Cutie Mark Camp Blues

by Moonbeam Thought Writes

You shouldn’t be leaving your Cabin at night, don’t you know?

To: Grand Chancellor of the Council For The Betterment Of Equestria’s Youth, Applebloom
Re: Site 001: Everfree

Applebloom, I would congratulate you on getting yourself into another mess, but this time it sounds too serious for that. Write back to me. How many fillies/colts died? Who did it? Who did you fire this time? It won’t go into The Crusader unless you specifically ask me to put it in. I’ll get in contact with Scootaloo, and absolutely get her to dump that asshat Honey Tongue. I mean, have you met him? and set up a meeting between the three of us. It’ll be just like the good old days. You should probably get in touch with Gabby, or Babs. Those two are Crusaders just as much as you or me.

See you,

Sweetie Belle

---

Three weeks before

Crimson Thorn sat in the staff bedroom, turning over her charm bracelet in a small field of her magic. It was beautiful, but she got why Foggy hated it. That’s why she kept it on, after all. It was made entirely of pure silver, and not cheap by any means. The small charm that hung off it was the size of a bit, and depicted Saint Coltlumbanus on the face. Crimson wasn’t religious, and none of the six branches of the Church Of Eternal Harmony, the peace-loving Solarists, or the duality of the Luneites appealed to her. Saint Coltlumbanus was a saint of those hippies in Solarism, and an obscure one, too. Whatever worked to keep that awful mare Foggy Bramble away, was more than welcome.

Laughter and pounding hoofsteps resounded throughout the cabin, reminding Crimson of her charges. Twelve of them, to be exact. Twelve fillies and colts she was a Group Leader to. She sighed and slipped the bracelet back on with a flick of red magic, before getting up and walking over to the mini fridge. It sat in the far right corner, humming quietly away. It was that which took up the most space in her duffel, and made it so heavy. But it was essential, and so whenever Crimson packed her duffel, the mini fridge was the first thing in.

She opened the door. Magic was a wonder; able to keep a small pocket of Equestria eternally cold, no matter the temperature, and keep it’s contents from going bad, as said contents had the habit of doing. But however much of a marvel magic truly was, it couldn’t keep the mini fridge’s door from creaking loudly when it opened. Crimson quickly scanned the contents of the frigid shelves, before selecting a small, opaque pack with a tiny little glass cap at the top. A simple ‘B’ was the only identifying marker, and it was all the identification she needed. Popping the cap off, she quickly swallowed down the dark liquid inside, before discarding the pack into a small bin in the bottom shelf of the fridge with a small ’clink’. Looking back through the shelves, her heart dropped. This supply would last a week at most. It wouldn’t be enough.

This could end only one way: in disaster.

---

I stared out the window, almost longingly. Vig had been sorted into the Mahogany Cabin, and I the Birch Cabin. At least the two were next to each other, and cabin groups had no effect on the groups for the daily activities. I could see the Mahogany Cabin out through the warped glass, the dark wood looking steadily back at me, out of place among the pristine snow, like a dark shadow in a white room. Behind me, the Birch Dormitory was filled with talking and laughter. While I had always found it difficult to make friends, it seemed the other fillies and colts of my cabin had no such limitations.

With a slight sigh, I broke my gaze with the Mahogany Cabin and turned to the rest of the dorm. The bed I had set my suitcases down on was the one closest to the window I stood at, and smothered in heavy, woollen blankets for the winter. Everything in the Birch Cabin was made of light-coloured birch wood. The rooms were lit primarily by skylights; and beautiful, if not foreboding photos of the surrounding Everfree hung framed in each room. There was only three rooms, the staff bedroom, the Birch Dormitory, and what I liked to call the ‘utility room’. It housed a small kitchenette, a set of seven tiny showers off to the side, and the large, tub-like washbasin used for dirty clothes.

“Hey! Get down from there!” A myriad collection of gasps and giggles drew my attention, along with the shout of Foggy Bramble, who was staring at the ceiling in alarm.

There, on the ceiling with all four hooves planted firmly, and defying the laws of gravity, stood a colt. He couldn’t have been more than a year younger than me, with a coat that could only be described as ‘dusty indigo’ and a dark grey mane and tail, which also managed to reject gravity along with the rest of him. His eyes, though sparkling with mirth, were odd. A similar dark grey to his mane, but slitted, like those of a reptile. The horn crowning his forehead was curved, like that of a changeling, and yet longer than any changeling horn I’d ever seen.

“I’m not going to say it again; off the ceiling please!”

He sighed melodramatically, before jumping. Midway through his jump, gravity regained control and he crashed back onto the floor. Now that he was back on the ground, the attention of the other ponies gradually drifted away, till I was the only one still looking in his general direction. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do, and hey, it wasn’t every day you see somecreature stand on the ceiling. It was as if he knew he was being watched, and pushed himself up off the floor and turned to face me. I tentatively extended my right wing in greeting, and he grinned, showing off a set of almost shark-like teeth.

Eh. What the Tartarus. I was going to try and make a new friend, since Vig wasn’t here. I tucked my wing back at my side and trotted over.

“How’d you do that?” I asked.

“Because I’m a magical unicorn! Hoorayyyyyy!”

“No, seriously. You just defied Hoofton’s law of universal gravitation. I’ve never even heard of a spell like that. You should be in Twilight’s School For The Magically Gifted!”

He laughed. “Sorry, but I am simply too fabulous for such limiting institutions. And besides, the Princess never took on another student after the Luster Dawn Fiasco, and shut down the school. I don’t know where you’re from, but news must reach you pretty slowly.”

“Name’s Moonbeam Thought. What’s yours?”

“The Fantastically Amazing and Mystical Cobblestone!. For real though, I’m Cobblestone.”

“Sorry if this is a sore subject for you, but why are your eyes so…” I started

“Enchanting? Wondrous? Beautiful? Draconic? My Pops was a dragon. It’s where I get half of my stunning looks from. The ladies just love my roguish features. Like my fangs!” He opened his mouth in a devilish grin, giving me another look at his predator-like teeth. I tried not to stare too much

Cobblestone reminded me of Bright Stream, though with a more genuine confidence and a bit less narcissism. Think 100% theatre kid vibes.

A thought occurred to me.“Wait, if you’re half dragon, can you breathe fire?”

“In an unfortunate twist, no.” He put a hoof to his forehead and sighed deeply.

We chatted for a while, until a loud bell sounded throughout the cabin. As Group Leader Foggy informed us, it was time for lunch.

---

Sauvignon Glamour sat at bench in a the lunch hall. What was taking Moonbeam so long? She’d promised to sit with Vig at lunch, before the two had parted to their respective cabins. There wasn’t really anyone else she knew, and making the first move in a friendship was always a daunting task Vig usually just didn’t feel up to. This camp was no different. And so she sat, plate of sandwiches and salad in front of her, waiting for the filly she was… friends with? While the two had talked extensively on the train ride here, it wasn’t clear whether she was officially friends with them. Waiting for the filly she was positively acquainted with it was then.

Wait, over there! A light grey pegasus with a fluffy lilac mane. Finally! Took her long enough. Hmph. Who was that, with the purple coat and weird horn. Vig started to feel the light pangs of jealousy within her chest. Moonbeam was over in the line to get a plate of lunch, along with that other pony. Vig just slumped a little, and continued waiting. When Thought finally (finally!) sat sown across the table from Vig, that purple pony came too, and set his plate down next to them. Up close, she could see that the other pony was more than just strange. His eyes were a shade of dark grey only slightly lighter than his mane, and his coat was a desaturated kind of darkened indigo, but more importantly, he was fundamentally different. His pupils were serpentine, slitted. The horn sticking out of his unruly hair was long and curved. When he offered a hesitant smile to Vig, she could see his teeth were more like fangs.

Sauvignon Glamour didn’t trust him.

“So, Vig, this is Cobblestone. Vig meet Cobblestone; Cobblestone, meet Vig.”

“So, uh, is ‘Vig’ short for something?” Cobblestone tried.

“Yeah, yeah. My full name’s Sauvignon Glamour. Please don’t call me that. Just Vig, or Glam is fine” she replied, before asking a question of her own. “So are you a half-changeling or something?”

“Ha. Yep. I, Cobblestone the incredibly dazzling, am half dragon on my Pops’ side.” He declared.

“The ladies think I am positively roguish.” Cobblestone added.

Vig gave Moonbeam an incredulous look.

“Hey! Don’t look at me! My cabin door doesn’t swing that way! If you get what I mean.” She shot back.

There was a brief period of silence, before somepony coughed, and started up small talk. The lunch passed in relative peace, with the exception of Cobblestone’s unnerving way of eating that unsettled Vig any more. Before she knew it, it was free time. The activities in the pursuit of a cutie mark would start the next day, and from reading the reviews published in The Crusader, she knew exactly what she wanted to try.

---

The day had passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was trudging back through sesamoid-deep snow back to the Birch Cabin. Dinner had been fun, as somepony had started a food fight with the mashed potatoes and large, honeyed carrots piled high on our plates. Cobblestone had loved it, jumping right into the fray with his usual theatric air. Vig and I were less enthusiastic, ducking under one of the long wooden tables to hide. Even the Group Leaders, who I was sure were going to break it up, had joined in, with the exception of Gybh, who joined the less eager of us under the tables to hide.

Cobblestone had had to head back to the cabin early, in order to wash off the gravy and mashed potato he’d been hit with. Leaving Vig and I to walk back to the cabins together. We said our goodbyes when it was time to go to our respective (read: different) cabins.

And now I sat, alone once more, in the Birch Dorm, looking out through the window. A sudden flash of movement outside in the dark caught my attention. I quickly got up and crossed the room to the back deck of the cabin, opening the sliding door, and stepping out. I peered out into the dark of the night, swirling snowflakes drifting solemnly through the air. There! There it was again! I moved closer to the railing in an effort to try to see more. It was so quiet out here, so absolutely silent. When a voice rang out from behind me, I whirled around, heart pounding, expecting to find some dark, terrible monster. Instead I just found Group Leader Foggy Bramble.

“Uhm, could you say that again?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t be leaving the cabin at night. The Everfree becomes especially dangerous when night falls.”

Foggy looked distant, like she was physically on the back deck with me, but her mind was a thousand kilometres away.

“Uhhhh… ok. I’ll just be heading back inside.”

“You shouldn’t be leaving the cabin at night. The Everfree becomes especially dangerous when night falls.” She repeated.

I took one last look at her, before making my way back into the cabin. I didn’t sleep easy that night, my dreams a never-ending pool of darkness and falling snowflakes. Foggy’s words repeated inside my head, time and time again. It wasn’t a great first night, but not the worst one I’d had by far.

Author's Note:

‘The Church Of Eternal Harmony’ was started by devout, if not misguided loyalists of the mane six, hence the six branches. ‘Solarism’ and the ‘Luneites’ were started by Celestia and Luna respectively, though at first a joke to pass the time in their retirement, they quickly attracted actual non-joke followers and kinda just ran with it. The ‘Luster Dawn Fiasco’ is basically just a passing idea I had where LD suffers a bunch of terrible tragedies, where all her friends die, before being revealed to have been a serial killer who caused their deaths so they could be ‘together forever’.