The Winds of Change: Fog of War

by AgentSnail

"That was illegal in so many ways!”

“Dash, why do you look so nervous?” Jason asked, watching Dash shift uneasily on her hooves.

“I just don’t like the guys, all this time fighting them, it just seems weird to have them on our side all of a sudden, even if it’s helpful and all.”

“But what about Eravel?”

She shifted again, letting out a sigh. “That’s only one griffin, this is an entire unit! Eravel was kinda a prisoner for a while too, it took a while for anypony to trust him, even before he got pulled into service. It’s not that I don’t trust him, I really do, it’s just that I don’t have much of a reason to trust these griffins.”

“I guess I see what you mean. But it’s not like they’re all that dangerous in the first place. I mean, griffins are pretty dangerous when they’re ordered around correctly, mostly because they always seem like they can take a lot more punishment than the average pony. And that could be a great asset for us, I mean if we combine griffin brute strength with our tactics and planning, we’d be unstoppable.”

“Shh, Jason they’re getting out.”

“Why do I need to be quiet, we aren’t mourning the dead.”

“I want to see what they do.” She said, squaring her stance slightly.

“You’re overreacting.”

“Don’t say that yet.” She watched intently as griffins started to disembark, wearing Canterlot Guard style armor, Jason could only assume for recognition purposes. It probably wouldn’t be good to walk around a corner in camp and freak out at the sight of a griffin; he didn’t need casualties without even a battle involved. Dash continued to watch the griffins as they grouped up, corralled by a couple of ponies who seemed rather indifferent to the scenario.

Then, naturally, ponies gathered around to ogle at the new soldiers, who were still huddled into a small group as an officer checked off some names. The camp was unusually silent, as several whispers traveled around the pony lines. A few of the ponies got worked up, as Jason had halfheartedly expected, and one of them started throwing a few stones.

“Why’re we letting the enemy into our camp?” A few murmurs of agreement filtered around.

“We should just kick ‘em out now, maybe ruff ‘em up a bit!” Another pony yelled, and one side of the crowd moved forward.

“Guess this is where I intervene.” Jason said with a deadpan expression, moving towards the griffins in the center of the circle with Dash trailing behind. They stared at the pair with a mixture of fear and awe, as far as he could tell. Maybe the troops at Windforge had said some good things about him. He was starting to like these rumors, they had some serious power around here.

“Now listen up!” He yelled to the crowd, which immediately became silent. “Your fight is with the griffin army and government, they’re the ones in control around here! These ones are volunteers from the city we liberated a while ago. Do you really want to knock out what amounts to another advantage just because you can only see in black and white?”

Some hushed conversation echoed around in the crowd, which was really starting to annoy Jason at this point. He couldn’t know if they were reacting in the affirmative or not, and that was kind of a problem. Humans were easy, they either looked bored or interested, clapped or booed. Simple. But ponies just whispered, something that was starting to become one of the most annoying parts of his job.

Not that he didn’t like his job, it was good in most senses of the word. Sure, he hated to see anypo--anyone die, and sure, he wasn’t particularly fond of the high intensity fighting that interspersed life here, but it could be way worse, and Dash could be stuck at home, had there been an all male requirement in the army. Not that he couldn’t pull some strings.

That made him think, not about the fact that he was somehow managing think all this in just a couple of seconds, but that he actually had a fair amount of power. As far as he could tell, Shining was his only superior in the army, and then there were the princesses. And that was it. Kind of a weird thought though, fourth or fifth in command depending on the status of Cadence. Probably fifth, actually. But still, he’d been here two? Three months? Probably closer to three, but still, he’d been in this same position a couple of weeks ago.

He finally jarred himself from his thoughts and spoke up again. “I’m not sure which part of having the griffins around any of you hate, but I’m going to assume that it’s more based in the fact that they’re personifications of the enemy, rather than racism. In any case, they’ll be as intermixed in camp as any of you, and I want to see you give them some respect.”

“How many of you know the make up of Team Green Bean?” Dash asked. “Come on, raise your hooves.” A fair amount of the crowd stuck their hooves into the air, although it was nowhere near a majority.

“So then,” she continued, “it’ll be new information to know that the griffin you may have seen around here is on the team, and that he’s proven himself indispensible. Probably saved a good deal of your lives through his contributions, too.”

“And how could scum like him possibly be of any help?!”

“Tough crowd.” Jason murmured.

“Well, let’s see. He helped coordinate a successful strategy for us to take Windforge, he’s already rivaling some of the team member’s kill counts, and I’m sure one of his arrows has saved at least a few of you.”

“Or think of it in another way, how easy are griffins to fight hoof to hoof?” Jason asked. “I’m sure some of you have been disarmed, at least for a bit, how strong are griffins?”

“Pretty strong, I’d say!” Tank yelled, stepping out of the crowd and making his way to the center, slowly dragging a resentful looking Eravel behind himself.

“So then, how many of you would rather have that on our side? For the good of Equestria, right?” There was a cheer, and Jason resisted the urge to celebrate. “Treat these guys the same as you would another pony, because they’ll be enjoying the same rights you have.”

“And therefore, you get the same punishments for violence against them.” Dash added. “You’re all in the same boat, I suggest you try to make the best of it. Especially since there’s a good chance we’ll be mixing some of the units.”

There was a fair amount of uproar at the concept, turning the crowd into a flurry of activity. A rock bounced off Dash’s forehead, and she put a hoof to the already bloody wound.

“Who the fuck threw that?!” Jason yelled. “I suggest you come out here now, before I decide to start getting violent!” No activity, as the crowd once again went silent. “Well, who’s the bitch of this army? If you have any ounce of courage you should be able to come out here and take it like a stallion.”

Eventually a pony came out of the crowd, sneering at Jason as he walked up. “You came here, and all you do is ruin everything.” The pony said.

“What’s your name?” Jason said, his expression neutral.

“I’m not telling you.” He spat.

Jason took a step forward and punched the pony across the nose. “I asked, what was your name? And that’s sir to you.”

“Stonehoof, sir.” The pony replied, cradling his bloody muzzle with a hoof.

“Well then let me just say I respect your courage for coming up here.” Jason wound up his arm and hit the pony across the face as hard as he could, watching him fall over and crumple, apparently unconscious. “But that’s about all I respect about you.” Jason turned to Dash, putting a hoof under her chin and pushing her head up to get a better look at the wound the rock had caused. It was a fairly deep gash, bleeding fairly profusely.

“I’m fine, just save your energy.” Dash said, looking at her bloody hoof. “Not that bad, see?”

“Just hold still, okay?” He asked, not waiting for a response as her wound started to heal. It closed over as Jason took a deep breath and stopped the flow of magic, attempting to take the sudden fatigue in stride. He turned to the officer that had taken role, getting his attention with a brief wave.

“Make sure he’s kicked out of the army, subtract forty bits from his pay for causing this shit.” The pony nodded and saluted, scribbling on a new page as he flipped through the pad on his clipboard.

“Now, does anyone else have a huge problem with this?” He paused. “You know what, everyone in favor, move over there,” he gestured to the right, “and all others go to the left. I’m fine with either opinion, so as long as you have a valid reason and don’t act like this fucker, feel free to go to the left.”

“You should probably start moving.” Dash said after a prolonged silence, gesturing for the ponies to start doing something. Movement started slowly, quickly speeding up as more ponies joined in. A minute or so later, Jason was happy to see that the groups were nowhere near equal.

“Okay, so right is positive, you all know that?” To his surprise, a couple ponies moved over from the left side, blushing heavily as the left side group stared them down.

“So, I’d say it’s approved, huh?” Tank asked, still standing slightly protectively in front of Eravel.

“I’d say so. These things will only come into effect when we move to the next camp, although the camp itself won’t be split into a griffin side or a pony side. And I expect that there won’t be segregation in the mess hall either. How the hell are we supposed to fight a war if we’re only fighting amongst ourselves, hmm? I know a lot of you want to get home, so let’s just pull together and win this war, maybe make some new friends in the process.”

A cheer emanated from the right side group, making Jason smile as he turned away. These kinds of things were taxing, sometimes more than the actual battles themselves. “You sure you’re okay Dash?”

“Yeah, a little lightheaded, but I should be fine.” She grunted a bit as some pain came to her head, and covered it with a hoof.

“I thought I healed it.” Jason said, starting to accompany the griffins to their destination.

“The wound’s fine, I just have a bit of a headache. It’s going away though, residual pain I guess.”

“Just tell me if you don’t feel good or anything, brain injuries are the only thing I don’t really know how to heal that well, I don’t want to screw anything up.”

“You’re too hard on yourself, I said that I’ll be fine, and I meant it. Although maybe a little sleep could be in order, the sun’s starting to set as it is." She paused before continuing her random monologue. "And you need to do some flying or something with me tomorrow, I’m bored of this whole, ‘wake up, solve conflict, sleep’ thing. I’m hungry too, I want some food.”

“I think that rock did some actual damage.” Jason said, chuckling lightly. Dash frowned.

“You always get to complain, now it’s my turn.”

“Fine, fine.” They both became silent. “Not so easy, is it?”

“How do you complain about everything?” She asked, adding exaggerated arm waves to boot.

“Years and years of practice and cynicism.”

“You know, I’m pretty cynical that we’ll actually be able to get Evening off the Xbox.” Dash said, giggling. “She’s really taken to that thing, you know. I want to try my hoof at it here eventually.”

“I’m sure she’ll get bored eventually.”

“But you said that you spent tons of time on those games!”

“And we don’t have to tell her that there’re other games…” He replied, squinting his eyes mischievously. That’s why we have… what, three controllers so far?”

“So we can all pretend we’re playing, I get it.”

“No, there’re three player games, although acting like we’re playing games is fun too. That’s what I did, I just sat in a corner and pretended to play games.”

“It’s a good thing I get your sarcasm, otherwise there’d be a lot of ‘really?’ and I’d look like a total moron.”

“And you’re definitely not setting yourself up for an insult there.” Jason replied with a smile.

“I don’t think you’ve really insulted me yet, I’ll take my chances.”

“We’ll just have to see how long that lasts, I suppose.” He said, narrowing his eyes. “Ha! I’m just kidding.”

“Yeah… I guess you better have a good reason.”

“Why are we taking these crappy shots at each other? We’re like implying something based on an implied implication of mine.”

“What are you implying?” She asked, narrowing her eyes and staring him down.

“Just give it a rest, Dash. We’ll just make sure these griffins don’t get attacked before they get, wherever, then we can go argue about things.”

“At least we’re not arguing about something real.”

“But, that makes us like some old married couple!”

“Ooooooooooohhhhhhh Nooooooooooooo!!!!!” She threw up her arms in faked shock.

Jason chuckled and turned to one of the officers. “Hey guy, where are we going exactly?”

“Just to the far side of camp, there are only a few open tents left, and with the next troop movement approaching, we aren’t making any efforts to build new tents or reposition the ponies that are already in tents.”

“But they aren’t all separated or anything, right?”

“No, there’re still intermixed ponies.” The officer replied.

“Why do you care so much, Jason?”

“Because if we force them to interact, and assuming they can get over any issues, they’ll be our only connection to the griffin population. The problem with taking this territory is that we won’t have more than a few economic and political ties, what we need to do is get a big reconstruction with ponies over here, and hopefully get some sort of carry over of the population, so that there isn’t just a line where it’s suddenly an all-griffin country.”

“Equestria won’t really make sense as a name anymore.” She realized, giggling.

“Like that matters, there’s lots of countries that have ‘republic’ in the name and are actually brutal dictatorships.”

“What kind of government did you have?”

“I thought I told you, but whatever. A really complicated republic. Three branches, two houses of congress, a presidential voting system that made sense, but was still kinda weird. I don’t really want to explain it, it’d probably just result in a political rant that you wouldn’t understand.”

“Yeah, might as well skip that, huh?” She asked, laughing a little. Jason chuckled and nodded. The group stopped and the officer started to read off some Nordic sounding names, assigning the corresponding griffins to various tents. Given the fact that there weren’t all that many griffins to begin with, the process was quickly finished.

Dash wobbled a little and Jason sighed. “I want to get that looked at, Dash. Even if it’s just residual stuff I want to be sure.”

“I’m fine, I just need some rest.”

“God dammit, you don’t need to be tough all the time! For once, just admit that maybe this could be too much for you to handle!” She took a step back, and Jason ran a hoof down his face. “Sorry, I’m just a little stressed.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Just—make sure I don’t fall over or something, okay?” She seemed a little more depressed about the idea than he would have thought necessary. He shifted into Alternis and wrapped a wing around her back, pulling her into himself.

“It’s not a big deal, Dash, it’s not like I think anything less of you.”

“That’s not why, I just don’t want to feel weak. It’s not like this is some crippling injury, and I feel like I should be able to just walk it off. I guess I just hate finding my limits, even if I usually applied the idea to flying instead of getting hit with stones.” The hint of a smile appeared on her face as her emotions started to lighten. She turned her head and kissed him, shakily lifting up a hoof to put around his head. Dash pulled him in tighter, purring into the kiss before she broke it off. “Okay, I’m ready to get this looked at.” She said, leaning more heavily into Jason and trying to push him in the right direction.

“I kinda thought it’d be more of a fight with you.” He said, starting back towards the rest of camp.

“What can I say, I have a soft spot for you. And this way, you just make it look like we’re acting normal, and that I’m not actually hurt.”

“Oh, you never change.” Jason said with a chuckle, changing direction to make a more direct route.

“Hey, you never answered me when I asked you about what you do when video games aren’t in the picture.” She poked at Jason, making him stiffen up as she tickled at his ribs.

“Well, we had these things that were like mock guns, well they were still guns really, but the point is, they weren’t deadly. So I’d get a bunch of my friends together and we’d go out with these and shoot at each other. It was a lot of fun, and with the availability of things to buy it was pretty cheap to start the sport. But of course, since it involved me, we took it further than we probably should have, and we were running around in army uniforms and stuff.”

“Sorry for asking, but doesn’t being aimed at bring up memories?”

“Of what?”

“Well, your parents?”

“No, I’m not one of those guys that wallowed in self pity for years. I mean, I was sad and all, and for like a week I just kinda sat in my house and did nothing. But it’s not like I thought about killing myself or some shit like that, I didn’t want to go out a coward that couldn’t handle the grief. So I made something of myself, I got insurance money from my dad and kept up as much as I could of his stock portfolio—“

“How did you do that when you were that young?” Dash asked, pausing to scratch at her knee.

“I hired a guy. Actually, I just kept paying the same guy my dad had, I just paid him for different things. Anyway, I paid my way through college and got a job as an accountant, not that I saw it as much more than a means to an end, but that’s the simple version.”

“That’s pretty inspiring, really.”

“Ha, can’t say I never accomplished anything.”

“Well you got me, so I guess you’re right.”

Jason chuckled. “And what about your parents, Dash?”

She was silent for a while, and Jason looked over a few times to make sure she hadn’t passed out. A tear rolled down her snout, and he wiped it away with a hoof.

“Can- Can I tell you later?” She asked, looking up at him with teary eyes that tried to tug him into the same state.

“Whenever, or never, I don’t care.” He paused, catching another tear in the fur of his hoof. “Dash, cheer up, I don’t want to see you like this.” He removed his wing from her back, tickling under her chin with its tip before replacing it over her back. She smiled lightly, the normal twinkle in her eye starting to return.

“I love you Jason.” She said after taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. “And I'm going to tell you, it’s not like anypony else knows anyway.”

“What?! Why? I mean what about Twilight or Fluttershy or the rest of your friends?”

“I just never told them, I didn’t want to seem weak for anything, kinda like you with your parents.”

“They- they aren’t dead, right?”

“No, but with my luck they’re probably still alive.” Jason looked over with a quizzical expression as they entered the medical tent, trying to sift through her emotions to get some hints. But the only emotions that surfaced were rage and grief, although he couldn’t tell for whom.

Nurse Redheart looked up from her place at one of the patient’s beds, handing him a glass of milk as she got up to meet her new guests. “What seems to be the problem?” She asked, taking in the expressions of Dash and Jason. “Nopony’s dying, right?”

“No, she just needs her head checked out.” Jason replied, moving Dash over to a chair and sitting her down. “She got hit by a rock from a pony that’s incapacitated at the moment.”

“Is he dead?” Redheart asked, her eyes widening in shock.

“No, but the fucker got what was coming to him.” Dash said from her chair. “It still wasn’t enough.”

“Okay, well let’s just see here…” The nurse put a hoof to Dash’s cheek, turning her head to look at the scar that marked where she’d been hit. “I’m guessing you’re here for dizziness or something of the sort?” Jason nodded.

“Okay then, I’ll just see if you have a concussion, and we’ll be on our way.” She ruffled through a few drawers. “Do you know what you were doing a few minutes ago?”

“Yeah, talking to Jason, escorting the griffins-“

“Sorry, what?”

“Oh yeah, we have griffins in camp now, friendly ones.” Jason piped up from a chair he had taken in the corner. “Some ponies weren’t so happy.”

“I don’t know much about griffin anatomy if that’s the case, so you’ll have to find another nurse.”

“I guess I didn’t expect you to.”

“It’s not really a problem for me, the race issues anyway. A stronger army just means more victory.”

“That’s how I tried to spin it.” Jason said, causing the nurse to chuckle.

“Now Rainbow, hold still a moment.” She lit a match. “Just look forward for a moment, do not follow the match.” Redheart held the match in place for a moment before she took it away and waved it out. “Now follow my hoof with only your eyes.” She moved the hoof back and forth a few times, scribbling a word or two on her clipboard. “As far as I can tell, you may have a minor concussion, but given the fact that you were hit by a rock, I’m not sure how it’s not worse. Jason probably had a hoof in that.”

Jason got out of his chair and heaved a sigh, before almost galloping over to Dash and wrapping her in a hug. She squeaked adorably at the sudden attack, and struggled to break free for a moment before he let go. “I was worried it’d be worse.” He said, retreating back a couple steps.

Dash giggled. “I could tell. How’s that pony Jason healed from before?” She asked.

Redheart smiled. “He’s over there, I kept him here for a while to see what happened. No offense, but with what Dash said he looked like before, I had to make sure he was actually healed.”

“Glad you have so much faith in my abilities.” Jason replied sarcastically, pointing a hoof over at Dash. “She’s still relatively intact, and I’ve healed her like seventeen times.”

“Relatively?” She asked, smirking.

“I’m only healing the scars when we get out of this war.”

“I kinda like them, they make me look tough. Makes me feel like a pirate.”

“Aaaaaaanyway,” Redheart continued, “He’s looking a lot better than when he came in, that’s for sure. You want to see him?”

“Might as well.” Dash said, rising from her chair and standing on slightly shaky hooves. “Jason, you want to prop me up here?” She said hurriedly, moving her hooves to a wider stance.

He slid in next to her and put a wing over her back, quickly stabilizing her form. “You’re sure the unbalanced one today.” He said. “You sure you’re good to walk?”

“It’s not that bad, really. But having a big strong stallion to wrap me up like this is a lot better.”

“Oh, so you’re faking, I see how it is.”

“I wish I was.”

“How long till she recovers?” Jason asked Redheart.

“I’m not sure what you did, exactly, but a couple days could do it. I’m sure it’s mostly just the concussion combined with blood loss, assuming she lost any. She lost a fair amount, judging by what’s still on her face there.”

“It wasn’t that bad, I’ve lost a lot more in battle before.” Dash replied, rather defensively.

“But it’s the compounded effect that’s the problem, chances are what you have now is an immediate consequence that Jason probably couldn’t have averted.”

“I could’ve healed her earlier though.”

“Either way she would’ve had a concussion, just be thankful that she’s okay. I get a rather large number of ponies through here that talk about how you saved their lives. One of them kept saying how he was going to make it up to you, that he’d been one of the ponies that was against you from the start, and that he’d misjudged you. I think it was one of the few Canterlot nobles that tagged along.

“Blueblood?” Jason asked, thoroughly surprised.

“No, it wasn’t him. It was one of the lower elites, as far as I could tell, same code of conduct but with less money.”

“How does the system there even work?” Dash asked as the group stopped, throwing up a hoof for emphasis.

“Various levels of elites, although a fair number of them are just a glob, the newly rich mostly. They’re the ones that tend to be fairly regular ponies, I used to know one in medical school.”

“Oh. So this is the guy, huh?” Jason asked, looking down at the pony.

“Yeah, he looks pretty good, huh?” Redheart replied.

“I’ll say, I thought he had black fur before.”

Grey hair had started to surface, growing out over a fair share of the sleeping pony’s visible body. The scarring was still visible over much of his body, although his face seemed to be mostly untouched, judging by the way Jason had healed it. He looked rather peaceful, and hopefully he hadn’t been in too much pain from the burns he’d left alone.

“Has he been up at all?” He asked.

“A few times, he’s been telling me he’s fine these past couple days, walking around aimlessly and stuff. He’s been talking on and on about his mare friend, and how he wants to get back home to see her.”

“So why’s he not gone?”

“Two reasons, actually. I wasn’t sure if he was okay, he still gets tired pretty fast. But also, I didn’t know that he was clear to go home.”

“He broke two legs and burnt to a crisp before dragging himself out of a tent, I’m pretty sure we can let him go back home.”

“I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear that, at least.” She paused. “How’s your shoulder, Jason? You still have the bandages on, and…”

“I just forgot to take them off, hold on.” He grabbed the end of the bandage in his mouth and pulled, watching it come off it a long swathe. The discolored cloth fell to the floor, and Jason quickly levitated them into a trashcan.

“You should really replace those more often.” Redheart said, stroking a hoof gently across the fur on his shoulder. “How does chitin heal?”

“Like skin, really. Just more…rigid. So it’ll grow from the sides and seal up over a few days. And I guess I shed the outer stuff every once in a while, thus Dash’s armor.”

“That actually explains a lot.” She ran her hoof further along his arm.

“Watch it Redheart.” Dash piped up, giving the nurse a playful stare that had very real hostility hidden beneath the surface.

“She gets jealous.” Jason explained, watching Dash’s face take on a hint of pink.

“I can tell.” Redheart agreed, moving her hoof around and smirking.

“Thanks for the great reputation credit.” Dash replied.

“I don’t tease you that much.” He replied, receiving a light punch to the arm.

“You know,” Readheart began, “I expected you to be the injured one, Jason. Whenever I’ve seen you around you’re always covered in cracks and what not.”

“I haven’t really been hurt that much.” He replied, staring off into space for a moment. “Twice, really. Three if you count that thing with Twilight.”

“You’ve been here three months, how’s that a good record?” Dash asked, rather loudly.

“Well it’s about as good as I was in high school. I was pretty brittle back then.”

“Okay, now I’m interested. What stupid stuff did you do that I don’t know about?”

“There’s so much, where to begin?” He stroked his chin, sitting on an empty bed. “I did parkour for a while until I broke the shit out of a leg, broke the shin in two places, hairline fracture in the femur.”

“Ooh.” Redheart flinched, surely imagining the injury.

“So I don’t do that anymore, never really picked it up again, I guess.”

“How’d you manage to do that anyway?” Dash asked, nervously stroking one of her own legs.

“I jumped off this low roof, and then I rammed my shin into the top of the one I was trying to get to. So it broke and I bounced off, the rest of the stuff happened when I hit the ground. It was expensive to fix, so I tried to be more careful with expenses after that.”

Dash giggled. “Millionaire like you, I’m sure you had a lot to worry about.”

“Well I didn’t have any of the money yet, actually. Well, not much of it anyway. I don’t know who set the system up, but I only got a couple thousand dollars from insurance money right away, I couldn’t get the rest of it until I was eighteen or something.”

“So you’re just left like that?” Redheart asked. “Without any money or anything?”

“No, I had a house with money inside, but it wasn’t that much, and I didn’t know the safe combination. It’s not like a teenager is really that expensive, you need electricity, Wi-Fi, and junk food. That’s pretty much it.” He grabbed one of the cookies from a nearby table and took a bite. “Except for girls, they're high maintenance, all these supposed ‘necessities.’ Insurance paid any taxes though.”

“But you didn’t have an income?”

“Well I got welfare from the government, but I had already declared that I wasn’t going to live off of charity or some shit, I still had my pride. So I donated the money after they started sending me checks, and I never used a cent of it.”

“But it was free!” Dash complained, poking him in the side. “And I thought you were lazy.”

“I am lazy, I never said that I actually did anything. But nothing’s free either, it’s taxpayer money, just like everything else. I don’t want to pay taxes to give other people my money, I want it to benefit a school or the military, something that’ll have a lasting benefit. And I definitely didn't want to do the same for them. Before you yell at me, a lot of people just try to live off the welfare checks.”

“So you never used the checks because you didn’t want to be hypocritical?”

“I was a kid, I didn’t really think about things that hard. But I’m still proud I didn’t take any help to make my own life the way it was.”

“So how is that lazy?” Dash asked, throwing up her hooves in annoyance.

“Ah! Because the only other thing I did was go to school. The only other thing society would deem important, anyway.”

“Were you just too lazy to cash in the check?”

“That was part of it, but I really did make that decision without laziness as a real motive.”

“I don’t think you can be in the lazy club anymore.” Dash said, turning her head away in a hoity-toity manner and crossing her arms.

“Like you’re going to go through the work of kicking me out.”

“So,” Redheart began, tracing a circle on the floor with a hoof. “Dash said you were a millionaire?”

“I was, technically I still am, but I don’t really have the money. It’s all back in America and floating in space in the Stock Market.”

“What’s the—“ Her mouth was covered by Dash’s hoof.

“Don’t ask.” She said, giggling slightly. “He tried to explain it and I still don’t know how it works.”

“And I don’t even know how a lot of it works.” Jason said, shrugging. “Is this guy under a sleep spell or something?”

“No, not anymore. He’s been sober, so to speak, for two days.”

“So if I poke him like this,” Jason leaned over and nudged the pony’s body, “he’ll wake up?”

“Yeah, he should. But you’re poking him wrong.” Redheart reached over and poked at the pony, giggling as he groaned and moved around. Their activities quickly dissolved into a rapid series of pokes and nudges against the sleeping pony. He rolled onto his back and blocked one of Jason’s pokes with a lazy hoof swipe, before he opened his eyes and took in the group.

“H-hey, what’re you doing?” He asked lazily, looking at Dash for a while. “You were the one that dragged me here, right? The mare with the rainbow mane?”

“Yup, but it was really Jason here that did the work.” She pointed a hoof at him, which was pretty pointless considering she was flattened against his side.

“But—Changeling, huh?”

“You catch on fast.” Jason said with a smirk. “You feeling better, by the way?”

“A lot better than when that tent came down, that’s for sure. She,” he pointed accusingly at Redheart, “wouldn’t tell me how things were going, besides that we’d repulsed the attack. Good job on that by the way.” He jumped and saluted. “Sirs.”

“It’s fine, we cleared the area of griffin. I heard you wanted to get home though, huh?”

“Yeah, I miss my mare friend. I’m happy to get through the rest of this war first, I’m not a quitter or anything.”

“Well I’m sending you back anyway, you don’t need to stay here after something like that. If you really want to stay in the army, at least take some time to go back to wherever and relax. It’s an honor to serve with ponies like you.” He saluted the shocked pony in the bed and turned, making sure that Dash was still balanced against him before he started towards the door.

“Thanks for the help, Redheart!” Dash yelled back as they exited into the now dark camp. A frigid wind blew past, and Dash shivered slightly under Jason’s protective wing.

“So I think I know what the holes on my legs are for now, if I didn’t tell you already.”

“Another theory, huh?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. So I was thinking about how I nicked the side of one of the holes, and it started bleeding, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, it wasn’t a deep cut, but there was a lot of blood in the long run. My theory is that the reason blood vessels are so close to the surface is so that they can keep my body cool that way.”

“But what if it’s cold out?” She asked, sticking a hoof under her chin in a scholarly pose.

“I guess the blood vessels contract? I mean, it seems to be a working theory, at least so far.”

“Yet another advantage of having a changeling colt friend, you don’t get all sweaty.”

“But I throw up food I ate weeks ago, so there’s your trade off.”

“You don’t really eat though, not that much anyway.” She paused. “So you’ve said that food doesn’t really give you any energy, but you still fill up right? It doesn’t just disappear?”

“You had to ask another question like this, huh?” He chuckled, formulating words in his head before he spoke. “So, you know how you feel after a nice meal? Not overfull but content?” She nodded. “Well that’s how I feel with love, although it’s more of a spreading warmth type thing. With food though, I know it’s there, and it’s not like I don’t know when I’ve eaten enough, it’s just that it’s not the same feeling as you get. It’s detached, like someone else is telling me to stop eating. It starts to get uncomfortable later, and I’m sure you can relate to that.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve entered an eating contest before.” She giggled at the memory. “I didn’t really come that close, it’s always some giant earth pony or a skinny little pegasus that wins those things. But it was a pie eating contest, so who cares?”

“God, I want some pie. Or crepes.” Some drool escaped his mouth. “Dammit, I think I screwed something up with this mouth.” She chuckled, quickly breaking out into all out laughter. “What’s so funny?” Jason asked.

Dash raised a hoof, as if to say, ‘one moment please,’ and tried to quell her laughing fit. She eventually succeeded, only to start laughing again. “The things you say just sound so random,” she guffawed before continuing, “I don’t know why it’s so funny all of a sudden. You’re such an inefficient changeling though, it’d probably help if you didn’t inform me of every screw up!”

“Like you never mess anything up.”

“But that’s the thing, everything you mess up is always a sight gag!”

“Well-“

Jason had the brief thought to prepare for pain as his hoof bumped into something solid, before he remembered one of the advantages of armor plating and smiled. It still hurt some, considering he was disguised, but he doubted it was what if would have felt like normally. He turned around and looked at the ground, his eyes making out the rough outline of a box.

“Guess we might as well grab this, the tent’s just over there.” He said, picking up the box in his magic.

“We still have to kick Evening Glory out, I doubt she’s left of her own will.”

“Oh, video games. It’s too bad I have to get you to bed, we could play something.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I’d be any good.”

“I’m sure you would be, I mean-“

“How good were people you knew back home?” She cut in, raising an eyebrow.

“That really depends on whether you’re talking about girls or guys, because there’s this magical thing that happens where even girls that play video games, of which there aren’t that many, tend to be pretty mediocre. I didn’t really play video games that much in the scheme of things, I got bored after a while. But you’d probably be good at them, you caught on to Minecraft pretty quick, and considering the fact that you only have hooves to operate a bunch of keys, I’d say you’d be pretty good.”

“Why the gender difference?”

“It’s weird, huh? Females just look at gaming like some sort of stupid thing, as a group. Pretty depressing, if you ask me, but it doesn’t seem like the girly thing to shoot people in a virtual game. But there’re tons of nonviolent games, also known as boring games, and even those are mostly untouched by the ‘fairer sex’.” He put joking air quotes around the words. “Whichever company taps that market first is going to be set forever.”

“Everything’s always got to turn economic with you.” Dash giggled.

“I’m a capitalist at heart, what can I say?”

“You could express your undying love for me.”

“Funny, I thought you found it sexy when I talked about economics.”

She snorted in laughter. “Oh yeah, it really turns me on.”

“I thought so.” He paused, before leaning over to her neck and covering it with kisses. “But since you asked so nicely.” Jason nibbled at her ear, earning a gasp in response. She swatted her tail across his rump, and the box hit the ground with a loud clang.

“You’re a dead giveaway, Jason.” She said with a smirk, watching his face flush.

“You try controlling magic and flirting at the same time, it’s not easy.”

“Twilight has more concentration than that.”

“But I don’t think she understands flirtation.”

“I’m sure she’s read a book on it.” They both chuckled at the joke, entering their tent a few seconds later. Evening was curled up on the bed with a controller cradled between her hooves. The screen had gone to screensaver; she must’ve fallen asleep a while ago.

“So, what should we do? She looks so peaceful there…” Dash said, reaching for the controller. She touched it and Evening shifted defensively, drawing the controller closer to her chest.

“She’s recovering nicely, a lot less insanity and a lot more general oddities.” He chuckled. “She’s becoming more interesting than me.”

“I bet you’re really jealous.”

“So much.” He set down the container and ‘oohed.’

“What is it?” She asked, bending down to read the yellow writing on the side.

“Before you get exited, these are totally useless right now.”

“Way to raise my hopes there Jason.”

“Just hold on a sec before you complain too much.” He opened the box and pulled out a fifty caliber round, passing it over to her. Her hoof dropped as she took hold, apparently not expecting the weight.

“Is this a bullet?” Dash asked. “One that comes from something like this?” She pointed over to Jason’s AUG, leaned against one of the tent poles.

“Well, it’s always from a gun, the thing that changes is the type. You can basically only fire this from a sniper rifle or a mounted machine gun.”

“But why do they need something this big? I mean, I know that all of this isn’t a bullet, but still!”

“Well for the machine gun, it can go through walls and stuff, blow up cars…it’s anti light armor stuff. If one of these hits you in the arm, though, the hand even, your entire arm’s just gone. That’s why they use this in sniping, it makes kill shots easier.”

“Oh god.” She said, glancing at one of her arms. “Even if we do get something for this, maybe we shouldn’t use it, that sounds like a terrible way to go.”

“That’s why you go for headshots. Or body shots for that matter. If we get something for this, it’s an advantage I’m going to push. But with how little time we have left in this war, I doubt I’ll find something that fits this caliber.”

Dash put the shell back carefully, as if it were about to explode. “So are we moving her out?” She asked, gesturing to Evening.

“No, we shouldn’t have to, let’s just leave her be. I want you to rest, at least tonight, and her staying here’s a safeguard against you making moves on me.”

“Fine, at least she’ll keep my hooves warm.” She moved into the bed and pulled the blanket over herself, reaching out an arm to playfully pull Jason in as well.

“I love you Dash.” He said, nuzzling at her cheek affectionately.

“I wish there was a way I could respond to that without sounding repetitive or uncaring. But I love you too.”

“Good night, Dash.” He said, closing his eyes and pulling her closer.

“You’re not going to force me to tell you?”

“No, I don’t care if you keep things from me, so long as I’m not involved. You have a right to your secrets.”

“But you deserve to know, we’ve been together for months, and you’ve answered everything I’ve asked. I know you respect my privacy, but sometimes I don’t really want you to.”

“Okay…”

“So if you still care…”

He pulled her head closer and pushed their muzzled together. “I’ll always care, you always did when I talked about boring stuff, I may as well repay the favor. Especially since you’re only telling me.”

“Jason, thanks for this.”

“What, listening to you? It’s not a chore, I’d rather talk with you than just about anything else.”

She smiled, laying her head down on his chest. “Can you do that thing with the hair whe-“ Fwumf! “Okay then.” She giggled slightly before sobering. “I’m just going to start this before I pussy out, so here goes.” She took a deep breath, and Jason stroked a hoof down her mane.

“I was born in Cloudsdale twenty three years ago as an only child. I had a fun childhood, as far as I can remember. My parents were happy, and I was happy, it was as simple as that, at least for a while. But when I was nine, I got home from school and nopony was home. I wasn’t too worried for a while, I just got some food and waited. Eventually my parents got home when I was in bed and started yelling about something.”

She took a ragged breath. “I figured out later that my dad had lost his job over some argument with his boss, and that he had apparently been jobless for a while. My parents had kept it from me, I assumed to keep me from worrying. So I didn’t, they had things under control, or so I thought. I didn’t know at the time that most careers in Cloudsdale are weather related, and that my dad had the equivalent of a blacklist.”

“A few weeks later I came home from school and dad was already home. I was happy to see him, and I thought he’d found a new job and had left work early for me. But then he started to look angry, started yelling at me for things I’d never done. He pulled me closer to his face to yell, and I could smell the alcohol on his breath.”

“Any bruises I got from him were always disguised by my fur, and I came to hate it’s color as I aged. I got my cutie mark and he didn’t care. Mom left for Canterlot to go got a job because dad wouldn’t, and she sent back the money. That bastard used most of it, and sometimes I didn’t have enough money to buy food.”

“I waited for mom to come back, and she finally did almost a year later. But she saw the condition things were in and yelled at Dad for a while, and then left. He got divorce papers a few weeks later and blamed it on me. So I finally did what I should have on day one, I left that piece of shit, and I got a job at the weather factory. Second youngest worker to date, but they seemed to know what had been going on and let me into the work force.”

“That just annoyed me even more though, that they knew and let it go on for that long. I earned some money and left for Ponyville after Fluttershy, and I haven’t seen either of those ponies since.” By this point she had a veritable river of tears running down her face and into his fur, and he was starting to feel increasingly useless at his attempts to comfort his mare.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I just wanted to forget the whole thing, and bringing it up didn’t seem like the best idea.” Her breath caught and she blinked out a few tears.

They were silent for a while, before Jason was finally able to formulate words. “You’re such a strong mare, Dash. I don’t know why you’d think ponies would think less of you.”

“Because I was stupid and I thought things would change!” She yelled, hugging against him more tightly.

“You were a kid, younger than I was when I lost my parents. Kids aren’t prepared for stuff like that.”

She was silent for a while longer. “Why don’t you care that I keep things from you?”

He thought for a moment before answering. “Because you deserve to have your secrets, I don’t need to know everything about you to love you, Dash. Part of being your colt friend is that I don’t pressure you with this kind of thing. If it’s important to you it’s important to me, but only if it’s something that I don’t have to persuade out of you.” He paused. “I know you’re competitive by nature, but you can’t be so hard on yourself, at least not about things like this.”

“I really hope we don’t break up.” She said after a pause. “I don’t know who’d talk sense into me sometimes.”

“Dash, you need to get some rest.” He said, wiping away a tear. “This concussion can’t be doing you any favors, that’s for sure.”

A slight smile appeared. “You promise you’ll still be here in the morning?” She asked.

“I don’t know where else I’d want to be.” Jason replied, leaning over and kissing her, tasting a slight amount of salt from her tears. “Promise me you’ll stop being so hard on yourself, okay?”

“I will, I promise.”

“Good, the worst thing about being a changeling is knowing how you feel. It’s great when you’re happy, but not like this.”

“I’ll make it up to you, I have some tricks I have yet to use.”

“Please tell me you’re not only referring to sex.”

“No, I have a tangible surprise for you, I was going to wait until after this war, but I’m impatient.”

“Really? Tell me more.”

“Oh shush, I’m tired, let me sleep.” She was never dignified with a response as Jason quickly passed out.

Jason lunged forward and sank a blade into the zombie’s head, watching him fall and go limp a moment later before he started to create a mess on the white tile floor. He looked at his attacker with contempt before he drew a foot back to kick the corpse in the head. His temple dented and the body shifted, before Jason’s interest waned.

“Jason?” Dash said, walking into the room through a doorway. “This is a dream, I’m guessing?” She continued, looking at her hands and curling the fingers.

“I think so, it’s probably a good sign that we can figure that out now.” He paused, moving over towards her. "You're cute like this Dash." He said, leaning over and kissing her in a way that felt alien to the both of them. A zombie stumbled out of the corner of the room before tripping and impaling himself through the eye on a piece of rebar.

Dash and Jason stared at each other for a few minutes before a scream echoed into the room. The duo broke into movement and ran from the room in the direction of the screaming, running through a few darkened rooms before they found another, lightened by a series of industrial looking skylights.

A young woman was flailing around on the ground, screaming bloody murder for some reason. Jason ran over and pulled her up, covering her mouth with a hand, waiting for her to stop screaming before he spoke. “Listen, I’m going to take my hand away, and then you’re going to tell me, calmly, what’s wrong. Okay?”

She nodded and squirmed a little before he released his hold. The girl took a few deep breaths before she started to speak. “I wasn’t here before, I was in a tent and I fell asleep, and now I’m here with you people and I don’t know what’s going on.” She broke down into tears, covering her face awkwardly with her hands.

“Evening?” Jason asked, kneeling down in front of her now huddled form.

“Jason? Dash?” She asked back, starting to become less panicked. “Why are we humans?”

“It’s a dream, nothing to be worried about. Although the fact that you’re here is a little worrying.”

“Are… Are you saying that I’m not controlling this dream?”

“I think it’s the hive mind thing, yeah.” Evening took a few more deep breaths as some banging echoed through the warehouse.

“What’s going on, Jason?” She asked, backing away from the door.

“I think this dream’s about zombies.” He pulled Evening back to her feet. “So grab sharp stuff, firearms, and aim for the head.” Jason jogged over to a corner, moving some trash around with his hands until he came back up with a screwdriver and a butterknife.

“Find anything yet?” He asked.

“Yeah, I found this thing,” Evening started, “but I’m not sure what it-“

“AAAAh, what is this thing?!?!” She screamed, throwing the M16 to the ground.

Jason ran over and picked it up, aiming it towards the door. “We can’t be loud, it’ll just attract them. Now come on, we need to search further.” He pushed the stalk into his shoulder and slowly moved out of the room, firing a few shots down a hallway to take out a zombie as it shambled towards him. “What are you waiting for, Evening? They’ll eat you if you let them.” She seemed to get the concept, and awkwardly ran after him.

They darted around another corner, looking through the industrial garbage that was in piles against the walls. Jason knelt down and picked up a metal rod, passing it back to Dash before shooting a zombie that had snuck up behind them. “Watch your back, no one ever does that.” He said, aiming at another zombie and hearing a click ring out.

Dash pushed by and swung the rod, breaking the zombie’s temple and effectively killing it. Jason threw the gun aside before he took a few steps forward and picked up an aluminum baseball bat, handing a plank back to Evening.

“You want to get the back here, Dash?” He asked quietly, watching her nod and take a few steps back. Jason moved into another room off the hallway, smashing a zombie’s head with a stomp and stepping over to a door that was covered in planks. He looked through before wrapping his fingers around one and pulling it off. He kicked through a few more of the rotten boards, creating a hole and exiting. His head appeared a few seconds later. “Come on, we don’t have all day.” He whispered, disappearing again.

The street outside was brightly lit by the midday sun, and Jason shielded his eyes with a hand as they stung in the sudden light change. Stairs came into view, descending from his position into a wall of zombies.

He suddenly fell forward as a zombie tackled him from behind. Jason put a palm to the zombie’s forehead before Dash hit it in the back of the head and it went limp. He pushed off the zombie and turned around, watching as the zombies came closer. He backed up, looking for the hole that appeared to have disappeared.

The zombies got closer and closer, and he heard screaming as Evening either got bitten or grabbed.

Jason awoke, breathing heavily as reality came into focus. Dash and Evening started to regain consciousness soon after the dream had been severed, waking up in much the same way. He stuck a hoof behind Dash’s head, stroking her mane and attempting to calm her as much as he was himself.

“Jason, give us an escape plan next time.” She said after her breathing slowed, and she had regained cognitive thought. “Since when was the last time one of us hasn’t gotten killed?”

“Two dreams ago, I think. Not that bad of a record.”

“Kindly leave me out of whatever that was from now on.” Evening said, stretching her back as she started to get up. “Even without the walking corpses, I don’t want to end up as a different species or anything like that.”

“Well excuse me, I didn’t think it would still apply to you, it took months for Dash to take to it in the degree you did in a day.”

“Like that’s hard to believe, I used to be in a hive mind.”

“Oh, cry me a river, you didn’t get hurt. Maybe a little scared, but you’re fine.”

“So you think I’m a wus? Is that it?”

“What if I do? Dash didn’t ever complain as much as you are right now.”

“Ladies!” Dash butted in, chuckling at Jason’s clear annoyance. “You don’t need to yell at each other over this, it’s too weird to argue about anyway.”

“Jason doesn’t seem to think so.”

“Whatever, look at it this way, you experienced something that nopony ever has before, that should be good for something.”

“Fine.” She hopped off the bed and made for the exit. “Tell me if you two decide to do something else with that thing.” She pointed towards the Xbox. “It was a lot of fun, thanks for letting me use it.”

“No problem. You going back to Shining’s tent?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I’m sure he’s going to yell at me a whole lot about yesterday. Figured you’d want to watch.”

“What happened yesterday?”

“I knocked out a pony and kicked him out of the military.”

“Oh.” Evening paused, before her jolly personality returned. “Well, see you two later!” She said before leaving.

Jason waited a few more seconds before speaking again. “How’s your head, Dash?”

“Feels fine, no dizziness as far as I can tell.”

“Good, you had me worried there for a while.”

“Oh look at you, worried about me. I like the attention.”

“You’re so predictable.” He rolled over and grabbed his saddlebag off the ground, pulling out the pad of paper.

“I guess it’s been a while since we checked that, huh?” Dash asked, tapping her hoof against Scoots’ hoof print.

“Yeah, only one message besides the usual ‘love you guys’ in the corner. It says, ‘I tried to delay her, but I think Twilight’s onto you, Jason.’”

“So she found out?”

“I think she’s about to, judging by how this sounds. It probably would’ve been more urgent if Twilight was freaking out. Or something.”

“But still, we never told her, do you think we should have?”

“I dunno, I didn’t want to play a game of ‘thousand questions’ with her, I already had enough questions to answer of Lyra’s.”

“Maybe you are pretty lazy after all.”

“Well with all of Twilight’s supposed intelligence, she sure seems to find some things out slowly.”

“Don’t tell her that.”

“I won’t, she’d probably- I don’t know what she’d do, actually.”

“Well whatever she does, we’ll at least be back soon to argue about this.”

“Hooray, I can look forward to that.”

“Let’s just get this thing with Shining over with so we can get packed up and move camp.”

“Oh yeah, we’re doing that today.” Jason pulled himself out of bed and stretched, waiting for her to follow suit. She did the same, before walking past towards the door. He lifted up a hoof and spanked her rump, receiving a yelp and a blush in return. “You ever been teleported before?” He asked, oh so tactfully changing the subject.

“No, I but I’m willing to try.” She said, smirking back at him. Never a good sign.

“Fine then, stand next to me here.” He said, waiting for her to lean into his side. “Now try not to move.” There was a pop and a whoosh of air, before they appeared just outside Shining’s tent.

“That’s what it feels like?” She asked, looking confused.

“What did you expect?” He asked as he entered Shining’s tent, which was full of the new griffin recruits.

“I dunno, something with fewer changes in air pressure.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“It was still fun, I guess.”

“Yeah, we didn’t teleport inside any ponies, so that’s good.”

“Wait what?!” She yelled, causing Jason to chuckle as he walked over to Shining’s desk. The general looked up and frowned.

“Have fun yesterday?” He asked.

“The pony?”

“Yeah, that was illegal in so many ways!” His angry expression turned into a smirk. “At least, that’s what they told me to say.”

“Huh?” Jason replied, not expecting the change in pace.

“I would’ve done the same thing, had I been in your position. May not have stopped if Cadence had been hit either.”

“So… I’m not in trouble?”

“No, and I forwarded the order to kick that pony out. It set a good example either way, makes our jobs easier.”

“Okay good, I was a little worried there.” He looked around at the griffins, some chatting with Eravel in a corner, others in smaller groups or by themselves. A few ponies were intermixed into the group and were chatting along with the griffins, although he had no idea why the group was here.

“You’re probably wondering why they’re all here.” Shining assumed in a brilliant moment of deduction.

“Yeah.” Jason replied in a brilliant use of the English language.

“Wait,” Dash started. “We’re going ahead with the plan, aren’t we.”

“Well that’s all up to you, I guess, you have to persuade them.”

“Great. More speeches.”