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Bad Company

by Symphony

Chapter 43: Ch. 39 - Life Goes On

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Author's Notes:

The next chapter will be the epilogue.

-Two weeks later-

The sun was bearing down hard, not a single cloud in the sky could be seen in any direction. The ponies who could enjoy their day outside was doing so with great enthusiasm. The younger ponies were running about, getting into trouble and generally having a good time with their friends.

The older ponies, including the even older generation, was having a good time, hanging around with friends and loved ones on a beautiful day, just enjoying a moment of no obligations as the warm weather made any physical labor much harder than it had to be.

And frankly, Jay was getting sick of it.

He turned his glare that was hiding behind his sunglasses to the group of ponies sitting with him at the picnic table. He was resting his chin on his hand, with the elbow on the table. He began tapping his fingers on the table. The girls' ears all flicked at the sound as it became louder with every passing second.

At a final louder tap, Rarity turned to him with a frown.

“What's the matter? I feel like you've got something on your mind.” She said, becoming slightly put-off from the scowl on the humans face.

“I'm fucking bored.” He rumbled out. “There's nothing to do here and it's too fuckin' warm to really get into something.” He stood up and stretched, then pulled down his tank top. Jay stood up from his seat and began walking away. Reaching into a pocket, he pulled up a pack and withdrew a cigarette and lit it.

He left the park with that, growling out a 'fuck off' to a pony that got in his way. Strawberry sighed and rubbed her foreleg.

“Sorry girls...” She sighed. “Jay has been a little... off after his mother went home.”

Rainbow Dash snorted. “Well, if he's gonna act like that why won't he just go back as well then?”

Strawberry's ears fell. They hadn't been fully informed about his choice yet so it would have to fall to her. “Well... Long story short is that... He can't.” Everypony turned to her.

"Well, why not?!" Pinkie said, placing her forehooves on the table and leaned over it to come face-to-face with Strawberry. "If he's grumpy like that, it makes everypony else feel bad! Maybe he can bring his whole family here! Wow, what a party that would be!" She giggled at the thought.

Strawberry shook her head and then bit her lip. Here came the hard part... “He decided to use the princesses' magic to close the connection to his world and he had to stay behind for that.”

She looked around, the realization came to her friends one-by-one. "He willingly took away his chances to go home just so nopony else could be put in the same situation as him..." She sighed and stood up from her seat. "I'm gonna go check up on him, see you later..."

Strawberry trotted off in the same direction as Jay walked off in, apologizing to the same stallion that the human mouthed off to.


I took a drag from the cigarette, then blew out a puff of smoke from a corner of my mouth. To be honest, I was never a big fan of it but it reminds me of home. Dad had always been a smoker, ever since I was a kid. For him to just decide to quit like that is impressive.

Me, though? I'm doing it because it's a familiar smell of burning nicotine.

I pulled one of my hands from my pockets, grabbed the cigarette and threw it on the ground, then stomped it out on the ground beneath me. I don't know why I'm feeling like this. I feel like I have made a huge mistake but I also feel like this is the best choice I could have made. I should feel good that I helped to fix some interdimensional fuck-up before it got worse and dragged more people into this.

So... Why can't I help feeling like shit?

Not just feeling bad, it's almost like something flipped a switch inside my head and just pulled this out from underneath a carpet. Anger, regret and somehow a small bit of relief were pushed in there. Sometimes, I can sit down and take it easy only to just rave on about something not even five minutes later.

It's not just affecting me, it's starting to make an effect on Strawberry and everyone else, that's the part that's really bothering me. I can't let it go out on them, they're what I have here and it feels like I'm pushing them away, even though I hate the thought of it happening.

“Jay, are you okay?”

My internal monologue ground to a halt when I heard Strawberry call out my name. I stopped and turned around to see her walking toward me with her ears back and a worried look on her face. I scratched my chin, then smiled.

“I'm okay, sorry for snapping like that earlier. Dunno what went through me...” Seems like she didn't buy it as a frown grew on her face.

“Jay, please...” She walked closer to me. “Tell me what's wrong, I can't help you if you don't tell me.”

I scratched my arm and looked away from her and sighed. “Sometimes I... I feel like I made a mistake by staying here.” She stared up at me with her ears completely flat and tears budding in her eyes. I raised my arms.

“I get over it, it's like a passing thought... I just feel like I could have done something else than shutting my world out completely!” I moved closer to her and kneeled in front of her.

“I would never leave what I have here, I feel like it could have been a better solution somewhere but I rushed it... I wouldn't leave you, or the girls...” I sighed again and ran a hand over my face, then groaned in frustration.

“But I just feel like I fucked up real bad. It's constantly nagging in the back of my head, it's driving me crazy because I keep going through it in my head...” I stood back up and brushed some dust off my pants. “I could have done more, but I didn't... Now I blew my last chance to go home...”

She didn't say a single word, she only approached me and stood up on her back legs, then gave me a tight hug. "I think you need a change of scenery..." She eventually said after separating from me. "You've only been here, Canterlot and Manehattan a couple of times." She dropped down to her four legs. "So, what do you say? Want to go on a trip somewhere?"

I scratched my chin. “Y'know, that's actually not a bad idea...”

“Do you have anywhere in mind?”

“Well... I kinda want to go to that Crystal Empire place, maybe find some good vacation spot around the coast and do some tourist stuff somewhere? What do you think?”

Strawberry hummed, eventually a smile split her face. “Sounds good to me, I'll get everything sorted with work and we can start looking at travel options.”

I blew a raspberry. “Why don't you just quit work? I got money covered and we're working on a new product right now...”

“What? Why?!” She puffed out her cheeks. “Why should I? I really like my job.”

Beads of sweat started rolling down my forehead and my smile became strained. Her eyes narrowed instantly. “...Jay. What did you do?”

“Nothing.” I squeaked out. Her eyes narrowed even further. “Well uh... I might have... You know, sent in an application for you to work with me at Platinum Industries and since I'm a project lead at the human appliance division they accepted it immediately before I was able to ask you which led to me already...” I took a deep breath to stop my massive run-on sentence. “To already... Kinda, sorta... Dropping off your resignation letter..?”

“Jay.”

I took a slow step back away from her. “Y-yeah?”

“While I appreciate that you're looking out for me, I can deal with this myself. If you would have asked me, I would have accepted it.” She frowned. “But I don't like that you faked my signature for an official letter...”

“It uh... wasn't really official...” I scratched the back of my head with a wry grin. “It was a piece of parchment that said 'Fuck you, I quit' with your name on it and I put it right to the mayor's personal inbox...”

She grit her teeth.


-Third person-

Rarity frowned. The source of Jay's behavior the last week and a half was eating away at her. Fluttershy was walking with her on their way to the humans' home to talk to him about it. Perhaps it wouldn't do much, but they felt as if the man needed to know that he had support from both of them in this trying time for him.

They also wanted to help Strawberry, the poor unicorn looked absolutely drained when she arrived at the park and when she left to follow Jay. The duo didn't make it far until they heard rapid footsteps coming closer to them.

The ponies stopped as Jay came skidding around the corner, a panicked look on his face and he took off at a mad dash down the street past them.

“Jay?!” Rarity called after him, they heard another skidding sound behind them and saw Strawberry standing there, absolute fury written on her face.

The mare ignored them, her eyes were trained on the human and she took off running, attempting to catch up to him. “Get back here!” She yelled.

Fuck no!” He shouted back at her.

Rarity and Fluttershy both blinked slowly, then glanced at each other. Fluttershy sighed and was the first one to speak.

“I don't want to know...”

Next Chapter: Ch. 40 - Epilogue Estimated time remaining: 6 Minutes
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