"Propaganda?"
"So, that thing's clear of griffins?" Shining asked, gesturing to the cave with a hoof.
"No, there're a few left in there, but I guess we can just wait for them to come back out, or die in there as it may be. They'll run out of food at some point. Or water if there isn'a spring."
"A lot left, or just a couple?"
"Not very many, the group we took out had most of the unaccounted for griffins."
"I'll probably send a group in. I don't like loose ends, you know what I mean?"
Jason nodded, hearing an affirmative mumble from Dash as she struggled to remain awake. He moved closer to make sure she didn't fall over, while Shining looked around at the rest of the troops, some tired, others celebrating their victory. "We're free to go back, right?" Jason asked after a few moments
"You're free, yeah. Bring the rest of the team back with you, there's always the chance that we missed some of the griffins, and I don't really want to take any chances."
Jason nodded again and turned around, looking for the rest of the members. He called Morning Rain and Tank over, followed by the group of two officers and Blueblood. He was glad to see that everyone else was standing in a group by the cave because that meant less work for him, and no matter how hard he fought, he was lazy at heart. H broke into a trot and quickly joined the crowd.
"Shining gave us the go ahead to return to camp, so everyone that wants to leave, we're going in a group." Everyone joined Jason except Hunter. "You coning?" Jason asked the soldier.
"No, I'm going to retrieve Archer's body when they take a sweep, say some words maybe."
"Don't let it get to you too much, okay?" Jason asked, watching Hunter nod disjointedly a few moments later.
"The rest of you, camp's that way." He pointed with a hoof and started walking, still supporting Dash in her fatigue. "When did you get so tired?" He inquired, chuckling slightly. "You're usually the one that shuns sleep."
Dash giggled. "I'm trying to be original." She paused. "Did you get anything from Scoots?"
"I dunno, I didn't check tonight, or last night now I guess. We can look when we get back, I left all that stuff in the tent."
"Probably smart." She closed her eyes and leaned more heavily. "How much further?"
"I have no idea, Dash, at least a ways."
"Do you think..." Her face reddened, and there was a pause. "Do you think you could carry me?"
"So that you can sleep?"
"Yeah."
"At least you're truthful about it." He pushed her away from his side and looked at her for a moment before carefully levitating her over onto his back. She let out a giggle as he moved her through the air, letting her legs dangle. She immediately wrapped her hooves around his neck as she landed, shifting slightly and moving his gun to the side of his body. Jason reached a hoof up to stroke one of hers, smiling as she giggled again, more lightly this time as she started to doze off.
Dash wasn't really heavy in any sense of the word, although it wasn't a whole lot easier to walk up hills, he thought with some annoyance. But he couldn't say it wasn't nice in some way, carrying her along as she slept. It made him feel important, not in the usual way of go there, kill this, but that was just business as usual. This was more about the fact that she trusted him to watch over her as she slept. Big mistake. She'd played one too many unanswered pranks on him, and it was about time he got back at her.
"Hey Eravel, how are you liking the fight so far?" Jason asked.
The griffin made his way over, limping slightly on a cut leg. Jason healed it up as Eravel walked over, leaving a slight scar by the time he pulled up next to him. "It's interesting, I guess. I wish I could eat something more than fish though, it just get's boring, you know? Well you probably don't, but..."
Jason looked around, making sure that the rest of the group was still a fair ways behind. "I do know what you mean, I used to eat meat all the time before I came here."
"Like beef and chicken?"
"And other meats you may not have heard of."
"Like what? We're carnivores for a reason."
"Turkey, and probably other things I don't eat that much. Squid, for one."
"So humans are carnivores?"
"No, we eat vegetables and stuff too, although I ate a whole lot of meat personally."
"Yeah, we didn't really get a lot of food anyway, it was all rationed, and it was nowhere near enough. The only way you could keep from wasting away was to steal food from the army or some sort of government owned thing, they were always well supplied."
"Is it anything like that book?"
"1984? Not that much, I mean they couldn't figure out if you were a traitor that easily, you had more than freedom of thought in that respect. Although they do have the Big Brother youth or whatever, these little groups of kids where they're basically brainwashed into thinking what the government wants them to think. They caught my friend by peeking through the keyhole in his door and listening in."
"Was it always like that?"
"No, I mean I was only around for some of this, but supposedly the Griffin Empire used to be free, and just steadily drifted to where it is now. There were all these reformers in the beginning, weaning it off of a absolute monarchy. Then it became a republic for a span of years, but they kept reforming, reforming, reforming. 'Oh, lets have government own more things' they said, 'Let's make everyone equal in wealth and power'. Then there was this revolt where they killed all the rich guys, and it quickly turned into what it is now."
"Yeah, that's pretty much communism. Never worked, never will. And yet, I used to talk to people that said it was great, that it was just ruined by Stalin or Mao. Or Pul Pot, for that matter. They have some of the highest death tolls of anyone ever, just from killing their own people. And yet, men and women still think it works."
"At least you have enough free speech to say that."
"Yeah, but you'd think if people made a stand on something they'd at least know what they were talking about. We have elections for president, and I don't care which side people vote for that much, so long as they know each party platform, and aren't voting for a candidate just because. That's what everyone does though, it really becomes a competition of who can promise more stuff."
"Sounds pretty bad."
"It's not really all that bad, I'm just venting. They don't have absolute power, the rest of the government puts checks on the president." He paused. "So your home pretty much became a military state?"
"Well not right away, it just got like that maybe a year ago. The king just started acting differently, restrictions became even tougher and further reaching, and yeah, there was a sudden military build up. Then there was some sort of attack on Canterlot and we were sent to take the city. I guess I'll never know what changed, not until I kill the bastard."
"Did you live in the capitol?"
"For a while, I was born there."
"Is it big, lots of buildings?"
"Canterlot sized, maybe. Probably the same amount of population, maybe a little more. It was built like a maze, when the Griffin Empire was just a series of city-states, warring with each other constantly. So the city has a series of walls, but only the outermost one was kept up, the others have just fallen into disrepair."
"So apparently this is going to end on a tough note then." Dash shifted on his back and he flailed an arm backwards to keep her from falling off.
"Don't you have a daughter or something?" Eravel asked after some time had passed.
"Yeah, its been a while since I last saw her."
"So how does that work, when she's a pony, and you're... not?"
"She's adopted. We're not married or engaged anyway," He looked back over his shoulder, pretty sure that Dash was completely passed out, judging by the way she hadn't so much as stirred when he had pushed her back onto himself. "Not yet, that is. Heh."
"Heh, got her in your sights?"
"You could say that." They exited the forest as camp came into view, and Jason breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally back, I never thought I'd miss the place." He sped up slightly and ascended the hill, jumping over the trench as he came to it. Jumping definitely wasn't as easy with Dash on his back, and he almost didn't make it to the other side, hitting his back hoof painfully on the side of the trench.
Dash almost slid off again but he caught her in his magic, re-placing her in her position straddling his spine. He chuckled and yawned, moving through the rather deserted camp. A pony threw him a salute, and he saluted back, watching as the pony dawned a confused expression. Jason chuckled again and found their tent, waved goodbye to Eravel, and entered. He walked up beside the bed and gently dropped off Dash before entering himself and pulling the covers over the pair. He wrapped his hooves around her midsection, pushing his cheek into the back of her mane and smiling. Part of a thought floated through his head before he fell asleep.
_______________________________________________________________________
Jason awoke late the next morning, with Dash still dozing in his arms. He cracked his eyes open and looked around, finding that most things were still in order, as it seemed. They had fallen asleep armor and all, and one of the flash-bangs was digging uncomfortably into his side. He carefully got up out of bed and started taking things off, first the gun, then the belt of explosives, and finally the ghillie suit and rations.
He briefly entertained the idea of drawing something on Dash's face, but decided against it. It was more of a Ponyville thing anyway, not something he should really do here. He couldn't say he wasn't tempted though. Jason walked over and tapped at her shoulder and watching her stir slightly. He suddenly had a better idea, and leaned down to kiss her. Dash's eyes shot open, and she panicked for a second before she realized that it was Jason. She put a hoof around his head and brought him down harder, kissing at him with ferocity.
Eventually he broke off the kiss and took a few deep breaths, showing the telltale gestures that meant he would've been blushing.
"You really are good at that." He said eventually. "I never was a very good kisser, personally."
"I don't know what you're talking about, you're fine."
"I'm just lucky nothing went horribly wrong." He replied, chuckling.
"Kiss me again." She said, blushing. "I'll prove that you're good enough." He didn't move for a moment and she took the initiative, pulling him onto the bed next to her and rolling herself on top. She stuck a hoof behind his head and moved his lips into her own.
"Not skipping victory sex this time?" He asked after they broke the kiss, a smirk on his face.
Dash giggled. "We're just doing it on time."
"You should probably take off the knives and stuff though."
"Yeah, damn these mood ruiners."
_____________________________________________________________________
Jason's eyes snapped open, the result of a brief dream where he was falling and about to hit the ground. Dash had presumably been there, but he couldn't be totally sure. He hadn't seen much of her, besides one part in the beginning where they'd been sitting on the edge of a hill.
Dash was already up, sorting a few of their things into more organized piles. She giggled when she noticed that he had woken up. "Welcome back to the world of the living, Jason. You were like a rock over there."
"I was tired!" She giggled again. "What're you doing over there anyway?" He asked.
"Just looking through our stuff, trying to find something to do. I played some of that game for a while, then I started doing this."
"Ran out of battery?"
"It was close, and I didn't know what happened when it ran out."
"It just turns off, and you lose a lot of what you were working on, that's all." He pulled himself out of bed, stretching out and yawning. "We should go talk to Shining." He paused. "And I want to ask Evening Glory a question."
"Okay, let's go get this over with. Big question, huh?" She asked as they left the tent.
"Yeah, you wanna go get breakfast first?"
"No, I already ate some stuff while you were asleep. So anyway..."
"Oh, yeah. I started wondering about how long ponies live, and as far as I know it's about the same as humans, like seventy to eighty years or so." She nodded, gesturing for him to continue. "And, well, I don't know how long changelings live, assuming I follow the same rules as they do."
"Oh, god, what if you don't even have much of a lifespan, what then?"
"I'm sure I do, especially given the fact that I heal up this quickly. I guess I just feel like I won't wear out that fast, assuming that I'm not fighting this stupid war for years on end."
"With the capitol up next, I kinda doubt that it'll take that much longer."
"I would be angry for the jinx, but I'm pretty sure that you're right about that." He pushed into Shining's tent, focusing his eyes on the tired general.
"Hey Jason." He said, yawning widely.
"Have you been up all night?" Jason asked, furrowing his brow.
"Yeah, I was making a list of peace terms I wanted when this thing was over, but I got stuck. And then I couldn't sleep. So here I am."
"Did the thing in the cave last night at least go well?"
"Yeah, we got the last of them. Celestia's sending some ponies here to permanently fortify the hill, I told her that we should keep it as a base even after all this is over, and she agreed. So we're replacing those bunkers and trenches with re-enforced concrete. Steel bars inside or something?"
"Yeah, makes it nice and strong."
Shining yawned again. "I figured. Take a look at this, see if there's anything you want to add." He passed over the paper of terms, which had a few numbers labeled. Jason read it over and looked up.
"All it says on here it to disenfranchise the military and get rid of any high government officials."
"I got stuck."
"Okay, well say that they're all Equestrian subjects, and that they enjoy the same rights and follow the same laws. Here's where it's going to get costly though. Make sure they have food and get farms going so that goods don't need to be shipped. We are taking this place over, right?"
"Well, that was in the assumption that we did, yeah. I'm not sure if we're going to in the long run though."
"We've fought all the way out here, we might as well. Or you could install a democratic government and attempt to give them a new take on being a country, one that would therefore be an ally of ours. But democracies rarely work where there isn't a history of them."
"So basically we want to take them over?"
"I dunno, this is tough. We have more population, right?"
"Yeah, the Griffin Empire is a lot more spread out though." Eravel walked in and pulled a few parts of arrows out from under one of the cots, starting to sharpen one up.
"Well the thing is, if we pull in all those civilians it'll be a real pull on the economy, and we could accumulate some debt. There could also be a fair degree of conflict between ponies and griffins."
"So let me get this straight," Dash started, "If we take them over, we could accumulate debt and there could be conflict, but if we don't and try to reform the government it could end up the same way?"
"Yeah, although the increased production of supplies to new citizens could allay the general economic downturn that usually occurs after wars because of the sudden drop in demand." He tapped his chin, going silent for a few minutes as he thought.
"Okay." He finally spoke up. "Here's what we're going to do. Eravel, listen in and critique this." The griffin got up and walked over to the group.
"This is what's happening to what's left of the Griffin Empire?"
"Yeah. So what I was thinking is, we keep the territory, and make sure that the griffin army's totally gone or really weak. I'm assuming some parts of their army will continue to fight, even after we take the capitol. Secondly, if we can get the griffin civilians on our side and can get some of them to fight the war with us, that'll make them think better of us. On a slight tangent here, our soldiers carry chocolate, which they would give to some of the peo-- ponies they freed. Helped how they were looked upon."
"But how can we get them on our side?"
"Propaganda?" Eravel asked. "All we have to do is make sure that they know we're friendly, that we're going to liberate them when we invade."
"But that's just text, that's not going to make them fight for us." They all went silent again, trying to think up a way around their predicament.
"What if..." Dash started, "What if we sent in griffins to tell them about how it was, now that they've been freed?"
"Who would want to do that?" Jason asked.
"Actually, we're getting some re-enforcements from Windforge, griffins of all things." Shining pointed out, tapping on a clipboard that was on his desk.
Jason frowned "They really wanted to fight?"
"Fight, help in some way, I dunno. Whatever those ponies are doing in that village, it's really working."
"How many?"
"Fifteen to twenty. They're wearing distinctive armor, so we should be able to figure out which ones they are in battle."
"And we know they're friendly?"
"Counter insurgency suggests that they are, the villagers kinda went insane when the first food and supplies arrived. They weeded out nine spies and loyalists, and took them out. Out of that came a number of volunteers, some of which are coming here today."
"Okay, so assuming some of them want to do this, we'll just escort them there and make sure that they get in safely, and spread the word. Simple enough, right?" Jason asked.
"Sounds good, we'll modify this stuff later on." Shining replied. "Anything else you wanted to say about the peace terms?"
He shrugged. "Punish the leaders, not the griffins? I've already voiced most of my concern. This acquisition will either be profitable for both of us or harmful in the long run. As far as I can tell, it looks like it'll be the first. Maybe a small pocket of resistance here or there."
"Sounds about right." Eravel said, nodding his head in agreement.
Jason sighed and tapped Dash on the shoulder before moving over to the bunk that Evening Glory had been watching them from the whole time. "I had a question, Evening." He started. "How long do changelings live?"
She sighed and sat up. "Gotta start with a hard one, eh?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Well, I'm not really sure, sorry." She continued before he could interrupt. "I've never seen a changeling die before, but not because we're immortal. When changelings got older and stopped contributing to their full potential, they just kinda disappeared. I'm assuming that Chrysalis took them away and killed them, so that they weren't taking up space."
"So how old were they when she did that?"
"Maybe forty five or fifty? I don't really know, the other changelings weren't all that talkative."
Dash breathed a sigh of relief. "We were worried you were going to say something like twenty five."
"Oh, ha! No, we probably live about pony lifespan, I mean we can't really be dying early in a disguise, now can we?"
"How does that work though?" Jason asked. "I mean, if we can become any pony, then why can't we just stay in that disguise forever and live longer?"
"Because that only protects you from surface related illnesses, like skin cancer or sores or something. Internally, you're still the same as before. But what interests me is how much longer we live with ample amounts of love, or how much longer she'll live when you can just heal her up."
Jason and Dash shared a look. "I'm not sure if I want to live that long."
"But what if last time he healed you, he really fixed everything up to pristine condition? What if your lifespan's already twenty something years longer?"
"Um," She scratched her head, trying to wrap her head around the thought. "That can't be true to a full extent though, it can't put it back to perfect condition, so maybe it only works as a percentage of the years. I don't even know how to think about this."
"Yeah, it can't really work like that, right?" He shook his head. "I'm going to go do something else, I can't think about this anymore." Jason turned to leave, with Dash in tow.
"Oh, Jason!" Shining called out. "Some sort of delivery arrived for you." A smile spread across Jason's face before he could stop it, and he started to gallop through the camp towards the LZ.
"What could have possibly arrived?" Dash asked as she caught up.
"Important stuff!" He yelled back, quickening his pace. He shortly arrived and searched for the familiar pegasus stallion. He found the guy without too much trouble, and walked over to him. "So, apparently there's a delivery for me?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, I got a few boxes here." He pulled out a couple of large wooden ones, along with a piece of paper. "These are from Ferris, and this one's, uh, bull-ets? And this second one's just called explosives."
"That's it?" Jason asked, a little downtrodden.
"No, there's a third one, but it's 'for your eyes only'."
"From Ferris?" Dash asked, a little suspicious.
"Yeah, Dash, it's not from some mare." Jason replied jokingly. The stallion chuckled and jumped into the buggy, returning a moment later with a somewhat small black box.
The stallion noticed that Dash was trying to get a glimpse of what was inside the box and stopped her. "Don't ruin this for yourself, you'll get that thing soon enough." Dash sat down on one of the boxes and pouted, hearing a slight gasp come from Jason as he opened up the box, while shielding it from her. He put it in his saddlebag and levitated up the two boxes before starting to make his way back.
"You're not going to tell me, I assume?" Dash asked.
"You'll love it, don't worry."
"Then why not give it to me now?!"
"Because it's not a good time."
"We're in a war, when is a good time?"
"Dash, just let me have this."
"Fine." They became silent
Jason chuckled after a while, breaking the silence. "Hey, you still like pranks, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because those ponies just left their tent, and the one right next to it's empty."
"You want to move all their stuff over?"
"I want to see if they freak out." Dash giggle and bounded over to the tent, looking inside.
"There's a lot of stuff to move, it could be tough to do quickly."
"Don't underestimate me yet, Dash." He walked inside the tent and levitated all the stuff from one side of the room, keeping them in the same position relative to each other as he moved them outside. Then he slid the floating items into the other tent and slid them onto the bed in the same positions. "There, one side done." He moved the other side with equal speed before making a quick run-through and making sure that he hadn't missed anything.
"Get to a safe distance?" Dash asked, suppressing a giggle with her hoof.
"Behind that woodpile sound good to you?" He asked, taking off before she could react. They landed behind the cover and waited.
"They're back." Dash said a few minutes later as the group walked out of the mess hall. One of them was laughing like mad, while another one made a fairly good impersonation of Shining Armor. Jason couldn't help but laugh himself, the pony's theater mask cutie mark a good representation of his skill.
They all walked into their tent, and suddenly the area became eerily quiet. One of them stuck his head out and looked around, before returning back inside. The group came out a couple minutes later, their faces of total confusion becoming more and more hilarious by the second as Jason and Dash tried to contain their laughter.
One of the ponies started asking around, seeing if anyone had seen a pony steal all of their things. A few of the ponies that had been witnesses started laughing, worrying Jason that they would give away the prank. The pony didn't seem particularly bright though, and laughed along with the other ponies. Then one of the ponies found that the stuff had been transferred and started going ballistic.
"Who did this! I swear, when I get my hooves on them I'll--"
"Calm down Irontoe! You got like this when someone wore a bow tie, you can't get like this about everything!"
"How dare you! I came from a very prestigious family, and this is how we dealt with things, by yelling?"
"Where's our stuff! I don't see any of it!" The pony that'd been asking around said as he peeked into the wrong tent.
The loud pony started to yell even louder, seemingly trying to set a new record for blowing out eardrums. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
BANG!!!
Jason thought for a moment that the pony had made himself explode, but realized after the fact that a mushroom cloud was rising behind the line of tents. And for some reason he started to laugh harder.
"What could they have possibly done this time?!?!"