Evening Discovers Bottle Rockets
"So I'm assuming all these griffins didn't volunteer?" Jason asked, looking around at the surrounding population.
"No, I just brought them here. I guess I figured you'd want to pick them out anyway, even with all your angry talk of a speech." Shining replied, shrugging his shoulders
"You're pretty good at those anyway, Jason." Dash spoke up, running a reassuring hoof along his side.
"Yeah I know." He said, smirking.
"What happened to being humble?" She asked, punching at his shoulder in annoyance.
"Just let me work my magic here, stand aside, common citizen."
"How do you two stand each other all this time?" Shining asked, shaking his head. "I don't remember the last time you two had a serious conversation."
Jason snorted in laughter. "Ironically, that's usually pillow talk."
Dash giggled. "We're planned years in advance."
Shining facehoofed. "Just...talk to them."
"Fine." He turned to face the side of the tent that had most of the griffins and ponies. "Attention!!" He yelled, watching as the griffins lined up in several rows in front of him. He couldn't say the ponies did that...
"Now, I know you're all new here, and it looks like you're getting along. And I'm sure you know that the next city on our list is the capitol. Hopefully that'll be our last stop, but I can't be sure. But maybe you're wondering how we're going to take the city. Well, that's where you come in, hopefully. From what Eravel over there's told me, the griffin government isn't exactly benign." A chuckle circled around. "So that got me thinking, if the people are annoyed, we just need to set them off. But obviously we can't go in there and start telling them how it is, we're not griffins."
"Remember that it's optional operation, Jason." Shining said, not looking up from his desk, where he had firmly planted himself.
"I was getting to that. We can't take all of you, and I'm sure some of you won't want to partake. But we really need eight, and I hope you'll take this opportunity to make a name for yourself." He paused to sigh. "So, any takers?" A whisper circulated around before several talons raised into the air. "All of you, step forward." A group of griffins extracted themselves from the crowd, forming another row as the previous ones closed back up. Jason looked the row over, noticing with limited surprise that Eravel was included.
"Eravel, a word?" Jason asked, watching as the griffin stepped forward. He grabbed Dash and brought her with him, creating a small group off to the side of the tent.
"Yeah?" The griffin asked.
"Well, I'm fine with you going, but you know that there's a good chance that they'll recognize you." Jason said.
"I'm still going."
"That's fine, I'm just warning you."
"As long as there's some sort of plan involved. But hey, you haven't let us down yet, right?"
"Yeah, not yet..." He sighed. "This is a stressful job sometimes. But I guess I make up for that by screwing around at inappropriate times, so you know, there's a trade off."
"So the verdict is..."
"I'm going to make sure you're prepared, and after we move, then we'll see how this goes. You're worth a lot Eravel, not just to the team but strategically. Losing you could be pretty harmful."
"What, because I know the city?" He asked.
"Well yeah, and because you're also our only ranged unit, besides the two of us. I'm not saying that I'm not going through with this, I just want to make sure that it doesn't fail."
"Okay, that sounds fine. You sounded like you were going to stop the mission there for a second."
"No, I don't back down from obstacles. I just plan around them." Jason replied, smirking slightly.
"Is he choosing the griffins? They've apparently been through basic training, but we all kinda have more than that..." Dash pointed out.
"I guess the idea is to blend in, spread rumors that way. The main problem with this plan lies in where you're going to stay with all the others. I doubt this is going to be a one day thing, although it probably won't take that long. Listen, just get a team together, and I'll work out a rough plan with Shining until he gets a map of the Capitol made, okay."
"Sounds good. Eight including myself?"
"Yeah, eight's a good number." Eravel walked off after a brief salute, immediately gathering the griffins that had volunteered together. "So shining..." Jason said, turning to the general. "How was what I did yesterday illegal in more than one way?"
"Huh? Oh, assault and misuse of power, technically. It was more of a statement that was supposed to scare you a little."
"Ah, well thanks for that."
"Yeah, so you want to see where I was going to move camp to?"
"Sure, this is today, right?"
He nodded. "Some troops are already in the area, I sent them early this morning. They've reported back positively, and we should be moving closer to sunset."
"So where is this ambiguous position?" Dash asked, trotting over to stare at the large topographic map that, as usual, covered an entire corner of the tent.
"It's too small of a thing to show here, really, but it's right about..." He looked down at his notes, flipping a few pages. "Here." His hoof broke off a tiny tree. "I'm obviously correcting the map."
"So camp's under the giant tree?" Jason asked, putting a hoof to his chin in a philosophical manner.
He chuckled. "There's a small clearing, big enough to land things, but hopefully not too big to be seriously noticeable. At least a fair amount of tents will be under tree cover, but there's only so much I can do."
"Why's that such a big deal?"
"Easier to sneak up on the camp, I guess. I mean, the griffins aren't really the stealthy type, but they set fire to this place already, who's to say they won't try again?"
"Would it be too much trouble to just put some pegasi in the trees?" Dash asked, giving a characteristic shrug. "It's not like this is a jungle, we can still see through the trees."
"How about we worry about defense when we get there, eh?" Shining replied, folding a piece of paper. "You guys can go do whatever it is you do until we're ready to go. Pack up before then, though."
Jason nodded, looking around the room. "You got any more things of interest for us?"
"I got a box full of stuff and what appears to be part of a window, which one do you want first?"
"Can we just get both?"
"Gotta take the fun out of everything..." Shining muttered before he walked over to the bunks, pulling out the stuff from beneath Evening and shaking her around. He set the boxes in front of Jason frowning as the contents continued to shake. "So you get to deal with whatever the fuck is in there..."
"Ah, thanks." Jason rolled his eyes and picked up the boxes, walking through the exit and looking up at the sky. Dash gave her wings a few hard flaps before she took off, spiraling upwards until Jason lost her in the sun. He heard a giggle from behind himself and twisted around to see that Evening had followed. Unsure as to whether that should annoy him or not, his thoughts were cut off as she started to talk.
"She's really something. A great flyer and all this fighty stuff." She sighed. "I just wish Changeling transformations matched abilities..."
"Yeah, how does that work anyway?" He asked, slowing down to let her catch up.
"Simple, you get some of the benefits, but only to a point. Like take her, for example." She pointed towards the sun without looking up. "If you became her, as I'm sure you do all the time..."
"Hey, I don--"
"I know you do, I'm sure you've done that just to look at yourself in a mirror. Maybe do other things?" She leaned forward expectantly.
Jason's face reddened. He'd never remembered to drop the disguise, he realized. "I--no, being a mare still creeps me out. I joke about it, but it's not like I'm ever going to--do anything."
"Oh, look at you, always so awkward around things. It's all objective, really."
He facehoofed. "No, it's not. Not for me, anyway. I don't think like you, I never have. I guess I probably never will. Dash isn't some sort of thing to me, just because she loves me as a changeling doesn't mean it's because of clandestine reasoning. I know it's all a game to you, a way to push your own survival, and that's fine, you don't deserve to starve. But let's face it, she won't ever be like that to me, and if I were a pony it'd end up the same way."
"Yeah, I was just saying that you've got to look at changes in an objective manner. Obviously being a mare isn't going to sway her much, unless..."
"No."
"So then, it doesn't really matter, now does it? Depending on how you look at it, Changelings really aren't that selfish, when they aren't mindless or controlled by someone else, of course. I mean, we go replace a family member, friend whatever, and by the general rules," she paused, muttering "which don't seem to mean anything anymore," she resumed her normal volume, looking Jason in the eye again. "What do we really do? We attend to their needs as best we can, and in return, we get something that's wasted on other ponies daily. They can't feel love, sometimes they don't know it even exists. So really, is it that bad?"
"I never questioned your motives." It was Evening's turn to blush. "I just don't want you to question mine." Dash landed with a thump in front of them, smiling broadly as she led the other two into the tent.
"Have fun, Dash?" Jason asked, figuring he already knew the answer.
"Well it was so-so for a while, but then this really nice wind picked up, and it combined with the updraft coming off this place, and--It was awesome!"
"Is it still like that? I'm kinda jealous now." Jason replied, looking up after he set down the box and 'partial glass pane' as Shining called it.
"No, it was only a little wind, not much. Sorry Jason."
"It's not your fault. By the way, Evening followed me here." Evening waved a hoof nervously.
"Yeah, that's fine. I noticed before, you know."
"Yeah, but you have a way of not telling me what plans you have." He looked up and gave her a slight wink.
She giggled. "I do have a way of doing that, huh?"
"You guys are so see through!" Evening cried out, throwing her hooves into the air. "What's the point of flirting like that if it's so obvious?"
"We ran out of subtlety." Jason replied, causing Dash to laugh. "It only lasts so long." He paused, calming down for a moment. "Anyway, I'm sure at least one of you cares what's in the box."
"I wonder which one of us fits that profile." Dash said sarcastically, poking at Evening.
"Well, I'll save the 'glass' until later..." He started sifting through the box's contents, pulling out some pieces of trash and slightly disappointing himself. Then the things started to look better, and he pulled out a riot control mask.
"Hey Dash, put this on." He handed over the helmet and she shifted it around a few times before she realized that that visor was supposed to go over her face. Jason looked over at her and burst into laughter. "My little riot control!" He said, watching as Dash's cheeks turned red and she took of the mask, as if expecting it to be embarrassing. "You look fine, Dash, just funny because I have a crappy sense of humor."
"So, riot control?"
"Yeah, pretty cool huh?"
"Why does it say 'MP'?
Jason shrugged, scratching the back of his mane. "I don't really know, actually."
"Jason, you're supposed to know this stuff!"
He grunted and went back to his searching, pulling out a few more chunks of garbage. Unsuccessful venture, as it turned out. Several more things, all trash, another Xbox headset, that was pretty useless. A set of walkie talkies, half or a lightbulb...wait. "There we go!" He held up the stubby antenna'd devices, tossing one over to Dash after he'd turned it on. So full batteries to boot, nice!
"The fuck, Jason, I don't know what this does." She replied.
"How often does Rarity call you obtuse?"
"Well actually she calls me unladylike. Like, you know, when I burp in the middle of a dinner with my friends, or like that time I got covered with mud and then walked into her boutique. She said something stupid after that, like 'I didn't think I had to tell you, Rainbow Dash!' Urgh. At least I can make fun of her now that the 'unlikable' Dash got a colt friend."
"She called you that?" Jason asked, rather surprised that Rarity wouldn't find something like that unladylike.
"Well, not to my face, anyway. It's not like I cared, I kinda didn't try to start relationships for a while."
"I guess there still isn't a moment quite like the time where you get to say 'I told you so' to Rarity, huh?"
"You don't know the half of it."
"I don't want to ruin your conversation here," Evening began, "but can we talk about something where I can generate input?"
"Uh, sure. I gotta test these." He turned his own on, getting up and trotting to the door. "Stay here, I'm going to be just over there."
"But how can--" Dash started, only to be cut off by Jason leaving the tent. She deadpanned and poked her head out through the exit in time to see Jason take off and disappear over a tent. Dash sighed and shook her head, not understanding where this was--
"Hello, does anyone read?" Came the indisputable voice of Jason, lower than his usual tone of voice and laced with static. Evening jumped, putting a fair amount of distance between herself and the thing.
"How do I work this?" Dash asked, looking at the labels of various buttons.
"Press the call button, Dash." Came Jason's reply. So he must've been listening... She snuck over to the exit of the tent before lunging outside.
"Aha!" A few ponies turned and stared, including a few pegasi that were bringing a cart over. She looked around before making a full circle around the tent, even checking in case he had planted himself on top. Dash looked down and fumbled with the device for a moment before finding the call button and holding it down. The box made a noise that sounded kind of happy. What kind of thing was this anyway?
"Dash...I know where you live..."
She held down the talk button again, looked around and moved her muzzle closer. "Hello? Jason?"
"Ah, so it works! Good!" She moved her hoof away and stared, before she heard a pop and felt a slight gust of air, and Jason appeared in front of their tent. She couldn't stop herself from jumping, it was always so strange to see a pony just appear like that. Especially when he didn't have the bright flare that Twilight always boasted.
She couldn't be sure if it was part of changeling magic or not. It always seemed to work the same, spells could be carried out to the same degree, but applications always differed. Twilight had mentioned immediately after the wedding that part of a changeling's ambient magic could block tracking spells to a high degree, making them all but impossible to find. Something she'd used to a great extent in the weeks following.
Funny, if Twilight'd used one of the spells for her while they were separated, it would've worked, and none of this would've happened. The limited magical disturbances that the Everfree created would've been a cakewalk. Or had she known? That seemed a little far fetched. How could she possibly have known, especially if her first impulse would've been to freak out? All the evidence had shown that they were threats, so why had they managed to go unnoticed?
Fuck if she knew, it could've been a bunch of flukes, for all she knew. Their whole existence seemed to be a whole bunch of luck, in a way. Neither of them had died, and they at least seemed fairly happy despite the hive mind and the war. And let's not forget that annoying part of her mind tittered. And soul magic. At least that problem had a chance of resolving itself, Luna was apparently working on that, and she knew more than Twilight when it came to old magic.
"Hey Jason?" She said as she walked inside the tent with him. "Are you happy? With all of this, the hive mind? All of it?"
He thought for a moment. "With just that, or are you included?"
"Everything."
"I'd say I'm happy. I'm glad that I have you, and I can feel a fair amount of pride knowing that we got this far, even if it is a war." He sat down on the bed, facing the two mares. "You know that game we were playing yesterday? How long do you think that war lasted?"
"I dunno, couple months?" Dash asked. "You went pretty far there, it couldn't have taken that long."
"You're right, but who said that was the beginning of the war?"
"But, how did they have all those guys left?"
"The world's a big place, Dash. World War II lasted five years, about eleven months."
Dash shook her head. "How could it take that long?"
"Well, you know how we fight with spears and knives?"
"Yeah."
"Well imagine adding three other means of fighting, by sea, by air, and using armor on land."
"We use armor, Jason." Evening piped up, crossing her arms and shifting her sitting position. "We're covered in it, as it turns out."
"I mean tanks. You thought I just made up the name Tank?"
"Well, tank of water, tank of fish..." Dash gestured to show that there were further examples.
"Ah." He grabbed his computer out of his saddlebag, realizing with some amusement that he hadn't used it in a fairly long time. "So, this is a picture of a modern day tank, which just so happens to be the best tank in the world. It's American, just because I feel like telling you." He swiveled the computer around to give them a look.
"So that's the Abrams, this next one is something that the Germans used in World War II, a tank that was far ahead of its time."
"It looks pretty primitive Jason, I dunno..." Dash said with a smile. "That big barrel's a gun?"
"Yup. So that's armor for you. A little more complicated then what we have, Evening."
"Yeah, you could say that." She replied.
"What were we talking about before this?" Dash asked, rubbing at an eye. They didn't really look that big until she did something like that, Jason mused. "Going through stuff, right?"
"Yeah." He chuckled. "Out of all the stuff I can explain here, I can't explain why our eyes work."
"Why, they look like they would work fine!" Evening retorted. "I mean, I can't see them, but--"
"No, not compound eyes, these things Dash has."
"What's wrong with my eyes?!" She said, a slight hint of worry in her voice.
"Nothing! But unless you have fewer light receptors in the back of your eye, you should have brilliant night vision."
"Why?"
"Because your pupils are so huge, it lets a lot of light in."
"Ah, well if you had that theory, how did it take you so long to--"
"I just came up with it, actually." He scratched the back of his head. "Magic wasn't that tough, the only unknown I have is how unicorns move their energy. It's all forces, as far as I can tell, and it seems to draw on energy in the same way doing the motion normally would."
"I don't think science applies to magic, Jason." Dash said, smirking.
"But it does, that's the thing! Why should things be any different? Everything works the same, as far as I can tell. You just do something with clouds that I cant figure out. And the whole changeling thing. But I'm close, at least."
"Why do you try?" She replied with a laugh. "I've told you a million times you're never going to find out."
"Just humor me Dash." He was silent for a few more seconds before he closed the computer's lid and got up, moving over to the remaining junk. He sifted through, nothing of much interest, as far as he could see. Half a shoe, that was interesting. A ping pong paddle, string from a tennis racket. He pulled out a beer bottle and a bottle rocket, turning around to face them with a smile.
"Explosives?" Dash asked.
"Explosives." He replied.
"But that doesn't look like it'd do anything!" Evening sifted through the garbage and pulled out a box of matches, laughing evilly.
"They're just matches, calm down." Jason said, sliding the stick of the rocket into the beer bottle. Actual beer would be nice...
"You're so easy to screw with." Evening said, rolling around on her back.
"So basically," He said, ignoring the other mare. "You light this fuse and it goes up and explodes. It's not a big firework so it's kinda lackluster."
"No biggie, it'll be cool to see a nonmagical firework."
"I dunno, yours are always perfect, these need to explode that way." She nodded, walking over to the box again.
"So, you gonna tell us what this thing is?" She asked, pointing down at the curved polycarbonate shield.
"It's called a riot shield. Looks like it's military, so it probably blocks bullets."
"How can it do that, you can't even see those things!"
"Don't ask me, I--do you smell smoke?" He turned around and watched as the bottle rocket's fuse disappeared and it sailed through the roof, leaving a smoldering hole behind. A muffled pop was heard, followed by a screech, and then the day was quiet again.
"Ha, wow that was awesome!" Evening yelled in perfect sync with Dash.
Jason deadpanned. "You guys are so obvious." The bottle rocket streaked back through the roof, leaving another hole a few feet away as it bounced off of Evening's head. The tent went silent for a moment before they all broke out into laughter, making more noise than what should have been necessary. Jason was the first to calm, and pulled Evening to her hooves.
"Evening, ha-I gotta fix this before we leave. Is it okay if I call you back?"
Her face became somber in an instant before turning to a slight smile. "Sure, sorry about that."
"It's not a big deal, shouldn't take too-hee long to fix."
"Mind if I take this?" She picked up a walkie talkie. "You can just contact me this way."
"Yeah, that's fine. See ya." Evening laughed and waved, heading out the exit rather quickly. Jason turned his attention to Dash, who was trying and failing to recover from her laughing fit. Jason sighed, not unhappily, and picked up a pair of scissors in his magic. He floated them up to the roof and cut a rather large square hole, taking out the burnt circles. How a little firework had managed to burn through fabric was beyond him, but at least it hadn't rebounded and blown up inside the tent, that wouldn't have ended well.
Jason sat down and tried to look through the hole, although the sun was shining through and obscuring his view. He started to grow warm in the light, and laid down to bask in the feeling. It was a kind of indirect warmth, like a toned down version of laying out in the sun as a human. And it felt amazing. He must've just not had time for this prior, or maybe he'd just never thought through the advantages of fur. He didn't have it most of the time anyway.
"Jason, what're you doing?" Dash asked, moving over and eclipsing some of the brilliant sunlight.
"Mhrmf." He mumbled. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Lying in the sun. Why didn't you tell me that this felt so good?"
"Because you never asked, and we were busy anyway."
"We weren't those days in Ponyville..." He paused. "You're blocking the sun."
"Fine, would you rather I do this?" Jason tensed and prepared for the worst, throwing a protective hoof between his legs. "Wha? What did you expect, Jason?"
"The worst." He mumbled, letting his body slacken. She laid down in front of him, laying her head over his shoulder.
"Hopefully this isn't the worst case scenario, right?"
"It could be worse." He chuckled, although it only came out as a shaky breath. "What you said before about being happy, I am."
"Glad to hear it." She said, her mane spreading out over his chest and spilling down his back. It tingled slightly, and his mouth curved into a smile. What was a nap anyway, he was pretty sure Evening could wait. She'd been the one to instigate the hole in the roof that felt oh so amazing. Jason brought up a hoof and put it around Dash's shoulders, drawing her up on himself slightly as he drifted off.
__________________________________________________________
Jason woke up in the same tent, snapped awake by a feeling of cold that tingled down his back. Funny, he'd remembered that it was fairly warm in the tent when he'd fallen asleep. He also remembered that Dash was there. Ah well, she could've woken up before him and--Oh sweet Jesus.
He stared out the front of the tent, before wiping his eyes and trying again. Yup, he was definitely on a floating rock right now. Over what appeared to be a rather beautiful spiral galaxy. It was all rather surreal--well of course it was, it was a fucking dream, what was he supposed to expect?
But the fact that he was having these all the time was starting to worry him. How could he possibly expect to feel rested when his brain was creating this--thing in his head every day? It's not like it wasn't realistic either. Well, he could see the galaxy rotate, that wouldn't happen that quickly, but most other things seemed the same.
"Jason, where the hell'd you get this?" Dash asked from behind him.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!!" He jumped and turned around, raising a hoof before he noticed it was her.
"Didn't you just recognize my voice?" She asked, looking a little downtrodden.
He deadpanned. "I don't think I thought about it that hard."
"So which one of you is the dreamer?" Another voice asked, before Luna walked up and over the side of the rock. "Not only are you asleep in the day, but here you are, in a dream I can only partially control, and I don't even know who's dreaming." She started to walk closer, examining the surrounding environment and looking closely at Dash.
"Dreams are usually only two dimensional, all content is a series of one sided shapes facing the dreamer. Outside of the dreamscape the away facing walls are see through. So inform us-we-me of how it's possible for you to dream in three dimensions."
"Well, um." He tapped a hoof on the ground, looking back at the tent as Evening emerged. "What-Jason?" She said, looking like her brain was going to melt for a second. "You fell asleep, you were supposed to get me!"
"Well you fell asleep too..."
"Yeah, but I-I thought that was a close proximity thing! I don't want to be in your weird, messed up--Oh, that's pretty." She looked down over the side of the boulder and let out a coo of amazement.
"That's another question, how, pray tell, do you know what a galaxy looks like? Pony telescopes can only see in so much detail, Jorgensen."
"Uh, Jason." He replied, slightly nervously.
"Yes, forgive me. So, your explanation, including the part about why she's a changeling?"
"How did you--" He met Luna's glare and looked away after a few seconds. "You're familiar with the changeling system of the hive mind?" He started, figuring being honest was probably best. He really didn't want to explain the galaxy, and hopefully she wouldn't press it.
"Yes, I am aware of it, a vile system used by Chrysalis if I'm correct." She looked up absentmindedly and rearranged a few stars in the dreamscape.
"So...well..."
Evening sighed and spoke up. "He's a changeling, all changelings possess some degree of a hive mind, he's stronger than the rest, and it's expanding. It started with just Dash, apparently, but now I'm stuck here, apparently tied to this thing until I break the bond. It's not hostile, he'll probably never develop the same kind of control Chrysalis has over her minions. It's just confined to dreams and apparently slight influxes of love, although maybe you don't know what I mean by that."
"And I don't want to take over other ponies either." Jason affirmed. Dash trotted over and threw her hooves around his neck, looking up at the princess with wide eyes as Luna lost herself in thought.
"I have come to mine-my decision." She announced, in a rather royal fashion, even without the old Canterlot tongue. "I believe thou ponyfeathers you, clearly this isn't a real threat as it is. But given how little control I still have here, I will be coming by to check up on things. You may say that you don't want to control other ponies, but at some point it may no longer be your decision."
"Okay, I'll try not to go crazy." Jason confirmed with a goofy smile, tipping an imaginary hat to the princess. "How are things on the case with soul magic, if you don't mind me asking?"
She sighed. "Slow. There are only so many leads a pony like him leads. I've investigated most of them, but it's tough to get information when the ponies at the ends don't know anything. The only one that may have had something killed himself." She paused, looking over at Evening again, who was bouncing around happily. "So the changeling?"
"Oh yeah, she's friendly, don't worry." Dash spoke up. "Broke away from Chrysalis and actually saved a pony in Canterlot before we found her in the forest. Her name's Evening Glory by the way, and with all the information she's given us I can honestly say she earned her keep."
"She doesn't appear particularly evil, I'll give you that much." Luna giggled, watching Evening pounce on a rock that the princess was moving around in her magic.
"Yeah..." Jason replied slowly. "She's pretty weird, but I guess that's to be expected."
"How did she fare under the hive mind?" Luna asked after a long silence.
"She went partially insane. I think she's fixed now though." Jason shivered, finally noticing that he wasn't in the same furry form he'd been in previously. Weird how he'd reverted to a changeling and Evening hadn't.
"This dream's starting to become unstable." Luna commented. "So until next time, I suppose." She took off into the air before she presumably left the dream. The other rocks that were floating around started to crumble and spread as the galaxy below pixelated itself before disappearing. A few more moments passed before the entire dream became black.
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Jason woke up with a slight shiver, noticing almost immediately that the sun square had moved off of their bodies, and was now only touching on one of Dash's back hooves. Jason floated over a pillow and replaced himself, slightly surprised that she hadn't woken up at the same time he had. He started to gather things up, carefully moving the instruments into the buggy that was parked outside.
He had to be careful at this point, they were accumulating too much stuff for him to just shove it in and forget. He stuck the instruments as far to one side as he could, before tying them in place with some rope. He went back for a second trip, noticing that Dash seemed to be waking up. Jason walked over and bent down, planting a kiss on her forehead. She giggled and shifted, batting a hoof at him playfully before she opened her eyes and looked up.
"Packing, are we?" She yawned, putting a hoof to her mouth and striking a cute pose as she lightly bit down.
"Yeah, which probably means that you'll get out of doing anything."
"Do I need to act cuter?"
"You could...But Evening's going to probably invite herself over in a couple minutes." He walked out and packed in Dash's armor and their other random...things. He'd just shoved those in a box and forgot about it. Eventually he'd need them, and at least they were all in one place. He returned to the tent and started packing the last of the stuff into saddlebags, the knives, the computer, pretty much everything he was too lazy to move.
"Do you think what Luna said was worrying?" Dash asked, getting up from the floor and tossing the cloud pillow back towards the bed, where it was absorbed. "Dammit, I just made that one too."
"Oh yeah, because it was so very hard for you to make that first one. And no, it wasn't really that worrying, she hasn't run through all her leads from what she was saying."
"Well then I guess--"
"Jason!" Evening yelled as she walked in. "Why would you let the princess into your dream? You know how hard it was to act innocent?"
"Well given the fact that your whole life was pretty much acting...no."
"Why are you always so meeeeeaaaaan??"
"Because it's my hobby. You probably just came here to play that thing anyway." He pointed at the Xbox. "Dash, you're on my team, I challenge you, Evening!" He yelled melodramatically.
"But that's two against one, how's that fair?"
"I can get other people on there that are computer players."
She paused for a moment, looking at Jason for any sign of lies or blasphemy. "Fine. You're on."