Octavia blows through a poor barricade of flimsy branches and trees, hear racing and mouth getting just a bit dry. Everything has been a blur for her ever since she started running, but one thing is clear. She does not want to mutilated by whatever big creature is out to get them.

She runs a bit further until a thick chunk of wood is suddenly swung against her chest, knocking her right off of her feet, and she lands flat on her back with splinters raining around her and mulch popping up. Her sore lungs try to take in the air she swallows and her eyes struggle to focus on anything around her, but the trees, the leaves and the sunlight that pierces them is spinning slow enough to make her nauseous.

Octavia hears footsteps and she reaches for her weapon, but a very familiar shoe steps on her wrist and an equally familiar girl kneels next to her, grinding her foot into her wrist. Octavia winces and Rainbow Dash points at her nose with her little gun, her expression grim and sucking away the light.

“Don't ever leave me behind again,” says Rainbow Dash.

Octavia is silent, not that she can say much since her throat is dry, but her pinkie finger does curl slightly and she meets Dash's eyes with defiance. Much to her confusion, Rainbow Dash's dark look is replaced with a smile, and she helps Octavia up and gives her her weapon.

“By the way, I think we lost whatever that thing was,” says Rainbow Dash.

Octavia rubs her chest, silently glaring at Dash as her aura recharges. It did not go down by much, so the charge is fast, and the pain is quick to fade. However, seconds later, when Octavia is brushing leaves off of her pants, she feels the ground shaking and something roaring. This roar is considerably different from the one she heard earlier, and the shaking is tuned like running feet. There is also a very high pitched scream, and when they look up they see someone flying through the air, twirling like a doll. The scream fades with him, and they look at each other, brains at a blank about what is going on.

“Run!” shouts a girl.

Octavia and Dash turn to the source and see Twilight running towards them with a shield and ax-guitar on her back and sparking spear in hand. Behind her, trees explode and a towering, scaly creature with flaming red eyes bursts through the wreckage. Its forked tongue whips the air as it roars, spraying thick, green slime everywhere, and its claws shred the ground and crush more fallen logs. The Beast swipes at Twilight and she narrowly avoids the claws and the flying debris of shattered wood, and when she lands she stumbles a bit and barely blocks another barrage of flying splinters with her shield.

Seeing this, Octavia pales and reels back, tripping over a root, and Rainbow Dash swears and pulls her back up by the collar of her jacket and forces her to run by pushing her forward.

“Oh! Oh, hell no! That thing should not be in a first year test!” says Rainbow Dash.

“What is that thing?” says Octavia.

“How should I know!?”

The two run through the forest with Twilight close behind, batting away branches and leaping over rocks, roots and logs, cursing and screaming as the forest around them erupts and shatters. The air becomes heavy with falling dirt and leafs, and all three of them are briefly overwhelmed with relief when they breach the tree line and see the ruins at the far side of an expansive field.

“There's the ruins! Go! Go! Go!” says Rainbow Dash.

The Beast roars and Octavia runs ahead with a burst of speed, having to keep her hand on her head to keep her hat from flying off. Rainbow Dash bolts after her, and she briefly runs backwards to look at Twilight and cups her hands over her mouth.

“Run faster, egghead!” orders Rainbow Dash.

Twilight leaps over a fallen tree near the tree line and when she breaches the field she staggers and is kept from falling by Rainbow Dash grabbing her. Then the trees burst outward in a mess of splinters and mulch, and both scream or shriek and shrink down, shielding each other as the remains of the vegetation rain down around them, bouncing and kicking up more dirt. When it clears enough, the Beast is even closer to their heels and they scramble up and start running again.

Pinkie Pie's group and Flash watch with fear and helplessness as Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Octavia run out of the forest, being pursued the Beast with a trail of destroyed trees behind it. Seeing the monstrosity that is chasing the girls, Trixie pales, Applejack swears and leaps back with her fists raised protectively and Rarity's jaw drops. Pinkie Pie is the only one who gets a smile, even though she really wants to scream and run away from that thing, but that will be hard to do since they are in a dead end and the only exit is to an open field that leads directly to it.

“By the way, that thing whacked me,” says Flash nonchalantly.

Pinkie Pie laughs grimly and spins her hammer into the proper position and morphs it into her cannon. The barrel glows and sparks, and Pinkie Pie adjusts her stance and takes aim at the charging beast, as do the other girls. Clicks, whirs, hums, and sparks all roll over each other and various lights mix and spread the shadows along the ancient wall.

“Oh, goodie,” says Pinkie Pie as she cocks her weapon. “It looks like we're going to have one heck of a party.”

“Actually, I think we're going to die,” says Rarity calmly.

“Not if I can help it,” says Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie then roars and runs ahead, firing round after round at the Beast. Blue balls streak across the ruins and explode around the Beast and its prey, and when one of the girls calls her a maniac and tells her to stop shooting at them, she switches her cannon to her hammer mode. She then raises it for a strike with sparking energy surrounding its head, and she runs past the three fleeing girls, leaps in the air, and brings her hammer down, but the beast swipes at her before she can land a hit.

A hot flash of pain erupts all over her body, and everything becomes a blur as she flies back. With the blend of green, blue, brown, white and every other color imaginable comes pockets of pain that gets worse with each impact from her bouncing along the ground. Before she can fully comprehend what is going on, she finds herself laying flat on her stomach, a face full of old stone and dirt, and a crippling soreness tearing apart her abdomen and limbs. Her ears are hurting from a blaring alarm, too, and when she lifts her head she sees a hole in the wall and gashes of torn land like an evil rock skipping result. There is also a lot of dust floating around and just about everyone is staring at her, including three new girls, save for Applejack who is gently helping her up.

“Dang. Is she okay?” asks the rainbow haired one.

The mafioso girl shrugs and the nerd frantically flips through her holograms, only to stop when Trixie butts past her and slaps a red cross sticker on Pinkie Pie's arm. The sticker flashes for a moment, but the soreness immediately fades and the vitals on Pinkie's eye-piece shows a great improvement. There is even a boost in aura.

“That went well,” says Trixie as she slaps another sticker on Pinkie Pie, which seals a gash that has bathed her arm in blood and led to a nice puddle on the floor.

With the return of some of her strength, Pinkie Pie winces, grabs her hammer and uses it to prop herself up with the help of Applejack since her wobbly legs cannot hold her up, anyway. Once standing, she leans on her weapon, blinking blood out of her eyes, and she flashes a toothy, bloody grin and a thumbs up in which the thumb is shredded.

The group grimaces.

“I meant to do that,” claims Pinkie Pie, her wounds healing right before everyone's eyes with the help of aura and Trixie's stickers.

“Sure you did, Pinks” says Applejack.

With the last of her wounds closed, leaving just streams of red all over her, she hoists her hammer up and starts towards the beast again.

“Are you seriously going back out there?” says Rarity.

Pinkie Pie looks at Rarity and points at her bloody face. “This is my serious face.” She twirls her hammer and aims it at the beast. “And that is a serious boss. So let's get serious.”

Applejack cracks her knuckles. “She's right. That's a big fish, and cowering in here is not gonna help us.”

“Or we could not fight it and just outrun it,” suggests Octavia.

The group looks at her, and she stares back at them, bemused.

“There is no point in fighting it,” says Octavia. “Our objective is to return with a chess piece, so there is no need for us to make this harder than it already is.”

Flash nods approvingly. “Run and live. I like that.”

Pinkie Pie sighs disappointingly and lowers her weapon slightly. “Fine. I guess we don't have to kill the big bad monster. Let's go, everybody.”

The group starts to file out, but they are stopped by Rainbow Dash.

“Hold on a second, me, Octavia and Starlight still got to get a chess piece,” says Rainbow Dash.

“Actually, it's Twilight,” says Twilight, her hand raised slightly.

Dash merely waves her off with a dismissive grunt, and Flash holds up the white king proudly.

“Never fear, ladies, for I got the piece,” he says.

And that is when the entrance to the temple explodes towards them with an earth shaking roar. Chunks of stone and a thick cloud of dust flies towards them, and they scream and dive away from the debris. The rubble bounces across the floor, popping up shards of stone and crushing the pedestals and their chess pieces, and more broken stone is flung when the Beast rips apart the rest of the entrance.

The group cowers down and scrambles for cover, using the debris to give them the illusion of an advantage.

“Holy shit!” screams Rainbow Dash.

“Take it out!” orders Flash.

Flashes and streaks of light of various colors and intensities hit the Beast at once. It roars over the pops, buzzes and bams, and it swings blindly through the growing haze. The stench of burnt flesh and blood clogs their noses, and the screams and orders on top of the Beast's angry and painful cries hurts their ears, but they still persist.

Pinkie Pie shoots ball after ball at the Beast, and each impact leaves a dark circle on its scales, with some burnt shavings falling off. When it slams its hand down to crush her, she rolls out of the way, switches her cannon into her hammer and swings it against the top of the Beast's hand with a jet-burst coming from the weapon. There is a crack, the Beast howls, and Pinkie Pie is once again whacked away, right into a boulder.

Between the creature's legs, Rarity ferociously slices away, grunting and growling with every slash. The scales block most of her attacks, but when pieces start falling she hollers joyously.

“I'm breaking through!” says Rarity.

The Beast suddenly pivots, snatches Rarity and holds her up with her arms pressed against her sides. She screams and kicks her legs wildly while squirming in the Beast's grip, and it squeezes harder, turning her scared screams into that of agony as her bones and armor crack.

“Rarity!” cries Pinkie Pie, her hand outstretched and eyes wide in panic.

Trixie growls and shoots a portal at the floor, and then another at what's left of the ceiling. She then jumps through and lands on the Beast's head with her energy sword at the ready. Upon landing she stabs the Beast through the skull, and it roars, drops Rarity, and then claps its hands above its head, squishing Trixie, all while Pinkie carries Rarity to safety.

When its hands pull apart, Trixie rolls off, limp, and lands without a sound on the ground with her wand clattering next to her. Rarity also falls as a heap on the ground, and she curls on the ground, coughing and wheezing with blood lining her lips. Pinkie Pie is quick to rush to her side, and she slings her over her shoulder and runs for cover while Flash, Octavia, Rainbow Dash and Twilight shoot at the Beast.

The energy round stab at the Beast, and it snarls and swipes at them, knocking all four back, and then it glares at Trixie, blinking a trail of blood out of its eyes. Trixie groans and weakly shifts in her spot and the Beast brings its hand down on her, but in a blur of orange accompanied by a shotgun like blast, Applejack comes between it and Trixie, forming an X with her arms and grunting with sweat flowing and knees buckling in her fight to keep the hand up.

“Applejack?” says Trixie groggily.

“Howdy, Trixie. Can you please move? This thing's heavy,” says Applejack.

Trixie grabs her wand and creates another portal that connects near Pinkie Pie. The two fall through and fall in a heap on the other side, and so does the Beast's hand. And then the portal closes.

The Beast's cry of agony shakes the ruins, loosening chunks of old stone and causing those standing to topple over, clutching their ears and cursing or yelling. As for the severed hand? It flops in front of Trixie and Applejack with the cauterized and stinky smoke rising from it.

When the Beast falls on its back, breaking through what portion of the ruins was not destroyed, Flash switches his gun back to his ax and points at the Beast.

“Let's kill that thing!” says Flash.

Pinkie Pie lays Rarity against one of the stones and watches Flash's group leap on the Beast and stab and shoot it repeatedly. She cringes and recoils slightly from the sight of the Beast thrashing and blood squirting up all around it. When Octavia hops her way to the Beast's face and unloads in its open mouth, it gives one last cry that devolves into a gurgle as it drown in blood that bubbles out of its mouth and splatters over the mafioso girl. The Beast goes limp and blood pours all over its body and spreads on the broken floor, and Rainbow Dash hollers and holds out her fist to Octavia.

“Freakin' awesome, girl! Pound it!” says Dash.

Octavia sighs and halfheartedly bumps her fist against Rainbow Dash's. Meanwhile, Flash climbs down and helps Twilight off. She smiles sheepishly and quietly thanks him as she brushes herself off.

Moment's later, Rarity sits up, breathing heavily and clutching her side. She looks at the Beast, then at Flash's team, and then at Pinkie Pie, her expression equal to that of a confused puppy.

“Did we win?” asks Rarity.

Her aura crackles and her body is briefly covered in a shimmer, as is Trixie's, and Pinkie Pie grins wearily and helps Rarity up.

“Not yet. We still got to get to that one place,” says Pinkie Pie.

“Its the Extraction Point,” says Trixie sourly. She ejects a smoking gem from her wand and places in a fresh one, slamming her chamber shut like a clip to a pistol. “We better get extra credit for this kill.”

“Hey, that kill was all us! We should get the extra credit,” says Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie's group turns and shares various levels of annoyance directed at Rainbow Dash as Flash leads the girls over to Pinkie Pie's group. All of them sweaty and ready to collapse, and Octavia is loading a fresh gem into her drum, looking at Rainbow Dash out of the corner of her eye.

“Technically I killed it,” says Octavia.

Rainbow Dash snorts and turns away with her arms across her chest and nose in the air. “It was all teamwork. Don't be a bragger.”

“We should move before more creatures show up,” says Twilight after brushing a lock of hair off of her face.

“Twilight's right. We wasted enough time fighting whatever the heck that thing was, so we really need to double time it before more teams beat us,” says Flash.

Pinkie's group looks around at the wreckage and all the chess pieces scattered about, and Pinkie Pie looks at Flash, grinning with a teasing shine in her lidded eyes.

“Yeah, we really wouldn't want the other twenty seven teams to finish before us,” says Pinkie Pie.

Flash frowns, and Pinkie Pie snickers, swings the hammer up so it leans against her shoulder and she strolls out, waving her team forward.

“Come on, girls, lets get out of here,” says Pinkie Pie.

Applejack smiles and jogs up to Pinkie Pie, matching her speed with her cousin's when they are next to each other. “I'm right next to ya, Pinks.”

Rarity and Trixie walk after the two with less enthusiasm, and they both nod with respect or lack of towards Flash's team. Once they are outside, Pinkie Pie breathes in the fresh air, loving its clean smell and choosing to ignore the wreckage leading up to the carnage of the ruins. Shortly after, she hears a shout and she and her group pauses and they look over their shoulders to see Flash's group hurrying after them.

Flash stops next to Pinkie Pie, panting a little bit and using her shoulder for support. All she does is smile, though. She will not deny a shoulder someone needs, after all. That is just rude.

“I think,” begins Flash, having to take another breath. “I think we need to finish this together. Both of our teams worked together to kill that thing, so it seems appropriate that we finish this together.”

Pinkie Pie nods. “I like the way you think. Will I get an ice pack and back rub when this test is over?”

Flash pats Pinkie's shoulder and walks ahead. “We'll see.”

Pinkie Pie goes after him, her smile fading to exaggerated panic. “But you owe me!”

Flash chuckles, and Trixie gags while Applejack stares at the two with an easygoing smile as their conversation carries on with apparent involvement of lotion. Next to them, Rarity intently inspects Twilight's now ruined schoolgirl uniform. This visibly makes the latter nervous.

“Can I help you?” asks Twilight.

“I find it curious that you would come here dressed like that,” says Rarity. “It was a very cute outfit until it got ruined from this test.”

Twilight inspects herself. “Oh, this? This is a cultural thing. The Crystal Empire Remnant takes pride in how well its citizens present themselves, especially when they come from academies like Crystal Preparation.”

Rarity raises a brow. “So, you wear that outfit everywhere?”

“I got others,” says Twilight defensively. “I got a blue one, a pink one, a white one, purple, and yellow, and a pair of pajamas. Even a one piece body swimsuit that has stars all over it.”

Rarity sighs and places her hand on Twilight's shoulder. “You poor dear. I'm going to have to take you shopping for more clothes and a swimsuit that does not sound so horrendous. I'll also have to find something for those two.”

Rarity nods to Rainbow Dash and Octavia, her expression heavy on pity. The colorful girl is currently walking backwards, talking nonstop and making hand gestures and noises that mimic a gun.

“That's what you did, right?” says Rainbow Dash after pretending to spray a line of energy fire. “You were a mafia cleaner, like what's his name in The Course to Perdition?”

“If I was with the mafia then I wouldn't be here,” says Octavia.

“Really? What would you be doing?”

Octavia looks at Rainbow Dash and brushes her trigger. “Killing annoying people.”

Rainbow Dash immediately steps back with her hands in the air. “Point taken.”

Octavia smirks and walks ahead, her rifle aimed to the sky and her finger exercising trigger discipline. “By the way, I still have to get back at you for hitting me with a log. Just something for you to sleep on.”

Rainbow Dash's steps slow to where she is trailing behind, and she watches Octavia with an odd combination of fear and anticipation. But when Octavia looks over her shoulder and winks at her with a devilish smirk, the anticipation turns more to the side of fear and Rainbow Dash finds herself shuddering just a bit.

And up ahead, Pinkie Pie is now riding on Flash's back, leading him to a considerably slower pace and his body hunched over. The good news is that now they are near the tree line, and the forest has a nice trail they can follow.

“Yeah, how's that feel? Feels bad, huh?” says Pinkie Pie playfully.

“Why do you have to be so heavy!” whines Flash childishly.

“What!?”

“Oh, he did not just say that,” says Applejack; though she is still smiling and holding back a giggle.

Suddenly a bird shaped shadow flies over the group and a very ominous sound freezes them in their track.

“CAW!”