Marble Pie felt the first licks of sunlight touch her face. She felt the warm soft glow lightly tug at her eyelids. Then she felt the sharp throbbing pain at the base of her skull. She felt the mouth like cotton and her tongue had gone dry. She felt the massive weight of her mind as it was trying to break free of its restraints. She felt the scrapping of the eyes as she slowly pried them open. Then she felt “it”.
It was some foreign thing behind her. Some mass that she had not known. She could tell by the colors of the wall and the feel of the air that this was her bedroom. The soft cozy thing that was begging her to stay was her bed. The large puffy thing under her head was her pillow. Marble could tell all these things. What Marble could not tell was the large form behind her.
She tried to remember the night before and why her head felt so swollen. By the sweet fruity flavor in her mouth she must have had too much cider. It was oh so sweet. Too sweet. She felt her stomach kind of flip flop and worried she might need to find a pail. Or, sin of sins, get out of the fuzzy bed. Her stomach didn’t like that plan so it calmed itself and let Marble continue her puzzle.
Marble deduced that she had been drinking. It was something that Ma and Pa had warned her about but Marble seemed to have not listened. She tried to piece together where she was when she found the cider. It had been some sort of special thing. Marble was certain of that. She left the farm so rarely that only a truly special event would have put Marble in contact with cider in the first place. She tried to nod in agreement with that thought but her bowling ball head punched her for thinking it.
Marble tried to cower from it only to find new information. There was something around her chest. It was heavy and constricting. She tentatively placed her hooves on it and felt what could only be another pair of hooves. Some pony was holding her in her bed! Why would another pony be in her bed? They had a guest bed room with plenty of other beds. Pinkie’s friend Applejack and her family stayed there once. They didn’t need to share Marble’s bed. If that was full there were couches and the like. Why would a pony need to sleep in her...
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! The smallest implication finally skipped its merry way across Marble’s thoughts. What if I.. I might have.. Marble couldn’t even finish the thought to herself. It was something that Ma and Pa did. They told her not to do things until you found that special some pony. As far as she remembered she hadn’t. Yeah there was a pony holding her “like that” in her bed! What should she do? What will Ma and Pa think?!
She was about to get out when her body protested by sending her another thought. There is a stranger in my bed! This pony holding me is a stranger. He could be a murderer. A strangler. A rapist! He could drown old mares in their sleep! Something dreadfully awful. Marble should be smart in this situation and run away.
The timid mare tried to get up but those hooves were so inviting and that bed was so soft and her body fought her natural inclination towards self preservation. Maybe this was the special some pony she was looking for. After Big Mac got married she had been a bit down. The idea that another match like him would come along seemed too far -fetched to believe in. They seemed to know what the other was thinking without any words at all. But apparently they weren’t in sync as she had thought. He had found somepony else. Now Marble had to settle with the some pony else she had found.
Marble wondered what the stallion of her dreams had looked like. How did he act? How had he swept Mable off her hooves so well that she was now laying beside him in her bed. She thought that surely a suave pony must have whisked her heart away so much so that it removed itself from her memory. She had been so completely smitten that she just forgot it all. And he, in his kindness, carried her home and placed her in her bed. It had exhausted him so much he collapsed next to her. His heart needed to be replenished by lying next to his love.
Marble was almost ecstatic enough to turn around and gaze at him when she noticed something, it wasn’t actually a something. More a lack of something. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it but something was wrong with her theory. Suddenly it occurred to her and she felt her cheeks flush. She wiggled her flank just to be sure there was no denying it. The pony in the bed with her was a mare!
This was not good. Marble brought home a mare! She was told by Ma and Pa that it was wrong to do that. Well they never really said it was but their reactions to other mare couples weren’t missed by Marble. The way that Pa knitted his eyebrows together and the glint in Ma’s eye told Marble that this was not the way to live. So Marble had decided not to cause that look on her parents. She took all the thoughts of “that” and pasted over a stallion. A kind sensitive stallion. But the cider had ruined all that. She was in bed with a mare.
Maybe it was just one of her sisters. Pinkie would do that sometimes. Pinkie. That’s who the party was for. Pinkie’s engagement party. Pinkie got engaged to that Cheese guy. A Cheese and Pinkie party at full throttle gets ponies to do all sorts of things they wouldn’t do. That explains the cider. But that didn’t explain why she was home with Pinkie, maybe, in her bed. The family had rented hotel rooms for the night. Why had she and Pinkie come home?
Marble’s flank movement must have stirred the sleeping mare. She began to move. Marble panicked and felt herself instinctively curl into a ball. The mare next to her unclasped her hooves from Marble and sat up. “Uuugh! My head!” she said.
Marble froze eyes wide. It was definitely not Pinkie. There could be other explanations. Maybe Marble had seen Big Mac and Sugar Belle together again. Maybe she got upset. Maybe this was just a nice pony that had fallen asleep comforting her as she fell asleep.
“Where are we? I was so drunk and we were making out so much on the train I didn’t see where we got off.”
The mare was not here for comfort. Marble could feel her face flushing as she realized this was a pony that she kissed. The first pony she kissed not on a date. The first pony she had kissed because some part of her had wanted to. Because she saw something in the mare she liked. Maybe this was a shy gentle pony that..
“Speaking of getting off. You have to watch those legs, little filly. You nearly kicked my head off when you got “there”. Do you work on a rock farm or something?”
“Mmm hmm,” was all Marble could bring herself to say. The mare implied something that caused Marble’s heart to skip a beat and her mind to seize.
“And that stuff you did after. Aww I have never felt things like that. It’s a little patchy but I haven’t met a mare so enthusiastic before.”
“Mmm hmm,” Marble returned as her mind began to implode. Things were piling on too fast. She didn’t know who this mare was and how she made this decision. She was thankful her family wouldn’t be here to witness this. Of course her family would wonder what happened to her. She was supposed to be in the hotel room right now. She doubted that she told them she was going home. It sounded like her lips were locked with this mare. Who was it? One of Pinkie’s friends? She thought about Pinkie’s friends. Would one of them think of her in that way? Wouldn’t that make things awkward for who ever it was and Pinkie? Would they risk their friendship over it? Did they care about her so much that they would risk all the years with Pinkie just so they could have her? Marble thought that if a pony liked her that much then maybe she could give them a chance.
“So, umm babe, are we going to lay here all day, get some breakfast or go for round two? To be honest I only remember bits and pieces of round one.”
The mare threw her hooves around Marble’s midsection and drew her close. Marble could feel the soft hair of the other pony’s barrel warming her back. She could feel the mare’s breath in her ear. It was rhythmic and soothing. Marble found herself drawn into the fresh scent of the mare next to her. She could feel some of her fears begin to melt away.
That is until she heard the hoof steps in the hallway. Marble’s stomach tightened and threatened to expel its contents again. She could feel her body slightly shake as the slow plod of those hoof steps echoed in the hallway. She wanted to disappear. Ma and Pa would find her and that would be it. She would be run off the farm. Her sisters would all hate her. Except Pinkie who never hated anypony.
The hoof steps slowly made their way to the front of Marble’s door. The timid quivering mare stared at the door like a mouse does a snake about to strike. She wanted to sail out the window but she just found herself clinging on to the pair of hooves around her. Her door slowly opened. The Pie’s didn’t believe in locks and handles. They figured nothing should be held secret from one another. No sense in hiding from family.
Marble couldn’t take it and closed her eyes as she heard the tale tell squeak of her door swinging open. She could hear the breath of the pony at the door over her companions. Finally an eternity later the pony at the door spoke.
“I found you,” said the flat tones that Marble instantly recognized as her sister’s, Maud, voice.
“What the? Who the?” cried the mare next to her. Marble heard a slight twinkling sound and the covers suddenly pulled themselves over her and her guest.
“I am Maud,” her sister answered calmly.
“Are you, like, Pinkie’s weird sister?”
“Yes.”
“What are you doing here?” the mare asked. Marble could feel a slight quiver in her voice and feel a little shake in her body.
“I am making sure my sister Marble is ok.”
“Wait! She’s Pinkie's sister too!? Aww I hope things don’t get awkward.”
Awkward? This is one of Pinkie’s friends. How did she end up here? Of course Pinkie is friends with everypony. It doesn’t narrow it down at all.
“Marble,” Maud said, interrupting Marble’s thoughts. Here it comes. Maud is going to berate her. “Are you ok?”
“Mmm hmm,” Marble managed to say.
“Good.”
Marble looked at Maud and noticed she was about to leave.
“Mmm wait,” called out Marble.
Maud froze and stared.
“Aren’t you going to yell at me?”
“Why?”
“I brought a mare home.”
“I can see that.”
Marble fiddled with her hooves a bit in the bed. The fear was gnawing at her but she pressed on. “Won’t Ma and Pa be mad?”
“No.”
“But ...but they don’t like mare couples.”
“Marble the only mare couple around here are Dusty Roads and Stitches. They snuck on to the farm one night and nearly knocked over Holder’s Boulder. That’s why Ma and Pa get a little angry when they see them.”
“Oh”
“Did you think that it was because they were both mares?” Maud asked point-of-fact.
“Mmhmm”
“Ma and Pa have no problem with them. I hope you weren’t holding yourself back because of that,” her sister stated with no change in her tone. “And you are the musician right?”
Marble’s bedmate sat straight up. “Yeah, Vinyl Scratch the, um, DJ.”
“Please be nice to my sister.” Maud said then turned and left before Vinyl could respond.
“Yeah sure thing,” Vinyl called after her.
Marble finally turned around to see the little famous musician lying next to her. Vinyl gave her a sheepish smile.
“There’s that face. Your sister is intense. You want to get some breakfast?”
“Mmhmm.”