call me Frankie.”

The colt stared at their hoof for a few moments, seriously considering the offer. This wasn’t just an apologetic hoof bump. This would be the hoof bump to solidify some sort of friendship with the kid. But...it might already be too late.

It was worth a shot, though. “I don’t have time for this.” He mumbled, sidestepping around Frankie. He continued walking, not even looking back at them, still standing in the middle of the road with a hoof held up to nopony.

“Nine….and….ten.” Just as he expected, he heard the sudden rush of wind as the pegasus sped in front of him, huffing.

Frankie twisted in mid-air to face him, flying backwards. “It's not nice to walk away from ponies who are tryna apologize, y’know!” Was that the slightest hint of irritation in their voice?

The colt merely smirked, saying nothing as they both continued west, side by side.

See

Eventually the highway dissolved into two lanes. Ray paused to look at a familiar blue sign across the road. Rest stop. From the looks of it, there was a fast food place and a gas station up ahead.

He turned to say something to Frankie, finding the pegasus was already squinting at it with him.

“I can’t read that.” They mumbled. “What does it say?”

“Rest stop ahead. 3 miles. You really can’t read that?” Ray glanced at the pegasus, watching them turn their head like a dog trying to understand its owner. It was kind of cute.

“No. Dad always said I needed glasses.” Frankie finally gave up, frowning. Ray just shrugged and turned away. He added ‘find the kid glasses’ to his mental to-do list.

The two walked. In less than an hour, the road was divided into a bridge, off ramps, and another sign.

“Welcome to Chatshoof.” Ray read to himself. Frankie was already soaring across the bridge in excitement.

“Ray, look! There’s a Hayburgers sign!” They squealed. The colt sighed and galloped up behind them, but he couldn’t help and share the enthusiasm. Something hot and greasy sounded delicious right now.

When he finally got a look at the other side, however, his mind went blank.

Cars. There were cars, hundreds of cars, lined up as far as Ray could see. And they were all on one side of the road. He didn’t need the sight of glinting windshields in the afternoon sun to know these were ponies driving away from Chatshoof.

But they were all empty. Just sitting there, like the parking lot of a supermarket.

Frankie groaned from the other side of the bridge. “Why do you have to stare at stuff all the time? Come on, I’m starving!”

Ray ignored them, leaning up on the concrete railing to get a better look. It wasn’t entirely still and empty. One red minivan below them had its passenger side door swung open, where Ray could see something moving around the papers on the dashboard. Another pony.

The pegasus huffed and flew over, about to complain again, but Ray wrapped a hoof around their leg and pulled them down to earth. Frankie yelped, the sound echoing across the empty highway.

The pony shot up, looking up at the bridge. Ray smirked to himself, triumphant. Even though it was merely another pony, it was enough to prove the zombie apocalypse was merely an overactive pegasus’ imagination. Speaking of that pegasus…

“Can you stop fucking kicking me already?” Frankie stopped trying to buck Ray in the ribs, wrestling their hoof from his grip with an offended glare. “Look. Down there.” Ray pointed towards the minivan. They looked.

“I can’t see that far, dummy.” Frankie reminded him. Ray shoved his glasses into their hooves. “Oh. Thanks.”

They spent long enough messing around for the pony to leave the minivan. It was a mare. Her red mane was parted around a cream colored horn, her pink eyes darting around nervously until they landed on the earth pony and pegasus watching her.

Frankie waved.

Trois

The mare’s name was Olivia. She had been visiting her grandmother during her spring break when her car got a flat tire. ( “Imagine, being in the middle of nowhere struggling to replace a flat the day you were supposed to leave while your frail old grandmother lectures you about what life was like back in her day.” She had groaned. )

That’s when she noticed all of the cars speeding down the highway out of Chatshoof, like a flock of birds migrating south for the winter. By the time her tire was fixed up, Olivia hadn’t even driven a mile before she ran into all of the abandoned vehicles.

They were sitting in the trunk of her red pickup truck while Olivia dug around in her bags for something to drink. Ray was listening intently to her long, detailed story. It wasn’t like he had a choice, really. Frankie had fallen asleep on him, worn out from all the flying. The kid still had remnants of grandma’s chocolate chip cookies on their face. Ray reached over and wiped the side of Frankie’s mouth with his sweater sleeve, with no success.

“It’s so weird! Every single car I’ve looked into has been ... empty. But all of their stuff is still there!” Olivia was saying, pausing when she noticed what Ray was doing. Her expression softened. Her horn lit up with a pink aura as she levitated a napkin over to Ray.

“Oh. Thank you.” Ray did what a mom would do - he licked the napkin and scrubbed all the chocolate off of Frankie’s face. Olivia chuckled warmly. “ … What?” He glanced at her.

“Oh, nothing … It’s just that you and your little brother remind me of me and my sister. Always arguing, but - I still took care of her!” She smiled. Ray looked away from her. He didn’t feel like explaining he wasn’t related to the pegasus. Actually, it was probably better if he didn’t - “Yeah, I just found him and now he’s following me to who the hell knows where.”

So he just crumpled up the napkin and stuck it in his pocket. She levitated a bottle of water towards him as he did, and he eagerly grabbed it and drank. "S-Sorry. What were you saying?”

“Oh, right … yeah, it’s like everypony’s just ... disappeared!” Olivia gestured to the air with an open hoof, and slumped back down, frustrated. “Or, at the very least … they left their cars in the middle of the highway.”

The gears turned in Ray’s head. If ponies had panicked enough to just leave their much safer cars, well … “Maybe there was an accident?”

“I guess, but - why would they line up so neatly? Just to block me in, I guess” She sighed. “I just don’t know what to do now. My marefriend’s probably worried sick about me by now.”

Ray didn’t have a solution. Except - “When you said they left their stuff, did they leave their keys?”

Author's Note

quarantine got me like: haha, remember when i wrote that mlp fanfic? i wonder if its still up. oh, haha, i remember this! last updated .. 2018? ITS BEEN THAT LONG? :pinkiegasp:

anyways. today, i bring you a few chapters. tomorrow, who knows ...

Automatic

Every single car had been left with keys still in the ignition. They had checked once, twice, just to confirm it. Many still had drinks left in cups, ice unmelted, coffee tumblers still hot. It was … not coincidence, Ray had concluded.

So all they had to do was move them. Except …

“Don’t know how to drive?” Olivia asked. Ray shook his head, hooves on the wheel, staring dumbfounded at the dashboard. “Aw, don’t worry about it - I didn’t get my license until I was 21. Here …”

She walked around and swung the passenger door open, hopping in right next to him. “First of all, put your seat belt on.”

He blinked at her, but obliged, clicking it into place. She did too. "So ... can you see out of the mirror?"

He shifted in the seat. "No." Whoever drove this car was sure as hell taller then him. Olivia lit up her horn and the mirror inside moved, slowly lowering.

"Just tell me when."

"Yeah, that's good." He swallowed. This was more complicated then he thought.

"You gotta do that every time you get in the car. Don't worry about your side mirrors, you can just stick your head out of the window, haha." Olivia twisted the key in the ignition, and the car hummed to life underneath them - and then started to move. "Oh, what the hell."

“I didn’t do anything-” Ray started. His hooves moved on the wheel, and the car started veering to the left, painfully inching closer to the one parked next to them.

“Step on the brake!” He looked at her, then at the wheel. “The brake!” She repeated, eyes wide. He stared at her again, lost. She paled. “T-the pedal on the left!”

He did, maybe a little too hard, and the car abruptly stopped, jerking both of them back and forth.

“Sorry.” Ray sighed, shifting around again. "I can find a different way to help-"

Olivia looked frazzled, but put a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey, hey, it’s alright. Lets just … keep going. Slower, this time.”

Here

A colt stood on an overturned bus, blinking in confusion.

Shadowy shapes loomed under a sky full of stars. The world around him lay in darkness, out of focus. Crickets chirped softly, as if fearful of being heard. Even the colt was holding his breath in the quiet, twitching with every small noise.

Even if he couldn’t see too well, he had other senses. The stench of smog that came from the bus below him. The lights on the bus were off, and it was missing a tire, but it seemed intact enough not to explode. So he sat down.

It was oddly still. The colt estimated it was four in the morning. It was cold as well. He wrapped his jacket around him a little tighter, shivering. His ears perked up as he heard the jingle of loose change in his pocket. It reminded him of the bookbag swung across his back.

Brushing strands of black mane out of his eyes, he pulled the bag into his lap. Carefully, he unclasped the bag and poked his nose in. Everything was still in there. To his delight, his glasses were still in their case, unscathed, and he put them on hurriedly.

The bus was still laying on the highway, the road stretching into nothingness. No other cars were in sight. The highway was empty and barren, the only sign of life being the occasional crumpled napkin or empty soft drink cup littered around the road. He became aware of how alone he was, but he just scrunched up his muzzle and tried to keep the thought out of his mind.

With a brown hoof, he reached back into the bag and dug out his lunch. A shiny, red apple, a little bruised but still delicious. He didn’t stare it any longer, quickly raising it to his lips and taking a generous bite.

The colt leaned back with a sigh as the beginning rays of sunlight slowly creeped over the distant treetops.

Deux

“So uh, aren’t you a little young to be flying around alone?” The colt was saying, squinting into the horizon. Either he had miscalculated the last time he had actually passed a town, or time was moving extremely slow. More likely the former, but, he didn’t mind.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but having somepony to travel with calmed his nerves. The silence was better when it was shared with a friend, he supposed.

Frankie hummed in thought, slowly drifting above him. “Well, it’s kinda complicated, but I had to do something’ for my dad and I’m the faster flyer, so…” They trailed off, flapping their wings.

“Complicated?” He echoed. The pegasus frowned.

“Well, he needed some…supplies, so I zoomed over to the nearest town for some. He got hurt by one of those...zombie things. Last time I saw him he was fightin’ off a million of those fuckers-” Frankie stopped themselves, a hoof going to their muzzle. “Aahh, sorry! I shouldn't swear...It just gets me really heated, y’know?”

The colt stood there, frozen.

Zombies? Did he hear that right? Was this the overactive imagination of a child, or his worst fears coming true? Did that explain the sudden emptiness, the barren wasteland around him? He didn’t even know how long he was unconscious on that bus - it could have been hours, days, even. And somehow, he survived.

The pegasus turned back to stare at the earth pony. “...What? Swearing isn’t that bad, I just...” Their wings drooped in realization and Frankie landed with a sudden thump. “You don’t?-”

“You’re lying.” He interrupted. Whatever fear that had seeped into his expression was replaced with anger. Frankie opened their mouth to say something, but couldn’t.

“Trying to scare me again.” The colt mumbled. He glared down at the road, but he couldn’t convince himself. It was the most logical explanation for the sudden absence of society. How could they have been walking straight down the middle of the highway for hours with not a car in sight?

A few moments of silence passed between the two, the only sound being Frankie constantly shuffling their feathers.

Realizing it was pointless, or maybe out of actual curiosity, Frankie finally spoke up. “Uh...What's your name, again?” They asked.

“Ray.” With an agitated flick of his tail, Ray started moving again.

Author's Note

Sorry for the the wait - I had this chapter done, but wasn't satisfied with it until now. Also, finals.