You sit on the couch in your main room, lazily watching television. You glance at the clock; 2:30 in the morning. She usually shows up around this time, you remind yourself. It's not like it's a huge problem, you're not that tired anyway.
Your hooves up on the table between cartons of Chinese takeout, you engross yourself completely in the unremarkable weather forecast for the next several days. When you hear the doorbell ring, you groan and shuffle to the door. You open it, revealing a distressed-looking white mare with an electric blue mane. Her fur was matted with sweat and her muzzle wore a deep frown.
“Rough night, huh?”, you ask.
“You don't know the half of it,” responded the mare.
“What's got the magnificent DJ-PON3 down? A stallion being a creep? I can beat him up if you want.”
“No...I really don't wanna talk about it. I'm just gonna go to bed immediately.'
You think on this briefly before deciding to let it go. She just needed comforting tonight.
She looks back toward you after heading toward your bedroom. “You coming?”
You smile and shake your head, quickly dismissing the thought of how this must look to someone who didn't know about the arrangement.
You enter your room, only to find Vinyl Scratch lying face down on top of your sheets, absolutely exhausted. You climb into bed next to her, and you feel her immediately shoot her hooves around your torso and nuzzle into the nook between your neck and front leg. You wrap a hoof around her and smile contently, until you feel Vinyl nuzzling you and soft sobs emanating from her. You frown and nuzzle the side of her head. “It's alright, I got you.”
She tightens her grip on you substantially. She eventually stops crying and you hear hear breathing regulate as she falls asleep. You do as well, a few minutes later.
“Yo! Amazing performance!” You yell over the music to the mare sitting next to you near the bar. She turns to you and pulls the sunglasses up over her eyes, smiling at you.
“Yo, thanks! It's the first compliment I've gotten all night!”
“Really? What gives, that was some epic house you played!”
“Yeah bro, I saw you going crazy from up in the DJ booth!” She gave a hearty laugh, which you returned. “Thanks though, it means a lot. No one ever tells me that my music is any good.”
“Phh, you crazy? It's amazing!” you cry in surprise.
“Aww, thanks random guy!” She throws her hooves around you in a hug, which you return. “Hey, you're a good hugger!”
“Phh, that's nothing, you should see me snuggle,” you shoot back with a joking smirk. She laughs again, that hearty laugh that's a sign of a genuine mare. “Sure pal, you've got a deal. But first,” she looks at your tail, which is swishing to the music, “we've gotta go dance!”
As you dance with her, you think that she couldn't possibly have been serious. But indeed she was. It finally became real as you lay on your bed with her on your chest. An awkward silence ensued.
“So, I never got your name,” she states casually, as if there were absolutely nothing awkard about the scenario.
And so you told her your name. And you both began talking. Turns out, the club life was hard; stallions trying to make a move, violence and intrigue, and a lot of work.
“...And so, I don't know, I've always liked cuddling bro. It helps me rest. And you're good at it. So, you wanna do this like, often?”
You were taken aback by her offer. But you could do nothing but accept as she nuzzled your neck and purred.
And so it was, that she came over after her shows Friday night.
“Yo, bro, get up man.”
“....”
“Hey! You sack of...uh...snoring pony.”
“urbggg...”
Suddenly, your companion raspberries your neck, startling you awake. “Ah! Oh...it's just you.”
Vinyl lets out a chuckle and looks up at you with a smile. “Good morning, bright eyes.”
“Glad to see you're feeling like your old self again. You were really out of...Ugh, what time is it?”
“Phhh, I don't know, like 7:30 or something.”
“Are you kidding? You woke me up now!?”
Vinyl looks offended. “My good sir, I was attempting to wake you up so we could snuggle more.”
You deadpan at her, “We can do that asleep.”
“Not as well, my big teddy bear!”
You glare at the pony who has a mischievous grin on her face. You know that she's waiting for you to respond to her jab, but she didn't count on this one thing; you are completely apathetic toward your environment at this stage in the sleep cycle. “Goodnight,” you mumble, laying back down on your pillow.
You feel her lay down on top of you and nuzzle your face lightly. You grunt.
“Fine, I'll just take my cuddles from you then!” You hear her cry, much louder than necessary. She violently slips her hooves under your back and rubs the side of her face against yours. You groan again.
“Scratch.”
“Yes?”, she replies expectantly, nuzzling your ear at this point.
“Ugh. Fine,” you relent. Vinyl clops her hooves together in jubilation as you both sit up and snuggle. You enjoy the warmth, and only Vinyl's nuzzling keeps you awake.
Another hour passes; Vinyl Scratch is out the door and back to her apartment, and (unable to sleep again after that rude interlude), you decide to head out to Sugarcube Corner for breakfast. Your doctor said to avoid doughnuts, but, I mean, the test results only said PRE-diabetes.
You walk through the door and are surprised to see the store completely empty. You shrug and turn to walk out until you hear a sproinging sound behind you. You turn to see Pinkie Pie, Jubilantly jumping up and down in place. She says nothing, her eyes closed and a silly smile across her face.
“...Yo, Pinks. Ya'aight?”
“Good Morning! Only 131 days until your Birthday!”
You roll your eyes. “Thanks. Where is everypony?”
“Oh, they're on strike! The Bakery Owners of Equestria are refusing to buy any more flour until delivery times decrease. Mr. Cake says that the entire commodities market will be brought to a standstill!” She snorts and laughs, “I have no idea what that means. Anyway, we're closed.”
“Oh, alright. See you later, then.” You begin to walk out again.
“WAIT!” she cries. You groan and turn around again. “I need information.”
You let out an audible sigh of exasperation. With Pinkie Pie, such a discussion was bound to turn into some sort of multi-day hostage negotiation. “Why did Vinyl Scratch come out of your house this morning?”
Your entire body heated as you went into fight-or-flight mode. “N-nothing.”
Pinkie's eyes narrowed as she moved toward you. “Not talking, eh? Well then I'll just tell all of Ponyville you two are dating!”
You ruminate on this outcome for a moment, before concluding that no one would buy the story, especially coming from the mouth of Pinkie Pie. “I'm calling your bluff.”
“Okay, then I guess I'll just throw out my last half dozen glazed raspberry filled yeast super doughnuts!”
You spill the beans.
“Cuddling? That sounds super fun! Let me cuddle with you!”
Again, you groan and wonder how your life got to this point.
“Pinkie...”
“Please? I even won't tell all of Ponyville what you did at the Autumn festival and post the picture outside the town hall!”
You decided that if you ever needed a pony to take some hostages, Pinkie would fit the bill.