You pass through the airlock and quickly shed your snowsuit. It's heavy with water and ice on the outside, and sweat on the inside, and you can't help but tear it off immediately after each shift. It goes into the designated washer-dryer, sure to be fresh for tomorrow's shift. “Carl, your turn!” You shout into the facility. "The equipment won't calibrate itself!"
“Yeah, yeah, I'm coming.” Carl says, walking past you towards the bulkheads. He smells of instant noodles and beef jerky. He smells delicious. “Hey, there was a new episode last week. Just came up on Netflix.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Gonna watch it?” Carl asks the question he's asked you dozens of times before.
“Nnnnnnnope.” You answer with the answer you've given only slightly fewer dozens of times.
Carl laughs quietly, already changing into his suit, behind the portal. “Some day I'll convince you, buddy.” The airlock closes and he'll soon be stepping into the Antarctic. You can almost hear him echoe behind the door, “Some day...”
Carl's the technologist in the camp – he messes with computers, as far as you know. He himself is a blonde guy of 28, with a high, slightly raspy voice and an awesome beard. Pretty good-looking, and probably warm. Not that you'd tell him about it, though. He's got the weirdest hobbies and obsessions, one of which he's been trying to share with you for most of the summer shift after you found out he watches that crap. “No, Carl.” You think out loud. “You won't convince me.”
The dry, warm air of the rest facility is much more comfortable than your partner's company, and you retreat further into the building. 12-hour days of core drilling pays well – exceedingly well – but it's hard work, and the Antarctic is really flipping cold. You follow Carl's lead and heat up some noodles, pouring dehydrated vegetables into the bowl as well. Plain is boring. With a side of beef jerky and some crackers, you get comfortable in the den and eat what someone with a normal schedule would call 'dinner' in front of the TV, which isn't turned on. You don't watch a lot of TV.
After you're more or less thawed and sated, you take a long, hot shower. After cleaning yourself, you don't want to leave the warmth of the shower. You've got a strange emptiness inside you – not hunger or cold, as those are already taken care of. The cascading hot water of the shower seems the only reprieve from the feeling. Of course you've never really thought too hard about it. That's normal, isn't it? Of course it is. You turn the water off, dry off, pull on some shorts, and walk to your room.
It's a terrible path to take. The hallway between the shared complex and your quarters has a bare concrete floor, and it's always cold. Obviously. You've thought about putting a carpet through it, or taking slippers to the shower, or something, but it's never happened. Honestly, you sort of like the cold hard feeling despite it being totally unpleasant.
Once in your quarters, you follow protocol and check the computer – there's limited internet and satellite access in the camp, but the main purpose of the terminals is to communicate with other employees and the on-site equipment, though that's more Carl's thing. After filing some paper(less)-work, and receiving some requests from another team about a cracked drill head, you figure it's time to sleep.
You've got a nasty habit of calculating how much sleep you'll get if you fall asleep at X and wake up at Y. It's never a good idea to do that, but at least it keeps you focused. Most of the time.
As you approach your bed – little more than a padded cot, really – around the corner, you notice something stuffed under the covers. A pillow, perhaps? Is Carl pulling something? It doesn't really matter. Shutting down the main lights, leaving only a bed-side lamp to illuminate the room, you pull the covers up and are greeted with a big, purple animal. It jumps up and, in a girly voice, shouts, “Surprise!” Holyshitwhatthefuck.
It looks like it tried to jump at you, and you stumble back, knocking over the bed-side table and throwing the lamplight across the room. “Holy shit!” You repeat, out loud this time. “What is this?” You steady yourself against a locker. “Who are you?”
“Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to scare you!” The animal jumps off the bed and walks into the light. You see that it looks sort of like a pony, with a purple coat and darker hair. Atop it's head rests a horn, and... you realize what the thing is. It's a unicorn from Carl's stupid show. It speaks again, confirming your thoughts; “I'm Twilight Sparkle, a unicorn pony from Ponyville, Equestria. Who are you?” She puts on a warm, inviting smile. It's sickening.
“I'm...” you start, out of reflex, “...confused. Did Carl set this up?”
'Twilight Sparkle' the unicorn makes a face. “No... actually, Celestia set this up. Er, Princess Celestia, of Canterlot, Equestria.” Again with the names and places, and faces.
“I don't know what that means. You're a talking pony. Unicorn.” You steady yourself against the locker.
“I'm guessing... you're not familiar with the show?”
“Yeah... No.”
Twilight Sparkle looks around, apparently hesitant to do anything with the lamp. Then she turns back to you, quickly. “Did you mention somepony named Carl?”
“He's my partner in this complex.” Somepony?
“Where is he?”
You point at the wall, in the approximate direction of the airlocks. “Outside.” Twilight Sparkle looks between the wall, the hallway, and you. She doesn't know where to go. You point and pantomime to her, “Go down the hall. Turn left. Go up to the top floor, then turn around and go through the airlock.” Twilight Sparkle thanks you greatly, then follows your directions.
The diversion worked. Due to the initial shock, you're left at a loss for what to do next, and decide to pick up the lamp and continue crawling into bed. Twilight is probably frozen by now. Or, more likely, stuck at the door. You realize the airlock requires a key-card and you've got yours, but that's not an issue, right? Not like what you just saw was real.
A loud pop-fizz, magical sound and a bright purple light flash in your room for an instant, and Twilight lands in the middle of your quarters, covered in snow and dripping wet. You're not even in bed yet and the unicorn is bothering you again. Except this time, she teleported into the room.
“Where are we?” She says, shakily. Her horn glows and in an instant Twilight is dry again. You stare at her. Twilight doesn't wait for a response. “I think Carl is occupied. You'll do, I suppose.” She jumps in your bed and scoots over, beginning to wrap herself in the heavy covers. She's still shaking.
You don't know what to do about her, so instead you move to the locker again, in case the unicorn does anything crazy again. “Did you just teleport?” The words fall out of your open mouth.
“Yeah!” Twilight says. “All unicorns can do magic. Now come to bed. Let's cuddle.”
The bluntness of the statement makes you do a double-take. “What.” You cautiously open the locker and check the middle shelf. You're looking for the gun that the NSF wouldn't let you keep. Twilight sighs, shudders, and makes her horn glow again. This time, the glow surrounds you as well. Your fingers and toes start to tingle, and your stomach lurches. You're almost weightless, hovering towards Twilight and the bed, lifted by an ethereal, purple cloud.
Gravity returns to you as you are dropped lightly onto the bed, and no sooner has Twilight wrapped her forelegs around you and brought her head to your neck. You try to push away, and it almost works several times, but Twilight's horn still glows and she manages to capture you in a strong grip. She's not nearly as big as you, but her 'magic' seems irresistible.
“Princess Celestia, my ruler and teacher, discovered this world a few months ago.” Twilight's got her hooves wrapped around your neck, and her body is pressed against your bare back. Her coat is very soft and smooth. You should have taken a cold shower. “She cuddled with one of you, a human, and declared it the best night's sleep she ever had, and she's had a lot of those. Now, to help with inter-species relations, she's sending all kinds of ponies, and some other inhabitants of Equestria, to cuddle with humans for a night.”
“I don't feel comfortable about this.”
“Just relax! It'll be fine, trust me.” Again, Twilight nuzzles into you. It's really cute, and it feels really good on the surface, but you're so conflicted.
There is the obvious problem of not knowing what's going on, but that takes a back seat to the intensely weird feeling inside. It's the same emptiness you felt in the shower, except it seems to be melting away and being replaced with a soft warmth, not unlike the unicorn behind you. It makes you feel sad, but a good kind of sad, if that makes any sense. You don't understand it. You don't like it. Twilight senses you moving as you roll onto your back and sits up, leaning over you.
Staring up at the ceiling, you ask in a most pleading manner, “Can we please not do this?”
Twilight fills your vision and rests her head and one foreleg on your chest. “None of them want to, at first. And none of you really have a choice, anyway.”
The words makes sense to you, but this just confuses you even further. You don't dislike the idea. In fact, you want to cuddle with Twilight. She's like a huge plush animal, except warm and alive, as well as cute and huggable. You really should have taken a cold shower. Almost unconsciously, you move your arms around her. She responds by hugging you back harder, and you do the same, and soon enough you're both in a total embrace, her smaller body wrapped in your arms and her hooves around your neck. She removes her forelegs, though, and tucks them against her chest. This allows you to pull her closer. The shared warmth beneath the covers is extreme, but entirely comfortable. Twilight, her head pushed up against yours, whispers, “Sweet dreams, human...” before going completely silent and slack, asleep.
This breaks you. The empty feeling inside is overflowing now. Your mind is cloudy, head spinning. A tear comes from your eye, rolls down your cheek, and disappears; even though you're not crying. No, it's something else entirely. This is the first time you've ever felt this way, felt... whole. It's the first time you didn't push something away, like you always do. It feels nice. It feels good.
You fall asleep, and it's the best night's sleep you ever had.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Someone awakes you loudly with an expletive. Pushing someone else off of you, you crawl out of bed and check the time, ignoring all the noises around you. You've slept too late, and Carl shakes you out of your sleep stupor. “What the fuck, man! What did you do?”
You look back to your bed to see Twilight, still sound asleep, wrapped up in your bed. You look back to Carl, giving a glare as your answer. “Why didn't you wake me? It's my turn, and I'm-”
“Oh, no, no, no, buddy!” Carl says loudly. He's really excited, for some reason. “It's my turn!”
You look back at the animal in your bed, and back at Carl. He's desperately undressing. "Jesus fucking Christ, Carl."