//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Weird Side Effect 
// Story: WAY Too Many Marefriends, and Girlfriends(?) 
// by ThePinkedWonder 
//------------------------------//

Hey, Eric "Buggie" Reed here.

A week ago, I had what was by far one of my weirdest experiences in Equestria, and of my life. Even weirder than when I first woke up bug-sized in Equestria and had to be like that for the first several months here.

Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity suddenly started hitting on me and wanted to go on dates with me.

Twilight Sparkle took it even further by wanting to marry me!

And Starlight Glimmer...oh my Celestia...I don't even want to talk about what she wanted to do. All I'll say is that the answer was NO!!

However, it wasn't their fault. Discord put a spell on them that made them act that way. He knew that I was missing being able to date back in my human world, since I don't think about ponies like that. And being the good friend he can be, when he feels like it, he wanted to teach me that I didn't need a girlfriend, in the only way he knows how: through chaos!

And he was right. I didn't. I already have all I'll need to be completely happy.

But that experience...oh boy...was a hard one to forget. I even asked Starlight if she could use a spell to make me forget what happened, but still remember that I don't need a girlfriend here. At first, she said no. Well, "Buck, no!" to be exact. But now, she changed her mind.



lying on my bed in my room, resting, Starlight cracked open my bedroom door with her magic, asking if I was in there.

'I'm here, Starie."

She opened the door completely and stepped inside. "Hey, Buggie? Remember when you asked me if I knew a spell to make you forget about...that, last week?"

"Yep, I remember. And you said 'Buck, no'."

"But I've been thinking. I can't make you forget it, but I can make it so you'll forget the feeling you had back then, when I asked you to--"

I raised a hand up, and interrupted, "And let's just leave it at that, Starie. Where can you do the spell?" My eyes were almost about to start twitching again.

"I can do it right now, you ready?"

"Yes!" I jumped off my bed, and run over to Starie, and stood right in front and faced her. "I'll stand still, so do your thing."

Starlight's horn glowed light-blue, and she fired a beam of magic at me. But I didn't feel any different.

Looking down at myself confused, I said, "I...don't think anything changed. I still remember that feeling about...that."

Starlight put a hoof on her cheek, and looked down a bit, thinking about why it apparently didn't work. "Really? That's odd. I'm pretty sure I did the spell right."

"Well either you didn't, or you did the wrong one."

Starlight's eyes suddenly got huge. She gasped, then ran out of my room.

"Wait, where you're going? What's wrong?!"

She didn't say anything back, so I chased after her to find out why she seemed to be freaking-out.

I chased her to the library part of the castle. She was going through some book, using her magic to quickly turn the pages, in a bit of a panic.

Spike came into the room, seeing Starlight in that panic, and asked me, "What's wrong with Starlight, Eric?"

With a hand on my chin, I responded, "I don't know, Spike. She did a spell on me, then freaked out when it apparently didn't work."

Spike facepalmed. "Oh no, not this again! Haven't you learned to not use spells to solve your problems, Starlight?"

Starlight put down the book she was going through, annoyed by that question. "Okay, first of all, Spike, it wasn't to solve my problem this time, but Buggie's. Second, I wouldn't have tried it if he didn't beg me to do it the other day!"

And yeah...I kinda did beg Starlight to do this kind of spell. But I was desperate! I just had to at least forget how that Unicorn, my big sister no less, wanted to glimglam me while she was under that spell of Discord's! I know, it was dumb, but Twilight did once say I'd probably make more mistakes, so...

Anyway, Spike turned to glare at me. "Okay, in that case, haven't you learned not to ask Starlight to solve your problems with spells from watching our 'cartoon'? Unless Chrysalis came back, you should know not to ask Starlight for stuff like this!"

Starlight rolled her eyes, and complained, "Gee, you didn't have to say it like that, Spike. You make it sound like I'm a walking, talking disaster area when I use magic! I'm not that bad...anymore."

"Sorry."

After Spike got done with the Starlight Glimmer shaming, I said, "Never mind that, Spike, what's going on, Starlight? You still didn't say why you panicked."

"Oh, right. It's just that I might've cast that spell a little bit wrong, and it did something else instead, as a...side effect."

Alarmed, Spike gasped, "What's it gonna do to Eric?"

Starlight didn't have to answer: we got it, when we heard Trixie barge in the castle.

"Eric? Are you here?" Trixie's voice tone was a little...saucy.

Spike asked, "Is that Trixie? Why didn't she knock first?"

"Yeah, she usually does, so it must be important. I'll go ask her what's wrong."

"N-No, Buggie! D-Don't go! Don't go near Trixie!"

But by the time Starlight got all that out, I was already out of the room, and ran to Trixie.

Trixie, in turn, ran up to me, and "answered" what I was about to ask her, similar to like how Twilight did, when I asked her that question a week ago: with a romantic smile and batted her eyes. She did it just a little bit better than when Rainbow did that.

"Oh...no! Don't tell me..."

"Yes! The Great and Powerful Trixie has come to declare her undying love for you, Eric Reed! Now pucker up!"

The next thing I knew, Trixie grabbed me with her magical telekinesis, pulled me to her, wrapped her forelegs around me, and laid a big wet one on my lips, for two seconds! I would've turned away, but she was holding me in her magic, so I couldn't turn in time. It was the second most awkward two seconds of my life. And for the record, Unicorns are OP!

After she was done, Trixie let me go from both her forelegs and magic, and like when Starlight did it, I stepped away from Trixie, wiping my mouth.

"Aw, don't be like that, my number one and only boyfriend! Now, come with me for the greatest show of your life!" Trixie grabbed me with her magic again, and dragged me beside her to the door. If a Unicorn or Alicorn grabs me with their magic, I can't break their grip on my own, so unless Starlight did something, Trixie was going to take me away, and I couldn't do anything about it!

"Uh, I-I'll pass on seeing that show! Starlight, help!"

Starlight pulled me to her with her own magic, breaking Trixie's magical grip on me. "Uh, how about I get Eric dressed up first, Trixie? You go and wait for us!"

Spike hurried over to Starlight, and poked her side to get her attention. "Wait, you're not gonna actually let Er--"

Starlight leaned down to Spike, and whispered, "No, Spike, of course I'm not! But because of the spell, Trixie won't leave him alone unless she thinks we'll bring him to her later or something."

Not hearing what Starlight just whispered, Trixie yelled, "Oh yes! He'll need to be dressed up for what we're going to do, so make sure he looks good, Starlight, and I'll be back to get him later!"

"Wait, Trixie what do you mean by--" But, before I could finish, Trixie was out of the castle. It might've been for the best. I might not have wanted to know what that suddenly crazy pony had planned for me...gulp.

"Okay, what in Celestia's name just happened, Starlight?!"

"Well, it's about that spell, Buggie. It didn't do the effect I meant for it, but it has a very unfortunate side effect...you're gonna want to stay in the castle until I can reverse it."

"Why's that, Starlight? Is Eric gonna be in danger or something?"

"Because every mare that's not me, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy is gonna be like how Trixie was to him."

My mouth dropped hearing that, and I shouted, "Wait, WHAT?! You mean almost every mare in Ponyville are gonna be after me, Starlight?!"

Starlight nodded her head. "Yep, until I reverse that spell, Buggie, almost every mare's gonna act like you're their boyfriend."

I facepalmed. "You mean, I'm gonna have to go through what I went through last week, again?!"

Okay...fine, I guess I deserved this, for actually asking Starlight to fix this with magic, knowing her history of spells backfiring in her face.

"But, if almost every mare will be after Eric, won't they all be coming here, Starlight? Everypony knows Eric lives here."

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"So I better get out of here and hide out somewhere, till you fix this spell."

"But where, Buggie?"

Spike snapped his claws. "Maybe Fluttershy will let you hide out at her place?"

"Oh yeah, I bet she'll be okay with that."

"All right, so Buggie, Spike, let's head to her place!" 

Being very careful to make sure I wasn't seen, Starlight, Spike, and I headed over to Fluttershy's.



At Fluttershy's place, I knocked on her door a few times, but she didn't respond.

"Odd. I thought Fluttershy would be home," Spike said.

"Guess she's still in the woods talking to her animal friends? I've seen her do that a lot when I watched your cartoon."

"She could. She does lose time talking to them sometimes. I guess we should think of another place to hide Eric."

As I turned around to Starlight and Spike to say something, the door opened, and I felt myself get grabbed by a pony's wings, and yanked in the house. When my shock wore off, I found myself looking right in Fluttershy's eyes, who released her wings on me, but then threw her forelegs around me, giving me a romantic smile, and batted her eyes. She also did it better than Rainbow. Not as good as Rarity, though.

"F-Fluttershy? What's going on?!"

"Oh, I'm just want to give my boyfriend a big kiss is all!"

Before I could respond, Fluttershy laid her own big wet one on me. Because I wasn't in magic, I was able to turn away just in time, so she only got my cheek.

That made Fluttershy giggle, "Aw, you are just adorable, Eric! Pretending you don't want to kiss me!"

I stuttered, "D-d-don't take it the wrong w-way, Fluttershy, but--"

Fluttershy looked away from my eyes, and slightly loosened her grip on me, but still kept her forelegs around me. "Oh...did I kiss you wrong?"

"Well, no, it's not like you did it wrong, Fluttershy, but..."

Fluttershy perked back up, and tightened her grip again. "Oh! Well in that case, I'll just do it some more! You know what they say about 'practice makes perfect', right?"

I never thought I'd say this, but I liked the shy Fluttershy better. But besides that, Starlight said Fluttershy wouldn't be affected, so why is she?! I know I said before that Fluttershy is adorable is all gets out, but I still don't think of her like that! 

Now with my hands on Fluttershy's chest, trying to hold her back, I called out, "Uh, Starlight? Spike? You can come in, any time now!"

Starlight and Spike ran in through the still-open door. Starlight used her magic to free me from Fluttershy's grip (She's much stronger then she looks!) and pulled me away from her by a couple of feet with it. Starlight then lied, "Uh, wait, Fluttershy! Eric, uh...just came to ask you what kind of gift you'll want, because he wanted to get you something before he kissed you for the first time."

I turned my head in Starlight's direction, and asked, "I do?"

Starlight gave me a glare, trying to tell me to just play along.

"Uh, yeah, I do!" I turned my head back to Fluttershy. "Yep, I don't like to kiss my marefriends before I...get them a gift first, Fluttershy!"

"But I don't need anything from you, besides you, Eric," Fluttershy said, before she slowly closed the distance between us, with a smile. She was ready to get back to kissing me and to rival Twilight, when she was still the Princess of Smooching.

Spike cut in and asked, "But, uh, maybe Angel or another of your animal friends might want something?"

That sure got Angel's attention, who hopped between Fluttershy and me, and gave her a glare. He wasn't gonna give up the chance to get something.

Fluttershy sighed, "Okay, I'll let you get something for Angel."

I took that chance, and ran right to the door. "Yes, I'll get him something nice, and I'll be back, Fluttershy!"

And yeah, I'd be back all right...but it wouldn't be till Starlight fixes this spell.

Starlight and Spike told Fluttershy that they'll help me get Angel something good, and the three of us sped out the door.



Hiding in some bushes, so I can stay hidden, Starlight, Spike, and I were trying to plan our next move.

"Starlight? I thought you said Fluttershy wouldn't be affected?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, Starie, unless Fluttershy's been keeping a big secret from me, I'm gonna go on a limb, and say that she was affected.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry, Buggie. I forgot that she wasn't acting like how I and the others were, so she's not immune to the side effect to that spell."

"But why would it matter anyway, Starlight?" Spike brought up.

"Well, this spell was meant to make Buggie forget what he felt when the others and I were under that spell a week ago, right? But because of how I messed this spell up, any mares that were under the one from last week will be immune to the "side effect" to the spell I just cast, so that's why I'm not affected right now, but Fluttershy is."

"Uh...could you repeat that?" Spike asked. 

Starlight groaned, and said in a flat tone, "It means if you're a mare, and you didn't make him feel the awkwardness I and the others put him through last week, you're gonna be affected by this spell I cast on him."

"Oh, I get it now."

"Well at least now we know me hiding at Fluttershy's place is out, so we'll need to find some other place for me."

"But where?" Spike asked. "We better pick our spot carefully. If Eric's spotted outside, we'll be in trouble."

As the three of us tried to think of where I should hide next, I had a feeling that I'd have to go through a lot more, till Starlight fixes this spell.

And then, there's what Twilight would do to Starlight and me, if we didn't fix this "side effect" of Starlight's spell in time. I didn't think that the possible future Princess of Friendship Buttkicking would be too happy about this. Even if I'm not scared of Twilight, she's still scary when she's mad!