As Dash looked around the room, having regained both her composure from her minor little freakout and her freedom from the Princess’s side after a really stress filled walk into the ballroom, she immediately recalled that had never been the biggest fan of *being* in crowds.
They were noisy, uncomfortably difficult to maneuver, everypony seemed determined to stomp on your unsuspecting hoof or tail, and worst of all, the majority of those who made them up tended to have at least a foot over her in height, reminding her once again that she was quite short. No, never mind, not short. Aerodynamic. She was tiny by function, not by form.
But regardless, that was with normal crowds, full of normal, boring ponies. No, this was a fancy crowd, made up of the various nobles of the world, which, after a short moment, Dash decided that she liked even less.
Sure, they were quite a bit quieter, never shouting or drowning out others by volume of voice, and they seemed a bit less likely to stomp her while she stood beside the Princess who sat there being all regal and surprisingly protective, but what few points they earned for being quiet and careful, they easily made the difference up with pure snoot.
Case and point; The mare walking past her, looking like her nose was being repelled by the very earth itself and was trying to escape the mare's face as it pointed to the highest heavens. Or the stallion, who was giving the nearest waiter the stink eye because he hadn't literally teleported to him to provide drinks.
Or heck, even the rich politician trying his best to smooze up to the Princess not but ten feet away; All he could talk was taxes this, property values that, not noticing that even the Princess seemed bored and irritated at his choice of conversation.
It was snoot-opolis in here.
No, it wasn't just snooty ponies; Everything was snooty. They way the crowd moved, the way they danced, the way they attempted to gain The Princess’ favor with weird complements and conversations.
The guards were snooty.
The decorations were snooty.
The food was snooty.
Heck, even the way they ate said food was filled with some sort of self gratified grace, looking so rehearsed that Dash swore that they had to practice an hour a day on how to eat an stinkin’ cracker.
It was a snoot-singularity. The purified form of snooty. And all of them, doubting her. Counting her out. Not expecting her to be much or do anything great.
But she was better than some snooty noble. And anything they could do, Rainbow Dash, best friend of Twilight sparkle and flier extraordinaire, could definitely do better. And that included getting something to eat, because she had kinda-sorta skipped lunch out of excitement for Twilight's party and at this point, even fancy food filled with what was probably snoot-fruit or something sounded good.
So, yeah. She'd show them. She'd show them all.
And so, under the supervision of the Princess, Dash managed to flag down a server, the ever-faithful Le'Snoot, carrying a platter of various foodstuffs. And after a moment to convince him that, no, she wasn't gonna screw something up, he deigned her worthy to look upon the platter as he kindly lowered it to her eye level.
They had all sorts of things. Some sort of cheese dish, a cracker with some sort of fruit on it, some tomato slices shaped like Twilight's cutie mark, various dips and crackers covered in various pastes of various compositions, they had it all.
And, better yet, unlike most fancy food, most of it actually looked edible. Dash actually found herself staring in awe for a short moment, before Mister Le'Snoot, as per the norm, gave her a harrumph, reminding Dash that, yeah, she probably shouldn't look like she was being offered the first bite of food she would have in a week.
So, after a quick mental debate, she ended up choosing a cracker with one of those shaped tomato slices and some weird looking cheese, before trying to hold it delicately with her wingtips, trying her best to replicate what she had spotted a cloudsdalian noble doing. And, for a moment, she actually succeeded. Even Mister Le' Snoot looked impressed, and the Princess didn't look disappointed, and Dash allowed herself a moment of satisfaction, even as the head butler turned to leave, and the Princess looked elsewhere.
So, she carefully, cautiously moved the foodstuff towards her mouth, barely managing to look somewhat dignified, before, somehow, miraculously, she felt the food make contact with her mouth. She actually gave a momentary little wiggle of excitement, but, as fate would have it, that one moment of joy and pride was the one that proved to be her downfall. So, all she managed to get a single bite, barely even a nibble, before the cracker ended up falling from her wingtips, lost due to her victory wiggle, and she could only watch in terror as it fell to the floor.
It landed cheese down. And, as it sat there, Dash stared at it and contemplated what that meant for her hopes of not screwing anything up at the party, and she waited for the other metaphorical shoe to drop.
And, as she waited and stared, hoping and praying that nothing would happen, a noble walked past, the other shoe made a resounding thud.
So, with his weight bearing hoof now standing on cheese and cracker instead of floor, The noble slipped immediately, almost doing a backflip as they crashed into Le' Snoot, bowling the poor old Unicorn over and forcing the tray to fly up into the air.
Dash watched the whole thing with an almost sick fascination, watching as the tray flew higher, and as the food, which once had been held by gravity and Le' Snoot were now free to do as they pleased. Which quickly proved to be peppering the surrounding crowd with chunks of cracker, fruit, and cheese, which the nobles responded to with screams and shouts.
The tray, however, had far loftier ambitions; covering nobles in mere crumbs wasn't its style. No, it wanted to go big. So, rather than just falling to the ground like a tray should, it instead shot forth like a discus thrown by poniclues himself, sinking halfway into the large birthday cake that had sat dead center of the buffet table in the middle of the ballroom, a good seventy feet away.
Needless to say, the eight foot tall cake toppled to the side, and screams of horror rang out for mere seconds as the cake tipped dangerously towards the soon-to-be doomed ponies that dare have the audacity to sit below it's girth, before they were silenced by hundreds of pounds of frosting and pastry.
Then, for a moment, there was pandemonium. Ponies screamed, several other servers got bowled over in the panic, leading to several more salvos of flying horderves, and Dash just sat there, eye twitching as the world's sanity unzipped around her.
Then, the whole room went silent, and Dash found herself looking on in horror, as the crowd suddenly stopped, turned, and began to stare.
But not at her. No, they all stared at the Princess, who had a slice of shaped tomato stuck on her horn, skewered neatly halfway down the horn, the red juices of the tomato slowly sliding down toward the Princess's mane.
It was everything she feared, and more.
So much more.
But, after a moment, the Princess gave a flash of her horn, and the tomato slice and accompanying juice was gone. And the Princess slowly, almost torturously, turned around to face her.
They met eyes.
And then, the princess turned towards the noble who had slipped, who still laid on his back, contemplating what seemed to be his entire life's choices up until this moment. Dash could relate. She was doing the same.
"Duke Flowerstem, you seem to have caused a mess."
The noble didn't respond immediately, instead choosing to sit there, staring blankly at the ceiling, covered in cheese and his own personal shame, and the Princess sighed.
"Shining armor, aid him please."
The Stallion simply nodded, and moved towards the fallen noble. Then, the Princess herself moved to Rainbow Dash, and she felt a tugging at her dress and hair, a glowing blue plucking off bits of cracker and foodstuff that had managed to hit her as the crowd stared at the pair.
"That was unexpected, was it not?"
Dash didn't respond, still shaking slightly. This was twice as bad as the cake incident.
"A small hiccup, but ultimately a harmless one. Now, I believe my daughter has a far more interesting party for to attend, does she not? I dare say that you will be far more comfortable there. Miss Cadence, if you would?"
At that, the Pink pegasus appeared, giving Rainbow Dash a quick once over, before nodding. "The Young Princess should be prepared by now. So, let us be off."
Dash could do little more than nod her head, still trying to comprehend what had just truly happened, before watching Cadence move toward one of the many guarded doors. But, after a moment, and a gentle nudge from the High Princess, Dash began to follow Cadence through the doors.