"Mom, stop! I'm too old for this!"
Sarah's protests fell on deaf ears, she got a good and firm hug. Angel's dainty hooves brushed Sarah's muzzle slowly. "I know Sarah, but both you and Emerald are starting to become mares. It wasn't long ago that I had you hiding between my legs when we went to that camp and I had to coax you over to them. And now you're running off on your own like your sister. Is there anything you need?" She asked and started opening Sarah's steam bag magically.
"Hey! Mom, I've got my diary and saddle stuff in there!" She shrieked, and dove upon her bag, immediately zipping it back up. "I'm too old for you to be going through my stuff!" She insisted, sitting on the bag. "I have everything I could possibly need, I can do this mom, I'm not a foal anymore." She promised.
"I know you can, but are you sure, you.. no?" She stepped away from the bag which Sarah guarded so jealously. "Well alright, I can teleport you to the train station if you don't want to walk. At least let me do something. You're a grown filly, but I don't like seeing you running off all alone. Have you said goodbye to Roll and Quick?" She asked shifting her wings slightly. "Emerald is meeting me at the spa today, I'll tell her goodbye for you."
Sarah rolled her eyes. She didn't want to appear suspicious. She WAS at that fiercely independent age. "I'll be fine, mom. Really. I can do it by myself." She insisted. "I didn't say goodbye to the boys, I don't want them getting all emotional." She made a face. "I'm gonna be back in a few weeks, it's no big deal. It's just a four week summer camp. You know, trying to get my cutie mark and all. I love you, mom. I'll be back before you know it."
Angel gave Sarah another hug for good measure, adding to it with her wings. The feathery sheets practically enveloping Sarah in a cocoon. And then she let go, folding them neatly back onto her back where she kept them mostly. It was easier for Roll and Quick to coax her into showing them the wings, because they needed to learn how to use their own. She nuzzled Sarah. "Good, now that's enough, otherwise I'm going to put you in a crib and sing you lullaby's. You're still my little filly. Now you go and have fun at the camp."
Sarah kissed her mother on the cheek, and hurried out the door. She took several twists and turns in order to lose any followers, and the first stop she made was the mailbox which she'd submitted for a false address several weeks ago, just to see if she had been sent any further information. After that, she'd make her way over to the Theater for orientation.
There were no further information given at that address. The house looked as abandoned as before. No one seemed to have come by to check up on her background, quite possibly because the list of candidates her father had submitted had already gone through a vetting process. On the way to the theater she had to make the stop for the coat change. Emerald was already there, but she managed to avoid her sister. It took just about all her bits, but an hour later she emerged orange, with a peachy coat, keeping her red mane. The Theater consisted of two parts. The very most old part which was where the shows were performed, and some studios and workshops which recently had ceased to be of use as Luna's donations had given them the ability to move to larger locales. They had been situated out of sight behind the theater.
The few times Sarah had been near the place, they had looked decrepit. Situated inside an alley away from the main street, the buildings looked dusty and cobweb ridden. Thankfully they no longer had the appearance of disuse. There was a sign over one of the entrance doors announcing this as the "Drama Camp for Aspiring Young Actors." A brown pegasus filly landed not far from Sarah, inspecting the sign on the building, reading a slip of paper she had. Lighting the paper on fire and throwing it onto the pavement. She then proceeded single mindedly towards the entrance. This was the place.
Sarah was just about to ask if this was the right place, but the pegasus raised a hoof to silence her, and she was ushered inside without a word. She adjusted the bag on her back, walking quietly further into the building. She felt horrible for having lied to her parents, but this may very well be the only chance she'd ever have to really amount to something, cutie mark or not. She was tired of being laughed at, and being told she didn't truly belong to any of the three factions only made her determination grow. She'd show them. She'd show all of them.
The pegasus greeted her kindly as they both neared the entrance, though she seemed every bit as bold and determined as Sarah was. It was hard gauging her at such a short notice, but Sarah felt that this pegasus was in it to win. "I'm Blitz." She extended a hoof. "Wait till we're inside to chat." There was an earth pony near the entrance who silently took their tickets. Though he was casually dressed he stood rank and stiffly, like one of Celestia's guards.
"Follow the red line down to the open studio, you'll all wait there until you the Iron Jaw speaks to you." They were inside, following a corridor with a red marker laid out on the ground, it quickly went into a large empty studio. There was a table with some drinks on it. Other fillies and colts stood around.
"Two more competitors, that makes ten so far," said a blue pegasus sitting on the rafters up above.
Sarah was determined to make some new friends, but not to make them feel uncomfortable. "I'm Tumbleweed." She said, using the name she'd signed up with. She glanced around, there was a larger turnout here than she'd expected. She spoke briefly to the one called Rain Cloud, trying to keep conversation light. "So... um... come here often?" She joked.
He jumped, and fell towards the ground and stopped his fall with a dramatic flap of his wings, approaching Blitz and Sarah.
"You could say that. My father's in the Canterlot guard, and my mom served as well." Blitz raised an eyebrow, visibly unimpressed.
"Canterlot guards stand around and look shiny, it doesn't seem to have rubbed on you." Strangely she didn't comment on the fact that Blitz wasn't aware that this whole thing was run by the Evodian Special Tasks Force. Perhaps none except Sarah knew.
"Maybe you stand a chance after all." Blitz finished off her snarky response.
"Rain Cloud is is the name," said the colt. Whatever he was about to say was stopped as a stout looking earth pony wearing a blue military uniform arrived.
"Form a line!" He yelled. There was a short pause. "Are you all deaf? Form a line immediately!"
There was a moment of confusion as all the young ponies tried to form a line at once, resulting in several tripping over each other, but a line was formed rather quickly just the same.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Sarah whispered to Blitz.
"Shh!" He hushed her.
They stood side by side, he walked past them barely giving them a look. "You've been given a letter asking you to come and serve in the military in a mission that only you would be able to complete. What you haven't been told until now is that this is not the Canterlot military, but the Evodian." There was a lot ruffled feathers and Rain Cloud looked shocked. Blitz smirked. "Silence, I didn't give you the permission to move. Order in the line." He bellowed, and there was order again. "This is what the letter said to you, but I don't think a single one of you got it. I was tasked with determining if anyone of you could make it. Only a third of the candidates even showed up, the rest have had their memories modified. As will your own be, should you drop out. Oh don't worry, you'll have a nice set of memories of performing the Lunar Tragedy together. From now on no one gets to leave these rooms alone. You sleep where we and when we tell you to sleep, you eat when and only when we tell you to and only what we tell you to eat. You're all currently the lowest ranks in the military. Anyone with a uniform, insignia, medal, or anything of the kind should be treated with respect, and obeyed as it was Celestia herself who had commanded you."
"This is the first trial. You'll each be put in teams of three. You work together, and you fail together. If you don't have what it takes to hold together as a team, then none of you pass. So work to get your partner through." He explained.
"Sir?" A filly asked. He glared at her.
"You're quick, I didn't tell you yet that no one speaks directly to an officer unless spoken to. Consider that a warning." He read something. "Mayfly, you may speak, what is your question." She stood uneasily.
"There's ten of us, that makes for only three groups of three. And I haven't found anyone yet," she said. He looked kindly and sympathetically at her.
"Mayfly? Go to the entrance, left room on the right... this camp isn't for you. Don't worry, you're a good filly, but you won't have it in you." Looking shocked and a little defeated, she stood up, trotting past everyone, going into a full gallop tears streaming down her face. To the rest he barked. "You have a minute to form three groups of three. You get the ones you find, and there's no negotiations." Blitz immediately put her hoof on Sarah, looking at her. As the others were running around like headless chicken.
"I'll pull my weight, will you pull yours?"
Sarah looked shocked at the way he treated the child, but quickly straightened to attention when he looked in her direction. She looked at Blitz, and hoof bumped her.
"You have nothing to worry about with me. I'll pull my weight," Sarah said. She pulled up close to her, ensuring the two were partnered. "Who's our third? Should we get Rain Cloud? He seems like she knows a thing or two."
"Ten seconds!" Iron Jaw bellowed, and the ponies around Sarah and Blitz moved faster, two other groups and formed and within seconds Rain Cloud practically collided with them. Standing shoulder to shoulder to them. "No one else, without me you fail." And therefore logically he was in. "Form a line!" He bellowed and they all did, standing side by side. He inspected them all. "Today's schedule is simple, there will be hard physical exercises, followed by dinner and a test. Each day you'll be given a schedule to follow. A written copy will be sent to one of you each morning. You follow it or you fail. You make sure your partners know the schedule or you fail. You complete the tasks set, or you fail. And if one of you fail, you all fail. And expect every single group here to fail. Lunch starts now, you are allowed to eat. No snacking afterwards, and no sneaking food off the table." A table was pushed in featuring an inspiring selecting of bowls with uniformly grey alfalfa gruel. "Yummy." Rain Cloud said.
"I see Raincloud is eager to demonstrate a new lesson. You're all given points. They start at zero for all of you. Reprimands add points, failures at certain tasks add others. Get to a three hundred and you fail. His group just earned five points. The score never goes down so be careful, you've got a month to rack up a lot of points. Now... dismissed! Eat, you've got half an hour." Blitz waited till they were dismissed to backhoof Rain Cloud's head.
"Thanks a lot."