"Alright. Bet!"

"Well this is nice. Can't say I've ever been to a sleep over before, but it's been pretty enjoyable so far," said Ocellus, a cup of warm herbal tea in her hooves as she rested comfortably atop a large pillow.

It was late into the night, and while just about everyone in Twilight's Friendship school was sleeping in their beds, Ocellus, Silverstream, Yona, and Smolder decided to have themselves a little girls only slumber party. The doom room they were in, shared between Yona and Smolder, was shrouded in darkness, and the only source of illumination came from a lantern that the four friends were huddled around.

"Mm. It's okay. Yaks do it better, though," Yona replied, her blanket falling off her back as she sat up.

"Uh huh, sure they do, Yona." Having finished the last of her energy drink, Smolder flattened the empty can against her forehead, then tossed the tin disk in the direction of the trash can. It didn't make it in, yet she didn't want to make the effort of getting up to correct that mistake. After shrugging to herself, Smolder looked back to the others, only to then look to Silverstream incredulously when she caught the hippogriff pressing a can to her face. "And uh, what are you doing?"

"That was cool! I wanna see if I can do it," said Silverstream. With that, Silverstream then tried to force the can against her face. There was visible strain in her effort, yet all she succeeded in doing was groan through her grit teeth.

Smolder thought it was funny at first, but soon she decided to intervene before her friend ended up hurting herself. Quickly, she swiped the can from Silverstream, then said, "Well for starters, Silver, try emptying the can first, otherwise you'll end up rattling what little brains you have left."

"Oh, was that it?" Silverstream chortled, her beak spread into a bubbly smile as she rubbed her face. With how hard she was pressing that can, there was most likely a ring-shaped indent beneath her fur. "Sorry, no can do. Energy drinks have, like, a ton of sugar, and I'm not supposed to have too much. Something about me being hyperactive as is, but what do doctors know anyway? Oh hey, you wanna talk about boys?!"

Everyone else was taken aback by that. They looked to one another in joint confusion, almost as if seeking confirmation that they all heard that correctly, then turned back to the eager hippogriff.

"Gee," said Smolder. "With how you made that jump from A to Z, I'm starting to think those docs were on to something."

Silverstream hopped onto her legs, her wings flaring and the fur and feathers around her neck and chest fluffing up as if offended. "What, as if! All I'm..." Silverstream paused. She took a moment to calm herself, and once she was all collected, she folded her wings, then sat down before continuing. "All I'm saying is that this is a girls only sleep over, right?"

"I don't see a dick in here, do you?" Smolder put bluntly.

Meekly, Ocellus raised her hoof. "Um, I can form one if I change--"

"Not the point!" Silverstream interrupted. "What I'm trying to get at is, what's the one activity that always happens at sleep overs? ...talking about boys, duh! So come on," she tossed a pillow onto the floor before the lantern, then allowed herself to fall flat atop it, "let's get on with the juicy gossip. Who's got the hots for who, hmm? Lay it on me~ Oh oh, I'll even go first." Bringing a claw to her chin, Silverstream pondered for a moment. "Let's see... Oh, there's this cute seapony back home who--"

This time, it was Silverstream's turn to be cut off.

"Whoa, hold on," said Smolder. "If we're doing this, then it has to be someone we all know. Otherwise, this guy you're gonna gush about could be someone you totally made up!"

Ocellus was the first to notice a problem with that plan. "But... the only boys we all know are Gallus and Sandbar."

"Yak sees no problem with that," answered Yona.

Smolder looked to her, then blinked. "Wait... So we just talk about which one we like? Sandbar or Gallus?"

"Oooh, this could be fun!" cheered Silverstream, clapping her claws. "So come on already, spill. If I had to choose, I'd say I like... mm... Gallus."

"That was fast," said Ocellus, stunned. "You barely even put any thought into it."

Silverstream shrugged. "What can I say? Sandbar's full pony, and I'm already half pony. Gallus, though, he's what the folks back home would call exotic~"

"But... you're both half eagle," Ocellus pointed out, to which Silverstream was quick to defend herself.

"Yeah, but I'm not half loin!" Silverstream brought her claws to her cheeks, suddenly appearing more gleeful. "Boy, if I had the opportunity to rub my claws all over those kitty flanks of his, I'd make him purr."

"I can see it," added Smolder. "Not the purring part, the... Well, not to dis Sandbar or anything, but these ponies look too soft for my liking. It's because of this that I'm gonna go for the one that at least has claws."

With that said, Smolder moved over and sat next to Silverstream, the two immediately giving each other a fist bump.

"Um..." With all eyes now on her, Ocellus suddenly felt shy. "If... if I want claws, I can just turn into something that has them. Sandbar is a gentle soul and he gives off this warm, comforting presence, so I'm gonna go for him. Plus, I'll have to admit that I find him kind of handsome."

"So you go for the gentle feelsy stuff then," said Smolder. "I can think of more better, awesome reasons to like a guy, but whatever. What about you, Yona? You've been mostly quite so far. Gallus or Sandbar, pick."

Silverstream's curiosity was obviously piqued, as she visibly perked up. "Oooh, yeah, who do you like, Yona?"

"That easy. Yona pick Sanbar," was Yona's answer, her delivery all nonchalant.

"Oh great," said Smolder. "Let me guess. You like his 'gentle spirit', too.'"

Yona shook her head. "Yona don't care about spirit, Yona likes Sandbar better because Sandbar is earth pony. Earth ponies stronger than griffon. Not stronger than yak, of course, no one is."

"Hmm. I haven't really seen Sandbar preform any amazing feats of strength before, but earth ponies are known for their physical power and fortitude, so I guess it'd make sense for him to be stronger than Gallus," said Ocellus. "Alright, so we're two for two, then. Yona and I like Sandbar, while Smolder and Silverstream like Gallus. It's an even split."

"Yeah, well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get down to the real questions." Sitting on her knees, Smolder moved towards the lantern, then leaned over it as she held a playful smirk. "If you were alone with either Gallus or Sandbar, and you two were rutting, what would--"

Aghast, Silverstream gasped. "Smolder!"

"What?" Smolder said, half shrugging as she turned to Silverstream. "This is a sleep over, right? Just what do you think comes after the boy-talk? It won't be an in depth discussion about knitting, I can tell ya that. Besides, earlier you had no problem talking about feeling up Gallus's... what did you call them again, 'kitty flanks'?"

With a deep blush on her face, Silverstream turned her head and cleared her throat out of embarrassment. At that point, Ocellus spoke up.

"I don't know, Smolder... Talking about which one you like and why is one thing, but saying what you'd do with them in an intimate setting is another entirely different thing."

Staying quiet, Smolder opted to stare at Ocellus for a spell. As to what the dragon was thinking at that moment, no one could even hazard a guess. After what seemed like some internal deliberation on her part, Smolder then folded her arms over her chest and leaned back.

"Oh, I get it," said Smolder, closing her eyes before giving a self-assured nod. "You don't want to dish out any knitty gritty details 'cause you're sure you won't even be able to charm Sandbar into wanting to getting freaky with you in the first place."

"What, that wasn't what I said," Ocellus shot back, more than a little offended.

Not wanting to show how pleased she was that Ocellus, possibly the one whose the most level-headed out of all of them, took the bait, Smolder cracked open an eye and looked to her. "Oh, so you're saying that you can then? You can get Sandbar to shack up with you--without changing your form, I might add?"

"Wait... you want me to get him to... with me... in my true form?" Ocellus felt nervous. Yes, her true form shared some pony-like traits, but most ponies tend to focus more on her insect qualities. She was initially confident that she could get Sandbar to sleep with her if she changed her form to one he found attractive, but as herself, she wasn't so sure.

Smolder nodded. "Yup. No changing. You do this as yourself, otherwise it'd be cheating. Still think you can even accomplish this?"

Ocellus gulped. "O-of course I can! And what about you; you seem overly confident that Gallus would even want to touch you."

"Pfft," Smolder sounded with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Have you seen me? Look at me, I'm a bombshell! Gorgeous figure, polished scales, filed claws and teeth, what's not to like?"

Ocellus narrowed her eyes. "Again: Over. Confident."

Smolder laughed. "Oh, is that so? You care to make this a dragon's wager then; put your pride where your mouth is?"

"A what now?" asked Silverstream.

"A dragon's wager," Smolder repeated. "I guess it's just called a wager in these parts, so you should already be familiar with it."

Just then, Yona, who has mostly been observing, spoke. "That sound interesting! What rules of wager?"

Smolder smiled excitedly at Yona; the turn out was better than she expected. "Oh, you want in, Yona? That's cool, the more people in, the more interesting this'll be. And you, Silverstream, you game?"

Smiling brightly, Silverstream clasped her claws together. "Sure, sounds fun!"

"Well alright," Smolder said with a grin. "So then, let me go over the rules real quick. Don't worry, they're simple: we'll each be acting independently, and our objective is to get the guy we said we liked to sleep with you. That means Silver and I will try to sleep with Gallus, while Ocellus and Yona will try to get with Sandbar."

"And how would we even prove that we went through it with them? Are we gonna play this by the honor system?" asked Ocellus.

"Honor system, pfft," Smolder replied with another dismissive wave. "We'll invite them to next week's sleep over, that way we'll hear it straight from their mouths if we did anything with them."

"Alright," said Yona. "And what does Yak win?"

"Oh yeah, what do we win? Are we betting bits?" asked Silverstream.

"Bits? As if!" said Smolder. "This is a dragon's wager, so we'll be competing for the one thing dragons care about, something that they sometimes kill for."

"Gems?" proposed Ocellus.

"Treasure?" guessed Yona.

"Princess sacrifice?" added Silverstream.

"Nope," Smolder answered with a shake of her head. "We'll be competing for bragging rights. Winning means you're not all talk when it comes to getting it on with someone, and losing means that you'll be forever dateless."

The rest of the girls looked to one another, almost as if gauging the others reaction to see if the prize was one worth winning. Moments later, going on nothing but facial cues, a consensus was made and the three nodded almost in unison.

"Alright, I'm in," said Ocellus, placing her hoof over the lantern. "I won't need to change form for this, and I don't think I can wait a whole week to rub this in your face."

Silverstream followed suit, as she placed her claw over Ocellus's hoof. "Count me in too."

"Yak will win. Yak best at seducing," Yona added, placing her hoof over Silverstream's claw.

That just left Smolder, who placed her claw over the lantern without any hesitation. "Well alright then, the game is set. I suggest getting some sleep now, ladies, 'cause starting tomorrow is when this whole shebang starts."