Chapter 1: You know what this calls for? A PARTY!

Starstrike had been introduced to many ponies at this party that Pinkie Pie threw for her at Sugar Cube corner. She had never been around so many friendly ponies before, but she still felt awkward and guarded. Something was missing here, but she couldn't place what it was. Every now and then when a pony got too close to her comfort zone her wing would twitch, she tried her hardest to will the nervousness away but found that nothing she thought of would help.

Somewhere in the crowd she caught a glimpse of a brown earth pony that oddly looked like the one from her vision. Feeling her heart pound with something other than pure nervousness she started to approach, but several ponies got in her way to greet her. By the time she reached the other side of the room he was already gone. She gave a quizzical look, wondering if she had been seeing things, hallucinating because of the new and strange environment.

A white unicorn with a curled purple mane came up towards Starstrike with a round hat box. "Hello there my dear, you must be Starstrike, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." She smiled and sat the box down between them. "My name is Rarity, Pinkie Pie told me a bit about you, but I was definitely not expecting to see such radiance!" She smiled brightly at the blushing mare. "You really are magnificent! And you have such taste in hats. Unfortunately the hat you had was so damaged that I could not fix it."

Star sighed a little. She had really liked that hat.

"No fears! I replicated it for you. It is almost an exact copy! Only I made this one with a clip built in so you can easily pin it to your mane!" She trotted in place with excitement as she opened the box and out came a beautiful black top hat. It was embellished with a black bow and netting that came down over the face ever so slightly. Among the bows were pale blue and white flowers, an improvement from the original, the pin was clear so it would be out of sight in her mane. The black hat was covered in black lacey fabric that definitely added to its appeal.

Star was left surprised, pleasantly so. No pony had ever gone through such lengths to do something nice for her. First the party and now this lovely hat, she felt the tears well up and she reached to rub her eyes.

Rarity looked at her concerned. "Do you not like it dear? I can always make you another. Oh please don't cry."

She shook her head. "Oh no, I love it, it's just no one has ever done anything like this for me before. Thank you so much." She smiled brightly at her and bowed her head in thanks.

Rarity took that as an opportunity to put it on for her. The horn was tucked safely inside and made sure the pin had took to her mane carefully. She leaned in and whispered to her. "Don't be ashamed of who you are sweetheart, you're a beautiful and a magnificent looking pony. Don't let anypony tell you differently you hear?" She leaned back to look at her work, smiling softly to the surprised mare.

Star wondered if it was that easy to tell that her self esteem was lower than the freezing point of water. All she could do was nod, but she knew that it was easier said than done.

"Go enjoy yourself, get to know everypony. After the party we'll have a little chat." She smiled and trotted off, leaving Star all alone to be bombarded by other ponies that seemed really interested in the newcomer.

Her left wing twitched as she was bombarded with questions.

In a corner, a brown earth pony was watching the events transpire around him. Pinkie Pie had dragged him into Sugar Cube corner saying that she was having a party for a newcomer. He didn't have any time to say no. Heavens no, Pinkie Pie could be so demanding when it came to her parties, everypony had to come, regardless of what they were doing at the time, especially for a super special welcoming party, as Pinkie had put it as she had dragged him into the bakery.

He had been talking to Derpy earlier in the shop when he noticed the new mare heading over towards them in curiosity, for some reason he knew that this was not the time or place that he should meet her officially. So when several ponies moved off in front of her, he apologized to Derpy, said his goodbyes quickly and disappeared into the crowd. Nothing had ever made him feel so strongly to just go as quickly as he had, but a voice in his head had told him this was not the moment. He didn't fully understand it but, he never really understood much about himself to begin with.

So now here he was in the corner, watching the mare being spoken to by a group of ponies. He noted the wing twitch and identified it as some sort of nervous twitch. My goodness, they're all crowding around her. She must feel very uncomfortable. He peeked around him and hoped that somepony would actually take care of it. He knew he could not intervene at this point in time. I need to get back to the TARDIS, something about this pony is off and I can't quite put my finger on it. Why are all my senses telling me to stay away from her right now? He frowned a little and managed to sneak out, however he couldn't help but peek back towards her with curiosity. No, not the time. He turned away and trotted off.

By the end of the night, when everypony had gone, Star had met quite a few ponies. All of them had been beyond kind to her. She was sitting in a corner trying to come out of her shock from being bombarded by so much kindness. Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had stayed behind to clean up after the party. When she came out of her shock she looked at the group and stood up to help as well. "Ah… um, thank you for the party Pinkie, it was my first ever."

Pinkie excitedly turned to her and gave her a huge smile. "It's no problem Star! Oh! Oh! Tell me when your birthday is and we can have a party for then too!" She bounced up and down in circles around the Alicorn.

"Um well, it… it was a month ago… the first day of winter…" She said softly as she followed Pinkie with her eyes.

"Aww I'm late on it then. Well, no worries! It'll be even bigger and even more awesome then the one we had today!" She hopped away to the trash bag to drag it out to the bin.

Bi…Bigger than this one? I… I don't think that could even be possible. But of course, she didn't know Pinkie very well. Everything was possible with that mare.

Twilight Sparkle went over to her and smiled a little. "So, Starstrike, I didn't get to really talk to you much at the party." She smiled at her more. "Are you from Canterlot?"

"Canter…lot… no I'm not, I came from a village far up north. It's pretty secluded up there."

"Far north…" Twilight thought on it, she mentally went through a map of Equestria. The only town she could think of north of Ponyville was a village of closed minded ponies who refused to have anything to do with Celestia … simply because she was an Alicorn. She frowned when it dawned on her. Now she was aware of why the mare's shy and nervous behavior around so many ponies was about. She nodded sadly. "I see, well then, you're in Ponyville now, and we're happy to have you here."

Starstrike looked at her and nodded softly. "Yes… thank you." She gave a small smile.

Fluttershy was still kind of shy around her, the mare intimidated her a bit, but so far she seemed alright.

Rarity went to her and nodded a little. "So, I assume you have no place to stay while you're here in Ponyville?"

"Ah… you're correct, I don't. Seeing as I just got here and all."

Rarity opened her mouth to extend an invite to her when Pinkie Pie came bounding back into the room. "Of course she's got a place to stay! She's going to share a room with me here at Sugar Cube Corner!" She hopped around her. "Well at least until she can find a place of her own at least." She grinned brightly and looked at her. "Right?"

"Um yeah sure…I guess." Her wing twitched again.

"This'll be so fun!" She squealed and hopped away.

Rarity shook her head in sympathy. "Good luck to you with that then. I must be heading back to my shop now. I'm sure I'll see you soon." She smiled softly as she made her leave.

"I… I have to go too, I have to tend to my sweet little angel bunny. He's probably waiting for me to bring him some carrots." Fluttershy smiled sweetly, following after Rarity.

Rainbow Dash had been examining Star's wings in awe. "You must get some awesome speed with those things!"

She looked at her. "Ah… well… I guess… I've never used them much…"

"What! How can you have wings and not use them! Don't tell me you walk everywhere. That's a huge waste of such awesome looking wings."

"Well I…"

Twilight frowned. "Rainbow, leave her alone."

"But look at her! She looks so awesome! And her wings are huge! She must get past even my record! If anything she could be a Wonderbolt if she wanted to! They would kill to have a pony with wings like that, can you imagine how much more awesome their shows would be with-"

"Rainbow Dash! Cut it out!" Twilight practically yelled at the top of her lungs, cutting Rainbow off effectively.

Star gave her a thankful look.

Applejack went over and shook her head. "Rainbow Dash, you should know better. Please excuse her Miss Star. Rainbow knows how to run off her mouth when she gets excited about something."

"It's alright… really, no harm done." She laughed nervously.

"Let's get Rainbow, We both got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, we'll see you later." She butted her head against Rainbow Dash, forcing her out of the place.

Twilight Sparkle turned towards Starstrike. "You know, I'd like to get to know you better Starstrike. Come by the Library tomorrow okay?"

"Ah… sure… I think I'd like that." She smiled.

"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow at noon." She turned towards Pinkie Pie. "I'll see you around Pinkie." Twilight left them alone.

Once alone Pinkie yawned and grinned sleepily at Starstrike. "Well come on! We're going to have a sleep over!" She trotted off, leading Starstrike to the room they would share together."

Star gave a smile and looked around her. Yep she was really going to like it here. Well as soon as she could get over the culture shock. Everypony here had proved that the slogan on the pamphlet was true. She hoped desperately that it wouldn't change from one day to the next as she followed behind Pinkie Pie.