The New Team
The next morning, Duke and Frost got up early to go and find the workout area. They needed to get in a good workout, as they hadn’t been able to do so lately. It would be good for their muscle health, and they might be able to make some more friends while there.
They had to ask directions from guards several times, mostly because some of them didn’t even respond when asked. They were obviously taking their duties very seriously, but what harm could there have been in just giving the men directions? Frost first thought that the guards were being cold and unfriendly, but Duke quickly pointed out that they were like that from the moment the men first saw them.
So they took some time to find the workout area. When they did get there, the guard wouldn’t let them in, citing some now out of date regulation preventing non-equestrian individuals and non-military personnel from entering. After some debate with the guard and citing their special agreement with the princesses, the guard reluctantly agreed to let the men in.
When the men walked in, they were no less than impressed. The room was enormous; bigger than the small stadium they had in Saddle Arabia. There were also a lot more guys in there training; mostly everything was being used. Ponies were at the bench, benching significant weights considering their physiology. Pegasi were in the air, doing incredible aerial maneuvers that the men wouldn't have thought possible at high speeds such as theirs, and Earth Ponies were running around the perimeter of the room.
There was a noticeable lack unicorns in the room, with just a few using their magic to lift gargantuan boulders and move them around. They were off to the side, out of the way with their dangerous equipment. The room stunk of the most pungent sweat the men had ever smelled, and they were forced to stop so they could acclimate for a moment.
While they stood in their spots, the stallions in the room started noticing them by the entrance. Many slowed down and stopped their work to see what the men looked like. Duke and Frost were only wearing undershirts and their fatigue pants. The soldiers around the room could clearly see the fit musculature on the humans, and they couldn’t help but wonder what those muscles could do.
Once the men were good to go, they advanced further into the room and realized that almost all eyes were on them. The stallions around them were quite large, and a buck from any one of them would total either man. Feeling awkward, the men decided to start their exercise with a two mile run around the room. As they determined the number of laps and their actions became obvious, the stallions let their attention return to their own workouts for the time being.
Duke and Frost started on their run and generally kept their eyes forward, occasionally sneaking glances at the other soldiers. The guys on the ground were certainly interesting, but it was the ones in the air that Duke was interested in. He looked up and tried to find Aprotelese, but he couldn’t remember exactly what he looked like.
“So, boss,” Frost said, pulling Duke’s eyes back to the ground. “What do you think of all this? I think that these guys look like some tough mofos.”
“Ditto,” Duke said. “But these guys on the ground aren’t what we’re going to work with. At least, not much. I’m more interested in what’s in the air right now.”
Frost glanced upwards for a moment. The pegasi were still going at it up there, shooting through hoops and loops, barely avoiding a horrific crash and burn at every turn. All of them had some serious weight attached to them as they flew through the air, slowing them down now, but enabling much greater speed later. If they let their bodies heal and muscles grow after each one of these, they could probably move at incredible speeds with astonishing control.
“Who do you think they are?” Frost asked. Duke shook his head, and a few beads of sweat flew off and splashed to the ground.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But they are impressive. I don’t know if Aprotelese is up there, though. He’s the guy I want to talk to.”
The men finished their run and thought about what they would do for the weight routine. Normally, they would be looking for a pool to get some swimming in, but odds were that these ponies didn’t swim too much. They opted to start with basic pushups, situps, and pullups, and set out right away.
The stallions started watching again, but this time, the men ignored them and kept going. After their warm-up, they moved onto the area that looked like it focused on the core. The men started working at a fast pace and didn’t slow down, hoping to gain some sort of favor with the rest of this community. In any warrior community, one universally respected trait is the ability to work without stopping.
After a comprehensive core workout, they got up to go and get some water. None of the stallions stopped them, nodding their respect as the men passed. They took turns at the water fountain, Frost going first and then Duke. While they drank up, a stallion came up from behind.
“I’m glad that you were telling the truth,” he said.
Duke stood up and wiped his mouth. “I told you,” he said, turning around and sticking his hand out. “We’re good.”
Aprotelese smiled and put his hoof in the hand and shook. “So I’ve been getting more information about the two of you,” he said. “You’re called Pararescuemen?”
“Thats right,” Duke said. “Though I’m also called a Combat Rescue Officer.”
Aprotelese’s smile faltered for a moment. “So, you’re an officer?” he asked. “You command a lot of guys?”
“In other units, I would,” Duke said. “But in this one, the missions generally don’t demand more than two or three guys. Usually it’s just the most experienced individual who takes the lead, though the highest-ranking guy does have the final say. But, we do listen to the more experienced guys when we somehow get paired up with them and aren’t them ourselves.”
Aprotelese smiled wide again. “That’s good to hear. I’ve never been a fan of units that rely on rank more than experienced operators.”
“No need to worry about that,” Frost said. “It’s about working together to come up with a solution and then someone leads the way through it. Our job demands that of us.”
“Yes, combat search and rescue,” Aprotelese said. “You rescue injured soldiers from the battlefield?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Duke said. “When we’re stationed somewhere, we can also be called on to rescue civilians. We do drop onto the battlefield and behind enemy lines to get our wounded, but we also recover pilots and flight crew who were shot down and survived and retrieve bodies. And when necessary, we can take on assaulter roles to go in with the other special operations units so that that have an experienced and highly trained medic available.”
Aprotelese nodded respectfully. “Sounds like one helluva job.”
“It is,” Frost said. “It’s hard, disturbing, disgusting, and painful, but it’s also the most rewarding job with some of the most amazing adventures in the community. We do it because we love it; otherwise, why would we do it?”
Aprotelese laughed. “Ain’t that the truth!” he said.
Duke realized that their hand and hoof were still connected and let go, letting both drop to their normal places. He looked up at the ceiling while Aprotelese and Frost exchanged a few words and watched the pegasi again. It must have been something, to fly like that. When he went to the Air Force Academy, he had actually gone to fly an F15E Strike Eagle, but fell in love with the idea of performing medical rescues behind enemy lines when he heard about it. Still, he wondered what it must be like to be in control of such powerful flight.
“So are those your guys?” Duke asked offhandedly.
“Hm?” Aprotelese said. “Oh, them? Nah, they’re not mine. And that means they aren’t likely to come down.”
“Why’s that?” Frost asked.
“Those are the boys from the 22nd battalion,” Aprotelese explained. “They take their physical training to a whole other level. They’re pretty much our counterpart; they do massive, rapid assault, day or night, and leave soon after with nothing but dust and destruction behind them.”
“And how would you describe your boys?” Duke asked.
“We take missions where stealth and sneaking around is a priority,” Aprotelese said, crouching to emphasize his point. “We do things more like what you do because we can be way more quiet. The citizens of Equestria will hear about those guys because their ops are loud and proud, while ours are silent but deadly. We have a couple of their guys who wanted to go into a more secretive unit, and those skills are incredibly valuable to us.”
“I can imagine,” Duke said.
Aprotelese turned to walk away while still looking at the men. “You guys wanna meet the team? They’ve been waiting to meet you.”
“Let’s do that,” Frost said. “Better now than later when it’s a bit late.”
They left the workout room and walked down several hallways to a small door that didn’t look like anything special. When Aprotelese opened it and they walked inside, Duke and Frost got to meet the stallions who make up Aprotelese’s squad in the 117th. They were all sitting around in various areas of the room, some reading, doing equipment maintenance, or other normal day to day activities.
“Team!” Arotelese announced. His stallions all looked up curiously. “These are the humans we’ll be working with.” Duke and Frost stepped forward. “They’re Duke and Frost, the Pararescuemen.”
Aprotelese’s teammates all stood and started walking over to get a better look at the humans. The physicality of the stallions varied greatly; all were pegasi, but their heights, musculature and bulkiness, and body ratios varied enough that they all looked distinct in the group. It would be helpful for when they were wearing gear and masks to identify who was who.
“Afternoon, gents,” Duke said. “It’s good to meet you.” The soldiers lined up in front of the men.
Aprotelese stood at the end of the line. “These are my stallions,” he said. Each of the five stallions introduced himself in order from the right of the men to the left.
“Aardvark.”
“Raven.”
“Tiger Shark.”
“Dart.”
“Phantasm.”
Duke and Frost shook the hooves of each soldier with a smile. Once they were all finished, Aprotelese gave them a wave to let them go back to whatever it was each of them was doing before the men arrived. There was no lingering to learn more about the men; the soldiers only seemed interested in their jobs.
“Are those their actual names?” Duke asked.
“Maybe,” Aprotelese said. “Maybe not. You may never know, Duke and Frost.” He leaned his head forward to give them a knowing look.
“Touché,” Frost said.
Aprotelese led them further into the room. “This is our relaxation room,” he explained. “We come in here after a good training simulation or workout and fix up and maintain the equipment. We only take about fifteen minutes, and then we head back to the training room. We’re only still in here because the 22nd is taking so much damn time in there.”
“They always do,” Dart said from the background.
“Eeyup,” Aprotelese said. “Every time.” He waved for the men to follow him. “Come on, I’ll show you some of our stuff.”
The men followed him through the room and through a hall at the back leading to a very heavy, very sturdy closed door. On it there were two indented markings shaped like wings, with some intricate lines and cords running within them. It looked sort of like a lock, like a hand analyzer or something Aprotelese walked up to it and flared his wings out, then got up on his hind legs and floated forward. At the door, he pressed his wings against it, and the door started glowing lightly. A moment later, it opened up and Aprotelese walked inside.
The men started forward. “That’s pretty cool,” Frost commented.
They walked in and examined the items in the room. There were dozens of blades, spears, and odd ranged weapons hanging on racks on the walls. On ponyquins throughout the room, there was pristine armor and uniforms very unlike the armor seen on other soldiers and the guards. It looked light, probably cut resistant but not necessarily the best for stopping blunt force. Helmets with different optics and features sat on the heads of the mannequins, and the body vests on them were laden with gear that the men could not understand.
“This is where we keep our stored gear,” Aprotelese said. “Some of it, at least. The stuff we don’t mind you seeing.”
“If this is what you don’t mind us seeing, I would love to see the door you keep the other stuff behind,” Frost said. He walked to one of the mannequins to see what it carried.
“That door is a secret,” Aprotelese said. “Suffice it to say, it isn’t too far away.” Who knew what other kinds of gear they had stored away that they didn’t want ponies to see?
“I’m seeing a lot of variation in the setups,” Duke said. He thoroughly examined several and found some very different types of gear. “Anything about that?”
“Well, everypony has a different role on the team,” Aprotelese said. “Like I told you before, we have guys from all kinds of units. Some are light and fast; others are strong and can knock down walls. We all carry standard equipment, but after that, each of us has something that caters to our specific skills. Kind of like you guys and your big medical kits.”
Duke nodded approvingly. “It’s good to have skill diversity on the team. You encounter a tough situation, you should be able to overcome it.”
“Exactly.” Aprotelese motioned for the men to follow him and started walking out. “You never know what the gryphons may pull, so it’s best to be prepared.”
They left the equipment room and then left the Nighthawk’s vicinity. The trio didn’t head back to the training room, instead heading down the hall toward the living barracks. It was the direction that Duke, Frost, and Amel were living in at the moment, so the men took the hint that conversation time had ended. It was nice, though, and they had gained quite a bit of insight into this other unit.
When they arrived at the hallway intersection, Aprotelese stopped.
“Well, it’s been fun, but I need to get my guys and go over some training simulations,” he said. “See you guys around.”
“See ya later,” Frost replied. Aprotelese walked past them down the hall back to his team. As he walked off, Frost quietly added, “Probably sooner than we think.”
The men made their way back to their room, where they found Amel not present. She left them a note explaining that she was invited to go on a walk with some visiting princess, Cadance, or something, and she wouldn’t be back for a bit. Duke and Frost decided that it was a good time to lounge around and check anything that needed checking. After that, they might head back to the library and do some research to find out about that other human.
Before they got started, though, there was a loud knock on their door. The men exchanged a glance, and Frost hopped up to answer the door. When he opened it up, a guard stood there completely stoic, as if he had never been knocking. Frost waited for a second, then raised his eyebrow at the awkwardly quiet guard.
“Sirs, the princesses request that you come see them in the throne room right away,” he said. “It is urgent.”
Frost turned to Duke, who was sitting on his bed. “Time to go,” Frost said.
Duke rose from his spot. “Then let’s go.” The guard walked away and the men followed, prepared for whatever came their way.