Super Camp

by Rudefeline

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Science Fiction, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 11350

AJ tries to make heads or tails of teenagers of multiple species, not to mention new coworkers...

Super Camp! The Mane Six are split up, humans mingle among the ponies, nothing seems wrong with it all. We see Applejack and Twilight rounding up some kids(in association with the Progress Initiative) to spend as long as they need with the camp, the Super Camp.

Now AJ tries to make heads or tails of a group of teenagers.

Our responsibilities take what we have...
A story featuring a cast of young adults, AJ, and Twilight makes a cameo too.

Teen for swearing, references to the deed, and a smidge of gore.

Published 2016-04-18 20:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-06-10 20:38:26 UTC

Counselor's Intro

Counselor's Intro

Twilight threw her greasy mane back against the concrete. Gloomy basement. Dim light from a single bulb on the ground floor. Shotgun to her side. Strange monster carcass torned asunder a few feet from that. The shotgun was an Itala Es Om. Human Italian design. Twilight thought it was efficient, she liked because of that...

She was pressured into wearing the tac-suit. She hated how heavy it was. After every dusky walk out with that thing, it made her back ache. But Applejack could not and would not compromise.

Did not help this time. Now she was afraid. If only she had asked them to come. If only she had said something. Now she was crying. She threw her head back again. She could barely feel the pain. Too much in her stomach or what was left of it.

She did have her sidearm.

No, no way.

BANG
Arid and hot. The feeling of the edge of the canyon. The kids were exploring the rock formations behind them. Applejack had got hooked on those “cigarette” things. So she had one between her lips, its cloud from the ember's end drifting above. “Did you think this place would be like this?” Twilight asked.

Applejack also liked those shades “No, not really.” She spoke in her twang “I always thought it would be brighter, more colorful, grass greener.”

It was true. The place had been fairly drab and hot. But it had a good day once in awhile. “Do you think the landscape is stimulating?”

“You mean interesting?”

“Yeah, Sorry.”

“Oh no, no reason to be sorry. I at first, hated the place. Kept it hid alright. But it was the way the sun beat me down. Into submission, I guess.”

“Feel the same.”

“The kids are so good.” AJ regarded them with obvious affection.

Twilight felt a little awkward about her feelings. She couldn't be certain yet.

BANG
Twilight heaved and her breath started to get harsh again. Over and over, she felt sick. It came on so sudden. The pain. She took her remaining breaths through her nose. It felt kinda easy. Murmuring from above through the door. “Here!” She called and her voice scratched.

AJ opened the thin sheet metal shack door. “Oh shit, Twi!” The floor before her was crumbled and broken. “Kids, stay back!” Applejack turned and thrust her hoof a little too strongly in their direction.

Twilight's head beat like a drum. She didn’t notice AJ hop down the precarious incline. Nearly falling, AJ maintained her hooves. She rushed up with teary eyes to Twi’s side. “Let’s get you up, what the buck happened?”

“Calm that mouth, AJ, there are children.” Twilight looked austere, the piece of rebar had made a great hole in her gut.

“Oh god, Twilight,” AJ spoke and blood welled in Twi’s abdomen. She passed out.

AJ place a hoof behind Twilight shoulder blade. She wanted to tear Twilight off the thing. Probably just make things worse. She brought her head close to her’s. She pressed her forehead against her’s. Twilight’s head surged headbutting AJ. “Shoot.” AJ rubbed her aching noggin.

Twilight’s eyes were open and rolling about the room, mindlessly. Applejack tried to dissuade her feelings, she heaved with tears. Soon her movements grew slow and sluggish, then they ceased altogether. Her eyes were open forever in death watching Applejack.

`

The radio hummed to her. Jason let her rest her head on his lap. It was a nocturnal journey. The lights of the apartments like stars in space. Several story tall business buildings full of ponies and humans. There were some disputes between the two species, but that was not what she wanted to think about.

She hummed along with the radio. Jason held the wheel a little uneasy. He spoke interrupting her crooning melody “Do you remember Samantha?”

She pondered the memory, a beach and the water welling up into the seaweed and washing over a young mare’s corpse. Her heart sank, he was thinking of her again. “Yeah… Why?”

“Just you leaving and the night and all this.”

“I’ll be gone for just a while.”

“I know, I know. It’s just I can’t stop seeing her there.”

Jason was running towards the waves that kept her from him. They were stealing her blood drained body into the rolling whitecaps. Sprays of acidic white salt water. He retreated onto the wet sand and collapsed onto his knees. She could only watch him splinter.

“I wish I could tear the heart out of that damn sea.” He grasped the wheel and his hands turned red.

There was nothing she could say. Nothing she could feel for him, but put her head on his lap to keep him warm and try to sleep.

Her dreams played a dissonance like a cacophony of screeching synthesizers. The only image was her trotting over a staticky city. Ignore the cries of the ponies in the buildings, stand at the side of a mystery man.

It was new year’s night. Snow began to fall on the car. Turning to liquid when pressing against the windshield. The man at the wheel reached for a cigarette pack in the center console. He jammed one between his lips and had to look for his lighter. He peeked to the right over her and around her. He spotted the plastic thing and snatched it from between the seats. He opened the lighter’s end and lit the thing. His eyes were a little red, and wet.

They were maybe a moment from the spaceport. He pushed on her side a few times. She stirred “We, uh, th-there?”

“Yeah.” They pulled up in front of the harshly bright terminal front. Fluorescent lights above the door so white it could not be tolerated. It made the midnight sky black in contrast. He looked weakly over to his partner.

“Only a year, Jason. I’ll be back soon enough” She leaned over and pretended to kiss him passionately.

Their lips parted and he shuddered and curled up on the inside. She spoke “Ok?”

“Yeah, I love you.” His words felt genuine.

“See you.” She used her magic to open the door, and after she trotted to the doorway.

A mare stood at the door to the terminal in standard blue uniform. A little voice rose from her throat “Are you perhaps, Plonka?”

Plonka sighed and nodded.

“Alright, come along, your flight is almost ready.” The flight guide guided.

`

The simple, but elegant, velvet-jacketed stallion with a spicy black eye mask. He outwitted his foe with a clever trap and the announcer announced emphatically “The Gold Stallion, bravely outwits and makes a fool of the bad guys!” The flattering cartoon took to the air “Watch the way he flies!”

The real Golden Stallion was tilting his glass of scotch back and letting the hot alcohol fall down his throat, hollering “I remember hating this show, now it seems like pure gold.” The cartoon caricature toppled over some big troll looking bad guys. The real stallion cackled at the vulgar display of power.

The pink ribboned mare sat nearly nude on the futon. She was looking into a hand mirror, reapplying her favorite shade of lipstick. Her body ached, but she ignored it. She cleaned between her legs and stood.

“Hey, hey.” He floated out of his chair and grabbed at her legs to stop her. “Where ya goin’, Sugarpie?”

“Another disgusting client to satisfy just like you.” She looked into his eyes with malice.

Those words cut him to the core. He was speechless, but still stuttering. He settled back in his wooden seat. He turned it to his mirror. The mirror had been dusted over after a box of powdery makeup had fell an hour ago.

“You’re on in six, Mr. Stallion” A voice squeaked from through the door.

“Got it.” He called over his shoulder.

Six passed.

“Welcome to, Today Now Right Now, Your favorite morning news program, Be happy to join us with our special guest. Who will be coming down right now, The Golden Stallion!” Everyone in the studio audience clapped their hands or hooves. Some cheered, Woo!

The Golden Stallion walked to the stage in full costume. Vintage velvet colonel’s jacket, white long cuffs reaching above the cuffs. His eye mask firmly tied around his head. And Last but not least, his white ten-gallon hat with a pin on it. The pin a depiction of a raven with its wings tied. He sat down in the blue seat next to the cast of news anchors. The claps all settled once he was in his seat for a good few seconds. He spoke in his charming twang “Happy to be here.”

The host anchor, Jewel, spoke. “Yes, and it seems like the people love you.”

“Yeah, seems like it.” A myriad of woos erupted from the crowd.

A different anchor spoke up “Now, not every watcher knows where you came from, so maybe you can tell us a little about that.”

“I was born a farm’s hand and scraped my way by on the planet Masu Kama, but knowing I needed something more I went to the border worlds and found a job in local defense.”

“How was working with a badge?” A brown stallion asked from the panel.

“Noble work, dangerous, but I like it that way.”

The panel chuckled and another one asked a question. “So when did you discover your powers?”

“I was in a middle of an operation and when I was capturing a bad guy, I flew out the damned window,” Everybody and everypony laughed.

“Now, most know you were a part of the Super Team, but most don’t know any details of the team chemistry. Could you maybe enlighten us? Who were you closest to?”

Her face was pale, but her hair was black as midnight and bright as twilight. “That Bonhomme, French fella.”

That woman with purple eyes looked at him “I was wondering about, Lilian? There were some rumors...” The voice went to blahs. He scrunched up his hooves and his brow sweat, he felt sick.

“Well, what about it?” She smiled at him with perfect white teeth.

“Lilian was sweet.” He barely could look in that woman’s eyes. He barely could feel his legs.

“Ok, I see…”

The lights went down on the set. Fade to black. He storms off in the darkness to his dressing room. He throws open the door and reaches for his drink. He downs the last of it and looks unhappily into the mirror. A grimace he was too used to seeing.

He put his head down onto the envelope. He lifted his head and looked at the thing. A manilla envelope. The envelope felt smooth, he undid it and looked over the papers. He honestly smiled a single time during that reading.

He found the nearest spaceport the next day.

`

Applejack felt the dust below her hooves, it was weird. The kids had settled into their bunks for the night. Most of them. She listened to a few skulk around the foodshed. It kept a smile on her face. Only a single electric sconce on the shed. She had stamped out a cigarette a minute ago.

“Do you feel loved?” The young mare asked in a hushed whisper.

Applejack’s ears perked.

“Do you want to?” The stallion spoke up.

Applejack just about burst into the room when their lips had met. “Teens, this ain't why you are here. Out!”

Their faces both went red and they stuttered like kids. The young mare picked herself up, and left. The stallion stood looking a bit stand offish. “This is not fair, we’re allowed to do what we want!”

“Sorry, but that’s a no. If you're with the camp, you gotta be with the camp. Sorry.”

He huffed and almost looked like he was going to hit his head.

But he departed in the direction of his cabin. AJ spoke up “To the Mess the both of you, we’re going to have to have a talk.”

AJ cleared her head for a minute. “Super Camp, what a dumb name.”

… counselor(')s end.

Author's Note

GS Inspiration:

Camper's Intro

He kept a hand on his hat. The wind blew in the evening. The scrubby shrubbery leaning sideways. He carried the sack over his back. A thing of potatoes from the trader up the road. It had been a hard month. The shack was falling apart and the storms seemed to just be getting worse.

The place seemed to be as sturdy as a tree when he was a kid. Dad was a space marine. Mom was from a world not so far from here. She always talked about going back there one day. Said it was her soul. A land she described with the people who she lived with. The ocean, she told them about the ocean. The seagulls squawking and the stoney beaches with groves of seaweed. She had an old picture album on her holotape. Photos of a crab in the mud, and Dad by her side.

Then the time rolled around. When it all went east. Where the sun rises.

He had a mattress hidden in the leaky basement. He curled up on the thing and ignored the cutting wind. Pain was no longer a thing he cared about. He woke every morning, his back aching, leg bleeding, and nearly frozen. That trader said he was lucky to be alive. He didn’t agree.

Waking up, he felt better than most nights before. He knew that he had to leave his home. He grabbed up his revolver and pushed open the back door. The sky was blue and only a few clouds rolled on by. All that gravely sand looked yellow from here. It took an hour of walking to reach the healthy valley beyond the shack.

He stood at its apex looking down on the herd of gollopogoose. He extended out his two arms keeping the revolver’s sights trained on a thin one. The deer-like creature was colored a drab yellow and had a single cavernous nostril on its muzzle. The soft flat-headed skin at the nostril looked raw. He aimed for its center of mass of one, a prosperous stud. He took a shot and sheltered his eyes from the sun. The gollopogoose ran for a hundred feet in plain view and collapsed next to a bit of scrub.

He sighed and picked up his legs in the direction of the goose. It was a hot day and even he was sweating. Over years of living about his planet, he had grown a resistance to the heat, but there is no immunity to the harsh orb above. He used a bandana to rub away the sweat on his brow as he treaded the final stretch before the carcass. He jogged to the goose’s flank and said “You went down easier than I thought ya would.” He talked to himself because he knew his voice needed the exercise.

He took his knife and stooped down next to it. He made a cut along its stomach. But that’s when he heard the hiss. The slithering in sand next to him. He froze up and his hand sweated and dripped down the knife’s grip. He slowly shifted his head towards the snake, but the thing flared into his eyes. He clenched his eyelids shut and felt the hot scales on his forearm and tried pulling the long thing off. He felt this horrible stinging in his nose. He tossed the snake away, and covered the burning sensation that begun to permeate from the bridge of his nose. He needed to cry, he wanted to keep his eyes shut.

The sun turned to gleaming diamonds with a heaping of nearly white yellow sand. He stared at the sun, his mind wandering the valley, chew the branches.

After a meal of leaves he woke up. Sun leaning on his red ankle. He struggled to his feet, wiping his nose, his hand returned with crimson pooling in its palm. The Wheels of Confusion took ahold of him when he was hurt. Knocking him around a different world, they were not always strange, some were fairly normal. Like the one he entered, it was more or less the same. Everytime he awoke from being caught in the confusing spokes his wounds were, for the most part, healed. He still bleed, but the poison did not kill him. He resumed butchering the goose. Later he got his pack, returned to the carcass, and bring it back to the shack. After that, he could sell some of the goose’s parts to the old guy. But lunch first.

He sat at the firepit prodding the cooking meat. It was roasting to a pleasant smoky brown. He stabbed the thing and set it on his dish he washed last night. He cut and forked away for an hour till he was stuffed. He resolved to picking himself up and walking to the trader.

He wanted that generator. The generator he had been working towards for three years. The trader once offered to give it to him, he would not take it. He resented the trader for a few weeks, not going to sell the stuff he had, but eventually he had to return. And on this day he was going to accomplish that goal. He was only a few local dollars away from buying it. The horns sold for double what he needed.

As he perched the final descent before the sturdy building of the trader, he noticed the van parked several hundred feet away, on the highway’s curb. He shuffled down the hillside and hugged the back of the building. Keeping his revolver closed to raised. He moved across the gravel and rocky sand with care. Deftly using his boots to approach the front door. The sound of foreign voices bounced off the metal walls. He shook his head and ran back up the hill, little dusty rocks falling down the incline.

He ran all the way home, quickly dipping in and stomping down his stairs. He was in too much of a hurry and a loose step gave way under his heel. He tipped sideways “F-” his head cracked off a rusty nail and gushed blood. The dirty stake was halfway into his head. He retreated into the wheels and spokes again.

`
They held her hoof as she waited. Her eyes were puffy and red. “It’ll only be a minute.” The nurse assured her. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but be prepared.” She sat in a bustling waiting room.

Sandshell looked up to the nurse. The nurse looked away embarrassed “Sorry… just the hospital has been busy. Humans have been getting it like nobody’s business. It's a minor affliction, it’s basically just a subtle mental disability.” She put a hoof on the other mare's “No way a pony can get it. Don’t worry.”

“Where’s my father?”

“He’s been informed, he’s on the way don’t worry, Cutie Pie”

“Thanks.”

“It’s my job.” She held Sandshell’s hoof for a while, but then someone called her into a room with a man who was writhing. “Just wait here, I’ll try to be right back.” She trotted into the room and pulled the blue screen closed.

She couldn’t shake a bad feeling in her gut. She felt sick too. Headache firmly in effect, she was used to them. When dad had to work and she was sick, she’d stay home by herself, simply dealing with the pain. But lately her father has been much more attentive. Sandshell’s head beat like a drum. More than normal. She held her temples.

Dad was dashing down the hospital hall, looking at his baby. Something channeled through her mind. She fought it back with all her might. She fell sideways off the chair. Head matted with sweat. Dad came near and spoke panicked “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“My head hurts!”

“We’ll get you some medicine. Doctor!”

“Oh god!”

He picked his daughter up with his magic and carried her to a room. He placed on the bed and doctors filtered in. They were much more casually dressed, carrying cases. Some ponies, some humans. They moved with practiced speed as they set their devices in the room. All of this was over in a gust of wind. Her eyes scrunched and moist. Brown furred, she was nearly a mare. Her father hovered nearby, waiting for a word to be said.

A stallion in glasses asked while attaching a few things to Sandshell. “So she started this just yesterday?”

“Yeah, no warning. Head hurting when she was near the other students, ponies or people in general.”

“Can you think of anything sir?”

“No.”

They fixed the last wire to the machine and the display next to the hospital bed turned on. It was an image of the brain’s frontal lobe and its interaction with the other pieces. One of the stallion’s eyes went wide and he looked at the head doctor “Do you see that?” The waves of energy of course went to the spine and communicated passively with her limbs, but there was also something else in the middle of her chest. It wrapped its tentacles around her heart. A disgusting black mass that absorbed every wave of red energy sent to it.

“Couldn’t be, but it is.” He practically put his eyes on the screen. “Ponies don’t get the parasite.”

“Alright, the humans get medicated for them, can she?”

“I honestly don’t know. That's the largest parasite I have seen. And we've never tried the medication on ponies.”

“What’s wrong, Doctor?” Sandshell spoke and struggled through the beating.

He was totally thrown off guard. “She shouldn't be able to talk.” He walked to her side. “Go to sleep, it’s better that way.” He silently motioned for another doctor to get some anesthesia.

“No! It hurts so bad, my brain is going to explode.” She cupped her ears and tears swelled from her clenched eyes.

“Shit.” He looked at the display, as the other doctor was injecting the drugs in her backside. The red energy started to culminate rather than be absorbed, a new purplish blob formed. The screen went black and he turned to her. Her body was floating, the items around the hospital table too. She kicked at the air. He screeched and Sandshell’s face grimaced. Her father ran up and tried to bring her to earth. Wrapping his hooves and pulling “Sweetie, please!”

The lights all went a pure godly white, the sun like diamonds, gleamed and reflected its radiant heat. It sizzled and then it burned, then the inferno encircled her entire body. Then came the sound of screaming, she kicked at it, it scared her. They were all bad! Her ears must have been deaf after that.

She felt her fur burn. Terrible smelled whisked away by incineration. The spell had passed.

She awoke in the ashes of a city and her father’s too.

`
His fingers flicked and lit it. The two spritely sprinted out of the dark room.

“This some crazy shit.”

“It’s only the beginning. We have forever.”

The shed exploded into a million little pieces, smoke pluming up into the beautiful blue sky. A perfect day. His mouth agape in a huge smile. His short cropped blonde hair falling to the side of the head. The red Slam-a-Cola t-shirt he wore on the weekends. Johnny WaBuxom, neighborhood legend. His little brother next to him, Jimmy WaBuxom.

Jimmy was the kid to get into anything, and he loved his afternoons with his big bro. They hanged a mile or two behind their house. Taking their allowance to their uncle, Jack WaBuxom, and having him buy their bottle rockets. But that was not a bottle rocket, that was a full-fledged Boom Co. Bunker Buster. Not mentioning they always had to slip uncle some extra for a brew.

He ran headlong through the woods a few moments after the big boom, because he thought he heard dad in the distance. “C’mon, hurry up, Jimmy!” He pointed to the old shelter they found a few days ago. The green had overtaken the concrete walls on the sides of the stairs. Above, the big-top oaks created eerie shadows on the steps. The little shadow leaves lightly swaying in the cool breeze. Thick smell of decaying leaves.

“No, Johnny. It looks scary.”

“Don’t be a puss.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Shh!” He used a finger to separate his lips into two symmetrical pieces.

“Whatever…” He stepped down the stairs, carefully. His old jean overalls dragged the dust on the cuffs of his feet.

Johnny pushed the door and it opened with a funny creaking sound. Jimmy clung to Johnny’s side as they pushed further. They explored the shelter for an hour. Finding old canned food, broken bottles, cigarette butts, fire pits, smoky ceilings, and broken toys. Till they neared the last door in the dank place.

Johnny plugged his nose and without even smelling he followed suite. “There’s something in there. Smells like a dead mouse, worse.” Johnny put his hand on the door and pulled it towards him. The thing swung open and a bout of light met the thing. It was skin colored, but there was a sure presence of a rotting greenish grey color. Johnny threw the thing shut again and held his forehead against the door. “Get dad.” He was breathing heavy into his cottony sleeve.

Jimmy spoke up, disturbed “W-what was that?”

“Go ya nitwit!” Johnny yelled.

Jimmy ran as fast as his feet could take him. Shoes getting all scuffed up. He felt hot tears at his eyes. He jogged up the stairs and ran till he tripped. His knee hit hard off an old root and scratched up the fabric of the pants, blood seeping through. He shed wet tears right there. He couldn’t help thinking about what was back there. Just asking himself, Was that a body? Was that a body? Was that a body?

A bundle of leaves crunched under someone else’s feet and he looked up to the shadowy silhouette above. He recognized his father anywhere. If you didn’t know him, he was a quiet guy, but being so close to him brought out his best side. He cared and made them laugh when he needed to. But he was always worried about his other family members being around the youngsters. He didn’t like their snide remarks. Always talking about what a boy or a man is. That his kids needed to learn manners. “What’s the problem, Buster?”

“J-Johnny found something out here.” He used his dry palm to wipe away the tears on his red cheeks.

“What kind of something? Bad?”

Jimmy nodded. His father’s name was Elias. He kneeled down and picked little Jimmy up. His hair was black and pressed down. Elias asked Jimmy where to go, his son pointed the way, he set Jimmy at the top of the stairs, and walked down them.

Jimmy waited a long time above. He heard Johnny yell something he couldn’t quite understand. Jimmy’s feet were trembling. He saw dad walking quickly up the stairs, he was grabbing Johnny’s wrist. “Get off me!” Johnny yelled.

“We gotta go!” Elias pulled Johnny off his feet and dragged him up the stairs.

Elias screeched and stopped in his tracks. His hand was burning and turning to embers almost immediately. His face tensed up and looked in awful pain, he smacked his hand on the wall and it turned to ashy bits.

Elias got angry, but didn’t know what to do on that staircase. He ended up running, asking them to follow along. The journey through the meek forest took several extra minutes before they arrived at the stoop. Elias using his shirt to wrap the wound. It had started to crack and gush along the way. He was paler than they had ever seen him. Their mother caught the boy's footsteps and threw open the storm door. “What in Sam Hill is going on?” Her jeans clung to her and her hair was wrapped held in a bandana. She looked at the two boys expectantly, but caught sight of the bloody shirt Elias was holding between his knees “Eli?” She crouched down and took his big arm. The shirt was ripped, torn, and soaked in blood. “What happened?”

“I don’t know, Sheena, bu-”

“It was me.” Johnny interrupted with shimmering eyes and his cracking voice

She frowned, slapped him hard across the forehead, and took him by the hair. He whined, but resigned as she spoke a few decisive words to him. Elias stood to walk into the garage.

“Don’t you need the doctor, Dad?”

“No, no. No doctor could ever help your old daddy.” He plucked a cigarette out of his jeans pocket and planted it between his lips. He smoked it for a while near the crank phone, thinking about something. Jimmy secretly hoped it was to call the ambulance. Jimmy kept himself busy with a wrench. “That’s not a toy, Jim.” He kept his eye on the garage door to the innerhouse.

“Sorry, Daddy.”

Elias picked up a bottle of alcohol on the mechanic’s shelf nearby. He undid the cap. The whole time, yelling bled through the walls. There was a bang inside and Elias dropped the bottle it shattered and he stepped with his bare feet through it. Blood trailing behind every step he took. He pushed open the garage door. The smell of wood burning pervaded the kitchen the garage bordered on. He called into the house “Sheena? John?”

Johnny ran out of the hall, completely an infero. Like a burning ballet dancer twisting through the kitchen space. Elias sprung to the sink and filled a bucket with water. He barely turned enough and thrusted the bucket at the boy. The flying water broke the flames only for a moment, although Johnny screamed in response. Elias screamed at Jimmy to leave, but he was frozen watching his brother since birth roast in a fury of flame. Elias huffed and ran to Jimmy picking him up in his arms. Jimmy’s head still over his father’s shoulder watching the wall burst to flames and an arm reaching towards him. He reached back.

Elias ran around the house and found Sheena backing away from the house, tears draining the makeup around her eyes. He stared back, he could see the flames through the melting plastic screen window. He took he to the front and sat her on the curb. Jimmy said “A neighbor called the fire station.”

Elias ruffled his hair, Elias’s eyes also teary “Good boy.” He looked at his wife and barely uttered what he had to “What happened?”

She looked up. She looked directly into his eyes “I don’t know.”

They all turned around and watched the blaze blaze.

It was an hour before the flames were tamed. The firefighters had beat the fire back swiftly and searched the house’s innards. They dragged out a body, a black ashy body. Sheena ran with tears falling like streams. She skirted her son’s body and looked at him. His flesh was surprisingly not burned. She lit up and called back to Elias “He looks ok!”

“Missus, he died from smoke inhalation.”

“No, look at him!” The boy’s chest raised and fell. The firefighter tore off his helmet and brought an ear to Johnny’s ashy heart. The signature heart beating met his hearing. He stood and ran over to the paramedics.

Johnny’s eyes opened, they were all red and bloodshot. His chest shuddered, he sat up, and coughed up coaly-black mucus on his hands. Elias looked down onto his son as if he just been given a gift “WaBuxoms don’t die.” He picked up a rag and wiped some ashy black off his cheek “‘Cept when they do.”

Time passed so fast then on. Johnny was in an interrogation room before he bat an eyelash. He was then forced to show the police his powers. A flicker of fire between his fingers. Nothing more than that normally. He was special somehow. They told him about a place he could learn better about his powers. Where they would teach him to control the strange effects. But he abjected.

They made him sure it wasn’t going to be optional. He said his goodbyes to his parents and held his brother’s hands. His brother’s hands trembled. Johnny looked him in the eyes and spoke sagely “This is only the beginning. We have forever.”

`
The wheels started to sputtering and halted to a stop. He felt the nail push out of his head. Clank on the wood and roll away. There was a greasy bulb hanging above on a single stringy wire. It was bright and yellow. He stared directly into the orb. A southern twanged voice sound off a few feet away from his right ear “Gross power.”

“Interesting, I think.” A sweeter voice spoke with a more educated tone.

He sat up as quick as he could, reaching for his belt. Nothing was there. He rolled off the table without looking and impacted on the carpet. He got one glance up and caught the trader’s indifferent brown eyes “Calm down.” He kneeled down and used an arm to bar any escape.

He sat the kid up in the chair. The kid frowned and looked disinterested. “What do you people want?”

“Ponies, right now.”

He looked and saw two colorful horse sitting on two different chairs, next to each other. One had a blonde mane that swooped over two emerald eyes and an array of freckles. The other horned one had a dark blue and pink highlighted mane with purple eyes to match her fur. He blushed and turned away. He had not met a pony in years. “Would you like to live somewhere you’ll be provided for?” Asked the studious mare.

“No.”

“I understand wanting to be alone, survive for ya self, but it’s a lonely life” Applejack spoke sweetly too.

“No.”

Twilight swiftly followed up. “We want to help you understand what happened.”

He looked the lavender mare in the eyes “What do you know?”

“Some military men came by one day, couldn’t find anybody, not the woman who had a child there, nor the marine, and especially not the poor baby surely by himself.” Twilight looked into his eyes.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Go to camp, a few hundred miles away. There’s gonna be kids with powers like yours, not exactly like yours, similar.”

“Alright.”

“I promise you answers along with some help with the strange powers.”

“How did you know I had powers?”

“You’ve had a brush with the law.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“We’ll see about your memory too.”

“How did you get here?”

Twilight quirked her head, “A van.”

“No. In your position in life.”

“Oh, I see.” She place a hoof under her head. “I wanted to help kids who couldn’t help themselves.”

“There are hundreds of kids without powers that could be helped.”

“I feel bad about the tragedy that seems to follow the powered ones, they need the most help.”

“Other kids?”

Twilight smiled “Yeah, you’re first we’ve sought.”

Joseph asked sheepishly. “Ok, can I keep the gun?”

...Camper(‘)s End

Author's Note

R.I.P Likes.
*Throws hands up!

New Sitch

Applejack stared at her desk, her eyes only blinking when they needed to. She shook her head every once in awhile in disbelief. Johnny hopped onto the dusty porch and rapped on the screen door. She hollered “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Miss Jack, there’s tracks.” His two big teeth exposed in the arid air.

Her ears perked and she stood. Her head started to swim from sitting up too fast. She tread over to the screen door and pushed it open, the thing creaking. Johnny hopped off the porch in his jean get up and ran. She followed him across the dusty runway to the edge of the camp. Little scrubby brush clung to the sand for its existence. Applejack crouched low to ground next to some marks.

There in the dry sediment, was a three-meter, three-pronged footprint. Coarse black fragments of wood pounded in along with the track. Applejack heard the other campers start to approach, footsteps and hoofsteps. She trotted to the next track, which was more than several feet away from the last. Then at the same distance apart was another footprint.

Johnny asked “Why are they so far apart?”

She turned to him, to his side was the female cyborg kid that had arrived the day prior. Applejack answered “Could be a hopper.”

“A hopper?”

“On this earth, there’s certain types of animals, this type is roughly classified as a hopper. Well, that’s what I call ‘em. They use their legs to shoot across the desert in big jumps, makes it easy to scale rocks.” She pointed with her hoof to the orange stony cliffs above.

“Are we going to kill it?” The cyborg asked.

“No, Jessie.” Applejack picked her hooves up and strode back to the runway. “We have to wait for the new counselors.” Her words choke in her throat as she said them. She jogged over to her office cabin, the rest of the camp followed, excluding Sandshell.

Joseph pushed to the front, with his buzz cut, suede jacket, and ten gallon hat. “You can’t just leave us out here.”

Applejack had only a hoof on the porch, so she rested her heavy head on a wooden support. “It’s just for a minute, ok?”

“If there’s something dangerous out there, we need to stop it, before it gets us.”

She snapped “If you want to go hunting, do it.” Her face contorted into a jagged frown.

The kids were deadly quiet, all staring at their counselor. “Sorry, we just need to wait for few more hours for reinforcements.” She carried herself into the office and picked up her sunglasses, sheltering her eyes from the brutal sun.

Sandshell laid in her bunk, despairing. She had beat the wood of the wall for a few hours then got weary, cried till she napped, and awoke at dawn. Applejack bugging at her side. Applejack was much more silent than the five mornings before. It was not obvious to a groggy Sandshell, but thinking back, of course she was that way.

But where is dada? That’s what she asked herself every spare moment of the day. Tears always escaping her weighted eyes. Why did she have to kill him? And why was everybody treating her like a foal? Why did she get so angry when she thought about anything? Sandshell punched the wooden board to no effect.

Sandshell heard something and forced her sobs to stop. The cabin door pushed open and the servos clicked, bring her near the end of the bunk “Why are you up there?” The voice asked like it had been filtered through a bit crusher.

Sandshell leaned up and looked at the black haired cyborg with contempt. “I’m sad. Do you even feel anything?”

Jessie vaulted the bunk post and landed on top with Sandshell “Often.” She crawled close to the weak mare and breathed hard.

Sandshell curled up into herself. “Leave me alone.” She squeezed her eyes tight, tears falling out the sides.

“It’ll never be easy, just let it out and be done with it.” The cyborg sneered.

“Go away!” She yelled.

Jessie mouthed “O.K” sarcastically and hopped off. She pushed out the cabin door and watched the horizon. She caught a hatted boy’s silhouette and jogged to it. Her feet were silent when she wanted them to be, she snuck to his right, quiet as could be.

He murmured “Hear you.”

Jessie raspberried and assumed a position next to him. They both watched the golden ball of fire. A few gloomy rock formations pierced the bottom of the shining sphere. Eventually, Joseph had to cover his eyes, Jessie would never have to. She turned her head and watched his pained expression. “Do you want to go hunting?”

He turned with a new light in his eyes “Yeah.”

She smashed the padlock open, the shackle popping a few hundred meters above them. She tossed the lock over her shoulder and open the door for Joseph to get in. She stayed on watch out, peeking in the direction of Applejack’s cabin.

A minute later, he thrust the bolt rifle out the door. Jessie’s grinned and grabbed up the old gun. It was a long rust colored rifle without a magazine, just a simple bolt. She asked quizzically “How do we load this thing?” looking at the hatted boy.

He put a finger up and bent down, picking up the lock they had just busted, he opened the bolt and dropped the rusty padlock into the receiver. He put the bolt back into place, a light on the side went red, but after the gun buzzed electronically, it became green. “It’s good at recycling.”

Her eyes went wide and sprinted inhumanly fast out into the expanse of shrubs and sandy rock. Something dawned on Joseph, where was Fabio?

He followed Jessie passively knowing she will come back to him for some reason, and lo and behold; she returned with a mass of rusty cans in a single one of her hands. She smiled and asked him “Will these work?”

He laughed and nodded.

She opened up her backpack and tossed out her school manuals out. Her backpack was black and held home for dozens of pins, all some obscure rock act of some sort, but there was one that stuck out, Give Anarchy A Chance. Joseph asked, “What is that one about?”

She looked up with a dirty can lodged in between her plastic lips. “Hmmm?”

He crouched and touched the specific one. She spat the can into the pack and exclaimed “It’s the best band ever!”

“Everytime I ask you about one of these things, you same that same mantra.”

“Well, this time it’s true.” She put on a serious face. “It’s a very, very, very, very old band, ancient.”

He put up his hand as to convey, that’s enough. “Alright, I think we need to find Fabio.”

“Fab- oh right. Ok.” She threw the backpack over her shoulder “You lead.”

Joseph nodded and walked like a ranger on patrol across the flat rocky terrain. Jessie imitated him, but he ignored her. He knew he looked cool. He knew where Fabio might be, but he was never certain about that kid.

There was a thick outcrop of trees that made a small oasis forrest. Pine needles adorned fat green trees, the two had to climb over the roots as they traversed the untamed path. The one piece of water on the whole camp. A gleaming pond that perfectly reflected the blue sky. Little four-eyed water snakes hugged the water’s edge. When right next to the pond it was clear to see through. You could spot the tough fish that idled in the center of the water, long tendrils reached out prodding the bottom.

On the opposite end of the water from them, was the stallion they were looking for. Joseph sighed and hopped over the tall rocks and ducked under some to reach him. Jessie was quiet, watching the tree line suspiciously.

Fabio noticed and met them halfway, the stallion sported a brown coat and a black mane, he was mostly quiet, except when he wasn’t “Hey, bitches,” He weaved under a root and looked at Joseph.

“Hey.” Joseph spoke nervously.

“What’d you come down here to tell me?”

Jessie had her eyes trained on the brush on the elevation above them. Joseph spoke up. “There’s some creature around camp.”

“Oh man.”

There was a silence shared from the recent day’s ‘events’. Something croaked in the bushes above them. Joseph spun on his heel with the gun trained on the greenery. Jessie was already aiming. He side eyed her and asked her “Do you-” He felt it impact, warm and slimey on the side of his head before finishing that sentence. His skin burned and screamed to his brain. He fell into the wheels again, mashing around his fleshy skeleton.

In the real world…

Applejack blew a drag and let it hang around the air. She sighed and the smoke escaped her nostrils. Applejack opened a desk drawer with her hooves. Inside lay a trove of mini-disks, truly they weren’t much of anything for size, they could fit on your thumb with no trouble and were rectangular. She picked up a small case labeled; George Autie

She opened up the mirror sized computer on her wooden desk and slid the little disk in. After a minute of navigating menus, she found the right one. It turned on, and a perfect image of an imperfect old man. Wrinkles creased his sweaty brow, dark grayish mustache that did not fit well under his nose, two pool-like blue eyes. He looked from side to side in his position, the background was a brown wooden wall. He spoke “Can ya repeat the question?

“You were demanded by marine health regulations to decontaminate every marine that stepped onto the planet, why did you fail to do so?” The speaker coughed.

The man sitting, bit his lip, very subtly. “That would be much too slow, they wanted me to take that earth, and I had to do it.”

“Are you saying that these regulations don’t apply to yourself?”

“No, they don’t. We did good work and we got the job done.”

“I think it's obvious to see that these betrayals to regulation have caused irreparable damage to the native population. I think the judge will rule in our favor in a moment.”

“I did it for this planet, I gave them something the colonies would have never had, and now I am being thrown in jail?” His face turned bright red.

The speaker from before started again “Here’s an account of you doing it for this planet, ‘He walked into a house smelling of death and-” Applejack pressed a button on the mini-screen. She sighed and leaned back in the chair.

Her eyes grew heavy, but the thoughts infested her mind again. Why? Her eyes teared immediately. The liquid darkening her orange coat to drab gray, reach her neck it felt cool. She sniffed twice. More tears came out of nowhere, she opened her eyes and they were blurry with them. She reached over to a rag and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. But they would not stop. She just could not understand why.

The engines pierced the normally silent camp runway. Applejack felt compelled to wipe away the tears, but neglected to. She walked towards her cabin’s door slowly, she could hear the jet blowing the dust into the air, Johnny was setting on the porch, covering his eyes to escape the swirling sediment. Applejack waited behind the screen door and whistled over to Johnny. Johnny picked himself up and retreated inside with her. He noticed his counselor choking up still, but she tempered herself before the dust settled.

The slim black jet halted a few meters away from the building. Applejack trotted through the door and peered from the porch. The jet had no obvious exit, but it revealed itself by unfolding from the pitch black hull. The black stairs arched down and AJ galloped over.

Plonka rubbed her head as she stepped down. Golden Stallion emphatically marched down the stairs. He saluted to the flight attendant at the top of the ramp, then marched past Plonka to AJ. His velvet colonel’s jacket jingling and jangling. He walked up to the orange mare and just about winded up some sort of gimmicky line, but he stopped. He noticed her dark cheeks, her austere frown, the still tear stricken cheeks. He planted a previously eager hoof into the runway “Mornin’ Miss.”

“Mornin’ to you too, Golden Stallion.”

“I like Mr. Stallion better.”

“Alright…”

Plonka stepped forward and shook hooves with Applejack “Miss Jack? I’m sorry to hear about your loss.”

Applejack nodded weakly and spoke “It’s fine, was it Plonka?”

“Yeah, I don’t really like it, but I’m not picky.”

“Me either. Now your paper was very vague, what exactly is your specialty?”

She spoke eagerly “I have some experience with powers of the supernatural type, and physical manifestations of psychoactive disturbance.”

“Alright, I’ll gather up the kids. You could wait or come with me to gather ‘em.”

The Golden Stallion started “I think I’ll-”

Plonka intercepted the stallion “We’ll be happy to meet the kids.” The Golden Stallion quirked a brow.

They trotted in the direction of the cabins, he stared at Plonka “What in Celestia’s Galactic Majesty?”

Plonka didn’t even side eye the Stallion. Mind on a diamond’s edge.

AJ pushed through the girl’s cabin door. The room empty, except the cowering Sandshell. AJ leaned on the board next to Sandshell’s muzzle. AJ spoke softly “Hun, where are the rest of the campers? The new counselors just arrived.”

Sandshell shriveled out of their sight. “They left, well… I know Jessie did.”

Applejack nodded, dismounted the board, and whispered something to Plonka. After, the Golden Stallion and AJ left. Sandshell glanced around her bunk, knowing that the third one was still in the room. Sandshell slowly peeked over the bed, down. Plonka caught her eyes, but she did not have that urge to shy away. “Hey,” Plonka waved with her light hoof. “Do you want to talk?”

Sandshell avoided eye contact and squeaked out “About what?”

“Your head.” She leaned on the bed.

“Sure…” Sandshell welcomed Plonka onto the bed.

Plonka lifted herself up and floated her briefcase to the bare back wall. She opened it up, and two glowing wired nodes spilled out. They glowed blue and shined. Sandshell tensed up and her eyes didn’t move. Plonka spoke up “What’s the matter?”

She shook her head and bit her lip. Plonka hesitantly attached the two nodes to each side of her head. There in the case was a display screen showing green steady wave patterns. Next to it were a few needles full of some drug. “Now, I want you to listen to my voice,” She brought her two hooves together, clapping them loudly. “And say the words with me,”

Sandshell nodded.

Plonka spoke softly. “Kings are under the sand, constantly swirling around each other, trying to steal the same gold, what is the first card in the suite? Kings don’t like the answer.” She looked to Sandshell.

“That would be an ace.”

“Kings would like to be their own ace, yet they cannot face the task of being lonely.”

Sandshell started to feel sleepy, and she wavered visibly.

“Now, Sandshell, look at this.” Plonka raised a chess piece, a red king. Then she brought an ace of spades up to it.

Sandshell flinched and the card turned to hot ash. “What the? How’d I do that?” She forced her spine against the pale wood behind her.

“You’re capable of serious pyrokinesis. You being able to use it so well already is insane.”

Sandshell’s ears pinned to her head. “I don’t want to do anymore.”

“Alright, could we try a bit more tomorrow?”

Sandshell took a few moments to think about it. “Sure.”
`

There was calling from the woods “AJ! AJ!” Applejack galloped across the hot gravel into the forested oasis, the Stallion following at a trot behind her. She hopped a log and skidded to a stop at the lakeside. The sun gleamed off the water, but she could hear heavy breathing next to her. Jessie inhaled and exhaled, her mouth expanding a little too much. Her legs were inundated with red viscera. She fixed her fake breathing and called to AJ “It killed Joseph, the hopper.”

“Where is he?”

She pointed over the water, across where the partially dissolved and mangled corpse lay. The mare almost hurled, but she kept it in. The Stallion was losing his lunch in the bushes. Applejack asked, “Where’s Fabulous?”

“He ran away.”

“I can find him.” The Golden Stallion wiped his bottom lip.

“Let’s get you back to the cabin, Jess.” Applejack provided a pillar for Jessie. The Stallion stood there, clueless. “Get to lookin’.” AJ called at him.

He flinched at the sudden command. The Stallion hopped into the air and threaded through the thick canopy. He floated over the oasis and looked around the surrounding desert. Long stretches of white plains.

Sun hit down on the tall rock formation to the north. There he spotted a color out of place. A black mane. The Stallion flew over, the winds blowing his cheeks. He landed on the hill and called to the colt “Hey! Come back.”

Fabulous turned and looked at the costumed stallion. “Who are you?”

“I’m a new counselor.”

Fabulous trotted down the hillside, nearly tumbling.

“Hey kid, keep it cool.”

The colt looked up to the well-dressed stallion. “Hey, you cool.”

“Heh, sure kid. Let’s get you back.” The Stallion crouched.

“You want me to get on?”

“Yessir.”

They flew back to the camp.

Author's Note

Where We've Gone

Where We've Gone

“Miss Jack?” Johnny trailed behind Applejack, as Jessie bounced over to the girl’s cabin alone.

“Get to the cabin, me and the other counselor’s are dealing with something.”

“What is it?”

“A problem, it’s only temporary.” She stomped into the armory, leaving Johnny outside.

The weapons rack had held four recycle rifles, now there was only two. Applejack narrowed down easily who could’ve took them. The two were going to spoken to very sternly when she returned. She snatched her Gun-Gear from a cubby, a black bullet vest with a few folded up steel limbs, she put the vest-back on her’s and stuck a leg through one of it’s holes, and repeated the process with her other hoof. She tightened a few more fabric cords, and made one last inspection in the mirror. The two nerves were in line with her shoulder blades, and when she tensed or loosened up the limbs of the Gun-Gear moved too.

She grabbed the recycler guns and left.

Shades go aglow with bright blue lines that traced the earth around her. The heads up display calibrated, showing the temperature, direction of wind, time, and the nearest breathing creature(filtering herself out). It was 2:56 PM.

AJ turned around, “Can y’all see the light from the front?”

Plonka had just tossed a aluminum vegetable can into her rifle, and The Golden Stallion was hovering. In unison they answered “No.”

“Doesn’t somebody have to stay behind with them?”

“The kids, I guess, yeah…”

Plonka shrugged and returned to camp.

They prowled into the oasis, piercing the treeline, and eyeing between the large trees. She trotted down the path slowly, the sun hotly pressing the back of her neck, sweat dripping down her neck onto her collar. Rifle tilted to the side, allowing her down its sight. The birds in the tree chipped, and chirped. She spotted a blue four winged one hop from one branch to another. But farther something shifted in the underbrush. The gun was fixed to the spot where she had seen the brush shift, blindly backing up. She could hear the water lightly being blown by the wind, the canopy above rustling along. AJ felt choked up, as her tired eyes teared up, she blinked swiftly to clear the fluids.

She backed under a thick root before glancing around the little lake, she spotted Joseph’s mangled remains on the water-edge opposite of her. She turned her snout skyward and whistled. A few quiet moments passed and the canopy opened above her, The Golden Stallion sticking his head through. “What’s it?”

“Can you carry carry me to the other side?”

“Yep.” He floated down and scooped her up with his forehooves wrapping around her ribcage. He had to keep his grasp tight to keep from falling.

“What the hay, take it easy.” AJ complained.

“I gotta hold ya, lemme do it.” He volleyed back. His face awkwardly half-smushed into her neck. He flew over the shimmering water, purposely landing several meters away from the fly-swarmed fresh corpse. “By Celestia…”

AJ sighed “We’re going to have to move it.”

“Whaddya mean?” His stomach turned.

“He’s not really dead. He just needs a few hours to, uh, recharge. But now someone has to move him.” She side eyed him.

“Excuse my English, but screw that.”

“You’re not a superstar here, Stallion, you’re just gonna have to do it.” Applejack scanned the treeline. “And comeback with a combat vest.”

“Why?”

“We’re all expected to wear one. You’re are not exempt from this too.”

He kicked the dust at the lake’s edge “Are ya sure you want to be here alone?”

She thought about it. “I can handle myself.”

“Fine!” The Stallion galloped over to the corpse, picked it up with his hoof, took to the air, and gagged once before he was out of sight, and earshot. Applejack shifted her eyes to her shade’s display. It sensed another breathing creature, forty-seven meters to the north. Applejack shifted her hooves and brought the sights to her eye.

Into the forest to the north was a bassy THWUMP. AJ strafed to her left, and hugged the sandy tree roots, some drab, tan sediment crumbling onto her mane and snout. She shook it off, waited, eyes watching intently where it had moved.

The brush parted, revealing ruby-colored eyes in the gloomy underneath. A hiss rose from the green bush, as it’s mouth opened wide, charcoal beak poking above the mini-canopy. “Alright, just another moment, bud.” Applejack pulled the gun’s hammer back. A warm sting of air left the recycler’s cylinder.

It left the bush quickly, a lightning hop elevated it several feet up into the trees, clinging to a branch, it made multiple little jumps from branch to branch, soon being swallowed by the green leaves that hung above the shore.

AJ kept her gun at the sky, trying to shrink herself under the roots to get as much distance as possible. The long black neck of the creature showed itself, beak following soon behind, then the entire shadowy head. It’s plumage, for the most, part was black, but there were puffier red feathers near its eyes, making it look like it wore a strange gothic headdress.

AJ honed her sights to the center of its skull. She tensed her shoulders, the Gun-Gear’s trigger-strap squeezing tight. One great bang broke from the rifle’s muzzle, and in much less than a second, a bullet buried itself into the creature above.

There was a terrible shriek and AJ opened the recycler's receiver to toss another can in from the Gun-Gear’s pack, but another THWUMP resounded from her front. There in the sand was the large black bird, crimson tongue lolling from its mouth. Blood pooling in the shore grooves beside it. Flies quickly swarming the carcass.

AJ breathed a several sets of heavy breathes. Planting her bottom on a nearby smoothed tree stump. She picked the shades from her forehead and set them in the sand. Her heart still in a race with itself. She nearly cried from the adrenaline come-down. But she laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Applejack hauled the thing on her back, it was heavy, but she was strong. She trotted, picking up the two discarded rifles as she passed them. After a rounding the lake to where she had been lifted by The Golden Stallion. There The Stallion was passing over her, AJ called up to him “Got it!” And he wasn’t wearing his vest.

He nodded and flew back to the camp. Applejack chuckled, breathed hard, and spoke to herself as her brow beaded “Jerk coulda helped me carry it...”

The wheels turned, grinding the body into the dirt, causing Joseph inequitable pain. Like his very soul was being scratched against steel wool. His skin was black with mud, after several revolutions the wheel stopped. He took this moment to calm down, inhale, exhale.

The carriage produced wooden sounding footfalls. The wheel shaking slightly. His face was almost buried in the ground, but had a few lucky inches from it. The footsteps closed in around the carriage to where the human sized wheel had been turning. He could barely get a peek at it. White, and shifting black colors just out of where he could focus. This had not happened before.

It drew closer and knelt. A strange emerged from it, whispery and raspy. “You have payed the toll in pain, Joseph, but that is not enough.” His neck was inundated in sweat. Cruel voices snickered underneath the carriage. “They would love to consume you.”

“W-what d-do ya want?” Joseph wanted to scream.

“If I let you return to the living world, you will have to brings us both.” Its rasp worsened.

“What are you?”

“Already, these questions are tiring me.”

“Will you hurt people?”

“No. You may.”

“Okay, whatever. Bring me back.”

The stakes that pinned him to the wheel were removed by it, one by one. Pain surging through each marred wrist. Once the last one on his foot was done, he felt it be re-lodged in. He looked down to the awful pain, a toe bone had replaced it. The same thing happened to his other foot, no matter how much he struggled the new marrowy stakes just kept coming. Now through his hands came the bone thumbs. He was forced to be an X by all the strict spikes. Joseph cried for mercy, but it would not listen.

Then his eyes closed. He was somewhere else, sun warming him. Dusty dirt annoying his barefeet. He could feel the jean shorts on him, he hadn’t worn those in years. Sleeveless t-shirt pressed against his sweaty back. He rolled his shoulder and reach behind his back to scratch an itch. “Wait.” He sat up. He was laying behind AJ’s cabin. The few electrical doohickeys in the back, whuzzing.

A few voices spoke somewhere in front of the cabin. Joseph stood and curiously skirted the building to reach the front. AJ and The Golden Stallion were talking “Where’d ya leave him?”

The Golden Stallion just about pointed to the back of this cabin’s porch, but he caught Joseph right in the eyes. “Oh, dang.”

Applejack followed his hoof and noticed him “By Celestia’s grace, What were you doin’ by the lake? You knew it was dangerous.”

“Fabio hadn’t come back.”

“OK, next time keep me in the loop, and you took the rifles?”

“Two of ‘em”

“This is unacceptable. Get to your cabin, now.”

Joseph turned and complied.

Applejack rounded up the young ones a few hours later. As she stood in front of them, Jessie kept herself wrapped around Joseph. Her large eyes dilated to be bigger. Great yellow moons with a black star causing the tiniest eclipse. AJ spoke sternly, but she could scarcely must up the energy to make it passionate, not that she had passion for reprimanding kids.

Soon the night was thrust upon the land, the sands becoming cold and rigid. The kids settled into their cabins in warm sleeping bags. Well, that was the plan, Applejack thought. Using her hoof to rest her head. Light from her desk lamp keeping the whole cabin illuminated. The Golden Stallion sat in a wooden-rolly-chair just pushing himself back and forth on the carpet. He took glances at the bottle of whisky when he could, his throat was feeling dry. The front door opened and Plonka pushed through, looking exhausted, she settled in the chair adjacent The Golden Stallion.

Applejack started “Now, Mr. Stallion, do ya have any ideas for what you could teach the kids?”

“If this is Super Camp, I think it’d be best if they learned to be charismatic, learn how they will dress themselves, so the populace might adore them. As heroes.” He breathed out.

AJ sighed at the rehearsed speech “That’s definitely something. But maybe you could also talk to them about being heroes, what’s it like.”

“Heh, maybe, it’s been awhile. I think the best practice is doing heroic things. Save some people, defeat a villain.”

“Alright, I guess the first step is to learn about each of their abilities.”

“Tell me about ‘em.”

Applejack dug through the files scattered on her desk, removing one file. “This is Jessie,” She turned it towards the two, “She’s an android of some sort, first of her kind, while she is a machine, she’s much more self-aware, and appears to display sentience. You’ve seen her emotions. There wasn’t much on where she came from. Her frame and servos have insane power.”

The Golden Stallion and Plonka scanned the type letters on the page. Soon feeling satisfied.

AJ opened a manilla envelope and laid out a dossier “Fabulous Francium. Pony from our homeworld, Terra Equis. He has an ability that seems very inapplicable at first, but has surprising utility. He’s reflective in most senses of the word. He gets along with just about everypony and he’s able to turn all light around. So when he wants to, in the sun, he can become a shining beacon. It’s quite blinding.”

The Stallion piped up “That’s chuckle worth.”

AJ shifted some more, and looked at the image of Sandshell, she sighed sadly. “This is Sandshell. She’s has some psycho abilities. Last time they went off, things ended worse than awful. She’s very fragile, so be easy with her.”

Plonka chimed in “I think I found her ability, it is pyrokinesis. Allows her to make and control fire with her mind.”

“Cool, can ya work with that?” Asked AJ.

“Yep.”

“There’s Joseph Juko, he’s been on this Ora for his whole life, his father was among the first to put his boots down here. Funny thing is, when his parents settled out to a quiet stead, they disappeared. His birth was barely recorded.” Applejack closed that file and moved onto the next.

“Johnny Wabuxom. Was in a confrontation, he suddenly combusted into flames. There’s not much to go on about him other than that. Only reason he’s here is because he survived that combustion without a scratch. And that’s about it.” She paused and took a drink. She began again “Tomorrow we’ll begin introductions and I’m gonna want you Plonka, to work with Sandshell, we don’t want a repeat of her disaster.”

“Chances are there’s not going to be. The first display of a psychic’s power is the strongest, unfortunately. Guess not unfortunately in her case.”

“Alright, now Stallion, you’re going to go over ethics with them, got it?”

They continued to plan the next day’s events till eleven.

Joseph sat in the darkness, quietly listening to Jessie humming. Sorta resenting her being a machine. She had her arms around his right one. He shut his eyes, just hearing the sweet melody she crooned. His arm was pins and needles for second, so he shook them off. It started to hurt “Ow.” he grumbled.

A Jessie’s voice spoke in the darkness “What’s it?”

He quietly tried to shake off the pain, soon it did wear off. But he could see something glowing behind it, like bones in a forearm. His left arm reached and patted Jessie’s head. She fussed about it, but he was panicking internally. He didn’t do that himself.

It reach over to her…. No. He squeezed his wrist, and tried pulling it back. It struggled to feel Jessie, but he brought back to where he had been resting it, and it punched once wildly. The wooden board cracked in half, and wood splintered, but it was all covered by darkness. Still, they had ears “What the hay is going on up there?” A voice called from below the two.

Jessie whispered “Yeah, what?”

“My arm, it moved without me.” Joseph whispered back.

“Oh, god why?”

“I think I’ve made a mistake.”

Author's Note