怪談とポニー Ep3 - Wet job

Chapters

1.

Capable to seat nearly half of the school, the large auditorium was hardly one-third full that day still humming muffledly like a giant vespiary. Some students came genuinely interested in attending that summer Pinewatch program; even more of them were overly curious to listen to what the school authorities had planned to offer. When the news came roaming around, many of them were inclined to treat it like a ridiculous rumour than seriously believe it – the more surprising the confirmation turned out. Without tongue in cheek, the direction suggested a proper out-of-city camp instead of the usual campus-based bunch of activities during that vacation. For the first time after several years! Thus the lion’s share of the present colts and fillies came to simply feel out what their alma mater was going to offer this summer. Joining in, however, would depend on the offer itself.

Misty Lagoon, the soon-to-be high school student of Pinewatch, took a look around the spacious hall. Built without the windows, it was lit by the multitude of lamps, dimmed at the moment, barely glowing under the high ceiling. The rows of seats ran from the narrow passage in front of the stage, rising with the distance for the comfort of the audience; they looked and sounded like the ninth wave of faces during the Pinewatch festivals or large official gatherings, for example, the graduation procedure. That day, the vacant seats galore allowed those present to gather in separate groups according to their interests and acquaintances, without division by age or class. The unicorn girl inwardly counted the familiar faces when somepony energetic started waving to her from another edge of the hall.

“Interesting,” drawled Misty, waving back to the thin filly, whose cottony, fluffy mane exactly corresponded her name. The unchanging camera dangled on its strap on the neck of the miniature girl while the latter managed to greet Misty, keep one eye on the stage and keep replying to her company all at the same time. “Interesting,” repeated Misty, addressing her friend in half-voice, “will she join the camp, or she came here for the article about its opening? What do you think, Lacy?”

“Who?” The earth filly sitting next to Misty leaned over her, adjusting her round glasses and peering into the distance. “Oh, Fluffy Folgen,” Lacy Reins, Misty’s classmate and one of the best friends, waved to the girl in question as well. Raising her arm, she bathed Misty with warmth and some thin perfume or maybe soap aroma, tempting the unicorn girl with the idea of nuzzling Lacy’s neck right under one of her tight braids. “I think the latter,” Lacy sank back to her seat and threw a smiling glance at Misty. “I think that several weeks in a camp, far from civilization, isn’t something to attract that drop of quicksilver. Too boring for her liking… Although, we know,” added she with a meaningful expression, “it can turn out different easily.”

Both girls couldn’t hold back the reserved giggles – the last couple of months were unexpectedly quite eventful for them. Even Misty, accustomed to adventures during her fillyhood when the oceanologists-parents were forced to take her on their expeditions, was to admit the outstanding pace and value of the recent events. She put a finger to her lips, jokingly calling Lacy to order and attracting the friend’s attention to the stage.

The latter could provide a wide variety of capabilities from the huge white screen for movies or presentations to the light equipment of a concerto level. At the moment, the stage was set in quite an ascetic way: with the empty backstage passages – as Misty could notice from the fifth row, it offered the view of the white screen and a small rostrum for a single speaker. The place was occupied by somepony of the Pinewatch directorate who finished making the initial announcement, adding that the appointed supervisor of the camp was going to fill the potential attendees in on the details.

“Sorry for the delay, students!” the stallion’s smile turned a little nervous already as he called the audience for silence: a couple of minutes passed, nopony appeared, and the entire gathering, naturally, started humming again. “I’m sure there were reasons for her not coming in time…” he didn’t try to calm down the students twice, considering everypony was keeping themselves reserved, but made a funny mien, shrugging apologetically.

“Her?..” Misty and Lacy exchanged puzzled and at the same time meaningful glances. Before they managed to develop the idea, the friends noticed two more fillies using the twilight and the forced delay in the meeting to make their way to them across the half-occupied row.

Misty’s aura enveloped their bags: hers, tightly packed with books and Lacy’s, even tighter, with something tingling inside and a changeless green leaf protruding from the side pocket. The unicorn filly barely had time to place them on the opposite side when two sporty pegasus girls smacked onto the folding seats next to the friends.

“Hola!” Windy Mane ruffled her short red hair, stretching and putting her arm on the backrests of their seats. “We spotted you in the nerds’ area,” the pegasus girl smirked widely, “and used the anarchy moment to relocate!” The cockiness of her phrase, however, contrasted with the tenderness the girl leaned her head to Lacy’s with, rubbing against her mane lightly.

“Hello, girls!” her sister Flaunty greeted them with a familiar motherly smile. The girl threw her lush chestnut mane back, glancing at the stage with the discouraged authority still protruding behind the rostrum. “What do you think?” she winked at Misty and Lacy. “I feel something unusual is brewing here.”

“Yeah, mates…” Windy took the initiative, wrapping her free hand around the sister’s shoulders. “We knew about the camp but thought it would be the usual stuff. You know, when the school offers its facilities to occupy the students during summer vacation,” elaborated she, making a face.

“…and learn something new, they had no time for during the year,” added Flaunty meaningfully, making them smile.

“Yeah, yeah, something about that…” Windy was to agree. “But it turns out definitely worth joining in!” added she enthusiastically. “As far as I know, Pinewatch wasn’t arranging out-of-city camps for a few years. Makes me wonder!”

“Currently, the figure of the camp supervisor makes us wonder,” Lacy adjusted her glasses pensively.

“Hmmm…” Flaunty nodded, exchanging glances with her and Misty. “You noticed also.”

“By the way,” added she in a moment. “We have great news, girls!”

“Absolutely!” Windy even hopped on her seat, bitten with enthusiastic discharge. “We…”

“Shhhhh!” Raising her azure eyes to the stage, Flaunty Mane gestured to the girls for silence.

The lights in the auditorium started to dim more, leaving it in complete darkness, so the stage became highlighted in a matter of seconds. The stallion behind the rostrum perked up; he sighed with such relief, totally forgetting about the microphone and sending that sigh into the broad audience. Normally, it would cause a laughter wave, but now the crowd froze expectantly. Masking confusion with a smile, the stallion made a wide gesture somewhere toward the darkness of the hall.

The approaching heels sounded on the parquetry floor like gunshots in the ensuing silence, making all the heads in the auditorium without exclusion turn towards the sound with curiosity, which would be welcomed more by the teaching staff at the studies instead. With the faint sound of the opening door, the measured steps entered the hall and were now tapping along the dark rightmost aisle, making the majority of the heads track them as if they were sunflowers in a sunny field. The girls shared the crowd’s interest, trying to see the mare. However, the seemingly wild idea already glimpsed in Misty’s head – she could hardly imagine that person leading the entire thing.

Somepony was climbing the steps to the stage already when a bright beam of light suddenly turned on behind the students’ heads, projecting the school logotype on the white screen. With the one lighting the rostrum, both beams were making the rest of the darkness around impenetrable for the sight of the confusedly turning around students. With a few more loud clicks, the familiar to the entire school person emerged in the beam of light.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlecolts!” The mare didn’t yet reach the microphone but everypony in the auditorium heard that ringing, melodic voice. The top of the strict yet very tight dress, shimmering elusively from dark blue to black without confidence about which colour it actually was, straight shoulders, the cloud of luxurious hair gathered in a complex, slightly old-fashioned manedo and the long, spiralled, glowing in the light horn appeared behind the rostrum; falling on the mare’s face, the light threw a large shadow of her manedo on the white screen, despite the latter was hung providently high.

After a second of dead silence, the auditorium – at least two-thirds of it – burst into applause flavoured with whoops and whistles of approval. The latter sounded equal in colt and filly voices as the girls noted automatically.

“Thank you!” with a dainty smile, the speaker rose her thin fingers, gesturing for silence. As the tide faded, miss Singularity moved the microphone a bit further. “First of all, apologies for that forced delay! By the way, it was conditioned by tiny trouble regarding our summer undertaking. Which is now solved for good,” she reassured with another smile. “Now to the matter of our meeting.”

“We knew that she was amongst the organizers of the camp, but I never thought…” whispered Misty, exchanging puzzled glances with the girls, “that miss Singu will take the entire lead!”

“Well, that’ll be way more interesting,” barely chuckled Windy.

It seemed to the girls that the glance thrown by the alicorn mare into the audience slid on them; her eyes flashed lightly. The friends preferred to peer at the stage as if nothing interested them more, just in case.

“As you all know… And if you don’t, please refer to the filing of the school newspaper in our library,” continued miss Singularity, habitually smiling with her eyes only, “Pinewatch High School limited itself with the intra-school activities during the annually held summer camp, be it sports, entertainment or extra-studies… for the last several years,” emphasized she. “However, this year a decision was made…”

The girls silently exchanged meaningful glances again. Each one seemed to express the same unvoiced question.

“…to revive the traditional form!” Miss Singularity shook her mane enthusiastically. “Namely, to offer you all a proper out-of-city camp experience.”

An excited squeak cut through the dark silence of the hall and died down. The alicorn teacher let out a reserved smile, making a calming gesture.

“The slides, please!”

The bright projector blinked and an unfocused blot appeared on the white screen. Before the operator could address the problem, the mare’s horn lit up with magic, sending its aura somewhere behind the students’ heads – momentarily, the image started focusing and the audience couldn’t hold back a sigh of delight.

The slide was offering a truly magnificent view of the shining mirror of a broad lake, surrounded by the emerald velvet of the untouched forest. The image was taken from a high ground in the woods – the bottom edge of it was stained with a smudged tongue of a cliff the photographer risked climbing on. With another click, the slide changed, revealing now a close-up of presumably the same lake, but the very shoreline of it instead. Pristine clean sand was running to the seemingly endless blue waters, framed by the woods far behind; some constructions glimpsed aside, out of the focus. It looked like some well-maintained beach rather than a wild shore.

“Sire lake, near Rye-on-Marsh town!” with a welcoming gesture, miss Singularity turned to keep both the audience and the screen in sight. “Obviously, not that near to spoil the entire thing!” she threw a gamine glance into the hall, making a merciful pause for the laughter to fade.

“Surrounded by the forest,” continued the alicorn teacher, “and bathing in the fresh air and sunlight… when the weather allows. Almost-wild life,” she smirked as a few slides followed one after another, presenting the picturesque views of the woods, hills, even vastness of the ocean from some high shore point, “yet nothing particularly dangerous due to the civilized surroundings. The most dangerous beast – you will need to make quite an effort to unearth though – could probably be some grumpy badger.”

“Don’t know about the program they are planning…” whispered Flaunty Mane from the corner of her mouth, “but I like the look of it!” Three girls nodded in agreement.

“Being as far from the civilization as you could wish – and we know how tiresome it may turn out sometimes,” miss Singularity left the rostrum, approaching the screen, demonstrating the bottom of the long dress and putting a part of the audience at the visual dilemma of where to stare, “yet offering all the possible comfort and even more,” stated the alicorn mare against the background of a few more forest and lake views.

An image of some river delta spreading wide and far and running into the ocean with the multitude of shimmering branches and creeks glimpsed on the screen. Misty bit her lip pensively – that slide appeared barely for a fraction of a second, changed to another one. Did she see for a second how miss Singularity barely squinted with reproach?

But the next second, their teacher turned to the audience with a bright expression.

“Here is an example of a typical camp house there.”

The next slide revealed a modest yet very neat-looking woodwork building with the closely coming forest behind. Single floor, angled roof, clear windows, fresh paint on the walls. Nothing extraordinary, except visible quality and reliability. An electric wire stretched from some out-of-the-frame post to the insulator on the wall, promising some basic level of comfort.

“No cable TV or wired internet, of course,” chuckled miss Singularity, “but methinks you aren’t going after those there…”

The image changed, causing an involuntary sigh of mixed relief and delight from the audience. Now it was showing the surprisingly spacious interior with several beds and nightstands, a built-in wardrobe, large windows – everything a modern colt or filly could need for comfort, including promisingly whitening electric outlets on the walls.

“Electricity, separate toilet and shower in each cabin, warm water, lit territory,” miss Singularity spread her arms as the screen behind her boasted various views of the camp territory: houses, a well-equipped stadium, administration building and something the girls subconsciously considered to be a canteen, “paved roads, single canteen for everypony, but I’m sure you will like the company,” she continued listing. “A nice spacious stadium. Alas, we have no separate swimming pool there, but the proximity of Sire lake eliminates that problem effectively.”

“And all of that is Trishores camp,” summarized the mare against the background of an arched gate with the corresponding caption, which was separating the asphalted road from the camp territory – a peaceful corner of the woods, fenced with the subtle mesh snaking between the trees, and a single artery of electric line jumping from post to post and entering the territory. “This summer, we are going to offer you a wide variety of activities, from intense sports to art studies. In addition to the forest walks, lake beach, etcetera for the entire four,” miss Singularity glanced at the audience with emphasis, “weeks of organized leisure!”

The hall exploded with another wave of applause and whoops – jokes aside, a whole month of freedom, even if limited. In their turn Misty, Lacy, Windy and Flaunty were almost sure that the audience rightfully caught the main idea. Under the guidance of miss Singularity, the crucial discipline aspects would be most likely enforced, but the general climate in the summer camp would become much more liberated.

“Everything to make the kids…” added miss Singularity and the entire audience heard her even without a microphone, judging by the moody hum, which took a run from one side of the hall to another. But another glance at their teacher and her smile told the colts and fillies that miss Singularity was simply teasing them a little.

“…to make our students happy!” ended she, followed by bursts of laughter from the hall. “So,” miss Singularity stopped in the centre of the stage, bringing together her gracious palms in a conclusive gesture, “I’m going to familiarize you, folks, with the program and then,” she threw a glance at her wrist-watch sparkling brightly in the returning main lights of the auditorium, “…and then you can ask me questions if you still have any.”

The next hour passed in a wink: the girls could listen to their Physics teacher, lending half an ear as the pegasus sisters fished out enough about the program and shared their knowledge with Misty and Lacy beforehand. Thus the friends could quietly exchange their opinions, perking their fluffy ears only when something new was touched.

“So what do you think girls?” Lacy took a look around their company. “Are we still in? Personally, I like the idea more than sticking to the city. A month in the woods!” added she; the girls spotted the sparkles of excitement behind her glasses.

“Yeah, we got your idea, Lacy,” Windy and Flaunty exchanged glances, chuckling. “The untouched forest was the main bait in your case.”

“I’m rather in than not,” pensively drawled Misty when Lacy admitted guilty with a smile. “A couple of things still puzzle me though.”

“First,” she glanced at the girls turning all ears to her, “the camp looks working and well-maintained and miss Singu’s speech sounded to me as if it was always one of the Pinewatch facilities. Then why didn’t they arrange out-of-city activities for several years?”

“Hmmm…” chuckled Flaunty, cupping her chin. “And another one?”

“Frankly speaking, among the various roles I could imagine her in,” confessed Misty, “I never envisioned her as an out-of-city summer camp supervisor.”

“Wait, wait. Tell me more about it!” Windy Mane even leaned forward. “About the other images, I mean.”

Misty felt how the light flush coloured her cheeks unwittingly, making the other girls snort and cover their mouths, throwing a cautious glance at the stage.

“Oh, come one, Windy! Drop it!”

“Okay, okay!” The redhead girl raised her palms jokingly. “We’re in if you are, as usual. Right, sis?!” she turned to Flaunty.

“Absolutely!” The chestnut mane nodded determinedly.

Meanwhile, the audience fluently moved to the questions: the general noise only increased, giving the girls an opportunity to talk freely.

“About the news, we wanted to tell you,” remembered Flaunty Mane and her sister chuckled approvingly. “We were officially transferred to your class, girls.”

“Really!” Misty’s eyes flashed with joy; Lacy woke from estimating her chances to take all the gardening tools she might need, sharing the friend’s mood. “How come?”

“Well, the official version,” Windy paused for emphasis, “sounded as if our Physics knowledge is below the desired level. And in your class, we will get the additional studies at ease.”

“Oh!” Misty even froze for a second with raised eyebrows; her exclamation was more than self-explanatory for her friends and worth a monologue, just like the glance she threw at the stage with their alicorn teacher answering the next question from the audience.

“Well, my point of view stood unchanged,” Misty said firmly after a short thought. “Now I’m even more curious about the entire thing!”

“Remembering the proverb?” inquired Flaunty.

“Absolutely!” nodded the unicorn girl with a smile.

“Then we’re all in,” Lacy took Misty under the elbow, snuggling to the friend’s shoulder.

“Right!” Windy and Flaunty confirmed, showing thumbs. “Look! Judging by the slides, there must be quite an expanse,” added Windy, jerking one end of her collar string. “Misty has her camera… We could ask Yuki if she lends us some powerful binoculars! She would hardly part with her cameras, I admit,” chuckled the girl, “but some optics is another story.”

“Yuki?” hugging Lacy with her free arm, Misty looked at the sisters with curiosity.

“An out-of-school friend of ours,” waved Windy nonchalantly. “We’ll introduce you at the chance. Right, Flo?”

Flaunty nodded but brought her finger to her lips, calling for silence. The audience finished with the questions and miss Singularity was going to announce something else. The mare backed to the centre of the stage, raising her hand and offering the overly enthusiastic students, who already started clinging to the stage edge, to calm down and take their seats.

“Attention, ladies and gentlecolts!” Miss Singularity didn’t need to raise her voice much to be heard. “If all the crucial questions are asked and more importantly – answered, I would like to invite you to fill the list of summer camp attendees with your names and classes.” With a flash of magic initiated by her lighting horn, a table with a journal and a pen materialized near the edge of the scene while the newly assigned summer camp supervisor continued elaborating. “Your parents and caretakers were notified about the camp facilities beforehand. Methinks I can safely assume that each of you here met no objections from their side previously. However, after you sign into the program, we shall perform another check with your relatives, and if no problems emerge – you will be considered a member of it.”

“Don’t rush it, folks!” added she with a smile, noticing the brownish movement in the first rows. “Safety first, don’t make a mess and be careful with the steps!” nodded she toward the stage climbs. “I see more students willing to take part than supposed initially. But, rest assured, we can accommodate everypony!”

Misty rose from her seat; the girls wanted to tell her that it might be reasonable to wait out the first tide already rushing to the steps, especially considering that miss Singularity said there was plenty of space to the program. But the next thing the unicorn girl did, made quite a few ponies freeze on the spot.

Misty’s horn lit with the magic; the girl rose on her tiptoes, biting the tip of her tongue from the effort. The girls saw the bright golden aura enveloping the pen, picking it up and inputting something into the journal.

“We’re in the same class now!” Flaunty and Misty managed to whisper, guessing the idea.

Misty Lagoon diligently filled the four strings in the list, then threw a content glance at her friends, putting the pen down in the middle of the journal. From the corner of her eye, the girl noticed miss Singularity watching her with a smile splashing in her deep dark eyes.

2.

“I sincerely hope that the rest of our camping days are better than that…” muttered Misty Lagoon. Leaning closer to the bus window covered with water trails, she was holding on to the backrest in front of her, not to head-butt the tempered glass when their transport was jumping on occasional road bumps. The road turned out way better than one could expect to find amidst some overgrown woods, yet not nearly as even as the ones in Canterlot suburbs.

A couple of hours ago, their bus, one in the procession of alike, left the civilization behind – the big city with its crowded, humming streets, car horns and emergency sirens, the outskirts with private houses amongst the green and random dogs barking from behind the fences – and kept rolling on the plains, passing rare villages and groves alternating with endless fields. Half an hour ago, they reached the Shimmermist woods edge; the trees surrounded the narrow road, sending their tops sky-high.

The forest was old, not to say ancient; long passed the days when the young trees grew densely, reminding the rough green brush. Now, the remaining green giants stood far from each other, casting broad shadows interspersing with patches of bright sunlight when the latter managed to pierce through the foliage. The undergrowth was quite dense, filling the gaps between the large trees. Presented by a wide variety of species, from herbaceous plants to spreading shrubs, separate deciduous trees pulling their branches toward the sun and descendants of the guardians of the forest fighting for their place in that thicket, it made Lacy cling to the window at once. The girls giggled, almost seeing the far-reaching plans manifested in her shining eyes and deciding to keep an eye on their enthusiastic friend to avoid losing her in that botanical paradise.

The sun kept shining and quickly turned their bus hot and stuffy. The girls were to slide open the windows, letting inside the air filled with smells of fir needles and leaves, soil dampness and all the forest-specific scents. Making everypony present fall silent, the birds’ songs burst into the bus salon, easily overshadowing the measured noise of the vehicle and flooding it with the marvellous, competing melodies – the forest was full of them. Fillies and colts started turning their heads enthralled, especially those living in the central area of the city. Even Misty and Lacy, who lived in private houses with gardens, were thankfully admiring that suddenly offered concerto.

“Mmmm… Just think about it!” Windy stretched dreamily; a smile shone on her face, eyes closed with anticipation. “For the whole month, we will be waking up under the birds’ songs, not because of the monorail noises!” she cuddled her sister, rubbing her cheek against Flaunty’s.

“Yeah, mates,” chuckled Misty. “You have a higher chance to hear a nightingale here, than only staying with me for a sleepover. Or at Lacy’s place,” she winked to her friend, who barely could look away from the floral richness passing by behind the road shoulder.

However, as soon as they passed the forest edge, the wind started bringing clouds as if by some magic – within less than a minute the sky got veiled with the puffy grey blanket. The first drops barely managed to hit the bus windows when the rain poured down on them in torrents, limiting the visibility momentarily and making the students quickly shut the ajar windows to prevent the flood of another, quite literal nature. The woods kept standing like an emerald wall behind the misted glass covered in streams and threads of water. But now, the girls could only listen to the monotonous bus hum accompanied by the rain and subdued voices of their schoolmates sharing their impressions of that arrival.

“I hope that the rest of our camping turns out better!” repeated Misty, turning away from the water-flooded glass and taking a look around the bus. Called to dispel the twilight and brighten the mood of the discouraged students, the bright lamps turned on under the salon ceiling.

“Mhm,” nodded Lacy musingly. “The damp, dense forest, especially if the weather becomes hot after, isn’t the most favourable place.”

“Not to mention the mosquitoes!” Flaunty remarked in agreement.

Rocking on the several turns, the busses kept carrying them further into the rain-veiled woods. Despite the closed windows, the air in the salon started smelling damp freshness and ozone, turning palpably colder. Several lightning bolts had already cut the cottony skies above them, flashing out the surroundings and making a couple of girls in the salon squeak fearfully, causing some coltish chuckles around. The decently asphalted path was running further and further; the only other sign of civilization was the power line, jumping from one post to another along the roadside.

‘Interesting, how the camp houses are supposed to cope with all that? Not that I was unaccustomed to the various travelling conditions,’ Misty was listening musingly to the noise of rain drumming over the bus roof, ‘but what about the rest?’ Secretly, she took a look around her friends sadly watching the elements parade behind the windows. The girl inwardly praised herself for reminding them about and packing some clothes designed for different weather conditions herself, as well as so necessary in those places repellents. ‘Hopefully, they didn’t forget. I couldn’t check everypony’s luggage, but let’s trust Flaunty checking for them both.’ With a smile, Misty thought that likely half of Lacy’s packing was some botanic tools, but at least she saw her earth filly friend taking the necessary things. Mentally brushing through her own belongings, Misty caught herself feeling how their bus started to slow down.

“Arriving already?” Windy half-turned on her seat, glancing at Misty and Lacy inquiringly. “Seems it’s not that much of a backwater district as we once feared.”

Peeking between the pegasus sisters, Misty saw a clearance behind the right side of the water-flooded windshield. It was at least a place where the vegetation was less dense, letting more daylight through. Wiping the misted glass on their windows, the girls snuggled to them to discern at least something in the wavering curtain of rain. Their bus slowed more, driving over a couple of humps; a high metal arch with its ends resting on the brick posts slowly passed by, ghostly smudged in that flood. Misty could catch “TRIS…” written on the visible part of it before they rolled past the open grate of the camp gates. With a crackle coming from the salon ceiling, the bus speakers coughed, turning on.

“Here we go, Trishores camp!” their driver announced through the intercom with a barely audible hissing noise. “Check your seats for the belongings, folks. If you forget anything important in the buses, we will be able to deliver it to you in a couple of days at the earliest, so please check twice.”

Throwing another glance through the windows and making sure that the rain was not going to stop, the girls started digging in their backpacks for something to serve them at least a partial shield from the elements. However, show me a teenager who remembers an umbrella packing for summer vacation. Flaunty and Windy were at least in their usual sports jackets, which could withstand some watering supposedly. Misty and Lacy while having warmer clothes in their bags had nothing nearly as waterproof on them.

“I give up,” exhaled Lacy; she stopped delving in her bag – audible clanking told Misty that she was assuming correct – and straightened, puffing a strand of hair from her face. “I’d rather dry one set of clothes than two today. Besides, nopony knows how hard it is to dry our clothes there…”

Misty shrugged, inwardly agreeing with her friend. Meanwhile, guessing the reasons for the concentrated fuss in the salon, the driver added.

“We will get as close to the buildings as possible, folks. Unfortunately, only as much. But you all have your cabin numbers; they are written pretty visible on the houses, so you shouldn’t get lost. I advise you to get under the roof faster.”

The joint heavy sigh sounded instead of the reply, but the colts and fillies understood that the weather wasn’t something they could blame the driver for.

Fortunately, their bus was going the third; with another two, it taxied farther than those stopping in the large gravel-covered parking lot. The four girls were already thankful for that gesture, realizing that driving further into the camp territory as the road width allowed, the drivers would probably need to backpedal all the way to the parking to turn around and leave. As suggested, the friends quickly checked around once again, picked up their luggage and came to be the first at the bus exit when it finally stopped.

“Thanks!” waving to the stallion behind the wheel, the girls jumped out of the bus, taking a first look around as much as the pouring rain allowed.

“This way!” Windy oriented first, spotting the wooden cabins scattered between the nearby trees; the natural shower started to flood the girls’ eyes already. Holding their backpacks in their hands, not to expose them to even more water, the girls rushed along the narrow gravel path. Unable to seep entirely even through the porous pavement, the water made the tracks look like some shallow forest creeks with stony bottoms. The grassy surface around, as Misty realized, turned into ankle-deep ponds under the torrents of water, which didn’t even plan to run out.

“Careful, girls, don’t slip. We don’t need to end the first day with laundry,” Flaunty was occasionally taking her immediately soaking hair off her face.

Her and Windy jackets started to change colour subtly; that meant that they were slowly giving up to the rain. Fortunately, the day was warm and the rain wasn’t chilling either. Throwing a look over the shoulder, the girls found that the rest of their schoolmates had similar problems while seeking their cabins. Splashing the water around and laughing, the girls huddled together, running into the camp spread in the sparse vegetation; Windy and Flaunty unfurled their wings to protect their friends from that shower as much as they could.

“The first thing I’m going to do when I have a chance,” breathed out Misty, wiping her face, “is to ask miss Singularity to teach me that… waterproof spell. Remember, the one she used taking us out of Canterton High; it was raining cats’n’dogs then as well.”

“This one could give it a head start!” chuckled Lacy; the earth filly was almost wringing the water out of her braids.

“Here!” Feeling her snickers taking water inside, Misty finally noticed the anticipated number on the door of the next cabin. “Quickly!” she took Lacy’s hand, noticing that her friend could see almost nothing because of the rain-covered glasses. The girls rushed those last several yards on the wet path snaking between the trees; raising the clouds of spray, they ran up the low porch and crowded in front of the white-painted door with the large digit “7”.

“Well…” taking a look at the entrance, Windy was the first to spot and pick from a small hook a single key with a small trinket with the same number attached. The girl turned her puzzled eyes to her friends, shrugged and was going to unlock the door when the latter opened with a light push – it was unlocked, tightly shut only. Sloshing with their wet shoes, the girls raced into the cabin.

“Wow!” Windy’s surprised voice reached them as Misty tiredly dropped her backpack on the floor.

“Hmmm… That’s…” drawled Flaunty, “better than I expected!”

Puzzled by that girl’s reaction, Misty threw a glance at Lacy, who was still wiping her glasses. The sisters froze at the end of a short vestibule, completely blocking the view of the cabin interior. Misty noticed that in its turn the vestibule had everything to hang ones everyday outwear, to place and dry the shoes, and a separate lamp under the ceiling with its own switch on the clean, pastel-painted wall.

Kicking off their wet shoes and putting them on the dryer, Misty and Lacy approached the pegasus twins, rising on tiptoes and peeking from behind their friends’ backs.

“Either the slides were old,” drawled Misty, taking a surprised look around, “or they were not giving the houses the proper credit!”

The girls found themselves on the doorstep of a spacious, bright room, which appeared quite cosy and welcoming considering the progressing gloom outside. The clean boardwalk floor was painted in light-brown colour; it felt strangely warm and pleasant under Misty’s bare feet, perhaps because she just took off the drenched and cold snickers. Coloured beige from chest height and up, the walls sported polished panels of natural wood in their lower part. A couple of lamps hung from the ceiling of a similar beige tint, supposedly giving enough light to leave no dark corners after sunset.

“Hmmm… Seems to work,” smirked Lacy, clicking the light switch on the wall nearby and flooding the cabin pertinently with bright but warm electric light as thick rain clouds outside were promising earlier evening.

Bypassing the small table with two chairs right at the entrance, the girls stepped into the room, gazing around while Flaunty and Windy addressed their wet jackets and shoes, placing them on the dryers as well. Modestly furnished, their room nevertheless provided everything necessary to settle for several weeks. Six neatly done beds, wide enough not to roll off even if one was restless in their sleep, were accompanied by their own nightstands. Peeking into one, Misty found an old-fashioned reading lamp; however, the girl had no reason to suspect it of being faulty. The rest of the furniture was presented by a large, supposedly empty wardrobe on the opposite blank wall, a half-empty bookshelf and another chair in the far corner. Surprisingly, all four windows turned out washed crystal clear; curtained with cream, now-opened blinds, they added to the homely feel of the room, bringing an unwitting smile on the faces of exchanging glances Misty and Lacy. A couple of posters of famous rock groups and the camp banner hanging on the far wall completed the ensemble.

Misty sank on the edge of the first bed to the right, putting down her backpack, while Lacy settled at the next one. Facing the wall with another narrow door and a light switch, Misty automatically started examining her reflection in the mirror hanging there. With a sigh – her mane turned out soaking wet and ruffled – the girl dug into her bag for a hairbrush.

“Wow!” Catching up, Windy pointed at something near the floor next to Misty’s nightstand. “So, we can charge our phones, flashlights and the camera not bothering the administration and naturally wake suspicion. Cool!”

The quick inspection showed that there were four power outlets near the end beds and the fifth – under the mirror, currently occupied by Misty, bringing herself in order.

“It would be nice to find out the cell phones are useful at all here,” Flaunty gave a smile, joining the friends. However, picked out of the pocket, her own phone was showing at least half of the signal meter, making the girl’s eyes round in surprise. “At first it looked a bear lair to me…” drawled she, walking across the room and making sure that the signal wasn’t an accidental pike. “But that’s another story. We’re not completely cut from civilization.”

“The nearest town is only four miles from the camp, Flo,” said Lacy, unbraiding her hair to dry it. Hearing her out of the corner of her fluffy ear, Misty nodded. “This time, I held an investigation too,” Lacy let out a tiny smile, untangling the hair strands. “Less than half of a mile to the Sire lake on the south, two – to the coast on the east…”

“…and about the same to the Salmon Stalls river on the north!” contributed Misty pensively.

“I don’t get what you see in that river,” chuckled Windy, who managed to examine the entire room thoroughly. “You have been returning to that topic several times lately.” Trying the window on the opposite side, the girl nodded with satisfaction – the frame opened and closed easily, sliding lightly in its rails. The mosquito net on the outer side didn’t look redundant at all – examining the room, the pegasus girl smacked one bloodsucking pest already. There would be more without the nets on all of the windows. Windy clicked her tongue – the rain and wind were still storming outside, the nearest trees swayed – and shut the frame.

“I don’t know if you noticed, mate,” Misty kept brushing through her long mane slowly and carefully. “But that river showed up only once on the slide during the arrangement meeting. I’d say it rather flashed as it quickly changed for another photo.” The girl was sitting, looking seemingly through her reflection. “And I saw Singularity’s expression when the slide was on the screen… I mean, the river delta is surely a beautiful sight among others here, but she looked as if she preferred that image be never shown to the audience… Or something like that.”

“Call me paranoid but I found that utterly strange! And even more strange was that fact that I couldn’t find anything abnormal about that area in the official sources,” added she after the meaningful pause. “The same about the camp not being used for the last couple of years…”

“Does that mean what I think it does?” Windy raised one eyebrow with a mischievous expression; a smile started curling her lips.

“Something tells me it does,” noticed Lacy almost tenderly, watching the pensive expression of her friend.

“Perhaps…” Misty woke from her musings and took a look around her friends, suddenly snorting muffledly. “Just look at you,” elaborated she in reply to the three inquiring glances. “We have a more pressing problem now!”

Dressed in the sports jackets – which were drying on the rack at that moment – Windy and Flaunty had their t-shirts almost dry, except for a narrow damp stripe around the collar. The same couldn’t be told about their pants though, getting soaked from the knees down when the girls ran under the rain, splashing the water around. While Windy’s short, red hair was almost dry already, Flaunty’s lush mane still looked as if the girl just finished diving into the Sire lake. As for Misty and Lacy, their clothes provided an even more interesting view. Lacy’s jeans and the bundled shirt – despite all the help from the pegasus girls – got drenched, changing their colour from light to juicy blue. They couldn’t get transparent, naturally; however, the wet, heavy cloth was sticking all over her shapely figure so tightly, emphasizing Lacy’s firm, round breasts, that the girl looked almost as if she was topless. Looking at Misty through her round glasses and ruffled from dampness, unbraided hair, Lacy smirked – apparently, Misty needed to make herself presentable as well. Getting up, the unicorn filly threw another look into the mirror now reflecting most of her.

‘Oops!’ flashed in Misty’s head as she felt heat and colour conquering her neck and cheeks. In her light shirt and knee-long shorts, obviously, showered mercilessly by the rain, the girl looked easily more exposed than actually naked. The loose fit, thin clothes clung to her body, revealing every curve and dimple they were supposed to cover instead.

“Come on! Before it dried on us…” Misty tried to keep the casual tone; yawning, she couldn’t hold back a stretch with apparent pleasure.

Doing her best to ignore Windy’s audible swallow, which made Lacy and Flaunty giggle, Misty clicked with another light switch next to the mirror and pushed the single door in their cabin. A considerably spacious bathroom opened to her eyes. The entire room, except the ceiling, was tiled; the floor inclined slightly to the drainage grate – the girl realized why that door had such an unusually high doorstep. A toilet was hiding behind the thin wall going from the floor to their head height. A capacious laundry basket and a big plastic basin humbly found room for themselves in the nearest right corner. The modest furnishing left plenty of space for the shower itself, presented by a couple of water faucets with shower hoses on the two adjoining each other walls on the left – practically, the entire bigger part of the room was a single shower cabin.

“Cool!” Peeking inside over Misty’s shoulder, Windy gave a quiet whistle. “It can accommodate us all! No washing queues!” Elaborated the redhead with a wide grin. “Frankly speaking, I thought it would be a tight shower tray… But that’s way better!” added Windy, pulling her t-shirt over her head and untying her sports pants already. “Now, who’s late in the shower is… in the shower the last!” With a giggle, she squeezed past Misty.

Coming from behind, the rustling of cloth told Misty that Lacy and Flaunty were not losing time either. In a second, she felt the warm hands of her friends, pulling her wet clothes off and almost carrying her into the shower.

3.

“…and I’m bothered by another thing!” As if continuing the interrupted discussion, Windy Mane stated meaningfully, squeezing the toothbrush in her teeth and leaning her back at the bathroom door. The girl sported only the tiny panties and the towel hanging around her neck and was ruffling her short damp mane with the most thoughtful look before the caressing eyes of the girlfriends. “It is a six-bed cabin,” elaborated she in a moment, making an insinuating mien. “If you understand what I’m implying.”

“Hmmm… You got a point!” agreed Flaunty – the girl was sitting on the bed in a long t-shirt, carefully examining her toenails. “Judging by the number of volunteers, I wonder if the camp staff isn’t forced to add berths, let alone leaving some unoccupied,” she raised her glance at the girls.

Wrapping in a blanket, Lacy and Misty nested in the bed half-sitting and nodded in agreement, catching up with their friends’ thoughts at once. After the shower, the pegasus sisters thought that the furniture drastically called for some rearrangement. Without further fuss, Flaunty and Windy pushed their beds together, placing the nightstands on both sides. After a short argument – who would be sleeping closer to the door – the sisters decided to change, letting Flaunty be “on guard” for the first time. Misty and Lacy liked the idea and, in a couple of minutes, the twins helped them to make similar changes to their sleeping places. The girls decided that the unleashed elements outside were making the further acquaintance with Trishores camp hardly pleasant, and the falling dusk only cemented their decision to stay indoors tonight. Sleeping usually naked, Lacy and Misty (who found that method quite comfortable lately) were warming each other, cuddling together.

“I would be extremely surprised if they don’t put somepony else in here,” muttered Flaunty, leaning over and plugging her cell phone charger into the outlet – the morning alarm was supposed to sound even on the “turned off” device, but not if the latter was drained out completely.

“Right!” Windy sounded slightly muffled because of the toothbrush. “That would… limit our freedom likely. They will be watching each of our steps here, unwittingly or on purpose, it won’t matter,” she shook her head, wiping a drop of toothpaste foam from her chest.

“You’re talking as if we are already investigating something!” Misty glanced at her friend humorously.

“Mmm… If you don’t want to find out why the camp was unused for several years or about Singularity’s role and strangeness in her behaviour, then – no,” Windy alternated from one leg to another, giving her hips a sway; the girl knew which levers to pull for most effect.

“I do, but…” for a while, Misty was musingly brushing through Lacy’s mane – the earth filly almost dosed off on her chest. “What if we are going to look for a black cat in a dark room where is none? We all know that miss Singu is strange by the most common standards. I mean,” she looked at the sisters with a smile, “let’s simply find out something about the situation before we start breaking the rules.”

“Yeah! That’s my girl!” Windy showed a thumb up, peeking out from the bathroom and wiping her mouth. She yawned, throwing a glance into the window where the downpour slowed down; by its look, it was going to water the surroundings for a few hours more. “Let’s hope we won’t get flushed away overnight…”

The knock on the front door broke the monotonous rustling of the rain on the cabin roof. It was the second, louder one as the first was probably overshadowed by the distant strike of the receding thunderstorm. Windy and Flaunty exchanged glances; Lacy opened her eyes a little, waking.

“Hmmm… Maybe you need to start making predictions, sis,” smirked Flaunty, sitting up on her edge of the moved-together beds.

“Nah… That’s Misty’s turf, I was simply stating the obvious,” Windy shrugged, wrapping the towel around her chest like a banded top and raising her voice. “Come on in! It’s unlocked.”

The front door screeched, letting in a stream of damp chillness – the wall of rain was still wavering behind the doorway – and revealing three figures of various heights. The tallest took a moment to close and shake the water off a giant umbrella cane. Closing the door and banishing the humidity from the comfort of the brightly lit cabin, the mare put her umbrella right beside and lightly pushed two shorter silhouettes forward, so all three finally stepped into the light.

“Good evening, girls!” the deep, velvet voice could let the friends recognize its owner even blindfolded. If miss Singularity sounded almost girlish, the voice of that teacher seemed to envelop you as a butterfly stuck into a honey-trap. “Settling down nicely, I see. By the way, you missed supper?” she sounded surprised.

Aime Lerie, the art teacher of Pinewatch high, brushed her hand through her slightly damp mop of cheek-length flaxen hair, scanning the entire room with a single piercing gaze of the attentive azure eyes momentarily catching all the details from under the long fluffy eyelashes. The glance of a true artist stopped at Flaunty: with a tiny smile, the mare nodded to one of her talented students.

“Not bad, ma’am!” confirmed Windy, leaning on the corner. “We decided for the sleep over the meals tonight.” The teacher’s glance slid across the tomboy filly, her arms crossed on the chest, and diverted to the younger of the earth fillies coming with her.

“Excellent!” Miss Lerie gave an encouraging smile to the filly. “I’ve got new neighbours for you, girls. I’m sure you’ll get along nicely.” She made a welcoming gesture for the fillies; the gracious hand softly lay on the shoulder of the younger one, squeezing it encouragingly.

Fortunately, all three came there mostly shielded from the bad weather by that giant umbrella; otherwise, their looks could cause a riot in likely any company, be it of colts or fillies. Especially, the looks of their art teacher. Even dry, the thin colourful t-shirt was fitting Aime Lerie’s inscrutably large yet firm breasts so tightly, that view would have easily caused any beholder’s mouth to water. Emphasizing her round hips, the jeans were rolled to the knees, not to be drenched. All three came barefoot; the fillies were holding their shoes and crumpling their bags’ handles a bit embarrassedly. They were in the light, thin, above-the-knee sundresses, looking very similar in colour and style; Misty and Flaunty glanced at each other understandingly – those sundresses could have looked absent if getting wet.

“Surprisingly, we still had a few vacant places,” elaborated miss Lerie with a shrug, her breasts gave a sway under the thin fabric. “And miss Singularity remembered about the fillies of the good old friend of hers. She asked me to settle them into the decent company.” That made all four friends exchange glances, snorting inwardly.

“So, here we are…” Aime Lerie waved her hand theatrically. “Please love and respect, Reona Tetra,” she nodded at the older girl, “and Ola Tetra!” Her warm, smiling glance shifted to the younger filly, who was alternating between miss Lerie and Reona as if looking for encouragement.

“Hi, girls!” Misty and Flaunty gave a smile.

“Hola!” Windy moved her fingers in the air in a greeting gesture.

Not sharing a word, the girls mutually decided to treat the new fillies with friendly politeness, meanwhile, trying to figure out who was who. Misty’s eyes – and the girl was sure her friends’ as well – kept examining the newcomers. Having the considerable age difference, the sisters were waking a natural question.

‘How could they both be in the same summer camp with us?’

The older one, Reona, looked rather like one of the Pinewatch graduates if not the college starter. She wasn’t taller than Windy and Flaunty, but somehow Misty realized that the girl must be at the very least a couple of years older than the four girlfriends. Somehow – Misty couldn’t tell why, so it was her gut feeling rather – Reona seemed to be in her twenties at least. Tilting her head slightly, the girl threw an appraising look around the room and then at the four friends, lingering on each shortly but undoubtedly making conclusions already. When her eyes stopped on Misty, the latter noticed them being heterochromatic – the right eye was sky-blue while the left looked almost golden in the soft light of the cabin. With a faint calm smile, the newcomer nodded to the unicorn girl lightly, momentarily determining the informal leader of their company (despite the girls having barely dropped a word yet) – Misty focused inwardly. Reona’s hand lay softly on the shoulder of the younger girl, making the friends’ attention follow unwittingly.

Ola, on the contrary, was hardly hitting thirteen. By the looks and the glances she was throwing at the sister, Misty would likely say something about eleven maximum. Even if the latter was disputed by her figure, quite developed for that age, be it her pronounced round breasts or strong shapely legs. Ola’s eyes were still the widely open eyes of a foal. Maybe of a foal who had been through a lot, including not very bright moments: strangely serious and deep, they looked around with some foalish curiosity and at the same time timidity. That combination successfully made the same strange colour difference – Ola’s left eye was sky-blue while her left was sea-green – elude the observer’s first glance. With their bronze skin and darker stripes, both girls could easily be taken for zebras from the first look, but something was different in their shapes and posture. Or maybe the light cinnamon, shoulder-length manes, shared by the sisters, were so uncharacteristic for zebras – Misty couldn’t tell exactly at once.

Meanwhile, Aime Lerie took another look around and brought her palms together with a content clap.

“Well, take your places, girls,” she addressed to the earth pony sisters, “and have a nice rest. The day was long and… wet,” chuckled miss Lerie. “We’ll meet tomorrow, and at the art classes if any of you attend. Good night!” the mare turned around, secretly throwing Ola a glance full of tenderness. Leaving her bag on the floor, Reona took the shoes from her sister’s hands, placing them along with her own on the dryer.

“So, how was the trip, girls?” Flaunty decided to not let the silent pause linger, when miss Lerie left into the quietly whispering rain, taking her umbrella. “I’m Flaunty, by the way. Flaunty Mane and this is my sister Windy,” she nodded at the redhead still leaning on the wall.

“Misty Lagoon,” Misty shortly introduced herself, watching the earth fillies with interest. “And this sleepyhead is Lacy Reins!” Wiping her eyes and reaching for the glasses, Lacy just rose her head from Misty’s shoulder, making the younger filly give a tiny giggle.

“It’s been a pleasure!” Reona let out a smile, walking into the room. “The road was fine, thanks! Maybe lengthy a bit…” The voice was totally corresponding to her look, melodic and at the same time serene as if nothing could discompose the filly in this world. “You see, we don’t know anypony here except miss Singularity, so… But everypony was nice.”

“She was nice, too!” chirped Ola, fluttering in after her sister and, obviously, meaning miss Lerie.

“Yeah!” the friends exchanged humorous glances. “Kinda!”

“She is a high-class professional,” added Flaunty diplomatically under the evaluating glance of Reona, making the girl nod musingly.

Reaching the free beds, the earth fillies stumbled for a second. Misty and the others noticed how Ola’s thin palm slid into Reona’s bigger one; the sisters’ eyes alternated between each other and their beds in slight confusion. Unlike the rest, the remaining two beds stood apart, feet to feet, separated by the aisle. Looking up at her sister, Ola pursed and bit her lower lip.

Windy woke first: pulling the towel off her chest, she slapped Flaunty on the butt with it lightly.

“Come on, Flo!” winked she, ruffling her mane and throwing the towel on their beds. “Let’s provide some sisterly help.”

“So, pals, are you okay about not having a window above your heads?” Windy asked, standing in the aisle with hands akimbo. Two girls were only blinking in bewilderment, with a silent acknowledging gesture.

“It’s cool that we haven’t yet unpacked and placed our stuff,” noticed Flaunty. Before anypony could drop a word, the pegasus twins squeezed past the newcomers; in a matter of seconds, they were already moving the large empty wardrobe into the corner with little effort, followed by the widened eyes of the earth fillies. The single chair ended up in the same corner, freeing the opposite.

“We can also help!” catching up with their friends’ idea, Misty and Lacy jumped out of the bed in a blink of an eye, eager to take part in the new rearrangement. Reona and Ola turned to stare at them, a light flush painting their cheeks. Misty realized too late that going to sleep, both she and Lacy took off their clothes and were now completely naked. The unicorn and earth filly exchanged glances.

“So what, it’s an all-girls room,” Lacy waved the problem away, making them both gave a laughter – the girls approached one of the remaining beds determinedly, lifting it and moving onto the vacant space. The second bed followed shortly, tightly pushed up to the first, while the nightstands were placed at the sides by the twins. The entire operation took a matter of seconds, leaving Ola and Reona to bat their eyelashes in the middle of the room with their bags dropped on the floor again.

“That’s it!” stated Misty when everything was done; Windy and Flaunty hugged her and Lacy around the shoulders, and the four friends looked at the new girls. “Welcome!” Watching that strange company, the earth fillies unwittingly broke into a smile.

“Thank you!”

“So, what do you think?” Flaunty lowered her voice. “Personally… and as somepony who can peek deeper behind the curtains,” emphasized she with an expressive gaze at Misty.

They could talk almost freely: the shower noise and muffled giggling barely reached the friends’ ears – the bathroom door closed tight enough. After rearranging their beds and shoving their belongings, partially into the nightstands and partially into the old wardrobe (all the girls fairly divided the storage space between them), the Tetra sisters skipped to the shower. The younger one already nodded; but they couldn’t hold from the pleasure of washing away the road dust and, judging by the sounds, some splashing and frolicking as well.

“It’s only the first impression,” Misty shook her head slowly; her palm was musingly brushing through Lacy’s soft mane. The earth filly dozed off on Misty’s shoulder, cuddling her unicorn friend and smiling through the sleep. “I can’t tell much for now,” Misty almost whispered, squinting at the bathroom door. “Of course, they seem the loving sisters simply, but there is something deeper to them. More than between a younger and older sister… Even if they have come through much,” added the girl a little later.

“Perhaps,” Flaunty was to agree after some thinking. “The eyes give them out. I couldn’t fix on Reona’s glance long enough, but Ola’s are surprisingly bright and sparkly, yet unfittingly deep for her age. I’ve never seen eyes like these in foals!” She fidgeted a little to lie with more comfort, considering the wings under her back, and not to wake the already sleeping sister.

Lulled by the slowing down rain, Windy drifted away into the dreams, sprawling over the blanket. With her measured breath, the girl’s small breasts went up and down slowly, her nipples perking in the breezy air from the ajar window. Resting her head on one hand, she nested another into Flaunty’s palm, completely breaking her image of a tough hotspur at that moment and causing a smile on Misty’s lips.

“So, you noticed also,” confirmed Misty, leaning her head to Lacy’s tenderly. “Not only expression but the colours… Quite an interesting case of heterochromia in both sisters, don’t you think?”

“That’s the term on the back of my tongue!” The girl raised her index finger. Lacy muttered something through her sleep, nuzzling deeper into Misty’s neck. Lowering her tone, Misty threw a cautious gaze at the bathroom door. “They look complimenting each other. As… as if there were bonds even more solid and inborn than between simple sisters. Even more than between me and Fran probably.”

The shower fell silent, and so did the girlfriends. With the click of the latch, the bathroom door opened, letting out a small cloud of steam and the mysterious earth fillies. The older girl was carrying the younger in her hands; almost sleeping, Ola was hanging on Reona like a koala cub, wrapping her arms and legs around her sister’s body. At the view of the girls cuddling their sleeping friends, Reona let out a tiny smile; the girl quickly paddled barefoot on the wooden floor, taking the sleepy filly to their bed. Flaunty and Misty’s attention got drawn to the unusual stripes. They started from Reona’s straight shoulder blades, shapely back with rare drops of water, round butt and back of her legs, going forward under slightly varying angles. The stripes reached the breasts and stomach with the thinning out ends, without closing the full rings thus leaving the girl plain bronze in the front. The same pattern could be seen on Ola, clinging to her sister.

Misty’s eyes slid to the girls’ cutie marks – a crazy idea that they would have looked more complete if merged glimpsed in her mind. Staring as if right through the opposite wall, the unicorn girl was still thinking over that while the stripy sisters crawled under the cover.

“Good night, girls!” Reona’s voice sounded tired; Ola could only reply with a thin cute yawn.

“Good night!” also wished Misty, automatically reaching to the light switch on the wall with her aura.

4.

The cheerful warbles of the birds were flowing into the cabin through the barely open window, pulling Misty Lagoon from her dreams, as the pegasus twins predicted the day before. The girl spent a few more minutes half asleep, squinting funnily from the sunlight and shadows dancing on her face. It took her a moment to remember how she had got there when Misty opened her eyes finally – the image was different from the usual of her room at home, even if the birds’ concerto sounded almost familiar. Yet the awakening felt very similar to her home: the lush mane was tickling Misty’s neck, her left breast was tenderly cupped by a warm palm and somepony’s breath kept teasing her right nipple – Misty could almost feel the soft lips next to it. However, when the girl lifted her head a bit to look, there was no horn in her view, and the mane on her shoulder was violet instead of the usual black with greyish strands. Then she recalled.

‘Summer camp!’

The mane on her shoulder moved a bit, revealing the sleepy face – the earth filly cooed something, nuzzling Misty’s neck tenderly. The thin palm squeezed the breast lightly as if to check the presence of the one the sleeping girl was cuddling, tearing a tiny gasp of pleasure from Misty’s lips.

“Good morning, Lacy!” Misty softly brushed her palm through the ruffled violet mane, sending the fingers to travel tenderly across her friend’s cheek and cuddling Lacy with the free arm.

“Mhhhm…” the green eyes opened wide, then squinted, trying to focus on Misty. “Good morning, Misty!” sounding a bit hoarsely, Lacy cleared her throat, murmuring. “I slept so nicely…”

Before Misty could comment on that, the earth filly raised on her elbow and gave the unicorn girl a long sweet kiss, her hand giving Misty’s breast a tiny stroke. Then, throwing aside the blanket, Lacy sat in bed, squinting around for her glasses. She froze for a second; a short, sweet shiver came through Lacy’s body, making the girl stretch with pleasure. With a yawn, Lacy arched her body so hard that it took Misty quite an effort not to send her hands to examine all those tempting curves and dimples, feeling with the tips of her fingers all the muscles strained under the silky skin.

The glasses were found on the nightstand, and so was the hairbrush; regaining the depth of sight, Lacy addressed her bedhead, slowly brushing through the tips first.

“How was your night, Misty?” the emerald eyes glanced at the girl still lingering in the bed and caressing her friend with her eyes.

“Warm and… cuddly. Thanks!” Misty’s palm lay gently between Lacy’s firm round breasts, giving a stroke and ending its journey above the girl’s navel. The pattern of sunlight and shadows, formed by the slowly waving branches with leaves behind the window, flickered on the earth filly’s body. With a smile, Misty looked up into Lacy’s big eyes, shimmering behind the glasses. Quickly sitting up in the bed, she reached to her friend, returning Lacy’s kiss with extra tenderness.

“Although… Did it wake you?” Misty suddenly got lost in thought. “That noise…”

“Noise? I was sleeping like a foal,” Lacy glanced at her friend with an uncomprehending half-smile.

Misty remembered that the noise waking her that night, shortly after all the girls went to sleep, was the peculiar sound of scotch tape torn off some smooth surface. The memory made the girl break into a wide smile and share it with Lacy, who slept through the entire incident.

On the eve, Flaunty and Windy – who definitely had not their first camping in such conditions – supposed that some colts, just any from the present in the summer camp, might find it funny to try to scare some fillies during the first night. Especially, considering the evening thunderstorm and the atmosphere it might have created. Thus, if the Curious Four (and their two neighbours) were specifically “lucky”, the colts’ shenanigans could have easily affected them in the case when their cabin turns up the first on the hooligans’ way. Windy always preferred the simplest solutions. Thus the pegasus filly locked all the windows except for the one next to her side of their with Flaunty joined beds. Misty vividly saw her friend’s mischievous smirk when after a short digging in her bag, Windy took out a scotch tape roll, sticking a small piece onto the barely opened frame and its fixed part.

Windy saw through everything. Shortly after the lights were off and the silence enveloped the camp, including their house, Misty was awakened by the recognizable synthetic screech and pop. Going to prank the girls, some colts – whoever they were – tried the windows, naturally finding the only one unlocked. Perhaps, they were already triumphant, anticipating the scare they were about to bring into the fillies’ ranks.

Some head light-coloured in the soft moonlight appeared behind the opening and cautiously started forcing the frame up, as Misty could see, raising her head a little. It was unclear if the pegasus tomboy was only feigning the sleep, expecting the guests, or Windy was sleeping lightly, awakening like her friend. In a blink of an eye, the sporty winged figure sprang out of her bed, grabbing the glass of water prudently put on the nightstand in the evening. The silhouette behind the window froze dumbfounded.

Not for long, however! With a loud splash and a shocked scream, somepony nearly fell back flat from their window, crashing into the low bushes. Two girls could hear rushed receding footsteps, accompanied by muffled swears and giggling – the unfortunate prankster’s companions quite appreciated the outcome even if their plans got turned upside down.

“Makes them think next time… probably!” muffling the laughter with her palm, Windy glanced at Misty. Nevertheless, she rearmed the scotch trap just in case.

Inwardly shaking from carefully held back laughter, Misty dropped her head on the pillow. Fortunately, none of the rest woke.

“I wonder if it was that hay-head again. Serves him a lesson perhaps!” with a quiet laughter, Lacy appreciated the story.

“It served Windy better than any sleeping pill for sure,” noticed Misty, taking the hairbrush from her friend when the latter started braiding the combed mane. “I bet she got to sleep satisfied!”

Hands over mouths, the girls started giggling again when the thin alarm beep broke out.

“Ooooh!” The slightly ruffled chestnut head rose from the opposite bed; pushing aside the blanket, Flaunty Mane sat and grabbed the cell phone from her nightstand, shutting the signal. “Morning, girls!” she stretched hard, spreading her arms and almost making the t-shirt crackle on her chest. “What’s so funny?” she glanced at still giggling Misty and Lacy, taking a look over herself then.

“Let Windy tell you about that small night incident,” Lacy winked, fixing her braids.

“Windy? Night incident?” Flaunty blinked several times. “Did those morons really come?”

“Come one, sis! It’s time to wake,” she accurately poked Windy into the butt cheek when both girls nodded with another snort. With no other reaction than muttering something illegibly, the redhead pegasus simply nested her head on the pillow with more comfort. Flaunty threw a meaningful glance at Misty and Lacy, who kept having fun quietly.

“Well, okay!” Flaunty’s fingers went travelling across sister’s ribs, going up from Windy’s waist and finally diving under the girl’s small breasts.

“Oh! Come on, Flo!” But Windy opened her eyes at once. “Have mercy!”

“It always works!” Dropped Flaunty to the girls with a mien. “No mercy! Time to wake it is!”

“Morning already?!” a half-inquiring, half-affirmative voice reached their ears from the last joined beds on the right. The two sleepy heads emerged from the covers, yawning. Probably, it took a moment for the sisters as well to remember where they found themselves. Ruffling her cinnamon mane, Reona was stretching, displaying the mysterious stripes again. Ola rose her small fists, rubbing her eyes in the cutest way imaginable and shaking her fluffy head to dispel the slumber; the four friends gave an unwitting smile at that sight.

“Morning everypony!” The younger girl announced in a ringing voice, then suddenly noticed flatly. “I’ll get first dibs on the bathroom visit!”

Making everypony freeze from that peremptory statement, the filly jumped out of the bed with a sly grin, skipping to the shower in her state of nature. The girls exchanged slightly bemused glances, then turned to Reona, who shrugged with an apologetic look, following her unceremonious sister with a loving glance. With a laughter, Misty made a wide gesture, welcoming the stripy filly to share the won queue to the shower with the perky chick.

The first day in the Trishores passed rather slowly: some teachers needed time to tune into the slightly different kind of work; for some others – it was all new, at least in that camp and under that direction. As for the students, Misty suspected that nopony from the current age group had been to the camp before due to the delay in its work – the reason for which was still a mystery for the Curious Four. Thus the colts and the fillies needed some time to discover the place anew and accommodate.

Waking that early, the girls finished their compulsory morning procedures even before the official rise. As they had hardly gotten any impression of the place on the eve because of the sudden rainstorm, the four friends decided to have at least a short tour across the camp before breakfast to complete their inward image of it.

Nodding goodbye to both Tetra sisters and leaving them in the cabin – Misty reminded them of the extra two keys on the table – the friends headed for a slow walk, planning to reach the canteen in time but not earlier than they took a look at most of the camp. By the mutual decision, that could have helped greatly in their further shenanigans if those would have been forced to happen eventually.

“Mmm… The air even tastes differently here, compared to the city!” Misty stretched, coming down the porch. As it was quite fresh outside because of yesterday’s rain yet the surviving mosquitoes already looked for the careless prey, the filly decided for cargo pants and a shirt instead of more open clothes. “Perhaps I’m starting to miss the travels I took part in with my parents,” a tiny smile lit Misty’s face.

“That was before us!” snorted Windy categorically, habitually jerking the collar string of her sports jacket. The twins realized that Misty was joking, but decided to play along. “Wouldn’t you miss your friends?” added Flaunty with a sly smirk.

“I wouldn’t mind taking you all on a travel, mates!” Misty gave a laugh, shaking her gathered into a ponytail mane. “Those I remember were hardly more dangerous than the last few episodes we came through together…”

“It depends on the circumstances of the travel,” noticed Lacy guardedly, zipping her tight-knit sweatshirt to the throat from the morning breeze. The girl couldn’t hold back a yawn and stretched, making Windy lose the thread of thought. “Don’t think ahead, Misty. We tend to dig out adventures everywhere,” Lacy checked her key to be in the jeans pocket, pulling up the strap of her unfailing bag.

“Yeah, who knows…”

In the daylight, the girls noticed something that they completely missed on the rainy evening – the approximate scheme of the camp with the key buildings marked and directions shown. However, even without the map, the girls could easily tell the direction they came from yesterday. Contrary to their idea of the summer camps with the more regular and strictly delimited territory, the cabins in Trishores looked scattered among the vegetation, thus blending into that part of the forest yet easy to find at the same time. Meandering between the trees and bushes, the subtle gravel path branched into many leading to houses similar to theirs, as far as the girls could see through the sparse growth of the forest. Taking a diagonal walk on the grass, they assumed that there were easily more than two dozen cabins only in their part of the camp. The entire facility, as the friends were to admit, could accommodate half of the school indeed.

The girls exchanged glances – a camp of that scale called for supervision by significant teaching staff; each of the fillies seemingly came to the same single conclusion – it wouldn’t turn out as simple as going whenever and wherever they wanted. On the other hand, the entire structure of the camp hinted at the lowest intrusion into their recreation possible.

“Hmmm… Keeping in mind that miss Singularity is in charge this time,” muttered Misty pensively. “I don’t know if that’ll be a blessing or… if we start investigating just anything.”

“I think I understand your concern, Misty,” Lacy let out a tiny smile. “After the Canterton case, I’m still undetermined if she simply knew about our involvement all the time, or… wanted us to go in.”

“Yeah, don’t forget her words about Fran in the end,” Flaunty shook her head slowly, “I wonder if she actually knows everything, and what she doesn’t – she is guessing!” Windy only nodded in agreement.

Talking that way, the friends soon came to the wider gravel road, remembering the place where the bus driver got them off yesterday. Straight as an arrow, the road was cutting the forest and giving a clear view from the camp gate at one end to some building at another – most likely administration, judging by the large clearing in front of it and the flag fluttering on the flagpole. Wishing to have a full image of the camp, Misty pulled them to the gate first and the girls followed obediently. The friends passed two rows of trees with slim, tall crowns, planted by hand on both sides of the road. More gravel tracks parted from the main road, diving between the trees, which were defined as Reinbardy poplars by Lacy, and leading to more cabins hiding in the green. In a minute, the girls spotted a clearing ahead – the road opened to some broad space without any vegetation; that had to be the parking lot they passed upon arrival.

Before they reached the clearing, Misty’s attention was attracted by the last row of houses, if the irregular chain of them could be called such. These were slightly different from their cabin: a bit smaller, the neat square houses likely supposed fewer roomers to reside in each of them. The girls exchanged meaningful glances – these cabins were likely occupied by the camp staff, including Pinewatch teachers. At that side of the camp, the staff cabins were practically separating the rest of the area from the camp borders and the Shimmermist forest behind.

“I wonder if the similar placement persists around the entire camp,” Lacy pensively verbalized the question bothering everypony. “Or there are some surveillance cameras along the border…”

“So far, I haven’t spotted any, except the one at the entrance gates,” noticed Flaunty, throwing back her long chestnut mane. “But you’re right – if we need to sneak right under the teachers’ noses each time, that could turn out problematic.”

Misty and Windy looked at her with unconcealed admiration – yesterday, through the pouring rain, spotting something at the camp gate, except the gate itself was quite an achievement.

The door of the nearest cabin opened, and the girls’ suspicion got a confirmation in the face of miss Lerie with a hairbrush in her hand and a dreamy expression.

“Don’t linger too long!” the mare called somepony in the house, then addressed her mane, brushing through the short, wet after the morning shower hair. “Oh! Good morning, girls!” one fluffy ear perked; she spotted the girls, waving to them with her free hand. “Early birds, I see! Are your new friends also roaming around already?” miss Lerie looked them over with a smile. “Well, try not to miss the breakfast as well,” winked she when the girls greeted her.

“So, the teachers live by one or two in the cabin most likely,” drawled Windy when the friends reached the parking lot. The pegasus filly bit her lip, habitually pulling the collar string, the left end of which looked twice longer than the right already. “That gives…”

“…some problems,” Misty finished for her with a nod. “If there are many and the staff cabins are spread across, we’ll be in constant sight of them. I’d like to know one thing,” added she slowly, “was it always that way here?”

Fenced only from one, the outer side, the broad, gravel-covered square was almost empty. Made specifically for the buses parking there during the campers’ arrival or departure, it could be easily used for jogging or badminton play the rest of the time. Only three cars shimmered with sun glares, resting on the grey surface pierced here and there with some fresh grass growing through the gravel. Standing out against the background of two more modest sedans, the large off-road vehicle looked like a black whale thrown on the shore by the ocean, leaving the girls guessing, whose transport that could be.

Guarded by the small gatehouse, the camp entrance was closed – the large heavy metal leaves were shut without a visible lock, operated by an electric engine most likely. Here the girls could see that camera Flaunty mentioned earlier. Looking at the gates, it was giving some confidence that nopony could at least drive on the Trishores territory unnoticed.

The fence itself gained the girls’ attention: presented by the metal grating on the brick pillars only as wide as the parking lot spread, it provided some sort of noticeable façade around the gates. However, further on into the forest on both sides of the camp, the fence turned into a large metal mesh. Fixed on the metal poles and painted green, it subtly blended into the surrounding vegetation, making it feel from some distance as if the camp wasn’t limited by any borders at all. That fence looked as if it was rather used to denote the territory that to restrict the campers as even the earth ponies would have hardly faced any trouble overcoming that symbolic barrier, let alone pegasi or unicorns.

“Hmm… I think we need to take a run around the territory later,” muttered Misty when they turned back. “To look at the perimeter closer and check if there are more cameras around.”

“Yeah,” chuckled Windy, kicking a pebble with the toe of her shoe, “we all know what the visible absence of any security could mean!”

Lacy and Flaunty nodded, agreeing with them – the girls already saw on the example of the factory in Baltimare that enthusiastic ponies were the best kind of security. And even then, it could turn out nothing against some sophisticated intrusion.

Back on the road to the administrative building, the girls started running into more awakened students heading the same way. According to the camp scheme, the canteen was in that direction as well. Greeting the familiar faces, Misty and her friends let them go ahead, scanning the surrounding woodland attentively and noticing nothing else than more cabins among the trees.

“I wonder how fine the camp territory is lit at night,” smirked Windy. So far, the girls saw only lamps at the cabin doors and rarely along the paths. The central road had larger lamps on the posts placed in regular intervals.

The smaller square in front of the administrative building was already crowded by the arriving Pinewatch students. Stretching and yawning, weaned off the early rise during the few summer days, the fillies and colts headed somewhere right. Remembering that they heard the morning rise signals from some loudspeaker on their way to the gates, Misty, Lacy, Windy and Flaunty followed the stream of schoolmates. Connected to the administrative, a lower, longer building had to be the canteen, forming with the main body the semblance of mirrored letter L.

Another surprise awaited around the corner. Standing a bit rarer there, the trees revealed more of the familiar square cabins scattered across that edge of the territory. It likely was the edge, judging by nothing else seen nearby, except the silhouette of the stadium with its light metalwork stand and sports equipment further to the right.

“Yeah,” chuckled Windy, putting her hand on Misty’s shoulder. “We’re practically surrounded by the teachers from that side also! Misty?” She pulled her frozen on the spot friend lightly.

Following the direction of her gaze, the three girls saw a large cargo truck parked at the opposite corner of the canteen building. Standing its trail to them, it showed only the rear doors being closed by somepony of the camp staff at that moment. However, the large high cabin stood at some angle to the trailer – as the driver was to carefully taxi in and out on the narrow road – boasting the sparkling-clean metal of its hull and two long vertical pipes behind. The company name on its side could be hardly distinguished from that angle.

“What’s up, pal?” Windy looked into Misty’s face with a concerned smile; Lacy glanced up into the girls’ eyes from another side.

“They delivered some goods for the camp canteen…” Flaunty watched the large truck pensively, alternating between it and her friends.

“Hmm… Maybe…” Misty finally shook her head and woke, giving a smile. “Okay, let’s go, mates! I got hungry.”

Coming among the last, the girls occupied the still-free table near the entrance. While Flaunty and Misty went to get the meals, Windy and Lacy kept looking around the hall.

‘What a crowd! And there are so many teachers indeed…’ seemingly having the same thoughts, the fillies exchanged glances. ‘Well, it’s only natural, as the camp was reopened after a long forced break,’ Lacy was sure somehow that the break was exactly forced.

The girl’s eyes hooked on the familiar haughty face; however, this time it was also sad and grumpy at the same time. Feeling the foreign glance, the straw-haired unicorn colt raised his head. Meeting Lacy’s, his eyes narrowed at once and the entire face grimaced with resentment. Without a redundant word, Lacy nudged Windy lightly, marking the direction with her glance. The pegasus filly couldn’t hold back a snort, making both of them giggle in a second; the colt flared from his helplessness even brighter, failing to hide his feelings from his friends around.

“What’s so funny, mates?” Misty and Flaunty returned with the breakfast for four, looking puzzled as their friends kept giggling.

“Our night guest!” Windy poked with her thumb over her shoulder, still snorting. “I could bet it was him trying to scare us!”

Under the four laughing glances, the unicorn colt preferred to look away.

The breakfast went calmly as only one could with that number of students at the same place. Closer to the end, their teachers passed through the hall, handing out some papers to each table. Peeking into them, Misty and her friends discovered the daily schedule accompanied by an extensive list. Naturally, all the students needed to determine, which activities would fill their time for the next four weeks. Like every summer camp, Trishores wasn’t held to let the youth loaf around but to keep them occupied with some useful disciplines at least half of their time, thus combining entertainment with education. Naturally, every student had to choose one or several – depending on their eagerness and determination as well as on their personal preferences.

Having familiarized themselves with the daily schedule, the girls huddled around their copy of the list. A glance around the canteen showed that the absolute majority of their schoolmates were busy with the same, gathering in groups by their interests or friendly relationships.

“Well,” Flaunty spread the list of offered disciplines on the table, leaning closer to her friends, “it would be smart to choose those keeping us all busy at the same time and leaving us all free simultaneously as well. Right, girls?”

“Sounds reasonable,” Lacy adjusted her glasses. “Unless something happens when we all are busy.”

“That’s something we can’t predict for sure!” Under her friends’ glances, Misty raised her eyes from the list. “What? I can feel things sometimes but never tried to predict the events. Anyway, let’s not think about problems beforehand; if we’re going to initiate the investigation, we must indeed have a free hand simultaneously.”

“So, it crosses out all the sports games,” Windy fumbled with the collar string while her eyes scanned the list of courses, “which schedule may vary, depending on many reasons. Leaving effectively only individual disciplines and studies with fixed timetable,” she looked at the girls. “What do you say, pals?”

“Hmmm… They have even that. Cool!” Pensively looking through the courses, Flaunty clicked her fingers. “I’ll probably take bullet shooting, girls.” Seeing that her friends stared at her a bit dumbfounded, Flaunty elaborated with a smile. “Always wanted to try. A pony must be comprehensively educated. Besides, the last encounter at the factory showed that we could come across just anything, including some thugs with guns. I would really like to have the ability to defend us all!” finished she fervently.

“Nopony lets you own a firearm before coming of age anyway,” squinted Windy sceptically.

“Knowing how to use properly is not the same thing as owning!” Flaunty shrugged. “Being prepared never hurts.”

“She is right, Windy,” Misty nodded. “If you learn to drive early, you’ll have fewer problems after getting a car, even if nopony lets you own one prematurely. I, for example, can’t… and sometimes it looks like an oversight on my part.”

“If you want to try, why not?” The green eyes smiled behind the glasses; Lacy patted Flaunty’s arm encouragingly. “Besides, it usually takes time in the first half of the day according to the schedule.”

“I’ll take a self-defence course then,” Windy made a mien, propping her chin on her fists. “Don’t know if I want to shoot a potential enemy, but kicking an offender’s butt is always a nice option. And as I noticed, it can be continued during the academic year… just like bullet shooting, by the way.”

“I think I’ll take the same,” said Lacy. “More strength in my arms won’t hurt.”

Windy’s ears perked; her breath stopped for a second and the girl swallowed. Clearly seeing the image of Lacy taken into a tight grapple in Windy’s widened eyes, Misty did her best to hold back a smile. Flaunty, on contrary, was openly smirking.

“And what about you?” the fillies turned to Misty.

“I’d better take the generic physical training, mates,” the unicorn girl shrugged. “Running and swimming will perfectly fit my needs and our plans.” Misty poked her finger into the list.

“Excellent! No eggheads for the next month!” Windy let out a wide grin, making all the girls smile. “It may take additional efforts and take more time than stated in the official schedule, so not now!”

The entire decision process took several minutes only. Alternating from one foot to another, Misty was to spend some time in front of one of the staff tables while, with strangely high spirits, miss Singularity personally signed the girls for the chosen studies.

“You, girls, are going to boost your physical training!” The smiling glance of her dark eyes slid from the unicorn girl to her friends waiting behind their table.

“Yes, ma’am!” Poker-faced, Misty was the epitome of cautious diplomacy at that moment.

“Why do I always have a feeling that she knows everything?” complained Misty several minutes later when the girls were leaving the noisy canteen.

“Because it’s miss Singularity, no?” Flaunty gave a laugh, hugging Misty’s shoulders with one arm.

Naturally, the large truck wasn’t there when they exited the building. That didn’t prevent Misty’s thoughts from returning to it persistently, frantically digging in her memory.

“I heard that the courses will take place only tomorrow,” Lacy’s cheerful voice pulled her from the musings. “They left the day for the students to accommodate, join the courses and so on. So, I thought… Why don’t we go and take a look at the lake then?”

“Nice idea!” Windy ruffled her red mane. “And we can examine the camp perimeter after,” added she with a meaningful wink.

Taking south from the administration and canteen buildings, the girls came to another forest clearing in a couple of minutes. If the parking lot was big, this opening was huge, but its purpose was just as obvious. The stadium met the friends with silence – the light wind travelled freely across the metalwork tribunes, barely whistling on the high flagpoles and metal cables and flapping the edges of sun shades mostly installed above the seats. The seasonal preparations were almost finished as the girls could notice, but the flags and banners – if any to expect – were not placed yet and with nopony using it, the stadium looked deserted. However, despite the modest open tribunes, the stadium offered all the imaginable sports facilities. The large freshly marked-up field was spreading the smell of recently mowed grass, the elliptic jogging tracks boasted the renewed tartan cover and the variety of sports equipment pleased even a sophisticated eye. In addition to the main field with gates, there were volleyball and tennis courts, and standard-size basketball hoops; on the far edge of the field, under the more capital sun shade, numerous bars, power benches, ladders, rings and some sports simulators gleamed with the fresh paint. A small flat building behind that area was probably intended for some indoor training if anypony would have preferred such during an awesome summer day.

By their wide anticipating grins, Misty concluded that the pegasi twins were already imagining how to put all that to good use. Lacy was looking around a bit confused as if searching for something.

“I can imagine the absence of showers here,” she answered Misty’s inquiring glance, “as every cabin has its own. But… where are we supposed to perform that self-defence training? Being thrown to the ground, even if grass-covered, isn’t the safest thing in my mind.”

“Relax, bud!” Before Misty could think about that concern, Windy wrapped her arm around Lacy’s shoulders. “See that building over there? I bet they have some sort of more springy flooring inside for the contact training.”

However, the most inspiring thing reputedly was the absence of living buildings – be it regular or staff cabins – at a considerable distance around the stadium. Naturally, nopony would like to be neighbouring the noisy place as the campers’ schedules may vary. A wide stripe of forest separated the field with tribunes from the nearest dwelling, making the friends exchange meaningful glances. Straining their eyes, the fillies could see the mesh fence behind the stadium – the edge of the camp territory was close.

“It looks to me the easiest way to leave the camp unnoticed so far,” chuckled Flaunty, summarizing everypony’s thoughts. “At least toward the lake or coast…”

“Yeah, if we plan to visit the riverside, it’ll be another half of a mile around the camp,” sighed Windy. “We need to look for a similar path on the northern side.”

“Later, okay?” Lacy gave a smile. “I’d like to see the lake, Windy, if you don’t mind.”

Heading to the fence, they prepared to overcome that subtle obstacle by the most natural means they had; the pegasus girls would have carried their two friends over that mesh barrier. Surprisingly, their eyes met a simple narrow gate in the fence. The girls walked on the grass, but approaching the gate, they saw a gravel path coming from the stadium. A small tablet said “Lake Sire, 0,5 mile”; the gate leaf was unlocked and easily opened with the first touch. Apparently, part of the lake was used instead of the camp’s swimming pool indeed, as miss Singularity mentioned at the meeting; thus visiting the lake shore was a routine thing there.

“I suppose, there is only one path here,” chuckled Misty when, passing the gate, the four friends stepped onto the simple dirt track, which snaked away to the south through the thicket. The old trees were coming closer to the narrow path; growing freely on the openings between the large trunks, smaller vegetation formed the denser undergrowth. It quickly became muggy there compared to the camp territory, maintained and easily blown through by the wind. Although, the heat and the sunlight occasionally reaching them through the crowns were rather a blessing at that hour, making the unavoidable mosquitoes hide in the humid, more shady places, waiting for the better chance at dusk. Thus instead of the expected annoyance of the mosquitoes’ squeak, the girls were constantly followed by the chorus of the birds galore. Mostly invisible to the friends, the feathery forest soloists competed in tones and melodies each in their own way, celebrating the first days of summer and wonderfully forming a quite pleasant sound palette from the seeming cacophony of their voices. Needless to say that the road to the lake took twice more than the distance implied – the girls stopped every now and then, trying to see the next singer through the flickering medley of leaves, shadows and shimmering sun glares playing in the tree crowns.

“Next time, buds, remind me about the binoculars!” Windy made a funny face. “We didn’t take it from Yuki for nothing.”

“If it can comfort you, I’ve left my camera in the cabin also,” Misty spread her hands with a smile. “Although, I doubt that the standard lens can take a decent photo of a small bird at such a distance. We could probably try to come closer as they seem to be quite unbothered and trustful.”

Meanwhile, the trees became rarer and more light started dawning ahead; the girls fancied dampness in the air – not the heavy humidity of the woods, but some freshness they didn’t feel before. A few more yards and the forest parted; the narrow path lead to the opening, letting the girls out of the green embrace one by one.

This lake bank was high; running down between two cliff walls, the long gentle slide widened, descending to the water. There was no distinctive path as the entire part grassy part sandy slope, studded with sparse shrubs and young willows, offered a safe way down for anypony, regardless if the latter preferred to run with whooping or walk calmly. A golden stripe of the beach peeked between the islets of vegetation at the foot of the descent.

However, a totally different image made the girls freeze on the spot, exiting the forest and leaving the birds’ warbles behind. Below, after the cliffy shore, there lay the Sire lake – a large water body spread as widely as their eyes could see, reflecting the rare clouds lazily floating across the sky and shimmering with myriads of sun glares in the tiny ripples on its calm surface. The stronger wind from the lake took away the forest mugginess, fanning their manes and bringing freshness instead. Smiling unwittingly, the girls watched how it was playing with the black-headed gulls circling in the sky and diving to break the water mirror and grab an unsuspecting fish or water bug. Far, far away, at the very horizon, a thin stripe of the southern, low shore, bristled with the harsh, green brush of the forest, could be barely seen in the morning haze.

“Have I mentioned we need to take the binoculars and camera next time already?” muttered Windy, watching the scene like enthralled.

“Yeah, kinda!” Closing her eyes dreamily, Lacy put her face under the sun and wind, inhaling the full chest of damp freshness.

“Let’s go say “hello!” Misty looked back at her friends with a wide smile. Not waiting for an answer, she rushed down the slope skipping. Laughing and squeaking, the girls followed suit, manoeuvering between the bushy willows on the run.

Reaching the bottom of the slide, the girls found out that Misty’s words surprisingly had a more direct meaning. Already warmed by the sun, the narrow stripe of soft, golden sand hinted at its artificial nature. The beach there was specifically poured as the rest of the shore was rather stony with pebbles peeking from the sandy tongue entering the lake and large stones scattered along the shoreline. One of those cliffs was already occupied by somepony; the girls spotted another figure on the beach nearby.

“Hmm… And this photo would make a bomb cover for any colts’ magazine,” said Windy from a corner of her mouth when the girls came closer – her friends stifled their snorting with an effort. “I wonder if there are colts in her art class. I feel for the poor unsatisfied dudes already!”

Reclining on the large smooth stone in the most relaxed and picturesque pose, their art teacher miss Aime Lerie sported only a modest solid colour bikini. With her eyes closed, putting one arm under her head and outstretching another, miss Lerie was exposing her more than entrancing curves to the caressing warmth. The wind playing with her short wet hair and the sunlight brought a content smile to her face. However, “modest” was the term referring directly to the amount of cloth and nothing else. That scarce piece of nylon was perhaps the single reason to not call that the nude art study, as another pony sitting on the light foldable chair leaning over the easel was undoubtedly miss Lerie’s student.

“Good morning, Momo!” Flaunty appeared to know the little earth filly. “Already practising?”

“Oh! Hi, Flaunty!” The silvery head turned; a bit startled at first, the girl broke into a smile of recognition. “Well, practice makes perfect…” she downcasted a bit, seeing the bigger company.

“As if you needed to be more perfect than you are,” Flaunty gave a laughter; she shook her chestnut mane. “Do you know our friends, Misty and Lacy?” she gestured towards the girls, adding when Momo nodded. “Won’t you mind if we have an early peek?”

“Not at all!” the filly shrugged with an agreeing nod. She turned on her chair, burying her bare feet into the warm sand again and catching the jacket, sliding from her thin shoulders. Misty thought that Momo was near Ola’s age if not younger. The jacket draped over her to protect the ivory filly from sunburn was too large and likely belonged to miss Lerie. The thin fingers put the pencil away on the easel, welcoming the friends to have a look. At a closer look, her miniature and lean frame, foalishly sharp elbows and knees (the latter were mildly scratched in addition), however, were surprisingly complemented by small yet round and firm, well-formed breasts, thus telling that Momo was far in her teens. The girl was packed in the deep blue with lighter stripes bikini, which easily competed with her mentor’s one in explicitness, which could probably cause uneasiness in some others but not in that truly artistic soul.

Approaching from the side, the four friends noticed that Momo had recently started her delicate work, the very first glance on which removed the involuntary smiles from their faces, causing an expression of surprised admiration instead. Even on Flaunty’s face, despite the filly knew well, what the little artist was capable of. Naturally, the main focus was given to the model, accurately – even lovingly, as glimpsed in Misty’s head – conveying each line, curve and dimple of Aime Lerie’s promising physique. The thoroughness in outlining the eyes, cheeks and lips of the reclining mare told Misty that the sight of the filly travelled down the face of her model. It descended to the gracious neck, then shoulders and gorgeous breasts, sliding along each muscle and joint prominent under the silky (even on the drawing) skin down to the toes of the long fit legs and guiding the tool of Momo’s art as if it were her own fingers lovingly caressing every square inch of Aime Lerie instead. Even so, the little artist already managed to capture some small details of the shore, sketching the water mirror and even the distant coastline.

“Will you work in your usual style?” Flaunty kept examining the meticulously built piece, which could hardly be named a sketch now. “Or try colouring it after?”

“Don’t know yet,” the narrow shoulders shrugged as Momo looked up into Flaunty’s eyes, which scanned attentively the unfinished artwork. “I need to make the best drawing I can. Then probably try different variants.”

“I see you’ve made some already,” Flaunty’s attention shifted to the smaller sheet pinned in the upper right part of the easel. The girls could see an image presented by the almost exact copy of the main work; the smaller sketch was focused on the model figure only. However, the round alluring hips of the latter turned not into the shapely legs of miss Lerie bent at an expressive angle, but into some semblance of a strong, long fishtail with large blade flowing down the barely outlined rock, additional side fins and scales drafted on its surface.

“That’s just… some doodling,” muttered Momo, her cheeks flushing gently with embarrassment. “For practice…”

“Oh, girls! You also came to try the water?” Hearing the new voices, miss Lerie opened her eyes. Picking herself to sit on the rock, the mare stretched, making her figure arch in the most graphical way.

Raising her eyes at her teacher, Momo blinked; the thin fingers quickly pulled a clean sheet from the bag at her feet, placing it on the easel right above the main sketch. The girls watched, enthralled by the pencil flying over the paper and drafting the upper torso with the new pose purely from the memory of the little artist.

“As you can see, I have a level to aspire,” Flaunty shook her head with a smile.

“Beware, the water is a bit cool after last night’s rain! Still pleasant contrastingly,” added miss Lerie, leaning on her elbows and watching the company appreciating her apprentice’s work. “Didn’t you take your new friends with you?”

Something crackled dryly.

Pursing her lips crossly, the earth filly put away the broken pencil with a sigh, reaching for the new one.

“We wanted to see the lake, to roam around a bit…” Misty threw a meaningful glance from under her palm along the shoreline. “Not planned to be much of a distraction for you, ma’am.” She pulled the girls subtly with her, smiling at Momo apologetically. “We’ll just take a look around.”

Waving to miss Lerie, the girls took off their shoes and headed along the small waves splashing on the shore slowly.

“Okay, see you then,” straightening on her rock throne, Aime Lerie waved in reply. “Careful on the slippery cliffs over there, girls!”

“Ai… M-miss Lerie, please, could you,” drowning out by the hubbub of gulls, the pleading voice of Momo reached the friends’ ears. “We would never finish that way.”

“Okay, okay,” with laughter, the mare leaned back on the rock, taking the same pose as when Misty and the girls ran into them.

“See, I was not joking, saying that Momo is the best student of Aime,” stated Flaunty when the girls distanced a bit, wading in the lake water which was slightly cold indeed. “Just wait till she finishes – you’ll mistake the entire piece for a photo from a little distance!”

“So, she prefers it hyper-realistic,” smiled Lacy.

“I was thinking,” Misty stopped, pensively digging a pebble from the sand with her toe, “it appears, the teachers can take their most promising students here, ignoring the age, right?”

“What?” she raised her glance at the giggling twins.

5.

The next several days passed actively but without some outstanding events. The girls did their best not to attract unnecessary staff attention: they followed the camp schedule, took the chosen sports courses and roamed the surrounding woods while staying close to the camp. In other words, Misty and her friends kept playing the roles of the average school campers perfectly in the absence of any important information about the place, yet suspecting some to exist. In their free time, the four friends tried to learn the camp layout in case that could come in handy, finding out that in addition to the path to the lake, there was a narrow road north of Trishores, meant for the supply trucks mostly delivering goods for the canteen. So far, all Misty’s attempts to catch that strangely familiar truck and have a better look at it failed – she was already thinking about an ambush, amusing the friends with her suspicions.

As Misty found out on the second day, Reona took the same courses, preferring general physical training to some specific disciplines. Thus the girls were returning to their cabin together; through the casual talks, Misty got to know the Tetra sisters a bit better. It turned out that the twins were orphans, not even remembering their parents well; the patronage of miss Singularity as a friend of their guardian became explicable. In their turn, the Curious Four didn’t cross with their alicorn teacher much, mostly seeing her during the meals; however, Misty kept having a strong feeling that miss Singularity was watching their company in the canteen, sometimes attentively, sometimes with a glimpse of mysterious smile on her lips.

The changes in their daily life were presented mostly by the new printed targets brought by Flaunty, the grouping and accuracy of holes in them only grew, and by the adding vials with tiny sprouts, queued on the windowsill by Lacy. The fillies could only be guessing about the numbers of the seeds gathered by their friend; Misty secretly suspected they would need another couple of backpacks for the green stuff on departure.

Drying on the ropes stretched in the bathroom specifically, the swimsuits of Misty and Reona became the daily routine. Just as the regular “additional training” as Windy and Lacy called it – with her mane and tail braided tightly, Lacy practised the kicks with the help of Windy holding a punching bag semblance made of a blanket. As if it wasn’t distracting enough on its own, the girls often did that in the evening in their birthday suits, justifying that with the comfort of the workout. Soaping and rubbing their heated backs in the shower later, Misty drolled that Lacy should rather have joined her and Reona in swimming.

“So, what do we have, mates?” Misty kept watching the crowd in the canteen, addressing the girls from the corner of her mouth when she and the pegasus twins took the free table. The new one each time if it was possible. Sometimes it was harder to accomplish as, unlike the Curious Four, some students preferred to occupy the same seats during every meal. The girls decided to change place though, for their presence or absence not to be easily noticed by some curious eye. However, they still had that feeling that at least one pair of eyes would notice their manoeuvres regardless; nothing could be done about that.

“Frankly speaking, I found out nothing that would interest us during the last few days,” the unicorn filly propped her chin with her hands, looking at the twins pensively. “I found out seemingly everything about the camp itself, something new about swimming and my inner reserves,” she smirked, “yet nothing which could probably tell us, why miss Singularity almost twitched to change that slide with river image.”

At the mention of their camp supervisor, Windy Mane threw a habitual glance over her shoulder as if to make sure that miss Singularity was at her usual place behind the staff table, not somewhere behind their backs already. Finding the alicorn mare with her eyes, Windy turned to the girls.

“Yeah! I started wondering if we would ever really need the information we fished out about the camp. It wasn’t easy to drive the talk to that river delta thing, pals,” Windy rolled her eyes in a sarcastic mien, “but a couple of times I managed to seemingly shift the topic, nopony from the staff looked as if they knew anything or were eager to discuss.”

“Same,” sighed Misty; the girl’s ears flattened parallel to the floor, showing considerable dejection.

“Girls, I’m not even sure if our hints were properly understood each time!” Flaunty Mane chuckled, throwing her hair back. “I was very cautious with the teachers at least. Perhaps too cautious to get a result…” she took another look around the hall. “Where is Lacy lingering?”

“She stopped at the buttery hatch as we entered,” noticed Misty, stretching her neck. “There she is. I wonder if she managed to find out something useful – she looked somewhat inspired yesterday, but told nothing.”

The earth filly approached their table in the corner of the hall, hiding something in her bag; the green eyes were shining behind the glasses, telling that Misty’s assumption wasn’t groundless. Hanging the back on the backrest, Lacy flopped on the chair with a mysterious smile.

“Misty, Flaunty, Windy!” The girl’s eyes ran around the friends as she leaned closer. “It seems I got something valuable. Let’s sum up our chances to sneak around as we planned,” added Lacy when the three pairs of eyes stared at her, “then I’ll tell my story.”

“Hmm…” chuckled Windy. “Okay! Who’s first?”

“I think, you all mates noticed the number of staff here,” started Misty, trying to divide her attention between their talk and breakfast equally. “Summer camps were not my usual pastime, but somehow I consider this excessive.” The girls nodded in agreement while Misty continued. “In addition to the local camp workers, we seemingly have half of the Pinewatch magistral staff present. One can hardly stay unnoticed… at least while at the camp territory.”

“The strangest thing is,” added she after a pause, putting down the fork and biting her lip pensively, “that some of them, teachers I mean, are perplexed by that scheme hardly less than me. I had a feeling that many had no idea of what they were supposed to… guard us against.”

“Well, considering Trishores was reopened after a while…” Flaunty gave a meaningful smile. “On the other hand, isn’t the mere fact of reopening some guarantee of safety. Anyway, they seemed to reach their goal – even if some of the students had an idea of breaking some rules, adults galore and the personal presence of miss Singularity made the majority of them reconsider.”

“Yeah, can’t help but give them credit – the method worked,” smirked Windy. “So far roaming around the camp at night and some prank attempts was the worst king of rulebreaking.”

“That’s even without an obvious tightening of the screws,” nodded Lacy.

“They could probably stick a camera to every tree with the same result,” Windy kept twisting the collar strap around her finger. “Strangely they didn’t. And it’s awesome they didn’t, as there are plenty of ways to leave the territory almost unnoticed.”

“How come?!” Misty perked with interest; so did her ears and the girl’s tail almost curled into a question mark.

“The gate to the lake is the easiest way,” huffed Windy, shaking her short red mane. “You see, the nearest shore is almost taken as the camp territory… and it won’t come to mind of most of the students to roam in the thicket aimlessly,” the filly winked. “But we know that one can leave the territory and then go anywhere they like, distancing from the curious eyes. Easily, during our free time for example!”

“But…” Lacy looked at Misty, then turned to the twins.

“We noticed a nice loophole in the local system,” Windy broke into a wide smile, exchanging sly glances with Flaunty. “While they are doing their best to keep eye on us all, it’s practically impossible to monitor everypony all the time. How do you think the teachers ensure that nopony is missing?”

“Mmm… Each one sees their group during the chosen activities, no?” Misty and Lacy replied almost simultaneously.

“Aaaand…” Flaunty played with her eyebrows, poking her thumb behind her shoulder.

“Of course…” drawled Misty in realization. “The regular meals.”

“Yeah, that easy, pal!” Windy shrugged with her wings. “But thankfully they cut us some slack.”

“You need to miss two meals in a row for them to start checking on you,” elaborated Flaunty under the perplexed glances of two fillies. “Nopony will start a search operation if you miss one; upon the second, somepony will come to check on you to the cabin and only then, depending on what they find… We didn’t try though,” confessed she with a smile.

“I suppose, one can risk even more if there is a friend ready to cover them up,” Windy made a meaningful grimace. “But even what we have is enough. That gives us about eight safe hours to do whatever we want, considering we all have free time after noon.”

“Even more, if we stay for dinner and are ready to roam after the sunset…” muttered Misty, inwardly estimating.

“Hah, I like the spirit,” chuckled Windy, then added. “If we have to, that is.”

“Oh, I thought you would never ask!” Lacy raised her glance at the friends turning to her expectantly. “Don’t worry, Misty, you’ll likely get your riddle… And you – your adrenaline,” she gazed at the sisters.

“Come one, we’re all ears!” It was hard to tell, who of the three girls was more eager to hear.

“Yeah, long fluffy ears…” Lacy made a cute face, batting her eyelashes. “Okay, okay…” she showed mercy finally. “You know that most of the staff who aren’t from Pinewatch, are locals, right?”

“Can I tickle her to death later?” Windy asked in an exaggeratedly sweet voice.

“From the very start, I thought that asking our teachers wasn’t the best option,” Lacy presented Windy with a tender smile, elaborating. “Even if they know, they won’t tell but have suspicions instead. The locals are another story: granted, they are responsible for the students, but… well, indirectly kinda; besides they could see no crime in telling. The hardest thing was to talk somepony into spilling the beans.”

“Yesterday you lingered here after supper,” Misty squinted with the satisfaction of her guess confirmed. “We were going to sleep when you came, smiling. I bet, you told nothing, not to break our sleep, you sly filly you!”

“That was sheer luck,” Lacy shrugged, looking an epitome of modesty. “I accidentally heard the cook complaining about the dull knives. No… swearing muffledly, but quite expressively about all the …” she quietly added the exact epithet, making the friends giggle, “knives being dull and the modern sharpeners being… Well, I’m not sure I even understood all the terms there,” Lacy barely stifled laughter. “So, I showed polite curiosity if I could…”

“Don’t say that you’ve brought it with you!” snorted Windy, making her feathers ruffled. The girl covered her mouth, noticing a couple of neighbours’ interested glances.

“If I don’t say, that won’t change anything,” Lacy cut it with a dainty smile. “What? It’s an awesome sharpener, compact and handy – I always take it for my gardening tools. And it fits anything actually, including the kitchen knives.”

Now all the girls were quietly snorting while Lacy continued as if nothing had happened.

“Of course, I offered help generously, knowing that my sharpener would do the job one hundred per cent,” the earth filly shrugged. “Obviously, it took a while to fix all the stuff, but I managed to pull the talk in the right direction. The cook was so happy because of his problem being solved, he told me that local tale without noticing it.”

“So, last evening you stood here…” Flaunty looked at her friend, who outraced the twins in scouting, with respect.

“…sharpening the knives with our cook and chattering,” smirked Lacy. “And it turned out fruitful!” She gestured for the girls to lean closer and lowered her voice. “Here’s the very salt of it. Historically, there was a town near the river delta in the north – Rye-on-Marsh. As the delta became more swamped with time and the locals moved on from fishing to more profitable industry and agriculture, the town grew and little by little moved up the Salmon Stalls river where it currently is. As the port was used by the fishers, not for some transportation,” Lacy took a sip from her glass, “it quickly became abandoned. So did the river delta, with forest and swamp regaining more area.”

“Predators?” Windy was the first to show impatience.

“Exactly not!” Lacy shook her head, looking around the girls. “There are no large, dangerous animals in the neighbourhood. I suppose nopony would establish a summer camp here otherwise.”

“Yeah, my bad…” Windy was to admit the reason.

“Rye-on-Marsh was and still is a quiet town, without many incidents happening there despite the growth,” Lacy continued her story, “the more shocking it was for them when, a few years ago, ponies started to disappear in the swampy area.”

“Hmm…” Flaunty raised her eyebrow, exchanging glances with Misty. “Maybe still predators?”

“Here goes the most interesting thing,” chuckled Lacy, putting away her glass. “Several, actually more than ten… colts disappeared through the length of about four years. Too spread in time for the predators to change their hunting area if you ask me, yet it was shocking for a town like Rye,” Lacy raised her index finger with emphasis.

“Wait,” Misty looked into Lacy’s eyes, “did you say…”

“Mhm…” Lacy nodded with a meaningful face. “Only colts, from teen to young adult as the cook said; only in the delta area… and they literally disappeared.”

“Predators usually leave something,” noticed Windy with an imperturbable look. “What?” she shrugged, replying to Flaunty’s glance. “I simply say it as it is.”

“So, nothing was found in those cases, right?” the sparks burning up in Misty’s eyes were self-explanatory. Lacy only nodded.

“There was another case though, a single one,” added Lacy. “A couple of teens disappearing there. A colt and a filly – it sounds like an exception,” she smirked wryly. “But the filly was found a week later, drowned and thrown on the ocean coast, about a mile from the delta… And the colt was nowhere to be found since,” finished the girl after a meaningful pause. “Thus, I’d say that we’re not completely out of the risk group, Misty. Need to be careful if we want to investigate.”

The girls kept silent for a while, digesting what they heard.

“Obviously, the summer camp was closed after the first couple of cases,” Lacy spread her arms. “A natural move. That’s why, I suppose, it’s safe to assume that nopony from our academic shift was ever in Trishores, some teachers either… having no idea about that story. However,” Lacy hurried to add before the girls said anything, “all the vanishings were localized strictly in the river delta, after sunset mostly. The authorities tried to search several times, but fruitlessly; they caught neither an animal nor a criminal. The further you can imagine – fencing, signs, informing the locals about the danger of that particular region.”

“Yet they found nothing to hook up to,” muttered Misty. “That mildly reminds me of…”

“Canterton,” Windy and Flaunty finished for her in half-voice.

“That’s for you to feel it out,” added Windy with a wing shrug.

“Maybe, we could ask Fran to help as well,” pensively drawled Flaunty. “So, what everything came to?” she turned to Lacy inquiringly.

“The last… incident,” Lacy cringed a little, but that was the mildest term fitting, “happened last but one year, still in the swampy delta. Somehow, it was decided to reopen the camp a year after, considering the localization of the problem. Thus the stuff galore I suppose…”

“That’s why miss Singu frowned upon that slide!” Misty bit her thumb pensively. “Wouldn’t it be smarter though to warn the students beforehand?”

“Hmm… That’s debatable,” Flaunty threw back her mane. “I bet, there would be some except us eager to find out why the area is forbidden,” the pegasus filly gave Misty a meaningful expression. “They think it’s safer this way – the area is far enough for the campers to be interested and to be caught midway if necessary.”

“So, what would you say?” Lacy’s smiling eyes examined her friend – the girl knew the answer already.

“I think,” slowly started Misty, “that we need to ask Fran and…” suddenly the filly broke into a greeting smile, looking over the twins’ heads. “…And take a nice walk to the Sire lake, then maybe the coast!”

A bit confused, Windy and Flaunty turned to face the Tetra sisters approaching their table.

“Hi, girls!” Reona raised her hand, moving her fingers in the air. “Won’t you mind, please?” she nodded towards the free seats.

The stripy twins got a little late to the canteen, so most of the tables were occupied. The girls were the familiar company at least – the choice of Reona and Ola was explicable. Greeting them, the friends moved aside to give more space for the newcomers. Obviously, they couldn’t discuss their investigation in the company of the Tetra twins; however, Lacy found what to say fast.

“Didn’t you have enough of the lake already?” the earth filly chuckled as if continuing the interrupted talk. “You both aren’t getting out of it each morning, Misty” Lacy nodded towards Reona with a smile. “The coast is a nice idea perhaps!”

“Don’t know about Misty,” Reona gave a modest smile, spreading butter on the pieces of bread for herself and Ola. “But I clearly felt the progress, even during these few days. My legs feel stronger, I can swim further and longer.”

Misty noticed how Lacy and Ola shivered a little almost simultaneously. Lacy was visibly overcoming herself holding that conversation. Her salvation came where least expected.

“Good morning, girls!” The deep sweet voice touched their ears, as two warm hands lay on the shoulders of Flaunty and Ola sitting next. “How do you like your summer camping so far?” Miss Lerie, and it was her exactly, smiled at the girls looking up at her. “We did our best to improve this year!”

“Very much!” Misty returned the smile, then quickly scanned the hall. She could spot the familiar silvery head at once; behind the table next to the teachers’ one, Momo was watching Aime with a mixture of anticipation and concern.

“We enjoy every bit of it,” confirmed Reona, watching her sister with tenderness.

“Yeah!” Windy flexed her arms, winking to Lacy, who let out a giggle.

“That’s nice to hear!” Miss Lerie patted Ola’s shoulder lightly. “By the way,” she leaned closer to the filly, “I would like to suggest you join the art class, my dear.”

“Umm…” Ola looked slightly confused; the light flush peeked between the stripes tips on her cheeks. “I’m afraid I’m not so good at…”

“Well, that’s exactly what the art class is used for,” Aime exclaimed cheerfully, “to improve your skills. And… if you still don’t like drawing, you could probably try modelling instead. We need good posers!”

Windy and Flaunty seemed overly concentrated on their glasses of juice, making effort not to fuff the contents out. Stifling a smile, Misty threw a glance over their heads – the ivory filly took a look at the empty, pulled chair next to her, letting out a visible long sigh. Biting her lip, Momo sent a squint from under her silvery, shiny eyelashes into Aime’s back.