Thank you so much to my new fans! Special thanks to KitTheKid for such wondrous praise, and also to BunnyBeat for helping my enthusiasm continue to rise! Also, to MexicoPays4Walls, thank you for using your voice within your username, and returning my courage to pull through such a long chapter!

Raine trudged into the fields outside where the class stood. With her hands on her hips, she called, "Okay, guys, I'm here to confiscate your megaphones that're making you so loud!" The guys immediately stopped their irritable bickering; they froze for a second, before they turned to Raine, a confused expression plastered on their faces.

Tai scratched his dark hair and said, "Erm.. what microphones?"

"No, I said megaphones," replied Raine, "Either way, you guys were so noisy that you might as well start a band, host a rock concert, and put that deafening argument into your lyrics!"

Devin snorted in laughter as he thought how hysterical it would be, if they had put their argument into a song. Tai just shook his head in disbelief as he realized how ridiculous they really were.

Just then, the bell had clanged again. Its rhythmic chimes rang through the air as Devin clapped his beastly paws together. He praised with relief, "Well, Raine, you're just on-time."

"On-time?" questioned Raine, "Isn't class over now?"

"No, that bell just signalled the end of our break, so come and join us. Tai and I have been picked as team captains by the coach. Sorry if we were loud, but we were just disputing for people in our teams for horseback racing."

"What's horseback racing?" asked Raine, stumped.

Tai threw his hands on his head in shock as he shouted, "You don't know what that is?!"

Looking at Raine's hurt expression, Devin sighed and decided to put his best plan to action for this situation, "Fine, I'll show you Raine, or else you'll be the last one picked, since you have no experience."

The next thing that Raine knew, she was laughing while she had her arms thrown around Devin. Tai was doing the same thing for a playful Candi— they were piggyback riding on the boys.

Devin was huffing and puffing as he ran around the grassy field, "Ya, so that's what you do with the... huff... horses. Except, huff... they have minds of their own and may not... huff... understand you."

Raine just laughed as she tried to remember when was the last time that she had a piggyback ride, but couldn't recall it. She still did enjoy it though, as she felt the delightful wind whoosh through her hair. She heard Candi's laughter ring through the air as Tai was instructing her, "Okay, Candi, put your arms around my neck and keep holding on. No, don't let go! Ouch, no, don't hold onto my ears! Ow, ow, ow!"

Suddenly, Raine heard a quiet thump. Devin had tripped over a rock, and the next thing Raine knew, they were both sprawling on the ground. Both of them rolled into a tall meadow as they were roaring with laughter at their mishap. They lay side by side, Raine in her pretty top and skirt as her pretty eyes sparkled, while Devin was still a large beast, but dressed handsomely both on the inside, and outside. They stared into each others' eyes before Raine turned her head shyly away as she a light blush appeared on her cheeks. As she slowly closed her eyes, she plucked some of the plants next to her, but to her surprise, it didn't feel like grass. She turned back to Devin as she opened her eyes and held up the bowed plant in the sun; it was her favorite flower, lavender.

Seeing her eyes getting mystified by this plant, Devin asked, "Is this your favorite flower?"

"Ya," whispered Raine, her eyes still on the plant as she lowered it, "I haven't seen one since my original school trimmed their lawn."

"Speaking of school…" yelped Devin as he jumped up to his feet. He saw the teacher of this class coming up the hills as she led a pair of horses behind her. The horses threw their front legs up and neighed, causing Candi and Tai to stop in their tracks. The lady leading the horses leg go of the horses' reins and petted their manes before she blew her whistle, signalling for all activity to cease.

Class was to begin now, but not everyone was present. The coach cleared her throat before she said, "Today, we shall be having an extraordinary session, thanks to the previous students of yesterday's class! Today's session will be what I call a treat. Afterward, it shall be back to the usual, racing course!"

A few of the students groaned, for they preferred the racing course, while others cheered and gasped at the graceful horses. The teacher took the reins of the white horse in silver decor, and began to demonstrate how to get on top of the horses, and then how to direct them.

What they did not know was that they were all being watched...

Sierra was at the crystal-paned window, staring out of the dark room as she watched the bright sunlight dawn itself upon the laughing students. She could hear the thumping of the footsteps above her; they belonged to 'Nightmare' and Talia, who were spectating on the balcony. Sierra's eyes narrowed as she backed away from the window and sat down on an oak chair with a desk in front of her. In the private study room, Sierra began to review what had happened as she gritted her teeth at the noise all around her. 'Nightmare' and Talia were dueling each others with melee weapons. Sierra had seen them both duel before, and they were pretty good. Melee weapons often fell to rapid firing though. Outside, Sierra could hear the shouting.

Marie shouted aghast, "Horses?! Could this day get any worse?"

Fern replied, "I thought it was going swell for you, Marie."

Marie responded irritably as she rubbed her bruise from where Blaze, the pegasus, had kicked her, "Ya, swell, as in a bad way." She was surely not fine with the large, purple bruise on her chin, but she chose not to go to the nurse's office, considering that the nurse was Joy, and it was partly Joy's fault that she got hurt anyway. Sierra glared at the group and picked out a few who she held suspicions on. These kids were definitely abnormal, but then again, what was normal? With a flick of her long, dragging gown, Sierra strode away to search for Sunset as she watched the plump, little coach hover in the air gracefully while her blonde hair rippled behind her.

The coach snapped at Marie's group to shush, before she finished demonstrating as the class squealed with terror, at the sight of the horse rearing to a stop, "Continuing with your physical education, today's class shall be teaching you about the art of solitary grace! You shall be split into teams and have a race on horseback. Your mission is to ride into the forest alone. No other contacts can be made with anything or anyone else once the race begins. As soon as you make it to the other side of the forest, and get off of the saddle, the horses shall find their way back by themselves for the next player. I ensure you that these magnificent creatures are highly well-trained. Now that I've made sure that all of you can handle the horses decently on your own, the first riders can take off to the forest at the sound of my whistle. Once they take off, all of you shall be bound to a spell that prevents you from being enticed to make contact with others. You will know that you have reached your destination once the horses have stopped. These steeds know the way, but it is your job to hustle them or slow them down. Got it?"

"Got it!" the class chanted back simultaneously.

The coach continued with her long lecture, "I will now hold you to an oath lasting the same time as the tournament does. You are not to make any other contact throughout this entire race. Remember, it is also about solitary grace." The class nodded, but they were unconvinced of the reason of why there should be no contact, as the teacher made a flourishing gesture with her hand.

Eve whispered, "Can she really do that?"

"Do what?" whispered Cyndi.

"Bind us to an oath," responded Eve.

The teacher overheard these two and snapped, "I'm a forest nymph, so of course I can. I'm not as scary as your Potions master back there, now am I? He is a vampire."

The teens released muffled screams of horror as they clapped a hand to their mouths. Suddenly, Potions seemed ten times more dangerous than they had thought. They had no idea of how much more dangerous it could've been back there.

The coach sighed at her class; she was disappointed with how oblivious they were, while she apparently, she did not seem to realize that they did not belong to this game permanently.

"Now," she continued as she turned to the two boys whom she chose for team captains, "I expect that you two have your teams chosen now?"

The guys didn't utter a word, but they bowed their heads to stare at the grass below them, while they guiltily shuffled their feet and scratched their heads.

The teacher scowled disapprovingly, before she exhaled, "Fine, I'm going to flip a coin then." As soon as she finished saying that, she held out her plump hand and out of nowhere, a silver coin was materialized, before it dropped into her hand. The teens held shocked expressions at this act of magic, while their coach, unaware of this, turned to the two brothers and said, "Ready? Call it!" She tossed the coin high into the air, and as the coin turned round and round in the still air, it glinted as Tai squinted to watch the coin.

Tai was actually calculating which side the coin would land on. He guessed the approximate weight of the coin, its maximum height in the air, the rate it was turning, adding the normal gravitational pull. Almost instantly, he barked, "Heads!"

"Tails, then," shrugged Devin uninterestedly.

When the coin was snatched out of the air with a swift swipe by their surprisingly agile teacher, she announced, "Heads it is!"

Tai whooped in triumph, "In your face, Dev!"

Devin just shrugged his oversized, fur-covered shoulders nonchalantly, before saying, "It's just a coin flip."

"Oh?" cackled Tai with an errant smile, as something urged him in his mind to mess around with his little brother again. "That coin flip," he cackled, "Determined that I can pick anyone first on my team, and you know what this means? Raine, come here."

Raine was rubbing her sore elbow, before she looked up, shocked to see thatTai was beckoning her to come to his team. Sorrowfully, she looked at Devin's stunned expression as she gave him a small smile, before she reluctantly went behind Tai, unable to argue, as she created the first bit of his line for his team.

Devin gritted his beast's fangs as he searched for vengeance, but Candi was nowhere to be found for him to play the same trick on Tai. Tai had done his mischief again and there was little to do about it. Devin's eyes searched around for who may be a decent player. Within a few seconds, he thought of someone who he knew that had a job, worked hard, and was also available; he called, "Fern."

Fern's face lit up with delight; she was finally not the last-picked, as she usually was in sports.

Next, Tai's eyes flicked over the leftover bunch and decided on Cyndi, since her dark clothing could help camouflage within the shadows, so that other players could not keep track of her.

Suddenly, a shrill squeal aroused them, "Hey, Marie! What's going on?"

Tai shouted, "No, Candi! Stay back!"

"Why?" questioned Candi as she was licking pink frosting off of her hands. She edged closer, close enough for Devin to pick her. Devin shouted, "Candi!" as he sneered at Tai's scowl.

"Tell me, what's going on?!" protested Candi as she edged to Devin's group absentmindedly, "Why did I have to stay back?"

"For the better," sighed Tai, as he had gotten a bitter taste of his own trick. Tai then picked Eve, another camouflaging player. He rubbed his own head in disappointment as he reminded himself that his girl was just going to be away temporarily. When he was finished with his own reaction, he and Devin found themselves swinging their heads back and forth at the last two girls; it was clear that the teams would be unequal in their numbers.

Eve, who was quick to notice as usual, questioned, "Where's Talia?"

Marie replied, "She must be in the nurse's office after she got traumatized by the spider. That's where we also sent Melody after she's been sayin' nothin' to us, but just lying down and staring at us with the accusin' eyes. Don' worry though, Joy will take care of them."

The coach heard what the girls were saying, but knew that half of what Marie had stated was not true. She answered boredly, "Talia's excused."

"Lucky," mumbled Marie as she was unenthusiastic about horses. That gave Devin the signal that Marie's unenthusiasm could affect his team.

"Ani," Devin called. From the pair of two, brightly colored girls, Ani squawked and burst away from the remaining group. That gave Marie to Tai's team.

The coach took out her whistle and called, "Alright, kids! Who's going first?" To her displeasure, all of her students inched back a bit, scared to go first. She sighed, and just decided to pick by herself, "Tai. Devin. Up front! You two are team leaders, so show them how it's done."

Tai and Devin looked at each others hesitantly. This was about to become another instance of sibling rivalry.

Tai then smirked, "Ready to eat my dust, Devin?"

"Sorry," laughed Devin, "But you'd be going so slow, that there'd be no dust for me to eat!"

The brothers guffawed with laughter, before Tai took the black horse with gold decor, and Devin took the white horse with the silver decor.

The coach called, "On your marks, get set... tweet!"

At the sound of the whistle, the brothers took off, head to head. Things got unpleasant though, when Tai began messing around and pretending to bump his horse into Devin's. They disappeared into the clearing before Blaze came down and landed besides the waiting class. Blaze laughed, "Hah! Horses… They need instructions to be given to carry on!"

Raine turned to him, "But doesn't a steed's loyalty never waver to its master?"

"Sure," coughed Blaze, "But I tend to defend strangers all the time in reality."

"Hmm, interesting," responded Raine, before she heard Blaze's stomach growl. She quipped, "Hey, and I'll tend to you later, 'kay? What do you eat anyway, Blaze? Since you're a dog in reality, I'd say that you shouldn't consume fruits nor sugars, or else you can get a possible ear infection. Hmm, how about a nice, juicy bone, later?"

Blaze's eyes sparkled as he hopped around and rolled over making the grass seem like it was on fire with his flame-like wings. He panted, "Finally, someone got that right on their first try!"

Up above, Talia was done wrestling 'Nightmare,' and he had won, but not by much. Scratches bore on her face as she rolled her eyes at Blaze, who was acting like a puppy again, "Oh, puh-leeze, he's acting like a puppy again. Sigh, sometimes, I wish that I was a kid again, but of courseI doubt that anyone would treat me right anyway."

'Nightmare' grimaced a bit at that comment and questioned, "What about me?"

"Okay, besides you, Prince Charming," laughed Talia as they watched the intimidated class stare at the returning horses. Both of the horses had returned at the same pace and were head on head, meaning that Tai and Devin must've tied… and probably had a fight over it.

Eve and Ani then got onto the horses. Ani got off to a quicker start, but tumbled off the horse, while Eve clung nervously to her horse's mane, rather than the reins. To their dismay, the coach had raged at those mistakes. Quicker than the two brothers, the two girls got onto the horses the right way, and dashed off before their teacher could catch them!

Candi and Raine sniggered with laughter at that, as they could see a terrified Ani lose feathers off her feathered dress.

Candi began licking frosting off of her hands again, so Raine questioned, "Hey, where'd you find that frosting?"

Candi smiled a sweet smile as she rubbed some frosting accidentally into her hair, "Oh, I found it in Candy Land!"

Blaze snorted, "She just means the cafeteria."

Raine laughed, "Oh, so are you queen of Candy Land, Candi? After all, it's named after you."

"Ooo, did Tai name it after me?! Oh, he's so sweet. Why can't I ever find anything nice to do for him?!"

Raine put her head down on a fist and thought for a moment, as she sat down with her legs criss-crossed, "Why don't you bake him a pie or something?"

Candi laughed, "Been there, done that… crashed and burned literally."

"Well," said Raine, "Maybe being there for him is enough, since you're such a sweet person."

"Aww, thanks," smiled Candi as she sadly took out a melted chocolate bar, "But still…"

Candi and Raine were beginning to get along quite well when the horses neighed and came back, their hooves thumping powerfully on the grass.

Marie shuddered at the sight of the horses, as Candi whimpered and just stared up at her black steed. Candi had clearly missed the demonstration back there, while she was smearing her face with sugary sweets' stains.

Raine attempted to help her, but at the sight of that, the coach stopped her immediately and criticized her. Raine fumed a bit and went back to her spot, but she began shouting directions for Candi. Marie was already far ahead, by the time that Candi figured it out. Fern actually began to appreciate the fact that her competitor was actually helping out her own teammate.

After a moment of boredom dragged by, the horses came back in a slightly, wretched state, as they were probably traumatized by how horribly the last girls had handled them. Fern jumped onto her black steed immediately as Raine just swung her leg up onto the saddle. With perfect pulls at the reins, both girls sped off as Cyndi, the last one left, lied back.

Within a minute, Raine found herself into a thriving, emerald-green forest. Stones speckled the ground, and she did her best to steer away from them till she found a grassy pathway. The trees were enormous here, as vines tied plants together.

Suddenly, Raine heard a snap, and saw a large branch fall behind her. Her opponent's horse reared and she saw that Fern had made it out. Fern glared at Raine, and both girls began speeding up their horses. They were no longer in a gallop, but speeding through greenery, sending leaves flying and mud splattering everywhere. Raine looked to see where Fern was, but suddenly both of them made eye contact. Contact. The moment that they did, the forest suddenly became darker, and wind suddenly began screaming. Raine thought that she heard a voice yell, as if it was carried by the wind, "Contact! What did I say?!"

Suddenly, a fire started out of nowhere in front of Fern! Fern's black steed threw her off, and dashed backwards.

Fern jumped back from the flames, that began to eat at the logs around her. Fern yelled to Raine, "Go!"

Raine turned her horse back sharply, "Have you gone insane? No, I'm not leaving without you!"

Raine tried to turn her horse around, but apparently her horse was too terrified and refused. Fern was running behind as trees came crashing down behind her. The rumbling and brushing of leaves became dreadful as the fire began to light up the green with bright bursts of orange color. Raine turned her head around and saw Fern, desperately trailing behind her and jumping over a log. Raine shouted desperately, "C'mon!" as she stretched her hand out to Fern.

Fern shook her head, "No, I'm not on your team! Why would you help me?"

"I don't care, just get on!" shrieked Raine at Fern's stupidity. With one lurch, she grabbed Fern's sleeve and hauled her up onto the horse. Raine huffed hotheadedly, "I'm never at my best, unless I'm helping someone." With that, she urged her horse to go faster, but all of a sudden, she saw what looked like visible wind!

"What did I say?! No contact!" shouted the ghastly looking swirl, before it unexpectedly managed to knock Raine off of the horse. Raine felt the impact hit her, and lost her breath, before she tumbled off of the horse, and let go of the reins.

Fern yelled with her eyes wide open, "Raine!"

"Go!" cried Raine, and with one slap at the horse, she had the steed keep going.

Fern refused to go, but she couldn't get her foot out of the tangled stirrup. She shrieked as she threw her mint-green hair back wildly, "Raine!"

Raine dragged herself up from the dirt as it speckled on her hair. Her hip hurt from where she felt the impact from as she was stunned by what she saw. She heard the roar of the fire consume more vegetation behind her as she looked around for some place that wasn't heated by a red glow. She felt the heat of the fire beat behind her as she began limping, then stumbling to a crawl. She was lost.

Meanwhile, Fern was practically screaming at the top of her lungs for Raine, before she got hit by a tree branch on her head. She cried out in pain, before she rubbed her neck and saw a black figure rush through some brambles. Fern cried, "No!" as she was sure what looked like the ghastly spirit of the wind or something had come back. She steered her horse to the right a bit more, before she saw…

"Cyndi!" Fern shouted in exult.

Cyndi looked up, and shivered at the realization that Fern had shouted her name. Cyndi had been sprinting by foot as soon as she saw the coach back there vanish. "What?" Cyndi's voice choked out as she felt the overwhelming guilt come back to her at the sight of a flame. She still remembered that she was the one to blame, when she had burnt Fern's property to the ground.

"Get on!" yelled Fern, as she steered her horse closer to Cyndi.

Cyndi looked down as she continued running, "No, I don't deserve it."

"Deserve what?" sniffed Fern pretentiously, "You didn't burn down any lives. Only property was destroyed. It's okay, I can buy another one."

Cyndi looked up from a few tears, as she practically shrieked in her mind, "No way that Fern is forgiving me!"

"Take my hand!" shouted Fern, "You can't play, 'Hero,' or ever fix this, if you don't make it out alive."

Cyndi stared at Fern for a second, before she quickened her pace, and allowed Fern to pull her up onto the horse, just as the flames singed the grass behind her. She held on tightly to Fern as she was alarmed by the speed that they were going on. Shortly, they heard voices.

Fern got her foot out of the untangled stirrup, before she lowered herself and snapped Cyndi out of her terror.

Devin ran up to them as Tai was frozen in place at the spectacle of the landscape turning into a hill of ash. Candi squeaked with fear as she had made it through alright, and clutched to Tai's shirt with fear. Tai threw one arm around Candi and ensured her safety, while Devin shouted in alarm, "Where's Raine?!"

Fern didn't realize that it would be this hard, but she still managed to choke the words out. "She- she's gone! She left this horse to me when I fell off! Devin, Raine's still in there!" Fern sobbed as she could smell the smoke now that turned the blue, cloudy sky to what felt like an ominous storm. It was hard for Fern to look up at Devin's speechless reaction, not because he had the face of an ugly beast, but because Fern felt that she had failed now. Whether her team won or not now, she did not care.

The group that had made it out so far, was desperately coming up with a plan that would not put anyone else in jeopardy. As they were doing so, Raine was dragging herself to a small, grassy patch that was centered in the midst of a large field of dirt. The trees around her were ablaze or about to be burnt to the ground as Raine gasped for air. Her sight was hazed by flying particles of ash, while cinders dropped from her hair. At the thought of the word, 'cinders,' Raine gasped and hoped that Cyndi had made it out alive. She dug for air in the fresh patch of grass, as she knew that the ash particles were currently flying upward, and that plants could give her a small bit of fresh air. Her hair was caked and matted with clutters of sticks as she had rambled through the forest at full speed. She had lost a polished shoe, and her arm had been cut by some thorns back there. Suddenly, she saw a firebolt streak at her from the hazy sky. Raine could feel the heat envelope her while she had no contact with anyone. Fern's horse had galloped away through the burning forest. They had been out of sight for a while. Raine raised her arm into the air and attempted to cry out loud for help, but her voice failed her as she coughed and choked on ash particles. Her arm fell out of the air and she was left there in a burning forest, motionless. With one more breath, Raine trembled, tossed her head around on the ground, and fainted.