Bows and balloons

Candy tapped her hoof impatiently on the cafe table she sat at. She enjoyed the warm air of the afternoon’s sun, it was a comfortable spring day and she liked the weather around this time. She felt that it was prettier than winter’s snow.The young mare couldn’t even enjoy the weather because she had to wait for a friend. She kept looking at the clocktower that ticked around and around and around. She let out a heavy groan and sipped at her grass shake, “She’s late.” Cotton Candy swirled her straw around her glass lazily, trying to make the time pass. She munched on her lunch before she looked at the clock again, but not even a minute had gone by.

“You know a watched pot never boils.” Candy perked her ears up to a familiar voice, “Parry?” Her foalhood friend cantered towards her table.

“Hey there Fairy Floss. Water you up to?” Epic Parody raised his eyebrows with a goofy grin but Candy only rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Wow, good one. If you want to know, I’m waiting for Starburst.”

“Dwarfis Khan? She actually takes time off from her training?” Parry asked laughing at his own joke.

“Well, we made plans for a day off. We were going to go shop around but I’m thinking of heading out soon… and don’t ever let her hear you say that, she’d probably bust your ukulele on your head.” Candy was joking of course but Parry cringed, both for himself and his instrument.

“What’s her deal with that? She knows I’m only kidding right?”

“Most ponies know that but she’s conscious about that.”

“Why does it matter? There’s nothing wrong with being small.”

“I know but still. Remember when you commented on T’s smile?” Candy raised her brow knowingly and Parry looked away with a nod.

“Yeah, that dragon hasn’t so much as grin at me since.”

Candy nodded and finished her shake, “That’s what it’s like with Star. She can’t help her height.”

“I get it, I get it. I’ll leave Starbutt-”

“Parry...”

“Really? Not even that?”

“No!”

“Ugh, fine,” Parry groaned and sat at the table, “so shopping huh? Mind if I tag along?”

Candy looked up from her meal with a twinge of confusion, “You want to? I mean you could if you wanted. We were going to walk through the market and then see how Claire was doing at her store.”

Parry went stiff and laughed nervously, “Uh, on second thought, Candy. I actually have to go help my dad out with something.”

“You sure? You don’t even want to say hi to Claire?”

“Nope. Ha ha, dad needs me right now. Can’t wait.” Epic Parody was out of his chair and galloping down the street, “I’ll see you later, dude!”

“Oh. Bye, Parry.” Candy waved confused, “That was weird.”

Candy felt a gust of wind nudge her followed by the sound of a soft thud. She turned to a certain orange mare who was trying to catch her breath and had twigs tangled in her mane, “You’re late.”

“I’m so sorry. I… slept in.” Star fought to keep a straight face but Candy only raised her brow and looked at the foliage in her mane.

“Really? ‘Cause you smell like apples and dirt. You don’t need to lie to me Star, just let me know next time okay?”

Star sighed and shook the sticks from her hair, “I know. I should have told you, I thought that I could have squeezed it in and still be on time but I lost track of time.”

Candy smiled and offered her a drink, “While you were doing your guard stuff, I got to know the menu pretty well. They have this spring and summer themed foods. A watermelon smoothie is one of them.”

Star darted her eyes to the red, pulpy liquid that Candy handed to her, “Is that what this is?”

“Oh yeah.” Candy chuckled

“Gimme!” Star sipped and savored her sweet temptation, “Thanks a million Candy. What do I owe you?”

Star looked up from her drink but Candy didn’t hear her. Star watched curiously while Candy looked around at the other set tables and chairs. Star was starting to get worried from how stressed Candy looked, “Candy?”

“Wha?” Candy snapped her attention back to Starburst.

“You alright there? You look a little concerned.”

“Does something seem... off? About the table placement?”

“Table placement?” Star set her beverage down.

“Yeah, it’s irking me.”

“The tables? The tables are irking you?”

“Yes! Look at them, look at how asymmetrical they are! You don’t see it?”

Starburst shrugged and went back to her drink, “I dunno, they just look like tables to me.”

“Yeah but-”

“Candy, I know party set up is your thing but these aren’t your tables. You don’t need to stress.”

“Mmmm…. Can I at least move the back two?”

“Don’t go moving around other ponies things. They’ll think you’re strange.”

“But it’s bothering me!”

Star sighed and left a couple bits on the table for the drink, “Aren’t we going shopping?”

“Oh that’s right! C’mon!” Candy dashed from the table taking Star with her.

The two trotted onto the market street and inspected all of the new shops and some they were familiar with. Candy always liked her time with Star, they would talk idly about things they had going on in their lives. Star felt the same of course but they found that they were spending less and less time with each other. Candy knew better than to feel like she should have Star to herself with her responsibilities as a princess and all. Star would occasionally make time for Cotton Candy.

“So Star, got any hot stallions in your life?” Candy prodded while she looked at some new mane clips.
“Where is this coming from?” Star blushed and tried to work away from the topic.

“Oh come on. It’s an easy question. Prism’s got Whirlwind, Claire has Illusion and Valilant has June.”

“Don’t call him that.”

Candy giggled and moved on to the next vendor, “So, no pony’s stolen your heart yet?”

Star stopped and thought about it. She seemed to smile when she started thinking about Fletcher and Candy caught this immediately, “Oooohhhh, there totally is! Spill it! Who’s the lucky stallion?”

Starburst’s face blushed as red as the smoothie she drank, “N-No, you’ve got it all wrong!”

“Is it that guard pony from Norhay?”

“Fletcher? No, well not really. I mean- UH!”

“Aw, Star. You two would be so cute together.” Candy gushed

“It’s not like that. I just watch him train sometimes and we talk and...”

Star stopped mid-sentence once she heard the words come out of her mouth. She was about to interject but Candy was already swelling with the biggest grin, “Not like that, huh?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Candy giggled again and nudged her friend, “I’m giving you a hard time. I know what you meant.” Candy smiled, her sincere happiness becoming a contagion and making Star smile back.

“What about you? You seem to be pretty close with Epic Parody.”

“Parry? Hmmm… I guess I never really thought about it.” Candy seemed to stop and think about it.

“Really? You two have known each other for so long though.”

“Well yeah, but I haven’t thought about him like that. I mean he’s kind of immature, he can come off as mean if you don’t know him, and he’s a loose cannon when it comes to organization. Don’t get me started on that… but he’s really nice when he’s not cracking jokes, he’s always got something to smile about and he can sing. Wow, when it’s not his parodies, he sings well.” Candy trailed off in thought and Star smiled knowingly.
“Sounds like there’s a lot to love too.”

Candy bit her lip and turned away bashfully, “Y-Yeah, but I don’t think he’d date a mare like me.”

“What kind of mare would he date?”

“....... I don’t know actually. He only hangs out with us normally.”

“So how do you know he wouldn’t date you?”

Candy chuckled and looked to her friend, “I’m supposed to be the matchmaker.”

“Then who’s supposed to match you?” Star countered and the two started laughing together.

“Alright you got me... what if we made a bet. We’ll race to Claire’s. If you win I’ll go talk to Parry, but if I win then you have to go talk to that Norheygian trainee.“

“Wait what?”

“Onetwothree go!” Candy called and took off for Hearthfire Jewelry.

“Candy wait!” Star flew after her, rapidly flapping her wings. She didn’t understand, how Candy could be so fast? Did she train? Star shook her head and focused on the race. She would worry about her questions later.

The two raced through ponyville in a mad dash. Star slowly inching her way closer to the pink and white blur, “Try and keep up with me!” Candy got a second wind and pulled away from Starburst. They were getting closer and closer but Star wasn’t going to let Candy win this. She gave one final beat with her wings and reached out for Candy. Her hoof caught her, “Hah! Got you!” Star made a mistake. Candy lost her hoofing and the two went into a rough tumbling, “STAR! AH!” The two screamed and rolled through the dirt.

“Star, what have you done?!”

“Oof!” The duo skidded to a stop with their faces in the dirt.

Candy lifted her head sputtering and spitting, “Gross. Soil. Ack!” She coughed and spit the dirt from her mouth.

Star got one look at her and went into a fit of hard laughter. She rolled to her back holding her sides in hysterical laughter. Candy started to chuckle at their situation and joined Star in laughter. The two lied next to each other in the dirt with tears in their eyes. When they thought they had it together, they looked at one another and laughed again.
Candy and Star got all their laughing out of their systems. The two sighed content and looked up at the sky together.

“Hey Star?”

“Yeah?”

“I won.”

“Yeah right! If we didn’t crash I would have you beat.”

“Nuh uh. You cheated so I win by default.”

“Says who? And you cheated by calling that bs start.”

“It’s my contest, I can do what I want with it.” Candy giggled and Star laughed.

“Whatever. I’ll just go talk to Fletcher.” Star shook her head with a grin.

“You serious?”

“I guess. I think it’s been long enough since the shower incident.”

Candy’s eyes turned to the size of dinner plates, “Shower incident?”

“Drop it and don’t ask.” Star dismissed and covered her face with her hooves.

The ponies were too wrapped in their fun to notice that Crystal Clarity had been standing above them, “What are you two doing playing in the dirt?”

“Claire!” Starburst rushed to stand on her hooves while Candy stood up less urgently and shook the dust from their coats.

“Darling, it’s not ladylike to be rolling around in the dirt.”

“Chill dude, we just fell.” Candy rolled her eyes trotted up to Claire.

“I watched that from the store. Are you two alright?”

Candy checked herself before her and Claire went to check Star. She looked okay until they found a rock shard sticking out of her foreleg.

“Starburst!” Candy and Claire gasped.
“What?” Starburst found what they were freaked out about, “Wow! Look at that! Bleeding and everything. You think it’ll scar?”

Claire and Candy weren’t as happy to see the injury as Star was, “Sweetheart, maybe you should take this a bit more seriously. That looks like it’s deep.”

Candy got a closer look for further inspection, “It shouldn’t be too bad. It’s only a small puncture wound. Claire, do you have a first aid kit in your store?”

Claire nodded and hurried back into her shop.

“I don’t think you need to do all of that. I can just pull it out, see?” Star bit the shard and yanked it out in a swift motion, “Oh wow, that’s really bleeding.”

Candy screamed and panicked, “Star, are you crazy?! You don’t just do that!”

“Why not? You said it wasn’t bad.”

“Well yeah but I wasn’t going to pull it out until I had gauze or knew how deep it was! Claire!!!” Candy looked for anything she could stop the bleeding with but Claire was back soon enough.

“I grabbed the good one from the back… Oh wow that’s bleeding a lot.”

“Weird right?” Star asked while Candy snatched the box and worked to stop the bleeding.

Candy waited for the blood to clot before working with the antiseptic to clean around the wound. Once she was done with that she put a clean patch of gauze over it and started bandaging.

This wasn’t foreign to Star though, “Here comes nurse Candy fixing all my boo-boo’s again.” Star smiled while Candy ripped the tape.

“I always fix your boo-boo’s. It’s been that way since we were kids.” Candy finished her first aid and looked up at Starburst, “Does it hurt?”

Star stretched her leg then shook her head, “No, you did a good job. As always.”

Candy smiled to her until Claire reminded them why they were there in the first place, “Did you two come here to look at my new line?”

Candy and Star nodded and cantered with Claire into her shop, “I think you’ll like it. T found a whole stash of Opal’s and they make stunning neckwear and earrings.”

The trio went through the door with a jingle of the shop bell. What they walked into wasn’t what Claire expected. Pixel Bit, along with her friends, were cleaning up a mess of shattered glass and gem shards that had scattered across the floor, “I can explain.” Pixel defended but Claire looked around the room with her mouth gape, “I…. I…. Pixel.”

“Maybe we’ll come back another time, Claire.” Star grabbed Candy and rushed her out the store.

“Wait, we can stay and help. What are you doing?”

“Trust me, we shouldn’t stick around to watch her yell at family.”

Candy and Star could hear their dragon friend roar in rage as they galloped away from her shop, “She’s pissed.” Starburst cringed and felt sorry for leaving Pixel to face that, but it wasn’t really hers or Candy’s business to watch. Maybe she’d go back later if she could.

They got some distance between themselves and the shop. They exchanged in conversation to get caught up, but it was getting late and Starburst would have to go home soon. The two decided that they would head to Candy’s place.

“It’s been fun Starburst. You need to let loose like that more often though.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t even, I know you got into it when we were racing. You were laughing so hard too.” Candy jeered.

“Don’t tell anypony. I have an image to keep.”

“You mean as Ice Queen?”

“Hey!”

“Kidding. You don’t need to be so hard shelled, you know? I miss the happy Starburst that laughs when I eat dirt. Where did she go?”

Starburst laughed at the thought of Candy spitting again and Candy giggled with her, “See? It’s not so bad.”

Starburst smirked, “If I want to be Captain I have to have that rep.”

Candy didn’t understand why she needed to have a reputation like that but she understood that Starburst wanted to be in the guard more than anything. She knew that she wanted to have fun with her friends too, “Okay, I guess I can understand. Are you good to hangout same time next week?”

“Maybe, I might be busy but I’ll let you know.”

Candy reached out and hugged the pegasus, “Good, you keep it easy on that leg okay? If I find out that it ripped open again, I’ll hunt you down.”

Starburst nodded hugging her friend back tightly, “Duly noted. I’ll see you around Candy.” she stretched her wings out and took off as Candy waved goodbye.