[Shining’s POV, 7:45 a.m.]

The sun’s rays were glaring onto my closed eyes. Though they were dim, I was sensitive enough to get startled and wake up slowly. There was just a crack of light bleeding through the partially closed curtains. I silently damned them for not doing their jobs properly and made note to be absolutely sure they were closed in future nights so I wouldn’t have this problem again.

I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, blinking a few times to get my vision somewhat in focus despite my lack of glasses. I looked to my right and saw Fleur cuddling up to Ozzy’s side while one of his arms were wrapped around her shoulder.

Huh, when did that happen last night?

I shrugged, stepped off the bed, and closed the curtains more so no more light would break through. I slipped on my glasses that were next to Ozzy’s on the nightstand and quietly stepped out of the room to give the other two more rest. I got downstairs and pondered deeply.

Last night was certainly rough. Poor Ozzy must have a lot on his mind right now. Perhaps a good breakfast will help him start the day off right. Think I’ll cook him up some bacon today, along with a big spread of other things.

With the plan in mind, I picked up my keys and jacket and walked to my home to pick up the ingredients. I was wearing my night pants from last night along with a tank top, so there wasn’t much for me to worry about in terms of decency. The morning was a little chilly however; gusts of wind blew through the morning sky while I made my trip to the house and back.

When I made it inside with a plastic bag of food, I set it on the kitchen counter while I sighed a breath of relief. I looked down and noticed my nipples were poking out from under the fabric. My face heated up as I zipped up the jacket to cover them up.

Having Ozzy seeing me like this may sound tempting in other circumstances, but I don’t think he’ll be in the mood for something like that when he wakes up.

Shaking the lewd thoughts out of my head, I got to cooking while I recalled the events from last night and planned what we could do today.

That was probably the first time I’d ever seen him so angry before. The only other time I may have seen a glimpse of it was when I told him the truth about the tail tugs. I’m glad things worked out, but I’m afraid of how out of hand things might have become if he ever got that way from last night. I may not know as much about Richard as Ozzy does, but his apology from the video seems genuine enough, and he understood how much he fucked up with himself and his sons…

I suddenly recalled Fleur mentioning how she ran into Solar back in Manehattan, about how he apologized to her from what he did to us. I gritted my teeth from the thought, but took a deep breath to calm myself down before I went back to cooking breakfast.

I guess when it comes to hating somepony, I’m not much different from Ozzy. Was I ever that angry? That scary even? I think I might have gotten a glimpse of how all those stallions felt when they saw me… If Solar or Puff ever came up to me and apologized, how would I react? How would I know if their apology is just as genuine as Richard’s? I know I want to start treating stallions better, and I think I’ve made pretty good progress so far, but I can’t help but think back to what those two bastards did to me. If I want to treat stallions better, I’ll have to really move on from those two incidents and not lump everypony into one general category. I should talk to Fleur about this and see what she thinks.

In the meantime, what should we do today? Business has gotten pretty slow, so we got the next four days off, and now that I think about it… Our heat cycles are coming again soon, aren’t they? We’ll have to talk about that sometime soon. Plus, we’ll need to discuss what we saw in the video last night. Ugh! There’s so much shit going on right now, and I can’t keep my head together—

“Shining?”

“GAH!” I jumped back with tongs in hand while I was preparing the bacon. When I saw the person calling for me was Ozzy, I sighed a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“Sorry to scare you, but you seemed deep in thought. Is everything alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Just trying to figure out what we should do today.” I went back to flipping the bacon over on the pan, and let them sit for a few minutes. “Last night was pretty rough for ya, so I figured a big breakfast would help start things off right.”

“Right… Listen, I’m sorry about how much of a dick I was last night. I had my reasons for ha—being angry at my dad, and I shouldn’t have acted like that in front of you two.”

“It’s alright, Ozzy. Don’t forget you’re not the only one in the room right now who’s acted like a jerk because of somepony we’re angry at. Seeing how everything played out last night got me thinking about my own experiences too, and how you and I aren’t much different when it comes to holding a grudge against somepony who wronged us.” I took the tableware out of the cupboards and drawers and set the table with them before I got to removing all the prepared food from the oven and fridge. “We have much to discuss this morning, but after breakfast, we can do whatever you’d like to do today.”

“That sounds nice… Would taking you out on a date be an option?”

“Of course it…” My eyes popped open as I took in what Ozzy had just asked me to do. I had to smack my face to make sure I wasn’t still half-asleep. “I-I’m sorry. For a second there, I thought you said you wanted to take me out on a date, but I must be hearing—”

“I did say that,” he interrupted as he looked to the side and scratched his head. “Hearing what Dad told me had me thinking, and he was right on a few things. You’re very important to me, and I was wondering if we could be something more than just friends, but—”

“YES!” Without hesitation, I held Ozzy’s face and practically slammed my lips onto his. I moaned as I savored the soft lips I was kissing, welcoming the warmth that was spreading all over my body as I made smacking noises with our mouths. After I pulled away from the kiss, I tightly squeezed his middle as I tried to stifle my giggles like a little filly. “This is so wonderful! You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that, my heart feels like it’s going to explode from my chest!”

“That’s… very nice but you’re… crushing me,” Ozzy wheezed before I heard a few sudden pops out of his spine.

“Ooooh that sounded like it hurt,” a familiar voice said.

I opened my eyes and see Fleur giggling from the living room in a bathrobe. Her mane and tail were still a little damp.

“Fleur!” I exclaimed as I dropped a limp Ozzy and rushed over to give her a gentler hug. “Fleur! Did you hear?! Ozzy wants to take me out on a date!”

“H-Hold on,” Ozzy said before he straightened out his back. “Fleur, how much of that did you see?”

“I came in when you said ‘something more than friends’ before she started to suck your face off and squeezed you until you popped.”

“Fleur, I swear I was going to tell her what I told you last night, but—”

“Wait, last night?” I asked as I pulled away and glanced between Fleur and Ozzy. “What happened last night?”

“Ozzy got up in the middle of the night, I followed him out to the pool, we talked about his thoughts from the video and the concept of forgiveness, and before we went back to bed, he expressed his feelings for you and I, and we kissed under the moonlight.” Fleur sighed as she looked up with a smile. “It was just truly magical.”

Suddenly, I heard sounds of pots and pans tumbling on the floor before I turned back to Ozzy, who was wearing a pot like a helmet while the others were scattered on the floor. “Shining, I was going to tell you that Fleur’s also important to me enough to consider her too, and I can’t choose which of you I should date and not risk our friendship breaking apart. I understand if you’re mad from hearing this now, but all that I ask is that you please don’t crush my nuts.” He squatted and pulled the pot down on his head, as if preparing for an oncoming attack from above.

I took in what Ozzy and Fleur said as I glanced between the two of them. After putting the pieces together, I sighed. “So you got to him first, huh? And in such a beautiful sounding setting too. Damn, and I thought I was going to get the kiss first.”

“Oh don’t beat yourself up, Shiny,” Fleur said as she patted my back. “Your kiss with him was just as beautiful as mine, I can tell.”

“Wait… Huh?” Ozzy stood up and peeked under the pot. “Okay, I’m totally lost right now. Shouldn’t you two be in a fight, or one of you beating me to a pulp at least? Am I in the Twilight Zone?”

“I suppose an explanation is in order,” Fleur stated as she used her magic to lift all the pots and pans (including the one on Ozzy’s head) and put them back in the cupboard in an orderly stacked manner. “Let’s start with breakfast for a little bit before it gets cold. We wouldn’t want to let Shiny’s cooking go to waste.” Ozzy slowly nodded before the three of us took our seats on the table.

We started eating once we got our helpings, and everything in the kitchen went quiet besides the munching and cutting of our food on the plate. I looked over to Fleur, and she had a calm demeanor like nothing has changed for the three of us, as if this was just another day. I glanced to Ozzy next, and he was nibbling on his bacon like a hamster as he was sweating bullets. He didn’t even look up once to check how we were doing.

“Is the bacon alright, Ozzy?” I asked with a raised brow.

“… That’s it?” Ozzy asked. “We kissed with Fleur in the room, you found out I kissed her first last night while I have feelings for the both of you, prepared myself for the biggest scolding/beat up with only a pot for a helmet, and you ask me if my bacon’s alright?”

“Um… Yes?”

“It’s fantastic, but that’s not the issue here!” He smacked his hand on the table, startling the both of us. “Could somepony please tell me what’s going on with the three of us before I lose my mind?!”

“My, somebody’s a little impatient this morning,” Fleur said before dabbing her lips with a napkin. “Alright, how about we start off with where all of this might have begun. All the way back in Manehattan.”

“Uh… When, exactly?” Ozzy asked.

“Sometime before the incident with Mascara might be a good start. Up until that point, we’ve gotten a good handle with you being in our group while you were getting to know us better. You’ve also gotten to know some of our personal things in the past while we learned something from yours, bringing us closer as friends, while at the same time, Shiny and I started to question our feelings toward you.”

“It wasn’t until after the incident that the both of us found out we shared the same feelings towards you,” I followed. “Because of how uncomfortable you might have become with other mares, especially the idea of dating them, we decided to hold off our feelings so we could focus on you getting better and provide our support as your closest friends.”

“But—”

“Before you say anything otherwise, Ozzy,” Fleur interrupted. “Understand that it was a very sensitive time for all of us, and though you’re well acquainted with us, we were afraid any wrong moves could possibly damage something between us, and we’d rather not get into that.”

“Fleur and I didn’t talk about our future relationship with you until we were alone at Fancy’s house, soon after we got back from Manehattan. You might have already known how we weren’t into polygamy because of a colt we both had a crush on back in middle school, which almost broke our own friendship before he started seeing somepony else.”

“However, Toffee helped open our eyes on what really transpired between us that time while we talked at the Neightalian restaurant,” Fleur said. “Not only that, but how outside influences like my parents and our city’s culture got us into not liking the concept of polygamy without considering to try it. Because of that, Shiny and I agreed to give forming a herd a try after you were comfortable enough to date mares.”

“We thought spending a day with you, like you having your first dinner at my place, would be a good start for us to see if not only our feelings for you were true, but start getting more intimate with our time together,” I added in. “You may not have known it, but we kind of saw our days with you as a bit of a date ourselves… But then Claire came around.”

“I honestly thought we were going to lose you for your school crush because you behaved so oddly ever since you found out she’d been here the whole time.” Fleur looked down on her plate with folded ears. “Especially after you said you wanted to walk her to her apartment.”

“I think it was then that we truly realized our feelings for you, as we didn’t know what we would do if you left,” I said while I mimicked Fleur’s gesture. “We couldn’t sleep with all the crying we were doing until you came home.”

Silence passed over us for what seemed like an eternity, with Ozzy looking like a lot was going through his mind. He sighed and scratched his scalp. “I guess I should explain what was going on between us. The reason why I insisted in walking Claire home that night was to apologize to her for what happened after we had our first kiss all those years ago, which ended up with her getting made fun of by everyone else in the class.” Fleur and I perked up with raised brows. “I thought she was mad at me because I made her a laughing stock in front of the whole class, which was why she didn’t talk to me again since then. Turns out, she wanted to say sorry for deceiving me into thinking kissing was a thing back then, and couldn’t talk to me because she thought I was mad at her. We laughed at how dumb our thinking was when we were kids, and made a point that it would be better for us to be friends again and stick with that. Surprisingly enough, she thought you two had a thing for me and actually wanted to help bring us together.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Yeah. From there, I texted her almost everything we’ve done since then, including the odd behaviors you two were acting around me. She kept insisting that you two had a thing for me, but I denied it not only because I thought it wasn’t true, but if it was, I was afraid of how things between the three of us would change from there, especially when I’d have to choose between one of you to date when I thought you’d only settle with a monogamous relationship.”

I guess Claire wasn’t a threat to us since the very beginning… Fuck, I feel stupid for being so paranoid now.

“I was sort of aware of my feelings for you two for a while,” Ozzy continued. “At first, I thought I was going crazy for seeing someone of a different species as attractive, but after a while, that small detail didn’t become as much of a big deal for me as it did from the beginning. Once I looked past that, then there was the issue with choosing between one of you two to date.”

“I know you were skeptical with the idea of polygamy from what you told me a while back,” Fleur said. “Especially since it’s something that’s looked down upon by the majority of your human population, but if Shiny and I are alright with you dating the both of us and possibly form a herd… Would you be willing to give it a try?”

Ozzy closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he hummed. Fleur and I stared at him at the edge of our seats, my hands clenching onto the fabric of my night pants. After a bit, Ozzy opened his eyes and looked up at us. “Well, if you two are up for the idea, I guess I’m willing to see where it will go,” he said with a smile.

YES! HE’S UP FOR IT! I can’t believe this is actually happening, my insides are practically boiling from the possibilities we could do together!

“Thank you, Ozzy. That’s all we ask,” I said with a smile.

“So… How does this herd stuff work?” Ozzy asked. “I’ve never dated before, and I’m not sure our days together a few weeks back would count since I wasn’t aware of it.”

“Well in that case, why don’t we make them official starting today?” Fleur asked. “We’ll each have a date with you one-on-one for today and tomorrow, and we’ll look into how herds work after that. How does that sound?”

“It sounds good, but now I feel like we’re back to square one for who I should date first,” Ozzy said as he scratched his scalp. “I mean, you’re both wonderful mares with your own qualities, and I don’t want either of you to feel like I’m favoring one over the other.”

“Shiny, why don’t you take him out first?” Fleur asked, I whipped my head towards her with widened eyes.

“W-what? Why me?” I asked.

“Shiny, this is the first guy you’ve ever gone out with since Puff Tie. I made a bit of a promise to myself that if you ever found a stallion again, I’d help you make that relationship strong while I give my full support. If taking Ozzy out first counts, then I wouldn’t mind waiting just a bit longer for my turn.”

“Fleur…” I looked down at my half-finished plate of food that I was sure has gotten cold by now and thought hard about what I would do. I then turned back to her with a smile. “That’s very sweet of you, Fleur, but I honestly think you should take him out first.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well you were the one who brought him into our lives since the very beginning. Around that time, I was very skeptical to all stallions in general, save for our closest friends, and I gave Ozzy a hard time dealing with me for the first few weeks he worked with us. Not to mention some of the accidents I made that caused trouble for him, like what happened during that massage.”

“Shining, we already went over this,” Ozzy said. “I forgave you for that a long time ago, and we agreed things are even for us after you treated me to dinner at your house for the first time. You should look past something like that at this point.”

“I know, Ozzy.” I nodded. “But I’ll still remember that happened, and nothing will ever change that fact.” I looked back to Fleur. “Fleur, you were the most determined to give Ozzy the time of his life while staying here in Equestria, letting him know how much you’ll always be there to support him, which has been going on much longer before I started taking an interest in him. It would make sense from that alone that you should be the first to go out with Ozzy.”

Silence filled the kitchen once more while we all looked down at our plates. “Sheesh, I didn’t think we’d reach an impasse from something like this,” Fleur stated.

“I can’t choose between you two, and you both have a valid reason for why the other pony should go first,” Ozzy said. “Well for situations like this, I think we can only rely on one thing to help make the final decision.” He reached down into his pocket and pulled out a bit coin. “What do you think?”

“Seems reasonable enough.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We all nodded to each other in agreement before Ozzy set up the bit on his thumb. The coin made a metallic ring in the air as it flipped.

“Call it.”

Author's Notes:

Who will Ozzy go out with first? Well readers, that is for YOU to decide! That's right, I'm leaving the final decision up to you faithful readers of fimfiction! Go to this poll to vote for who Ozzy should date first, and the result will be revealed in the next chapter! A few rules to follow first:

1) DON'T leave a comment on who you voted for.
2) DON'T urge other readers, whether they read this story or not, to vote for the girl you picked.
3) DON'T ask me who's in ahead in the votes.

I'll post a screen shot of the results in the author's note of the next chapter to see how close they came to. You guys have until January 5th at 12 am EST to vote, and you'll only get to do it once. I'll write up the next chapter once I see who wins. So guys, do your best, have fun voting, and until next time,

This is Dudeler, signing off.

EDIT: Poll's officially closed.