MLP Time Loops

by Saphroneth

MLP Loops 221

---

221.1 (Anon e Mouse Jr.)

Summer at the Haunted Camp - An Anchor's Reminiscence​

"Twilight!"

Twilight looked up from her book to see a familiar face wandering into the bar. "Hey, Flash."

"Hey." Flash smiled as he settled in across from her. "How's it going?"

"Oh, pretty quiet." Twilight shrugged. "Spike's off on a date with Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are having another one of their competitions, Thorax is leading the Royal Guard so my brother and Cadance can sneak off on another honeymoon... pretty much everyone who's Awake has stuff to do. It's been quiet except for the local shenanigans that happen."

Flash smiled. "Well, it's good that you aren't having any trouble." He leaned forward. "Actually, I wanted to ask you a few things, so Sunset opened the gate for me and let me through."

"What did you want to ask about?"

"Well... Sunset's shared a copy of her journal, and told me about some of the things she's gotten up to. But far from everything. So, could you tell me about some of the stuff you and she've done together?"

"I'd be glad to." Twilight considered as she tried to think of something. "Ooh, I know!" She sat back and smiled. "You've been to Camp Everfree, and aside from the owner going a little crazy from overexposure to magic, you had a good time there, right?"

"Yeah." Flash nodded. "It's pretty fun, when Gloriosa isn't going all Gaia Everfree on us. That reminds me, Sunset told me about a Loop where Bulk talked her down?"

"She wrote to me about that one after it happened," Twilight said. "I was really glad to hear about it myself." She smiled. "I've actually spent a few Loops visiting the camp myself. But back before that part of the Loop firmed up, Sunset was having several loops where she'd end up going to one summer camp or another, and I went to one of them with her."

"Sounds neat."

"It certainly was." Leaning back again, Twilight began to tell the story.

---

Many, many Loops ago…

Twilight's eyes fluttered as she Awoke (in both senses of the word), and she glanced over to see a smiling and human Sunset Shimmer sitting next to her. A quick glance down at her hands told her she was also human.

"Wha... where are we?" She blinked. "Why do I have such a crick in my neck? And why... am I hearing Celestia humming My Way?"

Sunset gestured. "In order, we're on the bus to camp again - the other girls are further back, but none of them were Awake the last time I checked. The crick in the neck is probably from falling asleep in your seat after you stayed up too late packing last night. And you're hearing Celestia because she's driving for this leg of the trip."

"Oh." Twilight looked around at her surroundings, then at her friend and sister in all but blood. "Wait - again?"

Sunset pulled out a brochure. "For some reason, my last fifty or so Loops, there've been about half a dozen where this side of the Loop has lasted through the summer after the Friendship Games. And every time that happens, the other girls and I - including the other Twilight - wind up going to some summer camp or another for about two months. It's never been the same one twice though."

"Really? What camps have you been to?"

"Well, a couple of these Loops, the local Rainbow Dash got me to go to different sports camps with her. Then there was the time the other Twilight and I went to an astronomy camp called Camp Nightmoon."

"Wow. That sounds like a place Luna would love."

"Actually, according to that Loop's history, Vice-Principal Luna had founded and started running it during the summer a few years before," Sunset told her.

Twilight smiled. "That would make sense. Anywhere else?"

"I spent one summer working at an orchestra camp for musically gifted kids, which was... interesting." She sighed. "About a week or so in, one of the kids ran off. When I went after him, I found him hiding in a cave... then some lunatic showed up and tried to kill us, and my camper saved us both when he bashed the guy over the head with a stalactite. Knocked him out cold." She shuddered. "At least that guy was a normal human and not like a certain other lunatic from Camp Crystal Lake."

"You've been to Camp Crystal Lake?" Twilight sounded horrified.

"No, fortunately. But I've seen the movies, and Ranma-sensei and two of the Tendo sisters told me about the time they went there, back before you first Awakened. Believe me, if I'd ever been there for real, you'd have heard about it."

"I can imagine." Twilight looked at her. "So, where are we going this time?"

Sunset read through her brochure. "From the looks of things, it's a camp where they teach you how to make movies. Acting, directing, writing, special effects, prop and set-making... anything and everything there is to know."

Twilight grinned. "I've actually worked in that industry before in a couple of Loops. This should be fun."

"Maybe. But I didn't Awaken until today, during your nap. And given the name of this place... I'm not sure what our Unawake selves were thinking when they signed up."

"Why, what's it called?"

Silently, Sunset passed her the brochure, and pointed to the header.

A header that read Camp Haunted Hills.

Twilight blinked. "Well, that's... different."

Sunset nodded. "I'll say. But even if there are real ghosts there, you and I should be able to handle things."

"I hope so." Twilight glanced out the window. "Who knows? Maybe the "ghost" will be Nyx as the Pony of Shadows."

Sunset smiled. "We'll see."

---

Present day…

"A movie camp?" Flash blinked. "Sounds like a place that Juniper Montage girl would love."

"From what I've heard of her, she probably would, wouldn't she?" Twilight asked. "That was long before any of us got a hint that she or her uncle so much as existed, though. If it had been a lot later on, Yggdrasil's data for her uncle might have surfaced, and he probably would have been the camp's founder."

"So... he wasn't in charge?"

"Nope." Twilight shook her head. "The camp's founder was a famous movie director, though. According to the Hub backup material and some information I found online there, he was kind of a no celebrities were harmed mix of the men who made the True Hub's backups for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Loops, and some of his movies were similar - from what little information there was on them, in the books at least - to those settings and some others those men made. And of course, this being a world linked to our own, this incarnation was a little different from the original version."

"Wow." Flash nodded. "So, go ahead."

Twilight nodded back, and continued.

---

Some miles later, the two were looking out the window at the mountainous scenery, when suddenly the bus screeched left, then right.

And in an instant, they shot over the edge of the road, hanging a hundred feet in the air above a raging river full of jagged rocks.

Screams filled the bus, and even Twilight and Sunset found themselves clinging to one another. But instead of the expected result of a violent landing, there was a soft bump as the bus touched down on the other side of the gap, leaving a lot of people confused.

There was a lot of excited talk as the bus slowly came to a halt, and Twilight and Sunset separated, both looking around. It was Twilight who spotted it. "Look!" she pointed.

Sunset peered out the window to see an arrangement of pulleys and cables stretching from cliff to cliff. "So that's how they did it," she said, relieved. "For a moment I almost thought there'd been hover conversion installed in the bus..."

"That would be useful," Twilight agreed. She would have said more, but then Celestia stood. "Attention please! Attention please!" she called. Then she opened the bus doors, allowing a dark-haired man to climb in and stand in front of everyone, a big smile on his face. Beside her, Sunset gasped. "It's him!" she whispered excitedly.

"Hello," the man said. "My name is Great Stories, and I want to welcome you to Camp Haunted Hills." He grinned. "I hope you enjoyed our little welcome. We wanted you to know we weren't kidding when we said 'Expect the unexpected!' That's what Camp Haunted Hills is all about, and it's just a taste of the surprises we've planned for you this summer."

A tall, blue-haired man stepped up behind Great Stories. "This is Fancy Pants. You'll see a lot of him, he's in charge of Camp Haunted Hills."

"What about you, Mr. Stories?" Rainbow Dash called.

"Oh, I'll be around," Great Stories said. But I'm pretty busy in Hollywood right now. In case you haven't heard, we start filming the third episode of Battle For the Galaxy next week."

Cheers broke out, and he smiled. "Wait 'til you see it!" he said cheerfully. "It'll knock your socks off!"

Then he turned and stepped off the bus, leaving Fancy Pants to make a small speech welcoming everyone to the camp and talking about what everyone would be doing this summer.

"Now settle back and enjoy the rest of your ride," he said when he had finished. "It'll be about forty-five minutes, and your counselors will be waiting with your bunk assignments."

That said, he stepped out of the bus. Once the doors were closed, Celestia turned the motor back on and started driving again.

---

"We got to the camp right on time, and found our counselors," Twilight said. "Sunset and I were in the same bunk, along with some of the other CHS girls and at least one from a different school." She sighed. "Fleur."

"Fleur de Lis?" Flash asked. "Isn't she some fashion model in Canterlot, and one of the other Twilight's classmates at Crystal Prep?"

Twilight nodded. "And..." she sighed. "The human Fleur really seems to have it out for the other Twilight," she said. "I don't know why. And it really bothers me, because... well..."

Flash looked at her, and took her hoof. "What is it?"

"There was a Loop, long ago, back before we really started expanding past my first meeting with Sunset," Twilight said. "I'd Awoken early and set things up so I was just an ordinary student at Upper East Canterlot Elementary instead of attending Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and I... I ended up making friends with two of the other blank-flanked students and we formed our own version of the Cutie Mark Crusaders."

Flash smiled. "Did you get into as much tree sap as the baseline trio?"

"Oh, absolutely," Twilight said, smiling back. "The thing is... my new friends? One of them was the other you. The other was Fleur." She sighed. "I know it's been a really, really long time since then, but... I still miss her. Not in the same way Chrysalis misses the Shining Armor she was with in her first Loop Awake, but she was still a friend."

"And it bothers you to see mean versions of her, doesn't it?" Flash said.

"Of anyone I thought of as a friend," Twilight said. "Fleur, you..."

"I know what you mean." Flash squeezed her hoof. "I feel the same way about pre-reform Sunset."

Twilight nodded. "Even Celestia's had bad versions of her pop up, and in those cases, it's even worse. She's my friend... but she's also like a second mother to me."

Flash nodded back. "That's really gotta hurt."

"It does," Twilight said with a sigh. "Anyway, after we found our cabin, we had to get changed for swimming, and that was exciting - they had a robotic shark swimming in the lake, and it freaked us all out until we figured out it was fake." She rolled her eyes. "Apparently it was the prop from Great Stories' first big summer blockbuster - that world's version of Jaws. And when you're scared, it's hard to remember things like sharks not living in freshwater lakes. Well, most sharks. Bull sharks can survive in fresh water, but only if it's also connected to the ocean. And Misty Lake didn't have a river running into it."

Flash nodded. "I see why it freaked you out though."

Twilight smiled. "Anyway, on the way back to our cabin, we found something that turned out to be a clue to what we'd be running into later." She leaned in closer. "It looked like a giant, human footprint - twice the size of mine."

"Whoa!" Flash blinked in surprise. "And it wasn't just some camp prank like the shark?"

"Nope." Twilight smiled. "I thought it might be at first, but... well, I'll get to that when I get to that."

"Gotcha."

"Anyway, after that, we went back to our bunks to finish settling in," Twilight said. "Then we went to the mess hall, and had dinner. After that they had a little 'Welcome to Camp' movie for us, to tell us more about what the camp was all about, and then the staff all came up and introduced themselves. One of them was named Special Photography, and that's also what he taught there." She smiled fondly. "He was a lot like the other me - kind of socially awkward, but he knew what he was doing when it came to the things he loved. Oh, and he had a pet iguana that he always kept with him." She sighed. "I think Myron was his only real friend before that summer."

Flash nodded understandingly. "So what happened then?"

"Well, then we had a campfire sing-along, which is a thing they do on the first night. It was hysterical - Pinkie spent most of the time laughing too hard to talk from some of the skits they pulled off." Twilight smiled. "After that, we went back to our bunks for the night. Then one of the other girls in my bunk - Octavia Melody - went out to use the outhouse and came back screaming that she'd seen a ghost."

"Yikes!"

Twilight nodded. "We all figured it was just another camp prank, but later that night, I woke up and had to go out myself. So I did, and... well..."

---

Twilight stepped out of the little building and set off back down the path.

"Feel better?" a voice behind her asked.

Twilight about jumped out of her skin at the sudden sound, before gathering her courage and turning back around.

A glowing figure stood on top of the latrine, and began to clap. "Oh, very good," he said. "Much better than that other girl."

"Discord?" Twilight blinked in surprise. The usually-a-draconequus was human this time, but she could tell it was his face. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you've heard of me!" The glowing man preened. "I didn't know I was that famous."

"It's a long story." Twilight peered up at him. "Any particular reason you're out here in the middle of the night?"

"My dear, I'm a ghost! A dark, misty woods is one of the best places to be for someone like me to spook some of the campers!" Discord suddenly looked disgruntled. "It's not like anyone would scream if I showed up in the middle of a crowd in the daylight, after all."

Twilight sighed. "Point taken." She turned and headed back towards her bunk.

"You realize, of course, that I find you fascinating now," Discord said as he floated along the path behind her.

"And you're a ghost with a weird sense of humor." Twilight didn't bother to turn back. "Honestly, I've seen stranger things in my kitchen pantry before breakfast. I've been stranger things."

"Really? Pray tell, what could possibly be stranger than a former camp counselor who's the whole reason this area is known as the Haunted Hills?" Discord asked.

Twilight turned to face him. "I'm an alicorn princess who - along with several of my friends, including a living draconequus version of you - is caught in an endless recursion of time in order to keep my universe, including the linked human-centric side-dimension, from falling apart. And I'm just one of many Anchors involved in these Loops. On top of that, we have periodic ones that temporarily combine my universe with others or just have things be different for random reasons. Like in this Loop, where I Awoke in the body of my side-dimensional human counterpart."

Discord blinked. "You win."

Then he vanished.

Twilight sighed, turned around, and headed back to the bunk. Crawling into bed, she was fast asleep within seconds.

---

"The next morning, I filled Sunset in on Discord being around," Twilight said. "Then after breakfast, we met the camp Activities Director and signed up for the first two weeks' worth of classes. Sunset and I picked the Special Effects class."

"Can't say I blame you," Flash said. "It sounds like it would have been fun."

Twilight smiled. "It was," she said. "Most of the kids there were pretty nice. Except Fleur, but... well, that's Fleur, and I eventually figured out that she had her reasons for being a jerk." She looked down. "I'll tell you about it when we get to that point in the story, but for now, let's just say she'd hated her Twilight since before the Friendship Games."

"Ouch."

Twilight nodded. "Anyway, Discord showed up during breakfast and the activity sign-ups, and tried to trick me into talking to him. I figured out how to make it look like I was talking to Sunset instead though, so he got disappointed and went away for a while. Besides, I had another swim session after that, and he didn't like water for some reason."

"And here I thought it was just mummies and vampires that didn't like water," Flash said. "Or did the whole 'evil things can't cross running water' apply to ghosts of any kind in that setting?"

Twilight shook her head. "He handled being out in the rain just fine later on. I think it was just a personal thing with him."

"Right. Carry on."

Twilight nodded. "After that, I just went back to my bunk and read for a bit, then I had the first session of Special Photography's class for the day." She grinned. "It was so much fun. I've worked in the film industry before, but I never get tired of it."

"I can't blame you," Flash said.

Twilight nodded. "And most of the people in the class with me were nice. Anyway, Discord came back during the second class of the day, but he mostly just hovered around the ceiling and made smart remarks at us." She sighed. "But, even if he couldn't get me in trouble for talking to thin air, he decided to make my life interesting in a different way."

Flash leaned in. "What happened?"

"Well, when Sunset and I had gone to sign up for Special Photography's class that morning, I noticed his iguana was missing."

"Uh-oh." Flash looked at her. "Did Discord..."

Twilight shook her head. "Myron had gotten out on his own - Discord could talk all he wanted, including to animals, but he couldn't really affect the physical world, not without a lot of work. He didn't have anything to do with Myron escaping, he just took advantage of it."

"How?"

"Well, that night as I was getting into bed, I felt something start to slither up my leg, and I kind of jumped up and fell on the floor. Fortunately, I didn't land on Myron in the process." Twilight sighed. "A lot of the girls just laughed when I fell, but Sunset helped me up, and we decided to take Myron back to the Special Effects room together." She smiled. "He seemed to like Sunset."

"That's good," Flash said. "You know, I've heard about her having her gecko for a pet in some of her Loops?"

Twilight nodded. "She wasn't Awake the first time that happened, but she does still adopt Ray when she can. And I think remembering how Special Photography cared for Myron still influences her on what to do and what not to do when it comes for taking care of him."

"I see."

"Anyway, while we were on the way, Discord showed himself again. Turned out he'd talked Myron into crawling into my bunk - apparently ghosts could do that."

"I'm surprised he didn't talk Myron into going and finding Fluttershy," Flash said.

"If he'd been Awake, he probably would have," Twilight said. "But as far as I could tell, he wasn't. Of course, even if he's Awake and she isn't, he goes out of his way to avoid doing things that would bother her, and I think seeing him as a ghost would have upset her."

Flash nodded. "Understandable."

"So after that..."

---

Twilight knocked on the door of the special effects shop. "Mr. Special!"

"I hope he's here," Sunset said as she watched Twilight holding the thrashing iguana. "If he isn't-"

She was cut off Special Photography came bursting through the door. "Myron!" he cried. "You came back!"

"Not quite," Twilight said, holding out both hands so their teacher could take the wriggling iguana. "He had to be carried."

Special Photography was too busy simultaneously calming and scolding his pet to answer her, but finally looked up. "Oh," he said. "I ought to thank you girls - um..."

"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight said as she held out her hand. "And this is Sunset Shimmer. We're in your class."

"Right." Special Photography shook her hand. "Thank you both, for bringing Myron home. How did you find him?"

"He crawled into her bunk," Sunset said. "Kind of startled her."

Twilight nodded, and continued. "And then all the other girls started laughing at me when I fell out of bed," she said. "Except Sunset."

Special Photography sighed. "I know what that's like," he said.

For the next while, the trio talked about getting teased. Then they got to talking about movies. That really got Special Photography going - he couldn't believe how many of his favorites Sunset and Twilight had both seen, including a lot of the old ones that, as they told him, Sunset had actually introduced her to. (In reality, she'd seen a lot of them herself before Sunset started Looping, but they weren't going to explain that.)

"It's something we do with our friends a lot," Sunset explained. "They've all got their own tastes - Rarity loves romance movies and stuff with fashion, Rainbow Dash is into action flicks, Fluttershy likes animal movies and classics, Pinkie likes the silly stuff, and Applejack... well, she likes a lot of different stuff." She smiled. "Me, I really love monster movies. Not just those ones where they toss around blood and gore and have teenagers get killed by some psycho. But the good ones. And we've been introducing Twilight to a lot of our favorites too."

"I can certainly approve of that," Special Photography said. "And I can tell that you both love special effects as much as I do. So come here. I want to show you something." He gestured to the large black door at one end of the shop, with a sign on it in huge red letters - 'KEEP OUT! TOP SECRET!'. Most of them had wondered what lay behind it during class.

"In there," Special Photography said. "is something that, once I perfect it, is going to change movie-making as we know it forever."

Both girls smiled, and followed him to the door, waiting eagerly as he opened it.

Behind it lay his private workshop - a veritable wonderland of cameras and other technical equipment, plus all sorts of special effects paraphernalia scattered across several workbenches, such as model spaceships, miniature monsters, half-assembled masks, spare body parts, tubes and tubs of paint, and plaster and other assorted glop. One vat said "Internal Organs" on it; another was labeled "Fake Blood". The walls were hung with feathers and fur and sheets of scaly stuff, a rack of background paintings of outer space and futuristic cities and undersea city ruins hung on the back wall, and a miniature jungle had been assembled at the end of one workbench.

"This is wonderful!" Sunset said as she looked around.

Special Photography beamed. "The first time I ever walked into a special effects shop, it felt like I'd died and gone to heaven."

"I felt like that the first time I walked into a library," Twilight said with a smile of her own.

Special Photography chuckled. "So. Do you want to see my project?"

Both girls nodded and then, at his direction, helped him slide the big table in the center of the room out of the way and under one of the other workbenches.

What followed was a demonstration of what was, in this Loop, cutting-edge technology: a hologram of Myron that could be made to move around just like a living creature. He could even increase its size, and after seeing it in action, Twilight and Sunset could both think of several ways it could be put to use in the movies.

And then, Special Photography told them his other secret, one that left them both eager for the day when he would announce it to their class.

---

"So that was the first two days," Twilight said. "After that, we spent the rest of the week mostly enjoying normal camp activities - swimming, sports, nature hikes, things like that. Plus classes in the SFX shop. Every day, Sunset and I got to stay behind after the second class and work on little film projects with him, and we had a lot of fun doing it. I'm not sure Fluttershy would have entirely approved of Special Photography using Myron for his model though - he was always painting him different colors or gluing wings or fins onto him, and then using him as the basis for different holograms."

"I see what you mean," Flash said. "Wish I'd been there though. Awake me, that is."

Twilight nodded. "Maybe we'll go through it again some day... then again, you could get unlucky and have a Loop like that other one I had a while later."

"Oh?"

Twilight pulled her PADD out and brought something up, then plugged a set of earphones into it. "I've been to Camp Granada. Here, listen to this."

Flash did, and then grimaced as he listened to both songs all the way through. "Yikes," he said when he'd finished.

Twilight nodded. "You see what I mean." She sighed. "At any rate, we've had our share of challenges. Like trying to ignore Discord when he was out to get a reaction out of us."

Flash nodded back. "I've heard Rainbow Dash grumbling about how he tries to do that here when he isn't Awake."

"And sometimes when he is," Twilight said. "Anyway, the big day finally came..."

---

"Listen everyone," Special Photography suddenly called as everyone was putting their props for the day's lesson away. "I've got big news!"

"Did he say he's got a big nose?" asked Discord, popping into view next to the man and pointing at his oversized schnozz. Next to Twilight, Sunset snorted quietly at the ghost's remark.

"Well, what is it?" one of the other students asked.

"We're going to make a movie," Special Photography said triumphantly. "A real movie - not something for the theaters, but something that'll be watched by millions of people."

He waited a moment for that statement to sink in, then gave everyone a big grin. "I assume you're all familiar with Worlds of Wonder."

"We'd have to live in a cave not to be," said Fleur in a bored tone. "When your boss decided he was going to make a weekly television show, it got more news coverage than most presidential elections."

Special Photography looked somewhat taken aback. "Er, yes. Well, he still has room in next season's schedule for a few new shows. So I pitched him a couple of ideas a few weeks ago. He asked me to develop one of them. Yesterday, he called to give me the green light. And guess what? He wants it to be a Camp Haunted Hills project. No outsiders - staff and campers do the whole thing."

The room immediately filled with excited murmurs, until finally one student spoke up.

"What's the film about?" someone asked.

Special Photography put a finger beside his beaky nose and smiled. "The topic is part of the genius of this idea," he said. "Think for a minute. What's the most logical subject for a group of fantasy filmmakers living in the Oregon woods?"

"Sasquatch!" yelled Bulk Biceps.

"What's that?" one of the older kids in the class asked. "Some kind of vegetable?"

Special Photography smiled. "Actually, it's the great hairy creature of the northwest forests," he said. "You've probably heard of it as Bigfoot. Sasquatch comes from an older name for the creature, by a people who lived here long before colonists from the east ever arrived. People have claimed to have seen them in California and Oregon, and other parts of the country too, for over a hundred and fifty years. They're supposed to be huge, manlike creatures, seven to eight feet tall and covered with dark fur. And, of course, they got their more common name from the fact that they have great big feet. Myself, I prefer the older name, which is why my story is called Cry of the Sasquatch." He looked around the room, then grinned. "So, who wants to help make a movie?"

Twilight and Sunset's arms shot up so fast they almost sprained their shoulders.

---

"After that, Special Photography started assembling the campers and staff he'd already brought in," Twilight said. "Including Celestia and Luna. Luna was the camp's lighting specialist, as we found out - she and Celestia both worked part-time in the business to help pay for college, and Celestia was our bunk's councilor and did some acting back in the day. Apparently she was much better than our world's at that." She frowned. "That part of our baseline's never made much sense to me," she muttered. "As much as she needs to keep the nobles and other politicians in line, hiding how annoying she finds them... why she couldn't pull off performing in a simple stage play is beyond me."

"I wouldn't know," Flash said. "So what happened?"

"Well, we needed to do some location shots," Twilight said. "Rarity had made friends with the camp makeup specialist, so she got to come along as her assistant. Celestia was going to play the one part in the film that a camper couldn't, because they needed to be an adult. Luna, as I said, did the lighting. Photo Finish, naturally, came along to help with the camera work. Fleur somehow managed to come along too. Sunset got to be Special Photography's assistant. And me..." She sighed. "I would have been helping him too, but I got a different important role in the movie instead, and it wasn't what I expected."

"What was it?" Flash asked.

"Well... the film's story was that Celestia's character found a young Bigfoot, who was wounded and unable to walk," Twilight said. "She would get them to safety, help them recover from their injuries, and when the time was right, let them go back into the woods to rejoin their family. And guess who got picked to basically get sewn and glued into the Bigfoot costume, which - in the name of authenticity - would not be made with any zippers or seams on it, when Special Photography asked for a volunteer to play the young Bigfoot, thanks to Discord giving her a fake eye-poke and startling her into jumping up?"

Flash's eyes widened. "You?"

"Me," Twilight said. "I was not happy with Discord after that."

"I don't blame you."

Twilight nodded. "Anyway, we were only supposed to be away from camp for three days," she said. "One to get there, one to do the filming, and one to get back. Our first night was mostly fun." She giggled. "Special Photography, Sunset and I actually got to prank everyone together."

"Really?" Flash smiled. "What happened?"

"Special Photography," Twilight said. "Had brought along the holoprojector with one of his wilder images in it. He'd made it after covering Myron in red makeup, adding wings, and figuring out how to make smoke come out his nose. When he blew it up to about sixteen feet long, it looked just like someone's idea of a dragon, and it was amazing."

"Sounds like it."

"The only problem is, Special Photography could only get the hologram to a certain size before it faded out," Twilight said. "He'd kept working on it, but it was just too much for the projector for more than a minute or so."

Flash grinned. "Still impressive."

Twilight nodded. "Impressive enough that after... some other events later on that summer, I got his permission to examine the projector and duplicate it. I Pocketed the duplicate before we left, and I've been tinkering with it on and off ever since. But getting back to that night," she said. "We climbed up a tree with the projector, turned it on, and made Myron's hologram slither into the campsite. Scared everyone, until we tried pushing it to the fifth level and it shut off after a minute." She grinned. "Celestia thought our little prank was hysterical."

Flash smiled. "Cool."

"Unfortunately, after that, things went..." Twilight sighed. "Not so well. First, Fleur decided to sneak out of her tent and start scratching at mine during the night, and we woke up everyone else when I saw her leaning over my tent. I was too groggy to think straight, so I just panicked and screamed."

"Eesh."

"And then I thought I saw something else out in the woods and almost freaked out again," Twilight said. "It took me a while to get back to sleep." She sighed. "Then we spent the next day doing the actual filming. First I had to get covered in all this fake fur, including gluing plastic to my face to change the contours, so I'd look like a real Bigfoot. Then we shot all the scenes we could. The last scene was going to be shot as the sun was going down, but... before that could happen, something wild happened."

Flash looked at her seriously. "What was it?"

"A live Sasquatch came out of the woods, grabbed me and carried me off."

Flash straightened up. "Woah."

Twilight nodded. "She carried me off to her cave, and showed me to her mate and two others - I think they were her mate's brothers. And I'm pretty sure she thought I was one of her people and that she'd rescued me from the humans."

Flash looked down. "She... probably didn't take it well when she found out otherwise, right?"

"She was pretty heartbroken," Twilight agreed. "But that was later. First, I tried to get Discord to go get help. He was a little stubborn about it - didn't want to talk to Sunset on his own. So I tried to have him talk to Special Photography instead, but that didn't happen because he came into their clearing on his own with some others. The Bigfeet trapped them all in a different cave. Soon after that, Sunset came driving into the clearing with the camp van, and I got an idea. I had Discord make himself visible to the Bigfeet, and they kind of went nuts while I escaped." She sighed. "Luckily, Sunset figured out it was me right away and let me into the van, and got some of the plastic off my face so I could talk normally. Then, we got the projector set up, and I used Myron-the-dragon to scare the Bigfeet all senseless."

"Smart thinking." Flash was quiet for a moment, then looked at her. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you just use some of your magic or other powers to scare them?"

Twilight blushed. "Would you believe I was so caught up in things that I just forgot about it until afterward?" she said. "Sunset was the same. Also, she didn't actually want to hurt the Bigfeet, just scare them away from us."

"That makes sense." Flash sat back, looking satisfied.

"Anyway..." Twilight sighed. "Special Photography told me to try level five on the projector again. It worked this time, and Myron's image actually tripled. He was almost fifty feet long now, and he scared the living daylights out of the Bigfeet. They all ran like their fur was on fire. Except one of them." She sighed again. "I had to show poor Momma B my real face. She was really upset..."

"I can imagine."

Twilight nodded. "Anyway, we let everyone out of the cave and went back to the filming site, and once the other search teams got back in, we went back to camp. Special Photography had shot some extra footage from the cave, so we had pretty much all that done. And about a week after our adventure in the woods, they'd put all the footage together into a rough cut and showed it to everyone at camp." She smiled. "Great Stories said we'd done a really good job, so he was definitely going to have it air on his show."

"That's awesome."

"Yeah." Twilight sighed. "And... it was amazing, but I was still pretty mad at Discord for making us go through all that. Sure, he had fun, but I was not happy about getting kidnapped and then having to hurt that poor Bigfoot's feelings. I know she wasn't a Looper, but still."

"Yeah." Flash sighed. "I get where you're coming from."

Twilight nodded, then was silent for a minute. Finally, she spoke again. "Now, that night when Great Stories made his announcement, that was at the start of our fourth week at camp. Things were quiet for a little while after that. Then, the Sunday of our fifth week, it went crazy again."

Flash leaned in. "What happened?"

"Have you ever experienced the feeling of rice pudding sliding down your back?" Twilight asked Flash. "Because I did that day, and let me tell you, it was not fun."

---

Said experience happened during lunch that day, courtesy of Fleur de Lis, and Twilight was not amused by it. Neither was Sunset, who was sitting right next to her.

On the other hand, Discord (who'd been hovering nearby, and still hadn't agreed to let Sunset see or hear him) was amused. Somewhat.

"OOOOOOOH-oh-oh-oh-oh-oooooh!" he cackled as he saw Luna grabbing the other girl's ear and dragging her away for a bawling-out. "Seeing that makes what she did to you almost worth it!"

Twilight just sighed. But before she could say anything, someone else started shouting and screaming on the other side of the dining hall.

"I can't take it anymore!" the normally mild-mannered Special Photography screamed. "This place is driving me out of my mind!"

Suddenly he came bounding across the dining hall and leaped right onto Twilight's table. Grabbing up a pitcher of rehydrated fruit punch, he poured in a little package of powder, and the entire thing started bubbling and foaming.

"You'll be sorry!" he yelled. "All of you, for what you've done to me! I'm going CRAAAAAAZY!"

Then, before Twilight's horrified eyes, he took a deep drink of the punch, looked around wildly, grabbed his throat and began to make weird choking sounds.

An instant later, he fell to the floor and rolled under the table. And when he came out on the other side, he'd grown fur all over his hands and face, and had grown fangs and claws.

Twilight looked around, and was about to stand up and try to check on him, when she felt Celestia's hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see the older woman give her head a slight shake.

"Everyone stay in your seats!" Fancy Pants suddenly commanded from the head table a moment later, right before Special Photography turned and ran for the door. As he raced out of the dining hall, he slammed the door behind him, causing a huge sign to roll down.

Special Photography Presents

Dr. Jekyll's Heir

The Most Terrifying Film in Man-to-Monster History

Filming starts Wednesday.

Casting begins tomorrow morning at ten.​

Everyone began to laugh and cheer, even Twilight. Just another crazy stunt by the camp staff, she realized and mentally sighed in relief. Until the sign came down, she'd thought Special Photography had snapped for real.

She was going to miss him when this Loop ended.

From her own spot next to Luna, Fleur frowned. "So immature," she muttered.

"That will be enough out of you, miss de Lis," Luna snapped. "He is a counselor, and deserves your respect."

Fleur just hmphed.

---

After lunch, Twilight had some free time, so she and her friends headed back to their cabin so she could change.

"Honestly, the nerve of that girl," Rarity tutted as she walked beside them. "I don't know why she hasn't been sent home already, as much grief as she gives you."

Twilight was about to reply when she saw a big armored van come driving through the main gate.

"What was that all about?" Applejack asked from Sunset's other side.

"Probably a load of money," Rainbow Dash cracked. "You know, the newest Great Stories movie opened the week after we got here. I bet that was some of his earnings from it."

Sunset shook her head. "I'd bet it's something for the Cottage," she said. "Special Photography said they were bringing a lot of stuff in for it this week."

"Oooh..." Pinkie said eagerly. "The Cottage..."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "Um, what's the Cottage?"

"It's the name for the house Great Stories had built for himself out by the lake," Sunset said.

"Oh... so that's what they were talking about."

Sunset nodded. "I don't know why he called it the Cottage, it's way too big to be one. But there's been a lot of talk about the kinds of things they're putting in. Wall-size televisions - and I mean wall-sized, not just one of those big wall-mounted ones. State-of-the-art security devices. Electronic rugs."

Rainbow Dash frowned. "What the heck is an electronic rug?"

"Beats me, I'm just repeating some of the rumors," Sunset said.

"You seven are such twits," another voice said behind us, before Fleur came around them, folding her hands across her chest.

Fluttershy reddened. "What do you mean?" she asked nervously.

"Everyone in camp knows what's in that truck, besides you girls," Fleur said snidely. "It's it!"

Twilight caught her breath as she recalled the other rumor floating about camp. "The mummy..."

"Bingo, miss know-it-all," Fleur said. "Now if you'll excuse me." With that, she spun on her heels and stalked off.

"A real Egyptian mummy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Awesome!"

Fluttershy shivered. "Poor thing," she murmured. "Why can't they just be left to rest in peace?"

Discord, who was floating behind Rarity and giving her a pair of rabbit ears, smirked. "This I just have to see," he said before blinking out of sight.

Twilight hid her grimace. She knew she'd get a full report when he got back. But she also had the disturbing feeling that actual trouble was headed their way.

---

"After I got my shirt changed, Sunset and I went down to the SFX lab and talked with Special Photography," Twilight said. "He explained everything, including why he hadn't told us about his new project sooner."

"Why was that?" Flash asked.

"He thought it would be more fun if we were surprised," Twilight said. "Then he showed us the script, and a lot of the tricks he used to pull off his quick-change under the table."

"Cool."

"Anyway," Twilight said. "This whole project was about more than just getting people involved. How many bad monster movies have you ever seen?"

"Probably more than anyone's fair share," Flash admitted. "Music's my hobby, but sometimes a guy's got to branch out, you know? Between training and my band and school, I take a night or two a week to just kick back and watch stuff. Some of it's so I'll be ready for things I might run into out there, but some of it's just for fun."

"I absolutely understand," Twilight said. "Well, Special Photography loves good monster movies, and he decided he wanted to make fun of all the people who don't care enough to do quality work and just make lousy, 'I-don't-care-as-long-as-I-make-a-dollar' monster movies, like they've been churning out for years. So he decided to make something that sounds like one of their concepts, but do it good." She smiled. "I managed to get hold of the print for the film once we'd finished it, and for Cry of the Sasquatch - we got to see a cleaned-up version of both films before we went home, and I've got them on DVD and a few backups if you want to actually watch them later."

"That'd be great," Flash said. "So back to this movie."

Twilight smiled. "Well, the script was wonderful. It was funny, and filled with great special effects." She sighed. "The problem is, Discord drifted in and started reading over my shoulder, and decided he could have some fun with it."

"Uh-oh."

"Exactly. But aside from that, we had another bit of excitement the same day..."

---

Later that evening, Twilight and Sunset were walking back towards their bunk, when they noticed something on the ground beside the path.

"What in the world is this?" Sunset asked as she bent over and picked it up.

Twilight eyed it carefully. "It looks like some kind of beetle," she said. Sunset handed it to her, and she tested it with her weight. "Heavy, too... hold on, let me get something out." She pulled one of her tricorders out of her Pocket and ran it over the object, then looked up at Sunset. "This thing is solid gold!"

"Give the kid a prize, she deserves it," Discord said as he popped into view. "Do you two want to hear the really exciting news?"

Twilight looked up at him. "What’s up?"

"Oh, many things," Discord replied. "But you wanted to know about the Cottage. Well, I can tell you. It has three times as much room underground as it does above. There’s an indoor pool, with a waterfall running into it, and a private theater, and all sorts of theme rooms. Like one decorated like something out of an old cowboy movie, and one for pirates, and one for space. And, of course, one about ancient Egypt. That’s where they put the mummy, of course."

"Of course," Twilight said.

"Does it have electronic rugs?" Sunset asked.

Discord ignored her.

Sighing, Twilight repeated her friend’s question.

Discord looked rather disgruntled. "I don’t have the slightest idea. Now, here’s the exciting part. After these two guys walked in with the mummy case, one of them opened it and took something out of it."

"He did what‽" Twilight’s eyes blazed. "That..." She broke out into something that was decidedly not English.

"Temper, temper!" Discord tutted. "Really, Twilight, does your mother know about that mouth of yours?"

Twilight just glowered at him, and he chuckled, before fading out. "Well, see you tomorrow," his voice said from thin air.

Twilight sighed, and then turned to Sunset. "Come on, I'll explain everything along the way," she said.

---

The trouble started three days later, when filming was due to start. As it turned out, Fleur had been cast in the lead role of Dr. Jekyll's Heir, at Luna's suggestion - "punishment" for her actions the Sunday before.

"If she's so obsessed with her looks, let her take on a part that sees her turned into something that's as far from pretty as possible," she'd said, and while Special Photography hadn't been too happy with using his movie to punish her, Fancy Pants had approved. Fleur herself had only agreed because she'd figured that at least this way, she'd have the spotlight for a while.

Things went pretty smoothly for the first few hours of filming (or at least, for set-up). Thanks to one technical delay after another, in fact, the big event didn't happen until after dinner that night, when Special Photography announced it was time to do a test shot and asked Twilight to run the mist machine - a big, heavy device that, when pumped, caused clouds of mysterious-looking fog pour out of a hose and into the room.

"We're doing this to get an idea of how the transformation will work onscreen," Special Photography explained. "If you're involved in the technical end, take your place. If you're acting, just stay out of the way for now. Fleur, get into position."

Smirking, Fleur sauntered over to the spot Special Photography had indicated, and that's when Discord chose to appear.

"Oh, goody," he said. "This is the part I've been waiting for."

Twilight stared at him, but before she could figure out how to say anything without catching everyone else's attention, Special Photography was speaking again.

"Now, you all know the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," he said. "This story is about Dr. Jekyll's niece, a mild-mannered girl who discovers her uncle's secret formula and gets into all kinds of trouble. In the scene we're doing, she's out on a London street, in the midst of the swirling fog, when she decides to try the potion for the first time. We'll film up to that point, and then we'll shut off the camera so that Miss Ivy here can start the makeup job."

Twilight stood behind the mist machine and did as she was instructed to set the scene, watching as Fleur also obeyed the directions she was given and drank down her potion.

But then, before the makeup specialist (whom Twilight vaguely recognized as a humanized G2 pony from that Hub toyline) could take a step, the transformation started all by itself.

One minute, Fleur looked normal. The next, she had changed just like Special Photography had pretended to change in the dining hall.

And then, as Discord chortled next to Twilight, the Crystal Prep girl went berserk.

---

"It was terrifying," Twilight said. "Even for me."

"Wow." Flash shook his head. "So, Discord did that on purpose, right?"

"Eeyup." Twilight sighed. "Apparently, he'd gone over to the Other Side and looked up the real Dr. Jekyll. During our first few weeks at camp, he'd claimed to me that he's met almost anyone famous and dead. How he got to talk to Dr. Jekyll, I don't know - maybe there was some kind of extra fused Loop going on, maybe he'd become real through sheer power of belief from everyone who's ever read the book or seen the films, like a Tulpa or something. Either way, he got Jekyll to make up a batch of the formula and then moved it to the living world, right to where Special Photography would mistake it for his version and give it to Fleur."

"And she transformed."

"Exactly." Twilight sighed again. "Luckily, Discord also brought over the antidote. But by the time he'd pointed this out to me, someone opened the door and Fleur went running out and off into the woods."

"And you followed her, right?" Flash asked.

"Exactly," Twilight said. "Sunset was right behind me. We went to go chase him down, but after a while... there was another complication."

---

Twilight sighed as she held the glowing bottle up (the potion itself was luminescent, somehow). "I hope she didn't hurt herself," she muttered.

"Somehow, I don't think so," Sunset said. "Whatever else that potion did, I think it made her a lot stronger. She'd probably be able to slash through a tree without any problems."

Twilight started to reply when there was a horrible growling and snarling, and then Fleur burst out of the woods behind them, a wild look in her eyes as she reached out her hairy hands to try and grab them.

A few frightening minutes later, the two girls were hiding behind a tree. "What now?" Sunset asked.

"I'd say get out our wands or Keyblades, but I think we'd have a lot of explaining to do if someone else found us while we were using them," Twilight replied. "I-" and then she froze, and sniffed the air. "What's that?"

Sunset sniffed too. "Smells like... something rotten," she said.

Then there was a loud groan behind then, and the girls turned to see a horrible, shambling human shape, all wrapped in bandages.

"It's the mummy!" Twilight gasped. "From the Cottage! But what's it-"

"Unnnhhh!" the mummy moaned as it lurched forward.

Just then, a terrible howling broke out from another direction, and then Fleur burst into the clearing, clearly furious.

"Great," Twilight muttered. "Now we just need-"

"Well this is interesting," Discord's voice said from somewhere nearly.

Twilight sighed. "Great. Now we have it all. A dark, misty night, thick woods, a mummy, a monster and a ghost. What else can go wrong?"

Three seconds later, the skies opened up with a deluge.

Sunset looked at Twilight. "You had to say it, didn't you?"

---

"In hindsight, I really shouldn't have gone tempting fate there," Twilight admitted.

---

The rain had one positive effect: the mummy reacted with a scream and retreated. And given his age and general condition, Twilight couldn't blame him. Still, she had other things that needed her attention more at the time.

"So what are we going to do about Fleur?" Sunset asked nervously, before Twilight could voice the same thought.

Discord had apparently given up pretending she wasn't there, though he still directed his words to Twilight only. "Put the potion down, open it, and then back up slowly," he said. "I laced the Jekyll juice with salt, so Fleur should be very thirsty. One drink and she'll be back to normal."

Twilight nodded, set the antidote bottle down, pulled out the cork and stepped away. Fleur, still snarling as she did so, stepped forward, sniffed the bottle and seized it. Downing the contents in one gulp, she began to gasp and choke.

"Fleur!" Twilight gasped. She looked at where she thought Discord was floating. "Give us some light, quick!"

"If you insist," Discord said, shimmering into view. "Oh, hello, dear Sunshim," he said as he finally deigned to speak to her.

Sunset sighed, but Twilight's attention was more on a now unconscious Fleur, who was laying on the ground and fully human.

Making a decision, Twilight went and hefted her up. "Sunset? Could you help me?"

The other girl nodded. Together, they got Fleur up onto her feat, and with a glowing Discord leading the way, carried her back to camp.

---

"That was the end of the excitement that night," Twilight said. "The next day, we sat down and talked it over, and got a few answers from Discord about how he got the potion and antidote set up. We also figured out why the mummy came after us."

"That gold bug you found," Flash said. "It was a real Egyptian scarab from the mummy's coffin, right?"

"Exactly. Discord confessed that he tried to scare the deliverymen who stole that bug from the mummy's case, and one of them must have dropped it, or had it fall out of his pocket, when he was running away. Since we found it, the mummy came after us to get it back. So we decided we had to go sneak it back into his coffin. That meant breaking into the Cottage."

"How'd that go?" Flash asked.

"It didn't," Twilight admitted. "The night after our adventure in the woods, we snuck out to try and take it back. Unfortunately, Vice-Principal Luna caught us before we got too far. Luckily, she believed me when I told her I was just taking a walk to try and wear myself out so I could get to sleep, and Sunset was keeping me company." She sighed. "We had to stay in our bunk for the rest of the night. That wasn't the only problem though."

"What else happened?"

"Discord," Twilight said. "For some reason he thought it would be a good idea to bring another bottle of that potion over and stick it in my trunk. Not the smartest idea, considering Fleur had already broken into it once this summer. And she did it again, found the potion and took it."

Flash looked worried. "She didn't try and transform herself again, did she?"

Twilight shook her head. "She wanted to transform me."

"And how'd that go?"

"It went... hairy. Pun fully intended." Twilight sighed. "Here's what happened."

---

It was Friday night, and a big day for everyone. To celebrate the opening of the camp's fancy new theater (the dining hall could also double as one, but the Camp Haunted Hills Movie Palace was dedicated to showing movies and hosting other big events), there would be a premiere of the polished version of Cry of the Sasquatch, complete with music and sound effects. Afterward, there'd be a punch and chips reception, along with a panel discussion involving the members of the cast and crew - Twilight included.

And that's where she was when she found Fleur with the Jekyll juice, pouring some of it into the water pitcher by her spot at the table.

Twilight sighed, gathered her courage, and walked up to the other girl. "And what," she asked, "Do you think you're doing?"

Fleur turned around, almost startled, before she gave Twilight an ugly look. "Well, well, well," she said. "If it isn't miss special Sparkle herself."

"Answer the question, Fleur," Twilight snapped, in no mood for games.

"Well, if you insist." Fleur began pacing. "I'm getting revenge, Twilight. Revenge for everything. For the way you always have to be the center of attention. Being the big star of Crystal Prep. Being the centerpiece of the Shadowbolts team at the Friendship Games. Being the star of that ridiculous movie we're watching. And even turning me into a monster when it was supposed to be my time to shine." She leaned into Twilight's face. "I hate you, Sparkle. I have for years. And now, for everything you've done to me, you're going to pay."

"Me?" Twilight looked taken aback. "I didn't force you to turn into a monster - I didn't even give you that first dose!"

"But you ruined my life long before that," Fleur snapped. "You stole her attention from me! Then you ruined her reputation - and mine - when you went crazy and cost us the Games!"

"Her?" Twilight blinked. "Is this about Principal Cinch?"

"Exactly," Fleur hissed. "What you did to her ruined both of us! Ruined me, all because you had to be the center of her attention!"

"Fleur, I never wanted her attention - I just wanted to be left alone!" Twilight said nervously.

"Well, you got her attention anyway." Fleur glared. "And you're going to pay."

"Why would you even want Cinch's attention?" Twilight asked. "She was so obsessed with perfection, it almost gave me a nervous breakdown! And I wasn't the first she drove like that!"

"But it was never me, when it should have been!" Fleur snapped. "I was never good enough for her! Me, her own daughter!"

Twilight gasped. "You're... Cinch's daughter?"

"Don't tell me you didn't know!" Fleur hissed angrily. "Oh wait, you were too busy being wrapped up in your own little world!" She was wide-eyed, and breathing heavily. "And now you'll pay for it!"

Then she grabbed Twilight and tried to fling her against the wall.

Letting out a cry, Twilight pushed back. The taller girl fell backwards, into the table.

There was a splash.

And then Fleur stood up. "I hate you, Sparkle!" she yelled, before she turned and ran out of the room.

Leaving Twilight alone in a room with a vat now full of mixed fruit punch and Jekyll juice, and wondering what she was going to do about it.

---

Back in the bar, Twilight sighed. "I almost wonder if Fleur isn't Cinch's daughter in baseline," she said. "But we've never found any evidence of it for sure. All we know is that she seems to glare at Twilight whenever she sees her."

"That's disturbing," Flash muttered.

"It is," Twilight agreed. "Luckily, Discord had gotten me a bottle of the antidote in time. Since I couldn't get rid of the tainted fruit punch, I hid the antidote backstage just in case."

"And of course you needed it."

Twilight nodded. "We found out at the last minute that everyone was going to drink a toast to Special Photography and his work at the start of the reception. Sunset and I managed to get out of there in the nick of time, right before everyone transformed."

Flash's eyes widened. "Yikes!"

"Yikes is right. Fortunately, Sunset said something about how to get them to take the antidote, and I figured out how to make it work." Twilight leaned in. "The mist machine was in the building, because they wanted a fog to give the right atmosphere while the movie was playing. And Sunset had said the only way to make them all take the antidote was to make them breathe it..."

Flash grinned. "I see where this is going."

Twilight smiled.

---

There were still a few hurdles, of course. The first was Fleur, who showed up right before Twilight could start pumping the mist into the theater.

"You aren't going to be the big hero this time," she hissed as she tried to pull Twilight away from the machine. "Either of you!"

"Fleur-" Twilight started to say, before Fleur smacked her.

"No more!" she shouted. "I'm going to be the big hero this time! I'll use the mist machine, and then I'll tell everyone you two were responsible for this whole disaster in the first place! And that you did this to me before, so I was immune when I drank the toast." She snorted. "Of course, I just knew better than to drink that stuff this time. But nobody's going to know that, are they? As long as I'm here, everyone's going to decide my story works better than... yours?" She suddenly froze when she saw someone else walk into the room.

The mummy.

"Meep," she whispered, before passing out.

Discord shook his head from where he was floating next to the mummy. "Wimp." Then he looked around. "What's all that noise?"

Twilight didn't bother to explain. While Sunset handed the scarab over to the mummy, who accepted it and left, Twilight fell on the mist machine and started pumping its handle with all her might.

It took a few minutes, but soon enough, the antidote worked, leaving the theater full of very groggy, very confused campers, counselors and Hollywood big-shots (the latter group being friends of Great Stories whom he'd invited to camp for the big night).

---

Three weeks after the big event, and just hours after having said goodbye to Discord (away from everyone) and Special Photography (just before getting on the bus), as they sat in the same bus seats on the way back home, Twilight glanced at Sunset. "Well, that was an interesting summer."

"Interesting and weird." Sunset shook her head. "Think we'll ever go back?"

"Sunset, I was kidnapped by a family of Bigfoot. Then we got chased by a mummy, and ended it all up with getting caught in a room full of pseudo-wolfmen." Twilight grinned. "I certainly hope we'll go back some day. That was one of the most fun vacations I've had in millennia!"

Sunset smiled. "Agreed."

---

In the present day…

"So that's it," Twilight concluded. "What do you think?"

Flash looked at her and shook his head. "Twilight, that's got to be one of the craziest stories I've ever heard... but I totally see where you're coming from." He grinned. "Think it'll ever turn up again so I can go there?"

"Maybe." Twilight pulled her PADD out. "After that Loop, I did some research when I had my next Hub-adjacent Loop, and I got copies of the books that Loop is backed up as, along with a lot of other stuff from the same author, so I'll send you the files if you want them." She considered. "That reminds me, I've actually had a fused Loop with at least one of these other settings, and I wrote a letter to Princess Celestia about it, so I'll include that too."

"I'd like that a lot, Twilight." Flash pulled out his own PADD and hoofed it over for her to work on. When she had finished loading the data, she hoofed it back to him, and he tucked it away.

"Thank you for sharing all that," he said.

Twilight smiled. "It was fun to remember," she said. "And besides, what are friends for? I like spending time talking with you, and everyone else, sharing our stories."

"So do I, Twilight," Flash said with a smile. "So do I."

The End

Author's Note:

221.1: I don't know, I personally don't have any good memories of high school.
Or bad ones, given that I didn't go to one.

Comments

[DiscordantDisciple]

I recently finished rereading the loops so it's nice to see a new chapter so soon after! Way to go Anon e mouse this was great! (And not just because Discord was in it.)

[ShadowLDrago]

Twilight shook her head. "He handled being out in the rain just fine later on. I think it was just a personal thing with him."

Died drowning, maybe?

[Zetari]

Up to 194 on a re read.

Glad to see another chapter, especially with sunny in it.

[Greenhorn]

"Sunset, I was kidnapped by a family of Bigfoot. Then we got chased by a mummy, and ended it all up with getting caught in a room full of pseudo-wolfmen." Twilight grinned. "I certainly hope we'll go back some day. That was one of the most fun vacations I've had in millennia!"

Need to find a merman and a vampire for next time?

[Greatazuredragon]

Very nice chapter, good work.

[Mystic Flare]

Just got to the introductory of the Famous Five and I want to read their books before continuing this story hoping to find the books for cheap never heard of them till this story