//------------------------------// // In Just a Little Time... // Story: The Winds of Change: Loose Ends // by AgentSnail //------------------------------// Inevitable, lengthy silence ensued. Dash looked between Jason and who she assumed was Ben, if Jason was in a stable enough state of mind to correctly recognize him, anyway. Or in fact remembered what Ben looked like. She held back a shiver, figuring she may as well say something eventually. She looked over the two guys, sizing them up. They were both in suits, with those little hanging things from their necks. Ben was muscular, while the other one seemed smaller and less menacing. Either way, the other guy had recovered and they had two guns pointed at her. "Is your name actually Ben?" She asked, his eyes flicking from Jason to her. Jason coughed, little spots of blood appearing on the floor in front of them as his bullet wound continued to bleed. Dash put a hoof against it and pushed despite a groan from Jason that sounded noticeably more pain filled. Ben sighed, shaking his head angrily. "Take my gun, Makin." He said, thrusting the gun at his comrade with a name she recognized. He grabbed it awkwardly, watching Ben go into another room. He returned a few moments later with a few rags and a little bottle. "Hold this." He handed the bottle to Makin, pulling a pistol from his hip and pointing it at them. "Get some cornstarch from downstairs, if you can find it." Makin glared at him for a moment before walking off, his arms dangerously full. Ben took a few steps towards them, gesturing with his gun that Dash move off of Jason. "Suggest you move, miss." "Hey, how about no?" "Your boyfriend there'll bleed out, how's about that?" He paused. "I'm trying to help you, whoever you are." He looked at Jason. "And however many coincidences her calling you Jason brings up, or why you think I'm in your house, it changes nothing for the time being." Jason took a ragged breath, pushing himself into more of a sitting position against the wall. "But-" "Shh. When we're done with this, then we'll talk." He pushed a rag against the bullet wound, pulling it away as Makin ran in and tossed him some cornstarch. He brought out a second rag, holding it in front of Jason's mouth. "You may want to bite this." He said, pushing the cloth between Jason's teeth as the changeling opened his mouth. Liquid hit his chest, becoming fire as it entered his wound. He screamed into the rag, pushing at the bottle with a hoof. A hand shoved against his other shoulder, pinning him against the wall. Ben sprinkled some of the powder onto the bullet hole after he'd wiped some of the alcohol away, following up with the bandage. "Makin, take over!" He paused, applying more pressure. They switched, Ben taking back his pistol that he must've handed over at some point. "I gotta make a call!" "What do I do?" "Just push down, Makin! I'm going to see if I can get a hold of Kyra." "You're really going to pull her away from work just for this?" "You heard what they said? Well, this is already so weird I'm not ruling anything out." He paused. "Hey, it's me. No, I'm fine. What? Knee's fine I said. I've got something else, actually." He ran a hand through his short hair, shaking his head. "Yeah, I know you're busy, look- I know- I understand what you do at the hospital- Kyra! Is there a guy with his chest open in front of you?!" Another pause. "Tell them you'll be on call, make up some bullshit about me or whatever, I don't care. Just hurry, alright? Oh! We're at my friend Jason's old house." A moment passed, before Ben took his phone away from his ear and mashed the end button with a thumb. He was still as a statue, stuck in thought until he turned towards Jason suddenly. "If you can last fifteen minutes or so, I'll have some more qualified help for you. Until then, we're a little bit on the low supplies, low skill side." He sighed, walking over and pushing Makin's hand out of the way to apply pressure himself. The rag had begun to soak through a few seconds prior, contributed to by occasional drips from Jason's chin. "So it just comes down to who you are." Dash took a quick breath. "We're-" "I know who you are." Ben replied sharply. Dash quieted down, a combination of confusion and anger on her face. "We're talking about the fact that that one got called Jason, and claimed this was his house." Makin filled in. "You see, we had a friend by the same name," Ben began, "who lived here about half a year ago, as you may have guessed. You know, smart, middle-class guy. Just starting his career. So of course, Makin was shocked to see a news story with him in it, killed in some car crash on 680. It's interesting that someone with the same name shows up to the same house in a different body, like the one he used to have isn't buried six feet under." A sort of shocked choking noise came from Jason, and a tear ran down his cheek before he could stop it. Ben raised an eyebrow. "So it's true." Jason muttered, feeling Dash's hoof brush against his arm in what little comforting motion she could provide at the moment. "God dammit." "What did he say?" Makin asked. "I dunno, but it wasn't any sort of response that made sense to me." Ben replied. "He's your damn friend, okay?!" Dash yelled, putting an arm all the way around Jason's back to pull him closer to her. "It seems like it'd be a pretty easy thing to accept. Like, 'oh hey, he actually is alive! How nice of fate to award me with such a gift'." She huffed. "But no, it's just we don't know who you are this, can't trust you that." "Well," Ben began, putting her hoof on the bandage and pushing it down to have her take over so he could stand up, "look at it from my point of view for a moment. We check up on this place once every couple weeks. Imagine our confusion when the two intruders not only didn't take anything and decided to watch Special Report for some reason, but were also miniature horses capable of complex thought. Then, one of them turns out to maybe be our friend in horse mode, who brought an alien and also survived his own death." "You're sure I was dead?" Jason asked desperately. Ben crossed his arms, letting out an angry sigh as he paced to one side. "Sure, friend Jason." He snapped sarcastically. "If it'll tie up a loose end for you." Jason only sighed back. "That's what I figured." Makin whispered something to Ben, who seemed to calm down slightly. "Why's it important, anyway?" Makin asked. "If that is in fact you, Jason, surviving a car crash or dying in one doesn't change anything." "It does to me, alright?!" He yelled, the room becoming silent. "I didn't pick this," Jason began, gesturing to himself, "I just woke up after the crash like this, with no idea what'd happened! I had to start a new life, try to blend into a society that I'd never known. And just before I end up here, I learn that it's because of some evil bastard screwing with my soul as it leaves my body." He stopped, his breath catching. "Do you know how much that sucks to find out?! That six months of your life happened just because of the whim of someone trying to play god?!" Tears joined his blood as they streamed down his face, staining his fur. Ben shared a glance with Makin, though neither tried to interrupt. "And I know you want me to do some test with the times we shared or whatever, but he said my memory'd be patchy and it is. I couldn't remember places I knew by heart when I was coming here, and I had trouble even remembering where I worked or more than a couple of my coworkers. Some of it's still so vivid, and other parts aren't just hazy-" He choked back tears. "They're just gone, and I never really realized it until I ended up back here and had to try to remember the things I'd never wanted to try too hard for before." He shook his head, growing quiet. "Completely gone." Several tense moments passed. "So, Harding..." Makin began. "Yeah?" Jason responded, a bit of a grin spreading on his face as he realized what his plan was. "There you go, Ben." Makin said to the other man, continuing to stare at the aliens. "He responded like that was his name, and we've never said that so far. And I mean we can just ask him stuff later. Honestly, this seems far fetched, but at this point I'm not going to question it." Makin took a couple steps forward, kneeling down to Jason's level and offering his hand, which Jason placed his hoof against with gritted teeth. His shoulder was getting worse. A second passed before Makin grabbed and shook it, grinning. "This is too weird." Ben muttered. "You want to lay on the couch?" Makin asked, "May be a little more comfortable than against the wall." "I'm fine." Jason responded, shaking his head. "Jason, don't be dumb!" Dash interjected, poking his good shoulder. "Go!" "Fine, Dash." He replied, pushing himself off the wall with a grunt as he tried to get to his feet. Immediately he felt dizziness wash over his mind, and felt a dull thump on his good side a second later. _________________________________________________________________________ "What in the actual fuck, Ben." "Oh, hey Kyra." Ben started, turning to the door exiting from the stairs. "I didn't know how to explain this one." "Well I suggest you start." Her voice sounded quiet, with a hint of what Jason thought was a southern drawl, but he couldn't be sure. "These are the guys from the news, huh? You know, the possibly dangerous, definitely armed aliens?" "Yeah. Well anyway, that one there's been shot, so I mean it'd be nice if you could suspend your disbelief and help him out. He lost enough blood to pass out, and we've just now revived him." "Yo." Jason said, gripping at his shoulder. It didn't really help his coolness factor when his voice shook like it did. Kyra stared at Jason, unmoving. "Why is this important to you? You don't know this thing." "Well, normally I'd agree with you, but we're pretty sure it's actually Jason. You know, the guy that used to own this house. Then events went on beyond his control and he ended up back here." He went silent for a moment. "So since there's a chance of that being the case, I'd sure like it if you stitched him up, as crazy as it sounds." "Wait... huh?" "Just fix him!" "Fine, Ben. You owe me one for having to leave work for this." "Whatever. Just tell us what you need." __________________________________________________________________ Jason thumped onto the island in the kitchen, a folded towel sliding underneath his head as something else moved under his legs, holding them up. Ben ripped apart the tattered mess of fabric on his chest the rest of the way, leaving the area completely free of obstacles. His head shook as a hand moved it about. "...I asked, can you hear me?" "What? Yeah." "How much blood did he lose?" The doctor asked, looking at Ben briefly before she realized that Dash would be the better source. "Do you know?" "I don't really know, I mean there was some when he actually got shot but it wasn't that bad, but then we crashed and he bled some more, and then Ben kicked him and now I think there's some internal stuff too." "Ben, you did what?" "He came out from under a table and it scared me! I didn't know what it was, I thought the house was getting robbed or something!" Ben replied quickly. "Well, that explains why you want to fix him up so badly." She opened a bag of tools, laying a few out. "The good news is, there's no blood out here and his pulse feels somewhat strong. Now, how many days ago did you get shot?" "What?" Jason asked, trying to sit up before he was pushed back down. "It's only been like an hour and a half to two hours!" Kyra thought for a moment before she turned to Dash. "How long?" "He heals fast." She replied, rearing up and putting her fore hooves onto the counter for a better look. "It's one of the reasons we want the bullet out of there sooner rather than later." "You're kidding." Kyra muttered sarcastically, gesturing with her hand as she tried to think of a word. "Need a razor. I've got to clear the hair around the wound." There was a slight delay before her request was fulfilled, and the hair went off, revealing a few criss-crossed old scars that raised an eyebrow or two. The wound itself didn't exactly look great either. "Oof. Alright. Are you on any drugs that I should know about? I mean, come to think about it I can't really use things used for humans because they might do more harm then good." She chewed her lip. "Unless you have some of your own, I think we'll need to go in without them. I mean, the other thing is, it's usually better to just leave a bullet in. They don't usually cause complications." "Well it nicked something, so I want it the hell out! It hurts a million times more than it did an hour ago!" Kyra took a sideways glance at Ben, who shrugged. "Well then this just takes us back to the issue of painkillers." "Oh shit." Jason muttered, searching his mind for anything they might have. "Wait, there're a few morphine shots in the bags-umph!" He exclaimed, putting his hoof to his shoulder. "Dammit!" Makin pulled out a couple after he ruffled through the saddlebag for a few moments, tossing them to Kyra. She looked them over for a moment, confusion flashing across her face. "These are US military issue. How did you even get these?" "Stuff from this place just poofs over." Dash said, looking away from Jason for a moment. "It does?" The doctor queried, looking at them again. "Well, have you used one before?" "No." "Well then, I can't really use these in good faith anyway." She handed them back to Makin, who put them away. "We don't need to discover a new and interesting adverse reaction to morphine with all the blood you've lost." Jason winced as she carefully cleaned the wound again. "Ben, Makin, hold him down." Ben's hands tightened around Jason's hooves, as Makin's hands found their way to his chest. It was marginally calming to have human contact, but that was easily erased by the glint of light that flashed off of Kyra's scalpel as she dawned a surgical mask and gloves. It neared his chest and Jason jerked, making the drawers in the island rattle beneath him. "What are you doing with that thing?! Can't you just use tweezers?!" Jason yelled, his vision becoming foggy as his heart rate rose. Just how much blood has he lost? He coughed, making little red dots appear across the three humans. He spluttered, some more blood dripping down his chin. "You're going to do yourself more harm than good!" Kyra yelled back. "Hold him down better than that, you morons!" "This isn't exactly something I've had to do before! We didn't really have to remove a lot of bullets in Afghanistan!" Ben yelled back, applying more pressure. "Look..." She paused. "Jason. I'm just going to attempt to re-open the wound, and then I'll move on to tweezers. If we're lucky and you don't move too much, we could be done in just a couple minutes. Sound like a plan?" Jason stared at her angrily, before nodding his head slightly. "I'll be watching the damn clock." He only received an annoyed shake of the head before his head got pulled to the side. Dash looked at him, offering a goofy smile. She pushed a rag into his mouth, putting her hooves on each of his cheeks to force him to look at her. Pain lanced through Jason's chest, rivaling the bullet itself. He tried to look, but Dash jerked him back. She was whispering something but he hardly cared enough to listen. He couldn't even seem to hear the words in the first place. He tried counting seconds, but he kept forgetting to move on to two. Then the pain stopped as quickly as it had began, replaced moments later by what he assumed were tweezers or something. It didn't feel like tweezers exactly, but as long as it got the damned thing out he didn't care. "Mmph!" He yelled, trying to arch his back. It felt like they'd just lit him on fire. But try as he might he couldn't move his head and Dash's hooves kept him firmly in place. He looked into her eyes, trying to plead with her for anything. To get them to stop, or let him look, or anything really. He heard muffled, annoyed words above him, and as another wave of pain seared through his shoulder like none he'd ever felt any attempt to remain docile faded. He kicked and struggled, but the few connections he managed to make didn't get anyone to move or stop what they were doing. Shapes swam in front of his eyes, as colors faded towards the grayscale in his bad eye. Was it possible to die from pain? He tried to think about it but couldn't get the thought to develop. Dash didn't look worried. Her face looked warm and inviting. It was the opposite of the hell he couldn't see. Just as he felt himself slipping out of consciousness and into blissful sleep the pain lessened. He felt tools slither out of the wound with pressure to follow, and nothing had ever felt so nice. He felt his breathing slow, his nerves slowly cool. Dash let his head go, but he found he didn't feel like moving it anymore. "I'm pretty sure it was poking at a nerve." Kyra said to the others, taking her gloves off in the corner of his eye. "At least, judging by the reaction when I finally got a grip on it and pulled it out. Sometimes we see it in people with old bullet wounds, when they move into stuff like that. Usually it takes a few years though." The tweezers went back in a couple times to pull out smaller bits, but the pain was hardly noticeable at this point. The pressure let up slightly as Jason let his eyes close. He fell asleep almost immediately. _____________________________________________________________________________ "So he'll be okay?" Dash asked, watching Ben carefully move Jason onto a couch after they'd stopped the bleeding. "He should be." Kyra replied over the sound of running water. "Only issues he's got to worry about are an infection or nerve damage. Both of those are unlikely." Dash watched Jason sleep for a moment, his chest rising and falling slowly. She felt a little better knowing that he wasn't feeling any pain for a change. It always seemed to be him that got hurt, and she never liked it. She couldn't heal him the way he did her, and the inability to influence his health outside of the usual love thing sucked. "So how do you know him?" Ben asked, sitting down in a chair across from her and pointing at Jason. Makin followed suit a moment later. "Don't ask him anything yet!" Kyra yelled. "I want to hear it!" "Alright!" Ben offered Dash a glass of water, which she gratefully drank down and handed back. She hopped onto the spacious couch next to Jason and laid down against him. He felt cold. She felt cold. This was a long day. Kyra finished cleaning up after a few minutes and walked over, grabbing a quilt and throwing it over the ponies before she took a seat. "So Ben, why don't we start with the easy ones." Kyra said. "What sequence of events led to this? The bullet, appearing here... everything." Dash cleared her throat, tucking the blanket under Jason's chin. "We were fighting a guy, and he basically said that when Jason died over here, he managed to grab his soul enough to take it over there, but then it slipped away. He ended up like this, lost some of his memory, and met me. Then six months went by, and upon our escape, Jason got shot as he was trying to teleport us away. He didn't pick a destination and we ended up here by accident. I would guess that's the reason we have a lot of stuff come through is because Bob started moving souls and caused some sort of connection." "Bob?" Ben asked. "We just call him that because we don't know the guy's real name." She stared off into space, her dialogue continuing only in her thoughts. Jason shifted on the couch, a hoof sticking out from under the blanket and making a slight motion of walking with it. "Guess he's dreaming." Dash mumbled. "Must be vivid." Kyra said, looking a little nervous. "I can tell you I've never seen a patient do that before. Don't let his arm move." "I just hope it's not a nightmare. He had a few weeks of those and just about went insane." Dash went silent again, remembering what she always felt was their most trying time, both as a couple and as ponies in general. "Alright, so then how did you two end up fighting as a team against this dangerous guy? He's only been there six months, right?" "Yeah. I mean, we've just been stuck with fighting the whole time. We started when Canterlot, which is the capitol, got invaded by Griffins, and by the end of that we'd sort of established names for ourselves. Then there was the rest of the war, Bob, Chrysalis, who's a shapeshifter, and everything else the universe could throw at us. So yeah, it's not surprising that we wanted to tie up a loose end or two, is it?" "So you two have been fighting alongside each other for months against these... bad guys or whatever?" Makin questioned, squinting his eyes in partial confusion. "Yeah. I mean, it's not just us, but we're usually a pair. We care about each other too much to go into this stuff separately." "Gotcha." Ben said, shaking a finger at her affirmatively. "Got the bond from the trials of war. Want to stick with the brethren." "Well, yeah." Dash replied. "But, I mean, I'd probably say the main reason's because I'm his wife." Silence. Sounds of confusion graced the air. "Huh?" Makin said, scratching his head. He looked at the others. "I mean... what?" "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond to any of this." Dash confessed, before lapsing back into a short lived silence. "I mean, it makes a lot of sense, given everything we've been through. It, well, we didn't just click or anything. I guess we did right at the beginning in a sort of friends way cuz our personalities mesh and stuff, but then it was necessity that we stick together, and I actually saw him for who he was. Getting along well turned into more than that when it was just us against the world, and maybe the stress of the situation played into it, I dunno, but it wasn't a thing that just fizzled afterwards. So think whatever you want, but nothing happened on a whim." "Just what exactly happened in the last six months?" Ben asked. "Like, specifically?" Dash grinned. "I'm sure this guy here'd be annoyed if I gave everything away. Plus, let's be honest, I'm not going to be able to describe some things well when I hardly know about society here. It'll just be a questionfest after I say something that doesn't make sense to you, whether it's magic or something with another species or something. Not to say it wouldn't make sense eventually, but..." "Yeah, can't keep a concise story going when you don't know what we do and don't know." Ben replied. "I'm sure there are about a million things we can answer anyway, and I've got a lot of time today. Makin's going to get a phone call about some stock movement any second and go back to the Makin lifestyle though." "I turned it off." He replied, poking angrily at a blood spot on his suit. "Anyway, I don't run everything anymore. I have people that can cover for me." "What's this about stocks?" Dash asked, her ears perking up. "I mean don't get me wrong I know what they are from Jason, sort of, but what's that got to do with you?" Makin scratched at the stubble on his chin, thinking. "Well... Basically I've made my living on the stock market buying and selling options. I still do that to a degree, but El Capitan--that's what I named the business by the way--turned into a bunch of guys working for a similar goal in options under me, but now we have people that manage options for businessmen abroad and to be honest it's gone way past my expectations." "Don't forget the exchange." Ben reminded. "Yeah, and there's a stock exchange on the bottom. It's not the bustling center of capitalism it would've been ten years ago when the internet wasn't as much of a thing, but it's definitely not empty. It's probably cheaper for some people than a seven hundred dollar computer and stable internet connection, and probably easier as well. But I also know some guys that just like the stock exchange feel." There was a pause. "Anyway, enough about me." Ben looked from Makin to her. "You guys came in through San Francisco, right? I'm assuming the freak storm was your doing?" "Well, Jason's but yeah. We don't have buildings that tall or that numerous where I'm from. Or bridges like those. To be honest, we aren't as advanced as humans are, or even close really. But we make up for some of that with magic and flight." "So those wings actually support your weight?" Kyra asked, raising an eyebrow. Dash stretched one out over Jason, watching it reach its full span. "The air's a little thinner here, so it's not as easy, but with the kind of updrafts over the city we easily managed. By the way, it's a lot cooler looking at buildings rather than the usual nature stuff." "How many of you guys are there?" She followed up. "Ten million?" Dash shook her head. "They usually say it's around a million, but I have a hard time believing it's that small. It's probably higher by a sizable amount, but not that much. With all the griffin territory annexed, we added a lot more citizens, but nopony's really sure how many griffins there were, exactly. That'll probably be counted eventually." "So I take it there's not a lot of military going on?" Ben queried, glancing at their guns, leaning against the wall in the kitchen. "You'd be surprised how many enlisted for a while there, but it's back to lower levels. Higher than it was originally, Jason made sure of that, but definitely smaller. He had them building a central defense sort of building and called it the Hexagon." There were a few chuckles. "He seemed to think you guys would find that funnier than I did." Dash finished with a slight grin. "But that's really just a shell last time I checked. Looked pretty imposing already but that was about it." She looked down at Jason, stroking a hoof through his mane affectionately. He's warmed up pretty well, and out of all the times he'd passed out, this was definitely the time she had the least to worry about. There was a doctor ten feet away that could do a hell of a lot more than they could themselves, and when Jason did wake up he was among friends. Friends he had wanted to see again for the entire time he'd known her. "You know, Jason talked about you guys a lot." She said, continuing to pet at him slowly. "He wanted to come back here basically as soon as he ended up over there, but these last few days the usual rhetoric picked up a lot. He said he had a dream with you in it, Ben." Ben opened his mouth to respond, then shut it and paused. He stood up abruptly, pacing to one side. "Where was it set?" "I dunno, Jason figured it was in the Middle East or something." "How's that even possible?" "I guess he was right about it really being you then." Dash replied, to the complete confusion of everyone present. "So you're saying that he saw me in the dream." Ben replied, deadpan. "This isn't some sort of sarcasm you guys have developed where a straight face is necessary?" "No. I mean, the only really confusing part is that it was you specifically, from another dimension or planet or whatever. I've been in a lot of Jason's dreams with him. I mean, that's one of the ways I knew he was mentally going downhill for a while when he didn't say anything. Repeatedly getting killed in vivid dreams does that to you I guess." Before Ben could formulate an attempt at a response, Jason shifted, pushing against her slightly with a hoof. He mumbled her name, moving again a moment later before he twisted his head to one side. "Well." The mare said, looking at him with concern. "I guess saying that his nightmares were clumped together into one time period is kind of an overstatement. I mean, I guess he could be having a good dream too, but-" She shook his head, trying to get him to wake up. He slackened somewhat, possibly subconsciously recognizing her touch. But then again, she wouldn't know. The number of times Jason was asleep and she wasn't were limited to say the least. "This is probably a good time to mention that if he doesn't wake up in fifteen minutes or so, I want to move him so that we have the ability to give him fluids through an IV." "I'm sure he'll be up by then." No she wasn't. "Well, soon anyway. He's had worse than this." Kyra ran her hand down her face, letting out a sigh. "I could see. There was even scarring from what I assume is either lightning or something else that's high voltage. Then there's the criss-crossed scars of various other deep gashes and wounds, mixed with less serious ones. I mean, was there even a single day either of you left the hospital?" "We took the weekends off." She said, getting a grin out of Makin. "Besides, a lot of those were from months ago when we were fighting more with close quarters knives and stuff. Like before we had automatic weapons." "So when you say he's had worse... How much worse has he had exactly?" Ben asked. "Well, the first big thing was that he got stabbed. Then he broke a leg one time, and there was the lightning which is a long story. He got tortured by the guy we're trying to fight once. Got the bottom of his hoof sawed off." Dash lifted the blanket off of Jason, peeling back some fabric from the hoof so the others could sort of see around the metal slipper thing he usually wore to make up the height. "That was most of the life threatening stuff, I think." "And you?" Dash shrugged. "I mean, most of the time Jason just healed me up. He's got magic for that. But I guess one time I died." She scratched her head, moving some hair out of her eyes. "But then again, it didn't really happen because Jason just went back in time to fix it. That's the only second chance I've got anyway, seeing as he can only do that once." "Should I even ask why?" Ben inquired, by this point looking unenthused. "It's something about the stress on your body when you screw with that. It's too dangerous the second time, so the chances of anything changing or the pony coming back are sort of low. That's what Twilight says, anyway." "Who?" "She's just a friend of mine that knows a lot about magic, to put it shortly. She's a pony like me." There was some silence for a time, and Makin sighed. "This is going to take quite a while." _________________________________________________________________________________ "You know, it was somewhat hard getting here today. You're kind of faint on my radar." Jason jumped, barely holding in a yelp of surprise, and turned around quickly. He didn't know where he was, or recognize the small room he appeared to be trapped in. He did, however, recognize the changeling across the room. He sighed. "Chrysalis." "Hey, don't sound so disinterested." She paused. "Actually, I get it. I'm not really the villain around here that's done a whole lot, and I can't assume that you're scared of me. The other one tortured you, so it's not hard to wonder why you hate him. But I like to think I take care of all my changelings, no matter how they act towards me." "Minus the horrible headaches you give me." "A slight inconsistency in your mind that took some getting used to. It's a lot easier to talk when you aren't all over the ground writhing in pain. And all I want to do is talk." "Well shoot." A look of slight surprise crossed her face. "I can give you information on the one you seek." "Yeah? You want my soul or something as trade?" "Free of charge. Out of the goodness of my heart." Jason stared at the changeling queen. "I can't trust anything you say." "That may be true, but we share a common goal. We both know that this guy is trouble, and his resurfacing can only be a bad omen. The sooner he's gone, the sooner we can both get on with our lives." "What's to say you don't just ambush us? And why can't you just take him out yourself if you know where he is." "I've lost many changelings to him, all due to that wretched magic he has. Something about changelings or the hive mind... I'm not sure what it is, but I'm not much help. In any case, all I'm sure of right now is that I managed to scare him out of town about a month ago. I assume the attack that's in the paper was at a phony base he'd set up to act like he was in Manehattan." "So then you're just going to let me take up my time fighting this guy while whatever plan you have after this goes together?" "No. I can promise that because my plan's already in place. We'll do battle one day soon, but I have honor. It won't be because I told you incorrect information or waited for you to kill a common enemy before I kill you immediately afterwards. You'll know what's happening and you'll know it long before it happens." She started to fade, the texture of the wall showing through her increasingly translucent skin. Five more seconds and she was gone completely, leaving Jason alone. He had barely begun to think about the ramifications of everything he'd just heard before the walls closed in suddenly. He let out a yelp of surprise, but they were moving too quickly for him to have time to react. _________________________________________________________________________________ Jason's eyes snapped awake, but instead of the familiar environment of his house, they focused on clouds. He sat up, rubbing at his head. Was this a dream? He couldn't even tell. He usually never made it past one collapse of the dream without waking up. In fact, it'd never happened before. But if he had woken up and was in fact back in his cloud house, that would mean that any number of other things had been a dream. So either he'd been in a coma on his own couch or this was a dream. "Jason! Help me with this!" Dash yelled from the kitchen. "Get off your lazy ass!" She emerged looking tired, her mane a little more messy than normal. "What?" "Don't 'what' me." She replied, gesturing for him to follow her back inside. He followed her in and she produced a baby, asleep in her arms. "I told you that I'm going to be gone for a few hours, and I'll need you to make sure he doesn't go crazy." "Dash, I know what I'm doing. It's been several months." The words came from nowhere. "I know." She sighed. "But I get worried." Dash handed the foal over to Jason and he took the little fuzzball in his arms, sitting down in one of their chairs. The kid opened his big blue eyes lazily and grinned, laughing up at him. "He always did like being in your arms." Dash said, smiling at him. She leaned in and tickled his belly with a hoof, making the baby giggle some more. "Makes me a little jealous." Jason could feel a slight pull on his love, and he let it flow. Guess it really was his kid. "He's only like this while you're around. As soon as you're gone, he's never well behaved." He replied. The unicorn foal kicked off the blanket that was wrapped around him, his miniature wings spreading out from his back. So he was an alicorn too, huh. "Yeah, well it's probably because he wants to walk around so badly. It's basically all he wants to do." Jason grinned, obliging Dash and setting the kid down on his four hooves to totter around. Then he was bowled over by orange. "I'm home!" Scoots yelled, standing up before Jason could. She was just at his chin now, easily to the size of an adult mare. "How'd camping go?" Dash asked, packing stuff into saddlebags. "Oh, it was so cool! We explored all over the place, and we found all these old ruins, and then there were these meteors at night!" She bounced around excitedly, ignoring the heavy packs over her back. God, she was as big as Dash now... The scene went blurry for a moment, and Jason checked his eyes. "You alright, Jason?" Dash asked, stopping her packing. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that-" There it was again. "My eyes are acting up." He blinked hard, opening them again. "Wha- What the hell?" Now he was looking up at Dash's triumphant face, and turned to see Ben looking at him from a chair a few feet away. "What's wrong, Jason?" Dash asked. He shifted, and his shoulder protested. "You won't believe the dream I just had."