The Winds of Change: Fog of War

by AgentSnail


Beginnings

Beginnings

Jason opened his eyes again, sighing when the same, wooden interior of the chariot came into view. Dash leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. If he couldn't feel her annoyance, fear and anxiety, he definitely wouldn't be able to read it from her face. The chariot shook slightly in a spot of turbulence, jostling the two of them around. Jason sighed. Every time things got simple, something had to ruin his peace. Dash's peace.

He could care less what he had to go through, he knew he wasn't going to change, at least not violently, he hoped. He put an arm around Dash, pulling her closer to him. She had made it through the battle in Canterlot, she hadn't even seemed to blink, like she was just blocking it all out. He wasn't sure what she was thinking inside that head of hers, what exactly she felt when she'd killed those griffins. He just hoped she wouldn't start to lose it.

That was probably just an unfounded fear, but without the usual distractions to keep his mind occupied, his thoughts tended to wander, mostly into places much darker than he wanted to imagine. He'd thought over what Dash said about the World War II movie, what if something like that did happen to them? Obviously not to such a large degree, but what happened when--if one of them fell in battle? Sure, they knew the drill, and sure, they could fend for themselves, but as the gang back in Ponyville demonstrated, he just couldn't be prepared for everything.

And with all of this adding to all the stress he already had, things were looking rather grim. At least they hadn't been forced to leave right away, he couldn't have pulled himself away without a goodbye.

_________________________________________________________________

"We need Team Green Bean." Celestia said.

"Fuck..." Jason replied, putting a hoof to his forehead.

"No, no, no..." Dash whispered from behind him as she tried to take in the news.

"I'm sorry to do this, but there are dire consequences, and we need to bring the team back together."

"Do we have time?" Dash choked out. "T-to say goodbye to the ponies here?"

"Of course, but a chariot comes by around lunch time, we really are on a tight schedule."

Jason took a deep breath, attempting to keep his voice from wavering. "What, exactly, are we being called back for?"

"Ah, yes. May I use your map?" Jason nodded and stepped to the side, allowing her passage into Dash's home. She looked around in confusion before Jason pointed to the correct door and led her over. They walked inside and stared over the map while Celestia manipulated pieces around a city just inside the Griffin territory, near Canterlot. "Here is our main army, currently surrounding this city here, which has some one hundred to two hundred griffin troops. However, they have issued us a notice, regarding hostages that they apparently took during the siege of Canterlot. Nopony knew for sure that any ponies had been taken, because until recently Canterlot was a big rubble pile, as I'm sure you know." She sighed, tapping her hoof on the side of the map regretfully.

"So what do you want us to do?" Jason asked.

"A message came to the troops yesterday evening that the griffins in the city were going start killing the hostages if they weren't allowed to escape within forty eight hours. Shining Armor has told me that there are only a few dozen hostages at the highest, and from what we could see of the town from the surrounding land, there's only one place they could keep all those ponies. City hall. Shining has adamantly stated that morals aside, risking letting the griffins go without assurance on getting the prisoners alive would be a stupid move."

"And I agree with him."

"That's why I came here, he said that unless we sent ponies inside stealthily, there would be no hope of freeing the hostages in the first place. The idea is that we send in Team Green Bean, and if you manage to get the hostages out, then good. If you don't, nothing lost."

"And what if we die?"

"That's why I'm bringing you there, so that you can work out a plan with Shining and the rest of your team. If it becomes a suicide mission, I'm not forcing it."

"Fine." Jason mumbled.

"Alright, I'm glad to have you come along of your own will." She turned to leave, ducking under the low doorway. About halfway to the door she stopped and turned around. "Remember though, the chariot comes around lunchtime, probably twelve thirty. Don't be late." With that, Celestia ducked through the front door, closing it behind her and taking off.

"J-jason?" Dash asked.

"What?"

"How are we going to tell everypony? We finally got set up here, and now we're being taken away again." She trotted out to the living room, flopping down on the couch.

"I guess we should just make the most of the time we have. It's only seven, and as much as I didn't wish we had to, we're going to have to leave eventually." he sat down next to her on the couch, running a hoof through her disheveled mane.

"But what about Scoots? We're her parents, what are we supposed to tell her?"

"The truth. I mean, she's not going to like it, but-- hey!" He knocked a hoof against his forehead, having suddenly come up with an idea. Dash sat up a little so that she could look over at him.

"We can't be here, and she can't be there, but what about that thing that Celestia has on the map? That moves messages, so all we have to do is get another one of those. I know it won't be like we're still here, but it's better than nothing, and it sure beats not knowing how we're doing." He finished. Dash allowed a small smile to form on her lips.

"That sounds nice, actually." She pulled herself up, hugging him tightly. "How do you figure this stuff out?"

"Well I just started thinking about how to solve the problem, and that works, kinda."

"Just keep coming up with ideas like that and we'll be back home in no time." She leaned over and kissed him heatedly, finally starting to feel better. Finally she allowed herself to break away, they didn't have all the time in the world after all. She got up off the couch and quickly stretched, giggling when she noticed Jason's interest. "You left me pretty sore last night, Jason."

"I didn't do well enough then." He chuckled and got up with her, making his way into the kitchen. Dash walked in a second later, and grabbed a couple plates. She scraped some of the fish out of the pan, sliding it onto her plate and augmenting her meal with a couple of apples.

Jason chuckled. "I thought you said you thought the fish was weird."

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to eat it for a while, so I might as well remember what it tastes like. After all, I'm not usually a carnivore."

"Yeah, but it's so much better."

"I don't think I'm missing that much, frankly." She took a small bite of the fish, chewing it slowly.

"How can you say that?"

"Cuz I'm eating it, and it's not that great." She finished the rest in a few seconds and belched, getting up from the table. "Let's go, we're wasting time here." She galloped to the door, closely followed by Jason.

______________________________________________________________

Jason sighed and leaned back against the chariot wall. The carriage jostled again and Dash slumped onto his lap. Evidently she had fallen asleep, although how she had managed to fall asleep against a wall was commendable. He ran a hoof through her mane, smiling to himself as she shifted in her sleep. He continued trailing his hoof through her fur, trying to figure out what Canterlot would look like. A lot of ponies had enlisted, but Canterlot was a big city, they'd probably have at least a couple thousand ponies there still, hopefully more. So at least it wouldn't be a ghost town.

He wondered if he'd see Sky or Star there, it'd been a while, that was for sure. Unless of course, one of them enlisted. That seemed doubtful, however, especially since they weren't on the roster when he'd checked. He'd have to pay them a visit, wherever their home was now. That brought up another question, how rebuilt was the city? Considering the amount of rubble and cinders that had been there previously, along with the number of bodies that needed to be buried, the number of funerals...

He tried to distract himself, and looked down at Dash once more. It'd been quite the day so far, no wonder she was exhausted. His distraction plan seemed to work as his thoughts drifted elsewhere.

________________________________________________________________________

"Applejack, open up!" Dash banged on the door wildly, while Jason just sighed behind her. The farm mare opened the door a few moments later, looking rather panicky.

"What, what, who died?" They lapsed into a brief silence.

"Nopony, but we need to talk to Scoots!" Dash yelled, a little too loudly considering how close Applejack was to her.

"What is it, Sugarcube?"

A sudden wave of repressed emotion finally made itself known. "We-we're being taken back to the war, we have to see her off. We have to see everypony off, actually." She looked downward, not able to continue. A tear hit the ground. Applejack seemed to understand, and disappeared into the house. Scoots came trotting out with her a few moments later, immediately losing her happy complexion at the sight of Dash and Jason's expressions.

"What happened?" She asked. Dash stared at her, trying to come up with a response, before moving forward and wrapping the filly up in a hug.

"We're being sent back, Scoots." Jason started, a few tears running down his face. "Back to the war. I'm sorry."

Scoots stared over Dash's shoulder at him before breaking down into sobs herself, shoving her face into the side of Dash's neck. She eventually freed herself from the hug to move over to Jason, jumping and fluttering into his arms as he reared up to catch her.

"Jason, y-you aren't leaving forever, are you?"

"No Scoots, we won't be gone too long. We'll be back before you know it." He tried unsuccessfully to stem the tears still flowing from his eyes.

"Why do you have to leave?" She accented the last word with another sob. Jason looked up to see that the other crusaders were watching from the doorway, looking downtrodden.

"We have to go help save some ponies. But it's not all bad, Scoots."

"How is it not? You guys are leaving, I'll be just as alone as before!" Jason gently let go of the filly, pulling the pad of paper out of his saddlebag. He took a deep breath to try to control his emotions, although it seemed to be a lost cause at this point.

"Look at this. It's enchanted so that messages from here go to another pad of paper in Canterlot. If we can just get another, you can write anything, ask anything, and we'll be able to respond. It won't be like we're still here, but you'll know how we're doing and we can stay in contact with you." Scoots smiled lightly, choking out a residual sob.

"Do you have to leave now?"

"No, that's the other thing. We have until somewhere around twelve thirty, and we can do whatever until then. I'm therefore letting you skip school." Her small smile grew a little. "But this is a one time thing Scoots, if I hear that you're skipping school, I'm going to come home angry, and I doubt you want that." She giggled a little.

"I won't, don't worry."

"Okay, good." He turned to Dash, who was still looking a little foggy. "You know some pony we could get to check up on her?"

"I don't need a babysitter!"

"That's probably why I said 'check up' and not 'watch'."

"Well, Fluttershy comes to mind." Dash said.

"I guess that's as good a plan as any."

"Applejack," Dash started. "Can you get everypony together later? I want to make sure I don't forget to say goodbye to anypony."

"Don't worry about it, Sugarcube." She wiped one of her eyes and ushered the other crusaders back inside, closing the door shortly after with a wave and a tip of her hat.

___________________________________________________________________

A hoof touched Jason's chin, jolting him out of his thoughts. Rather violently, in fact.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Oh hi, Dash."

"Just making sure you weren't replaced with a statue." She lowered her hoof, folding it against her body. Damn, she looked cute like that. She yawned and looked around, sighing when she realized that they were still in the chariot. "How much further could Canterlot be?"

"It's been a half hour, if they were at Canterlot right now they'd probably set a new air speed record." She glared at him. "With a chariot."

"Nice save." She sighed, trying to find a more comfortable position on the wooden bench, to no avail. "Would it kill them to pad these seats? I mean, I'm thankful for you being a pillow, Jason, but seriously."

"Glad you think of me so highly."

"Hey, you're a damn good pillow. And you're always so warm."

"That kinda makes me wonder if I have a higher body temperature than normal ponies."

"Well it's nice, whatever it is." She paused, stroking a hoof across his chest. "How soundproof do you think this chariot is?"

"Dash, there're knives and weapons all over the place, and this thing is prone to turbulence." She giggled.

"Yeah, but it's fun to see your face when you have to decline to sex."

"Oh, you're evil."

"Why, thank you Jason." She stuck out her tongue, before turning and licking his stomach. He cringed.

"Stop that, it tickles!" She continued moving her tongue around.

"Storp thirss?" She asked back.

"AAAGH, no, haha." He finally moved her head, gently taking her off of his lap. "No more pillow privileges for you."

"Come on, we don't have to be rash..." She leaned back against him, reaching a hoof over to caress his neck.

"You really have no shame, do you Dash?"

"Nope. If you're not going to be interesting I'm going back to sleep."

"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be all that interesting in this situation."

"Well either way, I'm still too tired to keep teasing you like this."

"Oh noooooooo..." He threw his arms up in mock distress, before he wrapped an arm around her, rubbing her shoulder with his hoof. A few minutes later her light snoring could be heard, and he was left to his thoughts again.

__________________________________________________________

Jason landed in front of Fluttershy's cottage, lightly sighing to himself before tapping the side of a hoof on the door. Dash had taken Scoots into town to grab something from Sugarcube corner and try to cheer her up. He felt guilty about all of this, sure, it wasn't technically his fault, but that didn't mean he felt good leaving Scoots alone here. She didn't deserve the hand she was dealt, and he didn't want to reverse her fortune.

The door opened to Fluttershy, who looked confused for a few seconds before she appeared to recognize him and took a step back.

"Jason?"

"Yeah, now listen, I don't have much time. I'm leaving with Dash for the warfront, we've been called back." She seemed to grow a little less fearful, and stepped forward with a sad expression.

"Y-you're leaving?"

"Yeah, around twelve today. But the reason I came here was to ask a favor, and I know you don't really have that much of a reason to help me out, but just listen." She timidly put a hoof up to his mouth, silencing him.

"I'd be happy to so something for you, Jason, at least as long as it's not ridiculous. At least, if that's okay..." She pulled her hoof away.

"Can you watch Scoots while we're gone then? I didn't know any other pegasi, and, well, you seemed like a good pony for the job. I'm not talking full time here, just once a day or something, make sure she's not skipping school or anything like that."

"I'd be happy to watch her, it'd be no trouble at all." Jason let out a sigh or relief.

"Thanks so much Fluttershy, I'm glad to have a pony like you around." He drew her into a hug, which was probably a stupid idea in the first place. Much to his surprise, though, she hugged him back, giggling a little after her initial fear passed.

"I'll take good care of her."

"Okay, thanks. It means a lot."

"It's really no trouble." She let go of him, ending the hug. "Are you planning on doing anything before you go?"

"Not anything in specific, I'm going to go meet Dash at Sugarcube corner, and I asked Applejack to see if she could get us together so we could say goodbye." He sighed and hung his head. "I wouldn't be so annoyed right now if things weren't getting so much better before today." He paused. "Well I'll just get out of your hair then, thanks again for doing this." She nodded and he took off, quickly banking over towards town as the spire of Sugarcube corner came into view. He landed in the small square out front, quickly trotting inside.

Scoots and Dash were at a booth near the front of the room, in the middle of sharing a giant sundae. Emphasis on giant. He started walking over to the table, only to get stopped by a pink blur just before he arrived. Pinkie stopped on a dime in front of him, looking rather sad. Not mane deflated sad, but sad nonetheless.

"Dash said you were leaving, why?"

"She didn't explain?"

"She did, but I wanted to hear it from both of you."

"Then yes, we're leaving. Celestia needs us to try to save some captured ponies, if it's at all possible." She sighed, smiling slightly when she looked back up at him.

"Then why don't we have the biggest, bestest party ever as a going away gift?!?! It'll be great, all your friends'll be here, and we can see have fun up till the end! Might as well make the most of it, huh?! Huh?!?!"

Jason chuckled at her antics, feeling his worries lift slightly. She was pretty good at cheering ponies up alright. "Sure, Pinkie, on two conditions."

"Aww, that's no fun..."

"They're small. Just don't invite every one, and don't bring out any alcohol."

"Oh, that's easy! I thought you weren't going to want me to put beef fat in the cakes."

"What?" Dash asked.

"Nothing!" Pinkie bounced away into the kitchen.

Jason turned to Dash. "That was a joke?"

"Let's say it was. It was definitely random enough to be Pinkie, and she did giggle afterwards."

"She giggles after everything."

"Pinkie!" The party mare came bouncing back out, looking at Dash with an over-exaggerated confused face.

"What is is Dashie?" Jason chucked when he saw Dash flinch at the pet name.

"That was a joke about the beef fat, right?"

"Well, Duh! I only put fish oil in the pastries! Everypony knows that!"

"Ugh, Pinkie."

"Oh Dashie, you're so gullible!" She hopped back into the kitchen, accompanied by a loud groan from Dash and a series of giggles from Scoots.

"I didn't expect her to be the troll around here." Jason said.

"Wha.. She's a troll now? What does that even mean?"

"Uh, nevermind. It's not important. What is important is that I got Fluttershy to agree to checking up on Scoots."

"That's good." She took another bite of the sundae. "I just wish we had a better means of communication then a pad of paper."

"It's better than nothing."

"Well, yeah, when you look at it that way..." Jason eyed the sundae again, before finally shifting into Dash and grabbing a spoon, moving a big scoop of ice cream into his mouth. Ohhhhhh yeaaaah. It had been waaaaay too long.

"Jason, you got a brain freeze?" Dash asked. He jumped and shook himself out of his thoughts.

"No, I just haven't had ice cream in a long time." Dash gave a thoughtful hum in response, turning back to watch the sundae continually get demolished and transferred into the bottomless pit that was Scoots' stomach. A few minutes later the giant pile of ice cream had been reduced to just a couple spoonfuls at the bottom. Scoots looked over at their slightly dumbfounded expressions.

"What? She inquired.

"How did you eat that?" Jason asked, "That sundae was bigger than your head. And we all have really big heads."

"I was hungry." She let out a cute little burp. "And I really like ice cream."

"You and me both." He scratched the side of his head, still trying to figure out why she didn't at least look a little bloated. Actually, he was glad she didn't look like that. His thoughts turned when Pinkie sprinted past and through the door, carrying something on her back. A letter fell out of the air she had just occupied, and Jason bent over to pick it up, casting a glance to the door. Pinkie was long gone.

"Jason, how'd you get an invitation from Pinkie?"

"She dropped it, and now I don't know what to do with it." He looked down at the letter, scrunching his face up in confusion when he read his own name. "Why would she give me an invitation?" He opened up the letter just as Pinkie galloped back inside, tossing two more invitations on the table before running back into the kitchen. Sugarcube corner suddenly became eerily quiet.

Jason finally tore his envelope open, finding that it was, in fact, an invitation. But it was at Twilight's library, which was a strange choice of venue. It would be funny if Twilight was just finding out about this. How could she not have? But then again, she could've gotten word from the princess this morning, so she would at least have time to plan, maybe. Ugh, whatever.

"You guys ready to go? I want to stop by the blacksmith before we go to the party, so that should give Pinkie some time, not that she really needs it."

"Well sure, I got nothing better to do in that short of an amount of time." Dash said.

"Are we going to get more knives?!" Scoots asked, more yelling than asking, actually.

Jason sighed. "Keep it down Scoots!" He paused. "Yes, they should look a lot like Dash's."

"Wow, those looked awesome!"

"Wait, you were using those to get me out?"

"Yeah, sorry I kinda ruined the surprise there."

"Well you didn't know I had them made, so it was still kind of a surprise. Were they any good?"

"Yeah, they were amazing, it was like an extension of my hoof, they're pretty light, whatever they're made out of."

"Glad you liked them." He got up and started for the door, waiting for Dash and Scoots to follow him. "And somehow I missed seeing them this whole time, so I've still got a surprise in store for myself about how they look. You didn't lose the knives or anything, right Dash?"

"No, they're in that wooden box, that's why you didn't see them."

"Ah." He pushed open the door and held it for the two of them before walking out himself. They trotted across the street, just inside to see Pinkie dash out of Sugarcube Corner again, pushing or pulling what looked like a ridiculous amount of stuff. She went around a corner and disappeared, drawing more than a few stares. Most of Ponyville was apparently indifferent to Pinkie's normal behavior, and quickly got back to whatever they were doing prior.

Jason shook his head and entered the blacksmith shop after Dash and Scoots, walking over to the counter. One of those little bell things had been set out, and he tapped his hoof on the top of it, creating a rather loud ding. The blacksmith trotted out a few moments later, his face covered in soot, and smiled.

"Here for those knives, eh?"

"Yeah, Dash said her's were pretty awesome, I'm pretty excited."

"Glad to hear it went over well. You look pretty good, considering..." He chuckled and reached under the counter, pulling up a wooden box and laying it in front of himself before turning the box around towards Jason. Jason carefully reached over and undid the simple clasp, raising the lid and going slack jawed.

When Dash had said awesome, he didn't think she'd meant this awesome. He carefully pulled out one of the blades, and examined it closely from the handle to the characters on the blade. He took a step back and slid the knife into his hoof before taking a few swings with the blade. He smiled and put the blade back in the box carefully, and lifted it off the counter.

"What do I owe you for this?"

"Your mare-friend already paid, just remember the marketing thing."

"Yeah, Ferris, right?" The blacksmith nodded. "Thanks again for all this, I really like the knife!"

"I guess I still have that hundred percent approval rating, nopony's ever turned down something from me, if they could pay for it." He chuckled. "Well I'll see you later." He waved and they left, immediately taking off to leave the weapons at Dash's cloud house.

__________________________________________________________

The chariot felt like it had collided with something, sending any gear that wasn't held down flying into the air, including an unfortunate Dash and Jason. They were vaulted a little ways into the air, and Dash woke up from her slumber mid flight. Jason managed to pull her on top of himself mid air, taking the brunt of the blow to the floor and breaking her fall. The air left his lungs as his back contacted the floor, and he was stuck gasping while Dash tried to figure out whether or not she was still dreaming. A couple moments later he felt her hoof on his face, and he looked up to see that she was slightly worried.

"You okay Jason?"

He drew in a breath, trying to kick the feeling of being breathless. "Yeah, we hit a bump or something." Dash smiled and leaned down to kiss him.

"And I take it you tried to get yourself under me?" She nuzzled his neck.

"That was the idea."

"You're so sweet, Jason."

"Well I couldn't really let you hit the ground when you were still partially asleep."

"Are you sure you weren't just trying to get on my good graces?"

"Maybe a little." She giggled and got out of her position on his chest, moving back over to the bench. "We've got to be close by now, I mean I've been asleep for most of it, but still."

"Yeah," Jason looked out a window at the surrounding landscape, trying to see in the direction Canterlot was. "I think I can see the beginnings of the mountain over there, so yeah. We're definitely close." He sat down next to her on the bench, sighing and leaning over on her.

"Now you're the tired one?"

"A little. Wake me up when we get there." He closed his eyes and dozed off, his breathing becoming deep and slow. Dash leaned her head onto the top of his, sighing happily. Things could be worse, everypony in Ponyville was safe, she had Jason, and Luna was working on finding the pony with the soul magic. Maybe she had misjudged the situation a little. She started to drift into a trance, fighting hard to stay conscious as the carriage glided along.

___________________________________________________________________

Dash watched Jason open the door to the library, looking around, apparently expecting a surprise. Streamers and balloons suddenly exploded out of the corner of the library and he jumped behind a couch, peeking back over the piece of furniture to find the culprit of the noise and projectiles. There, in the corner, was Pinkie, leaning on her party cannon like nothing had happened. She was doing a good job pulling off a bored face, apparently looking at her hoof.

She quickly broke into a smile, zipping over to where he was standing as she gestured and several ponies came out from behind furniture and trotted around to the festivities, most of them laughing. Dash contained her giggles slightly and walked over to Pinkie and Jason, the latter holding a hoof to his chest.

"Did I get ya? Did I? I thought that one was pretty original, at least compared to what I usually do."

"Yeah, you got me. God, what if you hadn't loaded that with streamers and stuff?"

"Pfft, I can load that with anything, party stuff comes out no matter what!! Why do you think it's called a party cannon, silly?" She turned and bounced away moving towards the buffet table that she had set up. Dash walked over to him, letting out a few residual giggles. Twilight walked over, a knowing expression on her face.

"I heard about what Celestia said. Today, huh?"

"Yeah." Dash answered. "It's just hard to leave, you know? Especially Scoots here." She mussed up the filly's mane affectionately, now that Scoots had come over to join them.

"I wish I could say I know how you feel, but I've never been faced with leaving everypony. The closest I've ever come was during that whole thing with Discord, but that didn't really last all that long, and technically you were still there."

"I wish we didn't have to go, I really do." She jumped a little when Twilight leaned forward and hugged her, before joining into the hug herself.

"We're still going to have a means of communication, but that'll only be with Scoots. You can just ask her how we're doing, that'll work."

"How are you communicating exactly?"

"Celestia gave us a pad of paper for the map that shows the messages you write on one on the other, and vice versa. So we're going to give her ours and grab the one at Canterlot. I just couldn't bear to leave her alone after all she's been through." She tried to put a hoof on the filly before realizing that she had apparently left at some point, and when she turned to look the other way, noticed that Jason had also left. She deadpanned.

"Yeah, you have somepony to watch her?"

"Fluttershy, actually." They walked over to the food, each pouring a glass of punch.

"So how long do you think you're going to be gone for?" Applejack had walked up soon enough to hear Twilight's question.

"I don't know, I mean it could be a couple of days if it turns out there's nothing we can do, or it could be a couple weeks." She paused, sighing. "Or we might not ever come back. Jason, always the optimist, thinks that things'll go smoothly no matter what, but I'm sure you know how our plans tend to go."

"You better not end up as another one a' them casualties, Dash." Applejack said. "Just, be careful ya hear?" There was a clang as something fell over. "Ah gotta go, ah brought the other crusaders here, and they could've done anything by now." She ran off across the room, meeting up with the crusaders, who appeared to be standing over a metal side table that was bent in several different ways.

Dash chuckled and bid Twilight goodbye before trying to get into the party spirit. She succeeded, as it turned out, managing to enjoy her last few hours in Ponyville. She tried to teach Jason how to dance, not that she really knew much about dancing herself, but the results were hilarious. Before she knew it though, the party was winding to a close, and she was forced to face the facts that her time was almost up.

She cringed as she looked at the clock, it was nearly twelve, and they'd need a good amount of time to pack everything up. Evidently some other ponies noticed the time, and came over to share a round of goodbyes. Twilight went first, giving Dash a gentle hug and having trouble keeping her eyes from leaking. She finally let go, pushing a book into Dash's chest with a hoof and attempting a smile. Dash looked down and saw that it was a book on changelings, presumably as a joke.

"I had to replace this a long time ago because Jason never returned the last copy, but I figured you'd think it was funny. Besides, it was better than any other books, and the new Daring do hasn't come out yet." She wiped her eye and backed away, allowing another pony to say their goodbye. Pinkie came next, hopping over to Dash rather more happily than she would have expected.

"Get back soon so we can have another party Dashie! I'll make it bigger, no better...Oh what the hay I'll make it both!" She threw a hug around Dash, breaking away before Dash could even react. Rarity came over next, brandishing a possibly stylish camouflage helmet, which she set atop Dash's head.

"Don't do anything stupid, Dash."

She chuckled. "No promises." Applejack came over and gave a bone crushing hug, before finally fluttershy gave her uncharacteristically audible goodbye, giving Dash an accompanying hug. Dash looked over to see that Jason had finished his goodbyes to Lyra, Bon Bon and Octavia in much the same way, and was now wildly writing something on a piece of paper. He seemed to finish whatever he was doing and thrust the paper into Octavia's hooves before taking another glance at the clock and dropping his head. He motioned to Scoots as she ran by, apparently wanting to bring her up to the house with them.

Dash extracted herself from her friends and trotted over sadly, saying her goodbyes to the other three ponies before they left, their friends pursuing them outside to wave. Dash took off after waving back, quickly flying up to the house ahead of Jason and Scoots. They'd really gone down to the wire on this one. She ran upstairs and grabbed a blanket and a saddlebag in her mouth, trailing them behind herself as she ran back down the stair and dumped them into a pile. She pushed the blanket into the saddlebag, figuring that they might as well be better safe than sorry.

She ran back upstairs as she heard the door open, returning with the gillie suit and the framed picture of Jason hugging Scoots in the hospital bed. She packed both into the other pocket as Jason wordlessly started gathering up the explosives and the knife boxes. He threaded several of the explosives through the belt, leaving a few loops open. He picked up the AUG and it's magazines, threading two through each of their belts. He made sure the gun was on safety before setting it back down.

Scoots trotted out of the kitchen with several apples balanced in a precarious pyramid on the top of her head, tipping them into a saddlebag with a light giggle. Jason trotted into the map room, grabbing the pad of paper. He quickly turned around to bring the pad to Scoots, before stopping and grabbing a small, framed picture off the wall. He looked down at the picture of Scoots looking over Dash's head with her fore hooves placed on the top of Dash's mane. Dash was smiling up at Scoots, who looked rather philosophical.

He smiled to himself before walking over to his saddlebag and sticking the photo inside as Scoots deposited a few more apples. There was a knock at the door, and Dash went to open it as Jason went and gathered up all of her armor. She opened the door and sighed, as a couple of royal guards looked on expectantly, a moderately sized covered chariot behind them.

"We'll just be a couple minutes." One of the guards nodded, tapping his primitive looking watch in warning. Dash shut the door as the guards turned away, presumably to get reattached to their reigns. She quickly grabbed her saddlebag and threw it over her back, watching as Jason threw the computer in his and copied her motions. He levitated the rest of their stuff into the air, quickly moving it through the now open door and through the small door on the side of the carriage chariot thing before taking a deep breath.

They walked outside behind the stuff, and Scoots ran after them, quickly losing her happy facade. She jumped onto the back of their necks, trying to hug them both goodbye. Jason turned and wrapped his hooves around her, tears in his eyes.

"G-goodbye Scoots, we'll be back soon, don't worry." Dash hugged them both, barely able to keep herself from sobbing uncontrollably.

"J-just make sure you come back." She let out a choked sob and let go of them. "Now go, the sooner you leave, the sooner you get back." Jason forced a smile and pulled the paper pad out of his saddlebag, handing it over to Scoots.

"If you want to know how we're doing, don't forget that you can just ask." He said. She nodded, trying to wipe away her tears. Jason got up sadly and walked over to the carriage, walking around inside and making sure they had everything. Dash gave Scoots another hug, planting a kiss on the filly's forehead.

"I'm going to miss you Scoots, more than you know." Scoots didn't respond, but simply hugged Dash tighter. They hugged for a few more moments before the impatient tapping of one of the guards reached her ears. She sighed and let go, waiting for Jason to come over and hug Scoots goodbye. He partially broke down in the middle of the hug, but managed to pull himself together soon enough to keep the guards from getting too impatient. They got into the carriage, and Jason knocked on the wall towards the front to tell the ponies they were finally ready.

The two of them waved as the carriage accelerated towards Canterlot, Dash's house and Scoots quickly disappearing into the distance.

____________________________________________________________

Jason woke up with a start, startling Dash as she was thrust out of her thoughts. He looked around confusedly, apparently disoriented in the foreign environment. He got his bearings a few seconds later, and turned around to look out the window. He craned his neck, trying to look as far forward as possible, before turning back to Dash, a slight smile on his face.

"Canterlot's right over there. I mean you can't see it, but there's a cliff and I guess I just figured..." He paused. "Anyway, let's just get this stuff ready." He jumped off of the bench, quickly picking up Dash's saddlebag and managing to cram the knife boxes inside before gathering the rest of the stuff together.

"It's really close?"

"I think, but I don't want to be in this deathtrap anymore. I'd rather just be flying myself, if you know what I mean."

Dash fluttered her wings. "Yeah, I definitely know where you're coming from." She walked over and checked the other saddlebag, making sure the computer was still safely held in one of the pockets. She looked around, noticing that at least one thing was missing. "You forgot your guitar, Jason."

He facehoofed. "Well son of a bitch! I knew there wasn't enough shit in here! Mother fucker!" He sighed, kicking an apple across the floor.

"It's just a guitar... Hey! think of it this way, at least Scoots'll have another thing to remind her of you."

"Except all of our instruments are at Octavia's house." He sighed again. "Let's just get ready, we might as well make an entrance. Well kinda, I doubt there'll be any ponies there to meet us." He picked up the slightly bruised apple, turning to stow it away in this saddlebag, before levitating it over his back. Dash had began to put on her armor, and was halfway through her second foreleg when Jason levitated the rest of it onto her, tying it on with a much better rope than the previous twine they had used. Jason attached the sling to the gun and threw it over his back, making sure he had tightened it enough to keep it in place.

"You might as well just go the regular changeling route, Jason. They like you here."

"I'm sure they don't all like me."

"You helped save their city, I'm pretty sure they do."

"Fine, but you better not be wrong about this. If you are, I swear..."

"What?"

"I'm not sure what I could threaten you with."

She stuck out her tongue. "And I always have the ability to keep you from sex."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because I was totally the one all over you these last couple times."

"You looked like you enjoyed it."

"Well, that's probably becau--" There was a thump as the chariot either hit a wall or touched down, followed by a hideous scraping sound as they slowed, sending them both into a painful heap against the front wall. A couple seconds later the door opened, and a stallion leaned in, looking around for a moment before seeing them and suppressing a laugh. Jason muttered something as he got up, lending Dash a hoof.

They walked over to the door as Jason dropped the disguise. As he got to the door he tried to block the sun with his hoof, giving his eyes time to adjust to the light. As Canterlot came into focus, he was a little in awe of how much better the place looked. Rubble was cleaned up, building frames were going up everywhere around the tents that dotted the landscape. He stepped out of the gloom of the carriage to a small group of ponies that were gathered.

One walked up to him, a pony his still adjusting eyes recognized as Star. She trotted up and smiled before leaning over and hugging him.

"Welcome to Canterlot, Jason."