//------------------------------// // Like Long Lost Friends // Story: Rainbow Dash Around the World // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Do you think Rosalie painted any of these on her own? You might want to ask her about them,” Rainbow Dash said to Wish as she looked at the many cat pictures hung up on the walls of Rosalie’s home. They were alone right now, left to relax in the cozy little cottage while Rosalie went to find her friends. She said she wouldn’t take long, it was a small town after all. “She didn’t.” Rainbow Dash looked over at Wish and raised an eyebrow. “And you know that how?” “There aren’t any art supplies or anything like that around. And she just doesn’t feel like an artist to me,” Wish shrugged. “Uh huh, guess I’ll take the expert’s word on it.” Wish frowned. “I’m not an expert.” “You don’t need a Cutie Mark in art to be an expert.” “Don’t you?” Rainbow Dash bit her lip, a concerned look growing on her face. “Uh, Wish, if you want to talk I’m pretty sure I’ve already made it clear that you can say anything around me.” Wish’s frown wavered and her expression seemed to soften a bit. “I-I know… but this is all just-” She couldn’t finish her sentence as the front door was pulled open and three excited mares rushed in. Of course it was Rosalie in the center but she had two friends beside her, a pegasus and a unicorn, both wearing the same white dress and flower crown she was. The pegasus was light pink with a long blonde mane and pretty blue eyes while the unicorn was lemon yellow with a braided orange and white mane and yellow eyes. All three of them were of course smiling widely and those smiles only grew bigger when they saw Rainbow Dash and Wish and came right over. “I’m back!” “Hello!” “Hi!” “H-Hey,” Rainbow Dash waved and awkwardly smiled while Wish clammed up again. Rosalie giggled and put her hooves over her friends’ shoulders. “These are my two best friends in Arondel.” She first nodded to the pegasus. “This is Angie.” And then to the unicorn. “And this is Jolene.” “Hello there,” Angie said again. “It’s a pleasure to meet anyone not from Arondel. Always wonderful to meet new ponies. Like Rosalie said, I’m Angie, and I grow some of the nicest flowers you’ll see in all of Vissidia.” “That aint empty boasting either,” the unicorn, Jolene, said with a heavy accent. “Her flowers are all over Arondel right now I tell you what. Me on the other hoof, I raise chickens out behind my cottage. Lots of the eggs you’ll see being eaten tomorrow come from my place! Course that’s about all we do when it comes to preparing for the festival and what not. Just giving the stuff to the elders and letting them take care of the rest, then the three of us just hang out.” She smiled at Rainbow and Wish. “Though looking like it’ll be five for this festival.” “It sure will be, we’re all going to have a lot of fun together!” Rosalie said. “That all starts tomorrow morning with the breakfast signifying the beginning of the Harvest Festival,” Angie said. “The whole town gathers in the square and after a few short words from our mayor we get to eat and then have a good time.” “Singing, dancing, the works!” Jolene said. “It definitely sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun. Right, Wish?” Rainbow Dash asked her companion. Wish seemed surprised to be asked that but she quickly responded. “Yep. You um, you really make it sound like it’s going to be a really happy festival. Sounds like the whole town really loves it.” “They sure do,” Rosalie nodded. “So uh… since this happens every month, do you guys pretty much start planning the next one as soon as this one finishes?” Rainbow asked. “Hmm...” Angie looked up and rubbed her chin. “There’s about a week before anyone does anything I’d say.” “I guess after learning what else I have about Vissidia I shouldn’t really be surprised that this whole place revolves around farming and festivals. You guys… you really don’t seem to have anything else to worry about. You’re nice and secluded, food grows all the time, everything just sounds like it’s so relaxed in this country,” Rainbow Dash said. Rosalie tilted her head at her. “Is that wrong? You make it sound like it shouldn’t be that way.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Nah, that’s not what I mean at all. It’s just unusual for me to see a place like this. Even my home, which is super nice and peaceful most of the time, isn’t like this. This isn’t the sort of place I would live… but it kind of makes me happy knowing it’s here.” “Well we’re sure glad to have you just blowing through at the very least,” Jolene said. “Speaking of that, how long are you two staying? Just for the Harvest Festival?” Angie asked. Rainbow briefly glanced at Wish. “Not sure yet really. I’m kind of doing something… but I’m not on a time limit or anything. But I also can’t really stay in the same place for too long.” “How come?” Rosalie asked. “Reasons,” Rainbow looked away. “Er, anyways I wanted to give Wish plenty of time to relax and have a real vacation too. Someplace where she didn’t need to worry about anything.” She put a hoof on the filly’s back. “She deserves it.” “Mm,” Wish mumbled. “Rosalie told us you were from Hoofica,” Angie said as she went to sit down on the couch beside Wish. “Some really bad things happened there, didn’t they? We don’t know the whole story but we all heard about the country vanishing and no one returning from it...” “You poor thing!” Jolene said. “Whatever you had to go through there it’s all behind you now, you can rest easy in Vissidia.” “Mm… thanks,” Wish said, trying to avert her eyes from the three other mares. “A-Alright, we don’t need to give her any special attention or anything like that. Pretty sure Wish wants to just be treated like normal and not dwell on the past,” Rainbow Dash said, mentally wincing at herself for starting this. “Oh, sure! Of course,” Angie said and smiled down at Wish. “You just enjoy the festival, sweetheart.” “We don’t need to do anything special to make it a great festival, it always is!” Jolene said. Rosalie giggled and hugged her unicorn friend before smiling at the others. “How about we all stay here and have dinner together too? Then we can all meet up again early tomorrow morning.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Works for me. I mean, you’d obviously know best what to do.” “Ooh, there was something else I wanted to do while we ate dinner,” Angie said, her face turning to Rainbow Dash with an excited and curious look. “That home you talked about? We heard you’re from a far away place called Equestria, what’s it like? How far have you traveled? What sort of things have you seen?” “I’m interested in that too!” Jolene said. “Me three!” Rosalie chimed in. “Oh boy...” Rainbow Dash blushed and bashfully rubbed the back of her head. “Well I hope we’re having a long dinner because there’s a lot to tell.” “Then please tell, we’ve met a lot of ponies who have traveled far in their days but you seem… different,” Angie said. “Well you’re right about that. There’s no pony like me,” Rainbow said. “How so?” Jolene asked. Rainbow Dash grinned and leaned back against the couch. “Let me start from the beginning...” Naturally it took quite a long time for Rainbow Dash to tell her entire story, and in the middle of it Rosalie went to get them tea and bread for dinner. But by the time she was done the other three mares were looking at her like some kind of impossible superhero had graced them with her presence. Wish had been listening too even though she knew most of the story already, it was something to take her mind off of everything else. There was now a pregnant pause in the sitting room of the cottage as none of the Vissidian mares could gather their thoughts to speak. “Umm… and that’s it,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Now I’m here.” “Wow… you’re really… wow,” Angie said. “I hope you can stick around for a while now actually, I’d love to get to know you even more after hearing all that,” Jolene said. “Me too,” Rosalie nodded. “Well maybe. We’ll see,” Rainbow said. Rosalie looked at her clock and noticed it was getting fairly late. They had all gotten absorbed in Rainbow Dash’s story. “Oh dear, it’s later than I thought. Well whatever happens it will have to wait for breakfast tomorrow. We can all talk again at the festival.” “I suppose we’ll be leaving then for the night,” Angie said. “But Jolene and I will be back here first thing tomorrow morning.” “Sure will be!” Jolene nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you girls then,” Rosalie hugged the both of them as they started to leave. “See you tomorrow. And it was wonderful getting to meet the two of you,” Angie said to Rainbow and Wish. “You’ll have a great time tomorrow, Rainbow Dash, Wish.” Jolene said and politely nodded to the both of them. “Bye! Was nice meeting you too,” Rainbow waved goodbye to them. “Bye,” Wish also quietly waved. Rosalie closed the door behind them and took a deep breath. “This day has turned out much busier than I was expecting it to.” “Same here to be honest,” Rainbow said. “Hehe,” Rosalie chuckled and walked back over to the couch. “Well the den is yours now, you two can go to bed whenever you want, but be prepared to wake up early.” “We probably will soon,” Rainbow said and looked over at Wish. “You tired?” Wish yawned. “Hmm… maybe a little...” Rainbow Dash snorted. “Yeah, I think we’ll hit the hay soon.” “If you need some water in the middle of the night, or anything else, my home is yours,” Rosalie smiled. “Thanks,” Rainbow Dash smiled back at her. Less than an hour later, Rainbow Dash and Wish were in bed, in the den. Despite Rainbow assuming the filly would want to sleep in her hooves, she was currently bundled up as close to the edge of the bed away from Rainbow Dash as she could get. Facing away from her. Rainbow Dash blinked a few times, listening to Wish’s breathing. The filly was still awake. “Wish? Are you doing alright?” It was quiet for a moment. “Yes. I just want to enjoy the festival tomorrow.” “O-Okay. If there’s anything you want to talk about...” “No, it’s just… really happy here.” A few minutes later and they had both silently drifted off to sleep.