Amends, Maybe?
14
Jay lie in his bed, tossing a ball he had found around Twilight’s house straight upwards in the air. He figured it had probably been Spike’s ball, but that didn’t matter anymore. It was his ball now. It had been 3 days since Rainbow Dash had even given him the time of day.
He still saw her, though. He’d watch out the window of his room as she broke the clouds in the sky. Perhaps it was something about beating clouds that drew Jay’s interest, but it was most likely something else. It was during this time that he noticed something off. Clouds were only a visible mass of liquid droplets. The force at which Rainbow Dash hit each cloud was way overpowered than what was needed to break something so fragile as a cloud.
It almost looked violent.
Jay heaved a sigh as he continued to toss his new ball upwards towards the ceiling; Applejack had stopped by once and asked for him, but as soon as he heard Twilight call for him, he had peaced out, jumping to Sugarcube Corner to get another one of those delicious milkshakes. The pillar had beckoned to him, but Jay hadn’t been feeling it. He gave it a once over glare as he passed by before he had jumped back to Twilight’s place to sulk.
And now he was here. Bored, alone, and tossing a stupid ball. He used to like being alone, he would even go as far as considering himself as somewhat of an introvert, but right now, he wanted to talk to somepony. Unfortunately, Twilight was out, helping her friend Rarity with something. Jay hadn’t been paying attention to what she said.
Lost in his thoughts, Jay heaved the ball higher than necessary, causing it to bounce of the ceiling. It went right through his hooves and hit him right in the snout.
Jay was definitely not in the mood for that. His habit for punishing inanimate objects took over once more as he sat up and chucked the ball right out the window.
‘Good riddance,’ he thought, plopping back down on the bed with a huff.
He closed his eyes, hoping to embrace sleep when the ball came back through the window and hit him in the side of the head.
Jay’s eyes snapped open as he looked at the ball, a little surprised, but even more pissed off. ‘What the hell? I got rid of this thing!’
He took the ball in his mouth and jumped to the window. Attempting his best pitching windup in pony form, he threw the ball out the window as hard as he could, watching it sail in the sky and out of sight, disappearing behind a cluster of houses.
With a “Hmph” and a content nod, he turned back and trotted over to his bed, but before he could make it, the ball sailed back into the room, bouncing off his head, once more.
“That’s it ball!” Jay shouted, aloud. “I’ve had enough!”
Jay snatched up the ball in his mouth and jumped, appearing at the top of the highest hill he could remember. He took a few steps back and began to run forward before adding jumps in between steps to help build momentum. He cocked back and at the end of his run, let the ball fly, watching it go. He was positive he’d never see that stupid ball again.
‘I wonder if Spike will notice’ he thought. ‘Ah what am I thinking? I don’t really care that much.’
Jay jumped back to the room Twilight was letting him stay in and assumed his position on his back in his bed, closing his eyes once more.
But something felt off. Was he being watched? And what was this hot air hitting him in the face? It smelt strangely sweet, almost like... ‘Oh no.’
Jay opened his eyes to reveal a pink, frizzy-maned pony smiling down at him.
“Pinkie Pie.”
“Hiya!” Pinkie Pie shouted enthusiastically with an extra wide smile on her face.
“How did you get in here?” Jay asked, less than enthused. He had wanted somepony to talk to.
Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the side, still looking down on him. She held out her hoof and offered him a small, round object.
“You dropped this!” She dropped the ball onto Jay’s forehead and giggled as she hopped off her perch above the bed.
Jay sat up, resisting the urge to throw the ball back at her, only a little harder. “Pinkie, how did you get in here?”
“Well I was just testing out this super-duper cupcake recipe that I had been just itching to try when my Pinkie Senses went off telling me that somepony was unhappy! And I was like, ‘Oh no! Somepony is unhappy?!’ And that somepony was you so I came here but then I noticed that you dropped your ball so I thought that maybe you were unhappy that you lost it so I brought it back and then you were like ‘How did you get in here?’ and I was like-”
“Ok Pinkie,” Jay said suddenly, wanting to cut her off, “What are you doing here?”
Pinkie Pie’s smile only grew wider. “I’m here to make you happy, silly!”
Jay tapped his hoof against his chin, thinking for a moment. ‘Maybe this isn’t so bad. I could use a little cheer.’
“And how are you going to go about doing that?” He finally replied.
Pinkie Pie’s smile dropped to a grin. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?” She asked, pressing her face closer to Jay. “Maybe about a certain somepony?”
“Nope.”
“Are you extra absitively posilutely sure?” Pinkie Pie asked again, inching even closer.
“Yeah I’m sure.”
Pinkie Pie stared at Jay for an extremely uncomfortable minute, her eyes scanning over him. For a moment, Jay thought she was going to give up the subject, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Pinkie Pie’s mane dropped, losing its bouncy fluffiness instantly and going completely straight.
“Ehrm, Pinkie?” Jay asked a little concerned.
Pinkie Pie glared at him menacingly before reaching for him with an incredible amount of speed and pulling him out of the bed.
“Now you listen,” she started, “you’re not the only unhappy pony around here and it’s your fault!” She sounded different. It was as if her voice had lost all of its original cheeriness and was replaced with something akin to, well, threatening. Jay was sure if he still wore underwear, he would've had to change them.
“Rainbow Dash is my friend and I intend to do something about it!” She narrowed her eyes and peered into Jay’s very soul. “Now, are you going to tell me about it?”
“Uh yeah sure, whatever you want!” Jay responded quickly.
Pinkie Pie released him and Jay watched as her mane bounced back up to its original poofy, unkempt form. “Good!” She said gleefully.
----------
“Uh huh. Uh huh. So about what time did you scrape your knee?” Pinkie Pie asked. She had pulled out a psychologists chair from nowhere and had commanded Jay to lay on it. She had also produced a notepad and a pair of professional looking glasses for herself. Not wanting to see the other side of Pinkie, Jay had complied and began talking about Rainbow Dash and his time in Ponyville.
“Pinkie, I’ve been talking about Rainbow Dash for almost an hour, I never mentioned scraping my knee at all.”
She jumped up from her seat, throwing her glasses and notepad in the air as she did. “I know, silly! What did you think I was doing the whole time, drawing you with funny hats? Because I wasn’t!”
Jay looked around for the notepad that had flown in the air, trying to catch a glimpse of what was actually on the page, but it had disappeared, almost as if it had never landed. Pinkie Pie was physically and mentally exhausting him.
He had to get out of there.
“Well, Pinkie, this has been a blast- and I mean just fantastic, but I’m gunna have to call it and see ya around.” Jay cracked a smile before jumping down into the first floor of the library. His sudden appearance startled Twilight, who had been dutifully organizing her books. With a yelp, her magic failed and the books dropped to the floor.
“Hey!” Twilight shouted, shooting a disapproving look at Jay before levitating the books back up.
“Sorry Twilight! But I have to get outta here.”
Jay gave Twilight a quick apology smile before rushing to the door.
“Ooh ooh so where are we goin’ now!”
Jay froze and slowly turned to the bubbly voice that had come from nearby. Pinkie Pie was staring at him expectantly with a large grin on her face.
‘Where the hell did she come from?!’
Jay quickly looked about the room, looking for something, anything, that would help him escape this pink menace. A small semblance of a plan started to form in his head. ‘Twilight, please forgive me, for I know not what I do...’
Acting fast, Jay twisted around and bucked a nearby bookcase, putting his newly learned apple bucking skills to the test. The resulting *thud* sounded promising and sent an avalanche of books tumbling out of the shelves. “Twilight! Escape plan Gamma!” Jay shouted as he made a beeline straight for the front door.
“What are you ta-” Twilight managed before letting out a loud gasp as her most prized possessions came tumbling down.
‘Oh man, she’s totally going to kill me for this. It’s the quiet ones that are the scariest.’
As he ran, he could hear Pinkie Pie giggling to herself, clearly enjoying the moment.
“Jay! Jay, get back here!” Twilight shouted after him. “Right. NOW!”
Jay never made it to the door. He felt a force grasp him, freezing him in place and rotating him around to face the now fuming Twilight Sparkle. He noticed that everything now had a purple aura surrounding them; books had frozen in midair and were now hovering, Pinkie Pie was flipping in the air with a face-busting smile. Twilight, her horn aglow and murder in her eyes, was less than amused.
“Why would you do that?!” She demanded.
“Sorry Twilight, but I gotta go. I’ll have to make it up to you later. I’ll tell you about- uh... Art! Yeah art! From my world!” Jay replied sheepishly.
He jumped, picturing himself outside of Sugarcube Corner, a memorable landmark. His plan to find Rainbow Dash had been set in motion.
----------
Looking up to the floating cloud... mansion, Jay sighed. Rainbow Dash certainly wasn’t one for subtlety. It had taken him little effort to find the place. As soon as he mentioned he was looking for a certain prismatic mare, the passerby he had stopped had pointed him in the right direction, mentioning several times that he definitely could not miss it.
He effortlessly appeared in front of Rainbow Dash’s front door, covering the distance from the ground to the air in a split second.
‘Here goes.’ Jay thought to himself. He was resolute in making amends with his... friend? Maybe more? He hadn’t decided. The thought she was still a pony had crossed his mind more than once, but had quickly been pushed away into the recesses of his mind. Ignorance truly was bliss. He thought he had gotten over it, but now, Jay wasn’t so sure. And the fact that she currently hated him wasn’t helping Jays’ case.
Jay raised his hoof and knocked once before quickly pulling away and planting his ear on the door to listen.
...Nothing
He knocked again several times, repeating the process.
...Still nothing.
“Maybe she didn’t hear? A few more times oughta do it.”
He knocked on the door a couple more times. Planting his ear on the door once again, he listened.
“ALRIGHT! Geez, can’t a pony get some sleep around here?” Jay heard from behind the door.
His stomach turned over. Jay hadn’t actually expected her to be home. He pulled his head away from the door and stood patiently outside, waiting to be received.
‘Alright, here we go. Gunna make some amends,’ he thought confidently. Jay heard hoofsteps from inside, increasing in volume as they neared the door.
‘Gunna do it.’
They sounded closer, yet.
‘Here we go!’
Even closer.
‘Have to apologize!’
Jay heard the latch to the door click as it opened.
‘Nope!’ Sirens went off in his head that screamed “BAIL OUT!”
The door opened fully to a rather confused looking Rainbow Dash. She trotted out to the stoop and looked around, confusing shifting to anger. “I swear if this is another one of Scootaloo’s tricks...”
Jay watched from the ground as she shook her head and turned, going back inside.
‘Weak....’ was all he could manage in his head.
He jumped back outside the library and slowly made his way through the front door, head hung in defeat. He noticed the place was much cleaner than he left it.
“There you are!” Twilight approached him, still quite angry with his escape. “Why would you-” She cut herself off, noticing Jay’s current state.
“Are you okay?” She asked, the anger in her voice replaced with something akin to pity.
“I’ve been better.” Jay replied.
“Well, since you owe me for that mess, you still need to tell me about the art of your world!” Twilight was clearly ecstatic to learn about another culture, ever the student.
“Sorry Twilight,” Jay began. “I hated art.” He turned and made his way to the stairs leading to his room, and his bed.
“Besides,” he said without looking back. “All of the historical stuff was just about naked people posing anyways...”