Brain said he needed to get rest for the day ahead, but he really didn’t sleep at all.  Throughout the whole night, he tossed and turned on the small bed Fluttershy had laid out for him.  His mind continued to wander off into the distance, thinking about all the things they would have to do to reach the temple in the forest.  He was, of course, assuming the temple was real.

After reading the Daring Do book, he was mentally preparing himself for the hard physical labor of actually trekking through Everfree Forest.  Unable to sleep, he decided to get a preemptive strike on their early-morning preparations.  He lit the small lamp that sat beside his bed, and pulled out three maps from his pouch.  

One map was of the current layout of Equestria.  The second map was the one he had found of Everfree Forest.  The final map was attached to the Daring Do book, and showed the character’s path through Everfree Forest, starting from the golden tree within Equestria’s borders.  Comparing the three maps side by side and on top of one another, he tried to pinpoint on the Everfree map exactly where the golden tree was.

Keeping in mind that Ponyville was the closest settlement to what would be the Everfree-Equestria border, he determined that the location of the golden tree in Daring Do’s book was none other than the center of the town itself.  That fact puzzled him to no extent, but he didn’t question the simplicity and convenience of its location.  Just as he was packing the maps back up, he heard Fluttershy step down the stairs.

She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, yawning, “Are you still awake?  You really should be asleep!”  She walked over to him.

Brain blushed upon seeing her.  Suddenly he thought of something that didn’t make sense to him.  Fluttershy was wearing some sort of night gown, but during the day nopony wore clothes, outside of special occasions.  Yet for some strange reason, in the back of his mind, Brain felt…dirty…seeing Fluttershy in a night gown.  He shook his head, trying to knock the thought out of his head.

“Hehe, I’m just a little excited for tomorrow, that’s all.  I couldn’t sleep…”  His voice trailed off as he tried to divert his gaze away from her.

She looked at him with a puzzled expression, “Is something wrong, Brain?  You seem nervous about something.”

Brain wanted to facehoof right there on the spot.  Was it really that obvious something was on his mind?  He tried to fight the thought that kept popping up in his head.  “N-no!  I’m fine!  I’m just wondering how this little adventure of mine will be ending…”  He blushed as he turned back toward her.  

What the hell is wrong with me?!  Why the fuck are these thoughts popping up in my head?  I’m a human!  H-U-M-A-N!  Not a pony!  And she’s a cartoon character, anyway!  Calm down Brain.  You’re probably just a lot more tired than you think…  At any rate, you’ve gotta keep your mind clear.  Much more important things are waiting than a little- Dammit!  Stop thinking like that!

He chuckled, “I guess I really should be getting some sleep, eh?”  He scratched his head with his hoof, trying to look a little less bothered.

Fluttershy giggled, “So, you’ve spent one day as a pony.  How does it feel?”

He said bluntly, “Weird.  Like, really weird.  Imagine walking on four legs your whole life, then suddenly having to walk on two.  It’s really hard to get used to.”  He looked down at his hooves.

“So…You really think you’ll be able to find the temple?”  She sat on the bed beside him.

“I hope so…  I like it here, but I really want to go home.  See my real friends, eat real food, and sleep in my real bed…”  His face flushed red as he felt her warmth sit beside him.

She giggled, “What’s it like…in your world?”

He looked down at her.  He said softly, “Horrible.  Thieves, killers, and perverts run amok.  Our leaders are corrupt, and hardly give a shit about us.  The economy sucks, and jobs are pretty scarce…”  He saw her expression change.

She asked him, a somewhat pitying tone in her voice, “Why do you want to go back?  It sounds like a bad place…”

He shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not really sure.  I just do.  It’s my home.  It may be hell, but it’s my home.”

She smiled, “So…at the end of the day, everything’s worth it?”  She looked up into his eyes.

He thought long and hard about that question.  He sighed, “You know, sometimes it is, and other times it isn’t.  It just depends on how you handle what you’re given.”

“How would you compare Equestria with your world?”

“This place…is paradise.  I haven’t gotten into a single argument since I got here…  I haven’t seen a fight.  I haven’t so much as heard about a single crime.  Other than that monster from a month ago, that is.”  He looked down at her.  Her eyes looked sad.

She spoke softly, “He wasn’t a bad guy.  He was just…hurt.  In the end, his love for a pony saved his life…and Equestria’s.”  She giggled at the thought of the stallion.

“Hurt?  I knew a guy who was ‘hurt’.  He still killed a guy in cold blood.  You can’t excuse a crime.  If you kill a guy for killing your brother…or for stealing your food…it’s all the same.  A bad person is a bad person, no matter why they’re bad.”

Fluttershy jolted to her feet, “You can’t honestly mean that!  Anything can be forgiven; you just have to accept it!”

Brain laughed, “You wouldn’t understand.  It’s different in my world.  If you so much as look at a guy funny, he’s likely to blow your brains out with a bullet.  Living in Equestria is paradise compared to Earth.  You just wouldn’t understand my world.”

Fluttershy sat back down beside him, resting her head on the wall.  She sighed, “If your world is so horrible, why do you want to leave?  Why not start a new life here?  I mean, you talk about how bad it is.  Why not get away from it all?”

Brain shook his head, “I have friends back home.  I have family.  I have a job.  I’m just a writer on the side.  I actually work in an office, doing paperwork.  I have responsibilities.  I can’t just abandon my world and my life.”

“You could, if you wanted to.”  Fluttershy muttered.

Brain looked at her, unsure of just where she was going with all this interrogation.  He saw a glint in her eye, almost like a tear.

Dammit Brain, you’ve done it again!  You’re being too harsh.  There’s no reason to be so down and depressed about all this.  She’s just trying to be friendly.  Apologize for being so blunt!  Then ask her why she’s asking so many questions.  And then GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP!  It’s like two in the morning.  You’re going to be trekking through a forest in a few hours, and if you don’t sleep, you will regret the shit out of it!

“Fluttershy, I’m sorry for being so-!” Brain started to apologize, but it was just a little too late.  Fluttershy sat up in the bed and in one swift, smooth motion, planted a kiss right on Brain’s lips.  His face flushed a cherry-red color and nearly fell from the bed in shock.  Fluttershy’s face was just as red as his, if not redder.

She placed a hoof on his arm, and asked innocently, “You don’t really have to go home, do you?”

Brain’s first thought was to kiss her back.  Then he realized that he was a human at heart, not a pony.  It would just be weird.  In fact, this entire conversation and situation were weird.  He stuttered in response, “I-I’m sorry, F-Fluttershy…  B-but yes, I do…”  He sighed deeply, closing his eyes.

Fluttershy looked at him with a smile, “Well, at least I tried, right?”  She sat back in the bed, the way she had been before.  She sighed.

Brain, on the other hand, was still on the edge of the bed.  He stuttered, “T-tried what?  Wh-what are you talking about?”

She giggled, “I thought that maybe the only reason you wanted to go home is because you didn’t feel welcome.  I wanted to change your mind…”

He swallowed the lump in his throat, then stuttered, “B-but why would you do all this just to make me feel w-welcome?”

“Because I really like you, Brain.”  She batted her eyes at him.  The moonlight shining through the window made her blue eyes glow majestically.

Things just got twenty percent more awkward in ten seconds flat…  Jesus Christ, why the hell did I just think that?!  This world is really starting to get to me…  But Fluttershy is so pretty.  And she likes me!  I can’t even begin to imagine what she sees in me.  Maybe I should just ask her?  No, that would be dumb!  How the hell does someone handle a situation like this with a cartoon character?!

“I-I don’t know what to say to that…” he replied honestly.

She giggled, and this time it sent the butterflies in Brain’s stomach fluttering.  “Why don’t you just sit back and say ‘Okay’?”

Brain thought about this for a second, “You don’t usually reply ‘Okay’ when someone tells you they like you…”  

She smiled seductively, “No, but that’s what you should say when I ask you if I can lie here with you for the rest of the night.”

Brain gazed at her for a moment, and then simply said, “O-okay…”

He sat back in the bed, stretched out in a comfortable fashion.  Fluttershy lay down beside him, her head resting on his shoulder.  She closed her eyes and breathed calmly.  He wrapped his arm around her, hugging her to him.

She whispered to him, “This is nice…”

He replied sheepishly, “Yeah, it really is…”

Brain my boy, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?