//------------------------------// // The Resolution // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// The Resolution "Looks like Team Green Bean was a success." "Yeah, but two of us died. Plasma and Potato." He sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that." "Oh yeah? So am I! Potato gave his life getting that gate open!" He took a deep breath, composing himself as best he could. "What happened to Celestia, by the way?" "We secured her a few minutes ago from one of the side rooms of the castle. She appeared to be mostly unharmed." A door opened and a few guards walked in, followed by a slightly dirty looking Celestia. She walked over, smiling at the three of them as they saluted. "I'm glad to be out of that room." She shuddered before her expression lightened. "Apparently my trust was not misplaced as it turns out, changeling. I commend you for your efforts. It means more than you know." "Jason." Dash said. "Pardon?" "His name is Jason." "Alright, Jason, what are you planning to do now that this is all over?" "Well, I was planning on going back to Ponyville with Dash and Scootaloo, maybe take a little vacation time, get some sort of job..." "Ah, yes. Jobs." She stroked her chin in thought. "Princess, you're planning to pursue the griffin military into their territory, correct?" "It has come up as an idea before, but I was not explicitly planning on it." "They'll probably just attack again if you don't go on the offensive. They've also just lost a big chunk of their army. I'd say it's the right time for an attack. We'll suffer more casualties if we don't keep them from coming back. Chances are, you don't want a repeat of this." He pointed out the window at the battered and broken city. "I see." She rubbed her chin again. Jason suppressed a chuckle after imagining her with a beard. "How would you like to control the troop movements?" "Is that a job offering?" "Yes, I believe it is." She replied. Jason was lost for words. "UH....ng..mr." "He'll take the job." Dash said. Jason nodded. The Princess chuckled heartily. "Do I get a map like the one underground, but for a larger area?" He asked, attempting to plead with his eyes. "Yes, I will have one made." Shining gave her a look. "Do not worry, Captain, you still have your job, all the changeling controls is large scale troop movements and positions, approved, of course by you. I have not assigned him to be on the front lines, I'm surprised he's still standing right now, with all that blood." Jason worriedly looked at himself. True to her word, the recent cracks had yielded a fair amount of blood, although he didn't think it was anything to be worried about. Of course, he clearly couldn't judge risks very well. "Can I override his judgements?" "If you have adequate reasoning." "It's fine with me then." "Now, pay and benefits. You will of course be in a part time job in peace time, but as of now, this is a full time job. You have at least a few days while we prepare to start this military campaign. During that time a map will be built in your place of residence and you will have time to do with your time as you wish. Pay will be sixty-five thousand bits a year full time, forty-thousand part time." "Dash, how is that for pay?" "Let's just say, it's a lot of money." "Alright, I accept. How about you Dash? It would be your house." "Meh, we can just expand it, cloud house and all." "Okay then. We'll be in touch when we get the house back into working order. Right now though, I think I'm just going to go see if Scoots is fine and get some sleep." He yawned. "These pre-dawn battle things really take it outta you, if you know what I mean." "Before you leave the city though, come by the castle. There are a few things I need to ask you before I let you go." She kept a bright expression on her face, leaving Jason and Dash to wonder if she was actually talking about minor topics or if she just had one hell of a poker face. "Sure thing princess. You coming Dash?" She snapped out of her daydream. "Yeah, long day I guess. Well, long night." "Oh really? What happened?" He asked, causing her to chuckle. On Jason's insistance, they walked closer to the base above ground before entering the tunnels, passing by several ponies who were already starting to clean up the wreckage in the pre-dawn hours. Jason levitated some rubble into a wheelbarrow as they walked by, watching other ponies start to chip away at the herculean task. "Have they ever had to rebuild the city before?" "Not from this state. There were a few attacks that came close, and the city was almost completely rebuilt in six months." "How? I mean, I know the buildings are pretty simple and it isn't that big of a city, but that's amazing!" "Well, you know, magic." "Yeah..." "So the Princess wanted to see you." "Yeah, I hope she doesn't want to know too much. I mean, I'm guessing she wants to know about the flash-bangs and stuff, possibly Scootaloo. I'm definitely not going to tell her how the explosives work." "Why?" "Well, for one thing, it would throw the economy completely out of whack, using things that were nearly useless prior, inflating their value. Then the technology would spread, and all the nations would equip their armies with the weapons." "But it would save thousands of ponies!" "Aha! For a while, it would, then stuff would be back to normal, which would be fine if you could continue to advance, but you did that based on stuff that no one understands. So I'm going to tell her about a different technology, one that's easily producible, useful, and could probably safely bump your society ahead by anywhere from tens to hundreds of years. The little economist inside my head informs me that it also shouldn't screw with the economy too much, definitely not as much as introducing explosives." "Just tell me what it is..." "You'll have to be patient. It's not really that mind bending, so don't get that excited." "Come on, please?" "No. It's a surprise." "Ugh, don't you understand that I like to know things?" "Yes." He chuckled. She poked him in the chest. "You're just lucky you have alien technology to lord over me." "I'll give you a hint. What's stronger than iron." "Nothing." "Okay, I must just be wrong then." "So you're saying your people found something stronger than iron?" "Well, several things, actually, but yeah. I'm not answering any more of your questions. You already weaseled out most of the information anyway." She giggled. "Well, here's the door thingy." He threw it open, making a loud screech and bang as it slammed into the wall. Dash stared at him. "I kinda had to do that at some point. Opening doors carefully is boring." "Why are you so strange?" "Is this a trick question?" He jumped into the pipe and disappeared into the darkness. He yelled up a moment later. "You coming?" She rolled her eyes and jumped down after him, landing after a few moments. "You know, it's weird thinking that we aren't going to be actually fighting griffins tomorrow." Dash said. "In a way, I'm kinda gonna miss it. I mean, it was dangerous as hell, but it was definitely... you know I don't really know what it was. It wasn't really fun in any sense of the word, but... yeah I have no idea." "Exciting maybe?" "I guess." He paused, chuckling lightly. "I wonder how much more money Scoots won from beating those other foals." "Judging by the size of her pile of bits, I'm guessing a lot." "Has it ever crossed your mind that she has her cutie mark in whatever it is she was doing there?" "Then why didn't she get it?" "Maybe she's just not taking it seriously or something? You didn't get a cutie mark until you broke the sound barrier, and specifically breaking the sound barrier isn't your talent, it's flying. That's probably why the Crusaders never actually get their cutie marks, besides the fact that they attempt things no one would ever have a cutie mark in." "Yeah, it's not like anypony actually knows how they work really. It's still kind of a mystery." They emerged from the tunnel into the shockingly empty central room. "The ponies must've been pretty anxious to get out of here," Jason said. "Well, it's not like they've had much to do. If I were them I'd be climbing the walls by now." "It's the last day here, so you might as well make the most of it." "Sleep?" "Yeah. Wanna go find Scoots?" She nodded, and they proceeded into the map room. Scoots wasn't there. "She probably went to bed." They crossed the room, walking into the sleeping quarters, finding several more ponies asleep. Jason walked over to their bunk, noticing that one of Scoot's legs was hanging off the top bunk as she slept. He nudged her further onto the bed before moving to get on his own bed. "Wait!" Dash hissed. He looked back at her, confused. "Don't get into bed like that, I just got a roll of bandages. There's no reason to make ponies think that a serial killer struck." He stared at her briefly before walking over. "Transform first." He obliged, looking himself over to see the strange looking wounds, now looking like someone had cut him up with a scalpel because they had taken the same shape as the old injuries. She trotted over with the bandages balanced on a wing and started to tie them around him, covering most of his torso in the fluffy white fabric before stepping back to observe her handiwork and securing it with a safety pin. "I'm no doctor, but that looks a lot better than before." "Yeah, it's a real close competition." "Thanks." "It's always a pleasure." He beamed at her. "If I didn't know you I'd be pissed right now." "That's why I wait to get to know women before getting all sarcastic. If they're still with me I've found the right one." "Past experience backing that theory up?" "Well, my first girlfriend was pretty fun to mess with... Nah I'm just kidding, everyone loves my sense of humor." "You're so very modest Jason." "Thanks!" Scoots twitched her hanging led and mumbled something. They both laughed quietly. Dash yawned widely, rolling into the bed. Jason fell into it afterwords, jostling Dash around as the mattress accounted for his added weight. "Hey Jason, are we just kinda strutting into town tomorrow?" "It's funny, we create plans to win a battle, fight the battle, and now I got nothing to just re-enter a town." "Ha, yeah. We could maybe get Celestia to send a letter ahead of time." "Well I don't have any other ideas." "I'd like to see the look on Twilight's face when that letter pops up. That'd be great!" "Wow, wait I'm not really sure how she would react." "Well, yeah, would she be mad that she was wrong, or would she be annoyed that the princess had to point out her error?" "For someone so studious, she isn't really that predictable." He yawned. "What is it about fighting things all day that just exhausts you?" "I have no idea." She giggled, poking his nose with a hoof. "It's weird being the only ponies in this place." "SHADDUP OVER THERE!!!" They both laughed. "Well, almost." She leaned over and kissed him. "G'night." "Night Dash." He pulled her closer as she nestled her head into his chest. "These bandages are scratchy. Stop hurting yourself so I can have a nice soft chest to sleep on." "Sure thing Dash." She mumbled something incomprehensible before passing out in his arms. Jason decided to follow her lead. _____________________________________________________ Jason was awoken by a sudden pressure on his chest, followed by another, and another. He couldn't figure out what it was, hoping that whatever it was it would just go away. What was this abomination? "You guys are alive! You guys are alive!" Scoots was yelling and bouncing on his chest. Yep, that fits the profile. "Scoots, it's like eight in the morning!" "So..." "We got to sleep at like three this morning!" He looked over to see that Dash had been woken in much the same way. "It's not that big of a deal," She said. "We had to get up to meet the princess before we leave anyway." "Alright then, thanks alarm clock Scoots." She giggled. "Let's get this over with then. Grab all your stuff Scoots, we aren't coming back here." She nodded excitedly and quickly grabbed the Wonderbolts poster and an apple, along with a fairly heavy looking bag of bits, presumably from the risk-like game she had been playing. "I've never met the princess before! What's she like?" Jason opened his mouth to answer before Dash cut him off. "She's a real nice pony, and a good leader." "Yeah, a real good leader." He started shoving their weapons and small armor pieces into a saddlebag. "Dash? You alright with wearing the chest and back armor plates? I can't fit them in here." "Yeah sure. Everything else fits?" "So far, but we should go by the treehouse before we go back to Ponyville, just to grab our stuff." "I really want one of Pinkie's cupcakes." "We'll go get some after we drop off all the stuff in your house then." "Sounds like a plan." She said, watching Jason sling the saddlebag over his back and start trotting towards the door. They exited the room, immediately turing into one of the tunnels and taking the first exit. They landed on the surface of a mostly unchanged Canterlot, taking brief looks at the still prevalent piles of rubble. "I'm so glad to be out of those tunnels for good." Jason said, sighing in relief. "Yeah, you and me both." Dash replied. "Hey Dash, can we fly to the castle instead of walking?" "I guess so Squirt, if you stay above us like before and all that." She did a little victory dance and jumped in the air, fluttering away towards the castle. Dash and Jason took off after her, quickly approaching the castle gates. They landed and walked across the grounds, quickly trotting under the gate and into the throne room. Jason couldn't help but notice that although the floors had been cleaned of the bodies and gore, they still seemed to keep a slight tinge of red. Hopefully they weren't stained forever by blood, and ironic occurrence a supposedly peaceful kingdom. Jason immediately assumed a fighting stance, briefly remembering that he was not only in the form of Alternis, but that he was also unarmed. "This is the idea then? You get your use out of us and then just decide to kill us off?" Jason continued to look at the pony standing beside the throne, the one that had captured him initially, Twilight Sparkle. "What are you talking about, changeling?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. "Last time I met her, she almost killed me! Why did you bring here here?" Twilight, who had been staring at Jason angrily the whole time, suddenly broke her gaze and looked away. "I have explained the situation to her, and she seems to understand, albeit a little grudgingly, isn't that right, Twilight?" "Yes, princess." "However, I can not completely condone her actions to you, because she was only acting out of the common good of Equestria. Although she did overreact more than a little." She sighed. "Anyway, I am going to send her ahead of you to break the news so that neither of you are hopefully attacked when you re-enter town. I made another copy for you, just in case." A piece of paper floated over towards Dash and a much more relaxed Jason. Dash grabbed the paper out of the air, reading the text to herself before passing the letter to Jason while smiling broadly. Dear royal subject or subjects, This letter concerns the recent changeling scare and griffin attack on Canterlot. I find the changeling and his accomplice, Rainbow Dash, innocent of all preceding charges, due to their near single handed retake of Canterlot from griffin forces. They shall be considered royal subjects, and as such enjoy all the rights and protections that a normal pony enjoys. Any attempts at violence on either of these two will be dealt with swiftly and effectively. Without the help of these valiant souls it is a very real possibility that the country would be under griffin control as you read this letter. I know where you live, Princess Celestia "What's this last part?" "A joke." "Alright then." He didn't really take the Princess for the humorous type. Jason moved the paper from his face, sharing Dash's smile about the other contents of the letter. "I'll be right back." He walked out the door and handed the letter to Scoots to read, as one of the guards had insisted she be left outside. "Now onto the next order of business," the princess started, "I would like to keep the elite force of Team Green Bean..." The princess peered over at Twilight, who was unsuccessfully trying to stifle a laugh. "...active and usable in case they are needed. Over the next few weeks Shining Armor will screen the military for grade A soldiers to replace the late Potato and Plasma. I caught wind of Potato being an integral part in the success of the later parts of the battle and have therefore commissioned a statue to be built in the Canterlot gardens in the honor of his ultimate sacrifice." Jason and Dash nodded their agreement. "Because I am keeping the team around, I would like to formally ask you to stay on that team and conduct parts of the training." Jason froze. He hoped she wasn't asking him to stay in the military year round, he couldn't hope to be able to do that, not with Dash and Scoots. Well, Dash was in the military with him, but realistically he didn't want to live like that with her. Dash seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Can I ask clarification on what you mean for us to do, Princess?" She asked. "Of course. I'm asking you to remain on-call if the Equestrian military requires your services. Other than that you will keep your previous military job and hopefully train the team in pre-decided time-sets." Dash looked at Jason. "One moment, Princess." She leaned towards him, whispering about what he actually wanted to do. "We are the best, and it is only on call, it can't be that bad." "Yeah, but what happens if we do get called back?" "Then we have a team this time, it's not just us." "You better be right about this..." She pulled her head out of their improvised huddle, turning to the Princess. "We'll stay on call, although if we do get called back there better be a damn good reason." "Yes, I understand that war is, what do you say, hell?" "Yeah that pretty much sums it up." Jason replied. The princess nodded. "Now if it's not too much trouble, I would like to move on to our final order of business, weaponry. I would like to know the origins of your weapons, and if possible the recipe so that they can be used to better the war effort." "No." The Princess looked shocked. "I thought about this. Me telling you how to make these things wouldn't really accomplish anything in the long run, and it could easily ruin your economy." "Why do you selfishly keep these technologies away from us?" "Because I can give you something better. What's stronger than Iron, Princess?" "Nothing," she replied, not entirely sure where he was going with this conversation. "Aha, steel is." Her face remained neutral. "And I know the process to make it." Her face lit up. "It's very simple, really, you just heat iron until it melts, then blow nearly pure oxygen through it to oxidize with the impurities and burn off. then you just filter the lighter slag from the surface and pour the steel. The amount of time you blow air through changes the carbon content, and you generally want something around one and a half percent. Got that?" Twilight looked up from a quill and paper that she had inexplicably produced and nodded. "That's all I know about it, but I'm sure that one of your iron forges could be re-tasked to work with making steel. I have faith that you can figure out a working model without too much trouble." "Yes, Twilight, will you be able to do--" "Yes of course Princess." "So are we done here then?" "Yes, I believe so. Try not to create total chaos when you return." "I'll try, Princess. No promises." He chuckled, turning to leave. Dash made her way over to Twilight slowly, doubt still in the back of her mind. At long last she managed to stop in front of her. A few moments of silence prevailed, where Twilight tried to formulate words, but apparently couldn't find the right ones. Dash eventually broke the silence. "I'm sorry, Twi. I'm sorry for everything I put you through, I'm sorry for betraying your trust." "No, it's my fault, I didn't trust you. In the back of my mind I knew that there must be a good reason you were with this changeling, but I never actually accepted that. I just assumed you had gone rogue." Dash's jaw dropped. In all the scenarios of attempted reconciliation that she had played over and over in her head, none of them had resulted in someone saying sorry to her. "You were right though, from your standpoint, we looked like threats." She paused, taking a deep breath. "D-do you think we can just put this all behind us and go back to being friends like before?" "As far as I'm concerned, we never actually stopped being friends." She leaned forward and hugged Dash, who was still trying to figure out how things had gone so much better than she expected. Dash hugged her back, letting a stray tear escape her eye. "Thanks, Twilight." They continued to hug for a few moments before Dash broke off the hug. "We'll have to catch up later, but I have to get back to Scoots and Jason. They're probably worried about me." "Jason?" "He's the changeling." "Alright, I'll se you later Dash. I can't tell you how glad I am that we're still friends." "Same here, see ya!" She turned and walked out the door, meeting the stares of Scoots and Jason, who were evidently trying to figure out what had happened. "Are you okay Dash? Did something happen?" "Nothing bad, Twilight still wants to be my friend." "Well I'm glad to hear that!" "Yeah, me too. So you wanna go get the stuff from the treehouse and move back to Ponyville?" "I never thought I'd see the day." He chuckled and started towards the door, taking off towards the cliffs. __________________________________________________________ They touched down a few minutes later, taking a look around their old camp. Jason immediately started to get a saddlebag together with the blankets and gillie suit, which he realized had never been used. Dash got the large plates of her armor on and tied Jason's amp to her sides before he could protest, saying something about the bandages shifting around on his sides if he were to carry it. He reluctantly agreed, and threw the second saddlebag on his back. "This is weird, the whole going back to town thing. It seems like last time we were there it was years ago." Dash said. "I know what you mean. And its's only been, what, three weeks?" "Something like that. That's another thing, it's only been three weeks, and all this has happened? It doesn't really seem possible." "Yeah. Ready to go?" "Sure. Hopefully my house isn't ruined." "Oh no, a house made out of clouds, whatever will we do to repair it?" "It's harder than you think if the situation's bad enough." Dash replied, deadpanning. "I'll take your word on that. Come on!" He jumped off the platform with Scoots on his back; she had became rather tired from the journey over here, which she had done completely individually. The trip was quick and easy, after all, it was just a glide down to Ponyville. They flew over the Everfree, admiring how it looked from the air, a sea of green fluff. Ironic that it looked so serene with the dangers it held. The forest started to clear as they floated over buildings towards Dash's cloud house in the distance. After they touched down, they unloaded their stuff before Jason slumped to the floor and Dash tried to figure out the damage to her house. She descended back down the stairs after her inspection. "Well it looks like the damage isn't too bad. Maybe a few hours of repair and we should be done." "Hooray..." "Hey Jason, can we go get those cupcakes now?" Scoots asked. "Yeah sure." He tiredly got up, scratching his back with a hoof. "Dash, do you have extra bandages? I want to replace these." "Yup, hold on." She trotted back up the stairs, returning a few moments later with a roll. Jason had already started to remove the old ones. Dash ripped them the rest of the way off, much to Jason's annoyance, and quickly wrapped a new set on, covering a much smaller area than before. "Now let's go get those cupcakes!"