My Little Caboose: Blue is Magic!

by DarkWing


Lesson #1: Start Small

"I think I'm having some second thoughts." Tex said nervously as Pinkie began pushing Tex towards a small group of mares that were gathered in front of a building.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be afraid of anything?"

"Mercs? I can deal with. The idiots? No question. But this?" Tex asked, waving her hoof towards the group of mare. "This is fucking frightening."

"Why? The mares around here don't bite." Pinkie giggled briefly. "Uh, actually Screw Loose does, but she's in a hospital now."

"Screw Loose?"

"She thinks she's a dog."

"I'd probably have better luck with her than with them."

"Remember rule number one. Don't. Be. A. Negative. Nelly." Pinkie said slowly, enunciating each word carefully, poking Tex's belly at each pause. "Just give it a shot."

Tex took a deep breath and nodded. She stumbled to her hooves and slowly began walking towards the mares. Once she was twelve feet away from them, she paused and looked back at Pinkie. Pinkie gave her a reassuring smile, so Tex turned back to the mares to see they were now looking at her.

"Hello." One of them said sweetly.

"Hi." Tex said quietly, turning around to run away, but Pinkie glared at her and pointed to the mares. Tex reluctantly turned around and walked a few paces closer to the group. She looked up at the sun, and back down to the group. "Nice day, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." A pony with a plum coat and a dark pink mane agreed. "Are you lost?"

"No." Tex grunted, but smiled at them. "Just meeting some ponies. I'm a new pony in town."

"Oh, that's nice." The plum colored pony smiled. Tex's eyes slid to her cutie mark that appeared to be a bunch of grapes sitting next to a single strawberry. "My name is Berry Punch. These are my friends, Golden Harvest,"

"Hello." The yellow pony with an orange mane said warmly. Her cutie mark was a trio of carrots.

"Shoeshine,"

"Nice to meet you." The blue pony with a steel-blue mane smiled. Her cutie mark resembled two interlocking horse shoes, one of them being gold, while the other was silver.

"And my sister, Cherry Berry."

"Hey." The hot pink mare with the golden mane nodded. Tex saw that her cutie mark was a pair of cherries.

"It's nice to meet you all, I guess." Tex nodded.

"You guess?" Cherry Berry asked.

"Sorry, I'm not the best at introductions."

"Don't mind my sister. She doesn't mean to come off as rude." Berry Punch said, giving her sister a cold look.

"I'm sorry." Cherry Berry said sheepishly. "It is nice to meet you though."

"Thanks." Tex said, feeling some confidence return.

"So you're new?" Shoeshine asked. "Did you just move here or are you just visiting?"

"Visiting for now. I just figured I should get to know some others before I settle down, y'know?"

"I completely understand."

"No, you don't. Everyone at the place I used to live was an idiot."

"Stallions." Golden Harvest rolled her eyes. "Can't live with them, can't live without them."

"That won't stop me from trying." Tex grunted.

The group of mares did something that surprised Tex to a great degree. They all began to laugh. Tex, beginning to feel more confident began to laugh as well, and what surprised her greatly was that it did not sound forced.

"You know, I don't think we caught your name." Berry Punch said as she caught her breath.

"My name is Tex." Tex said without thinking.

"You mean you're the mare that hurt those pegasi?" Shoeshine asked nervously.

"Fuck." Tex muttered as the mares began to slowly edge backwards.

"We need to get going." Berry Punch said quickly.

The group quickly galloped into the building next to them and slammed the door shut behind them. Tex sat on the ground and shook her head in defeat.

"I think that went really well." Pinkie laughed.

"You're kidding..."

"Nope. You managed to talk to them for almost a whole minute!"

"And?"

"That's about fifty seconds more than the others said anyone could bare you!"

"Lovely." Tex huffed.

"Isn't it?" Pinkie giggled.

"Did you see the way they looked? They were scared of me. And I haven't even done anything to them!"

"This will be harder than I thought." Pinkie said, scratching her head. "Lesson one-"

"Don't be a negative nelly?" Tex asked in a sing song voice.

"No, that's rule number one, not lesson one, silly."

"Fine, what's lesson one?"

"Start small, get a few friends and you can work your way up from there!"

"Maybe if I didn't have this skull thing I would have better luck." Tex muttered, looking at her flank.

"Hm, good point." Pinkie said penively, scratching her chin.

"People probably think I'm going to kill them." Tex chuckled lightly.

"I got it." Pinkie said quickly as she ran up to a tree and reached behind it.

"Got a tattoo removal kit stashed behind there?"

"Better!" Pinkie said with a hearty laugh, before pulling out an eye patch.

"An eye patch? You're not going to take me on one of those adventures of yours, are you?"

"Of course not, but at least now we can pretend you're a pirate!" Pinke said as she put the eye patch over Tex's right eye.

"What was that doing there anyways?"

"Oh, I just have eye patches stored around town in case of any eye patch emergencies."

"Uh-huh." Tex said, looking into her reflection in the fountain. "I look ridiculous."

"Yeah, you're right." Pinkie said, tapping her chin. She then dashed towards Tex and adjusted the eye patch so it was over her left eye. "Perfect!"

"How is this better?" Tex groaned.

"How isn't it?"

Tex's left eye twitched, but Pinkie could not see it due to the fact that it was now covered. Pinkie, however, sensed it anyways and giggled.

"What?"

"Now people can't see when you get annoyed, so that should score a couple points!"

"I guess." Tex muttered as she lifted the eye patch to see. "It doesn't help that I look like a complete idiot with it on."

"Want me to go get the pirate hat? Will that make it look better?"

"No don't get the-"

"Hang on I'll go get it." Pinkie gasped, running away from Tex.

"This is dumb." Tex grunted, kicking a loose rock free. She looked into her reflection once more and saw her reflection glaring up at her again. She kicked the water with her hoof, disrupting the reflection, and then sat next to the fountain, rubbing her head. Maybe I'd have better luck if I just threatened people to be my friend.

"Are you okay?" Asked a small voice.

Tex looked up to see a small white colt with brown spots all over his body looking up at her.

"Hello." He said with a smile.

"Hi." Tex said quietly.

"Are you from around here?"

"I'm, er-" Tex hesitated. She looked back to see Pinkie wearing the pirate hat, nodding her head violently with an abnormally large smile on her face, mouthing the words start small.

"No, I'm not. I'm a... uh..." Tex coughed. "I'm a pirate."

"Really? I love pirates! My name is Pipsqueak, but most ponies call me Pip."

"Great." Tex grunted.

"What's your name?"

"My name?" Tex asked, looking back at Pinkie, who was pointing to her hair. Tex looked into her reflection and quickly took note of her orange-red hair. Think fast. What sounds like a pirate name? "My name is... Rust Mane?"

"You don't sound too sure." Pipsqueak laughed.

"When you're a pirate you don't do introductions often." Tex said with a dark smirk.

"Why not?"

"Because pirates will do anything for money. They're more likely to hurt you than befriend you."

"If that's true, then why are you talking to me?"

Shit. Tex thought quickly. "Well, I'm retired now. Figured I'd settle down and- y'know what? I think I've had enough of this."

"Enough of what?" Pipsqueak asked.

"Listen kid, I'm not a pirate." Tex said, throwing her eye patch to the ground. "My name is-"

"Of course you're not a pirate! There aren't any oceans around here." Pipsqueak chuckled. "But that shows that you aren't from around here, so where are you from?"

"Not from around here, that's for sure." Tex sighed.

"Wait a minute. Aren't you Tex?" Pipsqueak asked excitedly when he saw her cutie mark.

"Yeah." Tex nodded, already dismissing the young colt as a possible friend.

"You're not as mean as some ponies made you out to be."

"Really?" Tex asked, surprised.

"Yeah! A lot of ponies said that you hurt anypony you meet."

"Only to ones that deserve it." Tex shrugged. Might as well be honest, even if he is just a kid.

"That's not too bad. I don't see why anypony should be afraid of you."

"Guess when you have a bad reputation you have no chance at meeting new people..."

"Hey, I can help you make friends!" Pipsqueak said happily.

"How?" Tex asked curiously.

"Well, if they see you walking with me being all happy, maybe they'll see that you aren't so bad after all!"

"It's worth a shot." Tex smiled warily, not having much hope.