Fear pushed its way to the forefront of Azure's mind as a flash of black whisked past his face, missing him by a hair's breadth. More of the dark shapes leapt from the shadows of the jungle, appearing out of nowhere. "Smoke jaguars!" He thought in terror as the jungle cats began to circle him and Mist, who had beaten away her own attacker. "I knew they lived on Strana, but why haven't we seen any until now?"

Mint cursed under her breath and backed up against Azure so they could cover each other's blind spot. "Where did they come from? Why did they leave us alone for so long?" she asked, echoing his own thoughts.

"I don't know. Maybe they'd never seen ponies before and were just cautious, or we were just fortunate until now," Azure replied. One of the predators growled at him, and he swung his revolver around to face it. "Probably the latter. These fuckers are aggressive and wouldn't have waited so long to attack us." A third, more worrying option lingered in the back of his mind, but he pushed it away. He didn't have time for speculations or conspiracies.

"Lucky us. Are they easy to kill?"

Movement from the corner of Azure's eye caught his attention. One of the jaguars had apparently grown impatient and was sailing through the air to land on his back, but the pony's training kicked in fast enough to save him. Azure ducked to avoid the cat and pointed his gun at the spot he thought it would land. As soon as the jaguar's paws hit the ground he pulled the trigger, which sent a resounding boom through the trees and splattered blood and fur against the jungle floor. The creature fell to the ground and lay still.

"Easy enough. The problem comes when we run out of bullets," Azure said with a worrying glance around him. There were only about half a dozen of the jaguars left out in the open, but he swore he could see countless pairs of glowing eyes in the shadows that disappeared and reappeared elsewhere, waiting for their chance to enter the fight. The gunshot had spooked the creatures and scared one into running away, and Azure wondered for a moment if the rest were going to bolt as well. However, two more jaguars stepped out from the trees to fill the gaps, and Azure's hopes fell. Even if they had enough ammunition to fight them all off, there was no telling how many of the cats were waiting in the darkness. Either one of them would eventually get lucky, or the group would get smart and all rush at once.

A dull thud off to Azure's left followed the echo of another gunshot, signaling the death of another of the jaguars. "Comforting. Never thought I'd die fighting wild animals in the middle of nowhere next to a pony like you," Mint said with a wry grin.

"I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or deeply offended," Azure replied with a glance in her direction as another gunshot reverberated in his chest. "Anyway, let's just focus on surviving." Another jaguar began rushing toward Azure, but he put a bullet through the creature's skull before it got anywhere close. "Assuming we can, anyway," he thought nervously as the circle of cats crept closer. He felt Mint bump into his rear as she backed up against him, away from the deadly creatures. Azure nudged his pack away from his hooves and adjusted his footing to be ready for the next attack.

All at once, it seemed like every jaguar in the jungle sprang from the trees in an all-out assault. In a panic, Azure kicked out wildly at one of the dark shapes that sprang into his peripheral vision with his rear hooves. The shock of the sudden impact sent him stumbling a couple of steps, luckily out of the way of another jaguar that would have landed on his back. He shook his head quickly to clear the fear from his mind, but the creatures didn't give him any more time to recover.

Azure headbutted a jaguar as it sprang towards him, sending it to the ground where he quickly stomped down on its neck and snapped its spine. He ducked underneath another jaguar as it leapt for his throat and fired his revolver at a third that was following close behind. More gunshots could be heard from where Mint was fighting, but he couldn't turn to check on her. The predators refused to let up, and they kept coming like the waves of an ocean, endless and dangerous.

"How many bullets do you have left?" Mint called from across the clearing.

The force of another gunshot shook Azure, and he whirled around to knock one of the relentless creatures away. "Just two now."

"I'm not doing so hot myself. That was my last," Mint said as she fired her sixth shot. She flung the revolver at one of the jaguars and pulled her machete from its sheath. "Any plans? Surely you've got something in that brain of yours."

Azure stepped forward and shouldered one of the creatures into the ground as it jumped at him, wincing as he felt it dig its claws into his body. He slammed it into the ground and pounded its head with one hoof until it went still. "Umm... Don't die. How does that work?"

"Great, why didn't I think of- Ow! You furry son of a bitch!" Azure heard scuffling behind him, which was followed by howls of pain and the sound of a blade slicing through flesh.

"This is really bad," Azure thought as he shot another jaguar. "There's just no end to them." He glanced at his pack, where he could see the handle of his own machete sticking out of the opening. One of the animals was standing right next to it, but luckily none of the others were anywhere near. He'd have to kill it and hope he could grab the blade before any of the others got to him. "Here goes nothing."

Azure fired the last round from his revolver at the jaguar standing over his pack. The creature only stumbled at first, worrying Azure that his shot hadn't been a fatal one, but then its legs buckled and it crumpled to the ground. He immediately leapt forward and pulled the machete from the pack before spinning on his hooves in time to meet another one of the animals as it chased after him. He flung the spent revolver at the oncoming jaguar's face, then raced forward as it shook its head in pain but kept running. By the time it regained its focus Azure was upon it, and he sliced cleanly through the animal's neck and decapitated it.

"Fuck, what are these things made of? Five months in the jungle and its still razor-sharp," Azure thought in a brief moment of wonder. He didn't have time to dwell on it, however, as two jaguars sprang toward him at once. A bright red line appeared along the flank of one of the creatures as Azure swung at it, but he wasn't fast enough to kill the other before it was on top of him. The animal bowled him over, and he cursed as he landed on his back. The machete slipping from his grasp didn't really help his situation, either.

Azure pushed back against the jaguar as it tried to get its teeth around his throat. The creature was light enough to where he could easily kick it off of him, but his front hooves were occupied with keeping its head away from his neck, and he couldn't use his rear hooves from his position. The jaguar's nimble head kept working its way past Azure's defenses, and more than once its teeth snapped shut mere millimeters from his skin. "You're not the only one with a mouth, asshole. Let's see how you like this," he thought as he batted the creature's head off to the side and stretched his neck toward it.

Azure clamped his own jaws down around the jaguar's throat as hard as he could and pushed back against it with his forehooves. There was an odd, wet tearing sound, and a moment later the creature fell back off of him, spraying blood everywhere and leaving a chunk of its neck inside his mouth.

The sensation of flesh in Azure's mouth was a strange one. It was warm and slimy, and he shivered, feeling nauseous. "Disgusting," he thought as he spat the gory mess out of his mouth. He was drenched in blood from head to hoof, but at least he was alive. For the next few seconds, anyway.

The sound of claws rushing towards Azure put him in another panic, and he fumbled for the machete, which was just too far for him to grab. "Shit, I can't reach!" he thought in fear. He raised one of his hooves to try and fend off the jaguar as it ran towards him, but a dull thud sounded from its direction, putting an end to its advance.

Azure twisted his neck around to see a dead jaguar lying about a meter from his spot on the ground with a machete stuck between two of its ribs, buried almost all the way to the hilt. "Mint, you idiot! Why would you throw away your weapon?" he thought as he scrambled to his hooves and looked around the clearing wildly, almost expecting to see Mint get swarmed by a group of the savage creatures.

What Azure didn't expect to see was the bodies of about twenty smoke jaguars littering the open ground around them, with none left standing. "Did... did we do this? We survived?" he wondered aloud.

"Yeah, somehow. The ones we didn't kill ran off into the trees. I guess being trained to fight almost our whole lives has its perks," Mint said. She moved across the clearing until she was standing next to Azure, stepping over the warm corpses and through sticky red puddles. Her sides were heaving with exhaustion, much like his own, and they were both covered in scratches and blood.

"Luckily most of the blood isn't ours. As far as I can tell, anyway," Azure thought in relief. He sighed and looked at the last jaguar Mint had killed. "Thanks for that. I was getting kind of worried there." He raised an eyebrow and glanced back at Mint. "I'm surprised you actually paid any attention when they were teaching us how to throw knives."

Mint shrugged. "I didn't, actually. I just kind of threw it and hoped for the best. And you didn't do too badly, yourself. Even if I did most of the work," she said as she nudged Azure playfully.

Azure chuckled and shook his head. "You keep thinking that." He liked this side of Mint. The side of her that could look for the best in any situation; the side that, no matter how dark their circumstances, could always find something to be cheerful about. When things got serious she always tried to keep things light, and it had taken most of the stress out of the past six months.

"Am I... Am I falling for her?" Azure thought in a sudden moment of realization. It was surprising that he hadn't felt like this about Mint already, given his innate ability to develop a crush on nearly every mare he saw. He hadn't noticed before, but she was actually quite beautiful, too. Not in the soft way Chartreuse was, or how Tangelo was as delicate as a flower; he wasn't even sure it was actually a part of her physical features. It was more how she always looked out at the world with open eyes, as if she saw something worth fighting for in the cruelty surrounding them that never made itself known to anypony else.

Before Azure could continue that train of thought, a bloodcurdling shriek split the air, making both ponies jump. He felt a chill go down his spine, and he exchanged a worried glance with Mint. "What in Luna's name was that?"

Mint's brow creased in a frown and she glanced out at the darkness. "It sounded like a monkey, but..." She shook her head and suddenly bolted towards the direction of the sound. "I have to check it out."

Azure's muscles tensed up and he glanced around the clearing. He half-expected more of the jaguars to be hiding in the darkness, waiting for their chance to pounce. "You want to go out there? Shouldn't we stay here, where it's safer?"

"The monkeys saved my life, remember? If that was one of them, I can't just leave it to die," Mint called over her shoulder as the shadows engulfed her.

Azure stamped his hooves anxiously and shook his head. "That idiot is going to get us killed one day," he growled as he reached down and grabbed his machete between his teeth. He took a deep breath and ran off in the direction Mint had gone, praying that none of the deadly predators were lying in wait.

A large raindrop splashed Azure right between the eyes, and he shook his head, startled. "Really? Does this have to happen right now?" he thought in annoyance as the canopy suddenly became alive with the patter of rain. The water almost immediately soaked him through, but at least it washed the blood out of his fur.

Rainstorms had a tendency to come out of nowhere in the jungle, especially when you were stuck on the forest floor in the dead of night and couldn't see the sky. This one was no exception, and Azure found himself wishing he were a pegasus for the hundredth time that month.

A pale shape appeared suddenly in front of Azure, and he skidded to a halt in time to avoid slamming into Mint, who had stopped and was looking around. The light from the fire barely penetrated this far into the trees, and with the rain, it was certain to get even darker within just a few moments. "What is it?" he asked around the handle of the machete.

Mint shook her head. "I don't know where the scream came from," she replied. "It could have come from anywhere."

"Maybe it-" Azure began, but he cut off when he briefly saw the glint of a pair of eyes moving through the trees. It was hard to tell through the deafening noise of the rain, but when he strained his ears, he thought he could hear scuffling and quiet whimpering from the same direction.

Mint must have noticed it too because she took off towards the noises. "This way!" she said as she moved swiftly between the trees.

Azure sighed and followed close behind. It was almost impossible to see in the darkness, but at least he could follow Mint's faint shape with the little light they had left. He definitely didn't want to be left alone now that he knew the jungle wasn't as tame as he had initially thought.

They came out into a tiny clearing, illuminated by the light of the dying fire through a break in the trees. There was a small monkey huddled underneath a tree root, brandishing a sturdy-looking stick in an attempt to fend off two jaguars that had it cornered. They occasionally darted in to nip at the monkey, but it would swing the branch and drive them back whenever they did.

"Leave him alone!" Mint shouted as she charged forward in a startling display of rage that Azure had rarely seen from her. One of the jaguars whirled around just as Mint spun on her forehooves and kicked out with her hind legs, which connected with the predator's skull. A satisfying crack accompanied the blow, and the creature fell to the earth with its neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

The powerful attack was ill-planned however, and it left Mint in a vulnerable position. Azure watched in horror as the remaining jaguar leapt at Mint...

...And sank its teeth directly into her throat.

"Not again!" Azure thought as he rushed toward the struggling pair. He plunged the machete into the back of the creature's head and felt a jolt as it smashed through the wafer-thin bone at the rear of its skull. The jaguar immediately went still, and he dropped the weapon from his mouth. He turned to Mint, who was lying on the ground and trying to keep the dead creature's teeth in place to stem the flow of blood, which was still alarmingly fast despite her efforts.

"Shit!" Azure reached down towards Mint but stopped his hoof a few centimeters away. He wasn't a medic like Tangelo was. How could he possibly help in this situation? "What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?!" He clenched his teeth and stared helplessly as Mint's life continued to seep into the dirt. The crushing feeling of watching another close friend die began to weigh on his mind, and he very nearly broke down and gave up then and there.

An idea struck Azure suddenly, and he cursed himself for not thinking of this immediately. "Keep pressure on it, I'll be right back!" he said to Mint as he turned and bolted towards their campsite, using the fading light of the fire to find his way back. Stray branches slapped stingingly across his face and body, but he pushed through until he burst out into the open and looked around the clearing wildly.

Mint's pack was lying on the ground just a couple of meters from where Azure was standing, and he quickly grabbed it in his teeth and sprinted back through the trees toward her location. The rain made finding the clearing difficult, but he managed to do it without too much trouble. When he got there she was still conscious, but only just. Her eyes fluttered dangerously, and her breathing was shallow and ragged.

Azure dropped the pack as he skidded to a halt in front of Mint, allowing the contents to spill out into the mud. He nosed around for the medkit, a small white box with a red cross on it. The brightly colored object wasn't hard to find against the dark background, and he flicked the lid open and fumbled through the contents. All field med kits contained special bandages that clotted blood almost immediately, and he couldn't think of any other way to keep Mint alive.

The bandage was rolled up in a small package, and Azure ripped it open and pulled it from its confines. There was enough to use the roll multiple times, so he could use as much as he needed without fear of running out. He took a deep breath, turned back to Mint, and glanced at the wounds which, while not as bad as it had appeared at first glance, were still very serious. "I'm no medic, but I think it missed anything important. This is gonna hurt, okay?"

Mint nodded weakly, and Azure quickly pulled the jaguar's head from her neck and began stuffing the bandage into her wounds. She growled in pain through gritted teeth, but he continued to apply the bandage, tearing it in half before moving on to the other side of her neck. They had all been taught a little bit about first aid back on Dike, but using the contents of a medkit was about all they had been trained to do.

Before long all of Mint's wounds had been covered, and Azure let out a shaky breath and leaned back on his haunches. The clotting bandage seemed to be doing its job, as the bleeding had stopped in just a matter of seconds. Mint was alive. For now, at least. Azure knew she wouldn't be able to survive much longer in the jungle in her condition. He glanced back at the dirt where Mint's comm system was lying halfway out of her pack, barely visible anymore. She needed medical attention; real help, not a shoddy bandage job done by an inexperienced MechWarrior.

Azure reached down and picked up the small gray box just as the dim light of the fire flickered out. A small screen lit up as he brought it close enough to his face to see through the rainy haze, and it displayed two channels; one to his own comm system, and one to Cobalt. They weren't supposed to use the latter channel, though they weren't told what would happen if they did. Probably something bad, if he knew the stern pony at all.

Something brushed against Azure's shoulder, and he glanced down to see Mint resting one of her hooves on him. "Wait... what are you doing?" she croaked out.

"Saving your life," Azure replied. "You know you can't survive out here, even if the bleeding's stopped. I'm gonna call Colonel Dash and tell him to send a helicopter over here."

"But-" Mint's body shook as she coughed weakly, and a thin line of blood trickled out of her mouth. "But you'll fail the trial if we get help from him. I came into this knowing the risks. Leave me. You can still finish and avenge Chartreuse and the others."

Azure shook his head, scattering water from his drenched mane. "Not if it means you'll die. I can't let that happen. I'm calling Colonel Dash, and you can't change my mind."

Mint looked like she wanted to argue for a moment, but after a few seconds, she sighed and smiled weakly at him, finally relenting. "You're such a dumbass, you know that?"

Azure snorted and turned back to the comm system. "Sorry, guys," he thought as his hoof hovered over the dial button. "But it looks like it's just gonna be you four out on the battlefield. We'll see you again someday." He reached down and placed his hoof over the button, ready to accept whatever consequence Cobalt would throw at him.

"MechWarrior Mist, do not move from your position," Cobalt's voice cut in suddenly. Azure jumped and dropped the device. He hadn't pressed call yet, so why was Cobalt talking to him?

There was a bright flash overhead, and the two ponies looked up to see an orange light rapidly descending towards them. Azure was tempted to jump out of the way, but he remembered Cobalt's instructions and kept his hooves planted firmly on the ground.

A large cylindrical drop pod slammed into the earth, shaking the ground and nearly causing Azure to fall. He regained his balance and turned towards the object, which was a good meter taller than a pony and made of metal. A small door slid open on the object, which revealed an illuminated compartment that held what looked like an electronic syringe. It was attached to the cylinder by a series of cables and flexible tubes, which was unusual.

"Follow the instructions and continue the Trial at your best speed," Cobalt said through the comms. There was a light click, and the screen on the device went dark.

Azure and Mint glanced at each other with confused looks on their faces. "Well... I guess we should do what he says," Azure said cautiously. Cobalt made it seem like the Trial wasn't over, so did that mean he was giving them both the opportunity to complete it? He reached out and grabbed the syringe from its holder. It was a strange item, made of metal and roughly the size of a paper towel tube. A screen inside the drop pod flashed to life, and a small series of instructions popped up on it. Azure leaned in and squinted at it through the rain.

"Place over the rear side of the patient's neck, press the 'start' button, wait until the deployable arms are in place, then step back. A quick-acting anesthetic will be administered, followed by... nanomachines?" Azure scratched the top of his head and frowned. "Aren't those super expensive? Why are they wasting them on us?"

Mint shrugged weakly. "I guess being a colonel in the SaKhan's personal military unit has its perks. When I asked him about my prosthetic, he frowned and said it was pocket change, so I guess this isn't a big deal to him, either."

"Rich bastard," Azure said with a grin. He reached down and tentatively placed the syringe over the instructed spot. The directions were simple, so the process couldn't be all that complicated, right? He pressed the start button and was startled when four mechanical limbs reached out from the sides of the device and clamped down loosely on Mint's head and shoulder. She flinched, and a feminine voice came through a small speaker on the device that Azure hadn't noticed earlier.

"Do not move. Remain still so the anesthetic can be injected."

Mint took a shaky breath and winced as a pair of needles jabbed into her neck. A bright pink fluid began flowing through one of the tubes and into her body, and she shuddered at the unnatural sensation.

"We'll be able to afford stuff like this someday, you know," Azure said, letting go of the syringe. He thought he remembered something about how nurses would talk to patients as they went under in an attempt to keep them calm and lift their spirits. If anything, Mint was probably more likely to be the one to lift his spirits, but he thought he'd try anyway. "We'll be high up in the military, making more bits than we'll know what to do with."

"Dream on," Mint said with a snort. Her eyelids had already begun to droop, and her words were slurred slightly. "You'd be lucky to ever make Point Commander, let alone Star Colonel."

Azure shook his head. "Just you wait. Soon I'll be able to eat all the coffee cake I could ever want, and you can make a monkey sanctuary or something since you seem to be so enraptured by them for some reason."

"What's with your... stupid obsession... with coffee cake?" Mint mumbled in a barely audible voice before losing consciousness. Either quick-acting was an understatement for the anesthetic, or her loss of blood just made it easier for her to fall asleep. There was a light click as the flow of pink fluid cut off, and a silvery syrup began moving slowly through the other, larger tube. Microscopic machines caught the light coming from the drop pod, making the liquid glint as if a thousand tiny diamonds were suspended in it.

Azure chuckled and wiped the rain from his eyes. He had never expected to be in a situation like this, and the night had been one wild rollercoaster ride of emotions. He certainly had an interesting story to tell Sundance and Vermilion when this was all over.

"Get some sleep, MechWarrior Mist. You do not need to stand guard. This process will likely take all night," the voice said through the device again.

"Thank you. Scream really loud if you need to wake me up," Azure joked. He stretched his weary muscles and walked over to the tree root the monkey had previously occupied. The creature was nowhere to be found, so he assumed it must have scurried off somewhere. "I guess I can stay relatively dry in here. Too bad there's nothing I can use to cover Mint," he thought as he curled up in the small space. His exhausted body began shutting down almost immediately, and within minutes, Azure was drifting off into sleep.

---

"Move over, would you? I've had enough rain to last a lifetime."

Azure blinked his eyes open and shook his head, waking from a strange dream that left an oddly sour taste in his mouth. Mint was lying on the ground in front of him, sopping wet and prodding him weakly with her prosthetic hoof. Azure had to stifle a laugh, seeing her in such a pitiful condition. "Sorry, I didn't catch that," he said as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"I said move over. This is the only dry spot in the clearing," Mint repeated.

Azure sighed dramatically and scooted underneath the tree root as far as he could go. He felt his back press up against wood, and he noted the small area left for Mint. "That's all you're gonna get. I can't go any farther."

The sound of the dismal weather deadened slightly as Mint pulled herself through the opening and into the space just large enough to hold the two of them. They had to squish together so Mint could stay out of the rain, and Azure felt his heart immediately start racing. "Well, this is cozy."

"That's one way to put it," Azure said with a chuckle, trying to hide how nervous he had suddenly become. "Anyway, I'm surprised you're already awake."

"I shouldn't be. I'd probably still be asleep if the rain hadn't woken me up," Mint grumbled.

"That's the jungle for you. No day would be complete if we weren't soaked from head to hoof."

Mint snorted. "It certainly seems that way."

The two of them sat there in silence for a few long moments, with Azure trying in vain to slow his rapid heartbeat. He was certain Mint should have been able to feel it with how close they were pressed together, but if she did, she either didn't care or chose not to say anything.

"Oh yeah, how did your wounds heal up?" Azure began curiously as he glanced at Mint's neck. "I've never seen nanomachines used before, so I'm curious-" he broke off at the sight of her wounds and gasped, eliciting a worried glance from Mint.

"What? Is it that bad?" she asked anxiously.

Azure shook his head, stunned into silence for a moment. "No, it... it's completely healed. There's barely even a mark left," he said in wonder. He lifted a hoof to the thin pink lines on the sides of her neck, nearly invisible through the similar color of her fur. "I've heard the Clans had made incredible improvements in nanotechnology over the past few hundred years, but this is way outside of anything I would have expected."

"Wow, really? That's really cool," Mint said in surprise. "Too bad they can't restore blood, though. I feel like I'm about to pass out again."

"Going back to sleep would probably be a good idea in your condition. Just let me get out first. I'm hungry," Azure said, noticing how unusually lethargically she was talking. There was no telling how long she'd be asleep for, and despite wanting to never have to move from his spot next to Mint, he really didn't want to be stuck there all day without food or room to stretch his legs. Not to mention he really had to piss.

"Sorry, can't hear you. Already asleep," Mint said drowsily.

Azure was about to argue, but funnily enough, Mint really was already asleep. She had gone under immediately after she finished speaking, leaving him stuck with no way out. "Well, I guess there are worse places to be trapped in. Maybe it won't be that bad," he thought as he scratched his nose. He went to put his hoof back on the ground, but he stopped and let it hover over Mint's face. Even in her sleep, with her eyes relaxed and her mouth hanging slightly open, something about her expression was still defiant, as if she refused to accept the world for how everypony else saw it. Azure was struck with the sudden temptation to kiss her.

"And that's what we call sexual assault," Azure thought with a nervous chuckle to himself. That was definitely something she would get mad about, and it didn't sit right with him, either. But maybe... "She wouldn't care if I just do this, right?" He gingerly placed his upraised hoof behind Mint's shoulders and gently pulled her closer to him before twisting his head so that it was resting above hers. Heat rushed to Azure's cheeks, and he let out a shaky breath. He could feel even better now how cold she was from her lack of blood, and he felt a stab of sympathy. "Mint just has the worst luck with getting injured, doesn't she?"

Azure froze as he felt Mint shift her body slightly. Was it just him, or had she maneuvered herself so that she was pressing even closer against him? Was she moving in her sleep, simply driven by her subconscious to try and get warm, or was this a waking decision on her part? Did he just imagine the noticeable rise in the tempo of her heartbeat?

"Either way, I guess we'll find out when she wakes up," Azure thought nervously. He glanced out at the open clearing where the drop pod stood against the unrelenting rain, deactivated now that it had served its purpose. He also saw the packs of barely-edible food spilled out in the mud from his panic the night before, but even though his stomach growled rebelliously at the thought of breakfast, there was no way he was going to leave Mint's side now. "Alright, maybe I did fall for Mint after all," he admitted as a fully content smile spread across his face.

---

Azure stared up in awe at the two massive machines that stood before them. While his own Summoner looked fantastic, brand-new almost, what really surprised him was the condition of Mint's Adder. The 'Mech barely had a scratch on it, which was strange given what had happened to it during their battle. "Wow. Wasn't your 'Mech destroyed? Did they just replace it with a different one?"

"No, it's the same machine. Or, parts of it are, at least." Mint tossed her mane out of her eyes and stopped next to Azure, close enough that their shoulders brushed. Over the past few weeks her condition had improved noticeably, though she wasn't quite as steady on her hooves as she had been before her injury, and she still got tired a lot faster than Azure did. "Cobalt told me my 'Mech wasn't repairable, but they could still swap some parts around with another damaged Adder and melt down the rest or something. Ironically, the right arm was the largest part that survived," she said as she raised her prosthetic and held it up in front of the machine.

"That makes sense. It definitely fits the Clan philosophy of minimal waste," Azure remarked. "Except for Clan Draconequus. I'm pretty sure that's the last thing on their minds."

Mint nodded and glanced at the small supply caches next to their 'Mechs, probably containing their cooling suits and neurohelmets. "On that note, what's gonna happen to all the extra stuff we left out there? We only opened a fraction of the supply caches."

"They'll probably send ponies in to clear them out. That, or whatever poor sods Cobalt has lined up next for this trial will get them," Azure said with a shrug before walking up to the small orange box in-between the feet of his Summoner. He unlatched the lid and slid it open, expecting to find the full set of gear necessary to pilot a 'Mech properly. Instead, the only item inside was his cooling suit, folded neatly with a Clan Ghost Bear patch newly embroidered above the left chest. "Hey Mint, did you get our helmets?"

Mint frowned and opened her own supply cache. Her frown deepened when she saw the contents, and she shook her head. "No. How are we supposed to pilot our 'Mechs without them?"

Azure scratched the back of his head and reached for his cooling suit. "It's doable, but not ideal. Maybe it's part of the trial?" he speculated as he climbed into the thin garment.

"Maybe. Anyway, let's just get this over with. As soon as we're back, I'm running a hot bath and I'm staying in there for a week," Mint said as she hooked the collar of her cooling suit and reached for the ladder rungs that led up the side of her Adder's left leg.

Azure finished putting on his own cooling suit and started pulling himself up his own 'Mech. "Ooh, that actually does sound nice. Mind if I join you? The rain doesn't do as good of a job at washing fur as you'd think," he said jokingly.

The sound of the Adder's access hatch opening echoed through the trees, followed by Mint's giggles. "That won't happen," she said as she put her rear hooves through the opening and sat on the ledge. She glanced at Azure as he reached her height and gave him a small smile. "Well, maybe. I guess we'll see." The metal door swung shut behind Mint as she slid into the 'Mech, leaving Azure staring after her.

"Damn, I love that pony," he thought with a grin as he continued up the side of his Summoner. "I guess we really will have a lot to tell Sundance and Vermilion when this is all over."

Next Chapter: Chapter 7 Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 41 Minutes