Sandbar looked around the room. “So let me get this straight.” He pointed a hoof at Yona and Ocellus. “You two are dating.”
Yona and Ocellus nodded. “Yep.”
“And you two are dating,” Sandbar stated, moving his hoof over to Smolder and Silverstream.
Two more affirmative nods proved that this was in fact correct.
“And finally, we’re dating,” Sandbar said, moving a hoof between Gallus and himself.
Gallus smirked and batted his lashes. “I’m so glad that you’ve noticed, dear. I was getting worried that you only saw me as a friend.”
Sandbar playfully stuck out his tongue.
“Shush,” he teased, “no one likes a smartass.”
“And here I assumed you fell in love with me because of my quick wits and sarcastic charm,” Gallus said.
He faked a pathetic groan and held a talon to his forehead. A wonderful shade of faux remorse coloured his complexion.
Yona scoffed and the other creatures all looked at her.
“That is such a Berdly move,” she said.
Gallus cocked a brow. “A what move?”
“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Yona grumbled. “You have not experienced the same fine art as Yona and will not understand the reference.”
The others looked between themselves in confusion before Sandbar cleared his throat. This seemed to catch their attention as all the eyes in the room settled back upon him.
“Anyways,” he continued. “So, there are like three couples in our friend group but also all of us kind of have like varying levels of crushes between one another. Like I really like Yona… er… well I guess I really like all of you but Yona is the example here.”
“You can have favourites, dude,” Smolder ribbed. “I love you all but Silverstream is the one I’m planning to go steady with.”
She draped an arm over Silverstream’s withers and pulled her in close, planting a little kiss upon her cheek.
Silverstream seemed to appreciate this as she gave her own little peck upon Smolder’s scaly complexion. This second kiss seemed to get under her girlfriend’s rough exterior as a shade of red entered her already hot cheeks.
“But the point is,” Sandbar continued, taking back the reins. “We’re all kind of interested in dating one another to some degree, right?”
The other five looked between themselves before slowly nodding in agreement.
It would seem that this was correct.
“Except for Yona,” Gallus grumbled, crossing his talons in front of his puffed-out chest. “I don’t know what a Berdly is but I have a feeling that I’m not going to like it.”
“Oh, you’re not,” Yona said, smirking.
Sandbar shook his head. “So anyways, why don’t we just, I don’t know? What if we all just started dating one another?”
“Oh, oh, oh!” Silverstream beamed. “I like that idea. Big families are really common in our society. Like I had two dads and three moms.”
“Same here,” Occelus offered. “It’s not uncommon for a Changeling to share their love with a whole bunch of other Changelings.”
Sandbar nodded. “Plus, it seems like Princess Twilight and all her friends are already doing something pretty similar and they’re supposed to be like our role models and stuff. So why shouldn’t we have something like what they have?”
“I mean some of them are supposed to be role models,” Gallus said. He snorted and rolled his talon through the air. “Just between us, I don’t really trust half of the lessons that come out of Rainbow Dash’s mouth. She has some interesting theories.”
“Fair point,” Smolder said, rubbing at her chin. “Besides for Rainbow Dash, they all seem to have pretty good lessons to teach us. And Sandbar’s right. If they’re making something like this work then why can’t we? It’s just like… advanced friendship, right?”
“Advanced friendship,” Yona said, trying out the word. “Yona likes the sound of that.” She puffed out her chest. “Yona desires to try out this advanced friendship.”
Her gaze went across the room, surveying each of the five creatures closely.
She then thrust a hoof at Gallus. “I desire to kiss Berdly.”
Gallus’ eye twitched. “Not until you tell me what the hell a Berdly is?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Yona said, looking quite resolute.
Sandbar sighed before glancing to Ocellus. “Yo, Ocellus, I’m coming over, okay?”
He got up and made his way across the small circle. Occelus and Yona noticed and made a little bit of room between them for Sandbar to fit right in. An offer which Sandbar was more than happy to accept.
Their bodies felt nice against him. Occelus was a little cold but the hulking wall of fur that was Yona really helped offset that. No wonder they made such a good couple.
“Hey,” Sandbar said, keeping his voice husky as he winked at Occelus. “Been waiting for a chance to do something like this for ages.”
Occelus’s cheeks warmed to such a beautiful shade of red. “S-same.”
“You come here often,” Sandbar teased.
“Only to see you,” Occelus shot back.
Sandbar reached over and placed a hoof over top of Occelus’, giving it a tender squeeze.
Occelus shivered at the sensation and Sandbar could feel a pull upon his energy. It wasn’t much but it was noticeable.
This girl was feeding right now.
Not that Sandbar minded. He could be an ‘all you can eat buffet’ if needed.
“Can I kiss you?” Sandbar asked.
Occelus’ cheek warmed further and she couldn’t help but let out a string of nervous laughter.
“Yes please,” she whispered.
Sandbar drew his hoof back and placed it upon her cheek, using it to turn her head. He then leaned forwards and pressed his lips against her own, sharing in a kiss. It lasted for only a couple of seconds before Occelus drew away.
The poor thing looked like her heart was pounding at a million beats a minute. There was a frantic quality about her as a string of pent-up giggles broke free.
“That was adorable,” Silverstream beamed.
She then made an excited little noise as a potent shiver coursed through her entire body.
“Gallus let’s boop beaks!” she yelped.
Gallus snorted. “Sure thing.”
Silverstream slid across the floor and moved in front of Gallus. She didn’t even wait a moment before booping him on the beak with her own. Not quite a kiss but there was only so much you could do when neither of the parties involved had the luxury of having lips.
Sandbar also couldn’t help but catch that a little red had entered Gallus’ cheeks.
“Okay I’m on board for this now,” Gallus whispered, letting out his own nervous little laugh. “That uh… that felt kind of nice.”
Silverstream booped him again. “Dork.”
“I’m not a dork!” Gallus defended.
“Correct,” Yona murmured. “He’s a Berdly.”
“What the fuck is a Berdly!” Gallus shouted.
“That’s for Yona to know and you to wonder,” Yona teased.
She then looked at Smolder.
“I guess that leaves us,” Smolder said, rubbing at the back of her head.
Yona nodded. “Only if you’d like to.”
Smolder smirked. “What? Do you think I can’t handle a Yak of your stature?”
“Yona doesn’t think anyone can handle a Yak of her stature,” Yona replied, batting her lashes. “But you’re more than welcome to try.”
“Is that so?” Smolder asked.
She grinned and braced herself upon the floor. A second went by before she launched herself forwards with violent speed. The two of them collided, soon enough, and rolled over, taking out a desk with them.
It was a violent action though everything seemed fine as the two of them started to laugh loudly.
Hopefully, they’d be long gone before any of the staff noticed the devastation.
Smolder was on top of Yona and looked down at her. She was pinning her place as she leaned forwards to give her a kiss. It was a bit more passionate than the other kisses today, lasting for several long seconds.
Though they finally drifted apart.
“Smolder is a very good kisser,” Yona murmured, her eyes going half lidded.
Silverstream beamed. “Hell yeah she is.”
“So, that seemed to have worked,” Sandbar commented. “Is everyone else feeling groovy about the new dynamic?”
Ocellus hummed. “How are we going to deal with trying to schedule everything?”
“I…” Sandbar taped at his snout with a hoof. “How the hell do our teachers do this?”
“They manage it because Twilight is a notorious micromanager who can get everything planned to the most precise detail,” Gallus commented.
“I mean I guess we could just go with the flow,” Smolder quipped. “I don’t mind playing things by ear. After all, there are an even number of us, so like… it’s not like anyone should ever feel lonely.”
Yona nodded. “Yona agrees with this philosophy. She is not very good at scheduling things anyways. It is not the Yak way.”
“Plus, if we’re all dating and we all like to spend time with each other anyways, couldn’t we just hang out like we usually do?” Silverstream suggested. “Don’t see why we need to worry about breaking off into groups of two now that we’re all a couple.”
“Are we?” Gallus asked.
Everyone looked at him.
Gallus motioned with a talon. “I mean, yes we’re all dating. But couple means two and there are six of us. Don’t we need to come up with like a better term?”
Yona snorted.
“What?” Gallus asked.
Yona smirked. “That’s a very Berdly answer.”
Gallus glared at her and his hackles rose. “I’m not falling for this, Yona. You’re just messing with me.”
“It is kind of a Berdly answer,” Sandbar added.
“Do you even know who that is?” Gallus growled.
Sandbar shrugged. “No clue but you’re cute when someone gets under your hide.”
“I hate you all,” Gallus growled, looking adorable as he glared at them.
Silverstream draped a leg over his back. “I’m on your side, hun.”
“You are?” Gallus asked.
Silverstream nodded. “I don’t care if you are or aren’t a Berdly, I’ll love you all the same.”
“I don’t even…” Gallus sighed. “Thanks?”
“But Gallus has a good point,” Sandbar quipped.
“See!” Gallus exclaimed, thrusting his talon at Sandbar. “Sandbar agrees with me. So that means that he’s a Berdly too.”
Yona hummed and shook her head. “No. Sandbar doesn’t have that Berdly kind of energy.”
Gallus groaned and buried his face into his talons. He looked ready to comment but stopped. It seemed like he’d finally given up on trying to get through to them. There was only one thing to do now and that was to accept that he was the Berdly.
“What about the term polycule?” Occelus asked.
Everyone looked at her and she flinched away from the sudden attention.
“It’s a term that we use in the Changeling Hives,” Occelus explained. “It’s something along the lines of like…” She rolled her hoof through the air. “A couple that has more than just two Changelings in it.”
“Polycule,” Smolder said, testing out the word by repeating it a couple more times. Finally, she nodded to herself. “I kind of dig it.”
Sandbar closed his eyes. “Man, I already feel like we should be keeping track of everything we’re talking about. Anything else we need to go over?”
He could feel Ocellus at his side, her cool body nice against his own. Though it was soon joined by another that was much warmer. He opened his eyes and glanced over, noticing that Smolder had taken a seat beside him.
“Can I help you?” he asked, throwing off his best attempt at bedroom eyes.
Smolder smirked. “I want some sugar.”
“Oh, sure everyone wants to kiss the pony,” Gallus grumbled.
Ocellus giggled. “I could kiss you if you’d like? I don’t mind that you’re a Nerdly.”
“Berdly,” Yona corrected.
“Nah he’s a giant nerd,” Silverstream chided. “He actually likes to play chess.”
“It’s a novelty!” Gallus growled. “All anyone wants to do back home is be miserable and bitch at each other. It’s nice that I actually get to play board games and stuff in Equestria.”
“Alright, let’s lay off of Gallus,” Sandbar said.
Silverstream nodded. “It’s getting a little bit much.”
“Fine,” Yona replied, sticking her tongue out at the gryphon. “Though Yona expects a similar mercy from him next time he finds a way to get under her hide.”
“Not in a million years,” Gallus murmured, smirking to himself.
Sandbar ignored them and looked up at Smolder. “Didn’t even know you liked boys.”
“Emotions are complicated,” Smolder teased, rolling her talon through the air. “Plus, you’re kind of soft like a girl.”
Sandbar cocked a brow but didn’t comment.
Smolder then went on. “So maybe I’m like a lesbian but bi for one or two stallions.”
Sandbar felt a shiver crawl up his spine at that comment. It was like a million angry essays were being drafted at this very moment. Though the intense dread was only brief and metaphysical as he returned to the moment.
Smolder then reached out and ran a talon through his mane, scratching him behind the ear. It felt nice and Sandbar couldn’t help but purr.
“Oh, did I find a weakness,” Smolder teased.
Sandbar shook his head. “I like to think of it as more of a feature than anything else.”
He leaned forwards, attempting to kiss Smolder. Initially, she drew away, looking a little shocked. But then the reality of the situation seemed to dawn on her as she dipped forwards and gave him a playful little kiss upon the lips.
Smolder’s lips were warmer than Sandbar’s own, doing her dragon heritage proud. He could easily imagine flames shooting out of them but thankfully the only thing that came forth was a little bit of tongue.
Though the tongue was only there for the briefest of moments as the two of them drew away.
“Nerd,” Smolder whispered.
Sandbar smirked. “Not a bad kisser for a dragon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Smolder asked, scrunching her expression.
Thankfully there was no real hostility behind her words.
“Just saying that you’re bucking the trend,” Sandbar teased.
“Yona wants to kiss the pony too!” Yona shouted.
Sandbar smirked. “Gosh, I really am popular, aren’t I?”
He skirted away from his spot and made his way over to Yona. Though due to her size he didn’t even need to sit down to get level with her. Instead, he merely dipped forwards and pecked her upon the lips.
Sandbar was about to draw away but Yona reached out and placed a hoof within his mane, securing him in place.
Her lips were rough though she had a rich scent that he really liked. It was earthy and slightly sweet, reminding him of the desserts that Pinkie would bring to class. It was hard not to melt against her due to how comfortable she felt and how large she was.
In the end, she eventually let go, allowing Sandbar to pull away and draw in a breath.
“That was nice,” he murmured.
“How about some sugar for your favourite cock?” Gallus asked.
Silverstream snorted. “I don’t think we’ve been dating long enough to get that comfortable, Gallus”
“Hardy, harr, harr,” Gallus said, rolling his eyes.
Sandbar smirked and came over. He gave his boyfriend a little kiss upon the forehead, followed by another upon his beak. The two kisses seemed to have their intended effect as a nice shade of red coloured his cheeks.
“Is that good enough?” Sandbar asked.
“Adequate,” Gallus teased.
Sandbar drew away and looked towards his friends. “So, uh… now that we’re officially an item what should we do now?”
“We should go on a date,” Yona declared.
“A date sounds nice,” Ocellus added. “We could… what could we do with six creatures?”
“In Ponyville?” Sandbar asked, humming. “Go to like one of four restaurants, loiter on public property, and study.”
“Gods, couldn’t they have built this school literally anywhere else in Equestria,” Smolder grumbled.
“I for one am a huge fan of loitering,” Gallus quipped.
Yona smirked. “Sure thing, Berdly.”
“That’s it!” Gallus roared. “This polycule is canceled!”
He pouted and folded his talons in front of his chest.
“I refuse to be seen with this brute,” he grumbled, holding his head up high.
Yona stuck out her tongue. “Yona loves you too.”
Occelus hummed as she poked at the floor with a hoof. “I might have an idea.”
The others looked at her.
“I mean, we could literally just do what we always do,” she said. “We’re always together anyways, right? So, why do we need to do something special?” She offered a small smile. “Every moment is already special as it is if it’s spent with you five.”
Smolder snorted. “Could you be anymore sappy?”
“She has a point,” Silverstream said. “If what we have isn’t broken why put in all this work trying to fix it?”
Sandbar nodded. “So, we pretty much just like… go about business as usual except that we’re all dating each other now?”
“I could get behind that,” Gallus said.
Yona nodded in agreement. “Yona as well.”
“Seems like we kind of had this big meeting for nothing then,” Sandbar teased. “Or well… not nothing… just feels like not a whole lot has changed because of it.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Silverstream said. “We’re all dating now because of it.”
Smolder shrugged. “Isn’t that how ponies usually do things though? Hold a whole bunch of useless meetings to resolve problems that aren’t even there?”
“That sounds racist,” Yona teased.
“Though can I add one thing?” Gallus asked.
Yona looked ready to say something though an icy glare from Gallus made her close her mouth and simply nod.
Gallus smirked and bowed his head slightly. “I’m just saying that maybe our first date shouldn’t be in the school library. I’d really prefer that such an important event not be ruined by having to go over trig and history homework. While also dealing with whatever the hell Pinkie’s been teaching us in her classes.”
Yona smirked. “What a non-Berdly answer from you.”
“Thank you!” Gallus roared. “See, I’m not a Berdly.”
“Well, if we don’t want to be studying,” Sandbar said. “How about we like… I don’t know. How do you five feel about just loitering around town?”
He looked at his partners and they all nodded in turn.
“I love loitering!” Smolder said
Yona smiled. “Yona does too.”
“Loitering could be fun,” Silverstream added.
Occelus shrugged. “Sure?”
Gallus smirked. “I live to loiter.”
Sandbar nodded and got to his hooves. “Alright, then let’s go loiter, everycreature.”