Ocellus bent down low, pointing at a cluster of flowers, small, blue, and shaped like a crescent moon. “Are these the ones you’re looking for, Zecora?”

The zebra looked over, and nodded in approval. “Indeed, my dear, you’ve quite the eye!” She turned her head upwards. “And how goes your search, Fluttershy?”

“I…um…think I see…hmm…” the pegasus muttered to herself, halfway in the thick foliage of a tree. “Oh! They’re here!”

Fluttershy pushed away a few branches to get a better view of the beehive hidden within the leaves. As confirmation, some bees with spots on their abdomens instead of stripes flew in and out of the hive. “Excuse me, miss bees, could I possibly trouble you for a little bit of honey to help my friend? I’d be ever so grateful!”

The spotted honeybees flew around Fluttershy’s head, trying to communicate with one another, before they all flew back inside.

“I hope that was a ‘yes’, I’m not quite fluent in honeybee yet…”

After a tense bit of waiting, the honeybees came out, putting a generous amount of honey on Fluttershy’s hooves.

“Oh! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!” Fluttershy beamed, before slipping back past the branches. “I got it, Zecora! Is it enough?”

“That much honey will certainly do!” Zecora nodded. “I’m glad to have someone as reliable as you!”

Fluttershy quickly turned her face away with a bashful blush. “Oh Zecora, you’re too much!” she giggled.

Zecora took the slop of honey from Fluttershy, storing it safely in a jar.

Ocellus picked the little blue flowers and gave it to Zecora, “So these are really gonna help make a wake-up potion?”

Zecora nodded as she carefully placed the flowers in a bag. “The honey and flowers are what I require, to create a new potion as potent as fire!” She turned, walking back towards the Everfree Forest, motioning for the other two to follow her.

“Right, speaking of potions…” Fluttershy looked over at Ocellus as they walked, wincing a little bit as both of them looked uncomfortably at each other, then towards Zecora.

“Yeaaah…So what exactly were in those potions we drank at the start of the month?” Ocellus awkwardly shuffled her hooves. “Cause it really would’ve helped if we were told about the…side effects…”

Zecora knew what the two were talking about. Seeing Gabby’s elimination yesterday was pretty hard to ignore, especially when she also saw it in great detail. “Ahh, I understand your plight, and I admit that you are right. I thought it’d be a fun surprise, if you watch the clopouts happen before your eyes.”

“Well, it was definitely a surprise, alright…” Ocellus immediately recalled the scene in her mind, her wings buzzing with a bit of horny delight.

“I don’t know if it’s a stronger deterrent than the fireworks,” Fluttershy mused. “Seeing it happen in detail like you’re actually there might frighten everyone else now…but it also might tempt them because of how juicy it gets to just…watch…” she sheepishly giggled, looking towards Ocellus.

Ocellus let out an uneasy sigh. “Yeaaah…I don’t think it’s gonna be easy for me, Chrysalis, or Pharynx…Well, maybe if no one else goes out this month…” The long pause and wistful look indicated that she wasn’t entirely joking.

“Trixie firework show I admired, after seeing her work last year, I was inspired!”

“How did you figure out how to make the potion…you know…do that for all of us, anyway?” Fluttershy asked. “I can’t imagine that it was all trial and error…”

“I already had a base to use, after that it was a matter of ingredients to choose,” Zecora explained. “I have a mix to view a past event, I simply had to reinvent. To make it appropriate for this game, I needed to focus it on a specific time frame.”

“Ohhh, I see!” Fluttershy nodded. “So you just needed to fine-tune the potion you already had!”

“In order to perfect the brew, I enlisted the help of Miss Daring Do,” Zecora sang happily. “I’m quite grateful to have her aid. Without her, the potion might not have been made.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet!” Ocellus said, her heart melting a bit.

“The process was where most of my time went. I had plenty of time to…” Zecora rubbed the back of her neck as she blushed. “...Experiment…”

“So Daring Do helped you make little adjustments until it was perfect?” Fluttershy asked.

Zecora’s eyes shifted off to the side. “To make sure the potion succeeded, multiple climaxes were needed.”

“Oh, you meant experiment as in-okay, yeah I see…” Fluttershy mumbled, her cheeks quickly burning red.

Zecora stared wistfully at the skies. “I can’t even recall how many times I came. Though I know that no two times were the same. With my hoof, or with a toy, so many ways that I could enjoy! Of course, Miss Do also wanted to play. She pounced on me, and slipped her tongue-”

“Ooookay!” Ocellus quickly interrupted. “I don’t need to hear the details right now! I still wanna make it through the month!”

Zecora chuckled, doing a zipper motion across her lips. “Very well, to help your chances, I won’t detail Daring’s advances.”

The trio walked silently back towards Zecora’s hut, each of them harboring a few intrusive horny thoughts they tried to push aside.

Zecora was still happily recalling the many test sessions she had with Daring Do earlier in the year, and how they were able to keep testing for hours at a time without a break.

Fluttershy started to wonder how Rainbow Dash was holding up, and if she’d be able to make it this year. The mental image of her at an orgy between Zephyr and Windy Whistles made her giggle to herself.

Ocellus couldn’t stop thinking about Gabby’s elimination, how it felt like she was really there watching Rarity eating out the griffon. All their friends said they were only out of it for only a second, but it felt like she was watching the scene for precious minutes, which made another question pop into her mind…

“...Uh…Zecora? What if someone clops out at like, three in the morning? Wouldn’t that…I dunno…wake everyone up?”

Zecora stopped dead in her tracks with her eyes wide open. “I…admit the scenario that you’ve outlined, didn’t exactly come to my mind.”

“Ya sure on dat one?”

“Trust me.”

“...Alright…”

Babs walked over to Gallus, who was currently sitting down with his head in his hands, sighing in boredom and frustration. “Yo, you doin’ alright? You don’t look so hot…”

Gallus looked up, “Oh, hey Babs. Just…hanging in there, I guess, you?”

“Heh, I thought I was strugglin’, looks to me like you got it worse off,” Babs smirked.

“Ugh, I’m still thinking about yesterday,” Gallus griped. “The fact that Gabby went out and that I had to watch it happen.”

Babs kept her poker face, hiding her glee behind a neutral expression. “Yeah, Zecora really didn’t wanna make it easy on us.”

“And that was just the first one! We gotta go through a whole month of who knows how many more of those moments!” Gallus leaned his head back and sighed. “Why couldn’t it just be the fireworks?”

Babs nodded along. “Well, now dat we we know it’s coming, we could prepare for when it happens again.”

“Yeah, but that would probably require knowing when the next one of us is going out. I don’t think any of us are psychic…Except maybe Pinkie Pie.”

“Mm, worth a shot,” Babs shrugged.

Gallus dismissively waved his claw. “Eh, I guess it’s not worth stressing myself out over. Just need to find a way to relax and get my mind off things.”

Gallus’s advice made Babs’s eyes widen. “Oh shit! That reminds me, Gilda wanted me to go to the spa with her!”

“Gilda invited you to go to the spa?” Gallus raised an eyebrow, when did Gilda know Babs so well?

“Yeah, guess she wanted me to chill in a hot tub with her. I wasn’t so sure, but after yesterday, I might as well, right?”

A very choice selection of images flashed through Gallus’s head in an instant. “Hot tub, huh?”

“Yeah, I’d bring ya along with, but I think she said it’d just be ladies only.” Babs looked off to the side. “Ah shit, gonna be late for the crusadah meetin’! Good luck with your relaxin’ plan!”

As Gallus watched Babs run off, he stroked his chin, contemplating the opportunity that he was now presented with.

Author's Note

I thought of a funny concept for the year and now I have to deal with the consequences.