Mystery Of Everfree

by FourShadow

First published 11th of April, 2020

Some strange things are happening at Camp Everfree...

Months have passed since the Friendship Games. Twilight Sparkle has been invited to join her new friends, the Rainbooms, for an end of the school year trip to Camp Everfree for some early summer fun. But as they settle in for some fun, strange things start to happen... and it only gets stranger from there on...

Continuation of the Shattered verse. Reading Tournament of Friendship is not required

Chapter 1: To Everfree

The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, it was the makings of a perfect summer day. And thanks to the sun, crops at a local farm were flourishing more than ever. And just beyond that farm, way out in an open field was a group of teenagers, standing close with some high tech gadgets and equipment.

Twilight Sparkle, with her messy hair and excited smile, stood with her newfound friends; the Sonic Rainbooms. Together they were standing by a machine, about to turn it on.

"Just a few more seconds girls... Okay.... now!"

Applejack slammed her fist on the button, and the machine began to activate. Purple streams sparked, spinning in a circular motion before them. A small portal, big enough for people to just walk through like a door manifested out of thin air. And on the other side, they could see deep into what looked like a desolate desert, almost harsh and lifeless. But they did see a town somehow, a village with dusty houses, and ponies walking about. Ponies who were not like the others, but had very muted and dull colors, all looking exactly the same.

"It works... It really works!" Twilight yelled into the air with excitement.

"Yeahhh... it works. But I dunno, that town doesn't look that exciting," Rainbow said, holding the scanner.

"Well it doesn't have to be; but we now have a way to look into Equestria, and without harming anyone or putting anyone in danger!"

"Still can't believe Adagio gave you the okay," Fluttershy stated.

"Hey, after all of those months of keeping a close eye on them, I say she's earned it," Applejack shrugged.

"Okay, close it!"

Applejack pressed the designated buttons in the right order, and soon the machine shut down and the portal sealed itself off before anypony on the other side could see it.

"Wormhole generator test 37, I'd say is a complete success!" Twilight declared.

"Well now that we've finally tested yer science doohickey, how about we go get ourselves some grub?"

"Yeah! Come on, let's go get some ice cream!" Pinkie Pie squeaked.

Twilight giggled. “Okay. Let me just lock my equipment first. Oh, Rainbow, can you bring the scanners back? I need to put them... Rainbow?”

Rainbow wasn’t there anymore. In fact, the only thing she saw were small bits of dust vanishing into the winds. She walked around for a little bit, but she still wasn’t seen. “Rainbow?”

She looked back at the direction her friends were sitting at and noticed the same thing. They were all gone as well, vanished from sight, with only bits of dust blowing into the wind. "Girls? … Girls!?” She ran through the field, looking for them. “Applejack! Rarity! Pinkie Pie?” She spun around, sweat running down her head, her palms clammy and shaky. “Fluttershy?! Rainbow Dash!?”

“So. It’s you and me now.”

Twilight gulped. Slowly turning around, she saw only one force standing across from her. Covered in metal, metal poles sticking out of her back with electricity sparks sizzling through, making them come across as wings, hovering in the air. Menacingly, she glared at Twilight like a disappointed parent, mixed with a deranged serial killer.

“Midnight Sparkle… how is this even possible!? My friends stopped you at the Friendship Games!”

“One defeat doesn’t equal complete vanquish. And I can never be stopped, Twilight…” Midnight said. “And we will finish what we started. After all… you cannot run from who you truly are…”

She pointed in front of her, tons of hot fiery light reflected behind her. Twilight gasped at the horror.

The world around her looked like the fiery depths of Tartarus. Fires were erupting everywhere, consuming all of the land around her. To her left, she could see her own house covered in the flames, burning to cinders. The sight just made her skin crawl and her hands clammy.

“No… No…”

And when she spun around, she was suddenly teleported to the front of Canterlot High which was also burning to ashes, melting down with the rest of the flames. No sign of anyone around who had survived, if there even was any survivors. They were all gone. And even the Wondercolt Statue was crumbling, with the horse statue completely gone.

“I will finish what I started. And you cannot escape your destiny!”

“No. This is not me, I would never—”

“You will not escape!” Midnight roared behind her. She looked down at her, slashing the air with streams of light, opening up portals. “I will be back, Twilight!”

And Twilight turned away, not wanting to look at her. But then she looked at the reflection of the statue; she could see herself. But it wasn’t her. She was just like Midnight, all in armor, with electricity sparking out of her back. Her heart was racing, her vision was becoming blurry, everything was echoing in her ears.

“And this time I will not leave until I have all of the magic!”

“No, stop!!!”

***

“MIDNIGHT!” Twilight shouted, eyes open with a gasp. She breathed heavily, holding onto her heart, feeling as if it was about to jump out of her chest. In the midst of her breathing, she saw her alarm clock still beeping for her to wake up.

“Twilight, it’s time to get up!” Twilight Velvet called out. “You don’t want to be late for the Camp Everfree trip!”

Twilight fell out of the bed, slamming to the floor with a thud. “Ow.”

And racing over to her side with an excited face was her fluffy new companion; Spike. By now, it was almost routine at this point; first thing in the morning, greet Twilight with a happy face, eager to spend the day with her.

“Morning Spike,” she smiled, patting his head as she struggled to get up. “Oof, ow. Really need to set a louder alarm.” She raced over to her closet, and shirts began to fly out like grenades. Some hit the bed, a few landed on a small chest, and one of them went right on top of Spike. “Oh, sorry Spike!”

She went downstairs to the family kitchen/dining room where breakfast was being served.

“Morning Twiley,” Shining Armor greeted.

“Morning Shiny,” Twilight smiled.

“Breakfast is ready, just have a seat. I made you your favorite,” Twilight Velvet smiled.

“Pancakes?”

“Mmmhmm!”

“Yay,” Twilight quietly squeaked.

“Better eat up quickly Twilight, you don’t want to be late for the bus,” Night Light advised.

Twilight whined. “Do I have to go on this trip?”

“Twilight, this will be good for you. Besides, those girls are your friends, you should hang out with them some more.”

“But I don’t even attend Canterlot High,” Twilight pleaded.

“Yes, but they wanted to invite you along. Come on Twilight, you can’t pass up an opportunity to have some fun with your friends.”

“B-B-But—”

“—No buts, Twilight,” Night Light said firmly. “We’re not doing this to be mean. We’re doing this because we love you. You do like hanging out with those girls don’t you?

“… Yes,” Twilight said defeated. Admittedly it sounded fun to be with them for two weeks, but that was the other problem; two whole weeks. At a camp. With tons of other students who barely knew her. And who only knew her for the biggest action she committed in October so long ago…

“Now come on, eat up, you don’t want to miss the bus,” Twilight Velvet said, patting her on the shoulder and giving her daughter a quick peck.

After breakfast, Twilight dashed back upstairs to get herself ready. She took a shower, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, she was all clean and ready. And back into her room, she put on a comfortable summer t-shirt blazed with the Camp Everfree logo, something that her friends had given her before they got the full notes on when they would leave for the trip.

Clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, all of her things were packed into her suitcase. After finally gathering her things, she pulled up her suitcase and walked towards the door. But before she even thought about going out, her parents came to the door to give her a quick hug and kiss goodbye. Her hug with Shining Armor was even bigger though.

“Just have fun, okay?” Shining spoke softly.

“I’ll try to.”

“Just know if you ever need to text or call us, we’re always listening,” Twilight Velvet said.

“I will,” Twilight smiled.

“See you, Twiley!”

“Bye guys! Tell Cadence I said hi,” Twilight waved before walking outside with her suitcase. But wait, she almost forgot. “Spike, come here boy!” Twilight whistled.

Spike came running out the door to his owner and leapt up into the air, just in time for Twilight to catch him. She carefully held him close, making sure he didn’t want to be away from her. The bus rolled up on her street, and she found the hatch to slide her suitcase inside. When her bags were inside, she held Spike close as she got onto the bus.

“Good morning, Miss Sparkle,” Principal Luna smiled.

“Morning, Principal Luna,” she said.

“Hey, Twilight, over here!” Rainbow hollered.

She smiled some more as she saw the rest of her friends gathered near the back; Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack. She parked herself in a seat next to Rarity

“Hey Twilight. Happy to see ya. Glad ‘ja could make it,” Applejack smiled. “And good to see you too, Spike,” she said, petting his head.

“We are going to have so much fun! Roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories, even sleep on marshmallow pillows!” Pinkie Pie squeaked.

“I don’t think that’s a real thing, Pinkie.”

“Not if you don’t make it!” Pinkie Pie giggled, raising a bag of marshmallows.

Twilight, upon sitting, looked around on the bus. It wasn’t particularly full, not that she was complaining. Only a handful of students were here, and luckily they were ones she recognized. Flash Sentry and Rara, sitting a seat in front of Rarity. Micro Chips and Sandalwood sitting on the other side of him. And last but not least; Derpy ‘Muffin’ Hooves, and Thunderbass.

“Not a full class, is it?”

“Not really. The end of year trip was optional for most of us, so we just decided to sign on because we wanted to.”

“And since you’re our friend, that’s when we thought we should invite you too!” Rainbow grinned.

Twilight blushed. “Don’t you think it would have been better for someone else to go instead of me?”

“Come on Twilight, Camp Everfree is awesome! It’s the most peaceful campsite in all of Canterlot. Nice place to go to just get away from the city, relax, forget about yer troubles,” Applejack said, sighing in relief.

"But where are the Dazzlings? Or Trixie, or any of the other girls?" Twilight asked, looking around.

"They'll be joining us next week. They wanted to just do this trip for a single week," Pinkie explained. "But it means we get the camp grounds all to ourselves!"

"Yep! Two full weeks of non-stop fun," Rainbow grinned.

"Yeah... should be," Flash quietly muttered from the seat in front of them.

The apple farmer frowned. She didn't need to be told something wasn't wrong, she could sense it. “You alright Flash? You haven’t said a word since we left,” Applejack observed.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… I wish Aria was here to join us,” the guitar player admitted.

“Oh don’t you worry darling, she’ll be joining us next week! You’ll be with your princess soon enough,” Rarity giggled.

“I wouldn’t exactly refer to her as a princess type,” Applejack said. “I swear Aria’s the least likely person to ever become a princess.”

“No argument here. But you know what? That’s totally fine by me,” Flash said with a smile.

"Didn't you give her a cellphone so you could call her?"

"Yeah, but she's still trying to learn how to use it," Flash shrugged. "And most of the time when I do, I usually get this."

He dialed in her number, and waited for the line to pick up. He could hear it still ringing, waiting to be answered. And Applejack and Rainbow were hanging on the seat, listening. Only answer they got was a country sounding song to play with some woman singing. And it sure wasn't Aria.

Slugslinger! In and out of battle
Slugslinger! The legend will be known
Slugslinger!
Fearless to the end--

And Flash pressed the hangup button. "I set that as her ringtone, but she's still trying to figure it out."

"I don't get it. How is it that those girls have been on this planet for over a thousand years, and yet somehow they're still not up to date with our current technology?" Rainbow asked.

"Maybe cause they're so used to doing somethin' one way that the thought of doing it another scares 'em?"

"Well, bu--a cellphone is not that hard to use!"

"Try telling that to them. I watched poor Sonata struggle with it for hours. ... It was less than amusing," Rarity shook her head.

"They're old," Pinkie Pie giggled.

Sometime later, the trip was still going on. They made quite the distance, and they were moving at a steady pace. No one on the road at this time, aside from a few truckers which was pretty normal. The students weren't bored, thankfully. They did have means of keeping themselves occupied during this long and arduous trip. Some brought books, some brought their own snacks to keep hunger away, and of course, they did have each other to talk to. That is until the bus pulled itself into a gas station/convience store.

"Okay, we're taking a rest stop everyone. If you need to use the restroom, get some snacks, stretch, please do it now," Principal Luna instructed.

Everyone got off (naturally) with most of them stretching their legs or their muscles which had locked up. A few of them ran to the bathrooms. And Spike dashed off into the grassy area to find a tree for himself.

Nearby the bus, Rarity and Applejack stretched their arms and legs.

"You two don't have to go?"

"In a gas station bathroom!?" Rarity freaked. "It's so icky and gross in there..."

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "Rarity, it can't be that bad..." She walked away, leaving the two girls to just keep stretching. And Spike came running back, finished with his business, and Twilight was back to the bus with a bag of snacks.

"I hope no one minds, but I bought some snacks for the road?"

"I don't mind at all," Applejack smiled.

"That's very generous of you darling, you shouldn't have," Rarity cooed.

"What'd you get?" Rainbow asked, about to step on the bus.

"Well, I know it's not much, but I got some Cream Cakes, some Koko Kringle bars, also got some tortilla chips, some water, some beef jerky--Spike will beg for some, just letting you know," Twilight warned, earning a whine from Spike. She playfully rolled her eyes. "Spike, come on."

"Oh, but how can you say no to that face?" Rarity melted, picking up the puppy and holding him in her arms. "Especially one so adorable..."

And Fluttershy came back to the bus, with a face that just said it all. Eyes twitching, cringing, and they could swear she looked like she wanted to throw up.

"Um. Fluttershy? Are you okay?"

"I'm... I'm just going to wait until we get to the camp, I think... I'm probably going to be sick."

"You sure you don't want any snacks or any--"

She cupped her mouth, with an almost green turning face. "Please. No."

Twilight frowned, softly patting Fluttershy's shoulders. "If you want, I do have some medicines with me. I can open up my backpack and pull one out."

Fluttershy managed to keep herself together, fighting off her urge to throw off and stay healthy. She stood back up and gave a soft smile. "I'm okay. I should be okay."

After refueling, some quick snacks, and whatever other business, the bus was back on the road again. The trip continued smoothly like before, now finally getting close to their destination. They were far out into the countryside, away from the busy city. Plenty of trees, mountains off in the distance, some farmlands, rivers, and much much more. Off in the distance, they could see an old locomotive driving on its track, puffing away to it's next destination.

Now they were really getting close. Beautiful sunny skies, trees that reached for the air, and plenty of open spaces. The bus drove under the entrance sign and rolled nice and easy into the open parking area which was devoid of any cars at the moment, most likely at a difference space. But regardless, once they had arrived, the bus parked itself and students were now allowed to get off.

"We're finally here! Welcome to Camp Everfree everybody!!!!"

Chapter 2: Tent Assignments

At the parking spot, students were unloading their bags from the carrier hold and looking around at the scenery around them. There was a massive crystal clear lake up ahead with a wooden dock, hooked to some sailboats and canoes.

"Oh my gosh, Camp Everfree is beautiful," Fluttershy said in awe.

"Huh. Didn't peg you for a nature type, Fluttershy," Rainbow observed.

"I like animals, don't I? Besides, nature is so peaceful," she answered, looking up to see birds flying through the air. "I cannot wait until we have our first nature walk."

Spike adorably barked, and his tail wagged with excitement.

"Aww, does someone like going on walks?"

"He does, but knowing him, he'll want to go chase after squirrels," Twilight playfully rolled her eyes, and squatting down to scratch behind Spike's ears.

"Well I've been lookin' forward to this all summer. Build my own shelter, forage for food..." Applejack clapped her hands together.

"You know they have a working kitchen, right?"

"I know. Just sharin' my excitement, that's all," Applejack explained.

"I for one am very much looking for some well deserved R&R. Just anything to get away from Equestrian magic for a change, it's all exhausting," Rarity expressed with a dramatic hand to her forehead.

"Even though so far we've only had like two crazy events with Equestrian Magic so far?" Rainbow pointed out.

"Well, I. Well... you know what I mean! It's just nice to do something normal for a change," Rarity said, rubbing her shoulders.

"I'll say! We befriended a 20-something year old girl who turned out to be a psycho unicorn lusting for power, got blackmailed and transformed into a five-headed Hydra monster to obey her will, fought a three-headed monster made from three immortal but super hot sirens, got hated by almost the entirety of our school, and simultaneously saved everyone from a demon friend!" Pinkie summed up, counting every event with a finger extended. But she quickly noted how guilty Twilight was expressing, as if the frown and hunched shoulders wasn't enough. "Heh, heheh, no offense."

"It's okay," Twilight brushed off, rubbing her shoulder. "That's quite a list."

"No argument here," Applejack hollered. "Though I gotta say Rarity, I would have thought your hair would have grown back by now. Its been a few months already."

"Oh it has, but honestly, I think I'm rather okay with keeping my mohawk the way it is," Rarity said, running her fingers through the tops of her spikes. "Its punk, but lively and friendly."

Just then, the loudspeaker connected to one of the cabins turned on, almost piercing everyone's ears.

"Hey everyone! If you could start heading to the courtyard, that would be rad! It's time to start the best weeks of Camp Ever!"

Fluttershy looked at her friends with a deranged look. "Who says 'rad' anymore...?"

Everyone shrugged, but they walked to the main courtyard as the announcer asked. In the courtyard, the two principals took a seat on some of the benches while everyone else just stood around. They didn't feel like sitting after spending all those hours on the drive there. And in the gazebo, there were two teenagers walking inside. One was a boy with adobe-sand colored skin and dark green hair, wearing a pair of shorts, and an official red Camp Everfree shirt, with a beanie on top.

The girl coming next had light pink skin with some freckles on her face, a headdress made of flowers, a yellow flowy t-shirt and a pair of blue shorts and sandals. She got onto the gazebo and held a microphone so everyone could hear her. And looking out in the crowd, she could see it was a small class for this week. No problem, she could still accommodate. Though when the group for next week arrives, it was gonna be even bigger, for sure. In the crowd, she could see everyone was wearing a Camp Everfree t-shirt, with their own choice of colors. And she could see some of the students had their own personal additions to their clothes, as shown by a few girls who had some punk additions to their Everfree clothes.

"Welcome to Camp Everfree everyone! My name is Gloriosa Daisy, your camp director! Think of me as your friendly camp and nature guide! This is my brother Timber Spruce."

The boy next to her accepted the microphone and spoke.

"You can think of me as that awesome guy, who should always be invited to fun things," he said, doing a little trick with the microphone. Gloriosa just playfully rolled her eyes.

“We aim to please, so before we hand out our tent assignments, we’d like to hear from all of you! You’re free to do whatever you like here!”

“That is except for steal, do drugs, hike alone without a guide, and go near the rock quarry. Been a few accidents there I’m afraid,” Timber Spruce interjected, correcting her.

“Oh, well, of course! But aside from that, your options are wide open! So what activities will make this the best two weeks of your life, ever?”

“Rock climbing!” Rainbow threw out.

“You betcha!”

“Archery!”

“Of course!”

“Tetherball!”

“Naturally!”

And before Rainbow could say another word, Applejack yanked her off to the side to stop her. “How about you let someone else say somethin’, Rainbow?” Applejack glared.

“Arts and crafts!” Derpy said, raising her hand up. “… My mom needs new potholders.”

“I'll supply the looms!”

“Cookie decorating!” Pinkie squeaked.

“I do love a good sugar cookie.”

“Karaoke night?” Thunderbass suggested. Everyone looked at him confused. “What? I love singin’.”

“We can definitely do that!”

"Can we go on nature walks?" Fluttershy asked with an excited grin.

"With walking sticks for everyone," Gloriosa agreed.

Rarity threw her hand up, ready to pitch an idea.

"--Rarity, I swear if you pitch a fashion show--"

"--What about the tree-climbing obstacle course you have set up over there," Rarity asked, pointing to the marked area for the obstacle course.

Rainbow's finger drooped. "I stand corrected."

"We can definitely incorporate that into our plans! I'll be taking requests the rest of the time you're here, so if there's anything you like to do, anything you need, just ask! Especially our intern who's right over there," Gloriosa pointed to the girl standing far from them. A pale-skinned girl with auburn hair, a headdress with a small black horn sticking in the middle, pale-green shoes, a yummy yellow sleeveless vest, and a pale-green shirt and skirt.

"What about the camp gift? That was my favorite Camp Everfree tradition," Principal Luna objected.

"The camp gift, of course!"

"Really?" Timber rolled his eyes.

"Yes, really."

"I just thought--"

"Then you thought wrong!" Gloriosa mutter-yelled.

"Anyone else picking up on some tension between those two?" Applejack whispered.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash just shrugged.

"I have moments like that with my brother. It's just natural," Fluttershy said, passing by.

"Every year, campers work together to make something useful! A gift for future campers, working toward this common goal is key to forming the strong bonds that will last well beyond your time here at camp!" She then glared at her brother. "Which is why it is so important." But then she dropped the angry look and went straight back into that happy face. "This gazebo was a gift from last years group-oh oh oh, and the totem pole, and the sundial were also made by campers!"

"The sundial was our year's gift!" Vice-Principal Celestia announced.

Clearing her throat, Principal Luna spoke up. "Even though some people thought it was impractical since the sundial can't be used at night."

"You all seem like a-a really amazing group, so I am certain you will all come up with something inspiring to leave behind! But before we get started with today’s activities, we’ll let you all get settled into your quarters! Girls are with Timber, boys are with me!” Gloriosa announced. The girls walked over to Timber and pulled out single card slips that were in the satchel he opened up. Once everyone had picked one up, they flipped them over to see who got what.

Twilight flipped her card around. “I got blue.”

“Me too!” Fluttershy grinned.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile at that little fact.

“Who's got a red diamond?”

“That’s crimson, darling,” Rarity shouted.

Applejack just rolled her eyes.

“Actually, that’s me!” Rara said.

The apple farmer smiled. She was gonna be sharing a tent with her childhood friend! Rarity whimpered, seeing that she wasn’t going to be in a tent with her friend. But the warm pat from Derpy made her feel a little better. And hey, it looked like she would be sharing a bunk with her. That's not so bad.

And Rainbow and Pinkie found out that they would be sharing a bunk with each other.

Everyone was dismissed after getting their tent assignments and so they lugged their bags over to their assigned tents so they could unload for a little bit. All the while, Rarity and Applejack were having their own little conversation...

"Eh. I'm all for learning safety rules, but I do hope I can get started on my designs for the summer line real soon. I've been dying for inspiration."

"Rarity, we're in the middle of the woods for cryin' out loud. We're supposed to be getting away from the city," Applejack exclaimed.

"I know, but I'm coming up with so many ideas. Besides, it's summertime now, at the very least I could..." Rarity stopped and gasped. "IDEAAAAA!!!!"

"What?"

"I have to get started right now!" And Rarity dashed away to her camp to get some pencil and paper. Applejack didn't even get another word out. A finger fell down and her face drooped.

"... You're gonna put me in one of those outfits, aren't you?" Applejack deadpanned.

"Yes!"

Applejack just rolled her eyes and just walked to her tent to unload.

Twilight opened her suitcase on the bed, going through her supplies and taking them out. Standard items like toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash were set on the drawers on her side. And little additions of deodorant, a hairbrush, hand sanitizer, etc.

Fluttershy had the same assortments as well, but had a few extra stuff with her. Some fiber pills, headache meds, a bat hairclip, sunscreen, sunglasses, etc.

“Wow. I think you came better prepared than I have,” Twilight observed.

“I have some moments here and there,” Fluttershy said, sitting on her bed and taking off her boots. Spike jumped up onto her bed looking at her, tail wagging and tongue hanging out, panting.

“Spike come on, get off Fluttershy’s bed,” Twilight said, snapping her fingers.

“Oh it’s okay Twilight. I like Spike, he’s okay,” Fluttershy reassured, petting Spike’s head and giving little scratches behind the ears.

“Well it’s not so okay when he sheds on you,” Twilight said, putting a few other small items on the stand.

Fluttershy could feel a hint of animosity in her voice. “Twilight? Are you okay?”

The Crystal Prep student paused midway. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, it’s just… I worry about you. If I’m making you uncomfortable, I can always talk to the girls to switch bunks—”

Twilight stopped her, waving her hands up. “No, no, no, you’re not making me uncomfortable, not at all! It’s just, I…” Twilight scrunched her nose. “I don’t know. I haven’t been on a trip like this before, it’s making me nervous.”

“Never? Not even when you were little?”

Twilight shook her head. “I wasn’t much of an outdoorsy person. I did go to the park and play with Cadence a few times, but aside from that, I never really did any camping per say. I guess I’m just… I don’t want to ruin this trip for any of you.”

Fluttershy softly smiled and gave Twilight a hug, resting her head on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re not going to ruin anything for us.”

For a moment, Twilight felt a little better. Even moved herself around to give Fluttershy a proper hug.

“Thanks.”

Over in Applejack's tent, the farmer and the celebrity singer were unloading their stuff on their dressers and beds. Clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, everything basically. Although some passer-byes might think Rara had all of the expensive and only the best materials since she was a big celeb. But that stereotype was disproven, she just had basic stuff just like everyone else, she didn't need anything super fancy or anything. She was still that same ole friend that AJ knew.

"Hey AJ, can I say something?" Rara asked.

"Of course. What's up?" Applejack replied, setting her toothbrush and toothpaste on the nightstand.

"Well I wasn't sure if I should say anything, but I think now would be a better time than ever. After all of these months of being in Canterlot High, and getting accustomed to everything... I was actually wondering about possibly staying and finishing the rest of high school here."

"What do you mean?" Applejack asked.

"I mean, I want that break to go on longer. I want to stay here in Canterlot, and actually, honestly graduate. I love making music and making my fans happy, I really do. But Svengallop's been wondering about me getting back out there on the road and performing across the world, and, I would love to continue to do that, but... I just don't want to stop being me."

Applejack turned around and smiled at her. "Rara, what you do is up to you. Svengallop may be your manager, but you're the one who has to call the shots. And if you wanna stay here and finish high school, I say do it."

Rara was feeling a little hopeful. "You really think so?"

"I do. Whatever your choice is, I'll support ya."

When everyone had finally gotten their suitcases unpacked, everyone went out into the main courtyard again to meet up. It was time for the first activity, and Gloriosa had it picked out; nature walk! Everyone was given a hiking stick, and now they were just making sure everyone was accounted for. The intern did a quick head count, making sure all 12 students were here; luckily everyone was here, now they just had to wait for the principals.

The intern looked at Gloriosa and Timber, giving emotionless solid nods.

"Okay, great!"

And then they saw the principals coming their direction.

"Great, everyone's here! Now I'm just saying this for camper safety, stay with the group, and don't wander off into the woods without a guide! So come on, grab a hiking stick and follow us everyone!" Gloriosa announced.

The silent intern gave everyone their own hiking sticks, and Gloriosa and Timber led them into the hoods, taking them onto the path.

The students looked around as they walked, taking in the nature scene around them. So peaceful and calm, a nice change from the chaos and people packed in the city. Birds chirped in the air, flying around to catch up with whatever friends they had in the air.

During the walk, Fluttershy looked around, catching her eye on some adorable little woodland creatures who passed by, doing their own thing. Occasionally a few of them stopped and waved at her, and she waved back. The class still found it weird that Fluttershy, a GOTH girl of all people, enjoyed being outside and gushed at every little animal she saw.

Taking a short stop, Fluttershy squatted down to scoop some acorns in her hand and enticed a squirrel to come close. One soon saw her, and skittered over to her, and everyone was kind of enough to stand back and let Fluttershy do her thing. They knew she had control. And they had to admit, it was cute to see the squirrel take some acorns from Fluttershy's hand for food.

"Aww..." Fluttershy squeaked. "Isn't he just the cutest thing?"

"Maybe to you. I hope for your sake, he doesn't have any rabies," Thunderbass called back.

"Doesn't work, she's literally a fairy tale princess!" Pinkie giggled.

"Ha. Ha," Fluttershy deadpanned. "But still, aren't they adorable?"

"They are."

"Yeah..."

"..."

"Where's Rarity?"

The girls blinked. They looked behind them, but Rarity wasn't with them.

"Oh no. You stay with the others, I'll go find Rarity. I hope she didn't wander too far off..." Applejack went back, while the rest of the hikers just kept on walking. Applejack skipped past a few trees, managing to dodge a few rocks and avoided stubbing her toes.

“Rarity? Rarity, where are you?”

Applejack dashed past another tree, going across the paved path when out the corner of her eye she saw a familiar mohawk. She turned herself around, going right back on the path and stood close to Rarity who didn’t even flinch at her arrival.

“Rarity, thank goodness. Why’d you run off like that, you scared me!” Applejack didn’t get a reply. “Rarity?”

“Applejack, look…” Rarity pointed.

Applejack looked at where Rarity’s finger pointed, and suddenly she saw what she meant.

“Oh my goodness… would you look at that. Looks as shiny as the mornin’ sun,” Applejack gasped.

“I don’t suppose you brought any lanterns with you?”

“You kiddin’ me? We Apples always come prepared,” Applejack grinned, setting her bag down. "But wait, aren't we not supposed to be near here? I think this is the rock quarry."

Rarity just shrugged it off. "Oh come come, we'll be in and out, no one will even know we were gone. Come on!"

Digging into her sack, she pulled off two headlamps for the two of them. Rarity adjusted the headlamp around her forehead, making sure it didn’t mess up her mohawk. And Applejack just set hers on top of her hat.

With the lamps on, the two girls wandered inside the cavern. They were still in awe at the interior. There were so many gems and shimmering crystals in this place; it was enough for Rarity to make a whole line of new ensembles and designs! It was practically a gold mine!

“Oooh, look at this, a bit of jade,” Rarity grinned, managing to pull a small fragment from the wall. “Did you know Adagio has a pair of chained blades made out of jade?”

“I think so. I don’t remember when she told that story,” Applejack shrugged, yanking a bigger piece of jade from the wall.

“Well according to her, she was able to forge them into blades for weapons in both China and Japan!"

"Cool, I guess. Just hope she isn't usin' them for weapons now," Applejack said, picking another gem off the cavern walls.

“Wait… what’s that?” Rarity pointed.

The two girls looked to the left. There was a bigger cavern just ahead, but it looked like it was as far as it went; with some light coming in from the outside shining within. And in the center of the dwelling with the attention from the outside light, there was a few sets of stones arched; but it looked like it was holding something. More crystals, but these gems looked… different. There was six of them, each of them different in color.

“Oh my… look at that,” Rarity gasped.

“What in blazes is that? I can’t say I ever seen any gems like that,” Applejack said, bending over to take a closer look.

“Whatever these are, they look beautiful…” Rarity said in awe. Just then a light bulb flickered over her head, “Iddddeeeeaaaaa!” She quickly snatched the gems and tucked them away in a blue sparking satchel she had slinged over her side. “Arts and crafts was an idea thrown at the camp announcements. If I can get the right materials, I could turn these into beautiful necklaces!”

“That… actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Applejack smiled.

“I know!” Rarity squeed. “Come on, we have to show them!”

Rarity and Applejack turned around and dashed out of the caves, right back to the outside—and were shocked to see the camp’s intern standing there waiting for them; unchanged from the emotionless robot stance.

“AH!” Applejack jumped.

“My gosh!” Rarity yelped.

The silent intern that they had seen from the camp was standing there, looking at her expressionless.

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry, we just… we shouldn’t have wandered off, I’m real sorry. Y-You’re not gonna tell the principal, are you?”

The girl just responded with shaking her head, still no change in her face.

“Really? … You’re not even gonna question why we were here?”

No response other than her tilting her head in confusion. Applejack grunted in frustration and slapped her hat down.

“Oh for land’s sake! Can’t you say somethin’!?” Applejack snapped, losing it. Her head drooped in defeat, and Rarity just patted her shoulder. She didn’t even see the grin on the other girl’s face.

“Gotcha!” She chuckled. “Sorry, sorry, but that was too good,” she said, placing Applejack’s hat back on her head. “Oh you don’t know how much I missed jokes, high-larity, am I pronouncing that right? Some words I haven’t said in a will—while! While. Hi, I’m Autumn Blaze!” She shook both Applejack’s and Rarity’s hands while their jaws were dropped on the ground. “I know you two just arrived and maybe you’re hungry or perhaps you’re reflective and want to sleep ohh!” She yanked the two girls in for an out of nowhere hug, which quite frankly made them a bit uncomfortable. “Oh it’s been so long since I talked with another girl, I mean talking with Gloriosa’s nice and her brother’s okay, but I can finally talk with some people I’ve never met before! You must tell me everything about you, there’s so much to say, so much to do-oh!”

She hopped over the rock, in a very majestic manner. “Oh look at me, I’m going on and you haven’t seen—wait, have you seen, oh what am I saying of course you haven’t so just I ja-I will-uh, follow me, I’ll take you both back to the rest of the group!”

Applejack and Rarity stood there; confused, disturbed… mostly confused.

“That… was…”

“That was somethin’, alright,” Applejack said, unsure.

Chapter 3: Day Of Fun

Autumn, Rarity, and Applejack all reconvened back with the rest of the group and continued to move along on their walk. And none of them even knew that they had vanished for a short period of time. But regardless, they just kept on walking along like normal as if nothing had happened.

Eventually the group returned back to the camp site, ready for some more fun. Activities were getting set up, gear was prepped, everyone was getting ready for a little bit of some beginning fun. To start things out, Rarity, Pinkie, and Derpy went straight to the tree climbing obstacle course. Straps were secured, helmets were on their heads, everyone was ready.

During all of this, Twilight sat down at a bench to just rest for a while. The walking was good for her, but she just needed a break to sit for a moment. And luckily she had little Spike to keep her company for the time. While he curled up in her lap, she just smiled and gave him little pets mixed with scratches behind the ears. Taking the time to relax, she looked around to see how the rest of her friends were doing. Over by the docks, she could see Fluttershy just sit and chill, feeding the ducks some bread.

Rainbow Dash was seen over by Thunderbass and Flash over by the rock-climbing wall, waiting for Sandalwood to finish his turn to climb all the way to the top. And AJ and Rara parked themselves over at a nearby picnic table to talk.

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Pinkie Pie zipped right over Twilight's head, buzzing with excitement. And Twilight looked up agian, watching Derpy speed on past, except she was hanging more like a dead fish, but she still looked excited to go down to the end of the line. And then Rarity swooped right past, also sharing her squeeing excitement.

All of them made it to the end, and unhooked themselves from the zip line. Turning her head back, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash finally get strapped in with the safety harness and helmet, ready to climb up the rock climbing wall.

"How about some awesome music from that player, guys?"

"How about something inspirational?" Flash asked, pressing a button on the music player.

just push play
just push play
if you wanna know just how I feel about you baby

"Come on, that's not inspirational, play somethin' loud!"

Twilight couldn't help but giggle. Thunderbass sounded like her friend Lemon Zest from Crystal Prep. Silly, happy, giddy Lemon Zest...

***

April 13th

Lemon Zest and Twilight Sparkle were sitting on a bed, bobbing heads to the music playing from Lemon's boombox. Everyone else was busy today, so Twilight thought about stopping by to Lemon's to hang out. And luckily she had the freetime of the world today, and she was steadily understanding Lemon's passion for music. One of which was a duo simply known; as the Blues Ponies.

Trottin', trottin, trottin'
Trottin', trottin, trottin'
Trottin', trottin, trottin'
Trottin', trottin, trottin'
Rawhide!

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do," Twilight smiled. "It's pretty catchy."

"You can keep the mix if you want!"

"Really?"

"Yep. All the best works are on there; Johnny Bits, Joan Jet, Iron Mareden, MC/CC, Guns N Ponies, Maretallica, it's some of the best music will ever hear," Lemon grinned.

"So why do you like this kind of music anyway?"

Lemon shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it just makes me happy. I love rock 'n roll, and it always makes me smile whenever I'm feeling down. Sometimes all I need is just a bit of this, and it brightens my day."

Twilight smiled back. "I can understand that."

Soon the track met it's end, and the next song began to play.

"Ohhh I love this one!" Lemon grinned.

***

"Twilight?"

Twilight snapped out of her little trance. "Oh, sorry, what did I miss?"

"Rarity said she had something she wanted to show us!" Pinkie squeaked. And she yanked Twilight by the wrist before she had a chance to say anything, and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

"Whoa there, I'm here!" Twilight yelped, being thrown back onto her feet.

"So what did you make?" Pinkie asked.

"I made sparkling diamond necklaces!" Rarity squeaked, showing off her work.

Everyone ooh'd and ahh'd at her handiwork. Six necklaces made with the geodes she had found, all of which were sparkling like diamonds.

"How did you make these?" Fluttershy asked.

"Applejack and I found these sparkling diamonds in a cave. They looked too beautiful, I said 'Rarity, you must make something for your friends with these!' So I made these!"

"Wait, you went into the rock quarry? I thought we weren't supposed to be in there," Rainbow said, raising a brow.

"Someone got distracted," Applejack said with a teasing smirk.

"But I just had to go inside..." Rarity whined, eliciting a giggle from her friends.

"They're beautiful, Rarity," Twilight complimented.

Rarity squeaked. "Thank you, darling. Oooh and actually..." Rarity passed the purple one to her. "This one's for you."

Twilight looked at it in her palm. "But, wait. Why? I-I didn't--"

"Darling," Rarity interrupted, putting a finger to her lip. "Sometimes friends just do nice things for each other because it shows they care for each other. And I am asking you to have this because you are my friend."

Twilight felt her heart warm up at Rarity's words. And with some joy, she smiled. "Thank you, Rarity."

Fluttershy gripped the necklace Rarity had made for her, and clipped it around her neck, making sure it was locked on tight. And she had to admit, it did look nice.

As the day went on, the girls eventually settled down with just sitting on the docks, sitting and relaxing, enjoying the sunset beyond the horizon. Twilight sat with a little book in her lap, enjoying the warm air. And Spike sitting next to her curled up with her. Applejack just kicked back, letting her feet kick back and forth, feeling the cool water. And off in the lake were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in canoes, safely secured by life jackets.

"Whoo-wee. Look at that sunset off at the distance," Applejack said, whistling. The girls diverted their attention.

"It is."

"Yeah... such a gorgeous view."

"I never knew a sunset could be so beautiful," Twilight said in awe.

"This planet's full of wonderful things, Twilight," Applejack smiled. "And you know somethin' else girls? I'm happy where we are now. We're free from Sunset Shimmer's pain, we're finally making somethin' of ourselves, we've helped saved Canterlot High from another disaster... and if I had to say another thing; I am happy to be surrounded by my best friends."

Everyone smiled at that.

"Awww, I'm happy to be here with you too, Applejack," Pinkie squeaked, hugging her friend.

"Dang it, now you got me all sappy!" Rainbow yelled from the lake.

"Hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with sharing a moment of feelings, now is there?" Rarity folded her arms.

"Well, it, um... I don't have to answer that, you know what I mean!"

Fluttershy snickered as she rowed right beside her, ready to park the canoe.

"Oh you think that's funny?" Rainbow smirked, thinking of a devious idea. And without warning, she picked up her oar like she was ready to throw, aiming it at Fluttershy. "Catch!"

"Oh, wait, hey!"

And Fluttershy threw herself too far back and went straight out of her canoe and into the water with a splash. The athlete just cackled, victorious at her little 'prank'.

"So mature, Rainbow," Rarity said, playfully rolling her eyes.

"Oh come on, it's just one prank, it's not like it's going to hurt her," Rainbow said, ignoring the fact that Fluttershy was obviously moving up close like a shark. That is until she saw Rarity and Applejack snickering. "What? What's so funny?"

"Oh, nuthin'," Applejack snickered. "I just thought of a funny joke, that's all."

"Well come on, tell me--whoa, aaah!!!"

And Rainbow was thrown right into the water as well, splashing all four of the girls. Twilight luckily got her book covered in time, so she wasn't mad. She just shared a collective chuckle with the rest of the girls as they pulled themselves off from the docks and down to the little path that would go straight into the water.

Rainbow and Fluttershy walked out of the lake, completely drenched. But they weren't mad, they were still laughing when they finally got back out.

"Gotcha," Fluttershy playfully jabbed.

"Yeah, I thought you would."

Just then they heard the sound of a triangle ringing over by the mess hall.

"Come and get it!"

"Ooh, dinner!" Pinkie Pie and the girls vanished in a cloud of smoke to join the rest of their classmates.

Everyone sat at the benches and tables in the mess hall, waiting and talking while dinner was being prepared for them. Lucky for them, the place had just about everything they wanted and more. But for tonight, they were just going to have something simple; pizza!

Gloriosa and Autumn were making sure the pizzas were getting cooked properly in the oven, and everyone threw out their suggestions for toppings which they were more than okay to oblige with. And eventually the pizzas were done, and everyone was moving up to grab a slice and a drink or two. Soon everyone was eating at the tables, enjoying the sweet delicious taste of pizza.

"Oh this pizza is delicious," Rainbow grinned, enjoying the sweet taste of cheese and pepperoni meshed together.

"Lot better than what they serve at Salty's Sea Palace."

"Hey, I like Salty's! That place is fun!" Pinkie whined.

"I dunno, that place always gives me the heebie jeebies," Applejack said, nonchalantly.

"All of those nasty and horrid children with their messy faces and rude behavior," Rarity scoffed, crossing her arms.

"You know they're kids and all, right? They're not going to know to be polite the minute they're born," Fluttershy commented with a deadpan expression.

"I know, but still? Sweetie Belle's friends shared much more politeness than those kids. And they're freshmen!"

"Shining Armor tried to take me there for my 6th birthday, but, um... well..."

"Were there kids picking on you?" Fluttershy frowned.

"Well, no--"

"--Did you unintentionally insult someone?" Rainbow asked.

"No."

"Did you eat something that made you sick?"

"No! It's... it's the robots," Twilight sunk in her seat.

"That animatronic band?" Pinkie tilted her head. "But they're fun! They play music and make everyone happy!"

"Well not me. Those things always scared me."

"You and me both," Rarity chirped. "Their shaky bodies, their uncanny movements, and those faces..." The mohawked girl quivered and held her shoulders. "Those faces are terrifying, who designed those things believing a child wouldn't be scared?"

"Agreed," Twilight nodded.

"Honestly they didn't scare me. But I'm not the biggest fan of their pizza; really sub-standard," Fluttershy chimed in.

After a good hearty dinner, everyone joined Timber and Autumn over to the campfire for some good ole ghost stories and smores. And AJ and Pinkie had came prepared for that!

“Okay everybody, I got the cinnamon graham crackers, I got the candy bars, I got the marshmallows, I got ALL of the ingredients right here,” Applejack grinned, holding a plastic container holding all of the foods needed for the smores.

“Perfect!”

By now, everyone was munching down on some smores. Well, mostly everyone. Some just chose to have the regular marshmallows, like Derpy. But the minute she tried to roast hers, the entire stick was set on fire and she had to drop it into the pit, making her frown. Pinkie with a soft, sympathetic smile patted her and offered her her stick to the poor girl, who smiled appreciatively. And Pinkie had to admit, she felt good inside. Seeing someone smile, someone that she made smile, it was probably the best feeling in the entire world.

“Soooo… what now?” Flash asked.

“How about a scary story?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“Ooh, I’ve got one! And I must warn you, it is really—”

“—Nothing is scary about purple socks and a burgundy dress, Rarity,” Applejack deadpanned.

Awkward silence was the only reply from the students around at the statements said.

“… The only thing scary about that story is I’m afraid you’re going to tell it yet again,” Rainbow snickered before Rarity softly hit her arm.

"Eh, too bad Adagio and the others aren't here. I bet they would have brought some scary stories to tell."

"Like what?"

"Well think about it, if you lived on this planet for over a thousand years, I'm sure you would have run into some scary things at some point or another," Thunderbass shrugged. "Though honestly the scariest thing they told me was their whole 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' incident."

"Wait, what?" Rainbow snickered.

"Now what exactly is that all about?" Applejack asked.

"Long summary short, at least from what all three told me individually; Adagio shouldn't be allowed to fly a planes, Aria has a knack for blowing up locomotives even when she's just simply DRIVING them, and Sonata drives like most middle school freshmen when their parents allow them to play Road Rage 5."

The group around the campfire all looked at the rocker with some mixed expressions. Pinkie Pie was the only one who still kept her innocent smiling demeanor, and everyone else was just disturbed and confused and wondering what could have even gone down.

"What?"

Rara raised a finger. "I have so many questions about that sentence... but I'm not going to ask them because I am afraid of the answers."

"It's fine. It's a weird one, I know," Thunderbass admitted.

"Oh, I think I got one. Anyone knew the Dazzlings monster form was used in some old Japanese monster movies?" Flash proposed.

"Wait, seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yeah. They made an entire film series around it, called 'Akuadon'. At least, that's how everyone in Japan says her name."

"So they actually made a series of movies around the Dazzlings in that three-headed monster body?" Applejack asked, raising a brow.

"Yep."

"How have we never heard of these movies?" Principal Luna asked.

"Well, they're not exactly mainstream," Flash said, shrugging his head. "Most of them are just seen as old shlocky cheese. Though the original is pretty fantastic."

"And just how many movies did they make surrounding that?"

"So far... 28."

The group around the campfire got quiet again.

"What could they have done to upset Japan into making an entire series based around them?"

"I think the real question is how is Japan able to make 28 movies of giant monsters smashin--never mind I just answered my own question," Applejack said, stopping herself.

"... There was one freaky story they told me about. Something about scary ink monsters brought to life from an animation studio or something, but it was sooo weird," Sandalwood said, shivering. "I couldn't explain it to you if I tried, better they say something."

Principal Luna cleared her throat. "Does anyone else have some scary stories?"

No one pitched anything. No one really had that much of an interesting story; at least to their own views. Compared to everything else that had happened with them, nothing really sounded so scary anymore.

"I have one," Timber interrupted, sitting in the dark. "But I'm warning you, you might as well hug a friend now; that's how scary it is!"

Flash rolled his eyes. Oh brother...

"It's time I told you about the tale... of Gaia Everfree..."

"Back in the mid 1930s, sometime past World War I, my great-grandparents were caught in the middle of the Great Depression. With the economy down, they needed a way to sustain themselves and make money. But my great-grandfather found just the way to do so; farming. They traveled for hours until they found a giant piece of land out here in the woods. Seeing its beauty, they decided to the perfect spot for them to grow crops and build a new home. With no time wasted, they got straight to work.

But over the course of time, strange things started happening. Work that they had done started to collapse, plants started overgrowing on pieces of their home. But even stranger things happened on one cold night. They heard a strange roaring sound, like something out of your worst nightmare. They ran outside to look, and were face to face with something they had never seen before.

Their woodwork angered a legendary spirit; one that roamed the woods for centuries. A creature with wild hair like the roots of a tree, her mouth had jagged teeth, and her eyes were pools of black tar. But her aura shimmered with diamonds; everywhere she went, she left a trail of gem dust in her wake. But it didn't stop there. She wasn't alone. She had brought her own pack of wild animals, but these were not your typical creatures of the woods.

These animals were more monstrous in shape and size; wolves made of timber, wood, stone, leaves, like they were forged together by some dark magic. Trembling, our great-grandparents asked who she was and what she wanted. In a deep and hollow voice, she said that her name was Gaia Everfree, an ancient spirit who had held domain over the forest, and that our great-grandparents were trespassing on her land...

They begged Gaia to stop her army's destruction, pleading that the farm was intended for good, saying that it was to grow plants and food to feed their family. Gaia looked up, and she could see their children... along with several innocent creatures that had been tamed who were looking at her in fear. Gaia thought over the cries of their begging, and came to an agreement; that they would continue to let nature grow on the land that they were using; but if anything were to disrupt the balance, she would return..."

"So keep a good lookout. For if you see any gemdust, or the sounds of snarling dogs... Gaia Everfree and her timberwolves may very well be back out on the prowl... back for revenge."

The reactions were mixed, to say the least. Some looked scared, but most of them were not.

"So... don't do anything to harm her forest then?"

"Exactly. Or else you might be haunted by Gaia Everfree!!!!"

And everyone's eyes averted off of Timber and to the pair of eyes opening up in the bushes. Everyone screamed, but then they died down the minute they saw it was just Gloriosa walking out of the bushes.

"Oh hey guys! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"... Then why did you come out of the bushes like that!?" Thunderbass exclaimed.

"I... took the scenic route because the forest is beautiful at night!" And Gloriosa realized what she was just saying to the teenage campers. "But no one must ever do it without a guide, okay?" Everyone nodded. "Okay! Now I think we should all hit the sack, we've got a big day of camp activities and fun for tomorrow!"

Everyone started leaving the campfire, following Gloriosa to the tent setups.

"See you girls in the morning," Flash waved, walking to his tent.

"Night guys!" Rara waved, going into her tent as well.

The only ones left at the tent were Twilight and the Rainbooms. And Spike of course, who was being held in Rainbow Dash's arms for petting, but she was trying not to squeeze him too hard out of fear.

"You're not scared are you now, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy teased. "You know it can't be real."

"Great, now you jinxed it!" Pinkie pouted.

"I don't know... Gaia Everfree and those timber wolf things could be some creatures that got booted from Equestria and ended up in this world. Remember what happened with the Sirens?" Rainbow said, holding onto her arms out of fear.

Applejack and Fluttershy's mouths drooped.

"Guess I never considered that..." Fluttershy thought, stroking her hair.

"Now, now, come on, it's just a story," Applejack said with confidence. That is until she thought some more. "At least, I hope it is. The last thing I want is our relaxation time interfered by another power crazed lunatic." And then she realized who was at their group. "Uhh, no offense."

Twilight sighed. "None taken."

"You uh... you okay?"

"I'm fine. Really, I am," Twilight said. Although it was rather cold on how she said it. "I'm tired. I'm just going to head to bed. See you girls in the morning?"

"Alright, night Twilight."

Once she had finally left the group, Applejack turned her head to the others.

"Anyone else gettin' a feelin' that maybe she's still a bit upset with what happened at the Friendship Games?" Applejack asked.

"If she is, shouldn't she have said something to us?" Rainbow replied. "We're her friends, she should be able to trust us!"

"Maybe she just doesn't know what to say or how to approach it," Rarity inquired. "Perhaps we should lay off that subject for a while?"

"Fine by me," Rainbow agreed.

"Of course."

"Right."

"Our lips are sealed!" Pinkie finished, nibbling on a marshmallow. "Anyone want marshmallows?"

The campgrounds were quiet as everyone was asleep. The only sounds were the peaceful outdoors, with crickets chirping and cicadas buzzing. The moonlight reflected off the crystal clear lake, creating a beautiful atmospheric light. The two principals had their own quarters which they slept in, while Gloriosa and Timber as well as Autumn had their own bunk. And the rest of the CHS students were all peacefully asleep. But it wasn't going to be that way for long.

Twilight and Fluttershy were both asleep, sleeping peacefully like normal. And even adorable little Spike had his own bed to sleep in which was super comfy. None of them were woken up by what was happening at that moment. The geode sitting next to Twilight's bed shimmered, and it lit up. It wasn't enough to wake her up though. And it wasn't just with her. The geode on Fluttershy's nightstand also glowed, with energy humming from it. And neither of them were awake to notice that both of them were glowing in bright auras from the geodes.

Over in Rarity's tent, the same thing was happening there. Her crafted necklace had started radiating with energy, and it was making her body start to glow too. And just like with Fluttershy and Twilight, she didn't even notice or feel anything. She just cutely snored and rolled over in her bed, completely unaware.

Rainbow and Pinkie were off into their own dream worlds, and neither of them could see the geodes that Rarity plucked from the caverns glowing on their nightstands, and therefore making each other glow too. Last but not least, Applejack was having that same aura glow around her body while her geode lit up like a light bulb. However the person sleeping next to her, Rara, wasn't quite so sleep heavy. The light hit her face, and her eyes wearily opened to see some flashes of light. Just seeing it made her eyes squint close, she hated it. But when she forced her head up and rubbed her eyes, she swore she saw strange glowing lights coming from her friend's bed!

Rara pulled herself up, the covers falling off her chest and her jaw hanging wide open looking at the scene in front of her. And then... it happened even more. The geode began to glow even brighter, but then... it began to float. It rose into the air like it was about to take off, straight into the tent. But even scarier, Applejack herself began to float out of her bed. As if paranormal activity was making her float and rise into the air.

Rara quivered in her bed, watching all of this happen before her. And then slowly, her friend stopped glowing and she was just casually placed back in the bed, and all the glowing stopped. Not even affected or feeling a thing, Applejack just rolled around in her bed, trying to get comfortable again. Rara's eyes stayed wide awake. And after seeing that? Oh she wasn't going back to sleep now. She was NEVER going back to sleep now after seeing that.

What even was that?

Author's Notes:

We are back! Thanks to Scholars for proof-reading!

Chapter 4: Magic

The morning sun peeked into Twilight and Fluttershy's tent, starting a new day. The light hit Twilight's eyes and she winced from the brightness, hoping it would go away. And she was woken up even more by Spike jumping onto her bed and licking her face.

"Okay, okay, I'm awake!" Twilight giggled, pulling herself up. She pet Spike's head and gave him a soft hug, hearing his tail wag all the while.

Fluttershy yawned as she stretched her arms. "Morning Twilight."

"Good morning, Fluttershy. Sleep okay?'

"Mmmhmm," Fluttershy said, stretching as she stood up, revealing her tank top and her shorts. "How about you?"

"I slept fine," Twilight replied.

"And good morning to you too, Spike," Fluttershy smiled, petting Spike's ears. She reached over to her bed to adjust the covers, when she stopped to notice something amiss. "Um, Twilight? Is this your toothbrush?" Fluttershy asked.

"It..." Twilight turned around, feeling dumbfounded. "Y-Yeah, it is. How did it get over there?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy said, not sure either.

"You don't think someone would have--"

"--Twilight, if someone came into our tent, I would have been the first to know, and I would have tackled them to the ground," Fluttershy answered.

"Oh. Well, there it is," Twilight set it down back on her dresser.

"Huh. Wait, where's the sunscreen? I had a set here, but--"

"--Oh, found it!"

Twilight pointed to the sunscreen down on the floor. But when she did, something happened. The sunscreen started floating up into the air, all on its own. No string attached, nothing magnetized to it, it was hovering all on its own. Twilight and Fluttershy's eyes bulged and they gasped at the sight.

Not only did the sunscreen float, but half of their items they brought into the tent started to float as well! Makeup, clothes, their phones, they were all in the air!

"Twilight, are you... doing this?" Fluttershy asked.

"I.. I can't believe it, this is--"

"Amazing!"

"Terrible!"

And like a snap of fingers, everything fell back down on the ground again.

"What do you mean? This is amazing, you can make things levitate! Nothing like this has ever happened before; well except for Trixie and her friends getting powers, but that was because the bonds they had with the Dazzlings! How did you do it?"

"I don't know!" Twilight panicked. "Maybe it's not me. Maybe it's her..."

"Her who?"

"N-Nothing, never mind," Twilight shook her head. "Can we just not talk about it? And could you please not bring this whole levitating thing up to the others?

"Why not?"

"You heard Applejack, this is supposed to be a place where everyone can get away from the city, and away from magic, I don't want them to know I potentially brought some crazy new kind with me!"

"If you really don't want me to, I promise I won't say anything," Fluttershy agreed.

Twilight sighed. "Thank you. I really don't."

But Fluttershy stood up and held her shoulders, face to face. "But you understand that we're here and if there's anything we can do, we can help you, right?"

Twilight nodded. "I do."

Fluttershy smiled and gave her a hug. "Good. Because we're all here if you need to talk."

Twilight softly smiled and reciprocated the hug.

After breakfast, everyone started getting into activities for the day. Timber started his off by taking a few of the students for a walk. Not too many of them, but it was totally fine by him. And he didn't mind interacting with them. And for the most part, they were well behaved, he was thankful of that fact. Much more mature than some of the other students they've had over the past few years.

The group was at peace on their walk. The warm air, the nice beautiful sunshine rising for a new day, it just made their walk all the more amazing. Even sweet and innocent Derpy was enjoying the outside. And over in a small patch of fronds, she could see some little berries. They looked juicy and ripe for the picking--

"Hey! Drop it!"

Derpy panicked and let go of the berries, hands over her head. "I surrender officer!"

"Derpy, it's not the police, it's just me," Timber said, a little exasperated.

"S-Sorry, did I do something wrong?"

"Derpy, do you even know what kind of berries those are?"

Derpy slowly shook her head.

"Those are ivy berries," Timber explained. "They contain oxalates, which will cause pain and swelling to your lips, face, tongue, and skin. Really need to start marking those, I swear..."

Derpy blushed and her head sunk. "Sorry..."

Timber sighed, "It's fine, you didn't know." And with that in mind, everyone continued back on the hike but Timber tried his best not to look back at Derpy. He was annoyed, but he did feel a slight tinge of guilt for snapping at her like that. "Same ole stuff every year, never ends..." Timber muttered quietly.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Timber said, awkwardly. "It was nothing, really."

"Hey Timber!"

Timber looked to the source of the noise, and to his surprise, it was Pinkie Pie... in a giant blue bird costume. Where she had it, how did she get it on so fast when he only just saw her in the Everfree shirt and shorts, and how she climbed up that tree so fast was beyond him.

"CHIIIRP! CHIRRRP!" Pinkie screamed out loud, flailing her 'wings' like a bird. Timber couldn't help himself from chuckling, especially the other campers. Pinkie just tilted her head at them with that same innocent smile. "What? I thought we should get in touch with nature!" Pinkie squeaked.

"...Thanks. I kinda needed that."

Pinkie giggled. "Aww, it's no problem at all!"

And with that, Timber led the group back on the hike. Pinkie slipped out of the bird costume in a jiffy and was back on the ground. But before she could go back, she had to tie her shoe real quickly. Just a few simple knots and--

Snap.

Pinkie's ear twitched and she jolted her head up. That noise didn't come from the students who were walking off on the path. It came from behind them. She stood back up, looking a little concerned.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

She looked back, leering her head at every possible angle she could, listening for what could have heard her. Another twig snapped, following by a quiet growling noise that sent shivers down Pinkie Pie's spine.

"H-Hello? Mr. Scary Creature? If you're out there, please come out!"

Pinkie Pie turned around and was greeted with Rainbow Dash popping out of nowhere. "Boo!"

"Dah!" Pinkie fell on her back. And instantly, her fear melted away and she just laughed away, knowing it was her friend who had pranked her.

"Gotcha!"

"Hahahahaha!" Pinkie laughed. "That was great! Nice touch on the growling noises, I didn't know you could sound so scary!"

Rainbow's laughing stopped. "Wait... I didn't make any growling."

Pinkie also stopped laughing like a lightswitch flipped on. "What? You... didn't make any super scary noises that sound like a monster that's hungry for Pinkie Pie?"

"Uh, no. I don't even know how to make that noise."

Pinkie's pupils shrunk. "... Oh. Well maybe it was just my imagination, totally nothing wrong or out of the blue, come on let's go!" And she vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Rainbow looked behind her, just as a double check. Yeah, she did sneak up on Pinkie to jumpscare her as a prank, but she didn't make any growling noises. Nada. But Rainbow remembered; when Pinkie says she heard or saw something, she never lies. So what if something was out there that spooked her? Out of fear, she started checking behind her as she kept on walking on the path. That is until she didn't notice her foot get caught on a massive rock and she tripped.

"Ooof, aaah!"

Rainbow's eyes slammed shut, bracing for her face to plant straight into the ground. But when she opened her eyes, she found she was only a few centimeters away from planting into it. In fact, the rest of her body was only a few centimeters from colliding into the ground! She looked behind her, and she noticed her feet weren't even touching the path! How was this happening?

"Whoa! How did I do that? Wait; could I always do that?" Rainbow asked out loud, slowly moving her feet and hands down so she could stand up right.

Lunchtime came around, and mostly everyone was sitting inside the mess hall to eat. Now it was still nice outside, but there was only one problem. There wasn't exactly a ton of picnic tables to sit at, in fact, there was only two of them as far as the eye could see. Even Applejack took notice as she ate her sandwich at the picnic table with Autumn.

"Do none of y'all have more picnic tables out here?" Applejack asked, looking around. The picnic area was almost vacant.

"I'm afraid not," Autumn explained, looking around. "We've been trying to watch how much we spend. I mean this place is financially stable, don't get me wrong, but we don't really know who to talk to, and we've been too busy to even deal with it."

Applejack thought as she looked around some more. She snapped her fingers as she stood up. "I got an idea. I think this is exactly what the camp needs, this could be the Camp Gift! We can come together and create more picnic tables for future campers! Simple, easy to do, but it's giving something to y'all. What do you say?"

Autumn grinned. "Yes! Yes yes yes yes, I think this is great, I mean no one's come up with an idea like this before--well okay there was one guy last year but he didn't really give much specific and all of his ideas were super illegal and just wrong, but this, this we can do, I know we can--oh, I ju-I must--I'll go tell Gloriosa!" And Autumn skipped away to find Gloriosa, leaving Applejack chuckling as she looked at the sandy pits the table was sitting on.

"Yeah... this can work. This can work," Applejack smiled and nodded, hands on her hips. Looking over at the docks, she could see Twilight was sitting with Fluttershy, kicking their legs back and forth. And Fluttershy was feeding the cute little duckies some bread. And Twilight still seemed really calm and chill, no problems whatsoever.

Walking over, she sat down on the dock with them. "Hey Twilight--"

"--Nothing's wrong!" Twilight panicked. "O-Oh, Applejack, sorry. Heh, heh..."

"Are you okay?"

Fluttershy looked over to Twilight, who then looked back at Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head silently, and Fluttershy gave a resounding nod back.

"I-I'm fine, really. What's up?"

"I think I just got an idea for the Camp Gift! Notice the lack of eating areas outside?"

Twilight and Fluttershy looked to where the picnic tables, and indeed, they oculd see there was barely any picnic tables out there.

"I was thinkin' that maybe we could build a whole new set of picnic tables; that way when future campers come, maybe they can have more spots to eat outside! What'ya say?"

Twilight smiled. "It sounds like a good idea to me! I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm sure they'll think it's a great idea!"

Applejack grinned at that. "Oh I know it will be."

Over at another part of the campgrounds, Flash Sentry was walking around, minding his own business. Checking his phone once in a while for any texts or messages from back home, nothing out of the usual. Although they were all the way out in the woods, the camp did come with a cell tower so if they needed to send any emergency emails or calls to anyone out in the city, they could. Safety precautions, of course. Though Flash had a bit of a difficult time trying to send simple texts a few times, oddly.

But looking up in front of him made him put his phone back in his pocket. A small shooting gallery with several targets and painted metal cans set up on stands for people to shoot.

"Hey Timber, is this a shooting gallery?"

"Yeah, it's an activity we've had set up for a lot of camps, but most of the campers we've come here don't really come to this. You can blame mostly the immature campers and the teachers who weren't the most responsible with them," Timber rolled his eyes.

Flash frowned. "Oh. Well, okay."

Timber did feel a little guilt, he didn't wanna deny some fun to the campers, but he didn't want anyone to behave rather brashly and ignore every warning he had advised before they were granted permission. Maybe this guy wouldn't be as bad as the previous campers, maybe he would be smart and actually acknowledge his warnings.

"You wanna try it out?" Timber asked.

Flash perked up, and he nodded with a smile.

"Alright. You know what to do?"

"Keep the gun pointed at the gallery wall only, if it's in my hands, keep it pointed down, always set the safety on if it's not in use, and don't take it from the camp," Flash replied.

Timber was about to raise a hand up, but stopped. This student already knew how to behave himself around the weapons? Guess he didn't need to say anything.

Flash stood near the post, looking at the instructions very quickly. He picked up the gun, checking it if it was filled with paintball ammunition. Timber gave a small can of paintballs, and the guitarist filled up the tank. Loading it up and setting it tight, he cocked the gun, ready to try it out. Timber still stood by, making sure he didn't hurt himself.

A few tin cans were in his sights, and he focused on them. Holding it up carefully, he locked on target, and...

Bam! Bam! Bam!

One by one, like a cowboy, the cans all went down. Timber had to admit, he was surprised. Not a bad aim.

"You've used a gun before?"

"A few times. My girlfriend back in Canterlot took me to a paintball course, and a few shooting ranges. It was pretty fun," Flash smiled. And another bam, another can went down.

Near the archery course, Derpy was looking at the archery setup. A few bows and arrows sitting on a bench, with a target set up for her to shoot at, perfectly held in place. She picked up the bow, and grabbed an arrow, slowly holding it up to fire. She pulled back, only for the arrow to just drop from place and onto the ground. A few students did notice and she looked at them with embarrassment.

"Um, I don't know how to do this..." Derpy admitted, blushing.

"Fluttershy taught me how to do this, maybe I can give some pointers?" Rarity offered, walking over to the course.

"Um, sure!"

Rarity stood behind Derpy, helping her keep her arms at the right position. "Okay, just like that, keep your right arm as straight as you can. Left elbow back, fingers locked around the band... Good. Just look at where the target is, and where you want the arrow to be."

Derpy did just that. One eye closed and the other was locked on target, focused on the red circle in the center. She pulled back as far as she could go, ready to release. And when her hand let go of the band--

Thwunk!

Derpy hit the target! ... But not the middle. She was mostly along the outer rings, but she still hit the target board!

"There you go, darling! Not a bad shot for your first try."

"You think so?"

"Of course. You just need a little more practice, that's all."

And Derpy squeaked with a smile.

After dinner, everyone sat around the campfire once again. Smores passed around, and everyone enjoying the sweet delicious taste of cinnamon, marshmallow, and chocolate all mixed together.

"So I'm curious, what's Canterlot High like?" Timber asked, curiously.

"Eh, just your average high school, really," Flash shrugged. "Though with everything we've been through, it's really hard to say. It's been really weird to say the least. I will say this though, the bullying has definitely died down, so that's doing us a massive favor."

"Bullying?"

"Eh, yeah. But it's just the past now," Flash smiled. "Did you have any bullies growing up?"

"Not really. I can't say I have, and especially since I don't really go to school," Timber explained.

"Wait, you've never been to high school?"

Timber shook his head. "My sister and I have been homeschooled for almost all of our lives. Our parents taught us everything, and, well, when we finally became teenagers they taught us a few things on how to keep the camp running."

"Where are they now?"

"They're off on a really long business trip," Timber answered.

"And they just left you two to look after us by yourselves?"

"We've done this for a long time," Gloriosa said with a positive expression, "it is nothing that we can't handle! Also I'm 21 years old, so I'm legally allowed to stay and help run the place," she muttered quietly.

"Ohhhhh...", everyone said.

"That makes more sense..."

"That explains so much."

"But CHS is a pretty great school," Flash smiled, nodding.

"How did you get in?" Gloriosa asked.

"I was new to Canterlot around middle school, I didn't really know a place to go to. Mom and dad suggested that I go to CHS, and I attended ever since 8th grade," Flash explained. "That's where I met everyone here at this campfire."

"Well, what about you Thunderbass, how did you wind up going there?" Timber Spruce asked, eating a marshmallow out of the bag.

"Dad and I were looking for a new neighborhood. The last town we were in, um... it wasn't the best the neighborhood around. The suburbs of Manehattan weren't the best place to live. We bounced around until we settled on a place here in Canterlot. Met Flash when I finally went to CHS, and introduced him to two of my friends, Brawly and Ringo, told him that they'd make good bandmates. And I'm pretty sure that worked seeing how Flash Drive was created within a few weeks," Thunderbass smirked.

"Yeah, yeah..." Flash rolled his eyes, chuckling.

"I've been in Canterlot all my life, dude. Never felt the need to go anywhere, thought Canterlot was the perfect place. Went to elementary school, middle, and now high school here. Best school in the area, dude," Sandalwood grinned.

Timber and Gloriosa nodded.

"What about you Derpy?"

"I bounced around from a lot of schools when I was a kid. It wasn't until I found Canterlot High that I started making friends. No one really wanted to be friends with me because I have strata...strat... I don't know how to say it," Derpy blushed.

"Strabismus," Micro Chips corrected.

"Y-Yeah, that! And people made fun of me in middle school for my condition," Derpy frowned.

"Ow. That's kind of mean, isn't it?"

"Middle school is the worst school to be at when you're a kid. Everyone there is mean, it's awkward, its just not fun," Thunderbass said. "Seriously, it's brutal."

"I personally think elementary school was the worst place to be. No one lets you be yourself, you can't enjoy anything you like without someone bullying you because it doesn't make you a guy, and if you're the smartest kid in the classroom, then it stinks to be you because you're automatically going to be bullied," Micro Chips shared, seething a bit.

Everyone hissed.

"Sounds like you've had it rough," Timber stated.

"Yeah. I did. I'll be honest, I hated elementary school. Maybe if you're into sports, you'd have the entire school liking you. But if you're super smart, or if your interests are weird things like superheros or robots, then you're nothing but a four-eyed nerd apparently," Micro hissed, getting a soft pat from Derpy's hand.

Twilight admittedly felt the same way. She moved her eyes away, remembering a time when she was bullied for very similar interests as the techie in the group.

"Just like with Derpy, and Thunderbass, and Flash of course, it wasn't until I went to Canterlot High that I found some more friends," Micro Chips said.

"What about you, Twilight?"

Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts, hearing her name called. "I'm sorry?"

"How did you end up at CHS?"

"O-Oh, um, well I wouldn't say I ended up, uhh... I'm sorta... not from CHS."

Timber blinked. "Wait, really?"

"Actually, I'm from Crystal Prep. I came along on this trip because, well, my friends invited me to come," Twilight admitted, holding her arms. She felt all eyes were now locked on her, judging her internally, even though no one was really judging or thinking harshly about her.

"Well that's not bad," Gloriosa nodded with a soft chuckle.

"Nothing wrong with that," Timber agreed. "But okay, Flash, about what you said earlier, what did you mean by weird?"

"I mean weird weird. Not like showing up to school naked weird, or everyone dressed as clowns weird, this is... weird weird."

"Well, what makes this weird weird then?"

"I don't think I can really say. Besides, even if I did tell you, you would think I'm crazy," Flash said.

"Eeyup." Applejack nodded.

"Mmmhmm."

"Yep!"

"Too weird for words to describe," Thunderbass added. "But hey, it did shake things up a bit for school, I like that."

For the rest of the evening, Twilight kept to herself. She did recognize what they were talking about; and now the guilt was hitting her more than ever. Now, okay, they did forgive her and move past it, but she still had a hard time forgiving herself. She was only thankful that the rest of the schools (both CPA and CHS combined) were still okay with keeping this weird magic stuff a secret.

By now, everyone was in bed again. But Twilight wasn't quite ready. Not because she hadn't brushed her teeth or rinsed or changed into her PJs and all that. No, she was worried about something else.

"Oh... should I... No, I shouldn't. But I... agh."

"Twilight?" Fluttershy interrupted. "Are you okay?"

"... I'm fine. I uh... I think I'm going to take a quick walk before bed," Twilight brushed, walking out of the tent and into the outside. Admittedly she was considering going back to get her slippers, but she didn't mind. The grass felt okay, besides if she picked up any dirt, she could just wash them off real quickly. She slipped by the rest of the tents, no one noticing that she was still up.

She paced over to the main site, near the crystal lake. She could see the moonlight reflecting off the lake, watching it sparkle along the water. For a second, she thought about how weird or unexpected it would be if the Sirens were to show up in those waters, but she remembered, they would come for the second week. They weren't coming quite yet. She still remembered her talk with them weeks after the Friendship Games and how wonderful their official meeting went, over a nice breakfast at a local diner. Sure they talked on a bench, but having some food with that discussion made things nicer.

Her head turned and looked over at the tree-clmbing obstacle course. Looked a bit fun. Maybe she could give that a shot while they were here? Rarity and Pinkie looked like they were having fun on it. And after all, she was out here. She should at least give that a try. Nothing wrong could go wrong--

Arrrooooooooooo!

Or so she thought. She jolted and spun like lightning, hearing the sounds of a group of what sounded like wolves howling. But it wasn't coming from the camp, thank goodness. But she could hear the howling coming from far beyond the woods, almost ghost-like in how they cried into the night. Her legs started shaking and she held her arms, and she backed up away from the sound--

"Twilight?"

"AH!"

Twilight spun around and to his surprise, it was Timber Spruce, coming out of the woods with a woodsman's ax in his hands.

"Timber Spruce? What are you doing?"

"Nothing..." Timber said, rather evasively. "What are you doing, shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

"Well, I... yes, I should, but I can't," Twilight admitted. "I uh... heard a noise."

"You heard the wolves howling too?"

Twilight nodded.

"I thought so. It's nothing to worry about, those wolves howling are over on the other side of the forest, they live close by the mountains," Timber reassured. "They aren't going to come anywhere near our camp, and besides, they have no interest in going near us. We leave them alone, they leave us alone too."

"Well that's good," Twilight said, still sounding scared. And admittedly a twinge of some unease was in her voice.

"Twilight? They're nothing to be scared of, it's okay."

"I... I know."

Now Timber heard something else. "Is everything okay?"

"I..." Twilight sighed. "No. Everything is not okay."

"Why not?" Timber asked. Twilight didn't say. Timber, recognizing something wasn't okay, slowly moved back to the bench and sat down, letting the ax just lean against the side. He patted the spot next to him, hoping she'll sit down. "Twilight, if something's bothering you, I'll be more than happy to listen. It's my job."

Twilight did sit down, and scrunching her face with her hands, she sighed.

"Okay. I'll be honest. This is my first time doing like this. This is the first time I've ever done a camping trip, and I've been having a bad couple of nights. I don't want to screw anything up for them or ruin the trip, I've only recently started to try and actually make some friends, because I'm not the most sociable person on the planet. I'm just scared something is going to go incredibly wrong and it'll be all my fault..."

Timber frowned slightly, patting her shoulder.

"Twilight, you shouldn't be worried so much. I'm sure it'll work out just fine. And it's a bold move for you trying to do something new to get out of your comfort zone. But it's not healthy to worry and focus on every possible way that things can go wrong. I think you need to find something to take all of that stress off."

Twilight perked up slightly. "By going into the woods in the middle of the night and screaming your lungs out?"

Timber chuckled. "No, although that's not a bad idea. For me, I usually just try chopping wood," he explains, picking up the axe to show her. "We have a shipment of fresh lumber that's being used for building some new cabins, and I lend a hand by chopping them up."

Twilight nodded, understanding. "I see."

For a second, things were quiet between the two of them. Their heads tilted up as they stared up at the night skies, stars twinkling above their heads.

"Stars are pretty tonight, aren't they?" Twilight said, bringing a new topic of conversation up.

"Yeah, I guess so. See that one up there, next to the leafless tree? That's Orion's Belt."

Twilight squinted her eyes, and indeed it was. She could see the constellation crystal clear!

"And right over there, it's a little hard to pick up, but you can see Virgo right there, just above that little spot."

"You really know your constellations, don't you?" Twilight smirked. "You must be really lucky to be out in the woods to see all of these."

"Eh, it's nice I guess… sometimes you can feel kind of stuck here though.”

Twilight's smile melted. Something sounded a bit tense in the way he said that. But she wasn't about to pry him for that information. Besides, it was late, perhaps she should be heading off to bed now.

"I think I'll go to bed now. But thanks for listening to me, I really appreciated it," Twilight smiled.

"No trouble at all Twilight," Timber smiled back. "See you in the morning."

"Good night."

Twilight walked to her camp, and Timber sat and smiled. He had to admit, he liked that. Twilight seemed like a nice girl, and he did enjoy that conversation with her. Maybe he should try talking to her some more? If she was up for that, of course.

Chapter 5: Weird Day

Author's Notes:

Special thanks to Scholarly-Cimmerian for helping writing a few of these pieces. Couldn't have gotten this updated without ya!

Enjoy! Now things should be kicking up a notch

It was now the beginning of another day, and the sun was rising over the horizon again. Slowly but surely, students would be waking up once again for another fun filled day of activities.

Twilight rolled around in her bed, trying to stay comfy and asleep. But the sun slowly setting into the tent was waking her up. Along with the whimpering of her dog and a paw patting at her shoulder.

"Spike, come on, it's too early, if you have to go, you know where to go," Twilight moaned into the pillow. But Spike kept whimpering and pawwing at her. In defeat, Twilight pulled the pillow up and looked at her worried dog. What was he so anxious about? But when she turned her head, now she understood. Fluttershy wasn't in that bed next to her. No. She wasn't there at all. But a massive furry bear was there!

Twilight didn't move, or make another sound. She was way beyond petrified right now. Worse, the bear started to move. Slowly, it pulled itself out of the bed, and onto the middle of the floor. Twilight kept herself still, trying not to make a sound or move to antagonize it. She didn't know if it would work or not, but she had no desire to test anything!

The bear pulled itself off on its hind legs, and smacked its jaw. Stumbling, it walked straight out of the tent like a biped, making Twilight's eyes shrink, and her heart race even more. Slowly, she got up to take a look and watched as the bear stumbled into the woods, swaying side to side like it was drunk or dizzy. Something wasn't right here. Where did that bear come from? How did it get into the their tent? And even more concerning, where was Fluttershy?

Quickly, she tip-toed with a dash over to another tent, finding Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash asleep. And it wasn't going to be for long since she came in booming. "Girls, come on, wake up!"

"Stalwart Stallion no!" Rainbow yelled as she jumped out of bed. "Ah, oh," Rainbow yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Twilight, you okay?"

"No I'm not okay, there's a giant bear on the camp!"

Rainbow's pupils shrunk. "Wait, what!?"

"It's harnessing picnic baskets, run!" Pinkie yelled randomly, running out of the tent in a cloud of smoke.

"I... don't know how to respond to that," Twilight admitted.

"Its Pinkie Pie, don't question it. But seriously?"

"Seriously. I woke up hearing some growling noises, and the next thing I know there's a bear right where Fluttershy was sleeping! And it's stumbling out into the woods!"

"Well come on, lets go!"

Rarity and Applejack were eventually woken up from their slumber despite still wanting to stay in bed, but eventually followed the others into the woods with Twilight, following after the bear. Still, the bear stumbled around like it was half-drunk or sleepwalking in between.

"What is it doing?" Applejack whispered.

"I'm not sure," Twilight replied. "But something doesn't feel right..."

"Maybe cause we're following after a gigantic bear who will maul us?" Pinkie whisper-yelled.

"Well if that thing did something to Fluttershy, then I wanna know! Hold it right there, Smokey! What did you do to Fluttershy!?" Rainbow yelled.

The bear stopped, and turned itself around, staring at her. Rainbow's heart sank back down. If she wasn't scared before, she was scared now. Especially when the bear stood on it's own two legs, towering above the girls.

"Um... hi?"

The bear snarled and growled, roaring at them. But it didn't sound like it wanted to kill or attack.

"Okay, that bear is mad! If that bear mauls us, I'm so sorry! I'm the one to blame!" Rainbow panicked.

"Maybe it's hungry? Probably for a Pinkie Pie sandwich," Pinkie whimpered.

Twilight held her hand up. “Wait, wait… I don’t know but… I think it’s trying to speak to us.”

The bear pulled itself up and just simply sat up like a person, looking at them. The bear growled and made a bunch of strange noises, usually the same noises you would hear from a bear. But the way it’s claws and arms were moving, and the expressions made on the bear’s face, it almost sounded like it was trying to communicate with them.

“I… I don’t speak bear,” Rainbow said, clearly confused.

The bear looked at her with a deadpan expression.

“What, you didn’t understand her?” Pinkie asked. “She said—” and Pinkie followed up with silly bear noises, trying to imitate the bear’s dialogue. And the bear still looked at her, unamused.

No one got it.

Pinkie groaned and rubbed her head, “The bear is Fluttershy!”

And at that moment, suddenly the bear’s size changed in a flash… right back into Fluttershy still dressed in her PJ’s… who fell right on her back, into the water, scaring the fish.

“OW!”

“Oh my gosh, Fluttershy darling, are you alright?”

Fluttershy raised her head, clearly still unamused. “I was trying to say, I think I accidentally turned into a bear.”

The girls helped Fluttershy get back on her feet, which was now making the poor girl shiver, and in the nick of time Gloriosa and Principal Luna were running over.

“Are you girls alright?”

“We’re fine, but I don’t know about Fluttershy though,” Rainbow said, concerned.

“Oh my goodness, you’re drenched. Girls, please help her back to her tent, I’ll be right back with some towels and hot cocoa.”

Fluttershy held onto her arms as she walked with her friends all the way back.

"Let me see if I understand this correctly, you turned into a bear?"

"Well, duh she did!" Pinkie said.

Fluttershy was less than amused, wrapped up in the warm blanket and holding the nice cup of hot cocoa. "Apparently so. I don't understand, I wasn't thinking about anything and then when I got up I just... I don't know."

“Well, we're just glad you're back to your normal self again," Rarity smiled.

"Rarity! How do you not see the sheer awesomeness of this? Fluttershy can turn into animals!”

"I only turned into a bear, I'm not sure that translates into being able to shape-shift into anything," Fluttershy raised a brow.

"Well come on, give it a shot!"

"Well... alright, here goes nothing," Fluttershy stood up, putting the hot cocoa and her towel down. She looked away and closed her eyes, squinting them hard to think. She left her friends in the dark, until a few seconds afterwards, she suddenly vanished and was replaced by a little orange kitten.

“Meow.”

The girls melted. “Awwww…”

And then she changed that again by turning into a small bird which was hovering in front of them, flapping its wings.

“Ohhh…” the girls said in awe.

And then another change into a small turtle which Rainbow caught with her hands.

"Aww..." Rainbow gushed.

Rarity giggled. "Never heard Rainbow gush so hard before."

"What? It's a turtle! Turtles are so adorable..." Rainbow continued, hugging the turtle. Looking down, she could see the expression on the turtle's face that read 'put me down human', and set her back down. And she watched as Fluttershy turned back to normal again. "That's awesome!"

Fluttershy was visibly grinning at that. "I think it is!"

"Oh, wait! You think that's awesome, check this out! I went on that morning walk with Pinkie yesterday, and, well..."

Rainbow stepped onto the cafeteria table, standing close to the edge. She spread her arms out and was ready to start hovering as she fell back--

BAM.

"Ow!"

Except she didn't.

"Hang on, hang on, I can do it, maybe I just need to recreate what happened," Rainbow said, getting back up. She climbed onto the bench, and looked at the second bench and table across from her. If a single fall back wasn't going to work, maybe the next one would do the trick. She backed herself up, and started to run on the table. She jumped onto the next one and jumped up into the air, arms and legs spread like an eagle and--

BAM!

"Oww..."

"Let me go get a camera, we'll try this again," Fluttershy snickered, getting an elbow from Rarity.

Later that morning, once everyone was completely awake and up and kicking, Autumn and Applejack got right to work on building the picnic tables for the Camp Gift. They had help, they had the schematics, and the tools.

"Alright, we have all we need," Applejack declared, looking at their collection of supplies. "I've got my own hammer from back home, tape measure, and a set of blueprints."

"Looks like a sturdy table to me!" Autumn chirped.

"All I need is the lumber. Uh... where exactly is that stored?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, it's right over there," Autumn pointed to the shack near the lake. "Go around it, there should be a storage that you can open up, plenty of timber we use for campfire, we should be able to use it for the tables."

"Great! I'mma go get some," Applejack said, leaving Autumn with the plans.

She walked past the boating shack and found the storage shed sitting out back. She opened it up (somehow they forgot to lock it up with a key) and found the stacked pieces of lumber. Bending over, she grabbed a small stack, hoping to just take a few trips at a time, but when she got back up, they came up with her nice and easy. Though something felt... off. These were pieces of lumber, yet these were incredibly lightweight, just like balsawood!

"What the? How is... eh, never mind. I can still get some!"

After a few trips, Applejack set the final pieces of lumber down on the ground, ready to begin work with Autumn.

Applejack held the nail onto a piece of wood, ready to drive it through. Once her hammer was lined up, she raised it up and threw the first tap down--and managed to break the entire plank in half with one thwack.

"Uhhh..."

Autumn chuckled. "Got an arm on you?"

"I guess? I didn't hit it that hard, at least I hope not," Applejack rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, what if I hammered down the nail, maybe I can do it for you. Oh, you want to use the saw--"

"--Actually! Probably not, I don't even wanna know what'll happen if I use that," Applejack chuckled lightly.

Autumn just shrugged and pulled out a drill from the box. She was ready to push the tip in, until she fumbled it by accident and it rolled underneath an already established table.

"Oh, I dropped a drill bit, it's underneath that other table," Autumn pointed.

"I'll get it," Applejack said, crawling on her hands and knees under the older table. She ducked her head under and found the bit, but now came the real problem. How to get out without hitting her head? Well, only one way to do so. She'd have to lift the table up slightly with her hands and legs, and try and crawl out again.

With her hands, she lifted the top... except it felt as light as a feather. When she lifted it, the entire table rose up like it was nothing! With more curiosity, she pulled her legs up to stand, and the entire table went up into the air! Applejack gasped as she saw it come into the air with just her own strength.

"Lands sake..."

Applejack carefully set the table back down, and backed away from it. Her eyes looked down at her own two hands, gasping in shock. "I... I have super strength. I could lift that entire bench without so much as a flinch, it felt like lifting up a single cushion in my family's couch! There's no better way for me to say it, I have powers!"

Applejack might have been shocked, but Autumn wasn't. She seemed more amazed than fearful.

"How did you do that? Tell me everything and feel free to add in complicated descriptions and comedic tangents!" Autumn squeaked with an innocent grin.

Applejack blinked. "I... I don't really know, Autumn." She looked back down at her own two bare hands, still expressing shock. "I don't know..."

Inside the mess hall, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were pulling out bowls and cups to create a batch of chocolate chip cookies, per Pinkie's suggestion.

Twilight glanced down at the collected ingredients. Sugar, flour, eggs, milk, chocolate chips (naturally), salt, and much much more. She and Pinkie had everything they needed to make a complete batch of cookies. And this could be fun! After all she had done something like this with a friend from Crystal Prep...

--

March 25th

"... Okay, just a little bit of flour. Almost got it... almost... ugh, a few more centimeters, dang it!" Sour barked. "... Heh, s-sorry."

Twilight brushed it off and poured in the rest of the sugar in the measuring cup, double-checking to make sure it was still working perfectly fine. And with the perfect requirements, she added it into the bowl.

"Perfect!"

Sour squeaked. After that, Sour added the rest of the ingredients. "The thing with making cookies is to be as precise as you can, but to relax. Confectionery baking is an art, it is something that takes time. Same goes for acting, drawing, movie-making, you know."

"Right."

"Which is why, in spite of your eagerness to have it all done..." Sour said, mixing up the final ingredients in the bowl. "When you take your time, and have everything taken nice and easy..." Sour grabbed a silver spoon and whirled it in the cookie dough, giving it a taste. "Mmm... you will have nothing but sweet perfection." She grabbed another spoon, giving it to Twilight for a taste.

Twilight took a small bite of the cookie dough batter, and just like Sour, she swore she was in heaven. "Oh these are delicious, how do you do 'em?"

"With experience and time," Sour said. "Also helps if you've got no one breathing down your neck."

Twilight blushed. "Sorry..."

"Oh not you, I mean the boys and girls from my school. They're real sweet but sometimes I swear they do not think things through! I really didn't like cleaning up the home ec room..."

Twilight gave an empathetic pat on the shoulder. "Maybe Pinkie can help you out one day? I know she's really good at cleaning stuff up in a jiffy. And Pinkie Pie's really good with baking sweets."

"Oh, no doubt about it," Sour nodded. "Though where does she even put all of that? She's skinny as a pencil, and yet she can engulf so many sweets, I swear is her stomach just a portal to another dimension or something?"

Twilight giggled. "The one thing my friends have told me is that 'Its Pinkie Pie, don't question it'."

"Hehe, yeah..."

--

"Twilight? Twilight!"

Twilight snapped out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Never mind, I got it!"

Pinkie was about to walk over when suddenly the spoon just appeared out of nowhere, dangling in front of her. "Oh, there it is!"

Twilight turned around and her eyes shrunk. "Um, Pinkie?"

"Yes Twilight?"

"How are you holding that without any hands?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your hair is--"

Pinkie jolted. "WHAT!?"

She backed up, and looked up. Her hair was extending out, wrapped around the mixing spoon that she required. And when she turned around, she saw all of the other measuring cups and pieces that she needed weren't there. And just like with the mixing spoon, she spun around and saw that they were all gripped by strands and ropes of her hair.

"I was just thinking about what I needed and my hair just grabbed them!" Pinkie gasped. "Is my hair sentient? Oh please my magical hair, give me the tools I need!!!"

And with super speed, all of the tools that were held together were laid out on the countertop ready for their usage.

"... Uhhh... Spoon?"

Her hair whipped and grabbed a spoon for her. Now she was curious; maybe she could give a little test? She walked up to the mixing bowl with the cups held in her hair.

"... Mix up the butter, brown sugar, and standard sugar!"

Her hair whipped and zipped into the specific ingredients, and they all scooped up the proper measurements and poured them all into the bowl, even a single strand was wrapped around a spatula and was mixing up the bowl.

"I have magic hair! Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie cheered.

"Yeah... Whoohoo. Heh, heh," Twilight tittered. Honestly, now she was starting to become worried. First Fluttershy, and now Pinkie Pie? How long until the others revealed that they all had powers?

After lunch, the girls met in the main area, looking for something to do. Applejack and some of the students were able to get at least three tables completed, but there was still more to go. For now, they were gonna take a break. And the sight of the paintball gallery gave them some ideas for some fun. And catching up to them was Rainbow Dash, revealing her body was covered in some bruises. Mainly from her several failed attempts to fly earlier.

"Hang on, wait for me girls! I think I need a break from trying to fly," Rainbow admitted.

"Sure you do," Fluttershy deadpanned.

"Fluttershy, I'm telling you I know I can fly!"

"Well then, what did you do to try and figure out if you can?" Fluttershy asked, crossing her arms.

--

In the mess hall, Micro Chips and Sandalwood were sitting on the bench, looking up at the ceiling. Rainbow Dash was holding herself on parts of the connecting beams, ready to attempt her flying again; with the additional aid of some pulleys and ropes.

"Okay, you ready?"

"No," the two boys said in unison with some deadpan in their voices.

"Okay, here I go!"

Rainbow came hurling back down and slammed into the ground with a thud.

"... Is she dead?"

"Ow..."

"Nope," Sandalwood shook his head.

"Okay, this isn't working!" Rainbow said, voice muffled into the floor.

--

"I guess I didn't take the right approach," Rainbow blushed.

"Noooo..." Fluttershy said sarcastically.

"Really?" Rarity raised a brow.

"Ya think!?" Thunderbass deadpanned, all the way from the paintball gallery.

The yelling came all the way from the paintball gallery, which was where Flash and Thunderbass were at, enjoying more shootouts, under the safety advisory of Autumn Blaze of course!

“Hey, is that a paintball course? Sweet!” Rainbow Dash whooped as she rushed over, her face lighting up with a big grin at the sight of the targets.

“Ooh, paintball!” Pinkie chirped. “I didn’t know this camp had it!”

“Yeah, I know! I’d have been all over it earlier!” Dash beamed, as she put on a pair of protective glasses, and then looked over at the paintball guns on the rack. “My old buddy Lightning Dust and I used to play matches back in the day, we had so much fun! I can’t believe how long it’s been, I just gotta shoot some targets! Come on girls, join me!”

“Paintball?” Rarity hummed dubiously. “Ohh, I don’t know, it looks like it could get… messy.”

“That’s why it’s called paintball, Rarity,” Fluttershy said dryly, but not meanly. The fashionista tittered somewhat but still didn’t look concerned.

“Ah what the heck,” Applejack shrugged. “Ah’ve handled a BB gun before, an’ Big Mac taught me to shoot a real gun in case a’ critters. Show me how ya handle one a’ these, RD!”

“You got it, Apples!” Dash said eagerly, as she took a rifle for herself, and then another for the farm gal. She loaded up hers with paintballs, and took the time to explain to Applejack how it worked, before loading AJ’s rifle and letting her hold it. Pinkie eagerly joined in watching, but after she nearly snatched Dash’s gun out of her hands in excitement, it was agreed that the pink girl should probably go last.

“Aww…” Pinkie sighed.

“Hey, don’t worry Pinks,” Dash clapped her on the back. “You’ll get your chance. Just take it easy alright?”

Applejack snorted, as she lined up a shot and knocked down a few cans. “That’s really funny comin’ from you, Rainbow Dash,” she quipped.

The sporty girl rolled her eyes. “Hey, maybe I don’t always look first-“

“Understatement of the year,” Fluttershy whispered to Rarity, who giggled guiltily.

“But I know my stuff!” Dash fired back. “Check it!”

She brought up her rifle in just one hand, and fired off three bursts in rapid order, knocking down several cans in succession. “Oh yeah, I still got it!” Rainbow whooped, playfully thrusting her rifle into the air like a victory punch.

Flash lowered his gun, giving a thumbs up to Rainbow's fire. "I'll go set the cans up again. There should be more by the gallery, I'll be right back," he said, walking behind the gallery to set up the targets.

"Rainbow, watch where you point that thing! You'll shoot someone's eye out!" Rarity advised.

“Aw, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Chill out okay? I know what I’m doing!” She held up the rifle for emphasis, before playfully quick-drawing on Rarity, and the fashionista squealed in panic as Rainbow Dash’s finger lightly touched on the trigger by accident-

Pafft-pafft-pafft!

The air filled with the distinct noise of the paintball rifle going off, and startled cries from everyone present!

Rainbow’s jaw dropped in horror. “Oh man! Rarity I’m sorry!”

Rarity had thrown up her hands to try and protect her face – which had been a pointless gesture, as the shots had gone nowhere near that part of her. Instead it had been her right leg that had taken the brunt of the shots; there were several smears of paint on her thigh.

“Well I should certainly HOPE so, Rainbow Dash!” the lady punk’s eyes flashed with anger, as the other girl shrank back in regret. “You could have really hurt me right now, and you nearly ruined my outfit too!”

“Are ya all right, Rares?” Applejack asked in concern, “Those paintballs can leave quite a welt, so ah’ve heard.”

“Oh, don’t worry dear, I’m…” the rest of Rarity’s phrase trailed off as she realized something. “I’m fine?” she asked, to herself as much as the other girls.

"Oooh, glittery!"

They had no idea what Pinkie was talking about, until she pointed to where Rarity was shot. A sparkly patch shimmered on Rarity's leg, shown underneath the pellets of paint. And when the patch shimmered away, so did the paint. And there weren't any bruises or welts on her leg!

"Wait, it didn't hurt?"

Rarity shook her head. She looked on at her leg, seeing there was no marks left behind. Pinkie and Rainbow looked at each other and the two of them shared evil grins.

"You better not!"

The two of them pointed their guns at Rarity.

"I swear if you--"

Both of them fired at once, and Rarity flinched with a squeal. She didn't get hit! The paintballs just bounced off her like rubber, falling on the ground.

"Okay now fire some more."

Pinkie and Rainbow fired multiple shots together, hailing paintballs on Rarity's body. And just like before, she wasn't hurt and wasn't splattered with paint. But something else happened.

"Oooh, sparkly."

Rarity opened up her eyes and looked down at herself. A sparkly looking pad was visible on her arm, and then slowly it vanished from sight. "I didn't get hurt... It didn't hurt me. I..." Rarity squeaked as she looked at Rainbow and Pinkie. "I. Have. Powers!!!"

Rainbow and Pinkie grinned.

"Awesome! Now all we have to do is wait for Twilight to show off something cool!" Rainbow said, hovering up in the air again. And unfortunately she started flipping around and upside down, losing her control. "Whoa, whoa! Oh hey, stop!"

And she fell back on the ground again. "Ow."

"Maybe we should practice some more?"

"MONSTER!!!"

The girls jumped.

"That sounded like Flash!"

--

Back behind the paintball gallery, Flash went to get the rest of the fallen cans, ready to set them up again. But upon walking, he heard a twig snap. He looked to listen for the noise, wondering if any by chance one of his classmates was there.

"Hello? Pinkie? Thunderbass?"

No one talked back. But then he heard another noise. Growling, in fact. The snarling of some kind of animal, large and angry. Flash turned around and his heart leapt into his throat. He glimpsed, in a second, a beastly shape with glistening greenish-brown skin, teeth like spikes, and horrible, glowing green eyes... This thing towered over him like that dragon from the Friendship Games. And it looked very angry to see him...

“MONSTER!!!"

Flash fired like mad, screaming as he looked at the target. Whatever scared him ran as fast as it could, whimpering at the few shots of paintball that hit him. He swayed the gun side to side, hoping to hit everything within the wide range of forest he could. He quickly grabbed the extra boost of paintballs, loading it into the tank. And with a fearful but raged face, he held onto the trigger and didn't let go. It wasn’t until Pinkie Pie came skipping down with a paintball gripped in her hair that she joined the fight. She dropped to the ground, and the paintball gripped in her strands started firing straight into the jungle as well, accompanied by the one in her hands.

Rainbow Dash ran in from the sides, also firing like crazy. Hey, if Flash was screaming and shooting into the forest, she’d join and shoot into the forest as well. And Thunderbass also ran in, with Applejack behind, adding to the onslaught of paintballs being fired out of the guns. And surprisingly, joining in the bunch was Autumn Blaze, running in with two guns, firing into the air like a nutjob, and then joining in with the rest of the group in firing straight into the jungle like lunatics.

“AAAAAGGHHHHH!!!!” Flash screamed, not letting go.

And everyone kept shooting. No one questioned it, but they could only assume he did see something out there that was dangerous. Standing together, they fired like a tag team with fierce faces, not even reacting or flinching to anything else around them. Then for a moment, the sounds slowly died down. The gun in Flash’s hands started clicking, but no more paintballs shot. He was completely empty. And the gun just kept clicking.

Flash slowly panted, almost hyperventilating from the shock. But then finally, his finger let go of the trigger, and the sounds stopped.

“Flash? You alright?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, dude what the heck? Why were you screaming and firing into the woods like that?” Thunderbass asked, pointing the gun down.

"I thought it was fun! When your best friend screams and shoots into the jungle, you scream and shoot into the jungle with them!" Pinkie giggled.

Flash was shaking, still petrified up by what he had seen.

“Buddy? You okay?” Rainbow asked, stepping in front of him.

Flash finally snapped out of it, and looked at the group of concerned friends.

“I… I don’t know. I saw something,” Flash gulped. “It didn’t look like it came from here.”

“What? What is it?”

Flash looked at Pinkie and Rainbow, and uttered a single word with a worried face.

“Timberwolf.”

Chapter 6: Anxieties

"Hang on, let me see if I understand you correctly. Exactly, what did you see?" Principal Luna asked again.

"A Timberwolf, an actual timberwolf."

"So you saw a live animal, and your first instinct was to shoot at it?"

"This wasn't a regular wolf! This... thing, wasn't human, if that even makes any sense," Flash said, rubbing his head. "It was just like what Timber described in his ghost story, it was a giant wolf made out of wood!"

"A wolf made out of lumber? That sounds kind of silly," Pinkie giggled.

"And we thought the idea of Sunset being a unicorn from a world where colorful cartoon horses was silly, and guess what, that was real!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Or the immortal Sirens who had been on this planet for over a thousand years?" Applejack pointed out.

Pinkie's smile drooped into a terrified face. "Ohhh... Yeah, we're dead."

"Now everyone, stay calm, we must not panic," Principal Luna advised. "Now, Flash I know you're not one to make things up, if you say you saw it, I believe you. But is there any chance this was something that someone could have built? Maybe a robot, or an animatronic in some way?"

Flash shook his head. "This wasn't faked, I can tell. But where it came from, I don't know."

"If we don't know what it is, maybe we should just get out of here," Twilight suggested, with a hint of fear in her voice.

"It was just one Timberwolf, Twilight. One. I'm sure one isn't that anything to worry about," Rainbow said with pride.

"But we can't just sit here and wait. What if it comes back, if it even is real?"

"If it's not, then we need to know who or what made that thing and what its doing out here. But if it's real, then we'll need to evacuate the camp at once, and get some help. Maybe the Sirens can deal with this, if this is real," Vice-Principal Celestia suggested.

"Only one problem; I don't think Gloriosa or Timber are gonna exactly believe us about there possibly being magical creatures suddenly coming in out of nowhere," Thunderbass said.

"Even then, the cell service out here has been starting to cut out. I can barely call my bros without hearing a bunch of static popping on my phone," Sandalwood shook his head.

"Well of course! Why else wouldn't it shut down on us? We're in the middle of the woods, where no one can hear you screaaaammmm...", Pinkie said, rather ominously.

Everyone stared at Pinkie with petrified glances.

"Well I'm not sleeping tonight," Rara gulped. Derpy just gave a sympathetic pat on Rara's shoulder, and Pinkie blushed.

"Heh, sorry Rara."

"But if there is a real emergency, we will return home at once. Fair enough?" Principal Luna agreed.

Everyone gave agreeing nods.

"Good. Now until such time, let us all try to stay calm. We will take precautions, and I don't want anyone to go running off anywhere by themselves. Okay?"

"Okay."

Her words were easier said than done. Quite frankly, Twilight wasn't sure what to think. Honestly, she was more scared than ever. First these nightmares about Midnight Sparkle were resurfacing. Then she noticed a strange amount of power surges. Now the Timberwolves from Timber Spruce's story were coming true? None of this could be a coincidence, it couldn't be...

Dinnertime came again, and everyone was sitting in the mess hall to eat. Flash sat with his friends; Sandalwood, Micro Chips, Thunderbass, Derpy, and Rara over at a table while the Rainbooms and Twilight sat at the other table.

"Okay, so apparently get this, the Sirens took their friends over to Equestria for a visit," Thunderbass said, looking down at his phone. "Octavia's message."

"Wait, they actually visited the place where Sunset came from?" Sandalwood asked.

"You bet," Thunderbass nodded. "Though she did leave this note... 'thank goodness, clothes came back, you do not have to strip before crossing the portal.'" And he looked back at Sandalwood and Micro Chips with a 'what the heck' kind of face.

"I mean, aren't ponies the main race in that other world? I mean they wouldn't really wear clothes to begin with, so..."

"Yeah, but Octavia didn't get that memo," Thunderbass shrugged. "... Well now I wanna know what it's like."

"I dunno, sounds like walking on all fours with no experience would be hard," Derpy said, eliciting a soft giggle from the group.

"Derpy, never change," Thunderbass grinned, shaking his head. But when he looked at Flash, he didn't say anything. He seemed like he was staring off into space. "Flash? Bro, can you hear me?"

He snapped his fingers, finally bringing Flash back to the present.

"Oh, what?" Flash blinked. "Sorry, I was just thinking."

"About what?" Derpy asked.

"Eh. About Aria, I guess. I hope she's doing okay," Flash said.

"I'm sure she's fine, lover boy," Thunderbass teased. "Especially since now you're fine with knowing her big secret."

"It's not that big of a secret now," Flash replied. "Besides, she's still a great girl. Just thinking back to when we went to that beach a few weeks ago..."

May 15th

It was nighttime at the Canterlot Beach. Everyone else had left at this point, but only two individuals had came. Aria Blaze, and Flash Sentry. By now, it was public knowledge that these two were dating, not that they or anyone really minded. But the reason they came here at all was because of something very important that Aria wanted to discuss...

"Okay. So, Flash," Aria said, looking straight into his eyes. "You know that I'm from another dimension, right?"

"I am aware of this, yeah," Flash nodded. "And you can turn into a giant sea Siren."

Aria hissed. "About that... this, look, everything you're seeing right now, its um... why don't I just show you?" The middle Dazzling made a dash for the waters, running deeper and deeper. Soon as she was far out enough , she made a dive underneath, out of Flash's eyes. Flash couldn't see what was going on, but he did see a visible flash of red underneath the water. He waited patiently, wondering what was going on down there. It wasn't until he saw a giant purple fin snake its way across the top of the water that he finally understood what she said. How could he not have understood before?

He knew she could turn into this... Siren, thing. But the fact that she actually was this thing, and not some human gifted with strange enchantment was just mind boggling. And breaking his thoughts was the sound of something breaking its way out of the water, rising into the air. A majestic purple sea Siren was seen out in the larger body of water, close by to the cliff dwellings (that secret cave where they had some treasures hidden). Soon she dived back into the water and was swimming to the shore, with her fin prodding its way through the coast.

Soon she rose back onto the mainland and erupted from the ocean with a powerful splash. Her giant hooves pulled from under and slammed into the sand, planting themselves firmly to keep her steady. Sure she was beached, but she wanted to see what she was looking at. And lowering her head down, her face was mere inches away from Flash's body. And the guitarist was still trying to accept the facts that Aria told him without really telling him.

“Aria?”

The siren softly murmured, albeit in a language he couldn’t understand, what with her being a sea creature at the moment. But the little nod of her head was enough to give him a clue.

"So... this is what you actually look like?"

The Siren softly nodded.

"So you're not a girl who can turn into a Siren, you're actually a Siren... who can turn human?"

Aria gave more nods, worrying about Flash's possible rejections. Her ears flopped, and her head lowered. But Flash didn't cower. He didn't run away, or get mad, nothing. Instead he slowly walked towards her, and he opened his hand up, trying to see if maybe he could pet her. The Siren's eyes opened and she slowly closed them, moving her head closer to Flash's hand. He softly petted her, and the only sounds he could hear was a mixture of confused and happy noises.

"Hey, hey... it's alright... you're still beautiful."

Aria adorably nuzzled him, letting him pet her some more. Flash softly pet her ears, hearing her purr from the pets and little scratches. "I guess you're part cat as well?"

Aria's only response was with some silly noises, which made Flash laugh. "Okay, okay." And he gave more pets to her ears, even petting her snoot and her head.

--

"... That sounds really weird," Sandalwood admitted.

"What?"

"I dunno, I just think it's a bit weird you, Flash Sentry, are dating a sea Siren," Thunderbass pointed out.

"I didn't know she was a seahorse!"

"She's an immortal Siren from a parallel dimension, how did you not pick up on that?"

"No one said that she was a pure animal, I just assumed she was mostly human with a little bit of fish in her!" Flash protested. "And what about Trixie, she's dating Adagio after all."

Thunderbass shrugged. "True, true. ... So what happens when you get older and Aria doesn't?"

Flash glared at Thunderbass with a bit of a scowl.

"... Heh, sorry," Thunderbass's head sunk.

Flash sighed. "No, its fine. That's a good question, but yeah. Aria and I still need to talk about it."

"Understood. But hey, I'm sure she'll be happy to be here with you," Thunderbass said, getting Flash to finally smile back at him.

The group turned to Rara who was too busy facing down at her phone.

"Whatcha reading?"

"Not reading anything, trying to get this phone to work, but it's malfunctioning. It's been on the fritz all day, and I can't get it to work."

"Mind if I take a look at it?" Micro Chips asked. "I know how to fix and repair phones."

"Well... I guess so," Rara said, giving the techie her phone. He simply tapped on the screen a few times, with several strange facial expressions following. And with a few more taps, he passed the phone back to her.

"Okay, try it now."

And Rara did. "Yeah, it... it works! It's working again, how did you do that?"

"I'm tech savvy at Canterlot High, there's no better way to say it or explain it," he said, shrugging it off.

Twilight sat at the campfire, roasting some delicious fluffy marshmallows over the fire. She had a bag that Pinkie left behind for her when the others got there. Just some nice quiet time to themselves--

"We meet again."

Or not. The wind blew, giving her some chills and the flames went out. She stood up to look for the source of the sounds, and everything around her started to vanish once again. She was taken back into a dark void, and Midnight was near. She looked up and shivered in fear, looking at the metal wearing she-demon who hovered above her like a god.

"You can't hide the truth from them forever, Twilight. It is only a matter of time before they realize what you're really hiding..." Midnight slowly grinned.

"Why? Why do you keep tormenting me, I didn't do anything!"

"Those portals were my ticket out of this putrid realm, and you cut it off!" Midnight ranted. "And if I have to destroy everything to get out of here, then I will do it!" Midnight's metal wings moaned as they bent some more, stretching as the lighting bolts continued to surge in between them. "After all... look at your destiny."

"No... No! This can't be! None of this is real, you're not real!"

"You know I am real, Twilight!" Midnight yelled. "And the further you embrace it... the sooner you and I can finally become one."

She looked at the distance, and froze. Her skin became clammy and she began to hyperventilate. So much was happening around here, so much chaos and destruction! A graveyard of bones and smashed cars, destroyed buildings, and the only living beings around were hypnotized humans who all were standing around like mindless zombies. And she recognized all of them! Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, all of them were there! Even Trixie and her friends were there! But wait, what about the Dazzlings?

She looked back at Midnight who gave her more chills than ever. "And once the magic is mine..." Her hands crushed a single red pendant in her hand, which at first glance looked like it belonged to the Sirens. Only to watch as it shattered into pieces, and streams of magic flowed into Midnight's body, making her bigger than ever. "We will be more powerful than ever! And this universe and many more will finally be ours, nothing can escape pure perfection!!!"

"No... no... no..."

***

"STOP!"

Her head was sweaty and her heart was racing. It was just another nightmare, nothing real. Twilight looked around her. Still night time, and Fluttershy was still sleeping in the bed next to her, not woken up by her sudden cry. But Twilight had other plans; she had enough.

"No. No more. I can't let this happen to anyone. I have to get out of here."

Chapter 7: Late Night Talk

Author's Notes:

I wanna give extra thanks to Scholars for taking over the last half of this chapter, I really appreciate it. Especially since I was gone for an entire day, so I really do appreciate the extra hand given,

"No. No more. I can't let this happen to anyone. I have to get out of here."

In a rush, Twilight grabbed all her belongings and stuffed them into her backpack and case, ready to run like the wind. The sounds finally woke up Spike who pulled himself up, whimpering at Twilight's movements. He could sense the stress coming from his guardian.

"Come on Spike, we're going home," Twilight ushered, getting her dog to come after her.

And Spike just whined some more.

"Spike, I'm sorry. But we can't stay here any longer, we need to go," Twilight said.

She slipped her clothes on as fast as she could, somehow managing to not wake up Fluttershy in the process. With a dash, she grabbed her bag and backpack, jumping out of the tent as quick as she could. And Spike trailed right behind her as she dashed off through the woods.

She brushed through the bushes, pushing several branches filled with leaves out of her way. Never once did she keep running without making sure her dog was still with her. She couldn't lose Spike out here in the woods, she had to make it out--

Crunch.

--Without being seen. She twisted her head around, hearing strange sounds coming from deep into the woods. Bushes were ruffling, twigs were snapping, and something was brushing through the tops of the trees. She took a step back, afraid of what was to come. But there was nothing in sight, and nothing coming at her. Just as she braced for something to jump out at her from the bushes... she was just greeted to the sight of an innocent, fluffy weasel just moving about on it's evening.

"Oh. Hehe, nothing to worry about. Just an animal, nothing to worry--"

"Twilight?"

"AH!" Twilight jumped. Fluttershy was the one who somehow got in front of her. "How did you... where did you--"

"I just flew above you like a bird until I found a tree to perch on, created some noise in the bush as a dog, and ran right past you with the speed of a jaguar so I could get in front," Fluttershy explained, summarizing her explanation.

Twilight was about to respond, but she had no way of really saying anything.

"Now what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

"I'm... I am calling a taxi to take me home."

Fluttershy frowned. "What? Why?"

Twilight hesitated for a second. "I shouldn't say..."

"Twilight, look at me," Fluttershy said, sternly. And she even gave her the stare. Her ultimate move in getting any out of control animal under her control, and getting them to back down from behaving badly.

"Um, uh..."

"Twilight. You can talk to me. Just tell me what is going on. Are you running away?"

Twilight's hands were shaking hard, until she finally lose it. "Okay, yes I'm running away. I can't stand it anymore, every time I turn around there's something new and magical happening that I can't control! And Midnight Sparkle is probably already planning her return, and I don't know how to prepare for it! Or even if I can prepare for it, because I haven't had any time to practice with my magic! And I don't know if I'm the reason that all of you are infected with magic and could possibly be hurting all of you! And I don't know if I can do anything to stop it because I'm afraid all of you aren't going to like me anymore!"

Twilight was almost on the verge of tears, but Fluttershy brought her close and held her in a hug. She could feel Twilight shaking just from that breakdown, and she didn't let go. She held her for a few minutes, letting her breathe heavily, waiting if she had to cry her eyes out. But she didn't.

Fluttershy wiped another tear from her face. "Is that why you're running away?"

"Yes, that's why! If I stay here, I'm only going to make things worse for you all. I'm clearly infected with magic, and if I continue to stick around, I'm only going to make things worse for you all. I don't want to ruin your trip! ... And I don't want to lose the only friends I have," Twilight said, holding onto her arm.

Fluttershy lifted her chin. "Twilight, you're not going to lose us. I know things are scary, but it'll be okay. And you can talk to us, we'll listen. None of us would blame you for anything."

"But I'm dangerous. I'll only put you all in danger," Twilight said.

"Or maybe you aren't the reason that magic is going into all of us and maybe there's a bigger reason as to why that is?"

Twilight was stumped. "I guess I didn't think of that as a possibility. But still, I shouldn't be here, I'm dangerous!"

Fluttershy's eyebrows raised as she looked down at Spike who had just been sitting there, looking at them both going back and forth in their conversation.

"Does Spike think that you're dangerous?"

Twilight looked down at Spike who just sat there, hoping for attention. Even little bit of pawing at her leg to get her to look at him. Sympathetically, she picked him up to look him in the eye and Spike just looked as happy as he always did.

"Do you think I'm dangerous, boy?"

Spike barked cutely and licked her face, making Twilight giggle. And Fluttershy too, in fact.

"There you go."

Twilight gave her dog a hug and set him back down on the ground. But then a sad thought ran through her head again. "But what if... I, I don't know."

"Twilight, it's okay," Fluttershy said, holding her shoulders. "We'll be here for you. I promise."

Twilight couldn't help but smile back at the goth girl, and leaned her head in for a hug. Fluttershy didn't reject it, and instead just pulled her close and held her an extremely warm hug. She could tell Twilight really needed one badly.

"Lets tell the girls in the morning. We'll all sit down, and I'll be right there with you to help explain how you feel. You don't have to be afraid, okay?"

"I don't know..."

"Come on, pleasseeee? If not for me, at least do it for Spike?" And Fluttershy picked up her dog for emphasis, getting Twilight to look down at that adorable face, still panting with a tail wag.

"... Dang it, I can't say no to that face," Twilight held her dog and hugged him, getting some licks on her face.

"Come on silly, let's go back to camp," Fluttershy said, smiling sympathetically and patting her on the shoulder.

Picking up their feet to walk back--

Crunch.

Their heads turned back to listen for the sound. There wasn't anything out in the woods to be close to where they were standing. Nothing but crickets were heard, and the only thing that jumped out was a prancing deer who went along it's way.

Off in the distance they heard the sound of wolves howling, far beyond where they were standing again.

"You're hearing that too, right?"

"I am. But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Come on, let's just get back to our tent," Fluttershy said, patting her on the shoulder, taking her back.

Twilight still wasn't sure how to feel. The thought of telling her friends the truth still scared her, but if Fluttershy was right, she shouldn't have anything to be afraid of. But the thought still scared her to her very core...

It was late at night. The camp was all dark, for the campers had gone to bed. While there were the distant sounds of insects and frogs, the campground itself was totally silent. Unless, of course, you had ears sharp enough to discern the soft noise of sneakers on grass.

A lone figure came out of the woods, moving stealthily towards one of the camp cabins. They glanced around once or twice along the way, clearly hoping to avoid being unseen. Finally they made it to the cabin, and delicately pushed the door open and stepped inside-

Click.

Timber Spruce froze in place, his smile dropping in alarm as the light suddenly switched on, and he could plainly see Gloriosa Daisy waiting there for him. Looking very unamused.

“Where have you been?”

“I was out taking a walk.”

Gloriosa raised a brow. “Is that all you were doing? You weren’t going anyplace else, were you Timber?”

Timber gives her an annoyed look.

"No… I wasn’t. I just went for a walk on the trail," he huffed. “Just needed some alone time, that’s all.”

Gloriosa’s stern face softens a little. “Timber, I’m sorry. I just worry, that’s all.”

Timber shrugs it off.

“It’s alright…”

"No, it’s not.” She looked at him with sympathy. “I know you don’t want to do this forever. And I’m sorry that things haven’t worked out the way you’d have liked them to… but it’s just one more summer.”

“I know that, sis…”, he emphasized this gently, not angrily. “But, I don’t know, it’s just… sometimes it’s like…" he struggled to find the right words for what he wanted to say, for what he’s feeling, but he couldn't untangle them. And so he finally just falls silent and shrugs weakly at his big sister.

Gloriosa offered him a hug. After a moment’s delay, he takes it. She gives him a tender pat on the back “You’ve been really great, I want you to know that. And I know that I can get on your nerves sometimes-“

“Oh, only sometimes?” Timber said, playfully.

Gloriosa laughs sarcastically, but fondly, and clapped him on the back. “You know what I mean, smart guy!” She gave him a smile, a bit of a wistful one “I’m your big sister. It’s my job to be a pain in your butt.”

Timber chuckled. “Right.”

The two of them stand in somewhat comfortable silence for a minute, before Timber suddenly yawns. “Well, I better get to bed. Got the rest of the week ahead and all. Good night, sis.”

“Good night…” She watches her brother as he heads off to his room, before a thought occurs to her. “Timber?”

“Yeah?”

“Have you heard anything back yet?”

Timber stops at the door to his room, suddenly tense. He doesn’t say anything for a moment, but finally, a little stiffly.

“No. Not yet.”

Gloriosa frowns, worried. "Oh… I’m sorry.” Hopefully, she added, “Maybe later this week?”

“Maybe… good night.”

And with that, he goes into his room to get ready for bed. Gloriosa turns away, her face troubled, as she moves to shut off the light and get herself ready for bed too… Right before she can turn off the light, she pauses at the distant howling of wolves, far away in the forest. The noise makes her shiver in spite of herself. And then, Gloriosa turns off the light and made ready for bed.

Chapter 8: Confessions

Author's Notes:

Another thanks to Scholars for helping write this story, I really appreciate it. And now this chapter's got an update! Enjoy!

The next morning came. As per the norm, Twilight was woken up by Spike leaping onto her bed and waking her up with morning licks to her face.

"Okay, okay, I'm up, I'm up," Twilight giggled, pulling herself up and giving Spike a morning hug. "Morning Fluttershy."

No reply. And when she looked over to her bed, she saw something small move around under the blankets. And slowly pushing out was a little kitten which glanced over at Twilight.

Mew.

"Fluttershy?"

And the cat morphed in front of her, changing back to Fluttershy. "It's me, silly."

"You have the animal transformations under control?"

"Uhhh--"

And in a second she went from a human to a flopping fish bouncing up on and down on the bed. Twilight was about to panic until the fish went into the form of a bird which just started flapping its wings like a normal bird. And then without warning, Fluttershy came crashing back onto the bed as a husky looking dog.

"I'll take that as a no," Twilight said for her.

The husky pulled itself up, and then morphed back into Fluttershy. "I can't control it. Whenever I just think about some kind of animal, I just automatically change into one, I can't stop it."

"We'll talk about it over breakfast. I had an idea for something we could talk about, after I explain what's going on," Twilight said, slipping her feet into her slippers.

When they arrived in the mess hall, the smell of fresh pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, and other related foods hit their noses. Already, students were eating their breakfast. Forgetting her worries for the time, she just grabbed a plate of pancakes, and sat with her friends with nothing but a smile on her face and a happy dog in her lap trying to sneak some bites of her food.

After breakfast, most of everyone went back outside for some more fun outdoorsy activities. Everyone except for the Rainbooms. And since no one else was around...

"Good, we're all here," Applejack said, watching Twilight come back over to the table.

"So, you had something you wanted to tell us?" Rainbow Dash asked, sitting on the chair backwards, leaning her arms against the backrest.

"Yes, I do." Twilight took a moment to try and compose herself. If she was going to talk to them, she had to keep herself together. "I haven't been honest with all of you. I tried to leave camp last night," Twilight began.

"What?" Pinkie yelped.

"Why?" Applejack asked.

Twilight sighed, holding her face, scrunching at her temples. "I've been having nightmares. Nightmares about... her."

"Her? Her who?" Rarity asked.

"Midnight Sparkle."

Everyone hissed at that explanation.

"Oof."

"Dang," Rainbow said.

"I mean, the past few weeks after the Friendship Games, I had some nightmares, but they eventually went away. But now, they're just suddenly coming back and I have no means of stopping them, I don't even understand why they're coming back."

"Why didn't you tell us any of this in the past few months?"

"Because they were few and far between, and I thought after a certain point that they were finally gone. But then they just started coming back. The only conclusion I have is Midnight Sparkle really is resurfacing and is probably coming for revenge," Twilight whimpered, tugging at her own hair.

"As I've told Twilight, I don't think Midnight Sparkle is coming back," Fluttershy said, patting her.

"But if she does, we'll be ready for her! I mean come on, we have superpowers now!"

"Powers that we don't know how to control," Applejack emphasized, trying to pull an axe out of a piece of lumber, only to fling that and the lumber high into the air and right into the lake. "Dang it."

"Girls, you're forgetting something, Twilight..." Fluttershy looked at Twilight who shook her head nervously. "... hasn't gotten any powers yet."

"Well, it'll only be a matter of time, and when she does, we'll be right there to help her," Rarity declared with a positive attitude.

"Along with everything else, we'll totally have your back! We're friends now!" Rainbow said, hugging Twilight with a smile.

Twilight hugged her back, and then was given a massive group hug from the rest of the girls.

"Well, as long as we're talking about having powers, I know I don't exactly have any, but if none of you would mind, maybe I could help you all keep your powers under control?"

"Ooh! Like a wise sensei? Or a mystic god from the universe? Oh! Oh! Or maybe some really old uncle who teaches us about having great power and great responsibility?" Pinkie said, jumping up like a little kid.

"Pinkie, we don't need practice, come on, I mean look at me!"

Everyone stared at Rainbow, who finally was able to get her flight powers moving again to the point where she could hover normally. Except for one problem; she was hovering upside down.

"What?"

"You're upside down, Rainbow Dash," Rarity pointed, teasing her.

"Well--bu--I'm still flying!"

"Yes, we can see that. Just not right," Applejack snickered.

Rainbow let out an exhausted groan, and everyone else just shared a collective laugh.

It was approaching the middle of the afternoon now, and while the sun shone down brightly on the grounds of Camp Everfree work on the new picnic tables was still going ahead full swing. Overseen by Gloriosa Daisy and the principals of Canterlot High, groups of students were taking it in shifts to construct the new tables: the first group would measure and cut wood, the second would sand and smooth the cut pieces to ensure that they would look nice and fit together well.

The final, and most important step was assembling the pieces, of course. This too was being taken in shifts: at the moment the students were going to be putting together what would be the supports for the tables. The current group of students – Sandalwood, Micro Chips and Thunderbass – were finding this to be more complicated than they’d imagined it being.

“Whoa,” Sandalwood scratched his head as he looked at the sections of carefully-cut lumber that he and his group were to be transforming into the legs, batten and support for a table, “This looks pretty in-depth, dudes!”

“I never really thought about it before, but I guess that carpenter stuff is kinda hard,” Thunderbass admitted.

Micro Chips had fished out his phone and was typing into a search engine, hoping to find advice or blueprints on building a table. He hit “enter” on the search, and then frowned as the screen lagged. “Again?” he said to himself, “What is it with the reception around here?”

A soft laugh made the three boys look up in surprise; Vice-Principal Celestia, who had just been checking up on Flash Sentry and Applejack’s work sawing lumber, walked over with a rare and sunny smile on her face. “Carpentry is hard work, Thunderbass, but that’s why it’s so important. And there’s no better teacher than an actual person, and not the Internet, Micro Chips.” The bespectacled boy put his phone away with a slightly abashed smile, as the elder of the two principals clapped her hands smartly and said, “Now, let’s get started! I’ll walk you through the basic steps of putting together a table base.”

“You know how to build stuff, Miss Celestia?” Sandalwood asked, an awestruck look on his face as she set them down and began to explain how they would drill holes for screws, and from there use countersinks to reinforce the table’s legs and keep them in place.

“Yes, I do,” the vice-principal answered him, “Before I got my teaching degree I went to a trade school and studied carpentry.” She smirked and added, “That was part of how I put myself through college, since Luna was the more bookish of us and so she got the big, fancy scholarship.”

Principal Luna let them know she’d overheard her older sister by letting out a sarcastic laugh.

“Whoa…” Sandalwood said almost reverently. Thunderbass and Micro Chips exchanged looks.

“Now then,” Vice-Principal Celestia concluded, “Let’s get on with the lesson, shall we?”

“Yes ma’am!” Sandalwood whooped, and he and the other boys settled in to watch and learn from their teacher as she explained how a “washer” would help secure a screw or bolt in place and add support to the table legs.

While this was going on, far across the campground, Timber Spruce was enjoying a break before the next round of camp activities. The young man was taking a walk along one of the trails outside the main campground, just to enjoy being alone and not having to oversee any campers. Not that he minded his job, really… this year’s bunch were a great group of teens. (Certainly loads better than that one from Cloudsdale…)

The very thought made Timber shudder despite himself, and he let out a faint huff. It had been a while ago, he knew that, and he didn’t like to dwell on it, but sometimes the memory of past camp groups could really, just get under his skin…

Timber slowed down in his walking, and stopped to look out over the forest landscape. Idly, he kicked a rock on the ground, hard, and watched it whiz through the air and then bounce off a distant tree root. The thump it made as it bounced to the ground made him feel a little bit better.

The young man smiled, feeling a bit wistful. The woods around the camp really were beautiful… and he did like it here. Gloriosa was the best big sister that he could have asked for!

But all the same, there were still moments where he wondered if he was missing out on stuff. The kids who came and went had their own lives, back in the city, and he’d barely ever been to Canterlot or even Griffonstone. The camp was his family’s means of living, and there were plenty of happy memories he held with the place…

But he didn’t think – no, strike that, he knew that he wanted to do more. More than just take care of the camp, for sure--

Snap.

The sudden, sharp noise of a stick cracking made him nearly jump out of his skin, and Timber whipped around to see what had made it. But he couldn’t see anything, no camper along the trail, no animal scurrying out of the bushes, not a living thing in sight.

“Huh.” Timber said out loud, and the soft exclamation seemed oddly loud in the quiet of the woods just then. “Thought I heard something…”

He turned around and continued on his way. A quick glance at his watch made him pick up the pace, it wouldn’t be too long before he’d have to get back to camp for the next leg of the day’s events…

Timber suddenly shivered, and glanced back behind him.

He could have sworn that it felt like someone had been watching him, just then…

Maybe it was Gaea Everfree, a quiet little voice whispered in the back of his mind.

… No, that was silly. That was just the little kid who’d heard Grandpa’s campfire story talking. Nothing more, nothing less. He knew what was real and what wasn’t, and Gaea Everfree and her timberwolves were very much NOT real.

Another evening was set, and the moon shone over the crystal clear lake. The sailboat swayed against the dock, staying tied against it. The sounds of critters in the woods, echoed through the night. But this time a new noise erupted, one that didn't sound normal. Several pieces of wood were creaking in the forest, more than unusual. And the rustling of trees sending an entire flock of birds into the skies, fleeing their perches and places in the night.

The moaning of metal scraped outside the camp grounds, accompanied by violent tearing. But there was no trail as to what the source of the noise was. Then one more broke out, the sound of sizzling sparks and electricity surging. It was audible for a few seconds, but then it stopped.

The metal scraping sounds ruptured again, and this time, someone actually responded.

"AAHALALA! I got a rake and I'm not afraid to use it!" Thunderbass yelled as he burst out of the tent, holding a rake up like a bat.

Flash yawned and stumbled out of the tent. "Thunder, it's late, come on..."

"Flash, I heard something, don't tell me you didn't hear that sound," Thunderbass glared, keeping his stance.

"If by sound, you mean the sound of a guy who looks like he's ready to commit a murder with a rake, then yes, I heard it," Flash deadpanned. "Just go back to bed, I'm sure it's nothing."

"Flash--"

"If something happened, we'll check it out in the morning," Flash said, faceplanting back into the bed. Thunderbass looked around for a few more seconds, noting no visible intruders. Nothing as far as the eye could see. And looking down at the rake he rolled his eyes.

"A rake? What was I thinking, I need something more lethal," Thunderbass groaned, slamming it to the ground and stomping back to bed.

Chapter 9: Blocked Off

Author's Notes:

Sooo... yeah, I took a reaaaallly long time on this one. This one is honestly my fault, cause of serious motivation issues. However, thanks to Scholars, we finally got this done.

I am sorry to keep you all waiting, but I hope you all will enjoy it! Thank you for being so patient!

Once again, the sun rose for another glorious day at Camp Everfree. Everyone was up and moving, going to use the bathroom, getting dressed, whatever morning their morning routine entailed, they got straight to it. And after that, it was time to head to the mess hall for breakfast of their choosings.

"You sleep better last night, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"I did, thank you for asking," Twilight smiled.

"Mmm, pancakes," Pinkie hummed, not even paying attention to what was going on around her.

"So what's the plan for today, darlings?" Rarity asked, trying to fix the little strands of her mohawk which were sticking up on end.

"Well I dunno about you girls, but I'm eager to get those picnic tables done. I reckon we're nearly done with them, and we just have a few more left to go," Applejack said.

"What about our powers? Shouldn't we practice with them?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm on board with that!" Rainbow agreed.

A student came back through the doors of the mess hall with a stressed face. "Um, guys?" Thunderbass said, stepping into the mess hall. "I don't want to raise any alarms, but you might want to see this..."

Gloriosa and the others followed Thunderbass around the back of the mess hall cabin, finding the spot. And when they got there, it was a sight that was not welcoming to their eyes. The main tower that provided any amount of wifi service had been chewed up. Pieces of metal ripped from the tower, steel practically bent, tons of wiring that was fizzing out from being hacked up.

"What the..."

"Holy..."

"What happened?"

Timber Spruce, Gloriosa Daisy, and Autumn Blaze pushed through the group to step up front and they all got a good long look at the destruction.

"I don't suppose you have any wild animals out in the woods that we don't know about?" Autumn asked.

"And what kind of animal could be strong enough to do that?" Timber asked with a deadpan in his voice.

"Um... a wild bear?"

"Are you kidding? Not even a bear isn't big enough to bend steel like that!" Gloriosa exclaimed.

"But if a bear didn't break it, then what did?" Principal Luna said with concern.

"I don't know, and I don't care. We need to get it fixed," Timber Spruce declared, getting an agreeing nod from his sister.

"I... I'll go get my tools. I'll see what I can do," Gloriosa sighed, going to the tool shed.

"I'll lend a hand," Thunderbass offered.

"Me too," Micro Chips called out.

"Oh, well aren't you sweet? Come on, I'll show you what I could use help with," she said, leading them to grab the toolboxes.

The two principals shared a glance. Something was definitely wrong here, but what could have caused this? Was there something out there that shouldn't be, or was it someone behind this incident?

"Okay Pinkie, I have the perfect test for you!"

"Tests? Aww, do I have to study for it?"

Twilight giggled. "No, Pinkie. I mean with your powers, I have a test for your powers."

"Ohhhhh... that makes more sense!"

"Yes, indeed. Okay, try grabbing that book," Twilight suggested, pointing at the book set up in front of Pinkie.

Pinkie put her hands down, eyes squinting intensely as she glared at the book. Her teeth were clenched in the most over the top way possible and she made all sorts of uncomfortable noises. "I will grab that book without hands!!!"

She focused hard and long, waiting for something, anything. But alas, nothing happened.

"Aww, candy-corn! I thought I could--", And then a strand of her hair slapped itself against the book and picked it up. "Oh, wait! I got it!"

Twilight chuckled a bit. This was gonna take a bit more work than she thought, but she was okay with trying to help her friend. She could do it, she knew she could. After all, if she could help her Crystal Prep friends with simple tasks...

--

May 10th

"Ma'am, I am waiting for the punchline," Twilight said, reading off a book.

And in the room with her was Sunny Flare, acting in shock and terror. "There is no punchline. It's not a joke," She said, speaking in a a rather scary yet surprisingly calm tone.

"You're telling me the Man of Shadows is now trapped in eternal limbo?" Twilight said, reading from the page, still.

"He is. The Pillars fought hard, but they eventually put him away in limbo where he can do no more harm to anyone. But legend says that one day he would return... " Sunny Flare tried to keep it together but she was suddenly smiling and snickering in between. "and wipe us all--" and Sunny just stopped talking all together and started laughing her butt off.

And Twilight had to admit, she giggled herself. "Sunny, I thought you were a professional!"

Sunny giggled as well. "I am! But every time I try to rehearse a line, my brain always thinks about something funny I had seen earlier that day, and then that becomes the thing stuck in my head."

"Do you need to take a break?"

"Yes, yes, let us take a break," Sunny Flare agreed, walking to her desk and taking a quick swig of her coffee. "Ah, that's a good cup of joe."

"So when is the play supposed to go on?"

"By the end of the month," Sunny Flare said. "I just hope I can remember all of my lines, this is a big part after all."

"I'm sure you'll remember them, Sunny. You're Crystal Prep's best actor after all."

"Oh stop it, you," Sunny playfully batted Twilight's shoulder. "You're such a flatterer, Twilight. Twilight?"

--

"Twilight? Twilight!"

Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh, what were we talking about?"

"Do you have any other tests for me?" Pinkie asked with a grin.

"Um... I don't think so," Twilight said, unsure. "Rainbow Dash, you want to try flying again?"

"You bet! Ready when you are!"

Rainbow sat up in the tree where she was told to be, and the others all stood nearby ready to catch her just in case.

"You know, I have to admit, a tree is a bigger step then using a pulley system in the mess hall," Applejack chuckled.

"Just jump," Twilight called out.

"Okay, let's try it again!"

Rainbow stood up straight, and she dropped out from the tree ready to dive down. She waited for her feet to touch the ground, but they never even touched the grass. Looking down, she found herself hovering just like she had done before.

"Alright Rainbow, you're doing it!"

"Yeah, but I don't know how! Every time I try to fly, I keep falling," Rainbow pouted.

"Maybe this magic requires some kind of concentration method? Perhaps it doesn't work if you don't concentrate hard enough or feel a certain emotion."

"So you're saying some superpowers can occur depending on someone's emotional stability? Never heard that before," Rainbow said sarcastically.

"My point is that I think if you just focus on only that, do not worry about anything else, maybe that can help with you flying," Twilight suggested.

"Alright, I'll give that a try."

Rainbow climbed back up the tree, ignoring her friends pleas about jumping from the tree again. However, she completely ignored them and simply put her mind to focus on the flying once again. She made the jump, and actually started to fly. She was soaring and swooping over the girls like a superhero, wowing them as she showed off her flying prowess.

"She's really doing it," Fluttershy gasped.

"Go Rainbow Dash, you've got--wait, wait, watch out for the--"

"OW!"

"--Oh boy, right through the tree," Pinkie cringed.

"You think we should give her the Captain Dork costume?" Fluttershy snickered.

And then all of her confidence started to fade as her body started flailing like a rag-doll in the air.

"We may need to practice that some more," Twilight winced.

And she heard the sound of Rainbow Dash falling and darting right into a bush.

"... And there goes Rainbow Dash, she has the power to rear-project cities!"

"That makes no sense."

Later that day, after some much more practicing and testing, Rarity spotted Rara nearby, chatting up a storm with Flash Sentry and Derpy. The fact that a celebrity, one of the most famous pop singers ever was attending their school was still something she hadn't come to grips with. It was just so exciting!

"Rarity, are you alright?"

"Oh, Applejack, darling, um, I um, I'm just... I mean... okay, I'm a bit nervous to be around Countess Coloratura herself!" Rarity admitted with a squeak.

"Rarity, you shouldn't be nervous. Rara may be a big-time popsingin' celebrity, but she's still one of my best friends, and she's still a regular person," Applejack pointed out. "In fact, why don't you join us out on the boat? We planned to do a little rowin' around the lake."

"Oh, well, I don't see how I could--I'm in!" Rarity squeaked, disappearing in a flash and coming back with a life-jacket. "Come along darling!"

Applejack playfully rolled her eyes and grabbed hers, sitting down into the boat with Rara and Rarity.

The nice warm air blew through their hair as Applejack rowed on the lake, hearing the sounds of the water splashing around them. Birds were singing from the trees, and they could even hear the cute sounds of some nearby critters, unsure of they were bunnies, ducks, or maybe little deer. Thankfully no scary bears to come out there to try and attack them.

"So Rarity, I've been meaning to ask, how are you doing?" Rara asked. "Applejack told me that you made over four hundred dollars with your newest line, is that right?"

"Oh, um, y-yes, yes I did!" Rarity stuttered. "The finest line I've ever made, if I do say so myself. I only wish Applejack could have been one of my models."

"Rarity, I'm not like you. I'm not one to go lookin' for the shiniest outfits," Applejack shook her head. "I'm a bit more practical. I see something, if it works, then it works."

Rarity just playfully shrugged it off. "Anyways... Miss Coloratura, if you don't mind me asking, if you don't perform, what do you like doing?"

Rara just shrugged. "I like hanging out with my friends, going to movies, interacting with my fans, you know, like everyone else."

"Oh. R-Really? I would have thought, um... well, I didn't want to assume, but I guess I--"

Rara giggled. "You thought I like doing a lot of fancy things that most of the rich and elite do?"

"Um... yes?" Rarity blushed.

"Rarity, I'm not like them. Yeah, I may be famous, and I may have a lot of fans, and a mansion (somehow I don't know how I even found one here) but I'm not like them. I'm just like you, and Applejack, and everyone else here at camp," the celebrity smiled.

Rarity couldn't help but squee in joy at that statement. Countess Coloratura was sweeter than she had ever imagined.

"You should all come by my house sometime, I would love to invite you all for a sleepover. I used to have them all the time, well, before I became a pop-singer. I think it's time I have some good sleepovers again," Rara declared.

"Agree with you right there," Applejack said.

"C-Can I please come? I would love to be a part of your sleepover, it would be such an honor!"

"Rarity, I was going to invite you anyway," Rara grinned. "Besides, Applejack told me you were a great friend, I thought that was good enough for me to say yes."

"Yes, I'm so excited darling! I cannot wait to come over!" Rarity was so excited she was practically shaking the boat, even as Rara stood up momentarily to gaze back over to the land.

"Rarity, careful, don't rock the boat too much or--whoa, whoa!" And Rara went right overboard the boat, splashing into the water.

"Oh my gosh, Rara, I am so sorry!" Rarity panicked. "I will--"

And Rarity was interrupted by the sound of Applejack laughing, and then the rising Rara laughing as she pulled back up to the surface; wet, but perfectly okay.

"Rarity, it's alright. It's not the first time I've fallen into a lake before. You should have seen me and AJ back at the girl scouts," Rara laughed, splashing some water at Rarity.

Rarity was a bit shocked from seeing this star splashing her back. However an evil smirk slowly grew on her face. "You want to get wet?"

And she splashed some water right back at Rara, who just laughed it off. "I think you missed a spot," she said, splashing some water at Rarity's mohawk.

Twilight sat on the dock, Spike resting in her lap, watching the fun her friends are having on the water. She giggled at the splash fight between Applejack, Rarity and Coloratura – who could have guessed that the fashionista would be able to hold her own in roughhousing?

And speaking of…

“Oh, you want to play to win, dear? Well then, taste this!”

A particularly big splash of water hit Applejack, soaking her good and making her sputter, and Twilight can’t help but giggle. Spike yipped cheerfully from his resting place, and she smiled down at him fondly. It was hard to believe, but her worries from before had almost faded away completely. All thanks to the wonderful people she could now call friend--

“Twilight?”

She turns her head in surprise, and then smiles to see Timber Spruce walking by. The young man gives her a friendly smile and walks down the pier to her.

“Hello, Timber Spruce. How are you doing?”

Timber answered, “Fine… I actually was going to ask you that, Twilight. How are you today? Feeling better?” He said, giving her an encouraging look.

Twilight smiled back, and nodded readily. “Yes. Yes I am! I, well, I talked to my friends about… how I was feeling, and they were all supportive and understanding.” She looks down at Spike fondly, recalling how Fluttershy had gotten through to her with that question: “Does Spike think you’re dangerous?” She gives the little dog a gentle squeeze and looks up at Timber with a comforting smile. “I think… no, I know I’m doing better than before.”

Timber grins at her, relief and happiness in equal measure on his face. “Hey, that’s great. I’m really glad you’re doing better.”

Twilight was beaming. “Me too.”

Spike yipped softly from his place in Twilight’s arms. She looked down at him in surprise, suddenly worried the poor little guy seems a bit agitated about something.

“Spike?” She gently puts him down and lets him onto the dock – and to her surprise Spike darts behind her legs, his tail down like something’s frightened him. Timber Spruce frowned in concern and stoops down to try and reassure the puppy.

“Hey little guy. What’s wrong?”

Spike whines softly. Twilight also kneels down and pats him, whispering comfortingly as she does so. Timber looks over at her in concern. “What’s got him spooked?”

“I don’t know, he’s never been like this before!”

Timber puts out a hand and gently pets the top of Spike’s head. “Shh, good boy, good boy…” The little dog trembles softly at first, but gradually starts to relax a little. He still seems nervous of something, however, worrying Twilight.

A minute or two later, a voice calls out to them from further up the camp.

“Timber Spruce!” It was Gloriosa Daisy, fully in business mode as camp director. “Have you gotten those extra tools yet?”

Timber straightens up, heaving a sigh of frustration, to Twilight’s surprise. “No, Gloriosa, I haven’t!”

Gloriosa spoke back a bit sternly. “Well could you! We’ve got a lot of work to get done today!”

Timber rolls his eyes. “I know!” Twilight looks at him, concerned by the sudden burst of frustration… and, after letting out a deep breath, Timber cools down, looking contrite.

Timber looked at her apologetically, “Sorry, about that… it’s been a bit of a day.”

Twilight frowned sympathetically, thinking of the destruction of the cell tower from that morning. “I’m sure of that…” A bit cautious, she reaches out and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure it’ll work out.”

“Thanks, Twilight…”

Twilight brightening a little, tried to make a joke. “And hey, if it doesn’t, there’s always lumber you could chop up, right?”

Timber half-laughed at that. “Yeah… I think it’d take a lot more lumber than what we’ve got…”, he managed a smile, seeing her expression fall. “Thanks, though. I am glad you’re feeling better, alright?”

Twilight nodded, watching him start to walk away.

“Gotta go. Talk to you later,” and then he runs off to procure those tools Gloriosa had called for. Twilight watched him go, as Spike – calmed down now but still at her feet – woofs softly in concern. The bespectacled girl can only think--

What was that all about?

It was twenty minutes past midnight and Gloriosa still couldn’t sleep. The camp director huffed, and tossed and turned in her bed, shooting a dirty look to her alarm clock. Much as she wanted to, she just couldn’t go to sleep; there was too much going on in her head. Thoughts about the camp, about the cell tower, thoughts about whatever had damaged the cell tower…

She froze for a moment, as she heard her brother’s soft snores from across the hall. Gloriosa listened at first, and then sat up, frowning slightly.

Thoughts about Timber, as well… more like worries, really. Lots of worries.

Gloriosa sighed and climbed out of bed. Something told her that she wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight. She was too full of nervous energy. Sleep would have to wait. At least until she could put at least one of her worries to rest…

She carefully changed out of her pajamas and into a simple t-shirt and shorts, and carefully eased open her bedroom door and stole down the hall of the cabin, over to the door. She put on a pair of sandals, grabbed a flashlight, and gently stepped out into the cool night air.

Gloriosa flicked on the flashlight, keeping the beam of light angled towards the ground in the distance, careful not to shine it somewhere that might alert someone.

She set out for the woods – insane as that sounded, and she knew it. She moved quickly and quietly as her feet could take her, not down the main hiking trails that were for the campers, but along a smaller, nearly invisible path that you would only know about if you’d lived your whole life at Camp Everfree.

Gloriosa felt almost like a ghost in some ways, creeping through the dark like this. The thought spurred an unwanted memory of Gaea Everfree and that old campfire story, and it felt all too horribly real at this moment. She could imagine, vividly, the angry spirit of the woods watching her right now, timberwolves slavering for the chance to sink their teeth into her…

Stop that. She scolded herself. You’re a grown woman, you’re not afraid of the dark or of a ghost story!

No, just afraid of what’s in the dark…

“Ugh…” she groaned to herself, suppressing a shudder. She had reached the end of the trail and was at her destination.

The path through the woods opened into a clearing, surprisingly close to the quarry, that was ringed by a circle of old dark trees. They were spindly old things, with short thick trunks that branched out into long, crooked branches that forked regularly; under the pale light of the moon, they almost made her think of twisted, clutching hands, and she grimaced at the thought.

Oh, she hated this place!

But even so... she had to see this through.

She cautiously approached the nearest of the trees, focusing her light at the base of the trunk. Resting there, hanging off a branch, was a simple necklace, with a set of geodes strung along it.

For a second, Gloriosa thought the stones glinted at her, of their own accord almost…

Gloriosa's eyes closed as her fingers wrapped around the stone, thinking intensely. But a vibrant glow of energy erupted from the geode which made her pupils shoot wide open, as she felt the ground tremor around her. And then, it happened. Several vines erupted from the ground, wriggling and writhing like sentient tentacles. They grew bigger and bigger as they pushed their way out.

She freaked out and dropped the geode, not even hesitating as she ran as fast as she could. And when she did, the vines that were moving, suddenly stopped and laid limp on the ground like they had just been dropped from the sky. No longer did they possess the energy that had been harnessed to them, and now they were deceased. The counselor had no idea how to handle this, nor did she know if she should approach them again or just stay far away from them as possible. Gloriosa ran back to look, taking note that they had stopped.

And without much thought, she turned around and started to walk back to the cabin to get some rest. Completely unaware of what was happening, some of the wood from the dead trees started to bend all on its own...

Saturday came, and just like before, everyone got up, had breakfast, and got ready for another fun day of activities. However, before they could go wander off, Principal Luna had something important to say, hence why they were now all gathered in the courtyard.

"Good morning, everyone," Principal Luna declared to the students who were waiting to start their fun activities. "Next week, the rest of the campers should be here, and I know we're all still feeling a little anxious about the situation, but you must stay calm. Until we find out the source, I would still recommend you stay on camp and do not go hiking on your own without a guide or without more than four people with you. Until then, you all just keep having fun and try to relax."

The principal walked off to let them do their own thing, while Twilight continued to talk with her friends. "At least the Dazzlings and the rest of the girls will be here next week. Maybe they might stand a chance against whatever is out here," Twilight said with some hope.

"We don't even know if there even is anything out here," Applejack said, setting some lumber down for another batch of tables. "Flash freaked out, but we don't know if that even was a real Timberwolf he saw."

"How else do you explain his freakout? And considering everything else we've seen so far, I'm honestly inclined to believe him," Rainbow folded her arms.

"As much as I don't like the idea of another monster, Rainbow has a point. If there is something out here, then we should be ready and prepared for it. But if it's nothing, then we're all just freaking out over nothing," Twilight said. "I'm sure we can--dah, Spike, come on!" Twilight giggled, feeling Spike jump up and lick her face. "Okay, okay, I'm listening bud." Spike looked up at Twilight, tail wagging and panting happily, and Twilight just replied by petting him some more. "You want to play, Spike?"

And Spike answered with a simple woof.

"Okay, I'm coming, give me a second," Twilight got up. "Catch you girls later?"

"Of course, darling," Rarity nodded, smiling to see Spike so happy.

A soft electrical spark was heard zapping someone from the cell tower, which made everyone turn their heads over to Thunderbass who was less than happy. "Has the whole world gone CRAZY!?" Thunderbass yelled, slamming the wrench down on the ground. "Am I the only one who gives a flying feather about getting some help around here!?"

Everyone glared at him with very disturbed and petrified faces.

"... Dude. You have no chill."

"I can't help it, man! There's something out here, and I am not staying here to be eaten alive!"

"The chances of you being eaten alive are 0.000056% to 1," Micro Chips said.

"Never tell me the odds!" And a wrench went flying over their heads, even the girls.

"I hope Adagio and the others get here sooner than Monday, cause I don't think all of us can keep it together," Rainbow said, disturbed.

"That's one way of putting it."

Chapter 10: Revelations

Author's Notes:

Scholars basically took care of this entire chapter. I owe all my gratitude to him for that, and I apologize to all of you for being sluggish when it comes to this story. I hope I can keep up the progress in the coming days, but we'll see.

Lunch ended, and since the sun was shining warm and bright, Twilight decided to play a game of fetch with Spike. She gathered a few choice sticks to throw, and let the little pup out onto the main campground; tail wagging rapidly, Spike jumped and yipped in excitement as Twilight picked up a stick and gave it an enticing wave.

“Okay Spike… you ready? See the stick, boy?”

Spike woofed eagerly.

“Alright, Spike! Fetch!” Twilight drew back her arm and threw as hard as she could, watching in amusement as her pet took off, nearly tripping over his feet in his zeal to chase the stick down and bring it back. Maybe she didn’t have the throwing arm of Indigo Zap but Twilight was still happy with her toss.

Spike came trotting back to her a moment later, stick tightly gripped in his jaws, clearly very proud of himself. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle; her dog was so cute!

“Good boy, Spike! Now give me the stick back…”

Spike huffed, and growled lightly as she took the end of the stick, and soon enough dog and owner were playing tug-of-war for the piece of wood.

However, Spike suddenly found a new object of interest, when he spotted a large gray rabbit go loping out from the undergrowth nearby. Swiftly letting go of the stick (and causing poor Twilight to go stumbling back in surprise) Spike lunged after the bunny, and a frantic chase began.

“Spike!” Twilight called in panic, “Stop! Come back! Heel, heel!” She ran in pursuit of the little dog, wishing too late that she’d remembered to stop and grab Spike’s leash. Now she’d have to catch him on her own. “Spike!” The chase took them around the campground, winding through one of the work areas (“Sorry! Sorry!” Twilight called out apologies as she wove among some of her fellow campers) and then finally around to Timber and Gloriosa’s cabin – where right before Spike could follow his rabbit quarry into the woods, Twilight managed to snag his collar and bring him to a halt.

“No! Bad dog, Spike!” Twilight scolded him, “Don’t go running off like that!”

The little pup shrank down in guilt, letting out a pitiful whimper, and very rapidly Twilight’s irritation vanished. “Aww, Spike…” she gently knelt down and picked the little dog up to give him a cuddle, “I’m not *that* mad at you. Just, don’t go charging off like that, please, boy? Who knows what’s in these woods…”

Spike let out a soft woof at that. Twilight shushed him softly, giving him a pet along the back. “It’s all right, boy…”

Her voice trailed off as she suddenly heard footsteps from inside the cabin. Heavy, fast ones, like someone had just gone running inside. It was then that Twilight now remembered she was right behind the home of the two camp leaders, and she felt a rush of embarrassment; time for her to get back to the main camp!

Twilight started to stand up. “Come on, boy,” she said softly to Spike, “Let’s go get your leash and—”

“Are you kidding me?!”

Twilight squeaked in fright at the sudden shout from inside the cabin. She knew that voice, recognized it immediately… but she never had heard Timber Spruce sound so angry before.

The voice continued. “I can’t – just – UGH!”

Twilight ducked down in panic, Spike held tightly in her arms, as she heard a door slam and footsteps stomp through the cabin. They sounded like they were coming very close to her… she scooted up against the outside wall of the cabin, praying that she wouldn’t be seen.

“Timber!” Gloriosa’s voice had joined the commotion now. She sounded startled. “What’s wrong?”

Timber didn’t answer her directly. Twilight, straining her ears, heart pounding in her chest, heard some faint noise through the window; then, a moment later, Gloriosa spoke up again.

“Oh, Timber…” She sounded so sad as she said it, “I’m so sorry…”

Twilight still didn’t hear a spoken answer. Spike whined quietly in her arms, wriggling in anxiety. She patted him, soothing him to be quiet, even as she felt a horrible prickle of guilt for eavesdropping like this.

“I need to go out,” Timber’s voice finally said, stiffly.

“…Okay,” Gloriosa answered, after a delay. “You do that, you take the day off… I’ll cover for you, all right?”

Twilight heard a grunt in response.

“Timber, please… it’ll be all right—” Gloriosa started to say, but the rest of her sentence was cut off by the window suddenly being forced open; Twilight’s heart nearly stopped in fright, this was it, she was gonna be caught, she would be in so much trouble…

But she didn’t hear anyone call her name or anything. She heard what sounded like paper ripping, and then she squeaked in surprise as a few large, hastily-torn pieces of paper fluttered through the air around her – one even landing right in her lap.

A moment later, she heard footsteps stomping away and then the distant slamming of a door.

“Timber!” Gloriosa called, upset. “Timber, please wait!”

Another rush of footsteps, and then all was quiet again.

Spike whimpered in Twilight’s arms, looking at her with clear fright in his big eyes, and she soothed him again, giving him a few pats before letting him back onto the ground. “It’s okay, boy…” she told him, “It’s all right…”

She started to stand up, and the bit of paper in her lap fluttered to the ground.

Twilight stared at it for a long moment, and at the other pieces littering the grass around her.

She bit her lip, thinking hard and fast. And then, reluctantly, she began to gather up the pieces of paper, trying to put them back together in a way that made sense, figure out what on earth had upset the boy who’dhelped her so badly.

Laying the pieces out on the open windowsill, she began to get a clearer picture: it was a letter, and an official-looking one at that. She recognized a somewhat familiar insignia in the upper corner of the page. It was the symbol of a college that she had once done some research on, and had even considered applying to at one point before the Friendship Games.

Twilight’s eyes skimmed the words on the page, and her heart sank more and more as certain words and phrases leapt out at her.

“We regret to inform you… wish that a different decision were possible… at the moment just not what we are looking for… we appreciate the interest you have shown… we hope you will accept our best wishes in your future endeavors…”

It was a rejection letter.

And, if she had to guess by Timber’s reaction, not the first one he’d ever gotten either. Twilight wrung her hands, as she did a lot of thinking. A couple of things from the past few days all began to make an unpleasant amount of sense to her: Timber’s evasive answer at the campfire when she had talked about living at the camp from a few days before. Him snapping at his sister just yesterday. And hadn’t she heard something about him from Flash or Derpy, about him being a bit grumpy at times?

He must have wanted to get out of the camp, very badly… and now he’d had one of his chances go up in smoke.

“Oh, what do I do, what do I do…”

The instant Twilight said those words though, she knew what she had to do.

Timber Spruce had been nice to her. He’d listened to her. Talked to her, given her advice. And now he was clearly hurting, and not in a good place at all. And she knew, more than anything, that people could do stupid things, make horrible mistakes, when they were scared and hurt and angry.

I have to find him, and talk to him. But how?

Spike yipped anxiously from the ground, and she looked down at her new friend, her beloved pet, and began to get an idea.

“Okay, good.” Twilight stood up, “Come on, Spike. We need to go find Timber Spruce.”

But as she crossed back around by the front of the counselors’ cabin, Twilight was hit by a sudden realization… she had no idea where to start looking. Or how she could even find the other boy. She didn’t know the camp or its surrounding area nearly as well as someone who’d grown up here would.

Spike suddenly barked up at her. Twilight looked and found her dog pawing at a discarded hat by the door of the cabin. Specifically, a beanie. Timber Spruce’s hat; perhaps he had thrown it off when he’d stormed out of the cabin?

“Good boy, Spike!” Twilight came over, and, getting an idea, carefully picked the beanie up with one hand. She held it out to Spike’s nose, instructing him to sniff it. She knew about police dogs being trained to track scents, and while Spike was a smart dog… it was a long shot and she knew it, but she didn’t know what else to do. Time was of the essence, she just knew it.

“Can you find this scent Spike?”

The dog yipped up at her, tail wagging, and he took off at a run, heading straight for one of the hiking trails; stopping every now and again to sniff the ground before continuing onward.

“Good boy!” Twilight ran to follow him. Spike unhesitatingly led her along the path for a while, until he surprised her by veering off and into the undergrowth to the left. Twilight came to a stop, looking intently at the layout of the new path Spike was on… after a minute she could see enough gaps in the foliage to realize that this was a path too, just a more secret or hidden one than the officially-marked trails.

Twilight bit her lip, thinking. Her earlier resolve was starting to waver, and she wondered if this was really the smartest idea. What if she got lost, or ran into an animal out in the woods? She hadn’t told her friends where she was going, or anyone else… Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she should run and fetch Applejack, or Autumn Blaze.

But then, she remembered other things too. Timber’s kindness to her earlier, his anger, her fear that he could be doing something rash or foolish right now… she remembered all too well what had happened when she had felt trapped and desperate without anyone for her to really talk to her and help her.

I have to try.

She repeated it to herself. “I have to try.” And she carefully stepped off the trail and onto the hidden path, following after Spike as he plunged on, deeper into the woods beyond Camp Everfree.

Twilight followed Spike further into the woods, taking care to stick to the narrow path and not stray into the underbrush. She’d never been too invested in botany and cursed herself now for not having read up more on what types of plants were safe to touch. It would be just perfect if she stumbled into a patch of poison ivy while trying to find Timber Spruce—

Crack.

Her foot came down on a stray twig, and the piece of wood snapped with a shockingly loud noise. Twilight flinched, and Spike suddenly drew up short and looked around, now anxious about something. Twilight carefully walked over, scooped up her pet and held him in her arms. “It’s okay, boy,” she soothed him, “It was just a stick. Nothing to worry about.”

Spike whined softly.

“It’ll be okay,” she patted him again, and carefully set off again, in the direction that Spike had been going. In silence the two of them made their way through the wooded trail, Twilight noticing that the trees were growing thicker and thicker overhead – even though it was early afternoon and the sun would be shining bright, the atmosphere felt gloomy and even oppressive. She was starting to feel on edge again…

Spike nestled deeper into her arms, as though he was trying to hide. Twilight gave him a reassuring squeeze, but he still whimpered softly. Girl and dog continued onward in silence, Twilight’s ears pricked up for the slightest sound, especially that of anything scary or monstrous… but all there seemed to be was the quiet.

Not even the hum of insects or singing of birds… what could have caused that?

The treetops above her began to part as she pressed on, and she could make out the sun again, thin beams of light shining down onto the forest floor. She was coming upon a clearing now. Twilight felt relieved at first…

Then there was a sudden flash of green light from up ahead, and she nearly dropped Spike in alarm. Darting out of side behind a nearby tree, heart pounding in her chest, Twilight waited in desperate panic for a long several minutes before she could make out, faintly, a familiar-sounding voice nearby…

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. She knew that voice, all right. Carefully, taking pains not to make noise or drop Spike, she edged around the side of the tree and crouched down to look in and see…

And her stomach dropped with a sick thrill of horror. She saw many smaller trees lining the insides of the clearing. They were blackened and almost dead-looking, but they were wiggling their branches like tentacles, swaying rhythmically to a silent beat. She saw Timber Spruce standing before them, waving one arm almost like a conductor’s; the trees were moving in response to his motions, it was like he had complete control over them. There was a faint greenish light coming from his front, though Twilight couldn’t make out the cause of it…

And then she could see other things in the clearing, too… what looked like wooden animals, though they could not be sculptures, they looked both too crude and too real to be carvings!

And then one of the wooden animals, that had been lounging by Timber’s feet, sat up and looked around. It had a canine snout and glowing green eyes.

Twilight practically felt her heart stop at that moment, as the Timberwolf opened its jaws and yawned, revealing its jagged teeth, and got to its feet, as another wolf slunk over to join it. Timber Spruce stopped gesturing to the trees, which immediately froze in position, and he absently reached over and patted the head of one of the wolves.

She felt sick. Timber Spruce had magic? The Timberwolves were real? They were working for Timber Spruce, or he was a friend of theirs, or – or – it didn’t matter “or,” just what was right in front of her! The boy she had wanted to help, was messing around with magic and playing with monsters – monsters that had attacked Flash Sentry, and maybe had torn up the cell tower! What in the world was he thinking! She had to talk to him, had to figure out what to do…

But as she looked at the scene, at the two wooden wolves hanging around Timber like bodyguards, Twilight suddenly realized that she had no idea how to do any of that. It wasn’t like she could just walk in, all casual-like, and say, 'Hey Timber, what a surprise! I didn’t know you had magic wolf monsters out here, can you tell me how you got one?'

Okay, think Twilight! She urged herself. You have a brain, you can use it! Okay, okay… first, I need to get the wolves away from him; I need to talk to him one on one.

But how do I do that?

Spike suddenly whimpered loudly in her arms, shuddering and pawing at her like he wanted nothing more than to get away.

“Spike!” Twilight chided him quietly, “Be quiet! It’s… all right?”

Her voice dropped to a squeak, for just then Twilight heard the growling. Low, and deep, and angry… And right behind her.

Twilight, too frightened to scream, whipped around, and saw a snarling Timberwolf, tall enough to look her in the eyes, just a few steps from her. Its blank green eyes practically blazing with anger, and its teeth, thick as rail spikes, bared.

Spike suddenly wriggled out of Twilight’s arms, leapt to the ground, and took off running as fast as he could, yipping in terror as he vanished into the woods. The massive wolf lunged forward, its jaws snapping just short of Twilight’s face as she shrieked and half-leapt and half-fell backwards, stumbling out into the open clearing.

“Twilight?”

Her eyes had been shut; she had closed them, too scared of her impending death to want to see it come for her. She forced herself to open them, and looked up.

The big wolf was still much too close for her liking, standing a few feet away from her, still growling softly… but Timber Spruce was right by her side, looking startled and concerned too. A necklace of gleaming geodes hung around his neck; she could now see that this was what had been making the glow from earlier.

Twilight groaned softly, full of dread. “Oh, no…”

Chapter 11: The Hunt Begins

Author's Notes:

Soo... I really don't have an excuse. I've been dealing with a lot of things, been busy as of late, so I am really sorry. Hopefully I can finish this by the end of the month, no promises.

Hope you enjoy it. Thanks again to Scholars for helping me patch and flesh some scenes out.

"Twilight, are you okay? What are you doing out here?"

Twilight saw he had offered a hand to help her up. But right now she felt a little peeved that he was acting so kindly to her, after all of this. "You mean me, as opposed to you or your attack dogs?" Twilight accused.

"I didn't tell them to attack you, and I've made animals before! How did you even find me here?" Timber protested.

"While I was playing with Spike, I accidentally overheard you arguing with Gloriosa. Your cabin walls aren't that strong."

Timber felt a little hesitant to say anything, but he still kept going. "And just what do you think you overheard?"

"Enough to know that you've been rejected by enough colleges that won't accept you. That's why you tore up that letter, and it's also why you've been really upset lately. Evading questions, snapping at Gloriosa, being incredibly grumpy. Being rejected is hard, but it's not a reason to start doing.... whatever it is you were doing, training these Timberwolves!"

Timber scrunched his temples, thinking. How was he going to explain this to her? She saw what he was doing, there was no hiding that from her or denying it. She's not dumb. But he did have an idea of where to start.

"Twilight. Follow me. I'll show you where I found it," Timber said.

Twilight was hesitant to follow but reluctantly did so. How could she believe this boy who was so kind to her was doing activities like these? And even then, was he leading her into a trap, or was it something far more sinister? Well, she didn't know, but she hesitantly followed after him.

He led her through the forest, and he led her back onto a straight path which was looking more like the hiking paths that the campers had been taking long before. Where was he leading her? And more importantly, was he going to tell her the honest truth?

But then when she saw what he led her to, she was even more anxious. A dark cavern, nearby some rocks. The rock quarry, it had to have been. He told the campers not to go anywhere near it, but now she was going inside to finally see it for herself. Timber led her inside, and brought her into the middle of the cavern, with tons of sunlight hitting the middle, showing a crystal pedestal.

"That pedestal there? That's where I got the geode."

Twilight looked at the pedestal, recognizing the indentations around the pedestal. They all resembled the crystals that Rarity and Applejack... found their first day of camp. Suddenly it became clear to Twilight. Equestrian Magic had been here at the camp all along. And now the last geode was under the control of one of the camp counselors who had been making chaos without even knowing it. But she couldn't let get distracted, she had to find out the truth.

"So... how did you find out that thing had magic?" Twilight hesitated.

Timber took a second to collect his thoughts and then began to speak.

"I've been at this camp for almost all of my life. The only time I've ever really gone is when we all would go to our grandparents or other relatives for Christmas. I've never really left these grounds and lived in the world around me, this place is all I know. I've been doing homeschooling for every year now, and I've never been to a real classroom, with real students. I'm almost at the age where I should be applying for college, and I've been applying since the start of the year. I've tried, and tried, and tried, and every time I can't catch a break I just get so frustrated. That is until I found this."

Timber flashed the geodes at Twilight, lifting it slightly.

"I didn't know what this was. It gave off strange energy, and then I found out that I could use it to manipulate things around me. So whenever I was upset, I ran out here to try and blow off steam. The only one who knows is Gloriosa, and, well, now you. And I haven't made just wolves you know. Watch."

Timber approached the entrance of the cave, looking at a small collection of sticks near a broken-off tree. His hand clenched around the geode and focused his eyes on the wood in front of him. Suddenly, the sticks started wriggling and writhing around on the ground, until they started to converge together, becoming one. And when Timber opened up his eyes, he saw that a little bunny had been made from the sticks, now sentient just like the wolves.

The bunny tilted its head, looking at Timber, and allowed him to pick it up. And Twilight had to admit, it was kinda cute. Especially the little noises it made like it wanted to be petted.

"See?"

Twilight did see, but her senses finally kicked in and brought her back to reality.

"Yes, I see it, and yes it's adorable, but it doesn't mean that it's okay. Timber, the magic you're using is causing chaos at the camp. Flash was almost attacked by one of those wolves you just made, and I'm pretty sure those things are why the cell tower is destroyed! You have to stop using those things or someone's going to get hurt! Maybe even you!"

Timber's smile faded away into a frown. But then his eyes slowly turned into a glare.

"Twilight, I know you're scared, and that's okay. But I know what I'm doing, I can stop them. I can fix this situation, and I can control those Timberwolves."

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing. He completely ignored what she was saying, he was ignoring her warning! He was messing with power that he clearly did not understand was having serious consequences... just like she was back at the Friendship Games. A horrible image of Midnight Sparkle resurfaced in her head, remembering what it was like when she turned to help away. And then she saw some of the same Timberwolves appear, standing outside the cave with curious faces. Those monsters that hurt her friends, and were now hurting their means of calling for help. She couldn't let them leave, nor could she let Timber handle them on his own. She couldn't let him suffer the same fate as her.

"Timber... Timber, listen to me," Twilight began, "I know you want to fix things, but you can't do this alone. I thought I could handle things by myself once, and there are some things you can, but this isn't something you can do alone! I learned a long time ago that it's okay to accept help even if you don't--"

To her distress, the boy's face was darkening with frustration at everything she said. "I don't need help, Twilight. I - can - fix this!"

Timber was starting to become angry, and now the Timberwolves were growling again, and Twilight felt scared. "Timber, listen to me, please!" she pushed on, "I know you're angry and I'm really sorry, but you can't do all this yourself--"

"Yes, I CAN!"

Timber's voice rose to a shout, and at the exact moment he did so, there was a flash of blinding green light. Timber shrieked in surprise and covered her eyes as she flinched back; her feet hit against a large rock on the cave floor and she lost her balance and fell to the rocky ground. Her head rang for a moment, her glasses falling askew, but she could make out the barking and snarling of the Timberwolves outside the cave. They seemed almost excited.

"Twilight!" she heard Timber's voice say. He sounded taken aback, maybe even guilty? But the barking grew more aggressive, and then quite suddenly it began to fade away. Twilight, hoping against hope as she got back to her feet, fixing her glasses on right, that the wolves had actually been brought to heel by their maker, soon realized something else - something far worse...

The wolves were leaving the cave. They had to be going back to the woods... maybe even towards the camp.

"Timber!" she ran for the entrance to the cave, but it was too late... there was a wall of roots growing up, faster than she could have ever imagined, right around her, weaving and interlocking until she was surrounded by a wooden cage. There was just enough room for her to stand and walk just a bit in, but she was undoubtedly trapped.

"Timber Spruce, let me out of here!" Twilight banged her fist against the wooden barrier, "What are you doing!?"

"I'm doing this for your own good, Twilight!" The look on the boy's face as he faced her was frightening to her; had she looked this desperate in the past, Twilight wondered, when she had thought that the only person she could rely on was herself? "I can't let you get hurt. I'm doing this to protect you, I promise! I can take care of the Timberwolves, I can stop them, and I will make sure they don't tear up the camp!"

Suddenly the Timberwolves got an idea, as the two of them looked at each other with some soft growling, almost as if they were communicating. And without even being told or said, suddenly they turned around and ran deeper in the woods, barking like hungry animals to the rest of their pack.

"Timber, people are going to get hurt, please, don't!"

Timber heard her pleas, but he didn't respond to them and instead started to leave the cavern. Walking out of the cave, Timber looked back with a solemn face, swearing inside that he would come back to get her out when these monsters were dealt with. Without any other warning... the cave entrance started to hole up.

"Noooooo!!!"

The entranced had been sealed by a heavy boulder, with only the cracks of light seeping through out the two corners, thankfully not blocking off any oxygen. Timber, gripped the geode around his neck, internally swearing inside about what he had just done. He hated doing it, but he cared for Twilight. He couldn't imagine her getting hurt at the claws of those things.

He looked up at the massive footprints left behind by the two wolves and had a look of grimace on his face. He was going to stop them. He would stop them.

No matter what.

The afternoon sunset was starting to hit the end of the horizon, about to switch to daytime. And there was still no sign of Twilight Sparkle or Timber Spruce. Everyone had begun to search for them, but they hadn't had any luck. Didn't help the fact that with almost no cell reception that it was impossible to send a text or call someone, so they had to do things the old fashioned way; go into groups and look together. But they still hadn't found them.

Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack came back into a meeting spot, meeting up with Flash, Thunderbass, and Rarity.

"Any luck?"

"Nada. Where could they have gone, they couldn't have gone too far, at least they shouldn't have," Thunderbass said out loud.

"When was the last time you saw her?” Rainbow asked.

“Just this afternoon. Now it’s like she’s just… gone,” Thunderbass said, looking around. “I know it’s getting close to dark, but I don’t like it. We gotta find her.”

“We're still with you,” Rainbow nodded.

“Count me in, Rainbow Dash, if she’s hurt out there, we’ll bring her back,” Rarity declared.

Just then, Flash and Thunderbass came running to them.

“Hey, have any of you seen Twilight? I checked the tents, she’s not out there,” Thunderbass asked.

Just then, they all froze at the sound of a twig snapping in the woods. Their heads turned into the direction of the sound, standing defensively.

"Who's out there? Timber? Twilight? Anybody?" Flash shouted.

The bushes started to rattle and shake, and they rustled some more. Everyone's minds started to ring alarms and think about running, until they saw a little purple and green dog run out in fear, barking with fear.

"Spike!"

The poor little dog whimpered and whined as he pulled himself close to the familiar girls, trying to stay as close to them as possible. Rarity bent over and picked up the poor pup, holding him in her arms.

"Aww, Spikey-wikey, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong boy?" Rainbow asked, concerned.

Spike could only reply in scared whimpers. Even when Fluttershy rubbed her hand against his fur, she could feel him vibrating. "Oh the poor thing is shaking," Fluttershy said, feeling her heart snap.

"Oh, it's okay Spike," Rarity hugged the poor little dog, petting him and rubbing his fur. "What's got you so scared?"

Just then they heard another rustle in the woods, much louder than the first one. The sound got Spike to stop shaking, and he turned his head to the source of the sound. His nose sniffed the air and in a complete 180, he went from a scared dog worried about his owner to a guard dog ready to defend as he jumped from Rarity's arms onto the ground.

"I stand corrected, what's got you so mad?" Rarity asked.

The rustling in the woods continued to shake until Spike started growling and snarling like he wanted to bite into whatever threat was out there.

“Hey, easy boy, what’s wrong?” Rainbow asked.

Spike didn’t listen and still growled at the woods.

“Fluttershy, you’re our resident animal expert, do you know?”

“When dogs growl, they usually do it if they’re territorial, or if they sense something dangerous, like if something is going to come near their masters,” Fluttershy explained. She looked into the woods where Spike was staring so intently at but didn’t see anything. “Maybe we can’t see it but Spike can.”

The dog still didn’t move from his stance, and the two boys moved towards him, trying to look off into the woods.

“Yeah, I can’t see… wait a minute. There’s something in those trees.”

A lumber foot pushed its way out of the darkness and accompanied by a pair of glowing green eyes. Intense growling bled from the trees, and the disgusting aroma of dead fish and boiled eggs hit their noses.

“What is that smell!?” Sandalwood yelled from afar.

“Wait a minute… that’s what those wooden beasts smelled like at the Friendship Games,” Rarity’s voice quivered. “But if that’s the same scent then…”

Everyone realized what was going on, and without question, they grabbed Spike and ran from that selection of trees. An angry Timberwolf emerged from hiding, growling, and barking at them.

“TIMBERWOLVES!!!”

“I told you they were real!” Flash panicked.

“I’m so sorry I doubted you, bro!” Thunderbass cried. “I’ll never doubt you again!”

“Me too!” Rainbow gulped, picking up speed.

“Can we talk about this later!?” Rarity shrieked.

The group picked up their feet as hard as they could until they were now in the open area of the camp where everyone else had gathered. Suddenly all their eyes turned to see the group come back as they ran like crazy, screaming in terror.

"Get back inside! We got monsters! Get inside, now!"

The snarling wooden beasts came hurtling into the open, bringing everyone's confusion into outright panic. The two principals ran to try and help get their students to a safe place, but in the chaos of the attack, it was near impossible. Principal Luna was bowled over by a Timberwolf and twisted her ankle; Vice-Principal Celestia ran to help her sister up, trying to drive the Timberwolf near her back with a claw hammer she'd snatched on the way. The tall woman managed to smack the wooden beast hard in the snout when it tried to snap at her hand; the blow put a good crack into the wood wolf's upper jaw, and it fell back with a whimper.

Then, another wolf, which had crept up behind Celestia, sunk its teeth into her ankle and pulled her off balance. With a gasp of shock, Celestia fell on her face, hit her head, and was knocked unconscious. The two wolves bayed in triumph, as the weakened Luna dragged herself to her sister's side. At first it looked horribly like the two sisters would be overlooked in the chaos and panic throughout the camp, but then Flash Sentry saw the wood wolves slowly advancing on the fallen principals.

"We have to get the principals!"

"Flash, no, don't!"

Flash ran back into the field, but he didn't charge at the wolves like a moron. Instead he made a turn to the shooting gallery, and picked up a paintball gun, quickly loading it with ammunition. Once they were loaded, he turned around to see a Timberwolf breathe its disgusting swamp breath at his face, but he still held his ground. Inside he was cursing himself, telling himself not to do what he was about to do and just run for it, but he wasn't going to just sit and watch as their principals get in more harm, or worse, possible death.

He pumped the gun, and pointed it at the Timberwolves with a steel grip, keeping a strong stance. "Get away from the principals you monster!"

It took every ounce of courage and bravery he could muster, but he stood his ground and fired at the Timberwolf, pelting its body in paint, and rupturing some of its wooden shell off the body.

"Argh-aggghhhh!!!!" Flash yelled as he fired multiple paintballs at the nearby Timberwolf. He kept his eyes shut and his hand on the trigger as the paintballs kept on shooting, hitting the Timberwolf hard enough, sending pieces of wood off his body. One more hit his head, sending it flying and it crumbled into nothing but twigs and wood, and the rest of the body exploded into nothing but splinters and flammable firewood.

Flash's eyes opened to see if any of them were going to get up close to him, but none did. In fact, all he saw in front of him was the Timberwolf now obliterated in nothing but twigs.

"What? It worked? It works! Grab a paintball gun, it hurts them!" Flash yelled.

Pinkie Pie performed a cartwheel as she rolled over to a paintball gun that was sitting near the gallery, picking it up with her hands instead of her hair this time. She held on tight, standing in a firm and locked position, and opened fire on some more of the Timberwolves.

Running and risking safety, Thunderbass picked up a paintball gun as well, and joined Flash and Pinkie with opening fire. All three focused on a single Timber, pelting it enough to watch more pieces of wood break off and eventually explode into dozens of little pieces.

"Hey, mind shooting some this way?" Applejack shouted.

She was throwing several rocks at one of the Timberwolves which was coming close to cornering her, but launching a bigger stone with her super strength finally did the deed. It went right into the wolf's gullet, but it also came hurling out its back and was reduced to twigs. Only this time, he didn't stay down; he fell apart, but the Timberwolf slowly reconstituted itself.

"Flash, it's not working! They keep coming back together!"

"It's not hard to knock them down, it's getting them to stay down that's the issue!" Flash confirmed, opening fire on another Timberwolf.

"Applejack, use this!"

Pinkie's hair whipped and picked up a nearby axe for cutting the bench wood, and she stretched far enough to give Applejack a weapon to fight. With her strength kicking in, she swung the tool at the monstrosity, hacking it into nothing more than pure lumber supply until it was finally nothing more than a giant mess of sticks and tree pieces.

Gloriosa made sure to keep Rara, Micro Chips, Sandalwood, and Derpy far away from the monsters, and luckily she wasn't alone. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood to help defend, while Rarity was trying to find a way back to them without getting hurt.

"Rarity, use your magic!"

"I can't!"

"Rarity, just do it! They can't possibly hurt you!"

Rarity found herself surrounded by more Timberwolves, four of them starting to circle her and keep her where she was. Realizing she was out of options, she focused on her magic, hoping it would come to save her. With a magical glow, her entire body started shimmering like a diamond sparkling in a cavern. One of the wolves tried to snap at her, and Rarity pulled herself back out of fear, but she felt no pain. In fact, the next sound she heard was the sound of the wolf whimpering in pain, mainly from trying to bite at her.

When she looked down, she got an idea that made her lips curl into a smirk. "So you want a piece of me? Come on!" Rarity stomped her foot down at the wolves, and they retreated back from her. "Are you afraid to get dirty!? Let's see how you like being bitten!"

Rainbow and Fluttershy blinked in unison.

"Yikes. Remind me to never make her upset," Rainbow gulped.

"Same here," Fluttershy nodded quickly.

Rarity, not even holding back, made a childish 'monster' face, scaring the wolves away from her, making her giggle. "Works every time."

The attack continued until the wolves started to keep on coming and surround the campers, forcing them all back into the cabin they emerged from. Thunderbass, Applejack, Flash Sentry, and Pinkie Pie held their ground, not willing to give up. But something happened that broke the fight.

A monstrous howl erupted, deep in the woods, making every single ear of the Timberwolves perk up and look to that particular direction. All together they let out a large howl, howling like they were communicating in some way. Then all of the sudden, they stopped looking to the campers and started running back into the woods, completely ignoring what they were just doing.

"Wait, where are they going?" Rainbow questioned.

"Who cares, anywhere is better than coming back here," Sandalwood remarked, trying to stay out of sight.

"Agreed," Rara quivered.

"Okay everyone, mess hall, now! Everyone get inside!" Gloriosa ordered, getting no disagreements for the most part.

"But wait, where's Twilight and Timber, we have to find them!"

"We'll have to find them later, right now, my job is to keep you all safe, and that's exactly what I'm going to do," Gloriosa stated, yanking Rainbow with her to go inside. She wanted to argue, but it was no use, Gloriosa had a stronger grip. But even as she was forcefully dragged to come back inside, she was still worried about the fates of Timber and Twilight who were still in the woods...

--

The Timberwolves galloped off into the woods until they saw the light-brown skinned boy, the one who had created them all. When they saw him in his path, they slowed their feet down and ground their wooden toes against the ground, kicking up some dirt and bits of gravel as they came to a halt. When the clouds cleared, all eyes set on their creator, and he was not happy. Timber glared at each of the wolves who gathered back together, like a disappointed parent. But the amount of anger inside was hard to contain.

"What is wrong with you!? Why did you go attacking the camp!? I didn't tell you to attack the campers, nor did I tell you to go there! I didn't say at all to go there! Did I?"

The wolves didn't respond, but instead just glared back at him with murderous intent. But their little stick ears perked up when they heard the sound of another wolf howling in the distance, only this was much larger and more powerful than any of the others. The group looked far beyond the trees to the call, each of them howling at the moon to reply to the call. And after they were done letting out their howl of the night, each of them turned back to Timber. Only they weren't going to listen, oh no. Now they slowly moving towards him, trying to get him to back away.

And back away he did, as it looked like these wolves wanted him dead, or was there some other purpose that they had in mind that he had no idea about? "Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Timber protested.

The Timberwolves just growled and snarled, forcing him to keep on moving. It wasn't until he saw them leading him further into the woods that he realized what he had done. He created these beasts; he wasn't in charge of them. He couldn't control them and stop them from hurting anyone, they had their own agenda in mind. Timber wanted to get away but saw no way out of his predicament. All he could do now was continue to follow them to wherever he was being led to...

Back in the cavern, Twilight was still struggling to get free from the plant cage that Timber had manipulated to trap her.

"Ergh, come on!" Twilight grunted, still trying to get herself free. "I can't stay tied here."

She struggled some more until she nearly collapsed and laid back on the ground. "Okay, Twilight. You cannot let vines hold you down, there has to be a logical way to get out of here." She looked around her, and her eyes looked back to her legs. "Okay, let's think. These are made trees, and trees, much like wood can be cut. These vines, depending on the type cannot be that strong. So what can I cut them with?"

She pulled her upper body back up, looking at the ground around her. There had have been something sharp for her to cut the cage on, something she could grind right through, something--like a rock! A few sharp rocks were near her, if she could grind them against her bonds, she could get out!

Stretching her arm out as best as she could, she reached her arm out as far as she could, barely touching the rock. But she had to, she had to get it! She forced her body against the cage, pressing all of her weight against it so she could get her arm out to grab it. Just a little more, her eyes were shut tight as she tried to grasp it with the tips of her fingers and... she got it! She gripped a rock in her hand, finally having something in her possession.

With a tool in her hand, Twilight scratched and rubbed the rock against the cage vines, until she saw some of them starting to come loose. More rubbings against the vines were enough to finally push through. Just a few more vines cut through and she finally broke from her little imprisonment. She got back up on her feet, and dusted herself off, wiping off any resin or dust from the ground off her body. Now she had to get out of the cave and find the others. Only one problem, the giant boulder that had blocked the cave. Out of curiosity, she tried pressing her body against it to try and push it, with little to no success. She used her hands to press against it, nothing. She tried using her back, nada.

There had to be a way to get the boulder out, she had to get out there somehow! Her eyes looked down to something hitting her chest; that glowing geode that Rarity had made as a gift for her. The same kind of geode that Timber showed off which gave him those powers. This geode might be her only chance out of here now. But her friends would find out she has powers, and what about everyone else?

But then she thought about what would happen if she didn't get out of here to warn them or help. She had to get out of here, now. She stood up on her feet, and looked at the boulder. Her fists were clenched tight, and her eyes were narrow and focused. The time was now, and so her geode began to glow...

The Timberwolves were gone, but the campers weren't taking any chances on them not coming back. They threw up the tables, chairs, and whatever else they could find against the windows to barricade them in case they slammed through them. The doors were locked with the deadbolts, and everyone was safe and secure. The two principals were back inside, safe from the attack. Right now though, Celestia had a concussion and was thankfully being treated thanks to Gloriosa and Principal Luna. The principal's leg was wrapped up in bandages, which made moving a bit hard, but she was still okay. Right now, her main priority was making sure everyone else was safe.

Gripping a paintball gun but in shaking hands was Thunderbass. He was trying not to break his stance, ready to shoot down any Timberwolves that would have come their way, but the anxiety and anticipation of their arrival was affecting his ability to stand still to hold the gun.

"Thunder, maybe you should give someone else a gun, someone who won't drop it in a second," Autumn hesitated, trying to move to grab the gun.

"I'm not moving!" Thunder shrieked. "I can't stand it man, I'm tired of waiting, I just want them to come out here so I can blow them into firewood!"

"Thunder!" Flash snapped, stepping in front of him, gripping his shoulders. "Listen to me, I know you're scared, but you have to stay calm right now. We have the doors sealed, and as long as we stay together, we'll be fine. Can I please have the gun?"

Thunderbass's arms shook and trembled, but he finally let go of the gun, letting Flash take it from him.

"This is all my fault, I should have done something," Gloriosa cursed herself.

"You didn't know there were giant monsters coming to attack your camp, this isn't something you can be ready right off the bat," Applejack said, pushing another table against the barricades.

"Yes, but it's my fault that these things are coming. Had I known what Timber was making, I would have... I... I don't know. I just wish I knew how to help him, and I don't know where he is."

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

Gloriosa didn't realize what she had said until it finally hit her. She looked at the other campers who were giving her some mixed looks; unsure, glaring, worried.

"I... um," Gloriosa stuttered. "I can't tell you, I--"

"--If you know something, you should say it, now," Rainbow glared.

"Rainbow Dash, restrain yourself," Rarity piped up, pulling her back. "You cannot go accusing her, we don't even know what she means."

"We know plenty," Rainbow argued.

"Guys, we got company!" Flash yelled.

"Applejack, how are those defenses?" Pinkie squeaked in fear.

"Almost done, just one more!" Applejack threw the last of the barricades up before joining the others, huddled in a big group in the center of the mess hall. Flash picked up his paintball gun, cocking it, and ready to shoot. But just before he stood to defend—

“Does anyone know how to use this?” Flash asked, holding the other gun.

“I do,” Autumn nodded.

Flash tossed the paintball gun over to her, and she gripped it tightly. She cocked it, and she stood close in a guard position. Thunderbass also stood with them, holding a giant wrench; it would have to do for a blunt weapon.

Standing together up front were the five Rainbooms, Flash, Autumn, and Thunderbass who all held their stance, ready for a fight. And just behind them was sweet Derpy who held up a bow and arrow she grabbed earlier for extra support. It may not have been much, but it would have to do. And trying to keep out of their line of fire was Gloriosa, Rara, Micro Chips, and Sandalwood.

“Okay, whatever happens, we stand together,” Rarity declared with some pride.

“We’re Wondercolts. You bet we will,” Thunderbass said, swinging the wrench around like a baseball bat.

Flash gripped the gun tightly, waiting for a sound, something, anything.

“Come on in you freaks of nature,” Flash grunted, holding the gun to his chest. “Come on in…”

Everyone listened quietly. The sounds of angry animals were still heard outside, swarming the place. None of them made an attack. None of them attempted to bust through the building. The outside world was still filled with angry animals…

Then, something changed. The anger in the animals turned to fear. The group didn’t know what was happening, but they heard the sounds of smashing twigs and lumber. And more smashing noises erupted, and none of them could see what was happening.

A whimper of a hurt dog came from the outside, and they watched as several pieces of wood lightly hit the side of the mess hall door, but never bust through. And the sounds stopped. Suddenly, everything went quiet.

“Think they’re gone?” Derpy shivered, trying to keep her arms steady on the arrow.

“Don’t take any chances,” Rainbow ordered.

Just then, their heads turned to hear clicking from the door. The locks were being undone like someone or something from the other side was undoing them.

Everyone stayed in guard mode, and the guns were pointed to the door, waiting to fire. But then the door slowly opened, and a figure walked inside. Those familiar shoes, pants, and shirt came back to their eyes, and a sense of relief washed over them. Her hands were radiating with magic, and a stern expression was on her face, looking brave. The Rainbooms stepped forward, shocked to see the sight before them.

Twilight looked like a mix of shocked and scared washing together. But then the Rainbooms slowly smiled, taking in the facts of the situation. She was okay. She came back just fine. And she took out the Timberwolves outside!

And like that, Twilight’s fear went away as she saw her friends again, smiling back at them all the while.