Cherry made a dark gray lantern with spiders and cross signs all over it, then looked up as marshallows dropped in front of her. "Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?"

"Putting marshmallows on my lantern!" Pinkie chirped to her. "Then when we light them, mine will be beautiful and delicious!"

"Thanks, I wanted more diabetes from you." Cherry deadpanned.

"Oh, come on; you know it's a great idea." Pinkie smiled.

Cherry groaned with a shudder. "Atticus, save me from this madness."

Atticus, Sc-Twi, Spike, and Patch seemed to sit at a different table than the same one their friends were sitting at.

"Hey, guys, why aren't you with everyone else?" Patch asked their owners.

"Sunset said something at camp is causing the other girls to get new magic, I think it's Midnight Sparkle, she's still part of me," Sci-Twi replied softly. "I can feel it. And I think her magic is infecting my friends."

"I feel the same way about Shadow Fudo." Atticus agreed.

"What are we going to do?" Spike asked Sci-Twi and Atticus.

"We don't know." Sci-Twi and Atticus said.

"Okay, everyone, it's time to watch your lanterns fly!" Gloriosa called out.

Everyone soon made their way to the dock with their lanterns.

"Hey, cool lantern," Timber smiled to Sci-Twi. "Mine's my face!"

Sci-Twi laughed nervously in response.

"I did the same thing." Mo smiled to Atticus as she showed him her lantern.

Atticus blushed. "Looks so much like you."

"What's yours?" Mo smiled to him.

"Me as a strong superhero with some crystals added in." Atticus said before he and Sci-Twi went to join the others.

Mo smiled to it. "That's nice."

"Thanks..." Atticus said softly.

"You two okay?" Timber asked Sci-Twi.

"Mm-hmm..." Sci-Twi and Atticus nodded.

"You guys don't seem like yourselves tonight." Mo said.

Atticus and Sci-Twi continued on without another word. The lanterns were then being lit up.

"Ah, if only Mushu were here to see this." Cherry said to herself.

Each of the lanterns soon started to float in the air, well, not all of them.

"Aww," Pinkie frowned. "Oh, well, now I get to eat it!"

Cherry grimaced.

"See, Cherry, I told you!" Pinkie smiled. "Beautiful and delicious!"


Later that night, Atticus and Sci-Twi were sneaking out with Spike and Patch.

"Twilight?" Sunset asked as she woke up.

Flash turned over and rubbed his eyes. "Atticus?"

Sunset and Flash both soon looked outside their tents to see Sci-Twi, Atticus, Patch, and Spike running off. They both then went back inside and got their hiking boots on as they chased after the two with their little dogs too.

"Any idea where they're going?" Flash asked Sunset as they were going the same way.

"No, but we'll find out soon once we've caught up with them." Sunset said as they both continued to run until they saw Atticus and Sci-Twi.

They then ran into the bushes of the forest.

"Guys!" Sunset called.

Sci-Twi and Atticus then stopped and turned to them.

"What are you guys doing out here?" Sunset asked.

"We're going to take a cab to take us home." Atticus and Sci-Twi smiled nervously.

Sunset and Flash looked to Patch and Spike to see if this was true.

"They thought you'd talk them out of it." Spike and Patch replied.

"Because we would," Sunset said. "Guys, you can't leave..." she then put her hand on Sci-Twi's arm before her eyes glowed white and she was shown a flashback with Pinkie and Trixie and shown Sci-Twi's low self esteem throughout the camping experience.

"She's right." Flash said as he put his hand on Atticus's arm. He soon saw what was going on through Atticus's mind as the boy was thinking about Shadow Fudo.


After a little while, both Flash and Sunset saw enough to understand.

"Guys, there's no Midnight Sparkle or Shadow Fudo." Sunset started.

"There's only you two." Flash finished.

"How did you know what we were thinking?" Atticus and Sci-Twi recoiled.

"When we touched you both, we could see what you were thinking and feeling." Flash said.

"Flash, don't you see, this is our new magic!" Sunset said to him.

"Oh, no, we're infecting you guys now!" Atticus frowned.

"Why is this happening?!" Sci-Twi frowned.

"You guys have to stop looking at this as a bad thing." Flash said.

"Easy for you guys to say!" Atticus replied.

"Magic turned you into something beautiful..." Sci-Twi said to Sunset. "The last time I tried to use it, I turned into a monster."

"I'm afraid that this magic will do it all over again." Atticus then said with a frown.

"Last time, magic did turn Sunset into something amazing." Flash started.

"But I let magic turn me into a monster too," Sunset said. "So if anyone understands what you guys are going through, it's me. I can help you, guys, and Flash is always willing to help a friend in need."

Flash nodded in agreement. "Same with all our other friends." he then said. "But not if you guys run away."

"Alright, we won't run away." Atticus sighed.

"We'll stay, but I still don't think it's a good idea for us to be near the rest of our friends right now." Sci-Twi added in.

"Yeah, not until we know why this is happening." Atticus agreed.

"Understood." Sunset and Flash nodded to them.

They soon heard something in the woods.

"What was that?" Sunset asked out of concern.

They all then screamed once they saw an ax come out and Timber's voice screamed.

"Wait, guys?" Timber then spotted Sci-Twi and Atticus.

"Timber?" Atticus asked, confused.

"Oh, I'm so glad it's just you." Sci-Twi smiled to the boy. "Wait, what're you doing out here?" she then asked suspiciously.

"With an axe?" Sunset added in.

"I was chopping down firewood." Timber replied innocently.

"In the middle of the night?" Flash asked suspiciously.

"We needed more for tonight's campfire." Timber replied. "And if I didn't take care of it tonight, it would be one more thing Gloriosa would add to her list. I've got this!" he then did an impression of his sister.

This made Sci-Twi giggle.

"What about you four?" Timber then asked the group. "What're you doing hanging out in the woods in the middle of the night?"

"Me and Sunset were sleep-walking and where Twilight and Atticus were about to walk us back." Flash lied.

"Mm-hmm..." Sci-Twi and Atticus nodded.

"Come on, guys, I'll walk you back," Timber offered. "I'll protect you from... GAEA EVERFREE... Everfree... Everfree..."

"We already know that's just a story you made up just to scare us." Flash said.

"Oh, no, it's legit," Timber defended. "How else would you explain what happened to the docks? And that weird thing when the earth shook? "Come on, I know a shortcut back to the tents." he then held out his hand for Sci-Twi.

Sci-Twi accepted his hand and walked with him and Atticus back to the campground. However, Sunset and Flash then saw something sparkling from Timber's back pocket.

"Hmm... Legit, huh?" Flash asked.

"I think we just found our Gaea Everfree." Sunset smirked as she knelt down by the trail.

"But why would he work so hard to make us think she was real?" Patch asked.

"Yeah?" Spike added in.

"Don't you remember what he said about selling the camp?" Flash asked.

"If nobody wants to come here because it's home to some angry, nature spirit, it sure would help us cause." Sunset added in.

"You tell Twilight, I'll tell Atticus." Patch told Spike.

"Not yet," Flash stopped them. "They're obviously going through a lot right now."

"We should be 100% sure before we tell them, especially Twilight that the guy she likes is a jerk." Sunset then said.

"Alright." Patch said.

"Uh-huh!" Spike agreed.