Dash made several passes around the orchard, waiting for Max to show himself. Her waiting was futile as the stubborn human remained hidden in the rows of trees. She soon found herself bored and flew to the top of the cloud. She jumped on top of it, increasing the amount of rain falling. Twilight also patiently waited for the human to show himself to no avail on the ground. She was convinced this was the most effective method, and wanted to prove to the Princess that she could capture Max without Jean's help. Meanwhile, Jean walked with Rarity and Pinky around town. Jean kept noticing more and more ponies staring at him. He understood why they stared; they had never seen anything like him before. A small crowd gathered behind him, watching his every move. Jean soon caught on and quickly thought of a prank. When the crowd wasn't expecting it, he whipped around and yelled "BOO!" at the top of his lungs. The entire crowd jumped back in fright but relaxed when they saw the human chuckling to himself.
"You guys flinch so easy!"
A few ponies in the crowd let out an uneasy laugh. Jean wasn't sure why, but he kind of enjoyed all the attention he was receiving. He felt almost like a celebrity.
"So where do you want to go?" Rarity asked
"I want to go back to the orchard to check on Max…" Jean said
"Oh Jean, Twilight said she could handle it, give her a little faith!" Pinky insisted
"I trust Twilight, it's that Dash I'm worried about" He explained
"What do you think is going to happen?" Rarity asked
Jean thought for a minute "Let's just say Max has an… abrasive personality and is slow to embrace new ideas. I suspect another incident could happen."
"What do you mean another incident?" Pinky questioned
"You didn't hear? Back in the orchard Dash flew down and started barking orders at us…" Jean described
"That doesn't sound so bad" Pinky said
"Max and I had to tie her up to get away" The human said
Pinky and Rarity looked at each other, then began to laugh. The crowd of ponies behind them over heard and also bust of in laugher. The crowd soon disbursed as ponies went off to tell others what had happened between the humans and Dash.
"Rainbow won't live long enough to hear the end of this" Rarity said, wiping a laugh induced tear from her eye
"Poor Dashie… She's gonna feel all embarrassed" Pinky said sympathetically
"Wait… you call her 'Dashie?' that's hilarious!" Jean said, a sly grin on his face. He now had a new nickname for Rainbow.
"So can we return to the orchard?" Jean asked
"If you insist" Rarity said
At the same time Max was huddled under the cover of an apple tree, from the rain. He was wet, tired and hungry and was worried about his friend who had recently gone missing. Max also felt incredibly guilty for not only trapping himself, but also trapping his friend on a hostile alien world. He could see his breath, the temperature was slowly dropping. Rainbow Dash was the cause for this rapid decrease in temperature. Using her Pegasus capabilities, she pushed a snow cloud over the orchard in attempts to flush Max from the trees. A slushy mix of rain and snow covered the trees as a layer of mud formed on the ground.
"Any time now…" Dash said to twilight
"Maybe Jean was right about this human" Applejack said "This is getting kinda ridiculous"
"Just give it a little more time" Twilight said
"Humans sure are hearty critters" Aj remarked
Little did they know, Max had no intension of leaving the apple orchard. He had told Jean he would wait for him there.
"Where is he? Maybe he got captured…" Max kept running different scenarios through his head.
Meanwhile Jean, Rarity and Pinky Pie met with Twilight who was surprised to see them.
"Wait here" Jean said to his two companions and walked over to Twilight
"How's the search coming? Any luck?" He said
"The search is going along fine. I thought I told you I could handle it…" Twilight said
"I know. I'm just here to make sure good ol' Dashie doesn't try any funny business" Jean said and leaned against a tree
"Ok, but don't interfere. I need to do this on my own." Twilight said
"Why can't you accept my help? What are you trying to prove?" The human asked with suspicion
"I want the princess to know that I can do this with little to no help" Twilight cheerfully replied
Jean sighed and walked over at Pinky Pie and Rarity. He looked at the massive collection of storm clouds. "So much trouble over one single person…" He thought, then sat down on a hay bail.
"I feel so useless…" He said
"Don't be so hard on yourself" Pinky said
"It's hard not too… I'm stuck on an alien world, my best friend has gone missing and there isn't a damn thing I can do about either" He said, then stretched out and put his hands behind his head. "The only thing to do is sit back and watch the chaos unfold"
At that moment, Dash was flying overhead and saw Jean watching the show. Immediately she flew down to heckle Jean.
"Why are you here?" She demanded
"Oh hey Dashie! I didn't see you up there!" Jean said sarcastically
The word 'Dashie' immediately got her attention "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"
"Opps! Am I not allowed to call you that?" Jean said with a false smile
"No pony except Pinky can call me that!" Rainbow snarled
"Call you what? Dashie?" Jean was enjoying himself, Rarity had also begun to giggle.
"You better watch your mouth!" Rainbow said ominously
"Ok, ok, you're right." Jean said in feigned obedience
"That's more like it…" The Pegasus said
"I suppose it was rude of me to call you… DASHIE!" Jean said, then burst into laughter, Rarity and Pinky joined him. Rainbow's face was turning a shade of pink
"Why you two-legged little-" Dash growled
"Rainbow! Play nice with the human!" Twilight said, overhearing the argument
"Oh Dash, you know we're just kidding, right Jean?" Rarity said
"Sure" Jean said, his mischievous smile still present
Rainbow sneered and with a cloud of dust and feathers she was back in the air searching for Max.
"Heh heh, that was fun…" Jean said
"Maybe you were a little hard on her. She seemed a little embarrassed" Pinky said
Jean rubbed the back of his head "I think your right… she did set herself up for it though. I'll have a word with her."
Almost four hours had passed, the rain and snow over the orchard continued at a steady pace. Applejack looked at her overly saturated trees
"Twi, if you keep this rain up, you're gonna drown all the trees…" She warned
"Alright. Rainbow! Cut the weather!" Twilight called to Dash, who in turn kicked the cloud again and the weather stopped
Twilight, AJ, Dash and Fluttershy all regrouped, Jean, Rarity and Pinky watched from the side lines.
"What's the plan?" Rainbow asked
Twilight rubbed her head "I don't know, I thought for sure this would work. Hmmmm…"
Jean saw an opportunity "Twilight, may I make a suggestion?"
"Ok lets hear it…" Twilight said, giving in
"I just need one chance to speak with him and I can almost guarantee his cooperation" Jean said
"Oh ok, we'll follow you" She said
"No, just me. If he sees all of you he'll never come out" Jean said
"how do we know you won't just run off?" Dash said suspiciously
"Would you give it a rest? You'll just have to trust me on this" The human said "What do you say?" He looked at Twilight
Twilight thought for a minute "… Fluttershy, go with Jean." She turned to Jean "You have ONE chance, don't make me regret this"
"You have my word." Jean said and displayed a shiny smile
"Fluttershy, with me." He said to the yellow Pegasus
With that he ventured into the orchard. The ground was muddy and wet. He looked down at his already soaked shoes, "I just had to wear converse today…"
"Max! Come on out! It's Jean!" He called with no answer
"He must be on the other side, come on"
The human and Pegasus carefully moved through the trees, looking for any signs of human activity.
"What's Max like?" Fluttershy asked
"He… He's an arrogant bastard. But that's why I enjoy him so much, he keeps things real." Jean said, then he noticed something on the ground, a human footprint.
"He's nearby" Jean said with a grin
"YO MAX! GET YOUR UGLY ASS OUT HERE" Jean yelled into the distance
"Jean?! Is that you?" A voice called back
"Who else could it be?!" Jean yelled over
Max came out of the brush, a huge smile came over his face
"Jean!" He said and came running toward his friend
Max looked weary and was streaked with mud and dirt "Damn dude you look like hell… It's good to see you in one piece though" Jean said
"Yeah it started raining then it snowed all of a sudden. Can you believe that?" Max said
"Yeah about that…" Jean remarked
At that moment, Max saw Fluttershy standing behind Jean
"What the hell are you doing with that… thing? They're dangerous, remember? " He said pointing to the Pegasus
"Max this is Fluttershy. She is anything but dangerous." Jean said introducing the two
"Hello there little guy" She said with a kind smile
"You need to come with me Max. There is much we need to discuss"