Put Your Best Hoof Forward in One Camp
Camp Everfree had been saved thanks to the magic feats of a couple high school teenagers. The sibling-team of Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Daisy had been pretty thankful, even hosting a party to celebrate the save. On those days, the future seemed bright, so bright that both brother and sister constantly took selfies of themselves wearing sunglasses. Their posts on social media exuded gratitude, sometimes that of the plucky kind. Then again, when a family heritage was given a new lease on life, what else could they do but look cool and be thankful?
As time went on, though, they’d realized that fundraising activities might not be enough to secure their place long-term. It didn’t help that being distant and secluded meant being off the radar of trade, missing out wads of much-needed cash.
However, with the help of both Canterlot High and Cadance-led Crystal Prep, the camp had received a consistent flow of money. Coupled with the occasional trips given to out-of-town schools and tourists, it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.
Well, no one expected being turned into ponies so, technically, nothing went wrong.
The dense forest was lush and beautiful under a chirping of symphony of birds perched on pine trees galore. Clouds drifted above, a few adventurous pegasi pulling them about to perfect the sunny weather. The lake, with its clear and crisp fresh water, rippled by the rolling wind. Far-away mountains vied for attention, completing the vivid landscape of peace, tranquility, and serenity.
Three months after the disaster led to Timber, a brown Earth pony, watching her sister, another Earth pony, manipulate vines and stems merely by touching them. They bent and curved at her will, grooming a newly-painted Welcome to Camp Everfree! sign by the road.
“You’re sure you got the poison joke under control?” Timber asked, bushy eyebrows furrowed and narrowed. “I saw some blue flowers floating by the pond.”
“Don’t you worry!” said Gloriosa, turning her head to his. She fixed the daisy garland on her head. “I got this, remember?”
“Uh...maybe?” Timber didn’t want to remember the other times she said that catchphrase of hers. Those other times were memorable for her trapping a class inside the forest.
Gloriosa hummed a gentle tune, magically grafting a few tulips and some roses onto the vines and the sign itself. No saws, no parafilm, no knives. All she needed was her hoof and her magic. The result was the plant connecting itself to whatever plant or surface she directed it to.
Then, whirring up yonder.
The siblings looked at the road, seeing a bus come along in the distance.
It was a vibrantly colored bus. Sky blue color, rainbows painted on, a variety of familiar symbols like diamonds and sparkles and butterflies, some purple window tint and four golden rims….
It screeched to a halt right beside the two.
Gloriosa screamed and jumped into Timber’s forehooves, the brother carrying her sister with ease.
The door opened, revealing Sunset Shimmer at the wheel.
Gloriosa smiled anxiously. She jumped off her brother and landed on the grass, not noticing the grass slightly bending towards her. “Oh, it’s you! I didn’t know we had a concert today!”
Sunset hopped off the driver’s seat, trotted down the little stairs, and met them on the ground. “Nah. We won’t be able to play for at least one more week. Rainbow and I still need to get our guitar skills back.” She spun her hoof around in circles. “It’s hard to strum chords with no fingers.”
Gloriosa wiped the sweat off of her forehead, also wiping the garland off of her ears. “Goodie!” as Timber put them back on her. “I thought we had you booked a day earlier. I was about to tell you we weren’t prepared at all!”
Timber placed a hoof on his tense sister. In an attempt to get her mind off of bigger matters, he asked Sunset, “What brings you here? Camp doesn’t start until tomorrow.” He craned his neck to see the bus’s empty inside. “Why aren’t you with your friends?”
“They’re still busy with getting everypony up to speed,” Sunset began, closing the door. “Twi’s in Equestria, borrowing some magic literature for the new unicorns. Pinkie and her Equestrian self are doing a baking drive for the ponies who still can’t cook. Fluttershy is talking with the dragons who used to be dogs. Rarity is helping Starlight Glimmer distribute hoof-friendly items to make everyone’s lives easier. That leaves Dash with sustaining good weather.”
“Wow!” Gloriosa exclaimed, eyes wide open in a happiness that looked fake. “So productive!”
Timber laughed that off. Then, half-whispering to Sunset, “She’s in the middle of decorating the camp, if that explains anything.”
Sunset then looked at the welcome sign with its vines, its stems, and its pretty flowers. “Woah. I knew you had some nature powers but not like that!”
“It’s like Gaea Everfree!” Gloriosa said so innocently.
Timber and Sunset stared at her with confused heads.
“Come on, guys!” she said before breaking into a long bout of laughter.
They still stared at her, now bearing her troublesome howling.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! Hah? Hey, can’t you take a joke?”
Sunset then broke a smile for her, trying to lighten up the mood. “At least you can talk about that...incident so casually.”
Timber rolled with Sunset’s plan. “Yeah! That’s, uh, very good! Nice to see you...improve!”
“Don’t pretend!” and Gloriosa nudged him on the shoulder. “I know I’m doing my best not to stress out. It’s still a problem, but I’m trying!”
Sunset nodded, pleased to hear about the improvement from Daisy’s mouth. “That’s good, considering you probably turned into a pony with no context.”
“It turned out very well!” Gloriosa said with a nonchalant hurl of a hoof. “Timber was the first who screamed like a girl.”
The stallion in question turned his face away, hiding the blush on his cheeks. “You’re the one who’s had some experience with magic, not me!”
Gloriosa giggled. “That’s no excuse, Spruce.” Leaving Timber be, she continued with Sunset: “In his defense, he can make lots of cool stuff if you give him an axe, a saw, and a knife. Plus enough logs. He’s even made a wooden sculpture of himself back at camp!”
Sunset shot a knowing glance at Timber who planted his forehooves on the ground, making his stand there with the grass. “Real subtle.”
“She’s the older one!” Timber said, playing the blame game now. “Therefore, I compensated!”
Always-been-a-pony Sunset relaxed her shoulders, taking in such good news from them (aside from Timber’s sculpture). “I’m glad you two didn’t have a hard time. I’m surprised you’re still excited about the whole magic thing.”
Gloriosa took off her garland for a moment, now a couple trees’ branches swaying her way. “I hope I still stay excited over it, Sunset. Some students might be scared that I’m using Gaea-like magic, but it’s just me, your friendly camp and nature guide! This time, I can guide both camp and nature!”
The three laughed at the pun.
When the humor faded, Timber rubbed his chin, peering at Sunset. “You didn’t answer why you’re here, though.”
Sunset briefly glanced back at the colorful bus. “Just checking up on you. Maybe chill for an hour, chill away from Canterlot and all the stress of handling two dimensions.”
Gloriosa then put her garland of daisies on Sunset’s head. “We’re not so different today.”
Wanting to see how she looked, Sunset trotted to the bus’s side view mirror. She saw those little daisies adorning her head, making her face gleam with a brighter shade of yellow.
“Thanks, Gloriosa!”
“My pleasure!”
With that, the three of them entered the bus and drove off to the camp.
The camp itself looked much like it was since the Gaea incident. The dock had been fixed for the fourth time and it stayed that way. The lodges and the watchtower remained, the nature walks were still nature walks—it was tough to ruin those anyway—and the rock climbing wall was still in tip-top shape.
Sunset took in the fresh forest air, breathing in with a loud snort. “Just as good as ever! How’d you do it?”
Timber ruffled up Gloriosa’s mane, only to have his face poked by her hooves. “Alright, alright!” Turning to Sunset now as they stopped at the main clearing, “She’s done much of the work after we both found ourselves ponies. Took us a while, but—” clicked at Sunset and pointing a hoof at her, striking a snazzy pose with a shiny grin “—your videos helped a ton!”
Sunset wanted to tell him how incompetent he was looking. However, in an ambitious effort to be polite under such trying circumstances, she just said, “I only did what I had to do. Princess Twilight would’ve done it if I didn’t.”
Gloriosa nodded, agreeing that her ambitious effort had ousted Timber from the sphere of relevance for the time being...but back to the conversation: “After we got the basics down, I slowly realized that I had a connection to plants...a magical connection.” She paused for dramatic effect, looking down to see the grass slightly bending towards her. “Plants were gravitating to somepony, and that somepony was me! Timber just screamed more when he saw me grow some onions in just ten minutes.”
Desperate to save face, Timber did save it for later. As in, he turned it away again to hide his embarrassment.
“It went up from there on,” she said while using her hoof to turn him back to the talk. “I could make plants grow fast if I concentrate hard enough, make vines and roots appear in an instant, and tell you almost every detail about any flower just by sight and touch. Not that I needed the last one, but who knows?”
Sunset laughed at that one, thinking of Gloriosa the Walking Botany Encyclopedia. She then turned to Timber. “And you?”
Timber scratched his head, unaware that he was rubbing his beanie. “It has to do with trees.”
Sunset crossed her forehooves, lowering her eyebrows. “So, it isn’t that impressive?”
“Hey!” Timber halted, pawing the ground with his hoof. “My sister has flamboyant magic. I have deep magic!”
Sunset made a toothy grin. “Because trees have deep roots?”
“OK, fine!” Timber said, throwing his hooves up in surrender. “They’re not the best, but I can use trees to my advantage. I can make all kinds of stuff out of timber. Heh.” He took off his beanie. “You might as well just stamp my name on ‘em all! They don’t call me ‘Timber the Dreamer” for nothing!”
“That’s because they don’t call you that at all,” replied Gloriosa.
And the two mares laughed at his expense.
“Can you give me a break, girls?” he moaned as they trotted to the lakeside lodge.
After a good hour or so, Sunset left the camp with high spirits and a smile on her face. They saw her drive off into the, well, sunset.
A sunset that was obscured by the tall pine trees, the overcast sky, and the mountains far away, but it was still a sunset nonetheless. At least the world had taken on a dull orange tint.
When evening came, the siblings were helping each other array the camp in yet more beauty. Timber had his knife, his axe, his saw, and his Earth pony magic to fashion logs of wood into many objects: fences, chairs, tables, boats, miniature houses, and another sculpture of himself to satisfy his ego. Gloriosa decorated these with plentiful additions—or, as she said it, “plantiful additions”—of vines and flowers to give it a more mature and aged feel. They shared loud laughs, corny jokes, and dear memories from when the world still had humans.
When the work was done, they trotted to the dock. There, they could hear the swishing of the lake, the breeze of the water’s wind as the ripples sailed with no sail. At the end lay an idle fishing rod and a bucket of bait, a note written on it saying, Thanks for the fish! - Your friendly siren, Sonata Dusk
They turned around, seeing the lush and wonderful camp of warm lodges, wooden tables, dedicated gifts, wooden sculptures, simple tents, open grass, and beautiful woodlands stretched out for miles and miles; there seemed to be no end for these glades of fresh air permeating the camp.
Their camp.
They sat down on the docks, their hindlegs hanging off above the calm water.
“So...tomorrow’s the big day,” Timber began, breaking into the symphony of hundreds of crickets nearby. “How do you feel?”
Gloriosa took off her garland a second time, putting it on the dock’s planks. “Nervous. Very nervous.”
Timber looked off to the mountains across the lake, their peaks reaching high. “Me, too. First day of operations as ponies. At least they’re those nice CHS students.”
“But you know it’s optional,” Gloriosa said. “No one’s obliged to come.” She looked down at the water, seeing her reflection—that freckled pink pony face. “At best, we’ll have the Rainbooms and the principals, and I-I’m not even sure if those two will come over. They have their diplomacy, their meetings, their…” pointed at the moon, “this!”
“At least we have someone coming,” Timber said, trying to reassure his distraught sister. “I don’t think camping trips are high on anyone’s priority list right now.”
Getting the unsaid reason why, Gloriosa kept her head low. “Yeah.”
Silence, listening to the rise and fall of tiny rippling waves.
“Whoever’s coming,” Timber said, putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, “let’s make it the best day of their lives.”
She lifted her head up, looked at the caring eyes of her brother, still so familiar despite the change.
Timber pointed a hoof at her, still trying to look so cool. “You got this, right?”
Gloriosa wanted to laugh at her goofy brother. Instead, she copied the pose and pointed a hoof at him. “Yeah. I’ve got this.”
And they looked up, seeing the twinkling little stars.
The next day was a Saturday, the perfect time to go on a camping trip.
Against all odds, Gloriosa and Timber waited at the camp’s entrance, standing by the dirt road. They waited, staying alert for any sound that an automobile could possibly make. Timber debated about just watching out for hoofsteps since it’d be hard to drive with hooves. However, Gloriosa pointed out that Sunset was able to drive a bus with no problem, not to mention that Sunset wasn’t born a human anyway.
They waited some more.
Gloriosa was bored so she caused a few roots to form and create a bush. She snapped off an outlying branch and hoofed it to Timber. “You do something with that.”
Timber received it, now holding his namesake once again. “You’re quite thoughtful today, sis’.”
“Are you saying I wasn’t thoughtful yesterday?” Gloriosa asked in a menacing tone, darkening her features as roots came out of the ground.
“Uh, n-n-no!” Timber shouted, yielding to her older sister.
Gloriosa bit her lip, holding off an incoming burst of laughter as the roots went back underground. “Loosen up! I was just joking!”
Timber said, “Yeah! Gr-Great way to let o-off some steam!” though, inside, he feared the day when Gloriosa would snap and rage.
They waited some more, the brother making a muffin out of wood and the sister inspecting the flowers she’d picked off the path.
Finally, they heard noise.
Humming, whirring noise.
They looked up from their work.
Two buses were approaching. Canterlot High’s school bus rolled in its typical yellow paint. Trailing behind was the Rainbooms’ flashy vehicle.
Timber raised a brow, taking a step back and being a little scared. “OK, I wasn’t expecting a full house!”
Gloriosa clapped her forehooves, not noticing a daisy sprouting out of the ground beside her in joy.
The buses screeched and stopped.
Doors flung open.
Passengers streamed out of the buses, bringing with them a dozen saddle bags and a lot of chatter, gathering on the road.
The siblings bumped each others’ hooves, speaking silent “Yes!”’s at a mission accomplished.
Then, two ponies galloped to them.
It was Sunset and Twilight.
“Surprise!” yelled the both of them, raising their forehooves together.
Gloriosa and Timber just stood there, the latter blushing and the former about to shed a tear with a choke.
“We wanted to bring all of Canterlot High here,” Sunset said, “so we did!” Scratching her hear,“I guess we need a redo of camp since, you know, we weren’t ponies the last time...anyway, you’ll be surprised at what ponies can do to a forest!” and pushed Twilight forward.
After swallowing a gulp, Twi continued: “But it’s not just CHS!” She jerked a hoof behind her, hinting at five ponies unfamiliar to the siblings. “I convinced some of my old classmates from Crystal Prep to come along!”
“You’re still gonna regret this!” shouted Indigo in the distance.
Only for her to be shushed by her classmates.
Gloriosa gave up and allowed a tear to fall to her cheek. “Thank you, all of you!” Pulling Timber in for a hug, she squished his face in it, showing her love for him even though he was getting crushed that way.
Twilight then looked down at Gloriosa’s hooves and saw two daisies sprouting up. “Agh! Gloriosa! There’s—”
“Chill, Twilight,” Sunset said. “Didn’t I tell you about her talent?”
Twilight pursed her lips. “Oh.”
Then, Sunset remembered her brilliant idea. Talking to Gloriosa now, “Hey! Have you heard of Wallflower Blush?”
“...who?” Gloriosa asked, releasing Timber from her grip and dropping him to the ground.
Crushing those daisies, but that’s alright since another pair grew beside them.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you!” Sunset said, mentally berating herself for forgetting to mention Wallflower yesterday. “She’s an Earth pony like you. What’s cool is her knack for the more, hm, exotic specimens of nature.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, growing excited at meeting a like-minded pony. “Does she cultivate heliconias and calatheas?”
Twilight turned around and saw Wallflower approaching with her saddle bags. “Not exactly.”
Wallflower Blush trotted her way to Gloriosa. As is tradition, she blushed. “Uh, hi! You must be Gloriosa Daisy, right?” while looking awkwardly at the bending grass and the swaying tree branches.
“Right-o!” Looking at the saddle bags and trying to hide hidden jealousy in her smile, “I guess you have a sample of those exotic plants Sunset’s talked about.”
Wallflower smiled, too, though unnerved by the moving plant life around Gloriosa. “Uh-huh!” and she opened one of the bags and took out a line of potted plants and jarred produce.
And so, with bubbling enthusiasm, Wallflower went on a rambling speech about each of them: This fiery red rose was a Phoenix Rose; once burned, it will spark back to life. This rainbow-colored apple was a Zap Apple, a very rare and a very delicious variety of the popular fruit (though she’d never tried one yet). This yellow and glowing ten-leaf clover not only lights up dark places, it also makes anything it touches glow for ten days. This one, too….
Gloriosa frowned. Seeing these exotic magic plants dimmed her mind. Sure, this forest wasn’t anything like those found in the tropics, but it was still hers. What if Wallflower was going to start owning it at least metaphorically, if not literally? Her plants would be the talk of the town, and then—
“Agh!”
And Gloriosa snapped out of it, noticing roots taking hold of Wallflower’s mane.
All the chatter stopped.
Wallflower screamed, flailing her hooves about.
Knocking a pot of lavender flowers to the ground.
“I’m sorry!” Gloriosa yelled, retracting the roots and putting them back into the ground. “I’m—”
And the flower popped open with a poof!
Purple smoke and powder wafted out and spread to their noses.
Gloriosa and Wallflower fell to the ground and slept, snoring.
Everyone stared at the sleeping mares awkwardly, silence reigning over them.
“What a good morning it is, everypony!” Timber shouted as he jumped in front of them, hiding the dozing ponies from sight. “Welcome back to Camp Everfree and, please, let me escort you inside...inside the outdoors! Follow me and keep your eyes on your cool and awesome substitute camp guide!”
With that, mutters rose as everyone else did follow and kept their eyes on their guide.
Leaving the Rainbooms to deal with two knocked out Earth ponies.
Fluttershy was the first to reach them. She then asked, “So, uh, what do we say to them when they wake up?”
Twilight clattered her teeth. “That i-it was a big misunderstanding?”
Sunset sighed. “We’ll see. We have to get them to the cabin.”
“Without getting seen by tons of ponies?” Applejack asked.
“It’s doable.”
Settled on the matter, they tip-hoofed their way into camp, carrying sleeping Gloriosa and Wallflower with them.
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I thought you specifically diet on taco. Unless they made fish taco, which I never heard of.
9186523
YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF FISH TACOS?
.
.
.
you should try some.
9186548
Phrasing!
A bit like saying "No one expected the power plant to go critical, so technically, nothing went wrong."
In any case, some things never change, and that includes the pure, concentrated dorkiness of the Everfree siblings. Though the druid-witch rivalry makes for an interesting wrinkle. I hope those flowers are just magical sedatives and don't have even more troublesome effects. I'll suppose we'll find out in short order.
And on an unrelated note, a thought occurs: What are people going to do with all the millions of livestock being raised for their meat now that that market has been drastically reduced? Especially if some or all of said livestock has been uplifted like the Apple horses.
9190417
Looks like my lemony narration fell flat this time. I do like the lemony style, though.
As for Gloriosa the Druid versus Wallflower the Witch: It's only logical once I established Wallflower in her role. While I don't think I'll let it escalate into a real fight, it's fun to think about at the very least. It also brings together an unlikely yet sensible pairing of two plant-loving women.
Livestock? Well, that depends. There will be some meat for sale; griffons and the like still make up a substantial part of Earth's population, so farmers can lean on them...hopefully non-pony farmers. However, yes, there's a meat industry crash in the horizon unless the livestock end up doing double time on the not-dying stuff like making milk and eggs, finding truffles....
A side-note: Ranches will have lots of heartwarming interactions between former owner and former horses as they really, really get each other for the first time.
9190494
As well as a lot less heartwarming interactions when they realize their owners were eventually going to kill them for food.
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