Medals the Pony

Due to the sheer popularity of "pony books" on the Internet and TV, and his younger daughter's wild obsession with those "ponies", "horses", and their "caring girl owners", the author would like to have a go in his attempt to create a "pony book", spiced with chunks of humor ... 

There once lived a poor Shetland Pony named "Medals". He was named as such as his owner's father had just finished playing a video-game.

After he finished his "breakfast", being nothing more than carrots and hay, he was released to graze and roll around in the fields.

But each day was not as boring to him, as you might think.

Being a pony, he could be very curious about various new and weird things. Sometimes he could smell around the red family car, before being angrily chased off by Mr. Roy, should the pony chew or nib on its tires.

He saw it drive away from and towards home, going into or out of that black strip of rocky dirt known as a "road". How can such things gallop faster than me?, he thought, as he stared at the cars and funny-looking vehicles on the road. He might occasionally race against them, always failing and failing after every turn, either by the white picket fence, or by his own physical limitations.

He was never even trained to jump over fences, anyways.

Now, let us concentrate on his relations with the girl, Miss Velma. Ironically, she might end up as one of those Humans who will be the most to fail to understand him. Every time he neighed and talked to her, she gave him food and a brushing. And he only knew only dozens of words from her, mostly to do with tricks. To others, he would neigh away, especially to any horse he could see (especially mares). That was when the annoyed Humans will ask it to "be quiet!"

Velma usually claimed to have a "special bond" with the pony. Yet, to his mind, it was just plain friendship. After all, this Human is the best Human he has ever been with, isn't it?

But she could never truly understand him. At all.

Unless when it comes to food, hygiene, or health.

She even subjected him to have strange objects on his back and mouth, and a Human to sit on him, and he was trained to let her friends ride on him, only to send them flying towards the ground. Otherwise, he would be no better than a dog, having only at least one loving Human to protect him from the risks of being ... abandoned.

That was one thing which may have kept him from trying to disobey his Master, Miss Velma.

Months later, a new family has come to live near the Roys. They bought another pony, a white Welsh Pony, and let him spend his happy afternoons chasing a big, green ball, and running around the grassy yard. He was also fortunate enough to enjoy grabbing a vivid red disc, chasing it as the Humans there threw it around.

One day, it ended up in the Roys' compound. Medals picked it up, and shook it with his mouth.

I love this big, red treat-

Until Mr. Roy slapped the pony's mouth, and threw the disc away.

Medals used to enjoy neighing, communicating, and playing with his new friend, Mailbox. But as time passed, the latter tends to be sent away, only to return with a strange blue, bad-tasting flower on his neck and withers. The former got harshly scolded for being too loud and rowdy.

Bucking and kicking and rearing. Horses love to do these, and so do normal ponies.

But at times, he was forced to be taken to a "county fair", where his enjoyment of racing with other ponies was ruined by him being used to carry dirty, unknowing children.

Children.

Those children he dreaded the most.

Rough, loud (louder than Medals himself, even shouting at his ear), and deranged, they are worse than the occasional naughty boy down the street who threw stones at him, or made strange, loud noises with a little white object.

They should've known better than to sit on his freshly-sweating back, and having a free trip to the ground, with mischief as their ticket.

When his beloved Miss Velma grew up to a lanky lady, she had to deal with her loud, cranky little sister.

One of her demands (if the pony realized it) will be the worst she has ever made.

Miss Velma brushed him with a strange-smelling oil, and left him to endure the terror of more annoying children. Shouting at his ear. Brushing (and tearing) his mane and fur, and then sticking weird flowers on him. Allowing him to enter the Humans' house, only to be forced to watch bright lights from a box; and these same children moving around, and playing with weird, colorful lumps of a bland-smelling substance he could not even see. They also forced him to wear a brightly-colored coat, topping his head with a pointy object, which annoyed him very much.

He would like to escape, galloping away from the further disaster of these weird children. But every time he did so, they dragged him with their leash, until he finally succeeded, dragging them until they had to let him go to avoid being hurt. He neighed away, breathing the sunny skies of freedom, and galloped around, while his tormentors made loud screams and sat away. He also rolled around, toppling his weird hat, and destroying that awful coat of pink, staining it with dirt and mud.

(At least Velma was considerate enough to make sure that the children never fed him with those vivid lumps of dirt and snow, known as "cupcakes"; they would have killed him, had she allowed them. But this was none of his business.)

A few "months", a concept he has never even understood, passed. There were nights in which he will not even sleep. Bright flowers burst and bloomed into the night sky, booming away through the land. Birds flew around, until some became so tired, they dropped dead. He would have wished be like them.

Humans would never truly understand what Horses usually think: eating, survival, and reproduction. Those three things are what a Horse's mind is always influenced by.

Nonetheless, they are not as dumb as some really bad Humans would think of them.

(The author was thinking while he finished this story, and as he wrote it: I wonder if this story will be a total failure? I was only experimenting!)