Discoveries
"So let's see, how much do you already know?" Evening Glory asked Jason from across the table in Shining's tent.
"Well let's see, I can transform into made up ponies, real ponies... I can only get things like tastebuds from the real ones though." Jason responded.
"Okay, go on." She gestured for him to continue.
"Um, I guess I can heal ponies, stick to walls or whatever, and I think that's it."
"What about magic?"
"Changeling magic?"
"No, of course not, earth pony magic."
He heard Dash giggle to his side. "You don't have to be mean about it." He said, putting a hoof to his forehead. "It's not like I get a lot of rest."
"Why's that?"
"Oh yeah! Connections with the hive mind." Shining choked on whatever he was drinking. "Are you just going to do that after everything we say?"
"You never told me you had connections with Chrysalis!"
"He doesn't." Evening said, shrugging her shoulders. "He's got his own thing going on here, she's the one making the connection."
"I thought I told you that, Shining." Jason said, turning around to face the general, who's chin was humorously wet.
"Well you didn't!" He paused. "Anything else I need to know?"
"I think that's about it. Sometimes Dash and I share dreams." He drummed his hooves on the table. "I still don't know why."
"I do," Evening started. "at least I have a theory. But it's not going to make sense to you by itself, so here's the whole story." She took a deep breath. "Changeling's didn't ever record history in books, as far as anyone knows. That could attest to how long Chrysalis and the hive mind has been around, or it could just mean we really weren't writers." She chuckled. "But as the legend goes, changelings weren't always in a hive mind, in fact there was no hive mind, in the beginning. So things went normally for a time, as normal as things with shape shifters can get."
"And then the hive mind came around." Shining finished as he pulled over a chair.
"Well, yes and no. This is where the story starts to have a lot of different versions. Most commonly, it said that changelings possess an ability of mental, communication, shall we say? It ties back to the fact that we can feel other pony's emotions, and it just goes a little further with changelings. But the thing was, it wasn't something that anyone did a lot, nor was it the big hive mind system."
"So that's when it came around." Dash said, stroking her chin in thought.
"Yeah, or something to that extent. The main idea was that no one could actually hold power over another changeling, they couldn't really o-overp-power them in the limited h-hive mind that existed." She paused. "I'm g-gunna need s-s-some more of t-that stuff p-pretty s-soon."
"Hold on a sec, let me just grab--" Jason reached over and grabbed the bottle of Lithium pills off a nearby table, taking out a few tablets. "I'm going to see if we can just kinda slowly take you off this stuff, assuming that your condition was caused by the hive mind and not a more permanent condition." She nodded and took the pills, chewing them up and immediately gulping down some water.
"Thanks, my thoughts were starting to get a little weird, if you know what I mean. And you do, right? Right!?" She banged a hoof on the table, shaking her head in annoyance.
"Starting to get to you?" Dash asked, taking a sip of her own water.
"Why can't I just have a stable mental state? Shut up!!" She bumped her head with a hoof, matting some of her disguise's mane. "And it wears off so fast, too." She put her head into her hooves, staring down at the table for almost a full five minutes as the others looked on, wondering if they should do anything.
"You okay?" Jason asked after some more time had passed.
"I'm getting there." She sighed. "Might as well just finish the stupid story. Um... So..."
"Chrysalis." Dash filled in.
"Yeah, Chrysalis popped up, I'm not sure how or when, but she apparently experimented the primitive hive mind, and how it worked. It could have been months, maybe years before she figured out how to control it, but in the long run, I guess it makes no difference. She was stronger, able to control other changelings. That's probably why she's still alive. Chrysalis started with only a couple changelings that willingly offered to try her great new discovery. And it worked, she ended up with complete control over them. Went mad shortly after too. Couldn't take the other voices in her head, I guess." She sighed.
"But at some point," Evening continued, "She got over her insanity, started to think again. That's about when she took everything over. Took her a matter of hours, too. It started with the changelings at the asylum, then the block, then the city. There was only one changeling city as far as I know, it was like a base of operations for the tedious gathering of love."
"Yeah, how did you get all that love?" Shining asked. "I mean, a whole city, that's got to be a lot of demand."
"It was a fair amount smaller than your Canterlot, as far as I know." Shining nodded. "Simple. They sent out scouts, they found ponies who hadn't seen relatives in a while, and dropped in for a visit. Sometimes they used spells and read up on recently deceased ponies and pretended to be friendly ghosts. Stuff like that. Replacing relatives was only really a last ditch fallback, although sometimes changelings struck up deals with the terminally ill and took their place." She giggled. "Marvelous recoveries, I've heard."
"How long did that exist as a society?" Shining asked, clearly more engrossed in the conversation than he had expected to be.
"A while, I'm not sure how long. No records, at least no surviving ones. But to get back to this, Chrysalis took over, and that was that. She moved out, made the hive, and started the changeling society you know today. Sucks, really."
"So she's queen, does she actually...you know...mass produce you guys?" Shining asked.
"Well, not really mass produce, she had a lot of children, but so did other specified changelings. It's not like they were in eggs or anything, I hate that ponies get that idea in their head. Changelings give birth the same way as ponies. We're not that different."
"How different are we, exactly?" Jason asked, taking a glimpse at Dash that he foolishly thought was subtle.
"Ha! For foals? That's precious!" She broke out into laughter before she saw Jason's look, which he was glad to see Dash matched. Evening wiped a hoof across her eye, wiping away a tear. "I honestly have no idea, I can't really assume either way. I wish I could, but I've never really seen a changeling pony relationship like this before, sorry."
"It's fine, I figured you wouldn't know much." Dash said, surprising Jason by answering in his place.
"Other than that though, we're both mammals, I think. Minus the milk part, that's really just love. So I guess we still qualify. And obviously we have the same build, pretty much identical organs, minus the digestive tract, of course. We pretty much throw up the stuff that doesn't get used. Used is relative, it's too slow of a process to keep us alive. It's still helpful though."
"It's a good thing Twilight's not here, we'd be buried in notes." Dash said, eliciting a chuckle from the rest of the room, minus Evening.
"A pony you know, I assume?"
"Yeah. My sister." Shining replied.
"Mmm, relatives. I wish I had those."
"But there's always the mother in law..." Jason said, prompting Dash to stare at him. "Or the father in law, sorry." She failed at containing a giggle, and got up from the table to refill her glass with water.
"What was it you said about Jason having his 'own thing going on'?" Shining asked, taking a quick sip out of his glass.
"All changelings have their own little piece of hive mind, that's all. It's proportional to power, so his is larger. I'm still not sure why Chrysalis isn't trying to keep us attached to her though, she doesn't really seem as powerful as the legend goes. Maybe she's starting to lose her power and get old."
"But why the dreams with Dash?" Jason asked.
"I don't know, it must affect ponies. I've never really heard of that happening, but I suppose you aren't a normal changeling like little old me."
"There's always so much guesswork around here, I just wish there was a little certainty with some of this stuff. You know, we could say, with absolute certainty, how the sun produces energy or how that big TV over there works."
"The sun?" Dash asked, dawning a quizzical expression, assuming she was calling his bluff. "How?"
"It converts hydrogen into helium, through a process called fusion. It gives off tons of energy, and that's what warms the earth."
"So at some point it'll just run out of hydrogen and fizzle out?" Shining asked.
"No, then it'll run out of hydrogen and start converting helium into oxygen and carbon, and then the star'll expand and probably envelop the earth, and the moon, and if ponies are still alive when that happens billions of years from now, then they'll be killed. Not like they wouldn't be dead earlier, but still."
"Thanks for the depressing thoughts, Jason." Dash said, deadpanning.
"Do you know how long a billion years is?"
She sighed, bringing a hoof to her forehead. "Fine, you win. You still didn't have to bring it up."
"So..." Evening started, "you want me to show you some of those partial transformations?" She got up from her chair and retreated into a more open part of the tent.
"Sure, I guess." Jason got up as well, walking over to where she was, facing her from a few feet away.
"So, change into something, a disguise you're familiar with." Jason sighed and shifted into Alternis, looking back at her for further instruction. "Okay, so remember what it's like here, and now turn into the form that you want to partially copy." He shifted again, Dash's form appearing from behind the green flames. "Now all you have to do is keep a version of her tongue in your mind, like you do with the external disguise. Just make it a version of yourself, and keep that as you transform. It's like you're keeping it through the transformation."
"Is it weird that this all makes perfect sense?"
"No, not really, you're kinda used to it by now at least."
"I guess we'll see how well this goes." He took a breath, not completely sure why he was nervous, before he concentrated on the tongue and transformed into Alternis. Dash tossed him an apple and he took a bite. Apparently he had gotten part of it right.
"How'd it go?" Evening asked.
"I got it half right. Some of the taste's there." He transformed back into Dash, waiting a few more seconds before turning back and taking another bite of the apple. "Nope."
Shining turned to Dash, away from the rapidly transforming changeling. "What's this like for you?"
"With him as a colt-friend?"
"I guess."
"Not as weird as you think. You get used to it."
"How? He's a different species?"
"Well, he's not always, that's the thing. Changelings really aren't that different, and he acts like a pony. I mean, what do you expect to be different?"
"For one, he feeds on you."
She watched another transformation. "I couldn't care less, it doesn't hurt me. And it's nice that way, I know I'm important to him as more than a source of food, and I provide something that nopony else does. I mean, you can't really say that about a normal pony."
"I guess I'd have to go try out the whole changeling relationship thing. But of course, I never will."
"Happily married?"
"Yeah, wish this stupid shit didn't come up though."
"Leaning some new words?"
"I learned them way back in Canterlot. The recruits loved it. And by that I mean they hated me as a drill instructor. But it was fun."
"They're fun, huh."
"Yeah..."
"So how's Cadence?" She asked.
"Fine. Angry at this whole thing, according to all the yelling before I left."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay, she knew I'd have these kinds of responsibilities. I guess it doesn't make it that much better, though. I miss her."
"Yeah, I wish we could get something more than these stupid papers." Dash sighed, grabbing an apple and taking a bite as she watched Jason celebrate his apparently operational tongue. She choked a little on the apple as she realized how ridiculous that sounded, even in her head.
"I guess I thought they'd do more," said Shining. "But, you know, it's just never enough."
"Yeah."
"You two may want to get some rest, it's starting to get late, and I have to get all these teams together."
"It's only four, or something."
"Yeah, but in a little while it'll be dark, and I don't want a bunch of tired soldiers."
"Fair enough." She turned to look at Jason. "Jason, we should probably go."
"Gotta sleep, huh?"
"Well, not right away, but yeah."
He bid goodbye to Evening and turned back to Dash. "Meh, sleep. One time I was awake for three and a half days in college. And I wasn't high or anything."
"High? I thought you said you were tall."
"I'm going to assume you have a different term here, it means 'under the influence' of drugs."
"Ah, got it."
"Get back here at ten." Shining said. "That's when we're getting everything together."
Dash nodded and pushed through the exit of the tent. "Hey, didn't you promise me flying a while ago?" She asked Jason.
He scratched his head. "I think so, I may be a few days overdue on that." She smiled and pointed off into the distance.
"See that tall tree out there?"
"Yeah?" He smirked, already figuring he knew where this was going.
"Race ya." A puff of dust flew backwards as her powerful wings pushed back the air and jettisoning her into the air. Jason took off after her, still in his slightly improved Alternis form. He liked this disguise, partially for how it looked, partially for the extra speed he had in flight. He knew as he caught up to her that she was just toying with him, but she always made him think in the back of his head that maybe, just maybe, he was catching up to her before she darted away. He redoubled his efforts, changing direction as she pointed to another tree further away.
Jason pulled up beside her, and she pointed up to a lone cloud in the sky before making one of her trademark hairpin turns, buffeting him with air as he attempted to bank after her.
"You've got to show me how to do that!" He yelled up, his voice probably lost in the wind. Dash turned back and smirked, making him wonder if she had actually heard his words or if she was simply gloating. She disappeared over the cloud shortly before he crested to fly over. Jason felt arms wrap around his chest as Dash plowed into him, sending the pair spiraling through the air.
"Dash, what are you doing?" They started to fall as the last of their upward velocity was erased, but held tight. "Dash?"
"Just listen to me for a sec." She looked up, which was really down, given their orientation. "We have time."
"You're insane." He started to struggle away.
"No wait, just trust me here." He stopped, looking her in the eye. "We're going to shove off as we get close, break into opposite glides, then pull up and flip over backwards, past each other."
"Where'd you come up with this?"
"Made it up just now."
"But--" He felt her lining up her hooves with his.
"Ready...Set...Go!" Jason pushed away from her, quickly flattening out and pulling up. He felt a slight amount of dizziness as he pulled the angle sharper, and the world turned upside down as Dash streaked past above him, barely brushing a hoof past one of his playfully as she heard her yell 'Another!'
He smiled and started to flip back over, his brain turning right side up again as he flew close to the trees. He looked up in time to see Dash streaking towards him, and he took the initiative to bank sideways and cut past her, so close that he could swear he felt her feathers brush against his. The rush of adrenaline only made him feel more alive, he could see why Dash loved to fly like this. He pulled up, pulling in his wings and slowly turning in the air as he slowed. He extended a fore hoof downwards as Dash flew by, and she tapped his hoof with her own.
He started to fall, and quickly pulled out of the dive to follow behind Dash. She pulled a quick circle to allow him to catch up, and he was met by a wide smile.
"Why didn't we do this earlier?!" She yelled over the wind as they flew side by side.
Jason smirked. "Because maybe there's a war going on."
"Always gotta do this, huh?" She chuckled. "Come on, I got another idea."
"I'm definitely not scared by that." He said with a suspicious tone, darting his eyes around.
"Good, because this one's more extreme."
"Great."
_________________________________________________________________
Jason watched Dash pull another quick loop in the air and pull into a barrel roll. He took a deep, ragged breath, attempting to regain his breath after the sixteenth, maybe seventeenth trick Dash had come up with spur of the moment. At least he was only tired, after ten or so he had stopped feigning worry and genuinely start to become scared that something would go wrong. But she had adjusted for his fatigue, flying more careful patterns in what appeared to be faster, more complicated tricks.
But he wasn't hurt, he mused, so she must know what she's doing. Hell, of course she does, best young flyer has to mean something, after all. Dash streaked towards the ground, disappearing under the tree line for a moment before re-emerging a hundred or so feet further away.
She pulled a couple more tricks before turning and flying towards him, gliding around the tree he was in to scrub off some speed before landing next to him. He wobbled a bit on the branch as she landed, sticking a hoof towards the trunk to stabilize himself.
"So, on a scale from one to ten, how awesome was that?" She asked, taking a few quick breaths as she tried to recover.
He smirked. "What?"
"The flying, Jason."
"Well, I can't really compare it to anything, but obviously it's a lot better than I could do."
"Hooray? What would be good in Amurrica?"
Jason let out a snort of laughter. "America. That's just what you say when someone mentions something that's kinda like a trademark. Like guns, bacon, burgers, apple pie, burgers wrapped in bacon...Sometimes it's more derogatory, though."
"Okay, I'm sorry, you don't need to give me a backstory on everything!"
"But why wouldn't you want to learn useless facts?"
She scratched her chin. "You bring up a good point..."
"Anyway, we have air shows, but planes are a lot harder to control than wings, and people die from g-forces. So it's more like what I do, swooping motions and stuff."
"So, boring?"
"No, they're a lot louder. And bigger. Oh! And they fly in formations."
"But the Wonderbolts do that..."
"The Wonderbolts can't carry missiles."
"I guess you have me there." He chuckled and leaned against her, feeling a wing wrap over his back as they watched the sun set. Dash liked these moments, it almost made her forget the constant pressure of the situation, the idea that they may not come back from any mission. But she had gotten over those fears quickly, as the duo improved, there didn't really seem to be much that could stop them from coming out on top.
She didn't want to feel smug, that wasn't it at all. But this wasn't a changing threat, at least not to a large degree. Sure, the terrain changed, some of the weapons changed. In the end, however, it still came down to a simple griffin-pony war. And, she liked to think, she was on the winning team.
"We should get back, Jason."
He was silent for a moment before answering. "I know. First thing after we get back and sleep, we're playing some songs. I don't care if we don't have an audience, I'm going to give you some music and we're going to destroy it. In the sense of doing really well, I mean."
"Yeah, we have that expression."
"How am I supposed to know? It's not like I read the dictionary."
"I'm not sure how that would help you with expressions." She giggled and took off.
He took off after her. "You'd be surprised what we have as words. Slang just gets accepted after a while. Some of these may be the same, but we have 'dude', 'bro', 'yo'... 'swag', I think, that kind of thing. Naturally I never really use any of them, but you know."
"Swag?"
"I have no idea what it means, I kept hearing different things."
"People have the weirdest stuff."
"You're just jealous." He landed in front of their tent, walking inside and shedding his saddlebag in a fluid motion as he almost seemed to fall into bed.
"Tired?"
"No, but I don't want to be tired later." He mumbled through the pillow.
"Fair enough." Dash said, tossing her saddlebag into the corner. "Wait a sec, Scoots probably got back!" She galloped over to the corner and picked the saddlebag up, grabbing the pad of paper and diving onto the bed. "She did! She did she did she did!" Dash hugged the paper to her chest for a moment before holding it out in front of herself for Jason to see.
"That's her hoof print?" Jason asked. "It's so small..." He sat up and looked over her shoulder, watching as she put her own hoof down next to Scoots' print, comparing the size. Jason spread a wing and reached behind himself, pulling out a picture a few seconds later.
"You keep that in your wing?! What if it falls out?!"
"It's really wedged in there. Besides, it could've burned in the saddlebag last time, and this way I can't forget it."
"That's-- actually kinda smart."
"Thanks, Dash." Jason said sarcastically. "But you know what we're stupid for not thinking about?" He pushed the blankets off himself and stood up, holding the picture in front of himself. Green flames washed over his body, leaving orange fur in it's wake. "How about that?" He said in Scoots' voice. "I know it's not her, but it's her voice, her form. It's pretty close."
Dash leaned towards Jason, wrapping the filly he'd become in a hug. "Thanks, Jason. I love you."
He squirmed a little in her arms, not particularly enjoying the tightness. "Dash...I know you're happy...but could you just--"
She slackened her hold. "Oh yeah, sorry. I'm just--well, you look like her, and--I dunno."
"Yeah, it's fine, just so long as you don't strangle me."
"I might come a little close." She gave him another squeeze before finally letting him go. "There, see? No harm done."
"Yeah, only my ribs."
"Oh, you had to expect that, after having the audacity to turn into our daughter this long after we left." Jason looked up at her, now dwarfing her height. If only he knew how it was possible to get this much smaller and yet weigh the same as Scoots. It was funny how every time he started to come up with a theory of how things worked, it always got torn apart by something or other.
"Can I change back then?"
"I guess, you can do this anytime, right?"
"Well, I guess." She seemed to perk up a little, and gave Jason's form another quick hug, releasing him before he dropped the disguise and reverted back into Alternis.
"You ever thought about doing this for ponies?"
"Hmm?"
"Well, you could just become their relatives, they'd be thankful."
He sighed. "They'd think I just wanted their love. The cynicism's never going to go away, not completely."
"But--"
"No, I have to draw the line somewhere." He crossed his arms. "It's not that I don't want to, but at the same time, I just--it won't work. I'll end up as an object of interest more than a general."
"Fine, I don't think you're right, but I guess I have to trust you, huh?"
"Well, you are my mare-friend." He said, lying back down on the bed and pulling the blankets over himself and Dash.
"It's a good thing I benefit." She pulled herself closer, giving him what was supposed to be a brief kiss. It turned more hungry as the seconds dragged on, before Dash finally built up the resolve to pull herself away. "It's really ironic that I'm the one saying this, but you know, attack and all."
"And there's all those things that would go wrong if you weren't in the mood for 'victory sex'." He rolled his eyes.
"Hey, it's something to look forward to."
"Well yeah, but--"
"What, you don't want any?"
"No, that's not what I--"
"That's what I thought." She shot him an accusatory look that turned into a smirk. "I think you're the only guy that complains about a mare with a high sex drive."
"Oh, trust me, when we're in Ponyville, I couldn't care less. But sometimes I'm too worried for any of this to be fun. To it's full degree, anyway."
She poked him in the chest. "Look at you, always so serious."
"I try." He replied, returning her poke. He leaned over and met her lips for a brief time. "Now sleep, we only have three hours before this--" He floated over an alarm clock and set it for nine forty five. "Thing goes off."
"Fine, we'll get our rest. I'm not letting you get it later." She leaned over and nipped at his ear, nuzzling against his cheek.
"Good night, Dash."
"Night, Jason."
"I guess I never replied, I love you too."
She smiled. "Good to know." He chuckled and let out a sigh of relative contentedness before his muscles started to relax and he dozed off. It always amused her how quickly he seemed to fall asleep. Or, conversely, how well he hid his fatigue. But he never seemed that tired, and that made her wonder why he always acted like he was. Maybe those transformations took a lot more out of him than he thought. Even if it was a big part of the whole changeling thing, healing seemed slightly disproportionate to transformations in terms of energy.
Evening hadn't even preformed one shift, now that she though about it, besides some tune ups to the aquamarine pegasus. So maybe he just couldn't read his exhaustion, she figured it was similar to how unicorns felt after they had cast too many spells, but he didn't know that feeling, she supposed. He'd probably just been ignoring the signals and getting fixed up in his sleep. From what Twilight had said, things like that were fairly dangerous if the pony went too far.
But he didn't seem to be overdoing it, just nearing the borders. Like running a race, it probably just took him a while to regain his strength. Oh well, this was all just guesswork. Not like she knew if changeling transformation magic was even similar to unicorn magic. She started to nod off as the bland thoughts continued to swirl in her head and Jason's calming heat started to work it's way into her body. Pillow or not, this was always the best part of laying with him, she mused. Her thoughts flickered briefly to the nightmare she'd had with Jason from the previous night, before her mind shut off and she fell asleep.