Rotten Apples

"I suppose you're all wondering why I gathered you here so early today," Shining Armor began.

Around the tent stood thirty ponies, five of them being the heroes we are familiar with, and the rest being unfamiliar but just as qualified soldiers for Shining Armor's platoon.

"Let me be straight with you. We have been chosen to be among the first, and let me repeat this, first troops to go on the offensive for Equestria in this horrid battle against General Monkel's forces."

He scanned the small crowd and looked each pony in the eye. When his eye came to Jonathan, he gulped. The platoon leader was very friendly when in general conversation, but now, he looked ready to snap the neck of the first pony that moved.

He continued. "Each of you have been specially hand-picked for your skill in whatever you specialize in, whether it is combat-related or not. Some of you are civilians, so all of you trained soldiers will be expected to at least guide them in the right direction. Any questions?"

The way he said it made it seem more like a hypothetical question, as if asking would be looking for trouble. No one raised a hoof or opened their mouth, so he finished his prep talk.

"Remember, pack light, but don't pack too light. We may be out here for a while. Equipment and the necessities only. Hey! Doctor Stable!"

Jonathan jumped out of his skin at the sound of his name being called. He looked attentively at Shining Armor, half scared of being the one to get his head bitten off.

"I would suggest leaving that heavy pouch of bits here. Unless, of course, you think Monkel's forces will be willing to trade?"

There was a murmur of laughter among the crowd. Jonathan sighed in relief. "Why, y-yes, sir."

Shining Armor smiled. "Good." He again turned his attention back to his men in general. "Alright. We move out in exactly one and a half hours. Julius will be leading his much larger party up the middle, and we're expected to take the right and left flanks. So that means this platoon will be divided into two squadrons, one led by me and the other by Corporal Markswell." He waved at the crowd, and a pony stepped out and stood beside him.

Shining Armor stepped back, and this pony spoke. He yelled when he spoke, although his voice was slightly high and sounded a little strange. "Allll-right, listen up! In one hour we will gather back in this very spot. One hour. Not two hours, not fifteen minutes after. One. Hour. Once everypony is assembled, we'll call role and assign you to your squads. Be packed up and ready to go. All civvies without prior weapon training, you'll have a choice between a machete, buck knife, or a short sword. I don't know why short swords were a choice, but it's not my decision. As Shining Armor said, be prepared to be out there for a while. Much of your food will probably come from scavenging and raids, so pack only dry goods. A few of you will be bringing tents."

Everyone waited for what he had to say next. He just walked into one of the tents silently, and with how quiet it was, you could hear the zipper slide. Even Shining Armor looked confused.

Noticing the strange silence, Markswell turned around and saw everypony staring at him.

"At ease!"

A collective sigh was released, and the sounds of talking and the shuffling of gear blended together to create an incomprehensible murmur.

Markswell swore and shook his head, stepping into the tent to make ready for the battle ahead.

Jonathan's company trudged through the jungle, ears open but almost relaxed.

Jonathan, Benethor, and Maurius had been picked to come with Shining Armor. Daniel and Caterina went with Markswell.

Benethor was having fun with that one. He had constantly been implying the whole way that somehow it had been planned. "Damn Daniel. Probably trying to get some pussy."

Maurius scoffed. "Benethor, I don't normally tell you this, but you're stupid. Seriously, even if he did get some 'alone time' with Caterina, I couldn't see him mentioning anything of his desires to her. He practically trips over his own knees whenever she's around him."

Jonathan spoke up now. "Besides, what could he say to her at this point? 'Caterina, we should kiss before one of us dies.'"

They all began laughing, until they started getting glares from the other soldiers in their company. They quieted down, settling into the hushed silence of individuals pondering death.

Soon, they began coming across strange things. Broken spears, dropped swords, bloody helmets.

"Celestia forbid... Something went down here..."

Shining Armor frowned. "Stupid Julius. Probably got lost and went this route instead of up the middle of the forest. This path is perfect for a small squad, but a loud group of about a hundred ponies..."

He shook his head. He signaled the hesitating troops to move on.

They came across more and more bloody battle equipment, but no bodies. The air grew tenser with every step. You could hear the urgent whispers among them.

"Maybe Julius managed to fight these guys off? That might be why there are no bodies around."

"I sure hope you're right, and this is all just a big misunderstanding."

A drum beat played itself over and over in Jonathan's mind.

Or maybe it was just his heart he was hearing.

Everyone was silent. The group waded through the grass cautiously, nobody wanting to be the first to go.

Everyone had the same thought: Are they here?

His squad should be safe if Julius's forces did their job and broke through.

But if they didn't...

A unicorn whose horn was pulsing with blue magic walked up to Shining Armor. "Fully charged, sir."

He glanced at the unicorn, then nodded slowly. The unicorn then trotted to the front of the pack, taking a firm stance and planting his hooves onto the ground.

"Clear!" he yelled.

All the soldiers took a step back.

Jonathan was reminded of the defibrillators in hospitals.

But that wouldn't make sense...

The unicorn lowered his head, horn almost touching the dirt. A flash of blue light similar to lightning spurted out of his horn and into the ground. The hair on everyone's neck rose, and then silence once again overtook them.

Then, one of the trees started to rustle. All the unicorns on the right side pointed their horns that way, ready to fire at any hostiles.

"Star!" one of them yells.

The tree didn't answer.

"Star!" he yelled again, this time more loudly and urgently.

In response, the branches rustled again and a black figure tumbled out of the tree.

"Target down!"

"Kill?"

The unicorn that made the lightning stepped forward, examining his quarry. After a few seconds, he smiled, "Kill confirmed!"

A whistling pierced the air, followed by a thump. Everypony stood stock still, especially the electro-unicorn. Grimacing, his eyes rolled back up into his head,

a three-inch long stake sticking out of the back of his neck.

"Thunder's down!"

"Hold!"

Within the space of a few moments, the air was alive with whistles and screams.

Jonathan looked in horror as an earth pony next to him was struck in the chest, and began wailing for his mother.

Jonathan rushed over, checking the spot of the wound and pulling out his saddlebag simultaneously.

The soldier was thrashing around violently, causing the stake to sink deeper into his flesh.

"Hold still! I can't help you if you're moving around!"

The rookie wouldn't listen. Thinking fast, Jonathan held his legs as still as possible with magic, then began yanking out the stake.

It was almost out. Through the whistles and the sounds of metal cutting flesh, he found it hard focus on pulling the stake out without making it worse.

With a final burst of strength, he yanked the object out of the colt's chest. A shrill cry, and his eyes followed the path of the first unicorn.

Jonathan applied the bandages as quickly as possible, blood spurting all over his forehooves and chest. He checked the soldier for a pulse, and found none.

Shitshitshitshitshit no!!!

He began doing CPR, repeatedly pressing on the colt's chest in the hopes of keeping his blood flow going. It was exhausting, but every time he looked at the pony's face, he saw somepony who had a father and mother. Who would be missed if he were lost in these jungles.

Who Jonathan couldn't let die.

A stray stake hit Jonathan's horn and splintered, breaking his concentration. He could feel the tissue connecting his forehead to his horn begin to rip, and blood trickled down his face; but when he checked it, the horn was still intact, and still firmly attached to his forehead.

It hurt like hell, but he knew he could either cry about his horn, or save this colt's life.

A pegasus ran up. He had wing-blades on, and was practically smeared with blood from head to toe.

"Doc! Come on, we need to go!"

He saw the dying earth pony on the ground, and saw Jonathan's despairing face.

He sighed. "Is he still alive?"

Jonathan drudgingly pressed a hoof to the soldier's neck, not wanting to believe what he would find.

Softly, softly, he found a pulse.

"He's alive!"

The wing-blade pegasus immediately scooped him up onto his back. "There's a medical tent due south, a mile from here. If I fly, I may be able to make it in about five minutes. Is that enough time?"

He nodded. "It's the only chance he's got."

The pegasus immediately took off, blood spraying off his wings and polka-dotting anything that wasn't already soaked in the stuff. Jonathan watched him soar through the sky, heading out of danger and towards the safety of the medical tents.

Then, a beam of light came from somewhere on the ground and hit the soaring duo. He saw the pegasus drop the unicorn, the unconscious colt limply falling to the ground. He didn't see it, didn't hear it, but he knew the same colt that was alive moments ago was now just a splatter on the forest floor.

The pegasus wavered slightly. It was clear that something was wrong. If Jonathan looked closely, he could see smoke coming off the poor guy. Eventually, the slight wavering ascended into wobbling, and the pegasus corkscrewed downward, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.

Shocked, Jonathan looked at the battle going on around him. He spotted Marius, and a black unicorn aiming what appeared to be a blowdart gun at him. Jonathan yelled to warn him, but it was too late; the unicorn fired a single wooden stake from the tube.

Marius noticed this and spun around. He easily deflected it with his shield and charged at the pony, gladius held high. The dark unicorn fumbled with the blowdarts, doing his best to load another stake into the tube, all in vain; Marius was already upon him, shouting while driving his sword into his opponent's chest. The other pony sputtered, coughed up blood, and fell over.

Marius was on a killing spree, almost seeming to enjoy himself. Benethor, on the other hand, seemed a little worried. He and another pony with a bow and arrow stood side by side, the archer picking off targets at long range while Benethor protected him from ponies who got too close. They seemed to be doing fine, but then Jonathan realized what was bothering him; there was a large wound on the back of his right hind leg. It was roughly the size of one of those wooden stakes.

Probably just a flesh wound, but it had to hurt. It was probably making it hard to focus.

Suddenly, Benethor was blindsided by an earth pony with a buck knife. The pony slashed his eye, causing him to scream in pain and drop to the ground.

The pony with the arrows tried to pull out his knife, but the earth pony stabbed him in the throat. When he pulled the blade back out, the archer made a gurgling sound, then a noise that Jonathan would later dub the 'sad flute'.

The pony now stood over Benethor. He snarled at the pony, blood dripping from his eye socket.

He raised his knife, getting ready to pierce Benethor's heart with the cold tip of his blade.

"No!!!"

A whistling was heard, and then a smack. A small wooden stake stuck out of the unicorn's neck.

He fell forward, barely missing Benethor with his knife even while dead.

They both looked to where the projectile came from, wondering who it was who had saved Benethor.

"Daniel?"

Three hours earlier

"Ready?"

"Ready!"

A purple earth pony kicked open the door of an old cottage and rushed inside, followed by a few of his comrades.

A voice came from inside. "Clear!"

"This is the fifth house they've done. When are we going to move on and see some real action?"

"I don't mean to contradict you, Caterina, but I prefer not having to stick my hooves in somepony's intestines."

Caterina and Daniel chatted while the entry team readied themselves to clear another house.

"But that's your job, isn't it? And it's not like you haven't done it before."

The boredom was really getting to them. Their squad had been chosen to go the left flank, through a small abandoned mining town.

So far, the whole placed seemed completely empty.

It really seemed suspicious to Daniel, but no one else seemed to think of it, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Well, it's not like I have to enjoy it."

"Ugh," she whined, going back to her boredom rant, "I swear I'm gonna freak if something doesn't happen-"

A scream pierced the air, nearly making them jump out of their skins.

"Well, looks like I don't get to see you freak out."

The duo followed the source of the sound, which happened to be a cottage the entry team had been about to clear.

Three ponies crowded around the front door, one of them simply standing agape and two others inspecting something. The rest were stationed up around the house, guarding it.

"What's going on here?" Caterina asked Markswell, who was one of the ponies near the front door.

"Those bastards..." was all he said, as he motioned for the other pony to step inside.

They saw the purple earth pony that had originally been breaching doors. He hung limp, skewered through the side by a huge stake.

The pony with his mouth open spoke, his voice trembling. "He kicked open the door, and it swung down and hit him. It happened so fast, I'm not even sure..."

Different tones of whistling filled the air. It unnerved everypony, but nopony moved.

Except Markswell. He was screaming something.

"What are you all doing?! You're gonna get yourselves killed! Get to cover!"

Then they saw it. Hundreds of wooden stakes filled the sky, hovering upwards, then taking a sharp turn downwards toward the group.

Screams mixed in with the whistles as the stakes pelted the group. A kebab was made out of a pegasus that managed to get a few feet in the air while trying to escape, but instead got his wing sliced off and crashed headlong into the ground. He lay limp, more and more stakes sinking into his flesh every second.

Caterina jumped into the house through a window. A stake bounced off of Daniel's helmet, and Caterina pulled him in after her.

Markswell and a few other ponies barged through the door, making a team effort to snap the stake and pony that blocked their path.

The escaping ponies looked around at eachother. The whistles never ceased, and the darts fell like rain outside, occasionally coming in through the window. Finally, Markswell spoke up, stepping to the middle of the room.

"So, now we know what our enemy is capable of. How many do we have left?"

A lieutenant stepped forward. "Seven, sir."

Markswell didn't swear, didn't even flinch. He kept his poise, sighing to himself.

"We cannot let this get to us. Seeing as how you are the ones who escaped, I now know who are the quicker-thinking of the group. You, all of you," he looked around at the group, "have a chance at survival. But, you will not make it, if you do not use your wits. That's all it is now. A game of wits, and for those of you who went through military training, a test to see what you've learned. Everything we taught you, is useless if you did not pay attention. If you did not apply it to your mind."

He inhaled deeply, one last time.

"Now, all you stallions. And mares," he regarded Caterina, "You're better than these guys. They took us by surprise, but even then, you, we, all managed to escape. Now it's our turn. First, we need a way to escape unnoticed. Razor, ya got anything?"

A small unicorn, whom no one had really noticed before, was closing his eyes. He had scars next to his mouth that made it look like he was grinning madly, and when his mouth opened, you could see his teeth were razor sharp. His horn glowed a multitude of colors, and when it stopped glowing, he was smiling.

"Basement. Downstairs, underground tunnel. Most likely an old mining shaft. If we're quick, we can escape through there."

Markswell looked skeptical. "Any life down there?"

Razor's smile turned to a grimace. "Yes. Number unknown."

He sighed. "Alright, you heard him. Downstairs, underground tunnel. Let's move!"

The tunnels were dark, wet, and tight. Rats scurried about, but no one payed attention to them.

The slightest sounds would make Daniel jump. After awhile, they started using him to make sure they didn't miss anything.

Soon they came to a point where the path separated into three different tunnels.

"Razor?"

"Got it."

His horn glowed for a minute, then returned to normal.

"To the right of us is probably the quickest path out of here. However, it had the most signs of life."

"What about the other two?"

"The one straight ahead of us is longer than the one on the right, but has less guards. To the left... I'm not even sure where it goes."

Markswell thought for a moment. He turned to his Lieutenant.

"We march forward."

"Roger, sir."

He motioned straight ahead, and the troops followed.

They walked for a few more minutes, until Razor signaled for everyone to stop.

His closed his eyes, and his horn glowed orange like heated metal. Fire erupted from what Daniel originally had thought was solid wall, until two ponies tore through the camouflage, rolling around and screaming.

They were both immediately shot with magic beams from one of the mages in the group. They stopped flailing, and became two burning piles of filth on the ground.

Somepony whispered, "Blaze it, faggot."

They silently pressed on, Daniel plugging his nose as they passed the corpses.

The Lieutenant lead the pack now. He walked slowly, cautiously, anticipating a trap. Hearing something, he stopped.

Everypony else heard it now, too. It sounded like shuffling.

A rat scurried by, and the surprised Lieutenant took a swing with his sword. The unfortunate rodent was cut in two, Markswell smirking at him. He blushed, and after a moment, continued forward.

A shadowy figure jumped out of the darkness and thrust out a sword, stabbing the Lieutenant straight in the eye. A soldier quickly reacted and threw a knife at the offender. The knife hit its mark, but it did the Lieutenant no good. Both of them slumped to the ground, the sword still stuck through the Lieutenant's eye.

They continued onward, the throwing knife soldier taking his knife out of the black earth pony as he passed. Daniel seemed to fumble around with something in the corpse's pack, then continued forward.

Through a series of twists and turns, they eventually came to the end of the tunnel, where a hatch was waiting.

"I can break it open, sir," a pony with pliers and a pack full of various equipment offered.

"Let's try the doorknob first," Markswell replied, putting a hoof on the handle. It clicked, and he pushed the door open. In a burst of blinding light, the inside of another cottage was revealed.

They climbed out one by one, each pony covering eachother to make sure nobody attacked while they were vulnerable.

Once everypony was on their hooves, Markswell began. "If you all want to get out of here in one piece, listen closely. Since going back along the path we came would be suicide, our only chance of getting out of here is to rendezvous with Julius' or Shining Armor's group."

There was a murmur of agreement from the five of Markswell's troops that were still alive. He continued.

"Now, our only means of communicating with anypony outside this room died with the Lieutenant down in the tunnels. So we're going to have to make a good estimate on where we think the other squads are at this point. Any suggestions?"

No one replied. There was no good way of telling where they might be.

He grunted. "Since none of you seem to have an idea of what to do, not like I know any more than you, I'll propose a plan. We head east from here, staying low and trying not to draw any attention. We'll eventually come to the pass that Julius was supposed to take. If there is blood and gore, we'll know he's been through there. If not," he fixed everypony with a half sad, half foreboding look, "I sure hope you all wrote home yesterday."

You could feel the spirit in the room drop twenty feet, as each individual realized just how possible it was that they would never return home.

Caterina drew a greenish-brown cloak out of her pack. "We might want to get going then. More likely than not, they're tracking us right now."

Markswell glanced back at the trapdoor leading to the tunnels. "Yes. Let's go."

The walk felt like hours, though it was only twenty minutes. The feeling Daniel got every time a group of enemy militants walked past made him want to throw up. But he always held it in, for fear of being noticed.

The times when there was no danger passing by were even worse. Every footstep sounded like an explosion, and Daniel felt there could be something watching them right now, about to strike, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

At least when a group of soldiers passed, you know they hadn't seen you.

They eventually came to a marsh. It consisted mostly of tall grass and water, although you could hear frogs croaking, and the constant whine of insects.

They began wading through, each step accompanied by a sloshing sound when a hoof was put down, and a sucking noise when a hoof was lifted. It went on like this for a little while, sucking and sloshing, until the water started to change color.

Red. The color of blood.

Each pony looked to the other, horrified. And then it happened.

The dreaded whistling. It came in a symphony, like a thousand little voices, all screaming at you from different directions.

A brown earth pony was the first to drop.

If Markswell said anything, it was drowned out in all the noise. Volley upon volley of stakes, stones, and boulders came, pinning the soldiers down in their spots. Sometimes, screaming could be audible, but it would go away with the horrible sound of a projectile hitting flesh.

They tried to get low. They all tried. But they could never get low enough.

Caterina crawled next to a boulder for cover and lie still, waiting for the firing to end. It eventually subsided, and she could hear the army of dark ponies move on, some of them even going through the swamp and walking right past her. After she was sure they were gone, she made her way east along the marsh on her belly, hoping to find that somepony else had survived.

She made it to the the bank of the swamp and hid herself among the bushes, and waited again.

I can't be the only one who survived that. Please, somepony else, come out of the marsh.

Now that she was out of danger, her adrenaline left. Her emotional side kicked in, a side to her not many knew she had.

They're all dead... Shot, smashed, made into pincushions. They're all dead but me.

She thought about all the ponies in her company who were lost this day. She could see each and every one of their faces. One was etched into mind clearly, and it hurt like hell to think about it.

Daniel.

She thought about him. About the good times they'd had, about the cute way he blushed whenever she talked to him.

To think she would never see that again...

She almost began to cry, but a splashing disturbed her mourning.

Out of the tall grass stepped Daniel, slathered in mud from head to toe, but all there nonetheless.

The focus of her pitying thoughts was now alive before her. She jumped out of the bushes, running as fast as she could so she could bear hug him to the ground.

Only, that didn't happen. He pulled out a tube and put it to his mouth, ready to put a missile straight through Caterina's forehead.

She put her back hooves down, and skidded to a halt in front of him.

"Woah, woah, easy Daniel! It's me, Caterina!"

He simply lowered the weapon and slipped it back into his pack. "Oh. Glad to see you're still alive."

Those words were like a slap across the face. Glad to see you're still alive?? She was having trouble believing he had ever said anything so cold, so uncaring.

When she looked at him, something was definitely wrong. His eyes looked glazed over, and his normal caring expression was replaced with an unconcerned, half-lidded gaze.

She nearly choked on her response. "Uh, yeah. You too."

He gestured to the woods. "We should probably get going. We need to warn the others before they get killed, too." He began trotting off in that direction, only turning around to look at the shocked Caterina.

He sounded annoyed. "Coming?"

She began to trot towards him, and he continued without even waiting for her to catch up.

She swore, a part of her died that day.

"Daniel??"

He pulled the stake out of its target and placed it back in the blowgun.

"Had to learn the hard way that you gotta use magic to propel these things..."

Benethor rolled around on the ground, holding his eye and writhing with pain.

Daniel's voice was cold and monotone. "Doc, come here and help him out."

Jonathan did as he was told, and after getting Benethor to lie still, patched up his eye.

Marius came back to the crowd, cheering. "We're winning! They're retreating now!"

Daniel didn't show an inkling of a smile. "Good. Glad to see things are going much better here."

Marius's smile dropped, and he whispered to Jonathan, "What happened to him?"

A shaky Caterina appeared from the woods. She looked honestly disturbed about something.

Jonathan was done patching Benethor's eye. He looked up at Marius, whispering back, "Maybe he and Caterina switched personalities."

Marius smiled for a second at the joke, but Jonathan could tell he was truly worried.

It made Jonathan worried.

Before feelings could be exchanged, however, a pegasus landed softly next to the group.

He looked at Benethor, then to Jonathan. "We're staying out here for the night, lads. Rendezvous at the big rock, then make shelter. We've got a long night ahead of us."

He then leapt into the air, soaring over the trees in the south-west direction.

Jonathan could've sworn he saw a laser beam hit the pegasus.