Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes you're not quite sure if you've won or lost.
David awoke with a start, pulled from his surprisingly comfortable sleep by a loud noise. Immediately the man sat up, fearing something had gone wrong before he realized where he was. Looking over at the room below, he saw a pink blur moving around rapidly. The earth pony jumped and hopped and kicked and sprung all around the room, for no particular reason at all. A quick glance out the window told David sunrise was not long ago, and this came to no surprise. Suddenly the noise below stopped, and he quickly turned to see what was happening now. The pink pony was looking up at him, unfazed by her earlier activities.
"Good morning Mr. David! Did ya have a good sleep?" she called cheerily, performing a cartwheel with a giggle.
"Yeah...quite good...how about you?" he replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He did not even begin to try and understand why she was doing what she was doing.
"Slept like a baby!" she answered, stretching her eye lids with her hooves (and somehow not toppling over in the process).
Pinkie Pie continued her strange form of exercise, while David laid his head back down to rest. With so much noise below, there was no hope of getting any more sleep, but his makeshift bed was still quite comfortable. After a few more minutes passed, Pinkie ceased her frenzied performance and made her way over to the stairs.
"Wanna come down for breakfast? The Cakes make the best pancakes in Ponyville!"
"No thank you, I'll be fine," David responded politely, ignoring his angrily protesting stomach. Evidently the pink pony did not understand the extent he wished to hide.
"Okie dokie lokie!" the earth pony replied, trotting down the stairs and leaving David in relative silence. One of the windows had been opened, so the sound of Ponyville awake and active wafted into the room, even at such early hours of the day.
As he began to count the balloons that were still hovering near the ceiling, David got to thinking about how he should proceed. Pinkie had been kind enough to not only accept him, but also open her home to him for the night. It was a pleasant turn of events, but not entirely unexpected. He knew the pink pony would be the most accepting of the bunch, but he wasn't sure how exactly she could help him with the others. Hell, he wasn't even sure if she'd keep her word from last night and keep quiet about their meeting.
He couldn't leave now, that was sure, but he didn't feel right asking more from Pinkie. Despite the danger of the situation, he did not want to take advantage of the pony's hospitality while giving nothing in return. But as it stood, he could not make his way back to the library until night had fallen on Equestria. Yet again a lack of options chose for him. He would need to try and convince Pinkie to let him stay, just until nightfall.
An hour later, Pinkie returned from breakfast as cheery as ever. David was wandering the room idly when she arrived, having come down from the balcony a few minutes prior.
"Pinkie," he began, catching the earth pony's attention. "Is it alright if I stay a little while longer?" He hoped he would not have to explain why. He couldn't honestly come up with a plausible reason.
"Of course! You can stay as long as you like!" she responded with a grin.
"I don't want to impose."
"Its no problem! I just need to help the Cakes with today's business. You'll be OK up here by yourself, right? Oh, and then I have to head over to Twilight's! You can come with me if you want!"
"That's fine, Pinkie. No, I'm afraid I won't be able to tag along. Thanks though." The likelihood she remembered their little deal was dwindling fast.
"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied, trotting past David to retrieve an apron before heading back downstairs.
That was surprisingly easy....
He had bought himself some time. The question now was, how safe was he here? Did he have to be afraid of possible visitors, even while Pinkie was away? Would the Cakes be a hazard as well? Perhaps this wasn't as easy as he thought.
His best bet lay with the balcony. If he laid low up there, he might be able to evade a visiting pony's sight so long as they didn't actually investigate the balcony itself. Retreating back to his makeshift bed, David moved the pillow to the opposite end of the sheets, allowing him to peer through the edge of the large window without making himself obvious. And that was how he would spend the day, watching the citizens of Ponyville from behind the large circular glass, his head resting on his arms which in turn rested on the pillow.
He recognized a number of ponies as he watched. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack laughing and joking as they walked toward the market. Fluttershy accompanying Angel to some unknown destination. He even spotted Lyra and Bon Bon making their way past Sugarcube Corner at one point. He was quite sure he fell asleep a few times throughout the day, though for only a few minutes at a time.
After Pinkie left the store (he saw her depart from the window), he had mostly grown bored of watching from the window, and instead lay staring at the ceiling once more. He had some amusement knocking around a half-deflated balloon that had finally descended from the rafters, but even that grew boring after a while. During another count of the remaining balloons, his vision suddenly darkened. Had rain been scheduled today? It was rather late to start, wasn't it? He admittedly wasn't well versed on pegasus weather behavior...
Shifting his vision back toward the window, he found that it was not clouds that cast a shadow upon him, but the body of a pony, hovering just outside the window.
Rainbow Dash, to be specific.
Instinctively the man squirmed back from the window, pulling his head completely from its view in an attempt to hide. The blue pegasus had her forearms against the glass, looking around the confines of the room expectantly. Looking for Pinkie, he hoped. After a few incredibly tense minutes, Rainbow Dash departed with a frustrated sigh audible even through the glass. In a moment the pegasus had darted away, evidently off to try and locate the earth pony elsewhere. David breathed out heavily, having practically held his breath the entire time the pegasus had loomed over him.
The rest of the day had been quite boring for David. After yet another close call, however, he was more than OK with that. Pinkie arrived back home just as evening rolled around, seeming withdrawn for some reason. Instead of bounding up the stairs excitedly to tell him about her day as he expected, she practically crept up the stairs, looking around as though she was afraid of something.
"Good evening, Pinkie," he called from the balcony, moving to the wooden bars to look at the pony below. "How was your day?"
"Oh, uh, it was great. Fine. Just peachy, really!" she responded, glancing around suspiciously and giving him a nervous grin. He felt rather insulted she would think he would fall for such an act.
"Something wrong?" he asked, a sense of panic growing within him.
After a few silent moments, the pink pony cried out in resignation. "I can't take it! Mr. David I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tell her, I just forgot! Please don't be mad at me!"
Oh hell.
Instead of getting angry with Pinkie, he felt as if he himself had messed up somehow. He felt as though he had missed something. His mind told him that Pinkie was great at keeping secrets. There was a whole episode about it! What was he forgetting-
"...Pinkie Promise..."
The words had been too quiet for the lamenting pony to hear, thankfully, and the man shook himself out of his dazed realization. He would kick himself for his continued foolishness later. For now, damage control.
"What did you tell Twilight?" he asked, trying to sound calm and collective.
"I told her I met the monkey monster, that's all! I didn't mean to, and I didn't say anything else!"
David breathed out, the growing anxiety leaving him as he relaxed. He was still safe. He hoped.
"Does this mean we aren't friends anymore?" Pinkie mumbled in a low voice after a few silent moments, kicking a hoof as she frowned up at him.
"No no its alright, Pinkie. We are still friends," he responded, feeling bad for making the normally happy creature so distraught. "Just try not to tell them that I'm here, ok?"
Pinkie nodded enthusiastically, springing up and down excitedly. "I can do that!"
"Pinkie Promise?" He was covering his bases now.
"Pinkie Promise!" the pink pony replied confidently, making an X over her chest before placing a hoof over her eye. David mimicked the gesture.
Pinkie spent much of the evening regaling tales of her day, situated comfortably on her bed while he sat a few yards away, braced against a wall. She excitedly told him of the picnic she and Twilight had went on, as well as her experience at work with the Cakes. Although some things were being told too fast for him to completely understand, he enjoyed the friendly company of the earth pony. After spending almost a week in solitude, having a chat with a friend was an incredible relief for him, even if it was a pony he had just practically met.
Eventually the pink pony had tired herself out. Rather abruptly, her retelling of the day ended and suddenly she was asleep. David faired no better. Almost as soon as the pink pony drifted off to sleep, so did he, still braced against the wall with his knees brought up in front of him, his head hanging close to his chest.