"But you seem... I thought a little poke wouldn't upset you." She looped around David as they worked down the street of the busy city. "You're feeling better now, right? After the whole... half pony thing, I thought? You said you felt like a million bits!"
"Way better." He had no arguments there. "This is more of an emotional thing than anything else, and now I feel bad." He held up a hand. "So I'm going to admit that I'm the broken one here. You were pretty clearly not trying to attack me."
"I wasn't!" One ear went down. "But you felt attacked, and that isn't cool."
"That you care means a lot." He folded his hands together in front of himself as he walked determinatedly.
To Joy's mild confusion. "What are you walking so fast for?"
"Huh?" He slowed to match her. "I'm used to walking like I have somewhere to be."
"Which we do, but we don't have to trot there." A neutral walk was more her speed at that moment. "We're getting a ride home." She flashed a sudden cocky smile. "Since somepony went and got a new side job, we can afford a little luxury."
David raised a finger, ready to argue, but... "Huh... Guess I do qualify as a pony now."
"Yep!" She bumped against him gently, as if he might break. "Welcome to it."
He wanted to assure her it was alright, that he was being dumb, which he obviously was, by his own view, but... He could either suffer silently, or not. Idea! "Joypad, I want to try something. It will be uncomfortable for me."
"I don't want you to be uncomfortable." She raised a brow at him. "What's the idea?"
"I want you to go ahead and touch me." Her brows furrowed. "Not like that. I mean poke, prod, bop, all the little things that shouldn't be a big deal. I will squeak and flinch and probably make other distressed noises, but we made a deal, right now. You have permission to keep pushing. Unless I say to stop, you don't."
"Huh... kinda strange." Not that this stopped her from poking him in the sides. It was a gentle poke, but a poke it remained. "You sure you want to do this?"
"Nope! But we're gonna." He was smiling, as if relieved by the step taken instead of scared of it. "So what ride are we getting?"
"Kinda has to be spacious." She pointed back at the disc still following after David. "I paid too much for that thing, not giving it up! Got an address for... Take a right." She veered off sharply, eyes on a road sign. "Should be down here."
The place was a brightly lit store with pictures of ponies on beaches looking quite relaxed. 'Please go away,' read the sign across the top of it, welcoming would-be clients.
David snapped his fingers. "I've seen that pun before."
"Yeah?" Joy marched right up and through the door that opened for her. "Hello?"
"Hello!" A pegasus mare waved eagerly from the front counter. "How can I help you go far away?"
Joy was looking around at the various scenes of exotic places. "Wow... Say, we were hoping to get to Maretime Bay."
The mare looked at Joy curiously. "Aren't you from there?"
"How..." But it hit her. Most earth ponies were from there. "True... But I want to go back. This was my vacation." She waved a hoof around the city in general. "Can you help?"
"Well now... We usually help ponies go away and come back, not go away and stay away." She started leafing through papers with her wings. "You have a place to stay there permanently?"
David stood to the side of Joy like a guard, quietly looming.
Joy waved at him. "I have a place, and we both stay there, so no problems other than getting to Maretime Bay. Drop us off and we'll be happy ponies!"
"Sir." She was looking at David.
"Hm?"
"You don't have to stand up, Sir. That has to be uncomfortable." She was eyeing the way, in her eyes, he was reared up as he was. "Good balance though."
"Thanks," he half-laughed out. "I'm used to it, promise. Can we get a ride? Oh." He waved back to the disc silently following him. "We will be taking this, so has to have room for that."
Joy slapped her head. "Forgot about it and I just brought that up. Yes, we need that. Can you do it?"
She considered the disc. "I'm still very new to magic... Will it follow a pegasus?"
Joy and David shared an equally unsure look. David took the initiative, "Why don't you try?" He pointed at the disc. "Knock on it twice and it'll start following you, then you can try flying."
"Oooo." She circled the counter quickly to rush up to the disc. "This is exciting! Alright. Knock Knock." She clopped a hoof against it with each announcement. "And..." She backed away and the disc casually followed her. "That is so cool." She whipped out a phone for a quick selfie of herself and her new disc pal. "Love it!"
Joy made a shooing motion. "You have to try flying, remember?"
"Oh right." She snapped her wings out and lifted into the air. The disc didn't immediately follow her. "Maybe further." She bumped against the ceiling, but it wasn't that high up. "Okay if I go outside?" With a nod given, she zipped to the door and rushed outside, the disc following behind her. "Alright! Now to really test!"
"Just go up maybe twice my height?" David suggested. "That should be enough to see if it follows or not."
"Alright." She flapped down powerfully, going up to David's eye level, then past, giggling. The disc seemed happy to remain where it was until she was far 'enough', where it began hovering up to keep close to her. "Ooo, yep, great!" She came for a landing, wobbling at the suddenness of it. Like many pegasi, she still had training to do. "Okay, since it follows a pegasus, we could get you two a ride easily, and have the disc follow you, so long as it isn't going too fast."
Visions of being on a plane with a disc floating desperately behind it jumped into David's mind, bringing a short laugh. "What do you have in mind?"
Joy reached up, rapping twice on the disc to get it to follow her instead. "We haven't found it yet, but I doubt this can go as fast as anything."
"I was thinking slow and comfortable!" The mare clapped her hooves. "How about a wagon trip?"
Joy was next to laugh, deep and loud. "Wow, I was bringing that up before. Yes, a wagon ride sounds delightful."
"Perfect!" She trotted back in with a hurry, grabbing a paper and starting to write busily. "How soon do you want to go, and how luxurious are we thinking? Actually, just answer that first one and I can give you a selection of packages and let you and your budget decide."
Joy sat in front of the counter. "Perfect. Sooner is better. Our trip here is done. It was more of a business trip, really."
The mare raised a brow. "You should have planned your turn trip ahead of time." She let her quill fall to the counter. "Tell you what, I can't do it! I could take all your bits, but I feel just awful. You'd be better just going and getting a wagon directly instead of us. Who sent you to us? We're a travel... Oh that does sound right... We're for ponies planning trips ahead of time, not at the last second."
David seemed to get it with a 'mm-hmm'. "That makes sense. Where would you go for a carriage ride today, instead of a few weeks from now?"
She pointed past them to the road. "Take a right and keep going. Watch the left side and you'll see some wagons."
Joypad turned in place. "Great! Thanks for being so nice about this. We'll keep you in mind if we ever do want another vacation. Do you handle trips from Maretime Bay?"
"Not right now, but maybe soon." She grabbed a card and offered it to David who hadn't left yet. "Call us!" She was left, waving excitedly. "Thanks for going away!"
David chuckled as they went down the street. "She really liked that joke."
"What joke?" Joypad pointed across the road. "There!" She dashed, only to come to an abrupt halt, scampering backwards out of the way of an oncoming wagon. "Woah!"
"They have crosswalks." He hiked a thumb. "I know Maretime Bay isn't as dense, but..."
"But what? It's usually safe to cross a road." She went to the crosswalk with a huff. "I'm so excited though! I miss home... They're going to be so excited to hear from you, by the way. Expect a rush."
"True." He could imagine the curious ponies back at the shop, eagerly pumping him for stories. "Think they'll get odded out by the... half pony thing?"
"Eh." Joy wobbled a hoof. "You wear those pants. They may not even notice at first, until you turn around and they see your tail!"
They got to the carriage station. Getting one headed to Maretime Bay proved easy enough with a few bits exchanging hooves. "You owe me. When you get your big promo bit bag, I want a few ." Joy stuck out her tongue as she went to wait for the wagon that'd carry them. "How much are they paying you?"
"Um..." Exact numbers hadn't been hashed out. "I should ask." He dug out his phone and Jet's number, dialing it with little beeps from the phone and his mouth at once. "Beep beep.. beep... ring..." He actually said the word ring. "Ring... Hey."
"My favorite human," came Jet's voice from the speaker phone. "How can I help?"
"Hey. We never went over what I'm being paid, and when? Not to be a pain, but good to know."
"Right right. Look, you're not working for us. I mean, you're not a Pegasoft employee, or you'd be here. We'll pay you for each gig you do, each seperate. Expect the first call soon, foal, don't you worry! The pay depends on the gig."
"I'll be double-checking!" called Joypad into the phone. "So don't try to lowball him on the rates."
"Oh, you're there too. Don't worry. We want his face. Have a safe trip back to the bay! Jet Set out!" The line went dead, the phone showing that the call ended.
David stuffed the phone away into a pocket."Two bits says he forgot your name."
"That's a sucker's bet. Hey, there it is." She rose to her hooves and the two of them got into the wagon. There was one other pony riding with them. A soft bump confirmed the disc was there, trying to catch up with them. The other pony was a pegasus stallion.
"Hi... Um..." He inclined his head at the other two riders. "Wow. Are you... from there? Visiting?"
Joy waved at herself and David. "Returning. Are you visiting?"
"Yep! Second time. Maretime Bay is a lovely city." He nodded with a big grin. "Mind if I get a picture?" With a wing flick, he got out his phone. "First time I went to Maretime Bay with some Maretime Bayers in the wagon!"
He took a snap of the three of them and quickly flipped the phone to show them. "Perfect!"
Joy inclined her head at the picture. "You're smiling."
"Hm?"
She elbowed her human friend. "For the picture. You're smiling, really big. You don't usually get that big smile."
"Habit? Someone points a camera at me, I smile. "He shrugged helplessly. "Glad it came out alright."
"It's perfect." He thumped back in his original seat, flopping across the bench. "By the way, what kind of pony are you?"