The world, darkened and damp in the early morning hours, came rushing back amidst the sound of a deafening air horn, and the all too cheery voices of the instructors.

"Up and at 'em Mules!" came from outside the tent, finally erected after many sleepless nights on the ground outside, "We got somethin' special for you today!"

"Angus, we gotta go," chimed Sundown as he hopped off of his makeshift cot, as awake as he could be at this hour.

He was answered by a lazy snore from the other side of the tent, and the instructors weren't waiting.

"Angus! Get up!" he yelled as the giant woke with a start, toppling out of his undersized cot with a ground shaking thud.

The massive earth pony darted outside a few steps behind Sundown, and quickly joined the assembling formation of what was left of the candidates, now dwindled down to only twenty as team week was drawing to a close. All were exhausted from the trial of training thus far, sunken eyes and shaking knees identifying them as severely weakened; there were no exceptions.

As the formation came to attention, Major Skyfarer started pacing in front of them, an evil grin across her face.

"Alright candidates," she sang like a bird in the crisp morning air, "Here's the situation. The logs we used for PT a while back have been getting old and are starting to rot. So, we need to replace all ten of them, and these mountains have plenty of timber."

Sundown closed his eyes, and suppressed a sigh as he realized what they were going to have to do.

"Now, with a full class, we'd have assigned about twelve to a log team, but with most of your comrades being pussies, we'll have to assign each of you and your teammate to a single log."

As she finished, a quartet of ponies broke formation, walked up to Grinder, standing to the side of the congregation, and let their helmets fall to the ground at the instructor's feet; the universal sign in the program for "I quit."

The Major continued.

"Never mind what I said. Some of you will have to pick up the slack, meaning some of the teams will have to double up on logs. You can thank them when you get back to Canterlot palace," she added, glaring over her shoulder at the stallions and one mare that were now beginning to pack their gear for the long walk back down the mountain to the barracks.

"Now, divvy up into your teams. After you tear down camp up here, pack everything up and then report to me. Your instructors have been kind enough to have felled ten logs last night for you to haul back downhill. Seeing as we only have eight teams and ten logs, two groups will have to take two logs."

The pegasus paused, her steely, one eyed gaze gauging the haggard faces that looked stoically back at her.

"Any volunteers?"

No hooves went up, and she clicked her tongue as she thought things over.

"Alright then. Buckwheat, you're the biggest one here," Sundown's heart went into his stomach, as Angus emitted a low, disgusted groan, "so you and your teammate will each be hauling solo. As for the other lucky pair...Starlight, you're second to Buckwheat on this one. You and Cardinal each take a log solo down the hill."

The formation stood in place for a moment, looking blankly back at the Major with abhorrence in their stares, but she seemed not to care.

"Well!" she said, addressing their inability to depart at her immediate request, "Get going!"

"Move!" yelled the other instructors, enforcing the will of their superior, and started corralling the exhausted equines towards the camp to begin the day's task.

"Just keep breathing."

"Easy for you to say!" countered Sundown, panting, "you weigh almost half what that log does. This damn thing has near eight hundred pounds on me."

They'd covered the better half of five miles, just past half-way down the mountain, the logs secured like plows on their heavy wooden collars and their packs strapped onto their backs. All together, the load Sundown and Angus each toted was well over one-thousand pounds. Dragging the felled tree trunks through the alpine dirt was cutting a rut in the trail, and each step was exhausting to an already spent body. Angus had been faring better than Sundown, definitely due to his sheer size and strength, and the unicorn was struggling to keep up as the two slowly progressed downhill.

The only thing that was a source of comfort was the absence of their armor's stifling grip, but not its weight. They had the metallic shell secured to their frame packs, but at least, they could breathe easier without its cumbersome presence. Not that it made the trek any easier.

"Just keep moving. Try to dull the pain mate, and I'll help you along if I can."

Sundown put his head down, and lurched forward, his fiery red mane gleaming with sweat in the afternoon sun, and the log continued its tedious downward descent.

"Keep moving," coaxed Angus, his accent thick and somewhat comforting, "Keep your momentum up."

Sundown did as advised, pulling with everything he had until he had a brisk pace going, and, remarkably, the load on his back lightened.

"Ha ha!" he laughed triumphantly, prompting a cackle from Angus, as he too quickened his pace, though much easier than his partner.

They kept going along, having much less trouble than before, actually passing teams that had only one log, as well as Sir. However, the instructor quickly caught up to the two.

He trotted past them, wheeling around in the center of the trail, and galloped up to Angus's face. He firmly slapped a hoof into the giant's chest, not hurting him with a blow that would have staggered a normal sized pony, and produced a dull thud against his sternum.

"Wham! You're dead."

Angus stopped, his log grinding to a halt behind him, as did Sundown, and the two gave the burden free instructor a perplexed stare.

"Ambush," he said, his voice in a perpetual shout, "Changelings hit you from those trees. You're a big-ass target, and they dropped you. You're dead, but you're a small-ass target," he said as he came snout to snout with Sundown, "and you made it."

"Sir, I don't think..." began Angus, only to be interrupted by another shout, looking quite ironic as the small instructor bullied the much larger pony into silence.

"Dead ponies don't talk, lieutenant! Or stand for that matter! Go limp!"

"What sir?"

"Go limp dammit!"

Angus, after hesitating, hit the ground, piling up in the middle of the trail, the chains connecting his harness to the log behind him rattling to the ground heavily.

"You!" shouted Sir, coming up into Sundown's face again, "You're the only survivor! Finish the mission!"

"What mission?"

"What mission, sir!" corrected the charcoal stallion, his eyes locked in an infinite scowl.

"Sir, what mission sir?"

"Getting these logs down the hill!"

Sundown looked panicked as he stared back into the eyes of the pony in front of him, his own amber eyes darting back and forth between his comrade lying in the dirt and the one that had caused him to be so.

"Sir?" Sundown began as the stallion began hiking back up the trail.

"What is it Corporal?"

"How am I supposed to get both o' these back by myself, sir?"

"Not just the logs. You got your buddy to haul back now too."

Sundown recoiled at the thought alone.

"We don't leave our own behind, dead or alive! Now find a way Corporal, or quit!"

Sundown hesitated, looking back and forth in shock at the new tools of torture the instructor had conjured up. But the instructor only turned away, leaving him with his new burden and his motionless, but very alive, teammate. Everything rushed through his beleaguered mind; anger at the instructors' cruelty, fatigue from everything they'd made him do thus far, doubt that he'd be able to make it, fear of failure.

Quickly, he took off his harness, and hurried to hook up both logs to his collar. Once he did that, he wrapped his hooves under Angus's torso, and with great strain, heaved him up on top of the pair of logs.

"Do me a favor," he said panting to his silent companion, "and don't ever 'die' again."

He was not answered; Angus had his corpse act down.

Sundown quickly hitched his harness up to the two logs, and took a stance at their front, well over a ton of mass at his flank. He took a deep breath in, and lurched forward, pulling with everything he had, but he went nowhere. He tried everything, kicking, changing his center of gravity, creating some slack to get a running start, only to be yanked to a halt by the immense weight opposing his advance, the other candidates passing him on the trail the whole time.

He stopped, exhausted and at the back of the pack; it took nearly everything he had just to stand, and his rapidly pumping lungs caused his ribcage to inflate and deflate in huge, quick breaths. That was when the Major came trotting by. She stopped at his side, looking at him in his moment of weakness without expression, and spoke without emotion.

"Why don't you just quit?"

Sundown closed his mouth, and breathed through his nose as he felt something rising in his throat.

"You're broken. You're done; you've got nothing left. You're not strong enough. You and I both know you can't do this, so do me a favor, and give up."

Sundown shook his head, and turned to look the crystalline pegasus in the eye.

"You may be right," he said, nodding as he spit into the dusty trail at his hooves, "I'm not strong enough to do this; at least, not your way."

With that, he slipped off his collar, and disconnected the chains attached to the logs. He stood before the Major, and she awaited his imminent resignation; but instead, he picked up the collar and chains, hitched them to a single log, and pulled, turning it so that it ran perpendicular to the slope rather than parallel with it. He did the same to the other log, using his pack as a wedge to keep them from rolling downhill, and, again with much strain, he pulled a motionless Angus on top of the trunks.

He re-adorned the harness, and stood uphill from the logs after hitching them up to himself again.

"But my way, I can do anythin'."

He hopped on top of the logs, reached down, and quickly scooped up his pack and jumped into the dirt, allowing the logs to roll freely downhill. He adorned the pack skillfully as he ran out of slack, then braced his knees. The chain snapped to its full extent, and Sundown resisted the logs' pull, made even more potent by Angus's added weight as he remained balanced on the two trunks.

Sundown was dragged forward, his hooves tearing ruts in the trail as he leaned against gravity, controlling the logs' descent from behind their slowly rolling bodies.

And, ingeniously, he began to make progress.

It was dusk when he finally reached the fields outside the barracks, a smaller congregation of ponies waiting outside the hooches than when they'd began in the morning. He was the last one to arrive.

As he ran out of slope, Sundown let up on his resistance, finally giving his screaming thighs a break, and let gravity carry them towards the pile of logs a few dozen feet from the others. He trotted behind the logs as they rolled, driving them like a shepherd, skillfully keeping Angus balanced on their summit. He reached the pile of logs, and maneuvered his own burden into their middle, pulling back and grinding to a halt in the center of the concentration of felled ponderosa.

Panting, he unhitched his chains, and removed his collar, letting it fall heavily to the ground. Then, he hopped up onto the logs, and pulled Angus down gingerly, carrying him over his back to where the others were waiting. After he dropped Angus off, who gladly seized the opportunity to act alive again, Sundown was seized from behind by a very firm hoof.

"What the hell was that candidate?"

Sundown found himself looking into the face of not one, but all three instructors, fires raging in their eyes, just like the sunset above.

"Finishin' the mission," he responded with what breath he had left, before adding sarcastically, "sir."

The instructor, Grinder, let him go, and the trio turned, and simply walked away, sharing hushed words as they looked back at him.

Sundown turned around to see a few familiar faces, both grinning at him widely. All in the group were looking at him with awe and respect, for the first time, universally.

"How did you do that?" asked Nightingale slowly, "I mean, I had to haul two logs solo for the last mile after Cardinal busted up her ankle, but you went for near five miles."

"I have no idea," responded the unicorn, his voice weak and his knees trembling, "Do we have to do anything else tonight?"

"No, responded the dark pegasus, "orders for now are to turn in and get some sleep."

"Good."

With that, Sundown's knees buckled, and he fell to the ground heavily, while the others all rushed to his side.

"You alright?" asked an unfamiliar mare, the only one left in Class 2-4.

"I think I'm dying."

The others looked at each other, wondering whether or not he was serious.

Sundown slowly reached his front hooves upwards, like an infant beckoning a parent for attention.

"Carry me," he said, and the others, somewhat fresh, picked him up eagerly, and hauled him inside the barracks.