“Hey Sandbar, can I ask ya something?”
The earth pony looked up from his plate, still chewing the carrot he just took a bite of, “Hmm?”
Smolder had a claw under her chin as she continued, “So you and Yona are totally an item now, right?”
Sandbar looked around the table of his friends as he finished chewing his food and swallowed it, “Yeah, I guess we are?” His face was a bit flushed as he answered, particularly when his eyes met Yona’s. She smiled as she also had a little pink in her cheeks.
“Then have you two….you know….” Smolder asked, leading on.
“Have Sandbar and Yona done what?” Yona puzzledly asked.
The dragon used her free claw to motion to help insist what she meant, “You know….”
The stallion raised an eyebrow, “I’m….afraid I don’t follow….”
Smolder looked to her left where Gallus was sitting, “You know what I’m asking, right?”
“Totally, and I want to know too,” the griffon was quick to answer, looking at both Sandbar and Yona.
“What are friends talking about?” Yona asked in an almost pleading tone.
Ocellus looked at both Smolder and Gallus from her seat, raising her hoof to her muzzle. “Are you two really asking if they….” she trailed off on her words.
Gallus quickly asked, “Have you two been ‘checking the oil’?”
The yak was confused, “For machinery? Does School of Friendship have such machinery?”
“No, not anything like that! You know, ‘monster-mashing’?” Smolder asked.
“You mean like dancing?” Sandbar was confused.
Smolder spoke again, “‘Jumping the turnstile’!”
As did Gallus, “‘Buttering the biscuit’!”
“‘Baking the potato’!”
“‘Frolicing in the cornfield’!”
“‘Sweeping the chimney’!”
“‘Rolling in the hay’!”
“‘Enjoyed horizontal refreshments’!”
“‘Plowing the land’!”
“‘Wacka-wacka’!” Silverstream interrupted, “Wait, what are we talking about? I wasn’t paying attention.”
“How many terms are there?” Ocellus asked herself before she cleared her throat to speak up to the puzzled Yona and Sandbar, “We’re asking if you two have been….” she looked around before she leaned in and whispered, “intimate….”
Quickly, both Sandbar and Yona’s faces became flushed red.
Silverstream interrupted with a bit of volume, “What was that? I didn’t hear you over here, Ocellus. Can you please speak up?” Ocellus looked embarrassed at the thought of even thinking of repeating herself.
“I….uh, I don’t really think this is appropriate dinner-time talk?” Sandbar tried to brush it off.
“Oh please, we’ve all been wanting to know about this since forever,” Gallus insisted.
“He’s right, now spill it,” Smolder said, “have you two….you know….’mangled limbs together’?”
“Oh, I like that one! I gotta remember that one,” Gallus mused.
Yona and Sandbar exchanged looks to one another. Both their faces were burning red as they were placed on the spot.
“Friend Sandbar and Yona have not done such yet,” the yak admitted sheepishly.
There was a groan from both Gallus and Smolder. Both look disappointed as if they had lost some sort of bet.
“How is it that they’ve been together this long and still haven’t ‘toasted the bagel’?” Gallus lamented.
“Wow, a lot of these are food based, aren’t they?” Sandbar commented.
“Why do friends care if Yona and friend Sandbar do such things? Are not such things private matter?” Yona asked.
“Well, yes, of course,” Ocellus admitted with a guilty look, “but we’re your friends and we are curious about your relationship together.”
“Exactly! It’s the endless guessing of ‘will they or won’t they?’ We need to know!” Silverstream exclaimed, flailing her forelimbs around.
“We’re well past that part, Silverstream,” Smolder smirked. “Now we need to know what these two lovebirds will do next, and if they’ll ‘learn about the birds and the bees’.”
“Okay, please stop with all of those phrases!” Ocellus begged as her face began to grow pink in embarrassment.
“Hey, these are fun! I should write them down!” Silverstream thought aloud. She reached down to her book bag to find a parchment and quill.
“Must friends keep saying such things? They are embarrassing to talk about,” Yona commented, her cheeks were still burning.
“Maybe,” Gallus spoke, “but it’s also fun to watch you both squirm at the topic as we get information out of you two.” His face had a bit of a sinister look to it.
Silverstream was writing down a number of the phrases she had heard on a piece of parchment, “What were some of those other phrases you all said?”
“Oh, you mean like ‘shaking the sheets’?” Gallus said with a big grin.
“Or ‘rocking the boat’?” Smolder added.
“What about ‘knocking mops’?”
“Ooo! I haven’t heard that one! Oh, there’s also ‘scratching the itch’!”
Ocellus loudly interjected, “Please, just stop!”
“Yes, please! I can’t write that fast!” Silverstream said as she moved the quill across the parchment as she could.
Sandbar’s flushed face didn’t hide his bashfulness about the situation, but he still attempted to take the high road. “Well, I agree with Yona that this is a private matter between us and does not concern any of you. Now if you excuse me, I have some homework to finish.” The earth pony stood up from the table and took his tray to leave.
“Yona agrees with friend Sandbar. Private matter,” she also stood up. Taking her tray, she followed Sandbar.
“It’s a matter about privates,” Smolder quietly commented with a smirk. The entire rest of the still-seated table joined in with snickering, except for Ocellus.
“Smolder!” the changeling scolded.
Still snickering, Smolder watched both of them trot away from the table, “Do you think they’re gonna go all the way?”
Gallus replied, “Not sure, to be honest.”
Ocellus spoke, “I hope not. I would really miss Sandbar.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Silverstream asked.
“It’s normal for the female to devour her mate, right? A number of insects engage in that such as the praying mantis,” Ocellus explained herself.
Gallus tilted his head in disbelief, “Uh, Ocellus? I’m not sure how to tell you this but mammals don’t eat their mate like a praying mantis. I don’t even think changelings do that.”
------------------------------------------
Later that evening, there was a knock on Yona’s dorm door. She opened the door, revealing Sandbar on the other side.
“Oh, hello,” Yona greeted, “What brings Sandbar here?”
“Hey, Yona,” the earth pony said with a weary smile. He looked tired and a bit annoyed. “Look, this is going to sound very weird but Gallus locked me out of our dorm.”
This news surprised the yak, “Friend Gallus did what?”
With a sigh, Sandbar explained, “Yeah, after I finished my homework, I went to go buy a soda and when I got back, he locked me out. I kept knocking on the door but he was on the other side just telling me that he can’t hear me, which was obviously a total lie.”
Yona had a puzzled look on her face, “Does friend Sandbar think it has something to do with why friend Ocellus is having sleepover with friends Smolder and Silverstream tonight?”
The thought came to Sandbar’s mind and he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle and shake his head, “So it’s official: the four of them are setting us up. Or rather they are setting this whole scene up.”
The yak couldn’t help but smile at the thought as well, “Friends really think Yona and friend Sandbar have chemistry.”
“I think we’re well past the part of wondering if there’s something between us. We’ve been dating for a while,” Sandbar said with a slight laugh.
The yak also had a small laugh as she spoke, “Maybe they do this because friends care about us? Here, come on in.” Yona stepped aside and welcomed the pony into her room.
Sandbar entered the dorm, “At least maybe they’ll shut up about it now.”
For the rest of the evening, Yona and Sandbar spent their time chatting about anything and everything that came to mind in the yak’s dorm. However, as it grew later into the evening, both of them knew there was something that was still ahead of them.
“Well, it looks late, we should turn in for the night,” Sandbar said as he looked at the clock on the wall. It was half past ten.
“Friend Sandbar is right,” Yona agreed as she used her hooves to fiddle with her bows and braids, “It time for sleep.” While it took a bit of work on each side, both of her braids came undone. Her brown hair fell down and cascaded all the way down to her hooves.
The green stallion was a bit stunned as he watched Yona undo her braids, revealing just how long her hair was when it was not bound together.
“Something wrong?” Yona asked before she shook her head to let out the fibers of hair move more freely.
“I….no! Not at all!” Sandbar almost tripped over his words as he blushed a bit, “I guess I just forgot how much hair you actually have when it’s up in braids. Actually, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without braids.”
“First time for everything?” Yona smiled as she pulled the blanket off and climbed on to the bottom bunk.
“I guess so,” Sandbar smiled as he looked down at the floor. He found himself a spot that looked good enough for him to sleep on. It had a rug on it, so it at least had a little comfort over the wooden planks.
“What friend Sandbar doing?”
Sandbar stopped himself from lying down on the rug. “Huh? I’m going to sleep on the floor right here. Just please don’t trip over me if you get up,” he gave a quick joke.
“Why? There still room in Yona’s bed.”
He felt a quick burning feeling across his face as he heard Yona finish speaking. It took everything he had in him to attempt to look over at Yona. The yak had a deep pink tint to her face as well, however, she was unable to look at Sandbar. Instead, Yona looked elsewhere with an embarrassed expression painted across her face.
“A-Are you sure, Yona?” Sandbar asked.
“Yes, Y-Yona sure,” she nodded, still not making eye contact. “But can friend Sandbar turn off light please?”
Sandbar nodded as he went to the light switch. At the switch, he took a quick look at the bed where Yona was. She was right, the bed did have room for him to join. And it certainly looked far more inviting than sleeping on the dormroom floor. He flicked the switch down, causing the entire room to be enveloped in almost complete darkness. There were a few bits of light that aided in lighting up the room, such as the glow of the alarm clock, the shining light of the pathway lamps not too fair outside of the window, and the light from the half moon that was hanging above outside.
“Okay, let’s see if I can trot over there….” Sandbar was talking to himself as he took care as he was making his way over to the bunk bed. His eyes were still getting used to the lack of light. Slowly, he tried to cross the room, feeling his way around. “So, that’s the dresser….”
“Careful,” Yona called out.
“I’m trying….” the pony insisted before there was a loud thunk, to which he yelped out, “Ahhh!”
Yona was quick to speak her concern, “Is Sandbar okay?!”
He replied with a bit of pain to his voice, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just found the bedframe….with my hoof.” With knowledge of where the bed was, and his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, Sandbar found the bedside. With the aid of the minimal light, he was able to see Yona on the mattress, “There we go.”
With a sigh of relief, Yona motioned for the pony to climb into the bed. “Perhaps Yona should have been one to turn light off?” she had a small smile on her face.
“Well, live and learn,” Sandbar joked.
As the stallion lied upon the mattress and rested his head upon one of the pillows, Yona reached for the blanket to cover the two of them. She lowered her head back down to the other pillow. Both of them looked upward at the bottom of the bunk above them in silence. While there was plenty of room on the bed, Yona and Sandbar were lying close enough to one another that they were able to feel each other’s body heat. Between them, there was a lingering bit of awkwardness in the air.
To break the stillness, Yona asked a rhetorical question with a small smile, “So does this count as sleeping with somecreature before marriage?”
Sandbar smirked with a slight chuckle, “Well, it is literal sleeping. So maybe?”
The yak also had a laugh in her voice, “Perhaps Yona and friend Sandbar should be careful about what happens then?”
“Maybe you have a point,” Sandbar said as he turned his body to lay on his side, facing Yona, “otherwise, the others might think we were ‘making the blanket monster’.”
A hearty laugh escaped from the yak as she also turned her body to face the bed’s other occupant. Her head was positioned carefully against the pillow to allow her horn to rest above the pillow, allowing her head to be comfortably against the pillow. She used one of her hooves to move some of her long hair from her face. “Yona never heard of that expression! What about calling it ‘extracurricular activities’?”
The pony laughed, “Has any creature ever called it that before?” He paused for a moment to think, “Actually, now that I think about it, that would explain a few of the excuses Gallus has given me before.”
“What about ‘advanced cuddles’?” Yona asked with a grin.
“‘Frosting the cupcake’?”
“‘Complicated patty-cake’?”
“‘Giving Luna some entertainment’?”
Yona said something excitedly to continue the conversation, however it was in her native tongue.
Sandbar was a bit surprised, but he still had a smile on his face and a slight laugh in his voice, “What was that?”
“Oh, sorry! Yona got carried away and said phrase for it in Yak. Let Yona see if Yona can translate it:” the yak paused for a moment to think before she spoke again, taking great care to select her words correctly, “‘take midnight train going anywhere’.”
Raising a hoof up to his muzzle, Sandbar tried his best to keep himself from laughing too loudly.
“Maybe phrase loses meaning in translation?”
“No, no Yona, it’s great,” Sandbar snickered. “That one is gold. Even better than when I accidentally overheard Professor Pinkie Pie use the phrasing ‘playing the accordion’.”
Both of the creatures shared in their laughter for a bit longer in the dimly lit dormroom. As it died down, some of the long hair Yona had moved out from her face fell down in front of her. Before the yak could do anything about it, Sandbar moved his left hoof up to move the locks out from in front of her face. With the pale light that was coming in from the window, the pony was able to see the olive color of Yona’s eyes along with her smile.
“Thank you,” Yona said, her cheeks had a slight pink tint to them.
“Not a problem,” Sandbar replied, his own face sharing that same color.
The smile on Yona’s face did seem to shake a little as a thought came to her mind. “Can Yona ask friend Sandbar a question?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Yona had been thinking about this for a long time and….does Sandbar think Sandbar and Yona will last?” Yona’s face looked a bit troubled, which was apparent even in the dim light. Sandbar had a look of surprise on his face, which Yona quickly took note of. “Sorry, Yona should not have said anything!” she quickly tried to backtrack.
Sandbar quickly spoke up, “Oh, no it’s okay. But why are you asking?”
A guilty look flashed across Yona’s face, her eyes drifting away from Sandbar’s gaze, “Yona ask because Yona….Yona just keep thinking about what other friends say about our relationship. How they ask about Yona and Sandbar.”
“You’re worried about what they think about us?” Sandbar asked, making sure he heard correctly.
Yona nodded, still avoiding eye contact, “Yona just unsure about what normal relationship would be like with pony.”
After a bit of silence, there was a soft chuckling coming from Sandbar which caught Yona’s attention.
“What so funny?”
“I’m just thinking about how our friends are so invested in our relationship. It’s really funny the more you think about it. Personally, I could care less about what they think about us being together,” Sandbar admitted.
“Why so?” Yona finally returned eye contact.
“Because it’s our relationship, not theirs,” he replied with a bit of a smirk. “Sure, I’m glad they support us being together and all, but whatever happens is between us. It’s not like we have to put on a show or anything for them.”
A small smile returned to Yona’s face.
“Besides,” Sandbar continued, “it’s more about what we want, right?”
Yona nodded.
“It actually reminds me of something my mom once said to me when I first started dating. She told me to only date some creature who actually likes you, who cheers you on, who makes you laugh when you’re sad, who brings you soup when you’re sick, and who brings you ice cream when you’re lazy. Some creature that gives you that very special feeling, and once you meet them, don’t ever let them go.”
“Friend Sandbar dated some creature before Yona?” the yak’s eyes grew wide for a brief moment.
“No, she told me this before our very first date,” Sandbar smirked, “Am I detecting a little bit of jealousy in your voice?”
Quickly, the yak denied it as her cheeks burned red, “N-No! Yona not jealous!”
Sandbar still had a wicked smile directed at Yona, “Are you sure you’re not jealous, Yona? It almost seemed like you were upset that some other creature dated me before.”
“Yona not jealous!” Yona gave a slight shove to the pony, but it was a gentle and playful push, as to not knock him off the mattress.
Sandbar laughed for a bit more, but after it died down, he continued, “The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t care what we do. Whether we’re spending our time doing homework, going out to get a bite to eat, being intimate, or whatever, I’m just happy spending time with you,” Sandbar’s smile was sincere and soothing in nature, “Just being here, next to you, is perfect all by itself. This alone means everything to me.”
Looking at the pony that was lying next to her, Yona could feel her face blushing just as much as Sandbar’s. She had a big grin on her face as she asked, “Does friend Sandbar really mean all of that?”
“Of course I mean it,” Sandbar smiled back. He gave a nervous laugh as he added on, “Personally, I’ve always been worried if you actually really liked me.”
Yona quickly interjected with a bit of force and not in the hushed tone that they had been speaking, “Of course Yona like friend Sandbar!” She covered her mouth for a moment before speaking back in the whispery tone, “As Yona was saying, of course Yona like friend Sandbar! There so much about Sandbar that is great. Sandbar is honest, kind, and thoughtful pony. Sandbar also more than just considerate to friends, but also to strangers Sandbar not know. And those only few of many reasons why Yona loves Sandbar. But most of all, it because Sandbar has good one of these.” With her face deeply blushing, Yona placed her right hoof against the earth pony’s torso.
Sandbar also was blushing as he felt Yona’s touch. However, he was a bit puzzled, “My….My liver?”
“Is that not where pony heart is?” Yona asked.
“No, it’s more over here,” Sandbar laughed as he used both of his hooves to slowly guide Yona’s hoof across his torso to above where his heart was.
After a few moments, Yona smiled and spoke, “Yona can feel Sandbar’s heartbeat.”
With a bit of a pink tint to his face, Sandbar asked, “May I feel your heartbeat?”
“Yona happy to.”
Without another word, Yona wrapped her front limbs around the earth pony next to her. She pulled Sandbar close to her, enveloping him in her hold. Her hold wasn’t tight or crushing, but more a gentle and secure snuggle that was comforting to the pony, same for her steady and calm heartbeat. Against Yona, Sandbar could feel the warmth of the yak’s soft fur and the pleasant aroma it gave off. He returned the embrace, holding on to her tightly.
“Sandbar’s hugging Yona too tightly,” Yona said with a bit of surprise.
The pony eased up on his hold and looked directly into the yak’s eyes, “Heh, sorry about that.”
“It's okay, Sandbar,” Yona returned eye contact with a smile, “Yona not mind big hug from Sandbar.”
Yona lowered her forehead to meet his, both of them gazing into each other’s eyes. Both creatures had a content smile on their faces as they fell asleep in each other’s embrace.
END