//------------------------------//
// Special Chapter 1! 
// Story: Falling For Our Stars 
// by bobdat 
//------------------------------//

Special Chapter One

“Hey Miriam,” a nasty-sounding voice said. Its owner was glaring across the lunch table at a brown-haired earth pony who looked up at the mention of her name.
“What is it, Minty?” Miri replied, not rising to the bait. She continued forking hay into her mouth and acted disinterested in what Minty had to say.
“I’m glad I caught you with your annoying little friends,” Minty sneered, looking down at Fly and I. I hid my face behind a curtain of limp mane. Minty was a bully and I didn’t like her. I could see Fly getting nervous.

Miri shrugged. “Get on with it or go away.”
“I heard from our French teacher that your special trio will soon be four,” she said acidly. “Yeah, that’s right, they’re assigning somepony to live with you this year.”
I looked at Fly, but she seemed as clueless as I was to this development. We let Miri do the talking.
“Well then it’ll just be one more pony who’s my friend and not yours,” Miri said curtly, before tidying up her lunch tray and looking towards the exits. This put Minty off, and she just tossed her mane and stalked off to her own table.

“Somepony living with us?” I asked Fly. “How come we haven’t been told?”
“They said that since there were an odd number, we’d just have the extra space,” Fly replied. “I didn’t know anything about reassignments.”
Miri smirked. “Oh, it’s not a reassignment. It must be a new pony joining,” she informed us. “Some of the fifth years told me it happened to them.”
“A new pony,” I mused. “I wonder if she’ll be nice.”
Fly had never liked meeting new ponies, and having one move into our room was probably going to be a bit of a shock for her.

“Don’t worry, she’ll probably be great,” I tried to reassure the pegasus as we walked to our next lesson. “Last time you met new ponies, you met me, so it can’t be all bad.”
“I suppose. I just wish they’d told us sooner,” Fly said, looking at the floor.
“She’s probably joining for this year,” I guessed, “So she must arrive soon.” I tugged at my mane again, trying to iron out the split ends.
“I don’t like Minty,” Fly said, a smile finally returning to her face. “She’s always so mean.”
“I heard that her older sister is just the same,” I added as we joined the queue outside the classroom. “They’re only ever nice to each other.”

The official announcement of our new room-mate came that evening. The dorm matron bustled in as usual to make sure we were all in bed and ready to go to sleep before revealing it.
“She’s arriving tomorrow evening, so please clear the extra bed and be welcoming to her. As you know, you’re starting work for your formal exams so she might find it a big adjustment.”
“Where is she from?” Miri asked, and I pricked up my ears.
The matron patted the bottom of Miri’s blanket. “She’s flying in from Equestria.”
Of course, Miri had spread the news by breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t everyday that a new pony joined our year, especially not one who was Equestrian. We spent breakfast speculating.
“I hear they all play sports in Equestria,” I said, hoping the other ponies would listen. “She’ll probably be really athletic.”
“Yeah, and their schools are the best. I applied to get into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but their entrance exam was way too hard,” a pony at the other end of the table boasted. “If she’s been somewhere like that, she’ll be top of the class.”

Miri raised a hoof to get attention. “Equestrians are always loud. So expect her to be gossiping nearly as much as me.”
I giggled a little. Miri gossiped enough herself, she didn’t need a partner in crime.
“I hear they all have perfect teeth, like little rows of shiny metal,” somepony else said. 
“Maybe she’ll only want to eat Equestrian foods,” Fly said quietly.
“Well, who would want to eat our school dinners?” Miri replied, looking forlornly at the remains of her breakfast. 

At lunchtime, we had special permission from the dorm matron to make a welcome banner for our new friend, and to clear her bed and some wardrobe space. Neither Fly or I had very many clothes, so we just gave up some of ours.
“I’ll clear her bed of my biscuits in return,” Miri said, pulling packets out from seemingly everywhere. “Shame we’ll lose such a perfect hiding place.”
“Try the back of the wardrobe. They stopped checking there last year,” Fly said, helping the earth pony transfer everything.

I spent my time carefully painting the banner. It said ‘Welcome to Buckingham’, but with every letter painted a different colour. I had found out that yellow didn’t show up very well, so I had to go back over all the yellow letters in purple to replace it.
“I hope she’s nice. I really don’t want to have to share a room with another Minty,” Fly said in a whisper.
“Nopony is as stupid as Minty,” Miri reassured her. “And if she is, I’ll see to her.”
“She won’t be,” I added, looking at Miri. “She’ll probably be really nice.”
Fly nodded but didn’t seem convinced. 
“Come and paint the red letters, Fly. It’ll take your mind off it.”

The rumours about who the new pony was had spread like wildfire, and after lessons finished we found a small crowd of fourth-years crowding around our room.
“She’s not here yet,” Miri yelled, pushing her way through the crowd. “Nothing to see!”
I followed her, trying not to trip over anypony’s hooves. From somewhere in the crowd I hear a pony say “I heard she’s the richest pony our age in the world,” so her friend replied “No, she’s actually a supermodel who’s been in all of the magazines.”

I seriously doubted both of those, but if she did turn out to be super-rich, she could buy all kinds of nice things for our room. I’d always been jealous of a pink lava lamp that the ponies next door had.
“Go away!” Miri shouted at the crowd before firmly shutting the door behind her, turning to face Fly and I. “Those ponies are so silly. They always exaggerate everything.”
“You probably caused this,” I said, shaking my head.
“Whatever. Hey, can you help me with something?” Miri asked me, beckoning for me to go into the bathroom with her. Mystified, I followed, glancing quizzically at Fly as I did.

“I want to make a big impression on our new friend, so...” Miri said, pulling out a carrier bag. “I bought this!” In the carrier bag was a packet of red mane dye.
“Red dye? You’re going to dye your mane?”
“And tail. Brown is so boring, I really want a change,” Miri explained, opening the box. “Can you help me? She’ll be here in a few hours and I want it to be perfect.”
“Are you sure? Isn’t this against the rules or something?”
“No, I checked. Come on, please?” She fluttered her eyelashes, which made my laugh, and she took that as a yes.

I had never used dye before, so I just made sure we carefully followed the instructions on the packet. I’d heard horror stories about it turning blue, so I consoled myself with the thought that Miri would probably like it blue.
Once it was done, Miri stayed behind to style it the way she wanted, and I went to explain the situation to Fly.
“It’s all done now, so she’ll be out in a minute,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“We should probably wait outside for the new pony. The dorm matron came by and said she’ll be here soon, and shooed the big crowd,” Fly told me.

But as soon as we opened the door, an even bigger crowd surged forwards, craning their necks to get a look into our room.
“She’s not here!” I said, waving my hooves. “Still hasn’t arrived.”
There was a sigh of disappointment and the other ponies went back to their muttering. Fly and I headed for the stairs, which were lined with ponies hoping for the first glimpse.
“There’s a carriage pulling up outside,” somepony said. “It must be her!”
Everypony crowded around the windows to get a look, but it turned out to just be a mail delivery pony with a package. Fly was starting to get nervous again, so I held onto her hoof tightly.

Our salvation came in the form of a whole team of dorm matrons storming up the stairs. The first one must have brought back-up.
“Okay, everypony who is not supposed to be here, get back to your room or there will be detention tomorrow lunchtime. You have one minute to be out of the corridors,” the biggest, meanest-looking matron yelled. Everypony mumbled in disappointment and began making their way back to their rooms. Fly and I headed back as well, planning to wait just outside.

“Hi girls,” our matron said, giving us a friendly smile which seemed to reassure Fly. “She’s been having a meeting with the headmare and she’s just on her way now. Is your room tidy?”
“Yes,” I replied truthfully. “Is she nice?”
“She seemed to be when I met her. Just wait and see,” the matron said, winking.
We turned to look at the stairs, and up them came a few large suitcases, accompanied by the headmare and a unicorn with an intricately curled purple mane and tail.
“Here’s your room, and your new room-mates. Here’s a key,” the headmare said to her. “I’ll leave you in their capable hooves.”

Fly was shaking a little bit, so I put my hoof around her as the new pony approached. She looked just as nervous as Fly.
“Um, hello,” she said, pawing at the ground with a hoof.
“Hi. What’s your name?” I tried, admiring her mane.
She smiled weakly. “I’m Rarity.” When she said her name, her accent became more obvious. Definitely Equestrian.
“Well I’m Toccata and this is Fly Leaf, but you can call us Cat and Fly,” I said politely. Fly turned and went back into the room, leading Rarity in.

Miri jumped out from the wardrobe, giving both Fly and Rarity a huge fright. Fly ended up hovering near the ceiling. My indignation took over from my nerves and I gave Miri a harsh look.
“Hey, Miri! Don’t be mean,” I said sharply. “This is Rarity.”
“Hi! I’m Miriam, but everypony calls me Miri,” Miri said, disregarding my advice and pulling Rarity into a hug. “Your bed is next to mine.” She pointed as Fly came down from the ceiling and settled on the bed next to mine.

“Thanks,” Rarity said, setting her suitcases down and looking around the room.
“The bathroom is there. We’ve cleared some of the wardrobe for you, too,” I told her, doing my best to smile at her and make her feel at home. 
“Oh, good. I have a lot of clothes,” Rarity said. However, we were not expecting the huge pile that she began pulling out of suitcases and laying on her bed.
“Um... need a hoof?” I asked, taken aback by the volume of clothing.
“That would be nice.”

Only belatedly did I notice that Miri’s mane and tail were definitely red. We had done a good job, and it actually suited her a bit. She’d get bored and go back to brown before long, but that didn’t matter.
“Okay okay, you need to tell us everything about you,” Miri said, bouncing on her bed. “Everything. Then we can fill you in on the three of us.”
Rarity giggled. “Oh, before I forget, I brought over some magazines from Equestria. I don’t know if you like reading them.”

Miri and I stared at the fashion magazines like they were made of solid gold. Equestrian magazines were rarer than pink bananas in Britannia, and suddenly our new friend was giving them to us to read!
“I think we’re going to get along,” Miri said happily, grabbing the first one from the top of the pile.
“I can’t wait to go shopping in the capital. I’ve never been before and I’ve heard they have such great shops,” Rarity said, using a hoof to re-curl the tips of her mane. “You’ll have to show me all the best places.”
Miri fell onto the floor with a thump.
“We will, don’t worry,” I assured her. “And ignore Miri. She’s a bit excited today. Do you want me to show you around the school tomorrow?”