//------------------------------// // "Old" Friends // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// "Old" Friends Star backed away from the hug, smiling as Sky walked up from behind her, giving Jason a hoof bump, and repeating the process with Dash. A couple of royal guards, evidently in a hurry, had walked up and were wordlessly gesturing for them to follow. The small group obliged, and Jason turned to Sky. "So how are things around here?" Jason asked. "Not as bad as they look, I suppose." He replied. "How about you, you didn't have all that scarring when you left here..." "Yeah, I'm not sure how much I can say about this, so don't tell anyone else, but there was a gang in Ponyville that captured and tortured me." Sky cringed. "Dash got me out, but I'm worried I gave something away, I'm a little hazy on what happened. I know for sure that he got blood samples, and that he knows my job position. Apparently he knows some rare type of magic as well." "Jeez, you were pretty beat up then?" "Yeah, Dash got me out before I died though. They cut off the end of one of my hooves." "Sounds terrible." "Believe me, it was. But I'm out of there now, and I have Dash. Things could be worse." Sky gave him an inquisitive look. "Is she yours? You're her colt-friend, I mean?" "Yeah, not that I'm really trying to hide it anymore. I guess we were a couple back when I met you and Star. It's been a long time." "I know what you mean, it seems like just yesterday that I first saw Star." He glanced back at the mare, smiling. They lapsed into silence for a few moments. "So hows the whole rebuilding process going?" "Not too bad, we've got a lot of workers, and high morale, I'd be surprised if we aren't finishing up by the end of the month." They walked by a couple of tents and a fairly busy construction site. Jason saw some ponies waving and pointing excitedly from parts of the framing, and waved back. "So mobilization was a few days ago, how'd that go?" "I could hear Shining yelling from all the way over here, I'm not sure if he was just acting the part of drill sergeant or if things weren't going right, but most of the troops left at around noon, about fifteen minutes late." "Sounds like they did pretty well." He paused. "Now when you say most..." "Either Celestia or Shining kept a bunch of troops here, just in case. A few recruits from Ponyville and Cloudsdale came in a couple days ago, or so I've heard, and they'll be moving out later today. Why are you here exactly? I mean I heard you were coming, but there hasn't been much in the way of an explanation." Jason sighed, watching as a pony did a double take towards the small group. A few other ponies waved, and he returned the gesture. "We're getting re-deployed, something about a hostage crisis in a town not far from here, actually. So Team Green Bean's being pulled back together in case there's anything we can do." "Sounds pretty serious." "It better be, I got pulled away from my daughter for this." Sky swiveled his head quickly, trying to find a hint of a lie in Jason's face. "How did you..." "Adoption." "Ah. I was going to say..." He sighed. "Yeah, foals. How old's yours?" "She's eight. We adopted her in the middle of the battle actually, Luna made it official." "Got her out of an orphanage then?" "Well, actually she was living on the street, and I'm happy I could've saved her from that. She didn't deserve the hoof she was dealt." "Poor kid." They continued to walk in silence, until Sky spoke up again. "This is as far as I go, so I guess I'll see you later?" He stopped short, at the castle gates that Potato had given his life to open. Jason and Dash bid their goodbyes before Jason suddenly took off at a gallop, running parallel to the castle. Dash sighed and followed him, hoping that he hadn't suddenly gone insane or something. He turned around a hedge and stopped, staring up at a white marble statue, evidently new because of how it glistened in the sun. Jason put a hoof to his forehead and sighed, as Dash finally recognized the pony depicted. She moved sideways to get the glare off the plaque, reading the short caption. Blazing "Potato" Skies For his ultimate sacrifice in the protection of Equestrian freedom. You will be dearly missed. "You know, he's the only pony I can't repay." Dash tried to speak, before clearing her throat and trying again. "What do you mean?" "He saved our lives, and I can't thank him, I can't make it right. I'll always be in debt to him, and it just makes me feel crumby. Why did he have to die? Any of us could've gone, but it had to be him. He deserved it the least out of all of us." He was jolted out of his thoughts by a pair of hooves wrapping around his neck. "Don't feel guilty, Jason. Remember him for what he did, not what you could've done to change it. Trust me, this is how I felt the last two times you were almost killed. There's nothing you could've done, no way he would've made it out of there." Jason plinked his eyes, letting a couple of tears run down his face and onto her hoof. There was a long silence. "You're right." He looked at the statue, the young stallion in a heroic position. "Thanks for everything, Potato." He put a hoof around Dash's neck, pulling her head over to his and kissing her. "Thanks for always sticking by me Dash. We've been through a lot together." He started walking back towards the castle gate with her, smiling when she put a wing over his back reassuringly. "So what'd you and Star talk about?" Jason asked. "Mare stuff," She waved a hoof. "You know the drill. She said she was a little jealous that her husband wasn't a changeling like you." She giggled, trailing a hoof up the side of his neck and bringing it to the back of his head before pulling him forward into a kiss. "I definitely wouldn't trade it for the world, even without the kinky sex." "Well when you two are finished..." They jumped and turned to the voice, finding out that Celestia was the owner. Dash blushed as they both failed to meet Celestia's eyes. She let out a rather regal sounding giggle before gesturing for them to follow behind her. Dash turned and punched Jason in the shoulder. "I'm getting really sick of this whole, no blushing stuff." Jason chuckled, shifting into Alternis so that she could see his reddened face. "Happy?" "Yes." They walked into the throne room, and Jason looked around at the stained glass windows, amazed at how well they had been repaired. "Dash!" "What?" "Look over there!" He pointed a hoof at one of the windows, which was a stained glass picture of the two of them, standing atop a pile of rather un-gory griffin corpses. Potato and Tank flanked the them, slightly lower down on the pile. Dash, Potato and Tank were in their armor, and all four still had their weapons. "Wow..." "Yes, I had it commissioned. You better slow down on the achievements, Rainbow Dash, I'm running out of windows." She let out a slight chuckle before walking out a door in the back of the room, gesturing for them to follow. They passed through a few more doorways before walking into a much larger room, filled with several groups of presumably high ranked guards. Jason walked over to the map that matched his at home, grabbing the pad of paper off the table. "Princess, can we have this? We left Scootaloo the other pad, and we wanted to keep in touch as much as we could." "I don't see why not, I don't have any use for it, considering that the only other means of communication was with your map. We have another pair for Shining in Windforge. That's the griffin city, by the way." Jason nodded. "Well thanks!" He turned and slid the pad into his saddlebag, looking back up and freezing as a griffin walked into the room. He leaned over towards the princess and started to whisper urgently. "Why's he here?!?!" "Oh, that's the prisoner you took a month or so ago." "I know that, but why's he here?" "Oh!" She chuckled. "We let him out under heavy guard for the first couple weeks, he said he had information on how the griffin army system worked. We've basically waned him off of the guards, and just kept him away from anypony important. With the amount of help he's given us, though, any damage he does now would be insignificant." "Okay, well I guess I'm glad to know that saving him was a good idea." "Indeed." She paused. "I'm going to be sending him with you." "What?!?! Why?!?!" Dash and Jason said in unison. A few heads turned and they looked at each other. "He knows the city, he's lived in Windforge for a few months. If you're going in there you'll need somepony with knowledge like that." Jason sighed. She had a point, at least. He took another look at the rather small griffin, watching as he shared a laugh with one of the guards. Could he trust the guy? He should after all he had done, there had been fighting for a while, and yet no flaws in his truths had been discovered. Maybe it didn't apply, but he felt partially hypocritical here, he'd been in the same position in Ponyville. He sighed again and walked over, flanked by a rather suspicious looking Dash. He tapped the griffin on the shoulder, watching the smile he had on his face quickly disappear. After Jason got over the urge to laugh at his rapid emotion change, he paused, gathering his words before he spoke. "So you're coming with us, right?" "O-oh, you're the changeling?" He looked down, realizing he hadn't stripped the disguise. He dropped the cover and looked back up. "Yeah, you're on the team apparently?" "As much as I don't want to, your princess told me that she needs my presence out there, so I guess." He leaned forward, coming face to face with the griffin. "If you're replacing Potato, you better be all you're chalked up to be." He sighed, backing down. "Sorry, it's been a long day. Where's the rest of the team?" "Just, uh, follow me." He walked out of the room and Jason waved to the princess before following, turning down a corridor and into another room with several bunks. He looked around, immediately recognizing Steve, Archer and Hunter, who were lazing about in bunks. They saw the trio walk in and immediately jumped up to greet Dash and Jason. Several hoof bumps later, Dash spoke up. "So where's Tank?" She said, looking around in case she had missed him. "He was in Manehattan, he should be here in a bit." Archer said, returning to his bunk. "Did you get anything more specific on what we've been called here to do?" "Yeah," Dash replied, "We have to go save some hostages or something. At least as long as it's not a suicide mission." Steve chuckled. "I'm sure it can't be harder than the last one." Dash bit her lip, sighing lightly. They lapsed into silence as Jason and Dash found a bunk. Jason sat down on the cot, sighing as he brought out the computer and the pad of paper. He wrote, 'We got it Scoots.' before setting the pad aside and powering the computer. Archer rolled out of his bunk, pacing around for a few seconds. "Hey, does anypony want to go get some food?" Steve and Hunter raised their hooves, and the trio got up to leave. Steve turned back before he exited. "Do either of you want anything?" He asked. Jason looked over at Dash. "No." She said, falling backwards onto the bunk tiredly after dropping the saddlebag to the floor. Steve shrugged and left, and she could hear hoofsteps disappearing down the hall. She looked over to see that Jason had opened a couple of windows on the screen, and was currently in the middle of loading a video. "What are you doing, Jason?" "Trying to find something to do. I got this series onto my computer before I ended up here, so we can start watching it if you want. It's not as bad as the other one, but it can still be gory at times. I'm sure you can handle it." "What's it called?" "The Walking Dead. It's a zombie thing." "Okay," she waved a hoof dismissively. "Go ahead. This better be interesting." She crossed her hooves. "Because you know how I am when I'm bored." "Let's not be rash here." He said, raising his hooves defensively. Dash giggled. "Glad to know that threat has weight." "You threaten me a lot, you know that?" She chuckled. "I do it out of love." He rolled his eyes. "Now I feel better." "Just start the show." "Fine." He hit play and the opening scene ran, with several obligatory choking sounds from a zombie, followed a minute or so later by a gunshot to the head. "What in god's name are you watching?" A voice said from above them. They both looked up to see that Eravel was hanging over the side of the bunk above them, looking rather disgusted. "What were those two things anyway, humans?" "Uh.." Dash said, trying to come up with a response. "Those were humans, from a show from my country." "You have humans there?" "Well, yea-- What the hell, can you keep a secret?" "Sure, I like to think I'm pretty trustworthy." "I used to be a human from the world where this was filmed. Then I ended up here, and, well, you know the rest." He heard a bag drop by the door. "What!?!?" Their heads turned towards the door, where a very fatigued looking Tank was standing. "You're saying you're some kind of alien?" Jason facehoofed. "I was, I guess, now I'm native. I'm not human anymore." "So, uh..." He spluttered. "Uh, mmm." He sat down on a bunk for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts, before getting back up and sitting down in a position he could see the computer from. His face was unreadable. Jason sighed and started the video again, feeling the confusion and slight annoyance radiating off of Tank. An hour or so of the episode played through without interruption, before Jason decided to pause the episode. After he waited through the inevitable sighs of protest from Dash, he closed the computer and got up, stretching out his legs. He took a look at his back hoof, which was still a little sore, but at least it was mostly healed. "So things are all grey and dull there?" Eravel seemed to be taking this rather in stride, at least. "Yeah, Jason why is that? I thought it was just the movie last time but they're both like this." "I dunno, do you really think I can answer that? It was a lot weirder transitioning from that to this, I thought I was hallucinating." "And why are they all wearing clothes?" Eravel asked. "We didn't have much body hair, we got cold. Or sunburnt. Or both." A knock sounded at the door, and Jason looked over at the regal form of Celestia. "Jason, can I speak with you for a moment?" She asked. "Sure, what about?" He responded. "Actually, I wanted to speak privately." Jason felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he followed Celestia out of the room, and looked back at Dash to see that she looked nervous herself. He shifted his attention back to the Princess, worryingly feeling some anger lance through the air. She turned into another room, beckoning for him to follow. He walked inside and gasped as his eyes focused on the piles of assorted junk from his world. This couldn't be good. "So, Twilight informed me a while ago that things were coming from your country. But you neglected to tell us that everypony there was actually human, as this junk shows." She leaned forward, coming within inches of his face. "Who are you really?" Jason took a step back. "I'm just who I said I was, except without the whole human part." "And what reason do I have to believe you?" "What reason did you have to trust me back then? You still did, and I proved myself." "Proved? You've kept this lie going to everypony!" "Actually, I kinda told Dash on day one, and Lyra and Bon Bon later, and Scoots, and Tank, and Eravel." Celestia drew away, seemingly less annoyed. "Why didn't you just inform my sister or me?" Jason sighed. "I would have, but it had taken so long for you to see me as any more than a changeling, I didn't want more things to get thrown into the equation. I'm sorry." She took a worryingly long silence in thought. "I understand, don't lose sleep over this. At least we know now." Jason nodded and glanced at the door, catching sight of a few multi colored hairs. "You may as well come out, Rainbow Dash." The princess said with a smile. Dash lightly stomped a hoof into the ground in annoyance before trotting into the room. "Don't blame him for not telling you princess, I was the one who didn't want to give anything away." She was met with a confused expression from Jason. "I'm sure you were," the princess said lightheartedly, "but I am no longer angry at him. A little irked, maybe, but in no way mad." She paused. "You know, I take it?" "Yes, I have since I met him. He was up front about a lot of stuff, it's one of the things I like so much about him." "So I take it that Twilight's last friendship report was about you two?" "Maybe, what did it say?" "I don't have it on me, but I believe it said something to the extent of, "Don't judge a book by it's cover, and be sure to trust your friends. I actually started the whole 'friendship report' thing as a joke, but you know Twilight..." She chuckled. "You probably shouldn't tell her that." "Yeah, no problem." Jason replied, still a little wary of the princess. "Okay, well, away with you." She gestured a hoof towards the door dismssively. "I'll send somepony by to get you when it's about time to go. That should be soon, by the way." "Okay, we'll be ready." He said, making for the door. He paused and grabbed a book out of one of the piles before continuing on his way. Benevolent or not, Celestia wasn't easy to stare down. He shivered. That could've gone much worse. Dash bumped against his side, giving him a reassuring look when he met her gaze. "You shouldn't be so tense all the time." He rolled his eyes. "Because I have a choice." "Jason, you have like, one thing to worry about. No money worries, basically you only have to worry about the team's well doing." "Yeah, but--" She pulled his head over and kissed him. "Stop worrying, for me at least. I want to see the old, happy go lucky Jason again." "Okay, I'll try." She smiled and nuzzled his cheek. Jason smiled back and walked into the room, immediately rolling onto her bunk with a slight crunch of her armor. "This armor's starting to grow on me, hopefully it won't start to fall apart too soon." "It's really no surprise ponies thought you were some sort of changeling hybrid." "I'd like to be a changeling, just for a while, to see what it's like." "You just want the transformation part, huh?" He smirked. "Well, I think you'd like the idea of me being able to be any mare." "It wouldn't be the same, I don't want another mare." "Oh, you..." She leaned over and nuzzled his cheek. Tank groaned from across the room, evidently fed up. "Get a room!" He said, rolling over on his bunk. "Eravel doesn't seem to mind." Jason shot back. "That's probably because he sleeps like a rock. All griffins do." That explained why all those griffins in the castle never woke up. And why he hadn't said anything. "Can you look at this face and say no?" Jason turned Dash's head and caught Tank in her puppy-dog eyes, which came close to rivaling the CMC. "Yes." "Dammit." A knock sounded at the door, and Jason looked over at the culprit, a royal guard. "Time to go?" He asked. The guard nodded. They weren't really conversationalists. Tank rolled out of his bunk and started getting his stuff together, and Jason flew up to Eravel's bunk to try to rouse him. He poked his face a few times before hearing the impatient tapping of the guard. He shrugged and pushed Eravel off the bunk, watching him contact the ground shortly after. Eravel flailed around on the ground, trying to figure out what was happening, before he got up and rubbed at his head, looking up at Jason. He frowned. "Why did you push me off the bed?" "We have to go, and you sleep like a rock." Jason smiled widely. Eravel just sighed and started getting his stuff together. Jason jumped down with a chuckle, hissing in pain as his bad hoof contacted the ground. Dash looked over at him and he waved a hoof at her, signaling to her that it was no big deal. He threw the saddlebag over his back after sliding the computer and pad of paper inside, after noticing that it now read 'AWESOME!' He smiled and showed it to Dash before sliding it back in. They were led down the hall and into a much larger room with the rest of Team Green Bean and Celestia already inside. The princess gestured for them to follow her to a small balcony overlooking a square in the castle gardens, nearly overflowing with a couple hundred troops. Dash and Jason stepped up to the edge, and there was a cheer from below. Jason smiled. He could get used to this. "These are the new recruits from Ponyville and Cloudsdale, they arrived a couple days ago and have been put through training. They're leaving in a group with you eight." "There's only seven of us though." "Ah, yes. Shining's got a new member waiting at Windforge." "I see." "Would you like to say something?" She asked. Jason looked back over the sea of expectant ponies. "I dunno, let me come up with something, hold on." He contorted his face for a few seconds, and Dash giggled. "Okay." He trotted back to the edge, tapping a hoof as he waited for the crowd to quiet down. They did after a few moments, and he began. "So you've all been recruited, and I'm glad to see that so many ponies want to protect their own country like this. Hopefully you didn't just come for the pay." A few ponies laughed. "You've been through basic training, and hopefully you have an idea what it's like out there. Well take that, and throw it away. War is chaos, death, suffering. None of you will come out completely unscathed." He paused. "But that's no reason to give up. One way or another, you ponies have the power to change the outcome of this conflict. All you have to do is make sure that it changes for the better. And never forget, you're not in this alone. Our biggest strength lies in teamwork. Lone wolf tactics will only get you killed, and the same goes for cowardice. So get out there, and make a name for yourself, but more importantly, make a name for your squad, and your country. Dismissed." The ponies started stomping their hooves in applause before starting to make their ways to the carriages, wherever those were. "So when do we leave, exactly?" "Around now, as it turns out. We've got all the carriages set up. Follow me." Celestia left the room, seven ponies in tow, and quickly exited the castle through a door that led into the gardens. A few passing ponies saluted and congratulated him, he assumed for the speech, and saluted Dash separately afterwards. She seemed to be enjoying the attention, hell, he was too. It was a nice change of pace from the angry glares of the Ponyville citizens. He shook another pony's hoof, and continued to follow the princess, who was consistently receiving the bows of passing ponies. They got to a street near the cliff at the edge of the city, with tons of chariots lined up for takeoff. Tank, Dash and Eravel were ushered into one with him, while Archer, Hunter and Steve were stuck in another. Eravel tugged a large bag onboard, pulling out a full set of leather armor that had obviously seen better days. "You didn't want better armor?" Jason asked. "None of it fit, but I guess I wouldn't have taken it anyways. I hated it there, but I wanted something to remember my old friend. This used to be his, before he was taken." He replied. "What do you mean, taken?" "He said some stuff he shouldn't have said, and I guess the king silenced him. Permanently." Jason gaped. "We had countries like that, I actually grabbed a book on one earlier..." He reached into his saddlebag, pulling out a copy of 1984. "I don't know if you're interested, but, well, here." He handed the book over. "Thanks! I've never had a book before!" "How bad were things there?" Eravel didn't answer, instead choosing to look at a slightly loose nail in the floor. Jason sighed. It sounded like Stalin's Russia over there. The Chariot lurched forward, and Jason could see from the window that they had taken off. He took off the saddlebag, pulling out the pad of paper. He felt Dash press up against him as he pulled out a pencil and wrote, 'We're leaving for griffin city, Windforge. Is everything going okay over there?' He stared at the page for a few minutes before a reply came through. 'I'm fine, I miss you two though.' Jason smiled and wrote 'Same here, Scoots.' He continued the conversation for a few more minutes, asking her about School and her friends. Apparently she had returned to school after they had left, and was writing to him from class. He hadn't been sure that she was actually in school until she wrote 'Cherilee's watching me, I have to go.' Dash chuckled beside him, and Jason put the pad of paper away, replacing it with the computer. "You guys want to watch some more of this thing?" They nodded, and Tank shifted to the other bench, no doubt causing havoc with weight distribution. Jason pressed play, and they continued watching the carnage in the pilot episode. Jason looked out the window, distracted by the passing trees. Maybe Dash was right, maybe he worried too much. There wasn't anything to be taken lightheartedly, but there definitely wasn't much he had to worry about at the moment, she was right about that. He sighed. He'd find out if he was right soon enough.