//------------------------------// // The Re-Integration // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// The Re-Integration Jason slowly drifted into the realm of the living, opening his eyes to see Dash with two of her hooves draped over his chest. He carefully pushed them off of himself, attempting not to wake her, considering how the last time had gone. It was light out, and he realized that he didn't actually know when Scoots had school. That probably would have been a good thing to ask someone. He walked out of his bedroom and into Scoots', trotting over to the side of her bed. He put a hoof on her shoulder and jostled her around until she started to stir. She slowly opened one of her eyes, peering up at Jason. "We need to get you to school, Scoots." She groaned and rolled over, shielding her head with a pillow. He chuckled and levitated her out of the bed as she flailed her limbs and tried to grab onto something. She took a moment to figure out what was going on before finally succumbing to her fate and crossing her arms in the air. "Can't I just say that I'm sick?" "You could if you weren't running around town in perfect health yesterday." He set her down after he got to the bottom of the stairs, making his way beside her to the kitchen. He levitated a few apples off the counter, floating one over to Scoots. "Sorry we don't really have variety Scoots, I'm going to go buy some more stuff after I drop you off." "Why do you have to walk me there?" "I'm going to walk my child to the first day of school under my care." He paused and scratched his head. "I didn't think I would say that for at least a few more years." "Just today then?" "Well, if you don't want me to other days. It's not like I'm going to embarrass you, I'm not that old. Didn't you also tell me yesterday about how cool your friends thought me and Dash were?" "Yeah, but I was comparing you to Rarity and Applejack. They aren't really that cool in the first place." "Glad you made me look good." "It's a pleasure." "You're becoming too much like me." He looked at the clock, which was unsurprisingly made out of cloud. "When does class start?" "At nine." Jason did a double take at the clock. "Scoots that's in five minutes, hurry up and eat! Actually just grab that apple and hop on." She grudgingly obliged, taking a moment to make herself comfortable before giving him the all clear. "Why are you so worried about this?" "I'm trying to make a good name for myself here, I might as well deliver you on time. After that I don't care as much." He trotted over to the door of Dash's house before making his way across the minefield of a front yard and taking off. He dove for the town, flattening out just above the rooftops. He banked hard towards the side of town, quickly approaching the schoolhouse as scoots whooped and hollered on his back. He circled around the back of the schoolhouse as he tried to scrub off speed before descending the rest of the way and quickly flapping his wings backwards to attempt a safe landing. Scoots jumped off his back, her mane a little more windswept than usual, and trotted over to the schoolhouse door, sending a wave back. Hopefully he had made it in time, although at this point he was close enough. He turned to leave, going airborne and making his way back to town. What did he need to do? He needed to buy food, and for that, he realized, he would need money, which he had forgotten in his rush to leave. He mentally berated himself as he banked towards home, arriving after a few minutes of lazy flying. He touched down and walked into the kitchen, where a tired dash was fumbling with some sort of cloud kitchen appliance. "What's that?" She jumped, not realizing that he had gotten back. "This thing is supposed to make toast, but it keeps not heating up." "How does it heat up anyway?" "I don't know, you're the only one who questions anything around here anyway." "Alright then, let me try something." He floated the bread over, and held it over a forearm as he ignited it. Apparently he had held the bread to close, and it had completely turned into ash. "Heh, false start." He grabbed another piece and raised it a foot or so higher, repeating the process. He examined the results, smiling as he saw that it was only slightly burnt, and floated the toast over. "There you go." "Yeah, now I can brag to all the other mares that my stallion can make toast by lighting his arm on fire." "That actually does sound pretty cool." "Or suicidal." "Yeah, or that. But hey, I'm one of a kind." He walked over and nuzzled her cheek. "I'm your suicidal stallion." He paused. "You know, Scoots is gone, and we have the house to ourselves..." "And I have to go try and figure out what happened to my job." She trailed a hoof down his neck. "Plus, we have all the time in the world." She kissed him before scarfing down the toast and getting ready to go. "So I'm going to stop by the weather office. It may take a while for me to figure all this stuff out. Scoots got to school okay I take it?" "Yeah, she informed me like five minutes ahead of time that she needed to go. It sounded like she had a lot of fun riding over there. Speaking of school, do you know how she was doing prior to all this?" "I dunno, it's pretty hard to get bad grades at her age last time I checked." "Yeah..." He paused. "It's weird having to take care of someone all of a sudden. Thank god she's not a baby or anything, those are a lot of hassle, so I've heard. Scoots is at least pretty independent, which I'm sure will get annoying when she ends up being a teenager." "Yeah, you're probably right." She took a sip of whatever she was drinking. "So what are you doing today?" "I'm probably just going to buy some food, maybe fix up the house a little, that kind of thing. I'll probably grab some cupcakes since you guys like them so much." He scratched his chin. "How do showers work in a cloud house?" "Rainclouds." "Yeah, but don't they run out of water really fast or something?" "Stop asking questions. Go find Twilight if you want to know so bad." "But then she might ask about my past." "Why do you care so much?" "Well, two reasons. I just went through all this to get semi accepted as a changeling, I don't also want them to know that I'm either insane or an alien, depending on how they take it. Also I don't want to have to deal with publicity more than I have to, and there's probably going to be some sort of mention of us in the paper about all the attack stuff. That's where I want it to end. Ponies already stare at me all the time, I don't want to give them more reasons." "You don't like publicity?" "Well for a business it's fine, but I don't want people to really take more notice of me than normal, and I really don't want ponies following me or you around for news. If that happens here." "It definitely does in Canterlot." "Yeah that figures. Anyways, I guess I don't really want you to be late to a job that you've missed for three weeks, so we better leave. What time does school let out, by the way?" "Two thirty I think." "Alright, that's enough time for me to do all the things I was supposed to do. Good luck Dash." "Same to you." She took off towards the middle of town, while Jason took off towards the market square. He hoped the ponies wouldn't end up being overly critical of him. At least he still had the letter. He glided into the middle of the square, landing next to a few staring ponies. He probably shouldn't have kept the wings and the horn. At least then he would be able to tell more easily if they were just staring at him because he was a changeling, or if some of them thought he was an Alicorn. He walked by a group of ponies that were whispering and pointing at him as he navigated over to a stall that appeared to sell hay. He hadn't eaten hay yet, and frankly it disgusted him. That and flowers. He shuddered, waiting for the pony behind the stall to turn around. The orange maned red earth pony finally did, her face immediately racing through a set of emotions from confusion to fear to anger. Jason rolled his eyes and put the letter on the table, twisting it around so that she could read it. She briefly shot him a glare before reading the letter and shifting backwards through the same laundry list of emotions, which would have been hilarious if he hadn't seen it so many times already. "So can I buy some hay?" She grabbed a small bale and pushed it over the table. "Sorry for the trouble, just take it." "No, how much is it?" "Don't worry about it." "I don't want your free handouts. Here's eight bits." "But...!" "Just keep it." He levitated the bale off of the table, walking across the small market to the Apple Family stall, which was staffed by Big Mac, looking imposing as usual. Mac looked towards him, managing to keep a neutral face unlike most of the other ponies. "Mah sister told me about ya, and I agree with her, don't think you're not bein' watched." "Can I just buy some apples?" "Ah ain't gonna stop ya. Two for a bit." Jason doled out six bits, raking the apples off the table and into his saddlebag with his magic. Man, magic was useful. He went to the adjacent stall and bought a few bunches of flowers, surprisingly without hostilities. He sighed and turned around, tightening his magical grip on the hay bale as he took off to deliver the recently added supplies. Oh, the advantages of both wings and magic. The house was empty, not that he wasn't expecting it to be, but in its state it seemed to take on a slightly eerie appearance in the absence of Dash or Scoots, especially with all the holes in the walls. He stowed the foods in various cabinets, tossing the hay bale into the pantry, where it promptly fell through the floor. Jason managed to catch it before it disappeared from view, and brought it over to the cabinets, cursing under his breath as he tried to slow his heartbeat. These cabinets were made out of wood, why didn't they fall? He managed to shove the bale in, and partially shut the door. He chuckled at the absurdity of it all before retreating to the door and taking off again. He glided by the clock tower, noting that it was nearly twelve. He landed on one of the side streets, looking into shop windows as he tried to ignore the stares from the ponies as he walked past them. One of the stallions bumped into his shoulder as he walked by, making him stumble a bit to the side from the unexpected contact. He sighed and looked around, finding himself in front of Rarity's Boutique. There was something he needed to do... Aha! He suddenly remembered the importance of Rarity's business, he needed to see about getting Scoots that costume for Nightmare Night, which was apparently in a few days. He walked over to the front door, which was rather unimposing for the size of the building, and knocked. He suddenly remembered why he hated knocking after his hooves made almost no noise. He shouldered the door a few times, hoping that it didn't sound too much like someone was trying to break it down. Luckily, he heard a sing song voice holler, "Come i-i-in." He opened the door, noticing Rarity hovering over a sewing machine. She looked over and saw him, a hint of fear passing over her face. That annoyed him, they knew the truth, and they were still afraid of him. "What can I do for you darling?" "Well you can start by telling my why you're afraid of me." She froze, then looked away. "Whoever told you that?" "You. Your expression kinda gave it away. Now why?" She didn't respond. Jason sighed. "Well if you ever do decide to tell me I'm sure you can find me." He paused. "Now, the reason I came here in the first place was because I would like to place an order, for a Nightmare Night costume for Scoots." She took a second to regain her resolve. "I still have her sizes from the wedding, so we don't have to remeasure her. Now, what would you like it to be?" "Well, this was her idea, not mine, but she wanted to go as a zombie. That's basically a tattered, bloody costume because zombies are re-animated dead that try to eat the flesh of the living. It isn't supposed to look pretty, so maybe that's a nice change of pace?" She looked at the notepad she had taken notes on with a look of contempt. "I'll try my best. Nopony's given me such a, say, unusual order before. Come back the day before Nightmare Night and pick it up." "Alright, how much do I owe you?" "Not a thing Darling, I'm happy to do this for little Scootaloo." "So then like twenty bits?" "No, of course not." Jason shoved a hoof into his saddlebag and pulled out a hoofful of bits, setting them on the ground, then feigning a shocked expression. "Oh no, would you look at that, twenty bits just appeared on the ground over here, how strange! Well I'm just going to leave you with your magically appearing bits. Last thing, if you could, make it a really hardy costume, because Scoots and her friends tend to destroy things." He went out the door and shut it behind him, leaving Rarity to question the entire experience. Maybe she didn't have much of a reason to be afraid of him, unless this was just another act. It's not like they could ever know for sure. She sighed and went back to her sewing machine. Jason had run out of things to do, which was kinda funny since he had only been here a day. He walked by a few more storefronts, looking at the wares ponies had to offer. He walked by another store, not seeing anything particularly interesting. Wait. He backed up and looked inside. Ha, he thought he saw that. He entered the store, walking over to the toy section. It was a miracle he had noticed this, considering the narrow window of vision he had into the store. The scooter gleamed in the artificial lighting of the store, shimmering slightly as he touched a hoof to it. As far as he could remember, Scoots had broken her last scooter and had seemed pretty depressed about it. He carefully picked it up off the shelf and brought it over to the counter to pay, giving the cashier a look when she took a step back. "How much?" "U-uh, forty five bits." "Alright." He doled out the bits, realizing that the bag from his impromptu concert was starting to run dry. Oh well, it had taken him twenty minutes to make that money, no big deal. It wasn't like he was buying anything useless. "Only forty five?" He had a feeling she was just giving him a better price, which he didn't want. Not because she was scared he would kill her or something, anyway. "Yeah." She accepted his bits with a little more courage, and saw him roll his eyes as he went to leave. Then he looked into another isle and froze in confusion. He walked over and poked a small plastic bag that looked completely out of place from the rest of the products. It had nutritional information that looked shockingly like the candy from back home. He flipped the bag over and took a step back. He read over the candy name several times, engraining the name 'Jolly Ranchers' into his mind as he tried to figure out how those had gotten here. He grabbed the bag off the shelf, there was only one left, or possibly only one ever, and walked over to the counter. "Is this for sale?" "Yeah, my boss brought those in a while ago, but nopony's bought them. You can just take them, they're probably bad." "How long have they been here?" "A few weeks. I wouldn't eat those if I were you." Oh the wonders of food preservatives. "Alright, thanks for the free stuff." She nodded as he exited onto the street, Scoots' new scooter precariously balanced over his back. Several new questions were swirling around in his head as he tried to figure out how something as random as a bag of candy had been brought here along with him. The dates matched up, both were a few weeks ago. Unless this was some sort of normal occurrence with items coming over, and he had just been the first human brought here. Or maybe not the first after all. This brought up more questions though. Were these things brought here purposefully, or were they just bleeding over into another dimension for some reason? He had unofficially decided that he had ended up on another planet; it seemed more plausible, and simpler for that matter than another dimension, but now he didn't know what to think. Then again, either way he had ended up teleported here, the same thing could have happened with the rest of it. He shook his head and took off to drop off the scooter at Dash's house. He could go ask Twilight, that could work. He would just say he was in a hurry and leave after he got any information and avoid giving her any info about his life. He landed in Dash's front yard and walked inside, quickly attempting to find a place to hide the scooter. He eventually decided on Dash's closet and balanced it over the bar that the dresses hung on. He immediately pulled out the bag, looking it over again. It suddenly struck him as hilarious that he had attached this much importance to a cheap bag of candy. He started laughing as he descended the stairs, but quickly stopped as he realized that there could be fingerprints or something on it. How would he explain that? He dragged the bag across his chest hoping to smear any traces out of recognition, and then took off towards the library. He threw a glance at the clock tower, which read one o' clock. He landed a few seconds later, a little faster than he would've liked. He tripped while trying to slow down and slid into the door, which was opened a few seconds later, presumably by Twilight. "Well that's one way to knock." "I was trying to be original." "Come to take me up on that research session?" "Partially." She looked confused, unsurprisingly. "Can I come in?" "Sure." She swung the door open wider and stepped aside, closing it behind him. "So what do you mean partially?" He pulled out the bag, showing it to her. "Want one?" he jostled the bag a little. "Is this some kind of flirting I don't know about?" "No, I'm already taken." She tried to ask, but he put a hoof over her mouth. "Now, the reason I'm showing these to you isn't because they look particularly unappetizing compared to the other candies in those shops, and I assure you they're quite delicious, but because these are from my country." She went from being disinterested to almost comically focused in a few seconds flat. "So I came here to ask how that works, and how exactly they got here since you have no knowledge of where exactly I used to live, and couldn't have gotten this through normal means." "That is strange. I've never heard of even what happened to you, let alone these, things." She pulled a book out of the shelf with her magic and flicked through it. "Were you attempting a teleportation spell just before you ended up here?" "No, I didn't do any magic anywhere near me leaving." "None?" "Nope. That's why I can't figure out what it was that did this." "Yeah, the longest distance teleportation spell only covers a few miles maximum before it starts to get dangerous to attempt." "Like you get really tired or something?" "Some of you may not make it." Jason cringed. He didn't have to have a vivid imagination to see that happen in his mind's eye. "Ew. Can I grab one of those candies?" "Sure? I mean, this package says they're over six months old. I don't know how much you really want that." "Yeah, there's also a time difference of six months between here and my home, but that could mean that you're in the southern hemisphere and think north is actually south. And they'd still be fine, they have preservatives in them." He opened the bag with his magic and popped one of the candies in his mouth, much to the disgust of Twilight. "They're not six months old, don't worry. You can kinda tell." He shifted into Dash's form, relishing the sudden influx of flavor. "Take one." He said in Dash's voice as he held one out to her." She reluctantly took the candy, slowly unwrapping it. "Why do you shift into Dash?" "She was the only pony that wouldn't freak out. Plus I don't really want to suddenly try out some taste buds I'm not at least partially used to." Twilight nodded and hesitated before putting the colorful treat in her mouth, a smile quickly dawning on her face. "These are pretty good, how do you make them?" "Oh, I don't, some factory somewhere turns out thousands of these a day, then ships them all over the known world." It was getting harder and harder to change what he was trying to say to make sense with the theory. One day, probably soon, he was going to mess up big time and let some information slip. "Thousands a day?" "Yeah. Take notes on this. The 'assembly line' is made up of ponies doing simple tasks before the product gets passed down the line to another pony doing a simple task. The process repeats until the product is finished." Twilight's clock struck the half hour. "I have to go do some more stuff before I pick up Scoots. Find me if you figure anything out." He grabbed two more candies for Dash and Scoots before turning to leave. "Jason." "Yeah?" "You still look like Dash." He looked down at a sky blue foreleg. "Yep." He shifted back, opening the door and giving Twilight a final wave before leaving. Speaking of Dash, he wondered how she was doing. _______________________________________________________ "What do you mean, three hour waiting list?!?!" "Ma'am, those are the rules, I just follow them." "But there's nopony in here!" She gestured to the sea of empty seats. "Why do I have to wait three hours if I'm the first in line?!?!" "The co-captain of the weather team has a lot of work to do, and she's busy right now!" "You mean Cloud Kicker? She's the laziest pony I know, besides myself." "I'm sorry, but you'll just have to wait until she calls for you." Dash groaned and sat in one of the open seats. If Jason were here, he would've compared this place to the DMV. Dash turned inward to her thoughts, still angry at the staff member. Cloud Kicker really had it coming for her now... If she could only get past the lady, she could go talk to Cloud and get this over with, probably get her job back. She could honestly say that nopony of her caliber had ever been on the Ponyville weather team, and judging by the state of her house, things hadn't gone so well in her absence. A plan started to formulate in her head. If she could do that thing that Jason had done before with the stones to distract the griffins, she would get a few valuable seconds, which was all she needed. Griffins were easy though, if one blocked your way, you could just kill it, and the problem was solved. She couldn't exactly go over to this pony and kill her though, no matter how much she hated her. Now she just needed something to throw. She tried unscrewing a bolt on the chair, but considering that she was using hooves, that didn't work too well. She found a loose bolt on the floor and tossed it at the nurse when she wasn't looking. It landed in her cup of tea, and she looked over at it before becoming disinterested. Annoyingly enough for Dash, the bolt was supposed to go behind the counter, to distract the mare that way. It turned out she didn't need to create another distraction. The mare took a sip of her tea and immediately started coughing, doubled over on the other side of the counter. After about fifteen seconds of coughing, Dash was starting to get worried that she'd killed her, at least until she heard a low metallic 'tink' on the ground. She took that as her chance, carefully making her way past the side of the desk and down the hallway to the door at the end of the room labeled 'Weather Team Captain'. She pushed open the door to see Cloud Kicker reclining in a chair with her back hooves on the desk, asleep. She could wake her up, but that would be too easy. She hoped Cloud was a heavy sleeper, and she grabbed a marker off the desk. After she had drawn on a monocle and a mustache, she sat back in her seat and made sure that there were no mirrors around the room before sitting in one of the other seats in the room. She tossed the marker, bouncing it off of the other mare's head, making her stir. "Cloud!" She yelled, causing the weather mare to yell out in fear as she was jolted from her dream. "Oh, hey Rainbow Dash," her eyes narrowed, "I thought you were busy being a traitor to Equestria?" "I got a pardon from the princess. I'd like my job back, because judging from the storm damage on my house you haven't been doing a very good job." "What're you talking about?" "We were scheduled for three light rains in the time I was gone. It looks like there were at least three heavy downpours. And since I was never formally dismissed, that means that you're only here as a temporary replacement and I'm still head weather pony." She smiled smugly, leaning back and attempting not to chuckle at Cloud's face. "Get your stuff together, you're back to your old job tomorrow. I may be lazy, but at least I get the job done right." Cloud sat there in shock for a few seconds before Dash got up and left the room, leaving the pony to her own devices. She walked back past the mare behind the counter. "I explicitly warned you not to go back there ma'am, and now you've forced me to--" "That's boss to you, now." She chuckled at the mare's confused expression and turned to leave, happy that she had managed to get her job back. She walked out the door with a slight bounce in her step, turning and walking down the street. She wondered what Jason had done with his day, he didn't exactly have anything planned. A wave of nervousness washed over her as she remembered how some of the civilians had looked at him, the hatred in their eyes. She knew he didn't like it. It's not like he complained, it was just the way he acted when he noticed the ponies walk by. It's not like he asked to be a changeling. She turned a corner and immediately collided with another pony, sending them both sprawling across the street. Dash pulled herself out of the wreckage, going over to the pony to help him up. He was a white earth pony with a white and black mane, who was wearing a black vest and small black glasses for reasons she couldn't determine. "Sorry about that, I was in a hurry." He said. "No problem, I wasn't exactly watching where I was going." She pulled him to his feet, and he immediately trotted across the street to pick up his saddlebag, which had somehow managed to fly that far away. He looked at his watch worriedly as Dash picked up a few papers that had fallen out to give him. "Sorry again ma'am." He said as he shoved the papers into his saddlebag and took off, heading into the distance. She stared after him for a moment, attempting to figure out why he could possibly be in such a hurry in the middle of the day. She didn't recognize him either, maybe he was new in town. Then again, she wasn't really a people person. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to walk towards town. "Well hey there Sugarcube!" "Hey Applejack, what are you doing out and about? Isn't it the middle of applebucking season right now?" "Yeah, but ah got ahead of schedule while ya were gone. Ah kinda took some of mah anger out on the trees." She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Gotcha." "So where's the changeling?" "Jason's running random errands. Getting food, dropping Scoots off at school, that kind of thing." "Are ya sure?" She raised an eyebrow. "Yes I'm sure. I trust him completely. He saved my life more than a few times." "Alrighty then, if ya'll are totally sure..." Dash ignored her attempts to get her to doubt Jason. He wasn't even a changeling, he wouldn't be prone to trickery. In fact, he wasn't even very good at impersonating other ponies, as much as he would hate to hear that from her. "So how's the farm doing?" Dash tried to change the subject. "Pretty well ah suppose, it ain't no record setting year or nothin', but it's not bad, that's for darn sure." She paused. "So back to that changeling..." "Stop worrying about it. He was near Celestia and Luna numerous times, if he was supposed to assassinate them he would've done it. Why would he fight through all that and almost die just to save a country he was supposed to destroy?" "Well, consarnit Ah still don't trust him." "So be it. He's not going anywhere, so you might as well get used to him. I gotta go fix my house." She took off, quickly flying over a roof and out of sight behind a building before climbing in altitude. She could use a nap after that whole weather team thing, especially with all the work she was inevitably going to have to do starting tomorrow. She landed and promised herself that she'd wake up in a few hours to work on the house and see about adding the empty room. Just as soon...as she got... some rest. _________________________________________________________ Jason arrived at the house a few minutes later after the whole conversation with Twilight. "Dash?" No response. She must still be out getting her job back. He hoped that everything had gone alright, and walked over to the nearest wall, intent on actually starting to fix up the house. He quickly flew outside and snagged a few clouds, bringing them back into the living room. He pulled off a chunk and shoved it into a hole in the wall, where it stuck like some weird kind of glue. In short time he had patched and evened out two of the holes in the wall of the living room and had moved onto the kitchen before realizing that Scoots was probably nearly out of school by now. The clock on the wall confirmed him, and he quickly floated the remaining cloud towards the ceiling, making sure it didn't adhere to any of the walls. He grabbed a few bits, just in case, and shoved them into his saddlebag. He quickly took off and flew towards the schoolhouse, touching down just outside the school grounds as the bell rang. He watched as the students slowly filtered out. Eventually Scootaloo walked out and ran towards Jason when she caught sight of him. She ran up and hooked her hooves around his neck. "I thought you said you didn't want me to embarrass you Scoots." "Yeah, but I was in class and it was the same as it used to be and then I had these thoughts that maybe all that stuff was just a vivid dream and you never adopted me but apparently it happened and I'm so glad it did." "Oh, Scoots. You worry too much." "Can we go get some cupcakes?" "Uhh, sure." He had some trouble coping with the sudden change of topic. They started walking back towards town. "Jason?" "Yeah, Scoots?" "Can you slow down?" He looked over at her. She was trotting alongside him as he walked, looking a little tired. "Just get on!" He said, smiling as she hopped off the ground and fluttered her wings to navigate onto his back. She put her fore hooves on his head and raised herself up to get a better view. "I wish I was this tall." "You will be eventually Scoots." "You think so?" "It's easily possible." "Wow, that would be awesome! I could just look down at ponies and be like: 'Hello there, comparative midget!'." Jason laughed as he walked up the steps to Sugarcube corner, pushing the door open with his magic. The place was unsurprisingly empty in the after-lunch hours. Jason walked up to the counter and waited for Pinkie to whip out of the kitchen to ask him what he wanted. And whip out, she did, stopping on a dime. "What can I get ya?" She asked. Jason reached up and nudged Scoots with a hoof. "Can I get one of those chocolate ones? Can I?" "Go ahead." "Ooh, that's one of my favorites! Hey Jason have you given any thought to that party?" Pinkie brought a cupcake out from under the display and handed it to Scoots with speeds that should have been impossible with the amount of agility she used. Or it was luck. "Yeah, I just don't know when we're going to run out of work to do, Dash has to try to get her job back, we still have to fix up the house... Maybe the day after tomorrow? I wouldn't plan on it though. Oh, and I don't really want a big party, the civilians around here don't really like me." "Okie doki loki, I'll get stuff ready, it's no trouble if I have to take it down. That's at seven in two days." Jason tossed her a few bits and walked over to a booth, letting Scoots jump off before he went to sit down. She scarfed down the treat without even a hint of slowing down. Jason looked at the clock, which read twenty five seconds later then when she had started to eat. "New record Scoots?" "Nah, I was ten seconds too slow." "You're supposed to enjoy the food, not just see how fast you can eat it." "I know, but it's just so good!" She picked a stray crumb off the table and flicked it into her mouth. "Ready to go then Scoots?" She nodded and jumped onto his back as he got up to leave. Once he got outside he jumped into the air and took off, making sure that Scoots hadn't lost her grip on him. Once he made sure she hadn't he returned to a moderately fast speed as he ascended to Dash's house. "Jason, why does everypony stare at you?" "Because they don't like me Scoots, they think I'm dangerous." "But didn't you save Canterlot with Dash?" "Yeah, but these ponies don't know that, they just know that I caused a bunch of trouble around here." "Well why don't they know about Canterlot?" "Because the news hasn't come out yet I guess." He landed in Dash's front yard and walked through the door. "She's got to have come home by now. Dash!?!?" No response. "I'm going to go see if she's upstairs. You can get some food or something, I got some hay and some more apples and random flowers. Hopefully I didn't screw something up. I'll be right back." He walked upstairs, turning into Dash's room. She was unsurprisingly passed out on the bed. He briefly pondered whether to wake her up or not, and finally decided that he would, she must've been asleep while he had been fixing the house. He walked over and shook her shoulder around a little, watching her open her eyes. "Come on, Dash, wake up. Scoots is home." "How long was I out?" "A few hours I think." "Alright then." She rolled out of the bed and onto her hooves. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Dash." "Huh?" "The real Dash would never get out of bed without a fight." He narrowed his eyes in what he hoped was a menacing expression. "But I am the real Dash!" She choked back a laugh. "Likely story. But how am I supposed to know for--" She kissed him. "Yeah, we better test that again, just to be sure." He leaned over and kissed her back, throwing a quick glance at the doorway to check for Scoots, who by now was fairly proficient in ruining moments. They broke apart and headed downstairs fairly quickly so to assuage any worry, or curiosity as it may have been. As soon as they got back downstairs Scoots came running up to Dash and Jason excitedly. "Guys, guess what? Mrs. Cherilee told me to bring in a relative for some sort of family appreciation thing, and now that I have you guys, I can actually have somepony show up. Dash, can you come tomorrow?" Dash facehoofed. "Scoots, I would, but I'm stuck trying to clear up all the weather problems that popped up while I was gone. I'm really sorry, but you have Cloud Kicker to thank for that. I mean, most days I'd be done in time no problem, but I think I have my first full day of work ever going on tomorrow." She groaned into her hooves. "I hate work." Scoots looked crestfallen. "You could always have Jason show up Scoots, he's almost as cool as me." Jason shot her a look. "Yeah...Yeah!" Scoots exclaimed. "It's probably good because I'm doing absolutely nothing important tomorrow." Said Jason. "I just hope there's something in the paper about us, because it would be strange to bring in someone they thought was a criminal. Although it would be pretty funny to see their reactions." He paused. "So if you have weather duty, that means you got your job back?" "Yeah. It was a hassle getting in there, but I managed to get it back and draw on Cloud Kicker's face while she was asleep." "Sounds like a good day." "Yeah, but then I ran into Applejack, well first I ran into this other pony, literally, and I've never seen him before. Anyway, Applejack doesn't trust you at all. She kept asking me questions, and didn't really let it go until I flew away. And the thing is, she knows what you did in Canterlot. Twilight of all ponies accepted you, and Applejack won't." "Isn't she ridiculously stubborn?" "Yeah, but this seems kinda ridiculous." "From her point of view it isn't that bad, but yeah, I wouldn't still be fighting it if I were her." "Yeah, I told her that you weren't going anywhere so she had better get used to it." "She probably needs some sort of first hand account. She can't deny that. Although how we're going to manage to find something dangerous to fight here in Ponyville is beyond me." He paused, digging around in his saddlebag. "You guys want some candy?" He pulled out the Jolly Ranchers, handing on to each of them. "What is it?" They both asked simultaneously. "Here's the thing, I was in a store today, and I saw these. Now the reason that's strange is because of the fact that these are only made in my world." "Huh?" "I know, weird, right? I gave Twilight the bag so that she could maybe figure something out, or at least take notes about my society, but it's kinda worrying, because if this came through, anything could have come through." "That's worrying to say the least, I mean what if one of your boom sticks comes over." "A gun?" "Yeah." "Well you need fingers to activate that, and I'm pretty sure that unicorns wouldn't be able to figure it out that easily. It's just a hunch, this could have been a big coincidence or something." "I hope you're right." "Dis it delershous!" Scoots said. "Don't worry Dash, you like them, I tried one." Jason said. She popped it into her mouth, smiling broadly. "Scoots, are you crusading today?" "Yeah, I told Applebloom and Sweetie Belle that I would meet them in the market square." Scoots said. "You want me to take her down there Dash?" "I can just fly myself..." "Yeah, I guess you did get up here yesterday. Concentrate Scoots, seriously. Don't let yourself get distracted." She started to run towards the door, splaying her wings out. "Meet me in the town square before dinner if you're too tired to get up here!" "Okay sure thing see ya later bye!" She ran out the door, taking flight off the end of Dash's front yard. "You want to get this house fixed?" Dash asked. "Sure, I did part of it, and I still have a cloud in the kitchen for us to work with." Jason replied. "Alright, let's get cracking." They quickly got to work, fixing all the holes, dents and bumps, returning the house to it's former glory. Several clouds, and hours later, they had finished most of the upstairs of the house, the hardest hit by the storms. They re-enforced the roof, because it had tended to leak, even with the melting frost providing the only water. Pretty soon afternoon came and went, and yet they worked on. "Dash, where are we going to put that map room?" "I was thinking over by the bottom of the stairs, there's nothing behind that, so it would be an easy place to build more stuff." "I'm really looking forward to that, I have to say. The Canterlot map was cool by itself, but man, if they can make a whole known world map look that cool that would be awesome. And as an added bonus Scoots would love it." He paused. "That reminds me, I bought her a new scooter. It's hanging in your closet until I can go get it enchanted or whatever and stop it from falling through the cloud." "Oh yeah, I was just thinking about that earlier today. I couldn't figure out how that got there." "Wanna get some dinner? I gotta go pick up Scoots from wherever she got off to." "Yeah, alright. I'll get some food together or something." "Okay then." Jason took off through the door of Dash's house, which was now the only other entrance in the house besides the windows, now that they had patched up the house. He saw that Scoots was in the square already, and landed next to her. "Too tired Scoots?" "We spent the afternoon being Cutie Mark Crusaders Roof Patchers, and fixed up the clubhouse. I was flying around most of the time, and now my wings are really sore." "I'm glad you didn't push yourself." Sweetie Belle and Applebloom came scampering around a corner with a few cupcakes, giving one to Scoots. Applebloom turned to look him over. He hoped she wouldn't act like her sister. "Well hi there Alternis!" "It's Jason. Alternis was just the name of the disguise." "Alright then Jason, how're ya findin' Ponyville?" "It's pretty nice I guess. I've definitely had a busy day, that's for sure. Any closer to getting your cutie marks?" "Nah, we ain't got any skill in roofing. Scoots here was pretty good, but I doubt that's her cutie mark, 'specially since she can fly now. Makes it mighty easier." "Ready to go then Scoots?" She nodded. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!" The other two Crusaders waved to her as she situated herself on Jason and they took off into the quickly darkening sky. He landed in the now flat and fixed up front yard and walked inside. Scoots jumped off and ran into the kitchen, followed by Jason. Dash looked up from a cutting board. "I can't really cook, so I made sandwiches." Dash said. "The flowers I got were okay then?" Jason asked. "Yeah." "Alright, cuz I have no idea what's good when it comes to flowers and stuff." He yawned. "Why is it that I'm so tired all the time? I thought that once we got back we'd be able to relax or something." Dash nodded and finished her sandwich. "I'm going to bed. I'm probably going to have to get up early tomorrow to deal with all this sh-stuff." She said. "I'm right behind you. Can you handle getting to bed Scoots?" She nodded and mumbled something through a mouthful of sandwich. Jason turned and went upstairs, walking into the bedroom and immediately sprawling himself out. Dash had pulled the scooter out of the closet and was looking at it, careful to make sure she didn't loose her grip. "Where did you find this?" "I saw it when I was walking by a store." "Nice find, this is way better than Scoots' old scooter." "I hope she likes it." He sighed and rolled under the covers, throwing a hoof around Dash when she rolled in to join him. "Maybe we'll actually get some time to ourselves before we die of old age." "You and me both." She kissed him and snuggled under his chin. "Love you Jason." "Love you too Dash." Dash sighed happily and quickly fell asleep. Jason's thoughts turned from the peacefully sleeping mare in his arms to the parent appreciation thing he had somehow gotten sucked into tomorrow. It wasn't like he didn't want to do it, it was just that he was worried he would just meet the same response as with the rest of Ponyville. He would've been fine with doing it, say, a week from now, but it just had to come up immediately after they got back. For once, he hoped, things would go his way. He scoffed. Like that was going to happen.