Planes were still a fairly new thing in Equestria, so none of the Pegasus ponies minded when the newer Earthers and Unicorns sat a bit close, least of all Soarin
“Approaching drop zone Lima Foxtrot!” As the pilot called out of the din of the engines, the rear hatch of the plane began to open.
“You ready Soarin?”
“Hell yeah, Armor let’s go!”
Flash Sentry called out to them “From this point on, we’re team Foxtrot Sierra! Team Kitten Whispers, you’re up go go go!”
Armor and Soarin check their gear, secured their comms and sprinted out of the plane. As they fell, you could faintly hear them yelling “KITTEN WHISPEEEEEERS” before falling out of hearing range and you could hear Flash calling them weirdoes.
Soarin led the way to through the air while Armor tailed behind him, attached to his tether and getting ready to deploy a chute.
“Armor, I need a landing site!”
“Clearing two clicks east!”
As Soarin barreled to his right, he caught a glimpse of Armor fiddling with the ropes on the landing gear. Although the thought crossed his mind more than once, Soarin never considered Armor to be more than a close friend. But if there was ever a time Soarin felt close to his buddy, it was on these missions. One had to rely heavily on the other, not just to complete their goal but to survive. They were going to be out in unincorporated territory for up to two weeks...maybe he could...Soarin pushed the thought out of his mind. He had to focus on the task at hand; besides, Armor had a wife already. No chance there, right? Soarin was still lost in his own thoughts when he heard his friend shouting a countdown. “T Minus 0, Deploying chute!”
Time stopped. “What was I doing? I was looking for the landing site. Did I pass it? No it’s right there. Damn, I don’t usually use chutes. What was I supposed to do differently? When a chute goes off, it’s supposed to reduce...”
Time sped up again.
“...momentum!” By the time the word left his mouth, Soarin had already snapped the tether, leaving Armor floating in the air as he spiraled towards the Earth through the dense fog.
The snap of the rope put Soarin in a Dead Stall, The ground flew in and out of view as a small white dot got larger and larger in the sky. “Did the crazy bastard just cut his chute?” Armor dropped from the sky like a downed satellite while focusing his energy on the ground. “Son of a bitch, he did!” Armor felt the air around him, he pictured a network of magic energy below him, something, anything, to break Soarin’s fall, anything to catch them both. Soarin felt strange electricity around him just before he hit the ground. With only cuts and bruises, Soarin and Armor climbed down from the giant purple spiderweb that mysteriously appeared, then suddenly vanished.
Soarin was injured, but still capable of flying over the treetops of the cold Griffin jungle while Armor searched through radio channels.
“Foxtrot Sierra, do you copy?”
No response. Another Channel.
“Foxtrot Sierra, do you copy?”
Still no luck.
Soarin came down from the treetops. “Any luck?”
“Nothing on the short range radio. Wherever we are, we’re out of it.”
“No luck scouting either, no sign of another team as a far as I can see. With the fog though, that’s not much.”
Armor looked west and saw the sun slowly dropping from the sky.
“At any rate, we’re stuck for at least the night, we should set up here and get some rest” Soarin's brush with certain death had understandably winded him, so Armor took it upon himself to set up the shelter. Even in times of war, cost was a big problem and as such the two were issued only one tent to share. Neither of them particularly minded the inconvenience of having to be roommates for a few days. Around base, Shining Armor always wore light armor as a formality, something that didn’t change out in the field. Soarin considered seeing him without his chestplate and greaves to be something of a treat. It wasn't just that it invited more secret thoughts from both of them, it was a sign that the day was done. Likewise, Armor had to put forth a considerable effort to not stare at Soarin without his flight suit on. No more flying through the air, no more death-defiance, just two normal ponies whose problems had by some miracle worked out in the end. The Griffon jungle can reach 20 degrees at night, but even without the benefit of specialized clothing, it was warm enough inside the tent.
Late at night, Shining’s dreams turned towards Soarin. Images of himself and his friend being much closer than they ever imagined danced through his mind.
Just then, both soldiers found themselves distracted by a duffle bag being thrown out of the front of the tent. Exactly 1 second later, they were also distracted by the knife blades suddenly emerging from the walls of the tent and intersecting with their throat and stomach. With his only knife stuck in a Griffon’s windpipe, Soarin grabbed a tent pole and swung it at the remaining three. It made contact with one skull, leaving the other two to fire. Armor gummed up their weapons with a Nee Pulvere Nitrato spell; one stayed to fight and the other ran to grab more soldiers.
“Armor! Get him!”
In one swift motion, Armor grabbed a knife from the last soldier and threw it. Four Griff’s on the ground, one pinned to a tree. Armor looked at his friend, who had just dropped the limp corpse of the enemy. Armor and Soarin collapsed with exhaustion.
“See? It all worked out”
“That was like 40 feet, you hit him dead on!” Soarin was impressed but Armor wanted to play it cool.
“Well, all it takes is a bit of-”
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
“Your voice changed!”
“That wasn’t me”
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
Both stallions looked down at the dead soldiers head, and only barely noticed the blinking light on their headsets.
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
“Shit, we gotta move. This place is going to be swarming”
“You look ahead, I’ll grab the gear”