Waking up in my own bed without any signs of pain, or even the reality filter blocking my pain, now that was an immense relief. To make things better, I felt a warm furcoat against my skin and I felt less disheveled than when I'd gone to bed. Euphoria was cuddling with me and before I could even think to mumble a greeting, she was pressing her lips to mine and a sweet taste assaulted my tongue; she was sharing a plump strawberry with me. We held the kiss for a few moments as my mind sort of blanked out with a sensation of bliss replacing whatever I'd thought to say to her. As we broke apart, I chewed on the bit of sweet berry (I think they're actually fruits? Nevermind), and managed a dopey smile.

Her coat was even more radiant today with the beams of sunlight seeming to bounce off of the pure white; she'd washed away any traces of blood and grime from that awful cave. Still wearing my torn flightsuit like a human would keep a hoodie knotted around the waist, again I was struck by how much this sight appealed to me. She seemed to notice my lingering gaze and blushed. For whatever reason, she'd worn the thing day and night ever since I gave it to her. Maybe it was a simple display of gratitude, or she really did like it, or she simply welcomed anything that would cover up her molested Cutie Mark. Regardless, the shirt functioned like a skirt, concealing her anatomy and drawing attention to the area at the same time. I liked the look.

I realised that once again, I was more or less trapped. Euphoria had claimed my right arm as part of her pillow and my left arm was still healing. So I could do little more than admire her and let her feed me. Not that I was complaining. The fruits were exquisite and the basket even had a Get-Well-Soon card, courtesey of Carrot Top, who in spite of the name does provide a variety of fruits and vegetables. We stayed in bed for a while, but Euphoria seemed to be getting restless. I needed to stay at home and check up on SAM and make the final repairs to the Pegasus Frame. I was still wearing a piece of his wing as a splint for my arm, but there was a growing list of other minor concerns we had to tend to. Normally, the suit is very high-maintainance and required a fully staffed lab to make tweaks and repairs, so suffice it to say, being stuck in Equestria for a week had depleted many of his emergency repair stores.

When the pristine white mare glanced towards the window for the umpteenth time that afternoon, I chuckled and told her to go explore the town. She'd be fine without me, I assured her. The locals were very friendly, after all, they had already embraced me as one of their own. This cheered her on and she pushed open the bedroom door with her nose. I could see her approach SAM's quadruped form and I laughed when she bopped him on the nose. He hesitated minutely before unfolding the screen and he started scrolling letters, using his eyetracking software to let her navigate the menus. She brought out paper and a pencil (I was more at home using those than fancy feathered quills and I'm sure Quills & Sofas would survive without my business), and with her mouth she painstakingly copied a list off of SAM's display before struggling into the harness that held the saddlebags. I couldn't help but find it adorable how she'd worm her way underneath the bags before standing up. She didn't have a horn or the neckstrength to simply hoist the bags onto her back.

She glanced over her shoulder, blushing as she caught me staring, but to my delight, she wiggled her rear teasingly and winked before stepping out. Right, that made it harder to focus for a few hours.

...

Stupid sexy Euphoria.

Euphoria

Still delighting from the way Samuel had responded to her swaying hips, she stepped out into the bright sunlit streets of Ponyville and immediately, all of her senses were assaulted by the most wonderous cocophany of sights, sounds, smells and sensations. The warmth of the Celestial Sun, the coolness of the breeze no doubt orchestrated by a skilled team of Pegasi and the firmly packed dirt of already well-trotten path between Samuel's cottage and the rest of town, it was all so beautiful!

"SURPRISE!" a cheerful voice screeched in her ear, having impossibly materialized right next to her along with an explosion of light, colors and sounds that all but knocked her from her hooves. She whirled and came face to face with eyes as big and bright blue as her own, stuck in a pink face with a maniacal grin that threatened to split the pony's head completely. The frizzy pink mane seemed to bounce almost with a life of its own and the strange Earth Pony habitually defied reason, moving faster than she could follow with her eye, careful not to displace the curtain of blonde hair that concealed her broken horn. Pinkie Pie was everywhere and nowhere at once, making faces and clearly admiring Euphoria's pristine white coat, before immediately she rematerialized right in front of the stunned mare, the last bits of confetti having settled by then (where did that even come from?).

"OhmygoshyoureallyreallyareprettyIknewwhenyoucameintotownyouwereSamuel'sgirlandyou'renewsoIgettothrowyou TWO PARTIES!" the words ran together as she seemed to just project a stream of consciousness into words all in one breath.

Euphoria was stunned. The pony was so beautiful! Such vivid colors! Such graceful, lighting-fast movements! She even smelled of sweets! That reminded her that she was still wearing the black shirt around her flanks, saturated with Samuel's body odor. Before she could blush at her shameless display, she was again stunned by the pink ball of good cheer who was presently bouncing back and forth with a sound of 'spoing' everytime her hooves touched the soil. To think she'd feared this encounter. How foalish of her. She started to laugh, even though she hated not having a voice. She shook all over with peals of silent laughter, punctuated only by her breath which came in little gasps.

Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing and started laughing right along with her, not put off in the slightest by the lack of sound to go with the motions. Things were going swimmingly when the pink pony suddenly offered a cupcake, covered in pink frosting (pulled from nowhere in particular, just materialized in her hoof, really). Euphoria was eager to have a taste and as she sank her teeth into the sweet treat, her mind whited out.

...

To a system bereft of sweets for years, Pinkie Pie's extra-sweet sugarladden cupcake had simply shortcircuited Euphoria's brain as the very emotion she was named after simply overloaded her conscious mind. She came to minutes later, resting on a soft sofa in the most incredible shop. The room was split in half by a huge counter with an aray of colorful treats lined up behind the protective glass pane, and every shelf, table and cupboard was being used to display, store or make more sweets. The very air was thick with the scents of a thousand delicacies, their siren song already pulling her from unconsciousness, straight into a sugar-rushed bout of colinary exploration. Pinkie Pie seemed to have read her mind and with that delightful, reality-defying speed of hers, she materialized next to Euphoria with a plate of different sweets whose names just ran together in her mind as once again, Pinkie Pie refused to let such formalities as punctuation and breathing interfere with her need to communicate.

...

She'd eaten until she'd just dozed off contentedly right there on the couch, coming to when more voices started to filter through her senses, making her ears perk.

"Is she alright? Pinkie Pie, you didn't ponynap her, did you?" a skeptical, scholary voice, pleasant and feminine rebuked the wonderful party pony.

"Good heavens, such a lovely complexion," a distinguished, ladylike voice cut through Twilight's concerns.

Her eyes snapped open and immediately, she was thankful that the right half of her vision was still blocked. It had been her greatest fear since setting out, that somepony would notice her broken nature and then the pitying stares would come. So she tried to remain composed as she sat up, blushing with the compliments and speculations as the two lovely Unicorns stood back, allowing her some space. Rarity looked magnificent as ever, her coat and mane styled to perfection. How did she even get her tail to coil in a helix like that? Twilight looked like she'd stepped out to get some air, but even after a whole day cooped up in her library, she still looked well-groomed and refreshed.

"Oh hi girls, isn't she great? She's my new friend and taste tester!" the pink pony bounced to her friends' side, grinning as wide as ever, but the two Unicorns suddenly looked hesitant.

"Taste tester?" they both echoed with a mounting sense of dread, as if being subjected to such delights were to be considered somehow dangerous. Well, she'd nearly passed out a few times, but then when wasn't she reacting extremely to new sensations? At least she wasn't crying with joy and/or sorrow.

The two Unicorns watched with growing horror as Pinkie Pie poured a generous helping of hot sauce onto a cupcake sprinkled with chips of chocolate. The treat was served the same as all the others, on the table right within reach of Euphoria's mouth so she didn't have to struggle with her clumsy hooves to grasp things. She licked her lips and before either of the Unicorns could protest, she sank her teeth into the treat.

Her mouth and tongue were blazing with sensation and the sweetness seemed to lance straight into her mind, nearly triggering another white-out, but she was getting better at handling those. She closed her eyes and chewed, trembling with sensation and when she drew breath, she almost started laughing as she pictured a tongue of flame leaping from her burning mouth. Why did those two watch her like they were fearing for her safety? This was delightful.

She licked her muzzle clean and leapt off the couch, nearly stumpling on her weak legs, causing the two Unicorns to almost cry out with distress, but she righted herself and dutifully, her mane stayed in place like a curtain hung over her horn and right eye. She needed to talk to Twilight. Turning and nosing at the clasp for the saddlebag, she got it open in the second try and carefully retrieved the list with her teeth, showing it to Twilight.

The purple mare immediately got down to business, scanning the list for anything she might recognize. It was a list that required a basic grasp on metalurgy, noting the composition of certain elements that were found in the carbon structure of the Pegasus Frame, but Twilight seemed to digest it eagerly, nodding her head and mumbling to herself. It seemed she would be able to fill the order.

Euphoria simply stepped up to her, embracing her quickly before exiting the store with a wave and an unspoken promise of more taste testing in the future. Pinkie Pie was delighted.

Twilight and Rarity

Their minds were still reeling from this afternoon's stories. Worried locals had reported the new mare collapsing in front of Pinkie Pie, who immediately abducted the defenseless mare and held her inside Sugarcube Corner where she was subjected to an endless list of sweets. Hardly the most dire threat to ever hit Ponyville, but with the addition of Samuel it seemed like nothing dangerous was going to get close to town, so these little emergencies were in their own way, the highlights of the day.

They'd arrived simultaneously at Sugarcube Corner and ventured inside only to see that the stories were mostly true, if a bit exaggerated. Euphoria (that's what Samuel had called her one time) was sitting peacefully on a couch, legs curled up under her. She looked heartbreakingly beautiful with a nearly luminescant white coat and a corn yellow mane and tail. Her mane hung like a curtain, mimicing Fluttershy or perhaps Pinkie Pie on a bad day, but fully obscuring her right eye. What they could see of the left eye was equally stunning, a big, expressive pool of clear blue seeming to peer at the entire world as if it were a spectacle designed to keep her permanently spellbound with its beauty.

Perhaps what was most appealing about her was her demure nature and her seeming ignorance of her own beauty. Always, her gaze would be turned outwards, admiring others around her, not knowing that even Rarity felt a pang of jealousy just to stand near the pristine mare. Even her slender build was appealing, though her muscles were too weak to support her fully when she made a small leap from the couch. Perhaps it really was for the best that Pinkie Pie give her something to nurse her back to health, because she looked like she hadn't eaten or exercised properly in years.

She was still wearing the shirt, smelling strongly of Samuel's body odor and the implication made them want to blush. So they really were a couple, those two, and she was happily wearing his scent in public. Rarity wanted to see what she'd look like in some of her new designs, but for now she needed to make sure the quiet mare was at least doing alright. She'd looked so distraught coming into town.

Then they'd noticed the mare clumsily nosing at the clasp of the saddlebag, and while she looked adorable doing it, they both knew that Earth Ponies had magic to help them grasp things dextrously with mouth, hoof or even tail. Still, she quickly produced a list for Twilight and while it looked like a complicated order, the librarian was sure she could find most of those items down in her lab or maybe a trip to Zecora's was in order.

Most amazingly, the beautiful mare had hugged Twilight and left without a word, only a wave and a cheerful smile for Pinkie. She hadn't worn a scarf today and up close, Rarity and Twilight had both seen the scar. They shared a pensive stare and Rarity looked on the verge of tears just then.

"I guess she really is a mute, then. But I think she gets by, wouldn't you agree, Pinkie?" Twilight spoke up, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh yes, you just need to look at her eyes or her one eye," she suddenly gasped, "maybe she has a red glowy metal eye on the other side?!"

Two sets of eyes questioned her sanity before she brought herself back on track, smiling and nodding and declaring that yes, one had only look into Euphoria's eye(s) to know what she wanted, voice or no voice. They all agreed that Euphoria was a sweet name for her, and after seeing her attacking even Pinkie Pie's hot-sauce-cupcake with a voracious appetite, they knew that the name just about covered her reaction to everything; euphoria.

Never before had Pinkie Pie been faced with somepony who seemed to radiate a much glee as she did, but it seemed like this mare could match her smile for smile.

...

This week's party was going to be great!

Author's Note

Another chapter finished and I hope you'll enjoy it. I shifted perspective a few times because I like describing Euphoria from different points of view. She isn't going to pick up on all the significant details about herself that other ponies notice.