Timber Spruce slammed his hands on the desk. "This is way too dangerous, Gloriosa!"
She raised an eyebrow and said nothing until he moved his hands, revealing cracks in the wood. "How is it any different from what you just did? The whole world is magical now, Timber. It's natural."
Timber scowled. "You and I both know that there's a big difference between natural and safe. For all we know, you've made yourself a necklace of magical poison ivy covered in black widows."
"Which is why I didn't take all of them. Not yet." Gloriosa put a hand to her necklace and its five crystals, but hesitated before actually touching it. Before she could continue, she spotted something in the adminsitration cabin's window that made her jaw drop.
People had shown up early to Camp Everfree before. Sometimes they got the date wrong. Sometimes they wanted to see the facilities firsthand.
Up until now, no one else had appeared on the dock in a burst of golden light.
Gloriosa and Timber raced out of the cabin and boggled at their guest.
"Is... is that—" Timber's gaze darted to his sister, striding forward. He grabbed her arm. "What do you think you're doing?"
Gloriosa smiled at him like he was seven and patted his shoulder. "Relax, I got this."
"You so don't got this."
She leaned in close. "Not in front of a camper, Timber."
"Sis, I really don't think God came here to camp."
"I wish people wouldn't call me that." Both siblings' head looked forward to see Sunset had approached them. She waved and gave a surprisingly shy grin and a wave to match. "Hi. Sorry for barging in like this."
Gloriosa put on a smile so big it looked almost painful. "A pleasure to meet you in person, Sunset. I'm Gloriosa Daisy and this is my brother Timber Spruce." She thrust out a hand fast enough to make Sunset flinch back before shaking it.
Timber waved. "Hi. So, what brings you here?"
"Well, I'm part of the group coming here in a few days and I thought I'd give the place a look ahead of time."
Timber tilted his head. "You... still go to high school?"
Gloriosa jabbed him in the ribs. Her smile didn't shift a bit. "I'm afraid there's not much to see, and I'm sure you have much more important things to do with your time. We'll see you with the rest of Canterlot High in a few days. Be sure to think about how we can make it the best week of camp ever!" The last word went high enough to make Timber flinch.
Sunset hesitated for a moment. "Well, that wasn't the only reason I came here."
"It isn't?" Gloriosa's smile grew brittle.
"After the Quetzalcoatl Incident, I started looking for signs of older magic. Before then, I hadn't known there was older magic to look for."
"Really? Well, that's odd. I know I've never encountered any magic other than what you gave us. Isn't that right, Timber?"
He frowned. "We—"
"Yup!" said Gloriosa, putting an arm around Timber in something between sibling camaraderie and a chokehold. "No magic here but us earth aspects!"
"Really?" Sunset raised an eyebrow. "What about the enhancers around your neck?"
A blank blink. "What enhancers?"
Sunset crossed her arms. "The very visible crystals."
"Oh, these old things?" The way Gloriosa looked down at the necklace might have seemed casual if the following laugh didn't make the hairs on the back of Timber's neck stand up. "If they're magical, that's news to me! So, any activities come to mind for next week?"
Sunset gave her a long look. Gloriosa's smile grew ever more strained. One of her eyelids began to twitch. Timber took the opportunity to break out of the hold.
After another few uncomfortable seconds, Sunset turned to him. "What's wrong?"
Gloriosa all but dove between them. "Nothing! Nothing's wrong and everything's fantastic and will be for generations to come!" She turned around, and while her tone stayed sweet, her expression turned anything but. "Isn't that right, Timber?"
He stared at her for a time. Finally, he stepped around her and said to Sunset, "No. It isn't."
"Timber."
"We're in debt. Severe debt. Our banker agreed to give us a month to pay everything off, but that was a few weeks ago. At this point, there's no way we'll be able to do it in time." Timber shook his head. "Without some kind of miracle, your group will probably be the last campers who'll ever be here."
Gloriosa opened her mouth, but shut it again and said nothing, wiping her eyes.
All three were silent for a beat. Sunset raised her eyebrows. "Huh."
The siblings traded a perplexed look. "What?" said both.
"I was expecting one of you to ask for that miracle. I'm honestly impressed."
Timber shrugged. "If you don't want to be called a god, you probably won't dish out miracles on command."
"I just want to handle this on my own." Gloriosa's hand went to the crystals again, this time more slowly. "I... I think I can with this extra magic. Make the place so incredible that it'll earn us enough to pay back Filthy Rich."
"I see. What kind of party magic do they grant?"
Gloriosa frowned. "Party magic?"
"You know, party magic," said Sunset. "Decoration creation, confetti explosions, pastry summoning, that sort of thing."
"Uh... They let me control plants." Gloriosa called up a vine to demonstrate.
Sunset considered it. "How will that help, exactly? No offe— Darn it."
Gloriosa bit her lip. "I'll think of something." Even she didn't sound convinced.
Sunset certainly wasn't. "Uh huh. Have you considered any other sources of income? Crowdfunding, maybe?"
"What-funding?"
"You know, asking people for money on the Internet."
Gloriosa's jaw dropped. "That's a thing?"
Timber groaned. "How many times did I tell you about ComeFundThis?"
"I thought you were making it up."
Timber threw up his hands. "How many times did I show you ComeFundThis?"
Gloriosa followed suit. "You know how to code the Interweb!"
He facepalmed. "I know how to browse it."
"Interweb?" said Sunset.
"I am not good with computers."
Timber nodded. "I'm pretty sure ours has started laughing at her."
"Huh. I may need to get you in contact with a few friends of mine." Sunset turned to Timber. "So, any luck?"
He shrugged. "A lot of well-wishing, but not a lot of cash. I've tried getting the word out on MyStable, but I think it's gotten lost in the shuffle as people figure out what magic can do."
Sunset winced. "That's... admittedly possible. I brought it up because one of my friends suggested I make a Benefacteor account after a few episodes of my blog series. The next day, they closed my account and very politely asked me not to do it again. I... may have crashed FundFriend's servers."
Timber stared at her. "What."
"Is that good?" said Gloriosa.
"That's insane."
"I gave back as much as I could, but some people refused, even after I threw their money back at them." Sunset shook her head. "And I mean literally throwing money at them. Some threw it back at me. And oranges. Don't ask. The point is, I could definitely help out with this next payment, give you enough time to set up some sort of benefit event."
The siblings shared another look. Each saw the same unease. "It's... very thoughtful of you, Sunset," said Timber.
"We just don't feel comfortable accepting your charity."
Timber nodded. "After everything we've put into this camp, having it saved by an almost literal deus ex machina feels... hollow." He sighed. "Even if we don't have any other choices."
Sunset hummed to herself as she stared at Gloriosa's necklace. "What if it weren't charity?"
Gloriosa took a step back. "What do you mean?"
"Suppose I hired the two of you."
"We kind of already have jobs," said Timber. He waved a hand about their surroundings. "You know, with the camp we're all standing in?"
"Look, there's some dangerous magic out there. Some needs to be contained in a secure facility. Some can just be kept in a remote one. If I paid you two to keep an eye on those crystals and a few other artifacts I might come across, would that work out better?"
Timber turned to Gloriosa. "What do you say, sis?"
She nodded. "I can definitely live with helping to keep the whole world safe."
"Can you live without those enhancers?" said Sunset.
Gloriosa took a step away from her, holding the crystals. "Do I have to?"
"They're very poorly attuned to you. Using magic that doesn't belong to you could be... bad."
"Define bad," said Timber.
In a blink, the teenager who'd stood in front of Timber was replaced by a bat-winged, eight-foot tall demon with hair of fire and skin the color of a fresh burn. "Something like this," the creature said in eerily echoing, hauntingly familiar tones, "with insanity to match."
"Ah. Yeah, that's bad." Timber gave his sister a pointed look. "Isn't it, Gloriosa?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes. I get it. I'll be careful."
"Define 'careful.'"
Gloriosa sighed and slipped off her necklace. She staggered. Timber steadied her as she found her footing again. "Whoa. That's... whoa."
Sunset, human once more—whatever that meant these days—nodded as she took the crystals in her telekinesis. "Coming down from a mana rush is never fun. Can you show me where you found them?"
"Maybe give her a minute?" said Timber.
Gloriosa patted his arm and smiled. "Don't worry, I got this." She tried to stand on her own. Timber caught her in time. "Just give me a minute."
"And what are you doing here?"
Timber tilted his head, then turned to his sister. "Uh, Gloriosa?"
"Oh, sure, one of the Tree's many seeds just happened to drift through a spacial rift."
"Yeah?"
Timber pointed at the mouth of the cave. "Is there anyone in there with her?"
"And the crystals that just happen to perfectly resonate with our magical signatures?"
Gloriosa shook her head. "There's a crystal formation that looks kind of like a stump if you squint."
"Look, I don't need it acting like an overbearing mother. I have an actual mother and two Celestias as it is."
After some deliberation, Timber said, "So... the quasigod responsible for holding the world together is yelling at a crystal stump."
"That's completely irrelevant and you know it!"
"And I'm not sure if she's winning the argument," he added.
"Worried?" said Gloriosa.
Timber shrugged. "I doubt I'd do any better. Honestly, I'm just happy we have some kind of lifeline."
"Yeah." Gloriosa seemed to take great interest in the dirt at her feet.
Timber put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Hey, we both knew that the 'save the camp with plant magic' idea was a crazy plan."
She shrugged. "I was hoping it'd be crazy enough to work."
"But it wasn't."
"Looking back..." Gloriosa shook her head. "No, not really."
"Look, just stay there and don't do anything. I'm sure you can handle that." Both siblings turned to look at the cave entrance at those shouted words. Sunset stomped out, limned in a faint, golden aura. It faded as she took a deep breath. "Well. That's not exactly taken care of, but at least it answered some questions." She smiled as she turned to them. "Thanks for taking this on, guys. I'll try to keep the workload reasonable."
"Happy to help," said Timber.
Gloriosa beamed. "You can count on me, Sunset. I got this."
Sunset nodded. "See you in a few days." She waved and vanished.
"You had to say it, didn't you?"
"Well, I do."
Author's Note
Gloriosa's earth magic works a lot more traditionally. That, and a latent fear of messing up technology that's become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The nice thing about Benefacteor is that you can just flip the Patreon logo and you're good to go.
I really did enjoy Maran's Gloriosa's Overgrowth, but magic actually from Equestria would probably register on Sunset's senses very easily, especially when she had reason to look for it. Plus, I don't want the super amulets in play right now. Especially not for Sunset. That feels rather excessive.
