//------------------------------// // The Filler Chapter // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// The Filler Chapter (Great name I know) The six stallions all lapsed into silence briefly before bursting out in laughter. When they had finally gotten a hold of themselves, Jason's straight face told them that he was serious. Before any of them could ask why he had chosen that name he spoke up. "Team Green Bean doesn't sound like it poses any threat whatsoever, so we went with that name. It was also the first thing I could think of off the top of my head. Now you can brag to everypony that you were a part of the team." He noticed that of the six, the numbers were evenly matched between the different types of ponies. "Now," Dash spoke up, getting a glance from Jason. "Hey, you always do these speech things, I want to give it a try." She punched him in the shoulder. "Fine..." "Anyway, the reason we need such a small, astute team is because we're taking the sewer entrance in, and basically get the doors open for the rest of the army. Evidently we're taking a big risk here, not only putting all of us in the line of fire but revealing the fact that we have a way in from the outside. The last thing we want to give them is direct access to this place." She paused. "We move out at eleven, report back here at nine thirty to get suited up and prepared." The six ponies saluted and trotted off in various directions. "You know, I don't really want them to salute me, but when they do it makes me feel all important. I'm having trouble waving them off." "Yeah, it's pretty nice. Anyway, we have three and a half hours to burn, what're we going to do with that?" "Sleep?" "You could say anything, and yet you come up with sleep?" "We are going to be fighting people in the middle of the night, and I'm still not healed, and it gives us an excuse to cuddle." "Well, when you put it that way..." She yawned. "Apparently I could use some sleep." Her stomach grumbled. "And some food." "I guess we should get the food first then. It's strange not actually needing to eat, then there's the whole vegetarian thing." "You won't let that go, will you?" "I love my meat dammit!" Jason drew some looks from the ponies. He rolled his eyes. "I'm not sure if that disturbs me. It definitely disturbs these ponies." She opened the door to the food storage and walked in. "I was being sarcastic!" he yelled to the ponies before closing the door behind him. "Back in my world, people look at you strange if you only eat vegetables, not the other way around. At least I don't have to listen to everyone telling me how wrong it is to eat meat, and the whole 'it has a face' thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you aren't really meant to eat meat, so I can see why it's shunned. I'm rambling." He caught a can from Dash. "Carrots?" "Nah," He looked at the can in his hand. "Is this canned cake?" Dash nodded like it was no big deal. "What kind of a canned good is cake?" "I dunno, it's not very good." Jason nodded and grabbed a can opener, quickly ripping the lid off and using it as a spoon. He took a bite before realizing something was off and shifting into Dash. He took another bite and gagged before spitting it into the wall, where it stuck, now tinged slightly green. "Um?" He said, prompting Dash to look up. "Why do you always turn into me?" "Seriously, you comment on my form and not the cake cemented to the wall?" "I have my priorities." "Fine. I don't want some other pony walking into the room to find herself, and this way I can admire you twice as much." She blushed. "Plus, I have a pretty good idea what you like." He noticed the carrots she was eating. "Like those." She quickly hid them behind her back. "Ah dornt knowr whart yourre tarking abart." She swallowed, briefly touching a hoof to her chin. "So basically if you like a food, I like it?" "Presumably. You don't like this canned cake." He looked at the still cemented cake on the wall, shuddering a little. "Catch." "Beans, this is better." He opened the can greedily and started chugging the beans, stopping after he noticed Dash's stare. "As soon as I turn into you I start to get hungry. Must be some sort of safeguard to make sure I eat. AND I enjoy the taste. It was a wonder I wasn't fat." "Can changelings get fat?" "I don't know, I mean love isn't really tangible, so it can't really be stored as fat. I don't think so. A fat changeling would look pretty weird though." He chuckled. "Throw me another can. Something fruity." She tossed him a can of peaches. "So how long until winter here? I know it kinda just starts snowing and stuff..." "A few weeks, we still have Nightmare Night and The Running of the Leaves to get through, then there's a few weather prep days." "So does regular climate apply outside of Equestria?" "What do you mean?" "Like clouds moving on their own, snow falling before winter..." "Yeah, it's unnatural." She shivered. "My whole world is like that." Her eyes widened. "Humans are pretty resilient, we put up with it." "But how?" "It's always been like that, so we've just adapted." He paused. "You know those explosives we have?" "Yeah..." "Okay so back on Earth we have these bombs that split atoms apart in a chain reaction and basically leave a sixteen mile wide crater. It's pretty epic." "Have you ever used one of them?" "There were lots of tests, but we only used two. They ended a war much faster, saving somewhere around a million American lives. That was the estimate anyway. Since then we haven't used any in war." "And that's not magic?" "No, that's the best part! It's just physics and chemistry on a molecular level. The bombs did end up advancing power generation techniques, we use a very slowed down process to power submarines, which are ships that go underwater, power plants, lots of stuff. I guess you walking into my world would be pretty much the same as how I've walked into yours. It's really different, and mine's probably a little more dangerous." "Um, you're right? Your world seems a lot weirder than you make it out to be." "Meh, you get used to it." There was relative silence as they both ingested the food from their respective cans until the door quickly opened. They both looked over to see Scoots in the doorway, looking pretty surprised at seeing two Dashes in the same place. "Hey Scoots." They said at the same time before looking at each other. Dash winked. "Which one of us is the real Dash, Squirt?" Jason asked. She looked at him. "Scoots, over here!" Dash yelled. "No, I'm the real Dash!" "No it's me!" "Scoots, remember that time where you set up that fan club?" They said in almost perfect unison. "How did you know that?" They both asked. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" Scoots turned tail and ran, quickly deciding that if she spent any longer in the room her head might explode. After seeing her leave, Dash and Jason broke into laughter. "How did you know I was going to say that?" "Lucky guess. Really lucky guess." Jason fished out another peach piece and sighed. Apparently he had finished off the can. "Do you want another?" "Nah, I probably shouldn't just pig out. I have no idea what happens to the food anyway, that's what really disturbs me." He paused. "You done?" "Yeah." Jason looked at her feet to see three empty cans of carrots. "You really like those carrots, huh?" "I swear I didn't use to. Thanks though." She trotted over and nuzzled his cheek, then backed up. "It's weird nuzzling myself." Jason dropped the disguise. "Better?" "Much better." She moved over and sat down next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. Neither of them moved for a few moments before Dash yawned and stretched. "I don't know about you, but I could really use some sleep right now." "I think I was the one that suggested it." "It was a good suggestion." "Agreeing with something I have to say without grudgingly accepting it? You definitely need some sleep." She punched him in the shoulder, then turned to leave. "You coming?" "I don't know, what's my incentive?" "Oh nothing, just a hot mare that coincidentally happens to be your mare friend." "I dunno...sounds a little too good to be true." She paused for a moment before turning around. "Was that a compliment or a well disguised insult?" "It was definitely a compliment." Jason said resolutely, getting up to follow her. "You know, I kinda wish our worlds had more in common." "Why? I mean besides problems with adaptation..." "A bunch of my humor doesn't make sense anymore. For example, if I were to say that the Delta airlines help desk is an oxymoron..." "I don't get it." "Exactly. That would've been hilarious to anyone flying Delta. I could also make jokes that would piss off millions of people back on Earth here because no one would get pissed off, but they wouldn't be funny. Dead baby jokes would make me look like a serial killer. You can see where I'm going with this." "Dead baby jokes?" "Don't ask. I'm going to use that in the middle of conversation sometime to disturb someone. And it will be hilarious." "I don't understand you." "That's good, I'm not shallow." "Well that's definitely a good way to put it." Dash pushed open the door to the sleeping quarters. It was totally deserted. She made her way over to the bed and flopped into it, sprawling her legs out in random directions. "No one ever sleeps in normal positions around here..." "If Scoot's had slept in a normal position she wouldn't have been as cute." She giggled. Jason rolled into bed next to Dash, pulling her into an embrace. "I don't think anything she does isn't cute. She'd probably hate for me to tell her that though." He paused. "So back to that snow stuff..." "Oh yeah, there's also mountains up north, still inside the border." "We should go there for a couple days, just rent a cabin, or whatever you do around here, or just build a temporary cloud house. And then I could show you some of the sports we had back on Earth." "Are they fast?" Jason stared at her incredulously. "I wouldn't tell you if they weren't." She giggled. "I'll look forward to it then." She pulled Jason towards her and planted a kiss on his lips. She pulled away after some time and rested her head on his shoulder. After a few seconds, she shifted her head uncomfortably. "You don't think you could--" He quickly shifted his form under her, turning into his usual Alternis alibi. She laid her head back down under his arm and sighed contentedly. "Have I ever told you that I love you Dash?" "It may have been mentioned." "Well I do." He stroked a hoof through her mane, briefly trying to figure out what if would feel like if he had fingers. "Stop saying sweet things and rest, Jason. You can make me feel loved as much as you want later." "But that's no fun, I need to bother you about it!" "You're impossible." Jason chuckled. "Well, I try..." He felt Dash smirk into his fur. Jason resigned to his fatigue and laid his head down, closing his eyes. They both quickly found sleep, wrapped in each other's hooves ____________________________________________________ Jason woke up with a start, for some reason thinking that he had missed the attack. He relaxed when he saw the time; they still had ten minutes until they were supposed to meet and get suited up. He pushed his hoof against Dash's shoulder, trying to rouse her. She opened her eyes a few seconds later, seeming to react in the same way Jason had before he laid a hoof on her shoulder, slightly calming her down. "We got ten minutes to get our stuff and get out there, so as much as I'd like to lounge around in bed with a mare as pretty as you, we should really get moving." "Why do you always make these decisions about getting up?" "When my brother was around, he would never get up, and it became my job to pull him out of his bed. It was a lot of fun, mostly because he hated it." "Fine, I'll get up then." "It's not like I'm actually pulling you out of bed or anything." "There was that one time..." "Yeah, that was fun." She punched him, causing him to chuckle. He looked around, realizing that the sleeping quarters were much more packed than before. Realizing that it was late, he shrugged off the pointless thought and jumped out of bed, grabbing a the armor and weapons in his magic. Dash got up and yawned before walking out the door in a daze behind him. Jason walked up to the ledge and dumped his stuff in a pile, turning to see that five of the six stallions were already present, and another was on his way over. "So guys, we have forty five minutes to get suited up, then we move out." They were staring at him strangely. He looked at his hoof, was there something on his fur? Aha! Fur! He dropped the disguise, surprising a few of the stallions. He cleared his throat again. "Anyway, forty five minutes. Bring everything you could possibly need in case things go wrong. Move out." The stallions all went into the barracks to get on their armor and to find weapons. Jason sighed before grabbing the explosives belt and wrapping it around himself. He used his magic to quickly get Dash suited up, carefully checking the armor for large cracks that could lead to the same fate he had received from the spear. "There's just something I love about this armor." "I know what you mean." "We should go tell Scoots we're leaving. It probably wouldn't be good to just leave." "Yeah, we still have a half hour. I'm assuming she's still doing something with the map? I don't see her out here." "Might as well check there first." They walked over to the door, opening it to find not just Scoots, but several other foals hovering over the somehow undamaged map. Scootaloo moved a piece on the board. "Bam, pay up!" She laughed as the other foal reluctantly passed her his remaining bits, frowning to himself. "Scoots?" She quickly looked up from her significantly larger than average pile of bits to see Jason and Dash, suited up for battle. "Wow, Dash you look awesome!" Dash leaned over to Jason and said something about gambling. "Scoots, did all these foals agree to this?" She nodded. "And you haven't cheated in any way?" she shook her head. "Alright I'm fine with it." Dash chuckled. "Looks like we have two military commanders in the family." She sighed. "Scoots, we're going to be gone for a few hours on a mission, but we should be back around daybreak. Don't worry too much." "Alright, neither of you better die." She warned. "Sure thing Scoots." He turned to Dash. "You ready?" She nodded. "Lets see if the team is ready." they walked back outside and waited around until the team showed up, a few minutes before they were scheduled to leave. Jason pointed to four of the stallions. "You four are team beta, the other two and us are team alpha." He paused. "Now in terms of code names, these I'll make cool," He started pointing to the stallions. "Archer, Tank, Hunter, Plasma, Steve, Potato. I'll be, uh, Phantom? Dash, you're Blur. Let's move out." The walk to the castle entrance was a quiet one; no one knew exactly what to expect. Jason stopped below the entrance, and turned to face the team. "I hope you're prepared. Nothing will be pretty up there, even less will go to plan. Welcome to Hell."