It had been a lovely summer day in Ponyville until strange things began to happen. Roots from some trees began to invade the town causing a general nuisance. This would not have caused a call for the Brigade to have been sent it however next ponies where reporting strange looking apples appearing in town that reportedly were causing ponies to behave weirdly after having eaten one. The Brigade has been sent in mostly to find out exactly what is happening and to report what they find. Worse comes to worse they are to engage whatever is the root (hah) of this evil and keep it busy until one of the higher ups (Princesses or the Elements) can eliminate it if its more than simple Everfree crawl. We find whatever members were deployed already standing on the Ponyville Train platform doing some quick checks before setting out to find out what is going on.

Star Craving grumbles and mumbles. "I was reading a good book about the decay rate of wild magic in ancient artifacts before we got sent out here. This had better be good. Who and all got roped into this with me anyway?"

1070930
((This seems relatively interesting, I shall join your endeavors.))

"I see not why I am needed here." Heaven sighed, as he walked towards Star. "Is this not just an investigation?"

1070988
"Ideally yeah. At least that was the orders I got. You never know though when you will need someone good at sneaking a dagger into the neck of someone else. Let's suppose this is some rogue nature wizard or something then it might be simplest to let you kill him while the rest of us run around like fools getting his attention, wouldn't it?" Star answers. "Not that I'm against knocking him out if that is a better choice of course but you get my drift."

1070930 (Hmmm wonder what it will be like to not be in charge of events) PrivateBrightly Dim sits down immersed in his medical book. He is wearing a white lab coat and has a saddle bag with a red cross on it.
(Pre traumatized Dim! also I dont have to order anyone around now also if this goes past Friday kindly incapacitate me or kill me what ever fits in best)

1071001
"Fair enough." Heaven stated flatly, his eyes watching everypony in the area yet unmoving. It seemed that he was on edge, weather it was due to lack of much actual sleep or where they were, could not be discerned. "Either way, this must be done quickly."

1071010>>1071023
(Will do. Might find a way to work in a moral dilemma that causes Dim to shut down if nothing else. Breaking someone's mind is fun.)
"Well at least we have a medic. You two the only others with me?" He looks around. "Oh well, I'm sure if they are others they will catch up with us. How about we start checking on these apples, neh? I suggest we do so without eating them though." He specifically looks at Dim. "Yo, medic, think you can analyze one of these dangerous apples safely? I'll inspect them for magic while you check them for other issues if you would."

1071081 "Yes sir" Dim retrieves an apple with his yellow aura. "This will take me a moment" Dim begins to scan the apple scrunching his eyes in concentration (I'm assuming you want to post the results?)

1071092
(Sure. Feel free to make up what you might think would cause ponies to act wild in these. Hallucinogens, cross breeding with poison joke, whatever floats your boat.)
Stepping off the platform Star pulls over one of the apples himself and starts to inspect it for magic. "Hm.. well its not chaos at least. I don't read any of that within them."

1071010
((Yay pre-traumatized! Will he be able to stand Heaven and his ninja ways though?))

1071081
((I prefer toying with their minds, slowly chipping away at their sanity before I completely and utterly destroy them. Does that make me a sadist?))
"It would seem that we are the only three here at this time." Heaven sighed, glancing slightly at Dim. "This does not bode well however. I highly doubt that we would be able to accomplish much in this mission with a Ninpo, a Medic, and an Enchanter. One would hope that we would have more."

1071111>>1071134>>1071092 "Hey! I'm here!" said Raging as she tried to go on the platform of the train station. "Can you help me? I was on the train but I fell out of the windows."

1071111>>1071023 A flash of panic crosses Dim's face before he throws the apple as far as he could. "Si-sir these apples are full trianide" Dim shutters before continuing "Something has poisoned the trees that much is obvious but the recipe for trianide was lost thousands of years ago I dont understand how someone could have found it. I'm sorry but these Ponies are" Dim shakes his head" There's no hope for them"

1071163>>1071168>>1071134
Using a bit of magic, Star pulls Raging upright and over to the rest of them. "Heh, I've done some amazing things in the past with little more than a thorn bush and a drop of blood so I think we can do well enough if pressed. The key is not to think in only two dimensions. At least we have the pyro now. These plants won't be so bad then, eh?" He continues to magically search for any sort of magic within the apple he has before picking up another.

"Oh, how bad is that? Not contagious is this trianide, I hope? Permanent madness or death inevitable?" He knows its likely just a chemical poison but one never knows if it can't act like some adjusted nerve agents. As he asks that he holds the ones he was analyzing a bit further from his person.

1071185 "Thanks!" she said before looking around. "Wow, they love the nature in this town, do you think they make their house in trees too?"

1071163
1071168
1071185
"Lost it is not." Heaven sighed, looking further into Ponyville, seemingly at nothing. "Ninpo have known recipes for generations. Loyal to our Sensei we are." He turned to look at the group behind him. "And to money. If we are dealing with a Ninpo, then my services in deed will be needed. If not, then more so."

1071212>>1071213
"Good we have two of you that know of it at least." He chuckles. "I have heard that there are... or rather were at least two who resided in trees here in town but I don't think that is what we are dealing with. Seems we have either some rogue nature wizard or Everfree crawl if I had to guess before hearing about the apples from our medic. With that in mind I think something a bit more malevolent is involved." He shakes the current apple he was checking and then tosses it at a nearby rock. A small explosion and some shattered rock later he chuckles. "Well some magic is in these things as well as this poison or whatever it would seem. Raging, I have the feeling we are going to be using your talents a lot during this."

1071185 "It's very bad to say the least." Dim inches away from the apples a bit more" And yes it is contagious if an infected transfers bodily fluids but to a lesser degree. On the note on side effects" Dim shudders again" I'd rather just leave it at they are better off dead. Whoever made this recipe needs to die now. I could give you an history lesson but we need to hurry and finish this"

1071217 This poison is an abomination it almost wiped out equestria So I would suggest not mentioing your order has it unless you want to be hunted(Good God I just realized I'm in inadvertently turning this into a zombie thing)

1071233
"Righto then. Lets see where this is coming from, shall we?" He walks up to one of the roots and uses a bit of magic to cut into it and then pulls out a phial of what appears to be blue dye. "This little toy has been enchanted to surge to the source of an object. Admittedly I had made it to find the headwaters of a river but it can work for this too. It should light up the roots in the direction of the source in blue." He pours it into the wound to see where it leads. The blue color begins to overtake that root and then flow out from town and in the direction of what appears to be an overgrown forest. "Uhm... wait, isn't the Everfree in the other direction?"

1071230>>1071233 "Does that mean that I must burn all the trees and the infected? Because if they contaminate the water, it could be really bad." she said before looking around. "Talking about the infected... Do you know where they are?"
1071254 "I heard that there was an apple orchard in this town. Do you think that the tree have gotten out of control?"

1071257
"I suspect in the hospital or the asylum. Granted, this whole town is an asylum but it has one for the worse cases. How about we save burninating the citizenry until after we deal with the source?"

1071263 "Just to make sure, there is no way to flee out of the city, right?" she said with concern.

1071263>>1071257>>1071217 First we need to keep any more citizens from eating anything less we want to witness the start of an pandemic
(I JUST SAW A HUMANS FACE IN TOM AND JERRY!)

1071244
((Never said he knew the recipes. As I, and he, have stated the only person Ninpo are loyal to is their Sensei. Which means that who ever they call Sensei would determine what they know. As his Sensei is loyal to Celestia, he would only know that they exist, yet not know the specifics. Remember though, the second thing that they are loyal to is money. [Remember, such poisons could easily be used in enemy countries.]))

1071277(yeah but Dim does not know that)

1071274>>1071276
"Good points. Any of you good with long distance communications? We will need to call in a blockade perhaps. The best I can do is a city wide enchantment to seal everyone in but if I do that I'll pretty much be lethargic for the rest of the day. Heaven, you trace that marker as far as you can safely and return to use once you know the direction. When he returns Burning, go ahead and light up all the roots and apples you can find. I'll get to setting up the enchant I suppose. Dim, think you could get to the hospital and advise them on the situation? I don't know if they know what they are dealing with."

1071276
(As a side note, what the heck? Its a sign of the end times. We are all going to die. Human faces can't be on Tom and Jerry. Oh, the things I never got to do. The games I never got to play. The food I didn't get to eat... oh the food.)

1071314(Buck I'm fucked) I have been working on a messaging system for letters I can use sir and I will go there immediately

1071274
1071276
"Last I was here, there were several ways out of the city." Heaven chuckled. "Granted, many of them lead into the Everfree." He chuckled before turning to Dim, holding a dagger at Dim's neck. "Let's get one thing straight boy, you hold no power over me. Ergo you can not tell me what I can and can not do. Feel free to get people to hunt me. You will find their heads on your bed in a matter of days." He smiled sadistically. "Have I made myself clear?" ((Oh, I am going to enjoy this...))

1071325Dim stares at the heaven and raises an eyebrow "okay mister aggressive"( post major battle Dim would have cut you in half just so you know)

1071314>>1071325 "All right chief! I'll burn everything that is green and have leaves!" she said before bringing her halberd toward Heaven. "Let him go, if you hurt him I'm going to burn you. Slowly. And maybe add some spices."

1071325>>1071336>>1071339
"Enough!" He sighs while looking at the three. "Join the military they said. Have fun, meet interesting ponies, kill them, see interesting places, destroy them. Well they lied. Please put your weapons away and lets all just get this done. The longer we keep our weapons on each other the more others die. Less ponies equal less taxes which equals smaller pay checks for government workers."

1071325 Of course you will make a great distraction to whomever poisoned these apples" Dim stated before walking off towards the hospital

1071358
"Oh and yeah, messaging will work. Better that than I lay myself out into being little more than a meat shield for the rest of you. Still, I'm going to prepare a barrier to at least keep out the roots once they are burnt away." He waits for everyone to put their toys away and start getting things done.

1071351
1071339
1071336
"Good." He said,still smiling. "I'm glad we've reached an agreement. And don't think that stick can do anything to me girl." He smiled, as he turned to look at her. "Trust me, you don't stand a chance against a Ninpo. Not many do." He then chuckled, as he walked past Star. "Doesn't change mine thought."

1071368(yeah it does your pay is based of success thats how my missions work with assassins anyways and this is a simliar universe but thats up to ebony)

1071368>>1071366 When she heard the ninja, Raging began to laugh before turning toward the enchanter. "Let's burn some things, even if I think it's a bad idea to send someone alone in a hospital with possibly a lot of madponies."

1071373
((Ninpo have a flat rate. Meaning the more missions he goes on, the more Celestia has to pay him.))

Writing a message as Dim walks to the hospital he notices screams of pain admitting from the hospital" Bucking sick bastards" Finished writing his letter he sends it to canterlot before pulling out more
1071366 From the sounds of the hospital these ponies are in the 3rd stage out of 5 before they die. Its quite paiful so I'm once again going to advice you avoid allowing anything into your body

1071385>>1071368>>1071373
(For this one how about we roll with the fact that it might cut off his funding entirely since if he always expects to be paid a set amount they could reach a point they can't afford the services. Mercs can only be afforded up to a point after all.)
"Ah but he won't be alone. There are other doctors there I'm sure. Now then, how about you gather up all the apples you can find and start burning them way until we trace this back to its source, eh?"

1071389( well depends on what Ebony says in the FoE universe I am the one paying you
never mind her post beat me)

1071397
Will do. I'll repeat the same to the others.
'Whatever you all do, don't eat anything. We know the apples are contaminated but I wouldn't put it past whoever did this to try other fruits as well. Oh, Burning, you can feel free to burn away any roots other than the one I tagged. I will wait to see if it responds before I set up a barrier."

1071400 "What a waste of food." she said before beginning to put all the apples around the train station into a small pile.

1071400 Dim walked into the hospital's waiting room to hear even more cries of pain" correction stage 4 on some of these guys" he mutters to himself before writing another letter with a return enchant
I did mention that the infected have to be killed right? thats kinda a important detail (BIO BREAK)

1071400
1071403
((Ah, you see the problem with Mercenaries, they wont do shit until you've paid them. Then again, Heaven generally does the mission anyway...))
""Already done." Heaven smiled, watching as the blue root heads into the Apple's orchard. "It's originating from the Apple Farm..." He then sighed, shaking his head. "I only wish it was the Everfree... That would have been easier..." He mumbled to himself.

DOCTOR! I was sent here from canterlot to help with the situation, which you badly need it seems" Dim begins to help the doctor and nurses awaiting a reply from his CO

1071416>>1071420>>1071425
Star begins cursing in mesohippus. "Right then. Burning, torch the plants all of them if you would be so kind. Thank you Heaven. This is a disaster I just know it. I'm getting that barrier up and then let us all meet back at the hospital. Heaven, if you want you might need to help our medic. I'll pay you myself for this one but it sounds like those who are suffering really will need to be put down and its best you or he do it I think. I'm sure you can make it painless, yes?"
I'm sending our ninja to help you. Advise the docs of what they will need to do and do what you can to ease the suffering on their way. I've seen plague quarantines before and if this is half as bad its just best not to let them suffer. If I have any energy left I'll help when I get there but I need to keep those still alive that way if possible. Once you have free moment inform the Princesses that its coming from Sweet Apple Acres. I have the feeling this is going to be above our paygrade.

1071437
1071496
"Very well." Heaven said, turning towards the hospital. Not seconds later he was gone, walking into the hospital. "I believe that Star mentioned I was coming? I am here to help if necessary."

Seeing the letter appear before him (holy shit the country singer mouse in tom and jerry was just doing the nazi salute well im not surprised but still) Dim shutters before taking the doctor and two nurses to the side to inform them of the news. shortly after he breaking finished the news he heard heaven walk in.
1071521" We have to put down the infected plain and simple. We need to keep it as painless as possible but most probably would not be able to notice if you gutted them but for the sakes of the uninfected keep it clean. Seeing as I have no combat experience I think it would be best if I dealt with the third stage victims and below while you deal with the crazy ones