Grey Mane

"Soon..."

Grey Mane looked around, unable to see anything. He saw nothing but pitch blackness. The voice he heard sounded deep and dark and sinister, and it made his whole body vibrate when it spoke.

"Very soon..."

He hadn't a single clue what the voice was talking about, nor was he able to determine where it was coming from. He couldn't even place a guess who the voice belonged to. It didn't sound familiar. He continued to search for the source of the voice, but the pitch blackness of his location wasn't making it any easier. He filled with fear as the voice once again spoke.

"I will be free again."

Then an a fire appeared on the ground in front of him, revealing a stretched-out shadow of himself. He didn't want to turn, but when he did, it was automatic. He turned slowly until he was facing the opposite direction. His mouth hung open and his eyes widened in fear. There were three large spots of flames. Two were smaller and placed next to each other. The third was larger and was placed underneath the two others. He knew it was a face, which seemed to contain an evil sort of smile.

Grey Mane wanted to look away, but for some reason, he just kept staring into the fire. His body was frozen with fear, and he would move an inch. The firey mouth moved in different shapes as it spoke.

"And I will finally destroy the world." The face moved closer to Grey Mane. "And you will be my number one target."

The face moved even closer, opening its mouth wide. Grey Mane started to feel the heat from the fire until he became engulfed in it.

**********

Grey Mane opened his eyes and sat up to look around at his surroundings. There was a bit of sunlight shining throught his window. He could clearly see all of the furniture exactly where he placed them, at least the stuff that he owned. His stuff was always placed around the edges of the room. He looked to his left, past his desk and at thse clock on top of the dresser. It was 7:23 in the morning.

At least he managed to get about seven hours of sleep. But what was up with that dream? He had never had a nightmare for as long as he could remember. This was the first one he ever had.

"What was that thing?" Grey Mane remembered the face he saw the flames in the mouth and eyes. He rubbed his tired eyes. "Oy, my first night here, and I'm already getting weird nightmares."

He stayed in bed as he thought about the dream. Why did I start having nightmares now, of all times? Who or what was that? Is it some sort of sign, or something dumb like that? What did he mean he will return soon? And why would I be his first target? Is there an earlier part of the dream that I can't remember?

More questions continued to enter his head, about the monster and the words he had spoken, but they all remained unanswered. Finally he came to the conclusion that it was just a dream and it wasn't real. But there was still something about it that made him feel slightly anxious.

**********

He sat at the table eating what the last bit of his hay sandwich as his aunt came down the stairs. She was a light blue pegasus with a white mane and tail. Her mane reached just past her shoulders and was sort of curly at the end. Her tail was done the same way. She walked into the kitchen and went to the cupboards to get something to eat.

"Hello," Grey Mane said.

"Hello," Cloud Dasher repeated.

"It's morning." He smile in a joking manner as he stated the obvious.

"I can see that." She reached up and grabbed a bowl with her mouth. She set it on the table before asking, "Have you eaten already?"

Grey Mane nodded.

"Okay, 'cause I was gonna ask if you could take out the bathroom garbage when you were done. So could you do that now, please? You just need to put it inside the garbage can outside."

The thought of having to go outside brought Rainbow Dash to his mind again, but he thought he didn't have to worry. All he really needed to do was place the bag into the can in front of the house. Then the topic of his thoughts changed to the cans. Why didn't they have large bins like they did in Red Horse and Edmaneton. It would have been easier to fit more bags. But then again, Ponyville was much smaller. It wouldn't take a whole lot of time to empty the cans around here if they were to do the entire town in one day.

"Okay." Grey Mane nodded, aand he ran upstairs.

**********

The grey stallion stepped outside with a white bag in his mouth and his saddlebags on his back. He walked towards the silver garbage can that sat at the corner of the wall next to another can, which was probably the neighbor's. He fit his hoof into the handle and lifted the lid. Then he tossed the bag inside before placing the lid back on top.

"Hey, Grey Mane?" a familiar voice called to him.

The stallion's fear returned as he saw the mare with the rainbow mane fly towards him. She didn't go too fast, as if trying not to scare him off. He quickly walked towards the door. He had hoped she wouldn't see her.

"Hey, wait a sec! I just want to say something."

He stopped moving and turned to face her. He hoped in his mind that she wasn't going to yell at him, or make more accusations.

Rainbow Dash landed and walked up to him. She never usually woke up this early, but her nap yesterday had turned into several hours of sleep. She had tried to fall back asleep when she woke up, but it didn't work. So she had decided to just practice some flying tricks. Then she saw the grey pony and decided to apologize for yesterday.

"Well, uh..." she started, looking nervously at Grey Mane, who now stared at the ground. "So, about yesterday..." She scratched the back of her head. "...well, I didn't mean to act the way that I did. I guess I was being a little bit paranoid. I thought you were some spy or something because of... y'know." She nodded towards his saddlebags. "But I mean, if you don't want to say anything, I won't make you."

Grey Mane could tell from her tone, however, that she was still interested in why he was wearing them. Why can't she just drop it?

Rainbow looked at the house. "You live in Cloudy's house?" Grey Mane raised an eyebrow at hearing his aunt's nickname. Not a lot of ponies called her that. He nodded. "Oh, so you are a friend?"

He shook his head. "She's actually my aunt." Crap, I shouldn't have said that!

"She is? So, does that mean you're, like, part pegasus or something?"

Grey Mane shrugged before nodding.

"Just with, y'know, no wings." She flapped her wings slightly.

That was when the grey pony went silent. He then decided to go back inside. "Look, I should get back inside. I have some stuff to do."

Rainbow saw he was nervous, but figured it was just the way he is. "Okay then. And again, sorry about yesterday. Maybe we can hang out sometime?"

These words made Grey Mane look up at the blue mare. He was never good at reading ponies, but was she serious? Did she really want to hang out? She was the first pony in years to ever ask him that. He would have liked to say "yes", but recent events made him want to say "no" more.

She had rudely accused him of being a spy out to kill Princess Twilight. He had never been more terrified in his life. She may not have meant to scare him off like she did, but he was not going to let this go that easily, apology or not. He shook his head.

"No thank you." He walked to his door.

"Dude, just hang on a second." Rainbow Dash rushed in front of him. She sighed heavily. "I don't know why you're always trying to stay away from everypony, but whatever your problem is, staying inside all the time is not gonna solve them."

Grey Mane remained silent, and stared at the ground. Anger was starting to build up. He just wanted her to leave him alone. Why couldn't she see that? Why couldn't anyone see that? Why did she even care anyway, to actually try to be around him? There was nothing special about him. Nothing. He was already a young adult who was living with his aunt and uncle. He couldn't get a job; too many of them involved working with other ponies. He wouldn't even be able to shake the manager's hoof. He hated parties and spending time with others. He was actually afraid of others. He was afraid of upsetting them. He hated the anger and hatred he was sure to recieve. So he had started to believe that he could never accomplish anything.

So again, there was nothing special about him, or anything worth being grateful for. He was just somepony to hate and yell at and ridicule. He wasn't worth anyone's time. He just wanted to be gone from this world.

"Hello?"

He looked at the mare. "What?"

"I said don't you think it would be nice to have some friends in your life?"

He did see the slight look of concern in Rainbow's face, but he didn't look at it that way. "Look, I don't need any friends. I don't really see any point to it. I would much rather spent my time alone." He stepped in front of the door, glaring at Rainbow Dash, who stood slightly shocked.

"Well, you don't seriously want to be alone your entire life, do you?"

Grey Mane looked away when he heard that question. His expression was mixed between anger and sadness. He didn't even know the answer to that question. It seemed to be stuck between "yes" and "no". He sighed and looked at Rainbow, his eyes automatically shifting to avoid her gaze. He decided to end this talk as soon as possible and get inside.

"Look, I just wanna..." He pointed to the door.

Rainbow hung her head and sighed. There was just no reasoning with this guy. "Fine, go inside."

Grey Mane saw her look of defeat, and he felt more guilt. He had upset the most confident pony in town, just like he always did with every other pony. Now, a part of him wanted to talk more with the mare, but he feared having to face her anger. He slowly opened the door, glancing at her a few times, and walked inside. He walked past the kitchen and headed up the stairs. He felt his anger rise, not towards anypony else, just himself.

He kept yelling in his mind about how stupid he was, and how much he hated himself. He was stupid, selfish, and afraid of other ponies. Could he be any more pathetic? He really needed to lie down and do nothing for about a good hour. That always helped him relax.

He almost walked into his bedroom door. He entered the room, closing the door behind him. He laid down onto his bed, still thinking.

Why? Why did I even bother coming here? No one really cares. I just want to... no longer exist. Stupid life. Stupid ponies. No, they're not stupid. I am. It is my fault that I have problems. My fault that I have this "anxiety". My fault that I never want to help others, talk to anypony, or even touch them. I probably shouldn't keep blaming bullies so much. They were acting like total ballsacks, and I am just too weak to let it all slide.

He continued to lower his own self-esteem until his thoughts managed to drift onto other things, like songs or his own fantasies. He had almost forgotten his previous thoughts, for he had already believed them to be true a long time ago. He always looked down on himself, seeing himself as a bad pony, and inferior to everyone else. He had developed so many fears that it downright disgusted him.

But now, he was imagining himself with several friends, who truly cared about him, and he returned the feeling. He even imagines himself in love with a mare. He had never felt love towards anypony before, but he always wondered what it felt like.

But for all that he desired, there were no chances.