Second Chances: Between the Lines
By Hero541
The Shed

Josh and Vinyl sat at the board and mixer, the human playing a backbeat and adding in a few effects here and there to achieve the desired effect.

“That growling sound comes from this dial here.” he said, pointing to a black dial behind the jogwheels, “If I turn it just a little…”

He turned the dial and a mechanical growling sound issued forth. Vinyl almost squealed with joy at the harsh sound. She’d learned to love the effects that made a song more intense and driving, especially the grinds and growls. However, she wasn’t really confident enough in herself to try and use all of them just yet.

“That’s gotta be one of the best sounds in a song, I think.” she said, smiling at Josh as he made the music fade out.

“It’s definitely great if you wanna get that sort of jungle sound.” said the human, turning and facing Vinyl, “Just remember that there is such thing as too much of a good thing.”

Vinyl was about to reply when the door to the shed opened and Octavia walked in.

“Your time is done for now, Josh.” she said.

“Oh. Okay then.”

Octavia could sense a little disappointment in Josh’s voice as he replied. She smiled inwardly at this, glad that he was having a good time with Vinyl.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” he said to Vinyl, who also wore a slight expression of disappointment that Josh had to go now.

“I’ll be waiting.” she said, blushing a little.

Josh leaned down and hugged her, before turning and making his way out the shed door, past Octavia.

“You don’t seem all that eager to go.” noted the gray mare, giving Josh a smug smile.

“We were making a fair bit of progress today.” he replied, returning her smile, “I was hoping I could get her to touch the board again. She’s been a little hesitant since the window broke from her first try.”

“Well, I’ll let you two go a little longer tomorrow, if that would help.”

“That’d be great! Thanks Tavi.”

Josh turned and walked away, headed back to the boutique and to a nice nap.

“No, thank you.” said Octavia quietly as Josh walked away.

Turning, she saw Vinyl still in the shed, one speaker of the headphones to her ear, listening and moving to the beat of a song. Octavia decided to leave her be. Vinyl probably wanted to practice for a little while.

*****

Josh made his way through Ponyville central pretty slowly. It was close to noon, and the lunch rush had begun. All around him, ponies were darting around from shop to shop, trying to grab something last minute before heading back to work. Josh saw Sugarcube Corner nearby, and remembered Pinkie saying something about having something for him. He made his way towards the confectionary shop, hoping that whatever Pinkie gave him, it didn’t have coffee in it again.

He entered the shop to find that it was fairly busy. He looked all around for that weird little pink pony, knowing full well that she could pop up anywhere. As he peered around, he saw a quick flash of pink out of the corner of his eye, and felt something pushing him from behind.

“Yay! You’re here, Joshie!” he heard a voice call from behind him, “Let’s go into the kitchen! I’ve got something extra super duper awesomely fantastical for you to try!”

Josh didn’t even protest as he was pushed forward into the kitchen, narrowly ducking in time to pass through the doorway. As he felt the presence behind him leave, he looked all around and saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were there as well.

“Pinkie convince you to be her next lab rat too?” asked the prismatic pony, smiling as Pinkie reappeared and began preparing something.

“Hardly. I’m never one to pass up some free treats. Especially from Pinkie.”

“Didn’t her last ones make you sick?” asked Fluttershy.

“Well, in all fairness, I never told her I can’t have caffeine.” said Josh, remembering back to the breakfast cookie incident.

He thought he’d never be able to leave the bathroom again that day.

“Hey, everypony!” the party pony called, bouncing towards them with a tray on her back, “Here’s the treats!”

Pinkie placed the tray on the nearby counter and everyone gathered examined it. On the tray was a sheet of wax paper, with a golden sheet of melted sugar and peanuts on it.

“It’s peanut brittle!” said the pony, smiling wide as each of her friends broke off a piece of the treat and began eating, “Mrs. Cake finally found the perfect recipe for it and had me make some as a test to see how it is. Do you guys like it? Huh? Do ya?”

Josh, Rainbow, and Fluttershy all got a dreamy look on their faces as they chewed the delectable treat, savoring the flavor. Each one made a noise of approval and continued to chew. Pinkie beamed as her friends each ate another piece of the treat.

“Pinkie! We could use your help out here again!” called Mrs. Cake, rushing in to grab a nearby tray of cupcakes.

“Okie Dokie Loki!” said Pinkie, bounding out of the kitchen to help the Cakes, leaving Rainbow, Josh, and Fluttershy to talk amongst themselves.

Rainbow told them all about how she’d gotten a letter from the Wonderbolts saying how they wanted her to return to the academy for a little while and help Spitfire with a group of new recruits.

“I thought you had to be a part of the Wonderbolts team to do stuff like that.” said Josh, trying to recall everything Rainbow had told him about the group.

“Normally, yeah. You do.” said Rainbow through a mouthful of brittle, “But… Spitfire put in a good word for me after I left and convinced the higher-ups to let me be a cadet instructor for her!”

“That probably means you’ll be her go-for.” said Josh, thinking back to when he first started working as a DJ of sorts.

“Probably. But still, to work alongside Spitfire! It’s like my dream come true to work with her!”

“That’s really nice of them to let you do that, Rainbow.” said Fluttershy, looking towards the clock on the wall, “I… Oh my. I have to go now.”

“What’s the rush, Shy? You got something you need to do?” asked Josh.

“I’ve been needing to clean my shed for awhile now, and I know that if I don’t get started on it now, there’s no way I’ll get it done before the sun goes down.” she shuddered, “And the last thing I want to do is be outside in the d-dark.”

Josh and Rainbow exchanged glances as Fluttershy made her way out of the kitchen.

“Maybe I could give you a hand with that.” said Josh, causing both Fluttershy and Rainbow to look at him in disbelief.

“R-really? Are you sure you’d want to help me?” asked the yellow pegasus, staring at Josh.

“I don’t see why not.” he replied, smiling at the demure pony, “You could probably use the muscle to help you out anyway. I’ll just have to stop by the boutique and make sure Rarity’s okay. I may have to go get Sweetie Belle after school if she’s asleep or something.”

Fluttershy smiled once more at Josh, glad that somepony would be willing to help her.

“Thank you, Josh.” she said, turning and making her way out the kitchen doors, “I appreciate the help. I’ll warn you now though, it’s pretty bad in there.”

Josh and Rainbow followed her out, Josh saying as they left, “Come on. It’s just you. How bad could it possibly be in there?”

*****

“Dear God, Fluttershy. How long has it been since you’ve last organized this place?!”

Josh stood in the threshold to Fluttershy’s shed, in awe that there wasn’t the skeleton of some long lost pony in it somewhere. All over, there were sharp tools that Josh knew there was no way Fluttershy would use hanging from the ceiling and covered in a thick layer of dust, as well as bag after bag after bag of animal food. He turned to Fluttershy and saw her smile sheepishly. The squeaky noise sounded once more.

“There’s that goddamn noise again!” he said, peering all around for its source.

“What noise?” asked the pegasus, looking around as well.

“You can’t tell me you didn’t hear that!” exclaimed Josh, staring at Fluttershy.

“I-I d-didn’t! I swear!” she said, backing off at his sudden outburst.

“Sorry…” he said, calming down, “Maybe I’m just going crazy.”

He looked once more to the shed.

“How has no one died coming out here?” he asked, tenderly setting foot in the shack, “All it’d take is for them to trip on one of these bags and hit the floor and get a few of those tools to impale them!”

“There’s a very good reason I don’t allow ponies in here.” replied the pegasus, floating behind Josh, causing some dust to fly up from the flapping of her wings.

Josh coughed as the dust hit him and he stumbled forward, tripping on a bag of feed. As he hit the ground, the whole shed shook, causing a hanging pitchfork to fall and almost impale his leg. Fluttershy made a loud squeal as the tool landed just to the right of the human’s large leg.

“I told you!” said Josh, quickly turning over to examine the wickedly sharp tool.

He crawled away and carefully stood up, avoiding a hanging axe that looked like it had just been sharpened.

“Who hangs their tools from the ceiling like that?” asked Josh, looking to Fluttershy.

“I-I don’t know. The previous owners of this cottage just left everything they had here when they left. I hate having to come in here to get anything! I’m too afraid to move something though, in case it all crashes down!”

Fluttershy had tears pricking the corners of her eyes as she spoke, her voice becoming louder and more upset. Josh took pity on the shy pegasus and walked forward to hug her. She smiled at his touch, her tears disappearing.

“It’s not your fault that the owners before you were so lazy.” he said, smiling at her, “We’ll just get it tidied up a bit for you. Then, you won’t have anything to be afraid of out here anymore, okay?”

“O-okay.” she replied, wiping her eyes with a hoof, “So, where do we start?”

*****

Surprisingly, the cleaning and organizing of Fluttershy’s shed went pretty quickly. All they had to do was take down the tools from the ceiling and then organize all the feed for her animals. Once it was all done, they sat nearby and talked, Fluttershy petting her bunny, Angel.

“He certainly is a cute little guy.” said Josh, handing the rabbit a little piece of carrot.

Angel just stared at him, pointing at the larger carrot that Josh had in his hand. Josh smiled at the bunny and handed him the piece, which Angel greedily took and began to eat.

“Do you know what time it is, Shy? I’ll need to go get Sweets from school soon, I think.”

“Before you go, here.” she said, reaching around and brandishing a handful of bits.

“Shy, I can’t accept this.” said Josh, examining the small gold coins, “I was just being helpful.”

“I insist, Josh.” she replied, smiling at him, “Nopony’s ever offered to help me like that before. Don’t think of it as payment for that. Just think of it as a gift.”

Josh smiled and took the bits. He said his goodbyes to Fluttershy and her pets, hugging the pegasus tightly. Slowly, he made his way down the road, headed towards the schoolhouse and Sweetie Belle.

Author's Note

This one's for you, 254Ddubman. Enjoy, my friend.