The Ponyville Summer Barn Dance (Patreon)

While my household recovers from an evening of questionable decisions Link in my Equestria dreamscape, another pony is planning for a big night. It seemed like just yesterday that Stone Mane had arrived in Ponyville, but actually it had been many days. Now the first important social event of on the Ponyville summer calendar was now about happen that night. The Annual Summer Ponyville Barn Dance.

True to his word Big Macintosh had provided Stone Mane the book of dance steps that the stallion's hoofball coach had provided Big Mac years ago. Link With this and several more dance lessons the colt felt like he might not trip over his own hooves during the dance.

The day of the dance the Apple family wrapped up their chores by 1 in the afternoon. A quick, light lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and iced tea was consumed. Then one by one the members of the household used the one bathroom to take a bath. Then came the brushing and grooming. After that they started getting dressed. In some cases ponies, especially the mares, helped each other with their outfits. Applebloom was correct that Stone Mane was fascinated with the zipper that Rarity had installed as a last minute change to the filly's dress. Link

Around 5pm the Apple family and Stone Mane headed out for the dance. The sun was slowly dipping to the west and a pleasant breeze caused the leaves in the trees that covered parts of the road to hiss softly. The staccato tapping of woodpeckers echoed through the groves of beech, walnut, and hickory trees. It mingled with steady clop of their hooves on the macadam road. Crossing the deep red Beechmane covered bridge they turned right and headed up a road Stone Mane had never been on. As they traveled further along they were joined by more and more ponies dressed up and traveling to the dance.

The location of the Barn Dance was at the main hall and barn for the Ponyville Grange. Stone Mane had thought the barn at Sweet Apple Acres was big, but it was dwarfed by this structure. For the evening numerous colorful cloth banners and garlands of fresh flowers hung from the exterior of the building. Fresh straw had been strewn inside and outside of the banner. From within the dimly lit interior Stone Mane could see ponies hanging lanterns and making final preparations.

Already there was a dozens and dozens of ponies standing around and talking with their neighbors. Located near the main hall was a series of stone lined, permanent outdoor cooking pits. Smoke wafted from them as ponies had been tending fires there for the last few hours. Now the smells of cooking food could detected as the Apple family and Stone Mane approached.

That evening Stone Mane felt like he was introduced to hundreds of new ponies as the Apples formally introduced the colt to their more distant relatives, friends, and neighbors. Eventually most of the faces and names just blurred into a jumble in the colt's mind. However one thing the colt remembered was the dinner.

Whenever ponies gather food is always an essential part of the festivities. This night was no different. Dozens of trestle tables with bright red and white checkered tablecloths were lined in neat rows for ponies to sit at and dine. Dancing wouldn't start until 8:30 in the evening and so for the next couple of hours ponies sat at the table and ate, or wandered around grabbing random snacks and chatting with their neighbors.

Soon Stone Mane had assembled himself his first plate of food. A bowl of macaroni and cheese with crunchy, golden buttered crumbs on top was joined by a bowl of what was lovingly called by the locals as Everfree Mud. It was a type of vegetarian chili with black and red beans, onions, tomatoes, garlic, chili peppers, cumin, red wine and assorted spices. It was more spicy than hot, and many a pony finished their bowls off by putting a big dollop of sour cream in it.

His second plate was a couple of ears of corn on the cob slathered with butter and salt and black pepper sprinkled on them. A tossed salad of mixed greens, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes all tossed in a sweet and savory vinaigrette dressing and garnished with crispy, deep fried onions sprinkled on top along with candied pecans.

He also snagged a couple of what ponies were calling Barnyard Gems. Hard-boiled eggs were peeled and then they had a savory dough with lots of shredded sharp cheddar, cracked black pepper, sea salt, paprika, and minced sage carefully formed around the peeled eggs. The whole thing was then dipped in a beer batter and deep fried. Accompanying them was bunch of deep fried mushrooms with garlic aioli sauce to dip them in. The mushrooms were provided by Ponyville's mushroom experts Death Cap and her family. Link 

For dessert Stone Mane scored a couple of large, still warm fudge and peanut butter brownies with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream and with chopped peanuts on sprinkled top. Applebloom more or less had had exactly the same things on her main plates as Stone's, but for dessert she went for a heaping plate of warm peach cobbler and then smothered it with sweetened whipped cream.

To slake ponies thirst there were great casks of saisson style beer and hard cider, or giant bowls of lemonade, iced tea, switchel, or a creamy horchata-style drink dusted with nutmeg and cinnamon.

The dining continued until about 8 in the evening. Celestia's watch had almost set in the west and in the growing dark Luna's sky came to life with thousands of twinkling stars. Like brilliant gems embedded in deep blue-black velvet they sparkled above the ponies. Suddenly there was great salvo of skyrockets that tore into sky and then detonated in a rainbow of colors. Then a fiddle started playing and a voice called.

"Alright everypony! Ya know what time it is! Its dancing time! So wake up yer hooves and head fer the barn. We're gonna git this here barn dance a goin!"

Then hundreds of ponies yelled, whinnied, neighed and stomped their hooves in approval and then started trotting toward the barn entrance as dozens of lanterns inside the building suddenly burst into life. Applebloom trotted over to Stone Mane with big smile. She nuzzled him in the neck and then kissed him on the cheek. This sent a shiver of excitement through the colt. The filly stepped in front of him and then she shouted.

"It's dancing time! Come on Stone! It's time ta put all them dance lesson ta work!" With that she turned around and started trotting for the barn. Stone Mane watched Applebloom trotted off and how the pleats of her dress swayed with the movement of her hips. He swallowed and after a couple of seconds the colt cantered off after the filly.

To be continued.