Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced uneasily at each other as they watched Twilight pace angrily around an open space behind their booths. She had not stopped walking around like this since the Cullens had told her that they were also running a lemonade stand and it was beginning to worry them.

Applejack cleared her throat to get her friend's attention. "So... remind me one more time why it's such a big deal that those vampires are runnin' a lemonade stand too?"

Twilight glowered at the apple farmer but kept right on pacing. "It's the principle of the matter!" she growled.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head confusedly. "Huh?"

"We're the ones supposed to be running a lemonade stand, not them!" Twilight cried. "It just defeats the purpose of running one if we can't be the only ones who have one!" She screeched to a halt and looked wildly at her friends. "What happens if they sell more lemonade than we do? If they sell more lemonade than we do then that will reflect poorly on Equestria! It will mean that out lemonade isn't good enough for all of these people!"

Applejack shifted uncomfortably and Rainbow Dash uneasily scratched the back of her neck. "I don't think that's how all of this works, Twi," said Applejack. "Remember when ya said that the princess told ya that this was all casual?"

"That was before vampires decided their lemonade was better than Fluttershy's!" Twilight screeched.

"I don't think they're thinking the same thing that you are, Twilight," scoffed Rainbow Dash. She turned her head and looked at the Cullen's booth. "I think they're just wanting to have fun and experience the cultures."

"Kinda like we're supposed ta be doin'," Applejack deadpanned.

Twilight let out a frustrated sigh and shifted her own gaze to the vampire's stand. "It's not that they think that they're better, it's more that I can't go back to Celestia and say 'hey princess, the event went well but our lemonade stand was a complete failure because some vampires made better lemonade than we did!" Twilight resumed her pacing. "I'm not going to let the princess down like that!"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged a look that clearly said 'well, we can't talk her out of this state' and walked back to their respective stands. Twilight saw her friends go and sighed to herself. Maybe she was being a little paranoid. Maybe the vampires weren't so bad after all and this wouldn't have to be a competition. Still, she couldn't help but shake the feeling...

She shook her head and walked back up to the lemonade stand where Fluttershy was mixing up the first pitcher. She allowed herself a small smile as the butter yellow pegasus hummed to herself as she poured just the right amount of sugar into the mixture. Few ponies knew that about Fluttershy, that she knew exactly how much sugar belonged in a certain drink or dish. Twilight glanced over at Pinkie Pie and silently mused that the same could not quite be said for her.

Fluttershy put the wooden spoon she was using to stir the lemonade down and picked up a small paper cup with her hoof and poured some of the lemonade inside of it. She turned to Twilight and offered her the cup with a large smile. "Here you go, Twilight. I wanted to make sure that this was the best that it could be before we started selling it."

"Of course, Fluttershy," said Twilight with a smile as she took the cup in her magical aura, "I'm sure that it's wonderful."

Twilight raised the cup to her lips and downed the whole thing in two gulps. She placed the cup back down on the both and smacked her lips and gave Fluttershy another grin. "Perfect," she said happily. "Absolutely perfect."

"If that's the case, do you mind if we try some?"

Twilight turned to the source of the voice and had to hold back a grimace as she saw Bella, Edward, and a new vampire that was built like Big Macintosh walk up to their stand. All three of them had those awkward half-smiles on their faces. "If we're going to be selling lemonade too then we've got to know how good the competition's is," said Bella.

Twilight's right eye and left ear twitched simultaneously and Fluttershy gave the faintest traces of a frown. "Competition?" she asked.

Edward chuckled lightly. "Just a joke."

A look of realization washed over Fluttershy's face and she managed a smile. "Oh I get it," she chuckled. "Of course you three can have some of our lemonade."

The pegasus took three more small paper cups off of the stack she had in the box behind her and quickly filled them to the brim with her lemonade. Edward thanked her for the three of them and each of the vampires raised the cups to their lips and drank the lemonade. When they had finished, the bigger vampire collected the paper cups from his fellows and turned to a nearby trash can and tossed the cups inside. He pumped his fist into the air and muttered 'two points' to himself.

"So how was it?" asked Fluttershy. "Did you like it?"

Edward smiled at the butter pegasus. "I liked it and I think my wife did too." Edward turned to the large vampire. "Emmett? You?"

Emmett shrugged. "It was okay I guess," he said casually. "Ours is better."

Edward elbowed Emmett as Twilight's eyes widened in shock at the vampire's bluntness before quickly narrowing in anger. She put her front hooves on the booth to balance herself as she stood on her hind legs." Excuse me?" she growled.

Emmett raised an eyebrow. "Uh, sorry if I was being tactless," he said.

"You'd better be, bucko." She leaned in closer but still found herself majorly dwarfed by the vampires. "Listen here, our lemonade is the best in all of Equestria so you'd better watch yourself."

Emmett snorted and gave Twilight an amused smile. "Oh really? You think your lemonade is better than ours?" Twilight put as much venom as she could into the replying nod which only made Emmett snort again. "Well then maybe you'd like to put that to the test?"

Edward shifted uncomfortably and motioned for Bella to go back to the stand. "Emmett, this isn't the type of place for competitions."

Twilight was about to respond but she saw Rainbow Dash walk up to the stand with a confused look on her face. "What's going on?" she asked. "I saw you guys trying the lemonade; is it any good?"

"Not really," said Emmett with a nasty grin. "Like I said, ours is better."

"Oh that does it, mister, you're going down!" Twilight snarled.

Edward cleared his throat and moved in front of Emmett. "Look, we don't need to be competitive about this. I'm sorry for my brother's lack of tact, but I'd like it if we could move on and just enjoy ourselves. Your lemonade was perfectly fine."

Emmett laughed. "Yeah and that's the problem. It’s just fine. Ours is better than fine, ya know?"

While Twilight had been irate with the vampires before now, that particular snark crossed the line for Rainbow Dash who took to the air and was soon snout-to-nose with Emmett. "You think so, huh?" she growled. "You willing to put that to the test?"

Emmett took a step backwards, clearly unaccustomed to having a flying pony in his face but he soon regained his swagger and returned Rainbow's anger with a smirk. "I believe we were discussing terms of a bet with your purple friend before you showed up. I was saying that we can sell more because ours is better."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "Oh yeah? We'll sell twice as much lemonade as you!"

"Emmett this is not the way to do something like this!" Edward chastised. "We're here to have fun, not compete."

Emmett and Rainbow Dash both turned their heads to Edward at the same time. "Competing is fun!" they both cried simultaneously. They turned their heads back to glare at each other.

"So what are the terms?" Emmett roared. "When you lose what do you have to do for us?"

To the surprise of everybody present, it was Fluttershy's voice that rang through the heated conversation to voice her suggestion. "Um... the losing team has to buy the other team dinner."

Emmett, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all gave Fluttershy a bemused look while Edward managed a larger smile than he had previously displayed. "Yes, yes that sounds fair, if we have to compete, the prize is dinner at the booth of the other's choice."

Emmett opened his mouth to protest but Edward cut him off with a glare. "Or I get Carlisle to make sure we don't compete at all!" he snapped.

Emmett grumbled something under his breath but he sighed and extended a hand to Rainbow Dash. "Fine, the losing team buys dinner."

Rainbow Dash sighed and shook Emmett's hand. "Dinner it is, then," she mumbled.

The two exchanged a curt nod before the two groups went back to their respective booths. Rainbow Dash beckoned Twilight and Fluttershy towards the empty space behind the booths as she flew past them. She landed on the grass and turned to face her fellow ponies. Twilight looked quite satisfied if her smile was any indication while Fluttershy was nervously pawing at the ground.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and looked over at the vampire's lemonade stand. "Girls, this means war."

Author's Notes:

On the next Arrested Development... er, I mean, Mane Six Lemonade.

Spike makes his appearance just in time for the opening ceremonies. The Lemonade War begins just in time for the final three Equestrian delegates to make their appearance.