Chapter 1: Tragedy of Camp Friendship
Applejack was smiling as she and her best friend Rara leapt out of their beds at Camp Friendship. Eight other foals, seven colts and one other filly followed with the same level of energy. Two older ponies, a dark blue mare with a purple mane and a bright yellow stallion with a silver mane entered. They smiled “Are you ready for a day of fun!”
All the foals cheered “WE ARE!”
There was plenty of water-based activities, there was a game of tag being played by five foals. Applejack gestured to Rara “Come on, let’s go to the lake for a swim.”
Rara rubbed her hooves nervously “I don’t know how to swim.”
Applejack smiled “How about you practice near the shore, I’ll go a little further out. When you feel confident you can join me.”
Meanwhile
Near the camp, a team of Pegasi from the weather team were just about to start moving the clouds for rainstorm when a burst of wild weather from the Everfree Forest smashed into their cloud created a massive storm heading for the camp. The leader of the weather team, a dark grey Pegasus with a blackish mane growled “We need to get to the camp before the storm hits!”
Back at the Camp
The two older ponies looked at the foals playing, seeing there was no sign of trouble they gave each other sly looks before heading inside. Both unaware of the impending disaster coming their way. The mighty storm moved towards the camp, by this point Applejack was quite far out. Being a strong swimmer, in normal conditions she had nothing to fear from water.
Suddenly the huge wild storm hit the camp, the weather team arrived just in time to start rescuing the foals on the land, bringing them into the wooden camp house. The Leader of the Weather team shouted as they entered the Central Cabin “Who is in charge here!”
One of his team frowned “Sky Sentinel, calm yourself down. You’re scaring the foals.”
Sentinel sighed “You have a point.” His eyes narrowed as he saw the two in charge, their coats were messy and their manes all over the place “What the heck is going on here. A wild storm just hit out weather clouds creating a fierce wild storm and we came to get the foals to safety only to find you two doing this!”
Sentinel stormed out to see three of his team helping Rara who seemed to have been washed up onto the shore by the wicked waves. He saw that two of the weather team dove into the water, desperately trying to get closer.
He headed out there only to see Applejack’s strength failed her as was forced under the water. She sunk deeper and deeper, she held her breath. Her lungs started to burn as she tried to swim upwards, she started to struggle as she ran out of air inside her lung and her vision faded into darkness. Her body landed on the bottom of the lake.
The two stallions returned to comfort Rara who was sobbing. The mare working with the two stallions walked over to Sky Sentinel “We lost one, Captain. The water was too choppy and the winds too fierce.”
Sentinel took a deep breath “I am aware, Cloud Runner.” He then growled “The Camp Coordinators were busy banging each other in the room! Now a foal has died because of those fools!” He stormed off to the central cabin, the only building left standing. The two Coordinators received an icy glare as he stormed over to a desk.
In Canterlot, Princess Celestia was in the middle of the court when a messenger crashed into the throne room. They shook themselves off and bowed holding out a letter “I’m sorry for the abruptness of my arrival Princess but this is of great importance.”
The Princess read the letter, her horn started sparking. The letter started to singe slightly, she took a deep breath “A child has died due to the negligence of the adults meant to be supervising them, as such a court is adjourned so I can organise a full investigation into this matter.”
Meanwhile in Ponyville, Pear Butter and Bright Mac open the door only for Sentinel to look at him with concern. Sentinel took a deep breath “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but your daughter drowned in Saddle Lake. I deeply sorry.”
Pear Butter started to cry, leaning on Bight Mac’s withers. Bright Mac took a deep breath “Thank you for telling us Sky. Having said that, could you please leave?We need some time to process everything that has happened.”
Sentinel bowed “Of course.”He grumbled as he left “This is why I left the military.” He met up with his team “We need to get back to work, we are now several hours behind schedule!”
As they took off, his second in command frowned “Captain, is everything alright?”
Sentinel frowned “No but we have work to do. We can’t shirk out duties. I’ll get over it as I always do, relax. After all where would you guys be without me? On rock bottom, that what!”
That night Princess Celestia locked herself in her room. She looked up at the moon, tears forming in her eyes. “Now one of the destined foals is gone, what am I to do? I can’t lose you but my ponies need me to protect them.” She then started to cry, out of sight of the world.
During the next two months numerous investigation teams were sent to investigate the camp and the lake. Half way thought that month the investigation teams starting vanishing shortly after they arrived. Despite the best efforts of the Royal Guard, none of those ponies were ever found and the search for them soon ceased. Slowly the memory incident was slowly forgotten by many, the world moving on as it always had. Blissfully unaware of the monster that lurked in the depths of the lake.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoy this chapter.
