The Apology
The Apology
Beep....Beep.....Beep.....Beep.....
Dash opened her eyes warily, looking around the small hospital room. She had spent the night and most of the morning here, curled up by his side. The doctors didn't want her to stay here, but it wasn't like there was anything else she could do. Her eyes quickly focused on Jason, who was still asleep in the bed. It had been over twenty four hours since he had been moved here, and she had yet to even see him move of his own accord. She sighed, as if getting him out of there and in here wasn't hard enough.
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"JASON!" She yelled, hearing the echo a fraction of a second later. She shook him around some more before putting an ear to his chest checking for a heartbeat. He was still alive, at least. She grabbed his arm and pulled him onto her back, trotting as quickly as she could back to the Princess.
"Princess, can you teleport us out of here? We need to get Jason some help." Dash said, her voice sounding much more calm than she felt. Luna nodded.
"Yes, just stay close and don't try to move." She said as the light of her horn intensified. Dash complied, saying stock still after raising her wings to keep Jason cradled on her back. A burst of light later, she found herself outside the building on the side facing town, briefly annoyed that the whole clear area requirement had kept them from teleporting anywhere closer. She took off at a gallop, the deja vu of the situation not escaping her. Her cold rage grew as she encountered more ponies. Some of them let slight smiles grace their lips, she assumed when they saw Jason's condition. One pony had the audacity to chuckle, and she threw a quick swipe across his jaw. Funny how public opinion can be so fickle.
She cornered and ran over to the hospital, shoving the door open with a shoulder. The door smacked into the adjoining wall, startling one of the secretaries enough to cause her to fling her tea cup through the air. It crashed into the ground and broke, covering a fairly large spot on the floor with the mostly clear liquid. Dash streaked across the space between the two of them, coming face to face with the secretary.
"I need a room, now."
"I can't just--"
"NOW!" The pony jumped again, immediately pointing down the hallway.
"First room on the right, I'll send somepony in." She got up from her desk as Dash turned into the hallway, moving into the hospital room. She set him down on the bed, adjusting his head on the pillow. She looked him over again. Honestly, the fact that he had made it this long was surprising, considering the blood stains that were already extending from his hoof and the rest of his cuts. Dash wiped a bit of grime off his forehead with a wingtip, watching as it came up crimson. She was past the point of fear, she was terrified. No response seemed to come to mind when she saw him like this, besides the burning hatred she harbored for that pony. The pony that had caused all this.
Then, as she sat back in a chair, her emotions made themselves known. She put her hooves to her face and wept, wept like she never had before, whether it was due to pride or otherwise. What would it matter now, especially if Jason couldn't pull through? She wouldn't be surprised if he didn't, honestly, and that scared her even more.
She didn't know how long she was out of it, but she looked up at some point to see a couple of doctors hovering over Jason, hooking him up to a heartbeat machine and poking him with needles while another was in the process of wrapping an arm in bandages. She threw her head back downward, not wishing to watch anymore of the process. She realized her hypothesis about the heartbeat machine was correct after a series of rhythmic beeps pierced through to her shaken mind. It was almost calming, coming at the same rate minute after minute. The Doctors left, apparently not to return. An orange and purple head extended around the doorway before Scoots galloped in, immediately jumping onto the chair next to Dash and looking up at her.
"Dash, is Jason going to be okay?" She took another look over her shoulder. "He doesn't look too good."
"I'm not sure Scoots." She choked back a sob. "I-- I just don't know." Scoots hung her head, immediately going silent. She flopped down in the chair, curling up into a ball and whimpering to herself. Dash laid a hoof on the filly, stroking it through her mane. A knock emanated from the doorway, and Dash looked over.
"Rainbow Dash." Luna began, "I know how little you want to hear about what happened, but I feel it is necessary to give you some information." She sighed. "That stallion we met in there, I threw up a last minute barrier around him to try to stop the teleportation spell, but--"
"It didn't work." Dash finished for her, looking away.
"See, that's the thing. It did." She said, shifting uneasily on her hooves. Dash looked back over at her, confused.
"What are you saying?" She asked. The princess walked over and took a seat.
"That it wasn't a teleportation spell he used. With that spell, you almost 'feel' where all the ponies are inside of the aura. But there was nopony there." She sighed again. "I think we're dealing with something far more powerful than a crime boss here. I think I know the spell he used, it was never common, but back in the day it wasn't unheard of. It allows a pony to displace their conscience into an area outside of their body, creating a decoy of sorts although there are far more capabilities. The setbacks are that the castor's body is totally defenseless, and that any magic cast by the castor through the decoy is many times more taxing than it would normally be."
"That type of magic even exists?"
"Yes, it's called 'soul magic'. We tried to stamp out the last of it over a thousand years ago, it was just too dangerous to keep around. Mostly for the ponies casting the spells, they would tend to go insane, or just die in the middle of a spell. I was the one that created it years ago, with my dabbling into ponies' dreams at night. That's part of my power, not soul magic. Another pony wanted to see if he could go into dreams like I could, and after a few weeks I got a spell up and working."
"Did it work?"
Luna sighed, sweeping a hoof down her face in stress. "Yes, it worked, the pony saw the dream, and didn't go insane like so many did after him. He differentiated the initial spells I had created into several tomes and a veritable armada of different applications. His power was a cause for strife between me and mine sister, she thought that the stallion was trouble, considering his knowledge of spells for which we had no counter. Needless to say, eventually he proved himself to be a threat, killing at least a few ponies for an 'experiment', and I was sent to kill him. I don't even know what he did, but he killed the guards I had with me long before I could even get a hit in on him. I won the fight, and personally brought his head back as proof." Dash looked over, disgusted. Luna shrugged. "That's what we did back then. The 'soul magic', as he called it never reared it's head again, at least until now. A thousand years seems like a long enough time to get another pony with the same skill, unless..."
"What?"
"Well, maybe I didn't finish the job."
"You cut off his head!"
"I know, but the sudden emergence of one pony that has such a skill-- I guess there isn't any proof, all things considered, but I never knew his full capabilities. I'm just accounting for all the possibilities here."
"So what did you do with all of the records?"
"We hid them, kept them away from the common eye. Apparently not all of them though. Or maybe somepony just figured it all out again."
"It can't manipulate other ponies' consciences can it?"
"No, it's solely ways to re-represent your own. It can interact in ways, but all are indirect. My situation with dreams is an outlier, the stallion was never able to influence dreams on his own. Although I am fairly experienced in it, I have never come anywhere near the stallion's skill level. The irony, I suppose, is that he could barely preform a levitation spell back then."
"So is he out of our league to fight then?"
"No, I just have to use a new repertoire of tricks. The thing about the magic is that there is very little power needed for the movement of the 'soul' so to speak, the only important part is control. A thousand years with the nightmare in my head tends to leave you with at least a fair amount, after you get over the initial insanity." She sighed, evidently pained to remember such an event, or string of them, as it may have been. "The only hard part is finding him, if he's at all smart. Anything we do could be playing into the flat of his hoof. I beat him once though, I can beat him again." Dash opened her mouth to speak before Lyra came galloping in, clearly out of breath.
"I heard something happened to Jason." She looked over at the bed and winced.
"Yeah, you just found out?" Dash asked.
"Well, I got a bunch of different stories, most of them weren't too good. I heard one about him being captured, and apparently that was the right one."
"Yeah. He might not make it." A couple tears wetted her eyes.
"What else did you hear?" Luna asked, perking her ears.
"Well," Lyra started, brushing part of her mane out of her face, "A couple customers told me he'd jumped town, and had gone back to the hive to turn in. Yeah, we have customers now, by the way. Let's see, a few others said he'd been forced to leave after Celestia figured out that he was actually evil or something. They were pretty varied. The only story I got that was the same more than once was from a couple of your friends, Applejack and Twilight, I think. It's strange, because I thought Applejack was all suspicious, but she was the one who told me the captured story first." Dash was beyond surprised. Applejack had done that? She had expected them to be stubborn to the end, hell, maybe she still was. At least they seemed to be moving in the right direction.
"She was the suspicious one. As it turns out they were all suspicious. Except for Pinkie, and maybe Fluttershy." She heard a particularly raspy breath from Jason and looked over expectantly, only to be disappointed a few seconds later when his breathing returned to normal. Maybe she shouldn't get her hopes up...
Luna got up, making her way to the door. "I hate to do this to you, Dash, but I must get back to Canterlot to preside over my duties. With the mobilization tomorrow I have a lot to do. I'll get right to resharpening my soul magic, it looks like we're going to need it. I'm will take this pony down." She walked over to the bed, enveloping Jason in her aura briefly. "That should help the pain when he wakes up, hopefully." With that she left Scoots, Lyra and Dash to their own devices. Dash watched a drop of blood pool at the end of Jason's sheared off hoof before it fell to the ground, adding to the small pool of blood already there. She got up and grabbed a rag from the counter, wrapping it around his hoof in place of the soaked bandages. A tear came to her eye as she watched the rag itself start to taint red. She stared at it for a second longer before turning and smashing a hoof into the wall, cracking a tile.
"Fuck!" She moved down a tile, breaking that one also. She drew her arm back again, flinching when something stopped it from moving forward. She turned to see that Lyra had put a hoof around her arm, keeping her from striking the wall.
"Dash, you aren't helping Jason by breaking his hospital room!" Dash's arm went limp, her anger quickly converting itself into frustration as a few tears started streaming down her cheeks.
"It's just not fair! We went through all of the stuff in Canterlot and here we are again, one of us is almost dead! Jason hasn't even gone so far as to complain about it! What kind of a welcome is this for him?! It should have been better, we should have been able to relax here! Do you know what some ponies did when I went by with Jason like this? They laughed, they smiled, they were glad he looked like he was out of the picture." She quieted down, most of her anger spent. "I couldn't care less about their thoughts towards me, but how could they still think of him as a traitor, even now?"
Lyra was quiet, the wetness in her eyes evidence that she agreed. "I don't know, Dash." They both lapsed into silence, lost in their own thoughts. Lyra finally spoke up, laying a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "I know how you feel, at least partially. My mother got really sick before she died, I just hated knowing that I couldn't do anything to help her." She turned her head away, looking instead at the floor.
"Yeah, I should be happy that there's something I can actually do." She sighed. "I can't stay in here. I gotta go take a walk. Will you watch him while I'm gone? It'll only be a few minutes."
"Of course. I'll try to, love him or something?"
"Yeah, just think about how he's a good friend or whatever. Good emotions towards him, I think. He never really talked about anything in that much depth." Lyra nodded, moving her chair over to Jason's bedside. "Scoots, you okay?" The filly looked up and nodded, gazing over at Jason with misty eyes. "I--I'm sorry Dash."
"Sorry for what?"
"Being so useless through all of this."
"Scoots, you're anything but useless, you should know that by now." Dash ran a hoof through her mane. "I would've been an emotional wreck right now if I didn't have you around. Even if worse comes to worse, we still have each other." She drew the kid into a hug, holding her tightly. Scoots really shouldn't have to go through all this, especially not at her age. After a few moments Dash let go and sighed, moving to leave. "I'll be back in a few, just as soon as I get some fresh air."
She walked out the door and through the hallway, moving past the secretary and out the front doors. She sighed, realizing just how little medical care Jason had received. That wasn't entirely surprising, they couldn't assume that changelings would react the same to most treatments.
It also wasn't surprising that she had come out here with no further plan of action. On a whim she turned and walked down the street, trying to clear her mind. She wnated to be near Jason as much as she could, but at the same time she couldn't bear to see him like that, with the injuries from the torturing she could have kept from happening staring her in the face. She was probably just being selfish, actually.
The thought hit her like a load of bricks as she continued to walk down the street. What if she wasn't there when he woke up? Maybe he wouldn't care, but she knew she would. She turned resolutely, taking a big gulp of air. She started to trot back, stopping for a moment to look at a familiar bush. She shook her head and started to trot again. Familiar bush? What?
Ooooh. She turned and parted the leaves, coming in contact with the cool metal of the device. She hurriedly picked it and it's little brethren up, and stuck them through some holes on her belt. She galloped back, feeling slightly renewed, and slowed to a trot when she entered the hospital. She calmly trotted back into Jason's hospital room, finding it in much the same way as she left it.
"Do you feel better Dash?" Lyra asked, turning away from the bed.
"Better, still not good in any sense of the word. I feel like I could sleep for three days straight."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." She sighed, turning her gaze back to Jason. "I looked him over a little more while you were gone, cuz I had a little medical training from my mom way back when, and it looks like the bleeding's starting to stop, and as far as I can tell from this stuff he's at least kind of stable."
"What do you mean, kind of?"
"He's a changeling, I have no idea for sure." She hinted at a smile. "At least things are looking better."
"Lyra, this may sound cold, but I actually want to know, why do you care about Jason? Why do you trust him?"
"Well, back in Canterlot."
"I know about that, but that still sounds like a longshot, I mean--"
"Dash, I--I just don't want to talk about it." That threw her for a loop, what could Lyra possibly care about telling her? She sighed, she could've just taken the trust towards Jason as a given, but of course she had to pry. Oh well, there were more important things to worry about. She touched a hoof to Jason's foreleg, flinching as a plate of it moved. She sat down on the bed, rolling over onto her side a couple seconds later.
She looked at Jason's face, realizing she had really just avoided it, she wasn't sure why, if it was some sort of avoidance of guilt or what. His brow was covered by a bandage as well as his cheek, the one she had carelessly slapped earlier to try to keep him conscious, and the swelling around his eye seemed to have shrunk. His face held a guise of ironic serenity, even through all of that.
This armor was getting hot. It was already hot, but this was starting to get ridiculous. She quickly stripped it off, stacking it in the corner of the room. She laid the knives on top and leaned the---thing against the wall before walking back to the bed and resuming her previous position near the foot of the bed.
What a morning. And it was only ten something. She could feel her eyelids drooping, watching as Lyra seemed to share her fatigue, although she couldn't be sure why. Just a little nap, then she'd hopefully feel better. Although, she'd said that the last time before she'd had that dream. Ugh, that dream. Her thoughts started to become more dispersed before they stopped entirely and she slipped into a light slumber.
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And that was just the beginning, Dash mused, trying to find something to occupy herself with besides endlessly looking over Jason's injuries. At least he looked a lot better than yesterday, but that wasn't exactly saying much. She carefully ran a hoof over part of his un-bandaged chest, finding the cracks much less ragged. When the doctors came in today, though, they said something about a coma, that he may heal but never actually come back. That depressed her more than the idea of simply losing him.
There he was, possibly in an endless nap, he'd be totally uninjured in a few days, and yet she might never get him back. Not his personality or soul, anyway, just his body. She'd made it perfectly clear to him that whatever form he was in, she'd always love him, changeling or otherwise. That was starting to lose it's charm with the idea that his changeling shell could figuratively become a husk of what he used to be.
She sighed, trying to think optimistically. It wasn't easy; apparently she could be quite the pessimist at times. The doctors had thought that he wouldn't make it through the night, and they were obviously wrong about that. But they were doctors, how often could she be right?
Oh well, what was she supposed to do anyway? There was nopony here, they'd all visited yesterday, besides Lyra. She'd brought by a few flowers this morning, although she still wondered why exactly the mare trusted Jason so easily. Funny how she was musing about the uneventfulness of this morning when she had all the time in the world to recall yesterday afternoon.
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Dash awoke from a hoof that was tapping pretty impatiently on her shoulder. In a brief moment of over-optimism she opened her eyes and turned them to Jason, only to be disappointed by the same facial expression he'd had since last time. As it turned out, Lyra had been the one tapping her, and was now pointing a hoof towards the door. Dash looked over, ears pining back when she noticed who was at the door. She resisted the urge to yawn, instead continuing her death stare.
Twilight and Applejack were at the door, the former shifting uncomfortably on her hooves, looking anywhere but into Dash's eyes. Applejack was more subtly nervous, her avoidance less obvious.
Dash finally broke the silence. "Well, you got what you wanted, are you here to celebrate? Finish the job maybe?" She propped herself up into a better fighting position. Twilight took a step back, what little resolve she had crumbling. Applejack did the opposite, slightly surprising Dash as she approached the bedside.
"Listen, Sugarcube,"
"Why should I? You never listened to him, and since he can feel your emotions I know he knew you didn't trust him. You didn't even listen to me, and I'm supposedly your friend..." She trailed off, realizing the pointlessness of arguing. If they felt any guilt then good, but chances are they saw nothing wrong with their point of view.
"You're right." Twilight said from the door. Dash looked over at her, expecting some sort of turnaround, or at least a but. "We couldn't listen, we should've seen that he wasn't just a changeling, but--but we couldn't--I couldn't, and I'm sorry. You guys trusted me tons of times, I should have been able to at least reciprocate the action."
"Sugarcube, I know it's too late for apologies, and I don't expect you to accept mine, but ah'm sorry fer causin' this ta happen. Ah could've trusted ya, hay, we all could've, but Ah didn't and now Jason's over there," She sighed, her breath sounding slightly ragged, "Looking like that. And it's at least partially mah fault." Dash opened her mouth to speak before Applejack cut her off. "Ah'm not finished. Ah should've seen him as a pony, I should've been optimistic. If he did all you say he did, well, I should be thanking him."
Then she surprised Dash further by coming over and hugging her. She wasn't sure whether to be annoyed that they had only figured this out when he was on death's door. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and get her thoughts straight, although she wasn't sure why, exactly, she was getting so worked up. Things were really starting to get to her, she wasn't thinking right. Finally, she turned to her friends, keeping a neutral expression.
"You know it wasn't your fault that this happened, not really. You shouldn't be apologizing to me anyway, Jason's the one you wronged." Applejack seemed slightly put off, which was unsurprising. Considering how stubborn she was, Dash doubted that she really wanted to admit that she'd been wrong to him. Although she'd have to grill Jason afterwords on whether he thought they were being serious. Twilight was much less of an issue, she wasn't stubborn, she just needed information to back up claims. That wasn't too much to ask, and there was definitely enough information to go around, she felt.
"Dash," Twilight started, drawing her out of her thoughts. "Do you really love Jason, or were you just saying that to further your argument? I know I shouldn't really be the one asking questions, but..." Dash sighed, she knew it'd come up eventually. There was another reason she'd left the library after she'd slipped up and said that, she didn't want to know what they'd think. As much as she wanted to think she wouldn't care what they said, she knew she still would, somewhere deep down.
"Yeah, I do." Applejack bit her lip. "And I don't want any grief about it. Maybe if either of you ever got to know him you'd understand." She swiveled her head back towards Jason, feeling a wave of grief and fear wash over her as her thoughts wandered again, this time more than they usually did. She thought about Scoots, she thought about having a foal of her own, if that could even work. If Jason would even be alive for that. Appearance wise, she wasn't sure if it would take after Jason. It was just another pipe dream anyway, like some peace and quiet in Ponyville turned out to be. She was jolted out of her thoughts by a hoof swinging in front of her face.
"I couldn't care less, Dash." Twilight said, shaking her head. "You'll always be my friend."
"Yeah, but I know what you would think about it, the conversations you'd have behind my back. You'd probably trust Jason even less, and just assume that he manipulated me." Twilight seemed to be at a loss for words. "That's the problem with you ponies, you let your fear for changelings as a whole affect how you act towards an individual."
Lyra spoke up for the first time during the argument, slightly startling everypony else in the room besides Scoots, who had been silently watching the whole time. "Another changeling saved me during the raid on Canterlot. It definitely wasn't Jason, but it was still on my side. I mean, he was constantly having arguments with itself before it finally pulled itself together long enough to tell a group of passing changelings that the house I was in was clear of ponies." She paused. "I'd probably be dead if it weren't for that changeling." They all became silent, the only noise Jason's ragged breathing, quickly joined by Twilight's.
"I--I'm so sorry Dash." A few tears fell from her face, plopping onto the floor. "I know I don't deserve my apology to be accepted, but I can't be any more sincere." Dash got off of the bed, throwing her hooves around Twilight.
"I accept your apology. You weren't all that out of line to doubt him, I just wish you'd come around sooner. It's not my apology you should be worrying about. I'll always be your friend." She patted Twilight on the back for a few minutes, waiting for her to calm down. After a few minutes she did, and extracted herself from the hug, smiling back at Dash. Dash tried to force a smile that probably came off as more of a grimace.
"I hope he gets better Dash. I wish I could do something more."
"You've done enough. I have one less thing to worry about now. Thanks you two." They smiled weakly and moved to leave before Twilight noticed the thing in the corner.
"What's that Dash?"
"I think it's something from Jason's home country, I was going to ask him about it if-- when he wakes up." Twilight nodded and they bid their final goodbyes before Dash turned back to the bed, climbing back towards her previous position. She pushed her back up against Jason, shivering when she found out how cold he was. She jumped up from the bed again, grabbing a blanket from the corner and tossing it over him. She sighed and resumed her place on the bed, leaning against Jason's side through the blanket. She sighed, wishing she was able to put an arm around him without causing him pain. Maybe he couldn't feel it, but she didn't want to take the chance that he could. As usual, more waiting, more time for her thoughts to wander. No surprise there.
"Hey Dash?" She looked up to see that Lyra had evidently gotten bored of waiting as well.
"What?"
"You know about where Jason comes from, right?"
"Yeah?" What did Jason tell her, exactly?
"Well, I found this thing," She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a rectangular prism, parially covered in glossy pictures. "And it has humans on it. But it's not a book, so I figured it must be from Jason's country, but he said that humans probably didn't still exist, so how did they make this?" Oh, Great.
"Well, you see--"
"I want the truth Dash, I know you've been keeping something from the rest of us." She narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah, but--"
"Dash." Dash sighed. She might as well tell her, but how long could it be until more ponies found stuff out? All it had taken was for Lyra to find this box and connect a few dots.
"Can I see the thing?" Lyra nodded and passed it over. Dash turned it over in her hoof, reading a few words of a larger font, 'The Hurt Locker'. She couldn't figure out what that meant, it was probably just another reference she wouldn't understand. There were several men, at least she assumed they were men, holding things that kinda looked like the other thing in the corner. All of them were wearing camouflage, and some dirt was flying into the air as a guy in a giant suit ran away. Jason had made her that camouflaged gillie suit to stay hidden in war, maybe these were for the same reason. She looked at the humans, trying to figure out why one of them looked horribly burned compared to the other pale ones. She'd never actually seen a human before, just a couple drawings from Jason and history books. She hoofed the thing back to Lyra.
"I have no idea what that is, it's just a box with pictures on it, I mean-"
Click
"Hey, there's stuff inside, like a miniature shiny record thing!" Lyra exclaimed.
"Oh, Jason mentioned those, they're called DVPs, I think."
"Okay, fine, but let's hear Jason's story here Dash. The truth." She closed the case up and set it aside.
"Fine. He said he used to be a human, like one of those there, and then he was in a self propelled vehicle crash, and when he should've died he ended up here. That's what he said anyway." She sighed. "Listen, though, I don't want that many ponies to know. Besides the fact that they wouldn't believe me, they'd probably just use that as another reason to alienate him." She really didn't know that much about his history besides vague descriptions. She'd have to ask about that.
"Jason's a human?!?!"
"That's what you took from that? Yeah, keep it down though." She moved a hoof in a shushing motion.
"Wow, then that means that humans still exist! This is so cool! Where did he actually come from?"
"Well he didn't really recognize any of the stars here, and his world it totally explored. I think he came from a different planet called earth, I mean this is earth too, but--whatever. The general idea is pretty far fetched though, and I still have no idea why he ended up as a changeling."
"Yeah, I don't know either. You mind if I ask him some questions when he wakes up?"
"So long as you keep this a secret."
"Don't worry, I hear what you're saying. You should tell them before they find out, they might take measures to make sure you're safe or something. You may not have seen it, but with Jason they thought they had your best interest in mind. That's worth something at least."
"You're right..." Maybe she should've tried harder to see things from her friends' side. Another pang of remorse rushed through her.
"Well I guess I'll leave you to it."
"You're leaving?"
"I'm really sorry Dash, but the dinner rush is coming, Bon Bon'll kill me if I'm not there. She said something about visiting later, so you shouldn't be alone."
Dash groaned, her depressing thoughts beginning to sneak up on her again in the absence of a distraction. "I understand, see you later." Lyra waved and left the room.
"Dash?"
"You're still here Scoots?"
"Yeah, I just kinda slept through most of the day apparently. You mind if I go find Sweetie Belle and Applebloom? They're probably pretty worried if they've heard anything. I'll come visit if I find them."
"You don't have to Squirt." She forced a smile. "You don't need to worry, just go have fun."
The orange filly opened her mouth to debate Dash's statement before re-closing her mouth. Finally she broke the silence. "I love you Dash." Dash's smile suddenly became sincere.
"I love you too Scoots, now go, stop worrying. It's not good for you."
"Bye Dash."
"Bye." Strangely, she didn't feel alone in the room after the last of her company left. She lazed off into a wakeful slumber where time had no meaning. She was disturbed a few hours, maybe only minutes later by a couple of Doctors that had come in to do their thing. They took off the old bandages, cleaning the wounds before replacing them with new ones. Dash felt a wave of actual, founded hope rush over her when his chitin came into view. The cracks were no longer bleeding, and seemed to be forming the beginnings of healing.
What happened in there? She'd been too preoccupied with guilt and the other ponies before to ask, but considering how beat up he was, well, she was surprised he even could get that beat up. The pony had said he had gotten what he wanted, he'd said that he'd be back. What is it he wanted though? Knowledge? No, they couldn't really do that much, all his stuff was too advanced. But what would they want then? Wait, what if they didn't know he knew anything, what if he was just a changeling to them? That would explain a lot.
"Jason," she started, running a hoof across his face now that the doctors had left. "Why did they do this to you?" A doctor tapped her on the shoulder, tapping on a clipboard.
"We ran a few quick tests, and in terms of the ones that came back with plausible results, compiled with the records of the injuries he came in here with, I have some bad news." Dash swiveled her head over slowly, waiting for him to continue. "With the injuries to his head and the swelling we could detect, he may not make it through the night. After that he could well be stuck in a coma." Dash felt several emotions plow into her. Another wave of grief, but above that anger, anger at herself for thinking it'd be over that easily, angry at the doctor for waiting this long to tell her.
After at least a minute, she managed to squeak out, "What're the chances he makes it?"
The doctor sighed. "I don't know in the slightest. I wish I did. If a pony had sustained the same injuries and made it to this point I'd say fifty-fifty or so, but like I said I'm just telling you what I know." He laid a hoof on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." She felt tears of frustration come to her eyes, and she latched onto the doctor on impulse, feeling him struggle for a few seconds before patting her on the back awkwardly. She finally became aware of herself and let go, moving back to the bed and hearing the door close behind her.
She threw an arm around Jason on the bed and let her tears run silently down the side of her face into the bed. Time started to stretch on into oblivion again until she was finally brought back out by the noise of the door opening again and the sound of a gasp. Dash peered up from the bed, noticing that Bon Bon had come by like Lyra said she would.
"Lyra said he looked bad, but this?"
"Yeah." She didn't really have much else to say. They stayed there in silence for a while until Bon Bon trotted over to a side table, putting a few roses in a vase.
"I never really thanked him for all he did. I wish we could've seen this coming." She stood for a few more minutes in silence, head hung, before walking back to the door. "I don't know how you bear to stay around him all this time Dash, I could never bear the stress." She opened the door and left, returning to the dinner rush, she assumed. She returned to her dozing, at some point managing to get to sleep.
__________________________________________________________
Dash swept the rag over the thing in the corner again, inspecting the metal to make sure it was spotless. She had to say, this was definitely more interesting then remembering what had happened yesterday. She dipped the rag in a cup of water and went back to scrubbing, working in little circles. She took the rag away, admiring her own distorted reflection. She got off the bed to get some water, watching as the thing fell off and hit her hoof with the blunt end. She hissed in pain, sticking the hoof into her mouth as her eyes watered. Oh, man that hurt.
"Ow..." Somepony said. Exactly! At least somepony understands how much getting hit in the side of the hoof---
She looked over towards the bed, looking straight into Jason's open eye. A wight of worry immediately vanished off her shoulders. He tried to smile, frowning when he heard a cracking noise.
"Welcome back to the world of the living Jason." She said, trotting over and giving him a hug as a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.
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AND HE'S ALIVE!
Lol she didn't realize it was her and him in the room until she went on a rant
I was going a little crazy without anything good to read
But then you posted this.
yay no need for another inception thing with jason!
as long as jason has somepony at his side thaqt loves him he will always pull through
RISE FROM YOU GRAVE
Fuck, it's a gun
A fucking sniper rifle
SQUEE!
Close but no cigar Sheila!
HE LIVES!!!
MOAR
Wonderful and better a day late then a day ruined.
are we going to see Chrysalis anytime in this story
2076717
Technically, this story ends in a few chapters, in the sequel, maybe. I can't completely plan ahead that far, but it's possible. I've got plans in the works.
Interesting chapter.
"Jason's a human?!?!"
So, so close there!
2076832did you just relize he was human
2076842
Yes, but... Nevermind.
It was a reference to JasonTheHuman.
It's going to take a hell of a lot moar to kill jason he's one tough changling. ^.=.^
2076884
Hah. Anthropology was epic. (Still want a sequel though)
2077026
Sequel... Yes.
[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndOpdTOHLPs]
Bitch please, those assholes got nothin on this changeling.
It bugs me to think how the rest of the Mane 6 were judgmental with Jason, didn't they learn their lesson after the Zecora incident?
All of Dash's emotions in this chapter
cdn.derpiboo.ru/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDIvMDMvMTFfNTFfMDBfMTA5XzIzMjI2Ml9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfcmFpbmJvd19kYXNoX2FuaW1hdGVkX2NyeWluZ19zYWRfc21pbGVfaGFwcHlfYW5ncnlfc3VwZXJfc3BlZWR5X2NpZGVyX3NxdWVlenlfNjAwMC5naWYuZ2lmIl1d/232262__safe_rainbow-dash_animated_crying_sad_smile_happy_angry_super-speedy-cider-squeezy-6000_mood-swing.gif.GIF
Dash may have had a vision of a future event
Jason comes back from the coma finally
Evil guy has been body jumping for 1000+ years I would assume
DVDs
I think it would be interesting if Scoots accidently actually out does a griffon general in troop movements due her playing with it to pass time and then accidently bumping the button to send. Thus causing her to get her cutie mark.
You make me wish I could fav this story again
2077811
That would require dropping their idiot-balls. Considering how ramped-up the racism (Well, speciesism) is in this story, I'm surprised we haven't heard of Zecora being lynched...
This story makes Equestria about as pleasant and enlightened as some third-world hellhole. At least there, when people see a very recognizable and decorated war hero, decked out in arms and armor, spattered in blood, and running down the street carrying a wounded friend, the response isn't going to be to find amusement and antagonize that person. Did somebody air-drop idiot-balls all over Ponyville?
It's a gun isn't it?
RD found a gun
Is it an M9? Or a 44* Magnum?
2083730
Yeah, it's kinda more of a habit than a conscious decision. Thanks for pointing that out though.
Twilight: "We couldn't listen, we should've seen that he wasn't just a changeling, but--but we couldn't--I couldn't, and I'm sorry. You guys trusted me tons of times, I should have been able to at least reciprocate the action."
1) Celestia tricked Twilight by not believing her warnings about Nightmare Moon.
2 ) Discord turn Twilight friends again her.
3 ) On lesson Zero no one took Twilight worries until it was too late.
4 ) On the Wedding no one believed her and all of her friends, brother, mentor hurt her and left, not believing her at all.
So yea, I thing Twilight friends and loved ones are not really so perfect as she see them.
Also for Lyra, I must say argument that she would die when changeling invaded is invalid, changelings did not wanted to kill they food source, and if they tried, there would be hundreds of deaths before they got repeled.
And finally, Alicorn >>>>> Unicorn, I am surprised that you put a Unicorn as main villain with some story about him using soul magic what forced Luna to kill him, please do not tell me it will be another OP or Immortal Unicorn.
We already have Shinning Armor totally OP ( one pony army, can shield entire city form invasion for weeks, even Cadance hardly hold up her shield for days ), Sombra who for some unknown reason become immortal and banished entire empire while fighting again 2 Alicorns.
So yea, even with explanation why Luna failed to capture main villain, I still find Alicorns far underpowered in this story, and only thing I hope now for is that main villain wont be some Unicorn who got stronger then Nightmare Moon, who will beat Luna in duel or something like that.
As for Jason, he and RainbowDash would do better to move to Canterlot, at last in there they are both Big Bosses, being in Ponyvile does not seems to work to well.
2076904
He is a healer changeling powered up by love, and the only one who was not underpowered in this story, so yea, he is tough.
'The Hurt Locker' lol funny thing I buy a new and wend I open their was no dice I went back got any one and their was no disc and had it rapper on it.
I'm should be I
Late to be pointing out errors but whatever
And theres this
misspelled wanted
Only errors ive seen and as per your request in authors notes i kept most of the context surrounding them
It should be just I not I'm due to to the fact she is just doing something on her own I'm means I am which doesnt fit the context of this paragraph
I hope this helps
2078847
Your comment reminds me: Why the fuck didn't they pull up that letter and pull in a favor from Celestia, whose city he literally saved. I bet Celly would flip the world over to save him after the injustice.
The fact that Rainbow just accepted Twilight and AJ's apologies just like that bugs me, but since the established Equestria is one where everyone just seem to forgive one another too quickly (still, here's hoping that apology accepted =/= we're still friends), it's in line with the built world. What really bothered me was the thing about how he's a decorated war hero and they still scoffed at him for being a changeling.
Jason should've gotten tired at one point and move out to Canterlot, along with Dash. The Canterlot press will jump on the opportunity to do journalistic on their wayward saviour, and why he's moving there. The revenge will be as sweet as it is swift and well-deserved. All it takes is Jason spitting one sentence on how he wasn't accepted there, and the entire town will crumble from the total drop in outside business. No one wants to be associated with a town that shunned a national hero, changeling or otherwise. Especially with times of war came the needs of propaganda and scapegoating. Ponyville will crumble. It HAS to crumble.
10780803
When I think it comes to Jason being a war hero but being treated terribly I think it could be like when back during the Vietnam war some of the soldiers that came back were treated like that either because of a lot people being pro peace and against the war or them blaming the veterans coming back for all of the war crimes and messed up stuff that happened. Though yes this is a way of real world topic but it is sort of similar to Jason's situation but instead it's more of a race thing which not to say that different races didn't fight in the war but with all of the racism and hate there was back then it would be most likely. also don't forget that in the first Rambo movie he had a break down over all of the stuff he had to put up with after he returned.