//------------------------------// // Midnight Worries // Story: Legend of Everfree: Another Story // by ArcanaMaverick7 //------------------------------// 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.