//------------------------------// // Harvest Festival // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Oh yes, I’ll show you around town for a bit, and then take you back home and give you something to eat. And I can show you your room! It’ll be my den, that has a bed in it that the two of you can share, and I can tell you everything about Vissidia you want to know about! Ooh, and then I can also invite my friends over and you can meet them too! We’ll have such a fun night before the Harvest Festival!” Did I somehow manage to tangle myself up with the Pinkie Pie of the village? Rainbow Dash thought as Rosalie continued to pull both her and Wish through the busy town square. “You’re already going to see a ton of the town square tomorrow so I’m going to take you to some other places in Arondel!” Rosalie said as she guided them towards the southern and western sides of the town. They were going right on out of town square, not stopping for more than a moment to share hellos with other ponies who knew Rosalie or wanted to greet a couple of strangers. Rosalie glanced down at Wish. “You’re doing alright, aren’t you? Or am I walking too fast? Want me to slow down? Need any food or anything to drink? You haven’t talked that much, am I asking too many questions?” “No, no,” Wish stiffly shook her head, clearly thinking that Rosalie had been asking too many questions. “It’s okay. And you’re not walking too fast.” “Okay! Then just follow me!” The mare giggled and continued on. Rainbow Dash frowned over at Wish. You’re not usually so quiet… “You see those cottages?” Rosalie suddenly said, pointing to a couple of small cottages to the south that had rose bushes surrounding them. “Yeah,” Rainbow nodded. “Some of my friends live there, but they’re probably not in right now. And look, look at this building!” She pointed to another building they were walking by. “Giuseppe works here, he makes candles. I have so many of them at home! Once we get back I can light some of my favorite scents for you.” Rainbow Dash looked and saw that most of the buildings around them didn’t look occupied at the moment. Most ponies must’ve been out or at the very least closed up as they prepared for the Harvest Festival. That didn’t change as Rosalie brought them closer to the edges of town where they could see a few small farms. Wagons by the farms were full up so high with food it looked like they would almost tip over or collapse. So much produce had been gathered up from the farms it was crazy. “So this festival is a really big deal, huh?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Oh yes, it’s the most important time of the month!” Rosalie answered. Rainbow blinked. “Wait. What?” Wish also shared her confusion and raised an eyebrow at Rosalie. “I said it’s the most important time of the month!” Rosalie repeated with a smile. “You do this… every month? There’s a Harvest Festival every month?” Rainbow rubbed her head, a bit confused. “Of course! After all, there’s always plenty to harvest,” Rosalie nodded. “Your crops really grow and get harvested every single month?” “Yep! Isn’t that what farming’s like everywhere?” Now Rainbow Dash didn’t exactly know too much about farming, and most of what she did learn from Applejack went in one ear and out the other, but she was pretty sure that wasn’t the case. Seasons were a big deal, right? You didn’t really grow stuff in winter as far as she knew. And with how much food they grew and harvested… did it really all grow back so fast that they had a big festival for it every month? “I’m not sure about that… but it’s at least reassuring to know you’ll have plenty of food for Hoofica and for yourselves,” Rainbow said. “Oh yes, we’ll have lots and lots of food!” Rosalie said. After that there wasn’t really much else for Rosalie to show them, Arondel was a pretty small town after all. She just guided them past the small farms and the homes of ponies she knew. Which was pretty much everyone, another benefit of living in a small town. They got stopped along the way a few times as they made a revolution through Arondel by other ponies who wanted to say hello. Wish was quiet through most of that, especially when kids her age were around. But Rainbow Dash got to know a few more faces that they would likely be seeing tomorrow. It was uplifting to come to a place like this and make some new friends, she’d be happy to share all this with Twilight and everyone else once she got home. Now it was really just Wish’s mood she had to improve first. Thanks to how early they had gotten the day started, it wasn’t even noon by the time Rosalie had brought the two of them back to her house, close to where Rainbow and Wish had first landed earlier today. By now the weather was even nicer out than it had been before and more ponies were out decorating the entire town. Rosalie’s cottage that was covered in flowers and plants with a small garden in front of it looked positively delightful, it reminded Rainbow Dash of Fluttershy’s cottage just minus all the animals around it. It was probably Rosalie’s own little slice of heaven. “Welcome to my home!” Rosalie cheered and opened up the yellow-painted front door. She happily ushered her guests inside. “I know it’s a little small but what do you think?” There were a lot of lace throw pillows on every bit of furniture. Rainbow Dash would definitely use the word “cozy” to describe it rather than small. It was a very cozy cottage. She had a small kitchen, a small sitting room, a bathroom, and two other doors that must’ve led to her bedroom and the supposed den. Yeah, it wasn’t much room but it was fine for just Rainbow Dash and Wish to crash here. The decorations inside were so girly too, with so many flowers everywhere and paintings of cats, pictures of friends, and white linen sheets placed over the few tables. “It looks great,” Rainbow Dash said. Beside her, Wish shuddered a bit. But before Rainbow Dash could say anything to the filly, Rosalie was already continuing the tour. “Here’s where the two of you will be staying!” The mare said, opening up one of the doors and showing them a small bedroom. Just a single bed but Rainbow wouldn’t have been surprised if Wish wanted to sleep in the same bed anyways. Naturally it was also decorated just as nicely as the rest of the cottage. The bed itself was covered in lacy sheets and comfortable looking pillows. “Thanks,” Rainbow said, she glanced down at Wish. “Look comfortable to you?” “Mhm. Very,” Wish nodded. “Uhhh… are you alright?” Rainbow asked her. Wish shrugged. “I’m fine.” “No you’re-” “Let me get some lunch for the two of you! I’ve got plenty of food around the house, it would be just super if I treated you to your first meal in Arondel!” Rosalie said, interrupting the two of them. “And I can get some of my candles out of the closet and then later today I’ll get my friends to come over and meet you too. Is that alright? I don’t want to overwhelm you or anything.” “You’re not,” Rainbow Dash assured her. “And lunch sounds pretty good.” I can talk with Wish tonight… we’ll have plenty of time. Rainbow thought. As she looked down at the filly she saw that her face was still mostly blank. Had she been like this since the desert or was it when they made it to Vissidia and first met the Russo family? She clearly didn’t want to talk about anything so Rainbow was obviously going to have to force it out of her, and she didn’t want to do that in front of Rosalie. “Okay! I have the freshest fruits and vegetables for the two of you, I’m sure you’ll love them. What’s your favorite fruit?” Rosalie asked. In truth, Rainbow wasn’t sure, she really loved apple cider to drink but were apples her favorite fruit? Eh, whatever. “Apples. You got any?” “My favorite fruit is strawberries,” Wish quietly said. It seemed like she couldn’t resist the allure of a sweet meal. “Got both! Just relax in the sitting room and I’ll bring you some food in a moment,” Rosalie said and went right into her kitchen. Rainbow Dash and Wish took a seat on her couch, in front of her coffee table, and relaxed. It was as comfortable of a place to sit as it looked. They heard their host rummaging through some things and a minute later she came back out with a bowl of apples and a bowl of strawberries carefully balanced on her head and back. Putting them down on the table, all three of them got to filling their stomachs for the first time today. Rainbow had to admit that these were some really fresh tasting apples too—and out of the corner of her eye she saw Wish smile ever so slightly when she first bit into one of the strawberries. She hoped they could expect the food to taste this good through the whole Harvest Festival. “So do you do anything for the festival?” Rainbow Dash asked Rosalie in-between bites. Rosalie shook her head. “Naw, I just enjoy things. Usually it’s the bigger families, the farmers, and the mayor and elders who set things up. As you can see it’s just me and myself living here. Don’t got no family of my own in Arondel.” Wish’s head perked up. She suddenly seemed far more alert than before. “You don’t?” “Well...” A somewhat sad smile appeared on Rosalie’s face. “Some things happened and I decided to branch out on my own, left home and all that. But Arondel’s a nice place and I got my friends here, that’s all I need. A festival every month where we can have fun, sing and dance together, sure makes the days go by fast. There aint nothing else I can think of that I’d want from Arondel.” “It seems like a really happy place...” Wish said and ate another strawberry. “All the ponies seem really happy.” Rainbow Dash slowly chewed on her apple, watching Wish.