Before you read this story, I want to say that this is based upon an actual event that occurred in my younger years. Not everything is going to be exactly what happened because some of it I just couldn't remember due to me being about 6 or 7 years old.
I was just a little colt back then. No more than seven years of age. My family didn’t have much, but we made everything work out to get by. I had 4 brothers at the time and including my parents and me, which made 7 of us. We all lived in a very cramped apartment room with only 2 bedrooms. My brothers and I shared one room which was very small and cramped. And then my parents had the other room. There was a tiny kitchen along with a laundry room the size of a closet. And then there was the living room with a couch and an old TV.
I was too young to remember much but I do remember getting out of bed one night and overhearing my parents talking about moving back to the town I was born in: Greenville.
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My brothers woke up on a Saturday morning to watch our favorite television show. I was the first one to always wake up. I’ve always woke up early due to always getting ready for school it so the routine pretty much stuck. I sat on the couch and waited for my brothers to come into the living room so we could watch it together.
Slowly, they made their way in and turned on the television. We watched and laughed and had ourselves a good time. It was after the show ended, my parents walked in.
“Boys, me and your father had been talking,” my mother began, “And we are going to move to Greenville in two weeks.”
We were all surprised at what she said. And I was the first to speak. “But momma what about all my friends? They’re gonna miss me and I’m gonna miss them.”
“Shifty think about it this way son, you have other friends that are waiting to meet you back in Greenville.” It was true. I never had thought about it. And it would be good to be able to make many new friends.
“But how are we going to get there?” My eldest brother said. “We’re not pegasi so we can’t fly there and we’re not unicorns so we can’t use our magic teleport there.”
“We’re going to rent a carriage. It’s a long way there but we can do it.” My mother exclaimed.
“But for now, we’re going to spend these last 2 weeks packing up all our things. You’re still going to be going to school so you can spend as much time as you can with your friends before the move.
This was going to be so exciting! We were going to move back to where I was born and then I’m going to make so many new friends!
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The last two weeks went by very slow. I was happy for that because I felt I had more time to spend with my friends before I said goodbye. On my last day of school, my whole class created a banner for me and a big card with all their names on it. The banner said ‘We Will Miss You Shifty! Good Luck in Your New Home!’ What made that day special was my whole class went outside to our school banner and took a class picture. They later had the picture printed and put it in an envelope with the card. By the time the school day ended, everyone said their goodbyes. It hurt to say goodbye to all my friends. Tears started to fill my eyes as everyone surrounded me and wrapped their hooves around me in a long embrace. I never wanted it to end but it had to. My parents waited outside to pick me up. As we left, I waved goodbye to everyone as they did the same.
We arrived at home a few minutes later. This was the last evening we would spend in this tiny apartment and early in the morning, we would leave to the road to our new home. We ate dinner that night on the floor considering it was already packed up in our moving carriage. It was a few minutes before we were going to bed early, my parents showed us a picture of the new house we were moving into.
“See my little colts. This is the new house we’re going to live in.” My mother said to us with a smile. It was beautiful. The grass was green and cut neatly. The outside was white and had a tan roof. We were all so excited we decided to get some sleep before we headed out. My family slept on the floor in our room while I slept in the living room by myself. It was very early in the morning when my youngest brother woke me up.
“Shifty! Shifty!” He whispered.
“Huh?” I said, waking up. “Why’d you wake me up?”
“Momma and Dad are gone! They’re not here!”
I slowly got up and walked to our room. I turned on the light and saw them, my parents and other brothers all asleep on the floor curled up in blankets.
“Sprint they’re right there. You just had a bad dream. Go back and get some sleep.” He nodded and went back to his sleeping back. I walked back to my place in the living room, fell down into my blankets, and fell fast asleep.
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My parents woke me up very early the next morning. It was still dark out as I tried to get up.
“Come on Shifty wake up.” My Dad said gently lifting me up. “It’s time for us to hit the road. You can sleep in the carriage. I moaned sleapishly as we all gathered the rest of our stuff and got ready to head out to the moving carriage.
We locked the door to the apartment and all gathered into the carriage. As we pulled away, my brothers and I waived and said, “Bye bye old home.” And that’s when I fell back asleep.
I woke up when Celestia’s sun was straight ahead in the sky. According to my parents, I was asleep for a good 7 hours.
“But don’t worry. You didn’t miss miss any of the sights.” My father said. He told us that when we’re half way there, there’s a big bridge that we have to cross. At hearing that, my brothers and I cheered. We never had the chance to travel because we didn’t have enough bits left after paying bills and all sorts of stuff like that. So this move was an extraordinary experience. The travel there was supposed to take four days. So we only stopped when we had to use the bathroom or get snacks. The only time we ate was at dinner time which was a good thing we had snacks during the day!
The best part about this trip, our Grandma was coming with us! I called her Meemaw and she didn’t seem to mind. She wasn’t moving there with us I was sad about that because then she’ll be so far away. But she was going to stay with us for a few weeks to help us get settled in. But after that she’ll have to go back to Ponyville. The thought of Ponyville made me a little sad. We grew up there and had many friends. Now they’re all left behind. But I told myself again that this is a new adventure and a bigger step to a better life.
It was the second day of travel we reached the halfway point. We all remembered what that meant: this was where we cross that big bridge. We reached the bridge and all, including my parents, were amazed. It was much bigger than we thought. It was about a mile and a half long crossing this extra big river. I didn’t remember what the river was called but I didn’t ask because it completely slipped my mind.
A few hours later, we stopped to get some dinner. After that, we left again for about an hour and stopped for the night. We woke up the next morning and saw it was foggy out. We kept our course steadily watching out to make sure that we didn’t run into anypony else. Not too long later, the fog cleared and what we saw amazed us. We looked to our left and saw mountains as high as the sky could be. And near the top, it was all foggy.
“Those are called The Smokey Mountains.” My father began. “They call them that because of the fog near the top makes it look all smokey.
We kept our course all day until Celestia’s sun started to set on the horizon. We stopped for the night just as the moon was rising. When morning came again, my dad said, “This should be the last time that we stop. We should be there around mid afternoon.” Excitement built in us all as we all walked out to the carriage.
Like my father said, we would make it to Greenville by mid afternoon. “This is it everypony.” My mother said. “This is where we begin our new lives.”
As we turned the corner to the street our new home was located on, me and my brothers had so much excitement we couldn’t sit still. But that was all short lived as we stopped in front the house that was supposed to be our home. My parents exchanged glances.
“Are you sure this is the right one dear?” My mother asked my father.
“Yes I’m positive. It’s the same address see. 357 Nrth. Colt Avenue.”
It didn’t look like the beautiful building we saw in the photograph. The house in the picture had a white outside and tan roof and neatly cut green grass. This one had grass too tall and window shutters half hanging. The outside was all dirty and dull as the roof was tan but looked like it was sagging in in the middle.
We hopped out of the carriage and decided to inspect the place. My dad took the key and unlocked the door and when my parents walked in, I heard my other gasp. When I walked in to see what she gasped at, my face cringed at the smell. The air inside was moist and smelt of old smoke and mold. The walls were falling apart and the carpet had bugs crawling in it. I decided to check the basement. That was a bad mistake as I couldn’t breathe at the smell. I looked around and saw mold pockets in some corners. I ran back up the stairs and as I walked through the rest of the house, I heard what sounded like my mother crying. I looked in the door and saw my father holding my mother while she sobbed.
“We can’t live here. We gave up everything. I lost my kids’ home; we have no money left to go back.” She said in between breaths. I turned away and walked outside. I turned the corner to the backyard. The backyard looked no better. Rotting wood and dead leaves littered the whole backyard. I looked up to see an old looking pony sitting in a chair on the back porch of his trailer and stared straight at me. I moved to the left, but his eyes never left from me. I was as scared as to not knowing what he’d do, I ran back to the front. When I turned to the front, I saw my father talking to the lady we bought the house from.
“Ma’am we can’t live here…..mold everywhere……bugs in the carpets…” Was all I could make out what he was saying. I sat down on the porch as Celestia’s sun started to set. A tear fell down my face. We gave up our lives for this? I thought to myself not knowing what to make of all this. Then I heard my mother talking to my Meemaw from inside what was supposed to be the living room.
“We can’t go homeless again. We were homeless when Shifty was just two.” My mother said.
“Come back to my house. You guys can stay until you can get everything figured out on what to do next.”
I felt a pinch just above my hoof. I flinched as I looked to see what it was and saw a giant mosquito. I swatted at it as other made their way over to my legs, back and chest. My brothers too were getting bit.
It was after dark when we loaded back up into the carriage. We stopped at a motel just outside of Greenville. My mother began crying again as she looked at her children who were all covered in bug bites. My brothers fell asleep as I overheard my father say, “We’re going back. And we are gonna make it all better.” That was all I heard before I went into a deep sleep.
The next morning, I woke up to the smell of breakfast. “It’s a complimentary breakfast the hotel manager gave to us. Eat up; we have a long journey ahead of us.” My father told me.
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Over the course of the next 4 days, we made it back to Ponyville where we left. My Meemaw insisted we stay at her house until things got situated. We did. My dad went to go talk to his boss and ask for his job back. He said explained the situation to him and he gave him back his job. That was the first step. And the next step was to find a place to live so we didn’t take up our Meemaw’s living room. My mother went to go talk to the owner of the apartment complex to see if we could get our apartment back. She would be glad to if we paid few months deposit. My Meemaw happened to do that for us. We were so eternally grateful for what she has done for us. She took us in her home for few weeks, fed us, and helped us look for another place to live. We couldn’t be happier.
Few weeks later we were all situated in our new apartment. My brothers and I went back to school in which all of our friends gave us a warm welcome. At the end of the day we went home, had dinner, and went to bed. I laid there on my bed thinking how lucky we were to have people help us get back on our hooves. I went to bed smiling that night. And it was that day, I decided I was going to give back to society what they have given us.
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12 years later
I stood in line at attention. This was the biggest day a pony could ask for. Today was the Equestrian Marine Corps graduation. My platoon and I went through 12 weeks of hell to get where we were today.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, I want to take a few moments and tell you about these young Marines standing before you. Over the course of 3 months, these young ponies turned from an average citizen into a respectable Marine. From here on out, they will defend Equestria against all odds. Fillies and Gentlecolts, I am proud to announce to you, the newest and finest Equestrian Marines.” The announcer said over a speaker.
“Platoon!” I shouted. “Dismissed!” We saluted and went on cheering and giving each other hugs and congratulating each other for making it.
“Congratulations Private Breeze.” My Drill Instructor said. “You made me proud son.”
“Thank you sir!” I said and saluted.
He replied with a salute, “Carry on son. Your family’s waiting for you.”
“Families you may now enter the air space in a calm and ordinary fashion.” Said the stallion on the intercom.
We turned to see everpony from the stands rushing to see their fillies and colts. I saw my family as my mother ran full speed towards me. She ran into my arms with tears flowing down her face. “You have no idea how proud I am of you. You came a long way for this.”
“No ma I think I do.” I replied smiling. My younger brothers were around me too asking me questions as was my father, but I didn’t hear those as I looked in the distance, I saw my two elder brothers, one who was an Equestrian Marine and the other an Equestrian Airpony. I walked toward them with tears forming in my eyes. I haven’t seen both of them since Buzz went to Air basic training over a year and a half ago. I held them both in my arms for and everlasting embrace. They returned the favor as I wiped my eyes. “You two inspired me to do my best. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be standing here right before you in this uniform.”
“I believe you would.” Replied Buzz. “It was your promise that led you here.”
I couldn’t help but smile. The three of us walked back to the rest of our family. My mom stopped us, “Stop. This would make an amazing picture.” She reached in her saddlebag and pulled out her camera and took the picture. “There you all are. My three military colts together again.”
We walked back to them and hugged each of them for a long time. Until my Drill Instructor interrupted, “Ma’am I would like to say that I am damn proud to tell you that your son was the greatest colt I’ve had the opportunity to turn into a Marine. He led his fellow recruits to accomplish all obstacles. And for that, he earned the title of platoon leader. I can proudly say I’m in the presence of a perfect young soldier. You should be proud ma’am.”
“I already am” She replied smiling.
I wrapped my hooves around my older brothers. They were most proud. They watched their little brother grow into a strong young stallion. They turned to me and both saluted. I returned the favor and shook both of their hoofs. We laughed as we finished.
Wrapping my hooves around their shoulders for a second time, I sighed, smiling and said, “My brothers, this is the end…..of a new beginning.”
Author’s Note: I’d like to thank you all who took the time to read this story. I know it’s a little short but it is based upon an actual event that happened in my life. Ever since that day, I knew I had to give back to the world what they have given me: hope. The chance to rebuild, the chance to grow and achieve greatly. My family has since gotten stronger. We’re doing perfectly well living in a stable home that we’re proud to call home. The moral of this story is even though those that don’t have much have everything taken away from them, they can get it all back and even more with the help of others. So please, if you know someone who is in need of help, help them. For all you know, you could make a difference in someone’s life just by reaching out to them with a helping hand. Again, thank you for reading. It means a whole lot.
-Rainbowdash218
