My Little Pony: Friendship is Dirty Afterstory

Dating is hard. Real hard. I'd only ever had one or two relationships prior to this whole... ordeal, and they'd been decently short-lived, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that two people sharing that much intimacy always ends up getting complicated and difficult at some point.

Yet here I was, on a date with not one, but two people at once, with three more waiting in the wings. They were all dating each other, too. How exactly we all expected this to work out in the end was beyond me, but I also... well, I couldn't imagine it any other way.

It had taken me a long time to come to terms with it. Way I was raised, marriage is between a man and a woman. Not for any moralistic reasons, necessarily, just simple pragmatism. When you run a farm, you need all the hands you can get, and makin' babies is the easiest means to that end. I hadn't stopped to think too hard about it, not for a while, at least, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd always imagined myself marrying a man and settling down at some point. It was just a given.

Then I made friends with a girl who was irresponsibly curious about all things magical, and... well, let's just say all that flew out the window.

Some part of me must have always been able to think of other girls romantically, or else I don't think any of this would have happened to begin with. The specifics of the magic go over my head, but I think that's how it works. Even so, I'd never given it any thought, so to suddenly be presented with those circumstances... I went running scared from it all for the longest time. It was hard enough to imagine being with another woman at first, but just as I was starting to get used to that, this crazy paw-lee-armory option got proposed, and I was thrown for a loop all over again.

I'd still agreed, though. I love all of them. Really love them. Each one's incredible in her own way, and... well, there wasn't any question of our compatibility, that's for sure. I don't know if I ever could have chosen one over the others, and after some very lengthy conversations with Fluttershy (who was surprisingly enthusiastic about all this), I agreed to give it a try. Something about being with all of them felt right.

Love isn't a finite resource, Flutters had told me. Each one is unique and can't be compared. The feelings that I share with one partner don't affect my ability to love anyone else, right? why should it? Apples and oranges. There's no sense in trying to weigh them up or choose one over all others.

“Applejack, darling, are you alright?” I snapped out of my introspection to look down at Rarity, who was walking beside me with an arm around my waist, looking up with those gorgeous, glittering blue eyes full of worry. She knew how nerve-wracking tonight was for me, and bless her heart she'd done everything she could to alleviate that tension.

“I'm fine, sugarcube.” I said, though it came out as a half-sigh that betrayed my worry.

“I'm just glad I'm not the only one who gets up in my head over all this. It's turning out to be pretty confusing and scary, and we're only like five minutes in...” Twilight said from my other side, also with her arm around my waist. I turned to her, and was immediately reminded of why I had agreed to this harebrained scheme to begin with when I saw her amethyst eyes looking up at me with just as much concern as Rarity's had.

How on earth was I supposed to pick between these two? And how could I force them to choose me over someone else that I loved just as strongly? There was no point trying to fight either one.

“I'm just not sure what's gonna happen next,” I said, squeezing the fingers of one hand on each of their shoulders, prompting a return squeeze from each of the hands at my waist. My heart lit on fire at two of the most wonderful people I'd ever known sharing that little casual gesture of affection, “I keep worrying about what could go wrong, how the hell're we supposed to keep this up, long-term, y'know? I've never seen anyone... I've never even heard of three people pulling this off, much less six. What do we do if any two of us get in a fight or something?”

“This is new ground for all of us.” Rarity admitted, nodding, “I never took you for such a pessimist, though, Applejack.”

“Yeah, quit muscling in on my territory.” Twilight pouted, eliciting a giggle from Rarity. I couldn't help but crack a smile of my own.

“We've worked through problems in the past, and we always did better at it when we were together.” Rarity said, stepping ahead of us on the street so she could turn to face us.

“I guess I can't argue with that...” I said, leaning down when she stepped up to me, and sharing in the kiss she offered, heart fluttering as it always did when our lips met. I gripped her shoulder tight, a ripple of heat running from my head down to my toes in a steady wave, and all my worries seemed to become a little more distant all of a sudden.

“Worrying about what might happen isn't going to get us anywhere. I think the only option is to communicate with one another openly, and deal with problems as they come.” She said, fingers running across my arm as she pulled back from the kiss. “Now come here, you too.” She turned to Twilight, who I knew was just as bad about this kind of thing as me.

Watching two of my girlfriends kiss each other was a weird experience. On top of not ever expecting to have a girlfriend in the first place, I had two of them. And they were kissing each other right in front of me. There was a little stab of jealousy, a following stab of guilt, a powerful sense of affection and happiness for them, a little worry, a little excitement, and a lot of confusion.

“I know you two just want the best for all of us. Let's just try to enjoy each other's company tonight, yeah?” Rarity stepped back to my side, hanging onto my free arm with both hands. I turned my head to Twilight, who had looked up to me.

I leaned down and kissed Twilight as well. I felt her tremble when our lips met. I let out a sigh of pleasure, her back arched and she pressed herself into me, even as Rarity did the same on my other side. However insane and unconventional and confusing our relationship was, how could I count myself as anything other than the luckiest girl in the world?

“Okay, no more gettin' lost in my own head.” I said, looking between them as we began walking again, “I'm here, with y'all, tonight.”

“That's the spirit!” Rarity squeezed my arm, “And it goes for you, too, Twilight.”

“Yes ma'am.”

I was ready, I could do this. I couldn't let myself be afraid of my own feelings anymore. We headed off into the golden lights of the town to share our first night together as lovers. No matter what happened, I would have them all by my side.