Friendship Insurance is the Best Kind of Insurance
Melody Fright and her mom were sitting on the couch and watching TV. What her mom was watching didn't really matter too much to her -- no, what mattered to her were the sponsors, the "brought to you by's", the "supported by's". There was one show in particular, Equestria's Most Shocking, that had one particular sponsor.
"Equestria's Most Shocking is brought to you by the following..."
And then, there he was.
To most anypony else, he was a bipedal gecko just chatting away about insurance and going about his daily life with nary a worry. To Melody, however, he was the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. Although she loved animals, there was something about this one that just seemed...off to her. It was his head, and his face, she had thought. But who was to say.
The fear eventually subsided, and she went about her day as usual.
What she wasn't prepared for was the dream. The same dream that would pop up every week or so, ready to plague her mind.
As if playing a first-pony video game, her vision met the PONECO logo, on a simple white screen, with a phone number and a website for contact, just like in the commercials. It just...stood there, menacingly. She could feel herself shivering.
"PONECO. In 30 minutes, we can save you 30% or more on insurance." a voiceover chimed, deep and booming and terrifying.
Melody shut her eyes tight, and squeezed them shut for a few moments.
When she opened them, she found herself in her own bedroom at the foot of her bed, her vision still first-pony. She held her breath, spotting a dark figure standing on the other side of the room.
If she took a breath, it would be the beginning of the end of her.
But she was a living being with a necessity, an instinct, a dire need to breathe. She couldn't just not-
She lost control.
She breathed.
The figure came closer.
She could see who it was now.
The PONECO Gecko, or just the Gecko, as he was called. Fairly long, slender, with green scaly skin and amber eyes -- not that she could see that in the darkness.
She glanced behind her. A wall stood tall and mighty. Where it came from, nopony knew. But that exit was blocked off, and she could see no other exits, no beckoning beacons of light to call her forth.
Another breath.
It came closer.
Every time she took a breath, the figure would come closer and closer, and every time she would try to use her magic to provide some semblance of light, only to fail. Which had been strange to her at first -- Equestria had magic once again -- but it had soon become nothing more than a depressing realization. It didn't stop her from trying to do so out of distress, though.
Another breath.
Closer.
The reptile didn't say anything. He didn't wear any expression of happiness, of sadness, of anger. It was the same blank, unidentifiable expression. Perhaps, aside from him as a character, that was the scariest thing about him.
Another breath.
Closer.
He was only a few inches away from her, now.
She held her breath again, despite knowing that she would have to breathe again eventually and that he would come after her when she did. In a fit of desperation, she tried to lift her front hooves off of the ground, but they were stuck to the floor by a mysterious and invisible force.
She stared at the creature.
He stared back.
She could feel herself losing oxygen.
She breathed.
He lunged for her without a single sound uttered, and her vision was immediately covered in a dripping pink substance that looked familiar to that Phospheron stuff ponies would take when they had upset stomachs.
The Phospheron-like substance went away after a few seconds, and she was right back where she started: facing down the PONECO logo, the announcer from the commercials repeating the same title drop and the same slogan.
It was a cruel and vicious cycle that lasted longer than her other dreams did. The same two areas and the same two events repeating themselves, over and over and over again, until she arrived to the waking world in the morning. She felt grateful that there were many distractions in the waking world that helped put her mind at ease from this terrible nightmare.
However, what she didn't count on was one dream in the series having a bit of an...interesting twist.
The day had gone on like it always did -- Melody's mom went to work, came home, watched a bit of TV, maybe took a nap if she was feeling tired, then she made dinner for herself and her daughter. Melody went to school, came home, played with some friends, ate dinner, and then took a nice long bath while making up a random adventure.
As the filly was brushing her teeth that evening, she thought back to a PONECO ad she had seen on TV. It featured a stallion, depicted as the boss of the company, wanting to do some kind of a trust fall exercise with the company's beloved mascot, not aware that doing so would likely kill him in the process. Now that...that was an ad that she had enjoyed. She was rooting for the stallion all the way through. It was just a shame the ad stopped when it did.
She climbed into bed, closed her eyes, and hugged her stuffed bunny, knowing that her chances of having the same dream she did yesterday were...well, in reality they were pretty slim, but to her, slim wasn't good enough.
...
She awoke in the same exact spot as yesterday.
Facing the PONECO logo, with that same announcer just repeating the name of the company and the slogan.
She made no effort to speak to the announcer. For one, he probably couldn't hear her anyway. For another, she was too terrified of what such a threat as a disembodied voice would do to her.
The move from the first area to the second one was quicker than she had expected. But funny as it was, she suddenly found the words to communicate.
"D-d-don't hurt me."
The creature moved closer. Had it even heard her?
She tried to use her magic again, but failed. Her horn failed to produce even a single spark.
"Please."
The creature moved even closer.
Her hooves refused to release their grips from the floor she was standing on.
"S-spare m-me..."
The creature moved even closer. He was halfway towards her, now.
But his expression was no longer blank. On the contrary, it was full of life and emotion, as though he had just been freed from mind control or possession.
"Er, pardon?"
Her eyes widened.
"Would you mind telling me where I am? I must say, my journey across Equestria does take me to some unusual destinations, but this is new to me."
That voice. That intimidating...but silky...and very much British voice. There was no denying it. It was him.
"I-I..." The filly couldn't find much courage to speak. "Y-y-you're in...m-my room..."
"Really? Hm." The Gecko looked around. "I was in quite the similar situation once. Some little colt decided to take me home because I posed as an action figure...I do hope Lord Gorlock and Voldezord managed to resolve their little issue."
She only stared at him.
"But I don't seem to recall being a toy."
He stepped closer to her.
"Say, did you know you could save hundreds of bits by switching to PONECO?"
"D-don't come any closer!" she shouted, afraid to blink or close her eyes for even a second. Her blue eyes shimmered with fear.
The reptile tilted his head. "Don't tell me you happen to be afraid of me?"
The filly said nothing.
"Look, I'm only here to do my job. To help ponies save on insurance. Believe me, bad savings is the only thing you should fear."
Melody looked around for some semblance of an exit, even though she knew her efforts would never bear fruit.
The Gecko figured out quickly that, for this potential customer, he would need to break away from his professional identity a little bit and get down to business.
Personal business.
"Look, I'm a beloved advertising icon. Ponies of all sorts love me. I don't quite understand why you're so terrified of me. After all...I'm only computer-animated."
She perked up on the last sentence.
"I will admit, I had a bit of an identity crisis there when I first found out." He shook his head. "But I've come to accept it. Someday, I hope to find...mm, what was it called, now...a 'magic-user' who can give me life, so I don't have to be the byproduct of editing software and other technology."
She opened her mouth, and as if a pony had turned on a light, words began tumbling out.
"W-w-w-well, um...y-you see, i-it's...exactly that. Y-your, um..."
"My...?"
"Face?"
The Gecko immediately put one of his front feet to his face, feeling around for any impurities.
"J-just the look of it, r-r-really..."
"Dear, I wish I had a mirror...does it really look that bad?"
"No! I-I-I mean..." Melody shook her head vigorously. "F-f-from a t-technological point of v-view..."
"Ah. I see. So I need a bit of an upgrade, so to say." He sighed. "Better than turning me into a two-dimensional cartoon, I suppose."
With every minute that passed, she found her worry slowly dissipating as she faced her fear and got to know it a little better. As it turned out, the Gecko had a lot of deep secrets about him that he didn't share on camera. He told Melody all about his family, his favorite foods (he had a real affinity for pie and chips), and what he liked to do when he wasn't working. The emotions that she and him had felt were so real, so authentic, so calming, that she almost forgot she was in a dream.
"I hope someday, I'll be the pony who can bring you to life, Mr. Gecko. And I'll be sure to insure all my products with PONECO, too!"
The reptile chuckled. "I'd very much like that, Ms. Fright. Just do me a favor, will you?"
"What's that?"
"Tell your mother about how PONECO can save you money on insurance, and get her to make the switch, hmm?"
She nodded. "Of course!"
Her hooves, finally free from being tied down to the floor, let her move towards him. She leaned down and gave him as best of a hug as a filly could manage to give to a small gecko.
"Thank you."
Those were the final words she uttered before waking up.
The sunlight filtered in her room as she stretched and raced down to the kitchen. Her mother had only left a single note on the table.
Melody,
I've made breakfast for you -- your favorite, blueberry pancakes. I'm at work, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to give me a call. If you get your homework done by the time I come back, we'll go out for dinner, okay?
The filly smiled as she spotted a stack of pancakes sitting on the table, syrup cascading down them and hitting the plate. Her stomach started to growl, and she devoured her meal as quickly as she could.
It was only when she had grabbed her backpack and headed out of her room did she realize it was Saturday -- she didn't have school today. More happiness flowed into her heart as she set the backpack back into her room and zoomed outside, hoping to find her friends and tell them about her dream.
Of course, her friends listened, but she knew from the looks on their faces that they secretly thought something was wrong in that head of hers. Not that she minded, of course -- they were still supportive anyway. And even with the most far-fetched of dreams and aspirations, that was one of the only things somepony could ask for in a friend.
By the time she got home from hours of playing and just taking a stroll through her hometown, she was exhausted. She spent quite a bit on the Internet, researching PONECO as a company and its iconic mascot, hoping to find some way she could possibly bring him to life and free him from his fate of being nothing more than a computer-animated fictional character.
As she waited for her mother to get home from work, she decided to relax in the living room, eating some crackers and reading a book, with the TV as background noise.
She hadn't been paying much attention to it.
Until one ad piqued her interest.
It was an old one she had seen before, where the Gecko recounted his early days working at PONECO. But instead of feeling fear, she felt...peace. She watched the ad like most anypony would watch a commercial. A smile even subconsciously formed on her face.
Just as the ad finished, her mother walked in the door.
"Hi, honey! I'm home. Sorry I'm late, I ran into an old friend of mine."
"It's okay, Mom. Can I ask you a question?"
"Oh, of course! What is it?"
Melody smiled.
"Have you ever considered switching your insurance to PONECO?"
Author's Note
Hey, you made it to the end. Good for you. Backstory time!
As a kid, I was terrified of the Geico Gecko and the Geico commercials as a whole. I don't really know why myself -- maybe it was the uncanny way he looked, maybe it was his voice, maybe it was the smash cut to the Geico logo every single time. But I would have nightmares about it all the time. Particularly, I had one recurring one which is detailed in this story and which haunted me all the way until I was in middle school. There are parts in this story, however, that aren't true, such as when Melody befriends the reptile -- I never did that, but this is My Little Pony, and I wanted this story to have a (relatively) happy ending.
I wanted to write something for Halloween and set aside my two ongoing projects for just a moment, and what better way to do that than to go full-on random, I figured. Hope you enjoyed either way.
