Sugar bobbed in her chair, rubbing her hooves together and humming fretfully. "This is a big decision you're dropping on me..."

Cadance reached across to gently pat the mare. "Deep breaths. No judgement here. We are all adults that want each other to leave this meeting happy, which means you should tell the truth, not what you think others want you to say."

"Right, not that..." Sugar Belle leaned back. "What we have here..." She gestured wildly between Fancy and Big Mac. "Done read about this before! This here's a love triangle... with four sides. A love rectangle? That a thing?"

Big Mac shrugged helplessly. Fancy adjusted his monocle with a glowing horn. "I say, my life reduced to a romance novel... but there are roots, long ago, and in the modern day." He glanced towards Cadance. "Polyarmory."

Cadance nodded, barely restraining the giggle rising up in her. "That is exactly the word. One example of that is the classic, and outdated, 'herd'. Funny thing, a lot of ponies think herds had one stallion and a gathering of mares around them." She rose her brows together. "Whimsical, but unlikely. Herds were any mix of ponies, really. When they were popular, they ranged from two, to a dozen."

Big Mac's eyes widened. "A dozen?!"

"Or more," allowed Cadance with a sly grin. "It was, at that point, a family. It couldn't operate entirely on a one to one lust, it was too complex to survive on that alone. You had a social order, you had agreements worked out between them. They'd often have a pony or two that became the 'parents' of the group, the ones in charge. They'd still be members of it, but if disagreement broke out, they'd be the ones you'd turn to to settle it."

Sugar sagged with a groan. "This was your idea the entire time, wasn't it?"

Cadance did her best to look innocent.

Sugar thumped the table suddenly, hoof sharply slapping against it. "Well, I can't agree with this none! I... only know him second hoof, at best." She waved at Fancy wildly. "That is hardly enough. That and Big Mac's family's kinda big on 'tradition', and 'tradition' right now is one mare and one stallion. We come to them with a different arrangement and that's going to be a lot of friction."

"Yeah..." Big Mac could imagine that going down. "But..." Sugar looked to him curiously. "But... Ah was wrong last time."

Fancy inclined his head. "What were you wrong about?"

"'Bout my family... Ah thought... Ah didn't trust 'em, and they showed me. Ah was bein' a foal! Mah granny... She wants me to be happy... And if she gets great grandfoals out of it, doubt she'd be all upset in the end..." Big Mac sat up, clearing his throat. "They'd be surprised, but ah don't think they'd disown me or nothin'. Ain't gonna make that mistake again."

Sugar Belle gave an emphatic, "Aw..." She rested a hoof on him. "That's really sweet. But you just took my excuse away from me." It had all been thrown right back at her. She was the one. Either she went with it, and a new potential family could emerge, or she wasn't... "Fine! Fine." She looped an arm around Big Mac, wrenching him closer. "I call dibs! I saw him first. And I trust him to be a lovely pony that's full of wonder, but not to make big decisions. So I'm the one in charge of this family, so there." She scowled at the table as if inviting them to challenge her.

Cadance made no such move, backing away a little with her hooves up, surrendering that battle without a fight.

Fancy Pants raised one brow. "I can, and do, make many decisions on a daily basis. One does not achieve my level of standing with a deficiency in that regard... Not long or well, at least. Still, you did 'see' him first. It would be churlish of me to argue your seniority in this affair." It could have been argued that Fancy saw Big Mac first, but that wasn't a romantic connection, and he didn't bring it up.

Big Mac inclined his head left and right slowly. "So... uh... that mean... he's in?" Big Mac pointed at Fancy curiously.

"No." Sugar shook her head to make that extra clear. "Just means we're a thing. You should know that. But now, as the... parent... of this group." She tapped at her own chest. "It falls on me to interview and consider a new applicant." She turned that hoof on Fancy. "That's him." In case there was any confusion there.

Cadance clapped her hooves in eager applause. "Lovely! Well, I hate to miss how this goes, but... technically... I don't think you need me anymore. Talk, get to know one another, and decide." She looked to Big Mac. "And drop by to tell me which way you go. I want to know... Oh, and invite me, if you wish, to the wedding." All three ponies besides her blushed brightly. "Don't look like that. Ponies fall in love, wedding follows. Don't think polyamorous groups don't do it if there's no rule saying they can't, and Auntie has no such law on the books."

Big Mac coughed softly, rubbing behind his head. "Well... We ain't ready fer that, or even very close. Um... Just found out today he even has feelin's fer me!"

Fancy nodded in solidarity. "Far too early to consider." He tossed his mane, a trick ponies with well kept manes seemed to have. "Sugar Belle, ma'am, if you'd allow, I'd like to get to know you better. If you find me of agreeable temperament and circumstance, perhaps more can come of it, but that is not what I'm asking today."

"R-right..." She saw Cadance departing with poorly held giggles. That princess was enjoying things way too much... "I'd like to get to know you too." She offered a hoof towards him. "Here's to a new hopeful friendship."

They pressed their hooves together in a motion soft enough to not produce a clop. Fancy's horn glowed as he took hold of her hoof and drew it closer as his own moved to cradle it. He kissed the back of it gently. "Fair madame, I do hope I meet your requirements."

Sugar Belle sat back, hoof reclaimed, and cheeks on fire. "Y-yeah..." Wait, no, that wasn't the right response. "Um! So... You don't live here." She waved around the small room, now princess-less. "You have to get back to Canterlot, right?"

Big Mac inclined an ear. "I'll help him and Cadance get back tonight. But they both planned to be here today."

"Too right." Fancy nodded at Big Mac. "Thank you, for lending a hoof. That is quite the useful talent you have there."

"Ain't it though?" easily agreed Sugar Belle with a smile. "Speaking of that... I'd like to see your place, but first, you should see mine." She hopped to her hooves. "This meeting is officially over." She clomped a hoof on the floor. Neither stallion argued that motion, and thus is passed. They instead followed her out onto the street, where Sugar Belle wheeled around. "Big Mac, honeybunch, go distract yourself."

Big Mac blinked owlishly at that command. "Uh?"

"Can't get to know him with company, now can I? He has feelings. I may ask questions he doesn't want to answer for a crowd." She raised a hoof under Big Mac's chin. "Let your mother mare do her sudden new job."

Big Mac felt heat raising. Mother mare? "Uh... Okay..." He took a step back. "But if ya need anythin', ah won't be too far away."

Fancy turned to Big Mac. "You have my solemn vow, stallion to stallion, that I will answer questions, and nothing further. It would be a grave breach of etiquette to take a single step beyond that." He raised a hoof to his chest. "And certainly would cost me my place here, besides being of repugnant nature I would not tolerate."

Big Mac began to smile at that. "Good." He could trust Fancy to be a proper pony. It was basically his talent. "Ah hope ya enjoy the visit then. Be sure to try one of her cookies. She makes 'em real good."

Sugar burst into giggles. "I am a baker. Cookies are a thing I do, often... This way!" She led Fancy off towards her house, leaving Big Mac behind.

He sank to his haunches. "Hm." How had that gone? It certainly could have gone worse... They hadn't resolved the whole thing... but they had taken a step forward. Cadance seemed to think that was good enough, the way she dashed off. Was it? And was he happy with it?

What would such a strange family look like?

Realization crashed into him. "Oh!" It seemed so obvious looking back on it...

Orchard Blossom would get a stallion. Big Mac would keep his mare. That the two of them were basically the same pony didn't change it. They would all, all of them, all three? four? They'd all be a family, like siblings that got married and were really tight. Really really tight. They'd never kiss each other, no, ew. Also impossible, in Blossom/Big Mac's case. But they were close enough to want their plus ones to be a part of that family...

Big Mac rest a hoof against his head. It was painful that it sorta made sense and was completely bonkers...

"Uh..."

"Hey." A new pony approached. "You're Big Mac, right? Sugar Belle's main squeeze?"

Big Mac looked at them, a white earth pony with snowflakes on his rump. "Um... Double Diamond, right?"

"Yep!" He seemed pleased to be remembered. "How're you doing?"

"Confused... but alright ah think." He offered a hoof, getting a friendly clop in return. "How're thin's?"

"Oh, this place?" He waved over the town. "It doesn't change much. Shoot, you were the newest thing to happen since the whole... Starlight thing... Suddenly we got a visiting princess and super rich pony. Phew! Intense..."

Big Mac took a step back. "Oh! Sorry 'bout that. They don't mean no trouble, honest."

"Don't think they do." Double inclined his head slowly. "Now what are you doing, here, alone? You and Sugar are usually pretty close together if you aren't in the middle of leaving."

"She's meetin' with another pony. Ah'm givin' her space."

"Good on you." He turned and pointed. "Want to get something to eat while we wait?" Double led Big Mac along to the town's only eatery. "You farm apples, right?"

"Ayup!" His announcement was full of joyful pride. Apple farmer, that was him! "Don't got any on me though, sorry 'bout that."

"No big deal." He hopped up onto a chair and sank. "They have some of your apples right here if you want one. Apple apples are the only apples we get here."

Big Mac smiled at that. "Oh! Well..." He would be the one delivering those apples... gladly. "Right glad to hear that. Um, 'ssumin' you like 'em?"

"Sure! Apples aren't my favorite food, but they're good, and great for a snack, you know?"

"Yeah... But ya can cook 'em up into all kindsa thin's! Um, sorry. Y'ain't here to listen to a bunch of apple tricks."

Double laughed at Mac's discomfort. "Don't be like that, we all have our specialties, what we love talking about. Now, snowboarding? Oooo, I could talk about that for hours, don't even get me started." He waved that away. "But I would... So, yeah, if you want to share your passion for apples, the least I can do is listen, and maybe you'll do the same when it's my turn."

"Huh... Well... If yer invitin'." With official permission given, Big Mac shared some tasty ways to make apples more than just a casual treat.

This meant he got to hear about snowboarding in return. Fair was fair. Double Diamond did make it sound kinda fun.

Author's Note

It is possible to just make a friend in the middle of this romance storm.

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