twilightpony | More Lights Over The Crystal Empire

Spike is back with glowing tales of three days of being pampered and three nights of fire and fury over the Crystal Empire fairgrounds. At the inauguration ceremonies for the Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival, he lit the first rocket, but after that it was up to the Crystal Empire team to manage the firing and timing of their performance. The second night, it was Filly Delphia's turn and they had an orchestra playing along with the fireworks. Now that's something I wish I'd seen.

So Spike is presiding over the event, making prepared speeches and looking important. He had some coaching on how the performances are judged, but he has no say in who wins. After those first three nights of fireworks, there will be two months of weekly performances. Each week a different town or region sends their best artificers to the Crystal Empire fairgrounds to try to wow the judges. In the end, prizes shall be awarded and the winners will collaborate to produce the final fireworks display of the festival. Spike will be going back to the Crystal Empire each week to preside over each performance.

He said that there was food everywhere. The crystal ponies told him that their crops are ripening faster than they can eat or process them, but fruit bats are helping with that. The fruit bats eat only the ripe crops that would have rotted on the vines, bushes and stalks. The crystal ponies had never seen fruit bats before. Many of them have put up fruit bat feeders by their windows to get a better look.

Spike brought back a small pile of Crystal Empire Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival promotional material. I had a look at the schedule. Cloudsdale has a horse in this race and so does Ponyville. There aren't any details as to what they have planned or if any of the entrants will be accompanying their light show with music. If I go, I guess I can't use that as a deciding factor.