//------------------------------// // The Presentation // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// The Presentation Jason woke up to an empty bed, much to his disappointment. Apparently Dash had already left for her job today. She hadn't been kidding about bright and early. Jason rolled out of bed and looked at the clock as he exited the room, glad that it was only eight thirty today. That was much better than the fifteen minutes he had before Scoot's school yesterday. He walked into her room, proceeding with the same wake up maneuver he had the day prior She woke up more easily than last time, much to his relief. "Scoots, be downstairs in five minutes." She nodded tiredly and let her head fall back onto the pillow. Jason walked down the stairs, realizing how much he missed Dash. One of the good things about fighting was that they were together all the time. Now they were either apart or stuck doing work when they actually were together. He sighed, grabbing an apple before he realized he didn't really want to eat. He set the apple back down as Scoots walked in to the room. "Why're you looking all sad, Jason?" "I dunno, I just miss being able to do stuff with Dash." "Oh, well, sorry about that." She walked over to the counter and took the apple, taking a large bite of it. "Scoots, when do I show up for this thing?" "Ten. That works, right?" "Yeah, I'm just going to see if I can't find stuff to do between dropping you off and going there." He noticed her worried expression. "Don't worry Scoots, I won't be late." "You better not be! Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made enough fun of me last time when nopony showed up." "Wow, really? I mean I knew they were kinda evil, but that?" "Yeah, if you could beat Diamond up again I'd love that." She said. Jason chuckled. "Well, as much as I would like to do that, I can't just go in there and start beating the crap out of her. I just got out of legal trouble, I don't want to get back into it." "Are you going to bring me to school?" "Do you want me to?" "I guess, it was a lot of fun going that fast yesterday." "Well I have to go to town anyway, so sure. You ready?" "Hold on." She took a last bite of her apple and tossed it into a cloud trash can, were it promptly fell through the floor. "Well that's one way..." "Yeah, it's kinda hard to remember all this stuff." "Don't worry about it, we're over a roof anyway." He paused. "I hope." "We'll, I'm ready now." She walked over and hopped onto his back, making a gleeful noise when he walked over to the side of the front yard and jumped off, heading straight for the ground. He did a few twists as he continued to fall before completing the last twist a little faster and bottoming out. He glided over one of the streets, banking at an intersection and making a turn that should have normally been impossible in is world. Scoots sounded like she was having a hay-day on his back, shouting and hollering as the wind rushed through her mane. Jason banked straight upwards, pulling his wings into his sides and immediately feeling the zero gravity that was seemingly created as he slowed down and peaked in the air, propelled downwards by gravity. He slightly put out his wings, flipping the two of them over backwards until his nose was facing towards the ground. He spread his wings out the rest of the way and leveled out as he flew the rest of the way to her school. He landed in the school yard, letting her off. She dizzily stumbled sideways before succeeding at making headway forwards. "That was awesome! You fly so much differently from Dash, and it was so much fun!" How did he fly strangely? Compared to how Dash flied it was weird, but he didn't even attempt anything particularly challenging. Was she just referring to the part where he pulled his wings in? Ah well. "Have a good day Scoots, I'll be back in an hour." "Don't be late!" "I won't!" Scoots waved and entered the Schoolhouse. He turned and took to the air. He needed to enchant that scooter. He flew over to Dash's house, and quickly grabbed the scooter before checking the clock tower as he glided past it to Twilight's library, landing correctly in front of it this time. He shouldered the door a couple times, waiting for Twilight with the scooter hanging over his back. The door opened to Twilight, who looked like she had stayed up all night, which she easily could have. "Are you here about the candy? Because I'll tell you, I haven't found anything, and I've looked everywhere. Trust me." "No... That wasn't exactly pressing, you know. I'm just here to get this scooter enchanted or whatever so it doesn't fall through Dash's floor." "For Scoots?" She yawned. "Nah, I just love riding tiny scooters around town." Twilight stared at him. "That was sarcasm, Twilight." "What?" "Just how tired are you?" "I'll be fine. Just set down the scooter." He followed her directions, left it on the floor and took a few steps back in case something went wrong. There was a pretty good chance something would, in his mind. The scooter glowed purple and lifted slightly off the ground, before losing the aura and dropping back down. "Done." "Sure? What'd you do?" "Cloud walking spell. Spells last longer on inanimate objects. Just come back in six months or so and I'll renew the spell." "Well, that was easier than I expected." He looked at her suspiciously. "Thanks. Don't work yourself too hard, one bag of candy is just a coincidence. Feel free to start overworking yourself if stuff like this starts popping up everywhere." "It just makes me so excited though! All this new stuff. The advancements we could make would be mind-boggling." "Most of the stuff is so advanced you probably couldn't even make progress in reverse-engeneering it. Dash told me you've got a calculator that does addition in a lab somewhere?" "Yeah, it's much smaller than the last one!" "Well we have affordable computers that basically have the computing power of a billion of those, in a box the size of one of your thinner books." She stared at him, slightly shocked. "Like I said, probably no progress. Anyway, I have to go present in front of a class for parent appreciation day, so hopefully..." He looked around. "Do you have a copy of the paper?" "Yeah, what do you take me for?" He stared as a copy floated over and landed on the ground in front of him. He flipped it over to the front and looked up at a beaming Twilight. He looked back down to an article with the headline 'Victory in Canterlot! Griffins in Full Retreat.' It showed a picture of the ruined city. Another one below read 'Traitors Turned Heroes, Strange Changeling and Element of Harmony Orchestrate Successful Griffin Resistance.' Well that was a mouthful. He looked at the corresponding picture, which had been taken of him and Dash on the ledge, giving some speech, although he didn't seem to remember any sort of camera flash. He had never really looked at himself or Dash all that closely during or immediately after battle, but they looked like a mess. Their hooves were all covered in blood, he had a few cracks on his face and side, and Dash's exposed fur was mostly matted with blood. Maybe that's why the ponies had been so willing to follow their plans. The fear factor. "Can I keep this?" "Of course, I've already read the whole thing." "Cool, thanks. I guess I'll see you later than." "Come to me if you find any more of those things from your world." "Will do." Jason picked up Scoots' scooter and slung it over his back, realizing as he did so that he really didn't really use magic that much. He shook his head and opened the door, walking out and closing it behind him. He looked at the clock tower. Twenty five minutes left before he had to show up. He sighed, trying to figure out what he could possibly do with that time. A rustling bush caught his eye, a bush that was moving quite unnaturally in the absence of wind or nearby ponies. He deadpanned and walked over to the bush, watching as it rustled again. He sighed and parted some of the branches, honestly not sure what he was expecting. "Applejack?" "Oh, hey there pardner, ah was just..." "Watching me?" "No, ah wouldn't say that..." "I don't know why you see me as such a threat! I laid my life on the line for this country, and all you care about is that under this disguise I happen to be the same species of creature that invaded Canterlot!" "But what if it's all an elaborate trick, huh, what then? Twi was the only pony to suspect that Cadence was a changeling, maybe Ah'm right about you plotting against us." "Can't you at least act like you trust me? The rest of your friends do." He paused. "Didn't you talk to Dash or something? What did she have to say about it?" "She said she trusted ya with her life." "And you think she doesn't have a reason to trust me after we were stuck out in the Everfree, then an active war zone, and I never showed a hint of betrayal? It would've been easy to take out one of the Princesses if I had wanted. That would've been the ultimate objective if I was a double agent, right?" "Yeah, Ah suppose so, but ya know I still can't trust ya." "Ugh, whatever. I gotta go present at Scoots' school." "What about?" "Some family appreciation thing. Dash couldn't make it since she has to fix the weather or something. It was bad while she was gone I take it?" "It wasn't terrible, but most of the rain wasn't scheduled. Good for the farm though." "Yeah. Well I'm going to make sure I'm not late. Stop watching me. It's creepy." He took off, flying towards the school house before remembering that he needed to drop off the Scooter. He banked towards Dash's house and landed in the front yard. He carefully took the scooter off his back, completely expecting it to fall through as he lowered it to the cloud. He let go of the scooter, and it continued to rest on top of the cloud. He smiled and picked it back up, running upstairs with it and resting it against the wall of Dash's closet. He looked at the clock. Still ten minutes, no big rush. He trotted downstairs to the kitchen and contemplated the things he could say to the kids. He could tell them all the swear words he knew, then attach them to different meanings so that they would come up in conversation all the time... Nah, only Dash and him would understand that, and he wasn't sure if Dash would find a bunch of swearing foals all that funny. Actually, she probably would, but she'd end up annoyed at him for orchestrating the stupid prank. Or maybe not. He took a sip of water. Diamond was there though, that would probably open a pandora's box of problems. Even if he hadn't had that skirmish with her a month ago, she was still prone to acting like a bitch, especially since he was the parent of one of the fillies she hated. He looked at the clock again, jumping a little when he realized that four minutes had gone by. He galloped out of the room, across Dash's front yard, and dove off the side, quickly gaining speed as he neared the ground. There was something about this type of flying that he loved. The non-complicated way, much like the flight patterns of jets. He liked the simplicity and the speed, the graceful corners he banked around. The school house quickly came into view, and he quickly scrubbed off the extra speed he had gained and landed in front of the school. Hopefully this would go well. That was wishful thinking at the best. He walked over to the open schoolhouse door and waved to Cherilee, who was looking over at him. "I'm here for the appreciation thing. This is the time, right?" She peered over at the clock. "I do believe it is, mister..." She gestured, evidently wanting his name. "Jason." She turned to the class. "Class, it's time for this week's parent appreciation. Mister Jason is here to tell you about his job." There was a shifting of chairs as the class shifted their attention to the front of the room. Scootaloo was beaming at him happily. "Just Jason, no mister involved." Cherilee nodded. "Before you start, Jason, where were you the last times that Scoots was sent to bring a parent? Not to pry, but this is one of my students after all. "Yeah, well the last times you asked, I wasn't her parent. Rainbow Dash and I adopted Scoots about a week ago." "I see, sorry about that, I didn--" "Who would want to adopt a blank flank loser like her?" Jason knew who it was before he even turned his head to look. There was Diamond Tiara, looking smug in the back of the room. "I would, she's the coolest kid I've ever met. She didn't deserve to be living on the streets." Scoots was looking back and forth worriedly. He had been there what, like thirty seconds and Diamond was already trying to annoy him. "Yeah, of course a freak would adopt a freak." Silver Spoon giggled. Jason tried to hide his anger, attempting to not give her what he wanted while he formulated a witty response. He opened his mouth. Before he could say anything back though, Cherilee had already spoken up. "Diamond Tiara, Jason is a guest, and you will treat him and Scootaloo with some respect." Diamond crossed her hooves and pouted. Cherilee gestured to him to continue. "Alright then. I was born in a land far from here, named America. I had a job there called accounting, where I kept track of numbers all day, and got paid pretty well for it. It was totally mind numbingly boring though. Long story short, I ended up here, in Equestria, and that's where the real story begins. How many of you know about that changeling that got chased out of town a few weeks ago?" Most of the class raised their hands. "Yeah, that was me." He chuckled nervously, but stopped when he noticed the smug glare of Diamond, and frowned. "Anyway, the second time I got caught I didn't have a chance to run, and I got captured. When I woke up, I was in Canterlot, and the Princess and five of the elements of harmony were in front of me. Dash broke me out with a bomb I made that was a lot like the apple that exploded in here a few weeks ago, only bigger, brighter and louder. So we ran. We fled into the Everfree and set up shop. That's when Scoots showed up, because she had followed us out there. As I'm sure you all know, the griffins attacked Canterlot a few days later, and pretty much destroyed the city in a single day. Dash and I fought through the city, and ended up making it to this base they have under Canterlot that's specifically made for mass evacuation." He inhaled deeply. "So we staged a counter attack in the middle of the night, got the rest of the forces together and rose up. That worked brilliantly, and ended up with most of the city under control. Then it was just a task of getting into the castle and freeing it from griffin control. I started a team, Team Green Bean," there were some giggles, "and yes that was the real name, and to cut a long story short, we battled inside the castle from a secret entrance and got the castle gates open for the rest of the army. After the griffins were fully repelled, Celestia pardoned all crimes I supposedly committed and gave me a job positioning the Equestrian troops, although technically both Dash and I are still on Team Green Bean. I guess that's about it." There were a few hushed whispers before the class broke out in applause, calming down a few seconds later. "Questions?" "So you were the mysterious changeling?" A kid asked. He only vaguely recognized most of these ponies. Pipsqueak, maybe? "Yeah, that was me." "See, I told you he was a freak." Tiara said. "Well if it weren't for this freak," he gestured to himself, "none of you would be here right now, and there'd probably be griffins all over the place." He was just glad she hadn't mentioned him beating her up yet. That would be a tough one to explain. "What's it like being a changeling?" Some other kid asked. "Strange. I mean, most changelings don't have free will because they're part of the hive, but it's mostly the same as you. I just eat love instead of food, and obviously I have wings and a horn. The whole changing between ponies is weird though, I can't get used to it. To answer your question, it's a lot less fun then it looks." "Can you transform into me?" Applebloom asked. Yeah, here were the questions that he expected to have coming from kids. "I could, do you want me to?" She nodded excitedly. "Fine, hold on." He looked her over before the green flames passed over his body and he opened his eyes, which were now much closer to the ground. "There." He said in Applebloom's voice. The class stared at him before he transformed back. "So is that about it?" Cherilee nodded. "Any more questions for Jason before he leaves?" The class was silent. "Thanks for your service. Saving Equestria, I mean." "I couldn't have done it without Dash and all the people that volunteered. They're the ones you should be thanking." He waved to the kids as he left the room. Diamond Tiara looked like she was plotting something. As long as it didn't involve Scoots he didn't care what it was. He was just glad that the whole thing had gone fairly well. Things didn't tend to go well. He started trotting down the road, not having much to do until he had to pick up Scoots from school in, what? He looked at the clock tower. Ten thirty. So, four hours to burn. Great. "Hey!" A gravely voice emanated out of an alley. Jason stared into the darkness warily, just able to make out a few silhouettes. He continued to stare, not wanting to initiate a conversation with whoever these ponies were. The fact that they didn't want to be seen was suspicious enough. Another voice spoke up. "I would get outta town if I were you. The boss doesn't take kindly to changelings on his turf. Make haste son." One of the ponies retreated down the alley, followed by the rest of the small group. Jason sighed and walked on. He didn't really think there was any form of organized crime around here. He did wonder why exactly they wanted him gone, and whether or not he should take them seriously. If he didn't, would that put Dash in danger? Or were these ponies just bluffing? He liked to think it was the latter option. He walked through a small park and sat down on a bench. He pulled out the newspaper again, looking through the pages he had previously ignored. There was a picture of Canterlot, now a few days after the last time he'd seen it. The city looked to be in much better shape, with wooden frames popping up everywhere in the panoramic shot. The article below it was about ponies that were still missing, assumed to be buried in rubble or captured. Jason started reading the list, random names, that he luckily didn't know, Boulder Dash, Swift Flurry, Cherry Sunshine. He checked the section again for Sky or Star, but didn't find them, to his relief. He shifted his attention to an honored service section of soldiers or volunteers that had received recognition for their actions. He read over the soldiers' names, chuckling slightly when he read over Fancy Pants's name, then Sky's a few names later. The newspaper wasn't really that clear on why they had received the recognition, but he hoped the honor hadn't come too easily. There was no honor in an easy medal, at that point it's basically just a participation trophy. Considering what Shining had said about some of the soldiers though, he didn't seem like the kind of guy to just give out awards willy-nilly, and there definitely weren't that many names on the list. He flipped the page to a picture of a stallion that he felt he recognized, but couldn't quite place the name of. The caption said, "Blazing 'Potato' Skies, Gone But Not Forgotten" A picture of the blue unicorn smiled in the picture as thoughts of guilt and sadness rushed through Jason's head. The article went on to talk about him opening the gate with a broken leg while on a mission for Team Green Bean, which they had abbreviated as the TGB. There were a few quotes from loved ones, and a few more from Celestia. What shocked him was that they had put one of the things he had said in there, the initial statement Jason had made about Potato and his valiance. A tear hit the page. He hated thinking about the life that Potato could have had, would have had, if Jason hadn't come up with that mission. The part that made it harder was the idea that he really had no choice, he had to order that attack. He was still lost in his thoughts when a voice broke the silence. "Hey, you sit like me!" Jason's brain processes ground to a halt as he tried to analyze the meaning of that statement and chance the topic. He looked up to see a mint green unicorn, one he immediately recognized as Lyra. "What?" "Upright. Bon-Bon said that it was weird, and nopony else sat like that. But guess what, she was wrong!" She paused. "Hey, where'd you get that horn, Alternis?" "Yeah, it's Jason. You don't keep up on news that much?" "Well there was an attack on Canterlot, and apparently a changeling was involved." "Yeah, that was me in your restaurant a few weeks ago, and me at the attack." She sat down next to him, and then pointed at the photo, which still had a tear on it. "Someone you knew?" "Yeah. He died in Canterlot." "I'm sorry." "Yeah, me too." He paused, looking over at her. "Why did you sit here? I mean, I'm not mad, it's just that most of Ponyville is afraid of me, and I just told you I was a changeling, and then you sat down over here like nothing happened." "Well, I was in Canterlot during the attack, and a changeling actually helped me out, kept me hidden until they were all blown away by the love wave. Anyway, I guess I just figured if there's one exception, there's bound to be more." "This changeling helped you?" "Is that a problem?" "Well, no, but I'm just trying to figure out how." "You mean why?" "No, changelings in the hive don't have much free will. But this one did. Weird." "Actually he sounded like he kept yelling at himself, like he was arguing with someone." So that explains that. Changelings could apparently break through the hive mind themselves, at least partially, he assumed. It didn't sound like too common of a scenario though. He was sure that Twilight would love to hear about this. "So what're you doing out here in the park?" "I just got a little stressed and came out here to relax. Business isn't going that well." "I wish I could help..." He said. Lyra sighed, then perked up a few seconds later, smiling over at him. "I have an idea." She paused a second. "You played that one time at the other restaurant, and I heard that brought in tons of business. You could do a show at the Gilded Griffin, that would be really helpful." "I still have to get a band together, so if you know someone that can play bass guitar, that'd be great. I'd like to give you the best performance possible, and most of the songs I haven't played yet have an important bass line." "So if I find you a bassist you'll do it?" "I'd have to ask Dash, her being unofficial drummer and all, but sure." She made a gleeful noise, getting up from the bench and dancing around. "Bon-Bon'll be so happy! She hasn't been acting like her regular self in weeks!" "Glad I could help. Remember, bass guitar." "Yeah, I know. Thanks again!" She galloped out of the park, evidently keen on telling Bon Bon the good news. Jason looked back down at the paper briefly before getting off the bench and making his way into town. He walked around between different shops for a while in an attempt to burn time, a goal that hadn't evidently worked very well when he noticed that the clock tower only read twelve. He groaned and trotted down the street, bored without having anyone to talk to. At least the ponies weren't as hostile as yesterday. A few of them even nodded to him or wished him a nice day. It was a nice change from the norm, although a fair number of ponies continued to stare at him angrily. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't even hear the loud wingbeats approaching beside him. Something hit him in the side, bowling him over, across the ground a few feet. He looked up to see Dash standing above him and smirking. "I get an hour off for lunch, figured I'd go find you." "Yeah, you wanna go get something to eat then?" "Are you asking me out on a date?" "Sure." "But all this is so sudden! I don't know what to say!" She feigned swooning, before breaking into a fit of giggles. "So where do you want to go? It honestly doesn't matter to me." Dash looked around hurriedly. "No, no, no." She ruled out several restaurants. "How about that one?" "The Gilded Griffin?" "Sure. Is there something wrong?" "No, I think it's funny because I was just talking to Lyra." "Let's just hurry up, I only have an hour, and there's still tons to do today." "Alright," He held the door open for her. "Let's eat." A Philosopher's Quest (read the author's note)