Sweetie Belle Takes Manehattan

Octavia opened her mouth, then closed it. Open, close. Open, close.

"That's actually a very good question, Vinyl."

"And I've got the answer."

We all spun around to see a mint green unicorn behind us. Her mane was a pretty cyan streaked with white. Her cutie mark was a golden lyre, and her eyes were amber colored.

"I'll take you to MSTA. Name's Lyra, by the way. Lyra Heartstrings."

"Thank you kindly." Octavia answered.

"No trouble. I was headed there myself. Follow me."

We followed Lyra through the thicket of buildings and ponies until Lyra stopped and pointed in front of her. "Behold. The Manehattan School of The Arts."

A sprawling campus lay in front of us, scattered with dormitory buildings and classrooms. Students had invaded the place; quite a few groups of ponies were sitting in the shade talking and laughing, while others were playing sports. The buildings themselves held the same old-timey charm of the city it was located in, and students also filed out of them, off to their dorms or the small bar that was on campus.

"This. Is. Twenty percent cooler." Vinyl broke the awestruck silence. "Let's go in."

We walked onto campus, then stopped. "Um, where are we supposed to go?" I piped up. Octavia fished out her schedule from her bag. "Our dormitory assignments are up in the top right corner. We go there and sign in, then go up to our dorms and unpack, all that jazz. Orientation is at five o' clock." She announced.

I levitated my own schedule in my emerald green glow, and sure enough, there it was; Phillharmonica House, 2-17. "Well, I'm off. See you all at orientation!" Lyra waved and headed off. "Yeah, same here." Both Vinyl and Tavi left. I headed off to Phillharmonica House, which was easily noticeable due to the name of the house being clearly visible in big black letters above the door. This school paid a lot more attention to aesthetics than most others; then again this was The Manehattan School of The Arts.

I pushed the door open, and a smart-looking stallion sat at a desk tapping away at a computer. He looked up at me and smiled. "Hi! My name's Inkwell, and welcome to The Manehattan School of The Arts! So, if you'll just tell me your name..." He levitated a quill above a freshly printed out spreadsheet.

"I'm Sweetie Belle." He scribbled a little check mark on the spreadsheet. "Curfew is at eight o' clock, be sure to get back to your dorm by then. Orientation is at five." He waved as I headed up to the second floor. 2-13, 2-14....here we are! I looked at the two nameplates on the door.

SWEETIE BELLE

BRUSHSTROKE

Inside was a white pegasus mare. Her mane was about 4 hooves long, and amethyst purple. Her tail was shorter, but also straight, and her cutie mark was a paintbrush dipped in blue paint. She looked up, and I could see her eyes were jade green.

"Hi. So you're Sweetie Belle?"

"Yep." I set my bags down by the bed she hadn't already taken. "You're Brushstroke?"

"Yep."

Awkward silence.

"What are you drawing?"

She picked up her sketchbook in her mouth and showed me. It was an incredibly detailed drawing of campus. The buildings were all in the right places, little ponies were leaving class or talking, and she had even included the little treble clef topiaries.

"That's really good!" I took the sketchbook in my magic. "There's me! And Vinyl and Tavi, down at the bottom!" She had drawn our first steps onto campus.

"My special talent's drawing, as you could probably tell, and the best stuff to draw is what you see. You can see everything from that window over there." She pointed to the window on her side of the room.

I headed over to the window, and sure enough, everything and everypony on the front lawn was visible.

"I'd like my sketchbook back, thank you."

She held out one hoof. I gave it back, awkward smile time. She went back to sketching. Sitting on the bed, I unpacked, my possessions swirling around me enveloped in emerald green light. I placed my music player and the group photo with the CMC in my drawer, my dress in the closet, and finally, leaving my school supplies in my saddlebags, I hung those on my little hook by the door. All without moving a muscle.

Brushstroke stared at me in sheer wonder. "I can get quite a bit done using my wings, but dang!"

I blushed, realizing how much of a showoff I must have seemed like. "Um...my sister, Rarity, she's really good at levitation magic, and I guess I inherited her talents or something."

"You must have. My dad's a unicorn and he can levitate three things at once, tops. Say, what does your sister look like? I could draw her."

"White coat, dark purple mane all curly, three light blue gems for her cutie mark, dark purple curly tail, and she's a unicorn."

Brushstroke scribbled furiously for a few minutes, then some erasing, then more scribbling. "Wait, what color are her eyes?"

"She says the color's 'official' name is azure, but it's just dark blue."

Another minute of scribbling from Brushstroke. "Done!"

She held it in her mouth and showed me.

"I tried the best I could given what you told me, I really, really hope I got her mane right, I tend to have trouble with manes and faces-" I stuffed a hoof in her mouth. "It's wonderful, Brushstroke. Do you mind if I send this to her as a gift?"

She spat out my hoof. "That's fine with me."

We both looked at the clock. Four fifty-five. "Orientation's at five." Brushstroke mentioned, oddly calm. Then we both dashed out of Phillharmonica House, ran all the way across the front lawn (Brush flew for part of it), and burst into the auditorium, drawing a few stares. Lyra waved us over, and we sat down next to her. Octavia and Vinyl sat in the row above us.

"Who's your friend?" Lyra asked.

"I'm Brushstroke." Brush raised a hoof.

We talked for a few minutes- Lyra told us about these two-legged things she called "humans" and Brush offered to draw them -when a hush fell over the room and orientation started.

A unicorn mare walked on stage and waved to everypony. "Hello, and welcome to the Manehattan School of The Arts! My name is Rebecca, and I am your principal. I hope you all exit this school with a new gleam in your eyes to beautify Equestria with the art form you choose to pursue!" She beamed.

The rest of orientation was fairly boring, basically reviewing everything on the website and in our student handbooks. After an hour and a half, we were dismissed. We were allowed to go out to the city (Yay!) but we had to be back on campus and in our dorms by eight. We ended up going out to eat, and Vinyl paid because she lost the coin flip. Then I ended up splitting the bill with her because I felt bad, which resulted in us arguing all the way back to campus. I had a feeling I was going to like it here.