Over in Twilight’s School of Friendship, there was a considerable amount of awkward tension as the school’s most notorious group of six sat around a lunchroom table. The ordinarily lively energy and conversation that came with sharing a meal with friends was replaced with nervous tapping against the table, stray coughs, and eye contact everywhere but Ocellus.

The changeling decided to directly address the elephant in the room, not wanting to deal with a month of being avoided. “...You know you can talk about No Clop November around me, right?”

All at once, the room was filled with quick sighs of relief, awkward excuses, and quick apologies, with a few horny admissions sprinkled in for good measure.

“Oh thank goodness! I mean, I didn’t wanna say it but-”

“Yona didn’t want to be rude…”

“How is it only day three? I’m so HORNY!”

“How am I supposed to go up against you now?!”

“So it’s fine if I can talk about how much I wanna bang Headmare Twilight in front of you then, right?”

“I’m not mad that I’m not in, I chose not to participate this year,” Ocellus explained. “It’s not some sort of sore subject for me.”

“Yeah, well I’m mad you’re not in!” Smolder stood up and slammed her hands against the table, sending soup and salad greens flying. “What about us? We had a great thing going on! It’s just…not the same without you!”

“Sheesh, Smolder, you act like you two just broke up or something,” Gallus snickered.

Smolder’s eyes darted around, quietly sitting back down with a blush on her cheeks. “...It’s still weird that it’s just the five of us.”

“Well, on the bright side, if I’m not playing, that means you win this year by default,” Ocellus shrugged.

“But that’s not fun at all!” Smolder crossed her arms, slumping on the bench as she pouted. “If I’m gonna win, I wanna at least earn it. I wanna be challenged!”

“Fine, go up against Chrysalis then. I’m sure she’d love the competition,” Ocellus said bluntly.

Smolder opened her mouth, and quickly shut it again to resume her eating. “...I’ll take the free win.”

“So, what’s the competition like?” Ocellus asked, addressing the rest of her friends. “Anyone new catch your eye?”

“Oooh! Oooh!” Silverstream excitedly waved her hands, wanting to go first. “I saw a cyborg pony over there! I think they’re gonna be my first!”

The whole table paused and looked at Silverstream in confused silence. Ocellus tried to visualize what a cyborg pony would look like, and the rest mentally going through all the participants, trying to narrow down who, in Silverstream’s mind, would qualify as a cyborg pony.

Even though he wasn’t entirely sure, Sandbar took a guess. “I…don’t think Kerfuffle is a cyborg, Silverstream. She just has a prosthetic leg.”

“Yeah, but it’s probably a cool robot leg!” Silverstream said, undiscouraged. “We’ve been fucking the robots for years, but this year, they get to fuck us!”

“Yona no need robot for that!” Yona boasted, wrapping her hoof around Sandbar. “Yona already have fucking machine right here!”

Gallus nearly choked on his soup, immediately turning away to cough everything out of his windpipe.

As Gallus was struggling to breathe, Smolder thought of her answer. “Hmm, aside from maybe Rainbow Dash or something, there was this cool pirate over there!”

“Do you mean an actual pirate or…” Ocellus nudged her head in Silverstream’s direction.

“I’m…mostly sure?” Smolder shrugged. “She had the hat and the sword and everything. I thought it was real, but like, if it was just cause she was in her Nightmare Night costume…”

Sandbar wrapped his hoof around Yona up to her back and chuckled. “I, uh…think my first choice is already locked in…”

“Yeah, but after Yona and Celestia, who are you picking?” Smolder snarked.

“Hey, why are you just assuming that my second choice would be-”

Sandbar was met with probing stares from the rest of his friends, including Yona.

“...Yeah, fair enough,” Sandbar grumbled. “Well, me and Yona saw this other couple over there. It was another earth pony and a buffalo.”

“Pony and buffalo remind Yona of Yona and Sandbar!” Yona nodded. “Buffalo look small, but strong! Yona want to see her endurance!” She turned to Sandbar. “Sandbar better be ready.”

“Hey, I’ve been doing workouts to get myself stronger for this orgy. See?” Sandbar flexed his hooves, showing his…less than impressive gains.

“Sounds like you found a wild west version of yourselves!” Ocellus lightly teased before turning to the last member who hadn’t spoken yet. “What about you, Gallus?”

Gallus lightly drummed his fingers against the table. “There was this one dark unicorn that I saw…I think Headmare Twilight talked about how she almost took over Equestria one time,” he said, trying to sound casual. “So I guess I’d pick her. I think it’d be pretty cool to hang out with her, and get to know her and stuff.”

“You want her to step on you,” Sandbar flatly called out.

“FUCK YOU, SO WHAT IF I DO?”

Tree Hugger sharply inhaled through her nose, taking in the natural scent of the flowery fields that blew through the town.

Ponyville always had a unique feel to it that Tree Hugger liked. There was something about all the walks of life that came into this small town that warmed her heart. The town was always growing, but it never lost its roots.

“View’s nice, isn’t it?”

Tree Hugger nodded, unfazed by the fact that she was suddenly no longer alone.

“Yeah, I gotta say, I’m seeing a real beauty up here, too,” Feather Bangs grinned, standing right behind the mare.

“Oh yeah?” Tree Hugger slowly closed her eyes. “What do you see that’s so beautiful?”

Feather Bangs couldn’t help but smirk a bit, given the prompt. “Well…What I see is a true wonder to all ponykind, something that gets my heart racing whenever I look at it!”

“Aw, dude, I feel the same way!” Tree Hugger looked across the small town, feeling her heart swell up with happiness.

Feather Bangs’s eyes looked over Tree Hugger’s body staring out at the town. “Yeah…It’s as beautiful as the first time I laid my eyes on it…”

Tree Hugger kept nodding along, agreeing with Feather Bangs’s sentiments. “Totally…This place is like, really special, ya know?”

“Admittedly, I haven’t seen much of it before, and it makes me kinda sad knowing I missed out for most of my life!” Feather bangs put a hoof on his heart, bowing his head with a solemn sadness.

Still staring out at the town, Tree Hugger frowned in sympathy. “Ohh…but that just means you have to make up for lost time, right?”

“Make up for lost time…” Feather Bangs took a hesitant step forward. ”Yeah…I’m sure she would appreciate it…”

Tree Hugger tilted her head, not in confusion, but in contemplation. Now that she thought about it, Ponyville did have a bit of a “she” vibe to it…

Step by step, Feather Bangs worked up the courage to stand at Tree Hugger’s side. “Well, no time like now, right? There’s a lot of beauty I’d like to take in…”

Tree Hugger laughed, immediately putting a hoof around Feather Bangs’s shoulder. “Oho, right on, dude, let’s do it!”

“Wha-right now?”

“Yeah, like I said, make up for lost time, right?” Tree Hugger finally turned her head to look at Feather Bangs, her expression still just as mellow and relaxed as ever. “I mean, I’m down for doing it right here.”

Feather Bangs didn’t see a hint of lust in Tree Hugger’s eyes, and yet what she was proposing only on the third day…

“And after that, I know there’s like, a whole lot of other spots around town we can do it! It’ll be awesome!”

“Oh! That sounds…great?” Feather Bangs hesitantly smiled, having no idea what he was agreeing to.

Author's Note

I really need to bully Gallus more...