“Hey, are you okay?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah,” Twilight answered. “I’m fine.”
Droning out Pinkie’s marshmallow talk, Sunset focused on Twilight. Her breathing was still more rapid than usual, and her eyes still wide. And the way she’d been mumbling and beginning to thrash in her sleep just now? Classic signs of a nightmare.
Sunset bit her lip, debating on whether to bring it up or not. She promised not to, but it had been more than a month since the Friendship Games and Twilight had yet to open up about it.
Perhaps she was being paranoid about it. After all, her own nightmares of the Fall Formal had slowed to sporadic after the first two weeks. Perhaps Twilight was just having an unlucky nap. Either way, she’d find out soon enough.
They were spending a week together at a camp with a chunk of their peers. Every year the Senior class of Canterlot High got the chance to go on a week trip to ‘Camp Everfree’ for Spring Break, a fun bonding and learning experience for all. But if Twilight was having nightmares, then it would be easy to see when someone was sharing a tent with her.
For now, she tried to relax. Her own nerves were getting the better of her. It was just the fact that this was the Everfree Forest. In Equestria, while it was known for how wild and out of control it was, it was still heavily saturated in Magic. Old, ancient Magic that was almost alive.
When she mentioned it, Pinkie called it a 'Fae' feeling. The concept of 'otherworldly magic' was a little to on the nose for an Interdimensional Unicorn, but it did fit the feeling well enough.
But this was the Human World. Sure, Magic was more common, but it was pretty limited to CHS. Unless there was another random threat from Equestria somehow hiding in the trees, she’d be fine. It was highly unlikely, as Princess Celestia seemed sure that the only other beings who had been tossed through the portal would be dead by now. Even so, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder.
Camp Everfree itself was pretty nice, actually. It was a pretty cool looking campsite, even if it was still pretty much what she expected of a campsite. But hey, you can’t go wrong with trees and a good lake.
After getting her bag out of the bus, Sunset watched the Principal and Vice Principal walk up to a woman. She was pretty, several shades of raspberry pink, but very young. She couldn’t be more than twenty two, but the way Celestia and Luna talked to her, she had to be in charge.
Of course, before she could think more on that, she was metaphorically smacked in the face with second-hand embarrassment. The kind of second hand embarrassment that comes from Flash attempting to flirt with Twilight. Emphasis on ‘attempting’. Deciding to help out a little, she waited for him to walk off before coming up beside her.
“Right,” Sunset sighed, putting her arm around Twilight. “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?”
“Uh-huh,” Twilight nodded, raising an eyebrow.
“Flash kind of… had a thing for her,” she said. “Not that he doesn’t like you as you. But you two haven’t directly interacted and I think that was his way of trying to say ‘I had a thing for the other one but that’s not why I like you’. Because how do you say that to someone?”
“Oh,” she said. “I… He’s nice and pretty cute, but I don’t think I’ve actually had a full conversation with him.”
Okay, this was a bit more awkward than she wanted. Thankfully, she was saved by the PA system.
Sunset had several questions, but most of them weren’t her business. She didn’t really need to know why a local business man was showing up, or why the camp staff seemed to hate him. And she really tried to ignore how that 'fae feeling' was enhanced around said staff. Still, there were other questions that need answering.
“Uh, miss?” Sunset said, walking after the raspberry woman.
“Oh, hello!” the woman greeted. “And you can just call me Gloriosa!”
Sunset was a little unsettled by how chipper she was. She could almost hear the exclamation point on the end of the sentence.
“I just had a couple of questions,” Sunset said, trying to remain casual. “Well, specifically about your other staff member. He’s your brother, right?”
“Yeperooni!” Gloriosa smiled. “I usually say it during the opening speech! Did I skip that this time?”
“Maybe?” she admitted. “I was a little focused on what my friends were doing at first so I might’ve missed it.”
“Sorry about that,” she said. “But yes, he’s my brother. Most people can’t tell, since we don’t look much alike.”
“It’s the eyes,” she replied, gesturing with her hand. “And that little bickering thing you did on stage. But my question was, well, how old is he?”
Gloriosa seemed to recoil a bit, though not out of concern. More like surprise. That was good, at least.
“Why?” Gloriosa wondered, actually managing to give a thoughtful frown instead of a smile.
“Nothing major!” Sunset assured. “Just, well, a few of my friends think he’s pretty cute and might’ve been flirting with him. And I wasn’t sure if, well, age and all so if he was flirting back…”
“Oh,” she said, coming back to the grin. “Well, he just turned eighteen back in December, so considering you’re all Seniors I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“So, no rules against flirting with campers?” she wondered.
“It would be a bit hypocritical,” she laughed. “After all, if staff weren’t allowed to flirt with campers, then Timber and I wouldn’t even be here…..”
“Oh?” she said. “Oh! So, uh, it’s-it’s a family business then?”
She expected another quip, or some over-enthusiastic ramble about ‘this camp’s been in the family for generations!’. But instead she got silence. Gloriosa’s body language shifted dramatically, shoulders slumping as she crossed her arms. Her eyes looked off at something else, almost lost.
Perhaps on instinct, Sunset reached out to put her hand on her shoulder. It was supposed to be comforting, but perhaps so much time on a bus had charged her up with a bit of static. Her thumb must have brushed against the necklace clasp or something, because there was a jolt up her arm.
For a fraction of a second, she swore she heard crying. She wondered who it was, why they were crying. But it had to have been her imagination. No one else would be crying, and it definitely wasn’t Gloriosa, as she had jumped back with the shock and looked nowhere near tears.
“Are… are you okay?” Sunset asked.
“Sorry about that!” Gloriosa chirped, smile returning. “I think I’m just a little tired from all the fun things I’ve set up for you to do! Don’t worry about it! I’m just going to go get another cup of coffee before we really get into everything! You’ll see!”
Before Sunset could protest, she sped off in another direction. For some reason, she wanted to run after and talk to her. Though there was no reason why. Whatever crying she’d heard wasn’t ‘real’. Probably just forest sounds or someone’s squeaky suitcase. So why did her heart ache?
Well, this was a predicament. She’d been trying to have a little friendly teasing with Twilight, but that led into quite a few revelations.
Firstly, that she was definitely having nightmares. She’d started on being comforting, she was going to lead into her own experiences to say she understood, but that it was better now. But then they got distracted by Magic.
Twilight’s Magical abilities seemed to be developing, though it was strange. Like the fact that she didn’t ‘Pony Up’. It was as if she was focusing the Magic through something other than a horn, but she shut it off too fast for Sunset to investigate.
But that was another problem. Shutting it off. She seemed… scared. Maybe it was just her general anxieties, not wanting to ruin the trip. Okay, maybe it was general anxiety combined with wanting to atone for nearly destroying the Dimension. Still, something felt off, but she couldn’t place her finger on it.
Perhaps it was the fact that, despite being in the middle of nowhere, she still had cell service. A mystery all its own.
“Guess I can’t get too jealous, right?” Flash sighed.
“About what?” Sunset asked with false innocence. “The person you like being mostly oblivious to it while they get their flirt on with someone new and perhaps a bit mysterious?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
Sunset bit her lip, trying not to snicker at Thunder’s expression. Brawley failed, but mostly because he’d been mid-way through a drink and started choking instead.
“I know we didn’t have much,” Flash continued, completely oblivious this time. “But-“
“I get it,” Sunset reigned in her laughter. “You liked the other Twilight, but this one is different from her.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Does that make sense? I mean, they’re sort of the same person, but they’re different?”
“Listen, as someone who has met many Interdimensional Counterparts,” she began, “you’re right. There’s a lot of similarities, but even so they’re different. It’s easier to see with both Twilights though. The only Counterparts I can’t tell apart is Pinkie, but that’s because she got the upgraded version of Interdimensional Dreaming, so she can talk to her other self so one knows exactly what the other knows. I’m still not sure we got the right one back.”
“Is it wrong to say I like this Twilight better?” he asked.
“Not ‘better’,” she corrected. “But differently. And again, they are different people. Just like the other you is another person. Maybe he likes Princess Twilight too, or maybe he already found a cute blue Unicorn to make out with.”
She loved her timing, getting Brawly to choke on his water again before giving up and wandering somewhere where he couldn’t hear her passive-aggressive comments.
“That was oddly specific,” Flash said. “Was that a hint to give up on either Twilight?”
“Not exactly,” she coughed. “I’m not going to lie and say ‘oh, this is totally a RomCom where the protagonist fights to win back his lady love from the exciting new guy’. But I will say that it’s okay to like multiple people. It’s also okay to be in a relationship with multiple people, as long as everyone knows and is okay with it.”
“Are you-“ he raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying ‘go up and ask to share’?”
“Well, have some tact man!” she laughed. “I just meant that you can think about it, but if she rejects you or if Timber gets upset about ‘sharing’ then give up. And if you, oh, I don’t know, happen to have someone else you might be interested in, then maybe you should also talk with them about it?”
“I still feel like you’re dropping hints,” he frowned.
“Absolutely not!” she said, slowly edging away. “Totally not dropping hints to you or anyone else! I’m just going to, uh, go check on Rarity real quick. See you later! Oh, and if Rainbow says something about Emergency Cross-dressing, it has nothing to do with me!”
She said that last part mostly because Brawly was taking another drink, and she wanted to be three for three on making him shoot water out of his nose. Everything else was her actually trying to help.
Okay, she was dropping a lot of hints. Especially since she left him with Thunder. But hey, at least she wasn’t dropping eaves.
She really needed to stop learning phrases from Pinkie.
“So, you don’t think that this ‘Gaia Everfree’ could be from Equestria?” Applejack asked.
“Not really,” Sunset said, breathing in the lingering smell of firewood. “Even if she was, then not only would she not have had Magic as no one did until I got here, but she’s also probably be dead by now and definitely not a problem for us.”
“What if it was a Counterpart situation!” Pinkie suggested. “Like, maybe there’s a legend in Equestria and this one mirrors that?”
“I’m sure Sunset would’ve thought of it,” Rarity said.
“Well…” Sunset trailed off.
“Come on,” Rainbow sighed. “Might as well tell us now.”
“It’s not a legend, per say,” she said. “But Equestria’s Everfree Forest has a lot of mysteries and strange Magics. I don’t know about something like the ghost story, but I did read something about a mare named Gaia who was researching Everfree a long time ago. She supposedly disappeared in an accident involving her Timberwolf research.”
“So there is a story that could be related?” Applejack asked.
“Maybe,” she shrugged. “But if it is, then the Pony Gaia was the victim, not the monster. Maybe his version of the story got mixed up over the years. Really though, either way I think ‘Gaia Everfree’ will be the least of our problems.”