//------------------------------// // Packing Up // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Packing Up Jason felt a tap on his forehead, and swatted at it with a hoof before trying to go back to sleep. He felt another tap a moment later, and he repeated the motion. Another tap. Whatever was at the other end of this, he was going to kill... Dash. "Why were you trying to wake me up?!" He asked, rubbing an eye. "Well, we need to get our stuff out of here so we can move the tent later." She said. "I let you sleep in pretty long, you seemed pretty tired last night." "Yeah, I'm not totally sure why." He wrapped a hoof around her neck, pulling her head down into a kiss. "I'm fine now though." "Any dreams?" She asked. "I didn't really take you all that seriously yesterday, I'm sorry about that by the way." "It's no big deal, you were still kinda drunk. But no, I didn't have a dream." "Yeah, neither did I. So I guess this solves nothing." She shifted a hoof through the box of human stuff from yesterday, pulling out a shoe. "Did you ever finish going through this?" "No." She offered a hoof in help and he took it, pulling himself up off the mattresses. "I kinda stopped looking after I found the gun and started acting all excited." He pulled the box closer and moved the contents around. "What's this?" Dash asked, pulling out a brightly colored bag. Jason looked up and gasped. "Wow, I forgot how much I missed these things!" He grabbed the bag and opened it, pulling out an orange chip. "What are those?" Dash asked, reaching into the bag and grabbing one for herself. She put one into her mouth and started to chew it up, her eyes lighting up. "These taste great!" "I never said they were food... I mean they are, but I still never said it." He shifted into her form, shoveling a few chips into his mouth. "They're called Doritos." He said in her voice. "Is this kind of stuff expensive?" She said, spewing a couple of chip fragments across the room. He snickered. "Of course not, it costs a couple dollars for the bag." Dash nodded and stuck her hoof in again, grabbing another hoofful of chips. Jason pulled out a few more before hoofing her the bag and returning to the box. "Are there any more bags of these?" "Uuh, not that I can see..." He shifted his hoof around. "But here's a mug with a demotivational picture on it." He handed it to Dash, who read the small subtitle below the picture. "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups," she read. "Are they flying?" "No, skydiving. It's basically falling, except you have a parachute to use before you get to the ground." "People do that for fun? What if something goes wrong?" He shrugged. "Stuff usually doesn't. But in other news, here's a butter knife, coaster, and shoe to match that other one." He went silent, staring into the box, before breaking out into celebration and flinging a bag around. "Yes, finally!" he did a victory dance, leaving Dash completely out of the loop on what was happening. "What did you find?!" She yelled over his celebration, waving a hoof to get his attention. "Beef jerky!" He stopped his dance to open the package, shoveling some of the meat into his mouth. "It doesn't taste as good as I remember, but that's probably because it's your taste buds. Here, try some." He thrust a piece into her hoof, watching her as she took it and stared. "Beef?" Jason nodded, waiting for her to take a bite. She shrugged, she'd already had fish anyway, this wasn't that different. She ripped off a piece, slowly chewing it in her mouth. "Well, I have to say, this is pretty good. All meat tastes like this?" "No, that's peppered and had a rub on it. But it's still essentially the same." "It's pretty spicy." "Yeah. Let's not show this to anybody." He paused. "You know, vegetarians and all. Except Eravel, I suppose." "No problem." She took another bite. "You were really holding out on me here." "Oh yeah, with my vast access to meat. That's about the best you're going to get, most everything else that comes through will probably be spoiled by the time someone finds it." "So this is all we have for now?" "Yup. My little carnivore." "It's good!" She replied through a full mouth. "Just don't eat too much, digestion probably won't go well. And I kinda share a bed with you." "Fine." She shut the bag, awkwardly trying to close it back up with her hooves. "So we have to leave soon?" "Well, not that soon." She walked over to him with half lidded eyes. "And...ugh, you're still me, change back." "What, you don't like yourself?" He teased, moving forward and making a kissy face. "You know you want to..." "Jason! This was supposed to be the part where I flirt and make you uncomfortable, not whatever this is!" "I think you like it." He pushed her onto the pile of mattresses, pinning her arms before she could get back up. "I think you like the idea of me having my way with...myself." She giggled, although she didn't stop trying to struggle free. "I don't like mares!" "But I'm not a mare, technically." "Aaah, I don't know what to feel!" Jason leaned down and nuzzled her neck, planting a few kisses before simply falling over in a heap of giggles. "Okay, I'm done. This is getting too weird for me." He said through his laughs. "Thanks for completely creeping me out." "Oh, you liked it." Her face turned a slight tinge of pink. He transformed into his regular Alternis form, and laid down behind her, assuming the position of the big spoon. "So we have time, apparently?" "Yeah, but I'm not so sure if I'm in the mood to do anything anymore." "Oh, okay. Well I'll just go be you in that corner over there for a few minutes...." He heard her audibly facehoof. "You're literally the only guy around here that can just shrug off me saying 'no sex'." "Yeah, but you always come around." He leaned over and kissed her, stroking a hoof across his wing. "But how about this. I don't want a time limit, so we'll just wait until the new camp tonight. Unless someone can't handle it." He poked her in the back. "Yeah, right, I'll be fine! You'll be the first to crack anyway." "I'm not making a bet over this, for the record." "You're just worried I'd win." "I'm worried that when one of us breaks down, there'd be casualties." He felt her body vibrate as she chuckled, and he wrapped a hoof more tightly around her chest. "You know, something about this place that I'll never completely get over is that I can touch your chest without it being at all sexual." "What the hell does that mean?" "You know how in The Walking Dead all the women had bulges on their chests?" "Yeah, it's kinda weird if you ask me." "Well they were breasts, they're there all bulgy that all the time on humans. And if I were to go up to a girl and start squeezing her boobs, she'd probably yell rape. What I'm trying to get around to is, after all this I still hesitate to put my arms around you there, you know, ignoring the fact that I already got past the interspecies thing without much trouble." "Yeah, why did you get over that so fast, come to think of it?" "Well, you're clearly on par with humans in intelligence, and you have a personality that matches mine, and it's not like I'm human anymore." He paused. "I guess another reason is that most of society is still the same, I still have the same role as a stallion as I would have as a human, kinda. Males tend to do the fighting and harder labor, a fair amount of business, so I don't have to change otherwise. There are a lot of mares around, though. Why is that?" "Ponyville supplies a lot of the royal guards. It's kind of a tradition." "Ah. I guess to finish, you don't really look like a horse, so I don't ever really see you as one. This might sound petty, but think about dating an intelligent species that looked like a snake or a fish. It'd be weird, right?" She stroked her chin. "Yeah, I guess I see what you mean." "And you're pretty anyways, and that went through my head the first time I saw you. It didn't take me very long to figure out I had feelings for you, and I'm so glad I didn't question them." He hugged her tighter against his form, taking in her scent as he placed his head around her shoulder. "You went through all that?" "Well there really wasn't much, I just thought you looked beautiful, and then I found out that you were smart, athletic, funny... I couldn't possibly hope to find another mare that's better than you in even one of those respects, let alone two." "What about Twilight?" She asked, stroking a hoof across the bed nonchalantly in front of her. "In respect to intelligence?" She nodded. "Do you think she has the same smarts as you when it comes to fighting, to planning even? If you'd read as many books as her, and had a horn I suppose, you'd easily rival her book smarts." He paused. "We had something called street smarts, in cities, mostly. It was the idea that you were smart when it came to interactions with people, and keeping your cool in tight situations. There were some other parts, but they don't really apply." "So I have those?" "Oh yeah, I forgot what I was saying there. Yeah, you have those. And just plain old regular intelligence." "Thanks Jason." He rubbed her shoulder with a hoof reassuringly, and they became silent for a while. "How come you never say 'anypony' or anything like that?" He sighed. "Well the first couple times I screwed up, but after I didn't really need to disguise myself, I kinda didn't want to lose my old dialect, I liked having something to remind me of my old life, or at least my humanity." "You always mention your 'humanity,' why do you care so much?" "It's just a thing we humans have, it's our culture, our morals, basically. I know I'll never really lose it, but I feel like it's just something I have to maintain. Like as soon as it starts to slip, I won't be me anymore." He paused, letting out a sigh. "Why don't we go get stuff together and get through this day." He yawned. "I'm tired already." He pulled himself off the mattresses, offering her a hoof. "This is probably light fighting today, right?" "I doubt it, we aren't really material for this kind of thing. We'll probably just stay behind with the rest of the team. Maybe go in somewhere if they need help. But from what Shining said, they're massing further away than the camp he wants to set up." "It's forest between there and here?" "Well we're crossing the valley with the village, and then it's pretty flat for a while until it gets hilly again. And that's where we're setting up." "Yeah, okay." She walked over to the tent entrance, looking outside for a long moment before opening the flap so that Jason could see that a chariot was just outside, hopefully stuck there for their purposes. Jason walked over to the flaps, walking up beside Dash to take a look. Considering the sign on the side that said 'Dash and Jason', he figured it was theirs. He pushed open the door, looking around at the same time to see ponies in the process of taking down several of the tents and stacking up bunk pieces or supplies. He looked back towards the chariot, finding the inside unsurprisingly empty. "Guess we better get started." Dash said, looking back inside at all the stuff they had to move and sighing. "Good thing I have you to do all the work!" She said happily, trotting back inside and diving onto the mattresses. "Ah, laziness. I've missed you." Jason sighed and lifted up the mattress underneath her, causing her to let out a yelp as she struggled to get to her feet. He floated another mattress overtop her before she could, sandwiching her between the pads. And then he ran out of ideas, not sure how exactly this was going to cause her to help him, not that he would have probably asked for her help anyway. He decided on flipping the Dash sandwich upside down and letting it drop. He caught it before it hit the ground, laying it down lightly. "Why?" Was all he could hear her say from inside the cocoon. "If I really had no idea, would you still be angry?" "Why don't you let me go and find out?" "I dunno, Dash, what are you going to give me?" "My undying love?" Came the muffled response. "Sounds a little too good to be true..." "Just let me go, it smells funny in here!" "Fine..." He let the mattress out of his magical grip, and was tackled by Dash a couple seconds later as she straddled his body. "I knew you weren't to be trusted." He chuckled, squirming around under her. "So is there going to be another negotiation here?" "I dunno, I kinda like you being on top of me." "Here we go again..." She groaned. "You like it when I flirt like this." She giggled and leaned down to kiss him on the nose, before getting out of her straddling position and helping him up. He nuzzled her cheek before wrapping a fair number of the instruments in his aura and sending them into the chariot. More of a buggy, he realized. Chariot wasn't really the right word. "We need to play some of those songs you wrote out." Dash said, tapping a cymbal that Jason hadn't yet moved. "Yeah, but I'm going to have to weed out the ones that we need a bass line for." The cymbal started to glow a soft green before lifting off and moving outside. The mattresses glowed the same color shortly after and moved into a pile as Jason pulled the simple structures of the cots apart. "So why did you put me in between those mattresses if you were just going to do all the work anyway?" "I don't know, looking for a reason to screw with you?" He paused. "The 'with' isn't optional in this scenario." She smirked. "Unless I want it to be?" "Took the words right out of my mouth." He grabbed the box and the rest of its contents, floating them outside with Dash's armor and their weapons to the buggy. He tossed her saddlebag over to her, throwing his own over his back. "Won't we need the armor?" "I dunno what the plan was, really. I want to find out what it was before we put everything on." She nodded, swishing her tail as she made her way over to meet him at the door. "You know what time it is?" "I thought you did." "Well kinda, I mean I knew it couldn't possibly be that late." Jason looked up at the sky as he exited the tent, furrowing his brow when he realized the sun was at it's highest. "Dash, it's at least noon." "We're still on time though." She said, giggling as he sighed in annoyance. "Fine. We'll go see what Shining wants us to do." Jason broke into a trot, a slight pang of nervousness echoing around in his gut as the idea that he had overslept shot through his head. He pushed into Shining's tent a few moments later, earning a confused expression from the general. "What are you doing out and about? You don't really have to do anything, I figured you'd still be in the tent, you know, entertaining yourselves." Jason frowned as Dash poked him in the side, laughing to herself. "Didn't we have to leave earlier today or something?" Jason asked. "No, you didn't, none of Team Green Bean had to. I mean, you're good fighters, but risking any of you in a situation like this would be pointless." "So what are they doing, exactly?" Dash asked. "Well, I just have lines securing the next several miles between here and there, and sent them with some pads to report on any updates. They were sent out, what, four hours ago, so they should be getting pretty close by now. Unless it's further than we thought." "Yeah, okay." "So be ready for transport with the rest of the team by two or three. I guess now that you're up, you may as well help load up supplies and what not. It doesn't matter either way to me, you've earned your keep whether you help out or not." "You wanna do that Dash?" "Sure, may as well. I told you we had time." She turned to leave, pushing through the tent flaps with Jason in tow. "Oh yeah, that would have been great if someone noticed the silent tent and decided to take it down." "I wouldn't have been embarrassed." "Don't even lie, Dash. You would've been mortified." He elbowed her in the side, earning a slight giggle in response. They trotted back to the tent, loading up any odds and ends. "So, manual labor..." She started. "I bet I can move more stuff than you, no magic or wings involved." "Okay, rules. Make up a mare, about my size and build. A pegasus." He transformed into the desired pony, a light red mare with a sky blue mane the same color as Dash's coat. "There." He said, striking a pose. "Did you ever get over turning into mares?" "Kinda, I mean there're obvious reasons why I don't like it, and it's hard to be you without getting aroused or just staring at you, me, whatever. It's always strange." She laughed rather loudly, throwing her head back. "I would imagine." She said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Okay, we'll have to use a system that goes by loads. Time limit is after we've run out of stuff to move." She stretched out her hoof to shake on the deal. Jason took it, smirking through his guise. "Readysetgo!" ___________________________________________________________ Jason ran up to one of the chariots, buggies, whatever, and started offloading the items as quickly as possible. As far as he could tell, Dash was still neck and neck with him, which was unsurprising considering how equal they were. They'd been running back and forth for at least a couple hours now, and even though ponies could run a lot farther than humans, his legs still burned with the torture he'd put them through so far. He'd managed to keep count with the loads, even after all this time, counting out fifty seven just as he threw in the last item. He turned and sprinted back, ignoring the cramp in his side that he'd had for about a half hour. It was really a test of will and pain tolerance at this point, and no matter how hard he tried to get ahead, Dash would always end up right up with him. At least twenty ponies had taken up bets on the sidelines, and were watching intently as they continued to cart loads back and forth. At least most of the ponies had stayed to help, and weren't over there with the rest of them gambling. He would've been annoyed if that had been the case. Of course, none of the ponies knew it was him, so they wouldn't really have a reason to be making themselves look like hard workers. But then again, they had been up since earlier this morning. He threw off the thoughts as he draped a few parts of a bed frame over his back, following it up with a mattress. He took off again, matching Dash's speed as they neared one of the buggies. Jason skidded to a stop in front, throwing his stuff off and into a rather orderly pile. He heard Dash do the same, and took off with her as they neared the end of their loads. Jason saw the last of the goods that needed to be packed, and made a beeline for them. Dash noticed his change of direction, and turned to grab some of the pile as well. The gambling ponies, many of them probably drunk, were going insane as they picked up the last group of bunks and mattresses, and a small tent pole for Jason. The pair shared a quick competitive glance before bolting towards their drop off point. Then it was just a straight dash to the finish line. They offloaded their stuff with a few heavy clunks, no longer caring about the order so much as their exhaustion. Jason pushed off the buggy, gaining an inch or so on Dash, who simply grunted and made the distance up. He could almost hear the strain on their muscles as they put in a final sprint, ignoring the protests from his lungs. The flags representing the finish line passed and he slowed down before decelerating into a slow walk. "Who.....won?" She asked, trying to punch his shoulder but not making the distance. "I......don't......know." They panted in relative silence, minus the bickering from the gambling ponies over who had won. Jason wiped her brow with a hoof, and she nodded her head in thanks. "My legs......feel like......they're going to fall off." She said. Jason attempted to laugh, before his breath caught. "I know...the feeling." He always felt strange when it wasn't his voice coming out of his mouth, although he had kept his speech relatively low. Not ridiculously so, he didn't sound like some sort of man-lady. It was a kind of voice that resembled Dash's, without the characteristic scratchiness. Jason turned in time to see a couple of stallions break out into a fight. "Guess I'll have to...go fix that." He limped over, stamping a hoof in irritation towards the brawling stallions. They looked up for a moment at the irritated mare before resuming their drunken battle. Jason sighed, digging a small rut in the ground before looking back up. His phantom horn started to glow as the two stallions were ripped apart from one another and sent into the air. He kept them hovering there as an afterthought, hearing several of the other ponies gasp. It seemed that a larger crowd had accumulated, probably due to all the noise from the betting and bickering. Jason looked around, finding most of the members of Team Green Bean, including the two officers and Blueblood, who were looking on slack jawed at the pegasus that was levitating two stallions. Jason shifted out of the disguise, returning to his normal changeling form. He looked over the now totally silent partially drunk ponies, who were totally speechless. One in the back either passed out or fell over. "Listen!" He started, pacing slightly to the side in front of the group. "I don't care what you do around here too much, I'm not like Shining. I'm fine with you drinking and gambling, so much as it isn't right before a battle." He paused, building a slight tension. "But I will never, NEVER tolerate fighting between any of you!! Have I made myself perfectly clear?!?!" "SIR YES SIR!!" "That's what I thought. Next ponies to get caught fighting, I'll see to it that you only get half rations for a week. Does everyone understand, or do I need to try harder to get this shit into your brains?!?!" "SIR YES SIR!!" "Good, make sure everything's packed, because we're leaving for the new camp later today. Dismissed." He stuck the stallions back on the ground and waved off the solutes, turning back to Dash. "You're so hot when you take control." She said, running a hoof down his arm. He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, uh huh." "Why did you get so angry about that though? I've never seen you like that before, besides that time you went off on me after I beat you up." "I can't stand infighting like this. I just feel like the griffins are out there, waiting for us to fall apart, and this is exactly what they want. Like it's just pointless, you know?" "Yeah, I guess." "I mean, we could have injured two soldiers there, which would have meant infirmary time for guys that had injured each other. And over something so pointless, too." He sighed. "I guess if they had a reason, I wouldn't be so mad. Like if a soldier slept with another soldier's wife. I could understand a fight there." "Hey, you two!" A voice said. The duo turned to see Shining walking over. "What?" Jason responded. "You all packed?" Shining asked. "Yeah, why? We're leaving?" "Well, the rest of the Team's packed and ready, so yeah. You're still fine with being in a buggy with Eravel and Tank?" "Yeah, it's no big deal. We just have to make sure Tank won't squish any of us when we stop." "Ha! Okay. Check for whatever and then jump into one of the troop carriers lined up over there. I'm sending you first in case something happens. It was eerily quiet today, almost no sign of griffin activity." "So that group of tents is staying here then?" "Yeah, at least until we can be more sure that the village is friendly. We've weeded out a griffin already." Jason nodded. "I heard about your little competition today." "Am I supposed to be scared?" Jason asked. "No, you got a ridiculous amount of stuff loaded, and given that yelling there at the end, kept things together, so I'd say you did a good job." "Because I'm really trying for your praise." Jason laughed. "I'm still technically your superior, you know." "Yeah..." He paused. "So when are you coming into the new camp?" "Let's see, probably tomorrow. I have to make sure any counter-insurgency is completely set up down there," He gestured to the village, "And then I have to make sure that there's enough leadership here. So until then, I'll see you later." He stuck out a hoof, which Jason promptly shook. "See you soon, then." Dash leaned over to shake his hoof, before they went their separate ways. Jason checked for the computer in his saddlebag, realizing he hadn't sent anything to Scoots yet today. He facehoofed, and pulled it out. There was only a word on the top line, which read, Rumble. What the fuck? "Dash, what does this mean?" He asked, tossing her the pad and continuing his awkward limping towards the buggy. "I dunno, you asked her who her friend was or something, so that must be him. It kinda rings a bell, I think it's one of the school kids." "I'm not sure how I feel about Scoots being around colts like this." "Why?" "Well, what if she does something stupid, and we aren't there to help her?" "Yeah, that's just another motive to get back sooner I guess." "Why aren't you more stressed about this?" "Because with what she's been through, the chances she'll actually let someone into her life on a large scale are tiny. The only reason it was so easy for me us is because she already looked up to me, and we trusted her with your secret." "I've never been so glad that you're right." "Thanks." She said sarcastically. She got up to one of the buggies and jumped inside, watching Jason struggle to get in behind her. "Sore?" She asked. He smirked. "A little." He walked over to a bench, setting his saddlebag aside, and sat down next to Dash, leaning against her form. He shifted into Alternis, putting a wing around her back and enjoying the heat radiating off her. The floor tilted as Tank entered a few minutes later, followed by Eravel. Jason could hear slight jingling from outside as the pegasi responsible for pulling them got into the reigns. The buggy turned, before briefly accelerating along the ground before taking to the air. After the initial turbulence subsided, Jason looked across the isle. "So how's Morning Rain?" He asked Tank. "She's fine, they're running a couple tests before sending her out. She should come in a few hours after we do." "Good to know." He reached into his saddlebag, pulling out the computer. "You wanna watch some more Walking Dead?" There was a quick shuffling of hooves as the others crowded around the screen. "I'll take that as a yes." ________________________________________________________ After about an hour, give or take a few minutes, they had landed, slightly less hard than the last time. He looked around as he exited, finding a rather simple hilltop, with the beginnings of a tent city rising from the tall grass. The hill dropped around fifty feet on all sides before delving back into forest, as far as he could see, giving them a fairly well defensible position. Jason looked up at the sun, now setting, and started to walk over to the tents. A stallion with a clipboard walked up to the small group, checking them off a list before looking back up. "Glad to see you made it, boss." He said to Jason as he saluted. "We've got a tent set up for you, right over there. G3, I believe." Jason turned to leave, feeling Dash bump into his side as he did so. "Is that your universal sign for wanting attention?" He teased. She just smirked and stuck out her tongue. "You'd like it if I was that easy to read, wouldn't you?" "Because you're totally not." "You know, if you don't want me to bump into your side on a regular basis and make you feel wanted, that's fine by me." "Let's not be ridiculous here, we don't need another nervous wreck like that one guy." "Good to know you're stuck with me." "Stuck... Way to make it sound bad Dash." He pushed into the tent, finding it in much the same layout as the previous one. Dash started to grab a mattress off the bed, before Jason stopped her with a hoof. "We're idiots." "Okay?" "Stay there for a sec." He trotted outside, a flap of his wings letting her know he'd taken off. There were a few more flaps moments later, before he came through the door pulling a cloud behind himself. It got wedged in the door, and he pulled on it until it came the rest of the way through and he fell backwards. "Ow. I got us a bed though." "Yeah." She ground her hooves together mischievously. "This is way better than a pile of mattresses." "And I know just how to break it in."