Sunday, March 27, 2016 / Morning
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Don't be afraid to be adventurous today.

Today is Easter.

We're going to cook out today. Even as Pinkie and Applejack make breakfast for everyone, Rarity and Cadance are preparing a truly prodigious amount of meat.

"So who's on grill duty today?" Rainbow asks. She's flipping through the channels in the living room.

"Flash and Applejack, I think," Twilight says. "Applejack because it makes sense, Flash because it's, well...tradition to make the guys grill the meat."

I roll my eyes. "Nevermind that I've never touched a grill in my life..."

Cadance walks out of the kitchen. "First thing you need to do is start the fire and get it going," she says. "It needs to be burning a while before you can even put any food on. There's charcoal, lighter fluid, and matches in the pantry."

"Need me to start it now?" I ask.

"Yes please."

"I'll help," Twilight says. We get the grilling supplies out of the pantry, then head out to the front yard, where the barbecue grill is. It takes us a minute to figure out how to add the charcoal; Twilight squirts lighter fluid all over it, then I put the grill back on and light a match, which I toss into the charcoal. It takes two tries to get the lighter fluid to catch, but after a minute, a nice, merry little fire is burning in the pit. Within a few minutes, the flames have mostly died down, leaving the charcoal smoldering. Mesquite smoke wafts up out of the grill.

After watching it burn for a few minutes, we head back inside for breakfast.

Sunday, March 27, 2016 / Daytime

It's around ten when Cadance announces it's time to start putting meat on the grill. "We've got steaks, burgers, chicken wings, and sausages." With a mischevious grin, she says, "I made sure there's at least two sausages for all of us, girls!"

"CADANCE!" Twilight yells.

Cadance laughs as she brings out an aluminum tray laden with meat. I shake my head as I take it from her; Applejack walks out of the kitchen with a matching tray, and we head outside.

It takes a while to cook everything; while we're grilling, the other girls are busy setting up some card tables and folding chairs on the patio. Pinkie found a boombox somewhere and brought it out, so there's music playing as we all work. Cadance and Rarity are busy in the kitchen making the rest of the food.

By half past one, everything's ready, and we're all sitting around the pushed-together card tables. Everybody takes what they want; in addition to the meat, we have hamburger fixings, baked beans, corn on the cob, cole slaw, and baked potatoes. Every time Rainbow, Twilight, Pinkie, or Cadance bite into a sausage, I have to fight down a wave of arousal. Rarity is steadfastly refusing to touch anything even remotely phallic. Whenever I lock eyes with Fluttershy, she makes a point of picking up a sausage and taking a huge, vicious bite out of it.

Yikes...

Other than some of the underlying sexual tension (and Fluttershy's flashes of hostility), we have a good time; the food is delicious, the weather is pleasant, and the salty sea air and ambient sounds of the ocean give me a peaceful feeling. As the afternoon wears on, we all talk, laugh, and stuff ourselves silly.

Once I'm full, I head inside to the living room, where I stretch out on one of the sofas and doze off...

Sunday, March 27, 2016 / Evening

It's sunset when I wake up from my nap. Half the girls are sitting around; Twilight's reading, Rainbow and Sonata are watching television, and Rarity is sketching something in her sketchbook.

"Hey lazy," Twilight says as I sit up. She smirks. "We had to do your share of the cleanup."

"Yeah? Well I stood around cooking all that meat you inhaled, so there." I stretch and groan. "Oh man...I'm still full..."

"Yeah, we all are," Twilight says. "Actually, we pretty much all took a little nap after cleaning up. Except Pinkie, she's been doing laundry all afternoon."

"Probably not a bad idea for us to do some laundry too," I say. "I mean, we've got towels and blankets and stuff we need to wash before we go to the beach again..."

"Yeah," Twilight says. "Of course, most of us are going shopping tomorrow." She frowns. "I feel really bad about this, but...I haven't gotten Fluttershy anything for her birthday yet."

"Me neither," I say. "I honestly...well..." I grimace.

"Didn't care?" Rainbow asks. She has a guilty look on her face. "Yeah...me either." She sighs. "I think Pinkie and Sonata are the only ones who actually brought presents for Fluttershy with them."

"Well, we'll just have to find something for her in town tomorrow," Twilight says. "Even if...even if she's been kind of..." She gestures with her hands. "It's just rude of us to snub her like that."

"Yeah..."

I decide to get up and start working on laundry. As I wait for the washer, then the dryer, the girls all wander off, either to sleep or do their own thing. It's late in the evening when my last load finishes drying. I'm folding clothes when I catch sight of Rainbow Dash in the back yard. She's crouched down, playing with Tank.

I think back to what Twilight said yesterday...

I grab a beach blanket and head out into the back yard. "Hey," I call.

Rainbow turns to me. "Hey," she says. "What's up?"

I spread out the blanket on the grass, sit down on it, and pat the spot next to me. With a puzzled look, Rainbow sits down beside me.

I spend a long, awkward minute trying to figure out what to say. "So, uhh...you know yesterday, that whole truth or dare thing?"

Rainbow sighs and squirms a bit. "Yeah." She looks at me; a blush is starting to creep up her face. "Umm...did you really mean...y'know...?"

"Yeah," I say. "You're not...mad or anything, are you?"

"Mad? No," Rainbow says. "Umm...a little...weirded out, I guess? Embarrassed? Flattered? I dunno." She wrings her hands. "Honestly, I...I've never had anybody say they wanted to..." She ducks her head. "That they were interested in me like that. I mean, yeah, Pinkie's goofed around with me a little, and I did that whole teasing thing with Rarity and she put up with it, but..." She shrugs. "It's different." She glances at me, then glances away. "I just...I don't know what...to think, and..."

"Yeah." I shift my weight. "Twilight said...you and Rarity both looked kind of...awkward last night."

Rainbow grimaces. "It's just...after that whole thing, I..." Her face is turning completely red now. "I guess I started...I mean, my mind started goin' really weird places..." She shakes her head. "I thought I'd figured out maybe I really was gay, but then..."

"I don't think you can really say for sure what you are yet," I say. "All you know so far is you have a crush on Celestia and you have, well...kind of a leg fetish." I shrug. "That doesn't mean anything." I gaze at Tank, who's creeping slowly into the coolest, most shadowy part of the lawn. I swallow nervously. "So anyway..." I look at Rainbow, who's watching me curiously. "I came out here to ask if you wanted to maybe, y'know..." I gesture vaguely. "Do it."

Rainbow blinks. "What?"

"You, uh...already know I want to do it with you," I say. "I just...if you're interested..."

"Wait. You're trying to cheat on Twilight with me?" Rainbow asks with a frown.

"Actually...this was her suggestion," I say. "She, uhh...thinks I need to get this out of my system, and...and maybe you and Rarity do too."

"Oh," Rainbow says, blinking. "Umm...whoa." She looks down at her lap, blushing furiously.

I slide my hand up the back of her shirt, stroking her back; I place my other hand on her thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I haven't had any complaints so far," I say in a light, teasing tone.

Rainbow snickers. "Heh." She takes a deep breath, then looks at me. "Eh...what the hell."

I lay Rainbow down on the blanket...

By the time we part ways, Rainbow has decided she's not gay.

Author's Notes:

The LTE version of this chapter has additional unrated content.