The afternoon was well received by Octavia. The heat of of the morning was slowly decreasing, the effects of the alcohol were vanishing, and she was down to two ponies left to inspect. All in all, the rough morning was starting to be forgotten. Maybe this day would end well after all.

"Just two more and then its all over." Octavia trotted through the street.

"Then what? You're just gonna lock yourself home and practice your cello?" Hugin said.

"Then I shall have a talk with the princess. A calm, peaceful and collected talk with the princess." She answered. "If I'm careful with my words, she will see that I am right, pull me out of here and give me an assignment that actually has something to do with my talent."

Hugin rolled his eyes. This was not going to end well. It was so predictable it was not even funny.

"Anyways, who is next?" She asked.

"Some pegasus in charge of cloud management." Hugin answered. "She is supposed to be somewhere around here."

Octavia looked towards the sky. A few clouds were there. Unmoving. Unchanged. Something was wrong here. Clouds during the day could mean a potential rain if left unchecked. The entire celebration would be ruined.

"How are we supposed to find a pegasus?" Hugin checked around. "She could be anywhere!"

"You can fly can you not? So fly!" Octavia tried flicking him from her back. Hugin simply landed back.

"I'm a crow, not a phoenix. There's no way I could look for a pegasus, let alone catch her."

Then they were in a tight spot. They needed to to speak to her, but she was nowhere in sight. Then they heard the giggle. It wasn't very loud, but it was there. Nopony was around them. Then it the giggle came again. From a tree. As Octavia approached it, she noticed something odd about it. There were a couple of loose light blue feathers between the branches.

Could it be?

"--excuse me?" Octavia called

A head popped out between the leaves. Big light-purple eyes stared at Octavia with a smile. A spiky mane topped her head.

"Hello there!"

"Hello." Octavia replied. "Are you the one in charge of the clouds for the celebration?"

"Yes I am. Cloudchaser at your service!"

The jovial tone of the pegasus was not matched by Octavia, but the stern look on her face was ignored by the pegasus.

"The sky needs to be cleared." Flitter looked at the sky.

"You're right, it does." Cloudchaser smiled. Octavia felt the earlier signs of a migraine start to surface. Did she have to spell it out to her? What was wrong with this mare?

"It’s your job."

"That it is." Cloudchaser blinked a couple of times. "Oh. Oh! Right! I'll get right on it!"

With a mighty flap of her wings, she set out to fulfill her duty. She wasn't exactly fast, but she knew her stuff. One by one, she started gathering the clouds together, mashing them together in a dark mess. The sky was clear from any cloud. Cloudchaser stood proudly over her hoofwork.

"There! All done." she cheered. "The sky is clear and the clouds are gone."

"That doesn't look very safe ... ." Hugin noted as a brief flash of lightning surged flashed through the cloud. A scared cricket jumped across the grass.

"What was that?!" Cloudchaser jumped of the cloud. The pressure took its toll on the small piece of storm, and lightning shot forth, zapping Hugin and, by extension, Octavia, all but frying them. Cloudchaser poked the cricket with a goofy smile before noticing the crispy smell around.

"Who's a pretty cricket, yes you are!, Yes you are!"

"Could you please stop cooing that cricket … ."

The growl was enough to snap Cloudchaser back into attention. The sight of a scorched pony, with her even more scorched companion on her back, greeted her.

"Wow." Cloudchaser said. "What happened to you two?" Octavia's headache had exploded into a full size migraine. She bit her lip, swallowing the rising urge to scream in rage.

"Where … ." She growled. "Can I find the pony in charge of-of the animals … ?"

"Thats my sister you're talking about. Flitter should be near the market." Cloudchaser pointed a hoof on the direction. "Though you might want to clean yourself up first a little. A clean friend is a good friend. Here!" Octavia didn't even manage to hold her breath before the pegasus dumped the water of the cloud over her.

"There. All better."

Octavia had to lift her drenched mane with her hoof to see where she was going. Once she was far enough from Cloudchaser, she shook off the water, taking some afterwards to fix her mane. Her bow tie was, however, still wet, making it rather uncomfortable to wear, given that it was both wet and slightly scorched. Hugin had flown around her, flapping his wing as hard as he could in order to shake off the water from his feathers.

"Okay. I think I see what you meant earlier." He commented as he landed on her back. Octavia strutted through the market, already filled with merchants and stores. Prices were being set, offers were being made. No time was being wasted in preparation for the celebration. Right at the other end of the market zone, she could see a light purple pony fluttering around, chasing after some papers.
Her cutie mark were three butterflies. Her head was topped with a red bow.

Lets get this over with. Octavia thought, walking towards the pegasus, who was still trying grab the last paper.

"Oh dear, oh dear … ." she kept muttering.

"Excuse me … ." Octavia started. "Are you Flitter?"

"Just a minute please!" Flitter grabbed the final page, adding to the others. "Gotcha! Now, what can I do for you?" she cheerfully asked.

"Are you the one in charge of the animals?"

"Why yes I am! They're right this way." Fitter lead Octavia away. So far, so good.

"Better not build my hopes up … ."

The walk was thankfully short. Flitter had all the animals placed together in small corral right outside the town. Pigs, chickens and a couple of sheep were there, peacefully munching on what they could find.

"They're all accounted for." Flitter said proudly as landed right besides the fence. "Took a while to round them up, but I managed."

"Well. Good to know it is going well." Octavia decide, wanting to leave before disaster struck. "I believe I shall go now."

"Of course! No problemo. You just-" Munch, munch. "Hey, no, let go you stupid sheep!"

One of the sheep had started chewing on one of the loose pages that Flitter held in her legs. Flitter jumped over, trying to pry the paper from the mouth of the animal.

"Let. Go!" Flitter pulled harder and harder, but the sheep would not be denied of her improvised lunch, even if it did taste a bit funny. It didn't take long before the inevitable happened. Flitter was sent flying back as the paper ripped, crashing into the gate of the fence. The commotion sent all the animals in a wild fright out of the corral. And Octavia was right in the middle of their path.

"Of course … ." She snarked before being trampled by a stampede of pigs, sheep, goats and chickens. Hugin could only watch as the dust slowly settled, revealing a completely frazzled Octavia. Her mane was a mess. Her bow tie was a mess. She was a mess. A mess that groggily stood on her legs.

"Oh my Luna!" Flitter ran to check on her. "Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! I'm sorry! I'll find them! I won’t let a friend down!" And with that, she set off in pursue of the escapees. Meanwhile, Octavia stood still, trying to get her bearings together.

"What-what just happened?"

"I believe you got trampled Octavia." Hugin said as he landed besides her.

“It was rhetorical." Octavia fixed her bow tie before finally taking a deep breath. Hugin jumped on her back, careful not to dig his claws into her.

"Well, at least we finished the checklist. I say we rest a bit." Hugin produced the checklist one more time."The princess added the address of the place where we are staying. Go that way."

Octavia's hooves echoed as she slowly walked through the town. She was tired. She had been forced fed, smothered, ignored, burnt, drenched and flattened on the ground. Her body was sore and her mind was exhausted. All she wanted right now was to lock herself away from the world and place a big stop sign on the door.

"Here we are."

"A giant tree." Octavia approached the door of what was, indeed, a large, thick and healthy tree. "Why am I not surprised." She pushed the door. The inside was filled with unorganized piles of books. All of them messy. All of them dusty. Even the second floor was covered in piles!

"A library -- only the princess would send me to live in a library." She kicked the door shut. The impact made a book fall square on her head.

"Arg! In the name of Celestia, can anything else go wrong today?!" She shouted. The book had fallen open right in front of her, as if it wanted to be read by her.

"What is this … ." She gazed on the old pages. "Elements of harmony -- I read this book yesterday!"

Frustration reached a breaking point inside of her. Octavia picked the book with her mouth, threw it in the air and bucked it was hard as she could, sending it flying out the window.

"The princess would have a fit if she had seen you doing that." Hugin explored the library.

"Well, she's not here right now." Octavia climbed the stairs. "She's in Canterlot while I'm stuck in a library."

Maybe she would have more than a calm words with princess once she arrived in Ponyville.

Author's Note

No farmer in my story. GASP