The Calm
The Calm
"Jason." Dash murmured, lifting one of his hooves up and letting it drop limply back to her side.
"Yeah." He replied, waiting a moment before he yawned widely and stretched.
"You think you can get back to normal size?"
He was silent for a moment, closing his eyes again before he replied. "Yeah, I think so." He said, watching her back up a few inches. Jason did the same, before he concentrated and felt the whoosh of green flames over his body. He opened his regularly colored eyes again, his head brushing against the headboard where it had previously been below the pillow. Jason raised a black arm, smiling slightly at being back into a form he recognized.
"It's about time, Jason." Dash mumbled, grinning.
"I-" He stopped, cut off as Dash put her muzzle to his. Her hooves flew around his neck, and Jason reciprocated with a slight chuckle. She hardly stopped to breathe, hot air brushing across Jason's nose every few seconds as Dash only pulled him in closer. Jason moved his hooves down to the small of her back, holding her tight and rolling so that she was on top. The pair only increased their heated kissing, as if it was more important than the need to breathe.
"Um... hello?" Came a voice from the hallway, the frenzied session between the two soon-to-be-wed ponies coming to an abrupt halt. Dash's ears were flicking backwards somewhat comedically, searching for any available sound.
"Pinkie said that she couldn't find you and sent eep!" A pony that turned out to be Fluttershy said, her head appearing for only a moment before it disappeared around the edge of the now fixed and wide open door.
Dash let out a long sigh, pulling up a hoof to wipe her mouth as she rolled to one side and stood up. "We weren't doing anything, Fluttershy. What did Pinkie want?"
There was a brief pause as the mare walked into the room, her face cherry red and mostly hidden behind her mane. "She just wanted to see you two for preparations, with the wedding and all. She couldn't use her flying machine to get up here because she said something about trying to make it better. I'm not really sure what that means, because I would never trust that thing to stay in the air. Sorry I just came in, but you didn't answer when I knocked..." The mare finished, her tone of voice implying that she would probably be deathly afraid of riding the flying machine anyway. Jason assumed she meant if she was Pinkie, but he couldn't exactly be sure. It wouldn't surprise him if she was afraid even with wings.
"Just- tell her that we'll be down in a while, I guess." Jason replied, rolling his eyes slightly.
"Oh, alright." She said, looking relieved as she walked back through the door. "Sorry."
"No problem Shy!" Dash yelled after her, before her attention was turned back to Jason.
"Glad she didn't come five minutes later." He murmured, stretching out as Dash leaned into him. "I think she may have melted from embarrassment. Would have been a little tough to explain."
"I guess." His fiancé replied, letting her eyes shut once again. "What did you want to do before all of this happened? Before you got sent here?"
"I dunno, I guess I wanted to have this one job that I'd been looking at." Dash gave him a look and he paused. "Uh, you know how I was an accountant, and I told you that it was really a means to an end?"
"Yeah..."
"Well the thing was, I got fired from there the day I ended up here."
"Alright, I knew that much."
"But in a week I had an interview scheduled for a company called Cisco." Jason continued. "Got all excited, bought that car that I can't tell you about. Then I crashed, woke up like this, and I guess you know the rest."
"Are you happier here?" She asked, watching Jason stare off into space. The delay scared her a little with every second it went by, before eventually he only shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, I could have been happier, but I also could have been more depressed. I'm really don't hate it here by any means, but I guess the last few months could've been... better. But hey, I have a family now, and that means a lot."
Dash pulled herself against him, raising her head to nip at his ear. "I hope you know that as soon as we run out of things to kill, we're going to make sure Scoots has a different place to stay for at least a week."
"Don't you think that's a little bit of overkill?" Jason whispered back with a chuckle.
"Not if we finish on time." She replied, feeling Jason's face flush more than she could see it, he cheek becoming hot against hers. "Heat is a lot more fun when you've got a stallion around."
"I'd imagine so." Jason replied, meeting her lips again for a moment.
"You know," Dash began, drawing back. "Now would be a good time to show me all of that stuff you practiced without giving me any information.
"Yeah." Jason replied, laughing to himself. "You'd be surprised how many of the spells started as things I could use to effectively fight, and then became things to use when you're in the mood, so to speak."
"I feel like this is going to be one of those scenarios where you talk me into something."
"Yeah? Why don't we just find out."
_________________________________________________________
"What the hell, Jason." Dash breathed, looking around the clearing at a multitude of scorched trees, some of which were missing entire branches, while others had simply become piles of ash. "I didn't think you practiced how to be a pyromaniac."
"That was hardly it, Dash. I did other things." He said with a grin, putting his knives through the holes in his hooves.
"How does that feel?" She asked, pointing to his hooves. "Like you still have hands?"
"It always feels like I have hands, they just aren't there." He held up a hoof. "Look Dash, I'm flipping you off!"
The other mare let out a giggle, gently swatting his hoof away. "Just set something on fire already, Jason."
"Fine." He said, his smile never fading. "Go over that way or something, I don't really want to marry some ashes."
"I'm indestructible, this is hardly necessary." Dash replied, though she still trotted off towards the side of the clearing.
"Her's to hoping I don't exhaust myself." Jason raised his voice, feeling a burst of love enter his body, along with the feeling of calm that went with it. He nodded back to her with a grin, watching her smile in response.
Jason squared his footing, building up some magic before he started shifting a fore leg, building up some fire. He spun, releasing the fire with a burst of magic as he came back around to face the same way. The fire, now propelled and fueled by his magic, grew for a moment as it flew in a growing arch pattern. It impacted several trees, which immediately caught on fire, the flames quickly turning from green to orange.
"Well. That was cool." Dash said, hovering a fair distance above Jason.
"Oh, that was just the beginning. After I figured out the way that worked, well..." He trailed off, rearing onto his hind legs as his forearms flared, crossed across his chest. Jason came back to the ground hard, a rather small ball of fire trailing off in between some trees. Dash furrowed her brow, staring for a moment before a giant fireball appeared, blowing through some trees and setting them alight before melting snow in their branches could put it out.
"And that was something equivalent to delayed release." Jason informed her, taking a joking bow.
"Is that it?" She asked, hoping that Jason would say no, especially with all of his teasing.
"It is, unless I can somehow get a beautiful assistant."
"Can't do everything yourself?" Dash asked as she glided down, smirking.
"I could, but it would just look normal."
"Huh?"
"Stand still a second." Jason said, his horn flaring.
"Do I get to be let in on what's going to happen?"
"Not yet. But don't worry, of all the magic I've done, I trust this the most."
"Somehow that doesn't put my mind at ease." Dash replied, shutting her eyes tightly. She felt something that felt like a tap on her head, followed by what made her think that somepony had decided to pull on her forehead with- she could hardly even hope to explain-
"Done." Jason said, reaching out a hoof to put to her cheek as she opened her eyes. "And before you ask, yes, it's totally reversible."
"What... is." She asked, her head drooping from extra weight that shouldn't have been there. Dash put a hoof up past her head, feeling a clunk more than she heard it. "What." She said simply, moving her hoof around on the newly formed horn on top of her head.
"Also, I should probably tell you that it doesn't let you do magic. I could maybe figure that out, but there's more to magic than just the horn. At least, that's what I can tell by looking at myself."
"How'd you look at yourself? I mean, internally I assume?" Dash asked back, still moving her hoof around on the horn.
"Just healing myself, kinda. 'Cept, that doesn't work, so I was just looking around, almost. Like what I do normally with other ponies but without repair. But I still can't actually get it to work on myself other than that. Maybe someday." He paused. "Anyway, I turned the changeling transformation into a localized spell. Hands down the hardest thing I've ever attempted."
"You bring a mirror?"
"Heh, yeah." Jason said, producing the reflective instrument from his saddlebags and holding it up to her.
"I'd probably like this more if I didn't know exactly how it would get in the way of everything." Dash said with a giggle, tilting her head to one side.
"Guess it has its trade-offs, princess."
"What- oh, yeah." She chuckled. "Maybe it is kinda nice, even if it doesn't do anything. Do I get all the feeling in it? You know, like when I'm teasing you and all that good stuff?" She asked, her gaze turning sultry.
"Some of it, I think. It's kind of a prototype, really." He paused. "On another note, I did this with the knives." he said, holding one up that was glowing orange. Jason walked over to a tree, putting it near the edge of the dead trunk and pushing it through. It seemed to go like a warm knife through butter, leaving a trail of smoke as a sizable cut in the tree was left behind.
"God, you're turning out to be powerful." Dash said with a laugh, her attention momentarily directed away from her horn.
"Well I've got a lot of power to use, Dash." Jason said, taking off the knives and leaning over to give her a kiss. "But here's the one I'm most proud of." He continued, pointing at the tree.
"What?"
"Hey Dash." Jason said from behind her, as she looked back at the Jason that was in front of her and squinted her eyes. A moment later she turned around, staring at the clone of Jason that waved to her.
"What..." She breathed, taking a step and reaching out a hoof, which she expected to go through him. It hit his neck with a clack and Dash took a step back, staring as she tried to come up with something to say.
"There's- there's-"
"Yup." The first Jason said, pointing to the one she assumed was his clone. "Exact replica of me, fully functioning besides the fact that I have to control him. It's kinda useless that way, really, because whenever-" Dash pushed her lips into the real Jason, throwing one of her hooves onto his back and sliding it across his wing. She watched the feathered appendages fan out with a pomf, and quickly looked at the clone. He'd seemed to go completely unresponsive, before a foreleg buckled under him and he hit the ground.
Jason hissed in pain, holding a hoof to the shoulder that the clone had hit. Dash glanced back and forth between them, unsure as to what she could say. "Uh..." Was all that came out, as the thing whisked away into oblivion in a burst of green fire.
"I haven't exactly figured out how to keep myself from feeling everything he feels either. Thus, the reason that this is so useless right now."
"Yeah, but I can see how this became real sexually driven." Dash said with a chuckle. "I think we're going to have a lot to do when we get the time." The mare said, a smirk drawn on her face.
"Oh yeah, it'll be a good time to show you how versatile some of this stuff is." Jaso responded, grinning at her.
"I can't wait..." Dash trailed off, dragging a hoof down Jason's neck with a grin. "Have you ever given any thought to the idea that we might not have to?" She asked, gesturing to the forest. "It's not like ponies would follow us inside, at least not if we went a little further."
"Oh, aren't you the sultry one today?"
"I dunno, I think it would be fun to be head over hooves in love for a while. It's not like we've had the time to..."
Jason grinned, leaning forwards to kiss her. "What would you say if I said I wanted to wait until tomorrow night?"
"I'd probably say that I actually kinda hoped you'd say that." Dash replied, putting Jason a little off guard. "And it'll give me a chance to use a certain potion that I had made a while ago."
"I'm guessing that you'll keep me out of the loop on what it does?"
Dash turned away, wiggling her flank slightly at him as she took a step towards town. "It would ruin the surprise, Jason. Somehow I don't think that you will care either way so long as I tell you that it's totally as good as you can imagine."
"I dunno, I can imagine some-"
A rather loud thud sounded a little ways away, followed by some annoyed, rather close by yelling. The pair blushed at one another as Jason dawned his usual Alternis disguise, not so much worried about whether or not ponies recognized that it was him, but in an effort to try to avoid the looks that a fair amount of the population still gave him. He figured he shouldn't care by now, but some part of him just didn't want to get into the scenario in the first place.
"God dammit Rumble! How can we be spies when you can't even balance?!"
"Scoots, shh! They're coming this way!" Another voice yelled, as some hurried hoof steps were heard.
Jason laughed to himself, putting a wing over Dash's back and pulling her tightly against his side as he acted like he didn't know the crusaders were up in the branches of a blatantly obvious tree, a short distance away from the clearing. He heard some hurried writing, before there was another yell and a ball of orange landed with a buzz and a thud in front of Jason. A notepad landed on her mane a moment later, prominently displaying the words subject appears to be with a squiggly line drawn off the paper from the beginning of the next letter.
"Well, at least this is a better endin' than tree sap." Applebloom observed from one of the lower branches, gracefully hopping to a few other branches before she was back on the ground.
"You okay Scoots?" Jason asked, poking at the filly. She snapped upright, pointing what looked like a Nerf gun at Jason's face. "Did you hear any of the things we said?" He continued, his face turning a little red.
"I think I should be the one asking that question." Scoots replied. She obviously hadn't. "So, are you..." The orange filly trailed off, as if having forgotten what she was about to say.
"Feeling lucky!" Sweetie yelled out of the tree.
"Yeah, are you feeling lucky punk?"
"Seeing as you don't have fingers to pull that trigger, a little." Jason replied with a grin.
Scoots didn't reply, only staring at Dash as Applebloom walked up and did the same. "Dash, why do you have a horn?" The orange filly finally asked, not breaking her gaze from the new appendage.
"Jason figured out he could do stuff like this. It's useless, but I guess it's still pretty cool at the same time." She answered, putting her hoof back to her forehead. "We'll have to prank somepony with this spell."
"I like how you go right to that." Jason said with a laugh.
"Yeah, well you made sure to keep me unexcited from the beginning there."
"I didn't want you to be super happy that you got a horn if it didn't do everything it was supposed to." Jason replied. "But it does look pretty good on you." He continued, giving her a peck on the cheek.
Dash giggled, pushing him back gently. "Just make it go away, we have to stop putting off this thing with Pinkie."
"Fine." Jason replied, as a now familiar pressure pushed into her forehead, his horn brightly aglow. He let out a grunt as it disappeared, her mane falling back into place as he took a few quick breaths. "God, I'm getting tired."
"You shouldn't push yourself like this." Dash said, putting a hoof to his cheek. "It can't be good for you."
"Ah, it's no big deal. Plus, I've only got one more thing to show you. All of you, I guess." He paused, sitting down. "Thing is, none of you can tell anyone what I'm about to do, because I doubt that they'll react well."
"What could... possibly be that big of a deal?" Dash asked, putting a hoof against Jason's shoulder.
"Just- watch." He said shortly, pointing to a tree. "See that?"
"Yes, that would be a tree, Jason." The blue mare replied with a giggle.
Jason chuckled, raising the angle of his hoof. "The bird in the branches, Dash."
"Alright..." She trailed off, staring at the bird for a few seconds. Nothing happened, and she turned to look at Jason. He was doing an equal amount of nothing, just staring off into space aimlessly. As she looked back, however, the bird took off, gliding from the tree towards them. It decelerated and landed on Jason's shoulder, looking around at the five of them calmly. A few seconds passed as it chirped a note, then two, and fluttered off again.
Jason blinked, rocking around dizzily as he took some deep, heaving breaths. Dash wrapped a wing behind his back, leaning into his side and giving him something to support himself with. A few more blinks and he turned, displaying green retinas yet again. The mare jumped slightly, letting out a squeak before she could compose herself.
"Your eyes changed color again Jason."
He sighed. "Yeah, I know."
"So you controlled that bird?!" Scoots asked, a huge grin forming on her face. "That's so cool!"
"It's also the best I've done so far." The changeling replied.
"Why were you even practicing something like this?" Dash asked.
"I dunno, but ever since we showed that movie and Chrysalis did that mind thing again, I was just kinda fed up with the whole thing. That's where the practice started, but considering the lack of time I just made some ants change direction and stuff. That was pretty cool, but I could only do a few. Even now I have trouble controlling that many. Anyway, I just wanted to have some sort of idea how the hive mind worked before we got into something with Chrysalis. I wanted to have a trick to use."
"But it ended up in a dead end?"
"Pretty much. It's weird, I've never really had trouble with anything magic or changeling related, but now I am. I'm not saying that I'm annoyed it's not coming easily, first off. The thing is, I just don't know how she controls a swarm of changelings when all I can control is one bird for five minutes."
Dash shrugged, the crusaders only wearing slightly slack jawed expressions as they stared up at the pair. "Ya got any cool stories from all yer time, well, away from here?" Applebloom asked, Rumble and Sweetie nodding along.
"Only really got one." Jason said, looking at Dash. "I have trouble breaking things up ever since I got here, it's all just one long story if you ask me. And frankly, I'd like to see what those ponies come up with when this is all over with."
"Oh, you signed those book deals?" Scoots asked.
"Yeah, I'm no narcissist, but I would kinda like to see someone else's take on everything that's happened. It does a nice job of adding context." Jason paused, reaching back into his saddlebag as Dash shared a knowing smile with him. "By the way, maybe you won't like the fact that I'm doing this in front of your friends and all, but I found something a while ago and forgot to give it to you."
He pulled out the plush of Dash and held it out towards Scoots. "If you don't want it that's fine, but you said that you-" It was swiped out of his hoof and immediately wrapped in two more as the filly hugged it to her chest. She matched a stare from Sweetie a second later.
"Don't think I'm going soft, I'm just- uh, it's something I wanted." Scoots finished lamely, still not relinquishing the doll.
"So, no story?" Applebloom asked, looking a little downtrodden.
"I've got one, if you'll agree not to try it. Assuming you find out how to, I guess." Jason chuckled. "Anyway, I had this friend before I got here named Ben, and he had some chemistry lab in college or something where they made pure oxygen. So naturally, he made something like that in his apartment, which I think involved electrolyzing the water... Point is, he called me up, said that he had a tank full of oxygen. He came over and we set up all of these heavy things to throw, because we figured that since you need oxygen and sugar to run the body, and having no oxygen reduces strength, the opposite must be true."
"Well, I can see where this is going." Dash said with a roll of her eyes, receiving a shush from Jason.
"Uh, so he came over, stuck this tank down, which looked like a rented scuba tank or something. We ate a bunch of candy and waited for a sugar high, and then he took a few breaths of oxygen. Basically we just ended up laying around, being all woozy because that's apparently what too much oxygen does to you. Of course, it probably would've ended sooner if Ben hadn't made so much oxygen, because we ran out an hour or so later. That's probably..." He looked over at Dash and cringed, "The most stoned I've ever been in my life, and we both swore off the stuff. As in, pure oxygen."
"I'm glad to see that you were so mature." Dash teased, leaning heavily into him.
"Hey, we had the freedom to do a lot, that's not something you just ignore."
"Whatever you say, Jason." She continued. "It's not like I really took you all that seriously in the first place."
Jason stood up, striking a pose. "It seems that I've succeeded then!" He turned, grabbing one of her hooves and pulling her upright. "Come on, we have to go see Pinkie before something breaks in that head of hers."
"That's probably a smart move." Dash replied, grabbing Scoots with an arm and holding her up in the air. "And by the way, why'd you think you could spy on us? Huh?"
"Cuz if we could do it to you, then we'd have to be good at it!" She replied through giggles, as Dash began to tickle her.
"Oh yeah? You know what I do to ponies that spy on me?" Scoots didn't reply, too busy trying to remove Dash's hooves. The mare looked downwards at the other crusaders. "I tickle them..." She paused. "To death."
Rumble gave a nervous stare up at the filly, then back to Dash's jokingly malicious glare. He seemed to know it wasn't his place to intervene, and simply retreated a few steps to pick up the plushie Scoots had left behind.
"So then." Jason began, mercifully floating Scoots out of Dash's reach and onto his back. "Off to Pinkie's?"
"Yeah." Dash replied, wiping an eye. "If we ever get there it's going to be a miracle."
___________________________________________________
"Hey look. We made it." Dash said, pushing open the door to Sugarcube corner and bracing for what she assumed would be the immediate arrival of Pinkie. She let her guard droop a little, only to tense again when a chair creaked. All she saw were several empty tables, minus one that currently housed Applejack and Big Mac and an assortment of cards and bits.
"Is Pinkie here?" Jason asked, filing in with the other four behind Dash.
"Nope. She went out ta look for ya." Applejack replied, her face drawn. "Hasn't come back yet." She laid down some cards, cringing as Mac smiled and took some bits.
Dash sighed. "Alright. Jason, you want to stay here in case she comes back, and I'll go look?"
"No, I can look, I mean-"
"It's fine, I need to check in with the weather team anyway." The mare replied, waving a dismissive hoof. "Plus, I could use a little flying time anyway."
Jason opened his mouth to protest, before he simply shrugged. "Alright, see you later."
Dash stood up taller, raising her muzzle to his in a short display of affection before she opened the door and disappeared. Jason let out a huff of disappointment, walking over to where the Apples were and plopping himself down in a chair.
"What's this?" He asked, receiving a short glance from both ponies.
"Poker." Applejack said, a nod from her opponent backing up the notion.
"Oh, you have that here?" Jason asked, looking to the side at the crusaders, all of which had their fore hooves against the table, watching anxiously.
There was a rather long silence, before the two laid down their cards and Applejack took the pot. "Ya want ta join?" she asked. "Think you can beat me?"
Jason thought for a moment, before he reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a small bag of bits. "What's the buy in?"
"We play with forty each, winner gets five from every loser. It's pretty friendly."
"Ah." Jason replied, counting out the bits and pushing them into a pile in front of himself. Applejack put down five cards in front of him as she dealt to the rest of the table, stacking the cards back neatly as she finished. "How do I know you aren't stacking the deck in your favor, Applejack?"
The mare grinned, throwing a punch across his shoulder. "Ah may be able to bluff, but if Ah tried to do somethin' like that it'd probably be the most obvious thing in the world."
"Sometimes she gets all sweaty." Mac said, staring at his cards. Jason shook his head and chuckled, picking up his own cards. They weren't bad, really. Applejack laid out three more cards on the table, none of which matched the ones Jason had. So the cards were bad then. He only had one face card, so that was out of the mix. Double sixes weren't bad, but they probably had something better. The fact that he had two queens was promising, until he recognized that Luna was on one, Celestia on the other. So those were different.
Jason let out a sigh, before he realized that Applejack had definitely noticed that one. So much for the first hand, since bluffing was pretty much out of the question. But then again, he had something that they didn't. Not that it was cheating, because it was something he couldn't control. Reading their emotions was probably going to shift this in his favor.
"Ah raise the pot two bits." Applejack said, pushing out the bits.
"Fold." Jason replied as the two looked to him, tossing his cards down. He would just not take their money at the end. He wasn't really a guy that would cheat, or at least not on something that didn't concern his livelihood. If he had the opportunity to cheat if SAW asked him to play a game, he probably would.
The round ended as Jason exited his thoughts, four bits shifting towards the mare. Three more quick hands went by as Jason tried to interpret emotions. They were clearly still disguised, and even when they seemed to emotionally have something great, half the time they were bluffing.
"Jason, does the small pile mean that you're winning?" Scoots asked, receiving a chuckle from the other adults.
"No Scootaloo, it means that he's getting his ass handed to 'im." She said, pausing. "Did Ah use that one alright?" She asked Jason.
"I don't know if it helps your insult if you aren't sure what you're saying. But yeah, right on."
Applejack grinned, as she dealt out some more cards. Jason was starting to see the tabs that went along with the emotions. The little signs that notified him whether they were real or not. It was somewhat funny that after all his practice, even reading emotions was a little hard. That wasn't to say he couldn't read Dash, or maybe it was. He could, but that might just be because he knew her personality.
"Jason." Applejack said, waving a hoof in front of his face. "You awake?"
"Yeah, sorry." He said, pushing a large chunk of his bits in. With three jacks, the mascot replaced with a rather similar looking pony guard, and a good chance that they were bluffing, this was a bet he felt he could take. "I see your twelve and raise you seven."
"Ooh, going out with a bang here?" Mac asked as he pushed in some bits, surprising Jason with the fact that he had actually talked more than to bet or announce his cards.
"I lost a long time ago." Jason replied, frowning. One of Applejack's ears perked, and he knew that she was onto him. That was probably overkill, in hindsight.
"Fold." she said, throwing down some mediocre cards. Mac seemed more confident, or felt it at least.
"Triple tens." The stallion said, leaning back in his chair.
"Heh. Triple jacks." Jason reached forwards and wrapped his arms around the small pile, laughing maniacally as he dragged it back. "Guess I'm back in the game."
Mac snorted in annoyance, pushing his cards over to Applejack as she dealt out a new set. "Guess this is where things get interestin' then."
The three went through numerous hands, bits consistently shifting between players. But Jason had turned the tide of this game around. He let small ones go, trying to dissuade suspicion so that he could see the look on Applejack's face when he told her. Just as she was dealing out some more cards Dash walked in, pulling a hyper Pinkie behind herself.
The foals all sped off, eager to leave the boring adult game and probably high on sugar they had ingested when the three had been staring at one another.
"Good to know you can watch the kids while I'm gone." Dash said, looking over at the four bouncing foals and similar looking adult. "And I would finish up, because she'll only keep interest in them for so long."
"All in?" Jason asked, looking around the table as Applejack nodded. Jason pushed in his bits, leaning back and staring at the other two.
"Fold." Mac said, shrugging at an angry stare from Applejack. "Mah best card was a six. Plus, either way Ah'm not endin' up in first place."
"Fine, ya get a free pass on this one." His sister grumbled, staring at Jason. "Guess this is it."
"Guess so." He replied, as they both tossed down their cards. There were a few moments of silence as they continued to stare.
"Four of a kind." Applejack said with a grin, as Mac checked the cards.
"Straight flush." Jason countered, rivaling Applejack's grin with his own.
"No way..." She paused, looking at the cards for herself. "Well Dang."
"Yeah, so I'll just grab my forty bits." Jason said, pulling out a chunk and counting them out.
"Ya mean fifty?"
"No, I had emotions to help me out, that's not fair to you two." Jason said, as Applejack only began to chuckle.
"Ah knew my bluffin' was perfect on that hoof!" Mac yelled, grinning.
"Or was it?" His sister countered, tossing a bit at him. "He still knew."
"Sis, I-" He shook his head. "Fine, yer right. Was still fin playin' with ya though. Means somethin' that ya didn't take the bits." He stuck out a hoof, which Jason shook. "And by that logic, you can take 'em."
"I- What?"
"Assuming, a course, that we can do this again sometime? Ah figure Ah'll have to develop the ultimate poker face to throw you off. And Ah'll need somethin' ta get back when I beat ya."
"Fine." Jason said, continuing to shake the stallion's hoof. "I have to work on my poker face anyway, I never was that good. But this friend I had just destroyed when it came to poker. If I ever get back, or find a way to bring them here for a visit, I'll have to introduce you two."
"What's he do for a livin'? Applejack asked as Jason stood up and scooped over five more bits.
"He trades stock options over the global markets, along with a fair amount of futures. He used to do some pretty risky stuff, but now he's kinda made the foundations, I'm pretty sure. I could show you what I'm talking about, but I doubt it'd make much sense. I hardly even understand it."
"Yeah..."
"So Jason, Dash!" Pinkie yelled, landing on top of the table and making it rock dangerously to one side. "Are you ready to add the finishing touches to the best wedding ever?!?!"
"I guess..." Jason said. "You didn't mail out invitations that called it that, did you?"
"No, of course not silly! I knew that you didn't want to make it some huge deal and all, so I made sure to keep it a little less than what I wanted to do. You'll like it, I'm-"
"Pinkie." Applejack protested, tugging at a card that was stuck under the mare's hoof. Pinkie lifted her hoof out of the way, turning back to Jason.
"Anyway, I'm sure you'll love it. There's not really a theme, but you said that you didn't really want to complicate things. So what I did, after giving it a fair amount of thought, and I'm sure Dashie knows how hard it is for me to concentrate, is attempt to create something more like what you've been around, and what you've come from."
"What..." Dash trailed off.
"It's simple, after I figured it out. I'm sure you saw all the giggling with the weather team members while you were checking in, huh?"
"Yeah..."
"Well I had them sculpt everything they could from clouds. That wasn't much, and admittedly I had a little trouble rigging-" She trailed off, staring wide eyed at the pair. "Aaaaanyways, other than a few little charms it's normal. It'd help if I knew something about the two of you, but everything's so secretive or just unknown when it comes to you."
"I would tell you stuff, Pinkie, we just don't have that much time to." Dash said, shrugging.
"It doesn't matter that much to me, so long as you like tomorrow. Are your parents coming, Dashie?"
Dash looked as if someone had taken a good shot at her gut with a baseball bat. She took a step backwards, trying to compose herself and managing to force out what might have been a partial smile. As if Jason couldn't feel all of the anger radiating all over the place.
"Did you invite them?" She asked.
"I don't think so, you didn't put them on the list."
"Then I would guess that they aren't." She replied calmly, a cool tone sinking into her voice.
"How come?" Pinkie asked, clearly not picking up any of the hints Dash was giving off.
"Business, I think. Real long term stuff, you know?"
"Oh, I gotcha."
"Good, why don't we move on to all of those questions that you had." Jason said, putting a hoof around Dash's neck gently.
"Oh yeah!" She dove off the table, sprinting into the kitchen. Pinkie returned a couple seconds later with a platter of cupcakes, which she set on the table the foals had occupied and covered with paper and crayons. "Alrighty then! Only four hundred and thirty seven questions to go!" Dash spit some water onto the floor next to her, trying to cough the water out of her lungs.
"What?!"
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Well then. That's a lot of questions.
3296795 hey she went down from her standard 600
One,
I believe you meant fun, and not fin.
Two, is this going to be a Q/A thing where people ask questions in the comments and pinkie asks them in the story?
3296795 its Pinkie pie ether the questons are less 1000 or more then 100.
Great chapter, its good to see how they keep growing I am happy with it!
Gentle breeze guide you home, a warm smile welcome your return!
Awesome
The way Jason talks about Ben and also how much of his shit crosses over makes me wonder if the man himself will be coming.(He must be pissed that all his stuff keeps disappearing.
)
Alicorn Rainbow Dash:
derpicdn.net/img/2013/7/6/365827/large.jpeg
3298439
Don't forget his neighbor with the Fallout Shelter filled with guns and ammo
"Honey!"
"What now Howard!"
"Where's my actual WWII MP40?!"
"Check the bunker thing!"
"It's a Fallout shelter! And it's not there!"
"Well why would I know!? I don't even go in that mess of a supposed room!"
"It's clean! I just vacuumed last week! All the guns are in nice wall racks; and my MP-40 is gone!"
"Maybe you should worry more about getting some WD-40 before our bedroom door goes out in the yard...... with you!"
"It's a small squeak!"
Meanwhile near Neighagra Falls,
"Ooh a cool toy!"
"What do have there son?"
"It's one of those awesome toy guns based on the Team Green Bean toys!"
"Where'd you get it Feather?
"It was just on the ground laying there."
"Well, we better tell the ranger about it."
"Awe... do we have too?"
"Yes honey, we wouldn't want anypony to be missing his toy."
"Fine Mom....."
3297103
No, but I suppose if you want a Q+A involved in some way I could do that. I usually answer comments in the story, but I can only answer so many and it's not as if people asked for any specific ones.
Also, I skipped in the story to the next day, because there are probably more important things to concentrate on than Pinkie's questions. Maybe I could write a few deleted scenes chapters...?
3311107 Eh, if was just a question, I'm fine with whatever you decide to do.
you know what the weird thing is my Dad works at Cisco which I know is all just a coincidence but still pretty cool. Any way loving the story so far keep up the good writing as you have earned your self a like and 10 out of 10 moustaches
4239929 10 out of 10 mustaches for your avatar
