Coloring Outside the Lines

by Krickis

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Flurry Heart, Romance
Length: 8308

Kindergarten gets a new challenge when both of Flurry's best friends want her to be their wife when they're older.

My name is Flurry Heart, and I'm five years old! I love my family and my friends, especially my two best friends, Ocean Breeze and Melody Charm. But is it really okay to love both of them...?

A story set in the Who We Become series.

Although it's pretty far into the series, no actual prior knowledge is needed to understand this story.

This story was written for Pride and Positivity, which means bigots get a free pass to downvote without reading! Yay! For the rest of you, if you enjoy it consider donating to one of the supported charities: Transgender Law Center, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Sewa International

This story was workshopped with thedarkprep and Gowak
Proofreading by thedarkprep, Gowak, Krixwell, and Mind Jack
Cover art by Flurry Heart

Published 2021-07-11 20:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2021-07-14 20:30:21 UTC

1 – love isn't easy...

Coloring Outside the Lines

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Chapter 1
love isn't easy...

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Mommy says it’s good that I like going to school because a lot of kids don’t, but I never understood why not. There’s so many good things about school! I get to see all my friends, and Careful Preparation is there. That’s our teacher, but we all call her Ms. Prep, and she’s so nice! She always makes me laugh and she makes learning a lot of fun!

Oh, wait, I forgot to say my name is Flurry Heart, and I’m five years old. I’m an alicorn, just like my mommy and my Auntie Twilight. Adults always say I’m getting really big, but I don’t feel very big yet. But that’s okay, even if I’m still little I don’t mind. Everyone is always nice to me and I like going to school and playing with my friends and… and… and I love my family very much!

Uhm, what else… Oh, school, yeah! I think story time is the best time of the day, although there are a lot of good things about school. I like story time the best, but there’s recess and snack time and nap time and learning to read and write on our own. I think writing is a little tricky because some of the letters look really the same, but Ms. Prep says I’m starting to get the hang of it!

Oh yeah, story time. Ms. Prep was reading us a story about a family that got a new baby brother. That was fun because I’m getting a new brother or sister too! They’re still a little bitty baby in my mommy’s tummy, and my parents say that there will be a lot of changes. I’m happy that I’ll have a little brother or sister, I bet they’ll be a lot of fun.

But in the story, the little filly wasn’t very happy at first. She felt like her moms didn’t love her as much because of the baby, which I thought was silly. Mommy says love doesn’t work that way, that ponies can love as many other ponies as they want to. And I know she’s right, because I love a lot of ponies! I have a big family, and I love them all! I love Mommy and Daddy, Auntie Fluttershy, Auntie Tia, Mo Glow, Missus Pinkie, Ms. Prep, even though she’s not part of my family I still love her, and my friends and, uhm, and a lot of other ponies too!

But the best thing about stories is they always have a happy ending. The little filly learned that her moms loved her and her baby brother, and it made me feel really good inside! My best friend Ocean Breeze said that the story was silly because little siblings are always the best anyway, but I think he only thinks that because he’s the youngest kid in his family.

For some reason, my other best friend Melody Charm didn’t say anything about the story, but she did go over to talk to Ms. Prep after it was done. She whispered something to our teacher that I couldn’t hear, but the really weird thing is after she did, Melody looked over at me and her face got all red. Then Ms. Prep said, “If she wants to, then of course,” and that made Melody smile.

I asked Ocean Breeze if he knew why she was looking at me like that or what she was asking Ms. Prep about, and he just shrugged. “You girls are just weird sometimes,” he said. I was going to say that boys were weird too, but I don’t know why but I decided not to.

After that, Melody came back to where I was stacking up blocks and Ocean Breeze was playing with a train. “Hi, Melody,” I said. “What did you talk to Ms. Prep about?”

Her face got all red again, and she just said, “Nothing.”

“We should play something,” Ocean said.

“Okay,” I said. “What should we play?”

“We could play pretend,” Melody said, and we all thought that was a good idea. “Let’s play house! We can be like the family in the story!”

“No, I don’t want to play house,” Ocean said, then he jumped at my tower of blocks and knocked it over. “I want to be dinosaurs! Rawr, I’m a T-rex and I’m gonna gobble you up, Flurry!”

I laughed and said, “Okay, let’s play dinosaurs! Oh no, don’t eat me!”

But then before Ocean-Rex could get me, Melody Charm stepped in between us and bowed her head at him. “Don’t worry, Flurry! I’m a tri… uhm, tricer…”

“Triceratops,” Ocean said. He’s really smart and knows every single dinosaur name ever!

“Yeah, so I have horns on my head!” Melodytops said. She headbutted Ocean-Rex, but don’t worry, because she’s actually an earth pony so she doesn’t really have a horn, it was just pretend.

“Oh no!” he said. “But T-rexes are big and bad and aren’t even afraid of horns! Rawr!”

Ocean-rex jumped at Melodytops, and I laughed. “Oh no, Melody! Don’t worry, I’m a terror dactyl, I’ll get him from above!” So I spread my wings and flew into the air, flying over Ocean-Rex.

But before I could drop on him, he flew into the air as well. Oh, I think I forgot to say, Ocean Breeze is a pegasus, so he can do that. But he shouldn’t have done that then, because it made Melody angry.

“Ocean! You’re a T-rex, and those can’t fly!”

He didn’t listen to her though, even though she was right. So she jumped into the air and grabbed onto his tail with her teeth. Ocean is a good flier, but not good enough to fly with somepony hanging onto him, so they both crashed into the floor. That scared me because they’re my best friends ever and I don’t want them to be hurt, so I landed to make sure they were okay.

Before I could say anything though, Ms. Prep came came over to check on them. “Are you two okay?” she asked.

“I’m okay,” Ocean said.

“Tell Ocean to get his big butt off me!” Melody said because Ocean had crashed on top of her.

“Here, let’s get you both up,” Ms. Prep said, and she helped them both to their hooves.

“You didn’t get hurt, did you?” I asked.

“No, I’m okay,” Melody said.

“Me too,” Ocean said.

I was happy, but Ms. Prep frowned at them. “I think that’s enough rough housing. Melody, you know better than to jump on somepony who’s flying, don’t you?”

Melody looked down at the floor. “Yes, Ms. Prep.”

“Why don’t you three do something quiet for the rest of play time?” Ms. Prep smiled again, which I think is good. She has a really nice smile and it reminds me of Aunt Fluttershy when she does. “Maybe you could read together, or play house, or play with some toys?”

“House!” Melody said, and I remembered that’s what she wanted to play from the beginning. “We should play house!”

“Okay, I’ll be the dad and Flurry can be the mom,” Ocean said.

“No, me and Flurry should both be moms!” Melody said. I looked at her and her face went red again. “Like, uhm, like in the story.”

“You can’t both be moms,” Ocean said.

“Sure they can,” Ms. Prep said. “I think Flurry knows something about that, right?”

“Uhm, you mean like how my aunts are all moms together?” I asked, and Ms. Prep nodded.

“Just like Flurry’s aunts, and like the family in the story, a family can have more than one mom.” Ms. Prep looked like she was going to say more, but then another kid started calling for her to help him get down a toy on a high shelf. “You three figure out your game nicely, okay? I don’t want any more trouble from you.”

“Yes, Ms. Prep,” I said, then she left to go help the other kid. I turned back to my friends. “We can both be moms, Melody. I think it’d be really cool to be like my aunts!”

“Well I think it sounds dumb,” Ocean said.

“Hey!” I frowned. Ocean Breeze was one of my best friends, but he wasn’t allowed to say that about my family! “My aunts are not dumb! They’re really nice ponies!”

“No, not your aunts!” Ocean said. “I just don’t want to be the baby!”

“But you’re already the baby,” Melody reminded him. “You’ve got three older siblings, you’re like the baby of your family.”

“You have an older brother too!” Ocean shot back.

I just shrugged. “I can be the baby and you two can be the mommy and daddy.”

“No!” they both said at the same time. I was confused. Why did this matter so much to them?

Melody came over and gave me a hug, which was nice of her, but I was still really confused. “Flurry would rather be mommies with me than be with a smelly old boy anyway.”

“I don’t think Ocean is smelly,” I said. “And I don’t want Ocean to have to be the baby. We should just play something else.”

“Ha! She doesn’t want to play your game!” Ocean said.

I looked between my friends and got really upset. They were supposed to be friends, but they had been fighting all day long. I felt like I was going to cry. “Why are you two being mean to each other?”

“Because…” Melody looked at Ocean, whose eyes went really wide all of a sudden. “Because he’s in love with you!”

“Melody!” Ocean said. “You weren’t supposed to tell!”

“I love him too though,” I said with a shrug, not seeing what the big deal was. “And I love you too, Melody.”

“No, he’s in love with you! He wants to grow up and marry you!”

“You do?” I asked.

Now Ocean was getting really red in the face, like Melody had earlier. “No, she’s lying! I didn’t say that!”

“Oh.” I was getting more and more confused. I didn’t know why Melody would lie about that, it seemed silly.

Melody smiled though. “Okay, if you don’t want to, I’ll grow up and marry Flurry!”

“What?” I looked between Melody and Ocean. “Now you want to marry me?”

“You’re my best friend!” Melody said. “That’s what happens when you grow up, my dad said so. When I asked why he married my mom, he said that it was because he realized she was his best friend that he wanted to be with forever. Just like you!”

“Oh.” When she put it like that, it did make a lot of sense. “Well, okay then, we can get married when we grow up.”

“But what about me?” Ocean said. “I’m your best friend too!”

I scrunched up my face and shook my head. “Wait, but you said you didn’t want to marry me!”

“Well, I changed my mind.” Since Melody was on one side of me still, Ocean walked over to the other side. He grabbed my hoof and pulled me closer. “You should marry me because I know all the better games!”

I didn’t like when he did that. It didn’t hurt, but it made me feel bad. And it felt even worse because he was pulling me away from Melody. I wasn’t even sure why he would do that anyway. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t.

But then Melody grabbed my other hoof and pulled me back to her. “No, you should marry me because I paint prettier pictures!”

“What?” I didn’t like having Melody pull on me either, and I really didn’t like my friends fighting. Maybe it did hurt. It didn’t hurt my forelegs, but it made me all hurt inside.

“Flurry wants to marry me!” Ocean said, and he was sounding really angry now, which made me not want to marry him really even though he’s usually nice.

“No, she wants to marry me!” Melody said, and she sounded angry too.

I didn’t know what was going on or why they were fighting like this, it made me really hurt inside and I didn’t like it one bit, but I didn’t know what to say. It hurt enough that I wanted to cry, but adults say I’m getting big and I don’t think big fillies should cry. So I tried to hold it in, but they kept arguing.

“Me!”

“No, me!”

Eventually the hurt got so much that I did the only thing I could think to do and yelled, “Stop!” but I yelled too loud and made Ms. Prep notice us. She came back over, so both Melody and Ocean let go of me.

“What’s going on here?” Ms. Prep asked. “I thought you three were going to play nice?”

“Sorry,” Ocean said. Me and Melody didn’t say anything.

“I think I need to separate you for the rest of the day. Why don’t each of you find somepony else to play with, and you can play together again tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to!” Ocean said.

Ms. Prep gave him a look that wasn’t very nice. “In that case, maybe you should just lie down for another nap time until your parents come to pick you up.”

Ocean grumbled about playing with another colt, and he went off.

Melody looked at me. “Can me and Flurry play something quietly?”

“No, I think all of you should go do your own thing.”

“Okay…” Melody kicked the ground and her ears folded back, so I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t because I was still mad that she tried to pull me back and forth like a tug-of-war rope. But then before I could be too mad, she said, “I’m sorry, Flurry…”

So I said, “It’s okay. We’ll play later.”

And she nodded and walked away, I think she was going to go read because she went over by the books, but I don’t know.

Then it was just me and Ms. Prep. “Well, Flurry? What are you going to do?”

I didn’t really want to play with somepony else. I like the rest of my class too, but Ocean and Melody are my best friends ever and it makes me sad when I’m not allowed to play with them. “I think I’m going to draw a picture.”

Ms. Prep nodded. “Good idea. Let’s help you get some supplies.”

So Ms. Prep brought me to the supply closet, where she got out crayons and paper for me. I said, “Thank you,” then went over to my desk to draw a nice picture.

It was easy to decide what to draw. I couldn’t play with my friends, so I would draw a picture of the three of us together. Isn’t that a good idea? That way I wouldn’t be sad anymore.

I made sure to draw my friends really good and tried my best to not color outside the lines, even if I did a little anyway. Melody Charm is red with purple and pink hair, which her dad braids for her every morning. I tried to make it look good but it was really really hard to get that part right.

And then I drew Ocean Breeze. He’s dark green with a light blue mane and little white spots. But uhm, I didn’t know how to color white spots, so I didn’t. I hope he doesn’t mind… I also almost forgot to draw his wings but then I said oh I forgot to draw his wings and I did draw them after that.

Then I drew me in between them, because it’s my favorite place to be. Well, I also love being between my parents, or with my cousin Morning, or with my aunts, or my grandparents, or, or… Well, I think I just like being with ponies that I love who are nice to me, I think that’s probably the most important thing.

But then I didn’t really stop being sad, even when I drew a smile on my face in the picture. I want everyone to be happy like in the picture, and I don’t want to pick one of my friends over the other one. Both of them are the bestest friends and I love them both! Mommy says…

Hey, wait a minute, I should ask Mommy what to do! She’s really really smart, like, even smarter than Ocean that’s how super smart she is! She always teaches me about things like this, I think she’ll know what to do.

So I finished my drawing and showed it to another one of my friends while I waited for the day to end, and I wasn’t sad any more.

I always go home with one of the guards who works at our castle. He’s really nice, and sometimes he lets me ride on his back so I can be really tall, but today I walked next to him instead. He asked about school, so I told him what happened with my friends.

“Ah, I see,” he said. “Guess you’re at that age, then.”

“What age, Flash?”

Flash smiled. “Oh, the age when you start to think about stuff like love. That is, if you don’t think other foals have cooties.”

“I’ve never seen a cootie so I don’t think Ocean or Melody have any.”

What I said must have been very smart, because Flash nodded the way adults do when they agree with something. “Good thinking. When I was your age, I thought all the fillies in my class had cooties.”

“Oh. Did they?”

Flash smiled. “No, I was just a dumb colt. But you should ask your mom about what to do with your friends. She is the Princess of Love, you know.”

“I know,” I said, but I didn’t think that mattered. I wanted to ask her just because she’s my mommy, not because she’s a princess. I don’t think being a princess matters much, because I still get in trouble when I don’t eat all my broccoli and I think that means being a princess is the same as everypony else anyway.

Well, I guess it’s not exactly the same, because we do live in a big castle. Me and my friends like to play there because there’s so many rooms, it makes hide and seek the best. I’m glad we live in a castle, so I guess it’s good being a princess, even though my friends have cool houses too.

We got to the castle and Flash said he had to go talk to Daddy, but he told me where Mommy is so I said thank you very much because I’m a good filly, and then I went to go find her.

When I went into the room, she was sitting at a desk writing on a piece of paper. She does that a lot lately and it makes her really grumpy, and she once told me that’s because the things she’s writing are making other ponies grumpy too, but that she has to write them anyway. I guess if I had to do something that made other ponies grumpy I wouldn’t like it very much either.

Oh, but yeah, I went into the room and decided to cheer her up with a hug. She looked at me and smiled. “Hi, sweetheart. How was school?”

“It was good, but uhm, it was also bad.”

“Aww, I’m sorry to hear that.” Mommy stood and scooped me up in her foreleg. She brought me over to a couch that she uses to take breaks when she’s writing grumpy things, and we laid down on it together. “Wanna tell me about it?”

“Can I listen to my baby brother first?” I asked.

“Of course,” Mommy said, then she turned so I could put my head on her belly. It was getting really big, but Mommy and Daddy said it would still get bigger before the baby was born. “But what makes you think they’re going to be a boy?”

“Because I’m a girl, and that’s how it works. You have a girl, then a boy, then a girl, then a boy. And, uhm, it’s like that forever until you don’t have more foals anymore.”

Mommy stroked my mane and smiled. “Nope, doesn’t work that way, sweetheart. Remember Pinkie Pie, Auntie Twilight’s friend? She has three sisters and no brothers at all.”

“Oh. Well, uhm, I just hope they’re nice.”

“I’m sure they will be, but you know, they’ll be a lot of work too. But it’ll be worth it.”

“Because we’ll love each other?” I asked, then I smiled, because I felt the baby move against my head.

“That’s right, sweetie. Because we love each other.”

I pulled my head up from Mommy’s tummy and looked at her hooves. I knew she would be nice, but I was still a little shy to tell her what happened. “Two of my friends say they love me. That they want to marry me when we’re all big.”

“Oh really?” Mommy didn’t sound upset. When I looked up, she was smiling. “Which two? Do I know them?”

“Ocean Breeze and Melody Charm.”

“Oh, they’re nice foals. And do you feel the same way about them?”

“I don’t know.” I hadn’t really thought about that. I just wanted everypony to be happy, I didn’t really even think about what I wanted. “I guess… I’d like to marry either of them. They’re both nice, and we have a lot of fun together. But I don’t want to marry one of them and make the other one sad.”

“Well, maybe you could marry both of them. You’d be like Auntie Twilight.”

I shook my head. “I can’t do that because Melody is a filly and Ocean is a colt.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Auntie Fluttershy and Auntie Sunset are both fillies, Mommy.” I don’t know how she forgot that, but Mommy was silly sometimes, so I guess that makes sense. “Auntie Twilight is allowed to marry them both because they’re all girls!”

Mommy laughed. “No, she’d be allowed to marry them even if one of them was a stallion. Stuff like that doesn’t matter when it comes to love.”

“Really?” I thought about Melody and Ocean, and how happy we could be if I married both of them when we were big. Then the three of us could live in a castle and we’d play games together all the time and it would be really good.

“Even if the two of them don’t want to marry each other, they can both marry you.”

“Even if they don’t get married?” That sounded confusing, but if Mommy said it was true, then that’s what was true.

“Yes, even then. But you should know they might not want to share you. Some ponies don’t want to be in a poly relationship, and that’s okay too.”

“Poly?”

“That’s what it’s called when more than two ponies are in a relationship.”

“Oh.” I looked back down at Mommy’s hooves again. That didn’t sound as good. I looked at her hooves until she used one of them to brush my mane a little bit, then I looked up at her and she had a weird sort of smile. “But if they don’t want that, then I’ll have to hurt someone’s feelings…”

Mommy scooped me up and held me tight, which made me feel all safe and warm. “Here’s what you do. You go to school tomorrow, and you tell them that you either get to be in a relationship with both of them, or the three of you are just going to keep being friends.”

“I can do that?”

“Of course you can, sweetheart. No one can make you get married, or date someone, or anything like that. You can always say ‘no’.”

That made me feel better, but then I thought about it for a bit and said, “So, uhm, can I say no next time I have to eat broccoli?”

Mommy laughed. “Nice try, but you know you have to eat your greens. And you always like Grandpa’s broccoli.”

That was true, but it wasn’t the same. “Grandpa makes it good.”

“Hmm…” Mommy put her hoof to her chin, which is what adults do when they have to think really hard about something. “I’ll tell you what. If you’re a brave filly and tell your friends how you feel, I’ll learn to make broccoli like grandpa.”

“Okay. I think that sounds good.”

Mommy gave me a squeeze. “And you know I love you so much, right?”

I giggled. “I love you too, Mommy!”

“Good. And Flurry? Thank you for telling me about this.”

That was weird, because why wouldn’t I tell Mommy about this? But then, Mommy was silly sometimes, so it made sense. “You’re welcome, Mommy. Do you have to write more grumpy letters?”

“Actually, I was writing a nice letter. How would you feel if your aunts came to visit for a while?”

“Will Morning come too?”

“For a weekend, yes. Then she’ll have to go back to school, but one of your aunts – either Sunset or Twilight – will stay behind to help me with all those grumpy letters.”

“Yay! I think that sounds good!”

“I’m glad. Here, come help me finish writing this letter. You can tell me what you want to say to them.”

“Okay!”

So Mommy lifted me up again and we started walking to the table. Then she stopped and said, “Oh.”

So I got a little worried and said, “What’s wrong, Mommy?”

But she smiled and shook her head. “Nothing, your little sibling is just being rowdy. It feels like they’re trying to beat Mommy up from inside her tummy.”

“Oh no, I thought they were nice!”

Mommy set me down on top of the table she’d been writing on. “I’m sure they will be when they’re older. But babies aren’t really nice or mean, they’re just babies. They don’t know any better, so sometimes they might do things that you don’t like, or even hurt you a little bit, although they don’t mean to.”

“Oh. I guess they really are a lot of work, aren’t they?”

“They are, but you know, love is a lot of work sometimes.”

I nodded. I never knew that until today, but now I understood what Mommy meant. “It is, but uhm, I think it’s worth it.”

Mommy kissed my head. “I think so too, sweetheart.”

Even though Mommy read me what she’d written in the letter already, I kept thinking about going back to school in the morning. Love was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

Author's Note

Indoctrinating kids, go! :pinkiecrazy:

lol but really, before I get cancelled for shipping kids, I really want to emphasize that what's happening here is not an adult level romance. I actually did some reading on the topic of kindergarten romance before writing this, and it's perfectly normal for kids age ~5/6 to get into "relationships". They usually grow out of it, and honestly they'll probably forget like a month after all this happens. The best and healthiest thing an adult can do in this situation is exactly what Cadance does here. She normalizes those feelings without making a big awkward deal about it, because while the relationship isn't the same as an adult one, the feelings are real and kids at this age can learn a lot about expressing themselves that'll be helpful later in life when they're ready for real relationships.

As for the queer kids aspect, I haven't even decided what Flurry and her friends' adult orientations are going to be. This doesn't neccesarily mean Flurry is bi, these kids are exploring their feelings and trying things out in a safe and healthy way. Basically, this is the most wholesome queer kid fic I could possibly throw at you, so peep down in that comment section for the inevitable mess that comes from this!

Oh, and tune back in on Wednesday for the second and final chapter of this fic!

~~Man I had to edit out so much swearing from this AN because of the E-rating~~

2 – ...but it's worth it!!

Chapter 2
...but it's worth it!!

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Sometimes I don’t want to go to school. I don’t ever say anything because Mommy and Daddy say it’s good that I like to go to school, and I don’t want them to be sad because I don’t want to go to school but uhm sometimes I think I don’t want to go to school. Even when I was just waking up, I was afraid of talking to Melody and Ocean, even though Mommy said it was okay to say ‘no’ I didn’t want them to be mad at me.

But I said to myself that I’m a big filly and I have to be brave, and besides, I don’t want to make Mommy and Daddy sad by not going to school, so I went anyway. I ate breakfast and Daddy said, “Flurry, what’s wrong? You’ve barely touched your breakfast?” and then I ate more to show him that nothing was wrong even though really I was scared and didn’t want to.

And then on the way to school, Flash said, “You’ve been really quiet, are you feeling okay?”

So I smiled so he would feel good and said, “I’m okay!”

And he smiled and said, “Are you just tired?”

And that sounded like a good reason to be quiet so I said, “Yes,” and he didn’t expect me to talk anymore after that.

We got to school and Ms. Prep was there and she said, “Good morning, Flurry!”

I smiled at her and said, “Good morning! I’m looking forward to school today!” because I didn’t want her to be sad either.

Flash patted me on the head. “Flurry’s been feeling a little quiet this morning.”

And then Ms. Prep kneeled down so we were face to face and said, “Oh yeah? Well I know just what to do with quiet fillies…”

I knew Ms. Prep is a really nice mare and that she wouldn’t ever be mean to me, so I giggled and said, “What?”

And then she gave me a hug and said, “Make sure they get lots of love!”

And then I laughed and that made me happy and a little bit less scared, because I love Ms. Prep and she’s the best teacher in the world.

“Why don’t you go put your lunch in your cubby?” Ms. Prep said, so I took my lunchbox and brought it over to my cubby to put it away.

But then I got scared again, because when I got to my cubby, I saw Melody Charm at her desk. She was looking at me, but then when she saw me looking, she turned away and stared at her desk instead. I didn’t know what to do, so I put my lunchbox in my cubby and then walked over to talk to her.

But before I could, Ocean Breeze landed next to me. I didn’t even see him flying above me but that must be where he was. He likes to fly and sneak up on his friends, which I usually think is really funny, but today I wish he didn’t do that.

“Oh,” I said because I was surprised. “Hi, Ocean.”

“Hi, Flurry,” he said. “I’m sorry that I was bad yesterday.”

“It’s okay,” I said, and then I gave him a hug. “You’re still my friend, but don’t do that again! I don’t like when you pull on me!”

“Okay, I won’t do that,” he said, which made me happy.

But I wasn’t happy for long, because I saw Melody put her head in her hooves. So I flew over to her, and Ocean Breeze flew behind me.

“Hi, Melody,” I said.

“Hi, Flurry,” she said, even though it sounded funny because she still had her head in her hooves.

“I’m sorry about yesterday, Melody,” Ocean said. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you.”

Melody picked her head up, but she didn’t look at us. “I’m sorry too. Are we still friends?”

“Yeah, we can still be friends,” Ocean said.

I was so happy that my friends were getting along again that I almost forgot about the other thing I wanted to talk to them about, but then Melody didn’t forget because she said, “You probably want to marry Ocean instead of me because I was a mean filly.”

And then I wanted to say that I want to marry both of them just like Mommy said I should say, but it was really hard! I didn’t know why it was so hard to say, but I looked down at my hooves and I didn’t say anything.

But then I heard Melody sniffling and I looked up and she was crying. Not a lot, just a little bit, but I didn’t like seeing her cry. It was a little weird because she was sitting at her desk and I wasn’t, but I gave her a hug anyway. “I do want to marry you, Melody!”

“You do?” Melody looked up and she smiled, she looked so happy that it made me happy too! I had a big smile on my face because of how happy Melody was and I wanted to hug her again.

But then I heard Ocean say, “Oh,” and then I didn’t want to smile anymore. I turned to look at him and he was sad, but he wasn’t crying. I thought maybe it was because he was a boy, but I saw him cry before so maybe that wasn’t why.

I still didn’t know if they would want to, but I knew I had to say what Mommy told me to say because if I didn’t one of them would be sad. “I, uhm, I think I should marry both of you,” I said. I kept my eyes on them, and I was a little bit scared of what they would say.

While I was watching, Melody’s mouth fell open, and then I knew what she was going to say before she even said it. “What? You can’t marry him if you marry me!”

“Yeah, that’s not how it works, Flurry!” Ocean said. His mouth didn’t fall open but instead he turned his head to the side. “You have to marry one of us!”

That made me a little angry so I frowned and stomped my hoof. “I don’t have to marry either of you!”

Ocean and Melody both looked at each other, then back at me. “But you gotta marry somepony,” Ocean said. “Everypony does.”

“You don’t want to marry somepony else, do you?” Melody asked.

“No, I don’t have to marry anypony because my mommy said so! And if I don’t marry both of you, then I’m not going to marry anypony!”

“Flurry, if we all get married, then ponies are going to think that’s weird…” Melody said. “I don’t think we can do that.”

“My aunts are all married and even if one of them was a boy they would still be married. Even if, uhm, even if they didn’t all want to be married, they still could be.” That didn’t sound right, but I knew Mommy had said something like that. It all made so much more sense when she had said it, but now I couldn’t think of how it went.

“But your aunts are all princesses!” Ocean said, then he poked me with his hoof. “You’re a princess, so you can marry as many ponies as you want, but me and Melody aren’t princesses so we can’t do that, so you have to only marry one pony or marry other princesses!”

Melody laughed a little. “Princess Ocean Breeze would be a pretty filly.”

Ocean’s face went a little red and he said, “Well, I’m not a princess so there!”

“But I don’t want to marry a princess,” I said. “And anyway, Mommy said we could all get married and she knows lots and lots of stuff, so she’s right! Besides, Ms. Prep says sharing is important!”

“Flurry…” Melody said.

“Why are girls so weird!?” Ocean threw a hoof up in the air. “Just pick one of us!”

“What’s going on over there?” Ms. Prep called from the doorway.

“Nothing!” Ocean called back. I guess that Ms. Prep believed him because she didn’t come check on us, but we all knew that we had to be quiet.

And that made me think that being quiet might be a good idea. “Fine, I know what I’m picking.”

“Yeah?” Ocean said, and Melody leaned in closer to hear better.

“I’m picking that you two have to decide if you both want to marry me, or else I’m not marrying anyone.”

“But –”

“No!” I said before Melody could say anything else. “You have to figure it out, and until you do, I’m not talking to either one of you! I’m just going to be a quiet filly all day long and, uhm, you can just play games without me forever and ever if you don’t tell me.”

Then I ran away, but it was really because I wanted to cry again. I didn’t want them to play without me forever and ever. I didn’t even want them to play without me for today only, I wanted things to be good between all three of us and to always play together forever! Love was stupid…

I ran all the way to the door, where I stopped at Ms. Prep’s legs. “What’s wrong, Flurry?” she asked.

“Can I sit somewhere else today?” I asked.

“You don’t want to sit with Ocean and Melody?”

I shook my head. “No, I want to sit with, uhm, with someone else.”

Ms. Prep looked at my friends and then back at me. “I see. Are you three having a fight?”

I wanted to say no because we’re really good friends and I didn’t want us to be having a fight, but instead I said, “I don’t know…”

And then Ms. Prep put her hoof on my shoulder and then pointed to a desk. “Why don’t you take the desk by mine? Then if you want to tell me about it, I’ll be right there.”

“Okay,” I said, and then I walked over to my new desk. When I walked past my friends I didn’t look at them one little bit.

It was hard to not talk to my friends, but Ms. Prep said I did the right thing and that made it a tiny bit easier. I still really wanted to talk to them, but whenever I thought I should talk to them, I would look at Ms. Prep and she would smile and I wouldn’t talk to them.

It wasn’t too bad when Ms. Prep was teaching us about numbers in the morning. I wasn’t sitting near them, and I had something else to think about. But then after that we had snack time, and it was hard then because we always eat our snacks together.

Melody Charm came up to me when I was eating. “Do you want to share my apple slices?” she asked, which I thought wasn’t very fair because she knows apples are my favorite!

But even though I really wanted some of those apple slices, I just turned away. Besides, my Mommy packed me pear slices and a banana for snack time, and those are good too.

“Flurry… Just talk to me.”

I tried to close my ears by folding them back against my head, but it didn’t help because I could still hear Melody when she talked to me.

“Come on! You don’t really want to marry Ocean do you? He always wants to do things his way and play the games he wants to play. You know I’ll do things you want to do, and play games you want to play, and, and… and, uhm… well, you should just marry me instead!”

I wanted to say ‘Melody, I’m not talking to you’ but then I would be talking to her so I decided I wouldn’t say that. Instead I folded my forelegs and kept looking away.

“Please, at least talk to me…” Melody didn’t say anything for a second or two, then she said, “Fine! I don’t want to marry you anymore anyway! You’re… you’re mean!”

And then I heard her hoofsteps as she ran away, so I turned to look and I saw her running back to her desk. That made me really sad and feel all bad inside, and I thought maybe I am being mean and maybe I should marry Melody.

But then I thought maybe Melody is the one being mean because she wants me to marry her even when I said I didn’t want to if I couldn’t also marry Ocean! Mommy said I’m allowed to say no, so she has to let me say no! Even though I really didn’t want to say no because Melody is a really good friend and marrying her would be a lot of fun, but not if it hurt Ocean.

My tummy felt all funny and I decided I didn’t want to eat my snack after all.

I was really hungry by the time lunch came, so I ate even though my tummy still felt all squirmy inside. I told Ms. Prep afterwards and she asked if I wanted to go home and I said no, and she said it’s called butterflies in my tummy, and I thought that was silly because I think I would know if I ate a butterfly but then I thought oh well I did eat daffodils at lunch and butterflies like those but Ms. Prep laughed and said it was just an expression and that there weren’t really butterflies in there that’s just what ponies call it.

Well, I like butterflies, but only when they’re not in my tummy! But after lunch time was nap time, so I hoped the butterflies would quiet down and go to sleep with me. But before I could sleep, I heard somepony talking.

“Psst,” a voice said quietly. “Flurry, it’s me.”

And I knew who me was, it was Ocean Breeze, he just didn’t say that this time but I knew it anyway. I didn’t say anything to him.

“Flurry, if you marry me, I’ll give you half of my lunch for the rest of the year!”

I didn’t really want Ocean’s lunch because I wasn’t hungry anymore, but I didn’t say that because I wasn’t talking to him today.

“Think about it, Melody doesn’t like when we go out and play in the grass ‘cause it makes her all itchy. You love playing in the grass, so you don’t want to marry someone who won’t play in the grass with you!”

I rolled onto my side away from him and covered up with my blankie. Then even though I could still hear him, I pretended I couldn’t.

“Flurry, just say something! You know you’re too nice to keep not talking to me!”

“Ocean, is that you I hear?” Ms. Prep said. “I think Flurry would like it if you moved your mat somewhere else for today. Besides, you know there’s no talking during nap time.”

Even though I wasn’t looking, I could hear Ocean sigh. “Yes, Ms. Prep…” And then he moved his mat away and I squeezed my eyes shut tight and didn’t cry at all!

…okay maybe I cried just a little bit…

The day was hard, and I thought maybe I should have gone home early after all. Sometimes the butterflies would be there and sometimes they wouldn’t, and when they were there I would look down at my tummy and say, “Please go away, butterflies,” but they didn’t usually.

Eventually it got to be the end of the day though, and we were allowed to play until it was time to go. All of the kids played with their best friends, except for me. I asked Ms. Prep to help me get stuff to draw another picture, and I was all alone by myself.

I sighed and looked down at my paper and my crayons. I knew what to draw, but it made me sad because I thought maybe I’ll only get to play with my friends in my drawings for the rest of forever.

Before I started drawing, I looked up and saw Ocean and Melody. They were together, and they looked at me, but then they kept talking.

And that was when I learned that something worse than butterflies can live in my tummy too. I thought maybe these were tummy snakes because they wrapped around my inside bits and made me feel really bad and made it hard to breathe. I turned back to my paper, and wondered what they were talking about.

Maybe they were deciding that they didn’t want to be my friend because I had been mean to them all day long. Mommy said I was allowed to say no, but maybe she was wrong. Mommy’s never wrong, but maybe this time she was.

Or maybe they would decide they didn’t want to marry me anymore, and I didn’t like that either. Maybe they would marry each other and I would be the one who didn’t get to marry either of them. They’re really good friends and I love them both a lot, and I didn’t like that idea either.

I picked up a crayon in my mouth and tried to start drawing the me pony on the paper, but I bit down too hard and the crayon broke in my mouth. It didn’t taste very good and I had spit it out and I licked my hoof to get the taste of wax off my tongue, and then I looked down at the page.

There was a bad line going up from where my body was supposed to be going to my head. I frowned, not happy that I had messed up my drawing and I thought maybe I was just only going to mess everything up forever!

“I can fix it,” Melody said quietly. I didn’t even know she was behind me, but when I looked back there she was. Ocean was with her too, but he just looked down at the ground.

I didn’t say anything, but she picked up the crayon and drew my wing where the line was. It didn’t even look like I had messed up at all, because Melody is really good at drawing.

I wanted to say thank you, but I was supposed to not be talking to them, so I didn’t. Then Melody did something funny, she looked down and said she was sorry to me!

“I’m sorry,” she said, and then she looked up. “I’m a bad friend.”

“Me too,” Ocean said, and he sat down on the other side of me. “We’ve been really mean to you.”

“It’s okay,” I said before I remembered I’m not supposed to talk to them.

“We talked about it,” Ocean said, then he looked at Melody.

“And we don’t want to stop being your friends.” Melody smiled a little bit. “That’s the most important thing.”

“I’ll still be your friend if we don’t get married,” I said. I rolled around one of the crayons and didn’t look at either of them. “I didn’t really want to not talk to you today, it was really hard.”

“We know,” Melody said. “No matter what, we’ll stay friends.”

I smiled, happy that at least I got to keep that.

But even though it would be good enough to just be friends with the two of them, something even better happened! Ocean looked at me and said, “We decided you can marry both of us if you want.”

Then my eyes got really big because they were full of surprise! I said, “Really?” and they both nodded.

“You’re really smart, Flurry,” Ocean said. “If you think it’s okay, then it must be okay.”

“And Ocean has a lot of fun game ideas,” Melody said. “I see why you want to marry him.”

“And Melody is really nice, and she always looks after us,” Ocean said. “So that’s why you want to marry her.”

“And neither of you is sad that I’m marrying both of you?” I asked.

Melody smiled. “No, we’re not sad. And… if other ponies think it’s weird we’ll just take care of each other, so it doesn’t matter.”

Then I hugged Melody, and she hugged me back. And even though he doesn’t like hugging as much, I hugged Ocean next, and he hugged me too! And I was so happy, I couldn’t stop smiling!

“You’re good friends,” I said.

“You too,” Ocean said.

“Best friends,” Melody said.

I smiled more, and I looked down at my drawing. “Do you two want to help me finish this drawing? It’s gonna be us!”

“Okay,” they both said, and they got crayons and helped color. I never stopped smiling, even though Ocean always colors outside the lines.

Author's Note

Let it never be said I can't write something happy if I'm so moved! Now, I probably won't be so moved again for a long time, but...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our little puppy love story. I'm currently writing a Deltarune fanfic called Tension Points if anyone has any interest in that, and you can get more of your fix for Who We Become stories over here from thedarkprep who is currently posting a story called The Opening Act, set in the human side of the WWB world.

Now then, have some end of act music!