Feather Bangs hung his head dejectedly as he pondered his miserable fate. The one mare he had wanted above all others, who had caught his eye and his heart, had been claimed by another. Worst of all, he couldn’t even be mad about it. Big Mac was a good and worthy stallion, from a big, hardworking family and Feather Bangs knew Big Mac would treat Sugar Belle as if she was his very own alicorn princess.

What right did he have to that sort of happiness? All he knew how to do was sing and write poetry, maybe juggle a bit. He had pinned all his hopes on Sugar Belle and now she was gone from his life. He watched the pair make their way slowly down the street and turned away, a sad little smile on his face.

“What’s the matter, Feather Bangs?” a small voice asked from his left. He turned and recognized Apple Bloom of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had come up beside him as he had watched Big Mac and Sugar Belle walk off.

“I’ve lost her, and I’m going to be alone forever,” he said, and he again smiled that sad, little smile to the Crusaders. “It’s okay, little fillies. I can be lonely and still be a good stallion. Um, I gotta go...just, I gotta go.” He began to walk away, but he only got a few steps before something clamped down on his tail, bringing him to a stop. He looked behind him and saw that the little pegasus filly, Scootaloo, was there with his skirt in her teeth.

“Hey, cut that out little filly,” he said, a little annoyed. “Just let me go on my way. I won’t bug Sugar Belle anymore. Even I can see that her and Big Mac should be together.”

“Stop being so silly,” Sweetie Belle told him, from right in front of him. “You’re an awesome stallion. You’re handsome, you can sing, and even write poetry.” Now that he had stopped and was talking, Scootaloo opened her mouth and let go of Feather Bang’s tail skirt.

“Then why is Big Mac walking away with Sugar Belle and not me?” Feather Bangs asked. The girls could all see how sad he was, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a solution. After all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were all about helping ponies.

“Feather Bangs, yer stuck lookin’ at one tree and forgettin’ that you’re in an orchard,” Apple Bloom said.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Feather asked the filly, now completely confused.

“It means that just because somepony takes away one basket of apples, it doesn’t mean that there ain’t other baskets just beggin’ to be scooped up,” Apple Bloom said, and her attitude was that of somepony explaining why water was wet to a particularly slow pony.

“Okay girls, seriously,” Feather Bangs said, still not understanding what the three fillies were trying to say to him. “Just come out and say what you mean.”

“What we’re trying to say,” Scootaloo said, turning his head to look back down the street, “is that maybe you’re missing what’s right under your muzzle.”

“What are you—oh,” Feather Bangs said as his eyes fell on the three mares who habitually followed him around. Swoon Song, Fond Feather and Dear Darling looked back at him, saw that he was looking at them and started to giggle and smile broadly.

“You mean them?” he asked, then ducking his head to look back at the girls beside him. “I can’t, I couldn’t actually...talk to them.”

“Why not?” Apple Bloom asked, tilting her head a bit as she looked up at the stallion. “Ah mean they like you, an’ you like them. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that I don’t know how to just talk, to a mare,” he said, hanging his head even lower. “I can hair flip, and sing, and stuff; but actually talk to a mare about normal things. I wouldn’t know where to start, and besides, there’s another problem.”

“What’s that?” Scootaloo asked.

“There’s three of them,” Feather Bangs gestured back toward the three mares who were still sending flirtatious looks his way. “How could I choose between three beautiful mares like them? No matter who I choose, I’d be hurting two of them, and I’d never want to hurt anypony.”

“So the big problems are you can’t really talk to them and you don’t want to hurt any of them by picking one over the others,” Sweetie Belle said, putting a hoof to her chin in thought.

“Pretty much,” Feather Bangs agreed. “I’d rather be lonely than hurt any of them.”

“Let me go over and talk to them,” Sweetie Belle said, as she came to a decision. “Maybe something can get worked out.”

“You’d do that for me?” Feather Bangs said, eyes widening in surprise.

“Of course, we would!” Apple Bloom said, as a smile crossed her muzzle. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are all about helping other ponies. You just wait here and we’ll go talk to them.”

“Um, okay,” Feather Bangs said to the dust of the three fillies as they rushed over to the three mares. A quick and fervent conversation that he couldn’t make out occurred between the sextet for a few minutes.

“Great! Thanks!” he heard Scootaloo say, as some sort of agreement seemed to have been reached and the Crusaders started to walk back toward him. He wasn’t sure why, but the looks he was getting from his fan mares now seemed oddly...predatory, and he had to suppress a sudden urge to turn and run.

“Okay, it’s all worked out!” Apple Bloom exclaimed as the fillies reached him. “Fond Feather says there is some sort of old law she has to check up on, but she’s sure that the three of them can work something out, and if she’s right about it there shouldn’t be any problems at all, and that you should come see them in three days by Swoon Song’s barn.”

“Wow, really?” Feather Bangs couldn’t believe his luck, even though the looks he was getting from the mares still made him feel like a rabbit being watched by a hawk.

“Yup,” Sweetie Belle confirmed. “We gotta go tomorrow, so we won’t be here, but Fond Feather says you don’t even have to worry about talking. They’ll do all that for you, in fact, she said they’d take care of everything. All you have to do is show up.”

Author's Note

Instincts. Maybe you should listen to them.