The Gala was in full swing. All the ponys were were wearing masks and having fun, some were dancing, others just standing around talking.
Pheebs did not dance, so she was at the punch table. Watching the ponys glide across the floor, she felt a ping of jealously. Lifting her hoof, she ajuted her plain, ice coloured mask. It had an ice coloured heart on it, the same as her cuite-mark. She had made it herself, so she wasn’t very proud of it but it was something.
“May I have a dance?”
Stunned, Pheebs glanced up from the table cloth.
A jet black earth-pony was looking at her with interest. Without waiting for an answer, he took her hoof, and led her into the middle of the floor.
“You are very pretty,”
Tri Trot cursed himself. The evil part of him could be a real creep sometimes. This was a young pony, and he had not known her for a while. Darn it!
‘Leave her be!’
‘No!’
He argued with himself as he spun Pheebs around. The mare was laughing happily. She was enjoying laughing. She didn’t laugh as much as she should. Nothing made her have fun. She was enjoying tonight.
“GREETINGS EVERYPONY, AND WELSOME TO THE MASKED GALA!”
Both jumped.
It was Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle none the less. She was in the middle of the stage, and looking right into the crowd that had now gathered to hear the princess greet them.
“WE’LL HAVE A BREAK NOW AND CONTINUE IN HALF AN HOUR,”
Now was his chance. He took Pheebs hoof and she turned to him.
“Let’s go into the garden for a bit of air my dear,”
‘Leave her be!’
‘NO!’
Pheebs said nothing but walked with him outside. She wondered if she was doing the right thing. She didn’t really know him, and beause he was wearing a mask, she didn’t even know what he looked like, not his face anyway, or his eyes.
“Let’s go over there, I have a question to ask you and I don’t want to have anypony else to hear,”
As they went onto the road side, Pheebs turned to the black pony, but instead she was taken hold of and had something place over her mouth. Breathing in, struggling, she smelt something sweet. She felt her eyes growing heavy. It didn’t take long before she fainted.
"There, that might help Derpy, try your wing now,"
The pale grey Pegasus with yellow, mis-matched eyes moved her wing.
On her mail-run, she had crashed into a dustbin in Ponyville, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, and now a pale purple Pegasus was tending to her wing. She had carefully wrapping a white bandage around it, being so gentle as not to hurt her friend.
"Thank you PheebsShy," Derpy said as she slowly flapped her wing.
At that very moment, a yellow pony came up to them, a white bunny on her back. She smiled gently to her sister.
"Mother and Father want you to go back now, as soon as you're ready of course,"
Sighing to herself, Pheebs looked up and nodded to her twin sister.
Fluttershy was so nice, and looked out for her so much. They were so much alike, but were different in one way. Pheebs wanted to much more than living in a hut.
She wanted to fall in love with somepony. She heard about it from her mother and father. They made it sound so brilliant that she wanted it for herself.
She had wanted to get out of Fluttershys cottage because, even though she loved all of her animals, Discord, the master of chaos was inside, lounging on the sofa, eating a bowl of paper, and she just found it odd. Mind you, he had said, 'what's the fun in making sense'
Her mother and father were very nice and kind, but they were very much pushovers. She would never say that to their faces.
"It's the gala tonight, so I need someone to go with, if you' not too busy,"
Later, the two ponies were getting dressed boutique in Ponyville. It was owned by a white mare with a purple mane and tail. She was called Rairity, one of Fluttershy’s dearest friends.
“You two look fabulous, if I do say so myself,”
She said as she entered the room.
Fluttershy was wearing a green dress decorated with pink and pale blue flowers, and her shoes looked like thin vines attached to her hooves.
Coming out of the dressing room, Pheebs showed what she was wearing.
A light blue, flowing silk dress, one flower holding the right side of her blue hair back, leaving the rest flowing over her shoulders.
Outside the boutique, no one saw the black, red eyed stallion looking into the building, locking eyes with the lavender mare, who had no
idea he was there.
He would have her.
"She's pretty,"
Maybe she could even..
Seeing the door opening, the stallion wearily took a step backwards into the trees.
‘You will never be loved by anyone!’
‘Shut up!”
The voices inside his head agued with him as the two mares came closer to him.
He panicked, and the evil part it seemed, panicked too, and rushed them both out of there.
He knew where he was going, to the gala.