Applied Learning
Everyone decided to hit the hay early that day; it wasn’t exactly the most relaxing thing to do, rescuing hostages from a building of unknown enemy numbers and trying to get out as quickly as possible with as few confrontations as possible. The men were dead tired, and had little desire to do anything at the moment.
That night, everyone slept soundly and without much disturbance. The only thing that kept it from being a perfect night’s sleep was the snoring coming from Prince Shining Armor over in Frost’s bed. It had taken Duke an extra half-hour to fall asleep, but he still managed it. A good night’s rest was the best recovery they could get after such an eventful operation.
As the men awoke, before the prince and even before Amel, they got up and started doing some morning stretches, get the muscles a little less tense. It was too bad they didn’t have a bathroom; a hot bath would have been nice.
Duke finished off his stretches first, more concerned about getting the stallions ready for more training. It wasn’t just for them; if the men kept themselves on their toes, they would be ready any time to go anywhere.
“Ahg.” Duke groaned. He rolled his head to either side, resulting in several muffled pops and a very pleasant feeling in his neck. “Frost, you remember those plans we had? For urban training?”
Frost stopped his own stretches for a moment and leaned against the wall next to the door. “Yeah. I think Amel dropped them onto the pile, over there.” Frost pointed generically at the pile of gear.
Duke frowned. “Thanks.” he said with mild sarcasm. He dredged over to the pile of their stuff and started looking it over. After a minute, he finally found the plans, and he grabbed them in his left hand and walked back over to his bed.
As he looked them over, he realized just how far they hadn’t actually gotten. They had a general plan for what they would do, but they had nowhere to do it yet. He wasn’t worried about getting permission; if it all went right, no one would actually know that there was a hostage simulation in progress. All he needed to know was where there was a good place to do it.
“Frost.” Duke began. Frost was still leaning on the wall, watching.
“Yeah?”
“I’m gonna head out into the city to find good areas for our training simulation.” Duke explained. “I’ll take the stallions with me, make them run laps and do stuff, I guess.” He yawned loudly, causing the stallion in Frost’s bed to stir. “While I’m out, you should try to get more information out of our friend here.” He pointed at Shining Armor. “I think he might still know more than he’s letting on.”
“Rog’.”
Duke stood up and moved away from his bed. “While you’re at it, try to see if you can get to talk to that other one, the mare. She might be able to help; could’ve overheard something.”
Frost nodded, pushing himself from the wall. “Anything else I should get done today?”
Duke’s eyes wandered to the ceiling, intricate and glittery with all the gemstones in it. “I’ll contact you over comms if I think of anything. But this might take up your day anyway.”
Frost looked over at the sleeping prince. “I’ll get on it as soon as he’s good. It’s a safe bet that waiting would be better for his friend.”
“Well enough, I suppose.” Duke replied, walking towards the door. As he opened it and took a step out, he had one more thing to say. “Oh, and Frost?” His partner raised his brow. “Nedal will be back today. Avoid him if you can. If you can’t, try to keep him away from the ‘guests’ and Amel. No need for an incident.”
“Got it.” Frost replied. Duke gave him a quick salute and stepped out.
Frost took a look outside; the sun was just coming up, so it was probably around six in the morning, possibly a bit later. He knew that Shining Armor was still asleep; he snored all night. Since it was a good bet that the mare Applebloom was also still sleeping, or at least resting, that left Frost with nothing to do for the time being. Thinking of nothing better to do, he walked over to the gear pile to rummage through it and check for anything that needs attention.
He could hear Amel stirring in her sleep through the blinds that served as walls, and wondered if bringing her along for the mare would be a good idea. Since the mare was a civilian, she might feel more inclined to talk to another civilian. Amel would be less intimidating than a human special operator wearing an ABU.
He leaned down and started going through the pile of gear, checking everything to make sure it was in tip-shape. The parachute cords were good, nothing was torn or worn out, no rust anywhere, all electronics worked, even if mostly useless here. It was all good.
Except one thing. “Where are they?” Frost wondered aloud, going back through the pile. He knew that they were in there, he and Duke had them specifically for the mission. They were actually pretty important, so he really needed to find them.
“Frost?” Amel said, appearing right behind him and making him flinch.
He turned his head, not really paying attention. “Yes? What is it?” he asked. “And why are you up?”
Amel frowned. “Well, your noise woke me. And I was wondering what you are doing.”
Frost turned back to the pile. “I’m looking for two pieces of clothing that Duke and I need for the future. They’re pretty important, so if you could help, that would be great.”
Amel wordlessly spun around and walked back to her little area. As Frost went through the pile, he could hear her moving items of varying light weights around, and soon, she returned carrying two maroon berets.
“Are these them?” she asked.
Frost smiled, brow half-raised, and took them. “Yeah.” he replied, setting them onto the pile. “But why did you have them?”
Amel shrugged. “I saw them and I was wondering what they were.They are headdress, yes?”
“Indeed.”
“But you have helmets.”
Frost chuckled. “And that’s where these came in.” Amel looked confused. “Here’s what we had planned; We drop into Pakistan, find OGA, and head to a predesignated extraction point. If we’re wearing our helmets, it means we’re safe and good to get picked up. If we’re wearing our berets, that means that our helmets were probably taken, and it isn’t safe for the helicopter to land and get us.”
“What’s a helicopter-”
“I’ll explain that another time.” Frost said quickly. “But back to the headwear, we also wear them for more formal or solemn occasions. If we lose one of our own, we’ll wear them at the funeral procession and take them off during to show respect.” Amel nodded in response, wondering how often he had needed to wear his beret.
After making sure that the berets were safely placed on the pile and were generally out of sight, Frost turned back around to Amel. She was sitting there, not really doing anything, just being a little pony in the middle of the floor. It made him think about how much danger she was probably in on a regular basis, and how she probably couldn’t defend herself.
It was just enough to remind him. “Hey, go grab that knife I gave you. It’s time to learn how to use it.”
Amel looked surprised, but immediately, a big smile crossed her face and she ran to her bed to get the knife. With a toss of her mattress, she had the knife, and when she came back, she had it in her teeth, ready to start learning.
Frost chuckled at her enthusiasm, going to retrieve his own knife, the FE9. From beside his bed, where he kept it, he took it up and took a quick look at it. The edge was incredibly sharp, much sharper than was safe to work with. But then an idea popped up; why not cut the already nasty sheets up and use them to cover the blade? Congratulating himself, he went about that and soon returned to Amel with a much less dangerous blade.
“Alright.” Frost began, checking one last time to make sure the cloth on the blade was secure. “Now, these are obviously very different knives. However, I do know how to use that one, so I will teach you to the best of my ability. And if you can defend yourself from me when I’m using THIS knife on any level of success, you can probably protect yourself from most people armed like this.”’
Amel set the knife on the ground. “رائع! Let us begin!”
Frost nodded. “All right. First, we’ll start off with holding it.”
“Like this?” Amel responded quickly.
Frost hadn’t been paying much attention, but when she said that, he had to look. Somehow, defying science, logic, and reason, she was holding the knife by bending what might be called a wrist joint and holding it within the bend. He blinked once, then twice, then a third time, unable to comprehend how it was being done.
“How do you... never mind. That’s good.” Amel looked perfectly innocent, holding the knife. She had no idea how much she was throwing her instructor off right now. “Okay, now let’s see your best cut and stab.”
Amel started with the cut. Being untrained, she just brought her foreleg up and then back down in a straight line, no arc or anything. When she went for the stab, she held the knife at a downward angle, but pushing straight forward. It amazed Frost that her foreleg could move in those directions at all.
Frost drank the sights in with a dose of humility, remembering when he first started. His teacher was an ass, and it took him awhile to learn, so he decided to try to be nice. “All right, not terrible for your first time.” Amel waited. “But there were a couple of things you need to fix.”
Frost cleared his throat, bringing up his own knife. “When you go for a cut, you want to make sure that when you contact your target, or pretend target, in this case, that you draw as soon as you initiate that contact. By pulling the knife towards you once you hit them, you use the blade to cut into them. If you just keep going down, that’s a hacking attack, and that’s only good for larger blades. For example, mine is good for that.”
Amel brought her knife back up and went through the motion slowly, trying to get it all down in her head. “So I give them the blade,” she said, bringing it down before her and stopping it. “Then I take it back.”
“As good an analogy as any.” Frost replied. “As for the stab, you really need to make sure that the blade is perpendicular, or going straight into, the target. If it goes in on an angle, it won’t be as likely to go in the right way, or even at all. What you did, also, was a jab; stand still, thrust forward. A good stab involves the use of your bodyweight to generate more force and drive the knife in.” He emphasized the point on driving the knife in by putting his left hand on the unsharpened section of the false edge and shoving it forward.
“Okay.” Amel said, trying the new stab. She was having trouble keeping the blade forward as she stabbed at the air, something Frost wasn’t particularly glad to see. He had another idea, though; Take a pillow, hold it out in front of him, and have her stab it. Once again, happy about his ability to come up with solutions to simple problems, he went over and grabbed a pillow.
When he returned, he pushed the pillow out in front of him and stood before Amel. “Stab the pillow.”
Amel looked ready at first, but then unsure. “Are you certain?” she asked, concern highlighting her features.
“It’ll be fine. I’ll keep it up.”
Amel nodded and did as she was told, stabbing the pillow with as much force as her body could muster. She did move Frost back a few paces, what with her pony anatomy and strength, and soon enough, she was able to get it. Once she understood the basic attacks, Frost went over how to block enemy blades with her own and how to effectively get out of the way of attacks. After about three hours of teaching, Amel was able to parry, evade, and roll out of the way of most attacks.
Frost smiled approvingly as Amel hopped back up, albeit gracelessly. “Good.” he said, clapping his hands together. “You seem to generally have the motions in your head.”
Amel smiled. She was panting and sweaty, trying to from the words to express her gratitude. “Thank yo-”
“Now for the fun part!” Frost shouted excitedly.
Amel blinked, confused. “What?”
Without warning, Frost lunged forward, bringing his own knife, still covered in cloth, to bear. With a big motion, to make it obvious as to what his action would be, he brought his arm up and swung it down with moderate force, Amel’s eyes exploding in size and a loud gasp escaping her muzzle. She ducked sideways, falling down, and rolled away.
As she got back up, she shouted, “What are you doing?!” Frost didn’t respond, though, only came at her again. He moved much slower than she knew he could, shoving his hand forward with the knife pointed at the mare. Unable to get out of the way, Amel made an arc with her foreleg through the air and knocked Frost’s arm to the side. With an opening available, she took her own knife, somehow wedged in her other foreleg, and pointed it at Frost, holding it just before his abdomen.
Frost stopped moving. “What are you doing?” Amel asked, extremely angry.
“Testing you.” Frost said like nothing had happened. “And I think that you’ve passed for now.”
Frost extricated himself from in front of Amel and walked over to his bed, placing the knife back. “For now?” Amel asked, unhappy with what that implied.
“For now.” Frost affirmed. Stepping away from his bed, he looked over at the prince, who was rolling around like he was ready to wake up. “And for now, I have some things that need doing. And I may need you with me.”
He walked over to Shining Armor’s bed and started shaking the prince, urging him to wake up. Amel trudged over, exhausted, wishing that she wouldn’t potentially be needed for whatever Frost need to do. She quietly watched as Frost brought the sleeping prince back into the real world.
“What?” Shining asked tiredly.
“Get up. I have a few questions.” Frost stepped back as he spoke, giving Shining some room to move. Most people would say that you shouldn’t ask people questions right after they get up, but Frost remembered learning once that that time is when their inhibitions aren’t at full strength. That and when they’re drunk, but Frost didn’t have time for that.
Shining Armor rolled off the bed and stood tall, joints cracking and muscles stretching. “Shoot.” he said with a loud yawn.
“Great.” Frost replied. “My first question; How large a problem is this group, the Hawkani?”
“They’re the largest group of criminals and terrorists in the world.” Shining answered. “They cause serious trouble everywhere except for Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and a few other nations.”
“What kind of trouble?”
Shining shrugged. “The usual; kidnappings, bombings, generally causing mayhem and paranoia. They’re dangerous, but we’re doing a good job of fighting them.”
“Where are the most concentrations of them, where they would keep high-value individuals?” He was implying OGA, but Shining had no need to know that.
“Most of them are in the Southern Gryphon Colonies, but we don’t generally send any but our finest there to take them down. In the last couple of years, it practically became a no-stallion’s land. You go there, you’re not likely to get help from any locals.”
“Damn.” Frost thought. He and Duke would need help if OGA ended up down there. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”
“Tell me about it. It only got worse when dragons started going there to make their cave-homes.”
Frost froze. Dragons? He actually said dragons? “You said dragons.” he deadpanned. Shining nodded. “Greeeat.”
“Yeah, even Celestia and Luna’s 117th can’t take on the number of dragons down there.” Frost looked at Shining like he was speaking Arabic. “The Nighthawks.”
Frost ignored the unit’s familiar name and moved onto the last question. “Okay then. Lastly, what kinds of prisoners do they generally hold onto? Do they ever terminate prisoners?”
Behind Frost, Amel silently gasped at the question, a horrified expression on her face. Executing Prisoners of War in their world, at least, had been outlawed after Discord’s defeat.
“They keep valuable prisoners. I thought you would be able to figure that out.” Shining replied. He meant no offense, though.
“Good enough for me.” Frost concluded. “Thanks for your help.”
Frost turned around and patted Amel on the shoulder as he began to walk away. “Any time.” Shining replied as the human and mare exited the room. When they were gone, he walked over to the window and looked outside. There were many things for him to take care of, but he wouldn’t be able to take care of them here.
“I need to get home. They'll need me soon.” he worried, looking longingly in the direction of his home.
Frost and Amel walked through the halls with purpose, the human occasionally acknowledging guards who saluted them as they passed. Amel kept up at a nervous gait, still not overjoyed at walking through the palace halls with so many guards around. They made her uncomfortable, as they would to any civilian.
The pair had to stop and ask for directions multiple times, much against Frost’s initiative. When they got lost, Amel had to bite Frost’s pants to make him stop, then ask a nearby horse for help. Every time, Frost would tap his foot impatiently, then, when Amel finally got the directions, he would start off in the direction without hearing the full directions.
In time, they reached a wing of the palace that they were unfamiliar with. Frost couldn’t read the sign above the hall, but Amel could. “Authorized Personnel Only”.
“Maybe we should get a guide first.” Amel suggested.
Frost waved his hand on front of himself. “Pssh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. When we explain why we’re here, they’ll let us in.”
“I don't know...”
“Well, I’m heading in. Feel free to join me.” Frost started walking down the hall at a slow pace, using it to encourage Amel to join him. Reluctantly, she ran up to his side and walked beside him, keeping extra close in the unwelcome area.
The walls in this area were certainly different; there were no decorations or anything. They were totally bare, with a few signs and words carved out into the walls by doors. Amel would read them off as they passed, and they would decide whether or not to knock on the doors and check.
They passed almost a dozen rooms; “Analysis”, “Intelligence”, “Barracks” multiple times, “Physical Training”, “Tactics”, “Mess”. There was more than one of each, and with the labels on them, it was clear that this was the guards’ section of the palace.
They kept on walking, not once encountering anyone to send them back the way they came. It was an oddly empty wing of the palace at the moment, though Frost did not mind. If the mare Applebloom was here, it would make his life that much easier to be able to find and talk to her without interference.
They took two left turns and went down a flight of stairs, then took a right and then another left. At this point, they were just wandering the halls, looking for a room that might have Applebloom in it. Down here, there were very differently labeled rooms; “Weapons”, “Smith”, “Debrief”, and, most significantly, “Special Care”.
At the “Special Care” door, Frost stopped and stared forward. This was the most likely room to have the mare in it, and it was the most likely that she was with a doctor of some sort at the moment. As long as no guards came in while he and Amel were inside, he should be able to lie his way into talking to the mare.
“Let’s go in.” Frost said, pushing the door open and sauntering inside like he belonged there. Amel took in a deep breath to calm herself, then followed close behind, hoping that nothing would happen inside.
Inside, the walls were whitewashed and bare, like a manufacturing room in a microchip factory. The floor was one surface, no tiles or grooves anywhere. The walls were much the same, only with anatomical drawings on boards and some other basic doctor’s office items. The ceiling had several long lights, though there was no way they were fluorescent, as they gave off too much normal light. At a regular-looking desk sat a horse in a plain white coat with two pockets on the front.
“ماذا تفعلون هنا؟” he asked.
Frost looked down at Amel, but she was standing stock still. After a quick nudge, she came back into the real world.
“What do I say?” she asked. Frost just shrugged. She sighed loudly. “لقد ارسلنا الى هنا للحديث معه.” she said to the doctor.
The doctor looked skeptical, but replied simply, “ما يرام. ولكن أنا لا أريد منك أن يسبب أي مشاكل.”
Amel translated for Frost, explaining that they could talk, but couldn’t cause any kind of commotion. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” he replied.
WIth that, the doctor went back to whatever work he had at his desk and let Frost and Amel approach the mare, who was facing the wall. As they closed in, Frost could see the treatment she had received from the local doctors all over her body. Her cuts had been stitched up very well and looked perfectly clean, more than Frost honestly expected from these guys. Her bruises looked like they had ceased their swelling from when Frost first found her, so that was good. There were no signs of serious infection anywhere, either. All that could only mean that she was in good enough shape to talk.
When he stood directly over her, he turned once to Amel. “Try to be casual, make everything seem fine.” he explained. Once Amel got herself ready, calming her breathing and getting rid of the tension in her body, Frost went to business.
“Applebloom.” he said quietly, hoping he got the name right. “Applebloom.”
“Huh?” the mare replied, rolling over to face her new conversation partner. “What?” She brought her hooves up to rub her eyes.
“Hi Applebloom.” Frost said slowly. “I’m Frost. I just have a few questions for you.” He waited for a response; instead, all he got was an increasingly wide-eyed look from the mare. “I have to know-”
The mare suddenly shot up and grabbed Frost in a big hug, squeezing on his neck. “Y’all saved me from them gryphons!” she shouted. Frost couldn’t reply in the tightness of the hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Frost made several choking noises to try to indicate that she was suffocating him, but she must not have heard them. “Easy there, miss, it’s all fine now.” Amel said, getting herself into the fray and removing Applebloom’s legs from Frost’s neck. “You are safe.”
Frost stated sucking in air, eliciting a blush and a sheepish smile from the mare on the table. “Sorry.”
“It’s all good.” Frost replied. He turned his head to Amel. “Thanks.”
She blushed herself and turned away. “Think nothing of it.”
Frost nodded and turned back to Applebloom. “Anyway, as I was saying, I have a few questions for you.”
The mare looked over to the doctor, who had turned to see the commotion, then hopped off the table when he made no move to tell her not to. “Alrighty then.”
Frost moved over to a wall and leaned against it, getting comfortable. “I need to know if you heard anything about any plans or set-ups that the Hawkani group has. Anything at all.”
“Kind’f a broad question.” Applebloom replied with a frown. “Anyhow, Ah don’t know anything that can help y’all there.”
Amel walked up to the mare and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “That’s fine.” she said with a nice smile. “Did you ever hear anything about a... special prisoner? One that wouldn’t be like any others?”
Applebloom thought. “Now that ya mention it, Ah did hear about some special guy being held in a valley.” As much as that might have seemed helpful, Sauri had already said that a good friend of his was there. Not useful. “They said he needed to be guarded extra careful.”
“How about his physical appearance?” Frost asked. “Anything out of the ordinary?”
“Nah, no one said anything about his physical appearance.” So it was a he. Still, not very useful. “Other than that, they mostly just tried to get information out of me.”
Frost sighed inwardly, but kept his composure the same to avoid making the mare feel like she hadn’t helped. “Alright, thanks for the help. Get well soon.” He turned away to walk out.
“Wait!” Applebloom shouted.
Frost turned around to see that the two mares were both staring at him intently. “Yes?”
Applebloom looked to Amel, who looked back, then back at Frost. When Applebloom returned her gaze to him, he could see a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
“What kind of human are you?” she asked.
Frost wasn’t sure how to answer that one. “Uhh... Military?” he said. Applebloom’s eyes got even brighter. “Air Force Pararescue?” he added, curious.
Then, the hope died. Just flatlined. “Oh. Okay.” Applebloom said hopelessly. Frost raised a questioning eyebrow at her. “It’s nothing.” she said oddly quickly.
With more questions than before, but expecting that she would only share about as much as Shining Armor, Frost nodded and turned around. “Okay then... get well soon. Let’s go, Amel.”
Amel ran after the human, waving goodbye to her fellow mare as she left. As Frost walked away from the infirmary, he could only wonder about what exactly he and Duke had fallen into through that damn cloud over Pakistan. All he knew was that there was a lot more going on than he had been expecting, and it went much deeper than the CIA would ever think it could.