//------------------------------// // A Bit of Familiarity // Story: The Winds of Change: Loose Ends // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// A Bit of Familiarity "So… What now?" Dash asked. "Oh my god, what about Scoots? What if we can't get back?!" The blue mare started to shake, and Jason grabbed one of her nearby hooves with his good arm. "We'll get back. I'm sure we'll be able to." "But what if-" "No, I'm sure we can." "But-" "We can do it, Dash! I'm sure Twilight can figure out how this happened!" "We can't contact her!" The mare yelled back, gritting her teeth as she stepped towards Jason. "How is she supposed to know that we-" She stopped dead. "The pad of paper." "What?" "You have it, right? The one that contacts Scoots?" Jason rolled to his feet, collapsing as his leg refused to adjust. He didn't stop, pulling the saddlebags off as he reached inside. "Yes!" "You got it?!" Dash yelled, crouching next to him. It was covered in dots, 'You alive?' Clearly visible across the front. They must've been tears. Dash pulled the pencil from Jason's hoof as soon as he produced it, writing a 'yes' that went slightly off the edge of the page due to its size. Another dot appeared, then another. "Oh god, Scoots…" Jason mumbled sadly. 'Are you okay?' Appeared a moment later. 'We'll live.' Dash replied. 'Jason says we may have ended up back in his world.' "What was this place called again?" "The planet or the city?" "The planet, I guess." "Earth." Jason replied, laying back on the ground in a heap as he looked at the damage to his armor. Unsurprisingly, large parts of the front had been burnt away, leaving him with a patchy appearance. Whatever kind of heat that had been, it definitely wasn't natural. "Oh, that's right." Dash said, face hoofing. Her stress was dissolving by the moment. 'Earth.' 'Are you stuck there?' Scoots asked back. 'No, but ask if there's anything Twilight can do to help.' Dash paused, tapping the eraser to her chin. 'We've got to get somewhere better than here.' 'Why did it take you so long to respond?' The paper asked back. Dash furrowed her brow. It'd been like two minutes. 'How long has it been?' There was a pause, before 'about an hour' came back. "Woah, what?" Jason asked, making an irritated noise as he tweaked his shoulder the wrong way. "I guess teleportations aren't instant after all." Dash copied his words onto the paper with an author tag. 'We'll try to get back as soon as possible, but remember that we love you, kid. There isn't a whole lot of danger for us here anyway.' Dash waited a few moments, reading Scoots' response. "Jason, didn't you say you lived near here?" Dash asked, giving her wings a testing flap. The air felt strange Jason's wings grew with a flash of green, and he extended them outwards into a much broader wingspan. "I'm not too cool with the idea of doing much more than gliding if I can avoid it." He said. "Yeah. You mind passing on a bit of the improvement? Air feels sorta thin." "Well that would explain why I can't seem to fully catch my breath." Dash's wings stretched out on her sides, becoming closer to what would look like it could support a small horse. She cringed a bit, shaking her head. "And I guess I'll never get used to that." _______________________________________________________________________ "I'm going to tighten it." Dash said, gripping the ends of the cloth in her hooves. "Wait, I'm not re-" Jason clenched his teeth, a muffled groan escaping his lips. He was breathing heavily, and Dash attempted to jostle his arm to make sure it was tight against his chest. She only got an angry huff of air back in response as he continued to catch his breath. "Does the air really feel that thin here?" He asked after some silence, his voice sounding shaky for at least a few reasons. "I thought it was just me being injured and out of breath or something, but I mean… Like this is a lot" "A little." Dash paused. "I'd probably call it a few thousand feet at least. Are we on a mountain?" "A hill, sorta, but the ocean's probably less than a mile away so we're not that high." Dash tied a second knot, pulling it tight with another gasp from Jason. "Think you can fly?" He flapped his wings a few times, nodding. "So long as my arm stays steady, and this wing thing doesn't hinder my ability to gain altitude in the first place." There was a pause, and Jason finally felt the emotions he'd kept from affecting him roll over. He almost lost his footing. It'd been blissful for a few minutes when he had other stuff to think about. Dash could see the sudden change in his expression, wrapping her hooves around his neck. The movement was partially just to keep him upright. "It's okay, Jason. This doesn't change anything." "It changes everything." He choked back. "I mean- I can't even figure out how to cope with what he said." Jason lowered himself to the ground, and Dash rolled him over so that he was on his back leaning against her as she propped him up. "Everything I'd assumed, that this was some sort of happy go lucky coincidence… I was put like this by a mad man! A murderer, Dash!" "He said you weren't supposed to go into this body or survive." The pegasus replied, pushing some of Jason's mane out of his eyes. "That's all you. Everything you've done was by your choice or your will, uninfluenced." Jason was silent for a while, as sounds of people started to draw closer and become clearer. "I guess it's a little better that way." He finally said, shaking his head. "I just wish I couldn't attribute my origins to him." "Hey, it's alright, Jason. I still love you." She batted her eyelashes down at him. He let out a half-laugh. The pair went silent again, sitting still for a few seconds in thought. Jason's ears twitched as voices became individually audible over the background noise of the city. "We should move." "Why would it matter if we got seen?" Dash asked, looking around. He cleared his throat, trying to void himself of his emotions and set them aside for the time being. He- just couldn't deal with this right now. He cleared his throat. "Well, I don't think we'd get hurt, but it would cause a lot of commotion." He paused, swallowing. "The Earth only has one species capable of intelligent thought, and the existence of another would draw a lot of attention. Not just there, but it could conceivably spread all over the globe in minutes. Even if they didn't figure out the intelligence part, a new, strange species would still make the national news at least, even if it was just because it looked like a complicated hoax." "Wait, what? Minutes?" "The power of the internet at its greatest." Jason replied, lifting into the air. "I mean, not like two minutes, but you know what I mean. Stuff gets out there pretty fast. Now come on, we've got some sightseeing to do." Dash glanced over at the mass of buildings again, looking up as a helicopter passed over, presumably investigating the storm. Some planes were making their way up into the sky far away. "Do we ever." Jason's fur was drying, and so with it came the heat. If the difference in seasons when he'd ended up in Equestria the first time was to be repeated, summer would make sense. The updrafts were helpful, pushing them upwards with minimal work despite the thin air. The sun said it was the afternoon, probably around one or two. Wait, daylight savings. Three or four? That sounded right. He never was good with that sort of thing. The pair gained elevation as the land underneath them descended down the hill. Dash muttered a wow that was lost in the wind. Jason started to swoop downwards, speeding up as the pair made their way towards downtown. If he could build up enough speed, it would be doubtful that anyone could really make out what he was. Staying somewhat low helped put obstacles in the way of people's views. He turned his head, staring at the park they'd come from. Buena Vista Park, if he remembered correctly. That meant that flying due east would run him into Market Street, which he could follow towards the bridge. It was weird flying over a city where he'd previously only walked. It was also weird being able to move so quickly. He encountered Market in a minute or so, tapping Dash with his good arm to make sure she knew where to turn. Dash was caught on the edge of her self control. She wanted to zip around the buildings and make her own racetracks, something that would be irritating to set up with clouds and nowhere near as cool. Her reflection popped up against the windows of a taller building as she passed, disappearing half a second later as she ran out of reflective surface. No Sonic Rainbooms here, that was for sure. She could make out some more ocean at the end of the street, as the buildings grew higher and higher. A little one car trolley train moved on the street below, surrounded by cars. There were cars and people everywhere, in fact, in numbers that boggled her mind. The buildings got taller and taller, completely dwarfing the ones in Manehattan, until they stopped abruptly, replaced by water. The first thing she noticed was the massive bridge to her right, which Jason pointed out a moment later. As if she could miss it. "So that's the Bay Bridge, which goes through that little Island. The barely connected bit of land to that is Treasure Island. I've no idea what the hill bit is." He pointed to the left, almost turning around. "Golden Gate Bridge is back there, and to the right of that is Alcatraz on that other island. That was the prison in that one game we played." Jason looked forwards, watching the fog that had built up across the bay against the hills. Flying in the fog probably wasn't a great idea. They could try to go over it, but he didn't know if it had crested the hills yet. If it had, they could miss where they were going entirely. "Oakland is to the right under that fog, and Berkley is to the left. I guess since the fog gets thick closer to the hills on that side, we'll go towards Berkley." "Where does it end? Surely you can't just have cities like this forever?" "No, we're over the hub area here, surrounding the bay." He swept his good arm around the horizon to the south. "If we keep going east, that'll be where the suburbs are. You could probably go twenty miles from here in one direction or another and be amazed that there could possibly be a city so close. With all the movement and fanfare, there's still a huge amount of open space. There's actually a regional park near my house, called, um…" He pushed his hoof to his chin, thinking. "God, what was it?" Dash tried not to let herself get distracted by the bridges spanning from the other side of the little island. She failed. "What're those bridges called?" "That's still the Bay Bridge." "That bridge has a gap in it." "I'm pretty sure that's the old one." He scratched his head. "Yeah, that was it. They're tearing it down now." Jason took a sudden dive, basically free falling as he neared the water below. He spread his wings, slowly pulling up as he raced along the surface. His shoulder complained, but he paid it no heed. The water was calm enough to see a blurry reflection of himself as he shot along. Dash passed by, laughing as she touched the top of a wave with a hoof just enough to hit Jason with some spray. The pair began to rise again, nearing land. They didn't rise too far, as Jason opted to stay low and watch for landmarks that he knew from a slightly lower perspective. He could just go east until he found… well, he knew the street anyway. He'd recognize it. They were zipping by just slowly enough for him to read the signs anyway, although the water accumulating on his fur was a little bit of a bother. "What are we looking for?" Dash asked. "A street. I think it's called Braddock. No, Sadduck? Hold on, I know it's got that uck at the end." He shook his head. "Oh! Shattuck!" He grinned at Dash, looking forwards just in time to see that he was losing height as the elevation beneath him rose. And strung between the two buildings in front of him were a couple of wires and a floppy hanging sign. He hit the brakes, losing most of his speed before one of his wings caught. He was sent tumbling through the air, flapping pointlessly as he spun. Something gave way as he hit it with a shattering noise, and he continued to tumble. Just as he got his spinning under control and got a sorta helpful upside down flap in, his back hit the ground. He slid for a while, rolling onto his chest and coming to a stop who knew how far away. Just as he'd been starting to feel better, he was back to a world of pain. Jason let out a choked breath, coughing up a few specks of blood onto the tile beneath him. As if his day wasn't crap already. So he looked up. Suddenly the fact that the floor was tile made sense. Dash swooped down, going in for a more graceful landing before she hit the smooth ground and slid a few feet behind him as she tried to stop. So much for secrecy. "Richmond bound train approaching." An entire station of subway passengers were staring them down, their mouths various degrees of open. They looked taller than he would have thought. Jason pulled at his gun sling, trying to draw attention to it so that he could look just a little more menacing. As he finally pulled it into a ready position he lost his balance and nearly fell, his arm burning as he tried to extend it to break his fall. A line of blood had already made its way down his sling, dripping onto the tile and pooling there slowly. "You okay, Dash?" He whispered, turning his head enough to see her and the people at the same time. Someone had a smartphone pointed at them. Now several. Great priorities. "There's a guy here!" She whispered quickly back. Jason turned quickly, catching sight of a guy that had unfortunately been behind them when they'd landed. The human jumped, backing up a step, then another. A subway train interrupted his next. Jason stared, almost in shock. The young man, probably around twenty, slid up to them, coming to a stop. His arm and shoulder were beyond busted up, but he didn't seem to take much more of a hit. "Shit." Jason mumbled, looking at the crowd. The train came to a stop, its doors opening as more people came out and joined the party. "Dash, watch my back for a second." He said, taking a faulty step towards the guy. His good leg twisted under him, and he just ended up on his face a few feet closer. As he pushed himself back to his hooves, he could clearly see the smear of his own blood on the ground behind himself. He pulled together some energy, focusing on the human. The poor guy's arm audibly snapped back into alignment, and a couple people took a step forwards, probably figuring that the random alien thing in front of them was making things worse. Dash panicked, pulling her gun from her back and into her shoulder, keeping it aimed towards the ground. "Stay back!" "Don't point a gun at them!" Jason yelled back, losing some of his concentration. Dash shook her head, sliding her gun onto her back as people took cover around the pillars on the platform, though some others held their ground. "It's okay! Gun's gone!" She yelled out nervously, watching Jason push the unconscious fellow towards the wall at the end of the platform, only a few steps away. He propped the guy against the wall, shaking his head with a hoof to try to get him to wake up. "Jason!" Dash yelled, as a guy broke through the wall of people, running towards Jason with his fists balled. "What the fuck do you think you're doing with my son?!" He yelled, quickly closing the gap between Dash and himself. He simply jumped over Dash, ignoring the fact that she'd squared up her stance. Jason pulled his sling off with his teeth and held up his bad hoof, ignoring the pain as it lit up with green fire. The guy came to a stop, looking down at Jason with a mixture of trepidation and fury. "Your son's fine, by the way." Jason said, hearing blood drip from his hoof. He turned just long enough to take a glimpse of his victim, who opened his eyes conveniently. Jason let his hoof go out, returning his leg to the ground as he moved painfully to one side, letting the two do whatever they may. "Tie up my damn arm, Dash." He muttered to the mare, watching her pull a new strip of fabric from her saddlebag and begin to tie it around him. Then came the hard pull, which resulted in obligatory yelling and swearing. "Have a nice rest of your day, people." Jason said, spreading his wings. "Sorry about this. Can't say it was planned." "Fremont bound train in two minutes." The speakers said. With a whoosh of air, Jason turned and flew down the tunnel going south, turning to make sure Dash was hot on his heels. Jason rubbernecked, looking around at the circular tunnel. He'd never been able to really look at one of these before. The thought didn't really overshadow the fact that he'd already screwed up the not getting seen thing. He let himself slow down, trying to put as little trauma on his shoulder which had only gotten worse by now. The tunnel took a gradual right, opening into another station shortly after. They streaked past the people, the station platform disappearing quickly behind them. "Does this ever open up?!" Dash yelled, starting a gentle left turn as light flooded inside. The tracks ascended into the air, transitioning into a bridge as Jason continued to follow. A train rushed by on the other tracks, whipping wind past the pair and making them wobble. Jason banked left after a few moments, gaining some altitude. They seemed to be approaching a sort of wall-bridge thing in the fog, which Jason turned to follow. As it came into better view, Dash saw hundreds of cars below, driving down the giant road that crossed over street after street. It didn't have any of the lights or intersections that the other ones had, and way more lanes. Jason was staying a little lower than Dash would have liked, as they raced past another train that was in a station and the road worked its way into the hills. It was much cooler in the fog than it was in the summer heat, and it only seemed to get thicker as they flew further. The road took some tighter turns as it drew close to a mountain. Just as they turned the final corner, the duo slowed. Jason pointed out their path, and they whooshed into one of the several tunnels, which was perfectly round minus the flat floor. There were giant fans hanging from the ceiling that they had to dodge around as the temperature rose rapidly. "You know, they hadn't built this when I was last here!" Jason yelled over the traffic noise, which was considerably louder than it had been in the enclosed environment. Twenty seconds or so of tunnel, and they had gained at least thirty degrees of heat. Dash flew out slightly ahead of Jason, looking around the massive valley that greeted them. Jason sped up, taking advantage of the lack of fog. Dash looked behind herself to see the beginnings of a tumble of fog coming over the hills. It looked like a foamy wave stuck in place. The valley gradually widened over the next few minutes as buildings started to pop up more frequently again, though on a smaller scale than before. Jason allowed himself to gain a great deal of altitude, gliding on the warmth rising in the hot day. "You don't get updrafts like this in Equestria, that's for sure." Jason noted, dipping a little as he continued to lose bits of speed. "Are we almost there, Jason?" Dash asked, looking at the lines of blood that had gone down his side in the wind. "Yeah. We're over Moraga. Wait, Orinda? Moraga station… no, that doesn't sound right. Yeah, Orinda. That's the station for the same network of trains as before down there. Had trouble remembering that name for a second there." He paused. "Anyway, we're close but I don't want to fly fast if I can avoid it." Dash nodded, feeling nervousness almost run through her veins as she realized that Jason could very easily have gaps in his memory like Bob had said. She shivered, and when Jason looked over passed it off for windchill. Her fur was still damp, and he seemed to understand. She tried to turn her focus back to the scene laid out in front of her, looking at the houses nestled into the hills, the golden grass that covered the crests of rounded peaks and waved in the wind, a lake that passed by with a little lighthouse in the middle. She couldn't say it distracted her a whole lot. Twenty or so minutes of slow flying went by before Jason started to drop, turning away from the big road that disappeared into the distance, over the hill towards a huge mountain that was surrounded by flat land. The thing easily rivaled the Canterhorn. They were low now, close enough for Dash to make out individual people again. They followed a somewhat smaller avenue with lights briefly, before turning off onto a side street. They took several more turns before Jason finally set himself down in the front yard of a house carefully, looking up at the little two story thing. "Wow." He said, staring. "Fancy this." "You own this?" Dash asked. "Looks pretty good for six months away." She noted, stepping across the short grass towards the door. It had been cut by something at least somewhat recently. "Oh yeah…" Jason replied, putting a hoof to his chin. "I really hope I still own it." "Yeah, me too." Dash replied, watching him fly up to the gutter and pull down a key that was apparently taped to the side. "Still got my well hidden backup there." He said triumphantly, landing in front of the door. He levitated the thing into the lock, watching the door creak open shortly after. "Hello?" No answer. He took a few steps inside. "Yeah, if the housing market's still kinda bad I doubt it would get sold." Jason said, closing the door after Dash walked in. "These are high ceilings." She said, looking around. "They might even be higher than mine, and those are supposed to let me fly around to some degree." "Humans are taller than I thought they were." Jason added with a nod. "It doesn't really sink in until you have to look up at one." "Jason, what about those guys at the train station?" Dash asked. "Should we be worried?" Jason shrugged. "I mean, I don't think it's cause for worry, no. But I bet if I turn on the news, they'll have something about it on nationally in the following hour block." He looked at the clock. It read three-thirty. "I'm hungry." "Well I mean there's probably food... wait, since when do you get hungry?" Jason huffed. "I crave food. Happy?" He turned, angrily mumbling as he limped into a kitchen. He exited through the back, pulling open a door to several mostly empty shelves. "Can't say there's much selection." Dash noted. "Frankly I'm surprised there's any at all." Jason responded, leaning heavily against the wall so that he could scratch a broken feather out of his wing. He grabbed a bag of chips, turning them over to look for an expiration date. There were a few cans, but canned food didn't exactly feel like a 'welcome back' sort of thing. He wasn't even sure if this was a welcome. "Doesn't that mean nopony lives here?" Dash asked, picking up a can. "Either that or this guy has a strong diet of beans and chips." "Well I guess, but I'm not sure why any stuff is left." Jason found the expiration date. "This was from June. I disappeared mid Ma-" He stopped, staring at the bag. The house was completely silent, only broken by the sound of Jason shaking his head. "Whatever." His voice cracked. "It was stuck here after." Jason tossed it into the air and let it float in his magic. It was then that he realized how much love it had taken to move them. As if he wasn't physically wary enough already. "Oh my god." "What?" Dash asked, eyeing the bag as he closed the door to the pantry. "That inadvertent teleport that brought us here? It was a little more costly than I thought." "How's the damage?" Dash asked, walking behind her husband into the kitchen proper. "I dunno exactly, but it took a lot out of me. I'm not tired, really, from the sheer amount of love I have at the moment, and I have enough to get us back even without Hercules' help, but it's not going to leave me well off." "Well we still have to wait until Twilight gets back. She might have a tip or two." Dash responded hopefully. "And I mean, let's look at the bright side. You're finally back here." Jason stared for a moment. "Wish it would have been on better terms." He pulled off his saddlebag, riot shield and gun, tossing them onto the island and pulling up a chair. He sat down, ripping off a shred of his armor that was barely attached. His chest and the front of his legs were in tatters, but both sections still had enough fabric intact to hold together. Dash pulled out the pad of paper as she took a seat next to him, laying it on the table along with her things. 'I'm on it. We'll have you back before you know it. See if the humans can help. -Twilight' Were the only sentences displayed. "Well that was anticlimactic." Dash muttered. "Speaking of news, weren't you saying something about it?" Jason paused his efforts of trying to open the bag of chips and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we're on it." He got up to leave, thumping onto the floor in a heap as he got out of his chair. "Fuuuuuuck." Dash hopped off her chair, helping him to his hooves. "We really need to get you some help." "I'm fine. I heal fast, remember?" "Yeah, but that doesn't really apply when you have a bullet inside your shoulder!" That seemed to stop him short. "Well... We'll figure it out, alright? We don't have a whole lot of options." Jason took a few steps forwards and climbed a flight of stairs. They were slippery hardwood, and bigger than the ones they had back home to boot. It wasn't easy on three legs. "God, human deathtraps." Dash muttered, almost slipping. Jason got to the top of the stairs, realizing how cleared out the house really was. Hopefully the television was still around. With some sort of cable plan or something… It was, sitting where it always did. Huh. He grabbed the remote from the coffee table a few steps away, and pushed himself carefully onto his couch. The TV made a noise to signal the fact that it was on. "Wow, this is weird. Like, I sat here six months ago, but I was human. Also, still not sure why stuff is running around here." "I wish I could relate." Dash said with a laugh. Jason chuckled back, looking increasingly worn out. She leaned against his shoulder, watching as a commercial played for something or other. A muscular guy was lifting a weight or something. "So what're we watching?" "The news." He replied, "I sorta want to see what happened while I was away. But of course, it might just be stuff about us, which unlike everyone else on this planet we actually know about. But I guess at the very least you can see some actual television." A news jingle played, as the camera focused on a talking head. "We're back, and we cut to Special Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin at the Pentagon, and disturbing news about returning veterans of The War on Terror. Good evening Jennifer." "Good evening Bret. New intelligence about recidivism among Guantanimo detainees is cementing fears that the US military is again encountering militants once taken off the battlefield." The camera cut to footage presumably taken from the prison, as a new voice took over. "The US intelligence and defense community suspect as many as twenty to thirty former Guantanamo bay detainees have joined forces with ISIS, and other militant groups inside Syria," she said as a map appeared, showing Syria. "Some of the former detainees are fighting with ISIS, some are supporting the Al Qaeda linked Nusra Front." The camera cut once again to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. "We know that some of the detainees that have come out of Guantanimo have gone back to the fight, to the battlefield. We're aware of that." "The chairman of the house armed services committee called for an immediate suspension of detainee releases in a letter to the defense secretary today. Quote, 'The US government must not release terrorist detainees at the same time we have committed US service members to fight ISIL. To continue to do so just as we have had to open a new front in the war on terror is unthinkable.'" "One of the first policy decisions President Obama made," the voice continued, "when he became president was to announce he was closing Gitmo." "Let me repeat," the president said, "I am not going to release individuals who endanger the American People." "He reiterated his desire to do so at the state of the union this year." "This needs to be the year congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanimo bay." Obama continued. The narrator picked back up. "The Pentagon has cleared eighty current detainees for transfer out of Guantanimo bay. President Bush also authorized the release of five hundred and thirty detainees, but defense sources say that the recent releases have included more hardcore fighters. One example, in April of this year, Ibraham Binge Jakaren, a Moroccan who has spent more than three years at Gitmo, was reported killed while leading a known Jihadist group in Syria fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces. The Moroccan fighting unit was formed by three former Gitmo detainees. Former US Ambassador to Iraq from 2010 to 2012 says he would advise against releasing more detainees from Gitmo." "These people are very ideologically and essentially religiously committed to their evil cause, and it is very hard to sort out who is going to stay at home and who is going to return to the battlefield." "Of the six hundred and twenty detainees released during the Bush and Obama Administrations, US defense officials estimate one hundred and eighty have returned to the fight Bret." "Jennifer Griffin live from the Pentagon, Jennifer thank you." He paused, as the dual screen became one. "No political grapevine tonight, in order to focus the story developing across The Bay Area of California." "And so it begins." Jason said, sighing. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Scootaloo burst into the command center, out of breath. She wiped away any tears that may have still been on her face, and gestured at the staring ponies with the notepad. "I-" She took a deep breath, her heart thudding in her chest from a mixture of excitement and worry. "They're alive!" She said, getting her breathing under control. "What?" Dust asked. "Why'd it take them so long to tell you? You sure it's actually them?" "Yeah, I'm sure!" The filly responded, annoyed. "I guess it was just... travel time or something." "Travel time to where?" Twilight asked, suddenly becoming a lot more interested, which considering the circumstances must've meant she was somewhere around the maximum level of interest possible. "Teleporting has a tiny travel time, even over long distances." There was silence. "Scootaloo, where did they end up?" "Earth." She squeaked out. "Huh?" "Where Jason came from before everything around here happened." She took another breath. "It's like, you remember that time when he tried to move a storm and teleported himself accidentally when lightning overloaded the spell and stuff? Well the guy they were fighting apparently had a lot more energy to contribute." Twilight seemed to think the ramifications of the foal's words over for a moment, scratching her head. "How far away is that?" She sighed. "I would assume we could bring them back the same way, but..." The lavender mare paused. "You know, it'd be a lot easier to figure these things out if Jason didn't have enough magical energy from Dash to basically make up spells and try things like this. Look, this'd make more sense if knowledge on teleportation was sizable, but there just aren't that many unicorns capable or willing to do it, and it's near-impossible to study..." "We could always see if Jason could ask someone." "How would humans know about teleportation?" Twilight asked. "Well they know how to make a metal plane fly faster than Rainbow Dash." Scoots paused. "And fire missiles. Jason said they have bombs that can wipe out most everything in like an eight mile radius with guys named adam or something. So if they have those things that seem sorta impossible, they might know how to teleport even if they don't have the ability?" "I'll get in contact with Celestia." Twilight responded. "Feel free to have Jason do some searching of his own." She put her forehead to the flat of one of her hooves. "This mission's a headache already." _______________________________________________________________________________ "We have Tracy Goldburg on the scene. What's going on there, Tracy?" "Well Brit, it was less than an hour ago that what some can only describe as aliens graced this BART station with their presence. You can see forensics behind me, checking for anything that they can find useful. We know that one of the creatures was injured, leaving blood behind before it made its escape." The screen transitioned over to a video that someone had taken. Jason was watching himself and Dash, neither looking particularly photogenic as they stared at the people. It skipped forwards to the guy on the ground as Jason stood over him, his horn giving off a slight glow. Dash pulled her gun, and all hell broke loose in the crowd. A final cut was made to them flying away. "We're still waiting for more information on what the creatures are, but I wouldn't yet dismiss this completely as some sort of hoax. When forensics comes back with tests, we'll know for sure." "Any word on the young man that was injured?" "He has been taken to the hospital for observation, but we have some footage of him before he got in the ambulance." The screen split into two as the video ran in its entirety on one side the man showing the paramedics his arm, flailing it around to show them it was fine as they attempted to restrain him. It looked fairly comical. "According to the videos and accounts from eyewitnesses including this man's father, they saw the man's arm appear to get healed from a definite break, saying that it snapped back into position. The man reported no injuries, including any bruises. No outward injuries were clear. His father reportedly talked to a creature briefly, as he attempted to recover his son from whatever it is they may have done. I honestly don't know what we're dealing with here, Brit." "Thank you, Tracy." He turned back to the camera. "We've got our panel in here a little early tonight, to discuss and analyze the clips that continue to get posted on social media and elsewhere. Joining us tonight are Charles Krauthammer, syndicated columnist for the Washington post, Juan Williams, journalist and writer for the New York Times, and Fred Barnes, editor for the Weekly Standard." He paused for a moment, addressing the three. "A lot has happened in the last few minutes, gentlemen, including all of what you've just seen." A few quotes showed up on the screen against a different background. Nearly everything Dash and Jason had said in their few filmed minutes was recorded. "Now let me remind you all, none of this is final. But it seems clear that these creatures, were capable of speaking English as if they were fluent. This is, of course, is what brings up fears of a hoax. Charles?" The other man paused, blinking. "Over the two minutes that those creatures were in the station, there was a total of fifty four minutes of footage. With all the different angles and witnesses, I doubt a hoax. While it is possible with modern robotics to create similar looking quadrupeds, every movement seems fluid, and we still have the discrepancies between the healed man and the ability that they have to fly, even if it is for short distances. There aren't a whole lot of robots that can fly with bird like wings. But obviously, it's too early to know for sure. I would like to draw attention, however, to a few points of their appearance. Those guns on their backs, what I assume is a riot shield, these are all weapons that countries on Earth have made. And normally, the assumption with alien life corresponds to the availability of technology better then our own to get them here." "Fred?" The man did a half shrug. "What baffles me is the guy that said he'd been healed. It's hard to understand how that could be possible, especially because his arm is clearly broken in the video, and now paramedics are saying it's fine. So lets assume that some of the technology, I'm assuming it's technology, maybe some implant or a similar device that we just can't see, got them here. That it's nothing we can see." He paused. "But that's military stuff on their back, and while admittedly they could get those sorts of things illegally, the riot shield seems to be the odd one out. Realistically, those are also weapons you don't see a whole lot in the black market either. I hope a lot of this becomes more clear in the ensuing investigation, because there's a lot that just doesn't add up." Juan cleared his throat. "These videos make me wonder more about the existence of sexes in the same way that they exist here on Earth, and parallels to humans. When I was first briefed on this, I assumed the less colorful one was male. Whether or not that's true remains to be seen, of course, especially considering the tendency for males to have brighter colors in some species." Dash started laughing. "It's also interesting how much they resemble tiny horses with more human faces. There is irony in the fact that the first life we may encounter looks far different from us, yet still like some of humans' earlier mythology. It's probably also why the videos seem so fake to the eye, because of the sheer number of similarities to life on earth." "We could be looking at this from the wrong point of view." Charles chimed in, "let's just assume from this moment forwards that this is definitely not a hoax, partially because no one watching actually wants to hear about that. Isn't it strange that our only contact is with two life forms, one injured previously? You'd think that contact with an entirely new race would be a show of might, or at the very least more than two dilapidated messengers. This brings me to my next point, that these creatures might not actually be aliens. Unless the US government is secretly decades ahead on robotics, which they clearly are not, this could be a form of probe, a drone sent to search our planet for something or other. Tactically, that would make more sense. These beings are maneuverable, fast and apparently hardy, and the idea that robotics could be combined with biological tissues for one reason or another isn't very far off in some ways for us." "Now let's not forget everything else that's happened today," Fred started, "A little over an hour ago, the blanket of fog over San Francisco just fell out of the air. If there's any connection to be drawn there, I'd say it's to these guys and their appearance. That's not something you can hoax, and it really only backs up the idea that these things are in fact aliens, or, as Charles mentioned, the messengers of them. Either way, it sure explains this whole ordeal a lot better than anything else I can think of, and something like that almost seems to make sense when you realize that the larger one healed a snapped arm in fifteen seconds flat." "It really leads us to wonder what exactly this race is capable of, especially when that individual didn't seem to break much of a sweat." "I'll stop you there, Juan." Brit said, turning towards the camera. "We'll be back with our All-Star panel in a few moments to further dig into the details as they come out. Stay tuned." A little jingle played, the screen switched to a robot discussing the power of deodorants and shampoos to make him appear as a real man. So someone had a sense of humor at least. "Well then." Jason said, blinking. He was feeling more and more sleepy by the minute. "I guess it didn't take long to go for the assumption of alien." "They seemed pretty excited." Dash noted. "But I mean, it'd be hard to hoax that, right?" Jason shrugged. "Unless we've discovered a ridiculous amount of things in the last six months, yeah." He paused. "And I would be excited too, considering there hasn't ever been so much information supporting the existence of aliens before. I mean, they're right, so congrats to investigative journalism. Plus, people are probably hoping that we are aliens. They're going to be disappointed that we don't have technology, but still. Intelligent life... Not being alone in the universe is a big deal." "What does this mean for us?" The blue mare asked, as Jason let himself slump against her. "I dunno. They don't seem overly worried, which is good I guess. The fact that it's pretty obvious we have the same weaknesses as they do probably helps. Let's be honest, when it comes to entries that really make it clear we don't pose a whole lot of a threat, that was perfect." "Yeah?" "I mean, we're also sorta cute, not like big reptile things with fangs. And let's be honest, no one would just go after us to kill us that isn't crazy. They're going to think we're members of a race far more advanced than they are, and the fact that they don't know everything we can do generally puts a damper on aggression at the very least. Which lets be honest, people won't be aggressive anyway." He paused. "You know, despite the fact that a war would be over in a day." "It's always nice to hear your expectations of a matchup." Dash giggled, and Jason laughed back. The front door made a quiet thump, a key manipulating the lock awkwardly for a minute before it opened. Dash and Jason both froze, looking between themselves and the still playing television. "I see you locked the door well." Came a voice. "This is what happens when I give you jobs." "Oh, screw you." Another replied. Someone dropped a rather heavy sounding bag to the floor as Jason and Dash broke carefully for cover, the latter dragging the former most of the way. "Oh shit, our stuff!" Jason exclaimed, realizing they'd left it downstairs. "And you left the TV on too, nice one." The first voice said. "Woah, wait!" The other guy yelled. "What the hell is this stuff?!" "What are you- What?" There was a pause, then everything got decidedly quiet. A pistol slide slid into position, and some other noises that Jason assumed were from a gun filtered upstairs. "Jason what do we do?" Dash asked, her ears twitching as they picked up the echoes of a few steps below. "I'm thinking! Shh!" He whispered back. He shifted to get some weight off his shoulder, only to get his hoof to dig right into the wound. Dash didn't cover his mouth fast enough to cover up the hiss of pain, and someone stopped mid step. Dash peered out from underneath the low table, seeing no one at the door. There were a few windows which either didn't have latches in the first place or were closed, and a door that she assumed ran into a dead end other room. She didn't exactly feel like making a break for it anyway, sure they were just around the corner. There was a whisper downstairs, and the sound of a step on the stairs. Dash watched the door, her heart in her throat as her eyes got ever wider. It'd been quite a while since she'd been this scared. A shotgun barrel pointed past the doorframe and she pulled her head back, keeping her breathing down so much she could almost see spots. She felt Jason's heartbeat against her, fast and strong. Now she could only see legs, first one set then two moving across the room and looking around. They'd probably never been so quiet in their lives, just watching the guys move slowly and deliberately. One seemed less coordinated, and occasionally made one noise or another as he scuffed a shoe or bumped a piece of furniture. He moved another step, standing right in front of them, so close either of them could reach out without trouble. Then he bent down, and his face came into view. "Aah!" All three yelled in unison, as Dash and Jason pushed themselves out the opposite side of the table. Jason looked to his left just in time to see the other one let out a sort of gargle of choked fear and surprise, and a heavy boot collided with the shoulder that happened to be facing that way. With the way the day was going, it was just a little farther onto his chest than the bullet wound. He flew across the room, hitting a wall and then the floor. "Jason!" Dash exclaimed, running over to the crumpled heap of limbs. Any second they'd shoot. Any second. Dash hugged around his neck, propping him up against the wall and turning to look at the guys a moment later. A thin line of blood ran from Jason's mouth to his chin, as he tried to get his breath back. All that came out initially was a pained chuckle. "What are you doing in my house, Ben?"