Will You Be My Friend?
“Friends are merely there to cry with us,
Laugh with us,
And laugh once again at our follies.
But it’s what makes a friend a friend.”
-Mischievous Blue-
I walk through the rain down one of the silent streets of Ponyville. I can’t decide whether it’s raining because it’s the beginning of spring, or because the two most important flames in my life blew out, but it doesn’t really matter. A tear falls from my eye, following the hundreds, or maybe thousands, that had fallen earlier.
The funeral had taken place a couple hours ago, around 3:00. I stand by myself, barely able to look at the caskets that bear my parents bodies. How could they die? It couldn’t be their time. They were supposed to watch me grow into a beautiful successful pegasus. They were supposed to watch me swoop through the air, performing summersaults, loops, and all the tricks in the book. They were supposed to go to my races and join in the rest of the crowd screaming, “Scootaloo! Scootaloo! Scootaloo!” as I passed all the other racers and won.
No, they can’t be dead! They can’t! I wouldn’t allow it! I ran forward and jumped on top of their coffins and screamed their names into the air as I cried. I felt many hooves gently grab me and pull me away. I fight as hard as I could against the bigger mares and stallions. I punch at what I can reach, but my feeble blows have no effect against them. I continue to scream as I watch the coffins disappear below the surface of the ground.
When the authority ponies get me back to my house, I see all my parent’s and my belongings out on the lawn. Some ponies were walking off with our stuff! The authorities ran forward and started talking to an important looking pony. I couldn’t hear what they said. I just watch tearfully as a couple walked off with a box of my old toys. The authority ponies walk over to me and say that there’s nothing they can do. There was no other family who could take care of me and I am too young to get the house. They say that my parents had a lot of debt to cover, and they have to sell all our possessions and house to cover it. I didn’t care. I just wanted my parents back.
I try to reason with them. I say that maybe if I can deal with the debt another way, my parents will come back smiling, pick me up, carry me inside, and I can be their baby again. They just shake their heads and say as gently as they can that my parents aren’t coming back, that they can’t come back. I won’t believe this! I start making all the compromises I can. I’ll get rid of all my toys, I won’t be so loud, I’ll eat my vegetables, I’ll go to bed when I should, just to bring my parents back!
After all that, the last emotion I expect to feel is anger. How dare they leave me in this world alone. How dare they! If they were still alive, I would hit them until they apologized and said that they would never leave me. That would teach them all right. Oh, when they get back, they’ll get a beating they’ll never forget.
I watch a pony shake hooves with the seller pony and he hooves over the key to our house. He walks inside and closes the door. As the door clicks shut, my chest feels too heavy for my legs to support the weight. I fall to the ground and the realization finally sinks in. They’re gone. My parents are gone. Forever. They are never coming back. My chest continues to get heavier and I feel myself falling through the ground.
I sink through the soft ground and slowly spin toward a bright light. I feel a warmth coming from the light and I can see my parents standing at the entrance. I reach them and I hold out my hooves to grab them, but they just go right through my parents. They reach out their hooves and rest them gently on my shoulders. They tell me everything will be alright. My mother leans in and gives me a small kiss on the cheek, and tells me to make them proud. Tears erupt from my eyes and I try to grab hold of my parents, but they only smile and push me back, and I slowly glide away from the light.
When I wake up, I’m on the lawn of my old house. It’s night and it has been raining for a while. All of our possessions are gone from the yard and only some flyers remain. My purple mane is plastered to my face, but I make no move to wipe it away. I have no emotions left but sadness. I rest my head on the ground again and flinch as thunder cracks overhead. I get up from the lawn of memories and walk away as all those memories are washed into gutters by the rain.
I continue to walk down the street, to no place in particular. I have no toys, no house, no family, and now no life. I don’t even notice the rain running down my body, the pain of loss numbing all my senses. I trip over a loose stone and fall into a puddle. I barely notice and I just get back up and continue walking. The cold eventually gets through to me and I walk underneath the overhang of a roof. I decide I can ask somepony for a place to stay.
I walk to the front door and knock. A few seconds later it’s opened by a tan mare with a rose and maroon mane and tail. Her cutie mark is a rose. She asks if there’s anything she can do for me. I ask if I can stay for the night. She bites her lip before replying that she really can’t take me in. She shuts the door in my face and I’m left on the doorstep, dripping with rain and shivering. I go to another house a little farther down and knock. A grey-brown mare answers. She asks in a British accent what I’m doing out in the rain. I ask to stay for a night. She turns and calls out to another pony in the house. A white pony with a blue and electric blue striped mane comes to join the other mare. She asks if I can do wubs. I stare, not understanding the question. This is enough for the crazy hair white pony as another door closes in my face. I decide I’ll try one more house before giving up.
I gallop across town to another house. I knock, the cold now obvious. A brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark opened the door. He noticed me streaming with rain and beckons me inside. I gladly trot inside. He grabs a towel and throws it to me. I dry off my purple mane and tail and orange body with it and thank him. He asks me to accompany him to the kitchen. I follow and notice two other ponies sitting at the table, one grey with lopsided golden eyes, and a smaller filly about my age. The grey mare flies over to me and offers me a muffin. I thank her and eagerly eat it. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. I continued to eat while they talked to each other. It wasn’t until about an hour later that the little filly fell asleep at the table that the other two decided it was time for bed. The grey pony carried the filly to the back and came to tell me that they didn’t have a spare place for me to sleep. She accompanied me to the door, said that she was sorry, and closed the door in my face for the third and final time.
I walk through the rain down one of the silent streets of Ponyville. There was no place else to go. All doors closed and lights out. I walk with drooping eyes and sore legs, just letting my endurance take me where they can. I walk to the edge of a thicket of trees and enter. The forest was thick with trees and sounds of rain, although not much rain got through. I continue down the path and my legs give out. I land heavily and am about to give in to sleep until I notice something shiny. I crawl over to a scooter that is partly buried in some mud. I use my dead weight to pull it out. It’s in good condition, despite the mud. I hold it close as I fall asleep.
Once again, I am dreaming of a dark space with a light at one end. I run towards it, but a figure leaps in front of me. This figure is taller than me. She has a navy blue coat, with a star speckled mane. On her head rests a crown. Her teal eyes stare at me through the dark. She turns and walks toward the light. I follow and she sits by one side of it. I join her. There is warmth radiating from the light, just like last time. She turns to me at last and asks why I’m so sad. I tell her all the things that have gone wrong today. My parent’s death, losing the house, not finding shelter in the rain, and too tired to move. She listens without interrupting and waits until I’m done. When I finish, I snuggle up against her warm body. She replies that not everything was bad today. She reminds me that I got to dry off and got muffins to keep me going for as far as I did. She also reminds me that if it wasn’t for my fatigue, I wouldn’t have found a scooter. Finally, she gently reminds me of my parent’s final wish. To make them proud. I look up to her as she tells me that the first step is to make friends so that I can have support for things that will make my parent’s proud. I guess she’s right. She takes her wing and pushes me in front of her. She tells me to make friends, no matter where they are, that there are always other ponies in need of a good friend. I say that I will, and she bows her head to me. She tells me that the light is a portal to the last place and time I was. She asks me to go through it, get rest, and make friends the following day. I say that I will. She smiles and waves her wing toward the portal and disappears. I tentatively stick a hoof through the light and walk though. The light vanishes as I walk through and I find myself in the forest where I was last.
I’m still clutching the scooter to me as I look at my surroundings. I remember the mare’s last request to sleep and make friends the following day. I’m about to get back on the ground for sleep, when I have an idea. I get back up, mount the scooter, look up to the night sky and ask, “Will you be my friend?”