1.
The first thing you need to know about Camp Green Lake is that there is no lake. Perhaps if you visited the area over one hundred fifty years ago then it would have been a different story. Back then Green Lake was a prosperous settlement of earth ponies with abundant harvests and crops. They land was full of orchards that grew a wide selection of fruit ranging from apples to peaches.
Now it’s a barren wasteland and all that remains of the lake is the dried up lake-bed. There is no greenery around Camp Green Lake. Not even a single weed or shrub can be seen for miles. The only plant life and source of shade in the entire camp are two apple trees located next to the Warden’s home. Every inmate and counselor in Camp Green Lake knew that the Warden is someone you don’t want to mess with. It was one of the first lessons you learned there.
But surviving in Camp Green Lake required more than just avoiding the Warden’s wrath. You also were required to dig a hole four feet deep and wide. The official reason given to the officials was that the young inmates were digging to build up character. Yet for some reason the officials in charge seem to accept this and did not investigate further.
Every day the inmates were woken up before sunrise and given a shovel and went out the lake-bed to dig. Hopefully you would be finished by afternoon when the heat became the strongest. The scorching sun was only one of dangers the residents of Camp Green Lake had to face. There were also poisonous rattlesnakes and scorpions that had to be avoided.
Yet these by far was not the biggest threat, you also had to avoid yellow spotted lizards. If you were unfortunate to be bitten by a yellow spotted lizard, it would mean a guaranteed death.
2.
Scootaloo was sitting nervously in the stuffy courtroom. The prosecutor had been speaking for over an hour while giving her glances of distaste. Scootaloo did not understand half of the things that she said because she was using fancy, big and long words. She didn’t need to understand what she was saying to know that it was very bad.
Sitting next to Scootaloo was her lawyer. He was a portly stallion wearing a crooked tie and cheap suit that was unkempt at places. He smelled of cheap cologne and hair wax. He had of look of apathy as he played with a pen as he listened to the prosecutor present her case.
The prosecutor had finished speaking and took her seat. She was tan mare dressed in a sharp dress without any defects. She maintained a professional attitude thought her trial in contrast to Scootaloo’s lawyer who occasionally tapped his pen and adjusted his chair. The judge then asked the defense to present their argument and the stallion took the stand. He cleared his throat and spoke in a such a boring voice that would have made Scootaloo fall asleep it the situation wasn’t serious.
Scootaloo had to settle with this public lawyer to defend her case. Her mother couldn’t afford to hire a private lawyer. Scootaloo lived in an apartment building along with her mother. Her father had died years ago during a tragic accident. Unfortunately the only thing that remained from her father was his debts. Scootaloo’s mother was hardworking mare that worked two jobs to support her family
It was clear when Scootaloo’s lawyer finished presenting his feeble attempt for an argument that she had loss the case. Time seemed to stretch as Scootaloo waited for the judge to reach his verdict. The minutes seemed to stretch to days and seem like agony to Scootaloo. Then her world had frozen and slowed down as the judge declared her guilty. Scootaloo felt a shiver travel down her spine as she heard the cries and wails of her mother behind her. She turned to see her mother crying hysterically as a court official to restraint her. Scootaloo's pitiful excuse for a lawyer began to pack his briefcase and stack papers. Then she saw the prosecutor with a wide smirk of triumph. At last she turned to the judge who was bagging his gavel and calling order to the court.
The judge had not finished speaking. He had Scootaloo's mother escorted out of the courtroom before continuing. The judge then stared at Scootaloo and gave her choice. Scootaloo could decide where she wanted to serve her sentence. An opening for Camp Green Lake was available and was an alternative to juvenile hall. Spots for Camp Green Lakes filled up quickly so the Judge urged Scootaloo to make her decision quickly.
Deciding that Camp Green Lake sounded like a better option than juvenile hall, Scootaloo made her choice. The judge sentenced her two years at Camp Green Lake before lowering his gavel.
3.
The trip to Camp Green Lake was boring. Scootaloo was currently inside a carriage and had no idea where she was. It was no use looking outside the bars of the carriage since the scenery had been nothing but desert for a while now. She left early that morning and she from the position of the sun that it was around noon.
The heat became more noticeable now, Scootaloo began to feel drowsy. She lied down her seat and closed her eyes for a bit. There's been nothing else to do at the moment. Scootaloo thought about the incidents that brought her to this place. A burning rage filled overcame her; there was a pony responsible for all of this. It's that entire filly’s fault that she was on her way to Camp Green Lake.
This was all Diamond Tiara's fault.
The pink brat was teasing her along the other crusaders about their lack of cutie marks. Apple Bloom said that they should ignore Diamond Tiara's taunts. After years of enduring her bullying, Scootaloo and her friend had developed resistance to Diamond Tiara's antics.
This particular day, Scootaloo had enough. She had failed a test and was in a foul mood when Diamond Tiara began opening her mouth. Before Scootaloo realized what she was doing she had punched her bully right at the face. Unfortunately a teacher had seen the incident and Scootaloo was given detention for a week.
At the end of the week Scootaloo was released early from her detention and was looking forward to the weekend. Then once again Diamond Tiara had to ruin everything. She had managed to steal Scootaloo's notebook and was waving her in mocking voice. Scootaloo screamed as she began to chase the pink brat and get her notebook back.
In the end, Diamond Tiara tossed her notebook at a pond before decided to go home. Scootaloo was forced to salvage what she could. To be honest Scootaloo wasn't a skilled note taker; her notebook consisted mostly of doodles she drew during class. Scootaloo decided that the notebook was too damaged to be usable and walked home downtrodden.
On her way something fell down from the sky and hit her. It was a pair of flying goggles. The goggles were bit old and looked like something old pegasus would wear but they were well taken care off. Scootaloo remembered that Rainbow Dash had promised to start with her flying lessons the next day and she ran as fast a she could home now feeling better about her change of luck.
It was Rainbow Dash that spotted Scootaloo and asked what the rush was. Scootaloo replied that she was looking forward to start flying lessons the next day. Two pegasus landed next to Rainbow and Scootaloo realized that her idol was accompanied by two police ponies. Rainbow said that she was assisting the police ponies with something and that’s when noticed the goggles that Scootaloo was holding.
Rainbow quickly identified them as the goggles that once belonged to Admiral Winter Flight, and elderly stallion who retired as captain of the Wonderbolts over twenty years ago. That was when the two police ponies started paying attention to Scootaloo and took her into questioning. Apparently the goggles were reported stolen from the local orphanage where they were supposed to be auctioned off at support banquet to raise money for the local orphanage.
The following days were the worst of her life. No matter how much she insisted that she didn’t stole them, the police did not believe her. Admiral Winter Flights even showed up at her trial condemning her saying what kind of pony would stoop so low as to steal from an orphanage. Scootaloo was glad she didn’t have a jury during the trial; she had enough ponies glaring at her for a lifetime.
"Wake up!" said a gruff voice. Scootaloo found herself being violently shaken. She had fallen asleep inside the carriage.
"Well get out!" barked another voice. The two pegasus guards that transported her were standing outside the carriage giving her looks of hatred. It was clear that they did not enjoy flying her all the way out to the dessert.
"Are you slow or something?" growled the first guard. "Get out, we're here.”
Scootaloo groggily got out of the carriage and stepped onto the hot sand. She looked around and saw nothing but desert and not a single cloud in the sky. “Where’s the lake?” she asked.
The second guard roared with laughter, “There is no lake but there’s the lakebed. Welcome to Camp Green Lake, your new home.”
