Smolder stared at her window from the top bunk bed, watching the snow fall gently into large snow hills nearly blocking the view of the town in the dragon’s dormroom. Feeling her heart tightening in her chest, she glanced down at the desk in the dimly lit room. It had been cleared out just hours before Ocellus kissed Smolder, time stopping for a few seconds, until Ocellus flew off the bed and left for the train. Smolder followed her, knowing that she’d be mentally kicking herself if she didn’t at least see off the three loves that made her once boring life all the more colorful.
There was Ocellus, a jaw-dropping changeling with chitin as blue as the winter blue sky outside Smolder’s window. She was the one that first drew Smolder out of her shell, kissing her when the six of them stayed at the School of Friendship the year before. It was on the very bed Smolder was laying on, when the two had been laughing away over jokes about the senseless dragons back at Smolder’s homeland. Ocellus was the one to initiate what was on both of their minds, and Smolder thanked the stars for that moment falling perfectly into place that night. If she were to ever marry one of them, Ocellus would be the one.
Then there was Silverstream, the dazzling magenta gray hippogriff that had a lot to ask when Smolder and Ocellus had come out about their relationship to their friends. Gallus and Sandbar had congratulated the two and went about their day, Yona went wide-eyed and silent, and Silverstream asked many questions about what it was like to love another girl. Those questions evolved into Silverstream trying out kisses with both of them, and eventually becoming a third in the relationship.
Yona was the latest addition to their relationship, having watched Smolder and Ocellus when they were huddled close, and then the trio when Silverstream joined. Smolder figured that the yak’s eyes were judging the three of them, but one day, the yak had pulled the dragon aside and started asking similar questions to what Silverstream had asked. Yona had cuddled and started going out on dates with the three of them, but she had yet to kiss any of them on the lips. The yak was like a deer in headlights when it came to love, but Smolder’s heart beated faster at the challenge. Eventually, she believed, she’d get to kiss and love Yona in the way her heart desired.
Smolder helped the three with as much of their luggage as possible up until reaching the train station. With the train yet to arrive, Ocellus turned around and wrapped her forelegs around the dragon’s shoulders in a tight hug.
“You sure you won’t be heading back to the Dragon Lands?” Ocellus asked.
“And do what? There’s more to do here then there,” Smolder shrugged. “At least I’ll have Gallus and Sandbar here.”
Smolder briefly glanced at Silverstream, who had perched herself on Yona’s back and was rubbing her face into the yak’s fur with a smile on her face. Then, Smolder looked into the changeling’s cyan eyes, and closed her own eyes as she pulled Ocellus into a deep kiss that distracted her from the winter cold running through her body. Pulling away, still holding Ocellus’ face in her claws, Smolder smiled gently.
“I’m going to miss all of you,” Smolder whispered. “But I’d hardly consider it fair if I went with one of you and left out the others.”
“It’s okay, I understand,” Ocellus kissed the dragon on the nose, stepping back as Silverstream jumped off of Yona. Silverstream lunged forward, squeezing the dragon with more force. Silverstream’s oxygen-stealing hugs were something Smolder had grown to love, and would grow to long for. As Silverstream let go, her wings wrapped themselves around Smolder’s back and pulled the dragon forward into a kiss. Smolder’s eyes widened for only a moment, then her eyes closed as she held the hippogriff’s face in her claws for several moments. Even after the kiss ended, Silverstream clung to Smolder’s body as the train arrived.
With a pang in her heart, Smolder gently nudged Silverstream, and the hippogriff jumped off and stood by Ocellus. Yona stared at Smolder like a moth to a flame, slowly walking forward until she gently headbutted Smolder’s chest.
“Yona will have all of you in her mind till she get back home,” Yona nodded, nuzzling Smolder’s cheek and bathing it in yak musk before walking towards Silverstream and Ocellus. Within a matter of minutes, the three of them got on the train. Smolder waved, the few seconds where she could see them through the window passing by too quickly. She knew that Gallus and Sandbar had gotten their goodbyes in the night before, allowing Smolder to properly send them off as she saw fit.
It had only been three slow days since they said their goodbyes, and Smolder stared at the only object remaining on the desk: a framed picture of the four of them with Smolder in the middle. Yona stood behind all three of them in the frame, but her poofy pelt and her wide grin was still visible in the picture. Ocellus and Silverstream were on either side of the dragon, holding her. It was that picture, along with Gallus and Sandbar bringing Smolder with them on their outings, that kept the dragon from sinking into an abyss of her loneliness for too long. Too many days passed where she didn’t see or hear from them, and it wasn’t even close to being over. Smolder glanced at the mug of hot chocolate resting on her bed, and grabbed it, staring at the four marshmallows far apart from each other. Perhaps she’d take on another extra credit assignment, or another book from Twilight Sparkle. She felt a spark in the dark environment of her mind as she imagined Ocellus and Silverstream’s bright eyes as the dragon boasted about her latest adventures and newest friendships formed in Ponyville in spite of her heart sinking in their absence. Or the fateful day when Yona would kiss her, and all of this time spent apart would become nothing more than an unpleasant memory.
Smolder shook her head, of course she was never going to head back to the Dragon Lands. When Ponyville gave her relationships and experiences beyond her wildest dreams, and the Dragon Lands expected her to have a drake’s eggs and nothing else to hope for, where else was she going to stay? Even with all three of her lovers elsewhere, she could still stare out the window and realize what Princess Twilight Sparkle and her town had given the young dragon.
And it was worth more than any gem in the world.