The Security Risk
The Security Risk
BANG
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Jason jolted out of bed, throwing the covers to the side. He mentally berated himself for making noise before he reverted into changeling form and levitated the knives into his hooves. Then he jumped.
He landed quietly on the ground, looking around for the entity that has set off the flash-bang. Even with his imporved night vision, he couldn't see any pony, let alone a manticore or other beast. If Jason had fingers, he would have gripped his knives tighter. He stalked over towards the location where the flash-bang had been hanging and found a section of blackened ground. He looked back up towards the platform, and saw Dash, who was staring into the dark, also attempting to find the source of the breach. Jason shrugged and flew up to her, realizing that the threat must have fled. As soon as he landed, he heard the noise of some breaking sticks. Dash looked at him with a worried expression. He quickly brought out the last of their knives, and some of the twine, and grabbed one of Dash's forelegs. She looked at Jason with a look of confusion before he placed the knife on her lower hoof, facing outward, and started to tie it on. Feeling satisfied with the first hoof, he moved onto the second, mirroring his success.
He reared up and took a few general stabbing motions at the air, showing her what to do. She nodded as another stick broke, signifying that the beast wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Jason motioned for Dash to stay where she was, and then pointed to the gillie suit. She nodded again, and started carefully putting it on. Jason decided he was glad he'd put buttons down the sides of the fore leg parts of the suit. He had really been almost out of thread, but hey, acting like he wanted it that way was much better, especially when it made him look like he planned ahead.
Another branch broke. Whatever was out there, it didn't exactly seem keen on making itself hidden. Jason navigated to the spot where he had heard the most recent cracking, and saw a small shadow moving quickly away. The thing moved fast, he could give it that. He flapped his wings a few times before taking off and attempting to fly silently, although there was still a slight buzzing emanating from his wings, annoyingly enough for him. The shadow stopped under a log, and almost seemed to be cowering away from him, which considering the bomb and pursuit, wasn't surprising. Jason landed in front of the thing, one arm ready to stab. He lit up his horn, and his jaw dropped.
"Scootaloo?" It was indeed Scootaloo, hidden under a tree and shivering uncontrollably.
"P-please d-don't eat me, M-mr c-changeling. I'll leave, I p-promise. I w-won't tell anyone about y-you, an--"
"Scootaloo, it's me, Jason. Calm down." She seemed to relax a little, although her shivering continued full force. She jumped towards him and threw her arms around his neck.
"Oh, Jason, I was so scared. There was this thing that I ran into and then there was this light and this bang, and I didn't know what was going on, and I thought something was following me, but then you showed up."
"Come on, Scoots, let's get you warmed up. Hop on." Scoots jumped on his back and Jason shivered. "How are you this cold?" She didn't answer. He took off, heading for the platform. He saw dash as he was landing, and briefly flared the horn light to catch her attention if he hadn't already. He touched down, and Scootaloo hopped off.
"So this is where you--" her voice cut out as Dash and her gillie suit came into view. Well, mostly the suit. "What is that thing, some kind of plant monster?"
"Dash, would you be so kind as to do the honors?" She nodded and pulled back the hood. Scootaloo gasped.
"I'm so sorry for calling you a plant monster Dash, I didn't know!" Dash chuckled.
"It's fine, Squirt. At least I know it looks realistic now." She threw a glance at Jason, and then her face hardened slightly as she turned back to Scootaloo. "So what are you doing out here in the Everfree Forest, and more importantly, why this far from home?" Scootaloo mumbled a few words and looked at her hooves. "Sorry, what was that?"
"I said I followed you!" Dash looked dumbfounded.
"How did you do that exactly?"
"Well, you guys landed right outside the forest, and said some things, and then went in. I followed you, because I was wondering if I could get my cutie mark in tracking, because Sweetie Belle is with her parents while Rarity is in Canterlot and Applebloom is grounded, so I was bored. I caught up to you when you were both eating, but then you took off again and I lost you. I've been wandering around here since then." Dash facehoofed.
"Squirt, what have I told you about the Everfree?"
"That it's dangerous and stuff, but I didn't get attacked by anything besides that loud bright thing, so it can't be that dangerous."
"That loud bright thing was me." Jason volunteered. Scootaloo's eyes widened.
"You made that bright light?" He sighed.
"You set off a trap that makes the bright light and sound. It's like an early warning system." He paused. "Scoots, do you even know why we're out here?"
"No..."
"Well did you hear any news about problems in Ponyville?"
"Oh yeah! There was this changeling in the hospital that healed you, Dash!" An expression of realization dawned on her face. "That was you!" She said, pointing at Jason.
"Yup. Then I was captured, taken to the castle, then broken out by this kind young mare over here." He gestured to Dash. "We need to take you home, Scoots. You've already been gone for a day, chances are ponies are worried about you."
"I doubt it, no one cares about me besides Sweetie and Applebloom..."
"And your parents?" Scootaloo looked up at Dash with tears in her eyes. "No way..."
"I haven't had parents since I was born. My mom died giving birth to me, and my dad left me at the orphanage. I can never forgive him for leaving me there. For not even trying to take care of me."
"I know how you feel, Scoots, I've been there." Jason said, and put a hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder, pulling her into a hug.
"No you haven't, no one knows what it's like! No one knows how alone I am!" She tried to struggle out of Jason's grasp, flailing her legs around, but he held firm.
"I may not know how it feels to grow up so young without parents, but I still lost mine, Scoots." She stared at him, before finally breaking down and crying into his shoulder.
"What happened?" She asked through her tears.
"They were killed in front of me when I was sixteen. But listen, Scoots, it isn't the end of the world. In a way you're better off than I was; you didn't form an attachment to your parents. But listen here, the most important thing, as corny as it sounds, it to just never give up. I know you feel empty sometimes, and I know you get lonely, but when you give in to the emptiness it's a million times worse." She sniffled for a moment, and then seemed to regain her composure.
"D-do you think I could stay with you guys for a while?" She asked, prompting Jason to look at Dash. She shrugged.
"You can definitely stay here tonight, but we'll have to discuss letting you stay longer. Technically, we're wanted criminals, and I don't really want to accumulate more charges." She seemed crestfallen, and sniffled again. "Hey, no long faces. I didn't say no, did I?"
"I guess not."
"Okay, good. You can sleep wherever you want." Dash looked confused. "I have to go make the sign telling Canterlot about the attack."
"I'm coming with you." Dash said.
"No. You have to stay here and watch Scoots. I'm the only one with capable night vision anyways. You wouldn't be able to see any of the clouds you'd be moving."
"I hate it when you're right..." She yawned. "When was the last time you slept?"
"At like eleven last night to something like three this morning. It's not too much less than I would get normally though..." He copied Dash's yawn.
"What do you mean normally? That's like eight hours less than you're supposed to receive!"
"Not for humans though. I still have my old brain, and sleeping is just rest for the brain, so I guess sleep habits stay the same. Rest for the body is different, though, I still get tired from physical exertion, same as you." He yawned again. "I really have to do this before I just pass out." His foreleg started to itch again. He hit it into the tree, trying to get it to stop.
Dash ignored his antics. "Fine, go ahead. You better not get captured, or I swear..."
"You'll save me again?"
"I might not be able to. They're not going to take any chances this time. If you're captured, you're done for."
"Yeah, I'll be careful, don't worry. I have the advantage in pretty much every way at night." He turned and took off, leaving a confused Scootaloo and a worried looking Dash.
"Celestia I hope he stays safe," she whispered as he quickly disappeared into the gloom.
_______________________________________________________
Jason loved night flying, he decided. The frigid air, the light of the moon. No worries of being seen. It was liberating really. The moon looked amazing. It was much larger than the moon that rotated around earth, or maybe it was closer. There was also a surprising lack of craters. There were only a few large ones on the otherwise unblemished surface. He looked away from the moon and gave a slight gasp at the sheer number of stars he could see. There were nebulas and other celestial bodies that Jason had only seen on television in computer generated images or zoomed in photos from orbiting satellites. It was unlike any other night sky he could imagine. Then he noticed a star formation that looked surprisingly like the big dipper. Deciding that it was just a coincidence, he shook his head and flew on.
He arrived all too soon at the location he was going to set up the clouds at. Sighing, he quickly looked around for usable clouds, and found several nearby. Apparently it wasn't scheduled to be a cloudless night. He started arranging them into letters over twenty five feet wide. After scouring all the nearby sky for pretty much every cloud in the vicinity, he finally finished the message, and flew back to observe his work. The message read "Griffin Attack Imminent." Hopefully the townspeople would take the sign seriously, and attempt to bolster the guard. He kinda doubted that they would just accept the message as truth and actually make preparations, but it felt good to be able to get this off his conscience. He didn't want to be remembered as the guy that knew an attack was coming and didn't say anything.
Jason yawned again. Apparently the cold air and physical exertion had done little to actually wake him up. He turned to look at Canterlot, and his jaw dropped. 'And people said that it was beautiful during the day...' He thought. The city's gothic architecture had been supplemented by the multitude of torches and magical lighting in a huge variance of colors. A fair number of ponies still walked the streets, attending to who knows what at this hour. Actually, it wasn't that late, it just felt like it was four in the morning to him, considering all the challenges he had been forced to overcome in the last few hours alone.
He shrugged, and left the night time beauty of the old city behind as he started the long flight back to home base.
_______________________________________________________
As Jason dissapeared into the forest to take car of the sign, Scootaloo turned to Dash.
"What was that about an attack?"
"Well Scoots, Jason thinks the Griffins are going to invade Equestria, and he seems pretty sure that he's right. That's why he's out there; he's trying to give them advance warning." Scootaloo had seemingly become disinterested, and had started perusing the meager collection of possessions that Dash and Jason had managed to hold on to.
"Hey, this is the instrument that he was playing when he was in that restaurant! Do you think he would play a song for us?"
"I'm sure he'd be glad to, but he definitely won't play it tonight. He looks like he's about to fall over, and honestly I can't blame him." Scoots seemed a little disappointed, at least until something new caught her eyes. She was definitely an energetic one.
"Why do you have knives tied to your hooves?"
"Oh, I should probably take those off." She started to untie and unwind the rope, attempting to shake a bit of lost feeling into the tips of her hooves. "We didn't know what you were when you set off the alarm, so Jason put some knives in his hooves and tied these to mine, just in case I was attacked. They make me feel pretty badass." Scoots continued to run around and observe things, small 'oohs' and 'aahs' exiting her mouth. She saw the signed poster of the Wonderbolts.
"Wow, Dash, where did you get this?" she pointed towards the poster, an awed expression on her face.
"I got that after I won the Best Young Flyers competition and got to spend a day with the Wonderbolts. They gave me this when it was over. Hey Scoots, do you think that we could actually sleep at some point here?"
"Oh, yeah sure Dash." She re-dawned her disappointed expression.
"Hey, I'll still be here in the morning." Scootaloo nodded and jumped onto the bed, burrowing into the covers. Dash briefly thought about protesting, seeing as they also had a cloud couch. She shrugged and dove into the other side of the bed. "Night Scoots." Scoots mumbled something back, but Dash didn't quite catch it. What she did catch was the soft clopping of hooves on wood. Jason appeared in her field of vision.
"Hey, I made it back." He said. Dash nodded, and Jason quickly levitated the knives away, changed his form into Alternis, and laid down next to Dash. "Where's Scootaloo?" Dash pointed to a lump in the blankets. Jason nodded, and laid down. "Maybe I'll actually get some sleep this time." He wrapped his hooves around Dash and she gave a contented sigh, wrapping a hoof around him. "Night, Dash."
"Goodnight, Jason," she said, but soon realized that Jason was already asleep. She giggled a little before she ran a hoof through his mane and laid down to rest herself. She soon slipped into sleep.
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some minor spelling errors but the core content and story are as awesome as ever! keep up the good work!
Yup, well received and any critique of your last chapter was totally ignored!
Cool, new chapter. Whatever happened to the pics I sent you?
Looks like someone forgot to replace the used flashbang; this might not be good for them... unless I missed that... reading at 1 AM does that to you.
Keep up the good work!
Hopefully he will acquire new friends and allies that won't be hating on the Changeling form. Gilda would be a thought since she was once a friend of Rainbow Dash and isn't connected fully to the Griffin Kingdom, if a war were to erupt near or in Equestria Discord would be freed again and possibly with Jason's conversing could befriend/calm him (maybe a deeper meaning for why he does what he does), as said before always encountering other changelings be they removed from the Hive Mind or not, and since they are in the Everfree Forest who knows what kind of Sentient Beings that can befriended (Zecora and Gary would be two that are already known).
Would be interesting if since this ended with him going to sleep he dreams of a prophecy of which he is to alter (shown to him from whatever being brought him here [hopefully not one of the Mad Deities but that could bring more humor in a way]). Relics of power that the Forest could be hiding within forgotten Ruins of Temples, Abandoned Villages, and ECT...
good chapter. something calm and warm. keep it up bro /)
1836746
I never received them. Could you resend those?
Here's a few songs you might like. It's a lot of songs. (Great game by the way, picked out the best ones)
The audio is a little messed up in this one.
I would, bit I'm stuck using my phone for the rest of the day while my family's driving to my grandma's. Can't do much besides read and comment using the phone.
First, I would like to say that I totally called it! yay Scoots!
Second, NIce way to bring another character into the issue without too much complications.
1837090 Burnout is the greatest racing game ever! Mainly because of the murdering of other racers.
Also, Jason and Dash got a X-mas present! They received a chi- I mean Scootaloo!
1837352
I still have my PS2 and burnout disc.
NOSTALGIA!
1837357 Burnout Paradise…
1837394
Played it.
Road rage wasn't as fun because of the takedown limit.
1837436 Goal: Take down 20 drivers.
End result: 50 take-downs.
This is my favorite story so far and I have read a LOT of stories. This one is number 1 in my top 5.
1837456
No wait, not the limit, the time limit. I would rather it be until you get totaled.
1837573 You gained time for taking down others. It you kept up a rhythm, then you could easily get two minutes of "safety" time.
However, running out of time always sucked when they just wouldn't get totaled, kept out of your reach, or you would have to dodge oncoming traffic when everything is a blur anyways.
1837620
I was always really good at the races.
1837851 Road Rage should be obvious for me.
I did some races, though the lack of trashing others kinda bored me.
I still managed to take down people early on.
Well, gota say, your story has been one of my many inspiration to write my own fan fiction.... but it appears if i was nor ment to, my p.c. internet port is a dialup port only, 3 1/2 floppy drive is broke, and my cd drive does not write..... and to put a topping on the turd, my USB port is to archaric to read a flashdrive..... gota love good ol windows 98.
No artists here just a ton of them on deviant art that are all too busy to even accept payment >< soooo sorry. Still WE WANT MOAR
1837573 burnout 3: takedown. that one has no limit just untill your dead.
1844502
What does that mean exactly? I never read that fan fiction, which I assume is what you're referring to.
in an earlier chapter he was 14 when his parents died
now he was 16?
wat?
Oh the Irony is killing me LOL
1844557
dont know if it matters by now but a Mary sue is an OP character that is practically a godkiller
2569962 lol, that's for sure.
Still
....can't
....stop
.....READING!
You said re-dawned rather than re-donned
"re-donned"
I thought he was fourteen?
I've had enough. I'm done this bullshit.
6595449 You're so negative, fucks sake it's FICTION.
6595449
Personal tastes are fine, but damn give us a reason why.