Belle looked around the school campus. Beautiful, tall green trees littered the courtyard, as did many bushes and flowers. It was late August, but once the trees started to change color, leaves would be everywhere. Concrete sidewalks led from building to building, nearly resembling a maze as the crossed through the open meadow. Moving from her small hometown to Camelot for school was a big change for her, as was leaving behind her two best friends. Still, it wasn’t as if she were a stranger to the city. She smiled and waved at people as she passed them on the way to meet her sister.

She passed by a shop she knew Bloom would hate. She smiled, thinking of the long hug the other girl had given her at the train station just that morning. The store displayed a plaid shirt and jeans, with what was obviously not a rope, thought it was meant to look like one, tied around the waist of the jeans. Bloom would have laughed at the style, wondering how people who lived in the city could actually believe that was what people who farmed actually wore. Bell could imagine the way Bloom would roll her eyes, probably pushing her long red hair out of her freckled face.

The restaurant Rarity had wanted to meet at was only a few blocks from Camelot U, so Belle took her time walking along. She wasn’t due to meet Rarity for another hour, anyway. She had expected it to take much longer to get her room set up, but seeing as the other mare had already put all of her belongings in the room and left before Belle had even received her key, she wasn’t left with many choices. Not that the other mare had taken up much of the space.

In fact, almost exactly half of the space was left for Belle. She had carefully hung her clothes in the closet and unpacked, putting everything in a place she thought she would like it, though she was sure she would rearrange everything within the next week. The room was small, though, and the beds had been stacked into bunks that she hoped her roommate wouldn’t mind taking apart.

Her roommate’s side didn’t seem to have much personality at all. She assumed her roommate was at least a little girly, since nearly everything seemed to be pink, from the blanket covering the bed to the small area rug to the towels in the bathroom cabinet. Belle liked a little more variety with her things. She had a purple lamp and a blue rug and not one of her towels matched. That had driven Rarity crazy as she begged Belle to at least choose a color scheme. There was also designer clothes and expensive perfume and jewelry on her roommates side, and while Belle did have some designer clothes (being Rarity’s little sister did have its perks) most of her wardrobe was zip up hoodies and tanks.

Finally, she made it to the restaurant. Rarity was, surprisingly, already sitting at a table, and easy to spot. Her dark hair framed her pale, unblemished skin as she sat in her chair, back straight, looking as if she owned the place. Her eyes, deep blue with the gold edge that signified all magic users, took her in. Oh, there you are, Sweetie.” Belle had made eye contact upon entering the restaurant, but Rarity always thought it unbecoming to yell out over a crowd, especially in a place like this. “Did you get everything unpacked alright? I wasn’t sure if I should come help. My meeting ended rather early, but I was afraid I would take a different route and miss you.”

Belle shook her head. “I took care of it all. Still haven’t seen my roommate. I don’t know where she’s been.”

Rarity smiled. “Probably enjoying Camelot with her family before they’re separated for the semester.” With a perfectly manicured hand, Rarity picked up the tea sitting in front of her. “Well, my meeting went fantastic. Fleur is going to be showing my new line.

“Oh, that’s great! Does that mean you’ll be in Camelot more often?”

Rarity shook her head. “No, no. I’m afraid not. My main shop is still located in Pinyville, you know.”

A waiter came at that moment, looking slightly relieved to see Belle. “Are we ready to order now, Miss Stone?”

Rarity looked up at the waiter, giving him her most dazzling smile. “Oh, yes. Thank you for being ever so patient.” Without glancing at the menu, she told the waiter what she wanted. “And perhaps a fresh cup of tea, as well, darling.” She handed him the menu with a wink before looking toward Belle.

“Umm…I’ll just take what she had, but with an apple fizz,” Belle said. While she had lived with Rarity for the past three years, since their parents died on one of their trips, she still wasn’t comfortable in the more posh restaurants that Rarity preferred. She’d rather got for burgers with Bloom and Lou Ann. As the waiter walked away, Rarity smiled. “No,” Belle said, cutting off what her sister was going to say before she opened her mouth.

“Sweetie, I’m just saying, this is a big city. So many cute boys. All the better to take you mind off of what’s-his-name.” Rarity picked up the tea cup again. “You’re such a beautiful girl, and you are so smart. Whomever you want will be putty in your hands. I’m just saying to keep an open mind.”

Belle just sighed. “I just wanna make friends, Rare. I already miss Bloom and Scoots.”

Rarity’s smile softened. “I would imagine. I don’t think you girls have been apart a day since you became friends.” Taking Belle’s hand, Rarity looked right into her eyes. “And they will always be you friends. I’m sure they miss you just as much right now, but they’re both out there making their own lives, just as you are. New friends doesn’t mean letting go of the old friends. Trust me.”

The waiter chose that moment to bring their food. “Ah, marvelous. Thank you, dear.” Rarity gave another award-winning smile to the waiter, who flushed as he sat Belle’s food in front of her. “Thank you,” Belle said, though she doubted the waiter heard her. Boys had a habit of falling in love with her sister instantly. After he had walked away, Belle grinned. “You’re terrible, you know that. You don’t have to make every guy you come across fall in love with you.”

“Oh, Sweetie, it’s all a part of my charm. I’m trying to show you how to wield it.” Rarity raised her eyebrows as she took a bit of her food. “This is heavenly,” she said.

“Okay, so a waiter, maybe, but you’ve lead poor Spike on for years.” Belle was only half-joking as she looked at her sister. “He’s still in love with you, you know.”

Rarity’s expression softened, her smile becoming smaller, but happier, somehow. “I know,” she said, her voice quiet. “I do.”

Belle put down her fork, her mouth falling open slightly. “Oh my goddess, you like him. I don’t believe it. You actually like him.”

A scowl replaced the demure smile on Rarity’s face. “Don’t be ridiculous, Sweetie. He’s five years my junior. A twenty-seven year old and a twenty-two year old would never work out. Besides, Twyla would never forgive me.”

Belle just laughed. “Okay, Rare, whatever you say.”

Trying to regain control of the situation, Rarity changed the subject. “You will be writing weekly, won’t you? I simply must know everything that’s happening.”

“Of course,” Belle said. Still, she knew she had worked Rarity up, as her chest was turning a splotchy red. The rest of the meal passed in their typical fashion and soon, the young waiter came back with their check.

Rarity took it, allowing her hand to accidently brush his as the booklet slipped between them. “Please stay, it’ll just be a moment dear.”

“Uh…okay,” he said, his ears turning red.

“Now, did you say you were attending Camelot University?” she asked, looking up at him as she filled out the receipt information. “

“Uh..y-yeah.” He chuckled.

“Hmm, thank you.” She stood, indicating that Belle should do the same. “Don’t worry about getting us the change, dear. We really should be on our way.” Rarity walked away quickly, Belle just behind her. “He was a sweet boy, wasn’t he?” Rarity asked.

“I guess. What’d’ya do?”

Frowning at her sister, Rarity shook her head. “You would think you had no grasp of the language, Sweetie. ‘What did you’ not ‘What’d’ya’. I did nothing, though, really.”

The pair walked in silence until they made it to the school. Rarity stopped just short of the campus boarder. “I’m going to miss you so much, Sweetie.” She pulled her sister into bone-crushing hug. “You’ve made me so proud, you know, just being you. I love you.” She pulled away, cupping Belle’s face in her hands. “Now, be a good girl and remember to have fun, okay?” Belle nodded. Rarity pulled her closer, placing a kiss on her forehead. “Now, I have a train to catch, so I have to go. Write to me, okay?”

“I will Rare. I love you, too.” Belle watched as Rarity nodded and walked away, toward the train station. Her eyes burned as she realized she wouldn’t see her sister for nearly a month. Suddenly, she had the urge to run to Rarity and go home with her. Instead, she turned and walked to her dorm.

The dorm was, surprisingly, still empty when she walked in, though she was grateful. She didn’t want her roommates first impression of her to be of a homesick small-town girl. She looked at the beds and the room, deciding to busy herself with moving them apart. Once she had found the perfect place to put her bunk, she raised her hand, pulling on the magic inside, and moved it. “Perfect,” she said with a smile.

The door chose that moment to swing open. A girl walked in, her back still to Belle. She was average height with shoulder length, platinum blonde hair, her shoulders held high and tense. Even from behind, Belle was certain she would recognize this particular person anywhere. “Silver?” The girl stopped suddenly, shaking her head. Slowly she turned to look over her shoulder.

The shocked expression did nothing to ruin the girls face. Her fair skin, sprinkled with barely noticeable freckles, wrinkled in the sneer that sprang to her face. “You have got to be kidding me. I’m stuck with you as a roommate? This day just couldn’t get any worse.” Silver flopped onto the bed, facedown. Before Belle could react, the other girl groaned and turned over. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. Habit, really.” She sat up, pushing her pillows behind her back, against the wall. “I mean, honestly, I could have ended up with a much worse roommate. At least I know you, I suppose.”

Belle blinked. “I hope that you don’t mind that I changed the beds. I hate bunkbeds.”

Sylver nodded. “It’s fine. I wanted to, actually, but I didn’t have time when I was unpacking this morning. I had to be somewhere with father, doing his whole bit.”

A knock on the door distracted them from the conversation. The girl on the other side had, in Belle’s opinion, entirely too much pep. She was decked out in school attire and had a smile that would have rivaled Pinkie’s. “Hi, guys. I’m Trish, your R.A. I hope you’ve had a good time settling in and getting to know each other. Just wanted to say that we have a meeting for everyone on our floor in an hour in the lounge, okay? Make sure you’re there. Bye.” She smiled again before walking off, presumably to the next door. Belle let the door fall shut. “Wow.”

Sylver nodded. “Yeah, wow.”

The stood there for a moment, sizing each other up, before Sylver sighed. “So, I know we had a rough time of it back home, but what do you say to a truce?” She held out her hand, swallowing. “If we’re living together, we might as well be civil.”

Belle nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Okay, so, I have to do a quick goodbye to my family, but I’ll see you at the meeting. Bye, Belle.” With that, Sylver was out the door.

--

Making friends wasn’t nearly as easy as Belle had remembered it being. Of course, the last time she had really needed to make friends was had been Bloom and Lou Ann. No one else had really mattered after them. Not that she wasn’t friendly or that she only ever talked to them. She supposed she had a lot of friends back home, but none like her two best friends. She sat on the couch in the lounge, thirty minutes early, in hopes of finding someone to strike up a friendship with. The other girls there, however, seemed just as bored as she did, and none of them were really talking. Normally it was Bloom who started all the conversations. She smiled, thinking of her farming friend. She had tried to get the girl to come with her, take classes in Ag Science and Business, but she had refused to even apply. It was nearly eight now, which meant that Bloom was putting her daughter to bed and sitting in front of the fire. Lou Ann had been an entirely different story, getting a full scholarship to Clydesdale and running off the week before, for sports training. Goddess only knew what she was doing at the moment.

She blinked, coming out of her thoughts, as the loud laughter of two people rang through the lounge. Sylver walked in with a snobby looking girl, both of which had large smiles on their faces. The room had filled considerably while she was lost in her thoughts. Trish stood at the front, apparently just waiting for the time to start, her Pinkie Pie sized smile straining. A mousy-haired girl had sat beside her and was playing with a rainbow colored lighting bolt pendant. “So, you like Raine, do you?” Belle asked, gesturing to the pendant.

“Yeah, she’s my favorite X gamer. She’s kinda my idol. She’s even a national hero, you know? Personal friend of Princess Celeste. I mean, how amazing is that? To just have the Princesses at your beck and call?”

“Er, I don’t really think it works that way,” Belle said, but the girl didn’t have a chance to respond as Trish called everyone’s attention to her.

“Okay, everyone, so, welcome to Camelot U. I think I managed to introduce myself to most of you, but in case I missed you, hi, I’m Trish. I hope you guys have had a good day moving in. Homesickness is expected, but I find that letters help with that, and you can come to me with any problem you have. Okay, so, this is the first floor of this building, and for those of you who aren’t freshman, we have an inner dorm related fued. We will have conests and game days, and at the end of term, there will be a prize for the floor that gets the highest score. You get points for cleanliness and rule-following as well.” She paused and looked around at the crowd, some of who looked nervous, and others who looked bored. “Okay, so, in order to be the best floor, we have to be a team. So, an introduction ice breaker. We’ll say our names, where we’re from, and one cool thing about us. I’ll go first. I’m Trish, from right here in Camelot, and I once ate an entire cake by myself.”

That comment got some giggles, and the girl next to Trish stood and said her lines. Belle tried to keep up and remember everyone’s name, but she couldn’t. Sometimes peoples fact were interesting enough to warrant questions. Eventually, it came time for the mousy-haired girl next to Belle. “Hi, I’m Dyon, and I once met Raine. She even gave me a hug.” A couple people looked impressed as the girl sat.

Belle stood. “Oh, umm, I’m Belle. I’m from Pineville,” a few people giggled at that, throwing off what she had planned to say, “and, well, I guess my interesting fact is that, um, I guess that I’ve traveled a lot.”

Sylver laughed. “Oh, my goddess, seriously, that’s what you’re going with?”

Belle scowled. “If you think you’ve done better, let’s hear it.”

Sylver rolled her eyes. “I mean, Belle, that you’ve done a lot more than just ‘travel a lot’”, Sylver said, using air quotes around the last few words. “I mean, you were a flower girl at the wedding of Princess Cadenza, your sister is a famous designer, you stayed at Raine’s house like, every other week, and—“

“Stop,” Belle said, cutting Sylver off. “That’s not interesting. That’s just stuff I got to do, mostly. Stop trying to embarrass me. I thought we were going to do the friend thing.”

Sylver shook her head. “I’m Sylver, I’m also from Pineville, and my interesting fact? I’m out of here.” She stood and walked out of the room.

Belle sighed. Trish was trying to get everything back on track, but Belle knew she needed to check on Sylver. Before she could stand, Karen leaned over to her and whispered, “Did you really say at Raine’s house?”

“Yeah, it’s…look, she’s my sisters friend, and it wasn’t anything. She was still perfecting her moves back then. It’s no big deal. I gotta go, though, sorry.” With that, she hurried to her dorm, pausing to take a deep breath before opening the door.

Sylver, it seemed, was taking a shower. Belle sighed, throwing herself onto her bed, until she realized there was another noise, under the running water. Sylver was crying. Belle sighed. She knew she should do something, but she wasn’t sure what. Should she knock on the door? Or maybe pretend she had heard nothing? She could leave right now and Sylver would never know any better. Groaning at herself, she rolled off the bed and knocked on the bathroom door. “Sylver, hey, are you okay?”

“Why do you care?” came Sylver’s scratchy reply.

“Because we’re trying the friend thing?” Belle said, slumping against the door. “Right?

The water shut off and there was some rustling, before the door opened, revealing Sylver wrapped in a fluffy pink towel, her eyes puffy and red. “Are we? Because I tried to be nice to you, out there, and you just yelled at me.”

Suddenly, Belle realized that maybe Sylver hadn’t been trying to embarrass her. “Sorry. I’m just…I’m not used to you being nice. I thought you were embarrassing me.” Belle looked at the ground. “I mean, I never planned on like, flaunting that stuff, you know?”

Sylver sighed. “We’re rubbish at accepting each other being nice. I’m sorry. I guess I’m just stressed and I wasn’t thinking of what you would like.”

Belle was shocked to hear the words from the other girl, but a slow smile crossed her face. “Yeah, I’m sorry, too. But…what are you stressed about? Classes haven’t even started yet.”

Sylver snorted, going over to sit on her bed. “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean anything to my dad. Do you know how my day has been? We were here the moment the dorms were open, moving my stuff in, having it just right, and then we had to make sure my classes were the exact ones I needed, and then we had to get my books. After that, we had to walk around, meeting important people at the school, so they would know who I was and then we talked about his plan for my future. Everything laid out on the perfect roadmap. I’ll be prepped to take over the business in ten years.” She threw herself back, her arm covering her eyes. “He doesn’t care about what I want. No one does, really. I’m just expected to be perfect, get the best grades…” Sylver’s breath was coming faster and shorter.

Belle recognized a panic attack when she saw one. She sat on the bed next to Sylver, pulling the girls soaked hair out from under her and pulling her head onto her lap. “You know,” she said quietly, as she gently pulled Sylver’s hair to the side, “you could just do what you wanted anyway.”

Sylver shook her head. “No, I really can’t. Dad is the only reason I’m here. My marks in school weren’t good enough for a scholarship. I’m not good at anything.  I am a wreck, honestly, and if my dad even knew half of my secrets I’d be out of the family before you could blink.”

Belle bit her bottom lip, unsure of what to do to help. She continued to gently pull her fingers through Sylver’s wet hair and sat in silence, as the girl’s breathing became more controlled. She slowly peeled her arm away from her eyes. She looked up at Belle, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I just told you all of that. The only other person I’ve ever told is Tia.”

Belle smiled. “I think, maybe, we should start over. Put out childhood behind us. I mean, we haven’t really talked at all since middle school.”

Sylver nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.” She smiled up at Belle, closing her eyes. “That hair thing feels really nice, by the way.”