//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 - Don't Break A Pinkie Promise 
// Story: I'm gonna cuddle you. And you're gonna enjoy it! 
// by Shin Guyviroth 
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It felt like I had been sitting on this river bank for a while now, but I hadn't a clue what time it was. I looked up into the sky, but all I really saw was the sun drifting over into the horizon. I guess I'd been sitting here for an hour or so, what with the blue sky shifting into a soft shade of pink and orange. I'd never really thought about how beautiful the horizon looked amongst the scenery of the trees, fields, river, and the looming hills in the distance. It was like I felt right at home.

Although my thoughts were cut a little short when I heard someone call out.

"Hey! Whatchya doin' down there?"

A loud, cheery voice cried out at me, but no matter where I turned to I just couldn't see anything or anyone. I thought maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was just a pony in the distance calling after someone else.

"Don't fall into the river, okay?"

Right. Now I was definitely sure that someone was calling out to me. I was the only one here, after all. But I still couldn't see who it was. I looked up at the tree nearby, gazing into its canopy for any movement, having had the thought of them hiding from me.

"No, not there, silly! Above you!"

I looked straight up. And to be honest, I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it sooner from the huge casted shadow upon the fields just beyond me. A rather small hot air balloon drifted overhead, though it was more like a blackened silhouette what with the sun blaring behind it. But it soon began to descend down -- pretty quickly, too -- until the basket touched down a few feet away from me.

"Boy, that was a lot of fun!" The voice called from behind the sides of the basket before rearing up again, having extinguished the flame. A very bright, pastel pink pony turned her gaze to me as she slowly clambered out of the basket -- and clumsily, too -- and finding firm purchase of the grass. She had a very cheery smile on her face, which, in all honesty, was very disconcerting. 

And then she started hopping towards me, like one of those Chinese Jiangshi's. Where I once felt disconcerting had now become downright freaked out as heck. I felt my body move back involuntarily as she drew closer and closer, until she got right in my face. 

"Uh, hello," I said, trying to sound… You know. Normal. 

"Hi!" she cried out. I felt my eardrums pop. "Whatchya doin'?" she asked again with a huge smile from cheek to cheek. If she smiled any harder she would have split her lips.

"Nothing," I responded. "Just, uh… Sitting by the river."

"Ohhhh, you mean, like, in deep thought over something that happened?"

… Did she just read my mind? "Uh, yeah. Something like that," I replied uneasily. Those huge, baby blue eyes of hers were boring into my soul and sucking it dry.

"Huh…" She winced at me, as though she was inspecting me. Probably my soul. "That's not very fun. But I'll join ya anyway."

And so she did, hopping beside me before cannon balling onto the grass, kicking up loose blades and pollen everywhere. I flinched as a bit of grass thudded me on the cheek, but I never took my eyes off of her. Her cheery expression became stern as she sat down on her rump, her forelegs straight and perched on the ground like a cat, gazing out towards the river like I had done earlier. I didn't know if she was just mimicking me without reason, or she really was in thought. 

"So what are you thinking about?" I asked. She didn't respond immediately, and instead looked up to the sky, cranking her head back slowly.

"I'm thinking… About what kinda party to throw when you come back to Ponyville." 

"Party?" I repeated. "What do you mean by party?"

"As in, a party. Duh!" I gave her a blank stare. "Like a birthday party, or a winter's eve party, or a new friend party!" She turned to me with a rather big grin. "Guess which one you fall into!"

I didn't even know how to respond to that besides with garbled and half-slurred gibberish. Was she suggesting that I was her new friend? Exactly what was going on around here that friendship was the act of saying Hi to a complete stranger? "I… I guess I'm your new friend?" I asked. I felt like I had to, despite knowing the answer.

"Sure are," she exclaimed before turning back to the river before us. "I think it's great to have lots and lots of friends! But do you know what's even better than having friends?" I looked at her, and I shrugged. Though in all honesty, a bacon sandwich would be better at this point. "Making them smile! That's what's better than making new friends. And what better way to make a new friend smile than by throwing them a new friend party?"

I thought about it for a moment. She was right, though. Making your friends smile…

She turned to me with a smile of her own once more. "What are you thinking about?"

I caught myself in silence. What exactly was I thinking about? I couldn't even remember. Perhaps I wasn't thinking about anything, and was instead trying to take everything in. Though her mentioning of Ponyville caused everything that had happened to come rushing back to me. "I was thinking about where I was going to sleep," I replied to her falsely, "where I was gonna get food… How I was gonna get food." And then it dawned on me what she just said. "Hold on -- How did you know I was in Ponyville before?"

"Twilight told me!" At that moment, my heart sank so far into my chest that I could probably defecate it. "She told me you ran away from her new friend cuddle," she continued, constantly glaring at me, "and she was pretty upset about it…" She trailed off as her ears flattened against her head. A frown smeared itself upon her lips. "Don't you like cuddles?" 

It was probably the one question that I really had no answer for. No thoughts, or half truths, or even blatant lies. It was something I couldn't really answer. If I said yes, then why was I running from it all? If I said no, then why did I cuddle Trixie, and Lyra and Bon Bon? It wasn't a case of appropriateness either, but… at times I felt my chest physically hurt when I was being cuddled. Other times it didn't.

How could I answer such a simple question if I didn't even have a simple answer -- An answer that I just didn't know?

I sighed, and I shrugged. That was all I could do. Despite my lack of reply, I had hoped that maybe this pink pony could understand. Or at least understand it better than I did.

She looked at me with confusion. I guess she really didn't understand after all. "You don't know why you don't like cuddles?" she concluded. But her demeanour changed rapidly back to that uppity cheerfulness of hers. "Well that's okay. We can just go and ask Twilight and see if she can find anything out."

"I don't think so," I replied sharply, not even missing a beat. "I don't want her hounding me for cuddles again." I stood up and brushed whatever dirt and loose blades of grass were stuck to me. "I can figure it all out on my own."

"Awwwww… Can I join you, then?" She hopped to her hooves and glared at me.

"No, it's okay. I just… I need to be alone to think things over." Her ears dropped again as soon as I declined her. But I patted her on her bouncy pink mane and smiled. "But thanks for the offer… Um…"

She giggled lightly, staring back at me past my hand. "I'm Pinkie Pie," she said. "And you're Summers, right?"

"Twilight told you?" I assumed, lowering my hand to my side. 

"Sure did! But you should really come back to Ponyville soon. Twilight really wants to get to know you better and stuff."

Yeah. I bet she does…

Despite my disinterested thoughts, I braved the smile for her a little longer. "Don't worry," I assured her, "I promised the other two I would come back to Ponyville later. And I promised Rarity that I would stay with her… Though I'm not sure if she will want me back after breaking her window."

"Yeah… Rarity is still a teensy bit mad about that," she said, holding her hooves close together in a measuring gesture. 

"… How teensy?" I asked. But the gap between her hooves just kept getting wider and wider. "Okay, okay. I get the idea. I'll… Pay for it somehow. I'll try and earn some money when I go back."

She stared at me with a raised eyebrow, almost pushing her face against mine. "Do you Pinkie promise?"

"Um… "Pinkie promise"?"

"Yeah! A Pinkie promise is a really, really, really special promise that friends make to each other that should never be broken!"  She turned to me, standing on her hind legs. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," she chanted, complete with all the gestures too. Even sticking her hoof over her eye. At least she wasn't holding an actual cupcake. "Now you do it."

I was a bit sceptical of everything, but it wasn't like it was the weirdest thing I've done all day. A sighed and placed an index finger on my chest, gesturing the start of her little rhyme. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a… Cupcake in my eye…"

Pinkie let out a little squeal as she began hopping up and down on the spot. "Yay! Now I definitely, positively, absolutely know that you'll come back to Ponyville! But…" She lunged her head out at me, pressing her snout against my nose. "You never break a Pinkie promise! Never, ever, ever!"

"O-Okay, Pinkie Pie! I won't break it!"

"You promise?"

"I promise!"

"Do you Pinkie promise?"

"… Uh… Yes?"

"… Okay. Pinkie promise."

She just stared at me. Waiting for something. Was she… Was she expecting me to do that stuff all over again? "You mean I gotta do… That thing all over again?"

"Yeah! Duh! That's how you do a Pinkie promise!"

I sighed heavily, and mined the thing again. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," I recited once more, though more drained and unenthusiastic than before. 

Pinkie didn't seem to care, or perhaps even notice, as she smiled once more and bounced. "Goody! I'll see you in Ponyville later, then. Don't forget to stop by Sugarcube Corner, okay?"

"Don't worry, Pinkie. I'll stop by and come visit you."

"Do you Pinkie promise?"

Oh God, this is gonna go on all darn day.

"Yes, Pinkie, I do." She stared at me again. I guess I had to do it every time I made a Pinkie promise. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye…"

"Goody! But remember -- that's three Pinkie promises you gotta keep now! And if you break one -- just one--" she loomed closer to me again "-- I'm gonna find you!" And then, in a complete one-eighty, she wrapped her forelegs around me and squeezed me hard. Just being held close to her made me notice her coat smelled faintly of vanilla and strawberry. "So I'll see you tonight, Summers! Bye!" 

And so she went, bouncing off through the field like a Pogo stick. It was pretty fun to watch a pony hop away like that, I admit. But it was probably still creepy to watch her bounce towards me. 

Though I really need to try and prepare myself for those stealth cuddles that some of them like to randomly do…