The Conversation
The Conversation
"Um... hi?" There was no response from the mare. "Hello?" Jason waved a hoof in front of her face. "We just want to talk, then you can go." Still no response, just more nervous shivering. Dash had finished taking off her armor and had made her way over.
"That stuff is like wearing a whole bunch of sweaters, it was terrible." She looked pretty sweaty, he had to say. He turned his attention back to the mare.
"Sooooo...?"
"You, and you, you're those criminals that have posters everywhere. The changeling and Rainbow Dash. I saw a flyer about you two."
"Yup. So what do--"
"Why did you save me? You could've just let me die, a traitor and a murderer, yet you save me. Is this how you treat your victims? You toy with them?"
"No, I never had any victims. They just made that up, along with the charges of stealing love, replacing ponies, and pretty much everything else. It's not like I'm actually guilty of anything."
"How did you survive then? A changeling needs love to survive, so how are you still here if you haven't been sabotaging other ponies' relationships and replacing ponies?"
"Funny how you're questioning the motives of people you think are murderers, assuming that they won't get angry. I'll take that as sign that you don't actually think we're murderers. I don't need to steal love because I have it given to me. I actually built a relationship, so stop assuming that the only way someone would actually want to be around a changeling is if they didn't know they were a changeling. I could be anypony, but she wants to see me like this." The mare looked at Dash, who nodded to back Jason up. "Maybe you should stop assuming that the authorities are always right, and do some of your own research."
The mare was at a loss for words. "Hey Jason, are you okay?" Dash asked, "You didn't get stabbed or anything, right?"
"No. I'll be fine. How about you?"
"Most of the hits were to the armor, so I'm fine too." She turned to the mare. "Are you alright?"
She contemplated answering for a moment. "Yeah, I'll just be going then." She started to limp away. Jason noticed a particularly deep cut on one of her hind legs.
"Hold on a second." Jason said. The mare froze. "Come here." She looked about as scared as when she faced down the manticore when she turned around, but she walked back nonetheless, stopping a few feet in front of Jason. "Stay right there. Don't move." She nodded stiffly, which Jason took as a good of a sign to start as any. As in his previous dabbles in healing, he pushed a huge amount of energy into the mare, watching her face light up as she realized that her injuries were healing. This was nowhere near as taxing as either of the treatments he had given to Dash, but when he was finished he was still fairly fatigued. The constant flow of emotions from Dash was a nice supplement though. "How do you feel now?"
"Like I wasn't chased five miles by a manticore with hideously sharp claws! How'd you do that?" She had seemingly forgotten her fear towards her supposed enemies.
"Healing capabilities. They're pretty taxing." He sat down, and then decidedly resigned to laying on his side in the dirt. "Listen, I don't want to get discovered, so could you come back to where we set up camp, so that we could get some information, then I'll personally take you back to Canterlot?"
She seemed to remember her fear. "Sure. No funny business, right?"
"Why would I heal you if I was just going to hurt you?"
"Fine, but if you even look like you're about to do anything funny, I'm leaving."
"Okay, lets go." He got up and tiredly pointed into the forest, and after a few moments, the mare reluctantly followed behind Jason and Dash as they led the way back towards home base. Jason turned to Dash, a pensive look on his face.
"So you killed that manticore. Nice job going through with it, I wasn't sure if you'd be able to."
"Yeah, well I wasn't sure either, at least not until I remembered your comment. It was you or him, and I just chose the logical one. That really get's rid of any gray area."
"I'm glad to hear that. The first one's always the hardest, although I don't know if this really counts, non-sentient creature and all. Just remember that you did the right thing." He sighed, scuffing a hoof on the ground. "So how are you liking that armor, ignoring the heat and all?"
"It's pretty nice, it doesn't really block my wings much, so that's always good. It's a lot lighter than Canterlot armor."
"And how would you know, Miss Dash?"
"I tried some on. I wanted to see how I would look." She blushed a little. "It was kind of a stupid thing to do."
"Do you have a picture?" She seemed surprised by his question.
"Yeah, why?"
"I just wanted to see how badass you looked. Judging by what I've seen with this armor, probably pretty badass." He looked away from Dash for a moment, missing another flare of her cheeks, and realized that they had arrived directly under their tree. He turned to the mare. "We're here."
"Is this some kind of joke?" He pointed into the tree branches, looking slightly annoyed.
"Oh. So you have to lift me up again, I take it?"
"Yup. Hold on tight." Dash and Jason both put their hooves under one side of her and flew up to their makeshift house, setting her back down.
"This is where you live?" she asked, looking around.
"Considering we left town yesterday, yes." He levitated over an apple. "Food?" She nodded and gratefully took the apple out of the air, immediately taking a bite.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Scootaloo had jumped out from behind the pile of blankets, attempting to tackle the invader. Jason caught her in his magical field, sighing.
"Sorry about that, Scootaloo can be a little... energetic."
"Oh, I understand, I have two foals of my own." She paused. "How did you two get a foal anyway?" Her eyes narrowed.
"She followed us out here for some reason." Dash shot her a look. "Isn't that right, Squirt?"
"Yeah, sorry Dash."
"Scoots, she's a guest, not a threat." Jason said, slightly angrily. He set her down, and Scoots stared at the mare, attempting to convey the statement, 'I'm watching you'.
"How long has it been since you've been home?" The off-hand comment caught her by surprise.
She sighed. "I've been lost in these woods for two days, trying to survive on the stuff I could find. If you two hadn't showed up when you did, manticore or not, I would've starved or died of thirst after not too much longer. So thanks for all that you've done for me. If push comes to shove, I'm on your side. You've proved that you're not a ruthless murderer."
"Ruthless murderer? Has a nice ring to it..." He tapped a hoof to his chin.
Dash ignored Jason. "So what's your name?" She asked the mare.
"I'm Stardancer. Never really understood why, but that's what they call me. And your's?"
"Well I'm Rainbow Dash, but I guess you already knew that, and this is Jason."
"Why'd you tell her my name?"
"Why not?"
"No one else knows it! Call me a cynic, but I don't want to release information unless I'm forced to." He turned to Stardancer. "Don't tell anyone our names or our location if you do tell people about us. We could use some good press without the release of extra information, and considering I healed you and there was a mare with a prismatic tail and mane, they'll know it was us."
"Could I tell your names to my family, at least?" She pleaded. "They'll still want to know who it was that saved me." She had finished her apple, and Jason levitated over another one, which she gratefully accepted.
"Fine." He sighed. "So why are you all the way he hell out here anyway?"
"Well, I was with an expedition with some other ponies to find plants that could be of use to ponykind, because nopony seems to grasp the availability of new plant life in the Everfree. Long story short, I was separated from my group two days ago by a hydra, and I've been wandering around here ever since."
"So are you ready to go back home? I can take you there, safe and sound."
"Sure. Thanks again for all the help!" She waved to Dash and Scoots, and turned around to see a red maned, grey pegasus pony.
"Let's go then." He wrapped his hooves as best he could around her torso, and took off a little above the platform to test before flying into the forest proper, sending a wave back to Dash.
Jason flew over the cliff and descended quickly. "Where is your house?"
"It's over there, near that clock tower." She shouted over the noise of the wind rushing by. He navigated over to the general zone that she had pointed out, letting her off on a particularly un-crowded street, then turned to take off. "Wait!" He turned back around, confused.
"What?" She seemed at a brief loss for words.
"Well, my house is right there, and if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like it if I could introduce you to my family." She closed her eyes for the last few words, saying them considerably faster.
"Right here, huh? I hope I don't regret this, because this is kinda stupid, but sure." He couldn't help but feel that this was going to backfire somehow. He followed Star up to her door, where she knocked quietly. No one came to the door until the third set of knocks, when a disheveled looking stallion pegasus with a red coat and light green mane opened the door.
"Hello?" He noticed Stardancer "Star! You're back!" he enveloped her into a tight hug, sniffling a little. "I thought that you were gone for good."
"I could never stay away, Sky." The stallion turned to Jason.
"I assume you were the one that saved my wife from her latest nature crusade?"
"Yeah. Name's Jason." He stuck out a hoof, which the stallion quickly shook.
"Come on in! It'd be nice to hear the odyssey of a story which brought my wife back from the Everfree." He gave her a brief glare, then hustled Jason inside and sat them down in some rather uncomfortable chairs. "So then, let's hear it!" There was a rather uncomfortable silence while Jason tried to figure out a plausible reason a pony would have to be in the Everfree, and shared a few glances with Star.
"Maybe you should show him?"
"And why would I do that?"
"Because you can't explain otherwise."
"Why'd you get me into this situation?" He sighed. Star's husband was looking between them, trying to figure out what was happening, and seeming to come up blank. "How're you gonna make sure he doesn't freak out?"
"Honey, don't freak out."
"Good plan. Seriously though, don't." The stallion nodded. "This is so stupid..." Jason muttered before dropping his disguise. He looked up at the stallion, who had his jaw hanging open in a somewhat comedic fashion. He grabbed his wife and pulled her behind him.
"Dear, that's a changeling, they're extremely dangerous. Get behind me while I take care of this." The pegasus started to walk towards Jason, but stopped when Jason put a shield around himself.
Jason looked at Star. "I told you."
"Listen to me Shy, he and his friend healed me, gave me food, saved me from a manticore... He's not like the rest of the changelings, dear."
"That's what he wants you to think. How do I know you're not an impostor, Star?"
"Ask me any question from when we met."
"What happened on our first date?" He asked, prompting a smirk from her.
"You mean before or after you hit yourself in the face with a hoe?" He looked dumbfounded.
"So if you're Star, then you must be telling the truth, and that means that... you did all that good stuff, so you're not evil." He shot an apologetic glance at Jason, and slumped back into his chair.
"Well it's about time someone sees me as not evil besides Dash..."
"Did you say Dash? As in Rainbow Dash? If she's with you, then you're that rogue changeling on all these flyers I've been seeing! Explain that!" His gaze hardened again.
"Fair enough, the princess gave me my charges, and all of them are wrong, besides resisting arrest. I was accused of murdering two ponies and replacing them, but both of those ponies were made up, and you could even check birth certificates if you wanted to. I was also accused of stealing love, and that never happened, I was just given the love of Dash, who is fully aware that I'm a changeling. Does that explain everything?"
"I guess so..."
"Did you see the sign hanging over town?"
"The one about a griffin attack? That's hilarious, ponies have been laughing at it all day."
"That's not a joke." The stallion's face fell. "I put that there because there's a high chance that there will be a griffin attack. If I were you, I would prepare just in case."
"But the griffins haven't attacked anywhere in nearly a fifty years! Why would they decide to attack now?"
"They want to follow up the Changeling attack, because they think you're weak. The same thing has happened with the rest of the countries they conquered." He looked at a clock on the wall. "Now if you excuse me, I have to return to the woods, Dash is probably wondering what happened to me." Sky remained deep in thought, but finally raised his face, bidding Jason a final thanks and goodbye.
"Thanks for everything. If I can find a way to repay you I will. The last thing I would've expected at my door today was my wife and a changeling giving me news of an impending attack."
"Well I guess I'm one of a kind." They both chuckled. "See ya around." The stallion waved again, and Jason re-formed his disguise as he walked out the door. That was definitely not what he had expected. Oh, wait, it was almost exactly what he expected, minus the accepting stallion. Well, accepting is a relative term, but he had thought he was going to be more hostile to him. Oh well, why shouldn't something go smoothly once in a while? Jason took off, making his way back across the city towards the cliffs before he noticed the same square that he had been in yesterday. He decided to see if there was a paper about the sign, and swooped down.
He landed quietly, not like he had any choice, and made his was over to the board. New flyers for his and Dash's arrest were hung up, unsurprisingly, but a paper with a picture of Jason's cloud words was on the front page, with the caption: "Canterlot Cloud Sign: Prank or Premonition?" A few other papers just passed it off as just a joke, so Jason figured it was safe to assume that the Canterlot ponies had not taken the sign seriously. Shocker.
A few ponies walked by, saying something about the complete lack of validity that the sign possessed, as if on cue. He sighed, he had tried. If they weren't going to listen, it wasn't his problem anymore. Maybe the princess or the guards had actually taken heed, or at least partially prepared. He shook his head and took off again, quickly ascending to the cliff's edge, and passed over the Manticore's corpse, flying straight towards the platform. He landed quietly and dropped the disguise, looking around for Dash and Scoots. Dash was passed out on the bed, and Scoots was curled up in the chair, eating an apple.
"Hey Jason! How'd it go?"
"Fine Scoots. What happened to Dash?" He gestured.
"She gave me another flying lesson, and then said something about an afternoon nap, and fell asleep over there."
"I think I might join her. All the stuff from the last few days was tiring to say the least." He paused. "If I fall asleep Scoots, do NOT do anything that involves you making inordinate amounts of noise or leaving the platform in any way. That means no flying." She looked disappointed, which didn't surprise him. He levitated the guitar over, putting the strap around her neck. "Here, experiment with this." She looked back up at him, overjoyed.
"You're going to let me play it?" She looked at the instrument in disbelief. It looked much too big for her. It was kinda cute.
"So just depress a string or a few strings with this hoof," He moved her left hoof over to some of the strings and pushed them onto one of the frets. "Then, while you're holding those down, you strum." He moved her other hoof across the strings, creating a slightly off tune chord. "Or you can strum only one string." He paused to strum only one of the strings. "I'll leave you to it, Scoots. Don't strum too hard, I don't know if I can replace those strings." She nodded and went back to her off tune strumming.
Jason shifted into Alternis and finally allowed himself to lay down on the bed and rest. He curled a hoof around Dash, pulling her a little closer to himself. The movement awoke her, and she opened an eye to find out what had awoken her. She saw Jason and smiled, reaching her hooves around his back and pulling him closer before resting her head on his shoulder and sighing contentedly. Jason smiled, life was good.
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Well...since the ponies aren't going to take it seriously......Now what?
P.S. I barely had time to sneak away and read this myself. So, yeah. It's probably the hectic holiday season.
1849979
I'll try to fix the chapter names, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with new names in that format.
heh, Can't complain to free money!
Just how long are you planing on making this story?
Approximately
1849979
I wasn't going to give up, I was just unsure whether I should bother making chapters during the holidays. You have no idea how time consuming it is for me to write this, and being an attention whore, I enjoy when my efforts are reflected by spikes in views and such.
PLEASE do not stop writing, the drop in views is probably due to the holidays. It might be because of lack of conflict yet but I'm sure its coming.
1850019
At least another month, so that's probably twenty five chapters minimum, but hopefully it will never end as long as I can continue to come up with good ideas.
1850035 ok, cool
Its the hectic holiday season.
Probably shouldn't update tomorrow I will not be able to read the chapter and I read every day for at least one hour.
wait... who is Robert. E. Lee?
Funny thought is that not only the Griffins but you also got to think the Diamond Dogs would also join in because of what they are (though not really siding with the Griffins but see this as a great opportunity for plunder and pillage).
Keep going, this fanfic is realy, realy good. And I know it very well, I saw a lot of those. Fav and thumb up.
(sorry for possible mistakes in comment, I`m not from English-speaking country).
1850057 I'm fairly certain he was a commander in the confederate army during the civil war.
DAGNABBIT!
There's a difference between sentient and sapient.
Sentient would be like a dog. Sapient would be like a human.
Just saiyan (and preventing myself from ranting)…
Great chapter as usual though.
Scoots is best guard pony.
If Jason, and Dash, can keep doing small good deeds (like, I dunno, half an A-team?) he might sway the town's opinion of him. At the very least he's got an ally in the town itself now. I'm not quite up on Equestrian magic so I find it curious no one has tried searching him out. Maybe changelings are naturally untrackable? Makes sense. However, once the ponies get wind of Rainbow Dash siding with Jason, it's almost certain a spell could track a good friend down... or use personal belonging to "point" her out like a compass. Same goes for Scootaloo.
Excellent chapter. What are Rainbows friends even doing though? Seems like they have yet to make any effort in searching.
Great chapter but you already knew that didn't you. As to the lack of views it is most definatly the holiday season. It is nearly 2.00am her (Ireland) and I am now only getting time to read this chapter. So in short keep up the good work and don't worry about the views they will return with a vengeance for who could stay away from this story?
Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
MOAR
A possible never ending story? Me fucking gusta. Keep up the good work. And I might drop off the reader list for the next couple of days. My parents got me a 3DS XL along with KH: Recoded and Pokemon White 2. Along with anything else I haven't discovered and money from my grandma. So yeah I'm going to be on a new game binge.
I love this story as much as I love the holiday ^^
Also, the sequence with the family was a bit un-eventful, but otherwise fine
Freaking awesome story mat! it just gets better and better with each passing chapter and that makes me very excited for the next one
Well, i wont be having a Christmas worth enjoying, life is in the gutter, so if you post tomarow ill read ot. Have a nice holiday, unlike mine. =)
I personally choose to believe that all the Equestrians, with all their knowledge of their own history, current events, world affairs, and the like, are correct in laughing at the prediction. Worst case, because the people who matter (Princesses, the Guard, etc) knew of the possibility well before the warning, and already had the situation in
handhoof. It certainly makes more sense than an outsider coming in, reading a small, brief overview of a small section of history, for cultures he has almost no knowledge of, and suddenly having this great insight that nopony else has. Plus it's funnier. And it keeps him from having yet another skill to awe the easily-impressed ponies with.1850165
Thank you so much for showing me that there is actually another person out there who knows the difference. Comments like this make Twilight happy.
1851273 I remember seeing someone else who posted a blog about it, but I don't remember who…
This story is genius, every point is the popularity point.
1850282
I think it was explained in one of previous chapters that Everfree's background magic makes it unable to use tracking spell of any kind.
At least I suppose so...
Double post, I know, but update does not alert to reply AFAIK.
1851273
I don't think they are this smart, considering they believe changelings are hiding in griffin territory despite being unable to properly replicate their bodies thus being unable to sustain themselves from their love. Plus, they are a fairly peaceful race(that "interrogation") so they might not think militarily enough even after an attack like this. Then again, it would be an interesting thing to read how he tries to warn them only to hear "Yeah, we all knew that from the beginning. Thanks anyway, convict!"
Anyhow, we will see the answer soon, I guess.
ik go with the girf and take equestria show cha are good ???????????????=profit
1852611
True, most of the ponies seem to have gotten a solid beating with the stupid-stick in this story
On the other
handhoof, Celestia should certainly know better...5 DOLLARS whit that you could get all the women in my country (just kidding i am in a third world country not Haiti...fuck i am racist...o well viva mexico bitches!!!).
FInaly Dash and Jason are getting some allies, I really hope they will get more.
It Deserves this on each page C:
"gets"
remove the "a"
I'm now willing to bet that the griffons didn't attack because of the changeling invasion, but because of Jason's message. Since that plan is kinda stupid in the long run, IF they attack because of Jason and not the changeling invasion.
As far as It goes, Ponyville is on a rail line & so will be occupied. AFAIK, the Everfree has zero military value & is supposed to be dangerous. It shouldn't be occupied until later -just a waste of troops
But WHO is Robert E. Lee? Was he a serial killer?
10779559
You’re.. you're joking right… right?
11023724
First time i'm hearing of him.