If Twilight Sparkle had gained one habit while Celestia's student, it was the fine art of afternoon tea. On the table was her finest tea set, a plate of cakes, and an assortment of chocolates. She preferred the chocolates and tea, although her mentor had been absolutely steadfast that cakes were the proper thing to eat with a hot cup of brown joy.

The map was still now, friendship problems had been fewer of late, but never completely absent. Across from her was her "evil twin," Midnight Sparkle. Midnight sat on a little stool beside one of the thrones, and had one of her huge wings stretched out and curled around the throne's occupant: Fluttershy.

The more Twilight looked at the pair the more a warmth grew within her. Fluttershy kept sneaking little glances at Midnight, then would look away with a blush. Midnight, conversely, looked between Fluttershy and Twilight without hesitation, a wide smile on her mouth a clear sign of betrayal of the motives that drove her when she first arrived in the Castle of Friendship.

Twilight had been practicing her patience. Halting her habit of hysterics. Managing her manner of madness. Lifting up a piece of chocolate that Sweetie Drops had made specifically for her sweet tooth, Twilight Sparkle started to nibble on it.

"T-T-Twilight?" Fluttershy couldn't understand how her friend was being so calm. Normally Twilight would be freaking out, going crazy, possibly casting a time travel spell to "fix" everything. But sitting across from her, the Princess of Friendship nibbled on a chocolate, her eyes closed, showing no hint of flying off the handle. "You knew we were… canoodling…?"

"Of course I did, Fluttershy." Relenting now that she was addressed, Twilight lifted her eyes from the delicious candy to look at Fluttershy. She saw nervousness backed by something new, a confidence that Twilight would bet her wings had to do with Midnight Sparkle.

Midnight squeezed Fluttershy a little when the pegasus opened her mouth to talk more. "She wants to know about you and me, and what this means to it." More than a little curious herself, Midnight took Twilight's calm state as a good sign, but knew from her own self that a Sparkles' madness was always mere moments from unleashing.

With a nod, Twilight sipped at her tea and let the moment draw out a little. She counted from two to one-thousand-and-nine, but only the primes. "We're lovers. Midnight completes me in a way I don't think anypony else could." The words were utterly right, great to say, and made Twilight look directly into Midnight's eyes. "I love what she does to me, and what I do to her. She swells with power when she knows she controls me. She is amazing when she is like that."

Fluttershy's wings popped out and up. She blinked a few times at the raw emotion in her friend's words. Lifting her gaze, she tilted her head up to look at Midnight. "She… She does the opposite for me. Our first games had… had been me playing with her as if she were an animal. She made me feel in control of everything." Fluttershy barely stuttered in her description, but she needed to continue. "And when she controls Flutterbat, it feels even better. She is really giving me control of myself back."

"S-S-So…?" Midnight looked from alicorn to pegasus, seeing hungry gazes on both. A niggling edge of worry that one or the other would take exception to the other was eating her up. She watched as Twilight get up from her throne, and her breath caught in her throat.

Watching Twilight circle the huge table, Fluttershy felt like she wanted to shrink back, hide, disappear from the room that held two of the most powerful (and adorable) ponies she knew. Fluttershy titled her head to let her mane fall across her vision. To her surprise a purple hoof gently gathered her mane and lifted it carefully to the side. The touch was far more intimate than using magic would have been, and she could do nothing but tremble and blush.

"Fluttershy, I'm so happy you found somepony to be there for you, and I hope you both have the best of luck in the future." Twilight smiled, forcing the grin onto her face. Serenity was fast fading, and she wanted the moment to be over before any shred of jealousy took over. Turning her head to face Midnight, she looked at the astonished alicorn. "I take it you are moving in with Fluttershy?"

"Wait." Midnight shook her head, realizing that if she didn't speak up she was about to lose something important to her. "I still love you, Twilight!" The words didn't have their intended effect.

"You don't mean that. You just said how special Fluttershy is to you. I really don't mind!" But she did. Twilight Sparkle was prepared to go to her pillow-tearing room to take out her anger.

"T-T-T-T…" Fluttershy couldn't do it, the words just weren't coming out. She struggled to say what she wanted to—what she needed to—but her breath betrayed her again and again. Anxiety built when she saw Twilight start to turn, and the tear she saw glistening in the corner of her friend's eye drove her.

Twilight's eyes widened, scattering the tears that were already forming. Soft lips pressed to her own, and Fluttershy's huge cyan eyes stared back for a heartbeat before they trembled and closed. With her emotions on a roller-coaster, Twilight didn't think far enough to pull back, and let her close friend's kiss linger, and at last she closed her eyes too.

Midnight had been ready to scream in panic when Twilight started to leave, but Fluttershy—of all ponies—had swooped in to save the moment. She watched both mares kiss, and exchange a deep connection. "I messed this up."

The words broke the kiss for both Fluttershy and Twilight. They each pulled apart at the same time, and each opened their eyes to see the other lick their lips.

Understanding things a little better now, or at least not misunderstanding them quite so much, Twilight turned to look at Midnight. "You almost did. And what's the 'this' you are talking about?" A little voice inside Twilight protested that once this step was taken, friendship wasn't an option anymore. Another voice countered that if they kept going, they might be even closer friends than ever.

"This! Us! All of us!" Midnight gestured to Twilight and Fluttershy. "You two looked amazing together, and I want to learn how much I love both of you…" The words seemed true to Midnight, more true to her than anything she had heard before she came to Equestria.

"Both of us?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, finally catching on to the intent. She looked to Fluttershy and saw a different mare; she wasn't just Twilight's friend anymore. A new door had opened. "What do you thi—"

Fluttershy pressed forward again. She didn't know what words to use, so opted for another kiss to carry the message of her intent. She pulled back just as quickly, and smiled at Twilight's little whine of loss. "I… I really like Midnight, and I like how she makes me feel. But I like seeing how she has affected you, too." The words weren't the best, but Fluttershy was in a situation that terrified and excited her; it was the best she could do.

"So…" Twilight couldn't look away from Fluttershy. Every line of her friend's body was different now, with new implications present in her long legs, fluffy wings, and curvy torso. "Together?" Two nods met her question. "All of us? Together…" The idea felt strange, but not wrong.

"Twi has these books…" Midnight surprised herself by not getting the slightest bit angry at her progenitor. "They… they are really naughty, and they talk about a menage-a-trois…" She couldn't stop the blush rising in her cheeks at the memory of the typical bodice-slashers Twi liked to read.

"Actually," Fluttershy cut in, "it is called polyamory. Pinkie Pie taught me a lot of things when we were together."

"No, you're both right." Twilight felt the tension in the room pop like a bubble, and in its wake was comfort. Midnight Sparkle had started to become a very special friend, and while Fluttershy already was a special friend, more seemed to have grown between them in. "Menage-a-trois is a Prench phrase, meaning household of three. Polyamory means an equal relationship of three or more ponies. And both are wonderful words."

Fluttershy felt Midnight's big wing pull around her again, and she saw the other wrap around Twilight. Mimicking the action, she cupped Twilight and Midnight to her sides, while Twilight was the last to embrace. Leaning together, she lifted her snout and felt Midnight's lips touch one side, while Twilight's touched the other. An excited voice inside her yelled, "Yay" in her head, but another voice entirely said something from the doorway.

"I don't have enough dongs to plug all of you at once. Form a line, fillies!" Derpy's eyes were wide, but her grin was from ear to ear. A moment of silence confused her, and she broke from her character a little. "Too much? I could tone it back…"

"Derpy, you came just in time, actually." Twilight gestured at the table. "Would you like something to eat and drink? You… you have recovered? I noticed you haven't been delivering mail for a few days…"

Blinking in surprise at the invitation, Derpy trotted into the room and set the little stack of mail beside Twilight. "Funny story about that… I got a little… tied up in some work." Hot images couldn't stop from rushing to the fore of Derpy's mind. Rainbow Dash keeping her on a leash and using her to screw Pinkie Pie whenever Pinkie did something naughty; Pinkie Pie seemed unable to do anything but naughty things.

A blush rushed to Fluttershy's cheeks, and she was mesmerized by the way Derpy sat down. With the gray pegasus sitting on the throne closest to Twilight's, her shaft was at full salute and swaying from side to side with every movement. She tilted her head up towards Midnight, tearing her gaze away from the almost hypnotic phallus. "You said you played with Derpy…?"

"We had some fun." Midnight remembered the excitable pegasus' efforts, and shifted in her seat as a result. "She was—"

"I banged two princesses in one day!" Derpy giggled and looked from Twilight to Midnight significantly. "Two! There aren't many, you know. But I got two in one day!"

Twilight began to blush, and it got worse as more of her memories came to the fore. Derpy's size, heft, even the pegasus' naughty words stirred her to a slight arousal. "It was really fun, Derpy, but I don't…" Twilight trailed off, and watched Derpy's eyes unfocused a little. Not only wasn't the pegasus listening to her, but Twilight could see her nose working in short, sharp sniffs.

Midnight didn't care that she was turned on, she liked Derpy enough that the mare was welcome to have some fun as often as she pleased, but she had two other ponies to think about now. "Derpy, hold on. You can't just do this anymore, we have to all agree that it is okay."

Fluttershy suddenly had Twilight Sparkle and Midnight Sparkle both looking to her for approval. She blinked in surprise at how much the two were deferring to her, but it wasn't weak little Fluttershy that opened her mouth, it was the Fluttershy who had chased a dream and an alicorn, and found a lot more. "I remember the greeting I got from Derpy when I first came to Ponyville." She blushed hotly at the hungry look in Derpy's eyes. "Let's finish our tea first."

The old Midnight Sparkle would have railed and gotten angry at being denied, but the new one felt a tingle of love trickle through her. "Would you like some cake, Derpy?"

Twilight slid back into her role as host and levitated a cup to Derpy. "How would you like it?"

"Fertilized…" Derpy coughed and giggled. "Three sugars, please!"

Author's Note

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