Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Breakfast

Rainbow Dash woke up the following morning to find that at some point in the night Wish had snuggled up against her. It was a surprising sight, but a welcome one, and Rainbow smiled warmly down at the young filly slumbering peacefully against her body. She turned her head as best she could without moving so as not to disturb the filly, and saw that the sun was already starting to come in through the window. Quietly she leaned down to Wish so as to whisper into her ear.

“Psst, hey kid, it’s about time to wake up.” Rainbow Dash told her.

Wish stirred and after a few moments began to blink her eyes open. Shortly after she yawned and stretched, pushing away from Rainbow Dash out of reflex and turning over. “Five more minutes...”

“Don’t count on it,” Rainbow Dash snorted and turned Wish back over. “Wake up, kid. We’re in Arondel, remember? The Harvest Festival is starting this morning.”

Wish’s eyes were still half-closed but she furrowed her brow and sat up in bed. “Oh yeah… I remember now.” She took another big yawn and blinked a few more times before she was totally awake.

“Heh, good morning,” Rainbow said, also sitting up now and throwing the covers off before taking a big stretch and yawn herself. “Hope you slept well cause I’m pretty sure we’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

“It was nice,” Wish admitted, though she looked away from Rainbow Dash when she said that.

Rainbow just grinned.

A moment later, a light knock came to their door and then it was carefully opened up a sliver.

“Rainbow Dash? Wish?” Rosalie quietly said into the room. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah, we just woke up,” Rainbow Dash said and hopped out of bed. Wish followed her as well after one more yawn and stretch.

“Oh good!” Rosalie smiled and opened the door up all the way. “The breakfast is starting in about an hour, Angie and Jolene will be here soon and then we can all head over. You’re going to love it, I promise.”

“If the food and festival is even half as good as you and your friends have hyped it up to be I think we’ll be pretty happy,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

“Sounds like everyone is going to be really happy at the festival,” Wish muttered.

“Sure are!” Rosalie nodded happily, not quite getting that Wish maybe wasn’t saying that in a totally positive way. “I just know at the very least you’re going to love the food. It’s as fresh as fresh can be, right from farm to plate.”

“As a pony who hasn’t always gotten to eat the best quality food while adventuring about, I’m looking forward to it,” Rainbow grinned.

Rosalie opened her mouth to say something else when some excited knocking came to the front door of her cottage. Her eyes widened and she clapped her hooves together. “That’s them! Come on Rainbow Dash, Wish, let’s go enjoy the Harvest Festival!”

---

The town square had been busy and crowded yesterday the first time Rainbow Dash and Wish had seen it but now it was positively packed with ponies. Everyone who lived in Arondel must’ve been here. There were over a dozen long tables, Rainbow Dash and her group were sitting at the end of one, joined with some other ponies from Arondel who were only too happy to be eating with them. And of course on each table were sheets, decorative place mats, plates, utensils, and then bowls, pots, pans, and trays of food. Mountains of it.

Before anyone chowed down though, the mayor stood up from where she was sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the square. The jolly conversations between the ponies of Arondel died down as they allowed Mayor Charlotte to speak.

“I welcome you once more to our wonderful festival, celebrating the great bounty of these lands of Vissidia. I know you’re all eager to eat and I have no intention of boring you, so please, enjoy your breakfast, and enjoy the rest of the Harvest Festival,” she lifted up a glass of milk. “To Arondel and the blessed lives it has given us!”

With a drink from the glass she sat back down and the ponies of Arondel cheered before hooves started to scramble all over and bring food back to their plates.

“Dig in, Rainbow and Wish!” Rosalie happily said to them.

Rainbow Dash saw something good looking in front of her, a plate of baked potatoes covered with melted cheese and butter. She grabbed one for herself and offered another to Wish, but the filly instead went for some honey and bread rolls. There were a lot of different types of bread, rolls and toast around them, along with eggs done a variety of ways, asparagus, cabbage and other vegetables, strawberries, apples and other fruits, blueberry and raspberry jam, and then of course milk and juice for drinking. Rainbow knew there was other stuff that was harvested and grown here so the rest of the crop probably wasn’t coming till lunch or dinner. Right now was basically all just traditional breakfast foods. She didn’t exactly mind.

“Once breakfast is over the music and dancing will start up too. And that’ll go on alllll through the night,” Rosalie told them.

“Cool,” Rainbow said between bites of potato. “I think I could probably go for some dancing.”

“Wanna dance with me?” Jolene asked. “I love a good dance and you seem like the kind of partner with a lot of energy, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Rainbow snorted in amusement. “I don’t mind cause it’s true.”

“You should dance with me too then,” Angie said.

“Don’t you have a stallion or two—or three—to dance with?” Jolene playfully wiggled her eyebrows at her friend.

“Oh stop, you!” Angie giggled. “This is different anyways.”

“Sure is! You should dance with all of us, Rainbow Dash,” Rosalie eagerly nodded.

Rainbow shrugged. “Hey, plenty of me to go around.” She looked over at Wish. “You want to do any dancing too? Have you ever danced before? I bet we could find a local kid who’d like to dance with you.”

Wish shook her head, frowning at the thought. “No thanks, I’d rather just eat and listen to the music.”

“Are you sure you wont get bored?” Rainbow asked.

“There’s probably plenty of other stuff to keep me entertained. It’s a festival after all,” Wish took a big chomp out of her honey covered roll.

“We could get you both some flower crowns later, like ours,” Rosalie said.

“There’s hay bale tossing to watch, and pumpkin carving to judge,” Angie said.

“The kids around town will always be playing a game or two. You like horseshoes? I bet you’d enjoy hanging out with some ponies more around your own age at least,” Jolene said.

Wish flinched. “Um… maybe. A game might be fun… but I just want to eat for now.”

“Course you do. You’re a guest of Arondel and I want to make sure you have a good time here. None of us would be good hosts otherwise,” Rosalie smiled and grabbed a jug of milk and poured some out for Wish. “Have your fill there, little one. It’s still breakfast time, merriment comes right after.”

Comments

[redmar]

There is still something bothering Wish that's obvious. I hope we'll learn what it is soon.

[TheCommunistDog]

S

In today’s chapter: A new day and a new festival.