The students were on the bus going to Camp Everfree.
"Attention students," said Principal Celestia, "we're almost to Camp Everfree, but before we get there, I just want to say how proud I am of Cassandra for raising enough money to send all of us on this trip." They all cheered for Cassandra. During the events of The Friendship Games, Cassandra had invested a dollar in the stock market. Upon returning, her dollar had turned into millions. She decided to share her good fortune with her friends to help Rarity learn about generosity.
They arrived at the camp and met Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce.
"Welcome to Camp Everfree," said Gloriosa, "you're free to do whatever you want. If you need anything, please let me know, and if it's something I can't help you with, Cassandra has kindly volunteered to help out. Does anyone have any questions?"
"What will the camp gift be?" asked Principal Celestia. She crossed her fingers and whispered silently "please be cake, please be cake..."
"Hopefully it is useful all day, unlike the sundial that my sister built because it looks like a giant cookie," said Luna.
"How about the dock?" said Cassandra, "I gave it a once-over and it looks like it's about ready to collapse."
"So no cake then?" sulked Celestia.
"The cake is a lie," joked Timber. Twilight laughed, she liked jokes about refrences.
"Well then screw this, I'm hiking back to Canterlot." Celestia grabbed her backpack and walked away.
"Um, don't we need her here for adult supervision?" asked Gloriosa.
"You're right," agreed Cassandra, "she shouldn't be left unsupervised, I'll go get her."
"Ok everyone, time to get your tent assignments." They went around with a bag of cards with gems on them.
"I got sapphire," said Twilight.
"Sapphires are just rubies without chromium" said Timber Spruce, his knowledge of gemology clearly making Twilight swoon.
"I know stuff about gems too," said Flash, "did you know that a garnet is a ruby and sapphire fused together?"
"Go away Flash" said Cassandra.
"Sapphire tent is the best" said Timber Spruce.
"You say that to everyone," said Twilight, blushing.
"Not true." He turned to Bulk Biceps, "You got ruby?"
"YEAH!"
"That's the worst one."
"NO!"
"Just kidding, but how about I show you where it is?"
"YEAH!"
"Did you know that a ruby is a sapphire with chromium?"
"NO!" replied Bulk as they made their way to the tent.
"Hey, wouldn't it be funny if his name was Roid Rage?" asked Flash with a dumb-looking smirk.
"Would you please go away already?" said Cassandra.
"What tent did you get, Cassandra?" asked Rarity, "I hear the emerald tent has only one bed," she said seductively.
"None, I built my own shelter just now," said Cassandra, pointing to a fancy-looking log cabin.
"Ah built one too," said Applejack, pointing at a pile of sticks arranged into a a vaguely teepee shape. A bird landed on it, and the entire structure collapsed. The bird then landed on Fluttershy's hand and chirped something.
"That's not very nice, she did the best she could. Cassandra has level 99 architecture skills, not many people can measure up."
The bird chirped something else.
"Well I suppose if you absolutely must, then that guy over there." The bird flew off the rejoin his flock. As they passed overhead, they pooped on Flash Sentry.
A limo pulled up and Filthy Rich stepped out.
"Well howdy Glori-osa. Ah'm here to look round the camp. Ah do declare it is one fine place for a spa."
"He's just speaking in hypotheticals" said Gloriosa, laughing nervously.
"Gloriosa, ah say, Glori-osa, that will not be a hypothetical if you don't get me mah money by th' end of the week."
"Can we talk about this later?" She hissed silently
"Verah well. You get me mah money you hear?" He got in his limo and rode away
"Filthy Rich just like to visit occasionally" explained Gloriosa.
"As th' element of honesty ah can say for certain she was telling the truth," said Applejack, "also ah know that Filthy Rich is an honest businessman, he convinced us that rather than sell the zap apple jam ourselves, we should sell it to him at cost price an' have him sell it in his stores."
The students began engaging in their camp activities. At the lake a boat got stuck in the water, when suddenly a mysterious force slammed it sideways, ramming it into the dock and shattering the boat to splinters.
"What the hell was that? " exclaimed Sunset, "and sidebar, why it the boat totaled but the dock without a scratch on it?"
"Elementary my dear Sunny, I built it to last," said Cassandra, "magic and monsters and destruction follow you wherever you go, so if you half-assed this job you'd end up having to rebuild it almost every day!"
Over at the rock climbing station, Octavia was climbing the wall with Vinyl scratch holding the rope, her headphones on full-blast as usual.
"Vinyl, could you hold it a little tighter, please?" called Octavia.
"WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO LET GO OF THE ROPE?"
"Lyra, how about you take over for a little bit?" said Cassandra, taking the rope from Vinyl and handing it to Lyra. Cassandra had the strength to hold up a rock climber with one hand, but she didn't like to make a big deal out if it.
"Hey look everbody! Ah've got super strength!" yelled Applejack.
Gloriosa ran over with the first aid kit, "what's all the commotion? Did someone fall off yet?"
"Yet?" said Rainbow Dash
"Yeah, it kind of has a way of happening every year, since we don't have an instructor and just leave the campers to figure it out on their own. Thank goodness for waivers!" she sang cheerfully.
"No one's injured," said Cassandra, "I got this."
"Oh, I am just so glad to have you here," said Gloriosa.
The other girls discovered that they had powers too, so they used them to fix things around camp, though thanks to Cassandra's diligence there wasn't much to fix.
"Hey Sunset, I was thinking, maybe we could get back together," said Flash. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"Why am I seeing TV static?" said Sunset.
"Gloriosa, I kicked my beanbag in the lake." said Sandalwood.
"Gloriosa, I shot Applejack with an arrow," said Derpy
"Gloriosa, Filthy Rich is back," said Timber.
"Don't worry, I got this," said Gloriosa
"No, you don't," said Cassandra, "Though you appear happy, I can see that you are screaming on the inside."
"Gasp!" exclaimed Sunset, "Cassandra, you have mind reading powers too?"
"No you silly filly, it's just situational awareness. Luckily, I'm going to teach you a way to deal with this. It's called prioritizing."
"What's that?" asked Gloriosa.
"It's when you choose what order to do things in based on how urgent they are."
"I don't understand."
"Well, first of all, how urgent is it that Filthy Rich is back?"
"Well, I can’t tell you the reasons but it's very urgent."
"And you should do that...?"
"First!"
"Good job. Now, this hippie wants a new beanbag, but he can do something else to occupy himself for a while."
"So I can get him a beanbag later."
"Two for two, you're on fire! Now as for Applejack, where did you shoot her, Derpy?"
"Straight through the heart. Her chest is so flat that there was nothing to block the arrow. Not like you Cassandra."
"More to the point, I'm too swift for anyone to hit me, but see Gloriosa, we can't bring her back to life no matter what priority you give it."
"So I can ignore that while I deal with the other things. Thank you Cassandra! Meet me out back for some practice kissing afterwards."
"Now I say Glori-osa, if you do not get me that money by the end of the month I will be de-molishing this here camp."
"But then your daughter won't get a chance to come here."
"Shut it, I say shut it with your tryin' to use logic."
"Well that tears it," said Gloriosa, "I'll have to take all of the Christmas lights."
She took the seven crystals that happened to be the same colors as the Mane 7.
"Gloriosa, you need to stop," said Sunset, "those crystals are dangerous."
"I have to save the camp, it's the only way. I can't have you interfering." She conjured up vines that tangled up Sunset and Twilight. Cassandra used parkour to avoid getting trapped.
"Oh, are they just going to tie us up and not do anything else?" said Sunset with a tinge of disappointment.
"Spike, stay here and free the girls, I'm going to get help," said Cassandra.
Cassandra arrived back at camp in time to get everyone indoors before Gloriosa arrived. She used her vines to repeatedly try and ensnare Cassandra, but the nimble pegasus-turned-human was too swift.
"Don't make me punch you in the throat Gloriosa, or should I say, Gaia Everfree?"
"Collective Gasp" said the campers, "how did you know?"
"The Legend of Everfree. I did research on the place before coming here."
"Research, why didn't I think of that?" said Twilight who had just entered the scene.
"Twilight, Sunset, thank goodness you're here!" said Cassandra
"You need us to help save the day?"
"No, but this is a great learning opportunity for you two. Now let me show you how to defeat a monster, and maybe someday you'll be strong enough to beat one without my help."
“Grr” said Gloriosa. She summoned up a thousand tendrils to go after Cassandra, but each one merely served as a stepping stone for Cassandra to get closer to Gloriosa. She hopped from branch to branch as Gloriosa became more frustrated and careless. Finally, she was within arm’s length of the counselor-turned wood nymph. “You think you’ve got me? Do your worst.”
“Boop.” said Cassandra, tapping her on the nose
“Are you serious?” demanded Gloriosa
“Look down”
“My necklace.”
Yep. Sorry babe, but I can’t let you have these
“NOOOOOOO!” The spirit of Gaia was forcefully extracted from Gloriosa. The vines disappeared in a flash, leaving Gloriosa suspended in midair. Thinking quickly, Cassandra flipped through the air and caught her, landing on the ground with a tuck and roll, and not a scrape or scratch on either of them. Gloriosa looked up at Cassandra, her face streaked with tears.
“I-I’m so sorry, can you ever forgive me?”
“Be calm my child,” said Cassandra, “we’ve forgiven a lot worse. But why did you do it?”
“I lied when I said Filthy Rich was stopping by because he was waxing nostalgic!”
“Oh?” said Cassandra pretending to be shocked.
“The real reason he was here was because if we don’t raise the money by the end of the month, he’ll demolish the camp!”
“So you just need money?”
“Yeah, all we have is a bunch of rich friends of our parents! We’ll never find a way to get the money!”
“Gloriosa,” said Cassandra, “I got this.”
“Y-you do?”
“I do. See, I told a white lie when I said I’d made millions in the stock market. The truth is, I made billions, but I kept it a secret so that the other stockbrokers wouldn’t get jealous. That guy on the TV show Mad Money has a very fragile ego.”
“Well if you’re just gonna be a boastful bitch, I don’t see how that solves my problems.” Other ponies would hav ebeen taken aback by Gloriosa’s lash-out, but Cassandra knew it was a reflexive jealousy that came about from those who were new to learning about friendship.
“Gloriosa, you’ve given me and my friends and countless campers before us the best week of our lives. I will pay off your debts so you can keep this camp running forever.”
“Oh Cassandra, thank you!” exclaimed Gloriosa. It was time to go, and while the campers were sad, they were proud to be part of Cassandra’s legend. The Legend of Everfree.