Twilight Sparkle smiled to her friends and rolled up the parchment that she had laid out on the ground. "And that, my friends, is our plan!"

Rainbow Dash smiled confidently at Twilight while the rest of them just stared at her in utter disbelief. Applejack was the first one to speak up. "Uh, Twi... you do realize that the only thing ya put on the paper was 'sell more lemonade than they do' right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and stuffed the parchment back inside one of the boxes. "Well duh," she deadpanned, "what else are we able to do short of sabotage? I don't think advertising is allowed so we're kinda low on options."

"Maybe we could ask one of the beings running the event if we could advertise," Rarity mused. "As much as I dislike the idea that we're competing, if we have to then I would rather not be the one buying dinner for those brutes." Rarity's eyes flickered over to Emmett who was in the process of giving his mostly bemused family a pep talk. "Particularly not him," she muttered.

Applejack groaned angrily and rolled her eyes. "Ah don't see why we all hafta be competin' with them in the first place!" she grumbled. "Is this really what this whole thing is about?"

"Well no," Twilight admitted, "I'm sure that's not what the original plan for this gathering was, but they started it! That big one said that their lemonade was better!"

"And?" said Applejack. "Have you considered that he might be right? Maybe it is."

Twilight's eyes narrowed and a frown etched itself on her face. "It may be, but it's the principle of the matter that's at stake here!" Twilight sighed and began pacing. "I just don't want to go back to Celestia and say 'hey, we got in a competition with a family of vampires but we totally got our plots handed to us and dishonored Equestria for the next thousand years'. Yeah, I can see that one going over well."

Applejack groaned and put a hoof on her friend's shoulder to calm her down. "Twi, Ah think that the princess would be more disappointed that ya competed in the first place. If it was a friendly competition then Ah'd definitely be up fer that, but y'all seem so mad at each other!"

"He insulted Fluttershy's lemonade!" Twilight retorted.

Fluttershy blushed and hid her face in her mane. "For the record, I really don't--"

Fluttershy's words were cut off when another loud blast echoed throughout the field. The six looked up and saw more giant words in the sky.

THE OPENING CEREMONIES WILL COMMENCE IN FIVE MINUTES!!!

"I believe that's our cue to go," Rarity observed. The white unicorn levitated a map that had been placed on their booth over to them and scanned it. "If this map is correct then we need to make our way to the center of the field which should be..." Rarity's eyes flickered over to the left and she pointed in that direction. "That way."

"Shouldn't we wait for Spike, though?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Wasn't he coming?"

"He needed to get some stuff done at the library first," Twilight explained. "Lyra can't watch it until tomorrow so he's holding down the fort until then."

"Oh yes that's right," said Rarity as she beckoned the others to begin following the mass of beings that were going towards the center. "He also said that he would feed Opal this evening."

Twilight nodded and the group continued following the crowd. Twilight saw the vampires about ten feet in front of them but as Applejack was still slightly miffed about the whole thing, she refrained from any snarky remarks in their direction. She instead focused on all of the beings around her to see if she could do some basic observations. She had to admit, she was excited to get to interact with some of these creatures. Her eyes landed on a duo of boys walking beside her with a greenish beaver looking thing waddling between them. The first thing she notices was how odd they looked. One had an elongated head that seemed to be half of his body and the other boy's head was shaped kinda like a triangle. The boy with the triangle head noticed her looking and smiled at her. "Hello, what's your name?"

Twilight returned his smile. "I'm Twilight Sparkle and I'm one of the Equestrian ambassadors."

The boy's smile widened. "That's so cool! I've never heard of Equestria before. Is it a cool place to live?"

Twilight chuckled to herself. She didn't know why, but this boy's enthusiasm was infectious in a way that almost reminded her a little of Pinkie Pie. "It is a pretty cool place," she admitted. "I like living there."

"Well it's always nice to like your home," said the boy happily. "My brother Ferb and I are from a town called Danville. We live there with our parents and sister."

"Danville," Twilight repeated, "Sounds nice. What kind of place is it?"

"It's just a small suburb not too far from the city," the boy explained. "It's quite the exciting place to live."

Twilight grinned and nodded before glancing over at the beaver thing between the two boys. "By the way, what is that?" she asked, pointing at the animal. "I've never seen one before."

"You don't have platypuses in Equestria?" asked the boy, his eyes widening in shock. "You're missing out." The boy smiled and scratched the platypus' head. "This is our pet platypus Perry." At the sound of his name, Perry mate a growling noise that Twilight had never heard before but she found it somewhat pleasant nonetheless. "I'm Phineas, by the way."

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Phineas," said Twilight happily. "My friends and I are running some food booths back that way, you should stop by sometime and visit. I'd love to hear more about Danville sometime."

Phineas grinned and nodded and as he did, the crowd in front of him stopped. "I think we've reached the center, Ferb," Phineas observed. Ferb nodded and pulled out something that looked like a water pistol. He pointed it at the ground and pulled the trigger and instantly three large boxes appeared out of nowhere. "Now we can watch what's going on," Phineas explained.

Twilight frowned and looked in front of her. She hadn't thought about the fact that as a non-pegasus pony who was considerably shorter than a lot of the beings around, including the ones directly in front of her, she might not be able to see what was going on. She turned back to Phineas who was in the process of climbing on top of the nearest box and cleared her throat. "Um... do you think that maybe my friends and I can use that? I hadn't thought about not being able to see.

Phineas smiled warmly at Twilight. "Sure! No problem at all." Phineas looked behind Twilight where Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity were straining to see between those in front of them while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had taken to the air. "You need four, right?" Twilight nodded and Ferb handed Phineas the box maker. Twilight instructed her friends to take a few steps back and Phineas made four boxes for them. Twilight thanked him and hopped onto her box and smiled when she saw that she could see perfectly.

"Thanks!" she said. "This is much better." Twilight's eyes trailed down to the box maker. "So you guys use magic in Danville to?"

Phineas chuckled and shook his head. "No, my brother and I built this when we figured that we might not be able to see when we came here."

Twilight cocked her head. "Wow! That must have taken you a while to complete."

"All morning!" said Phineas proudly. "We're rather happy with how well it works."

"It's technology?" Twilight gave an impressed grunt. "Wow, you'll have to let me study it sometime."

"Sure. We'll do it when we come over to your stand."

Twilight's reply was cut off when the magically amplified voice of Lord Elrond rang through the crowd, silencing all conversation.

"Good morning to all of you, and welcome to the Seventieth Great Gathering!"

The gathered beings cheered, Twilight and Co. included. Lord Elrond held up a hand to silence them, and the noise died down.

"For the next two weeks, we will all join together in a celebration of our cultures. There will be food, games, and general revelry." Elrond's vague smile suddenly hardened, and he subtly glared at the crowd. "Any and all ill will shall not be tolerated, and our security detail shall not hesitate to remove any group that does not comply with the peace we have worked to create here today." Elrond's small glare faded away, to be replaced once again by his subtle smile. "Should all rules be obeyed, then we shall all have an enjoyable time. You have all been given schedules, so you know when it is your time to sell your items, and when it is your time to enjoy The Gathering. With that said..."

Elrond turned to a nearby elf and inclined his head in a nod. The elf returned the nod and walked over to a nearby chest. He opened it and pulled out a small torch, which was set alight by a small creature that Twilight assumed was a hobbit. The elf then walked over to a large pot on the stage and lifted the torch into the air.

"We of the land Middle-Earth declare that the Seventieth Great Gathering has begun!"

A half-hour later, the group found themselves back at their food stands. Twilight grinned with delight when she saw that Spike was behind the lemonade stand, setting up a few small boxes. She ran over to him and the two exchanged a hug. "I'm glad you're here, Spike!" said Twilight.

Spike grinned and let out a small chuckle. "I almost wasn't here. I got through the portal just before it closed."

"Yes, Lord Elrond did mention something about that," said Rarity. "Apparently none of us are allowed to leave until The Gathering is over."

"We're here fer two weeks," said Applejack.

Spike nodded and was about to speak again, but he was cut off when a voice came out of one of the boxes.

"Didja hear that? We're gonna be here fer two whole weeks!"

"We're sure to get our cutie marks here! There's no way that we can't!"

Twilight gasped at the voices, and slowly trotted over to the box in question, followed by Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. Slowly she opened the box in front of them revealing not food supplies, but three grinning fillies who most certainly should not have been there.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EQUESTRIAN DELEGATES ARE GO!"

Author's Notes:

Yeah, sorry it took so long to get this out. I had MAJOR writer's block on it, so I decided to focus on some other ones instead.