//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three: The Lost Company 
// Story: Snowrunners 
// by Argonaut44 
//------------------------------//

“Neither of you take another step, if you’d care to live.”
Guardian retracted her hoof back to where it had just been, after a nervous attempt at approaching the quartet of filthy, disheveled royal soldiers standing before them with their weapons held at the ready. The pale-blue stallion was the one who had spoken, standing ahead of the other ponies, who were all still anxious from their recent adrenaline-pumping, violent escapades. The corpses of twelve rebel soldiers lay strewn around them, the scent of charred flesh making Guardian and Silver both wince in disgust.
“Get over there,” the pale-blue stallion muttered, shoving one of his subordinates to the left and the other two to the right. 
The quartet soon had Guardian and Silver surrounded on all sides. Silver, instinctively, turned her back to Guardian, to try and cover her blindspot. The pale-blue stallion was carrying a sword, which Guardian found odd, considering they only typically used by higher ranking officers. The other three soldiers were carrying spears, the blades positioned just inches away from Silver and Guardian’s necks. 
“Drop the spear. And you, unicorn, keep that horn where I can see it,” the pale-blue stallion commanded, pointing at Silver with an authoritative hoof. It was clear he wouldn’t be asking twice. 
Silver had no intention of going down without a fight, which made it even more of a shock when she noticed Guardian behind her begin to lower her weapon.
“Guardian, they’re gonna kill us,” Silver muttered, desperately. They had just barely escaped death moments ago, it would be a crying shame to have such a quick reunion. 
The pale-blue stallion’s eyes were fixed on Guardian, his rigid, penetrating stare like a heavy weight on Guardian’s heart, compelling her to do as he had asked. She was already exhausted from days of journeying through the forest, and knew she and Silver probably wouldn’t be quick enough to avoid the four stallions’s blades pointed right at them. After a final spout of deliberation, Guardian determined that it was worth the risk to trust the stallion, and continued lowering her weapon. These were royal soldiers after all, and, hopefully, ones with the good sense not to kill the ponies who were on their side. She dropped the spear to the ground, the ringing of its metal against the hard, frozen dirt shaking Silver alert.  
“Guardian!”
Once the spear was on the ground, Guardian raised her hooves into the air for a moment to signal her surrender, to the pale-blue stallion’s satisfaction. 
“Good. Now you’re going to tell me who the hell you are, and what you’re doing here,” the pale-blue stallion ordered, glad that they had complied but still concerned over the possibility of a surprise counter-attack. His eyes were constantly darting back and forth from Guardian to the forest brush in front and behind them. His erratic movements made him appear to be deranged, or at the least, majorly exhausted.
Guardian was painfully uncomfortable with having to surrender, especially to her own fellow royal soldiers. Right behind her, Silver was completely unwilling to cooperate with these ponies, even if they were supposed to be on the same side. 
Guardian gulped, cautiously eyeing the soldiers, trying to keep her movements steady. 
“I’m Corporal Guardian Angel, sir,” Guardian said, noticing the sergeant insignia pin on the stallion’s armor, “23rd Regiment.”
The pale-blue stallion twitched, his doubts slowly dissolving. He gradually lowered his sword, and the other soldiers all followed suit with their weapons, to Guardian’s relief. 
“This is Corporal Silver Saber, we’ve been sent for the 19th Battalion’s position, north of here. It’s a confidential mission, sir, I can’t say more than that. Under the commander’s orders,” Guardian explained, hopeful that they would just be left on their way without the need for incident. 
“The commander?” the stallion questioned, impressed by the significance of whatever their mission was. On the other hoof, it could all just be an elaborate alibi. 
“Yes,” Guardian replied, with conviction. 
The sergeant glared at her, still not completely sure if she was telling the truth. 
“You’ve got identification, Corporal?”
“Yes sir,” Guardian replied, reaching around to her bag. She stopped right before she could open it, realizing the action may be taken the wrong way.
“I’m not reaching for a weapon or anything like that,” Guardian said, raising her hooves back up as a sign of earnest submission.  
“Why would you even tell us that,” said one of the soldiers, laughing by himself with a toothy grin. 
Guardian retrieved her papers, and slowly trotted up towards the sergeant, nervously handing them over. 
He inspected them thoroughly, and seemed content, albeit begrudgingly. 
“Alright, I guess you are who you say you are…” he said, handing her papers back over to her. All of them then felt more relaxed with each other, with the exception of Silver, whose mind was still racing after that exhilarating chase from which she had just narrowly survived.
“Thank you for the help...We could’ve done without you trying to kill us though,” Guardian said. 
“Welcome to the jungle, kid. You have any idea how many rats we catch wearing our armor, trying to trick us? And the two of you wearing different armor, it’s a suspicious thing, is all,” the sergeant said, scratching his stubbly beard, glad he hadn’t been too hasty in killing these two strangers.  
“Wait...None of you are unicorns,” Guardian said, realizing something odd.
“Last time I checked,” the sergeant replied, glancing up at his bare forehead. 
“So...How were you using magic? We saw the blasts,” Guardian said, thrown for a loss. 
“Oh, that. We picked up some of these a few days ago,” the sergeant said, motioning with his head to two strange devices strapped along the backs of two of the other soldiers. One of them, a bulky dark-grey stallion, held the weapon up for Guardian and Silver to see. 
“Some rebel prototype weapon. Deadly. Takes ammunition. Pity is, we just wasted most of what we had saving you two,” the sergeant said. 
Guardian was amazed by the device, of which she had never seen anything quite like before. It was like a long rod made of wood and metal, with some sort of cartridge lodged in its underside, and a trigger attached at the end. 
“Who are you ponies?” Guardian asked, backing up to stand beside Silver, who was still in her defensive stance. Guardian gently grabbed Silver’s hoof to try and let her know it was safe to calm down. 
“4th Squadron, 27th Fillydelphia Regiment,” one of the other soldiers said, sulkingly.  
“In the 2nd Company?” Guardian asked. 
“What’s left of it,” the sergeant replied, getting a remorseful laugh out of his companions, who all started moseying back over to where he was standing.
“Lieutenant Fast Track?” Silver asked, though she could already tell what the answer would be. 
The sergeant lowered his head, as did the others, to grieve the loss of their former leader. 
“Dead as dillinger. Fast Track, he was worth more than the whole lot of us, that was for sure. Poor little Rosebud, she’s gonna be growing up an orphan it looks like…”
Guardian couldn’t believe this news, that the entire company had been reduced to a measly four ponies who all appeared to be sick, dirty, and more dead than alive. And worse, that all those dead ponies’ families still had no idea of the fates of their loved ones. Everypony back at the camp had been under the impression that the 2nd company was merely staging a stalled campaign in the heart of the passage.  
“You four are all that’s left? Fifty good ponies, all dead?” Guardian asked, astounded. 
“There’s two more of us still alive. There were more before that, but they...didn’t make it. We’re the only royal unit left in these mountains, far as I know. There’s a battalion of rebels around here, leftover just like us. We first got overrun at Bowe’s Creek west of here, ‘bout two months ago. Since then we’ve been hunting down as many smaller groups as we can, trying to whittle down their numbers. Of course, they’re trying to do the same to us. You two happened to walk right into that. The rebels, they won that battle, but we’re still here, so it’s far from over,” the sergeant said, getting a half-hearted cheer out of the other three. 
“I’m Halo, by the way,” the sergeant said, “This is Corporal Banes, that’s Caldera, and this is Private Hazel Hoof,” the sergeant said, pointing at a gruff, hard-faced dark grey stallion with jet-black hair, followed by a tan-coated pony with wild blonde hair and a thin scruffy beard, and finally a very young, skinny cream-colored stallion with messy brown hair that was brushed away from his bright green eyes. 
“Forgive me, Sergeant, but I’ve got to say, you all look terrible,” Silver said, still taken aback by how grizzly and unkempt the four ponies all appeared.  
Halo scoffed, as if there was an alternative situation they could’ve found themselves in. 
“Two months spent here will do that to you, won’t it…”
Halo sighed and turned away from the duo, leading the other three soldiers behind him.
“You two can come along with us to our camp if you’d like, see to your needs best we can. We might be the only friendly faces you’ll ever find out here,” Halo said, wedging a cigar between his teeth to celebrate a successful ambush. 
“What about the bodies?” Banes asked Halo, coldly. His concerns were anything but ethical. What he was really interested in, was ravaging those corpses for food or useful equipment. 
Halo shot him a bitter glare of disapproval. 
“When it comes to that, I’ll let you know,” Halo said, dismissively. Banes sunk back in line, still not seeing the point in wasting the available resources. 
Guardian glanced at Silver, who seemed indifferent to following after Halo and his soldiers. Guardian, however, was a bit more eager to tag along, with hopes of learning any information that could help them find a faster route through the passage. 
Guardian quickly jogged after the ragged quartet of soldiers, Silver reluctantly following after. She only hoped this wouldn’t slow them down.   


Guardian and Silver followed the soldiers through the forest, in the somber grey afternoon light that rested on the faded green grass of the forest floor.
They finally arrived at a small campsite sitting overtop a grassy cliff that stood over more forests below. The mountains loomed over them in the distance, and for some odd reason, Guardian was both comforted and startled by the sight. It was if she was constantly being watched, and, in turn, judged for her actions. She recalled the risk she took with going back to save Silver. She had nearly jeopardized the entire mission, just for her friend. She wasn’t sure what she did was right, but she knew that if presented with the choice a second time, she’d probably do the same thing all over again. 
The six ponies entered into the dilapidated campsite, containing a measly three tents, which was as many as the 4th Squadron soldiers were able to preserve following the destruction of the rest of the company. That fateful battle was a good two months ago, with only about twenty of the original sixty-odd soldiers surviving. Since then, their numbers kept slimming, with three deserting, two committing suicide, and nine additional deaths in the ensuing skirmishes. After the tragic death of the company’s beloved pegasus lieutenant, Fast Track, the command fell to a surly, inexperienced transfer first sergeant by the name Wilbury, who was killed with a blast to the head just two days into his command. Since then, it had been Halo who had taken the reigns of the disorganized, grieving, hopeless band of survivors. 
“Well Corporals, if you’ve been looking for a summer vacation spot, you’ve found it,” Halo said, the other soldiers chuckling as they fell down by their tents.
Despite how poor the conditions of the camp were, Guardian was still impressed that these ponies had managed to survive in the wild at all. 
“Sergeant!” 
A young mare’s voice called out to Halo from around the corner of a tent, and out came a unicorn, blue in color with a dark blue mane with soft purple streaks.   
“Yes?” Halo shot back, nearly being trampled by the unicorn, whose name was Blue Belle.
“Who’re they?!”
Halo calmly glanced back at the filthy Guardian and Silver, who were standing right behind him, awkwardly.
“Would you calm down? They’re not ours. They’re from the 23rd. Solars. Lost out here,” Halo said. 
Blue Belle stuck her head out from in front of Halo to eye down Guardian and Silver, judgmentally.
“They’re covered in mud,” Blue Belle said, spitefully. Silver scowled, insulted by the blue unicorn’s aggressiveness.  
“Don’t be rude, they’re our guests here,” Halo said.
“Well, they’re filthy,” Blue Belle said, as if she wasn’t dirty herself.  
“How observant. You’re now the one who’s got to help clean them up,” Halo said. 
“Sir! We’ve only got one sponge! My sponge!”
“Take it to the creek! Caldera will go with you.”
“Hold it right there, Sarge,” said Banes, rising to his hooves after picking up on some of Halo’s implications. 
“I don’t know what you want with these two, but they sure aren’t staying here with us. I won’t stand for it,” Banes said, bluntly. Guardian and Silver were both intimidated by the stallion’s broad physique and imposing stature. He was glaring right at them with a fervent distaste. 
“He’s right, Sarge, the last thing we need right now is two more mouths to feed,” said Hazel, who also stood up from the ground after intending to take a victory nap. 
“Great, look at what you’ve started,” Halo said, mockingly, towards Blue Belle. 
“You brought them here! I don’t want anything to do with them! They could be rebels in disguise, have you thought about that!?” Blue Belle said, panicked, her horn beginning to glow fearfully. Silver immediately responded by stepping in front of Guardian with her own horn glowing defensively. 
“Whoa! For Luna’s sake! Calm down! Put that thing away!” Halo yelled. 
Blue Belle realized she was also aiming it at Halo, and quickly drew her magic back. 
“Sir! I’m sorry!”
“Enough of this! What the hell is wrong with you all?! You four think that now’s a good time to get comfortable? I haven’t slept in three days, haven’t eaten in two! Just so you all can get your stomachs filled and some rest every night! Miserable rats, talking to me like that. What if it was you out there, stranded in these Celestia-damned woods? How’d you feel to be turned down by a sorry gaggle of half-wits such as yourselves!”
“I’m sorry, sir, I wasn’t thinking...I just got nervous is all, you know I don’t like being left alone,” Blue Belle said, crouching down out of fear of a reprimand. 
Halo shook his head, frustrated, his mental state having deteriorated significantly every day as their provisions continued to shrink. On top of surviving, he also had to try his best to organize and inspire the ponies under his command, and considering the ponies he was working with, the task wasn’t far from impossible.  
“You’re not alone though. Let me see him,” Halo said, gravely. 
Guardian and Silver shared a nervous glance, unsure what exactly he was talking about.

They trailed behind Halo and Blue Belle into one of the three tents, and were quickly able to understand what he had meant. 
There was a pony inside, lying on his back on a wide cot, his eyes shut and his mouth hanging open. He had a brown coat and a darker brown mane that stuck upwards. He had grown a beard along his face, though it seemed more the product of a passage of time than anything stylistic. 
“This is Hertz, my second...We knew each other before the war, joined together too,” Halo said, gazing at his unconscious old friend, watching his chest rise in and out with every breath. There was a crusty red scar running right along Hertz’s chest, likely a hideous remnant of a wartime injury, that had never fully healed. Guardian’s hoof jerkily reached to cover her mouth in horror when she saw it, and realized that the poor pony must’ve been in some sort of comatose state, or else closing in on death. 
“He was pierced with a piece of shrapnel, right to the chest. Cut into his lung. Doc was able to fix him up with some surgery and some magical help…”
“Doc?” Guardian asked, not having realized that one of these ponies was a doctor. 
“Oh, Doc’s not with us any longer. He got shoved off of a cliff during one of our encounters with those rebel bastards...He’s buried not far from here. He was Hertz’s last chance. Blue Belle here knows a little medical stuff, but we lost the right supplies for the job...I don’t know how long he has left,” Halo said, clearly upset over the possibility of losing an old friend. 
He turned and stormed out from the tent, leaving Blue Belle inside. Silver and Guardian quickly followed after the sergeant, hoping to learn any possible details of the area that would help their journey. 
“You’ll have to be patient with all these ponies here, they’re freezing to death. And when they’re not doing that, they’re starving to death,” Halo said, trotting right towards the edge of the grassy cliff. He stood there, at the edge, admiring the view. It was the only thing he really had to enjoy these days. 
“You’re out of food?” Guardian asked. Of course, both her and Silver had seven day’s worth of rations in their bags, but weren’t exactly too keen on giving it up too easily. 
“We haven’t had three-quarters rations for two days now...We’re down to half. Me even less. They need it more. Hoof and Belle are just kids, really. And Caldera, the more time spent with food in his mouth the less I have to listen to him yap,” Halo said, quietly laughing to himself.
“It’s amazing that you’ve survived out here so long,” Guardian said, impressed with the sergeant’s persistence. For a moment, she held eye contact with Halo, who was increasingly becoming fascinated by her.  
“You’ve been out here for what, two, three months? Why don’t you return? To the lines back south?” Silver asked, concerned why anypony would want to stay in this inhospitable frozen forest longer than necessary.
Halo snapped out of his strange momentary trance lost in Guardian’s orange eyes, and resumed his professional demeanor, to answer Silver’s slightly grieved question. Silver subtly took a step in front of Guardian, who was still staring into Halo’s eyes.   
“Our orders are to be here. The Lieutenant is dead, and I’m now in command of this unit. And as long as you’re traveling with us, you are too.”
“Our mission is ours alone. We don’t need your help,” Silver spat, insulted by his insinuation.
“Is it? You’d both have been captured or killed just before if we hadn’t found you,” Halo pointed out. 
Silver couldn’t deny that, keeping her mouth shut.
“Our company was sent to patrol the northwestern route to the passage. The same route you two are taking, I presume. We were intercepted just a few days in, by a creek. Bad place to be ambushed, I know. Those of us that survived, we first tried taking over an enemy pillbox near the cliffs down by Chesterfield, northwestwards, but that was destroyed too. We’ve been relocating almost every three days, or whenever the rebels finally track us down. Most of the food we eat is what we can find in the forest. Berries and plants that look like they won’t kill you. I once saw Banes over there take an entire bite out of a husk of tree bark, believe that.”
“Is the northwestern route still viable then? You have to understand, we’re on a very limited schedule,” Silver said, plainly.
Halo chuckled, given how warped his perception of time had become since being stranded in the forests. Though Silver wasn’t sure what he found funny. She had yet to take a liking to Halo, mostly due to the way he had been looking at Guardian. 
“I’m sure you are, Miss Saber. Do spare me the details. Yes, you could take that route. Can’t promise you that you won’t find trouble, but if you’re quick, you just may make it through…” Halo replied. 
“Sergeant, if I remember right, your company was supposed to meet another group of ponies, from the north?” Silver asked.
Halo huffed on his cigar, as it caused him pain to think back on the time before his world was completely turned upside down. 
“You remember correctly, Miss Saber.”
“The 14th Rangers, sir, they were your rendezvous. If they’ve broken through the western lead already, we could meet them on the other side of the river,” Silver said, confidently. That was the real reason she had sought to take the shortcut route over the mountain instead of following the creek as Colonel Splinter had instructed them to do; she saw potential in finding some more allies in this forsaken place, best of all ponies she thought of as old friends. 
Halo lowered his head, continuing to smoke, and somehow Guardian was able to sense that he knew something that Silver wouldn’t want to hear. 
“You know them? The 14th?” Halo asked, his unsteady eyes peering up at her. 
Silver hesitated, finding herself stuck in denial before she even knew what to be upset about. 
“I was a part of them, up until a few months ago,” Silver declared, pridefully, “I was transferred. Could you answer me? Where’ll we find them?” Silver asked, hoping to gain some extra protection on the road ahead. And better yet, a reunion with her old companions. 
“In that case...I’m sorry to say they’re all dead. We were the ones to find the bodies, we buried them not more than fourteen days ago.”
Silver froze, experiencing a strange physical sensation of shock the likes of which she was not particularly accustomed to. She had heard of companies of ponies being decimated before, in fact lately it was becoming an almost daily occurrence. But to know that it was her own friends, closer to being a family, who had all been mercilessly killed, left Silver’s heart an empty shell of misery, a recovery from which seemed impossible. 
“Silver…” Guardian said, aware that those ponies in the 14th were some of her closest, and only friends. Now Silver really had nopony but Guardian, who intended to do all she could to comfort her friend.
Guardian put her arm around Silver and tried to lead her away from Halo, who seemed to regret having told her the truth. Perhaps it might’ve been better to just say nothing at all. 

Guardian took Silver near a tree by the edge of the cliff, sitting her down against it in the grass, where she immediately broke down into tears. 
Guardian wasn’t sure how to help, meekly sitting down beside her friend and putting her arm around her, embracing her in hopes of comforting her. But if there was ever a time to be miserable, it would be now. 
Silver let herself sink into Guardian’s arms, silently crying her eyes out, as hope dwindled and despair settled in deep. Silver rarely cried, especially in front of anypony else, which was how Guardian was able to tell just how deeply affected Silver was by the news. 
As Silver lay in Guardian’s comforting arms, she recalled the day she first enlisted into the royal guard. Silver was the only child of two Manehattan professors, and had always had trouble making friends, all the way from primary school to university. She was stubborn, got into fights often, and always preferred to keep to herself. Her parents, however, were far more gentle and old-fashioned, who loved and supported Silver no matter what. It was when Silver was already in university, a well-read, straight-A student with a successful career laid out ahead of her, that she decided to abandon everything, to instead pursue a new path, the path of a soldier. She had a hard time explaining this decision to her parents, who had been so proud of how far Silver had come in her studies. It wasn’t necessarily that she wanted to rebel against the antiquated academic ways of her parents and defer from a life of scholarship, but she had really just come to the conclusion that she needed to experience something new. That, and having been convinced to try the military by a persuasive campus recruiter. She enlisted as a lunar guard, serving as a personal guard to Princess Luna, and was considered to be at the top of her class in the training academy. As always, she had succeeded in her pursuit. 
At least for a little while, before she was eventually ejected from the lunar guard, under the order of Princess Luna herself, under the grounds of insubordination. Her pride had been shattered, utterly and completely. She had dropped out of university with the hopes of making a name for herself in the service, and she had failed. 
It was then that she was transferred into the 14th Rangers. Her heart had already been blackened after the ordeal with Luna, and she feared unending humiliation from her peers. But, to her surprise, the ponies in the 14th welcomed her with open arms, and treated her with respect, certainly more respect than Luna ever gave her. At a time in her life when things seemed at their darkest, the ponies in the 14th Rangers renewed her hope for redemption in herself. 
To learn of all those ponies’ tragic demise, then, was a catastrophically devastating emotional blow.  
Silver stayed as she was in Guardian’s arms, crying softly, for a good ten minutes. Then, she slowly rose back up to her hooves, wiped her eyes of the remaining tears, and took a deep breath. Guardian stood up to join her, without a word. She figured she’d only make things worse by talking. 
Silver stood before Guardian, slightly embarrassed to have broken down into tears, though Guardian understood. Silver slowly leaned in for another wordless embrace, thankful that she wasn’t yet completely alone. 
“Um, are you two alright?” 
Silver backed away from Guardian, both of them turning to see Blue Belle standing nearby with a bucket lying by her on the ground. 
“Sergeant wants me to take you to the creek to get cleaned, so let’s go,” Blue Belle said, motioning with her head for Silver and Guardian to follow after. 
 
Trotting through the camp, Blue Belle stopped by one of the tents, kicking a sleeping Caldera in the side.
“Hey!”
“Get up. We’re doing something.”
Caldera shuffled out of his withered blanket and rose to his hooves. 
“Oh. Right. Give me a sec, would ya?” Caldera said, stepping inside one of the nearby tents. He reappeared moments later, holding the strange weapon that neither Guardian nor Silver were familiar with. 
“What is that thing? And how does it work” Guardian asked. 
Caldera waved the weapon around in the air excitedly, nearly whacking Blue Belle over the head with it. 
“Careful! Moron…” she muttered. 
“It’s one of those weird prototypes the rebels have been using. A crackpot amalgamation of magic and machinery. It’s like a cannon...but thinner,” he said, simulating blowing somepony’s brains off with the click of the trigger. 
It was a long, thin barrel-shaped device, with a wide trigger and hoof guard on one end and a dangerous protruding snout on the other.   
“They’ve got a name for it?” Guardian asked, fascinated by the strange piece of rebel technology. 
“Maybe. I don’t know. But I do know that it’ll put a hole right through you. I call it a pop smoker. ”
“A pop smoker?” Silver repeated, breaking into a light mocking laughter that helped her to ignore her grief. 
“Yeah, that’s what it does. Pops, and then smokes. So don’t piss me off, new girl, or I’ll show you what I mean,” Caldera threatened, jokingly. 

The four ponies shambled out of the campsite back into the forest, stepping over dead leaves and stray clumps of snow as they went. 
“Hey um, I’m sorry I pulled my horn on you,” Blue Belle said to Silver, aware that she had recently received some troubling news. 
“No problem, I would’ve done the same thing,” Silver said, smiling. Blue Belle twitched, unsure whether that was a good thing.  
“Oh, that’s nice, you’re getting along. Well, not to be that pony, but...you two aren’t going to be staying long, right?” Caldera said, half-jokingly. 
“No. We’ve got to be on the other side of the passage in six days,” Guardian replied. 
“Oh. Well if you get there, tell ‘em to send some more ponies down here. If we’re still alive by then,” Caldera said, hopefully. 
Blue Belle shook her head, annoyed with Caldera’s unending bothersome remarks.
“If any of us get killed before then, I’ll be praying it’s you,” Blue Belle muttered, dryly. 
“Ha! Get a load of that. Don’t mind her, she’s only good for whining,” Caldera said, turning to Silver and Guardian as if he was trying to impress them. Both decided to stay out of the conflict. 
Right before Blue Belle could come back with a snarky reply, her hoof fumbled right over a stray rock that was sticking up from the ground. She tripped right over it, tumbling down an upcoming hill, grunting upon every hard hit into the rocky terrain. 
Once she had come to a stop below in a heap, she groaned in pain and turned over on her back, while Caldera couldn’t prevent himself from bursting into laughter. 
“And a klutz too!” Caldera said, practically falling over the hill himself as his laughter grew out of control. 

“Watch where you’re walking next time,” Silver muttered, helping a frazzled Blue Belle back up her hooves after trotting down the hill. 
Soon after Blue Belle’s bruising tumble, they arrived at the aforementioned creek, though not the same one Guardian and Silver had been following earlier. 
“You two clean yourselves up, we’ll be right over here…” Blue Belle said, pointing at the nearby rushing waters.  There was rocky terrain surrounding the creek, pebbles and boulders side by side, claiming their small portion of the otherwise densely wooded forest.
Guardian nervously glanced at Silver, who was already unfastening her armor. Guardian wasn’t exactly sure about bathing in that unbelievably cold water, though didn’t want to appear weak in comparison to Silver, joining her in taking her armor off. 
Caldera was sitting atop a large round rock by the creek with the rebel weapon in his hooves, scanning the forest for movement while Silver and Guardian stepped into the water. Almost immediately, she started shivering and squeaking in discomfort. Guardian quickly followed after, but then immediately jumped out. 
“It’s freezing!!” Guardian yelled. 
“Just suck it up, go on,” Blue Belle said, rubbing her recently-received bruises with her hoof.
“Yeah, I don’t want to be out here for long, prig,” Caldera said, earning a disgruntled scowl from Guardian. 
Guardian sighed, and made a second attempt, carefully wading through the water to where Silver was. 
“It’s possible to get diseases from this, you know,” Silver said, slightly disgusted. 
“Thanks. I really wanted to know that,” Guardian replied, sarcastically. 
Blue Belle tossed them the sponge, while she waited by the bank of the creek, her horn at the ready in case of an ambush. 
“What good is a sponge without soap?” Silver asked, confused why they had even been given it. 
“What do you think this is? A five star hotel?” Caldera said. 
Guardian shook her head, and started splashing some water at her body to try and wash off the mud that was caked onto her fur. 
While Silver and Guardian got to cleaning themselves off, Caldera and Blue Belle were fixated on their surroundings, making sure there wasn’t any danger coming for them in the vicinity. Guardian just couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. 
“That storm’s supposed to hit any day now,” Blue Belle said, “That’s what Sergeant said.”
“What does he know? He’s not a weather pony,” Caldera retorted, “Last time I checked that is. Maybe he’s started pursuing a new career other than leading us to our graves. I’d be first in line to encourage that switch.” 
“The next place we go to better be in a cave or something. I can stand starving, and the cold, but I cannot put up with rain on top of it all!”
Blue Belle pouted with her arms crossed, all the while keeping her eye on Guardian and Silver nearby in the creek. She then noticed Caldera smacking his lips around something on his mouth.
“What is that? What’ve you got?” Blue Belle asked, hopeful that it was food, and that there was some for her. 
“Relax, airhead, it’s just a piece of marrowleaf I picked off a bush. Tastes like yak shit,” Caldera said.
“Marrowleaf?! That’s poisonous! Spit it out!” Blue Belle yelled, jumping up to her hooves in surprise. 
Caldera immediately hacked out the green leafy substance off of his tongue, spitting up as much as he could. 
“I didn’t know that…” he muttered, horrified. 
“How ever did you survive this long?” Silver asked from the creek, snickering. 
“Piss off!...Lousy, filthy unicorn,” Caldera grumbled, slightly embarrassed. Death by consuming the wrong plant wasn’t a proud way to die in these parts.  Or any parts, really. 
“Listen to this, I’ve been thinking...We’ve got twice as much luck putting together a raft from some driftwood and floating downstream than we do spending more time under our dutiful Sergeant’s spectacular leadership,” Caldera said. 
“You shouldn’t talk about him like that…” Blue Belle shot back. She was frequently critical of Halo as well, but not to the extent of being blatantly mean-spirited. 
“There was this old picture I watched when I was little that had something like this. What we find ourselves in, I mean. There’s this group of ponies on this boat, right, and they get caught in a storm, and marooned on this deserted island in the middle of the Prancific Ocean. And on this island, see, they’ve got to find the means to survive and work out their differences and stuff.” Caldera said. 
“That’s Galloping’s Island, and it’s a show, not a movie, idiot,” Blue Belle said, rolling her eyes. 
“Oh. Well the premise is the same.” 
Guardian and Silver finished up in the creek, wading back out, shivering from head to hoof. 
“Here, warm up with this,” Blue Belle said, handing each of the freezing-wet ponies a blanket. 
“It’s all we have, I’m sorry it’s not more,” Blue Belle said, consolingly. 
Guardian and Silver were mildly cleaner than before, and quickly took to drying themselves off. 


When they returned to the campsite, it was close to midday. Halo was waiting for them as they returned, the other two lingering back. 
“There, better?” he asked. 
“B-Better,” Guardian said, her body still warming up underneath the blanket.
“The lot of you, come and eat,” Halo said, nudging them deeper into the camp towards the box of rations. 
It was Halo’s job to delegate who got what, since everypony else was deemed not trustworthy enough. 
Halo divided each packet of full rations into halves, handing a piece to each of the ponies, including Guardian and Silver, who both politely declined. 
“It’s ok, really, you all need it more,” Guardian said. She did feel slightly guilty about not sharing the small amount of rations in her duffel bag. Although, it wasn’t much to be upset about. 
Halo didn’t press them, as he was already nervous about giving them their food in the first place. 
“Eat that as fast as you can, and then take everything down. We’re leaving.”
“Now? Why now?” Hazel asked. 
“Because there’s a storm moving this way, I’ve told you all this before…”
Hazel then remembered something about a storm, and made no reply, turning around to begin packing up his belongings. Living in the wilderness, they never stayed put in one place for too long. 
“Have you seen these?” Banes asked Halo, holding something in his hoof. 
“What?” Halo asked, having no idea what Banes was referring to. 
Banes lifted up a wad of red paper pamphlets, laying them down on a log for the others gathered around to see. 
“Some rebel pegasi were dropping these all over. We picked some up...Here,” Banes explained. 
On each pamphlet were the words:


	KILL THE ROYAL PIGS. 


Halo snickered in amused disgust for the sentiment, picking up the pile of pamphlets and tossing them to the ground. 
“If they have so much time for this, why not drop some cigarettes? Or food perhaps?” Halo asked, laughing to himself. 
“Should I scout our route, sir?” Hazel asked. 
“Eat first, kid. We’re all gonna need the strength to carry all of this stuff,” Halo said, tensing up as a strong gust of wind blew through his hair. 

Guardian had never been in a proper relationship with anypony. She had always been afraid of taking any of the colts who pursued her in high school back home with her, for fear of her father’s wrath. And in the army, there was rarely time or peace of mind to allow for any kind of really getting to know somepony. It came as a devastating shock for her to realize that she felt some sort of attraction towards him, Halo, who had just recently saved her life. It was exciting, to have that rarely-felt sense of desire, that compelled her to make more of an effort to come across as impressive. In her heart, she was sympathetic to the struggles of the classical heroes of old, and had always sought to emulate those struggles herself. She saw those same struggles in Halo, and believed that he and her might even be good complements for each other. How else could it be so fortunate, that he survived  this long against all odds, lest it be that they were destined to meet? It was sappy poetry at best, but it felt right nonetheless. 

Guardian and Silver took to helping the 4th Squadron ponies take down their camp, packing all of the tents and scattered supplies into four large duffel bags. 
They set off back into the wild. Silver wasn’t sure why Guardian had them still traveling with these soldiers, especially since their time limit was still counting down. But they were technically heading in the right direction, so she made no protest. She had ended up stuck carrying the comatose, cot-bound Hertz in a bed of her magic, though he wasn’t nearly as heavy as the large duffel bags the others were carrying. 
“Hazel, head up a mile, make sure the way is clear,” Halo ordered.
“Why do I have to?” Hazel whined. He wasn’t much of a runner.
“It’s that or carrying the load, so which is it?” Halo threatened. 
Hazel’s head swiveled between the dirt path ahead and the heavy bags being carried by Banes, Halo, Caldera, and Guardian. In a matter of moments, he decided he was even less of a lifter. 
“I’ll go,” he said, sheepishly. 
“Then get to it. If we’re gonna be surprised, I want to know about it,” Halo said.
Hazel nodded and began jogging up ahead of the others, eventually disappearing over the approaching hill. 
“If we know about it, then it won’t be a surprise, would it, Sarge?” said Caldera, smirking that he had managed to undermine Halo.
“Shut up, and stop slouching with that bag,” Halo said, gritting his teeth. Out of all of the ponies under his command, the only one he truly couldn’t stand was Caldera, who seemed to always have to make a comment. 
“I could’ve cleared that distance in less than a minute,” Guardian said, producing some high-pitched grunts in regard to the heavy bag she had volunteered to carry. 
“The kid needs the exercise,” Halo said, shrugging. 
“I think you’ll all be given medals, when you get out of here,” Guardian said, loud enough for the entire group to hear, “You most of all,” she said, directly towards Halo, who wondered what was going through her mind right then.
“Medals? A bit of silver? I’d be better off pawning it than sticking it in some frame,” Caldera said. 
“Those medals are more than just a bit of silver,” Banes interjected, coldly. During the short time they had been with the 4th Squadron, neither Silver nor Guardian had heard Banes speak much, which made both of them increasingly more interested in what he had to say. The group slowly came to a stop, Banes having turned around to face down Caldera, who tried hard not to admit he was afraid of the imposingly stoic stallion. 
“Oh my mistake, it comes with a little ribbon on it too,” Caldera said, cackling to himself. 
“For some of us those medals are all we’ve got to remember ponies we’ve lost, have you thought about that?!” Blue Belle sputtered, close to crying, Caldera’s jokes having unintentionally struck a nerve. Guardian and Silver both figured Blue Belle was referring to herself, but knew better than to pry into some traumatic territory. Silver gently set Hertz’s cot down on the ground, taking advantage of the unplanned break in the journey to give her horn a break.  
“Would you take it easy? You wouldn’t last one second if you ever got captured, you know. All the rebels would have to do is threaten to poke you with a toothpick, and you’d start squealing, telling them everything you know! You’re pathetic!” Caldera said, expecting the others to laugh along with him, though none of them did. 
Blue Belle’s eyes flashed red with anger, Caldera continuing to poke her nerves.
“Give it a rest! You’re the most useless one of all of us, we’d all be better off without you!” Blue Belle yelled, driven solely by her anger. 
Caldera hesitated, Blue Belle’s words actually managing to hit a chord in his heart. 
“Aww, that’s cute. She’s trying to stand up for herself. Poor Blue Belle. I never got how they let a weak little pushover like you stay in the army, they must really be absolutely desperate,” Caldera said, his words like acid being thrown at Blue Belle’s face.
“Shut up!” Blue Belle yelled, her horn beginning to glow, her face bright red, tears still bubbling up in her eyes. 
“Whoa...Whoa...Settle down,” Halo said, suddenly stepping between Blue Belle and Caldera, before the conflict could escalate. 
Blue Belle realized she was again going too far, and dimmed her horn, lowering her head in shame for having dared to shed a tear in front of the others. Halo held her by the chin, affectionately, raising her head back up. His sharp gaze was enough to restabilize Blue Belle, who quickly wiped her eyes and tried to get a grip on herself. The stress of living every day in fear of dying a gruesome death was enough to break the spirits of even the experienced ponies of the royal army, but for small-town, bright-eyed privates like Blue Belle, it was a mind-altering, painfully strenuous experience. 
Halo turned around to Caldera, who seemed oblivious to what he had done wrong, if anything. 
“You need to keep your mouth shut. We’re all tired. And you’re not helping anypony with talk like that,” Halo said, bluntly, avoiding being too lethal in his put-down. 
Despite the relative tameness of Halo’s words, Caldera was still disposed to stubbornly stand his ground. 
“Well that’s just classic. Standing up for the little guy. Big Sarge, thinks he’s a big tough guy...Apparently we’re all forgetting what you were like before all this! Huh?” Caldera said, methodically walking between the group, eyeing every one of them down, trying to make them take his side. 
“A drunk! A loser! Spending his nights alone with a bottle in his hoof, left to mull about in his own pity! And the Lieutenant felt bad for him! Well I don’t! Look what’s become of us! Two months ago we could’ve been back in friendly turf! Twenty strong! But instead we stayed here! Because why? Because of your precious sense of honor! You treat us like dirt, you drive us to our graves, and then you point your hoof at me, like I’m the one who’s killed us all!”
Caldera was practically out of breath, his deep-seeded despair finally being revealed through his cathartically painful beratement of Halo, who was still stone-faced standing right where Caldera had left him. All of the others, including Guardian and Silver, were looking to Halo, waiting for a response. Though Halo seemed too fatigued already to get in a screaming fit. 
“I am nothing like Fast Track. I wish I was, but I’m not,” Halo said, his eyes grey and sullen, his head slightly lowered towards the ground. “I hadn't care if I came out of here in one piece. But something did change when the Lieutenant died, and that was that I got responsibility. Not for myself, for you all. We’re soldiers. We didn’t come out here just to turn around when things stop going our way, or start picking fights with ponies we’re supposed to work alongside with...we came to fight. You can whine about having to put up with the cold, or the food, or what have you...I get it. I’m just as pissed off as you are that we lost all those ponies. They were friends of mine. Fast Track wouldn't have turned around, and neither will we. The best we can do is make sure he didn't die for nothing. Caldera, if you’ve got such an issue with the way I’m running things, you’re free to run off. I won’t have them charge you with desertion, I won’t even mention it to anypony. You can go on if you’d like, leave us here. Is that what you want to do?”
Caldera said nothing, feeling humbled already despite Halo not having made any real jabs thrown at him.
Halo took Caldera’s silence as a ‘no,’ and nodded. 
“Then let’s get a move on, we’ve got to get to cover before that storm passes over us,” Halo said, turning back around to continue leading the group forward.   
 Blue Belle left Caldera with only a bitter scowl, before she caught up to Halo and Guardian up ahead. Banes only seemed disappointed, and he too started following after the others, resuming the march through the forest. 
Silver, however, for some reason, decided that she did feel pity for Caldera, who seemed to be either loathed or resented by every other pony in his squadron. She could tell the pony was stressed, as were all of the others, and tried her best not to blame him for his rashness. 
“Come on, let’s catch up,” Silver said, nudging him to walk with her up to the others.
Once the entire group was reunited, with the exception of Hazel Hoof who was scouting up ahead, Silver decided to try her best and reinstill some calmness to the group’s declining morale. 
“Your accent, it’s not from Fillydelphia,” Silver said to Caldera, hoping to break up the tension with some menial discourse. That, and she was truthfully unsure where his unfamiliar manner of speaking originated from. Caldera sighed through his nose, considering how much he was at fault for his actions before putting his doubts aside to answer Silver. He wasn’t sure why she was making any effort, but reciprocated it nonetheless.  
“I moved there as a colt. Great city. I live downtown, Old City. I was born in a village that sits beneath the sun cliffs of Palo Alto...We all talk like this there. I’d return, if it wasn’t for the abysmal heat. She’s not from Filly either,” Caldera said, nodding at Blue Belle. 
“Seaward Sholes,” Blue Belle said, glumly, missing her beloved coastal town with all her heart. She could recall sailing in the sea with her family, the cool ocean wind rustling through her mane. She dearly hoped that she would survive the war, if only to make it back home one last time. 
“I’ve never been to Fillydelphia. Is it nice?” Guardian asked Halo, walking right beside him in the back of the group. Silver, who was a little bit ahead, could only roll her eyes as she realized what was happening. 
Oh brother. 
“It’s my home, born and raised...You should visit there one day, when this all ends,” Halo replied. 
“And when will that be? In ten years I might not remember,” Guardian said.
“Ten years?! Celestia forbid I’m alive to see another ten years of this…” 
“If we make it through, we’ll be sure to send back help for you...I think you’re very brave, for staying,” Guardian said, her voice quivering, partly from the cold, partly from the nervousness of confessing her admiration for him.
He glanced down at her, uncertain whether she was really implying what he thought she was implying. He smiled back, and for a moment Guardian thought she had secured a victory with establishing a bond. 
But before she could get anywhere further, they were surprised by Hazel Hoof making his return, jogging back up onto the road, stopping right in front of Halo and Guardian.
“Sir! There’s a way north that leads towards the rocks, but we’ll have to cross a river,” Hazel reported, terribly out of breath. 
Halo briefly considered their options, before reaching his conclusion. 
“Banes! New route!” Halo called out to Banes, who was now at the front up ahead. 
The group changed their path accordingly, heading deeper into the woods. Their travels went by mostly in silence, as they pushed through an array of natural hazards, from logs in the path to slippery rocks.
They reached the river in late afternoon, the sky now a faint, shadowy grey up above, the powerful, sparkling clear waters murmuring in dense tongues. The waves collided against large jagged rocks and downed trees, whose branches and leaves often still stuck up into the air, clinging onto a life that would never be resuscitated.   
The group stopped at the bank of the river, all of them scouring the west and east for any possible crossing points. 
“There, a log. We’ll cross over that,” Halo said, pointing at a large log a quarter mile west that hung over the river. Halo was the only pegasus in the group besides Guardian, which meant he would have to accommodate the others first before his own needs.
Once they were upon the log, Halo gave it a once-over, to ensure that it was structurally stable enough to support all of them. Below the log, the river was thunderously crashing in swift sweeping blows, strengthened by the pre-storm winds. 
“Everypony be careful,” Halo warned, making way for Banes to take the first step on the log, which sat overtop the rushing rapids of ice-cold water. 
“You’re not still scared of heights, are you?” Guardian whispered to Silver, who was stuck in place staring at the intimidating rapids. 
Silver shook her head, though the fear was palpable on her face. Guardian held her hoof for a moment and squeezed, hoping that Silver would be able to recover from the emotional pain she was currently suffering through and persevere, at least long enough until they had some temporary safety. 
In order, they went Banes, then Caldera and Hazel carrying Hertz’s cot-bound body between them, then Halo carrying the weapons, Blue Belle with the food supply, Guardian with the tents, and Silver with the rest of the supplies in the back. All of the ponies had a mildly difficult time keeping their balance while holding onto their heavy packs, slowly inching their way across the already-slippery tree log. Guardian would routinely be turning her head behind her to make sure Silver was doing alright, concerned for her safety. On one such occasion, it wasn’t Silver who happened to have an accident, but instead somepony else. 
“Shoot!” cried Blue Belle, tripping over a slippery segment of the log. She lost her balance completely, nearly falling right off of the log into the rapids below. She was rescued, however, by a hoof belonging to Guardian Angel, who managed to reach out to save her just in time. 
Although Blue Belle’s life had been saved, the ponies had no compulsion to celebrate. As Blue Belle had fallen, she lost her grip on the case of food, which fell right into the river. The case bounced in and out of the white foamy water, quickly being swept downstream.
Wasting no time to react, Halo immediately threw off his duffel bag, tossed it to Guardian, and spread his wings. He soared into the air to chase the case down, while the others all stood with their jaws to the floor. That case of food was their only hope for survival, and without it, any resemblance of optimism for coming out of the forest alive would be near-impossible to come by. 
Halo struggled to locate the brown case in the bubbling, rushing waters of the rapids. He caught sight of it eventually, its dark green strap flying up along the tumultuous waters. He eagerly flew down towards it before he could lose sight of it again, and successfully managed to grab a hold of it, though at the expense of his peripheral vision. He slammed head-first into an outstretched branch of a tree by the bank of the river, toppling over backwards into the furious, treacherous waters. He was submerged completely, immediately losing his sense of surroundings as the waters knocked him about in every direction, carrying him downstream at an unprecedented speed.  He still had a hold of the case, which he was clutching onto for dear life. In the chaos of the rushing waters, he was unable to regain flight, sputtering for breath while desperately trying to stay above water. 
“He’s gonna drown!” Guardian exclaimed, throwing Halo’s duffel bag to Silver, spreading her wings, and taking flight herself. The others were helpless but to watch as Guardian soared into the sky after Halo, who was now so far downstream he was barely visible.   
Guardian sped through the air while Halo was gasping for breath, his free arm flailing up in the air. The last thing Halo could make out before he blacked out was Guardian, descending from above, silhouetted by the rays of sunlight bursting through the clouds behind her, with her arms outstretched compassionately towards him.
   


Halo awoke in a panic, gasping for breath, unsure where he was or what had happened to him. He was in one of the 4th Squadrons’ tents, implying that they had successfully set up a new camp somewhere. But what was more of an immediate concern, was the stark lack of warmth resonating in his body. It felt as though his skin was frozen over in a thin veil of ice, and he ached everywhere. There was a pillow underneath his head, propping him up from the tarp he was lying on in the tent. He was wrapped in a blanket, though it did little to help warm him up.  
“You’re awake?!” 
Halo lifted his head to see Guardian Angel step through the flaps of the tent, relieved to see he wasn’t dead. 
“What’s h-happened?” Halo asked, his voice quivering from the cold, as he attempted to push himself off of the ground. 
Guardian quickly rushed over to keep him from moving. He could tell her touch would’ve been a soothing feeling, though unfortunately Halo was so numb he couldn’t feel a thing. 
“You fell under the river...I pulled you out, and we set up camp not far, for your sake. They’re all very worried about you,” Guardian said. 
“They sh-should be, ungrateful d-dogs…” Halo groaned, as a wave of shivering passed over him. Guardian giggled, lightening up Halo’s depleted heart.  
“I s-saw you...Coming down upon me...It was s-something of a last sight if I ever saw one…” Halo said, reflecting back on the moment he had thought he was about to succumb to the merciless waters. 
Guardian blushed, but said nothing, struggling to put together a response. 
“The food! Is the f-food alright?!” Halo asked, suddenly, recalling what exactly he had risked his life for. 
“Yes, it’s all still intact, not too wet...Blue Belle wanted me to tell you she’s very, very sorry,” Guardian said, stifling a smile. She didn’t blame Blue Belle, who had been a complete mess for the past few hours since Halo had been rescued, blaming herself for potentially killing him.  
“She’ll be s-sorry, when I ring her head a f-few times...Oh Luna...I can’t feel my legs in the slightest…” Halo said, astonished by how brittle his body felt.
Guardian felt her anxieties grow at the sight of Halo’s shuddering, pale, ice-cold body. By all means, he looked not far from death. Believing there to be little time left to intervene, Guardian suddenly walked around him to his back, and laid herself down beside him. Without warning, she pressed her chest against his back, wrapping her arm around him, trying to put as much pressure between their bodies as possible.
“Whoa-Whoa, What are you d-doing?” Halo asked, shivering. 
“I’m using my body heat to warm you, you’re gonna get hypothermia,” Guardian said, blushing with the awkwardness of the position.
“Oh...Huh…” Halo muttered, lying on the tarp on the ground, his whole body shaking restlessly from the cold.
“How’re you feeling?” Guardian asked, after about a minute of them awkwardly lying together.
“B-Better….Much better,” Halo said, trying to focus on staying alive. 
“You shouldn’t have gone after the bag,” Guardian said, scoldingly.
Halo grumbled to himself, considering whether it had been worth it at all. 
“We’re d-dead without it...Wet food is better than n-no food. Me dying means m-more rations for them...Win win,” he said, smiling, trying to preserve his positive spirits. 
Guardian laughed with him, though she was still concerned for his well-being.
After time, both grew to be more comfortable with the physically intimate position Guardian had taken with him, though Halo was still wondering what she was really after. 
After about a half hour, Halo could feel some warmth start returning to his body, enough to inspire him to break free of Guardian’s tender grip. Halo grunted, picking himself up from the ground, allowing Guardian to back away to the other corner of the tent.  
She rose to her hooves to help sit Halo against a nearby crate of supplies, close beside the heat of her lamp, which she had left inside to help warm him up.
His breath was visible as a gaseous cloud, puffing into the air periodically. 
“Thank you…” Halo said, grateful for Guardian rescuing him from the violent waters of the river.
“Don’t mention it…” Guardian said, subtly rubbing her elbow. 
There was silence for a moment, neither sure what to say to the other. They were both beginning to feel a sense of mutual affection, thought neither was confident enough to say anything outright. 
“I didn’t say anything before, I don’t know why, but...I recognized you,” Guardian said. 
Halo tilted his head to the side skeptically, struggling to put together how and where. Guardian's cheeks flushed apple red with embarrassment, but she proceeded nonetheless. 
“You were with Fast Track at his wedding, in Canterlot. I saw you,” Guardian said, neglecting to mention that at that wedding she had developed a mild crush on the stallion, following his well-received good-hearted speech during the after-party. 
Halo laughed, not having realized that their paths had crossed ever before, and at such an occassion. 
“Then you saw me mess up my words too?” Halo asked. 
“No, no, it was really great. You were really great! Not in like a...I just meant that…uh...” Guardian mumbled, stopping herself before she said anything too revealing.
There was a brief, awkward emptiness of words for a short while, before Guardian took it upon herself to stage a quick conversational recovery. 
“And uh...hey, I think it’s a good thing, what you’ve done here. Sticking by the others, leading them. I don’t know many ponies who would’ve had the guts to stay this long out here…” Guardian said, softly. 
Halo marinated on her words for a while, his eyes lost in space in the darkest corner of the tent, warm orange light from the lamp bouncing on his face. His eyes flickered towards her, admiring the face of the pony who had saved his life. Her voice was soft and light, and pleasant to listen to, but what had really grabbed Halo’s interest was her eyes. Deep warm oranges, that seemed to be equally mysterious as they were inviting. 
Guardian became alert, when Halo took a deep breath, preparing to break the silence.
“You’ve got more of a level head than any of us, I guess I’ll take your word for it…” Halo said, groggily. 
“I mean it...I don’t think what Caldera said to you was right...I think he was just scared, that’s all. You’re doing a fine job leading them, you almost killed yourself just to save them some food!” Guardian said. 
Halo leaned his head back, as his ruminations over Caldera’s words, and Guardian’s words, and old memories of the past came to a head at the forefront of his mind, until he couldn’t help but confide some of it in the only pony around to talk to. 
“How is it that I’ve been reduced to this?...I must be cursed to live like this, otherwise I’d be dead already," Halo grumbled, pressing his face against the edge of the box, closer to the warmth of the lantern, "We've all gone mad."
Guardian noticed Halo's entire body twitch suddenly, as if he physically defrosting by the warmth of the light. Halo's eyes wandered back to Guardian, and his mind soon circled back to previous contemplations. 
"You know, I’ve been thinking...There was this one guy in the company, his name was Cufflink. They thought he was an up-and-comer breakthrough kid, like Glitter Gleam or Periwinkle Radiance. I met him once, Cufflink. He was a timid fellow. Kept to himself mostly, I don’t think he liked fighting either. But he was a damn good shot, I’ll tell you that. We'd never seen anything like him before. Spoke like a poet too, he was educated and all that. But he wasn’t the kind to be a leader. Or even have responsibilities, really. He’d always make up some excuse, or keep his head down. But he was so good of a shot, and he was so smart and well-off too, that they went ahead and pushed through for him. Got him a lieutenant's position in our company, the 27th. Fast Track never liked him, he could see right through the fancy mask. Fast Track was all about principle, see, all about strength and courage. He never gave up on anypony. Even me, and I was close to deserting more than once. He was like a hero to me, though, and somehow...somehow he convinced me that I had a place here. Like he knew that he’d be gone eventually and I’d have to step up,” Halo said, pausing to contemplate how exactly he had ended up where he was now, “Cufflink wasn’t like that at all. He wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, even if it meant all of these ponies dying. He thought he was too good for the front, he was high class after all! He was our lieutenant, sure, but he wasn’t our leader. Cufflink got his wish in the end, though. We were stopped in a little town by the Breadpan, you know where that is?”
“Yes,” Guardian replied, though she had never been there before. 
“He got caught pocketing some bits he had been robbing from the volunteer quarterers. The dirty bastard had nearly a thousand after three months on the road.”
“A thousand?” Guardian exclaimed, amazed by how high the number was. 
“Uh huh. He thought he wouldn’t get caught. Fast Track was the one who found him. And he went up to me later, and said he expected the thieving son of a bitch would get a dishonorable discharge, at the very least.”
“Did he?” Guardian asked.
“Granted amnesty, just two months incarcerated,” Halo muttered, shaking his head while huffing on his cigar aggressively. 
“And in the end he was just...inconsequential. Figure that. So after that, we headed up here, ordered to meet with your friend’s 14th Rangers in the middle of this Celestia-forsaken forest...What I was thinking was that...Cufflink, he managed to get out of that battle, avoid certain death, because of his wrongdoings. That battle...I saw Fast Track get it. He was ahead of the rest of us, who were huddled below this hill. He had his sword...the one I’ve got now...He had that in his hooves, waving it in the air, yelling ‘27th!’ He just kept yelling that, running up that hill. I wasn’t sure how many shots they put in him. At least fifteen. We couldn’t tell, he hadn’t stopped climbing that hill until he was shot to pieces. I was so angry, I was about to run right up after him, but Hertz went and stopped me. We tried pushing up, on either flank, but nothing worked. Those rebels had everything planned out. We turned back with a fraction of what we came with. Wilbury was in command then. He was scared out his wits, he didn’t know what he was doing. Can’t blame him, none of us were suited to fill Fast Track’s shoes. He wanted us to retreat back to the line...But Hertz and me, we wouldn’t let him give the order. Wilbury, he got his head blown off just a few days after Fast Track kicked the bucket. Poor bloke, he didn’t deserve it. So then it’s just me to carry on. Fast Track was a hero, a leader, and I wasn’t anything close. I could never get it through my head, why anypony would want to risk their life for this...I was only concerned with staying alive, following orders, all that. Basic training had me thinking like a cog in a machine. But when you’re out here, and everything moves so fast, and the world is just so...so unforgiving...Well it’s not like anything they prepare you for. Rank, structure, order, none of that matters when you’re starving to death. What I’m concerned with, is two things...food, and not turning on each other. I think I’ve figured it out, finally, after counting down the days till I’m joining Fast Track and Wilbury in a hollow grave somewhere not far from here...It’s not about the glory, or the respect...It’s about them, out there. I owe it to them to do everything I can to keep them alive and fed. I came out here, from my lovely little home back in Fillydelphia, to die. Die not for country, not for glory, not for them to write my name on some stupid plaque and mount it on some Canterlot wall...For them. Those rebels killed friends of mine, and by Celestia I want to make them pay for it...It’s been made personal…”
Guardian noticed Halo grow slightly more unhinged as we went on about his experiences on the front. His left eye was almost constantly twitching, and his face was worn from sleepless nights. 
“You want to know what I think? I think you’ve done an exceptional job...Most ponies I know would’ve tried to retreat or desert if they were in your position. All those ponies that died, they’ve been avenged, because of you...I think that you’ve got a heart, and that’s something that a lot of officers I know tend to lack...Those ponies out there, they may talk a lot, but they look up to you, I can tell...They need you to be with them,” Guardian said, masquerading her feelings behind an analogy. 
“Is that all you feel then? Cordial respect?” Halo asked, smiling. 
Guardian stared at him with her mouth open, eyes wide, and immediately decided to stop wasting time, leaning in for a kiss.
Halo accepted her with little thought, his mind too saturated from exhaustion and early signs of hypothermia to reconsider Guardian’s advances. He held her in his arms, leaning back against the crate behind him, while Guardian shut her eyes and drifted off into a blissful state of carelessness. Her pursed lips found their place on his ice-cold mouth, as she awkwardly marched closer towards him. She sat on top of him lying on the ground, allowing him to wrap his arm around her from around her back. 
“Do you mind if I take your helmet off? I just...I want to see your face,” Halo said, suddenly.
Guardian blushed again and backed away, nervously.
“I don’t like to take it off,” Guardian said, softly.
He eyed her, sensing some unease in her that he couldn’t quite explain. 
“Why not?”
Guardian’s heart started racing, and Halo quickly regretted asking.
“Hey, forget I asked...Come here” Halo said, pulling her in tighter.
She laid on top of him, still trying to warm his body up, though their passionate gestures on the other were increasingly becoming the main attraction of the affair. 
Guardian slammed her lips over Halo’s, graciously seizing the thrill of engaging in the mildly immoral act for the sake of some much-needed pleasure. Soldiers in the front were denied most of the things they needed to be happy: good food, relaxation, and, of course, relationships. 

While Halo was slowly warmed up inside their tent, Silver couldn’t help but eavesdrop from outside. Part of her wanted to storm in and break them up from each other, especially before things escalated too much. But the more Silver thought it over, she decided it wasn’t worth it to separate Guardian from whatever happiness she might have invested herself in. How long it would last, was Silver’s only concern. 

After a ten-odd minute period of grazing lips and sensuality, both of them became too tired to intensify things further. Guardian stayed lying right beside Halo, who had his arm around her and a cigar in his mouth. 
“Hey, I want you to have this by the way…”
Halo opened his eyes to see Guardian dangling some sort of small golden locket in front of his face. 
“What’s this?” he asked, accepting the piece of jewelry hesitantly. On its exterior was written the word, “ANGEL,” and inside was room for two pictures, though the locket was empty.
“It was my mother’s, she gave it to me...I want you to have it,” Guardian said.
Halo stared at her in disbelief. It was true, he was beginning to have feelings for her, but a gift of such seeming personal significance this early seemed a bit too much to handle.
“I can’t take this,” he said, clasping her hoof back over the locket. 
“Please, I want you to...You can give it back to me after me and Silver get back from up north…” Guardian said, pleadingly. It was one of her only family keepsakes she had taken with her to the war, though she didn’t mind giving it up for a time.
Halo was still resistant, though he could tell how much she wanted him to take it, and so grabbed a hold of it, albeit reluctantly. 
“I know we’ve really only just met, but...I like you,” Guardian said, softly, extremely embarrassed about confessing her recently-revived feelings towards him. 
Halo smiled, holding her in his arms a little bit tighter.
“I won’t lose it,” Halo promised, burying it in a pocket of his satchel.
Guardian beamed, drooping her head on his chest and curling up against him. They fell asleep together, beside the warm light of the lamp, drifting off into each other’s arms. 

The following morning,  Halo woke up first, and quickly separated himself from Guardian, cautious about the others discovering the extent of their relationship.
Halo was feeling in better health, making it known by stumbling out of the tent he was expected to have died inside. 
“Sergeant!” cried Blue Belle, practically sprinting up to him, hugging him tightly. He begrudgingly hugged her back, still a little disoriented from last night and his near death experience the previous day. 
“I’m sorry, Sergeant, I really am! I’ll volunteer to do night watch for as long as you’d like! And do kitchen patrol! Please don’t be mad at me!” Blue Belle wailed, begged.  
“I’m not mad at you, just...for Luna’s sake, watch where you’re walking from now on,” Halo said, shaking his head in amusement at her desperate pleas, gently whacking her on the head. 
“Yes sir!”  Blue Belle said, scurrying away before she made any more clumsy accidents. 
Banes, Hazel Hoof, and Caldera all approached him next, aware of what he had been doing last night from the questionable sounds emanating from his and Guardian’s tent. 
“You must be in great health, Sergeant, if you’re well enough to-” Caldera started, before Banes nudged him hard in the gut to shut him up. 
“It’s good to see you’re still with us, Halo,” Banes said, cracking a rare smile. Banes did respect Halo, which, considering how sparing the gruff stallion was with his appreciation for others, was to be taken as a major accomplishment.  
Halo smiled, gazing around at the new campsite the others had all set up last night. 
“We’re to head to our original destination...hopefully this little detour hasn’t given the rebels the time they needed to regroup...” Halo said, deeply concerned that the ramifications of Blue Belle’s fumble were more worrisome than any of them yet realized. 

On the other side of the camp, Silver had snuck after Guardian, having waited all last night to get a chance to talk to her. They practically ran into each other, Guardian having just come back from peeing off in the woods.
“Do I really have to say I don’t think this is a good idea?” Silver asked, stepping in front of Guardian right as she was about to exit the treeline into the clearing where the campsite sat. 
Guardian coyly glanced to the side, struggling to maintain her innocent front. 
“What?”
“Guardian, come on...You’ve only just met him,” Silver said, skeptical that there was as much of a spark between Guardian and Halo as Guardian was acting like.
“Our lives tend to be cut short. I don’t see any reason to wait around for another chance that we might not be around to take,” Guardian said, though she really didn’t think it was any of Silver’s business. 
“That’s nice, but...you should maybe be more concerned with staying alive, not getting a late night stand in with a pony you hardly know,” Silver said, bluntly, “You’re complicating things. They don’t need to be complicated,” she said, souring Guardian’s mood. 
“I like somepony! Really! For the first time in...I don’t know how long! If it was a threat to the mission, I wouldn’t have given it any ground.”
“Do you mean to take him with us?”
“I don’t know...I’m just...happy! Happy, right now, Silver!”
“You know I want you to be happy, but we’ve only got six days to make it out of the passage! I just don’t think now is the time for this! ” Silver yelled. 
“Maybe not...But it’s what my heart is telling me...This place is so cold, Silver, I just want to feel something warm…”
Silver saw how emotional Guardian was becoming, and decided that perhaps it wasn’t a tragedy to allow Guardian a brief fling for the sake of keeping her spirits up. She would prefer something alternative, but decided that it wasn’t her call to make, backing off and permitting Guardian to enjoy herself with this one. 
“You’re my best friend, Silver...You know that, right?” Guardian asked, hoping that Silver wasn’t feeling jealous or slighted by Guardian’s attempts at a deeper, romantic relationship. 
“I just don’t want you to get hurt...or distracted…But you’re right, it’s not up to me…” Silver said, backing off a little. 
Guardian smiled and embraced Silver, who hesitantly received her.
 “I’ll be alright. We’ll be alright.”
Silver hoped she was right about that, reluctantly stepping out of the way to let her proceed back into the campsite. 

The group set off once more northwards into the forests, over mossy rocks and lush ferns of green. Halo hung back to keep an eye on the others, despite Banes insisting he was a stronger fit for the time being. The cot-bound Hertz was being carried by Caldera and Hazel, while Blue Belle held the front. 
On the road, Silver’s heart was slowly recovering from the hopeless pit of despair it was stuck in yesterday as a result of the news of the 14th Rangers’ deaths. Her denial had transitioned into anger, which was to be mainly directed at the rebel enemy, justifiably so. She might’ve been slightly envious of Guardian too, that the pegasus could find some sort of joy in this lifeless wasteland, when all she had found was misery. All she had to look forward to was having her revenge, exacted by the means of slaying every rebel soldier that would come into her path. She could feel her mind corrupted by hatred and bitterness, similar to how she had felt when Princess Luna had demoted her. But she still had Guardian, of whom she loved enough to try and hang onto the light side.


“Did you hear that?” Guardian asked, suddenly, her ears perking up. She could’ve sworn she heard some sort of rustling in the brush beyond them. 
While in the middle of a patch of tall grass in the forest, the rest of the ponies slowly came to a halt after Guardian stopped abruptly. They were all exhausted, and frankly not in the mood for concerns that probably weren’t founded in reality. 
“Halo…” Guardian said, slowly. The air was warmer than usual, and the forest seemed so quiet that they could hear a pin drop. For some reason, Guardian had a sinking feeling that they were in danger. 
Halo nervously glanced over his shoulders, though couldn’t see much past the thick brush of the forest surrounding them. 
“Sergeant, can we just-” began Caldera, though he stopped himself short when the first blast of magic flew past his face. 
“Get down!” Halo yelled, right before a barrage of similar blasts of magic came rushing out from the forest on either side. 
Caldera squealed in pain when his hoof was caught by one of the blasts, letting go of Hertz’s cot, dropping the comatose stallion to the ground with a thick thud. Blue Belle threw her hooves off of the handles and ducked down, to avoid being hit by the hellstorm of magic running through the air at a rate so fast none of them could quite process it. Guardian had ducked down first, though Silver had a slower reaction time. She would’ve been shot right through the neck in the first few seconds of the attack, if not for Halo, who tackled her down to the ground.
Silver, slightly disoriented from the fall, caught sight of Blue Belle right in front of her, whose hooves were over her head while she screamed in terror. 
Banes and Hazel stuck together a little bit farther ahead, making communication between all of them difficult, worsened by the loud volume of the searing beams of fiery hot magic. Fire lit up the air around them, but was quickly covered by smoke. The royal soldiers could hear the sound of rummaging machinery and distant muttering, almost in every direction, contributing to their heightened anxiety. 
Halo rolled over off of Silver and climbed his way up through the long grass towards Blue Belle, Hertz, and Caldera, who was whimpering in pain, his hoof burned to a crisp after being shot. 
“Are you alright?!” Halo yelled into Blue Belle’s ear. She held onto his arm for fear of her life, eventually calming down enough to nod her head and stop screaming. 
Halo moved over to Hertz, who was face down in the mud. Halo reached to spin him over, but then hesitated, when he noticed the pony seemed to be motionless, his face planted in the dirt. 
Halo aggressively grabbed Hertz and rolled him onto his back. Hertz, who had already survived one gruesome injury to the chest, wasn’t fated to survive a second. 
He was riddled with holes from his neck down to his stomach, flesh torn apart and blood boiled into vapor. Halo was frozen in space, staring down at his old friend’s soulless eyes, the color drained from his face. 
“Sergeant!” Banes yelled from up ahead, after crawling down to the others. Hazel came close behind, his whole body shaking from fear of being shot.
The others all realized Hertz was dead, and weren’t sure how to react at first. Halo, who knew he had to ignore his grief in order to lead the rest of these ponies to survival, quickly attempted to regain his clear-headedness. But it was a different task, considering how much pain was now gripping his weakened heart. 
“Make east towards those rocks over there, better cover...They’ve settled down,” Halo said. He was right, as the barrage of blasts of magic had slowly decreased once all of the ponies had dropped low to the ground. 
“Sir?” Banes asked, glancing down at Hertz, unsure what to do with the body. 
“Leave him for now, if we can get back here for the body we will...I’ll go first, the rest of you stay close behind me,” Halo said, preparing to make a break for it into the brush. He gave a last long look towards all of the others, hopeful that today wouldn’t be the day he failed them. 
He leaped to his hooves and immediately took off towards the right of their path, leaping through bushes and through narrow routes between trees. 
Banes, Guardian, and Silver went next, wasting no time in lingering around back in that death trap. 
They all had their weapons drawn, which came in handy, when they encountered three rebels walking towards the scene, believing they had already won the skirmish. 
Halo, sword in hoof, slashed right through the first rebel’s rib cage, and shoved the other to the side face-first into a tree trunk, who then slumped down to the ground. The final rebel attempted to stick him with his spear, though Halo was able to dodge it, scurrying out of the way to continue heading for the cover of the rocks in the near distance. Banes took the opportunity to stomp on the head of the rebel who had fallen to the ground, while Silver was able to blast the third rebel with a heated ray of death straight through the chest. 
Silver and Guardian kept up with Halo before any other rebels could spot them, though Banes stayed where he was, waiting for Blue Belle, Caldera, and Hazel, who were all still crouching low in the tall grass, to catch up.
Blue Belle and Hazel, who were both relatively inexperienced when it came to actual fighting, were both in a state of paralysis, unwilling to leave the supposed safety of their current position lying on the ground beneath the tall grass. 
Caldera, despite knowing he would be slowed down from his hoof injury, decided he would have to lead by example, slowly rising up from the ground and limping towards the brush. 
Blue Belle gave a great exhale of fear before she too stood up to join Caldera, and Hazel wasn’t far behind. They each climbed through a narrow passage through a tree with two large branches, entering into deeper woods, the saem direction where the others had gone. 
But their hesitation proved to do them no favors, when Blue Belle noticed a dark green round object being thrown out from the forest towards them. 
“Frag!” Blue Belle hollered, diving with all her might to hide herself behind a nearby log. 
Hazel, however, wasn’t sure what she meant, until he noticed the hoof-sized grenade rolling just a few feet away from his hooves. 
Before Hazel could make any sort of attempt to protect himself, the grenade blew apart into a fiery mass of shrapnel, obscuring him behind a wall of thick grey smoke. 
Blue Belle, covering her neck and head from behind the log, waited until she was certain the explosion was finished, lifting her head up from the log to see what had happened. 
Banes had meanwhile been caught in a small collision with two stray rebel soldiers, one of which had his head crushed open against a nearby sharp rock, and the other who had been bashed through the chest with the back end of Banes’ spear. 
Turning around to locate the others, Banes first ran into Caldera, who was moving as quickly as he could on his limp towards the rocks, where Halo, Silver, and Guardian were close to arriving at.  
“Straight ahead,” Banes instructed, Caldera nodding in response. He would’ve tried making a joke, if he wasn’t deathly afraid of being killed any moment. 
“Stick,” Banes commanded. Caldera took off the self-titled ‘pop smoker’ from his back and handed it to Banes, who was roughly familiar with how to operate the device. 
Banes continued forward, until the distinct sound of a grenade exploding sent him crashing to the ground for cover. The explosion was a ways off, and Banes naturally feared that one of the privates had set off a trap or something. 
He got his answer as soon as he rose to his hooves, witnessing Hazel Hoof stumbling out from the cloud of smoke not far ahead, his face and chest now erupting with scalding red blisters and dripping with wet melted flesh and blackened fragments. Miraculously, he seemed to still be alive, though he was so badly injured he was practically unrecognizable. 
Before Banes or Blue Belle could say anything, Hazel started screaming in agony, sprinting forwards into the brush. It was clear that he had been blinded by the grenade shrapnel, tiny chips of metal wedged right into his eyes and all over his skin. 
He ran as fast as he could in agonizing terror, though, perhaps fortunately, his suffering was cut short, when he ran straight into a barrage of rapidfire magic, barreling through his body from some fixed weapon hidden somewhere in the brush ahead. The rapidfire weapon was tremendous, hidden inside a forest bunker, being worked by three ponies. It was made of black metal, with long smoking barrels and a bulky mechanical contraption sitting in the rear. Its blasts were devastating surges of death, and nothing that encountered it seemed to survive. 
While Hazel collapsed in a smoking heap, Banes avoided wasting any time mourning to instead head straight for Blue Belle, whose bright blue mane was clearly visible from behind the log she was hiding beside. 
Banes jumped over the log and crouched down beside her, just as the rapidfire blasts began heading his way. 
“We can’t stay here,” Banes muttered. Blue Belle was thankful she was no longer alone, though was too shaken up by Hazel’s horrible death to say much. 
Banes understood she was too scared to move, which did make things more difficult. He grabbed a hold of the rebel weapon, which he was loosely familiar with. The magazine was fully loaded with pellets of magical energy, which, when fired, resembled that of a real unicorn’s magical blast. 
Pulling back the bolt lever and then pushing it forward, Banes raised the loaded weapon over the log and waited for signs of movement in the brush. 
Banes, his eyes still scanning the distance, put his hoof on Blue Belle’s shoulder, getting her attention.
“Run, now,” he said, motioning for her to head for the rocks where the others had gone. 
“Are you-”
“Now,” Banes said, fiercely. 
Blue Belle squeaked, and quickly darted off away from the log, desperately trying to make it over to the safety of the rocks before she was shot down. 
At the first sign of movement, Banes pulled the trigger, though missed, and worse, he had given away his position. 
The weapon was difficult to use while standing up, and Banes knew that the second he left the log, he’d have to rely solely on his speed to try and outrun the rebels’ fire. 
He levied a few more shots at random directions into the brush, attempting to cover himself before he tossed the weapon’s strap around his back, rose to his hooves, and ran off in the same direction Blue Belle had gone. 
He was surprised to hear the sounds of a screaming wounded rebel, signaling that one of his stray shots had actually managed to make contact with somepony.
Banes was slightly behind Blue Belle, both of them desperately trying to outrun the rapidfire attacks that had begun to target them.
Banes being the closer shot proved to be his undoing, when he felt a sharp pain burst through his chest, spraying blood across the snow-covered dark green ferns. Banes choked on his breath, the pain quite unbearable, though he persisted, continuing to run as fast as he could after Blue Belle towards the rocks. 
Blue Belle had noticed Banes’ struggling, turning around to fire her horn in the direction of their attackers, in hopes of giving Banes some time to recover. The dark grey stallion stumbled over the edge of the ridge at the foot of the rocks, tumbling down below to where the other ponies already were. A pile of snow came slipping off the edge as he fell, covering his head. 
The ridge didn’t go deep enough for the ponies to stand without their head poking up over top, forcing them all to crouch down. 
Blue Belle jumped over the edge soon after Banes had fallen in, the survivors now all reunited. 
“Are you alright?” Halo asked, helping a frazzled Blue Belle get a grasp on her bearings. 
“Hazel, he-...Sir, they have a new weapon, a big weapon, we can’t see it!” Blue Belle wailed.
Halo would have tried to calm her down, had he not noticed Banes, bleeding out on the ground nearby. 
“Banes,” Halo said, cautiously, while the injured Banes sat himself up against the rocky wall of the ridge, holding his bloody wound with contempt. 
“I’m fine, I just got the wind knocked out of me,” Banes said, catching his breath, trying to ignore that insufferable pull towards the infinite blackness.
Halo said nothing, and neither did anypony else, all of them caught off guard in the chaos of the moment. Halo jerkily glanced up above the ridge, getting a glimpse of rebels running along the brush in the distance, weapons in hoof, mobilizing for another offensive. More and more magical attacks came to strike the ridge, though the royal soldiers were well-protected below by the sub-ground rocky ridge.
“They’ve got a few over there, southwest, and at least two others with a repeater, northwest…” Halo said, struggling to accept the staggering number of rebels in sight organizing themselves beyond in the forest. 
“They’ve got a bunker or some sort of foxhole, that’s where the repeater is,” Banes said, between rasped breaths, “I saw it.”
“We’ll have to make a divided strike, we can’t take either side one at a time,” Halo said, though he knew that splitting up would weaken their odds of success.
“Sarge, we can’t possibly try and take them, they’ve got us down with at least three times as many! They’ve already got Hertz and Hazel! We try anything but get the hell out of here, we’re all gonna be right behind them!” Caldera cried, terrified of being killed in a similarly horrible way to poor Hazel Hoof. 
“You’re right, they got Hertz and Hazel, and now we’re down two...Makes it even more obvious to me then, that this, this right here, is the last stand...You can try running away, Caldera, but I doubt you’ll make it far on that hoof,” Halo said, pointing at Caldera’s blackened hoof. 
“We’ve lost two good ponies, two friends, and by Celestia I hope that’s all for today...They’ve got us, they’ve finally got us, right where they want us...Now we can either sit here and cry about it, or we can go down fighting. We’re the last of the 27th, think about that! All those ponies who’ve died, just for you to give up now? I won’t have it, and I know for a fact Fast Track wouldn’t have had it neither. I need you to step up today. Today of all days, I need you.”
Caldera felt some unwanted shame in Halo’s rousing words, though he had to admit that his sergeant was probably right.
“I’ll be heading around northwest to try and force the ones above ground to head downhill…Blue Belle, you’ll be with me,” Halo said. 
“Yes, sir,” Blue Belle said, trying her best to show courage. She would hate to dishonor all of her friends in the company who had already died. If they did manage to survive, and better yet defeat the enemy, it would be a story worth telling for generations. 
“I’ll head for that bunker,” Silver offered. After the news of the 14th Rangers’ deaths, Silver had found herself craving some vengeance, perhaps to an unhealthy degree. 
“Banes, you’ll stay here, and don’t-” Halo started, turning around to address Banes. But it was too late, the hard-faced stallion had already gone limp in his seated position moments ago, unbeknownst to the others. His eyes were still open, and there was blood spilling out of his mouth. 
Halo slowly turned back to the others, struggling to accept the death of yet another pony. Every fatality was like a slap in the face, and he took it all as his own fault. 
“I’ll go with her,” Caldera said, finally splitting his conflict. He had a sinking feeling that if a pony as experienced and capable as Banes could be killed, then his chances of surviving were even slimmer. Regardless, he knew that with every death, there was more responsibility put on the others. Caldera crawled over to Banes’ corpse, removing the strap from the rebel rifle to use for himself. 
“I’ll come with you,” Guardian said to Halo. She had had no real preference in which fight to pick, but she did like the idea of being in a more open area, in case she had to make an emergency escape. Under no circumstances could she allow herself to be killed or captured, for the sake of the letter, which ensured the lives of thousands upon thousands of ponies.
  “Alright then...Good luck, don’t separate from each other,” Halo said, grabbing Silver by the hoof to bid her farewell. He gave Caldera a subtle nod of approval for stepping up to the task, before getting a grip of his sword and crouching closer beside the edge of the ridge. 
After waiting to make sure the current silence would last a few moments longer, Halo drew his sword out and climbed up over the ridge, darting to the left into the thicker brush for protection from enemy fire. 
As soon as he left the ridge, shots from the hidden bunker came screaming at them. Guardian took flight, soaring into the air to try and draw rebel fire away from the ridge to give Blue Belle a window to escape. 
Blue Belle scurried over the ridge, firing her horn straight ahead, though she couldn’t see what she was aiming at. 
Once Blue Belle had made it into the thicker brush, Guardian descended back down beside her and Halo. 
“Keep going, this way,” Halo said, jogging between trees. 
“There!” came a voice from nearby ahead of them. 
Guardian, still in flight, evaded trees as she rushed forwards, until she practically ran right into a confused rebel soldier. 
She stuck her spear straight into the rebel’s face, killing him instantly. She drew the blood-soaked weapon back and slashed sideways against another approaching rebel, realizing she was going to be in for a real fight, as more and more ponies began to spring out from their hiding places.  
Further ahead, Halo and Blue Belle had also encountered rebels. While Halo was in the midst of taking on three rebels simultaneously, Blue Belle was firing her horn incessantly at anything that moved ahead of her, gritting her teeth as she desperately tried to cut down everything in sight. She was fighting for her life now, and she was absolutely terrified, yet had never felt more alive. Her friends’ lives, her home, and her own life were all on line. Continuing to fire her horn manically, Blue Belle kept cautiously stepping forward through the forest.  
Blue Belle’s scream of agony grabbed both Halo and Guardian’s attention away from their separate conflicts, catching sight of the blue unicorn stuck in place between them, bawling her eyes out in pain. 
Halo was too distracted to offer any aid, as was Guardian, though she could at least see what had happened. 
Blue Belle, who had neglected to check the ground in front of her during her magical offensive, had accidentally stepped right into a rebel trap. The device effectively acted like a bear trap, slamming two ruts of sharp spikes into either side of her hoof. She was too consumed by her pain to even attempt to pry herself free, though her attempts would likely be fruitless anyway. 
Guardian desperately tried to finish off the last rebel to go help Blue Belle, who was crying her eyes out in pain and despair.  
Just as Guardian took care of the last rebel with a spear to the neck, she turned to run over to Blue Belle, but before she could, the unicorn was pelted with a barrage of magical blasts deriving from the hidden bunker northwards. 
Guardian helplessly watched as Blue Belle’s mutilated body came crashing down to the ground, a steaming mess of burns and blood. Guardian had little time to grieve, though, when the rapidfire blasts moved away from Blue Belle’s body to where she was standing. 
Guardian spread her wings again and set off at a low-level height, hoping to outrun the enemy fire before she could be hit. 
She flew straight towards Halo, who was still wrapped up with two rebel soldiers. 
She made it to him just in time to surprise one of the rebels, stabbing him up from the behind, leaving Halo to cut across the last rebel’s torso in an excruciating slice. 
Without an explanation, Guardian quickly grabbed Halo by the arm and swung him with her behind a tree, just before they could both be shot by the rebel bunker’s rapidfire. 
They had to get as close together as possible behind the thick wood of the tree, which was protecting them from the magic blasts. Sparks flew on either side of them, and if one of them was to just move an inch or two to the side, they would be shot to pieces.  
“Blue Belle?” Halo asked, unsure whether the unicorn private was still alive. 
Guardian quickly shook her head, her mind too pumped full of adrenaline to think about yet another pony’s untimely death. 
Guardian then heard a distinct snapping sound, and assumed the worst. She grabbed Halo again and pulled him away from the tree to another tree, right as their previous cover spot was blown to bits. The tree stalk collapsed to the ground in a thunderous crash, having been thoroughly sliced through by the powerful rapidfire magic. The bunker fire moved right along to Guardian and Halo’s new hiding spot, seeking to whittle down their available place to hide.
While Halo struggled to accept Blue Belle’s demise, Guardian only hoped that Silver would hurry up and take care of that bunker, before they ran out of places to hide. 

Silver Saber was merciless in her campaign towards the bunker, firing a red hot beam of fury-fueled magic straight towards every rebel she encountered. Caldera still had a hold of the self-titled pop smoker, squeezing the wide trigger that sat along the entire base of the grip, firing pellets of magical energy towards where he believed the bunker to be, straight ahead of them. 
“Six on the hill!” Caldera called out, noticing a small group of rebels rushing over a nearby grassy hill towards them. Silver, having just sliced a rebel soldier in half, swiveled around to fire a series of shots towards their new attackers’ way, killing four instantly and wounding the fifth. The last rebel was taken care of by Caldera, who was able to make his mark with the deadly rebel weapon.
Caldera turned to Silver with a wide smile on his face, exuberant over his successful shot with the rifle. 
His joy was taken from him after just a few seconds, when a sudden burst of bright purple magic came crashing down from above, exploding on impact a few feet away from Caldera. 
The impact of the blast was strong enough to send Silver tumbling back a few yards, slamming into the bark of an evergreen tree behind her. 
She groaned in pain, and then scanned the area for Caldera, finding his burned body just a few yards away. 
“Caldera?” Silver said, uncertain whether the pony was alive or dead. 
An agonizing groan gave her an answer, Caldera raising a weak hoof into the air to signal he was somehow still alive.  
Incentivized more so in her vengeful warpath, Silver returned to her hooves, taking cover behind a tree to peer up ahead and try to locate the rebels’ hidden bunker. 
“Caldera, can you move? Get to cover, they’re using mortar shells...”
Caldera grunted again, extending his hoof ahead in the dirt and clawing his way towards a tree not too far from where Silver was hiding. 
The ear piercing scream of Blue Belle in the distance caught her by surprise, though she was too far away to do much about it. Blue Belle’s death, however, turned out not to be in vain, when Silver and Caldera both caught sight of the rebels’ bunker-bound rapidfire repeater firing an array of shots southwards towards where Blue Belle’s screams were coming from, giving away the bunker’s exact position.
“There!” Silver yelled, jumping out from her hiding spot to begin firing at the bunker. 
To her surprise, she was met by three bolts of magic screeching towards her, all three missing their target, landing against the face of the tree she was previously hiding behind. 
She retreated back behind the tree, realizing they were pinned down by another bunker rebel, evidently a sharpshooter with his scope positioned right on them.
“He’s facing us,” Caldera muttered, his voice broken as a result of the smoke he inhaled from the explosion, and the withered damage to his throat, “I can see him...He’s got a pop smoker, it’s aimed right at you,” Caldera said, trying to speak clearly to aid Silver while he was able. He was so badly burned all over from the blast, that he very much doubted he’d survive the day. 
“Don’t move yourself,” Silver said, recognizing how injured Caldera was. It seemed unlikely anypony could’ve survived that explosion at such close range. 
“We’re stuck,” Silver said, worried that they were running out of time. Blue Belle’s screams of agony had been cut off shortly before, signaling to both Caldera and Silver that the unicorn had been killed. Caldera began to feel some regret in the way he had treated her, that perhaps he had let his bitterness over the war manifest into some unnecessary cruelty. But what really bothered him, was that now he wouldn’t ever have a chance to apologize. 
“If we can draw out his fire...You may have an opening...But you can’t miss,” Caldera said, though Silver still had no plan to work with. 
“He’s just stalling for reinforcements to surround us...We don’t have time to waste setting up a distraction. Not to mention if I take a step past this tree I’m dead!” Silver yelled, struggling to find a way out of her current predicament. Caldera, meanwhile, was sitting himself up against the tree, licking his charred lips, accepting that if he was to die this day, he might as well have made it for a practical purpose.  
“Perhaps I can make myself useful, for once,” he said, adjusting himself behind the tree. 
“What are you doing?” Silver asked, her horn at the ready, waiting to find an opening to stick her head out and stage a counterattack.
“I’m going to draw his fire, Silver,” Caldera said, weakly.  
Silver wasn’t sure what he was talking about, until she noticed him moving away from his cover. 
“Wait, don’t!” Silver said, though it was too late to stop him.
Caldera took one step out from behind the tree, and was immediately shot through the forehead. Silver, despite her disagreement with Caldera sacrificing herself, was obligated to take advantage of it, joining him in jumping out from her hiding place. She fired seven shots straight towards where she saw the shot that killed Caldera derive from, and then stood where she was.
She waited out in the open to be killed, though the shot never came. 
The sharpshooter was dead. 
A smile grew on her face, as she restarted her march towards the bunker, now free from the fears of being shot to death. Caldera’s death was a further motivation to ratify her warpath, her bloodlust still not yet satisfied. 
She ran for the bunker, and located the window where the sharpshooter had stuck his rifle through. She bent down and climbed inside, having to jump a few feet down to the sunken floor of the bunker. Immediately, she spotted the corpse of that sharpshooter who had killed Caldera, two smoking holes sitting in his head and chest. 
The bunker was dug into the ground, fitted with temporary wooden battlements for structural support. Ahead of her were four more rebels, standing around their rapidfire repeater, firing into the brush of the forest beyond. The weapon was so loud, that none of the ponies had even heard Silver sneak inside.  
Silver took advantage of their obliviousness, firing a single shot forwards, blasting through three of the four ponies at once. The last one was taken care of with a final, rage-filled blast. The four dead ponies fell from the handles of their rapidfire repeater, preventing any further devastation to Guardian and Halo outside. Silver leaned against the wall of the bunker, catching her breath and struggling to handle her grief over her fallen companions, coupled with the stress of carrying out so many murders in the name of revenge.

Halo and Guardian had taken up three different trees as cover from the furious energy of the rapidfire blasts, until at last the barrage was cut off, courtesy of Silver. 
“They did it?” Guardian asked, hopeful that Silver was still alive, and better yet, victorious. 
Before either could celebrate, a pack of around eight rebels came rushing out from the treeline behind them, brandishing a file of sharp-edged spears lined up to cut down everything in their path. 
Halo noticed them first, grabbing Guardian and yanking her beside him on the other side of the tree they had just been hiding behind. 
Guardian took flight, leaving Halo behind the tree to land on the other side of the rebels, who were disoriented from her sudden change in position. 
The four rebels on the right flank turned around the attempt to surround Guardian, though she was quicker, throwing her spear through the chest of the closest rebel, and grabbing another rebel’s spear by its handle, wrestling it away from him before he could stick her with it. She whacked two over the head with the butt of the spear, spun it around, and stabbed another through the stomach, gritting her teeth in anger on behalf of the loss of all the royal soldiers who she was only able to know a short while. 
Right as she finished stabbing the other two from the ground, Guardian went alert, at the sound of Halo grunting loudly in pain. 
She flew back to where she had left Halo, to find him keeled over on the ground, surrounded by the corpses of the other four rebel soldiers who had committed to killing him.
“Halo!”
 Halo collapsed on his side, gasping for breath. He had been speared through the stomach, blood leaking out of him like a knocked-over paint can.
“I’m alright,” Halo said, reaching out his hoof into the dirt to try and grab at something. 
“Come here,” Guardian beckoned, extending her hoof towards him on the ground. 
He laughed through his relentlessly desperate battle for breath, grabbing her hoof, letting her pull him up. He couldn’t quite stand, though Guardian didn’t intend for him to.
She lowered her back to allow him to fall atop it, Guardian struggling to bear his weight. He groaned while on top of her back, uncomfortable with the position. He could feel his breath withering, and his organs felt like they were all twisted against each other.
“Alright…” Guardian muttered, once Halo was resting on her back.
She adjusted herself and took her first step forward, making for the hidden bunker northwards, where she hoped to find Silver, who might’ve known a medical spell that could save Halo’s life.
“Watch it,” Halo grunted, when Guardian stumbled over some roots along through the forest.
Guardian would’ve apologized, if she wasn’t so distracted by the heavy weight she was carrying on her back. 
“And they thought they won, did they...But we’re still here, aren’t we...To the farsides and Canterlot, tell them the 27th have held their post,” Halo said, gritting his teeth as the pain in his chest worsened. Blood from his wound dripped onto Guardian’s armor and stained the occasional clumps of pure white snow on the ground.
“Silver will be able to help you, and then we’ll take you somewhere, somewhere safe. Caldera can be the one to stay with you...And then we’ll meet again! In Fillydelphia, maybe.”
“Yes…” Halo murmured, enjoying the thought of returning home. 
“Then the war will be over, and we can see each other again,” Guardian posited, she too being consumed by sentimentality, as she trudged through the snowy forest. Guardian wasn’t able to feel it, the moment when Halo drew his last breath. She simply carried on forward as if nothing had changed since the moments prior.
“Yes, we’ll surely see each other again,” Guardian promised, as she neared the bunker ahead. 
“Silver!?” Guardian cried, stopping right outside the bunker. 
“Yes! In here!” Silver replied. A wave of relief washed over Guardian, as she located a descending tunnel that led into the underground bunker. 
She carefully trotted down a wooden ramp into the bunker, and was excitedly met by Silver. 
“We did it!” Silver exclaimed, elated, until she noticed Halo’s breathless body lying atop Guardian’s back. 
“Here we are,” Guardian muttered, comfortingly, to Halo, who was unable to hear her. 
Silver helped her drop Halo to the ground, carefully laying him against the wall of the bunker, light from the opening seeping in right over his bludgeoned face.
“Do you know any spells that can help him?” Guardian asked, backing away while Silver inspected Halo. 
She was met by silence, which troubled her greatly. 
“Silver?”
“Guardian…” Silver started, hesitantly. 
Guardian didn’t require Silver to finish in order to understand what she meant. Immediately, she became distressed, more distressed than she had been for any of the either soldiers’ deaths earlier that day. 
“No, he’s just unconscious is all, he was hit through the chest,” Guardian said, certain that Silver was incorrect in her diagnosis. 
“He’s dead,” Silver said, practically a whisper. She hated to be the one to tell her. 
Guardian was kneeling beside Halo, whose mouth hung open, whose face was pale from the freezing air. She held his hoof, gently, and could tell instantly that his soul was no longer present. It was a disturbing feeling, to know that the pony who she was speaking with just minutes ago, who she had come to respect on a deeply heartfelt level in the past two days, had been reduced to an empty shell. He had never considered to be the hero in any sense of the word, but to Guardian he was as close as ponies could get. 
Silver stood idly by, empathetic to Guardian’s grief. She had felt a similar feeling just yesterday at the news of her old unit’s complete demise. 
Guardian waited by Halo’s side for a few more minutes, as if expecting him to be miraculously resurrected. 
Eventually she had come to terms with the cold reality, rising up beside Silver. 
“Blue Belle?” Silver asked, though she already had a hunch. 
Guardian shook her head, regretfully. 
“Caldera?” Guardian asked in turn.
“Him too.” Silver said, somberly. 
Guardian’s head was a mess, contorted by broken-heartedness and a sense of failure to do her duty.  
“We’re to bury them...Outside here, I suppose.” Guardian muttered.
“Burn the rest?” Silver asked.
Guardian sighed, as she would typically believe the act to be too impersonal and edging on immoral, though her heart was in so much pain she made no effort to speak against it. 
“Do it yourself if you’d like,” Guardian said, walking out of the bunker, struggling to retain her spirits after such devastating losses. 

For the next half-hour, Guardian and Silver took the time to dig six graves for Halo and each of his soldiers, buried all right beside each other. The rebels’ corpses, which numbered somewhere in the thirties once everything was all said and done, were dumped in a pile and lit ablaze, personally by Silver. She had positioned them all in the middle of the dirt road nearby, as if to make a public sign of their defeat for future passing rebels.
Halo was the last to be buried, Guardian rummaging through his satchel with hopes of finding one item in particular. She found the item in one of the front pockets, her very own golden locket that she had given to Halo as a gift the night before. She clutched it in her hooves, and intended to wear it again. But instead she found herself still clutching it, as she realized that she would forever attach the locket to the departed Halo, whose death she wouldn’t want to be reminded of for days on end. It seemed fitting then, that she bury the locket with him, as a parting gift, a sign that her cut-brief affection for him was as real as the snow that reigned supreme in these Northern Forests, as real as the smoke that climbed up into the sky, in the wake of a deadly confrontation, the last revenge of the 27th Fillydelphia Company.  
Guardian stood by the graves of Halo and the last remnant of the 27th, wondering whether her presence had helped or hindered them against their unfortunate fates. Her despair could not be quelled, and she pondered whether the world would ever stop refusing her a shred of happiness. 
Silver found Guardian by the graves, as expected, having just gone through all of the rebels’ belongings to find anything of value. 
“That big machine thing is too heavy to carry...We can take these tiny cannon things though. I’d say we can fit two,” Silver suggested, holding two of the rebel rifles in an aura of magic. 
Guardian shook her head, turning down the offer. 
“I’d be no good with it...And it’s not regulation either,” Guardian said, dryly. 
“Their ration packs had an emergency function, it’s all laced with chemicals now. Worthless. We should still have enough by ourselves to survive another couple days…”
“We’ll stick northwards, over this mountain, and find the river again…” Guardian said, firmly. Her mission seemed almost more dire now than before, with the personal losses adding some extra motivation to hurry. 

Alone together just as they had been two days prior, Guardian and Silver returned to the dirt road, leaving behind the smoldering mountain of rebel corpses and dead friends. In the sky above, the stormclouds were rumbling like mad, beckoning a new frontier of despair that lay ahead in the dreadful Mountain Passage.