Grey Sky Goes to Ponyville

It was another rainy day in Ponyville as Grey Sky walked through the market, hoping to buy some groceries with the few bits he managed to scrounge up. He was still waiting for Pinkie Pie to let him know if he could get the job at Sugar Cube Corner. How else was he going to pay off his house, much less eat?

“I sure hope I can get that job. I really need it. I have faith though that Pinkie will come through. I should be able to get it, I mean, my baking skills aren’t that bad if I must say so myself. It’s been a long time though….”

As he was pondering this, he noticed a certain yellow mare being teased by two other mares. As one who was ridiculed very often, he couldn’t just ignore this. He couldn’t stand anypony who would belittle another. Without thinking, he decided to take action. He quickly jumped in front of the yellow mare while looking serious.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Exclaimed Grey, trying to sound as intimidating as he could be.

“Like, who are you?” Asked one of the mares rudely.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. I suggest you stop teasing her.” Demanded Grey, his voice once again laced with intimidation.

“Oh I know you.” Spoke up the other mare. “You’re that loser who just moved in right?”

“Loser?? That’s kind of harsh…” Spoke Grey, quickly losing his stoic-ness.

“Oh yeah, I heard about you! You’re that loser that got thrown out by your family so you had to move here! What a drip!” Exclaimed the first mare.

“Ho-how did you know about that?” Asked grey sheepishly, having lost all of his confidence.

“We know everything about anypony that comes to Ponyville.” Replied the second mare, the arrogance of her tone stinging like the sting of a hornet. “You’re so pathetic; we don’t even need to make fun of you! You do enough of a job by yourself!”

Both mares started laughing at him as they walked away, their mocking ripping into Grey’s feelings like a wild beast would to freshly caught prey. He felt his heart sink as reality once again stared him in the face and brought him to his knees.

“But…that’s not…” Spoke Grey as he fruitlessly tried to defend himself against a battle of tongues that had completely crushed him.

The yellow mare who Grey had tried to protect, witnessed this. She couldn’t help but feel responsible for the complete annihilation of this grey pony’s resolve. She had to do something. After all, he tried to protect her. That must have taken so much courage to do… Nopony else besides Rarity and Pinkie have really stood up for her before, and he was a complete stranger too! She had to say something.

“Why… Why did you do that?” The yellow pony nervously asked Grey.

“I…just didn’t want to see anypony else get teased.” Replied Grey, slowly regaining his composure. “I hate it. I was teased a lot when I was a filly, so I can’t stand it when anypony teases somepony else. I didn’t think it would  turn out like this though…”

“Thank…Thank you. My name is Fluttershy…” Fluttershy replied in a very quiet tone.

“I’m sorry?” Asked Grey, barely hearing her.

“My…My name is Fluttershy.” Fluttershy said, mustering up a large deal of courage.

“Oh. My name’s Grey Sky.”

“That’s a pretty name…” Fluttershy said in a hushed tone.

“Thanks…” Grey replied, slightly embarrassed as he scratch the back of his head.

Both of them just stood there, in awkward silence. They would try to speak, but they just grabbed the words they were about to speak and pulled them back into their mouths. They tried to say something once more, but spoke at the same time so they didn’t hear each other.

“I’m sorry. Go ahead.” Grey sheepishly said.

“No, it’s alright. You go.” Fluttershy retorted.

“I…uh…Just wanted to say thanks.” Grey spoke softly.

“Thanks for what?” Fluttershy inquired.

“For not laughing; at what those ponies said about me.” Grey admitted.

“Why would I do that? You tried to protect me. I would never turn on somepony that tried to help me.”

“Yeah…I guess it was kind of stupid to think that…” Grey realized. “Anyways, what were you going to say?”

“It’s uh… never mind.” Fluttershy hastily spoke, a slight shade of red painted on her face.

“What? What were going to say?” Grey pried, noticing her slight blush and was wondering what she could possibly say.

“I…Uh…Well… I think-” Before she could finish her sentence she heard a familiar cheery voice.

“Hey Grey!!! Great news!!!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, flying like a bullet towards Grey.

“What-” Grey spoke turning his head in Pinkie Pie’s direction.

Grey barely had a time to react before he was tackled at mach 5 by the pink blur.

“Grey! I have great news! The Cakes said you can work at Sugar Cube Corner as long as you can prove that you are a good baker!” Said Pinkie as she was standing on top of a discombobulated Grey.

“I’ll take ‘Pony Supermodels’ for 500 Alex…” Said Grey, disoriented from the shock his body had just received.

“Huh???” Exclaimed Pinkie, looking at Grey like he was crazy.

“I mean, uh, that’s great!” Spoke Grey, trying to regain his composure. “I think it might be for the best if you got off me, so I could breathe, not that I mind having my ribcage crushed…”

“Oops! Heheh…” Pinkie jumped off Grey, looking embarrassed.

As Pinkie was stepping off of Grey, she noticed Fluttershy. She looked at Grey in a slightly accusing way for a second, but cast it off. It’s not like the two of them were dating or anything. She had no reason to get upset if he was with another mare, especially one of her best friends…right?

“You…you know him Pinkie?” Fluttershy meekly asked.

“Of course I know him! I know everypony in Ponyville remember?” Pinkie replied.

“Oh, I was just wondering that’s all… I thought you didn’t know him since you didn’t throw a party for him like you do with everypony else who moves here…”

“Oh. Right, that…” Pinkie said, quickly turning nervous. “I…I was just waiting until he got settled in! He said he was very tired when he got here so I didn’t throw a party.”

“I did say that.” Interjected Grey.

“Oh…okay… I wasn’t mad or anything… I was just curious…” Fluttershy quickly retorted, feeling slightly threatened.

“I’ll throw him a party tonight!” Pinkie quickly exclaimed, also feeling pressured. She quickly turned to Grey. “Wanna’ go to a party tonight?”

“Um, Sure.” Grey replied, not really understanding what was going on; unaware of the raging invisible battle between the two friends

“Good! We can have a party later tonight at Sugar Cube Corner!” Pinkie Stated.

“Sounds like a plan.” Grey said. “Oh! If it’s going to be at Sugar Cube Corner, would you mind if I cooked the food for the party? That way I can show my baking skills.”

“Sure! It’ll be great to see how you bake!” Pinkie said with her voice filled with enthusiasm.

Later that day, Grey stepped into Sugar Cube Corner for the first time. He arrived earlier then the time for the party since he was going to be baking the food for it. As he stepped forward, he once again met Pinkie.

“Hey.” Grey said to Pinkie calmly.

“Hey! Ready to do some baking?” Pinkie asked as if she was egging him on to a dare.

Grey realized this, and soon his persona completely changed. He gained a serious and confident face. As he stood in front of the counter, only one thing came to his mind.

“Challenged accepted.”

In a flash of lightning, he quickly assembled the items he needed for baking. He quickly added them in to the bowl and started to mix them. He then split the batter into different pans as he ran to the different corners of the kitchen to grab different fruits to add into the batter. Before, Pinkie could even blink; six different pans of cupcakes were all filled and had different flavors, all ready to be baked. Grey just stood there, looking like he was a master baker, showing his epic skills to an apprentice.

Pinkie couldn’t believe her eyes. She had just witnessed something amazing. This pony, managed to put together six pans of cupcakes in the blink of an eye. She still wasn’t impressed though. Even if he had assembled them fast, that doesn’t mean they would taste good.

Grey already knew that if Pinkie Pie had any sense of baking that she would still be skeptical. I mean after all, they still needed to be baked. He slid each of the pans into the ovens and just stared at them for a second. After a few minutes, his serious demeanor had faded and he was back to normal.

“And now the hard part; waiting.” Grey said with a sullen tone, wishing for instant gratification.

“What was THAT?” Pinkie asked, still dumbfounded by what had just transpired.

“What was what?” Grey asked quizzically.

“That whole super-baking-pony thing! You moved faster than my eyes could follow!” Exclaimed Pinkie.

“Oh that!” Grey retorted, finally realizing what she was talking about. “Sorry, I kind of really get into baking; sort of a hobby of mine.”

“Are you some sort of Super-Pony with super baking powers?” Pinkie asked while eyeing him up and down.

Grey merely laughed. He could now just laugh at this mare’s random nature rather than look at her like she was crazy. Granted, she was crazy, but that’s beside the point.

“Geez, this pony thinks the strangest things. That’s what I like about her though; she never lets things get her down. She just laughs and makes the weirdest jokes. It’s quite refreshing. I don’t know… just something about her nature just fills my heart with happiness.”

As these thoughts whirred inside Grey’s mind, he started to become more self-conscious. He kept flipping back and forth between seeing Pinkie as his best friend, and seeing her as something more. His pessimistic nature made himself doubt that he even had a slim chance with her. I mean, he was just a loser of a colt, kicked out of his house and told to get a life by his parents of all ponies. How could he ever have a chance with such a wonderful and cheerful mare?

As he was thinking about Pinkie, he noticed something strange. He noticed that not all of the images that kept flowing through his mind were of the pink mare. Some of them featured a more reserved mare with a long pink mane. He was baffled at this; all of his thoughts lately revolved around Pinkie while it took just one encounter with that mare to have her entangled in his thoughts. This did not bode well for the grey pony.

“Grey?”

“Grey?”

“GREY!”

With that shout he quickly snapped out of his trance. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he completely forgot that he was baking cupcakes. His mind soon turned distraught at the thought of his beautiful cupcakes being burned. He started to panic.

“Pinkie!” Exclaimed Grey. “How long was I spacing out!?”

Pinkie was surprised at Grey sudden outburst. “Just a few minutes or so.”

Grey took a huge sigh of relief. His worries were alleviated, at least the present worries. He quickly took a look at the clock.

“Okay, good. It’s only been 5 minutes.”

As Grey’s worries settled, his awkwardness had surfaced.

“Sorry about that. My mind kind of got caught up with something.” Grey sheepishly apologized while scratching the back of his head.

“Aw, it’s fine.” Pinkie replied with a smile which quickly turned into a look of curiosity. “What were you thinking about anyways?”

Upon hearing this question Grey quickly turned red and looked away. “Oh, nothing really important y’know? I was thinking about whether or not I’d get the job or not.”

“I’m sure your cupcakes will be delicious!” Pinkie said, trying to reassure Grey.

“Yeah, I hope they will.” Grey replied.

After a short bit, the cupcakes were done. The serious demeanor had returned to Grey as he retrieved each of the pans and placed them on the counter. As quickly pulled out multiple kinds of frosting; he applied them to the cupcakes in a way an artist would apply paint to a canvas. He added various other toppings to the cupcakes such as cookies, sprinkles and other kinds of sweet treats.

As he finished frosting the final cupcake he stood over his creations in a proud manner. He motioned for Pinkie, who had returned to be dumbstruck, to try one. As Pinkie picked up the cupcake, she eyed it carefully. She couldn’t find any big faults with the cupcake itself and the presentation was completely amazing. It was something that a gourmet baker would create. The smell was absolutely intoxicating; the sweetness engulfing her.

She slowly took a bite of the cupcake and froze. She couldn’t believe her taste buds. Was it possible for something to be this delicious?? This was even better than the Cakes’ cupcakes! She slowly chewed it, absorbing the flavor as much as she could. It was…snicker doodle. The cinnamon was not overpowering, but rather intense; it danced on her taste buds rather than trampling on them. As she finished chewing, she opened her eyes and noticed Grey with a satisfied smile on his face.

“Good?” Grey asked.

“GOOD!?” Replied Pinkie loudly.

A look of concern came over Grey’s face.

“This, my good pony, is possibly the…”

Grey quickly started to frown as he felt failure knocking on his door.

“Most AMAZING cupcake I’ve ever had!!” Pinkie exclaimed, joy lacing her voice. “How did you make this!? Even the Cake’s aren’t as good as these! And that’s saying something!”

Grey’s frown did a complete flip as he smiled with joy. “I’m glad you like it!”

“Like it?? I love it!” Replied Pinkie as she continued eating it in the most adorable way possible.

“Looks like you still got it.”

As Pinkie finished her cupcake, a look of confusion came over her face.

“Grey, if you were so good at baking, then why aren’t you a professional baker like the Cakes?”

A frown quickly appeared on Grey’s face. “Oh, that. I guess it was because my family really didn’t encourage me to bake, so I sort of abandoned the skill.”

“Whaaa?? That’s crazy!” Said Pinkie. “Either way, you are sure to get a job here now!”

“I sure hope so.” Replied Grey as he looked at the clock again. “The party is going to be starting here soon. We’d better get out there.”

Pinkie also looked at the clock and noticed the time. “Yup! Let’s go eat those cupcakes!-I mean, let’s go meet my friends!”

Grey softly chuckled as he walked outside with Pinkie who was hopping high enough to hit the ceiling.