I found myself waking up on my own which possibly meant a couple of things.

One: I actually somehow woke up before my alarm did.

Two: I actually slept through my alarm.

Two was usually always a bad and reoccuring thing for me.

In fact, the first thing I did was reach for my phone in a slight panic, but once I saw the time on my screen, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. It was about ten minutes before my alarm would go off. Nevertheless, I could feel the tempting offer of sleeping a little more until my alarm would eventually wake me, but I know from experience that it was usually better to stay awake. After all, ten minutes wouldn't be worth the chance of missing out on a promise I made.

As tired as I was, I went ahead and shut off the alarm so I wouldn't have it annoy me later on. Then, I sat up on my bed and rubbed my eyes lightly. At that moment, a particular person came to mind, causing me to turn my head to my right and find her sleeping peacefully in her bed.

Memories of the events from last night began to hit me, and for a second, I almost wanted to believe that they had never happened. Although, I was feeling a little better, so what I needed was probably sleep. Even so, more sleep would definitely do me good.

I managed to get out of bed and get ready. I remembered that I had originally wanted to see if Faith wanted to come along. However, looking at her resting and undisturbed face, I didn't want to bother her. Besides, I was worried that I'd still feel a little awkward around her, and judging from the fact that there was something she was keeping from me, she might feel the same as well.

It was a short walk over to the Amethyst tent, and I managed to catch Fluttershy slowly glancing around as she stood outside her tent. My eyes still felt annoyingly heavy, but I forced myself to suck it up and walk over to her.

"Hey." I greeted tiredly.

"Oh! H-Hi." She answered a bit shakily.

I don't know how, but I guess I startled her.

"I don't really know what you do on a nature walk, so you take the lead on this one." I suggested. "I'll just be right behind you."

Her nerves seemed to ease a little when she noticed how much my energy levels were lacking. To my unnoticeable surprise, she leaned in forward slightly with a worried look on her face. "Did you get enough sleep last night? You look really tired."

"I'm not really a morning person, to be honest." I admitted.

"Oh. Maybe I shouldn't have asked you to come with me…" She turned her head away in shame.

"Don't worry about it." I assured. "Why don't we get moving? I feel a lot sleepier when I'm not doing anything."

"Oh, okay…" She returned softly and turned in the direction towards a particular path. "Um. If you don't mind, follow me."

Fluttershy led me through a noticeable trail into the woods, its sides topped off by a multitude of trees. It was almost as if she knew the area, but at the same time, it was a little weird walking through when there wasn't anyone else in sight. It may have been due to the fact that it was early morning, or it just wasn't a popular thing to do, to begin with.

The two of us remained quiet for the most part, and I wasn't sure if that was really a good or bad thing. Personally, I didn't speak much because I was too tired to do so. In fact, the most I'd do is take a glance or two at the wilderness around us. However, most of the time, I was witnessing Fluttershy's reaction to the area around her. Based on the delighted yet graceful expression on her face, I believed it was safe to guess that silence between us was completely okay.

At one point, we finally decided to take a break and have a seat on a bench that nearly looked to be a part of a huge tree behind it. Chirping from the residual birds, along with the sound and feel of the soft breeze passing by, made it all the more suitable to fall asleep to. My eyes were just about to seal shut until I heard Fluttershy speak.

"Nature's just wonderful, isn't it?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah." I answered. If there was a bed out here, I wouldn't mind knocking right out.

"Do you do anything like this often, Chase?" She asked me.

"No, not really." I slightly hunched forward and rested my cheek on top of my fist. "Actually, now that I think about it, this might be the first time I've ever done something like this. I'm usually always inside somewhere."

"How do you like your time here so far?"

"It's okay, I guess." I answered briefly.

There was a short pause before she spoke once again. "I'm sorry. I'm not asking too many questions, am I?"

"Huh?" I turned to her and lifted up my head. "Oh. No. If you're worried about me being not talkative, it's just because, well, you know." I didn't really want to remind her about how tired I was, or I was afraid that she'd start feeling guilty about having me up this early.

She managed to nod back. "If I'm bothering you, please let me know. I'm not the best when it comes to…talking to others. In fact, a few years back, I used to be so much shyer. But, with the help of my friends, I'm slowly learning to be better when it comes to socializing. I'll never be as good as Pinkie Pie though. I don't know how she does it." She gave a light shake of her head.

"If you ask me, you're doing pretty great already." I told her, noticing the normal conversation she had been making.

"You really think so?" She inquired.

"You looked a bit nervous before we left, but you seem a lot calmer now. Maybe being out here helped."

"Oh, I see." She turned her eyes to the hands that were at the hem of her skirt. She remained quiet for a moment before she turned and faced me again. "Can I ask you something else?"

"Hm?"

"Um. What do you think about Gaea Everfree? Do you think she's real?" She asked with genuine worry in her eyes.

I almost couldn't believe that that story actually got to some people.

"Total nonsense." I reprised with confidence. "If that's really concerning you, then you have nothing to worry about."

"What makes you think that?" She wondered.

"Faith was kind of worrying about the same thing. I told her that it wouldn't make sense. Why would Timber tell us a story about some horrid magical creature that lives in this very camp? If she was really real, why would he tell everyone camping out here that she's practically on the loose? That's pretty much like saying that people have up and disappeared in this very camp without a trace. It wouldn't look so good on the camp in the end. It's another story with the illusion of being real so it gets a few scares out of people. These kinds of stories probably would have shaken me back a few years ago, but after telling myself how they wouldn't make any sense pretty much made me immune."

"O-Oh…! Is that so…?" Fluttershy returned and slowly lifted her head up towards a few birds standing atop a branch above us. "I see. I suppose that does make me feel a little less scared." Her lips closed for a moment, and the two of us sat in silence for a short moment before her lips opened once again. "There's something else I'm curious about, but I completely understand if you don't feel comfortable about talking about it."

"What's up?" I wondered.

"I guess I just wanted to know a little more about you and Faith…" She tapped her fingers lightly on the bench we sat on. "You two are always together, so I have to ask… Are you just really close friends, or is there something special going on between you two…?"

Here we go…

"We're just close friends, Fluttershy." I managed to confirm calmly, possibly due to the fact that I was too tired to be expressive about it. "If you want to know a fun fact about me, she was practically the only girl I ever talked to up until the Friendship Games. Somehow, I ended up making friends with all of you and then some." I referred, thinking about the few girls from Crystal Prep. "I mean…I already knew Twilight, but before the Games, she and I hardly talked. She was always too focused on her research and stuff."

"Oh, right. I remember." Fluttershy positioned her hands between her legs as she looked at me. "That was one of the reasons why she transferred to Canterlot High. She was interested in learning about the kind of friendship we had. Was that also why you transferred too?"

I shook my head. "Nah. I just needed to get out of Crystal Prep. I didn't really feel happy there. Faith was actually the only person who made going there tolerable."

"I see…" Fluttershy remained silent for a moment before she brought up a surprising proposal. "Well, if it's okay with you, I look forward to being good friends with you and Faith. I don't think there's really much I can do, but if you ever need help with something like animals, I'll be glad to do whatever I can. After all, I feel like I need to thank you for coming with me on this nature walk so early in the morning. I can tell that you woke up when you really didn't want to."

"I'm not one to break my promises…" I told her. "Anyways, you don't have to do anything in return. I didn't come here expecting that."

She shook her head. "We're friends now, and that's what friends do, right?" For the first time during this early morning, she smiled brightly as if any anxiety she previously felt melted away by the lifting sun's rays. She extended a hand out towards me and had me staring blankly at it for a few seconds. "It's a pleasure to truly officially meet you, Star Chaser!"

I didn't fully understand what she meant by that. I thought back to when we had first "formally" met and remembered that there actually wasn't much to remember about her in the first place. At the time, she was so withdrawn that she wasn't even able to introduce herself. I could only assume that now since she was more in her "zone", she felt a lot more comfortable when it came to things like this.

"Yeah… You too, Fluttershy." I accepted her hand and shook it.

Despite her enthusiasm, it wasn't a surprise when her handshake wasn't a firm one. It was gentle, almost as if she didn't want to break any part of my hand.

She resumed smiling once we pulled our hands apart.

"Now, then. Would you like to return to camp? You look like you could use a nap." She offered.

"More like an eight-hour nap…" I mentioned tiredly.

She returned a soft giggle and began leading me on the path towards camp.


By the time we returned to the tents, we surprisingly came across Rainbow Dash and Applejack, and this sparked conversation between the four of us.

"Applejack? Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy questioned them as her eyes widened a bit at the sight of them.

"Mornin'!" Applejack greeted and then noticed me standing nearby. "Wasn't expectin' to see you two together."

"We just came back from a really relaxing nature walk." Fluttershy mentioned. "I didn't know you two were going to be up this early. You could have gone with us."

"We were actually just gonna get an early start on fixing the docks. It's gotta be done some time, you know?"

"I'm hoping we can get it finished today." Rainbow Dash emphasized. "Do you know how many camp activities we've been missing out because we don't have a dock?! It's already been three days! We don't have all break. We're only here for a week!"

"Speaking of fixing the dock. You two wanna give us a hand?" Applejack asked.

"Sure!" Fluttershy clasped her hands together and replied cheerfully.

I had only been listening to the words that came out of their months that I didn't realize they had been looking at me for an answer. I knew that they had asked about the dock, but for some reason, I felt like I could slip out of working and go back to sleep without saying a word.

"I…uh…actually was planning on going back to sleep." I answered.

"Sleep?!" Rainbow seemed to find my answer deeply offensive. "You're only here for a week! You can't just sleep through it all!"

"Chill out. I'll wake back up at noon or something." I calmly responded.

"He's already helped us do so much. He deserves a break, don't you think?" Fluttershy surprisingly came to my defense.

"But…" Rainbow crossed her arms, coming up short with something to argue back.

"Look, if you're still working on the dock by the time I wake back up, I'll come help, alright? But, unless you want me getting in the way and being slow because I'm running on fumes, I'm heading back to my tent."

I finally turned around, unwilling to negotiate the matter any further. I began stepping towards the Opal tent, but it honestly felt more like I was dragging my feet across the dirt. At this point, I didn't care what I did. I just wanted to climb into my bed and knock right out.

I slipped my fingers between the closed flaps of the tent and pulled one side open. I lazily ducked and poked my head inside, coming across a figure that had been standing completely still. My eyes lifted upwards to find a girl staring back at me like a deer in the headlights. We remained staring at each other for what felt like a long while before she finally belted out a stammering command.

"C-C-Close the tent flaps, d-dummy!"

Having no words to spare, I silently pulled my head back out from inside the tent and did just as she told. For good measure, I even did her the favor of pulling the zipper all the way down until it was touching the ground.

Afterwards, as if my brain had just been flashed by some kind of an extremely bright light, I almost blankly and cluelessly began walking back to where I had last been with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

"Huh? What are you doing back?" Rainbow Dash questioned a bit bitterly. "I thought you were going to bed."

"I can't." I vaguely responded.

"What?" She inquired with her eyebrow cocking from confusion.

"I can't go to bed." I answered more clearly while still being heavily vague.

None of them had no clue to what I had just witnessed, so the three of them just looked at each other oddly.

"Ohhkay…" Rainbow decided to leave the topic alone. "So, I guess that means you'll be helping us then?"

I remained utterly silent, feeling no urge to say any more.

"Great!" Rainbow took my silence for a yes. "Come on! We have to go get the wood and tools!"

She went ahead and took off, but the other two girls decided to hang back a bit and keep their eyes on me for a moment.

"Are you doin' alright there, partner?" Applejack slowly began reaching out a hand towards me in worry.

It felt like I had been zoning out as I caught myself staring endlessly in the direction Rainbow Dash had left. My eyes still felt heavy, but at the same time, I felt wide awake. "Yeah. I'm fine." I answered briefly and began walking ahead to help Rainbow Dash with whatever she needed my help with.


I couldn't really think completely straight when it came to helping with the docks. I'd sometimes find myself walking aimlessly for a short while when carrying back supplies like planks of woods. To put it simply, it sort of felt like I was a robot. However, if there was a good thing that came out of what I saw, at least it distracted me from being tired.

I placed planks of wood at the end of the dock near the new frame we managed to replace. I went ahead and got started on nailing wood over this new frame while Applejack replaced the broken pieces over at the center of the dock. As for the other girls, Fluttershy was tying a rope around the perimeter to serve as the railing. Rainbow Dash went ahead and brought us supplies while we worked, and she did it rather quickly.

I began reaching into the box of nails I had but found there was nothing to grab inside. I turned my head toward this seemingly empty box to make sure that this was the case and not just a few loose nails hiding somewhere. It turned out that my supply had run dry, and this caused me to call out to Rainbow Dash for some more nails.

"Rainbow. Can you bring me some more nails?" I asked.

"Sure thing!" She replied.

As she jogged on ahead to work on my request, I decided to adjust the next few planks I would be nailing while I waited. When I heard the sound of her feet return to the solid flooring of the dock, I turned back around.

"Nails coming right up!" She announced. She made a small increase in the pace her feet were going, but all of a sudden, she was passing me before I even knew it. "Whoa!" She came to a screeching stop, but the momentum from her previous miraculous burst of speed caused her to slightly lunge forward a moment longer. The tip of her shoes made contact with the piles of planks I had set next to me. No rope had been tied around the area I had been working in, so she was practically diving headfirst into the water.

I grabbed for the first thing I could see and forcibly pulled her back with her wrist. She fell back and seemed to gasp for any air that she had lost in the moment. At the same time, she continued to stare out with fully widened eyes as if she had nearly lost her life.

"What was that?" I asked, never having witnessed anything like that before. In fact, it reminded me of a particular something from the other day.

"I-It's my super speed! B-but why did it…?" She explained vaguely.

"Super speed?" I questioned confusingly.

"Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?" Fluttershy quickly asked as she worriedly hurried up to us.

"I-I'm fine!" She responded with a noticeable sound of frustration building up in her voice. "I wasn't even running that fast!"

"Careful, Rainbow." Applejack approached us last. "You nearly ran off the dock!"

"It's not my fault!" She returned back. "Same goes for you. You might want to keep an eye on your magic. You make just break this entire dock in half if you don't."

Applejack's eyes shot open, and then she brought up her hands to her face to silently observe them.

"Magic? What are you talking about? What's going on?" I asked, feeling clearly out of the loop.

"You were there, weren't you?" Applejack told me. "When we were rock climbin'. Remember how I pulled Rarity all the way up, and how she pushed me into the water with some weird diamond thing? Every one of us has been getting' some kind of 'new magic', and it turns out that each of us has somethin' besides Sunset Shimmer and Twilight. You just had a glimpse of it for yourself; Rainbow can move ridiculously fast, Fluttershy can talk to animals, and Pinkie can explode things."

It took me a moment to process what she had been telling me, but it didn't take as long as it normally would since I had witnessed them do all sorts of crazy things back at the Friendship Games. "Wait, really? Does this have something to do with what happened at the Friendship Games?"

"I-I guess?" Applejack shrugged cluelessly. "But none of us knows what's causing it. All we know is that bein' in camp is givin' us these 'powers' for some reason."

"Ugh." Rainbow Dash rubbed her bottom as she stood back up. "I would totally by hyped up about it if I could control it whenever I want, but things are gonna turn out to be a problem fast if that keeps happening."

"…maybe just stick to walking for now." I advised.

There was personally no real point in me questioning it or trying to get to the root of it. All I could really do was just hope that nothing bad came out of it and just let things happen.

Afterwards, we continued working for a while longer. Every now and then, I'd turn and find Rainbow Dash taking my advice. She no longer ran or even jogged. In fact, at times, I'd see her slowly tiptoeing her way around the area. Because of this, I decided to go and get my own supplies when I needed them.

Besides the incident with Rainbow Dash, I hadn't really taken a break from work, so I stopped by the restrooms for a bit, along with the cafeteria to get a drink of water. As I made my way back with three unopened bottles of water, I noticed a couple of familiar friends speaking with one another. I stopped and had a glance to find Faith and Flash having what appeared to be an enjoyable conversation with each other. I could only assume that it was the 'catching up' that Flash had mentioned earlier before. I felt an unusual need to sigh and turned my head away as I set my sights back to working on the dumb dock.

I returned back and was surprised to see two new characters lending a hand to us. At least one of them was. Pinkie Pie was tying rope at the end of the dock where I had been working on. I assumed that she heard about what happened, so she was eagerly attempting a fix to prevent such a close call from happening again. On the other hand, Rarity had set up a foldable chair on the safe part of the platform. However, she was sewing some kind of fabric instead of doing something with the dock itself.

"Here." I offered the water I had to Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Each of them thanked me as I turned to face the newcomers. "Sorry. I didn't know you two were here." I apologized.

"No need to apologize, darling." Rarity answered as she continued to keep her focus on the fabric.

"If I'm thirsty, there's a whole bunch of water right here!" Pinkie gestured towards the lake of water we had been building over.

"Uh-huh…" I returned, taking into consideration how Pinkie's 'magic' would directly affect our project. I didn't know how it worked, but as long as she was just tying the rope, maybe it would turn out okay and not explode?

Before I could ask for details about her "exploding powers", I felt a soft finger tap my shoulder. I turned around to see who it was and nearly jumped when it was Faith standing behind me. She had been holding her arms behind her back, and she obviously looked away in embarrassment, due to the heat lingering on her cheeks. It was a no-brainer that was happened earlier this morning was still in her mind.

"Hey…" She said.

"Hey…" I answered in a similar fashion, not entirely sure what had been on her mind. I couldn't tell if there was something that she wanted to tell me. Nothing had come out of her mouth for a moment I couldn't last handling with silence, so I finally spoke up. "Sorry about earlier, I didn't know that you were—"

She swiftly shook her head with closed eyes. "D-Don't bring it up… Anyways, um, I was wondering if you, mm, well if you aren't too busy with the dock, do you…maybe want to do something together?"

"What do you mean?" I asked since I only had a basic grasp of her request.

"Like, do you want to do something else together? Something in the camp that we haven't done yet? I'll let you choose since you let me rock climb last time."

Oh. So, she wanted to do some other kind of activity offered here at camp. I had been working with the others on the dock for a good while, so I believed I did deserve some kind of break. Then again, we're all supposed to be on break in the first place.

"Hey, will you guys be good if I take off?" I asked.

Applejack leaned back and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Not much work to do left. We'll be fine. Thanks a lot for your help today."

"Oh, about Pinkie…" I mentioned. "She won't…blow up the dock, will she?" I nearly whispered.

Applejack shook her head. "As long as she doesn't throw anything, I think we should be fine."

I nodded my head and turned over to Rainbow. "Try not to fall off into the water anymore, alright?"

"Oh, come on!" She groaned, appearing clearly upset that I had brought it up in the first place.

Finally, I turned over to Faith. "Let's go. Maybe we can try out some archery or something."

She returned a small nod and proceeded to follow me as I left the lakeside area.


Faith and I had previous experience with archery from Crystal Prep, but we weren't exactly masters at the practice. For us, it was more of a game of luck when it came to whether we hit the bullseye or not. With our bows and satchel of practice arrows, we warmed up a bit in silence. I wasn't expecting that we'd be talking the whole time we were trying to shoot arrows, but it still felt a little off. It wasn't until we began walking towards our targets to retrieve our arrows when Faith spoke up.

"Hey, um…"

I pulled out the few arrows that had landed on the outer white ring. "Hm?"

"Um." She repeated. There was definitely something on her mind that she was having trouble getting out. Unless it was something incredibly embarrassing, like earlier today, it most likely had to be about that "thing" she couldn't tell me about.

I didn't want to pressure her into telling me, so I decided to act somewhat casual about it as I pulled the arrows from the black ring next. "What?"

She sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

"Embrace it. Don't hold back. Just let it out." I managed to hear her mutter to herself.

"Huh?" I raised my eyebrow in response, pulling the last few of my practice shots out of my target.

"N-Nothing! It's n-nothing." She flung her hands side-to-side between us as she anxiously shook her head.

I could hear myself automatically groan softly in disappointment. Either way, I began making my way back to where we had left our bows. However, she suddenly called back out, stopping me in my tracks.

"Actually, it's not nothing."

"What's going on, Faith?" I asked, turning back to her. I couldn't help but feel like that came off a little too strongly, almost as if it was enough to reveal the fact that I had some idea of what she was hiding from me.

"There's…something I need to tell you." She turned her head away as she held her left arm with her right hand.

A subtle yet deep breath escaped through my nose as I closed my eyes. I figured if she was going to be willing to tell me the honest situation, I should reveal the fact that I had overheard her last night and what went through my head at that point. It was only fair after all. I didn't think either of us ever really wanted to keep secrets from each other.

"There's something I want to tell you too."

"T-There is?!" She shot a look of surprise at me, but then she lowered her gaze towards the floor. "…I…I should probably go first." She softly rubbed her arm before her lips parted from each other. "Um. So… Uh…I…I like…"

"Flash?" I somewhat unintentionally answered for her. I wanted to hold my breath out of instinct for my slipup, but I decided to play it off as a simple guess.

"H-H-H-Huh?!" She stuttered out in response. "W-W-W-Wha-huh?!"

"It makes sense." I felt the need to justify my unexpected answer. "After all, you did like him before you moved to Crystal Prep. Now that everything that happened between you two is in the past, I guess it's not really a surprise that you'd start seeing him the same way again."

Faith stared at me with an extremely dumbfounded look on her face. It was like she couldn't believe that I had gotten it right out of the blue like that. "H-H-Huh?!" She repeated. "W-W-W-What are you saying?!"

"Look, you do what you want to do." I advised. "Don't let me stop you from it…" I finished as I crossed my arms and slightly turned my head away with a bit of a sour attitude.

"Chase, you've got it all wrong!" She exclaimed as she stomped her foot on the ground. "I—"

As if it was a direct result of her action, the ground beneath us shook a bit violently for an extremely short moment, just like yesterday with the rock climbing.

"What the…?" I pondered, finding this earthquake-like movement of the ground to be both noticeably unusual and annoying. It was something I was able to ignore the first time, but now that it happened a second time, I really wanted to know the cause behind it.

"Ah!" Faith cried out as something colorful whizzed right between us. Our eyes locked onto this wispy aura as it fled into the trees surrounding the camp. At that moment, I figured that whatever we saw had to do something with the shaking of the ground. Could it be that magic that the girls were talking about?

"I'm sick of this. I'm going to go see what's up." I settled as I dropped the arrows and began heading in the direction that the aura left.

"W-Wait!" Faith called out as she jogged right behind me.

My footsteps felt like they had a lot more "umph" behind them, so I suppose they could be called stomps. In the meantime, there hadn't been a laid-out path like the one I took with Fluttershy, so I had to dodge and push aside tree branches every now and then.

I could see the dirt path in front of me, and I just about stepped out onto until I felt my hand being latched onto and pulled back.

"C-Chase…!" Her voice nearly sounded as if she was pleading for my attention.

"Hang on. I want to know what that thing that passed us right now was." I told her, but during that moment, I could honestly feel myself coming up with any excuse I could find. I didn't know why I was feeling so anxious to hear her talk. Maybe I really was curious about the odd things that had been going on around camp, but whatever the case was, I just needed to do something.

I pulled my hand away from her and reached out towards the dirt path before I felt something abruptly bump into me from the side.

"Ooh!" A feminine voice cried out. As soon as I was able to get a good look at whom I had crossed paths with, I was surprised to find that it was Twilight. "C-Chase? What are you doing coming out from the woods like that?" She asked me as soon as she looked up and realized who I had been.

"Trying to hunt down something." I answered. "You didn't see some kind of magical wisp run by, did you?"

"No." She responded, adjusting the glasses on her face a bit. "Sunset Shimmer texted me to come to the rock quarry."

"But we aren't supposed to go that far…" Faith finally said, popping in from behind me.

Her appearance startled Twilight a bit, but it seemed she didn't feel the need to question it, seeing as Faith was always usually with me.

"That's what I said." Spike mentioned by Twilight's feet.

"I think that's where that wisp went to." I thought out loud. "Maybe Sunset knows something about what's going on."

"We better hurry." Twilight sincerely suggested. "She might need our help."

I simply nodded and accompanied Twilight on the path she had been taking.

We jogged for a short while before a noticeable pinkish kind of glow materialized from beyond the trees nearby. It definitely had to be the place where that thing Faith and I saw ran off to.

"What is that?" Twilight questioned before a fear-inducing shriek escaped from her lips. She had suddenly begun picking at her face, removing pieces of thin white lines, most likely a cobweb. However, another hand reached out to her mouth and shushed her.

"Shhh!" It was Sunset Shimmer. It was only a matter of seconds before she caught Faith and I following behind. "What are you two doing out here?"

"We saw something weird head in this direction." I repeated the answer that I had given to Twilight. "I figured it had to be some kind of magic, based on what we had seen at the Friendship Games. We saw it right after the ground shook, and I wanted to get to the bottom of the strange things going on in camp."

"I didn't want to get anyone else involved…but since you're already here, you should probably have a look at this." She turned around and proceeded to gesture us to follow her with her hand. "Come on."

She led us to what appeared to be some kind of cave that was guarded by a few huge boulders. I figured the cave was normally dark, but there was an immensely bright glow that continuously lit up the area somewhere deep inside of it, making it visible from the outside.

"What's going on down there?" Twilight inquired.

"I think it's Gaea Everfree, or rather, someone who wants us to think she's back. C'mon!" Sunset began escorting Twilight out into the cave, but Faith's voice kept me from being right behind them.

"Hold on. Does that mean you were right about the things happening in camp being some kind of prank?" She questioned.

I believed it was something like that, but I was still clueless about the entirety of the situation. "I'm not really sure. There's no way no normal person could pull off what's been going on in the camp. Stuff like the ground shaking and boat crashing into the dock. Either they've got some kind of powerful machines or crazy magic. And after everything we've seen, I think it's more believable to say that it's someone with actual magic."

"I don't know about this, Chase…" Faith worried. "Should we really be investigating this?"

"I get how you feel, but I don't think we can't just ignore this. Remember everything unusual that happened at camp? People could have been seriously hurt, and whoever that's doing this thinks it's some kind of joke. We need to at least find out who it is. Then, we can at least think of something to do about it."

"I guess you're right." Faith replied after spending several seconds in silent thought. "I'm coming with you then."

"Don't forget to be careful." I warned, knowing that she was going to stick to me whether I liked it or not.

Arriving inside of the cave, we were surprised to find an honestly breathtaking sight. It wasn't any kind of old, dusty, and scary-looking cave. It instead was one that hid reflective beauty. Among its walls, we could see a bunch of crystals lodged in by smothered mountains of stone. There was a pillar of light shining down at the center of the cave, providing a noticeable contrast to its dark interior. The sight actually almost caused me to forget about the reason we were here to begin with, and I almost spent my entire time observing the artistic nature of this extremely rare sight until Faith and I caught up with Sunset and Twilight just in time to hear something interesting.

"There's Equestrian magic here. I can... I can feel it." Sunset said.

"Wait. I thought Timber was just faking there was a magical nature creature. Are you saying it's real?" Spike returned, causing my eyebrows to both raise up and furrow close to each other.

"Timber? What does he have to do with any of this?" Twilight practically voiced my thoughts as well.

Just before I could come up with some kind of theory with this newly acquired information, we heard another eerie and empty voice echo inside the cave with us. "Nothing. It's all me."

A figure walked out from underneath the shadows and revealed herself in the light. The person that had supposedly been behind everything was the very last person I expected. It was the one person who had been working so immeasurably hard to make this week the "best week ever", so why was she actually making it one of the most dangerous weeks of all time for us in the end? She was so concerned about the students who nearly hurt themselves because of everything that happened. This doesn't make any sense!

"Gloriosa?" Sunset recognized. "But... Timber. I was sure he was the one trying to make it seem like Gaea Everfree was back. It was you who was trying to scare everyone away?"

"I would never try to scare anyone away from Camp Everfree." Gloriosa vaguely answered as she proceeded to walk past us towards the rocks that had been under the pillar of light. She sounded so out of tune and out of character. It definitely wasn't like her. At least, it definitely wasn't the same Gloriosa we knew back at camp. Did she finally crack under the pressure of trying to make every camper happy? Or, is it possible that she became corrupted by the magic just like Twilight had been?

I was just about to demand some kind of better reasoning from her, but Sunset unexpectedly reached out and grabbed at her arm. Her eyes became filled by a colorless light for a moment until Gloriosa forcefully tore her wrist away.

"Timber wasn't talking about letting go of the camp." She oddly began explaining as if she knew exactly what she had been talking about. "He was talking about you letting go of the magical geodes! All those things you were doing to make this week the best week ever. Every time you used magic to do them, you caused another problem somewhere else! Timber was... covering for you!"

"How do you know what I was doing with the geodes? How do you know about the magic?" Gloriosa narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Sunset, confirming that everything she had said was true.

"I can see things." Sunset returned. "Feel things. Because I have magic, too. And so does she. And so do our friends."

Huh? You guys all have magic? Just like…?

"Gloriosa, Timber wasn't wrong." Twilight stepped up and spoke. "Maybe you should stop using magic. Too much of it can be dangerous if you can't control it."

"Oh, I got this. And I'm going to use it to save my camp. I just need more power!" She reached out towards the last differentiating shards that had been resting on the pillar of stone within the light.

"No!" Sunset and Twilight cried out, but it was to no avail.

Gloriosa had already touched them, and before we knew it, it was a repeat of the Friendship Games all over again. She hovered a hand over to us, and in the span of a few mere seconds, my body felt constricted by something extremely tight. I took a look and found that various vines had wrapped around me like a rope. In fact, all of us had been, and as everyone tried to escape, our former camp guide had been in the process of transforming into a monster. She was no longer recognizable.

In a sense, Timber wasn't wrong. Gaea Everfree was real. Just not in the way he imagined. Gaea Everfree was his own sister.

"Sorry, y'all. I know what I need to do. But I feel like we're not on the same page. So..."

She levitated out of the cave as the others called out to her.

"Gloriosa!" Their plead was soon met with a cold response. Any light from the entrance was soon blocked off from what I could assume were a couple of those huge boulders we had seen outside, trapping us inside. "No!"

"Quick! We have to get out of here!" Sunset exclaimed in distress as she desperately tried to wiggle her way out of her bonds.

"I can't move any part of my body!" Twilight anxiously returned.

"U-Ugh!" I turned over to Faith to find her softly crying out in pain. In fact, if I wasn't mistaken, tears were beginning to stream down her face. I couldn't tell if it was due to the predicament we had been in, or if she had been suffering a great deal of pain because of the way the vines had been wrapped around her. "T…This hurts…!"

If there was one thing I couldn't stand, it was the sight of her crying. There was nothing Faith ever did to deserve something like this. Watching such an innocent girl being brought to tears honestly infuriated me. I was feeling deep-seated anger instead of fear.

I managed to slowly, and a bit forcefully, run my hands down my sides and into my pockets. I wiggled my hands inside them in hopes to find something to get us out, preferably a pocket knife or something sharp. However, I felt no such thing, and it was dumb for me to think so since I never bothered to bring anything of the like with me.

Instead, I managed to come across a couple of familiar smooth objects. At that point, I remembered what they were. They were the stones I had found in the lake. I had completely forgotten about them, and I had left them in my pockets every since I had found them.

There was no point. They weren't going to free us from this trap.

As I listened to the others' worries, I became angrier with myself. Actually, I began resenting myself for not being able to do anything more. For a moment there, I began convincing myself that this was the very reason why it felt like I was losing everyone that was once important to me. Twilight had found someone she enjoyed talking to more, and Faith was on her way to growing close to someone she knew before me. It was only a matter of time before everyone else I knew would soon forget about me as well, and I would only be a faint figment in everyone's memory.

I couldn't stand that, but there was nothing I could do. I was just an ordinary high-schooler. One that's repressed all the downs in his life. One that'll become terribly afraid of the soon-to-come future. There'll be nothing he can do but just hide his pain from everyone else.

I began gripping the stones tightly inside my pocket. I felt myself losing my usual adapted calm and collected composure. I could feel water leaking beneath my tightly shut eyes. I wanted to stop hearing the cries from the girls, but they were the only sounds I could hear. A silent voice rung in my head, begging for all of this to just be a stupid nightmare from the dumb campfire story Timber told, but that was only me denying the truth that was right in front of me.

Suddenly, I felt the vines holding me loosening up. I quickly opened my eyes and found that their appearance significantly changed. They appeared to be drying up quickly, and they were turning extremely brittle and fragile. I jerked my arms and legs and found that they had broken through. I had no clue about what had just happened, but I had no time to think about it. Now that I was free, I could finally do something that mattered.

"Chase?! How'd you get out?!" I heard Sunset question.

"Over here!" Spike faced me and called. "Help me get out and I can try ripping the roots out!" Spike was small, so the vines holding him would most likely be the weakest and easiest to remove. I raced over to him and kneeled down. With all of my strength, I instead pulled over and under the vines on him until he was able to move just enough to escape. "Thanks!" He turned towards Sunset and Twilight. "I'll get started on helping them out! Go get Faith!"

Sparing no question towards following advice from a dog, I sprinted over to Faith and found her looking at me with a quite astonished look on her face. I couldn't understand why, seeing as I honestly hadn't done much. Nevertheless, I began getting to work on trying to remove the roots keeping her hostage. I still wished that I had some kind of blade at the time, but all I had were my fingers. Removing the roots from Faith was a lot tougher than with Spike, but there was no chance that I would be giving up on helping her out. Especially not after this saving grace that I had just been given.

I managed to find a jagged rock around that worked well enough as a dull saw. Nevertheless, it was much easier than using my bare fingers. By the time I finally removed any trace of her bonds, Spike managed to help the other two with his own teeth.

"Chase…" Faith softly called out my name as I felt her body fall on me.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

She nodded. "T-Thanks…"

Sunset jogged past me and began trying to push the boulder blocking our path, but it expectedly wouldn't budge. We would need someone like Applejack. Nonetheless, she continued pushing through heavy grunts. "This isn't working! Twilight, you have to use your magic!"

"I don't think I can lift something that big." Twilight turned her head away shamefully.

"It's our only chance of getting out of here and helping our friends!" She reasoned.

"Twilight. If you've got magic that can help us out of here, then please help us!" Faith tearfully begged. "We can't let something like that be out there!"

Twilight turned towards Spike, who returned a reassuring nod in her arms. She sighed lightly and placed him down before she stepped towards the massive rocks. She held out her hands and closed her eyes as a magical glow emitted from those same hands. To our front, the boulder was slowly being pushed back, ripping through any roots that had been holding it in place. It was only a matter of time before we were able to clearly see the sunlight once again.

When she was finished, Twilight looked as if she was on the verge of falling back from exhaustion, but Sunset quickly helped her keep steady. She returned an approving nod towards her before she turned to us. "Come on!" She guided us out the cave.


"W-What is that?!" Faith noticed the huge wall of roots directly in front of us past several rows of trees.

"It's Gloriosa!" Sunset answered. "I can't imagine what she's done to the camp. We have to stop her!"

All of us headed towards the base of the roots as soon as possible, but they appeared much bigger and stronger to be pulled and torn off like the ones keeping us trapped inside the cave. Sunset grunted loudly as she desperately tried to rip a piece off.

"Maybe we should go get help?" Faith suggested.

Sunset shook her head. "Even if we could find a bunch of people with chainsaws that are willing to believe that a camp is being overrun by a magical monster, we don't have the time!" She once again turned to Twilight. "We can stop her. I know we can! Twilight, do you think you can use your magic?"

"I don't want to use too much." Twilight anxiously answered. "Midnight Sparkle could take over."

Midnight Sparkle? Was she referring to that demon she had turned into at the Friendship Games?

"Twilight, our friends are in there!" Sunset pleaded, desperately grabbing a hold of her hands.

For some reason, Sunset had transformed, her ears shifting differently and her hair growing as long as a tail.

Twilight looked heavily reluctant, but she finally gave in nonetheless.

"Okay."

She stepped towards the unbreakable wall and once again began to hold out her hands. She slowly began to split the roots far enough from each other in order to make a path for us to walk through. Sunset was the first to head inside, and I immediately grabbed a hold of Faith's hand, knowing that Twilight could hold it open for only so long.

Normally, I wouldn't drag her into something dangerous like this, but learning from experience, she'd only worry about me from outside.

"Please, Gloriosa! What you're doing is crazy! You have to listen to me!" We heard Timber's voice from inside.

"That isn't Gloriosa." Sunset pointed out.

As soon as Twilight had ceased the use of her magic, the path she had opened immediately closed through newly formed roots.

"Twilight!"

"Sunset!"

"You're okay!"

We heard familiar voices from nearby.

"That isn't your sister." Sunset told Timber, who had been trapped by roots as large as trunks of a tree. "It's someone who's been consumed by Equestrian magic."

"Whoever you are, you have to let my sister go! Please, Gloriosa, come back!" Timber tried to convince the creature that was continuously covering and locking any part of the camp with her power. However, his words didn't seem to have any effect. "I need you! Gloriosa!"

He had been quickly submerged in a tree of roots, silencing him as he reached out. I quickly looked around in a panic to help and found an axe lying on the ground. We were going to need much more than a simply ordinary axe to bring things back to normal, but if I could at least be the stepping stone in getting to that goal, it was good enough for me.

Just as I was about to reach out for the axe, I was forced to immediately pull my hand back when what appeared to be lighting shot out from the completely covered sky and struck the ground right in front of me. Then, more roots began growing out of the ground and entangled everything in its sight, including the axe.

"Aah!" I heard a cry behind me.

I quickly turned to find that Faith had been on the ground with one of the roots snatching her at her ankle.

"Faith!" I called and raced over to her.

She held out her hand towards me, but before I could even get close, I met the same kind of fate just as she did. I fell over, having one of the roots wrap itself around my leg. I tried to somehow tear it off by constantly kicking my leg, but it was no use. If I did anything, I was only delaying the inevitable.

"Chase!" Faith worriedly cried out to me, her eyes filling with tears again. "I…!"

"I'll get you out! Just hold on!" I promised as I desperately searched for a way to escape.

"I…! I'm really… I'm really in l—!"

Her voice had been cut off, causing me to quickly look back. She had been submerged in her own pool of roots, causing me to widen my eyes in great panic.

"Faith!" I nearly shouted out at the top of my lungs. "No!"

As if it would make any difference, I reached out my hand as far as I could, but it was only a matter of time before my own vision became obscured by the plants holding me hostage.

In the end…I couldn't do anything.

I was weak.

Just like I was afraid of.

I let…everyone down.

I'm sorry…

…Faith.

Are you really giving up that easily?

Huh?

A faint voice was clearly echoing in my head.

Here you are, trapped in the shadows. Yet, shouldn't it be the other way around? Get up. The shadows don't rule over you. You do. You're not going to let them take those that you love, are you?

What are…?

Soon enough, the darkness had subsided. The roots that had covered me dried up and broke apart, just as they had done back in the cave.

What's going…?

Stand up! It's time to unleash your power!

I felt heat radiate from the inside of my pockets. Instinctively, I reached and grabbed the object that served as the source of this heat. It was the black stone that I had picked up, and an immense glow emitted from its core.

"Huh?!" I cried out to myself. Unexpectedly, I felt a migraine pierce through my skull and into my head. It was as if all the stress I had been enduring due to the current circumstance had built up all together and unfolded a thousand times worse. I couldn't keep myself up. My knees feel to the ground as I grasped my head in pain. "Aghh!" I cried out as I tried to endure it.

You have no connection to Equestrian magic. Are you really responsible to bear the power of shadows? Prove it to me. Prove that you have no intention of giving up and that you're capable of protecting those important to you!

Despite the everlasting pain, I wanted nothing more than to the rescue girl in front of me. The girl that was the most important thing in my life I could think of at this exact moment.

"If you can give me the power to save her and everyone else…" I managed to say as I slowly stood up while clenching my fingers against my head. "Then, let me have it!" At that moment, a name rung out inside my head. "I need your help!" I shouted out. "Alexander!"

Shadows enveloped all around me, and it was only a matter of time before the pain finally subsided. Light eventually pierced through the wall of shadows, and I was able to see again. However, I noticed that my peripheral vision was still a bit clouded. Something had formed on my face.

I lifted my hands and touched the object around my eyes. I couldn't see what exactly it had been, but seeing as I was able to look through, I could only sum up that it was some kind of mask. Despite this, having my hands in front of me, I noticed I had also been wearing some kind of gloves. In fact, based on a short glance at myself, my entire attire had changed, but it was only a matter of time before the voice I heard shouted out at me.

Did I choose an idiot? Go and put an end to this madness!

Some kind of strands of shadow emitted from my right hand. Remembering what had happened in the cave, along with how Twilight had pushed away the blockage on our path over here gave me a general idea of what to do.

I immediately faced in the direction that Faith had been trapped and violently raised my hand towards the roots keeping her captive. Like magic, these kinds of see-through strings shot out from the palm of my hand. They surrounded the aggressive plant-life and caused them to dry out and break apart in an instant.

It was like I stripped away any part of light nurturing them and advanced their decay from several days to a matter of seconds…

As soon as they had been breaking on their own, I raced over and physically removed any piece that possessed enough strength to remain weakly firm. I dug for a short moment before I was able to see her again. She had been curled up in tears, and I couldn't imagine how it must have felt being utterly helpless.

"Faith!" I held out my hand towards us.

With a sharp gasp, she raised up her head and stared at me dumbfounded.

"…C-Chase…? Is that…?"

The enemy draws near. Show them that you're not to be trifled with!

I retracted my hand and turned around. I noticed a couple of vines slowly creeping towards us.

"Don't worry." I promised. "I'm not going to let anything hurt you!"

The vines raised up like bears intending to convince themselves as fearsome foes.

You have the power to wipe them out. Use it!

I repeated the same movement as I had done just a short moment ago, allowing one of the vines to fall apart in mere seconds. However, the other remained free, and it was able to strike and land a hit at me.

Use the shadows to quickly slice it into pieces. Go!

"Hah!" As if I had known exactly what I had been doing, I swung my hand forcefully to the side. A ghostly darkened streak ran across the vine and disappeared as quickly as it appeared, resembling the motion blur of a long blade.

Its body hung over and dropped to the floor. In fact, if I wasn't mistaken, it appeared to continue to slowly disintegrate even after.

This power is now yours to wield. Use it as you wish to protect those you rightfully hold dear!

Finding no new threats during the heated moment, I turned back around and found Faith remaining on the floor. There was still much more to do with the continuing chaos all around me, but my first priority at the time was getting her to somewhere safe.

I knelt down and gently grabbed her arms. "Come on. I'm getting you out of here one way or another."

"Uh—" She was utterly speechless.

I was afraid that I'd have to straight up carry her out of there, but all of a sudden, a bright light filled the entire hole the camp had been trapped in, and a loud explosion ensued shortly. When the unexpected light faded away, I was met with a thousand miniature green orbs falling from the sky like snow.

For some reason, I lifted up my hand as if to catch one of them, by they simply faded away. However, in doing so, I realized my hands were now completely gloveless. I lowered my eyes and found that my clothes had returned back to normal.

"You…" I heard a soft whisper.

"Hm?" I turned to the direction of the voice.

Her eyes had both been slightly trembling and tearing up, but she didn't say anything anymore. She only dove towards me and squeezed me tight as her head pressed against my chest.

A loud and collective round of applause sounded out, along with temporarily endless cheer. Of course, it obviously wasn't for me or anything. It was for a certain group that stood all together at the center of the former battlefield.

It was Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, and, well, all of the other girls that were the best of friends. The same group that slammed the last nail in the coffin back at the Friendship Games. Nevertheless, unlike everyone else, I didn't pay them any mind.

"Faith, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Tell me. I need to know." I yearned.

I could feel her head rub side-to-side against my shirt.

"Everything's okay now." I assured her. "They've wrapped it all up just like last time."

She slowly pulled away her head and fixated her gaze on me. I gently grabbed her hand and carefully helped her up. Once she was back up on her feet, she quietly wiped any remaining tears from her eyes and sniffed a few times before it seemed she was able to remain calm for the most part.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like the girls' magic could magically vacuum and clean up the entirety of the place in an instant, so everyone pulled together instead and helped pick up pieces of various torn branches and plants.


After making sure Faith had been completely fine, she accompanied me outside to help with the mess. She was still heavily quiet, but I didn't expect her to recover her cheerful and bright personality after what had just happened. Even I had a tough time accepting it, and it was all still a blur for the most part. All we could really do at the moment was just move on.

I decided Faith and I could take a break, seeing as she was doing more than enough helping us when I honestly believed she should have been resting. As she silently sat on a patch of grass, seeing as a lot of things had been destroyed, including the benches, I brought us back a couple of drinks and handed it to her before I sat with her.

She wordlessly took a sip or two before turning her head towards the masses that continued to work together inside the camp. I watched her for a bit, obviously and clearly concerned for her, but I continued to force myself to give her a bit of space while making sure that she knew I was there for her whenever she wanted to talk.

"I am so sorry." I heard Gloriosa's voice softly echo as she shamefully stood in front of our Principal and Vice Principal. "I only wanted this to be the best week Camp Everfree has ever had, and instead I've made it the worst. Maybe it's for the best that I'm losing the camp to Filthy Rich."

"No. It's not." Principal Celestia sentimentally returned. "This camp has meant so much to so many people, my sister and me included."

"Why do you think we wanted our students to come here?" Her sister added on.

"We can't let Filthy Rich take this place away!" Twilight joined in on the discussion. She was still wearing the outfit she had acquired during the unfolding magical mishap, kind of like I had. However, unlike her, mine had disappeared when it all came to an end for some strange reason. "If camp meant so much to you two, maybe it meant as much to the other campers who came here in years past."

"And maybe we can get them to help save it!" Sunset stood by her side and raised confidently.

"Oh! Like a fundraiser?" Applejack suggested, setting down this huge log she had been carrying.

"Or a ball?!" Rarity squealed excitedly.

"Our band could play!" Rainbow Dash offered.

"I could help write a new song just for the occasion!" Fluttershy mentioned in her usual soft-spoken voice, garnering nods and approving chatter from everyone else around them.

I merely leaned back and placed my hands against the ground for support.

It was just like them to completely disregard everything that had just happened and easily move on.

"Those are all good ideas, but where would we hold it?" Gloriosa wondered.

"We could hold it in the crystal cave!" Sunset pointed out.

A long and loud gasp slipped out from Rarity. "A Crystal Ball! I love it!"

"I admire everyone's enthusiasm. Really, I do." Gloriosa shared. "But I-I just don't know how we're going to plan a ball by tomorrow and invite everyone."

Taking a page from the camp guide we had seen running around all week, they straightened their backs and returned a few motivated words. "We got this!"

It almost felt as if Faith and I were the only ones who weren't fully out of the hole that had been dug by the mass of magic each one of us had all experienced. Then again, I remembered that the both of us used to be simple Crystal Prep students. While Twilight used to be in the same boat with us, she had much more experience with magic than we ever had at this point. I guess we still needed a lot of getting used to even now.

I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled out the stone that seemed to give me the strength I needed to save Faith. I stared at it for a long while, wondering if there was even any point in doing what I did since the main seven girls were the heroes in the end anyway.

"…how did you do it?" I heard beside me. I turned back to find Faith softly glancing at me. "That magic…"

I continued eyeing the stone for a moment before I was able to give her the best answer I could come up with. "I think it was this stone… I think it has some kind of connection to the rocks that were in that cave. I don't know. It's all weird. Everything's a bit of blur."

A short and light giggle escaped out from Faith's lips, surprising me. "Well, looks like you did it again. You helped me when things were really looking bad. I'm sorry I'm always the one calling for you for help. It must be super annoying, huh?"

She was trying to sound cheerful, but there was noticeable sadness coming from her voice.

"Don't talk like that." I told her. "Back there, I thought I was good for nothing. Letting you get taken like that. But because of you, I was able to use whatever magic I had. I still don't understand any of it, but…" I paused to slip in an exhausted shrug. "I just want to take it easy for once. So, don't be sad. You're my motivation for a lot of things, you know?"

"You really think so?" She asked.

I nodded. "Believe me. I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for you."

She continued gazing at me with a slightly agape mouth, but she subtly turned her head away from me shortly after. I noticed that her cheeks lightly flared up, and I could only assume that she appreciated the compliment.

The two of us continued to sit together and watch the other campers gather around to plan out their climactic event. However, even though it seemed the legend of Gaea Everfree was now finally dead, I was sure that there was still more baggage between us that was long overdue for a firm closure.


Rarity ended up making good on her promise, providing me with a "dashing" suit to wear to the Crystal Ball that they managed to pull together quickly with their magic. Although, to be honest, I couldn't help but wonder if it was more due to the fact that putting together outfits was something she loved doing rather than fulfilling a promise she made.

A lot of different people attended this ball, not just the campers. I had heard that it was a bunch of the alumni from past years, and now that a lot of them were some pretty successful people, they were able to donate towards the fund to keep the camp where it's at.

I had just finished observing the "Rainbooms" performance when it was announced that Camp Everfree would be staying. However, I couldn't help but feel indifferent despite everyone's cheering. To put it in perspective, it almost felt as if I had been wearing a mask to a masquerade. I didn't feel as positive as everyone else clearly did, but no one was able to see it among the crowd of everyone else. And when someone would get the chance to, all I had to do was raise up the corner of my lips, and that would supposedly be convincing enough.

Yes, the big bad plant monster was defeated. Everything should be hunky-dory now, right? Maybe for everyone else, but defeating a magic-crazed monster didn't help me when it came to feeling like I was losing those that I had cared about.

I tried to tell or convince myself that I was just overreacting, but it wasn't enough. Especially when I noticed how much of a good time Faith was having in conversing with her old crush near the punch bowl.

I thought that her initiative to rekindling her old relationship with Flash was a sign for me to do the same with Twilight. In fact, I managed to muster up the courage to go and find her and maybe ask her for a dance. That didn't work out so well because… I ended up seeing her with Timber Spruce instead. And if there's anything I hate, it's being the third wheel.

Seeing her eyes light up at the sight of him, her bright smile anytime he made a weird look on his face, and her short giggle anytime he made some stupid joke…I guess it was pretty heartbreaking. Since our entire time at Crystal Prep, I had never managed to get any of that out of her.

All I could do was dig my hands into my pockets and walk away with my invisible mask holding back my repressed emotions. I needed to tell myself it was over, but even through my thoughts, I could feel my inner voice choke up. In all honesty, I just wanted to get away from it all.

And that's what led me to my desolate and lonesome self that hung around outside the entrance of the crystal cave. I blankly stared at the full moon above me, but there were no thoughts in my mind. If anything, I focused all my attention on pushing away any thoughts that wanted to have a jab at my squirming emotions.

"I never thought I'd see you out here by yourself like this." I heard a genuinely surprised voice direct at me.

My first guess was that it was Faith or even Sunset Shimmer, but I couldn't have been any more wrong when I took a look back and found my answer.

"Twilight?! What are you doing out here?" I felt several different kinds of emotions inside me merge together when it came to the tone of my voice. I felt anger, fear, sadness, and possibly even more that I couldn't quite describe. Either way, I just couldn't understand why it'd be Twilight to confront me at a time like this out of all people.

"I could ask you the same thing." She replied, appearing completely opposite than when she was with Timber. She wasn't smiling cheerfully anymore. Instead, it was kind of the same expression she would always give me back at Crystal Prep. Why? Why did it have to be her out of everyone? "I thought you and Faith were practically inseparable."

It may have just been my attitude at the time, but it sounded like a bad attempt at a joke to me. I broke our eye contact and gave her a sour-sounding answer. "She's talking with someone else right now…"

I expected her to go back inside without a word, but she startled me when she took the spot next to me and stood by me with a plastic cup held firmly in her left hand. Nevertheless, I didn't say anything. All I could do was turn my head to the ground almost shamefully.

"Is something wrong, Chase?"

"Why do you ask?" I uncaringly asked.

"You seem really different." She mentioned. "It…makes me sad."

"It's just my bad luck. Don't worry about it." I unintentionally revealed a bit too much.

"'Bad luck'…?"

"You didn't answer my first question." I shot back. "Shouldn't you be inside with Timber right about now?"

She stumbled over her words a bit, most likely due to my unexpected small outburst. "I-I-I didn't see you inside. When I noticed that you weren't around Faith, I, um, got a little worried, I guess…" She turned away sadly for a minute before her eyebrows furrowed and she faced back at me. "And I think I was right to worry. What's going on? Why do you seem so angry? Did you…get in a fight with her?"

"No." I answered. "Actually, I'm surprised you came out here, to begin with. I didn't think we'd ever talk again."

"Huh?!" Her eyes widened as a reaction to my response. "Why would you say that?"

"You tell me." I muttered as I stared off into the dark forest. "Besides that time we were making paper lanterns, could you name me a time we actually had some kind of conversation ever since we came to camp?"

"That's…" She raised her hand and held it against her chest.

"Yet, you seemed perfectly happy talking to someone whom you literally just met a few days ago… Like I said, it's just my luck, I guess."

"Hold on…" She mentioned. "You didn't think I was…ignoring you, did you?"

"A little, yeah." I bluntly admitted. "It doesn't help that I tried being your friend back at Crystal Prep, and here at camp, you're immediately attracted to someone out of the blue like that. I don't want to be that guy, but it just bothers me so much. It feels like my hopes were all for nothing. And now that Faith is also into someone else…I…" I had to stop myself. Anymore, and I was on the verge of letting the tears I had been holding back escape.

"No, Chase…" She placed her hand on my shoulder, slightly forcing me to look at her. "It's not like that. I didn't mean to…" It seemed like she was waiting for something from me, but all I did was turn away from her. "I'm really sorry. I…just didn't want to get in the way between you and Faith."

Her answer raised my eyebrows.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You and Faith are so close." She elaborated as she lowered her head. "I didn't exactly want to 'force' myself between you two, especially after how I acted back at the Friendship Games. It's not like I wasn't your friend anymore. I just thought that I didn't really have a place when it came to just the two of you. I'm sorry. I'm still learning a lot about friendship, so maybe I was really in the wrong all along. I just don't understand why you'd feel so strongly about someone like me. Even when you have a great friend like Faith, you still worry about me. I don't get it. All I've ever been is someone who used to pay attention only to her work. So, why am I so important to you?"

I had her answer all along, but I was extremely hesitant to give it. Nevertheless, I felt like it was now or never. I didn't know my exact reasoning behind revealing it, but all I knew was that I felt it needed to come out before it would crush me somewhere down the line.

"I like you, Twilight."

"H-Huh?" Her head raised quickly.

"I like you." I admitted, turning my head away from embarrassment. "I like you more than a friend. That's why."

"Y-You…" From what I could see, she was extremely startled and surprised by my answer. However, her head sunk and turned sadly away from me. "…can I ask why? Why do you feel that way about me?"

She managed to catch me off my guard. To tell the truth, I had never really listed out the details on why I exactly felt that way about her. It was just the way I felt.

"…I…I don't know…" I tried to answer as I rubbed the back of my neck. "You and I. We weren't so different back in our first year at Crystal Prep. Everyone was so stuck-up and annoying. You were so quiet, and you looked so lonely. At first, I only thought that the two of us could have been great friends since we were practically the same when it came to our social life. But then, I guess I eventually started hoping for something more. And to see that hope just be crushed right in front of me? It sucks."

Twilight didn't respond right away. She remained heavily silent for way too long, and I felt as if this was finally the point where our friendship would die right out.

"Do you know why I started talking to Timber, Chase?" She brought up unexpectedly. "It was purely by coincidence. It had started with tent assignments, but then we just got caught up talking about the science behind the gemstones that the tents were labeled by. It was really so exciting. I had never met anyone that I could just talk about science with."

"Oh," I mumbled. "So, I guess I wasn't smart enough, huh…?"

She shook her head. "We started talking more after that, but I didn't necessarily like him. We only knew each other for a few days after all."

"So, what are you saying?" I longed. "That there really isn't anything going on between you two?"

"…well…" Her fingers curled together as she uncomfortably looked away.

At my fault, my spirits had risen up a little when she explained everything, but they immediately began to fall back down after her latest response.

"Timber…asked me to hang out with him after camp. He thought we could get dinner or catch a movie sometime, and…I said yes." My shoulders sunk no matter how hard I tried to keep myself strong and upright. "I'm sorry, Chase." She sincerely apologized. "I didn't know. I didn't know that you felt this way about me. If I had…"

If I would've been honest with my feelings earlier, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now. I'm such a freaking idiot.

"Oh. Okay." It was all I could muster up.

"You're the best friend I could have ever had, Chase." Twilight felt the need to tell me. "You've been there for me ever since Crystal Prep. Please don't think that I don't care about you anymore. I do. I really do. I would have been willing to move a little further with you. But, I can't just…"

You can't just go back to Timber and drop everything because of my stupidity. Being the loser in this case, even I would think that was too cruel.

"…yeah. I get it." I answered.

She continued to look at me concerningly before she raised up another question. "There's something else that I want to know. Are you really sure that I'm really right for you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked exhaustedly, drained from the big sucker punch to the heart.

"Don't you think there's maybe a particular someone better for you? All I could imagine doing is talking your ear off with stuff you're not even interested in…"

It sort of sounded like she was trying to cheer me up by explaining how much of a pain she would actually be, but to be utterly honest, I didn't think any of that would actually matter.

I didn't want to think about it anymore, even if I could think straight at all. All I could do was answer with uneasy silence. Twilight noticed and decided to lightly grab a hold of my hand. "Come on. Let's get back to the party. You shouldn't be all alone out here like this. I bet Faith is looking for you right now."

"Thanks, but…" I simply slipped my hand out of hers. "I think I'm going to take a walk." I turned around and dug my hands into my pockets as I began heading out on the path back to camp. "See ya."


I felt soft vibrations coming from my pocket by the time I made it back to camp. I pulled out my phone and found that I had several missed calls from Faith. Not only that, she had texted me a few times afterward.

Where are youuuu?! (Д´)(Д´)(Д´)

I really wasn't in the mood to talk, and I knew she'd come running the second I told her where I was. I decided to leave it unanswered and headed to our tent to change out of the annoying suit I had been wearing.

It was no surprise that the campgrounds were practically deserted all together. Everyone had been at the Crystal Ball. I thought about forcing myself back over there, but how could I honestly do that? I could only hold my mask up for so long, and after having my loss confirmed with Twilight, there was definitely no way I'd be able to hide something like that.

I made my way over to the docks to find a bench to sit on, but I came to yet another unexpected sight. I must have had not seen it before, but the dock was completely gone. All of our hard work had been ruined for the second time. It wasn't a coincidence that this matched up exactly to what I had been going through. No matter how hard I struggled to reach some kind of goal, it always seemed like I failed in the end.

Surprisingly, I noticed that there had been one lone bench at where we had started building the dock. I found it unbelievable that it was still standing unbroken. Despite that, I headed over and took a seat on it. Then, I just watched the lake move steadily underneath the moonlight that glimmered over it. I didn't see any pieces of the dock in the water, so they must have been fished out already or it was just too dark to tell.

I sighed heavily and slumped forwards as I covered my face with my hands. So much had happened, and I didn't know whatsoever what to do with it. I pulled out the stone that had given me the power I needed and stared at it for a long while. At that moment, I felt the strong urge to raise my arm and throw it across the lake as far as I could, but I couldn't. After all, the stone may have been the only good thing I had left. It was the last piece of me that I felt could actually do something. I ended up slipping it back into my pocket.

"Chase?" A girl cautiously called as she slowly approached me on the bench. "What the heck are you doing here all by yourself?" She asked after she had a look at my face.

I should have known that Faith would end up finding me somehow. It was like the two of us were connected…

She had still been wearing the dress that Rarity fitted her into. It was a white dress with thin straps. There was nothing too fancy about it, but I had to admit that Faith still looked amazing in it. Almost like some kind of innocent angel. She held down the hem of her skirt against the back part of her thighs as she accompanied me on the bench. However, all I could do was simply look away from her. There was a reason why I didn't answer her texts.

I could feel her eyes glued on me, so I had no choice but to sigh lightly and respond to her.

"Why'd you come here?"

"You didn't answer my texts, dummy. Then, a little birdie told me that you went back to camp. Don't like crystal balls? Or did you get bored of it?"

It didn't seem that she understood how frustrated and serious I had been feeling, so I just gave her a straight up answer in response.

"I came here because I wanted to be alone."

"What?! Why?!" She nearly jumped out of her seat in shock.

I knew her. She wasn't going to stop pestering me about it until I finally cracked, so I manned up as much as I could and began repeating through the frustrating events of the night. "You know that ship with Twilight I've been waiting to get on board for the longest time? Well, that ship has sailed, and I'm pretty sure it's not coming back."

"…what?" She questioned.

"I told her." I continued. "I told her that I liked her, but I was too late. You know that camp guide, Timber Spruce? Well…" I raised my hands to form a short shrug before I allowed them to carelessly land back at my laps. "It's over. It's only a matter of time before I'll feel like I'm on my own again. It'll be just like how it was on my first day at Crystal Prep."

"What are you talking about?" Faith leaned towards me in concern. "You have me. I won't let you be all alone."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked as I turned my head away.

"H-Huh?"

I shook my head. "You know that thing I wanted to tell you before when we were at the archery range? I might as well spill it out now seeing as I practically have nothing else to lose. I overheard you the other night. You were talking to Sunset Shimmer in the bathroom, and I heard what you two were talking about. About what you were so afraid to tell me…"

"A-Ah!" Faith's face immediately grew flushed, and she remained absolutely speechless as she continued gawking at me in shock. "Y-You h-h-heard…?!" She managed to say.

"Why couldn't you just tell me?" I desired. "Did I do something to make you lose your trust in me? Or is it because you figured that we'd drift apart like Twilight did with me?"

"I…" She couldn't answer properly, and she only shamefully averted her eyes as a result.

"You shouldn't be so scared of me. I don't decide what you do with your life. If you want to date him, then go for it. But, if you did that…I can only imagine we'd slowly start hanging out less and less… It's only a matter of time before we'd…"

"'Him'?!" Faith nearly exclaimed. "C-Chase, what are you talking about?!"

"What else could I be talking about?" I almost raised my voice. "I'm talking about you and Flash!"

"F-Flash…?!" She responded with extremely widened eyes.

Did she genuinely not have a clue? But how could she when…?

I sighed heavily and sunk down on my seat. "I don't even know anything anymore. I just wish this was all one annoying dream." I shook my head and covered my face with my hands. "This is so frustrating. Why did all of this have to happen? I swear… I fail at everything I do. Even when it comes to being your best friend."

"You know…" I heard her softly speak. "You can really be a big dummy sometimes…" I heard her get up and expected her to leave, but her feet didn't move. Instead, she said something else. "Come on. Get up."

"…what?" I questioned, my body feeling glued to the bench.

"Get up!" She nearly shouted, startling me. She grabbed my hand and pulled me up as hard as she could.

Once we were both at the same level, she continued to somewhat glare at me with a scolding kind of expression on her face. All I could do in response was break our eye contact with each other. I didn't know what was going on, but I felt as if I didn't have the strength or courage to face it head on.

"Look at me, Chase." She sternly ordered.

Anxiously, I slowly turned my gaze towards her. Her glare remained firm, but this time, there were tears brimming at the corner of her eyes. I was able to witness this for a few seconds before she suddenly pulled towards me.

My eyes stretched open when her slightly moist lips collided with mine. Despite this having been the third time, there was a feeling I had never felt before. Her lips seemed to pull mine in, almost as if she had been hugging them fervently. And just like magic, she seemed to inflate me with some kind of positive energy. It was like she was telling me all the motivating words I needed to hear, but it was all spoken through an elongated kiss.

After what seemed like an eternity, her face finally pulled away. Her cheeks were at the reddest I had ever seen them, but she had never looked so much more striking before in my life.

"There's something I need to tell you, Chase." She said. "Something that I didn't get to tell you back at the archery range. I..." She paused for a moment, and I believed I was able to see her nervously swallow before she continued on. "I know you're hurting right now, but I want to be the one that brightens up your day. I want to be the light of your life. I want to be the light that shines when you're in the darkest places. You're my best friend, and that's why I've been so scared to tell you this. But, I can't hold back anymore." She squeezed her eyes shut and balled up her hands into a pair of fists. "The truth is... I..."

There was an extensive pause, but I waited for as long as I needed to hear what she so desperately wanted to say.

"I love you, Chase." She declared. "And I don't mean that in a 'best friends' kind of way. I mean it in a... 'significant other' kind of way. In a... 'boyfriend/girlfriend' kind of way. I… I'm totes in love with you, Chase!" She exclaimed out loudly at the end.

I stared back at her with an agape mouth as I felt everything I knew at the very moment shatter into pieces. Everything I had just witnessed proved all the more that this was a dream, but I still wasn't waking up from it.

She continued to stare at me with a teary-eyed face, and her body noticeably trembled as if she was cold. She was waiting for my response, and there was no way I could just leave it unanswered like her texts. She needed an answer, and all I could do at that very moment was trying to give her one as best as I could.

"…Y…You seriously…? That's what…?"

She nervously nodded her head.

"I…" I tried to think, but my mind wasn't giving me any helpful hints. "I don't what to say. I…can't really say that I've thought about something like this. So, to be utterly honest, I'm not…sure how I, you know, feel about you. After what just happened with Twilight, I think I need some time before I can give you a proper answer." I could see a frown slowly stretch across her face the more I talked. I didn't want her to get the wrong idea, so I tried to be as clear as I could. "I'm not saying that I don't feel the same way about you. I care about you a lot. You know that, Faith. You're really important to me. I promise you that with all of my heart. But, I also don't want to lie to you and say that I feel the same way about you on the spur of the moment. So many things are running through my head, and I can hardly think straight. I almost can't even believe this is happening right now. All I know is that I don't want there to be a chance that I give you an answer that turns out to be the opposite somewhere down the road. I'm sorry, Faith. Coming from someone who just got their heart crushed, I can't imagine how you feel… I'm really sorry. I…don't want you to feel the same way I do…"

She lowered her head and began sniffling a little. I was afraid that she'd run off crying, leaving this possibly unamendable rift between us. But, she didn't. Instead, she shook her head and wiped away the droplets of water that were on the verge of running down the corner of her eyes.

"Sure." She replied. "It hurts. Being in love will do that. But, I'm also willing to stand strong for you, Chase. I promise I'll always be there for you. I know you're hurting, but if anyone understands how you feel, it's definitely me. I want to be with you in every step of the way to help you heal and move on. I'll wait for you, Chase. But, could you just promise me one thing…?"

"What is it?" I desired to know.

"Whatever you decide with, you know, my feelings, promise me that...we'll still at least get to keep being together like we've always been."

There was no way I'd let our friendship like this break apart because of something like that. If there's one person that I won't let go with all my might, it's you, Faith.

I grabbed her hands and looked directly at her eyes as seriously as I could.

"I promise."