Aging
"I left you for one night, maybe only a few hours, and you cover my living room in lists." Jason said, making Twilight jump and draw a jagged line across her current paper.
"What?" She shot back, her eyes tired. A blanket was around her shoulders, another spread on the couch.
"You get any sleep, at least?"
She yawned, setting the list aside. "I'm not sure, I was restless. Maybe I got to sleep for a while and don't remember."
"Nervous?" Dash asked, trotting down the stairs.
"Maybe a little…" Twilight responded, looking downward. "It would have been nice if anything had prepared me for this."
"It's not like we're going to get into any crazy situations for a few days anyway, so don't think that we're just hopping into an active war zone." Dash said, nuzzling against Jason as she walked by. He turned and grinned tiredly, pecking her on the cheek as she veered towards the kitchen. "Want anything, Twilight?" The blue mare asked, disappearing through the door.
"What've you got that's high in protein?" She inquired, and Jason gave her a look, and she shrugged. "I need to build muscle."
"Well, there's always meat." Jason pointed out, and her face took on a look of distaste. "We have a lot of that."
"You know, the whole meat thing makes a lot more sense now." She said, as Dash peered back out, waving a few strips of meat at her.
"It tastes good, you know." The pegasus observed with a grin. "Baconnnnn." She cooed, drawing out the word as she continued to shake it around.
"Just make it Dash, she can just take one of mine if she wants."
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"Morning dad, morning mom." Scoots mumbled as she walked into the kitchen, taking her usual spot on a chair at the island.
"Sleep well, Scoots?" Dash asked, and the foal stared. "I'll take that as a no, then." Dash muttered, turning back to watch the sizzling meat intensely. These ones wouldn't burn like the last thousand, she could tell.
"How's it going there, Dash?" Jason asked, nervousness permeating his voice. She'd made him let her do the small things with cooking, and she had marginally improved. Most of that was because she didn't want to watch Jason eat something she knew was terrible and then tell her how much better it was compared to the last one. He probably took away his taste buds, which she couldn't blame him for doing.
"Fine, I think." She said, flipping the strips over as she heard the jingling of cereal into a bowl. "But that's by my standards, so…"
"I dunno, those look pretty good." Jason murmured, standing over her. "Better than last time is right."
"Good to know you have faith in my cooking skills." Dash replied sarcastically, flipping another strip.
"Should I have faith?"
"That's probably a good point."
"That's good about there, Dash." Jason said, and she pulled the pan from the heat.
"Alright, Twilight," She began, a sparkle in her eye (hah!), "Prepare to enter a world of culinary awesomeness."
"I really hope you're right." Twilight replied, some disgust still clear in her voice.
"When have I ever been wrong?" She asked, as the whole room burst out into evil laughter. Maybe the warfare wasn't the only problem with these ponies…
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"Well, this is a large room." A pony said to no one in particular. It made him feel a little better to have a conversation with nothing at all, rather than accept the fact that he felt so lonely. Some of that was ironic, considering the pony draped over his back.
His words echoed back, the vaulted ceiling of the windowless area stretching into the darkness above. Those stairs had gone down farther than he would've liked to imagine, but as he looked up, things felt a whole lot worse. At least it wasn't dark, even if he couldn't tell where the light was emanating from. He didn't even know if that was ground level back there though, come to think of it. That could've been a basement or a cellar for all he knew. Maybe he was just cleaning up his own basement, and stuff had toppled over on him? No, he was wearing armor, and as far as he knew, soldiers weren't an elite cleaning force.
He scratched his face with a hoof, his wing giving a twitch of pain as he lost his balance. The two ponies hit the ground, separating on impact. He watched the mare, expecting some sort of backlash. Instead, he heard scuttling. His ears turned around, his head quick to follow.
He didn't see anything. The stallion pulled himself up and walked a few paces to one side, trying to see around one of the many pillars. All he got was a hoofful of cobweb, which he looked down at with disgust. His eyes focused past his hoof, onto the skull of an old pony, left here by who knows who. It just made him want to leave more.
He pushed the mare onto her stomach, carefully picking her up once again. A hoof hit his wing and he groaned, the sound echoing out like the others. More scuttling sounded, and he looked straight upwards. Eyes appeared, followed by scores of others. His heart thumped, and he took a quick breath, waiting for whatever it was to show itself outside the gloom.
He didn't have to wait long, as a long, hairy leg extended down a pillar, followed by seven more. He screamed, breaking into as fast of a run as he could muster. He looked up again as the pillars rushed by, and saw more joining into the chase. Suddenly he burst through what felt like thick tissue paper, and tumbled along the ground. It turned out to be very sticky tissue paper.
The mare had some of the same stuff on her back, but with him it was much worse. His hind legs were stuck together, and even as his tired muscles tried to pull them apart, what little movement he achieved was reversed by an inevitable slackening as his strength gave out.
He rolled over, staring at the mandibles of the spider as it loomed over him, his reflection easy to see in several of the beast's eyes. As soon as he moved to push himself away, the thing bent down to grab him, and he covered his face with his hooves. It jerked away, sliding a ways away on the stone floor as the spider webs on his hooves severed themselves.
The stallion looked behind himself, meeting the eyes of the mare he'd carried this far. She attempted to stand up, staring at him and the room with confusion. "Comet, what-" She started, before losing her balance and flopping onto her side. "Ow…"
He must be Comet, which meant that he knew this pony somehow. She had some armor on as well, so he assumed that they were in the army together. Comet didn't think on the issue long, jockeying to his hooves to run. He picked up the mare once again, limping towards what he assumed was the exit. He passed through the small door, only to hear a thump behind himself as a spider smacked into the sides of the opening.
The mare jumped slightly on his back, but Comet pushed on, turning a corner or two before he slowed down. He stopped beneath a torch, and slid the mare gently against the wall.
"Who are you?" He asked, and the mare's eyes went wide.
"I'm princess Luna, your captain." She replied, watching him with wary eyes. "Can you not remember?"
"No." He said shortly. "Not a thing. Thanks for knocking that spider away though."
"I doubt I'll be doing much of that in the near future." Luna grumbled, looking at one of her hooves. It was cut and bruised, just like every other part of her. Her head hurt, and she probably had a concussion. That was the one word any unicorn didn't want to hear. It loosened the control on magic and made it harder to start. Not that she had much left in her anyway. "Do you have your rations?" She inquired, searching herself and coming up blank.
Comet took a moment to look, finding a busted up can of beans. "I guess so." He said, handing them over. Luna pulled an armor piece from the bottom of her hoof, smacking it through the lid of the can and bending the metal away.
"Hopefully we can get out of here soon. Wherever this is." Luna noted, looking down at the meager amount of food.
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“Jason, we should go meet up with the others!” Dash yelled, hauling a saddlebag onto her back. Jason didn’t respond. “Jason?!”
She made a motion with her hoof telling Scoots to stay, and trotted upstairs. As soon as she looked into their bedroom she found him, slumped against the side of their bed with a half-filled saddlebag draped over a hoof. He had fallen asleep at some point.
But Dash didn’t feel like waking him up. She grabbed a piece of paper, scribbling her whereabouts down before she stuck it to his chest. He’d definitely notice that, she figured.
In any case, she couldn’t stick around here forever. The blue mare leaned down, planting a kiss on his forehead with a slight hum. Then she was off, through the door and back down the stairs. Back in Jason’s dreams, however, things were not so tranquil.
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Shots rang out, knocking holes in the flimsy brick wall Jason hid behind. Chatter spilled out of a coms device in his ear, telling him this or that, hostiles sighted here or there. He found himself disconnected from the artificial reality, like he had been lately. Not that Jason could say why, because he didn’t know.
A couple guys slid up beside him, aiming over the wall and letting loose some bullets a moment later. One turned, and Jason realized that it was Ben. Some part of him felt a sudden release of stress, and he let himself grin. The dream seemed to fall into a little more focus.
But Ben was still staring, narrowing his eyes in confusion. He ducked as some more bullets hit the wall and covered his head with a hand.
“What’s your name, soldier?!” He asked, yelling over the noise.
“Jason!” He yelled back, aiming and shooting downrange.
“What?!”
“I said it was Jason!”
“You’re not a no slacker, so where’d you even- You’re not a soldier!”
Jason looked down at his uniform, finding that it was one hundred percent army. “I beg to differ.”
“No, I mean, you’re not- You’re-“
Jason didn’t have time to respond, as a grenade floated over the wall, rolling to their feet. He grabbed the thing, pulled his arm back, and-
Woke up. He looked around his bedroom, chuckling to himself. Some part of him missed the vivid dreams, the ones in which the boundary between his home and here didn’t seem too large.
He shifted and heard the sound of paper crumpling. A note was on his chest, and he stared at Dash’s loopy writing, remembering in a moment about all the stuff he still had to set up. With a sigh, he pulled himself to his hooves, and continued to pack.
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A man rolled out of bed, his forehead covered in sweat. He threw off his shirt, walking into his bathroom and closing the door. He turned on the faucet, washing cold water over his face. He was shaking, and he was having trouble keeping it from continuing. His knee ached.
He leaned against a tile wall, enjoying the cold material against his bare shoulder.
“You okay?” Came a female voice from the other side of the door. “Ben?”
He didn’t respond for a while, trying to make sense of the dream. “Just a weird dream.” He replied.
“A strange dream has you in the bathroom, trying to cool off?”
“It-“ He sighed and leaned over to open the door. “It was really vivid, and it was set back in Afghanistan.” The girl sighed, laying a hand on his shoulder. “But that wasn’t the weird part. Jason was in there, and as stupid as this sounds, it didn’t feel like I was in control of him.”
“Must’ve been pretty crazy.” She observed, and Ben nodded. Some more silence ensued.
“You know what, Kyra?” He asked, and she looked up. “It was so much more than vivid. Rocks were hitting me, and I was feeling them. It felt like complete reality.” His knee gave another pulse of pain.
“Coming back to bed?” She asked. “Or are you just going to cool off a while longer?”
“In a minute.” He replied, resting back against the wall.
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Dash wandered back past Jason, who was busily packing, humming a tune to herself. She trotted up the stairs, checking this way and that for anything that they may have missed.
She walked into Scoots’ room, looking around at the barren walls. The kid had packed just about everything into one suitcase, which made Dash feel a little guilty. But she never asked for anything, and even when they pointed stuff out, she just said that she’d never use it anyway.
Her birthday was in the spring just like hers, so at least they had time to think of gifts.
Maybe a normal child wouldn’t really mesh with them anyway. Scoots had her quirks and differing interests, and the filly reminded her a lot of Jason. They both stood out from everypony else, and were fiercely independent. That probably wasn’t the best way to word it, seeing as Jason wasn’t his own boss, and was hitched to her, but that wasn’t what defined him or Scoots.
Pride was probably more applicable. Neither of them took help if they couldn’t help it or didn’t absolutely require assistance. She was probably the same way, honestly. Maybe a bit more pride on the side and less modesty.
She found herself in the bathroom, debating whether or not to take a shower. Her fur was clean and all, but she just felt like one.
They couldn’t spare the time, however. The train that they were supposed to be on left soon, and considering the fact that it was a passenger train minus their car, wouldn’t want to wait long.
As soon as they got back, she was going to turn the shower into a tub and have a nice long soak with Jason. Maybe even get some of those spa rocks and steam up the place. She may have hated the spa, but steam still felt nice. She could skip the rest of that junk for sure.
Dash stared at her reflection in the mirror, tracing a scar on her cheek with her eyes. She wondered if it would’ve bothered her if Jason wasn’t stuck with her. Some part of her realized that she would’ve been hard pressed to date, had he never existed. Without the scar, obviously.
She didn’t like dating, which had worked out. That had to be some sort of a plus.
Jason was always saying how strange it was that she wasn’t hit on or already taken, and given his reasons, he seemed right. She always just put things down to the fact that she had always been competing against everypony, and that romance was more of an obstacle in the way of her goals. To say the least, she had been wrong. Right in a sense, but still wrong.
She wasn’t a Wonderbolt, but she had trouble figuring out what had changed her goals. Technically, she was a Wonderbolt, but she hadn’t actively pursued that. She’d trained with the team for a day, but they weren’t in season anyway.
Dash hadn’t loved Jason from the start, or even liked the guy. She’d given him the benefit of the doubt, and that was it. Her friends had been wrong, and she’d endeavored to make things right. She didn’t want to think about his death on her hooves when she could’ve prevented it. Then everything had snowballed, and she’d been forced to work with somepony. He’d been her friend by then, but still.
She’d come to trust him, and rely on him, and as soon as that happened the rest just seemed to follow. Dash still thought back on it fondly.
Her eyes refocused, and she smiled. Dash pushed a hoof through her bangs, the prismatic fur sliding over her hoof. She furrowed her brow, leaning closer to the mirror.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” She yelled, backing away from the mirror and into the wall.
Jason slid into the room, staring at her with a face full of fear. “What happened?!”
She looked at him, tears in her eyes. Her first attempt at speech was interrupted by a sob. “I’m not even twenty five!” She exclaimed, her eyes flicking back to the mirror.
“mmm… what?” Jason asked, taking a few steps closer to embrace her. “What’s wrong?” He asked again.
“I’m- I’m going grey.” She replied, breaking into more tears. “This shouldn’t be happening! Not to me, I’m supposed to have a long life after this, and I’m already old enough to lose color in my mane!”
Jason didn’t respond, focusing on her head as he put her mane back to its normal color. He spotted maybe two or three grey hairs, quickly turning them back. Jason swept a hoof over her head, pulling her gently against his chest. “Good as new, alright? Totally fixed and everything.”
“They’ll just grow back.” She murmured. “Even you can’t reverse aging.”
“I can’t reverse it…” He trailed off, focusing once again as his horn glowed. A minute passed. “But I can make it seem like it never happened.”
“Just because- Just because you put my mane back doesn’t change anything. I’m still old.”
Jason turned, pushing her gently in the direction of their bed. She hit it with her hind legs, tipping onto the blankets. He let himself fall on top of her, holding himself an inch above her muzzle with his hooves. “You’re not old.” He said, covering her mouth with a hoof as she tried to dispute him.
“I don’t know what you’re worried about. Grey or not, you’re still Rainbow Dash. Given you, it’ll probably end up a grey scale rainbow anyway.” He paused. “So maybe we aged a couple years. What’s done is done. I know I can make you live just as long as you want to. This doesn’t mean anything. You’re still my wife in her early twenties with the mane of her twelve year old counterpart.”
Dash looked up at him, wonderment in her eyes. “I don’t want to outlive you because of it.” She said.
“Of course.” Jason replied. “Without me, Rainon Hash wouldn’t make sense.”
Dash laughed beneath him, and he let her up. “Can you really, though?”
“I don’t see why not.” He said with a shrug. “Unless we’re talking disease. But replacing the cells in an area with young ones isn’t too hard. For skin. I’m guessing I can only replicate the best cells in places that don’t make new ones. But I can replace scar tissue with good stuff, and make everything run exactly how it’s supposed to. Nothing close to immortality. Like, the maximum lifespan that you would get.”
“How long?”
“Do you really want to know?” He asked. Not that he did either, to be honest.
“No.” She replied, shaking her head. "But hopefully you didn't waste too much love on that, right?"
"Trust me Dash, I have way more than I know what to do with by now." He hugged her against his side. "There's a reason that I've been saying that Bob better watch out."
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“Does everyone have everything?!” Jason yelled, as the train blew its whistle. He watched Twilight hug Spike a distance down the platform and he let himself onto the box car, out of the gently falling snow. Every available space was filled, leaving an isle through to the cars on either side. As Jason walked through the stacks, he realized that a fairly large square at one end had also been left open, filled with a bunch of chairs and a table. Most of his team was there. Footsteps behind him confirmed that Eravel had shown up.
A few more whistles blew, and the train lurched into action. Windows most of the way up the wall let in fading light, shining on the dust that floated in the air.
“How nice of them to give us an entire train car.” Eravel observed, sticking his bow and a quiver on a stack of things.
“Did we ever get a name for this mission?” Morning asked.
“No.” Dash responded, sitting down. “But I’m sure Jason would come up with a ridiculous name if you asked.”
“Well?” Morning inquired, batting her eyelashes.
“Um.” Jason replied. “Hold on a sec…” He sat down, tapping a hoof against the chair in thought. “Operation chocolate chip cookie.”
“Does everything have to be a food item with you?” Dash shot back, laughing.
“Fine. Mystery glove.”
Evening frowned. “What’s that supposed to even-
“It’s a mystery!” Jason exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air.
“Kids are going to love learning this stuff.” Tank pointed out, leaning back in his chair as it gave a creak of distress.
Jason opened his mouth to respond as the side door of the train car opened behind him. A pony peered in, smiling nervously as he walked inside. “I just have to-“ He pointed across the car, at the opposing door.
“You know how long it’ll be till we get to Manehattan?” Dash asked, and the pony nodded, setting down his briefcase.
“About an hour, hour and a half tops.” He replied, starting off down the car.
“Hey, you forgot your-“ Morning began, only to stop as the pony disappeared. “Ah well, he’ll come back for it.” She said, sitting down once again. Jason eyed the luggage.
“How could he possibly forget something like that?” Twilight asked, gesturing towards the case. “He was here for like five seconds!”
“You’re right.” Jason agreed, standing up to walk over. He put his ear to the side, heard a few ticks, and threw it through the window with his magic.
“Why would you do-“ Twilight began, before an explosion rocked the car. Jason jumped, looking down at the spot the IED had occupied seconds before. He'd done that more on a hunch, not expecting much to happen.
“Welcome to Operation Mystery Glove, I guess.” Jason mumbled. “That must’ve been the gift basket.”