One Week Later
The sound of an industrial sized woodchipper made grinding noises as several pieces of weak wood were being thrown through it, shredded into dust on a nearby pile. Applejack's gloved hands, along with whipping slashes of Pinkie's extra bouncy hair grabbed as many pieces as they could at a time, throwing them through the shredder. Over the course of the second week, everyone had been pushing to try and clean up the camp as best as they could.
While not perfect, the camp was looking more like it's old self again. The wood that was in decent condition (collected from all of the broken piles that once formed the Timberwolf packs), were being used to create the very tables Applejack had pitched as their camp gift. Long gone were the creaky old tables that had several health hazards and safety violations; now among the grounds were smoothed out, stronger, newer tables that could hold several people at the benches.
And more good news had arrived in the form of the Vice-Principal Celestia, slowly moving out with the help of her older sister. Doctors came by earlier in the week and treated what they could, and reassured the campers she would be better soon. And today, she finally was able to walk again... for the most part. She still was a bit mad and didn't understand what the heck was happening, but she was glad the problem was now gone.
"Just one more pile and all the weak wood should be shredded!" Applejack called out to the intern.
"Hey, come on you two, you've been throwing for the past two hours. Take a break," Autumn begged. "I made lunch!"
Not even hesitating, Pinkie just whipped one more piece of wood through the chipper and vanished in a cloud of smoke to go get some food. All the wood-chucking made her hungry, and Applejack couldn't argue with her growling stomach regarding that fact either.
At the same time, Timber and his sister were overseeing the students peacefully sitting at the tables, enjoying some well-deserved lunch.
"Hey, Timber?" Gloriosa asked, not moving her head. "I know all of last week was hectic, especially... well considering that," she winced. "I don't suppose you can stick with me and help out for one more week?"
Timber for once didn't look annoyed or irritated. He looked at his sister with a warm smile. "I think I can. Besides, I can still try applying. But I think for now, I just want to have some fun with my friend, maybe see what's outside of camp. There's a city a few hours away, maybe we could go there sometime."
Gloriosa had an understanding nod and smile at that thought. "Yeah. Maybe we should."
--
After all the wood had been cleaned up, Applejack and Pinkie Pie sat with the rest of the Rainbooms at their table, all the while Twilight's fingers analyzed the geode, still trying to process how any of this could have happened.
"Let me get this straight, these geodes are the reason why we kept having bizarre power fluctuations?" Twilight asked.
"Really? You're still processin' this? You just figured it out a week ago," Applejack raised a brow.
"That's not my only question. These geodes gave us our magic, fine, I can buy that. But where did they come from? How did they even get here?"
"I think it's kind of obvious they came here from Equestria," Rainbow shrugged, taking a bite of her sandwich. "And who cares how they got here? We found them first, and we saved Camp Everfree."
Twilight's eyes furled at Rainbow. "I care about how they got here."
"... oh," Rainbow tittered, bashfully.
"You know, I agree with Rainbow Dash," Pinkie chirped. All heads turned to see suddenly Pinkie's legs were up in the air, as if she was sitting upside down at the bench. "Consistency is overrated. Who wants to have the same thing happen over and over? Sometimes it can be fun to have an extra bit of spice in your day!"
Twilight couldn't argue with her. Nor did she feel like arguing; they did save the day, and unlike before; they did actually test the material before they decided to use it. Certainly wiser than how she would have thought a year ago.
"But still, we should probably be safe with these. Only use them when absolutely necessary, don't just go using them just because they can make some things easier," Twilight suggested.
"I agree," Fluttershy nodded.
"Me too," Rarity added.
"Aww, but I can bake so much faster with my magic hair," Pinkie pouted.
"Pinkie, we love your baking work with or without magic hair," Applejack patted her shoulder. "Besides, we got pretty lucky with that Timberwolf. Maybe it'd be best if we practice some more; we shouldn't have magic if we don't know how to control it."
"No argument here. Besides, I need to conduct more research on this. Uh, proper, um, ethical, I mean... can you all help?" Twilight sheepishly asked.
"Of course we will, why wouldn't we?" Rainbow agreed, folding her arms with a smirk. "Anyways, maybe you can ask the Dazzlings about it, maybe they might know something."
"What time are they coming, again?"
"Should be some time after lunch, but no idea when," Rainbow answered. "Boy, they'll be in for quite a surprise..."
After lunch, the campers continued to enjoy the rest of their day doing whatever they wanted. Some went on nature walks with Timber, others went to go try some more archery, baking, games, whatever fun they wanted. And later, everyone was gathered back in the main campgrounds to greet the second half of the CHS campers that were to come. But it was taking quite a bit of time, and they didn't know where they were. The drivers called ahead of time, and reassured the principals they were coming, but it was sure taking a while.
Just then, some of the campers gazed far across the lake, beyond what they could see. Someone was… skiing, waterskiing right towards them! The boys looked closely, trying to see who it was.
“Wait, who’s that?” Autumn asked looking too.
“We have more campers coming, right?”
“Yeah, we do, but… who’s waterskiing—okay where’s the boat?" Timber looked again, and he couldn't believe his eyes. "How is she waterskiing without a boat!?”
“I think I know who…” Flash grinned.
And coming right by was someone they were happy to see; Trixie Lulamoon. In a two-piece swimsuit, a secure life jacket, and a pair of sunglasses over her eyes, holding onto a pair of reigns while she was skiing across the lake. And they could see something massive in yellow and orange swimming underneath the water, pulling her, guiding her as the boat.
"Hey guys! Water skiing is a lot more fun than I thought it would be! Whoo-hoo!” Trixie called as she skied on by.
Rainbow chuckled. “Hey Trixie, glad you made it!”
“Wait, they made it… they’re here!” Flash said with excitement. He quickly stumbled onto his feet. “Then, that means—”
“What the heck is that!?” Gloriosa shouted, pointing at the water.
A massive purple fin snaked through the lake waters, in a manner much like a shark. If scary music played over it, it would have made a perfect recapture of those scary shark movies.
In front of the docks, Flash could hear several bubbles popping and rising up from below. He peaked his head over to look, and more and more bubbles began to burst. Backing away, he watched as a massive purple sharp snout stabbed its way out of the water, revealing the rest of a giant seapony who had been swimming underneath.
“What is that!?” Timber said, shaking.
The purple siren slowly swung her head side to side, shaking off the water that drenched her head. And her attention diverted to the rocker in blue hair down below. Slowly she sunk her head down lower to meet eye to eye, and Flash still didn’t flinch or move. He knew full and well who this was; he could see it in her eyes.
“Okay, everyone, stand back… for your own safety—”
“It’s okay Gloriosa, they’re with us,” Principal Luna said.
Autumn blinked. “Wait, they?”
Flash slowly reached his hand out to pat Aria’s face, and she slowly leaned into his hand like she was a lion being tamed. She softly purred from the pat, making Flash smile even more.
“Hey Aria. I really missed you.”
Aria’s eyes opened to look back at him. Just then the red gem over her heart began to glow and hum with life, as a giant burst of light flash everyone’s eyes. Few seconds later, the giant seapony was no longer there; but a girl who looked close to hitting her twenties, standing before Flash.
"Hey babe, what's up? I missed you," Aria winked.
Gloriosa and Timber were beyond speechless. There was no way they could comprehend anything that was happening. They could swear all time had just stopped. Nothing made sense anymore! But they snapped out of their reality questioning mind-break when they heard the sound of someone chewing on popcorn.
To their left was the rest of the campers (the ones who were not in the water), joining the rest for the second week; Lyra, Bon Bon, Sonata, Vinyl, Octavia, Amethyst Star, Valhallen, Scott Green, and Tennis Match. They stood casually with the rest of their friends, all the while Amethyst took some more bites of popcorn.
“Hey Principal Luna, sorry we’re late. We hit a little traffic,” Sonata blushed.
“It’s fine, Sonata,” Principal Luna smiled.
"So..." Amethyst said, taking another bite of some popcorn. "What'd we miss?"
The End