"No." Both of them looked at me, confused.

Spike tilted his head. "What?"

"No," I repeated, louder, as loud as could come from me. I was never very good at shouting, at speaking firmly outside of selling things. "No, stop it." I raised a cloven hoof at Spike. "I like you, stop it. Stop it. You're being a complete jerk right now. Why? Pinkie's a nice pony. Maud's nice too. Why are you treating them as enemies?"

I looked to Pinkie. "Spike did ask first. You're emotionally... blackmailing him. That's not nice either. This is not nice. Neither of you are... being nice, right now... No..." I was shivering, shaking firmly. "I don't want to see people I like fighting each other, really, I don't."

Spike's grip slackened entirely, falling back. "Sorry..."

"Sorry." Pinkie looked just as abashed. "Wow... Um..." She forced a smile at Spike. "Let's be adults about this?"

Spike sat up straight. "Alright." He took a few calming breaths. "Look. I am Twilight's familiar." He put a hand on his chest. "I've been very diligently doing that. That means I make a few friends, which happen to be hers, but that's it. Okay? I'm..." He shrank, voice dropping. "I'm lonely, alright?"

I exhaled shakily as tensions slowly unwound. "Guys, I get lonely too." I looked around at laughing classmates nearby. "It's easy hiding that behind forced smiles, though."

I met Spike's uncertain gaze. "Hey, you deserve pals beyond just doing Twilight's bidding, you know?"

Spike scuffed a guilty claw, smoke wisping skyward. "Yeah, suppose sticking to duty alone ain't so healthy long term..."

I turned Pinkie's anxious way. "And nopony can force relationships that just aren't clicking, however nice they seem." I gently nudged her and Spike together, hoping the awkwardness could pass.

Pinkie managed a watery smile. "I hear you...guess gently being ourselves works better long run than acting how we think others want."

She perked an ear. "So... You two didn't go steady or anything yet, right?"

Spike jerked back with a snort of smoke. "Um, no? Why? What a strange question, even from you."

"No reason." She wobbled left and right, giving me a grin.

I'd read, and written, enough fanfiction to guess where her brain was. "Pinkie. Are you trying to... I don't think I can do poly."

Pinkie. "No?" She pointed a hoof at Spike, then over at the library. "You got two right now. You're either a liar or you're a silly billy that didn't think this through. You're already poly, kirin boy."

I sputtered, face aflame, hoof raking through my curly mane. How could I have overlooked such obvious relationship entanglements tying us together outside traditional expectations? Even the term monogamy failed capturing the fuller picture at play.

"I...but we...that is..." I stammered, seeking solid conceptual ground only to sink deeper under their waiting stares. Squirming truths wriggled up through mental mud. Polyamory aligned the sole term acknowledging rather than rejecting the uncomfortable status quo.

"Spike." I whirled on him. "I thought you and Twilight were the same person. Isn't... being involved with you two still one person."

"Kinda..." Spike rubbed at his cheek. "Legally, yes. If we got married, you'd be marrying Twilight. I'd be a bonus prize." He craned his considerably neck. "But I don't like thinking of myself like that, especially around something like, you know... dating? Shoot... I'd feel pretty bad being with somecreature I didn't like, no matter how much Twilight dug them."

Pinke rolled her hooves over one another, giggling with poorly restrained mirth that only seemed to be building. "Soooo... You three are going to have to deal with all the usual stuff poly ponies deal with. You're already in it, no avoiding it. If you want to avoid it, you'd better go to Maud and be her mono buddy."

"Hey." Spike folded his arms with a huff. "That's not fair."

"It's his choice." Pinkie bounced forward. "Neither of us can make up David's choice for him. Now... You could drag Spike over to Maud and get them all! No sad faces, all smiles. I get to run an even bigger wedding when you get to that. Sounds fun." She smiled, mind already on that distant festivity.

My eyes bounced rapidly between Pinkie casually planning some wildly elaborate polycule wedding reception and Spike smoking jealously at the imagined scenario. This whole relationship web felt ready to collapse under unspoken assumptions and mixed signals.

Drawing a calming breath of summer's sweet scent, I turned fully Spike's uncertain way. "Well, um, look. I got you to stop, but that was just a moment. It's time for you to talk. It's a crappy relationship if any of us just take charge." Gently I reclaimed his anxious claw, faintly smiling Pinkie's audacious but well-meaning way.

Spike exhaled, tension visibly easing as razored edges dulled sheathed in gentle hands not forcing outcomes. He met my smile with dawning trust that affection's odder oceans perhaps held unlooked wonders not casually discarded for safer harbors.

Pinkie giggled approvingly. "Ships go super farther when they're done bravely, instead of safely." She winked with a big grin. "I think you two were just going too fast."

Spike recoiled at that. "You? You're calling somecreature out on going too fast, really? You?! Seriously..."

"Seriously." Pinkie nodded at each of us. "Neither of you even know what it's like. So... date. Don't go steady just because you decided you like each other. Sillies. Just date a little. Work on the next step afterwards."

Spike blinked softly as he stood up on all fours. "Wow."

"Yeah," I agreed softly. "I'm... I really don't know. Part of me really wants to just..."

Pinkie poked me, booping me right on the nose. "Stop that! You have to walk before you run. You have to run before you get to the finish line. No teleporting! You've barely taken half a step. Date. Have fun. Maybe it'll work out, maybe not... Date."

I fell back from her, rubbing at my nose. Not that it had been hurt, but the contact threw me off. For just an instant, it was like I was being attacked, even if I knew she didn't mean that.

Spike huffed gently, turning back for the library. "Well... okay... Okay! Maybe I am being fast." He grabbed me, placing me on his back to slide down around him. "I'm heading home. Take it easy, Pinkie."

She didn't stop him, waving as he carried me away. "See you later!"

Spike put me down just in front of the door and slipped inside. "Twilight?"

"Spike?" She was at the front counter, looking up from a book. "Ah, both of you. How did your practice go?"

I rubbed along the side of my head. "We got distracted actually." I went up to her, standing just cross the counter from her. "Can I ask a question?" Spike looked tense, but I pressed on. "You said to ask you before I did anything with Spike."

"I did." Her horn glowed as she closed the book she had been reading. "Is there something I should know?"

Spike laughed tensely. "Nothing! We did nothing strange, promise."

Twilight hiked a brow. "Your words fail to inspire confidence. David, truth, kindly."

"Sure." I sat down there at the counter. "Spike is interested in me, and I'm not opposed to the idea, except a part of me is wondering if dating something so much larger than me might lead to trouble sooner rather than later."

Twilight colored as I just said the matter at hoof. "Do you remember what I said?"

"I do. Which is why we're talking. Twilight, can we date? Nothing serious, no eternal promises, just trying dating and seeing how it works out."

"Oh, um..." She rubbed behind her head. "Have you tried this before? You're talking as if--"

Spike put a hand between us. "Pinkie gave us advice, unasked for, I promise."

"Ah." Twilight inclined her head faintly. "That makes sense, actually. I..." She wriggled her nose at me. "I should be honest. My interest in you is, first, curiosity. Will you be upset if I take advantage of our proximity to examine and question you?"

"No?" I glanced away and back. "No, I don't think so... Cool, alright... cool..."

Spike snorted softly. "I'm doing something."

"Doing wh--" Twilight cut herself off as Spike smooched the top of my head, ears pinned out in either direction with clear surprise. "Oh. Um, was, I mean, did Spike have permission to do that?"

"Sure?" I sat up, rubbing at the spot. "Huh..." It was the first romantic kiss I had received. The fact that I had seen so many years without felt kinda sad, but also amazing. I had broken the streak. "That was fine. Oh! To be fair, there's another pony interested, I heard on the walk."

Twilight sat up. "You mentioned you spoke to Pinkie. She mentioned her sister?"

Spike nodded at that, settling into his favorite spot, curled comfortable. "Yep, her. Apparently she was thinking of snatching David up. Like a landslide, pow, hers forever."

I colored faintly, imagining being bowled over by an unemotive Maud. "I should talk to her... We're all working on second-hoof information right now, and that hardly feels fair."

Twilight shook her head slowly. "No, but it's getting later in the day. Don't you have a class?"

I perked at that. "I do!" I hopped to my hooves and hurried off to grab my bags. "See you both later!" Just like that, I fled off to educational things.

Spike chuckled softly, watching it. "He reminds me of you when he does that."

"Does what?" Twilight turned to Spike, arms already crossed.

"Gets excited to be somewhere on time." He tapped two claws. "Gets excited about learning something. Drops a conversation just like that. You two have things in common."

"Spike." She flipped her book open to resume reading. "Really..."

I slid into my seat as Fluttershy smiled at the class. "Life can be... complicated." She flapped her wings gently. "It's all too easy to get wrapped up in your own things, to forget what it could be like to stand in another pony's shoes. That's why we're doing this. Did you all pick a partner?" Hooves and hands went up.

She counted over them quickly. "Hm, looks like most of you did, but I see a few who did not." She waved them forward, which included me. "You can help each other. Please pick another student to be your partner now."

My choices were Ocellus, Yona, Gallus, or two ponies I didn't really know. Background ponies in the show. I pointed to Ocellus.

Ocellus perked and smiled, trotting up to me. "Okay." She slid in next to me. "I wonder what the assignment will be about."

Fluttershy nodded as the remaining creatures were paired up. "The challenge today will be walking a mile in each other's shoes. Pretend for the next week to be your partner. They will pretend to be you. Do what they'd do, and learn how they get through each day. At the end of the week, you'll write a report on the experience."

I had just agreed to pretend to be a female shapeshifting insect?

With a rush of green flames, Ocellus became a perfect copy of me, giggling. "This will be fun!" she said with my voice.

Fluttershy passed out cards. The one I got had Ocellus' schedule on it and a few bits of information, like where she sleeped. "Keep an open mind, and learn how your fellow student gets through the day. Your other teachers have already been informed of this, and will be expecting it."

I was not a shapeshifter, nor were most of the others, awkwardly all trying to figure out how they'd get started. Some of them had an easier time, picking somecreature that was relatively close to themselves. "Hello," I said to nothing with the best falsetto I had, which wasn't very good. "I'm Ocellus. Nice to meet you."

It promised to be an interesting week.

Author's Note

We interrupt the drama to remind you this is a school and there's work to be done. Prepare for a friendship lesson!

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