怪談とポニー Ep3 - Wet job

Capable to seat nearly half of the school, the large auditorium was hardly one-third full that day still humming muffledly like a giant vespiary. Some students came genuinely interested in attending that summer Pinewatch program; even more of them were overly curious to listen to what the school authorities had planned to offer. When the news came roaming around, many of them were inclined to treat it like a ridiculous rumour than seriously believe it – the more surprising the confirmation turned out. Without tongue in cheek, the direction suggested a proper out-of-city camp instead of the usual campus-based bunch of activities during that vacation. For the first time after several years! Thus the lion’s share of the present colts and fillies came to simply feel out what their alma mater was going to offer this summer. Joining in, however, would depend on the offer itself.

Misty Lagoon, the soon-to-be high school student of Pinewatch, took a look around the spacious hall. Built without the windows, it was lit by the multitude of lamps, dimmed at the moment, barely glowing under the high ceiling. The rows of seats ran from the narrow passage in front of the stage, rising with the distance for the comfort of the audience; they looked and sounded like the ninth wave of faces during the Pinewatch festivals or large official gatherings, for example, the graduation procedure. That day, the vacant seats galore allowed those present to gather in separate groups according to their interests and acquaintances, without division by age or class. The unicorn girl inwardly counted the familiar faces when somepony energetic started waving to her from another edge of the hall.

“Interesting,” drawled Misty, waving back to the thin filly, whose cottony, fluffy mane exactly corresponded her name. The unchanging camera dangled on its strap on the neck of the miniature girl while the latter managed to greet Misty, keep one eye on the stage and keep replying to her company all at the same time. “Interesting,” repeated Misty, addressing her friend in half-voice, “will she join the camp, or she came here for the article about its opening? What do you think, Lacy?”

“Who?” The earth filly sitting next to Misty leaned over her, adjusting her round glasses and peering into the distance. “Oh, Fluffy Folgen,” Lacy Reins, Misty’s classmate and one of the best friends, waved to the girl in question as well. Raising her arm, she bathed Misty with warmth and some thin perfume or maybe soap aroma, tempting the unicorn girl with the idea of nuzzling Lacy’s neck right under one of her tight braids. “I think the latter,” Lacy sank back to her seat and threw a smiling glance at Misty. “I think that several weeks in a camp, far from civilization, isn’t something to attract that drop of quicksilver. Too boring for her liking… Although, we know,” added she with a meaningful expression, “it can turn out different easily.”

Both girls couldn’t hold back the reserved giggles – the last couple of months were unexpectedly quite eventful for them. Even Misty, accustomed to adventures during her fillyhood when the oceanologists-parents were forced to take her on their expeditions, was to admit the outstanding pace and value of the recent events. She put a finger to her lips, jokingly calling Lacy to order and attracting the friend’s attention to the stage.

The latter could provide a wide variety of capabilities from the huge white screen for movies or presentations to the light equipment of a concerto level. At the moment, the stage was set in quite an ascetic way: with the empty backstage passages – as Misty could notice from the fifth row, it offered the view of the white screen and a small rostrum for a single speaker. The place was occupied by somepony of the Pinewatch directorate who finished making the initial announcement, adding that the appointed supervisor of the camp was going to fill the potential attendees in on the details.

“Sorry for the delay, students!” the stallion’s smile turned a little nervous already as he called the audience for silence: a couple of minutes passed, nopony appeared, and the entire gathering, naturally, started humming again. “I’m sure there were reasons for her not coming in time…” he didn’t try to calm down the students twice, considering everypony was keeping themselves reserved, but made a funny mien, shrugging apologetically.

“Her?..” Misty and Lacy exchanged puzzled and at the same time meaningful glances. Before they managed to develop the idea, the friends noticed two more fillies using the twilight and the forced delay in the meeting to make their way to them across the half-occupied row.

Misty’s aura enveloped their bags: hers, tightly packed with books and Lacy’s, even tighter, with something tingling inside and a changeless green leaf protruding from the side pocket. The unicorn filly barely had time to place them on the opposite side when two sporty pegasus girls smacked onto the folding seats next to the friends.

“Hola!” Windy Mane ruffled her short red hair, stretching and putting her arm on the backrests of their seats. “We spotted you in the nerds’ area,” the pegasus girl smirked widely, “and used the anarchy moment to relocate!” The cockiness of her phrase, however, contrasted with the tenderness the girl leaned her head to Lacy’s with, rubbing against her mane lightly.

“Hello, girls!” her sister Flaunty greeted them with a familiar motherly smile. The girl threw her lush chestnut mane back, glancing at the stage with the discouraged authority still protruding behind the rostrum. “What do you think?” she winked at Misty and Lacy. “I feel something unusual is brewing here.”

“Yeah, mates…” Windy took the initiative, wrapping her free hand around the sister’s shoulders. “We knew about the camp but thought it would be the usual stuff. You know, when the school offers its facilities to occupy the students during summer vacation,” elaborated she, making a face.

“…and learn something new, they had no time for during the year,” added Flaunty meaningfully, making them smile.

“Yeah, yeah, something about that…” Windy was to agree. “But it turns out definitely worth joining in!” added she enthusiastically. “As far as I know, Pinewatch wasn’t arranging out-of-city camps for a few years. Makes me wonder!”

“Currently, the figure of the camp supervisor makes us wonder,” Lacy adjusted her glasses pensively.

“Hmmm…” Flaunty nodded, exchanging glances with her and Misty. “You noticed also.”

“By the way,” added she in a moment. “We have great news, girls!”

“Absolutely!” Windy even hopped on her seat, bitten with enthusiastic discharge. “We…”

“Shhhhh!” Raising her azure eyes to the stage, Flaunty Mane gestured to the girls for silence.

The lights in the auditorium started to dim more, leaving it in complete darkness, so the stage became highlighted in a matter of seconds. The stallion behind the rostrum perked up; he sighed with such relief, totally forgetting about the microphone and sending that sigh into the broad audience. Normally, it would cause a laughter wave, but now the crowd froze expectantly. Masking confusion with a smile, the stallion made a wide gesture somewhere toward the darkness of the hall.

The approaching heels sounded on the parquetry floor like gunshots in the ensuing silence, making all the heads in the auditorium without exclusion turn towards the sound with curiosity, which would be welcomed more by the teaching staff at the studies instead. With the faint sound of the opening door, the measured steps entered the hall and were now tapping along the dark rightmost aisle, making the majority of the heads track them as if they were sunflowers in a sunny field. The girls shared the crowd’s interest, trying to see the mare. However, the seemingly wild idea already glimpsed in Misty’s head – she could hardly imagine that person leading the entire thing.

Somepony was climbing the steps to the stage already when a bright beam of light suddenly turned on behind the students’ heads, projecting the school logotype on the white screen. With the one lighting the rostrum, both beams were making the rest of the darkness around impenetrable for the sight of the confusedly turning around students. With a few more loud clicks, the familiar to the entire school person emerged in the beam of light.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlecolts!” The mare didn’t yet reach the microphone but everypony in the auditorium heard that ringing, melodic voice. The top of the strict yet very tight dress, shimmering elusively from dark blue to black without confidence about which colour it actually was, straight shoulders, the cloud of luxurious hair gathered in a complex, slightly old-fashioned manedo and the long, spiralled, glowing in the light horn appeared behind the rostrum; falling on the mare’s face, the light threw a large shadow of her manedo on the white screen, despite the latter was hung providently high.

After a second of dead silence, the auditorium – at least two-thirds of it – burst into applause flavoured with whoops and whistles of approval. The latter sounded equal in colt and filly voices as the girls noted automatically.

“Thank you!” with a dainty smile, the speaker rose her thin fingers, gesturing for silence. As the tide faded, miss Singularity moved the microphone a bit further. “First of all, apologies for that forced delay! By the way, it was conditioned by tiny trouble regarding our summer undertaking. Which is now solved for good,” she reassured with another smile. “Now to the matter of our meeting.”

“We knew that she was amongst the organizers of the camp, but I never thought…” whispered Misty, exchanging puzzled glances with the girls, “that miss Singu will take the entire lead!”

“Well, that’ll be way more interesting,” barely chuckled Windy.

It seemed to the girls that the glance thrown by the alicorn mare into the audience slid on them; her eyes flashed lightly. The friends preferred to peer at the stage as if nothing interested them more, just in case.

“As you all know… And if you don’t, please refer to the filing of the school newspaper in our library,” continued miss Singularity, habitually smiling with her eyes only, “Pinewatch High School limited itself with the intra-school activities during the annually held summer camp, be it sports, entertainment or extra-studies… for the last several years,” emphasized she. “However, this year a decision was made…”

The girls silently exchanged meaningful glances again. Each one seemed to express the same unvoiced question.

“…to revive the traditional form!” Miss Singularity shook her mane enthusiastically. “Namely, to offer you all a proper out-of-city camp experience.”

An excited squeak cut through the dark silence of the hall and died down. The alicorn teacher let out a reserved smile, making a calming gesture.

“The slides, please!”

The bright projector blinked and an unfocused blot appeared on the white screen. Before the operator could address the problem, the mare’s horn lit up with magic, sending its aura somewhere behind the students’ heads – momentarily, the image started focusing and the audience couldn’t hold back a sigh of delight.

The slide was offering a truly magnificent view of the shining mirror of a broad lake, surrounded by the emerald velvet of the untouched forest. The image was taken from a high ground in the woods – the bottom edge of it was stained with a smudged tongue of a cliff the photographer risked climbing on. With another click, the slide changed, revealing now a close-up of presumably the same lake, but the very shoreline of it instead. Pristine clean sand was running to the seemingly endless blue waters, framed by the woods far behind; some constructions glimpsed aside, out of the focus. It looked like some well-maintained beach rather than a wild shore.

“Sire lake, near Rye-on-Marsh town!” with a welcoming gesture, miss Singularity turned to keep both the audience and the screen in sight. “Obviously, not that near to spoil the entire thing!” she threw a gamine glance into the hall, making a merciful pause for the laughter to fade.

“Surrounded by the forest,” continued the alicorn teacher, “and bathing in the fresh air and sunlight… when the weather allows. Almost-wild life,” she smirked as a few slides followed one after another, presenting the picturesque views of the woods, hills, even vastness of the ocean from some high shore point, “yet nothing particularly dangerous due to the civilized surroundings. The most dangerous beast – you will need to make quite an effort to unearth though – could probably be some grumpy badger.”

“Don’t know about the program they are planning…” whispered Flaunty Mane from the corner of her mouth, “but I like the look of it!” Three girls nodded in agreement.

“Being as far from the civilization as you could wish – and we know how tiresome it may turn out sometimes,” miss Singularity left the rostrum, approaching the screen, demonstrating the bottom of the long dress and putting a part of the audience at the visual dilemma of where to stare, “yet offering all the possible comfort and even more,” stated the alicorn mare against the background of a few more forest and lake views.

An image of some river delta spreading wide and far and running into the ocean with the multitude of shimmering branches and creeks glimpsed on the screen. Misty bit her lip pensively – that slide appeared barely for a fraction of a second, changed to another one. Did she see for a second how miss Singularity barely squinted with reproach?

But the next second, their teacher turned to the audience with a bright expression.

“Here is an example of a typical camp house there.”

The next slide revealed a modest yet very neat-looking woodwork building with the closely coming forest behind. Single floor, angled roof, clear windows, fresh paint on the walls. Nothing extraordinary, except visible quality and reliability. An electric wire stretched from some out-of-the-frame post to the insulator on the wall, promising some basic level of comfort.

“No cable TV or wired internet, of course,” chuckled miss Singularity, “but methinks you aren’t going after those there…”

The image changed, causing an involuntary sigh of mixed relief and delight from the audience. Now it was showing the surprisingly spacious interior with several beds and nightstands, a built-in wardrobe, large windows – everything a modern colt or filly could need for comfort, including promisingly whitening electric outlets on the walls.

“Electricity, separate toilet and shower in each cabin, warm water, lit territory,” miss Singularity spread her arms as the screen behind her boasted various views of the camp territory: houses, a well-equipped stadium, administration building and something the girls subconsciously considered to be a canteen, “paved roads, single canteen for everypony, but I’m sure you will like the company,” she continued listing. “A nice spacious stadium. Alas, we have no separate swimming pool there, but the proximity of Sire lake eliminates that problem effectively.”

“And all of that is Trishores camp,” summarized the mare against the background of an arched gate with the corresponding caption, which was separating the asphalted road from the camp territory – a peaceful corner of the woods, fenced with the subtle mesh snaking between the trees, and a single artery of electric line jumping from post to post and entering the territory. “This summer, we are going to offer you a wide variety of activities, from intense sports to art studies. In addition to the forest walks, lake beach, etcetera for the entire four,” miss Singularity glanced at the audience with emphasis, “weeks of organized leisure!”

The hall exploded with another wave of applause and whoops – jokes aside, a whole month of freedom, even if limited. In their turn Misty, Lacy, Windy and Flaunty were almost sure that the audience rightfully caught the main idea. Under the guidance of miss Singularity, the crucial discipline aspects would be most likely enforced, but the general climate in the summer camp would become much more liberated.

“Everything to make the kids…” added miss Singularity and the entire audience heard her even without a microphone, judging by the moody hum, which took a run from one side of the hall to another. But another glance at their teacher and her smile told the colts and fillies that miss Singularity was simply teasing them a little.

“…to make our students happy!” ended she, followed by bursts of laughter from the hall. “So,” miss Singularity stopped in the centre of the stage, bringing together her gracious palms in a conclusive gesture, “I’m going to familiarize you, folks, with the program and then,” she threw a glance at her wrist-watch sparkling brightly in the returning main lights of the auditorium, “…and then you can ask me questions if you still have any.”

The next hour passed in a wink: the girls could listen to their Physics teacher, lending half an ear as the pegasus sisters fished out enough about the program and shared their knowledge with Misty and Lacy beforehand. Thus the friends could quietly exchange their opinions, perking their fluffy ears only when something new was touched.

“So what do you think girls?” Lacy took a look around their company. “Are we still in? Personally, I like the idea more than sticking to the city. A month in the woods!” added she; the girls spotted the sparkles of excitement behind her glasses.

“Yeah, we got your idea, Lacy,” Windy and Flaunty exchanged glances, chuckling. “The untouched forest was the main bait in your case.”

“I’m rather in than not,” pensively drawled Misty when Lacy admitted guilty with a smile. “A couple of things still puzzle me though.”

“First,” she glanced at the girls turning all ears to her, “the camp looks working and well-maintained and miss Singu’s speech sounded to me as if it was always one of the Pinewatch facilities. Then why didn’t they arrange out-of-city activities for several years?”

“Hmmm…” chuckled Flaunty, cupping her chin. “And another one?”

“Frankly speaking, among the various roles I could imagine her in,” confessed Misty, “I never envisioned her as an out-of-city summer camp supervisor.”

“Wait, wait. Tell me more about it!” Windy Mane even leaned forward. “About the other images, I mean.”

Misty felt how the light flush coloured her cheeks unwittingly, making the other girls snort and cover their mouths, throwing a cautious glance at the stage.

“Oh, come one, Windy! Drop it!”

“Okay, okay!” The redhead girl raised her palms jokingly. “We’re in if you are, as usual. Right, sis?!” she turned to Flaunty.

“Absolutely!” The chestnut mane nodded determinedly.

Meanwhile, the audience fluently moved to the questions: the general noise only increased, giving the girls an opportunity to talk freely.

“About the news, we wanted to tell you,” remembered Flaunty Mane and her sister chuckled approvingly. “We were officially transferred to your class, girls.”

“Really!” Misty’s eyes flashed with joy; Lacy woke from estimating her chances to take all the gardening tools she might need, sharing the friend’s mood. “How come?”

“Well, the official version,” Windy paused for emphasis, “sounded as if our Physics knowledge is below the desired level. And in your class, we will get the additional studies at ease.”

“Oh!” Misty even froze for a second with raised eyebrows; her exclamation was more than self-explanatory for her friends and worth a monologue, just like the glance she threw at the stage with their alicorn teacher answering the next question from the audience.

“Well, my point of view stood unchanged,” Misty said firmly after a short thought. “Now I’m even more curious about the entire thing!”

“Remembering the proverb?” inquired Flaunty.

“Absolutely!” nodded the unicorn girl with a smile.

“Then we’re all in,” Lacy took Misty under the elbow, snuggling to the friend’s shoulder.

“Right!” Windy and Flaunty confirmed, showing thumbs. “Look! Judging by the slides, there must be quite an expanse,” added Windy, jerking one end of her collar string. “Misty has her camera… We could ask Yuki if she lends us some powerful binoculars! She would hardly part with her cameras, I admit,” chuckled the girl, “but some optics is another story.”

“Yuki?” hugging Lacy with her free arm, Misty looked at the sisters with curiosity.

“An out-of-school friend of ours,” waved Windy nonchalantly. “We’ll introduce you at the chance. Right, Flo?”

Flaunty nodded but brought her finger to her lips, calling for silence. The audience finished with the questions and miss Singularity was going to announce something else. The mare backed to the centre of the stage, raising her hand and offering the overly enthusiastic students, who already started clinging to the stage edge, to calm down and take their seats.

“Attention, ladies and gentlecolts!” Miss Singularity didn’t need to raise her voice much to be heard. “If all the crucial questions are asked and more importantly – answered, I would like to invite you to fill the list of summer camp attendees with your names and classes.” With a flash of magic initiated by her lighting horn, a table with a journal and a pen materialized near the edge of the scene while the newly assigned summer camp supervisor continued elaborating. “Your parents and caretakers were notified about the camp facilities beforehand. Methinks I can safely assume that each of you here met no objections from their side previously. However, after you sign into the program, we shall perform another check with your relatives, and if no problems emerge – you will be considered a member of it.”

“Don’t rush it, folks!” added she with a smile, noticing the brownish movement in the first rows. “Safety first, don’t make a mess and be careful with the steps!” nodded she toward the stage climbs. “I see more students willing to take part than supposed initially. But, rest assured, we can accommodate everypony!”

Misty rose from her seat; the girls wanted to tell her that it might be reasonable to wait out the first tide already rushing to the steps, especially considering that miss Singularity said there was plenty of space to the program. But the next thing the unicorn girl did, made quite a few ponies freeze on the spot.

Misty’s horn lit with the magic; the girl rose on her tiptoes, biting the tip of her tongue from the effort. The girls saw the bright golden aura enveloping the pen, picking it up and inputting something into the journal.

“We’re in the same class now!” Flaunty and Misty managed to whisper, guessing the idea.

Misty Lagoon diligently filled the four strings in the list, then threw a content glance at her friends, putting the pen down in the middle of the journal. From the corner of her eye, the girl noticed miss Singularity watching her with a smile splashing in her deep dark eyes.