Mint sighed in annoyance as she swatted yet another spider from Azure's back. Seriously, they were in the jungle. He'd have to get used to the bugs. "Mist, can't you just deal with it? You're gonna have spiders and shit crawling all over you for the next six months."

Azure shuddered and glanced back at Mint. "No. How can you stand those things? They're terrifying. Too many eyes. And they scurry around in the most disturbing way. Besides, they could be venomous."

"I'm sure we'll be fine. The jungle can't be all that bad, as long as we're careful," Mint said. She'd been trying to keep Azure calm for the past few days, which hadn't been easy since he always found something to complain about. Sometimes it felt like she was dealing with a child.

A series blood-curdling screeches split the humid air, making both ponies jump. Azure reached into his pack to grab the revolver, but Mint put a hoof on his shoulder before he could pull it out. "It's nothing dangerous. It's just the monkeys," she said with a glance up at the trees. A group of the hairy animals could be seen swinging through the branches, observing the newcomers.

Azure relaxed his muscles somewhat and shook his head. "Fucking jungles. Why'd we have to get stuck here, of all places? I'll bet Sundance and Obsidian are on a beach somewhere, sipping cocktails from coconuts while we suffer in this shitty place."

Mint shoved him lightly and moved forward to take the lead. "As if Cobalt would send them somewhere as relaxed as the coast. And didn't you say Sundance wasn't gonna drink alcohol until he was older?" A quick glance at her map showed they were straying slightly off course, so she turned left through the trees and pushed her way through a curtain of vines.

"Yeah. He's all worry, no fun. All he ever does is worry," Azure said with a sigh.

"Well, it's kind of hard to blame him in our situation. I mean, we were taken from our homes as foals while pretty much everypony else died. He and Chartreuse had the worst of it, from what I heard. Styx was pretty much wiped out, wasn't it? Of course that's gonna cause lasting mental damage."

Azure scratched the side of his neck. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Still, he can be a bit of a stick in the mud sometimes."

"He can be, but he has good qualities. Tangelo kept me up enough nights, listing them off. Seriously, she never shut up about how perfect she thought he was," Mint said with a small smile. Memories of her late friend always brought pain, but there was still happiness to be had in them.

"I don't know what she saw in him. He's an idiot," Azure said jokingly.

"If he's an idiot, then what does that make you?"

"Retarded," Azure said with a grin.

Mint laughed and shook her head. "You said it, not me."

A small clearing through the trees opened up suddenly into a shallow ravine that held a wide, lazy river, and Mint had to dig her hooves into the soft moss to avoid slipping into it. It was in vain, however, as she felt something bump into her rear end that sent her tumbling down the slippery rocks and under the cold water below.

The water was fairly shallow and slow-moving, but being wet wasn't Mint's favorite thing in the world. Especially when the air around her already felt like she was underwater constantly. She shot to the surface and coughed up what felt like a liter of river water before glaring at Azure. "Fucking moron. What were you doing back there?"

"Sorry, there was another spider," Azure said, trying to hold in his giggles.

Mint growled at him and shook her head. "Well, now my map is probably ruined, so thanks for that. Luckily the comms are waterproof." She reached down into the water with one hoof experimentally and found she was barely able to reach the bottom of the river with her hooves. The water reached all the way up to her mouth, though, so she had to tilt her chin up to avoid sucking in another lungful of the stuff.

Azure reached a hoof down towards Mint, and she grabbed on. As tempted as she was to yank him in after her, she didn't want to risk damaging their remaining map. She'd have to find some other way to get back at him. Mint sighed as she reached solid ground again and glanced in the direction the water was flowing from. They had to cross the river at some point, preferably without swimming again. With any luck, there would be a better place to cross somewhere up there. "Let's head this way, unless you want to push me in again."

"No, I got that all out of my system. Once is good enough for me," Azure said playfully.

Mint sighed again and turned to walk upstream. It could be difficult sometimes to tell whether Azure was joking, or just an idiot. Probably both more often than not. She pushed the wet mane out of her eyes and tried to think back to what she was going to say before Azure shoved her into the river. "So anyway, I didn't think Tangelo was your type. She's so kind and wouldn't dream of hurting anypony she loved, yet you're so... masochistic."

Azure chuckled and shook his head. "I was just joking about Sundance earlier, I wasn't actually implying anything. You're right in saying she wasn't the kind of pony I like all that much. Too sappy."

"I get that. She was one of the best friends I ever had, so don't get me wrong when I say she could get annoying sometimes. She didn't keep anything between her and Sundance a secret," Mint said with a grimace.

"Ew. I'm glad Sundance isn't that open, though I was definitely surprised to find out how much of a romantic he is," Azure joked. He glanced at Mint and gave her a mischievous grin. "So how much detail did she give you about when they fucked?"

Mint stopped suddenly and turned back to Azure, shocked. "They what? She never told me that!" She said with a little too much indignation in her voice. It was hard to ignore the subtle jealous twinge that popped into her heart, but she pushed it away. "Stupid fucking hormones," she thought. "I can't wait until I'm an adult and past all that stuff."

Azure laughed and pointed a hoof at her. "You should see your face! They didn't actually, I just wanted to see your reaction. I'm sure we would have found out somehow if they had."

"Idiot. Don't scare me like that." Mint shook her head in what she hoped wasn't relief and turned back upstream. "Even so, I doubt that really would have been our business anyway. I'd be perfectly happy to never have to hear the nauseating details of that."

"That makes two of us," Azure said as he followed behind Mint.

Mint sighed and glanced through the canopy at the distant sky. Despite what she said, she missed those talks with Tangelo. Knowing that her friend had found happiness was enough to make her feel happy too, even if it had been a little disgusting at times. She blinked a few times at the heat that had begun to form in her eyes and turned her head back to the river.

"I wish I hadn't held in my feelings all those years," Mint thought ruefully. She and Tangelo had been in training together for almost as long as she could remember, but Mint had never been brave enough to go up and talk to her. By the time she had worked up the courage, it was already too late for what she wanted. "Tangelo really was the perfect pony for me, and I lost my chance."

---

Mint grunted as a tree branch above her shook and dumped a load of water on the pale pony. It had been raining nonstop for three days, and now that there was finally a break in the clouds, wildlife apparently found it amusing to drench her from head to hoof. She glanced up and glared at a blurry shape as it scurried away through the trees. The monkeys had proved to be quite the nuisance, though at least they weren't hostile.

"Is it raining again? I thought the clouds were all gone," Azure said jokingly with a glance at the sky far overhead.

"Ha ha, very funny," Mint retorted. She carefully maneuvered her way down a bank that was still soft from the rain into what appeared to be a fairly large clearing of dirt. They'd been traveling for the better part of six hours now, and she wouldn't mind taking a break to rest and eat lunch. "Wanna stop here? It looks like as good of a place as any."

Azure glanced around the clearing and nodded. "I guess so. It's about time for lunch anyway. So what have we got today? Grass spaghetti? Shit burgers? Vomit soup?"

Mint laughed and reached back to rifle through her packs. She shook her head and grimaced at the contents. "You were close. Bean and rice burritos."

Azure gagged and flopped onto the ground theatrically. "Again? Please, anything but that. I'm serious this time, I might actually risk it and find a random plant to eat out here." Something small scurried through the undergrowth, and he cast a glance after it. "You know, meat doesn't sound all that bad anymore. What kinds of things live in the jungle? Squirrels? Parrots? I could eat a parrot or two."

"Try a monkey. I wouldn't mind getting rid of a few of those," Mint said jokingly. She stepped forward into the clearing to find a better spot. The ground around her was all saturated with water and wouldn't be pleasant to sit on, so hopefully the center of the clearing was dryer. She stopped a few meters out from the tree line and glanced back at Azure, who was still lying in the dirt. "Hey, can you pull out the map? I want to see how close we are to the next supply cache."

"Yeah, just give me a moment to find my motivation again," he said melodramatically.

Mint shook her head and turned to walk forward again. However, when she tried to lift her hooves, she found them unable to move. A quick tug of each of her legs confirmed they were stuck, but on what she had no idea. "Well that's weird," she thought as she glanced at the ground below her. All of her hooves seemed like they had been sucked into the dirt, and it was impossible to lift them out. If anything, her struggles only pushed her deeper into the muck. "Uh, what's going on?"

"Is it another monkey?" Azure asked without moving from his spot.

"No, I can't move. I'm stuck in quicksand or whatever this stuff is."

Azure rolled onto his stomach and looked at Mint. "Did you try lifting your legs out?"

Mint sighed. "Why didn't I think of something like that? Of course I tried." She glanced worryingly down at her hooves again, which had sunken a couple of centimeters more into the wet ground. "Can you find me a stick or something? Preferably soon. Like, in the next few seconds soon."

Azure groaned and pushed himself to his hooves. "Fine, just give me a minute. Don't go anywhere."

"As if I have any choice," Mint called after the blue pony as he disappeared through the trees. She shook her head and looked down at her slowly sinking legs again. The faster he got her out, the better.

As much as Azure tended to get on Mint's nerves, she had grown to tolerate him over the past month. Maybe it was just because there was nopony else around to have as a conversational companion. She wasn't entirely sure. All she knew was she didn't roll her eyes at every dumb joke he told anymore, and no day felt complete unless he did something to antagonize her.

Of course, Mint always got back at Azure. Every day seemed like a struggle to see who could annoy the other pony more, and while she hated to admit it, the last thirty days hadn't felt all that long at all. She'd almost say it had been enjoyable if they weren't out in some Celestia-forsaken jungle.

Rustling in the undergrowth behind Mint caught her attention. By this point she had sunken about halfway up to her knees, and she sighed with relief. "It took you long enough. I was beginning to think-" she began as she turned to look towards the sound. What she found wasn't Azure, but one of the small jungle monkeys. This one appeared to be very young and was crouching just inside the tree line, staring at her with curious brown eyes.

Mint groaned inwardly and turned back to face forward. "Not another one of those assholes. Maybe it'll go away if I don't look at it," she thought. More rustling signaled the arrival of more of the hairy creatures, who chattered quietly amongst themselves. If Mint didn't know any better, she'd say they were laughing at her.

A twig slapping Mint in the back of the head made her yelp. It didn't particularly hurt, but it had surprised her. She turned to glare at whoever threw it and almost lost an eye when another went sailing past her face. "What the hell?" she said as she flinched away from the projectile. When she looked towards its origin, all she could see was a hail of wood flying from the direction of the monkeys.

The air was now full of debris in various sizes, ranging from small twigs to branches as big around as a pony's foreleg. Sharp points prodded painfully into her flesh while blunt ends smacked stingingly across her skin. With her legs all contained by the quicksand, there was nothing she could do but curse and take it.

"Stupid fucking monkeys! You've been nothing but a pain in the ass since we've been here! Can't you- ow! Just leave us alone?" Mint shouted at them. She knew they couldn't understand her, but it had to count for something if she made enough noise.

It didn't. If anything, the barrage picked up in intensity, and Mint had to duck her head to avoid being clocked by a particularly heavy-looking branch. "Damn it. I think I'm starting to understand Mist a bit better now. As soon as I get out of here, I'm eating all of you," she growled. "I'm sure meat tastes better than whatever radioactive sludge they pack into our rations."

Mercifully, the assault ended after a few more seconds. Either the monkeys had gotten tired of tormenting her, or they had finally run out of ammunition. Mint was covered in bruises and small scrapes, but glad it was over. The physical torture was, anyway. While they had stopped throwing sticks at her, they were now screeching at her and gesturing wildly. "What are they doing now? Some kind of primitive insult?"

It took Mint a few moments to realize the creatures weren't simply waving their arms around. It looked like they were trying to tell her something by acting it out. "Are they really that intelligent? I've heard monkeys are incredibly smart, but they almost seem purposeful in their movements," Mint wondered. The monkeys were all making similar gestures; motioning between the sticks and the ground underneath her legs, then using their own limbs to pretend they were climbing out of the quicksand. "Great, they're mocking me again," she muttered. "I can't climb out, assholes. Go bother Mist or something."

The monkeys' gesturing became wilder and their screeches picked up in volume as Mint continued sinking into the quicksand. It was getting quite annoying, and Mint glanced back at them again. They were still making the same gestures, but...

Mint frowned to herself. It almost seemed like they were trying to tell her to use the sticks as leverage to pull herself out. "Would that work?" she thought. "I guess it's worth a shot."

The ground around Mint was littered with sticks, and there was no shortage of sturdy-looking branches within reach. She stretched her head down and started moving the thick limbs around until there was a small platform directly in front of her forelegs. By the time she had finished, she was nearly up to her knees in the quicksand.

"Alright, time to see if you guys are as smart as you look," Mint said hopefully. She shifted herself slightly before trying to bend her legs forward. The sticks dug painfully into her knees, but she swore she felt her rear hooves budge ever so slightly as she pushed as much of her weight onto the platform as she could.

Mint tried this a second time, and again she felt her rear hooves slide upward in the muck. It was just a slight shift, but it was enough to invigorate her. Hopeful now, she began pushing against the makeshift platform even harder than before. All at once there was a wet sucking sound, and Mint felt her weight shift forward so quickly she nearly fell face-first back into the quicksand. She managed to keep herself above the sticks though, and with one final pull, her hind legs came free of the muck.

Not wanting to risk having her now free limbs get stuck again, Mint quickly grabbed another few thick branches in her teeth and maneuvered them so she could rest her hind legs on them. Now in a fairly safe position, she leaned back onto her rear as hard as she could. The same shifting feeling was now present in her forelegs, and before long those came free, too. Battered, exhausted, and covered in muck, Mint was safe and out of the quicksand. She flopped forward onto the platform she had made previously and lied there for a few moments, catching her breath.

After taking a minute to recover and appreciate the fact that she hadn't suffocated to death, Mint pushed herself into a sitting position and looked her prosthetic over. Since it was supposed to simulate a real limb she didn't think it would have suffered any damage, but it didn't hurt to check.

The artificial limb was coated in a layer of gunk just like her real legs, but it seemed to still be functioning as it had been before her encounter with the quicksand. "That's lucky. I guess I have the monkeys to thank for all of this," Mint thought with a grimace. "Why did they bother saving me? All they've done since we got here is irritate me." Their intelligence both now and during the past month had surprised her nonetheless, and her mind began to fill with far-fetched possibilities. Maybe they too had gotten bored of life in the jungle, and upon seeing Mint and Azure's shenanigans decided they wanted to join in with their own mischief.

"With their monkey business," Mint thought jokingly. She groaned inwardly at the terrible joke and expelled any other corny puns from her mind. "Ugh, I've been around Mist too much. His awful humor is starting to rub off on me."

Mint turned her head to look over at the monkeys again. Most of the hairy creatures had ambled back into the undergrowth or climbed up the tall trees, but a few still remained at the edge of the clearing. She recognized the young one that had appeared first and wondered if it had called the others for help. "I guess it's possible," she thought as she smiled at the creature and waved her right foreleg. After a hesitant moment, the young monkey raised its own arm and waved back. Its mouth was twisted in what seemed to be a poor imitation of a pony's smile, which Mint took as proof of their intellect.

One of the older monkeys grabbed the young one gently by the shoulder and guided it back into the tree line. It cast one last glance at Mint before disappearing into the shadows of the jungle. For some odd reason, she got the feeling that this meeting wouldn't be their last.

More rustling off to Mint's right drew her attention. She turned thinking it was just more of the hairy animals and was surprised to see Azure trudge into view, dragging a large branch behind him with his teeth. Upon seeing Mint laying on top of her makeshift platform, he dropped the stick and stared at her with his mouth agape. "How-"

"The monkeys threw a bunch at me and I used them to climb out." Mint shook her head, more than a little annoyed. "Seriously, how was a group of animals a hundred times more helpful than you in a fraction of the time? I could have died while you were off wasting time."

"It's not like I was taking a nap somewhere," Azure said with a hint of anger in his voice. "All the branches I could find on the ground were either rotten or too weak. I had to climb a tree and chop one off with my machete. Do you know how hard that was to do? Very. I nearly fell a few times, and a fall from that height would have killed me."

Now that Mint took the time to look, there was an unusually bright sheen covering his entire body. What she had assumed was simply moisture from the humidity was actually a thick coating of sweat, and he was breathing too heavily to have been slacking off. Mint suddenly felt guilty for getting mad at him. He had worked hard, even risked his life to save hers, and she had snapped at him as soon as she saw him. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"I know I seem relaxed all the time, but that doesn't mean I don't know when to be serious. I watched one friend die. I wasn't going to sit back and let that happen to another." Azure let out an annoyed sigh and climbed down the bank into the clearing. "Whatever. Let's just get you out of there. If you keep your hooves moving you won't sink back in."

"Okay." Mint pushed herself unsteadily to her hooves and took a deep breath. She hoped Azure knew what he was talking about, otherwise they'd have to go through this process again.

After another deep breath, Mint pushed off from the platform with her hind legs. The stick she had been standing on slipped in the muck, and for a terrifying second she was off balance and nearly smashed her face into the quicksand a second time. Miraculously, she managed to right herself before hitting the ground, and she immediately pushed off again with her forelegs. She used Azure's advice and took quick, light steps across the saturated ground. It felt strangely spongy, and she wasn't entirely sure how she didn't notice something amiss when she had first crossed the quicksand. What she did know was she wasn't sinking back into the muck, and before long she was standing next to Azure on relatively dry ground.

Mint relaxed her muscles and let out a sigh of relief. "Finally on solid ground again. Thanks for your help," she said with a glance at Azure. He was still frowning slightly, but he seemed like he was over the worst of his anger. She'd never seen him upset before, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the usually laid-back pony. So far, he seemed the type to have an initial outburst, followed by simmering for a while. Hopefully no longer than an hour or two.

Azure shrugged and turned back to the trees. "Yeah. I found a decent spot by the water while I was out looking for branches. There's a rock overhang we can use for shade, and you can wash all that crap off of your legs."

"Let's eat there then. I don't want to deal with any more quicksand today," Mint said as she followed Azure back into the jungle.

The trip to the place Azure had described was fairly short. It was by a slow-moving creek a few meters wide, probably an offshoot of the main river. Most of the shore on their side was large, flat rocks, though a few jutted out high into the air. A particularly large boulder leaned against a couple of smaller ones and cast a long shadow, even with Strana's star so high overhead.

"Let me take your packs. I'll start making the food while you clean up," Azure said as they came to a stop in the shade. Mint let him uncinch the packs and pull them off of her, grateful to be free of the weight. She nodded to him and walked out into the water, which was shockingly cold. It flowed smoothly past her, and while she had gotten used to the feeling of being perpetually wet, she still didn't enjoy being even partially submerged. At least it relieved the heat somewhat, and with some light scrubbing, it took the dirt right out of her fur.

"Thanks again for what you did back there," Mint said after a few long moments. Azure had just finished setting up the MREs to cook, and he looked up from the brown packages. "Even if it didn't actually end up being what saved me."

Azure shrugged again and looked back to the 'food.' "I was just doing what needed to be done. Like I said, I wasn't about to let another friend die."

"You said you watched her die? Chartreuse, I mean?" Mint asked. She had been wanting to know more of the details behind her friend's death, and now seemed like as good a time as any to ask. "I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious about what happened. The battle logs were kept confidential for some reason."

Azure sighed and leaned back against the boulder. He was silent for a short moment to collect his thoughts, then he spoke in a quiet voice. "It was rough. She was heavily damaged and disengaging from the fight, but some far away 'Mech pilot decided it was her time to go. The cunt picked her off with an LRM volley. Vermilion tried to save her, but he was too far away. She was out of AMS range of the DropShips, too. There was nothing we could do but watch."

Mint scrubbed the last of the muck from her fur and climbed out onto the shore. Having lost Tangelo she could understand Azure's pain, but only to a degree. As much as she had cared about the orange pony, she knew Azure and Chartreuse were closer than they ever could have been. "That sounds like it was awful," she said. Azure nodded but didn't reply. "We can talk about it, if you want. It must be awful to lose somepony you're that close to."

"It is." Azure sighed and adjusted the MREs. "It almost feels like a part of me is missing, you know? She was one of the best friends I've ever had. The only pony closer to me is Sundance."

Mint frowned and glanced at Azure. "But weren't you and Chartreuse dating?"

Azure shook his head. "No. I know everypony on the Constellation thought we were, but we never did. I did have feelings for her, though. I used to think it was love back when we first arrived at that camp on Dike, but after a few years, I came to realize that it was just my loneliness making me misinterpret my feelings. We weren't quite that compatible, anyway." He snorted in amusement. "She figured that out long before I did."

"She always was the smartest of your group," Mint said with a smile. She wanted to keep the atmosphere from getting too heavy. As much as she wanted Azure and the rest of her friends to recover from the mental scars of their first battle, deep conversation wasn't her thing.

"Well, you're not wrong there. While we all had our moments, she was the sharpest tool in the shed, to use an ancient Terran saying." Azure nudged one of the MRE packets with a hoof and sighed. "The food is done. Assuming you can call it food, anyway. Blocks of wood is a more accurate description if you ask me."

Mint laughed and shook the water off of her legs before walking over to Azure. "Yeah, but at least it's better than whatever random crap we can find in the jungle."

"Not by much," Azure said as he picked up the tasteless rations and handed one to Mint.

The packed crinkled as Mint grabbed it and sat down near Azure. They ate in silence, preferring the company of their own thoughts at the moment. The food was shit, as usual, but there was something different about it this time. It wasn't the flavor, or lack thereof, rather. It was how she felt sitting next to him. She didn't feel like she was stuck out in the wild with him anymore. Had it not been for the nature of the Trial constantly in the back of her mind, she almost could have been convinced it was just a normal camping trip between friends.

"I guess he's not actually all that bad," Mint thought to herself. "After all, there are worse ponies I could have gotten stuck with on this Trial."

---

The sudden jolt into consciousness followed by Azure's panicked voice told Mint there was something severely wrong. She didn't know what it was, and in the total darkness, she couldn't try to look for it, either. "What is it? Slow down, I can't understand you when you're babbling like that."

She heard Azure take a breath to restart the conversation, but the snap of a twig in the near distance made them both freeze. Noises like that were common in the jungle. Mint normally wouldn't have worried about such a thing, but maybe Azure's paranoia had seeped into her.

Azure crouched close to Mint and brought his voice down to a whisper. "Like I was saying, there's something out there. I woke up to screeching and growling in the forest, and then I heard it cut off suddenly. It didn't sound like it was all that far away."

Mint frowned. "Really? Are there dangerous animals in this jungle?"

"I don't know. It's been nearly six months and we haven't encountered any yet, so I had begun to assume there weren't any predatory animals here. I guess I was wrong to think that. We must have just been lucky while we've been here."

"Or they've been afraid of us until now," Mint thought. She chose not to say that out loud, however. It didn't seem like a good idea to make things any worse for Azure. Instead, she rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself to her hooves. "We should be careful, then. Are you armed?"

There was rustling as Azure rummaged through his packs, and after a moment Mint heard a light clicking sound. "Yeah, now I am."

"Good. Can you get the fire going again? I'm getting worried now, and I'd rather be able to see what's out there," Mint said as she reached for her own revolver.

"Sure. Just give me a moment."

It didn't take Mint long to find her own weapon. She always left her packs right next to her when she slept, and she kept her revolver in its own little pocket. It was a very comfortable weapon to hold, much better than the guns they had trained with in Clan Draconequus. The leg brace fit snugly on her left foreleg, securing the pistol in place, while her hoof fit nicely into the large trigger guard. With her right hoof, she reached into the bag and pulled out the machete before cinching the sheath quickly around her flank. She was definitely getting paranoid now, but it was better to take extra precautions than to end up mauled by some wild animal.

A shower of sparks lit the air dimly as Azure tried to get the fire going. He hit the flint and steel against each other a few more times, and before long the kindling took flame and was set aglow. Azure pushed a few twigs on top of the burning leaves, and within seconds the space around them was illuminated. Mint let out an anxious sigh. There was just something so unsettling about complete darkness to Mint. "At least we can see anything that might come for us now," she thought in relief, believing the danger was over.

And then the jungle exploded in flashing claws and gleaming teeth.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6 Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 5 Minutes