//------------------------------//
// Running on Empty 
// Story: The Winds of Change: Fog of War 
// by AgentSnail 
//------------------------------//


Running on Empty


"And how, might I ask, would you know my name?"  Eravel asked, pushing the knife more heavily into Jason's neck.  

"Because I led Team Green Bean!"  Jason choked out, some blood seeping out around the knife.

Eravel's eyes changed, looking almost apologetic as he pulled the knife away, pushing a palm against Jason's still-furry chest and keeping him immobile.  "Prove it."  He said cooly.

Jason shifted his arm slightly, hoping that he wouldn't cause additional damage to himself as he transformed.  Without further ado he did, membranous wings spreading from his back as the rest of his disguise was shed.  "I don't know if you want information, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here that knows I used to be human.  Only changeling, anyway."

"My god, it's really you..."  Eravel said, sagging slightly as he sat down, looking uncomfortable as a little bit of red showed through a bandage that was wrapped around his midsection.  He leaned forwards and put his arms around Jason, making him gasp painfully as pressure was put on whatever injury he actually had.  "I thought you were dead."

"Same here."  Jason replied, taking a few breaths.  "You're hurt."  He continued, all other thoughts struggling to surface through the blanket of pain that had come down upon him.  

"Bullshit, I'm fine.  You're the one that looks like you got run over by a train."  He said, his voice cracking as he struggled around some more words.  "Did- did we win, at least?"

Jason tried to adjust his position against the table, only succeeding in falling on his side with a groan.  "Yeah."  A tear slipped out of his eye, something he'd like to attribute to the relief of finding Eravel but not decisively able to.  "We did."  He felt himself slipping away again, watching Eravel get up to look at him, appearing to worry that Jason might be dying.  Maybe he was, but it hardly felt like the peaceful embrace he'd felt before when he was close to dying.  This was just pain, and the necessity of rest that he couldn't ignore.

He pushed the griffin away with a weak hoof.  "Just need sleep."  He mumbled, eye closing again as his head lolled to one side.


_____________________________________________________________________


Jason shifted, batting a bug off of his nose as another flurry of noticeably lessened pain rushed through his arm.  His eyes lazily opened, one closing back up as some residual pain began to emanate from it.  The thatch roof of the last time he had woken up replaced by what looked like a mud wall, a skinned something roasting over a fire pit.

"I see you're awake again."  Eravel said, walking by with a few sticks, which he tossed into the fire.  

"Yeah, I suppose so."  He slurred, trying to get back into the state of living.

"So, you mind telling me what I missed then?  It's been at least a couple weeks that I've been stuck down here."

"Yeah... how come you didn't seek out Equestria if you were still alive?  I thought, after all this time, that you were dead."  Jason asked, his brain doing about two calculations a minute through the haze.  It almost felt like he was floating half in, half out of reality, his brain partially unable to comprehend the idea that this wasn't some sort of weird dream.  

"Yeah, thanks for looking."  He said cooly, gaze almost feeling like it could cut.  

"Like I wouldn't have!  Ponies did look for you, and I've hardly had the capacity to until recent!"  Eravel sighed, looking into the fire as it flickered light across the room, competing with the light that filtered in through a hastily made window.  He lifted up a wing, pointing to the bandage again with a talon.  

"That spear, when I got hit I thought it'd been alright, that there wasn't much damage.  But as I decided the best thing to do was get the hell away from all those griffins, well, I tore whatever it was the rest of the way somewhere in the middle of my getaway.  So I'm flightless, until your horn heals up."

"Oh, yeah.  Guess that makes sense."  Jason paused, his brain beginning to turn on as any anger ebbed.  "Did you build this?"

"No, after I escaped I glided on an updraft for a while.  Flapping's pretty much what I can't do.  Anyway, that ran out around here and I wandered until I found this village.  They let me stay, apparently they got hit with some sort of small epidemic and a lot of houses are empty anyway."

Jason sat up, grimacing through the much more reasonable pain.  "So what?  Griffin village without occupying soldiers?"

"That's north from here, actually.  Mostly zebras this far south, actually."

"Really?  I guess that explains the mud walls.  Would have thought wood for griffins, like the rest of the towns and such."

"Yeah, not too much wood around here."

"Guess not."  Jason confirmed.  The pair lapsed into silence.  

"I'm glad you're alive, I was worried sick about the lot of you, the rest of the team and all."  He said, looking at the ground as he turned the stick through the blobs of meat.  

"Yeah, same here."  Jason replied.  "Hardly a day went by where I didn't fret about you or Tank or the rest."

"Why?  Were you separated too?"

The stallion sighed.  "I suppose so.  The king, you know how he started acting all diabolical a little over a year ago?"  Eravel nodded.  "Well that was the Nightmare, and if you don't know what that is, it's like a kind of spirit that can possess ponies... or griffins."

Eravel looked slack jawed.  "You're serious?"

"Yeah, we killed the thing and it took me over, blew up the building with Tank and Evening inside and went straight for the elements, which are-"

"I know what those are, they told me a fair amount when I was in Canterlot."

"Okay, well then there was this big battle, and right as the elements hit me, or Nightmare or whatever he threw a spear that clipped Dash's neck, and she ended up bleeding out in my arms."  he said, his voice cracking.  "But I- well, I didn't want to see her die like that.  I ended up going backwards in time to save her, and then going through all manners of extreme care to keep a time loop working.  So she's alive, basically.  In any case, I proposed to her after all this time, and we're going to get married at some point coming up."

Eravel's frown rapidly changed, as he carefully put an arm around Jason's back.  "Well congratulations on that one, guy."

"Yeah, most ponies that know me think it's a good match, I'm pretty sure."  He paused.  "Your meat's starting to burn."  Jason said, watching Eravel clamor for the spit to move it out of the fire with a chuckle of his own.

"And all this?"  The griffin asked, gesturing to Jason's side and horn.  "I know Dash can fight but jeez, you must've really made her angry."

Jason laughed, shifting slightly so that he was in a better position.  "Did I tell you she can do magic now?"

Eravel choked on some water he was drinking, giving a grin as a small drop landed in Jason's eye.  "So you made the second best fighter stronger?  Did you give her a horn or something?"

"No, it just works the same way we share dreams, there's some power there.  Low key stuff, maybe short teleports tops.  But she seems to like occasionally moving things."

"Yeah, you're making me jealous."  Eravel said with a laugh.  

"Well hey, you have the equivalent of fingers.  I'm pretty jealous of that."  Jason replied.

"I guess we'll have to agree to disagree."  Eravel grinned, sitting against the wall opposite from Jason.  "So what happened?  To make you look like that and all?  It sounded like things were going pretty well and all."

"Yeah, I suppose.  We had this big snowball fight with the town, cuz it's winter there now, and I met with my daughter's colt-friend type thingy.  He's like the opposite of what I expected her to go for, but it's not like I understand how women think.  I figured it'd be some heavy metal eighteen year old beatnik stoner hippie."

"Ah yes, I understood some of those words."  

Jason muffled a laugh with his good hoof, trying to regain his resolve.  "Anyway, this was the first day of winter, and this huge storm rolled in, like a giant waterfall downpour.  I've never seen anything like it, not even this one year back home where it rained for a month straight.  This was like, flash flood type stuff."

"So you moved it here?"  Eravel asked, looking out the window with a hint of nervousness.  "That was one hell of a storm last night."

"I know, but it wasn't supposed to move me, and it wasn't supposed to go this fucking far either.  That's beside the fact that I shouldn't have ended up hurt.  I mean, that was on par with time travel, but it wasn't like I would have expected an explosion and whatever happened."

"Any casualties?"

"I don't think so."  Jason said, bending his arm around to look at the source of the pain, a strip that seemed to run down his arm.  "Can you tell me what I'm looking at, Eravel?"  Jason asked, twisting his arm around.  "I really don't want to bend it more than I need to."

"Yea- woah!  What the hell!"  He ran a talon down Jason's arm, out of sight from what Jason was mostly sure he didn't want to look at.  "I'm no expert, but this doesn't look like any wound I've ever seen."  He let go of Jason's arm, setting it gently against the ground.  "You're insane, I hope you know that."

"I'm beginning to become more aware."  Jason said with a chuckle.  "But hey, I'm just on a quest to become more powerful than anything else, no big deal."

"How come?  Why the change?  I was pretty sure you were worried about going mad with power and all."

"You remember what I said about the soul magic guy?"  Jason asked, receiving a nod.  "Well he's still alive, and I know whatever he's got going can't be good.  So I'm going to kill him."

"And I'm guessing you'll need some help, huh?"

"You can't seriously be volunteering, right?"  He asked.

"Why not?  I'm not saying I love fighting, but it's better than nothing, or the lack of any connections I'd have living in Equestria."

"Oh please, I know a bunch of ponies that would love to meet your acquaintance.  With the fact that you have fingers, I bet a certain mare would be particularly pleased."

"Is she interested in some sort of relationship with a griffin?"  Eravel asked, looking confused.  

"No, she'd probably be interested more in the parallels to humans.  She finds humans fascinating, not like a love interest as far as I know."

"Ah, I was going to say."  The griffin trailed off, picking up a hunk of meat.  "You're fine with meat, right?  You'll eat it, I mean?"

"Only if you have enough, I mean, I don't need to eat at all really.  I think it kinda supplements my energy, but digestion goes so slow that it wouldn't keep me alive."

"I think three rabbits is enough that I can afford to give some away."

"Well in that case, of course I'd love to eat some actual red meat."  Jason said, wiping away a bit of saliva with a hoof.  The aroma, it wasn't perfect but it was so much better than stupid vegetable odor.  Or even fish, he was never much of a fish person in the first place, and those Everfree things were nowhere near salmon quality.

"I guess at this point I'm totally sure it's you."  Eravel replied, grabbing a knife with a rather muddled up handle and slicing some meat in half.  "I deboned it earlier, so just watch in case I missed a rib or something."

"Did you ever get things like this earlier?  When you were in the griffin empire?"

"No- well, not fresh like this.  These are from this morning.  Well, the ones that I trapped overnight.  I killed them this morning."

"Ah."  Jason said, impatiently clamoring for one of the meat blobs as Eravel continued to slowly check that the meat was correctly cooked.  "Eravel, I'm getting the illusion of material hunger, come on..."

"Fine."  The griffin said, tossing over a lump that almost seemed bigger in Jason's hooves.  He stared for nearly a second before he bit in, burning his tongue slightly but ignoring the pain as rather tender meat blanketed his borrowed taste buds.  

"Oh, so goord."  He mumbled, forcing more of the food into his mouth.  


_______________________________________________________________


"Twilight, look, do you know what happened yet?"  Dash asked, walking into the library.

The purple mare looked up from a book, scratching her head.  "I think I can fill you in on some of it."  She said, sighing.   "Jason tried to move clouds,"

"Succeeded at moving clouds."

"Whatever, he moved weather.  That's normally impossible for unicorns, but I'm assuming that he also had ambient pegasus magic going on.  So that means that whatever he did, teleportation, wasn't a total shot in the dark.  It seemed almost like he was fairly experienced, to be able to move something this large."

"Okay..."  Dash said, furrowing her brow.  

"So onto why things went wrong.  You said he said that he was in some grassland somewhere?"  Dash nodded, peering at the book that Twilight had set out.  "Well the most we can gather from that is that he's not close, but south of the badlands and southwest of the southern griffin desert is the closest place."

"But that's like... hundreds of miles away!  It's not possible to teleport that far!"

"And so, my hypothesis is as follows.  Nopony's ever really done this, as in moving a storm, minus the princesses, but that was more low key.  Maybe they're just not crazy enough to try it, or maybe there's just never been the need.  In any case, the amount of power to teleport that far should be completely out of Jason's reach, unless he's suddenly become more powerful than Luna and Celestia put together."  The thought scared the librarian a little, she liked Jason and all, but he only ever seemed to seek more power, a little more skill in deployment.  She wasn't sure if she enjoyed the fact that even if his straight magic might not stand up to hers, he was stronger than her in a number of other ways.  Chiefly, the combinations of different forms of magic, something she wouldn't be able to do unless she suddenly became part pegasus.

"And I feel like it's safe to assume he's not..."  Dash filled in, urging Twilight on through her exceedingly slow explanation and partially out of her thoughts.

"So then, he must've received a boost."  She said.  "And from what I've gone through in these books, I think the reason may be that magic could be positively charged, and in that magnitude it was, well, a super magnet."  But then again, he'd only proved the fact that he seemed incorruptible when it came to magic, like he knew exactly who to use it on, and that it only appeared as a means to an end.  Like he wasn't going strictly for more power.  

"You're saying he got struck by lightning."  Dash filled in.

"I'm assuming that's the case, after all you were telling me that he had almost a line of pain running down one side, and his horn would have been the entry point, so it makes sense that it would be damaged."  That brought up another point though, what did he know that she didn't?  She had used to be the point of knowledge related to the princess around here, and although she hadn't lost that connection, she knew there were things she wasn't let in on.  Maybe they were small things, but the sketchy information on the character in Manehattan seemed like an obvious red light.  Maybe she felt a little left out, like after all this time of being in the spotlight she should be included in the natural extension, as selfish as that sounded.

"He- really?"

"Yeah."  She replied, shaking her head to try to clear her thoughts.

"So, he moved really far because of the extra energy?"

"I think so, unless he's secretly a god."

"So safely ruling out that idea, could we use something like this to teleport us back to Earth?"

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, before closing it again.  She flipped a page in her book and sighed, turning back to Dash.  "Magic's never really been done as a group thing, really.  I'm assuming we'd do something more to that extent if we were to do it at all, as opposed to striking him again with plasma."

"So you're not sure?"  The blue mare asked, shifting on her hooves as the same feeling of loneliness surfaced again.

"No." 

"Alright, gotcha.  You want to see something cool then?"

"I...guess?"

Dash chuckled and walked over, pulling out the digital camera and handing it to Twilight.  "See that?  That's Jason at the bottom there, and I assumed that the big white line was either his spell or lightning.  Although lightning seemed like the dumb answer."

"Or both."

"Yeah."  Dash replied, sighing.  "He's always the lucky one."

"I suppose so."  Twilight replied with a chuckle.  "Now get back to Scoots, I still have a lot to do."

"Like what?"

"Find him, for one.  I know a few spells, but those are mostly screwed up by the fact that changeling ambient magic exists to destroy those spells."

"And evidently you can go around that?"

"Yeah, I hope.  Maybe send somepony out to bring him back."

"Somepony?  Oh, whoever shall we send?"  Dash asked sarcastically, watching Twilight shake her head in annoyance.  

"Call it a slip of the tongue, Dash."  The mare said, flipping another page in her book as dash turned to leave, voicing her own chuckle.

"You know, this is probably the best mood I'll be in for the rest of today, considering my next stop's the weather team headquarters."

"Trying to figure out why a ghost storm popped on over all of a sudden?"

"Yeah, I figure if Celestia didn't decide to send me anything yet then my next best bet'll be there."  The blue mare said, taking a few more steps.  She looked over one shoulder as Twilight turned away to look at the bookshelves, concentrating and closing the book behind her back as she closed the door behind herself, grinning ear to ear.


___________________________________________________________


"Mf."  Jason mumbled, putting a hoof to his head.

"What?"

"I dunno, maybe Dash is using magic or something."  He replied.  "Or I could be tired or dizzy from whatever happened."

"What do you remember?"  Eravel asked, watching nervously as Jason pulled himself to his hooves.  "About how you got here."  He added.

"Ow, fuck."  He mumbled, straightening his legs.  "Buncha light, feeling like I was falling, almost.  Then I woke up on the ground in all this pain, and I guess you found me."

"Bloodless wound, whatever it is.  A little from your horn, I guess, but other than that nothing."

Jason ran a hoof along the painful part of his hoof, upwards until he passed his shoulder and followed it up his neck.  "I know what this is."  He breathed.  "Or, at least, I know what it looks like."

"What?"

"It looks like lighting scars, at least in the way it went straight through and to the ground."  Jason muttered.  "But I don't see why, there was no reason for it to strike me."

"Do you realize how easily you could pick up mares if you didn't already have one?"  Eravel asked, a smirk over his face.  "You played this huge role in a war, are a hero, you have all these stories to tell and now you've been struck by lightning.  And then you still have a sense of humor and seem to be at least partially humble."

"Partially, thanks."  Jason replied sarcastically, taking a few shaky steps to stretch his legs.  "But I doubt they'd get over the changeling part, I'm pretty strange to live with as it is."

"I don't think you understand the amount of fervor there was for you two after Canterlot.  I'm talking tons of mares just dying to meet you, some stopped by pretty much every day.  'Ooh, is Jason here?'  'How about now?'  Probably on about how they only wanted to meet you or something.  Like they didn't know the rumors about you two were pretty founded in reason anyway."

"Yeah right, you sound like some phone sex commercial."  Jason replied with a chuckle.  "Just dying to meet you."

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

"Well anyway, the funny part was that some of them brought stallions along, and they looked so jealous I thought they might die.  And then there's the less vocal group of stallions that ogle at everything Dash related, statues, whatever else they made with her involved."

"Like, how many are we talking here?"  Jason asked, becoming genuinely curious.  Not jealous at all, that was for sure.  Nope, definitely not jealous.  Or insecure.

"Not anything mind blowing, but nothing too shabby either.  Canterlot's a big city though, I'm sure it was nothing near a large percentage."

"It's still pretty strange though, I wouldn't think anyone besides Dash would see me for any more than a changeling."  Jason responded, looking at a hoof.

"Yeah, or they thought of you as exactly that.  I mean, you can be anyone, I'm sure some of them were, shall we say, fantasizing."

"This is creeping me out."

"I know, it's more fun that way."  Eravel replied, shifting a talon across his full gut, giving a groan as he shifted slightly.  "Besides, there's not much to do out here anyway.  Not until evening anyway, that's when things get interesting."

"Yeah?"

"The zebras have all of these things they do, usually just campfire stuff and stories."  Eravel said.  "After I told them repeatedly that I wasn't a deity they seemed intent on making my stay nice nonetheless.  It's weird, I would have thought that they would see more griffins down here, but until recently I guess nobody was allowed out."

"You turned down being worshiped?"  Jason asked, smirking.  

"I hardly even looked like the thing, I don't know what they were talking about."  The griffin replied with a chuckle.  "I guess there was a beak and talons and wings, and maybe it was a little alike, but let's be realistic.  It had tiger stripes."

Jason let out a laugh, slowly flopping down onto his good side as the room became silent.  "I miss Dash already."  He mumbled, dragging himself away from a light square that was dangerously close to his flank.  It was already like a million degrees here, he didn't need the sunlight to add to that.

"Yeah, well as soon as your horn heals we can just teleport back, no big deal."

"That's the thing though, I couldn't have possibly teleported this far.  I don't even know my limits when it comes to magic, but I'm sure that's way past one or another."  He said.  "There's no way I'm getting back like that, especially not with a passenger."

"So, what then?  We're stuck out here?"

"No, I'm sure I can find the way back."  Jason said.  "I can find north if there's any sort of iron stuff around here."  He paused.  "Or, at least the north-south line.  I'm not sure which way's north on this planet anyway."

"Funny thought, huh?"

"Yeah, reminds me of how foreign this place really is."  He said with a chuckle.  A wave of fatigue washed over him for seemingly no reason, making him sway slightly.  He could feel love starting to drain out of himself, and even though Eravel was friendly and he could derive some amount of love from that, it wasn't enough.  Jason needed to heal, needed to recover all the love he'd lost from moving that storm.  But all he could think about was how tired he was...


____________________________________________________________


"Hold on Dash!"  Cloudchaser yelled, returning her focus to the mare behind the window of the weather building, luckily a new hire.  

"I don't have any goddamn time to wait, if this is something serious I've got to get on it!"

Cloudchaser ignored her, only shaking her head in annoyance.  "Alright."  She said, turning away from the window.  "She says the storm came from the Cloudsdale factory."

"Why-"

"Wait, there's more."  The other mare interrupted, taking a paper from the mare and handing it to Dash.  "The unofficial report."

Dash gave a nod, quickly refocusing her eyes and scanning past the procedurally written top lines.  

Begin Report:
Upon inspection of Cloudsdale factory this morning, twenty two ponies found dead.  Causes of death: blunt force trauma, seemingly applied by surprise.  Two ponies in intensive care with same injuries, none conscious at the time of this report.  No ponies were known to have made contact with local authorities, and rest of crew is still unaccounted for.  Forensics turned up little evidence, no weapons left on the scene of the crime.  No equipment damaged, sabotage can be removed as a motive.

Assumed organized crime, of organization unknown.  Motives also unknown, although Ponyville cloud strike was also reported, with few seeming results.  General Jason reported to have moved storm to location unknown, although he is also missing as of the time of this report.  No other Ponyville casualties reported.

Orders have been sent to Canterlot in an attempt to pull together a search team, although there has been no response.

"What?"  Dash asked, looking down at the paper as the door creaked and Thunderlane walked inside.  "Read this, tell me if you can make any sense of it."  She said, handing it to the stallion.

He was silent for a few moments, his eyes wandering back and forth across the paper.  "Huh."  He said.

"That's all you got?"

"I'm not sure what you were expecting, I'm not experienced with motives and stuff.  I don't really even know that much about what's going on."

Dash sighed.  "Dammit Jason, why'd you have to leave me alone..."  She muttered to herself, feeling a pang of loneliness flash across her heart.  "I- it seems like all they wanted to do was get a storm over here.  But that seems ridiculous, because why would you attack a weather facility just to make a storm like that?"  

"Like I have an answer for you."  Thunderlane replied with a shrug.  "I didn't join the army because I was a good strategist."

Dash turned to leave, the other stallion tagging along.  "Why did you join?"

"I dunno, I guess I just didn't want to see Equestria get kicked around.  Maybe it was revenge, but I like to think that it was because I wanted to make this country a safer place."


________________________________________________________


Jason let out a snort as he woke up again, looking around lazily and trying to remember when he'd fallen asleep.  Eravel came into the view of his one eye, the other closing quickly.  He slowly got up, smiling slightly at the much lessoned pain in his arm and horn.  

"Awake again?  Planning to sleep off another injury there, are we?"  Eravel asked.  "You know, some of us aren't quite as able to do that."

"I know."  Jason mumbled.  

"Is your eye going to be okay?"  He paused.  "I thought about asking earlier, but it looked like the least you'd want to worry about."

"Oh, yeah I think so."  Jason replied, closing his good eye and turning away from the window as he opened the eye.  He froze, squinting the eye in confusion.  Things were different, he just couldn't pinpoint- he slowly opened his other eye, as color re-integrated itself into the greyscale he'd been looking at.  "Fuck."

"What?"

"I think my eye's gone colorblind."

"Yeah, right, let me see."  He said, grasping at one of Jason's hooves.  

"You can't see what's wrong!  It doesn't work like that!"  He huffed, trying to calm himself.  His heart rate only seemed to increase, unable to escape the grey that seemed to spread everywhere, poisoning his vision with colors that shouldn't be reflecting off of the objects he was looking at.  Jason felt a thump against one of his sides, the world shifting sideways as the ground decided to become the wall.  

A weight hit him across the cheek and his mind cleared a little, a familiar griffin looking down and yelling something.  The yellow of his beak only faded to a light grey, blue in his eyes disappearing likewise.  A cloth covered his faulty eye, wrapping around the back of his head as he was shaken around.  

"Snap out of it!"  Eravel yelled, bringing back a talon to try slapping him again as Jason grabbed it with his magic, an impulse of pain going through his horn and forehead.  He could almost feel the energy flow out of him on such a small spell, unsure whether he should be more worried about the energy loss or the burning pain that kept searing further into his brain as the spell went on.


________________________________________________________


"Jason, wake up, come on!"  Eravel hissed, shaking him around.

The changeling stirred, wings fluttering on his back pointlessly as he lifted his head from the ground, making sure to keep his one eye tightly shut.  That appeared redundant, however, because the rag was still wrapped around his head. "Fuck, what happened?"

"Well, you figured out that one eye is colorblind, and then I think you really weren't expecting that or something, and it almost looked like you went into shock.  Then just as you looked like you were coming out of it you used magic.  There was a fair amount of yelling and then you passed out."  He wiped one side of his face, dragging away at least a tear.  "You can't ever just act predictable, huh?"

"I guess not."  Jason replied slowly, grabbing the rag and pulling it back.  "But if I'm going to get used to this, I may as well do it before we start to make our way back."

"You think we can start tomorrow morning?"  Eravel asked.

"Yeah, what's got you so eager to get back?"  He queried, watching the griffin's face turn a slight shade of pink along with taking on an expression that clearly said 'drop it.'  He shrugged and closed his good eye, opening the other to its view of the universe.  

It wasn't quite as bad the second time, but maybe that was because he was at least partially resigned to that fact.  He could count his blessings that it was only the one and that he wasn't blind, but even though his brain filled in the colors for things most of the time they still seemed a little less vibrant.  Like the colors of Dash's namesake wouldn't ever really look the same.  As ridiculous as that sounded, it seemed to ring true.  He could still just close the stupid eye, but for some stupid reason he couldn't seem to wrap his head around it.  Just about the only thing he could wrap his head around was the warmth of the tears running down his face.

"Jason, say something."  Eravel said, snapping his fingers in front of the stallion's face.  

"I'm not sure what you want me to say."  He replied, studying the different parts of the room systematically, trying to keep his emotions as repressed as he could.  It didn't seem to be working.

"Look, it's just one eye, it's not a total disaster, I mea-"

"That's not it, you don't get it!  I have all this stuff hanging over my head, I don't need something else to add to it!"  He paused, taking a ragged breath.  "I- I miss Dash, my eye's screwed out of color, and to top it all off I'm starving.  To tell you the truth, I haven't been this hungry since before I met Dash, and I'm scared.  I can't get all that much from friendship, at least, not with these stupid injuries, and I feel like I'm on a timer until I starve."

"It can't be that severe, right?"  Eravel asked hopefully, watching one of Jason's arms twitch.

"I don't know, I never know anything."  He mumbled back, flopping onto his side and sending a few more tears into the dirt.  "I just don't want this to be the thing that kills me, some stupid spell.  I couldn't forgive myself for leaving Dash alone."

Eravel didn't respond for a while, the only sound filling the room coming from his much deeper breaths.  "Look, Jason.  I don't know what it's like being you, but the least we can do here is get your mind off of things.  It's not like this is anything imminently pressing, right?"

"No, depending on what I do I've got at least a couple days."

"Do you want to meet the townspeople then?  It's getting pretty late, they do some cool stuff at night.  At the very least they may have some friendly emotions to throw your way."

"Sure, fine."  Jason agreed, accepting the griffin's talon and pulling himself upright.  He decided not to mention the fact that he felt like he was about to fall over from exhaustion.  Or that two days may have been an exaggeration.  Last time he'd been this, well, empty, he'd hardly kept from passing out during a fight from non-fight related causes.  And now he was healing, which was something he had to power and couldn't stop, and he knew that laying around wouldn't be the slow deterioration it usually was.  One night of sleep and he could be in a coma by morning.

When Eravel said that it got dark though, Jason thought as he tried to change the direction his brain was headed in, he was definitely right.  Like, pitch black, no signs of light across the ridiculously flat ground that stretched into the distance.  

"Yo, torch."  The griffin said, handing him the burning object.  

"Thanks."  Jason replied, taking it in his hoof as he stepped outside onto the noticeably still wet ground.  Even after a day of direct sunlight, jeez.  They walked through some grass that was still moist, the droplets shining in the flickering light as the duo changed direction and made their way towards a group of other torches.  That could be dew, but considering the mud it seemed doubtful.  Or not, he'd never really lived in a grassland before.

"What's burning on this torch?"  Jason asked, moving it closer to his face.

"I don't know, it's something the locals make.  They say that it keeps getting in the water, but if they do some things to it, it burns for a long time."

"Like, what color of stuff."

"Oh, it's black.  Kinda like liquid coal or something, it's really weird."

"No way, surface oil?!"  Jason exclaimed, all other thoughts momentarily being pushed to the back of his mind.  "And they've refined it as well?  You know what this means, right?"

"Better torches?"  Eravel asked, happy that Jason had seemed to become less depressed.

"No, well, yes, but if we start pumping this stuff, think of all the lights we could have going!  Think of how long these burn, and how much energy is in such a simple substance!"

"Yeah, but Equestria's all the way... over there."  He said, pointing in what might have been the right direction.

"We have trains, all we need are a few tank cars.  Look, people already did the whole, oil baron thing, I know everything that they did to make money.  So without all of the time it took for people to do this stuff I can just give them the tips in the first place!  But then, what's to stop them from making electric power after that with all of the already abundant energy for lighting?  Nothing!  Then there's just telegraph, and we're up to civil war era stuff!"

Eravel was laughing, and only slapped Jason on the back.  "You're the only one that could possibly get so excited over a black liquid."

"It's an important thing."

"Whatever you say."  He replied, the two of them becoming quiet as townsfolk came into view around the torches, all seemingly happy about one thing or another.  It was definitely strange looking at all the zebras around, with their predictable coloration compared to the pastel and seemingly random colors of ponies.  

"Eravel!"  A zebra said, putting a lot of stress on the a.  

"Hey Zan!"  He replied, grinning as he bumped an elbow against the zebra's.  "How're things going?"

"Very well, I think, with the rain and all.  It was unexpected during such a drought.  Saved many of the crops."

"He doesn't rhyme everything."  Jason mumbled towards Eravel.

"I don't, you are right.  Only the elders rhyme, it shows planning and intelligence.  These are things all elders should have."  Zan replied, his ears apparently better than Jason had thought.  "I hope to become one someday."

"So then what's going on here?"  The changeling asked, pointing to the other zebras.

"Actually, it is customary that a guest introduce himself before we exchange anything more than generalities."

"Alright, well I'm Jason."  He said, watching the zebra's stare.  "I'm a changeling, kinda like a zebra in a way."

"I have never heard of such a race."  Zan replied, squinting his eyes.  "But if you are a friend of Eravel's, then you are a friend of mine."

Eravel leaned over and whispered something into the zebra's ear, his eyes widening before he took off back towards the camp, yelling about something.

"What did you do?!"  Jason yelled at the griffin, taking a step closer to take advantage of his slight height advantage.  "It's hard enough to get anywhere to like me, you don't need to go around making it harder!"

"Oh, don't worry."  Eravel replied with a smirk.  "I'm sure they'll like you after I told them that you brought the rain."

"Wha-"  He started, taking his gaze off of his teammate to stare instead at the mass of black and white moving towards him, slowing to a stop as a few started to bow.  "You fucker."  He mumbled over.  That's not to say he couldn't see where the zebras were coming from, it appeared that they were all Earth Ponies anyway.  Moving weather or using magic, hell, even flying seemed like something only powerful beings would be able to do.  But that wasn't to say he liked being treated like this.

Before he could protest though, he felt gratitude start to enter his system, like the warmth of soup after a cold day.  It felt amazing, from so many beings at a rate that even then still didn't rival Dash.  But it was something, and he was thankful.  Of course, it was still based on a lie.  

"I- I'm not-"  He started to say, his mouth blocked by a hoof from another zebra.

"We know you aren't a god, but that is not why we are so awed."  Jason shot him a confused look.  "You're not of the right caliber, but that doesn't mean you aren't a messenger."

"Uh, alright."

"With the recent rains, we are not without our gains."  He said, pausing.  "We would like to celebrate, for I am sure that you coming here has been fate.  I have yet forgot your name, but I offer mine as Ashertame."

"Jason."  He responded, awkwardly sticking out an elbow as the zebra started the movement, bumping elbows before the elder quickly moved away, along with the other zebras, off towards the middle of the large group of huts.  Zan gestured for them to follow, and they did, joining back up around a rather large fire pit.

"Let us not remain on the fence, for with such an important we shall spare no expense!  All of you, give notice, for we shall be frolicking with the lotus!"  The group cheered, a basket of dried flowers being quickly produced out of a nearby hut by a foal, before he shot Jason and Eravel a grin and ran back to his hut.  "We would like to give you first choice, after all, if is for you that we must rejoice."

"It's really not a big deal."  Jason said, picking out a nice flower and attempting to figure out how he could place it in his mane when he really didn't have much of one.  He looked back at the elder, who seemed shocked.  

"Do you not want to eat it?  Not even just a little bit?"

"Oh, you eat it?"  He shot a look at Eravel, who shrugged in response.  Jason smiled at the elder, taking a large hunk out of a petal with his teeth and chewing it down.  There was a pause as Eravel followed suit, and then the zebras seemed to begin their party, cheering and passing the basket around.  

The flower really wasn't bad, it had a nice sweetness to it that made it just slide down his throat, bite after bite.  Not that it was a large flower, really, but it sure was better than stupid hay.  He let out a small burp, looking over at Eravel again, walking towards the griffin.  He felt good, like his stress was just floating away.  Come to think of it, he felt like he was about to float away, like he had suddenly become light as a feather.  

Jason grinned, joining in with the mass of black and white that almost seemed to blend into colors, his bad eye appearing to ignore its recent injury in favor of the kaleidoscope of shapes and colors that had taken over his vision, sparkling in certain places where the firelight made the colors shine true.  It was a beautiful display, one that seemingly went on into infinity.  And yet, that just seemed like an overlay to the party, a mess of good feelings and happiness that only powered Jason along through the celebration.


__________________________________________________


Jason's eyes fluttered open, the absence of color catching off guard for a moment before he adjusted, rolling over on what felt like a mat.  It was a comfortable mat, one that he wouldn't mind-

His eyes went wide, mind filling with panic and a bit of pain and drowsiness as he shot up from the mat, looking down at the face of a zebra mare, who looked rather happy in her dreams.  Jason couldn't manage any words, the feelings of dread and grief flying through his mind at breakneck speeds while his mouth only opened and closed, legs shaking.  "No no no no no..."  He finally managed.  "There's got to be a good explanation for this."  A tear slid down his face as his voice cracked.  "Fuck, there's just got to be."