Before I could make a sound or even blink, the four mares moved to circle Esmerelda and I. They all didn't look happy, but in different ways. Rarity looked annoyed, RD looked angry, Twilight looked confused, and Fluttershy looked hurt. I felt very threatened suddenly as they closed in on us.

"What the hay is she talking about?!" RD very nearly shouted in my face.

"You... You've been in love with this dragon? That.... doesn't make any..." Twilight muttered absently.

Desperate to stop this before it got out of control, I tried to speak over them. "N-now look girls, it's not like that. You s--"

"Well I'd say it sure looks like that." Rarity interrupted and pointed at us accusingly. I suddenly remembered I was still hugging Esmerelda, in my boxers of all things, and I dropped her with a blush.

"No, it's not like that--"

"W-why would you do this to us S-Sharky?" Fluttershy whimpered.

"I haven't done anything!" I protested desperately, struggling against a surprising feeling of guilt.

"Then you'd better have a very good explanation for this!" Rarity snapped, scowling at me and pointing at Esmerelda and I viciously.

"I do love her, but only as a friend! I was hugging her to apologize for worrying her. Earlier this very night, I was trapped on an island surrounded by lava, and I forgot to tell her I was safe. She's been worried sick for hours." the girls all seemed to calm down noticeably, but Esmerelda lowered her head sadly.

"Yes, that's what happened." she admitted. The girls released a heavy sigh and relaxed, all except for Rarity, who was staring at Esmerelda intently.

"You don't feel the same, do you Miss?" Rarity asked knowingly, still staring at Esmerelda intently.

Esmerelda looked up at her, the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. After a small wait, she slowly shook her head. "N-no... I love him..." she admitted.

"Back off bitch! We saw him first!" Fluttershy hissed. Every head in the hall turned to give her a wide-eyed stare of amazement. and I marveled at her angry expression. The only one who didn't turn was Esmerelda, likely because she didn't know Fluttershy well enough to be shocked.

"I'm s-so sorry... It's just... he saved my life, he rescued eggs, he got me food, he's so nice, he got me a place to live and... and... I just couldn't help myself..." Esmerelda broke down into sobs. "H-he never b-betrayed you, honest! No matter h-how hard I tried..."

The girls seemed to take the news with mixed emotions. Fluttershy calmed down quickly once the tears started, and even seemed to feel sorry for Esmerelda. RD looked mad, but not furious. Her anger was mixed with confusion. Rarity looked sad for Esmerelda, and almost looked... understanding. Twilight seemed to be lost in deep thought, as if the events had reminded her of something big she needed to think about. Rarity stepped forward first and laid a comforting hoof on Esmerelda's shoulder.

"There there darling, we all know what it feels like to be ignored by Sharky." she cooed soothingly. "I know you meant us no harm, you were only trying to be happy."

"I-I'm s-sorry I yelled at you..." Fluttershy mumbled. Esmerelda sniffled a bit and looked up at the mares she expected to be furious with her. I sat back in silent amazement at the girls' capacity to forgive.

"It's not cool what you did... but I guess I understand how ya feel." RD added, stepping forward as well.

Esmerelda looked at the mares around her, confused and grateful at the same time. I got the feeling that she, much like myself, didn't quite understand how she was being forgiven and accepted like this. Twilight suddenly stepped closer to the little huddle of mares.

"Girls, we need to talk." she blurted out suddenly. She looked right at Esmerelda. "All of us." she stated more firmly and calmly. "Now." Twilight headed off to one of the rooms, and the other girls shared a few glances before they started to follow her one by one. I watched them go curiously, wondering how in the hell that situation had changed so quickly and what on Earth they needed to talk about.

"Not really my problem, I suppose. You fucking stupid? It's nothing BUT our problem." I stood up and went to Rarity's room, which thankfully they had not gone into. I didn't want to be left pantless any longer than necessary, and my armor was still in that room. I pulled it back on soon after entering and sat down on the bed Rarity and I had slept in. I sat for a while and wondered what the girls could possibly be talking about that was so important.

--------------------------------------------------------

The girls all sat down in the little royal room, Esmerelda's presence made them all feel shockingly awkward, since it was odd for them to be including another mare in a meeting about Sharky. Twilight barely waited for them all to sit down before she started talking.

"Alright everypony, I've been thinking about something for a while. Something that for some reason, I didn't think about until just now." Twilight took a deep breath and paused for a long while.

"Well, are ya gonna say it or what?" RD snipped impatiently.

Twilight was really trying to find a way to say what she was thinking, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth properly. "Herding!" she finally shouted out before she could lose her nerve altogether. Every other pony in the room, except Esmerelda, seemed to grasp what she meant at the same time.

"Excuse me, what do you mean?" Esmerelda asked as politely as she could, still a little worried about the girls around her hating her for loving Sharky.

"You mean... we should... ask Sharky to herd?" Fluttershy asked softly.

"That's... That's!" RD started angrily, but her face softened soon after. "Actually not a bad idea..."

"Can somepony please explain this?" Esmerelda interrupted, no less confused than when this had started. Twilight took notice of her and used the opportunity to teach to relieve some of the awkwardness she was feeling.

"Herding is when a single stallion takes on multiple mares as his partners." Twilight began explaining with a large amount of calmness restored to her behavior. "It used to be legally required for a stallion to herd, but it's optional very recently. A large part of the male population still herds, or at the very least has relationships with more than just one main partner."

Esmerelda took a few seconds to let the information sink in.

"You want... to share him?" the very concept was very foreign to her. Dragons were hoarders, not sharers. Why would she share him when she wanted him all to herself. Slowly though, a devious little plan popped into her head. Maybe if these mares let her in on this, she could steal Sharky away all for herself!

"Whoa whoa whoa. We didn't say anything about sharing him with you!" RD slammed a hoof down on the floor righteously, as if she had just laid down a law.

"W-why wouldn't we?" Fluttershy countered softly. RD turned to give her a mildly angry look of disbelief.

"Are you bucking kidding?! Fluttershy, you just called her a bitch a little while ago for trying to get with Sharky!"

Fluttershy nodded softly. "Yes, but that was when I thought she was stealing him away... As long as he loves me, I don't mind if he loves others too.... besides... I kinda imagined this myself once..."

"You imagined us all herding with Sharky?" RD asked, considerably calmer.

"N-not necessarily Sharky... but I always thought it would be great if we could all be together, even in love together... W-we're best friends after all..."

"I agree, I don't mind it so much." Twilight said with difficulty. "Alright, I won't mind so much as time passes..." she admitted. Truth be told, she did still want him all to herself a little, but she couldn't pass up the chance to be happy with her friends and love instead of one or the other.

"Girls, girls... You're getting way to attached to this idea." Rarity stated, sounding a bit like a teacher starting a lesson.

"What's so wrong with it?" Esmerelda asked innocently, she was unable to keep a small smile from forming on her face.

"I don't have a problem with adding the dragon, to be honest. So long as Sharky can find time for all of us, the idea would be wonderful." Rarity paused and softly bit her bottom lip before speaking again. "The problem with this plan is Sharky. He'd never agree."

Twilight flinched as she realized it was true, and RD kicked the ground and muttered 'dang'. Fluttershy and Esmerelda didn't seem to understand the problem.

"What kind of stallion would say no to five mares?" Esmerelda almost scoffed at the seemingly ridiculous concept of a male turning down 5 loving mares.

"Yeah, doesn't he know how happy we could all be?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"Sharky is the kind of stallion to say no to 5 mares, regardless of how happy it could be." Rarity resumed her teacher-like voice and stood up to pace as she explained. "Sharky nearly refused to even date us on the grounds that it was 'just wrong' to him. How in the name of Celestia's pink pants can we expect him to agree to a relationship with all of us?"

"Why does he think it's wrong?" Esmerelda asked with a small pout.

"It has to do with something about the culture on his old world." Twilight stated with a heavy sigh. "For some reason, he stubbornly sticks to some odd courting rules. One female at a time is a big one of those rules, I believe."

"That and he constantly says he's not good for one of us, let alone more." Rarity added.

RD suddenly perked up like she had remembered something important. "Oh, and he's always trying to be a good guy and won't do anything with us while he's dating another mare!" she sat and smiled like she had said something really useful and smart.

"... You tried to get him to do something while he was dating me?" Twilight asked flatly, giving her a slightly annoyed glare. RD's ears went flat. and she rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.

"Uhhhh...."

"That doesn't even matter if the plan is to share him!" Esmerelda snapped, trying to return attention to the main issue. "Now, how would we get him to accept this idea?"

"Hey! We still haven't even all agreed to the idea in the first place!" RD retorted, clearly just upset at Esmerelda more than repelled by the idea.

"Would you rather be left out completely?" Rarity asked with annoyance clear in her voice. RD opened her mouth, but then closed it and lowered her head defeatedly. Rarity nodded at her approvingly and turned her attention back to the rest of the group. "It's decided then, we should try for a herd."

"Now... how to do that?" Twilight asked, keeping the most important question in everypony's mind.

Fluttershy took a small step forward and inhaled shakily. "I have an idea..."

---------------------------------------------------------

I cradled Unity carefully as I walked around in search of Celestia's quarters. I had been thinking for a while. I had this strange feeling that maybe we didn't get along, and I didn't want that. She was really nice, most of the time. Sure, she had strange ways of testing me, pretending she was going to kill Unity and pretending to threaten me about the dragon eggs, but she always came through in the end. I stopped to ask a few service ponies around the halls as I went, making sure to cover Unity as much as I could in the process. Luckily he could be covered by my... worryingly large forearms.

"Was I always this buff?" I wondered aloud to myself as I walked. I hadn't seen a mirror in... well, the last time I remembered a mirror was when it came to life and tried to kill me. "What tried to kill you? Man, you almost died even before I was here? Why the fuck did I have to exist in the most death prone being in existence?"

Eventually, I reached what I could only assume was Celestia's chambers. Just like Luna's doors resembled the night sky, Celestia's resembled a rosy sunrise. I knocked loudly to see if Celestia was in.

"One moment please, I'm busy creating the sunrise." Celestia called back from inside the room. I stepped back from her door respectfully and waited for her to finish. As I waited, the sunrise on her door gradually rose above the horizon and replaced the beautiful reddish glow of the sunrise with the golden hue it normally gave off. The doors opened as I watched the scene, and it occurred to me too late to cover my eyes.

"Crud!" I shouted as I prepared my eyes to be assaulted by the glare of the sun which made up Celestia's room. Nothing came. Celestia stepped out of a normal four-walled room, giving me a strange look.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a bit of concern, indicating my tense form.

"Oh... uhhh... Why isn't your bedroom the sun?" I asked nervously, feeling like a total idiot as I said the question out loud. Celestia started laughing, which only made me feel worse.

"I see, you are confused since Luna's room is the moon! No, her room is really a normal room like mine, she just makes it look like the moon since she's so used to it."

I frowned and tilted my head. "I... I thought she said it... Oh well..." I cleared my throat and tried to stand up tall with confidence, as much as I had left anyway. "So, Celestia. I wanted to talk to you about something."

Celestia's expression suddenly grew serious. "Really? What do you wish to talk about?"

For some reason, I got a trapped feeling. Not like one I got while surrounded by the girls, but like one I had when surrounded by dangerous monsters. "Yeah... I wanted to talk about us."

Celestia blinked in shock and sat down with extreme confusion. Clearly she had been expecting something entirely different. "What... us?"

"I've been feeling like we don't talk very much, y'know? Even though I work for your sister and fight for Equestria and all that. I just thought that maybe it would be nice to talk a little bit, especially since I've been getting this really odd feeling lately like you don't like me. Weird, right?" I gave her a hesitant smile, hoping she wouldn't mind a small chat.

Celestia looked side to side nervously. She had spent her past few weeks talking this very man in front of her down to her sister, since she was sure he was going to hurt her. Now here he was, asking to have a nice chat to get to know her.

It wasn't often that Celestia felt even a little like an ass, but this was starting to feel like one of those times. "O-ok, sure. I believe I have some spare time..." she agreed hesitantly. I smiled ecstatically at her acceptance.

"Awesome! Let's chat in your room then, I don't want to risk somepony seeing Unity." I walked forward into her room without really asking permission.

Celestia watched him go with a dumbfounded look. Unity gave her an accusing glare and stuck out his tounge, as if he knew what she had been up to recently. Celestia eventually followed after him when she regained enough sense, and closed the door behind them.