The Recuperation
Dash landed in her front yard, pulling the papers out of her saddlebag to look them over. A gust of wind blew one out of her hoof, and she immediately reached out to grab it. The paper flew out of her reach, and she shoved the other papers back inside one of the pockets before taking off after the escapee. She dove and twisted after the page, finally allowing herself to have fun while flying. With all the stress since they'd gotten back, she hadn't really been able to just fly and relax.
The paper took a sudden dive and she kept after it, swooping down and catching it in her hoof. She reached back and stuck it into the saddlebag with its brethren before making sure the pouch was closed and taking a quick barrel roll. She threw a quick turn around a passing cloud, diving above and below two more immediately afterwards. She ran through a few more tricks before starting back towards the house.
An idea struck her as she remember watching Jason fly Scoots to school one of the days she was working weather. He had done that weird thing with his wings, where he'd just pulled them in and flipped by sticking out his wingtips to change direction. Simple really, but it wasn't a thing she would have though to do, considering that the stemming tricks weren't particularly technical or fast. She decided to try something, and sped up before tucking her wings in, sticking out the wingtips to start twisting.
She was right when she had thought that it wasn't all that tough to do, but the novelty definitely increased it's fun value. When she pulled out of the twist she quickly flattened out and looked at her surroundings. She had made it back to the house, and quickly landed before entering and trotting into the kitchen. She grabbed an apple and took a few bites, trying to sate the hunger she had just recently realized she had. She threw the core onto the countertop, making sure that it wouldn't roll off before attacking another apple. It was a good thing she had put in that marble countertop a while ago, considering all the food that had gone through when it was just cloud.
"Anypony home?" Scoots yelled from the other room. Dash opened her mouth to yell back to her, but instead let out a long, loud burp. She immediately broke down in laughter, rolling around on the floor and enjoying the sudden lack of stress. Scoots walked in and wiped an eye, evidently she had enjoyed the answer to her question as well. Dash got up and wiped her eyes, letting out a few residual laughs.
"Is Jason okay?" Scoots asked, giggling a few more times before she finally calmed down.
"Yeah, Scoots, he woke up a couple hours ago. He's getting better, although he still doesn't feel too good."
"Can we visit him later?"
"Sure, Scoots. He wanted me to put these other parts of the plan on the map before I do anything else, because they were supposed to be due today. I said that it could probably wait, but you know Jason..."
"Ooh, can I help?"
"Sure, Scoots." She paused. "Just let me eat about five more apples first. No, better make it six." Scoots giggled and trotted over to grab an apple for herself. Dash inhaled a couple more apples before finally trotting out of the room and over to the map. She laid out the papers on top of a blank section before she started carefully moving the pieces, occasionally hovering over the table to allow herself to reach some of the ones that were more centered. She hadn't really gotten a very good look at the map prior to now, and she couldn't believe just how detailed it turned out to be.
She was surprised just how much Jason had to do when she finally got to the last page of his directions. It had been at least a couple hours, and even with Scoots helping her where she could, it was still a tedious and long process. Finally she sighed and hovered off the table, landing and looking over her work. She made a few minor adjustments, moving pieces to nearby high ground, and eventually decided that it was up to code. She walked over to the pad of paper, quickly picking up the nearby pencil and scrawling 'Here're the plans' before pressing the button.
Another message popped up a few seconds later, 'Why the delay?'
Dash sighed and wrote back 'It's a long story.' The pony at the other end seemed to accept that answer, and didn't write back. She stood there a few more seconds, trying to make sure she didn't miss another incoming message before turning away from the map and back to Scoots.
"So you wanted to go visit Jason?"
"Yeah! I mean, if he's up to it..."
"It's been at least a couple hours, I'm sure he's rested by now."
"That was a cool explosion yesterday Dash."
"Oh, you think so?"
"Well, I guess I've only really seen the apple and that thing yesterday, but still! Can we blow something else up, can we?"
"We'll see Scoots." Dash mussed up the filly's mane affectionately. "Now let's get going." Scoots nodded and broke into a mad dash for the door, tripping over a slightly uneven part of the floor and face planting.
"I'm okay." She said a few seconds later. "That would've hurt a lot more if this wasn't cloud."
"Trust me Scoots, the number of times I've fell down the stairs and stuff around here, I know that better than anypony. Now come on." She helped the kid up and walked through the door, grabbing a few things in the process. She made sure Scoots hadn't lagged behind before she took off, making her way towards the hospital. Scoots pulled up beside her, startling Dash with how quickly she had caught up. "You're getting better at flying." She said, smiling at the little orange filly.
"Oh really? I've been practicing a little, nothing serious, but I didn't feel like I was really improving that much."
"How could you not notice that? You're flying at what used to be your top speed, you've got your rhythm down, and you aren't wobbling. Nice improvement Squirt!" Scoots smiled ear to ear.
"Thanks Dash! Maybe one day I'll be as good as you!"
"I'm sure you will, Scoots." She landed on the street, waiting for Scoots to do the same before starting to walk over to the hospital.
"Hey Dash, Sugarcube Corner is right over there, can I go get a few cupcakes?" Man this kid got distracted easily.
"Sure, just grab one for me and Jason." She stopped to grab a few bits out of her saddlebag, turning to hand them to Scoots, who immediately stuck them under her wing and went running off. Dash shook her head, trying to remember if she had ever had that much energy. Unable to recall a specific memory, she resumed her walk, pushing open the hospital doors and walking inside. She wasn't sure to be annoyed that Jason was forced to stay here overnight. She knew he didn't like being cooped up here, and that it was probably better to get him out and about. But that hoof...
She walked into his room, quietly closing the door behind herself and trotting over to the bed. She shrugged and crawled in next to him, throwing a hoof over his form. He was worryingly cold to the touch, but then again there weren't that many blankets here, and she supposed he probably hadn't complained, considering how out of it he looked. She pulled him into his chest, rocking him forward and backward in an attempt to wake him up.
She started to get worried after he continued to sleep despite her continual attempts. She increased the intensity of her shaking, trying to tell herself that everything had to be fine. A few tears welled up in her eyes before Jason finally stirred. She stopped shaking him around, throwing her arms around him and pushing her muzzle into his shoulder, letting out the tears of fear. Jason patted her on the back confusedly, evidently trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
"Dash, what happened?"
"You took a while to wake up, and you were cold, and I just got scared." He put his own hooves around her, squeezing lightly.
"You worry too much Dash. Seriously, you're stressing yourself out too much over nothing." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.
"Well excuse me for worrying about my colt friend, who just got tortured and is all cut up in the hospital."
"Oh shush." He smirked. "When I get out of here, and I'm not so tired all the time, I guess I'll have to help you loosen up a little."
"You better not be teasing me about that." She said.
"You know, it's usually the guy that says that, or something to that extent."
"Well it's been a long time." She rebutted. Jason chucked. "By the way, Scoots is coming, so I might as well not make it look like we're in bed together already." She giggled and got up, sitting down closer to the foot of the bed. She reached out and grabbed a blanket from the counter, spreading it out and covering him. "Like I said, you were cold."
"Yeah, thanks."
"How's your hoof?" She asked.
"I dunno." He shifted his weight, shoving it out from under the covers. "Can you see that?" Dash peered over, looking at the hoof intently. It didn't look that bad anymore, it was all scabbed over at least, although there was still a slight bulge in the middle and around the sides, where she assumed the bones had been cut. Considering how it had looked yesterday, or even this morning, it was definitely healing. She didn't really know how long it'd be until he could walk on that, maybe only another day at this rate, maybe a week.
"It doesn't look that bad, it's definitely healing. Does it still hurt?"
"Not as much, unless it touches anything. Then it hurts like hell." She looked the rest of him over, at least what she could see of him through the disguise he had created this morning. From what she could tell, the cracks, cuts as they appeared now, were healing pretty nicely. The cut on his forehead was worrying though, it didn't seem much better than it was on day one.
"Dash!" A voice yelled from out in the hallway.
"And that would be Scoots." She said to Jason. "In here Scoots!" The filly walked by the door, looking in and smiling towards the two of them. She set her three cupcakes down in a surprisingly controlled manner before she dove for the bed, fluttering over the covers and knocking Jason over in a hug.
"I missed you Jason, I thought you were gone." He could feel her smile into the fur of his neck, as he raised his hooves to hold her to his chest. His rib hurt, but he could worry about that later. A click sounded from across the room.
"They can't kill me that easily Scoots." He looked up, trying to figure out what had made the click noise, and found Dash, flopping a picture around in her hoof. "Why the pictures, Dash?"
"When you were first taken, I realized that eventually if you never turned up I would forget what you look like, and I didn't want that to happen."
"Aww... aren't you the sweet one." He said. He let Scoots out of the hug, and she laid down next to him in the bed. "So did you get your cutie mark while I was gone?" He asked her.
"I wish." She turned her flank, showing him it's blank appearance. "How did Tiara get her's so soon?"
"Well what's her talent?"
"I don't know."
"Sounds like a great talent if she's so keen on telling everyone. Think of it this way Scoots, how fun is it to win a game when there's no challenge?"
"Well, it's kinda boring."
"So, how fun would it be if you got your cutie mark on the first thing you tried?"
"But I'd have my mark!"
"Yeah, but you have fun with your friends, right?" She nodded. "Then what's the big deal? Like I said before, it really doesn't mean that much." Scoots opened her mouth to speak before Jason blocked it with a hoof. "No more buts, Scoots." She crossed her arms, looking annoyed. Silence descended over the room.
"Does anyone else want to get out of this stupid room?"
"What would you even want to do Jason?" Dash asked from the foot of the bed.
"Well, I know tons of stuff I'd like to do to you..." Dash blushed. Jason looked over at Scoots, and it looked as if that had gone right over her head. He chuckled.
"Anything we can do right now?"
"Well, in all seriousness, I could test that gun, talk to Lyra again, go ov-- Ohh, I need the trashcan." He floated the trashcan over to the side of the bed and threw up into it much the same as last time. "Why...does this...keep happening?" He managed to ask between retches. He finally pulled his head back upright, looking slightly more tired than he had before. There was a light clang as the can touched down on the floor. Dash sighed and got up, evidently intent on checking the damage. She walked over to the can and sighed, tapping the side with her hoof.
"This isn't as bad as the last one, but that doesn't say much. There's also a lot less, but you probably knew that." A knock on the door caused all three of them to jump as they swiveled their heads towards the invader. Twilight nervously looked into the room, as if waiting for one of them to say 'come in.' Jason gestured with a hoof and she entered, sitting down in a chair with the same degree of nervousness.
"So I guess you guys are probably wondering why I'm here. A couple reasons actually." She levitated a piece of parchment out of her saddlebag, floating it over to Jason. "Celestia sent me this a little while ago. She knew what happened since Luna got back, although she didn't yet know that you'd awoken."
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
As I'm sure you're aware about the unfortunate events leading to Jason's capture and the inevitable consequences this has, both for his friends and for Equestria as a whole. He was the planner for original Equestrian troop movements, and without him a replacement must be found. If she has not done so already, tell Rainbow Dash that she must finish the plans. She was the closest to Jason, and should be able to emulate his battle strategy the closest. From what Luna has told me, Jason's chances do not seem to be particularly good, considering what the doctors had told her. I have caught wind of the way ponies treat him in Ponyville, and hope that you are not a part of this, my faithful student. Dislike is not punishable by law, but I hope you can at least make some effort to trust him.
I'm watching you,
Princess Celestia
Jason passed the letter to Dash. "Does she always put something creepy on the end there?" He asked Twilight.
"Only recently, why? What've you been getting?"
"Well, there was an 'I know where you live,' and an 'I know what you're thinking' in there somewhere. I think it's a joke, but if it's not, that'd be really weird." Dash snorted in laughter, evidently she had reached the end of the letter.
"I just generally get the ones with mentor somewhere in the name."
"So was there a follow up letter?"
"Yeah, I told her you'd woke up and that the plans should get sent, although in hindsight I really didn't have any evidence that they would be. You did send them, right?" Jason looked over to Dash, realizing that he should have probably asked about that already.
"Yeah, of course. They were probably a little late, but I still got them over there."
"She sent me this a couple of hours later, after the plans had arrived. Maybe they just got them because she didn't actually mention them in any detail. Anyway, here." She floated over the other letter.
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I have important news to get to Jason when he's up to reading this. From what Luna told me he doesn't look good, and it shouldn't be particularly time intensive. If he gets this before the end of today, that should be fine. Shining Armor has approved the plans for use, and we will be mobilizing as close to schedule as possible. With the huge influx of volunteers from the bigger cities and the beginnings of steel production, the Equestrian army is stronger than it's ever been.
On another subject, Luna has informed me about the stallion and his proficiency in soul magic, and has made plans to start investigating the issue herself. I will try to keep you updated on anything she discovers.
I have eyes in the back of my head,
Princess Celestia
Jason handed the letter over to Dash as he had with the last one, turning back to Twilight. She was looking around worriedly. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about, soul magic."
"Oh yeah, that stuff."
"I'm pretty surprised it popped up at all, it's been so many years since anypony even attempted to use it."'
"The last guy went crazy?"
"Yeah, took him all of five seconds. I don't know why he even attempted it. Must've been pretty crazy already. I never really tried it for myself, the risks kinda outweighed the benefits and all." Jason nodded, trying to stifle a yawn. "Tired?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's really starting to annoy me, I can't do anything. I couldn't get up off the floor yesterday without Dash's help." He looked away, too embarrassed to continue.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but I do have some good news, at least." She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a bag, tossing it onto the bed. Dash opened the bag and gasped.
"There's like a million bits in here!"
"Celestia sent those to cover the medical bill, anything else is just your pay."
Dash passed the bag to Jason. "Wow, what was she smoking when she sent this?"
"What?" They both asked.
"What was she thinking?" He rephrased.
"She felt bad about the stuff that was happening, she said something about the fact that she was annoyed she couldn't help more."
"Well this is, generous of her..." He yawned again. "I'm not sure if I'm tired because I just don't have a chance to wake up or what." He shook his head, trying to perk up. It didn't work, but his nose started to run. He held a hoof under his nose, looking around for a tissue. He threw his hoof out to point, replacing it by holding the other one under his nose.
"Can you bring that over here Dash?" He asked. She cringed and brought over the box. Jason grabbed one, only now realizing that he had a bloody nose and his hoof was covered in blood. He sighed and started wiping off his hoof before using it to hold a tissue over his muzzle. Dash grabbed his other hoof and wiped it off, sighing herself before tossing the bloody tissue into the trash, where a slight splash noise reminded her what else was in there. It was kinda strange that the vomit didn't really have a smell to it. Funny how she just thought that.
Twilight got up, making her way towards the door. "I have to go, sorry guys. I really don't feel comfortable intruding into your family, either."
"It's fine, Twilight, you don't have to go."
"Like I said, I have to go do some stuff, so, see you tomorrow?"
"Sure." Twilight moved to exit, stopping suddenly when she saw the gun again.
"Did you know what that is, Jason?" She asked, turning back to him.
He took the tissue away from his nose for a moment before answering. "Yeah, it's a gun. How about tomorrow morning, get Lyra, Bon Bon, and the rest of your friends, along with things for target practice, and I'll test it out."
"Oh, wow! I can't wait! I'll come by Tomorrow and get you."
"Oh, do it before school so Scoots can watch." He shifted his attention to his daughter. "See if your friends want to watch also, Scoots." She looked up and nodded before laying her head back down.
"Sure thing, bye!" Twilight happily bounded out of the room, disappearing down the hall. Jason looked at the clock, which read six. He laid back, sighing as his head sank into the pillow. He took a deep breath, cringing as as his rib pain suddenly flared up. He heard Dash slide into bed next to him, and turned to throw an arm around her, immediately planting a kiss on her cheek. She giggled and blushed, pulling herself in closer. Scoots mumbled something and twitched; evidently she had been as tired as the rest of them.
Dash wrapped her arms around Jason's back, frowning slightly when she couldn't find his wings. It was just something she'd grown used to, the soft bushy wings on his back. It wasn't bad that he didn't have wings, but it was definitely something she missed, it was something that just seemed to be part of his identity.
"Miss the wings?" She jumped at the sound of his voice, before guiltily looking him in the eyes and nodding. "No big deal Dash, I really don't care what you want me to look like. You still know it's me anyway, so it doesn't matter." He reached behind himself and moved her hooves before a flash of green flames from behind his back and on his side indicated the change. She tentatively returned her hooves to their position around his back, sighing contentedly when she found the soft feathers of his wings.
"You really like those wings, huh?"
"I'm not sure I would if you didn't let me get so used to them." She giggled, raking her hooves through the feathers playfully. "Goodnight Jason."
"I love you Dash." He replied. She leaned forward and nuzzled his cheek affectionately in response before laying her head into his shoulder and closing her eyes. Jason did the same, laying his head above hers on the bed, and quickly falling asleep.
___________________________________________________________________
"Guys wake up! Wake up!" Jason opened his eyes just in time to see Scoots, who was bounding on the bed, come down towards his hoof in an almost comedic manner. She seemed to see what was going to happen and opened her mouth in a gasp, before her fore hoof finally made contact.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" He grabbed his hoof through the blanket, trying to ease the pain. Dash woke up next to him with a start, trying to figure out why Jason was rolling all over the bed yelling. She put out a hoof to stop him, making sure that his face was looking in her general direction.
"Jason, what the hell happened?!?!"
"Scoots landed on my hoof, apparently it hasn't healed." He groaned before he let go of the hoof and turned to Scoots.
"I'm sorry, Jason."
"Yeah, it's fine Scoots, just make damn sure not to land on this hoof again." She nodded sadly, and he patted her on the shoulder, trying to get her to perk up. She seemed to lighten up at least slightly, and he smiled.
"Twilight hasn't come here yet?"
"No she did, she wanted me to get you guys up. Last time she woke someone her mane got singed, so..."
"So she put you in her place?"
"No I'm just kidding, she had to get the rest of the ponies together, we're meeting over by Sweet Apple Acres."
"Right now?"
"Well she came by a few minutes ago, so I guess so."
"Okay, well I could definitely use some time out of this place." He tested his hoof on the ground, wincing slightly. "Dash, could you just put the wheelchair over here, I really don't want to walk on this."
"No, of course I won't. Jeez Jason, what do you take me for?" She smirked and pushed the chair over to the bedside, getting ready to help him over.
"No, Just hold it, I want to do it myself."
"You don't have to be all prideful about this."
"Yeah, but I want to see if I'm getting stronger." He pushed himself over to the side of the bed with his arms and operational hoof, and successfully transferred onto the wheelchair. "Ha. I am."
She rolled her eyes. "You don't need to worry about proving yourself to me, Jason."
"It's not like that, when I woke up my biggest fear was that I'd be paralyzed or something, and I honestly couldn't handle that. Then after that passed, I was worried I'd never get back to my full potential. I know it sounds stupid, but I'm really trying to reassure myself that things are getting better."
"Yeah, I understand. It makes a lot more sense when it's your body that's injured and not your wings specifically. It doesn't work as well that way."
Jason snorted. "I'll bet." He paused. "Hold on a sec. He leaned forward and shifted his green wings away, checking with a hoof that they were indeed gone. After confirming they were, he leaned back and let out a sigh.
"More comfortable?"
"Yeah, but being an alicorn is a dead giveaway that I'm, well, me. I kinda like these colors, I don't want to come up with something else."
"Just make sure you don't forget the original one we made up, I like that one."
"Yeah, you were practically drooling over that."
"I wasn't!"
"Whatever you say, Dash." She wheeled him over to the door, pulling Scoots away from her adventure in discovery around all the medical supplies. Jason picked up the gun and magazines in his magical grasp, setting them across his lap. Five magazines, six including the one in the gun. That was thirty times six, assuming all six were full, for a total of one hundred and eighty. Not too shabby, but there were no more bullets available, unless some more came over, and that seemed pretty unlikely given how random the stuff was that came through.
He had stuck a fair amount of possibly incriminating junk back at the house, including a few action figures, some magazines, a crappy children's movie. He couldn't have been the only one to be finding this stuff, though, and keeping his origins a secret seemed increasingly far fetched.
His thoughts took a sudden shift. Mobilization was today, hopefully that was going well. There weren't that many ponies in the Equestrian military though, it couldn't possibly get that hectic. But they hadn't really done something like this before, he supposed. As long as it was going well in Canterlot, he was satisfied. There was a griffin town pretty close to Canterlot, they would probably be the first soldiers to see heavy combat.
Dash stopped the wheelchair unexpectedly and he lurched forward. The reason for stopping became clear as he looked up from the surprisingly clean gun to see a fairly large group of ponies, Twilight and her friends, the rest of the CMC and Lyra and Bon Bon. He was slightly surprised they had all showed up. Twilight had a bulging bag hanging in the air, evidently she had taken target practice fairly seriously. All the ponies were looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to do something.
"Okay, so you've all come here to see this gun in action. Can you start setting those things up on the fence, Twilight? Make sure there's nothing behind them." She nodded and happily trotted over to the fence, quickly setting out several items, one of which Jason was completely lost on. Whatever, he'd ask later.
"So this is called an assault rifle, relatively recently invented." He pulled out one of the magazines, extracting one of the bullets. "This is a casing of a bullet, the gunpowder and projectile are inside. When you press this trigger, the gun hits a primer in the back of the bullet and the gunpowder explodes, sending the bullet out the barrel." He gestured to the parts. "Then a new bullet is pushed in as the shell casing from the old one flies out here."
"So how many years ahead of us is this?" Twilight asked, having apparently set up all the targets.
"Oh, I dunno, I guess it depends on when you invent gunpowder. If you follow the same pace as we did, that's at least a few hundred years. But you have steel, and you've seen this, maybe a little less. It's hard to say. I guess after a certain point the only thing that gets better about these is the size of the bullet and how tough it is to break."
"Well let's see it in action!" Dash yelled from behind him, surprising Jason with her energy.
"Fine, wheel me over near that tree." Dash pushed him over quickly, evidently as excited as the others seemed to be, except for Fluttershy, naturally. "Help me down from here, I'm going to lay on my stomach." She stared at him for a moment before she helped him onto the ground and passed him the gun. He smiled up at her and took it, trying to shoulder it as best he could. Twilight had set up eight targets, most of which were random things she had found. A ratty book, slightly surprisingly, some full jars, and other assorted things. There was some sort of yellow cube stuck on one of the fence posts at the end.
"What's that yellow thing?"
"It's this gel stuff that does a pretty good job of mimicking weapon damage to ponies."
"Ah. You guys are going to want to step back and cover your ears. This is loud." They moved backwards and Jason pulled his ears back in an attempt to shield them from the noise. He turned off the safety and changed the gun to semi automatic, before making sure he knew where the trigger was. He lined up the red dot sight with the first target, the book, and fired.
BANG!!
There was a small explosion of paper as the book flew off the fence. The ponies behind him gasped, and he sighted on the next target, moving through the jars in rapid succession.
BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!
The jars exploded, sending bits of glass and their contents flying. He moved on down the line, shooting and receiving corresponding oohs and aahs until he finally got down to the gel thing. The bullet hit the gel and went through, impacting an apple tree behind it. Jason ejected the magazine, turning the gun's safety on. The other ponies had already trotted over to the target area to look at the damage. Applejack and Twilight were focused on the apple tree and gel stuff respectively. Pretty soon they came back, most of them grinning. Fluttershy seemed to have enjoyed herself, and had evidently not run off.
"That was awesome!" Dash yelled as she came trotting up. "You were just like bang bang bang and those things were exploding!" The rest of the ponies came up and offered similar comments, although Applejack was a little pissed for damaging her apple tree. They quickly went their separate ways however, Rarity and Applejack volunteered to take the foals to school, Lyra and Bon Bon had to get back to the Gilded griffin, and the others had left to do tasks that they hadn't gone into any detail about.
"You guys going back to town?" Lyra asked Dash and Jason.
"Yeah."
"Well, since we're going the same way, and we have some time..."
"Fine, ask me some stuff." Her face lit up and she quickly grabbed a piece of paper out of her saddlebag, holding it in front of her face.
"I came prepared." She smirked. "So what kind of diet do humans have?" Bon Bon looked over confusedly. Jason facehoofed.
"Lyra, you didn't tell her?"
"No, Dash told me not to."
"Yeah, but now she's here, and..." He sighed, looking at the other mare. "Bon Bon, I used to be a human from a place that's most likely on a different planet. If you don't know much about humans Lyra can fill you in."
"Um...wow. This is a lot to take in." She looked over at him again, apparently trying to see through the changeling he appeared as. "Okay Lyra, go on."
"So yeah, same question."
"Well, we were omnivores, so we ate meat, but not ponies if that makes you feel better. I guess I should also point out that besides humans there isn't any other intelligent life. So yeah, we ate pigs, cows, turkey, chicken. And it was delicious." He paused. "But I don't really get to eat any of that here, and it's not like I'm really going to try to get meat."
Lyra seemed to shake the shock of that question off fairly quickly. "So, what d--"
"Hold on a sec." Jason went silent for a few seconds, before opening his mouth. "We used to have teeth like this, at least as far as I remember." Bon Bon gasped at the canines before he re-closed his mouth.
"So what are physical skills of humans? Speed? Agility?"
"Well, we aren't that fast, we can't jump that high, but we are pretty agile, we can change direction pretty quickly, climb trees and rocks... They have this sport called parkour, and that's basically people jumping off of buildings and not hurting themselves because of how humans are built. We can just roll when we hit the ground, stuff like that."
"And mental?"
"Well, we're a pretty smart race, I mean there's a fair number of idiots, but I guess those are everywhere anyway. It's tough to compare to ponies here because I don't really know that many of you. But lets just say equal for the time being." Dash pulled up at the hospital, and Lyra quickly bid her goodbyes. As Jason watched them walk away, Bon Bon immediatel barraged Lyra with about a million questions that she had politely withheld.
Jason turned to Dash with a smirk. "You know, I'm feeling pretty energetic today, and my wings aren't hurt, and Scoots is gone, and the house is riiiiiiiight over there, and--"
"Okay Jason, I'm dropping off the wheelchair first. We might as well not have ponies finding an empty wheelchair. They probably aren't going to assume that a miracle occurred."
"Oh, but it would be funny to see their reactions."
"Whatever, Jason." She pushed him inside and into the hospital room before leaning the gun up against the wall and helping him off of the wheelchair. She draped one of his forelegs over her neck, making sure he kept the bad hoof above the ground. He tapped it a few times experimentally before setting it down.
"It's not that bad, at least not unbearable."
"Just form some wings on there and get me into bed already."
"I'll just stop talking then." Dash giggled and led him out of the room after he took away the horn and replaced it with a pair of wings. They walked out of the hospital and carefully took off.
"You sure you're up to this Jason?"
"Yeah, it's just been a while. I'm referring to flying in this sentence, by the way" He rose steadily upward, and they eventually reached the house. Flying wasn't too tough normally, unless he was really trying to go fast, and he was pleased that he wasn't heavily winded when he reached the level Dash's house was at. They landed and hobbled inside, moving towards the stairs. Jason brought his head over and kissed her on the cheek, quickly moving over to her lips. They stopped in the middle of the living room and kissed, before Dash finally pushed him away with a hoof.
"You. Me. Bedroom. Now." She smirked. "Maybe we can find out just what you meant by your statement of how many things you wanted to do to me."