open Shining Star Festival

[Glitter Glue 79]

OOC Thread

 

A light breeze freshened up the warm summer evening. The sky was clear, starts started to shine as the sun slowly set. The river sparkled as it reflected the coloful lights set up all around the site of the great Shining Star Festival. A crowd of ponies hurried in countless directions, all of them trying to finish preparations before the opening. Some were calm, only a few finishing touches were left to do. Others were panicking, they were sure the remaining half an hour was far from enough to set everything up perfectly. The fact that a crowd of visitors was forming near the entrance, impatiently waiting to finally step through the illuminated gates leading to a week of parties and shows.

Lavender Moment walked calmly among the busy ponies. She had already parked the caravan she slept in at the assigned area, and set her magician's tent up already. Since her first stage performance for the week took place only the next evening and she did not have to open her tent for another thirty minutes, she headed off to grab something to eat. She left her hat and her cat in the caravan, so she looked a lot less like the witch she claimed to be and more like just another average pony. She enjoyed the colourful mass bustling around her.

[Midnight Starfall 179]

Skyla waited near the entrance with everypony else, her wings fluttering excitedly. She was located on the edge of the group of visitors. Her eyes were drawn to the sky slowly fading into darkness. She realized she was too early, but to her, it was worth it to see the sun go down and the stars come out. Her thoughts wandered first to the sky, then the crowd, then the festival itself. She wasn't much of a party-goer, but she hoped to see some good performances and meet some new ponies. Maybe I'll meet a new friend? she thought excitedly.

[Unicorncob 5,624]

While most ponies would be excited or nervous to get started, maybe even rushing to get their booths and tents ready, Cipolla Panzanella kept a stoic and focused look on her face as she worked.

 

Being the head chef of Pomodoro's, her father's illustrious Bitalian restaurant in Manehattan, the unicorn was more than used to the rush of setting up on time. To the point where she had arrived hours before many other members of the event to get her tent prepared.

She had received the invitation to provide catering for the Shining Star Festival months in advance, and she saw no trouble in stepping out of the kitchen for an evening. She was sure the restaurant would be at least mostly intact by the time she got back.

 

She used her magic to levitate a tray of small, saucer-sized pizzas out from the miniature oven she had bought specially for the event, and set them out on the table keeping her apart from the inevitable rush of patrons.

 

Cipolla was a proud pony, and liked to cook her food her way, but she supposed the small request to downsize her meal sizes to keep them more portable for the attendees to carry around. It made sense after all.

 

Miniature pizzas, cups of pasta and spaghetti of different kinds, small lasagnas, and shrunken calzones covered the table, which sported a heating lamp beneath it to keep her meals piping hot during the evening. She had a small freezer behind her for gelato and other cool treats.

 

A small smirk emerged on the mare's face as she took a look at her work. She took the cloth off her shoulder and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

 

She was ready.

[Your Nightly Spectre 1,061]

Nightlight yawned lightly, his helmet off as he wore a very light set of silver guards armor. It had been a long day of preparing the festival, and as a lieutenant he was essentially one of the ponies most responsible for the ponies safety around the show. This however only doubled on him as he spent all day helping plan and personally planning the security of the event instead of getting rest. 

 

He was a simple stallion, young and fresh as he looked around while walking through the little crowd of busy performers doing their things. Nodding at some of the other guards over around in the far sides of the designated area where the event was happening he smiled, feeling like all the planning payed off and his troops were in position. 

 

Though, one thing remained on his mind the most... the fact that this was his first festival, and the fact that despite he had so much guard duty to that he will hopefully still be having time to enjoy it aswell, this being somewhat a dream to attend as a filly. A minor dream, or need, however you'd call it, but nontheless a dream that was going to be fulfilled. 

 

Still, he felt as the stress kept eating him up, as much as this was his first time at the event it was also his first time being partly in charge of keeping the peace around. And the crowd of show-hungry ponies as peaceful as it looked kept raising stressful suspissions... until he accidentally literraly bumped into his senior officer, straightening out suddenly and offering a salute. 

 

"S-sorry Sir, do excuse my... " But before he had much of a chance to reply the older officer shushed him up, interrupting his muttering. 

 

"Loosen up a bit Nightlight, this is only a social event. You may be second in command as my wing officer in keeping everyone here safe but you can trust me that nothing will happen, and if it will then we'll deal with it without anyone getting hurt... so, do enjoy your night a bit more but do what you do best and keep an eye out. Score yourself a mare or something you sad stallion or I don't know... Enjoy yourself, that is an order. " 

 

A bit taken back by the senior officers affection he saluted again, slowly backing away. 

 

"T-thank you Sir! I'll try not to disappoint. " He awkwardly replied back, rubbing the back of his mane a bit, before saluting once more. "Anything else, Sir?" 

 

The senior officer kept up his smile and gave a chuckle. "No, that is quite much it. Dismissed. " 

 

"Alright, Sir. " Saluting once more and almost having to force his hoof down he turned away with a nod of goodbye. 

 

Wow am I a kiss-ass. Enjoy yourself... I guess that is comforting. -" 

 

@@Glitter Glue,

 

For a second there he had to suddenly take a full stop as he almost crashed into some mare due to not paying attention, quickly noticing her wizardy-ish looking robes, offering a quick. "Sorry." And just continuing on his way to do whatever the heck he was gonna do... meaning no idea himself what... 

Edited July 21, 2016 by The Nightly Spectre

[AzureNightLight 122]

“This train has arrived at Manehattan. Currently, in Manehattan is The Shining Star Festival, an annual event where performers gather together en masse for the sole purpose of entertaining! We wish you a safe and pleasant journey and holiday and thank you for taking the Friendship Express.”

 

Azure looked up. That was her stop. She picked up her newspaper and stowed it back into her saddlebags and exited the train. The sun was just above the horizon. She would have approximately one hour to get herself to the location of the festival, two if she was lucky. The Shining Star Festival. She had longed to go but for the last three years, by pure chance or insane luck, some problem or event had happened at the Observatory and Azure had to go and deal with that. Not this year, though. Not this year.

/*-----*/

She arrived at the main entrance just before the sun made its departure. There was a crowd of visited milling around the main gate, their mumbling causing a cacophony of sounds. She sat down on a bench, placed conveniently near the gates and levitated out a book. Azure was prepared to wait.

Edited July 22, 2016 by AzureNightLight

[Glitter Glue 79]

Lavender stopped in her tracks to stare at the guard. She found it kind of rude to think that a plain 'sorry' was enough when you almost bump into somepony, especially if that somepony is a young lady like herself. Maybe she was just a little grumpy after waking up early, or after working so much on her tent. Or maybe she just got up on the wrong side of her bed in the morning. Either way, she called out to the stallion:

"Hey, that was not a proper apology!" she was not yelling, but her voice was loud and cold. She regretted it immediately: this wasn't really helping her image, she had to stay calm and level headed, even if a little cold at all times. So without waiting for the guard's reaction, she seemingly calmly continued her way to the food stand, slightly slowed down by the crowd.

She hadn't realized how little time was left until the opening of the event, and how much bigger the crowd would grow then. She wasn't sure if she would be able to get back to her tent after. She had no time to waste on her dumb bad mood.

[Your Nightly Spectre 1,061]

@@Glitter Glue,

 

Nightlight stopped immediately upon hearing the mares voices, turning to face her in a light frustrated disbelief at her rudeness especially because there actually was no crash and no harm was done to anybody. Not to mention he was a damn Lieutenant, in charge of the festivals safety, her tone towards him was just almost as direspectable as running into her and not paying any attention...

 

Realizing what he did wrong he sighed as the mare just took off, a bit confused what to do now and preferring to not get even more on her cranky side. 

 

"Sorry for that aswell?" He kind of said to himself when he realized something strange.

 

IS that an earth pony dressed as a wizard... without a hat? He then shrugged off the idea. Meh, probably some sort of illusionist. I am at an talent performance event after all.

 

Taking a note of her looks and dresscode Nightlight turned back away towards the crowd of people, sighing as he made himself a mental note to see the mares performance wherever it was if he had the chance due to sheer interest and possibly also dropping in an apology as she looked busy now. 

 

But, as mentioned he turned back to the crowd, checking the time by looking up at the sky, knowing soon enough was the time to open us as he walked over to the main entrance where most of the guards were, getting a couple of salutes and returning them before standing over to the side and awaiting the que to start letting people in. 

Edited July 22, 2016 by The Nightly Spectre

[Unicorncob 5,624]

With her preparations for the evening finished and her miniature dishes on display, Cipolla took a seat on a foldout chair and used her magic to levitate the latest issue of Mares Mixed Martial Arts Monthly off a box to flip it open to the article she had been reading before.

 

She gave one of her forelegs a self-conscious flex. She definitely hadn't gone soft, though a workout tomorrow morning wouldn't hurt.

 

@@Glitter Glue

 

Out the corner of her eye, she spotted a mare walking nearby her tent. She hadn't been out of her tent much since she got there, with all her preparing, but from an occasional glance outside while waiting for something to cook or set, she remembered seeing that mare setting up her own tent.

 

A magician, she had guessed.

[redaxted 1,765]

@@Unicorncob, @, @@Glitter Glue, @@AzureNightLight,  

Cyan Flare galloped as fast she could, calling to Golden Spell in a panic. "Golden!" she shouted. Her brother instantly looked over his shoulder to face her, his gaze suddenly clouded with worry. "Stripes - she's gone!"

"What?" Golden was evidently shocked. Cyan skidded to a halt beside him, her heart racing so fast that each beat was hardly discernible from the last. "How? Where?"

"I don't know! I would've found her by now if I had clue," Cyan replied, irritability tainting her voice.

"Well, we shouldn't worry. Enough time remains to find that dastardly lemur," Golden said, obviously trying too hard to remain calm.

Cyan nodded, and tried to regulate her breathing.

'It's fine...' she thought to herself. 'We'll find her. Now, where to look...'

Edited July 22, 2016 by Wolves

[Glitter Glue 79]

As Lavender walked farther and farther, she started to feel worried about how she just talked to the guard. It was guard after all, and judging by his armour, he didn't seem to be some low position one at that... She would have to apologize if she came across him again. Or maybe not, that might make her look a like she lowers herself to the level of some guard. She had to keep an aura of superiority. Since she couldn't tell which choice was better, she decided to just think about when a chance to apologize comes up. Until then, she had something else to worry about: finding something to eat.

 

@@Unicorncob

Luckily, she soon smelled something delicious in the air, and her eyes soon fell on what she was looking for: food. Lots of food. Her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since that morning. No wonder she was so cranky all day. She practically galloped to the tent selling downsized Italian food.

"Excuse me," she gave a small smile before continuing "May I order five of those pizzas?"

She looked at the foods on display again, then added:

"Oh, and some lasagna too, please!"

[Unicorncob 5,624]

@@Wolves

 

Cipolla glanced up from her magazine and stared at the shelter of her tent. She could swear she saw something fluffy and striped zipping along the edge of the roof.

 

Was that a lemur or somethin'?

 

@@Glitter Glue

 

She was about to back to reading, until that mare she spotted came practically racing up to her to make an order. She flopped her magazine onto a box and hopped onto her hooves.

"Comin' up," she said, in a tough-sounding voice and an accent that would make one assume she was a local. Perhaps from Bucklyn, or the Broncos?

 

Pretty big order for one mare, but who'm I t'judge?

 

She used her magic to grab some small cardboard trays, and loaded the orders onto each one before hovering them in front of her customer.

"Dat'll be thirteen bits," she said.

[redaxted 1,765]

@@Unicorncob

Cyan roamed the festival ground of Canterlot, poking her head nervously into tent after tent and keeping a close eye out for the missing lemur. Eventually, she came to a tent from which the aroma of a wonderful variety of foods could be scented. "Of course!" she muttered to herself, thinking out loud. "That greedy lemur..." She now hoped that she would eventually find Stripes here. Entering the tent looking around at the many foods on offer, she felt a pang of hunger in her stomach. 'Later...' she thought. 'No wonder the hungry lemur might have come here.'

She saw a pony, presumably a fellow performer, by the looks of her garments, ordering food herself. Despite her hurry, Cyan waited patiently but anxiously, meekly bouncing from hoof to hoof.

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

@@Glitter Glue, 

 

Copper was relaxing at his trailer at the Festival.  He sighed happily, and he was glad to perform for the ponies here.  He wanted to sing for ponies to show how good he was, and he was good.  He wanted to have fun as well.

 

He was near readiness of his performance now.  Soon he would get ready for his portion of fun and excitement.

[Glitter Glue 79]

@@Unicorncob, @@Wolves

Lavender frantically searched through the countless pockets of her robe. Her hunger, and the seemingly impatient pony who just arrived to the tent urged her to hurry up, but her bits were hard to find among all he magician's supplies she brought with her. When she was about to give up, she felt something cool, flat and round in the depths of a hidden pocket. And there next to it was another, and another. She had found what she was looking for!

She pulled a pile of bits out of her pocket with a triumphant smile, and turned to the chef.

"Here you go, exactly thirteen bits!" she smiled, as she quickly counted the money in her hoof.

[Unicorncob 5,624]

@@Glitter Glue @@Wolves

 

Cipolla tapped her hoof on the warm display table, her patience waning a bit as she awaited her payment. That mare behind her looked especially eager to buy something, she noticed.

 

Though, her tapping stopped as she saw the thirteen bits finally emerge, and she took them in her magic to set them in a little lockbox behind her.

"Thanks," she said, turning her head back to face the mare, "enjoy. And good luck with your magic stuff."

 

Time to serve the next customer. "What can I get ya?"

[Glitter Glue 79]

@@Unicorncob, @@Wolves, @@DwhitetheGamer, @, @@AzureNightLight, @@Midnight Starfall

As Lavender stepped aside with her freshly bought meal, a mare's voice spoke through the speakers set up all over the area of the festival and next to the gate:

"Dear visitors and performers! The gates to a week of parties and fun is about to be opened. The grand opening shall start in fifteen minutes at the main stage, so please do hurry over there as soon as you get in. We wish you an exciting and memorable Shining Star Festival experience!"

Lavender tried hard to hide the childish grin slowly spreading on her face, but she failed as excitement took over. It was finally starting!

[Your Nightly Spectre 1,061]

 

 

"Dear visitors and performers! The gates to a week of parties and fun is about to be opened. The grand opening shall start in fifteen minutes at the main stage, so please do hurry over there as soon as you get in. We wish you an exciting and memorable Shining Star Festival experience!"

 

Upon hearing the big news and that being the cue for him he waited a bit of a moment before looking around at his guards and then facing the ones over by the gate and giving them a firm unsure nod. He was ready for this! And with the attraction-hungry line of people he wouldn't dare wait as the guards moved away to the sides and the gates were open to let everyone flood in.

 

Still, as much as the gate simply was open he had to order several ponies to control the crowd so that ponies don't trample each wanting to get to the attractions so eventually the stream of ponies slowly started pouring.

 

And as everpony poured in Nightlight took a stand somewhere to the side of it all like most of the other guards and carefully inspected every detail of everypony walking in to catch anything unusual. But eventually after several minutes he gave up... They were all just normal ponies, some odder then the others but non-the-less he felt no real threat. Not to mention Equestria wasn't at war or anything so his worries really were unexplainable.

 

Finding his attention here a bit unnecessary as everything was running along smoothly and the other spare guards already left to do their patrols, Nightlight took off back into the forming crowd of the festival, wandering over and towards the stage.

[AzureNightLight 122]

“Dear visitors and performers! The gates to a week of parties and fun is about to be opened. The grand opening shall start in fifteen minutes at the main stage, so please do hurry over there as soon as you get in. We wish you an exciting and memorable Shining Star Festival experience!”

 

Azure looked up again. This was it. The Shining Star Festival was finally starting! She could barely contain her excitement as she got up and practically pranced over to the gate where most of the others were.

 

@

A white unicorn with a brown and blue mane stepped up. A member of the Guard, Azure thought to herself. Well, it is a big event. Somepony has to keep everything under control. He turned and nodded to the rest of the guards. They moved to the side and began unlocking the gates. Everypony started pouring in, like water rushing through after its dam had broken. Azure was quick enough to keep just ahead of the crowd and avoided getting trampled on at the same time. After she managed to get away from the initial rush of ponies. She checked her saddlebags just in case she had lost something and made her way to the stages.

[Midnight Starfall 179]

"Dear visitors and performers! The gates to a week of parties and fun is about to be opened. The grand opening shall start in fifteen minutes at the main stage, so please do hurry over there as soon as you get in. We wish you an exciting and memorable Shining Star Festival experience!"

 

Skyla heard the announcement and turned her attention towards the gates. Her wings were fluttering so fast that she hovered a few centimeters off the ground. A huge smile was plastered onto her face. This is it! My first Shining Star Festival!

 

She watched as a member of the Guard went and opened the gates, allowing everypony passage to the Festival. Skyla hung back a bit to avoid being trampled. After waiting a minute or so, she made her way into the festival, heading for the main stage.

[redaxted 1,765]

@@Unicorncob

Cyan Flare hurriedly shuffled towards the counter, almost tripping and falling. "Um..." she began, awkward as ever. "Well, currently, I'm not looking to... ah, buy anything - I will! Everything looks delicious. But, presently, I'm on the search for... an escaped animal of mine. She's a lemur - we call her Stripes - and she's not in her enclosure. She greatly enjoys good food, so I assumed she may be... here...?"

Cyan flinched as she heard the sudden announcement, booming through the speakers dotted all over the festival grounds. Panic flooded through her, as she was aware that the event would now be starting. There wasn't much time left!

 

Meanwhile, Golden Spell paced back and forth after feeding and caring for all of the animals Cyan would be performing with. He looked out of the tent to see a mass of eager ponies pour through the now open gates and head towards the main stage. He gulped and shivered slightly, nervous.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Wolves

[Unicorncob 5,624]

Cyan Flare hurriedly shuffled towards the counter, almost tripping and falling. "Um..." she began, awkward as ever. "Well, currently, I'm not looking to... ah, buy anything - I will! Everything looks delicious. But, presently, I'm on the search for... an escaped animal of mine. She's a lemur - we call her stripes - and she's not in her enclosure. She greatly enjoys good food, so I assumed she may be... here...?"

 

Cipolla blinked, showing the slightest surprise to the mare. So she owned that lemur thing she saw.

 

"Oh yeah, I think I saw somethin' furry and striped up on the roof there," she explained, pointing upward, "just a minute ago, I think?"

 

 

"Dear visitors and performers! The gates to a week of parties and fun is about to be opened. The grand opening shall start in fifteen minutes at the main stage, so please do hurry over there as soon as you get in. We wish you an exciting and memorable Shining Star Festival experience!"

 

Her ears flicked as she overheard the announcement, and became filled with the slightest conflict.

 

She felt obligated to go and join the opening ceremony, but she didn't feel right leaving her post. Especially with a lemur around. What if the little furball ate her displays while she was gone?

 

Though, with her apparent owner around, things should be okay, she figured.

 

With that rationalisation, she levitated a folded card saying 'Closed for the moment - Be back whenever' onto the table before walking around the tent to attend the ceremony.

 

Let's see who's stupid enough to try stealin' from me.

[redaxted 1,765]

@@Unicorncob, @@Glitter Glue Cyan Flare followed Cipolla's pointing hoof and swore she saw a small shadow flitting about on the roof, too. She sighed with relief, almost. "Phew..." she said. "I'll go and get her..." She watched as the other mare placed a note onto the table saying that she would be gone for a while, and assumed that the caterer would be going to watch the performances. Of her own accord, Cyan left the tent and flew slowly up to level her gaze with the tent roof. Surely enough, there was Stripes, moping about. With one swift movement, Cyan had her firmly in her tight but gentle grip, and was flying down to land on the ground. "Stripes!" she scolded the lemur. "You can't do that! You were going to steal some food, weren't you?" Stripes lowered her tiny head, looking sheepish like she could understand every word her owner uttered. "No treats for you today," the pegasus continued. "Unless you perform well in the show. But you're obviously hungry. Regular food it is." Trotting back to her tent, Stripes sitting meekly between her wings on her back, Cyan spotted her brother ushering the other animals into smaller cages so that they could be wheeled over to the performance area.

 

"I do hope that the animals are not confined to these awful cages for too long," Golden Spell remarked as his sister approached. He smiled when he spotted Stripes accompanying her, then continued, "but I suppose we cannot let them roam about."

The two worked together to quickly get all of the fellow performers over to the backstage preparation area, awaiting eagerly the beginning of the show so that Cyan could show off what these amazing animals could do, whilst having great fun at the same time. Cyan kept a closer eye on the mischievous lemur.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Wolves

[Glitter Glue 79]

Even though Lavender did not perform in the opening ceremony, she set off towards the main stage as well. While she was quite disappointed she wasn't asked to showcase her skills during the first performance of the week, she had to admit she was more than happy she got to watch it with the visitors and the performers similar to herself. "Maybe next time..." she thought. "By then they'll know how great a magician I am!" She smiled at the thought of standing up high on the main stage, where plain magicians like herself rarely got to set a hoof on. It was a nice thing to imagine, but for now, she was fine with just watching.

The crowd was larger than ever before, and soon, Lavender could no longer see anypony she met this day. It was an amazing sight, all kinds of ponies walking or flying in the same direction, all eager to watch the grand opening. Lavender could not deny it, she felt great in the crowd, maybe she was even happy that she did not have to sit in the backstage are for the whole length of the show.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Glitter Glue

[Your Nightly Spectre 1,061]

Still constantly keeping his ever watchful eyes on the crowd Nightlight wandered around the far edges of it, feeling a very pleasant seaside breeze from Manehattans shore as it brushed through his mane, cooling off his mind a bit as he closed his eyes in comfort, trying to get a second of rest which wasn't enough but non-the-less much needed to his tired eyes. 

 

Glad he wasn't wearing his helmet now as he'd be overheating in the damn thing he kept wandering, trying to get the best position to see the stage but being a bit late to the party as his view wasn't really the best. 

 

A smirk then appeared on his face as he realized a little thing... he was a lieutenant, second in charge around here and equal in command only to some other lieutenants who still had a bit less meaning during the festival due to him being the adjutant of the captain in charge of protecting this place. He could have gotten first row seats of honor if he wanted to, slip up backstage or something. 

 

Then he spotted something less wrong in his head which was the path created for performers and technicians and personel helping out with the event which was blocked off from the main crowd, and with that he slowly walked over around to the free area where some other guards had the similar ideas and some other staff, walking a bit closer and leaning over against the barrier as he awaited the show to begin, glancing ever too often at the crowd. 

[Unicorncob 5,624]

Cipolla stood herself near the edge of the gathering crowd, watching as the area around the main stage flooded with ponies of all shapes and sizes.

 

She never had a problem with crowds - she spent a good portion of her life as a line cook in a kitchen full of other ponies, so she was used to being confined.

 

She just wanted to keep her stall in her sights. She was proud of her work, which meant she was rather protective of it.

 

And she didn't need her... connections to show what she would do to the pony who made the stupid decision to try robbing her.