//------------------------------// // Cultural Festival // Story: Dashing Love (REWRITTEN) // by Kellster //------------------------------// "Dashie." Pinkie Pie said with a somewhat serious tone and ate her chocolate coronet. "What is it, Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked, taking another bite of her anpan. Pinkie pointed at Soarin, sitting at a nearby table. The cafeteria was as busy as ever, but both of them knew who Pinkie was pointing at. "Another girl is hitting on him." Pinkie pointed at a girl talking to him. "You should do something about that." Rainbow rolled her eyes and continued eating. "I already told you a billion times, I'm not interested in Soarin! Besides, that girl's probably just another fan. You know how famous he is." Pinkie put on a very, very small smile and sighed. "Dashie, you'll never learn." Rainbow raised her eyebrow and finished eating. "Look, there's nothing going on between us. We're just friends!" "Mmhmm." Pinkie sarcastically said with a smug smile and raised her eyebrows. Rainbow got up and brushed the anpan crumbs off of her uniform. "I'll prove it to you." She strutted over to Soarin's table, making Pinkie grin with a small laugh. "Ey, Soarin!" Rainbow shouted loud enough for Pinkie to hear. She sat on the bench next to Soarin and put her arm around him. "'Sup, bud? How ya doin'?" Soarin blinked. "What're you doing, calling me bud?" He asked, biting his nigiri sushi. Rainbow glared at him for a second and continued smiling. "Oh, nothing. Just saying 'heyo!' to my ol' pal!" She said, patting Soarin on the back, which annoyed him a little bit. Soarin rolled his eyes and drank his soda. The girl previously talking to him grunted and glared at Rainbow. "Well, um, okay?" Soarin looked at the girl in front of him. "What were you asking me again?" The girl closed her eyes and got up. "Nevermind, I'll ask you later. In private." She walked away furiously. Soarin was a little angry, but glad that Rainbow made her go away. "Hey, thanks." Soarin muttered quietly. Rainbow snickered and looked closely into his eyes. "What did you say?" She said in a deeper voice. Soarin blushed and looked away. "I-I didn't say nothin'." Rainbow chuckled. "Could've sworn you said 'thanks' Soarin." Soarin closed his eyes. "Tch. Fine. Thanks. Happy?" Both of them smirked at each other and looked the other way. Pinkie, from a distance, smiled and ate her chocolate coronet. Rainbow stretched her arms as she sat at her desk in her classroom. Soarin came and walked towards her. Before he began talking, the speaker suddenly came on. "Attention students, attention students! As some of you know, the Cultural Festival is happening soon. Please take your time and get ready. Each homeroom has to decide what they're going to do and the Class Rep must turn it in until Monday. Thank you and have fun!" The classroom buzzed in excitement afterwards, while others just didn't really care. Soarin cleared his throat. "So, Dash, a little birdie told be that you were the first to finish the 3 laps in P.E. today." Rainbow smirked and slouched on her chair. "Well, duh. I am awesome." She said as she put her arms over her head and put a smug face on. Soarin was a little annoyed, but cleared his throat again. "How'd you learn to become so fast?" Rainbow closed her eyes and thought about it. "I actually don't know. Maybe I was naturally born cool." She then added, "But I guess I did practice a lot as a kid." The two of them continued talking about sports and so on, until the next class started. The next day, the whole class discussed what they would do for the Cultural Festival. The Class Rep, Twilight Sparkle, and her assistant, Starlight Glimmer, stood in front of the class. "Alright, can anybody suggest a couple of ideas for the Cultural Festival?" Twilight said behind the teacher's desk. Starlight stood behind her in front of the blackboard, ready to write down whatever the class comes up with. "If possible, we should think outside of the box this year." Starlight suggested. "I hear lots of classes are doing cafes and haunted houses." Everybody agreed and fell silent while thinking. Some people suggested to mix cafes and haunted houses to create 'haunted cafes', but didn't go with it. Others suggested a 'cosplay cafe', but didn't think it was good enough. In the end, they had to go with a Haunted Cafe. Twilight sighed and signaled Starlight to write it on the blackboard. Starlight nodded and did what she was told. Afterwards, everybody chatted about the idea, and both Class Reps went and turned it in to the Student Council room. Pinkie jumped right in front of Rainbow. "This is gonna be so exciting!" She said, ranting on and on about the haunted cafe. Rainbow cut off her babbling. "I get it, Pinkie. You're excited." Soarin came over and joined into the conversation. "So, are we like, supposed to wear monster costumes or something?" He asked, thinking of costumes he could wear. "I guess so." Pinkie said, shrugging. "Now that I think about it, it'll be fun to scare people right when they're drinking their tea." Rainbow made an evil laugh and thought of a costume creepy enough to scare anybody. "Dude, won't that kill them from making them choke?" Soarin asked. "Well, I guess we won't go that far, but we can put fake cockroaches in their drinks!" Pinkie thought out loud as she was browsing through crazy ideas in her brain. Rainbow and Soarin looked at her in disgust. "Why the heck would we do that!?!" A while later, the class started to discuss again. "Alright, we're gonna need some waiters and waitresses." Starlight said, scanning the room for people who would be interested. After loads of discussing, mostly only girls were picked as waitresses, which were Rarity, Cloudchaser, Flitter, Sugar Belle, and a lot more. The waitresses were to wear a regular maid outfits, with fake blood all over. Then they chose lots of monsters of different kinds. Pinkie Pie, Soarin, and Rainbow Dash were chosen as monsters. Pinkie jumped in enthusiasm. Soarin and Rainbow were both happy but didn't show it as much. The discussion was over after the bell rang. "I still can't chose what kind of monster I'll be." Rainbow said at after class. The three of them sat together at Pinkie's desk. "I guess I'll be a wolf." Pinkie giggled. "Awwwww, I bet you'd look cute! Right, Soarin?" Pinkie nudged Soarin, who was blushing as he imagined it. Rainbow blushed too. "H-hey, cut that out!" Rainbow demanded as she opened a volume of the manga Naruto. "W-well, I bet you'll be......furry?" Soarin blurted out. Pinkie giggled and shrugged as Rainbow glared at her. "I'll just wear my costume of the Evil Enchantress! She's-" Just as Pinkie was about to sing her song, Rainbow clapped her hand on Pinkie's mouth. "Please don't sing it." Soarin looked at both of them in confusion. "I'll wear a ghost." All of them continued talking about ideas for the haunted cafe. "I never thought putting decorations would be sooooo hard!" Rainbow moaned as she climbed a ladder and connected a black banner that said "Please come again..." in one corner to the other. The words were written in red paint to make it look like blood. "It's not that bad." Pinkie grinned as she put a black tablecloth on one of the desks. Soarin carried a chair and put it next to the table Pinkie was preparing. "It's bad for me." He snapped at Pinkie. After a while, the classroom was almost completely black, making it hard to see. There were jack o' lanterns in lots of places and fake skulls and bones. There were also some hiding spots for the monsters to jump scare the customers. The classroom had some walls so one table would be separated from the other, making it scary if you heard a scream from a different part of the classroom. It had lots of other decorations as well, such as masks, witch hats, torches, even pitchforks. Rainbow fell onto her feet after all her hard work. "Finally!" She screamed. "Now it's time to get into our positions!" All the monsters separated into different hiding spots. Rainbow was determined to find a really good hiding spot, one which would scare almost anybody. She hid behind a small hidden black table near a regular table. She waited for somebody to come patiently. After a few minutes, she could hear footsteps coming. "Here's.....your.......t-table.......miss......" A waitress, most likely Flitter, said in a zombie-like voice, leading somebody to the table near Rainbow's spot. As she walked away, she winked to Rainbow. Rainbow saluted and waited for the correct timing. Finally, the waitress came back and gave the customer her order. After a few minutes, the customer finished her food and gave off a sigh, as if she thought that nobody came to jump scare her. Then, Rainbow jumped out and howled and growled. The customer shrieked in fear, and ran away to the exit, bumping into loads of other jump scares. Rainbow laughed silently and searched for other hiding spots. "I'm beat!" Rainbow sighed and took off her wolf head. "It's like an oven in this costume if you don't take the head off every once in a while!" She complained as she wiped off her sweat. "Me too!" Pinkie said, cartwheeling. Rainbow shrugged and got up. She walked towards a certain student wearing a costume of a witch. "Hey, Twilight! I'm just gonna go explore the festival a bit." She whispered to Twilight. "Of course you can!" Twilight said. "This festival is about learning the creative arts, and developing are creative minds! It's so exciting! You should definitely go explore and get inspired by all others...." Rainbow sneaked away as Twilight babbled about learning this and learning that with Pinkie behind her. "Phew, I thought I'd never escape her." Rainbow said. The two of them explored the school, seeing all sorts of classroom activities. There were cafes, haunted houses, fortune telling booths, gardens, stuffed animal collections, animal exhibits, and so much more. Pinkie and Rainbow stopped and rested at a cafe of "Mysterious Brews". "That was so cool!" Rainbow blurted out after taking a sip of some Truth Juice. "I mean, not as cool as ours though." She quickly added afterwards. Pinkie chuckled and drank her Soothing Party Punch. Afterwards, she made crazy dances like the party animal she is. The both of them laughed. Pinkie then got an idea. She ordered a bottle of Truth Juice and said, "Hey, I have somewhere to go to! Follow me!" "Where to?" Rainbow asked curiously. "Just follow!" Pinkie yelled excitedly. "And don't finish your Truth Juice just yet!" "Why are we back at our class?" Rainbow asked as they stopped running. Pinkie gave a small laugh. "You'll see! Give me that and stay right here!" Pinkie took the Truth Juice bottle out of Rainbow's hands and rushed in. Rainbow watched her enter in confusion. What did she want in there? Pinkie came out with Soarin, holding two plastic cups filled with some type of drink. Pinkie happily gave it to Rainbow and Soarin and pushed them out of the class doors. She smiled as she gave them the plastic cups and went back inside. "Yo, what was that about?" Soarin asked as he smelled the drink Pinkie gave them. "Dunno." Rainbow said, still looking inside. "Well, I was about to take a break anyways. Wanna come?" Soarin said, walking off to another classroom. Rainbow took a sip of the drink and blurted out, "Y-yes!" Soarin glanced at her and continued walking, with Rainbow walking next to him. The two of them saw some other exciting classes together. After they got tired, they rested in front of some vending machines. "I'm so tiiiiiiiiireeeeeed!" Soarin groaned. Rainbow rolled her eyes. "I'm more tired than you you know!" She said. "I explored more than you did before!" They glared at each other and finished the drinks Pinkie gave them. They suddenly felt the urge to say something. "U-um....." Soarin started. "I......I-I like yoooooooooouuuuur hair!" He yelled. Rainbow blushed. "Th-thanks? I guess?" An awkward silence fell onto them. "I......I think you're very cool......" Rainbow mumbled so quietly nobody, even Soarin who was sitting right next to her, didn't hear her. "What?" Soarin asked, tilting his head. "N-nothing!" Rainbow shouted as she turned her head away. "Wait.....is this....?" She said, smelling the remains of her drink. She realized exactly what she just drank and threw the plastic cup into the trash angrily. "I'm gonna kill that pink-haired girl....."She muttered as she went back to her seat. Meanwhile, someone was stalking them........ "Who is that girl???" They muttered. "Why is she with Soarin? Why are they both blushing?? Why do they seem so happy??? What is the name of that thing!?!" They looked at the girl even closer and noticed the hair color. "That's right..." They realized. "It's that girl who interrupted my precious talk with Soarin in lunchtime a few days ago. The famous Rainbow Dash. That rainbow-colored sporty is gonna pay..." They banged on the wall and ran away. To be continued...