“Cutie Mark Crusader Matchmakers Yay!” the three fillies chorused. They had finally gotten a formal date between Cherilee and Macintosh. They raced around the two adults cheering excitedly. The two adults silently looked at each other, a look of mild panic on both of their faces.

“Awkward,” Cherilee said out of the corner of her mouth.

“Eeyup,” Macintosh replied.

Later that night, during a strained ‘date’ at the Silver Horseshoe, Cherilee said to Macintosh, “They have no idea, do they? About either of us?”

“Nope,” Macintosh agreed.

“I mean, they’re nine,” Cherilee said. “How do we explain this to them? That we’re both gay? If it were just one of us, it'd still be weird, but we would have a common preference to talk about. But this is just beyond awkward. They think it’s so cute that their teacher is out with Apple Bloom’s brother and with them so excited, I hate to break this to them.”

Macintosh sighed. “Those three are the only ones I know who could manage to set up a filly fooler with a colt cuddler.”

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” asked Cherilee. “I don’t like lying to them and I doubt you do either.”

“Look, I thought we agreed that this was the best option,” replied Macintosh. “We’ll go out on a few ‘dates’ and about the time they get themselves covered in tree sap, we’ll tell them it didn’t work out. They'll be disappointed, but they'll forget the instant they find something new to crusade over. It’s the truth, or close enough anyways. And when they’re old enough, we’ll tell them the whole truth.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Cherilee. They paid for their meal and got up to go. “At least we can still be friends, even if we aren’t compatible in the way the girls want us to be. I really do like you, just, not in that way. And Macintosh?”

“Eeyup?” he asked.

“I hope you won’t be offended if I don’t kiss you goodnight.”

“Nope.”

Author's Note

Yeah, it's short, but I had this idea running around for a while and wanted to explore it a little. I might edit it later and add more. And, honestly, I could totally see the CMC's inadvertently pairing off two gay characters.