Babs stood outside.
The chilling wind brushed against her rusty coat as she stood waiting for the bus. She felt the bottom of her hooves turn numb from the freezing pavement below.
She looked around lazily at the smog clouded sky above, the tall sky scrapers jutting up through the thick skyline. There was a smell of something burning far off in the distance.
Even the snow was grey from the pollution.
She only had a torn backpack, an old thin gray jacket, a scrappy scarf and ear buds that were playing music to keep warm as she waited for the shabby hunk of metal that passed as a bus to pick her up.
It might not have been much but it was a little warmer than what was offered standing in the cold without anything.
She just stood there for what felt like hours to her. She hadn’t realized how long she had been actually been standing there waiting until she heard the familiar clanking rumble of an old shitty bus creeping its way up the road.
She watched as it slowly came into her view. To her it was more of a relic than a bus, the probably once bright yellow paint becoming a gunky cheese color, paint missing from the many years of abuse it had suffered. The grill and bumper looked all but rusted as it drove up to her.
She began to walk to the curb as the bus pulled up to her stop. Her hooves froze as she walked up the small stair case. As she steeped on the junk heap, she gave the bus driver a nod of recognition, after all she was one of her friends now
.
As she walked down the aisle looking for a seat, she watched as fillies and colts alike placed their bags next to them so she couldn’t sit with them.
“Who am I to care?”
She thought as she strolled all the way down to the back of the bus where the older kids sat at.
“At least I can sit there.”
She said in her head as she walked up to her usual seat. She made no eye contact as the older colt she sat with moved to let her sit next to the window.
He was her other friend, though they never talked. They were just silent companions.
“We have nothing to talk about, so we don't." she said to herself as they quietly sat with each other, listening to their music
She watched as the world moved by in a greyish blur as the bus moved on
.
She waited.
Not to get to school, no, that was one of the last places she wanted to be. Home, too, was just a word to her. Her home was taken when her father moved them to this shithole of a city.
No...what she was waiting for was actually worth it.
She sat there waiting, and she watched as an old department store flew by.
She saw one pony inside, an old stallion. His mane had long since turned grey, his pale blueish fur contrasting against his dark green fluffy jacket, as he stood there with bright eyes and a soft smile.
She smiled back, for what may have been only a few seconds, before he was gone from her sight once more.
Her expressionless face watching as the grey world zoomed on by. Slowly, a large concrete tunnel began to come into her view. She felt as a small giddiness begin to make its way into her stomach as it came ever closer to the bus.
As the archway of the tunnel zoomed overhead, she held her breath.
Her daily ritual had begun.
Her eyes squeezed shut, her lungs holding in the smoggy air as she slowly started counting down.
“10, 9, 8, 7- “ She counted in her mind as her lungs began to burn.
She felt as the bus jumped a little as it changed from asphalt ground to metal road.
“4, 3, 2- “ Her eyes shot open as she gulped silently for air.
A golden light filled her vision as they opened. The air she breathed in felt no longer dirty or filled with pollution.
She watched through the window as the tops of pine trees filtered the golden light of Celestia's sun, the clouds a soft pink as they lazily floated above. The sun itself glittered like gold as it burned itself into her mind. Her eyes opened to their limit as they drank in the sight.
Her music playing in perfect timing with the beautiful sight, and every sway of the trees matched up to the rhythm of her music.
She was so caught up in the moment she didn’t even notice the colt next to her smiling at her before looking out the window himself to drink up the sight as well.
It was over too soon for her.
She closed her eyes once more, and held her breath as she counted up to ten.
“8, 9, 10” she thought as she breathed once more, now out of the tunnel. She didn’t open her eyes, trying to keep the image in her vision as long as possible. Her smile now faded.
She opened her eyes as the bus came to its final stop.
School.