Twilight's Friendship School and Summer Camp

by Violet Frost

Preperation

Last week of school was probably the best time of year. No wait scratch that, the third best time of year for Diamond Tiara. Her birthday and Hearth’s Warming got her presents after all, and anypony who was anypony knew it was what you had that mattered. She walked to school with a spring in her step, as the warm sun warmed her fur making her tiara glint. Nothing to could ruin this day.

She stopped in front of the second biggest house in Ponyville, home of the resident silversmiths Sterling Silver and Silver Circlet. It was also home to Ponyville ‘s second most infamous filly. “Silver Spoon!” Diamond called out, “Silver Spoon, come on, let’s go!”

A sudden slam came from the back of the house a the gray filly finally made her appearance. “Sorry Diamond,” she said practically bouncing on the tips of her hooves, “I just got the best news in the whole world!” Without giving Diamond Tiara a moment to even ask what kind of news Silver Spoon blurted, “I got accepted to the Young Metalworkers Camp! I’m going to be spending my whole summer making things to show off at the craft and art show in Canterlot at the end of the summer!”

Diamond Tiara’s face fell to a frown, “The whole summer?” She and Silver Spoon typically spent the summer going shopping, swimming, and rubbing their good fortunes in other foals faces.

“Yeah!” Silver Spoon babbled not realizing how her friend was upset about this news, “Of course since I’m too young to be pouring the metal it will mostly be design and cold shaping. My parents and I are going today to get my own tools since I’ve been borrowing theirs. Its really hard to get in anyways, passing the interviews was hard…”

Diamond listened in silence. A whole summer just by herself? This day just went from the best day ever, to the worst in her whole life.

---

“Its not fair daddy,” Diamond whined as her butler served the family small bowls of ice cream for dessert. “Why can’t she just stay here?!”

“Well its a big opportunity princess,” Filthy Rich explained, “And its just for the summer,” he added as Diamond grunted as she took a big bite of her ice cream.

“Besides,” her mother Golden Tiara, a bright gold pony with a lavender mane mane, “We have something special planned for you this summer as well.” She pulled a small pamphlet out and scooted it across the table to Diamond Tiara.

“Twilight’s Friendship School and Summer Camp?” Tiara spat out as she read the title, the image of the blue crystal palace that stood near where the library had been was on the cover. “Summer school?!”

“Its not exactly a school sweetheart,” Filthy Rich started.

“Its very difficult to get into though,” Golden Tiara nodded, “Only those who Princess Twilight stated fitted her specific specifications could get in. She’s going to be working with all the children who attend.”

Diamond closed her mouth for a moment. On one hand Twilight was originally a boring nopony, but now she was a princess. But she was more focused on studying, how could something that boring be a good thing.

“She has many planned activities,” Filthy continued, “Including trips to Trottingham and Manehatten, and I think even one to the Crystal Empire.”

Diamond finally opened the pamphlet, sure enough there were three listed field trips as well as a final ‘surprise trip’ in the brochure. It proclaimed that the students/campers would be spending their time learning about the magic of friendship and getting chances to do things that all foals would enjoy doing.

She frowned as she turned the brochure over and over, there was no indication as to how the special foals were picked. She wanted to know how she caught the princesses attention after all. Sure she was special but unlike the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the stupid blank flanks, she held no connection to Twilight’s friends. And even if she had been picked, how could she be sure those babies weren’t let in as well?

---

Twilight went over her classroom checklist for a third time. Magic chalkboard, twenty desks, rulers, pencils, art supplies (a separate list), reference books (yet another checklist), before she finally turned out the lights and closed and locked the door. “I just know I’m missing something,” She mumbled as she opened up the door on the right hand side. Five sets of bunk beds for the ten fillies that would be attending. She opened a cabinet and pulled out yet another checklist. Did she have enough blankets? Sheets? Bathroom supplies? It had been tricky to convert the five rooms in this hall to be camper rooms and she wanted to be sure she wasn’t missing anything.

“Spike!” She called out, the crystal reverberating as she called. She’d quickly learned that if anyone spoke higher than an indoor voice the crystal would vibrate and carry the words throughout the castle. Very handy when you needed to get someones attention quickly.

“Yes, Twilight?” Spike’s voice came from the vibrating crystal walls, as well as thumps that indicated that Spike was running towards her. “What do you need?” The little dragon asked as he got to the door.

“Can you bring me the book that holds the standard muffle spell? And my notebook on the crystal frequency of the castle? Oh! and a book on magic crystals in general?” After the library had been blown up Celestia, Luna, and Cadence had seen to it that she had the books she needed to rebuild a library. Infact with the exception of the friendship court the entire first floor of the Castle had been turned into the new Ponyville library. That had been another doozy of a spell, having to move the kitchen to the second floor.

“Why would you want those for?” Spike asked as he carefully wrote down what Twilight asked for.

“I’m going to place a special muffle spell on these rooms, so I can tell when there’s trouble and so that me calling to you won’t disturb the students if there are any problems,” she told him as she called on her magic once more. Sure she could use a measuring tape to measure the room, but sometimes it was just faster to use spells to measure dimensions, especially when a magical harmonious crystal made up the walls.

She slowly began to make notes of the dimensions on the checklists, so she could make sure that the matrices would be correct. She hoped that she would be more successful with her endeavors than those who had tried to tackle the problem before her.

Not for the first time she began to wonder what it was exactly she was so intent on getting herself into.

---

Diamond Tiara looked glumly at the packed bags at the end of the bed. Despite the camp being in the same town she would have to stay at the Palace of Friendship with every other pony that would be attending camp. Her parents had packed all the recommended things in the checklist sent from the princess, as well as a few extras, mostly a journal and stationary, along with extra quills so she could write to them.

“What’s the point? You’re right here in town!” she had complained, the answer being that she needed to have a real camp experience. “Why can’t I just walk there every morning?” was met with the same response. “It’s not fair!” she cried when her parents limited the amount of stuffed animals that could go with her. How was she supposed to get to sleep without Mrs Gemstuff and Mr. Periwinkle?

“I don’t wanna go to this stupid camp,” she moped over a stack of pancakes, covered in her favorite boysenberry syrup, “Why can’t I just go to fashion shows with you Mommy?” she asked of Golden Tiara.

“Because you need time with fillies and colts your own age. Don’t worry sweetheart.” Seeing her daughter’s face she bent low and nuzzled her, “How about this, be a good girl and go to summer camp, and I’ll see about talking to Mister Snapshot about getting you in a foal line up. Perhaps in Canterlot?”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes went wide. Her cutie mark had shown up when she had performed in a for fun mother and daughter fashion show. Despite her wanting to go into modeling right away her mother had held her back, not wanting to expose her to the harsh part of modeling until she was a bit older. “You really mean it?”

“Of course! I can’t keep you from your talent forever can I?” Golden Tiara said with a smile.

Diamond shook her head and dove head first into finishing her pancakes. With a fashion show on the line this camp would be a fine way to spend the summer. She could handle it.

Comments

[LiterarySerenity]

5316868 Telling a story mostly through letters is great. You get to write from different perspectives while striving to make everything flow together into an overall narrative.

CrowMagnon suggested some nice ways to divide parts, especially the long line (almost like a page break). You can also insert a few symbols in-between like *** with additional space.

[Rhanoa]

This summer school sounds a lot like a re-educationnal camp man.