When the Circus Came to Town

We walked through the party, Lily telling me a little about each pony there.

"... And that's Skullcrusher, he's a real softie, and that's Featherheart, she's one of the best flyers of the Euphories, and that's..."

I lost interest after a while, I would meet them all later, but right now I wanted to have fun at the party. No longer afraid of the partygoers, I walked away from Lily to the snack stand after telling her I would find her later. A buffet of delicious snacks and ammenities for any and every party was laid out. There were sandwiches with flowers, a carrot stew, vegetable chips, apple cider, and a plethora of party platters with particularly appealing pastries all sprawled out on the tables, but one thing caught my eye. A cake the size of my old bed towered over the other food, covered with pink frosting, darker pink borders and blue and yellow balloons decorating the sides. Some of it was already taken, so I assumed it would be okay to take a bit for myself. I picked up the knife and sliced a little chunk off, putting it on a plate that I grabbed with my mouth. I turned and nearly dropped it before I had a single taste. I almost bumped into a peach-furred mare with a blonde mane and copper eyes, about my age, maybe a little younger. She had a red diamond painted over her right eye, and she was wearing a black and red tight suit, like the Jesters of Baltimare did, and a jester's hat colored the same with little bells at the end of the points.

"Hello there, my name's Dawn." She said.
"Hi, I'm Crimson, are you one of the Jesters?"

I just blurted the question out, the answer was obvious, she was wearing an acrobatics suit similar to most of the Jesters.
"No, I'm the musician."

Well I guess the answer wasn't so obvious.
"So you're the one that played that melody when you first came to town?"
"Yup, it was pretty good, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it sounded great and made me feel... good, not to sound awkward or strange."
"My organ does that to some ponies, the things I play have physical effects on them, much like a..." She paused to think, putting a hoof on her chin.
"Like having too much cider?" I suggested.
"Yeah, like that, kinda. Say, are you new here? I haven't seen you before."
"I guess I am new, I just went with Lily to-"

Dawn raised a hoof to my face.
"Wait, did you just say you went with LILY?" She lowered her hoof as she said it.
"Yeah, why?"
"My full name is Dawn Blossom. She's my mother." She pointed at her chest with her hoof.

I was surprised, to put it lightly, and I opened my eyes wide to express it.
"Don't act so surprised. There aren't that many ponies here, you know. You were bound to bump into me sooner or later."

I gradually returned my facial expression to normal.
"I guess you're right."
"So what were you saying before I-"

"Interrupted me?" I said playfully. She grinned a little, obviously getting my joke. "Well I was saying that I went with Lily... or your mother... or whatever you want me to call her."
"Call her whichever you want, I've heard both before."
"Okay, I went with Lily to tell Greytail that I wanted to join."
"That's fantastic! I love it when more join the family. We should get you an outfit! You should dress up for the initiation, you know."

I couldn't resist, in the middle of her sentence I took a bite of the cake. It tasted pretty good.
"This cake is pretty good, you want some?"
"No thanks, I don't like the taste of pony."

I immediately spit what I didn't already swallow onto the ground in a pinkish spray of half-chewed cake.
"What?!"

I looked at her, back to the cake, and then back at her with a look of disgust and shock on my face. She was on the ground, laughing hysterically, hooves pressed against her chest as she gasped for air.
"Is there really pony in this cake!?"

She tried to stop laughing, but she couldn't. I didn't doubt that there was pony in the cake after all I saw that day. So I removed the rest of the taste from my mouth, set the plate down on a table to my right and sat there, waiting for her to slow her laughing down enough for her to talk again. It was probably a good fourty-five seconds before she had the capability to talk again.

"No there's not pony in the cake!" A little pfftchtpffch and she broke out in laughter again. I chuckled a little. It was a good prank.

So I waited for her to calm down enough to continue the conversation, all the while I listened to her laugh, it was as pleasant as her mother's. I also picked up the cake and considered eating again, but soon put it down once more at the thought of it being made of ponies.

"Have you finished laughing yet?"
"Yeah, I think so. Phew, that was a good one, you should've seen the look on your face. Priceless." She wiped a tear from her eye with a hoof. "So are we gonna get you some proper clothes or what?"
"Sure, lead the way."

Sure enough, she pranced off toward one of the carraiges on the outskirts of the party with me in tow.