//------------------------------// // Busy Busy Busy // Story: Not a Cloud In the Sky // by OutOfTheBlue //------------------------------// Cloud tapped a hoof to his forhead as he thought. He was supposed to do something, but what was it? He started when he felt a hoof on his shoulder. "Dear, you've been staring at that wall for ten minutes, is something wrong?" Mrs. Cake asked with a worried look. He looked at the clock and then back at the mare in front of him. "Sorry, I'm just trying to remember something." Mrs. Cake breathed a sigh of relief, happy that it wasn't something more serious. "Oh don't I know all about that. I can be such a scatter brain sometimes that I end up standing in a room trying to remember why I'm in it the first place!" Cloud grunted in agreement while squeezing his eyes shut, trying to think. He had been looking for... looking for... Cloud's eyes shot open as he remembered. "It had something to do with my wedding!" Mrs. Cake put her hoof to her mouth before squealing in excitement. "You're finally getting married to that cute little mare of yours? Ooooh! I'm so happy! When is it? Where is? Do you need a cake? Who's marrying you two? Oh sweet little Honey must be so excited!" Cloud kept thinking throughout the entire outburst by the older mare. She noticed and sat down across from him. "So what's the matter? Not getting cold hooves are you." Cloud shook his head. "No, it was something about the details, but what it was I can't remember!" He sighed in defeat when no memory came to the surface. Mrs. Cake gave him a small smile. "Well if you need help planning it, come see me." She started trotting away when Cloud gasped. "Planner! That's what it was! Oh Mrs. Cake you're a life saver!" She smiled, "Happy to help! Though what's this about a planner?" ---------------------------------- Pandora chewed her lip as she looked at the building in front of her. It was brightly painted with whites and purples and a sign out front that read "Carousel Boutique." She swallowed her nerves and started hyping herself up. Alright Pandora, it's just a little bit of shopping. No, I'm just looking, I won't have to talk to any ponies or even buy something, I'm just looking. She trotted resolutely to the door and thrust it open. I don't have to worry, shopkeepers don't even leave the register and I'm not going to the register, nothing can possibly go wrong... Oh no! I just jinxed it! "Welcome to Carousel Boutique! How may I assist you?" Rarity said as she approached the newly opened door. She stopped when she saw "Honey Pots" standing just inside her shop. "Honey darling! What a pleasant surprise it is to see you." She said with a pleasant smile. The faux unicorn gulped. "I-I'm looking for a w-wedding d-dress." Rarity gasped as her eyes lit up. "A WEDDING DRESS!?! Oh well you've absolutely come to the right place. Here, why don't you step into the fitting room while I fetch some dresses for you to try on." She started leading Pandora towards a door with an inch of clearance between the top and bottom of the doorframe. "Now, what is your theme, and what colors are you looking for. Do you want white or something more... vibrant." "Uh, I d-don't really know." Rarity thought for a second before levitating several different dress over. Pandora accepted the first and soon had it on. It was a white dress with small gold highlights around the hem and bodice. Pandora looked it over before saying, "It's... nice?" Rarity frowned. "Do you not like it?" Pandora's ears flattened. "N-no! Not at all, I just don't know much about dresses." Rarity shrugged before passing her another dress, and another, and another. Pandora kept trying on dress after dress. Until she sighed and slumped down. "Why is this so hard?" "Well, you have to find the dress that speaks to you. It can take awhile." Pandora sighed and glanced down at the price tag. She froze and the color drained from her face. No way, how can something I'm only going to wear once cost this much? She grew more discouraged as she saw the prices on the other dresses. They were all massively expensive! Some cost almost as much as some of the small houses she saw in town! If it's this expensive it should be sewn from solid moonlight and covered in dragon scales! How can anyone afford these?! She checked to see if the fashionista pony was looking before dashing out the door and out of the shop. "I'd rather have a house after I get married then have a fancy dress!" She said to herself as she galloped away. Meanwhile, Rarity walked over to the fitting room and looked confusedly at the mountain of dresses and distinct lack of pony. "Good heavens! I think I buried her alive! Hold on dear! I'll get you out!" She called as she started rummaging through the pile of expensive garment. The store did NOT need another repeat of Derpy's galla dress incident. The poor mare was missing for half a day and had resorted to eating her mane in order to survive. ---------------------------- *RIIIIIIIIIIING* All the foals shrieked in joy as they ran out of the school building. Finally, school was over. Aqua dashed out hot on Rumble's heels. The two stopped at a tree a short distance away from the school house. "So Aqua, do you wanna play tag, or how about catch? We could play hoofball, or there's a nice pond near Sweet Apple Acres where we can go swimming! So what do you wanna do?" Aqua jumped excitedly. "I wanna do all of it! But which should we do first?" Their deliberations were interrupted by three fillies running up to them. "Hey! Aqua! We were wondering since you don't have your cutie mark--" Sweetie began but was cut off by Scootaloo. "Wait! You asked last time. I want to ask!" "No way! Ah want ta be the one to ask!" Apple Bloom said. Aqua blinked in confusion. "Um... what?" The three turned to him and said simultaneously, "JOIN THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" They struck some sort of pose that probably was supposed to look cool, but wound up looking weird instead. "The Cutie Mark Whoosy-Whatsies?" Aqua tilted his head and flopped one ear down as he attempted to discern the possible meaning of a "Cutie Mark Crusaders." Scootaloo spoke up, "We do all sorts of cool stuff so we can get our cutie marks!" Aqua looked at his absence of cutie mark and blinked. That's what he was forgetting! He never thought of a cutie mark! "So whatdya say? Wanna be a Cutie Mark Crusader?" Apple Bloom followed up. Suddenly, a snarky voice interrupted. "More like 'Cutie Mark Cru-lamer!' Am I right Silver Spoon?" A pink filly with a white and dark pink mane wearing a small silver tiara said. The grey and silver filly behind her laughed rudely before saying. "Nice one Diamond Tiara." Aqua tilted his head. Was that supposed to be funny? "But it wasn't." He said, prompting confused looks from the two newcomers. "What wasn't?" Diamond Tiara said. "Your joke, it was poorly thought out and incredibly lacking in creativity." Both would-be bullies stared in surprise. "Who do you think you are blank flank." Diamond Tiara said with a malicious glint in her eyes. "Aqua Cloud." Aqua deadpanned. Both laughed. "That's such a stupid name! Not only do you have a dumb name but you also have no special talent too!" Aqua lowered his eyebrows as he tried to draw the similarities between his name and absent cutie mark. "I don't think my name's stupid, and what's the big deal about cutie marks anyway?" The bullies looked stunned momentarily before regaining their snide looks. He might be impervious to insults about his name, but they'd get him for sure when they insulted his lack of a cutie mark. "It means you're not good at anything. If you were you'd have yours already." Aqua glanced at both Rumble's cutie mark and then Diamond Tiara's. "What's your cutie mark supposed to be?" He said. "Well duh, it's a tiara you idiot. Even a dumb blank flank like you should be able to see that." Silver Spoon chimed in. Aqua rolled his eyes. "I can see that, but what does it mean?" Once again he'd stumped the would be bullies. "Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" Diamond Tiara asked shakily, unnerved that Aqua had yet to care about the name calling. "Well if your special talent is just wearing tiaras isn't that kind of, I dunno, a bit boring?" Diamond was at a loss for words. "B-boring!?!" "Well, yeah! I mean, Rumbles is about his flight and weather control, Miss Cheerily's is about how good she is at teaching, but if your's is just that you wear tiaras isn't that basically saying that you've already reached your best? That that's all your good at." Diamond Tiara was genuinely freaked out now, and a little bit sad. "W-whatever blank flank! I was bored of talking to you anyway! Come on Silver Spoon, let's go." She and her henchpony marched away, noses held high. Upon their departure, the Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered. "Wow! You totally beat them at their own game!" Aqua was confused. "What, what did I do?" This just prompted more cheers from both the CMC and Rumble. "You total destroyed them without even meaning to, that is so cool!" Rumble cheered. Aqua shrugged. "Whatever, now can we go play?" And with that, the group of five trotted off to go do foal things. Like play ball, and eat candy, and smash ponies mailboxes (what, was that something only Scootaloo did?)