//------------------------------// // Conversations and Comrades // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Conversations and Comrades "Having trouble with the number?" Ferris asked. "Having trouble counting this many zeros." Jason replied. "Okay, well this is your actual bill." Ferris replied, chuckling as he handed Jason a new piece of paper. "God dammit Ferris." Jason said angrily, grasping the new page. "Ah, I can pay this. I figured it'd be higher, a hundred fifty bits isn't that much. Considering." "A hundred fifty!" Dash exclaimed, looking flabbergasted. "Well he made all the bullets by hoof, and the bombs, and the ring." "Yeah, okay. I guess I can see that." "I figured with all the defense contracts I got, just for blades alone, it's a little discount I'm giving you. I'd be happy to give you a commission if you'd let me market those explosives." "I can get you a contract, but nothing goes without my say so. Or hers." He finished, pointing to Dash. "I don't want any of this leaking to criminals. I'm fine with guns going around so long as there's free access, I can't stop bad guys from getting those forever. But I just want to keep everyone on equal ground." "Besides the griffins?" Ferris asked back, his old face wrinkling as he grinned. "Yeah, but we've pulled in all that territory now, for better or for worse." "So we'll have immigrants?" He asked, his grin growing. "Why's that make you so happy?" Dash asked. "They've got a new body shape, it should be easy enough to make a new market of weapons, even as my biggest sales die out with the war." "Do you have kids?" Dash asked. "I did, they've moved out a long time ago. Wife died ten years back, unfortunately." He sighed. "But I guess that's the way things go, right?" "Yeah, exactly." Jason replied, looking guilty. Ferris reached over and tapped the paper, making him jump. "So just get this to me whenever, and see about that contract. It's a pleasure doing business with you." Jason chuckled. "It's always good to meet a die hard capitalist like you, immediately seeing a new market in the new population." "Bigotry's expensive." He replied with a shrug, and they all shared a laugh. "So when's the wedding, if you have it set up?" "Wish I could say we did." Dash said with a slight blush. "Pinkie said she'd do it, and so long as it isn't all pink and stuff I'm fine with that. But I dunno, I'm stuck between wanting to plan all that and just laying around." "I know the feeling." The blacksmith replied, accenting the end of his sentence with a cough and a puff of soot. "So should I wear my one and only tux?" "Are you trying to invite yourself? What is this?" Dash asked, laughing as she poked his neck. "But yeah, you'd definitely be invited." "I can't tell you how nice it's been, knowing you." Jason said. "You've made everything go a lot smoother, that's for damn sure." "I'm just glad to help. Back when I was an older colt, I had a problem a lot like yours. My wife wasn't a changeling, but the races didn't always get along, and it hasn't been that long since they have. A Pegasus with an earth pony like her... Well you can imagine I didn't want to let any of my family know. And the same with hers. It wasn't some romantic run away crap though, just a secret that stayed through almost a year before I took a job as an apprentice to a blacksmith, and as soon as I got my own smith I paid her way out here." "Huh, I didn't know things were like that around here." "I'm sure you had your race problems." "Well yeah, but those were more grounded, I guess. I mean, you've always had your benevolent leaders, that should've ruled something like that out, but we really didn't." He paused. "Anyway, I'll get that to you today or tomorrow, alright?" "Or later, I don't need the money all that much." "Well I still don't feel good owing money." He said, turning to leave. Dash bid another goodbye before exiting and nudging Jason in the side impatiently. "Food." She said, pointing down the street towards the market. "I want food." "Dash hungry! Me fix problem!" Jason laughed back, making her blush. "Come on." He broke into a trot, walking down the street and into the market square. "I'm not sure what you want, so..." He tossed her a few bits. "I'll just sit over...there." "You want something?" "If you can find some red meat, sure." He replied. "I can't tell you how much I miss that." "Shrimp sound alright?" "I guess. Nothing's greasy, that's the other problem." Jason finished, walking over to a bench and letting himself fall backwards onto the wooden surface. He looked around at the crowd, watching Dash's prismatic mane bob around from stall to stall. "Hey Jason!" Octavia exclaimed, sliding onto the bench next to him. "How come you're not...disguised?" "I dunno, I'm kinda sick of it. I know I should, but- I feel like I shouldn't have to, I guess." He sighed. "So how have things been for you?" "Well, I performed in Canterlot after they rebuilt the concert hall, for the grand reopening. You have a lot of statues there, it was pretty cool. Apparently they think you're pretty darn important over there." "Yeah, it's nice. It seems like as soon as ponies actually fight in the same army, opinions change in my favor. I'm not sure what exactly they don't like, whether it's the brutality or just the changeling thing. It's probably a little of both." "You're pretty big, and covered in scars too." The gray mare pointed out. "So's Dash, actually. How much did you get cut up?" "Enough." Jason replied, shrugging. "I'm not sure how many griffins I've killed personally, but it's probably over two hundred, at least. I'm not trying to brag, I didn't like doing it. But on the same card, I didn't hesitate to make things bloody." There was a long pause. "How much did it change you?" She asked, barely above a whisper. "I'd like to say it didn't, but I still see it when I close my eyes. And the habits might never go away, I've checked my back about a million times, and I'm always on edge, at least a little." "Your friends are still gone, that could be why." "It could be some of it. But the stress on those missions, the burst of adrenaline from something as small as a breaking twig, it starts to get to you. I'm not surprised one of the members of the other team went crazy. But it's not like they had to deal with half the stuff we went through. Well, most of us..." He sighed. "I'm sorry, you probably don't want to hear any of this." "That's not it, I'd rather you had somepony to share all that with. I know you have Dash, and she probably understands this a lot better than you do, but it's not like I don't know how you feel, at least a little. Canterlot wasn't always such a safe city." Jason looked up and smiled. "Thanks." "I'm back!" Dash yelled, dropping a bag of food from her back. "Hey Octavia." She looked over at Jason. "I already ate some stuff, so whatever you want to do now is fine. I mean, we need to get this food back eventually, and you should probably eat the shrimp..." "You want to come back to my house?" Octavia asked. "We could play something." "I wish, but we left our instruments in- near the capitol." Dash replied, squishing herself against Jason's other side. "It's no matter, I'd like to catch up, and it's not like I really know that much about either of you as it is." "Ha, ya..." Jason mused. "Secrecy..." Dash elbowed him in the side. "I'm sorry, but everything's classified." He got elbowed again. "You have sharp elbows..." He complained, rubbing his arm slightly. "Yeah, well if you're going to eat this, I suggest you do it now." She said, placing a bag on his lap. "It's not like these things are totally fresh to begin with, this far from the coast." "Are you sure they're safe?" "Meh, you have a stomach of steel anyway. If it's bad you can just throw it up." "Is this a conversation you have regularly?" Octavia asked, looking slightly disgusted as she stood up. "You coming?" "Sure." Dash replied, pulling Jason to his hooves. "You're heavy." "So're you." She frowned, and he chuckled. "I never said you were fat, but running around like that for all this time's made you quite the muscle bound mare. I like that." "As long as I don't get too muscular, I guess." "Why wouldn't you want to?" Jason asked as they started to walk. "It's not like it isn't just highlighting the beauty you already have." She blushed. "And you're nowhere near body builder proportions, I don't even think ponies can get that way. But man, you should see some of the pictures of humans that got like that." He let out a whistle. "But anyway, I don't want a trophy wife, if I did I wouldn't have picked you. If I even had a choice." "Aww." Dash said. "God, that was supposed to be flirtatious?" Octavia asked. "Maybe you have been around that war too long." "Shush, you're ruining the moment." Dash whispered angrily, before she leaned over and pushed her muzzle against Jason's. "By this point he's pretty much teased or flirted with me in every way possible." He shrugged, vocalizing a chuckle. "I try to be original." "Hey Octavia! Hey Jason!" Lyra took a deep breath, that he could hear even though she was a ways away. "Hey Dash!" "Real smooth Lyra." BonBon muttered, trotting over with the mint colored mare as she stuck out her tongue in response. "So what're you three doing?" Lyra asked, none of her energy lost. "I was going to invite them over, maybe chat for a while." Octavia responded. "You're free to tag along, if you want." "Do you hear that, Bon Bon? We get to go inside her house!" "I had her test candy this morning." Bon Bon explained. "And this afternoon." The other three nodded understandingly, before Octavia giggled and started trotting off again. "You know, Evening acts a lot like you, Lyra." Jason said. "That's kinda cool if she got it from me." She responded, bouncing into the air before she resumed her normal trot. It wasn't a long trip to Octavia's house, and as soon as they walked inside she herded them over to a circular table and said something about getting food before she left the room. "Is this going to become another of my famous monologues?" Jason asked, as his table mates shrugged. "Too bad, I'm becoming fond of those." He chuckled as Dash nudged into him, joining his laugh with a giggle of her own. "I think you just like to hear yourself talk." "Now that's not it at all..." He said, rifling through the bag and pulling out his seafood. One quick taste bud change later, he started almost shoveling them into his mouth, for some reason not expecting a taste. But there it was, slightly salty and chewy, with that sweet taste in the background. "But god damn, I love these things." "You eat meat?" Bon Bon asked. "Yeah, where've you been? Humans are omnivores, so beef, chicken, it's all in there somewhere." He sighed. "Oh man, it's so delicious. And my favorite meat was pony meat." He said, staring across the table as the mare stiffened. "I kid of course. Horses are more useful for moving people and as pack animals, although they don't have any degree of intelligence. I feel like I've said this a lot." "You have." Dash confirmed, looking a little bored. Or maybe tired, although her emotions said she was probably a little of both. "So, ask away, I guess." There was a fairly long silence. "So what do you do for a job now?" Bon Bon asked as Octavia walked back in, distributing glasses of water around. "We command troops on a broad scale, and we'll probably be taking part in peace talks in a couple days. I guess we're on call if the military needs us, and I guess I can easily say that we're the best there is." "Ooh, you're modest." Lyra jibed. "He's being serious, we really are." "Probably somewhere around fifth in the chain of command of the nation as well. So if Celestia, Shining, Luna, Cadence, and possibly Twilight go, we're right up there. I'm not so sure about Twilight, I feel like she'd freak out over something small." "That's pretty cool though!" Lyra exclaimed. "It's like you're royalty or something." "Oh please, I'd rather get voted in." "Huh?" "Oh yeah, you don't really elect any pony, do you?" She still looked confused. "Everybody casts a vote in my country, or at least everyone willing to go do that. And through a system of semi-proportional electoral votes, people choose the president. He could easily become a tyrant, so that's why the founders made the constitution, to protect rights of speech, to guns, and so on, along with the other two branches of government, which divide up the rest of the federal power. Everything else goes to the fifty states." "Well how's he supposed to do anything with all those checks?" Lyra asked. "He's not powerful that way!" "I wouldn't say that." Jason said with a chuckle. "Equestria could technically be occupied legally, that's only a movement of troops. But if you did something to tip us off, well, this place could be a smoking crater in a few hours. Or we could fly robots over and only take out Celestia." "Why would you want to do that?" Octavia asked. "I wouldn't, I'm just saying. A robot is an inorganic thing that is able to think for itself to a degree, although soldiers behind televisions tell it to fire and stuff." "How does that even work?" Lyra asked. Jason shrugged. "It's all classified, I can't know for sure." He ate another shrimp. "Hey, how do you eat meat as a human?" The aquamarine mare continued, gesturing to his food. "I guess I chew it?" "No, I mean... do you just rip it off the bone?" "Oh, no, not at all. Ranches raise cattle, then they get slaughtered and chopped up, after they're dead for the record, and then you just go to a supermarket and buy some stuff. Pretty much everything gets used in the long run, and that's kinda cool. The thing about giant businesses is that byproducts start to bring in pretty large amounts of money, and competition forces those same businesses to research making things from the whole cow, or chicken, or whatever." "But how do you-" "Oh yeah, forks and knives. And we cook it, by the way." "Ah." "He gave me some beef jerky, and I have to say, it was pretty good." Dash said, taking a sip of water as the other ponies stared. "Why?" Bon Bon asked. "The cow was already dead, and Jason always talks about how he wants meat, so..." There was a knock at the door, and Octavia got up. "Just a moment!" She yelled, looking like she was trying to figure out who would come before she opened the door. Jason floated over Octavia's bass guitar from its place against the wall and set it on the table, tightening the amplifier wires as they bridged the distance. "Man, I want to play something." Jason mumbled. "So unbelievably badly." "Yeah, me too." Dash replied with a sigh, brushing a hoof across one of his ears. "But hey, it'll be here soon, right?" "Jason, Dash, somepony's here for you." Octavia said, stepping back from the door. Jason looked over and froze, his slight grin disappearing as he caught sight of the two guards at the door. "Is there a problem?" He asked, his mouth dry. "I'm not going back this soon." The pony seemed nervous, his armor clinking as he tried to reply. "I-it's not that, but Flut-" He looked at his buddy, whispering a few words. "Fluttershy told us you'd be here." "Okay..." Dash urged, looking fairly white faced. "So we left your stuff out in the town square." The other stallion stepped forward. "Shining Armor said to tell you that he'd found a griffin named Sartos and a pony codenamed Hunter. Everypony else is still MIA, but they had contact until four in the morning the day the king was killed." Jason and Dash both let out competing sighs, as she bumped her hoof against his. "Told you." She said. "Where are they now?" Jason asked, trying to get the slight lump out of his throat as it formed. "In the army camp, as far as I know." "Well then you're good to go." Jason replied, watching the ponies retreat out the door. There was a short silence, as Jason strummed at the bass. "So, you wanna go play something Octavia?" "Aren't you just going to come back here?" "That implies that we'll need to wait longer." "But, there're all the ponies there." "So what? You scared?" "No! I just-" She sighed. "Which ones?" "You still got the songs I wrote out?" He asked, watching her nod and disappear into another room. "So more heavy metal?" Dash queried, tapping her hooves on the table to a rhythm only she could hear. "Actually, I had something different in mind. It's not like I have to play that stuff all the time." "Oh yeah, thanks again for playing that thing for us, you two." Bon Bon said, smiling broadly. "It made things a lot easier." "It's not a big deal." Dash replied, "Seriously though, it wasn't." "Whatever you say... It still means a lot though." Octavia walked back in, thrusting a stack of papers into Jason's hooves as he picked up the amplifier in his magic. "So... which ones?" "Um..." He walked over to the door, still shifting the pages around in front of his face. "You want to get moving? I can tell you when we get there." "Can we come?" Lyra asked, and Jason deadpanned. "Of course you can." He trotted out the door, pulling a sheet from the pile as he made the amp catch up, along with the bass and microphone. It was funny, he'd never been this excited about anything besides getting home for a while, and he could swear he already felt the strings under his hoof. He touched at the wing, still hanging around his neck as Dash caught up, nuzzling her head under his chin. "Are you as excited as I am?" She asked. "I'm not sure why, but I really can't wait to do this." "Yeah, same here." "Well if it was anywhere near as awesome as before, I don't think you have anything to worry about!" Lyra exclaimed, still clearly on her sugar high. "How much candy did you test?" Octavia asked. "Not... that much." She said, suddenly looking guilty. Jason chuckled, speeding up his pace. "Whatever you say." It wasn't a long trot to the square, where surely enough, the buggy had been set down, and still had several guards standing around, devoid of spears. Jason waved to one of them, and he stepped aside to reveal the entrance. Dash hopped inside, looking around for a few moments as Jason pulled out another two songs and handed them to Octavia. "That's our set, you practiced those, right?" "Yeah, of course. It was a little lonely without you or your fiancé around." The gray mare replied, as Dash stuck out a hoof to signal that she wanted his help. He looked inside and levitated out the amplifier and his guitar, pulling out the drums shortly after and setting them up. "So, which songs?" Dash asked, grabbing the papers from Octavia. "Oh, thought you were going to play these eventually. "Yeah." He replied with a huge grin, plugging in his guitar. "I really like the solos of the second two, not that the rest of the songs aren't bad themselves. Now get on those drums, let's play some music." "Oh, I'm way ahead of you." She said, playing out a quick beat to test the drums, as Jason strummed his guitar, tuning one of the strings, as a short silence ensued. Jason held down a few strings with his magic, taking a deep breath before he started to play the opening riff. Jason watched with a goofy smile as the surrounding ponies stopped their tasks, becoming curious to the foreign sounding music. And with how loud these amps were, the town square wasn't the only place within earshot. Lyra seemed to be enjoying it, trying to mimic Jason's guitar playing with the air, while Bon Bon rolled her eyes. After a few minutes, the song came to an end, and Jason felt almost as if some stress had just lifted as he looked over a sea of exited faces. Not that music hadn't already helped with stress. He chuckled and smiled wider, gesturing to the others to get ready to start the next song. "Glad to see you ponies enjoyed it." He said, pausing for a moment. "Hope I can keep it up." He continued as another opening riff rang out. It surprised him that the words came so easily, that the notes could all be remembered like the words of a sentence or a mental picture. He almost forgot about everything that still threatened his existence, all the pain and trials, something that he'd only been able to do when he felt safe in Dash's hooves. He looked over the crowd again, picking out those he knew, and watching Twilight stare, allowing herself a smile as she tapped her hoof against the ground. Some ponies seemed to love the music, really appearing to get into their dancing and frolicking. A fair number of others just looked on, and he knew that some may have left. But it felt nice, all these ponies that didn't seem to hold a grudge. Jason caught sight of his daughter and Evening, followed by the other crusaders as he strummed out the opening notes of the guitar solo, watching her young eyes light up. He really loved this guitar line, it had to be one of his favorites. But all too soon, as if the song had been only a minute, the melody ended and the strings slowed their resonation. Cheering rang out as he trotted over to Dash, giving her an exited hoof-bump. "Nice one." He said, watching her nod with a slight giggle as Jason walked back over to the mic, almost buzzing with excitement. "Did you like that last one?" He asked, receiving a near-deafening cheer in return. He chuckled. "Alright, one more. I don't usually dedicate songs, but this one's to my daughter." Jason said, watching Scoots' eyes light up as she excitedly tapped at Applebloom. Jason grinned and let out a slight chuckle, strumming the characteristic notes to the next song. Damn, that guitar solo. It had to be another of his favorites. Rarity was trying to say something, although Jason couldn't make it out over the crowd's noise. He took a few steps forward and tilted his ear towards her mouth, as she tried again. "Could I make a request?" "You could, but I don't know any of the music around here." "I just wanted to know if you had any love songs." Jason was about to make a sarcastic response before he stopped, giving her a nod as he walked back to the others, grabbing the papers in his magic again. "Change of plans!" He yelled over the noise, louder than he had expected from the number of ponies present. "We're doing this one." "But we haven't played that one all that much." Dash said, although her expression didn't falter. "I think we can handle it. Plus, it's a request." He said with an overly exaggerated shrug, before he turned back around. "Hopefully I can sing this one." "You're too hard on yourself about that, I'm sure it'll be fine." "I guess we'll see." Jason replied with a laugh. "Alright, I was going to end it there, but I'm finishing with a different song, and taking the time to dedicate it to my fiancé, who's currently on the drums." He watched Dash blush heavily, as a few ponies seemed a little taken aback. He could care less, besides her reddened face, the sky blue mare seemed to enjoy the attention. Not that he could tell from how she looked, but the emotions sure helped. "So without further ado, here goes nothing." Jason said, altering a few dials on the amplifier and overdrive pedal, hoping that the song would come out generally how it sounded before. There were only so many things he could do with a guitar. As the song drew on, he realized that the vocals seemed to come more easily than he remembered, like he'd finally become relaxed enough to just let them fly. Of course, his hoof was pretty much a slide by itself, so that made the solo fairly easy. Apparently this body still had its advantages towards human technology. His eyes caught on a mare behind the crowd, staring straight at him as he finished the words to the song. She was plastered with a mixture of gore and mud, and seemed to let out a heavy sigh as soon as her eyes met his. But Jason's reaction was the complete opposite. It only took him a moment to see through the grime, focus on her fear and rage, know who it was directed towards. He set down the guitar, leaning it on his amp as Dash gave him a quizzical look, before seeing the same pony he had. The sound of drumsticks punctuated the air, even though the crowd's noise should have made those light sounds impossible to hear. Jason carefully pushed his way through the crowd, feeling Dash catch up, her emotions a slur as well. As soon as he broke free the mare hit him, wrapping his neck in a hug. "Oh my god, I'm so glad that you're okay, both of you!" She yelled, tears washing away the grime as they filtered down her cheeks, only to be joined by his own. "Morning, thank god. You're alive." It took him a moment before he realized the obvious follow up question. "Where are the others?"