//------------------------------// // Initiation // Story: The Winds of Change: Loose Ends // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Initiation A pony coughed, opening his eyes to the total darkness that surrounded him. His wings twitched, pain flowing through the entirety of his left side. He could tell the wing had been broken; it hurt the same way it had the last time he'd broken it, and he knew he'd just re-broke the same part. His hoof slithered up his forehead as his wing twitched again, an involuntary whimper leaving his mouth as it brushed over a particularly painful lump. He hurt all over, both in the sense that his muscles were already sore and that the bruises and cuts just added to it. A light clicked on as his hoof touched the little battery powered bulb on his forehead, clicking it into an on position. His eyes burned for a moment, refusing to adjust to the dim light. Eventually he found he was able to open his eyes correctly, and peered around the igloo of debris. He almost began to scream and try to dig his way out, sudden claustrophobia setting in that he hadn't known he'd had. Somehow the logical part of his brain won out and he kept silent, worried that the sound could detach a keystone somewhere in the ceiling. He heard the sound of breathing that was not his own, and looked around for the source. Oddly enough, he couldn't find it, and suddenly the idea that he was dreaming seemed a logical conclusion. Of course, he'd never been in this much pain in a dream, or any, really. But some part of him wanted to be able to wake up. The sound voiced itself again, a pile of rubble shifting as little pieces of debris rolled off of what he assumed was a pony. His mind suddenly leapt for joy at the thought of companionship, and he rushed to clear the pony of the chunks of the demolished building. As he cleared away a slice and navy blue fur came into view, however, he suddenly felt relief wash over himself. He couldn't really figure out why a blue pony would have anything to do with his emotions, though. He knew that this place had fallen down atop them, but the things before that just seemed so…hazy. He had uncovered most of the large pony by now, clearing off her cheek and picking her head up from the ground. She was a rather beautiful pony, though he couldn't seem to get over the fact that she had wings and a horn. Come to think of it, why did he have this light? And how had he known how to turn it on? He assumed it was from muscle memory, but he hardly even knew why such a thing would be needed. There was also the fact that he was wearing armor, so he must have been a soldier of some sort. But his wing, the broken one. He knew it had been broken before, but he wasn't sure how or why. Had it been? Why couldn't he remember a thing? The pony shifted, and he carefully swept across her eyelids with his hoof to keep her from getting any concrete in her eyes. She didn't wake up though, and a wave of nervousness washed over him. Was this some version of Tartarus? Was he forever stuck in this place just to make him feel lonely and confused at the meaning of his purpose, with companionship so tantalizingly close? Or was he just destined to go insane as this lamp went out and he became trapped in the darkness with no concept of passing time? He began clearing the floor, finding smooth concrete a few inches below. He needed to get out of here. Time passed, he wasn't sure how long. The pony was still sleeping comfortably, or not, but he hoped she was. He'd pushed all the debris on the floor into a corner, becoming increasingly worried as his light flickered. He quickly found a hatch and pulled, thanking… he had trouble finding a target. He felt cool air wash over him as he stared downwards. The light only illuminated a few stairs of the passage before it became black. He wanted to escape, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go down there. The blue mare moved again and he looked over excitedly, realizing a second later that she'd just shifted in her sleep. Maybe if he got her out of here, she would revive? It seemed a better idea than waiting for his light to run out, so he found some cabling and tied his wing to a length of splintered wood, another thing that he know how to do, yet could not figure out why. It was almost instinctual, and it creeped him out. He pulled his companion onto his back, his muscles aching and protesting at her weight. His teeth gritted from pain and exertion, he took a step down the stairs, followed by another shaky one shortly after. The pair descended through the passage, their light disappearing as they moved away. ____________________________________________ Jason let his hoof dangle off the side of the balcony he had enjoyed with Dash just a few days prior. A cold wind blew, and he let it swing. Snow continued to fall, but he didn't care. It just turned into steam as soon as it touched his fur anyway. "Here you go, Jason." Dash said, laying down beside him as she passed him a beer. She looked out over the midday landscape, taking a cookie from a plate before she set that down and a mug of cider replaced the sweets in her hoof. "Thanks." Jason replied, raising it slightly in a sort of acknowledgment before he took a swig. God, sometimes he wished he knew how drunk he could get without risking too many brain cells. It was just one of those days, he supposed. No one had taken the news well, besides Eravel. Even Thunderlane, with what Jason assumed were annoyances with some mare was still more than a little put off by the idea. To that point, he kinda wondered what went on inside Eravel's head sometimes. That guy always seemed so ready for combat, but he didn't seem to like fighting itself… And then there was Applejack, who seemed to show enough interest in the guy. They were fast friends, but Jason couldn't really tell if she had a thing for him. To be honest, it was a stretch, and more than a little doubtful. Eravel, with how he acted about the other sex seemed to have no idea in actuality, or maybe he just cared about the fact that she was a pony. He liked to think that he just didn't know. Jason shook his head, feeling Dash lay down against his side. Warmth moved between the two of them, but neither said a word. They were too busy thinking, making sure that before they left Ponyville they would have everything they needed. Jason had slapped together a walkie-talkie system almost a month ago, but it still didn't work well enough. Now he really needed to get it to work, but he didn't have enough power or the expectation that it would work in the first place. Jason let his head rest on the cloud, taking a half-hearted swig of beer. Dash let her own head rest atop his, giggling a little when Jason let out a small sigh of annoyance. "You ever think about what'll happen if we don't get this done in time?" She asked, a serious tone returning to her voice. "What'll we do if I do the whole heat thing and we're still fighting?" Jason let out a long breath. "What's it like to be in heat?" He asked eventually. "To give you the clean version," she began, "it's like being really hungry, and there's food just all around you, and it smells delicious. Usually you're not allowed to eat any of it." "I knew that much." He replied. "I meant, how hard is it to control? I'm not suggesting we continue, but if we're going to have a kid, I just…I want it to be something romantic, I guess. I don't want to just have some lustful display." Dash sighed. "It used to be pretty bad, I guess. Like, when I first got it. That really sucked, because I didn't have anypony to help me through it, with support and stuff I mean, besides Fluttershy. 'Course, she didn't go into heat until the next year even though she's a little older, so she wasn't much help." She paused. "I guess it's not terrible. I'm not driven insane with lust or accidentally getting pregnant every time I have it, so I guess that means something. But the food analogy is still there." "So it's like a worse version of being a teenage boy." Jason replied with a chuckle. "Huh?" Dash asked, lifting her head from his. "Males go into heat?" Jason chuckled and shook his head. "I was just making a joke." "Yeah, but…" "Cuz teenagers are constantly thinking about sex…" He tried again. "What the hell do stallions do all day around here!?" He asked in annoyance. "Well I mean, they get pretty hyped up around heat week." She shrugged. "Other than that, they're pretty mellow. Everypony's pretty mellow, really. I mean, I guess I know where you're coming from, but they're not notorious or anything. I'm probably an exception, to a certain extent. But then again, I only really got a drive after I met you." Jason stared. He blinked, and continued to stare. "I-" He trailed off, furrowing his brow. "You're pulling my leg." Dash stared back, and he knew that she wasn't. "You- I don't even-" He cocked his head to one side, and Dash laughed. "Back where I come from, I specifically remember the whole teenager thing. Like, because whenever my thoughts wandered they'd always go straight to sex. I thought it was just general, but maybe it's a seasonal type thing considering the fact that you have a heat cycle. Then again, some of you get another in fall, so maybe you're starting to develop the same way humans are…" He paused. "How is this, with magic and all, the thing that I'm having the hardest time understanding?" "Because you've got the brain of a horny little male human?" Jason smirked, leaning in against her cheek and catching sight of lavender in the doorway which- He jumped more than he'd ever in his life, letting out a yelp as he fell off the balcony. "Oh, hey Twilight…" Dash began, staring at the mare after Jason caught himself with his wings. "Why are you in my house?" The mare got a moment to get her words together as Jason landed again, glaring at her with a look that could wither plants. Twilight let out a nervous laugh, though Jason was pretty sure she'd heard the tail end of what they were saying. "You wouldn't answer your door." She said, as Dash peered over the side of the cloud at the ground far below. "How did you get to our door?" Dash asked, looking back at her. "I just teleported to a lower cloud with the cloud walking spell and worked my way up." She replied. "And, when you said-" "So why are you here?" Jason asked in response, making sure to cut her off. "Well, I know you're going back to fighting and all," she mumbled, dragging her hoof in circles on the cloud. "and I want to help." "But-" Jason began. "No, listen to me!" Twilight hollered, taking a step back to watch the two react. After they seemed to accept her remark, though not without annoyance, she continued. "I know what stuff you still need, and I know I can't do much when it comes to hoof to hoof and close quarters. But I can watch the command center, and I know the stuff you're trying to do with the communication thingies. I can provide the power with my magic, and-" She paused, pulling up a hoof to stare at something she'd written there. "And I can track you people on a map and tell you information about the area and protect Scootaloo." Twilight finished, looking between the two of them. She had a convincing argument, and Dash and Jason seemed to settle it with a quick look between them and an exchange of emotions. "Alright, fine." Dash said, Twilight sighed in relief. "But you better get some idea of how to fight things hoof to hoof, Twilight." She continued. "If the guy we're fighting proved anything, it's that you might not always have magic. So talk to Eravel, I guess. I doubt he's doing anything." "Oh!" Jason exclaimed. "And ask Ferris for a pistol. Tell him Jason or Dash sent you." "This isn't going to be like anything we've done before, Twilight." Dash said, drawing the mare's attention. "The nightmare debacle was the closest, and realistically things are a lot different, and a lot more dangerous. Chief among those problems is the fact that we knew what Jason could do when he was possessed, and we still know nothing about Bob, and very little about Chrysalis." "Who's Bob?" Twilight asked. "That's the name we came up with for the pony that tortured Jason." Dash replied. "We'll fill you in on everything when we leave, alright? We're looking at tomorrow night." "Pack light, and don't hold us back." Jason said, waiting for her to nod. "And I want you to know that we'll be the ones doling out orders. I don't care that you're the princess's personal student, and you better not dispute what we tell you to do. I told the others a long time ago that I didn't expect any lone wolf shit from them, and I expect the same out of you." Twilight gulped, nodding again. She turned and walked back through the cloud house, a sinking feeling in her gut seeming to inform her that in a way, she hadn't ended up with what she wanted. Her mind had been clear up until now, but with the way they were talking about things, she felt a little scared. She'd wanted to enter into this operation for two reasons, and one of them had been to know what was going on. Now that she knew how little there was, though, she wasn't sure she wanted to fight it. The lavender mare stared over the side of Dash's front yard, looking at a cloud below. She focused the energy in her horn, blinking out of existence and reappearing down below. Twilight repeated the process a few more times, sighing gratefully as she felt dirt against her hooves once again. Clouds always made her nervous, especially with the fact that there was a timer on her spell. Twilight shook her head, beyond trying to figure out how she felt. She could care less about her stupid emotions. Or, at least, she wished she could. It wasn't as if she could just get them to go away. If she could just find a spell to repress them while she was trying to make decisions under pressure, that'd be great. But Jason had summed up that fairly well. There were things that magic just couldn't do. So here she was, in front of the house of a griffin that still scared her a little, though she would never admit it. She stared at the door, eventually drawing up a hoof to knock. It opened a few seconds later, and Twilight's stare got deeper. Eravel looked her over, the smell of alcohol meeting Twilight's nose and making her pull back slightly in discomfort. "What brings a pretty little lady like you to my house?" He asked, leaning heavily against the doorjamb. Eravel seemed to be handling his alcohol fairly well. "Are you drunk?" She asked, peering past him to look at a table with it's fair share of beer bottles scattered about. "How much have you ingested?!" "Ah, that's not drunk for griffins." He replied, and from what she heard of his speech patterns, it seemed to be fairly correct. "So you're just going to drink your problems away?" She asked, quickly adding, "And Jason sent me here to learn a little hoof to hoof. I'm coming along." Eravel's eyes grew a little wider before they returned to normal, only noticeable because of the fact that she'd been looking straight into them. The yellow of his irises scared her a little, though she couldn't be sure as to why. He gestured for her to follow him and she did, closing the door behind herself. "I guess you're new to the whole fighting thing." He said, turning around and taking a swig of beer. "You never forget any of it, until you're intoxicated past a certain point." Eravel took another gulp. "And I'm hoping to get there." "Why?" Twilight asked, immediately regretting her curiosity. "Because maybe it's what I want to do with my night." He replied cooly, setting down the bottle with a thud on his coffee table. "Now, you gonna annoy me all night or are we going to do some fighting?" He pushed a chair out of the way, and Twilight suddenly realized how empty the room was. There was literally a table, a chair and an ottoman, nothing else. "Is this really the best place?" She asked, feeling worried. "No, probably not." Eravel replied, but he didn't move. "It's not like you're going to get to choose where you fight." "But-" A talon fist bumped into her cheek, knocking her head sideways. Twilight toppled over, and Eravel brought himself back to his normal height. "That was pathetic." He declared. "We didn't even start!" Twilight screamed, holding a hoof to her cheek. She felt Eravel's arms around her as he picked her up, placing her back on her hooves. "Who's going to tell you that they're starting before they punch you?" He asked, and she gave him a stare that could kill. "Come on, at least look like you're going to throw a punch." "I don't-" She thought about how Dash and Jason appeared, and spread her stance. She looked down at her hooves, spreading them a little more, then a little less. She wasn't sure how she wanted- Twilght toppled back to the ground, clutching at the same cheek. Eravel sighed, walking out of the room. Twilight nursed her cheek, seriously rethinking her idea of getting involved. The griffin walked back inside, pulling her back to her hooves roughly. "Look, I'm going to go easy on you." He said, showing off his talons. He'd wrapped gauze around the knuckles, but shortly after he'd made sure she'd seen that, he opened one of his fists, revealing two sets of three loops, in line. "My fists do a lot less damage than a hoof, realistically. These brass knuckles are for making sure that they do a little extra." He paused. "Guess what, Twilight, if you don't learn to block a punch now, you'll be paying for it with a lot more than a couple little bruises. Imagine if I had a knife, for instance. These metal knuckles are a lot like a hoof as well, really." He watched the mare shudder a little, squaring her stance with a determined look on her face. "Go ahead." She said, egging him on. At least she had some courage. Eravel tossed away the knuckles and swept his arm to one side of her, a blow that she easily blocked with an awkward hoof movement. Of course, it was supposed to be blocked. His other talon quickly balled into a fist and hit her right in the gut. She staggered back, gasping for air as Eravel pulled the gauze on his talons a little tighter. "Better." He said, and watched her give a slight grin. "Still not good enough." A fist went straight for her face, and everything went black. _______________________________________________________________ "Alright, everyone got the mechanics of guns down?" Jason asked, making sure he was heard. "Check that they're turned to semi-auto. One shot, go!" Several bangs went off, and the ponies turned to look back at Jason. He was almost surprised that things had gone well. "Everyone get a round off?" He asked, receiving several nods as Thunderlane and Evening stopped to rub at their shoulders. Tank and Dash followed suit, and Jason gave them the momentary pause. "Now how much fun was that?" "Ha!" Tank laughed. "Figures you'd ask that! It was great!" "Well, in a way it also sucked, because only two of you got anywhere near the target." He shook his head, chuckling. "We may have to go our separate ways, Dash." "Hey, I can fire a god damned pistol!" She retorted, shouldering the gun again and firing off a round. Jason watched a neat little hole appear in the black of her target. "Eh, close enough." Jason put a few tallies down on a clipboard. "Dad! Dad!" Scoots yelled, skidding up in her scooter with her friends in the wagon close behind. "Whatcha doin'? I can hear ya all the way back- " She gasped, staring at the ponies on the firing line. "Are those guns?!" "Yeah." Jason responded, opening his mouth to continue before the kids cut him off. "Oh!" Sweetie exclaimed. "Can I try?! Please? I asked for one for Hearth's Warming but Rarity said no and laughed." She crossed her arms and pouted. Jason looked warily at the guns he'd leaned up against the fence they were firing from, and walked over to grab one. "Tell you what, go get eye protection, like thick glasses or goggles, and I'll let you shoot a few." Jason said, watching them sprint off. "Jason, have you gone mad?!" Dash nearly screamed, taking a few steps towards him. "Dash, this is a twenty-two." He replied. "No recoil, and even if you got shot through the eye you could still end up surviving. It's barely even a gun." "Fine, but nothing bigger, okay?" "Trust me, I'm giving them a full course before they even fire this thing." Jason replied, chuckling. "Fire two! Set… Go!" __________________________________________________ Water splashed against Twilight's face and she awoke, spluttering as she quickly sat up. "You okay?" Eravel asked, warily watching her as he sat back down in his armchair. Twilight didn't know how to respond. Her head ached, and they'd barely started. "I hurt." "Well, not to sound like a dick, but get over it. From what I've heard and seen of you, you haven't really done too much…" Twilight huffed, and Eravel held up a talon. "…in the physical sense. All of your power, everything you have, is right here." He pointed to his forehead. "Maybe that's how I like it!" She retorted, her horn flaring and pushing some of the water from her fur. "I can guarantee that you won't get it that way." He replied, shaking his head. "You've become pretty well known, over these past few years. I wasn't here to see any of it, but I know what you've done. I know how you tend to work, and I know what stuff you're good at. You're logical, unpredictable only until someone finds the pattern you operate under. You're smart, and you're powerful, but unless you vary yourself you're kind of a sitting duck." Twilight hung her head. Her mind ran through the implications of what he was saying, knowing that in a lot of ways, he was right. She made lists of almost everything, and took on every problem the same way, if she could. It made her incredibly efficient, and she knew she was hardworking and determined, but unpredictability wasn't her strong suit. "You know what sucks about ponies?" Eravel asked, and Twilight assumed it was a rhetorical question. "You've got a big picture of exactly what you're good at. But at the same time, I've talked to Jason about hu- griffins," he corrected, cringing a little, "and if you replaced every pony with a griffin, hell, even a pony with no mark, it'd be a lot harder to pinpoint things about you." "I guess you're right…" She said, looking away. Twilight pushed out any thought of Jason and whatever he was saying about humans. That was something for another day. "Take Jason, for example. He's done stuff, learned spells, seemingly at random. His skill set is transposed from one world onto another, and I know you all see some of the things he does as weird. He's also got no mark. Problem is, he's got a kid and Dash. Dash is much the same way, only she's got her stuff from… completely different things in the same world, but you know what I mean." He sighed. "But you know, I'm probably selling you short. You're smart, probably more than me, and it'd be a great help to have you along. Then there's the knowledge base that you have…" He arose, offering her a talon, which she took. "Now, the sooner you protect yourself, the sooner we can call it quits and get Jason to fix you up. It's not the last time we'll be doing this, though." "You know what?" She asked, giving a little grin of her own. "No pain, no gain, right? It's just another way to get smarter." "If you want to think of it that way, sure." Eravel replied, as they got set. Twilight threw an unexpected punch at his face, which he deflected with a laugh. "Oh, I think I'm liking the idea of having you come along." ______________________________________________________ "So how's Twilight doing?" Jason asked. "Pull." Eravel threw a clay pigeon into the air, and it blew into a million pieces as Jason hit the target with buckshot. "Well, I told her to take a break from it and she fell asleep a few minutes later, but I can't say she isn't catching on. I mean, she's not good, and she'll need more practice…" He took the shotgun from Jason as he handed it over. "Pull." He watched the disk sail into the sky as Jason threw it, blowing apart a moment later. "But you know." "How's she look?" Jason asked, almost not wanting to hear the response. "She's swollen." Eravel said. "I'm sure she was having trouble seeing out of her eye." "I guess I'll have to fix her up then." Jason replied, looking back towards Eravel's house. It meant something that she'd gone on for that long, at least. "Looks like she got a few hits on you." He laughed, pointing at the griffin's bruised cheek with a hoof. Eravel sighed with a chuckle, looking up at the sunset again. "I was drinking." "That's your excuse?!" Jason guffawed, watching Eravel stare angrily. "You can probably drink any pony so far under the table that they die, and you're complaining about a few beers?" "I- You know what? Of course she got a hit in. I was the one teaching her, after all." "Oh, so now you're just going to take that argument, huh?" "Yeah, blueberries." Jason stopped. "I told you not to call me that." "I dunno, it has a nice ring to it. Blueberries." "I had that color setup for one fucking-" He put a hoof to his forehead, sighing. Eravel opened his beak to reply, but a moan of pain from the house silenced them. Jason cringed in advance, walking back with the griffin. It wasn't without reason. "Holy shit, did you try to block a train with your face!?" Jason exclaimed, staring at the mare, sprawled out across an ottoman. She mumbled something that Jason couldn't hear, but he figured it was either a sarcastic remark or a declaration of pain. The fact that her fur was purple at least made things seem slightly less bad. "Just hold still, alright?" Jason asked, receiving a slight nod as Twilight closed the one eye he could see. Jason's horn glowed, and he shut his eyes as well, concentrating and formulating the magic in his head. "You know, ponies swell a lot more than griffins do." He heard Eravel say, before his ears seemed to shut out all the sound, focusing completely on Twilight. He went through bruise after bruise, working in the same way he always did. The right side of her face went back to normal, followed by the left as Jason worked across. He checked the rest of her over, fixing a ding here and there, sometimes a cut or two. All and all, it had looked a lot worse than it was. Jason opened his eyes, looking at a mare that was nearly back to normal, minus a small scar to the far side of one eye. He staggered to one side, but Eravel held him upright. She put a hoof to her face, wincing backwards as it touched, yet feeling no pain. Twilight stared at her hoof for a moment before she rolled off the ottoman, groaning in pain. "Jason, I know you fixed me up and all, but I'm- I'm still sore." "Yeah. I'm not a miracle worker, I can't make you build muscles. By getting rid of the soreness, your body thinks that everything's fine as it is, when obviously it's not. If things get hairy, I'll heal you. But we've got a day, maybe more, that you can use. Plus, trying to fight when you're sore will just make you learn faster. Trial by fire and all that." Twilight stuck a hoof out, poking Jason in the chest. "You aren't a hard-ass like this normally." She said, narrowing her eyes. "Yeah, but I'm not your friend anymore. I'm your boss, and you're a mare that I've tasked with defending my daughter." He replied, taking a step forward to take advantage of the couple of inches he had on her. He felt kinda like a jerk doing this, but if she was going to do this, this close to when they needed to leave and fight, he couldn't take any shit whatsoever. That being said, she'd done this voluntarily, and she seemed to be holding up alright so far. Something moved behind Twilight and Eravel groaned, diving across the room and just missing what Jason assumed was a rodent. "That little fucker, sitting around here, acting like he pays rent." He mumbled, trying to figure out where the thing had gone. "Eravel, I can fix this, easy." Jason said with a grin, walking into the kitchen. He grabbed some bread, hearing a knock at the door. Someone answered it, and Dash's voice filtered through. "I'm assuming Jason healed you?" The pegasus asked, and Twilight hummed to the affirmative. He heard hoof steps approach, and Dash gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which Jason returned with a grin. "Don't be too hard on her." She whispered, taking a glance at the lavender mare, clearly stiff as she walked back into the other room. "It's better now than later." Jason replied, taking his blob of bread into the other room with Dash close behind. "Where's Scoots at?" "I told her to pack, and that we'd go through her stuff later if she ended up bringing too much. Honestly though, I don't think she has that much stuff anyway. She's a cheap kid to have around." "Bread?" Eravel asked, watching Jason set it on the far end of the room. "Yeah." Jason replied. "I'm fixing your rat problem." "Look, I have a trap right here…" He trailed off, holding up a rat trap in his talon. "I don't need that." Jason replied, watching the bread as they huddled behind the meager furniture, watching the bread intently. "Besides, it's a good introduction to everything Twilight doesn't know." The mare's ears perked, and she looked over. "Like what?" "Well for one, you've got no idea the limitations of the things a hive mind can do. I can't remember what you know, so here's the whole story. I have one, and every changeling has one. Chrysalis's is much stronger, so she can both connect to other changelings and control them. All I've got is a few shared dreams with Dash, and the fact that she can tell what my emotions are…" "And the magic." "Ah, yeah. Dash can do that." "Huh?" Twilight asked, furrowing her brow. "No way, that's impossible." "Is it, Twilight?" Dash asked with a cocky grin, floating over a beer bottle in her white aura. It spun around in front of the slack-jawed mare's face, until the pegasus grabbed it with a hoof and set it back on the coffee table. "Ah! Jason!" Eravel yelled, pointing to the bread again. The rat stared at the group for a moment before it picked up the bread and ran a few strides, stopping suddenly in its tracks. "Ha, gotcha." Jason said, letting out a quick huff of breath. The vermin walked over, staring at them. Jason stuck a hoof in front of it and it hopped on, staying still on Jason's forearm as he raised it up for the others to see. "S-still got it." He stammered. "Now let me show you how you take care of a rat the fun way." ____________________________________________________ "Pull!" Jason yelled, watching Dash chick it as he blew the thing right out of the sky. Eravel tapped him on the shoulder, pointing to a cage. "So, what are we doing with it?" "I dunno, if you don't want it then stick a rat trap by the entrance and leave. That's pretty humane. So long as we aren't squishing it or anything…" "You think Fluttershy would care, before I kill the little sucker?" He asked. The changeling shook his head. "I dunno. To be honest, I don't really know Fluttershy too well anyway." "Alright, I'll go get the trap…" Eravel murmured, turning to walk back inside. He peered out a few moments later. "Twilight, come on! We've got training to do, and no time to do it!" "But I-" She mumbled, looking up at the stars and back down. "I just-" The mare looked down, dejected, and began to wander inside. "Twilight, stop." Jason interjected, mentally berating himself for giving the mare a break. It wasn't that he held a grudge or anything, but Eravel had the right idea. They didn't have time, and he was right to push her. "Look, just… three hours more, alright?" He asked Eravel, catching sight of Dash's approving grin. "Make sure you don't go too hard on her, because I want her to stay at our place for the night." "Huh?!" Dash and Twilight responded, staring at one another as they realized that they'd echoed. "I need to make sure you know what you're doing before we leave, and it's a good break from getting repeatedly punched in the face." His expression lightened. "Besides, you'll pass out on a cloud floor instantly. You'll be more rested in the morning." "I guess maybe you do have a heart." Twilight cooed, and Jason chuckled. "Don't tempt me." "So, everything's good?" Dash asked, gesturing around to everyone, receiving several nods in response. "Cool, cuz I could use a little relaxation before we have to do whatever later tonight." She said, jumping into the air and hovering in place. "It's gonna be a cold one tonight." "In a way, I kinda miss feeling cold." Jason said, floating up to her level. "Yeah, because it's so terrible being a beacon of heat all the time." "Hey, Summer hasn't come around yet. You'll hate me then." Jason shot back, hearing a chuckle from Eravel as they left the two down below. "Yeah, or I might just end up warm enough to sleep without blankets. I always got just a little too cold before." Jason grinned, toasting an imaginary alcoholic beverage at her. "To Summer." He said. They both understood the unspoken words behind his gesture. It wasn't a toast to a season, so much as the hope that they'd both be there when it came around. Dash returned the motion, opening her mouth to reply. "Tink."