Twilight's Phobia, by Homage
Chapter 2: The Festival
As Twilight and Fluttershy approached the crowd, they bumped into Pinkie Pie poking her head out of a tent.
“Twilight!” the pink mare cried out. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie opened the tent flap all the way and leaped out, balloons and confetti trailing behind her. The earth pony skipped toward her friends, shouting, “Are you excited? Are you? Are you? Are you?”
Twilight Sparkle sighed, “Yes, Pinkie.” The unicorn added, “I didn't know you liked the zoo so much!”
“You bet, silly!” exclaimed the bouncing mare. “I've been here for two weeks! Except nopony else was around, so then I got bored, so my friend Keith and I started stacking rocks, and then this pair of squirrels...”
She was cut off by Twilight's hoof being shoved in her mouth. “Quiet,” the lavender unicorn said, “It looks like it's about to open.”
Ponies crowded together, surrounding the three mares. A wall-eyed pegasus crash landed into Twilight, knocking both of them to the ground. “Whoops, my bad!” apologized the gray mare, before taking off again and almost colliding with a mint-green unicorn and cream-colored earth pony.
Twilight knew she had seen the wall-eyed gray pegasus before, but could have Pinkie Pie sworn that the pegasus had a different-sounding voice back then.
Her train of thought was derailed by a gentle nudge from Fluttershy. “Twilight, it's, um, starting.”
“Where's Pinkie Pie?” asked Twilight after noting her absence. The yellow pegasus merely pointed a hoof to the sky, and Twilight looked up to see the pink pony held in the air by a huge pink balloon. The lavender unicorn smiled and shook her head, saying, “That's Pinkie Pie.” Twilight's attention quickly refocused to the small stage in the center of the crowd.
A single earth pony stood on the stage, tapping on a microphone. He was not a stallion Twilight had seen before. His coat was dark green, his tail a lighter green, and his cutie mark appeared to be three black dragon scales. His most unusual feature, however, was that he had no mane. The top of his head was just covered with the same dark green coat as the rest of his body.
The unusual-looking stallion tapped on his microphone some more, then moved his mouth to it and his voice boomed, “SSSSILENCE!!!” A hush quickly fell over the huge crowd. “That'ssss better,” continued the stallion in a low voice. “For thosssse of you who do not recognisssse me, I am the world famoussss animal tamer, Forked Tongue.” The stallion's yellow, unblinking eyes swept over the crowd. “I have run thissss traveling event for twenty yearssss. But I have never been here in Ponyville. It issss therefore my privilege to welcome everypony to the Firsssst Annual Ponyville Reptile Fesssstival!”
Twilight's heart-rate shot way up. “R-r-r-r-r-...” she stammered, drowned out by the cheers of the crowd, “r-r-r-reptiles?”
“And with no further delay,” announced Forked Tongue, “Releasssse the ssssnakes!”