Cheerilee let out a long, heavy sigh, idly looking up at the clear and cool skies as she sat down at one of Ponyville’s restaurants.

“Hey Cheerilee, whatcha up to?”

Cheerilee snapped out of her sky-watching. “Oh! Hello, Sunburst. I’m just...enjoying the nice and cool weather while it lasts,” she said with a slightly forced smile. “Won’t be long until it’s winter, you know.”

Sunburst let out a short, awkward laugh. “Hah, wish I could say the same. Even with the Crystal Heart in place, the empire is still pretty chilly year-round. Um...Mind if I sit with you?”

“Go right ahead!”

As Sunburst sat down across from Cheerilee, she went back to gazing up at the sky, taking an occasional sip from her drink.

Curious, Sunburst started looking up as well, trying to see if there was something special up there he needed to be looking at as well. “What...what are we supposed to be looking at?”

“Ah, sorry, I’m not looking at anything in particular. Just...lost in thought today, I suppose.”

“What’s on your mind?”

“Just a little disappointed I didn’t make it this year, that’s all.” Cheerilee started to blush. “It’s a little silly, I know…”

“No, I totally get it.” Sunburst nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “I-It would’ve been nice to join everyone else in that orgy…”

Cheerilee started to smile sheepishly. “I guess going out wasn’t all bad, though. Even if I missed a lot of opportunities, I still get to say I got laid by a Wonderbolt...”

“Oh yeah! That was definitely a shock, learning that both of you eliminated each other.” Sunburst tried to hide his smile, though he was doing a poor job at it. “At first I just thought it was just a crazy coincidence, but...wow! Those were some faces of passion right there...”

“I’m sure it was nothing compared to the faces of all the ponies waiting for me as we returned back to the finish line,” Cheerilee joked. “There was a looot of explaining to do…”

“Yeesh, don’t envy you there.”

“It’s probably stinging you a little bit more, considering you and Autumn were so close to the end.”

Sunburst nonchalantly shrugged. “There’s always next year. Besides, Autumn was more than willing to make it up to me.”

Cheerilee leaned in closer on the table. “Oh? Do tell!”

As Sunburst was about to recall some fond memories, some familiar voices caught both their attention.

“Pfft, you should’ve seen their faces when I came back with Cheeri-Oh hey! Didn’t expect to see you two together!” Soarin’ and Autumn ran over to the table.

“Yeah, same here!” Sunburst waved. “What are you guys doing here?”

Autumn immediately took a seat next to Sunburst. “I was gonna tell Soarin’ here the story of how we got each other out by getting each other off!”

“Heh, I was gonna tell the same story to Cheerilee over here.”

“Speaking of, you two weren’t the only ones that clopped out that day,” Cheerilee interjected. “Was Princess Cadence there with you?”

Sunburst’s blush got deeper. “No, but she was in the castle. So it must’ve...y’know, rubbed off on her.”

“Ahhh, I just thought it was a threesome sorta thing.” Soarin’ nodded. “Like you tried to one-up me and Cheerilee or something.”

“Oh, when we looked up and saw Cadence got eliminated, we had that moment of panic like ‘Aw fuck, did we make that happen?’ We felt soooo bad about it! Buuuut then we continued fucking. I...I was really pent up that day.”

The four of them began to laugh. The absurdity of each of their situations and how seriously they took it started to settle in.

“Heh, what a strange group we make together,” Soarin’ chuckled.

“Even if we didn’t make it this year, it was still nice to catch up with all of you. Twilight did a great job bringing us all together,” Cheerilee said, looking between the three of them.

“Yeah, shame we can’t reap the full benefits of it, though,” Sunburst sighed.

Autumn suddenly gasped, a huge smile appearing on her face. “You know, just cause we’re out doesn’t mean we can’t have our own fun...”

“Come on, Applejack! I said I was sorry!”

“Ah know, doesn’t mean I still can’t be bitter ‘bout losing...” Applejack grumbled.

“...Would a trip to the spa help make it up to you?” Rarity asked, smiling sweetly as she rubbed up against Applejack’s side. “I’ll pay for the deluxe treatment for both of uuuus…”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Feel like you just wanted an excuse to go to the spa...but yes, that’d be nice.”

The pair made their way to the spa, settling themselves in on the massage tables.

“Heh, gonna go for a repeat of last week?” Applejack teased.

“Ha ha,” Rarity laughed dryly. “Even if I did, I hardly think it matters...”

The two could hear another mare moaning loudly, seemingly without regard for anyone else in the room. “Ohhh yeah...right there…!”

Applejack and Rarity looked over, trying to see who was getting their happy ending. Evidently, Trixie was just very enthusiastic about getting her horn filed.

“Oh, hey Trixie, didn’t expect to see ya here.”

“Nnnf, well, Trixie needed this after all the work she’s done...” she said, not looking back so that her horn filing was done properly. “Are you two doing the same?”

“Kinda, Rarity’s doing this to apologize for getting me out first,” Applejack said with a smirk.

“Ah, that was a wonderful day,” Trixie snickered. “One where all of Trixie’s efforts finally came to fruition, forever immortalized by your incredibly horny and needy o-face!”

“Thanks…”

“Though I must say, the fireworks were a lovely addition to the game.” Rarity chimed in. “They certainly added an extra level of excitement!”

“Why, thank you! Trixie worked very hard at getting them all set up!” she beamed.

“Heh, gotta admit, it was pretty funny seeing your face all giggly and dizzy like that,” Applejack chuckled.

“At least Trixie’s didn’t look like she was caught in a wind tunnel while getting off...”

Applejack and Trixie bursted out in laughter, recalling the sight of Rarity’s face lighting up the skies while Rarity huffed.

“So close...I was so close!” Cadence sighed, gazing up at the skies as she leaned against the balcony.

“Still hoping that you weren’t the last one out, huh?” Shining snarked, seeing his wife in the same place he saw her ten minutes ago.

Cadence laughed sheepishly, stepping away from the railing as if she wasn’t already caught. “A mare can dream, can’t she?”

“You know, I really did think that you, Sunburst, and Autumn all just decided to give up with a very pent-up threesome,” Shining chuckled. “Though finding out that you just got overwhelmed by them having sex seemed more like a thing that’d happen to you.”

“I’m sure that’s what everyone else thinks happened, too,” Cadence smiled and rolled her eyes as her husband continued to deservedly tease her.

“Well, I’ll try to have some actual threesomes during the celebration to make up for it.”

“Thanks, my ever-supportive husband.” Cadence playfully rolled her eyes.

“It was awfully nice of you to give Thorax a chance, though,” Shining put his hoof around her shoulder. “You could’ve easily just let him lose alongside you.”

Cadence gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Well, if you get the chance, you could ask him to make it up to me through you.”

“Heh, any other requests, dear?”

“Actually…” Cadence pressed her hooves together. “Do you think you could modify that Chastity Shield to work for mares?”

Shining tilted his head to the side, giving the idea some serious thought, though he couldn’t resist throwing in a little more snark. “I dunno, you’ve been pretty eager to make fun of me during all of my test runs. Are you sure you wanna give all that up?”

“Well, your way’s been doing better than my way, so I concede,” Cadence said, overexaggerating a bow to match Shining’s playful jabs.

“Hehe, we can start workshopping some ideas later.”

Over at the study hall, Ocellus, Smolder, and Silverstream sat at the same table.

The changeling and dragon kept exchanging awkward looks. There was one little issue that needed to be resolved now that the month was coming to an end, though neither of them felt brave enough to bring it up.

Silverstream looked between the two, finally speaking her mind. “So, how are you two going to do the whole thing you bet on when neither of you are gonna make it to the orgy?”

Well, that was one way to finally break the tension.

“Heh, I guess we both kinda forgot that we’d have to actually make it before we could actually compete against each other,” Smolder weakly chuckled, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, though I guess the whole thing was a moot point halfway though,” Ocellus shrugged. “Since I wasn’t the one that went out first.”

“And I wasn’t the one so scared of losing that I had to cheat…” Smolder said through gritted teeth.

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“Nope, it’s nothing.”

“So...does that mean you’re both losers?” Silverstream asked.

“I mean, we could just do it anyway? Just the two of us?” Ocellus suggested.

“Nah, it’s not the same,” Smolder shook her head. “Guess the battle between changelings and dragons will have to conclude some other time.”

Both of them slumped in their seats in disappointment, until Ocellus suddenly perked back up again.

“...Wait, Ember and Thorax are still in, right?”

Smolder slammed her hands on the desk, standing up straight. “Ocellus, you’re a GENIUS! We gotta go tell them!”

“The fight has found a way to continue!” the changeling declared. “And now you’re going down for sure!”

“We’re pitting Thorax vs. Ember, you’re SCREWED!”

Silverstream watched as her friends ran off, laughing and exchanging playful jabs, though she didn’t seem to mind being ditched. She shrugged it off and returned back to her room.

She reached under her bunk, pulling out a slightly stained cardboard box, and dumping its contents on the mattress.

“Welp, I still got all the time in Equestria to enjoy this!” The hippogriff greedily looked over her collection of newly-found sex toys, trying to decide which combination she wanted to go with next.

Author's Note

Wrapping up most of the story arcs here.