Warmth in an Arctic Jungle

Chapters

Canterlot Armed Forces
Arrival
A Temporary Shelter
Soaring Emotions
Canterlot Bound

Canterlot Armed Forces

The Main hangar at Canterlot Military Central was as busy as ever, the room was dominated by two key features: the massive assignment blackboard and the large group of Canterlot Airponies also awaiting assignment. Shining Armor intently looked over the blue-clad group, looking for his close friend Soarin as he made his way through the crowd towards the assignment board. His name was already near the top, but the slot next to his labeled “security” was empty. In spite of his impeccable record, Shining Armor was never permitted to travel through hostile territory without at least one security dispatch. No one ever seemed to notice that he always just happened to end up with Soarin as a private guard. Cadence knew all along what was happening in his mind, she knew her "Marriage" to Shining Armor was largely for appearance. She was always OK with it, Shining Armor was still her good friend and she understood that all stallions, no matter how great or small have needs. Needs that sometimes a mare couldn't fulfill. Besides, it wasn’t hard for a princess to have her own needs satisfied.

Armor was still looking through the Airpony ranks when he got to the main desk under the blackboard. After he snapped back to reality, he was asked if he had any preferences for his security partner; he somewhat shyly asked if Soarin was available for the mission. The clerk at the desk directed a Pegasus to add the name in Armor’s empty slot while she spoke into the PA system. “Soarin report to hangar Hotel Uniform Bravo, Soarin to Hotel Uniform Bravo.” With that, Shining Armor was dismissed to the proper hanger and could only hope that Soarin was available. Somehow though, these thing always had a way of working out.

Shining Armor made his way over to the deployment area, he was clearly one of the last to arrive as the small group of Guards and Airponies had already settled in. Flash Sentry entered the room and ordered everyone to calm down before explaining the tasks ahead of them. As the seats in the room began to fill up with guards and their respective partners, Shining Armor’s heart began to sink; Soarin was nowhere to be found. As Sentry continued to detail the upcoming scouting mission in the Griffonite Kingdom, Armor found himself looking wistfully at the door. “Alright as I’m sure you’ve noticed, this is an interbranch task. Griff’s lands are cold, harsh and huge; We’ve been fighting for four years and it looks like the Equestrian Embargo is only putting a scratch in their armor so the last thing we need is rivalries keeping this from progressing” Everyone in the room eyed each other as if anyone actually cared about the divides between the Equestrian Ground Troops or Royal Marines.

“Shining Armor!”

“Wha? Sorry sir!” he said standing up. While Armor technically outranked him, Sentry was still the assigning officer.

“Where’s your partner?”

“Hasn’t arrived, sir”

“Any idea where he is?”

“No Sir.”

“Dammit, Armor this is why you don’t chose the same assist every-”

Just then, a familiar voice came out of the hallway.
“WAAAAIT!” Soarin burst through the door and a wave of relief came over Shining. Flash turned towards the huffing Pegasus.

“How kind of you to join us Airpony, did you enjoy your walk through the garden?”

“Sorry sir” Soarin said between breaths of air. “I was caught up at the front desk”

“Blame the desk, great excuse.” Flash turned back to Armor “looks like you get to tag along after all.” All the standing parties sat back down. Armor begun to whisper.

“Soarin where were you?”

“I told you, I got held up at the desk”

“Seriously? You’re still going with that?”

“Alright, I had my hoof stuck in the candy machine. Happy?”

“OK if you don’t want to tell me, fine. Just try and show up earlier next time.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I really am. I swear I’ll make it up to you. I officially owe you a favor.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Armor; it’s what friends do.”
The word “friends” stuck to Armor’s mind like a dagger sticks to a heart, but in the end he was just glad that Soarin showed up.

“Now if Armor and Late Lucy are done with the kitten whispers, there’s a plane waiting for us” hushed laughter filled the room as Sentry passed out manila folders with each group’s mission. The idle chatter continued as the group made its way onto the airfield, at least one hungry pony was happy to see that the snack machine by the main gate had been smashed open.

Arrival

Planes were still a fairly new thing in Equestria, so none of the Pegasus ponies minded when the newer Earthers and Unicorns sat a bit close, least of all Soarin

“Approaching drop zone Lima Foxtrot!” As the pilot called out of the din of the engines, the rear hatch of the plane began to open.

“You ready Soarin?”

“Hell yeah, Armor let’s go!”
Flash Sentry called out to them “From this point on, we’re team Foxtrot Sierra! Team Kitten Whispers, you’re up go go go!”
Armor and Soarin check their gear, secured their comms and sprinted out of the plane. As they fell, you could faintly hear them yelling “KITTEN WHISPEEEEEERS” before falling out of hearing range and you could hear Flash calling them weirdoes.

Soarin led the way to through the air while Armor tailed behind him, attached to his tether and getting ready to deploy a chute.

“Armor, I need a landing site!”

“Clearing two clicks east!”
As Soarin barreled to his right, he caught a glimpse of Armor fiddling with the ropes on the landing gear. Although the thought crossed his mind more than once, Soarin never considered Armor to be more than a close friend. But if there was ever a time Soarin felt close to his buddy, it was on these missions. One had to rely heavily on the other, not just to complete their goal but to survive. They were going to be out in unincorporated territory for up to two weeks...maybe he could...Soarin pushed the thought out of his mind. He had to focus on the task at hand; besides, Armor had a wife already. No chance there, right? Soarin was still lost in his own thoughts when he heard his friend shouting a countdown. “T Minus 0, Deploying chute!”

Time stopped. “What was I doing? I was looking for the landing site. Did I pass it? No it’s right there. Damn, I don’t usually use chutes. What was I supposed to do differently? When a chute goes off, it’s supposed to reduce...”

Time sped up again.

“...momentum!” By the time the word left his mouth, Soarin had already snapped the tether, leaving Armor floating in the air as he spiraled towards the Earth through the dense fog.
The snap of the rope put Soarin in a Dead Stall, The ground flew in and out of view as a small white dot got larger and larger in the sky. “Did the crazy bastard just cut his chute?” Armor dropped from the sky like a downed satellite while focusing his energy on the ground. “Son of a bitch, he did!” Armor felt the air around him, he pictured a network of magic energy below him, something, anything, to break Soarin’s fall, anything to catch them both. Soarin felt strange electricity around him just before he hit the ground. With only cuts and bruises, Soarin and Armor climbed down from the giant purple spiderweb that mysteriously appeared, then suddenly vanished.

Soarin was injured, but still capable of flying over the treetops of the cold Griffin jungle while Armor searched through radio channels.

“Foxtrot Sierra, do you copy?”
No response. Another Channel.

“Foxtrot Sierra, do you copy?”
Still no luck.

Soarin came down from the treetops. “Any luck?”

“Nothing on the short range radio. Wherever we are, we’re out of it.”

“No luck scouting either, no sign of another team as a far as I can see. With the fog though, that’s not much.”
Armor looked west and saw the sun slowly dropping from the sky.

“At any rate, we’re stuck for at least the night, we should set up here and get some rest” Soarin's brush with certain death had understandably winded him, so Armor took it upon himself to set up the shelter. Even in times of war, cost was a big problem and as such the two were issued only one tent to share. Neither of them particularly minded the inconvenience of having to be roommates for a few days. Around base, Shining Armor always wore light armor as a formality, something that didn’t change out in the field. Soarin considered seeing him without his chestplate and greaves to be something of a treat. It wasn't just that it invited more secret thoughts from both of them, it was a sign that the day was done. Likewise, Armor had to put forth a considerable effort to not stare at Soarin without his flight suit on. No more flying through the air, no more death-defiance, just two normal ponies whose problems had by some miracle worked out in the end. The Griffon jungle can reach 20 degrees at night, but even without the benefit of specialized clothing, it was warm enough inside the tent.

Late at night, Shining’s dreams turned towards Soarin. Images of himself and his friend being much closer than they ever imagined danced through his mind.

Just then, both soldiers found themselves distracted by a duffle bag being thrown out of the front of the tent. Exactly 1 second later, they were also distracted by the knife blades suddenly emerging from the walls of the tent and intersecting with their throat and stomach. With his only knife stuck in a Griffon’s windpipe, Soarin grabbed a tent pole and swung it at the remaining three. It made contact with one skull, leaving the other two to fire. Armor gummed up their weapons with a Nee Pulvere Nitrato spell; one stayed to fight and the other ran to grab more soldiers.

“Armor! Get him!”
In one swift motion, Armor grabbed a knife from the last soldier and threw it. Four Griff’s on the ground, one pinned to a tree. Armor looked at his friend, who had just dropped the limp corpse of the enemy. Armor and Soarin collapsed with exhaustion.
“See? It all worked out”
“That was like 40 feet, you hit him dead on!” Soarin was impressed but Armor wanted to play it cool.
“Well, all it takes is a bit of-”
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
“Your voice changed!”
“That wasn’t me”
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
Both stallions looked down at the dead soldiers head, and only barely noticed the blinking light on their headsets.
“당신이 응답하지 않는 경우 사용자의 위치를 추적 할 것이다!”
“Shit, we gotta move. This place is going to be swarming”
“You look ahead, I’ll grab the gear”

A Temporary Shelter

Somewhere beyond the mountains, the sun had begun to paint the sky a pale orange as ice crystals created a bright rainbow in the sickly, foggy sky. Soarin and Shining trekked through the icy jungles with a great sense of urgency. Something behind them has creating a loud whooshing noise as it cut through the air, and it was approaching quickly.

“Shining, I don’t think that we’re going to make a decent shelter, we better just find something to duck under for now.”

“Good idea” Shining paused for a second and looked around the canyon “Fuck, I think we’re boxed in.” All at once the sound grew even louder, the machine that was making it sat perched in the air above a nearby hilltop.

“What the hell is that thing?”

“Whatever it is, it hasn’t seen us yet” just as Soarin finished, the machine turned to them and charged in their direction.

“Nice one, Run!” The two of them ran through the vines and bushes, hoping to elude their pursuer in the dense fog and vegetation. The Griffon who controlled the flying machine was ordered to stop them. On command, he placed the two within the sight of the machine and peppered the Rainforest with shrapnel.

“Is the thing shooting at us?!”

“Run faster!”

“Hard to run when there’s trees in the way!”

Just then, Soarin felt a searing pain in left wing. The sound of Hollow bone shattering into pieces isn’t a pleasant one, especially seeing as how it can seem like the loudest sound in the world at the time. The pain didn’t last long; pegasi are naturally swift, a Pegasus on an Adrenaline rush was nearly invisible. Needless to say, no more shots found their mark. Bursting through the foliage, it wasn’t long before they found themselves at a dead end in the bottom of the valley. Shining, no way out over here! Bunch of vines covering the rock though, maybe we can climb out.”
“Hold I’m trying to get out!” said shining as he tried to dislodge himself from a clutch of vines. “Maybe I can just cut the-” As he spoke, the plants became dislodged from the ground. Armor lost his footing and tumbled down the mountain and into the vines. For a split second, he felt the scratches of plant hold him, and in the next second, cool mud, and the next: A sharp pain to the head. “Armor!” Soarin shouted, following his path between the narrow rocks. Meanwhile overhead, the strange machine’s blade sliced through the air, it seemed to defy gravity, but it could not defy a mountain; the pilot’s prey was accepted as lost. He did not worry, hopefully things would work out for him.

Shining Armor was home again. In a hospital bed, holding an apple, looking out the window over the fields outside Canterlot. Somewhere down there, his sister was having an adventure, his friends were fighting in wars and governing nations. All but Soarin. He knew Soarin was somewhere nearby, waiting to be found. He walked through hallways made of cobalt and gold, ignoring the hushed voices of those around him. As he traveled through the strange building, he called out for his friend. He knew he was here, he just needed to find him. Soarin wasn’t hiding, just hidden. He soon wandered back into his quarters, studying the apple he was holding when he woke up, He knew he must be dreaming. Dream apples were rare to him, so he took a bite, not expecting what he tasted.

“Bluh...apple...eh” Armor mumbled to himself. He felt something strange in his mouth and wondered if he somehow ate in his sleep. Four seconds later, Armor was spitting out mouthfuls of mud. With his mouth and head clear, Armor begun to wonder where he was. He clearly wasn’t in the Jungle anymore, but he didn’t know anything else.The first thing he noticed was the strange light dancing in the sky, the second thing he noticed was that someone had make a terrible mistake. They had put stone where the sky was meant to be, lastly he noticed the smell. Not an unpleasant one, but a strange one. Like freshly fallen rain. “Cave” he thought to himself. He set off to find Soarin, sure that he was in there with him. The caverns were larger than he anticipated, but he followed the path that seemed most familiar to him. He had clearly been moved from near the entrance of the cave, as drag marks could be seen along certain paths. “Soarin?” he whispered, not knowing if he and Soarin were the only ones there. He called out for his friend until he found the entrance of the cave.

Soaring Emotions

Soarin didn’t like to give up, but willingly allowed himself to pass out from pain after bringing his friend deep within the cave. He dragged himself back to the entrance hoping to get a bearing on his location, a task he failed at without his wings. As his friend lied passed out from a head injury somewhere in the caverns below, Soarin vowed to stay awake, it wouldn’t be safe for both of them to sleep at once. But sick with blood loss, exhausted from running and mind numb with fear, he begrudgingly allowed himself to sit near the cave entrance and rest his eyes. 60 seconds later, he was fast asleep.
Upon reaching the Cave entrance, Armor assumed the worst when he saw his friend, injured, bleeding, pale and unmoving near the entrance of the cave. Liquid Pride built up in his eyes when he approached Soarin and violently shook him awake. Soarin didn’t understand why his friend was crying and shaking him from his recurring ApplePie dream, but it didn’t matter. They were both safe. Soarin was relieved to see Armor awake, Armor was happy to see Soarin alive. They ignored their own pain and with tears in their eyes, held each other warmly in the cool cave air. Eventually, Armor asked what happened.
“When you fell down the mountain, you ended up going through a wall of ice vine” Soarin explained “The vines had overgrown the entrance. Armor looked over to the cave mouth, Soarin was right; even with the tear he put in the wall of vines, the outside world was nearly invisible. “When you fell through those vines, it gave us enough time to hide.” Shining Armor still wasn’t sure.

“Do you think it’s safe in here?”

“Safe? In here? In the invisible hideout inaccessible to vehicles shielded by a fucking mountain? I think we’re safe

” Shining armor tried to look smug in the face of Soarin’s sarcasm, but was distracted by a throbbing pain in his head. He reached up to feel it, but Soarin stopped him.

“Don’t touch that, it needs to heal a bit more. When you came in here you banged yourself of a rock pretty hard”. Armor gently touched his forehead and was greeted by a rough band aid, slightly damp from the most cave air.

“You patched me up?”
“Why wouldn’t I have? By the way, that totally counts as your favor.”
“You sort of left yourself a bit...open...”
Soarin had cleaned out his wound, but still haven't applied any medicine or bandaged it.

“Why would you patch up me and not yourself?”

“Well I...ummm...it hurt...” Soarin mumbled.

“What?”

“It hurt too much, okay? I just...Ugh I couldn’t do it myself...”
Armor couldn’t hide his smile. His best friend has been shot in the wing, dragged his lifeless body over to a cave all in one go, but winced at the idea of putting on his own bandages.

“OK then, I’ll do it for you. Where’s-”

“NO!” Soarin shouted. “I mean...n-no. You’re bandages need to changed anyway. Let me do you first.” Normally Armor wouldn't have any of it, but it seemed like this was the only way that Soarin would let him near his wound.

“Fine then, fix me up” Armor said. Soarin began to walk deeper into the cave and Armor trailed closely behind. “OK, the makeshift med bay is in here.” Soarin said as he approached a curtain of hanging moss. Armor walked ahead of him and pulled the curtain aside, but he didn’t enter the room. Instead, he stood awestruck. The massive room was dominated by two key features: a massive entanglement of tropical trees that only let in light and wind, and a large blue pond, presumably melted glacier ice. Shining Armor looked intently at the walls above the pond, which caught the dancing light that skipped across the surface. Armor was still trying to comprehend the amazingly beautiful scene in front of him when he reached the smooth stone slab in front of the mass of trees.

“This room is great, with the trees and water, the light in here is perfect for pretty much anything” Soarin’s thoughts trailed away. He could help but stare for a second at his friend, still looking around at the scene in front of him. Between the sunbeams peeking through the trees and the light scattering through the pond, he was right; the light in the room was absolutely perfect, and so was his good friend sitting on the stone table in front of him. Again, he tried to push the thought out of his mind, but it was proving harder and harder with each passing minute.

“The bleeding on your head stopped. You’re healing quickly”

“Well, I have a great doctor”
Armor didn’t know what to make of the sudden silence of his friend, as much as he enjoyed the quiet moments, he couldn’t help but feel that he just said something incredibly stupid. Soarin’s mind was racing too, when he hit upon an idea.

“I need to put this on you to keep the wound clean” He said holding up the fresh bandages “Do you mind scooting in a bit?” Shining Armor leaned in close to his doctor, Soarin wondered if he could hear his heartbeat. “Ok, you’re all cleaned up. That cut should be fine in a few days.” Shining Armor didn't respond immediately, Soarin was right. Shining could hear his heartbeat and wanted nothing more than to just rest his head on Soarin’s chest. Soarin’s felt his heart burst as Armor slowly lifted his head up, brushing along his chest for only a second. That was all the time he needed, he couldn’t put the thought out any longer. He was always in love with his friend Shining Armor, but it had taken him until that one instant to realize it.

“Soarin?”

“...Hmm?”

“You said you’d let me patch your wing now.”

Soarin had forgot that, but as much as he hated it he wouldn’t break a promise he made to his friend. With a grim look on his face, Soarin climbed up on the table, and lied flat on his stomach, painfully extending his broken wing. Shining Armor was no Doctor, but he could at least apply painkillers and bandages. Armor couldn’t help but notice Soarin’s strong wing muscles; even with a one broken, they were still a sight. Armor began to inspect the wound, to see if it could be helped.

“Ok, so you’re clean, but just to be safe, I’m going to use some disinfectant.”

“Alright, it’s over here”
Soarin motioned to the front of the table, near where his head was. Armor began to pour some on a piece of cloth. Soarin braced himself, hoping that maybe if it was someone else doing it the medicine wouldn’t hurt. He was wrong.

“Ssssssshhhhit!” Soarin muttered through exasperated breathes, his wing twitching wildly in pain.

“What’s the matter?”

“I-I’m sorry, I just can’t deal with all this”

“All this?” Armor asked?
Another odd silence.
“Just forget the medicine Armor”
“Soarin I have to put disinfectant on that.” Armor stepped a bit closer. “We’re in a cave in an ice jungle in unknown territory, God knows what’s out there.” More liquid pride. “I’m not going to let you catch something I can’t fix. It’s already happened too much on this mission” Soarin knew that he had no real choice. Then Soarin got an idea

“I have an idea”

“Oh?”

“Maybe I can lie on my back. That way gravity keeps my wing open”
Armor knew that medically, it wouldn’t work

“Ok Soarin, maybe that’ll work”
Soarin struggled with himself; careful not to bend with wing, he slowly made his way onto his back. With only a slight bit of cringe, he managed to let his injured wing fall open. Shining Armor began to clean the wound. It still hurt, but far less than it did before.

“Shh-aaha...”

“You Ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just keep going”
Armor continued to clean out the wound before finally moving on to covering it with bandages. As the procedure went on Soarin twitched less and less, when the procedure was done, he couldn’t feel any pain at all. As long as he could see Shining working, he doubted he could ever feel anything bad.

“Alright, finished! You’re wing should start healing soon.”

“Thanks Armor, I’m pretty sure if you hadn’t done that, I would have caught something bad.” Soarin said, sitting upright on the table.

“No problem. I mean, it’s what friends do right?” Armor said, hopping up on the table with him.

“So how long do you think we’ll be down here?”
Soarin mulled over his answer for a while.

“Well we clearly have water” he said as the patterns of light from the pond skipped across Armors face.

“There’s probably plenty of food in the jungle, fruit in the trees and stuff.” Shining tried to sound confident, not easy to do when the sunlight gives your friend an angelic glow. Shining moved closer.

“There’s still medicine” Soarin followed suit. “Just in case” he said as he begun to lean on Armors shoulder.
“We have radio beacons and maps” Armor said, gently pressing the side of his muzzle against Soarin’s face. “We’re probably not as lost as we think we are”. Soarin’s eyes met with Armor’s, he thought they shined as bright as the midday sky.
Soarin touched the tip of his nose to Armor’s

“I kind of wish we were”.

Armor draped his arms around Soarin's shoulders, their eyes closed, they felt each other’s warmth in the cool air as they slowly drew closer, and in the cold light of a hidden cave, far away from their old troubles and obligations...they heard Flash Sentry yelling about Team Kitten Whispers in the distance.

Canterlot Bound

“How in the hell are you so sure they went this way?”

“The trail of gunfire and dead bodies is a clue, sir!”

“Foxtrot India Mike, break off into that chamber”
On cue, four members of the Equestria Ground Troops stormed in.

“Sir! They’re in here!”
Flash Sentry entered the chamber.

“Well isn’t this romantic? Team Kitten Whispers got some privacy while the rest of us went looking for them. How in the hell did you end up out here anyways?”

Soarin was still shocked to see other ponies, so Armor spoke “Navigation error, sir!”

“Couldn’t help but notice. Anyways, c’mon. You’re our last objective; Mission accomplished.” Now Armor was shocked. “I thought this was a two week mapping and scouting expedition of enemy territory”. Another soldier spoke up: “

“I guess you guys have been out of the loop. The war’s over.”

“How?”

“Equestrian Military overran the capital last night. Turns out the Embargo was more effective than we thought. When we got to Griffon City, there was almost no resistance.”

“Well that’s good news” Soarin said, still a bit out of it.

“Yeah, we’re just mopping up local resistances now. Giving medicine to cubs and stuff. At any rate, there’s no reason for professional soldiers to come back to this Icy Tropic Hellhole”
“KITTEN WHISPERS! GET THE HELL UP HERE” Flash Sentry was in no mood to wait, so the conversation continued as the three made their way up to the mouth of the cave.

“Just in time too. Rumor has it that Griff was developing some kind of vehicle”

“Vehicle?” Soarin asked

“Yeah, some kind of thing that can fly close to the ground at low speed, hover in air like a hummingbird too. Probably not true though.” Soarin and Armor eyed each other suspiciously. Higher-ups were calling it a felladopplar or something like that.”

The trip back to the airfield was a blur, it was late by the time they boarded the plane back to Canterlot. Most of the passengers slept soundly for the trip. Soarin and Shining Armor stayed up and listened to reports of celebration in the streets all over Equestria, and even in Griffon Villages. Soarin looked around to make sure everyone else was asleep.

“Hey Armor”

“Yeah Soarin?”

“We never actually-”

“I know...”

“Think we’ll ever pick up where we left off?”

“Maybe. I hope so”

“But what about-”
Shining Armor gently kissed Soarin’s cheek.

“Don’t worry. With you and me, things somehow always seem to work out”
That was all either of them needed. As their plane entered the air over Canterlot, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Author's Note

Epilogue: They got married and lived together in a pumpkin. The End