• Published 23rd Apr 2013
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That Others May Live - CptBrony



Two USAF Pararescuemen must search through an unknown land to find their charge and make it back home alive.

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Bonds

Bonds

By the time Duke, Frost, and Amel returned home, the Nighthawks were already there. They could tell on their approach that the stallions were around from the dozens of hoofprints in the ground.

The trio entered the house and saw the Nighthawks hanging out in the living room, discussing the coming mission. When the men entered, they all looked their way and nodded and waited for them to sit down. They opted to just sit on the floor since all the seats were taken.

“Duke, Frost,” Aprotelese greeted.

“Aprotelese,” Duke said back. “What’s up? Celestia said you would have something to tell us.”

“Yeah,” Aprotelese said. “Intel on the next mission.”

“Lay it on us,” Frost said. Amel came and sat partway on his lap.

“The intel doesn’t speak well of the situation,” Aprotelese began. “Everything screams that this mission is nearly impossible.”

“PJs don’t believe in impossible,” Frost said. Amel moved to be fully on his lap, and Frost started scratching the top of her head.

“That’s good,” Aprotelese said. “Neither do we.”

“How bad is this intel?” Duke asked.

“Well, besides hundreds of massive dragons ready to burn us into charcoal, dangerous wildlife, the nature of the enemy stronghold, and the landscape itself, not much,” Aprotelese said. “The dragons are big, but they’re scary fast. They can maneuver in ways that most pegasi can’t.”

“But you guys sure can,” Frost said. The other Nighthawks grinned at the comment

“Sure can,” Aprotelese agreed. “But when you account for winds that they’re used to that we aren’t, it gets much harder. The updrafts are incredibly random with how the mountains are laid out across the landscape. As far as flying in combat, it really isn’t an option for us.”

“But you can fly to extraction point?” Duke asked.

“Not exactly,” Aprotelese said. “We’ll have to get to a designated extraction point at the bottom of the valley and meet an Earth Pony convoy that’ll get us out.”

“Sounds like this is a more favorable place for Earth Ponies,” Frost commented. “Wouldn’t this op be better suited for them?”

“That’s what I said,” Aprotelese said. “But we’re the only ones familiar enough with you to effectively operate together. Plus we’re trained for aerial combat not unlike the gryphons, so we understand the principles of their fighting styles.”

“When we get to the Earth Ponies, what happens then?” Duke asked.

“They’ll pull us out by cart,” Aprotelese answered simply.

“Is there a secondary extract?” Frost asked.

“There is,” Aprotelese said. “If absolutely necessary, we’ll use our comms to call in Wonderbolt support. They’ll have the tools necessary to distract the dragons and stay safe themselves, and they can fly us out by flying carriage. This obviously isn’t ideal…”

“Because if we get made, we’ll be fireballed right out of the sky,” Duke finished.

“Precisely,” Aprotelese said. “The Earth Pony convoy should be safe at the bottom of the valley. We’ll be in contact with them the whole time, so if something goes wrong, we’ll know instantly.”

“So there are lots of backup plans?” Amel asked worriedly. “You’ll be able to come back safe?”

“Always,” Frost said.

“Don’t worry,” Aprotelese said. “I’ll get your men back home.” Amel released a pent up breath in relief.

“And we understand that OGA will be there,” Duke said.

“That’s what Celestia told us,” Aprotelese said. “Everything will be done to secure him. Our first priority, of course, is to hit the scientists and set up explosives on the gas supply, but while we do that, you guys will get your man.”

“Good,” Duke said. “Do we know anything about the caves themselves?”

“Just that there are both narrow and wide corridors, and the cave system is fairly extensive,” Aprotelese said. “The source of our PONINT, or I guess GRYPHINT, in this case, couldn’t find an exact layout, but it looks like it’s mostly one level inside. The mountain is huge, though, so it could easily be way more.”

“Sounds like it may be some work,” Frost said.

“And it needs to be quiet work,” Aprotelese said. “You guys got sound suppressors for those things of yours from Luna, right?”

“We did,” Duke said.

“You’re gonna need them,” Aprotelese said.

“Feels almost like we’re SEALs right now, eh, Duke?” Frost commented.

“Yeah, but we’re Air Force, so I guess we’re just cooler,” Duke said. Both men laughed for a moment at the joke.

“The enemy presence will be significant,” Aprotelese said. “The op shouldn’t take long, so food isn’t a huge priority. Water will be important, since it’s hot and dry in the Dragons’ lands, but anything that isn’t necessary should be replaced with ammunition and weapons.”

“We won’t be taking any grenades,” Duke said. “In such a confined space, it might not be such a great idea to toss one. Especially with OGA there.”

“That won’t stop the gryphons from tossing those orbs,” Mosquito commented from the side.

“If they throw one at you, either run or throw it back,” Frost said. “But don’t try to clear a room with one if you don’t know what’s in there.”

“Understood,” Mosquito replied.

“Anything else we need to know?” Duke asked.

“That should be it,” Aprotelese said. “If anything else comes up, we’ll let you know. We leave tomorrow night.”

Duke slapped his legs and stood up. “Alrighty then. Good stuff, everyone,” he said. “Now, let’s just chill until tomorrow. Gotta rest up for this one.”

“Amen to that,” Aprotelese said. “Alright, boys, let’s clean ourselves up and rest.”

The Nighthawks got up and left the room to recover from their own mission over the last few days. Operators at their level all knew how it felt to be constantly sent out like this, so any time there was a chance to rest, they grabbed it and didn’t let go.

“We’ll assemble our gear tomorrow,” Duke said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Frost replied.

“For now, I’m going to go to Twilight’s castle and find books to read,” Duke said. “You two enjoy yourselves.”

“Will do,” Frost said with a thumbs-up. Duke gave a peace sign and walked out.

Frost and Amel remained in their spot, wondering what they should do. Frost wanted to go do something fun before the mission, but most of the town was pretty wrecked. Ponies were in bad spirits right now.

“You know, I think this town could use something cheerful,” Frost thought aloud.

“What?” Amel replied. “What are you thinking of?”

“I don’t know,” Frost said. “I’m trying to think of something we could easily just do right now. So much damage was done to the town that I don’t know what’s even available.”

“Well, Princess Twilight’s castle is still standing quite strong,” Amel suggested. “There may be something in there.”

“Genius!” Frost shouted, pulling Amel to his chest. “Off we go!” And Frost picked Amel up once again and ran out of the house with her.

He didn’t run for long since Amel was not the easiest to carry, especially when she squirmed like she did, so Frost wound up walking most of the way. Ponies gave them silly looks, many of them shaking their heads at the sight. Word spread about how the two of them tended to be, but it was still funny to see it in reality.

When Frost and Amel arrived at Twilight’s castle, the guards let them pass right away and head up the building. Frost opted for the elevator instead of the stairs and bypassed the throne room where Twilight and her council were no doubt busy. He was more interested in the library and what may be contained within.

When they arrived, there were even more guards outside the library than outside the main door into the castle. They all smiled at Frost as he carried Amel past them into the library, offering a quick nod their way. Their job looked pretty boring, and Frost couldn’t be less jealous of them.

Once inside, Frost set Amel down and let her walk on her own again. He would need her help finding something fun they could do with some townsponies. He wasn’t looking for anything like a book or board game, though. It had to be something everypony could participate in freely, or at least watch and enjoy.

“Amel, what’s something anypony can partake in?” Frost asked, beginning his search.

“Ummmm…” Amel said. She had trouble thinking of something. “I don’t know.”

Frost started toward the left side of the room. “Come on, what did you used to do for fun with your buddies?” he asked. “Me and my guys would tell stories and stuff, but the main story right now isn’t very happy.”

“Well, we had a few things that most Saddle Arabians did,” Amel began. “Every culture has something. We used to dance, sing, weave tales, brush each others’ coats and manes…”

“I liked that first one, dancing, and singing goes along with that really well,” Frost said. “What kind of music did you usually go with?”

“Cultural Saddle Arabian music,” Amel said. “I don’t know exactly how I could describe it in a language not my own. It is very particular.”

“What instruments are used?” Frost asked. He finished searching through his area and had only found books and artifacts of the past. One case had a bunch of random things in it, from a familiar green piece of headwear, to a scarf, and all the way to a hammer. He didn’t spend much time on that exhibit.

“Well, we liked to use drums and strings,” Amel said. “The strings are like the guitars here, but the drums have a more hollow sound. And we have flutes as well.”

“Sounds like old stuff,” Frost said.

“Very,” Amel said. “Before you rescued me, the master liked to get new music, like that of a mare from here known as Coloratura. I always loved listening to it and dancing with it.”

“Coloratura?” Frost asked. “If there was a music section, do you think she’d be in it?”

“For sure,” Amel answered. “She is very popular.”

“Okay, let’s go find a music section,” Frost said commandingly. Amel nodded and followed him through the library.

Finding the music section didn’t take long, since everything was alphabetical. Twilight kept a very well organized library. Frost went straight to the C section and located some CDs of this Coloratura’s music. Now they just needed a boom box or other speaker they could play the music through. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be one in the library.

“Let’s go ask Twilight if she has one,” Amel suggested. Frost agreed, and they took a CD with them down to the council.

The door was guarded, as all of the were, but the guards were reluctant to let them in this time. It took some convincing by Frost to get the guards to let them in. Amel tried to bat her eyelashes at them, but Frost stood in her way. They probably had laser focus anyway.

Eventually, they were allowed in, and they walked in on the council discussing how to best move resources around town to rebuild quickly. The mares didn’t even notice Frost and Amel walk in.

Frost cleared his throat, causing two of them to jump and the rest to whip their heads in their direction.

“I was wondering if you could help me out,” Frost said.

“We’re kinda busy here,” Rainbow Dash said, annoyed.

“I know, I won’t be long,” Frost answered. “I was wondering if you could get me a big speaker with a CD player.”

“Uh, sure,” Twilight replied. “But why?”

“Well, the ponies are in the dumps right now, and I think a little song and dance could fix it up real good,” Frost reasoned. “Everypony loves song and dance. Add a little rhythm to the rebuilding.”

“That could be enjoyable,” Rarity said. “It would certainly get everypony’s mood up.”

“That’s GREAT!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “I’ll be right back!” With that the pink party pony vanished into nothing.

“What,” Frost said.

“Just ignore it,” Applejack said. “Ain’t worth the thoughts it’ll consume.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Frost said.

Rarity scrutinized the pony and human who entered the room. Frost stood there like a classic guy, scratching himself in various spots and being sort of gross. Even if in a charming way. Amel sat next to him, clearly trying to get closer to him as slowly as possible.

IDEAAAAA!” Rarity thought. “Frost, would you do me a humongous favor?” she asked with a batting of her eyelashes. Amel twitched at the gesture.

“Shoot,” Frost said.

“I left my brush in Twilight’s room upstairs,” Rarity lied. “Would you mind going and getting it for me?”

Frost shrugged. “Sounds good to me,” he said. He was still waiting on Pinkie to do whatever she was doing, so he might as well do this in the meantime.

Frost left, and Amel went to follow. Before she could, though, she felt a magical force tug on her tail. When she turned to see what it was, she saw Rarity’s horn glowing and she had a mischievous smile on her face.

“Um, what are you doing?” Amel asked.

“The real question is, what are you doing tomorrow night?” Rarity asked.

Amel blinked. “Nothing?”

“And Frost?”

“He won’t be around,” Amel said with a poorly hidden hint of sadness.

Rarity snorted. “Hmm, that throws a wrench in my plans,” she murmured. “But! Time is not of concern, for we can do this after!”

“Do what?” Amel and the rest of the room asked at once.

“Amel, I am setting you up with an official date with the man of your dreams!” Rarity announced loudly.

Amel blushed furiously. “I-I-I-“ She couldn’t even begin a sentence.

“No buts, and no ifs!” Rarity said. She hopped out of her seat and moved over to where Amel was. “No more admiring from afar!”

“I’m never far- I mean, I don’t-“ Amel wasn’t even allowed to finish this time when Rarity put a hoof to her lips.

“Nope! This is finally going to happen!” Rarity said.

Amel looked to Twilight. “Well, Rarity is good at this, and it IS pretty obvious,” she said. Amel blushed some more. “Trust her, she’s good at this.”

“A friend of ours was in love with someone some time ago,” Rarity said. “She took forever to decide she wanted to go to him. I convinced her to, and from what we’ve seen and heard, she’s happier than ever before.”

Amel sighed. “What are you thinking of?”

Rarity whinnied giddily. “I was thinking that you two could-“

Before she could go on, Frost returned with no brush, but Pinkie Pie and a massive stereo. He looked confused, which everyone sort of expected, but otherwise satisfied with his journey.

“I got the stereo,” Frost said simply.

“Ah, good,” Rarity replied. “You should take that CD and go play it for the townsponies. I think the town square is a good place.”

“Sounds good to me,” Frost said. He turned to leave. “Coming, Amel?”

Amel looked to Rarity. “We’ll keep going later,” the alabaster mare said. Amel nodded, then ran after Frost and they left together.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “She needs to just go for it,” she said.

“Oh ho! This, from the one who could hardly stand when she was around the one she felt love for,” Twilight said.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted. All the mares laughed and enjoyed the memories of the past.



Frost carried the large stereo, which was surprisingly light, all the way to the town square with Amel at his side. Ponies were giving him strange looks, which made Amel a little uncomfortable, but he didn’t seem to care. He just kept on walking.

When they arrived at the town square, Frost didn’t even realize that the speaker didn’t need to be plugged in. He just popped the CD in and turned it on. Amel figured Pinkie would have weird stuff like that.

“Excuse me,” some stallion said timidly, walking up to Frost and Amel. “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna dance,” Frost replied casually. “What’re you up to?”

“Rebuilding my home,” the stallion said sadly and with some frustration.

“Well, everything goes better with music, right?” Frost said. “And besides, if you don’t give your bones a rest every now and again, or at least have some fun, you’ll fall apart.”

“I suppose that’s true,” the stallion said. “Rhythm is fun.” Frost nodded to him and he went back to work.

When the music finally started to play, Amel recognized it instantly. It was that song that signaled the complete turn of Coloratura’s career so long ago, from Pop diva to kind musical artist. When Amel first heard it, it gave her so much hope. It was one of her personal favorites.

“This sounds fun” Frost commented.

“It is,” Amel said.

Frost turned to her and extended his hand out. “Care to dance, then?”

Amel smiled and blushed. “I think I would like to,” she said.

Frost took Amel’s hoof in his hand and walked to the center of the square. With the music at full volume and a human and pony standing in the center of the square, everypony around stopped working and started watching. Frost took each of Amel’s hooves in his hands and kept his hands lower to adjust for her lack of height, even standing on her hind legs.

When the music picked up, he started moving back and forth with her and quickly went to spinning around and lifting her up. Amel laughed all the while, having an absolute blast while she and her man spazzed in the middle of the square. Whenever she landed, she made sure to keep her footing and hold onto Frost as h strongly as possible.

Amel was starting to grow exhausted, but it was just too much fun to stop. Frost was breathing heavily himself, but didn’t seem interested in stopping. As they spun once again, they each looked around a bit and started seeing ponies jumping in on the dancing and signing. All around them, the townsponies started to sing along with the music, even those who were still working instead of dancing, creating a lovely choir effect with their voices. It was interesting to Frost how so many ponies jumped in on the singing before long.

After a good bout of energetic dancing, Frost and Amel calmed it down a bit and started to do a sped up slow dance. The ponies around them were going nuts, having an awesome time. Frost hadn’t even realized how much they needed this.

“This is amazing!” Amel happily shouted over the music.

“I’m loving it!” Frost said back.

Just then Amel tripped and fell forward into Frost. They were having such a great time though that they both just laughed and used each other for support to stand. For a while; it felt like a long time; they just stood there like that.

“I think I need to sit,” Amel said, panting.

“Amen to that,” Frost replied joyously.

The duo moved off to the side to sit down, leaving the music player in the street so the other townsponies could keep dancing. For a minute, they just watched quietly, sharing their joy in the uplifting tone of the music. Amel glanced over at Frost, who wore a silly grin on his face, then found the same grin coming over hers.

“This was a good idea,” Amel said.

“It definitely worked out well,” Frost replied. “But I think I’m a little too tired to keep this up.”

“Me too,” Amel said. “Why don’t we leave it out here for them? They seem to be enjoying it.”

Frost looked out over the group and agreed. The pair decided to go back to the house to just chill out and spend the remainder of the day chatting or just sitting together. Amel was excited for t, much more than Frost really understood.

When they arrived at the house, they walked on in and went up to the room since they figured they might just end up sleeping soon anyway. Once upstairs and in the room, Frost closed the door and plopped onto the bed.

“Oooooh, that’s nice…” he said as he sunk into the mattress.

Amel climbed up next to him. “We certainly do have some nice things,” she said.

“I feel like James Bond,” Frost said, earning a raised eyebrow from a confused Amel. “I get all this nice stuff, and it’s the government that has to pay for it!” Frost and Amel laughed.

“That sounds like quite a life,” Amel said, laying down next to Frost.

“Well, it’s a dangerous life, so I guess it’s only right,” Frost said.

Amel rested her head on Frost. “It is dangerous…” she said.

“But Duke and I have each other’s backs, and the Nighthawks are a solid team,” Frost said, playing down the danger of the job. “No one can beat us, because we are tier one.”

Amel smiled. “You are certainly the best there is,” she said, maneuvering further on top of Frost.

Frost wrapped his arm around Amel. “Well, we try.”

“After you find OGA, what do you plan to do?” Amel asked.

“Return home,” Frost said quickly. “I have to. It’s kind of my duty.”

“Yes…” Amel said, trailing off. “Duty.”

“But hey! I’ll be sure to visit,” Frost said. “I’ll ask Celestia and Luna about how I could come back from time to time.”

Amel smiled. “That would make me very happy.”

“And that makes me happy,” Frost said. He let out a long yawn. “Man, the last few days have been tiring.”

“I know,” Amel said. She hugged Frost close and nuzzled him. “And you’ve earned a rest.”

Frost rubbed Amel’s side. “So have you.”

Amel wanted to say something, something she had been meaning to say for a while. It was hard, and the words were caught in her throat, making her feel like she was choking. But she had to say it.

“Umm, Frost?” Amel said uncertainly. “I was wondering… If, maybe, we could…”

Amel looked up to his face and knew that it wouldn’t work. Frost’s jaw was hanging open with drool slowly oozing out, his head turned to the side. Light snoring came from his mouth, and his eyes were totally shut.

“Be together.” Amel sighed as she finished her question-made-statement. She would have to bring it up another time. Now may not have been the best time anyway, since he was about to go on a daring mission, but it was still frustrating. Still, now she knew she had the courage to ask, and that was the last piece of the puzzle.

But for now, Amel figured it would be best to just sleep along, as hard times were still to come without a doubt. They came with some excitement, though, as she knew that when the hard times were over, the best of times would come.

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