Best Friends From the Start

"I have two new best friends now! They're both fillies just like me, too! One of them is another earth pony named Applejack and she lives on Sweet Apple Acres, and the other is a pegasus pony named Fluttershy who can actually talk to animals!"

Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down enthusiastically as she told a few of her friends at grade school during recess about her two newest friends. Mr. and Mrs. Cake felt it was a necessity to enroll their adopted daughter to Ponyville Grade School being as she's still a young, inexperienced filly. Pinkie was absolutely thrilled at the idea. Getting to learn new stuff and make new friends? Who wouldn't love that idea?

"Wow, they sound like they're really nice!" a pale earth pony filly with dark blue and magenta hair named Bon Bon gasped. She pushed her blue glasses up when they began to fall along the bridge of her nose. "I wish I were as courageous as you to make new friends."

"Oh, I wouldn't call it being brave, I'd call it just wanting to make friends!" Pinkie replied with a little skip. "Anypony can make new friends, it's super easy! Even you!"

"Speaking of which," a red-violet earth pony filly with lighter pink striped hair named Cheerilee spoke up, "there's a new student at school, and she's a unicorn!"

"Really?" a light gray earth pony filly with a darker mane and tail named Octavia gasped. "I heard that unicorns usually attend schools in Canterlot!"

"Well, this unicorn filly lives in Ponyville with her parents and baby sister," Cheerilee retorted. "She's got the prettiest white coat I've ever seen! And her curly purple mane looks so silky and lustrous!"

"Ooo, I can't wait to meet her!" Pinkie squealed excitedly. "Where is she now?"

"I'm not sure, but I think she may be in the schoolhouse making costumes for next week's school play."

"I'm gonna go find her and see if she needs any help, then I'll be her friend!"

The pink pony bounced back into the schoolhouse and began trotting down the halls, looking in each classroom in search of where a white and purple-maned unicorn could be.

She stopped when she came across the arts and crafts room. There were a variety of colored paint splattered all over the white walls that have dried a long time ago, and the floor was covered in paint splotches as well. There were also scissors and glue sticks next to piles of cut paper and crayons on tables, which was all sprinkled with glitter.

A bit of movement caught Pinkie's attention and she turned to see a white and purple foal working at a larger table. She had pieces of fabric sewn onto foal-sized mannequins as well as a chest of colorful, vibrant gemstones next to them. She was currently running a piece of pink fabric through a sewing machine, and the pony herself was wearing red reading glasses.

Curious, the pink filly walked over to the other filly's side and looked at what she was sewing. It looked like a lacy foreleg piece to a costume with a few gemstones sewed into it, making them sparkle and glisten in the light.

"Ooo, that looks super pretty!" Pinkie squealed loudly. She winced as the other filly screamed in surprise and leaped back, bumping into the table and causing the sewing machine to fall off the table and completely rip the fabric she was sewing. She tripped over her chest of gems and collided with the mannequins.

"Oh, my gosh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" the pink filly quickly apologized, her ears flattened against her head in panic.

The unicorn filly grunted and rubbed her head before climbing to her hooves. She glared at Pinkie for a while, causing her to gulp, but her gaze softened and she let out a long sigh.

"It's okay, it was an accident," the filly spoke in a sophisticated voice. Her tiny horn glowed light blue, and soon the toppled-over mannequins glowed in the same aura, and they then magically stood back up on their pedestals.

Pinkie gasped at the sight of the magic. Sure, she had seen a few unicorn mares around town levitate bits and boxes of pastries in the shop, but the ability of magic was still alien to her, and no matter how many times she would see a unicorn levitating anything it would still amaze her as if it were the coolest magic trick she had ever seen in her life.

The unicorn filly looked at Pinkie in confusion. "Have you never seen a unicorn use magic before?"

"No, I have, it's just that I come from a place that's only inhabited by earth ponies and I've never seen any pegasus ponies or unicorn ponies before and I think that their abilities to fly and use magic is super-duper ultra amazing-tastic!" The pink filly panted a bit, catching her breath.

The unicorn blinked a few times, almost looking disgusted, and forced a smile and a small chuckle. "W-Well, isn't that nice? Anyhow, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm falling terribly behind on these dresses and I need as much time and concentration as I can get."

"Speaking of the dresses, they're oh so pretty! You're really talented, especially for a foal!"

"Why, thank you... uh..."

"Pinkie Pie!"

"Thank you, Pinkie Pie." The unicorn filly walked back to the table and levitated the sewing machine back up. She winced when she saw the tear in the fabric.

"What's your name?" Pinkie suddenly chirped, startling the filly once again.

Heaving a sigh, she replied, "My name is Rarity."

"Wow, what a pretty name! Perfect for such a pretty foal!"

Rarity giggled and flung her mane around, showing off how silky and sparkly it was. "Well, one has to look their best, especially if one does have such a magnificent name as I."

"Hey, do you mind if I helped you out with your dress-making?" the pink filly grinned.

"Well... I suppose so. I could use all the help I could get. You really wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not! I'm always willing to help a friend in need!"

Rarity smiled warmly at the energetic earth pony filly. "Thank you so much, Pinkie Pie, you are ever so generous!" She levitated a small pink and purple dress over to her, as well as some blueprints. "If you could sew some purple gems on the pink and pink gems on the purple, you'd be helping me out so much. Do you know how to sew?"

"Honestly, I never learned how to," Pinkie grinned sheepishly.

"Would you like me to teach you?"

"Yes, please!"

Rarity trotted to a separate table, using her magic to brush off the glitter and paper, and placed the dress, gems, and blueprints on it. She subsided her magic, finding it easier to teach an earth pony how to sew by handling a needle and thread like one, and gripped the needle in her teeth carefully. She then spoke through her teeth, "Make sure to be very careful when holding onto the needle, and always hold it with the pointy tip facing away from you. You wouldn't want to poke your tongue."

Pinkie dug her forehooves into her fluffy pink tail and pulled out a pencil and notepad, then wrote down notes as the unicorn filly spoke.

"You now place a gem on the piece of fabric as directed on the blueprint," Rarity continued. She picked up a purple gemstone with a hoof and carefully aligned it on a pink sleeve as shown on the paper. "Then you find the little hole poked through the gem and slide the needle through." She did so, sliding the needle through the gem, and very carefully grabbed the tip to pull it back out. She then placed it on the table and picked it back up by the end.

"Finally, you poke the needle through the fabric, wrapping the thread around the gem a few times to make sure it stays in place." After she demonstrated the technique, she grabbed a pair of scissors with her hooves and snipped off the extra thread. "And that's how you sew gemstones into fabric!"

At this point, Pinkie was writing on a very long scroll of paper, ditching the notepad beforehand for there wasn't enough room to write down the instructions. She looked up when she finished and grinned, spitting the pencil out of her mouth. "Wow, that's a lot of stuff to keep in mind. But I think I'm ready to give it a shot!"

Rarity left Pinkie alone to sew the gems into the costume as she fixed up the ripped sleeve, as well as finish up the rest of the unfinished costume on the mannequin. Once finished, Rarity walked over to Pinkie's station to see how she had done.

"Okay, let's see what you have!" Rarity smiled. She gasped in surprise to see all the gemstones have been sewn precisely where the blueprint had instructed. She smiled, very pleased. "Well done, Pinkie Pie! You'd make for a marvelous seamstress!"

"Thanks, Rarity!" Pinkie squealed happily, bouncing over to the unicorn filly, somehow managing to tie up all four legs together with thread. Rarity giggled and levitated a pair of scissors to snip the pink pony free.

"Oh, Pinkie, you sure are something else," Rarity giggled. She then hugged the pink filly. "Thank you ever so much for helping me out today, I just can't thank you enough! And to show my gratitude, I've made you something!"

"You did? For me?" Pinkie gasped, grinning.

Rarity led Pinkie into a corner in the room to a white cloth covering up a mannequin. She whipped it off with her magic and revealed a beautiful sapphire-incrested pink bow with glitter and even a few colorful triangular pins resembling candy corns.

Pinkie gasped loudly before squealing and hugging the unicorn filly. "I love it!"

"I'm ever so glad!" Rarity smiled. She helped the pink filly put the bow on her left ear, tilting it diagonally to give it a cuter look. "Oh, you look absolutely adorable in that bow!"

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! I love it so much! Thank you, Rarity, you're so generous!"

"Anything for a pony who helped me out today."

"I'm not just another pony who helped you. I'm your friend, and you're mine, too!" Pinkie hugged Rarity once again, who giggled and hugged back. Pinkie suddenly gasped and grinned. "Oh! Now I can push the party back a few more days to make time to get to know you so that I can throw you a party, too, for being my newest and bestest friend alongside Fluttershy and Applejack!"

Rarity blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes playfully and chuckled. "I'm not entirely sure what you said, but sure thing, darling."