//------------------------------// // New Faces // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// New Faces The chariot landed with a heavy thunk and skidded to a halt, tossing around the passengers as they tried to counteract the sudden stop. Jason slid into the front wall, followed by Dash, Eravel, and Tank, in that order. The door opened to a rather stony faced and rugged looking soldier, who immediately knew to look to the front. "Everypony okay?" He asked, resting his hooves on the bottom of the doorframe. Now he just looked bored. Jason pushed Eravel off of himself and got up, lending a hoof to Dash, who had luckily not been between Tank and the wall. Tank got up and sighed, running a hoof over the slightly warped boards on the wall before starting to pick up his stuff. Jason checked that there was nothing new on the pad of paper before throwing his saddlebag and gun over his back and trotting out. A rather large area had been cleared of trees to act as a makeshift LZ, and Jason watched as chariots continually took off and landed, bringing more troops to the front lines. Dash tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in the direction that most of the ponies had started to drift. Eravel caught up as they started to walk through what could probably be described as a deciduous forest, already in the full colors of fall. Dash shivered slightly at the nip in the air, away from the climate control of Equestria. They got to the edge of the flat land, where the ground took a sudden dip, heading downwards on a dirt path. Dash bumped against Jason, leaning on him slightly as they continued along the path. The small group walked into another clearing as the ground flattened once more, and as they got to the other side, which dropped off once again, Jason was graced with a full view of the town, maybe three hundred feet below. The semi-lush surrounding valley gently sloped down to the village, which was somewhere around the size of Ponyville, maybe slightly larger, and had a small river running through it. He could see specks walking around, most of them in small groups, probably the griffin soldiers. He raised his eyes towards the sides of the valley, and could quite clearly see the beginnings of fires in the fading light. He sighed and turned away from the town, walking to the left along the side of the mountain, following the paths of most of the other ponies. They crested a small hill, and a large group of tents came into view, fortified by wooden barricades on the hillside. Dash trotted ahead, immediately going towards the large tent in the middle of the cluster. She raised a hoof to knock out of habit, before sighing and putting it back down. She walked forward and parted the flaps as Jason caught up, and they both entered. The tent seemed much larger from the inside, housing a few bunks and another map like the one in Canterlot or Dash's house. Shining Armor looked up from the map, moving a piece before walking over to greet them. Dash saluted before elbowing Jason in the side to remind him to do the same. Shining chuckled and gestured for them to join him at the map. "So you made it in one piece, I see." Shining started. "Barely, that landing could've been muuuuch worse." Jason replied. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about." He paused. "But on to more pressing topics. How much did Celestia tell you?" "There were hostages, we had time constraints, the mission wasn't forced. That was about it." "That's really all there is to it, unfortunately. It's your team, you're the one who has to figure out a plan. But I did some research, and I have a few possibilities." He gestured to the map. We're here, and this is the area where we think the hostages are." He pointed to a group of miniature tents, then to a large building in the center of town. "So basically we have to get in and out as quietly as we can?" Dash asked. Shining nodded. "Only if you think you can do it." He paused, looking at a pad of paper. "I'll be right back, I have to go see how the eastern line's doing. They had to fight through a bunch of defenses to get the city surrounded, and they took a fair number of casualties." He left the tent without another word, as Eravel and Tank trotted in a few seconds later. "Working on a plan there, boss?" Tank asked. "Yeah, the only good thing about having them surrounded is that we can come from anywhere. But after we make our entrance, we're stuck with whatever plan we have." "Well, you should probably focus on the downriver portion, that's were the city's the worst defended." Eravel said, pointing a talon at a pair of miniature docks. "Stuff was starting to fall into disrepair, there'd be lots of cover, and it'd be tough for them to react, considering all the debris in the way." Jason tapped his hoof to his chin, sliding a piece down the ridge slightly. "Even if we do that, it'll have to be at night. We can't go in there being all obvious." He sighed. "That also means I can't use this gun to help out," He pointed to the AUG strapped to his back. "It's loud when it shoots bullets if you didn't know." "So we're stuck with low tech stuff for a while, that shouldn't be too bad, we've done it before." Dash said, cradling a flash-bang in her hand. "Oh! I did find something useful though. Well, it was actually useless when I got it, but, whatever." He pulled a pair of brass knuckles, handing them over to Eravel. "Put those over your talons. They just make punching stronger, essentially." Eravel slid them on, pushing them until they were flush against the flat of his talon. "These have four holes though." "We can cut the last one off. Humans have four forward facing fingers, so that's why they're like that." "I'm not going to really need these too much." "Why?" He shrugged and pulled a rather small bow out of his bag. "I made this a few years ago, before bows were outlawed. Somehow I managed to keep it a secret, and now I can actually put it to use." "When did you get that?" "I went back to the house where you captured me, I had a lot of stuff there." He pulled out an quiver that was packed with a ridiculous number of arrows. "And then I spent most of my free time making these arrows. I had a lot of free time." Jason grabbed one of the arrows, holding it between his hooves. "I know nothing about arrows." He said, realizing that he couldn't exactly say whether or not it would fly correctly. "But this makes things simpler, we have a quiet, hopefully accurate ranged weapon. Are you any good at archery?" "I'm pretty good, I guess." "I probably should've saved the codename Archer for you." Eravel chuckled. Jason sighed and went back to the map, hoping he'd be able to come up with a better plan. After a few minutes of silence, Tank and Eravel walked over to the bunk, leaving only Dash and Jason to try to come up with the logistics. Jason moved the pieces around in the city, trying to find a route to city hall. Every way he went, there was always an open area, or a place where the team would be spread too thin. It was too dangerous. "AAAGH, this is impossible! Nothing works!" "That's never good to hear." Shining said from the tent entrance. "I've got that new member though." He walked in the rest of the way, followed by a red pegasus mare with a purple mane, who looked around the room a little shyly. "What's her name?" "M-morning Rain." She said, taking a small step back. Jason got up and walked over to her, sticking his hoof out to shake hers. She contemplated the action for a moment before taking his hoof in hers and shaking. Shining threw a wave back at Jason and left again. Apparently he hadn't made it all the way over to the eastern line. "I don't want to sound rude, but what'd you do to get here?" Jason asked. "I got my unit out of a sticky situation a couple days ago, boss." Jason nodded. "You're replacing Plasma on beta team. Glad you can join, we need everyone we can get." She nodded. "So what's the plan, sir?" "You don't need all the formalities." He said. "Sorry sir." Jason sighed. "Our first mission's going to be in a while, either tonight or tomorrow night, so make sure you're prepared." She nodded and went over to Tank, immediately shaking his hoof excitedly. Well isn't that nice... "Dash, you wanna go get some fresh air or something? I need to think, and I'm not getting anywhere here." She giggled and nodded, bumping her flank with his as they went to leave. Dash took off as soon as she exited, hovering a little ways up to make sure he was following. They flew away from the tents and into the forest, dodging around the tops of the branches as Jason ran several scenarios through his head. Dash barrel-rolled through a gap in the branches in front of him, swooping back around with several sticks in her mane. If they entered from the docks, he thought, they would be under cover for a while, but they'd still end up out in the open when they got to the wider streets. What they needed, then, was a distraction. A group of ponies who were able to hold their own while Jason led the others towards the hostages. A group to keep their route of escape open. Another team. Jason slowed down and landed on a sturdy branch, leaning against the trunk to keep his balance. Staying on a tree limb with hooves wasn't easy. A thump and shake of the branch notified him of Dash's presence as she joined him. "Got an idea?" "How well do you think a second team would work?" "For a distraction?" "Exactly. You're really catching on." She blushed. "Well it's a lot better than anything else we've got." She sat down on the tree branch, letting her back hooves dangle. Jason sighed and sat next to her, shifting into a pegasus so that he could wrap a wing around her back. The orange light of the sunset filtered through the treetops, turning more reddish as they continued to sit on the branch. "I love you Dash." Jason said, pulling her in tighter with his wing. "I just wish we were watching this same sunset from your front yard, and not here. I know I've said this before, but you really didn't deserve all of this in your life." "Jason--" He put a hoof over her mouth. "Just listen. I know it was unavoidable, but even if I still ended up here, it could've been better, and I just wish I could change something. Make it better, you know?" He paused. "I'm glad that you wouldn't take it all back, but I can't help but see what your life was like before all of this, and what it's like now. Do you remember, when I first got here, and we blew up that apple in Cherilee's class?" Dash nodded, evidently not needing a further response. "We can't even do stuff like that anymore, everything's serious, life threatening even. I just wish we could go back to the times where nothing got in the way. Not just of us, but of Scoots, your friends, our well-being." He drooped his head, sighing over the weight of his confession. He could feel a few tears pooling in his eyes, which were quickly brushed away by one of Dash's wingtips. "Jason, the only reason I'm not happy right now is because you're beating yourself up over me. It's not fair, you make me feel just as bad. When I said I wanted the old Jason back, I meant it. Just because we're in worse circumstances doesn't mean you can't still be light hearted." Jason didn't resound, instead blinking another tear out of his eye. Dash wrapped her hooves around him, pulling him into her embrace. After a few moments, Jason spoke up. "If it'll make things better, I might as well give it a shot." "As long as you try harder than when you tried to dance earlier today." Jason's face reddened, and Dash stifled a giggle at his sudden change in demeanor. "Hey, I was trying. I can't ever get totally used to all these legs. And it didn't help that you were rolling on the ground laughing the whole time." "Hey, you still learned some stuff." He shoved her lightly. "I already knew how to stumble around on my hooves, I learned that on day one. I also learned how to fall on may face." His expression grew serious. "With style." Dash giggled, pulling him close into his chest as the sun continued to disappear behind the horizon. "I'll have to teach you correctly sometime. To dance I mean, I doubt you need any training to fall on your face." "You wouldn't know, it takes skill. I have my own technique and everything." He tilted his forehead so that it was touching against hers. "I have techniques for everything..." "Oh really? You have a technique for stealing dresses?" "As a matter of fact..." He trailed the sentence off. "No." Dash giggled and pulled his head towards hers, giving him a brief kiss. "Do you think we get our own tent?" She asked. "Your guess is as good as mine." "Do you know any soundproofing spells?" "How about this. I'll ask Shining for a book with that in it, I'm sure someone around here has a book with that in it anyway. And in return..." "Woah woah woah. Why should I cut a deal with you?" She put on an over-exaggerated expression of confusion. "Because it serves our mutual interests." He watched her facade break down into a genuine expression of interest. "Well, go ahead, plan guy." "In return, you have to get us our own tent. So that may involve begging Shining." "Ugh, begging. I hate begging." Jason chuckled, squeezing her shoulder. "Oh, I know. But I'm not all that good at magic, so this is more than fair." "You better be really good in bed." "I think with the whole 'I can be anyone' thing, it's impossible for me not to be. But that doesn't mean I have to be another pony..." "Why do you like being in changeling form?" "I dunno, sometimes I just want to make sure that you still want me, and that you aren't just in this for the other ponies. I also kinda want to do well without help. It's more challenging." He trailed his wing tip across the base of one of Dash's wings, and with a 'fwump' noise, it extended to full span. She blushed, trying to pull it back into her body. "And now I kinda know what you like." He chuckled as she punched him in the shoulder. "Always the smooth-talker, huh Jason?" "Well this is me trying to be lighthearted, so yeah. Just remember, you brought this on yourself." She giggled. "And I'm already regretting it." Jason looked out at the horizon, which had turned a light purple. "We should get back, I've got the ideas, and we need as much time as we can get." Dash nodded and leaned into him for another kiss before easily standing up on the branch, chuckling as Jason wobbled to his feet. "I wasn't this clumsy before, really." "Whatever, Jason." "I'd like to see you try to walk around on two legs." "But I guess we'll never know how well I'd do, will we?" "Not unless something goes horribly wrong." "And given us, it will." They took off. "So what's life like there? On days without your job, I mean." "There were a lot of things to do, if you knew where to look. There were the obvious things, li--" He swooped out of the way of a treetop, momentarily leaving Dash's side before swooping back. "Like amusement parks and stuff, but you could do so many things for so little money though, night clubs, shooting ranges, restaurants serving foods that you can't even imagine... And that's only stuff in the cities. You could buy millions of products for rather small amounts of money, like these mock guns, which were called Airsoft. Then you'd just get some friends together and play a game. Even with all the population, there were huge open areas, I had a creek in my backyard when I was a kid, and me and my friends would go back there and explore, play games, you name it." "What about manticores and wolves?" "We don't have manticores, actually, but most large predators stayed away from civilization. At least, during the day. The whole world was like the Everfree in a sense, but that just gave it a sense of adventure, a concept of unpredictability. It really let your imagination go free. And that's what I miss most about the place." They went silent for a few moments, before Dash looked back over. "What's your last name, Jason?" He sighed. "I forgot I never told you. It's Harding." "Jason Harding." She rolled the name around in her mouth. "I kinda like it, I mean it's weird like the other one, but I got used to that." Jason chuckled and pointed downwards towards the sea of tents that they were currently gliding over in the dusk light. "We should get to work here, see how fast we can get done with everything." He shifted back into changeling form. "Deal." She swooped down and landed, skidding slightly as she came to a stop. Jason was much more careful, trying to keep his hoof from getting re-injured. He'd landed on a rock the day after he got out of the hospital, and it had definitely looked strange to the people in the square when some random pegasus started rolling around on the ground and yelling like crazy. He chuckled at the memory. They walked back into the large tent, immediately met by the stares of Shining and the rest of Team Green Bean. "Where were you?" Shining Armor asked, crossing his hooves. "We have a plan to get together, and you're going out and flying around, or doing whatever with your mare-friend." "Shining." Jason started. "I know what we're going to do, assuming this works." He walked over to the map. "I couldn't figure anything out, because I was looking at it the wrong way. We don't need stealth so much as a distraction." "How are you going to got a distraction and keep them from just killing the hostages?" "Ha! Ya see, that village is surrounded by trees. All we have to do is place another team out there to pull attention away. Just throw rocks around for all I care, then take care of the griffins if they investigate." He paused. "You got another set of those paper pads?" Shining opened a drawer full of notepads and pulled out a couple. "Yeah, the princesses went way overboard with this, but here." He handed them over. "Now, when we get the hostages, being quiet doesn't matter as much. If we get found out, we can blast our way out while the other team comes towards us. Here, look." He took several griffin pieces and placed them inside the city, then placed a couple pony figurines to one side. "Worst case scenario, they only draw a couple griffins away, or keep them distracted in place. We're entering down here at the docks and going down this street by the side of the city, the portion that the griffins should get drawn from. Then we're hanging a right here and sticking to the left side of the river until we get to town hall. The stuff by the river is mostly alleyways, so that's under cover. As soon as we break out the hostages, we send the other ponies a message using this pad of paper--" "And they rush in, sandwiching the griffins between the two teams. Nice!" Dash finished. "What you just did, Jason, is create your first well thought out plan." He gave her a look. "Thanks for boosting my confidence." "Always a pleasure." She replied, giggling. "Hey, not to rain on your parade, but we don't have another eight ponies just lying around." Shining said. "None. You haven't seen any ponies do anything noteworthy?" Jason asked, frowning. He groaned. "I'll check in with the higher up soldiers tomorrow morning, and we'll get another team together. Just once, I'd like to be the lazy one." "Well then what would we do?" He gestured between himself and Dash. "Actual work?" "Naaaaaaah, that's ridiculous. Let's be realistic here." Jason said. Shining sighed and facehoofed. "You two are way more trouble than you're worth." They lapsed into silence as Shining got back to whatever he was doing prior to their return. "Hey, do you have any magic books around here?" Jason asked. "We had a bunch arrive yesterday, bookshelf over there." He pointed over his shoulder, still looking at the map intently. Jason walked over to the bookshelf, stealing a glance over at Tank and Morning Rain, who really seemed to be hitting it off, chatting over on the cot. Eravel was on the bunk above them sharpening an arrow against one of his claws, or possibly the opposite. Jason pulled a book off the shelf, another guide, which seemed to be written for young adult ponies. At least he was getting closer to his actual age. He flipped through the table of contents, opening to the sound proofing spell page. 'Deafens sound by forty decibels!' He shut the book. Dash was way louder than forty decibels. They had decibels here. Huh. He pulled another book from the shelf, flipping to an almost identical spell. Judging by the coefficient of magic, however, it needed much more energy. But it also blocked a lot more sound. He shrugged and set the book on the ground in front of himself, ignored a 'come on...' from Dash directed towards Shining, and focused as best he could. He put magical energy in, changing it into a different form of magical energy using the formula. It wasn't a particularly hard system to understand, really. As Twilight said, it only got hard when you got to magic theory, and had to adjust for variables in your head without a set formula. He waited a few more seconds before running the energy through the formula as he looked at it on the page. How it worked, he would never know, but when he looked up a few seconds later he could tell that there was something in between him and the rest of the room. It was kind of like a thin film of water, ever so slightly distorting the room's normally straight lined tables and chairs. Jason yelled, he screamed. None of them reacted. He insulted Shining's mother. Nothing happened. This was a pretty good spell, as it turned out. He pumped a little more energy in, watching it expand slightly. Then he let it lapse, cutting off the energy and watching the film fade into non existence. "--on, Shining." He heard Dash finish. So it worked both ways then. Shining hit his hoof on the table. "God dammit, fine! Tent G8. Now leave me alone!" Dash smiled and walked over towards Jason. "I've got my half of the deal, you got yours?" "Yup, I'm bringing this book just in case though." He said. Dash giggled and made for the door, shivering slightly when they got into the frigid outside air. She looked around before setting off in what seemed to Jason to be a random direction. She zig-zagged between the tents, looking down at a scrap of paper in her hoof before changing direction again and skirting around another tent. She stopped for a moment before walking inside one. Jason followed her into the rather large tent, smaller than Shining's of course, but big nonetheless. There were a couple sets of bunks on each wall, and Dash had already stripped most of the mattresses and moved them onto the floor in the middle of the tent. Jason grabbed another mattress from the bunk next to himself and tossed it onto the pile. "Jason, is this place soundproof yet?" "No, I need you to tell me when it gets just outside the tent. It's like a film of water, kinda. Ready?" "Sure, go ahead." She waved a hoof for him to continue. He nodded and focused some magic through his horn, creating a small soundproof zone a couple seconds later. He expanded it out until he couldn't see the effect on the walls of the tent, and Dash pulled her head back inside and nodded. She calmly walked over to him, smirking, before tackling him onto the pile of mattresses and running her hooves along his wings as she kissed him feverishly. She broke away a couple seconds later, trying to get some words in. "I love you Jason." She managed to get out before he smiled and pulled her face back down to his, meeting her lips with his own. ___________________________________________________________ Jason awoke to the chirping of birds and a small ray of light coming from the window on the side of the tent. He looked over at Dash, who quickly closed her eyes and tried to look like she was still asleep. "Watching me, eh?" "Don't act like you don't like the attention." She giggled. "I have to say, attention's a lot better when I'm not disguised. Not like, actually better, but I like it more." "Hey, how come you never mention any of my emotions? You mention how others feel about stuff often enough." "I don't notice them anymore. Actually, that's not right, it's more of a subconscious thing, I don't need to process the emotions, it's like an extension of your body language. And it makes finding things you like," He yanked part of her mane and she gasped, her face turning red. "Easy." She dug a hoof into his chest, still slightly annoyed. "I wonder how well you'd get on if you didn't have all this going for you." "Probably not as well. But then again, you wouldn't have such high standards." He poked her chest. "So, you want to get all this stuff over with and relax the rest of the day, or do it in the reverse order?" "If Shining's got some new ponies together, I'm kinda excited to see who they are." "Yeah, okay. So, next order of business, we should probably at least put back these mattresses. Make it a little less obvious." "Like it isn't already blatant." "Just get off the pile." He tossed her into the air with his magic and she let out a yelp before landing to the side and giggling. "Aren't you the assertive one today?" "I didn't sleep well, a haphazard pile of crappy mattresses tends to do that to you." He floated the mattresses to their respective bunks and turned to leave after he was sure they were in place. He walked through the exit to the tent, looking around for the sun. It was probably around nine, so they hadn't slept particularly late. He turned his attention to searching for the big tent, which turned out to be right next to theirs, and he started to walk over. Dash caught up soon after, blushing slightly when she saw how close their tent was to Shining's. "Rainbow Dash, master of direction." Jason said, rolling his eyes. "It was dark!" "I'm just giving you a hard time..." He pushed open the flaps to Shining's tent, finding it rather empty. Shining stood up from behind a table with a scroll in his hoof, having evidently crouched down to grab it. "Hey," He started, "I got some ponies together. I didn't really have much time, or as much of a system for showing me who were the good fighters, though. Pretty much everypony fought in Canterlot, so that was easy." He walked back out the door, gesturing for them to follow. They walked through the tent city, now bustling with activity as ponies trotted this way and that. One ran by with a cart full of spears and pieces of armor. "Steel?" Jason asked as the wagon passed. "Yeah, really nice stuff, that." He elbowed Jason. "So I guess we're catching up on your military fast huh?" Jason choked back a laugh. "Do you want the feel-good answer or the right answer?" "Well it was a little bit of a joke, but sure, give me the real answer." "No. If we were supposed to just take out the cities, they would all be smoldering craters in a couple of hours. With no casualties on my side. Thus the feel good answer." He chuckled as Shining gave him a few looks, trying to figure out if he was bluffing. "We made bombs that pretty much obliterate anything in an eight mile radius. Of course, we took that and made power plants out of a very slowed down process, so we got more than just bombs out of it." "Eight miles." "Yeah. So these recruits, what did they do to get here?" Shining shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "A few took down some fortified griffins, the rest just got medals of honor, bravery, that kind of thing. One of them's a corporal." "You seriously changed your rank systems?" "They didn't really make sense for an army. For the royal guard it was fine, that's a small force, but here we need more of a chain of command." "So they're well cut out for this? The new guys I mean?" "I think so, it's not like they're the ones going into the city or anything. Although I'm kinda surprised you're bringing that griffin with you." "He lived here for a while, he should know his way around." "But do you actually trust him?" "I don't have any reason to distrust him, he's only helped so far." "Even so, just watch your back." Shining made an abrupt turn, walking into a clearing with a earthen stage, pedestal, something like that. He gestured for Jason and Dash to sit down on one of the benches, which were basically just logs cut in half, and walked onto the raised stage. "You've all been called here because there have been hostages taken in the griffin city over there, and your objective is to bring them back safely. All of you will be moving out to your respective positions at twenty one hundred tonight, to free those ponies before dawn. We'll be going back to the tent after this meeting to go over the plan and assign positions, but this was an easy place to get you all together." He turned toward Jason. "Want to add anything?" Dash elbowed him in the side and he sighed, swapping positions with Shining. He looked over the new group of ponies, a rather rag tag bunch, not particularly menacing looking. He sighed. So this is the best Shining could come up with.