//------------------------------// // The Flashback // Story: The Winds of Change // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// The Flashback "Dash, that hurts." "Oh, sorry." She let him out of her grasp. Before he could speak she leaned forward and caught him in a kiss, making sure to place her weight on the bed beside him, not wishing to crush him twice in a minute. She finally broke off the kiss, leaning back slightly before rolling over onto the bed next to him. She gingerly wrapped her hoof around his, gently squeezing. "I missed you." She said, looking into his eyes. "I missed you too." He pulled her into another gentle hug. "How long exactly was I here?" He gestured to the bed and the room. "New record." She chuckled nervously. "A little over a full day. It wasn't fun." "Yeah, I'll bet. If you were stuck like this and I couldn't do much I-- I guess I don't know what I'd do. I love you Dash." She only nodded, a stray tear leaking out of her eye. "Hey, don't cry..." "I'm just so relieved that you're back." He nodded, looking up at the ceiling from his back while keeping his arms wrapped around her. "What happened while I was out?" "Not that much, compared to how much usually happens to us." She took a ragged breath, trying to calm herself. "Applejack and Twilight came in and apologized." "What?" "Yeah, weird huh?" "I didn't think that was going to ever happen, I mean I'm not surprised they didn't trust me, though, considering I'm a member of a species that is completely based in trickery and manipulation and was involved in the Canterlot attack. From their point of view it almost makes sense. More sense than the whole thing with Zecora, at least." "How can you look at it that calmly?" "I dunno, I'm tired. Where's Scoots?" "She went back to the house last night, and she's probably in school right now. I had Fluttershy check when she came by this morning." She paused. "Hey, about all that stuff after you were captured..." Jason shuddered, looking a little grossed out after a few things crunched. "If it's alright, can I wait until there's more ponies around before I tell it? " Dash nodded, sighing slightly. A green blur came into the room, stopping in front of Dash. Lyra, apparently. "Is he better?" She asked Dash. "Yeah." Jason said, startling her into a tray that held several medical tools. They flew across the bed and a scalpel landed on the covers right in front of Jason. He jumped and struggled to push himself backwards, away from the knife until he tried to throw it away with his magic. He was met with the same pain in his head, and finally just swatted the thing away with a hoof. Dash was looking over worriedly, while Lyra smiled sheepishly. "What did they do to you in there?" He put a hoof to his chest, trying to get his heartbeat down. "Like I said, I'll tell you when we get some ponies together, it's really not a fond set of memories. We seriously need to get this thing off my horn." He touched it with a hoof, trying to pry it off. "I guess that'll be a job for Twilight." "Doesn't that hurt?" Lyra asked, pointing to his body. "Not that much, it looks like it should though. I mean my head and hoof both hurt a lot, but other than that I'm fine. What drugs do they have me on?" "None, as far as I know." Dash said, "Luna did something." "Luna was here?" "Yeah, she was here to help break you out, but I guess you knew that already." "What happened with the...guy?" "Well here's where it gets weird. Luna said he was using a different form of magic, where you re-represent your conscience. It's called 'soul magic,' and this guy knew how it worked, which means that his body was probably miles and miles away. I really don't know if we can do anything against this guy, he seems like he's totally out of our league." "Just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder here, this guy pops up. I'm sure we'll pull through, we always seem to do that one way or another." "Yeah, but those were physical fights, this is something we don't even have a hope of matching hoof for hoof." "Aren't you the little pessimist, Dash." "Hey Jason!" Lyra broke in, evidently trying to diffuse the tension. "After you tell everypony what happened, you think you could tell me more about humans?" She smirked, a knowing look on her face. Jason looked over to Dash, who sighed. "You told her?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Funny how he couldn't do that as a human. "I didn't really just tell her, she kinda knew something was up. She's one of the few ponies that actually trusted you, I didn't want to alienate her." "Don't worry," Lyra said, "I won't tell." Jason ran a hoof down his face and sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. How did you figure it out? More stuff came over?" She nodded and levitated the box out of her saddlebag, floating it over. He noticed the cover and smiled. "Man, I loved this movie." "Movie?" "Yeah, like a moving picture." Lyra seemed to understand, as far as he could tell. "So what're these things on the box?" "The humans?" "No, like the things they're holding. Why's there an explosion?" "Well, these guys are soldiers from my country and are holding guns, which are used to kill people. They're in a war in the Middle East against a bunch of terrorists, to simplify all this. Those terrorists all hate Americans and most of the rest of the western world, and some of them'll blow themselves up to take out American soldiers. This guy's running away from an explosive device that one of the terrorists made and stuck in the ground with the express purpose of trying to kill more americans. This guy's job is to defuse the bombs and make sure they don't go off, while the rest of his team helps him out. That's the movie in the nutshell." "How did they make a movie when it's that dangerous?" Dash asked. "These are actors, but it's based on a true story." "Ah. I also found this." She picked the thing up off the ground, laying it on the bed. Jason jumped and turned it sideways immediately. "That's a gun, Dash." "Oh, cool!" "It's not cool, what if a bunch of these come through and ponies figure out how to use them? Especially those ponies that captured me?" Both Lyra and Dash lapsed into silence, still apparently waiting for Jason to do something with the gun. He looked over and sighed. "Since you're so interested, this is a military grade assault rifle, called the AUG. The fact that it's this big probably goes to show that humans are way taller than we are now." He pushed a button and pulled out a curved piece of metal, looking at one end of it. He pulled out a shiny elongated thing, showing it to the two of them. "This is a bullet cartridge, the bullet and the gunpowder that propels it is all included. These go into the magazine, which feeds them into the gun to be fired." He slid the bullet back into the magazine and shoved it back into the gun. "So where does it shoot from?" Lyra asked. "This hole here?" She put her hoof over the barrel's end. At least she wasn't looking down it or anything. "Yeah. I can show you what it does later, but Dash seemed pretty impatient to hear what I had to say, and..." "Oh, you wanna come to tell everypony at the Gilded Griffin?" "Not everypony, just the ponies I know. I guess those who care. I just don't really want to say it over and over again. But only if you want me there, I don't want to intrude or anything." "I'll go get stuff ready! Just come over when you're ready!" She darted out of the room. That mare definitely wasn't far from Pinkie energy levels. Actually that was probably an idiotic statement, no one was even close to Pinkie levels. "Dash, why does my hoof hurt so much?" He shifted around, trying to get it to face him before he let out a grunt of pain and relented. "They sheared it off, don't you remember?" "I remember that it hurt like a bitch, but that I couldn't really look down. They had me..." He trailed off. "I'll get into it later. I'm so glad you came for me Dash, I don't know how much longer I could take that. I didn't-- I was having trouble staying sane through that, and it just wouldn't end." Dash felt a pang of remorse, she could've-- should've gotten there sooner. She threw her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. "I'm sorry Jason, I should've been there sooner. I didn't want you to go through all of that, nopony deserves that." "Dash are you crying?" He pulled her out of his shoulder, trying to get her to look him in the eye, although she kept shifting her gaze. "Dash, do you know why I didn't lose my sanity?" She shook her head, choking back a sob. "Because I knew you'd get there, and I knew I'd get back to you." "You couldn't know that, from what the doctors said you're alive and not comatose because of luck." "But I was right. You did come for me, and you got me out of there, and you made sure I ended up alive. That's what you've always done for me. I honestly don't deserve to have a mare like you." He ignored her protests and pulled her back into the hug. "But, how can you--" "You're too hard on yourself, Dash. No one else could do what you do." They stayed there for a few more moments as Dash tried to slow her breathing. Jason waited until he was sure she was feeling better before breaking the silence. "You wanna go over to The Gilded Griffin? I'm getting pretty sick of laying here already." "Yeah, hold on a sec." She got up and left the room, leaving a slightly confused Jason to his own devices. He picked up the gun again, turning it over in his hooves. An automatic weapon. And it'd only taken a car crash, several angry mobs, a battle and torture to bypass the laws for legal ownership. Soooooo worth it. He set the gun down and moved to get off the bed, struggling to get parts of the covers unstuck from the places where blood had soaked through the bandages. He rolled off and immediately collapsed onto his stomach on the the floor, struggling to get a hoof under himself. He got his fore hoof flat on the ground and pushed, straining with all the strength he could muster. He moved back a couple inches before his hoof slipped and he smacked his face into the ground, forcing him to stop trying and take a couple deep of breaths. How could he possibly be this weak? Dash walked back in and gasped, immediately rushing over to Jason's side. He was glad she couldn't see any blushing through his chitin. He knew he shouldn't, but he felt embarrassed, annoyed even, that he couldn't even get up off the ground. Dash threw her hooves around him and awkwardly picked him up, leaning over and falling onto the bed where they bounced a couple times before coming to a rest. "You okay?" She asked. He nodded, still embarrassed. She poked him in the nose lightly and giggled. "That was the reason I wanted you to wait. You're pretty heavy by the way." She got up and walked back over to the door, pulled a wheelchair through and positioning it next to the bed. "I talked to the doctors and they need to run a few quick tests, but as long as I don't do anything crazy with you we're good to go. At least for a while. They were pretty surprised that you even woke up, let alone that you'd be in any condition to do anything." She sat down on the bed next to him. "I never said I wasn't tired, but some things are just more important. Like the plans, right? Today's Sunday?" "Yeah, but you don't need to do that, not like this..." "Yes I do, they're depending on me to get them the plans." "Why don't you just have me do it? You could just tell me where to put the pieces." "Fine Dash, you win. I'll start drawing after I get this stupid thing off my horn." He tapped it ruefully. "I guess it's good that I never really used magic that much. Except I still can't write by hoof. Or do you use your mouth?" "Either, it depends on the writer. Some ponies just find it easier to do it one way or the other." "I see. We just wrote with our hands. I kinda miss those sometimes." She nodded and held a hoof in front of her face, probably trying to imagine what it'd look like with fingers. A doctor walked in, the one that had tole her the bad news last night, Dash realized. He walked over to Jason, looking back and forth between his clipboard as he jotted down some notes. He held a pencil in front of Jason's face. "Follow this with your eyes." He moved it back and forth a few times before writing some more phrases. He picked up a matchbook from the counter and struck one, holding it up to one of Jason's eyes. He blew it out and continued his note-taking. A few seconds later he looked back up. "Well as far as I can tell you only have a minor concussion. Blood loss was large, but you should be recovering now. If you feel woozy or dizzy, come back here. Obviously don't attempt anything physical, chances are you'll be pretty weak for a while. Most of the rest of this is about food, but I gather you don't actually eat, so that's pretty pointless. Don't drink large amounts of water in one sitting, more food stuff, I think that's about it. You haven't been cleared from the hospital yet, you'll have to come back before five to stay the night here, then you're free to go, assuming nothing pops up." Jason groaned; he didn't want to be stuck here longer. Dash seemed to agree with him though, maybe she was right. It's not like he could fly up to their house anyway. "Don't worry doc, I'll probably bring him back in one piece." Jason smirked at the Doctor's worried expression. If he hadn't known Dash, he'd probably be wearing the same face. The doctor tapped his pencil on the edge of the clipboard a couple times before nervously leaving the small room. Dash rolled off the bed, throwing a hoof out to Jason. "Unsurprisingly, this is the first time I've had to do this, so don't expect me to do well." "Don't worry, I've got you." She moved her hooves under his shoulders and pulled him the rest of the way off the bed, dropping him rather more quickly than she would have liked into the chair. Jason hit his bad hoof on the ground and hissed in pain as Dash finished pulling him into the chair. "Sorry about that." she said, laying a hoof on his shoulder reassuringly as She started to move the chair towards the door. "Wait." She stopped moving, looking puzzled. "I'm shifting into some other form than this." "Yeah, probably a good call." He took a deep breath and shifted into a stallion the same size with a white and light blue mane. Dash leaned to the side to see that he had stayed wing free, oddly enough. Something almost seemed to be missing against his new, navy blue coat. "Kept the horn?" "Yeah, I couldn't get rid of it with that thing still there." "Ah, ready to go then?" He nodded and she started pushing again. They quickly crossed town to the Gilded Griffin, drawing only a few looks from the townsponies. Either they'd suddenly gotten much more friendly, or they didn't actually know it was him. Unsurprisingly, it was probably the latter. She stopped next to the door of the rustic diner, stepping in front of Jason to try to get the wheelchair through at the same time. Wanting to be more useful, Jason tried to stick out a hoof to keep the door propped open, and realized that it was the bad hoof immediately after running the bottom of it into the side of the door. A long string of swear words muffled by the fore hoof Jason was biting later, Dash pushed him up to the table where Lyra, Bon Bon, Twilight, Rarity and Applejack were already sitting. Rarity looked shocked. She was the only one who hadn't seen Jason in the hospital, so that would make sense. She briefly whispered something to Applejack before getting something in response that seemed to shut her up. Or so she thought. "Darling, doesn't that hurt?" "Not as much as it looks like it would. The hoof, however, does." She leaned over the table to try to figure out what he was talking about he fore seeming to wish she didn't. She turned a rather bright color of green. "I'm assuming you want to know what exactly happened behind those walls?" They nodded. "Well, I'm going to give you the full story, but I really don't want to give it again, which is why I pulled you guys together. Feel free to leave in the middle if it gets too gruesome, but I'm not leaving anything out." "Wait." Twilight said. She threw a glance across the table at Applejack, who sighed. "Listen, Jason. You are Jason, right?" "Yeah, just trying not to attract attention." She hummed thoughtfully before opening her mouth to speak again. "I know I didn't really trust you since you've been back, and I'm sorry. I just-- I couldn't take your trust from Celestia and Dash seriously enough, and I really should've. Mostly, though, I should've overlooked the fact that you're a changeling and given you the benefit of the doubt." She hung her head, looking defeated. "And I'm sorry for all that." Jason furrowed his brow. "Ah guess I need to apologize to ya also there, Sugarcube. I've been mighty annoying, and you didin't really deserve a buncha' crazy ponies to be suspicious of you when you came back." Jason threw a questioning glance at Dash before returning his gaze to the two other mares. "I accept your apology. I mean, it's not like it's that big of a deal..." "It is though!" Twilight said, shaking her head like a madpony. "You deserved our trust and we never gave it to you! And we should have, just like Lyra or Bon Bon here." She gestured to the other ponies. "And I'm just so sorry." "I said it didn't matter Twilight..." "How can not be mad when you look like that?" "Because it was my fault I got captured. It wasn't the fault of any of you, unless you gave them some sort of tip...?" "No, of course not!" "Well okay then, it's not your fault. Thanks for apologizing though, it means a lot." He shot a smile across the table at her, and she seemed to calm down. "Now, I guess I'll get to that story. It's not spectacularly great, and definitely not uplifting, but here goes nothing." ________________________________________________________________ A ringing blow bounced of his face, cracking his head to the side. Jason opened his eyes to a burly stallion stepping backwards, nodding to another pony with some fog or something swirling over his face before continuing to back away. He wasn't particularly big from what Jason could see of his grey coat, but he held himself with an air of superiority. The boss, he figured. The pony let out a low laugh before walking through a table in front of himself. Jason's eyes went wide as he tried to figure out what kind of illusion the pony'd been using. He tried to move his arms, but they were tied by metal cuffs, as were his legs. "Why don't I start by explaining why you're here, changeling. I need some information, and if you give it to me you're free to go. Oh wait, silly me, I need some other things also. My memory's really starting to go." He tapped Jason's cheek before pushing his head to one side, than the other. "I'll start with an easy one," He said. "Where's your hive?" "I don't have one." "Come now, I just want to know where all your brothers and sisters are, that's all I ask. I'm not very patient, I would start speaking now." "I don't have one." "Oh, so we're going to be challenging here, hmm?" He gestured to the stallion behind him, who walked over. "Why don't you inform our guest about what we do to those who don't cooperate?" "Sure thing boss." He put his hooves together with a cracking sound before leaning back and sinking a blow into Jason's upper chest. He felt the crack rather than heard it, and tried to shy away from the blow before he was hit again, lower down. The boss held up a hoof and the stallion stepped back. "Now, where is your hive?" "I already told you, I don't have one! If I did, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you." He cringed when another punch connected, feeling a few more cracks appear. "Fine," This would never work. "There's a hive in griffin territory to the east, that's all I know." The stallion smiled. "I know you aren't part of the hive, changeling." "Then why--" "I wanted to check that that was the general location. You know, for posterity." He paused. "Now, for the interesting questions." "Who are you?" Jason asked before he could continue. "There you go again, breaking the rules." A hoof contacted his cheek. "I'm the only one that gets to ask questions around here." He took a moment to chuckle. "Now, just go ahead and tell me what position you hold in relationship to the princesses." "I'm their janitor." Another hoof to the cheek. "Sorry, I'm actually part of her secret bobsled team." His head cracked to the side as a hoof hit his other cheek. "I have all day, changeling. Nopony's going to want you back, not with how the townsponies act around you. Well, that blue one may be a problem, but no matter." "She's going to break me out," He spit some blood through the pony, hearing it hit the ground under him. "And whatever the fuck you are, I'm personally going to kill you!" The burly stallion stepped forward and threw a hoof slightly lower, hitting the bottom of one of his fangs. Part of the tooth broke off and Jason hissed in pain, trying to get a hoof over to feel at the missing bone. "Tisk tisk. If the ponies do come for you like you say, how do you know it won't be too late?" The stallion threw another hoof, hitting Jason in the side of the head and knocking him out. ____________________________________________________________ "Jason?" Dash asked. He stopped mid sentence and turned to her. "Yeah?" "How did you know I'd come?" "Because you would, I mean, that was a given. The only question was when you'd get there." He paused to grunt in pain. "Oh, Luna's spell is starting to wear off. Someone grab that trash can over there." Twilight floated it over, and Jason immediately took it in his hooves and threw up into it. Dash leaned over slightly and wrapped an arm over his shoulder, feeling slightly helpless yet again. Jason retched a few more times before setting down the can and leaning back in the chair. "Ew..." He looked back across the table, noticing the startled expressions the other ponies. "We can finish this later if you want..." Bon Bon said, looking slightly worried. "No it's fine, it's just going to get worse. Now is better." "Jason, there's blood in here!" Dash exclaimed, looking up from the trashcan. "Yeah, I know." "Well doesn't that worry you?" "It would if I wasn't expecting it to happen, I guess." He turned to the table. "Can you get this thing off my horn Twilight?" "Sure, just a second." A purple aura appeared around his horn, and the ring slipped off a couple seconds later, floating across the table and landing on the flat of her hoof. "There we go. You know, you can't really blame yourself for losing a fight when you didn't even have magic." "I still could've done better." He ground a hoof against the side of the table. "Just let me finish, then you guys can ask me all the questions you want." They nodded, and he opened his mouth to continue. _______________________________________________________________________ "What were you trying to do, kill him?" "No, I was just--" Thump Jason opened his eyes to find that he was still hanging from the manacles, and that the thump was apparently from the stallion that had punched him before he had passed out, now being replaced away by another stallion. He watched as the first stallion was picked up by the boss's magic and hurled into the wall, making another loud thump. "Sorry about that interruption, it seems I had a slight breach of command." He chuckled. "Now, what was that job you had again?" "I was a chair tester." The air in his lungs escaped as a blow hit his chest. He felt something give. Great, so how he had a broken rib. He took a few deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain as the rib pivoted around the break. A tear slid out of his eye and hit the ground, splashing much more loudly than he would've liked. "Oh, liked that huh?" Jason figured he probably smirked, although the black fog around his face didn't exactly make that an easy thing to find out. "Yeah, it was great fun." He huffed, trying not to breathe too deeply. After a while he couldn't be sure just how long he was in the room, punch after punch. He probably passed out a few more times, he couldn't be sure. Time just slurred into one long, never ending blur of motion and conversation that he was having trouble recalling. He knew he'd give eventually, there was a line for everyone. This pony was just toying with him, as far as he could see. Minutes, maybe hours later he got his answer. "Listen, we've been here a while, and as much as I like watching you get beat up, I really don't have forever. I have to hand it to you though, you've been pretty resilient. So far you've only told me about your job, nothing specific about those ponies up there. How's that job going by the way?" "Go fuck yourself." "Oh, how I wish I understood all the ins and outs of whatever language that is. Maybe you'll have to teach a class." He chuckled. "But seriously now, let's get this process rolling." At another gesture, a stallion pushed up a cart with several metal tools resting on top. A pair of scissors floated off the table, floating over Jason's head and out of view. A moment later their presence became known as the tip of his ear got cut in one fell swoop. The corresponding flesh that fell past his face moments later told him that it wasn't just cut, it had been removed. "Feeling more like talking?" Jason let out a grunt, too preoccupied to speak. "No? I'll just have to try harder. Oh well, I can accomplish a few things while I'm here." The scissors set themselves back down as a few syringes and a scalpel floated up off the table. "I've never been able to research a changeling before, I think I'll start with a couple of blood samples." The needles hit him through the cracks in his chitin and he stiffened as the stallion started to draw the blood. "Oh calm down now, this should be an honor." "F-fuck you." "Oh, you and your silly words." The filled syringes landed on the table, while the scalpel continued to float closer. "Now to get that information..." He accelerated the scalpel, sinking it into Jason's forehead and drawing it slowly across. Jason screamed into the darkness, arching his back in pain. He pulled out the scalpel and seemed to stand expectantly, as if waiting for him to cave. "No? Fine, I have other tricks." A saw jumped off the table, quickly floating out of view below him. Then a grinding sensation started up at the bottom of his hoof, quickly blossoming into an inferno of pain as the saw got through the first half of his hoof. He thought, for a moment, about just giving him the information. Anything had to be better than this. He yelled out at least a few words as tears ran down his face, although he wasn't sure if they were even words in the first place. He felt the sensation stop, quickly followed by a quiet clunk on the ground. The boss took the hoof bottom in his aura and threw it into the darkness, just as a huge boom sounded through the building. The boss picked up the syringes in his magic, hearing a few more bangs echo through the building. Some other sounds grew, briefly dropping off a moment before a bang and burst of light drew the room away from Jason's perception. His vision returned soon enough for him to see Dash, Luna, and a few other ponies, and twisted his head slightly to see the boss disappear. He dropped from the shackles a few moments later, and his head was propped up to look Dash in the face. "I knew you'd come for me." He said. Then there was this giant urge to cough, and he gave in, remembering the stabbing pain from the broken rib in his chest as he lost consciousness. ___________________________________________________________________ The ponies looked across the table at him, all wearing an expression he couldn't quite place. There was definitely some pity involved, he could feel that that much. Fear, maybe? He looked over at Dash, who seemed much less surprised. She wouldn't meet his gaze, evidently annoyed at herself for not getting there sooner. He threw a hoof around her, pulling her into a hug. She still felt guilty, he could tell, and that made him fell bad. He was the cause of that guilt, and he really didn't want her to feel guilt over something she had saved him from anyway. "Dash, I don't want you to feel guilty over this, okay?" He shook her shoulders lightly. "You aren't to blame, and you're just making me feel bad about the fact that you feel like this." She stopped avoiding his gaze before finally looking into his eyes. Then she threw her arms around him and pulled him into a kiss, surprising him more than a little. She pulled back a few seconds later before turning back to her friends, who were now slack jawed for a different reason. Dash's cheeks turned bright red, and she hid her face in her hooves out of embarrassment. Jason could feel the same heat moving up in his face as well, albeit less than Dash. He could hear Lyra snickering across the table. Twilight composed herself enough to break the silence first. "So you never caught his face?" "No, he never let the cloud thing go away." "And what information did you give him?" "I know I gave away my job, what I did in the attack, and the code names of Team Green Bean, but other than that it's pretty foggy. Sorry..." "Oh, it's no problem, well it is, but I didn't expect you to remember all of it." "Yeah. God knows I tried." "Who?" "Huh? Never mind. Anyway, that's the story." "Jason, stay hidden until you heal at least. It doesn't sound like those ponies need you anymore, but they also said you were in the way of their plans, so..." "Don't worry, I'll stay on the down-low." He turned to Lyra." I think I still need to talk with you, right Lyra?" She seemed to brush off her proceeding emotions quickly, and immediately started ushering the others out excitedly. Bon Bon walked over to the door, turning the 'closed' sign to 'open,' and then walking into the kitchen, evidently to prepare for the ponies that were bound to come in for a late lunch. Lyra sat back down in a chair, looking across the table eagerly at Jason, while Dash sat next to him nervously. "So, what do you want to know?" She seemed to briefly loose her energy as she tried to think of a question, or maybe just figure out which one to ask first. She perked back up, having come up with something to ask. "How big are humans? The books didn't really have very good descriptions." "Six or so feet tall for males, maybe five and a third for females, I think. Arm-span's about the same as the height." "Wow, you're giant!" "Probably just because we walk on our 'hind' legs." He yawned. "Which isn't too hard by the way. Figured you'd ask that next." "Yeah. So what different sub-species of humans are there?" "You mean like pegasi or unicorns for ponies?" She nodded. "Well basically people just have different builds or skin colors. We're like a bunch of earth ponies without any specific skill at growing things." "Well how do you survive?" "Technology, we can't do things with magic, so we invent machines that do stuff for us. One guy can harvest ten or so acres of wheat in a day with one such machine." Her jaw dropped. "But, that's almost a quarter of Applejack's farm, and that takes her and her family weeks to harvest!" "Well that's technology. We have something called the internet which has more information uploaded to it in a single day than you have in all the libraries in Equestria combined." That statement caught Dash's attention, and she looked over with a doubtful expression. Jason chuckled. "But the craziest part is that most of the world can access it, and can send information to someone across the world in seconds." He chuckled again when Dash's doubtful expression intensified. He wished he had a wine glass to hold and say true story. "You can't be serious." Dash said. "I'm completely serious. If anyone from my world heard you say magic existed, they'd call you crazy." "Am I going to understand anything about modern human advances?" "Probably not, we aren't those cavemen that used to be here anymore." He remembered something that he had wanted to say for a while. "Hey Dash, remember those rockets I told you about?" He immediately piqued her interest, and she looked over at him excitedly. "Still that speed demon from all that time ago, huh?" "Would you really want it any other way?" "No, not really. But listen, we sent a couple men to the moon using rockets," Lyra gasped. "And those went over sixteen thousand miles per hour." Dash got a far off look in her eyes for a moment, evidently trying to imagine that kind of speed. "Sixteen thousand..." She muttered under her breath. "Wow..." "That's in space though Dash, there's no air friction out there." "I know, but still, sixteen thousand miles per hour." "Lyra, I'd love to talk more, but I'm really tired, and I still don't feel that good." She nodded, looking slightly crestfallen. "But listen, I'll be happy to come in another time if you really want questions answered, just, not right now." "Yeah, I understand, but just so long as you come back soon." "Like I said, I will." He yawned again. "But right now I have a somewhat lumpy hospital bed calling my name." "Okay, thanks!" He simply nodded, feeling more and more tired by the second. Dash rolled him over to the hospital, accidentally running over a small rock on the way and jostling him awake. Not that he was totally asleep yet anyway... Dash pushed him into the room and quickly helped him into bed, before he remembered something. "Dash, Get me some paper. I need to get the rest of those plans down." She nodded and walked over to the small counter in the room, grabbing a few pencils and papers. Jason got to work immediately, madly scribbling before he would eventually lose the battle to stay awake. He put the pencil down a few minutes later, looking through the pages to see if he'd made any mistakes. "Okay, so these have labels corresponding to land features, and should match parts of land just outside Equestria's border. This one up here is really important because of how close this city is to the Equestrian border. It'll only take a few days to get there, so we need to make sure that's planned out. It didn't look that important, but hey, you never know right?" "Yeah, I'll get these sent off." She turned to leave. "Wait." She turned back around. "Could you stay here, at least until I'm asleep?" "Scared?" "No, I just want to spend time with you." He twiddled his hooves around nervously. "Why are you so nervous? It's not like I'd say no." She trotted over and rolled into bed next to him. "Don't expect me to be here when you wake up though, I still have to get those plans together." He chuckled and pulled her into a hug. "I love you Dash." "Love you too Jason." She ran a hoof through his mane, careful to not brush any of the cuts that crisscrossed his face or shoulder. She watched him fall asleep in a matter of only a couple of minutes before leaning in to kiss his forehead just below the horn but above the cut, and carefully getting up to leave. Jason shifted around a little after she left, grasping for the mare that was no longer present. Dash smiled and left the hospital, taking off for her house. She'd hate to jinx herself, but at least things were finally getting better.