It is almost the end of summer vacation in Equestria, and a very special group of best friends were going to make sure that the few remaining weeks of summer were going to be the best ever.
For once, I'm not talking about our heroes, the Mane 6.
This time, I'm talking about three very special fillies who happen to live in the same apartment complex-- the Maretime Bay Pippsqueaks.
First off, there's Seashell, a lavender earth pony filly with white socks, light pink hooves, green eyes and a green mane and tail the same color. Her cutie mark was a green conch shell, and two small pink stars were right behind it, totally creating a signature look with her pink tail bow.
Next, Glory, one of the original Pippsqueaks from Zephyr Heights. This pegasus filly had a blue coat, white hooves, blue eyes, pink and white feathers on her wings, and a purple mane and tail with blue streaks. Her cutie mark was a pink and purple firework, which matched her pink tail bow as well.
Finally, we move onto Peach Fizz, who was a young orange unicorn filly with light green eyes and red hooves, a white mane and tail with green, yellow and red streaks, a red bow on her tail and a cutie mark of a sparkling peach.
Since these three met, they've been the best of friends, and when Glory and Peach Fizz's families moved right across the hall to Seashell, they were beyond thrilled-- they couldn't wait!
However... their parents had their own thoughts on the matter... and they weren't exactly good.
We'll find out more about this when we get to the story.
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“Mom! Come on!” Seashell said excitedly, prancing by the door of her apartment. “We have to get a good spot on the beach!”
“All right, all right, sweetie!” said Seashell’s mother with a chuckle. “Just making sure we have everything packed for the perfect mother-daughter beach day.”
Seashell's single mother was named Ocean Silk, who was a white, almost-pearl colored earth pony mare with pink eyes, a curly blue and pink mane and tail, and a cutie mark of some thread and a knitting needle. She worked as a seamstress in Maretime Bay, and designed outfits for a lot of ponies in town. Ever since Seashell's father died when she was three, Ocean was trying hard to make a comfortable life for her and for Seashell...
...but it wasn't always easy.
Ocean Silk grabbed her beach bag and closed the door before colliding into someone-- her next door neighbor and Glory's father, Solar Charge.
Solar Charge was a confident pegasus stallion with a brownish-orange coat, a green mane and tail with thin red streaks, brown eyes, brown hooves, green feathers in his wings and a cutie mark of a megaphone. Back in Zephyr Heights, he worked to train royal guards in training for Queen Haven, but ultimately retired from doing such after Glory's mother disappeared when she was four.
And needless to say, with anyone other than Glory, he was NOT a patient stallion.
Solar cleared his throat, trying best to keep his temper down. “I suggest you walk where you’re going next time, Ocean Silk.”
“I apologize, Solar Charge,” Ocean Silk said, narrowing her eyes for a moment before calming herself down. “But Seashell and I were just on our way to the beach and we’re in a bit of a rush.”
“Seashell!” Glory squealed and hugged Seashell tightly. “Glory! This is great!” Seashell exclaimed. “You and your dad should come to the beach with us! Can they, Mom?”
“Well,” Ocean Silk stammered, “I-I think it would be all right for Glory to come along, but I’m sure her father--”
“Dad isn’t busy, are you, Dad?” Glory asked her father, who sighed deeply and rubbed her head. “Of course not, my little firework. But, I’m not getting in the water, though.”
“Of course a pegasus wouldn’t get into the water.”
The two parent-daughter couples turned to the other side of the hall, where they saw Peach Fizz emerging from her apartment with her mother, Amethyst Charm.
Amethyst Charm was a darker color than Seashell was, with darker hooves, light blue eyes, a magenta and yellow mane and tail and a cutie mark was an amethyst, a sapphire and an emerald bunched together. She worked as the local gemstone specialist in Bridlewood and is highly respected in her work. Ever since she and Peach Fizz's father got a divorce before magic returned, she's kept Peach Fizz as far away from her father as possible for some reason, but Peach Fizz never dared to ask why, fearing it would upset her mother.
One more thing... Amethyst is still getting used to the fact that pegasi and earth ponies were living with unicorns, so she still had some... opinions about them.
Solar Charge looked at the unicorn mare with a steely-eyed look. “Why do you say that, neighbor?”
“Everyone knows that if a pegasus’ wings get wet, they’re useless-- utterly useless!” Amethyst tossed her head. “And then, they’ll be nothing more than drowned rats!”
Solar Charge looked livid by this point, causing Glory to try and keep her father calm. “But… Mama?” Peach Fizz looked puzzled. “Glory got her wings wet before, she did perfectly fine flying.”
“Yes, but she’s never had them fully SUBMERGED in water, has she?” Amethyst looked toward Glory. “Cause… oh yes. She’s afraid to swim.”
Glory whimpered nervously at such a claim, and luckily, Ocean Silk was able to step in before there was a fight. “Please, everyone, calm down! I’m sure if we just talk about this in an orderly fashion, I think we can--”
“You have no say in this, earth pony!” Solar snarled. “This is between me and the uptight snob!”
“SNOB?!” Amethyst looked appalled at such a claim. “If you should blame anyone, blame yourself! Bringing your daughter to a beach town where there’s water all around us?!”
“...Dad said it was a change of pace,” Glory muttered, but the adults were arguing so loud, none of the fillies could be heard.
Sure, their parents argued sometimes, but it never got this intense before. And the more agitated these three got, the more magic could start to be affected.
Suddenly, Amethyst Charm said something none of them expected. “If you two are going to act like total ruffians in front of my daughter, then SHE shouldn’t have to associate with YOUR daughters any longer!”
“What exactly are you suggesting?” Ocean Silk said defensively. “I’m suggesting,” Amethyst sneered, “that Peach Fizz and I move back to Bridlewood, where I won’t have to deal with the likes of YOU TWO any longer!”
“WHAT?!” the Pippsqueaks shouted, hating the idea immediately. “Mama, no!” Peach Fizz begged. “I love it here in--”
“You know what?! Fine!” Solar got in Amethyst’s face. “If that’s how you want to play it, I’m going to ask if our old apartment in Zephyr Heights is still available for rent! GOODBYE TO THE BOTH OF YOU!!”
With that, the pegasus father and unicorn mother angrily trotted back into their apartments and slammed the doors behind them… leaving their daughters immediately shattered.
Ocean Silk calmed herself down just enough to see that Seashell and her best friends were crying, trying to comprehend what had just happened. “Oh… oh, girls, I… I’m so sorry you had to hear all that.”
“...I-I just remembered, me, Glory and Peach Fizz wanted to go by Mane Melody to hang out,” Seashell said, trying to clear away her shaking voice. “C-Can we go to the beach tomorrow?”
“...of course, sweetie,” Ocean Silk hugged her daughter. “You and your friends go and have fun.”
And then, without another word, the three of them ran off down the hallway, leaving Ocean Silk to wonder…
“What have we done…?”
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The Mane 6 and Sparky were hanging out at Mane Melody with Rocky and Jazz when the three Pippsqueaks burst through the door, panting and crying all at once and instantly getting everyone concerned. “Hey, Pippsqueaks, what’s wrong?” Pipp asked, fluttering to their side. “You look like I did when the first ‘Pipp Petals criticism’ blog came out.”
“It… it’s our parents!” Glory sobbed. “They got into a huge fight, and Peach Fizz and I might be leaving Maretime Bay!”
“That’s not right!” Sunny said, shocked. “You three should be able to stay together even if your parents get into a little fight.”
“But it wasn’t just a little fight, Sunny-- it was the biggest fight this month!” Seashell protested, clearing away her tears. “They always do this!”
“We had to get out of there,” Peach Fizz. “Mama and Mr. Charge were so mad at each other, we couldn’t be there anymore…”
“Oh, girls…” Misty said softly, hugging the three. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why don’t you girls have a seat?” Rocky asked, gesturing to a salon chair. “We can do any kind of treatments you want while you tell us the story.”
“Yeah,” Zipp nodded. “Maybe we can even help.”
“Well… okay,” Seashell nodded as the three sat down. “So, me and Mama were gonna go to the beach today, but when we bumped into Glory and her dad… well, he was less than thrilled to see us.”
“And believe us…” Glory sighed. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
This got the others completely concerned-- even if this wasn’t a Unity Quest, this may be a mission they would need time to tackle.
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At the same time that the Pippsqueaks were confessing all their parental problems to the Mane 6, in the mortal world, there was a camp in session at a place called Camp Little Moose, and at this camp, around the campfire, Burt, the head counselor, was telling a spooky story to some kids while they roasted marshmallows.
And boy… this tale was a doozy. “The story I'm about to tell you is Camp Little Moose's darkest secret. A tale so terrifying, if your parents knew, they'd never send you here in the first place,” Burt began the tale in order to get the kids riled up. “Now, 50 years ago, right here at Little Moose… there was a counselor named Jerry McCreedy… the meanest counselor in the history of summer camp. If you were late to flag raising, he'd yell at you. If you were afraid of the water, he'd throw you in the lake. If you had candy, he'd eat it.”
The kids gasped at each of these claims… especially the candy part. “So one day, the campers decided to play a little prank on old McCreedy,” Burt continued the tale. “They put a snake in his daypack. And while Jerry was out hiking, he reached for his trail mix… and got a handful of slithering serpent!”
This caused the kids to once again gasp in terror, barely able to move. “McCreedy was so scared,” Burt continued, “he lost his footing and clean fell off Devil's Drop. Slid all the way down on his face, banging his head on every rock.”
“W-W-W-What happened to him?” one of the boys asked nervously. “They never found the body,” Burt said vaguely. “But legend has it the significant head trauma drove him insane. They call him… the Woodsman!”
Suddenly, there came a sound coming from the woods, and the campers were horrified to see an ominous figure, dressed in dark clothing, cackling and holding an ax right above Burt’s head! “It’s the woodsman!” one of the boys shrieked. “RUN!!”
The kids ran off, staggering over each other as they tried to flee, but after a moment, it was revealed that one of the other counselors, Darryl, was just wearing a disguise to scare them, causing Darryl and Burt to burst into laughter. “That was great, Darryl,” Burt said with a smile. “You had them jumping higher than a tick on a trampoline.”
Once realizing that Darryl and Burt were just playing a little prank on them, even the kids found themselves laughing-- it actually was kind of fun to be scared. That’s when Darryl blew his whistle to get everyone’s attention. “All right, everybody, that's enough for tonight. Back to your cabins.”
The kids seemed to comply with this and started walking back to their cabins with their friends. And after Burt had left, Darryl made sure to douse the campfire so no wildfires would spread because of them. But suddenly, there came a loud banging sound coming from nearby, earning his attention. “What was that?”
Darryl got out his flashlight and began to move in the direction of the sound. Eventually, he discovered that it was the door of the boathouse, flying open and closed repeatedly in the wind. “I could swear I locked that door…” Darryl muttered, but moved toward the door to lock it anyway. But as he did, he heard a bunch of sinister laughing behind him, causing him to tense up and look behind him to see a sinister figure.
This figure had green skin, yellow sclera, and long, black hair while wearing a brown fedora and a brown jacket, and had his face and hands covered in bandages, also wielding an ax with a sinister grin.
As the figure raised his ax, Darryl let out a terrified scream, too scared to move.
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Burt heard some kind of scream coming from the counselors' cabin, and when he opened the door to see what it was, he found Darryl running along the path, terrified. “It’s the Woodsman! He’s real! AAAAAAHHHH!!!”
Burt wasn’t sure what to make out of this, but before he could go after Darryl, an explosion went off in the distance, causing Burt to gasp, knowing exactly what exploded. “The boathouse!”
He ran in the direction of the boathouse, and when he arrived, the boathouse was completely engulfed in flames, and the words "GET OUT" were engraved in the wood that was left behind.
Then, the Woodsman cackled again, right in front of Burt, causing him to gasp in fear as well. “It can’t be!”
The Woodsman merely cackled again, throwing his ax at Burt and sending him on the run.
One thing was definitely for sure… this was definitely a terrifying mystery that needed to be solved… and fast.