Jason walked in front of the group of guards that the three Princesses' had amassed in the center of town, along with the guard of someone called Chrysalis, who was a queen of a race known as changelings. Now those bunch were an interesting lot; they could shape shift. Upon asking one do demonstrate, said changeling turned itself into a pony, then a griffon, then a perfect copy of Spike just to make sure that Jason understood, which he did.

"Okay, so...I'm not sure I'll be able to teach anyone of them how to use a weapon, seeing as how I don't have enough guns to train them with." Said Jason, and he was right, he just didn't have the amount of weapons that they needed. There were just so many guards; Twilight's, Celestia's day guards, Luna's night guard, and Chrysalis' own guard. There was just too many of them.

He was thinking on a way to get more weapons, when his thinking was broken by the sounds of hooves clopping on asphalt. Jason turned a saw a total of three caravan merchants walking with guards and a pack Brahmin; each with a boatload of weapons.

If only a light bulb could appear above his head right now from a brilliant idea before he jogged his way over to them.

"Excuse me, I'd like to buy all of your weapons."

To say the three merchants looked completely baffled, would be an understatement. After Jason paid them all, he called over a total of about six or seven stallions as he found out they were classified for their gender; which was the same as saying male or guy. Jason and the seven stallions brought back cases of ammunition and weapons to the town center and distributed them evenly among the guards. Once they all had a weapon of some sorts, including a new weapon for Jason; a fully decked out cowboy repeater, equipped with a scope, extended magazine and custom lever action to reduce friction and decrease the amount of time it required to re-chamber a new round.

After Jason got himself acquainted with his newly acquired weapon he began teaching the other guards the proper use of firearms. It was fairly simple; aim, steady yourself, and then pull the trigger, that simple. Then of course the obvious, "Don't look down the barrel." treatment.

"So, does everyone understand the basics in firearm use!?" He shouted to all of the stallions holding weapons.

To which he got a chorus of "Yes's" and "Understood" from the group in front of him.

"Okay them. Oh! One more thing, don't let anyone you don't know into the town without first making sure that they aren't going to come in and blow it up or steal anything; I also advise you all to hide anything valuable somewhere safe!" He shouted out to them.

"Alright, I need some targets put up for practice shooting; unicorns can you make targets?"

"I can do it." Said one of the guards from Twilight's group.

"Alright then, go ahead."

Jason shifted his attention farther down the to see a goof fifteen orange tinted targets spring up.

"Nicely down, what's your name?" Jason put a hand in the guard's shoulder.

"It's Flash sir, Flash Sentry." The guard beamed at him.

Jason nodded and motioned for him to re-group with the others.

"Can I get another unicorn that can strengthen the durability in the targets; don't want them to break from one shot ya'know."

Another guard walked up and cast another spell on the targets, making them glow blue-ish.

"Nicely down, and your name?"

"Silver Shield sir."

"Alright, well I'll be having you and Flash Sentry up here to practice on the targets, since you have a rifle and he has a revolver; gotta show the others the difference and at the same time you get some practice in yourselves."

The guard nodded and called over Flash who walked up to Jason once more.

"Okay I need you on my left Flash and you Silver, on my right. Take up a stance and aim at the targets."

Immediately he noticed a flaw in both of them as they took aim. Flash had his arms locked and rigid as all hell, while Silver looked like a board standing straight up just waiting to be knocked over. Jason walked over to Flash and grabbed his elbows and un-bent them to a more stable position.

"If you keep your elbows locked you can hurt yourself like that; had someone have their forearms bend upwards while the rest of their arms didn't move, the result was the sound of bone snapping and a man writhing in pain. You don't want that."

Flash nodded his head and kept his arms slightly bent as he said.

"One more thing, keep your dominant side's leg back for support and your non-dominant out, otherwise you're going to get knocked down by the recoil of firearm when you do fire it."

Jason then made his way over to Silver Shield.

"What hand you write with?"

Silver looked to his left slightly. "My right."

"Then put your right foot back and your left foot forward, and keep the butt of the rifle firmly planting on you shoulder unless you want it to slam into it full force and shatter your shoulder; trust me, it ain't fun."

Silver did as he had instructed and repositioned himself as well as put the stock of the rifle against his shoulder.

Once Jason saw that thy had better stances he once more walked in-between them.

"Alright, Flash make sure you're looking down the little bit at the end of the barrel so you aim on target, and the same goes for you too Silver. Steady your aim before you fire," Both guards stared down their individual sights. "and fire."

Both guards fired their weapons, Flash's shot hitting somewhere around the middle of the shield, while Silver's hit dead center; though they were both rubbing the ear closest to the gun when it fired.

"Yeah, they tend to be very loud."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Said Flash as he lowered his arms.

"Yeah, hey do you mind if...what the fuu-oh hell! Everyone get your weapons ready, we got company! Ants!"

The guards looks confused at first until they saw what looked like gigantic ants crawling their way over a hall off in the distance, most likely they heard the gunshots and came crawling over.

Jason kept on shouting at them to get ready and just do as Flash and Silver had done with their weapons.

"Remember everyone! Stance, aim and fire! Ready!? On my mark!" A few more seconds passed by as the ants kept getting closer and closer until, "FIRE!"

All at once a total of maybe about fifteen guns in total went off, Jason's carbine being one of them. Their shots were a bit off, considering that they had never fired a gun before, but they were catching on quick.

One by one the ants started falling except one of them. This one was much bigger then the rest and was closing in on Flash as he was reloading his revolver. When he looked up he froze in a state of fear, until the ant that was about to bite down on him and end his life suddenly writhing around in pain as bullets tore through it's head a fell lifeless on the ground, no more than 5 feet away from his feet. When Flash looked behind him, he saw a very calm yet determined looking Jason holding a smoking Assault carbine in his hands.

"You alright?"

Flash simply nodded.

"You have to be careful of your surroundings, because out here, your life can end without you even know it. One minute you're sitting talking with a friend, next thing you know, you're wearing his brains all over you freshly cleaned armor."

Flash and some of the other guards looked uneasy when he said that, though it was the truth, you can't just let your guard down.

Jason pulled out the spent clip and popped in a full one, then making the empty one disappear into his pip-boy for re-loading later. No one really bothered to ask how he did that since they were more concerned now for the safety of the towns residents.

"Alright, if not for that little scuffle with those ants we would have most likely would have been here for the rest of the afternoon teaching you all to shoot, but thanks to that, and the fact that none of you wanted to die; you all learned fairly quickly." He said to the guards as he turned around and began walking to the tree house again.

"Well I advise that the ones who do know how to shoot, teach the others now. I have to go have a chat with your respective leaders." Jason said with his back turned to the guards.

When he arrived at the great tree he could hear a discussion going on in the background; that is until he knocked, causing it to stop abruptly.

Soon he heard footfalls coming closer to the door until it opened to reveal a very disheveled Twilight.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Can I come in?"

Twilight moved to the side tell allow him entry. "Oh, of course, come in."

Jason walked over to an empty chair in the corner of the room.

"I'm sorry if the room is a bit of a mess, I wasn't really worried about that right now, we were just-"

"More worried about getting home...right?" Jason finished for her.

"I...yes, but how'd you know?"

"Just a hunch."

The equines simply looked at each other but said nothing.

After a few silent seconds Celestia spoke up.

"You wouldn't know how to-"

"Get you back home?"

"Yes."

Jason sighed farther back into his chair. "No...I don't - I'm sorry."

Everyone in the room deflated visibly, until another voice called out from elsewhere.

"So...we can't get back then? How will I get home? Back to my ponies that need?" The voice that said that seemed like it had no business in the wasteland.

A few second more and another Alicorn appeared in the door's threshold wearing a very sad expression on her face.

Jason stood up walked a bit closer to her. "Now, that ain't what I said, I said I had no idea how to get you back, that don't mean I can't try my damned'st to find a way to get you back home."

Jason thought for a moment before speaking again.

"Do you have someone special?"

Cadence looked up with teary eyes.

"Y-Yes, why?"

"Who is he?"

"It's Shining, Shining Armor."

Jason stepped closer to her.

"Think about him."

"Wha-"

"Think about him, think about everything that's important to you, and you'll get through this."

"Cadence looked at Jason for a moment before looking down with a smile on her face.

"Thank you..."

"Jason, Jason North, at your service." He said in a fairly decent British accent causing the mares to let out a few giggles which turned into laughter. Eventually it died done enough that Cadence spoke again.

"I really needed that, thank you Jason."

"Hey, no problem, helping people's what I do, wither it be physical or emotional, though that last part is still iffy at times." Jason said with a toothy grin.

It was either coincidence or he might have been waiting by the door, but Shining Armor walked through the door at that moment.

"Cadence, are you alright?"

Said princess walked up to him and wrapped him in a hug.

"I'm fine now love, I'm fine now."

Shining hugged her back. "I promise we'll find a way to get back."

Jason knew when to leave people alone, especially during times like this.

"Hey, Twilight, you got a place where we can go and finish this discussion, you know, so we can give them some time alone?"

Twilight thought for a couple of seconds before speaking again. "We can use my bedroom upstairs."

Jason nodded and looked to the others, to which they nodded as well and followed Jason and Twilight to her room.

"Nice room you got. You living with anyone? It' be kind of lonely living alone."

"Yes, I live with Spike; he gets the spare bedroom downstairs."

"You two together?"

Twilight stumbled, which entail caused the rest of them to crash into her thus making her fall onto her hands and knees. Jason noticed this and kneeled down to help her up.

"Sorry 'bout that, I was just curious, didn't mean to make you get flustered."

"N-No, it's alright, and no, me and Spike are not together, we just live in the same home. He's lived with me for since I moved to Ponyville."

Jason nodded his head and walked further into the room, sort of taking it in; it was a nice room.

Jason looked up and saw a poster stuck onto the ceiling. It had a of five stallions all dressed up in what looked like metal band attire.

"So I take it you like these guys?" Jason said pointing up towards above Twilight's bed, making everyone else in the room look upwards and making Twilight squeak in embarrassment.

"Ummmm, hehe, m-maybe?" She said with a embarrassed smile, a faint blush touching her cheeks.

Celestia and Luna giggled in the most adorable way along with Chrysalis' own laughter in the mix until she turned to look at the sun and moon princesses.

"Oh why are you laughing, I saw both you and your sister Luna 'rocking out' in her bedroom to them once. I remember it now, I believe I was looking for you because I needed to discuss something regarding immigration between my changelings and your towns?"

Celestia and Luna both immediately stopped giggling and went straight to resembling bright red tomatoes. it was now Twilight's turn to giggle at her old mentor's expense.

"Oh it's okay to like them Celestia, after all plenty of other's like them and I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad."

Chrysalis tentatively raised a hand. "Actually thy were both wearing some very interesting clothing. Spiked wristbands, some very interesting pants and some very showy tops. I'd think that they were into something else."

If the two sisters could get any more red, they're heads would have been engulfed in flames. This only caused Twilight, Chrysalis and Jason to giggle and chuckle all the more.

Cadence decided to come through the door at that moment.

"Twilight, your friends are downstairs and want to talk to you and Jason."

The purple Alicorn stopped giggling at the mention of her friends.

"Oh, I'll be right down. You coming Jason? I'm sure they'll have questions for you mostly."

"Yeah, sure, why not. Let's go meet your friends properly."

Author's Note

Yeah, weapons training, fighting ants, Flash almost getting beheaded by an ant, and Jason coming in to save his sorry butt. Not bad Jason, not bad at all, though, Flash better get his shit together or he's going to become ant food next time.

So I gave the story a bit more body this chapter since last chapter was more of a get it started sort of thing. I haven't given a reason to Jason disdain for raiders yet, but that doesn't mean I'll leave you all hanging on that. I believe the next chapter will have his reason so stay tuned fellow wastelanders. Some deep stuff will be shared next chapter, so be ready for the feels.

Hope you enjoy, and this has been Cobolt Soundwave, with a wasteland update.

Goodbye, and until next time, keep you guns clean and loaded, your head down, and remember only you can prevent stupid deaths.