Red and gold leafs from thick , towering trees block much of the afternoon sunlight, allowing only sporadic beams of warm light to beat down on the group of students being led by Luna. Currently this batch is made up of Teams PART(ie), FORT, DAFT and AVAS, and each of them are carrying a metal spout, mallet, and a glass jar. Save for Flash and Thorn. The former is carrying three jars and the latter has none. The students are not wearing their school uniforms, either, but instead are wearing their designated “battle suits”, which, in all reality, is just the outfits they wore during the Hollow Shades Test.

“This forest is beautiful,” says Rarity as she brushes her hand along the rough bark of one of the trees.

“Yes, White Tail Woods is a beautiful place, but we are not here for sight seeing, we are here to collect sap samples for Professor Soil and I am here to make sure none of you die a horrible death,” says Luna as she pushes buttons on her phone, adding the noise of eight-bit explosions over her unenthusiastic voice.

The class comes to a stop at a clearing and form a half circle, facing Luna, and the Vice Principle pauses her game and spins on her heel to face the class while clamping her hands behind her back. Once the students stop moving around and looking at the pretty trees, Luna starts speaking.

“Your task is simple. Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap,” says Luna while holding a full jar of purple sap. “However, this forest is full of the Creatures of Tartarus, so be sure to stay close to your teammates. We will meet back here at sixteen hundred and proceed to return home with our supplies. Any questions?”

Sonata raises her hand.

“Yes?” says Luna.

“How come its called red sap when it is purple? And what does this have to do with fighting evil monsters?” says Sonata.

Luna looks at Sonata, and then she looks at her jar, and then she looks back at Sonata, frowning. “Shut up.”

Sonata groans and looks down, sulking, and Aria shakes her head, grabs Sonata by the back of her shirt and drags her away, following Adagio and Vinyl into the forest. Team DAFT also starts their trek into the forest, but Thorn stays behind with Flash, and Trixie grins maniacally and takes huge leaps towards a particularly fat tree.

“Trixie calls this tree!” Trixie's hands become a blur as she hammers her spout into the bark and she kneels in front of the item, giggling a little too enthusiastically and holding the jar underneath. Once the sludge of purple colored red sap starts dripping out Trixie's giggling evolves into cackling. “Yes! Come forth my delicious syrup and meet your new master!”

Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity exchange looks, and Rarity shrugs while Pinkie Pie scratches her scalp hard and fast.

“She is quite excited about the sap,” says Rarity.

“Eeyup,” says Applejack. A second later she makes her way towards a tree that is not too far from Trixie. “Welp, no sense in standing around. We got work to do.”

“Right. Work stuff. Go do your work stuff,” says Pinkie Pie while inspecting her fingers and the strands of hair that have coiled around them.

She looks away from her fingers and sees Applejack using her bare hands to shove her spout into the tree with minimal difficulty, Luna playing on her phone in the comfort of a tree's shade, and Rarity having trouble getting her spout in. She will press the spout into the bark, beat it with her mallet a couple of times, but then miss and hit her thumb or her spout, both resulting it in falling to the ground.

“Why does this have to be so hard?” whines Rarity while clutching her throbbing digit.

Pinkie Pie smiles thinly and shakes her head as she goes to Rarity's side. When she is close enough, she jumps near her and slides on the leafs, coming to a stop when she bumps into her Rarity, knocking her aim away and causing her to hit the spout out again.

Rarity's face burns red and her teeth grind behind her sealed lips as she looks at Pinkie Pie, who is now leaning against the tree with lidded eyes and a cheeky smile with her arms folded across her chest.

“Hello. I'm here to do my leader stuff. Need any help?” says Pinkie Pie.

Rarity rolls her eyes and makes another attempt to hammer in her spout, which leads to yet another abysmal failure. “If you must know, I am having a rather difficult time getting this uncooperative spout in.”

Pinkie Pie blinks at the spout, and then smiles thinly and shakes her head, tutting obnoxiously. “Rarity, you goof. You're holding that thingy all gimpy. Give it to me.”

Pinkie Pie takes Rarity's bent spout without caring about her teammate's protest, not that it was much of one, anyway, and after carefully digging it into the bark, she hammers it a few times and steps back, smiling proudly at how deep it is in the tree. She turns her smile Rarity, who is flabbergasted and coolly hands the hammer back to her.

“See? Piece of cake,” says Pinkie Pie.

“That is not fair,” says Rarity, adding after a breath. “But thank you.”

“No problem... So, are we cool about me puking on you, blasting you, stealing your wallet, dropping you and taking your socks?”

Rarity whips to Pinkie Pie, wide eyed. “You stole my socks?”

“Uh... Hey, look, a tree!”

And Pinkie Pie disappears in a flash, leaving a trail of kicked up leafs and mulch in her wake.

While Teams AVAS and PART(ie) are off collecting their samples, Flash is watching his team walk away and Twilight stops trailing Dash and Octavia for a moment so she can look at Flash. She does not have to say anything, for the silent pleading of her eyes is enough for him to see, but he looks away, shamefaced, and when he peeks out of the corner of his eye he sees Twilight's shoulders sag and her feet drag her away. She is not looking at him, anymore, and all he can see of her is her shield, but it quickly disappears from sight with the rest of his team.

“Well, I'm ready to go,” says Thorn. He grabs Flash by his shoulder and starts dragging him away from the clearing. “Come on, buddy. Let's learn things together.”

“Wait!” barks Drake.

Thorn stops and turns around, smiling but digging his fingers into Flash's shoulder pad while Drake and Astro approach him.

“Yes, boss?” says Thorn.

The two stop in front of Thorn and Drake jabs his thumb to Astro.

“Take Astro with you,” says Drake.

“Why? I got my best friend with me,” says Thorn, wrapping his arm around Flash's shoulder for bro-hug effect.

Flash tries to pull away, but Thorn tightens his grip and nearly squishes their bodies together, eliciting an unpleasant grunt and death glare from the former. Seeing this, Drake frowns and steps forward, jabbing his finger into Thorn's chest.

“Because I said so. End of discussion,” says Drake.

“You just want quality time with Fluttershy, don't you?” says Thorn.

All four boys look towards Fluttershy and see her crouching down in a flower bed to inspect a rabbit, wearing her yellow dress and knee high, brown work boots, and thin armored vest. She is being illuminated by a wide beam of light and butterflies and chirping bird glide gracefully around her in circles. She holds out her hand and giggles when the rabbit sniffs her, and Flash, Thorn and Astro look at Drake as he folds his arms across his chest and tilts his nose up and away from them.

“No, that's totally not it,” he says.

With the students scattered, Luna is enjoying her game of a little blue man with a white helmet planting pulsating, classic bombs next to bricks. The music is funky, the colorful enemies are whack, and she has found that really, really hates the game's conveyor belts. She still likes watching the little pixilated blocks explode, though. And nothing can break her concentration. Not the chirping birds, not the chatting students or the rustling leaves and gentle breeze, not even the melodic humming in the wind. Nothing will distract her from blasting her way out of the next level. Nothing!

Nothing, except maybe the picture of a Celestia giving a duck face selfie with a big green phone silhouette in the center that has taken up her entire screen with a depressing song playing.

Luna frowns and her thumb hops between the green check mark and red x, just barely above the screen, but right before she can make a decision the picture goes away, leaving a paused screen for her game. Seconds later, Luna shrugs and hits the play button and manages to move her little bomber a few blocks before Celestia's selfie and the accompanying sad song returns.

Luna scoffs and bangs her head against the tree. “Seriously?” Another sigh and she reluctantly answers the phone. “Luna speaking.”

“Hello, Luna, how's the field trip?” says Celestia.

Luna looks around and sees nobody dying.

“It is going fine. How is your research?” says Luna.

“Doing very well. Our team has found something interesting and we can only hope that the results will be fruitful,” says Celestia.

“Glad to hear. Are you mobilizing?”

“No. We're watching, but so far we see nothing of concern.”

“That can change very quickly, though.”

"Exactly. We need to gather as much data as possible before acting. How much time do you have left on your trip for Professor Soil?”

Luna checks the time on her phone. “The students have eighty five minutes, and then we'll be heading back. We should be back at Canterlot within four hours. Five hours max.”

“Good. I will give greater details when you return, but in the mean time, keep a special eye on those students. They are our future.”

Luna rolls her eyes. “Yes, Tia, I know. On another note...” Luna looks side to side quickly before quietly speaking into her phone. “Why are we collecting sap?”

After a long, unknown amount of time, Flash makes his way to Thorn, carrying four full jars of sap. Astro is sitting a good distance across from Thorn with his rifle clutched and aimed towards the ground, but his finger is just above the trigger. Meanwhile, Thorn is weaving what Flash can only guess is a bracelet made out of flowers and grass. Once the jars are dropped in front of Thorn, he stops his weaving and smiles at Flash.

“You got them? Good job, buddy,” he says.

“I did your dirty work. Now we're done. No more of this crap,” says Flash.

Thorn sighs and slips on the bracelet, muttering Flash's name in a mockery of disappointment, and Astro's eyes flick between the two.

“Flash Sentry, my friend, my fellow struggling brother, did you even wonder why I had you collect four jars when there is only three of us?”

“It crossed my mind, yeah, but I really don't want to know,” says Flash.

He takes his jar and starts walking in the opposite direction while waving farewell to Astro, who has now stood up, but is still keeping his finger disciplined and his rifle aimed down.

“Have fun with your teammate,” says Flash.

“Thanks,” grumbles Astro sourly.

“Hold it,” says Thorn.

Flash stops, groans and turns around. “What?”

“We're not done yet. There's one more thing left to do.”

“There's no more left to do. We're done.”

“Do you remember what I have?”

Flash's jaw and fists tighten, and Thorn grins kneels down, placing his palm on the ground, and Astro is once again shifting his eyes curiously between the two.

“Good. Follow me,” says Thorn.

He stands up and tosses Flash a jar, which he almost drops it, but after a couple of bounces Flash gets a good hold of it, and he glares at Thorn as he strolls through the forest.

“You're going to need to hold on to that! It's very important!” says Thorn.

Flash and Astro look at each other, and after a reluctant sigh Flash follows Thorn and Astro follows him seconds later with his eyes intently scanning his surroundings.

After a few minutes of walking Thorn has successfully led Flash and Astro to a vantage point with tall grass and a few trees that overlooks a piece of the forest. This piece just happens to be where the rest of Team FORT is collecting samples. Twilight appears to have just finished her samples because she is proudly inspecting a full jar of the red sap. Near her, Rainbow Dash is scratching her head and Octavia is rubbing her chin, both curiously watching water thin red sap gush out of a tree from the spout like a broken pipe, covering the jar and creating a puddle of bubbling, sticky fluids in front of them.

“I think this tree is broken,” says Octavia.

“Ya think?” says Rainbow Dash.

Back on the vantage point, Flash and Astro look at Thorn worryingly.

“Thorn, what's going on?” asks Flash.

“We're going to teach your self righteous friend a lesson,” says Thorn, his eyes focusing on Twilight. “She thinks she is so high and mighty, coming from silver spoons and fancy books and academies, and then having the guts to accuse me of narrowmindedness when she has never taken her nose out of a damn book! She wouldn't know reality even if it stabbed her in the heart.”

“Are you seriously still mad about that? That was over a month ago!”

“Who cares? That little elitist snot needs to be put in her place, and you're going to help me do it.” Thorn goes by the nearest tree and pulls out a box with a lot of angry buzzes coming from it, and when he shakes the box the buzzing gets more severe and the box shakes with the hundreds of tiny bumps inside it. Thorn is able to keep a steady grip on the box and his teeth shine like poisoned blades when he grins at Flash. “That essay you wrote for me said that terrorjackers love sweet things, and I'm thinking that this particular hive hasn't had anything sweet in a long time.”

Flash pales and Astro carefully approaches Thorn with his hand out.

“Thorn, put the box down. I don't think Drake will approve of this behavior,” says Astro. “It really is unacceptable.”

Thorn sighs, puts the box by his feet and holds his hands up while lowering his head.

“All fine. I'll abide. All I really wanted was a little fun, but you had to go and ruin it,” says Thorn.

“Your 'fun' is dishonorable,” says Astro.

Thorn clicks his tongue. “Right.”

Then in one swift motion he grabs Astro by his throat, hoists him off of the ground until his feet are dangling, and as Astro gags, kicks and tries to pry his neck free, Thorn slams him on the ground. There is a thud and a grunt, and Astro lays on his back, wheezing and trembling. Then Thorn stomps on his head and Astro becomes still and silent, and Flash swears and jumps back, dropping the jars.

“Holy shit!” says Flash.

“What?” says Thorn.

“That was your teammate, man!”

“So? He sucks as a teammate. He wouldn't help me with my schoolwork.” Thorn steps over Astro, smiling. “But you did, which is why when you hit Twilight with the sap you won't hear from me ever again. Sort of as a big thank you for all of your help.”

Flash shakes his head and steps back, his hand reaching behind his back for his weapon. “I'm not doing that.”

Thorn steps closer. “You will or else you'll be on the first ship out of the Academy.”

Flash grabs his weapon and narrows his eyes on Thorn. “I am not hurting my team!”

“Oh, you think you're some tough guy, now, huh? Is that it? You think you're so pious, so righteous now that a chick is in the crosshairs?” Thorn chuckles and shakes his head, still stepping closer to Flash. “That's great. That's really, really great, but you are nowhere close to being like them. You are not as self-righteous or courageous as you think you are. At least I got in here honestly, but you? You had to lie to get this far. There ain't nothing honest, nothing good about you. You can't fight, you can't lead, and you certainly can't stand up for yourself like the worthless piece of shit you are!”

Flash screams and swiftly draws his weapon and fires a blast at Thorn. The shot explodes against Thorn's chest, forcing him to stumble back, and when Flash realizes what he did, his eyes widen and his pupils shrink to dots. Then Thorn looks at him with a tight jaw, heavy breaths and white tight knuckles with smoke rising from the sparking aura surrounding him. Seeing this, Flash's whole body becomes cold and stiff, minus the trembling in his hands and knees.

The air becomes suffocating as the stare down ensues. Nervous sweat falls from Flash and his throat goes dry when Thorn tuts and shakes his head. He calmly cracks his neck and knuckles, and then he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When his eyes fly open they are bright green, and green, translucent vines with thorns protruding from them circle his arms. The vines then solidify into pulsing green tendrils and a ghostly brown haze travels down his hands, tracing his bones and harden into claws as he pulls out his shotgun from his scabbard and holds it with one hand.

“Big mistake, friend,” snarls Thorn.