Bad Company

by Symphony

Ch. 34 - Going Forward in Life, Take Two

Kathleen opened the door to the room she had been given, looking around with wide eyes. Last night she hadn't been able to get a proper look at her son's new home as she wanted to get in bed as soon as possible. She took careful steps out to the hallway, looking around.

'My word, he must be really successful...' A small smile grew on her face. She was proud of him that he had the fortitude to rebuild his life from an event such as this as she was still reeling from the fact that she was no longer in her own world. She came to the door that he had told her was his room. She turned the doorknob slowly and without making any sound, she gently cracked the door open.

Jay was lying on his side fast asleep, his forehead resting on the neck of the white unicorn mare she had been told was named Strawberry. The pony had her head angled so the end of her snout was hidden in his hair and Jay had an arm lying on top of the mare. Quiet snores came from the pair and Kathleen closed the door again without making a noise.

She put both hands on her cheeks and pulled down slowly, sighing. That was something that she would have to get used to. She had complete trust in Jay as she was his mother, she wasn't so sure about this... Pony, however. Who was she? How had she entered Jay's life? Was she some gold-digger out for his money?

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she walked down the stairs and looked around. She picked a direction and walked to the left until she came to a very nice-looking kitchen. She tapped a finger to her chin and a smile grew. Yes, she could work with this...

She began making breakfast, she found some bacon in the back of the freezer that Jay had labeled 'Fuck off Twilight'. She arched an eyebrow as she turned on the stove and retrieved some eggs from the refrigerator.

With some fiddling, she was able to get the coffee machine working. A sound coming from the stairs made her turn her head slightly from her cooking. The sound was much different from regular footsteps, much lighter with a distinct edge of it. She turned her head some more and saw Strawberry enter the kitchen with barely open eyes and some thick round glasses resting on the very tip of her muzzle.

The unicorn's light red and green mane was tied back in a loose ponytail and Kathleen's eyes widened slightly as she noticed that the mare was wearing one of Jay's t-shirts from how it sagged and was loose on the pony. Strawberry didn't look up at her, her eyes were firmly set on the fridge. She opened it with her magic and looked inside.

“Good morning.” Kathleen said.

Strawberry squeaked and jumped, hitting her head in the fridge. A container of orange juice teetered but she was quick to reach out and push it back before it fell. She mumbled a curse and pulled back, looking over at Jay's mother on the other side of the kitchen. Her glasses were now slanted and a small blush on her cheeks.

“Oh, um... Good morning!” Strawberry smiled and adjusted her glasses. A few beads of sweat went down her forehead. 'Past Strawberry isn't a nice pony...' She thought. “Did you sleep well?”

Moving the frying pan off the stove, Kathleen sighed. “I slept better than I did in that hospital, that's for sure...” She opened a few cupboards but eventually stopped as she found plates. “Is Jay on his way down?”

Strawberry nodded. “He is, he was just changing clothes.”

Kathleen leaned back toward the counter and crossed her arms, staring down at Strawberry. “So... Strawberry. Tell me about yourself. How did you and Jay meet?”

Strawberry gulped and her ears lowered as she took a seat by the table. "Well, I moved here two weeks before Jay arrived." She looked down at her hooves and bit her lip. "I come from Manehattan, I'm the youngest of five siblings..." She adjusted her glasses again. "I first met Jay in the town hall when he came to... register some things.”

Her ears lowered even further and a furious blush spread on her cheeks as she realized she would have to remake the extremely bumpy start of their relationship to be safer for work. "We met across town after that several times, went out for lunches and got talking until we decided to go further." Strawberry nodded. It would have to do for now...

Kathleen nodded and went back to plating the food, she assumed that ponies avoided meat so she added an extra slice of toast to Strawberry's plate. She started putting some bacon on Jay's plate and turned back to Strawberry.

“Watch this...” Kathleen put the first strip on the plate. “Three... Two... One...”

“Is that fuckin' bacon?!”

She smirked and Strawberry giggled. Rapid footsteps came down the steps followed by running and Jay came sliding around the corner, a manic smile on his face. He walked over to Strawberry and kissed her on the forehead, making her blush deepen. Kathleen smiled and handed over his plate.

“Yes!” He pumped a hand. “I forgot I had bacon here, had to hide it from Twi and Fluttershy...” He dug in and his mother joined after bringing them coffee. “So, what are we gonna do today?” He asked after stuffing his face, looking between his mother and girlfriend.

“I'm heading to work a little later today,” Strawberry took a sip of her coffee. “since we worked late last night we start two hours later.”

Jay nodded and smiled at his mother. “Well mom, that leaves you and me. Guess we can take a stroll through town and introduce you to some ponies I know.” He chuckled. “Twilight would have an aneurysm if I didn't bring you to her...” His eyes widened as a late thought hit him. “Oh, I forgot to ask, did she figure out what that spell did?” He asked, turning to Strawberry.

She nodded. “She did, she changed from it.”

“Changed?” Jay frowned. “How? She didn't sacrifice her friends to become some scary eldritch entity obsessed with hands, did she?”

Kathleen and Strawberry stared at him with raised eyebrows. Strawberry shook her head. “No, it's amazing actually!” She beamed. “It was a really old spell and when she figured it out, she became an alicorn!”

Jay blanched and dropped his fork. “...What.”

Strawberry nodded and stopped the fork from hitting the floor with her magic and levitated it back to the table. “She became an alicorn and she's a princess now!”

Jay laughed and patted Strawberry's shoulder. “Come on babe, don't tell me that the resident bookworm, little miss panic attack and master of I-told-you-so is a princess!”

“I'm not joking, she actually grew wings and she's a little taller even!”

"...Oh," Jay bit his lip. "Oh, God."

---

-First person switch-

Mom and I walked through town, a lot of ponies did double takes and stared, even more, when they saw two humans instead of just me. Strawberry had left for work so we were taking a walk while I pointed out places in town to mom. She had relaxed a little and wasn't fidgeting as much as she did around the ponies in the hospital. I guess a change of scenery works better in general...

“That weird building over there is Rarity's shop.” I pointed at the fruity boutique.

“Someone actually lives there?” Mom asked, staring at it. “I thought it was a strange art decoration...”

I nodded. “Yup, she works and lives there, never questioned why.” We continued walking until we closed in on the library.

“Is that a literal treehouse?” Mom asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, the ponies really like their puns as you might have noticed...” I started picking up the pace. “Come on, I gotta see this for myself.” I opened the door, crouched down and entered the library. Mom did the same and closed the door behind her.

Footsteps came from one of the rooms in the back and the door swung open. Spike walked through with a bunch of books in his grasp. I walked to him and took some of him. His eyes lit up.

“Oh, hey Jay!” He placed the books on the table in the middle and I did the same. “Did you meet that other human? What was it like? Did it fight ponies?!”

I laughed and patted his back. "No, why don't you ask her?" I thumbed back at mom. Spike peeked past the pile of books in front of him and stared at mom with wide eyes. They stared at each other in silence before Spike spoke up.

“She looks old...” He murmured. My face fell and I coughed. Mom's eyes flashed with anger for a split second. Spike waddled over to her and reached out his right hand to her. “Hi, I'm Spike! Nice to meet you!”

“Well, hello to you too Spike...” She looked unsure but shook his hand. “My name's Kathleen and I'm Jay's mother.”

Spike froze mid-handshake and turned to me. “Did I just call your mom old..?” He whispered loud enough for both me and mom to hear.

“You did.” Mom replied to him with a smile. “While I agree that I'm not in my prime anymore, it is rather rude to call a woman out on her age...” Her face darkened. Spike paled and gulped. Mom kept the evil eye on him for a few more seconds until her smile broke out again. “I'm kidding, Spike!”

He sighed in relief and put a hand on his chest. “I can see the similarities...” He rumbled out.

“You started it.” Mom smirked.

“Yup, you two are definitely related.”

“Aaanyway,” I began. “Before this gets out of hand, is Twilight in? I'm curious about something...”

Spike pointed at the door he had come from. “Yeah, she's in there reading up on some stuff.” He shrugged. “I don't know why she needs so many books though...”

I motioned for mom to follow me. She got behind me as I walked through the doorway. I saw Twilight sitting in the middle of the room on the floor with a bunch of books in piles around her. Her back was turned to us and she was focusing on a row of books lying in a semi-circle in front of her. She didn't notice us entering so I told mom to stop and carefully walked behind her.

Like Strawberry said, there was a pair of lavender wings on her back. I bit my tongue the closer I got to her. I squatted down behind her and tugged on both wings at the same time, opening them to their full span.

Twilight squeaked in alarm and her wings became rigid. Her horn blazed alive in a purple aura that shot off a beam of energy, crashing straight through the roof and continued straight up into the sky.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!” I fell down flat on my back and covered my face from some falling debris.

Twilight whirled around and glared at me with a blush on her face. “Jay! What the buck was that for?! They're sensitive...” Her ears fell flat. “...And I can't really control them yet.” She looked up at her new skyline and glared back at me.

I chuckled nervously and brushed some dirt off me as I got up to my feet. “Don't worry, I'll pay for that.” I walked around her in a circle, a finger on my chin. “Huh, you did get a little taller...”

Twilight's eyes widened and her ears perked once she noticed mom staring next to the door, glaring at me. “Jay... Who's that?”

I perked up. “Oh yeah, Twilight, meet Kathleen. Mom, meet Twilight.” I flicked one of her wings a couple of times until she smacked my hand with it.

Twilight whirled around to face me. I raised an eyebrow. "Your mother was the other human?!" Her ears lowered again. "Jay... I'm sorry that this happened to both of you."

Mom waved a hand dismissingly. “It's fine, I'm slowly getting used to it.”

I shrugged. “I got Celly to reopen their dimensional magic bullshit so hopefully there's a solution that they missed the first time around.”

Mom walked further into the room, avoiding to step on books along the way. She put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm just happy that I was able to see my boy again. We thought we lost him, after all..."

Twilight smiled at the display and she gathered the books she was reading to another pile. “So, what do you think of Equestria so far Kathleen?”

Mom thumbed at her nose and sniffed. “Well, it's definitely weird. I'm kind of iffy around ponies still but I'm getting used to it.” She chuckled. “At least I have a good guide so far.”

Twilight nodded. I cleared my throat and both of them turned to me. "So... Twilight," I scratched my chin. "I was wondering since Celestia is the princess of the sun, Luna is the princess of the moon... So what are you the princess of?"

Twilight beamed and her wings spread out and an invisible breeze went through her mane dramatically. “I'm the Princess of Friendship!”

…

“What the fuck..?” I mumbled. Both mom and I sniffed in sync and then crossed our arms, narrowing our eyes at her.

“How can you be a princess of friendship?” I asked. “That's like... Almost as creepy as that Cadance chick being the princess of love, to be honest...”

“There's a princess of love too?” Mom asked. “How can you be a princess of love..?”

I shook my head and shrugged, turning to mom. “I don't know, I asked her and all I got was a blank stare just like the one she has right now.”

“Huh.” Mom blinked. “Ponies are weird...”

“Yeah, tell me about it...” I turned around. “Come on, let's go and grab some lunch.”

We left Twilight standing in the room staring at a wall with a distant look in her eyes. Before we exited the library, I heard a frustrated yell from Twilight.

“I want to be a real princess!”

Man... Ponies are really weird. Princess of friendship? Almost as stupid as being the princess of magic or something... I stretched and cracked my knuckles, looking around. “So what are we having? I know a place that usually has some fish in stock...”

“That sounds lovely, show me the way.” Mom smiled. We continued walking through town until we came to the place Strawberry and I usually go for lunch.

We ordered the food and got seated, looking around. Mom was staring down at her hands. “So, Jay...”

“What is it?” I thanked the waiter as he gave us the food. I adjusted in my seat.

“If those princesses can fix this dimensional magic,” She looked up from her hands and her eyes met mine. “will you come home with me?”

Author's Note:

Big boy time for Jay, it's time to decide!

Comments

[killergoonie]

I'm pretty sure he won't and granted there is a good reason. If anything i can see Jay demanding some kind of access to continue communicating with his family at least. Maybe not being able to go back and forth dimensions but being able to write to them. Like that book in equestria girls.

[Uros]

Yeah, that is the kind of question that is worse than 'When are you going to give me grandchildren?'

[Igor0831]

K, there you have it Jay, leave up money or leave up family... Yeah, he's fucked up to decide. (btw, US NEED NEW CHAPTERS!1!11!!!1!)