That night, Rainbow Dash and Wish slept curled up together once more, and this time Rosalie had to wake them both up before Angie and Jolene arrived. Perhaps they were both more tired than they had thought. Rosalie though waited a minute before she actually woke them up, finding the two of them adorable together as they slept in bed and not wanting to ruin that. Alas, they would have to get up sooner or later and head off to eat breakfast once more.
As she poked at both of her two guests they slowly blinked themselves awake and yawned. Rainbow Dash’s wings fluttered about and Wish pushed away the covers so the two of them could detach from each other and get out of the numerous bed sheets.
“Rise and shine you two. Did you sleep well?” Rosalie asked.
"Mmmrm,” Rainbow Dash muttered at first, rubbing her eyes.
Rosalie giggled. “Seems like you didn’t want to wake up just yet.”
“I’ll get over it...” Rainbow said and yawned before looking at the just as tired Wish. “You alright there, kid?”
“What time is it?” Wish mumbled.
“...seems she’s still got a little ways to go before she’s ready,” Rosalie said.
“No kidding,” Rainbow Dash said.
Fifteen minutes later though both Rainbow Dash and Wish were more or less awake and ready to leave. Rainbow had even done what she could with a brush Rosalie had to style Wish’s mane the right way—though the filly had to interrupt and point out the correct way to do it a few times. Or more than a few times. But they were still ready by the time Angie and Jolene arrived and that was the important part.
“So is it the same breakfast as yesterday?” Rainbow Dash asked as the group of five stepped out of Rosalie’s cottage.
“Not quite the same. The feast won’t be so gigantic but you’ll still be fed breakfast, lunch and dinner if you want to eat all three meals,” Angie told her.
“I guess I’ll see how much I can shovel in my mouth today then...”
“And I’ll see if there’s chocolate cake again,” Wish said.
“You’ll probably work up enough of a hunger for it after playing with the other kids today,” Rainbow Dash grinned.
Rosalie and the others perked up.
“Oh?” Their earth pony host asked with a raised eyebrow. “Have you changed your mind on getting to know the local kids, Wish?”
“Umm… y-yeah,” Wish hesitantly nodded. “I’d like to try making friends with them. What game is everyone going to play?”
“It’s called Capture the Flag,” Jolene said. “It’s super fun, and the kids love it. You always get to be moving round a lot too. You see—you separate into two teams and each team has a flag that they protect. If one team can get the enemy team’s flag and bring it back to their side without being tagged out they get a point. You ever play Tag, Wish? You can think of it as sort of a bigger version of that, with more rules and goals and what not.”
“Yeah, I’ve played tag,” Wish said. “The game sounds fun.”
“A lot of parents watch too, the kids always go all out and have such a fun time it’s really entertaining to watch,” Angie said.
“I’ll definitely be there watching you. I know you’ll have a good time,” Rosalie told her with a smile.
“Me too,” Rainbow Dash winked and tussled her mane (and then carefully fixed it).
“Mmm… thanks,” Wish said in annoyance and frowned up at Rainbow Dash after the older mare had messed with her mane.
“Heh, food first though, right?” Rainbow said.
“Yes,” Rosalie said. “The game will start a little later so for now let’s go and eat. The mayor isn’t making a speech or anything this time, ponies will already be eating.”
“Today’s a lot more relaxed,” Angie said.
“More relaxed than yesterday? That’s almost hard to believe,” Rainbow said.
“I’d say a better way to put it would be… less structured. It’s all relaxed and fun. You saw enough of that yesterday when you were dancing with me,” Jolene said.
Angie nodded. “Yeah, yeah, less structured’s a better way of saying what the second day of the festival’s like.”
Rainbow Dash and Wish saw that for themselves when they arrived back at town’s square this morning. No one was playing any music yet or anything and there was far more mingling going on and less food placed on the tables while a few other ponies talked with the mayor. It was quieter and not as crowded either, with seemingly not all ponies of Arondel showing up.
“Do some ponies not come to both days of the festival?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“No, everyone comes just not for the entire day like yesterday. Some families spend part of the festival today just at home with each other or close friends. And some ponies need a little more sleep after all the activity yesterday. Angie usually wouldn’t come for breakfast today either,” Rosalie said.
“Yeah because she’d be-” Jolene started with a smirk before Angie smacked her.
“Anyways-” Rosalie rolled her yes. “Let’s have breakfast. You’ll definitely want to have a little something to eat and drink before the game starts, Wish.”
The five sat at pretty much the same place as last time, but today their table wasn’t as crowded nor was there such a huge amount of food or any sort of ceremony or theater before it was brought out. Ponies were eating like they were inside a cafeteria or mess hall. Not like Rainbow Dash really had a problem with that, in fact she probably enjoyed it more. Like this they could all just eat together and go with the flow instead of having to really do anything specific. That was the correct way to enjoy a festival and such a banquet of food anyways.
A bagel, a roll with some butter, milk, and carrots, that was all the breakfast she needed right now. Wish didn’t get a ton either, just some oatmeal, grape juice, and cornbread.
She was probably waiting until later tonight when she could eat more chocolate cake.
Rainbow Dash frowned for a split second before hiding it. She really hoped Wish had a good day. She meant well, getting her to do this. She was just trying to help Wish open up and maybe finally get over—or at least come clean with—whatever was bothering her. Though it was obvious the filly was feeling a little upset and anxious over all of it. Rainbow hoped her forcefulness was worth it all.
“You promise you’ll dance with me later, right?” Jolene suddenly asked her.
“Huh? Oh—yeah. I said I would, didn’t I?” Rainbow smiled at her.
The unicorn smiled and went back to eating breakfast. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget.”
After breakfast had finished up, some of the adults and their kids started to get up and congregate together. The sun in the open blue sky was inching closer to being directly overhead Arondel. More families were now coming into the square as well, ones who hadn’t been here for breakfast but were coming to join up with the others. Their kids ran out and immediately greeted the other young fillies and colts already at the square. It was starting to become an excited and loud group, Rainbow Dash could hear them all chattering and playing with each other already.
“We should go over and have you introduce yourself,” Rosalie said to Wish. “I promise everyone will be friendly and happy to have you play with them. The kids here are nice and they’ll help you with anything you need.”
“Alright,” Wish nodded and got up with the other mares, together the five of them walked over to the large group.
“Hello!” Rosalie said to them to get their attention.
A middle-aged stallion turned to look at her. “Well hey there, Rosalie. What can we do for you?”
Rosalie smiled and pushed a nervous Wish forward while Rainbow Dash watched. “Go on.”
“Um, h-hi...” Wish said to him and the other adults and kids that were now all looking at her. “My name is Wish… me and Rainbow Dash are here from out of town and enjoying your festival...” she briefly looked back at the pegasus. “And Rosalie told me that the kids my age like to play a game called Capture the Flag together today? And I was wondering if I could join in and play too...”
“Course you can!” One colt said before any adult could respond, he ran out right up to her and threw a hoof out at her. “Name’s Salvatore! Pleased ta meet ya, Wish!”
Wish almost flinched back away from the exuberant colt and the happy smile on his face but still took his hoof and shook it. “H-Hi.”
He was probably ten or eleven years old, with a bright orange coat and a bushy black mane and tail. “You can be on my team even!”
“No fair!” A slightly older filly, maybe even a teenager, said. “You can’t just take her for yourself, I want to play with the newcomer too.”
“Snooze you lose,” Salvatore shrugged.
“Kids, be nice, you’re all playing together anyways,” one of the adults said to her.
“So where are you from, Wish?” Salvatore asked while all the other fillies and colts now started to crowd around Wish.
“I’m from Hoofica...” Wish hesitantly responded.
A couple of the adults looked worried but none of the children seemed to see anything strange about Wish being from Hoofica. It was likely that they had never been told in the first place about the troubles up north.
“Cool, that’s a huge place with lots of big cities, right?” Another filly asked.
“Mhm,” Wish nodded.
“How come you came here?” The older filly asked her.
“Umm...” Wish glanced back at Rainbow Dash for a moment. “I’m on a trip with Rainbow Dash. We’re just traveling together, and we stopped here. S-So when does the game start?”
“We can go out to the field now, our parents already set everything up,” Salvatore said.
“Sounds like you’re about to have a blast!” Rainbow Dash said and once again tussled Wish’s mane. “Let’s get on out there and you can have some fun with your new friends.”
“The last time I did something like this was… never mind,” Wish shook her head.
“I guess we’re ready for the game to begin?” Rosalie asked the parents.
The same stallion that had first spoken to her nodded. “Oh yeah, we can head on out to the field. We’ve got chairs and some snacks set up and everything.”
Rainbow Dash leaned down to Wish and whispered in her ear. “See? Everyone’s nice and you’re going to have a great time. Just learn their names and have fun with them. They already like you and want to get to know you better.”
Before Wish could say anything, more of the fillies and colts came up to her and made sure she came with them as the whole big group left the square and went towards the field to the south. Along the way the younger kids were nothing but smiles and cheer as they talked to Wish and asked her questions. They introduced themselves, told her about Arondel, asked about Hoofica, asked about her pretty mane, went on and on about pretty much any random thing that entered their heads, as kids are wont to do.
A fair amount of other ponies joined the large group of families as they walked through town and went to the field. As expected a lot of ponies in Arondel were going to watch the big game.
That probably wasn’t going to help Wish and her anxiousness but everyone here was so friendly Rainbow Dash couldn’t imagine it being a bad thing.
After they had left the last few houses behind, they went off the main road leading south from Arondel and went over into a grassy field to the left of it. It looked like it was made right in-between a few farms and farmhouses so it didn’t get in the way of any crops. There was a wide rectangle on the grass, made from white chalk spread over the grass, that stretched pretty much the entire field. Each side of the rectangle had two other smaller boxes at the ends, and another line of chalk went right through the middle to cut it in half. As soon as it came into sight, all the kids of Arondel cheered and ran right towards it. An apprehensive Wish was dragged along as well.
There were several dozen kids in total who were going to partake in the game so it looked like things were going to get pretty wild.
When they got to the middle of the field, they already started to separate into two different groups on either side, seems the teams were already decided. Wish was standing with Salvatore while Rainbow Dash, Rosalie, Angie, and Jolene watched. Steadily the adults moved over to the side, where the aforementioned chairs and snacks were also already set up. A lot were taking the time to mingle with each other while the kids were still talking.
“I don’t really need my own chair or anything,” Rainbow Dash said. “I can just fly if I need a better view.”
“Sure, I was just going to sit on the grass anyways,” Rosalie said.
“Doubt any of us are hungry for a snack yet either,” Angie said.
“Nope,” Jolene shook her head.
“Do you think Wish is going to have a good time?” Rosalie asked Rainbow Dash.
“I...” Rainbow Dash bit her lip and looked at the large group of kids. “I hope so.”