//------------------------------//
// Day 5: Cuddly Cloudwatching 
// Story: NaPoWriMo 2014: A Compilation of Pony Tales 
// by Fluttercheer 
//------------------------------//

	After another failed attempt to get their cutie marks, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were on the way to their clubhouse. Their heads hanging low out of disappointment, they trotted all very slowly. Not only that they didn't get their cutie marks again, they also had to hope that Applejack wouldn't find out that it was them who caused the explosion of the barn. They sighed in unison.
“And another fail”, Apple Bloom complained. “That makes how many now?”
“I don't know”, Sweetie Belle answered, “I stopped counting at #3165.”
“This would not have happened if Apple Bloom would have read the book that Twilight gave her properly”, Scootaloo joined in on the complaining.
“Ah did read it properly! But ahm not perfect yet, ya know? Ah still need practice in mixing potions!”
Sweetie Belle sighed. “Stop fighting, girls! We're there!”
As they reached the clubhouse, they fled to after the barn blew up, they didn't go inside and let themselves slump into the gras behind it instead.
“What are we going to do now?”, Scootaloo asked. “If Applejack finds out that we let the barn explode, we can try to get our cutie marks in doing her chores on the farm. For one year, probably.”
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Who says she will find out? It's not the first time this happened. Let's just relax and see what happens.”
“Relaxing, how?”, Apple Bloom asked.
“I don't know. Maybe we could try cloudwatching?”
“That's a good idea!”, Scootaloo bursted out. “Rainbow Dash says that always relaxes her after a long working day for the weather team or after her training for the Wonderbolts!”
Scootaloo pointed with her hoof into the air. “I'll be the first one! This cloud over there looks like Apple Bloom's failed experiment!”
Apple Bloom reached over to her and hit her against the shoulder. They looked at each other and then chuckled.
“Okay, this time for real! Umm.....” Scootaloo let her eyes searching across the sky over Sweet Apple Acres. “Oh, that's a good one!”, she exclaimed suddenly, pointing up with her hoof again. “Can you see that cloud on the left? It looks like Chrysalis!”
“Wow, really!”, Apple Bloom shouted out impressed.
“I don't like it to remember her. Being captured by her was not a good experience. She almost killed us, after all.” Sweetie Belle fearfully inched closer to Apple Bloom.
“Yeah. Luckily she can't do that again. I'm sure she starved in this room Twilight locked her in”, Scootaloo tried to calm her down. “What do you see in the clouds, Sweetie Belle?”, she asked her.
“Hmm.....” Sweetie Belle looked at a big cloud left from Scootaloo's and tried to interpret it. “It kinda looks like the Headless Horse.” she said after a while.
“Hey, now that's a cloud that I don't like!”, Scootaloo said to her.
“Ah can see a cloud that you will like!”, Apple Bloom suddenly said.
“Yeah, which one?”
“That one over there!” Apple Bloom pointed up.
Scootaloo followed her hoof. “This looks like..... Rainbow Dash!”, she chimed out happily.
“Exactly!” Apple Bloom said.
“Rainbow Dash was right! Cloudwatching is really relaxing!”, Scootaloo realized.
“No surprise”, Apple Bloom answered. “Everything is relaxing for you if you can connect it to Rainbow Dash.”
“Sure!”, Scootaloo replied. “She's my big sister after all!”
“But she's not really your big sister”, Apple Bloom corrected her. “You are not related or are you?”
“No, we're not. But we don't have too. We still feel like we're sisters!”
Sweetie Belle was now pointing upwards again. “This cloud here looks kinda like Babs.”
“You're right!”, Scootaloo recognized. “I wonder what she is doing right now? It was so long ago since she visited us the last time.”
“In her last letter she said that one of the Manehattan Crusaders got her cutie mark recently. Babs said she is good in repairing carts.”
“Aww, really?”, Sweetie Belle said, a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. “I wish I would get my cutie mark finally.”
“What do you think your cutie mark will look like?”, Scootaloo asked her.
“I don't know and how should I?”, she replied. “I don't even know my special talent, so I can't tell how it will look. But Rarity says it will have a green color. She explained me that a cutie mark has always the same color as the eyes of a pony.”
“Maybe ya will get ya cutie mark for singing?”, Apple Bloom suggested.
“For singing?”, Sweetie Belle answered unbelievingly. “No way! I like to sing alone sometimes, but I can't sing on a stage in front of a lot of ponies. I'm too afraid of doing that, so this can't be my special talent!” Suddenly, Sweetie Belle giggled. “This cloud here! It looks like Rarity after we tried to style her mane!”
“Oh yeah!”, Scootaloo remembered. That was when we tried to get our cutie marks as mane stylists. How long did she ground you for ruining her mane, Sweetie?”
“Three weeks”, she answered. “If there's one thing you can make Rarity mad with, then it's with messing with her mane.”
“That's similar like with Applejack. Only that she gets angry if ya mess with the barn.”
An awkward silence stretched itself out.
“That cloud there kinda looks like Applejack when she's really angry.” Apple Bloom showed the cloud to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
“You're right”, Sweetie said. “What should we do if she finds out that we destroyed the barn?”
Scootaloo sratched her chin. “Maybe we can pretend that we were here all the time? We left some things in the barn, but they burned anyway as it exploded, so there's no proof that we were there.”
“Good idea, but what should we do if she doesn't believe us that we were here all the time?”, Apple Bloom asked worried.
“We just have to do something that makes it look like we were here busy all the time!”, Scootaloo explained.
“Or,”, Sweetie Belle came up with another idea, “we just do something that lets her forget how angry she is as soon as she sees us!”
“And what should that be?”, Scootaloo asked her. She didn't sound convinced.
“We could go up in the clubhouse, lie down there and pretend to sleep while we're snuggled against each other. This would look so cute that she would probably stop being mad.”
“That's a good idea!”, Apple Bloom replied to Sweetie's suggestion. “Ahm tired anyway.”
“Me too”, Scootaloo agreed.
“You're right, I begin to feel tired too”, Sweetie Belle realized.
The three Crusaders yawned in unison.
“Then let's do this!”, Apple Bloom said. They got up and trotted the ramp up to their clubhouse.
Inside of it, Apple Bloom took a bunch of pillows out of a corner and arranged them in the middle of the clubhouse to build an improvised bed. Then she laid down in the middle of it. Scootaloo joined her on the left side and Sweetie Belle right from her. After all of them had lied down on the pillows, they inched closer until their bodies touched each other and moved themselves into a snuggling position. Scootaloo rested her head on Apple Bloom's chest, while Apple Bloom embraced her with her hooves. Sweetie Belle turned to the side, facing Apple Bloom, and buried her head into her neck. And she was laying one arm across Apple Bloom's chest. In this position, they stayed.

In hope that they will look cute enough to let Applejack forget her anger that way, they slowly drifted away into sleep.....