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// Walking the Path... Alone 
// Story: A Moment of Happiness 
// by Rakoom 
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Walking the Path... Alone


For so long had Shoelace pushed away his memories with String. At first he simply felt painful and sad, but then he simply pushed it all away and forgot about her. But now he remembered, and he remembered why she meant so much for him in the first place. A lot of ponies in the town knew his name, but not a single one knew him as a person. Until she visited his house. He had been working from day to day. Making fancy boots for royals and whatnot. Not that everypony are using shoes mind you, but if anypony needed a pair then he was their unicorn. 

But String didn't find his house to place an order. In fact, she didn't have a reason to come by at all. Just as Lily found his house by chance, so did a stranger with an umbrella and a wet mane step on his doorstep. But that was so long ago. Shoelace barely remembered her face, but he could never forget her soft voice, her sweet laughter and the sweet song from her violin. *Smoky flashback effect*



He remembered poking his hoof with a needle by accident while sewing together a pair of shoes when somepony knocked on the door. Annoyed he swung up the door with the use his magic without caring who it was. It was probably just another snob that had a long list of details for some shoes he/she wanted finished before some tearparty. Shoelace merely mumbled a "welcome" to the visitor he hadn't even bothered to look at. But despite the rude first impression, the sweet filly had shook the water off her umbrella before quietly making herself comfortable.

She had - without Shoelace's knowledge - trotted to his kitchen. She was hungry and before Shoelace knew it, the sweet scent of food filled the house. Shoelace didn't have much, but somehow she managed to make so much good out of it! Shoelace sat and focused on his work, even though the smell was enchanting. He continously tried to pretend he didn't care, but the treacherous growling from his belly told String otherwise. "There is enough for two if you're hungry," she giggled. He hesitated, but ultimately gave in to the temptation.

Shoelace placed the tools back into the drawers on the desk in front of him. The sound of his the drawers being shut and his key locking everything was very familiar to him. Combine that and the fact that he was in his own house, and you could say he went into a state of carelessness where you don't bother to look before you walk. And Shoelace walked straight into String. The food String made, the plate she had it on, herself and Shoelace littered the floor in a single mess. 

Shoelace pulled a leaf of lettuce away from his nose. He stood up, and tried to fathom what in the hay had just happened. "Ahem," he heard under him. A hoof brushed aside a sandwich from String's face, and she looked at him with a frown. "Is this how you treat a visitor?"

"W- W- Wha-" Shoelace stuttered. String stood up and flicked some grass off her shoulder, she looked at him with serious eyes. She took a step towards him and stared into his eyes, forcing the socially incompetent unicorn to retreat backwards and into a wall. String took another step forwards, staring at him with focused eyes. Her nose nearly touched his, that's how close she was. 

Shoelace's heart had raced, he didn't know what to do! He closed his eyes and waited. He felt something wet on his nose for half a second. He opened his eyes and saw String licking her cheeks. "You had some sauce there!" she said and smiled. Shoelace scratched his nose and looked on his hoof to find a drop of a thin liquid: Sauce.

That night they both sat together. Shoelace was hesitant to try anything new, but String dared him to talk about himself by putting on a smug grin and saying something indirectly insulting to Shoelace. Shoelace responded by defending himself, and String responded to that by laughing and assuring him she was just kidding. 

In time they laughed and had more fun. String told Shoelace about noblemen she had met that had put up a weak show to gain her attention. But every time she managed to point out that they lived in their mother's house, that they used fake and/or cheap jewelry to gain attention or that they smelled like the backside of any farm animal you could name.

Shoelace told String about a cat-lady that stopped by once and demanded a free pair of shoes of highest quality. He had told her to bug off, and she had yelled to him that she would have him arrested as she walked out the front-door only. But about three minutes later, she returned to get about five of her cats that had made themselves comfortable around various places in his house. String laughed out loud at the last part, she didn't lack a sense of humor.

At the dinner table later that night, they ran out of things to say. But they just rested their heads on the table and looked into each other's eyes. He smiled, and she smiled back. But when the night ran late she had to go she promised him to return often to his house, and she did too.

String visited Shoelace frequently. She brought him some food while he did what he did best: Making beautiful shoes as gifts for her. But it was clear that she didn't really want them, she always just talked with Shoelace. Sometimes she didn't even remember to take his gifts with her! She just cared about him, and he just cared about her.

Shoelace always looked forward to seeing her again. Sometimes he would just sit in his chair, just waiting for her to stop by. But one time she didn't seem like herself. She seemed upset and didn't want to eat anything or talk too much. "Something wrong?" Shoelace asked her. She shook her head and assured him it was nothing, she just didn't feel alright. 

Shoelace tried to cheer her up, but she had something on her mind that she tried to build up the courage to talk to him about. "Shoelace," she said while looking out the window. "Yes?" he responded expectantly. Turned to face him and looked at him for a moment with teary eyes. "It's been fun," she said. She trotted out the door and was gone. Shoelace waited patiently for her in the next months, but she didn't show up.



Shoelace saw String again though, and it was the happiest day of his life. He opened his weary eyes to the sound of noise coming from downstairs. He wondered if it was another customer, but he stopped when sweet music filled his ears. Slowly, trotted down the stairs so that he could hear it better. The music was like a piece of divinity, he could hardly fathom how beautiful the melody that graced his ears sounded. It almost felt like a sin every time the sound of his hooves interrupted the steady flow of music that floated through the air like waves washing against a shore.

Shoelace felt spellbound, he couldn't tell if it was real. Shoelace stopped halfway down the stairs. The living-room was full of decor, the dinner table had a meal waiting with along with two plates and two glasses. But in front of his fireplace, playing the celestial music, was String. 

She stopped and placed her violin into its box befire slowly turning around. She looked at him with a weak smile, and Shoelace's eyes nearly filled with tears when he saw her face. "Hi Shoelace," she said with her soft voice and smiled at him. He galloped to her and hugged her tightly. Her soft mane felt like silk to his cheek, and she returned his hug.

String played for him that morning, while he sat back and listened. He had barely even seen an instrument before, and he had never heard much more than something from the schoolyards in town. But she was no doubt a true artist, and she played just for him. Another day slowly went by as they had the time of their lives. They walked the streets at night, seeing stands with items of all sorts. They listened to children singing songs for bypassers, and they had watched as street artists competed for the attention of the audiences.

As the night came, they went back to his house. They where both so happy when they laid on the mattress again in the living-room, staring into each other's eyes. Shoelace felt so happy when he fell asleep, he didn't care about anything else in the world than her. And he felt like the world circled around them when they where together.

He woke up from the sun shining on his face through the windows the following morning, but it was as if though he woke up from a dream. The decorations was there, some leftovers was there. But String was not. She didn't say goodbye, she didn't even leave him a note. He searched everywhere in his house, surely she was just pranking him... Right?

The days passed, one by one. He thought that she would come back at any moment, any day. He even left his door open at night, but she didn't come back. A month later, he held his hope in it's last thin straw. He decided he wouldn't work that day, decided that he would have everything ready for her! But he went to bed crying, shattered into an infinite number of pieces.



Lily had quietly listened to Shoelace's story, even when Shoelace broke down into tears when he finished. Lily imagined his pain, she tried to imagine how awful it must have been for him to have gone through that. She wrapped her hooves around him and held him tight. Shoelace stopped crying, then he hugged her back. They hugged each other a while before Lily broke the silence. "I never knew my parents," she said. "What!?" Shoelace said. He could never have imagined that.

Shoelace could see her eyes filling with tears. "I wanted to meet them," she said. "I was told you could wish for anything you wanted when the brightest star shine..." A pattern slowly formed for old Shoelace. "I wished to meet my parents," she continued, barely having control over her voice. "And I thought I saw them... I-... I-... Thought they where there..." she managed to say. But now she too broke down in tears, she hid her face in her hooves and started to cry. 

Shoelace understood, seems like he wasn't alone when it came to feeling the pain of loneliness after all. "Shhh," he said. "It's okay, I'm here." Shoelace wrapped his hooves around her again and held her tight as she cried on his chest. They both had a cruel past, but it was just a past now. He hushed her again and held around her head with his hoof to comfort her. 

Shoelace couldn't hold back his tears for long. And soon they both sat still on the couch, embracing each other as they let their emotions flow. At the end they were both so tired that they fell asleep right there, with their hooves wrapped around one another. The fireplace crackled its last few burnt logs before it's flames where put out with the final gust of wind of the day.



A small bird sat on a branch outside. It's song carried across the forests and woke both the slumbering winter life and the two ponies sleeping in an old wooden house out in the forest. Shoelace and Lily forgot the sorrows of yesterday, today was the day before the BIG day! Lily woke up first (of course). She pulled aside the curtains and ignored Shoelace's instant whining behind her. Lily squealed with joy and trotted to the front door to borrow a scarf and from Shoelace, whom adjusted his glasses.

Shoelace trotted slowly down the stairs to have a look outside. When he reached the door he saw the trees and land covered in snow, and Lily rolling a bunch of small snowballs around. "Shoelace! Do you have carrots?" she asked him out of the blue. 

"Wh- I- I'll take a look," he said. "Hurry, the snowfoal needs a nose!" Shoelace didn't understand anything she was talking about. Why in equestria would she need a carrot? And who needed a nose!?

Shoelace opened numerous drawers in search of a carrot since he didn't find one in his fridge. He emerged victorious in his search and trotted outside. Lily shoved the last snowball in place, it was a snowfoal! Foals in town used to make those when it was snow outside. 

Lily scratched some marking on the snowfoals's head, it looked kind of something similar to a regular foal except for the round form and the... snow. "Ah thanks," Lily said said. She jumped up and caught the carrot, then she took a few steps back and took aim. The carrot flew through the air and hit the forehead of the snowfoal dead-on.

Shoelace laughed, the snow-foal was now a small unicorn! It seemed like Lily had everything a small filly could have, and more than Shoelace could ask for. But she would still surprise Shoelace more than you can fathom on the last day.