Various Tales of the Night Shift

     "Did you bring the marshmallows like you were supposed to, Rarity?" Applejack asked.

     Rarity raised an eyebrow, "I thought YOU were going to bring them"

     Applejack facehoofed, "I told you I'd bring the tents if YOU brought the marshmallows. You volunteered for them 'cause you knew they were the lightest thing on the list"

     "I did no such thing" Rarity huffed, slightly taken aback.

     Applejack rolled her eyes, "If ya didn't bring marshmallows, what DID ya bring?"

     "Baby wipes!" Rarity smiled as she pulled out a single box and began to gently rub her hooves, "One can NEVER go out 'roughing it' without certain precautions"

     "Oh, and I had Spike take a few personal things for myself as well. I'm sure he doesn't mind. Isn't that right, Spikey-wikey?" Rarity said as she turned to a mountain of gem-encrusted, pink briefcases collapsed over the lifeless body of a baby dragon.

     After a few moments of silence beside the crackling of the fire, she turned back to Applejack, "He's fine. He always does that when he's tired"

     "Well, shoot. What're we supposed to use for smores now since we don't have marshmallows? We're miles from a Stallmart" Applejack sighed.

     "Don't worry, girls! We can use my personal stash of marshmallows!" Pinkie grinned as she pulled a garbage bag full of king-sized marshmallows out from her sleeping bag.

     Rarity raised an eyebrow, "Do you always carry that around with you, dear?"

     Pinkie snorted, "Well DUH! Doesn't everypony?"

     "I reckon she'd have had diabetes for years now if she wasn't bouncin' around all the time" Applejack whispered to Rarity.

     "We're back!' Twilight announced as she, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy trotted up to the campsite carrying firewood, "I see you girls started the campfire. Did you remember the smore ingredients?"

     "Suuure did!" Pinkie chirped as she stabbed a marshmallow with a stick and hung it over the fire, "Does anybody else want hot sauce for their smores? Rarity? Twilight?"

     Both cringed at the thought of it and backed away, "Er, no thank you, Pinkie"

     She shrugged and poured the rest of the bottle on her graham crackers until they were soggy, "Suit yourself!"

     "Aww yeah! This is gonna be awesome!" Rainbow Dash laughed as she pulled out her limited edition Wonderbolts sleeping bag.

     She wrestled with it for a long time trying to make it go past her front hooves, but to no avail, "I wish they made these in adult sizes"

     Fluttershy set a kettle over the fire, "The herbal tea should be ready in a few minutes"

     "Just enough time for a scary story!" Rainbow Dash said as she sourly packed her sleeping bag back into her tent and plopped down on the ground in front of the fire.

     "I think I have a good one" Twilight smiled as she pulled out Phantom Fyre's scary stories for fillies of all ages.

     "Oh no you don't! All of the scary stories told here have to be real! No books allowed!" Rainbow Dash protested as she nonchalantly kicked her Daring Do book into her tent.

     Twilight frowned and closed her book, "Very well then. In that case, I have a story of something that happened to me last month"

     Applejack raised an eyebrow, "This ain't the thing about the gremlins, is it, Twi?"

     Twilight nodded confidently, "As a matter of fact, it is"

     Rainbow Dash groaned, "I've heard this story AT LEAST a million times! Are you sure it wasn't a crazy dream?"

     "If Spike was conscious right now, he'd tell you it wasn't a dream. He was there too!" Twilight insisted.

     "So he saw all these grumblin things too?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

     "Well...not exactly, but he was there and could see that at least I didn't dream it," she stated matter-of-factly.

     Rarity shot Rainbow Dash a glance, "Oh would you stop pestering her, Rainbow? Just let her tell her story"

     Twilight smiled, "Thank you, Rarity. I didn't tell all of you because I didn't think you'd believe me like how Rainbow and Applejack didn't, but I can assure you that this story is 100% true! It was on a dark night like this..."