The three mares took a break from their fun when both Stick and Hay heard Penny's belly rumble. They had been feeding off the mare, on and off, during their play, and the growl was a good sign it was time for a break. For Penny, with two changelings, it was like coming up for air. Her head wasn't fuzzy at all, but she certainly felt like she had been working hard at something. Panting, the color in her cheeks strong, she brought a hoof to boop the other two on the nose. "You heard my alarm, I need something to eat."
Stick giggled and climbed off the bed, giving herself a little shake. Hay nibbled on Penny's ear a little more with blunt teeth, the two unicorns knowing they needed to get up but sharing a little extra closeness.
"Come on you two, there isn't any room service at this hotel." Stick, being well fed indeed, lifted a squirming Hay off the bed, repeating the procedure with Penny. "A quick wash up now, I think we have missed the school's meal time."
Both interrupted mares squealed like fillies and moved into the tiny bathroom of the suite to take turns cleaning. With only a few distractions, all three were neat and ready to head out. "With a little more notice we could have all dressed up." Penny looked at the wardrobe that contained her dresses wistfully.
Stick caught the look and wrapped a leg over the lunar unicorn's shoulder. "Not a month ago you were fighting every time I mentioned the word dress!" She squeezed Penny and made for the door.
"Well, you are persuasive!" Penny laughed and got a kiss from Hay, a surprising but welcome one.
Right then Stick opened the door and, one hoof raised to knock, a young stallion suddenly had a look of shock, pain and betrayal. "Sablee?" Hay barely noticed it but called to the stallion. "Sablee? What's wrong?" But he was already gone, racing down the hall and out of sight.
"Maybe we could have picked a better time for this but-" Penny started to explain their meeting with the stallion earlier in the day but got cut off.
"He likes me, I know." Hay gave a long sigh. "I would need to be blind not to have seen it." She stepped back in the room, pulling the door closed for a little privacy.
"So?" Stick smiled. "What's the deal then?"
Hay flopped on her side on the bed. "I just don't like stallions, they just…" She wiggled her hooves trying to explain.
"You like mares. I think it is fairly well known my own proclivities. Stick always seems to take any dominant role, when I am feeling in that sort of mood." Penny stepped over and kissed Hay on the cheek as a reward for being open. "So we need to find him and tell him."
"Would that help?" Hay looked serious, so Penny gave her another kiss.
Stick sighed and pulled Penny away from Hay with her magic. "It would help him more than us, it is what good ponies do. Also, you two, try and keep yourselves apart for five minutes?"
Penny and Hay both blushed, looked at each other and grinned.
"Whoa, what are you…" Stick looked a little off-balance as the two mares pounced on her, tickling the changeling with magic, hooves and kisses. "Ugh, stop it! Not there!" Stick squirmed on her back, the changeling's wings buzzing furiously as Penny stroked along the sensitive place just between them. "Okay! Okay! I give up!"
"We are going somewhere they serve fish!" Penny threatened to tickle her again.
Stick slumped. "Okay."
"And we are going out tomorrow night, in our dresses," Hay put in, something more than just victory dancing in her eyes.
The restrained changeling seemed more inquisitive in the second request but agreed. "I guess…"
"Right, lets go then." Penny reached over to help Hay up, the pair trotting together to the door, leaving Stick to play catch-up.
There were two routes for Penny to focus on. Her mind told her she should be careful, that she and Stick were only a month from cementing their union before all their friends and a princess. The other voice, her heart, didn't speak at all. It made her feel. Her heart always sped up in her chest at the sight of Hay, the mare was inquisitive and playful, knew when to leave Penny be and when to boop her nose.
Weighing the two, Penny kept drifting back to one thing. Whenever she really thought about Hay, even her head agreed with her heart. "Hay?" Penny looked up from her inner contemplation, finding them to be just out the front of a nice little restaurant.
The mare she was so focused on smiled at her. "What's the matter Penny?" And there it was. All Penny had done was say her name and Hay immediately focused on her. It felt nice.
"I think my little snack has something heavy. Lets head in and find a nice quiet booth to relax in." Stick distracted both for the moment.
Inside, a pegasi mare approached them. "Welcome to the Fishing Gryphon." She introduced the name of the establishment to the trio. "Here for a table?"
Stick nodded. "Treating my mares. A booth for three if you have one?"
The pegasi looked tickled pink at serving such a diverse group. "Just over here." She pointed with a wing to one that was well away from everypony else.
Filing in, Penny sat across from stick and Hay, scooting around and settling in. Menus were hoofed out and they all got into reading theirs. The half-changeling, however, looked a little embarrassed. "I'm… well I could eat, but I don't really…"
Stick giggled at this. "Then just order something tasty and give it to Penny, but try some yourself." The drone found just what she was after and grinned. "Now, Penny, you had something that seemed important."
"Hay." Penny reached for the feelings she had for the mare, they came easily. "This is a little fast, I know, but we are doing so-"
Hay reached over and booped Penny on the nose. The two unicorns looked at each other. "Give me a chance, I really like both of you. You are fun, you make me feel good just to see you and, importantly, I feel amazing when you are paying attention to me. Just the look of your eyes, gazing back at me with confusion and worry, it makes me want to scoot over to your side of the table and hug you."
Penny closed her mouth and her eyes. "Hay, that isn't an answer. I think the liking part is mutual, but there are three hearts on the line here. Do you love us?" It took a lot for her to be able to say it, the once-human never would have thought, before, to be in this kind of relationship.
"Of course I do." Penny felt her world tremble and when Hay continued, she lost her focus completely. "I love you Penny, Stick."
"She fainted." Stick looked over the table, trying to make sure her mate had landed okay. "Lets blame it on a pregnancy thing."
Hay leaned into Stick and quieted the changeling by kissing her quite soundly on the lips. The two seemed so very into the kiss that the waitress, spotting the little group as distracted, left them alone for a bit longer.
Penny came to slowly, her brain still not quite working right. She looked at the kissing mares and a silly grin covered her snout. "She said yes." As Penny opened her mouth to say something else her voice raised and she could think of no better time for a song. It began as a solo, the first verse Penny sang of how worried she was, how scared of messing up the best thing to have happened to her life.
The chorus was a happy one, Penny singing lead with Stick and Hay backing her up. Hay's voice was adorable and Penny ardently wished she had her phone so she could record it.
The second verse had Penny and Stick both dancing around, other patrons not minding in the least as the two dark-toned mares sang of their love, the bond they shared and the foal that grew of it.
For the third and final verse, Hay joined in, and the three sang back and forth, the new voice bringing the story of a life spent in study with few chances to seek out love. The final chorus was modified, the words twisting so that instead of singular pronouns, all three sang 'we'.
Of course it finished with the three back in the booth, but with Hay and Stick flanking Penny.
"Can I take your order?"
Penny giggled, then laughed and wrapped legs around each of the two mares, hugging them extra tight.
Stick was blinking at the distracted lunar mare but Hay was already ready to order. "I'll have the fresh salad, with… calamari?"
The waitress raised an eyebrow. "Forgive me if this offends, but that is squid."
Hay looked to Penny, who nodded enthusiastically. "Oh, that will be fine." Hay didn't sound quite as sure of it, she had decided to taste a little of everything she fed to Penny.
"I'll have the seafood platter." Penny poked the menu item that had a warning about the high protein content. "And a side of steamed root vegetables."
"And you, miss?" The waitress looked to Stick and Hay. "I'll have the fish omelet and the special sauce. A salad on the side will be fine."
The mare nodded happily and trotted off. "Okay, new rule." Penny looked between both mares. "You have to eat a little of everything on your own plates too."
Hay looked fine with this, forgetting for a moment what she had ordered.
"Aww, but I ordered something heavy. You need plenty to eat Penny, you can have mine." Stick had turned to Penny, hope radiating from the changeling that the mare would fall for her ruse.
She sounded so sincere. Penny bopped the changeling on the nose. "You will try it."
Stick looked a little sullen at her shattered plan but got over it quickly. "So what does this mean?" She asked it, more wanting to hear what the other two mares thought. She had her own ideas on where this little group would go.
Hay replied first. She pressed in against Penny and nuzzled the other unicorn's jaw. "Right now? I am happy with both of you as you are. I want to grow into this love, I want it to become the first thing I think about each day, I want to be there with Penny when she has her foal, I want you both to want me there too."
Penny managed to hold back from kissing Hay's cheek through her speech, but with it done she gave in to her urge and snuggled back. "I want you there, Hay. I want both of you to share everything with me, your lives, my life. I want it to be our life."
"I want you both. Hay, we have only been friends for two months, but it feels like half my life. Penny, you are my other half." The changeling drone closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So how far do we go? We, as you know Hay, were planning to get married soon, a month soon."
Hay did look surprised by this. "Well, what about if you both delay that wedding for an extra month, so two from today. I know my heart says dive in, but there is a tiny voice that says to be careful and that it is a huge jump."
Penny nodded to this. "I was thinking the same thing. My heart wants this so much it almost hurts, my head tells me I have one amazing mare, that trying to dive in with a second could hurt."
Stick's magic washed over all three of them, hugging tight. "So, two months I can wait, if you will join us." She looked at Hay.
"Aren't there supposed to be rings and things?" Penny looked between the two mares, suddenly remembering that rings needed fingers.
"What, like your earrings?" Hay reached up with a hoof and tapped at Penny's small stud. "I think that would be better than shoes, those things always make my hooves itch."
"Is that a yes?" Stick looked across Penny to Hay.
Hay smiled, her grin so wide her eyes closed. "Of course it is yes. Just be careful with my heart, it is new to this…"
"Are you kidding?" Penny hugged the mare tight. "We are all new to this, Stick was the first pony I was ever with. Which makes you my second." She kissed Hay, getting a gentle response from her new marefriend's lips.
There was a slight clearing of a throat as the waitress arrived. "Here we are!" She started setting down plates of food. "Hope you are all hungry, we don't serve small portions!"
Penny gave a little 'eep' as she saw just how big the meals were.
"Perfect." Hay and Stick said together, their heads snapping to look at each other past Penny, breaking into a shared giggle.