//------------------------------// // The Goldilocks Zone, or ‘How Hard Can It Be to Find a Campsite?’ // Story: The Summer Sendoff // by KatonRyu //------------------------------// Normally, Sunset wouldn’t even consider setting her alarm early on a day off. This time, however, she woke up filled with excitement, not caring that it wasn’t even seven yet. Sure, today was the first day of summer break, but today was also the first day where she and her friends would start their work on the Summer Sendoff. She leapt out of bed and opened her curtains, happy to see that it looked like it was going to be a nice day. Sunset enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun on her face as she ate her cereal, then made her way over to CHS. She and the others had decided to meet up there to divide the work that had to be done. Despite the early hour, the temperature was already pleasant as Sunset walked to school. Even though she walked the same route every day, this time she didn’t have to hurry to be on time and so she enjoyed the walk a lot more than she usually did. When she arrived at school, everyone else had already gathered in front of the door. “Sunset Shimmer! You’re two minutes late!” Pinkie Pie said sternly. Sunset and Twilight laughed, but the rest of their friends had a very solemn look on their faces, expressions more suited for a courtroom and a murder trial than a sunny day outside. Sunset let her eyes wander over everyone’s face, eventually meeting Twilight’s equally confused eyes and shrugging. “Uh, I’m sorry?” she tried. Pinkie Pie leaned forward and scrutinized Sunset’s expression. Was she looking for signs of deceit? “Since you’ve never been to a Daybreak Division Deliberation before I’ll accept your apology, Sunset Shimmer, but this will go in the records,” Pinkie said formally. “A…what?” Sunset asked. “Daybreak Division Deliberation, darling,” Rarity repeated. “Whenever Pinkie Pie plans anything big, we all get together at seven thirty on the dot and then Pinkie will give us our assignments.” “Planning a party is a pastime with perfect punctuality as a prerequisite. A lot needs to be done to make sure this party is a success, and every minute counts,” Pinkie Pie said gravely, jabbing her finger at Sunset to emphasize her words. Sunset held up her hands in defeat. “Okay, I get it. I’ll be on time from now on, I promise,” she said. “Pinkie promise?” “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Sunset said. “Good!” Pinkie said happily. “Now then, ladies, let’s get to business! I sent everyone at CHS and Crystal Prep a mail about the party last night and asked them for suggestions, and I already have tons of responses. Applejack, Rarity, I need you two to help me look through them so we can decide which ones will fit the party.” Applejack and Rarity nodded. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy…” Pinkie began. “Not location, not location, not location…” Rainbow Dash begged, crossing her fingers. “I need you two to find Cheese Sandwich. The Summer Sendoff is going to be huge and he’s almost as good at planning parties as I am. We could really use his help,” Pinkie said. Rainbow Dash nearly made a backflip out of joy. “Yes! Got it, Pinkie, we’ll find Cheese Sandwich,” she said. Then she grinned at Sunset and Twilight, whose expressions of pure confusion were probably permanent at this point. “I almost feel sorry for you,” Rainbow Dash said. “Sunset and Twilight, you’re in charge of finding a location,” Pinkie said almost apologetically. “I’m sorry, Twilight, you did nothing wrong, but Sunset was late and I can’t just let that slide.” “Uh, okay?” Twilight said. “I said I was sorry…” Sunset muttered under her breath. Then, for everyone, “So what exactly is so bad about finding a location? I mean, how hard can it be?” Five pairs of sympathetic looks were her reply. Pinkie sighed and then retrieved a small, black book from her bag. “All the requirements are in here, along with a list of locations we’ve used in the past. Don’t bother checking the skull-and-crossbones ones; we’ve been kind of sort of maybe banned from those places.” Sunset was still mystified, but she took the book from Pinkie Pie and said, “Right. I guess…we’ll get on it, then.” “I can’t believe this,” Sunset said through gritted teeth. She and Twilight were walking down a sand path towards a campground. Trees alongside the path offered some shade, but it was already noticeably getting hotter outside. “Nearly every campground in and around the city is in here. And we have to check them all?” Before they’d left from school, Applejack had taken the two of them aside for a moment, and explained that finding a location for one of Pinkie’s big parties was essentially a curse. Invariably one or more of the requirements wasn’t met for one reason or another, and that would always lead to problems later on in the planning process, all of which would be blamed on the ones who had taken care of the location. Aside from that, scouting locations meant you’d easily spend all day walking around in the heat mostly for nothing, since most of the locations in Pinkie’s black book would be unsuited, or whose owners would simply refuse to let the party be hosted there. Whenever there was a big party coming, the one task you didn’t want to get was finding a location. Sunset had laughed at the warning, once again wondering how bad it could possibly be, but then she’d opened the book and seen just how big the task she and Twilight had been given really was. “I mean, I figured we’d have to check maybe three or four campgrounds and some unrelated places, but there have to be at least twenty of them! How many campgrounds can one city even need?!” Twilight sighed. Sunset had been ranting like this almost the entire trip from school to the campground, and while Twilight was a very patient girl, it was starting to get on her nerves. She wished Spike were with them, but he’d sneakily joined Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash on their mission. She wondered if his avoiding of this assignment could be counted as animal disaster sense. “So,” Twilight said in the middle of one of Sunset’s rants, “Are you going to ask the Twilight from the other world to come over for the party as well? She knows everyone here as well, right?” Sunset stopped ranting and raving and fell silent as she thought about that question. Twilight counted her blessings. “It would be fun if she and Starlight could come over,” Sunset mused. “And her other friends? I mean, we all have counterparts there, right?” Twilight asked. Meeting her own double had been a strange experience, but she was curious to see if the counterparts of her other friends resembled them just as much. Sunset frowned. “It would be nice,” she said. “But I don’t know if bringing them over would destabilize our worlds. I know Pinkie Pie would take pride in throwing a party so awesome it literally ends the world, but it doesn’t seem like the best idea. Still…” She looked up at the tree branches, lost in thought for a moment. She turned back to Twilight and smiled. “I’ll definitely talk to her about it. I think her friends should see what this world looks like at least once. We’ll figure something out, I’m sure.” For a moment, the two walked on in silence, enjoying the warmth of the sun. They reached the entrance of the campground. There was an automatic bar gate there to let cars in. The sand path then continued into the campgrounds themselves. To their left there was a building which seemed to be a reception doubling as a camp restaurant. Sunset and Twilight headed inside and joined a small queue of people, most of whom were carrying backpacks or weekend bags. “What are we even going to ask?” Sunset wondered as they waited for their turn. Twilight shrugged. “We should probably just tell them why we’re here and ask if they have space available. I don’t really have experience with looking for party locations,” she said. Not much later, it was their turn. Behind the desk sat an older woman. She didn’t look very enthusiastic to be there. “Uh, hi. My name is Sunset Shimmer, and this is my friend Twilight Sparkle. We, uh, we’re from CHS and we want to organize an end-of-summer party to celebrate going into our last year at high school, and…” The woman interrupted Sunset by holding up a hand. “CHS? Party? You’re friends with that Pinkie Pie girl, aren’t you?” She sounded almost accusing. Sunset and Twilight exchanged a glance. “Yes?” Sunset said. The woman immediately shook her head. “Not a chance. The last time we let her throw a party here it cost us several days to clean up all the confetti and streamers and who knows what else she shot from those cannons of hers.” Sunset sighed. “I see. Well, thanks for your time, anyway. Have a nice day.” The woman gave a curt nod and then turned her attention to the next person in line. Sunset and Twilight walked away. “I guess Pinkie forgot to add her skull-and-crossbones stamp to this one,” Sunset said as they left the campground. “Well, it’s still early,” Twilight said. “I’m sure we’ll have more luck at the next campsite.” The next campsite, however, wasn’t too thrilled about the idea either, nor were the three after that. As Sunset and Twilight traveled all around the city, the temperature kept rising, making the search even more of a grind. “I’ve been in more different woods today than I’ve ever been in my life,” Sunset said. “I can’t believe so many of these campsites are located in parks and forests.” They were walking along a path between rows of pine trees, heading towards yet another possible location for the party. Despite the shade the trees offered, it was still a very hot day and Sunset hoped that this campsite would finally be the one that could host the party, and would be willing to do it. She was beginning to realize why everyone else hated this particular job. “I like the walk, actually,” Twilight said. “I never had much of a reason to go outside, but I’ve always enjoyed walking. Besides, at least the trees smell nice.” Sunset inhaled deeply. The scent of the pine trees was indeed quite pleasant. “You take walks with Spike, right? Doesn’t that mean you get out a lot?” Sunset asked. “Yes, but I usually stuck to the area around my house. It wouldn’t make sense to go out of town just to walk my dog. But now, we have an actual reason to go all around town and see how much nature we still have. I really wouldn’t mind having to go to a few more locations after this one,” Twilight said. Sunset cocked her head. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. Still, I’d be okay with this one being the last one,” she said. Eventually, she and Twilight reached a rickety chain fence, which had clearly seen better days. There was a worn sign on the fence, which read Camp Pinecone, followed by an arrow which pointed them along the path. Someone had sloppily crossed out the ‘Pine’ part of the name and replaced it with ‘Pain’. “That looks…inviting,” Sunset said. “Well, maybe the campsite itself will look better? I mean we shouldn’t judge it on this sign alone, right?” Twilight replied, but the look on her face betrayed her uncertainty. They followed the path along the fence, which became less well-kept with every step they took. “How does that even work? The entire path looks more or less maintained, and then this close to the campsite they decided not to bother?” Sunset asked as she stepped over a large root coming up from the path. Suddenly, the path seemed to end. In front of them, there was just a wall of trees and shrubs. Sunset looked around to see if the path had maybe taken a turn somewhere, but she couldn’t see anywhere it might have done so. The fence, however, had stopped. Now there was just a line of shrubs leading deeper into the forest. She looked at Twilight. “Do you think it’s through here?” “It isn’t,” someone replied, but it wasn’t Twilight. Sunset nearly jumped into the nearest tree at the sudden appearance of a man from between the trees. “You’re looking for Camp Pinecone, I take it?” he asked, looking from Sunset to Twilight. Twilight, who adjusted her glasses after the jump scare had nearly thrown them off her face, nodded. “Yes. We’re looking for a location where we can host an end-of-summer party,” she said. The man laughed. “I’m sure Fir Shadow would love to let you host a party, but I doubt the campsite is big enough. If you want to try it, though…” He pointed at the wall of trees and shrubs. “…it’s just past there and to the left. Fir likes to get people ‘in touch with nature’, so the last part of the path embodies that. He said it would help him stand out.” Sunset and Twilight shot each other an uncertain look. Would a place like this really work for a party with various activities? They seemed to reach a conclusion at the same time. “On second thought, maybe we should keep looking,” Twilight said nervously. The man nodded slowly. “Yeah, I figured as much. I tried telling Fir that he’s going to scare people away like this, if they can even find the entrance, but that old man is stubborn as a mule. Well, I wish you good luck…and if you know anyone looking to get in touch with nature, do send them here, won’t you?” he asked with a forlorn look. Sunset nodded. “Sure. Thanks for the help.” As they began walking back along the path, Sunset said, “You know, maybe Fluttershy would actually enjoy something like this, if only it didn’t look like the set of every cheesy horror movie ever made.” “Or maybe Wallflower would,” Twilight suggested. Sunset nodded thoughtfully. “That’s actually an even better idea. If anyone would enjoy being surrounded by a lot of plants instead of people, it’s her. I’ll send her a message about it.” Sunset retrieved her phone and began typing a message to Wallflower. Ever since the Memory Stone incident she’d tried to occasionally keep in touch with her, and as a result they were on much friendlier terms now. When Sunset put her phone away again, Twilight said, “Do you mind taking the long way back? I’ve heard that the lake is beautiful, but I’ve never gone there. Since we’re in the area anyway…” Sunset smiled at her. “Sure, why not? It’s a welcome change of scenery, anyway.” Not too much later, the trees began to thin and the path led out into a large open field, beyond which lay one of the many lakes in the area. This particular one was the biggest of the bunch, and the small beach was a relatively popular place for people to spend their summer days. Today as well, small groups of people were lounging around the field and the beach, and several people were enjoying themselves in the water. As they walked along the path, staring out over the water and listening to the sounds of the people having fun, Sunset got an idea. “Hey, don’t you think this field would be ideal for the party?” she asked. “I mean, there’s more than enough room for everyone from CHS and Crystal Prep, the field and the lake together allow for lots of activities, there aren’t any houses nearby who might be bothered by loud music late at night…it seems ideal.” Twilight cocked her head and thoughtfully looked across the field. “It does seem big enough,” she said hesitantly. “But do you think we’ll be able to rent it? I mean, is it owned by the city or privately owned?” Sunset shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s worth checking out, isn’t it? Besides, I don’t think I can take going to another campsite today.” She walked onto the grass and sat down, letting the cool breeze blow through her hair. Twilight sat down next to her. “It’ll be a good location for the meteor shower too,” Twilight said as she looked up at the sky. “We’re far enough away from the city that the light pollution shouldn’t be much of a problem.” Sunset grinned at her. “Well then, I say the choice is made. We’ve found our location.”