//------------------------------// // Banquet disaster // Story: My Little Short Stories: The Princess of Friendship // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// "Spike! Aw, come on! I said I was sorry! Please, tell me more about the Princess of Friendship? Pretty please?" "Oh, very well, but you'd better listen more carefully this time! Anyway, maybe it's time I told you about a time when Princess Twilight had to make some very difficult decisions ... but no at all the kind you'd expect." "Princess Twilight, should we hang the red curtains, or the green ones?" The unicorn servant asked, levitating his clipboard as he spoke. "We don't know what would please our guests more, and the decorators wanted your opinion." "No no no, don't use either the red or the green!" Twilight replied quickly, levitating on of her books of foreign customs in front of her. "The red is a sign of war to the Yaks, and the changelings take the green as an insult! Use the blue curtains instead!" "Princess Twilight, the caterers wanted to know if you wanted to serve the guests on silver trays, or gold ones?" Another servant asked, as the first pony walked away. "They need to know, before they start prepare the main course and entree." "Use the silver trays, not the gold ones." Twilight replied hurriedly, flipping through another book. "The griffin envoys would take one look at anything golden, and clean us out!" The princess of Friendship was busily running around her castle, approving the various dishes that had been prepared, and giving the okay for the decor and furnishings. Twilight was to host the first international friendship expo, inviting all of the species she had friends with over the years. And with the other princesses all busy with other affairs, it had fallen to the youngest and most inexperienced alicorn to carry out this most important event for all of Equestria. But, just as every other time Twilight needed help, her friends were, as always, there for her. "Hey Twilight, where y'all want us ta put these dessert trays?" Applejack asked, carrying one of the heavy trays on her back. "Rarity doesn't want us ta put them in the center of the tables, so we kinda have nowhere ta put them." "Oh, put the trays at the END of each table, A.J.." Twilight replied. "That way, the servers can uncover them after the guests finish all the other courses, and they'll be in hoove's reach on every table." Everpony there was hard at work on their own tasks; Rarity was busy directing table placement, while A.J. and Pinkie Pie were helping prepare the food in the kitchen. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts were practicing for their performance after the banquet, while Fluttershy was preparing her bird chorus for their performance before the meal. Everything seemed to be going perfectly... but the neurotic princess of friendship couldn't help but worry that somethign was goign to go terribly, terribly wrong. "Fluttershy, make sure to place several newspapers under your bird choir's perch, I don't want them making a mess in here!" Twilight Spun around. "Pinkie Pie, get those hidden Party cannons out of the main hall! One of them could go off in a Yak or Dragon's face, and we could have a war on our hands!" "Twilight, darling! Do please calm down." Rarity spoke up, trying to reassure her friend. "We're all doing our best here, and having you getting so upset out certainly isn't helping matters." "That's Rarity? But, the only Rarity I know is Princess Rarity of Unicornia. She and I play together a lot. And that unicorn is saying 'darling', that's how Rainbow Dash usually acts. Why-" "Princess, you said you wouldn't interrupt..." "Oh, sorry... go ahead..." "As you wish...but do try to remain silent while we observe, if you please?" "I'm so sorry, Rarity." Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "I'm just... so worried that this whole thing could go really, really wrong. Things always, always just seem to go wrong with us!" "Now Twilight, that is so completely and entirely unfair!" Rarity protested angrily. "Just because we almost went to war with the yaks, lost the Griffin's greatest treasure down a bottomless abyss, and interfered in the Dragon's competition to pick a new leader, doesn't me screw things up very time we encounter a new culture! I mean, do you honestly think we can't go a single event without messing things up?" "Hey girls, lookie here!" Pinkie Pie cried out excitedly, as she and Applejack carefully wheeled a giant, ten-foot-tall cake into the room, with Fluttershy working to steady the top. "We worked on this double chocolate and triple fudge cake, and I think it turned out juuuust perfect!" "Yes, it smells so wonderful!" Fluttershy exclaimed, staring down at the cake with hungry eyes. "I just can't wait to enjoy this yummy cake at the end of the banquet!" "See, Twi? Everything's goin' fine!" Applejack laughed, as they wheeled the cake to the center of the room. "Ain't nothin' gonna ruin this here shindig, no way-!" "Oh no, I took that last turn too fat!" Rainbow Dash called out, diving in from the skylight above. "LOOKOUT BELOW!" The Pegasus was going so fast, she couldn't stop herself, and plowed straight into the massive cake below her. The towering baked good rumbled and collapsed in on itself, splattering cake and ponies all over the room. "AHHHHH! HELP ME!" Fluttershy cried out as she was buried beneath a tidal wave of fudge. The terrified mare was buried up to her hooves in a chocolate mess. "MMMMMPH!" "AIEEEEEEEEEE!" Pinkie Pie shrieked, crying instead of laughing, as icing splattered all over her face. "Oh, Ranbow Dash, you really take the cake!" "All my hard work!" Rarity cried out, as the decoration were covered in cake goop. "Ohhhhhhhh-!" The delicate unicorn fainted, landing on the floor with a loud THUD! "Whoah, Nelly!" Applejack gasped, staring around the room in surprise. "We ain't never gonna get this mess cleaned up in time!" "Oh yeah Rarity, nothing can go wrong.... heh heh...." Twilight squeaked, eye twitching nervously, as she looked around the disaster that was the banquet hall. Then, her mind snapping she collapsed to the floor, and began to act like Ponyville's flower pony trio when they faced a crisis. "THE HORROR! THE HORROR!" "Good Grief! She got more freaked out than my mom does during a crisis! Did everything work out with the friendship dinner thingie?" "Indeed it did, Princess Pink! Twilgiht and her friends managed to pull together, and save the whole event, as you shall soon see..."