Grey Mane

“I hope you will enjoy your stay here.”

Mayor Mare walked towards town hall as Grey Mane opened the door to his new house. He looked around before stepping inside. There were a couple of round tables against the wall on his right. Before walking in, he grabbed a few envelopes out of the mailbox and placed them onto one of the tables. It was addressed to his uncle. He closed the door and decided to take a little tour around his new house. It is actually his aunt and uncle’s house, but whatever. He is living here too.

He first looked at the living room to his left. There were a couple of chairs sitting in front of a fireplace. The whole floor was carpeted. There was one large window on the wall next to the door. A red curtain covered it, making it a bit dark in the room. There were also a couple tables next to the chairs. There was nothing really too special about this room. It was much like the living rooms of any other house around here.

Grey Mane turned towards the kitchen, which was at the right of the front door. Before entering, he looked at what looked like a hat hanger attached to the wall. It said “Cloud and Lightning”. Those were his aunt and uncle.

His aunt’s full name was Cloud Dasher. She was his mom’s older sister. She ran a store somewhere in the middle of the town that sold and repaired musical instruments. She was good friends with one of her customers named Octavia Melody or something. Cloud’s cutie mark was merely just a flute with music notes next to it.

His uncle was Lightning Flicker. He used to be a weather pony when he was younger. He was one of the weather ponies that usually brought the storm clouds. But after being struck by lightning, He desperately wanted to quit. The only actual reason he was even working there was to get over his fear of thunder storms. But that incident sure didn’t help.

But now, for the past twenty years, he did construction. His cutie mark was a red toolbox. After all these years, he was still afraid of lightning and thunder, but not as much as he used to be. Grey Mane remembered the pictures he had seen of his uncle up high on multiple construction sites.

Then he remembered about his little tour of the house and walked into the kitchen. Of course, there was a stove, oven, counter, and sink, just like any other kitchen. To the right, at the back of the kitchen, there was a closet type thing where they kept food. There was also a narrower part in the closet where the stairs above were.

Then he turned around to face the front wall, where a table sat next to the window. It was oval-shaped and the tablecloth was covered in flower designs. Grey Mane’s great-grandma had made it when she was young.

Seeing the tablecloth, Grey Mane recalled times when he and his family would go to the nursing home in the province of Saskatchewhinny to visit her. He and his brother used to play around with the wheelchairs outside her room. She died at the age of 96. That was five years ago.

Grey Mane remembered the funeral. He remembered the tears that had left him. He had no idea why he had cried. He hardly even knew the old mare. But she was part of the family. Maybe that was why. He didn’t even go to see her after his brother told him that she was dead. He had asked him if he wanted to go see her, and Grey Mane said no. He didn’t want to see her, not because he was sad, but for some reason, he just didn’t want to. Her funeral was the first one he had cried at. But ever since she died, when Grey Mane remembered her, he never felt sad. Instead, he just felt like he usually did every day.

He looked away from the table, memories leaving his thoughts, and looked down to examine the floor. It was made up of tiles with some kind of designs, the kinds that don’t usually make a picture of anything, unless you were to use your imagination to make something of it. It was just lines and swirls at the corner of each tile.

Somehow, he always imagined a funny face on each corner. He just stood there for a minute, picturing the faces, seeing them from different angles. It was so interesting how many faces you could make from the different angles you view the tiles.

He left the kitchen, and turned to the front door on his left. When are they gonna get back? They said they don’t work on weekends, well, except for Lightning.

He looked at the calendar. Yes, it was Saturday. His aunt should have been here. Where was she?

Instantly, he dropped the question, thinking that she might just be running some errands. She did tend to do that when she had no time to do it on the weekdays, which were the days she had to work.

He faced away from the door and walked towards the opposite wall, where the stairs were. He headed up the stairs and heard the sound of something falling and scurrying to the stairs, accompanied by the sound of metal hitting metal. Grey Mane gave a small smile as he looked at the top of the stairs to find a dog standing there eagerly waiting for him to reach the top. He chuckled lightly as he saw the pet’s tail swaying with excitement. It was a white-furred dog, his species mixed with some kind of terrier and a poodle, which he was never able to tell.

“Hey, there, Buddy. How you doing?” He started patting the dog as he reached the top of the stairs. As he headed to where his room was, Buddy started sniffing Grey Mane’s legs and hooves, obviously picking up an unfamiliar smell. Grey Mane turned around and Buddy started sniffing at his front legs. Grey Mane chuckled again and scratched Buddy’s back with one hoof. “You are so weird.” Then in a childlike voice, he said, “You are such a weirdo. I thought I was supposed to be weird.” He chuckles again. “Silly Buddy.”

Grey Mane always did have a different personality at home than anywhere else, He would change the way he acted. He would make several jokes, and say a bunch of nonsensical things for absolutely no reason. He would even call himself weird at times. But he has been doing less and less of that lately.

He let out another laugh as Buddy started spinning around like he was trying to catch his hoof. Then Grey Mane turned back around to the door of his bedroom. He noticed a note stuck to the door. He grabbed it with his mouth and placed it on his hoof, turning towards brighter light to read it.

You are on your own for lunch and supper. Lightning and I have a meeting to go to, and we will be eating there. So we won’t be back until later tonight. We also have to stop at the store to buy some groceries, so there is some money on your desk to go buy something for yourself.

Grey Mane just shrugged. “Okay.” He didn’t mind fending for himself. He often liked to be alone. He opened his door and saw his stuff scattered around the room. He would have to organize the room later today. He saw twelve bits on his desk. That must have been for both lunch and supper. He bucked everything out of his saddlebags and onto the bed, which was the only thing that he didn’t own before moving here. His old bed was thrown out. He put the bits into one of the saddlebags.

“You have to go outside, Buddy?” He walked out of the room as buddy started rushing to the stairs behind him. Grey Mane went downstairs while Buddy stayed at the top of the stairs. When Grey Mane saw this, he tapped on the floor. “Come on.”

Buddy descended the stairs as Grey Mane went to the door leading to the backyard. He had taken care of Buddy before, when his aunt and uncle visited Red Horse. He opened the back door and Buddy ran outside and started sniffing around the yard.

Grey Mane knew there was going to be a price for living here. Not just paying what he was getting from Social Services, but there were chores too. But he was already doing them at his old house. He hated it, but he always did it. But would there be more to do? It was quite likely. It was something he was going to have to get used to.

After all, this is his new home.