Talks
Jason was the first to sit down at the rather large table, watching the others neatly fill up their half. He drummed his hooves against the table, waiting for the griffins to walk into the hopefully short talks. As much as he wanted to have a part in the proceedings, he still wanted to get back home and relax. Of course, if he had the choice on anything he wanted to do, killing the soul magic guy would be up there, along with finding Eravel. But since he had no idea how to even begin the latter task, he was stuck with his biggest threat.
He had hardly a night where his thoughts didn't turn to the pony, not just to his perpetual hatred, something that he didn't even possess towards the griffins he'd been fighting, but to his plans. Jason couldn't say he knew anything about the guy, even Luna was in the dark about most things related to him, and she'd spent years with the guy. That brought up another question, how had a unicorn survived so long? Jason figured he'd somehow been jumping bodies, which of course made killing him a whole lot harder.
The only hint of solace that he could take was that in a straight up fight, without all the trickery, he knew he would win. The pony's only advantage came from smoke and mirrors, along with the extra guys that he had under his command. But Luna had said something about one of them drawing a gun, and that worried Jason more than anything else. If he ever got back into the fight with this guy, the first thing he'd have to do is figure out how to make body armor. That was probably not a big deal; there had to be some of that somewhere in the piles of human junk.
Even then, he'd need help. Maybe Tank would come along, maybe Morning. That still left the hole that was yet to be filled by Eravel. Jason sighed, dragging up unhappy memories of the last time he'd seen the griffin. It was kinda funny, how much he'd changed since the first time he'd been cowering in the upstairs part of a Canterlot building. He would have wanted to be at these talks for sure, and would probably know more about the population than Jason could hope from any of the other griffins. After all, he hadn't exactly been inside the law when it came to research or weapons.
Jason was pulled out of his thoughts as Dash tapped him on the shoulder, pointing at a line of griffins as they walked in. A few looked warily at the royal guards flanking the door, their expressions stoic as usual. Jason pulled out his computer, opening a word document and figuring that he may as well take notes. A griffin walked past as the icon stopped bouncing and a window appeared, and he immediately navigated a few feet further away from the table.
In short order, however, everyone was seated. That left a rather uncomfortable silence that no one decided to fill.
"We are the champions, my friends!" Jason's computer sang out, making the whole room turn as he fought to stop the sound. He tapped away, watching a few griffins look around in an annoyed manner. "No time for losers, 'cuz we are the champions..."
Jason stopped the track, letting out a sigh of relief as things started to calm back down. Celestia cleared her throat, the hint of a grin well hidden in her features.
"We have come-"
"Cant touch this!" Jason's computer said, turning heads again. The song stopped much more quickly as a guitar riff came over. "America, fuck yea!" Jason smirked a little, whacking his hoof into the spacebar. When that didn't work he shut the computer. "Coming again to save the motherfucking day yeah! Americ-" The audio cut off, leaving a brief silence before dash broke into laughter, trying and failing to disguise it as coughing.
Celestia picked up the slack immediately, delving back into her talks. "Anywho, we're obviously here to decide what is to become of the citizens of the vast territory we've conquered. Not to pull up any uncomfortable memories, but it is the truth. Whether your king was possessed or not does not change the fact that you continued to go along with him."
"With all due respect, we were following orders. That's something we're told to accept, no matter what." A griffin spoke up, showing off a vest that was clearly military. "That said, I wasn't involved in the fighting, so I wouldn't know. I've been stationed in the far south, against the zebras down there. Lots of raids from those guys."
"Okay listen." Jason began. "Let's not focus on who has the blame here. Call it the king and be done with it, I'm not going to punish griffins for following orders. That said, you're part of this country now, and you better respect Celestia like she's your leader. I don't have a problem putting down a revolt, especially with how generous our terms are."
"Fine, let's hear them." Another griffin said.
"Alright. I want to get out pretty quickly and have the generalities over and done with, so that we can all get back to our lives."
"I'll second that notion." The griffin replied.
"Good." He paused. "Any of you in the military?" Most of the griffins raised a talon. "Alright, I'm not going to take away your jobs. But you're on thin ice. One wrong move, and it's gone." Celestia nodded her approval, and a few sighs of relief circulated around.
"Seems like that was popular." Dash commented.
"Guess so. Next on the list," He began again, looking over at a pony that was presumably writing what he said down. "You're all citizens of Equestria now, and that goes along with the shift in loyalty."
"There was an old custom, back when the Griffin Empire was a collection of tribes." An old looking griffin said, sitting up slightly in his chair as he laid a cane across the table. "After a fight, the followers of the losing side simply transferred their loyalty, no questions asked. That isn't to say, however, that we are fickle with our favor. Proof of death is required, along with the absence of a secondary leader. Let's just say, the stars quite lined up for all of you, the King never named an heir."
"Excellent." Celestia breathed, letting out a sigh. "I think things will go more smoothly than I expected."
"I hope you know, princess, that we will not stand for an iron fist rule by ponies. We have such a thing as a backbone that goes beyond tribal customs."
"I understand. You'll be allowed a limited degree of self rule, but I hope you know that there will be ponies coming into the old empire. We're not here to promote a country of disjointed realms."
"So long as my brethren are treated better than dirt."
"High standards there." Jason said sarcastically. "We're trying for equals."
"Why?"
The question hardly caught him off guard, he'd been expecting some questioning of their somewhat more democratic government. "Because we're trying to build a country here, not an empire. I'm sure you know that a fair number of griffins joined our ranks happily, and I know that means a lot to just about everyone else in the military right now. I guess I'm just saying, you'll have to pull your weight."
"I suppose so."
Jason leaned back in his chair, watching the others as new talks started to break out over the more mundane topics of the new country, from local economies to larger currency issues. He hardly had to say anything, the rest of his table-mates appearing to keep the conversation on track. That wasn't to say he found it rather interesting that a yelling match hadn't erupted over something yet. He shook it off, thinking that it was just the same griffin custom that supposedly changed their loyalties.
Not to say that he trusted them, that was for sure. But as the time without an argument continued to stretch on, it almost seemed like all his estimations of conflict and incompatibility had been wrong. Almost. He was sure that there would be something, but right now everything was moving far beyond anything he'd been expecting. Jason lowered a hoof below the table, giving himself a slight tap to check that he was awake.
Seriously, it was almost creepy that nothing was going wrong. How could they possibly get along so well after they'd fought a war? Maybe it was the unconditional surrender, or maybe most of these griffins were just looking for something as far away from the government they'd had as possible.
Jason attributed the sudden silence to his latter idea, watching as the pony that had been scribbling the entire time caught up. "Are we done?" He asked, slightly annoyed that he'd simply been sitting in one place for over three hours.
"I say we keep the mark indefinitely." A griffin said, as a pony turned to rebut.
"We can't keep two currencies around, and we for sure aren't going to keep the mark."
"And why is that?"
"Because for one thing, we want to keep things simple, and for the other, you surrendered unconditionally." Jason saw the griffin's tail swish, annoyance registering on his face. The two seemed to square in their seats, ready to charge at one another as Jason calmly grabbed Dash's gun out of her thigh holster and fired it into the ceiling.
The rest of the table jumped back, staring at him in shock as he put the gun back. "Ladies, come on." He said, wiping his eyes. "It's a currency, not the end of the world." He yawned. "You mind if we just call it for today? I think most everything was already worked through, right?"
A few nods.
"Alright, good." Jason got up and stretched, the exquisite pleasure of long overdue movement flooding through his system. He scratched his stomach, watching Dash rise along with a few of the others. "You want to go rot our brains on video games?"
"Like I'd answer no."
_________________________________________________________________
"So, do you want to use the computer or should I?" Dash asked, navigating carefully around a pony that was carrying a platter of drinks and snacks.
"Hopefully we won't have to make that decision." Jason replied cryptically, smirking at her. His expression sobered, and he sighed. "I'm still not suer how that went by so fast. Usually little things go over months of debate where I come from."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm just glad that this means I'm not stuck here for very long."
"I thought you liked Canterlot."
"Well yeah, but I'd rather be in Ponyville. It just feels more like home, I guess."
"I'm surprised you think that. I thought it'd be pretty much lowest on the list by now."
"Yeah, well minus... everything, all of my friends live there, including Morning and Tank, I think. That counts for something, at least."
"I suppose so." Dash replied, stopping outside their door and watching him continue down the hallway. "Where are you off to?"
"It's a surprise, I'll be right back." He broke into a trot, disappearing around a corner in short order. Dash sighed, turning back to the door and pushing it open. Maybe she would never understand him after all.
Scoots hurdled into her, her mouth a blur of nonstop babbles as she asked about what had happened over the past three hours. Dash chuckled, picking up the filly and tossing her gently onto her back on the bed.
"So what happened? Start to finish!"
"You're going to be so disappointed..." Dash began, shaking her head. "They worked through most all of the big things, hardly any conflict the whole time. When there was Jason just shot my gun and called it a day."
"You act like I was expecting a lot." The filly replied, smile spreading across her face. "I just think it's cool that Equestria is so much bigger all of a sudden!"
"Whatever you say, Scoots." Dash replied with a chuckle. The door banged inwards and Jason walked in, a rather large blob of junk floating in the air beside him.
"I brought things." He said, walking over to the bed to spread everything out. "And guess what I found."
"What?"
"You're supposed to- whatever." Jason sighed, shaking his head slightly. "This, right here, is, as far as I can tell, a new laptop."
"A what?"
"A new computer." Jason tried again. "So here, I don't need another." He said, sticking it out towards her.
"My very own computer?!" She yelled, as if not believing that it was real.
"Yeah, first one I found that was any good and also not password protected." Jason continued, smiling. "But that's not all, because I also found this little guy over here." He said, picking up an antenna'd box.
"Should I even ask?"
"It's not that crazy, really. In any case, this is a router, which allows people to connect to the internet wirelessly. But it also allows me to set up a local network, so that I can connect these babies wirelessly."
"Why do you need to do that? We're right next to each other."
"Because this allows you to play multiplayer games with me."
"Oh, I'm starting to like this idea."
"Yeah, I'd rather have two Xboxes, but I suppose this can be just as awesome." He said, shoving a small device into the side of his computer and making a few clicks around.
"What are you doing?" Dash asked, watching him drag around several folders and items.
"Okay, so basically that computer was fresh out of the factory, and I want to get actual games and things on there. What's amazingly lucky though, is that I never deleted all these files that work on PC."
"Wouldn't they all?"
"No, they usually only work on one or the other."
"So why do you have them?" Scoots interjected, poking at the new computer as Jason took it.
"Ben was having internet troubles in Afganistan, and I made up a care package flash drive full of a bunch of games he liked. I kept them on here for some reason, probably just that I was too lazy to delete the files. But hey, I guess they turned out to be useful."
"Yeah, I'll say." Dash responded.
"I'm not sure about other people, but I really don't like to delete anything off of my computer unless it's completely useless. It's a wonder I don't hoard physical things."
"Well, only a little."
"Most of that stuff is one of a kind here!"
"Not the socks, Jason." She reminded, giggling slightly.
"They're never good socks either, just sweaty old ones." He replied, sticking his tongue out in disgust. There was a long silence as Jason switched the flash drive to the other computer, broken only by several clicks.
"So Jason, you had a car, right?" Dash asked.
"Yeah, I thought I talked about this."
"No, I mean I knew you had a truck, but was that the extent of it?"
He felt a tug at his arm and looked at Scoots. "You said all of that when we were in the Canterlot Archives, Jason. Dash wasn't there."
"Oh yeah, I guess you're right." He said, sighing. "I had a really old truck, along with another car that I ordered about three weeks before I ended up here."
"And how come that hasn't come up in conversation?" She asked, smirking. "Is it fast?"
"I'm not telling, Dash. If we actually get back to earth, I'll just show it to you in person."
"Oh, if I guess correctly will you tell me?"
"Maybe..." He said, slightly unsure of what she would say. Dash ran over to her saddlebag, pulling out a book and flipping through a few pages.
"Chevy Chimero?"
"No, Da-"
"Lamborghini mira?"
"Surprised you pronounced that one, but-"
"Ferrari Enzo?"
"Dash!" He yelled, getting her attention. "You can't just read out of a book about cars until you get the right one."
"Fine, how about a price range?"
"Ugh, it cost me under a hundred grand." Jason said. "But that's the only hint you get, jeez. This is like the engagement ring all over again."
"For the record I'm glad I found out."
"At least you didn't look too unsurprised when I proposed."
"Shush, I was totally surprised."
"I just gave up on the whole romantic part, I figured there was no point trying to wait for a moment that may never come." He let out a slight sigh, walking over to the bed with the two computers in his magic and laying down. "Hey, I got something you two might like."
"Oh yeah?"
"Mhm." Jason replied, closing Dash's computer and waiting for the other two to settle in at his sides. "Where's Evening?"
"Asleep." Scoots mumbled, "She was practicing transformations and magic or something and made herself all tired."
"Ah."
"So what's this you're showing us?" Dash asked.
"Well you know how I talked about roller coasters a while ago? I have a few videos saved from forever ago when I was trying to convince Mankin to go with Ben and me to this place called Cedar Point."
"Alright..." Dash leaned forwards, staring at the screen. "What's this?" She asked, pointing at another window.
"Oh, that's nothing." Jason replied quickly.
"Play this to annoy griffins-" She snickered. "So you planned all that, huh?"
"No, it was for sure an accident."
"I thought it was, good acting." She finished, laughing rather hard. Jason waited for her to calm down a little, and she spoke up again. "So how fast are these things?"
"Depends. This first one goes to one hundred and twenty, but it's kinda short because it was the first of its kind. They named it the Top Thrill Dragster."
"That was it?" Dash asked.
"Like I said, first of its kind."
"It looks so slow though." Scoots continued.
"That's just because it's a camera, you can't feel it." Jason said, waving a hoof at her.
"Whatever, I don't know how much I'd like to be strapped into one of those things anyway. I'd rather just control where I go, not let some track do it for me."
"Maybe you'll like this one better than, I give you the Millenium Force."
Jason looked at the other two, simply staring at the screen. "Fine, let me just skip to my favorite one here, this one's called the Maverick. Ninety five degree drop on this one."
"And humans build that stuff for fun?" Dash asked.
"Yeah... It is fun, so..."
"Really? I'd be freaking out stuck in restraints like that, there's no way I could ride something like that."
"Never thought I'd be able to say that I was more extreme than you at something."
"Cool it, it's not like we'll ever ride those."
There was a pause, and she knew she'd said the wrong thing. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He looked at his hooves, before he slowly closed the computer. "Can't do much as a small horse in a human world, huh?" Jason asked, pulling himself out of the bed. "Can't really do anything at all." He stood still for a few moments, before slowly walking over to the bathroom and closing the door behind himself as the sounds of running water replaced his hoof steps. She assumed he was taking a shower for whatever reason, just because of that comment.
"That was stupid." Dash mumbled to herself. "God damn." She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm going to go talk to him."
"What can you say?" Scoots asked, making her stop and think. What could she say to comfort him, really. This was a life that he was never able to go back to, how could she say that it would be alright?
"I don't know, Scoots. I'll think of something."
______________________________________________________
Jason pushed his head against the cool tiles of the shower's wall, trying to stem the line of thoughts telling him exactly what he'd never be able to do again. He heard the door close, not changing positions as he felt her awkwardly wrap her hooves around his neck, rubbing her side up against his.
Dash could tell from his body language that he was crying, an occasional slight heave of his chest giving her all the information she needed, no matter how well the running water hid the rest.
"I'm sorry, Jason, I shouldn't have-"
"No, don't be sorry. You're right, I was just getting my hopes up for nothing."
"I-"
"I mean, it was stupid anyway. Like what, us going back is suddenly gong to make us human?" He heaved again, one of his tears slipping off of his face separate from the shower water. "It's stupid that I'm acting this way, I know. You're probably just thinking that I should grow a pair and get over it, but I can't. I'm an outsider wherever I go, and-" He let out another sob. "No matter how much I want to go back I know that I really don't have a place where I feel like I belong. Like there's nowhere I can wholeheartedly call home." His talking dissolved into more sobs as he stopped trying to communicate, allowing himself to slide down the wall onto his side.
"I'm sorry." Dash murmured. "I'm sorry that you feel like you do." Her eyes flashed with a hint of anger. "But don't think I'm doubting you, I know it's hard, every single day I'm stuck with a constant reminder of why you aren't happier." She laid down next to him, propping his head up against her chest. "You think I like that? Not being able to help remedy the problem?"
Jason didn't respond, but his eyes said enough. He was tired, sick of the fact that he knew nothing would ever be easy. That even what should be simple could be replaced with hostilities or worse. But for once, she didn't know how to make him feel safe, or even from what side to approach the problem. She'd only been homesick of Cloudsdale until she'd found a place in Ponyville, but even now Jason hardly had that. It seemed like a problem only time could solve, and that was the one thing they never seemed to have.
Dash didn't move for a long time, simply stroking at the smooth chitin of Jason's neck and trying to think. He moved suddenly, getting to his hooves slowly and leaning down carefully to kiss her. It wasn't long, but it got the point across.
"Thanks." He said, leaning back in to kiss her again. "You're always there, I don't know what I'd do if I had to figure everything out for myself."
"Shush, Jason. You're probably handling everything better than you should be anyway. I'm just here to help with that little extra bit that you can't."
"I just hope you know how much that means to me." He replied, a tear dripping onto her face.
"Probably a lot more than I know, the way you're going on about it." She said, giggling slightly. "And I hope you know that this relationship, taxing as you may think it is, is a lot better than anything I could've imagined." Dash leaned up without another word, kissing him more forcefully and seeming to almost push his problems away. He could figure everything out later. He may not know where his home was, but he knew exactly who he wanted to have there.