Camp of Twelve

by KonaPona

Rating: teen
Tags: Diamond Tiara, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Original Character, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twist, Profanity
Length: 2710

Twist isn't doing well. When her parents sign her up for summer camp, she is forced to confront this.

Twist is in her last year of middle school, and desperately wants it to end. Bullying, difficult assignments, and problems at home have placed her thoroughly under stress. Gloomy and isolated, her self-hatred leads her to sacrifices her health in order to meet the demands of her strict parents and teachers without outside assistance, or friends, for that matter.

Surely the start of summer will be a relief- but Twist's relief disappears when she finds out she has to attend a summer camp as a counsellor in training. There, she will have to confront the things that have been troubling her, and come to terms with her situation regardless of choice.

Published 2019-02-23 04:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2019-09-24 05:43:39 UTC

Close to the end

Author's Note

This story is based on true events. Specifically, what happened to me in 2012. Everything you are about to read occurred that summer, though some of it will be changed, and names will be replaced.

Years later, I am healthy. Sane. I have friends, a loving family, and I'm attending a university that I enjoy being at. But years ago, that wasn't the case. I went through metaphorical hell, and it's a hell that will be displayed through the point of view of a fictional character in eighth grade. These events have long since ended, so take this story with a grain of salt, and take comfort in the fact that it didn't last forever.

With that being said, let's begin. Our story starts in Equestria's equivalence of that fateful year, in one of Ponyville's most well-known schoolhouses...

Close to the end

Spring had finally ended and made way for summer. April showers turned to an arid, boiling humidity that seemed to hang over the small town of Ponyville, which increased overtime and was gradually felt by all. This was not necessarily a bad thing, according to the many foals and fillies who lived in Ponyville. They weren't the only ones, if you could believe it. Many adults looked forward to summer as much as the children did, for it represented a time of relaxation, games, and play, as well as breaks from respective occupations. School would be out in late May, and if the employed were lucky, they would be able to take time off their jobs with scheduled, long breaks.

Even in the morning, it was hot. Almost too hot, leaving any horse who dared to brave the outdoors with a sweaty coat of fur and revealing clothing. Pegasi on weather duty were doing their best, and could cool themselves off using air currents. Unicorns could cast spells to regulate their inner temperature or levitate a fan in front of their faces. Earth ponies were left to their own devices, and arguably had it much harder than other races. They did the best they could, however, and many were able to get by in their own creative means of staving off heat.

For Peppermint Twist, this wasn't the case. The little white filly stood out amongst the others as she walked to school, with her curly red mane and thick purple glasses. She was huffing and puffing, struggling to drag her backpack along so that she might be able to get there in time. It was filled to bursting with books, papers, and wayward supplies, and looked like it might explode open at any second. Beads of prespiration dripped down her furrowed brow, and her throat had grown so dry, she was desperately wishing for a glass of water.

Suddenly, she felt a hoof press sharply into her back, and shove her forward.

"Move, nerd!"

With a startled gasp, Twist collapsed forward, hooves failing her with the sheer force of the assault. Her backpack chose that moment to spill its contents, and a pained shriek escaped her as she landed on her belongings, hitting her chin upon the ground.

She was still processing what had happened when laughter echoed behind her. Gritting her teeth, she picked herself up, wearing newfound aches and bruises with as much stoicism as a teenaged girl could manage. Hatred radiated through her core, rocketing to the surface, but kept automatically at bay.

The earth pony turned to glare daggers at whoever had pushed her, only to groan under her breath when she saw the culprits. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They had it out for her. Always had, ever since she had started attending Miss Cheerilee's schoolhouse a few years ago.

Silver Spoon smirked. Her next line was particularly malicious: "Watch where you're going, fatty. You're soooo clumsy!"

Twist snarled. She knew she shouldn't let it get to her, but they had a tendency to make cutting remarks whenever they saw her. No matter what she did, the bullying never stopped.

"You- you pushed me!" she yelped. "I didn't trip!"

Diamond Tiara chimed in. "I-I 'didn't-th trip-uh!'" One of the things Twist's bullies tended to imitate was the nasal lisp she spoke with that served as a hard-to-kick speech impediment, and was mangled by her braces. It was pretty embarassing to be mocked in such a demeaning way, but if she just tried a little harder, she could ignore them... what they said didn't matter-

"Ha ha. Someone's mad!" Diamond continued laughing, face contorted as if she had stumbled across something off-putting. "Why don't you calm down? It's not our fault that you don't know how to walk!"

They left her sitting in the middle of the mess, giggling and whispering with the occasional look behind them as they neared the building. "Oh-em-gee, she smells so bad!"

Diamond Tiara. "What's wrong with her?"

Silver Spoon. "God, she's dumb! What a freak!"

For a moment, Twist just sat there, staring at the ground. Unbridled shame burned her cheeks red, mingling with the annoyance and sorrow she felt. She began frantically gathering her belongings up when other ponies stepped on them in their haste to get to their destination, not so much as looking at her or bothering to help her up.

It was all she could do to keep it together.

Just then, the bell rang, signalling the start of first classes. Even if you were outside the building, it could be heard ringing loud and clear in the surrounding premises. Hurriedly, Twist stuffed her pack full and practically raced to her homeroom, nearly tripping on the steps to the schoolhouse as she ran. It was too late. When she arrived, it was clear she was one of the few students who would be marked tardy. Her teacher, Lovely Primrose, watched her with a distasteful (yet sympathetic) expression as Twist padded through the rows to her seat. Students stared maliciously, and muffled their quiet laughter as one of their prime targets shrank into place, trying to ignore the unwanted attention, a dull frown plastered upon her muzzle.

"Now that we're all here," Miss Primrose instructed, "Let's begin the lesson." She began writing on a chalkboard, and spelled out the word homework in neat, cursive letters. "Afterwards, I will collect your last assignment, which is due at the end of class."

It took seconds for Twist's mind to go from obsessively focusing on the accident she'd had to that homework. The moment the earth pony did, she realized she'd forgotten to do it last night, after putting it off for nearly the entire day to play video games. Another groan escaped her. She felt like putting her head down in her hooves, but forced herself to sit upright and pay attention. Her parents would have her head if they knew she hadn't bothered to do it, much less slacked off so much.

It was going to be a long day.

Worst opportunity

Author's Note

There's a chair in my head on which I used to sit
Took a pencil and I wrote the following on it
Now there's a key where my wonderful mouth used to be
Dig it up, throw it at me
Where can I run to, where can I hide
Who will I turn to, now I'm in a virgin state of mind

K's Choice - Virgin State of Mind

It's been awhile. I kind of forgot about making this story, and I've been busy- I'm really sorry it took me so long just to get out the second chapter. It's a personal story, and honestly kind of hard to write about something this close to home with fictional characters.

I read the book Speak, and that inspired a great deal of this fic. That and the K's Choice song. You might catch references to other existing works as the story continues.

Worst opportunity

Twist's vision swam as she tried to maintain the stress of rushing a past-due assignment and listening to her instructor's lesson at the same time. It was hard not to start daydreaming over the mellow, even-yet-authoritative tones of Miss Primrose's voice. Especially since math was Twist's worst subject. Even so, she dragged through it, hurriedly scribbling equations onto crumpled spaces left blank thanks to her own

(incompetence)

inability to do basic algebra problems. If there was any saving grace, it was that she had completed five of the ten answers already, and nopony was talking over the teacher. Even the popular fillies huddled in their self-labeled VIP corner of the room must have been paying attention, though Twist wouldn't have put it past those self-absorbed miscreants to be the first to interrupt her.

A good thing about the middle of class time: you didn't get made fun of.

"...And that's the quadratic formula. It's important that you all memorize it. Now, can anyone tell me what kind of equation the formula should be used to solve?"

Radio silence.

"Anyone? Anyone at all?

...

"Yes, Snips."

Twist risked a quick break. She looked up, silently scanning the room for potential snitches before her eyes fell upon the pony who raised his hoof. Snips had lost some of his bulk upon becoming a teenager, and was less awkward and stout-looking than he had been as a young colt. Ever the loyal BFF, Snails sat in the seat next to his friend, sharing the same privileges that came with teenage maturity.

Nervously, he stuttered out a guess. "Uh... q-quadratic equations?"

Miss Primrose beamed. "That's correct! Very good, Snips." Twist breathed a sigh of relief under her breath. It was good not to be the "victim of choice,'' as she had heard some of the upperclassmen in higher grades call it.

The white filly put her head down and focused on her homework again. She at least knew how to add point aX to point bX. This was one of the easier things they could learn.

A little harder was getting that beaming smile pointed in her direction. It was a sunny grin that made the recipient feel lovely inside, if they liked Miss Primrose. Students and staff alike did. She was a pretty earth mare that the male (and some female) students tended to watch intently with lovestruck gazes.

It didn't matter. Twist would always be an average student, no matter how hard she tried. Her parents high expectations kept her grades up, but at best they reached high Cs and low Bs. A D+ in math was currently the biggest stress-inducer that made Twist hope to Celestia her report card wouldn't stay the same over this term. Tests were killer; they were worth so much more than the other assignments...

You wanted to impress your parents. And here you are, not paying attention-

Shit. Twist's head snapped up in a flash, just in time to see Miss Primrose writing a problem in chalk on the north wall's board. Compared to the base starter, this was complicated.

"Here is an example. This is how you should solve... this problem."

So complicated, Twist bit her lip in a mixture of dread and confusion.

Please don't ask us to solve them for you. Please don't, she thought. Just demonstrate-

An equation with missing parts was scrawled under it, shortly completed afterwards. Miss Primrose turned to face the class, still grinning. "I'd like somepony to volunteer to finish this for me. Now who would like to come to the board?"

Nopony raised their hoof. Twist knew that the problem would be easy to any other member of the class. They were just being stubborn as teenagers were wont to do in these situations. Even Snips kept silent this time.

"Come on. It's relatively easy... harder equations are yet to come."

More radio silence.

"Alright, then. I'll choose one. Peppermint Twist, could you solve this for us?"

Twist nearly groaned out loud again.

Slowly, she got up from her seat. By some miracle, there were no pranksters sticking out a foot out to trip her as she padded to the front of the room.

The chalkboard loomed before her like a monolith covered with inscrutable writing. She should have been paying better attention, because she quickly realized she didn’t know how to solve the equation. Her ears folded back and her tail tucked under a fraction as she bit her lip in consternation, though neither she nor the class noticed it- what could easily be taken as signs of weakness. Surrender.

Okay. Take it slow, the filly thought. You have to write something, at least.

Tentatively, she raised her left hoof to pick up a piece of chalk. Dully noting that the white implement blended in, barely visible against her cream-colored fur as she began writing. As if she was made for this very action: dutifully scrawling numbers to satisfy the inane requirements of basic education. Twist didn’t know whether to laugh or feel annoyed.

Eventually, the problem came close to being finished. There were some spots she couldn’t fill in, even though she’d tried hard to solve it. She didn’t know where to begin with those, and for a lack of better options just stood there awkwardly in place, contemplating what to do.

Soft giggling made the filly flinch as if she had been hit. Then, Miss Primrose spoke up.

“It’s a tough problem, I’ll admit. For the most part, your answer is correct, but many parts of it are still incomplete. You may return to your seat, dear. I’ll call on someone else.”

Cringing, Twist stared at the ground as she plodded down the aisle. They were smirking at her. She was sure of it. Judgement was an ugly feeling. Something to be avoided if you could help it, whether it was embedded in a strangers expression or inserted directly into the bloated middle of criticism.

“Diamond Tiara?”

Ugh. Her heart fell with a plummeting sensation and her skin crawled- she could swear it crawled as a chill ran down her spine, cold as ice. Of all the ponies to be called upon, why go with that one?

“Yes, ma’am,” came the enthusiastic reply, grating as ever. Imbued with overtones of I can do this way better than the loser who did it before me, no doubt. Twist forced herself to watch from her seat as Diamond Tiara began strutting towards the chalkboard. If she was a tool that existed to make her teacher happy, Diamond was a star that radiated its powerful light and warmth over the entire class. She made waves wherever she went, and for whatever reason, students were happy to bask in them. Honestly, Twist couldn’t stand her.

Silverspoon was the same. Loved for being obnoxious and haughty, as most popular kids were. It was no surprise that the two made another pair of BFFs.

The purple filly was quick to finish off what remained. Afterwards, she turned around and stared confidently at Miss Primrose, who smiled in response. “Very good!” the earth mare exclaimed. “That’s correct, dear. You did wonderfully.”

Nopony laughed as Diamond Tiara returned to her desk. They didn’t seem to be bothered by that blatant advertisement of over-confidence, and things remained that way until the bell rang twenty minutes later.

Backpacks were slung over shoulders, and chairs got pushed aside. As Twist stood up, she saw that Miss Primrose had moved to stand by the open door, and was handing out homework sheets. She found herself wishing to be complimented in the same way- she had gotten some of the problem right, hadn’t she? But Miss Primrose said nothing as Twist passed her. She only beamed a placating smile, and held out a paper to take.

First period was officially over. She entered the hallway a stranger, quickly forgotten by those that had quietly mocked her earlier, lost to the crowd. But Diamond and Silverspoon were close by, and they stuck out to the insignificant little pony like a beacon. Walking with the masses, but glancing back and whispering to each other with condescending grins- smiles which blotted out the memory of the nice one she had been given.

Twist turned away. There was only so much ridicule she could take, and she needed to go to her locker.