Digging In
Digging In
The transport carriage flew the team to the San Palomino Air Base as fast as possible. The stallions were in deteriorating condition, despite the men’s medical attention, and Frost had to adjust to avoid having his own blood fall onto the wounds of any of the stallions. It was a pretty bad gash, and Duke planned to immediately deal with it after they landed.
When they hit the runway at the base, the team prepared to run off and carry the stallions to the base hospital. As the door opened, they saw that they had a clear run toward their objective location and bolted for it.
It was getting pretty late at night, so it was dark and only security ponies were around. Most of them ignored the team as they ran through. When they arrived at the hospital, they burst through the doors and ran to the emergency medical area.
There, they handed off the patient’s to the doctors and then made their way out. Before they left, a doctor approached them and told them to wait there for a minute. Duke took the chance to look at Frost’s face.
“Frost, let me see that gash,” Duke said.
Frost faced him and presented his face. “Can’t get enough of my beautiful face?” he asked.
Duke chuckled. “I’ve seen more of it than I care to,” he said, wiping away blood. The gash was really bad. “Besides, I’m not the one who cares about your face.” Frost was about to respond when a doctor came out of a nearby hallway and approached him.
“Hello. I am Doctor Banfield,” the unicorn said, getting the men’s attention. “I see they weren’t exaggerating when they said one of the humans had gotten hurt rescuing our stallions.”
“‘Tis just a flesh wound,” Frost said.
The doctor chuckled. “Even so. I can fix that up real fast, if you don’t mind.”
Frost looked at Duke, who shrugged and stepped aside. “Sure thing, doc,” Frost said.
Frost leaned his face forward and the doctor leaned forward, touching his unicorn horn to Frost’s wound. It stung like hell to have it directly touched, of course, but Frost gritted his teeth through it and stayed still. In a matter of moments, the pain was gone, and Frost touched his forehead. The gash was gone, replaced with three lines of scar tissue on the left side of his face and one on his right.
Frost turned to Duke. “How do I look?” he asked.
Duke put his hand to his chin. “You look like you got attacked by a cat you held too long.”
Frost laughed. “Thanks, boss.”
“Alright, enough joking around,” Aprotelese said. “Let’s get back. I need to write up a report of what happened to give to the Princess.”
“When will she want it?” Duke asked.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” Aprotelese said. “Technically, I’m team leader, so I send the report. You don’t actually have to write one because you aren’t Equestrian soldiers.”
“We’re not American soldiers either,” Frost said, earning a confused glance. “We’re American Airmen.” Aprotelese shrugged, and the team made its way out.
The team went back to the runway, where there was another carriage waiting for them to bring them back to Ponyville. They didn’t feel like they were in any particular rush, so they sauntered along, letting themselves have a nice little break from the hustle of the mission.
The ride back was bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. The pegasi dragging the carriage tried to adjust to minimize the turbulence, but they could only do so much. Duke and Frost maneuvered themselves to sit on their sides to spare their spines from the abuse of being tossed up and down in their seats, and the stallions just sat in their usual fashion.
When they finally landed, it was pretty late, about 2230 hours. Stepping off of the carriage, they waved goodbye to the pegasi who brought them home as they took off once again into the dark night sky for parts unknown.
“I don’t envy those guys,” Comet commented.
“DItto,” Moon Moon replied.
“Alright, you guys can start going ahead,” Aprotelese said. “I’ll be quick with the report, try to catch up to you. I wouldn’t want to make you wait.”
“Gotcha,” Frost said.
Aprotelese and the team went their separate ways and the team started its way back to town. It was dark outside, and the sounds of the night-stalkers of Equestria resonated in the wilderness. The men were exhausted, but the sounds were disconcerting, prompting them to keep their hands on their weapons. The stallions didn’t seem to care, really, but being native to this land, they were probably used to it.
When they got back to town, there was a surprising amount of activity for the time of night. Ponies going around, carrying candy and toys, fillies and colts scattered about in their games. As the team passed through in full combat gear, ponies moved out of the way, interested but still intimidated by the warriors.
“Know what, we’ll meet you guys at the house,” Fog said, hopping into the air. “I really need to get to sleep.”
“Alright, see you there,” Duke replied. The Nighthawks flew off, leaving the men to get home on their own.
Duke and Frost continued walking through town, taking in the sights. There was clearly a celebration of some kind going on, though they couldn’t tell what it was celebrating. None of the adults were doing anything specific, as far as the men could tell, and the kids were just playing.
But the game they were playing turned out to be something interesting.
The men were walking along, minding their own business, when a little colt suddenly ran out from an alley right into Frost’s leg with a grunt.
“Whoa, watch out there, little guy,” Frost said as the colt rubbed his nose. “What’re you...” He took a good look at the colt; he was wearing a camouflaged outfit, a helmet, and had a pretend sword. “What’re you doing?”
“We’re playing Rescue Rangers!” the colt said excitedly as a group of colts and fillies came out of the alley he ran out from.
“Rescue Rangers?” Duke said with a chuckle of disbelief.
“Yeah, it’s a game my older brother Rumble taught me. There’s two teams, the Coltnappers and the Rescue Force, and the Rescue Force has to save the coltnapped ponies from the Coltnappers.” The little guy sounded really excited about his game.
Frost chuckled. “Well, I’m sure you guys would make fine Rescue Rangers,” he said, barely containing his laughter. Seriously, what were the odds? “Take it from me.”
“Thanks, mister!” the colt said.
“So where’d you get those outfits?” Duke asked. “They look pretty nice for a simple game.”
“They’re a big part of being hidden and surprising the bad guys,” the colt said. “Rumble said the guy he learned the game from knew all about that because of where he was from.”
Duke raised an eyebrow. “Where was he from?” he asked.
“Really far away,” the colt said. “He wasn’t a pony, either. I don’t know what he was, ‘cuz I wasn’t born yet.”
Outwardly, Duke smiled, but inwardly, he frowned at his curiosity. This sounded like it could have been someone from Earth, but that would be circumstantial at best. So he decided to change the subject.
“So what is this little festival?” he asked.
“We’re celebrating Redemption,” one of the other kids shouted. “From within the darkness, we reckon the Harkness!”
Duke blinked. Frost didn’t quite understand because he hadn’t been looking into it, but Duke understood the significance of the festival. The theme of the festival was redemption, obviously inspired by this Harkness character, telling Duke that something had been important about his presence here. But the pieces didn’t fit together very well at all. He taught them this rescue game, but he had needed redemption? Or did he redeem somepony here?
The whole thing was getting deeper and more complicated with every twist and turn. Unless Harkness was an existing word that had been used to identify him as opposed to a name, which would make things even more ridiculously difficult.
“Very interesting,” Duke said truthfully. Frost looked at him curiously. “Well, we have to go kids. Have fun.”
“See ya, mister!” the first colt said. With that, the men walked on.
“What was that?” Frost asked.
“What?” Duke replied.
“That look, like you knew something really, really important,” Frost clarified.
“Don’t worry, just a personal revelation,” Duke said. “I’ve been looking into something for a while now and I think it just changed.”
“Ah,” Frost said. “Well, good luck. If you want help, I can see what I can find too.”
“No, I’ll be good,” Duke said. Frost nodded and they walked the rest of the way in silence.
The men made their way home without any other interruptions, just taking in the sights as they went along. This didn’t seem to be the most important festival by any stretch, but there was definitely a reverence for it here. It might have been more of a local celebration.
When they returned home, they saw the lights on and the door ajar. Inside, as they got closer, they could hear chatter that sounded like it was from a group of mares. The Nighthawks weren’t making much noise, probably going to sleep.
Duke and Frost knocked on the door a couple of times before entering, but no one inside heard, so they entered quietly. To the right, in the next room, the lights were on and the voices seemed to start there, so that was the direction they went In the room, they found Amel sitting with Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack.
“Hey, ladies,” Duke greeted as he and Frost walked in.
“Good evening, sirs,” Twilight said. “I trust everything went well?”
“It was fine,” Duke replied. “We came back in one piece, so I can’t complain.”
“Wasn’t fun, but the job itself rarely is,” Frost commented, stepping up next to Duke.
“Hello Frost!” Amel greeted. Her face had a hint of redness to it. Duke grinned and decided to just watch.
“Hey Amel,” Frost said.
Amel squinted at his face. “Oh my goodness, what happened to your face?!” she exclaimed suddenly, jumping from her seat and running to Frost to get a closer look.
Frost stopped her just before she bowled him over. “It’s nothing, I’m good.”
“Don’t look like nothin’,” Applejack said. “Ya look like ya got hit pretty good.”
“Nothing he couldn’t handle, the big, strong man he is,” Duke joked. Frost shot him a confused and slightly annoyed look, but the girls all giggled, and Amel just stared at Frost’s face.
“Big man,” Amel repeated. “Why is your face damaged?”
“We had a bit of a skirmish,” Frost explained. “I could take him, though.”
“I just want you to come back to me at the end of your missions,” Amel said, leaning onto Frost.
Frost hugged her, but looked to the girls. “How much has she had?” he mouthed.
“Only a few, she can’t do very much,” Rarity mouthed back.
Frost looked back down. “Let’s get you to bed,” he said and started to pick her up.
Amel resisted. “No, I still have some questions for you.”
Frost sighed. “Okay?” All the while, Duke was silently laughing to himself.
“Will you try not to ruin your face for me?” she asked. Frost nodded. “Good.”
“Is that it?” Frost asked.
“Yes,” Amel replied.
“Great,” Frost replied. He quickly got under her and picked her up, earning a squeak from the mare. “Then let’s get you to sleep.”
“Okay,” Amel said, letting herself be limp on Frost’s shoulder.
“Excuse me while I bring her up,” Frost said. “I’ll be back down shortly.”
Everyone nodded to Frost as he left the room with Amel to bring her upstairs.
Rarity giggled. “She wouldn’t stop talking about him while you were gone,” she said.
“I would bet so,” Duke replied. “Of course, Frost is clueless, so all that gushing isn’t going to get her too far.”
Rarity gasped. “Frost doesn’t know?!”
Duke laughed. “It all flies right over his head,” he said.
“I feel like he should know,” Twilight said.
“We can’t tell him, if that’s what you’re saying,” Rarity replied. “Only Amel can tell him! It has to be perfect! Oh, the star-crossed love between a former slave and the hero who saved her, what a romantic tale!”
“What about me?” Duke asked in mock offense.
“Hm? Oh, I’m sure you fit in there somewhere,” Rarity dismissed. “Ooh, this is simply marvelous! I’ll have to talk to her, teach her how to drop hints, and make herself up, and-”
And Rarity went on for a time, prompting Duke to drown it out with his own thoughts. Twilight Sparkle occasionally threw her opinion into the mix, and Applejack just watched Rarity go nuts in her seat.
After a short time, Frost returned, and everyone went relatively silent. When he walked back into the room, he slowed down and looked around carefully, as everyone was looking at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Rarity said with a poorly hidden smile.
“Riiight,” Frost replied. He leaned to Duke. “Is something up?” he whispered.
“Nah, you’re good,” Duke said dismissively.
The mares all stood. “Well, we hate to intrude,” Twilight said. “Amel had invited us, but since she’s up asleep, we should go.”
“If you want to,” Duke said with a shrug. “Though I have a few questions."
“Shoot,” Applejack said.
Before Duke went on, Frost tapped his shoulder. “I’m gonna hit the sack,” he said. “See you in the morning.”
“See you,” Duke replied. Frost left. “Anyway, my question. What is this festival exactly?”
The mares exchanged a brief glance before answering, giving Duke some cause for suspicion. Twilight Sparkle stepped forward to answer his question, and from the way she walked, he could already tell that she wouldn’t be giving him a straight answer.
“It’s a festival about redemption,” she said, rehashing what Duke heard earlier. “Sometimes, a pony falls into the darkness and lets evil take them over. They do bad things. But sometimes, they come back up to the light. This has been something we have done to our most powerful enemies several times, and it has always had a wonderful result. We want to celebrate that.”
“Sounds good,” Duke said. “What kinds of events?”
“Uhh,” Twilight said, faltering. “We reformed Princess Luna a long time ago. That was pretty significant. I was able to reform Trixie, an old rival. Rarity convinced a young mare to do the right thing and leave a dishonest boss.”
“She really was a brute of the fashion industry,” Rarity said.
“Hmm, yes, yes,” Duke said. “Any other individuals that I could relate to?”
“Well,” Twilight said. “I don’t think so.”
“I might know one,” Rarity said. “Though I doubt you two are that similar.”
“Try me,” Duke said.
“He was a man, like yourself. I had him living in my basement, since he was sleeping in a ditch outside town at before,” Rarity began. “He had a difficult time in your world. When he was brought here-”
“Brought?” Duke asked, befuddled.
“Brought,” Rarity confirmed. “When he was brought here, he was on the brink of suicide. For a long time, too. We nursed him back to health as much as we could, but ultimately, it was up to him to climb out of the darkness he fell into. And he did. It is probably one of the most inspiring stories of our time.”
“I’d love to hear it,” Duke said.
Rarity looked up at a clock on the wall. “I’m afraid I don’t have the time. It really must be one in one sitting to make sense. The story is very long, and not the most pleasant one we can tell.”
“I see,” Duke said, disappointed. “Well, another time.”
“Another time,” Rarity said. She and the others made for the door. “Perhaps we will see you around town.”
“Yeah. Good night,” Duke said.
The mares left Duke alone on the bottom floor of the house. He decided to wait for Aprotelese to return before shutting the lights off, so he went to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Throwing his legs onto the table and kicking back, he let himself relax a bit from a hard day’s work and a frustratingly close call to getting the answer he had been looking for.
He couldn’t even begin to comprehend how complex this whole thing was getting, and there was not a doubt in his mind that it would only get worse from here.
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Frost:
quickmeme.com/img/eb/ebfe9e8f25536dbd1d5511a60e7543102583e133524ff276dfdd3a3bc8d32dc3.jpg
Also:
Sparks (
) would never say that. She would know that the proper plural of "sir" is "gentlemen", or in this case "gentlecolts" or "gentlestallions" (depending on whichever you prefer). I should know, as that lesson got pounded into me by a Captain while I was in the Army.
5240832 replying to the pic
I couldn't stop a small fist-pump as I read that. It's innocent enough, but it gets annoying sometimes when my wingmen and I get called 'Soldiers' constantly.
5240832
Uh...
5245125
...
...
...
I stand corrected. Ignorant scriptwriter is ignorant. Nonetheless, "gentlemen" is the correct plural.
All I could think of was this: joe4life.homestead.com/files/rhbackgr2.jpg
Don't judge. #just90'skidthings
You're a soldier first ~ Maj. Richard Winter (could not find exact qoute)
5240832
Oh, yes, she would say that. In fact, on the show, she says "sirs" to a group of stallions more than once.
5274425
I point you to this comment: 5245144
5274456
I saw that more than a half an hour after posting.
hey will you bring Harkeness back from A Colt Once Forgotten and or his fillyfriend Cinny
5314873
The future is never certain in war.
Ah no nagging, but we did see some background info.
Now to see if he actually manages to get them to TALK abut the man.
I would of put applejack on the spotlight, would of got some answers that way