Chapters Camp Everfree, Spring of 1993
Every spring, a group of seniors take the opportunity to go on the week-long retreat to Camp Everfree. They couldn’t be any happier; some of them paddle around the lake, a few fish at the edge of the lake, and others walk around. One, in particular, carves a Roman numeral on a stone disk, the fifth one out of twelve surrounding a triangle.
“Phew.” Celestia huffs before wiping her brow, “Guess this calls for a little cake break, right Luna? … Luna?”
Deep in the woods, a baby possum scrounged for whatever insect it could find. It spots a butterfly perched on a fallen tree branch, and catches it without giving it a chance. After munching and swallowing the insect, it remains motionless, relaxed, ready to-
“Hi, Tiberius!”
The possum springs from the log land on its back and remains motionless. In its petrified state, a dark figure blocks the sun. An honorary guest, Luna wasted no time exploring the camp; “Tiberius” is one such result.
“Come on, Tiberius, do you want to play?” Luna pleads, poking the marsupial, rolling it over, to no avail. In a huff, the girl sits on the branch, her arms crossed. “Well, I can play this waiting game all night if I have too.”
Unfortunately, Luna doesn’t have time to wait, for her ears pick up a deep, purring sound. She turns around and screams. A mountain lion crept from the foliage, looking up at the child with a malicious hunger. With a lick of its puffy lips, it crouches down when a larger shadow looms over them. A hairy arm stamps at the right of the cat, followed by another scooping it up.
The search party left no stone unturned as they searched for the future vice principal. With someone with a color scheme of dark blues, it's no surprise that Luna would be tough to find in the forest. Their ears pick up a screeching sound and look up in time to see the mountain lion in mid-flight across the canopy.
One danger down, one to go. And a much larger one at that. Luna stood petrified at the beast looking down casting its shadow. The view comes closer to her sapphire eyes, the faint reflection of the beast she sees growing larger. As the beast lets out a low growl, all we see now is the dark void of her pupil.
Glenview Springs, Colorado, Today
The dark void becomes a starry night about to give way to the dawn. All are asleep, every man and every beast. Even Sci-Twi, the Twilight Sparkle native to the world of Man. But this night, she had trouble sleeping, tossing and turning.
“No, no.” Twilight groaned, not even waking her companion on the chest in front of her bed. “It can’t be, it isn’t true.”
“Uhm, Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered behind the door.
Spike awoke to a series of knocks and trotted up the door. Twilight awoke, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Twilight!” - Rainbow roared - “The bus for Camp Everfree leaves in ten minutes!!”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Twilight grabbed her glasses and rushed to her closet. Spike opened the door, letting in the other Rainbooms. “I can’t believe I overslept!”
“Me neither. That’s not like you.” Sunset added, watching the Techie grab her suitcase.
“Don’t you ha ave super annoying alarm clock that goes ‘Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh!’” Pinkie Pie lifted the pillow. The alarm clock was buzzing for four minutes straight.
“Let me just get changed.” Twilight went to her closet.
Rarity spots a copy of Princess Twilight’s Fall Formal dress and giggles.
“We’re gonna be out in the woods.” Applejack huffed. “When is she gonna need that?”
“If we are going to the moon, I insist she packed an evening gown.” Rarity started waving her finger at the farmer. “One never knows, darling.”
As Twilight tried on different shirts, she notices three familiar figures. Women with wings like angelfish fins come into view. She turns around and sees the figures floating in the air.
“The Dazzlings!?” The group shouted in surprise.
“How is this possible?!” Sci-Twi leered back, dropping her shirts. “You’re dead!”
”Yes. They are." A slow, seductive voice whispers behind Sci-Twi. She turns around. Before here is another Twilight Sparkle of a darker purple with violet robes, a glowing blue horn and “visor,” and massive wings.
“But-!?” Sci-Twi shuffles away, “Sunset Shimmer helped me to defeat you!?”
“You and your friends can never truly defeat me!” Midnight cackled as the true Twilight’s room pixellated and deleted like a virus. Even her friends aren’t spared. Alone, Twilight floats helplessly in space.
“You… You monster!” Twilight yelled into the digital world.
“Monster?” Midnight soars over to her kinder counterpart, towering her. “You killed Adagio and Aria! I am a part of you! I’ll always be there in the darkest shadows of your mind. I’ll be back, Twilight! And this time, I won’t stop until I have all the magic!”
Midnight transforms into a raven and phased herself into her counterpart. Twilight gasps in horror as horrid features grow in her body. As her skin became darker, Twilight curled into a ball.
“No! STOP!!!!”
“Twilight, wake up!”
Sci-Twi’s eyes shoot open, gasping like a hooked fish. She was inside a moving school bus, along with many of her classmates. They wore shirts with sleeves of a different color, cargo shorts, and tennis shoes. Likewise, Twilight wore her hair in a ponytail. Relieved it was all a dream, Twilight slumped in her seat before feeling a few taps on her noggin.
“Hey,” Twilight looks up and sees Sunset looking down at her, “are you okay?”
Not wanting to tell of her recent nightmare, Twilight gave a small chuckle, “Heh, I’m fine.”
“We are gonna have so much fun!” Pinkie Pie chortled before Sunset could ask any more questions. “We’re going to roast marshmallows, and eat marshmallows, and sleep on marshmallow pillows!”
Rainbow Dash, knowing Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, turned around. “Yeah, probably not gonna do that.”
“Maybe you’re not...” Pinkie Pie beheld before them a large bag of marshmallows then snuggled it like a teddy bear.
Though she enjoys the conversations, Principal Celestia became bored. She turned her eyes to the window, finding a rugged signpost that got her hopes up.
"Attention, students!" Celestia called out to the back of the bus. "We’re almost there, but before we arrive, we’d just want to say how proud we are of you raising enough money to go on the class field trip!”
“When we were your age, we made some of our favorite memories in these woods,” Luna added, waving her arms at the landscape around them. “And we’re sure you will too.”
“Now who’s excited for Camp Everfree?" Cheered Celestia, rallying the entire company to cheer, making the driver cringe as the noise echoed in the bus. Twilight had this at first but returned to her current thoughts. They do deserve a break after going on a suicide mission to a tropical island, but if not the Dazzlings, or the monsters, what else? Applejack reached for her guitar and started strumming while the others started clapping.
Far over the forest, the tone and mood are different, far different. Storm clouds loom over the forest and strike the ground like mad. A most unusual creature, a shrew the size of two elephants, scurries over to a strange glowing cave. A bat with a thirty-meter wingspan already occupies the cave drops from the roof and lets out a sharp hiss. The shrew, having no more of this, bites the bat on the wing and pulls it out from the cave. The two tussle, biting and clawing at each other. A loud roar causes them to stop. Before them is a common enemy as a shadow looms over them and lets out a howl in tune to another rolling thunder.
The sun shines brightly once more by the time the bus arrives at Camp Everfree. Once roll call is taken, the Principals and students stepped off and stretch. Though the Rainbooms have roughed it just a long while back, it was better than they hoped. Peace and quiet, a pristine lake just a few steps away, and best of all: no building-sized monsters hounding them.
“Isn't Camp Everfree just beautiful?” Fluttershy complimented, “I can't wait until we have our first nature walk.”
“I definitely wanna go on one of those.” Said Spike, drawing the caretakers attention to him.
“You wanna see all the adorable woodland creatures, too?”
“Yeah! Specifically squirrels.” Spike looks at a squirrel, “More specifically, so I can chase 'em!”
With a few barks, the little dog scares away the arboreal rodent. Having pulled her luggage from the bus, Applejack gives Spike a good scratch on the ears.
“I'm just lookin' forward to roughin' it.” AJ places her index fingers together, “I'm gonna make my own shelter,” - She then rubs her hands together - “forage for food…”
“Uh, you know they provide us with food and tents, right?” Rainbow Dash questions, pointing at the cabins as she walked away.
“Yup! Still gonna forage though.”
“I'm just after some R&R.” Rarity sighs as she leans on her trove of travel bags. “The past year has all been a bit too much for my tastes.”
“I'll say!” Pinkie Pie closes her fist then flips each finger holding a finger puppet. “We fought three evil sirens who tried to hypnotize everybody with their singing, one ridiculously competitive rival school, went to tropical island filled with monsters and-” She notices Sunset’s coy look and Twilight’s uneasiness. “Uh, heh-heh, no offense.”
“None taken.” Sunset turns to Twilight and gives her a playful fist bump, “You'll get used to it.”
“Yep.” Applejack, Fluttershy and Spike join the others. “Canterlot High has become a regular magic magnet, and that island ain’t exactly a pleasure either. Gonna be nice gettin' away to a place where we don't have to worry about that kinda stuff.”
“Stil, I feel pretty bad for Sweetie Belle and her friends.” Rarity reaches into one of her bags and pulls out a small picture of her sibling. “Being left alone and working those long hours to clear their name.”
“Yeah, well.” Rainbow Dash groaned. “They should’ve thought of that before starting up that Anon-a-Miss crap.”
Hearing how their adventure on the island started got Sunset and Twilight on edge. Agreeing, they continue for the campsite when footsteps come rushing behind them.
“Here you go, Twilight.”
The two turn around, seeing Flash Sentry keep up with them while holding Twilight’s backpack.
“Thanks.” Twilight brings the bag to her shoulders, “It's... Flash, right?”
“Yup, that's me! And you're you. And we don't know each other very well.” Feeling awkward, Flash scratches his head, “Cool story, bro.”
“Right.” Twilight coughed embarrisingly as she saw him leave, “I guess I'll... see you around.”
After giving a confused gesture, Sunset asks her, “Did I tell you about the times the other you visited here a few times before in detail?”
“Nuh-huh.” Twilight answered, shaking her head.
“Flash kinda had a…” Sunset looks ahead to Flash before clearing her throat, “thing for her.”
“Oh.”
Suddenly, the PA system ruins the camp's tranquility.
“Hey, everyone!” Announced a distorted, yet cheery, feminine voice. “If you could start heading to the courtyard, that would be rad! It's time to start the best week of camp ever!”
It took awhile for the newcomers to put their belongings where they’d be safe thanks to Rarity’s “good measure.” They gather around the courtyard while two new faces walked out of the office and stepped on the gazebo. One was a woman of various shades of rose-red wearing a yellow shirt, blue cargo shorts, a necklace of geodes and a headband of daisies on her head. The other was a man with tan skin, a beanie on top of his hair to two shades of green, topping it off with a chin like that of Bruce Campbell.
“Hi, everyone! Welcome to Camp Everfree!” The woman introduced herself, “I'm Gloriosa Daisy, your camp director! Think of me as your friendly camp and nature guide.” She motions herself to the man next to her, “And this is my brother, Timber Spruce!”
“Think of me as that awesome guy…” - Timber juggles the microphone, - “who should always be invited to fun things.”
“We aim to please, so before we hand out our tent assignments,” Gloriosa motions her hand to the crowd, “we'd like to hear from all of you. You're free to do whatever you like here.”
“Uh,” Timber interrupts, raising a finger, “except hike near the rock quarry. That's off-limits.”
“Y-Yes,” Gloriosa pulls her shirt collar, “but otherwise, your options are wide open. So what activities will make this the very best week of your lives ever?”
“Ooh!” Rainbow Dash raises her hand, “Rock climbing!”
“Done!” Gloriosa gleefully answers.
“Archery!” The athlete adds, pulling firing a nonexistent bowstring.
“Of course!”
“Tether-!” Sunset pulls Rainbow Dash away before she can finish
“Rainbow, I know you're excited,” She motions to the other campers, “but maybe give somebody else a chance to make a suggestion.”
“Arts and crafts!” This request coming from the hulking Bulk Biceps gave him some raised eyebrows, for which he adds, “My mom... needs new pot holders.”
"I'll supply the looms!” Gloriosa answers him.
“Cookie decorating!” Pinkie cheered, licking her lips.
“Ooh,” Gloriosa cooed with a posture to match, “I do make a mean sugar cookie.”
“Early morning nature walks?” Fluttershy peeped.
“With walking sticks for everyone!”
“Ooh! Me! Oh, uh…” Rarity paces back and forth before an idea clicks in her artistic brain, “a fashion show! Where I design the most fabulous camp looks inspired by today's hottest trends and have them modeled by my classmates in a gorgeous outdoor setting!”
“A camp tradition!”
In contrast to his ecstatic sister, Timber whispered, “We have literally never done that.”
Shrugging his warning, Gloriosa looks at the students again. All the while her brother takes a look at everyone else, in particular Twilight, who blushes long enough for Pinkie and Sunset to notice.
“I'll be taking requests the rest of the time you're here, so if there's anything you'd like to do, anything you need, just ask.”
"What about the camp gift?” Everyone turns to Principal Celestia, sitting as happy as when she was their age, “That was my favorite Camp Everfree tradition.”
“The camp gift!” Gloriosa voiced uneasily, “Of course!”
“Really?” Timber scrutinized under his breath.
“Yes, really.” Gloriosa seethed in response.
“Well, I just thought—”
“Then you thought wrong!” She hissed again. As everyone sees this quiet banter going on, Sunset leans over to Twilight.
“Anyone else picking up on a little tension between Gloriosa and her brother?”
“Ehh…” Twilight muttered before finishing with, “A little.”
“Every year, campers work together to create something useful. A gift for future campers. Working toward this common goal is key to forming the strong bonds that will last well beyond your time here at camp!” - Gloriosa turns to her flustered brother - “Which is why it's so important.”
Both of them step out and turn around before Gloriosa continues talking, “This gazebo was a gift from last year's group. Oh, oh, oh, and the totem pole and the sundial were also made by campers!”
“The sundial was our year's gift!” Celestia exclaimed with a big smile.
“Even though "some people" thought it was a little impractical,” Luna scoffed under her own breath, much to her sister’s chagrin. “since the sundial can't be used at night.”
Gloriosa chuckled, “You all seem like a-a really amazing group. So I'm certain you'll come up with something inspiring to leave behind.”
The campers let out a big cheer that echoed throughout the forest. In the deepest fringes, the cheering is heard under a colossal ear and opens up a pair of sleepy eyes.
“Speaking of leaving things behind,” Timber Spruce holds out a small box of cards, “now's the time when we give out tent assignments so you can leave your heavy bags behind.”
“Uh,” Gloriosa takes out her little box of cards as well, “girls will be getting their assignments from Timber. Guys, you're with me.”
As each band of the either sex gathered ‘round, Pinkie Pie is the first to step forward.
“Oh, boy!” She squeaked before looking away and reaching inside before pulling out a card with an emerald gem, “Hmm… Yay! I'm in the Emerald Tent!”
“Ooh,” Rarity also chirped, holding another with same image “me, too!”
Applejack walked up soon after, pulling up a card with an aquamarine gem, “Aquamarine.”
“Me, too!” Shouted Rainbow Dash, holding the same gem.
“Yee-hoo!” AJ cheered
“Oh, yeah!” Rainbow cheered alongside her before both laughed.
“I got Amethyst.” Said Fluttershy, on cue Vinyl Scratch looked at her and gave her a thumbs up.
After grabbing her card, Sunset walks off towards the totem pole and analyses the color.
“Sapphire.”
“Me, too!” Twilight looked at her card closely, fidgeting her glasses, “I mean, I'm assuming I am. Heh-heh. Technically, sapphires aren't just blue. Heh-heh. They can be pink, purple, yellow…”
“Yeah, but they're mostly blue.” Twilight purses her lips before turning around to Timber Spruce, “That's why they're named after the Latin word sapphirus .”
The forest is silent (and awkward) before Timber whispers, “That means ‘blue.’”
“I know.” Twilight also whispers before bringing the card closer, “But did you know that sapphires are just rubies without chromium?”
“Nnnoooo.” Timber answered, gently taking the card away from Twilight, unintentionally making her blush, “But did you know that Sapphire Tent is the best one?”
“No.” Twilight cocks her head, “Why's that?”
Timber leans forward, “Because you're in it.”
Rolling her eyes from the rather unfunny joke (albeit with a creepy face to match), Twilight swipes her card away.
“Oh, I bet you say that to all the campers.”
“Not true.” Timber remarks before looking at Bulk Biceps holding card with a red gem, “You're in the Ruby Tent? Ha! That's the worst one!”
“Aw, man!” The muscled wailed in anguish.
“I'm just jokin', buddy. “ Timber apologetically pats Bulk on his massive shoulders, “Ruby Tent is great. It's like a sapphire but with chromium.” Seeing how the hulking brute looks at him rather dumbfounded, he adds, “But the Ruby and Coral Tents do look an awful lot alike to the undiscerning eye. I better show you where it is.”
As Timber lead Bulk to his tent, he mouths at Twilight, “See ya around.”
Her cheeks blushing, Twilight curls her hair in her finger and turns around. Her closest friends were watching the whole ordeal from a distance; they couldn’t keep their laughter any longer and so chuckled.
“What?”
“Heh.” Applejack stopped chuckling, but still felt a little funny in her tummy, “Nothin'.”
After Twilight walks away from them to her assigned tent, Rarity cooed, “ Ooh! That was adorable!”
The moment is ruined yet again as Gloriosa blew on a whistle, “Okay, everyone, go get settled in. We'll be meeting at the docks in fifteen minutes to go over some camp safety rules. Let me know if you need anything!”
Each pair of campers grabbed their bags and dropped them off at their tents. While Rainbow settled in, Applejack volunteered to help with the rest of Rarity’s bags.
“I'm all for learning safety rules,” Rarity sighed, “but I do hope I can get started on my designs for the camp fashion show sooner rather than later.”
“Huh. I still can't believe you talked Gloriosa into havin' a fashion show.” Adding to her argument, AJ raises her arms, “We're in the middle of the woods, for cryin' out loud! We're s'posed to be roughin' it!”
Being out of earshot from the camp leaders, Rarity points at Gloriosa, “ It's clear from Gloriosa's own wardrobe that she appreciates a well put together look. Even if we are in the "middle of the woods".
“Fair enough. Just as long as you don't put me in one of your fancy pants outfits.” Applejack walked ahead a little before stopping in her tracks and turns her head suspiciously at Rarity, “...You're gonna, aren't ya?”
“No.” A few seconds and a raised brow from the apple farmer, “Yes!” She chuckles leaning suavely on Applejack, “Don't worry, darling. It'll absolutely speak to your personal sense of style…”
The tents themselves appear larger on the inside than they are on the outside. A thick tarp gave a sharp contrast to the bright world outside. Spike wasted no time getting comfy after his master set up the dog bed. Sunset pulled out a flashlight, shined on her face and cooed an evil coo before giving a chuckle.
“That was weird back there, right?” She asks Twilight, putting up another Camp Everfree shirt of a different color.
“Huh? Oh.” Twilight paused before raising her shoulders and resumes unpacking, “Uh, I guess so.”
“I just have this feeling that they’re hiding something.” After hanging up another shirt, Sunset’s pondering changes from something serious to something more… Trivial. “Her brother is pretty cute, though, huh?
Twilight pauses again, not even looking at her friend, “ He's... okay.”
“ooh,” Sunset leaned on her traveling bag, hands pressed on her coy face, “now look who's trying to hide something.”
“No, I'm not!” Twilight shouts, putting her friend and dog on alert. Guilty, she turns around.
“Hey, you okay?” Sunset walks around her bed, “You seemed a little freaked out on the bus earlier.”
“Probably had another one of her nightmares.” Spike answers, curling up in his comfy bed.
“I'm fine.” Twilight softly objects, though that only got a raised eyebrow. She sighs, “Since we got off the island, I haven’t been sleeping well. I still can see they’re faces.
“That wasn't your fault.” Sunset knelt, her left hand on Twilight’s lap, “Adagio pushed you to use all that magic, clearly not realizing you weren't ready. But it's over now. And if there's any group that's gonna forgive you for something that happened in the past, trust me, it's this one.”
“Hey!” The two hear from Rainbow Dash outside, “You guys comin' or what?
“Be right there!” Sunset shouts out before turning over to her bag, “I just wanna put on some sunscreen.” - Search as deep as she could, all sunset could feel are clothes and a few… special possessions, “Huh. I coulda sworn I packed it.”
When she took another step, Twilight felt something against her toes. Fortunate she is, lest she make the floor messy with one more step.
“Found it!” As soon as she pointed at the bottle, she notices a purple aura surrounding it. It rises from the floor and comes within grabbing distance. Twilight yelped just before Sunset caught a fleeting glimpse of this phenomena.
“Did you?” Sunset leans over down when Twilight caused the item to move unintentionally by just waving her hand, “How is this possible?”
“I can't believe this.” Panicked, Twilight placed her hands on her head, “It's…”
“Amazing!” Sunset cheered.
“Terrible!” Twilight jeered.
“Are you kidding? This is great!” Sunset added, “I mean, we've all ponied up before, gotten the whole ears and wings and tail thing, shot magical rainbow lasers, but nothing like this has ever happened! How did you do it?”
“I don't know! Maybe I didn't.” Twilight pulled her pony tail forward and stroked it, “Maybe it's her!”
“Her who?” Sunset asked, snapping Twilight back to reality.
“Nothing. Never mind. Can we just not talk about it?” Twilight grabbed Sunset’s hands, “And could you please not bring this whole levitating thing up to the others?”
“Why not?”
“You heard Applejack.” Twilight squinted her eyes as she raised Sunset’s hands, “This is supposed to be the place where everyone can get away from this kind of stuff. After what happened at the island, I don't want them to know I brought some crazy new kind with me.”
Sunset looks away for a while, “If you really don't want me to,”
“I really don't.” Twilight interrupted Sunset as she patted their joined hands to her lap.
“Okay,” Slightly disappointed, Sunset looks away a little before adding, “but this isn't necessarily a bad thing!”
As soon as Twilight is out of her sight, the unicorn in ape’s skin looks down at her sunscreen and squints. She scrunched her face, before shutting her eyes and places her fingers on her forehead. Nothing.
“I think you're just gonna have to pick it up.” Spike spoke bluntly, much to her displeasure.
As the day becomes red, the students have already gathered around the lake, now that the rules of the camp are told. Many are common sense about camping, and some rather bizarre.
“Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it?” Rarity asked about the lake, “It looks like a diamond shining in the sun!”
“It is lovely out here.” Fluttershy complemented, “The fresh air, the cool breeze, the birds that land on your finger.”
As one such bird indeed landed on her finger, Rainbow Dash smirks, “I think that only happens to you.”
“Lake activities are available every day until sunset,” Gloriosa finishes her last rule on her checklist, “so if you want to canoe, sail, windsurf, or swim, just let me know.”
On the dock, Twilight bent forward to a flock of ducks dabbling in the water.
“Aren't they just the cutest?” Fluttershy’s sudden outburst scared Twilight, making her lose her footing. Fortunately, she is caught just in time.
“Whoa!” But the person wasn’t Fluttershy, but Timber Spruce, “I know I'm charming, but you don't have to fall for me.”
From a distance, Flash Sentry watched the camp manager work his magic with the girl. In the past, the young man became somewhat of a main squeeze to their Twilight’s doppleganger, a princess from Equestria. But with their twilight seemingly ignoring his advances, a little piece of him felt left out. Such a feeling has even Sunset worried, and so she approaches him apathetically.
“Guess I can't get too jealous, right?” Flash scratches his head, “After all, she isn't my Twilight. Not that the other Twilight was mine! But we were... you know.”
“Yeah. I get it. But your Twilight is a princess in Equestria.” Sunset leans on him, “Hate to break it to you, but that's where she's gonna spend most of her time.”
“So you're saying I just need to get over her?” Flash asked worryingly.
Hard as it is, Sunset became blunt, “Kinda, yeah.”
“Ouch.” Indeed, the answer got to Flash like a band-aid torn from an unhealed wound, “You're not pulling any punches.”
“Not really my style.” Sunset taps her fingers on his shoulders, “Sorry.”
They watched the conversation unfurl as their Twilight has become smitten by Timber.
“Making lanterns out of solar-powered garden lights!” Twilight cooed, crossing her arms coyly, “Pretty crafty there, Timber!”
“You think that's crafty? You should see my macaroni art.” Timber takes out his phone and shows Twilight his artwork over the years, some of which was worth a giggle, “I'm like the Picasso of noodles.”
“All right, now.” Everyone turns to Principal Celestia, “It's going to be getting dark soon, we’ll soon be turning in for tomorrow’s activities!”
“Everyone, get cleaned up,” Gloriosa added, “and we'll gather by the fire pit at eight to share s'mores and scary stories!”
“S'mores!” Pinkie screamed, holding all the ingredients needed to make a s'more.
Night settles quickly over the great forests surrounding Camp Everfree. Though they hoped for more, many of the students were more tired from the trip than expected. The Rainbooms aside, Principals Celestia and Luna, Trixie, Snips, Snails, Derpy, Flash Sentry, Sandalwood, Microchips, Bulk Biceps, and Watermelody surround the campfire. They share one of their fair share of campfire stories; right now it’s Rarity’s turn.
“...And that's when she looked down and realized she was wearing purple socks with a burgundy dress!” Rarity screams a forced scream,“Purple and burgundy, darlings! The same color family!”
Even when she screams again, her audience is still unphased; some of them didn’t even bother looking at her as they texted on their phones.
“Uh... that was a terrifying story.” Applejack mocked, infuriating Rarity.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash chuckled, patting Rarity’s shoulder, “I'm terrified she'll try to tell it again.”
Rarity gritted her teeth, “Well, it’s not like your story was any better. Pffff. ‘Rainbow factory,’ indeed”
“Then you won’t be disappointed with my story.” Luna remarked, as she straightened herself, “While Celestia was building that impractical sundial,” She looked at her older sister, now slightly annoyed, “I decided to use my time and hung out with Tiberius.”
“Tiberius?” Mouthed Trixie.
“He faked his death, but I didn’t care. So I waited. Then,” Luna purposely crushes a stick in two, getting her protege’ on edge, “oh, then… Out came a mountain lion!”
Rising up to her full size so suddenly got a few students fallen back from the logs they sat on.
“He cornered me and Tiberius,” Luna lurched forward, arms crooked, “claws drawn out, lips curled back, eyes like the furious fire of Hell…. But that’s not the worst of it...”
“Oh, Luna.” Celestia face palmed.
“Out from nowhere was great, hairy man! He grabbed the cat with his great big arms!” Luna exclaimed, raising her arms to their full length. The description so far had Sunset raise a brow, “I would’ve been a meal if-”
“Luna,” Celestia interrupted, “we’ve been over this time and again, there was no-”
“If I told you once, I told you a thousand times,” Luna turns to her sister, “he was big, hairy-”
“And pink!” With pursed lips, Luna turns her body at Pinkie Pie, her faced stuffed with s'mores. She swallows her quarry before chuckling nervously, “Heh, heh.”
The moment ruined for her, Luna sits in the same spot, arms crossed, and asks, “Anyone else have a spooky story?”
“I have one.” Timber Spruce sits down “But I'm warning you, you might as well hug a friend now. That's how scary it is!”
After giving everyone a snide chuckle, Bulk Biceps was the first to do so, chattering his teeth.
“It's time I told you about the legend of Gaea Everfree.” Timber clears his throat and begins his story, “Many years ago,”
The view goes through his eye. The forest they stood of course had more trees to go around, the air is fresher and the water cleaner. In one part, a family group of settlers, two around their early forties arrived.
“my great-grandparents came to this forest. Seeing its beauty, they decided that it would be the perfect place for a camp. But once they started building, strange things started to happen.”
Indeed, a group of vines snared the construction and tore it down.
“One pitch black night, when the wind was howling, a tree branch crashed through the roof of their cabin! They screamed and ran outside, only to see the giant creature rising from the earth!”
Such a creature, as it rose, snared the settlers in a tight bound.
“She had wild hair like the roots of a tree. Her mouth had jagged rock teeth and her eyes were pools of black tar. But her aura shimmered like diamonds. Anywhere she went, she left a trail of gem dust in her wake. Trembling, my great-grandparents asked who she was and what she wanted. In a deep and hollow voice, she told them that her name was Gaea Everfree – an ancient spirit who held domain over the forest, and that my great-grandparents were trespassing on her land. They begged her to let them stay and build their camp, to share this wonderful place with others. Gaea Everfree finally agreed but warned them that they would not be able to keep it forever.”
The beast retreated to the forest, the glowing eyes being the last they see of her.
“Someday, she will return and reclaim the forest as her own.”
We return to the present; everyone was on their guard.
“So, if you see gem dust, you’ll know that it is…” A moment’s silence before Timber stood up, raise raised, and screamed, “Gaea Everfree!!!”
As if on cue, the bushes rustle. Everyone closest to the foliage rush to the other side, many of whom hug each other as their end draws near. Applejack and Rainbow Dash raised their fists, Sunset about to draw her knife, all ready for a fight…. If it wasn’t for the face coming forward was… friendly.
“Hey, guys!” greeted Gloriosa, “Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Then,” Not that she has, but Sunset puts the knife back into her pocket, “why’d you come out of the bushes?”
“I took the scenic route,” Gloriosa answers with an uneasy tone to her jovial voice, “because it’s beautiful at night… But no one should do it without a guide.”
She walks over to the center of the ring, hands together in a pleading motion.
“All right everyone, time to head to your tents!”
As she watched many of her charges walk to the tents for the night, Gloriosa felt a little tug at her shirt.
“Hey, Gloriosa,” Asks Snips, “Do you have extra toothbrushes? I forgot mine.”
Somewhat disgusted as a bit of spinach wedged between Snips’ buck-teeth, Gloriosa nonetheless stayed at his side.
“Sure do!” Before she could even go on, Snails hides behind Gloriosa, shivering like crazy.
“Do you have flashlights?” He asks, quaking in his shoes.
“Of course!” She leads Snips and Snails towards the supply cabin finishing her talk with, “I got this!”
So to speak, the fire has taken its toll for even the Rainbooms. Fluttershy held on Spike for dear life.
“Fluttershy!” Spike sputtered while in the Herculean grip.
“Oh, sorry.” Fluttershy calms herself and gives the dog some breathing room, “I guess that story really got to me.”
“Why would you?” Applejack asked, “She isn’t real.”
“I don’t know.” Rainbow Dash of all people questioned in a frightened tone, “Gaea Everfree could have been some creature that got booted from Equestria and ended up in this world. That’s what happened with the Sirens.”
“Eh,” Applejack added, “Sounded something Timber was making just to scare us. At least… That’s what I hoped. Last thing I want is this camp running by some power crazed person.”
“But let’s not forget, darling” Rarity interjected, patting her shorts, “that we also just walked into an island of monsters! And that only got worse when Twi-.” The fashionista notices how their words are affecting their Twilight Sparkle and stammers, “I mean, everything turned out all right, of course.”
“I’m… going to sleep.” Twilight mutters before walking away.
“Maybe lay off what happened on the island, okay?” Sunset calmly chided.
“Our lips are sealed!” Pinkie answered, her mouth filled with molten marshmallows. A harsh screeching sound disturbs the silence. Sunset oddly enough became most alert at this.
“What got you so worked up?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Sorry,” Sunset continues looking at the tree trunks, “there are still a few things I have to get used to,” she wraps herself in her arms and shudders, “including some aberrant forms.”
“Such as?” Spike asks with his ears raised.
“Ants,” Sunset positions her hands so they be two feet away from each other, “big ones. Whatever's screeching could be one now.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow raises her brow, “It's just a bat.”
“Oh you think it's a bat,” Sunset turns around and walks towards her tent, “but it's a slagging ant.”
Trying to ignore the screeching, the Rainbooms sleep for the night. In the darkness of the forest was at an electric substation. A middle-aged worker kept looking out the window when the same screech is heard. Then the ground periodically started to shake, gradually intensifying as if… like footsteps. He looks outside again. Four structures stepped into the bluish glow of the working substation. A curious, gigantic praying mantis greets the man with clicking mandibles. He steps away when the roof of his office tears apart. The culprit looks down, clicks its mandibles and makes the same screech before it is suddenly pulled back.
The good man avoided being stepped on by the bug at his door by running out the door. He falls on his backside. Another of the bugs stands above him, brings its claws out, spreads its wings and jumps into the darkness. The forest echoes not only with loud screeches but also howling roars. Moment after moment, bug parts and organs get tossed in the air and some land beside him. The poor man kept shuffling as a giant shadow swallows him before the bluish light ceases.
A few hours pass after Sci-Twi turns in for the evening. So far, she sleeps like a baby, and that helps her curl a smile.
“Murderer…”
“Whuh?” Sci-Twi mutters, freeing her eyes from their crusted shackle.
“Killer…”
Sci-Twi finds herself no longer in her tent, but on the grassy floor near the campfire. She turns around when-
“She-Demon!” Sci-Twi screamed at the most unusual sight: Adagio Dazzle, here? After she was-
“Murderer!” Screams Aria Blaze!
Several glowing eyes surround them and creepy sounds echo the forest. Sci-Twi steps back towards the fire when laughter is heard, a familiar one at that. She turns around and a split second Midnight Sparkle erupts from the flames, reaching for her.
“No!” Sci-Twi sits up from her bed and bumps her head on the top of the tent.
“Huh, whuh!?” Sunset sputters, jumping out of her bed and drawing her tribal knife from its scabbard. She flutters her eyes open, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Twilight pinches her temples, “Sorry, Sunset.”
When she rubs her eyes, Sunset became wide awake, “Uh, Twilight...”
Twilight looked around, then down; in her sleep, she caused everything on her side of the tent to levitate. Even Spike slept like a rock while his dog bed floated. But with the loss of focus, everything lands with a loud thump, and that gets the dog to wake up.
“Is it time to get up already?” He mutters with a dry mouth and droopy eyes, the worst way to start a new day.
Author's Note
Like "Kong: Skull Island," Sunset would also say the F-word, and it is in the original google draft, but I change is here.
A few miles near the camp, a black Lamborghini parks in the green grass. The driver and passenger doors have with two opposite thunderbolts of a light blue color. Stepping out is a woman of a dark orchid skin color and hair of a moderate rose that is well-kept save for a small mohawk in the middle. Her face bore a scar on her right eye and a scrape that hasn't healed much. As she walks towards a maintenance worker, another door opens and with the squeaking on the suspension. Her partner was an obese, gray-blue man with silver hair, steps out, holding two donuts in one hand.
“Can I help you?” Merriam Cooper asks before being presented with a badge.
“Tempest Shadow, EPA Division Six.” Tempest withdraws her badge, “My partner and I are here to check reconstruction.”
“I didn’t know the EPA monitors reconstruction.”
“Look,” Grubber points a powdered donut at the man, “just don’t question us and we don’t bother you.”
A moment for the construction worker with his mouth agape before the tall woman interjects.
“Forgive him,” Tempest glares at her overweight associate, “he’s not himself when he’s hungry.”
Cooper leads the two to the work site: a busted electric tower bent in two ways. If that wasn’t enough, a weird, viscous goo covers it. Tempest turns her head to the right, two of the gigantic mantis’ laid aside; one sliced in half. The construction worker leads them to the center of the construction, where the man who saw the ordeal last night silently sits as his mind takes.
“He’s been like this since we’ve arrived. Something about, uh, uh…” Cooper turns to Willis, “Well, tell them, O'Brien.”
The man lifts his head but keeps his eyes on the ground.
“It looked like a giant… Hairy man…” Willis finally answers. Tempest turns to Grubber and nods at him. The overweight man turns around and hobbles to where they parked; he pauses, dropping his donut.
“Tempest!” Grubber immediately came running back to Tempest, pointing behind him, “You won’t believe-!”
Like a child to his mother, Grubber pulls Tempest to where they parked. Though she doesn’t panic, her expression told otherwise. The car was on it’s back, the hood all scrunched up.
Elsewhere, life continues normally. And such is no exception for Camp Everfree. The campers happily strolled about the site. Some participated in activities such as rock climbing. So far, only Derpy and Sandalwood took the opportunity to take a sailboat at the lake. There wasn’t any wind, and the wall-eyed teen made little difference despite her efforts.
“Hey, I know you don't want to,” Sunset spoke to Twilight as they walked around the lake, “but I really think we need to figure out what's going on with your magic.”
“But that's just it!” Sci-Twi refused, taking a few steps back “I don’t want to know! Not like last time!”
As their conversation continued, Photo Finish photographed Lyra and Bon Bon in frightening poses. Behind her, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Flash tried their hand in a tug-o-war match against Bulk Biceps. Already the odds favor the heavily muscled man.
“No!” Photo Finish raises her hand, “You must show more fear! You see something big approaching you!” Unbeknownst to her, a butterfly passes her and lands on Bulk’s chin, “You have no chance of escape, you are petrified with fear! Now, scream darling! Scream!!!!”
When the insect reached his nose and looked at him in the eye, Bulk Biceps let out a blood-curdling scream that got everyone's attention. The scream dies down, but the soft echo continues like a gunshot. The massive hulk looked at his peers give out a hearty laugh and some applause before a deafening, primal roar rocks the forest. At the same time, some strange force pushed the sailboat at frightening speed and smashed part of the dock.
Even from where Tempest Shadow and Grubber, it's heard like a speeding fire truck.
At the reconstruction site, Merriam slowly turned his head at Tempest asking, “What exactly are we dealing with?”
“Something big, Mr. Cooper.” Tempest looks inside the car and pulls out the only thing intact: a shotgun, “Is there anywhere I can find a telephone?”
Cooper points in the one direction where she could; it’s a journey, but it’s worth the trouble.
“What happened?” Rainbow asked as she helped Derpy back to shore.
"Are you okay?” Sunset asks as well, lending Sandalwood her hand.
“Yeah. It was so weird.” The Eco-Kid rubs his arms, “We were stuck in a middle of the lake with no wind, then all of a sudden, bam! The wind picked up, and we were pushed right into the dock.”
An unnatural phenomenon in the forest, such an idea made Pinkie gasp, “You don't think it was the spirit, do you?!”
“No,” Twilight mutters to herself before walking away from the group, “it was me.”
“Here,” Sunset motions for Applejack to lift the canoe, “Let’s get this out of-”
Shifting her weight caused a floorboard to break, driving Sunset’s foot, shoe and all, into the water. Luna lifts another plank, tears off a chunk, and inspects it. Years of being soaked in water and termites have done the job. She shakes her head.
“This is a safety hazard.” She remarks, “I suggest we close down the dock for the remainder of the camp.”
“Oh, man!” Rainbow complained, along with many of her classmates.
“At least the fishies are eating well.” Fluttershy complimented, though no one else seemed to care much.
“Oh, I'm sure it won't have to be for the remainder of camp.” Trying to keep a happy face on things, Gloriosa swings her arms in confidence “Just needs to be patched up a bit.” The floorboard gives away again to the applied weight of her right foot, not very convincing to her charges, “I've got this!”
Applejack rubs her lower lip before her faced beamed, followed by snapping her fingers, “Or maybe we do! Building a new one could be our camp gift. Sure, it would benefit us, but a nice new dock would benefit future campers, too.”
The idea reaching their heads, the students started cheering.
“I don't know.” Timbered spoke with uncertainty, “It's an awful lot of work. I wouldn't want you guys to miss out on doing other fun camp stuff because you're so busy building a dock for future campers .”
“I hear what you're saying, Timber,” Rainbow Dash wraps her arm around Timber, “but we're Canterlot Wondercolts. We've got a reputation to uphold! And there was no way we're gonna leave this place without contributing the most awesome camp gift ever!” She walks over to Applejack and stands next to her, “I'm with AJ. Building a new dock is definitely it!” Rainbow flips her head to everyone else, “What do you guys think?”
Everyone present cheers their heads off, all the more voices to approve of their worthwhile sacrifice. The two sibling camp managers looked at each other and walked away from the rotting dock.
“Looks like it's settled, then.” Gloriosa whispered.
“Looks like it.” Her brother replies quietly, but still a bit loud for Sunset to hear in earshot.
“That's some tension, am I right Twi-” In the confusion after the deafening howl, Sunset now realized that Twilight is missing. As the rest of her classmates conjured up ideas on their camp gift, Sunset walks over to her assigned tent. In the shade of the tent, Spike slept like an angel. Perhaps too much so as his body twitched and legs in a running motion.
“Spike?” Sunset whispered, reaching over and flipping the dog’s ear with her finger.
“So many squirrels…” He mutters and whines in his sleep.
“Spike?” Sunset whispers a little louder, shaking him a little.
“Huh, oh, ah!” Spike’s eyes shot open before he reactively jumps out of his bed. He looks around before stamping his paw, “Oh. Aw, man! I was having the best dream. Wait.” He looks the other way again, wagging his tail, “That dream could be a reality!”
“Before” - Sunset catches him and sits him down on her lap - “you run off to chase squirrels, do you have any idea where Twilight could be? I really need to talk to her.”
“What happened?” Spike draws his floppy ears back, “Did she do that lifting things off the ground thing again?”
“That's just it. I don't know if it was her.” Sunset looks outside for a moment, then looks at the arsenal she brought, “But if it was, we need to deal with it head-on.”
Spike understands quite well but feels uncomfortable at the same time. He licks his lips, then jumps off Sunset’s lap and sniffs the ground. As he steps out of their tent, the scent becomes stronger, and so the dog sniffs more rapidly as he picks up the pace.
Deep in the forest, Twilight sat in a secluded glade. Silent, it's the perfect environment to reflect on her well-being. She looks at the pond; at first, she views herself. But the strangest thing happens. Her reflection stretched the corners of her mouth into a crooked smile.
“Always a part of you…” She spoke in a creepy sing-song tone, with a chuckle to match.
“No, no!” Twilight slaps the water before covering her face. She looks at the water again, nothing out of the ordinary this time, “Keep it together. Deep breaths. You are not a monster.”
She sits up again, puts her hand to her chest, drawing it in tune with a deep breath. For once in a few times in her life, her mind’s been cleared. Then, she feels pressure on her shoulder and gets her panicked. She spins around and punches the assailant. The person in question was Timber Spruce, his back turned and groaning like mad. Twilight looked at her knuckles; the purple skin now stained with a little red.
“Timber?” Before he turns around, Twilight hides her hands behind her back with an uneasy chuckle, “What are you doing here?
“Uh…” Timber releases his nose for a moment, mouths the D-word, before looking at Twilight, “Looking for you.” He sits down keeping his head forward, “What are you doing out here?”
“Oh,” Twilight shuffles her feet, “I just went on a nature walk and got a little lost.”
“Well, if you wanted to come back.” While keeping his nose pointed down Timber motions her to look behind them. The first big tree they see has an arrow pointing to the left carved into its bark. Regaining his balance, Timber unintentionally places his hand on Twilights. She draws it back and looks away, hiding her blush.
“So…” Twilight breaks the silence, “I take it you come here often?”
“Yeah,” Timber gags a little after lifting his head back by mistake, “I'm kind of an expert at these woods. I've lived here my whole life.”
Twilight looks at Timber once more, curiosity filling her head, “ That must have been nice.” She compliments, “Growing up at a camp.”
“Yeah, though it has its downsides.” Such an odd reply made Twilight raise her brow, “When I was younger, I wished we'd sell this place so we could live in a town like normal people.”
“Really?”
Timber looks around in suspicion before motioning her to lean in and whispers, “ When I was ten, I really wanted to hang out at the mall.”
They giggle for a while. All the matter being, Spike’s constant sniffing lead both him and Sunset to them. The red-head lifts up Spike and keeps their distance by hiding from a large bush.
“I've never told that to anyone. You must be special.” Twilight blushes at this fact, closing her eyes as Timber brings his hand towards her face, “And not just because you have a tree branch in your hair.”
Twilight winces as a small twig is pulled out from her hair, “ Ugh. How long has that been in there?”
“Not long.” Timber tosses the branch, then looks at Twilight again, “Just the whole time we were talking.”
“Well,” Twilight chuckled, “why didn't you say something?”
Seeing the healthy conversation unfurl, Sunset curls up a smile and turns to the little dog.
“I guess we can help Twilight deal with the magic stuff a little later.” Sunset puts the dog down and the two begin retracing their steps. Spike looks in the general direction of his owner. For what it’s worth, having someone to talk might boost up her spirits after what happened on the island. After making a turn, something catches her eye; deep in the forest, Sunset notices a strange, red glow. One part of her mind is saying it might just be the heat getting to her, another is saying to trust her gut instinct and get to the bottom of things.
“Excuse me,” Sunset yelped before turning around. She stood before Tempest Shadow, Grubber standing next to her, “But I’ve been told there is a campsite nearby.”
“Y-yes. Right this way.” Perhaps it was Tempest’s intimidating features or not, Sunset leads the two in the direction of the camp. She takes a few glances at their unusual insignia. “So… You two appear to be more than just simple cops.”
“Division Six.” Grubber sputtered before drinking some soda, “Our business deals with matters that wouldn’t matter to the public.”
“You mean like…” Sunset raises a brow, “Social security.”
“Child,” Tempest gets her escort’s attention, “let’s say that every once in a while, things happen that just can't be rationalized in a conventional way. People want to know that their government has a response. We are that response.”
When they reach the clearing, the first face they see is Gloriosa Daisy. Sunset, all the while, notices the campers already starting with the dock.
“Hi!” Even in the face of this stranger, she keeps a cheery face, “How can I help you today?”
“Tempest Shadow, EPA Division Six.” Tempest introduced herself again, showing her badge, “Our car broke down a while back, and we wondering if we could use your telephone?”
“Sure! Just follow me!” Still keeping her smile, Gloriosa turns around when her eye catches Sunset raising her hand.
“Uhm, Gloriosa, maybe I should-”
“I got this!” She interrupts before continuing her walk, “Please, follow me!”
Even Tempest and Grubber became uncomfortable at this “good service.” Still, the two follow her, while Sunset makes her way to the docks. Fluttershy and a few classmates built a rather crude fish food dispenser. All the while, Pinkie Pie lined up the floorboards of the runway. Applejack, knee-deep in water, hammers one end of the board. Before she steps out to shore, she notices Rainbow Dash already hammering the other end.
“Huh, nice hammer.” AJ places her head on her arms, “Where did you get it?”
“Uh, duh.” Rainbow scoffed, nudging her big toe on the toolbox.
“Hah, that's cool.” She lifts her hammer, “I made mine.”
“Ugh.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before her eyes spotted Sunset and SPike walking to them, “Well, look what the cat dragged in?”
Rarity noticed a few scratches and dirt stains on both.
“Sunset, Spike, darlings!” Rarity chided, “Where have you two been? Or for that matter, where’s Twilight?”
The dog and the equid in apes clothing exchanged glances before the latter answered, “We just checked up on her. She’s in good hands.”
“You mean Timber Spruce’ hands?” Pinkie cooed before everyone guffawed.
“So,” Rarity pulls up a blueprint of her runway, “what do you think of my plans for the runway?”
Sunset tries to think of an answer, but seeing Luna walk by had her raise a finger, “Let... me get back to you on that.”
As she jogs over to Luna, Rainbow Dash leans over to AJ.
“Guess she found it ridiculous too.” She whispers, getting a foul stare from the fashionista.
Luna stopped her paces and looked at the sundial. Thoughts churned in the vice principal’s head as she looked at the forest. She closes her eyes. In the recesses of her mind, she recalls that fateful day of being attacked by the mountain lion and the sudden arrival of her gigantic-.
“Vice Principal Luna?” Sunset interrupts Luna’s train of thought and gets her to turn around.
“Just having… Fond memories…” Luna answers before clearing her throat, “Is there something wrong?”
“Nothing, really.” Sunset scrapes the grass with her shoe, “That story you told last night… Was it true?”
Seeing this one person ask about her story got the Vice Principal to raise a brow, “Yes, when I was far younger.”
“Do you…” Sunset turned her head away, but kept her eyes on Luna, “Where exactly?”
Luna cocks her head, keeping her lips pursed before looking at the sundial again and walks to her left to the forest. Though uneasy, Sunset still follows Luna to the forest.
Twilight and Timber finish laughing before the latter touched his nostrils. Though the blood flow has slowed, the harsh smell of metal has proven a bit much for him and so he stands up.
“You really should get that patched up.” Twilight chuckles.
“Yeah,” Timber shook his head with a snort, “think you’ll be okay on your own?”
Twilight nods, giving the camp manager the notion to stand up and follow the trail he carved on the tree. She looks ahead now; a smile still on her face from the lovely conversation she had with Timber. She stands up, stretches her legs and walks to her right.
“You’re the first person who has an interest in my story…” Said Luna as she continues walking, “Tell, me, why is that?”
“Well…” Sunset ponders: if where she was is any indication, putting this answer lightly isn't easy, “You want to know where I’ve been in the past few months?”
At the clearing, Luna stops and turns around, “Singapore, correct?”
Sunset paused, “Close, but where I went,”
The two enter the clearing, walking around the rotting log after all these years. The stop and look down.
“Let’s just say,” Before the two of them was a footprint as big as them, partly covered with grass, “monsters existed.”
Twilight was in the middle of humming a happy tune when her ears pick up a distressed call. She rushes the source of the sound: a fawn is underneath a massive tree. She tries pushing the fallen plant, but to no obvious avail. She looks at her hand and, with a nervous expression etched on her face, brings it forward. An aura surrounds her hand followed by another aura surrounding the tree. Raising the hand higher causes the tree to move as well. The trapped animal began squirming, slowly but surely getting out. But when she used more of her magic, Twilight hears a suspicious laugh and looks to her left. Midnight Sparkle was at it again, as she reaches for her kinder doppelganger's hand. She pulls her hand back, canceling the magic and keeping the animal trapped. Panicked, Twilight approaches the tree again and tries to push it.
“Come on!” She groans, hardly budging the tree, “Come on!”
She's not strong as AJ, but using all the strength she can muster somehow caused the tree to start moving. It happened so fast that she lost her footing and collapsed. Now free, the young animal, apparently the size of a thoroughbred horse, would have trampled Twilight had she not rolled over. She looks forward; the tree isn’t there. Twilight raises a brow when a crash sounds to her right. When a cloud moves aside, horror builds up inside the ace-student; she was in a colossal shadow… the shadow of a titan.
A cry of terror echoes the country. Sunset and Luna turn away from their inspection: further away still, every camper halted construction and looked.
“Twilight!” Shouted Sunset
“Twilight?” Timber Spruce questioned as he stepped out of his cabin.
“Twilight!” The Rainbooms screamed, dropping their equipment and running to the sound. Applejack had to pull off the trousers before she can keep up with the others.
Sunset rushed through the forest as well. By the time they arrived where the scream was, no one was there. Only a displaced tree, and several footprints at least two and a half times the one Sunset just saw.
“There’s a monster in the forest!” Rarity screams
Fluttershy takes a closer look, “this looks like a primate’s, a gorilla perhaps.”
“Wasn’t there a gigantic gorilla at the island?” Applejack asks of Sunset.
“Yeah,” Sunset points at the footprint, “but Kiko wasn’t that big.”
Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie comes into view wearing a Sherlock Holmes
“I only know one creature that could leave a footprint like that…” Pinkie Pie paused for dramatic effect. Too long, as Sunset motions her hand around, “The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.”
The entire group groaned, shaking their heads at the ridiculous possibility of a giant, sugary being as the problem… yet. Fluttershy inspects the track again before hearing some chattering.
“I know, it’s quite a-” Fluttershy squeaked at the squirrel, “Did you just talk?” The rodent chatters a little, “But I don’t speak squirrel.”
“Are you talking to that squirrel?” Rainbow questioned with a raised brow.
“I don’t know.” Fluttershy points at the squirrel, “I understand him, but…”
“Oh, oh! Let me try! Let me try!” Pinkie Pie approaches the squirrel, and clears her squirrel, “Squeak squeaken squeakity squeak.”
“Now you’re talking to that squirrel?” Rarity questioned while Pinkie Pie continued her false dialect, much to the squirrel’s annoyance.
“Let’s not worry about that now.” Sunset intervened, approaching Fluttershy, “You think you could ask where Twilight is?”
“Or we could follow the trail?” Spike offers, standing in another footprint in a series of footprints walking through a trail of smashed trees. With a shiver, the group follows the trail. It’s like what happened on the island, another journey into the unknown.
Somewhere far away from Camp Everfree is an old house. Grandiose is design, and tall and raised as a Gothic church, only one so well paid could afford it. Indeed, one such does have that money, but he wasn’t Filthy. Hell, the famous business person would make his buildings more grandiose than that. Inside, trophies of his enemies adorn the wall, as well as a small case of batches including the dual lightning symbol of “Division Six.”
“Damn it, Tempest,” Grumbled a middle-aged man of phthalo grey with azure gray hair over the phone, “you called me when you shouldn’t for this?”
“You don’t understand, sir” Tempest replied at the other side from Camp Everefree’s telephone. All the while, Grubber helped himself to the fridge. “It smashed our car.”
“And you saw this happen?” Asked the man from the other end of the line.
“Grubber did, but-”
“So,” The commander interrupted her, “you don’t have evidence?”
“I have another witness-”
“A witness with a concussion.” He interrupts her again.
“Commander,” Tempest’ nerve started breaking as she balls up her fist, “he saw it tear down a power station.”
“What did?” A pause before the Commander responds, “Tell me again, Tempest. And this time, listen to yourself.”
“A giant, hairy man.” Tempest rubs her face as she hears commanding officer guffaws at the very thought, “Sir, please. I have a feeling about this one.”
“That's lovely, Tempest. Really, it is.” The commander takes a breather, “But let me try to explain how this works: If you told me you'd found, say... um, a giant footprint, I might send over an expert to make a plaster cast of it. Hell, you get me a photograph of this thing and I could probably get some troops over there! But you tell me you've got a feeling .”
“If you want evidence, that’s fine.” Tempest takes a deep breath and looks outside, “I’ll get you evidence.”
“Sounds fine…” The last words from her commanding officer before hanging up.
It’s a half hour later, and the search takes the Rainbooms over to the bank of a large river. Tired, and sweating like pigs, the group sit down to take a breather. Applejack fills up her canteen. Rarity took out a spare bottle of nail polish and delicately applied it.
“You do know we’re in the middle of the woods, right?” Rainbow grumbled.
“Still, deary.” Rarity responded, continuing the application, “Never hurts to look your best anywhere, anytime…” She looks up at the befuddled look of Rainbow Dash, “... What?”
“I swore I saw something...” Rainbow Dash muttered as she squints ahead of Rarity.
“Hey, Everybody!” Applejack called out to her friends, pointing ahead further down the river bank. A figure was waving frantically. With a pair of balloon binoculars, Pinkie stretches her grin across her face at a familiar face.
“Twilight!” Pinkie shouts out before running along the shore, the others following close behind. Rainbow Dash started running before she runs so fast she rushes past Twilight, leaving a streak of rainbows.
“Did Rainbow Dash just-” Twilight questions when Sunset gripped her shoulders.
“What happened, Twilight?” Sunset asked, “What took you?”
“Well, uh…” Before Twilight could even answer, a sharp cracking sound is heard in behind the Rainbooms. Birds of all kinds fly out in great numbers that they could blot out the sun. The cracking sound gave way to splashing. Appearing in the river was a true marvel: a brown mountain gorilla of forty-five meters in height, walking like a man. The girls stood in shock and awe at the sight of this great beast. The gorilla stops, and turns around, revealing some nasty wounds. The girls cower as the beast approaches them, hiding behind a rock.
“A monster, here?” Sunset peaked up from the hiding hole, “This is extraordinary!”
“Oh, yes,” Rarity adds, “Ooo, ahh, then there comes the running and screaming.”
“Fluttershy,” Sunset turns over to Fluttershy, “think you could talk to him like you did the squirrel?”
Talking to a miniature animal is one thing, a towering behemoth is another. As the caregiver shudders at the thought, an idea sparks within Pinkie Pie.
“I know,” Pinkie Pie reaches into her pocket and pulls out a floatation device, “I could give him a Pinkie Pie Welcome!”
“Pinkie, wait!” Sunset stammers too late. The pink party planner hops into the river and starts paddling towards the gorilla as he takes a drink. Before Pinkie could take out her tiny confetti cannon, a giant claw burst out the surface.
A giant crawfish emerges from the water, letting a terrible shriek. With a slap from its big claw, the crustacean sends Pinkie to the depths
“Pinkie!” They all shout out.
“All right, Mr. Krabs!” Applejack grabs the nearest boulder with little effort and tosses it at the crawfish. Angered, the arthropod raises its claw again and smacks it at the water. Rarity instinctively raises her arms and prepares for the worst. When she opens her eyes, she finds flattened diamonds arranged like a shield kept them dry.
Placing both claws together, the crustacean advances towards the girls. Before it reaches the shore, it’s pulled away. The gorilla pulls his enemy to deeper water before swinging the beast over his head. Belly exposed, the gorilla pounds the crustacean repeatedly.
As they watched, something collides with Sunset, toppling her to the ground. Rainbow blushes a little before looking at the gorilla beating the daylights out of the crayfish before the latter sinks into the deep.
“Who’s the monkey?” Rainbow asks.
“Nevermind that,” Sunset sits up and points at a spot in the lake, “get Pinkie Pie out of here!”
Rainbow Dash dove into the river and paddled as fast as she could towards Pinkie Pie. The gorilla inspects the churning water before the crayfish pulls him under water. Rainbow Dash get's pushed back to shore by the incoming wave. She tries again, swimming far ahead before diving under. Rainbow felt the pressure get to her before grabbing Pinkie and swam to the surface.
Deeper the still, the battle of primeval proportions continues. The crayfish has the home advantage; holding the gorilla by the leg, it’s a matter of time before his victory. The gorilla grabs a rock and smacks the crayfish hard on the carapace enough times that it loses its grip on him. Still, the mammal had enough time to take a quick breath before the gigantic claw smacked him silly. The gorilla gets into focus, biting the smaller left pincer and holding the larger right one with both his hands.
Having pulled Pinkie back to shore, Rainbow Dash applied CPR enough times to have her friend vomit water.
“You okay?” Rainbow asks, to which Pinkie Pie nods before putting her thumb in her mouth, blows on it and regains the puffiness of her hair.
“I knew we shouldn’t have played Jumanji.” She answers before collapsing.
The water churns again as the gorilla pulls the crayfish over to shallower waters, both claws in hand and tooth.
“Let’s get out of here.” Spike whimpers, ears drawn back and tail touching his belly.
“And miss the monster match?” Rainbow rebuked, before sitting down “Come on! This is great!”
“Let’s go!” Applejack picks up Pinkie Pie and joins them in their daring escape. Rainbow takes a look at the two beasts wrestling; hard as it was, she joins the others.
The gorilla continued pulling his head back and forth on its smaller pincer. The crayfish screeched before the appendage tore clean off. The mammal now twisted the bigger pincer before it too came off. The arthropod screeches before turning tail and floating away. The gorilla spits out the smaller pincer and lets out a roar, then amusingly claps the larger claw. He turns over to his right, briefly spotting the band of technicolor girls and their dog. With a snort, the gorilla walks in the opposite direction, carrying the large claw for a snack.
Around the same time, Tempest and Grubber photograph the trail. They pause when the echo of the roar is heard and hide behind a standing tree when they hear the bushes rustle. Tempest peaks to her right, seeing the Rainbooms far away from camp, raising a scarred eyebrow when looking the other way.
It’s not long for the Rainbooms to return to camp. Some of their classmates question their roughed up saviors, especially about Pinkie Pie and an odd smell coming from Twilight. Sunset notices the pressure and turns to Applejack.
“Applejack, why don’t you take the others to the cafeteria,” Sunset asks of her, “Twilight and I are gonna get some towels.”
“Uhm, yeah.” Twilight bit her lip as she joins Sunset on their walk over to the storage closet. Just when she does, she gets pulled inside and the door swiftly behind her.
“Do you understand what is happening right now?” Sunset blasted.
“Yeah, we got an ape the size of a building!” Twilight emphasized, stretching her arms across to make a point.”
“Not just that,” Sunset pokes at Twilight, “You're not the only one with a new kind of magic! This is great!”
“No, it's not!” Twilight pushed Sunset away, “We could’ve could have really hurt each other! Why is this happening? I don't—”
Suddenly, the door swings open, startling the two as they see eye to eye with Gloriosa. Suspecting something odd, the camp manager clears her throat.
“Anything I can do for you?”
“Uh,” Twilight shifts her eyes at Sunset before answering, “A few of us just fell into the lake and...”
“Oh, no!” Gloriosa storms the storage room, grabbing as many towels as she could, “You’re gonna need warm towels, dry clothes, oh,” she boils up a pot of hot cocoa, “and a hot cocoa!” Sunset and Twilight gave Gloriosa a worried look. “I've got this!”
Suddenly, they hear another faint scream.
“Fluttershy?” Sunset and Twilight call out before grabbing the supplies and rushed to the cafeteria.
“What happened?!”
“I don't know.” Fluttershy coughed, “We were just decorating cookies and—”
Pinkie pops up from underneath also covered in smoke, adding, “ And I was all, "You need more sprinkles! And you need more sprinkles!"
“So, Sunset flicks her finger at the two, “standard Pinkie Pie stuff.”
“I was just tossing sprinkles to Fluttershy,” She repeats the same action; a few seconds they start glowing, “when all of a sudden they glowed pink and-!”
Followed by another explosion, creating a mess all over the place.
“Just like that, only earlier!” She finishes before reaching for another bag of sprinkles.
“Oookaay.” Sunset takes the sprinkles away, “Why don't you lay off touching stuff for a while?”
“This is awesome!” Rainbow Dash screamed, “Being at camp has given us all new magical abilities!”
“Yeah!” Pinkie adds, “Fluttershy can talk to animals, I have explosive sprinkles!”
“I lifted a massive boulder like a skipping stone.” Applejack also adds.
“And I made a diamondy thing appear out of nowhere, which normally I'd be excited about.” Rarity spins her hand around, “and then it disappeared.”
“We’re all superheroes just like we always had!” Rainbow pounds her fists together.
“Not all of us.” Sunset objects, “I haven't gotten any powers, but Twilight—” She notices Twilight pursing her lips, “... well, she hasn't, either.”
Excitable as it was, it still made Applejack sigh in defeat.
“So much for my theory that leavin' CHS would mean leavin' any new magic business behind.” She mumbles.
“Or the monster monkey business.” Sunset adds, “Their size, magic powers without having to Pony Up. Something at the camp must be making this happen.”
“Um,” Fluttershy chirps, among the several birds perched on her arms, “Gaea Everfree?”
Just after saying that, door slams open once again. Fluttershy and Rarity scream at the strange, scary silhouette before them.
“Hi, everyone!” The figure tilted around, it’s Gloriosa Daisy holding more towels, “I was looking for you! Here, I brought you some more towels and dry clothes. Uh, what happened in here?
“We're kinda trying to figure that out.” Answers Sunset, giving an uneasy look to her friends.
“Well,” Gloriosa places the stack on the counter before grabbing a spritz bottle and paper towels, “don't worry about it. I got this!”
“Gloriosa,” The camp manager turns around, finding Sandalwood at the door, “I kicked my beanbag into the lake!”
“I'll get you another one!” Gloriosa chips with a twitch in her eye. Not a moment too late, Derpy pokes her head underneath Sandalwood’s armpit, holding a small bow.
“And I'm all out of arrows!” She adds.
“Say no more!” Gloriosa answers, hand stretched nobly, “New arrows coming right up!”
“There you are!” Timber Spruce exclaimed, pushing Sandal and Derpy aside before whispering in Gloriosa’s ear, “Tempest wants to ask a few questions. Do you want me to handle it?”
“Absolutely not!” Gloriosa rebuked, still hushed.
“Uh,” Sunset reached for Gloriosa, “are you sure you don’t need.”
Gloriosa catches Sunset’s hand, turns her head and, with a crooked smile, answers, “I've got this!”
Hearing a scream, Sunset pulls away from Daisy and turns to Fluttershy.
“Enough with the screaming!”
Puzzled, Fluttershy points to herself, “ I didn't scream.”
“For once.” Rainbow mutters.
“Nobody did, darling.” Rarity added.
Sunset rubbed her chin; if it wasn’t her friends, then what? But not a moment after too soon, the P.A. buzzes.
“Attention, campers!” Principal Celestia announced, “Anyone who's interested in making floating paper lanterns, please meet us by the picnic tables.”
“I don't know about the rest of y'all,” Applejack stretches herself around, popping a few joints, “but I've been looking forward to coming here for a month. Maybe we forget about these “upstarts" for a bit and just try to focus on enjoying our time at camp?”
“I was oh,” Rarity pulls out her sketchbook, “so excited about designs I've come up with for the camp fashion show.”
“And I've barely gotten to whoop anybody in tetherball.” Rainbow complains, pounding her fist to her hand.
“I think we should try to figure it out.” Sunset thinks deeply about the problems at hand, but, defeated, finished with, “But if letting it go for now is what the rest of you want…”
Except for Twilight, everyone chattered and nodded in agreement; no more magic and monster business for now.
As the sun settles beyond the tree line, the campers take their time decorating paper lanterns. Many are simple, some are extraordinary, and one...
“Um, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity asked indeed, “what are you doing?”
“Putting marshmallows in my lantern.” Pinkie places another marshmallow on her lantern, “Then when we light them, mine will be beautiful and delicious!”
Yet, in this gentle activity of arts of crafts, one sheep is on another picnic table away from the flock. Twilight delicately glued stars on her blue paper lantern.
“Hey, Twilight,” Spike jumps up and sits next to her, “why aren't you with everyone else?”
His master takes a deep breath, “I’m scared…”
“About the monsters in the forest?” Spiked questioned, cocking his head.
“Well, that too.” Twilight looks up at the sky, “Sunset said something at camp this to happen. I think it's Midnight Sparkle. She's still part of me, I can feel it even when we left the island. And I think her magic is infecting my friends.”
The puppy places a paw on Twilight, “What are we gonna do?”
“I don't know what I can do.”
“Okay, everyone!” Twilight turns to Gloriosa motioning everyone to stand up, “It's time to watch your lanterns fly!”
Holding their lanterns as their home economics colleagues would, everyone stands up and walks towards the lake. Hard as it is, Twilight stood up, delicately lifting her lantern and began her walk to the annual ceremony. Timber was purposely waiting for her while he kept count of his charges.
“Hey, cool lantern!” Timber complemented before holding his lantern to his head, “Mine's my face!”
Such an odd design choice lifts up Twilight’s spirits, but only just. When all he got from her was an uneasy giggle.
“Uh, you okay?” Timber cocks his head, “You don’t seem like… You.”
“Mm-hmm.” Twilight hummed before walking around Timber. She stood beside Lyra and Bon Bon, awaiting the moment to release their creations.
“Ready?” Gloriosa lowers her “And... go!”
Everyone by the lake pushes their lanterns into the air. Like balloons, the lanterns fill the darkening sky. Well, most of them. The marshmallows have made it too heavy for Pinkie Pie’s lantern and fall down.
“Aw! Oh, well! Now I get to eat it!” Wiping away the dust on her failed project, Pinkie pulls out a marshmallow and eats it, “Yep, beautiful and delicious.”
From their temporary stay-in, Grubber was looking from the window, holding a bottle of root beer. He turns over to Tempest, processing her evidence to her laptop.
“Sure we want to do this in front of a bunch of kids?” Grubber takes a sip of his root beer, “Storm Leader’s gonna have a lot to answer for.”
“You don’t know him like I do,” Tempest saves her email as a draft, “When he sees this, he won’t cut and run.”
At the base of a hill, the great gorilla sits on his nest, finishing off the crab claw before tossing the pieces aside. Still not even the least bit filling despite the colossal size. Something catches his eye and gets him to look up. The lanterns joining the stars spark a little memory. When he was smaller (yet still plenty big), a familiar little girl brought a lantern and cast it to the air. Whatever this creature is, going out in public isn’t in his best interests. And so he lays down, curls up and goes to sleep. One good night’s rest before starting the day all over again.
It was a few hours to dawn. Everyone was fast asleep, even the hyperactive Pinkie Pie. But not everyone sleeps like a baby. And this time, it’s not Twilight. Sunset’s face scrunched as she gritted her teeth and tossed around. In her dream, she is a pony again, all the way down to walking on all fours. But in her surroundings made her uneasy. Could this be the Everfree Forest itself? It could explain much. She looks up to the panicked screeching of birds. Barely dodging a small stampede of creatures, she feels the ground shake beneath her. Was it the ape? Sunset squints to the forest ahead of her; no sign of the gorilla, but smoke is swiftly approaching.
She turns tail and runs in the opposite direction. Fast as she was, the unicorn felt the ground shake beneath her like several cannons firing from a galleon. She also suddenly feels the heat; looking to her right, the forest is quickly set ablaze. Sunset looks ahead when a blue flames blast the terrain and send her rolling down a hill. She recovers quickly and continues galloping.
When the flames cut her off again, Sunset turns to a mountain ledge and ascends it as blue fire smothers the ground. Indeed, by the time she reaches the summit, to her horror, the world around her in a sea of blue fire. She slowly steps back until she ran out of the rock to step on. Sunset looks back then jumps back at the rising, spiny being, its back glowing blue. It opens its mouth and lunges at her.
Screaming, Sunset sits up so rapidly she collides her head on something. Or someone… After rubbing her forehead, groaning, she opens one bloodshot eye at Rainbow Dash also rubbing her forehead. Flipping her eye left and right, she sees the other five all crammed in the same tent.
“What are you all doing in our-” - Sunset notices one bunk and one dog bed unoccupied - “Where’s Twilight?”
“We were gonna ask you the same thing, sugar cube.” Answers Applejack.
“Ooooo,” Pinkie Pie started twitching in many places on her body, “I knew my Pinkie Sense was tingling.”
“Okay, okay,” Sunset rubs her temples then looks at her phone, still early in the morning, “we’ll split up and find her before the sun gets too high. But first...”
“What is, Darling?” Rarity holds Sunset’s hands.
“Can you leave the tent so I can get dressed?”
It’s a while after Sunset gets dressed when she explores one part of the forest, bringing her bow and arrows along the way. She looks at the night sky turning red. She looks at her phone and opens her group texts; no good news from them.
“Twilight!” She calls out for her again, no response, “Twilight!”
Sunset walks further ahead before hearing rustling. Looking from behind a bush, she see’s Twilight all packed up walking down a trail with Spike at her side.
“Twilight!” Twilight stops in her tracks, and turns to Sunset, “What are you doing out here?”
“We're…” Twilight turns her shoulder and continues walking, “we're meeting a cab to take us home.”
Sunset looks at the small dog who adds, “She thought you'd talk her out of it.”
“Because I would.” Sunset cuts Twilight off, “Twilight, you can't leave.”
“I can and-” Twilight tries to walk around Sunset, but is still cut off, “Will you stop-!”
“Twilight, whatever is up with you, we can help!”
“No, you can’t!” Twilight brushes Sunset aside, “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Everyone ‘wouldn’t understand’ why you left the camp.” Such an argument got Twilight to stop, “We can be there for you, but not if you run away.”
Twilight sighs, “I’ll stay. But I still don't think it's a good idea for me to be near the rest of our friends right now. Not until we know why this is happening.”
“Of course.” Sunset is immediately embraced, “Things will turn out for the best. They all do.”
Suddenly, the bushes rustle again. On edge, Sunset draws her bow and approaches the bushes slowly. When a strange silhouette comes out, she jumps forward, bow-string stretched to its zenith.
“All right, you! Show yourself!”
“Whoa, whoa!” The figure raises his arms. “Wait, Twilight?”
“Timber?” Twilight squints, approaching the figure. Sunset in the meantime aimed her weapon away, “I’m so glad it’s you! Wait, what are you doing out here so early?”
“And with an axe?” Sunset adds, motioning her weapon at the tool.
“We needed more for tomorrow night's campfire. And if I didn't take care of it tonight, it would be one more thing Gloriosa would add to her list.” Timber clears his throat before finishing in a voice like that of his sister’s, “I've got this!
Such a snarky remark made all three of them and Spike laugh before Timber rested the axe on his shoulders.
“What about you two? Why are you hanging out in the woods in the middle of the night?”
“Oh! I was sleepwalking.” Sunset faked having a sleepy eye, “Twilight found me and was bringing me back to camp.”
“Mm-hmm.” Twilight agreed
“Come on. I'll walk you guys back. I'll protect you from” - Timber puts down the axe, raised his hands before wiggling before speaking in an eery way, “Gaea Everfree! Everfree! Everfree!”
“Come on.” Sunset holsters her bow and arrows, “That's obviously just a spooky story you made up to tell around the campfire.”
“Oh, no. It's legit. How else would you explain what happened at the docks?” Timber grabs the ax and some of the firewood, “And that weird thing where the earth shook? Come on. I know a shortcut back to the tents.”
While Twilight instinctively stayed by Timber, grabbing more of the firewood as they traveled along, Sunset noticed something off. A little extra shaking cause some strange, sparkling powder to shake off his baggy pants. Sunset stops and kneels at this new evidence.
“Legit, huh?” She rubs it between her fingers before dabbling her tongue on the powder, “I think we just found our ‘Gaea Everfree.’”
“But why would he work so hard to make us think she was real?” Spike raises his paw, “What would this have to do with the gorilla?”
“You heard what he said about wishing his sister would sell this camp.” Sunset turns a glare at the faraway Timber, “If nobody wants to come here because it's home to some angry ancient nature spirit and her subjects, it sure would help his cause.”
His ears drawn back and tail lowered, Spike was stamping his feet, “We should tell Twilight.”
“Not yet.” Sunset gently gripped Spike’s hind leg, “She's obviously going through a lot right now. We should probably be a hundred percent sure before we tell her the guy she likes is a jerk who's trying to run everybody out of camp.”
“Uh-huh!” He agrees, raising his paw. Sunset gently grips it and shakes it before the two caught up with Twilight and Timber
With a suspicious eye laid on Timber, Sunset stays close behind them; it’s good she didn’t shoot him by mistake. Much to her confusion, after they returned to the camp and load up the firewood when Timber invited Twilight to a walk back to the woods. With the sun just poking up from the trees, Sunset sits on a bench, takes out her phone and texts the others.
“Where are you taking me?” Twilight asked as her little tour of the forest had rather unfamiliar landmarks.
“Something we’ve had for a long time,” Timber looks at her, “Just haven’t shown anyone… yet.”
A few scrapes with some bushes, and Twilight enters something extraordinary since the island. It was an apple orchard, but fruit in question amazed her. Their hide is rainbow-colored and, in the growing sunlight, shined like a prism. Twilight pulls out an apple and takes a large bite. The right combination of sweet and sour made her squeal in delight.
“This is delicious!” Twilight giggled, “Did your family grow these?”
“Yeah…” Timber taps his cargo shorts, “They’ve been here for a long while. C’mon, there’s something else I wanna show you.”
Getting a response like that got Twilight to raise her brow. She finishes the apple, leaves it on the ground, grabs another one, and follows Timber. A fruit fly satisfies its hunger with the leftovers. After a few sips, some strange miracle of science or sorcery makes it bigger.
A few meters ahead of the grove was an abandoned house. The years have not been at all kind. Vines encroach upon the house, the bricks are worn down, and the wood breaking apart. The land around it didn’t seem to fare much either. A fallen log bridged a deep chasm; it took Twilight all she could not look down as Timber lead her across. While Timber simply walked over to the house, Twilight notices the condemned sign.
“And this building wasn’t torn down, why?” Asked Twilight.
“They realized this is the camp’s property a little too late.” Timber pulls down some of the vines and rotting boards and leads Twilight inside.
The house is just as much a mess inside as it is out; The wallpaper is peeling away, the air very dusty. A few turns down a hallway, and the two enter a ruined laboratory. The table is dusty, some of the beakers are still filled with some chemical compounds, and the floor littered with broken glass. Twilight notices a wilted rose in a flower vase. She turns a faucet, but the water doesn’t come out.
“You come in here often?” Twilight turns to Timber, who is reaching into a cabinet.
“Well, just to get some spare equipment.” Timber answers, putting a microscope on the table, “What? It’s not like they’re using it anymore.”
Twilight rolls her eyes before looking at the floor. Something catches her eye; some of the shards of glass have bloody footprints so small they could have come from a baby. While Timber wasn’t looking, Twilight sneaks a piece into her pocket. She spots a corkboard with many articles, one of which has a team of scientists grouped together with a young gorilla… The size of an adult gorilla. Reading the fainted print, Twilight finds the name of the animal: Kong.
She then notices a dusty, old book on the table. Twilight opens it, blows off the dust, turns a few pages, and reads.
5/20/1998
She’s gone. My little girl. Gone because of me. If I hadn’t sent her over… My wife can’t even look at me anymore. I… I just need time alone.
9/12/1998
After countless calculations, I’ve found a bigger potential for Regenerator G-1. A bigger potential than Biosyn’s use on that damn gorilla years ago. I just need to do a few experiments to make sure.
2/27/1999
My calculations are correct. A few weeks after applying some of the compound on a drop of rat blood resulted in a fetus. I just created life… Now, I have a chance to redeem myself.
4/22/2000
I might not have collected my daughter’s body, but I was able to collect a few samples of her skin and hair. The process, I suspect, will take longer… Far longer. But I just can’t wait to see the look on my wife’s face when I show her to my son, Ti
Twilight closed the book with a loud clap, unintentionally getting Timber’s attention as he saw Twilight with a grim look on her face.
“Twilight?”
“When…” - Twilight shifts her eyes at Timber - “what was the last you saw your dad?”
“I never saw my dad,” Timber puts the microscope down, “he was always on business or so Mom told me.”
“Timber,” Twilight brings the book to him, “I hate to tell you this but-”
Suddenly, something crashes through the window; a giant rat, just five meters long, swipes its big paws at Twilight and Timber. Timber grabs an emergency ax and swings at the beast. However, the rat snaps the blade from the handle in one chomp and starts biting at the door. Twilight takes out her phone and starts texting.
The rest of the campers were making good progress with the dock. The Rainbooms were doing well without their powers… So far.
“Phew!” Rainbow Dash wipes her brow before looking at Rarity working on a poncho, “Uh, you gonna give us a hand here, Rarity?”
“Oh, I'd love to, but I really need to get the stitching on this poncho done if it's going to make it into the camp fashion show.” She eyes away from her work, “Though at the pace you two are moving, I don't know that the runway will ever be finished.”
“The dock is our gift to the camp, and it's gonna get finished. That is,” Applejack furrows a glare at Rainbow Dash “if Rainbow Dash would hurry up and bring me more wood.”
“Oh, I can't go any faster!” Rainbow Dash complained, “I don't want to end up in the woods again.”
Just when Sunset arrives with more wood, she feels her cargo shorts buzz. Using all her strength to hold the load in one arm, she turns on her phone. A moment soon after, she drops the wood.
“Don’t have a choice now, Rainbow.” Sunset beckons their attention, “Twilight’s in trouble!”
As the Rainbooms dash into the forest once more, Tempest takes notice and feels the opportunity arises.
The giant rat finishes gnawing through the door, quickly cornering them like a tiger would if the beast was still small. Twilights left hand slowly searches the table before touching something smooth. When she sees the rat preparing to pounce, she grabs Timbers hand with her right hand. In one split second, Twilight pulls Timber away, dodges the rats pounce, then smashes the beaker and chemicals at the beast. As the rat screeches in pain and rubs its face, Twilight and Timber rush outside. But their troubles are just beginning. Many rats are circling around them, some the same morph as the one they just evaded, some naked and pink, and a few dark ones, bulky as cattle. One such of these bulky ones makes it move.
Just when a streak of rainbows collides with the creature and sends it hurdling to a tree. Rainbow Dash rubs her shoulder as one of the naked ones prepares to charge at her before being pulled back on its tail by Applejack and tossed it. When Twilight and Timber weren’t looking, a few of the scrawny rats were actually able to lunge this time but were blocked by a massive, yet flat diamond. With all of her strength, the fashionista sends them flying. By the time Sunset and Pinkie Pie show up, they're surrounded.
“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash asks, “can’t you talk to these guys.”
With a gulp, Fluttershy takes a few steps forward and asks, “Um, would you let us go back in peace?”
A bit of silence before one of the bulkier rats let out a slow hiss. Fluttershy takes a few steps back.
“Well?” Sunset questions, aiming her bow. Fluttershy immediately takes cover behind Sunset.
“They said ‘no.’” Fluttershy squeaks before looking at the rat charging right at them.
Rarity conjures up another diamond shield, protecting their front. But big or small, rats are persistent as always. Seeing many of the rats at her right, Rarity stretches her right arm, protecting their three o’clock. But now with her hands full, another pack of the rats go to her left and charge at them. Before they could sink their teeth on them, a giant. hairy hand scoops them up.
The ape is back; before the rats could jump off or crawl down, the gorilla crushes them in his own palm. Tempest shadow arrives in the nick of time. She takes out her camera and aims it at the gorilla as he continues to stamp, slap, smash, and stomp on the rats.
“Oh, great!” Complained Rainbow Dash, “Now we got Magilla to deal with?!”
“Well, looks like Kong’s on our side!” Twilight responds.
“Kong?” The Rainbooms questioned.
“Kong?” Tempest Shadow also question, lowering the camera for a while.
Suddenly, Applejack felt her pants buzz, but when the time she pulls out her phone, a rat barely brushes her, causing her to lose her grip on the phone.
“C’mon,” Timber shouts out, grabbing AJ’s hand before she could grab her phone, “let’s get back across the log!”
Sunset, Pinkie, and Rarity give some cover against the rats wanting some easier prey before being pursued to the forest. The beasts passing the hidden Tempest Shadow without even noticing. The gorilla swatted the rats off his legs like dust on a man’s pants. But the rats continued to pile on him; Kong is now on his hands and knees, dealing with his enemies sharps teeth and nails. As if by some abstract artist, the pile became humanoid in shape. The phone meanwhile, went to voicemail.
“Hey, Applejack,” said Applebloom’s voice, a nervous tone coming from her, “can you or Sunset call back? The reason I’m calling is that the egg ha-” The last words spoken before a rat covered fist smashes the phone.
The Rainbooms, Spike, and Timber reached the log. Sunset kept firing a few, explosive arrows above Rarity’s shield, but even taking down a few rats means nothing. Worse, two of the scrappier rats discovered an opportunity and cut off their retreat. One of them lunged at their unprotected flanks. Applejack catches them by the teeth, using her strength to send them down the dark pit. The rats form a single line, the ones up front gnashing their teeth for the right moment.
The ground starts shaking before Kong crashes through the trees again. He spins around several times than rolls on the ground, making paste of the vermin. In the chaos, his accidentally steps on the end of the log. Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy held on the hanging the log. A little loose amount of Pinkie’s sprinkles spilled on accident sent the two rats on the logs hurtling down the chasm. Timber Spruce was able to grab on a vine and hides in a small alcove. Sunset gripped on Kong’s little toe and watched as the log loses it’s holding and takes everyone with it. Before she could cry in anguish, gripping the toe even tighter made her gasp, and her eyes to glow.
The forest now appears larger, clearly no longer a temperate forest. Sunset’s view spins around wildly before stopping and looks up at the female gorilla. The forest suddenly echoes with panicked hoots and screeching birds. The female puts bring Sunset on her back and run with her troop. Sunset could hear bushes crushed, trees toppled, and car engines. Then a gunshot sends Sunset flying forward; after colliding her view spins around. Unwillingly, Sunset approaches the female gorilla; she touches her body but gets no response. Suddenly she is picked up by the scruff, and brought face to face with a scruffy man of purple and white.
Before she could learn any more, Sunset gets rocked off Kong’s toe. Nothing to grab, nothing to slow her fall, Sunset cried out as her turn came to fall down the chasm.
Timber kept to his alcove while the onslaught of screeches and roars seemed to last forever. Then after one deafening howl, it ceases. Grabbing a vine, he looks down the dark chasm.
“Twilight?” He calls out. It echoes a little, but no response. “Twilight!”
Timber almost loses his footing as a massive shadow looms over him. It doesn’t take him one glance before returning to his hiding spot. Too late for him, as Kong’s arm reaches down and searches for the poor man like a child looking for a toy. When the search gets a little warm, Timber grabs a sharp piece of flint and cuts Kong on the finger. Timber watched the gorilla’s shadow look at his hand before hearing an irritated growl and storms off.
Timber reaches for his pockets; no phone. He groans when he sees a rope lowered in front of him. Defeated, Timber grabs the rope and starts climbing. Living to seek help later is good. Upon grabbing the ledge, he encounters the person helping him: Tempest Shadow.
“Thank you.” Timber panted while climbing on the grass, “We need to-!”
Before even getting the chance, Tempest pins him down and cuffs him.
“What are you doing?!” Timber exclaimed before being brought to his feet.
“There will be help.” Tempest whispers angrily before pushing him forward, “And you will give me answers. Move.”
For however long she was knocked out, Sunset woke up after feeling drips of water on her face. From the look of the sky, it’s the afternoon, perhaps around four-thirty. With a pained groan, she sits up and looks ahead. Twilight gently strokes Spike as she watched Applejack and Rarity were looking up at Rainbow Dash attempting to climb up the chasm. Sadly, the athletes' methods were for naught. Sunset rubs her temples before smelling metal. She looks at her hand, stained with blood. Recalling the faintest memory, the horse in ape’s clothing reaches the back of her head and feels a series of spines that made her head tender.
“Sunset!” Pinkie Pie calls out as she and everyone came up to her, all except for Twilight.
“Oh, thank God you’re alive!” Said Rarity.
“Good thing you patched her up, Rarity” Applejack added, giving the fashionista a pat on the back, “I thought we lost you after that fall.”
Sunset groaned, “Guess no luck getting help so far, huh?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash turns herself around, “I have the scuff marks to prove it.”
“Well,” - Sunset makes herself comfy - “I’m sure Timber will get help.”
“No, he won’t...” Everyone turns to Twilight, “It’s been hours since we fell in, he’s left us. He’s trying to cover his tracks. Midnight Sparkle, she’s-!”
Before Twilight could finish, Sunset grabs twilight’s forearm. The others watched as Sunset gasped and her eyes glowed once again. She recognized the exact point of yesterday, just after the sailboat Derpy and Sandalwood were on crashed into the dock.
“You don't think it was the spirit, do you?!” Said Pinkie
“No,” Twilight said to herself, “it was me.”
The vision flashed again, just yesterday evening when they were decorating their lanterns.
His master takes a deep breath, “I’m scared…”
“About the monsters in the forest?” Spiked questioned, cocking his head.
“Well, that too.” Twilight looks up at the sky, “Sunset said something at camp this to happen. I think it's Midnight Sparkle. She's still part of me, I can feel it even when we left the island. And I think her magic is infecting my friends.”
The puppy places a paw on Twilight, “What are we gonna do?”
“I don't know what I can do.”
Sunset instinctively releases her grip and shakes her head.
“Twilight, there's no Midnight Sparkle.” Sunset does one last head shake, “There's only you.”
"How did you know what she was thinking?” Spike asks, cocking his head.
"When I touched her hand, I could see things. I could understand why you were leaving. The same thing happened while I held onto the gorilla.” - Sunset gradually beamed as the pieces came together - “My new magic...! This is my new magic! This is incredible!”
“Ooh, try me!” - Pinkie Pie hopped up and down - “Try me!”
Not wanting to let her down, Sunset grips Pinkie’s forearm, and the effect happens again. However, instead of seeing a past memory, Sunset was seeing the inner mind of the party planner. Pinkie Pie skipped down a lane in a world of living candy and plush toys, a child’s imagination in its purest form.
“Oooh, Taffy!” Pinky snatches a walking yellow piece of taffy and bites off a huge chunk, completely oblivious to it’s pain.
Sunset lets her go and shakes her head again. “That explains so much.”
“Yep!” Pinkie added, eating an actual piece of taffy.
“See!” Twilight shuffled away from the group, “Now you’re affected!”
"Twilight,” Sunset scoots over to her, and reaches for her, “you have to stop looking at this as a bad thing.”
"Easy for you to say.” Twilight turns her back to her friends, “Magic turned you into something beautiful. But when I tried to use it, it turned me into a monster. I'm just so afraid it's gonna happen again.”
Silence again before Sunset scoots closer.
"Yes, last time I turned into something amazing,” Sunset looks at the others before looking at Twilight once more, “but I've let magic turn me into a monster, too. So if anyone understands what you're going through, it's me.”
Knowing a little more about Sunset got Twilight to turn around.
“As I said before, I can help you, Twilight.” Sunset and Twilight stand up, the former turning to the others again, “We can help you.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash flexes her arm, “we shouldn’t just ditch these powers altogether.”
“Yeah,” Applejack adds, “we would’ve been rat food if not for our powers.”
“I don’t know…” Twilight looks away, “I just don’t know…”
“We can let it go for now.” Sunset looks up at the chasm before looking at Twilight again, “So, Kong? That’s the gorilla’s name?”
“Yeah,” Twilight reached for her backpack, “and that’s not the only thing.”
She pulls out a rainbow-colored apple, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Such a lovely color!” Rarity cooed when Sunset took the apple with the utmost care.
“A zap apple? here?" Sunset commented, getting everyone else puzzled.
“What’s a Zap apple?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Well, from what Princess Twilight told me,” Sunset observes the fruit, “ this fruit grow once in a while at Sweet Apple Acres and are made into a special jam.”
Sunset bit a large chunk of the apple; the right combination of sweet and sour had her mouth water as fast as a well. She passes the fruit to Applejack, who takes another bite. Satisfied with the taste, she then passes it over to Fluttershy.
“Twilight,” Sunset asks of Twilight once more, “where did-?”
Rarity screamed in horror. They all turn around and let up a unified yelp. Swarming around at them are dragonfly nymphs the size of tigers. The girls back away until they run out of space.
“Think you could cast up a shield again?” Whimpered Spike.
“Not for long, deary.” She answers while hugging the wall.
“Well,” Rainbow Dash Rainbow Dash picks up a large stick and taps her palm with it, “if I’m kicking the bucket, I’d better kick it up bedrock style.”
The band of girls gathers their courage and raw weaponry they can as the nymphs slowly approach them. The one most front of the swarm extends it’s mouth and snaps at them constantly. But when it just inches from picking at hairless mammal flesh, a large hulking brute crushes it. But it wasn’t a monster, for what monster wears clothes suited for a soldier? Another one joins his comrade as the two take out a flamethrower and burn the swarm. Another soldier drops down, this time with several climbing lines in his hands. After roping each one at the waist, the man tugs at the rope and sends each of them upwards.
Camp Everfree is turned upside down by the time the Rainbooms returned to it. Soldiers like the ones they saw made themselves at home with cases of weapons and armored vehicles. To make room, one vehicle crashes the dock under its treads.
“Aw, come on!” Rainbow Dash wailed before a guard shoved her, “We were almost done with that!”
While the soldiers lead the Rainbooms through the camp, one soldier pulls Sunset away from the group and led her to the cafeteria. A helicopter lands in tune to the soldiers forming two parallel lines. Stepping out was the man Tempest talked over the phone and whom Sunset saw when she first used her powers. He exchanges a glance at each of his subordinates.
“I want search teams at every square inch of this area.” He draws a knife at the second to last soldier, “Any sighting will be reported to me. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!” They agree, their battle helmets muffling their yells.
“Lightning Strike Coalition Force, move out!” As the men scatter, The Storm Leader comes up to Grubber and smacks the food from his hands, “Where is Tempest Shadow?”
The door closes behind Sunset; the blinds closed, the only source of light being the lamp shining one of the tables and a chair. Uneasy, she sits on the chair. Sunset hears some footsteps from her left before a manilla folder flops on the table. A pair of metal gauntlets opens them up.
“So, Sunset Shimmer. Age seventeen, a student at Canterlot High… No elementary or middle school records, a part-time employee at a sushi buffet. The owner” One of Sunset’s spare arrows is placed on the table, “of an unknown brand of arrows without a permit.”
Sunset furrowed her brow, “Before I answer any of your questions, answer me this.” She leans forward, “There is no EPA Division Six is there? You were just here to flush something out. Just who or what are you guys?”
“You ever heard of the Denham Disaster of nineteen seventy-six?” From the shadows, Tempest waits before Sunset shakes her head, “Neither does the press. For over forty years, my boss has been tracking him down. I brought his hopes up again. My unit is the Lightning Strike Coalition Force. We specialize in hunting down massive unidentified terrestrial organisms.”
“Like Kong.” Sunset leaned forward, “But what does that have to do with me being here?”
A printed photo passed on the table brings the fire-haired teen to focus. In the photo, several spectators panicked as carnivorous vines grew out of several wormholes. One of which biting on a motorcycle with its rider hanging on for dear life. She is puzzled when another photo is brought forth. This one is more familiar. three, aquatic, repto-mammalian beings in a rainbow stream fired by a gigantic, winged, horned horse. The next photo got Sunset straight to home; Someone was able to snap a picture of her as a demon.
“That’s right. I know everything; You may not be massive; Tempest finally shows her face out of her namesake, “But you aren’t human either. And if you want to keep it that way, I suggest you stay out of our business”
Tempest turns on the light, stashes the photos into the folder, and walks for the door. Sunset, wanting more answers, stands up and grabs Tempests forearm. Once more with a gasp and a pair of glowing eyes, Sunset delved into Tempest's mind.
The first thing she sees is the deck of a yacht. In front of her were several small children playing soccer. Assuming this is Tempest in her younger years, Sunset had no choice but to let this play out as the ball passes to her. She puts the ball to her knees, keeping it in the air for a while when the boat unexpectedly tilts at a big angle. Tempest grabs the rail for dear life as the boat rocked back and forth like an amusement park ride. She vomits, then turns her attention to a glowing, boiling part of the ocean. She squints before a bright light flashes at her.
“You’re not fooling anyone when you say that what happened fifteen years ago was a natural disaster.”
When the flash fades over, the setting is completely different. She is in an interrogation office, the right side of her vision. Before her is an officer doing his damnedest to keep her calm.
“No, it wasn’t a hurricane, it wasn’t a typhoon,” Tempest argued; not as deep a voice as she does today, but certainly deep. She stands up, agitated, “I want to talk to the person in charge.”
“Ma’am, we-”
“Not you!” Tempest cuts him off, “I’m done talking to you!” She turns to the one-way mirror, “Yeah, you guys looking at me like I’m in a fish tank! Right? I know what happened on The Lucky Dragon. You keep telling me that part of the ocean was to be a death zone! It’s not, you’re lying. Because what’s really happening is that you’re hiding something out there. I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Ms. Berrytwist”
“MY FAMILY DIED THEN!” She screams, “Something killed my family! And I have a right to know! I deserve answers!”
In the present, before Sunset can look any further, Tempest yanks her arm out of the fiery grip. With a furrowed brow, Sunset shakes herself back to reality.
“I know much about you now.” The two glare at each other before the door opens.
“General Tempest,” The soldier grunted, “Boss wants to see you.”
“If you excuse me.” Tempest exits the cafeteria and walks left. Sunset exits soon after, walking to her right.
“Berrytwist.” Sunset mutters under her frustrated breath, “I wonder what her first name is.”
“I just wish you didn't tell them that ridiculous story!”
Hearing Gloriosa’s voice next door raised Sunset’s suspicions even further. She presses her ear against the door.
"Ah, this is all too much for you!” - She now hears Timber’s voice - “You have to let it go!”
"I knew it! He wants her to get rid of the camp!” Sunset hugged the walls as Timber Spruce stormed out of the office. She takes a few glances with some of the Coalition Force before turning away from the corner. But in the process, she bumps with someone.
"Sunset Shimmer?” She looks up; it was Flash Sentry holding the last of his bags, one last trip to the bus, “What were you doing behind that door?”
"What? Um, nothing!” She looks at the ground, “I, um, lost an earring.”
This didn’t remotely fool the blue-haired teen, “Come on, Sunset. We used to date. I know when something's bothering you.”
Defeated, Sunset sighs, glaring at passing Tempest Shadow talking with her commanding officer.
"Okay, here's the deal. There’s a gigantic gorilla running around the forest, along with a bunch of mutants. I have a feeling someone is involved and my friend really likes that someone, but I don't think that someone is who she thinks they are. I don't wanna upset my friend by telling her what I think, because I also want to protect her, because if what I think is happening is really happening, then she deserves to know. You know?”
"Nnnno.” Flash scratches his head before he felt SUnset’s hand on his shoulder.
“Look, whatever happens, just look out for the others.” Sunset notices Timber Spruce sneaking into the forest, “I’ll be right back.”
"Hey, before you go.” Flash stayed in Sunset’s way, “I really wanted to thank you.”
"For what?”
"For the tough love.” Flash puts his hands in his pockets, “Telling me I should get over Twilight. I needed to hear that.”
"Sure,” In this bad time, Sunset does curl up a little smile, “no problem.”
She follows Timber through the deep forest. When she felt the earth shake, she stepped out-of-the-way of a moving tank. Worried that she lost Timber, Sunset looked around before catching a passing glimpse of red flesh. The hunt leads her to a new sight: a mountain cave stood just beyond a large clearing. Even from her distance, Sunset can see a red glow in the mouth of the cave with a strange hum, and feel something growing… The first time since she left the island...
“That’s it,” Sunset pulls out her phone, “time to make a house call!”
Twilight was just about finished packing her belongings when she felt her pants buzz. She shuffles through her settings and reads the text carefully. Her faithful companion hopped on the bed and cocks his head.
"It's Sunset. She says to meet her by the rock quarry.”
"I thought we weren't supposed to go there.” Spike retorted with a raised brow.
"She says it's important!” Twilight reaches into the drawer and pulls out a map. Seeing the icon of the quarry due north of the camp, she and Spike sneak out from the camp to the very forbidden spot.
“What is that?” Suddenly, Twilight is pulled back to the forest. She struggles a bit before being shushed by Sunset placing her hand over her mouth. Calming herself, Twilight peaks from behind the bush, “What's going on down there?”
"I think it's Gaea Everfree.” Sunset answers, peaking from the bush as well, “Or rather, someone who wants us to think she's back.”
The two look around before entering the clearing. From her peripherals, Twilight notices Sunset stopping and turns around. Sunset was kneeling, analyzing the grass like a detective at a murder scene.
“Did you see any footprints before we walked out here?”
Twilight cocked her head, raising a brow before the ground shakes. The footing Sunset stood slowly rose. Sunset herself quickly jumped off just as the earth tore apart. One, then three, then eight striped spires supported two massive sections; the one facing them now having a mouth full of venomous fangs. Its intentions were clear when it made a chirping and hooting sound.
“And me without my weapons!” Sunset cursed before she, Twilight and Spike made a break for the forest. But the green clearing was becoming white with silk and slowed them to a halt. Fear gripped the purple ace student. It’s a popular hypothesis that spider silk is as strong as steel. Spike took in a mouthful, spitting it out before biting another mouthful of fluff. The spider inched closer, protruding a small stinger.
But before it can have its appetizer, the giant arachnid is suddenly lifted in the air. Upon looking up, the girls see the giant gorilla holding it up by the abdomen before tossing it into the woods. With a few pounds on his chest, the ape advances forth and inspects the fallen creature. It notices the mandibles are still moving, making a faint chirping sound as the fangs bang each other. Lifting on the giant legs, the gorilla stoops down to investigate further.
The girls approach the clearing when they see the ape stand upright all of a sudden. Howling, he turns around with one hand placed on his eye. The tarantula flips over, spins around, and pounces on the mammal. Though blinded on one eye, the gorilla swiftly pushes the foe with his feet. The spider flips over again, aims its mandibles at the gorilla and fires webbing.
“Spiders can’t do this!” asks Sci-Twi.
The silk poured at the gorilla like a furious snowstorm. As it stuck to the grass and trees, the beast too became bonded. He struggles to break free, but he couldn't even move his great arms by one bit. The arachnid seizes its tempest and approaches him.
“Twilight,” Sunset turns to Twilight, “you need to use your power!”
“What, no! I-”
Sunset groans before running over to the spider, draws her knife from the scabbard and plunges it in one of the legs. The spider spins around and snares them in another web net.
With more time bought, the gorilla applies more of his strength and breaks his bonds. He grabs a rock and throws it at the spider’s carapace. If spiders can show emotion, the eight-legged freak rapidly spun around again and shoots a stream of webbing. The gorilla takes a step to the left, grabs the stream and starts spinning around. The spider starts losing its grip and is slowly but surely lifted off the ground. The gorilla spun faster and faster before the force of the swinging snapped the silk in two and sent the spider flying into the wild blue yonder.
In the meantime, Spike was doing his part to free his friends, but his best result is a mouth full of silk. Still, it was enough for Sunset and Sci-Twi to crawl out the web, though some of it clung like a raincoat. But they’re in the shadow of the great ape once again, scowling at them. He kneels, hands forward and nostrils flaring. But the gorilla wasn’t sniffing them like… well, what Spike would, rather just breathing. He focuses his eyes on Sunset and brings his right paw forward. Sunset knows of this behavior and approaches him. Her hand, so tiny compared the apes, strokes the scarred paw before gripping a finger, and activates her power.
Sunset now sees herself in a gray interior with white markings on the wall; a hanger, perhaps.
“Okay, Kong!” Sunset’s view pans down to a blonde girl around Sweetie Belle’s age, “Wanna pile the blocks?”
As the little girl puts a block on the floor, a massive hand reaches out and gently lifts her. Just no bigger than his thumb, the girl hugs said thumb. The ape quickly turns his head to the left; a group of scientists walks across the hall.
“Prof. Denham, Kong’s growth has accelerated in the past three years.” One of the Scientists talks, “Perhaps interaction with your daughter has stimulated the growth.”
“Nonsense, the gorilla’s reaching full maturity,” Denham flicks his pen at them, “it’s only expected that he’d grow.”
The vision brightens, then fades to the same area, but things appear… panicked. The gorilla’s view shifts rapidly left to right as he slowly pulls forward.
“Use the chloroform!” Shouts one of the scientists.
A large jug is flung and smashed on his face, filling the view with a noxious fume. It seems to take its toll on the gorilla as he collapses on the floor.
“No!” The view turns up, the girl struggles, “No, let him go!”
“Get her out of here!” Shouts a familiar face as he throws another jug that crashes underneath the beasts’ face.
“No, let me go! You can’t take him! No! Stop!”
Just when the vision gets blurry, the gorilla suddenly gets a burst of energy. With enough force, he breaks his bonds and crushes a few interlopers. After turning around, he feels a pain in his chest. He rubs his chest with two fingers and sniffs something of metal; for the first time, he saw blood. And he’s not happy. He charges at them all, smashing the hanger, trampling security, before spotting two armored cars. Ones of the security officers in the car, with a hint of luck, manages to land a shot at the gorilla’s ankles. The beast staggers then collapse to his knees. A helicopter is heard to his left as he crawls forward. Before he could come any closer, something smashes at the gorilla’s face. At first, swinging his head wildly, he finds his vision starting to blur, slowly, but surely collapsing. He takes one last look at his weeping friend, before closing his eyes, resting his head on his arm.
“We're millionaires, boys….” Professor Denham's voice fades out as the gorilla drifts to deep sleep. After what seems like forever, his ears pick up noises again. “He was king in the world he knew, but he comes to you now a captive. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!”
The vision opens again, somehow, the gorilla is moved over to another hanger, in front of an audience with ball gowns and business suits. Chief among them is a younger Storm Leader, standing as surprised as the people around him. Yet again, the gorilla is just as stupefied as they are as he shifts his head slowly.
“Do not fear. These chains are made of chrome steel. Behold…” The gorilla turns his head to his right, seeing Denham with his hand on his fur, “I am touching the beast.”
A little shrug from the mammal made the audience gasp. A moment after, the gorilla feels his arms lifted off the ground. A moment after, men and women climb up the stage, cameras on hand and start taking pictures. The gorilla tries to look away from the flashes but to no avail. His roar startles the crowd again.
“Let him roar.” Denham’s voice encourages more photos.
But as the roar becomes serious, even he is put on edge. Kong now musters all he can on his right arm; the creaking of the chain gets even Denham on edge. With a crack of a shackle, and the splintering of wood, the gorilla is free, he is flapping free. The guests scream in terror and flee towards the exits. Kong breaks the other shackle and leaps forward, crushing a few of those unfortunate to escape. With several slams of his mighty fists, the hangar gate is bent in two and he is outside once more.
But there is one more obstacle, or to say, obstacles, in the way. Helicopters, each packing a Gatling gun, circle around him like vultures.
“Storm Leader to Lightning Coalition!” He rings through the PA system, “All available personnel. FIRE. AT. WILL.”
The helicopters start firing rounds like their namesake on a bad day. Kong shields his face from the sharp pellets of lead, twisting his upper body back and forth as the helicopters circle around. The gorilla notices one of them going straight at him, jumps, and punches straight at its cockpit. After the vehicle crashes and burns, Kong slaps his chest with both arms.
One of the helicopters shoots at his back, but it didn’t get far when it’s grabbed by the tail routers. The spinning blades break apart, cuts Kong’s palm, and grounding the helicopter.
“Storm 5, this is Storm Leader.” The intercom ring again, “Storm 9 is down, I repeat, Storm 9 is down! One click north of warehouse! Send recovery team, over!”
A helicopter hovers over the crash site, one of the soldiers drop down via cable.
“This is Storm 5, we have men going out the door!”
The soldier makes it to the crash site, pulls out an unconscious warrior before a hairy foot makes that permanent for the both of them. The gorilla turns his attention to a passing helicopter and gives chase, while another pursues him. Another helicopter charges forth, firing from the front turret. In a feat of great agility, Kong jumps over the helicopter, leading it to crash headlong into the helicopter giving chase.
Upon landing, Kong stands up and gives the remaining helicopters a mean scowl as they give him a wide berth.
“Kong!” A new, more familiar voice over the PA has the ape turn his attention to a warehouse. The same woman from before stood in front of a hanger holding the comm. He approaches her with two giant steps when a shower of bullets hits his right shoulder. Before it gets past him, Kong twists his body, then smacks the helicopter out of the sky. The vehicle collides with a tank, forcing it’s gun barrel to turn over at the very hanger the young woman remained, and fired before she could even see it.
The beast is awestruck. All this great strength, and yet he’s still powerless. In a short while, Kong’s fear becomes anger. When a helicopter flies by, the gorilla jumps and smashes it with both of his great fists. He grabs a CH-47F Chinook and slams it to a passing helicopter. He turns over to one of the downed helicopters, races at it and tosses it at another airborne helicopter.
He continues his rage, grabs a helicopter before it could even take off, twists it in two, and slams both pieces on the asphalt. Between the flames, Kong gives a firm glare at the person out of several hundred. The Storm Leader, his eyes just as fiery as the creature that exacted his rage. Kong furrows his brow even further before letting out a deafening, mournful howl.
Sunset shakingly takes her hand off; taking all this in had her clench her fists, sniffling and tearing up. Sci-Twi wraps her arms around her friend before looking up at the upright ape. Whatever happened when the two touched each other, it’s seemed to unpleasant to Sci-Twi as well. Sunset gives in and cries on her friend’s arm.
Suddenly, sounds like that of thunder echoes the forest. From the gorilla’s perspective, he can see parts of the forest set ablaze by explosions via helicopters. He bellows and storms off towards the fire. Sunset collects herself just in time to see the top of the gorilla disappear into the forest.
“You still want to go inside?” Spike uttered, his paw on Sunset’s sneaker.
“Yeah,” She sniffled, wiping her eyes before taking out her phone, “But first…”
The rest of the campers just finished packing their bags. Fluttershy is the first to notice something off.
“Where’s Sunset and Twilight?” She muttered.
“Spike’s missing too.” Rarity Added when her phone buzzes in her pockets. By the time she brings it in front of her, she notices everyone else holding up their phones.
Save Kong. Save Camp Everfree.
The text message got everyone to look at each other before looking up. Helicopters hover over them, getting a considerable distance before dropping bombs again. The students look at the bus, then back to the forest, then they look at each other before looking at their principals.
Celestia gives a nod.
Hovering over one unburned part of the forest, the soldiers prepare another payload when they are suddenly jerked to a halt and pulled back. It was so fast that several soldiers are sent flying out of the helicopter. One holds on the handlebar in one hand and a radio in the other.
“Mayday! Mayday!” He exclaims as the helicopter is brought over by none other than Kong, “We are under attack! Repeat, we are under-!”
The soldier couldn’t keep grip any longer and falls straight into the gaping, roaring maw of the great ape.
Having sucked up her sadness, Sunset, Twilight, and Spike squeeze between two large rocks and enter the cave.
"Whoa…”
Whoa indeed. Lined along the walls are red gems; in the dim light, the gems illuminated the cave in a warm red glow.
"This place is beautiful.” Twilight complemented, rubbing her hand along the gem-encrusted wall.
"There's Equestrian magic here.” She rubs her forehead for this newfound exposure made her feel warm, “I can... I can feel it.”
Sunset brings her right arm out, stopping Twilight and Spike. Ahead of them were seven pillars in the moonlight, five of which have holes and the other two having a red and purple gem in each.
“Twilight, what was in that house?” Sunset asked of Twilight.
“Well, there was broken glass with bloody baby footprints,” Twilight's mention of a child’s blood on broken glass got Sunset to turn around, “and there was a journal that talks about some compound… Regenerator G-1 it’s called, and something about…” Twilight leaned at Sunset, “cloning.”
“Cloning?” Sunset warbled
“Wait,” Spike trotted and stood between them, “I thought you said Timber was just faking there was a magical nature creature. Are you saying it's real?”
"Timber?” Twilight squinted at her friend; she does believe that he brought help, albeit not the best kind, “What does he have to do with any of this?”
"Nothing.” Whispers a soft voice, before the person walked into the moonlight, “It's all me.”
"Gloriosa?” Sunset startled herself as Gloriosa gave a big smile, one a customer would find creepy, “But... Timber. I was sure he was the one trying to make it seem like Gaea Everfree was back. It was you who was trying to scare everyone away?”
"I would never try to scare anyone away from Camp Everfree.” Gloriosa chided, shoving Sunset and Twilight aside as she walks over towards the pillar.
Sunset would have none of this, and so grabs Gloriosa’s forearm, activating her power.
The first vision she sees is of a man working on an experiment in a cleaned up version of the lab.
“Hey, Peach Blossom,” He asks, not taking his eyes away from his microscope, “can you fetch the specimen from the basement?”
This Peach Blossom, very similar to Gloriosa Daisy, walks into the basement. However, human error proved to be at its worse, as an exposed power cable touches the wet floor. The scientist hears it before he finds lights flashing in the basement.
“Peach Blossom!?” He exclaims.
The vision flashes and fades. The scientist now looks as if he hasn’t slept in days as he analyses something from an enclosed canister. Beside him was a rose in a vase, the same one Twilight saw. “I must work fast…”
The vision flashes again, but this time, there is a fight going on. The scientist thrashed about in the hands of men clad in black, bulletproof suits. In the struggle, shelves get shoved and their glassware fall on the floor.
“Damn you!” He curses.
The vision flashes again, this time, in a dark forest as a little girl, once again very similar to Gloriosa was wandering aimlessly through the forest. She whimpers, wiping a tear from her eyes. When she walks over to a line of dried and painted tar, her sensitive eyes are greeted by an oncoming light. She shields her eyes when feels a warm, gentle touch.
“My god! Are you okay?” Asks of the woman, “where are your parents?”
The child doesn’t answer, but her overall condition is enough for the woman to take her to her car.
“Timber, help buckle her up.” She asks before moving to her driver's seat.
The boy, a much younger Timber Spruce, helps buckle her up.
“Hi!” He greets, “I’m Timber Spruce. What’s your name?”
The vision flashes once more. Sometime near today, this very child has grown up and wandered around the forest once more. She notices a stream of magic and follows it. she comes across the glowing cave, finding more of the gems that she now wears around her neck. As she walks around the forest yet again before stumbling upon an abandoned grove of apple trees. She can tell that they’ve seen better days when she plucks a rotten apple from its stem. Dropping it to the floor somehow caused the gems to glow. The seeds in the fruit seep into the ground, and grow into a new tree in an instant, and bore the zap apples.
The vision flashes again; a little elbow grease has replaced the old trees with those bearing zap apples. And has made an attraction to nearby towns.
“Thank you all for coming!” Gloriosa spoke through a bullhorn, “Make sure you place the apple cores in the buckets and be sure to donate!”
Timber notices the glow coming off the gems and raises a brow.
“We would love this lovely spot to stay around,” She continues, “ for you and your children only at Camp Everfree!”
The fruit flies made dinner on what’s left of the flesh, consequently making them bigger. The vision flashes once more to sometime after the “open house.” The aftermath in their office brought a different sense of atmosphere as the two argued.
“You don't know what those things are!” Timber argues, pointing at his sister’s necklace.
"But I know what they can do! They’ve helped us pay off our debt!” Gloriosa counters him, tapping at the folder containing the financial documents, “ Since then, I've been practicing! I can control their power now!”
"You don't know that for sure!” Timber slaps a newspaper on the desk. The headliner, marked in red ink, has a blurry photo of a gigantic shrew with a cow in his mouth. His sister is still indifferent about this and pushes it away
“This again?” Gloriosa scoffed.
The vision flashes once more, to just yesterday, before everything started to unfurl. Seeing Derpy and Sandalwood on a sailboat with no wind would hurt their reputation, Gloriosa looks around before activating the magic. However, Kong’s massive howl ruined her focus, sending the two crashing into the dock, destroying it.
After another flash, Gloriosa and Timber argued once again in their office.
“They’re here because of monsters running about!” Timber yelled, pointing the occupied outside world, “What did you want me to do?!”
"Well, I just wish you didn't tell them that ridiculous story!” Gloriosa yelled back.
“Well, I couldn’t blame you if you were using magic all over the place!” Timber slams his fist on the desk. “You’re lucky I didn’t tell them anything about that!”
Gloriosa seemed indifferent this time, and so put the final nail in the coffin.
"Ah, this is all too much for you! You have to let it go!”
This was the last memory Sunset saw before Gloriosa yanked her arm from the grip. Sunset shakes her head once more.
"Timber wasn't talking about letting go of the camp. He was talking about you letting go of the magical geodes!” Sunset stepped forward, The fruit. The monsters. Ever you since you used them, you’ve caused problems for everyone!”
"How do you know what I was doing with the geodes?” Gloriosa hissed, “How do you know about the magic?”
"I can see things. Feel things.” Sunset points to herself, “Because I have magic, too. And so does she. And so do our friends.”
The camp manager shook before screaming, “It’s that damn monkey's fault! If he didn’t make a mess of things, none of this wouldn’t happen!”
“It wasn’t his fault!” Sunset retorts, “he was taken from his home and experimented on by the same company your father was with before trying to bring you back from the dead!”
“What?!” Gloriosa stepped back, “You’re saying I’m a zombie?!”
“ The point is Gloriosa, Timber wasn't wrong.” Twilight adds, “Maybe you should stop using magic. Too much of it can be dangerous if you can't control it.”
“Oh, I got this. I’ll kill that ape, and I'm going to save my camp.” She takes one step closer to the pillars, “I just need more power!”
"No!” Before the three can do anything, Gloriosa snares them in vines. Spike instinctively gnaws at his binds.
"Sorry, girls. I know what I need to do.” She pats Sunset’s cheeks, “But I feel like we're not on the same page. So…”
"Gloriosa! No!"They shouted too late as Gloriosa grabs the last two crystals. Red and violet sparks shimmy around her body. The magic raises her up; it becomes too much for her to handle and she screams a horrid scream that makes her prisoner's stomach’s curl. The sparks and screams cease and the body flops to the floor. A moment of silence save for the water drops. Spike creeps over to the limp body and starts pawing her.
“Uhm... Gloriosa?” When Spike pulls her face to him, Gloriosa’s eyes shoot open, but they only showed white. The puppy whimpered as her body twitched before bending forward with a loud snap of her bones. As Gloriosa came into shape, to put it nicely, her arms and legs began to buldge before she became larger. Sunset and Sci-Twi become horrified as the camp manager’s shadow becomes… inhuman.
Dawn approaching in stormy weather, the Storm Leader, a torch in hand, continues his onslaught. Behind him, Tempest Shadow, with a battalion of tanks behind her. And there's Grubber, with a few of Pinkie’s cupcakes and a few infantrymen behind him. They hear the crashing of trees. Roars are heard and the Hewie’s propellers end, it’s remaining payload exploding and revealing the giant ape.
Kong crashes through to the campsite, a helicopter in his hand. It’s been years, but the gorilla still recognizes the man from those years before. The Storm Leader furrows his brow and tightens his grip on his torch. And Kong, now twice as large from when he escaped, pounds his chest several times then lets out a howl.
It’s payback time!
“Fire!” shouts one of the troops before two tanks fired at Kong from both sides. Kong howls again before he grabs the tank on his left and smashes it at the tank on his right. The troopers fire their automatics. It’s a cruel sense of the world’s way of becoming balanced. Kong becomes bigger and stronger, and the enemy becomes dangerous. Automatics on armored jeeps quickly fire at the gorilla, who shields himself with his arm. With a puff, Kong grabs both of the wrecked tanks and tosses them at the assailants.
He howls again and charges at one of his former captors, splashing into the lake. Right where the Storm Leader wants him. He slings the torch into the water and ignites the napalm. Kong tries shielding himself from the flames, but it’s no use when the heat torches his backside. Surrounded by fire, the gorilla’s painful howl echoes the forest as he. The storm leader curls a cruel smile; his white whale is hunted.
Or so it seems… Kong erupts from the flames with roar, a spectacle that causes Grubber to lose his cupcakes. With a wave of his great arm, the gorilla splashes napalm on a few troops, getting them to scream. One such troop applies the old stop drop and roll and stands back to his feet only to get crushed by Kong. The beast turns over to the Storm Leader, ready for one last push. But in his rage, Kong inhaled too much smoke and collapses like a mighty oak. The Lightning Strike Coalition surrounds the ape.
“Men! Place your charges!” The Storm Leader commands, not turning his vengeful gaze away, “Let me show you what happens if you ever cross the King!”
Immediately, the troopers place explosive charges around Kong.
“Arm one!”
“Arm two!”
“Arm three!”
With a wave of her hands, Tempest Shadow orders the battalion to give Kong a wide berth. Given the remote, The Storm Leader clicks the button and turns it on. A soft whirring sound emits from the remote before becoming a beeping noise. The Storm Leader readies his thumb, ready to end the life of the white whale once again.
“Hold it!”
The commander and his troops turn around and see Rainbow Dash holding Grubber in a headlock. The shock troops turn their guns towards her. Applejack and Bulk Biceps burst out of the trees, the former knocking out one of them, grabs his gun and aims it Tempest Shadow and a couple of others. One of the troops inches his trigger finger when a wall of diamonds sprout in front of him and a few others. Rarity kept her hand up as she, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the student body walk out of the forest.
“Did anyone teach you any etiquette?” Chided Rarity, “No one wants a fight!”
“You don’t know the whole story like I do!” The Storm Leader argued, “He killed my men! He humiliated me!”
“He’s just an innocent creature defending for his life!” Cried Fluttershy
“We are soldiers! We do the dirty work so you and families can be safe!” The Storm Leader points at Kong, “You shouldn’t even know a thing like this exists!”
Rainbow Dash shakes her head, “I’ve seen crazy, and you fit the definition more than the Dazzlings.”
That thought got even the most stone cold of the troops to question themselves, turning away to their leader before looking at their target. Storm Leader approaches the group while raising the detonator.
“The world is bigger than this, you know.” Pinkie adds, getting him to lower the remote.
“Bitch please!” He turns to Tempest Shadow and orders, “Get them out of here!”
Tempest shifts her eyes to her commanding officer before returning to Applejack.
“You know it’s the wrong thing to do, sugar cube.”
Soldier against innocent civilian, gunfire vs magic, an army vs a band of teenage girls. The soldiers question whether to act upon their leader’s command or not. The Storm Leader places his thumb on the trigger, the point of no return.
“Stand down!”
The Storm Leader raises a brow. He turns to his second in command pointing her gun at him. Pinkie notices him reaching for his pistol and quickly lets out a sample of explosive confetti. Upon contact, the clutter explodes, destroying and bloodying his hand. He groans as the rest of his troops aim their weapons at him. Rainbow Dash releases Grubber, Rarity cancels her spell, and Applejack snaps the rifle on her knee like a twig.
Relief…
“Come on,” Applejack motions her head to the left, “Let’s find Sun-”
A loud wail echoes the burning forest. The ground shook so violently that the armored troopers lose balance. Erupting through the ground are a bunch of whiplike vines that stab into the armored tanks. Some of the vines have venus flytrap-like mouths that bite into the armored cars and toss them aside. Erupting fully from the ground was the center of it all. A giant plant monster supporting itself on six “legs” flexes its crocodilian head and lets out a trumpeting roar.
“Oh, my goodness!” Rarity shrieked.
“It’s Gaia Everfree!” Screamed Trixie
“She’s real!” Exclaims Flash
“Aah!” Both classmate and soldier turn to the hulking Bulk Biceps screaming again like a little girl, “We’re doomed!”
“Fall back, now!” Tempest orders. Most of them don’t even think twice. The one who did, Fluttershy, stayed in a futile effort to get the former Storm Leader to move before Rainbow Dash runs back and picks her up.
Ridiculed, the former Storm Leader watches the giant plant stalked both him… and Kong catching his attention. The gorilla woke up with a growl. The man picks up the detonator again. Kong quickly catches on and sneers.
“Die you mother-!”
Kong smashes the general and turns his attention to this newfound foe twice his size. But he was still weak from the military attack and outgunned. The monster wraps her vines around the gorilla’s arms and legs. One of the small venus flytrap heads spray a concoction of sap at Kong’s face, he is lifted up, slammed to the ground, and wrapped. Kong squirms as best he could to no avail, unaware of the giant, head rising up for the final killing bite.
But her tiny eyes are assaulted by a series of flashes. She spins her massive head and she sees the small bits of flashing. Photo Finish continues to take pictures before she is picked up by Applejack.
“Career’s not worth your life, let’s go!” The farmer exclaims.
Whatever creature Gloriosa turned into caused the quarry to cave in. Fortunately, Spike gnaws his vines and finish up chewing down Twilight’s binds. A few more canine bites and two mostly hairless bipeds giving their all and Sunset is free. They wasted no more time scooping down several small rocks. The larger rocks proved too much for womanpower alone. Something clicks into Sunset’s mind once again.
“Twilight, you have to use your magic again!”
Sci-Twi looks at the massive boulder and with a shaky finger replies, “I don't think I can lift something that big.”
Sunset pushes the boulder again, “It's our only chance of getting out of here and helping our friends!”
With a gulp, Sci-Twi raises her hand as a Jedi Knight would. The violet aura wraps around her hand once again before the same aura wraps around the rock. With a little more effort, they move the boulder. Shocked at the sight of the burning forest, the girls and the dog feared the worst and rush to the forest.
Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were the last ones to arrive at the sight where Kong fell. The latter stepped even closer and touches the beast's nose. He opens his eyes. Though blurry, Kong recognized the familiar color scheme of the girl he saw all those years ago. Lightning crashes the sky, followed by the thunder. The gorilla applies all his strength, snaps one of his bonds and raises his hand to the clouds. The heavens rumble again before striking the gorilla on the finger.
“Provide suppressing fire!” Tempest orders. The shock troops spin around and unleash the onslaught of lead and gunpowder. Though armor-piercing, the bullets bounce off the wooden hide. The monster sprouts a few more vines from her “neck,” sticks them to the ground, and cuts off the campers escape.
“Get back!” Timber shouts as he rushes forth with a woodcutter’s ax. He strikes the vines with all his might. but they regenerate as swiftly as they are cleaved; not even a scar on them. More vines erupt and trap some of the students on the patio.
“Oh,” Fluttershy whimpers, “why do these kinds of things always happen to us?”
“ What are we going to do?” Rarity screams. Rainbow Dash looks up at the monster plant turning her head and letting out another wail. She turns to her friends.
“What we always do!” Rainbow stretches her hand, “Save the day!”
Muttering in agreement, the rest of the Rainbooms place their hands on Rainbows. With her newfound strength, Applejack tosses some boulders at the flytrap mouths. Pinkie Pie musters enough of her explosive confetti to free her those from the patio. Lyra and Bon Bon race for an opening on the briars when a venus flytrap vine cuts them off. Rarity casts her diamond shield and saves the two from getting sprayed by corrosive sap. Fluttershy knocks on the ground awakening a few groundhogs.
“Um, hi. Do you think you can give us a hand— um, er, paw? We could really use a way out.”
The small mammals gather their friends and begin work gnawing the vines. While Tempest Shadow’s forces continue their fight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash join in. But the farmer could only move the vines a bit. Rainbow Dash fared little better, running so fast that she dug herself to her waist. Pinky Pie conjures up another batch, but the explosion is shaken off like a snake-skin.
Sunset, Sci-Twi, and Spike reach the wall of brambles and as expected, have nary a chance of getting them to budge… At least not on their own.
“Twilight,” Sunset turns to Twilight while straining herself, “do you think you can use your magic again?”
Sci-Twi raises her hand
“I can’t.” She curls away from the brambles “Midnight Sparkle could take over.”
“Twilight,” Sunset cups Sci-Twi’s hands, “our friends are in there!”
Hearing the roar of a monster and the screams of her classmates, Sci-Twi gathers some courage, nods, and tries again. The briars finally pull apart and allow the two girls and dog to enter. What they see is utmost horrifying.
“Sunset! Twilight!” The Rainbooms shout as they join them.
“Just what the hell is that thing?!” Shouted Rainbow Dash.
“It’s Gloriosa!” Sci-Twi shouted.
“That overgrown weed’s Gloriosa?” Applejack turns to the monster for a moment, then turns back to them, “You sure ya haven’t got heat stroke?!”
“You’re right,” Sunset adds, “Gloriosa is a clone of someone else.”
“A clone!?” Shouted most of the girls.
“Freaky-deaky!” Pinkie adds.
From afar, Timber Spruce was watching everything, appalled by this sudden news before looking at his sister, the monster. Sunset motions everyone to the vines.
“Gloriosa!” The girls look to the camp leader running towards the beast, waving his arms.
“Is he out of his mind!” Shouts Rarity.
“Please, Gloriosa! What you're doing is crazy!” The beast turns her rage to the lonely human; the beady eyes gave her a blurry vision of blue and white, but she can see Timber’s silhouette. “You have to listen to me!”
Most of the girls prepared a counterattack, but Timber Spruce turns his head at the girls and waves his finger at them. With all those thorns, flytrap vines, and teeth, the beast doesn’t attack and gets her snout just an arm's length away from him.
“Please, Gloriosa, come back! You’re better than this!” In perhaps the riskiest move he’s ever done, Timber hugs the tip of the snout, and starts weeping, “You're better than this…”
Sci-Twi notices a stalk growing behind him, grows a mouth, and prepares to strike like a cobra.
“I need you, Gloriosa!” He mutters again as Rainbow Dash swipes Timber away. “What are you doing!? I almost had her!”
“She almost had you!” Rainbow remarked before a vine smacked the both of them to the ground. The rest of them regrouped as the shadow of the monster looms over them. She arches back and digs her jaws at the very spot they stand on. She lifts her heavy head high in the air before swinging side by side. In the lick of time, Rarity conjured up a shield of diamonds that wrapped the Rainbooms, Spike, and Timber Spruce in a tight sphere. Safe… Until the monster applies more force. It felt as if the fashionista was holding up an elephant.
Then, a massive boulder hurdled forth and crashed on the monster’s back. She turns around; Kong is back, holding a tree like someone would a knife. After “Gloriosa” summons up a few Venus flytraps, the gorilla pounds his chest, bellows, and charges. One of the vines lunges forth and is punched by an electric fist. Kong spins around and backhands the next one. A few hops then he jumps at the rose mutation, gets a firm grip, then shoves the tree into the monster’s eye. The monster howls and frees the diamond sphere, which is then gripped by Kong’s right foot. The gorilla constantly slams his fist on her head, each time sending several electric charges. Two venus flytraps rise up, bite Kong on shoulders and add enough corrosive sap to get the gorilla off their mistress.
The monster holds the gorilla down and pulls the sphere away from his foot and back to her main mouth. Rarity feels the strain once again.
“I can't keep this up forever!” She whines, tears flowing from her eyes.
In the madness, Sunset notices something in the monster’s mouth, something sparkly, something that could save them. She turns to a scared Twilight Sparkle.
“It's up to you.” Sci-Twi turns to Sunset, “You have to use your magic to save us”
Outside, Kong is able to stand up, but couldn’t move.
"No, it’s too much.” Sci-Twi curls up, “It would take too much magic. I can't!”
“It's the only way! You have to embrace the magic inside you!”
Outside again, the vines continue to wrap around the great ape. Kong tears a few vines apart, but one starts wrapping around his throat.
"What if she takes over?” Cutting back to our heroines, Sci-Twi spreads her arms, “What if instead of saving everyone, I turn into Midnight Sparkle and only make things worse?”
"That won't happen!” The shield cracks like glass, Sunset cups Twilight’s hands, “We won't let it.”
With more pressure, Rarity gives and faints, causing the shield to crack under the ceiling and floor of spiky teeth. Whether not wanting to be mashed to a pulp or something else, Sci-Twi closes her eyes and strains herself. She hears a familiar cackle and opens her eyes; the monster she became at the Island of Monsters stood in front of her.
"You will never control me!” Midnight reaches out and holds her calmer doppelganger by the throat, “I will always be a part of you!”
"Noooo!” Twilight cries as she held her demon’s hands.
"Twilight, listen to me!” Sci-Twi forced one eye open; Sunset Shimmer, or at least a red, glowing apparition of her, appears at her left, “You are in charge!”
"You are a light, darling!” Rarity’s apparition appears next to Sunset’s “A force for good!”
"Yeah!” Rainbow Dash appears at Twilight’s right “You can kick her ass!”
"We're here for you, Twilight!” Pinkie appears next to Rainbow
"And we'll be here,” Applejack appears next to Rarity, “no matter what!”
"We believe in you!” Fluttershy Appears next to Pinkie Pie.
Midnight Sparkle gives each apparition a glare; she flips her wing at one of them, but to no avail.
"You... are not... Midnight Sparkle!” Sunset starts repeating before also being swiped away by a feather.
“Shut up!” Screamed Midnight.
"No! I... am... Twilight Sparkle!” In the real world, Sci-Twi straightens herself, the flaming visor is gone, and the crooked horn straightened out. Her fists start to glow, “The “And the magic I carry inside me is... the Magic of Friendship!”
The inside of the monster’s mouth glows brightly before a purple energy wave explodes and shatters the front of her snout in several pieces. Without the shield, the girls scream as three of them fell faster than the others. But salvation was quick as several auras slow their fall and land on the soft grass.
“You did it, Twilight!” Spike barked, licking at his fallen mistress. The girls look up at the monster howling at the clouds. Her snout starts growing back at a tremendous pace. Kong notices the vines losing their grip on his throat and so with enough force tears them aside before roaring at the monster. Sci-Twi’s eyes pick up something shiny, the purple glowing gem she saw in the cave. Sunset’s orange gem floats to her as do the remaining gems to their rightful owners.
The job isn’t over yet. Each one of them enters the girl's bodies and trigger another transformation. This time, the girls were given armor; Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy have crystal wings in place of their usual, feathered ones. The ponytails were also adorned with braids, and their boots reached halfway up their lower legs. They ready themselves.
“Let’s finish this!” Sunset exclaims.
“It’s on like-!”
“Don’t push it, Pinkie!” Rainbow interrupts as she takes to the air and lands a few punches on the monster before being chased by the venus flytraps.
While Kong grapples with the vines and tears them apart, Fluttershy lifts up Pinkie towards the monster. Applejack grapples with the vines as well; ripping them apart before they got too close to the injured and the cornered. The massive gorilla jumps at the plant monster again and pries open her jaws. Reaching out from her tent, Sunset pulls out her bow and arrow and aims it at the monster’s mouth. Her eyes spot Pinkie conjuring up a concoction as big as her head.
“Have yourself a spicy meatball!” Pinkie spoke in a fake Italian accent before tossing her mixture. At the right moment, Sunset fires the arrow. It, along with the explosive confetti, packed enough of a punch to blow off the back of the monster’s head. And yet she’s still going at it, and bites down at Kong’s hands and tosses him over once again.
“Even with all that, we got,” Rainbow Dash land before the girls, “we can’t even make a scratch!”
“Oh,” Rarity whined, “if only that giant moth was here!”
“We haven’t used everything,” Sunset closes her hands, “and it doesn’t require Mothra.”
The plant monster makes its final approach. Kong stands up again and curls his fingers. He looks down at the girls looking at him. He understands them… And it’s not gonna be pretty. The plant monster bellows again and is answered by Kong’s roar. The gorilla leaps again at her front and starts pounding his electric fists at her head. The Rainbooms ignite the magic inside them and start ascending.
Sensing a great deal of power, the plant monster’s “belly” starts glowing orange and starts siphoning up the great head. Kong feels this and wraps his arms around her great mouth. Corrosive sap seeps between her teeth and starts burning the primates hands. But Kong doesn’t let go; he must continue buying them time. Holding hands, the girls form a ring before opening their glowing eyes and shooting out a bright rainbow at both of them. Kong continues holding on as best he could with the breeze tickling a few wounds. Locals outside of the camp notice a quick flash of light but assume it’s just lightning.
The rainbow fades away, and the Rainbooms gently land. All that was standing is Kong; the plant monster is nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Gloriosa?” Asks Timber Spruce. As the clouds part ways, Kong kneels down, brings out his right hand and unfurl his fingers just as the clouds clear away. Timber picks up his sister and starts shaking her. “Gloriosa! Gloriosa!”
Timber presses his fingers against her throat for a few seconds and continues shaking her around again… to no avail. He lowers his head and weeps. Sci-Twi approaches Timber.
“I’m-” Her equine ears pick up guns cocking and turn around. Tempest Shadow, Grubber, and the Lightning Coalition force have their guns loaded and aimed at Kong.
“Still not enough,” - Sunset is the last one who turns around - “isn’t it?”
Once again, everyone pitches in, crossing their arms. Tempest eyeballs everyone and the smoke from the damages wrought by the monstrous Gloriosa, Kong, and themselves. With a deep, frustrated, breath, she lowers her rifle.
“Stand down.” She orders before walking over to Sunset, “But answer me this, how many lives will it take before the world finds out?” Tempest turns around and walks away, “Move out.”
Such a question fumbles Sunset’s great mind; so much damage has been done by magic and beast. They were lucky enough that these were contained, but if there’s one little slip... And what did Tempest mean by a “bigger threat?” For now, there is much to be done. Kong turns around and walks back to the forest. Tempest and Grubber board a convoy and drive off. Grubber pulls out his next snack: sunflower seeds.
“So, Boss,” Grubber sputters out dozens of sunflower seeds, “what’s the next plan?”
Tempest kept her silence as the convoy makes their way to the interstate. With a deep breath, Tempest answers,
“First, a memorial service. Then,” Tempest reaches into her pocket and pulls out a worn piece of newspaper. “Lucky Dragon goes in Flames ” the headlines reads, showing the picture of a burning yacht, “the hunt continues.”
Epilogue: King of Everfree
Everyone is hard at work getting the camp repaired. Many of the boys pulled up totem poles, some of the girls fixed the gazebo. The Rainbooms were fixing the dock when Sci-Twi notices Timber Spruce walking to them. They all stand up.
“I’ve told my family everything. They’ll be coming soon.”
“Including the-”
“Not the magic.” Timber interrupts Pinkie Pie, before giving them a scowl, “If only you’d be here sooner, you could’ve taught her how to control her magic.”
“Timber,” Sunset steps forward, “magic is like nature itself, it ca-.”
“But if you taught her how to control-”
“Magic can’t be controlled! That’s what I’m getting at!” Sunset catches her breath, “I was overwhelmed by the magic of this place, but I didn’t have enough respect for it and it’s out now! The only things that matter are the people we love.”
Timber starts tearing up.
“From one person who knows the loss of another,” Applejack places her hand on Timber’s shoulder, “remember her love, remember the things you two have done together.”
After wiping a tear, Timber looks at each of them before picking up a few tools. But before either of them could resume repairing the dock, the ground shook once again. All the campers look behind them and saw Kong standing just at the clearing. Everyone just stares at the massive gorilla; what do they do now? Kong slowly turns around, stops before waving his shoulder and continuing. Getting an idea, the campers follow the great footprints. To Sunset, Twilight, and Spike, this was the path to the quarry, but when they arrived, it came as a shock. From rubble alone, Kong manages to salvage the quarry as best he could to make it back into its original shape.
“That’s…. Kind of you,” Rarity looks nervously at the others, “But we do see room for improvement.”
In the course of a whole day’s work, the quarry is refurbished. A few of the rocks are carved to resemble animals, the entrance barred by a metal fence, the perfect place for the memorial service two days later. As her casket is carried inside, Sunset notices a strange figure standing away from the crowd, eyes filled with tears, but he can do nothing but turn away. The fire-haired teen has many questions to ask of him, but, as Rarity would say, some questions are best left unanswered.
“It’s time,” Sci-Twi whispered. The Rainbooms stepped on a makeshift stage and pick up their instruments, except for Rarity, who instead sat in front of a piano.
In due time, the dock was finished… again. This time, the colors are a series of pinks, the same color scheme as Gloriosa Daisy. With a little elbow grease and a scraper or two, the dock has a monument signpost that reads, “Lake Gloriosa.”
“Third time’s a charm.” Rainbow Dash puts a finger to her mouth, “Or is it fifth? I've lost track.”
"All that matters is that the runway is finished.” Rarity wipes her forehead.
"I think you mean the "dock"?” Applejack asks with a gruff look.
“Dock, yes.” Rarity corrects with a cough. “Shall we… Have a moment…?”
The seven girls fold their arms together and lower their heads. A moment’s silence before…
“We pray that Gloriosa finds a good place in your great Kingdom…” Fluttershy shuffles her shoulders, “and pray for the life of all your creatures great and small.”
“And pray for us for what’s coming.” Says Pinkie Pie.
“Yeah,” Twilight mutters, “pray for us too.”
“No, really,” The girls turn to Pinkie Pie; part of her fluffy hair is twitching like mad, “I think we maybe need to take a few steps back.”
The Rainbooms hear a soft whistling sound becoming louder like a jet engine before turning around. A black dot swiftly approaching them, they give each other a quick look before screaming and running from the dock. The gigantic spider Kong tossed speeds over the lake and crashes into the forest. It spins itself right side up and quickly scurries into the forest.
“Wow,” Pinkie Pie sputters, “I thought for a second Spiga was gonna smash our life’s work.”
Just as she finishes her sentence, Pinkie accidentally sends a handful of confetti in the air. They clutter lands quickly before either of them could react, and explode, destroying their work in smoke and splinters. The group hung their arms, and their mouths are agape. Rarity whimpers before collapsing.
“Of for G-!” Screamed Rainbow Dash before,
Night once again swallows the campsite. With just four nights left, the campers, turned in early, having repaired the dock once again. Sunset took her last bit of strength to write in her journal.
“I don’t know where these gems come from, but they seem to serve quite a useful purpose. As for Kong, neither one of us has seen him since the funeral. But after all that’s happened, I say nothing bad would happen… As long as we keep quiet… But I still wonder… After we graduate…?”
Can’t change her thought now once written in ink, Sunset closes the journal and falls asleep. She slept like a rock, and no nightmare this time, felt the pain go away on her bed. But peace and quiet is only a luxury. At first, it was only a soft hum, but after a half hour, the noise became as loud as a town on First Friday. With a groan, she wakes up.
“You too, huh?”
Sunset turns her heavy head to Sci-Twi and Spike already woken up and still tired. They step out of their tent and see the others standing outside, again looking tired and rugged. Deducing that the sound is coming from the quarry, the Rainbooms trudge through the forest.
“Really,” Groaned Rarity as one of her hair curlers dropped out of her hair, “who would have the nerve to throw a party at a time like this?”
After pushing a few tree branches, they immediately snapped out of their tired state.
“Does that answer your question?” Asks Applejack.
Behold before them is such a party. The beasts they met have been dancing and chanting. And that’s not what surprised them. Sitting at the mouth of the cave was Kong, keeping a finger on his hairy lip as he watched the performance. The Rainbooms hear more rustling in the bushes; more of their classmates arrived at the show. Kong turns his gaze to them, yet the gorilla does not move. Fearing the worst again, the campers start backtracking to Camp Everfree.
“Guess that makes him King Kong.” Chuckled Pinkie Pie before turning away with a yawn.
“Yeah,” Sunset continues to watch Kong looking at her before curling a smile, “the Eighth Wonder of the World.”
As Sunset retreated to the jungle, the drummers started drumming faster, and so was the chanting. Kong stood on his hind legs and started pounding his chest. As he does, electricity coursed throughout his fur. When the music reached its peak, roars. He is free once again, and as time goes on, he will defend his freedom, and his home.
The sky's the limit for him now.
Those four days came and went, and the campers, both excited and saddened, made their way home. Calm was their home… except in a few places. When Applejack came home, she found a few acres of their finest apple trees stripped off the ground. As Apple Bloom tried explaining over the phone, they have a new addition to the house. A spiny, armored dinosaur as big as a cow the Crusaders have since named Thunder Ball.
In her own laboratory at her family’s backyard, Sci-Twi was hard at work examining samples of both Kong’s blood and hair. The DNA from the hair samples results tell that Kong is a mountain gorilla, but how did he grow so big? Twilight turned to her microscope and examines a bit of the blood sample. Amongst the blood cells are oddly shaped antibodies tending to infected blood cells and swiftly devouring the pathogens.
“Twilight,” She hears from Shining Armor, “Dinner’s ready!”
Sci-Twi turns to her work one last time and asks her this question,
“What creature has these cells?”
She turns off the light and makes her way to her home. But her experiments are working on their own accord; these antibodies encouraged the growth of new organelles, then new nerve cells, then nerve bundles, before it combines to a rich gold iris surrounded by bloodshot sclera with a black void in the middle. Reflecting off that eye was fire from an underwater volcano.
The view becomes black, following by a deafening roar.
