//------------------------------//
// Confessions (part 1) 
// Story: Under Construction 
// by ShinethePony 
//------------------------------//

“Hey Jeffy, do you feel like going outside today?” asked Pinkie Pie.
The unicorn had been wandering around Fluttershy's house looking for things to do, and she thought he looked pretty bored.
“Pinkie, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea,” Fluttershy said quietly.  “What if he gets sick again?”
“Oh, he'll be fine,” assured the pink earth pony.  “Won'tcha, Jeffy?”
“I'm fine, Pinkie,” said the unicorn, looking up from a book about wild cats he had found on one of Fluttershy's bookshelves.
“But there's nothing to do here!” she insisted.  “Wouldn't you like to go have a look around the town?  I mean, you've already been here for two weeks, and the only two places you've seen are the library and Fluttershy's house.”
“Pinkie, I said I'm fine.  There's no need.”  Jeffy's ears laid back against his head in frustration.  He had only known the pink pony for two weeks, but he had already figured out that it was nearly impossible to talk sense into her once she had a crazy idea stuck in her head.  If he was going to avoid the town, his best option was to cut her off from the idea before she got to the point of insistence.  Pinkie sighed and flopped down onto Fluttershy's couch.
“Darn it,” she said, “and I was planning on a welcoming party today.”  Jeffy snorted.
“I'd hate to miss that,” he said sarcastically.  Neither of the other ponies noticed his sarcasm, though, and he mentally slapped himself for having accidentally just planted the idea that he might want a party.  He really hoped she wouldn't take him seriously.
“Oh, don't worry,” Pinkie cheerfully assured him.  “You won't.”  Jeffy rolled his eyes and groaned.

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“So tell me again why I'm out here with you...”
Somehow, Pinkie had managed to get Jeffy out of Fluttershy's house for a walk, and now they were entering the town.  Jeffy was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat in an attempt to shield his face, but he still felt uneasy in such a public area.
“We're going to visit Twilight Sparkle,” she reminded him.  “I figured the three of us could have lunch together.  I'm sure she'd be happy to see you in better health.”  
Jeffy sighed and said “Fine.  Let's go see Twilight Sparkle.”
“Oki doki loki!” Pinkie squeaked cheerfully, bouncing up and down.  Jeff wondered if anypony else in town was as weirded out by the pink mare-filly's antics as he was.

She led him to the center of town, where a huge oak tree grew.  That is the biggest damn tree I have ever seen in my entire life, he thought.  Upon a closer inspection, he noticed that the tree had windows and a door.  That's a house?
“Welp!  Here we are,” announced his guide.  “Ponyville library!”  Jeffy was surprised.
“The library is in a tree?” he asked?  "I don't remember it being a tree..."
“Well, duh!” said Pinkie.  “I don't see any other place to call a library around here; do you?  Don't you recognize it from the night Twilight found you?”
“Well, it was pretty dark,” pointed out the colt, “and my mind was a bit cloudy at the time.”
“Well, that's alright,” she said, “because now that you're all better and it's broad daylight, you can get the grand tour!  I'll show you.”  She grinned at him.  Jeffy wasn't so sure how he felt about that, but she had been nice to him so far, and since she seemed to be his only friend so far, he didn't really feel like upsetting her, so he agreed.
“Sure,” was all he said.  Together they stepped into the library.
“Oh, Twilight!” Pinkie called out to her friend.  “I brought someone to see you!”
“Just a minute, Pinkie!” Twilight called from another room.  When she stepped into the room, there was a surprised look on her face.  “Oh, hey Jeffy,” she said in a friendly tone.  “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” he said, then added “mostly.”  Twilight looked accusingly at Pinkie, who only grinned and shrugged.  The unicorn mare decided not to pursue the issue and just let it slide.
“Well it's good to see you up and about,” she said to the colt.  “I was just on my way out to lunch.  Would you two like to join me?”
“Sure!” Pinkie agreed wholeheartedly.  “We were just going to ask you the same thing!  We would have if you hadn't beat us to it, right Jeffy?”  Pinkie put one of her forelegs over Jeffy's shoulder to indicate that the two of them had been in the plan together all along, although Jeffy himself was clearly uninvolved.
"Right," he said with a roll of his eyes.
"Well, then let's go," Twilight said cheerfully, and the three of them all stepped back out of the library and into the street.


At Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie led her friends to a table, and they sat down.
"Twilight, would you come with me up to the counter?" the pink pony asked innocently.  "I might need help carrying the food."
"Sure, Pinkie," replied the purple unicorn.  "Jeffy, you stay here and save our table."  On the way to the counter she turned to Pinkie and asked "Exactly how much food are we getting?"
Pinkie glanced around and leaned in close to her friend.  "I just said that because I wanted to ask you for some advice," she said.
"Advice?  What sort of advice do I need to be in line at the Sugarcube Corner to give you?"  Twilight was confused.
"I just didn't want Jeffy to hear," explained the younger mare, "because, umm...  it's about him."
"Oh?"  Her friend was slightly shocked.  "What's going on, Pinkie Pie?"
"I just, umm...  well..."  Pinkie stammered awkwardly for a moment before taking a deep breath and asking, finally, "Twilight, how do you tell a colt you like him?"
"What?"  The unicorn must have been a bit louder than she intended, because her friend quickly shushed her.
"Twilight!" she whispered loudly, "Do you want him to hear us?"
"I'm sorry, Pinkie; it's just that, umm...  I never expected you to ask me for advice like that.  I don't get out much, you know."
"But surely you've read books about it, right?  Rainbow Dash says you read books about absolutely everything, so I figured there had to be at least one book you've read that says how to tell a colt you like him!"  The pink pony's eyes were wide and pleading, and Twilight hated to disappoint her friend, so she thought really hard about it for a moment.
"Well..." she finally said, putting a hoof to her chin and looking off over her shoulder, "I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I think maybe it would be best if you just sort of, you know... tell him."  Pinkie's jaw dropped.
"Oh, but Twilight, I could never do that; I'd be way too nervous!"  After a pause, she seemed to suddenly have thought of an idea.  "I know!  You tell him."  She smiled and looked at her friend hopefully, but now it was Twilight's turn to look awkward and uncomfortable.
"Pinkie, I don't know..."
"Pleeeeeaase, Twilight?"  The unicorn sighed and lowered her head.
"Fine."  Pinkie squeeed and hugged her.
"Thanks, Twilight; you're the best!"

When Twilight and Pinkie Pie got back to the table -- carrying two large boxes of cupcakes, Jeffy was surprisingly un-shocked to see -- Jeffy noticed that Pinkie seemed to be acting a bit stranger than usual.  He decided to ignore it and go about his business of eating cupcakes (which he really doubted were as nutritious as these horses seemed to believe they were.  Why are we eating this for lunch? he wondered with a bit of concern).
After a while of eating and attempting to make small talk with their new friend, the two mares looked at each other, and Pinkie nudged twilight with her hoof, clearing her throat.  The unicorn mare put down the cupcake she had been about to take a bite of and turned toward the colt.
"Pinkie has something she wants you to know," she said.  Jeffy's ears pricked forward.  Oh dear; what was this?  With a roll of her eyes and a heavy sigh, Twilight confessed what her younger friend was holding back.
"Jeffy, Pinkie likes you." 

His jaw dropped.

His ears lay flat against his skull.  How could this happen?  He didn't want to hurt these ponies because of the kindness they'd shown him, but he was definitely not comfortable crossing the friendliness line with any of them, especially that hyper pink one.
"That's, uhh... nice, Pinkie," he said, "but I, uhh...  gotta go.  Where's the restroom?"
"Just around that corner," said Pinkie, pointing a hoof in indication of the direction.  
"Yeah..." Jeffy said, backing away from the table.  He turned and walked toward the restroom normally, but once he was sure he was out of their sight, he made his escape from the restaurant and took off at a gallop in the first random direction he could.  He had no idea where he was going, but all that mattered was that he was away from Pinkie Pie and any awkward situation that might come from being around her.
He slowed to a trot and eventually stopped for a breath in sight of a relatively large, fancy-looking building.  A white unicorn with a purple mane was busy sweeping dust out of the doorway when she spotted him. 
Oh, no, he thought, another one of Pinkie Pie's friends...  He wanted to keep running, but it was too late.
"Jeffy!" called out Rarity in a fawning tone that he highly suspected was fake.  "You seem to have made a wonderful recovery.  Oh, how marvelous it is to see you out of the house!"  Yep, he decided, definitely fake.
"Uhh...  yeah," he answered.  "Pinkie Pie thought I was bored, so she sort of... dragged me out here."  He shifted on his hooves and and looked around a bit.  Rarity seemed to notice his discomfort at being out in the open, because she generously stepped aside and held the door open for him.
"Won't you come in, dear?" she offered with a smile that only looked about twenty percent forced.  Jeffy looked around him once more and, seeing no place else to go, he nodded and stepped inside.