Of Bones and Balloons

The sun had long since gone down. I felt Pinkamena's chest press against mine as she quietly slept atop me. Her head rested against my chest as her arms hugged me like I was some kind of massive teddy bear. If I was, I'd be the world's most horrifying teddy bear.

"Heh" The thought brought a chuckle to my lips. I slowly ran a hand through her mane, gently petting her as I did my best to ignore the sticky wetness that covered our waists and the sheets between us.

Yet another set of sheets for the staff... maids? Probably maids... Yet another set of sheets for the maids to burn.

'Oh Celestia! It's Everywhere! Burn it! Burn it all!'

"Heh." Another chuckle escaped me which made Pinkamena shift slightly. She nuzzled my chest and gave me a light squeeze before sighing contentedly and returning to her peaceful sleep.

Looking down at the mare a small smile grew on my lips. What she had said as we laid in the afterglow of her third, and my second... release of the day played in my mind as I softly stroked the sleeping mare's mane.

"So..." Pinkamena said through heavy pants, as she pushed herself into something resembling sitting position on my lap, a goof grin splitting her face. The last slivers of dusk light illuminated the mare in my lap. "What do you think of Equestria so far?"

I blinked owlishly at her. "What..." I cocked my head to the side a little. "You just came, what a minute ago, and you're asking me what I think of Equestria?"

"Yep." She virtually chirped as decided that sitting was hard, so she flopped back into my chest with a happy sigh.

"You're strange." I said. "But there's nothing wrong with that. I like strange."

"You love my strange." Pinkamena giggled.

"I know you're repressed, but even you have limits... you do have limits right?" I looked down at her.

Her head shifted and she looked up at me with a half-lidded, semi-smug smile. "I think three is good for now. I just couldn't miss that opening."

"Well... good. I think if we tried again, all you'd get from me is powder. Heh" I said with a chuckle.

"I'd rather not test that theory." Pinkamena said, now resting her chin on my chest. "However, my question still stands."

"What do I think of Equestria?" I asked. She simply nodded. "I have no real opinion on it so far. My experience with Equestria has been this room and part of that nice suite, living room, dining room area thing." I said waving a hand to try to help with my current lack of descriptive words.

"What about Ponyville?" Pinkamena asked, a look of confusion made her muzzle scrunch cutely.

"Love, my memory of Ponyville involves more pain than I'd like to remember. Hell, I can't remember much about it. What I do remember however, is seeing you. The image of you looking so scared and confused is stuck in my brain." I said with a small sigh.

Pinkamena's cute scrunchy face twisted into a pained frown. "I'm sorry."

I cocked my head to the side again. "For what? It's not your fault that I was so... damaged...."

"I'm sorry for making you remember it." Pinkamena's eyes grew the faintest bit watery.

"It's okay." I said, with a small pained smile.

Pinkamena's brow furrowed as she frowned at me. She pushed herself back into a sitting position and somewhat painfully poked a finger into my chest. "You're repressing your emotions to try and make me feel better. Stop it."

I glanced away from her. "It's either that or have another breakdown...." I said slowly. "Everything's raw.... I'd rather put off processing it until I feel I can actually start processing it... If that makes any sense..."

"Sorry..." She responded weakly. "Heh... again..."

I looked back to her and it was now her turn to look away. A look somewhere between sadness and shame was on her face. "I shouldn't have pushed."

I reached out and gently cupped her cheek. "I get it. You're worried about me." Pinkamena didn't look at me as she sniffled a bit. My heart hurt seeing her like this. "Hey... I might not have much of an impression of Equestria, the people on the other hand have definitely have left an impact."

Pinkamena still refused to look at me.

"A certain pink mare has kept me sane... for the most part..." I offered a small smile.

A blush grew on her face and the smallest of smiles twitched at the edges of her lips.

"Some would call her appearance overweight. In truth, I find that there's simply more of her to love. She's just perfect the way she is." Pinkamena blushed harder at that. "She's kind and willing to help, yet she's no pushover. She has a fire inside her that, I assume, most don't get to see. She may be a bit repressed in terms of certain needs, but I'm more than happy to help in that regard."

"Charmer." Pinkamena muttered and looked up at me, clearly trying to repress the smile trying to break onto her face.

"I'm just trying to make you feel better." I shrugged. "Is it working."

The smile finally appeared, albeit a little weak. "Yep." Pinkamena appeared to think for a moment. "How about we keep to lighter topics?"

"I think that's what you originally intended." I mused. "I honestly don't know how that conversation devolved."

"Ha, devolved. What is this, Magimon?" Pinkamena snorted.

I blinked.

Magimon? Magical Monsters? As in the magical equivalent of Digital Monsters? As in Digimon?

All of my yes.

"I love you more and more with every passing moment, ever increasing with everything you say and do."

Pinkamena blinked, her face turning to a mask of shock. She shivered slightly, causing a few strands of mane to cover the left side of her face. "That..." Her voice cracked as her eye grew watery. "That was the most romantic thing I've ever heard..."

"And I honestly don't know what I channeled to make that happen." I said somewhat stupidly.

"What button do I have to press to get that back again?" Pinkamena giggled as she rubbed her eyes with an arm.

"If you find out, let me know. Heh heh." I chuckled as Pinkamena suddenly let out a yawn.

"Ahhh... Sorry." She said a little sheepishly.

"Getting tired?" I asked.

"Yep." She nodded. "It's... been quite a day."

"Agreed." I nodded as well. "I might be time to get some sleep."

"That sounds wonderful." Pinkamena yawned once again as she returned to laying against my chest. "I kinda feel like we should clean up a bit, maybe change the sheets or something..." Another yawn. "But.... I can't really be bothered at the moment."

I slowly ran a hand through her mane. "Meh. That's future us's problem." I said with my normal small smile.

"That's... perfectly fine... with me..." Pinkamena smiled as she shut her eyes and rested her head on my chest.

Within moments the mare's breathing slowed. "Sleep well Pinkamena..." I murmured softly, as I continued to stroke her mane.

That had been.... hours? I honestly don't know how long ago that had been. Long enough for it to become night. I looked out the window. Back on Earth I know that I'd barely see anything beyond black thanks to the light pollution. Here however, the sky was alight with stars. More than I'd ever hope to count.

Time likes this always led me to reflect. What else do you do when you're awake in bed at night and your mind's running away with you?

I looked down at Pinkamena. She looked peaceful. A small, contented smile brought a smile to my face, as much as it could anyway.

Her question stuck in my head.

"What do you think of Equestria so far?"

I have no idea idea. I haven't really seen any of it. I want to. scratch that. I'd love to. However I'm bed bound for the time being. Perhaps in a day or two I could get out of this room-slash-suite and actually do something? Maybe I could meet some of the castle staff, or the guard captains. Celestia mentioned Shining Armor, the Unicorn Guard Captain once or twice, but that was because he was dating Cadence. I can't help but think that time in here may get somewhat boring.

I glanced down at Pinkamena, and a small frown twisted my lips.

And what of Pinkamena? I can't have her with me twenty-four-seven. I wouldn't mind, but she does have a life outside of me. Maybe I should see if she plans to go back to Ponyville at some point. I don't want to keep her cooped up in here with me all the time. She has to have some other real friends there. I wonder if they're worrying about her. What about her job? How quickly did she drop everything just to come stay with me?

Well this is getting me nowhere. I should just ask her what her plans are. Perhaps tomorrow.

I sighed and returned to gazing out at the stars. However, for some reason some things bothered me about a few of the ponies I'd met today.

Firstly there was Twilight. Though I hadn't seen much of her. She didn't say much when she was here. Though what I had seen seemed to compound what Tia had told me about her. She's got a major case of hero worship. She's put Celestia on a pedestal so high I fear for what happens when she gets a good look at Celestia's flaws. But would her worship even allow her to see the flaws in the first place? Add to that the mare's apparent neurosis (probably OCD among other things) and the amount of magic that Tia said she possessed, and that mare could be a serious hazard should she eventually snap. However, I don't think that would happen. She had a support system and I doubt her friends would let her get that far. Yet only time would tell.

Yet that wasn't the only thing about the mare that bothered me. She was defensive. Hyper defensive. She attacked me twice, once physically. Yes both times where in defense of her friend. Yet she always sprung to the conclusion that I was the bad guy. First time wasn't surprising, yet the second time...

'"What did you do to her?!"'

As if I wasn't worried about what I was capable of already. Thank you Twilight for causing me to feel bad about my existence. Yeah, I can see her side. Scary monster guy with a ton of unknowns getting close to one of your friends. I'd be worried to. But there's a limit isn't there? I mean, Tia already told Twilight all about me during the week I'd been out right? So unless she thinks Tia's wrong, or that I'm hiding something....

Ah! All of this is making my head hurt!

Thinking about Twilight's behavior made me think about Cadence for some reason. Twilight apparently got some of her neurotic behavior from Cadence. Cadence was Twilight's foalsitter for many years if I'm remembering correctly. and Twilight would take on aspects of someone she spent some much time with. The Alicorn of Love, seemed a bit too into Pinkamena's and my relationship. I get that love is her thing, but the way she initially gushed put me off a bit. That and her minor breakdown.... during my breakdown..... That was fun....

Quick Brain, think of something to make me feel better!

Unfortunately the first thing that popped into my head was the angelic ripped form of Blueblood.

My entire face scrunched up as I tried to wrangle my thoughts.

An image of Blueblood flexing suddenly filled my mind.

Ah! Brain! Stahp! I'm not gay! Maybe bi-curious. But please, at least.... chill out!

I took a slow heavy breath and let it out, I noted Pinkamena's ear flick a little and I smiled. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. Doing so, brought the image of Blueblood back. However, I could work with that this time.

Blueblood was.... interesting. I'd honestly expect a man... Stallion like him to the the epitome of Noble Snob, yet he was nice... Kind. I know that he was uncomfortable with the whole lack of clothes, dinner situation. Who wouldn't be when forced into that? And, yes he did flirt a bit, but I could feel the intent behind it. He was legitimately interested in me. Which was kinda flattering. He was interested despite my appearance. Honestly, I hope I can spend more time with him.

The image Blueblood giving me a half-lidded smirk suddenly popped into my brain.

Not in that way Brain! I have Pinkamena! Stahp!

No. He seemed like a great guy. A guy I'd like to call a friend if he'd let me. We didn't get to talk much at dinner. That whole dinner was just a mess. Thank God Pinkamena got me out of there before I died of embarrassment. And that only lead to us getting interrupted by Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

Right...

Rainbow Dash....

Everything about that mare seemed... off. Not in some evil or sane way. Just...

She was built like a Track Star. Not , I've been training everyday, but more genetically. Like she should be some sort of athlete. Yet she was a Professor of all things. She was still fit, yet her wings were withered... She had that limp and that cane too... Could she have had some sort of accident?

Could said accident be the thing that got her into the Magical Study Field?

Let's play with this theory.

Say she was an athlete when she was younger. Some event, maybe a magical accident, causes her to crash.

Her wings, destroyed.

Her life as an athlete, ruined.

Maybe she went into the field because she wanted to learn why the event happened in the first place? She wanted to find out what caused her to crash?

Suddenly, I yawned. I shook my head gently, I suddenly feeling how tired I actually was. All this thinking was wearing me out. You're brain can only buzz for so long before it burns itself out.

I yawned again. I guess it was finally time for me to get some sleep.

I look down at the still peacefully sleeping Pinkamena. A small smile creased my lips. I gently ran a hand through her mane, which caused her to nuzzle my chest again. Cute.

'Sweet dreams." I whispered as I laid my head back against the pillows and closed my eyes.

"Sweet dreams..."