Dash's Secret Diary

Dash's Secret Diary

by Twippledash

Chapter 7: Hearth's Warming

Another two months of training in Wonderbolts passed, making it a total of four months now. Yesterday they gave us five days free to spend the Hearth's Warming holidays with our own families or friends. The Hearth's Warming Eve is tomorrow, and I'm going to spend it with my closest friends—just like we've done ever since Twilight moved here into Ponyville a few years back.

We're going to watch the Hearth's Warming pageant in Canterlot once again. Sure they have set up a show here in Ponyville too, but ever since we ourselves performed in Canterlot's pageant once, it has pretty much become a tradition for us to go watch the show there. It would be boring to watch the same performance again and again, but since they always select a new set of volunteer actors for the play it always has slight variations from last years' performances, making it worth to go see the performance every year. I'm eagerly waiting to see this year's performance too, even though as far as I know there is nopony familiar to me performing this time.

Oh, and once we're going to Canterlot, Rarity is going to invite us to see her new boutique and home she'd bought just a week ago. Her winter clothing line was very successful this year, earning her the remaining bits she still needed to afford that boutique. She is still living in her old Carousel Boutique here in Ponyville, but she's planning to move into the new boutique in Canterlot once she starts her business there, presumably in just a few weeks. She's not selling Carousel Boutique, but instead she's going to hire somepony to work there and use it to continue selling her clothing here in Ponyville too—once she gets the business running smoothly in Canterlot first, that is.

There's a bit of news concerning Fluttershy, too. Despite her first foal, Sunshine, having been born just about five months ago, she is already expecting another foal. She's been pregnant for about a month now, so it is still a long wait until the second foal sees daylight. That's not stopping her from coming to Canterlot with us though. Bigger concern for her was whether she'd be able to leave Sunshine for the day, but I'm sure Big Mac will take care of her well enough, even if he may have some problems catching her when she flies all around the cottage.

Nothing else interesting have happened here really—wintertime is always quite boring in Ponyville without anything interesting ever happening.

The training in Wonderbolts have been going just fine, and I've already become quite good friends with the other new recruits, Lightning Blaze and Firestorm. We've had several races together also, sometimes with older members too. I think I've mentioned before that Firestorm had already been in a professional stunt flying team for a few years before, and I gotta admit she's a damn good flier; she isn't really quite as fast as me or Lightning, but what she lacks in speed, she makes up with amazing control. Due to that she's usually the one who wins the races between the three of us—but that is going to change soon; I will not rest until I can beat her fair and square on any race track, anywhere, anytime.

That said, I've already become much better in high-speed maneuvering during these four months of training. But like I said, I still can't beat the more experienced fliers in a race if the track has too many sharp turns. On the other hoof, I am clearly the fastest one if I have time to accelerate to full speed since I am still the only pegasus alive who is able to break the sound barrier and fly supersonic. And with enough training I will no doubt become the star flier of the Wonderbolts in no time!

Anyway, I'll just stop writing now and go see my friends. I'll probably write something more after returning from the Hearth's Warming pageant tomorrow, before leaving again to continue training in the Wonderbolts.

—Rainbow Dash

Scootaloo chuckled after finishing reading the entry. "Being a bit arrogant here, aren't you?" she said to Rainbow Dash. "Just being one of the Wonderbolt wasn't apparently enough for you, but you wanted to be the best of the best."

Rainbow also chuckled a bit at her arrogant goals she had back then. "Well, yeah," she said. "Becoming the best flier in Equestria had been one of my dreams ever since I was just a filly. Though later on I gradually started realizing that I couldn't be master in every aspect of flight, no matter how hard I trained. That was one of the most important lessons I passively learned during the first years in the Wonderbolts—I learned not to underestimate my pals, I learned to accept my flaws, I learned the importance of team effort, and I learned that nopony was, and never could be, perfect. In short, I learned some humility there." She put on a wan smile on her lips and continued, "Sure Twilight and my other friends tried to bash that into my thick skull many times even before me getting into the Wonderbolts, but their attempts never had any lasting effect. No, it was being in the Wonderbolts that finally drove the point home."

Scootaloo hadn't expected that kind of long-winded reply to her simple quip, and didn't know what to say next, so she just nodded in response. She turned her eyes from the other pegasus back towards the diary, looking for something more to say or ask. After a few moments Rainbow Dash broke the silence again.

"Anyway," she said, "the next entry is from that same vacation, only two days after that last one. So we could just read it now and continue discussing after that."

"Sure." Scootaloo awoke from her stupor and opened the next page in the diary.

Yesterday we—I, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo—were in Canterlot like we had planned. We arrived a few hours before the Hearth's Warming pageant to have some time together in Canterlot; the pageant itself would be later in the evening, so we would take the train back to Ponyville right after the festivities.

Anyway, when we first arrived in Canterlot, Rarity took us to see her new boutique like she promised. There wasn't really much to see though; it was just an empty store with a small housing attached. There were no furniture or anything in the boutique yet, except for an empty counter on one wall, a few sets of her latest fashion creations on display by the shop windows, and a few posters on the windows advertising that her boutique would be opening there soon.

The boutique happened to be just a few blocks away from the Wonderbolt headquarters and we still had a few hours to spend in Canterlot, so I decided to take them on a quick tour in there. The place is not open for public, except for the entrance hall and a showroom, but visitors are allowed on regular office hours as long as they are accompanied by a Wonderbolt—a rookie like myself works too. So I checked us in for the receptionist—I must wonder how much extra she's paid to do her job on Hearth's Warming eve—and took my friends for a tour, just like Spitfire did to us recruits a few months back.

There were nopony else in the whole building save for the receptionist and a single guard, so I got to show them around freely without interruptions. I would have liked to introduce them to the other Wonderbolts though... oh well, guess that'll have to wait for another time then.

First I showed them the living quarters I shared with Lightning and Firestorm; it was a quite barren room with four beds and a few lockers around the walls, and a table under a window on other side of the room. Rarity immediately pointed out a few improvement suggestions to make the room more colorful and comfortable. I countered with the fact that we used that room almost exclusively for sleeping at nights, and we didn't spend much time there awake. She wouldn't take any of it and continued her ranting. I just shrugged it off and moved on.

Next I took them to the break room—a room where me and the other recruits didn't have much time to spend apart from an hour or two in the evenings. Unlike our bedroom, this room got even Rarity's approval. There were several comfortable sofas around the room, a thick fitted carpet covering entire floor, a few glass tables, a fireplace on one wall, a fridge with various cold beverages, a small kitchen separated by a bar counter, and a glass wall facing the edge of the Canterlot. The building was situated on the outer layer of buildings in Canterlot, so there was a breathtaking view towards northern parts of Equestria. Ponyville was not visible—it was on the other side of Canterlot—but we could see Cloudsdale up in the sky, vast amounts of snowy plains, and the Crystal Mountain ranges far away marking Equestria's northern border.

We sat there together for several minutes, chatting idly. Scootaloo had a lot to ask about how it felt to be a Wonderbolt, what I did on a daily basis, and stuff like that. She's still my first and most avid fan, even though she has already decided not to become a stunt flier herself like I am. I didn't pay much attention to the others' discussions, so I don't know what they were talking about. All I know is that soon enough we stood up and left the break room.

I didn't have much else to show, as I'm quite sure my friends wouldn't have been interested in seeing our bathrooms, gym, showers, or anything like that... So I just led them back to the entrance hall, and into the public showroom in the next room. There were photos of all former and current Wonderbolts on the walls in chronological order with a short biography attached to each of them, starting from the founder of the Wonderbolts and ending to the current members. I and the other two recruits were not there yet; we would be added into the gallery by the time we finish out training and get promoted from rookies to full-fledged Wonderbolts. So Just eight months more and I'll be featured there too.

Aside from the gallery, there were several diplomas and trophies in showcases, all donated by various Wonderbolts. On other side of the room there were a few old Wonderbolt flight suits fitted on some dress forms; the coloring has been the same thorough the Wonderbolt history, and the biggest differences in old suits compared to the current ones are the material—oldest suits were made of cotton, while the current ones are made mostly of spandex, making the suits skin-tight and elastic—and that the oldest suits didn't cover the flier's head or hooves.

That was quite much everything I had to show to my friends, so as we got to the entrance hall once again, I checked our group out for the receptionist. Before we left, I bought a little souvenir—a small Wonderbolt figurine depicting Spitfire—for Scootaloo from a small gift shop also run by the receptionist. I would have bought one depicting myself, but they didn't make any merchandise of rookies... oh well, maybe later then. She seemed to enjoy the little gift nevertheless. She didn't have saddlebags with her, so I put it into mine to carry until we arrived Ponyville later in the evening.

I was supposed to write in general what we did yesterday, but it seems like I got a bit carried away writing about Wonderbolts again... doesn't matter though, as it's not like anypony else would ever be reading this anyway. I'm just writing this to relax, and maybe also to put down some memories to remember years later if I still have this diary then. And I actually enjoy writing this; I don't even know when I started to enjoy writing, but I really do enjoy this!

Anyway, it was still almost two hours until we'd be going to the pageant. Twilight suggested that we could go pay her parent a visit if they were home. And so we did, since none of us had any other ideas at the moment. As expected, they gave us a warm welcome and asked us to come in. No formal introductions were needed either, as we had already met them a few times before—twice when they had visited Ponyville to see how their daughter have been doing, and three times when we've been in Canterlot for whatever reason. They were very hospitable and even had some little snacks to offer, even though we came in unannounced.

Soon after we thanked them for their hospitality, and continued on to go do what we were doing in Canterlot in the first place—to go see the Hearth's Warming pageant. The pageant was as awesome and heartwarming as every year before. Though I think the Commander Hurricane's actress was a bit bland and didn't really get into her role quite as well as the others. Oh well, can't really expect everypony to be as awesome actress as I was.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, we took the first train back to Ponyville after the festivities following the pageant. The train travel went without anything noteworthy happening. We spent the rest of that evening in Twilight's library together—or five of us spent the evening there anyway; Fluttershy wanted to go home to check on Sunshine, while Scootaloo and her friends went on their own adventures somewhere.

There's still two days of my vacation left until I have to get back to training. I still haven't completely got over the fact that I'll be spending less and less time with my old friends, but I've been faring better the last two months than during the first two. It is still not easy to leave them again, but it's made easier now that I have made quite good friends in the Wonderbolts, too.

Besides, it's not like I'll be on the moon or anything, and I could visit Ponyville any evening whenever I have two or so hours of free time. It's just that the flight to Ponyville takes almost an hour on steady pace, leaving only a maximum of ten or twenty minutes to spend in Ponyville until I'd have to return already. Because of that I've decided it's better to just relax with my new Wonderbolt friends, and to gather energy for the following day's training. Though now that Rarity is about to move into her new boutique soon, I'll probably get to see her more often—I admit I like her the least out of my friends, but it will still be nice to see some of them more often than just once in a few months.

Speaking of Rarity, she invited us all over to Carousel Boutique for a Hearth's Warming dinner today. So I guess that's it for now. As much as I like writing this, I still like being with my best friends a lot more—not to mention that even thinking about the food Rarity's prepared for us is making me quite hungry already.

—Rainbow Dash

P.S. Let's just hope Sweetie Belle hasn't been helping her sister with preparing the dinner again. I've got nothing against Sweetie, but her cooking skills are just as horrible as her singing skills are heavenly...

Scootaloo gave a laugh at the last lines. "Yeah, that point about Sweetie's cooking is quite accurate," she said. "Sweetie Belle in a kitchen tended to end up with catastrophic results. I mean, I still don't know how she managed to carbonize and liquify that toast once, or how she managed to burst cereal into flames by just adding milk to it..." She chuckled at the memories of her friend's failed cooking attempts. "Though she did get a lot better later on."

Rainbow Dash chucked a bit as well. "Well, I think that was just some random afterthought I had at the time," she said. "And I know I shouldn't probably have made fun of her cooking skills, seeing I was a lousy chef myself."

"Anyway, back on topic..." Scootaloo looked back at the diary, trying to piece her hazy memories together, and trying to connect her own memories with what Rainbow Dash had written in her diary. "I don't remember much details about most of those days," she said, "but I do actually remember you giving that tour in the Wonderbolt headquarters. I don't remember any specific details though, and I'll just have to take your word here."

"Well, yeah," Rainbow said. "I'm actually surprised you remember as much as you do from back then; I doubt I would remember anything if I didn't write it down here."

"I guess I just have pretty good, yet quite selective long term memory," Scootaloo said, shrugging nonchalantly. "I've noticed that I seem to remember things from my past slightly better than most of my old friends do. It's probably just something in my genes that give me better than average memory. But I don't know anything about that for sure, that's just what I've made myself believe."

Rainbow snorted. "Well, I don't know anything about that neurophysiology, or genetics, or anything. It seems to be more like Twilight's forte; knowing her, she has likely developed several spells just to find out what goes on in our brains."

Scootaloo laughed. "Yeah, I guess so," she said. "By the way, jumping back to that Hearth's Warming eve you wrote about, it's quite funny you should mention that Spitfire figurine you gave me that day. Just last week I went through some of my old stuff, and found that exact figurine among with loads of other old Wonderbolt merchandise I've bought or you've given to me over the years."

Rainbow Dash seemed quite surprised to hear that. "Wow," she said, "I thought you'd have thrown it away or sold it ages ago."

"No I didn't," Scootaloo said, smiling. "While it's not in a showcase or anything like that, it still has some sentimental value for me. Besides, you know I have always been a fan of Wonderbolts, and I would have never thrown away anything related to them—especially so as it was a gift from you."

"Yeah, guess I should have known that," Rainbow said, chuckling. "Though I'm still quite amazed to find out there are still some concrete things left from those times." She looked around her living room, noticed her trophy table, and added nodding towards the table, "In addition to those cherished prizes I've won during my career, I mean."

"And this diary you've been keeping almost your whole life," Scootaloo pointed out, tapping a hoof on the diary they've been reading for the last two hours.

Rainbow looked back at her old diary. "Yeah, that too," she said, shrugging. "Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, there are in fact quite a lot of keepsake items from our past. For example, I've kept all of those letters I've been receiving from you and my other friends ever since we separated; there are like hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. And I'm glad I did save them—reading those bring back wonderful memories, and sometimes when I've felt down I just re-read some of them to cheer up."

"I wish I had saved my oldest letters from my friends too," Scootaloo said, "but I started stashing them just about a decade after we—Sweetie, Apple Bloom, and I—started walking down separate roads towards our destinies." She sighed and paused for a moment, but then put a smile back on her face and continued, "Nevertheless, I still have something to remember the old times with them, mostly some memorial items from our cutie mark crusading times. And I know it sounds silly, but I never dared to throw away my old, trusty scooter. Though I haven't actually used it ever since I first left Ponyville and started performing all around Equestria; flying was just so much more effective way to travel when I was not carrying two other ponies with me."

Rainbow smiled at the younger pegasus. "Hey, stashing your scooter isn't that silly. You were amazing on that thing, long before you could even fly!" She jabbed her lightly on the side of Scootaloo's ribs, and added with a wink, "I wouldn't have been surprised to see you get a scooter as your cutie mark back then."

"Well, I wasn't really that good..."

"Yes you were," Rainbow countered. "I have seen several fillies and colts—and some older ponies too—driving scooters, but nopony else I've seen was even close to being as talented as you were."

Scootaloo thought back for a moment, and she neither had really seen anypony else ever doing the kind of stunts she herself used to do with her scooter. She shrugged and said, "Okay, I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right. Whenever have I ever been wrong?" Rainbow said. She saw Scootaloo was about to answer and quickly added, "No, don't answer that; I know I've been wrong so many times I've lost count myself... though that's not important now."

She then glanced at the clock on a wall, then back down at the diary lying open on the table. They had spent over two hours already, and they had read just a few dozen pages of her quite thick diary. "Anyway, I think we should just move on. If we keep up this pace, I highly doubt we'll make it to the end of that diary today. But what you say we still try to read as much through it as we could now, and then read the rest tomorrow or later this week?" she asked Scootaloo.

"Yeah, I guess I can arrange some hours free for tomorrow also," Scootaloo said. "But we still have several hours left today. So, what's coming up next?"

"Well, it's a somewhat sadder one," Rainbow answered with a hint of sadness in her voice, remembering the contents of her diary by heart. "Written about four months after this... it's about the oldest member of Apple family at the time—about Granny Smith. About her death and funeral." Without another word she flipped open the next page.