Hindsight
Bright, was the day when our story began. There were little more than wisps of cloud in the sky. It was warm, as the forecast called for. As if it was ever wrong. Not since Discord had it been wrong.
Ever.
But, as it would, things do change.
Accidents happen. Whether they were really accidents, remains unchecked. And accidents do tend to happen in Ponyville. This, was a day for accidents.
/~-~\
Twilight's day had been going according to schedule. They had been packed exactly ten minutes before they were to leave, left, exactly two minutes before the others planned to, and got to the picnic site, exactly one minute 2.52 seconds before the others did.
Spike's day, was not going even slightly according to his plans.
"I thought we were going to have the picnic at Sweet Apple Acres," Spike lamented wearily.
Twilight turned to look at the worn out hatchling dragon.
"We're going to the outskirts of the Everfree forest because, once again, the cutie mark crusaders have made a mess of their tree house, also causing minor damage to the trees surrounding their tree house. It involved magic, and i was told that the trees haven't stopped playing chess yet. Whatever that means."
Spike sighed, gazing longingly, at the (magically locked,) picnic basket in front of him.
"I was just hoping that you'd let me into that basket earlier if Applejack was here..." He glared at the inaccessible basket of food, Twilight giggling at him. "Oh Spike, the others will be here soon anyway." Spike grumbled, crossing his arms and huffing.
"Why'd we have to leave so early anyway?"
Twilight's horn glowed as she lifted a scroll from her Saddlebag she was carrying. "If we're hosting the picnic, it's only right if we get here early to set up," She replied, checking off boxes on her list with a quill held in her telekinetic grip. Spike sighed and plopped down next to the basket, wondering if it was fireproof too.
The rest of the elements gathered soon enough, (though Spike had eyes only for Rarity,) and they commenced in opening the picnic basket, (whereas Spike realized he had two eyes.)
"Alright! Let's eat!" Spike rushed for the basket, only to be halted moments before he tore into it by a purple aura. "Spike! It's always polite to let the guests eat first." Spikes eyes grew wider than the plates on the ground, as he was sure he would starve in the next few seconds. As the rest of the ponies were served, Applejack chuckled and nudged her plate towards the incapacitated Spike.
"He kin have mine, Twahlight. Ah ate before ah got here."
Twilight sighed, releasing Spike to his plate. She raised an eyebrow at Applejack, which she returned. "He's never going to learn patience if he's never taught." Applejack chuckled again and messed with her stetson.
"Well, ah reckon he will, if he keeps livin' with yah."
Applejack grinned cheekily as Twilight grew red. She huffed, and turned to her own plate, as Spike devoured his.
"You are the element of honesty. I don't guess compliments are included in that deal?"
/~-~\
Grey Stride's day didn't have a plan at this point.
He was running through the woods, injured, from an EXTREMELY pissed off Manticore.
Yeah, THIS couldn't get better.
'Alright, a' got three legs left, i ca- BUUCK!'
He cursed inwardly, as he tripped over yet another stick.
"Stupid, leg!" He cursed, feeling his side. His deep grey coat and off white mane were flaked red from the several scratches across his barrel. He stood shakily, lifting his right foreleg above the others, as it had fractured at the hoof. It was already starting to buzz with numbness at the red-leaking bite mark on it.
A Manticore's bite is nothing but trouble, his mother had said.
The inside of his head pounded, and his brain screamed at him to stop. He listened for the sound of frantic footsteps, and the voices of-
'Hold on'a freakin' minute, voices?'
He turned, listening. Five or six female voices, and the decreasing pound of the Manticore's steps.
'Huh. Well. Miracles do happen.' He grunted as turned towards the voices, continuing in his three-legged hop.
/~-~\
Twilight panted as the Manticore shrank back into the woods. "Why....why was it so....fast?" Fluttershy mimicked her condition, on her side gasping for breath.
"I...i.i-i don't know...it...it seemed like it was angry at something...."
Applejack stopped winding her rope as Rainbow landed beside her.
"Or some-Pony." Rainbow nodded and rushed back into the air, Applejack following her into the woods, as Rarity came running into the clearing.
"Darling! What happened!? Your mane is simply a mess! I came as soon as Rainbow told me."
Twilight had regained her stamina, and was helping Fluttershy to her hooves.
"A Manticore came stampeding through here, so, we scared it back into the forest."
Rarity rushed over to Twilight as she continued her recounting of the story. "After you went back to get more food, we decided to check it out. Applejack and Rainbow dash have gone in to check if it was chasing anypony."
Twilight raised a hoof to her chin, tapping it.
"That reminds me, where's Pinkie?"
Rarity magically smoothed out both Fluttershy and Twilight's manes, and replied, "Oh, she's currently making a special order. Said something about, 'Cherry-changa's' and whatnot. I never can understand that mare."
Twilight gazed into the forest, lighting her horn. "We should check on AJ and Rainbow. No telling WHAT they've gotten themselves into."
/~-~\
'A'm gonna die.'
Those we're the first thoughts in his head when he awoke. He had fallen, (again,) against a rock, and lay unconscious for god knew how long. He stared up at the sky, feeling the cool breeze, and the warm sticky substance, that he knew to be his blood on his face.
'A'm gonna die, and nopony'll care. Never thought a'd go this way. At least, without somepony tryin'a kill me.'
He listened to the ever fainter sound of wind through the bows of the trees above him and..... a mares voice.
All jokes aside, this was the last thing he expected to hear on his deathbed.
Or any bed, for that matter.
He croaked out towards the voice, rolling over. The voice got nearer, as he could pick out the sound of feathery wings. He detected a scent of hay and sweat, before his senses dulled.
/~-~\
He awoke to the steady heaving of breath.
'That's strange. Didn't really think there'd be breathin' up here.'
He shot bolt upright and sniffed the air, relieved not to catch the telltale scent of sulfur. 'NOT, down there.' He swayed his head, staring at the surp-rised, (and now fully awake) mare next to him.
"Why hello there, 'luvly. Mind tellin' me where i am?" His strong Whinnish Isles accent hung in the uncomfortable silence, while RD stumbled over her thoughts trying to figure out what just happ-ened. She had just witnessed a stallion sit bolt upright, sniff the air, and ask her where he was,
and compliment her.
The stallion who she had found injured in the woods.
After a Manticore attack.
She had a decent amount of questions.
"Alright, first of all, who are you!?" She stared at the stallion, muzzle to muzzle, a bit confused when he did little as stare back.
"Meh names Grey Stride. But meh friends call me Grey. You bein' one, i assume."
Now she was even more confused. He had woken up, stared directly at her, and assumed he already knew her!? "Just who do ya think yer talking to!? I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest flyer in literally all of Equestria??"
He blinked once, nodding slowly.
"A' assumed as much. Ya sounded like her. A've heard ya fly."
Rainbow drew back, waving a hoof in front of his eyes. She was shocked to see that his eyes didn't seem to register the motion. "Wait...you're..b...."
He grinned wryly, getting up from the cot he was on.
"Ah, yes. Ah lost it at the age a' three. Don' really remember sight too well."
Rainbow backed away from the bed a bit, blushing profusely. "Oh..i..uh.i.." She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, before she remem-bered her second question.
"Oh yeah! Why were you in the forest, getting attacked by a Manticore?"
At this question, Grey stepped onto the floor, only to recoil back to the bed. He hissed in pain, cursing quietly. "Ahh, forgot about you, eh?"
He held his right foreleg, caressing the snapped bone.
Rainbow, was not amused.
"And that too! Why did the Manticore come after you?!?" Grey looked in her general direction, saying, "Well, ya see, a' was going for a walk through the woods. Then a' met somethin' furry."
Rainbow gaped at him.
"You just, walked, into a Manticore?" She sighed opening the library door. "HEY TWI! YOU'RE GONNA WANNA HEAR THIS!"
Grey cringed a bit at this sudden display of volume.
"A'm blind, not deaf, luv." Dash smiled sheepishly, replying, "Oh yeah, sorry. Forget how awesome i am sometimes."
Grey had eased himself back off of the cot by this time, and was holding his injured hoof above the rest. "Who's this 'Twa' ya talkin' 'bout?"
Rainbow huffed, trotting up the wooden stairs, to the chagrin of Grey's ears.
"Sheesh, you sound like AJ."
Grey sighed as she left, taking in the room. "So many voices to hear...so much time to do it."
TWO DAYS AGO....
"Waddya mean, a' can't board this train!?"
He yelled at the young ticket taker standing on board of the 8-o'clock train he was supposed to be boarding.
"S-sir, i'm sorry, but, you don't e-exactly have a passport!" The young stallion cringed again as Grey began his auditory assault.
"A' told ya bloody before, my passport's already been checked through!" His small, black-lensed wrap around glasses shook with the anger that he felt, teetering uncertainly on his snout.
"I-i'll check a-again sir, but last time i did, there wasn't any mail at all." Grey ground his teeth and prepared another few choice words for the colt, before a hoof rested on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry dear sir, my son appears to have lost his passport. He gets very upset when he loses things." An elderly feminine voice spoke up from behind him, and Grey had to stop himself from grinning.
He continued on with his act, snapping back, "Well, if one'a us had decent memory, Maybe we wouldn't LOSE EVERYTHIN'!" Both the elderly mare and the ticket taker shrank back at his volume, the mare leading him off of the platform.
"Come now dear, this is no place for yelling. I have your passport. Here, Take a moment to calm down." The mare led him to the bathroom, Grey grumbling all the while. The second he closed the door, he trotted to the sink, taking off his glasses, and a yellow wig he had been wearing. He stuffed them into a trashcan, wondering what the janitor would think of this.
Another stallion entered the bathroom just as he was thinking this, opening the door slowly, and letting it swing shut.
"Ollie Ollie," The stallion started. Grey turned, grinning like a madpony.
"Millshire." The stallion stepped forwards, smirking as he was engulfed into green flame. "You know," The stallions voice shifted to that of a low female's, as his body followed. "For a moment, i thought you were really angry at me."
Grey trotted towards her, still showing teeth. "C'mon luv, y'know i could never be mad at you for long."
The changeling rolled her eyes, shifting into a pink bodied mare.
"Sometimes i wonder why you're in this line of work. You could make real money as a bard." Grey dropped his grin, reducing it to a slight smirk. "You may jest, but y'are in the stallion's john. Who knows what stories they'll tell."
The changeling scoffed, handing Grey a piece of paper. "Your romantic life never ceases to amaze me, Grey."
Grey took the paper, running his hoof over the brail on it.
"Quick Step? A'm......" He looked back up at the changeling, chuckling. "A courier. Nice a' you ta add that, Olive."
Olive Green returned this with her own smirk, saying, "Well, i didn't think it very canny to lie too much. Where we're going, it could mean our lives."
Grey raised an eyebrow, reading further.
"One way trip....straight ta...." His grin dropped completely, as he muttered, "Ponyville?" His head snapped up to glare at Olive. "Like hay ya gettin' me on THAT train!" Olive sighed and smoothed out her mane.
"Oh, stop whining. It won't be that bad." Grey scoffed and turned back towards the sink.
"A' am not gettin' on that train!"
/~-~\
"A' can't believe a'm on this train."
Said train rattled along, as the scenery sped by
outside.
Grey sulked at the window, now garbed in green couriers cap, and saddlebags. The now-mare Olive giggled at him, setting down the book she had been reading.
"Oh come on! It won't be the death of you! I've worked with you long enough to know that."
Grey turned towards her, his cap tilted atop of his wild mess of white mane that Olive had tried, (without success,) to sculpt into anything that resembled hair slightly.
"The only thing worse than going in there, is marching into Canterlot with meh flanks ablaze!"
Olive sighed a long-suffering sigh, as she explained to him, for what had to be the fourteenth time.
"You're not going anywhere near the elements anyway. You're only going to pass through town once!" Grey shifted, and continued his sightless stare out of the train's window.
"Yeah, but have you ever heard o' th' party mare there? She never misses a 'Welcome to ponyville!' party! Ever! What if she catches me?!"
Olive picked her book back up, lazily turning the pages. "Just tell her that you have an extremely important package to deliver, and that you'll come back." Grey messed with his cap, fighting with it to stay straight.
"If i come back in sprinkle covered pieces, i'll make sure every one of them hates you for it," He glared at her.
Olive feigned fear, hiding behind her book, rolling her eyes and returning to it. Grey turned back to his window, saying, "The stallion dies at the end." Olive looked up in surprise. "What?"
Grey looked over his shoulder at her.
"Yer book. The stallion dies. 'Mare runs off with somepony else, an' the stallion sees fit to hang 'imself. Poor bastard," he lamented flatly. Olive raised an eyebrow, a question frozen on her lips. She shook her head and decided to put it on the pile.
"I'll never understand you."
/~-~\
Grey stepped off the train, onto the deserted station. He made a mental note to visit here later, as it was the one place he had found that was to his liking.
It was very quiet.
Olive stepped off of the train behind him, calling out, "Oh, cheer up some! Some only dream of co-ming here!"
Grey turned back, raising an eyebrow. "An' what of the ones who's nightmares are haunted by the name?" Olive rolled her eyes, sighing. "You don't have to be THAT negative.."
She turned, walking back into the train as it rolled away.
"Do be safe, Grey," She whispered, to herself, more than anypony.
"A' will," replied Grey, as he set off on the trail towards town.
/~-~\
As he neared the outskirts town, he heard several raised voices, seeming to all resonate from one part of town.
The one he was sent to.
"Bloody brilliant....", he grumbled, massaging his head, already throbbing at the idea. He wandered towards the school, as it was the farthest point from his objective. He wanted some quality procrastination time in before he started his job.
And, he didn't know where the bar was.
He heard several shrill voices from what seemed like the entrance to the school. He also noticed a small life form leaning against a tree near the entrance.
'Rebel o' the pack? Or perhaps an outcast?',
He thought to himself. He glided up behind the tree it was leaning on, thinking it best not to disturb it, whatever it may be.
Not yet, at least.
Grey Stride don't run from nopony.
As he drew nearer, he picked up bits of conver-sation that the being was muttering. He sniffed once, careful not to alert the being of his presence. He didn't smell like pony, as he had been acquainted with that smell for some time. He smelled......woody.
Wood?
'Th'hay's a colt doin' in the Everfree?'
The being started muttering again, apparently talking to himself.
"Too many voices....why are they so loud?"
At that moment, Grey realized where he had smelled that scent before. He was a deer. The accent was unmistakable. He smiled wryly at the deers sentence, as they were always more akin to their senses. His ears shifted, picking up move-ment. He leaped into the tree he was standing near, silently curling into the branches.
Another deer approached, female, from the sound.
'Pretty shapely as well, methinks,' He grinned to himself.
"What are you doin', hangin' around these lo-sers?"
She had a refined, yet tomboyish accent he had yet to place. He listened as she approached the tree and the fawn. Grey clung tightly to the branch as she walked underneath him, small talking with the fawn, and discussing recent events, (some of which chall-enged even Grey's stonewall-will to stave off laughter,) one or two he had a hard time believing.
Feeling as he had experienced enough, he curled down, dropping from the branches.
"Hullo there, lass. Fine day we're havin, yeah?"
He could guess their facial reactions, as he heard leaps in their heart rates. He also heard the swish of an object being propelled through the air, gauged the sound and speed, and tilted his head to the side.
"No need to get violent, now," He grinned, as the bag she had thrown sailed past his head, and he imagined the dumbfounded faces of the Doe and fawn in front of him. He heard a shallow thud, as the black buck's foot came down, and suddenly there was a leathery beast attacking him. He jumped back, swinging his foreleg and batting the creature away. To his surprise, it came back, -And latched onto his face.
This wasn't his greatest moment.
He did the first thing that came to mind, and chucked the object as hard as he could.
To his immense confusion, it came back again, repeating it's facial assault. After collecting his thoughts, he grabbed the object, prying it from his face and holding it in place.
"Now then. What in the bloody hay was that about?"
The object flapped wildly, trying to escape his steel grip. Both the fawn and doe looked dumbfounded at Grey, the doe spluttering out, "W...wh...wai...who are you?"
To this, Grey ginned again, releasing the object, and bowing, with a flourish.
"Grey Stride, official courier, and attractor of mares." The doe raised an eyebrow, saying, "Silver Light. Magician, uninterested. This is Misty."
Grey lowered his head to the level of the small silent being, still grinning from ear to ear.
"Well, hello there laddy. Misty, is it? A fine name you have." Misty smiled at this coming out from behind the tree he was clinging to. "W-well, the others don't think so... they say i'm strange."
Grey's grin changed to a smirk, as he said, "You best learn now lad. They might never change their minds, unless you change them." He punctuated his point with a poke to his forehead. He rose while Silver stared at him, silently wondering if she had found the worlds highest functioning blind-drunk.
"So then, what brings ya so far from the Everfree?"
Grey cracked his neck, sighing happily.
"Well, I happen to have business here. So if you'd be so kind," Silver stepped past Grey, leading Misty with her. "What's in th' bag?" Misty craned his neck to see inside the saddlebag strapped to Greys side. Grey reached back, patting it, and saying, "Aye, jus' some packages for the townsfolk. Nothin' special today."
Misty pouted as Silver led him off, and Grey chuc-kled to himself. "Just the daily order for the Eclipsian regiment," He muttered, right before the leathery wings he had heard before, came swooping past his head and into the bags he was carrying. Before he could react, the object had flapped off towards the fawn, and he had taken off for the forest. Grey swore, dashing towards the runaway mail thief. Silver cried out first at Misty's disobedience, and then at the charging Grey sta-llion. "Hey! Wait!! STOP!!!" Grey ignored her pleas, vaulting over her in pursuit of the package.
He heard something rumble, then a tension in the air he knew to be magic. He almost wondered why a deer could harness magic, but then he realized, 'TIA BUCKING FAUST, THAT DEER'S DOING OLD MAGIC!
A deep rumbling emanated from beneath him, and he veered to the right, just as a giant thorn pierced the earth where he was running. He swore repeat-edly as he dodged thorns and brambles left and right. Misty wasn't doing much better, doing his best to stay ahead of Grey, and the thorns as well.
Grey was, to say the least, extremely unhappy.
"Ya bloody runt, gimme t-" He was cut off by another thorn springing up dangerously close to his eye, clipping his ear as it rocketed upwards.
The words he uttered would've burnt the ears of a hardened sailor, you, no doubt, would've liked to know.
Pity.
Grey continued his three-step dance with death, ever closer to the forest coming into view.
"Gotcha now, ya bloody runt! Give me my pack-age!"
Misty yelled something defiant, but his claims were lost to the wind, and the adrenaline in Grey's ears. Soon, the thorns stopped, either to exhaustion of strength, or of range. He expected that the doe come running after him at any minute. She'd also expect to find him easily. Grey grinned as he increased his pace towards the tree line. The fawn had long disappeared, and Grey slowed as he reached the edge of the forest.
"Well, the woodspawn thinks 'e can hide in th' woods eh?" Grey chuckled ominously as he bounded into the trees.