Bramble Rose

Sweetie Belle had been so excited about a play! She and her Big Sister Rarity! They'd watch it, and enjoy it, and then they'd talk about the costumes, and how she and Rarity could have made them better. There would be a musical number, and Sweetie loved musical numbers! But to Sweetie's disappointment, the play wasn't a musical. It was a love story, though, and Sweetie loved Love Stories, so that was all right, except ... it reached the end, and ... they both died! She had just been stunned for an hour, feeling empty, feeling betrayed. Even now, she couldn't believe it. Her paper took forever to write, but it was very short, and not up to her usual quality. Poneo and Fillyet was a bad play. Poneo and Fillyet were in enemy familes, but fell in love. They tried to run away, but they didn't tell each other the plan. They both killed themselves, and the play had a sad ending. This play was bad. Love and friendship are very powerful, but this play shows them as not meaning anything. It leaves you feeling sad and hurty at the end. She sat at her desk, feeling bad about the short report, but unable to think of anything to add to it. In her saddlebags waited the things for her show and tell, and she couldn't even feel worried about it, she was so busy being worried over her homework. Purple Haze was excited. She usually hated her homework, but she had a great paper today! Of course, that's because it was such an exciting play! She had been dreading some musty old play, but it had swordfighting and adventure and tragedy and more swordfighting! She didn't know those old plays were so awesome! Her paper was all about the choreography. The back-and-forth across the stage! It was so cool! She couldn't believe it! And show and tell today, too! She had pulled her little cart to school, and it was waiting, full of a whole lot of delicious carrot dishes! This was the best school day EVER!

Doctor Whooves stared up wide-eyed at the display, his jaw dropped. The blue lights faded from the skies, the face dissappearing into sparkles and ragged remnants, and then even those faded away. He dropped his gaze to look to Trixie herself, looking all flushed and worn out and proud of herself. He grinned. "Well, now. Now *that* is a filly that knows how to put on a show!" he said in an aside to the griffin, eyes shining happily, and an impressed note to his voice. "all we needed was a bit of magic to test the manavane, but she really went all-" Then he stopped, and gaped. "AH! The manavane!" he cried, turning quickly to look at it. In the majestic performance, he'd completely forgotten about it! The contraption was settled into the ground, rocking violently back and forth as it spun wildly around as if trying to lift itself free. "No, no, no, no, NO!" Doctor Whooves cried, his eyes wide, frantic, looking over to Lola. "Did you see what it did? What was it doing while she was magicing? Was it always spinning?! It's not supposed to spin! ARGH! I missed it!"

As the light of day disappeared behind them, and they went further into the depths, Doctor Whooves' excitement grew. He was used to finding ancient tombs, chambers, and sunken cities in remote, out-of-the way places. Ancient unicorn libraries, or the secret storehouses of the royal family of Ancient Equestria. But never had he imagined he would be delving down into the chambers deep under the Royal Castle itself! He followed them down, past the guard station, to where year after year of guard patrols had kept a single clear path through millenia of dust, cobwebs, and gunk. He lifted his nose and gave a sniff, smelling the stagnant air, the musty dampness... "Ahhh... now *this* is more like it!" he exclaimed excitedly! "Oh, yes. They'll be down here for sure... smell that? That's not a pony smell. That's a ... kinda ... ooo, what is that? You ever smell a ... oh, what is that ... you ever smell an old skunkflower under the hot sun in the middle of a drought just after the rain started falling? Except snow instead of sun. And no rain. Just a campfire. but it was raining yesterday, then it froze. Actually, it's not like that. Forget the skunkflower! This is totally different!" Doctor Whooves was glancing back over his shoulder, seeing Luna and Celestia silhouetted in the faint light of the stairwell they were leaving. Then he looked forward into the dead blackness - wow, he couldn't even tell the difference between the corridor and the stone wa-BAM! He stumbled backwards, his head spinning. Oh, now he could see something! Look at the lovely stars!

Doctor Whooves sighed softly to himself. Ponies these days, no manners at all. Ask them their names and they get all chatty. Answer their questions and they get huffy. Try to save their lives and they run right into the face of danger. His hooves pounded over the sand. He knew the cart was near here - he left it right next to a sand dune so he'd remember where he'd parked! He paused atop a sand dune, glancing around. He glanced back to see the ponies following him - finally! He wasn't going to have to go back for them, after all! He looked around, quickly. Ah, there! That was the sand dune! He charged down the far side of the one he was standing on, and up the side of the next, and smiled happily as he saw his cart. That was the key to remembering where you parked - just pick a recognizable landmark. The cart was a simple, small wagon, except that it had a big ship's wheel at the front. Small levers and knobs and toggles were scattered in a confusing mess all over a panel to the left of the wheel, and a large metal box squatted in the rear of the cart, right between two barrels of water. Quickly, getting ready, he leapt over the side of the wagon and into place behind the wheel. His hooves moved quickly to pump one of the levers rapidly, priming the contraption, and then he flipped one of the toggles. "Hurry!" he cried to the oncoming ponies! "Just hop in! It holds more ponies than it looks like"! He grinned and twisted a knob, then triumphantly threw a lever. There was a quiet wheezing, grinding noise that died away. Doctor Whooves frowned, reached out to yet another lever and wiggled it up and down to no obvious effect. With a deep sigh, he kicked the metal box behind him. There was a deep, resonant boom, like a gong being struck, and then the a soft, flickering blue light started glowing from between the cracks of the metal box's lid, the contraption letting out a wheezing, rhythmic VWORP VWORP VWORP" sound. The cart started to slowly roll forward - just slightly creeping, as if it were eager to take off, no matter what the good Doctor might want. "Hurry!"

Doctor Whooves blinked as Trixie yelled at him, totally nonplussed by the sudden temper tantrum. "I think I know a Rikki when I see her," he said dismissively, waving one hoof. "As for me, I'm called Doctor Whooves. You probably wouldn't have heard of me, I tend to try to keep a low profile..." His hoof gestured to the tool in the griffin's claw. "And that is my manavane. The casing itself isn't all that special, just a bit of brass hammered into shape. But I've got some aetherically resonant crystals lined up just so inside of there - same sort of crystals you'll find in the Cloud Condensers or Color Cauldrons that they use to make the weather in Cloudsdale, or the equipment on magic research laboratories. Sadly, only lab in town that I know of, other than my own shop, is under the library. Gotta nice computer and sensor array, though." He shook his head, feeling himself starting to go off into a tangent. "Anyway, the aetheric flow should catch the crystals, nudge them into alignment with the local streams, and cause the vane to point in the direction the magic is moving... and basically tell me if magic's moving *towards* or *away* from the Everfree Forest! If it works right, anyway." With that thought, blinked, and straightened up, tilting his head. As if he forgot all about the two visitors, he ran over to a corner of his yard, where a larger telescope was propped up on a fence, pointing at the Everfree Forest. He peered through it, curiously, let out a soft 'hrmmmm...' and then hurried over to a small set of spinning cups whirling away faster than the wind should allow, peering at the small dial set into the base of the contraption.

Sweetie Belle gasped softly as Miss Cheerilee announced the Travelling Players. "Is Poneo and Fillyet a musical?" she asked excitedly, forgetting to raise her hoof. She covered her muzzle and let out a soft gasp at her own audacity. "oops..." She raised her hoof, then, as if the whole class hadn't already heard her question. She didn't even pay attention to Show and Tell - rather, she was eagerly awaiting the idea of watching a play. She *loved* plays! Oh, she hoped it was a musical! She bounced happily in her seat of soft hay. Purple Haze didn't even notice the stern look, barely even looking at the map, her eyes glazing over as Miss Cheerilee went on about all the different places on the map. Gaaaawwwwd, this was taking forever! With the news about the play, she groaned and dropped her face onto the raised surface of the desk, catching the ball. Some fancy-pants group of ponies in costumes talking all high-fallutin'... what a bore! Probably didn't even have any sports in it! And she'd have to write a whole paper on it? The whole point of a field trip was to get AWAY from homework and have fun! This wasn't fun! But then she perked up, eyes bright. Show-and-tell? She lifted her hoof and waved it back and forth eagerly, not waiting to be called upon before she cried out, "Kin Oi bring some dishes t'eat fer show'n'tell? Oi'll make 'em t'night! Oh, Oi have a carrot casserole Oi'm tryin', an' Oi ken a good carrot stir-fry! Ooo! An Oi kin make a carrot bento! An' carrot cookies!" She bounced happily, eagerly, already planning out what she'd need to pick up on the way home tonight!

Doctor Whooves hauled himself out of the pile of ponies, blinking rapidly, staggering a few steps as he turned to look behind him. His stance was tottering, as if he wasn't quite used to walking in his own body - seeming always on the verge of falling, and yet staying on his feet out of sheer energy. He lifted his hoof to tilt his stetson back from his face. He wore a stetson now. Stetsons were cool. "Oye," he said, as everyone started talking all at once. What a sand cloud! The particles all whirling around them, lit by Willow Wisp's luminescence, made the entire area glow with a beautiful blue radiance, cobalt sparks drifting in the air about them. But Doctor Whooves seemed not to notice the blue sparks of sand surrounding them. "Oye!" he said, again, a little louder, trying to cut through the chatter, the indignation, the confusion, the concern. The blue glow actually seemed to be glowing stronger, and stronger, as time went on, rather than dissipating, and yet Willow Wisp wasn't seeming to glow any brighter. It was as if her ghostly radiance was somehow spreading further... or at least, in the one direction that Doctor Whooves and Dio had come from. Doctor Whooves took a deep breath. "OYE!" he cried loudly, "I AM TALKING HERE!" In the (hopeful) silence, he turned and fired off some rapid-fire answers, his tongue nearly tripping over itself to deliver them as fast as possible. To Braeburn: "I'm running." To Willow Wisp: "Yes." To BlueBelle: "I'm fine, thanks." And to Diomedes: "You're in Trouble." Somehow, the way he said it emphasized that the T was, indeed, capitalized. He took a deep breath, grinned around at all of them, his voice vibrating with excited energy. "Nice to meet you all, I'm Doctor Whooves. GALLOP for your lives!" And with that declaration, a cluster of a dozen barrel cacti floated up over the hillside, ablaze with a wispy, ghostly blue flame, and bringing a bit of a headache and a ringing in the ears with them. They lit the little hollow of sand with their light, the entire scene washed out with the spectral blue color. Doctor Whooves turned and took to his hooves, fleeing away from the cacti as an entire shower of needles suddenly sprouted from the sand in which he'd been standing, the stuttering whisper as the cacti expelled the sharp spines at him seeming loud in the dead silence of the desert. "This way!" Doctor Whooves cried, "I've got a cart!"

Sweetie Belle snuffled softly, looking up at her big sister, trying to keep her lower lip from trembling... "I don't remember you being the same age as me..." she says softly, her voice sounding a bit quavery. But she did look curious. "Were you really as clumsy as me?" Then she perked up a little. "Was I singing when I came in? Oh!" She perked up a little more, as she tended to do when talking about music, though her sadness was replaced by shyness. "Oh, well, I just made it up! It's not all that good, just a silly little song ... but there was this nice pony named MudBug that I met, and she has *mud* as a cutie mark! And she let me help her prepare the dirt for a garden, and when I was stomping through all that mud and muck, it sounded like music! So I just came up with words to put to the music of all the squelching!" o/~ o/~ o/~ Blub glub plop, when the rain has fallen, your soothing gloop sends your worries away Blub glub plop, while the sun is burnin' you still stay wet and and cool all the day! Blub, glub, plip, plop! Plip ... plop ... plip ... plop ... o/~ o/~ o/~ And with that, it was like it all never happened... the rapid ups and downs of little children... devastated one moment, and happy again the next.

Doctor Whooves blinked as he was suddenly being yelled at. He stared, perplexed, at the unicorn, then looked up at the roof, and then down at the ground, where all his tools were laying. Then he looked up at the roof again, then down at the ground, then back at Trixie. "Oh!" he cried, his eyes opening wider. "Did you float me to the ground?!" It was as if he had just realized what had happened! Hadn't noticed himself floating through the air! He blinked, then looked up, then down again. "That's not bad! Not many unicorns can float an entire pony, plus their tools!" He smiled. "What's your name, then?" As if she hadn't just introduced herself just a few seconds ago. "Oh, wait, Rickie, right?" Before he could get an answer, he got a stricken look on his face. "My manavane!" He spun around, looking desperately over his tools, running in a circle as he tried to spot where the strange device he'd been setting up had landed.

Sweetie Belle peeked carefully over the top of the basket to watch Champ's reaction, trembling as she hid. And as she watched that small, gentle smile spread across his muzzle, she let out a sigh of relief and let herself straighten up, just a little, her eyes shining as she gave Champ a soft, relieved, and caring smile of her own, sharing that nice little moment with him. She wasn't sure what she had said that had made him smile like that, but she saw a friendly heart somewhere in there, but also a bit of that pain which always seemed to be coursing through him. Then Scootaloo gave her a hug, and she smiled and nuzzled at her friend, as she reluctantly allowed herself to give Champ a second chance... though when Scootaloo's voice became hard and threatening, Sweetie Belle gasped. "Scootaloo!" she gasped, softly, and watched that wall slam up again in Champ's eyes. Sweetie glanced over at Applejack, her eyes pleading for help. Applejack was a grown-up! Grown-ups knew how to do everything! She could help Champ, right? She nuzzled at Scootaloo again. "Scooooot," she said, worriedly, "I'm glad you're always there to protect me, but you don't threaten people with friendship! You don't say never! Friendship is always there... there's always new friends to make, even if you don't expect it! Friendship helps make everything better, even the rough spots! Sure, sometimes you get hurt... but it's like your adventures! You're not scared of scraping your knee or bumping your head, because you want to find out what awesome stuff is over the next hill! If you didn't risk getting hurt, you'd never find all the awesome stuff in the world! It's the same with friendship... if you never let your heart get hurt, you'd never get a chance to find all the awesome *people* in the world!" She glanced over at Champ again, hopefully... she wanted to see that lil' smile from him again...

Doctor Whooves let out a wide-eyed grin, his mouth looking almost too big for his face. "Oh, no. I'm not nearly that old. That'd be ridiculous! No, no. I'm just saying... we're talking about stuff that's been locked away for centuries... they didn't just pop out of nowhere. So we need to find someplace that might have been lying deserted for over a thousand years..." He laughed again, and patted Luna on the shoulder. "Me, over a thousand years old ... next you're going to tell me I came in through your window to babysit you while you were a foal, watching over you as you were in your jammies and had put your hair up while danced to your Mulezart Albums, or helping you with your homework while you were doodling hearts around little Autumnus' name on your school books ... " "As for what I'm doing here, it's quite simple. I'm doing what I always do. I'm being clever! I think the more important question is, what are we still doing up here, instead of heading down below? Come on, now, lead the way!"

Sweetie Belle settled back behind her desk to chat some more with Scootaloo, happy to just relax and spend time with the nice ponies of the class. The mean ones weren't worth paying attention to ... Purple Haze grinned eagerly as several ponies piped up enthusiastically for a game of paper hoof ball. "Here's th' low," she explains, "We push alla our desks together... then we kin tae pop th' ball on a bounce over somepony else's desk! If ye dinnae stop th' ball from gettin' past ye, then ye get a point, an' wit' five points, ye're outta th' game!" She folded the triangle out so it was four triangles, joined at the center, and then lifted it between her hooves to blow into one end. It suddenly 'inflated' to a little paper ball, that she bounced lightly off her desk and caught lightly between her teeth, then dropped onto her hoof. Sadly, that's when Miss Cheerilee came back. "Awwwww," she sighed, and flumped down, already back into her bored slump as she stared blankly at the board, tapping lightly at the little paper ball to make it roll up the slanted surface of her desk, then roll back down towards her. *tap* *rollup* *rolldown* *tap* *rollup* *rolldown* *tap* *rollup* *rolldown* *sigh*

A skittering noise arose on the chill wind that whipped across the desert, and a sound like a murmuring, half-heard voice. Echoing hoofsteps seemed to resonate from the walls of the pass, footsteps that matched no hoof-falls that any of the ponies laid - even if their hooves falling in the soft sand could make that kind of noise. Then silence, except for the slithering sand in the wind ... and perhaps that half-heard voice still talking, just out of earshot. For Dio, having left that lonely cluster of trees on the oasis on the hillside, one of the few sparse clusters he could see in this rocky, sandy waste, in the pitch black of this cloudy night, far behind him ... the voice sounded closer, ever closer... the pony, all alone, heard the drifting, skittering sounds, and then the voice stopped, but the shifting of sands and pebbles increased. But from where? A pony crested one of the hills before Dio's eyes, a tan pony with a slicked back brown mane, mostly hidden by his overly large stetson. Doctor Whooves scrambled and tumbled down the pebbled hill, flipping head over tails, but managing the bottom with his hat only half-covering his face. He got quickly to his feet, tipping his hat back to a good position, and stared at Dio in shock. "What are you doing in a place like this, calling out like that, for?!" he cried in exasperation! "You're bringing them right to us!" With barely a pause, he ran past, lifting his voice over his shoulder to tell Dio, "Hurry! They're right behind me, but I can see my cart up ahead!" Assuming Dio would follow him, Doctor Whooves ran full tilt as the pebbles turned to sand, aiming for the blue glow he could see over a dune up ahead. "That glow, that'll be her! Don't remember leaving the boiler on, but that'll be her, for certain! Then we'll be out of here!" He bounded up the hill excitedly, his hooves scrabbling in the sand, slowing down a bit as he scrambled over the top, and then let out a *whoop* as he tumbled down the far side again, the pony seeming quite uncoordinated even though he made for a very good pace. He landed with his muzzle buried in the stand, his stetson once again fallen forward over his face to completely blind him. He got up, gave his head a shake, tipped his hat back. "Ah, here we are! My good ol'..." he paused, and stared at the three ponies standing in front of him. No, two ponies and a mule. And one of the ponies was glowing a soft, phosphorescent blue. "You're not my cart!" he accused Willow Wisp with an exasperated exclamation, then swiveled his head with a wide-eyed expression to take in everyone around him. "Who are you, and what are you doing out here of all places?!"

Bramble Rose gave a small grin as he looked around. "Oh, no, this is *lovely*," he said quietly. He stood just inside the door, his eyes taking a slow pan of the room, with a warm grin on his face. he looked like a kid in a toy store, figuring out what to look at first. He opted to go to the shelf of giant star gazer lilies, sticking his nose into one to give a deep inhale, and letting out the breath with a sigh of satisfaction, then he started examining the petals, the blossom as a whole, and even the stem, with a critical eye. "Oh, these are *gorgeous*. Then he blinked. "Oh, well, thank you very much! I don't have much of my things here, just what's in my saddlebags at the moment ... but you're extremely generous! And I'll only be in your mane till I earn up enough bits for my own place, so hopefully that won't be *too* long! I might have a few of my flower books shipped over from Canterlot, but that won't be *too* much...

Sweetie Belle buried her face into Scootaloo's neck, sobbing her little heart out as her best friend comforted her. She tried to stop, to tell Scootaloo it wasn't her fault, but she just couldn't get the sobs under control at first, and it all came out as incoherent wails. It was even worse when her Big Sister Rarity came in, to try to comfort her as well, by telling her the dresses weren't really all that good anyway. That was impossible! "Nuh-no that's not tuh-true"! she sobbed, "Yuh-you're always puh-perfect!" And before she could stop herself, the words started tumbling out. "Yuh-you're *always* puh-perfect! And I'm always suh-soooo clumsyyyyy!" she wailed. "I'm nuh-never gonna get my fashion cuh-cutie mark! And I'm nuh-never gonna be able to ruh-run the boutique wuh-with you as glamour fuh-fashionista sisters because I'm suh-soooo clumsy and you're so perfect and I'm nuh-not good at ANYTHING!" She let out a fresh set of wails at having finally shared her secretest, most scariest fear, burying her face in Scootaloo's neck again.

Doctor Whooves wasn't really paying attention to the griffin's scoldings as he was busy trying to catch himself so he wouldn't fall to the ground and break his neck... really, she did pick the oddest times to try to talk instead of act... his hoof caught on the very edge of the roof and he sighed with relief, right before a skidding hammer smacked that hoof and sent him over the edge. A startled cry pulled itself from his throat, his legs scrambling in mid-air, before he realized he wasn't actually falling anymore, but instead floating. Lopsided in the air, his tools spiraling around him, he lost the paniced flail and instead 'stood' at an angle to the ground, letting out a sigh of relief as he realized the unicorn had caught him. "well, now, that's quite-" he started to thank her... And then tumbled the last several feet to the ground as she dropped him, landing in a heap. He covered his head as his tools clattered to the ground all around him. He looked up to see the torch laying on the grass, scorching a segment of it black and starting a small flame. Quickly he got up, grabbing the torch in his mouth so he could shut it down, and stamped quickly on the ground. *whew*. No telling how bad it could have gotten if that had gone out of control, and with no rain expected for- He blinked as a sudden downpour soaked him from nose to hoof, then stopped just as quickly. He lifted a hoof and ran it though his mane. "Well, that was ... unexpected. Usually I don't have that sort of problem..." He glanced up at the rooftops, distractedly, and saw the smoke. He blinked. "Oh, my. Is everyone all right?"

Sweetie Belle let out a soft 'harrumph' and stuck her tongue out at Sunnydew. "Just cause you can't stand ponies to have fun." She smiled warmly to Starlight and Grim. "Thank you guys, you're *so sweet* to stand up for us!" She reached over to ruffle Starlight's mane fondly, then trotted up to Grim to give him a lil' kiss on the cheek. *^_^* Purple Haze groaned softly. School was bad enough when something *was* happening, much less when nothing was happening! There was so much out there in the world to do! Why did she need to wait around here! Except her big brother would be angry if she didn't. She sighed and tried making notes on recipe ideas, but there was only solong that could hold her. "Oye!" she said, perking up her head. "Any ye lads er lasses up fer a game ah paper hoofball while we wait?" She took a sheet of paper and started folding it into a little triangle.

Bramble was looking forward to telling Strawberry about his job in Lily's garden, though he was happy to bypass his slightly more embarrassing job as a model for Glitzen's shop. But the sudden noise sounded through the wood, a sharp thump echoing across the forest. He spun around, tense. He was new here, but he already had heard the stories about the monsters out in these woods. "Careful," he whispered. "There's ... weird things out here. I hear. Monsters you can't find anywhere else... Mundicorns and cockletrisles and stuff like that. if it's a chicken headed snake, don't look at it! But if it's something else, keep an eye out." The tiny purple unicorn trembled in fear, but he stepped forward as Strawberry did, and nervously hurried forward further to get between her and whatever was making the noise, puffing out his chest, trying to control the trembling in his knees.

Doctor Whooves wobbled a bit, up on the peak of the roof, trying to balance all the different tools, bags, and gear that wanted to fall in so many different directions. Frustration roiled up inside him as the two just stood there and stared, the griffin even going so far as to hold his precious invention hostage to make demands upon his knowledge! "Yef, yef, of courf, juft hurry! It'f dewicate!" he said, muffled around the device held between his teeth, trying to peer down at the griffin just casually looking up at him from the ground below. He let out a huff of exasperation. "Really, fanding around bargaining when dewicate magicaw fensorf are in jeapordy? We're not in a market! You could have juft afked!" He sighed. "Fee, the cryftalf align-" And at that, his careful, awkward balance broke - his bag starting to slip beyond his hoof. He leaned in that direction, and scrabbled for purchase on the tiles of the roof. The precious magicvane slipped from his mouth as he cried out in surprise, and it seemed almost slow motion to the poor pony as he reached for the invention, helplessly... Tools fell from his bag, scattering over the rooftop, a wrench bouncing away this way, a screwdriver that, and a lot of other odd tools not so easily identified. One tool, a welding torch, bounced just the wrong way and ignited, skittering along the tiles of the house and leaving a trail of flame behind it.

Sweetie Belle gasped, one hoof lifted up before her, staring around in horror at the mess that had happened ... all because of her. Mud and soap and water everywhere, ruining Rarity's gorgeous dresses, and worst of all ... all in front of a customer! Her lower lip trembled as she stared around in horror. There had to be a way to fix this, to put it right! If only... if only... a tiny spark formed at the end of her horn, but poofed into nothing. No magic would spontaneously manifest for her, to put this right. She tried to say something, to assure her big sister that she'd fix it, somehow, but the words caught in her throat, which felt all tight and choked off. Nothing but a tiny squeek came out, her tiny lil' form shook as she tried to figure out how it'd gone all so horribly wrong *again*. And then the customer was yelling at her! That's the worst part! Her big sister's customer had gotten caught up in it! And the most important thing about a boutique was to make sure that the customer was happy and felt special and wonderful! But Rarity was yelling at the customer for her sake! It's my fault, I made the mess. Please, let me make it up to him. What's important is the customer, she tried to make herself say. But her tight throat only let out a squeak of an "Iiiii!" and then she felt a faint sob cut off the words. No, no sobs! That's not what she wanted! She wanted to be special, and good with customers, like her big sister! But then another sob pulled itself from her, and a big wet tear welled up in the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. Oh, oh no, oh no! She had to get out of here before she made everything worse! Just be careful, say the words calmly, then turn and walk away with poise and dignity. She could do it. "I-... I-..." Her little voice broke. "I'm SOooORRRRRRRy!" she bawled, "All my faauuullllt!" More tears were welling up to roll down her cheeks, and she turned and her little legs and little hooves churned quickly to hurry her off towards the back room, devastated at one of her more spectacular failures.

Sweetie Belle sighed and turned back to the classroom, letting Champ run off. She'd have to see if she could help him, later, but right now she had to go back to class and - Oh no. Speak in front of the class. That thought nearly had her turn around and run off again, but she perservered... her hooves dragging slower and slower as she reached her seat and lowered her chin onto the desk. *sigh* But she perked up again as Miss Cheerilee started a geography lesson! Yay! She didn't have to speak, after all! Instead, she perked up, pulling out a sheet of paper and then taking her pencil in her mouth to carefully take notes before... What WAS it with today and all the wierd stuff happening! She looked around ... well ... without Miss Cheerilee here, they might as well talk. She leaned over to Scootaloo in the next seat over. "Pssst," she said, "What's the plan for after school? Cutie Mark Ice Cream Eaters, maybe? Or Cutie Mark jewelry makers?" Purple Haze sighed, her pencil shifting in her mouth as she doodled in the borders of her notes. Little rows of carrots decorated the lined paper, and stick-ponies, and little scribbled notes of new dishes to try. Why did she need to go to school? It was so booooooring, and she was never going to use all this stuff! Why did she need to know where Canterlot was? That's what maps were for, and besides, she could just take the train there! She'd so much rather be back on the farm, or in the marketplace, or cooking dishes, or trying to make new friends, or, or, or SOMETHING! She could still taste the carrot casserole from lunch ... it needed a little more ... some ... she wasn't sure what. Maybe mushrooms? Maybe garlic? She wasn't sure! She wanted to try baking up a new batch! But she was stuck here, in school! *siiiigh* She sprawled across the top of her desk, groaning at how BOOOOOOORing it was! Especially since the teacher wasn't even here! "Ach, if she dinnae get back in fifteen minutes, we kin hie outta here, roight? That's th' rules, innae?" she asked no one in particular.

Sweetie Belle was so confused... something was going wrong, she just knew it. Even though she'd carefully cleaned her hooves, something was wrong. Rarity was being so careful with her speech, just like she always was when she needed Sweetie's help the most! She was about to say something when suddenly she was tackled by orange and purple energy, and she laughed softly at Scootaloo's exuberance. "Hiii, Scootaloo! Of course I-" she froze, her eyes wide, her pupils shrinking, as Scootaloo shook out her wings, splattering mud... right onto Big Sister Rarity. Sweetie Belle's hooves beat out a nervous rhythem on the floor. "Oh no," she whispered in horror... There was a frozen moment as she looked up at Rarity, seeing those telltale twitches along her flanks, her front legs, and imagining her eye twitching behind the muddied-up glasses... a moment of dread and apprehension. "Don't worry!" Sweetie Belle hurriedly assured her sister. "I won't go out and play till I help clean this up!" With that eager declaration, she turned and galloped her tiny-little legs off through the shop and into the back room where she knew the cleaning buckets were kept. And leaving a trail of mud splatters in her wake. She was back there only a couple moments before two buckets slid out through the door, sliding halfway across the room, splattering the trail of mud on the floor further, the yellow wash rags flopping on the sides of the bucket, and then Sweetie came galloping back out. She, herself, was all clean again, and she carried a wash bucket on her back. She hurried back out, the soapy water sloshing up the sides of her bucket, as she hurried back to the rest of the group. Her little hoof hit a patch of mud, and ... slipped ... the lil' foal tumbled down onto her chin, letting out an *oof!* The bucket catapulted off her back, turned over in mid-air, and landed atop Rarity, perched cockeyed on her horn, drenching the fashion pony in soapy water, sending a wave of soap and mud across the floor and splashing up onto the nearby outfits.

Bramble grinned eagerly. "Oh, no, I'm from Canterlot, but I just moved here a few days ago! Got a job growing and delivering flowers, already!" He gave a soft chuckle. "Well, that, plus a few side jobs here and there..." He looked up at the moss. Moss was nice enough but ... flowers were what really interested him. ** "Oh, yes," he said, "I don't see much moss at home, either... heh. Moss in Canterlot. But oh, you should peek over the wall at the gardens of the palace... there's this tall tower on a library near the palace, and one of the windows has this *perfect* view, right into the garden, and there's soooo many colors... and it's all so beautifully arranged... That was one of my favorite spots!" He let out a soft 'heh', feeling embarrassed. She had asked about moss, not ... anything else. "Er ... but yeah, I'd love the help in looking for them! I'll meet you tonight, it's a date! Er... not a date... I mean... it's ... a good idea, is all!"

Doctor Whooves was always torn. There were so many experiments to do at home... but so much to see, out in the world! He usually was out and about, but every so often he ended up back on his own front step, on the fringe of the Everfree Forest, full of ideas to try out. Today he was trying, again, an new take on an old experiment that kept failing. The tan pony with the dark brown, slicked-back mane, and the hourglass for a cutie mark, had put together an all-new, all-improved invention - this one would surely do the trick! He had based it off of blueprints from the Cloudsdale engineers, so surely it would work! He had climbed the ladder up to the slanted roof, and made his careful way up to the top, his bag of gear held carefully in his teeth, a long cord trailing from the bag down to the ground below. Then, balanced carefully on the very peak of his roof, he had pulled out the invention. It was rather like a weather vane crossed with a telescope - It had a bunch of little crystals set into the tube, with the focusing lenses properly aligned. If all went well... yes, of course it would go well! He straightened it up on the peak, then ducked his head towards his bag to retrieve - ACK! He quickly grabbed the toppling invention in his teeth, panting heavily. That was close! He straightened it up, balancing it in place with hooves and teeth. Carefully... carefully... He backed off slowly, watching the contraption. It seemed to stay in place... he ducked his head down to the bag again and HORSEAPPLES! He darted forward, grabbed hold of the device again to keep it from falling. His hooves slipped and he landed on his rump on the peak of the house, scrabbling to keep from falling off one way or the other. Just by sheer luck, his hoof snagged the bag, and kept *that* from falling, too. He brought his invention in closer... hugged it to his chest with his hooves, and let out a relieved sigh. Then he heard the voices. He glanced around quick, up into the sky, into his bag, and then down at the ground... ah, there! A unicorn and a griffin, perfect! "Hey, you there! Either one, that will be fine, could you be so good as to hold this in place while I fasten it down?"

Sweetie Belle jumped in surprise at Rarity's exclaimation, her eyes going wide. "I... I'm just g-getting my lunch basket!" she cried, looking startled. "And I gotta clean up b-before we meet up!" She wasn't sure why Rarity was getting to upset... it always seemed Sweetie Belle was doing something to get Rarity upset, but she didn't know what. Well, OK, the other day it'd been accidentally knocking over the dress form that Rarity had been using. And the day before that, she'd tried to make Rarity a new pattern of cloth, and had gotten the loom tangled up, and Rarity had spent half an hour fixing it up. And two days before that, she'd tried to make a nice snack for Rarity, and had gotten flour everywhere. But those were all accidents! She hadn't done anything wrong! She looked down to check her hooves, quick... lifted them up one at a time - one, two, three, four - the mud was starting to drip down, but they were still mostly clean! She should be able to clean up before her hooves were messy again! She turned around to look to Inkwell. "Oh, no!" she responded to his question. "Big Sister Rarity is *always* ready to help you look wonderful! It's never the wrong time to be beautiful!" She smiled sweetly and confidently.