//------------------------------// // Traditions // Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Traditions "Jason, come on, wake up!" Dash said, pushing Jason's nearly lifeless body around in the bed in an attempt to get him to move. "Mhr." He mumbled, clearly not happy that he was being pulled away from his slumber. "We have to go talk to Pinkie about stuff, you of all ponies should be right on top of this. Are you feeling alright? Usually you're pretty awake minus the times when we..." She glanced at Scoots. "You know." "Yeah, I'm not sure why I'm so tired." He lied, sitting upright. The last thing he wanted to do was give her another reason to worry at this point, with everything coming up. Besides, studying ways to keep her and Scoots safe wasn't the worst thing he could be doing. "So why does Pinkie want to see us?" Jason asked after a moment, rubbing his eye with a slightly singed hoof. "She wants to just set up things in general, get a date, all that stuff." "Select bridesmaids and best men?" "I guess so." Jason sighed, rolling out of bed and giving Dash a quick kiss. "Alright, let's get going then." Dash grinned, splaying out her wings and adjusting the ring on her primaries. "I know everything is supposed to be happening so fast, but I feel like we can't get hitched soon enough, you know?" "Kinda. I'm a little more nervous about things." "The wedding in general or everything?" "I just- we still have to get soul magic guy, and Chrysalis seems intent on reminding me that she's screwing around. I'm just saying, I don't think this will be the happy ending part." "What's a few months of trials if we can live uninterrupted for the rest of our lives?" "I'm worried that it won't just be a few months. This stuff tends to haunt people." He said with a sigh. "I'm sorry, this has all just made me a little pessimistic." "Good thing I'm such an optimist." Dash said, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a quick kiss. "Now come on, we have to get Scoots to school and see Pinkie." "Love you." Jason said, kissing her again. "Not sure where I'd be without you." "If you keep saying that I'll have to start taking you seriously." She replied with a giggle. "You may as well start, it's definitely not a lie." "Pfft, you sell yourself short." She replied, whacking him with a wing as she walked past, headed towards the door. "Come on, I'd like to take a nap at some point today." "Tired?" Jason asked, yawning to himself. "Yeah, actually. That wasn't supposed to be a half-assed thing to say in the way of sex." "Doesn't that pretty much defeat the purpose? What you just said there?" "Brutal honesty will do the kid good." She said, mussing up Scoots' mane. "Whatever you say," Jason replied with a chuckle, leaving the room by her side, a certain orange filly not too far behind. "First day of winter today." Dash noted, looking slightly exited. "First snow went well last night, so I've heard." "Oh really? None of the usual screw ups?" "No, not yet. Snow's easy, the only hard part is making sure that it doesn't melt too fast, and that the snowpack holds in the mountains where it makes sense." "I thought you just kinda made it rain whenever you wanted water." Jason said. "Why do you even need a snowpack?" "It's just a precaution, in case the air is too dry for Cloudsdale to make us summer clouds." She paused. "Is the snowpack important for you?" Jason nodded, hoisting Scoots onto his back and taking off. "We have a mountain range near us, and all the snow up there is what supplies the area when it's not raining. I don't know what it is here, but for us that's about eight months of the year. Sometimes less, sometimes more." "I've got to say, the fact that you people can't control the weather and keep from having shortages amazes me." "I guess, but it's not like we've ever been able to control the weather. People just know what to do by now." "I think I'll stick to control, thank you very much." Dash finished, doing a quick roll and losing at least a few feet in altitude. "Sugarcube Corner?" Jason asked, reciving a nod as the blue mare corkscrewed and frolicked, leaving Jason to look down on the town below. It was gently blanketed in what was at least a few inches of snow, stuck to roofs and trees and shining in the morning light. There was something about winter that he loved, the cool air and the way it seemed to scream for him to go outside like summer never really had. He was so lost in thought that he almost hit the top of Sugarcube corner, dodging at the last moment and looping around to land. Dash gave him a look, watching the unscathed filly hop off into the snow and shiver. Dash only reached back, grabbing a scarf and tossing it to the kid, who gratefully wrapped it around her neck and took off towards school. "So it doesn't snow where you live?" Dash asked, noticing his focus on the white fluff that squished underhoof, chilling the more sensitive spots in the holes of his hooves. Jason looked over for a moment, green flames covering his form and leaving a mostly black pony in their wake. He spread his wings, looking over the navy blue gradient that he had added along the primaries. His eyes were the same color blue, although he had added in pupils and the whites, really appearing to make them jump out from the rest of the color scheme. "No." He said, tearing himself away from the rather nice looking coloration with a huff and a huge cloud of frozen breath. "Only in the mountains." "Really?" "Yeah, I mean a lot of times it gets cold enough to snow, but it never does. It's pretty dry here though, winter only seems to feel cold when you get that humidity going along with it. Leave the house and it's like three seconds until fingers start to go numb. Feels like hell's frozen over some days." "You're just complaining over nothing." "Fine, I'll just make sure you see that eventually, and then you'll be like 'oh Jason, I'm so cold, let me get some of your body heat' and I'll be the gentleman that I am, and rub your face in my wisdom." "So long as you know the same goes for all the things you thought I was exaggerating." She replied with a giggle, finally opening the door and walking inside. Dash walked up to the counter and rang a bell, that kind that everyone just had to ring as soon as they saw it. That type of bell. "Just a second!" Came Pinkie's voice from behind the counter, as she popped out with a face full of flower. "Had to get the foals to sleep, and you probably know how they are..." She said, her bouncy energy not completely disguising the slightly fatigued look in her eyes. "But that's okay, because now I get to put together Dashie's wedding, and what could possibly be better than that?" "Sleep, looks like." Jason commented, taking a seat at one of the tables. "So what's this you've called us here about?" "Well, I've got a few things, but since I knew that you wanted to get knotted as soon as-" "It's hitched, Pinkie." Dash interjected, as the pink mare slapped her forehead. "Of course, Dashie." She let out a quick sigh. "In any case, I put together a few things, and I just want you to decide what you want, and then there's the issue of who you definitely want to invite, because I was thinking about just making it an open wedding so that anypony could come if they wanted to and I'm not sure if you'll have as many ponies as you'll want if it's just invitations and-" She stopped for breath, her face flushed from the fact that she hadn't taken in any new oxygen. "Look," Dash began, "I know it's our wedding and it should be all big and awesome and stuff, but I don't care if it's just us or if everypony in Equestria is there. I only care about, I dunno, a hoofful of ponies, and the rest- well..." She bit her lip. "The point is, I don't want you going overboard making this the best wedding ever, I just want it to be something I can look back on and enjoy, I want it to be memorable." "Memorable..." Pinkie repeated slowly, the clunking in her head almost audible. "I can do that, I suppose. I'll have to change the ammo in the party cannon..." "So you can do that?" Jason asked, snapping the mare out of her trance. "Yep! Sure can! All I need from you two is stuff like which cake you'd like and some rings and of course bridesmares and best colts." "I've got the bridesmares." Dash said, raising a hoof slightly above the table as Pinkie pulled out some paper. "Twilight, you, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Morning and Evening." "That's it?" "As far as I can tell." Dash said, examining a hoof for a moment. "They're my best friends, at least the ones that are mares. I'd add Lyra and Bon Bon, but Jason kinda brought me into a friendship with them more than I did." "And you, Jason? Stallions, of course." "So more than one best man?" "No," Pinkie started, her head drooping slightly before she shot back awake. "Lots of groomsmen, only one best man." "I guess it'd be Tank then. But even though I'm sure it'd be a longshot, do you want to send for Shining?" "'Course." "Celestia said she was expecting an invitation or something, right?" Dash asked. "Yeah, but I'm not sure if she was being kinda sarcastic. Might as well send one though, huh? And then one to Luna, I guess." "Really? The princesses?!" Pinkie said, almost seeming to become less and less tired by the second. "Yeah, hopefully." He paused. "Tell them that if they're busy, it's no big deal." "You keep saying that, I'm not sure how this isn't a huge deal for you guys!" "Pinkie, it's not that we don't think it is a big deal, it's just that we don't need it to be huge. Maybe Jason thinks differently, but I just want to get married, I don't need all the fluff." "Always to the point, Dashie." Pinkie said with a giggle. "Anywho, I have these pictures of cakes I made before, and if you want to look through them and tell me which you'd like." She said, passing over a few pictures. "And don't worry about the little top part, I made one that I'm sure you'll love." The pink mare finished, laying her head against the table. "Don't have twins, Dash." Jason said, making the mare chuckle. "I didn't think Pinkie could get tired." "Me neither." She whispered back, looking at the usually energetic mare as if she had just explained what the inside of a black hole looked like in perfect detail. "This one looks kinda cool." Dash said, pointing to one that looked somewhat like an hourglass through the layers. "I feel like it's not going to do too well actually looking like that for long though." "Yeah, maybe at a wedding with fewer ponies specifically trained to fuck shit up." Jason broke out in laughter. "I wish that was a title. 'The fucker of shit.' Wait, never mind, it doesn't work anymore." "Maybe like a nametag? Hello, I fuck shit up?" Another laugh. "Right to the point, I see." "I've heard ponies like that about me." She said, placing a hoof on her chest. A snore eminated from the mare across the table, small amounts of flower billowing off her lips on each exhale, and swirling around in a beam of light that came in through one of the higher windows. "So this one then?" Jason asked, pointing out another that had four peaks to it. "It's not vanilla." "Flavored?" "No, like not run of the mill." "Ah. I swear you just use these words to make me feel stupid." "Well I've only heard that one in use towards un-modded video games, so..." "Another thing I wouldn't have known about. Love those." Dash responded, the hint of a smile breaking across her muzzle as Jason stuck a hoof around her head and leaned over to kiss her. "Pinkie's making me sleepy." Dash said, making him chuckle. "Psst. Pinkie." Jason said, poking her mane. There was a rather long delay before the mare went stock straight up, making her tablemates jump. "I wasn't sleeping, just uh- resting my eyes?" "Just need to see the top part, unless it's a surprise or something. Then we'll let you sleep." "Oh, yeah." She muttered, walking over to the kitchen like some sort of equine zombie. "This is like some sort of horror movie." Dash whispered. "It's like some weird version of that other personality. The evil one that I've naturally forgotten the name of." "Can't help you on that one." Jason replied. "It's not that weird anyway, I kinda like her lower key. Easier for my brain to manage." Pinkie trotted out a moment later, setting a little statuette of the pair on the table. The two were in wedding clothes, facing opposite directions with their sides against one another. The interesting part, however, was in the goofy details. Jason still had a gun slung over his back, Dash's drawn and pointed off into the distance as she perpetually watched his back. "I like it." Dash said, breaking the silence. "Better than one where we're just standing there or something." "I'm going to have to agree there." Jason continued, leaning in closer. "Good." Pinkie said, carefully picking it back up. "Ima go sleep." She said, trudging off towards the front of the shop before she realized that she was going the wrong way and turned around. "Speaking of sleep..." Dash began, standing up and yawning. "Yeah, you go take a nap, I've got to go get measured for Rarity anyway, if she'll make something for me." "Good luck." Dash said, making her way to the door with him. "I always hated getting measurements for that kind of thing." "I know, there's no way you could possibly enjoy that anyway." He said, smirking. "In a lot of ways, you're pretty predictable." "Whatever you say. I still see most of the stuff you do coming a mile away." He swiped a hoof at her, missing as she giggled and hopped into the air. "Don't take too long!" She yelled down, quickly rising towards their house and grinning. Jason simply shook his head and laughed, drawing a look towards the jet black pegasus, easily standing out in the snow. He bowed his head slightly, still wary of attracting attention despite the recent shift in public opinion. Maybe it was still obvious, but that didn't mean he wanted to shout out who he was. The streets were mostly unswept, leaving a near pristine sheet of snow to lay across the street, rising only slightly against walls. It reminded him of the shape of the surface of water, with the slight upturn at the edges. A few steps later he found himself in front of Rarity's boutique, and raised a hoof to knock. The sound, as usual, wasn't particularly loud, and he instead went to hit it with his knee, making a much louder noise than he had imagined. Sweetie Belle opened the door a few moments later, staring at the black stallion wide eyed. "Can I help you?" She asked, talking a small step back. Jason shifted back, watching the foal actually appear to relax. "Sis, Jason's here!" Sweetie yelled, hearing no sign to the affirmative that her sister was alive. "I'll be right back, stay here for a sec." Jason chuckled, watching the foal run off and leave the door open in a very kid-like fashion. There was some more muted yelling before Rarity trotted down the stairs, putting on a smile as she caught Jason's eyes. "Sorry about the wait dear." "I can come back if it's a bad time, I mean I don't have to be here now." "No, I'd like a break from the other project I was working on anyway." "Ah, alright." "So I'm assuming you'd like me to make you a suit, impending wedding and all?" The white mare asked, batting her eyelashes. "Yeah, that and something else." Jason reached back, pulling a piece of thick tattered cloth out of his bag. "This, I think, is Kevlar." "Is that a new fabric?" Rarity asked, beginning to look excited. "Well- I guess, but this one is bulletproof because of how it spreads out an impact, and I want to see if you could attempt to make some armor." Rarity stared for a moment, cocking her head to one side. "Darling, I'm not sure how fabric could hold up against spears and blades, it's not as if there's anypony shooting at you." "Is it alright if I tell you what I can while I get fitted?" "Of course, dear." Rarity said, taking the thick and rigid fabric from Jason's hoof and setting it aside. She picked up a tape measure and circled him a few times, stopping at what seemed to be random increments and humming thoughtfully. "Is there anything you'd like to see?" "Just something without a whole lot of gems. It reminds me more of a tux from where I come from that way." "They never used gems in wedding dresses?" Rarity asked, putting a hoof to her heart as if she'd been shot. "Why ever not?" "Gems are rare. The biggest diamond could fit on my hoof, and that's worth some ungodly amount." "Really? Sounds like a dreary place." "There are ways to make things pretty without bells and whistles, Rarity." The mare giggled, gesturing to a dress that sparkled in the light. "Think of the gems more as highlights, there to bring out the natural beauty of one of my creations, drawing ones eyes to the most favorable places at the most favorable angles." "You really design it with all that in mind?" Jason asked, looking at her incredulously. "Somewhat, I will concede that it is not to the degree I may have made you think, but I have started over with designs when they just don't seem to come together." She said, looping the tape measure around his leg and moving a pencil against a floating notepad. "I'm assuming you're going to be wearing what I make in this form?" Rarity asked. "Including the wings?" Jason looked back at the wings he still had, with the same gradient that he had just added. "I guess, yeah." "You enjoy those better than what you were born with?" He cringed, something that rarity missed as she measured up a hind leg. "Yeah, they're more sleek, meant for speed. The ones I had were basically good for hovering and moving backwards." Rarity was silent for a while, still eying the tattered Kevlar. "So why the armor?" "Oh yeah. I can only tell you some things here, because the rest is classified, but basically... You know the guy that tortured me, for reasons I still don't know?" "Yeah, I can still see a lot of the scarring." Rarity replied, her voice a little less boisterous. "Well that guy... I need to find him, and I need to kill him before he decides to continue with whatever his plans are. He's got ponies all over, and things are organized. Luna's having trouble tracking the guy down, especially because this is the first she's heard of him in the last thousand years. Then there's the fact that Luna's been shot at already, and if he's figured out that guns kill ponies, I need to be ready to end the problem once and for all." "A thousand years? What?" "All I can say, I guess, is that he's not immortal. But he's found a loophole." "Is that all you can give me?" She asked, measuring his neck. "Yup, I think so. I'll make sure it's declassified as soon as he's dead." "Sounds like something I'd like to read about, magic has grown rather lackluster as of recently, most of the interesting spells were devised by Starswirl or came about earlier. But there are some laws on magic experimentation, due to the fact that somepony blew up a corner of Manehattan a hundred or so years ago." "What was he trying to do?" "I'm not sure, but I can assume that it had something to do with his wife, because she died a few days prior. What I don't know is if it was a suicide, or more likely an attempt to bring her back. And yet you found such a clever loophole, Jason. My life wouldn't be quite as... interesting without Dash around." She chuckled slightly, scribbling on a different pad of paper. "Can I move?" Jason asked, shaking a rear hoof slightly in an attempt to get feeling to return. "Not yet darling, I just need to sketch out a few ideas and you'll be free to go." "So what do I owe you?" "Oh, I don't need anything." She said, waving a hoof. "Ugh, look, I don't like getting free stuff. Can I just please pay you? We can say that you were all generous and I refused, but I have the money, and you're trying to run a business here. And I can't think of anything I'm really going to spend it on, it's not like living in a cloud is expensive." He paused, "How about a hundred bits." "I could never possibly accept-" "Okay, fine, a hundred twenty-five it is." Rarity huffed, shaking her head. "You're just as stubborn as Dash sometimes, Jason." "I like to think I persevere." He replied, smirk playing across his face. "So, is this good weather for the beginning of winter?" He asked, looking out a slightly frostbitten window. "Sometimes we get a little more snow the first day, but this seems about reasonable." "Ah. So what do you call snow angels here?" "Snow what?" "Like, when you kinda- you know, with the arms and, well you can kinda do the legs." "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about." The fashionista responded, her brow furrowing. "Hey, how come Sweetie's not in school? They have school today, right?" Jason asked, a little bit of worry condensing in his chest. "It's just a tradition, I let her stay home and we just curl up in front of the fireplace with some hot cocoa." "Jeez, I asked if I was interrupting anything." "Yeah, but like I said, it'll help push that other design out of my head." "If you say so." "Well, I've got all I need, so I suppose you're free to go do whatever it is you do in your free time." "Wait, sis!" Sweetie yelled, somehow sprinting down the stairs and not tripping. "Can he be on our team for the snowball fight later?!" "I don't know Sweetie, why don't you ask him?" Rarity responded, watching the foal take in a huge breath of air. "We're going to have a snowball fight and we need ponies to be there and if you want to can you be on my team?" She paused, quickly adding, "With Dash?" "How many ponies are we taking about here?" He asked, grinning at her enthusiasm. "Well, Scoots said she'd see how many ponies she could get from school, and they're looking around after for any other ponies that want to play. We're trying to get the whole town in on it, make a tradition, because we're going to be the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS TRADITION STARTERS-" She took a breath. "YAY!" "The whole town? Are you going, Rarity?" The mare's face grew distasteful. "Unfortunately, yes. But Sweetie has said that I'll only get wet, and while I'm sure that's true, it'll mess up my mane." She complained. "Come on, if they get the whole town to do this, think of how much fun that'll be." "Oh, I never said I wasn't going." She snickered. "I've always loved myself a snowball fight." Jason grinned. "Well I'll tell you what, kiddo. I can get a few more ponies together to help your little war." "Would you?!" She asked, face lighting up. "Sure, it'll let you stay here with your sister longer. What time?" "Well it gets dark around four thirty, so we were thinking three, meeting in the town square. Actually, the market square." "Alright, I'll be there." Jason replied, trotting towards the door. "Thanks, Rarity!" He yelled, back, watching her wave as he closed the door behind himself. Off to order a couple rings, then. He set off, making the incredibly arduous journey all the way across the street to get to the familiar blacksmith shop. Snow had melted off much of its roof, Jason could only assume from the fact that Ferris seemed to keep the furnace running nonstop. Jason walked inside, propping the door open with a nearby rock and blowing some air from his lungs. Compared to the cool outside temperature it felt like hell in here. "Hey, Jason." Ferris started, sticking his head out of the back. "I came across something you might find interesting." "Oh yeah?" He asked, his interest piqued. "Yeah." The blacksmith said, unlocking a cabinet behind the counter and hauling out a gun, which he laid across the counter. "You just found this?" Jason asked. "Found? Pfft, this thing was totally broken. It came with a belt of what might be ammo, a stock, most of the gearbox, part of the barrel... Anyway, it's most of the way together now, and I have to say, it's been a lot more fun building this rather than regular pointy things." "Yeah, it looks like it'll be fun to fire as well." Jason replied, ducking down to get a better view. "I think it's an LSAT, which is only really notable because of the fact that it completely burns the ammo when it fires, so you just have the little belt part, I think. Good for weight saving." "And bad for me, I'm still stuck on how to make more of them." He said, scratching his head. "I wouldn't trust it, but it should fire at least one bullet." "Won't draw in more?" "Not yet, no." He paused. "But I'm guessing you're not here to quiz me on my gun smithing." "No, I just need to place an order for two wedding rings." "Ah, for the misses and yourself?" Jason nodded. "Well then, could ya just... New wings?" "Uh huh." "Alright, well if you're sticking with that size, I can fit something on there. Just extend it over the counter for a sec." He said, pulling out a tape measure and a protractor and taking a few measurements as Jason spread a wing. "Alrighty. This one's going to be a surprise." "I'm sure I'll like it, whatever it is." Jason said, a chuckle escaping his lips. "By the way, there's some big snowball thing going on later today at three in the market quad, if you're feeling like a break." "With these old bones?" Ferris asked with a laugh, gesturing to himself. "I doubt a snowball fight could be that hard on you. You look pretty spry for an old pony." "Hey, watch who you're calling old." He replied with a smirk. "We all get there someday." "I know, I'm not looking forward to it." Jason said, chuckling as he made his exit. He moved onto the Gilded Griffin, opening the door and raising his eyebrows slightly at the amount of business he saw, especially given the fact that at best the beginning of the lunch rush was here. He walked over to the counter, receiving a huge wave from Lyra before she went back to trying to get something off of the otherwise spotless surface. "What brings you here?" She asked, looking up from the smudge. "Just wanted to see if you'd be up for some snowball throwing at three, apparently my kid masterminded the idea and then neglected to tell me about it, so after her friend asked me to see if some of my friends wanted to play, I figured asking wouldn't be a big deal." "If Bon Bon'll let me off I'll go." "You could make an announcement around lunchtime, see if you can drum up enough of a crowd. Plus, three is kinda dead, right?" "Yeah, I'll see what I can do." She chuckled. "Do we know who's on which team?" "I'm apparently on Sweetie's with Dash, but that's about it." "Hey, no fair! You'd be the best at this, how could the other team hope to win?" "I'm going to go see if Tank and Morning will play, Evening if I can figure out where she is. You wouldn't happen to, would you?" "She said something about school, I'm not sure why she wanted to go, but it's not like she knows that much about... anything, realistically." "I just can't see her learning voluntarily. Hopefully she worked in a new spot with Cherilee or something, the last thing we need is another scare over changelings." "Because you definitely didn't have a role in the first one." Jason chuckled, leaning against the counter and stretching a leg. He lowered his voice. "I was a changeling for one day when you found me out, I'm not sure what you expected." "I thought it was longer. How'd you get magic down in a day anyway, all that teleportation and all?" "I don't know. Evening said it should have taken a while, and from what I can gather even Twilight had trouble. So I'm not sure why I got used to being this so quickly. It's weird, I should have been without magic and grounded at the very least for a week." "I kind of think that's beyond the realm of a little good at magic, I mean, you didn't ever use it before, so that's extra weird." "I know. It'd be nice if I could just read a book or something about what happened, cuz it's been months and I still have hardly any idea why I'm here. Seeing as Celestia and Luna find it strange, they couldn't have done it, and I doubt that it's some corny thing like 'I was brought here to avert the fate of Equestria'." "But then again, you kinda did." "I know, but that was more luck and perseverance than anything, and if I did that I don't see why I stuck around." "There's still the other guy." "I know, but- ugh, I'm glad I'm still here for obvious reasons, but seriously, I'd love a little information." "Yeah." Lyra responded, going silent for a while. "Do you like being a changeling? Like, more than you liked being human?" Jason paused, rolling the thought around in his head. "I'm not sure. I guess if I'm going to live here I'd rather be a changeling. Society's built for ponies, and chances are I'd lose more than a few brain cells before I remembered to duck under everything. I guess I also like magic and I really like flying, but I could pretty much make up for the first one with hands. There's just something I enjoyed about the way something felt in my palm or at my fingertips, let alone the feeling of power that goes along with it." "Power?" "Hands are weapons, you can make fists, choke someone, or just clench a couple small muscles and discharge a gun. They're such simple mechanisms, and they're the reason why humans are on top of the food chain, minus our brain size and predatory nature. Eyes up front and all that." "So you miss hands?" "Yeah, and walking on two legs. Last complaint here, ponies just aren't all that flexible. I'm not saying I really was either, but we have a larger range of motion in most joints and things like that." "So if you could go back, would you?" The mare asked, running her hoof across the same part of the counter. "To being human?" She nodded. "No." "How come, I thought you said-" "Yeah, I know what I said. But I'm used to this body, and it's still mine. I miss being human, but I've done everything like this. I just want things to stay simple, and a change like that isn't something I'd particularly want to go through again. It's not like I remember it, just blackness and bam! changeling, but I just want things to stay the same. I've had enough change for one lifetime." "Heh, I guess you're the opposite of me then. I'd give a human body a whirl if I had the chance." "I never saw that one coming." "Come on, fingers? Grabbing heavy things without magic? That's pretty cool." "I like how in my world, moving things without touching them is cool, and here somehow that just doesn't work anymore." Jason said with a chuckle. "It's the heavy things, silly. Anypony with a brain can lift up a toothbrush or a pebble." Lyra said, swishing a hoof through the air dismissively. "Alright, either way. It's still funny." Jason said, spinning himself on the bar stool. He stopped himself with a hoof, feeling a hint of nausea as he got up. "I should probably take off then, go see if Tank and Morning are around. Do you know where they actually live?" "Oh, yeah. Tank said something about moving in with Morning to this house kinda by Octavia's. I think." "You think." "Yeah, look, I don't have the best memory. I think it's greenish, kinda like my coat but more blue." Jason sighed. "Always a help, Lyra." he mumbled, turning around and walking past a few entering ponies as her laugh rang out behind him. Another walk through the snow of the mostly deserted and eerily quiet streets, his hooves making little noodles of packed snow as it went through the slightly more vertical facing holes. Mental note. Changelings are easy to track in winter. Some green fire sprouted forth, leaving a light grey pegasus in their wake, the same black wings sprouting from his back. He added a slight transition between the grey and black, nodding slightly in favor of the change. At least he wouldn't ever need to look at himself and hate on some part of his anatomy when he could just change it. "Hey Jason." Came Octavia's voice, making him jump slightly. "How'd you know it was me?" "You forgot the cutie mark. It's pretty rare that a stallion gets as old as you without finding something they like doing." "I guess so." He replied, beginning to walk beside the mare. "First winter here, right?" "Yeah. First time it's snowed where I live too." "In a way I'm in the same boat there." The other mare said, receiving a quizzical look fro Jason. "It doesn't snow inside Canterlot, the princesses don't want to chance the extra weight or the whole erosion process if they can help it." "Ah, I guess that makes sense." "So where's Dash?" Octavia asked, looking around as if she expected the blue mare to pop out and hit her with a snowball. "She's asleep, trying to catch up I guess." "How come you aren't with her? You look like you could use a rest." "Cuz I keep finding things to do. I've just got to tell Morning and Tank about a snowball fight that my kid and her friends are trying to make a town tradition at three, and then I can get some rest. Or lay down, at least." "Mind if I go?" She paused. "Throw snowballs, not sleep with you." Jason paused. "Yeah, of course. Heh. I would make some remark if I wasn't about to get married." "Oh yeah, congrats on that by the way." Octavia said, punching him lightly in the shoulder. "Of course, it's not like you two weren't like, completely made for one another or anything." "So I've heard." He replied, chuckling slightly. "Funny how all it took to find a wife was a trip to a completely different planet, or dimension, or whatever this is." "Gotta keep that in mind, you know." "Obviously." He paused. "Would you mind showing me to Tank's house if you know where it is? Lyra said that it was near hers..." "Oh, sure." Octavia sped up a little, her hoof prints becoming further apart. "I actually told Melody that I'd meet up with her for lunch after I bought some food and stuff, so we kinda need to hurry." Jason nodded and sped up, matching her pace through the snow as they passed Twilight's library and the familiar red of Octavia's, shining in the weak winter sunshine. "It's that one over there." She said, pointing to a building a few houses down. The kinda blue one." "Ah, so Lyra was at least right on that front." Jason replied, setting off with a wave. "Thanks." "No problem." The grey mare replied, turning and rushing towards her house. Jason watched her go as he walked towards Tank's front door, knocking a few times with his fetlock and avoiding the usual soundless first try. A few seconds later the door opened to Morning, who's face scrunched up in confusion. "Can I help you?" She asked. "It's me, Jason." He responded, watching her gesture for him to come inside. "Wipe your hooves off if they're showy." She said, giggling at the blobs they had collected as soon as he stepped onto the doormat, from the melting and collecting of other snow. Jason chuckled and flared his hooves, a thick cloud of steam rising past their heads at a temperature that was rather comfortable. Morning closed the door behind him, quickly hurrying into another room and returning with a bowl and a whisk, stirring up some sort of batter that Jason couldn't quite place. "Smells good." He noted, watching the mare's face light up. "I'm glad you think so, I've been experimenting with different cookie doughs on Mist, but-" "Sorry, who?" "Oh, Tank." She replied, offering him a spoon. "Want a taste?" "Sure." He replied, glad that he was still disguised as he let the flavor dissolve on his tongue. There was some sort of tang to it, mostly masked by sweetness. He couldn't figure it out though, especially not with all the annoyed thoughts circling around in his head that he had never actually asked, Tank's name. "I can't believe I never knew his name was Mist." He muttered. "Cookie dough's great though." "You think you're the only one that gets to be secretive?" Tank asked, walking into the room. "You're supposed to be resting!" Morning protested, trying to push him back out of the room. "Oh, I could use a little exercise. Those doctors are just being melodramatic." He waved her off with a hoof, brushing the smaller mare aside. "That's what you've been saying, but it's not like I can't tell you're not a hundred percent." "I know, but it's okay. I'm a stallion." "You say that so matter of factly, like it actually means something." "Says the mare." Tank responded, crossing his arms and looking smug. "So..." Jason began, breaking their attention away from one another. "What did the doctor say you were actually up to do?" "Well, he said no warfare, no getting stabbed, no high stress. That's about it." "So, you think you'd be up to lead a team in a snowball fight? My kid's trying to get a thing together with most of the town, and Lyra pointed out that if both Dash and I were on one team, that would make things unfair. It's at three for the record. Market square." "I'll tell you what." Morning began. "If this guy gets to sleep between then and now I'll let him tag along." "I'm not a little kid, Morning." "Yeah, but I don't want you to hurt yourself It was hard enough the last time! They didn't even think that you'd wake up!" Tank frowned, taking the mixing bowl from the mare and setting it aside as he wrapped her in a hug. He mumbled something into her neck and she seemed to calm down a little, drooping her head. "We'll be there." Tank said with a wave as Jason turned to leave, realizing that to some extent, the couple he'd just turned his back on was strikingly similar to Dash and him. Jason closed the front door and took off, slowly rising through the frigid air as he approached his house. It wasn't a long flight, but maybe that was just because his thoughts were elsewhere. He landed in the front yard, walking inside quickly. He wasn't sure what he felt like doing, but as it turned out sleep seemed like the farthest thing from his mind. Dash was passed out on the couch, her back arched. He had to fight the impulse to tickle her completely exposed tummy, rifling through his saddlebag to grab the digital camera instead. He had taken to carrying it around lately, mostly because of the fact that he always seemed to miss these kinds of opportunities. Jason snapped a quick photo, flicking an ear with his hoof as he walked past. Now he just had to find something to do. _______________________________________________________ "What's this game?" Dash asked, making Jason visibly jump as the screen turned red and his character met a gruesome end. "It's the kind of game where you try not to scare people while they're playing." "So the game over message right there means you won, right?" Dash asked, chuckling as she stretched out on the couch, making a groan noise to match. "Yeah, exactly." Jason responded, as Dash slowly got off the couch to join him. "So what is it?" "Well this has got to be my favorite series of all time." "I thought you said that about Halo." "Did I? I forgot about this one." He paused. "This, dramatic pause, is Serious Sam." "It doesn't look that great." Dash said, squinting at the screen. "I'm seriously rethinking this marriage thing, Dash." Jason said with a laugh. "Yeah, well... What makes this so awesome?" "I'm glad you asked." Jason replied, making his tone more like something that someone would hear in an infomercial. "You see, the most interesting part of the game is that the original came out in 2001, which is something around twelve years ago. Anyway, it was one of the first first person shooters to actually work, and involve an interesting play experience. Besides that, it's completely different from things like Battlefield or COD because of the fact that there are specific ammo and health drops, most of which are booby trapped, and that it's nearly impossible at higher difficulties. Like, a hundred enemies on the map at a time hard." "But you're only fighting like three at a time." "That's the other thing, the game has easy parts to keep you playing, so that when it gets into an arena and you're dying left and right, people don't get as annoyed. But also, they don't use tons of enemies to overwhelm the player all the time, sometimes they hide some things around corners to lunge at you, or like I said, trap an item that you really need. You know, greed against reasoning." He moved his guy for a few more seconds, blowing a horse-like skeleton apart with a shotgun. "So it's just a shoot-em-up game that's really hard?" "I guess, but it get's easier if you can act more creatively. The enemies don't know where you are if you're behind walls, so that's an easy way to go. This was way back when people could be wowed by graphics and gameplay, without the necessity of an involved storyline. I like it because of what it has, not because of what it lacks. It's just so unlike anything else I guess." "From what I've seen so far, that's pretty clear at least." She said, scratching her head. "Another thing is that there're like a million secrets, some of which you'll probably never find." "Ah." She replied, looking behind herself. "When was that snowball thing?" "Three, why?" "Oh, no reason. It starts in three minutes though." "Well shit." Jason said, setting down the controller and standing up. He arched his back and groaned, several pops and cracks echoing out. "You really need more sleep, Jason." Dash said, putting a hoof to his cheek. "You look like a zombie." "I'm fine." He replied, waving her off. "You could have seen me in college." "Just- don't do anything stupid, okay?" He nodded in reply, nuzzling up against her neck. She nibbled at one of his ears, giggling as it twitched around. "Now come on, we've got to go win something." "Don't go crazy, Dash." "I won't need to, this'll be way too easy." She replied, a smug look on her face. "Okay, well Tank and Evening are on the other team." Her expression faltered slightly. "Meh, we're better than them anyway. It can't be that big of a deal." She said, watching Jason swipe up the air horn fro way back when and follow her outside. A few clouds had gathered, although he wasn't sure if they were in preparation for more snow or just as a partly cloudy end of the day. "That's weird, I didn't think we were scheduled for anything other than clear today." Dash muttered, watching a cloud leisurely float past. "Another weather team screw up?" "I dunno, my memory's not as good as it used to be, I could be wrong. It's not like an overcast day is really that big of a deal anyway. I mean, we get some carryover from the ever free, but those clouds usually dissipate as soon as they cross into the different climate, especially considering the fact that none of these clouds are very big. But they'll probably go away eventually anyway." "If you say so." Jason said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek and taking off. Dash spiraled past him and he sped up after her, easily finding the rather large crowd of ponies that had gathered in the market square. He looked at the blue mare, noticing a spark in her eye that he only knew too well by now. She translated over, pushing one of her fore hooves against his and pulling him straight down with her. A bolt of fear rushed through Jason before he figured out what she wanted him to do, matching her speed and actually preforming his part of a spiral as they descended. The ground came up fast as Dash let go, breaking off one way while Jason flattened out in another, wings straining at the force he'd needed just to stop falling. It wasn't a pretty landing in the snow, especially since he didn't know how deep the ground really was or how he was supposed to land in snow. So some faulty footing and a long slide later he finally came to a stop, looking up at some ponies that he had nearly avoided taking out. Laughing assaulted his eardrums as Dash walked over, snow caught only in the fur of her hooves unlike the everywhere situation of Jason. She pulled him to his hooves, wiping a tear out of her eye as she led the way into the center of the square. Jason picked out Scoots, walking over to the filly and wrapping her in a hug. "Nice job getting all these ponies here." He said, watching her face light up. "Yeah, I'm just surprised so many ponies were open to the idea! Hold on, I gotta tell everypony the rules." She finished, taking off slightly shakily into the air. "Everypony, listen up!" The filly yelled, as most of the talking died down. "Thanks for showing up today, it's really nice of you all. I'm just gunna go over the rules really quick, so try to stay quiet." She paused for a moment. "I thought about how this would work for a while, and with this many ponies we're going to have to do a one-hit-dead kind of thing. Ponies are basically incapacitated at that point, and can be dragged back to the team bases to be revived. Leg shots are the same, but you can still use uninjured legs. You'll still need a teammate to revive yourself though, even if you escape immediate action." "So how do you win?" Some pony asked. "Ah, well Applebloom's out there with Applejack right now setting up some flags and the general position of the bases. If your team is in control of one of the flags, you can revive teammates there instead. This excludes if the spot is under attack, cuz then you're down until the area isn't under fire anymore. You can win by eliminating the other team, or being under control of all of the flags." "So how do you know when they've all been captured?" Jason asked, shrugging as the filly stared at him. "These." She said, holding up several pads of paper, "Are linked to one another. Pinkie Pie has graciously agreed to be the judge, and she'll watch what happens." She said, the hot air balloon slowly inflating behind her. "One team marks one symbol, the other team marks another." "My god, this is planned out." Jason whispered, receiving a nod from Dash. "It's hard to look at her as the same filly when she does stuff like this." "We just had to pick the kid that's going to grow up way faster then we're ready for, huh?" "It's not like she ever does anything besides impress me anyway." Dash replied. "She's going to one hell of a something when she grows up." "Everypony clear? By the way, a hit is when a Snowball stays together to hit you in one obvious part. So if it hits a branch and blows up and you get hit with a shower of snow? No problem." "And magic? Flying?" "Almost forgot. Uuh, Magic is fine for a few things, like making snowballs and gathering snow for walls. Both teams will have unicorns, so that's hardly a problem. Obviously there's no magical throwing of snowballs... No stopping time, Jason." She said, staring at him again as her wing beats got slightly out of rhythm and she dropped a foot or so. "And wings can be used for gliding only. Jumping across streams and down hills, all that sort of thing." Sweetie Belle stepped up onto a box under Scoots. "Everypony on this side, one team, and on this side, the other!" She yelled, sweeping her hoof back and forth as Scoots dove back down and hauled up a hand drawn map, which was rather detailed even from a distance. "We'll be playing in the Whitetail Woods and the town, and all movement in the Everfree is forbidden. You all know what the firebreak looks like, and any movement inside that area is against the rules!" The teams divided quickly as Applebloom stepped up beside Sweetie on the box, almost slipping off as a rear hoof lost its purchase. "All of ya'll on this team, follow mah sister and ah. To the rest of ya'll, follow Rumble and Thunderlane!" There was a huge flurry of movement as the group separated, its components moving in opposite directions. Jason and Dash were near the front, chatting idly as Scoots landed atop Jason's back. "Did you like it? I did okay?" "You did great, kiddo." Jason said, beaming as she settled down on his back. "Do we have a team name?" He asked the rather sizable group, receiving several head shakes in return as Lyra, Sweetie and another foal filtered towards him. "That you, Evening?" He asked the foal, as it gave a nod. "I take it you liked school then?" "It was better than a hangover." She replied, getting a few strange looks. "I could assume." Jason replied. "Drink some water next time." Evening just grunted in response, her small filly form buried almost up to her stomach in snow. "So, team name. How about... I dunno, Team Inedibility?" "Shouldn't it be something menacing?" Rumble asked as they came to a halt, his brother doing a double take as he went to attention. Dash waved him off, giggling to herself. "I think he's drawing inspiration from Team Green Bean. Basically hope that the enemies have enough of a chuckle about the name to throw them off a little. 'Course, we're dealing with Tank and Morning on the other team, and they're the third and fourth best fighters to actually survive." She said, trailing off with a sigh. "So this is home base here?" Jason asked, walking over to a rather pitiful flag, which was basically some cloth tied to a stick. The wobbly cuts helped make obvious the fact that they were done by Sweetie. A pad of paper was attached to a tree with a pencil hanging next to it, the apparent capture point of the base. "Reminds me of battlefront." He mumbled, poking at the paper with a hoof. "So, what's the situation with a base here? Just start building?" "I guess." Evening said, reverting into her usual green pegasus form. "Alright, everyone get over here, we'll need to make groups." Jason said, watching as ponies filtered over. He counted out the ponies and made five groups of ten, looking around for anyone else. "What's the population of Ponyville?" "Two hundred fifty, give or take." Dash said, wobbling a hoof in the air. "Ah, so not too shabby on the numbers then." "Not when you include the fact that the elderly aren't out here, along with young foals and their parents." "I think you've got yourself a tradition here, Scoots." Jason said, meeting her end of a hoof bump with his own over his shoulder. "Is the weather nice up there Scoots?" Sweetie asked with a giggle, staring up at the orange filly. "Why don't you see for yourself?" She replied, reaching a hoof down for the other filly to grab. "What am I? A bus?" Jason asked, feigning annoyance. "I'll act like I know what a bus is and say yes." Scoots replied, hanging her saddlebag over Jason's head. "We can throw stuff for you like this anyway. "I can just float the snowballs for you to grab you know." "Yeah, but you look hilarious with this over your head." He put a hoof to his forehead, hearing a few snickers from around the area. "Okay then, without further ado, let's get you four to spread around the other four groups, and I'll just join this one here." He said, gesturing for a few ponies to move. "Which group has the lowest number of unicorns?" There was some shifting before one group raised their hooves. "Cool, you're back here. I'm assuming you'll have enough time to prepare, and we'll need more to make better forts more quickly." "How many points are there, Scoots?" "Uuh, six. Two in the town, two in the woods, and then the bases at either end." "Less cover in the town, realistically..." He paused, pointing to another group. "We'll take the town, you other two take the woods." He turned, looking at the completely undefended flag. "Alright, let's get something built before this thing starts!" ____________________________________________________________ Jason ducked behind a corner as a snowball whizzed by, watching a pony fall melodramatically as he was hit in the street with one of the white projectiles. He twitched a few times, going silent as another volley opened up. Jason leaned out, throwing a snowball just over the head of one of the enemies, stepping out and floating some more over. He kept the rain of death upon the ponies, the rest of his team joining in as they noticed the drop off in resistance. They had been stalemated with these ponies for most of the game so far, their quick start enough to net them the point that Jason and Dash were attempting to capture. He wasn't sure what had happened on the other side of town where he'd sent the other team, but the game was evidently still going, so they hadn't captured everything yet. Jason hopped a small snow wall, throwing a snowball that plowed right into a stallion's face as it popped up. Dash threw another that hit the pony trying to save his team member, as resistance quickly disintegrated. Lyra put a symbol on the pad of paper under the 'A' category, staring at the others for a few seconds. "They've got B in town and D out there, but it looks like our stuff is still holding." The mare said, ducking under a stray snowball. "It better, this team can't win this thing all by its lonesome." Jason said, pushing a hoof against the wall and making sure it stuck before he started to scale the brick building. It wasn't a slow task, but it made him an obvious target even as he changed colors to match the brick. "Jason, what are you planning to do all by yourself up there?" Dash asked, jokingly tossing him a snowball. "Oh yeah, hold on." He said, gliding back down. "We need to do that thing with Scoots and Sweetie." He said, kneeling to allow them to get on. "Just make sure you're on pretty tight." He paused. "Hey, where's Rarity?" "She just got something that told her to rush an order, so she had to stay in the boutique. She looked like she was about to explode, so I left a little early." Sweetie replied, watching nervously as Jason stuck a hoof to the wall again. "Technically this isn't cheating." He said, hearing a small chorus of giggles as the fillies seemed to agree. Jason pulled himself onto the rooftop, the snow just as plentiful on the slightly slanted surface. His horn glowed as several snowballs formed, floating in an ammo line behind himself for the fillies to grab. "Hold on, and get ready to fire when I say." He said, watching them both nod as he started to run. Jason got to the edge of the roof and jumped, vaulting off the raised edge and spreading his wings as he crossed the gap. A pony looked up from below, a shocked look on her face as he landed on the other side. Several houses later he found himself over the other point in town, hidden behind a smoke emitting chimney as he watched the precessions below. There wasn't much in the way of a battle, it seemed as if most of the ponies that were on his team had been 'killed' or dragged away, which gave him a perfect opportunity to keep them distracted. "Ready?" He asked the fillies, peeking out at the group again. They both nodded, snowballs ready in their hooves. Jason grinned, jumping out from behind cover as the fillies started to pepper the small courtyard with snowballs. "Waaaaaaaa!" He yelled, jumping to another rooftop as the team returned fire. One went down, a teammate already dragging him out of fire before a followup shot could be thrown. Scoots got hit with a snowball in her off arm, acting like she'd been shot as she fell off Jason's back and slid to a halt in the snow. Jason looked back with a smile, running up sideways on a wall that ran perpendicular and jumping off in the opposite direction. He scooped Scoots up on the way, placing her on his head and feeding her a few snowballs as he pivoted hard and jumped off the roof, feeling snowballs whiz past him as Dash and the rest of the crew showed up and started adding to the chaos. Jason felt a snowball hit his side and let himself drop out of the sky the last five or so feet into a bank of snow that must've slid off a roof earlier. He went way deeper than he expected as his vision went black, cold closing in all around him. Something about it seemed hilarious though, and he couldn't stop himself from laughing. The other two quickly took part, the snow bank becoming a white pile of giggles and laughs against the movement and yelling of ponies outside. Several minutes later he was pulled out by a leg, and pulled into a welcome meeting with Dash's lips. "That was probably the coolest thing you could've done in a snowball fight ever. You're revived by the way, point's clear." She said, grinning widely as she scraped up some show and made a kind of cube with her hooves. Jason started laughing again, holding his sides as it started to hurt. "Hey, what's so funny?" "There was this show, and one of the characters kept trying to make snowballs. But he ended up making cubes and pyramids and stuff, and I dunno why I find this so funny hahaha!" "Well come on, we've still got some more stuff to go." Dash said with a grin, pulling him away at a gallop. __________________________________________________________ Another point down, as Jason sighed off on the list and gave a sigh, watching another symbol show up at the exact same time from the other team on a different point. "We have more points, but it's like we're making no progress whatsoever." Jason said, pulling Dash sideways as a snowball whizzed past and he scraped some snow together in his magic to make a wall. "Take cover!" He yelled, throwing a snowball towards a pony that he assumed was Morning. He couldn't really tell in the failing light, although he knew that if he didn't finish soon they would run out of time. He watched Lyra create a kind of blob to hide behind, the air becoming full of snow as what Jason assumed was the most heated battle raged. Galloping sounded nearby as three ponies cleared his wall completely, diving over in a way that at least allowed Jason to take one out with a snowball before he had to dive out of the way of returned fire. He threw another one back, losing his balance and skidding on the layer of snow as a voice sounded in the distance. "And that's it!" Pinkie yelled. "We're out of time, and light for that matter, so we'll have to call this the end of the first annual awesome snowball fight of total complete epicness!" She yelled, rather muted through the cool air due to her sheer distance away. Jason chuckled, getting up and helping another pony upright. He took the paper off the tree, figuring he would return it to, well, it was probably his anyway. "Annual! She said annual Scoots!" Sweetie yelled, wrapping the other snow covered filly in a hug, before they expectantly looked at their flanks and groaned. "Are you kidding? This is like, the one thing we've completely succeeded at!" "Jason, why didn't we get them?" He shrugged. "Think of it this way, maybe you did well because parts of it are like your cutie marks, but not exactly?" The two paused, as if considering whether to explode at the cryptic comment or not. "Maybe he's right, maybe we've been too specific Sweetie." Scoots said. "Maybe we should just do broad things like this." "Like twenty questions?" "Yeah, but without asking the stupid specific questions!" She yelled, jumping backwards in shock as Rumble's head popped out of the snow next to her. "So, I heard my brother's dating your daughter?" Thunderlane asked, walking up a little nervously. He threw a belated salute, a bead of sweat making its way down his forehead. "Yeah, they look cute together." Jason said, watching the orange filly counterattack and tackle the other foal, rolling a few times in the snow until they both came to a stop in a mess of giggles. "He's a good kid, if you'll take my word for it. I'm a little surprised that he actually found a filly that loves all the... weird parts about him, but I guess as long as he's happy I am. He looked pretty freaked out when I said I was leaving, like total breakdown material type stuff, but it looks like he survived." "Heh, I'm glad. I was thinking about having dinner with him tonight, mostly because I don't really know the kid and I wanted to if he was dating my daughter and all." "Why don't you just pop over to my place? It's the least I could do, repay you for, well, I'm sure there's something. Least I could do for my commanding officer." "You were under my command? I never really saw you there." "Yeah, well big unit and all. I ended up getting pinned down pretty hard with my unit in the capital, stuck up in the middle of the part that took forever to capture. Kinda slummy, really. Felt like I was going to die of thirst out there." "Well listen, I'll take you up on dinner as long as you realize that you don't owe me anything, and that I can't really cook anyway." "Heh, I'm pretty limited outside of a few dishes as well, but I can make do pretty easily." "Alright." Jason said, putting away the pad and quickly snapping a picture of the three foals in the snow before Dash went over to round them up. "Now?" "I guess, I'm pretty hungry myself. It's close to five already, so it's not that early to eat." He said, looking up at the increasingly common clouds and frowning. "Alright, cool. It's been a while since I've had food." Jason said, receiving a strange look from Thunderlane. ____________________________________________________________________ "So, uh, Rumble," Dash began, pulling some salad out of a bowl with an oversized fork. "What's the whole story behind you two meeting?" She asked. "Well, uh..." he paused, watching Scoots try to urge him on. "Scoots had this pad of paper like the ones we were using today, and then Diamond Tiara stole it and I found her in some trees basically looking like she was... sadder than I've ever seen her before. Not that I'd ever seen her sad, really, she never showed it off. Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to help her get it back and I said yes and we did." He went silent for a while, the crunching of leaves and the panting of Grey Thing under the table the only audible noises. "How?" Thunderlane asked. "We, well, we kinda beat them up." "But they threw the first punch." Scoots quickly added. "Ah." The dark grey pegasus replied, not looking like he was sure how to react. "And then what? It's not like we communicated the days after that." Dash continued. "Well, we kinda hung out over the weekend and came up with an idea for a prank for Cherilee, or really a couple." Scoots said with a chuckle. "But she ended up setting them all off at once, which was way better and totally worth a week's detention." Another silence, as Scootaloo chewed up some salad leaves. "So then like three days in Rumble never showed up, and as it turned out he broke his leg in a hole when he was running," Rumble by now had turned beet red, only moving his food around on the plate and mostly trying to act like he didn't exist. "And I found him in the hospital like that." She said, turning a little red herself and stammering over a few words. "I didn't really know much about romance." Rumble confessed, staring at a leaf that had found its way off his plate. "So I checked out a book and was running with it when I hurt myself. In any case, she actually agreed when I asked her on a date, and after what was probably a little mediocre of a picnic I- well, I kissed her." Several seconds passed, before Thunderlane burst out laughing, sticking a hoof towards his brother. "Nice job, guy. She must really like you, pulling you into her company like that so quickly." "Yeah, I guess." Rumble murmured, looking up a little. "I tried to keep the medical bill low for your sake, Thunderlane." "Bro, if you broke your leg trying to read about romance to date her, well, it's pretty nerdy actually. But still, it shows a lot of devotion." "Yeah, you're right." Jason agreed. "I hope you know that I'll be watching you like a hawk, Rumble. Although as much as it pains me to say, I'm going to give my permission to date her, if that means anything." Rumble looked up, his eyes wide. "Really? I thought you'd say that I was too much of a goofball, or too weak, or not mature enough, or-" "Honestly, if you want my exact opinion, I'd rather it be you than anyone else I've ever known. You care for her, I can feel that much. And you're what? Fourteen or something around there?" Rumble nodded. "Then you have nothing to worry about with being weak or whatever, and you seem ridiculously mature in my opinion. Plus, I'm a total goofball and I got this awesome specimen of a mare right here. Of course, if you really screw something up, something that wasn't mutual, heads will roll." "Uuh, yeah, alright." Rumble said, his emotions looking completely mixed on whether to be overjoyed or freaked out. "But congratulations." Jason said, watching a smile break out on Dash's face as he stuck a hoof across the table to shake Rumble's hoof. BANG!! Jason's arm jerked, knocking over an empty glass as he looked behind himself at the noise. A few raindrops hit the window, turning into a downpour in a matter of seconds. "Shit." Dash said, getting up and running towards the door. "I'll be right back." She spread her wings and took off, the door closing with a slam behind her. "Rain?" Jason mumbled, completely baffled. "I should go." Jason said. "Something starting up like this can't be good." "It's not Everfree." Thunderlane said, getting up as well as he stared through the window. "In fact, I've never seen anything just gather like this." He continued, putting a hoof to the soaked window as wind blew against it. "We have to stop it though, something like that's just going to build on itself until it runs out of water." "Yeah, I figured." Jason said, dropping his camera out of his saddlebag and opening the door, only to get buffeted with a sheet of rain as noise filled the room and the pair departed. "I've never seen anything like this!" Jason yelled, his wings struggling to take off with how wet they and his disguise's fur were already. Dash and several other ponies were already up in the clouds, trying to dismantle the thunderhead that was flashing overhead. "There wasn't a front here, there's not even a reason that something like this would pop up!" "You think it was planned? How easy is it to create something like this as a trap?!" "I'm not sure, I've never tried to weaponize weather like this!" "Dash!" Jason yelled, flying up to the soaked mare as she threw a chunk of cloud towards the ground, kicking it into oblivion as lightning discharged from the bottom. "What is this?!" "I don't know, but it's not even slowing down! This isn't just something slapped together, it's well made, like ponies fucking put it together!" "How could that be true?" Jason said, trying to rip off some cloud and separate the storm into more manageable chunks as a pegasus was blown past. "We aren't fighting ponies!" "I'm just telling it how I see it!" Dash yelled back, lightning striking nearby and setting her fur upright. "And things look goddamn bleak on actually fighting this thing! I think we're going to have to wait it out, worry about flood control and stuff later. It shouldn't even be rain, climate here should get it magically to snow!" "Wait, let me try something, get everyone away from the storm!" Jason yelled, dropping back towards the ground, through what almost seemed to be more water than air as he got close. He turned, watching ponies move away as he tried to blink his eyes free of water. Scoots went by with an umbrella on her back, getting under an overhang and leveling a camera. "What are you doing Scoots?! Get back in the goddamned house!" He yelled, trying to push her back. "You're going to do something awesome, I want to see it, and then immortalize the moment!" As she finished her sentence lighting struck the bell tower, sending a metal weathervane spinning past the pair and across the cobblestone street. "No, it's not safe!" He yelled, realizing that he didn't have time to argue. He erased the wings and added a horn, looking back and forth to make sure no ponies were seriously close. Jason took a few steps from Scoots and flared his horn, running more power through it than he could ever remember doing outside of traveling backwards in time. If they couldn't stop the storm, then he would move the whole damn thing to a place where it could play out by itself. Even if the storm didn't send down a tornado or anything, this town probably wouldn't do seriously well against a flood or anything of this magnitude of rain, hell, nowhere really could survive this without at least a landslide or some floods. "Jason, what are you doing?!" Dash yelled, landing next to him as the air seemed to cool, all available energy running into the spell as he shut his eyes, concentrating on nothing other than the storm and the greenish tinge it was taking on. Bang!! Dash covered her eyes from what she assumed was the light of Jason's spell, opening her eyes again to see that Jason was gone, a black splotch in his wake. She stared, mouth agape, looking up at what had become a starry sky. The rain stopped a couple seconds later, her saggy fur suddenly feeling heavy as adrenaline started to wear off. "Dash, where's Jason?" Scoots asked, putting a hoof to the stained cobblestones. She couldn't tell if the filly's eyes were wet with tears or rain, but either way she looked pretty freaked out, to say the least. "I- I don't know." Dash said, her breath catching as several other pegasi landed. "What did he just do?" Thunderlane inquired, looking around at the sky. "He- I'm not sure, I need to sleep!" Dash yelled, trying to wipe her eyes of rainwater. "Huh?" "Look, I- I can figure out if he's still alive that way, it's my best shot." "Are you okay?" He asked. "No- yes, look can I borrow a bed?" ______________________________________________________________ Jason remembered teleporting, the familiar feeling of changing air pressure as he landed, his horn suddenly aflame with pain as he landed upon what he assumed was tall grass. Tall grass and dry dirt, which only took a moment to get wet in the storm. All he could tell in his muddled state was that he had teleported, and moved the storm as well. He was only supposed to move the storm, a specific thing that he'd been trying to practice as he attempted to bridge magic and weather control. He swept a hoof past his horn, missing the tip and lowering his aim. All he found was a lower end, the last couple inches missing for some reason or another. He opened his eyes briefly, more pain going through his head. His other arm moved subconsciously, a burning pain starting up in tandem. It was almost as if being aware of the arm had started the pain as his head lolled to one side, ground sliding beneath him as he could feel himself being dragged away. But his brain was way past caring, waiting a few moments before appearing to shut down completely. ______________________________________________________________ Dash 'woke up' into the dream as it were, looking around feverishly for the stallion that had suddenly disappeared just minutes ago. She found him easily, the white world yielding only one other object. Him. And he wasn't in the best shape either, laying on his side and breathing lightly. Somehow he'd lost part of his horn, which somehow showed up in the dream even though he appeared to be unconscious in real life. But as she put her head to his chest and listened to his heartbeat, she could tell it wasn't fatal at least. Like that meant anything. It was consolation at least, but it hardly put her mind at ease. She laid down next to his form, wrapping her arms around his chest and letting the off-beat tune of their heart beats play out as silent tears slowly wet down his side. It was hours, she was sure, that she laid there with her head rested on his, what could be miles apart, yet so close as to touch. Jason shifted, his heart rate increasing as he shifted ever so slightly, one of his eyes opening after a hiss of pain. He craned his head to one side, his eye focusing on her for only a moment before he let his head drop back to the ground. "Sorry." He said, his breathing still sounding rather pained. "I'm just glad you're okay, mostly." "Yeah." He replied. "I'm not in Ponyville anymore, huh?" he asked, something they both knew he had the answer to. "No." She said shortly. "But whatever you did, the storm's gone." A slight smile graced his lips, a tear slipping out of one eye and to the floor. "Horns grow back, right?" "Anything grows back on you, Jason. I wouldn't worry too much." "Alright, the storm then. You said that was put together by ponies, you have any ideas who?" "No, not right now. I guess it wouldn't need to be ponies, but somepony trained in putting things like this together. Look, you worry about getting back to Ponyville and I'll worry about figuring out who did it, and why your spell went wrong. And I get lonely, so you better not take too long." She finished, poking at his good side. "Oh yeah, somebody dragged me away before I passed out. Hopefully they're friendly." He watched a glint of worry make itself known in Dash's eyes, sighing to himself. "Sorry I always do this to you." "Hey, I'd be mad if I didn't know anything. I'm still a little annoyed, but you moved that storm and I'm sure that sompony was caught in that. At this point, it seems like it was worth it. And you didn't know that that was going to happen." "Heh, I'm glad." he said, his shoulders beginning to become transparent as the dream began to fade away into oblivion and the feeling of Jason in front of her started to disappear from her mind, as an equal part of loneliness was suddenly imparted. Dash's eyes opened to a familiar orange blob and a mixture of grey and black, as she rubbed her eyes and slowly sat up. "He's hurt, but alive. He'll live, that's hardly even a scratch for him." She said, her daughter and the brothers coming into view. "How can you know that?" Rumble asked, surprising the other two with his outburst. "We share dreams sometimes, it's part of the changeling thing, and it's kinda nice in that respect. What time is it?" "Quarter after midnight." Thunderlane said, I figured out this thing here," He said, pointing to the camera. "And there's something I think you should see..." ________________________________________________________ Jason opened his eye, already too aware of the pain in the other to even attempt opening that one. He did anyway, getting a glimpse of what was surely things before he closed it again. So he wasn't blind. That brought a ridiculous amount of relief flowing back, more than he thought he could ever feel. Missing an eye meant no more fighting, realistically. No taking down soul magic guy, and no peace at the end of the road. But as he left his thoughts and focused on the ceiling, running a hoof through his mane slowly to make sure that indeed, the horn was still there. He let out a sigh, feeling the jagged edge from before significantly less sharp, and already showing signs of health. He tried to roll, realizing that a belt was holding him to a rather uncomfortable wooden table. Jason struggled for a moment, recoiling and trying to curl up as pain lanced through his side and down one of his arms. It wasn't like the burning pain that he normally felt, it wasn't the kind where certain positions made things easier. It just hurt like mad whenever it damn pleased, and it made him angry. Jason flared his body, completely destroying one part of the leather and rolling onto the ground next to the now burnt table. He tried to get up, before his leg sent another jet of pain through and he staggered, tipping over onto the dirt floor of the small, semi-damp hut as his brain clouded over with pain. The door opened in the center of his vision, a few trapped rabbits falling to the floor as the oh so familiar by now looking griffin talons peeked out behind them. He tried to calm his breathing, tried to push himself upright in a way that didn't make things feel like they were going to hell. Maybe that thing with Dash had been a dream, and he was in an ironic hell to be tortured. Somehow, if he was going to hell he felt more entitled to something than a shack with one griffin. A shadow passed over him as his attempt to get up faltered and left him back where he was in the first place. He watched a talon reach down, presumably for his neck, and tried to call upon magic reserves he knew he didn't have either available or the ability to express. To his surprise, his head was lifted up off the ground and he was propped none to carefully against a table leg with a knife to his throat. "Who are you?" The griffin asked, Jason's eyes going wide not at the idea of death, but the owner of the words. "Eravel?"