Sci-Twi, Sunset Shimmer, and the rest of their friends are excited for their trip to Camp Everfree, especially when Fragment Hunter wants to tag along with them for some rest and relaxation. However, something strange is happening at the campgrounds.
After the Friendship Games between Canterlot High School, Crystal Prep Academy, and Fragment Hunter joining from Beacon Academy, CHS is ready for their trip to Camp Everfree. Fragment Hunter stops by and hears of the trip for themselves, so they want to come along as well. The Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter, and their friends from CHS all head out for a week of fun in the great outdoors.
However, Twilight Sparkle/Sci-Twi has been having nightmares about her monstrous self from the Friendship Games, Midnight Sparkle. Not only that, but strange things are happening around the campgrounds when the Rainbooms start developing magical powers, a local ghost seems to be haunting the camp, and Creatures of Grimm show up to attack the campers. Can Sunset Shimmer and Fragment Hunter solve this mystery before anybody gets hurt or worse?
Cover art is my Original RWBY Character, Azalea Calla Holstein, made by my friend, jkl930, on Tumblr.
Everyone at Canterlot High School was going about their day when Principal Celestia made an announcement. "Good afternoon, everyone. Vice Principal Luna and I would like to remind everyone who signed up for Camp Everfree that the class trip tomorrow," Celestia explained. The students all spoke to each other in excitement about the camping trip for students who raised enough money for it. "Be sure to have all the belongings that you plan to take packed and ready when the bus arrives to pick you up for camp at the same time you would be picked up for school," Celestia reminded. "Everyone have a great day before the field trip."
Meeting up in the courtyard by the broken Wondercolt Statue, the Rainbooms all talked about the upcoming trip. "This field trip's going to be so much fun," Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced around the remains of the statue.
"You said it, Pinkie," Applejack commented as she adjusted her hat. Then, a rainbow-colored flash of light appeared from behind the destroyed statue which caught the attention of everyone but Rainbow Dash, who had her eyes closed and her back turned.
"I can't wait for tomorrow," Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Can't wait for what," a familiar voice asked.
Rainbow Dash turned around to see that Fragment Hunter, their friends from another world called Remnant, had stopped by for another visit. "We were just talking about the class trip to Camp Everfree that's happening tomorrow," Rainbow explained.
"You're going camping? Cool," said Silver Wuruhi as he flicked his wolf tail.
"Hey, maybe you guys could talk to Principal Celestia about coming along with us," Sunset Shimmer suggested. "It could be more fun with you guys."
Slate Quartz pondered the idea as he held onto his hat. "Hmm... It would be interesting to go camping here. I could bring my little sister," he remarked.
"And I could invite Bianca," Azalea Calla Holstein exclaimed in excitement. "She's always been inviting us places since we saw each other back at the Beacon Dance."
"You mean where she kissed Silver on the cheek and he stumbled around like a dope," Rua Amaranth joked as she looked at the Wolf Faunus, who only blushed and chuckled nervously at the memory.
"I'll admit that I wouldn't be against going camping," Celadon Flynn voiced as she moved her bangs out of her eyes.
"Especially since the camp is giving us tents and meals," Rarity agreed.
"At least we won't have to deal with the usual problems with camping," Rebecca Haze said. "Werewolves, demonic bears, giant venomous centipedes, giant mantis monsters, monster ravens, or any other type of Grimm while we're here."
"Um... are those Grimm really everywhere in Remnant," Fluttershy asked as she remembered all the chaos at the Friendship Games when monsters from Remnant known as 'Creatures of Grimm' appeared throughout the events. "Because they were terrifying when we first saw them."
"Mostly," Lapis Ondine honestly replied. "However, most civilizations in Remnant tend to have defenses of some sort to protect themselves. Whether natural like the climate and geography or man-made like large city walls and automated defense systems."
"But, the Grimm coming here to CHS was probably a one-time thing because of those rifts," Sunset Blaze, the de facto leader of Fragment Hunter, said in order to comfort Fluttershy.
"We should focus on going camping," Azalea stated. "I'm sure that my family would be happy to chaperone the trip, just in case."
"You'll need to talk with Principal Celestia about it, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you all coming along," Sci-Twi mentioned.
"Rua, let's go get my parents," Azalea told her friend before the two girls vanished in another rainbow-colored flash of light before reappearing another minute or two later. "So, what do you guys say," Azalea said to her parents, Terracotta Gaia and Ivy Dahlia Holstein.
The two bovine Faunus thought it over before they gave their answer. "Of course, princess. Besides, I haven't actually been camping in a while," Terracotta said to his daughter. "Let's go and talk with Principal Celestia about letting us go on the trip."
Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were going over what they needed for the Camp Everfree trip in the former's office when they heard a knock on the door. "Come in," Celestia said to the person on the other side. When they opened the door, the two principals immediately recognized the tall and muscular male who had to duck under the door frame to safely get in the room. "Oh, Terracotta Gaia. What a pleasant surprise to meet you again after everything at the Friendship Games," Celestia greeted.
"Same to you, Principal Celestia," Terracotta said as he, Ivy, and the members of Fragment Hunter all walked into the office. "We heard from a few of your students that there was a camping trip coming up. They invited my daughter and her friends to join them and we wanted to make sure it was okay with you for us to come along."
"If supplies or transportation are the only issue, we can provide our own to make it easier for you," Ivy mentioned.
When the elder Cow Faunus said that, Lapis pondered something out loud. "Would Rua normally be able to bring something like a Bullhead somewhere with her Semblance?"
Rua thought this over for herself before giving her teammate an answer. "I think I'd overexert myself and get a nosebleed if I did it with something that big, but I would survive," she stated.
As Celestia thought about bringing Fragment Hunter along, Luna tapped her sister's shoulder and whispered something to her. "Everyone did provide more than enough funds. I'm sure that if they bring their own equipment, they would be allowed to stay near the campgrounds with everybody," Luna told Celestia.
"As long as they can spend time with everyone else and make fond memories like we did when we went to Camp Everfree as students at CHS," Celestia said to her younger sister before turning back to face Terracotta and Ivy. "I believe that we can let you all join us on the class trip. I'm sure that you'll have a great time with each other and all your friends that you made here."
Fragment Hunter all cheered at the agreement as they left for Terracotta and Ivy to discuss additional details with the principals. "Oh yeah! Let's get everything ready, gang," Silver exclaimed as his tail wagged behind him.
The sun was starting to shine through Twilight's bedroom window as she and Spike were sound asleep. While the dog was snoring, Twilight was tossing and turning as she began to talk in her sleep. "No... It can't be...! It isn't true," she muttered and sounded like she was having a nightmare. While she was having a bad dream, Spike woke up and heard somebody call for Twilight as they knocked on her door. Barking excitedly, he got up and ran toward the door while somebody else exclaimed something to Twilight as she began to wake up from Spike's barking.
"Twilight! The bus for Camp Everfree leaves in ten minutes," Rainbow Dash said and managed to get Twilight to realize what was going on.
"Oh, no-no-no-no-no! I can't believe I overslept," Twilight panicked as she put on her glasses.
The Rainbooms, who were now dressed for their camping trip, entered her room and checked up on her. Spike went over to Fluttershy, who started to pet the small dog while the others either spoke to Twilight or looked around the girl's room. "Me neither. That's not like you," Sunset Shimmer remarked as Twilight rushed to pack her suitcase. At the same time, Rainbow Dash was checking out a hoodie that Twilight owned to see if it would look good on herself.
"Don't you have a super-annoying alarm clock that goes like this," Pinkie Pie asked as she began to imitate an alarm clock's buzzer as she made exaggerated gestures. Hearing something under Twilight's pillow, Pinkie lifted it up to find an alarm clock sounding off not even two seconds after she did her impression.
Sunset walked over and turned it off for Twilight before turning back to her. "It's gonna be fine. We'll help you pack," she said as everyone else nodded. As everyone added what Twilight needed for camp into her suitcase, there were a few other items that were added. Fluttershy put in a llama plushie, Spike placed one of his chew toys in the bag, and Rainbow Dash's addition was an autographed photo of herself in a customized frame. "Rainbow Dash, why would Twilight need this when all of us are going to camp together," Sunset questioned. Rainbow only chuckled as the photo was removed from the suitcase.
When Rarity found something to pack for Twilight, Applejack sighed when she saw Rarity was holding up a dress. Coincidentally, the other Rainbooms recognized it as the same one that Sci-Twi's alternate counterpart from Equestria wore when they first went to Canterlot High School's Fall Formal together. "We're gonna be out in the woods. When is she gonna need that," Applejack questioned.
"If we were going to the moon, I'd insist that she'd pack an evening gown," Rarity said in reply as she placed the dress in Twilight's suitcase. "One never knows, darling."
"I'm not sure of how Azalea, Blaze, and the others in Fragment Hunter would answer, but go ahead and pack it. We need to get going," Applejack told Rarity.
Rainbow Dash zipped up Twilight's suitcase for her and carried it. "Lemme just get changed and I'll meet you guys outside," Twilight said as she reached into her closet. Every student who signed up for Camp Everfree was given a t-shirt or tank top with the camp's logo on the front, so most of the students joining the trip would be wearing them while they were attending camp. After Twilight got changed, she remembered the dream she had earlier and shook it off. While she was still a little groggy from waking up like she did, she chose to get some more sleep on the bus ride if she needed it.
After the Rainbooms met up at their bus, they saw several of their classmates all dressed up for the summer camp as well. Not only that, but they saw Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were wearing scout uniforms. "Alright, everyone. It's time to head off for Camp Everfree," Celestia told the students/campers.
While everyone was starting to board the vehicle, the Rainbooms looked around for Fragment Hunter. "Where are they," Twilight asked as Spike sat between her and Fluttershy. "They said that they'd be here and I made sure to remind them while they were hanging out with us yesterday afternoon."
"I'm sure that they're just getting a few last minute things before they get here," Sunset Shimmer reassured. "Tents, sleeping bags, snacks, spare clothes..."
"Well, I'm sure that they'll need something to travel in because the bus is getting pretty full," Rainbow Dash remarked.
"Like what? A big airship or something," Applejack rhetorically asked before laughing at what she said. While she did that, a large shadow was cast over everyone as they were boarding the bus. Noticing the shadow because there wasn't a cloud in the sky that morning, Applejack stopped laughing as she, the Rainbooms, and everyone else noticed something in the sky above them.
"Oh my," Fluttershy managed to voice out as everyone couldn't believe what they saw. Flying above the campers was a large airship that looked like it could carry 20 or more people. It had what looked like wings, but they moved like the flippers of a turtle. Everyone was speechless at what they saw until they saw a man with windswept blond hair, goggles, an armored bomber jacket, and falcon talons for feet floating down toward them. The Rainbooms recognized him as Ventus Gaia, a Falcon Faunus who was Azalea's uncle.
As he made his descent Pinkie grabbed at Applejack and started to shake her friend around. "Quick, AJ! Now say that chocolate milk will rain from the sky," she exclaimed before releasing AJ. When she did, she rushed over to a sunnier area with her mouth wide open and balancing herself on one leg. When Applejack said nothing and the sky was still clear, Pinkie pouted as she walked back to the others in time to see Ventus land.
"Hey, girls," Ven greeted as he pulled something out of his pocket. "We'll talk more on the road with this." Giving Sunset Shimmer a small object, he pulled out a second one to reveal what it was. "It's a Scroll. Basically a multi-purpose communicator back in Remnant. I'll explain more when we call it." With that, Ventus flew back up to the airship above and everyone watched him fly back up to the aerial vehicle with his powers. Twilight was still gawking and wondering how the airship could even fly with its design while Rainbow Dash had a giant grin on her face as she wondered what other kind of vehicles existed in Remnant.
"Well... that was unexpected, but it seems as though everyone is here," Vice Principal Luna remarked and caught the attention of the girls. "Come along. We can't keep the driver and the other campers waiting."
As the bus and airship headed out of the city, the Rainbooms listened to Ventus' explanation about the airship and the Scroll they were given. About halfway through the trip, Twilight got some more sleep to make up for what happened that morning. However, she was flailing around when she dreamt that her friends were attacked by something she didn't want to see again. Midnight Sparkle, the monstrous alternate personality she became during the Friendship Games between Canterlot High School, Crystal Prep Academy, and Fragment Hunter. "No! Stop," Twilight screamed out in terror as her alter ego tried to possess her in the dream.
"Twilight, wake up," Spike called out to her as he nudged against the girl.
"We can't stop, silly! We're not there yet," Pinkie Pie reminded as she and Sunset Shimmer, who were sitting behind Twilight and Spike, checked up on the girl when they heard her talking in her sleep.
"Hey, are you okay," Sunset Shimmer asked in concern.
"Yeah," replied a voice from the Scroll that Sunset held onto. "We could hear you from here since I was still talking to Shimmer."
"I'm fine," Twilight said to not worry her friends as she put on a fake smile. "And, sorry about that, Azalea."
"It's alright," Azalea reassured Twilight.
"We are gonna have so much fun," Pinkie exclaimed. "We're gonna roast marshmallows and eat marshmallows and sleep on marshmallow pillows!"
"Yeah, probably not gonna do that last one," Rainbow Dash commented from the seat in front of Twilight.
"Maybe you're not," Pinkie said before she pulled out a giant bag of marshmallows from out of nowhere and hugged it.
Just then, Principal Celestia spoke to everyone on the bus. "Attention, students, we're almost there. But before we arrive, we just wanted to say how proud we are of you for raising enough money to go on this class field trip."
"When we were your age, we made some of our favorite memories in these woods, and we're sure you will, too," Luna said to everyone as well.
"Now, who's excited for Camp Everfree," Celestia asked and everyone responded by cheering. Everyone was excited for a week of camping in the woods, even Twilight and Fragment Hunter. The former Crystal Prep student was less vocal than everyone else, but she was happy to join her friends. Looking out the bus window, she tried to push back her nightmares and focus on the trip. Soon, Celestia thought of something and spoke up to everyone again when they calmed down. "I think we should pass the rest of the trip by singing some songs," she suggested. Everyone muttered in agreement before a mandolin started to play from the Scroll Sunset was given.
"My mom plays the mandolin and thought she would bring it with her for the trip," Azalea explained before letting the music play. Sunset Shimmer turned the volume up so that the instrument could be heard and everyone could sing Camp Everfree's official song.
Will you be lost by time or be part of history? Will your story be told or remain a mystery? Will they sing your song, telling all that you have done? Time to make your choice, only you can be the one
Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! (Hey!) Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! (Hey! Hey! Hey!)
Will you do something great with the time that you have here? Will you make your mark? Will you conquer what you fear? And when you go back home, everybody there will see You were part of the Legend of Everfree!
Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! (Hey!) Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! (Hey!)
Will you find your greatest glory? Will you be a falling star? Here to learn what nature teaches Here to learn more who you are
Will you be lost by time or be part of history? Will your story be told or remain a mystery? And when you go back home, everybody there will see You were part of the Legend of Everfree!
Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! (Hey!) Oh, oh, oh-oh-whoa As you join in the Legend of Everfree! Hey!
As the bus and airship passed through the beautiful countryside, everyone sang along to song and even clapped along to the beat. When the song ended, Fragment Hunter began to play some of their own music to help pass the time while the CHS campers did their own things on the bus. A little while later, the two vehicles reached the entrance to Camp Everfree. The bus drove through the gate and parked just after it while the airship opted to hover above the campground courtyard. Soon, everyone from CHS got off the bus to collect their bags while the members of Fragment Hunter and the guests that they brought literally jumped off of the airship and landed in the middle of camp. When 16 people landed on the ground or were caught by somebody who did, the remaining person in the airship left to find a safe spot to land.
"Well, here we are," said Terracotta as he placed Ivy safely on the ground. "Camp Everfree."
The Rainbooms and their classmates from CHS stepped off the bus and began to collect their bags when they arrived at the campgrounds. "Isn't Camp Everfree just beautiful? I can't wait until we have our first nature walk," Fluttershy said as she admired the beauty of the surrounding area.
"I definitely wanna go on one of those," Spike, who was wearing a Camp Everfree hat on his head, told her.
"You wanna see all the adorable woodland creatures, too," Fluttershy asked Spike.
"Yeah," Spike answered. "Specifically squirrels. More specifically, so I can chase 'em," the dog remarked before barking excitedly.
"I'm just lookin' forward to roughin' it," Applejack said as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm gonna make my own shelter, forage for food..."
"Uh, you know they provide us with food and tents, right," Rainbow Dash reminded her friend.
"Yup. Still gonna forage though," Applejack told Fluttershy and Spike.
"I'm just after some R&R," Rarity sighed as she leaned against her large pile of luggage, which was likely materials for making new outfits when she got the inspiration for new designs. "The past year has all been a bit too much for my tastes."
"I'll say," Pinkie agreed. "We fought three evil sirens who tried to hypnotize everybody with their singing, one ridiculously competitive rival school, an invasion of soulless black monsters with burning red eyes, and two demon friends," she listed. After seeing Sunset Shimmer look at her and Twilight looking a little upset at the mention of both the Fall Formal and the Friendship Games, Pinkie caught herself. "Uh, heh-heh, no offense."
"None taken," Sunset remarked to Pinkie. But unlike when her corrupted transformation was brought up during the Battle of the Bands, Sunset was taking the comment in stride. "You'll get used to it," she told Twilight in order comfort her while playfully punching her shoulder.
"Yep. Canterlot High has become a regular magic magnet. Gonna be nice gettin' away to a place where we don't have to worry about that kinda stuff," Applejack said.
"Same with us," Sunset Blaze said as she and several members of Fragment Hunter walked over to their friends from Canterlot High. Unlike the CHS campers, the visitors from Remnant chose not to wear any summer clothing and chose to keep their regular outfits on. "But, replace magic with Creatures of Grimm instead."
"So, who was flying that awesome airship we all saw," Rainbow Dash asked with a grin on her face.
"Several of us actually know how to fly those kinds of vehicles, but most of the time it was Ventus piloting," Silver answered. Soon, everyone heard an excited and deep-sounding barking noise coming from behind the group. "Why me," Silver complained as a large shadow covered him and Azalea's Great Dane/Wolfhound mixed breed, Dante, landed on top of the Wolf Faunus.
"Hello, Dante," Fluttershy greeted with a sweet smile before the large dog licked at the girl's face, causing her to giggle happily at the affection canine's behavior. Soon, a tricolor collie and a tan corgi ran up to Fragment Hunter and Fluttershy with wagging tails. "Aww, who are these two?"
To answer Fluttershy's question, Ivy Dahlia Holstein walked up and kneeled down to pet the collie. "The collie is Diana and the corgi is Drei," the elder Cow Faunus replied. "They're our other pets from home." Fluttershy and the other Rainbooms fawned over the dogs while Spike started to sniff the new arrivals before determining if they were friendly enough. After he did, Drei started to run off in order to play with Spike.
Suddenly, a pink blur started to begin passing through the area and startling the campers. Everyone from CHS was wondering what it was specifically while Slate Quartz was chasing after it. "COME BACK HERE, YOU BRIGHTLY-COLORED PINBALL," he shouted out to the blur. After the pink thing zoomed past Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings, Slate leapt where it last was and fell between the two girls. "Sorry about that," he apologized to them as they helped the boy to his feet. As everyone looked at Slate spitting grass out of his mouth, the blur stopped in front of the Rainbooms and revealed itself to be a 14-year old girl with short pink hair and viridian eyes.
"Hi there," the girl said cheerfully as she zipped by each of the Rainbooms before stopping at Pinkie Pie and gasped. "Your hair is so pretty!"
"Thanks," Pinkie replied with a smile on her face. "I'm Pinkie Pie. What's your name?"
"Pinkamena Momo Quartz," the younger girl said with a smile that was just as big as Pinkie's. "I go by 'Pinkie', too. This is so exciting," she exclaimed and started bouncing around. Unfortunately for her, Slate grabbed her by the collar of her t-shirt and lifted her up like a cat.
"Calm down, Sugar Rush," Slate told the girl. "I see you've all met my sister."
"And now we have two of Pinkie," Rainbow Dash commented as she looked at her friend and the girl with the same name.
"Just call her 'Momo' like I'm 'Blaze'. It'll be easier that way," Sunset Blaze suggested.
The Rainbooms watched as Momo got loose from her brother's grip and placed his hat on her head. Azalea laughed at the antics of Slate and his sister before another arrival showed up with the rest of Fragment Hunter. "Hey, when am I going to meet these new friends you guys made," asked a blonde girl with large white feathery wings emerging from her back. "I mean it, Azalea. You've actually been making more friends than I thought since you went to Vale."
The girls were speechless at the new arrival looking like an angel with the wings coming from her back and her golden blonde hair. "Darling," Rarity said as she turned to Azalea, "why didn't you tell us that you knew an actual angel?"
"She's not an angel," Azalea replied. "She's a pop star back in Remnant and my childhood friend from my hometown of Mirabelle. Everyone, I want you to meet Bianca Coloratura. She's a Dove Faunus. Bianca, these are Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie."
After the girls were introduced to Bianca, Rarity began looking over the Faunus' attire and made comments on the simple, yet charming style of her sweater and skirt. While Rarity did that, Applejack looked at Bianca and mentioned something. "You know, I have an old friend that has the name 'Coloratura' as well. I'd say that you could be her own 'Remnant version', but the Coloratura I know has black hair."
"Hehehe, what would the odds be that she's a singer as well," Bianca remarked.
As everyone spoke with each other about things in Remnant or what they could do at Camp Everfree, Ventus Gaia flew above the group with a backpack on and landed next to Ivy. Terracotta soon joined everyone as Flash Sentry came by with Twilight's own backpack in his hand. "Here you go, Twilight," he said as he handed the bag to the girl.
"Thanks. It's... Flash, right," Twilight said as she was given the bag and tried to remember the boy's name. Even though she previously met him back during the Friendship Games between CHS and Crystal Prep, Twilight didn't remember much about him and barely got to know her new classmate since transferring.
"Yup, that's me! And you're you. And we don't know each other very well," Flash said awkwardly as he began to remember the two different versions of Twilight Sparkle. "Cool story, bro," he muttered as he began to walk away. Everyone watching felt sorry for Flash while Twilight was feeling just as awkward as he was.
While Twilight was confused by Flash's behavior, Sunset Shimmer explained it by reminding her of something that happened soon after the Friendship Games and the transfer to CHS. "You know how there's that girl who looks just like you when she's here but lives in another dimension and she's a pony princess," Shimmer told Sci-Twi, who nodded in reply. "Flash kinda had a... thing for her," Shimmer explained.
"Oh," Sci-Twi responded in understanding as she and the others watched Flash walk away. "At least there isn't a Twilight from Remnant visiting here," she commented.
"Well, we do know a girl named Twilight Roseus from Vacuo," Cereza remarked. Suddenly, a horrible screech sounded off from the feedback of the P.A. system and forced everyone to cover their ears. "It's a good thing Ebony isn't with us! She'd hate that noise," Cereza shouted over the feedback.
When the feedback stopped, a young woman's voice sounded off. "Hey, everyone! If you could start heading to the courtyard, that would be rad," said a chipper-sounding female. "It's time to start the best week of camp ever!"
"Guess we should go and see who's in charge," Sunset Blaze stated as she lead everyone to the camp's courtyard.
When everyone from CHS and Remnant arrived at the courtyard, they saw a young woman with pale amaranth skin, long raspberry-colored hair, and light green eyes. She was wearing yellow shirt with green details on the collar and waist, blue shorts, a crown of daisies on her head, and wore a necklace that had five differently colored crystals hanging on it. "Hi, everyone! Welcome to Camp Everfree," the young woman greeted the large group in a cheerful tone. "I'm Gloriosa Daisy, your camp director! Think of me as your friendly camp and nature guide," she said as she introduced herself before gesturing to a young male standing beside her. "And this is my brother, Timber Spruce!"
Timber Spruce was a young male who looked about 17 or 18 years old, the same age as the members of Fragment Hunter. He had green eyes similar to his older sister, green hair under a black beanie, and seemed to have a tan. He wore a red t-shirt with the Camp Everfree logo, a pair of cargo shorts, and a pair of brown boots. "Think of me as that awesome guy... who should always be invited to fun things," he said to the campers before he immediately Terracotta in the crowd. "Is that a minotaur," he asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
"Yo," Terracotta greeted.
"Don't worry, my brother's harmless unless you get him angry," Ventus reassured as he leaned against the Bull Faunus. "Plus, we brought our own supplies so that you don't have to worry about us."
"Alright then, the more the merrier," Gloriosa said before continuing to address the campers. "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."
"Uh, except hike near the rock quarry. That's off-limits," Timber warned.
"Y-Yes, but otherwise, your options are wide open," Gloriosa added. "So what activities will make this the very best week of your lives ever?"
Immediately, Rainbow Dash raised her hand and started making suggestions. "Ooh! Rock climbing!"
"Done," Gloriosa replied.
"Archery!"
"Of course!"
"Thetherball!"
"Naturally!"
Before Rainbow Dash could make any other suggestions, Sunset Shimmer and Sunset Blaze grabbed the girl's hands before she could raise them again. "Rainbow, I know you're excited, but maybe give somebody else a chance to make a suggestion," Shimmer said to her friend.
"Arts and crafts," exclaimed Bulk Biceps. Not expecting that suggestion from him, Sandalwood, Flash Sentry, and Slate Quartz looked at him in confusion. "My mom... needs new pot holders," he explained hesitantly.
"I'll supply the looms," Gloriosa agreed.
"Cookie decorating," Pinkie Pie and Momo suggested excitedly and licked their lips at the thought of making sweets.
"Ooh, I do make a mean sugar cookie," Gloriosa remarked.
"Early morning nature walks," Fluttershy asked with wide eyes.
"With walking sticks for everyone who joins in," Gloriosa said.
"Karaoke," Bianca voiced as she spread out her wings.
"Timber says that I have a great singing voice," Gloriosa commented and her brother nodded in agreement.
"Paintball," Slate suggested as he started to pose like he had a paintball gun in hand.
"There's a section of the forest that would be perfect for a few rounds," Gloriosa advised.
"Capture the Flag," Rebecca voiced.
"Sounds like fun," the camp director stated.
"Combat lessons," Rua exclaimed as she threw a few punches in front of herself.
"Never hurts to learn self-defense," Gloriosa said. However, some of the campers were a bit wary as they remembered what the members of Fragment Hunter were capable of.
Soon, Rarity thought an activity to suggest and called out to Gloriosa. "Ooh! Me! Oh, uh... a fashion show! Where I design the most fabulous camp looks inspired by today's hottest trends and have them modeled by my classmates in a gorgeous outdoor setting!"
"A camp tradition," Gloriosa replied, much to the surprise of her younger brother.
"We have literally never done that," he remarked to his sister, who ignored his comment. While Gloriosa continued to talk about how she was going to keep taking requests during camp, Timber looked out to the crowd of campers and noticed Twilight. As he smiled at her, she blushed and smiled back. Sunset Shimmer, Sunset Blaze, Pinkie Pie, Azalea, and Bianca noticed this and started giggling before Principal Celestia spoke up about something.
"What about the camp gift," Celestia asked. "That was my favorite Camp Everfree tradition!"
"The camp gift! Of course," Gloriosa exclaimed, but Timber looked a bit worried and whispered to his sister in an annoyed tone.
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Gloriosa whispered back as she covered her microphone. The two siblings had a quiet argument that didn't go unnoticed by several campers.
"Anyone else picking up on a little tension between Gloriosa and her brother," Sunset Shimmer asked as Terracotta and Ivy approached her and the others. Most of the group agreed and stated that they could feel a little tension between the siblings.
"Probably just a sibling argument," Ivy remarked. "My sister and I used to get into them all time time when we were younger."
"Me and Ven tend to get into some even now," Terracotta added.
Finishing her quiet fight with her brother, Gloriosa began to explain what the camp gift was. "Every year, campers work together to create 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 stated to everyone. "Which is why it's so important," she whispered to Timber before continuing. "This gazebo was a gift from last year's group. Oh, oh, oh, and the totem pole and the sundial were also made by campers!"
"The sundial was our year's gift," Celestia said as she gestured to herself and Luna.
"Even though some people thought it was a little impractical, since the sundial can't be used at night," Luna remarked with a small cough and using air quotes when she said 'some people'.
"That may be true. But if some people had a better attitude about it, they wouldn't have been sent to the Moonstone tent," Celestia said to her sister, even using air quotes on the same thing Luna said.
"Luckily, some people were eventually forgiven for their rash behavior," Luna retorted as she turned her head away from her sister. The CHS students were listening to the conversation with wide eyes as their principals argued with each other. It was easy for them to forget that their teachers were once campers themselves, as well as sisters who got into their own little fights.
Gloriosa chuckled a bit nervously before trying to change the topic back to the current year's campers and the camp gift they could create. "You all seem like a-a really amazing group. So I'm certain you'll come up with something inspiring to leave behind."
"Speaking of leaving things behind, now's the time when we give out tent assignments so you can leave your heavy bags behind." Timber announced after the campers cheered over the idea of the camp gift.
Gloriosa shook her head as she looked at her brother attempting to be cool before she elaborated on the assignments. "Uh, girls will be getting their assignments from Timber. Guys, you're with me."
Timber and Gloriosa soon held out bags that were filled with cards for the campers to choose at random and find the tent with the appropriate gemstone image on the card. Just before Timber let Azalea choose a card, Terracotta stepped forward and reached for the claymore on his back. "Don't worry," he said as he drew his weapon and walked over to where the tents were located. "We can manage," he told Timber and Gloriosa before planting his blade in the ground. With a flash of light coming from the stone in the pommel of the weapon, eight large slabs of rock shot up from the ground and leaned against each other to act as makeshift tents. "We normally do where we come from," Terracotta remarked as he put away the weapon. Gloriosa and Timber's jaws and bags dropped to the ground after seeing Terracotta use Earth Dust to raise slabs of rock at will while the campers from CHS all had wide eyes from what they witnessed.
"You sleep in those rock tents if you want, bro," Ventus told everyone from Remnant as they started to figure out their own sleeping arrangements. "I'll just do the same thing as when we were kids," he said as he started digging through his backpack and found a hammock. Heading over to some nearby trees, the Falcon Faunus started to hang it up while everyone returned to their senses.
Ivy walked up to her husband and placed her hands on his chest as she leaned against him. "On the bright side, there's more tent for us," she said with a flirtatious tone and half-lidded eyes. As soon as she said that, Azalea rushed over to the closest bush and retched at the thought of her parents being intimate.
Picking up the bags and giving Azalea a bottle of water, Gloriosa and Timber started handing out the cards to the Rainbooms and their classmates. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were given the Emerald Tent, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were sharing Aquamarine, Fluttershy was bunking with DJ Pon-3 in Amethyst, and after Sunset Shimmer was given the Sapphire Tent with Twilight being her bunkmate. "I got Sapphire too! I mean, I'm assuming I am," Twilight said before she started to explain more about the gemstone. "Technically, sapphires aren't just blue. Heh-heh. They can be pink, purple, yellow..."
"Yeah, but they're mostly blue. That's why they're named after the Latin word sapphirus," Timber told Twilight as he approached her after giving tent assignment cards to Sweetie Drops (aka Bon Bon) and another CHS camper named Watermelody. Twilight was impressed by his knowledge and smiled at him. "That means 'blue'," he whispered playfully to Twilight.
"I know," Twilight playfully whispered back. "But did you know that sapphires are just rubies without chromium?"
"No," Timber replied. "But did you know that Sapphire Tent is the best one?"
"Why's that," Twilight asked as Timber took the card from her.
"Because you're in it," he said as he tried to be suave.
Twilight rolled her eyes and took the card back from Timber with a smile on her face at how he was attempting to flirt with her. "Oh, I bet you say that to all the campers." Soon, Bulk Biceps came along and Timber helped him find the Ruby Tent before saying that he and Twilight would see each other again around camp. As Twilight smiled, she heard giggling behind her and saw the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter laughing at her. "What," Twilight asked in annoyance and defense.
"Nothing," Applejack and Azalea said.
"That was adorable," Rarity, Celadon, and Bianca remarked before they heard a whistle blowing and saw Gloriosa Daisy getting everyone's attention.
"Okay, everyone, go get settled in. We'll be meeting at the docks in fifteen minutes to go over some camp safety rules," she told everyone. "Let me know if you need anything!"
"I need somethin'," a man's voice said as a large hulking businessman with bad hair closed a limousine's door and walked up to Gloriosa.
"Filthy Rich! So nice to see you," Gloriosa greeted the man before pushing him back to him limo. "What are you doing here?! Camp is just getting started," she exclaimed to him in a whisper to hide her anger at man's unannounced arrival from the other campers. However, Sunset Blaze could sense Gloriosa's anger with her Semblance.
"Just takin' in the scenery, Gloriosa Daisy," Filthy Rich said to the young woman he towered over. "It's so... hmm... relaxin'," he said as he got in her face.
"Well, you can look around when camp is over," Gloriosa told him. "Now, if you don't mind..."
While the two narrowed their eyes at each other, Terracotta approached the limo and lifted it up like it was nothing. The feat of strength surprised both Gloriosa and Filthy enough that their attention was caught and the Bull Faunus spoke to the businessman. "I insist that you leave now, sir," he told Filthy Rich as a crowd started to draw around them. "I'm sure that you would be disturbing our camping trip if you stayed here longer than you needed."
After processing Terra's size, strength, and visible horns, Filthy Rich calmed down and checked his watch. "Fine. I'll be back later to talk, Gloriosa," Filthy Rich said to the young camp director. "As for you, Mister..."
"Gaia," Terracotta stated.
"Mister Gaia. Would be so kind as to place my limo back down," the businessman asked. "I'm certain that my driver is as startled as I am."
Terracotta placed the vehicle back on the ground and made sure it was facing toward the exit before knocking on the driver's window. "Sorry about that," Terracotta apologized when the window rolled down. "Just needed to get his attention." The driver nodded and accepted Terra's apology before Filthy Rich entered his limo and the car drove off.
"So, who was the big guy with bad hair and the limo," Ventus asked as he turned to Gloriosa.
"Filthy Rich is, uh, an alumni of the camp. He likes to check on his old stomping grounds every now and again," Gloriosa explained, the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter were suspicious about why the man showed up like he did. "But enough about him. Find your tents and put away your things. We've got the best week of camp ever to begin!" As the campers went back to their tents, Terracotta and Sunset Blaze thought that something was going on and it involved the camp director.
After everyone was given their tents or made their own sleeping arrangements, the campers started to put away their stuff. "I'm all for learning safety rules, but I do hope I can get started on my designs for the camp fashion show sooner rather than later," Rarity sighed as she walked toward her tent with Applejack and Bianca Coloratura.
"I can help you out if you want," Bianca offered. "Before I went to follow my dream as a pop star, I helped my mom out in her boutique as a seamstress and designer."
Rarity smiled at the offer and turned to the Dove Faunus. "That would be wonderful of you, darling."
"I still can't believe you talked Gloriosa into havin' a fashion show," Applejack remarked. "We're in the middle of the woods, for cryin' out loud! We're supposed to be roughin' it," she exclaimed as she gestured at the campgrounds.
"It's clear from Gloriosa's own wardrobe that she appreciates a well put together look. Even if we are in the 'middle of the woods', Applejack," Rarity stated.
"Fair enough," Applejack said as she kept walking. "Just as long as you don't put me in one of your fancy pants outfits. ...You're gonna, aren't ya," she asked as she pointed an accusatory finger at her fashionista friend.
Rarity attempted to deny it, but she then said she would with an excited laugh. "Don't worry, darling. It'll absolutely speak to your personal sense of style," she told Applejack.
"And if it doesn't you could borrow something from Azalea's wardrobe," Bianca said. "I actually made that jacket she wears now."
"Really," Rarity asked excitedly. "That's some amazing work! Can you show me how to do it myself?"
As Rarity and Applejack walked to their tent with Bianca, they passed by the Sapphire Tent. Inside, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle were unpacking with Azalea and Layla helping them. Soon, Shimmer found a flashlight she packed and turned in on to shine light under her face like she was telling ghost story. After making ghost noises, she turned it off and looked back at Twilight, Azalea, and Layla. "That was weird back there, right? With that guy, Filthy Rich," Shimmer remarked.
As Sunset told the girls what she thought, Twilight was distracted by something. "Something's up," Azalea said as she handed Sunset Shimmer a spare shirt from her bag. "People like him come to my family's farm from time to time and nothing good ever comes of it... Usually for them when my dad shows them a new definition to the phrase 'tree hugger'."
"How so," Spike asked as he rested in a dog bed that Twilight brought with her.
"He throws them into a tree hard enough that they get stuck or something breaks," Azalea answered in a deadpan tone.
"Ouch," Spike replied as he winced at the thought.
"I just have this feeling that Gloriosa's hiding something," Sunset Shimmer stated as she was suspicious with how Filthy Rich and Gloriosa Daisy interacted with each other early. Putting it aside, Shimmer changed the topic to something else. "Her brother's pretty cute, though, huh," she asked Twilight as she leaned on her bag, causing something to fall onto the ground.
"He's okay," Twilight responded as she blushed at Sunset bringing up Timber Spruce.
"Ooh, now look who's trying to hide something," Sunset Shimmer and Layla teased.
"No, I'm not," Twilight said a little too quickly.
"Hey, you okay," Shimmer asked as she and Layla stopped teasing Twilight. "You seemed a little freaked out on the bus earlier."
"Yeah, we could hear it over the Scroll my uncle gave you," Azalea added.
"She probably had another one of her nightmares," Spike said. Twilight tried to get her dog to stop talking by dropping a pair of socks on his head. Layla and Azalea were a little concerned when they heard Spike say 'another'.
"I'm fine," Twilight indignantly told the girls before sitting on one of the beds in the tent. "I mean, what do I have to complain about? Ever since I transferred here, everyone from CHS has been really nice and accepting, especially considering what happened at the Friendship Games." As Twilight explained how she's been changing since her transfer, she frowned when she recalled the Friendship Games.
"That wasn't your fault," Sunset told Twilight as she, Azalea, and Layla all sat down with her. "Principal Cinch is the one who encouraged you to try and use all that magic to win the Games for Crystal Prep. You weren't ready to have that kind of power. But it's over now. All those Grimm were taken care of, too. And if there's any group that's gonna forgive you for something that happened in the past, trust me, it's this one," Sunset said with a smile as she put her hand on Twilight's shoulder.
After Sunset finished her pep talk to Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Rua Amaranth poked their heads into the tent. "You guys coming or what," they asked.
"Be right there! I just want to put on some sunscreen," Sunset told them. When they left, she checked her bag only to find it wasn't inside. "Huh. I coulda sworn I packed it."
As Spike and the girls started looking around the tent, Twilight noticed the bottle on the ground next to Sunset. "Found it," Twilight told everyone as she pointed at the bottle. But when she did, it was surrounded with a sparkling raspberry-colored aura and started to levitate in front of her and Sunset. Looking around the room, the girls and Spike saw more objects floating around and were covered in the same aura.
"Layla," Azalea asked as she looked at a few books and Spike's dog bed floating by.
"This isn't me," Layla explained. "My Semblance doesn't have this kind of aura and even if it did, it would be the same color as my own."
Sunset Shimmer looked around the room before turning back to Twilight, who was looking creeped out by what was happening. "Did you... How is this possible," Sunset questioned.
"I can't believe this," Twilight said as she looked on in frightened horror. "It's..."
"Amazing!" "Terrible!" After the girls voiced their thoughts about the situation, the objects that were floating around the room dropped as the aura around each one faded away. Spike fell out of his bed as it dropped to the ground, but Azalea was quick to catch the dog before placing him on the closest bed.
Sunset Shimmer, Azalea, and Layla were surprised to hear that Twilight didn't have the same opinion as them. "What?! You're joking, right," Layla asked in disbelief. "This is so cool! It's like you have the same Semblance as me and one of our teachers back at Beacon," she told Twilight as she demonstrated her Telekinesis by lifting Spike off the ground and placing his dog bed underneath him before releasing him onto it.
"Yeah! This is great," Sunset agreed. "I mean, we've all ponied up before, gotten the whole ears and wings and tail thing, shot magical rainbow lasers, but nothing like this has ever happened! How did you do it?"
"I don't know," Twilight told them as she still showed fear on her face. "Maybe I didn't. Maybe it's her," she said, referencing somebody that confused the girls.
"Her who," Shimmer and Azalea asked as they placed their hands on Twilight's shoulders, who flinched away as she dismissed the subject.
"Nothing. Never mind. Can we just not talk about it? And could you please not bring this whole levitating thing up to the others," Twilight told the girls.
"Why not," everyone in the tent questioned.
"You heard Applejack. This is supposed to be the place where everyone can get away from magic. I don't want them to know I brought some crazy new kind with me," Twilight said.
Azalea could tell that Twilight didn't want to talk about her own problems and fears of what was happening. The Cow Faunus remembered her own troubles back at Beacon during the first few months of school. "I don't think you can get away from every problem you have," Azalea told Twilight. "I'm speaking from experience when I say that things that haunt you always have a way of coming back until you confront them head-on."
"Like Team JADE," Layla said with disgust and anger coating her tone.
"If you really don't want me to, I won't say anything," Sunset said to Twilight as the latter was about to exit the tent.
Twilight lingered at the tent before giving her answer. "I really don't."
Azalea and Layla looked at each other before they turned back to Twilight. "We'll be quiet about for now," they told her.
"Okay, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing," Sunset voiced to Twilight as the girl left the tent and headed for the dock. Looking down at the floor, Sunset noticed the bottle of sunscreen at her feet and wanted to try something. Holding out her hand and placing two of her fingers at her temple, Shimmer tried to see if she had gotten telekinesis as well. As she tried to levitate the bottle, Sunset failed to move it and let out a sigh when she couldn't use the same magic as Twilight did.
"I think you're just gonna have to pick it up," Spike said as he sat next to the bottle.
Sunset sighed in defeat before grabbing the bottle normally. Layla chuckled at what happened and spoke to the CHS camper. "Wanted to see if you could use it yourself," she asked.
"Yeah," Shimmer replied as she opened up the bottle. "I thought that if Twilight got it, maybe I could've gotten some of my old magic back."
"Right, you're a pony back in Equestria," Azalea remembered. "Almost slipped our minds."
"I think several classmates forgot it as well," Shimmer said with a smirk as she applied sunscreen to her face and neck.
Azalea and Layla left the tent first, leaving Spike and Sunset Shimmer to follow behind as the latter applied sunscreen to her arms. While she was doing that, she and Gloriosa Daisy bumped into each other. Sunset tried to steady herself by holding onto Gloriosa's arm before she heard something. "—show up like that!"
"What did you say," Sunset Shimmer asked as she and Gloriosa balanced themselves while Azalea and Layla watched on.
"I... didn't say anything," Gloriosa replied in confusion before perking up. "Just here to make sure everyone was headed over to the docks! Did you three need something?"
"Nope," the three girls replied.
"Because if there is anything I can do to make this week the best week ever, you just let me know," Gloriosa said in a cheerful tone. "I've got this!"
"Thanks, I'm good," Sunset said as Gloriosa walked away to check on the other campers. "People that chipper make me nervous," she said to Spike, Azalea, and Layla.
All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie showed up next to the girls. "This is gonna be so much fun," she exclaimed with her usual enthusiasm as she brought Sunset Shimmer, Layla, and Azalea into a big group hug.
"I guess not all people," Sunset remarked as she smiled at her friend's antics. "I think her happiness is rubbing off on me if I can handle her after all this time, she thought to herself. After Pinkie released the girls from her grip, the four girls and the dog headed off to the camp's dock to meet up with everyone.
When Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms reached Camp Everfree's lake, they took in the natural beauty of the crystal blue water and the landscape out in the distance. "Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it," Rarity asked the others. "It looks like a diamond shining in the sun!"
"It is lovely out here," Fluttershy replied as the wind started to blow gently and a bird flew over in the direction of the girl. "The fresh air, the cool breeze, the birds that land on your finger," she said as the bird did exactly that.
"I think that only happens to you," Rainbow Dash remarked as Fluttershy began to nuzzle the bird with her cheek.
"Really," a deep voice questioned and caught the attention of Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy. "I think you may be mistaken," Terracotta said as he was sitting with his legs cross and his eyes closed, as if he was meditating, while several small birds similar to the one on Fluttershy's finger were perched on his head, horns, and shoulders. He soon opened an eye and looked in the direction of Azalea and Ivy, who also had birds landing in their open hands for a brief moment before they flew off.
Rainbow Dash and Rarity were lightly surprised by what they saw before everyone moved on. Gloriosa was speaking to the campers about what they could do on the lake while Twilight, Fluttershy, Azalea, Slate, and Momo went to the dock. Twilight had a life vest on and an oar in her hands, showing that she was likely going to go canoeing. Azalea, Slate, and Momo were all enjoying the view at the end of the dock, as well as helping Timber get the canoe ready for Applejack and Twilight. Fluttershy on the other hand, was feeding some ducks that came swimming up her as she sat down. "Aren't they just the cutest," Fluttershy said to Twilight as the latter walked by.
While Twilight and Fluttershy smiled at each and were enjoying their first day, Twilight walked backward to keep eye contact with her friend. Suddenly, Momo felt her foot twitching and turned back to see Twilight not pay attention to where she was stepping. When Twilight stepped on the center of a plank, it splintered and cracked under her weight, causing her to stumble backward. Luckily for her, Timber managed to catch her in time as Azalea and Slate attempted to rush in and help as well. "Whoa! I know I'm charming, but you don't have to fall for me," Timber joked as he made sure Twilight was unharmed.
"That was a close one," Azalea said as she turned around to help Applejack out of the canoe. However, the dock began to crack again when she stepped on a board and she tripped. Stumbling forward, Azalea was about to fall when Slate managed to catch her.
"Watch out," Slate exclaimed as he caught his teammate in his arms. With their chests pressed against each other, the two blushed and quickly separated when Azalea made sure she was standing. "Maybe you shouldn't say that when you could just as easily fall," Slate told her as he calmed down. "I mean, this thing is pretty old," he said as he stomped on it lightly. "I wouldn't be surprised if somebody fell into the w-"
As Slate continued to test the stability of the dock, the spot he was stomping on immediately gave away and he fell into the water as he was speaking. "SLATE," Azalea and Momo called out in panic and alerted everyone nearby. Acting quickly as they saw bubbles rising from where Slate fell at the end of the dock, Momo pulled out a yo-yo and threw it into the water. When she felt it wrap around something, she pulled on the string and managed to bring Slate up to the surface.
When Momo saved her brother, Azalea helped Slate back onto the dock. When he was out of the water, Slate coughed up what got in his lungs from his sudden and undesired 'swim'. When he finished clearing his lungs, he spat up a small fish that somehow got in his mouth and everyone watched it flop around until it fell into the water. "Stupid Semblance," Slate muttered as he commented on his bad luck. "I didn't even use it lately."
"Come on, bro. Let's get you dry," Momo said before she smiled with a hint of mischief on her face. "Maybe Azalea could keep you warm with her body."
Both Slate and Azalea blushed before the boy started chasing after his sister for her teasing. "Pinkie! Get back here so I can give you a hug!"
"No! You're all wet and I don't wanna get changed yet," Momo called out with a laugh.
While Twilight fell and was caught by Timber, Flash Sentry sighed heavily as Sunset Shimmer walked up with a sympathetic smile and Azalea's corgi, Drei walked up to them before sitting down. "Guess I can't get too jealous, right? After all, she isn't my Twilight," Flash said to Sunset Shimmer before he started to correct himself. "Not that the other Twilight was mine! But we were... you know."
"Yeah. I get it," Sunset comforted her ex-boyfriend as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "But your Twilight is a princess in Equestria. Hate to break it to you, but that's where she's gonna spend most of her time."
"So, you're saying I just need to get over her," Flash asked as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Kinda, yeah," Sunset bluntly stated as she crossed her arms. She knew that Flash was hung up on Princess Twilight, but he needed a little tough love so that he would cheer up. This way, he could get used to seeing Sci-Twi around town and school.
"Ouch," Flash commented with a wince at Sunset's blunt answer as Drei whimpered. "You're not pulling any punches with me here, are you?"
"Not really my style," Shimmer stated as she lightly punched him in the arm. Suddenly, the two heard a splash and saw Azalea pulling Slate out of the water. "What happened," Sunset asked as she saw Slate chasing after his little sister.
Celestia, Luna, Gloriosa, Terracotta, Ivy, and Ventus all inspected the damage to the dock from the three broken areas as everyone began to gather. "This is a safety hazard. I suggest we close down the dock for the remainder of the camp," Vice Principal Luna said.
The campers all complained because most of them wanted to spend time at the lake, but the damaged dock ruined their plans. "Oh, I'm sure it won't have to be for the remainder of camp," Gloriosa said to reassure the campers that their fun week wouldn't be spoiled. "Just needs to be patched up a bit. I've got this!"
Applejack looked at the dock and thought for a moment before she realized something. "Huh. Or maybe we do," she exclaimed as she walked up to the dock. "If you ask me, this whole dock needs to go," she bluntly said as she kicked a post and the rotten wood fell over. "Building a new one could be our camp gift. Sure, it would benefit us, but a nice new dock would benefit future campers, too." As Applejack explained her idea, Gloriosa and the campers all loved the plan of rebuilding the dock as Canterlot High School's gift to Camp Everfree.
While the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter, and the other CHS students cheered at the idea, Timber seemed against it as he gave his input on the idea. "I don't know. It's an awful lot of work," he said as he crossed his arms. "I wouldn't want you guys to miss out on doing other fun camp stuff because you're so busy building a dock for future campers." With emphasis on the last two words, Timber and Gloriosa glared at each other as if they were continuing their argument from earlier. Sunset Shimmer and a few members of Fragment Hunter saw the tension between the two siblings who ran the camp and were uneasy about it.
"I hear what you're saying, Timber, but we're Canterlot Wondercolts and Fragment Hunter," Rainbow Dash stated as she stood next to the boy as gestured to all the campers. "We've got a reputation to uphold! And there was no way we were gonna leave this place without contributing the most awesome camp gift ever," the rainbow-haired girl told the teenagers. "I'm with AJ. Building a new dock is definitely it! What do you guys think?" After hearing Rainbow Dash's rousing speech, everyone agreed to help out with the camp gift.
"Looks like it's settled, then," Gloriosa said smugly to her brother.
"Looks like it," Timber replied tensely as he looked away from Gloriosa.
Sunset Shimmer, Sunset Blaze, Ivy Dahlia Holstein, and Vinyl Aurum all looked at the siblings and agreed on the same thing that Shimmer said. "That's some tension, all right."
"Alright," Terracotta said to catch everyone's attention. "Since the dock is badly damaged and we don't want you getting hurt, I'll be the demolition team at the moment," he said as he grabbed his sword off his back. Fragment Hunter, Ivy, Bianca, and Ventus all made sure that nobody was near the dock as Terracotta adjusted his grip on the claymore. With a loud battle cry and a powerful rising swing of the sword, the Huntsman destroyed the ruined dock by creating a blade of air that cut most of the dock into splinters and even managed to partially part the water before the air current faded in the middle of the lake. "All done," the Bull Faunus said as he put away his weapon. "Ven, try and collect what's in the water. It might be useful for later."
While Ventus used his Semblance to fly over the water and grab as many intact pieces of wood, the regular humans at Camp Everfree stood with wide eyes and open jaws at what they witnessed. As everyone processed the strength behind the one slash from the Huntsman, Twilight was the first to speak when she turned to Azalea and Fragment Hunter. "Just... how exactly strong is your father, Azalea?"
Azalea only shrugged her shoulders before Rainbow Dash spoke up this time. "I know... because he's awesome and such a badass," she exclaimed as she pumped her hands in the air.
"We may have seen you guys do awesome stuff... just not that casually and destructive at the same time," Applejack remarked as she continued to gawk at the demolished dock.
"If you want destructive, you should see him get into a serious fight," Rua stated.
"Either way, we should get started on helping plan out the new dock design," Sunset Shimmer told everyone as she finally composed herself.
After the campers all agreed to repair and improve the dock for their camp gift, they began to either take apart the damaged dock after Terracotta dealt most of it or plan out the new design. The Rainbooms all gave suggestions for the new dock such as stronger foundation, a sign with the camp's name, and a few other things for Watermelody to sketch out. When the plan for the new dock design was drawn up, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna agreed to keep watch over the progress. Through the rest of the day, Fragment Hunter and the CHS students worked to get the repairs finished between each of their activities. As they were all working, Rebecca Haze looked around as she believed to sense something around the camp. "What's up, Rebecca," Silver asked as he finished cutting some planks for the dock.
"Something... feels wrong," Rebecca remarked as she looked out into the distant forest.
"What do you mean," Slate questioned as he placed a container of nails on the ground.
"I don't know," the purple-haired ninja replied.
"We should be on guard, just in case," Sunset Blaze said as she approached her teammate and friends. "The last few times we were here in this world, things got out of hand."
"Alright, now. You've made a lot of progress, but it's going to get dark soon," Principal Celestia told everyone as she and Gloriosa caught everyone's attention. "We can pick this up tomorrow between our other camp activities."
"Everyone, get cleaned up, and we'll gather by the fire pit at eight to share s'mores and scary stories," Gloriosa added. Upon hearing what Gloriosa said, Pinkie Pie and Momo immediately popped into view and exclaimed 'S'mores' as they both held up bags of ingredients for the sugary treats.
Slate only rolled his eyes at his sister's excitement before putting his hand on her head as well as Pinkie's. "Calm down, Cotton Candy Clones," he remarked with a playful grin. "Save some for the rest of us."
Everyone was gathered by the fire pit, roasting marshmallows or paying attention to the scary story Rarity was telling. However, Rarity's version of a scary story wasn't all that terrifying to teenagers that have watched dimensions begin to fall apart and battled soulless demonic monsters. "...And that's when she looked down and realized she was wearing purple socks with a burgundy dress," Rarity exclaimed before she began screaming in horror. When she finished, she noticed that nobody was exactly afraid of her tale. "Purple and burgundy, darlings! The same color family," she clarified before screaming once more. When she stopped, she realized that nobody else was scared.
"I'm shivering in my boots," Cereza remarked sarcastically as she ate a marshmallow.
"Uh... that was a terrifying story," Applejack whispered to Rainbow Dash.
"Yeah, I'm terrified she'll try to tell it again," Rainbow chuckled.
"Lame," Rua bluntly told Rarity.
"Any else have a spooky story," Vice Principal Luna asked after clearing her throat in order to move away from the awkwardness of Rarity's not-so-scary story.
Everyone looked around before Pinkie turned to Fragment Hunter after eating another marshmallow out of the huge bundle she had in her hands. "Ooh, do you guys have any stories," she asked.
"Oh, we have plenty," Vixen answered with a smirk on her face. "Bounty Hunting in Vale..."
"The Leviathan of Port Mako and Hope Island. The scars on my dad's throat," Azalea listed as she suggested more stories to choose from.
"The Scykiri in Forever Fall," Vinyl Aurum added.
"Smoke Shadow's gang of thieves," Sunset Blaze said.
"The Velgeroc Incident," Terracotta muttered to himself.
As Fragment Hunter, Ventus, and Terracotta started figuring out what story to share with everyone, Ivy's eyes widened as she remembered a particular tale of interest back in Remnant. "Wait. What about... Kuroyuri," Ivy suggested with a gulp before she said the last word. Everyone from CHS whispered about what Ivy meant while Sunset Blaze looked out into the distance with a thousand-yard stare as she knew what Azalea's mother meant.
"That would be the most appropriate option," Terracotta remarked before looking around the campfire. "I'll must warn you, this story isn't for the faint of heart. It is 100% real and I couldn't make it up if I wanted to." Everyone began shaking in anticipation before Terracotta began to tell his tale. "Long ago, back when most of you were only children, there was a village in Remnant called 'Kuroyuri'. It was a peaceful place that you would see in your travels through the continent of Anima. However, like all of Remnant, there was the threat of Grimm that lingered over the village at times. Luckily, a Huntsman by the name of Li Ren made sure to protect the village where his family lived," Terracotta said.
"However, one night there was a loud and disturbing cry from a Grimm that sounded out in the village. Li Ren told his wife, An, to take their son, Lie Ren and escape while he fought the Grimm. Just as he told them to get to safety, the roof of their home collapsed from the Grimm attacking it and other buildings. An died and Lie Ren was knocked out, forcing Li to carry the boy as the villagers ran away," Terra continued as the tone of the story started to change. "Lie Ren woke up as his father was running, but he saw that his village was burning down, Grimm were attacking, and everyone was fleeing. Li tripped and soon saw the largest Grimm approach the village, forcing him to stay and hold it off. He gave his son a dagger to defend himself and told him to run before he tried to kill the Grimm with his bow and arrow. Little Lie Ren ran away and soon encountered a homeless girl he had met earlier, who was scared and crying from the Grimm attacking the village. Lie was terrified himself, having a panic attack from watching his home be destroyed and witnessing the death of his parents," the Huntsman said, seeing everyone leaning in to hear more of the story and find out what happened next.
"However, the stress unlocked his Semblance and allowed him to mask his negative emotions so that he could sneak past a large Grimm raven called a 'Nevermore' and make sure the girl was safe. Just as he shielded their fear and presence, they saw the Grimm that killed Li Ren walking by. A Grimm so terrifying that it seemed like a monster among other monsters," Terracotta stated before he began to describe the Creature of Grimm. "It resembled a giant horse that had an imp growing out of its spine. Burning eyes and red marks on both of the mask-like faces it had. It didn't have skin, showing that it was mostly black muscle with exposed ribs and bone plating. The horse had claws on its front legs while the back ones were hooves that left a distinct print when it appeared. The imp had long curved horns, a mouth that looked like it was sewn shut, long arms with two claws at the end of them, and its back was filled with weapons that have attempted to kill the creature and failed. This Grimm... was the Nuckelavee."
Everyone began to shake in fear at the way Terracotta spoke of the Grimm, but urged for him to continue. "Because of Lie Ren's Semblance hiding their fear of the creature, he and the girl were left alone before the Grimm all wandered away from the ruins of the fallen village. While the children left the remains of Kuroyuri, the Nuckelavee stayed within the area and continued to terrorize villages nearby. Rumors say that it keeps weapons that have failed to kill it and flags from the villages it destroyed as trophies. It's such a horrifying and dangerously threatening creature that the Kingdom of Mistral and their patrol airships refuse to go in the direction of Kuroyuri, in case it's still around. Everyone around Mistral's controlled territories knows that if you hear the unnatural scream of the Nuckelavee, you better run for your remaining life."
"There's something even worse about it," Sunset Blaze added. "Unlike other Grimm, this one actually sounds like it's attempting to speak. It tries to scream 'Die' before it attacks and it can be heard for miles."
The CHS campers were all shaking in fear and several started clinging to each other for security. When the story was finished, Timber clapped. "That was a good one, but I've got a story of my own that takes place right here at this camp," he said. "Good thing that you're all holding onto each other now, because it's time I told you about the legend of Gaea Everfree." With everyone's attention on Timber, they listened to his story about 'Gaea Everfree'. "Many years ago, my great-grandparents came to this forest. Seeing its beauty, they decided that it would be the perfect place for a camp. But once they started building, strange things started to happen," he told everyone.
"One pitch black night, when the wind was howling, a tree branch crashed through the roof of their cabin! They screamed and ran outside, only to see the giant creature rising from the earth! She had wild hair like the roots of a tree. Her mouth had jagged rock teeth and her eyes were pools of black tar. But her aura shimmered like diamonds. Anywhere she went, she left a trail of gem dust in her wake," Timber said as he described the creature in his story. "Trembling, my great-grandparents asked who she was and what she wanted. In a deep and hollow voice, she told them that her name was Gaea Everfree – an ancient spirit who held domain over the forest, and that my great-grandparents were trespassing on her land. They begged her to let them stay and build their camp, to share this wonderful place with others. Gaea Everfree finally agreed but warned them that they would not be able to keep it forever. Someday, she will return and reclaim the forest as her own. So if you see a trail of gem dust, you'll know that it is... GAEA EVERFREE," Timber finished his story and said the name of the spirit in a loud scarier voice.
Just as he did, a pair of green eyes appeared in the shadows startling everyone. As the CHS campers screamed in fear, the human members of Fragment Hunter responded differently as they started to ready their weapons. "Wait! Guys, stop," Azalea called out just as Rua threw her shield at the bushes. The shield transformed into a giant shuriken as it flew through the air, but narrowly missed the target who stepped out of the bushes to reveal herself as Gloriosa.
Screaming as the shield missed her, Gloriosa turned her attention to the others as she calmed herself down. "Hey, guys! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she greeted.
"Then, why'd you come out of the bushes," Sunset Shimmer asked. "I'm pretty Rua would've taken off your head if you were an inch to the left."
"I... took the scenic route, because the forest is beautiful at night," Gloriosa said, but several members of Fragment Hunter thought that it was an excuse. "But no one else should do it without a guide, kay? All right, everybody, time to head to your tents."
As everyone started to leave and ask Gloriosa for a few things, the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter, and the guests of the latter were all staying around the campfire. "Um, Fluttershy," Spike asked with a strained voice as the girl was hugging the dog too tightly.
"Sorry, Spike," Fluttershy apologized as she loosened her hold on the talking dog. "I guess those stories got to me."
"Why? They can't be real," Applejack dismissed. "Well, that 'Knucklevee' could be, but it's back in Remnant."
"I know," Fluttershy replied. "But... even the mere thought of what Mr. Gaia described the monster as scares me."
"Can't blame you," Spike said. "Even I'm scared of the 'Knucklevee' and I'd hate to see it for real," the dog admitted as Dante stood next to Fluttershy and Spike, as if to protect them.
"Even if it's real, we got Terra and our Remnant friends to protect us from it... I mean... right," Rainbow Dash said as she remembered what Fragment Hunter was capable of, but also the part of the story where an entire Kingdom wouldn't go near the last known locations of the Grimm. "Still, that 'Gaea Everfree' spirit thing does sound like something that came from Equestria. Booted from there and ended up here in this world like the Sirens."
"Who we beat the crap out of," Rua remarked as she came back with her shield on her back.
"That story of Gaea Everfree sounded more like something that Timber was makin' up just to scare us," Applejack stated. "At least I hope it was. Last thing I want is to have camp ruined by some power-crazed magical creature or any kind of Grimm."
"Oh, hear-hear," Rarity agreed. "We've had to deal with more than our fair share of those. At the Fall Formal, a musical showcase, the Friendship Ga—" Realizing what she was saying in front of Twilight and seeing Layla, Azalea, Sunset Blaze, Slate, and even Momo (who could tell from the look on Twilight's face that the girl was upset) frantically signal for her to avoid the topic, Rarity laughed nervously. "Well, I mean, you know, everything turned out all right, of course," she said with a nervous grin.
Twilight looked down at the ground as she turned away from everyone else. "I'm kinda tired. I'm gonna turn in," she told everyone as she started heading off to the Sapphire Tent.
"Maybe lay off bringing up what happened at the Friendship Games? I think she's still pretty sensitive about it," Sunset Shimmer asked her friends in order to make sure Twilight wasn't reminded of when she was overwhelmed by magic she couldn't control or understand.
"I would be too if I suddenly turned into this dimension shattering dark angel," Bianca remarked as she recalled what Fragment Hunter told her on the ride to the campgrounds.
Pinkie and Momo, who were eating plenty of roasted marshmallows, both took one and moved them across their lips as if closing a zipper, leaving a sticky trail of marshmallow on their mouths. "Our lips are sealed," the two girls said as the agreed to stay quiet about the event.
"Come on, kids. We have a big day tomorrow if we want to finish that dock in time for any of our activities," Ivy told Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms.
Meanwhile, after everyone went to sleep for the night, something was moving through the woods nearby the camp. The local wildlife watched as the thing in question stalked through the woods as if it had suddenly arrived in the area. It resembled a large black horse, but it was almost as big as the trees in the forest it walked through and had some sort of horned humanoid riding on its back. The horse stomped through the woods and it soon stopped in its tracks, allowing the rider to slowly turn its head and look back in the direction of Camp Everfree. Looking out where the sleeping campers and chaperones rested with burning red eyes, it chose not to go near the camp just yet. It could sense the fear from numerous people, but chose to avoid the campgrounds until the time was right. The horse snorted and blew black smoke from its nostrils before stomping its way through the forest again, leaving a distinct hoofprint behind as it walked away to explore the strange new world around it.
The sun was beginning to rise over Camp Everfree as most of the campers were fast asleep. However, a few people woke up earlier than others as Applejack stretched her arms while she walked out of her tent. Seeing Terracotta and Ivy awake as well, she offered to help Azalea's parents with preparing breakfast for the campers. As they did, they past by the Sapphire Tent where Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike were still sleeping. While Spike snored in his sleep, Twilight was restless as she tossed and turned in her bed. Her dream had her sitting in front of the fire pit, but she was hearing something in the dark as she looked around with fear very evident on her face. "Here I am! Over here," the voice said as Twilight began looking around before turning to the fire pit. When her gaze focused on the flames, they changed from a typical orange color to a menacingly unnatural purple as Midnight Sparkle, Twilight's monstrous form from the Friendship Games, popped out of the flames and shouted at Twilight. "I'm always here," she exclaimed as Twilight tried to shield herself from her alter ego.
"NO," Twilight exclaimed as she tried to defend herself and shut her eyes, not noticing a red flash of light appear when she did.
Upon hearing Twilight cry out in fear, Sunset Shimmer immediately jumped out of her bed and started assuming karate poses and muttered while she was half-asleep. "What happened," Shimmer managed to say as she began to wake up. While she did that, Rua Amaranth and Sunset Blaze teleported into the tent in a flash of purplish-red light.
"Something wrong," the Huntresses questioned as they investigated the room.
"Nothing. Sorry, Sunset. You guys, too," Twilight apologized and rubbed her eyes. As she did, she didn't notice the sparkling aura around herself and her bed.
Rua and both Sunsets rubbed their eyes to make sure they were seeing what they were looking at. "Uh, Twilight, I think something happened," all three remarked as they pointed out Twilight's bed and a few other objects were floating in the air. Seeing what they were talking about, Twilight panicked and the aura vanished from the objects, causing them all to fall and wake up Spike.
"Is it time to get up already," Spike questioned after his rude awakening. Still tired, he paced around his dog bed and went back to sleep.
"What just happened," Sunset Blaze asked as she gestured to Twilight's bed that was previously levitating.
"Apparently, Twilight's developed some sort of new magic," Shimmer explained. "She doesn't want the others to know after Azalea and Layla found out about it with us. But seriously Twilight, we really need to talk about this if you're nightmares are going to cause things like this."
"No, we don't," Twilight exclaimed bitterly as she held in her emotions and looked away from the girls.
Sensing Twilight's pent up fear and anxiety from something related to this, Sunset Blaze believed that Twilight should talk about it. But remembering all the times Azalea stubbornly stated that she would deal with her own problems, Blaze thought that this was something that Twilight would have to come clean about on her own. "We won't tell the others about this yet, but you really should help her out," Blaze told Shimmer. "You two have obviously gotten closer since the 'you-know-whats', so I'll let you try and talk to her about this whole thing."
"Thanks," Sunset Shimmer said.
"Come on, let's go make sure Azalea's awake," Rua stated as she and Blaze began to leave the tent. "I swear, she could sleep through a metal concert."
Later that day, everyone was enjoying their day or fixing up the dock for the camp. Out on the lake, Derpy and Sandalwood were trying to sail a boat, but the wind died on them. While they floated on the water, the dock was nearly completed as everyone worked on it under Ventus' watchful eye. Sunset Shimmer and Twilight walked in silence as they approached the dock to check on the progress. "Hey, I know you don't want to, but I really think we need to figure out what's going on with your magic," Shimmer said as she tried to speak to Twilight about what happened that morning. "If you could learn to control it—"
"But that's just it," Twilight angrily exclaimed as she turned to face Sunset Shimmer. "I'll never be able to control it!"
As Twilight said that, Derpy and Sandalwood's boat sped toward the dock suddenly. "LOOK OUT," Ventus shouted as he flew past everyone and they fled just in time to see the boat crash into the dock. While the boat and dock were wrecked, Ventus managed to rescue Derpy and Sandalwood from getting hurt or taking an unexpected swim by using his Semblance to fly. Carrying the girl on his back while the boy was held carefully in his talons, the Falcon Faunus set them both down on the ground. "You two alright," he asked while everyone looked at what happened and a crowd began to gather.
"What happened," Rainbow Dash questioned as she, Rua, and many others arrived and saw to damage.
"I didn't mean to," Twilight said as she believed that she unintentionally caused the accident, confusing Rainbow Dash.
"We didn't see anything, so we don't know what happened," Sunset Shimmer said as she covered for Twilight. As she, Rua, and Rainbow rushed to see if anybody was hurt, Twilight only looked at her hands in worry before joining the others. "Are you okay," Shimmer asked Sandalwood while Derpy hugged Ventus for saving the two of them.
"Yeah," Sandalwood told her as Timber Spruce made sure the campers were okay. "It was so weird, though. We were stuck in a middle of the lake with no wind, then all of a sudden, bam! The wind picked up, and we were pushed right into the dock."
"I didn't feel any wind," Ventus remarked as he looked out at the lake.
Pinkie Pie gasped in shock when she heard the details. "You don't think it was the spirit, did you," she asked in worry as she stood next to Rua and Trixie.
Twilight overheard Pinkie's statement and whispered to herself, "No, it was me." Nobody noticed her leaving the dock except for Azalea and Sunset Blaze, so they carefully followed using Azalea's Semblance to make themselves invisible.
Meanwhile, Trixie was attempting to summon the supposed legend. "Spirit, show yourself! The Great and Powerful Trixie commands it," she exclaimed dramatically while Pinkie and Rua only facepalmed at what Trixie was trying to do.
"You do realize that if it shows up because of you, it might rip your arms off, right," Rua told Trixie, who only gulped.
"What's that," Rarity questioned as she pointed out to some type of sparkling dust in the water that was coming from the wrecked boat. The campers were concerned about if the legend was true while Fragment Hunter was suspicious. Before they could question it, a loud growling sound was heard from the nearby bushes that Fragment Hunter easily recognized.
"What was that," Fluttershy asked in panic and terror as she and the other campers turned to see what the noise was. Emerging from the bushes, everyone watched as a large black-furred bear with burning red eyes, bone plating and spikes, and smoke coming off its body roared loudly.
Remembering the same kind of monster from the Friendship Games, Trixie's eyes widened with fear. "Not another one," she said as she stumbled back in fear. The Ursa Grimm looked at all the scared teenagers, but noticed immense fear and other negative emotions coming from Trixie. Roaring again, it charged forward and was about to slash at the girl. Trixie shrieked in fear as she believed that she would be killed by the Grimm, but her screams died down as she didn't feel the bear's claws or teeth. "Huh?"
Looking in front of her, Trixie saw Rua holding back the Ursa's claw with her shield as the Grimm struggled to overpower the fighter. "What did I say, Trixie? Call something dangerous, it'll turn you into its new plaything," Rua stated as she defended the egotistical illusionist from being killed. Pushing forward, Rua forced the Grimm back before separating her shield into blades that fit on her arms and teleported before she punched the Grimm in the side while Trixie ran for safety. "Take this, you overgrown rug," she shouted before ducking under the Grimm's attack and kicked the demonic bear in the groin. As the Grimm recoiled in pain from the strike, Rua continued striking at the Grimm with her arm blades and damaged it more. Turning to face the girl, the Ursa swiped its claws at Rua to only attack thin air when the girl teleported onto the dock. "Come and get me, Smokey," Rua taunted as she caught the Grimm's attention.
The Ursa growled as it charged toward Rua, not paying attention to the ruined environment. Rua smirked as the Ursa fell for her trap and she backflipped onto the destroyed boat when the Grimm attempted to bite her. The Grimm ended up splashing into the water and growled at Rua as it tried to climb onto the boat. "Aw, did you have a nice swim," Rua asked as she taunted the Grimm once more. Roaring at the Huntress, the Grimm tried to attack once more before Rua jumped onto its back and teleported the two of them into the sky above the lake. Kicking away at the Grimm to force it beneath herself, Rua reformed her weapon back into a giant shuriken and threw it at the falling Ursa. The monster was impaled by the weapon and crashed onto the ground, dying and evaporating on impact while Rua safely performed a three-point landing. "Oh yeah!"
After everyone watched Rua win the battle, Trixie fell to her knees. "That was a close one," she muttered as she attempted to steady her breathing.
"What is it with you and Ursai," Rua asked Trixie as she retrieved her shield. "Did you piss off bears in another life or something?"
When Trixie calmed down, the Rainbooms all surveyed the damage done to the dock after the crash and the battle. "Oh, man! All our hard work! Ruined," Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"At least the fishies are eating well," Fluttershy mentioned as she saw some fish in the lake eating the food that was in the water after the feed boxes she suggested were broken.
"Let's salvage what we can out of the water," Sunset Shimmer told everyone present. "Maybe we can still fix this."
"We have to try," Rarity exclaimed. "Camp Everfree needs a runway!"
"Dock," Applejack and Slate corrected.
"Dock. Yes. That's what I meant," Rarity said as she looked at her fingernails.
"My main question is where that Ursa came from," Slate asked as he faced toward the bushes the Creature of Grimm appeared from.
"Something really strange is happening here," Ventus remarked as he and Bianca grabbed at some planks in the water and flew off to help.
While everyone watched the battle between Rua and the Ursa Grimm, Twilight ran away because she believed herself to be responsible for ruining the dock before the battle. While she ran off into the forest alone, she didn't notice Azalea and Sunset Blaze seeing her run off. Using the former's Semblance to bend light around themselves, the two Huntresses became invisible and followed after Twilight to see what was wrong. Seeing nobody around as she approached a waterfall clearing, Twilight started to sing to herself like she did back at Crystal Prep when Fragment Hunter first learned of her.
It used to be so simple It was a world I understood I didn't know what I didn't know And life seemed pretty good
But now the darkness rises From somewhere deep inside of me Her power overtakes me Can I keep this midnight from getting free?
As Twilight looked at her reflection in the water, she believed that she grew wings. Checking to see if she did have them or not, Twilight backed away from her reflection while her unseen audience looked on in concern before she began to move through the light shining into the forest.
If I can stay with the light I know I'll be free And I can start to be whole I can start to be me
But instead I am struggling With all that I see And these friends Mustn't see the midnight in me! The midnight in me!
As Twilight sang, she looked back at her reflection in the water and imagined what she feared. Staring back at her was herself as Midnight Sparkle, but she moved her hand across the water as she suppressed her emotions and her reflection changed back to normal in her eyes.
They mustn't see the midnight in me...
As Twilight sat by the water in sorrowful solitude, Azalea and Sunset Blaze looked at each other while they silently worried about Twilight's emotional state. Deciding to give her some space for the time being, they hid in the bushes until she chose to return to camp.
Back at the camp after everyone helped with getting the damaged dock under control, Sunset Shimmer was looking for Twilight. "Where is she," Shimmer questioned. "I haven't seen her since the crash and that Grimm attack." Returning to the tents, Sunset thought that Twilight must have returned to the Sapphire Tent to read a few books. Entering the tent, she saw that Twilight wasn't inside and only saw Spike talking in his sleep.
"So many squirrels," the dog muttered. As Sunset said his name and nudged him, the dog was startled awake. "Aw, man! I was having the best dream," Spike complained as he rubbed his face with a paw before realizing something. "Wait. That dream could be a reality!"
"Before you run off to chase squirrels, do you have any idea where Twilight could be? I really need to talk to her," Sunset told Spike just as he started to run out of the tent.
"What happened," Spike asked as he turned to Sunset Shimmer. "Did she do that lifting things off the ground thing again?"
"That's just it. I don't know if it was her. But if it was, we need to deal with it head on," Sunset explained as she hit her palm with her fist and had a look of determination in her eyes.
"I can track her down," Spike told Sunset.
"Maybe Azalea's dogs can help us. Think you can convince them," Sunset remarked.
"I'll try," Spike said as the two began to leave the tent. Just as they left, Dante, Diana, and Drei were all approaching the girl. "Hey, can you help us out? We're looking for Twilight. Glasses, stripes of color in her hair, was hanging around Azalea for a while. Think you can track her down with me," Spike asked. Hearing the talking dog's request, the three canines all entered the Sapphire Tent and started sniffing to find Twilight's scent. When they did, Sunset and the four dogs entered the woods to search for Twilight.
In the forest, Twilight was returning to camp and struggled to compose herself because of her fears and anxiety. "Keep it together. Deep breaths. You are not a monster," she said to herself as Azalea and Sunset Blaze followed her in secret. Just as Twilight passed by a tree, Timber Spruce appeared on the other side and the two screamed when they noticed each other suddenly showing up. "Oh, hi," Twilight chuckled in embarrassment as she encountered Timber. "What are you doing here?"
"Uh... Looking for you," Timber said in reply, but Azalea and Sunset Blaze thought it was an excuse he just made up.
"Oh, I just went on a nature walk and got a little lost," Twilight told Timber.
"Let me show you the way," Timber offered as he pointed down the path. "I'm kind of an expert at these woods. I've lived here my whole life."
As Twilight walked alongside Timber, Azalea and Sunset Blaze followed them through the forest in secret. "That must have been nice. Growing up at a camp," Twilight remarked.
"Yeah, though it has its downsides," Timber mentioned as he moved a tree branch out of his path. "When I was younger, I wished we'd sell this place so we could live in a town like normal people."
"Really," Twilight asked in disbelief as they stopped and she put her hands on her hips.
"I was ten. I really wanted to hang out at the mall," Timber shrugged as he and Twilight shared a laugh before blushing. "I've never told that to anyone. You must be special," he told Twilight. "And not just because you have a tree branch in your hair," he added as he pulled a twig out from Twilight's ponytail.
"Ugh. How long has that been in there," Twilight asked as she checked her hair for anything else stuck in it. Of to the side, the invisible Huntresses were giggling silently at the scene.
"Not long. Just the whole time we were talking," Timber shrugged and earned a light hit from Twilight.
"Well, why didn't you say something," Twilight asked with a chuckle.
As she and Timber continued to walk back to camp, Azalea stopped using her Semblance to cloak herself and Sunset Blaze. Looking next to them, they saw Sunset Shimmer, Spike, and Azalea's dogs all listening in on the conversation. "I guess we can help Twilight deal with the magic stuff a little later," Sunset Shimmer told Spike and the girls as she turned to them. They all nodded in agreement before returning to camp at their own pace.
Back at the campgrounds, the visitors from Remnant were doing their own things alongside the campers from Canterlot High. Momo, Bianca, and Ivy were in the mess hall decorating cookies with Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie while the others did more physical activities. Celadon and Cereza went for a walk in the forest while Lapis decided to join Trixie and Micro Chips as they went fishing at a nearby river. Rebecca, Silver, Rua, and Vinyl were rock climbing alongside Applejack and Rarity while Rainbow Dash impatiently waited for her own turn. "Rock climbing is all about perseverance and trust," Celestia explained as she, Terracotta, and Ventus supervised the teenagers, with the latter perched on top of the rock climbing wall like a bird. "Rarity, you can trust that Applejack will spot you."
"Yeah, so you can totally go faster than you're going," Rainbow Dash complained, shocking Applejack because of the blunt comment. "Sorry. I've been waiting to do this since we got here," Rainbow said as she apologized.
"Well, you have to wait a little longer, darling," Rarity stated as she began to climb.
"Hey, is it even a good idea to climb a rock wall in heels," Silver asked as Rua spotted him.
"My boots are designed for function and fashion," Rarity told the Wolf Faunus. "They won't break that easily."
"They still might get caught on something if you're not careful," Rebecca mentioned as she swiftly climbed higher than Silver and Rarity.
"That's why I'm going at the pace I am," Rarity replied.
Back on the ground, Vinyl was listening her music while spotting Rebecca and saw that Rainbow Dash was getting impatient with the wait. Seeing Twilight and Timber approaching them, Rainbow was happy to see her friend. "Oh, good! Twilight, if you spot me, I can finally go," Rainbow said before she started running off. "I'll go get another harness."
While Twilight was unsure about being Rainbow Dash's rock climbing partner, Timber told her that he needed to find Gloriosa. As he walked off, Twilight gazed lovingly at him until she heard dogs barking. Seeing Dante, Diana, and Drei being chased by Azalea and Blaze, Sunset Shimmer walked up to Twilight with Spike in her arms. "Twilight, there you are! I was looking for you," Shimmer exclaimed.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake and startle everyone. When the shaking stopped, everyone wondered what happened. "Was that an earthquake," Spike asked as Twilight adjusted her glasses.
"We aren't near any fault lines," Twilight stated in response.
"That didn't feel like an earthquake to me," Terracotta told the girls as he made sure they and Azalea were alright. "Sounded more like a rock slide happened nearby."
"Didn't Timber and Gloriosa say there was a rock quarry near the camp," Azalea asked as she pet Diana and Drei.
"I swear that something is going on here," Slate told everyone as he walked up to the group.
"Hey! Who left this crystaly dusty stuff here," Bulk Biceps shouted as he, Derpy, and Flash Sentry noticed a trail of gem dust similar to what appeared at the dock when the sailboat crashed into it.
While Rebecca and Silver wondered about what happened, Rarity lost her grip and yelped as she began flailing before holding onto her rope. "I-I believe I'd like to come down now," Rarity called down to Applejack as she gave a thumbs-up.
"We'll meet you down there," Rebecca said as she and Silver signaled to Vinyl and Rua. As the members of Fragment Hunter were safely lowered, they removed their harnesses to see that Applejack was struggling to move the belay rope.
"Sorry, it's a little bit stuck," Applejack told Rarity, not noticing her hands were glowing. With another pull on the belay, Applejack ended up hoisting Rarity into the air and made her scream at the unexpected trip up the wall and caught everyone's attention. Surprised by her strength, Applejack lost her hold on the rope and Rarity screamed as she began to plummet to the ground. Before she could hit the ground, Applejack grabbed the rope at the last second to stop her friend from getting hurt.
"Applejack! What are you doing," Rarity yelled as she put her feet on the ground.
"Is everything okay over there," Celestia, Ventus, and Terracotta asked as they approached Rarity and Applejack.
"Uh, I don't know what happened. I didn't even pull the rope that hard. It's like she was light as a feather all of a sudden," Applejack explained as a crowd gathered and Rarity tried to take off her harness. Terracotta put his fingers to his chin as he thought of what Applejack said.
"I was scared half to death," Rarity chastised as she struggled with her harness.
"It wasn't my fault! Let me help you get your harness out," Applejack said as she approach Rarity.
"No, thank you," Rarity exclaimed as she lifted up her hands. But as she did, a large diamond shield appeared and pushed Applejack away into the bushes near the lake. Everyone heard a splash and Applejack soon walked back out of the view, soaking wet and spitting water out of her mouth.
"What in the world just happened," Celestia and everyone from Remnant asked as the principal went to make sure Applejack was okay.
"Oh, dear! I am so sorry! I think," Rarity apologized, but was unsure of what occurred. "Did I just do whatever that was?"
"Scykiri," Sunset Blaze said as she and the rest of the Huntsmen and Huntresses from Remnant stared down the Grimm. Seeing the Grimm, Vinyl activated her Hard Light Projection Braces, aka 'Rhythm Scratch' and began to play music from them as she created a pair of clawed gauntlets made of out gold light. As the song played, Vinyl charged toward the swarm and slashed away at the Grimm insects with ease. As the monsters saw Vinyl carving through their swarm, they jumped or flew away from the girl before generating green lightning from their horns. The ones with multiple horns fired their attacks similar to a rail gun while the others blasted the nearby area with streams of electricity at random.
"Come on," Rua told the others as she equipped to weapon and teleported to one of the larger Scykiri to stab it in the eye. At the same time, Ventus and Terracotta prioritized the safety of the bystanders while Sunset Blaze used her Fire Dust Jacket to burn away at any Grimm that got too close.
As Fragment Hunter fought against the swarm of Grimm, some started to slip away to attack the campers from CHS. Rarity screamed as one of the larger Scykiri with multiple horns jumped at her and tried to attack her with its arms. Throwing up her hands, Rarity created another diamond shield that blocked the attack and confused the Grimm. "Get away," Applejack called out as she ran toward the Grimm mantis and kicked it in the thorax. When she did, it went flying into several other Scykiri before they evaporated upon death. "Whoa... Did I," Applejack questioned before she saw one of the younger Scykiri jump towards her. Screaming as it positioned its arms to cut off her head, Applejack watched as Ventus Gaia grabbed the Grimm's head with his talons and began to crush it before shooting the Grimm with his greaves.
Soon, the battle came to a close when Vinyl created a disk of hard light and threw it at the final Scykiri. Terracotta leapt onto the disk and jumped off of it before grabbing the Grimm. Adjusting his grip on the monster, Terracotta performed a piledriver that killed the insectoid creature on impact with the ground. As everyone caught their breath, Silver exclaimed his confusion and frustration with everything. "Okay, this is getting weird! Is there anything else that's going to happen?!"
Soon, Twilight and Sunset Shimmer began to talk about what happened before the Scykiri showed up. "You're not the only one with a new kind of magic! This is great," Shimmer told Twilight as they walked away from the group.
"No, it's not! Rarity and Applejack could have really hurt each other! Not to mention those Grimm appearing! Why is this happening," Twilight exclaimed as she became distressed about everything that was happening.
"Hi, girls," Gloriosa said as she walked up to Twilight and Sunset. "Anything I can do for you?"
"Uh, Applejack fell into the lake," Twilight said as she pointed back to the rock climbing wall.
"Oh, no! She's gonna need warm towels, dry clothes, oh, and a hot cocoa! I've got this," Gloriosa said as she left to go get the supplies she listed.
As soon as Gloriosa left, Azalea, Terracotta, and Slate began walking toward the girls just as they all heard a scream coming from the mess hall. "Fluttershy," Twilight and Sunset questioned as they recognized the scream. The group all rushed over to the mess hall to see what happened and if there was any more trouble.
Twilight, Sunset, Azalea, Slate, and Terracotta all rushed to see if there was anymore trouble when they heard Fluttershy's screaming coming from the mess hall. Seeing Terracotta charging past them, the rest of Fragment Hunter followed to see if he could use any help. Terracotta slammed the front doors open as he and Azalea drew their weapons in preparation to fight off anything threatening the girls inside. "What's wrong," Azalea asked as she looked around the room with the others.
"What happened," Sunset Shimmer questioned as she, Twilight, and the rest of Fragment Hunter looked around to see that the mess hall, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Bianca, Momo, and Ivy were all covered in cookie dough.
"I don't know," Fluttershy told everyone. "We were just decorating cookies and—"
"And I was all, 'You need more sprinkles! And you need more sprinkles'," Pinkie Pie said as she interrupted Fluttershy and made wild gestures.
"So, just standard Pinkie Pie stuff," Sunset Shimmer remarked as she crossed her arms and gave a playful look at her excitable friend.
"I was just tossing sprinkles to Fluttershy, when all of a sudden they glowed pink and exploded," Pinkie explained further as she grabbed a handful of sprinkles from a jar on the table and tossed it onto the table. As she did, the sprinkles did glow a pink color and exploded to send more cookie dough flying around the room. Everyone who watched the unintentional demonstration had their hair blown back and got covered in more cookie dough.
"Just like that, only earlier," Momo said as she and Pinkie shook the cookie dough off of themselves and smiled as Pinkie placed her hand on the table in front of her.
"Oookaay," Shimmer said as she cautiously approached Pinkie with Slate. "Why don't you lay off touching stuff for a while," she told Pinkie as she carefully moved Pinkie's hand off the table while Slate pulled his little sister away.
Bianca scoffed in disgust as she looked at her wings to see that her feathers were coated in cookie dough. "This is going to be a pain to deal with," the Dove Faunus said as she flapped her wings to try and get any loose dough out of her feathers. "Can someone give me a hand?"
"I think we all might need a nice shower after this," Ivy remarked. "Care to join me for one later, sweetheart," she said to Terracotta with a smile, who only grinned in return. As soon as Azalea saw her parents flirting, she rushed to the nearest trash can and began to throw up.
"Oh, dear. We really should clean all of this up," Fluttershy said as she headed toward one of the shelves. Seeing a roll of paper towels on the top shelf, Fluttershy struggled to reach the item. "Can someone help me out," she asked when she was unable to get what she needed.
"Let me," Layla offered as she raised her hand and was about to use her Semblance. Just before she could though, a bird flew by Layla from an open window and appeared in front of Fluttershy. Flying up to the shelf, the bird fetched the paper towels for Fluttershy and landed on the girl's finger when she caught them. "I knew animals liked Fluttershy, but that's a little much," Layla whispered to the rest of Fragment Hunter.
"Thank you, Mr. Bird," Fluttershy said. The bird chirped in Fluttershy's ear as if to ask her a question. "Why, of course I can get you a little something to-," Fluttershy replied to the bird before she realized something and gasped in shock. "Did you just... talk," she asked the bird, who tweeted back in reply. "But I don't speak 'chirp'," Fluttershy told the bird as she seemed to answer his question about if spoke his language. As Fluttershy continued her conversation with the animal, the others began to look at her. "I don't know if you're the only bird I can understand," she said. "Oh, no! Please don't call for your friends," Fluttershy told the bird, but several other birds and two owls flew into the room and landed on Fluttershy's arms. Hearing their greetings from the tweets and hoots, Fluttershy just smiled and replied to them. "It's nice to meet all of you, too."
"Were you just talking to the birds," Sunset Shimmer asked as everyone looked at the birds on Fluttershy's arms and the first bird on her head.
"I didn't even know owls could be awake in the middle of the day," Momo said to herself.
"Um, yes," Fluttershy responded in confusion and embarrassment as she nervously smiled back at her friends. Suddenly, the doors slammed open which startled Fluttershy and the birds. As the birds flew away, Applejack, Rarity, and Azalea's dogs entered the mess hall. The dogs saw all the cookie dough on the floor and began to lick away at it while Applejack spoke up.
"Did you tell them what happened," Applejack asked the others. "So crazy! I hoisted Rarity up the rock climbin' wall like it was nothin'! Like I had way more strength than I usually do."
"And I made a diamondy thing appear out of nowhere, which normally I'd be excited about. I mean, the facets were just perfect, and the-," Rarity explained as she went on a tangent about her sudden new magic before Applejack told her to focus. "Oh, sorry. It knocked Applejack over and then it disappeared! Not only that, Grimm showed up and nearly killed us. Luckily, the others handled everything and they're gone now."
"Speaking of disappearing, has anybody seen Rainbow Dash since the rock climbing wall," Applejack asked.
Suddenly, a rainbow-colored blur sped by through the doors to the mess hall, zooming by several of the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter. Speeding toward Slate, the blur crashed into him and the two hit a wall. "Why me," Slate asked in pain as he fell to the ground. Ivy helped him up and began to use her healing Semblance on him in case of any injuries from the crash while everyone saw that the blur was Rainbow Dash.
"Whoa! How'd you do that," Applejack asked as she helped Rainbow Dash off the ground.
"I don't know. I started running to get the harness, and the next thing I knew, I was practically back in town," Rainbow Dash explained.
"But if you had some sort of super speed, why you were gone for so long," Rarity and Rebecca asked about Rainbow Dash's absence.
"Because I lost it when I got far away," Rainbow told everyone. "And then it came back when I got close to camp."
Pinkie gasped when she realized that a majority of the Rainbooms had new powers. "Being at camp is giving us all new magical abilities," she exclaimed in excitement.
"I would've been fine with just a t-shirt," Fluttershy quietly stated.
"A lot of your powers are similar to Semblances," Rua remarked. "Could it be because of us instead?"
"None of us have unlocked their Auras for them, so that's out of the picture," Sunset Blaze replied.
"Not all of us have gotten new abilities," Sunset Shimmer said to everyone. "I haven't. But, Twilight... hasn't either," she reminded about herself and was about to tell everyone about Twilight's telekinesis, but the girl angrily shook her head to make sure Sunset didn't spill the beans.
"So much for my theory that leavin' CHS would mean leavin' any new magic business behind," Applejack sighed.
"Something at the camp must be making this happen. Same with those Grimm appearing," Sunset Shimmer pondered out loud. As she did, nobody noticed Twilight turning her head away as if she was the guilty party.
"Um, Gaea Everfree," Fluttershy suggested.
"Who knows," Sunset Blaze remarked. "But if that's the case, we can just deal with her like the last few threats," she stated as she used her Fire Dust Jacket to create a dancing flame in her open palm as she held out her hand.
"Can you even beat a spirit," Rainbow Dash asked in concern before everyone heard the doors be kicked open. Turning to the doors, Fluttershy screamed in fright when everyone saw a shadowed figure enter the build.
As the figure stepped into the light, the group saw that it was only Gloriosa Daisy holding Applejack's newly dried hat and several other items for her after an unexpected swim in the lake. "Applejack! I was looking for you! Here, I brought you some towels and dry clothes," Gloriosa said as she found Applejack and handed her the supplies. With her hands free, Gloriosa looked around the mess hall to see it was covered in cookie dough and that Azalea's dogs were licking away most of the mess. "Uh, what happened in here?"
"Momo tends to get a little too excited when she's doing certain things and makes games out of them. Apparently, she decided to turn the mess hall into a new art project," Slate quickly said as he came up with a cover story for the mess. To aid the story, Momo gave a giant innocent-looking grin that reminded the Rainbooms a lot of Pinkie's smiles.
"Well, don't worry about it. I got this," Gloriosa said before the doors to the mess hall opened up again.
Derpy and Sandalwood came inside the mess hall since they saw Gloriosa enter earlier. "Gloriosa, I kicked my beanbag into the lake," Sandalwood told the camp director.
Gloriosa's eye twitched as her list of duties began to pile up, but nobody noticed. "I'll get you another one," Gloriosa replied.
"Several of us could go and get it out of the water," Layla remarked, but Gloriosa ignored her.
"And I'm all out of arrows," Derpy said as she held out several broken arrows in her hand.
"Say no more! New arrows coming right up," Gloriosa told her.
"There you are," Timber said as he moved past Sandalwood and Derpy to talk with Gloriosa. "Filthy Rich is back. Do you want me to handle it? Otherwise, I think that Terracotta guy might break something," Timber told his sister in a quiet voice.
"You know, I'm standing right here," Terracotta said to Timber, who turned to see that the Bull Faunus was standing right next to him.
"Absolutely not," Gloriosa responded to her brother in a harsh whisper. "I've got this," Gloriosa said in her regular chipper tone as she walked past Sunset Shimmer and Sunset Blaze, touching their arms as she exited the building with Timber, Sandalwood, and Derpy. When she briefly grabbed the girls, they believed that they heard a scream.
"Fluttershy, enough with the screaming," Sunset Shimmer told Fluttershy.
"I didn't scream," Fluttershy responded.
"For once," Rainbow Dash and Rua remarked at the same time.
"Nobody did," Rarity stated.
As Sunset Shimmer was confused by what she heard, Sunset Blaze was reminded of the initiation exam of Beacon Academy and how she first discovered her Semblance after meeting Azalea. For some reason, Blaze heard Azalea panic about a few things when she claimed to have said anything. Piecing together the clues she found about what Shimmer said, she was snapped out of her thoughts when Principal Celestia make an announcement with the P.A. "Attention, campers! Anyone who's interested in making floating paper lanterns, please meet us by the picnic tables."
"I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I've been lookin' forward to comin' here for a month," Applejack told the others. "Maybe we forget about this 'new magic' for a bit and just try to focus on enjoyin' our time at camp?"
"I was oh, so excited about designs I've come up with for the camp fashion show," Rarity said as she clapped her hands in excitement.
"I'll help you out after I clean this stuff out of my wings," Bianca said as she continued to inspect her feathers.
"And I've barely gotten to whoop anybody in tetherball," Rainbow Dash added.
"I think we should try to figure it out," Sunset Shimmer stated. "But if letting it go for now is what the rest of you want..."
The Rainbooms agreed about enjoying their time at camp before dealing with their new magic powers, but Twilight was still feeling uncertain about it. "Come on," Sunset Blaze told everyone. "Let's get cleaned up and start making our lanterns."
That evening, the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter gathered together with the rest of the campers to start making paper lanterns while Bianca tried to make sure that her hair and feathers were completely clean. After following the instructions provided by Celestia, Luna, and Gloriosa, the lanterns were made and ready to be painted. Fluttershy made her lantern with butterflies on it, Rainbow Dash added lightning bolts on hers, and Rarity was painting diamond patterns on her lantern when she noticed Pinkie doing something with her own lantern. "Um, Pinkie Pie, what are you doing," Rarity asked as she looked at her friend.
"Putting marshmallows in my lantern. Then when we light them, mine will be beautiful and delicious," Pinkie replied as she placed marshmallows on her lantern to cover it, while putting colored ones on in the design of a flower as well.
"Oh, that sounds fun," Momo said as she looked over at Pinkie Pie and the others.
"Don't even think about it, Momo," Slate warned as he painted his horseshoe emblem on his lantern. "It'll be too heavy to fly."
While the siblings continued talking, Vinyl began to paint her emblem of a record with three scratches on her lantern in blue and gold colors. At the same time and table, Lapis began to paint a mermaid scale pattern on her lantern while Azalea drew flowers and butterflies on hers. Momo added hearts onto her lantern when Slate talked her out of putting candy on it, but started to add Azalea and Slate's personal emblems in some of the hearts as a way of subtly teasing her brother. Sunset Blaze saw what she was doing and chuckled while adding flame patterns and her phoenix-winged sun emblem onto her lantern. "These are gonna be amazing to see take flight," Blaze remarked as she added the final stroke to her emblem.
"Indeed they will," Ivy said from the table next to them. She was painting an ivy-pattern and stars on her lantern while Terracotta was drawing various symbols on his own. The rest of Fragment Hunter was adding their own personal touches to each of their lanterns as well. Silver added a chain pattern on his, Cereza made moon designs that alternated between blue and red, and Rebecca made shuriken-styled designs on her lantern. Layla made a smoke detail on her lantern as she painted it, Rua chose to decorate her lantern with a skull design, Celadon painted on gemstones to her lantern, and Vixen her lantern with her own emblem.
While everyone was finishing up their lanterns, Twilight and Spike were separated from the others at their own table. "Hey, Twilight, why aren't you with everyone else," Spike asked as she finished her star and moon decorated lantern.
"Sunset said something at camp is causing the other girls to get new magic and bring those Creatures of Grimm. I think it's Midnight Sparkle. She's still part of me. I can feel it. I think her magic is infecting my friends and bringing those monsters here," Twilight confided in her dog and best friend.
"What are we gonna do," Spike asked in concern.
"I don't know what I can do," Twilight admitted sadly.
"Okay, everyone," Gloriosa exclaimed. "It's time to watch your lanterns fly!"
As everyone approached the unfinished dock for Gloriosa, Celestia, or Luna to light the candles in their lanterns, Twilight slowly walked as she saw none of Fragment Hunter heading for the same location as her. Instead, she watched as Sunset Blaze and Azalea use Fire Dust to create a small flame that they used to light their candles. As Twilight continued on her way, she saw some of the lantern designs her friends made. While Applejack went with an obvious apple design, Sunset Shimmer chose to decorate her lantern with bamboo designs that looked very nice. "Hey, cool lantern," Timber complimented as he approached Twilight. "Mine's my face," he said as he held up his lantern to show a super deformed version of his head that wouldn't look out of place in a spinoff comedy series of a popular anime-styled show. Twilight laughed halfhearted at Timber holding his lantern up to his face, but she continued walking while she was still unsure of what to do about her whole 'Midnight Sparkle situation'. "Uh, you okay," Timber asked Twilight as he walked beside her. "You don't seem like yourself tonight."
Twilight was lost in her thoughts as she and Timber walked up to the dock. Celestia and Luna had lighters ready to prepare their lanterns as the two stopped in front of them. As Twilight watched her lantern's candle become lit, she watched the flickering flame and smiled at the sight of the small dancing flame lighting up her lantern. For a moment, she forgot about her worries and enjoyed the sight of her starry lantern before Gloriosa instructed everyone to release their lanterns over the lake. Everyone watched the sight of each lantern lighting up the night sky with all the different designs they had.
As the lanterns floated up into the sky, Pinkie tossed up her own to only find it immediately falling back to the ground from the weight of the marshmallows she decorated it with. "Aw! Oh, well! Now I get to eat it," Pinkie groaned in disappointment before immediately looking on the bright side. Everyone watched as she started picking off marshmallows from it and messing chomp down on them. "Yep, beautiful and delicious," she said with pride while her mouth and fingers were covered in marshmallow. Momo immediately went to the lantern for herself and Pinkie happily shared the treats with her doppelganger before everyone watched the lanterns floating over the lake. A few of them bumped into each other and Momo giggled when she saw Slate and Azalea's own lanterns gently float into each other.
"Aw man, I missed it," Bianca complained as she walked up to the dock with dry clothes and a towel on her head. "Well, at least I can do this," she remarked as she flapped her wings and took flight to get a better view of the lanterns from the air. As she watched the lanterns, she turned to see Ventus Gaia had the same idea as her as he used his Semblance to float above the camp like he was resting on a sofa.
"Alright. Mrs. Holstein volunteered to cook tonight, so let's go the mess hall for dinner," Luna told everyone. Upon hearing that Ivy was cooking, every single visitor from Remnant bolted for the mess hall and nearly took out the doors to the building in their rush.
Most of the campers were sound asleep in their tents, but somebody in one of the tents Terracotta made for Fragment Hunter had some issues that night. "I can't sleep," Pinkamena Momo Quartz declared as she was lying down on the floor of the stone tent with Slate, Azalea, and Azalea's dogs looking at her.
"That's what happens when you eat every single gram of sugar you come across," Slate told his little sister as he sat up.
Azalea looked at Momo as she held her corgi, Drei. "Maybe we could go for a walk through the forest to help pass the time," she suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Slate agreed. The three headed out of their tent with Drei to enjoy the night air when they saw Sunset Shimmer putting on her boots and running out of her tent. "Where is she going," Slate asked.
"We better follow her," Azalea said. Drei chased after Shimmer as she ran into the forest while the others followed after the dog. Tailing Sunset into the woods, Azalea saw Shimmer was following Twilight and Spike. Momo pulled out her yo-yo and used it as a grappling hook to grab one of the branches above the teenagers. Pulling herself up, Momo landed in front of Twilight and Spike, scaring them, while Azalea and Slate caught up with Sunset Shimmer. "Guys, what are you doing out here," Azalea asked Sunset and Twilight.
"That's what I wanted to ask Twilight," Shimmer remarked. "I saw she wasn't in bed and started heading into the forest. So, you wanna tell us why you did that," she questioned her friend.
Twilight looked ashamed as her friends started interrogated her, but answered with hesitance. "We're... we're meeting a cab to take us home," she said.
Sunset, Momo, Slate, and Azalea were all confused at Twilight's answer before turning to Spike for Twilight's reason for wanting to leave. "She thought you'd talk her out of it," the talking dog replied.
"Pretty sure that's the obvious response from her," Slate remarked.
"They're right, I would talk you out of it. Twilight, you can't leave," Sunset stated as she touched her friend's hand. As soon as she did, her eyes turned white and glowed brightly. Slate and Azalea looked at Sunset as they thought what they were seeing was familiar. When Sunset's eyes stopped glowing, she shut them and looked back at Twilight as she let go of Twilight's arm. "Twilight, there's no Midnight Sparkle. There's only you," Sunset told the girl.
"How did you know what I was thinking," Twilight questioned as she slightly backed away from Sunset.
"When I touched your hand, I could see things. I could understand why you were leaving," Sunset explained before coming to a realization. "My new magic...! This is my new magic! This is incredible!"
"I'll say it is," Azalea agreed. "It's like when Blaze first discovered her Semblance back at the initiation test for Beacon Academy."
"You mean when you were thrown off a cliff," Spike questioned as he recalled one of the times when Fragment Hunter stopped by between the Friendship Games and the trip to Camp Everfree. "If that's the initiation exam, I'd hate to see what they do for graduation. Do they set you on fire?"
"This isn't great! I'm infecting you now," Twilight exclaimed in fear and worry, ignoring her dog's comments.
"How would you be infecting her? I don't think you're a walking miasma of magic," Slate remarked as he looked at Twilight.
"A m-what-a," Momo asked in confusion before Sunset Shimmer continued back on track.
"Twilight, you have to stop looking at this as a bad thing," Sunset told her friend.
"Easy for you to say. Magic turned you into something beautiful," Twilight said to Sunset Shimmer, referring to when she used Twilight's magic tracker/container to transform herself into a form that CHS and Fragment Hunter called 'Daydream Shimmer'. "The last time I tried to use it, it turned me into a monster. I'm just so afraid it's gonna happen again," Twilight explained, telling the others about her fear from the Friendship Games and reoccurring nightmares.
Sunset sighed as she remembered the Friendship Games against Crystal Prep and how she had to face off against Midnight Sparkle alongside Fragment Hunter. "Yes, last time I turned into something amazing, but I've let magic turn me into a monster, too," she told Twilight, remembering her first experience with magic beyond her control and initial understanding. "So if anyone understands what you're going through, it's me. I can help you, Twilight. And the rest of our friends can be there for you, too. But not if you run away."
"If you do end up becoming Midnight Sparkle again, we'll be sure to beat her out of you," Azalea said as she punched her palm. "Besides, there are a few extra tricks we haven't shown you yet."
Twilight thought about it for a second before sighing. "I'll stay. But I still don't think it's a good idea for me to be near the rest of our friends right now. Not until we know why this is happening," Twilight told the others, still being cautious about why the girls were suddenly gaining magic powers.
"Understood," Sunset, Azalea, Slate, and Momo agreed.
Suddenly, everyone heard a rustling in the bushes that caught their immediate attention. "What was that," Sunset questioned as she and the others looked around the dark woods for the source of the sound.
"It's nothing dangerous," Momo stated as she pulled out her yo-yo again and threw it into the bushes. Pulling it back, she pulled Timber Spruce with the weaponized toy, causing him to drop an axe next to a tree.
"What's going on," Timber questioned as he was dragged into view. Seeing the group and a corgi barking at him, he only looked up and recognized them. "Twilight?"
Seeing that it was only one of the counselors, Momo released Timber from her yo-yo's string and let him stand up. "Timber? I'm so glad it's just you," Twilight said in relief at the group wasn't in danger, but soon wondered something about the current situation. "Wait, what are you doing out here?"
"With an axe," Sunset Shimmer added as she pointed to axe on the ground.
"I was chopping down firewood," Timber replied as he pointed to a cart of wood behind the bushes he was dragged out of.
"In the middle of the night," Sunset and Slate questioned with suspicion as they looked at Timber.
"We needed more for tomorrow night's campfire," Timber explained as he placed the axe in a log on the top of his cart. "And if I didn't take care of it tonight, it would be one more thing Gloriosa would add to her list. 'I've got this'," he mentioned before doing an impression of his sister, which got a chuckle out of Twilight.
"Can't she ask for help," Azalea asked as she remembered all the different tasks Gloriosa did throughout their visit.
"She can be pretty stubborn and insistent she does things on her own. That's why I had to do this now," Timber said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Reminds me of a certain girl who takes after her family," Slate remarked as he looked at Azalea.
Azalea playfully rolled her eyes at what Slate was talking about before speaking to him. "Maybe. But then again, who was the one who decided to stand up for her when her old bullies showed up and brought back bad memories for her, only to get beaten up by them?"
"At least I asked you out after you bandaged me up from that," Slate countered as he pointed his finger at Azalea.
"Didn't she tighten your bandages too much when you asked her the first time," Momo asked with a knowing smirk as she pet Drei.
"Shut up, Rock Candy," Slate muttered under his breath while Azalea giggled and blushed at the memory.
"Back to the question you asked me, why are all of you out in the woods in the middle of the night," Timber asked.
"Oh! I was sleepwalking," Sunset replied with a quick lie while Twilight struggled to think of an answer. "Twilight found me and was bringing me back to camp," Sunset continued as she placed an arm around Twilight's shoulders.
Twilight nodded in agreement to Sunset's answer while Slate went with the more honest approach. "Momo couldn't sleep, so we thought that walking through the woods would help her out," he said. Momo yawned as he was saying this, meaning that the younger teen was now actually feeling sleepy like they wanted her to be.
"Come on. I'll walk you guys back. I'll protect you from Gaea Everfree! Everfree! Everfree," Timber told the group, saying the spirit's name in a ridiculous voice that was meant to be spooky.
"Come on. That's obviously just a spooky story you made up to tell around the campfire," Sunset dismissed as she didn't believe the tale from before.
"Oh, no. It's legit," Timber said. "How else would you explain what happened at the docks? And that weird thing where the earth shook?"
"Well, I know a guy who can do that by punching the ground hard enough," Azalea mentioned as she recalled one of her earlier misadventures at Beacon.
"That 'Tremor' guy," Momo asked as she tried to stay awake.
"Yeah," Slate replied as he kneeled down to let Momo onto his back for a piggyback ride to the tents.
"Come on. I know a shortcut back to the tents," Timber told the others as he offered his hand to Twilight. She accepted the guide back and walked beside Timber while he pulled his cart of firewood.
Sunset was still suspicious about Timber because of all the strange events in his story were seemingly coming to life and his insistence that the legend was in-fact real. Just as Timber and Twilight were leaving, the group noticed a trail of sparkling gem dust where Timber was dragged from the bushes and saw it was falling out of his pocket when he walked beside Twilight. "Legit, huh," Sunset questioned as she glared at Timber's back. "I think we just found our 'Gaea Everfree'," she said as she kneeled down to investigate the gem dust.
"But why would he work so hard to make us think she was real," Spike asked as he stayed behind with Sunset and the others.
"You heard what he said about wishing his sister would sell this camp," Sunset reminded Azalea and Spike. "If nobody wants to come here because it's home to some angry ancient nature spirit, it sure would help his cause."
"Wait, what," the Quartz siblings asked in confusion.
"I'll explain later," Azalea told them.
"We should tell Twilight," Spike said as he wanted to protect his best friend and tell her the truth of what was going on.
"Not yet," Sunset told Spike as Drei blocked his path. "She's obviously going through a lot right now with the Grimm and her fears of Midnight Sparkle. We should probably be a hundred percent sure before we tell her the guy she likes is a jerk who's trying to run everybody out of camp."
"Yeah, you're right," Spike said. "Let's just get back to bed now." As the group left for their tents, they failed to notice something deeper in the woods. Not too far from their location, a pair of burning red eyes was watching their conversation in the dark. Below those eyes was another pair, but they seemed larger than the first. The eyes watched the teenagers for a while before choosing to return to the deeper sections of the forest to wait for an opportunity to present itself.
The next day after Twilight was convinced to not leave camp, many of the campers were taking part in several of their activity choices such as Slate's suggestion of paintball or Rebecca's choice of Capture the Flag. Most of the Rainbooms were busy working on the dock while Fragment Hunter and their classmates had fun. However, things were progressing a bit slow as Rainbow Dash had to make sure she didn't accidentally run off from the camp with her new super speed and Applejack was carefully tapping the nails into place with her hammer. Holding onto wooden boards with her eyes closed, Rainbow carefully stepped onto the dock and sighed in relief when she made it safely to where she needed to be. When she opened her eyes, the athletic member of the Rainbooms noticed that Rarity was sitting in a chair on the finished side of the dock and wasn't doing anything to help at the moment. "Uh, you gonna give us a hand here, Rarity," Rainbow Dash asked as she had an annoyed look on her face.
"Oh, I'd love to, but I really need to get the stitching on this poncho done if it's going to make it into the camp fashion show," Rarity said as she held up a hand-sewn poncho for Rainbow Dash to see. "Though at the pace you two are moving, I don't know that the runway will ever be finished," she added as she looked at Applejack and Pinkie, who were still working.
"The dock is our gift to the camp, and it's gonna get finished," Applejack corrected Rarity as she started gently hammering another nail into the board she was working on. "That is, if Rainbow Dash would hurry up and bring me more wood," she stated as she looked at the girl.
"Oh, I can't go any faster! I don't want to end up in the woods again," Rainbow Dash replied as she stated her concerns about not being able to control her new power.
"Don't be silly," Applejack told Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, really," Rainbow Dash retorted as she put down the wood in her arms and made a slow hammering motion with her free hand while giving a blank stare at Applejack.
Applejack sighed as she knew Rainbow Dash was right about her own slow pace. "I know I said we should try to forget all about this new magic business, but I can't. What if I hammer the board into splinters," she said to the others. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy all agreed with Applejack not being able to control her potential destructive strength as well as their own powers. "Aw, shoot. I'm all out of nails," Applejack said as she stood up.
"Oh, here you go," Pinkie answered as she held out a sealed box of nails. Winding up her arm, Pinkie tossed the box to Applejack as the other girls screamed for Pinkie to stop. As soon as the box went flying toward the girls, Applejack ducked for cover and Rarity instinctively used her shields to block anything coming at her, but also ended up knocking down Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. When the box landed in front of Applejack, she sighed in relief before glaring at Pinkie. "What," the girl questioned as she shrugged innocently before realizing her mistake. "Ohhh, did you think the nails would explode like the sprinkles? Wow! Glad that didn't happen, huh?"
In the middle of the camp, the members of Fragment Hunter finished up their games and looked at the dock when they saw Pinkie Pie toss the box to Applejack. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. They need to get a hang of their powers," Sunset Blaze remarked as she and the rest of Fragment Hunter approached the dock and saw Sunset Shimmer doing to same.
"Sorry, girls," Rarity sighed as she helped Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy up off the ground. "I didn't mean to. I don't know how to control this."
"It's okay," Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, none of us do," Fluttershy added.
"Which is why we shouldn't pretend this isn't happening," Sunset Shimmer told the Rainbooms as she and Fragment Hunter arrived.
"Yeah, your fears are getting in the way. You need training to control what your powers can do," Sunset Blaze voiced.
"Especially since several of them can be helpful in a fight," Rua remarked as she remembered the Scykiri attack from the other day.
"I can tell you figured out something earlier," Blaze said as she looked at her double.
"Do you have them now, too," Rainbow Dash asked Shimmer.
"It started last night," Shimmer explained. "When I touch people, it's like I can feel what they're feeling and see their memories."
"Sounds like my Semblance," Blaze noted. "But, I'm pretty sure that you can't tell if somebody's lying to you when they speak."
"Oooh, fancy! Try me, try me," Pinkie said as she grabbed the hands of both Sunset's and placed them on her head for them to seeing into her head. When the two girls used their powers, they saw that Pinkie's head had a crazy mindscape that was brightly colored, had happy music playing, and was filled with unusual creatures as Pinkie skipped around and sang to herself in her own world. "Ooh, taffy," she exclaimed as she pulled a piece of a taffy creature off and began to eat it.
When they saw enough, both Sunset's removed their hands and looked on with a thousand-yard stare. "That explains so much," Shimmer stated as she attempted to process Pinkie Pie's mental world.
"Yep," Pinkie Pie happily agreed with a blissful smile that both fiery-haired girls were amused by.
"Just like Nora," Blaze remarked as she remembered the time she tested her Semblance's mind reading powers on her classmate, Nora Valkyrie. "But with less Grimm killing and secret crushes on childhood friends."
"Girls, we can't just brush these powers aside because it doesn't seem like the ideal time to get them," Sunset Shimmer told the Rainbooms as she walked onto the dock. "What if it turns out that they could actually make things better?"
"I feel like a song is coming on, so get it out of your system now," Rua said to Shimmer. "When you're finished, we'll be helping you train your powers," the young Huntress stated as she punched her palm before Sunset Shimmer began to sing.
So you have magic And it's not that great But when it found you You know it was fate
And it might seem scary now But it can be wonderful, too So how about we embrace the magic And make the magic part of you?
You take a little dash of magic And you let it ignite Mix things up a little bit And it might start to go right
In just five seconds flat How the story has changed All 'cause now you've embraced the magic And it just got better in every way
I say embrace the magic No more holding back, just let it out If you can take the magic And learn a little more what it can do Once the magic is part of you
What's standing in your way That you can't move today? You've got the strength in you To make your dreams come true
No need to shield yourself From the magic that can help Protect from any harm that might come
So you have magic And it's not that great But when it found you You know it was fate
So if you listen close You might make a new friend And together we can make it!
I say embrace the magic No more holding back, just let it out If you can take the magic And learn a little more what it can do Once the magic is part of you Once the magic is part of you Once the magic is part of you
Once the magic is part of you
As Sunset Shimmer sang a beautiful song to act as a pep talk for the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter enjoyed hearing it. "That was amazing," Bianca said as she approached the group.
"Thanks," Shimmer replied.
"Well, enough with the touchy-feely magic friendship stuff," Rua declared as she raised a fist in the air. "It's time for something a bit more practical to help you girls out with these new powers."
"And I know just how to do it and who can help us," Azalea said as she turned to look at an area of the camp that was set up for Rua's suggestion of combat lessons.
After Sunset Shimmer managed to convince the Rainbooms (sans Twilight) that they should embrace their newly acquired magical abilities, the members of Fragment Hunter brought the girls from Canterlot High to the area of camp that Terracotta and Ventus had finished setting up for teaching combat lessons. When the group arrived, they saw more students joining the activity. When enough people joined, Terracotta looked at everyone with a stern glare before shouting in a matching voice. "Welcome to Boot Camp Everfree, maggots!"
Hearing Terracotta's change in tone, most of the teenagers were surprised when they compared it to his usual tone. Rather than the more friendly man they knew from earlier, the Bull Faunus now sounded like a drill instructor for soldiers. Looking over at the unflinching Fragment Hunter, the Rainbooms spoke to the young warriors. "Is your dad always this hardcore when it comes to training," Rainbow Dash asked Azalea.
"Yes," all of Fragment Hunter immediately answered as they remembered all of their training with Terracotta at Beacon Academy.
"I still remember his first lessons with us," Rua said as she looked away from the CHS students.
Sunset Blaze winced at the memory of how he finished his battle with her, Team SAFR, and Team SLVR. "He hits like a freight train," she muttered to herself.
"Now, you'll all be taught how to fight against anybody or anything that's trying to kill you," Terracotta stated after he went on a typical drill instructor speech. "Whoever has previous combat experience, step to the side," he told the campers who volunteered to join the combat lessons. Seeing several of them move, including Bon Bon, Flash Sentry, and Lyra Heartstrings, Terracotta turned his attention to the Rainbooms. "Now then, the six of you will be getting special training from myself, Ventus, and the members of Fragment Hunter."
As the girls began to look apprehensive about the training already, Fluttershy meekly raised her hand and caught Terra's attention. "Um... I'm not comfortable with violence, Sir," she managed to say to the Huntsman. But rather than yelling at her like the act he was putting on would imply, Terracotta's expression softened as he looked at Fluttershy.
"That's why I have a special training plan for you," Terra said in a gentle and fatherly tone which seemed to put Fluttershy at ease. When he finished speaking to her, his stern glare and voice returned as he addressed the other Rainbooms. "The rest of you will be covered in blood, sweat, and tears when my students are finished with you!"
"Excuse me. I don't mean to be rude, but I'd rather not get any blood on my outfit," Rarity stated as she faced Terracotta in a way that showed off her clothes. "I designed it myself and it took me quite a wh-"
"TOUGH SHIT, SEWING MACHINE," Terracotta yelled in Rarity's face, messing up her hair as she flinched at the sudden interruption.
Rarity was shocked at Terracotta's screaming, but fixed up her hair before turning to her friends. "He was so nice before..."
"Yeah, Dad likes to put on this act sometimes," Azalea told the Rainbooms. "He usually did it with me when I was training with him before attending Beacon. He doesn't do it as often anymore, though."
"Admittedly, it's kind of fun," Terracotta said as he broke character briefly. "Now, you'll be separated based on your 'skill sets' and trained by the correct member of Fragment Hunter," he told the Rainbooms before listing who would train with who. "Sewing Machine, you'll be training with Celadon. The two of you can work on those magic diamonds of yours," he said to Rarity. "Sunset 1 and Sunset 2, you'll train together. Azalea, you help out Applejack. Rainbow Hair will be training with Ventus while Candy Hair trains with whoever will help her out. The rest of you will be helping the other campers," Terracotta stated.
Getting their assignments, the campers all separated and went on to start their training with each other. As they did, Fluttershy and Terracotta began to train. "W-what are we going to do," the pink-haired animal lover asked the Huntsman.
"Striking at something isn't the only way to defend yourself," Terracotta stated. "You'll be forced to face off against opponents that are much larger and stronger than you. However, you can use that against them with the proper training. I'll teach you how to defend yourself without harming your opponent too much." Getting himself in a defensive stance, Terra turned to Fluttershy and gestured for her to try and make physical contact with him. Demonstrating what to do, the warrior taught Fluttershy to defend herself with techniques similar to Judo and Aikido.
As the combat lessons continued, the campers were getting into the training. While some struggled such as Fluttershy, others adapted to the training and got better. However, some of the students were naturals and were able to fight just as well as the visitors from Remnant. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were two of the best students when it came to their lessons as Azalea was able to help AJ control how much of the latter's new strength was needed, while Ventus was able to help Rainbow Dash use her super speed. Sunset Shimmer was getting lessons in swordplay from her doppelganger from Remnant as they watched the progress of everyone. "Applejack and Rainbow Dash seem to be getting the hang of their powers," Shimmer remarked as she saw Rainbow Dash sparring with Ventus as they stopped racing around with their abilities.
"Yeah," Blaze agreed as she saw Rainbow Dash manage to punch Ventus in the jaw. "Let's see how well," she said as her jacket began to glow when she used the Fire Dust in her favorite article of clothing. With a wave of her arm, Sunset Blaze created a ring of flames around Rainbow Dash. When she saw the flames appear, Rainbow Dash saw Sunset Blaze looking in her direction and snap her fingers. Immediately running away from the flames before the space in the circle of fire detonated, Rainbow Dash wasn't paying attention to Ventus and the Falcon Faunus managed to kick her into the lake.
Hearing the splash, everyone stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash returning to dry land. Spitting out water, Rainbow Dash sped over to Sunset Blaze and got in the girl's face. "What the heck!? Why did you do that," Rainbow Dash screamed.
"In a real fight, there's no such thing as cheating. Only survival," Blaze stated.
"Hell, if we didn't choose to hold back our abilities, Crystal Prep would've ended up in the hospital for the rest of their time at that school," Rua stated as she teleported next to Rainbow Dash.
"She's right," Celadon said. "If you had put together a fencing match when we participated, a few of us would've likely made them bleed."
"Probably Blaze," Azalea remarked.
Sunset Blaze only shrugged as a reply, which scared the CHS students a bit. "That would've been harsh," Applejack said. "Deserved, but harsh."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed. "They were jerks, but they didn't really need to get hurt badly. Pride, maybe. Bodies, definitely not."
"Speak for yourself," Rua retorted. "Given the chance, I would've broken their bodies and their spirit."
"Alright. I think that's enough training for today," Terracotta said after Fluttershy managed to follow his instructions and flip him onto his back with the proper technique. "We should get started on repairing the dock more."
"Yes, sir," everyone replied as they listened to Terracotta.
With their powers under control, the Rainbooms were able to continue working on their gift to Camp Everfree. They even used their magic to their advantage as Pinkie used her ability to detonate sprinkles, making holes in wood that would be used for building a bench. Rainbow Dash then used her speed to build the bench while Pinkie painted it. Working together, they were able to complete their work in record time while the others started hanging signposts for the dock. As Flash Sentry, Bulk Biceps, and a few other students worked to put up one post with effort, Applejack used her super strength to easily carry and plant the second post with one arm. Everyone watched in shock at AJ's strength aside from Azalea and Terracotta, who helped steady the posts and drive them into the ground. "That was easy," Applejack said as she took a bit of an apple she carried in her other hand.
"Labor like this really is when you're strong," Terracotta remarked as he made sure the signposts were stable. "But, you can't be reckless all the time."
As Rarity painted some feed boxes with some members of Fragment Hunter, she looked out to the lake and saw Derpy was losing balance on the sailboat she was on. Before the girl could falling into the water, Rarity acted fast and sent one of her diamond shields toward her classmate to catch her. "Close call," Rarity said as Derpy gave a thumbs up to the other student in the boat.
After putting all the finishing touches on the dock, the Rainbooms stood at the end of it as Fragment Hunter and the other CHS campers marveled at the sight of their completed work. "Okay, that was pretty awesome," Rainbow Dash admitted after they looked at everything.
"And look what you managed to accomplish," Sunset Shimmer said as she pointed out the dock.
"Please, please, please can we do a run-through for the fashion show on it right this minute," Rarity begged.
"I thought that you weren't finished with the stitching on your poncho," Applejack remarked as she leaned against a post.
Grabbing the poncho she was working on earlier, Rarity added one final stitch she needed to do. "I am now," Rarity bragged as she completed her work.
"Get started without me," Sunset Shimmer told the girls as she started to leave. "I've gotta go find Twilight. Seeing what we've been able to do here might make her embrace the new magic, too! Uh, not that she has any."
"I'll come with you," Azalea said as she joined Sunset Shimmer.
"Alright then, see you girls soon," Rarity called out as the two left. "In the meantime, I'll just get the ensembles for everyone ready."
Sunset Shimmer and Azalea were heading off to find Twilight and try to explain that she could do good things with her new magical abilities. Soon, they passed by the boathouse near the lake and overheard an argument. "I just wish you didn't tell them that ridiculous story," a muffled voice exclaimed inside the building. Hearing the voice was Gloriosa's, Sunset and Azalea went to investigate. Sneaking up to the door, the two began to eavesdrop on the rest of the argument.
"Ah, this is all too much for you! You have to let it go," shouted Timber as he fought with his sister.
"I knew it! He wants her to get rid of the camp," Sunset Shimmer told Azalea as her suspicions seemed to be confirmed.
"Yeah, but this could easily be taken out of context. He said 'it', not the camp specifically," Azalea remarked.
Suddenly, the door slammed open and Gloriosa stormed out of the boathouse with Timber following. Azalea used her Semblance to hide herself and Shimmer just as they left, making sure that they weren't caught. Sighing in relief, Sunset looked at Azalea when the Faunus stopped using her Semblance. "Come on, let's follow him," Shimmer told Azalea before she started tailing Timber Spruce. However, she wasn't looking where she was going and bumped into Flash Sentry as he walked by.
"Sunset Shimmer? Azalea? What were you two doing behind that door," Flash asked in surprise when he saw the two girls near the boathouse.
"What? Um, nothing! We, um, I lost an earring. And... Azalea is helping me find it. Uh, there it is," Sunset said as she thought of an excuse. Kneeling down to the ground, Sunset picked up a pebble and hid it from Flash's sight to have him believe it actually was a dropped earring. As she placed the rock in her pocket, Flash spoke to her.
"Hey, listen. I'm glad I ran into you. I really wanted to thank you."
"For what," Sunset asked in confusion.
"For the tough love. Telling me I should get over Twilight. I needed to hear that," Flash explained.
"Sure, no problem," Sunset replied as she looked around for any sign of Timber Spruce with Azalea.
"Is something wrong," Flash asked as he noticed Sunset's odd behavior.
"What? No. Why," Sunset Shimmer claimed as she pretended nothing was wrong.
"Come on, Sunset. We used to date," Flash reminded his ex-girlfriend as he called her out on her secrecy. "I know when something's bothering you."
"My mom can tell the same thing with my dad," Azalea mentioned. "Usually if something bad happened on a mission he recently finished and he won't say anything immediately."
"Okay, here's the deal," Sunset Shimmer sighed in defeat as she prepared to explain her situation to Flash. "My friend really likes someone, but I don't think that someone is who she thinks they are. I don't wanna upset my friend by telling her what I think, because I also want to protect her, because if what I think is happening is really happening, then she deserves to know. You know?"
"Nnnno," Flash stated as he was lost and didn't know what Sunset was talking about specifically. "But what I do know is that your friend is lucky to have someone like you to look out for them."
"Really," Sunset asked with a surprised smile on her face.
"Yeah. You know, you've changed a lot since we went out. You're so much... nicer," Flash remarked as he remembered Sunset's more power-hungry side before the Fall Formal and how much has changed since then.
"Thanks. I'm glad you noticed," Sunset replied as she was flattered by Flash's words.
As they had their little moment, Azalea smirked as she saw the way Sunset Shimmer and Flash looked at each other. "Seems like old flames are reigniting," the Cow Faunus said as she smiled at the two.
Hearing what Azalea said, Sunset and Flash were surprised by her comment and blushed furiously. Flash couldn't even get a full sentence out because of the initial shock. "No! I mean... Um... It's just..." Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he turned back to Sunset Shimmer. "Uh, look, maybe you and me, we could start over as... friends."
As Sunset tried to look away from Flash to hide her embarrassment, she saw Timber walking off into the woods. "Uh, uh, sounds great. I gotta go," she agreed, but was more focused on figuring out what Timber was doing.
As Sunset ran off, Flash tried to call out to her. "Cool, yeah! I want to start over later, too," he said before sighing at the fact Sunset mostly ignored him as she left. Derpy soon came up to the guy and consoled him by patting him on the back.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you two will get back together someday," Azalea told him as she followed after Sunset.
"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT," Flash shouted with a red face from embarrassment as Azalea followed after Sunset.
In the forest, Azalea caught up with Sunset and the two continued to tail after Timber. Sunset's suspicions only grew as Timber tried to make sure nobody was following him before he ran deeper into the woods. As the two girls chased after him, they soon lost his trail. Realizing that they couldn't find him, Sunset groaned in frustration. "Oh man, we lost him."
"Too bad Silver isn't here with us. He could turn into a wolf with his Semblance and follow Timber by scent alone," Azalea remarked.
Suddenly, the girls felt the ground shaking and they flinched. "Another earthquake," Sunset asked as she worried about any natural disasters that could occur near the camp.
"Doesn't feel like one. I think someone or something moved a giant rock," Azalea stated. The girls continued their way forward and soon came across the rock quarry that Timber warned them about. Looking at a nearby cave, they saw somebody enter and a mysterious glow was coming from inside. "Guess that explains the quake just now," Azalea said.
"Ah, shoot! He's definitely up to something," Sunset exclaimed as she pulled out her phone and messaged Twilight.
Back in the Sapphire Tent, Twilight was enjoying a book when she and Spike heard her phone sound off. Checking it, she saw that there was a message. "It's Sunset. She says to meet her and Azalea by the rock quarry," she told Spike.
"I thought we weren't supposed to hike out that far," Spike mentioned as he remembered what Timber and Gloriosa said before.
"She says it's important," Twilight added as she read the rest of the message. Concerned for her friends, Twilight ran off for the rock quarry with Spike coming with her. As they made their way through the woods, Twilight saw a strange glow coming from the direction of the quarry when she looked up at the trees. "What is that," she said to herself and failed to notice she was walking straight into a spider web. Shrieking at the web hitting her face, she was soon silenced by Sunset Shimmer. Signalling for her to keep quiet, Sunset guided her to the quarry. "What's going on down there? And where's Azalea," Twilight asked.
"Azalea went on further ahead to check it out. But we think it's Gaea Everfree. Or rather, someone who wants us to think she's back," Shimmer explained. Seeing Azalea wave to the girls before turning invisible again, Sunset turned back to Twilight. "C'mon!"
As the girls and Spike entered the cave, they were amazed at the sight of its interior. There was a large cavern that was lined with all sorts of crystals, but the center had a opening in the ceiling that shined a light down on a natural trunk-like podium of rocks that held two crystals. "This place is beautiful," Twilight said as she was captivated by the natural beauty of the cave.
As they walked through the cave, Sunset sensed something all too familiar to her. "There's Equestrian magic here. I can... I can feel it," she stated.
"Wait. I thought Timber was just faking there was a magical nature creature," Spike said, forgetting that Twilight was next to him. "Are you saying it's real?"
"Timber? What does he have to do with any of this," Twilight questioned as she faced Sunset.
"Nothing," a voice softly stated before stepping out of the shadows to reveal herself as Gloriosa Daisy. "It's all me." Looking at the girls, Gloriosa gave a wicked grin that gave the hidden Azalea a disturbed feeling.
"Gloriosa? But... Timber. I was sure he was the one trying to make it seem like Gaea Everfree was back," Sunset said as she tried to make sense of the situation. "It was you who was trying to scare everyone away?"
"I would never try to scare anyone away from Camp Everfree," Gloriosa stated as she walked past Sunset and Twilight. Wondering what she meant by that, Sunset grabbed at Gloriosa's arm and started to use her new magic to search the camp counselor's memories.
After grabbing onto Gloriosa's arm, Sunset Shimmer's magic kicked in and allowed her to look into the counselor's memories to see why she seemed to be causing chaos around Camp Everfree. The first relevant memory that she witnessed took place in Gloriosa's office, where she and Filthy Rich were talking about the camp property. "My, oh, my. You fell behind on your payments, Gloriosa. I own the land now," the businessman stated.
"Please. My great grandparents founded this place. It's been in our family for generations! You have to let the camp stay," Gloriosa begged as she felt defeated.
"Instead of turning it into a spa resort that will line my pockets with more money than this camp ever could," Filthy Rich rhetorically asked with a chuckle as he patted the jacket pockets of his suit. "I don't think so. It would be a wasted chance for a good and honest business venture if I did that."
Gloriosa was becoming desperate as she continued to pleade. "Please! I-I-I-I just need a little more time! I can get you the money I owe you for everything! Just let me work things out."
"Fine. I'll give you 'til the end of the month," Filthy Rich agreed. "If you don't give me the payments you owe, this property will be mine and I'll do whatever I see fit with the land," he stated as he left. When he did, Gloriosa broke down in sorrow and started to cry. As tears fell down her face as she sat at her office desk, the scene soon changed to her doing the same thing at the waterfall grotto.
Sitting on a log as she looked at the water, Gloriosa Daisy was despondent about the situation. "What'll I do? Even if we get more campers coming with that class from Canterlot High, there still won't be enough. Especially if they don't enjoy their time here," Gloriosa moaned as she started to cry again and her tears dripped into the water. Soon, she saw a strange glittering trail in the reflection of the water. Looking up to see the unusual wisp in the sky, Gloriosa followed after it until it stopped at the cave in the rock quarry. Squeezing through the cave entrance and stumbling into the area, the counselor was in complete awe at the sight of the crystals covering the cave. Seeing the geode spires, Gloriosa approached them and saw seven colorful crystals on a flat part of the spires. Placing her hand on them, she soon felt it get stuck and pulled herself free, grabbing five of crystals as she fell backward. She would've hit the hard ground, but a bed of vines immediately sprouted from the ground and caught her. Gloriosa looked at the vines before opening her hand to see the five crystals she grabbed began to float in her palm. "Maybe these can help me," Gloriosa mused to herself as the vines moved to help her stand up. As she walked out of the cave and began to test her new powers, she thought that she saw a strange black portal and burning eyes appear in the woods near the quarry, but dismissed it as part of her imagination.
Soon, the memories changed to Gloriosa's office again as Timber Spruce confronted her about the geodes she had. "You don't know what those things are," Timber said to his sister as he expressed concern for the magical crystals that now hung from Gloriosa's neck.
"But I know what they can do! I've been practicing," Gloriosa exclaimed as she placed a hand on the geodes and raised her other hand to make a potted plant in her office extend itself. "I can control their power now!"
Timber watched the plants move around at his sister's command and was suspicious about them, even worried about what they might do since Gloriosa found them in a cave at the rock quarry. "You don't know that for sure! They could make you sick or something," Timber stated, but Gloriosa glared at him for not trusting her. Turning around and dismissing his sibling, Timber tried to leave until Gloriosa grabbed his arm.
"This is our camp, and it's being taken away! If this has to be our last week here, I'm going to use whatever it takes to make it count," Gloriosa stated as she had a fiery look in her eyes. The next important memories shown were when the strange instances occurred around camp. Derpy and Sandalwood were sailing, but the wind died and they were stuck in the water until Gloriosa used her magic to have some vines sprout from the water and give them a push. Unfortunately, the force was too strong and the boat was sent toward the dock, causing Ventus Gaia to save them before they got hurt. Gloriosa realized her mistake and fled from the scene, not noticing a portal and a bear-like creature growling as it looked at the ruined dock. The next memory showed Trixie, Micro Chips, and Lapis all going fishing at a nearby river, but it was dried up because boulders were blocking the current. Gloriosa saw this and used her vines to dislodge the rocks, causing a rockslide that shook the campgrounds while the river began to flow again. As Gloriosa left to go check on the others, nobody noticed a swarm of mantis-like monsters begin heading for the camp.
Soon, Timber and Gloriosa began to argue in the lakehouse after everything that had been happening. "You were using magic all over the place! I had to tell them something to cover for you," Timber told his sister as he explained why the campers were freaking out over 'Gaea Everfree'. "What did you want me to do?!"
"I just wish you didn't tell them that ridiculous story," Gloriosa shouted at her brother.
"Ah, this is all too much for you! You have to let it go," Timber stated as he referred to the crystals that gave Gloriosa her powers. Before they could argue anymore, Gloriosa stormed out the room and head off for the cave where she first found the geodes.
After seeing all the important memories, Sunset released Gloriosa's hand and the latter pulled her arm away. Sunset held her head as she processed everything she saw. "Timber wasn't talking about letting go of the camp. He was talking about you letting go of the magical geodes! Azalea was right earlier," Sunset stated and had Gloriosa look at her in shock. "All those things you were doing to make this week the best week ever. Every time you used magic to do them, you caused another problem somewhere else and Grimm showed up when you left because of these things appearing," Sunset stated as she confronted Gloriosa, causing the latter to back herself into the spires. "Timber was... covering for you," Sunset realized as she looked at Twilight and found out that she was wrong about the boy being the culprit.
"How do you know what I was doing with the geodes? How do you know about the magic," Gloriosa questioned as she glared at Sunset Shimmer.
"I can see things. Feel things. Because I have magic, too," Sunset explained. "And so does she. And so do our friends," she added as she gestured to Twilight and the Rainbooms.
"Gloriosa, Timber wasn't wrong," Twilight said. "Maybe you should stop using magic. Too much of it can be dangerous if you can't control it," she stated as attempted to reason with Gloriosa, mentioning her own experiences.
"Oh, I got this," Gloriosa dismissed with a wave of her hand and a look of sinister confidence on her face. "And I'm going to use it to save my camp. I just need more power," she declared as she started to reach for the last two crystals on the spire.
"NO," Sunset and Twilight shouted as Gloriosa's hand inched closer to the magic geode crystals. But before Gloriosa could grab them, she felt a blow to her stomach and grunted in pain as she was knocked back. Using her vines to catch her again, Gloriosa saw that something was blocking her from reaching the crystals.
Coming into view, Azalea glared at Gloriosa as the former pulled out her Multi-Action Bust Baton, Gladion. "You aren't getting these crystals, Gloriosa," Azalea told the woman as she adjusted her stance to get ready for a fight.
"Oh, I AM," Gloriosa shouted as she used her magic to make several vines appear from the ground to battle the young Huntress.
Gloriosa Daisy had several vines surrounding herself to battle Azalea Calla Holstein with while Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike all looked on. Azalea twirled her Multi-Action Dust Baton around as she prepared to fight the magically-influenced camp counselor. Gloriosa started the battle by sending a few vines at Azalea to try and grab her, but the Faunus warrior dodged them and countered by using a blade of air to cut the vines down. Seeing that her first attack failed, Gloriosa watched as Azalea changed the setting of her weapon and rushed forward. Striking away at Gloriosa with her baton, Azalea used the Electric Dust inside it to shock Gloriosa and hopefully render her unconscious. However, it seemed the the magic crystals Gloriosa had increased her durability enough that Azalea couldn't easily take her down with the weak strikes she was using. "It's like she has her own Aura," Azalea thought to herself, remembering the last few fights she and Fragment Hunter had with magical threats.
Sunset, Twilight, and Spike watched on as Gloriosa recovered from the damage she took and used her magic to create more vines. Unlike the first few, these ones had thorns and were being used as whips against Azalea. "I'm trying to save my home," Gloriosa exclaimed as she commanded the plants to strike at Azalea. "I'll do anything to protect it! Even fight you if you get in my way."
"I don't think you can handle fighting me," Azalea retorted as she blocked the thorned vines with her vambraces and switched her weapon's Dust setting to Fire. Swinging her baton like a magic wand, Azalea incinerated the vines that started to extend toward her face. The brambles turned to ash as they burned, surprising Gloriosa for a moment until she sent more vines at Azalea.
Giving a sinister smile, Gloriosa looked at Azalea before placing her hands on the ground. "Oh, I got this," Gloriosa declared as dozens of vines erupted from underneath Azalea and restrained her long enough for Gloriosa to reach the spire. Azalea, Sunset, and Twilight all shouted in protest as Gloriosa grabbed the final two geodes. When she placed her hand on them, green magic sparked everywhere and Gloriosa raised her hand toward Sunset and Twilight, restraining them with only a few vines in comparison to the amount used on Azalea. After holding down all three girls, Gloriosa held the final two geodes and watched as they joined the ones around her neck, changing the shape of the necklace from pendants to more of a choker.
As the magic flowed through Gloriosa, she began to transform as vines wrapped themselves around her body. After the magic changed the vines, Gloriosa now had darker skin, green hair, and a dress that looked like it was made from plants. She was also wearing leggings, long gloves, and a tiara that all looked like they were made of vines. When she opened her masked eyes, they began to glow a bright and evil-looking green before the glow stopped to show her eyes were now black as tar with green pupils. Her appearance immediately reminded the struggling girls of Timber's campfire story that he used to cover for Gloriosa's magical mistakes across camp. "Sorry, girls. I know what I need to do," Gloriosa said as she floated past the girls, ignoring a hiding Spike. "But I feel like we're not on the same page. So... bye!" Leaving the cave, Gloriosa used her vines to seal the cave entrance by moving some boulders and tying them together before heading for the camp. All while ignoring the shouts of protest from the girls and not noticing the Beowolves stalking out of the woods toward the rock quarry.
Back at the camp, Rarity was making sure that everything was set up for the fashion show she planned. And as she did, Bianca Coloratura and Team SAFR helped out by adjusting the outfits worn by the students who agreed to model Rarity's outfits. As Rarity went over everything, she saw that there were a few people missing. "Where are Twilight, Azalea, and Sunset," Rarity asked as she saw the latter two haven't returned with Twilight yet. "They're going to miss our dress rehearsal," the fashionista sighed.
The others had no idea where the three girls were, but Sunset Blaze spoke up. "They're probably just out for a walk and lost track of time," the girl said.
"I suppose that we can start without them," Rarity mused before turning to where DJ Pon-3 had set up a record player with some music she brought. "Whenever you're ready," Rarity signaled to the girl. Playing a techno-pop record, the girls began to walk down the dock as a runway. After gently encouraging Fluttershy to go down, Rarity saw that Applejack was adjusting her top with a smile on her face. "Hmm. Told you you'd like it," she said to Applejack as Bianca stood next to the two.
"It's alright... I guess," Applejack told Rarity before biting her lower lip. "I do get to keep it after camp though, right," she asked. Rarity only smiled before Applejack started heading down the 'runway'.
"I don't blame her for liking that so much," Bianca said. "When Azalea helped out at a photo shoot with me, she wore an outfit I made that's pretty much the same thing, but without all the apples. I let her keep it and a few others."
"Oh, that's interesting. You'll have to show it to me later if you had it packed," Rarity said to Bianca before the two girls began to strut down the dock.
While the dress rehearsal was going on and everybody was enjoying their day, Gloriosa floated toward the campgrounds with a trail of brambles following her. As she moved, she passed by Snips and Snails, who were filling water balloons with Vixen. Seeing Gloriosa's transformed state, Vixen immediately dropped what she had in her hands and ran for camp. "Guys, we've got trouble," Vixen shouted and tried to catch the attention of Fragment Hunter.
As the dress rehearsal, Rarity and Bianca were enjoying how well everything was going. "This is only a preview," Rarity told Bianca. "I've got another entire line I'll debut at the real thing."
"That's great," Bianca said before she heard the music wasn't playing. "What's going on? Why'd the doppelganger of Vinyl stop?"
Looking at the other campers, Bianca and Rarity noticed the surprised faces on them before looking the same direction. Bianca's eyes widened as Rarity gasped dramatically. "Oh my goodness," Rarity exclaimed as everyone saw the transformed Gloriosa Daisy.
"Attention, campers," Gloriosa said to everyone.
"It's Gaea Everfree," Trixie shouted as she pointed at Gloriosa, confusing her with the spirit from Timber's story.
"She's real," Silver and Flash exclaimed in shock.
"We're doomed," Bulk Biceps screamed in fear.
Hearing the commotion, Timber Spruce arrived to see what was happening and saw his sister had turned into a monster. "Gloriosa?! What are you doing," Timber asked in shock at his sister's new appearance.
"That's Gloriosa," Slate questioned as he, Bianca, and the Rainbooms were processing everything.
"Am I goin' crazy, or are her feet not touchin' the ground," Applejack asked.
"Freaky-deaky," Pinkie and Momo exclaimed as they somehow floated in the air next to the others for a brief moment.
"We see it too, AJ," Bianca told Applejack to assure the farmer that she wasn't seeing things.
After everyone was now looking at Gloriosa/Gaea Everfree, she spoke up again. "I have an announcement to make! Filthy Rich wants this to be the last session of Camp Everfree. But don't worry, I've got this," she stated with a maniacal voice on the last three words as she clawed at the ground and channeled her magic. As the green sparks traveled through the ground, a giant barricade of brambles started to grow rapidly and enclose the campgrounds.
As everyone panicked at the sudden growth of plants, Slate, Bianca, Momo, and the Rainbooms had to jump off of the dock before the brambles demolished it. "Oh, come on! We literally just finished building that," Rainbow Dash complained as she saw the ruined dock.
"I think we have bigger problems than the dock that we can fix up easily," Slate told the girls as he drew his revolvers and aimed them at the magical threat in front of him and the rest of the campers. The rest of Fragment Hunter all prepared for battle as they drew their own weapons and prepared to deal with Gloriosa Daisy/Gaea Everfree.
The members of Fragment Hunter stood ready with their weapons drawn as everybody looked at the transformed Gloriosa Daisy, who now looked similar to the description of Gaea Everfree. After seeing her create a giant cage of brambles that circled the camp, the warriors from Remnant knew that they were going to face off against yet another magical threat. What they didn't expect was Gloriosa/Gaea to start singing an aria.
I have waited for the day To send this greedy wolf away Now the magic is my salvation Gather close in my protection
We... will... stand for Everfree!
As she sang, she unleashed more magic which caused the brambles to grow taller. The campers looked on at the growing brambles, scared at what was happening. Gloriosa moved around the campgrounds, causing vines to grow on items like the totem pole and sundial, as if to preserve them.
Behold the beauty of nature in all its glory No need to fear the vultures at the door Right here you have me to protect you Within these walls of thorns Forever free, forevermore!
Several campers were shaking in fear at everything before they ran for safety. As a few teenagers ran toward the mess hall, Gloriosa used her magic to have more vines grow when she approached the building. "Everyone, get behind me," Principal Celestia said as she immediately threw herself in front of the doors to not only protect her students, but also Vice-Principal Luna. Unfortunately, she was overwhelmed by a wall of thorned vines that soon enclosed the mess hall and trapped everyone inside. Watching his sister descending into madness as she menaced the camp, Timber spotted an axe nearby and grabbed it. Chopping away at the brambles, Timber attempted to start freeing everyone. However, the vines continued to grow and repair any damage dealt to them, as if stitching itself back together and made itself denser.
They have come into our domain Here to seal our camp in chains But we have held it for generations This is just a complication
We... will... stand for Everfree!
Trapping her brother's axe and lifting him off the ground, Gloriosa's magic continued to build and be unleashed. The brambles grew higher and higher as the camp was getting sealed off from the world. As Timber was losing his grip on the axe, Rua teleported in with her Semblance and got him safely back onto the ground. "I'm getting sick of these musical numbers. They're catchy, but happen way too often without context whenever I'm visiting places here," Rua said to herself as she watched Gloriosa manipulate more plants.
Trust in me, this is for your own good Don't be afraid, nature is our friend All of this beauty that surrounds us Every lovely bloom designed to defend
As she sang in a softer tone, Gloriosa used her magic to make plants gently grow on the camp gazebo. Trixie, Sandalwood, and Bulk Biceps were all cowering in fear as they stood in the middle of the gazebo, watching the plants grow at Gloriosa's command. The transformed camp director soon made a flower grow and bloom before she made more branches that sealed the gazebo, trapping the three students inside it. Reaching the end of her song, Gloriosa floated above the camp to make more brambles and thorns grow.
Let them come, just let them try! I'm not about to say goodbye! This camp will be here throughout the ages Written into the history pages
We... will... stand for Everfree!
After Gloriosa had turned the area around Camp Everfree into a sea of brambles, the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter hid by a beached sailboat. "Oh, why do these kinds of things always happen to us," Fluttershy complained. In comparison to the other campers being afraid, it was surprising for Fragment Hunter to hear Fluttershy say what she did.
"I'm going to say its because you can all grow wings and tails and stuff," Cereza remarked in a deadpan voice.
"What are we going to do," Rarity asked.
"What we always do," Rainbow Dash stated as she stood in front of Rarity and Applejack. "Save the day!" The others immediately agreed as they joined hands.
"Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy," Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she hugged Rainbow Dash. "This is gonna be so much fun! I only wish we had time to make superhero capes!"
"Oh, me too," Rarity voiced as she thought a cape would be a wonderful addition for an outfit.
"Are we going to make capes," Momo asked as she jumped onto Pinkie's back with a big smile on her face.
Pulling his sister off of her doppelganger, Slate spoke to everyone. "We should stop focusing on a wardrobe change and deal with everything around here."
"He's right," Sunset Blaze stated as she looked around the camp. "Gloriosa's trapping everyone, Azalea's nowhere to be found, same with Twilight and Shimmer, and I'm afraid that with all the panic..." Before Blaze could finish her sentence, a loud and unearthly scream was heard. The piercing two-toned shriek alerted everyone and especially scared Fluttershy. Soon, dark rifts began to appear in the brambles and Creatures of Grimm managed to squeeze through. Seeing all the terrified campers, the monster growled and roared as they started to give chase. "That. I was afraid of that," Sunset Blaze said as Fragment Hunter all moved out to kill the Grimm. "You all try to save everyone from Gloriosa. We'll handle the Grimm!"
With the Creatures of Grimm attacking the campground, Fragment Hunter had to act quickly or everyone was going to die. Slashing and shooting at the monsters, the warriors from Remnant dealt with everything they encountered while the Rainbooms did their own things. As vines continued to grow, they began to knock over items around camp and Rarity had to protect some of her classmates from them with her diamond shields. While she defended Lyra and Sweetie Drops from the totem pole, Rainbow Dash sped by with her magic and got the students to safety. As the girls used their magic, they began to pony up as they helped everyone as much as they could. With the bystanders hiding behind some bushes that Gloriosa hadn't affected, Fluttershy saw a nearby gopher hole and caught the attention of the animals inside. "Um, hi. Do you think you can give us a hand— um, er, paw? We could really use a way out," she politely asked the gophers. The critters agreed and started to dig a tunnel underneath the wall of thorns.
Deciding to deal with the thorns, Applejack started to use her strength more offensively. She lifted a large boulder, tossed it into the air, then jumped up to punch the rock into the wall of brambles. The boulder crashed through and left a gaping hole in the wall, but more vines grew back to try and stitch the wall together again. Applejack was mildly surprised, but rolled up her sleeves and prepared to try again after a Beowolf tried to attack her. AJ countered by punching it hard enough to get impaled into the brambles. Meanwhile, the gophers that Fluttershy asked to help had finished digging a tunnel large enough for the campers to escape through. Just before anybody could go through the tunnel, Gloriosa used her magic to create more vines that blocked the exit. After preventing anybody from leaving, Gloriosa's gaze turned angry as she saw Pinkie doing something.
After pouring sprinkles into the palm of her hand, Pinkie ignited them and had a super-confident look on her face. Throwing the sprinkles at the wall of thorns, another hole was blasted open and Applejack acted quickly. Carrying a picnic table, AJ jammed it into the hole to try and prevent the vines from completely sealing everyone off from the outside. Seeing AJ and Pinkie working together to plug the holes they made, Gloriosa used her magic to force the wall closed and splinter the table into pieces. As Pinkie tried to get more sprinkles, Gloriosa used her vines to grab at the campers she saw. Getting caught by some vines, Pinkie dropped her jar of sprinkles and tried to reach for it when an Ursa roared and charged toward her. The monster was soon impaled by Terracotta's sword as he threw it into the beast, then the Bull Faunus cut away at the vines holding Pinkie down. "Get going," Terracotta told the girl as he held his claymore in front of himself and stared down more Grimm that began to surround him.
As Grimm and vines spread everywhere, the camp was turning into a war zone. Gloriosa was soon trapping campers in cages of vines to prevent them from running away, but Rainbow Dash and Ventus Gaia were rushing to try and save them. The people that Rainbow couldn't reach in time, Ventus saved by cutting away at the vines with his knife and allowed Rainbow to get them to safety. However, Gloriosa used her vines to keep the speedsters ensnared before Pinkie used her sprinkle bombs to free them. Satisfied with what she did, Pinkie juggled her sprinkle jar and accidentally ignited the container. Frantically playing 'hot potato' with the item, Pinkie soon threw the jar at the wall of thorns and a giant explosion took out another chunk of the barricade. Everyone soon watched as more Beowolves tried to jump through the large hole, only to be crushed to death as it closed up again. "This isn't working! Her magic is too strong," Applejack said as Gloriosa made the wall of bramble grow higher.
"She hasn't made a roof yet," Ventus realized as he looked at Gloriosa. "I'm going to find Azalea, Twilight, and Sunset Shimmer! You all try to fend her off," the Falcon Faunus instructed as he flew at top speed past Gloriosa, catching her off her guard and glare at him before she turned her attention back to the camp. "Where would they be," Ventus asked himself before he noticed some Beowolves near the rock quarry, not leaving for the campgrounds. "Bingo."
Twilight, Sunset Shimmer, and Azalea were all trying to break free of the vines that Gloriosa had ensnared them in before she trapped them in the cave. Spike wasn't tied up earlier, so he started to bite away at the plants in order to free them. After chewing away the vines for a while, the dog managed to free Sunset and Twilight. "Nice work, Spike," Sunset said as she pet the dog's head. "Now get Azalea's bindings."
"I can handle my own," Azalea told them as she managed to reach her Multi-Action Dust Baton and make sure it was on the right setting. "It's gonna get a little warm in here, girls," she warned as her body began to shine. With a short yell, a fiery explosion seemed to come from Azalea's body and burn away the vines holding her in place. "Thank you, combination of Dust and Semblance."
"Okay, that was cool. But now we need to get out of here," Sunset admitted before turning back to the boulders blocking the exit. Pushing away at the rocks, Sunset couldn't make them budge. Azalea tried to help out, but they still failed to move them. "She must have tied them up with more vines," Sunset said to Azalea before turning her attention to Twilight. "Twilight, you have to use your magic!"
"I don't think I can lift something that big," Twilight said nervously as she held Spike in her arms.
"It's our only chance of getting out of here and helping our friends," Sunset stated in order to get Twilight to at least forget her worries about her magic. After looking at Spike and Azalea, Twilight had a determined look on her face as she put Spike on the ground and stood before the boulders. Harnessing her magic, Twilight strained as she pushed the boulders and magic gathered at her forehead. In order to ease Twilight's burden, Azalea continued to push the rocks and the cave entrance was soon unblocked.
Twilight felt exhausted from using her magic because she hadn't embraced it like the other Rainbooms, but she still stood up and joined the others as they headed off for camp. Just as they left the cave, they heard gunshots and whimpering from canines. "What's that," Twilight asked before a Beowolf was thrown in Azalea's direction. As the Huntress punched at the Creature of Grimm, it died as her fist made contact with its face. Looking at where the monster came from, the girls and Spike saw Ventus Gaia using his greaves to shoot at one final Beowolf. "Mister Gaia? What's going on," Twilight asked.
"Turns out that Gloriosa has a severe case of the crazies and turned into this plant-witch-spirit-thing," the Falcon Faunus stated. "She's turning the camp into a sea of brambles, trapping everyone inside because that businessman from before wants to buy the camp."
"We need to get to camp, now," Azalea exclaimed as she and the girls bolted toward their destination.
The battle at the campgrounds was still going on as Fragment Hunter continued to kill Grimm and the Rainbooms helped rescue students, but Gloriosa was enraged at the teenagers and Terracotta. "Why are you fighting me?! I'm doing this to save our camp! I'm doing this for you," she exclaimed and sounded like she was losing her mind.
"We literally joined at the last minute," Rua shouted as she stabbed a Scykiri in the face with her weapon. "We crashed this camping trip to have fun with our friends and now you're acting nuttier than a squirrel in a jar of peanut butter!"
Rarity chuckled nervously before she attempted to reason with Gloriosa. "Gloriosa, let's just think about this for a moment, shall we? I mean, I think Camp Everfree is absolutely delightful, but I just don't know that I'm quite ready to give up my weekly trips to the spa."
Hearing what Rarity said, Gloriosa snapped. "To the spa? To the spa!?" Practically screaming the last words, Gloriosa's magic went haywire and thick vines wrapped around her body. Rainbow Dash tried to speed away in order to try something out, but Gloriosa used her vines to trip the girl so she crashed into the other Rainbooms. The members of Fragment Hunter all attacked Gloriosa directly, but she used thorned vines as a giant whip to strike away at the group and knock several of the warriors out cold or break their Aura to leave them vulnerable to damage.
"Gloriosa, this isn't the way," Timber exclaimed to try and get through to his sister.
"I appreciate your concern, Timber, but I got this," Gloriosa exclaimed as her magic continued to go wild, causing her to become a humanoid plant and her vines started to become more like roots that ended up overwhelming and trapping Timber.
"No, you don't," Timber said as he struggled to free himself.
At the same time, the members of Fragment Hunter were getting to safety as they watched Gloriosa going out of control. Looking at who was still able to battle, things weren't looking good for the warriors of Remnant. The only ones left out of the teenagers who could fight were Sunset Blaze, Vinyl Aurum, Slate Quartz and his sister, Silver Wuruhi, and Rua Amaranth. Terracotta stood in front of everyone with Dante by his side as he spoke. "This is getting out of hand. We can't escape, there are still Grimm, and Gloriosa has gone mad with power. If this keeps up, we're going to have to raze Camp Everfree to the ground," Terracotta darkly stated.
"How do you raise something to the ground," Pinkie Pie questioned.
"Raze. R, A, Z, E," Ivy stated as she started healing an unconscious Layla Carbuncle. "It means that we'll have to destroy the camp completely as a last resort."
"Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that," Applejack remarked as Gloriosa's body sparked with green magical energy.
Just outside of the bramble wall, Ventus, Spike, and the girls managed to reach the campgrounds. "Oh great, it got bigger," Ventus exclaimed as he saw the brambles start to form a roof and turn into a dome of vines.
"I think she's finally lost it," Azalea said as she and Sunset tried to pull at the vines. "No good, they won't budge."
"Twilight, do you think you can use your magic again," Sunset Shimmer asked as she turned to the girl in question.
"I don't want to use too much. Midnight Sparkle could take over," Twilight said, not wanting to succumb to magic like the first time she used it.
"Twilight, our friends are in there," Sunset and Azalea reminded as the former grabbed Twilight's hands, ponying up as she did.
Struggling to find the courage to use her magic, Twilight remembered all the moments with her friends ever since she transferred to CHS. Determined to help again, Twilight used her magic to pull away at the vines in order to make an opening for everyone to enter through. When they entered the vine dome, they saw that Gloriosa had been taken over by her own magic and started to become a tree that spread vines and roots all over the camp while Fragment Hunter had to fight off Grimm that emerged from portals inside the bramble walls. "Please, Gloriosa! What you're doing is crazy! You have to listen to me," Timber exclaimed as he was still trapped by the plants created by Gloriosa.
"That isn't Gloriosa," Sunset said as she and the others entered the camp. As soon as she was through, Twilight stopped using her magic and tried to calm herself down as she was still afraid of becoming Midnight Sparkle again. The Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter were happy to see the girls after everything that had been happening. Approaching Timber, Sunset explained Gloriosa's mental state to him. "That isn't your sister. It's someone who's been consumed by Equestrian magic."
"Whoever you are, you have to let my sister go! Please, Gloriosa, come back! I need you," Timber tearfully called out, but Gloriosa was too far gone and vines covered her body completely. "Gloriosa!" With one last call of his sister's name, Timber ended up becoming trapped in a prison of vines.
Soon, the bramble dome was fully formed and a pulse of magic shot through the area, making the vines grow even more and go berserk. Trying to guide Twilight to safety after pulling her away from Timber's vine prison, the girls were soon surrounded by monstrous vines and Creatures of Grimm. Before they could be attacked, Dante used his Semblance to create a large barrier that pushed away the threats while Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms gathered together. "Rarity," Applejack exclaimed and the fashionista created a barrier of her own to layer on top of Dante's.
With the twin bubble shields holding back the vines, Rarity turned to the others. "I can't keep this up forever," she stated.
"Neither can Dante," Fluttershy said as she heard the Wolfhound-Great Dane mix growling with effort against the vines as he defended everyone.
Seeing everything and taking it in, Sunset Shimmer grabbed Twilight's shoulders. "It's up to you. You can use your magic to pull the brambles apart! Just like how you got us inside," she told Twilight.
"No. There's too many of them. It would take too much magic. I can't," Twilight said, having no confidence in herself.
"Layla's out cold, so she can't help you," Sunset Blaze stated.
"It's the only way," Sunset Shimmer said. "You have to embrace the magic inside you!"
"What if she takes over? What if instead of saving everyone, I turn into Midnight Sparkle and only make things worse," Twilight fearfully questioned.
"That won't happen! We won't let it," Sunset Shimmer and Azalea reassured Twilight. As tears fell down Twilight's cheeks, she began to feel more sure of herself thanks to her friends and began to intensely focus her magic. As her hands and forehead started to glow, the shields began to crack as the vines added more pressure. Rarity and Dante began to weaken from the strain of holding the plants back, making Applejack and Fluttershy keep them steady. "Come on, Twilight! You have to be stronger than she is," the girls told Twilight as Sunset Shimmer and Sunset Blaze grabbed her shoulders. Twilight's teary eyes began to glow as a magic horn grew from her forehead, making her resemble her transformed evil side, Midnight Sparkle.
Twilight was floating around her own personal mindscape, which took the form of a pink starry sky, when she saw Midnight Sparkle behind herself. "You will never control me! I will always be a part of you," Midnight laughed as she taunted Twilight and attempted to merge with her.
Twilight whimpered in fear as she thought that she would become evil and crazy again, possibly hurting her friends. "Noooo!" But before Midnight could even get near Twilight, a stream of flames erupted from out of Twilight's view and burned away at Midnight Sparkle.
As the embodiment of Twilight's fears growled and healed from the burns, she looked around to see where the fire came from. "Who did that!?"
"That would be me," Sunset Blaze's voice sounded off around the area before the real one teleported behind Midnight Sparkle and kicked her in the back. As she did, her foot unleashed a barrage of energy blasts and gemstones that combined to hit the winged monster with several explosions. "And I can do so much more than burn you," Blaze stated as she appeared next to Twilight Sparkle.
"What are you doing here," Twilight asked as she was confused by everything happening in her head.
"My Semblance allows me to connect to a person's mind and Aura for a variety of abilities," Sunset Blaze explained. "I can explore somebody's mental world and even their dreams. In fact, I saw that you were having a nightmare after that campfire and went to help out. But you woke up before I could do anything." Twilight was surprised while Midnight just glared at the intruder. "Now that I'm here, I might as well... provide some therapy," Blaze stated as she looked at Midnight Sparkle.
Inside of Twilight's pink and starry mindscape, Sunset Blaze stared down the representation of the girl's fears, Midnight Sparkle. Using her Semblance, Blaze was able to enter Twilight's mind in order to help her handle her fears. As Midnight and Sunset stared each other down, the latter suddenly produced multiple transparent arms from her back while she held her sword in her original hands. "You're not going to haunt Twilight anymore, you figment," Sunset Blaze declared as she focused her gaze on the monstrous version of Twilight.
"What makes you think that you can stop me? I'll always be a part of Twilight," Midnight replied as she fired a magical blast at Blaze. Blocking the attack with some of the arms forming out of her back, Blaze countered by punching and slashing away at Midnight Sparkle. After taking some damage and healing from it, Midnight channeled more magic and unleashed a barrage of beams that locked onto Sunset Blaze.
Dodging the attacks and even deflecting some back at Midnight, Sunset prepared her next move as she crouched into a runner's starting position. "We'll see about that," Blaze said as she sped toward Midnight. Faster than Twilight or Midnight could track, Sunset decked Midnight in the face with a powerful fiery haymaker that seemed to combine the powers of Rainbow Dash's speed and Applejack's strength as well as Sunset's own Fire Dust. Recoiling from the pain of the attack and regaining her balance, Midnight glared angrily at the Huntress. Summoning a multitude of swords made of magic, Midnight sent the weapons flying at Sunset Blaze like buzzsaws. Defending herself with the arms she created, Sunset struggled as Twilight watched on in fear. The magic blades began to grind against the arms and break through as Sunset thought of something else. "Try getting out of this," she exclaimed as she created a cage of light around Midnight just as the shield broke.
Midnight growled as she saw the cage surrounding her, but smirked as she blasted the bottom of the prison with a beam that opened a rift. Flying through the rift, a second one appeared behind Blaze and Midnight punched the Huntress in the back. "Ha! There's no way to stop me," Midnight declared as she created a number of rifts and began to fly through them, confusing Sunset for a moment as the figment of Twilight's imagination dealt strike after strike. While she was taking damage, Sunset calmed down and dodged the next strike just as it came from behind her. When she did, she activated Cereza's Time Mirage Semblance to slow down everything around her, allowing her to inflict more damage on Midnight by unleashing a string of attacks on her. Knocking Midnight away, Sunset turned to Twilight, who was cowering in fear during the whole battle.
"Twilight, Midnight's nothing! She doesn't exist in the real world. This is all just your fears of what happened before," Blaze told Twilight. Soon, Midnight rushed at Blaze and the two started to grapple with each other. "You're the one in control of your mind!"
"She's right, Twilight," Sunset Shimmer's voice called out. Looking at where it came from, Twilight saw that Sunset Shimmer, the other Rainbooms, and members of Fragment Hunter were all in Twilight's mind as colored projections, likely there because of Sunset Shimmer's magic. "You are in charge!"
"You are a light, darling! A force for good," Rarity stated.
"Yeah! You can kick the darkness's butt," Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"There's no way in hell that you'll go down easy," Rua declared.
"You're stronger than you think you are," Azalea told Twilight. "I used to be the same way! You can fight your fears!"
"We're here for you, Twilight," Slate, Momo, and Pinkie all said.
"And we'll be here, no matter what," Applejack added.
"We believe in you," Fluttershy stated.
"You... are not... Midnight Sparkle," Sunset Blaze and Sunset Shimmer told Twilight, just as Midnight broke free from the grapple with the Huntress and merged with Twilight.
As Midnight attempted to fuse with Twilight, the latter had a confident look in her eyes due to her friends encouraging her. "All of you are right," Twilight declared with determination as she forced Midnight Sparkle out of her body. "I... am... Twilight Sparkle! And the magic I carry inside me is... the Magic of Friendship!" When Midnight was rejected by Twilight, she only looked on in horror as Sunset Blaze and the projections of Fragment Hunter gathered together and attacked Midnight with a giant energy blast, symbolizing Twilight's fear would no longer control her.
Back in the real world, the vines continued to spread and crush the barriers that Rarity and Dante were using to protect everyone. But before they could break, Twilight flew into the air as she ponied up and shattered the shields. Flying toward the tree trunk that Gloriosa was inside, Twilight used her magic to pull back the vines. When Gloriosa was exposed, she tried to fight back as Twilight grabbed the geodes around her neck. "No! Stop!" As soon as the crystals were collected, they separated themselves and flew to each of the Rainbooms. As the crystals floated and spun in their hands, the seven girls were magically given new clothes and hairstyles fitting for warriors. Energized by the geodes, the Rainbooms unleashed a powerful burst of light that ended up crystallizing the bramble dome and destroyed it.
As the domes remains fell down as lights and gem dust, the members of Fragment Hunter dealt with the remaining Grimm that they saw. Momo pulled out her yo-yo and wrapped the string around a Beowolf's neck before pulling hard on it and decapitating the monster while Ivy pulled out a knife on her belt and cut down a Creep before plunging the blade into the monster's eye to kill it. With the campground clear of Grimm and Gloriosa stopped, the CHS campers rejoiced and cheered for their heroes. Timber woke up and saw that Gloriosa was back to normal, but knocked out from losing her magic. As he approached her, everyone heard the same unholy shriek from before and turned to see what made it. Everyone saw that approaching the middle of the campground was a giant, black, skinless horse with a horned imp growing out of its back and bone plating over both bodies. The imp twitched erratically as it scanned the area and saw the scared people. "Is that the Knuckle-vee thing from the campfire story," Rainbow Dash asked as she slowly stepped back in fear of the Creature of Grimm.
"Not exactly," Ivy said as she was guarded by Dante, Diana, and Drei. "This one looks younger and doesn't have any weapons in its back. It's still a dangerous foe, however."
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE," Trixie screamed as she pointed at the Grimm.
"Trixie, shut the fuck up," Rua shouted as the members of Fragment Hunter made sure they could fight.
Before any of them could do anything, Terracotta and Ventus stepped forward. "You kids have done enough already," Terra said. "Now let the adults handle this problem. Ready, Ven?"
"Just like back at Menagerie," Ventus said as he reloaded his greaves, held out his knife, and placed his goggles over his eyes. Immediately, the Nuckelavee threw it arm forward and the clawed limb stretched to try and hit Ventus, only to miss when the Falcon Faunus flew to the side and kicked the monster's arm. The Nuckelavee screamed again as it continued to attack with its arms, but Terracotta and Ventus kept dodging and slashing at the Grimm. When Ventus tried to attack the monster from behind, the horse kicked at him and knocked him away. "This thing's pretty tough. I'll go for the imp, bro," Ven called out.
"Got it," Terra agreed as he focused his attention on the horse itself. Slashing at the Grimm's legs while Ventus kicked at the imp's face, the Nuckelavee was becoming angry as Ventus continued to dodge its claws. After many misses and constantly getting hammered, the Grimm changed strategies and rotated its torso at fast speeds to nail both Huntsmen.
Everyone who watched the fight recoiled in disgust and fear at the Nuckelavee's attack. "That's just horrifying," Rarity shouted and looked like she was going to be sick.
As the fight continued, Terracotta blocked the arms that came flying toward him and allowed Ventus to deal a couple of powerful kicks to the imp's face. Adding onto his assault, Ventus delivered a heel drop to the head of the horse and laughed at the damage he was dealing to the Grimm. However, the Nuckelavee reared and managed to pin down Ventus with one of the claws on the front legs of the horse. As Ventus struggled to get himself free, Terracotta bellowed in anger. "Get your claws off my brother," he practically roared before he saw Timber's axe on the ground nearby. Reaching for it, Terracotta threw the axe into the horse's leg hard enough have it back away.
"Thanks, bro," Ventus said as he returned to Terra's side. When the Nuckelavee balanced itself, the imp's spines and horns grew larger, as if to show it meant business now. Opening its mouth as wide as it could, the Grimm shrieked so loud that everyone had to cover their ears before Terracotta and Ventus could make their next move. "You thinking what I'm thinking," Ventus asked his older brother.
"Oh, yeah," Terracotta remarked as he looked at his sword, Sarangay. Throwing the claymore into the air, Ventus dashed after it with his Semblance. The Grimm threw its hand forward to try and attack Ventus, but the Huntsman was too quick and he grabbed Terracotta's sword. Before the Nuckelavee could do anything else, Terra kicked the horse's head with his own heel drop and damaged the monster's mask-like face. As the Grimm recoiled in pain, Ventus passed by and severed the imp from the horse with one clean slash from the claymore. As the imp fell to the ground, Ventus stomped on the Grimm's head and shot it with his greaves. "One half down, one to go," Terracotta said as he obtained his sword and watched the horse begin to buck wildly. Waiting for the Grimm to charge toward him, Terracotta held onto his sword and let out a loud bellow as he swung his blade. The slash managed to carve the horse's head in two, but the rest of the Grimm's body was bisected by a blade of air that came from Terra's swing.
With the Nuckelavee down for the count, everyone was staring in awe of the fight the just witnessed. When the fight was over, a light from the magic purge fell onto Gloriosa's face and she began to wake up. "What... What happened," Gloriosa asked as she stirred.
"It's okay. It's gonna be okay," Timber said as he was relieved his sister was unharmed after everything. As he hugged Gloriosa, Timber looked at Twilight, who was happy that the siblings were reunited.
Soon, Spike jumped into Twilight's arms and was happy that everyone was fine. "You did it," Spike exclaimed as he was still glad about the threat being over. Soon, he noticed something around Twilight's neck. "Whoa. Nice bling."
Each of the Rainbooms looked to see that the geode crystals they retrieved from Gloriosa had changed to actual necklaces that were now around their necks. "What... What are these," Applejack asked as she held her necklace in her fingers.
"I'm not sure. But clearly we have some kind of connection to them," Sunset Shimmer remarked as Lapis looked at each of them.
"They might be the sources of your new magic. I mean, why else are you all in these new outfits as well," Lapis stated.
"I almost don't care what they are. They are gorgeous," Rarity said as she admired the new accessory. She soon gasped as inspiration struck. "And will totally go with the other collection I was working on for the camp fashion show!" Everyone stared at Rarity as she was still insisting on the fashion show after everything that had been happening during the day. "That's probably cancelled, isn't it?"
"You think," Rua rhetorically asked as she crossed her arms.
After Gloriosa's rampage and the Grimm were stopped, the Rainbooms, Fragment Hunter, Timber, and the other campers all helped to clean up the campgrounds of roots, vines, and rubble. As they did, Gloriosa spoke to the Principals and Azalea's family. "I am so sorry," Gloriosa apologized. "I only wanted this to be the best week Camp Everfree has ever had, and instead I've made it the worst. Maybe it's for the best that I'm losing the camp to Filthy Rich," she said in a defeated voice.
"No," Principal Celestia replied and surprised Gloriosa. "It's not. This camp has meant so much to so many people, my sister and me included," she said as she placed a hand on Luna's shoulder.
"Why do you think we wanted our students to come here," Luna added as everyone started to gather around.
"This place is very enjoyable," Ivy remarked as she placed her hands on Terracotta's arm. "It shouldn't be taken from you. Not after the time we spent here and learned so much about it."
"We can't let Filthy Rich take this place away," Twilight declared before she got an idea. "If camp meant so much to you two, maybe it meant as much to the other campers who came here in years past," she mused to Celestia and Luna.
"And maybe we can get them to help save it," both Sunsets stated as they caught onto Twilight's idea.
"Oh. Like a fundraiser," Applejack suggested as she planted a post she was carrying into the ground.
"Or a ball," Rarity ecstatically asked as she dropped some branches.
"A charity ball for the camp would be perfect," Bianca stated. "It would get more attention from people with enough money and it would be good publicity for the camp. I can sing and Fragment Hunter could play their instruments for me," the Dove Faunus suggested.
"Our band could play, too," Rainbow Dash said as she zoomed next to Bianca and Rarity.
"I could help write a new song just for the occasion," Fluttershy suggested as she wanted to help as well.
Everyone started to agree on the idea of a charity ball for Camp Everfree, but Gloriosa was still a little unsure about it. "Those are all good ideas, but where would we hold it," Gloriosa asked. "We would need a pretty big area and we're still fixing up the campgrounds."
"We could hold it in where we found those geodes," Azalea suggested.
"That's a great idea, Lea," Sunset Shimmer agreed. "We can hold it in the crystal cave by the rock quarry."
Hearing the quarry had a cave filled with crystals, Rarity was bursting with enough excitement that it rivaled Pinkie and Momo's natural energy. "A Crystal Ball! I love it!"
"I admire everyone's enthusiasm. Really, I do. But I-I just don't know how we're going to plan a ball by tomorrow and invite everyone," Gloriosa said as she was worried about getting everything set up.
"Um, hello. We have superpowers," Vinyl stated as she gestured to Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms. "It'll be a piece of cake."
"We got this," the Rainbooms and teenagers from Remnant all said with confidence.
"We'll just need the right information on who attended the camp before," Ivy told Gloriosa. "Can you help us out with that while we get everything else ready," she asked as she guided the camp director back to the office. As the two women headed off, Ventus started leading everyone to the cave.
After reaching the cave, Fragment Hunter and the Rainbooms began to split up their duties. As Twilight and Timber started writing up invitations with Cereza and Celadon, Twilight was using her magic with more confidence as she placed several letters in envelopes all at once. In the cave itself, Sunset Shimmer was organizing everyone and going through a checklist while the CHS campers provided help setting up speakers and tables. All the while, several of the boys from Canterlot were helping Applejack, Azalea, and Terracotta clear away the boulders from the entrance of the cave. The latter three were shown to easily toss the giant rocks away while the students watched in awe. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were setting up decorations and food for the party using their magic to help them out while most of Fragment Hunter made sure that the musical equipment was working correctly. As everyone was doing this, Ventus and Rainbow Dash used their speedy flight to deliver invitations to previous campers that lived in a few nearby towns.
Meanwhile, Gloriosa was standing on the mostly repaired dock as she looked out at the lake and sky. Soon, Timber joined his sister and helped cheer her up. "Hey, you don't have to do everything by yourself anymore," he said as he put his arm around his sister. "I'm here with you, Gloriosa."
Gloriosa smiled at her brother as they looked out at the lake. "Thanks, Timber."
Soon, the night of the Camp Everfree Crystal Ball arrived and it was a huge success to Gloriosa's surprise. Numerous guests came to help and donate money to save the camp. They were even enjoying the performances by Fragment Hunter, the Rainbooms, and Bianca Coloratura. After the Rainbooms finished their newest song, Gloriosa took the microphone and spoke to the crowd. "Thank you all so much for coming! And for helping us raise enough money to... save Camp Everfree," she said, barely containing her excitement at the last three words.
Most of the guests cheered at the news, except for Filthy Rich. After showing up to see how Gloriosa would do with this attempt to save her family's land, he was upset that he lost out on a good business venture. Straightening his tie, he started to exit the cave when he saw Terracotta and Ivy waiting outside and spoke to him. "You know, our daughter and her friends love it here," Terracotta remarked. "I'm sure that your own daughter would love to come here when she can," he said to Filthy Rich.
Shocked at what Terracotta just said, the businessman glared at the Bull Faunus. "How do you know about her," he questioned, not caring that Terracotta could easily defend himself.
"Azalea is friends with that quirky Pinkie girl. She knows everyone at Canterlot High, which would include your daughter, Diamond Tiara," Ivy stated before asking the man something important. "Tell me, would you truly deny your little girl something that you enjoyed when you were at this camp?"
Thinking it over, Filthy Rich sighed as he fixed his appearance. "I wouldn't dare to make my daughter upset," he admitted. "However, the property would've made an excellent location for a new spa and resort."
"At the cost of somebody's beloved family home. Next time you want to expand your business ventures, find some other place to do it," Terracotta said as he picked up a branch and started to carve it with a knife. Watching Filthy Rich enter his limo and leave the camp property, Terracotta and Ivy smiled as they looked at the party that was going on.
As she watched Filthy Rich leave without making a fuss and thanking the Rainbooms, Gloriosa went to talk with a couple of guests while Fragment Hunter and Bianca took the stage. The Rainbooms themselves enjoyed the rest of the party and Twilight was using her magic to hang some lights that fell off. When they were put back into place, Twilight was enjoying the scenery of the cave before Timber approached her. "Not to brag or anything, but it's pretty cool how I saved all those campers from those Rubus fruticosus," Timber said to Twilight with some playful egotism. "Blackberry brambles," he clarified as Twilight looked at him.
"I'm familiar with the genus," Twilight stated. "It's just a little weird you say you saved the campers. I thought I saved them," Twilight retorted as she began to banter with Timber.
"Yeah. But I saved you from falling on the docks so that you could save the campers. So technically, it was all me," Timber said, acting like a goofball.
Giggling at Timber's act, Twilight felt relieved after everything she was going through since before attending the camp. "I'm really glad I met you," she told him.
"That sounds like a goodbye. And here I was hoping we'd still be able to hang out," Timber said as he began to blush. "Maybe get dinner and catch a movie?"
Hearing that Timber was asking her out, Twilight blushed as well before answering him. "Yeah. I'd really like that," she replied.
"Oh, good! I was hoping that's what this meant," Timber said as he and Twilight smiled at each other.
As the two looked at each other, they inched closer and Twilight placed her hand on Timber's chest. Leaning forward, Timber was about to kiss Twilight when he felt somebody's hand on his shoulder, startling both of them. Turning to see it was Gloriosa, she spoke to the two. "Sorry. I need to borrow Timber," Gloriosa apologized as she stepped between Timber and Twilight. "There are some donors I really want him to meet. They were good friends with Mom and Dad."
With a sudden flash of reddish-purple light, Rua teleported in wearing a purple-trimmed tuxedo and laughed at the situation. "Hahaha!! Cockblocked," she exclaimed with mirth.
"Save me a dance, okay," Timber asked Twilight just as he and Gloriosa headed off to meet the donors she was talking about.
As Twilight nodded at Timber with a dreamy look, she walked back to the party to end up bumping into something big and soft. Stepping back to see what it was, she ended up walking into Ivy's well-endowed chest. Seeing that the Rainbooms and the rest of Fragment Hunter all chuckled at the scene, Twilight realized that they had been watching her moment with Timber since the start. "That was an adorable moment," Ivy and Rarity said.
"He does seem like a pretty cool guy," Sunset Shimmer remarked.
"A bit," Silver voiced as he fixed up his silver-trimmed tuxedo jacket.
"You know what else is cool? Our awesome new superpowers," Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she zipped around the cave in a rainbow-colored blur. "I handed out, like, four hundred fliers, set up the stage, and still had time to pick up pizza," she stated as she held a few boxes of pizza in her hands. "I love my super-speed!"
"About that. I think Lapis is right about the crystals being the source of our superpowers," Shimmer said.
"Yeah, it's like how Dust allows us to use elemental attacks," Lapis compared.
"You're not gonna ask us to give them up, are you," Fluttershy asked as she held Spike in her arms.
"No," Sunset explained. "In fact, I think maybe we were meant to have them all along. That way, we can protect them from people who don't understand magic like we do." The Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter all agreed on that before they went back to enjoying the Crystal Ball.
After a while, Timber and Twilight shared a dance and Twilight went to go enjoy the night air outside. As he kissed her hand before returning to the party, Sunset Shimmer saw the moment and silently teased Twilight about her crush. As Twilight blushed, the two girls head something nearby and turned to see what it was. Apparently they weren't the only ones to be outside the cave as they saw Azalea and Slate passionately kissing each other. Sunset and Twilight were red as they didn't expect Azalea to do that sort of thing, but they also didn't expect her to wear the little black black dress she had on either. After the two lovers separated for some air, they saw the two girls watching them. "Do you mind," Azalea teased as Slate's mouth and cheeks were covered in fuchsia lipstick marks.
"Sorry, Azalea," Sunset Shimmer apologized and took a sip of her drink. "You know, there's still one thing I don't understand after everything that happened," she stated and caught the attention of the other three.
"What's that," Twilight and Slate asked as the latter cleaned up his face.
"Where did the magic that hit this cave come from," Sunset questioned.
"Yeah," Azalea said as she remembered the geodes that were in the cave's center spire. "Same with the Grimm. How did they get here?" The four teenagers questioned those two things as they looked up at the clear night sky, staring up at the moon.
Back at Canterlot High School, it was quiet in the middle of the night. The stars were visible, the moon was shining down on the town, and the Wondercolt Statue's magic portal base to Equestria was reflecting the lights that could be seen. However, the top of the object was damaged as a hairline fracture could be seen if one looked closely enough. From the crack, magic started to leak out into the world as colorful wisps. Unfortunately, some of the wisps began to change into an inky black color and take the form of monsters before they landed on the ground. When they did, they transformed into a pool of disgusting-looking tar that quickly changed shape. When one black wisp hit the road in front of the school, it transformed into a Beowolf that growled as it came to life. Seeing the school, it was about to approach the campus when something wrapped around its neck and electrocuted it to death. When the Grimm evaporated, a quartet of young adults that were slightly older than the members of Fragment Hunter looked at their surroundings. "We're not in Mistral anymore, guys," stated a short male with glasses. "Judging from that strange rift we went through, I'd have to say that this is an entirely different world. I thought that inter-dimensional travel was only a thing science fiction had, but here we are."
"Ollie, just calm down. This place could be interesting to check out," said a tall woman with dark skin and white hair.
"I just hope that there's some good food here," a large man with tattoos and chains voiced. "That or somebody to fight."
"Relax, big guy," a suave-sounding man with a raccoon tail told his associate as he twirled something in his hand. The object was a cane that had a hook attached to a cable, which was just used to kill the Beowolf. "I'm sure that there will be plenty of challenges for us here," he said as the moonlight shined on his black domino mask and he retracted the cable of his cane. "Besides, it's not like we have an immediate way back to Remnant," he remarked as he walked toward the school doors and phased through the locked entrance like a phantom.
After everything that happened at Camp Everfree, the Rainbooms and Fragment Hunter enjoyed the rest of their week at the camp without anything else to be worried about. The large group all looked at the dock they had just finished rebuilding for what felt like the fourth day in a row. "Third time is a charm. Or is it fifth? I've lost track," Rainbow Dash said.
"All that matters is that the runway is finished," Rarity stated happily.
"I think you mean the 'dock', Rarity," Applejack and Slate corrected.
"Who the hell says 'po-tah-to'," Rua and Vixen questioned.
"Let's celebrate," Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she threw confetti and marshmallows into the air, where the sugary treats fell onto the dock and ignited like the sprinkles. When the marshmallows exploded, the dock was completely destroyed once again to the speechless shock of everyone. Rarity fainted from the shock of what happened while the members of Fragment Hunter all turned to the girl. "Hehehe... Oops," Pinkie laughed nervously. "I didn't know it would work with marshmallows, too," she admitted. "It's a good thing that my left hand doesn't create some sort of remote controlled tank that tracks people and explodes when it gets close enough to somebody."
"It must work with any kind of sugar," Sunset Blaze mused as she cleared any debris off her jacket. "Let's make sure to never give her a can of soda unless absolutely necessary. It might be like when Nora uses them as grenades in food fights."
"Agreed," every member of Fragment Hunter immediately replied.
"Come on, we have work to do... again," Terracotta told everyone as he went to go get the tool boxes.
