//------------------------------// // Energy Management // Story: CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SLEEPOVER AT OCTAVIA'S! YAY! // by Wise Cracker //------------------------------// Octavia hummed to herself as the argument finally drew to a close. Scootaloo groaned. “Okay, Apple Bloom, are you okay with a musical if it’s also a western?” Apple Bloom nodded. Scootaloo cocked her head towards Sweetie Belle. “Sweetie Belle, are you okay with a western that’s also a musical?” Reluctantly, Sweetie Belle nodded. “And I’m okay with anything that has some action in it, so we’ll just watch ‘Blazin’ Saddles’.” Octavia perked up. “Are you sure, darling? Don’t you think the zebra jokes will be a little over your heads?” “I reckon I can appreciate the sight heist of the film well enough.” Apple Bloom grinned. Octavia rolled her eyes. “Zeitgeist.” “Gesundheit.” Scootaloo smiled at the mare. “All right, then, Blazin’ Saddles it shall be. And on that note, I believe our breads are done proving.” Octavia took all four bowls out and presented them in front of the girls before taking her own out and covering her plank with flour. She motioned for the girls to do the same and upended the bowl on the wood, which the girls then copied. Octavia lightly rolled out the dough over the length of the plank. “Now we’re using flour because we do not need to mix it anymore. We just roll it out like so and let it firm up, and then we cut it into smaller balls.” The grey mare looked around, noting the Cutie Mark Crusaders were following her instructions to the letter. She took a moment to enjoy the sentiment, if only because of the pride she felt at succeeding in a task where so many fellow responsible adults had seemingly failed. You just need to set things straight and pay attention to them, really. These girls aren’t so bad. “Now, I’m planning to make two kinds of bread, so I’ll need eight slices.” Octavia reached behind her to grab a sharp square made of plastic. She used it to cut eight slices off her doughy mass and shaped those into small flour-covered balls again, then passed the cutter on to Apple Bloom. “Have you thought about what sort of fillings you’d like to use?” Apple Bloom stopped herself from tapping her chin in thought, given the lumps of dough she still had on her front hooves. “I was thinkin’ something with apples.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “That’s original.” Apple Bloom glared in response. “But I guess I could try something different for a change. Pears, maybe?” Octavia nodded as Apple Bloom cut four big slices off her dough. “Just a sweet taste, darling?” Apple Bloom’s ears perked. “What do you mean?” “Well, this isn’t going to be your dessert, I went and ordered some tiramisu from Sugarcube Corner for that. The bread you’re making is going to be your meal. You could make it with just something sweet, if you like.” Apple Bloom frowned. “Umm, what are you going to do, then?” Octavia chuckled and held her head high in pride. “Me? I intend to fill my bread with some camembert and quince jelly for one, and dried tomatoes with sweet relish for the other.” Sweetie Belle gagged. “Does that really go together?” “I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see.” The mare winked. “You can do whatever you like, Apple Bloom, but if I were you I’d try to think of something savoury to compensate for the sweetness.” Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes in thought. “Soo… I should throw some herbs in it, too, then? Like thyme, maybe?” “Couldn’t hurt to try. What about you, Scootaloo? What would you like to make? I stocked up on fruit and veg, we have the usual.” The mare nodded towards Scootaloo. Scootaloo didn’t take long to find her answer. “Pineapple and soft cheese.” Octavia had to stop herself from grinning. Always those two on her hot pockets, and now she’s just going to put them in the bread. Well, she’s consistent, at least. And she doesn’t know the other reason some ponies eat pineapple, thankfully. “Four slices, then. And you, Sweetie Belle?” Sweetie Belle pouted, her voice starting to crack. “I can’t decide. I don’t know what’s good and what’s not.” Octavia was taken aback slightly. “You know what your friends are making. What goes well with that, do you suppose?” Rather than answering, Sweetie Belle groaned. “Doesn’t matter. It’ll come out tasting like charcoal, anyway, it always does.” Octavia tilted her head at the sudden drop in the mood. “Really? It can’t be that bad. Surely you know what sort of tastes go well together, at least? What do you like to eat?” Sweetie Belle stared up like Octavia had just asked which of the five suns orbiting Equestria was green. Octavia didn’t so much as flinch. “It’s a simple question, darling. If you could serve anything for your friends to enjoy, what would it be?” “Umm… I guess grapes, but that’s probably not right. Raisins, maybe? And… I think maybe some jelly would go well with that?” “Quince jelly would be fine with that, darling.” Octavia got up and briskly washed off her hooves, before scouring the pantries for all the ingredients. The girls went back to the sink for a moment to clean their hooves again, careful not to get in Octavia’s way. She took a knife to cut some jelly out its jar and placed it in the centre of one of the dough balls, before doing the same with a few slices of cheese. “Now, first you take what you need and you press it into the dough. Then you fold it up and pinch the sides like this, and you bring the edges together to form a parcel around your fillings.” Apple Bloom followed Octavia’s motions of taking slices of cheese – pear, in her case – and folding it into the dough balls, giving every one a slight sprinkling of thyme. Sweetie Belle followed suit, just dropping in raisins and pushing in jelly cubes that Octavia carved out for her. Scootaloo didn’t need any prompting, she knew exactly what she wanted her bread to taste like. Before long, they were all done. Octavia flashed them a bright smile. “And now we apply the rolling pin.” With a thick wooden cylinder between her hooves, Octavia flattened every little bread she’d made, even making it burst in places. “Now, don’t worry about any holes popping up, that’s normal. It’ll still hold just fine.” When she was done with all eight of her small loaves, she handed the rolling pin to Apple Bloom on her left. Apple Bloom was as careful with the roller as she was with the olive oil, and the end result was a decidedly thicker breed of bread than Octavia’s. Sweetie Belle was just the opposite, trying to get too much of it done and nearly flattening the things like pancakes. Scootaloo didn’t seem to care much about how her friends or Octavia had done it, simply giving hers a few quick presses before the rolling pin completed its trip around the table. “There, that’s all done. And now what do we do?” “Ooh!” Sweetie Belle jumped in her seat. “Now we bake, right?” Octavia nodded. “Now we bake. Well, technically we fry, I suppose.” She took a look at the clock on the wall, then at her schedule. “Huh, that’s odd. We managed to get ahead of schedule somehow. Well, this is embarrassing. I could start up the frying pan already, but that would be a bit early, even if we let things cool down. Tell you what, girls, you head up to Vinyl’s room and look for the DVD of Blazin’ Saddles, and since we are early you can pick a second movie, if you can stay up late enough to watch it.” She got up from the table and collected her saddlebags. “Just head up the stairs, it’s the first room on the right. The DVDs are on the large rack, they’re not up too high for you.” And the ones that would be, I hid in the vault in the attic, anyway. You’re far too young to learn what the Hevea industry has supplied Equestrian culture over the years. Scootaloo looked on as Octavia went out. “You’re getting dessert already?” Octavia nodded. “The Cakes should have it done by now, if I know their timing well enough, and I like to think I do. Won’t be long.” With that, she was off, and so were Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo grimaced as she thought. Well, this isn’t turning out too bad. Sweetie Belle’s a little sad about the baking thing, but that’s not different from me and my flying, so… I guess Octavia really does know her stuff. Scootaloo heard a noise coming from up the stairs, but she was too distracted to fully register it. Instead, she saw the comic books that had been left so carelessly on the ground before she’d put them on the couch. I’d better drop those in my room before the movie night. She slowly walked up the stairs, bags held on her back. She froze when she reached the top and let the handles of the bags slip out of her mouth. It wasn’t Sweetie Belle’s voice that worried her, or Apple Bloom’s. It wasn’t even the volume of either voice. It was the fact that the voices were coming from her left instead of her right. She slowly stepped to the edge of the doorway and looked inside. Sure enough, Apple Bloom was looking around the desk while Sweetie Belle had mounted Octavia’s chair and was balancing precariously close to the crystal ball on the desk and the mare’s cello. Scootaloo’s right eye twitched. “What are you doing?” Sweetie Belle frowned. “We’re looking for the movie. This is your aunt Vinyl’s room, isn’t it?” A tightening feeling welled up in Scootaloo’s throat. She could feel that collar, that nightmare, tightening around her neck again. The very thought made her back chill. It was just one rule. One rule. “No, it’s not! Octavia said it was the first room on the right, remember?” Apple Bloom nodded. “Right. We went up the stairs, rounded the corner, and this room is first on the right.” The blood drained from Scootaloo’s head. “That’s not what she… that’s not a wall on the right end of the stairs! You’re supposed to go up, then round the corner to the right, that’s aunt Vinyl’s room! You’re standing in Octavia’s room, didn’t you notice the cello? You are not supposed to go into Octavia’s room, ever.” Apple Bloom’s gaze narrowed. “Why are you so scared of bein’ in her room?” The memory of that collar flashed through her mind again, sending chills down her back. “It’s a long story. Just slowly move away from the desk, and walk out.” For a moment, things looked like they were going to be okay. Then Apple Bloom tripped, and that was pretty much the beginning of the end. The little Earth pony’s hoof got caught on the carpet, making her bump the cello resting against Octavia’s desk. The cello went down, but didn’t break. The carpet softened the impact. Scootaloo breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed Sweetie Belle’s chair had become unbalanced, and Sweetie Belle with it. The unicorn filly managed to land okay, but not before giving the desk a firm bump of her own. Scootaloo’s eyes fixated on that crystal ball Octavia kept on her desk, that ornate paperweight. Time slowed down as it was jolted off of its resting place. It nearly froze when it was on the edge of the desk. Catch it. Just catch it, please! She never even moved, too stunned and too conflicted about the rule to intervene. There was a crash, a snapping of strings, and next thing anypony knew the cello was broken. The crystal ball had smashed Octavia’s precious instrument. The burning in Scootaloo’s chest reminded her to breathe. “What did you do?” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom winced at the damage, before turning to their friend. Sweetie Belle was on the verge of crying. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Apple Bloom nodded. “It was an accident.” Scootaloo stayed in the doorway, paralysed. “Just… just walk out, please.” Slowly, carefully, the girls walked outside. Scootaloo reached up and closed the door, then led them past the discarded bags of graphic novels and into the room they should have gone into. Vinyl Scratch’s room was much like the mare herself was: vibrant, loud in places, but soft when it came to crashing somewhere. Upon entering, the girls were greeted by the sight of movie posters, all epic adventures and action flicks, of course, and a rack that held a collection of DVDs, CDs and the eponymous vinyl records. The DVDs were at eye height for the small fillies. Everything else was not, nor was there a steady chair they might stand on to try and reach. The closest substitute was a beanie bag, and Scootaloo knew for a fact that one would make anypony’s hooves sink into it long before they could take advantage of the added height. She sullenly browsed the collection, then picked out the Blazin’ Saddles DVD. She cocked her head towards the row of disk cases. “You can pick another one.” Apple Bloom sighed. “Scootaloo, we’re awful sorry. We didn’t know it was Octavia’s room. We’ll pay for the damage, won’t we, Sweetie Belle?” Sweetie nodded. “Yeah, whatever we have to do.” Scootaloo bit her lip. “You don’t get it. It’s not about the damage.” “We’ll tell Octavia it was our fault, you just weren’t around to stop us.” Apple Bloom put a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. Scootaloo brushed that hoof off. “You’re not listening to me. I should have been around to stop you, I should have been paying attention. You don’t know what it’s like, living with somepony who’s got no reason to put up with you, but still does.” Sweetie Belle dried off the tear she’d shed. “Octavia’s not that bad, Scootaloo. She’ll forgive you.” Scootaloo clenched her jaw. “You just don’t get it, you really don’t! This isn’t about damaging something or forgiving something, this is about trusting ponies! Octavia, aunt Vinyl, Miss Cheerilee, everypony in town knows we’re trouble, do you realise that? We… we’re gonna get punished someday, girls, and it won’t just be chores in the orchard. And I think today’s the last straw. We’re not gonna get out from under this.” Apple Bloom flinched. “What are you talking about?” Scootaloo took a deep breath to steady herself. “Don’t you think it’s weird that we get to do what we do and no one ever seems to mind? How long do you think that’s gonna last?” Sweetie Belle furrowed her brow. “What makes you think it’ll end tonight?” The pegasus filly groaned in a mix of frustration and fear. “You don’t know Octavia. When she sets a rule, she sets it with consequences. Her room is off limits, always has been. She told me that she puts up with me because I follow the rules. She has never had to punish me. She likes me, even if I mess up, because she still thinks I’m a good girl. But now? Now her rule’s been broken. And I’m never gonna be able to make that up to her. She knows how to handle us, and everypony we know is gonna hear about it.” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle let their heads hang in defeat. Scootaloo wiped away what she’d swear was a dust speck. A wet, tear-shaped dust speck that made her nose sniffle, but a dust speck nonetheless. “Now she has a reason to be mad at me. It’s over.”