//------------------------------// // Calm Before the Storm // Story: That Others May Live // by CptBrony //------------------------------// Calm Before the Storm After Celestia left, Duke, Frost, and Amel used the remainder of the day to chill out in the house and recover from the exertion and tension of the day. Amel took care of most of the things that had to be done, like preparing food, and refused to let the men help. They had more than earned a solid day or two of pure rest. The next day, the Nighthawks were set to arrive back in town at around 1300 hours, so the trio had some time to kill. They all woke up earlier than they wanted to at around 0800 hours, but they had gotten a good nine hours of sleep, so they couldn’t complain too much. They started the day off in the living room to decide what they would do. Amel wouldn’t let the men exert themselves by helping with the rebuilding of the town, so they thought about what they could do for leisure. “Where can we go out of town for just about four hours?” Frost wondered aloud. “Well, if it was one hour away, we could spend two hours there and then come back,” Duke offered up. “So something in the forest wouldn’t be so bad.” “The forest is dangerous,” Amel warned. “If we have our weapons, we won’t have to exert ourselves to stay safe,” Frost countered. “True,” Amel conceded. “So we could easily hit up the Everfree today,” Duke said. “What’s there to find in there?” “Well, there’s nature and animals to spot,” Frost said. “Chill out and watch the owls.” “Anything interesting?” Duke deadpanned. “There’s an old castle that used to belong to the princesses in there,” Amel said. The men perked up. “Yes, an abandoned castle. Somewhat dangerous, but not so bad. We would just have to be careful.” “Well, I think that sounds like a real interesting idea,” Duke said. “Frost?” “I like it,” Frost said. “I’ve always wanted to explore abandoned places.” “Like most of where we operate?” Duke joked. “So how hard would it be to get there?” Frost asked. “I think it’s just about forty minutes into the forest,” Amel said. “Plenty of time!” Duke proclaimed. “I say we go.” “Is there a path to follow?” Frost asked. “Yes, I do know the path,” Amel replied. “How do you know all this?” Frost asked. “What else am I to do while you men are off saving the world?” Amel asked. Duke stood up. “Well, let’s get moving! Time’s a-wasting.” The men retrieved their sidearms, and the trio got up and moved out, intent on staying out of sight of the town to avoid being brought into the hard labor of rebuilding. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to help, but with the potentially most difficult op of their lives coming up in a couple of days, they had to be fully prepared. They stuck to the edge of town and quietly made their way to the start of the path. Once there, Amel took one look in and Frost could see the nervousness and regret of mentioning the idea on her face. “Don’t worry,” Frost said giving her a pat on the rump. She instantly looked up at him in surprise. “We’ll be fine.” “Ok,” Amel said. “He touched the butt!” Duke said, walking forward and pretending to be the fish from Finding Nemo. “See, you see that as an accomplishment because you can’t even with your own girl,” Frost said. Duke feigned being struck. “Agh! He knows too much! “ he shouted. Amel laughed. “How did you even make it into this job?” she asked. “By being the ones who don’t take everything too seriously,” Frost said. The trio started their way into the forest and kept up a relatively fast walking pace. In the forest around them, they could see yellow eyes staring at them, though they never moved, almost like they were painted onto the darkness. The classic hooting of owls echoed through the forest, and it was easily the most stereotypical spooky forest they had ever walked through. After some time, though not quite forty minutes, they came upon the old castle Amel mentioned. The bridge looked like it had been recently fixed up, which was odd, but it could have been a tourist attraction. From the trench below, though, Duke could swear that he was hearing voices. It sounded like a bunch of gruff men, like the Green Beret he wasn’t able to save so long ago. “Do you guys hear that?” he asked. “Yeah,” Frost replied. “Sounds like…” “Like what?” Amel asked. “I hear some of my old friends from Akhal Teke.” “No…” Frost said. He took a deep breath. “I hear my mother.” “I hear the voice of a Green Beret I lost earlier in my career,” Duke said. He was officially getting seriously spooked. “We all hear something different.” “We all hear something or someone who was close to us,” Amel continued. “People we couldn’t save,” Frost finished. “I say we cross and get inside,” Duke said. “The sooner the better.” “Amen to that,” Frost said. The trio hurriedly made their way across the bridge and into the castle, where the voices couldn’t reach them any more. Something in that trench wasn’t just magic, it was haunted, and unfortunately, they would have to go back across it when they left. “So, here we are,” Frost said, slapping the sides of his legs. “Shall we?” “I’ll take point,” Duke said. “At this point, I’m thinking this place doesn’t actually want us here.” “I agree,” Amel said timidly. She was shaking, so Frost picked her up the way he held her the day before, just with one arm under her and the other sitting on his pistol. Duke pulled his pistol out already and led the way through. He figured he was just spooked now and would probably put his gun away soon, but he didn’t have the energy to fight his instincts right now. They made their way through the castle, and very quickly, when all the spookiness subsided, they started taking in the incredible sights. Duke put his pistol away again to avoid accidentally shooting a silver vase or something, and there were many of those and other valuables present. At first, the group wondered why no one plundered the ruins, but after thinking about the trench for a moment, it was pretty obvious why. The hallways were long and dark, but with the occasional candle sitting on the side. They didn’t have a lighter with them, but under each candle was a set of three unused matches and the strip to ignite them, so they could still have some light. As they went, Duke lit each candle so they could more easily find their way out. When they left, he would put them out one by one. The first corridor they went down led them to a huge empty throne room. In the center, the throne sat cold and lonely, asking for someone to sit on it. “Let’s check it out,” Frost said, looking to the throne. Duke moved to the throne and started inspecting it for safety. On the back, though, he found, something written there, as well as a small grouping of little bloodstains on the ground. From what he knew of forensics, and he did know a little, he could tell that the blood came from blunt force trauma, probably someone’s head hitting the ground. Or it could have come from blood flying off someone’s head as they went to the ground. “Something is written here,” Duke said. “What?” Frost asked. “Evil lurks in every crevice,” Duke read aloud. Amel gripped Frost tight. “I don’t like the sound of that,” she said. “Whatever was here, I think it was gone long ago,” Duke said. He felt the etching and pulled dust out. “This is a deep etch, and it’s filled with dust.” “As long as we’re good,” Frost said. Duke rubbed his finger to his thumb. “Alright. Let’s go see what else is around here.” The trio continued their exploration of the castle in a new direction. Duke continued to light the candles as they passed them, throwing weak but still useful light throughout the corridors and occasional staircase. There was dust everywhere, and it was thickly accumulated, too. The men could see their footprints when they walked past. Which was what made Duke stop. “Hey, Frost,” Duke said. “Yo?” Frost replied. “We didn’t come this way earlier, right?” Duke said. “No,” Frost answered, sounding concerned. “Why?” “Duke knelt down and looked at the ground. Before him, there were two sets of footprints. One was of what looked like running shoes, something nopony would ever need here. The other was of bare feet, and they went in the same direction with no footprints going the other way. “There’s two sets of people’s footprints here,” Duke said. “Two?” Frost asked. “I’ve been hearing about a human who was here long ago,” Duke explained. “But two? Unless OGA is here somewhere, there shouldn’t be two, let along one set of footprints.” “Weird,” Frost said. He wasn’t too concerned about that, though. If he and Duke were there, there could easily have been more humans around before them. Duke looked up. “Let’s see where these go,” he said. “You’re the lead,” Frost said. The men went up a staircase at the end of the hall and through another hall to a large wooden door. Duke opened it very carefully to avoid breaking it and they found a library contained within. Duke led the way in and made sure it was safe, then Frost carried Amel in. “Hey can I put you down now?” Frost asked. “My arm is getting tired.” “You saying she’s fat?” Duke asked jokingly. Frost bounced Amel up and down, earning a little squeak. “She’s just hefty,” Frost said with a laugh. Amel hopped off of him and walked on her own, feeling comfortable now that they had seen the castle was safe. “Let’s see what kinds of books are around here,” Duke said. “Maybe something can explain the other human. Or humans.” “While you do that, I’ll look up animal life and see if I can’t find stuff about gryphons,” Frost said. “Maybe dragons too, in case we run into any.” “That would be an end-all, I think,” Duke said. “Dragons?” Amel asked, already terrified. “No worries, we probably won’t see any anyway,” Frost said dismissively. Duke went off to research humans in Equestria while Frost and Amel made their way to the taxonomy section to find anything about life forms from around the world. Dragons were Frost’s main concern, but Amel was looking for magical creatures famous from the stories she had heard as a filly. Frost went to the D section and Amel just stared from and moved back from there. There was nothing from Z to X that she didn’t already know, but when she hit W, she found something very interesting. When she pulled the book and opened it, she realized this particular book was written in very old Equish, so she couldn’t possibly read it. “Frost,” she called. “Heyo?” Frost replied. “Do you think you could read this?” Amel asked. Frost walked over and took the book. After one look, he knew it would be hard, especially in the hoofwriting it was in, but he thought he could manage. He flipped back to the first page to see what the book was about, but he couldn’t make out the name. Under its aliases, he was able to read Spirit, Ether, and Wraith. “Let’s see,” Frost said. He flipped a couple of pages ahead and started trying to read, but many of the words were hard to make out. It didn’t help that they were smudged. “What is it?” Amel asked. “I am unfamiliar with the strange picture on the front. It’s just a sort of mist.” “All I can make out is ‘Everyone sees it eventually.’ Later on the page…” Frost squinted. “It says ‘See you soon.’” “Spooky,” Amel said. “Spooky indeed,” Frost said. He put the book away. “Let’s just pretend we didn’t read that.” Frost and Amel decided to forego their own quest for knowledge and go find Duke. It wasn’t hard, as he was making all manner of frustrated little noises. When they came upon him, they found over a dozen books laying on the ground, pages folded and in general disarray. “Not a fan of books?” Amel asked jokingly. “Not of books that don’t have what I want,” Duke replied. “I swear, every bizarre creature in this land is basically something normal from back home.” “Like what?” Frost asked incredulously. “Apparently, there’s a race of horses in this world that isn’t intelligent like us, and they look exactly like the horses back home,” Duke said. “Same dimensions, same noises, everything. And it’s weird to them.” “Ha!” Frost laughed with a slap of his knee. “That’s pretty great.” “And there are things similar to humans or human myths, but no actual humans,” Duke said. “There is supposed to have been a guy here not long ago, but before that, it looks like there never was.” “It is possible,” Amel said. Duke turned to look at her. “The last two decades have had some of the greatest changes in the world ever seen. Things haven’t changed so much in such a short time since just over a thousand years ago, when Discord, Nightmare Moon, and others came about.” “Great, so it’s a millennial thing,” Duke said. “And I guess we’re a part of the new one.” Amel giggle. “Is that really so terrible?” she asked. “Things always get better after these.” “You say that as if you have over ten thousand years of history to go off of,” Frost said. Amel shrugged. “One for one, that’s a hundred percent,” she said. “True enough,” Frost said. Duke pulled another book off the shelf, opened it, and dropped it to the floor. It was about some sort of creature known as Ahuizotl, and a long line of sentient creatures that shared the name. It wasn’t relevant to humans in any way. “This is useless,” Duke said. “I say we get on out of here. It’s almost time to leave anyway.” “Sounds good to me,” Frost replied. “Okay,” Amel said. Frost picked her up again and the trio made their way out of the castle. As they walked back across the bridge and through the forest, Duke, Frost, and Amel all thought about what the coming days would bring. There would be laughter, merriment, drinks, and food, followed by shouting, flames, blades, and blood. It was an interesting life, to be sure, but deep down, the men knew it wouldn’t last forever. They knew it all had to stop eventually, by choice of retirement, or force of being relieved of duty. But for now, thought of war could wait. They all just had to focus on the present and what they were going to do tonight.