Camp Cutie Lake

Cheerilee, Lyra, and Applejack wave to the two incoming carriages full of ponies as they approached the campground. The colts and fillies filling them up were singing a happy and raucous song at the top of their lungs as they rolled along the packed dirt road. A large sign spanning the road spelled out “Camp Cutie Lake” in bold iron letters, and the carts erupted into cheering as they went under it, the foals as excited as the drivers that they had arrived at their destination.

“Well, How many was that? About 20, 25?” Cheerilee asked.

“Looked ta be about 30 t’me,” Applejack said.

“Oh dear. I don’t know if I can handle that many foals at once.” Lyra ran in place, anxiety plain on her face.

“You’ll be fine, Lyra. Bon Bon will help you out. You said she’s had experience working with foals before?” Cheerilee asked.

“Yeah, though she never explained where or in what capacity,” Lyra said.

“Well, I’m sure it will be just fine. If you get confused or can’t handle them, just let us know and we’ll come help you out,” Cheerilee said. “Now come on, we should go greet them with the rest of the counselors.”

The three ponies follow the carts to the meeting area where the campers were unloading themselves, and their luggage. Bon Bon and the three flower sisters, Daisy, Lily, and Roseluck, were all helping them and keeping the group under control as best they could. The foals were excited, and rightly so. Summer camp was beginning, and the camp had just been repaired and renovated for public use. It was brand new, and these foals would be the ponies to break it in. Cheerilee went to chat with Bon Bon, and check the attendance list.

“Alright fillies and colts, everypony please may I have your attention?” Cheerilee said.

The group stopped what they were doing and turned one by one to face Cheerilee. She remembered most of the faces before her, and most of them had seen her in school while growing up, so they knew better than to test her patience.

“I know you’re all very excited to be here, and I know you can’t wait to get started exploring, but first I need to take attendance and go over some of the camp rules,” Cheerilee said.

A collective groan went up from the audience.

“I know, but they’re for your safety. I’ll try to make it as quick as I can.” Cheerilee cleared her throat. “First, if you’re going out at night, check with your assigned counselor. They’ll accompany you. Never go out alone. It’s dark, wild, and you can easily get lost. Those pegasi who can fly already will have an easier time of it, but some of you can’t, and everypony can easily get lost.

“Second, don’t eat anything you don’t recognize without asking. Some plants are edible, but some are poisonous. We don’t want you getting poison joke. It’s not dangerous, but it can ruin your summer. There will be books on the local flora, and Daisy, Lily, or Roseluck will be happy to help you identify anything you don’t recognize.

“Third, while the lake is open for swimming, please make sure there is a lifeguard on duty before going in. The designated lifeguards are Bon Bon, Lyra, and Applejack.” Cheerilee pointed to each pony in turn. “Now, that is all I have to say, the rest of the events and rules for them will be explained as they come up. Please meet with Daisy, Lily, and Roseluck for your cabin assignments, and remember, you may not end up with your friends in their cabin, but if you ask nicely, we’ll try to accommodate you!” Cheerilee yelled the last part as the foals started scrambling to the flower sisters.

The foals all clamored around the flower sisters, getting their assigned bunks. There was, of course, complaints from several of them, but they were sorted out soon enough. She was sure that some of the foals wouldn’t be happy with the assignments still, and they’d have to keep an eye on them. The older ones especially. Summer camp, while fun, was always a place for experimenting away from their parents. This being a mixed camp, that made it all the more likely to happen.

Cheerilee sighed and watched the sisters get the foals organized. The groups moved out in three groups of ten, isolating the colts as well as they could manage from the fillies, and they all got them settled in. Cheerilee went to go check on Applejack and Lyra as they worked on supper.

The mess hall was big. It had to be to accommodate all the ponies that might show up. With only thirty foals, they’d have a lot of room, but they were a small operation. Other cities might have more, but Ponyville and Hollow Shades didn’t have huge populations, so there weren’t that many. Just thirty.

“How’s the chili coming along Applejack?” Cheerilee asked.

“Oh just right as apples Miss Cheerilee. We’ll have the sloppy joes ready in time for all of these colts and fillies to get themselves unpacked. Bon Bon’s getting’ the bonfire ready for tonight, so we can show ‘em all a good time before we try to make ‘em work on some skills tomorra’,” Applejack said.

“Excellent. Keep up the good work you two,” Cheerilee said.

She then went over to the campfire to see how Bon Bon was doing. The mare had a huge pile of wood ready, complete with tinder. All that would need to happen was a simple match and the whole thing would go up in flame. The foals would love it.

Satisfied that everything was set up and prepared for their first afternoon at camp, Cheerilee left to go manage the paperwork of each foal having arrived to make sure nopony was missing. The parents would want to hear that they all arrived safely. Her job was the dreary part, since she had been the one to repair the campground in the first place. Summer was dreary and empty for her, since there was no teaching to be done, so Cheerilee had gone the extra mile and made a summer camp. A fun bit of extra work.

Lily, Daisy, and Roseluck were having a bit of a tougher time of it. They had agreed to be the camp counselors in charge of each group of foals, and that left them with the job of wrangling the young things every day as they traveled about the camp.

Lily had gotten the youngest group, which was mixed into both fillies and colts, making up 14 of the foals. Daisy had the group of older fillies, constituting 8 ponies altogether, and that left Roseluck, with six older colts, who did not seem sad at all about their counselor. On the contrary, they were excited and were paying rapt attention to the mare, which was not unexpected, but could be troublesome if they got it into their heads to try to impress her.

“Alright fillies and colts, if you could follow us, we’ll give you a tour of the campground.” Roseluck waved to the groups and led the way, with her group following close behind her. “We’ll have many fun activities for you here at Camp Cutie Lake, and we’re hoping you’ll enjoy getting to know yourselves, your neighbours, and us. Every activity is designed to test you in different ways, and who knows! Maybe you’ll end up finding your cutie mark while you’re here!”

Lily spoke up as they passed a series of challenging poles, ropes, ladders, and other structures. “This is our obstacle course! While what you see down below is most of what we have, we do have some cloud structures above as well. While we don’t have a Pegasus counselor, you are still welcome to use them if you feel you’re strong enough to fly, but we do ask you to remain in sight of a counselor at all times.”

Daisy’s turn came up as they passed the lake itself. “The lake has been a fixture of the community for years, and while it has experienced difficulties in the past, Cheerilee put her all into cleaning it and preparing it and the surrounding area for us to use this summer, so be sure to thank her! There will be canoeing, swimming, and many other fun activities centered around the lake. Just make sure that Lyra, Bon Bon, or Applejack are near the lake when you swim, for your safety.”

As they came up to the mess hall, Roseluck turned around and addressed the group. “Now, does anypony have any questions?”

One pony raised his hoof. “Are you single?”

Sniggering filled the group of colts, while the fillies all rolled their eyes, and the younger foals mocked gagging.

“I am, but I’m afraid you’re just not my type,” Roseluck said.

“Ohhhhh!” The group laughed.

“Any other questions.” Roseluck scanned the groups for any other hooves. “Well, if not, welcome to the mess hall! Who’s hungry?”

A cheer went up from the crowd and they piled into the mess hall. Ponies chowed down and sat together in their little cliques and crowds, while the counselors had a small snack and watched. Somepony in the group spilled food on the table and the foals all sang a song and forced her to run in a circle around the mess hall for her screw-up. The flower sisters laughed at the fun and games.

After the dinner, they allowed the foals to explore the camp as they wished, with each counselor giving out explanations of what things were, and each one of them watching an area to make sure no accidents happened. Most of the colts went to the obstacle course to show off their skills to Roseluck, who had the misfortune of being stationed there. She just watched with a smile as they blew off their machismo, chiding them time and again to not hurt themselves as summer had just started.

Most of the fillies went to hear Lily talk about the plants they could find around the campground. The population was mostly earth ponies, so that was to be expected. Some of the youngest foals wanted to ride in the racing carriages the camp had, and Applejack was more than happy to oblige.

What was odd was that nopony except one small foal wanted to go swimming. Lyra was on lifeguard duty, so she watched the little colt as he paddled about in the shallow water, but she would have expected more of them to want to swim in the lake. It was summer, and the days were hot, so why was nopony interested?

The answer came when the night fell and the bonfires were lit. They provided some marshmallows for the foals to roast, and everypony was gathered into their groups, sitting near their designated counselor. Inevitably, it came time for ghost stories, and one of the older colts told the tale that had gotten the camp shut down so many years ago.

It was a sad story of a summer getaway just like this one, and the foals were all happy and cheerful, but one of the ponies was bullied by the rest, and thrown into the lake. The lifeguards on duty were off rubbing snouts in the woods, and they didn’t see or hear what was going on, and the foal drowned. Some say he still haunts the waters, looking to pull anypony under.

Cheerilee didn’t interrupt the story, even though she wanted to. It was all part of growing up, but she’d have to show them tomorrow that the water was safe to swim in or they’d go home traumatized. The rest of the bonfire was spent chatting in their little groups and eating marshmallows. There was only one crisis when come colt thought he’d try to impress Roseluck by eating marshmallow while it was still on fire. He got some marshmallow fluff stuck in his fur and had to be put out, but he was okay. Only a small burn.

When the fire was down to a small flame, the night was done and the flower sisters showed up with lanterns to guide the foals to their bunks, and Cheerilee, Lyra, Applejack, and Bon Bon were left to clean up the marshmallow and plastic mess. They all retired to their own bunks and slept peacefully until the morning.

The next day started early, with Applejack making sure everypony was wide awake by playing reveille on the roof of the counselor’s cabin. Many of the foals weren’t sure what was going on, and stumbled out of their cabins looking to see what was happening with sleep still in their eyes.

“Mornin’ y’all! Breakfast is waitin’ for y’all in the mess hall, but we got a big day ahead, so let’s not waste any sunshine! Yee-haw!” Applejack jumped off the bunk and marched over to the mess hall, with the flower sisters close behind.

After the initial shock of being woken up in such a strange manner, the day went off pretty clean. Breakfast picked up as time passed, with Applejack having supervised the creation of a big stack of flapjacks ahead of the reveille. Lyra and Bon Bon served them up, and before long the foals were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed once more.

After breakfast came the first big hike. Everypony came along on this one. With 28 foals to watch, losing sight of just one could be a catastrophe, so every counselor was on duty. Bon Bon lead the hike, with a talk about which plants were useful, which ones detrimental, and which ones were lethal. She explained the use of tree bark, shoots, roots, tubers, flowers, ferns, vines, and many more. Cheerilee didn’t know where she’d learned so much, but she was invaluable, and the foals were all enraptured by her speech and information. She made it easy to follow, which was helpful.

After the hike, it was time for lunch. Applejack had prepared it ahead of time, so mess hall was filled with ponies making delicious sandwiches, or partaking of some fruits and vegetables.

Following the light lunch, it was time for some fun games. Foals were given a choice of taking part in some hoofball, which was meant to attract the older crowd, or playing on the jungle gym and obstacle course, or go swimming.

Unfortunately, due to last night, only the same one foal wanted to go swimming. Lyra took the colt down to the water again and watched him swim as long as he wanted. He paddled around and splashed to his heart’s content. He didn’t look like he was getting bored, so she waded out into the water with him to see if he wanted to talk at all. Being alone like that must not be that great.

Lyra splashed out to the colt and sat down in the water nearby. “What’s your name little guy?”

“Wet Willy,” he said.

“A good name,” Lyra said. “What’s got you out here in the water?”

“I like water,” he said.

“I can see that. What do you like most about it?” She asked.

“It’s wet,” he said.

Lyra scrunched her face up in frustration. This colt did not want to talk at all. She satisfied herself with watching him play as he splashed, dug mud up and throw it, and generally just messed about in the water.

He didn’t seem to want to leave the shallow shore, so she waded a bit further out. If she was going to be in the water watching this kid, she was going to enjoy her own bit of swimming. She hit the spot where she had to start swimming, and she heard Wet Willy calling to her from the shoreline.

“If you go out that deep, Deep Cutter’s gonna get you,” he called.

Deep Cutter? Lyra wasn’t sure if that was the name of that pony from the ghost story about the lake from last night or not, but it must be or he wouldn’t have mentioned it.

“Deep Cutter is just a story, Wet Willy. He’s not real,” Lyra said.

“Yeah he is. I like swimming, but I’m not going to take chances. Not with Deep Cutter out there,” Wet Willy said.

“Look, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll swim all the way out to that buoy, and then come back,” Lyra said.

“Don’t do it, Miss Lyra,” Wet Willy said.

Lyra didn’t listen. She and Cheerilee had agreed that they needed to prove to the foals that there wasn’t anypony living in the lake, or the place would have a horrible reputation. She kicked her hooves and swam as hard as she could. The water split in front of her, and her powerful strokes took her out to deeper and deeper water. The buoy ahead of her grew in her vision, rocking back and forth in the gentle summer breeze. She smacked the buoy with a hoof, rocking it harder, and kicked off it as she swam back toward shore. She smiled in confidence, and looked beneath her at the deep water.

There was somepony staring up at her from below.

Lyra felt a chill go through her and screeched in fright. Her paddling became frenzied and she splashed for all she was worth for the shore. Wet Willy had left the water and was sitting on the pier watching her swim for her life. She felt something grab her rear hoof just as she reached the pier, she wrapped her forehooves around the ladder and felt the yanking intensify. She squealed in fright and held on for dear life as the tugging intensified, trying to drag her under. She felt something wrap under her armpits and yank as well, but she refused to let go of the ladder.

“Lyra, it’s okay, I gotcha,” Applejack said.

Lyra looked up, and the tugging on her hinds ceased. Lyra let Applejack help her out of the water and onto the pier, where she looked at her hind hooves for any sign of injury. She was whole, and well, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her except for a piece of freshwater seaweed wrapped around her leg. She sighed and pulled it off.

There were teeth marks on her leg under where the seaweed had wrapped around it.

Pony teeth marks.

Lyra tried to cover it before Wet Willy could see, but he’d already noticed.

“I told you,” Wet Willy said. “He’s not gonna be happy you got away. I’m gonna go play on the jungle gym.”

Wet Willy turned and left, leaving Lyra and Applejack alone on the pier.

“What was all that about?” Applejack asked, checking the bite on Lyra’s leg.

“You remember that story the foals told last night? About the pony who drowned in the lake some years ago?” Lyra said.

“Yeah. Somethin’ about him still bein’ under the lake, ready to pull anypony under,” Applejack said.

“Well…” Lyra gestured to the teeth marks in her hind leg. They hadn’t broken the skin, but they were stark and obvious to anypony who looked. “…I think he just tried to grab me.”

“Lyra please. We don’t need any of the counselors to lend any credence to that tale of hogwash,” Applejack said.

“Well come on, Applejack, something tried to pull me under, and it had a pony’s teeth. Do you know of any fish that have pony teeth?” Lyra said. “I mean, just look!” She gestured to her leg and the bite mark on it.

Applejack sighed and looked at Lyra’s leg. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t want to believe that there was a pony lurking under the lake’s still surface. Ponies couldn’t hold their breath that long, and a unicorn sitting under there with a spell just to kill ponies was a bit out there, but not outside the realm of possibility. It was all a bit much for the honest pony to take in.

“I’ll get Bon Bon to help me out, and we’ll scour under the lake tomorrow. With two of us it should be safe. Don’t let any foals in the water until we’ve given it a look, but don’t tell them that this story is real, either!” Applejack said.

Lyra nodded and stood up. She limped back to the counselor’s cabin to clean her leg and wash it. She didn’t want to risk infection despite it not breaking the skin. She didn’t know where… whatever’s mouth had been.

The rest of the day was uneventful, filled with play, and fun, and a lot of colts trying to impress Roseluck on the obstacle course and in hoofball. There were no injuries, but plenty of fights among those colts who thought they were better. Roseluck’s sisters were less than amused, but they accepted it. They thought it was because Roseluck had red hair. There was no better explanation for why she got all the attention, but there wasn’t much point fussing about it.

Evening arrived and a new bonfire was lit. ingredients for s’mores were divvied out and everypony had a grand, sticky, and chocolatey time before bed.

Unbeknownst to any of the ponies at the bonfire, angry eyes watched them from the water’s edge. A dark and muddy form hunkered down on the shoreline, eyes reflecting the fire’s light. Nopony noticed, but the eyes watched as the counselors went back and forth around the groups, talking and laughing with the foals. The figured splashed sideways in the water, turning to watch the flower sisters approach with their lanterns. The figure’s eyes narrowed as they focused in on Roseluck, and with a bubbling growl, it disappeared back into the mud.

The foals were led to their cabins, and the rest of the counselors cleaned up the rubbish left behind. They cleaned the bonfire space, made sure the fire was out, and went back to their own bunks. The flower sisters returned shortly thereafter, and everypony was bedding down for the night.

Except one.

Roseluck laid awake in her bed. She’d gotten an anonymous message in her bed. It was from one of the older colts, no doubt. The message read; “Come to the pier after lights out. -A secret admirer.” She didn’t want to, and she had debated what to do about it. She could ignore it, and the colt would probably get the hint. But he might also think she hadn’t found the message and keep trying until he embarrassed himself in front of the rest of the foals and counselors in his misguided attempts to woo her.

No, it was best to talk to him and get the message across without any doubt. That way she could nip it in the bud before it could become something more obvious and detrimental, and he could move on to somepony closer to his own age.

Once Roseluck was sure everypony else was asleep, she slipped out of bed, tip-hoofed to the door, and sneaked outside, making her way through the moonlight to the pier. She couldn’t see anypony waiting for her, so she just stood on the wooden surface, waiting. She’d give him fifteen minutes.

Roseluck admired the lake in the moonlight. The surface was a mirror’s surface under the stars, and the faint sound of the wind, combined with night creatures calling in the darkness as they communicated matters both deadly and harmonious, made the night almost perfect. She would have to come back out here when a colt wasn’t about to confess his love to her. And with him half her age! He had guts, she’d give him that.

She stood on the edge of the pier and looked down into the dark waters. She thought she saw something down there in the darkness. Fish swimming about, most likely. She tried to imagine what kind of fish it was. In this lake, maybe a pike? She couldn’t tell.

A voice called to her from the shore. “Roseluck? You actually came! They told me you wouldn’t, but I knew you would! You’re just too perfect to ignore a love letter.”

“Okay, listen, before you go any further…” Roseluck felt something grab her hind hoof and yank, and she fell into the water, disappearing under the lake’s surface.

Roseluck couldn’t tell what had grabbed her. The water was too dark, and it felt like there were multiple things wrapped around her limbs. She felt a stinging on her leg where the thing had grabbed her, and she was confident she was bleeding. She heard muffled yelling, and tried to swim upward, or the direction she thought was upward, but the thing held her fast, preventing her from moving. She saw a hoof above her, and grabbed for it. She grasped it and held as tight as she could, but the thing underwater that held her was far stronger then the poor colt on the dock. He couldn’t hold on, and Roseluck’s hoof slipped out of his grip, and the moonlight up above grew dimmer and dimmer as Roseluck disappeared underwater, something holding fast to her as her lungs finally gave out.