Roads
A long time ago there lived a young colt. He loved nothing more than playing with his two best friends. One was a mare the same age as him and the other was another colt older than the young colt. Everday the three friends would meet up in a big field of grass and play together untill dark.
They always had fun together...
One day the young colt went to meet up with his friends, like always.
"So what are we going to play today?" asked the young colt.
"Actually, I thought we could talk today." Said the mare.
"About what?" He said.
"Well tomorrow me and my parents are going to be moving to the big city so I thought I could use this time to say goodbye." she said.
"Well that's great! You always wanted to go to the big city, right? Oh...but won't it be hard to live out there and come to school here?"
His friends both looked at the young colt with pity.
"Yes, it would be very hard to do that." she said. "That's why I'm going to school in the city. I won't be going to this school anymore."
"...but then how are we supposed to play together?" The young colt asked, worried.
"It'll be okay." She said patting him on the back. Just because I'm gone doesn't mean we won't still be friends."
"Okay, but promise me that you'll come back some day."
"I promise."
The days melted away. The two other friends still played together in the grass field like always, waiting for the day their friend would return. They would talk for hours about what their friend might be doing. One day they began to talk about what they wanted to do when they grew up. The older colt asked the younger what it was that he wanted to do when he grew up.
"When I grow up I wanna be important, someone who helps people, and I want lots of friends!" He said stretching his hooves up to the sky as if trying to catch his dreams.
"That's a lot of stuff." His friend said. "Do you really think you'll get everything you want?"
"Well...yeah! As long as I keep believing it then it has to come true, right?"
"Heh, you really are a wierd one. No wonder she liked you." The older colt said teasing his friend.
"Hey! Shut up!" The young colt said embarased that his friend would say such a thing. Both colts then started laughing untill they went home.
For days the colt's waited to hear from their friend in the city.
The days turned into weeks, months, and then years.
Both still waited, in the same field, but the young colt's friend grew tired of this.
One day the older colt didn't show up in the field. Getting worried the young colt dashed off into town to look for his friend.
"I hope he's okay..." he said.
He looked for what seemed like hours untill he finally found him, hanging out with a bunch of other colts from school.
"..and I bet he's still out there in that field waiting for her. That idiot doesn't even know that his friend completely forgot about him." The group of colts started laughing. The young colt couldn't believe his ears.
"You're wrong!" He said going up to the group after gaining the courage to do so. "She promised that she was going to come back and I believe her!" The older colt was caught off guard. He didn't expect to see the young colt here.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I was waiting for you in the field like I always did but you never showed up. I thought something happened toyou so I went out looking for you."
"Ha! Is this the little shrimp you were talking about?" Said one of the other colts to the young colt's friend.
"Shrimp?" The young colt said feeling hurt about the remark about his height. "Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked his friend.
The older colt looked at him and then looked at the other colts. His face formed a wicked smile.
"No, I'm not going to say anything. You really are a shrimp. Everyday you got to the same field and wait for a mare that's nver going to come back!"
"She's not just a mare, she's our friend!" The you colt said on the verge of tears. "...and you're supposed to be my friend."
"I was never really your friend shrimp. I was just hanging out with you because she was there. If she never introduced us we never would have hung out at all. Now she's gone. I've moved on and got better friends and you're not one of them."
Unable to fight back the tears anymore, the young colt ran home while trying to indure the hurtfull things the colts said to him.
"Crybaby, shrimp, and loser."
After that day he never spoke with the colt he used to call his friend. He still tried to got to the field everyday but the colt's chased him out, claiming the field as their own
The years went on and the young little colt grew up. In school he would always try to make friends but he would only ever see them at school. Years passed and the young little colt grew into a strong stalion. It was then that he made the decision to leave home and find what it was he wanted to do with his life.
On his search he eventualy wound up in the city where the mare from his childhood lived in. Overjoyed the young stalion searched for his friend. After a long search that took a whole four days he finally found her. The mare too was also excited to see her old friend after so many years. For hours they talked about what happened to each other over the years but two things never came up. The young stalion didn't want to ask why she never came back and couldn't bring himself to mention their old friend. When they finished catching up the mare bid farewell to her friend.
"Does this mean we can hang out again?" He asked.
The mare only gave him excuses for each day the young stalion asked.
"I have work to do."
Or..
"I have plans that day."
And even...
"That's day won't work for me."
The mare couldn't look the young stalion in the eyes. He knew what this meant. Even though she liked seeing him again, she had no intention of seeing him anymore.
"Oh, that's okay." He lied. They bid farewell and the young stalion continued on his journey.
"I guess time and change can hurt friendships." He said. "Does this mean I can never have a real friend?" The thought of this tore him up inside. He felt like there was no such thing as an unconditional friendship, because of the colt, an no such thing as a lasting frienship, because of the mare.
In his heart he wanted to believe there was still a chance, a single sliver of hope, that he would make a true friend.
It would be some time before he would ever realise his dream.
For now, he would just keep walking down this road, alone.