Spelunking
Spelunking
Jason sat atop the small hill, looking down on the cave in annoyance. "Nobody go inside!!" He yelled. "Wait until I give the go ahead!!" A few of the ponies from his group raced past down the hill, converging with the rest of the ponies just outside the entrance, which was stuck into the side of a hill.
Jason put his hooves to his forehead, moving them in circles as a halfhearted attempt to allay some of his stress. Dash pulled one of his hooves away, drawing his attention before she leaned over to kiss him.
"We're still alive, right?" She asked, putting an arm behind his back and moving it around comfortingly. "Things could've gone worse."
"I'm sure things could always go worse." He replied, caressing her cheek lovingly. "But I guess as long as you're still here the outcomes will always be bearable."
"Oh, how sweet." She giggled and gave him a peck on the end of the muzzle before resting her cheek against his as she wrapped her arms more tightly against him.
A silence drew on, before Jason eventually broke the white noise of crinkling foliage and cracking branches. "Hey, I guess this sounds a little weird, but how warm do ponies run?" She stared at him. "What's your body temperature? You're always saying how I'm such a joy to cuddle with at night and all that."
"Oh, it's somewhere around a hundred degrees. Pegasi tend to be a little colder, like ninety nine. What about humans?"
"Ninety eight point six degrees. Mine was like ninety six, and I'll never really know why. It kinda seems like too large of a gap."
"Ick, you would've been all cold and corpse-like."
"I guess now I know where your loyalties lie, Dash. I suppose I better never get cold with you around to feel it."
"You'd probably have to get really cold for that to--"
"Sir?" A pony said nearby. Jason groaned and extracted himself from Dash's hug to turn his attention to the pony, noticing that Dash's face had become considerably darker, enough to be visible in the low light.
"Yeah, what?" He asked, a little annoyed that the pony had interrupted.
The soldier took a moment to regain his composure before he answered. "What's the plan for the rest of the griffins, sir?"
"I dunno, it's a cave. We'll send what's left of Team Green Bean in there," he sighed, "And we'll see how it goes."
"That's it?" The pony asked, shoving a hoof into his mouth immediately after his comment slipped.
"Why, you have a better idea? Because the way I see it, if we don't know what we're walking into it'd probably be a good idea to send in the best troops we have, don't you think? It's not easy to take one of us out, let alone all of us. And with more ponies all we'd do is ensure a larger number of casualties."
"Yeah, sorry sir."
"Okay, good. Go spread that to the other members, make sure they gather out in front of the cave in a group away from the other ponies." The pony nodded and started to leave.
"Wait a second." Dash said, causing the pony to stop almost immediately, freezing in the same position as he turned his head to look back over. "Are you new here?" She inquired.
"N-no, I've been here s-since the beginning, left from Canterlot on m-mobilization day."
"Okay, so what rumors are passing around about us? Or Jason, for that matter?"
"Um, well..." He paused. "Do you want to hear the plausible ones or the ones that are completely crazy?"
"Just-- all of them, I guess."
"They think that you got all the scars from torture, but I told them that--"
"That's true, actually." Jason said, staring at the ground. "Well, not all of the scars, but most of them for sure."
The pony looked a little slack-jawed before he continued to speak. "And some of them kinda think that you're just using her." He pointed to Dash and shut his eyes tightly, covering his face with his free hoof and expecting that he would attack the pony out of rage.
Jason sighed. "I knew this would happen." He muttered.
"Well what does it matter, anyway?!" Dash said, raising her voice in annoyance. "Their opinions don't mean anything to me, I know that they're not true!"
"But this isn't a question of how we feel, Dash. We need good public opinion to hold power around here, it's not like I can rule by fear or slap ponies with gloves, all I've got is whatever they decide to like about my personality and the awe they draw from me fighting! But if they all think I'm just another changeling then why would they follow my orders?"
"Why wouldn't they? If Shining trusts you then there'd be no reason to distrust one of his subordinates."
"Some ponies just don't like him, he was the drill sergeant for a while, and that's never going to win you any points, no matter who you are. As far as I can tell Blueblood hates Shining, considering how they go at it sometimes."
"Well what do you really expect from Blueblood?"
"I dunno, he's a soldier, I guess I expected some big change."
"Why would you do that? You had to expect that he wouldn't turn out all that well."
"Well you forget that I never met the guy, at least not before like, a week ago."
"So can I go now?" The pony asked. "Sir." He quickly added.
"What other things do they think?" Jason asked, ignoring the pony's clear nervousness and desire to leave the situation.
"They made up all these legends of where you came from, and ignoring the weird ones, some of them thought you came from the hive and broke free, with or without a battle, but a few others said that there was no way you were changeling hive material. They said that you acted too much like a pony, and given the fact that you were only around one mare," he gestured to Dash again, "clearly didn't seem to care about getting love as much as a changeling would."
That explained why Evening Glory was flirting with every pony she passed that day. She'd said she was 'getting a lay for the land,' but she just seemed blatantly obvious to Jason. Most of the ponies didn't seem to mind though, and she had pointed out a few soldiers as the trio did various things that she said gave too much love to be 'just some stallion.'
He chuckled, the most he could do was notice fairly large emotional changes and generalities about the flow of love. And yet, as far as he could remember things were appearing to become more focused the longer he was here, and he found himself more sensitive to other ponies' feelings. Of course, that seemed to go a little bit in hand with the amount of love between him and another pony. He had a hard time deciphering the technicalities of a random pony's emotions more than he did Dash. Her's had become second nature within a month, and they had just become another outflow of information that he listened in on, just like he heard her voice.
The thing about emotions was that they had what almost seemed like a smell, although a feeling could be more accurate. It's not like he felt her emotions as she did, he knew they didn't belong to him. It's not like she could hide her feelings from him either, and he was always the first to know when she was sad or depressed. That was all well and good, he could easily go over and ask her what was wrong or comfort her, but times when he couldn't were the worst, it was like watching someone commit a crime and not being able to call the police.
He sighed, pulling his hoof tighter around her shoulders. "Anything else?" He asked, watching as the pony took on a thoughtful look.
"There were some ponies with toted up stories of you two ripping griffins apart and things like that, but those rumors get attached to a lot of ponies anyway. But I guess they made a few references to having some futuristic weapons and technology, being responsible for the use of steel..."
"Would you believe me if I told you that that rumor was also true?" Dash asked, while Jason rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"Where'd you get the-- You know what? I don't need to know, as long as you're at least telling the truth about all this."
"I am." Dash replied. The pony nodded and turned to leave.
"Oh, they said that you don't sleep, that true?"
"No, that's a false one. I'd like to sleep more, but this mare here..." He elbowed her in the side and she blushed, apparently at the slightly weirded out face the pony was making. "Remember to get Team Green Bean together," He reminded.
"Sir yes sir!" The pony replied, saluting Jason before he trotted away.
Jason waited until the pony was out of earshot before turning back to Dash. "So, we should probably get this whole thing rolling, as much as I don't want to fight in a cave, we should get in there before they get too dug in."
"I'm not really sure how dug in you can get when it comes to a cave. Not in ten minutes, at least."
"Yeah, well I don't really want to take the chance that the griffins suddenly become really strategic."
"Not like there's much risk in that..." Dash replied, slowly getting up and stretching out. She started making her way down the hill, tapping at the armor hidden under the ghillie suit and checking that it had stayed in place. Jason followed behind her, quickly picking out the small group of ponies that was forming below. He let out a sigh of relief as another few ponies joined the group, completing his half of the team.
As cold as it was, he'd much rather have had the other half of the team lose a member, mostly because he didn't actually know any of those ponies the way he knew his own team members, and it only got harder to see one of them get struck down the longer they were together.
Jason stiffened up as his mind overloaded under another stupid hive mind attack, leaving him on his face on the ground. He pulled himself up, coming eye to eye with Dash, who had apparently noticed and come over to try to help.
"What was that?" She whispered, looking back at the group, who seemed more concerned than amused.
"Fucking Chrysalis and her stupid hivemind." He replied, dusting himself off and somehow managing to catch his hoof on his horn. He grunted and let a few swear words slip as the pointy bone poked at the unarmored tissue inside one of the hoof-holes, leaving a bead of blood as he pulled his hoof away. Jason sighed and walked over to the ponies, waving off any expressions of concern they had for him.
One thing was for sure, he jokingly thought as he looked over the group, he liked being taller than most of the ponies around here. Tank was one of the few stallions that matched him in height, although he couldn't even come close in strength. But hey, towering over some of the mares could be fun sometimes. Towering being a relative word, they were all still pretty miniature, as far as he could tell. Not like it mattered when they were all scaled though, he supposed.
"So, everyone's here, right?" There were a few confused murmurs before one of them finally spoke up, Hunter as far as he could tell from the voice.
"We're missing Archer!" He yelled out, making one of the nearby ponies from the newer team flinch.
"He's not coming." Jason said, looking downwards.
"You don't mean..." He replied, his sentence cutting off in a ragged breath.
"Killed in action." Dash completed, sighing as she remembered Archer's bloodied body, completely healed, and yet... She heard stomping and looked back up to see that Hunter had moved a fair distance away to the rock cliff, and was punching at the wall, screaming out profanities that were neither from Jason or any part of Equestrial language she'd ever heard before.
Hunter cooled down after a while and walked back cooly, his face streaked with tears. Jason'd known the two to be friends, and he hated to watch the spectacle, especially with the availability of emotions he couldn't really ignore.
"Hey Dash," Jason started in an attempt to lighten the mood just a little. "Team members are never killed, they're just missing in action." He saw a few of the members perk up a little at the pirated phrase, and decided to push his speech. "When we started this team, it was composed of only the best ponies with the express mission to destroy the last of the griffin resistance in Canterlot. But it's long since grown. You all stayed on the team because you wanted to make a difference here, use your skill in fighting for the good of Equestria. So why are we mourning the loss of a soldier who fought and died for a cause he believed in? I'm not saying you shouldn't be sorry, but he came in here a soldier, fully expecting to be put through mission after rigorous mission." He paused, looking over the group.
"But like the rest of us, he got through each one and made himself one of the best. His death may have been unfair, it may have come too early, but we can remember him as the great soldier he became, our friend, our ally." He took a ragged breath. "I know that we know each other's real names by now, but to me, he'll always be Archer, just like Potato will always be Potato and Plasma will always be Plasma. I guess what I'm trying to say is, mourn the loss, but don't forget the stallion that Archer was. And just like the others, he'll always be irreplaceable."
There was a respectful tapping of hooves as he finished his speech, and he couldn't help but feel that same sense of loss he had felt the moment Archer's pulse had stopped. Not watered down, hardly less vivid then when he had first gone through the experience.
"Now if everyone's ready, let's get this stupid cave clear so we can go relax. Alright?"
"Sir yes sir!" Came the uncharacteristically quiet reply. Not that he could really blame them, though.
"Good, someone get a couple torches and we can get started." A pony ran off, and Jason moved the group over to the mouth of the cave. The moon had moved overhead, it's third-quarter light illuminating the clearing. But even with his night vision, it was still hard to see into the cave effectively. That was probably because of the light differential that he had before entering, but it still kinda wigged him out.
Jason pulled his AUG off his back and up to his face, looking through the scope and into the cave. A couple bats flew through, illuminated by the thermal vision. But no griffins, at least as far as he could see. That wasn't exactly good, Jason didn't want to go in there and get lost.
"Someone get something we can make a trail out of!" He said, pulling the scope back to his eye and peering through again. The pony that he sent to get torches came back with several unlit torches and a few spools of thread.
"I brought string to make a trail," the pony said, "I figured we'd need it."
"Well speak of the devil," Jason replied, "I just asked for some." He grabbed one of the spools and pulled some of the string off to look it over. It was almost like nylon, but that couldn't be true, they didn't have petroleum here, let alone the technology to make by-products of the stuff.
"So we're good to go?" Dash asked, shifting nervously on her hooves.
"Yeah, just let me tie this to something." He walked over to a tree that had somehow managed to grow out of the side of the cliff, and tied the string around its trunk. Jason gave it a pull before handing the spool off to some other pony. "Okay, if there's nothing else that needs doing, let's light these things and get going."
"Oh, I knew I forgot something, I'll be right back with a lit one."
"It's okay, I'll just light them." He received a few stares, and he quickly pulled back a sleeve of his ghillie suit, trying to judge how close he could come to the fabric without the risk of fire. He decided on just the end of his hoof, and held it up to the end of the torch before lighting it on fire. There was a slight gasp as he took the torch in his magic and lit the other ones.
"So, we'll just go in there and take them out?"
"I guess so, it's not like we can bomb them or anything."
She giggled. "It's not like you could in any circumstance."
"Oh, how wrong you are. We had bombs that would go into the ground and explode when they found an underground opening. We called them bunker busters."
"Do you have something for every situation?"
"I dunno, probably. Always need to be prepared!" He chuckled and started into the cave, the clicking and clacking of hooves on stone reverberating down the passage as the team followed. It appeared to be a long cave, descending slowly into the gloom. It was a depressing passage, frankly, and he was starting to get the same feeling he did in the Canterlot sewers. He didn't really feel afraid though, so why did he always end up shivering?
"Getting cold, Jason?" Dash asked, her face flickering in the light.
"How'd you figure that out so quickly?"
"Well you're walking kinda stiffly, for one thing." She replied, moving herself over and leaning against his form. "And you're not trying to crack bad jokes."
"Do you want me to say a bunch of bad jokes?" He asked, looking over at her and chuckling.
She shrugged. "Fine by me."
"Well great, now I have to think of something that you have here, and that doesn't make me look like a serial killer."
"You have kinda killed upwards of fifty griffins." She reminded him, sending a light nudge into his side.
"Okay, fine. Dead baby jokes then?"
She broke out in laughter. "Hit me with whatever."
"Okay, how many dead babies does it take to paint a house?"
"I dunno..."
"Depends how hard you throw them!" He replied, drawing a look from one of the other ponies as they broke down in laughter.
"Wait wait, I got one." She let out another giggle. "What did the special-ed get on his IQ test?"
"What?"
"Drool!" They burst into laughter again, struggling to keep moving as they held their sides.
"Sir, shouldn't we keep quiet?" One of the ponies asked, looking around nervously. Jason was pleased to see that Tank and Eravel were laughing as well.
"It doesn't matter either way, the griffins are trapped if this cave doesn't go anywhere, and if it does then the've already escaped. They know we're coming either way."
"But what about surprising them?" He asked.
"We can just put out the torches and come at them out of the dark, simple as that." The pony looked like he was about to say something before he decided against it.
The cave made a sudden turn and stopped its decline, flattening as the cave widened slightly. Jason passed by a glowing torch and a dead griffin who had presumably died from injuries he had sustained before. He looked the body over, pulling free a spear and a few MREs.
"Anyone want an extra spear? Or food?" The group started to move immediately as he muttered the last word, and the small items of sustenance were gone almost immediately. Jason stared at his hoof, trying to figure out how the ponies had moved that quickly.
One of the torches hissed and went out, and Tank shook it around in his hoof out of annoyance. He blew on the embers a few times before moving the end into the fire of another torch to re-light it. The party started to move again, continuing down the cave. Jason shivered, squinting into the distance, trying to see something.
"Everyone shut up!" He said, and all conversation ceased. "There's torchlight up there, and I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that the griffins are giving that off. So stay quiet and leave the torches behind." The ponies set the torches on the ground, checking themselves over and making sure that their weapons were ready. Jason stepped on a nearby torch to smother it, pulling his hoof away before the heat could cause any real damage.
He pulled the AUG down and looked through the 'scope,' looking around at a few heat signatures. Most of them were from the torches, although he saw a griffin move through his field of view, if only briefly. He slung the gun back over himself before starting forward, keeping himself close to the ground in a crouched position. The light started to brighten as he stuck to the walls, keeping outside the flickering warmth that the torches provided.
That's when the griffins finally came into view, and he was able to start to read their numbers. There wasn't a large group present, but then again, not that many griffins had escaped to the cave. A line of griffins were leaning against one wall, some dead and others dying. It was a long line, luckily.
The remaining troops were in a group, most of the conversation between one of the griffins and the rest as he ordered them around. So then he was in command here, that made things easier. He pulled the gun from his back and aimed for the griffin's head, slowly depressing the trigger with his magic.
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
The sound echoed around while the griffins panicked, staring at their suddenly downed leader as Jason slung the gun and charged, running into the light and jumping onto a griffin's back while he was still distracted. He stabbed a blade through the back of the griffin's neck, jumping off as he went limp, a spear hit him straight in the shoulder and dug in, stopping before it had gotten through his chitin.
Jason brought a hoof through the stick of the spear, pivoting on a hoof to buck the offending griffin backwards. The soldier stumbled backwards as Jason yelped in pain, the shoe on his hoof not doing much to allay the pressure on the flat of his hoof. An arrow hit the griffin before Jason could recover, and he changed his target to another griffin, sprinting towards him and plowing into his side with a shoulder.
The griffin sprawled out and was hit through the eye by a well timed spear thrust from one of the officers. Something about her looked a little off, like she was too much into the fight. Jason didn't have anything against violence or fighting, but there just seemed to be something in her eyes, an animalistic spark that didn't sit quite right with what he'd seen of her usual demeanor.
He ducked under a bottle as it flew towards him, breaking on the floor a ways back and bursting into flames. One of hunter's hooves caught fire and he dove to the ground, smothering the flames under his body. Another bottle went straight for the grounded pony, and Jason's first reaction was to catch the bottle with his magic, surprising even himself with the unusual reaction. Usually his first instinct would be to grab it with his hooves or something, but he couldn't say that this wasn't a welcome change.
He hurled the bottle back, watching as it broke under a few griffins. Flames lapped over their legs and fur, turning one into a fireball before he could escape. He collapsed a few moments later as the fire fizzled to a low burn, presumably passed out from the pain. The remaining five or so griffins looked around at the ponies, backing into a corner before one yelled out to them.
"We surrender, okay?" He asked, nervously looking around between the team members. "We can't take you anyway, there's no point."
"Fine." Jason said, not eager to fight another five griffins. "Drop your weapons." There was a series of clangs as their spears dropped. "Now kick them over." Jason said, watching as the things slid across the floor and past him.
"How many more of you are in this cave?" Dash asked, taking a step towards the prisoners.
"Not that many." The griffin that had spoken before replied, "A few, maybe." Jason sighed, wondering if the griffins would really be a threat.
"Come with us then, we'll post a few guards outside and wait them out. The problem may just solve itself after a few days." He grabbed the string from the pony that was carrying it, biting it in half to get a new length. Jason walked over and tied the griffin's together, neck to neck, figuring that that would keep them more weirdly, should they try to escape.
They checked over the bodies for intelligence and supplies before making their way back, taking the torches the griffins had been using to light the way. The cold was really starting to get to him now, Jason thought as he tried to get himself to stop shivering. Dash hugged around his neck, although her heat hardly transferred, leaving him as cold as before.
"We really need to get you out of here, Jason." She said, putting a hoof to his cheek.
"I'll just--" He grabbed a torch from one of the other ponies, putting it close to himself. "G-grab one o-of the-ese." He said through his teeth, gritted in an attempt to keep them from clacking together. "It's funny, you're supposed to be the one that doesn't like places like this."
"Yeah, but I don't freeze inside them!"
"We'll just speed up then." He broke into a trot, trying to get the blood flowing. "Let's hurry up, fellas!" He yelled back to the group, watching as they broke into a trot to follow him, the prisoners getting dragged along a little faster then they seemed to like. But they were prisoners, big deal.
They quickly made their way to the exit, returning into the moonlit night. Jason looked up at the moon, taking in its much different looking surface for the millionth time. He could never wrap his head around the changes in the appearance of the universe, it was always a weird thing to look up at the moon and know that it wasn't the same one he had seen for most of his life. Or the stars, for that matter, any way you looked at it, it was off-putting to have no idea where his old home was, somewhere out there in the jumble of stars.
"Jason, I see you made it back in one piece." Jason shifted his gaze to Shining, who had apparently left his cozy little tent to see the cave.
"Yeah, another mission success." The general smiled and offered a hoof, which Jason promptly bumped his own against.
"That's what I like to hear."
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Spartans never really die, they're just missing in action. REMEMBER REACH!
Just when I get caught up another chapter goes up.
Twilight wouldn't have become an Alicorn in this due to the events preceding her becoming an alicorn have yet to occur.
While the ponies are likely less fashioned to war, and rarely eat any meat; I would assume their brains work at least in a similar fashion to that of humans.
I would like an AAR on the casulties for both sides thus far in the war.
At this point, I think you've left the realm of 'show canon', nuked it from orbit, then sent it flying into a black hole with this story. So the whole Alicorn Twilight thing is a bit of a moot point here. You could probably do something interesting with it if you wanted, but it's your story. Do what you want.
2335448 I'm in agreement with this guy.
2335133
Remember Reach, brother /)
Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck. I went ahead and stole your truck.
Oh and these chapters are getting better.... and longer. It's hard to go grammar nazi on a chapter that has so few mistakes
one last thing: Reach refrence
I know. Twilicorn(Alicorn Twilight to those that hate that nickname), is the weirdest idea I've ever heard of. And it was all for them to make a toy. The episode it came from felt so rushed.
2335941
/) * (\
2335772
Oh god nostalgia, you just reminded me, I still have two more chapters left of The Walking Dead, to complete, and by now I'm kinda wishing I sided with Kenny, he just lost his wife and son for fuck sake!
As for Alicorn Twilight, it's your story. Do what ever the story needs you to do to make it the best it can be. If the story needs her to be an alicorn then the story will naturally progress in that direction.
Ponies will naturally have some human characteristics, after all it humans that are writing the stories. For the most part this can't be helped because all we know is our own culture.
I assumed that this story takes place before season 3.
Ignore the Twilicorn canon. If people decide to nitpick, just mark it as alternate universe.
Five more gryphons to interrogate, I'm sure they could get some military info from them. Also, it was a welcome change from fight till death, to I guess we surrender. Keep up the awesome!
Everybody ignores Twilicorn when they write their stories anyways.
Personally, I have no issue with Alicorn Twilight myself. As for this story, I can only imagine the changes that Jason had made being transported & transformed in the MLP world, so I can understand why there isn't any Alicorn Twilight yet (if there 'is' a yet).
As for the story, I wonder what is going on with that one officer. Hmmm...could be a foreboding clue in term of that 'soul magic', which was mention beforehand during the torture event.
C&C:
...if we don't know what we're walking into it'd probably be...
> Comma after ‘into’.
Those temperature degress just wat? Then ponies should be able to boil water just being in water? xD
Twilicorn is fucking retarded!
To be honest, Faced with the same situation, I would have light a bonfire inside the cave and buried the entrance. of curse I would send a scout down there first and inform them of my plan and offer them one chance to surrender.
2339028
Water boils at 212F or 100C
I think was discussing temperature in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Hope this helps you.
2339593
Yeah and he told her in celsius ? Not legit for me
What the hell? Why did the two latest chapters not show up in my updates list?
DAMN IT INTERNET, YOU HAD ONE JOB!
Anyway's, great chapter again, and poor Archer
Oh and I would like to see that comedy story about Twilight, it would be too funny to miss out on
Oooh and btw.
Everybody seems to be ignoring the whole twilicorn thing anyway and to be honest I can't blame them.
She kinda scares me now
For heavens sakes twilight should be an alicorn. Believe it or not I predicted she would become an alicorn the very first episode.
.I mean seriously connect the dots the other princesses were alicorns.twilight had a crown,along with lots of power.ding ding ding she must become a princess and if that's true then she must become an alicorn...there u have it folks on how I connected the dots and came to the conclusion she was always an alicorn...idk why people freak out about that...or it was just a coincidence that I predicted that and they just wanted to sell twilicorn plushies...the world may never know. 
You reminded me of potato...*cries in corner*
Mine is like that a lot, too. But I look like a viking, for all my mixed ancestry. Come to think of it, a lot of it is Scottish/Irish, which is basically "viking what got left in village girls after a raid and carried through the generations." I figure it's probably an adaptation to the colder northern temperatures. I don't like super hot weather at all. Tropics are nice to visit, but not to stay. Snowy blizzard? I'm outside working in a t-shirt.
Spartans never die, they’re just missing in action.