It was now the beginning of another day, and the sun was rising over the horizon again. Slowly but surely, students would be waking up once again for another fun filled day of activities.
Twilight rolled around in her bed, trying to stay comfy and asleep. But the sun slowly setting into the tent was waking her up. Along with the whimpering of her dog and a paw patting at her shoulder.
"Spike, come on, it's too early, if you have to go, you know where to go," Twilight moaned into the pillow. But Spike kept whimpering and pawwing at her. In defeat, Twilight pulled the pillow up and looked at her worried dog. What was he so anxious about? But when she turned her head, now she understood. Fluttershy wasn't in that bed next to her. No. She wasn't there at all. But a massive furry bear was there!
Twilight didn't move, or make another sound. She was way beyond petrified right now. Worse, the bear started to move. Slowly, it pulled itself out of the bed, and onto the middle of the floor. Twilight kept herself still, trying not to make a sound or move to antagonize it. She didn't know if it would work or not, but she had no desire to test anything!
The bear pulled itself off on its hind legs, and smacked its jaw. Stumbling, it walked straight out of the tent like a biped, making Twilight's eyes shrink, and her heart race even more. Slowly, she got up to take a look and watched as the bear stumbled into the woods, swaying side to side like it was drunk or dizzy. Something wasn't right here. Where did that bear come from? How did it get into the their tent? And even more concerning, where was Fluttershy?
Quickly, she tip-toed with a dash over to another tent, finding Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash asleep. And it wasn't going to be for long since she came in booming. "Girls, come on, wake up!"
"Stalwart Stallion no!" Rainbow yelled as she jumped out of bed. "Ah, oh," Rainbow yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Twilight, you okay?"
"No I'm not okay, there's a giant bear on the camp!"
Rainbow's pupils shrunk. "Wait, what!?"
"It's harnessing picnic baskets, run!" Pinkie yelled randomly, running out of the tent in a cloud of smoke.
"I... don't know how to respond to that," Twilight admitted.
"Its Pinkie Pie, don't question it. But seriously?"
"Seriously. I woke up hearing some growling noises, and the next thing I know there's a bear right where Fluttershy was sleeping! And it's stumbling out into the woods!"
"Well come on, lets go!"
Rarity and Applejack were eventually woken up from their slumber despite still wanting to stay in bed, but eventually followed the others into the woods with Twilight, following after the bear. Still, the bear stumbled around like it was half-drunk or sleepwalking in between.
"What is it doing?" Applejack whispered.
"I'm not sure," Twilight replied. "But something doesn't feel right..."
"Maybe cause we're following after a gigantic bear who will maul us?" Pinkie whisper-yelled.
"Well if that thing did something to Fluttershy, then I wanna know! Hold it right there, Smokey! What did you do to Fluttershy!?" Rainbow yelled.
The bear stopped, and turned itself around, staring at her. Rainbow's heart sank back down. If she wasn't scared before, she was scared now. Especially when the bear stood on it's own two legs, towering above the girls.
"Um... hi?"
The bear snarled and growled, roaring at them. But it didn't sound like it wanted to kill or attack.
"Okay, that bear is mad! If that bear mauls us, I'm so sorry! I'm the one to blame!" Rainbow panicked.
"Maybe it's hungry? Probably for a Pinkie Pie sandwich," Pinkie whimpered.
Twilight held her hand up. “Wait, wait… I don’t know but… I think it’s trying to speak to us.”
The bear pulled itself up and just simply sat up like a person, looking at them. The bear growled and made a bunch of strange noises, usually the same noises you would hear from a bear. But the way it’s claws and arms were moving, and the expressions made on the bear’s face, it almost sounded like it was trying to communicate with them.
“I… I don’t speak bear,” Rainbow said, clearly confused.
The bear looked at her with a deadpan expression.
“What, you didn’t understand her?” Pinkie asked. “She said—” and Pinkie followed up with silly bear noises, trying to imitate the bear’s dialogue. And the bear still looked at her, unamused.
No one got it.
Pinkie groaned and rubbed her head, “The bear is Fluttershy!”
And at that moment, suddenly the bear’s size changed in a flash… right back into Fluttershy still dressed in her PJ’s… who fell right on her back, into the water, scaring the fish.
“OW!”
“Oh my gosh, Fluttershy darling, are you alright?”
Fluttershy raised her head, clearly still unamused. “I was trying to say, I think I accidentally turned into a bear.”
The girls helped Fluttershy get back on her feet, which was now making the poor girl shiver, and in the nick of time Gloriosa and Principal Luna were running over.
“Are you girls alright?”
“We’re fine, but I don’t know about Fluttershy though,” Rainbow said, concerned.
“Oh my goodness, you’re drenched. Girls, please help her back to her tent, I’ll be right back with some towels and hot cocoa.”
Fluttershy held onto her arms as she walked with her friends all the way back.
"Let me see if I understand this correctly, you turned into a bear?"
"Well, duh she did!" Pinkie said.
Fluttershy was less than amused, wrapped up in the warm blanket and holding the nice cup of hot cocoa. "Apparently so. I don't understand, I wasn't thinking about anything and then when I got up I just... I don't know."
“Well, we're just glad you're back to your normal self again," Rarity smiled.
"Rarity! How do you not see the sheer awesomeness of this? Fluttershy can turn into animals!”
"I only turned into a bear, I'm not sure that translates into being able to shape-shift into anything," Fluttershy raised a brow.
"Well come on, give it a shot!"
"Well... alright, here goes nothing," Fluttershy stood up, putting the hot cocoa and her towel down. She looked away and closed her eyes, squinting them hard to think. She left her friends in the dark, until a few seconds afterwards, she suddenly vanished and was replaced by a little orange kitten.
“Meow.”
The girls melted. “Awwww…”
And then she changed that again by turning into a small bird which was hovering in front of them, flapping its wings.
“Ohhh…” the girls said in awe.
And then another change into a small turtle which Rainbow caught with her hands.
"Aww..." Rainbow gushed.
Rarity giggled. "Never heard Rainbow gush so hard before."
"What? It's a turtle! Turtles are so adorable..." Rainbow continued, hugging the turtle. Looking down, she could see the expression on the turtle's face that read 'put me down human', and set her back down. And she watched as Fluttershy turned back to normal again. "That's awesome!"
Fluttershy was visibly grinning at that. "I think it is!"
"Oh, wait! You think that's awesome, check this out! I went on that morning walk with Pinkie yesterday, and, well..."
Rainbow stepped onto the cafeteria table, standing close to the edge. She spread her arms out and was ready to start hovering as she fell back--
BAM.
"Ow!"
Except she didn't.
"Hang on, hang on, I can do it, maybe I just need to recreate what happened," Rainbow said, getting back up. She climbed onto the bench, and looked at the second bench and table across from her. If a single fall back wasn't going to work, maybe the next one would do the trick. She backed herself up, and started to run on the table. She jumped onto the next one and jumped up into the air, arms and legs spread like an eagle and--
BAM!
"Oww..."
"Let me go get a camera, we'll try this again," Fluttershy snickered, getting an elbow from Rarity.
Later that morning, once everyone was completely awake and up and kicking, Autumn and Applejack got right to work on building the picnic tables for the Camp Gift. They had help, they had the schematics, and the tools.
"Alright, we have all we need," Applejack declared, looking at their collection of supplies. "I've got my own hammer from back home, tape measure, and a set of blueprints."
"Looks like a sturdy table to me!" Autumn chirped.
"All I need is the lumber. Uh... where exactly is that stored?" Applejack asked.
"Oh, it's right over there," Autumn pointed to the shack near the lake. "Go around it, there should be a storage that you can open up, plenty of timber we use for campfire, we should be able to use it for the tables."
"Great! I'mma go get some," Applejack said, leaving Autumn with the plans.
She walked past the boating shack and found the storage shed sitting out back. She opened it up (somehow they forgot to lock it up with a key) and found the stacked pieces of lumber. Bending over, she grabbed a small stack, hoping to just take a few trips at a time, but when she got back up, they came up with her nice and easy. Though something felt... off. These were pieces of lumber, yet these were incredibly lightweight, just like balsawood!
"What the? How is... eh, never mind. I can still get some!"
After a few trips, Applejack set the final pieces of lumber down on the ground, ready to begin work with Autumn.
Applejack held the nail onto a piece of wood, ready to drive it through. Once her hammer was lined up, she raised it up and threw the first tap down--and managed to break the entire plank in half with one thwack.
"Uhhh..."
Autumn chuckled. "Got an arm on you?"
"I guess? I didn't hit it that hard, at least I hope not," Applejack rubbed the back of her head.
"Well, what if I hammered down the nail, maybe I can do it for you. Oh, you want to use the saw--"
"--Actually! Probably not, I don't even wanna know what'll happen if I use that," Applejack chuckled lightly.
Autumn just shrugged and pulled out a drill from the box. She was ready to push the tip in, until she fumbled it by accident and it rolled underneath an already established table.
"Oh, I dropped a drill bit, it's underneath that other table," Autumn pointed.
"I'll get it," Applejack said, crawling on her hands and knees under the older table. She ducked her head under and found the bit, but now came the real problem. How to get out without hitting her head? Well, only one way to do so. She'd have to lift the table up slightly with her hands and legs, and try and crawl out again.
With her hands, she lifted the top... except it felt as light as a feather. When she lifted it, the entire table rose up like it was nothing! With more curiosity, she pulled her legs up to stand, and the entire table went up into the air! Applejack gasped as she saw it come into the air with just her own strength.
"Lands sake..."
Applejack carefully set the table back down, and backed away from it. Her eyes looked down at her own two hands, gasping in shock. "I... I have super strength. I could lift that entire bench without so much as a flinch, it felt like lifting up a single cushion in my family's couch! There's no better way for me to say it, I have powers!"
Applejack might have been shocked, but Autumn wasn't. She seemed more amazed than fearful.
"How did you do that? Tell me everything and feel free to add in complicated descriptions and comedic tangents!" Autumn squeaked with an innocent grin.
Applejack blinked. "I... I don't really know, Autumn." She looked back down at her own two bare hands, still expressing shock. "I don't know..."
Inside the mess hall, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were pulling out bowls and cups to create a batch of chocolate chip cookies, per Pinkie's suggestion.
Twilight glanced down at the collected ingredients. Sugar, flour, eggs, milk, chocolate chips (naturally), salt, and much much more. She and Pinkie had everything they needed to make a complete batch of cookies. And this could be fun! After all she had done something like this with a friend from Crystal Prep...
--
March 25th
"... Okay, just a little bit of flour. Almost got it... almost... ugh, a few more centimeters, dang it!" Sour barked. "... Heh, s-sorry."
Twilight brushed it off and poured in the rest of the sugar in the measuring cup, double-checking to make sure it was still working perfectly fine. And with the perfect requirements, she added it into the bowl.
"Perfect!"
Sour squeaked. After that, Sour added the rest of the ingredients. "The thing with making cookies is to be as precise as you can, but to relax. Confectionery baking is an art, it is something that takes time. Same goes for acting, drawing, movie-making, you know."
"Right."
"Which is why, in spite of your eagerness to have it all done..." Sour said, mixing up the final ingredients in the bowl. "When you take your time, and have everything taken nice and easy..." Sour grabbed a silver spoon and whirled it in the cookie dough, giving it a taste. "Mmm... you will have nothing but sweet perfection." She grabbed another spoon, giving it to Twilight for a taste.
Twilight took a small bite of the cookie dough batter, and just like Sour, she swore she was in heaven. "Oh these are delicious, how do you do 'em?"
"With experience and time," Sour said. "Also helps if you've got no one breathing down your neck."
Twilight blushed. "Sorry..."
"Oh not you, I mean the boys and girls from my school. They're real sweet but sometimes I swear they do not think things through! I really didn't like cleaning up the home ec room..."
Twilight gave an empathetic pat on the shoulder. "Maybe Pinkie can help you out one day? I know she's really good at cleaning stuff up in a jiffy. And Pinkie Pie's really good with baking sweets."
"Oh, no doubt about it," Sour nodded. "Though where does she even put all of that? She's skinny as a pencil, and yet she can engulf so many sweets, I swear is her stomach just a portal to another dimension or something?"
Twilight giggled. "The one thing my friends have told me is that 'Its Pinkie Pie, don't question it'."
"Hehe, yeah..."
--
"Twilight? Twilight!"
Twilight snapped out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Never mind, I got it!"
Pinkie was about to walk over when suddenly the spoon just appeared out of nowhere, dangling in front of her. "Oh, there it is!"
Twilight turned around and her eyes shrunk. "Um, Pinkie?"
"Yes Twilight?"
"How are you holding that without any hands?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your hair is--"
Pinkie jolted. "WHAT!?"
She backed up, and looked up. Her hair was extending out, wrapped around the mixing spoon that she required. And when she turned around, she saw all of the other measuring cups and pieces that she needed weren't there. And just like with the mixing spoon, she spun around and saw that they were all gripped by strands and ropes of her hair.
"I was just thinking about what I needed and my hair just grabbed them!" Pinkie gasped. "Is my hair sentient? Oh please my magical hair, give me the tools I need!!!"
And with super speed, all of the tools that were held together were laid out on the countertop ready for their usage.
"... Uhhh... Spoon?"
Her hair whipped and grabbed a spoon for her. Now she was curious; maybe she could give a little test? She walked up to the mixing bowl with the cups held in her hair.
"... Mix up the butter, brown sugar, and standard sugar!"
Her hair whipped and zipped into the specific ingredients, and they all scooped up the proper measurements and poured them all into the bowl, even a single strand was wrapped around a spatula and was mixing up the bowl.
"I have magic hair! Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie cheered.
"Yeah... Whoohoo. Heh, heh," Twilight tittered. Honestly, now she was starting to become worried. First Fluttershy, and now Pinkie Pie? How long until the others revealed that they all had powers?
After lunch, the girls met in the main area, looking for something to do. Applejack and some of the students were able to get at least three tables completed, but there was still more to go. For now, they were gonna take a break. And the sight of the paintball gallery gave them some ideas for some fun. And catching up to them was Rainbow Dash, revealing her body was covered in some bruises. Mainly from her several failed attempts to fly earlier.
"Hang on, wait for me girls! I think I need a break from trying to fly," Rainbow admitted.
"Sure you do," Fluttershy deadpanned.
"Fluttershy, I'm telling you I know I can fly!"
"Well then, what did you do to try and figure out if you can?" Fluttershy asked, crossing her arms.
--
In the mess hall, Micro Chips and Sandalwood were sitting on the bench, looking up at the ceiling. Rainbow Dash was holding herself on parts of the connecting beams, ready to attempt her flying again; with the additional aid of some pulleys and ropes.
"Okay, you ready?"
"No," the two boys said in unison with some deadpan in their voices.
"Okay, here I go!"
Rainbow came hurling back down and slammed into the ground with a thud.
"... Is she dead?"
"Ow..."
"Nope," Sandalwood shook his head.
"Okay, this isn't working!" Rainbow said, voice muffled into the floor.
--
"I guess I didn't take the right approach," Rainbow blushed.
"Noooo..." Fluttershy said sarcastically.
"Really?" Rarity raised a brow.
"Ya think!?" Thunderbass deadpanned, all the way from the paintball gallery.
The yelling came all the way from the paintball gallery, which was where Flash and Thunderbass were at, enjoying more shootouts, under the safety advisory of Autumn Blaze of course!
“Hey, is that a paintball course? Sweet!” Rainbow Dash whooped as she rushed over, her face lighting up with a big grin at the sight of the targets.
“Ooh, paintball!” Pinkie chirped. “I didn’t know this camp had it!”
“Yeah, I know! I’d have been all over it earlier!” Dash beamed, as she put on a pair of protective glasses, and then looked over at the paintball guns on the rack. “My old buddy Lightning Dust and I used to play matches back in the day, we had so much fun! I can’t believe how long it’s been, I just gotta shoot some targets! Come on girls, join me!”
“Paintball?” Rarity hummed dubiously. “Ohh, I don’t know, it looks like it could get… messy.”
“That’s why it’s called paintball, Rarity,” Fluttershy said dryly, but not meanly. The fashionista tittered somewhat but still didn’t look concerned.
“Ah what the heck,” Applejack shrugged. “Ah’ve handled a BB gun before, an’ Big Mac taught me to shoot a real gun in case a’ critters. Show me how ya handle one a’ these, RD!”
“You got it, Apples!” Dash said eagerly, as she took a rifle for herself, and then another for the farm gal. She loaded up hers with paintballs, and took the time to explain to Applejack how it worked, before loading AJ’s rifle and letting her hold it. Pinkie eagerly joined in watching, but after she nearly snatched Dash’s gun out of her hands in excitement, it was agreed that the pink girl should probably go last.
“Aww…” Pinkie sighed.
“Hey, don’t worry Pinks,” Dash clapped her on the back. “You’ll get your chance. Just take it easy alright?”
Applejack snorted, as she lined up a shot and knocked down a few cans. “That’s really funny comin’ from you, Rainbow Dash,” she quipped.
The sporty girl rolled her eyes. “Hey, maybe I don’t always look first-“
“Understatement of the year,” Fluttershy whispered to Rarity, who giggled guiltily.
“But I know my stuff!” Dash fired back. “Check it!”
She brought up her rifle in just one hand, and fired off three bursts in rapid order, knocking down several cans in succession. “Oh yeah, I still got it!” Rainbow whooped, playfully thrusting her rifle into the air like a victory punch.
Flash lowered his gun, giving a thumbs up to Rainbow's fire. "I'll go set the cans up again. There should be more by the gallery, I'll be right back," he said, walking behind the gallery to set up the targets.
"Rainbow, watch where you point that thing! You'll shoot someone's eye out!" Rarity advised.
“Aw, Rarity,” Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Chill out okay? I know what I’m doing!” She held up the rifle for emphasis, before playfully quick-drawing on Rarity, and the fashionista squealed in panic as Rainbow Dash’s finger lightly touched on the trigger by accident-
Pafft-pafft-pafft!
The air filled with the distinct noise of the paintball rifle going off, and startled cries from everyone present!
Rainbow’s jaw dropped in horror. “Oh man! Rarity I’m sorry!”
Rarity had thrown up her hands to try and protect her face – which had been a pointless gesture, as the shots had gone nowhere near that part of her. Instead it had been her right leg that had taken the brunt of the shots; there were several smears of paint on her thigh.
“Well I should certainly HOPE so, Rainbow Dash!” the lady punk’s eyes flashed with anger, as the other girl shrank back in regret. “You could have really hurt me right now, and you nearly ruined my outfit too!”
“Are ya all right, Rares?” Applejack asked in concern, “Those paintballs can leave quite a welt, so ah’ve heard.”
“Oh, don’t worry dear, I’m…” the rest of Rarity’s phrase trailed off as she realized something. “I’m fine?” she asked, to herself as much as the other girls.
"Oooh, glittery!"
They had no idea what Pinkie was talking about, until she pointed to where Rarity was shot. A sparkly patch shimmered on Rarity's leg, shown underneath the pellets of paint. And when the patch shimmered away, so did the paint. And there weren't any bruises or welts on her leg!
"Wait, it didn't hurt?"
Rarity shook her head. She looked on at her leg, seeing there was no marks left behind. Pinkie and Rainbow looked at each other and the two of them shared evil grins.
"You better not!"
The two of them pointed their guns at Rarity.
"I swear if you--"
Both of them fired at once, and Rarity flinched with a squeal. She didn't get hit! The paintballs just bounced off her like rubber, falling on the ground.
"Okay now fire some more."
Pinkie and Rainbow fired multiple shots together, hailing paintballs on Rarity's body. And just like before, she wasn't hurt and wasn't splattered with paint. But something else happened.
"Oooh, sparkly."
Rarity opened up her eyes and looked down at herself. A sparkly looking pad was visible on her arm, and then slowly it vanished from sight. "I didn't get hurt... It didn't hurt me. I..." Rarity squeaked as she looked at Rainbow and Pinkie. "I. Have. Powers!!!"
Rainbow and Pinkie grinned.
"Awesome! Now all we have to do is wait for Twilight to show off something cool!" Rainbow said, hovering up in the air again. And unfortunately she started flipping around and upside down, losing her control. "Whoa, whoa! Oh hey, stop!"
And she fell back on the ground again. "Ow."
"Maybe we should practice some more?"
"MONSTER!!!"
The girls jumped.
"That sounded like Flash!"
--
Back behind the paintball gallery, Flash went to get the rest of the fallen cans, ready to set them up again. But upon walking, he heard a twig snap. He looked to listen for the noise, wondering if any by chance one of his classmates was there.
"Hello? Pinkie? Thunderbass?"
No one talked back. But then he heard another noise. Growling, in fact. The snarling of some kind of animal, large and angry. Flash turned around and his heart leapt into his throat. He glimpsed, in a second, a beastly shape with glistening greenish-brown skin, teeth like spikes, and horrible, glowing green eyes... This thing towered over him like that dragon from the Friendship Games. And it looked very angry to see him...
“MONSTER!!!"
Flash fired like mad, screaming as he looked at the target. Whatever scared him ran as fast as it could, whimpering at the few shots of paintball that hit him. He swayed the gun side to side, hoping to hit everything within the wide range of forest he could. He quickly grabbed the extra boost of paintballs, loading it into the tank. And with a fearful but raged face, he held onto the trigger and didn't let go. It wasn’t until Pinkie Pie came skipping down with a paintball gripped in her hair that she joined the fight. She dropped to the ground, and the paintball gripped in her strands started firing straight into the jungle as well, accompanied by the one in her hands.
Rainbow Dash ran in from the sides, also firing like crazy. Hey, if Flash was screaming and shooting into the forest, she’d join and shoot into the forest as well. And Thunderbass also ran in, with Applejack behind, adding to the onslaught of paintballs being fired out of the guns. And surprisingly, joining in the bunch was Autumn Blaze, running in with two guns, firing into the air like a nutjob, and then joining in with the rest of the group in firing straight into the jungle like lunatics.
“AAAAAGGHHHHH!!!!” Flash screamed, not letting go.
And everyone kept shooting. No one questioned it, but they could only assume he did see something out there that was dangerous. Standing together, they fired like a tag team with fierce faces, not even reacting or flinching to anything else around them. Then for a moment, the sounds slowly died down. The gun in Flash’s hands started clicking, but no more paintballs shot. He was completely empty. And the gun just kept clicking.
Flash slowly panted, almost hyperventilating from the shock. But then finally, his finger let go of the trigger, and the sounds stopped.
“Flash? You alright?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah, dude what the heck? Why were you screaming and firing into the woods like that?” Thunderbass asked, pointing the gun down.
"I thought it was fun! When your best friend screams and shoots into the jungle, you scream and shoot into the jungle with them!" Pinkie giggled.
Flash was shaking, still petrified up by what he had seen.
“Buddy? You okay?” Rainbow asked, stepping in front of him.
Flash finally snapped out of it, and looked at the group of concerned friends.
“I… I don’t know. I saw something,” Flash gulped. “It didn’t look like it came from here.”
“What? What is it?”
Flash looked at Pinkie and Rainbow, and uttered a single word with a worried face.
“Timberwolf.”