The last of the parents had left the forest, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash alone with the campers. They lined up dutifully on the edge of the field, most of them wearing eager faces. Twilight couldn't help but look upon the foals and see nothing but a troop of perfect students for her to teach. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof saw something different. It was easy enough for her to glance at the order that he campers had taken in line and see that several cliques had already begun to form.

Twilight cleared her throat, "Good morning everypony!" She announced, doing her best to fit the "fun teacher" roll. "For those of you who don't know me, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and welcome to the best three days of your life!" Her enthusiasm was met with an awkward silence, with the exception of a few cricket chirps and Junior clearing something out of his throat. Twilight continued immediately.

"Anyways," she began, hoping that the silence would be forgotten, "let me introduce you to Rainbow Dash, who is also a chaperone!"

"Sup." she replied simply, immediately invoking an enthusiastic cheer from the campers. Twilight did her best to keep her eye from twitching. Rainbow Dash didn't hold the spotlight for long, instead she turned back to Twilight and motioned for her to continue.

"A-as I was saying," Twilight began awkwardly, "we have a fun three days for you prepared, and before we jump right into it does anypony have any questions?"

Diamond Tiara wasted no time in raising her hoof. "Where are the bathrooms?" The look upon her face suggesting that she dreaded Twilight's answer.

"There aren't any." Twilight answered. Diamond Tiara gasped, her worst fears being realized. Pipsqueak quickly raised his hand as well.

"Yes Pip?"

"But what if we have to tinkle?" He asked, causing Button Mash and Junior to instantly facehoof.

"You just go in the woods!" Rainbow Dash said, receiving several groans from some of the campers. Twilight waited for another hoof to come up.

"Any more questions?" She asked, looking around for any looks of confusion. "Well alright then! Let's get started!" Twilight took a step back, allowing Rainbow Dash to take center stage. "Take it away, Rainbow!"

"Right!" Rainbow Dash began, making her voice as authoritative as possible. "If you want to survive in the woods, then the first thing you're going to need is shelter!" She paced back and forth down the line, looking each camper in the eye as she passed them. She caught sight of the admiration in Scootaloo's eyes, causing her to smile smugly. "You're going to learn a lot about wilderness survival over the next few days, but the first we're going to teach you is how to build a tent."

For many of the campers the task of setting up a tent was proving to be incredibly difficult, but not for Spike. He had had plenty of time to practice with Twilight weeks before camp even started. The evidence was in his efficiency; the other campers continued to struggle with the tent's basic set up, while Spike stood before a perfectly erected tent. He had inspected every element of the tent twice already, and he was certainly going to inspect it a third time. After all this was the tent that he and Twilight would be sharing, it had to be absolutely perfect.

Twilight had been busy patrolling around the camp, inspecting each and every tent diligently. As frustrating as it was for the campers to see their tents fail inspection it was too important to allow inadequate tents to stand. She could tell that the tedious process had already put many campers on edge, and perhaps even brought out the competitive side of a few of them.

"Ha!! We won!" Button exclaimed, admiring the absolute butchery of rope and canvas which he proudly proclaimed a "tent". He and Junior had slaved away on the tent for nearly twenty minutes now, and with his masterpiece completed he felt the insatiable urge to gloat. "We totally beat you guys!" He declared to the Crusaders as they tied the knots on the base of their tent.

"What do you mean?" Asked Sweetie Belle curiously, her confusion only feeding Button's ego.

"We finished our tent before you did!" He exclaimed, presenting his tent with a motion of his hoof. Junior nodded in agreement, wearing a similar smug expression upon his face. The fillies examined the jumbled mess they had presented.

"You call that a tent?" Scootaloo asked, causing the colts' complacency to evaporate.

"Of course it's a tent!" He replied angrily, "What else would it be?"

Applebloom pondered over this for a moment. "It kinda looks like mah granny's old bonnet."

"Yeah, or a garbage can." Scootaloo added.

"It does not!" shouted Button as he noticed a particular purple alicorn approaching. "Just ask Twilight!"

Twilight arrived at the scene, levitating her checklist close beside her. "What's going on?" She asked them politely.

"Twilight, does this look like a garbage can to you?" Button asked, making sure to sound as victimized as possible.

"Of course it doesn't," Twilight said assuringly, Button happily stuck his tongue out at the Crusaders, "but it would never pass as a tent I'm afraid." Twilight continued, adding a few notes to her checklist, "I recommend that you work on the base first and then build up." Button could feel his pride sinking away into his stomach.

"What about ours, Twilight?" Applebloom asked, Twilight inspected the base the Crusaders had created.

"Very good girls, it's perfect so far!" Twilight exclaimed, Button Mash could feel the oncoming heart attack. "Maybe after you're finished you can help the boys with their tent!"

Recess couldn't come soon enough for most of the campers. After spending most of an hour building and rebuilding the same tents over and over again, most of the campers had found themselves at their limit. Emotions ran high for some of the more extreme cases, and Twilight knew that a little time to themselves would be the perfect medicine. Spike's tent had just passed Twilight's inspection, and now the dragon was off to join the other ponies on their break.

The campers had been quick to divide into groups and disperse across the entire field, each group placing themselves as far away from each other as possible. Spike wasn't sure where to begin. He wandered down the field, carefully observing the groups that had formed. The closest group in proximity to Spike consisted of Button Mash, Pipsqueak, and Junior all of who were standing around in a circle, and appeared to be discussing matters of great importance. The anger on their faces was evident. Spike began making his way over to them, making eye contact with Pipsqueak, whose expression quickly shifted into a friendly smile.

"Hey Spike!" He shouted, "Wanna join our club?" He was immediately greeted with Button and Junior's angry eyes, Junior Shoved him angrily.

"Shut it, Pip!" He shouted, Pip mumbled his apologies quietly. Spike stopped in front of the group, which had now reformed their circle into a defensive line.

"You guys have a club?" Spike asked, Button stepped forward, assuming command.

"Yeah!" He exclaimed, "It's a very exclusive club, only the coolest ponies get in. And no girls allowed!"

Spike looked at him curiously. "Why's that?" He asked.

"Because no one wants to hang around a bunch of stupid girls!" Button sneered, his words were heavy with spite, Spike wasn't sure why.

"But that's not true at all." Spike said, "it's not fun unless everypony is included." Those words had once been Twilight's. Many years ago, Twilight had shut ponies out of her life in favor of books and studying, but after coming to Ponyville for the first time she learned  that friendship was the most magical gift of all. And being Twilight's number one assistant, Spike had learned that lesson with her.

"Not this time," Button replied, shaking his head, "this club is exclusive." Spike could tell that he would be holding on to that excuse, he sighed softly.

"So does this club have a name?"

Button shifted his gaze between Junior and Pipsqueak before adding "It's a secret."

"We haven't thought of one yet." Pip answered truthfully, instantly becoming reunited with Button and Junior's venomous glare.

"Shut up Pip!" Junior shouted, and with that Spike had had enough, he turned around and walked away. He scanned around the field, hoping that he could spot the crusaders. They were nowhere to be found, knowing them they had most likely gone off into the woods, trying to get their cutie marks in either tree climbing or fly fishing. Spike looked around, he only had a few options left. He could either go back to camp and stay with Twilight, who would probably just tell him to go back out there and "interact", or he could try his luck with the few ponies that were left. Those ponies happened to be Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Nope! Spike was definitely not that for friends, defeated, he started to make his way back to camp when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A lone white pony sitting on a fallen tree. Spike smiled, Twist was a much better option than hanging out with either the "boys only club" or the diabolical duo.

"Hey Twist!" He called, evoking the same jumpy reaction that she had had before. Once again she quickly scooted over and made room for Spike to join her.

"Oh, hey." She said nervously, Spike took his seat beside her.

"What are you doing way over here?" Spiked asked, Twist shied away turning her attention towards the ground.

"Nothing... I guess."

Spike could tell that this conversation was going nowhere fast, her searched his mind for another subject.

"So what tent are you staying in?" He asked with a smile, inviting her in to what he hoped would be a pleasant conversation. Twist shied away even further.

"I guess I never found a partner to stay with, so they put me with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon."

Oh. Spike couldn't help but grimace, Spike was happy that he was spending the nights with Twilight, he couldn't imagine what it would be like being forced to sleep next to them. He made the mistake of mentally picturing himself in that situation, with a shudder he quickly expelled the thought from his head.

"Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that." He said, acknowledging the fact that there were few fates worse than that. She shook her head softly in return.

"It's fine." She lied, Spike could tell that talking about it had made her even more upset about it. A touch of guilt began to form inside of him, he desperately tried to think of a way to remedy the situation.

"Well if it will make you feel better," Spike began, an idea forming in his head, "I brought a kite with me to camp! It's in my tent now if you're interested."

Twist looked absolutely shocked, as if she had just received an invitation from Celestia herself. "Do you mean it?" She asked, a lingering hint of doubt was present in her eyes.

"Of course! We still have like twenty minutes left of recess! If we go get it now that will give us plenty of time!" A smile formed on Twist's face, and for the first time Spike could tell that it was a genuine one.

"Ok!" She said, the doubt in her eyes slowly fading away. They both stood up from their seat on the tree and together they made their way towards the camp. Spike looked at Twist, noticing that her smile hadn't left her face yet. A good feeling began to grow inside Spike, and it was slowly warming his entire body with sunshine. To his surprise, it was Twist who broke the silence between them.

"Sooo..." She began, finally comfortable enough to start a conversation. "Do you like candy canes? Because I love candy canes!"

Night had fallen over the campground, the sky had turned from blue to a rich shade of purple under the light of Luna's night sky. Twist was curled away in her sleeping bag, peacefully resting inside of her tent. Body was still, but her mind was more awake than ever before, the filly relived happy memories over and over again behind her closed eyes; her smile was still present on her face, it hadn't faded since recess.

It was almost as if she could still feel the kite's spool in her hooves, the blowing wind in her mane, and of course the gentle smile that Spike always gave her. That she could never forget. It had been a long time since she had felt this happy, and even longer since she had had a reason to smile. She smiled because she knew that she could see Spike again, and she would have a whole new day to spend with him just as soon as the morning came...

"Gosh Twist! Could you take up any more room?!"

... That was assuming she could last the night.

Twist poked her head out from under her sleeping and noticed Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon standing in the tent's entrance. Their figures were silhouetted by the light of the moon, only their menacing eyes were visible.

"O-oh, sorry." Twist said nervously, the happy memories quickly disappearing, yielding to the insecurities that were flooding into her heart.  She quickly shifted over to the far side of the tent, giving most of the space to new-come bullies and leaving little room for herself.

"That's more like it." Diamond Tiara said with a smirk. The two entered the tent and tucked away into their sleeping bags. "Now if we're going to be in the same tent you'll have to follow a few rules." Silver Spoon couldn't help but giggle from the look on Twist's face.

"Rule one, stay on your side of the tent! Rule two, don't bother us while we're sleeping! Rule three, absolutely no snoring, got it?!"

Twist was doomed, she already knew that she snored like a bear. A shiver was running up and down her spine as thoughts of the rumors they would spread in the morning began to flow into her mind.

"A-actually," she began, a bead of sweat beginning to run down her forehead. "I think I'll just sleep outside tonight."

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon exchanged a wicked smile, before returning their gaze to Twist. "Sounds like a great idea!"

Twist bunched up her sleeping bag and carried it outside, she found a comfortable spot in the grass outside the tent and curled away into her sleeping bag. The night air was cold and the wind was cutting through her bag. She shivered from the cold as she tried to turn her mind towards happier thoughts.

She tried thinking of Spike, and all the fun they would have in the morning. The thoughts would come, but would quickly fade away. As much as she wanted to look forward to the next day, she could only bring herself to dread the next night. Fear was worming its way throughout her body, working side by side with the cold wind to make her as miserable as possible.Happy thoughts, Twist. she reminded herself, Happy thoughts.  She shivered in her sleeping bag, her every muscle in her body felt frozen in ice. She sighed heavily to herself.

"At least it isn't raining." Next Chapter: Happy Campers Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes