//------------------------------//
// Another Brick in the Wall 
// Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War 
// by AgentSnail 
//------------------------------//


Another Brick in the Wall


Dash rolled restlessly in bed before opening her eyes and looking around, staring at the ceiling for an answer about why she had awoken.  None came more clearly than the cold penetrating her body from the side, where Jason usually was.  The covers had been pulled back and he had clearly left after she had fallen asleep.  A wave of nervousness washed over her as the concept of Jason somehow cheating on her renewed itself in her mind.  

She got up a little shakily after looking around the room and making sure that he wasn't pulling some sort of trick, and made her way towards the door.  She figured that maybe she wouldn't be able to find him, but it's not like she would have been able to sleep with him out wherever he was right now.  Dash stumbled slightly as she walked down the street, tears coming to her eyes as she imagined the worst.  

It was kind of amazing that she hadn't thought of this in any great detail before, or how easy it was to imagine him in a foreign bedroom with some random mare, that mare, doing things that pained her to imagine.  A tear fell from her eye, hitting the ground with a loud plop.

"Dash?"  She heard from behind her.  She turned around quickly, picking Jason's blue eyes out of the dark, where he appeared to be sitting against a wood pile.  "What're you doing out here?"  He asked.

She tried to respond, but the combination of relief and confusion that flooded her system kept her from being able to wrap her head around the words she was trying to say.  After a few seconds she gave up, simply running over and hugging him hard, crying into his shoulder.

"Dash, what the hell!"  He yelled, "What happened while I was gone?!"

"M-my imagination!"  She sobbed back, wrapping her arms tighter around his form.  

"Huh?"

"I got it into my head that you left because you were with another mare, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

He ran a hoof down her back, giving it a few gentle pats.  "Dash, believe me when I say that I would never cheat on you.  I don't know why you're always so scared, but you have nothing to worry about."  He put a hoof behind her head and pulled her over for a kiss.  "Nothing, you hear me?"

"Yeah."  She choked back a sob.  "I'm sorry, I guess I never told you."  She let her grip slacken so that she could sit against the pile next to him, leaning on his shoulder.  "Back in Cloudsdale, before I left for Ponyville, I was with another stallion, and it was definitely short enough to be considered a one night stand."  She took in a ragged breath.  "He cheated on me after a day, one fucking day!  You wanna know something that makes you feel worse than that?  Cuz there isn't anything!"  She broke down again, wrapping her arms around him and wetting his shoulder.  He reciprocated her hug, stroking the back of her mane.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"  He asked as her sobs started to wane.  

"B-because every time I thought to, I just saw you with that same mare, and I couldn't shake the suspicion that you'd end up the same as he did.  And I still can't shake it."  She let out a new string of sobs, no longer even appearing to try to contain herself.

"Dash, I can't bear to see you like this.  Lighten up a little."

"B-but, aren't you mad?"

His pained expression twisted into one of confusion.  "Why would I be mad?  I'm sorry you had to go through that, and maybe I would've liked it if you'd gotten it off your chest earlier, but I'm not mad."

"Why?  I just admitted to not ever being able to fully trust you, why wouldn't you be?"

"Because it's understandable."  He held her tighter.  "And either way, I still love you."  He felt her breathing slow slightly, and sighed, glad that she at least showed some progress towards returning to normal.  

"I don't deserve you, Jason."

"You're saying that to me?  You got over all that enough to trust me this long, and considering the fact that you left your home for me now and before Canterlot, I'd assume you can be trusting when it counts."  She smiled, leaning forward to kiss him before nuzzling at his neck and wetting it down.  They sat in silence for a while, staring off into the darkness as Dash's ragged breaths slowly became normal.

"So Jason,"  Dash said after a while,  "Why are you out here?"

"Couldn't sleep,"  He sighed,  "didn't particularly want to, either.  So I came out here and just looked up, stared at the stars for a while.  This may be blasphemy to say, but there's no way Luna controls all those stars, it's gotta be the moon at most."

"Why, they're so tiny, it couldn't be that hard."

"The gaps in your knowledge are amazing sometimes, but I guess it makes sense.  See that star there?"  He pointed to a particularly bright one.  "Chances are, that's many times bigger than the sun, and it's also trillions of miles away.  It's so far away that light takes years to get to us from there, and you're viewing the star as it looked anywhere from ten to a thousand years ago, depending on how far away it is."

"But, if that one's like that, then are they all..."

"Yeah, makes you feel pretty insignificant, huh.  But here's the kicker.  I'm going to go by my planet's positioning, and I'm going to assume that yours is kinda the same."  She nodded.  "We're in a galaxy called the Milky Way, which has somewhere between two hundred to three hundred billion stars inside it.  Now, a galaxy looks kinda like a--okay, if you took a bunch of noodles and speared them in the same place, and then spun them around, you know how they'd go out in different directions?"

"Yeah, or like the petals of a flower?"

"Oh, that's a better example.  They don't fly straight out, and kinda curve back, like they're being blown on by an invisible wind."

"Okay, I think I can see that."

"Good.  There's billions of galaxies in the universe, which still appears to be expanding since its birth thirteen or so billion years ago."

"T-there're billions of these?"

"Yeah, you see that band across the sky?"  He gestured his hoof, streaking it across.  "That's the galaxy, you're looking at the side of a disk, in a way."

"But why don't the stars just float away?"

"Aha!  Another great question!  You know how Celestia moves the sun?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, assume for a moment that she doesn't, okay?"

"Okay..."

"So what keeps the earth pulled towards the sun, hmm?"

"Without Celestia?"  He nodded, grinning in the dim light.  "Is this a trick question?"

"No, you stick to the earth, right?  Why's that?"

"I dunno, gravity?"

"And, why does the earth have gravity?"

"Cuz it's big?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to cut the twenty questions here and just get out with it, the same thing happens between the earth and the sun, and keeps it rotating around.  The same stuff happens everywhere else in the universe."  He sighed.  "But knowing all that, it really makes you wonder a couple of things."

"What're those?"

"Well, it makes me wonder if any of this matters, really.  If it'll actually mean anything off this speck of a planet."

"Is the other less depressing?"

"I guess, the other's about if there's more intelligent life out there.  Obviously humans exist, but two planets is hardly common."

"Why do you care so much about what's out there?"

"I dunno, probably something about human nature.  We always want to know more, only a few theories have survived the tests or experimentation and research.  But outside our solar system is where things happen that we may never be able to research adequately or explain.  The theory for the start of the universe is just as unproven as the others, although recently the Big Bang Theory has gained some credibility."

"What's--"

"There was a quantum fluctuation that suddenly appeared and expanded to encompass all matter and energy in the universe."

"It's funny how much you know."

"God, I don't know anything compared to the scientists that discovered this stuff."  Jason paused.  "Are you feeling better, though?"  He asked, rubbing a hoof over her shoulder reassuringly.

"Yeah, a little."  She nuzzled at his chin.  "Sorry about all this."  

"It's no problem, I'd rather be out here with you than by myself.  Even if you do decide to have an emotional breakdown."

She halfheartedly punched him.  "You don't have to make me sound like such a basket case."

"I know, I'm just teasing you."

"You wanna go back and get ready?  I mean, it's probably pretty close to ten at this point, and as comfortable as it is to lean against this wood pile, my back's starting to hurt."

"To bad you don't have somepony to lay on like me..."

"I've spoiled you."  He said, shaking her around a little.  She giggled, leaning further into him and wrapping a hoof around his chest.  Jason moved to get up, but was kept in place by Dash's refusal to move.  "Come on, Dash, it's a war, we can't just sit around."

"But whenever we're ready early all the others still need to get armor and stuff on."

"We don't have to go over right away..."

"Fine, you have a deal."  She let her grip slide, carefully making her way to her hooves.  "But you've gotta get that gun working for me."

"And I kinda need to see how this burn's doing."  He moved a hoof over the bandages, not sure whether he chouls be surprised that it felt mostly healed or not.  Dash offered a hoof and Jason took it, pulling himself to his feet and setting off back towards the tents.

"At least all that chitin that burnt off your side came back pretty fast."

"I guess.  I didn't know how long that would take.  I was a little worried that maybe it would stay all cratery, but I suppose not."

"Yeah, I'd rather have you be all smooth.  It's a lot more interesting than fur sometimes."  She paused.  "And the holes in your hooves are way cooler than normal hooves."

"Like that one time where you decided to play with them, that was kinda interesting."

"You looked like you enjoyed it."  He chuckled, turning away in a manner that made her think that he would've blushed.

He turned back, still smiling.  "You try coping with a new body, see how you like it."

"I already did, remember?  The dream?"

"Oh yeah, you tripped a lot in that didn't you?"  She giggled.

"Maybe I just have natural grace."

"Or maybe, in the air or on hooves you're better, but there's no way you'd get used to walking upright quickly."

"I guess we'll never know..."  She waved her hooves around and made ghost noises.  "When're you going to let me play that game again?"

"What kind of a transition was that?"

She sighed.  "I dunno, you know what I mean anyway."

"I know, but you're so easy to annoy."  He leaned over and bumped against her shoulder, taking up a Canterlot accent.  "If you must indulge in such petty crafts, kindly leave me out of it."

She giggled.  "Fine by me!"

"There is something I should show you, though, if you know what you're doing."

"I like to think I do."  She leaned against him, widening her strides in a halfhearted attempt to match his.  "Are you going to tell me there's a secret or something."

"No, but if you want to start over there's a modpack I have installed."

"A what?"

"It adds like a million things to the game.  Like factory stuff, it's pretty cool."

"More things?  Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?!"

He chuckled.  "Because I knew you'd do this.  And it's a lot of stuff."

"So it's still the same game though, right?"  She asked as they entered their tent.  Jason nodded and turned off the alarm clock, which was only a few minutes away from ringing anyways.

"It's called Tekkit now, but all the base stuff is the same, albeit a little backdated."  He grabbed his computer out of the saddlebag and opened it up, sitting on the side of the bed as Dash plopped herself beside him.  He opened a different window and filled some blanks with black circles before the emblem of a pixelated apple appeared.  But it looked different, and all of the little people drawn below didn't help.

"Why's it different already?"  She complained.

"It has a texture pack that's different from the old one.  The last one used Quandary, this runs Sphax."

"Why didn't you just re-use the old one?"

"The second has more pixels."  He transferred the computer over to her lap.  "There's a world I built on there, you can look around and see what I'm talking about."  Jason held the computer upright as she shifted around before getting up off the bed.  He started to lay out their stuff, Dash's armor, the Ghillie suits, belts of explosives...  He picked up his gun, looking it over for a moment before leaning it carefully against a corner of the tent.  Dash's saddlebag caught his eye, and he grabbed the knife box out from the inside, carefully taking out the knife that fit around her left hoof.  

He went back to the corner and picked up her pistol, looking it over as he ran several scenarios through his head.  Eventually he broke out of his thoughts and started to sift through the small pile of human junk that Jason had decided to keep, just in case he needed any of it.  Eventually he found some fairly thick wire, and began to try to attach it to the hilt of her knife.  He stopped wrapping the ware around and gave it a pull, deciding that it was pretty well attached.  He bent over the other end, trying to create something capable of pulling back a trigger like a finger would.  

"Dash, come here for a sec."  Silence.  "Dash!"  There was a clattering of hooves as she jumped, pausing the game and placing the computer on the bed before trotting over, blushing like mad.  

"What?"  She eyed the knife he was holding in a hoof.

"Try this on."  He handed it over, grabbing a length of string and tying it to her leg as she held it in place.  

"What's this thing you added?"

"Ah, watch."  He picked up the gun and passed it over, putting it into her right hoof.  "The idea is, you can take that little extra part and use it to pull the trigger, like I showed you before.  the only problem is that you'll have to take the recoil all in your right arm, but I'm sure you can handle it."  He checked that the safety was on.  "Now kinda thread that in there and pull back."

She shrugged and did as instructed, rearing up and putting Jason's invented trigger finger through the gap before pulling back with her left arm.  "How hard are these things to pull?"

"A lot easier than what you just did, that's for sure."  An alarm went off in the distance.  "I think that's our cue to get ready here."  He said, gesturing to the armor he'd already laid out.  She slunk off to the computer briefly, presumably to save her game, and was met by the plates of armor as Jason floated them over.  Dash giggled as he slid them into place, tickling her playfully.  She glared over at him, unable to keep a smirk from creeping onto her face.

"Now you choose to be a goof?"

"It's not a choice, it's a way of life."  

"Just toss me my ghillie suit."  He chuckled and complied, watching her slowly slide it on, managing to keep up the same sultry look as she went through the motions.

Jason facehoofed.  "We're never going to get out of here."


______________________________________________________________


Jason walked into Shining's tent tiredly, slightly glad that most of the rest of the team seemed ready.  But that didn't mean much, seeing as each set of two had six other ponies.  

"God, I thought you weren't going to show up."  Shining said as the duo caught his eye.  

"Yeah, it's been a rough night."

"Crappy dream?"

"No, not that bad."  He nudged Dash reassuringly, turning his head to look at the rest of Team Green Bean.  

"You can go brief them if you want, I know you usually try to give some sort of speech."  

"It's not like my life revolves around this, you act like I live for these little speeches."  Jason sighed and started to walk over before stopping mid step and turning around.  "Where's Evening Glory?"  He asked.

"Yeah, she's okay, right?"  Dash queried.

"She's fine, Tank volunteered his tent, although Morning rain didn't seem too happy about it.  But anyway, that's where she is, I sent her with the pills, in case she needs to take some."

"Okay, sounds good.  So Morning Rain and Tank, are they, you know, a unit?"  Dash asked, her usual smirk slightly diminished.

"Uh, I dunno, I wasn't really paying attention to that kind of stuff."  He sighed and touched a hoof against a framed photograph that Jason hadn't seen before.  Jason leaned to get a better look, making out the picture of Cadence from behind the slight glare.  

"Didn't you say something about her wanting to visit?"  Jason asked.

"Yeah, but she seemed to finally get a little sense into her system and wait, at least until there wasn't a chance that we'd get hit with flaming bottles.  I'm not sure whether to be glad or pissed."

"Well, there is a way you could kinda get close to her, feel like she's there..."  Dash started.  Jason sighed, putting a hoof to his forehead in annoyance.  But when he looked back up, the annoyed face he had expected from Shining was replaced by one of general nervousness and anticipation.

"Are you implying that he could turn into my wife?"  Shining asked, shaking his head slightly.  There was a slight silence after Dash nodded.  "I'm not sure how to feel about that, it just seems like it'd be weird.  But at the same time, you'd be her in form, and--I dunno.  Maybe when you get back we'll talk."  The general let out a long sigh.

"Just don't give anyone ideas, I don't want to do this all day."

"Yeah, okay.  I'm going to make sure the rest of the ponies are in teams and ready to go.  If this is the last time I see you before you move out, good luck."

"Thanks."  Jason replied, starting to make his way over to the team, adjusting the rifle on his back.  As he faced the small, now quiet group, he couldn't help but notice the stares coming from the two officers and Blueblood.  Great, they'd been in the group that he'd shooed away.  So then they probably knew about Evening Glory.  And that complicated things further, so that was always good.  He dragged a hoof down his face in annoyance before re-addressing the now confused team.

"I'm going to start out simple, does everyone know the drill?"

"SIR YES SIR!!?

"Good, I'll keep the team divisions fairly simple.  New team green bean, you and your teams are going from east to west, and we're going to go west to east and meet in the middle.  Make sure that when you're moving to enclose the griffins that you don't allow any nearby troops to fight you from the southern side.  In terms of individual team leaders, that's up to you to decide, but try to pick team members that compliment each other's abilities."

"How will we know when to move in on the griffins once we've got them surrounded?"  A mare asked.

"Simple."  He walked over to Shining's desk and pulled open a few drawers, checking for the set of communication papers labeled 'network.'  He found the group and pulled them out, walking over to the ponies and handing one out to each set of two ponies.  "I'll be telling you when.  Shining will send me a message when he's ready.  But make sure that you don't focus only on the griffins we surround, assuming everything goes to plan.  There're bound to be some behind you, and you'll need to adjust accordingly."  He paused, a smile breaking across his lips.  "But hey, you're part of Team Green Bean, right?"

A couple chuckles floated around as Dash walked up to say a few words.  "I'm just going to say that this is dangerous.  Possibly more so than the last mission at Windforge.  At least for the new team."  A couple more chuckles.  "But we're putting a lot of stress on the idea that both teams can pull their weight and push through with a side of the pincer.  Fight hard, and fight smart."

"I got a couple things before you're dismissed here, although they aren't as important as the rest of that.  First, I came up with a couple code names, but I guess it's up to your team leader,"  He gestured to the male officer that was still looking at him suspiciously.  "To apply them.  Anyway, here they are.  Snow, Price, Volt, Masterkey, Panther, Intel, Bob and Kumquat."  He paused, letting a few snickers pass.  "I was also thinking that we need a slogan.  And I'm not creative enough for that sort of thing, so until I get a rush of inspiration I'm going to steal one from my military.  'Mess with the best, die like the rest'."  There were some murmurs of approval.

"What part of the military was that?"  Dash asked. 

"The marines."  He paused, turning back to the troops.  "So, let's go!  Get with your teams and let's move out!"


____________________________________________________________________


Jason slinked through the woods, looking back every couple strides to check that the rest of his team was still there.  Dash nudged him with a hoof, pointing through the trees at another team led by Tank and Eravel that was moving slightly ahead.  Jason gestured for the team to pick up the pace, and they sped up, bringing themselves closer to their eventual turning place where they'd start the pincer movement.  

He crested a hill, sending a signal to Tank's team as he looked over, and the signal continued.  They were where they needed to be, now he just had to send one message, a few words, and suddenly sixty three ponies were at risk, some of them his friends.  He liked power to an extent, but the exact moment where he signaled an attack was always the worst feeling, his bottled up nervousness and fear mixing with the guilt that he always felt when he knew that some of the ponies wouldn't come back.  

But he gestured for a pony to bring over a raincoat, something Jason had specifically given to the teams for keeping lights from being seen by the enemy.  He lit his horn under the raincoat, filling it with a brilliant light until he managed to dim it down to a more manageable level.  He checked the map first, unfolding it quietly and tracking their progress with a hoof.  They appeared to be in the right position, so at least he didn't have to worry about moving again before he could call the attack.  

So then all he had to do was send a message, and everything would fall into action.  But he choked, he sent a different one instead.  Is every team ready?

Seven responses quickly came through, and he suddenly ran out of ways to stall.  He sighed and put the pencil to paper, taking a deep breath before he started to write.  Give 'em hell.

He crouched there, frozen for a moment, before he suddenly got up the energy to start moving again.  His horn dimmed and he threw off the raincoat, tossing it back to the pony that had it before and sending a signal to move out.  

They didn't meet much opposition for a while, which was disheartening.  Shining had sent out a few scouts and sent a message into the network that implied that the griffins appeared to be in the same position.  But what if something had gone wrong?  What if the real group of griffins was just waiting for his team to come stumbling by?  No, that didn't make sense.  The griffins were a brute force army, it was in their nature.  They could have changed their strategy, but Jason doubted that it was really that different than what he had seen before.  

Jason was jarred from his thoughts as he saw some shapes coming out of the haze further into the forest.  He moved to the side of their apparent path, gesturing for the others to follow as the shapes materialized into fairly clear griffins.  They walked past, in the middle of an argument about mustaches.  Jason threw a meaningful glance at Dash, waiting a moment before giving a signal to charge.  

He rushed up behind the furthest back griffin, ramming a knife through his neck with a mighty show of strength as the rest of the ponies jumped into action.  Dash killed another griffin only moments later as Jason blocked a blow with a hoof, feeling it give painfully under the blow as he imbedded the knife on his other hoof into the griffin, who stumbled backwards and clutched at his chest as a spear ran him through from behind.  

All in all, the little skirmish was over in a matter of seconds, no casualties, although they all had their fair share of cuts and bruises.  Jason checked over the ponies briefly, looking for cuts that he would need to heal.  He patted Dash on the shoulder, leaning over next to her ear.

"I love you."  He whispered.  "My little badass mare-friend."

She giggled as he turned around, swiping a hoof through the air and signaling for the team to follow him.  They continued through the woods, one of the troops tripping over a corpse as they went to leave.  Another few unbelievably silent minutes passed, with just a couple griffins in between.  They were easily ambushed and taken out without much risk, but the silence was still unnerving, and Jason could see that Dash felt the same way.  

Another shift of bushes ahead of them, and the team quickly found cover, waiting for the other group to make the first move.  Oddly enough, they didn't seem to make themselves obvious; there was a strange air of silence that descended over the area.  It went on for some number of minutes, before a telltale sound of a breaking branch and a twitch of movement gave Jason enough to go on.  Dash seemed to have picked out a different target, and they both lunged out of the bushes as the enemies lunged out of theirs.  

A spear went for his face, and he ducked underneath before shouldering the figure and holding a knife to the--officer pony?  He looked over at Dash, who was sneering at the mare officer.  She realized the same thing as Jason had, letting her drop against the floor.

"Sorry about that."  Jason said as he helped the pony up.  "But hey, no one's hurt, right?"

"Yeah, sure."  The pony said, retreating a safe distance away.

Jason sighed, turning away.  "We need to get everyone together, Dash."

"Yeah."  She signaled to a few ponies through the dark, and they slowly accumulated the group.

"Okay, half of the regular troops, spread out and watch the area to the south.  If you let a big group of griffins through we're going to be in big trouble."  They saluted, and his worry that they'd re-form their normal 'sir yes sir' was suddenly allayed.  

The rest of you, we're going to try to put as much distance between here and those griffins, there's no need for stealth as long as we don't attract griffins to this position from the south."  The groups spread out into the distance, and Jason grabbed another raincoat from a passing pony.  He crouched and threw it over his head, lighting up his horn as he placed down the paper, waiting for a go ahead from Shining.  

Seconds passed, then minutes, and Jason was starting to worry that something had gone wrong.  Why would there be a delay on Shining's end?  He thought about it for a moment before facehoofing and sighing.  He was too tired, apparently.  We're in position.  He wrote, staring at the paper with increased vigor.

All troops advance!  Jason couldn't say he knew the importance of an explanation point on something like that, but--  This was ridiculous, he needed to concentrate.  He tossed the raincoat over and threw a few gestures before charging off into the forest.  He moved downhill, bottoming out as he heard the stomping of over a hundred hooves backing him up.  Mist started to float around his ankles, adding an eerie atmosphere to the forest, more so than it already possessed.  Dash pulled up alongside him, keeping a safe distance so that she didn't risk stabbing him with one of her knives.

"Think of it this way,"  she said with a smile,  "It's just one step closer to home."

"Yeah,"  he replied, "Or just another brick in the wall."