The first thing Rainbow Zap did was head to one of the ponies in charge. After asking several guards to point her in the right direction, she finally found Sir Blue Blood, the knight who had apparently been put in charge of organizing the Gala. Rainbow found it a tad odd that a knight had been put in charge of party planning but after knowing Dawn for a year, it was a little hard to faze the rainbow-maned mare.
She approached him just as he had finished talking to a couple of unicorns. The two unicorns seemed familiar; one was a gray stallion with black hair and the other a yellow mare with a mane of purple and white. Rainbow couldn't quite place her. It was probably one of Fleur's clientele. "Sir Blue Blood." Rainbow did a small curtesy as she addressed the stallion she came to see. "I was told you were the stallion to talk to concerning the logistics of this grand party." Rainbow knew she was probably laying it on a little thick, but if there was one thing she knew about the upper crust of society, it was that they responded well to 7-layer-compliment-dip.
"Ah, you must be Ms. Rainbow Dash." The stallion nodded his head carefully. "I was informed of your coming."
"It's uh, Rainbow Zap, actually." Rainbow bit her lip. She couldn't wait until her birthday. It was only a few months away, but then she would finally be able to change her legal name. She always hated the constant reminder of her birth parents.
The knight raised an eyebrow but continued the conversation as if it was purely his mistake. "Of course, Ms. Zap." He said it slowly and carefully, as if the stress he placed on her second name would help him remember it. "A stand has already been set up for you in the gardens. If you would follow me this way." He swept his foreleg to the left, the opposite direction from which she had come, and then began heading that way. Rainbow quickly followed him, thanking Celestia that she had managed to convince Fleur that marble high heels were not the kind of shoes that would traverse well in the garden. Those shoes also would not help her keep up with Sir. Blue Blood. He wasn't particularly tall for a stallion, and he certainly wasn't as buff as Big Mac, but he still walked with incredible speed. Rainbow practically had to trot to keep up with him.
Soon enough they were outside and in a wide open space. There was a hedge about 40 hooves away, and a white fence from the castle walls to the hedge on either side, both about 25 hooves away. The floor was grass with a few flowers popping up here and there. There was a table on the edge of the clearing, up against the hedge wall, with different kinds of food on it. To her right, there was a nicely decorated stall ready to be stalked.
"Now you'll want to hang up your permit right here." Blue Blood tapped the edge of the stand, the wall that held up the shelves on either side. "It's not necessary, since we have already seen and reviewed it, but the ponies of Canterlot aren't quick to buy something that seems...." He trailed off, his hoof rotating in circles as he searched for the right word. For the first time since Rainbow had met the earth pony, his regal air seemed to falter. "...That isn't their style." Rainbow knew what that meant. She was all too familiar with rejection, especially for class reasons. AJ and she faced it all the time. Being from an earth pony family in Ponyville didn't speak well to getting into flight school. But AJ pushed past those barriers. Rainbow herself had had a tough time getting this permit for the gala because she was some low life earth pony from the backwoods of Ponyville. But she had persevered through that. These jet sets weren't going to buy to be interested in Ponyville cuisine unless somebody of their standing, or higher, like Princess Celestia, told them it was good. That was the reason she had been advised to bring her permit. That and to ward off unruly guards that liked to prey on young mares to get what they wanted. Ugh. Rainbow tried not to shudder at the memory. That turquoise stallion was a part of her past, not her present. Blue Blood's next words helped to shake the mare from her thoughts. He lowered his voice a bit, as if what he was going to tell her was privileged information.
"It'll help if you make sure Celestia's signature and hoof print are showing. The nobles flock to her like pigeons to bird seed."
Rainbow couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Thanks, I'll make sure it shows that Celestia herself approved me, not just some knight in shining armor." She paused. "No offense."
The stallion smiled warmly. "None taken. Now if you'll excuse me, Ms. Zap, I must attend to some other matters at the Gala." He gave a slight bow, or maybe it was more of a nod of his head, before departing.
Rainbow got right to work setting up the stand. She pulled pies, fritters, muffins, bottles of cider, and (of course) apples out of her saddle bags. Fleur had, ever so generously, enchanted them so that they could hold a lot more than it looked like they could. The contents also didn't get smushed, stayed warm (or cold in the cider's case), and the cider didn't spill! It was perfect, and Rainbow was already coming up with a million different ideas on how to pay her back for this little life hack.
Next, she pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it several times, until it was about half her height. She taped it to the bottom of the stand. "Royal Gala Apple Treats" It read up top. Rainbow bit her lip. She was selling these treats for pretty cheap, considering what the Canterlot types were used to. But she knew she couldn't raise her prices any more than she already had. She considered marking them 'on sale' when someone approached her from behind.
"Oooh. Those look mighty tasty." Rainbow turned around to see a young pegasus stallion wearing a uniform. One that reminded Rainbow of the Shadowbolt uniform the pegasi they had run into in the Everfree last year. Except instead of black and white with tints of purple, this outfit was blue with yellow lightning streaks. It really matched the stallion blue eyes and windswept mane. The blue mare squeezed her eyes and shook her head quickly. She did not have a thing for pegasi. She trotted behind the stall and gestured to all of the delicacies she had for sale.
"What can I get for ya? We have apples, fritters, muffins, pie, and cider." She tried not to blush as the stallion looked over her creations with puppy dog eyes.
"I'll take that big pie!" The stallion exclaimed. "What kind is it?"
"Apple cinnamon."
"Perfect."
"That'll be five bits."
They traded currency and pie as Rainbow grinned. It wasn't even her first minute here at the gala and she had already sold her first delicacy. Maybe she didn't need anything to be 'on sale' to sell to these Canterlot folk. The stallion was pretty cute nice.
Rainbow Zap had no idea how long it had been. The moon looked like it was in the same place it had been when she had arrived, and there were no clocks anywhere to track the time. She had given into temptation about fifteen minutes ago and slumped on the surface of the cart. It seemed not one pony cared whether the Princess liked her food or not. It was still common carnival fair as one pony had said in passing.
"Of course. Who could possibly forget the Berry family? They have distributors all over Equestria. You see, apples are going to be a lot bigger than that soon enough..."
Blue ears perked at the voice. It was Apple Jet! Her sister! She lifted her face off of the cart so that she could see it with her own ruby eyes. A plan clicked into place in her head. Apple Jet could watch her stand while she went to find Twilight, the purple pegasus was amazing at advertising. Since she had come to town, cider sales had been up 70%! It was perfect. Rainbow waved her sister over and explained the plan.
"I promise it won't be long. Twilight's been fangirling over the Magnabolts since she heard about the tickets. She'll be watching their display, which shouldn't be hard to miss."
"Alright. I wasn't having much luck socializing anyhow." Apple Jet conceded. "All these Canterlot ponies seem to want to talk about concerning farming or food production is the dang Berry family!"
Apple Jet took the position behind the stand as Rainbow took off. She thought she saw her sister hang up something white, but she didn't have time to look, she was on a mission.
Rainbow trotted into the ballroom at a similar pace as before. She looked around, trying to find out where the Magnabolts were. There was some red velvet roping off to the side, a VIP lounge. Maybe they were over there? She approached a security guard and was about to ask him if this was where the Magnabolts were when a pony with a similar outfit as her first buyer came past. The pegasus took a double take and then smiled widely. "Windy! Glad you could make it after all! I'm so sorry to hear about Bow. It's so sweet of you to dye your hair like his." The pegasus, a yellow mare with orange eyes and fiery hair put her hoof around Rainbow and led her inside the roping. "Come on, Wind Rider wants to meet you!" The earth pony was so surprised by the pegasus that she didn't manage to say anything before she was dragged into the crowd.
The VIP lounge was huge! It looked like somepony had placed Fleur's enchantment spell on the area because there was no way in Equestria that this large room could have actually fit in the corner of the ballroom. Rainbow had no idea who this Windy was that the pegasus--she had learned her name was Spitfire--thought she was, nor did she have any idea who this apparently famous Wind Rider was either. But she patiently let introductions be made and made polite conversation until she could excuse herself. She backed away and tried to return the way she came. After what felt like 10 minutes of walking, she approached the edge of the room, only to be confronted with a large marble wall. Rainbow could have sworn this was the way she had come, but there certainly hadn't been any marble walls nearby. The next logical step was to turn around and walk directly perpendicular to the wall. For once, Rainbow was slightly jealous of her sister's wings. She contemplated how much easier it would have been to simply take flight and fly over the other ponies and out of the VIP area. How much easier it would be to find Twilight with a bird's eye view. Rainbow Zap wasn't one to be jealous of race, she was stubborn like that, but as she weaved in and out of ponies, trying not to be caught in conversation and but also to keep her path straight as an arrow, she found herself being just a tad remorse that she had not been born with wings.
She only hoped Apple Jet wasn't dying of boredom.