//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: Squad Up // Story: Diamond Tiara goes to Boot Camp // by dungeonguy88 //------------------------------// “Will you hurry up?” “Sorry, Diamond Tiara.” The Earth Pony filly, looked back to see Delicacy had picked up her pace, though not by much. After having come back from her little emergency, the young unicorn had been completely mortified by her outburst. The poor filly seemed to shrink every time a passing foal snickered, whether or not it was practical at the time to try to curl up into a ball. And sure, Diamond Tiara could understand being embarrassed about the whole thing... ...that didn't mean she liked that it was causing the unicorn to drag her hooves. Diamond Tiara's pack was still really uncomfortable and heavy. It had taken almost twenty minutes for all the foals to relieve themselves, after that Lancer mare gave them the opportunity to go to the bathroom; she seemed kind of annoyed by how much it had cut into her speech. By the time everyone had taken their seats she only had enough time left to go over a few rules, the curfew time and where all the cabin assignments were to be posted. Apparently there was always an early dinner held after Orientation on the first day, for the foals that hadn't gotten to eat while traveling to the camp, and no one wanted to keep the kitchen staff waiting. Ultimately, she decided to go over the remaining details in the mess hall, when everyone had gotten their food, and had sent the foals off to find their cabins and drop off their packs. “I still can't believe how much they're making us carry this junk. You'd think if this camp was so great they could afford to hire somepony for this sort of thing.” Delicacy glanced up at Diamond Tiara's complaint, considering it for a moment “...maybe they think it will help us build character?” “What character? The kind that carry junk around all day? I bet if my daddy knew what kind of an operation they're runn-” “Give it a rest already, Tiara!” Diamond Tiara's mouth snapped shut, before she glared back at the pony that had so rudely interrupted her. The purple maned pegasus trailing behind her. “I will not! It's stupid. And if you don't want to hear the truth, then I suggest you stop following us!” This time it was Scootaloo's turn to shoot a glare towards Diamond Tiara “You've been complaining non-stop, since before we even got here! And just because we're walking by you does not mean that we're following you!” “But, I thought we were following them, Scoots?” Chimed in Snails. “Pfft, just because we're going to the same place as them doesn't mean we're following her.” Snails bit his lip as he considered this reasoning, before responding “That makes sense, I guess...but didn't you say we should just follow them, since we didn't know where to go?” “Uh, well. Yeah, I meant we're just gonna follow everypony else. Obviously. It's not like I want to listen to her whining.” “I'm not whining!” Scootaloo just rolled her eyes at Diamond Tiara's objection, before she turned her attention back to the colt at her side. “Like I said, we're not following Diamond Tiara. Just everypony else.” “...bbuuutttt, you pointed right at DT and Delicacy.” “Hah! I knew you were following me!” “We are not!” “...are you sure we're not following DT, Scoots?” “Would you quit calling me 'DT' already?!” “Sorry, DT.” “Uhm, excuse me everypony? I think we're here.” Just a few paces a head of the arguing foals, stood Delicacy pointing to a large building behind her. With a lot of foals crowding around the front of the building, each trying to get a look at what seemed to be a large bulletin board. At the sight of the large crowd of foals in between her and a chance to drop off her heavy pack, Diamond Tiara let out a loud moan of frustration. Both Delicacy's and Scootaloo's ears flattened at the grating noise, though only Scootaloo chose to shoot a glare towards the Earth pony of their group. And, unfortunately, none of the ponies ahead paid any heed to Diamond Tiara's frustration, focused as they were on finding out where their own cabins were. “It's like these losers have no idea of how to get a move on!” Delicacy flinched again at Diamond Tiara's complaint, before offering up her own thoughts “Well, there are a lot of ponies here...maybe it's taking everyone a long time to find their names on the board?” Without even looking, Diamond Tiara gave off a dismissive grunt “That's hardly any excuse for everypony to be crowding and getting in the way like a bunch of little foals! Come on, we're-” “But, I thought this camp was just for foals?” Snails asked out of confusion. “That's not-...J-just come on! We're getting to the front!” Diamond Tiara just scowled as she marched up to the back of the crowd. Struggling to see over some of the older foals, she stretched and stood upon the tips of her hooves to try to see past everypony, but with all the foals shifting around and how far away she was from the bulletin board she couldn't make out anything useful. Huffing in annoyance, she glanced back to the three foals behind her watching. “Well, are you three going to help me or not?” Scootaloo scowled a bit, but before she could get in a word, Snails took the lead. “Sure, DT!” Snails grinned as he cantered up to the Earth pony filly. Scootaloo was just about to protest, that she wasn't going to help a jerk like Diamond Tiara, before she saw Delicacy cantering up behind Snails. Not one to be left out on her own, Scootaloo grumbled a bit before joining the others. “Fine, Diamond Tiara. What's your stupid plan?” Of course, she wasn't going to let it go unknown that she was unhappy about this. “Yeah, tell us DT!” “Don't worry, it's a plan so great even you two won't be able to mess it up.” Diamond Tiara reassured. “Well?” The pegasus asked doubtfully. “You two push the others out of the way so me and Delicacy can get up to the board.” Diamond Tiara smirked as shared her 'brilliant' plan. Scootaloo was having none of it however. “That's stupid! How are me and Snails gonna get to the front if we're busy pushing everypony else out of the way for you!?” Scootaloo asked angrily. “How should I know? And it's not stupid!” Diamond Tiara defended. “Is too! We might as well just do it on our own!” “Hmph! That's the last time I ever try to help you, blank-flank!” “You just want to help yourself, Diamond Tiara.” “Fine, don't come crying to me when you're sitting out here in the mud, while we're in our cabins.” “Hah! I bet I'll find my cabin way before you ever do!” “You're on!” Turning back towards the crowd of foals still in front of her, Diamond Tiara decided to simply use a re-worked version of her original plan. She'd just push her way through. It took all of about fifteen seconds, before an annoyed colt pushed back, sending Diamond Tiara tumbling back on to her backside. “Wow. That was super-impressive.” Scootaloo started chuckling, at the Earth pony's plight. “But...all she did was fall down, Scoots...” Snails pointed out, in confusion. “Sh-shut up!” Diamond Tiara shouted towards the others, before she started struggling with her pack “I just need to get rid of this stupid thing!” “Whatever you say, Diamond Tiara. While you're doing that, I'll be flying to the finish.” Scootaloo finished with a smirk. Glaring at the pegasus, Diamond Tiara managed to struggle out from under the weight of her pack, before dumping it in front of Snails. “Make sure nobody touches my stuff!” Diamond Tiara didn't even spare a second look towards the colt as she got ready to dive back into the crowd. “Ok, DT.” Snails happily agreed. “Especially the feather-brain!” Diamond Tiara shouted back as she took the plunge back into the crowd. “Who?” Snails tilted his head in confusion. Of course, Scootaloo had no trouble realizing who Diamond Tiara was referring to. Growling as she too tossed her pack at Snails' hooves. “Watch my stuff too!...I've got a race to win!” “Yep.” Bracing herself at the back of crowd, the little pegasus closed her eyes as she concentrated as hard as she could on taking off. And to her credit, within a few seconds Scootaloo found herself hovering a few feet off the ground. Looking down she exclaimed in excitement, as she turned her gaze to the crowd in front of her. “Yes! Victory, here I come!” Bobbing a bit in the air, as she almost lost her concentration, Scootaloo struck what she thought to be the most Rainbow Dash-like flying pose she could. “...” “...” “...” “...Uhhh, aren't you gonna go forward, Scoots?” Snails asked. “Y-yes. Just give me a second.” “Oh, ok.” Scootaloo concentrated as hard as she could on going forward for a couple of seconds, before she grew desperate enough to try just kicking her legs. Her struggle soon caused her to tilt forward a bit, and in turn start moving forward slowly. “Hah! I knew I could get it! Now Diamond Tiara doesn't stand a-” Scootaloo was abruptly cut-off from her self-congratulations as one of her hooves clipped the back of a particularly tall colt's head. While this elicited only a minor reaction from the colt, Scootaloo's was far more interesting. Suddenly tilting forward far more than she had meant to, Scootaloo quickly tried to beat her wings even harder in an attempt to fix the problem. Unfortunately, this was exactly the wrong thing to do as her wings pushed her head-over-hooves into the the tilt. She only had a chance to yelp in panic as she crashed into the crowd below. Watching this whole scene unfold by Snails at the back of the crowd, Delicacy soon voiced her thoughts to her sole remaining companion “So, should I, uhm...try to get to the front too?” “...” “...” “...” Curious about the lack of response from the colt, Delicacy looked over towards Snails to find him bent over, steadily following the path a beetle was making up the side of the packs he was ostensibly watching. Deciding against interrupting him when he was so...focused, she decided to simply slide her own pack by the others, before she edged up to the crowd and tried to follow the others. Ten minutes later... As the rest of the foals finally cleared the area, Diamond Tiara found herself once again scowling at the world in general. Even as the number of ponies between her and her goal had dwindled, she had been thwarted at every turn. And on more than one occasion, being thwarted had turned out to be synonymous with tripping into the dirt. Really, the only consolation for Diamond Tiara had been that Scootaloo had no better luck than her at getting to the notice board. As could be evidenced by the pegasus lying in a daze on the roof of the building the bulletin board had been mounted upon. Still intent on at least beating the pegasus to their goal, Diamond Tiara angrily stomped over to the now empty space in front of the board, ignoring Scootaloo for the moment... “Ooooo-k...I got it this time.” Scootaloo said from somewhere above. ...this turned out to be a mistake, considering that if she had paid heed, she might not have been standing where Scootaloo had “landed” this time. “Sorry...” Snarling again at her luck, as well as the filly on top of her, Diamond Tiara quickly rolled the dazed Scootaloo off of her. “Can you stop crashing into ponies for even one minute?!” Finally shaking herself back into clarity, Scootaloo soon barked back “I said I was sorry! It's not like I meant to...” “Did you guys finally get to the bulletin board?” Once again their argument was cut-short, as an exhausted looking Delicacy slowly cantered up to them. “And where have you been?!” snapped Diamond Tiara, still in too foul a mood. “Oh, uhm-...well, I got lost. And there was this foal that needed help finding the-...facilities.” Delicacy was cringing away from Diamond Tiara's ire. “That took you this long?!” “Don't yell at her!” Scootaloo cut in again, her anger re-ignited by Diamond Tiara's attitude. “Well...then another pony needed help finding the bulletin board...and someone else needed some help too...” Delicacy explained further. Growling again in annoyance, but not really willing to lay into Delicacy much more, just stood there scowling, as Scootaloo in turn glared at Diamond Tiara. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's all the yelling about?” The three were soon pulled from their respective issues, at the sound of a stallion's call. And indeed, a white unicorn stallion with a lilac mane, holding a clipboard in his telekinesis came around the building. “What are you three still doing here? There about to start serving in the mess hall.” The stallion, Silver Shield, questioned. Both Scootaloo and Diamond Tiara moved to answer, before they both saw the other doing the same. Glaring at one another, they soon both turned away from each other, each in a huff. Turning from one filly to the other, in the process showing off his Cutie Mark of a shield, the bemused stallion was almost ready to investigate their behavior, when Delicacy stepped forward to try to answer his earlier question. “We were...still trying to find out what cabins we were assigned...sir.” Raising an eyebrow, as he glanced between the group of foals and the bulletin board “All three of you?” “Well, yeah!” Scootaloo broke out of her sulking long enough to answer, leaving Delicacy to just second her answer with a nod. “Uh, well...if you guys are the only ones that haven't already figured out who you're bunking with...then it should be pretty easy to figure out.” Diamond Tiara finally pulled herself out of her pouting, at the suggestion that there was an easy way to figure who she was stuck with “What do you mean?” “Well, uh, there are only four foals to each cabin...and there are only three of you left, so...” It took each of them a moment to put together just what the stallion was implying. And a couple of more moments for Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo's jaws to drop. “So you're saying that...” It was Diamond Tiara that managed to ask first. “That you three are probably cabinmates.” Silver Shield answered with a bit of cheer. Delicacy nervously glanced between the two other fillies, wondering if perhaps this revelation had broken the two. She jumped in fright as they both suddenly pointed hooves at each other and asked the most pressing question on both of their minds. “Her?!” “Well, yes. You three and one more. Whom we should probably find before-” “Hey guys! Look!” Snails called. “Ah, that would probably be him, let's- WHOA!!” The stallion's sudden shout broke everypony from their respective thoughts, as they all turned to see what had startled him. “I'm making lots of friends too!” There stood Snails, a big grin on his face, just about covered in every kind of bug imaginable, without an entomology textbook on hand. "Aren't they cool? I call this one-” “Ahhhhh!!!” For the first time since they had arrived at the camp, Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo, and Delicacy were in perfect agreement, as they all shrieked and hid behind the stallion. “Uh, son? You-uhhh...You got something...somethings on ya there.” Silver Shield pointed out in his calmest voice. “Yep.” Snails agreed happily. “...alright then.” A little while later the four foals were walking into the, now bustling, mess hall. The stallion from earlier had managed to clear away the swarm of “friends” that Snails had made, and had managed to calm everypony down, in short order. Aside from Snails, who remained pretty easy going through the whole ordeal, and was disappointed at seeing all the bugs leaving. With that settled and reconfirming that the four of them were all indeed cabinmates on his clipboard, he sent them ahead to the mess hall, while he dropped off their stuff at the cabin for them. They were already running behind as it was, and the stallion knew that the camp director wanted to cover a few more things while everyone ate. As far as Diamond Tiara was concerned, the stallion taking care of her luggage had been the first good thing that had happened this whole trip. She didn't understand why it had been so hard to get a bit of service in the first place. And there was a bright side to being the last ones to the mess hall. Just about all the other foals were already eating so it didn't take the four of them long to get their own food... “What is this?” Diamond Tiara asked with a bit of distress, as she propped her two front hooves on the table to scrutinize the “food” that was being served. “I don't know but it's pretty tasty!” Snails was, naturally, already digging in with gusto. Apparently he had already forgotten the stomachache he had earned himself on the train ride, earlier. “Well...it does look kind of gnarly, but it doesn't smell too bad.” Scootaloo gave her own assessment as she prodded it lightly. It seemed to be some kind of pasta-casserole thing, with vegetables liberally mixed in. It was also vaguely gelatinous. Diamond Tiara glanced towards Delicacy, wondering is she had anything to add. The unicorn filly seemed much more concerned with trying to eat it properly than with it's appearance. With a small spoon gripped in her telekinesis, she seemed to be having trouble separating properly sized-out portions, and with keeping the gobs of food from falling off of her spoon. More than once Delicacy ducked away, scared of getting her coat messy, when a bit of the food rolled off her spoon and splattered back down. Watching as Scootaloo and Snails tucked into their food, and Delicacy struggled to do the same, Diamond Tiara gave her tray one more look before she pushed it away deciding that she didn't want to risk eating...whatever it was. “We sure are lucky, guys!” Snails exclaimed around his mouthful of food, causing the others to all glance towards one another in uncertainty. Scootaloo managed to ask first “Lucky how?” “Uh, well, we all get to be in the same cabin. And out of all the cabins we could have been put in, we all ended up in cabin 12! That's really lucky” Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes at the colt's assessment “Yeah, that's a kind of luck.” “Yeah. That's only one away from being stuck in cabin 13!” “What's wrong with cabin 13?” Delicacy asked this time. “I dunno. But it's gotta be bad.” “Oh yeah. I guess we did kinda lucked-out there.” Scootaloo agreed. “That's just silly. Nopony said anything about unlucky cabins.” Diamond Tiara argued. “Well, I guess. But it was really lucky Mr. Silver Shield came along when he did, right?” Snails pointed out. “It was nice of Mr. Silver Shield to carry our stuff for us...” Delicacy agreed with Snails. “Pfft, he probably would have done that no matter what cabin we were stuck in.” Diamond Tiara pointed out. “I dunno...maybe Diamond Tiara's right.” Shockingly enough this came from Scootaloo. “Hah! Even she realizes I'm right! There's no such thing as bad luck.” Diamond Tiara was looking quite smug about this declaration, until she noticed everyone else had edged away from her part of the table. “What?” “...I just said, you might be right...not that there is no such thing as bad luck.” Scootaloo clarified “And bad luck is always the worst when someone says there's no such thing as bad luck, DT.” Snails sagely explained. “My Auntie calls it tempting fate.” “Yeah, that's totally bad luck bait.” Scootaloo agreed. “You three are just hopeless.” Diamond Tiara, couldn't believe how immature everyone was being. “...” “...” “...” “...will you three stop staring at me!?” “We don't wanna miss it.” Scootaloo said. Sighing in annoyance, Diamond Tiara asked “What do you think is going to happen? I'm gonna get hit by a pie?” The other three looked towards one another, silently communicating with one another, before Scootaloo answered for them “That does...sound about right.” “I told you there is no such thing as bad luck. Look!” She soon started pointing her hoof around as she continued “No bad luck over here. None over here. And none over there. So will you three qui- Ahhhhh!” It wasn't a pie that struck, but rather a defective chair. More accurately, a chair leg which gave out from all the turning and shifting that Diamond Tiara was doing, sending her falling to the floor. “Is there any bad luck down there, Diamond Tiara?” Scootaloo teased. “Yeah, DT, what's it look like?” Snails asked earnestly. Scowling up from the floor, a fairly dirty floor at that, Diamond Tiara considered just staying there. At least until a pale blue hoof came into view. Grunting in annoyance, she took Delicacy's offered hoof and got back onto hers. “Maybe we shouldn't tempt fate anymore?” Delicacy quietly asked. Diamond Tiara decided against responding to that as she took a different seat at the table. She was ready to settle into a sulk, something caught her ear. As she started turning her eyes to the rest of the mess hall, she soon noted that the mare from the Orientation, Lancer, was standing up and seemed to be trying to get everypony's attention, with limited success. A few more moments of frustration, Lancer soon took to the air with a few beats of her wings, getting the attention of her fellow camp staff and a few of the nearby campers. She soon was level with a bell mounted on the wall, used for signaling when the meal hours began, which she quickly delivered a swift kick to. The loud noise soon got everypony's attention. A moment later Lancer was clearing her throat, as she flew back down to her seat “Now that I have everypony's attention, I'd like to cover a few things we didn't get to earlier. First of all, I mentioned that we have a strict curfew for our campers. Lights out, means lights out, barring emergencies. Or visits to the facilities.” A few ponies snickered at that, and poor Delicacy turned cherry red, before the pegasus mare continued. “To that end we usually have some of our staff patrol around after dark, in case anything comes up. Thankfully, this year we have a volunteer. Ms. Sea Breeze here-” “Excuse me, ma'am?” The bat-pony a few seats to her right, got Lancer's attention. “Yes, Ms. Sea Breeze?” “Uh, yeah. Hey, everypony...just a heads up I'm planning on changing the name, so-” “Have you changed it yet?” Lancer abruptly asked. “Well, no, still working on name ideas-” “Like I said, Ms. Sea Breeze here, has graciously agreed to take on the night patrols for us this year. Let's all try to show our gratitude by making it an easy job for her.” Lancer continued on, determined to not be dealt anymore interruptions. Sea Breeze looking a bit sheepish at her earlier interruption, just waved and grinned to everypony before sitting back down next to an older pegasus with a pair of goggles hanging around her neck, allowing Lancer to continue. “With that taken care of, I'd like to explain to our new arrivals how tomorrow is going to go. Wake-up call is at 7:30 AM, giving you till 8:00 AM to get cleaned up and get to breakfast. After which we're going to be taking everypony over for evaluations.” A few of the newer campers started murmuring to themselves, not quite understanding what the mare meant by evaluations. Soon Lancer was holding up a hoof for silence as she continued “Don't worry, it's just a way to get an idea of where everyone stands, where they need improvement, and so on. First we'll be doing a team exercise. You'll be doing this part with your cabin mates. Afterward, we'll be separating everyone up into their respective tribes so that our staff can likewise get an idea of where to place you in our programs. For example pegasi that are still learning to fly will go in the Beginners Flying group, unicorns with well-developed telekinesis will in the Advanced Telekinesis group, and so on.” That seemed to settle everypony's nerves pretty quickly. If anything, some foals actually seemed excited at the prospect, and Lancer had to quiet everyone down again, as they started wondering how well they would do “Naturally the first day, is going to be a bit hectic, as we are finding where everyone needs to go. But afterward the schedules should be more manageable. We'll also be doing another set of evaluations in the last week, letting you all see how much you've improved, and letting us know what we need to work on things to make the camp even better.” “And speaking of the last week, that's also when we'll be having our Talent Contest. It's open to everypony, and anypony can sign up on the bulletin board where you found your cabin assignments.” “Whoa! A talent show? That's great!” Snails, thankfully, had stopped eating before talking. “Sounds stupid to me.” Diamond Tiara groused, before deciding to ignore both the foals she was sitting with and the rest of Ms. Lancer's prepared remarks. “Heh, just means more time for the real stars. Right, Snails?” Scoots said. “Yep!...oh! Maybe I can do a super-awesome magic show, with fireworks and-and, uhm, magic!” “Cool!” Scootaloo quickly agreed with the idea. It was hard to beat foals playing around with fireworks. “What did you have in mind for your talent, Scootaloo?” Asked Delicacy. “I-...well, uh....I guess, another musical number is out...hmm...oh, well. I'm sure I'll come with something by then.” “You have to have a talent first, to actually be in a talent show.” Snidely pointed out, Diamond Tiara. “I-I've got a talent! I just don't know what it is yet! It could be anything.” Scootaloo defended herself. “I'm sure you'll think of something, Scootaloo. You have most of a month.” Delicacy reassured, causing Diamond Tiara to simply roll her eyes before laying her head down. She could scarcely believe it, but she couldn't wait to get to their cabin. She was all too ready to go to sleep, and for this day to end.