On the Nature of Hugs and the Implications Therein
He was being hugged.
The act of hugging another pony usually would be done to convey affection or comfort. However, not only was the pony hugging him a complete stranger, but also had no reason to try cheering him up with physical comfort. Indeed, he had just been walking through the Ponyville market, happily whistling a jaunty tune to himself, when he had been tackled. The first thought to his mind was that he had been accosted by somepony who may have held a grudge against him, or he had been mistaken for another pony. With less than desirable results.
"FREE HUGS!"
This was when he noticed the rather tight squeezing of a pair of hooves around his barrel. And the nuzzling. The pony who was hugging him looked to be a young mare, a brightly beaming, greenish-blue mare. He believed the colour of her coat to be called 'seafoam'. Her mane was pale, too, and her eyes shone a golden amber, reflecting the sunlight and her own emotions. This was what he could see, but he could not see what it meant.
What did this mean?
It must be something unknown to him. Did this strange act have something to do with him personally, or was it indiscriminate? Had this mare targeted him for some reason, with intent to share her own happiness, or to create happiness where she perceived none, maybe she had wanted to share in his happiness? Mayhaps she had seen his happiness, acknowledged her own, and sought to enhance the happiness of one, or both, of them. In fact, he did feel happier now that he realised he was being hugged by a pretty mare. Though, would it have been different if he did not consider the mare pretty? Would her reject the hug had she been older or wider? Why did he have a right to reject the hug? Them, of course, he realised he had a perfectly valid right to reject the hug. He may be more conscious of his personal space. He may be an introvert who dislikes physical contact, especially from strangers. However, he did enjoy the hug and he did not want to make any attempt to stop this mare as her agenda seemed perfectly harmless.
So what did the hug itself really mean? It did have to mean anything, though, did it really require some connection to deeper meanings or implications? But what if it were some kind of unannounced physical contract? The mare had labeled it a 'free hug'. Few things truly were free, and too many things required payment. But this was a wholly unprompted hug. A physical interaction which used relatively little effort or energy. Why did the mare hug him and what did the hug, or indeed, she represent? Had she done this to try and force some sort of compensation or repayment? He was asking a lot of questions of himself. He was asking because he didn't have the answers. Asking himself was pointless if he did not have answers. Unless he did have the ability to develop an answer that would satisfy him, whether it was truthful or not.
This answer had to lay somewhere within the hug itself, it would be found with in the hug. Because the hug was tight, but not uncomfortable, full of warmth and heralding a large smile on the mare's face. It wasn't, in any way, intimate. Though it was an enveloping hug, the mare had ended up with most of her torso covering his as she clung to his back with her eyes tightly shut and her ears perked fully upwards, as if she were reuniting with a dear friend she had nor seen in a long while. In a word, it was affectionate. Perhaps she had mistook him for someone else? Though it could be that it was not a mistake, and she could have recognised him correctly while he had failed to recognise her. Indeed, he had encountered this before. He had even encountered this problem with his own cousin. Had it happened again? Who was this mare? A stranger, an unrecognised friend, a pony with personal space issues, a plain clothes police officer measuring his reaction to gauge his likelihood to be connected to a recent crime? Who was she?
This mare could simply be a good citizen, treating everyone as her friend. After all, pony society had always been built on the principles and virtues of kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, laughter and the magic of friendship ever since the first Hearth's Warming. And, truly, that was a hug. In a single action this mare had shown kindness in sharing her happiness with him, generosity in expending her own time and energy to share this happiness, loyalty to the nation in which she lived by adhering to the virtues of her society, honesty in not mincing words and taking the most direct route to share her feelings, laughter in being so open of her happiness and passing it to another, and the magic of friendship in that she had made this gesture to reach out to someone with no intent other than to brighten up their day, perhaps leading to the finding of a new friend.
No, this was ponykind in its purest form, this was a pony. One did not need a reason to be a good pony, only the desire to do so! He had come to realise just what it meant to be a pony - what it meant to be. He would be the virtuous pony that he could be and he could show others how! The meaning of one's existence was nothing more than what they made of it and he would make the best of it. He would be the best of pony kind. He would show others the virtues of his species in their purest form and he would spread this gospel across his nation! Nay, he would spread his gospel over continents and over the world -
"Alright, Bon, pay up. You owe me five bits.
Oh. Perhaps a hug was just a hug.
