Chapter 9 – Full sensory overload... [2/2]
...remember these words.
Everyone knows that a cuddle once in a while with your special someone is definitely the best. Not that you’re wishing anything more or less from this gesture. But it is the principle of the thing. By cuddling, it shows that you care.
So at present, you are affectionately entangled with a mare. But let us not get too hasty here.
You are, at the moment, unconscious. Reason for said unconsciousness, the mare you are hugging right now. And her reaction, downright...asleep?! So it looks like nothing happened. But that is not what Mrs. Cake thought when she came up to check up on you two.
“Pinkie? Spiced Tea? Are you two alright? Umm...are you two...decent?”
“I told you dear, I had a feeling that Spiced Tea would be the colt to sweep her off her hooves”
“Oh shush you, I think they are just calmly reading a book...” she wanted to finish that. Oh how she wanted to finish her words.
“Honey what is the matter, it looks like a cat has got...your...tongue...” he wanted to finish that. Oh how he wanted to finish his words.
Sure, finding two ponies together in a bed may look strange. Okay, it would look so weird that the implications of what happened here might surface. If by chance that you are just two friends, then it would look like they might have fallen asleep. But two complete strangers, on a bed together, asleep in each other’s embrace. Might ring a couple of alarms for sure but seeing that and the bed covered in wet stains.
Okay that looks just like what it looks like, especially when a fallen tube of lotion conveniently rolled out from under the bed.
They started to whisper to each other “Dear, do you want to take the kids out to the park today?”
“Y-Yeah, I think that is for the best.”
“Yeah”
“Do you want to take the day off as well? Y’know, close the shop early?”
“That sounds like a great idea”
“...”
“...”
“I’ll get the kids...”
“I will close the shop...”
Both in agreement, they turned around and planned to set off from the bakery. Having the oven and spatula earned a momentary rest for the entire day. As they were set to pick up their children on the second floor, Mrs Cake just had to speak her mind.
“If he breaks her heart, I will bake her his”
Your senses start to return to you. Your feeling starts to make sense of the world around you.
But you have this internal checklist, a ritual so to speak. If by any chance you know that you have been awake previous to your unconsciousness means that something has happened. So you start off with the item on your list...err ritual.
You now start with your sense of touch. Basically you check for pain or discomfort, which you did not find any. You also took the time to feel anything else out of place. And all you got was comfort, soft comfort. As well as telltale signs of warmth, like someone else’s body heat.
Another thing to note is the feel of moist patches on your pelt and the numbness of your forelegs.
You then move on to your scent. As the previous day, your nose noticed more detail than you could have imagined. So taking a good solid whiff, your head exploded with flavour. Not that scents are discerned by flavour of course. But what hit you is a melody of different scents, each working together as a whole. The major of the scent was strawberries, like the smell you get from picking them fresh. Another part was sugar and bread. These two were not much recognizable as the strawberries but they flowed out just the same.
Two senses down and three more to go, which gives you the impression that you are not dead nor in any danger. Or that you have been placed in a bread pan and is currently baking in a oven, nah.
Now onto your sense of hearing which takes you by surprise. As all you hear is breathing. Two sets both breathing in alternating rhythms of each other. You can also hear a faint heartbeat which goes to say that you are not alone.
This one is funny for sure. No one in their right mind would do a check on their sense of taste, seriously. But since you are not right of mind, you did it anyways. You gently open your mouth, finding out if anything would fall freely in. All you got was cloth so you started again. But only this time, you moved your head forward towards the warmth, with your mouth open. You get the picture. Anyway, you got yourself a mouthful of...cotton candy. Well you think its cotton candy as it tastes sweet but does not exactly melt in your mouth.
So now that the minor four senses are out of the way, you then realized that in your current form have gained an extra sense, magic. So seeing as it is the perfect time to test out a basic spell Luna taught, you got to work straight away. You send minor pulses of your soul into your horn. Focusing on how they resonate, you give yourself a once over as the spells target. And its feedback gives your body a green light as nothing is amiss. So then you turn the spells target outwards, in a sensing manner like a scanner. You happen to feel faint pulse quite similar to a heartbeat. But heartbeats don’t glow pink in your mind, no. This is an unnatural pulse but it does not frighten you in anyway.
This pulse feels like a living thing. It emanates this pure sense of calmness and innocence. It feels warm and inviting and made you feel aloof. This pulse makes you...laugh.
So with a little chuckle, you open your eyes only to find yourself in a full sensory overload. And overload of pure, unadulterated vivacious pink. Face to face with a solid mass of inevitable mass of cuddly pink. That is just going too far in the description though.
Now that you have the full picture, you see the situation: you slept with Pinkie Pie.
At an extreme twist of luck you find her asleep, her face right up to your own. Her expression is but of innocence, like when you first met Derpy. But Pinkie is emanating a different innocence, a childish purity as it were. Whatever this feeling was, it made it hard to VOLUNTARILY snuggle with the pink party pony, which you did.
So upon gaining control over your forelegs, you willed them to wrap around her waist, pulling the puffy pink pony into a warm embrace. Having her body heat mingle with your own makes you feel warm and fuzzy. And this hug gave you something unexpected, well maybe expected but something that you never thought you would hear. You got a small affectionate coo out of her. That meant your pull woke her up, but that did not stop you into diving your head into nuzzling her.
As you furthered your ministrations, Gummy took this chance to hop onto the bed. Gummy crawled over to the front of Pinkie, giving you a comfortable view from over her shoulder to face him. Looking at you as you caressed his master. And somewhat he gave you this look of:
‘Have you seen the light of my mistress as well?’
“Yes I have, your mistress is a very nice pony. I just don’t know how blacked out and onto this bed though.” And seeing as you actually replied to the blank croc, you mused that you would never get a reply from a creature that does not talk.
‘Mistress is saddened that you did not introduce yourself to her. She thought it be wise to ambush you here.’
Okay this is getting weird but what the heck.
“Why would your mistress want to ambush me if I was not able to meet her at all?”
‘She told me many a time that she loves to make friends with the other denizens of this land. She believed that any newcomer her should desire sustenance and would come here to gather some. And in turn, she would have met you and prepared a feat in your name.’ Gummy turned to face you then face Pinkie, signifying that he knows she only meant well.'
“Okay, she wanted to become friends with me, I get that. But that did not explain why I was out of it and on her bed…with Pinkie.”
‘It was not mistress’ desire to harm you. All she wanted was time but it had shown itself. Rather, you have given her an opportunity to exploit. And in doing so, she has bludgeoned you with the wonderful skillet. But it also given her quite a scare after’ the green lizard faced to the far corner of the room, almost pointing towards an iron skillet. The skillet nearly hidden under the pile of confetti, save for its heart shaped marked that stood out.
“What do you mean by I scared her when she knocked me out?”
‘She might have entertained a notion. When she spoke of her triumph and how her plan is starting its fruition. She might have mentioned how you looked similar to a corpse. She dismissed it briefly when she brought you over to her bed. Besides her ulterior motives, she still needed to address your injuries.’
“So what went wrong when she was trying to patch me up? I don’t think I talk in my sleep”
‘It was actually what she did not find when you lay across the mattress. Your injuries nonexistent which in turn gave her quite a scare, therefore her mention of murder might have given her an impression.’
“Alright that explained me on the bed. But my injuries are gone you say. How is that so but before that, why is your master on the bed with me” you press the lizard for dire information but you failed to realize Pinkie’s consciousness starting to come around.
‘For your lack of physical harm I know not of. But perhaps there is something about you but I will not linger upon that thought. You seem like a wonderful pony. As for the reason mistress has decided to lie on her bed, I might guess that she is fatigued. She spent many nights to formulate her plan neither resting nor sleeping. And since there was nowhere to rest comfortably, her bed might have given her the temptation needed to approach whilst you were on.’
“So she was just tired. But if you do mind me asking, which is a little absurd talking to a lizard, no offense. Did anything happen between us? Some sort of scuffle maybe?”
‘As for what happen, I am a reptile who respects others privacy. So if you would excuse me, I have a tube of ointment and a bottle of lotion to tend to. They do give me some entertainment. But let me ask you this, how do you feel about my mistress? After all she has done, she meant no ill towards you, what are your thoughts on this?’
“You know what….umm Gummy. I feel okay with it because I am not one to judge others intentions. As long as I am alright and she is too, then everything is totally fine.”
All he gave in response was a small reptilian yawn. And with that, Gummy jumped off the bed. A sound of metal hitting wood signalled that Gummy might have found his playthings.
But without having to realize, all this time Pinkie had listened to your one-sided dialogue with her pet gator. Her eyes never meeting your gaze, making you think she was asleep this entire time. And that entire time, you kept her close to you.
“…So…your totally fine with happened. I mean are you okay with me bonking you out cold?”
“You heard all that huh?”
She raised her head to face yours, her expression looking a bit troubled.
“Did you mean what you said…that everything is totally fine?”
“Well yeah but I am slightly upset that you went through all this just to get back at me for not introducing myself earlier. And I myself find that very selfish of you”
“So you mean that you are not mad at me and you won’t be breaking up our friendship?”
“Well considering that there was no friendship in the beginning. I would like to treat this moment as an acquaintanceship. So yes, I am not mad and yes I would love to be your friend Ms. Pinkie”
And that was all it took for Pinkie to give you the deadliest hug imaginable. A hug so strong and so potent, you would literally be putty by the time the hug ceased. Leaving you both gasping for air and oddly Pinkie seemed a little flushed. But she gave you the brightest smile that could deflect any sort of suspicion directed at her.
It is like she wanted something more perhaps?
But you sir, are a man…er pony of detail. You took hint at the thought that bothered Pinkie. And it was this one thought that could have gone without mention. So taking the initiative, you decided to get this out of the way as soon as possible.
You breathe deep “Ms. Pinkie before we get any further. I think we need to talk about what happened on this bed. Seeing is you might have some recollection…so I just wanted to ask…what happened between us?”
Pinkie on one hoof gave it her all to restrain the blush that wanted to rule over her face. On the other hoof though, she knew what you were talking about. She too rather decided to leave this topic untouched. But since you started, she too agreed on your logic to get this thing out of the way as possible. But she also wanted to have this topic hidden, as this is the only guilty pleasure she might have for the rest of her life. And she wanted to savour it as much as she can.
Still armed with a smile she starts “W-Well…w-w-we that is t-to say I-I…you…”
Okay, she stammers. Totally obvious that she does not want to continue. Rather she wants to continue but the event may be too traumatic or that is to say to sensual for her to mention. But she pushes through anyway. So taking a pause and a need breath, she starts again and this time she watches her speech.
“Well, when I started, well that is to say when you I bonked you in the head or after I bonked you in the head. I umm dragged your body over to the bed-”
You interject by placing a hoof over her mouth.
“Sorry but your pet Gummy already covered that. About getting bonked and how you thought you killed, which I would say is pretty hilarious. But seriously Ms. Pinkie I need to know, did anything happened in this bed that I should know about” and with that, you let your hold over her mouth.
“First off it is just Pinkie and second…nothing actually happened.”
“Okay so then tell me, why are you blushing mad like a tomato”
“Well, after lying right beside you. You moved suddenly and you had me in your forelegs. And I could not move at all…and…and you started to umm…you know”
“That does not sound like nothing”
“IT’S NOT NOTHING!”
Her sudden outcry took you off guard. And Pinkie too realized what she did/
“Did I...I mean to say did we-”
“NO! No it is nothing like that”
“What was it then?”
‘I-I mean…it is just that nothing really happened. It is just that, you cuddled me that’s all but…”
“But what Pinkie?”
“…but it made me feel funny. It felt like the time I drank all those bottles of sarsaparilla. All the bubbly tingly bubbles moving around inside me...giving me this happy feeling but without the puking at the end…”
You just smile at her ongoing hit and miss descriptions. She is still trying her best on describing how it felt. Although you already know what she means, you just did not have the heart to stop her in the middle of her rant. But you know you have to stop this soon or you both would not get anywhere.
“Are you sure we didn’t...you know-”
“I am sure!” she shied away for a bit, trying to collect herself before facing you once more “I can’t explain this feeling...”
“Pinkie, I think I know what you mean” so taking this moment to finally depart from her bed, you let her go and stood up on all fours. Giving her a glace while you give your limbs cursory checks. “You never had anypony hug you like that?”
“I give and receive many hugs from my friends like Twilight, Fluttershy-“
“What I mean is…do you have any special someone that gave you this feeling”
“Well, that would make you the first one that did so, why?”
“How do I put this…I was cursed with something on my travels and I think it has something to do with how you feel about me right now. I mean that is necessarily a bad thing, no. What I mean is-“
“Oh so you were cursed by a mean old witch pony who has been living for a hundred or so years. And has cursed you to become her love slave for all eternity but then you escaped her clutched but failed to have the curse broken. So now you are still cursed and the side effect of this curse is that it causes females around you to act and feel all funny and they fall madly in love with you?”
“If you put it all that way, you are right on the nose”
“Hahahahaha! That is just silly, everypony knows that witches don’t exist. Well my friend Zecora is a kind of witch, but she is a witch doctor and she makes all these fine potions and stuff. She is really cool, I hope you get to meet her-GASP!”
“What?!”
“Ohmygosh!ItotallyforgottogiveyouawelcomepartybutsinceIalreadymetyouIthinkitshouldbefairforeveryponytomeetyouandwewillhavesomuchfunand…”
Ladies and gentlemen, the original topic has left the building.
It took you almost the entire morning to convince Pinkie to let you go. Which she did of course, but by the time she did so it was almost sundown. Which is fine of course as you wanted to rest this entire day anyway, but that is where you are wrong. It seems as there is a catch to your timely release from Sugarcube corner.
“And where do you think you’re going Mr Smarty Pants?”
“Huh?”
And there Pinkie stood, behind you as you holding a pile of invites. And there you are standing by the backdoor of the bakery; you barely opened the door before she called out to you.
“Yes?” you say even if you are hesitant to answer.
“Do I get a goodbye hug?”
“A what now?”
“Never mind. Here, you forgot this” she pushes you a paper bag.
“What is in this?”
“It some goodies I made. I gave you enough to last you till this Friday”
“What is happening this Friday?”
“You go back here and order more, silly!”
“But isn’t Friday tomorrow?”
“Yeah”
So you open up the paper bag that Pinkie gave you. You find the bag filled with that scrumptious vanilla almond crumble puff pastry and some other delectable goodness made by her.
“So, what are you doing today? Wannna go with me and buy some supplies. Why not let me show you around town. I know anypony and everypony in Ponyville.”
“Well I certainly have nothing to do today since I am practically new here. And I think by the time I get home I’ll just laze around.” You say as both of you head out through the backdoor, Pinkie diligently locking it so that nopony would ever think of breaking in. “But are you sure there are some establishments open at this time? I’m sure many of the shops here would be closing by now.”
“You’ll see, now come on! If we hurry, we could get the closing hour discount”
“This is the bazaar market. Usually this place would be jam packed with all kinds of ponies. Well except for zombie ponies because everypony knows that zombies love the night. Well anyway as you can see around you, even if its night and some ponies would love to go home at rest and stuff. Many of the bazaar market stalls transform into theses cool looking night market. So anything that others would not want to sell in the morning would sell at night…”
The first stop would be the town’s main source of business and income, the very neighbourhood your house resides. The bazaar market, as Pinkie mentions, is open all week. And every stall you pass, Pinkie gets to purchase some weird looking produce. There are some stranger looking goods that come in expertly sealed bottles and boxes she buys, sure. But as the designated newcomer and unfortunate pack mule, whatever she gets her hooves on adds to your distress.
“This here is Stirrup Street where all resident and local shop owners reside. Though most of the shops close at night, some are open all night. We only have two bars here in Ponyville. One of them is your typical bar but the other is where most ponies that enjoy the nightlife go. It usually is an endless party there, though most ponies get sick and start puking after a couple of drinks, but it is a good thing that Princess Luna gave out this pretty cool law that prohibits any pony from over drinking or else they will be sent to Canterlot for…”
Now she tours you around the main artery of the town. Basically the street is filled with your basic shops and services that are convenient to reach for everypony. Sugarcube corner and Town hall reside here.
“And here is my other favourite and most spectacular store of all stores. I go here if I run low on party favors or if I don’t have any prank items to go pranking. Do you love pranking, I sure hope so. Because me and Dashie are the town’s prime prankers so you best be ready with whatever we dish out in a short amount time…”
“Here is Ponyville park. Do you see that big clamshell looking thing back there? That is where the local musicians and artists go when they need to let of some steam. There was this one time a whatchamaycallit-big-time-pianist went totally haywire over this guitarist and they totally battled it out. I never seen that amount of flying chairs in my whole life. And there was this one time…”
You are now at the park, enough said. Because it is common sense what a park is for, so there is no need to expound that topic any further than whatever story Pinkie is trying to remember. Aside from her non-stop jibber jabber, she really is a nice pony. But what was not welcome was the fact that you are still carrying her groceries.
“This road leads you to the towns pride and a pretty cool place to hang out when you’re in need of a lot of apples. The place is called S-“
“Sweet Apple Acres”
*GASP!*
And with that gasp, she rushes up to your face, knocking her packages off your magic grasp. All she is doing now is staring at you with a surprised grin.
“How do you know about Sweet Apples Acres? Are you some sort of psychic pony?”
“Well I kind of met this stallion of the road heading here. His name I think is Big Macintosh”
“We just call him Big Mac”
“Okay, well I met Big Mac and he kind of told me about his farm and what they do there. So I suppose I know of the place a bit before even arriving.”
“So what have you been doing before heading here? Oh never mind, why don’t you save that story for later, ‘kay?”
“Uhh okay I guess…”
“Great!”
“Do you mind if we stop by the post office on the way back?” and with that she used her greatest weapon. A weapon so potent it renders the target helpless against it: the puppy pout.
“...Gah!...Okay you win...”
“Yay!”
You are officially tired. No scratch that, you are about to die of exhaustion. Wait, that sounds too dramatic. You are worn out I guess? Yeah that’s it, you are worn out.
You spent your afternoon and evening with Pinkie Pie. Roaming around town, introducing you to the sights and sounds. Sure she may be a little rowdy and very eccentric for your tastes, but who isn’t? Especially when you are living and working in a bakery that deals in insane amounts of sugar, tell me who hasn’t had the urge to go sugar crazy in that sense. But you have to admit, she did give you a great tour. And you wouldn’t be surprised if you asked her for another one any time soon.
But then again, a tour around town would also be enjoyable alone with the sense of discovery.
So it was getting a little late and you are sure that you could use a breather after levitating all that foodstuffs and knickknacks. It was decided that you escort Pinkie back and after all you are a gentlecolt. And to both your surprise, Sugarcube remained closed. So it looks like the Cakes are not back yet. They must be having a great time I guess, though you wonder why they closed shop early today.
Maybe they decided it’s a great day for family, don’t you think.
So now that Pinkie’s back at her apartment at you’re about near reach of your house. You take this time to reflect upon something that has bugged you a little while back.
‘Did I kiss her?’ many thoughts soon follow this.
And with that in mind, you make way to your now beloved house. What is interesting really is the fact that houses here don’t actually have many locks on their doors. The ponies here must be disciplined or something to have them scared for trespassing. Maybe a strict law made by the two sisters perhaps?
You pay it no thought as you enter through the back, as it’s easier to access the kitchen this way. Because you having those tasty baked goods Pinkie gave you. Since these have cream in them, that means they are easy to spoil. And so you placed the good filled paper bag into the fridge as you went past the kitchen.
And as that is done, now you have some free time to yourself before cleaning up and hitting the proverbial hay.
“What to do, what to do?”
A cursory glance around you shows that your house is a mess. And why is that? It is because of yesterday’s magical mishap with the orb and the princesses. And the room that took the most damage is obviously your study. And since its part of your ‘to do list’, you decide to spend the rest of the night sorting out the mess and the individual boxes in it. The living room can wait for tomorrow anyways.
“This is easier said than done. Jeez” well it seems as though your initial look-see gave you problems. The mess is bigger than you anticipated. “Why not just dust and clean, that shouldn’t be too hard”
And so after a good solid hour of dusting and cleaning, you finally spent all your reserves. Which is good as it is not that late for a good night’s sleep. So with whatever strength you have left, you haul your sorry ass out the room and into the bath for clean up. That is until one of your hindhooves hit the all forgotten crystal ball on the floor. Just hit tour hoof and not hurt it.
It is just then you remembered the original use of the crystal ball.