Starting Off

by Basmati

Chapter 3

Sophie woke up to find sunlight streaming in through her window. This shocked her a bit - she had never been able to see as well as she could now. That was the reason she always wore glasses . But then she remembered. Adara's party, going unconscious, waking up in Ponyville as ponies. The light blue pony lay back in her bed and thought to herself. She remembered the princess's - her name as Celestia, right? - speech, remembered her talking about the Bindings of Hope, and a great evil that they had to destroy.

This was a bit too much for her to handle. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she got out of bed, pushing her purple mane out of her face, and walked out of the room. After a few wrong turnings, she finally made it into the main room, where Spike was sitting in a chair, eating some rubies.

"Oh, I see they didn't leave me alone then," he said, licking his fingers.

Sophie had a puzzled look on her face - she had never seen his dragon before, but hadn't Adara spoken about Twilight having a sort of assistant. What was his name? Rick? No, that wasn't it. Wait a minute, she had seen him before - yesterday, Twilight got him to write down where all her friends were staying and then he blew some green flames on the parchment and burnt it to a crisp. But she still had no real idea who he really was - let alone remember his name.

"Err...sorry, but who are you?" she finally asked walking up to the dragon.

"Oh," the dragon hopped down from his seat, and held out his claw for her to shake. "I'm Spike. I'm Twilight's friend - her only friend from her days in Canterlot."

Sophie took the dragon's claw and said, "I'm Sophie."

"It's nice to meet you Sophie, but if you don't mind, I think I'm gonna go and see if Rarity needs some help," Spike said, walking towards the door.
"Wait, Rarity? The white unicorn, with the purple hair?"
Spike sighed dreamily. "The perfect purple hair..."
Sophie looked at him as he went into his own world. She snapped him back to his senses by saying, "I'll come too, if you don't mind. It's just my friend is staying with her, and I guess I should go and see her."
Spike looked at blue unicorn. He knew where she had come from, and why she was here, and he also knew that Twilight probably wouldn't like it if he just left her, all alone, in the library. But what if other ponies asked who she was and where she was from? He couldn't exactly tell them the truth.
But Twilight had left her with him, and he didn't want Twilight to be disappointed with him.
"Sure, you can come. It might be nice for you to see the sights of Ponyville." Sophie beamed.
Spike walked towards the door and opened it for Sophie. "To Carousel Boutique!"

***
"CUPCAKES! So sweet and tasty! CUPCAKES! Don't be too hasty! CUPCAKES! Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES!"
Lacey woke up with a start. Looking around the room, her confused face gradually went away, as she remembered the previous night. She reckoned the voice that woke her up was that of Pinkie Pie, the friendly pink earth pony that she was staying with for a while.
She smiled as she thought of Pinkie Pie. The pink mare was doing nothing but laughing and dancing and singing last night - mainly because she was celebrating not only their arrival, but also Adara's 16th birthday. But Lacey had a feeling that she was like that pretty much all the time. That was fantastic, though, as that was the sort of person Lacey was - not as bouncy as Pinkie, but, nevertheless, very similar.
The fuscia mare got out of bed, and walked towards the location of the voice. As soon as she walked into the room, Pinkie Pie pounced on her.
"Good morning!" she said. "Did you have a nice sleep? You probably did - I know I always sleep well after a great party. Last night was great, wasn't it? It was super duper fun, and it was the first fun we had together! We should do it again sometime. Whose birthday is next? Oh, I can't wait for that - let's do one next week."
Lacey laughed and nodded. This was going to be fun.

***
"Oh, that colour is gorgeous with that lace," Rarity said. Sophie and Spike had just walked into Rarity's shop, and immediately she had been taken aback by the number of the dresses and their beauty.
"Wow."
Rarity turned around. "Spike! And Sophie! What a pleasant surprise!" she said, trotting towards them.
Spike stared dreamily at her and said quietly, "Hi."
Sophie shook her head, and walked over to what Rarity was working on. At the moment, it didn't really look like anything to Sophie, but she knew that Rarity would probably have it looking like a ballgown in no time.
Rarity noticed the attention her new masterpiece was getting. She walked up to Sophie and asked, "Do you like it? It's for my new collection of dresses. Perfect for the Grand Galloping Gala. I'm hoping that a few Canterlot ponies will take an interest in them."
"I'm sure it'll be amazing. All your dresses are," Sophie said, gesturing to Rarity's work.
The white unicorn beamed, and she quickly thanked her. "I'm sure you want to know where Elizabeth is right now - she's in the kitchen, with Sweetie Belle," she said, pointing to a door. Sophie thanked her and began walking towards it.
As she walked into the kitchen, she saw Liz talking to a small white unicorn filly with a purple and pink mane.
"So all of us really want our cutie marks, but we don't know how we can get them - I mean we've tried zip lining, bowling, comedy, everything. Everypony keeps telling us to wait, but we just can't!" Sweetie Belle said, sighing.
"Aww, don't worry. They'll come if they're going to come - and they will definately come. Just take your mind off it and worry about other things," Liz replied, patting the filly on the head.
Liz looked up and saw Sophie in the doorway. Her face lit up and she instantly went over to blue unicorn and gave her a big hug.
"Who's this?" Sweetie Belle said, jumping down from the chair and walking over to them.
"I'm Sophie. I'm one of Liz's best friends," Sophie replied.
"Oh. Well, hi." Sweetie Belle ran out of the kitchen, yelling, "Rarity! Can I help?" Her sister's immediate reply was a very loud and very certain 'NO!'
Sophie turned towards her smiling friend. "Since when were you called Elizabeth?" she asked.
Liz rolled her eyes. "I introduce myself as Elizabeth to everyone - only you guys call me Liz, and I can't stop you now."
The two unicorns talked - about Equestria, about their roles in its future, but more importantly, about their future.
"Do you think we'll ever go home?" Sophie asked, quietly.
Liz lowered her head. Truely, she had no idea. If Sophie, the genius of the group, was asking a question, usually none of them would be able to answer it - this situation was no different.
"Really, Sophie, I have no idea. Personally, I don't think so. But we should think about it too much - I mean we should concentrate on the present rather than worrying about the future."
Sophie nodded. "Yeah, you're right." But she still couldn't help thinking about what would happen if they did go back...and when that would be.