Author's Note
NOTE: In this story, the mane 6 are just fillies and Spike is yet to be born. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy know each other. Rainbow doesn't know any of them except Fluttershy. Twilight knows of them but they aren't really her friends just yet.
The mane six all have their cutie marks and the Sonic Rainboom has already taken place. Let's say Twilight got her cutie mark in Ponyville doing a powerful magic act while doing a test and has yet to get the results. Why it will take so long to do, I have no idea. Also, SPOILER ALERT.
Another note: I'm sorry if I keep putting off the other stories. I promise I'll try to finish them.
Chapter 1
'I'm just standing there, why am I just standing there?! My best friend is about to leave for Celestia knows how long and I'm just standing there?!' Rainbow Dash thought as her best friend, Twilight Sparkle, stood in front of her.
A few months before, Twilight had announced to her friends that she was going to leave Ponyville to study in Chanterlot with the Princess of the Sun herself. They were all happy for her, all except one. A part of Dash wanted to be happy that Twilight became the Princess's student, that she'll be happy where she'll be going. But the negative thoughts weighed more heavily on her mind.
Rainbow felt like flying away where nopony could find her and scream till her throat was bleeding. Yet she felt rooted to the ground she stood at. She couldn't lift her wings even if she tried, she opened her mouth, but no words came to mind. Dash stood there giving a blank stare, still thinking about Twilight's announcement, not sure how to act. She didn't really notice though, she was too busy answering questions from their friends and listening to Pinkie Pie ranting on and on about the preparations for her 'Twilight's-leaving-for-Chanterlot-and-we-hope-to see-her-soon!' party.
'Well that's a mouthful.' Rainbow thought as she rolled her eyes internally. Her mind wanders back to the present and looks back at the pony in question. She's starting back at her with those purple eyes she's gotten to know so well. Her expression is unreadable, Dash can't tell what she's thinking exactly but she seems lost in thought.
She would be too if her bestest friend had to move away for a long time, and because of what happened. Rainbow internally frowned.
'Because of what happened...'
"But Mommm!!" Rainbow whined as her mother prepared her school bag. "I don't wanna go to school today!"
"No 'but's Rainbow. You can't keep putting off your education or you'll never get a job. Someday you're going to have to work for us once we're retired." Dash huffed in response. "There you go, now you're ready for school!" Her mother chirpped happily.
Rainbow sighed, but in a good way. "Ok, bye Mom!" She bid as she waved her hoof at her mother. Her waving back was good as answered as she flew to this new school in a town called 'Ponyville'.
'Ugh, we really need to move closer so I don't have to wake up so early. But it makes me exercise a bit more so, not all bad.' Dash thought as Ponyville came to view. 'There it is. Now I need to find the school. The building with that giant bell tower, right?' She asked herself as she neared a building in question. 'Yup, that's it alright.'
The enterance was crowded with fillies and colts with their parents or relatives seeing the children off to their first day in school. 'Funny how I don't get sent to school by my Mom since she's always busy and my Dad leaves before I wake up so, yeah.'
Rainbow pushed through the crowd and found her way into the school with some difficulty but she was used to it given the amount of times she's been to see the Wonderbolt shows.
It took some time to find the classroom Rainbow was assigned to but she found it, eventually. As she entered, she saw a few fillies around her age. Some were older. Most of them were playing with paper airplanes and doing other origami, and some were outside playing.
"Hiya!" A voice greeted loudly, breaking her thoughts.
"Gah!" Dash stumbled back as a pink pony with curly hair invaded her vision. "Will you please not do that!" Rainbow said holding a hoof to her chest as if to calm herself down.
"Sorry!~" the pony replied in a sing-song tone. "I just saw you come in here and I was like, 'Hey that pony doesn't look familiar so I'm gonna go and greet her!' I'm Pinkie Pie, by the way." 'Pinkie' greeted once more, holding out a hoof. Rainbow shook it hesitantly, but there was just something about this filly that made her feel more confident about making friends. And something told her not to question this filly if she did something unusual.
"I'm Rainbow Dash, nice to meet you."
"'Rainbow Dash' huh? That's a nice name!" Pinkie complimented. Dash smiled proudly. "Anyway, Rainbow Dash. You don't look like you're from here."
"How did you know?" She asked. If Dash knew Pinkie as well as she did now, she would see this as a stupid question.
"I know everypony in Ponyville. And I don't know you so I knew you were new around here, right?"
"Well, yeah. I'm from Cloudsdale. Me and my parents are moving to Ponyville in a few weeks. I don't really know why we didn't move first and then send me to school though."
"Oh, so you must be really confused , now aren'tcha? Well don't worry, I'll show you around! Starting with our playground!" Pinkie announced. "Follow me!" She said as she trotted towards the door leading outside at the other end of the hallway.
"Wait! Uhh, where do I put my bag?" Dash asked, pointing to her backpack.
Pinkie looked at Dash, confused then facehoofed and smiled at her ignorance. "Oh, right! Sorry, I guess I got too excited. I think I'll show you around our classroom first. Then we can check out the playground." She said as she walked back inside. Rainbow chuckled at her antics. 'I got a feeling I'm going to like Ponyville.'
As Pinkie Pie promised, she showed Rainbow Dash around the playground and fields outside. She even introduced her to some of her 'closer' friends, since she considered everypony her friend. Their names were Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. Upon seeing Fluttershy, Rainbow hoarded her with questions like, 'How long have you been living here? Is it nice here in Ponyville? Why didn't you tell me you were here?'. Poor Fluttershy didn't stand a chance. Anyway, they and Rainbow made friends quickly. And even better, they were all in the same class!
Too bad class was starting too soon for them to take a tour of the whole school. Since it was the first day of school for most students, the teacher spent the day getting to know them all and talk more about themselves. Dash was curious about that one unicorn filly in the far corner of the class. She had lavender fur and midnight blue mane with a magenta and purple stripe running down it. She couldn't really see her eyes as the book she was reading were blocking them, when it was that filly's turn to introduce herself, she said her name was 'Twilight Sparkle' without taking her eyes off the book she was reading.
During recess, Rainbow asked Pinkie about that pony whom she was curious about. "Oh, her? I knew her since kinder too. I tried to be her friend but she keeps walking away everytime I come closer. She's also qutie the bookworm, I'll bet on a hundred bits- actually, make that six hundred bits- that she'll go to the library when she's finished her food. She mostly likes to sit alone even though it isn't fun." Pinkie explained as they got their food trays and sat next to Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. And just as Pinkie said, Rainbow could see the lavender unicorn sitting alone on a table not too far from theirs.
"So have any of you guys try to approach her, y'know, other than Pinkie?" Rainbow asked her new friends.
"Why, of course we have, darling. The poor dear just seemed so lonely." Rarity replied.
"We tried alright, we asked of she'd like tah' play outside, sit at our table, even tried tah help with the homework. Turns out, she's way smarter than us." Applejack added. Futtershy nodded along.
"I even asked if she would want to have a pet of her own. I mean, everypony likes animals, right?" Fluttershy asked hopefully.
Rainbow's mother didn't really know if they had cafeterias in this school so she packed her lunch, just in case. It was her favourite sandwich and some apple juice. But her attention wasn't on her food, she was looking at the unicorn sitting alone on the table. The book she was reading was set aside as she ate her sandwich slowly. And even from afar, Dash could clearly see the downcast expression on the unicorn's face.
All of a sudden, she felt a need to help the unicorn filly somehow. To be by her side, to confort her. Rainbow Dash suddenly stood up, gaining the attention of her friends.
"What're ya doin', Rainbow?" Applejack asked.
"I can't just walk away from somepony who clearly can't be alone."
"Well, you're not exactly walking away from it. I mean, you were kinda just sitting down here looking at her-mmmhh." Pinkie started but was interrupted by an orange hoof covering her mouth. Rainbow just stared at her pink friend but decided not to question it just yet.
Rainbow picked up her tray of food and walked towards the table Twilight sat on. Twilight noticed and mumbled, "What are you doing? Shouldn't you be sitting with your friends?"
Rainbow caught it and replied, "Aren't you a friend?" As mushy as it was, she just didn't like the thought of somepony having no friends. So, why not be the first to become their friend? After those words left her mouth, Twilight looked up to see Rainbow for the first time, her expression, confusion.
"What do you mean? I don't have any friends." Twilight muttered, her face dropping as she said the last part. "So please, just go. Leave me alone." Twilight continued, her head dipping lower making her bangs cover her eyes. Rainbow's empathy for her only grew.
This, in a way, reminded Dash about herself before. Always avoiding ponies, so blind to how friendships can affect you and your life. But that was before she got her confidence. At that time, she didn't have any friends to help her with her problems and help her with her being bullied. That was one of the reasons she left Cloudsdale, bullying was common there, especially among pegasi offsprings. Twilight must have been bullied before to make her this introverted. This realisation just fueled her determination to help Twilight.
"No, I can't leave you alone like this." Dash declared, holding her ground. Her determination caught Twilight's full attention.
'Why isn't she leaving? I said I wanted to be alone but she's still here.' Twilight thought then said, "Why aren't you leaving? You don't even know me, but I heard those girls you were friends with talk about me, so you must have some idea about how I'm like. I mean, who would want to be friends with a boring, introvert bookworm?" Twilight said as she looked the opposite to Dash trying to hide her face.
Rainbow tried to think of words to say. Why was she trying to help this seemingly boring and random unicorn filly? With some thought, Rainbow found an answer. "Because you reminded me of how I was like before."
Twilight cocked her head. "Huh? A bookworm?"
Rainbow mentally facehoofed. "No, no. I mean, the type who avoided making friends." Upon seeing Twilight's curious look, she continued. "I always sat alone during break times and didn't really interact with anypony until I defended somepony back in flight school. That's when I realised how nice it is to have friends." Rainbow then looked Twilight straight in the eyes. "And I hope you'll realise that too."
Twilight sighed. "Alright, I'll take your advice." Rainbow nearly squealed. She wasn't all good with talking, especially about stuff like this. "But who would want to be friends with me?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow was about to answer when another voice interrupted. A voice that belonged to a certain pink pony. "We would, silly!" Rainbow turned to the source of the voice and saw Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity.
Dash smiled for a second then her face held nervousness."Great timing guys. But how much did you hear exactly?" She asked.
"Maybe from the part when Twilight asked about what you were doing, talking to her." Pinkie blurted out sheepishly. Rainbow rolled her eyes. If this kept up, her reputation would be ruined.
"Aww, that was nice of you, Rainbow. You did what most of us failed to do." Futtershy congratulated which made Dash smile proudly.
"Well, let's not be rude and introduce ourselves to Twilight. Umm, you do know our names, right?" Twilight shook her head sheepishly muttering about not listening during class. "Well, alright then. My name is Rarity." Rarity greeted and held out a hoof. Twilight took it hesitantly.
"Mah name's Applejack, I live in Sweet Apple Acres." Applejack said as she too held a hoof out for Twilight to shake.
"M-my name is Fluttershy. I live in a cottage near the Everfree forest." Rainbow and Twilight seemed surprised that somepony would live near a dangerous place. The others acted like they knew already so they just left it at that.
"My name is Pinkie Pie, but you may know already." Twilight nodded then looked to Rainbow Dash as if waiting for her turn to introduce herself, but Pinkie covered for her. "And this is Rainbow Dash! She lives in Cloudsdale with her parents and is a friend of Fluttershy's."
Twilight smiled warmly. She certainly wasn't expecting to make such good friends, and on the first day too! Maybe things are going to be different in the future. But whatever it is, she and her friends were going to face it together.
