Camping trip
"Spike! Spike wake up! Today's the day!" A voice shouted loudly.
"Gah! Wha- Twilight? Ughh, what is it now?" Spike asked, clearly annoyed that his favourite dream was interrupted by both the offending rays of sunlight and Twilights other attempts to wake him up. "What day is it today?"
"Today's the day we go camping with our friends! You know, pitching our tents, roasting marshmallows, reading a good book an-" Twiligth was going to continue but was cut off by Spike.
"I think you're the one who's going to read. I think you meant, telling ghost stories." Spike corrected as Twilight blushed.
"Yeah, right. But anyway, let's get our things packed. I've got the checklist ready!" Twilight pipped up holding a scroll and a quill in her magic.
"Of course you made a checklist." Spike facepalmed. "Alright, I'll go get the items."
-- After some time --
"Aaand done!" Twilight said as her quill ticked off the last item left on the list. "Looks like we have everything we need and they're all in good condition! Ready to go Spike?"
When they had started to tick things off the list, all the items were scattered over the floor. Now there were just two neat bags, both different sizes.
"Oh finally, I thought we'd never be done!" Spike whined before eagerly grabbing the smaller bag and throwing it on his back. "Let's go!"
-- With the other Mane 5 --
"Somehow I knew there was a new pony coming to town so I prepared a super-duper awesome surprise par-tay!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Was that why your head was against the door of the house of their relatives?" Rainbow Dash asked rather plainly.
They were all talking about the new pony who visited Ponyille a few days ago while waiting for Twilight and Spike to show up. Applejack decided a two weeks ago about an idea to go camping some time as she wanted to, firstly, spend more time with her friends and, secondly, to try to make Rarity less fussy about the outdoors.
Their conversation was interrupted by Fluttershy after she saw Twilight and Spike in the distance but it took a while for her to get their attention, much less tell them, Twilight and Spike reached them before Fluttershy could even tell a word. After some time, they set off to the woods. They didn't know exactly which forest this was but it was quite close to Ponyville. They were stuck walking on the dirt road for a 'some time' untill Rarity spoke.
"So, err, how far exactly until we set up our campsite?" Rarity asked clearly getting annoyed and disgusted from the fact they were going too 'deep' into the forest.
"Not too far. Ah've visited these here woods before and there is a good place tah camp a little ways past the river." Applejack replied and as if on cue, they reached a shallow river and, as Applejack said, there was a spot they could see completely devoid of trees a few feet across the river.
"Woohoo! There it is, right Applejack?" Pinkie asked.
"Sure is Pinkie. There's the campsite."
"Ok then, let's set up camp. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, we need you guys to gather the firewood. The rest of us will either set up the tents or unpack our equipment." Twilight ordered.
"Right!" The other five said in unison.
__*__
"And when she shone her torch on her neck, she found out, she was wearing a plain, pitch black scarf!" Rarity exclaimed and screamed shortly after finishing her sentence. Everypony looked at her, confused
Oh, uh, that was, um," Fluttershy tried to look for positive words to describe Raritys 'story'. Luckily, Applejack went to her rescue. "Entertainin..?" Although she looked more like she was asking.
"Okay, I think it's my turn to tell a story." Twilight slowly said.
Everypony else told stories around the fire, everypony else had their turn, exept Twilight. Some were fictional stories, some were legends, some were even from experiance. They aimed for scary stories but the only satisfying ones were Rainbows, Applejacks and, surprisingly, Fluttershys was quite spooky too.
"My mother one told this story to me about her friend she had made when she was on a vacation to The Crystal Empire. I don't remember her name, but my mom told me about her features. She was a pegasus with snow white mane with a light blue stripe running through it, her coat was an alabaster-ish shade and her eyes were a neon green." Twilight paused in between the sentence and looked up, everypony was listening intently. She continued."My mom met her as her guide for the camp she attended and they soon became friends, since my mom wasn't really a social pony, she didn't have anypony to talk to."
"Uhh, so is that how you got your shut-in personality?" Rainbow interrupted and earned a chuckle from Applejack and Pinkie.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Twilight said with a groan.
"Hehe, sorry Twi." Rainbow giggled. "But since when did the Crystal Empire have a community for camping? I thought it was too dangerous to go out from the sheilds' reach."
"Well, the snowstorm wasn't even half as strong until Sombra got closer to the Empire. It was for ponies who liked camping in cold weather. Now may I continue."
"Right, right, sorry. Carry on."
"Anyway, now where was I? Oh, okay. Once the group had arrived at the campsite, it was nearly sundown. So the whole team set up their tents and proceeded to gather around the campfire for dinner and other activities, but I think I'll just jump to the scary part. Everypony had their own separate tents. Mom stayed up to watch the stars, she said there were a lot that night. She described it being beautiful and bright. And at that time, mom heard a small wimper. Mom got curious and followed the sounds of wimpers. She tracked it to a small cave near the place they camped at and shone light using her horn. She was surprised to find her friend sitting against the wall of the cave, she was blue and frozen." Twilights voice slowly grew louder with each word she said. "Mom ran to the other campers and guides to get help, but when she came back, her friend was gone."
Twilight looked up to see Pinkie and Fluttershy gripping each other tightly, Spike hidden in Raritys tail, Applejacks hat had covered her face and Rainbow simply staring at Twilight, eyes wide. "Where did she go?" Spikes voice shivered as he pipped his head out of Raritys tail.
"Nopony knows. A few years went on as the future campers came and go, and they have reported hearing heartbreaking whimpers and whispers through the night. One camper even said to hear a few words. 'Help, my hooves, I'm so cold.' This continued on until things got more serious. Ponies would sleep and wake up in the middle of the night, complaining that they were freezing. Around eight ponies were in a coma from a week to a whole month! And most of them complained about having unusual nightmares, they would ask the guides about it. And all the they would do was tell story of The Missing Camper." Twilight looked up once more to see everypony shivering in fear.
"And that pretty much wraps up the story! So, how was it?" Twilight asked giddily.
"Uhh, it was, definitely something." Rainbows blank expression was still on her face.
"Scary!" Pinkie exclaimed still holding Fluttershy.
"Honestly, it was mighty scary." Applejack said as she put her hat back on her head.
"It was terrifying, uh, no offense of course." Fluttershy squeaked.
"It was absolutely horrid!!" Rarity screamed, everypony looked at her. Rarity blushed. "Of course, it means that it frightened me. So, it was a thriller."
"But, is it real?" Spike asked as he climbed out of the mass of Raritys tail.
"What? Of course not! I mean, who would think ghosts are real?" Twilight laughed. Everypony looked at each other in uncertainty.
"How would you know?"
"Come on now, Spike. You're just being silly."
"Then why did you use your mom as a character?"
"Because she used to tell the story to me the same way, ok. So come on, it's getting late, let's sleep before it gets too creepy out here." Twilight said as she trotted to her tent, the rest still recovering from her story.
__*__
It was past midnight, everypony was in their tents, soundly asleep. Twilight Sparkle however, didn't feel too comfortable. She twisted and turned, wispered things in her sleep. It was worse than when she had stayed up all night and slept through most of the day. At one point, she stopped moving. A few more seconds past and she bolted up awake, brething heavily.
"Ugh, just a nightmare." Twilight gasped for air as she looked out of her tent and to the flames of the campfire which had surprisingly stayed alight. "That was a weird nightmare. First I was trapped in a cave, and then, something held me down. What was it?" Twilight tried her best to remember the dream. "Come on, come on. And, and then, I-I was a-attacked. But who did it?"
Suddenly, another voice echoed from the forest. It was soft and gentle. "T-T-Twil-light? A-are yo-you there?" The voice wasn't loud enough to wake anypony and it sounded like the pony was shivering.
"What? Who are you? What's wrong?" Twilight asked to the forest before her. Her voice sounding concerned, curious and frightened.
"H-help m-m-me. It's f-f-freezing-g." The voice replied.
"Where are you?"
"G-Go down th-th-the path, th-there, you'll s-see a ca-cave."
'A cave? This might be a trap... but what if somepony really needs help?' Twilight thought twice about her decision. 'What if it is a trap? I can handle it, right? I've been through worse.' Twilight thought to herself before lighting up her horn and trotting down the dirt road. And, as the voice said, there was a cave. But this cave was... different. It felt much colder than it should. And not only that, Twilight seemed to have been drawn towards it the further she went. The cave was filled with the sound of squeaking from bats, cracks could be heard through the ceiling and then, the mysterious voice spoke.
"Twi-light? I-Is that y-you?"
"It's you! I'm here but, where are you?"
"Follow t-the li-ght." The voice shivered. Twilight looked around for a light source other than the one her horn emitted. She rounded a corner and saw light, she smelled smoke and it felt warmer the close she got to it. 'Yup,definitely a fire.' Twilight thought as she got closer to the light.when she got there, she couldn't see anypony. Just a fireplace sitting a few meters away.
"Hello? are you there?" Twilight asked to the open space. But nopony answered. Twilights anger started to boil. "Hello in here!? It isn't funny anymore?! Where are you?!"
All of a sudden, the cave fell silent. No other noise conquered the silence. Other than the mysterious voice.
"Heh, I guess you found my hiding place." the voice was still gentle, yet it sounded creepier. One other difference was the voice wasn't shivering anymore. It was clear and precise. Twilight looked around as she charged her horn.
"What do you want? I know you lured me here not because you needed help."
"Well, I kind of do need help. From you. But before that, I know you have a few questions for me, right?"
"Who. Are. You." Twilight asked strictly, like a mother scolding her child.
"..."
"Well?" Twilight was getting impatient. But before she could say anything else, something held down all her four hooves. Twilight struggled to break free, but no avail. "Let me go!" Twilight demanded through her gritted teeth.
"Don't worry, everything will be just fine." Came the voice. It was deep and calm this time. Twilight didn't have time to protest as she was dragged to the ground. Twilights vision blurred as she saw a figure of a pony.
The last few words she heard was the ponys voice."Goodnight, Twilight, rest well." Soon followed by a wicked laughter as everything was blackened out.