//------------------------------// // Decisions // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Decisions Jason looked over the crowd again, smiling widely. It wasn't often he had a cheering crowd in front of him, minus the few times playing music. He held his salute, his smile only growing bigger the longer the crowd cheered. A minute passed before he turned away, leaving as the cheers started to descend in volume. Dash caught up almost immediately, bumping into his side happily. Jason walked past the door to an open room, stopping in his tracks almost immediately as he noticed the contents. "This is the room?" He asked, receiving a reassuring nod from Celestia. He felt like a kid in a candy store, giddy from the shiny star on his shoulder as well as the idea of goodies. Jason practically dove into the pile of junk, throwing useless or broke items to one side as he searched for the few hidden gems that always seemed to pop up. That was probably due more to the fact that a huge number of things could be used as he improvised. "Jason, is this anything?" Scoots asked, her head popping out of the pile a foot or so away. Jason tossed the sock that had become draped over her head to one side, before he took a closer look at what she was holding. The bottles tinkled against one another as Jason grinned, setting them aside. "IPAs. Thought these would never show up." "Beer?" Dash asked, picking up a bottle and reading the label. "Eight percent alcohol?!" "Dash, Dash, Dash. People take shots of liquor that's over fifty percent alcohol. I never really liked spirits, but humans have a way higher tolerance to alcohol than ponies. Probably the only reason I beat Applejack is because I'm bigger. Maybe I have some changeling stuff going for me, but I doubt it. It's not like changelings are all that different from ponies anyway." He coughed and tried to clear his throat, wiping his nose. "You look fairly different to me." Celestia said, furrowing her brow. "Yeah, but let's be honest. I've got the same structure as a pony, same bones and all. Small differences in my horn, and I guess slightly larger ones in my wings. But I'm beginning to think that this chitin comes in a lot like you all grow hair. I could be wrong, but it doesn't just look like a plate from the side, it's all fibrous looking." "If I may," Evening interrupted, "changelings don't get actual armor until adulthood. It's all floppy, kinda like extra thick skin. So when they're all grown and it hardens, it's supposed to be like a coming-of-age scenario. But you know, Chrysalis and all, we couldn't celebrate." "Ah yes, Shining Armor has informed me of how the hive mind can work. He also tried to keep from telling me about how yours works, Jason. He only let information out when I threatened his position. I'm not proud of the fact that I used threats, but what you three-" "Four!" Scoots yelled, screeching to a halt in front of the princess. Celestia stared for a moment. "In any case, I feel a little guilty with all the hunting of changelings after the wedding incident." "You were just protecting yourselves, it's not a big deal." Jason replied, waving her comment away. "They're not my brethren." "Even so, they were still innocent beings. I'm just glad that some have survived and broke away." She continued, looking at Evening. "Out of curiosity, why did you want to join into a hive mind after you just freed yourself?" "Oh god, you ask the hard questions." Evening groaned, slowly sitting on the cool stone of the floor. "You ponies have strength in numbers, a herd mentality as it were. You have the ability to publicly discuss things and keep up relationships and things of that sort. When it comes to changelings though, the loose mental bond told us where other changelings were, and allowed us to communicate through signals of emotion. Of course, this was before my time, but this is how the history goes." "Why would Chrysalis bother to teach history?" Dash asked, beating Jason to the question. "Well as much as I hate her, she's kept a fairly large library of works and history alive. That I can respect. When I first started to break from the hive mind, I snuck in and read. When she found out, and I knew she would, I made sure that I knew everything I could. Anyway, the hive mind created security as it developed, and that's what I want, before it became mind control." "So like, what it is now?" Dash asked. "Essentially." She turned to Celestia. "Maybe this won't mean much, but basically imagine knowing how a loved one felt at any point in time, along with the fact that there is he possibility of sharing dreams, and you've got it. It was funny, I read an old romance novel and the same things occurred. I wonder if in actuality, the hive mind works as a sort of comparability meter, as corny as that sounds. I guess it's not as extreme for me, but with those two, it's kinda like that." "Ugh, yeah. Corny is right." Jason replied, tossing a giraffe made of bottle caps over his shoulder. "I'm not sure how much I could stand having a relationship like in one of those stupid books. I have to say, I like the way we don't seem to need to do a lot to keep things different and interesting. But then again, the constant life or death struggles must work wonders. If Dash wasn't enlisted and I got home from that war normally..." He let out a low whistle. "I'd have to find these two somewhere else to stay the night. And maybe the next one." Celestia let out a chuckle, before she turned back to the door. "I'm sorry, but I'm very busy with all the griffins coming in. We'll have to finish his later." "Oh, go ahead." Jason replied. "I know how it is." She vanished from the room, throwing back a quick wave. "Hey dad!" Yelled Scoots, looking up from her back, sprawled all over the floor. "When you have kids, can it be a colt?" "And I was worried that you were losing your innocence, Scoots." Jason chuckled. "Well you get to choose that at least, right?" She asked. "It's fifty-fifty, kiddo." He replied. "Although I wouldn't particularly like having a real girly filly around. You like explosions and building and strategy games, and you're pretty awesome for that." "Yeah, I agree with you here, Jason." Dash spoke up, sticking out her tongue in disgust. "I kinda feel like it would be impossible for somepony growing up around us to turn out like that anyway." "Heh, you're probably right." ________________________________________________ Jason slumped into his bed, watching Evening and Scoots disappear into the other room as Dash laid down beside him, nuzzling gently at his cheek. "You know, I'm a little nervous about tomorrow." He said, sighing as he magically closed the door behind them. Jason shifted and took off his saddlebag, floating it over to the small pile of things that they'd brought to the room. "Well hey, they lost anyway. I don't even know why we're having these." "It's probably a good idea, at least to make terms official. And if things go wrong, we have guns. Including that new one." He finished with a grin, jumping back up from the bed. He grabbed up the firearm, turning the pump-action shotgun over in his hands. "Although I just realized we only have the shells already loaded, but either way I guess." He chuckled, setting down the gun and picking up the six pack of beer, which he placed into the icebox. "Are you seriously planning on drinking that?" "Yeah, I missed beer. Your cider is just like slightly bitter apple juice, it's hardly anything all that great." He returned to the bed, laughing as Dash extracted herself at the same time he entered. "Sorry, I just wanted to grab your computer, if that's okay." She walked over to his saddlebag, as the blood drained from Jason's face. "I can get it, I mean-" "It's fine, I'm pretty sure I can be careful enough to not-". She paused, and Jason knew she'd found it. "Where'd you get a stuffed animal of me?" She asked. "I know you don't have the art skills, so this is a little creepy. Oh wait, you probably wanted to give it to Scoots, right?" "Yeah." In all honesty, he had wanted to do so. But he didn't want to explain the idea that she was part of a show that had proved itself to be surprisingly accurate at recalling Equestrian history. "So how come I haven't heard of it, they don't mass produce these. In fact, I don't really remember a window of time where you could've had this made, I mean..." She trailed off, staring over at him as her expression hardened. "What's wrong? You have something to explain?" Dash asked, an ever so slight angry look passing across her face. "No, I mean-" "Just cut the shit Jason! I don't need to know everything, but this kinda concerns me!" "Yeah, but-" "Ugh, these emotion things work both ways, remember? So why the sudden withdrawal from taking my love? Guilt?" "I'm not sure." He replied, motioning for her to sit as she handed him the plushie and his computer. "I wasn't trying to keep stuff hidden, but I still don't understand how it works, and seeing as there's probably no importance I figured the confusion wasn't worth it." He paused. "You really want to know?" "You think I just wanted to sit here and not?" "Fine." Jason sighed. So this is where she found out. "A year and a half ago, Ben got into this television show." "What? Ben?" "Yeah, I told you that it was weird. Point is, there was this show called My Little Pony, and he obsessed over it for a while. Got me to watch most of the episodes, although they weren't particularly mind blowing. The weird part is, you're kind of a character, along with the rest of your friends. And it definitely got a fair amount of stuff right, too." Dash was staring, mouth agape before her expression morphed into amusement. "Yeah right, what kind of dumb-ass story is that?" "You never asked how I had a real spotty knowledge of this place, and that's it. Never saw anything about poison joke." He turned his computer around, showing her a picture of herself. "It's the only pony picture I have on here." "Wha..." She looked at her hoof, then around the room. "Are we on TV right now?" "Heh, I doubt it's the same station. All the harmony and tolerance and stuff, while it annoyed the shit out of me, kinda kept the show more g-rated then it would be with us. This is an R without inclusion of the sex." He watched her mouth bend up in a slight smile, before she laid down next to him. "But no, probably not." "I dunno if I'll be able to sleep without thinking about that all night." She paused. "When you said G-rated, you don't mean they took out all the cool parts, do you?" "In all probability, fighting and stuff was. You know, I kinda expected something more of a reaction than this. Like, total meltdown, assumption that this meant I was saying you were just a figment of someone's imagination..." Jason felt her gently punch his arm. "Oh, I'll never forgive you blah, my life is a sham blah. Happy now?" She giggled as she watched his face soften. "You can explain the rest later, alright?" "Yeah, I guess." He sighed, walking over to the icebox again and pulling back out a beer. He hesitated for a moment before leaving, kicking the door shut with a rear hoof. He walked over to the window, pulling open the blinds and sitting in front of the glass. "I just feel kinda bad for not telling you earlier." He murmured. "You act like it's some big deal to me, Jason." She replied, taking a seat next to him. "I mean seriously. If everything was totally, exactly like the show I'd be scared. So was it?" "Do you have a pet?" Jason asked, point blank. "Obviously not, why would I want to take care of some-" She turned, pursing her lips as she stared at the door to the other room. "Stupid pet." "Well then there you go." He said, gesturing at her. "Not the same." "Then it's not a big deal." "Yeah, but it's just- you don't really keep that much from me, and this seemed kinda big." He turned, lining the lid up with a table before he jerked his arm downward and the bottle cap went flying over Dash's head. "Like I've told you everything immediately." She rolled her eyes. "My parents?" "Fine." He took a swig of the beer, a smile starting to pop back up on his face. "God, the wonders you and alcohol can achieve." Jason said after a while, causing her to punch him in the shoulder again. "But thanks though. If you we're anyone else this whole romance thing would have ended a long time ago." "I'm glad it didn't." She paused, leaning up against his shoulder. "So what kind of pet, exactly?" "A turtle." "So anyway, like maybe a hawk? Some other bird of prey?" "No, a turtle." "Well what the fuck. Some show writers they are." "Heh, I thought you'd react like this." Jason replied, pulling her against himself. "Yeah. When you figure out how to get us back into your world, we're watching that one." "You'll be bored." Jason warned. "Whatever. Can I get some of that?" She asked, pointing at the beer. "It's an acquired taste, you won't like it." "We'll just see about that." She replied, grabbing it and taking down a mouthful. Her brow furrowed as she tried not to look disgusted. "Loved it." Dash said after swallowing, having clearly not enjoyed the taste. She turned sideways and coughed, shaking her head. "I guess maybe a lite beer's more up your alley. Less strong that way." He chuckled. "Probably a little less alcohol as well, and about a millionth of the taste." "Whatever, just finish up. I think that you have an appointment with me, something about concentration? It'll get my mind off this stuff for sure." "Oh man, I thought you'd never ask." He replied with a chuckle, leaning over to kiss her. "And don't worry, I'll be sure to get your mind off of everything." ________________________________________________________ Jason awoke with a start, knowing all too soon that he was dreaming. He looked to the side at three humans, which he assumed were the others. "Am I... Human?" Scoots asked, now a little girl with messed up hair looking down at her hands. She moved a finger, giggling in response as she knelt to grab something. "You really undersold this Jason! It's like magic, almost! Before I could only pick up kinda small things, but this is way better!" She exclaimed, disjointedly throwing the thing across the room. While she was talking, Jason was looking around the area, noticing a bloody handprint against one of the walls. It all seemed so familiar, but even as he picked up what may have been a gun he still couldn't quite tell what he was looking at. Something clanked through an overhead ventilation shaft as buzzers and sirens started to wail. "Contamination detected, lockdown initiated." "Jason, what's going on?!" Dash yelled, covering her ears. Jason opened his mouth to respond before be realized just where he was. He looked down at the gun, madly flicking levers and pushing buttons as a vent blew in and he was tackled by an alien with blades for arms. It growled in his face, arms rising back as three lasers appeared out of the gun and Jason shot, blowing one of the arms full off. The monster went backwards a bit and Jason hit it in the head, watching it go limp as the buzzers stopped. "I know where we are." He said, heart beating harder than it had for a while. "This is from a video game called Dead Space, and basically everything on this ship wants, as its soul purpose in life, to kill us." "Well this is a shitty dream, why the hell did this even come up?!" Dash asked, looking annoyed. "Can't you ever dream about meadows and bunnies?" "My happy dreams tend to be about you, Dash. You should be glad those weren't group dreams. I'm kinda glad you aren't there anyway." He finished, rubbing the back of his head as some sort of metal bar fell in the distance. "So what should we do?" Evening asked, kicking the dead necromorph uneasily. "These things don't look that easy to kill." "I was thinking we just stay here. Generally things don't attack players if they stay in a cleared room." "Jason, we're not players in a video game!" Dash yelled, becoming quiet as a clang sounded again. "I'm pretty sure I'm the one that's played this, I know a lot more than any of you." He paused, picking up a gun and tossing it to Dash. "There, now if we just- The door behind Jason flew inwards, it's hinges lasting long enough to send the door slightly sideways. Jason turned and shot off the thing's head, pivoting his arm and firing again, severing a shoulder. One more shot and the thing stumbled to a halt, still standing there without limbs. Then it started to regenerate and Jason jumped backwards, fear coursing through his veins. If there was one thing that scared him more than anything, it was fighting an enemy that couldn't be killed with guns. "Run!" He yelled, turning to flee and grabbing Scoots in the process. "I thought you said you knew what you were doing!" Dash yelled. "Yeah, well that was a boss. They don't follow the same rules." They turned down another hallway as a vent burst open behind them and Dash hit the enemy with some rounds. The four came to a blocked path, general fear running through their ranks as Jason tentatively raised a hand, watching as a bolt of continued energy connected with a chunk of concrete and rebar. He turned as Dash's gun started firing, flinging the block into the boss as it turned the corner. A piece of rebar stuck through its neck, binding it to to the wall. "Now what?" Jason shrugged, shivering under the most severe adrenaline rush he could swear he'd ever had. "It'll die if I blow it apart, god dammit." He muttered, before taking off down the hallway. The monster shoved the block back down the hallway as Jason raised his hand again, watching the boulder slow down as he caught the thing with the beam and stuck it harmlessly to the side. Then he held up his other palm and fired a different colored bolt, watching it hit the monster. It slowed down to a fraction of its speed as Jason pulled out the gun, blowing off its arms and head once again. Then he went for the legs, knocking them off and cutting the torso into as many pieces as he could make. He ran his foot through the debris, watching as they started to pull back together anyway. He shot at the ground some more, not appearing to make a dent despite his effort. ________________________________________________ Jason woke up with a yelp, diving out of bed as he searched the room. He knew the adrenaline had been real, and as Dash came to he was already beginning to crash. His knees were shaking as exhaustion caught up with him and he fell over, shaking like mad. Some time later Dash was at his side, pulling at one of his hooves and trying to get him upright. "That was fucking scary." He breathed, getting into a sitting position as Scoots burst through the door in tears, latching onto Jason and bowling him back over. "Those things aren't real, right?!" She cried out, letting go for a moment to hug Dash. "No, they aren't. I'm sorry that this kind of stuff happens." He sighed. "I could probably break the link if you want." Scoots wiped her eyes, resting her cheek against Jason's neck. "It's not that, I know that it's just bad luck if we get a nightmare as opposed to something good. But I can stick it out through the bad stuff. After all, you're there in the nightmares, it isn't just me like mine before. And I can control myself, cuz it's all realish. Just-- no more aliens, kay?" "Yeah, sure." As he finished the door swung open, followed by an 'oops' before the door closed again and a knock sounded. "Come in." Jason said, rolling upright as Celestia walked inside. "I don't want to be too abrupt, but I'd like to get the talks started as soon as possible." She said. "Alright, I thought as much." Jason replied with a yawn and a cough. "Scoots, don't break anything." "I'm not that destructive, geez." She said defensively, turning to storm off in mock rage and almost bumping into a bedside table. Jason rolled his eyes. "Foals, am I right?" Celestia asked, an eyebrow raised. "How much of a handful is she?" "Surprisingly little, actually." Dash spoke up. "Although maybe she just thinks more before tackling a problem now." "I'll just ask the hanging question, do you want another?" The princess asked, beginning to walk back to the door. "Yeah." Dash murmured. "Maybe I'm rushing too much, but thinking that you may die every other day kinda makes you want to do things as soon as possible, you know?" "There have been times where I have thought the same way, yes." "Yeah, well I'm not even sure if we're compatible to make a kid, and if we can't... I don't know what I'd do, I don't even want to think about it." She shivered. "I want to be able to settle down and have that life if I want to, I don't want to be barred because of another stupid obstacle. Not that I don't know that there will be difficulties, but I can't fix incompatibility like we can get around everything else." The princess was silent for a few moments, the only sound emanating from their hoof steps. "I don't want to get your hopes too high, but given the fact that ponies aren't so... genetically similar all the time, what with the wings and horns, there is a spell that can bring you two closer to the genes of one another." "Really, that-" Celestia held up a hoof, and Dash halted her speech. "Normally, this results in a slight drop in magic or flight ability, possibly proportional to a loss of stamina in Earth Ponies, and it's not prone to other side effects. But assume we use the spell on you two, and it works perfectly. You, Rainbow Dash, could take on slight properties of a changeling, and Jason could do the same with you. I'm not saying that it'll be a huge difference, but it might be a lot larger than what we're expecting." "Damn, I don't know if I'd want you to do that Dash." Jason said. "Any of the properties without the others would kinda drive me crazy." "Like what? I'm pretty sure I could handle it." She replied with a giggle, reaching up to tug at one of his ears. "Well the whole emotions thing is a big one. Just kinda swirling around and constantly fighting for my attention. I'm just glad I was pretty secluded those first few weeks, all those encounters with mobs and stuff tired me out. Point is, it's a curse disguised as a blessing, and if it didn't help me survive and work along with the actual grabbing of love so that- I'm not explaining this very well." He paused, walking into a room behind the other two. "It's like an urge, to go get love from ponies. I'm not saying to bite them or anything, but my brain kept pointing out ponies that were giving off lots of love." "And that was hard to stay away from?" Celestia asked. "Well I was hungry for a long time. It's like if someone stuck some food in the middle of a desert and expected you not to go for it. I didn't know much about anything, and creating a web of lies was one of the last things I wanted to do. I figured simplicity would work more easily. After everything blew up spectacularly the second time I at least knew that I wouldn't go hungry. Even if the human part of me didn't completely know what to think about you, Dash, the changeling half wouldn't stop ogling the love that you were sending my way. At this point I should probably say that my feelings were genuinely human and human alone, although that hunger wasn't the easiest thing to ignore." "How long were you feeling hungry exactly?" Dash asked, cocking her head slightly. "You seemed pretty good after a few days." "Yeah, but I started from hardly moving, and totally drained. And even then you were gone a lot and I got stuck in a cycle of barely sated to starving, in the figurative sense of course. Thanks again for everything, by the way. It's not like I ever deserved you." Dash beamed. "I knew I'd chosen wisely. You should have said something though ya goof, I could have tried harder." "I didn't want to complain. I'll complain about big impending things and jokingly about small things, but you were already doing more than I expected you to do." "What'd you expect me to do?" She asked, a slight hint of amusement in her voice. "Nothing, I thought you'd stand by your friends." He paused. "Element of Loyalty and all." "Wait, you thought I wouldn't side with you after I did in the first place and they were in the wrong?!" She paused. "But then again, you still healed my wings despite your thoughts..." Dash let out an exaggerated sigh. "There's never a black and white, huh Jason?" "Only for when you want to get mad at me. The fun parts come without strings attached." Celestia cleared her throat, turning their attention away from each other. Jason slowly leaned over, kissing Dash on the cheek and quickly going back to his initial position. The princess' serious expression partially dissolved, before she reinstated it again. "Alright. The talks are in there, and due to the fact that they've surrendered unconditionally, should be over fairly soon. In any case," She started, tapping on the wall as a few ponies started to enter, all wearing badges and uniforms of one sort or another. "I'd like to work out what we'd like to accomplish ahead of time." "Makes sense to me." Jason said, looking up at the ceiling as he thought, hearing the door close. "Are these griffins from the old government?" "A few, others are regional or from the occupied parts of The Griffin Empire." "Yeah, okay. So we've got a pretty good representation. Alright, at worst." He took a few steps backwards, settling into an overstuffed armchair as he finally took a detailed look around the room. It was probably a bedroom that had been converted into a couple rooms, much more lackluster than he assumed the original had been. These seemed more like meeting quarters now, although a fireplace still remained in the corner. "What shall we do about actually ruling the new territories?" Celestia asked, settling into a much larger chair of her own. "Well, realistically we should keep the capitol the same. As in this one, I mean." He sighed. "Throughout history, what's torn nations apart the most was nationalism, which is generally between those of one race with similar customs and all that stuff. So our best shot at keeping this place stable and free from internal conflict would actually be to try to ram both sets of customs into one another and make a new one. So if ponies want to move south and griffins want to move here, obviously we should allow them to. Encourage them to, even." "They've got a different currency, by the way." Dash said. "Something called the mark, or something." "Heh, the mark. All we have to do for currency is match them up by seeing what they buy, and accepting both. We can screen out the mark or the bit later. There need to be regional free elections, just like the ones you have here. Chances are, having ponies as the politicians over only griffins won't help how we look over there." "And of course, there will always be a hint of racism and separation no matter what we do." The princess muttered, looking slightly dejected. "It really is a huge task we've set out for ourselves." "Yeah." He paused. "Oh, one more thing that's actually good news. Since we're part of the same country, any economic slump that could occur after the war could be averted if we spread out the railroads and allow the griffins to rebuild their own towns. Get some ponies in there with them, and we make ourselves look good. That also keeps guys off the streets and provides jobs and all that, so it's kinda hard to look badly at that part of the plan. The only problem I can think of is budget around here." "I know." Celestia shook her head. "We've got the new taxpayers though, and even if we keep rates low that's still a lot of new income." "Yeah. I guess we can look at what to cut and possibly move in some of our technology to start advancing the place. Coal mines, factories to make whatever it is you people actually make, and this might just work out. Let me make it clear though, the only way this will work in the long run is if you provide the start up funds and then turn it public. Basically build the building and leave it to an upstart business. As a last resort, probably. Don't want communism popping up." "Princess?" One of the other ponies asked. "A moment?" "Go ahead." She said. "How do you seem to know what works and what doesn't?" The mare asked Jason. "Here we go..." Dash muttered. He chuckled, continuing on despite her annoyance. "Where I come from, there are hundreds of countries in existence. There have been hundreds of failures, and hundreds of successes. It's not hard to say that every form of government and practice is flawed, but besides communism they all have at least some chance at success. Then there's how each government is run, and how money is spent. My friend Mankin owns his own business, and actually trades stock options with people all over the world. Anyway, most everything can be run like a business, and generally that provides the most leeway and success. There are exceptions, but smart investment and calculated risk never hurt anyone. At least, it's a lot better than the alternative." "So that's what we're doing when it comes to building?" "Well, no. Maybe some schools and stuff, roads and all that. That last part's what the government is supposed to do." He paused. "What that does is hopefully grab at least a few jobs. I don't want something big, I don't want something where other griffins or ponies suffer because of our interference. If we could avoid investing government money altogether, that would be best. But if push comes to shove and things start to dissolve into anarchy over there, we'll have to start building." "So what's our immediate plan?" Celestia asked. "I thought that was it, but then you kinda said it wasn't..." "Just provide easy credit. A nice bankruptcy plan. Patents, federal reserve... All they need is the ability to get money to start up something, and the existing people provide the markets while we provide loan money. It's like what I said in the beginning, but without the dabbling in the private sector. In the mean time there are police forces, hospitals, fire departments..." "Oh, I see what you're saying." She rolled her eyes. "Took me a minute there. I heard communism and I kinda got a little sidetracked trying to figure out what it meant." "Dash?" Jason asked, gesturing towards her with a grin. Her face turned emotionless. "It's supposed to be a utopia where the government provides for everyone and there is a population of equal workingmen. It doesn't work because no one has any inclination to actually do work and because none of the leaders has ever stepped down." Dash giggled, her face returning to normal. "Oh yeah, I never gave this to Lyra." Jason said, pulling a history book from his saddlebag. "Stupid time travel." Dash took it out of his hooves carefully and transferred it to the princess. "It's the history of his home country from start to almost finish." She said. "There are a lot of pictures, but he tells me that it's a textbook, not a picture book." "Yup." Jason continued, chuckling slightly. "Careful with that though, it's my only one." He paused. "Oh yeah, it's also a little biased, so watch out for that." "I'm over a thousand years old." Celestia replied with a laugh. "I'm pretty sure I can detect a bias." "I guess we'll see." Jason said, as they started to leave the room. "Can't say I'm not a little nervous though. Well, here goes nothing. It all ends today."