Author's Notes:

This prompt was a suggestion by NFreak, one of the Patrons who helps support my work as a freelance writer. If you wanna suggest chapters of your own (or see what else I have to offer to financial supporters), feel free to check out my Patreon for early access stories and updates.

Given how controversial and hushed Twilight’s experiment was supposed to be, the last thing the Princess wanted was to delay her work any more than absolutely necessary. However, after discovering that the Yakyakistan Fertility Festival lasted for a full week, she decided that it would be easier to wait until after those festivities ended before trying the spell again. Fortunately, neither Sunburst or Starlight blamed the Alicorn in the slightest; instead, the three just continued on with their regular lives in the week that passed without any surveillance or sketchy discoveries. Of course, due to all that the three learned together and individually, there were definitely a few awkward thoughts that came with meeting up with ponies they witnessed through that magic screen.

Despite wanting to display her best intentions, Starlight wasn’t sure how to adequately talk with Rainbow Dash following that scene she and Twilight saw of them. She mostly just wanted the pegasus to know that they’ll have her unwavering support no matter what; however, Twilight was quick to order her student not to do anything to jeopardize their knowledge on the matter. Starlight Glimmer may have agreed wholeheartedly, but she couldn’t resist referring to Rainbow as “Dude” a couple times while the Princess was out of earshot; and each time she did so, the unicorn was happy to see how much it made them smile.

Around the same time, Sunburst started to make more frequent trips to Ponyville whenever he had the free time from his studies in the Crystal Empire. While Twilight and Starlight figured he was just meeting up with one of their Ponyville friends, the stallion was instead trying to befriend Granny Smith in secret. During that time, the stallion was also growing more acquainted with the quaint charm that the progressive township had alongside its varied citizens. While he didn’t plan to move from his home in the Crystal Empire anytime soon, he wouldn’t have been against investing in a second apartment somewhere in town if the rent was cheap enough.

Eventually, all three ponies were growing antsy about that Fertility Festival ending, just so they could revamp their research and see what they could learn next. It may have been a bit frustrating to not do anything in association with the knowledge they acquired so far, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t keep learning new things to further advance their research. Not to mention, there was always a chance that the three could learn more about things that were discovered from the spell in the first place. So by the time Pinkie Pie finally returned from Yakyakistan with a tired smile (and a very obvious limp), the Princess and her assistants were quick to organize a few sessions in their hidden space.

“I gotta say,” admitted Starlight Glimmer as she brought a foldable lawn-chair into the room, “it’s gonna be weird doing this with both of you instead of just one.”

“Well, it only seems fair since you’ve helped so much,” said Twilight as she came into the room with a chair of her own. Given how they wanted to get a lot of recordings made tonight, they didn’t want any leg problems from standing so long. “Not to mention, it might make our research more precise when we’re all in attendance.”

Despite the Alicorn’s point, Sunburst and Starlight both had apprehensive looks as the door was closed behind them. Given some of the controversial things the ponies witnessed, neither of them felt it was too wise to have Twilight in the know of a few details. Nevertheless, since they couldn’t necessarily risk having the Princess learn of her brother’s attempted infidelity, or Spike having a General of the Changeling Kingdom as a boyfriend, Sunburst tried to speak up while unfolding his chair beside theirs. “Well… given our conflicting schedules, as well as how often this surveillance magic finds new places for us to research, I think continuing our ‘two at a time’ method might help with keeping the quantity of our studies consistent.”

Starlight quickly nodded in approval of Sunburst’s reasoning. “Y-Yeah!” she blurted readily towards Twilight. “I have to agree with him on that one. I mean, we can’t expect to regularly keep doing these studies with all three of us at the same time, right?”

Even though she felt like her suggestion of method was valid, Twilight couldn’t deny that the three had needed to switch off with each other quite regularly since this experiment began. And considering how packed all of their schedules really were, the Princess knew that Sunburst was ultimately right. “Well… alright, I can see your point there,” she admitted before sitting down in her seat. “But still, it’s rather nice to try some of these as a three-pony team.”

“Yeah, it really is,” said Starlight with a smile of her own. “It’s kinda like a Movie Night or something~”

Sunburst couldn’t help shrugging as he added with an honest skew of his muzzle, “Except with questionable morals, legality conflictions, possible intrusions on ponies’ personal lives, and the occasional sex scene that causes one of us to leave halfway through in shock.”

Twilight’s ears sank downward as she sighed and looked away with a deflated expression. Meanwhile, Starlight gave the stallion a flat glare and replied bluntly, “Well, thanks for that welcome input, Mister Positivity.”

“I’m just saying,” retorted Sunburst with his hooves raised, “given the research we’re doing, and the content we usually see from these recordings, I wouldn’t constitute this sort of thing as something like a ‘Movie Night.’ It’s weird enough to be spying on ponies without their knowledge, and I don’t want to treat that so casually.”

Even though she was upset about the stallion’s earlier remarks, Starlight looked away from him as she shrugged her head. She didn’t say anything about his truthful explanation, but it was clear she agreed when he noticed the conflicted expression on her face.

“Honestly,” said the Princess as she looked back at him with a more positive glance, “it’s the kind of perspective like that which makes you such a valuable assistant for this project, Sunburst.”

As the three all got comfortable in their seats, Twilight gave that ever-floating orb of magic a quick zap before adding, “While I don’t think it’s that bad to have fun with what we’re doing, I have to agree that the heart of this research should be taken seriously. I just figured that since it’s been a while, the three of us should be a little more relaxed as we see what’s happening around us.”

While Starlight nodded and laid back in her chair, Sunburst did the same with a hesitant shrug. “Well, I’m not opposed to that sort of thing either,” he stated insistently while that magic orb came to life in front of them. “I just don’t want your speech to end up transitioning to us watching some kinky sex scene again.”

Despite the bluntness of the stallion’s reply, both mares giggled in understanding. As the screen within that orb began to appear, Twilight waved her hoof towards Sunburst and said, “Okay, that’s definitely a valid worry to have. I’m just happy that with this research we’re all making on friendship, that it’s kinda helping strengthen our own as well.”

With that being said, both of the unicorns’ brows raised as they shrugged in agreement. “You know what?” Sunburst said as he nodded with a smile back at her. “That’s a very good point, Princess.”

“Oh, you don’t have to call me that title,” the Alicorn replied with a roll of her eyes. “I just said we’re friends.”

“Yes we are,” he retorted back with a cheekier tone, “but I figured it was appropriate that time so I could show how much I respect you.”

By the time the screen was nearly in full display, Twilight had both of her brows raised while giving an impressed smirk back to the stallion. Meanwhile, Starlight sighed as she focused on the orb and shook her head with a smile of her own. “Yeesh,” she muttered to herself, “those two might need their own room…”

The skies above may have been growing dark as the sun was setting, but the brightly-lit street lights and lanterns hanging over the roads made Ponyville instantly recognizable through the magic screen. The three ponies got a great vantage point of the township’s “downtown district,” which was basically a block full of the area’s most successful restaurants and shops. Due to the recent success of Twilight’s School of Friendship, creatures of all kinds were happily trotting or flying around the region while appreciating the night. Because of the growing diversity of Ponyville’s citizens and visitors alike, two particular guys didn’t seem to stand out at all while seated at a table outside the corner bistro.

“Oooh!” chirped Starlight Glimmer quite happily as she saw the two familiar faces. “Is that Gallus and Sandbar?~”

Twilight and Sunburst seemed quite happy at seeing those two students as well, mostly since they were two of the few guys that all three of them have seen in their surveillance recordings. Not to mention, the setting and location made them optimistic this wouldn’t end with sex.

“Hmmm… I’m guessing the two are finally going on that date they mentioned a while back,” replied Sunburst with a cheerful smile on his muzzle. While Twilight and her student giggled in excitement, the stallion added with an optimistic shrug, “I gotta say, good for those guys! They deserve it.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” replied Twilight with a quick nod back at him.

Meanwhile, the pony and gryphon seated at the table both appeared slightly nervous behind their blushed faces. Even with how far the two have gone in a physical sense, it was clear that neither of them had too much experience on the social end of a relationship. As the two sat across from each other, neither of them said much while looking down at their menus and glasses of ice-water. Fortunately, the awkward bout of silence was interrupted when the maitre d, Savoir Fare, came up to their tables with a smile underneath his pencil-thin mustache.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” said the off-white stallion in a strongly Prench-accented tone, as he looked between the couple with a non-judgemental smile. “Is zere anything I can get for the monsieurs?~”

“Uhhhhh…” Sandbar kept a faint smile on his face, but he was squirming quite obviously in his chair while rubbing a foreleg and trying not to act too flustered. “Maybe, ummm… a plate of hay fries for both of us, please?”

Before the waiter could write down his order, Gallus raised a talon and tried to intervene. “Actually, ummm…” The gryphon winced for a split-second at interrupting his date’s order, but he was able to breathe out timidly and suggest, “I was just wondering, uhhh… do you guys happen to have potato fries?”

Sandbar’s brows raised in surprise at hearing that option. Meanwhile, Savoir Fare nodded with a smile back at Gallus and replied, “As a matter of face, ve do~”

When the gryphon looked back at his date, he was happy to see Sandbar shrug with an intrigued smile on his face. “That… actually sounds pretty good,” the pony admitted before looking back at his date. “I mean, I never had them like that, but… sure! We’ll take the potato fries.”

“Excellent choice~ I’ll be back for your main orders soon...” With that, the waiter left the two as he went back into the bistro to prepare their appetizer.

“Wait, you never had potato fries?” asked Gallus with a baffled stare on Sandbar. “Like, ever?!”

“What?” asked the stallion with a casual shrug, before he looked away from him with a more bashful-looking blush. “I mean… hay fries are kinda the norm in Equestria, you know.”

“Yeah, but still! You guys have potatoes all over the place!” Despite their cultural differences, the gryphon seemed rather puzzled that Sandbar never had such a common dish. “I’m just kinda surprised you never had them fried, that’s all.”

Sandbar knew that his date had a point, but he still scoffed and said in a more carefree tone, “Well, there’s probably a lot of things in your diet that I’m not totally accustomed to.”

Gallus leaned back in his heat with a sigh as he rolled his eyes. “Lemme guess,” he asked cheekily while carrying a sky-looking smirk, “are you gonna make another joke about me not being a vegetarian?”

“I’m just saying,” retorted the stallion as he shrugged of his shoulders, “that considering stuff like you eating meat, I don’t think potatoes should be that big of a deal.”

“Well… okay, that might be true,” the gryphon admitted with a shrug of his own. However, he still smiled a little more comfortably as he looked back at Sandbar. “I just figured that of all the species to know their way around a vegetable, it’d be the ones who are strictly vegetarian, you know?”

Sandbar’s brows raised again as he gave a reluctant nod to his date’s statement. “Well, that… actually does make a lot of sense, I suppose.” After taking a sip from his ice-water, the pony pointed out with a hoof pointed back at Gallus, “Of course, I find it pretty hard to believe that potatoes make for better fries than hay. But I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Even though he could tell that Sandbar was trying to act confident to counteract that hefty blush growing across his face, the gryphon narrowed his eyes on him while his smirk grew a little wider. “Well, given what you’ve managed to do with me, I know for a fact that you’re open-minded enough to do just that~”

That knowingly coy statement was more than enough to make Sandbar blush profusely, and his head lowered a bit while struggling to conceal his wrinkled smile. The stallion seemed more than a little frazzled by such a subject bring hinted at (especially in a public space), but Gallus certainly felt more comfortable by the time their waiter brought out a large plate of fries.

“Here you go, gentlemen,” said Savoir as he placed the generous helping of golden-brown fries between the two, and a small bowl of ketchup next to the plate. “Are you two ready to order your main course?~”

“Ummm, I think I am,” answered Gallus as he picked up his menu. Meanwhile, Sandbar helped himself to a hooffull of fries that he dipped in the ketchup. The gryphon paused for a second to see his date’s reaction to that first bite, and smiled with a small chuckle the instant he saw how much the pony’s expression lit up. Sandbar hummed with an impressed nod upon his first taste of the fried salty starch, which seemed to satisfy Gallus quite a bit before he said towards the waiter, “Well… I’ll take the shrimp linguini.”

“Excellent choice~” replied the waiter with a nod. He then turned his attention towards Sandbar, who was helping himself to some more fries while smiling contently. “And for you, monsieur?~”

“Mmm~” The pony looked more than happy with the discovery of such a simple treat, and had to finish chewing before answering Savoir Fare. “You know what? If this is what potato fries taste like on their own, then I HAVE to get myself one of those poutine things!”

“Very well then~” The off-white stallion wrote down both orders onto his notepad, and asked for clarification, “That’s potato fries, but with vegetarian gravy, correct?”

“Absolutely,” he stated in confirmation. Despite his earlier nervousness, Sandbar seemed comfortable enough now to glance back at Gallus and add cheekily, “Despite what this guy may think, I know what my limits are most of the time~”

Savoir didn’t seem to catch on to the younger pony’s suggestive tone, nor was he able to ascertain much from the couple’s low chuckles back at one another. However, the waiter was fine with getting the orders he needed before heading off. “Vell, I’ll have those orders ready for you soon~”

As soon as the stallion was out of earshot, Gallus was quick to say with a raise of his brow towards his date, “You know… if I recall correctly, Little Sandy, you seemed to be a lot more reserved before I became your ‘roommate’~”

The pony’s muzzle wrinkled a little again, and his blush was apparent as he huffed and said meekly, “W-Well, I… That doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m comfortable with, dude.”

“Hey, I’m not trying to say otherwise,” assured the gryphon with a raised claw in sincerity. “I’m just saying, it’s usually good to try and expand your horizons whenever you can.”

Gallus then reached in to grab a clawfull of fries himself. Unlike Sandbar, the gryphon didn’t need any ketchup as he popped those golden-brown spuds into his hungry beak. Meanwhile, Sandbar sighed and replied with a shrug, “Well, I think it’s pretty clear that you’ve been helping me with that quite a bit…”

The stallion’s pale green coat was becoming harder to notice as his blush became more evident atop his nervous smile. However, his gaze back at Gallus showed a very evident glimmer of admiration and respect. The gryphon noticed the way his date was looking at him, and huffed a little as he smiled back warmly. As the two sat across from each other with shared looks of attraction, the ponies watching them from surveillance all “Dawwwed” at the overwhelmingly cute sight.

After a brief moment of silence between them, Sandbar exhaled sharply and said with a shrug, “I do wanna make something clear, though… I know you’ve been wanting me to try a lot of new things. And don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a lot of them…” The pony had to pause for a second as he shivered a little, growing a feeble smile at some of the examples that came to mind. But before the gryphon could chuckle at how adorable he looked, Sandbar huffed to regain his focus as he said, “But… I really don’t feel comfortable with the idea of eating meat, alright? I mean, I have no problem with YOU eating it around me, but I’d appreciate it if you stopped trying to get me to try it too.”

Considering how chill and carefree the stallion usually acted back at school (aside from when Gallus would try to get him sexually flustered or embarrassed), it was fairly obvious that his request was asked with genuine insistence. Even though the gryphon had a tendency to push his friends’ buttons more than necessary at times, he knew better than to do so at that moment. So with a meager shrug, Gallus nodded to his date’s point while the stallion helped himself to some more fries. “Well… alright then,” he said in reluctant agreement to Sandbar’s call. “If you say you’re not comfortable with it, I won’t try to push it on you, okay? I just figured since… well, since all of us are learning from each-other’s cultures, I would add some input from my own. And… it’s kinda easy for me to do that through food.”

Sandbar took a moment to process the gryphon’s reasoning, and nodded with an understanding look as he glanced down at the fries between them. It may have not been meat, but it was something Gallus introduced him to from his own culture. Because of that, the pony sighed before he looked up at Gallus and replied, “Yeah, I… I can kinda see what you mean by that. I mean, at least you’re not the only friend I’ve made in Ponyville who’s a carnivore.”

“Omnivore,” corrected Gallus with a flat roll of his eyes. “It’s not like I’m gonna die if I eat salads all the time.”

“Tell me about it!” groaned Smolder, who seemingly came out of nowhere to make the couple jolt in shock. The orange dragoness didn’t seem to realize what her friends were doing together in seclusion, and grabbed an empty chair to pull towards their table and pop a squat. While Gallus and Sandbar sat frozen in confusion, Smolder sat in her chair backwards with her legs spread wide-apart, and spoke while shoveling a clawfull of their fries into her fanged maw. “I mean, I remember during the first week of classes, Yona actually asked why I was eating an apple during lunch! Like, really?! I get that dragons aren’t that well documented by most outsiders and stuff, but some of the assumptions I’ve heard from other creatures make my head spin!”

“... Uhhhh…” The last thing Sandbar wanted to do was act rude to one of his friends (especially one with literal fire breath and razor-sharp claws), but he still had to blink a couple times while processing what the heck Smolder was doing here. He looked back at Gallus silently for clarification, but only saw the gryphon raise his claws in equal confusion. By the time the dragoness scarfed down over a third of their plate, the pony tried to ask awkwardly, “Ummm… Smolder, what are you doing here?”

“Ummm… eating?” she answered with a puzzled stare back at Sandbar, and a smirk that made it clear she found that to be a stupid question. She then pointed a claw out to the nearby street corner and said, “Also, the girls and I were getting Yona some new clothes for a friendship project Ms. Rarity suggested. HEY GIRLS!!!”

When Gallus and Sandbar glanced over to where Smolder was pointing, they saw the other three Friendship students walking as a group with several shopping bags in Ocellus’ aura. The pony let out a meager “oh no” that was unheard by the dragoness, and sank into his seat with a hoof over his blushed face. Gallus seemed apprehensive as well, but managed to wave his claw with a nervous-looking smile when he saw the girls take notice of them. Not to mention, it would’ve been impossible to hide when Smolder yelled out, “COME OVER HERE! GALLUS AND SANDBAR HAVE A TABLE FOR US!”

Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona all seemed rather happy to see their other friends in town so conveniently. Meanwhile, the formerly content couple were now frozen and blushing in embarrassment, unable to say anything after the dragoness’ unsubtle invitation. Fortunately for the two, none of their friends seemed too curious or confused as to why the guys were at a personal table for themselves. Instead, Smolder just pulled another table to add beside theirs, while the others pulled some empty chairs in to make it an impromptu group setup. By the time the waiter came back out with the couple’s meals, he paused with a baffled look when he saw the party was literally tripled in size.

Gallus just sighed with a claw over his face, too embarrassed to even look Savoir Fare in the eye. Instead, he just placed a bag of bits at the corner of the table and muttered, “Umm… here’s your tip early, dude.”

Even though the inclusion of four new creatures was a bit rude, the waiter shrugged in acceptance before taking the gryphon’s much-appreciated tip. He then placed the guys’ plates before them and said, “Well, if this is the case, I’ll be back with menus for your friends. Are these all on separate checks?”

“Yes, please,” replied Ocellus with a kindly smile towards him. “Thank you.”

“OOOH, there’s SHRIMP here?!” shrieked Silverstream with an elated grin the instant she saw Gallus’ linguini. While the gryphon instinctively tried to pull away from her reach with a foreleg wrapped around his plate, the hippogriff hopped in her seat giddily and said, “Ohmigosh, I haven’t had shrimp in sooooooo long!~”

“POTATOES!!” belted out Yona the instant she saw that half-cleared plate. “Yaks LOVE potatoes!”

Even though none of the girls were brash enough to swipe anything from Gallus or Sandbar’s plates, they still dove into those fries like a pack of hyenas while chatting happily. By the time Savoir Fare returned with four new menus, he could tell that the couple looked rightfully upset as they ate their food in silence. Part of him wanted to say something in condolences to them, but the stallion knew better as he kept his muzzle shut and let the group be.

“So, are you two doing shopping project too?” asked Yona when she looked over at the guys, her muzzle sloppily chewing most of the fries that were remaining on the now emptied plate. “Because Yak thought you guys were in different Rarity class.”

Sandbar squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, his muzzle wrinkled shut to avoid mentioning anything regarding his and Gallus’ relationship. The gryphon seemed hesitant to speak up as well, and only shrugged sheepishly while twirling his fork into the pasta. “Well, uhhh… Sandy--Sandbar! Sandbar and I just… we felt like grabbing a bite to eat, that’s all…”

Due to the possible awkwardness of revealing their true reasons for being together (not to mention the gryphon’s conservative upbringing that frowned upon homosexual behavior), Gallus didn’t say much other than that for both of their sakes. Sandbar may have felt more optimistic regarding their friends, but his overwhelming embarrassment kept him from adding anything more than a meager nod. However, the couple’s silence seemed to catch the attention of their changeling friend rather quickly. Ocellus narrowed her teal-hued eyes on the two briefly, before her brows rose in instant realization. She may have been a creature with natural sensors to detect love, but she didn’t even need to light up her horn to catch their obvious connection.

“Ummm… girls?” asked Ocellus as she looked around the table with a slightly solicitous expression. Fortunately, her meek tone of voice was audible enough catch the girls’ attention. Even though she felt uncomfortable being the center of attention, the changeling tried to overcome her anxiousness as she suggested, “Ummm… given how busy this place looks, don’t you think that, umm… maybe we’re intruding on reservations by taking their seats?”

“What reservations?” asked Smolder as she motioned around to the empty spaces they took tables and seats from. “We’re the only ones here!”

“Umm, actually she might have a point,” noted Silverstream as she grew an apprehensive skew on her beak. “I mean, don’t you have to make a reservation to get a table here anyways? It might not be fair if Gallus and Sandbar made one for just them.”

The guys winced a little at hearing how the hippogriff worded that statement, worried that it would make their relationship that more obvious. While Smolder and Yona groaned with rolls of their eyes, Ocellus was quick to speak up and add, “Not to mention, we did spend a lot of money shopping earlier, right? Maybe it might be good to have a meetup for ourselves somewhere cheaper?”

Even though she wanted to make a fitting retort, the dragoness took a second to think that fact over before huffing bitterly. Meanwhile, the yak of the group grunted through her nostrils as she glanced at her menu, and shrugged in agreement with Ocellus. “Hmmm… Yeah, Yak’s pockets not big enough for this…”

After a bit of back and forth between the four, Gallus and Sandbar were happy to see their friends get up to make their leave. While the other three placed the tables and chairs back, Ocellus leaned in to the couple and said with a sly wink, “You love-birds can thank me later~”

“Awwwwww!” As the screen began to fade away within that orb, Starlight groaned with an upset pout on her face. “I wanted to see them come out to the girls!”

“Hey, give them some time, alright?” replied Sunburst with a glance back at her. “Sometimes it’s not that easy. Especially when it comes to groups with friends of so many different cultures.”

“I have to side with Sunburst on this one, Starlight,” added the Princess as she nodded apprehensively. “Even though I don’t think they’d lose any of their friends, matters like that can be difficult for some creatures to process. Not to mention, it’s their lives we’re surveilling. We have no right to interfere with something so personal.”

Despite her overwhelming desire to help the students she’s counseling at school, Starlight eventually sighed before she shrugged reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess…”

“Well, look at it this way,” said Sunburst as he kept a positive tone alongside his smile. “At least the guys have one friend who knows about them. Maybe that’ll help a bit.”

“That’s true…” After another long moment, the unicorn decided to just let it go as she sighed with another shrug of her shoulders. “I will say, I’m happy that’s the first scene we all saw together.”

“Hey, don’t jinx it,” said Sunburst with a playfully warning smirk on her.

Meanwhile, the screen began to reappear as the magic orb found another scene so quickly following the first. As the three took notice, Twilight was the first to huff and say optimistically, “Well, let’s see what this spell brings us next…”