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It was only a few days ago when I lost my voice and Fluttershy had to sing in my place with the Ponytones. Then, just the other mornin', Rarity's asked me out to a big fancy dinner in downtown Ponyville. What could this mean? Have I done somethin' wrong? Is she finally kickin' me out of the quartet? Or, even worse, could an elegant unicorn like that actually be interested in a stallion like me?

I ain't no good at reading ponies, and I'm even worse at speakin' my thoughts out loud. Rarity is a nice, elegant lady, and I'd be a plum fool to hurt her feelings. Still, the truth's gotta come out somehow. There's only one mare in this-here town who strikes my fancy, and it ain't her.

Based on an idea given to me by Propmaster.

Chapters (2)
Comments ( 68 )

I'm curious as to why I'm getting notifications that you posted a new story when I'm not following you.

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when I'm not following you

You should fix this. :derpytongue2:

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No, I'm actually rather curious as to why I keep getting notifications about new SS&E stories despite repeatedly checking and finding that I have absolutely no reason to be receiving those notifications.

3977973 I have absolutely no idea, I was just being cheeky. You should fire a PM to knighty, he might know.

3977973 If you haven't already, maybe try following and unfollowing again?

So.

It seems good'ol Props need to feed you more ideas.

~Skeeter The Lurker

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I've tried following/unfollowing him.

Somehow, I just keep getting these unwanted notifications.

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Yeah, I think I'll do that. Or I'll have Peppy talk to Xaq.

:rainbowkiss:
My reaction at the ending.

You know there was one point in the "date" where if Rarity had poisoned Mac, it would have worked in a literary sense.

Rarity is such a busybody.

But yes I think Cheerilee and Mac make a good match.

Though, to be honest, I've always wanted to aim for being a 'duchess' someday. It's a lot like Twilight's position, with all of the glamor but considerably less trivial responsibilities.

Given that dukes were originally war leaders, I now have a mental image of General Rarity leading the charge against some vaguely defined enemy force.
And it is glorious. :raritystarry:

Horseapples, if only words were like plows and sentences like apple fields. "Consarnit... I ain't all that good with words..."

Well, if he thinks like he talks, he could probably forge a plow out of that irony.

And the ending... well, it put a nice capstone on everything, but it almost felt superfluous. Still, thank you for this, skirts. A very sweet story from an often underutilized perspective. :twilightsmile:

That's adorable. :rainbowkiss:

D'awwwww...this was a sweet story.:twilightsmile:

It was a sweet ending.

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If you've previously followed him, you'll get the push notification (or whatever you want to call it) on the bottom right, even if you aren't following him currently. That's how it works for me at any rate. Unless it shows up on your feed. I've no idea in that case.

Amazingly well written and entertaining story, like always! Your work always makes me smile. :raritywink:

This was excellent. My only complaint about it is the French. You've made several mistakes.

Rarete

Needs to be written as "Rareté" and

Les madame attend.

roughly translates to "The ladies wait", plural and badly conjugated. I would rephrase that as "Madame vous attend."

Globally though, this was very fun to read.

Gawd, skirts, that was about the cutest thing I've ever read out of you. Bravo, so glad to see this random idea realized so well.

Good stuff... Good stuff...

I think I'll have to take a shot of insulin after this; thanks for that.

I swear to god, dude, I'll never understand how you can pump out so many stories and have so many of them be so enjoyable. It's unnatural. This one, in particular, was really cute. I loved the glimpse into Big Mac's thought processes; the rather active, frequently eloquent mind behind the silent exterior. The characterizations were solid, the pacing almost perfect, the tone light as a feather.

Do I detect a note of melancholy in Rarity at the end? I almost wonder if, at some level, it was a date, and Rarity simply played it off when she realized Mac wasn't interested. Or maybe I'm just misreading it. Or - entirely possible - it was left intentionally vague. I dunno.

Either way, I really enjoyed this one.

I really enjoyed this story. It was sweet and to the point, combining a charming premise with strong characterization. Stories based heavily on dialogue exchanges are tricky things, but I'd say you pulled it off splendidly. In particular, Rarity sounded like Rarity when I read her words in my mind. It's rather easy to forget that she's the type of person who picks her words carefully. A dramatic personality is not an excuse for vacuous speech; if you want to emulate a well-spoken character, you must pay attention to their diction and vocabulary all well as their behavior. As much as this story was about Big Mac, Rarity, as usual, stole the show -- and that's a good thing in my book. :raritywink:

Speaking of wording, I feel compelled in nitpicking this sentence:

She giggles airily. "I must admit, you are at your most adorable when you are nervous like this. I suppose it's one of life's odd little ironies, that a stallion so large, dashing, and debonair would fidget like a little colt over bequeathing a lady like me a corsage..."

"Bequeath" is one of those words whose definition has become quite fuzzy in modern parlance. I know Rarity means that Big Mac is gifting her a corsage, but "bequeath" is defined by a deceased individual leaving behind a personal estate or property to a beneficiary by legal will. "Bestowing" would be the word to use here, I think, for it captures Rarity's careful vocabulary.

I otherwise have no other substantive criticisms to offer. Once again, this was a wonderful read.

Oh Big Mac, they're gawking at you because they're hoping you'lll kiss Rarity. From their perspective your dance probabbly looked really romantic, shame it was never going to happen.

Did what it had to do and didn't overstay its welcome.

It was an enjoyable enough read.

"I'm best friends with a princess! I have connections!"
Rarity is surprisingly good for comedy sometimes, I laughed harder at this than what seems entirely rational. :rainbowlaugh:

Also, good story! :pinkiehappy:

D'awww...
This was so nice.
Well done, sir.

Rarity, you are one sly romantic. I love it.

Hmm...

I really, really enjoyed this one, Skirts. The 1st person present tense was perfectly executed. You really captured Big Mac, which is not really an easy thing. He speaks so little—because the writers have decided that LOL NO ONE LETS BIG MAC TALK!!! is a good running gag, for some reason—so what's left is to infer. We see from his "talk" with Pinkie Pie in Pinkie Apple Pie that he is a bit philosophical, the whole "still waters run deep" thing. His nervousness really came through in the writing, and the subtle shift from plain to poetic when he was speaking of Cheerilee was very fun.

Was it a bit cheesy? Yes, but it's a romance story, and to quote Cadance in one of my fics, "Love is cheesy." It can be very difficult to portray complicated emotions like attraction and love in type without reaching the level of melodrama, but you pulled it off great.

All in all, I found this to be a sweet, endearing, and thoroughly enjoyable little story. Great job, Glorious Leader. :ajsmug:

Also, Skirts doing a ship fic... That ISN'T AppleDash?! Is... is that legal? :derpytongue2:

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Leading the charge against a giant crab, of course.

ron
ron #31 · Feb 21st, 2014 · · · Bass ·

oh geez, legendary story right here. ultimate writing.

ron

Rarity Gets to be Awesome Without Needing to be the Center of Attention: The Fanfiction.:raritystarry:

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Rares is always good for comedy. :duck:

Is there really no end to my stupidity?

I don't think I've ever had a date that didn't include that particular line of internal dialogue. Or monologue, maybe.

gotta say, this was great! i love it when people turn episodes into things like this! ^-^ might just be my mind but still!

A great and "feels-full" story. I almost expected Big Mac to open his eyes and see Cheerilee standing right next to him and Rarity, having heard every word. Would've made sense if the whole evening was just a ploy between Rarity and her to get Mac to admit his feelings, but this is good too. Liked and favorited. :moustache:

Bravo. Excellently written. Just bravo.

The only thing that bothered me, really, is mostly just a matter of personal preferences. When you wrote "thang" to express accent instead of "thing". I've never been fond of writing accents that much into dialogues, at most I put extra apostrophes and the like, so it just kinda irked me at times. I also find it interesting that though you were writing accents into the story, "I" was not "Ah". Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for that, but a bit inconsistent (Don't you dare go changing "I" to "Ah" now :derpytongue2:)

You've done a good job writing in the tone and the atmosphere in the story. We were with Mac when he had his trepidation to going to this dinner, and throughout the rest of the story as well.

So yeah, once again, bravo.

A good old friendshiping.:eeyup::duck:

Thoroughly enjoyed this fic, and it has actually inspired me to do something I have been putting off for a long time.

I enjoyed the story, although I felt cheerilee's dialogue was a bit off. Just don't see her has stuttering

Rarimac... Macintarity... Raritosh?

Just trying to think of a name for my OTF, my one true friendShip. Hmm... Macrity?

No... BIG RARE!

I demand Rarity find happiness now! :flutterrage:

But yeah, this story was rather sweet. I really enjoyed the way Big Mac struggled throughout the time at the restaurant. And the fact that Rarity decided to help him work up the nerve by telling him to imagine she was Cheerilee during the dance was great.

I really though Mac was gonna realize that he should say what he was thinking to Cheerilee when he told her how he felt about her. Because he really had a sweet speech going on there. :twilightsmile:

oh yes, yes "friendship" :eeyup::duck:

Almost a better love story than ¡Dive! ¡Dive! ¡Dive!, and that's saying something.

Wow, that was genuinely sweet. Downright lovely.

Jeez Skirts, this was surprisingly fantastic AND completely unexpected. A dangerously cute non-Appledash ship-ish-fic with a slight bittersweet ending penned by you? Who'd a thunked it.

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I imagine she mostly runs around in a barely controlled panic until some arterial spray gets on her uniform, at which she goes on a rampage until she collapses and her command staff manage to remove her bloodied uniform and replace it with a clean one.

Rarity X Mac really doesn't fit, even though I've seen some were they got together. Well some fans just see the impossible, I guess. Cheerelie X Mac does work better, not that I really care about ships.

Every story I read from you is awesome, and that reminds me that I need to read the back log of your stories I've bookmarked. Always looking forward to the next one.

That... was beautiful.

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