"So," Timber said as he and Twilight neared the rock climbing wall. "Got any siblings or are you an only child."
Twilight smiled warmly. "I have an older brother, Shining Armor. He's my BBBFF."
Timber blinked in confusion.
"Big Brother Best Friend Forever."
Timber smiled and rolled his eyes.
Rainbow Dash stood before them, her back turned as she watched Applejack steadily hold onto the rope that was keepin Rarity safe. She turned around and smiled. "Oh, good," she said excitedly. "Twilight, if you spot me, I can finally go. I'll go get another harness." She ran off.
"I-I'm not sure-" Twilight said before Timber put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'd better make sure my sister doesn't need anything. See you later," he said, then tossed her a salute as he walked off.
Twilight watched Timber walk away, and she smiled warmly. Yeah... she definitely liked him.
Gloriosa continued wandering the forest. It had been a while since she had found something she could fix, and she had mixed feelings on the matter. On one hand, it was nice that things seemed so perfect around here. On the other hand, however, that meant that there was nothing she could do to improve the campers' experience here!
Gloriosa happened upon a dried up lake and noticed Trixie and Micro Chips staring at each other in surprise as they held fishing rods. She looked off in the distance and noticed several boulders blocking the river's flow. Concentrating, she channeled the geodes and summoned vines to dislodge them.
"Twilight," Sunset said as she found her, carrying Spike in her arms. "There you are! I was looking for you." Before she could say another word, there was a loud explosion and the ground shook.
"W-was that an earthquake," Spike asked once the shaking stopped.
"We aren't near any fault lines," Twilight said before adjusting her glasses.
"Hey," Bulk called out. "Who left this crystally, dusty stuff here," he asked as he pointed to the ground. Just under him was a small portion of grass covered by sparkling dust. It was mostly pink, but twinkled yellow, blue, purple, and other bright colors.
Rarity screamed, and Twilight and Sunset watched in horror as she began to plummet to the ground.
Applejack grabbed the rope just in as Rarity was mere inches away from a fatal landing.
"Applejack," Rarity bellowed. "What are you doing?!"
Principal Celestia ran up to the two. "Is everything okay over there?"
"I-I don't know what happened," Applejack said as Sunset, Twilight and a few other campers gathered around. "I didn't even pull that hard! It's like she was as light as a feather or something."
Rarity frantically tried to take off her harness as she hyperventilated. "I was scared half to death," she exclaimed.
"It wasn't my fault!" Applejack sighed. "Let me help you get your harness off."
"No thank you". Rarity said as she threw her arms forward. Much to everyone's surprise, a large blue gem shot out, pushing Applejack away until she disappeared behind some bushes. A splashing noise soon followed, and a soaked Applejack spat out water as she exited the bushes.
"What in the world just happened," Principal Celestia asked as she hurried over to Applejack.
"Oh, dear," Rarity said. "I am so sorry... I think." She turned to Sunset and Twilight. "Did I just do... whatever that was?"
Twilight felt a surge of guilt. "I don't think it was your fault," she said. "I'm gonna go get Applejack a towel."
"Me too," Sunset said, then followed Twilight.
Timber sighed happily as he left the rock climbing area. The look on Twilight's face was something he'd treasure. The ground suddenly shook violently, and he nearly lost his footing. Once it stopped, he grit his teeth. He really needed to find Gloriosa before something terrible happened to the campers!
"My, oh, my," said an irritatingly familiar voice. "If it isn't Timber Spruce."
Timber grit his teeth harder, then took a deep breath and turned around. "What can I do for you, Filthy Rich?"
Timber really, really needed to find Gloriosa.
Sunset and Twilight walked side by side.
"You're not the only one with new magic," Sunset said excitedly. "This is great!"
"No, it's not," Twilight exclaimed. "Rarity and Applejack could have really hurt each other!" She clenched her hands into fists. "Why is this happening?! I don't-"
"Hi, girls," Gloroisa said, interrupting Twilight. "Anything I can do for you?"
"Applejack just fell into the lake," Twilight said, gesturing to the rock climbing area.
"Oh, no! She's gonna need towels, dry clothes... ooh, and a hot cocoa! I've got this!" Gloriosa ran off, and a muffled explosion sounded off in the distance, followed by a familiar-sounding scream.
Sunset and Twilight looked at each other worriedly. "Fluttershy?" The two and Spike ran to the source of the noise, which was the camp's mess hall. They burst through the door and stared in disbelief.
The tables, walls, floor, and even part of the ceiling were covered in cookie dough! Fluttershy stared at her dirty shirt in alarm and confusion, and Pinkie Pie was grinning widely.
"What happened," Sunset asked with a hint of awe.
"I don't know," Fluttershy said as she wiped some cookie dough off of her cheek. "We were just decorating cookies and-"
"And I was all 'you need more sprinkles, and you need more sprinkles'," Pinkie chirped.
"So, standard Pinkie Pie stuff," Sunset said with a smile.
"I was just tossing sprinkles to Fluttershy, when all of a sudden," Pinkie said as she reached into a sprinkle bottle and took some out. "They glowed pink and exploded!" She tossed the sprinkles. They glowed pink, then exploded, pelting Pinkie, Fluttershy, Sunset, Twilight and Spike with bits of cookie dough. Pinkie vigorously shook her head back and forth, like a dog drying itself off.
"Just like that," Pinkie said, now fully clean. "Only earlier." She smiled and put her hand on the table.
"Ooookay," Sunset said as she walked up to Pinkie. "Why don't you lay off touching stuff for a while?"
"Oh, dear. We really should clean all of this up." Fluttershy walked over to the kitchen area. She struggled to reach a roll of paper towels on the top of a shelf. "Can someone help me out?"
Sunset, Twilight and Spike began their cleaning, unaware of the conversation Fluttershy was having until...
"Oh, no. Please don't call for your friends." Several birds landed and perched themselves on Fluttershy, who had seemingly extended her arms outward as though on instinct. "It's nice to meet all of you too," she said with a genuine smile.
Sunset blinked in surprise and confusion. "Were you just talking to the birds?"
"Um... yes?"
The mess hall doors were flung open, startling Fluttershy and the birds. Rarity and Applejack walked in.
"Did you tell 'em what happened," Applejack asked. "I hoisted Rarity up the rock-climbing wall like it was nothin'! Like I have way more strength than I usually do!"
"And I made a diamondy thing appear out of nowhere, which normally I'd be excited about," Rarity said excitedly. "I mean, the facets were just perfect, and the-"
"Rarity!"
"Oops! Sorry," Rarity apologized sheepishly. "It knocked Applejack over, then disappeared!"
"Speaking of disappearin', has anybody seen Rainbow Dash?"
The doors to the mess hall flew open, and a rainbow blur shot past Applejack, completely drying her off. A familiar yell followed it, and the blur stopped as Rainbow smacked into the wall, then fell to the floor.
"Ow!"
"Whoa," Applejack said as she ran over to Rainbow. "How'd you do that?"
"I-I don't know," Rainbow said as Applejack helped her up. "I started running to get the harness, and the next thing I knew I was practically back in town!"
"But if you had some sort of super speed," Rarity said, wiggling her fingers to mimic a person running. "Why were you gone for so long?"
"Because I lost it when I got far away, and then it came back when I got close to camp!" Rainbow cupped her chin in confusion.
Pinkie gasped. "Being at camp is giving us all-new magical abilities!" She hopped in excitement.
"Not all of us have gotten new abilities. "I haven't," Sunset said, gesturing to herself. "But Twilight-"
Twilight frowned and shook her head.
"...Hasn't either."
Applejack folded her arms and sighed. "So much for my that leaving CHS would leave any new magic business behind."
"Something at the camp must be making this happen," Sunset said.
"Um... Gaea Everfree?"
The door burst open again, and Fluttershy screamed, then calmed upon seeing Gloriosa, who was holding several towels with a stetson hat on top.
"Applejack! I was looking for you! Here, I brought you some towels and dry clothes!" Gloriosa ran over to Applejack, handed her the towels and put the hat on her head. She caught sight of all the cookie dough. "Uhhh... what happened in here?"
"We're kinda trying to figure that out," Sunset explained.
"Well, don't worry about it," Gloriosa said. "I've got this!"
"Gloriosa!" Sandalwood pushed open the doors with Derpy accompanying him. "I kicked my bean bag into the lake."
Gloriosa's eye twitched. Was she not going to be able to relax today? "I'll get you another one," she said with a smile. Did they even have any extra bean bags?
"And I'm all out of arrows," Derpy said, holding up several broken arrows.
"Say no more. New arrows coming right up!"
"There you are," Timber said, shoving past Sandalwood and Derpy. He walked up and whispered in her ear. "Filthy Rich is back. Do you want me to handle it?"
Oh, for fuck's sake! Gloriosa fumed with rage. "Absolutely not," she snapped. "I've got this!" She screamed internally as she and Timber left the mess hall.
"Fluttershy, enough with the screaming," Sunset said in exasperation.
"I didn't scream."
"For once," Rainbow chimed in.
"Nobody did," Rarity said with a shrug.
"Huh?" Sunset was confused.
The PA system turned on. "Attention, campers," Principal Celestia said. "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," Applejack said, "But I've been looking forward to coming here for a month. Maybe we forget about this 'new magic' for a bit and just try to focus on enjoying our time at camp."
Twilight felt terrible. She was responsible for all of this!
"I was oh so excited about the designs I've come up with for the fashion show," Rarity said, clapping her hands excitedly.
"And I've barely gotten to whup anybody in tetherball," Rainbow said.
"I think we should try and figure it out," Sunset said. "But if letting it go for now is what the rest of you want..." Everyone murmured in agreement, and she shrugged. "All right then."
Everyone left the mess hall, and Twilight heaved a sigh of relief. She decided to walk up to Applejack to talk with her.