Chapter 9: Food and fashion Unexpected
In Crossroads City, Applejack and Rarity are trotting toward a bakery. Applejack is paying attention to an image printed on a canvas store window awning that is a stylized apple that also looks like baked bread.
Rubbernecking at the metallic ponies, Rarity tells Applejack, “I never imagined that there is an entire nation that is populated with handsome, metallic ponies. I could live the rest of my life here!” Rarity has a dream sequence where she is the center of attention in a lavish, Busby Berkeley like musical.
Ignoring Rarity’s emotional display, Applejack walks up to the store’s front door, sniffs the air, and then says, “I do love the aroma of baking apple pies.” Then, Applejack sees inside a glass display case that these pastries are fluffy pancakes, imprinted like waffles to resemble whole apples. “Wait, those treats don’t look like pies, these look like apples. Rarity, what in tarnation are these treats?”
“Those treats, whatever they are, are too cute. And they must taste divine. I’m sure that Sweetie Belle would love these in her school lunch box.”
Walking out from the store’s kitchen is a Dream Valley, Earth pony mare with a brushed aluminum coat, with her metallic purple mane and metallic purple trail done up in buns. She is wearing a white apron and a green shirt.
Trotting up to Applejack and Rarity, the brushed aluminum mare says, “My name is Confectionery and from your dull coats you two must be those Equestrian Ponies. Welcome to my humble bakery. I was taught in school that all the ponies that left Dream Valley had froze. I never expected to see the descendant of the emigrants return to Dream Valley. So, what can I help you with? Have you come to buy some of my treats?”
Applejack said, “What are those pastries in your display case? They have an aroma of baked apples, but they don’t look like any apple pie I’ve ever seen.”
The baker pony said, “These are my apple-shaped cakes, a type of baked pastry. About fifty years ago, there was a shortage of apples, combined with a surplus of wheat. To make the most of the apples we had, my grandmother decided to make an apple shaped pastry made with sweet waffle batter, filled with sliced apples and cinnamon applesauce.”
Applejack replied, “I’ll take two, one for me and one for my friend Rarity. From the display case sign, I believe that these are two dollars each, for a total of four dollars.”
Rarity chimed in, “Applejack, I’ll pay for these treats, as I am the element of generosity.” Rarity used her magic to float four Dream Valley dollars out of her saddlebags and over to a happy Confectionery who said, “Equestrian ponies bought my pastry and that means I can advertise my pastry as world famous.”
Applejack said, “You Dream Valley ponies sure do things a bit different than in Equestria. I’m still getting used to paying for things with dollars instead of with bits. But, different does not mean better or worse, just different.” Applejack sniffs the air in the bakery. “You know, I could spend months and months here finding new ways to sell my family’s apples. I bet a cartload of my family’s apples that I could live and learn here forever! What do you think, Rarity?”
“My dear Applejack, after we eat our apple treats; let’s walk to Crossroads City’s most popular fashion boutiques. I’m sure that after more than one thousand years of isolation from Equestrian society, that Dream Valley fashion culture rivals the fashion cultures in Canterlot and Manehattan. Dream Valley fashions, the fabrics, the colors, and the patterns are … I have no words to describe them. I also could live here for years studying centuries of Dream Valley fashions.”
While Rarity spent her day shopping for dresses, Applejack spent her day shopping for practical work clothing. They each returned to the airship pulling a cartload of very different clothing. But, they didn’t mind as they saw that each other had bought sets of clothing that made them very happy.