Grey Mane

Mm, best apples ever.

Grey Mane had already finished his lunch from Hay Bale’s and was already enjoying one of Applejack’s delicious apples. He sat at a table outside the restaurant, alone as usual.

Despite having nothing else to do, he wasn’t exactly bored. He looked around at all of the buildings and ponies that surrounded him, at the same time, humming to himself. As he looked around, his imagination started making parts of buildings and other structures become an image of something else, like faces or different shapes. A door on one of the buildings looked a bit like some sort of ugly face that looked like it was screaming in anger.

He smiles lightly as a small puff of air leaves his nose as a small laugh. He spent most of the time in his life using his imagination to create images out of other objects. It was the only thing nowadays he considered to be fun.

He finished his apple, and looked around the area for a garbage can. Luckily, there was one not too far away on the other side of the table. He prepared to throw the core into the can. He could make this shot.

He tossed the core, misjudging the distance and hit the rim, causing the apple core to fall to the ground. Darn it, he thought to himself as he silently laughed at the ridiculous throw. He should have easily gotten it in there. He got up from his chair and picked the core up in his teeth and dropped it in the can.

“Oh my.”

His head quickly turned to the left, and he saw a white unicorn mare looking at him. She had a purple mane that was kind of curly, as was her tail. She had three light blue diamonds on her flank. No idea what that’s for. Jewelry, perhaps? Her eyes were blue, about the same shade as his.

She walked around him, eyeing the bags on his back. As she spoke, she seemed to speak with some kind of accent. “Those are by far the biggest saddlebags I have ever seen. My dear, wherever did you get luggage of such an unusually large size?”

Grey Mane sighed, rather annoyed of ponies constantly trying to talk to him all the time. But he could at least give this pony the info she wanted. The last few ponies he met seemed okay, maybe. He spoke quietly. “My old home.”

“And where, may I ask, are you from?” She continued to examine the saddlebags.

The grey stallion let out another sigh. “Red Horse.”

She raised her head to look at him, confused. “Red Horse? Hm, where might that be, I wonder?”

He nodded towards the mountain that Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria, sat upon. “Just past that mountain.”

”Oh.” The unicorn stares at the mountain and then shrugs. “Hm. I did not know that.”

No kidding, Grey Mane thought sarcastically. Not many ponies from the south go that far up north.

“Might I ask your name, darling?” The mare let a smile grow on her face.

The grey pony looked at her, and grew nervous. “Uh, Grey Mane.”

The unicorn raised an eyebrow and looked at his mane. “Grey Mane. Hm, that’s, uh... fitting. But you certainly do seem like a very handsome young stallion.”

She smiled at him again. At least she didn't speak in a flirty tone or anything. The same went for her smile. But that did not stop Grey Mane from looking away, not from embarrassment, but annoyance. That was the last thing he wanted anyone to think of him, not that anyone actually thought of him that way before. She was by far the first. But he wasn't anything special at all. Anypony else would be better than him.

He sighed. “Whatever.”

The mare became curious as to what was bothering him. “Uh, I am Rarity. I own the Carousel Boutique farther down the road. Um, are you alright?”

“Yes,” Grey Mane answered in an irritated tone. The white unicorn pony just stood there, a little bit shocked. What was eating him?

“Well... it was a pleasure meeting you, Grey Mane, but I must be off. I do have dresses to make. If you would like to talk again, feel free to visit whenever you like.” She then saw his expression change as he looked at the ground. He was regretting the tone in which he had spoken to her, and she was leaving him alone because of it. She wasn’t sure what to say.

“Um... Say, darling, would you like me to make you something, like a suit, perhaps?” The grey pony looked up at her and shook his head. “Are you sure? It would be no trouble at all.”

“I’m not really into suits.” It was true, he hated wearing a suit. He had only worn one once in his life and he hated having to try to not get it dirty. He never cared for them at all.

“Oh, well, is there anything else that you would like then?”

“Look, I don’t have the money for—”

“Money?” Rarity chuckled, shaking her head. “No, no, my dear, you won’t have to pay anything at all. I insist. Just consider it a welcoming gift. I will make anything you want, for I am the best dressmaker in town, not that I can’t make anything else, of course. So?” Her eager smile grew wider. She looked like she was ready to make something anyway if the grey stallion said “no”.

Grey Mane thought about her offer, though there was nothing in mind that he even wanted. And he wasn’t too fond of the idea of having her make something he wasn’t going to pay for. It didn’t really feel right.

“Well, I don’t really want anything, so no thank you,” he said, staring at the garbage can. He didn’t want to see the mare disappointed. However she didn’t sound upset at all.

“Oh, well, that's perfectly alright, darling. My offer will still be open if you change your mind.” Then she trotted off towards her store.

Well, she certainly seemed nice, Grey Mane thought. But the thought left as soon as it came, being replaced with more negative thoughts. But that doesn’t mean she is nice.

**********

Grey Mane was walking back to his home, sticking to the buildings, away from everypony else. He wanted to get home quickly so he could spend time in his room reading or writing or whatever, and he wouldn’t have to be around anyone.

“Yo, Grey Mane!”

The grey pony groaned quietly. Oh come on! Give me a break! He was getting really tired of having to meet so many ponies. However the one of the Pegasus ponies that landed in front of him, he remembered. It was Rainbow Dash. But the other Pegasus he didn’t know, but he had seen her. She was the yellow pony with the pink mane that had gone shopping earlier.

Rainbow smiled as she walked closer with her friend. “Hey, buddy. I just wanted to introduce you to one of my friends, Fluttershy. This is the new pony I told you about, Grey Mane.”

The yellow pony looked at Grey Mane and smiled as she turned her head so that her mane was hiding her face. He could have sworn he saw a slight blush on her face underneath her fur. He looked at the ground, his thoughts trying to convince him that nopony would ever like him that way.

“Fluttershy, what’s up with you?” Rainbow asked as Fluttershy started walking backwards.

“Can we talk?” She whispered so quietly that Grey Mane couldn’t hear.

Rainbow looked confused as her gaze went back to the grey pony and she shrugged. “Okay, um, can you give us a sec?” She caught up with her friend, and they started whispering to each other. “So what’s going on with you? I thought you would have at least said ‘hello’ to the guy.”

“I can’t talk to him, Rainbow!” the yellow mare said, feeling quite worried.

“Why not?” Rainbow whispered back.

“You never said anything about him being cute!”

“Fluttershy, you know that kind of thing never really crosses my mind.. I just said he seemed like the kind of guy you would like.”

“Well, you sure got that right, Rainbow Dash. But nopony as cute as him would want to hang out with someone like me.” Her expression fell into a sad frown. And Rainbow sighed again.

“You are always being too hard on yourself, Fluttershy. You are an amazing pony. Even the cutest stallion in Equestria would love to be with you.”

“But what if he doesn’t like me?” Fluttershy’s sadness turned to fear.

“Flutters, if he doesn’t seem to like you, it’s only because he’s even less social than you are. He was even scared of me, when there was no reason to be. Look at him.”

They both looked back at the grey stallion, who was staring at the ground with a sad expression on his face. He was dragging his hoof in circles on the ground. His eyes were shining as if he was about to cry. His blinking had also quickened.

“Oh,” Rainbow said, feeling bad for leaving the poor guy alone like this. He was probably feeling hated now. She looked at Fluttershy, who stared at him sympathetically.

“Look, he doesn’t really have any friends, it seems. So I figured, as the kindest pony in Ponyville—or Equestria, whichever—you might be able to help him be a little more comfortable in this town. Not to mention Pinkie Pie wanted us to... you know.” Rainbow nodded towards the stallion.

“But you know that I am also shy.” Fluttershy looked down.

“Well, still, I think it’s kindness he really needs. Why don’t you just give it a try? Come on.”

“Well, um... okay.”

Grey Mane kept his gaze at the ground. He blinked several times, trying to clear his vision from the small amount of tears that filled his eyes. If those two Pegasi were trying to become friends, why were they secretly talking about him? What were they saying? Mean stuff, most likely. Maybe he was right about Rainbow Dash. She probably didn’t actually want to be his friend. Now he was all alone again.

“Um, hello.”

He tilted his head up at the voice and he saw Fluttershy standing there, smiling again. “I’m Fluttershy.” She blushed again and quickly looked away, hiding behind her mane again. Grey Mane noticed something about her voice. It was so soft and quiet. It sounded so soothing, and he almost felt some comfort... almost.

When the mare managed to look at him again, he nodded, quietly whispering, “I know.” He looked away from her, and back at the ground.

“So... you’re new here?” She didn’t know why she asked. She already knew the answer.

The grey pony nodded. Fluttershy felt her fear grow when he didn’t look at her or even smile. He had a sort of deadpan look on his face. She struggled to talk again, becoming more hesitant. “Um, if-if I am bothering you, I can... leave.”

Grey Mane focused a bit more on her voice than what she said, but he heard her. He looked at her for half a second before looking back at the ground. He wanted to talk, but his mouth wouldn’t open. When it did, it took a while to get words to come out.

“No, you’re not... um... you know, bothering... me,” he said slowly and quietly. But truthfully, he was bothered by her presence. He both wanted her to stay and to leave him alone. He wasn’t sure what he wanted most, but he didn’t want this pony to hate him after having just met. So he let her stay.

“Are you sure?”

Grey Mane rolled his eyes and sighed as the tiniest amused smile formed on his face. “Yes.”

“Oh, okay.” Fluttershy smiled again. They were both silent for a while. Then Fluttershy asked, “Would you like me to show you around? I’m you will like what you will see.”

Grey Mane really wanted to go home. He hated being outside, unless he was somewhere with no ponies in the area. But when he saw the smile on her face, he didn’t know what to do.

“Well, uh, I kinda wanted to go home, and...” He trailed off as he saw the smile disappear from the mare’s face.

“Oh, um, okay, if you want.” She sounded disappointed.

Grey Mane started to walk away until Rainbow Dash appeared in front of him. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to head over to Sugarcube Corner?” She gave him a large smile. The stallion just looked at her confused. “It’s a bakery. You can buy cakes, cookies, and other stuff.”

"She also throws parties sometimes too." Fluttershy sounded slightly nervous as she spoke.

"Yeah," Rainbow said, nodding. "But you don't have to worry about that right now. You wanna check it out?"

Grey Mane thought about it for a short while. He was never into parties, and hoped he wouldn't have to face one. After a minute, he nodded. "Sure, I guess."

Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, who was now smiling. Grey Mane however was confused. Rainbow seemed eager to get to this destination of theirs. Why?

As they headed off, he remained silent while the Pegasi were chatting. Meanwhile he started thinking. Why were they so eager to get him to this place? He wasn’t stupid. He knew something was up, and he began to feel more nervous.

What were they planning?