Chapter SEVEN

The Everfree Forest, attentive reader, is an extraordinary and extraordinarily strange corner of Equestria; filled to the brim and running over with as many wonders as horrors. It is a place of dreams and of nightmares – an escape as well as a prison.

In near perfect darkness did first platoon wander, weary from making war, lost in the endless labyrinth of bark and foliage. Theirs was a laborious trudge. They marched as if in defiance to the very concept of exhaustion itself, leaning on each other shoulder to shoulder to keep from toppling over like so many playing card palaces accosted by the breeze. Some did fall of course. Succumbing momentarily, and how could they not when the great forest herself was smothering them. Lady Everfree grew denser and denser with every forward step. They waded through a leaf green sea of knee high grass that tickled their underbellies and seemed to grow taller and taller as they marched. Low hanging branches scratched their faces; vines snagged the straps of their packs and the barrels and butts of their riffles. They marched perfectly vulnerable. Even the lowliest of the forest's nocturnal predators could've made a quick meal of any among them. In their present state an anvil had a better chance of escaping a manticore's claws, or avoiding the stare of an angry cockatrice.

Twilight Sparkle felt her body was made of led – no – surely led moved swifter than she could now. One of her fore-hooves met with a thick protruding tree root, causing her to stumble and fall. She lied there on her face as if she might never again rise, but a familiar fore-hoof reached down for her, offering help. Twilight took the hoof in hers and working together they managed to get the lieutenant standing up right once again. Having no strength for words, she nodded her thanks and Carrot Top nodded back in understanding.

The little green filly– though not so green anymore, having endured her first real battle and emerging from it in one piece – had proven a constant fountainhead of inspiration for Twilight, her courage and resolve flowing into the unicorn as spring water flows into a stream.

Secured snuggly with vines to Carrot Top's back was Rainbow Dash, sleeping soundly by aid of the medics' drugs. When the question of who would carry her arose, Carrot Top, despite her own leg injury, insisted the burden be hers to shoulder. When Twilight offered to carry Rainbow herself the young filly had practically scolder her, saying, "Focus on getting us out of here and leave the grunt work to the grunts."

Well spoken. Carrot was turning out to be a fine soldier, and also a dear friend. A much needed blessing, because after her failure today, Twilight was sure she'd lost more than a few friends amongst the ranks of Company Everfree.

Marching a few paces behind Twilight and Carrot was Sergeant Fluttershy. Of all the weary first platoon soldiers her trudge seemed particularly grim. She dragged her hooves through the grass and every few steps the pony at her back gave her hind quarters a sharp nudge to keep her moving forward. Twilight looked over her shoulder at the down trodden pegasus and immediately wished she hadn't. Coward. The word stabbed at the back of her head like a rebel dagger. It should've been her urging her friend onward, but…but Twilight couldn't bring herself to face Fluttershy the way she was now. She'd made the mistake of firing on the Ursa before the sergeant and Cloudkicker could get clear. It had been one of first platoon's own mortars that dealt Cloudkicker the death blow, eviscerating her, leaving Fluttershy clutching the lower half of a mangled corpse as she plummeted out of the sky. The image of her friend hugging the dead pony's hips to her chest invaded Twilight's mind. She tried to blink it away but failed, just as she had failed Fluttershy; Applejack, the entire company. Somehow she had to make things right again.

As before mentioned, thoughtful reader, the Everfree Forest is a cruel place but her cruelty is not without limits. She is ruthless, a teaming cesspool of monsters and poisons, but to those steadfast enough to survive her trials, lady Everfree shows mercy. First platoon of the Militiamares' Company Everfree had proven themselves deserving of such mercy. For after several hours of this marching, this gloomy trot through the blackest corner of Equestrian soil, this natural, living, breathing testament to the madness of perfect freedom – after several hours this hell, an excited little squeal came from the front of the ranks. Somepony was squealing, giggling, going on like a little filly who had just unwrapped the perfect birthday gift. That gift she hadn't asked for, hadn't even thought of, but there it was anyway. Perfect in every way.

Somepony at the head of the line was literally losing her mind. She shouted incomprehensibly, her words colliding, shoving past each other like hungry scavengers fussing over the same scrape of dead meat. The others at the back wondered what all the commotion could possibly be about and how could anypony muster up the energy to make such a raucous. And as they marched in their line they neared the reason for this unexpected exuberance. Others began to cry out: laughing and crying, cheering, hugging each other, even kissing. What only moments ago had resembled a huddled group of war prisoners being marched off to a mass grave, had suddenly erupted into a virtual orgy of reckless emotion. For just as it seemed the small band of survivors would surely be smothered, the life wringed out of them by the shear density of the woods – all at once the forest fell away. A little ways past a particularly crowed collection of trees, where the grass was the tallest and the vines hung the lowest, there was a clearing. Lady Everfree had suddenly spat them from her belly and now they found themselves in an oasis, a paradise lost, hiding in the bowels of hell itself.

At the center of the clearing was a great glistening pond. Pale moonlight played upon fresh water, lending the surface a smooth diamond speckled finish.

They made for the water, stripping naked and wading out into the crystalline pond, drinking and bathing; partaking in the former with little regard for the latter. The water was cool without being cold, and seemed to inject into each of them new life; replenishing their dampened spirits.

Twilight's horn sparked. A faint purple light took hold of her haggard uniform, and the buckles and zippers came apart as if of their own power. She was about to wade in herself when she noticed one of the medics helping Carrot Top unsecure Rainbow Dash from her back. She trotted over to see if she could help, but Carrot assured her that she and the medic had things well in hoof.

"You're sure?" asked Twilight. There was a quiet desperation in her voice, an urgent desire to selfishly indulge herself for just a short while and not be judged for it. Carrot hesitated to respond. Was the lieutenant looking to her for some kind of vindication, she wondered. And hadn't she been doing the same? Going out of her way to impress the lieutenant – to be acknowledged by her – and if that were true then wasn't this exactly what she wanted? Twilight was practically asking her for permission. Her, lowly little Carrot Top. The green filly who was veteran of only one skirmish. She wasn't quite speechless, but she was touched.

"It's nothing," she said placing a hoof on Twilights shoulder. "I'll take good care of her, and I'll have the doc with me to help out too."

"Thank you."

The two of them stood up on their hind-legs and embraced. They held each other entirely too close for entirely too long, and when Twilight tried to end the embrace she was met with resistance. Carrot held the unicorn fast by the back of neck. She pulled at her desperately, not wanting to let go. Never wanting to let go.

Their foreheads came together, heat radiating from their flushed faces. Carrot's lips moved soundlessly, searching the darkness for words. When none came to her, she searched instead for the unicorn's mouth; finding it wet, and warm, and welcoming. Unabashed she slid her tongue into Twilight's mouth, and the unicorn did the same at first. But when Carrot attempted to lean into the kiss, Twilight leaned away, and as she did so to did Carrot Top's entire world.

They stood in awkward silence for a moment longer before Twilight mumbled an apology and trotted away hurriedly, as if fleeing from a natural disaster, leaving Carrot to simmer in rejection. The lonely earth pony pressed a hoof to her own lips and remembered what it had felt like as she watched the unicorn go.

Twilight's head spun. Everything was wrong: her fight with Applejack, the Ursa, Cloudkicker's death, Fluttershy's trauma, and now this thing between her and Carrot Top – all of it wrong, wrong, wrong. She gave herself a hard mental buck in the flank as she fled. How pathetic. With this she had reached a new low. She hadn't been brave enough to face Applejack's accusations, or brave enough to look Fluttershy in the eye since the failed mission, and now she wasn't brave enough to deal with Carrot Top's advances. Her failures were piling up, smothering her, burying her alive. She wanted be rid of it all. She tried to find her happy place again. She shut her eyes as she wandered around the pond's edge, trying to will herself back to Canterlot, back to her dorm room at the academy. But it was no good. All she could see were Carrot's puckered lips, her blushing cheeks. Her trot hastened, as if she could somehow physically out run the thought, until her blind flight caused her to run headlong into something – no – somepony.

"Twilight, are you okay?" asked Fluttershy, her voice spilling over with genuine concern.

Twilight looked Fluttershy over. Cloudkicker's blood had dried and caked to her uniform, mixing with the dirt and muck that also clung to her. There was misery behind her shrinking blue eyes. One look into those eyes and Twilight knew what had to be done. This was her chance to make things right again.

Without saying a word she took Fluttershy by the hoof and led her into the pond, darkening the clear water as they entered. The grime and gore still clinging to the pegasus pony's uniform washed away, staining the once flawless glittering surface of the pond an ugly dark red. Together, hoof in hoof, they swam out a ways away from the others, and when Twilight was sure that they'd secured a bit of privacy she began to undress the sergeant and with her bare hooves, went to work scrubbing her clean as best she could. She had Fluttershy submerge herself completely as to better wash her mane. Fluttershy didn't protest. She didn't say much of anything, just allowed Twilight to run her hooves over her coat and through her mane and through the feathers of her wings. Her touch was reassuring. It began platonic enough, almost professional, but somewhere between the neck and upper thigh her touch turned sensual. She lingered on the stomach, the waist, the haunches and hind quarters. And when Twilight had finished washing the pegasus, Fluttershy returned that same sensual touch. Her forelegs encircled Twilight's waist, pulling her close. She wanted her so much that it hurt. But more than she wanted the unicorn, she wanted – needed to feel something that wasn't the soulless cold metal of a rifle in her hooves, or the splash of warm blood on her skin. She needed an escape from this hell, even if only for a little while. See could see in Twilight's eyes that the feeling was mutual.

Nopony else seemed to notice the kiss they shared. The others were busy losing themselves in their own selfish moments of reckless passion.

But one noticed.

Carrot top stood on the water's edge, watching them. Carefully. Enviously. And if you listened closely gentle reader, if you pressed your ear to her chest and blocked out the all the other sounds of the forest you'd be able to hear it – the unmistakable splintering snap of a breaking heart. Next Chapter: Chapter EIGHT Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes