Friendship is Magic Shimmer

Magic Shimmer took a deep breath as the train pulled out of the station and she watched as it left her there in Ponyville, taking her mother with it. Her gut twisted with homesickness already and she had no idea what the princess would think of her.

“Excuse me little filly.” said a soft voice behind her.

Mage spun around and stared wide eyed up at the yellow pegasus mare before her.

“Are you Magic Shimmer?” a pink earth pony cried, seeming to just appear in her face.

“Uh-huh.” she replied, nodding.

“No need to look so scared, we don’t bite!” the earth pony said in her high pitched voice as she bounced up and down, causing her cotton candy-like curls to bounce with her.

“Twilight is a little busy right now so she asked us to get you.” the pegasus said gently as she brushed a lock of silky pink mane out of her teal eyes with one hoof, “I’m Fluttershy and this is Pinky Pie, we’re two of Twilight’s friends.”

“Enough chit-chat, let’s get you to the castle!” Pinky Pie said, grabbing them and pulling them after her, causing Mage to let out a yelp of surprise.

Soon they arrived at Princess Twilight’s castle and Pinky lead them inside, rambling about how excited everyone was about her arrival and how they should throw a party to celebrate. Fluttershy on the other hoof was quiet the whole time, but not in an awkward way, more in a comforting way.

“...and this is your room!” Pinky cried excitedly, ending the tour.

Mage looked around the room, it had plain walls, a plain bed, a desk bare of anything but a simple lamp and an empty dresser.

“We didn’t know what you would like so we left it plain until we can decorate it to your liking.” Fluttershy stated.

Mage nodded in understanding and put her suitcase on the bed to unpack later.

“We’ll leave you to get settled until Twilight gets back, which shouldn’t be long.” Pinky said as they left the room.

Mage had enough time to put away all her clothes in the dresser and set up a few keepsakes on the desk before there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.” she said, her first words since saying goodbye to her mother at the station.

Twilight came into the room with a dragon trailing behind, Mage recognized the purple alicorn from pictures in magazines and newspaper articles.

“Hello! I trust Pinky and Fluttershy gave you a tour of the castle?” the princess asked.

Mage nodded.

“Good, now about your name, Magic Shimmer is a bit long, is there anything you would rather us call you?”

“Mage is fine.”

“Great! Are you hungry, Mage?”

Mage remembered how she hadn’t eaten much on the train out of nerves, but those nerves weren’t quite gone yet. She nodded anyway though because she knew she probably should eat something.

“Then lets go, I invited my friends to have dinner with us so they could all meet you.” Twilight said as she started to leave the room.

It wasn’t long after they sat at the table that all of Twilight’s friends arrived, each introducing themselves before sitting. Rainbow Dash, the blue, rainbow haired pegasus and a member of the Wonderbolts, Rarity, white unicorn with purple curls and a well known fashion designer, Applejack, an orange country mare who runs a farm with her brother and sister, then the animal-lover Fluttershy and party-pony Pinky Pie returned.

“So,” Twilight began, “I don’t know how much my cousin told you Mage, but I suppose you would like to hear exactly how you came to be here?”

Mage nodded, a thing she’d been doing a lot of since she was too overwhelmed to form words.

"Well, Princess Celestia mentioned taking on a protegee and I remembered my cousin's letters about how she had a magically gifted filly so a sent her a letter and we decided you would come stay with me for a while to learn about magic and friendship. I understand that most princesses don't show any favoritism towards family and usually put potential students through a test, so you aren't officially my student yet, first I want to see what you can do."

Mage gave a slow nod of understanding, "Does this mean I might become a princess? I mean, you were Princess Celestia's protege and you became a princess."

Twilight gave a chuckle and said, "I don't know, we'll just have to wait and see."

~

Mage was silent as Twilight walked her to school, the princess may be her mother’s cousin, but she really didn’t know her and had no idea what to talk about.

“Did you have many friends in Canterlot?” Twilight asked suddenly.

“Meh, it can be difficult to make genuine friends in Canterlot.” Mage replied, “I mostly just study magic in my spare time.”

“Do you like reading?”

“Yeah, but I never got much time to read for pleasure.”

“We can fix that.” Twilight replied, grinning.

When they reached the school the other foals were already heading in, the older class of ponies coming out. When she entered most of the other students were already sitting.

“Ah, you must be Magic Shimmer?” said the teacher, a dark pink earth pony.

Mage nodded.

The teacher grinned and turned to the rest of the class, “Everyone, please welcome our new student from Canterlot, Magic Shimmer, she’s here to learn from the princess.”

Mage felt heat rise to her face as her new classmates whispered, casting her glances.

“I’m Miss Cheerilee, take a seat.”

Mage scanned the room for available seats and settled on one in the second row between a yellow maned red colt and a silver maned white filly wearing a plastic tiara and giving her a sickly sweet smile.

“Hi, I’m Zealous Crown. So you’re really studying with the princess?” the white filly introduced herself, bating her emerald green eyes to add to her charm, a trick Mage had seen plenty of Canterlot fillies doing when they wanted something.

“Mage.” she replied and turned her attention to the front of the class where Cheerilee was beginning the lesson.

Mage saw the filly frown and heard her let out a huff but she didn’t say anything else until class was over. Mage was heading out the door to go play like the other foals when the white filly stopped her.

“So what’s it like in Canterlot, and having a princess teach you magic?” the filly asked.

Mage didn’t get a good feeling from this filly, she felt the same around her as she felt around snobby Canterlot foals, “Meh, many of the Canterlot snobs aren't that different from you.”

This gave the filly pause and she narrowed her eyes, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The only reason you’re talking to me is because I’m from Canterlot and Princess Twilight took me on as her student, you think I can make you more popular. But I hated Canterlot and the princess only took me as her student because my mother is her cousin. I was actually invisible to the snobby Canterlot foals so you wanting to be my friend is laughable.”

Zealous Crown glared at her for a moment and then left, “I can’t be seen around a blank flank anyway.”

“Wow,” said a voice behind her, “You totally called her out.”

When Mage looked she saw a dusty yellow earth pony with messy a pink and blue mane, and upon closer inspection Mage realized that the filly’s coat wasn’t dusty yellow, but just yellow and covered in dust as if she hadn’t bathed in a while.

“I’m Dipsy Swirl.” the filly introduced.

“I know a snob when I see one. You can call me Mage.”

“So, the princess really only picked you because you’re related?”

“Well...maybe not just, she didn’t have to pick me, but I guess she thought it was a good idea.” Mage replied with a frown.

The filly nodded and began leading the way into the playground, “Z’s bark is worse that her bite btw, and don’t mind that whole blank flank comment, there are a lot of blanks in our class.” she paused to gesture at her own blank flank, “Besides, it’s a compliment that she thought you approachable despite being a blank flank.”

“I see...so who are the other blanks?”

Dipsy stopped and looked around thoughtfully before pointing to the red colt Mage has sat next to, “Pepper Roll,” she then pointed to a pair of twins, one pink with a purple mane, the other purple with a pink mane, “Meadow Minstrel and Fancy Music,” she then pointed to a yellow pegasus with a green mane and a white maned purple unicorn, “Banana Flutter and Summer Moon,” she looked around and pointed to a few more, saying the names of the ones she knew and then resumed walking.

“I suppose we’ll all be getting our cutie marks this year or the next.” Mage replied.

Dipsy nodded, “In fact, only three ponies in the next grade up don't have cutie marks, they’re known as the cutie mark crusaders. We could always join them if we get desperate enough.”

"Not this year we don't, it's too soon." She giggled.

~

"How was your first day of school?" Twilight asked on their way home, "Did you make any new friends?"

Mage grinned at the word 'friends' she knew that as the princess of friendship Twilight took that kind of thing very seriously, as well as books and studying of course, "It was good, and I made friends with a filly called Dipsy Swirl."

"Great! No trouble with any bullies?"

"Well, there was this one snobby filly, but she didn't bother us much."

"Ahem." Came a voice from behind them, causing the to halt and look back at Spike, whom Mage hid forgotten was even there.

"Yes Spike?" Twilight asked.

"Don't you think we should get something to eat?" Spike asked, waving a schedule as he continued, "I hardly had time for lunch since we were so busy, and this is our only open time slot 'till dinner. I'm starving!"

Twilight giggled when a growl of his stomachs emphasized his point, "Alright Spike, we'll stop and get something to eat." Twilight then licked her lips and said, "Actually there's this restaurant nearby I've been dying to try! You don't mind, do you Mage?"

"I could eat." Mage responded with a smile.

"Great, let's go!" Spike said, hurrying onward, causing Twilight and Mage to giggle as they raced to catch up.

When they arrived Mage let out a satisfied sound at the smell of food, Spike drooling hungrily. When they sat down a bright red Pegasus mare with a light buttercream colored mane and tail passed out menus and introduced herself as Red Velvet before skating back to the kitchen, flapping her wings for added speed calling, "Hurry up kiddo, I'm only passing out menus, you have to wait your tables!"

"They sure have a lot of spicy foods on their menu." Twilight commented casually as she decided what she wanted.

Mage nodded in agreement.

Then a familiar red pegasus colt dashed out of the kitchen toward their table, not wearing roller skates unlike Red Velvet. When his yellow gaze met Mage's his eyes widened and he flushed in embarrassment, stuttering, "W-what would y-you like to drink?"

"Pepper Roll?" Mage asked.

His blush deepened, "Hi..."

Twilight glanced curiously between the two, "You've met?"

"Not exactly, we sit next to each other in class, be we haven't spoken to each other." Mage explained.

Twilight nodded and then turned to the colt, "Aren't you a little young to be a waiter?"

"My parents own the restaurant, they want me to help out so I wait tables." He said, his cheeks still flushed, though it was a bit hard to see since since his coat was red.

"Okay, well I'll just have some water please." Twilight said.

"Lemonade for me." Mage added.

"I'll just have water." Spike said.

"Coming right up." Pepper said, clearly happy to leave the table.

"I wonder why he seemed to timid and embarrassed?" Mage wondered aloud.

Twilight shrugged, "Some ponies are just more quiet and reserved than others."

Pepper was a good enough waiter despite his nervousness, he didn't mess up any orders and drop and food or drinks and they had a nice...linner? Dunch? Lupper? Sunch? Well, whatever it was called they thoroughly enjoyed it.