The Type of Pony Everypony Should Avoid

Princess Luna sat on the edge of her balcony, watching her beautiful night. Little pinpoints of light glowed in the sky, the lunar moon illuminated the world. Its essence seemed to have fallen from the sky and coated everything with a certain comforting glow. The Princess of the Night sighed, she wished all of Equestria could be awake to witness such a beautiful night. She especially knew that her sister's apprentice would love to identify all of the clear, bright constellations. Luna had done well tonight, creating a tranquil scene for herself while she attended to the thoughts that unsettled her. For the past few days, Luna had been sensing discrepancies coming from the location in which the Elements of Harmony were located. She had mentioned such suspicions to Celestia, but the Sun Goddess would hear nothing of it. The solar sister claimed that there was always odd adventures going on in Ponyville, that the Elements were always going through such discrepancies. Luna had dismissed Celestia's ideas as being legitimate. The Princess of the Night knew what those problems felt like, and the feeling that filled her right now was much too different. Princess Luna sighed, running a hoof through her flowing, blue mane. She was tempted to wake her celestial sister up right now and argue with her, but held her tongue. Luna didn't want the argument to escalate into something that would send her back to the moon. But, still, the Lunar Goddess had her doubts about Celestia's take on the predicament. Luna decided that she would wait a few days and if the discrepancy was still prominent, she would bring it to Celestia's attention. The Princess basked in the loveliness of her night, she wished that she could always be in the midst of such a beautiful night.

-

Celestia's sun shone down on the pleasantly warm afternoon in Ponyville. Six ponies and a baby dragon trotted together through the streets of Equestria, heading towards the park. Each pony talked and laughed with one another, the friendship that they all shared radiated through the air. "Rarity, ah really luv dat hat ya made for 'Shy," Applejack said, "Y'all think yew could make me one?"

"Oh, Applejack. Of course I could!" Rarity replied, happy that her friends were fond of her newest creation.

"Yeah, Rarity, it's really beautiful, thank you," a yellow mare peeped from under the brim of a straw sun hat.

"Like I said before, it is really no big deal, Fluttershy," Rarity spoke, nonchalantly brushing off the praise and keeping her attitude strictly professional.

"My little ponies, we're here!" Twilight announced, interrupting the banter over Fluttershy's hat.

The ponies all laughed merrily and set to work, spreading blankets across the ground and putting their picnic basket down. Then, they all divided up the food and sat down. As they ate and talked, Rarity couldn't help keep her mind off of the prior night. Being with MacBard for that short time had permanently effected her, she decided, but not in a bad way. It effected her in a way that made her love him. And he loved her. Rarity couldn't help stop the goofy smile that spread over her face and the soft giggle that escaped her lips. Everypony else in the little group stopped, giving Rarity quizzical expressions, silently urging her to explain.

"Well, um, yesterday I met a pony who was new in town and we talked for a while. I invited him to stay for dinner and by time dinner was done it was really late and I didn't want him going home in the dark so he stayed over at my place and-"

"You did what?" Twilight asked, astonished by the fact that Rarity had let a stallion stay overnight at her boutique.

"Oh Twilight, it was nothing like that. But, I do think that I have. . . feelings for this stallion," Rarity blushed as she said the last part.

"Aw, sugarcube, what's 'is name?" Applejack asked, finding it cute that her friend was falling in love.

"Oh, his name is MacBard. He is a theatre pony and is very much the gentlepony," Rarity gushed, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

Pinkie Pie gasped loudly. "OHMYCELESTIA! GUYS GUYS GUYS I JUST HAD THE BEST IDEA EVER! WHEN RARITY AND WHAT'SHISFACE GET MARRIED, I CAN THROW THEM A PARTY!" the pink, energetic filly squealed in delight. Rarity's face reddened at the thought of marrying Mac.

Rainbow Dash snorted, she wasn't really one for romance. "Yeah, that's cool, Rarity. But can we talk about something else?"

Twilight shot Dash a friendly glare and then said, "I think it's cute, Rarity. You should really be careful though, some stallions might take advantage of you. . ."

Rarity gasped, as if the comment had personally wounded her, "Twilight! How could you say such a thing! Mac is not that type of pony, just ask Fluttershy."

Five pairs of eyes looked at the shy pegasus. She blushed nervously, "Um. . . yeah, Rarity is right, I guess. . ."

The eyes still stared at her, not satisfied with the answer. She tried to explain again, but the white-colored unicorn stepped in for her, "Fluttershy was trying to say that she met Mac first and though that he would be the type of pony that would like my fashion. So, when she saw him again, Fluttershy told him to go to the Carousel Boutique."

Everyone nodded, taking in what had happened. Nopony else had any questions about what happened, so Rainbow Dash quickly changed the conversation away from the "gooey-romantic-junk" that Rarity was currently involved in. Even though the topic of conversation had changed, Rarity couldn't help but think about him.

-

Fluttershy trotted along, heading home from the park. The rest of her friends had left a while ago, but Fluttershy had stayed to feed the squirrels and other little animals. She smiled to herself, there was always a certain happiness in feeding and playing with the animals. On thinking this, she decided that she would go into the marketplace and buy a loaf of bread. The yellow equine wanted to give some breadcrumbs to her woodland friends. She hurried up her trot to a gallop and raced into the marketplace, not wanting to leave her friends alone for an extended amount of time. She wasn't watching where she went and the pegasus ended up colliding with another pony. "Ow," she whispered softly, rubbing a foreleg that had twisted underneath her.

"Are you okay?" a familiar deep and soothing voice inquired. Fluttershy looked up and saw MacBard above her, holding out his hoof to help the mare up. The shy pony blushed, seeing his compassionate blue eyes look into her teal ones. "Well, we should really stop doing this," Mac chuckled with a laugh that sounded strange to Fluttershy.

She laughed nervously and replied, "Uh, yeah, that would probably be a good choice. . ."

MacBard laughed even more heartily, and for a second a creepy look crossed his face. His eyes went wide and he looked like a copy of Pinkie Pie when she had her mental breakdown. The look made Fluttershy shudder, but in the blink of an eye, the stallion was normal again.

"I really must get going," Fluttershy squeaked.

"As do I, Flutters, as do I. I hope to see you again."

Then, Mac put a foreleg around Fluttershy's neck and stared off into space, the creepy look once again overtaking his face. Fluttershy gasped softly, and as soon as Mac let go of her, she forgot all about the bread and ran home. Fluttershy wanted as much distance as possible between her and the toffee-colored unicorn stallion.

-

"So, tell me what happened, again?" Twilight asked, staring hard at her shy friend and trying to figure out what was going on.

"He looked like Pinkie Pie did, when she, y'know. . . thought her parties weren't good enough," the pink-haired filly explained, her shy manner shaken away by the shock she had endured.

"And he keeps getting weirder each time you meet him?"

". . . Yes. I'm scared for Rarity's sake, but I'm afraid she won't listen to me. . ."

"Strange. . ." Twilight observed, thinking about what could be wrong, "Are you sure you're not just jealous about MacBard stealing Rarity away from you?"

"No! Of course not!" Fluttershy said.

"Hmm, I don't know what to tell you, 'Shy. I've never met him for myself. . ." Twilight replied, legitimately sorry that she couldn't help her shy friend.

"It's okay, Twilight," the pegasus said.

"Keep an eye out for anything weird, I'll try to keep an account of weird things happening," the lavender unicorn replied, trying to cheer her friend up at least a little bit. Fluttershy gave her a hopeful grin.

"Thanks Twilight, I should probably go home, though, the animals might be a little worried."

"Bye Fluttershy."

The yellow mare hurried out the door, leaving the unicorn with the magic stars as her cutie mark to dwell over the complications of what could be happening.

To be continued