At Camp Everfree
A sixteen year old boy and his girlfriend were breaking the rules of Camp Everfree with reckless abandon. They were looking for a nice secluded spot away from the camp so that they could try to "eat each other's faces".
The boy, named Tracker, was relatively taller than everyone else by being six-foot-eleven. His height made him feel somewhat like a freak compared to his other classmates. He had bright purple hair and blue eyes. His build was not overly muscular, but he had enough to lift a considerable amount of weight.
The girl, named Marina, was more than happy to have some alone time with her boyfriend. She was a petite creature with blue hair and purple eyes. It was her idea to do this little rendezvous with Tracker in the first place.
The young couple wanted to ensure their privacy, so they went deeper and deeper into the forest. The two were so caught up in the idea of their upcoming session of passion that they chose to ignore Timber Spruce's warnings about going into forests or any unfamiliar environments.
"Don't stray too far into the forest without a guide or a designated trail. If you don't know that area, you could get lost just a few hundred feet away from where you first entered" Timber had relayed to them earlier that week.
But these two naughty campers willfully ignored this warning and continued going deeper and deeper into the forest. To make matters even worse, they were doing this at night!
Eventually, the couple came across a small clearing in the middle of the forest. It was a nice clearing with short grasses and the full moon was shining bright and illuminating the clearing with its beautiful light.
Tracker turned to his girlfriend with a flirtatious smile. "You seriously want to do this?"
Marina returned the smile. "Of course I do. Don't worry. No one's going to find us out here"
Tracker, seemingly satisfied with that answer, gently pins Marina against one of the trees. They both start kissing each other, slowly at first. Further on, they started using their tongues on each other. This continued for some time until Tracker slid his right hand down her stomach and dangerously close to her groin. Marina stopped kissing him and looked at him with a serious expression.
"Track, please don't do that. I'm not ready for that" she relayed to him. Tracker's expression softened.
"Okay. I won't do anything. I'm sorry. But if you're not ready, that's fine", Tracker said with a soft smile.
Both smiling at each other, they resumed their make-out session. Nothing of significance happened for a good few minutes.
Suddenly, the sound of a large animal running through the underbrush put an end to the couple's kissing. They both turned to the direction of the sounds.
They were coming from the side of the clearing opposite to where the couple were standing. The sounds were coming closer and closer.
Both of them were looking in the direction of the sounds with their fight-or-flight responses primed and ready to bolt.
When a human or any other animal is faced with a potentially dangerous situation, the natural response is to either fight, fly, or freeze. Freezing is when the individual is trying to assess the situation and determine whether to fight off or run away from the perceived threat. When the fight-or-flight response is triggered, the brain produces more and more adrenaline and raises the heartrate. The increase in heartrate increases the intake of oxygen. The combination of adrenaline and oxygen enhances the human body beyond its normal limits. This allows someone to fight threats off with increased strength or run from it with tremendous speed.
But right now, the couple were in freeze mode. If they stand still, maybe the threat won't see them.
As they were trying to get ready to run, a large deer had burst from the treeline and stopped instantly upon seeing the two humans in the forest. That moment of hesitation would cost the deer.
A long humanoid arm with long fingers grabbed the screaming deer and pulled it into the darkness of the forest. Both humans were shocked by what they just saw. The canopy of the trees blocked out the moonlight, so they couldn't see what had grabbed the deer. The deer's screaming was cut off by the sound of bones breaking and wet tearing.
Before the couple's very eyes, a large humanoid entity stepped out from the trees. From what they could tell, this creature was at least thirty feet tall. It was female from what they could tell. It had dark crimson hair tied in a ponytail, bright blue eyes, and dark gray skin. This entity had beautiful features. Her face was soft-looking and pleasing to the eye. Her physique was also similar to that of a model. She wore clothes made of animal skins. In her right hand, she held the headless body of the deer she grabbed earlier.
She was looking at the humans with what looked like curiosity. She tilted her head from side-to-side while looking at the humans. Slowly, she raised the headless deer carcass up to her face. Her mouth opened to reveal ape-like teeth with prominent canine teeth. She took a bite out of the deer's ribs and began eating.
That was all the reason the couple needed to run away from the creature.
They ran like rabbits all the way through the forest. Their clothes were getting ripped by branches and thorns and were opening up bleeding cuts, but that didn't matter. They were too afraid of what they saw to care about pain.
The couple was more than relieved when they saw the lights of the camp they left. They ran up to the main office of the camp where the counselors would hopefully still be. They needed the counselors' help to find out what is lurking around the camp.
They ran into the main office to be greeted by Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Daisy working on paperwork. They saw the state that their two missing campers were in and immediately sent them to the Infirmary. Marina was crying into Tracker's chest the entire time while Tracker was staring off into space and was muttering something about a monster in the woods.
When they were both calm enough to speak, Timber Spruce went up to Tracker.
"Okay, buddy. I know you saw something difficult to talk about, but can you please tell us what you saw out there?" he asked softly.
Tracker looked at him with haunted eyes. "A giant. There's a giant out there."
At Canterlot High
Sunset and her friends were all gathered around their usual table and discussing what they could do with their new powers. After the incident at Camp Everfree last year, they decided that they needed to discuss how they should go about using magic.
"We could become superheroes! Like the Power Pals!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed while striking a dramatic pose.
"While that is certainly an interesting idea, darling, perhaps we should consider our education before becoming heroes. We are still in high school, after all" Rarity stated.
"Rare's right, y'all. We're still students. We can't just run off every time something bad goes on" Applejack says.
"Besides, the SAT's are coming up. For now, we have to focus on that" Twilight said.
"But we have MAGIC now, Twilight!", Pinkie exclaimed. "What's the point of having magic if we're not going to use it to fight evil?!"
"While the idea of using our powers to be heroes is tempting, we should leave the majority of the crime-fighting to the police and other law enforcement agencies" Sunset said.
"Aaaww! But why?" Pinkie asked.
"Because, Pinkie. That's their job to stop bad guys. They have families to support, as well. If we use our powers to stop every bad guy we see, they'll be out of a job".
Pinkie seemed to relent at that reasoning. "Okay, I get it. If they have to support their families, I won't use my powers"
Rainbow didn't seem to want to back down from wanting to be a hero, but the look in her eyes indicated that she was at least willing to compromise.
"So what if we don't go after the regular criminals? What if we go after things that the regular police can't handle?" she asked in suggestion.
"Like what, Rainbow?" Rarity asked.
"Like magical problems! Magical supervillains and vicious monsters! The regular cops can't handle those kinds of threats! We'll be the ones who respond to them!" Rainbow replied.
The rest of the group looked off into space in thought. What with what happened with Gloriosa Daisy at Camp Everfree, perhaps they were the best ones suited to fight off magic-related threats.
"Maybe we could do that. Only facing magical threats while leaving normal criminals to the police seems like a normal idea to me" Fluttershy said.
"That may be true, but how often do these threats come up? It's not like we're going to get a call saying that there's a mysterious incident that may involve magic or monsters that we need to look into" Sunset said.
As if on cue, Sunset's phone started vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw the name "Timber Spruce" on the screen. She swiped her phone screen to answer him.
"Timber? What's up?" Sunset asked her former counselor.
"Sunset, there's a mysterious incident that may involve magic or monsters that I need you to look into" Timber replied.
Sunset slowly looked at the other girls, who had been listening in on the conversation. "The odds of this happening are astronomical"
At Camp Everfree-Saturday
Timber and Gloriosa stood inside the main office building in the camp with a large map of the campgrounds and the surrounding forest.
The map was marked with circles and various paper notes and photographs pinned to the sides of the board upon which the map itself was pinned.
Some of the photos contained destroyed rocks, toppled trees, and the mangled remains of deer and other large animals. Other photos showed large inhuman footprints. There were some rough sketches of what their campers reported seeing.
The circles on the map were the areas where the sightings were reported and the dates when these sightings took place. First sighting took place on May 3rd, near the base of Mt. Everfree. One of the campers wanted to hike an abandoned trail deep in the forest and spotted what looked like a "female giant" staring at him from the cover of the trees. The second sighting took place on July 13th, near Sidewinder Trail. Two campers saw what they described as a "giant" walking through the forest as if it didn't know the campers were even there. The third sighting occurred on August 4th, near some of the outhouses. A girl saw the silhouette of a "giant" looking at her from the woods. The fourth and latest sighting occurred on August 6th, near the clearing. The clearing was the one closest to the lake next to the main camp site.
Timber was the first to speak up. "Hey, Glory. What do you notice about the placement of the sightings?"
Gloriosa looked at the map with firm concentration. Eventually, her eyes widened in realization.
"The sightings are occurring closer and closer to the camp. You think whatever this creature is is going to come to the camp?" she asked her brother.
"All I can say about the creature is that it's probably curious. Or it's running out of it's usual food in the forest and may decide to eat the campers. Either way, this creature is getting bolder. We'll see what the girls think about this matter as soon as they get here" Timber replied.
As if to answer his response, the siblings heard the sound of a van pulling up to the main office of the camp. They want outside to see the girls coming out of their van and started walking towards the counselors.
"H-hey, Twilight! How have you been?" he asked in greeting.
Twilight's only response was to look away from him with a scowl. The air around them suddenly became very awkward.
Their relationship hadn't ended well. Twilight caught Timber Spruce cheating on her with a random cheerleader from Crystal Prep. Timber had respected Twilight's decision to break up with him, but he didn't her to hold such a grudge. He was at least thankful that the rest of the Rainbooms had forgiven him for it.
"So... what are we dealing with here, Spruce?" Applejack asked.
"Right. Just follow me" Timber said before turning around and walked towards the main office.
