It was the first day of spring, and even though Pinkie was tired from Winter Wrap Up the day before she was still happy to help her Grammy Pie sort through some stuff in her attic. She was looking through an old box of papers when she came across something that looked interesting. “What’s that you got there, Pinkie Winkie?” the elder pony asked as she looked over Pinkie’s shoulder.
She looked up at her Grammy and smiled. Her olden face and graying light pink mane brought out her pretty green eyes. “It’s a folder that says Pink Apple Acres on it.” Her Grammy’s face lit up.
“Let me see that, Pinkie Winkie.” Pinkie handed her the folder and she sat down in her rocking chair. Pinkie set beside her on the floor. “Pink Apple Acres was an old camp site that actually belongs to our family.” Grammy Pie opened the folder. Inside was an old picture of a campsite. Several brown and white cabins around an area with a few picnic tables around and a fire pit in the middle.
“We just let it run down?” Pinkie said sadly, looking confused.
“Oh no, Pinkie Winkie!” Grammy Pie took a bundle of what looked like pictures out of one of the folder pockets and removed the rubber band that bound them together. She handed them to Pinkie. She went through each of them and stopped at a picture. It was one of her as a small filly and another filly. She swore it looked like Applejack. “We use to spend every summer there. Us and the Apple family.” Pinkie smiled as she looked through the pictures. There were pictures of both families playing games, eating, swimming, and even sitting around the fire talking.
“So what happened?” Pinkie handed the pictures back to her.
“I’m not sure, Pinkie Winkie. Over time both families became too busy, I suppose.” Grammy Pie pushed her glasses back up her nose.
“Aww, I bet it was such a fun place.” Pinkie sighed as her mane flattened a little.
“You know, Pinkie Winkie, the camp was last put in my ownership.” Grammy Pie’s soft smile brightened. “Would you like to have it now?”
Pinkie jumped up and squeaked, her enthusiasm building, making her mane puff back up. “Really, Grammy?”
“Maybe you can bring it back to the fun place it used to be,” Grammy Pie said.
“Oh, Grammy, thank you!” Pinkie gave her Grammy a big soft hug, “But where is Pink Apple Acres?” Grammy Pie took a piece of paper out of the other folder pocket and handed it to pinkie. It was a map of the Everfree forest.
“There is a safe path in the Everfree. It was enchanted by Princess Celestia many years ago. If you follow it it’ll take you straight to the camp.” Grammy traced the path on the map with a marker.
“Why did she enchant it?” Pinkie wondered, looking at the map again.
“So it would be safe for our family and the Apples to travel to and from the campsite” Grammy explained. “She has always shown kindness like that to her subjects.”
The next day Pinkie hopped happily to Sweet Apple Acres. She trotted up to Applejack who was bucking trees. “Applejack, I have amazing news!” Pinkie smiled big.
“What’s that, Pinkie?” She bucked another tree and caught the apples in a basket on her side.
“WE GET TO RESTORE PINK APPLE ACRES!” Pinkie jumped up excited.
“What the hay is Pink Apple Acres?” Applejack gave her a puzzled look. Pinkie explained everything Grammy Pie told her to Applejack. She even showed her the picture of them when they were little.
“Wow, Pinkie Pie, guess we’ve been friends longer than we thought.” Applejack placed a few buckets of apples in the barn. “I plum forgot all about it.”
“So what do you say, Applejack?” Pinkie bounced around.
“Say to what?” Applejack closed the barn door.
“Restoring the camp, silly.” Pinkie giggled.
“How do we do that?” Applejack wondered. Pinkie thought for a minute.
“I GOT IT!” she jumped up in excitement.
“What!” Applejack asked startled. Pinkie put a hoof around her.
“We should gather the girls. It’s gonna take all of us to do it.” Applejack nodded and they headed off to find the others. Soon they were sitting in Twilight’s castle and Pinkie explained everything to them.
“So now that everyone knows, Pinkie… what's cookin in that head of yours?” Applejack inquired.
“We turn Pink Apple Acres into a summer camp!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“A summer camp?” Twilight asked, intrigued.
“Yes, for fillies and colts.” Pinkie hopped up and down happily.
“It does sound fun,” Fluttershy chimed in.
“I agree. Maybe it can be for fillies and colts all around Equestria,” Twilight suggested, “but where is this campsite?” Pinkie reached in her saddle bag and took out the folder her Grammy gave her. She took the map out and showed her.
“We follow the path right to it.” She pointed out the marked path on the map.
“Welp, no time like the present to head there, I guess,” Applejack said. “Big Mac, ya feel like givin us a ride there?”
“Eeyup,” was all the big red stallion spoke as usual.
Soon they were on their way down the enchanted path to Pink Apple Acres. An hour later they made it to the end of the path. In front of them stood an old wooden sign, weathered down with time. All they could see on it was the word Acres.
“This is it! This is it!” Pinkie called, hopping out of the wagon. The girls followed her and they walked around inspecting the old camp grounds.
Rarity reached up to a piece of wood on one of the cabins, and with a single touch the rotted piece of wood fell to the ground. “Pinkie… Darling, not to be rude but why do you wanna own this place? It’s awful.”
“It is now, but once we fix it up it’ll be a camp of fun for all the little ponies!” Pinkie cheered.
For the next few weeks the girls spent every day fixing up the camp. They picked up litter, fixed and painted the cabins. Blue for colts and pink for fillies. Rarity made the blankets and pillows for the beds, and Applejack and Pinkie rebuilt and painted the picnic tables. On the last day Twilight used her magic to make magical lights in the cabins.
“We did it!” Pinkie proudly danced around, “it looks just like it used to!”
“Even better,” they heard the familiar soft but regal voice call as Princess Celestia landed. They all bowed.
“Princess Celestia, what brings you here?” Applejack wondered.
Celestia warmly smiled. “Twilight told me about the plan Pinkie Pie had for the campsite, and then ran her idea by me.”
“Um… not to be rude, but why?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“So I can help get the word out about the camp in two weeks.” Celestia smiled.
“She even offered to help fund the camp” Twilight announced.
“Fund?” Pinkie and Applejack asked as the same time.
“I will help you buy all the supplies you need for the camp and children, toys, food, things like that,” Celestia stated.
“That’s mighty kind of ya, princess.” Applejack bowed.
Celestia nodded. “Better get to work on figuring it all out. You open in two weeks.” Celestia flew off.
“Well let’s head back to Ponyville and make a list!” Twilight ordered as they jumped into the wagon and Big Mac galloped off.