Monochrome

by SilverQuilled

Explanations

Before Prism hue could step in over the raised threshold, Grayscale put a hoof in front of her to stop her. "Ever-Afters. Explain. Now."

Prism shot him an amused look. "What, afraid we'll forget to mention it with the rest of the tour?"

"Yes." Came the blunt response. "Wait- we?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, we. You didn't expect one pony to run all of this, did you?"

Grayscale scowled once more. He had been doing a lot of this since he met her. "Just explain, please."

"You're no fun," She huffed. "We're called the Ever-Afters because we help create happily-ever-afters."

She was silent. "And...?" Grayscale prompted her.

A skinny, pale unicorn stuck his head out the door. His unruly brown mane flopped into his eyes. "Prism, you can do better than that..." He turned to Grayscale. "You know when the hero of a story is almost beaten, and then one little thing goes wrong for the villain, or the hero finds a discarded weapon nearby?"

Grayscale nodded.

"Well, we're the ones who put that sword there, or cause the villain to trip. We're the ones behind the scenes, making sure it all works out. I wish they'd give us more credit," The unicorn said slightly bitterly. "We help Equestria on almost a daily basis, and we don't even get a word of thanks."

Prism gently hoof-bumped the bracken-colored stallion on the shoulder. "Lighten up, Tumbleweed. You know how disastrous it'd be if the public found out we existed."

"Like that's not what you just did, Prism, bringing this guy here," He retorted, and then sighed. "Who am I kidding? We need all the help we can get..."

Tumbleweed motioned both of them inside with a wave of his hoof. The interior of the building was not very noteworthy. The walls were a mixture of storm-gray stone and matte-finish metal. The coloration mainly came from directional arrows and lines painted on the walls in vibrant, brighter-than-life colors. The building was nothing short of sturdy, to say the least. It looked like it was built to withstand a direct blast of a super-conductive spell, if not more. Everything seemed to be thickly plated, with supports every few paces. It might have just been his earth pony instincts talking, but he felt safer here than even in Darkrock Castle, the fortress near Stonehoof.

"Impressive," He stated.

"I'm glad one of us thinks that way," Prism Hue muttered darkly. She had a sour expression on her face.

"What? What's wrong?" The gray stallion asked. "This seems like a nice enough place. I'd expect the ponies are nice enough, too."

"Wherein lies the problem..." Tumbleweed added.

"Are your teammates not nice or something?" Grayscale asked, shocked. He really was quite the naive one.

"Nope. It's more of the fact that there's eleven of us in all," Prism said, "And six of those are pretty much rubbish in the field."

Tumbleweed blushed deeply at this last remark. "The others are at a convention for the different chapters of the Ever-Afters. We stayed behind to hold down the fort, so to speak."

"That and nopony wanted us to go," Prism Hue muttered.

The brown unicorn sighed again. "I'm not going to lie. They don't think we're really that useful."

The rainbow mare gnawed on her lip thoughtfully. "That probably had something to do with the last mission we were on..."

Tumbleweed gave her a sympathetic look. "How were you supposed to know that the desk would burn so easily? Especially when you focused that high-powered magnifying glass on it."

"Yeah, that evil overlord overreacted," Prism Hue agreed. "If he was truly evil, he wouldn't have batted an eye at his personal study being on fire!"

"Blaming it on the suit of armor probably wasn't advisable, though. It was lucky Picture Frame was there to bail you out-"

"Guys, I'm sure your conversation is lovely and all," Grayscale said in a respectful tone. "But could you please tell me WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Prism looked alarmed, but Tumbleweed took it one step further. His legs locked up and he tumbled over sideways, stiff as a board.

The rainbow unicorn looked down at the collapsed unicorn. "He doesn't get out much, can you tell?"

Grayscale just rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Basically, we're supposed to help maintain the peace here in Stonehoof, in our own covert way. We don't really rely on force, but instead on infiltration and sabotage. Our strength is not in numbers, but the sheer fact we are unseen and unknown."

Grayscale gave her a sideways glance. "This is all fine and dandy, but where do I come into the picture?"

Tumbleweed pushed himself up off the floor, his mane more unruly than ever. "We decided to pick you because well, let's face it, you're not exactly memorable."

The gray earth pony closed his eyes. He'd had a lot of unpleasant experiences because of his ability to be forgotten, just another background pony in a sea of thousands. "Tell me about it."

The unicorn stallion nodded. "That talent may be more useful than you think.

Grayscale's eyes flew open. "What?!"

Prism butted in on the conversation. "You're one of a kind, Grayscale, in about the most ironic way I can think of it. You can blend in much better than any of us ever could dream."

Tumbleweed nodded. "Did you know that 78 percent of all failures on missions result from being noticed due to a lack of proper demureness?"

"They're noticed because they can't blend in," Prism translated helpfully.

Grayscale frowned; ponies from Stonehoof were not known for their eye-catching coloration; in fact, Prism Hue was something of an abnormality. "Really? Do you happen to have their files on hoof by any chance?"

The skinny unicorn nodded, sliding a pair of wire-rimmed glasses onto his face with magic. "Here. I'll just bring them up on the computer."

"He's really good at it," Prism whispered into Grayscale's ear. "You should give him a compliment- he could do with the self-esteem."

"Nice job?" the gray pony said waveringly as Tumbleweed accessed the personnel files.

There were eleven of them of them. The first had a picture of a ultramarine pegasus with a deep blue mane speckled with tiny spots of yellow. Her name was "Starry Skies," and she had a success rate of 98%. Her psyche report indicated that she was the best agent in the history of the Ever-Afters. Grayscale wondered why the success wasn't at 100% until he saw the red-lettered word at the bottom of the file: DECEASED.

The next was a lithe, tan earth pony named "Picture Frame." Her smile was mysterious and intriguing, saying I know things you never will without words. Apparently, she was Starry Skies' apprentice.

The third was a yellow and white unicorn. Daisy Chain. She looked like she had been crying before the picture was taken. A footnote stated that she was Starry Skies' little sister.

Four. Brick Wall. Foalhood friend of Starry Skies.

Five. Noodle Bowl. Step-sister of Starry Skies.

Six. Kite Flyer. Cousin.

Seven. Sepia Tone. Mentor.

Eight. Blue Box. Brother-in-law.

Nine. Orion. Close friend.

Ten. Golden Gaze. Close friend.

Eleven. Clouded Dream... Husband-to-be. RELOCATED.

"Who was Starry Skies?" Grayscale whispered.

Tumbleweed's face crumpled. "She... she was the closest thing I had to a friend..."

Prism draped a hoof over the distraught scientist. "Come on, let's get you into the kitchen and make you some hot chocolate. We can talk in there."

Once Tumbleweed had settled down on a stainless steel chair in the small kitchen. Prism Hue continued the story:

---

"Back when this chapter of the Ever-Afters started, Tumbleweed was our computer technician. He knew everything about them, he knew exactly how to use them. However, he was horribly introverted. We all were. Our organization was just getting to our feet; every interaction was awkward.

"For a while, it seemed as if we were just barely holding together, as though things might fly apart at any moment. One day, that changed. A young mare trotted into here, claiming she wanted to join. We were all skeptical at first; to be completely honest, mixing this group of ponies was like mixing oil and water. That started to change, though.

"Starry Skies, which was her name, was one of the kindest ponies I've ever met, rivaling even Fluttershy herself. And while the Element of Kindness was wonderful with animals and all, Starry Skies was even better with ponies. She could thaw the coldest heart, cool the fiercest anger. She was a natural leader; under her, we flourished. She was especially kind to those withdrawn into themselves, like Tumbleweed. For the first time, he was actually happy to socialize with the rest of us. Then she announced that she was engaged to Cloudy... It was the best day of my life... I should've know it couldn't have been that good forever...

"The team was out on a routine mission to investigate some sightings about a tall gray pony who could control the fog. We expected it to be some sort of phantom, no big deal. But it was a big deal. It nearly killed Clouded Dream and I before she intervened. For a horrible moment, we thought she had died, but she recovered afterwards. Or so it seemed.

"A few months later, she complained about always being cold. She started coughing, too. We thought it was just a cold, but it just kept getting worse. One day, Cloudy found her collapsed by her desk. Grayscale, she almost died before we could get her to the hospital. She was in intensive care for weeks. But then, her condition began improving. For the shortest amount of time, we had hope. Hope that she might actually get through it all.

"And then, one day, she died. Clouded Dream was there when it happened. He was holding her hoof when she just... let go... It nearly destroyed him. The pony he loved most in the world died before his very eyes. He ended up resigning, moving away to some small town or another to deal with the grief.

"If you think he had it rough, you should've seen the rest of us. Our world stopped the moment her heart did. Everything fell apart: Tumbleweed became even more withdrawn, Daisy Chain tried to kill herself twice, Orion required extensive counseling. Since the moment we lost Starry Skies, nothing has ever been the same."

---

Grayscale noticed that silent tears were pouring down Prism Hue's cheeks. Her colors were more muted, as though mixed with gray. Her mane hung limp in an attempt to cover the sorrow quite visible on her face. If it was possible, Tumbleweed's grief was worse, if just as quiet. The skinny stallion had curled himself into a ball, rocking back and forth as soundless sobs shook his shoulders.

The gray stallion put one foreleg over Prism's shoulder and one over Tumble's. Then he closed his eyes and he, too began to weep for the lost mare.

---

After what felt like an eternity, Grayscale sat up. Prism now gave soft, shuddering gulps, unable to cry any longer. "I-I'm so sorry." She gasped. "There's just been nopony to talk to about that."

"It's okay," Grayscale responded gently. His cousin, Pewter Gray, suffered from chronic depression, so he knew how to handle those overwhelmed by despair. "It's all okay."

Tumbleweed was asleep, worn out completely. Prism and Grayscale carefully carried him into the den and onto a couch and covered him with a soft blanket. The now-silent rainbow mare curled up on another sofa, and Grayscale climbed onto a loveseat. Sleep came mercifully, washing away the pain.

---

Author's Note: Heya guys! Sorry it's late! I hope you like it. There are a few things I want to tell you: no, it's not the slender man, this would have the "crossover" tag if it did; no, it will not normally be this sappy I can help it, I just wanted to let you as the reader be able to sympathize with the Ever-Afters; and I'm sorry for all the dialogue, but it's necessary for plot progression.