The Festival
The nice, homely houses of Ponyville were a backdrop the festivities and the celebrations going on. At the open spaces, there were colorful tents and stalls, ponies walking around and seeing and attending those tents and stalls. There were wagons, too, travelling on the roads and past the tents and the stalls. Party decorations were all over—balloons and streamers were here and there. And, there was a banner at the entrance of it all, a banner that declared:
"The Travelling Spoon Festival! Open to Everypony!"
Several ponies entered the festival grounds, looking at all what the festival had to offer: There was a candy stall selling candies in the shape of spoons, there was an art shop displaying paintings of spoons, and there was a place where ponies could exchange their spoons, among other places.
Among the several ponies entering the festival grounds was Plaid Stripes.
She was a teenage filly, orange with purple and pink mane and tail, her mane styled with a green ponytail. She had thick purple and pink eyebrows and wore a red scarf over her blue plaid shirt. Her cutie mark was a plaid heart. She was also wearing spoon earrings.
She looked around in awe and wonder, witnessing the excitement and the joy of ponies involving spoons as they bought spoons and sold spoons. Some ponies were already holding out their spoons, showing their spoons to other ponies.
Then, in front of her, was the candy stall. Out of that stall wafted a sweet, candied aroma.
Behind the stall was a blue unicorn with blue mane and tail. He wore a hat and an apron with red and white stripes. Paper bags of candy were lifted up into the air as they glowed with his magic, and they travelled to the happy customers in front. The ponies grabbed it, picked up a few spoon candies, and munched on them as they walked away.
Plaid Stripes walked forward.
"How may I help you?" the unicorn asked.
Plaid Stripes pointed at one of the candies. "May I have some of those rock spoon candies?"
"Coming right up!"
And the unicorn levitated a few pieces of rock spoon candies and brought them into one of the paper bags. Then, he levitated the paper bag and brought it to her.
"That would be two bits!"
And she brought out two bits from her bag and gave it to the unicorn.
He levitated the bits to his stall.
"Thank you and enjoy the Travelling Spoon Festival!" the unicorn happily said, maintaining a cheery tone, even waving a hoof at her.
Then, Plaid Stripes walked away.
She picked a rock spoon candy from the paper bag. She held the candy on her hoof and brought her hoof closer to her face. She inspected the candy.
The candy looked very much like a small spoon, although it was somewhat jagged. The candy was blue.
She took a bite of it.
She smiled. "It's sweet!" She looked at the candy stall. Then, she frowned. "But, what if I don't have enough bits for the rest of the festival?"
She walked on.
Plaid Stripes passed by more ponies, all of them rather OK that they were participating in the Travelling Spoon Festival. There was a pony carrying a painting of a spoon.
Another pony passed by while he pulled a wagon containing an array of spoons.
Then, she went to another stall.
"Here!" the pony behind the stall hollered. "Here, we have historical brochures about the spoon!" He held out a few brochures with his hoof. "Amaze yourself with the wonderful history of the spoon! You will be enriched with more knowledge about this great utensil, and you will certainly appreciate the spoon more after you've read the brochure! And, it's free, everypony!"
Plaid Stripes grabbed a brochure from one of the brochure containers at the stall.
The pegasus behind the stall looked at her. "Well, looks like somepony is willing to learn the history of the spoon! You could read it right now, or you could read it at home! Anyway, you've got a brochure!"
"Thanks," Plaid Stripes said, smiling.
Then, she walked off.
She placed the brochure in her bag.
Inside the small makeshift building, there were rows and rows of shelves with many, many spoons of all kinds. There were simple, normal spoons and then there were elegant, fancy spoons. There were metal spoons, plastic spoons, and wooden spoons. There were also different sizes of spoons, from the soup spoon to the teaspoon to the dessert spoon.
Ponies walked around, stopping to check the spoons and to hold them. Plaid Stripes, also, was stopping to check the spoons and to hold them. She smiled throughout, happily spinning a few spoons around while managing to not let them drop to the floor. Then, she brought the spoons back to their respective places on the shelves.
"How long are you going to keep yourself there?" the cashier pony asked behind the counter.
Plaid Stripes looked at her, surprised. She smiled nervously. "Uh, some more time?" She grinned.
"Just don't annoy anypony else," the cashier pony replied. She sighed.
Then, Plaid Stripes grabbed a few spoons and spun them.
Plaid Stripes went on walking, passing by more tents, more shops, more stalls, all advertising and offering something related to spoons.
"Oh, Plaid Stripes?" a voice asked.
Plaid Stripes looked beside her.
There was Twilight Sparkle.
"Hi!" Plaid Stripes greeted shyly. She backed away a little. "Uh, I didn't know you were going to the Travelling Spoon Festival! I didn't know a Princess could have time for this!"
Twilight chuckled. "And, you're still wearing those spoon earrings from last time I saw you! Back in Manehattan, right?"
She smiled, closing her eyes. She placed a hoof near one of her spoon earrings. "Spoon clothes!"
Twilight smiled nervously. "OK. At least you're proud of your ideas. I'm just here to add some spoons to my spoon collection."
Plaid Stripes opened her eyes and gasped. "You have a spoon collection, Princess?!"
"I have a whole collection of utensils," Twilight said. "I like organizing them. And, Rarity said that I have to keep such a collection because I'm a Princess. I don't think it's necessary, but Rarity would get very angry if I didn't go and start the collection."
Plaid Stripes looked here and there, trembling a little. "Oh, I forgot that my boss lives here."
"You mean Rarity? I'm sure she was glad with what you've done at the opening! You kept the entire experience fancy for all of those customers!"
Plaid Stripes smiled.
"And, didn't I already tell you that back in Manehattan, too?"
"Oh, right." She chuckled nervously.
"That's OK. Now, I have to get to the spoon stores!" Then, she trotted off.
Plaid Stripes looked around. The ponies walking by her were holding spoons, carrying bags of spoons, showing their spoons to other ponies, and just talking amiably to each other, with an occasional good-hearted laugh.
She had a nervous face. She saw more ponies, many of them holding spoons of different kinds.
"Spoon earrings?!" a voice exclaimed.
A few ponies looked her way.
She smiled anxiously. She waved at them nervously.
A mare walked up to her. Her nice mane befitted her walk. "What is this?" She inspected the spoon earrings.
"It's my idea, ma'am," Plaid Stripes answered. She was shivering a little.
The mare smiled. "This is probably your best idea ever for this event! I'm going to go to find a stall where I can buy spoon earrings!" Then, she trotted off.
Plaid Stripes smiled.
She walked on.
Pinkie Pie appeared, walking out of one of the stalls, smiling and humming. She looked at Plaid Stripes.
Plaid Stripes halted.
"Hi!" Pinkie Pie yelled. She ran towards her. "Wow! You actually arrived here in Ponyville!" She looked at the spoon earrings. "And, you managed to make yourself look right swell for the Travelling Spoon Festival!"
Plaid Stripes backed away a little, shyly smiling at her.
"Come on, don't be shy!" Pinkie said. "We've got a lot of spoon-related activities that I don't want you to miss! First, we're going to buy lots of spoon candies, and then we're going to look at the art section and buy some of the paintings and art items there, and then we're going to the area where ponies show their spoons to each other and then we can see who has more spoons, and then we can go to the more detailed history section of the festival because those brochures are always going to shorten everything, and then we can go to the spoon stores—and I mean all of them!—and we can choose which spoons we wanna buy, and then we're going to be singing songs about spoons all day long all the way until it's nighttime—well, not literally singing all day long, because what if you don't have a singing voice that can endure hours and hours of singing without a break? And that would be really bad, and then we might have to let you rest, but other ponies might say, 'No! We must hear more spoon songs!' Of course, I'm going to jump to your defense because you're a pony who just wants to enjoy the day at the Travelling Spoon Festival, and I'm going to make sure that you'll, uh, enjoy all the activities because if you miss any of those activities, then you might never see them again! What if the Travelling Spoon Festival is never coming back to Ponyville again? What if this is their last session? Then, all the spoon enthusiasts are going to cry and they're going to be all sad and lonely for a while, but, of course, somepony is going to start a new Travelling Spoon Festival and then everypony is going to be happy again!"
Plaid Stripes just looked at her, astounded.
"Did you get all of that, Plaid Stripes?" Pinkie asked. She eyed the paper bag. "Ooh! Do you have some spoon candies left for me?!"
"Uh, there are a few—"
And Pinkie jumped and grabbed the paper bag from Plaid Stripes and brought out the remaining spoon candies and gobbled them up.
Plaid Stripes just looked at her eating the candies.
Pinkie looked back. "What? I have enough bits to buy you tons more of those candies!"
At a long wooden table, a few ponies stood behind the table and all the food on display. There were apple pies, apple fritters, cakes, pies, cakepies, muffins, carrots, and more. Utensils were laid out by the ponies there. Among the utensils, there were spoons.
Pinkie Pie hopped her way there while Plaid Stripes followed.
"So, are you ready to eat?!" Pinkie yelled, facing her.
"Uh, yeah." She smiled.
The two ponies took their seats.
"First," Pinkie began, "you have the serving spoon." She took a large spoon and used it to grab some apple fritters off the serving plates and on to her plate. She glanced at Plaid Stripes who was observing her. "Then, there's the spoon that you use to eat food with!" She grabbed a smaller spoon and placed it on her plate. "Then, finally, you use the spoon to eat!" She grabbed the smaller spoon again, took a slice of an apple fritter, and ate it with the spoon. She chewed loudly. She gulped down the bite. "Delicious!" She looked at Plaid Stripes. "Now, you try!"
Plaid Stripes looked at Pinkie.
"Come on! Don't be shy about the spoon!"
Plaid Stripes slowly grabbed the serving spoon.
She eyed the big plate with the apple fritters.
There was that culinary fragrance, that mixture of all the foods on the table combined and fused to create a masterful way to attract ponies to the table. The apple fritters were steaming.
Plaid Stripes took the serving spoon, held out her own plate, and placed a few apple fritters on her plate.
"That's how you do it!" Pinkie encouraged, shouting.
Then, Plaid Stripes looked at the smaller spoon in front of her.
She placed down the plate and grabbed the smaller spoon.
Then, she took a slice of one of the apple fritters and ate it with the spoon.
"That's good, Plaid Stripes!" Pinkie yelled. "Of course, you live in Manehattan! I knew you already know about eating with spoons, but it's still fun to teach ponies about how to eat with spoons!" She giggled. "Too bad there's no Fork Festival! Somepony should start a Fork Festival soon."
"Here we are!" Pinkie declared, pointing a hoof towards the stall in front of her and Plaid Stripes. "The art section of the festival!"
In front of them was a collection of arts of various types. There were the paintings and then there were the sculptures. The paintings themselves varied in many styles from the traditional to the oil paintings. There were the more concrete ones, and then there were the more abstract ones. There were paintings about spoons along with forks, knives, and plates on the table. There were paintings about the different kinds of spoons. The sculptures were many and they were varied, too. Some were quite simple, enough to show that the sculpture was depicting a spoon. Others were ornate, showing much detail.
"It even has price tags!" Pinkie yelled, holding up a price tag for one of the paintings. She read the price tag. "It's forty bits! You can have this painting for forty bits! That's a bargain!"
Plaid Stripes walked up to the painting.
The painting showed a table with a few plates and their respective utensils. Among the utensils were spoons.
"It looks...great!"
"I agree!" Pinkie yelled. "Too bad that it's too big for my room. And, you should probably order the painting and wait for it get to your house since you live all the way in Manehattan and you cannot just carry that all the way there!"
Plaid Stripes nodded. "That's a good point, Pinkie." She placed a hoof on her chin. "How often do you go to this festival?"
"Whenever it gets here!" Pinkie answered happily. "It's sort of like a party, anyway, so I just enjoy! Also, it's an opportunity to have all of my friends here in one place!"
Plaid Stripes smiled.
Plaid Stripes stood in front of another stall.
The stall was stately, regal in design. On display were spoon earrings.
She smiled. She grinned. She gasped.
"Looks like somepony is quite interested in a spoon earring," the mare behind the counter said, looking at Plaid Stripes. "And, you already have spoon earrings!"
Plaid Stripes nodded rapidly.
"I guess you'd like to have more spoon earrings, right?"
Plaid Stripes nodded rapidly again.
"Here's an assortment of spoon earrings for you to behold!" She gestured a hoof towards the grand display of spoon earrings all resting on their containers made out of posh material. "We have spoon earrings that would fit anypony's style, including yours!"
"My dad is going to be proud that I have more spoon earrings to show him!" Plaid Stripes exclaimed.
"Now, don't get too loud," the mare behind the counter said. "We don't want to irritate or bother anypony else at the festival."
Plaid Stripes looked and considered each spoon earring. There were the small ones, and then there were the big ones. There were many different and unique designs, yet all had a spoon.
"I'm sure that you are going to be happy with whatever spoon earring you purchase," the mare said. "Just take your time. Don't rush."
Plaid Stripes, still smiling, walked a little away from the stall. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I don't know what to choose!"
The mare smiled. "Don't worry about that little problem! If you cannot choose, then I will be the one to choose what suits you best!"
Plaid Stripes was giddy, her smile rather jittery. She walked on.
She passed by a few ponies and a few foals. Among them were two fillies, one pink and one gray.
The pink one looked at her. "Hey! Nice spoon earrings!"
Plaid Stripes stopped. "Why, thank you, uh, what's your name?"
"My name is DIamond Tiara and this is my friend, Silver Spoon!" She gestured a hoof at the gray filly.
Plaid Stripes gasped. "Are you a part of the family that makes spoons or something?"
Now, there were songs in the air. At the open space, a band of ponies were sitting on chairs while playing their instruments. Some of them had banjos, others had simple drums. Most of them sang, singing about spoons, their history, and their uses. Their humble music brought in a large crowd of ponies sitting on the ground and on many of the chairs there as they sat, enjoying the music and the performance. Others took a glance at the band, smiled, and walked on.
Among the ponies part of the band, there was Pinkie Pie, playing one of the banjos. She was smiling and so was the rest of the band's members.
There was Twilight Sparkle who was part of the audience. Beside her were her friends—there was Applejack, there was Fluttershy, there was Rainbow Dash, and there was Rarity.
Plaid Stripes looked at Twilight and her friends. Then, she stepped back, looking worried. She looked left and right. She looked at Rarity. "Oh, no!" she whispered. "My boss is here! I don't know how she's going to react! Maybe she might be mad at me, although I don't know a good reason why!" Then, she closed her eyes. She opened her eyes. "OK, maybe Rarity isn't a bad boss. I know she isn's bad!" She smiled. "Looks like I just need to rest from all the work." She grinned. "At least I still have my new spoon earrings!" Then, she frowned. "OK, maybe that's why I thought Rarity might be mad at me." Then, she closed her eys and then opened her eyes. "Well, Rarity took it alright. She still doesn't like my glow-in-the-dark teeth idea, but at least she responded well to spoon clothes!"
She still backed away a little, taking a few steps.
The harmony of the voices produced a lovely sound, accompanied by the simple instruments. The result was a homely concert with some ponies even dancing to the beat. Spoons were held, spoons were displayed, and spoons were sung about.
Plaid Stripes looked at a dancing couple near her. The stallion and the mare danced gracefully, performing each step with a calculated charm that wasn't too fancy—rather, it was a plain, straightforward dance that showed their liking to the music.
And, there were other couples dancing like them, although they danced slightly differently from each other.
The happy, homely music went on, bringing more ponies in the audience to dance. Even the ponies who managed to resist the urge to completely dance still tapped a hoof or two to the beat.
Plaid Stripes looked around.
There were those two fillies again—Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The two smiled at the band and at the dancing couples. Along with them were more fillies and colts.
Plaid Stripes looked at Twilight and her friends.
They were tapping their hooves to the music, including Rarity.
Plaid Stripes smiled. Then, she walked away from the band and their audience.
She dropped the basket of spoons on to the counter.
The cashier pony gave her a stern look. "You could've broken those spoons, you know."
"Oh, sorry." Plaid Stripes smiled nervously. "It's for business purposes."
The cashier pony took the basket. "What, are you working for a restaurant or something?" She looked at the spoons.
"No. I work for a fashion store, a boutique."
The mare looked at Plaid's face, having on her a face of confusion and surprise. "A boutique needs spoons? This many spoons?"
"For spoon clothes!" She answered proudly. "Soon, we are going to be selling a line of spoon clothes for the ponies of Manehattan to wear! They're not just going to look cool, they're going to eat cool, too!"
"I should've figured that out." The mare looked at the pony in front of her. "You're wearing spoon earrings and all."
"It's going to benefit everypony!" she declared, almost shouting. "It's useful fashion!"
The mare chuckled. "Like, how should I know?"
"You should know! You're the one selling all these great spoons!"
"Don't overestimate me, kid." She looked at Plaid Stripes. "That would be forty bits."
Plaid Stripes walked outside the makeshift spoon store. The loud yet beautiful music was still playing. Even right there, some of the ponies walking by glanced at the band. Some other ponies there danced a little before they went back to walking. Many of them were holding spoons and talking to each other about them.
She travelled back to the band.
The crowd was even bigger and livelier. The music stayed the same with its style, but more and more ponies were dancing as Pinkie Pie and the rest of the band sang more about spoons.
Plaid Stripes walked closer and closer to the band, passing by numerous dancers.
There was a gasp.
"Plaid Stripes?! Is that you?!"
Plaid Stripes gasped. "Oh, no!"
She looked at the pony who gasped.
That pony was Rarity.
"Uh, Rarity!" Plaid Stripes said, walking slowly away from the approaching unicorn. "I can explain why I'm here! I'm not trying to escape work or anything!"
"Don't be so worried!" Rarity said, still approaching her. Then, she was right in front of her. "I'm just surprised that you're here!" She looked at the spoon earrings. "Well, maybe it's not that much of a surprise, but it's still a surprise to me. So, what are you doing here, anyway? It's not easy to travel from Manehattan to Ponyville. Wait, did you ask permission from your father?"
Plaid Stripes nodded.
"So, you really do like spoons?"
She nodded. "Yes, Rarity! And, I've enjoyed the festival! I hope I can get to the next Spoon Festival, wherever it's going to be next time!"
"Why, yes," Rarity replied. She glanced at her friends. She looked back at Plaid Stripes. "It's quite OK to take a break from work. I also take a break from my work, so you should, too."
Plaid Stripes smiled.
"Besides, I haven't spent much time with my assistants away from work." Rarity smiled. "I might as well start here!"
Plaid Stripes grinned.
"Although," Rarity said, placing a hoof on her chin, "I'm not sure where to start exactly."
"I already bought some spoons for the spoon clothes line!"
Rarity's smile went away. "Uh, what did you just buy?"
"I bought some spoons for the spoon clothes line. For 'Rarity For You'!"
"You mean, my 'Rarity For You'?"
Plaid Stripes nodded.
"Uh, Rarity," Twilight said from her place. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, Twilight!" Rarity replied, turning towards her friends who were looking at her with concern. "I'm completely, absolutely alright! I am, in no way, worried or upset about anything whatsoever!" She smiled at her friends nervously.
Her friends smiled. "That's good," Fluttershy said.
It was now nighttime. The sky was dark blue, the stars dotted the sky, and the moon shone, giving moonlight to the town of Ponyville.
The festival was still going on, now with colorful, decorative lights brightening up the mood of the event.
The band was still playing their songs about spoons. Ponies were still dancing, now dancing under the colorful lights.
Plaid Stripes was smiling. She looked at the band and the many ponies dancing, all enjoying the time together.
She could hear the chatter of ponies with topics all about spoons. There was one conversation about the history of the spoons, specifically how spoons obtained Equestria-wide usage. There was a talk about spoons and their prices. There was a discussion about how spoons are going to have an effect on fashion.
"I cannot wait to tell my dad about all of this!" Plaid Stripes whispered. "He's going to be excited to hear my stories about the Spoon Festival, and I have no doubt about that!"