An excited gasp escaped a pony's mouth, causing Raven Flame to stir, and slowly pull away from her dreams back to the real world. A pair of wide peach-colored eyes hovered in front of Raven's face as the fog of sleep slowly lifted from her vision. She rubbed at her eyes with a hoof clearing away the rest of the mist, allowing her to make out a vanilla pony with an unkept scarlet mane gawking at her.
"Sorry tah wake yah, but Applejack asked me tah." Applebloom hopped up and down, "Ah thought she was joking when she said there'd be a new pony staying with us!" she said loudly, "Ah can't wait to introduce yah to the rest of mah friends! Oh, mah name is Applebloom by the way!" she grabbed at the tired Pegasus's hoof and shook it ferociously.
Raven Flame blinked to adjust her eyes. She was glad another filly would be staying with her, but it still surprised her having no one told her this. "Uh.. Hi, I'm Raven Flame." She yawned as a question popped into her head, "Um, are you adopted too?"
Applebloom laughed, "Oh heaven's no! Ah'm Applejack's sister!" She looked towards the clock mounted on the wall, "School starts in half an hour, so yah best get up and get ready!"
Raven Flame let out another yawn, then hopped off the bed, gently prodding at her mane to feel if it was suitable for an occasion such as school. She flattened it slightly and accepted that this would be adequate enough and followed Applebloom down the stairs towards the warm scent of cinnamon.
As they reached the base of the stairs, Rainbow Dash let out a roar and swooped from across the room scooping up the both of the fillies. Rainbow still felt strange about the whole situation. She thought she was supposed to know what to do and say, but whenever the moment actually came, she just felt silly. She asked the only thing her mind could muster ,"So, how'd ya sleep Raven?" she asked dully, placing the two fillies back on the ground.
Raven Flame shrugged, "I slept okay." She said disinterestedly, more focused on the scent that was wafting in from the kitchen. She had never smelt anything like it before, back at the orphanage they had a small serving of hay, or on rare occasion a hoofful of oats.
Applebloom started bouncing excitedly and grabbed at Raven's hoof again and started pulling her to the kitchen, "Sis is making her cinammon apple-sliced pancakes!"
"Uh, probably a stupid question but…" Raven Flame paused trying to answer it herself before asking, but was unable to. "What's a pan...cake?"
Applebloom tried to think of a way to explain it, but couldn't really come up with a way to describe it, "Uh… well, you'll find out soon enough ah guess. And yer in fer a treat!"
"Mornin!" Applejack called out placing a large tray of golden brown of flat circular doughy discs with cinammon sprinkles swirled from the center of them, "Yer gonna have tah eat fast girls, we're already behind schedule."
Applebloom pulled up a chair and indicated for Raven Flame to sit down. Once the Pegasus did as she was told, Applebloom plopped one of the large objects onto a plate and slid it over to her, "This is a pancake!"
Applejack turned around and looked at Raven, "Wait, y'all never had a pancake before?" she said in disbelief.
"Uh… no?" Raven Flame replied, now feeling embarassed.
"It's okay Raven." Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on the young Pegasus's shoulder, "I hadn't even heard of a pancake until I was almost a year older than you were." Raven felt lessembarasse, but now she was curious as to why. Rainbow seemed to know what she was thinking, "I was from the same orphanage you were from, now eat up."
Raven Flame nodded and gingerly took a bite of the floppy food. Her taste buds fired with the bombardment of the texture and combination of sweet yet slightly spicey flavors. She hadn't even known food could taste like this. She had been stuck eating the same thing for so long she had started to believe that hay and oats were the only thing in the world. She rapidly started putting more of it into her mouth, savoring each bite and quickly finished off the pancake.
Applebloom giggled, "Ah bet yah could get a cutie mark for food eating competitions."
"Cutie Mark?" Raven asked dumbly
Applebloom pointed at her blank hip, "A cutie mark is something every pony gets when they discover their special talent! I've been trying to get mine for years now."
"Special talent?" Raven thought to herself trying to think of what hers could be. Having been stuffed in a tiny orphanage her whole life, she hadn't tried nearly anything, her whole world was expanding vastly with all the new windows that had been opened from being taken from the place.
"Applejack, we're gonna leave a little early so we can pick up Scootaloo and Sweetiebell, 'Kay?" Applebloom said, her mouth stuffed full of pancakes muffling together her words.
"'Kay." Applejack shifted her glance towards Raven Flame, "Raven, do yah want me and Rainbow to come with yah?"
"No!" Applebloom protested, "Applejack, if y'all come with us, you'll just embarrass Raven!" she looked at Raven, "Trust me!"
"I guess not then." Raven Flame said sounding a little unsure.
"Well would yah look at the time!" Applebloom said quickly, "Ah guess its time fer us tah get going! Come on Raven!" she grabbed at her and dragged her out the front door before either of the other three ponies could react.
Once the two fillies were clear, Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and asked herself "What did I get myself into?" She flopped her head onto the wooden table, "I can't believe I thought I was ready for a filly. I don't even know what to say to her!"
Applejack trotted over, "Oh hush, yer doin' fine, just give it time."
Rainbow Dash grumbled, "You don't seem to be having these problems! She's already calling you mom. She calls me Dashie"
Applejack chuckled, "Yer being to hard on yerself Dashie. And besides, yah have spent most of yer life alone, Ah've been taking care of Applebloom since…" her mood changed almost instantly, her smiling fading just as fast, "Do me a favor and go watch them. Ah know they don't want us there, but ah still can't help but worry 'bout."
Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a peck on the cheek and took off quietly through the kitchen window. She took cover above the clouds hovering just above the fililes. Every few seconds she flew ahead and hid behind the next closest cloud.
"RAINBOW, AH KNOW YER THERE!" Applebloom shouted at the sky suddenly.
Rainbow Dash popped her head out from one of the clouds, "Oh hey… I was just, uh.. taking a nap!" She grabbed a handful of cloud, held it to her face and imitated a snoring noise.
Applebloom rolled her eyes, "Yah woke up like an hour ago."
Rainbow Dash floated down closer to the two fillies, "Those pancakes just wore me out is all."
"Yah didn't eat any of them." Applebloom said flatly.
Raven Flame watched as the two went back and forth for a few minutes before finally breaking in, "Dashie, we'll be fine, you can go back to the farm."
Rainbow Dash glanced over, she felt a little hurt that she was being dismissed so quickly by the pony, "Fine…" she began to fly away, "You still want me to show you some tricks?" she turned around asking hopefully. Raven Flame grinne, nodded and waved her hoof good-bye.
"Finally! Okay, lets go! The others should be waiting at Ponyville's fountain, its only a few minutes away." Applebloom began to skip onward, Raven Flame followed with much less enthusiasm.
They made a few turns through the streets before coming across a large white marble fountain, a white unicorn, and a burnt orange Pegasus poking at each other playfully.
"Hey guys!" Applebloom waved, beckoning them closer.
"Hey Applebloom." The white unicorn said, her eye catching notice of the black Pegasus nearby. "Who's that?"
"Sweetiebell, Scootaloo, this is mah new… neice I think." She made strange hoof motions as she silently worked it out in her head, "Yeah! Anyway, her name is Raven Flame!"
"It's nice to meet you!" Sweetiebell said, reaching out her hoof to the Pegasus, who took it in her own and shook softly.
Scootaloo just stood there.
"Aren't yah gonna say hi Scootaloo?" Applebloom asked, waving her hoof in front of the staring orange Pegasus's face.
"H-hi..." Scootalo said softly, still unable to move her gaze away from Raven Flame.
Applebloom raised an eyebrow, "Okay… anyway, school is about tah start, so lets hurry."
Both Sweetiebell and Applebloom stayed at the front of the group leading the way. Scootaloo walked clumsily behind the black Pegasus. Raven Flame followed silently, looking back at Scootaloo every so often, whenever she did, the orange Pegasus shifted her eyes somewhere else.
"Here we are!" Applebloom said, walking towards the large red building with a bell tower on it's roof. She held open the brown wooden door for the fillies. Raven Flame looked inside for a moment to see rows of desks aligned next to one another. Finally she stepped inside, the other three fillies following her.