Ninety-eight percent...

I'm only nineteen, I'm just now getting into the throws of acting my age. I, Spike the Dragon, who had no active adolescent experience worth remembering or accounting past a government obligation, am looking down the barrel of life with absolutely no recourse. There's a ninety-eight percent chance that in a few weeks, there are going to be a few eggs with my spots on them. That thought alone made me drink the rest of the night onward. And by the time we got back to the room, I just dropped in a bed and thought about it for a brief moment before my alcohol-dumbed senses took over and ushered me to sleep. Now, I have but three words to describe my mood.

"Ugh... my head."

While I didn't drink enough to black out and forget all of the dealings pertaining to last night's wet and wild debauchery, I'm still granted the status effects of the alcohol doing a number on my body. Nausea is evident but not pronounced, the headache is carrying the weight of my symptoms. I look at my phone, even the moderately low brightness of the screen causes me to loathe existing. Well I guess this is what they call the hangover, didn't know dragons could get those. Glad I could fuck around and find that one out, really happy to know I'm not immune to that, such a fucking honor... Kill me so I don't deal with the pain, please make it quick.

Oh yeah, my chest and back hurts too. My body's still healing from the romp Smolder and I had, and she wasn't about to let me have that one for free. Maybe I can negotiate with her the next time she might want to get frisky, if there's even a next time after this. Oh shit, I'm imagining how Ember's gonna react to me dealing with Smolder before her. I don't think I can visit her for a long while, at least until I know how soon dragon pheromones can dissipate. And last I checked, those tend to last for a while, a year or more even.

The sound of something hitting the ground next to me sounds out loudly, I look at the clock on my phone to see it's about noon. I look over to see that my roommate and his fiancé are currently going at it. I would be able to commentate on the action, but there's a lot of brown fur blocking me from being able to see much. All I can say is that there's a pair of mint green hooves slowly patting the hulking brown figure above him. The yak raises her head, revealing her flushed face and unbraided hair cascading down her sides. Often times her voice is so blunt and loud, but now it's soft and pleading. "One more before we go."

Sandbar's face pops up after he unveils himself from the curtain of his fiancé's mane. "Yona, we went seven times. You woke me up at 4:30 in the morning to do this. We rescheduled the train four times already, we need to go."

She leans down, covering him up inadvertently as she kisses him in yet another plea. "Yona still too hot."

"Yeah, I know." He comments before blowing a few strands of her hair out from over his mouth. "But don't you think we need to let room service change these sheets? They're a mess right now."

"Sweet, please?" She mewls as she grinds herself against him.

"No... we need to go. And you need to stop suppressing your urges. We talked about this a million times." He says, trying to escape from her.

She kisses him yet again. "One more, promise. Sandbar can complain later."

"You said that two rounds ago." He gripes.

"Please, it's so hot." She moans, her hips rising and falling a little faster.

Seeing that she's already started on her next round of Faust-only-knows-how-many, Sandbar capitulates with a pained grunt and a tap on her side. "Okay. You're insatiable when you're like this."

"Yona can't help it. Sandbar make Yona too hot and bothered." She says in between moans.

I try to leave the room, not to disturb the two going at their rounds. Sandbar can only see the slight movement of a shadow before lifting a lock of Yona's hair out of his eyes to address me. "Spike, you're up?"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna leave you two to do what you do." I reply as I walk out.

Yona makes a brief apology. "Yona sorry Spike has to see this. Yona go without for weeks because of business."

"Don't apologize for that. We're all grown here. Get it in." I encourage before walking out of the room. Ocellus lays on the couch, going through her phone as she watches me enter the room. "Well I'm surprised to see you're not pouncing at the opportunity to dump some built-up sexual frustration after hearing those two in there."

"Yeah, they've been at it for a while." The changeling confirms as she puts her phone down.

"Seems like he's bit off more than he can chew." I note of his very obvious size disadvantage in contrast to her. "I just hope he doesn't get smothered by her hair or something."

"He's fine, he's living for every moment of that shit. He likes for Yona to smother him, that's all he could think of for years until she got comfortable enough to let him try to mount her. You should've seen how bad he was for her around four years ago. You ever see a stallion belly slap himself out of frustration?"

"Uh, no." I answer.

"Yeah, he was busting loads all over campus just because he saw her walking in front of him. That's how bad he was for her. And she was so scared to hurt him, he had to beg her to sit on him one time. And from there, he just had himself a ball."

"Did you help him with his thing?" I ask curiously.

"Nope. But I worked with Yona because she trusted me to tell me if I was hurting her. I mean she's a nice girl, just way too big for me to handle. I don't see how he does it, but he loves that about her. I guess some ponies are bonafide mountain climbers by designation."

I chuckle at her comment. "You can say that again."

The changeling crosses her forelegs and narrows her eyes. "You know, you promised me breakfast."

"I did." I confirm. "Sorry I didn't wake up sooner. My hangover's still pretty bad."

She snickers at my reasoning. "It's a good thing I didn't drink as much then."

"Oh yeah, just laugh it up." I groan in defeat.

She hops off the sofa and walks up to me, pulling me down and whispering in my face. "So, I take it coffee over lunch isn't what you're fiending for right now."

"I can still go for coffee."

While they don't quite have breakfast at the bar, it's still a fairly impressive spread of items to be consumed. And since Ocellus and I aren't strangers to the meat options, we've decided to take the opportunity to partake. Ponies around occasionally look at us, but not stare in an obvious manner. We sit at our table and start getting into the meal. But while she's going in, I'm more contemplative and reserved.

The changeling is done with her plate far sooner than I am. So she takes the opportunity to speak to me while I'm off in my own thoughts. "So..."

"So?"

She points her fork at me. "Smolder and you finally got it in."

I shake my head at the memory of us doing what we did last night. I start to favor my coffee over everything else. "I'm still pretty confused about the whole biting thing. I bit her, she gets aggressive. She bit me and I lose control of myself. What the hell was that all about?"

"Smolder and I had a conversation about that earlier this morning. She says that biting is often a mating trigger in dragons. Something about certain actions, namely that one releasing certain chemicals into the body to trigger a hormonal response. It's pretty interesting stuff."

"Huh, never would've figured that was a thing for us." I mutter quietly into my mug.

"Well it is. So how do you feel now?"

"Well... I don't know, there some stuff on my mind, nothing for you to worry about though." I answer, trying to skirt the topic. "What about you, hangover aside of course?"

"How am I doing... let's see." She glances around as she goes into her cup of coffee. "My legs are still shaking thinking about what we did when Rarity walked in." I hold my head out of frustration. "What's wrong now?"

"Did you have to remind me of that?" I groan in dismay, remembering that I was out there for her to see like that. "Ugh, she's never going to even look at me with any kind of respect again."

"I would've stayed down longer... but the intrusive thoughts won. Guess it was the alcohol." She said with a light blush.

That was more like you than anything. "I see. You also seemed pretty possessive at times, does the alcohol make you act like that too?"

"Nope. That one was all me." She replies as she goes into her phone. "I guess you could say I'm pretty competitive, and at times I don't like losing."

"So that was you when you did what you did in front of Rarity." I confront her.

She gives off a devious turn of the cheek before answering. "I mean... it happens sometimes. I just know that you have a thing for her, she's been ignoring you for years, so I thought it would be fun for her to see what's she's been missing out on." I face palm at her response as she tries to justify her approach. "Hey now, how many of those stupid romances did she have before they all went haywire? Then how many times did you stick around to try to reinforce her feelings, only to watch her fall for the same trap again and again and again?"

"I'm not saying she didn't deserve it." I answer. "I'm just saying it wasn't necessary."

"See, there's some part of you that liked it too."

"Not saying that either." At least out loud.

"Think about it, Spike. You get to have a cute changeling girl blow you, a cute dragon girl ride you, and a pretty billionaire club owner looking to give you the VIP status... if you know what I mean. Now be real, you have your life and now it's getting pretty spicy. You don't have to chase after that strange sense of validation anymore. Be you and live!"

I lower my head in thought as I realize that my life is indeed getting interesting, but now even that spattering of a bright spot might be clouded over by the uncertainty of the words Smolder uttered to me. "...I guess I could be a little irresponsible for however long I have left in the coming weeks."

Ocellus tilts her head in bewilderment. "The coming weeks? What, you got an assignment out of the country or something?"

I gulp down the coffee, the rush of the caffeinated beverage shooting down my throat to offer me one hell of a reality check. I start to think aloud. "Do you think Smolder will keep the eggs we've made?"

Ocellus looks at me for a second before laughing off my question. "Nah, she's not the type to keep things maternal. She always told me if she had some, she'll just fly them off to the dragon lands and leave them in a heating pit."

"Kinda cruel, don't you think?" I ask quietly. "I mean you experienced what we had to go through over in the Dragon Lands."

The changeling crossed her forelegs and placed her phone aside. "Better question, do you want the eggs?"

"I can't even say that I'm remotely close to ready for that responsibility. I'm just nervous about it all. Am I really going to be a father, even a good one?"

"If you're not ready, don't throw yourself in that role. If it's in you to put that aside until later, then do it. Never force yourself to do something too early unless there's an absolute need to. I know Smolder doesn't want that kind of life for her, so you don't put in that kind of energy just yet."

"Yeah, but now I feel wrong for thinking that way." I respond with a worried sigh.

She grabs at my claws, her hooves coming out to meet with me as far as hers could reach. "Why don't you talk to Smolder and then decide. You get your mind clear, move on from there."

I feel the warmth in her hooves, compared to my relatively cold-blooded claws. A tinge of guilt stirs in my mind as she holds me. "Do you think this will affect us in any way?"

"What exactly did we have before this? Should I be hurt about it?" She asks, appearing to not have much of a reaction other than nonchalance.

I grasp at her hooves in return. "I mean, if you wanted something out of this, I guess you should be."

She rolls her eyes and reiterates her position. "Spike, we're just now stepping into the puddle of dating. It's not that deep to worry about future implications unless there is a need to be."

"I guess. I just don't want to mess things up." I add cautiously.

She lets go. Moving her plate around to go for a second round at the food bar. "You know, I'm starting to think you worry too much about the small things."

"How is this small?"

She rises from her seat. "Spike, I'm telling you now this isn't going to be that big of a deal, especially to Smolder. And if you don't believe me, talk with her when we get back to the room." She moves my plate out of the way, seeing that my food is far from warm at this point. "Now... I'm gonna go get something from the bar. You can sit here while I fix you a plate."

"I have a plate already." I point out.

"Yeah, a cold one. No creature likes food gone cold. Now sit there and wait. And when I get back, you eat something."

"Fine, okay."

An hour after our brunch at the buffet, we head back up to the suite to see both Yona and Sandbar in the hallway. They seem a lot less flushed in hair, sweat, and other things, but he's still warmly nested between her forelegs as she hugs him from behind. We barely make out the whispers between the two as they openly display their affection. We don't even interrupt them, we just watch as Yona kisses him on the top of his head before lowering her horn to vault her smaller significant other onto her back. Her hair cascades down for a bit while he gathers her braids to place them back to their sapphire studded bands.

She starts walking forward, running into the both of us while we watch the pair pass by. "Hey, friends." She gives me a subtle giggle. "Hey, papa dragon."

I shrink at the nickname she gave me. Meanwhile Ocellus pays it no mind. "You two are still here?"

"Actually, we're just about to head out. Yona's feeling a lot better from last night." Sandbar asks from on top of the yak.

"Yona wore poor Sandbar out, can barely walk now. So Yona gives snookums yak-back ride to train station." Honestly, I never really looked at their relationship past the massive size difference. Now that I think about it, the two of them have an adorable chemistry, if also a risky and fragile one.

"Yeah, you were working pretty hard there." I note to the stallion on her back. "You gonna be okay?"

Sandbar lays on her back with a satisfied smile on his face. "If only you knew how heaven feels right now." Yeah, the mountain climber seems to be okay.

"Gallus went back to work?" Ocellus questions the pair.

"Yup. Silverstream shadows him on post too." Yona adds.

"Yeah, she's gonna get him reprimanded for indecency while on duty." Sandbar chuckles. "So it'll be just you two and Smolder, the three of you will be having the place to yourselves."

"Yona and snookums has to go now. We need to get back to work." She says as she starts to make her way to the elevator.

Meanwhile, Sandbar reclines on his lover's back. "Well guys, gotta run. See you next time, it was fun being out and about for a change."

"See ya!" Ocellus chimes out as they disappear into an elevator.

We continue on our trek to the suite, pulling out our keycard to enter the room. "Huh, I woke up to those two going at it, but I never thought Yona would be such a slow lover."

"I don't think she has a choice. If she goes her preferred speed and crush Sandbar, she'll be really devastated. That's why you see her care for him the way she does. She really loves him."

I lightly make a joke of the two as we walk in. "Find you someone who'll love you in spite of like those two." I open the door for Ocellus to enter before me and then I follow behind her. Then I call out to the room. "Roll call, anyone here!?"

"Just me." Smolder calls out as she quickly flies out of the room she was perched in. "Yeah, it's been pretty quiet since those two got done."

"I'm surprised you didn't leave them behind already." I point out.

"Better question is where am I supposed to go? I don't know Canterlot all too well for me to just up and leave."

"Seriously? There's plenty to get into. I could show the both of you around town and we can go from there." I propose.

Ocellus groans for a moment and starts backing up. "Actually, I'm gonna go take a dip in the pool. You guys can hang out here for a moment. You know, do what dragons do." She gives me a scoot towards the dragoness before taking yet another step back. "Or I dunno, talk. Maybe you two have some things you want to discuss."

While I catch the hint she's advertising so obviously that it could be seen on a billboard, Smolder doesn't and offers to tag along with the changeling. "Wait, we could totally join you."

"Nah. I need the moment to collect my thoughts on this week's lesson plan anyways."

"I thought you didn't like thinking about that stuff on a Saturday." Smolder deadpans as the changeling dismisses herself quickly.

"Well sometimes we gotta do what we don't like. Bye." The door closes behind her, causing Smolder stop chasing after her before she even attempts the pursuit.

Smolder looks away for a moment before folding her arms. She turns her head towards the television, posturing to take a seat on the couch when she realizes that the remote originally rested on the table is replaced by a single sticky note, seemingly made out in Ocellus' hoofwriting. The dragoness groans as she grabs a pillow and smothers herself to scream. She peeks from the corner of her eyes, seeing me already coming down to sit with her. "Sure! Force us to interact, it's not like it'll be awkward or something!"

It's evident that she doesn't want to talk about last night. So I stay quiet for a while, waiting for an opportunity all while toying away on my phone. There's not much interesting going on with the local news, the castle's feed has been equally as quiet, and the topics of the human world seem to be utterly depressing to look at. So I just sit there, waiting for her to say something, at least sneeze so I can break this awkward silence as 'naturally' as possible.

Smolder plays games on her phone until she notices her battery running low. In silence, she rises and heads off to her room. I close my eyes, regretting the fact that I didn't just speak up. But as I'm about to take the entire couch to myself, she pops back up and sits next to me on the far side. She folds her arms, drumming her claws against her biceps wile stewing in the lingering silence.

My throat is a little dry now, so I rise to get some water. I pour a glass to drink, then I pour another. I walk towards the couch again, offering the drink to her, hoping she'd say anything. She says nothing, accepting the water and guzzling it down like she's upset. I offer her the other glass and she snatches that one away with an apparent fury. I slowly back up and keep my distance. Seeing how territorial she is, I quietly vouch to park myself elsewhere before she finally chides me loudly.

"If you don't get on this couch, I'm going to claw your eyes out and shove them down your throat." Wow... guess that female dragon being violent thing is a species trait. I quickly abide by her order and park it. She looks elsewhere while I drum my claws against my knees. She chides me for that too. "Can you stop that? It's annoying!"

"Sorry." I squeak out, knowing that Smolder is probably on the verge of beating me to a pulp probably. I'm a bit nervous to ask her what's got her so upset, but I finally chisel away at the ice keeping us separated. "So..."

Her eyes cut back to me with a fierce gleam. "So?"

I keep my eyes off of her, very much intimidated by her tone. "...How are things?"

"Good, I guess." She answers with disinterest.

I don't sigh in relief yet, still trying to gauge her a little. "Don't feel any different from last night? No side effects... mood swings?"

The dragoness hovered towards me in a lunge. "What, so you're scared I'll pop an egg!?"

"Not saying I'm scared, per se." I answer, holding my claws up in preemptive surrender.

She rolls her eyes, sucks her teeth and plops back on the couch. "Then quit being a bitch about it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. It's not for you to worry about."

"I just want to be sure that if you and I do have the egg together─"

"Oh here we go." She mumbles. "There's no egg, you dork! I'm not even in season! You and I weren't even supposed to lock up like that!" She jumps back up to her feet, pacing back and forth in the continuation of her rant. "Seriously, it was supposed to be me teasing you, making you mad on some dumb shit, and then you were supposed to start jacking off like a desperate, hopeless teenage horndog not even giving a shit about Rarity popping up out of the blue. You weren't suppose to bite me, I wasn't supposed to bite you in return, I should've been clawing at your eyes like the rapist you could've been! But no, I had to open myself up, I had to take your fucking teeth to the nape of my neck like some horny lizard, I had to just pounce on you like I wanted you to ram my shit senseless, I just had to be that instead of showing some self-control! I had to deal with that shit all day today, now I can't stop clutching my fucking claws when I masturbate!" She grabs a pillow and violently slams it against the ground, panting after a long-winded diatribe. "FUCK THIS!"

At least now I have a small understanding of what's she's trying to barter with. I quietly take the glasses off the table to refill. I come back to offer her the drink. "Hydration's healthy for the fun." I lightly joke before taking an instinctive step back, hoping that some of her humor is still there within her.

She takes the glass and guzzles the water before making a move to snatch me by my topmost fin. I duck down, but find her grasp at me far too strong to resist. I wince as she snarls at me... but I'm left waiting for a hit that never comes. Instead, she crouches down and pouts through a reply. "I'm gonna do something for a second. And you're gonna promise to not say anything about it."

"Is it about the joke?" I ask.

She tightens her grasp, causing me a bit of pain. "Just shut up, will you?"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." I say as I hope she loosens her grip.

She doesn't give me direct eye contact, but she's voicing herself with honest intent. "You know... Ocellus and I have been pretty quiet about each other."

"I wouldn't exactly say 'quiet' is how she kept your business between the both of you." She gives me a death glare, to which I instinctively hold my claws out in pleading. "T-To me, I mean. J-Just me."

"Figures." She rolls her eyes. "Knowing her, she probably told you just to see if you'd jack off to the thought of us getting busy. I bet you did anyways."

I'm not proud enough to admit that to her face. "Well... I was in dragon lust. That's not too strange, is it?"

"You say it isn't. Doesn't mean that other creatures don't see it that way." She orates bluntly with a slight chuckle before growing somber for a moment. "Like changelings, dragons, who ever thinks of that pairing whenever you talk about interspecies relations, much less in sex? To other dragons, I bet that's something like a desperado move. Like I'm halfway expecting some of the other dragons to pop up and say 'So I guess that pony-wannabe dragon ain't doing nothing for you, you gotta resort to a changeling to fill in the blanks. Totally weak how you chickened out and got a changeling to keep you cool.' You know, typical annoying dragon banter."

"They'd probably be upset because they didn't think about it first." I retort with a smirk.

Smolder smiles at the thought and snickers. "Ah, bunch of dumb losers."

"No kidding, I'd bet that they'd be trying to start trade talks with the changelings if that idea started going around." I laugh while in thought before another grim idea came to mind. "Yeah... I guess that would be pretty dangerous."

The dragon sits down next to me, letting go of my primary fin to get comfortable. "You know, me and Olla have been thinking. We've been together doing what we've been doing, and I'm sure she's told you why she's been dealing with me at times."

"You mean the whole her being me thing during your dragon lust phases?" She gawks in embarrassment as she doesn't believe that I've been made aware of that. "Yeah, she told me about that too."

Smolder covers her face for a short while. "Is there anything that changeling didn't spill to you?" She perks up once more and shakes her head. "You know what, fuck it, it's out there now. So, with that being said, I made a suggestion to say that there's been something missing between the both of us."

"Like what?" I ask, a little concerned.

"I guess you could say that we're both here in Canterlot for the day to try out something new, to see if that thing we're missing is probably in the cards for the both of us." She tilts her head as she finally promotes her intent. "Maybe you could help us out."

While I can be dense at times, it's not hard for me to put together a puzzle that's been missing a few pieces. I'm just surprised that the idea's been easy to come across for them. I'm sure that Smolder developed some inkling of an attachment to me, it's been in the works, and last night solidified that to a degree. Ocellus and her have been at it for years, probably getting together because they felt comfortable enough to go past being comfort buddies. However, it's still a lot to take in. "Me... Like a third wheel?"

"Ocellus never really likes to ask for threesomes. But I think what you two did last weekend really got her on something else." She explains. "All this past week, she's been pretty bratty and bottom-heavy. Usually she likes being the one to be in charge, but something about her nature woke up after she came back from dealing with you. Even sleeping with her has been different. She's been really into her phone more often, looking at a few vids to... you know."

"Oh." I answer with a heavy concern for the pair. "I mean, if you don't mind, how do you feel about it?"

"If this was with any other creature, I might be pretty fucking violent. But you... I have a bit of a soft spot for, it's not like pillow soft, more like raw gold soft. But you get the gist. So yeah, I can definitely see us giving it a try."

Even now, I'm excited but also extremely worried and nervous. I've only had one relationship before and that ended pretty badly with just the one partner. Now I'm looking at the prospect of being a partner to two different creatures, both figuratively and very literally. I know it's a decision to think on, but I've already seen how choosing between one and the other can hurt the rejected party... and that rejected party went on to be ruler of the entire kingdom. Given both of their status, I guess I couldn't go wrong with either option. Honestly, my inherent greed is telling me to give this option a try. "Can't say it's an often-requested thing."

"Yeah, but here we are, caught up in the bullshit better known as you." She mumbles. "But I wanna get something out of the way now. We're not just talking about you getting to have your way with the both of us, or the two of us using you as our fun toy. Like we want to try to see if there's something that can be felt between the three of us. Mutually. Like if you and I can develop something with Olla, me and her with you, you and her with me, bounce it around."

My carnal desires are screaming with approval. But there's still something my mind can't quite shake off. "I know it's an idea you have, but I'm concerned that she's not here to have this talk with us."

"Eh, don't worry about it. She'll come around." The dragoness shrugs confidently.

"Are you sure she's okay with this?" I ask yet again, earning a pretty telling glare from Smolder that more than answers my question. "Okay..."

Smolder looks at the clock on the wall, growing curious. "Huh, wonder what taking Olla so long to come back."

Sitting closely to the lip of the swimming pool, Ocellus blankly stares at her phone's screen seeing the amalgamation of news on her feed. Preferring to keep up with the affairs of the human world, she quietly critiques the matters of what all is taking place. News of a war increasing in a portion of the world stews a darkness many fears would ignite the fires of conflict not seen in almost a century.

Her mind wanders back to her own life and what's currently taking place. She closes the browser and meanders through her photos for a bit. The bulk of images are that of her and Smolder doing an assortment of things together. Then there's a scarce amount featuring Spike, namely the moments she got to sneak around the Dragon Lands. Naturally they were blatantly explicit and voyeuristic in nature. But in seeing the lewd imagery, namely of the tall slender-framed dragon frozen in his act of lust, she sinks herself into the water with a mumbling thought. "So much for my Saturday plans."

A voice speaks from behind the changeling. "You look upset."

Nervous that she's caught in a bit of a sultry moment, she quickly navigates back to her home page and turns around to see an unexpected figure towering above her. It was a creature unlike many others in the Kingdom of Equestria, one of long legs standing, a proud biped with friendly smile on his face. His hair grown out to barely touch his shoulders, his eyes a rich auburn and shoulders broad and wide. He's a differing build from others of his kind, more developed in physique. Seeing the human behind her, she wades to the opposing end of the pool. "What does it matter to you?"

Seeing a human present before her makes the changeling upset enough to want to cut her swim short, she climbs out of the pool. However, the human does not leave her undisturbed. "Damn, I was just checking in, being all neighborly and whatnot, trying to keep things cool. Did I hit a nerve?"

"I know it's a lot to take in, but I'm still not too fond of you humans." She replies.

"Oh, so it's like that, huh?" He questions as he climbs into the pool himself.

"It's not a 'you' thing, it's just a 'human doing scary things' thing." She answers while taking her towel and her phone.

His chin lifts for a moment, not taking long to ponder what it is that has her being so guarded around him. "Let me guess, Ponvyille situation from years back?"

"Yeah." She confirms.

"Yeah. Sorry for that one. Pretty long story of how that happened." He starts to explain. "With all the invasions and abductions and shit, it was pretty wild for us to deal with. Plus it didn't help that Chrysalis was doing her usual 'being evil' thing. And there was that mind control thing she tried to pull on my older brother. You know, we couldn't let her get away with snatching him up, and that was after she held one of our other friend hostage. We were riding on a lot of emotion, and we just couldn't afford that to happen."

"Two hundred of us. You humans, six of you, killed two hundred of us, in TWENTY MINUTES!" She points out sternly. "I get protecting your own, but was it really necessary to go that far?"

"Sometimes peaceful solutions don't always present itself. Honestly, a lot could've ended that day if things weren't the way that it was. But I'm sorry that happened, also sorry for your queen being a bitch at the time too."

"I'll admit, my mom wasn't the best character to be around. But the rest of them, the others, they could've been left out of it." The changeling rebukes strongly. "And don't even get me started with the massacre that happened on the castle grounds that other human was in charge of. I never forgot that one."

"Now that one was pretty straight forward, the queen hurt my dad while posing as my brother, could've killed him. She and those same changelings wiped most of the guards running their shifts in the dungeon. I can't really say much for that." He gives the changeling a helpless shrug before climbing out of the pool. "Now that incident aside, I don't think me saying 'sorry' two hundred more times is going to make it all any better."

"I know it won't." She says with an icy tone. "Nothing will ever change what you lot are in my eyes. You're all monsters, and the fact that you somehow bore the same elements we bore makes it all the more unbelievable. I still don't see how Thorax accepts you and your kind, especially considering all the hurt you've done."

"That's a fair view to have." He says before he claps his hands together, an orange aura starting to glow from them. "Hey, I still wanna talk to you. So how about you let me change into something that's a little more comfortable for you."

"As if." The changeling rolls her and turns around as the bright flash of light shines brightly to overtake the human's appearance. In the instant, his entire body is changed to that of an equine himself. His quiet footsteps are replaced by drastically louder hoof clops.

He appears as an off-white unicorn stallion with a maroon mane and eyes in walking before the changeling to intercept her before she leaves. "See, not a human anymore. Happy now?"

While he is not nearly as tall, she still takes into consideration what he actually is. "It still doesn't change what you are, or what you did."

"Yeah, but it does keep me low key out in public. Only reason I revert back is when I want to save money on check-in." He jokes with a light chuckle. "Trust me when I say it's a little easier being able to hide out here than it is back home."

"I bet that's great." Ocellus mumbles while seething. "To be able to seamlessly integrate in spaces others call home."

Still taking the verbal blows from the changeling in stride, he smiles and adjusts the topic back to her. "Yeah, but enough about me. Let's get back to you, what's been messing up your Saturday?"

"Other than you showing up?" The changeling grumbles.

"I mean that's a bonus apparently. But you were already upset to begin with."

The changeling shakes her head and starts to walk off. "You wouldn't understand."

"Yeah, I say that a lot in my home world too." He replies sarcastically, still shadowing the changeling.

Already with his physical appearance being different, she starts to subconsciously open up to the pony walking close behind her. "I don't know how today's gonna be for me... and my partner. Just leave it at that."

"Relationship issues. Sounds familiar." He says as he catches up to her. "Have you two talked about it?"

"Barely." She continues. "All I know is that they're gonna go for it, and all I can think about is how it changes up the dynamics of what we have now. I may be a changeling, but I get scared of changes in my life too. I'm already comfortable with where I am, I just don't want this to stir it up too much where it starts to feel... unfamiliar."

"Ah, I see you."

She still goes on subconsciously unaware that she's still talking to a human. "I just don't want things to completely alter what I feel about my partner. I don't want anything in our dynamic to change."

"Everything changes, you know. That's life." He responds quietly.

"Okay, like I don't know that." She says as she doesn't want to verbally point out the obvious.

"Yeah. But it's true." He continues. "I didn't anticipate learning magic years ago, or being a pony, or dating outside of my species, even being a hero and stopping a dimensional calamity. I anticipated me having a good career, being rich enough to pay for my parent's retirement, being a name thrown out in a number of American households, simple but not simple stuff, you know what I mean. But a lot of things we grow into, the changes we develop may not always be something we look out for or welcome eagerly at first, but they do come. It takes getting used to, and that's not always in the cards of preference."

"Really great pep talk there." The changeling deadpans.

"Yeah, I'm still working on the non-gameday stuff. I'm not like my older brother in that regard, I can't fucking pull speeches out of my ass for the masses to shout and dance to, I can't lead a legislative revolution that changes how we love, I can't walk into an underground syndicate and have that shit shut down in a month's time, so sue me. But I don't mind being an ear to listen, and a mind to encourage others to keep striving." He walks in front of the changeling, lifting her chin. "Even if we are different, there's always some change that comes from within us, sometimes even birthed out of our most uncomfortable or shameful moments."

"Oh here you go." Ocellus says as she moves his hoof away from her chin. "And why am I still even talking to you?"

"Hmm... that's a good one." He replies before diving into his point. "But let's air out some understanding. So you're a changeling, that's the obvious. Do you remember how you saw ponies before your species reformed?"

"What you humans did and what we changelings did was different!" She issues in a raised voice before quietly answering his question. "...Prey. We saw ponies as prey, beings to feed on, weak, pathetic, one bite and they're down for a while."

"Did you personally feed on a few?" He asks quietly.

Feeling the shame and embarrassment build inside of her, she tries to turn away to stop herself from welling up tears. "...Yeah. The ones they brought in, but they weren't really healthy when they arrived."

"Yeah, I've been told. And there was some three hundred of them that went missing, most being residents of Ponyville and the surrounding areas." He answers quietly. "So yeah, you did your dirt. We're all products of our environment, moreso of circumstance. So on the days following your reformation, how easy do you think it was for you to approach ponies in a casual manner?"

"Not at all." The changeling deeply inhales, feeling sadness as she tries to stave off the immense shame. "I was scared. Everything I did came back to haunt me, all I could do was see the faces of those I fed from on the shoulders of every other pony that smiled and greeted me. I couldn't take pride in myself, I felt like I was humiliated in being who I truly was around them. It was hard having to deal with that, knowing what I did for 'survival' only for that to be proven wrong."

The unicorn nods. "Yeah. Did the ponies ever tell you to go back to where you came from?"

"A lot." She sniffles.

The unicorn summons a box of tissues and kindly offers them to her. "Much like how you wish I did?"

She lowers her head even lower as she accepts his offer. "...Yeah."

"Okay, so why didn't you leave at the time? Was it the friends you made along the way that made you want to stay? Was it the comfort of knowing that they didn't care what you did or who you were in the past, the fact that they opened themselves to you so you could feel comfortable in who you were, and reassured you that who you were back then isn't who they saw you as now?"

"Yeah, that's... that sums it up." The changeling's tears finally broke ranks from her eyes, falling into the tissues she was offered instead.

The stallion sits beside her, rubbing her back as he gives his own perspective. "My brother's the same way. He was raising hell just to get back home, but then he made some friends, got into a relationship, and then he decided to stick around a little longer. Of course there were some who wanted him to go back and stay there, and others who were hell-bent on making him a science experiment. One guy actually did it, can't really talk about that one too much..." The disguised human falls silent for a while before speaking. "Yeah, even through all of that, he stayed here in the end because this place had become so much like home to him that he couldn't come back to our world without feeling different. And you probably feel that to a degree too."

"Yeah, I guess I do." She sniffles before recovering her composure.

The stallion pats her on the back with reassurance, smiling as he lifts her chin in the manner he wishes to lift her spirits. "So, we know you had a questionable past. We know you had a chance to redeem yourself, and you took it. And we know you stuck around instead of going back home because the friends you made along the way keeps you rooted on solid ground. Some of those things were huge changes you had to endure, from leaving home to be in a world that wasn't your own to begin with, to a change in perspective and thought, and even taking a chance to show your growth over basking in the comfort of your own nostalgia. I'd say you're already swinging it out of the park on most of it."

The changeling doesn't too much like being touched on her chin by the transformed creature, so she politely moves his hoof away. "Well that's all good and whatnot. But what does any of this have to do about my relationship?"

"I swear I thought it would've hit you by now." The unicorn replies. "Your species is literally made to adapt to anything that any form of light can touch. It's up to you whether you want to embrace the change or reject it. Either way it ends, you'll adapt and move forward. You're that strong already, I can't tell you shit else." He says as he starts to walk away, but not yet diving back into the pool without getting one last word in. "You know, in a weird way I really wish I had what you had."

"And what's that?" The changeling questions with some partial disgust.

"The strength to start over in someplace new." He says as he readies himself to cannon ball into the deep end. "It's a lot harder than you think."

A loud but lonely splash sounds in the mostly empty room. Ocellus turns away before the disguised human can resurface. A thought begins to poke at the changeling's conscience, but not in a way to dissuade her. It continues to prod at the back door of her thoughts, never minding the multitude of items she left back there to be sorted out later. By the time she reaches the elevator to go back to the room, it becomes the very thing taking the front podium.

"...Am I really ready to do this?"

The changeling finally reaches her room after almost an hour of meandering in the elevator, wallowing in thought over if she's going to go through with the plan Smolder and her came up with. And as of now, she's certain that more can go right than wrong. Her only supporting measures are the ideas that both Smolder and her communicate fairly well, and the fact that the third party is such an open book.

She pulls out her keycard, placing it to the door to grant her access to the room. She sighs a hopeful prayer. "Okay, Ocellus. Go in there and see what these two are up to. Can't be that bad, right?" As the door slowly creaks open, she whispers one last time to herself. "...Right?"

Both Smolder and I are posted on the couch, the two of us are mutually glued to our phones as they keep ourselves entertained. The TV is still off. Ocellus begins to think that things between us didn't go over well, at least until Smolder lifts her head to take notice of the changeling entering. "Ah, look what the wind brought in."

"You two seem pretty comfortable." Ocellus notes both quietly and nervously.

"You could say that." The dragoness responds as she walks over to me, grabbing my phone to gain my undivided attention.

"Sorry, I bet it was pretty quiet without me here." Ocellus lowers her head as though she did something wrong.

"Nah, Spike and I were just talking about some dragon things."

"Dragon things... while the both of you are glued to your phones... Yeah, this doesn't look like a disaster of a conversation."

"No seriously." I speak up. "We talked about the whole mating thing. She had to explain to me that she wasn't exactly in season to be having eggs. Now say we try what happened last night again in like five months, yeah, different story."

Now she seems a little more relieved that some some semblance of dialog was had between us. "You look pretty relieved to not have the burden of fatherhood placed on your shoulders."

"You have no idea." I say with a proud sigh.

"Well kudos to you, I suppose." The changeling replies with sarcasm.

"Spike ordered pizza for us. I thought it would be nice if we could watch some movies tonight, but a certain SOMELING decided to hide the remote."

The changeling's face brightens drastically, it seems she's a lot more enthusiastic about our night. For now at least she can look forward to a good time with some friends. She casually summons the remote and wags it with her preferred options. "Romcom or thriller?"

Both Smolder and I look at each other before collectively beaming down the changeling with our eyes. "Adult drama." The dragoness suggests.

The changeling's cheeks redden with anticipation. "How 'adult' are we talking?"

"Well I guess we'll find out together." I add as I reach for the remote.

A knock on the door sounds, causing Smolder to hover out of her seat. "Pizza's here!"

As I cycle through the number of sections before going to the content rating filter, I smile as I pick the highest ratings. A number of highly suggestive titles pop up on the screen as Ocellus plops herself on the couch. "Hey, Spike?"

"Yo." I answer while browsing my more mature-rated options.

"So... Yeah. I know it's a little weird on tonight─"

"Take it slow?" I answer for her.

"Okay, just rob the words right out from my throat." She says before folding her forelegs together.

"I understand." I say as I go back to the filter and change my preferences again, this time to include the more work-safe viewing options. "Stuff like this can take some getting used to. Plus I'm sure that you're pretty nervous about Smolder throwing the three of us into this thing so quick."

"Right! She just springs it on me so quickly. I thought we could've tried to work it up a little slower, but I guess she said 'fuck it' since you two already got it in last night. I know she's spontaneous, but I wish she didn't try to strongarm me into it while Yona and Sandbar were still on round seven this morning."

"Yeah. She can be a bit persuasive." I agree noddingly. "She thought that maybe we could stir back up some of the trouble we got into last night for an ice-breaker."

She giggles as she levitates the remote from me to make a choice on what we'd be watching in the coming minutes. "It's a fun idea, but maybe we can save it for later. I guess for tonight, we'll just be, you know... a little more than friends?"

I snicker as I tease her with an offer she couldn't possibly refuse. "So, since a threesome is off the menu, I'm thinking we can settle on having three-way cuddle time afterwards."

Her face goes from it's usual turquoise color to a deepening red hue, her wings sputter sporadically at the thought. "Maybe that might be a bit... Okay. We can do that."

Smolder lands right next to her as she places the two boxes of pizza on the table. "An Ocellus dragon sandwich."

Now her ears are practically glowing red. "Okay, you need to chill."

"Hey Spike, if you nibble her ears while they're red like that, she'll make a really sound."

Ocellus sharply objects. "DAMMIT, STOP TELLING HIM MY TRIGGERS!"

Both Smolder and I grow devious as we wait quietly for the changeling to settle into the movie she chose for us. As the opening scene comes up, we both count to three and playfully chomp down on an ear each. The changeling unleashes a trembling whinny, both high in pitch and oddly comparable to Fluttershy.

"Mmm, this pizza sure is good."

"I wonder what they put in it."

"So help me,
I WILL MATE YOU BOTH INTO NEXT WEEK!"

Author's Note

Hey there, readers. So I know that a few of you recurring readers are probably looking at the word counts and seeing the relatively low number. I'm actually trying something a bit different this time and condensing my chapters a bit to keep things from getting too out of hand. I know that the sweet spot is generally around 4-6k for most, 8-10k being a pretty generous showing, and anything more than that is a bit stifling and hard to process. So I'll be looking to keep my chapters within the 7-12k range unlike the last story where things... might've gotten out of hand.

Other than that, I look to do a lot more exploring beyond the boarders of Equestria with this one because of a certain map I ran into giving me the overall inspiration of the direction of this story.

As always, it's fun being able to imagine worlds unlike your own. It's also pretty hard to see things through in a way that can make mostly everyone happy. But now, much like our recent developments in this chapter, we get to take an alternate route and see how far this goes. Maybe it will be easier than going the route of choosing just one... or maybe not. Only time can tell.