Grey Mane

"Ugh, I probably shouldn't have taken this path."

Grey Mane kept complaining to himself out loud as he walked through a bunch of trees, dirt and grass covering his grey-furred legs. He was unsure of this particular direction he was walking. If that last pony he met was correct, Ponyville should be down this road. Right now, he wasn't too sure.

But honestly, it hadn't even been five minutes since he got the directions. Obviously, he was worrying more than necessary. He stopped and started to consider turning back and taking the longer way to Ponyville. He looked back and forth, scratching his dark grey mane, not sure what to choose.

He hesitantly took a couple steps in the direction he had come from. Then he froze. Should he just go back and go the longer way? Or should he continue down this shortcut he was given? He knew he had not gone that far down the path.

Grey Mane sighed and turned around, making his final decision to continue down the path. He was still worried that he might have made a mistake, but he figured he might as well keep going for a while longer. Then if there is nothing when he gets out of these trees, he will go back and take the main route.

He chuckled. The name of the main route happened to be "Mane Root Road". It was named after a Wonderbolt named Mane Root about fifty years ago. He is retired now, and very old, but he is still alive and still quite mobile for his age. But he cannot fly, anymore, not after that time another in their group tried to dispose of him during a show.

How it had happened was that the Wonderbolts used to perform with flaming torches. The evil dude held one of them. As the torch holders were flying in circles around Mane Root, that stupid moron intentionally burned the famous Pegasus' right wing. All feathers on that wing... gone, and they stayed that way. He fell straight towards Ponyville before he was caught. He had nearly smashed into Granny Smith herself, the one pony who had attracted all the ponies who lived there that day.

Not fully realizing his thoughts were going off the main topic, Grey Mane remembered reading about the history of Ponyville. He had read all about Granny Smith and how her apples, especially her zap apples, had brought a bunch of ponies together to eventually form Ponyville itself. He always wondered what zap apple jam tasted like. It only existed in this particular part of Equestria.

Grey Mane then stopped walking as now realized that he was no longer on the path, but was now on an actual road now. He had gotten so lost in his daydreams about Mane Root and Ponyville that he had not noticed when he left the path.

He looked at his surroundings, paying most attention to what looked like a tower or something of a building which could be seen above the treetops. He took the photo out of his saddlebag that his mother had taken when she last came to Ponyville. It looked just like the roof of town hall. That must be it.

"Ah. Well, that doesn't look too far."

Due to his lack of friends and gain of alone time, the grey pony would often talk to himself a lot, either out loud or in his head. Even when he did talk in his head, he would make gestures with his head and hooves as one would do when talking out loud. But that wasn't all he tended to do.

He would also very often imitate voices of movie characters, hum his own creations of music, and imagine an orchestra playing it in his head. He played the music on his piano too, but that had already been delivered to the house he was staying at.

He was going to live with his aunt and uncle, because his mom and step-dad were having financial problems. They no longer received money from the government for Grey Mane. So he agreed to live with his aunt and uncle. They brought his stuff to their place. He found his own way to get there.

Soon he came across a large field of apple trees. The area was fenced off. The fence was not too high, but just enough to be able to jump over. He could easily slide through the spaces between the horizontal wooden boards.

But still, it could very well be someone else's property.

He had always known better than to step into other ponies' property. He was afraid to anyway. He didn't want any trouble. But he really wanted to snack on one of those apples. He knew that he could take one and most likely, nopony would notice. But he considered that to be stealing. He really hated stealing, like, a lot. He never wanted any part of it.

He looked down at an apple that lay at his feet. It was outside of the fence, yes, but still it was from their trees. He could take this one. Since it is off the tree, it is sure to rot anyway. Would the ponies here mind? He was able to confirm that the trees did belong to someone from the distant sound of grunting and what sounded like a tree being struck. This is indeed someone's land.

He just kicked the apple back under the fence and continued down the road, still listening to the sounds of a mare hard at work.

After a while, the barn came into view. He could see two ponies, one orange and the other red, both of them dragging large buckets full of apple inside the large red barn. The orange pony had a blond mane and tail. Her hair was done up in a ponytail and tied at the end. Her tail was done the same way. Probably to keep both out of the way while she worked. And that hat, it looked like some cowboy hat, he couldn't tell from this distance if it was one of those cowboy hats or something he often saw farmers wear.

He put the hat out of his mind as he saw something even more confusing. What was that thing around the red pony's neck? He hadn't seen anything like that before. Well, it was probably just some farm equipment. Maybe for pulling something?

He then considered walking over and asking for an apple or two. He was starting to get hungry and it is not even supper yet. Apples were his favorite kind of snack to have. But he did not budge from where he stood.

If he asked what would she say? No? If he said so much as a "hello", would she tell him to go away or just ignore him? If anything scared him more than just talking to other ponies, it was their responses. He hardly ever talked to anypony at his previous home because they would either respond by saying to go away, or they would call him mean names, or say other mean stuff to him. He never made a lot of friends During school for those very reasons.

He didn't want to risk it. He decided to eat when he got home. He hurried off as fast as he could go with the weight of the saddlebags slowing down slightly.

In just a few minutes, he finally reached Ponyville. It was bigger than he imagined. But it was certainly a fair bit smaller than his old city. And the buildings here had a lot more color to them than where he was from.

He stayed right up against the wall as continued to look around. The building were also different kinds of shapes, and they were not as aligned as at his old home. Where he lived, the houses all the same boring shapes with the same boring flat surfaces.

Fear started to take hold of him as he took one step further into the town. He especially hoped that the large saddlebags prevented everyone from seeing the one thing he was lacking.

A cutie mark.

How ridiculous is that? He was grown stallion and he still had a blank flank. He must have been the oldest pony in history to not have some stupid symbol marked on his butt, and he was soon to be twenty. He absolutely hated it. He hated the fact that there was nothing special about him. But perhaps he was to blame for that. Why didn't he have a cutie mark for being afraid of everypony? He hardly left his house for anything besides school.

But that wasn't the only secret he was trying to hide from this town. There was something else. Something he didn't plan on telling anypony at all. He would have to keep it covered so that whenever he would peave the house, nopony will make fun of him. If anypony saw, he would surely be made fun of by everyone else.

However this place was marked as the number one friendliest place in Equestria. They were known to have accepted anypony, no matter how different they were. But he felt like the one exception.

He headed towards town hall, staying close to the buildings while everypony else were walking in the middle of the roads. He tried to get to his destination without making any kind of contact with anypony. But he did keep an eye out to make sure that nopony was looking at him. Some did, but only briefly, which he didn’t care that much about. He just didn’t want any staring.

As he walked, a mare not too far from him caught his attention. She had a yellow coat, with a pink main and tail. He could deduce that she was a Pegasus from the wings at her sides. Her eyes were light blue. Her cutie mark was made up of three butterflies with pink wings. She looked at least three or four years older than him. She was carrying a saddlebag on her back and a basket in her mouth, walking towards the shopping stands.

He had to admit, she looked... nice. Not nice as in "pretty" or anything like that. He never thought like that about any girl for years. She looked nice as in friendly, with that smile on her face. But he had learned a lesson from previous times.

The friendly-looking ponies are always hiding a monster. But even though she seemed kind of avoidant of other ponies, he still had his doubts.

He quickly looked away when she started to look in his direction. He nearly bumped into another pony as he stopped walking. Both were equally startled by each other.

"Well, hello, sir. Is there something I can help you with?" she asked kindly.

Grey Mane just stared at the ground. "Um," he began quietly, "yeah. I, uh, need to see the mayor. So..." he trailed off as he started to walk around her and continue towards town hall.

"Well, that's me."

He stopped and gave her a quick glance. She was obviously an Earth pony who looked like she could be in her fifties. Her coat looked like a pale yellow, and her hair was grey with lighter streaks, probably dyed. Her cutie mark was a scroll tied with a blue ribbon. She had blue eyes, a bit of a darker shade than his own. Her glasses had gold-colored frames. She wore some kind of collar or something around her neck, and attached to it was something bluish-green and it looked puffy. He had no idea what those things were called, but he didn’t really care.

He looked back at the ground. “Oh.”

“I’m Mayor Mare.” She held out a hoof towards him.

He backed away slightly, looking at her hoof. “I, um—” He was afraid to shake her hoof. He wasn’t afraid of germs or anything. That was the least of his problems. He was just afraid of touching anypony. This is something he could never explain.

Seeing the look on his face, the mayor felt a bit concerned. “Are you alright?” She placed a hoof on his shoulder.

The second her hoof made contact with him, he jerked to the side as if she had tried to hit him. He stepped away, looking away from her. Tears started to form in his eyes. He never knew how began to fear being touched. It just came with his fear of others.

The mayor is surprised by his reaction. "I'm sorry, sir for making you uncomfortable." Her expression becomes calm smile, still with slight concern as she repeats her earlier question. "Is there something I can help you with?”

Grey Mane looks at her quickly and then back at the ground. He says in a quiet voice, “Yeah, I um, I am moving here, so...” He trailed off again.

“Oh, so you’re that pony from... uh...”

“Red Horse.”

“Yeah. You’re aunt and uncle are not home at the moment, so they gave me a key to give to you. It's in my office.” She walked past him towards town hall. Then she stopped and turned around. “Would you mind telling me your name sir?”

He looks up at her, feeling like he could trust this mare. She seemed caring enough. He managed to speak in a louder, but still quiet voice.

“Grey Mane.”