You awake to the sound of a soft, rhythmic breathing that warmed your neck. It was dark now and the warm breeze that wove through your apartment earlier was replaced with a cooler one. The muffled laughter of a few late night travelers was the only other sound that competed with your friend’s respiration. You weren’t as sweaty as you usually were from the shared body heat, and you quickly found out why: a chilly, invisible draft hits you and your toes clinch at the ends of your exposed feet. Despite the control weather pegasi had on the forecast, a fair bit of it was still dependent on the natural seasons, and you were approaching the start of fall. You were going to have to break out the cold weather clothing soon. You turn to the clicking of the wall clock and try to make out the time, it’s close to nine. Your attention shifts to your unconscious couch mate.

The lucky mare didn’t experience your plight, in fact you doubt she even felt the cold. Your hand, which had been resting on her in your sleep, gently feels the dense fur of her upper foreleg. It’s not nearly as thin and short as the hair on a horse’s hide, if anything it has more in common with rabbit fur. It’s just like a coat…a jacket for high altitude flying. The plush fuzz fills your fingers as you close your eyes and search for a reason not to go back to sleep. Dash’s coat was the only one you’d ever felt, but you’d bet that pegasi had the thickest of the three genres of pony.

The draft picks up again and you pull your feet over the arm rest to plant them on the cushion, Dash stirs a bit—adjusting her wing higher up on your chest. You weren’t sure whether feathers or fur were better for warmth, but if you had to guess you’d go with feathers. Her wing is an amazing insulator; it feels almost identical to an electric heating pad. She’s warm blooded so that may have something to do with it. You would feel bad hogging all the warmth, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t stealing a good amount of your own and she did have the better spot between you and the couch.

You’re surprised she wasn’t snoring. It must have something to do with her posture. Your mind quiets and the heat of the mare’s body starts pulling you back to sleep…until another cold breeze pulls you back the other way. Dangit should’ve grabbed a blanket! You curse yourself for your lack of foresight. Unfortunately Dash’s wing could only help you out so much and without some more thorough coverage there was no way you’d get back to sleep. An audible sigh escapes you; you had to get up—meaning you had to wake Rainbow up as well. It's probably all for the best anyways, no telling what she’d do if she finds out you slept together overnight. Judging by how often she used you as her nap pillow she probably wouldn’t throw a fit, but she’d never spent the night before so you didn’t want to push your luck.

You reach under her wing and gently scratch her belly, “Dash, you need to wake up now,” you whisper. She mumbles a bit before scooting farther into you and nudging your jaw with the top of her muzzle. That almost gave you a heart attack. You weigh the possibility of dying via cardiovascular arrest before doing it again. This time you pat her stomach lightly, “Dash, get up.” She doesn’t move. She must be really tired for some reason, “Dash.”

She jolts awake and takes a second to register where she’s at, “You slept well.” She looks at you but doesn’t register your voice in her lethargic haze. She also fails to comprehend your intentions as well because she lays her head right back down and smacks her dry mouth before relaxing again. She’s not making this easy. You gently shake her shoulder, “Rainbow you need to get up now.” This time she regains complete consciousness and starts her boot up sequence again, completely unaware of her earlier disturbance. She rolls her muzzle off your neck and yawns at the ceiling—retracting her wing at the same time. The absence of your extra layer makes you realize that you did in fact work up a light layer of perspiration as the area previously covered by her wing evaporates your much needed heat away.

“Geez dude how long did we sleep?” You peek down at the extra-scratchy voice just in time to take a second yawn to the face.

You recover from the assault of Dash-breath, “Longer than we needed too.”

She rubs her eye with a fore hoof and you rest your head back down on the cushion, neither of you felt an immediate need to move. A deliberate muzzle nuzzles your chin—your customary post nap token of appreciation. Your hand scratches her breast tuft in response and you lean over to peck the top of her head. Unfortunately you get more than you bargained for.

*thphh—ptheh!

You clear the offending hairs from your tongue. It tastes like red this time. It was too dark to know for sure, but it was on the red side of her scalp.

“If you keep eating my mane I’m gonna go bald ya know.”

“Yeah but how else am I going to get my ‘daily dose of awesomeness?’”

“Well when you put it that way I guess you’re right.” She sticks her forelegs straight up in a stretch, her wing joint digs into your ribs in the process. You quickly adjust to give her more space as she continues on indifferent. “Oh I know! I’ll cut off pieces of my mane and you can take them with your daily vitamins.”

“Dash…” You sigh tiredly.

“Oh no no no, even better, just bake it into your pancakes so—“

“—Aw gross! Hair pancakes?”

“Heheh! That way-heh! That way it’ll help them stay together so they don’t-hahahaha!” The laughing pegasus pushes you closer and closer to the edge of the couch.

It was a well known fact that you sucked at making pancakes. No matter what you did they always seemed to crumble for some reason. Dash said you needed to go to her friend’s baking class, but you avoided that for two reasons. First off the bubbly pink mare quickly got on your nerves, and second, making a solid pancake had become a matter of personal pride.

Your turn to pull yourself back onto the couch, but Dash misinterprets your movements as an attempt to tickle her. She shoves you away into the darkness.

*thud

“Ah! What the heck!” Your tailbone had taken the brunt of the impact.

The silhouette of her head pops over the edge of the cushion, “Heh, sorry, I thought you were attacking me.”

You painfully sit up and with the help of Dash’s hooves you roll back onto the couch; the damage to your ego was compounded by her intermittent snickering. That’s probably going to leave a bruise, “I need some insurance if I’m going to keep hanging out with you.”

“Quit being a foal you didn’t even fall that far.” Despite her words she throws a fore hoof around your shoulder to keep you from falling again.

“You’ve got way too much energy for nine at night.”

“It’s that late?” She asks, but makes no effort to look at the clock.

“Close to it yeah.” You absentmindedly scratch her chest fur and she makes no effort to discourage it. Both of you were waiting for the other to make the move towards the inevitable parting of ways, but you were secretly grateful neither did. Her muzzle finds the crook of your neck again and she rolls to get more comfortable.

Your hand makes its way down her breast and she turns to bare the spot she wanted you to hit. She loved it when you gave her scratches; she preferred behind the ear and the side of her neck, but she wouldn’t complain about getting the treatment to her chest and belly. Of course she never said anything about it, nor would she go so far as to even admit she liked it, but she didn’t need to speak to communicate appreciation. Once you tuned into her body language you realized exactly how many of her little behaviors were concerted efforts to get more attention. It was weird in a way…and it only got weirder the longer you thought about it. Ponies rarely did it to each other, and you don't know any people who enjoyed that sort of thing. Furthermore it was a strictly one sided activity. You don’t even remember how it all started, but it just felt so natural for both of you that you never questioned it. If you had to speculate you would say it was more of a guilty pleasure of hers and she thought she could get away with it because you weren’t familiar with the customs of her culture. That, or your fingers were the perfect tool for the task.

Considering her behavior the latter was more likely. She absolutely avoided anything she thought was too ‘sappy’ meaning any overt display of emotion—which was ironic considering what she counted as ‘sappy.’ Activities like what you were doing now were generally an exception as long as you weren’t in public and as long as you never said anything about it. The moment you brought any undue attention to the shared affections they stopped. You genuinely enjoyed the mutually beneficial act, and you didn’t know enough about equine sociology to know if you could deny her without insulting her friendship in any way, so you went along with it. It was another aspect that made your relationship that much more unique.

Your cold feet prompt your memory and you reach over the side of the couch to fish your socks out of the darkness. You reach down and put them on with one hand. There, that’ll solve the problem, now you just need to send Dash on her way. Your hand returns to her sea of hot fur. Her spicy scent warms your lungs.

Your eyes shoot open. Almost dozed off again. Suddenly disorientation hits you. You’re staring at your couch cushion but it’s splattered with yellow and orange hair, a blue ear sticks out of the sea of color. It takes a moment to figure out who it is and which part of her you’re looking at, it takes another moment to work out your position from that equation. But the final realization hits you instantly. It’s morning.

The sounds of early-birds setting up their market stands suggests it’s very early morning—the sun wasn’t even completely above the horizon. You try to sit up but get confronted by the complex process of untangling yourself from your sleeping buddy. Your face flushes red when you realize you’re practically hugging each other, Dash’s wing drapes over your back and her hind leg is over your hip. All in all she did a pretty good job of being your blanket, you’re just surprised that you were able to stay on the couch all night.

The final motion of sliding your arm out from under her wakes her up. She rolls to her hooves in the center of the couch as you come to a sitting position, “Uhh…g'mornin.”

You turn to her. Yep, definitely bruised the tailbone, “Morning Dash.”

She looks around, trying to piece together the situation as her memory returns, “I guess I just uh…fell asleep again.”

“You and me both. Sorry, I had no idea I was that tired.” Hopefully she doesn’t think it’s weird.

“It’s fine dude, besides, I haven’t slept that long in forever, I kinda needed it.”

“Well you do make a good blanket.”

Her face flushes red at your comment and she looks down at her hooves, “Heh…and you’re a…a good pillow.”

This is getting awkward. You look at your feet and realize your socks are on crooked, “I’ve got breakfast if you want some.”

She perks up a bit but visibly holds herself back, “I-I should be getting back…you know.”

“Yeah, yeah you’re right.” You stand up and she hops off the couch, stumbling a bit as blood flow returns to her extremities. You follow her to the door, your own feet feel a bit unsteady from not having used them in over twelve hours.

She opens your door, “Thanks uhh…for, you know, the nap an-and stuff.” She’d never thanked your for a nap before, it must be the other ‘stuff’ that she was thankful for. You fight a blush as yesterday’s memories come flooding back.

“Yeah, no problem, same time at the park?” You ask, referencing your daily meet up ritual.

She stares outside but stays inside, “Uhh, I was…I’ve got a lot of errands to run, I’m probably not practicing today dude.”

Dang, you knew her spending the night was going to make things awkward, “Sure, yeah…”

She seems to sense your general disappointment, “I-I mean I want to and all, it’s just I’ve got to…do some paperwork, and stuff…”

“Yeah that’s fine, but I’ll probably hit the park anyways after lunch to—“

“—No!” Her outburst surprises you, “I-I mean, I’m not even going to be there so why bother haha.” That’s weird.

“Okay then…I'll just knock out my errands...a change of routine will do me good.” Despite the tangible awkward atmosphere, she still doesn’t move, “So let me know if you need anything and I’ll be sure to pick it up.”

“…Um…Anon?” Her unsure voice penetrates your thoughts.

“Yeah?”

”Uh…you don’t think he’s watching now do you?” Who is she talking about…oh.

You stick your head out your door and look up and down the empty street, then you look up at the red morning sky. Only a few ponies are out and none of them are green, “I don’t see him.”

She doesn’t seem to share your confidence, ”…You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I don’t see him.”

She still doesn’t move, ”I…I don’t know he’s kinda sneaky.” She usually isn’t this wishy washy.

“Dash what’s wrong?” More nervous shuffling.

”I just…was uh…thinking about what we where talking about earlier.”

“What do you mean?”

”About needing to…maintain appearances all the time.” Oh you know where this is going, ”And since we’re in public…I thought…aw do you have to make me say it!” She finishes with a hoof stomp.

“Well what did you have in mind?” That caught her off guard.

“I…don’t know, what do couples normally do when they say goodbye?”

You drop down to one knee in front of her. “You tell me, I’m the one who was practically born yesterday.” You’ve never seen her this nervous before. Maybe it was a bit too cruel to put the decision back on her.

”Well, uhh…”

“Listen, I already committed to this thing, we talked about it and you know I’m okay with it.”

She takes a deep breath before speaking up, ”Well then I guess a hug and a…k-kiss… would be ni…necessary.” That’s honestly exactly what you expected.

“Ok, that’s easy.” You say that only to cover up your own nervousness. No need to be nervous, she’s your best friend. You know her. You’ve practically done this before anyways. You can barely see her bowed face under her messy mane, but you could bet she’s just as red as you are.

You pull her into a hug before things have time to get more awkward. Her fur fills in between your fingers and her spicy smell fills your nose. Of all the things you’ve ever hugged she was the most huggable. She wasn’t exactly a plushie because she had a skeleton and an athletic build, but she was very soft and pliable where it counted. And she could hug back. She stays in the hug for a while, almost as if building up courage for what was coming next. But the inevitable happens and you eventually break the embrace.

You pull back and look into her eyes. You’re close enough now that neither of you could hide your emotions. Her ears are flat against the back of her head, she gulps nervously, her prismatic mane still a bit messy from the nap. Nostrils flared with every other breath telling you she smelled you too. But the part that stands out most is her eyes. Her pupils are stretched wide and her irises seem to glow with a light of their own. For all of her normal rash confidence she's still a regular mare where it counted. You never considered it before, but she is beautiful. It's surprising how it suddenly stood out to you. She was always just a cute pony who you got along great with, but now you could see her obvious beauty as well. The longer you wait, the more you think about it, and in turn, the more nervous you feel. Time to take initiative.

You lean forward and press your puckered lips to her muzzle. You miss at first and your upper lip hits her nose. She readjusts around you and meets her lips to yours, pressing lightly. Her pointed muzzle parts your pursed kiss, making it feel deeper and more intense than either of you intended. The shock of what you were doing hits you again, as does the whole body flush. Your heart takes off in your chest and you begin to feel a bit light headed. But despite your symptoms you find yourself reveling in the experience. Her previous kisses that landed elsewhere carried many of the same sensations, but the short relocation to your mouth completely changed your interpretation of them. You could feel the heat off her in much better detail. A tiny amount of saliva from her otherwise dry surface sealed your embrace and carried the smell of her mild morning breath. Her nostrils almost match yours and you breathe in each other’s humid air. It feels so visceral, so real; it's like you're plugged into her and you can feel the emotions going through her head.

Unlike your first ‘kiss,’ the experience of being in intimate contact with the mare is very soothing. It's smelly and wet and uncomfortably warm, but at the same time it feels therapeutic. Even if she is acting you know that she does actually care for you, and that thought made the affectionate expression unexplainably exhilarating.

Finally, you break your trance and pull away from the kiss with an embarrassing smack. Dash has her eyes closed and upon breaking, falls forward a bit off balance—evidence that her mind was lagging. At some point her wings had unfurled and were held a bit out at her sides, you can see that they were pulsing with what you assumed to be her heartbeat. You're not sure what that is, but there were a lot of things she did that you still had no explanation for. However you do know that you feel incredibly embarrassed, and it doesn’t help that you did that in front of an open door.

“So…that should do it then.” It’s a start at least. She just nods slightly, not bothering to blink.

”Yeah…”

“Should’ve thrown any eavesdroppers.” You wink at her, hoping she catches the gist. Her wings bob in response before she notices them and awkwardly folds them amidst a fiery blush.

You stand up and try to break eye contact, but you see that her still unblinking eyes follow yours. It's a bit unnerving.

“Like I said, I’ll be headed into town so if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask.” She nods obediently like a toddler getting sent to their first day at school. You can’t drag this out any further, you're not sure what's going to happen next. “G’night…uh…good morning then.”

“S-see ya.” And with that she trots off out your door and down the street.

You close the door and let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. This might be a lot harder than you thought. The whole idea of ‘helping’ Dash with her problem suddenly seemed utterly ridiculous. It would be so much easier to just explain Zephyr’s situation to him…or to just avoid him overall...no...you agreed to help her and you're going to see this through regardless of your level of fortitude.

You discover that she did indeed leave you with a bit of her essence as you reflexively lick your tingly lips. It doesn’t have much of a taste, but you don't have much to judge from. You blush harder and take another deep breath. You're not sure what to make of your friendship with Dash anymore. It was still there of course, but after…whatever that was, it was going to be different. Of course she’s not actually your mare friend or anything. You were just…how did you put it earlier? Comfortable with her. And comfortable made you capable. And capable was what she needed to get out of her jam. You wanted to help her get out of her jam. That’s why you just kissed your friend. Yeah…makes sense.

Your primary concern though was her reaction to all of this. Her behavior overall had been strange since this thing started, she'd always shrugged off your cuddle sessions with jokes and teasing, but now she just seemed awkward about it. The kiss was another thing she would've normally taken in stride. It was like she forgot this was all a game. Despite the whole thing being her idea, you can't help but wonder if she bit off more than she could chew. Above all else you valued your friendship, and your worst fear was that things would get weird to the point that she started avoiding you. If it came to that you'd have to call it off.

But in the end the whole experience left you feeling like you’d taken a year’s worth of caffeine and you head into the kitchen with an unexplainable perk in your step. You shrug it off as the effects of adrenaline. If there was one thing that was constant in this world it’s that females are still crazy.