It was a long time before any of them spoke again.

“Wow,” Neon huffed.

Vinyl giggled and hit his chest.

“Now… T-That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Neon chuckled, licking his lips clean, smacking them as if he had drank a fine pint.

“Whew… Well… now I’m not so hard.”

Vinyl snorted, her face scrunching up as she held in her laughter. Octavia, for her part, wasn’t as tickled, covering her face with a hoof and shaking her head. Her hoof ran down her face, and she rolled her eyes. He grinned at her sheepishly, and she shook her head, nuzzling him under the chin affectionately, giving his neck a gentle kiss.

It was quiet for a moment. Neon’s heart was swollen from the affection he felt then.

Octavia slowly got to her hooves, limping off of the bed and opening the nightstand, pulling out three thick rolls of paper. She held them out to her compatriots with a gentle smile and a wink. Vinyl took one eagerly, stuffing it in between her lips like a little colt who had found one of his father’s cigars. Neon raised his hoof, hesitated a bit, but shrugged, leaning over and grabbing one in his teeth.

Octavia chortled. “Guys, you don’t eat them. At least, not when they’re rolled up like that.”

“Want me to light us up?” Vinyl said.

“Nah, let the big boy handle it.”

Neon chuckled. Light filled the room as his horn glowed a gentle blue, the tips of the joints smoldering before flashing with flame for a brief moment. All three took a deep breath. Neon felt hazy, light smoke billow into his mouth and down his throat, a little bit into his lungs. They took the joints from their mouths as one, and exhaled, the room given a foggy quality now with the almost opaque, silvery smoke filling the air, the acid smell of Tender High-inducing Care assaulting their overclocked senses.

Octavia started giggling. Vinyl followed, then Neon, laughter infectious when under the influence, growing and growing, more and more, until they were all rolling about the bed and each other.

“Holy fuuuuuck,” Neon cackled. “I’m gonna be so fucking sore in the morning…”

“Oh, you’re gonna be sore?!” Vinyl squeaked.

Neon squeezed Vinyl and Octavia in a massive hug, and they reciprocated twicefold. He could feel the air squeeze from his smoked-in lungs, almost see a few wispy clouds leave his mouth, and he let out a content little chuckle.

“So,” he said, taking another drag.

“I would call tonight a major success,” Octavia said, blowing out smoke through her lips from around her joint. “A few speedbumps in the beginning, but I think it all turned out okay.”

Neon sighed. “I’m sorry I doubted you guys.”

Vinyl smiled. And Octavia, for the first time that night, mirrored that smile exactly, with the same intent, the same feelings behind it. He could see every single of iota of love they had in those lips. Love for him, love for each other, love for the world and the circumstances that brought them together. They ran their hooves up Neon’s chest, and pulled themselves up for a small peck underneath his chin, one on either side.

“S’cool,” Vinyl said.

Neon chuckled. “I’d definitely love to do this again.”

“You better do this again, love,” Octavia murmured mock-dangerously. “You’re our coltfriend, and you have to, like, send us flowers and shit now.”

“‘Cept… gardenias,” Vinyl said, scrunching up her nose.

Neon grinned stupidly. “Whaaa?”

“I’m fuckin’ allergic to gardenias.”

“Yeah, bring roses or something,” Octavia tittered.

“Eww, fuck that! I’m your coltfriend, not your prom date.”

“You were my prom date,” Vinyl snickered.

Neon looked at her dully. The whites of her eyes were pink, but they still glowed with piercing magenta and told a thousand tales. He could see the same tales in Octavia’s eyes. Tales of the past he and she and she had hewn together, and the future that they would make as one. Tales exciting and frightening and utterly, shamelessly smutty, sometimes in the same moment, and always separate one way or another. Every friend started a stranger, every lover starts a friend, and every lover went to… wherever lovers went forever and ever.

If Neon had been in any state to truly appreciate that, he would have done something more solemn than titter like a schoolcolt, then laugh uproariously, spreading it to his lovers. And that was okay. That was all that he needed to know. That he was loved, in love, and that alone made him a luckier stallion than thousands of others.

“Shit, I really was your prom date! I remember that shit,” Neon chuckled.

“Yeah!” Vinyl giggled. “You wore that… that white suit!”

“Heeeey, the suit was awesome…”

Vinyl laughed softly. She looked towards Octavia, and the other mare winked at her, kissing her on the cheek. Neon didn’t resist as Vinyl levitated their joints to an ashtray nearby and extinguished them, and laid her head on Neon’s chest in tandem with her marefriend. Neon draped his hooves around them, holding them close, holding them warmly. Somewhere far away, he could hear Trotchovsky playing again.

“Concerto in D. Finale,” he mumbled.

“Shit,” Octavia grumbled. “I forgot to turn that shit off–”

“It’s fine,” Neon said, gripping Octavia tighter. “It’s better when you’re high.”

She smiled and squeezed Neon back, making him titter.

“So…”

“Yeah,” Vinyl giggled.

“Yeah, so, I guess tonight, like, worked out,” Neon said.

Octavia grinned and kissed his cheek, and Vinyl did the same on the other one, both mares sighing and nuzzling into his chest.

“You think it’ll work out… Another night, too? Like, future speaking and shit?” Vinyl said.

Neon chewed on his lip for a moment. Then he grinned.

“I’ve got… A real good feeling about it, yeah.”

“Mmmh, you’re sure real good feeling,” Octavia cooed.

They laughed together, voices melding together, all together, three souls into one. They talked the rest of the night, speech slurred, tittering and giggling, and hour after hour passed without their knowledge or caring, and Neon knew, with a mare on either side and his head in the clouds, and his body caught in a glorious tangle of limbs, that he had found a home or two for his heart to rest at last.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading, and tune in next time.