怪談とポニー Ep3 - Wet job

“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.