When I'm old and Grey: Chapter One

"Friendship is Love without his wings!"

Lord Byron

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NOTE: I worked VERY hard on this and the others chapters, if you could PLEASE rate, follow, track or spread this, I would be the happiest pony in the world! <3

Derpy galloped down the small dirt road, sun shining on her face, warming her body up just as fast as the morning air could cool it. Buildings blurred as she ran faster and faster, beating her wings ever so slightly to gain speed. She liked to run her mail early in the morning, something about the quiet air before the birds started to sing; about seeing the sunrise explode in front of her; the cool dew on the grass as she ran through it. Those things, and the fact that she had, quite literally, less ponies to run into.

As she passed town hall, she grabbed a handful of letters from her messenger pouch and daringly tried to toss the mail into the mailbox and gallop on, wasting no time. She slowed down as her letters hit the gravel uselessly and scattered everywhere. The rain from yesterdays storm still puddled in the gravel, soaking into her letters as she picked them up and placed them in the mailbox. She let out a massive sigh and vowed to herself not to do that again.

As she began her gallop again, she reminded herself that she wasn't the most coordinated of ponies, and that there was a reason everyone told her to slow down and stop being so clumsy. Her chest tightened up for a moment, but she ran it away, trying to maintain a positive attitude. It was her fault that people didn't like her anyways. It was because she was so clumsy that people didn't invite her to parties anymore. If only she was more coordinated, people might accept her more.

She passed a small store, slowing down to deposit its mail and take a peek through the window. She saw a few nicely colored ponies rummaging around inside, working through stock and preparing to open for the new business day. Derpy smiled, trying to get their attention by tapping lightly on the window.

A thin blue mare took a look at her, and gestured for her to go away, a mean look on her face. Derpy stopped smiling and laid her ears back, facing her head down as she walked away. She pushed herself to gallop the pain in her heart away again. Things were very rough, especially now-a-days, when Derpy was working for the mail-service. She had a hard time sorting and delivering mail and it didn't make her a very popular mare.

Oh!

As she passed her last delivery, she double checked the address on the mail-bundle. After checking that it was exactly right with the building, she carefully placed it in the mailbox. She sighed, it being her last delivery. As she continued her day, she turned around and began to walk slowly home, trying to enjoy what last bits of calm there were as the city began to wake up. She could already hear the noises of early carts as they rolled down the roads that sprawled throughout the deceptively large town of Ponyville.

"Hey!" Derpy heard a voice call out to her, audibly angry.

Derpy turned her head to her right, and spotted a fairly large stallion practically storm out of a small apartment, marching straight towards her. She turned to greet him, and while trying desperately to focus her lazy eye on him, attempted her best to be nice.

"Hey there miiister!" She greeted him in her classically confused voice, trying to bring out the best in the obviously mad light brown stallion.

"Derpy! In the name of Celestia! Can't you get someone else to deliver the mail?" He yelled frustratedly at her, "You've delivered the same flier to me three days in row! Is this some sort of funny joke to you?"

He ranted for a few more moments, each sentence pushing Derpy closer to the ground, her ears laid back and her eyes unfocused again.

"I'm really sorry mister," She peeped out amidst tears, "I won't do it again..."

"Oh you won't will you?" He continued to scream, "Well I think-"

He stopped suddenly as a bell chimed from the nearby bakery, its door opening. Mrs. Cake walked coldly out, eying the situation. Narrowing her eyes at the stallion, she spoke in a harsh authoritative tone,

"Now you leave that mare alone RIGHT NOW or I may just have you reported for harassment!" She yelled at the stallion, putting a shocked look on his face.

He narrowed his eyes right back at her for a moment or two, then gave a large huff at Derpy and stormed back into his apartment.

Derpy just sat there for a moment, tears attempting to soak into the ground as they fell. When she looked to her left, Mrs. Cake was gone, inside baking or cooking again.

And so she was alone again.

As she walked forlornly back to her house, the sun still shone brighter and brighter, giving her, at least a little, hope for a new day.

Later on, deep inside her basement, where the troubles of the world would not bother her, Derpy tested her sight again. She crumpled up paper after paper and attempted to toss it into the garbage can on the opposite side of the room.

Too far left.

Too far right.

Too far.

Too close.

Backwards.

No matter how hard she tried to focus those broken eyes of hers, she couldn't toss it straight. Despite her best efforts to compensate, she couldn't accomplish even a simple task like that.

No matter how many days, no matter how many months.

Tears rolled down her cheeks onto the soft carpet, and her body shuddered violently as she let out her pain, crying like a little filly once more.

Crying like she did everyday.

Derpy was like everypony else inside. A beating heart that felt pain, a soul capable of love. But no one seemed to be capable of loving her.

If only she could fix these eyes.

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Big Mac sat stoically, resting his hind legs after a long day of apple-bucking. The wind blew through the trees making noises like whispers in a crowded theater. The bright sun shone down from directly above, warming up his back and the grass he sat on. The day was perfect. The atmosphere excellent.

He felt like painting, or drawing, or writing...SOMETHING, if he knew how. Mac was quiet and kept to himself, but all that emotion had to go somewhere. As of right now, it HAD to go somewhere, but it didn't. He was never much of an author. Having tried to write a couple times, he discovered that his hand-writing was less than legible to anyone but him. He would have elicited someone else to help him write it down, but he doubted that he could recite one of his stories.

When it came to art, he could picture everything perfectly in his head. How he would draw it, what colors he would use, the size, shape, content. However as soon as he started to draw, his mind seemed to switch off, and he lost the mental image of what he was trying to convey.

Apple-bucking was truly what he cherished the most. Every season, every day when the apples were ready, he would silently kick them down, sometimes giving Applejack the day off from work to play with her friends. He could just work, and his mind would wander to that lovely little world inside his head. He loved to work, but work couldn't convey emotion could it? Work couldn't explain feelings or ideas. Work was just, well, work.

He chewed on a long piece of straw jutting out from between his front teeth, thinking to himself quietly. This WAS the lovely little world inside his head. Birds called from between the trees, clouds drifted by, let loose by the local weather team. He felt happy and warm in more ways than one. Although it was hard to think of anything but how beautiful the day was, his heart was set on somepony else.

In her house in Ponyville, a small grey pegasus lived alone, away from the world except for when she had to deliver her mail. It was a well known fact that her life at the moment was less than ideal. Everyday, ponies looked at her with poorly hidden disdain, just waiting for another moment where they could trip her up, or make fun of her. He had seen it multiple times since she had first admitted her liking for Mac, but every time, she waved him away from helping.

"You can't help me Big Macintosh." She had said after he had first tried to get involved, "They'll just make fun of you too."

He was hesitant to agree. After all, he was BIG Macintosh (as opposed to small Macintosh, or just Mac), and nopony in their right mind would ever think of making fun of him. People liked him. They looked up to him, even if he was a little on the quiet side. But to put her mind at ease about him, he had promised not to interfere if he saw he made fun of again. She then also came to the conclusion that if they were even seen together, she might just ruin his life. So (against all of his advice) she made him promise not to tell anyone that they we're even interested in each other.

As hard as it was, he had to not get involved in his marefriend's life and over the past 5 months its only got harder.

"Mac?" He heard a soft but slurred voice speak his name somewhere behind him, "It's me Mac."

Mac turned to see Derpy softly pushing her way out of a line of bushes along the fence line. He nodded his head, acknowledging her silently, as he usually did.

"Don't worry, no one saw me come in, your reputation is safe." She said with a small half-hearted dorky laugh, "Can we just...talk for a bit?"

He almost chuckled. If anypony had ever observed their times together, they would have a hard time defining it as a conversation. Conversations require 2 ponies. Derpy was usually deathly silent, or happily gabbing away in her usual 'derp' voice, with the former becoming more and more apparent these days. His heart went out to her everyday, but she refused his help again and again. He wanted to fix her, to always be there for her, to be her protector, but she wouldn't ever let him. The only times he was ever really protecting her were the times when they sat and cuddled.

"Eeyup." He gave his classic agreement to her previous question

Mac calmly trotted under the shade of a nearby apple tree, giving Derpy a cool blanket of grass to lay her tired rump down on. She gladly obliged, adding a little thank you at the end. When she wasn't excited, her voice was fairly understandable and he had spent enough time with her to be able to translate her slurred 'derp'-speak to plain Equestrian.

"I don't know what to do Mac," She started as she sat down next to him, "I just... I just don't know what went wrong."

Mac gave her a puzzling look, silently asking for more answers. She sighed and felt the knot in her throat grow larger.

"I'm too clumsy. I'm losing my friends..." Derpy felt the ache in her chest grow significantly, "I don't know what to do. I just don't know how to fix it. I know its my fault I'm so clumsy."

"Nope." He said simply and matter of factually.

Derpy smiled a bit. She didn't need a stallion of many words, she needed someone who could listen, and put things as simple as possible, so she could understand. She snuggled closer to him under the shade of the tree, resting her weary head against his beautiful soft mane, breathing him in pleasantly. He returned the favor as tears still rolled down her cheeks and she shuddered, the throes of crying taking over the moment.

Mac nuzzled her softly, nibbling at her neck the way she usually liked. He had grown accustomed to the gentle gestures he could give her. He may not be able to help her face the other ponies, but he never failed to do damage control when they were alone. Every spare minute they had together, he was cuddling her, or holding her, protecting her like some prized jewel. The truth was, she was a prized jewel, and her heart showed that. That red lump inside her may not have been made from ruby, or glistening red fire-stone, but it was just as precious and worth its value in gold.

Slowly, she brought her head up to his, kissing his strong neck along the way, and gave him a long kiss, closing her eyes for the entirety of it.

He was her peaceful sentinel.

Her quiet protector.

Her  silent guardian

And when she opened her eyes, and stared with all her might into his, all he could think was that her eyes were the most beautiful thing in the world.

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Thank you for reading this far (assuming you have). I really would appreciate good quality feedback to this, as this story doesn't just end at one chapter. I already have more on the way.

Here's some stuff to criticize:

-Grammar

-Sentence structure

-Spelling

-Humor

-Romantic Exchanges

-Realism and plausibility of conversations

I love you all. <3