Twilight's Friendship School and Summer Camp

by Violet Frost

Rescuing Luna

Diamond Tiara let out a sigh as the other campers introduced themselves. Apart from the little scaredey bat pony filly they all seemed to be normal. Some had come from Canterlot or other big cities, but most were from small towns that she had only heard of when her dad had debated opening another store.

"Now that we're all settled I we can get started on our first lesson," Princess Twilight began as she lifted up several pieces of multicolored chalk in her telekinetic grip.

"Boring," moaned the chestnut colored colt behind Diamond Tiara, who's name was Chinkapin.

"I think you'll be pleasently surprised," Princess Twilight remarked without turning around. Slowly the chalk began to move around in the board, drawing a picture that took up every square inch of the board. Several foals let out gasps as Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. She had seen Twilight carry an Ursa Major over the town, something like drawing a picture on a chalk board was child's play compared to that.

"This story should actually be rather familer to you," Princess Twilight shared as a blue alicorn with a mane of stars took shape on the black board. Facing the blue alicorn was a white one, with a multicolored mane and tale. "Today we'll be going over the tale of Nightmare Moon."

"Everyone already knows the tale of Nightmare Moon!" An aristocratic filly with a gold coat and frost white mane called out.

"You may know the tale told in history books," Princess Twilight told them, as her eyes moved around the crowd, but how many of you have heard it from the source?" This time nopony spoke up to interrupt the princess. Princess Twilight turned back towards the board, despite already laying down the chalk. Her horn glowed faintly as she began to tell the story.

"More than a thousand years ago, after Discord was defeated two alicorns became rulers of the land called equestria," the two alicorns flew to the top of the chalkboard, ponies emerged, bowing to them as crowns appeared on their heads. "Peace and harmony ruled the land, but it was a not to last. The elder one, named Celestia, rose the sun, and ruled over the day," the white alicorn nodded her head as her horn gained another few outlines to signify a glowing horn, and the sun rose from the left side of the of the board. Diamond Tiara was drawn into the tale despite her best wishes. The magic chalkboard keeping her attention as Princess Twilight told the familer tale.

"The younger one, named Luna, rose the moon, and ruled over the night," the blue one raised her head as the sun began to set, a pale silvery moon now climbing to the top of the board. The colors dimmed and the ponies who had been bowing began to curl up and fall asleep. And as time passed ponies began to show their love for the elder one, and the younger one felt no love from her ponies." The sun and moon moved faster now, and the ponies moved closer to the Celestia drawing leaving the Luna one teary eyed on the other side.

"In her sadness Princess Luna turned to the darker side of the night, her sadness became anger," tears stopped flowing as Luna's face took on a vengeful look, "and disappointment gave way to jealousy," the sun stopped in the middle of the sky as now a dark moon rose blocking out its light from the board. The Celestia drawing snapped its head toward its sister, as it became shrouded in shadow, "Gone was Princess Luna and in her place stood Nightmare Moon." The shadow's exploded as the two alicorns settled on the center of the board. Luna's had become inky black with armor and a crazy star filled mane and tail. "The sisters fought destroying the castle they had called home." Bright lines of chalk flew from both alicorn drawings as they flew around each other.

"It became clear to the elder sister that she would not be able to reason with her sister, and so she attempted to cleanse her sister with the Elements of Harmony," six gems appeared around Celestia followed by a rainbow beam hitting Nightmare Moon. "But Celestia had made a mistake. The elements were not made to be used by a single pony, nor did they appreciate being used against their bearer. Instead of cleansing her, the sealed Nightmare Moon in the moon." The moon turned bright as Nightmare Moons drawing was pushed into it, her silhouette coming into focus as it began to lower. "The elements broke their connection with Celestia leaving her unable to use them ever again."

"A thousand years passed, and Celestia, took a student by the name of Twilight Sparkle," Princess Twilight stopped as a drawing of her as a unicorn popped up on the board. "This student spent her time studying, while other fillies and colts her age spent their time playing." The chalk filly was suddenly surrounded by stacks of thick books, a thick pad of parchment and a quill scratching away furiously. "During her studies she came across the tale of Nightmare Moon. After discovering the exact time in which Nightmare Moon would return she sent an urgent warning to her mentor." A purple dragon appeared next the chalk pony, and with a breath of green fire the parchment disappeared and flew to the chalk Celestia. "Celestia told her student not to worry about Nightmare Moon and instead sent her away to the town of Ponyville," the books disappeared as the pony and dragon stepped into a chariot which carried them to the town which had just sprung up on the board.

"Despite Princess Celestia's orders to check on the preparations and to make friends the student was more focused on the possibility of Nightmare Moon's return. When she arrived in town she was determined to check on the preparations as fast as possible before trying to find more information," the purple unicorn bumped into a pink pony with curly hair, who immediately vanished into the chalk town. "The student first went to a farm named Sweet Apple Acres, to see how the food preparations were coming."

"The student met a pony by the name of Applejack, who in turn introduced Twilight to not only her entire family, but the large portion of apple dishes they had prepared as well." The chalkboard showed a bunch of ponies, lead by an orange one offering food to the purple unicorn. As the unicorn ate more and more her belly grew larger and larger, causing some of the students to giggle. "Full of food and feeling like she was behind schedule the unicorn raced off, taking a few pies with her for the road.

"The next part of her list included making sure the sky was clear," Several clouds appeared before the unicorn with a cyan and rainbow pegasus napping on one of them, "Which to her dismay had not already been done." Twilight continued on with her story as the characters on the blackboard acted them out. The foals laughed at the funny hairdo Rainbow Dash's tornado gave her, and how the student ran from her own party. They gasped as the enchanted light darkened when Nightmare moon took over the chalkboard and attacked the chalk guards. They went from shivering as Twilight described the trees to giggling at the ghosts as the chalk Pinkie Pie bounced across the board. They cheered for Fluttershy's bravery, and laughed at the vain sea serpent. They gasped when the Shadow Bolts tried to tempt Rainbow Dash and when the student fell of a cliff.

Diamond Tiara found herself at the edge of her seat. Storytime is for babies, she thought to herself, but it couldn't stop her from rooting for the little chalk ponies as they battled Nightmare Moon. It was a distraction from the desk she sat in, and for the moment she forgot about the other foals around her.

As the student named off the elements and blasted Nightmare Moon with a rainbow chalk beam Diamond lept up with the other children and cheered. As a chalk Luna replaced Nightmare Moon and the chalk Princess Celestia showed back up to claim her sister the story happily concluded. The lights brightened as Princess Twilight turned from the board, "This story was actually the first time I learned any lesson about friendship," She shared, sitting in front of her students. "The unicorn in that story who found the elements was me." She held a pause as gasps came from some of the younger students. She smiled, catching their attention was just part of the first day. "Can anyone tell me what made the elements work the second time?"

Diamond Tiara rose her hoof high in the air. "Was it because they weren't jewels but rocks?"

"Close, but not correct," Princess Twilight said with a smile, "While Gemstones have a crystalline structure that make it easier to use as a magic focus or magic battery the elements aren't pressure made, nor are they grown from deposits of minerals, and don't function like true gemstones," the foals glanced around with raised eyebrows, not understanding Princess Twilight's explanation. "Anyone else have another guess?"

"Was it because you needed more magic?" the golden unicorn filly asked.

Princess Twilight shook her head. "Any other ideas?" The foals remained quiet as she looked around the room. "Its because the elements of harmony are activated by friendship." Twilight went back to the board and cleared it off and wrote friendship at the top. "While you'll here you'll be exploring this magic, and how it not only affects the world we live in, but how it affects you as well."

"Doesn't that mean that only unicorn's should be here?" The golden coated filly snarked, a pointed stare towards the front row. The others who were unicorns chuckled and Diamond felt her face flush. She opened her mouth to answer, only to be cut off by the princess hers self.

"Perhaps if this was command magic," Princess Twilight Sparkle flatly looked at her seating chart before saying, "Golden Glass." Princess Twilight lifted her piece of chalk and wrote on the board three columns, Earth, Pegasus, Unicorn, before underlining all of them. She kept her flat look and addressed Golden Glass again. "Why don't you share why you think unicorns should be the only ones here?"

"Because unicorns are the only ones who can use magic! That's why they're the richest and best ponies!" Golden Glass iterated. "And besides you were a unicorn once." Princess Twilight's face went from flat to disappointment as Golden Glass continued to talk.

"Let me ask you a question my faithful students," She started holding her chalk underneath the Pegasus column. "What can Pegasi do that no other ponies can?"

"They can walk on clouds!" An orange pony with a darker orange mane said from the back.

Twilight nodded, moving the chalk to write 'Cloud Walking, passive type trait'. "Cloud walking is something only a pegasus can do. While there is the cloud walking spell, it wears off easily and only a few unicorns can cast it." Princess Twilight turned back to the foals and asked, "Can anyone else tell me another thing only pegasi can do?"

The bat filly, Sky Orchid raised her hoof, "Yes Sky Orchid?" Twilight prompted turning her head towards the dusky blue filly.

"They're the only ones who can dream walk, or manipulate the weather easily," the filly said slowly causing Princess Twilight to blink before writing down 'weather manipulation, active trait, day aligned' followed by 'dream walking, active trait, night aligned.'

"I was actually thinking about tackling night and day aligned ponies later," Princess Twilight shared, "So I'll give you a brief introduction before we continue," she began to lecture, explaining that while day ponies and night ponies had the same basic or passive abilities, they differed on two ends of the spectrum. This helped explain how ponies were able to survive so long as seperate kingdoms.

Diamond Tiara sighed. This was not as cool as the story. Her thoughts began to drift towards the filly who'd caused this whole lesson, Golden Glass. She frowned as she felt her face flush again. That filly felt she shouldn't be here because she was an earth pony.

"But this is deviating from the lesson plan," The Princess said shaking her head, "Let's move on to Earth Ponies. What can Earth Ponies do that other ponies can't?" The lesson continued on as she wrote, 'Extra Strength and Endurence, passive trait,' 'Growth and earth tending abilities, crystals (night), rock (day and night depending on the rock) and crystal (night). She smiled as she wrote under unicorn 'Command magic, active,' before turning to the class. "This is why all ponies are needed and special. While a unicorn may be able to grow a tree with magic, and a pegasi to tend to it with the right water to sunlight ratio, only an earth pony can accelerate growth and production without harming the plant or the earth. And just like all three tribes are needed for Equestria to function," she continued as she walked over to Golden Glass' desk, "So are all three users of friendship magic, and no tribe of ponies is better than any other tribe," she paused and looked disappointedly at the filly.

There was a sudden hush in the room. It was obvious that the lesson wasn't just because the Princess liked to lecture, it was because the filly had sad something bad. Most teachers would have demanded an apology, but instead she remained silent. Golden Glass fidgited a moment before saying, "I'm sorry."

Princess Twilight's ear twitched before saying, "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." She turned back towards the board and erased it, letting the foals sit in silence. She turned back around with a small smile on her face, "Now I have a fun activity for everyone, would you all please get up and stand next to your desks?"

Diamond Tiara wiggled out from behind her desk and stood up silently. She'd never seen an adult do something like that before, not accepting an apology from a foal. At least not an apology that came immedeatly after a lesson. Most of the time it was 'Now don't do it again,' or something like that. She glanced briefly in the direction of Golden Glass, the filly looked shocked, but whether it was Princess Twilight's behavior, or the fact that the desks had begun to melt into the floor was unknown.

Diamond Tiara gasped as her desk disappeared with a small ripple into the floor, before several pillows flew out of the supply cabinet and landed on the floor where the desks had been. The room began to darken and a colt exclaimed "Look!" as the crystal ceiling suddenly exploded with stars around them.

Little crystals, paper, and all sorts of arts and crafts items flew out next, each crystal hovering above the foals and glowing a dim light, as the arts and crafts items distributed themselves around the room, making five piles. "For your first friendship lesson, I want you to save Luna." Princess Twilight said before gesturing to the piles, "Luna felt lost without friends and ponies who enjoyed her night, and so you are going to make her a card or letter."

Diamond Tiara glanced at the paper to her left, sitting next to the art supplies. She flopped down on the pillow where her desk used to be, the dim light following her as she grabbed a piece of paper and one of the black colored pencils. As she began to draw she heard the scratching of pencils and murmers from other ponies around the room. It wasn't long before there was a shout, "Give that back!"

A dark pegasus filly in another group was holding the bottle of rainbow glitter with an angry Golden Glass staring her down. "I was using that!"

"Well maybe you don't deserve to use it!" The older pegasus filly countered.

"Give it back!" Golden Glass screeched.

"Make me!" the pegasus filly countered before both fillies were suddenly surrounded by purple bubbles and lifted off the ground.

Princess Twilight Sparkle walked over to the fillies as they both began to ramble about the other one starting it. "Stop." She commanded causing the two fillies to go silent. "Volcanic Mist, I understand your feelings about what Golden Glass said, but by taking the glitter from her you are only re-enforcing that other ponies are below unicorns by antagonizing her. Golden Glass, I don't expect the other foals to be okay with what you said, and I'm certainly not going to let it slide here. You and everyone else here has something they can teach and something they can learn." She lowered the bubbles letting them disapate. "I wasn't going to assign an assignment to work on during free time but it seems we need to establish a basis to work on." She walked to the chalkboard and wrote 'Freetime Assignment: Learn about your partner and give a good introduction about them to the class. "I will work on the partners while you continue with your letters and cards to Luna."

Comments

[Violet Frost]

5811511 Thanks :)

[badninja]

I am enjoying this story so far. My question is where it DT's usual temperament? She is anything but this passive, even in her own thoughts she seems so passive it barely feels like her. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[Violet Frost]

5812519 Thanks for the feedback. I will admit Diamond is hard for me to write, but I am planning on showing more of her show side soon.