//------------------------------//
// 36 - Maretime Bay Day 
// Story: Return to Equestria 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

Joy crashed next to David. This was a curious thing. He had his own spot, and she had her bed. The two were not next to each other. He said nothing. It was her house, er, store. She owned it, he was freeloading on her kindness, even if money was in the future, maybe. 

It was hers, so if she wanted to crash there, well... Who was he to tell her not to? That didn't make it any less awkward. They were going through all the night routines. They were at the part where they flopped into their proper places, turned off the lights, said 'goodnight', and went to bed.

She hadn't done that. She had flopped next to him. She didn't even say goodnight! Alright, that was a smaller part of the problem. Why was she right there? He thought of why she'd be there. She didn't seem to be sick, that was good. She did seem a little tense. Why was she tense? "Worried about the Bay Day?"

"Yeah." She nestled in against him. "This one's bigger than all the other ones... There'll be more ponies there than ever before..."

Yes, his empathy was still in working order. "You'll nail it, promise. I'll help."

"Thanks." She nuzzled into his neck. "You are so strange..." Not strange enough to avoid nuzzling, but enough to mention.

The physical intimacy was not something he was used to! "Um..." He meant to say more than that, but words were failing him. "You alright?"

"No." Joy propped up on one elbow. "I am not. I'm stressed out and my head won't shut up!"

"Now time is sleep time." He slid an arm under her hesitantly, but she seemed to be alright with it, so he continued, offering his arm as a pillow. "Time to catch those Zs before they get loose and we end up with some Ys or something. Don't want that."

Joy pawed at him, battering him with soft presses of the flat of her hooves. "Stop that!" But she was laughing, flopping to the ground and letting out a sigh. "Thanks."

"What for?"

"For not freaking out?" She touched her furry snout to his cheek. "You have intimacy issues."

He couldn't rightly argue that. "And you do not."

"Not really. Now, sleep." All too quickly, her breathing was slow and even, and little Zs began to lift from her.

This left David with an arm pinned and caught under the pony. Such was his fate. He could think of worse places to be. Visions of his dog, a world away, came to mind. Little fuzzball was an awful companion in a bed, sleeping on, under, or anywhere he wanted to be if allowed in the room at all at night. But he could get to sleep with the critter, and, gosh darn it, he would get to sleep with the anxious mare.

He closed his eyes and took slow breaths. "Hey pony." His phone chimed. "Play sleep music." And lo did it obey, playing quiet music to fill the silence. With the lullaby, he drifted off to sleep as he had wanted.





He awoke to a hoof pressed against his face, covering most of it. "Mmf?" He scrambled away from it and to his hooves in a clip-clopping hurry. "Joy?"

"Good morning," she called with a smile. "You are a good pillow, just to toss out there. Breakfast is ready. Fuel up! Today's the big day." She trotted away, tail raised with spirit.

Sleep far away from his mind, he got to work, which did not include breakfast, even if he snagged a dry bit on the way past to chew on the way down the stairs. "Let's do it."

Joy popped up beside him with his abandoned plate. "That was not optional. Eat." She pushed it against him. "You'll regret it later if you don't."

Properly chastised, he sat at a terminal to hurriedly chow down his food as Joy went about opening the store for Bay Day gamers. "Do you think ponies will come? They might get distracted with all the other things going on..."

"Whether they do or not." David rose, carrying the plate to a safe place. "We'll be ready. I'll challenge you to pony karts if there's nothing else going on."

"You're going down." Joy smirked with a laugh. "Alright, let's throw it open!" She hurried to the door, flipping the sign from closed to open on the way. "Welco--" She didn't get to finish that. The moment she opened the door, she was pushed right aside as ponies milled in with bright smiles. "--me... David's at the counter if you don't already have a card!"

There he was, waving at them with a smile. "Form a line nice and orderly and we'll get you ready to take part in the day's fun." He began running through ponies in a hurry, taking bits, or cards, as needed to get them a play card that let them access the computers and consoles. "You can get a Maretime Bay Day only card that's only for today, cheaper, but, again, just for today. Great for ponies just visiting."

Many ponies went for that, but many did not, electing to pay for the month-pass cards instead, or the pay-as-you-go models. It didn't matter much in that moment, just that David quickly grabbed their payment and got them into the system as quickly as possibly, which he was doing as rapidly as he could. "Here you go. Have fun!"

Joy moved to the front of the room. "The first game will be Dirt Digger!" The screen behind her showed the pony with a big shovel that was the mascot of that game. "Everypony that gets down to the bottom of level 3 gets a free can of soda to keep their energy up for the next game!" It wasn't a competition. Everyone could win that one, in theory. 

She blew into a whistle with a sharp trilling twee, signaling the start. The computers that weren't already loaded into Dirt Digger loaded themselves into the right game, ready to take part in things, and the ponies got to manically digging their little virtual pony into the dirt as they laughed and called encouragingly to each other.

The day was going well. "What was I worried about?" Joy clopped her hooves in a slow but steady beat. "This is great! Look at all those happy faces."

A pegasus was using two hooves and wings at once to pull off tricks that didn't seem possible for earth pony players with but their two hooves. A unicorn spotted the trick and their horn glowed, emulating the trick with their magic.

This did not sit well with some of the earth pony players. "They're cheating!" complained one stallion to Joypad, pointing over at the players making better progress than the others.

"This isn't a competition," she assured, waving down with her hooves. "The only pony that can be 'cheated' is yourself."

The earth pony hiked a brow. "Until they break your computers with their wings and magic."

Joy swallowed nervously at the idea. "Keep your hooves on the consoles," she called out. "And everything else away from it, please."

Annoyed noises rose, but the playtime continued. "Hm." His legs itched. It was easy enough to ignore at first, but it didn't stop, and David was working his nails through his new pony fur. "C'mon." He had managed that long without being annoyed at his fur pelt. Why would that day be any different? But the itch refused to go away.

"Hey!" Pipster was grinning at David widely. "Gonna be in the Pony Kart match? You  better say yes! I did not train you for nothing!" He leveled a hoof at David. "You don't gotta win, but you better try!"

Well... How was he going to turn down that call to action? "I'll be there." He met Pipster's hoof with a balled fist. "Who knows, maybe I'll win."

"I'll owe you a prize if you do." Pipster ran off to rejoin the game without a chance for replies.

A cold cylinder pressed against him. Joy was pushing a soda can against him. "You get one free for helping run this. Your favorite, and diet."

He turned the bottle to see what flavor it was. Diet Doctor Wibb. Was it? He popped it open and took a sip, yep! It was a knockoff of a familiar drink of another doctor that he liked. "How did you even know?!"

"There's a reason I'm the boss." Joy winked dramatically. "Five minutes," she shouted. "Get to the bottom of level three to score that soda!" She started down the aisles, noting who had reached it and delivering sodas along the way. "Such great players! If you don't make it, don't feel bad. We're all new at one point."

An earth pony chuckled, a local regular. "Bottom of 3? That's so easy."

A pegasus joined in the chortle, covering her mouth with a hoof. "Seriously. I can make level 10 with my eyes closed."

A unicorn pouted, having only tried the game that day. "I'm doing my best!"

Joy snuck that unicorn a soda with a hoof raised to her lips in a shh of a noise. "You're all winners today, for being here, where all the fun's at!" She hopped up at the front of the room as the old mascot vanished from the display, replaced with a picture of a pony hiding fearfully in a hole in the middle of a battlefield. "But now, a special challenge. Find the pony, with a special pony to find. Stand up!"

David knew his cue, rising for the crowd, itchy legs or not. Ugh, his tail was starting to itch too. What timing!

Joy was ignorant of his discomfort. "David, our local human, will be the hiding pony! All of you--" She waved widely over the entire room. "You'll be hunting him. Now, to make this fair for him, I've given him an hour to set up devious traps and hide himself away. This is a cooperative run. Can you find him? If any of you tags David, you win!"

The room exploded in cheers as they dropped into the virtual world en masse and began scrambling around, looking for David's virtual avatar. With a great kaboom, one pony got painted with simulated paint, coloring their avatar a new shade. "He's been here," cried the mare. The hunt was on.

And his butt itched. Dang it. He had to pay attention to the game. Not all his traps would go off automatically, and he had to race his little avatar between peeking points to trigger them for maximum effect. "Can you find me?" he taunted the room full of eager equine hunters. "I found a really good spot."

He felt... disconnected? Like he was controlling himself about as far as he had been controlling his avatar in the game, divorced from it. On the positive, it meant the itching was a status, a flashing light, instead of something he was experiencing. On the other hand, it was pretty strange. He could still play the game, two layers of seperation. What was going on?

David was back in his body, as if nothing had happened. Dang a pony had gotten past one of his traps. An alarm went off quietly, but not quietly enough.

"I think I found it!" The room became excitement as they found the entrance to David's lair. They just had to get through all the traps.

David glanced at the clock on the wall. There was half an hour to go. With the room full of seekers hunting for him, could his fortress stand up for it? He had his doubts. He heard an explosion. "Ah! He got me!" cried a stallion, making a dramatic death pose as he went to waiting to respawn. "Go on... without me."

Huh. His tail wasn't itchy anymore. Hirrah for small blessings at least.