//------------------------------// // Progress // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Progress "Why don't you just go back?" Scoots asked quietly. "You came here, shouldn't it work both ways?" "I still don't know why I ended up here. There's got to be a fucking reason why I'm not even human and I didn't die, but for the life of me I can't tell you what that is. Everything's got a reason, maybe figuring out how I got here will help me figure a way back." He sighed. That was a big maybe. Dash squeezed more tightly, at least succeeding in making Jason feel a little better. "If anypony can do it, it'd have to be you, Jason." Dash whispered into his ear. "You're way stronger than anypony expected you to be." "Even you?" He asked, absent-mindedly playing with one of her ears. "I guess..." She mumbled. "But it's not like I haven't surprised myself." Jason chuckled at that, leaning over to kiss her before extracting himself from the hug. "I think we should get going, Scoots seemed pretty excited about going to Canterlot again." "Well we need to wake up Evening first, if she's still alive." Dash continued. "Yeah, I have a few tricks." Jason left the room for a moment, returning with a bucket of water. He threw it over the mare, watching it sink into the cloud floor as she shot up, letting out a scream as she crossed her arms across her chest. A few seconds of looking around went by before she put a hoof to her head and groaned, staring at it for a second before she replaced a patch of missing green fur. "Alcohol sucks." She moaned. "I've never had such a bad headache in my entire life." "I'm not sure if I can do much for headaches." Jason said, before he picked up a second bucket that he'd brought in. "But you should drink up if you feel like you can, it'll make you feel better." "You sure?" "Yeah, now come on, we have to leave for Canterlot in a little bit." He said, walking into the kitchen as she raised the bucket to her lips. Jason grabbed some greens, tossing them into a bag before placing them inside his saddlebag. He gathered a few smaller things before returning to the other room. "Can you fly, Evening?" Dash asked. "Maybe, I'm not opening my eyes any more though." She muttered, grabbing a pair of shades from a nearby table. "Alright, let's go." "Good, alright." Jason replied, walking out the door and into Dash's front yard. He stared at the far off spires of Canterlot in the distance, already lost in thought. "Hey Dash, grab my arm for a sec." Jason paused. "You too Evening, I have an idea." _________________________________________________________________________ "Yeah, well what I thought was kinda cool about that movie was that it wasn't about just fighting." Lyra said, as Octavia nodded. "Sure, it had some cool explosions, and gunfights, and corpses, but it kinda had that other element that really made it something good to watch, you know what I mean?" "Didn't you have some question for Jason about that?" Morning asked. "Yeah, but I just wanted to know a little more about stuff in general. And why it's called 'The Hurt Locker' in the first place." "Ah." The other mare replied. THUD!!! The ponies all jumped, looking upwards to the source of the sound. A large rainbow circle expanded in the sky, laced with hints of black. "Is that her?!" Applejack yelled, swiveling a hoof to follow the multicolored blob across the sky. "It looks like all four of them." Twilight responded, looking more surprised than Applejack had ever seen her. "But that's a good four times the speed she normally does." A few oohs pierced the air as Dash finished a circle around he town, streaking off towards Canterlot with her other passengers. _______________________________________________ Dash strained her wings harder, feeling the slight waves coming from Jason's wings hitting her back as he held on For dear life. Evening was still attached to her other hoof, looking like she was feeling a little queasy. Canterlot was already nearing, the rather long distance easily bridged by the speeds they were moving, even though it felt the same. Actually, that wasn't true. She'd reached supersonic in no time, and then the wind resistance had started to mount, and Jason had started to lag with Scoots. It was still tons of fun though, especially as she looked down and saw the townspeople, all moving in slow motion as they went about their tasks. Dash banked to the side and steered the group around a tower, rolling past another as she started to slow down. Jason made sure that their speeds had drifted low enough before disengaging he spell and letting go of Dash's hoof. He could hear Scoots yelling over the wind, her happiness becoming contagious as their moods started to brighten. Further than traveling extremely quickly while flying had already, anyway. A few more seconds passed before they were on the ground, looking up at the huge gates to the castle that blocked its main entrance. It raised after a few moments, a little strange seeing as the thing had only ever seemed to be open. Minus the first time he'd seen it during he attack, but still. Jason paused a moment before transforming, looking at Dash's inquisitive expression as she looked over a second Bon Bon. "Why her?" She asked. "Why even at all?" "I don't want to attract attention." He cleared his throat. "Damn, this voice. Anyway, if griffins are in there they could be angry. Maybe they'll just fume or keep it to themselves, but what if they decide to attack someone? What if the first one they get to is Scoots?" Dash chewed her lip. "You may have a point here." She said, sighing. "But it's not like I can be a different pony or anything." She watched Jason extract something from his saddlebag and toss it over. "How's a hoodie going to help? There aren't too many mares with rainbow tails around. Or this spectacular of flanks, either." She finished with a smirk "I guess I have to agree with you there." Jason replied. "But are you sure your tail is rainbow?" She looked at him, a distasteful expression on her face as his horn flared. It only took her a few milliseconds to realize that he had changed something, and craned her neck to see a dark blue tail. She took a deep breath, trying not to freak out. "It's just an illusion. Reverses as soon as it runs out. Learned it last night. 'Course, it was supposed to be a light red..." Dash let out a huge sigh, before she carefully sat down and stuck her arms up, letting Jason put on the hoodie. "I wish I could just put that thing on myself." She murmured, flipping the hood over her mane. "Well, here goes, right?" "I guess so." Jason replied, reaching on top of his head to twiddle with one of Scoots' ears. She giggled a little as they started walking, looking around slowly at the marble walls as they passed several ponies, all of which were moving around busily. Celestia trotted through the door of the throne room towards them, almost missing their presence entirely until she noticed Scoots and Evening. "I trust there is a reason why you two are like this."' She said quietly. "Follow me, I'll get you four to a couple of rooms." "Thanks again." Jason replied, throwing a joking salute her way. She grinned, looking over and shaking her head. "It's absolutely no problem. You deserve a lot more than a room and some time off anyway." She paused. "So how's Ponyville treating you?" "Better, I guess." Dash answered. "Ponies don't clear out of the way quite as much when Jason goes by, and they seem to be less openly hostile, but I'm just assuming that that's the case." "I wish there was more I could do, but it's not like fear and hatred is outside the law." "Yeah." Jason replied, as they all lapsed into silence. They walked for a few minutes, arriving at a large wooden door. Celestial was the first to enter, walking past a huge bed to open a different door that led into a second bedroom. "Um." Dash said, looking around. "We don't need all of this." "Even so, it's the least I can do." She took a few steps closer. "Make yourselves at home, I'll send for you if there's something I need. But don't expect a lot." Celestia smiled and waved briefly before she turned and left, leaving the group to their new room. Scootaloo stared after her for a moment before sprinting Ito the other room. The sounds of creaking bed springs met Jason's ears as he assumed she had immediately graduated to jumping on the bed. The filly tore back out of the room a moment later, hopping onto their bed to test out its bounciness. "Come on squirt, you're messing up the covers already!" Dash yelled, shaking a hoof but not moving to take action. "I guess you'll have to stop- woah!" Jason dove into her, making sure to take the brunt of the impact as he wrapped her in his arms. She flailed her legs uselessly as they stuck up in the air, before letting them to limp. "You didn't have to be so serious about it Jason." She giggled, trying to break free again. He let her go, before quickly grabbing one of her back legs. "Try to be quiet Scoots, I'm going to try to teach your mom basic magic." The filly contorted her face in confusion before a look of realization ran across her face, and she got visibly exited. "Ooh, can I watch? Please?" She asked, hopping for hoof to hoof. "I'll be quiet, I promise!" "Sure." Jason yielded. "But we're all staying behind her in case something happens. Dash, come over here." "Oh, I'm so exited." She exclaimed, "I- wow, It just feels so cool to even be able to do magic." She felt Jason tug at the sleeves of her hoodie and allowed him to take it off. "Yeah, it's a little overrated." Jason replied. "I'd rather have flying, if I had to choose." "I don't have to choose though, which is what's so awesome." She sat down in front of Jason, grinning ear to ear. He put his arms around her chest and pulled her back into himself, looking over her shoulder. He grabbed a tennis ball from Scoots' saddlebag and tossed it across he floor, watching it come to a rest somewhere close to the middle. "So let me ask you, what went through your mind last time you used magic?" Jason asked, nuzzling lightly at the side of her neck. "I dunno, I was just so angry, and I kinda thought about throwing the table over, and then it slid like that. I've tried doing it again, but it's not like anything happened." "Anything else?" "I thought about you, but that was only for a second." "Okay, so what I do is kinda find where I'm pulling power from, and at least for me that feels like my gut, where it seems like your love goes. I kinda push it through my horn, like something I can feel almost flowing. It's like getting love in reverse, almost. Anyway, if I were to move that tennis ball, you kinda have to think like you're pushing on it from the bottom and sides. There's no such thing as a pull, just a push from the opposite side of an object. That's why you see things in full auras, because it's easy to just push from any side." "So, first step, find the energy?" "Yeah, I can't help you too much with that. It could be from the hive mind or from yourself, just expressed because of the hive mind." "Huh." She shut her eyes, willing the ball to move. It hadn't moved by the time she re-opened them, and she gave a slight sigh. "Don't worry, you'll get it." Jason said reassuringly. "We know you've done it at least once." "How long did it take you to get?" She asked. Jason scratched the back of his head nervously. "About ten minutes." Dash glared. "It's easier when I could pinpoint my energy, alright?" "What about the other stuff?" "That just seemed logical." He replied. "It can't really work without thought involved. Then again, I visualized it as using my hand he first time, so that could have been why." "Ugh, do you ever have trouble with anything?" "Like besides walking, apparently preening, landing, and some other thing I just forgot?" "Oh yeah, the walking. If you weren't human there for a day I would have just assumed that you were clumsy." "Well I am, but I still try to do things with my front legs that I would have been able to do while walking as a human, but as I realize that they won't work the same way I've already started falling. Or I trip." "Yeah, you do a lot of tripping." "Hey, not since the seventies!" "What?" Dash asked, her tone flat. "Bad joke, just move the thing." "Fine." She turned and stuck out her tongue, jerking away as Jason jokingly made to bite at it. She chucked and turned forwards again, smiling at the gentle warmth that Jason was transferring through her back. Dash focused on the ball, focused on the source of her side of the link. She knew there was energy there, and she was starting to know what it felt like. She prodded at the feelings from Jason, the line of love that was extending to him. It wasn't love she needed though, but she could feel something. It wasn't as if she knew what she was looking for. She felt something that felt like another link forming, but somehow it was different. There was no feedback, just the cool feeling of energy escaping. She tried to focus on the ball, pushing on the bottom in her mind's eye. "Almost there Dash." Jason said, watching her forehead start to give off a dull white glow. The ball rolled slightly, coming to a stop an inch away before it hopped into the air, falling after a second. The next try stayed up for a few moments as Dash's forehead furrowed, her eyes still firmly shut. "Umf." She mumbled, trying again. "Is it up yet?" "You tell me." He replied, watching her face as she carefully opened her eyes. There was the ball, a foot or so above where it had lifted off, wobbling to and fro in its white shield. Dash let it hang for a second in the silence of the room, before she twisted and wrapped Jason in a hug. "I love you, ya big goof!" She yelled, as he tried to navigate her arm away from his sore ribs. "It's such an awesome gift. The best." "I still think this wing is better, but whatever you say, Dash." "Are you kidding? You opened my mind to magic, and you honk that silly thing is still better?" "Yeah. It's like a part of you. I- god, I love it so much. It's about a million times better than you think it is." He sighed, reminiscing. "If we could just stay like this forever, I don't think I'd mind. I can't remember a time when I felt happier." "And I bet you're glad I can't poke holes in that one, right?" "I guess you could, adopting Scoots should probably be tied. And proposing to you, if not for everything else going on." He stuck out his tongue in disgust. "But I guess you never were one for a whole lot of romance." "Is it really that obvious?" She asked, giggling. "You love the fact that I'm easy to please." "Woah, just because I don't get you flowers all the time doesn't mean that you're easy. God, that's not true at all." She glared. "But it's not a chore, I'd hate it if you were low maintenance. Of course, you're nothin like how I'm sure Rarity acts. She makes good clothes, but man, I couldn't live with her all day. Or Pinkie. Or Fluttershy. "Why Fluttershy?" Dash asked. "She's scared of everything, it gets on my nerves. I can understand irrational fears, like of scalpels for instance, but I'm pretty sure it gets a little worse with her." "What about Applejack?" "I kinda like her, actually." Jason replied, receiving an inquisitive look from Dash. "She seems the most had wired not to like me, and yet she appears to be the one trying the hardest. Even when she wasn't, I could still respect her. I mean, she's hardworking, owns her own business... She reminds me a lot of Mankin." "What business does he own?" She asked. "Pick up the ball again and I'll tell you." Dash groaned, and mask have her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Come on, Twilight will be so jealous." "Fine." She replied, going back to concentrating. "Jason, you didn't really do magic in two minutes, did you?" Evening asked. "I did, why?" "Cuz it's like, totally impossible. You can't even be an outlier because it takes at least a few days to even get energy through your horn the right way. The only reason Dash is already doing stuff is because she's doing it much the same way as she directs love, and there's not much to change." "But I did the magic, I mean, I wasn't out there for a week." "Well I don't know what to tell you, Jason. But there's something we're missing." "Whatever you say, Evening." Jason turned back to his fiancé, gently biting at one of her ears as Evening became quiet in thought. The ball wavered in the air, going in a small circle before it stabilized itself. "What are you doing Jason, it's hard enough as it is!" "You think you'll be able to concentrate in a quiet environment all the time? Or without distractions of other types?" "Like ear biters?" She asked, the ball bobbing again. "Or tummy ticklers." He replied, running the edge of his hoof across her stomach and digging it in slightly. "Ha." She laughed, trying to bat his hoof away as she kept her eyes focused on the ball. "Hahaha!" She took a breath, as the ball dropped slightly and she hunched over, still laughing and concentrating enough, apparently. "Hahahahahahaha!" That was where she lost it, a dull bounce becoming audible on the ground. "That was probably excellent." Jason said, bumping against her hoof. It's a good thing you're ticklish, or I may have needed to wait until tonight to distract you. Das furrowed her brow before a smirk broke over her face. "Well maybe a second test is in order." "I think you may be right." "So what about your friend, Jason? What does he do?" Scoots asked, leaning up against his side. "He ran an investment firm called El Capitan last time I checked. Still does my accounting though, always joked that it was 'nice to deal with the small numbers for a change.'" "He called you poor?" Dash asked. "I thought he was your friend." "Alright, welcome to the world of human males. Every conversation I've ever had with my good friends basically turns into a competition where we make fun of each other. I'm exaggerating of course, a lot of them aren't like that as well." "Why?" "We're all friends, and it's not like half the fun isn't defending oneself. It's not straightforward, most of the insults are implied. That's what makes it kind of fun, trying to top one another. But it's not like I can do that here." "Yeah, I guess not." Dash replied, as a knock sounded at he door. "Come in!" Jason yelled, as the door pushed open. Celestia poked her head in, looking around. She saw the quartet on the bed and tried to conceal a grin. "I've found something that I need you to do." Jason groaned. "Really? We just got here." "Hush, you won't be disappointed. Plus, I've gathered a fair amount of things for your world that you may want to look through. With as much of a proverbial watershed that we have for catching these things, I think you may be surprised that more than just dirty socks came through." "Yeah, why do so many socks come through?" Dash asked. "Maybe someone in the warehouse had a little trouble stocking!" He received several blank stares. "Ba-doom-chhh..." Dash facehoofed. "Why Jason? Why?" "I saw the chance." He paused. "I took the chance." "That may have been the worst pun I've ever heard." Celestia stated. "And I've been alive a while." "Everyone's a critic." Jason replied with a chuckle, pulling himself from the bed. "So what's this you need us to do?" "Oh, just follow me. It will all be explained in due time." She said with a smirk. "You can all come, just hurry up." Celestia continued, gesturing with a hoof as the four started to move. In no time they were into he hallway, Scoots taking her normal post over Jason's head. "So what? What are we doing?" The filly asked. "Ooh, we should go see that statue of you again, guys!" "We will if you want to, Squirt. Just be patient, okay?" Dash looked forward again as Celestia opened a set of doors, walking out onto a balcony and drawing the roar of what must have been a crowd of ponies. She motioned for them to stay back, as she cleared her throat and the air became still. "Only a little over a month ago, this magnificent city lay in ruins. We needed some leaders, a way to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. We've had our losses, whether that's been family or friends. Thousands volunteered to end this conflict before it began anew, to go on the offensive and not take a hit lying down. Equestria has been a peaceful country for generations, and I'm not sure how we could've survived without the populace we have. But most of all, let us commend the ones that pushed us all on, even though they should have been the least willing to help. "Targets, that's what two of the most important heroes I know today were, and l know that the penalty could have been drastic if they hadn't forced some sort of knowledge on us all. The two most unlikely to step up. But what a job they've done with the time they've had." Celestia opened a box, holding up a star that reflected in the sunlight. A guard walked over to hand Dash and Jason curved plate like things, before he unexpectedly fit them onto heir right shoulders. They non metal material was actually fairly rigid, feeling almost like body armor. "So without further ado, I award, for bravery and outstanding service in the line of duty, what are probably going to be the only two gold stars in the history of this country. But I'm sure you already know who I'm talking about. Rainbow Dash and Jason, step up." Jason felt his legs start to move before be really thought about walking, cresting the edge Of the balcony a moment later, as the crowd went wild. Celestia carefully placed the stars into dugouts in the shoulder armor, before she threw up a hoof to wave. Jason and Dash turned to look at each other for a split second before turning back to the crowd, and throwing out a pair of salutes. A large portion of he crowd saluted back, and Jason felt a swell in his chest. He felt content, sure that in the end everything would work out. After all, he'd spent this long just trying to get accepted, let alone finish the war. No matter how bad things got from here, he knew the worst was behind him. And it felt freeing, to know that he was getting somewhere. It was a feeling he hadn't had in a long time.