//------------------------------// // Recruitment // Story: The Winds of Change: Loose Ends // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Recruitment Dash opened her eyes, the gentle light of sunset coming in through the window. Jason's arms were still wrapped tightly around her chest, keeping her safe from completely descending into the more depressing emotions she could feel. She could feel his heartbeat through her back and wings, the metronome that she never forgot the rhythm to. It was calming, unchanging, and predictable. She liked things that way. It was funny that she could find any solace in a beat like that, but it seemed to have the undertone of life so clearly beneath it that constantly reminded her that they were still alive. Dash wasn't sure how glad she was that they were, considering how much they still had to do. For once, she wanted to feel like she was pursuing her own happiness, rather than the improvement of Equestria. Jason shifted a little, his metronome remaining unchanged as his head rested atop the middle of her neck. Warmth spread through the contact and Dash's frown softened slightly. She couldn't even begin to wonder how he managed to sleep through everything. He had seemed just as nervous as she had, yet he'd conked out only a few minutes after he'd comforted her. She liked to hope that dealing with her didn't make him tired, but it wasn't as if she had anything to say. "No, Shining, get away." Jason mumbled, holding her more tightly. "She's mine." Dash giggled, feeling her bad mood improve more than a little. She heard the door open downstairs, only to close a moment later. Light hoof steps followed, and Dash assumed they belonged to Scoots. The kid trotted in, grinning as a bunch of oddly shaped balloons followed her inside. The blue mare put a hoof to her lips, a muffled laugh escaping anyway. "Whatcha got there Scoots?" She asked, her face a dead giveaway. The filly already knew something was up, and turned to look at the balloons in her hoof. "Balloons?" "Oh yeah?" Dash continued, trying to figure out how to tell her that she'd used condoms. At least she wouldn't have been laughed at in town, considering the fact that they didn't really exist around here. Scoots swung the balloons around, watching them bump into one another with dull ringing noises. Dash finally lost her battle and burst out laughing, pointing at the balloons and tearing up. Jason shifted behind her, blinking his eyes a few times as Scoots frowned and released the balloons. They floated towards the ceiling and poked themselves in, like they were trying to penetrate the ceiling. Needless to say, she lost it again. By now Jason had joined in to a lesser extent, as the filly's face turned a little angry. "I just tried to get you something, and Pinkie was out of regular balloons, so we had to use these weird ones she found!" Scoots yelled, her voice wavering. "Why are you laughing?!" "You… condoms!" Dash yelled, rolling to one side. "Bwahahahaha!" Jason was the first to calm down, and gestured for the filly to come to him. She hopped up on the bed, tears beginning to pool in her eyes. "I just wanted-" "It's okay, Scoots." Jason said, a few laughs permeating his speech. "You wanted to get us something nice, right?" "Yeah, cuz Dash has been sad all day, and I didn't know why, and I had to be in school, and-" "Scoots, can't you see?" He replied, pointing at the now barely less calm mare. "There's no way she doesn't feel better now, even if things didn't go the way you expected them to." The filly sighed, a little smile appearing again. "Yeah, I guess I did make her laugh, even if it was at my expense." Jason nodded, letting himself fall backwards onto the pillows again. "So why are you sad anyway, Dash?" Scoots asked, a little fear creeping into her purple eyes. Jason reached out a hoof to grab her, pulling her gently into his arms. "I just suck at handling it." Dash replied, leaning against Jason. "Hey, I didn't have to deal with you incapacitated in bed all the time." Jason countered, taking an arm off of Scoots to put around her insead. "Besides, it's not like most ponies would come up swinging like you do." "Yeah, but you always seem to handle-" His hoof went over her mouth and she sighed. "I go for a while between events of mental collapse, if that's what you mean. You're way stronger than I am in the emotional department." "Can some pony please tell me what's going on!" Scoots hollered, pulling the pair from their conversation. "Yeah, I-" He looked at Dash, who gave him the go ahead. "Celestia said that we might have to go back to fighting." Scoots' jaw dropped, and Dash quickly put a hoof to her shoulder. "If Luna needs us to Scoots, not otherwise." "But- But-" "We can bring you along." Jason said, watching the foal immediately turn her focus to him. "Keep you in a command center, safe and sound. Maybe get a little use out of your intellect." Now Scoots was stuck between relief and fear. "But I don't want you to fight anything!" Dash looked away, sighing to herself. "It's better to be preemptive, right Jason?" She asked. "Yeah…" He replied, a little put off. "We should see if Thunderlane would want to go." "How come?" Dash queried, turning her gaze back once more. "Because I'd rather keep Scoots happy while she's there, and getting a trained pony and her colt friend to come would help in more ways than one." He paused. "But you're still young, so if this works, you better not try anything." "I-" Jason stared, and Scoots closed her mouth. "And if he does anything, as innocent as he may seem…" "He won't, I promise!" Scoots exclaimed, looking almost excited. "I'm still scared about this, but just think of how much ass you're going to kick, and I'll be there to hear about it right away!" Jason grinned, looking at Dash to find a similar expression on her face. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. ____________________________________________________ Dash's hoof met a heavy wooden door, ringing out with a few dull thuds. Jason and Dash waited a few moments, watching the door creak open to a couple of smiles. So that made things harder. "Hey Dash. Jason." Morning said, nodding her head at the two of them. She opened the door wider, gesturing for the pair to enter. "Come on in!" "What's got you so happy?" Dash asked, a lump of guilt congealing in her gut. "Well," She began, rearing up to put an arm around Tank's neck. "Guess who popped the question last night?" Dash's jaw dropped, though not because her friends were engaged. She had expected this, really. But she didn't want to have to tell them, and it hurt to think about, and- "See?" Morning asked, extending a wing towards Dash. "Doesn't it look nice?" She watched Dash tentatively prop the ring up with a hoof, looking at it more closely. "Well you two seem like barrels of laughs." Tank murmured, narrowing his eyes a little. "Would it kill you to smile?" "Maybe." Jason mumbled back. "And in a minute, it'll be pretty hard for you to smile either." Tank stared. "Look, I wanted to make this as painless as I could, but evidently that's going to be impossible." Jason said with a heavy sigh. A tear hit the ground, which he angrily wiped away. It felt like he was reliving yesterday, and it hurt just as much in Celestia's shoes. "I'm sorry for saying this now of all times, when you two should be celebrating and making merry. Celestia met with us yesterday and told us that we might have to go back to fighting, this time with Bob." Morning's jaw dropped. "No…" She whispered, fixing her jaw and scrunching up her face. Tank grabbed the mare and she buried her muzzle in her shoulder, openly weeping. Jason looked away, guilt eating away at his gut already. "You don't have to…" Dash trailed off, though she knew that nothing much could be accomplished without them. "But you are some of the best…" Tank tried to speak, before he shook his head and tried again. "If you're there, we're coming along. We may not have as many as before, but we're still a team. Don't forget that." "So you're in?" Jason asked, feeling like an asshole for having to say the words. "Hey," He cleared his throat again. "Give us a day, and we'll be up and at 'em." "I can give you more than one…" Jason continued. "No, I'm sure one's enough. After all, it's only training as far as we know." He paused. "Right?" Fear flashed through his eyes, and Jason realized that despite Tank's abilities to hide emotions, he was just as scared as the rest of them. Not to say that it was really surprising. "Yeah. Just a precaution." Jason replied, his ears pining back. He so hoped that it was only that. ____________________________________________________ Another knock, this time by Jason. Dash shuffled her hooves as they waited, before she looked back up at him. "How come you're able to knock on things now?" She asked. "I seem to recall a whole lot of silence before when you tried." "Yeah." Jason replied shortly. "I just never got the transformations down until Evening taught me the rest of the way. Before it was more like a layer of pony. Thus the armor and relative silence." "And why you've seemed so much more comfy to sleep on lately." Dash giggled, shooting a small grin back. "Hell- Oh, hey guys." Thunderlane said, opening the door wider and turning to walk back inside. "How goes it?" "Not too good." Dash replied. "Oh? You seemed alright yesterday." The pegasus continued, cleaning off a dish in his sink and placing it in a drying rack. "Yeah, but then Celestia came by and said the if things went wrong with an operation that's kinda classified, she wanted us to get involved." Dash finished, gesturing between herself and Jason. "Alright…" Thunderlane replied, squinting. "And if you'd be willing, we'd like you to come along." Jason mumbled, shaking his head. "Yeah, okay." The stallion nodded, returning to his work. "But why me? I'm nothing special." Jason tried to shake off his surprise that Thunderlane had agreed so readily. "Because you're already trained, and…" Jason paused. "Well, we'll be taking Scoots along to make sure that she stays safe, and I wanted to see if you would do the same with Rumble. Think of it however you want, from a lack of leverage to the fact that I'd rather not separate those two, but that was my plan." "Sounds good to me." "You're oddly cool with this." Dash said, cocking her head to one side. "Eh." He said, a plate clattering as he basically threw it into the drying rack. "Something wrong?" The blue mare tried again. "Let's just say that I'd rather take a break from Ponyville. If I get to bring Rumble along, well, then there isn't too much stopping me." Jason decided to drop the matter. "You think Rumble will be okay with leaving?" "Probably." Another clatter. The changeling sighed, shaking his head. "Training begins tomorrow, probably around noon at the marketplace. That's where we'll meet, anyway." Thunderlane turned and shook Jason's hoof, grinning slightly as he did the same to Dash. "Thanks for the opportunity." "Yeah… don't mention it…" He replied, still staring at the black stallion. _____________________________________________________ "You know… it still doesn't feel real." Dash mumbled, putting a hoof into the path of a ball. She watched the cloud floor of her house bend and stretch around her hoof, before she knocked the ball backwards. Jason stopped it across the room, allowing his head to rest against the wall once again. "I know what you mean." Jason replied, pushing the ball towards her once again. "But then again, to a certain extent everything doesn't feel totally real." "Heh, of course." "You know, insane people have been known to create worlds like this in their heads, and just live in those instead. I just hope I'm not some vegetable somewhere." "Well that's an eerie thought." Dash said, rolling her ball in small circles under her hoof before she passed it back across the room. "Yeah…" He trailed off. "That's probably why I want to get back so bad, minus seeing Ben and Mankin. Assurance that I'm not a basket case." "Pfft, you're not." Dash replied with a chuckle. "You can't begin to say that everything you've felt, pain especially, was fake?" Jason scratched his head. "I'm not saying this is fake, I'm just saying that sometimes I worry. It's not like drugs don't make people hallucinate feelings and pretty much everything else, so it doesn't seem that crazy." "Maybe we'll get an explanation from Bob, when we kill him." She said, stopping the ball as it rolled over. "You mind if I cast some magic?" "Trying to clear your mind?" "It seems to work, most of the time." Dash replied with a shrug. Jason let a grin cross his face as he hopped to his feet, meeting Dash on her side of the room. He sat against the wall, watching Dash scoot over until she was leaning against his chest. Jason put an arm around her chest, following up with the other, letting them loosely hang around her. "So which one?" He asked, squeezing her a little. "I guess it depends on how much energy it uses, I don't want to tire you out…" "Dash, I have a month's worth of built up love. You wouldn't even be making a dent." "That much, huh?" She queried with a grin. "How's that feel?" "Good. Content." He chuckled dryly. "Way better than when I was almost out." "Have I ever told you how much I like the whole love thing?" "What, giving it to me?" "Yeah." She said. "It's not all the time that your love actually does something physical. Or… you know what I mean." Jason nuzzled against her cheek, allowing his head to droop onto her shoulder. The two were silent for a while, enjoying the sense of relative calm that would more than likely be short lived. But the fact that they could feel safe and happy at all was an improvement over how things had gone before. Jason wasn't sure if it was because of the love, or the fact that they'd had peace for a month, but he didn't feel depressed. Well, maybe a little, but it wasn't the 'I don't even want to go on' depression. Just a reaction to the Herculean task they had to accomplish. But he had things to look forward to, things that were going to happen no matter what, if he could help it. That foal, no matter how many times he thought of it, only seemed to gain importance. As soon as they were settled enough for that, then they would be done. Done. That was a fun word to think of, that realistically killing Bob was one of the two obstacles in the way of peace and quiet. He could count those kinds of numbers on his hooves, they were so low. And dispute the fact the Jason didn't delude himself, that he knew they were huge tasks, things seemed to be in reach. "You want to try teleportation again?" Dash asked, breaking the silence and nuzzling back. "Sure." Jason replied. "Just make sure you know exactly where you're going this time." They shared a nervous chuckle, both thinking back to the last attempt where Dash had popped into existence just outside the house. Needless to say, Jason had called it a day and tried to find something to take the edge off the burst of adrenaline. It wasn't exactly easy to react to the sudden disappearance of Dash coupled with the screaming when she didn't find ground with anything other than total fear. Even if he knew that it was unfounded. "Yeah, I went through a couple of Twilight's books. Hopefully that'll help a little." "You've come far from the book-shunning stunt mare." Jason observed, hearing her giggle. "Nothing wrong with a little intelligence, right?" She asked, tapping her forehead. "Ready?" "When you are." Jason replied, feeling her draw on his love a second later, amassing the energy as her forehead began to glow. Dash squeaked, gritting her teeth as she concentrated. The magic plateaued in quantity, and for a moment it almost seemed as if she'd forgotten to release it. Just as Jason thought that, his arms flopped to his sides and Dash disappeared, popping into existence across the room, about a foot above the ground. She landed and looked around, shifting her hooves to make sure that the cloud was really there. When she looked back up, her face was covered in a huge grin. "I- I-" She tried, excitement getting the better of her. She let out an excited squeal, hopping into the air with a cheer. Jason felt the air leave his lungs as Dash enveloped him in a hug, thanking him over and over again. Jason put a hoof to her shoulder and pushed her back a foot or so, grinning back. "I don't know why you're thanking me." He said. "You did all the work, I just supplied the energy." "But-" "Shush, just be happy that you did it. Guess twenty second time's the charm?" "I'm beginning to like that number." She replied, not completely breaking her hug. Dash was silent for a moment, trying to formulate her words. "You know, my entire life, I've tried to break this record and that. But in the end, what it came down to was trying to beat myself. After all, once you've got the speed record, you've got to reinforce it, right?" Jason chuckled, and the mare continued. "But even where that's slowed down, you've just given me new things to try. I couldn't have even imagined doing the simplest of magics. But you've got me doing teleportation, moving things, and I- I dunno, that means a lot more than you'd think." She put a hoof to her forehead, sighing. "I guess I wish I could explain it a little more eloquently than that though." "Hey, we aren't soldiers because we can use long words. We lead, we compel, and we fight. Honestly, we're probably not too bad of choices for that role." "I remember how I used to say that this relationship was weird." Dash mentioned, leaning against Jason's side. "I can recall." "I don't think it really is." She replied. "Sure, you're a human-turned-changeling and I'm a pony, and we've come from completely different parts of life. I'm sure to everypony else, it is weird. But my god, I can think back to what I wanted, and what you were, and I realize how disappointed I would have probably been." She shook her head, smiling. "What we have, it just works. I mean, to the same extent I'm sure you never expected in a million years that you'd end up married to a pony, and one from a silly television show no less." "I guess when you put it in that light, it makes us seem a hell of a lot less unlucky." Dash stared. "Yeah…" "And it makes me wonder that if there hadn't been everything that happened, if we would have just gone our separate ways at some point." Jason continued. "But I suppose that's a lot more theoretical." "Speaking of theory, don't you have a cell process to finish?" She asked. "Only if you'll help." "That depends, if we figure it out and you know the process, could you give me my own horn?" Jason grinned. "Oh, and make you more OP? Maybe." He crossed his arms. "But with great power, comes grea-" Dash tackled him to the ground, and the pair broke out in laughter. A thought crossed Jason's mind about how happily he was acting in circumstances that should mean the opposite, but he brushed it off. Nothing had been decided, and there was no reason for him to stress. Dash pinned Jason and dug her hooves into his stomach, watching him struggle to escape the sudden tickling. His thoughts scattered, and he didn't attempt to recover them. "I see what you mean by softer, Jason." Dash said with a giggle. "At this rate, pretty soon even I'll have trouble figuring out if it's you." Jason tried to push her off, but couldn't garner the concentration or strength to. Just as he felt like he might die from laughing, Dash let up and he rolled to one side, continuing to laugh and pant, sucking in large lungfuls of oxygen. Dash smiled down on him, stroking a comforting hoof around his shoulder as he recovered. Jason's thoughts from before returned suddenly, and his emotions failed to worsen. He made a decision, one that he was sure was correct. He wouldn't let the future affect his emotions now. He liked the way things were, and a life like this was still what he wanted. The big difference was that he'd make sure to remember this, an experience of life that he had to think back on and work towards. He felt ready for whatever these guys had to throw at him, and judging by Dash's emotions, she was too. ______________________________________________________________ The duo trotted through Canterlot's castle gates, spitting from the activity as they came upon the throne room doors. One of the heavy sides was partially open, and Jason and Dash quickly walked inside. Celestia was in one corner of the room, saying something to some ponies before she noticed her visitors. "Have you two reached a decision?" She asked, turning away from the other ponies. "And if you have, Eravel is actually here at the moment, so it would be easy to ask his assistance." "Yeah, we noticed that he wasn't at home for most of today." Jason said, "and this is pretty much the only place he goes outside of Ponyville." "I will send for him." The princess replied, flicking a hoof at a pony that nodded and took off. "I'm guessing this means that you've decided to take part?" "Only if we get to be in complete control." Dash said quickly, before she paused. "Or equal with Luna, but you know." "I doubt Luna will have a problem taking a few orders." Celestia replied. "She may be a princess, but if she asks your help I'm sure she'll be willing to concede control as a result." "This about Luna?" Eravel asked, walking into the room. "Yeah." Jason replied. "We may have to get involved again." "Ah, good. I was getting pretty antsy just sitting around. Makes me nervous." "And so that makes two that haven't needed convincing…" Jason murmured. "I guess I'll miss my friends, but hey, Team Green Bean, right?" Eravel continued. "Yeah…" Dash trailed off. "Meet us at noon tomorrow, market square for training?" "Sure." Eravel replied, throwing them a wave as he left the room. ____________________________________________________________ Dash stared at the sunset, her legs slightly over the edge of a balcony she'd built with Jason a while ago. She heard some clattering from inside her house along with some swearing. His head popped through the window entrance a moment later, and he pulled himself across the windowsill to sit next to her. "You know, I was kinda saving these things for when we were done, but I feel like now is a good time." Jason said, opening up a little wooden box with a few cylinders inside. He set down his computer, before cutting off one end of a cylinder and handing it to Dash. "What's this?" "It's a cigar." Jason responded. "You're supposed to smoke it and take the fumes into your mouth to kinda taste it. Has a little tobacco in it, but as long as we space these out that won't matter either. And don't take it into your lungs." "Have you ever smoked one of these?" Dash asked, twirling it around. "Yeah, when I got the last of my paperwork through and owned my new house." He replied with a grin. "Alright, go ahead." She said, placing it into her mouth. "This tastes kinda funny." Jason chuckled, raising a hoof towards her. He lit it on fire, holding it a little bit away from the end until it began to glow. He did the same with his own, staring back at the sunset as he blew some smoke out. It was a seriously good cigar. Dash leaned against him, striking a cultured pose as she chewed lightly at the end, blowing out her own little cloud of smoke. "Now all we need is a swimming pool to sit in, or a fancy suit." Jason murmured, chuckling to himself as he clicked a few buttons on his computer and music played. The duo stared off as the yellows and oranges faded, reds and purples juxtaposing themselves slowly but surely. Yet despite the silence, neither left. Even if their hours here were numbered, there wasn't much anything more relaxing than a nice cigar with a quiet sunset. In some part of Jason's mind, the idea that this could be the last of his quiet evenings didn't really get to him. He had the memories, and he had the drive to get through anything that kept him from them. Bob had better be careful.