//------------------------------// // The First Night // Story: My Little Witches: Adventures in Hogwarts // by GingerSpice //------------------------------// Twilight grinned, holding back the urge to shriek like a small girl, and placed some food onto her plate. Ravenclaw! Of course! The House of knowledge and learning. She’d hoped to be placed here. Twilight took a bite of some fried chicken wings. Wow! Applejack had been right about the food! Twilight had seen pictures of Ravenclaw’s common room. It looked like home. White, bronze, and royal blue. And best of all, a massive bookshelf covering an entire wall. There were at least enough books to last for months on end! Bright-eyed, Twilight took another bite of chicken, looked up at the starry ceiling, and tried to guess what riddle she’d have to answer to enter the room. Rainbow Dash looked across the table at Pinkie, who had completely skipped the main course and was going straight for the cakes, pastries, and other desserts. Did she eat like this all the time? How did she stay so thin? She may never know. Maud was picking at a salad while simultaneously placing chicken wings on a small rock that she’d apparently brought with her. Rainbow Dash liked being placed in Gryffindor, the House of heros. Her dad had warned her that many of the students placed there were very loud and rowdy. Good, those were her kind of people. Dash looked over again at Pinkie, whom had not only completely cleaned her packed plate, but was currently casually placing a large slice of pie in her mouth. God, this girl could eat! You couldn’t blame her, the desserts were delicious. Rainbow was having quite a few of them herself. All the while, Maud hadn’t gotten far on her salad, and was still attempting to feed an inanimate rock. “Hey, Pinkie, didn’t you say earlier that everybody in your family has been in Hufflepuff?” Dash asked. “Yup,” grunted Pinkie, with her mouth filled with cream puffs. “Well, Maud is here in Gryffindor with us,” Rainbow pointed out. Maud barely gave a glance at the sound of her name. Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah. I meant everyone in our family before me and my sisters. See, Limestone is over in Slytherin,” Pinkie pointed to a second-year at the Slytherin table with unkempt gray hair that had been cut short. “And Marble is in Hufflepuff, like my parents.” Dash looked over to see a quiet-looking girl with longer, clean-cut hair that had a hint of teal and green in it. “And of course, you’ve met Maud!” Maud looked up at rainbow with her stone-cold turquoise eyes. “Hi.” It was very difficult to believe that these two girls were even related at all. Fluttershy took a small bite of salad. Wow, Applejack had been right about the food here, even the salad. She turned to look at the girl sitting next to her, who had long teal hair and looked very much like her. She was very quiet, and didn’t have much on her plate. Could have been first-year jitters. Then Fluttershy realized that this girl was sitting here the whole time and hadn’t been called up for the Sorting. Was Hufflepuff really such an awful House that this girl whom had been here for at least a year already still wasn’t comfortable? First being seperated from her best friend, now being placed in a House she probably wouldn’t like. Hopefully she was being irrational, and the year would turn out well. At least, she hoped so… “Doing alright, sugar cube?” said Applejack, who seemed to be worried about her new friend. Fluttershy, slightly surprised, looked back at her, appreciating the gesture. “Oh, y-yes, I’m fine,” she lied through her teeth. Rarity sat in horrified silence, trying to understand why the Sorting Hat had placed her here. She glared over at that blue-haired girl. Why should she be judged for trying to make an effort to look good? She fished a compact out of a purse she’d brought and checked her reflection. It looked exactly the same as it did when she’d applied in the morning: smooth, soft, and the perfect color, just like the dresses she’d sewn as a hobby. Speaking of those dresses, she had brought a few of them with her, but how was she meant to work on them here? No doubt that she wouldn’t be able to get a mannequin, but she couldn’t possibly be seen doing such a refined feminine activity in a House full of these Slytherin barbarians. She’d just have to find a way. It wasn’t long before most of the food was gone, the feast was ended, and the prefects led everyone into their common rooms. The girls got a good look at the castle on the way. Fluttershy jumped in shock when a painting she passed greeted her, and Twilight attempted conversation with a portrait of Star-swirl the Bearded. Unfortunately, it was cut short, as she had to keep moving. The girls managed to get in a few words with each other, but soon had to part ways, each heading in the direction of their respective House. Upon arriving at the door to Ravenclaw Tower, the Ravenclaw first-years were surprised to hear the knocker speak, giving the leading prefect a riddle to solve in order to enter. “Tell me, Amber Waves… Which came first, the dragon or the egg?” The prefect, now known to be Amber Waves, quickly responded, “Easy. The egg, but the creature that laid it was not a dragon. You’re starting to repeat riddles, knocker.” The knocker, annoyed as it seemed to be, opened the door. “Fine. You may enter.” Twilight’s breath was taken away as soon as she stepped into the Ravenclaw common room. It looked even better than the pictures she’d seen, crisp white walls with a deep blue domed ceiling and floor. Most of the bronze furniture was clawed at the end, giving the room an air of class. Oh, and that bookshelf! A tiny little room within a room (Could a bookshelf be a room? Of course.) with another domed ceiling and a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Finishing all of the books could take two years, at least, the set ranging from historical nonfiction to fantasy novels. Twilight couldn’t wait to start reading, but she needed to go upstairs to the dorms and unpack. Oh, well. Twilight followed the rest of the students through a little wooden door behind the statue into the dorm rooms, then following the steady stream of girls that went through yet another door. It was a pleasant surprise to see that everyone’s bags had been delivered to a bed, the bed that would be theirs for the whole year. Owlowicious gave a happy “Hoot!” upon seeing Twilight, who then returned a smile to her owl and began to unpack. Applejack spread her old red-and-white plaid blanket over her new bed. It just didn’t feel like home without it. She tossed her hat onto a night-stand collapsed on the bed with a happy sigh. Finally, she had settled in. Fluttershy seemed to be doing okay as well. She’d told Applejack that the Hufflepuff common room, with its woodsy decór and plant life, already felt like home. Applejack couldn’t agree more. Most everybody who had been Sorted into Hufflepuff, despite the House’s rather unfair reputation, felt quite at home. Yippee! Pinkie had been sorted into Gryffindor with Maud, her favorite sister, and Rainbow Dash! She couldn’t wait to get started! She’d heard that Gryffindors liked to party– her kind of people! Maybe there would be a beginning-of-the-year party! She could help to plan it! Pinkie looked over to Rainbow Dash, who was on the bed next to her, clutching her stomach. “Oh, um, hey, Dash, you okay?” Rainbow looked back over at Pinkie. “Ugh… I don’t feel so great. My gut is acting up. I probably had too much pie.” She groaned, then looked a little annoyed. “Hey, wait a minute, you had at least three times the amount of food I did! How come you’re still fine?” All Pinkie could do was shrug. Rarity lay in her bed, still mulling over her misery. While she had at first been impressed by the rather nice Gothic style of the Slytherin common room, it still did not make up for the fact that it was a dungeon. A dungeon. Rarity wasn’t a prisoner, what in the name of Star Swirl the Bearded was she doing here?! And exactly why couldn’t these savages at least acquire some decent taste in decoration? While the Gothic style was quite fitting, that Oriental rug in the center completely clashed with the whole room. Oh, even Gryffindor, with their loud parties and brash persona, would have been better than this. Of course, living in a dungeon was just as disgusting as Rarity had imagined. There was mud. Everywhere. In the cracks of the bricks in the floor, dripping from the ceiling. Especially the ceiling, where it dripped down onto unsuspecting students. Drip, drip, it went. As a drop of mud dripped onto Rarity’s face with a plop, she gasped and turned a shade of green even sicklier than the light emitted by the lamps in the common room.