Her second day at Junior Guard Cadet Summer camp was not off to a good start.
Unfortunately for Diamond Tiara, her trials hadn't really ended when she was finally able to retire to her cabin. Sure, the stallion from before had indeed brought her luggage to her cabin and she was very ready to go to bed. Of course, figuring out who got which bed of the two sets of bunks beds should have gone smoothly, but naturally the blank-flank just couldn't let things be easy.
Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo must have argued for hours over who got to sleep on the top bunks. Never mind the fact that Delicacy didn't particularly want a top bunk and Snails had happily plopped down into one of the bottom bunks and had been dozing since arriving. It might not actually have been hours, but it still took far longer than it should have for the two of them to stop arguing over two top bunks that no one else in their cabin wanted.
Of course, the fact that they both got the top bunks that they wanted had the unintended side-effect of leaving them glaring awkwardly at one another for a good portion of the night.
All of this, meant that none of the members of Cabin 12 were exactly ready for the blaring sound of a trumpet echoing across the camp grounds at 7:30 AM. The three fillies of the cabin were all running a bit short on sleep when the wake-up call jolted them from their slumber. Snails, despite sleeping longer than any of them, was slow to rise as well, and apparently just wasn't the kind of pony that had an easy time waking up in the morning.
After managing to hastily shower, after a goodly number of the foals had already used up most of the hot water, the foursome managed to trudge into the mess hall as breakfast was starting.
Scootaloo had, naturally, managed to handle the lost sleep a bit better than the others, a bit used to long days and occasionally strange hours from all of her Cutie Mark crusades. Which meant she was the first one to notice...
“Wow, Tiara. Nice bedmane.”
At that remark, Diamond Tiara blinked as she shook herself back to wakefulness, having nearly fallen back to sleep at their table. Sending an annoyed, still drowsy, look towards the pegasus “Mm haff ooo wrrr-”
Blinking as she realized that she still had her mane brush in her mouth, having apparently carried it all the way from the showers without realizing it, Diamond Tiara quickly spat it out. Choosing to ignore Scootaloo's laughter, she started over “Hmph, I'll have you know that a mane as delicate and lustrous as mine takes a great deal of work every morning.”
“Yeah, I can tell.” Scootaloo snickered, as she pointed at the unruly state of Diamond Tiara's mane.
Finally taking the moment to examine her own mane, she had to stifle her own embarrassment, as she realized that even the earlier shower hadn't settled the bedmane from earlier. The result being uneven portions of hair hanging down wet, with others sticking out at weird angles. Growling a bit at the mess, she soon started trying to run her hooves through her mane, to at least get it to lay down. Eventually, the Earth pony filly remembered the brush from earlier, and set about getting her mane into proper order.
“How do they expect anypony to get ready in the morning like this?” Diamond Tiara griped.
“I didn't have any trouble getting ready.” Scootaloo pointed out.
“That's because no one cares if your mane looks like a rat's nest.” Diamond Tiara shot back.
“Hey! That's not fair. My mane just looks naturally awesome.” Scootaloo countered.
“Yeah, a naturally awesome rat's nest.”
“You're one to talk!”
“Will you two please stop talking?” Delicacy asked in a very...indelicate manner.
Both a bit surprised by the sudden grousing from the normally very polite unicorn, both Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara looked over towards the pale blue filly. Her head nodding as she tried to stay awake herself, Delicacy blinked as she noted the surprised looks from the other two fillies at the table, before blushing as she realized what she had just said.
“I- That is-...it's very early.” Delicacy awkwardly explained, before she focused very intently on the slice of toast that came with her breakfast.
Snails, head down on the table, happily snoozed on.
A little while later...
“Stop staring at my mane!”
“Sorry. It just looks weird.” Scootaloo explained to the irate Earth pony.
“It does not!” Diamond Tiara defended.
“I like it!” Snails gave his opinion on the matter, with a grin on his face. “It looks all different.”
Glancing towards Snails, Diamond Tiara turned away before readjusting her tiara once more “It doesn't matter, anyway! I can't even get this to stay on anyway.”
Indeed, without a small collection of mane products and an extra hour to work on it, Diamond Tiara's mane was a far cry from the carefully coiffed perfection that was the norm. And with her mane down and loose her trademark tiara was having a bit of difficulty keeping it's perch.
“Do you really think it was a good idea to bring that here anyway?” Scootaloo pointed out, as Diamond Tiara again adjusted her headwear.
At that Diamond Tiara simply scowled and refused to give a response as she continued to get her tiara securely in place.
After quietly yawning, Delicacy added her piece from the back of their little group “Maybe you can leave it in the cabin with the rest of your things, Diamond Tiara?”
Again Diamond Tiara decided against giving any response, leaving the rest of the group to trail off into silence. That is, until they got to their destination, along with everypony else.
“Whoa...” Snails quietly said.
“Yeah, whoa...” Scootaloo soon agreed, as both Delicacy and Diamond Tiara also looked on, similarly impressed.
There in front of all the campers and camp staff was a rather large obstacle course, that looked as if it would require climbing, running, jumping, swinging, crawling, and a fair amount of messiness to actually get through.
Everyone's attention was soon pulled away from the expansive course set out before them, as a sharp whistle echoed across the field.
“Alright everyone. Let's get this show on the road.” Lancer called out to the gathered foals and staff. “We got a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. If you aren't with your cabin mates already, get together, and I'll explain how this all works.”
A few minutes later, after some of the foals got reorganized, Lancer was standing in front of everypony with an older looking unicorn mare holding a clipboard, at her side. “Alright. As mentioned yesterday, our first order of business is an exercise in team work. Specifically-”
Lancer paused to gesture a hoof to the large obstacle course behind her.
“-this. We're going to be doing this one cabin at a time, going by cabin number. The rules are pretty simple. Each cabin must make their way through the course as quickly as possible or go through as many obstacles as they can, before stopping, while working together. You are free to use whatever skills you have at your disposal, with just three stipulations; we don't want anyone getting hurt, you must go through the obstacles themselves, so you can't just fly over them all, and we'd like to avoid too much damage to the course. Everyone following along so far?”
After some nods and a chorus of “Yes, ma'am” from most of the foals, Lancer continued “Good. Just to reiterate, this is a team exercise. As far as we're concerned, until the last member of your cabin reaches the end, you aren't finished. Likewise, each obstacle is only counted as completed if all cabin members have gotten past it. And while I encourage all of you to do your best, if you don't think you can go any further or if anypony gets stuck, that's alright. The goal is to push yourselves, not hurt yourselves. To that end, all of our volunteers will be on hoof keeping an eye on things.”
Lancer again gestured to the eclectic mix of ponies that made up the staff, including the unicorn mare at her side, who simply nodded her head to the foals absently. Just as she was about to continue, Lancer did a brief double-take before focusing on the bat-pony from the other day, Sea Breeze. The bat-pony mare seemed to be dozing on her hooves, with her wings hanging limp at her side. Lancer glanced to the older pegasus mare at Sea Breeze's side, questioningly, but only received a shake of the head in response.
Lancer sighed, before refocusing on the foals again.
“Right. This will probably take a couple of hours, after which we'll take a short break. After that we'll be separating everyone into their respective tribes, so that our staff can test everyone on those skills, and figure out what level everyone belongs at. So...let's get started.”
With that Lancer loosed a sharp whistle as she began leading everyone closer to the start of the obstacle course, startling the sleeping bat-pony in the process.
A few minutes later, Diamond Tiara was overlooking the first of the obstacles, with clear contempt. Before the many foals was a stretch of deep, dirty mud with a number of ropes suspended overhead by wooden beams.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“What? Afraid to get covered in a little mud, Diamond Tiara.” Teased Scootaloo.
While Diamond Tiara glared at the pegasus, Delicacy stepped back from the edge anxiously, before quietly observing “That's...more than a little mud.”
“Exactly. I don't think daddy is going to happy when hears this is what he's paying good bits for.” Diamond Tiara agreed before turning her nose up at the course.
“Tch, whatever. This thing looks pretty cool if you ask me.” Scootaloo asserted.
“Hey guys! Look what I found!” Over by the edge of the mud, Snails was excitedly holding up a glob of mud with several worms peeking out from it's mass.
Delicacy audibly squeaked in horror at the sight, while Diamond Tiara stuck out her tongue in disgust “Ugh, gross! Put those down!”
Scootaloo looked on, also a bit put off by the sight of the creepy crawlies “...well, the rest of the course still looks really cool.”
“Alright everyone, quit your gawking! Clear the start and let's get Cabin 1 upfront!” Everyone soon turned as Lancer directed most of the foals away from the start. Though Diamond Tiara stopped Snails before he went ahead.
“You are not bringing those with us.” Diamond Tiara firmly commanded.
“Awww! But they're real friendly, DT. I call this one Mr.-...” Snails tried to argue at first, before he saw the look on Diamond Tiara's face, and deposited his most recent friends back into their home, clearly disappointed.
Soon enough the two of them rejoined with Delicacy and Scootaloo, though Diamond Tiara made a point of watching closely to make sure Snails didn't bring anymore “friends” with him.
“...I miss Mr. Squirmy.” Snails lamented, to Diamond Tiara's annoyance.
Thankfully he didn't have long to miss Mr. Squirmy as Cabin 1 quickly launched into action. It seemed like this group was a bit older than most, and quickly dived into the mud, before launching onto the other obstacles. Through the mud pit, this weird thing where you were supposed to crawl under a low hanging net, a log roll where you had to use the log to get across a ditch, scaling a wall, and balancing your way across a series of platforms, this Cabin 1 quickly traversed the lot of them. There was a wide variety, and Diamon Tiara was actually having trouble seeing what laid beyond the last of those obstacles. She wasn't particularly eager to find out though.
“This is, like, so stupid. If I wanted to run around like an idiot I could have done that back in Ponyville.” Diamond Tiara complained, as the unicorn with the clipboard called up Cabin 2.
“What? Did you see those guys? That was amazing.” Scootaloo asked in incredulity.
“Amazingly dumb, you mean. This is such a waste a time.” Diamond Tiara countered with certainty.
"They sure want us to do a lotta stuff.” Snails interrupted the two before they could delve into the respective pros and cons of the course.
“It is pretty big...and messy.” Delicacy quietly agreed, as she watched the next group leap into the mud pit with abandon.
“Aww, come on. Not you guys too. We can totally take this thing down.” Scootaloo finished with a confident grin.
“I don't know...they made it sound like they don't really expect everyone to finish.” Delicacy observed.
“Well, yeah, I guess...But, Ms. Lancer said we can totally use whatever we want to go through it, right? I'll just fly on through.” Scootaloo said, not letting her confidence waver.
“But Scootaloo, you can't fly.” Snails innocently pointed out, sparking some snickering from Diamond Tiara.
“I can so!” Scootaloo said indignantly “There's just...some complicated stuff I haven't gotten down yet.”
“Yeah, like landing.” Diamond Tiara said through her snickers.
Scootaloo scowled, before Delicacy cut-in “Uhm, well...you can sorta land. Right?”
“That's right! And Rainbow Dash told me that any landing you walk away from is a good one.” Scootaloo argued.
“Pfft, then I guess that means you can't fly or land. Cause I haven't seen you walk away from any of your landings.” Diamond Tiara fired back.
Soon they were going round and round, as Snails and Delicacy looked on, occasionally contributing their own bits. As they again got wrapped in their animosity towards one another, the rest of the campers took their own turns going through the course, with varying results. Before they realized it, Cabin 11 was just wrapping up their own attempt.
“Yeah, well you're-” Scootaloo was cut off mid-shout by another sharp whistle.
“I said, Cabin 12! You're up!” Lancer shouted as she pointedly looked towards the four of them.
“Oh, cool! We're next!” Scootaloo shouted with exuberance, before she galloped to the edge of the mud, with Snails quickly following behind.
Delicacy looked a bit uncertain, until she noticed Diamond Tiara cantering up ahead, with a frown on her face. Soon the little unicorn filly followed, and caught up in time to catch the beginnings of their next conversation.
“-we're gonna blow everyone away! I just know it!” Scootaloo said with confidence, as she nudged Snails companionably, who just grinned back happily.
“You can go play in the mud if you want. Some of us would like to hold on to a bit of class.” Diamond Tiara said in a rather snooty tone.
“Whatever, Tiara. I wasn't talking to you anyway.” Scootaloo shot back, as she rolled her eyes.
Before they could go on, they heard another whistle, come from Lancer. As the unicorn mare at her aside finished some scribbling on her clipboard before readying a stopwatch, Lancer nodded before calling out to the four “Alright, Cabin 12. Whenever you're ready, you can start.”
“Alright let's do it!” Scootaloo shouted as she got ready to leap into what she figured would be some great action.
“I already told you, I'm not rolling around in the mud.” Diamond Tiara reaffirmed, before raising her nose rather arrogantly.
“Fine! Just sit on your flank, while we win this!” Scootaloo called back in annoyance, before again getting ready to leap forward.
“But-” Scootaloo again halted as she turned back to Delicacy, as the unicorn filly tried to get her attention.
“Don't tell me you're just gonna sit here with her?” Scootaloo asked with a bit of incredulity, as she noticed Delicacy sitting almost as far away from the edge as Diamond Tiara.
“It's just-...didn't they say we have to do this together? Or it doesn't count?” Delicacy asked with a bit of uncertainty, as she rubbed her hooves together anxiously.
Scootaloo looked at her in confusion before a look of remembrance crossed her face “What? Oh, right. I-”
“Wheeeee!” Scootaloo was soon cut-off by the sound of Snails leaping straight into the mud. The colt had apparently not noticed that the rest of his cabin hadn't been quite ready to start. This didn't stop the unicorn with the stopwatch from starting the timer.
“Snails!” Scootaloo groaned, as she realized that Snails had inadvertently kicked things off.
“What?” Snails asked, not understanding what was wrong.
“Oh, nevermind!” Scootaloo quickly turned away from Snails as she focused on the problem of Diamond Tiara “Alright, come on! You heard her, we gotta go, Tiara!”
“No! I already told you I'm not going to play in the mud like some sort of...pig!” Diamond Tiara soon turned away, deciding that the matter was closed.
Scootaloo tried again to argue with the stubborn Earth filly “But-”
“I said no!”
Delicacy looked between the two, with some concern, as she noticed Scootaloo's growing annoyance.
“Yeah, well-...I guess, you won't miss this!” She quickly ran forward before snagging Diamond Tiara's tiara up in her teeth before running towards the mud. As it turned out, Diamond Tiara had been right. Without her mane's carefully cultivated style, her trademark tiara had no particular inclination towards staying atop her head. Quickly, feeling the top of her head in shock, as she realized what just happened, Diamond Tiara's temper quickly flared.
“Give that back!” Diamond Tiara shouted as she quickly began the chase.
“You'll have to catch me!” Scootaloo shouted back, around the tiara in her mouth, as she quickly approached the edge of the first obstacle. Closing her eyes, and gritting her teeth a little around the tiara, Scootaloo began flapping her wings as hard as she could before leaping forward. Her wings' furious flapping had managed to get her just off of the ground and her forward momentum actually managed to carry her out a fair bit ahead over the mud. Opening her eyes, as she felt herself bump into one of the ropes hanging from above, Scootaloo looked down in surprise to note that she was managing to hover in place over the mud. She didn't have long to enjoy her limited success, as she took note of the very angry Earth pony filly diving in to the mud behind her.
“Give my tiara BACK!” Shouted Diamond Tiara as she forcibly slogged her way through the mud after Scootaloo.
Yelping in fright, Scootaloo quickly tried, futilely, to get some forward momentum going again, in an effort to get some distance from the angry filly reaching up for her. Scootaloo's plan certainly seemed to have worked, albeit with the unfortunate side-effect of making Diamond Tiara angrier than the pegasus had ever seen her.
Delicacy still pawing her hooves anxiously at the edge of the mud, as she looked on at her three cabin mates. Gulping, she finally decided that she couldn't put it off any longer. That is, if she wanted to keep Diamond Tiara from throttling Scootaloo. Leaning out, the little unicorn tried to reach for the closest of the ropes, hanging over the mud, in the hopes of maybe crossing with a minimum of messiness. Not quite able to reach, she closed her eyes in concentration, before her pale aura of telekinesis edged the rough rope into reach. Pulling it closer she took one more breath before she tried to put her idea into action. A few seconds later, Delicacy was hanging onto the rope as she dangled lazily over the mud, miraculously mud-free. She was already smiling to herself at the progress she made, before she took note of just how far away the next rope was outside of her reach. And just how far away the nice clean grass was.
“Oh.”
Letting out a pitiable moan out, Delicacy tried to again reach out with her telekinesis, to no avail. She just couldn't pull the heavy rope close enough for her to even think about attempting to reach it. She briefly tried swinging a bit closer, but soon found her grip a bit too loose. Squealing in fright as she slid down the rope, she managed to stop herself inches above the mud below.
As Delicacy was desperately clinging to her rope, Scootaloo continued to try to stay out of hoof's reach of Diamond Tiara.
“Get down here, blank-flank!” Diamond Tiara shouted as she again tried to leap out of the mud towards the hovering Scootaloo.
“Nooo!!” Scootaloo shouted fearfully, as she desperately tried to maintain altitude. But as the muscles in her wings began to burn and ache, the buzzing of her wings started to slow down, and she started to dip lower and lower.
“I said...GET DOWN HERE!” Diamond Tiara again shouted at the top of her lungs, before taking one of the many dangling ropes and whipping it as hard as she could. And while the rope only lightly thudded into Scootaloo's side it was enough to break the pegasus' concentration and cause her to fall into the mud with a yelp.
“My tiara!” Diamond Tiara entirely ignored Scootaloo, as the pegasus filly landed face first into the muck, in favor of grabbing her tiara before it sank into the mud.
“Hey guys! I think I found Mr. Squirmy!...No...it's just a stick. Uh, guys?” Snails looked around oblivious to what had unfolded.
Lancer just facehoofed from the sidelines. She couldn't remember ever seeing such a disaster of a start on the obstacle course. Sure, a lot of foals never finished the course, in it's entirety. But this...?
One filly was dangling from a rope, on the verge of tears. The colt was up to his neck in mud, as he searched around for a worm, oblivious to his cabin mates. The little orange pegasus was flailing her hind legs about, as she tried to extract herself from the mud. And of course, there was Ms. Diamond Tiara...
At Lancer's side, the unicorn mare idly considered the stopwatch, before blandly observing.
“So...I think it's safe to say they're done.”
“...”
“Pretty rough batch, for your first year as camp director.”
“...”
“But hey...it could be worse.”
“...”
“And I'm sure you'll manage. Big, strapping soldier like you? It'll be no problem at all, right?”
“...”
“...you can scowl at me all you want. It's just gonna give you wrinkles.”
Sighing at the antics of her colleague, Lancer turned to her side “Thank you, just, so much. That's a big help, Arcana.”
“Anytime, Lancer.” The unicorn responded, ignoring the sarcasm, as she idly hit the button to stop the timer.
A few minutes later, Delicacy was being deposited back on solid ground, after having been coaxed from the rope by one of the camp's staff. And through the whole ordeal, she had managed to avoid becoming covered in the same muck as her cabin mates, somewhat miraculously. That is until Snails made an attempt to shake off the mud clinging to his own coat, tail and mane.
“Wow. There was a lot more mud than it looked like, huh? And a lot more worms too. It's gonna take forever giving them all names...uh, Delicacy? Are you alright.” After finally noticing the now equally dirty unicorn filly staring at her now thoroughly soiled coat and mane, he tried prodding her.
“Oh, wow. You really got a lot of mud on ya, Delicacy.” Snails observed.
Delicacy looked over at the colt with a bit of incredulity, before just sighing “...yeah.”
Meanwhile, a fairly burly Earth pony stallion was busy keeping some space between two very irate fillies.
“This is totally your fault, Tiara. We coulda won this if you hadn't been so selfish!” Scootaloo shouted as she tried to wipe away some of the mud from her face.
“Teeth marks! You left teeth marks on MY tiara!”
“It's just a stupid piece of jewelry!”
“You're stupid!”
“Alright! That's enough you two!” Lancer called over sharply, as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. The stallion just blandly rose an eyebrow at the mare's outburst, before looking back to the two fillies. To Lancer's credit, she had managed to startle the two from their row. Before the two could get into it again, the stallion gestured towards Delicacy and Snails.
“You two should go over with the rest of your cabin mates, while we wrap up. You'll have a chance to shower off, after we're done.” Stalwart Gaze quietly suggested. At their hesitation, he pointedly glanced towards Lancer. Quickly picking up on this the two of them, only sparing one another a glance, cantered over to the two unicorns of Cabin 12.
Stalwart Gaze merely rolled his eyes at their continued antics.
“Foals these days...”
As promised, over the course of the next half hour, they wrapped up everypony's run on the obstacle course and gave everypony the chance to shower off, and gave them all a brief break. Most of the foals were milling about, with the exception of Cabin 12. They mostly stood to the side, with Delicacy and Snails watching awkwardly as Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara did everything they could to ignore one another. It could have been worse, particularly if the camp's staff hadn't sent someone to keep an eye on them. And even if all it amounted to was Silver Shield, also awkwardly watching as the two fillies ignored one another, at least it stayed relatively peaceful.
And for the first time since getting to the camp, Diamond Tiara wasn't interested in sharing her many complaints with everypony. She was far too aggravated to complain out loud. Wiping her mane from her eyes again, she steadfastly re-focused on trying to clean the mud from her tiara. Unfortunately, it's delicate work had allowed for no small amount of mud to slip into small, difficult to clean areas. Especially if one was relying on their own hooves...and if their stupid mane kept getting in their eyes.
Diamond Tiara quietly grumbled as she again had to move her mane from her eyes. What order she had managed to coax into it that morning had been lost, when she had gotten cleaned up, in what the camp generously called 'showers'. Really, they were little more than bare water pipes attached to a wooden scaffold. And they were so...public. The camp didn't even bother setting up stalls to give a bit of privacy.
Meanwhile, Scootaloo was trying very hard to tune out the chuckles and glances of some of the other foals. Sure, she didn't think that she was going to set any sort of record on the obstacle course, but she hoped to at least finish the thing. Or at least get past the first obstacle. Instead, because of Diamond Tiara, she ended up looking like a complete goofball, in front of everypony. And worse, she had faceplanted pretty badly into the mud, right in front of the ponies that were supposed to be covering the flying lessons.
It was about that time that the rest of the camp staff seemed to get through comparing notes, or whatever it was that they were doing, and began calling over the many campers. Silver Shield looked almost relieved when Cabin 12 went to join them.
“Okay, good job, everypony! Now that we got that out of the way, it's time we moved on to the tribe specific evaluations. Earth ponies, please follow Mr. Stalwart Gaze and Mr. Brick Brawn.”
Off to the side was a younger stallion, who began enthusiastically waving the Earth pony foals towards him, as the burlier, older stallion from earlier looked on somewhat impassively.
“Unicorns, go with Ms. Arcana and Mr. Silver Shield.”
The middle-aged unicorn mare from earlier idly nodded to the foals, before she turned her attention back to her clipboard. Silver Shield meanwhile, glanced between Arcana, the foals and the other groups, wandering if perhaps they were supposed to head off somewhere too.
“And Pegasi, you'll be heading out with Mrs. Rockette and Ms. Sea Breeze.”
And finally, there stood the bat-pony from the other day, asleep on her hooves, as a grey coated, red-maned pegasus mare at her side tried nudging her back to wakefulness. Unresponsive, at first, Ms. Sea Breeze started tilting to her side, as Rockette's prodding became a bit more insistent. Before either of them knew it, a very confused, though awake, bat-pony was looking up from the ground.
“Waazzit?” the bat-pony asked rather sharply.
Mrs. Rockette simply tilted her head towards the quickly gathering Pegasi foals, as an explanation.
Sea Breeze blinked, before trying to suppress a yawn “Oh...right.”
Soon Diamond Tiara was standing amongst a bunch of her fellow Earth pony foals. And still trying to get both her mane and her tiara into their proper states.
“Do you think perhaps you should have left that back at your cabin?” Another foal idly asked Diamond Tiara, as she again readjusted her tiara.
Diamond Tiara responded by sending an annoyed look towards the other foal “Oh, what do you know!”
Quickly dismissing the disgruntled foal and the grumbling of some of the other nearby foals, Diamond Tiara chose to turn her attention to the two stallions at the front of their group. While trying to keep from tilting her head too much, and causing her tiara to become dislodged again.
About that time, the copper-coated, umber-maned stallion, Stalwart Gaze, cleared his throat “Alright, everypony. What we have planned for today is-”
The red-coated stallion, with a brick wall for a Cutie mark, coughed at Stalwart's side“Not to interrupt, Mr. Stalwart, but perhaps I should take care of this part. I know they made you senior officer, but I do have some experience with this sort of thing.” the younger stallion finished in a rather smug tone, as he brushed his dark gray mane to the side.
Stalwart Gaze, and a fair number of the older foals, raised an eyebrow at this, before Stalwart Gaze just shrugged and gestured with a hoof for Brick to go ahead and take the lead.
“Thank you...Now to get started, we'll be taking a bit of time to stretch and get warmed-up before we start our run. Then-”
“That's the special lesson you have planned for us? Running?” Diamond Tiara asked. Despite her rather sharp tone, a few of the other younger foals did seem a bit skeptical too.
“I, well-” Brick Brawn not really having expected to be interrupted, stumbled over his words a bit, before Stalwart Gaze took the lead again “Good question. The short answer is, yes. While all ponies have their own inherent magic, Earth pony magic is somewhat subtler than that of of pegasi and unicorns.”
“Right! Exactly.” Brick quickly recovered and went on to take the explanation from there “Earth pony magic-...that is you can't really see it in action. Rather than casting spells or making weather it-...”
As Brick drew to another pause, Stalwart leaned in and offered up a word “Permeates?”
“Yes! It permeates our bodies and the land. So our magic tends to make us stronger and sturdier, but it also gives us a stronger connection with the land. It's why you can see so many Earth pony farmers.”
A colt, a bit of ways from Diamond Tiara, raised his hoof before asking “So, we're going to...plant stuff?”
Brick rubbed the back of his head at this “Uh...well, no. We do have a garden that we encourage the campers to help with, but-...Alright, so it's like this, our magic tends to make us tougher and stronger, right? Well it also tends to work the other way around. If you're really healthy, so is your Earth pony magic. Which then makes you healthier and stronger. Get it?”
As Brick awkwardly finished, a silence hung over the group as most of the foals looked up to the two stallions, most of their faces showing looks of skepticism or confusion. Stalwart Gaze closed his eyes before shaking his head “Again, the short answer is, yes. We're going to be exercising.”
A moment later, Diamond Tiara huffed “This is-”
A little while later...
“-...s-stupid...mane...”
Diamond Tiara was huffing and wheezing, as she plodded forward slowly along the worn dirt path, her mane again hanging in front of her eyes. In the distance she could see the rest of the foals well ahead of her, as well as the marker for the first stopping point. Out of breath from trying to keep up with the rest of the foals earlier, and her hooves and legs aching from the galloping, then walking, Diamond Tiara steadily drew to a halt.
“Come on, kid. It's just a little ways further, to the first marker.” Stalwart Gaze said from at her side, having stayed back as she had fallen behind the rest of the group.
Diamond Tiara let out a groan, before continuing in between breaths “So stupid...waste of...time.”
“Only going to take longer, at this rate.” Stalwart quietly pointed out, causing her to glare at him out of the corner of her eye. This incidentally caused her to finally catch sight of his Cutie Mark, a half-lidded eye. Which seemed kind of funny to her, as she really wanted to lay down...
“If you're at your limit, I can carry you the rest of the way.” The stallion offered.
Suddenly, shaking her head she growled out between gasps for air “I'm not some...baby. I can do this...on my own!”
Rearing back, Diamond Tiara set a renewed pace for the first marker, eyes focused on the group of foals gathered together about a hundred yards ahead.
A few minutes later, Stalwart Gaze was cantering easily up to the rest of the foals that had chosen to stop at the first marker. Stepping up to a water spigot that had been set out for those that were dehydrated, the stallion leaned down to let the exhausted Diamond Tiara slide down from his back. As she stood up on wobbly legs, and made a point of not looking at the other foals around her (if she had, she might have taken some comfort in the knowledge that most of them looked pretty exhausted too), Stalwart Gaze retrieved her tiara before delicately offering it back to her.
“Might want to leave this back in your cabin next time.” He quietly suggessted.
Diamond Tiara tiredly took back her tiara, before grumbling.
“This...is...so...unfair.”
A little ways away from the obstacle course still stood all of the unicorn campers, in front of a jade coated unicorn mare sporting a pale mane with vivid yellow streaks. Along with Silver Shield, most of them were watching Arcana, as she continued to scribble away at her clipboard. Getting a bit uncomfortable with the continued silence, Silver Shield felt it fell to him to ask the question that everypony there was thinking.
“Soooo...Ms. Arcana. Should we be...going somewhere?”
Again not looking up from her clipboard and pen, the mare answered evenly “No. Here, will be fine.”
“Ah...I see.” Silver Shield nodded at her answer, before shuffling his hooves.
Pausing briefly, to glance towards Silver Shield, Arcana spoke up again “But, if you're feeling restless, you can go retrieve some things that we'll be needing.”
“Of course! That is...I'm happy to do anything I can to help.” Silver Shield, rather pleased at the prospect of doing...well, anything other than sitting in uncomfortable silence, nodded to the older mare.
“Right. Head over to the storage shed. There should be a couple of sacks sitting out front. Go grab those, will you?” Arcana quietly explained to the eager-to-help stallion.
Silver Shield sharply saluted, before running off on his task, with the many foals watching as he galloped off. A few minutes later, which was filled with the quiet murmurs of confused foals, Silver Shield returned, with two rather large sacks slung over his back. With a slight strain in his voice “Here we go, Ms. Arcana. Right where you said they would be.”
“Excellent. I suppose it's about time we get started...” Clipping the pen to her clipboard before setting them both to the side, the unicorn mare looked up towards the gathered foals. Clearing her throat, she began “Alright, as you heard earlier, my name is Arcana. You may call me Ms. Arcana. I'm a professor from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but I also serve as the Expert Consultant on Magical Affairs for the Royal Guard. And here is my junior officer, Mr. Silver Shield -you can set those down anywhere- from the Royal Guard, and we're going to be doing a simple evaluation of your magical abilities.”
As directed, Silver Shield set down the two sacks, with one of them giving off some metallic clanging as it thudded to the ground heavily.
“Thank you, Mr. Shield. Now, we have three sections to this little test. The first two will be focusing on telekinesis. To that end, we will be testing your overall strength and magical endurance, using these...”
As she trailed off, her horn lit up causing the heavier of the two sacks to open, allowing several metal spheres, of different sizes, to float out. Setting them out in front of the gathered foals, arranged from smallest to largest, Ms. Arcana continued her explanation “All you need to do is lift the greatest weight you can manage, and then hold it for as long as you can. Quite simple. And for your second test of your telekinesis, you will be using this...”
Out of the other sack, floated...what, to all appearances, looked to be a length of string. At the skeptical looks sent her way, Arcana rolled her eyes, before then using her own telekinesis to tangle the length of string into a messy knot.
“The second test will be a test of your telekinetic control and finesse. All you need to do, is use your telekinesis to untangle the string as thoroughly as you can...and before anyone gets any smart ideas, you may not break the string in the process. If the string breaks, by accident or by design, that's the end of the test. Everypony understand so far?”
After a few nods, and a chorus of “Yes, Ms. Arcana” from the foals, the mare set down the string “The third part of our evaluation is free form. You will all be allowed a few minutes each, to show off any additional magical abilities you may know...so if everypony is ready, let's get started. Thankfully, we have an extra set of weights and plenty of string. So if we could form two lines, one in front of myself and one in front of Mr. Shield...”
In short order, the many unicorn foals had been organized into two, roughly equal, lines, with Delicacy standing in the line for Ms. Arcana, and Snails in the one for Mr. Silver Shield. Conveniently enough, they were both about the same distance from the fronts of their respective lines, making it pretty easy for Snails to chat up his cabin mate.
“So what kind of magic are you gonna do, Delicacy?” Snails idly asked the unicorn filly.
“What? Oh...I don't know. I don't really know anything aside from telekinesis.” Delicacy explained.
“Wow...you must be really, really, good at that then, huh?” Snails exclaimed.
“W-what do you mean?” Delicacy asked, not really following the colt's reasoning.
“Since you can't do anything else, you must be great at the thing you can do, right?” Snails cheerfully clarified.
“N-not...really.” Delicacy responded, now worrying about her future performance.
“Oh. Well, that's OK. I'm not really good at telekinesis either.” Snails grinned at this admission, failing to notice the negative effect his words had on his cabin mate.
And far too soon for Delicacy tastes, she found herself standing in front of Ms. Arcana. Idly shifting on her hooves, she watched as the unicorn mare pulled out another length of string and knotted it up. Up this close, Delicacy was finally able to get a good look at the mare's Cutie Mark. On the mare's flank was some sort of staff, that seemed to have lightning bolts radiating out from it's top. Delicacy's gaze was soon broken, as Ms. Arcana got her attention.
“You're free to start when you're ready, and with whichever test you feel more comfortable with.”
Delicacy nodded towards the mare, before stepping up a bit closer. Looking between the two tests, she bit her lip in consideration, before turning towards the knotted up string. Thus far most of the campers seemed to have preferred the simple weightlifting test; more than one foal had gotten quite frustrated with the string test.
About a minute later, Delicacy let out a held breath, as she undid the last tangle in the string. At this Ms. Arcana rose an eyebrow, before commenting “Hmm, very nicely done, Ms. Delicacy. And in fairly short order. Alright, take a moment, then you can try with the weights.”
Delicacy nodded, before setting the string to the side, and facing the weights lined up in front of her, the lightest of which looked to be only a few pounds. After about a minute of hesitation on Delicacy's part, Arcana sent a glance towards the filly, obviously wondering what was taking her so long. Swallowing, as she realized she couldn't stall any longer, Delicacy's horn lit up, and wrapped the smallest of the metal balls in a magical aura. For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. At this, Delicacy closed her eyes, and tried putting as much concentration into it as she could. Ultimately, all she managed was to get the ball to wobble around, before it lazily rolled forward few inches, and came to a complete stop. Delicacy, though winded, still had the presence of mind to look rather embarrassed by her performance on this test.
“It does seem we need to work on your magical strength. Alright, take a breather with the others.” Arcana calmly noted.
Delicacy simply nodded as she trotted away, her head hung low.
Just as Delicacy wrapped up her test, Snails was stepping up to his own test. Silver Shield finished giving some words of encouragement to the last foal tested, before turning towards Snails. With a smile, he nodded towards the colt “Alright, Mr. Snails. Show us what you can do.”
Nodding happily, Snails then looked intensely between the two tests, even bringing a hoof up to rub his chin in thought. After a little bit of this, Silver Shield chuckled a bit to himself “Anytime, kid.”
Broken from his thought, Snails blinked, before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and nodded to the stallion. Spreading his legs out, Snails pointed his horn ahead, and began visibly concentrating. A few magical sparks, then a full magical aura popped up around the colt's horn as he concentrated very hard. Having closed his eyes to concentrate, Snails soon reopened them at the sound of buzzing. Looking up he saw a small cloud of small flying bugs floating around his horn. Silver Shield rubbed the back of his head, a bit bemused by this development.
Grinning sheepishly, Snails quickly explained “Sorry about that, Mr. Shield. I sometimes get that mixed up with moving stuff.”
Silver Shield nodded at that, before considering the situation “Alright then...well, let's try this then. Try again, but this time try to empty your mind. Once you feel the magic, we can go from there.”
Snails nodded amicably, shaking off the cloud of insects in the process. Again, the young colt pointed his horn forward, and began concentrating. Soon enough another magical aura had popped up around his horn.
“Alright. Now I want you to grab that magic and just move it forward. Just think about it getting closer to me and the tests.” Silver Shield directed, in an encouraging voice.
Nodding at the advice given to him, Snails kept his eyes nailed shut, as he tried to push his magic over towards the testing equipment. And, though he still had his eyes closed, it did feel like his magic wasn't just floating around his horn anymore. He started getting excited, but before he could start on the tests itself, the colt again heard the distinctive buzzing of a cloud of insects.
“Awwww, I almost had it...Uh, Mr. Silver Shield?” Snails finally looked over towards Silver Shield. The stallion seemed to be standing very still...probably because of the large cloud of bugs where his head should be.
“Uhhhh...Ms. Arcana?” Snails quietly called out.
The moment Arcana turned back from Delicacy to see why she was needed, also happened to be the moment that Silver Shield's self-control gave out.
“Aahhhhhhh!!” Rearing back, the guard pony soon took off at a run, screaming all the while. This, unfortunately, left the swarm of insects rather agitated. As he galloped to and fro, the now angry, cloud of insects following, the foals looked on and occasionally stepped out of the way of his frantic dash about the field.
As Silver Shield gallivanted back and forth across the field, Ms. Arcana considered Snails for a moment “An impressive summoning spell, for your age. But next time, save it for the free form part of our evaluation.”
“Uhhhh...” Snails didn't seem to be paying much attention, being far more concerned with Mr. Silver Shield. Glancing back towards the stallion, Arcana sighed to herself, before a magical glow formed around her horn.
There was a sudden pop, as a bucket appeared above Silver Shield's head in a magical burst, and quickly emptied a large amount of water over the stallion. Startled by suddenly being drenched, the stallion quickly tripped over his own hooves and tumbled into the ground. With the insects dispersed, Ms. Arcana cantered over to the stallion, as she dismissed the bucket she had summoned. She looked him over briefly, before asking him in a business-like tone “Any injuries to report, Mr. Shield?”
Looking up from the ground, and still in a daze, the stallion considered the mare for a moment “...I think I swallowed a bug...?”
Scootaloo couldn't decided whether she was more excited or more nervous. She'd spent the whole last month, whenever she wasn't making sure she was on her best behavior, trying to improve her flying skills. She was so sure that she was getting better. But she'd just faceplanted right in front of everypony. She was still shaking mud out of her ears. Which was just as well, cause she was pretty sure she heard some snickers from some of foals around her, at her expense. Taking another moment to tilt her head and tap her hoof against the side, in the hopes of dislodging the last of the mud, she did catch sight of something that shook her from her worries.
'Pretty safe bet, that Ms. Sea Breeze isn't worried about anything.'
Just up ahead, Scootaloo could easily watch as the bat-pony from earlier listed off-course from everypony else. Mrs. Rockette had to take a moment to prod the bat-pony back into partial wakefulness, before she was able to get her back on course.
"I wonder what's up with her?" Scootaloo asked aloud.
Surprisingly, she actually got an answer. One of the older colts leaned over "I'm guessing nopony told her about the Evaluations."
Scootaloo looked between the colt and Ms. Sea Breeze again, not really following what the older colt meant "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Uh, you're new right?" At Scootaloo's nod, he continued "Well, you remember how they said that she volunteered to take on the night watch for the month? Normally, the camp tries to cut anypony stuck with the night watch some slack. Ya know? Let them sleep in, catch some naps during the day, that kind of thing."
Scootaloo nodded "But...if they let her sleep in..."
Another filly, chimed in "The thing is, everypony has to show up for the Evaluations. Including the staff. It's mandatory."
The colt took back over, after nodded towards the filly "Right. So, she's probably been awake since yesterday morning."
Scootaloo nodded in understanding, which was just as well, given that they didn't have anymore time left for chatting "Okay, everypony! We're here!"
At the front of the group, Rockette, faced the crowd of pegasus foals, after taking a moment to get Sea Breeze's attention once more. Rockette seemed to have a light gray coat, a deep red mane and tail, with an actual rocket, in-flight, as her Cutie Mark, and a pair of old flight goggle hanging around her neck. Looking with a bit of concern over the bat-pony, Rockette was quickly waved off by Sea Breeze. Evidently taking the bat-pony's word on the matter, the pegasus continued speaking.
"Alright, everypony. I'm Mrs. Rockette, if you don't already know me. Feel free to just call me Rockette or Rocky or whatever. As long as I know you're talking to me, it's fine. I'll be your senior officer for our flight classes. And before anyone asks, I am, in fact, a former Wonderbolt. With me-..."
Pausing as she saw several raised hooves "And, yes, I said former Wonderbolt. I'm retired. Now-"
Pausing again, as she saw several hooves again raised in the air. Sighing, she closed her eyes "We're not getting into why I retired."
Somehow without looking up, the pegasus mare seemed to just know that some foals still had their hooves in the air. Sighing, she answered the question that she knew was coming "You may have known me as the 'Rocket-Mare' when I still performed...and I'm not taking anymore questions."
Despite Sea Breeze's clear exhaustion she still managed to chuckle, at the sound of the disappointed foals, earning an annoyed glance from Rockette. "As I was saying...with me here is Ms. Sea Breeze, from Princess Luna's Night Guard. She will be serving as the junior officer during our classes."
At her introduction, Sea Breeze halfheartedly waved to all the foals, before using her hoof to cover up another yawn.
Nodding again, Rockette resumed her explanation "To break it down simply, we have the Beginners Flight course, for those of you still trying to get off the ground. The Intermediate course for those that can already fly, but still need to master the basics. And finally the Advanced course, where we will cover some basic maneuvers and conditioning. We'll also be covering basic weather techniques in the Advanced course. We'll be figuring out where each of you are placed, here..."
At that point, Rockette gestured to, what seemed to be, a fairly straightforward flight course. Flying up to it, she guided the gathered pegasi through the course. "We start here, at this flag. From here, you take off, fly this way and land on this platform." Demonstrating the course as she went along, Rockette set down easily onto a small, but sturdy, wooden platform. Thankfully, it wasn't too high up off the ground, barely coming up to a grown mare's shoulders. The pegasus mare then lifted off again, and started weaving between a number of flags "From there, you'll take off again, weave through the flags till you reach the red flag. From there, you'll fly back and land on the platform. Simple."
Rockette quickly demonstrated the whole course for the gathered foals once more, before setting down in front of everypony again "We'll be going by how much of the course you complete, how well you fly and time, for placing you in our courses. And I don't want anypony worrying if they can't manage to take-off. We're fully prepared to teach you from scratch if need be. For those of you can manage it, I'll be flying by you through the course, keeping an eye on things. Meanwhile, Ms. Sea Breeze will-..."
Rockette paused, as she considered the bat-pony once more, and the fact that she was half-way to nodding off again "...she'll take notes."
A couple of foals giggled at this, before Rockette started getting them into order. Again, Scootaloo was torn between two feelings; she was more than a bit disappointed and relieved to be stuck at the end of the line. She wanted to show what she could do...but it also wasn't the worst thing in Equestria to get a chance to see how the other pegasi did, on the course.
And as the number of foals between her and the front dwindled, she could feel some of her confidence coming back. It seemed more than a few of her fellow campers weren't such hot flyers themselves. And while there were a fair few that Scootaloo could admit were way better than her, there were some that couldn't even get off the ground. Which she could almost definitely manage.
She was actually filling kind of pumped again. After all, what did Diamond Tiara or Snails know about flying?
"Alright, Ms. Scootaloo, come up to the line, and we'll get started." Rockette called, as she let the last foal join the others.
Scootaloo quickly ran up to the starting line, a determined look on her face. Rockette briefly glanced towards her junior officer again, to make sure she was still conscious, before smiling toward Scootaloo "Whenever your ready."
Scootaloo nodded, before setting her hoof on the starting line. Soon she had her wings buzzing, and could feel her hooves starting to leave the ground. Excited, she quickly glanced towards Rockette, with a smile, before noting the expression on the mare's face.
The former Wonderbolt seemed to have a light frown, as she looked Scootaloo over "Hmm...could you set back down, Ms. Scootaloo?"
The purple-maned filly scarcely needed to be asked, as she quickly plopped back down to the ground, worry evident in her voice "Is there something wrong?"
"It's nothing to be too worried about. This time, though, could you try flapping your wings slower?" Rockette calmly asked.
"S-slower?...I guess." Her doubt was plain, as the filly briefly looked back to her wings. Scootaloo had a hard enough time getting off the ground when she was flapping as hard and fast as she could. How could going slower possibly help?
Nonetheless, Scootaloo tried doing as she was asked. And despite her best efforts, after about thirty seconds of trying to get off the ground, Scootaloo turned back towards the older mare "I-I can't do it like this! I just need to get up a bit more speed."
Rockette shook her head, before explaining "It's not about not going fast enough. You're actually flapping too fast."
"What?!" Scootaloo couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"It's not a big problem. It's not even that uncommon." Rockette said in her most reassuring voice "It happens a lot with foals that try flying before their wings have properly developed."
"B-but I can totally fly! Watch!" Scootaloo again tried flapping her wings as quickly as possible. Within a few moments, the little filly was indeed hovering a few inches in the air.
"See?" But as she tried to prove that she could indeed fly, she ran into the same problem that she always ran into. She couldn't seem to control herself. Soon, she was starting to lean to far forward, and was forced to set down roughly to avoid completely losing control.
Rockette tried to explain "Listen, it's alright. Like I said, this isn't a big problem."
"But, what am I doing wrong?" Scootaloo asked, her eyes starting to get teary. She had spent a whole month trying to get better at flying. Really trying, so she'd be ready for this. And now, it turned out she was completely screwing up somehow.
Setting a hoof across the filly's shoulders, Rockette continued "You've got to remember that flying isn't all about how hard you're flapping your wings, when you're a pegasus. There's a lot of magic that goes into it too. Compared to a lot of other things that can fly, our wings are pretty small. Our magic helps make up for that. It sort of...gives us some extra lift. But when you're flapping as fast as you can, it starts to disrupt this magic, you see?"
As she explained, Rockette extended her own wings, and gave them a couple of slow flaps. But even as gently as she was flapping them, she still got a couple of inches off the ground. "Slower flaps mean that we can get more of our magic to do the work of keeping us in the air, and lets our wings guide and move us around. I'm guessing you've been having a lot of trouble with controlling yourself, when you get in the air, right?"
Taking Scootaloo's morose silence, as a 'yes' Rockette tried to bring her spirits up a bit "Hey, remember what I said. We have no problem, at all, teaching from scratch. We'll get this sorted out in no time. Alright?"
Scootaloo still sounded pretty disappointed, but nodded nonetheless "...alright."
"No worries now, kid. Now go on over with the others, while we wrap up."
A couple of hours later...
Sea Breeze snapped awake, before looking around in confusion. Thankfully, it still seemed to be light out, making the situation fairly easy to put together.
She had fallen asleep in a field.
Still groggy, the bat-pony tried clambering up onto her hooves, before realizing that she seemed to be having some unexpected trouble with the task. Looking down at her hooves, it quickly became evident that someone had done her the kindness of providing her a blanket...and what looked to be a note, written in large letters. Taking the note in hoof she checked it over real quick. On the front, it read 'LET HER SLEEP' with the word sleep underlined, obviously for the benefit of any pony that came across the sleep mare. The back on the other hoof seemed to be meant for her, and read 'Couldn't wake you. Or move you. Let you sleep.' in smaller writing.
After a moment of consideration, Sea Breeze simply shrugged, put the note back where she found it, and curled back up into the pleasantly warm blanket.
She had a few hours before nightfall.