"Lovinity! Quick Lovinity, over here!"
That was the voice of my Dad, Passion Flower, as he loudly whispered over to me. Something was very strange it seemed. Why would he be hiding behind a bush and peeking out ever-so-carefully from the side of the bush so as to not to be seen... when we were at the park? It was a nice day after all. The birds were chirping and the sun was shining bright. Although, it was also quite unusual to note that there seemed to be absolutely no other ponies around as well. It was as if there was an evil presence among the park, repelling off any and all other ponies. I sure felt it. I didn't want to hang around, but for the sake of whatever my Dad wanted, I stayed loyal and stuck by with him.
Curious, I got off the ground and trotted about 15 feet over to where he was, staring outward from the bush. I saw a unicorn I didn't recognize. He was dark red with regular red mane and tail that seemed to actually glow, as if there were lights in them. The facial expression on this unicorn was one of creepiness and seemingly evil. He was using his magic to kill off some flowers and then collect them. Who knew what he was doing or what his intent was? But to me, that creepy and downright negative vibe I've been feeling at the park seemed to be coming from this pony. And it was scaring me.
"What's going on?" I quietly whispered to Passion, who was now right beside me, as we continued peeking out.
"That unicorn... He seems very suspicious and perhaps up to no good," Passion replied back to me.
"He seems pretty creepy to me. And what is he doing with those dead flowers? Those are the park's flowers. And they're too pretty to kill."
"Well, not for every pony, they're not."
As we continued watching this suspicious pony, a breezy gust of wind came out from the northeast corner of where we were facing. I, being the light-weight pegasus I was, lost balance with that sudden gust and fell over, creating some rustling noise and, of course, a small squeal from my mouth. Curse my though-adorable noise making!
The Unicorn became aware of the noise and stopped what he was doing, though I couldn't yet tell because I was fallen over on the ground. He looked over to where we were, causing alarm in Passion Flower. As a result, he quickly tried to pull me back up on my hooves.
"He knows we're here now," Passion stated in a rather serious tone of voice, "but I'm not going to let him get away."
"What are you talking about?" I asked Passion.
"Quick, after me, Lovinity!"
"Huh?!"
Passion Flower jumped out from the bushes directly towards the Unicorn. After a couple seconds, I flew out as well, following him on his chase after the Unicorn. The Unicorn quickly looked around to see a good place to run off to and then started trotting at about 4 o'clock from where Passion was coming from.
"Freeze!" Passion tried to shout out to the Unicorn. "I want to speak to you!"
But the Unicorn failed to acknowledge Passion's request and continued trotting as fast as he could to wherever; we didn't know where he was going just yet. Passion tried to slow down the Unicorn by firing out a small magical laser at his legs, but the beam only caused him to stumble a little. That Unicorn must have had great balance. I tried what I could to fly above the unicorn and then swoop down to distract him, but he was too fast for me.
"Lovinity, move out of the-" Passion Flower began, before my hearing was interrupted when the Unicorn saw me flying above him and jumped up to knock me out of the air with some sort of magical beam. I squealed loudly from the sudden motion as I traveled about 20 feet in the air before making my thump onto the ground. The Unicorn looked over to see me on the ground and to see my Dad stopping in front of me. At that point he smirked and then trotted off, making his escape.
"Lovinity, are thou okay?" Passion Flower asked me as he tried to help me up.
"I think s-OW!" I began, ending in a screech as I felt a sudden shock of what seemed to be electricity pulse through my body.
"What is it?"
"I-I don't know. I felt like I was shocked by something."
Passion Flower looked around my body to try and find any indication of an issue, but could not initially find anything.
"Nothing seems wrong though," he stated. But then he interjected with a "wait" as he looked me in the eyes.
"What is it?" I asked, seeing his eyes widen and look a little puzzled as he looked at me. "Is there something wrong with my eyes?"
"There's a symbol in your eyes," Passion replied.
"A symbol? What do you mean, a symbol?"
"I don't know, my filly. It looks like... triangles. There's one in the middle, and then another one on each of the three points of the middle triangle."
"Could it have been that beam?"
"There's no telling. But I bet that Unicorn is up to some sort of plan. And we need to investigate. Come, my filly."
Passion Flower let me go and thus I got back up on my hooves. He started trotting as fast as he could in the direction of where the Unicorn had run off to. I followed behind him in flight, wondering what all of this was about. To be honest, I was a little afraid. This Unicorn might be after me. It isn't the first time ponies have been after me. In fact, I think the fact that I'm a love pony tends to attract evil. What greater threat is there to an evil pony than that of love?
"Wait," Passion began speaking as we continued, "I think we're headed towards the Badlands."
"The Badlands?" I asked.
"I wonder what the Unicorn's business is doing in the Badlands. Hardly any pony hangs in the Badlands."
We started running into the territory of the Badlands when Passion began slowing down and then looking around.
"Now the question is, where will we find the Unicorn?" he asked.
He and I trotted around a little while on the hard, clay-like dirt ground with a red-orange tint that was the Badlands. Around us were no vegetation at all. It was though the place was abandoned and left in ruins from some sort of magical experiment of some sort. And the quiet openness of this place was starting to creep me out. Who knew where that Unicorn was? What if he jumped out right in front of me?
"Dad?" I began in an attempt to try and convince him we wouldn't find the Unicorn, only to instead to be suddenly stopped in the tracks of a high-rank Royal Guard in front of us. I looked up at the guard in a little fear... but I relaxed a little after knowing it was just a guard.
"What are your two's presence doing here on this forbidden section of the Badlands?" the guard asked us.
"Forbidden?" Passion Flower replied, to which the guard pointed to a forbidden zone sign. "I-I didn't know-"
"It was RIGHT THERE in front of you!" The guard cut Passion off in a rather loud voice.
"But I'm a guard as well," Passion replied.
"What's your ID?"
"My-... Passion Flower."
"I don't know of any Passion Flower with access to this land. And thou shall go to Princess Celestia if thy disagrees. In the mean time, you two should leave this place. It is far too dangerous land."
"You don't unders..." I began, cutting myself off before I finished, fearful whether or not I should bring what I wanted to up. An awkward silence took over for a few seconds before the guard spoke up.
"I don't understand what?" he asked.
"Nothing, never mind."
"I think what she is stating," Passion Flower began, "is that there was a Unicorn trotting around that looked very suspicious. We tried chasing him but lost tracks here in the Badlands."
"All I can say is he is dangerous and must be avoided," the guard said. "The rest... is top secret. You and your filly should get to safer grounds."
After a pause, Passion finally ended with "Very well, sir. Come, Lovinity."
I trotted along with Passion out back towards Canterlot from the Badlands, slowly departing the land, though I couldn't help but to notice something that looked like a building... a big building at that... in the distance. But it was too late to investigate.
"Come," Passion began, "we'll take you to the doctor that I go to. Perhaps thy can identify what is going on here."
At that, we headed to the town of Canterlot where the special Doctor's facility was for royal guards.
...but I still couldn't help but to wonder about that Unicorn, that guard, and that building I saw. What was going on? Maybe I'd learn in the future. But maybe for now it's just time to rest. One thing is for sure though. My inner guts were giving me a creepy feeling.