Fillies...
“Pretty please Rarity?” Sweetie Belle squealed. Her sister pursed her lips as she hemmed the sleeves of the lime dress.
“I’m not much for the color… what do you think?” Sweetie Belle let out a soft huff. Rarity never listened to her. Not even for the important things! Rarity can you help me get that book off the shelf? Rarity I really need help on this math problem! Omgosh! Rarity I think I’m bleeding!
“It’s one night! Can’t you stop for one night?” Rarity finally dropped her needle to the floor. She turned to Sweetie Belle and grabbed her by the shoulders, leaning so close, that Sweetie Bell could literally see the glue that held Rarity’s eyelashes in place.
“Listen carefully darling.” Sweetie Belle squirmed uncomfortably in her grasp. Rarity’s breath smelled of mints, roses, and… cats? “I will never, ever, ever, step hoof into a forest… ever. And if I ever do… I want you to run away, because that creature is not me. It’s either a clone or a changeling. If that happens go to Applejack and tell her that ‘Rarity is gorgeous’. She’ll know what to do. Understand?” The filly stood frozen, her mouth slightly agape. Rarity studied Sweetie Belle’s expression as if checking for any signs of consciousness. Sweetie Belle nodded before being placed on the floor followed by a subtle pat. “Now, hold this.” Rarity ordered shoving a box of string into the flustered filly’s chest. She sighed, but continued to be a slave to the homeowner.
“Are you sure she said no? Maybe she said go…”
“That doesn’t even make sense. She would have to say I’ll go. Not just go.”
“Well maybe she was just implying that she would go as our supervisor?”
“Yes Scoot, because Rarity would love to supervise three fillies in the dangerous and dark wilderness. This was your worst idea yet!”
“Stop it!” Sweetie Belle squeaked pushing her two friends apart. “She said no.” Apple Bloom gave a triumphant smirk toward Scootaloo who murmured some sort of unused comeback. “So who is going to take us now?” They sat in thought as the tree house’s floorboards eerily creaked. Suddenly, Apple Bloom’s head shot up with delight. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked to her with anticipating smiles.
“Since everypony already said no, why don’t we just ask a non-pony?” Apple Bloom grinned wildly, her fore legs in the air as she waited for recognition. After an awkward and silent moment, Apple Bloom lowered her legs and cleared her throat, embarrassed. Sweetie Belle shifted uncomfortably.
“Non-pony? You’re not talking about…”
“Yep. It’ perfect!” Apple Bloom smiled, squeezing her friends into a group hug. Sweetie Belle pulled away.
“Let’s not.” Apple Bloom and Scootloo turned to each other, their noses bumping. Scootaloo shook her head agitated.
“I thought you wanted to do this. And she’d perfect! What are you? Chicken? Scootaloo spat. Sweetie Belle wiped the saliva off her face and stood proudly.
“Actually I’m a dictionary.”
“Who cares!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. Her face red with frustration. “Zecora is amazing. Plus she knows all about the Ever Free forest.”
“Zecora? Oh I thought you were talking about sp-” The young unicorn stopped herself. She gave a forced laugh and started to back away. Apple Bloom flushed and threw a dirty look.
“What’s wrong with Spike?” Apple Bloom asked clenching her teeth.
“I think I hear Rarity…” Sweetie said, a nervous smile spread across her face.
“I didn’t hear anything.” Scootaloo was propped against the wall, stuffing her face with a bowl of buttery popcorn. Yet she could still make a lousy comment. She had just made Sweetie Belle’s list.
“So Sweetie Belle, I think you have something to take back.”
“Well… um…” Sweetie Belle’s tail was pressed against the door. Her eyes flickered back and forth like some sort of purple bug that wanted to escape the jar. Apple Bloom huffed and stood over the cowering Sweetie Belle.
“Hmm?”
“Spike’s a good dragon… I guess.” Apple Bloom snorted.
“You… guess?” A whimper escaped from the wet eyed unicorn.
“Girls! This is ridiculous.” Scootaloo stated. Sweetie Belle let out a happy sigh of relief. Scoot’s tongue clicking with a motherly, tsk. “If you want to fight.” Her foreleg whipped to the door. “Take it outside. That way we can form a larger crowd. I mean, everypony loves a good fight!” Apple Bloom smiled deviously.
“Ouch. Ouch. OUCH!” Sweetie Belle shrieked as she limped over the large vines and broken branches that littered the grounds of the Everfree Forest.
“Thank you so much Zecora for being our supervisor. This camping trip is going to be amazing!” Apple Bloom chirped as she bounced in endless circles. The zebra grinned and let out a gleeful laugh, her shoulder’s balancing a stack of three backpacks filled to the brim with junk food and soda. Maybe a bit of glitter in Sweetie Belle’s. But overall, nothing even the slightest bit useful for their exciting camping adventure.
“You little fillies always bring a smile to my face. Now slow down Scootaloo, this is not a race.” Zecora shouted to Scootaloo who slammed into a large oak tree, her scooter plastered on the tree like a colorful pancake.
“That’s a good idea.” Scootaloo said spitting out a small amount of tree bark.
“OUCH!” Sweetie Belle fell face first into a large pile of muddy sludge.
“Stop being such a baby!” Apple Bloom glared at the tiny unicorn. "I didn't even hit you. You fell out of the tree house yourself." She stomped over and flipped her onto her back revealing eyes that derped in a vacant expression. Sweetie Belle’s legs twitched like an overturned spider. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and flipped the unicorn back over. “Scootaloo. It happened again!” She yelled to the flightless pegasus who perked her head out from inside an old log. Scootaloo shook her head frantically, her violet mane flicking dirt specks onto anything in a 2 foot radius. That included the swaying Zecora whose eyes were shut as if in the middle of an intense meditation session.
“Can we just do it later? She’s being really whiny right now.” Apple Bloom contemplated this for a couple minutes before letting out a depressed sigh.
“I really wish we could, but Sweetie Bell is the only one who knows how to start a fire. And without a fire we can’t roast Zecora!” Apple Bloom stated, her hooves slowly scraping against the ground. Suddenly Zecora’s head snapped towards the fillies, her breath rather shaky and frosty in the cold forest air.
“I do so much for you three little fillies to thrive. But now you want to go and eat me alive!” Apple Bloom shrugged her shoulders while Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
“That is ridiculous.” She said. “Obviously we would kill you and then we would eat you.” Scootaloo said with a “duh” sort of tone. Zecora simply stared down at the two seemingly innocent ponies, trying to picture them tackling her to the ground and chopping her into mini Zecora bites to roast over a campfire. The two fillies stared back, hooves shuffling awkwardly waiting for somepony to say something.
“So,” Apple Bloom started turning back to the lifeless Sweetie Belle. “Did you bring any duct tape Scoot?” Scootaloo gawked, pulling a roll of grey duct tape from the saddlebag atop a mentally stunned Zecora.
“Of course! Duct tape solves all problems!” She said with a giant grin which slowly faded. “I mean it solves most problems… not all. Not parent problems or death problems or depre-”
“Great!” Apple Bloom interjected plucking the tape from the troubled filly’s hoof. She hummed an annoying tune as she stretched the duct tape out and ripped it at about 2 feet. Apple Bloom carelessly placed the duct tape over Sweetie Belle’s corpse. After a couple minutes and a cardboard roll that was once covered with duct tape, Apple Bloom stood the limp body against a tree. She wiped her forehead and smiled at the beautiful creation.
“Lastly it needs some Pegasus magic.” She plucked out a feather from Scootaloo followed by a small yelp. Apple Bloom stuffed it into the mound of stickiness.
The massive pile of grey duct tape started to shake. Apple Bloom grinned at Scootaloo who was scrawled into a weeping orange ball. Suddenly the duct taped ripped off revealing a brand new unhappy Sweetie Belle. “Thanks for everything guys.” She spat sarcastically. “You’re the best.”
“I know!” Apple Bloom shouted as she slugged Sweetie Belle in the shoulder. She then continued on her journey through the deadly Everfree forest. Zecora watched as Apple Bloom skipped along. She was biting her lip and hesitantly backing away. After reaching a couple yards, she whipped herself around, dropping the backpacks and galloped to the hills. Zecora has seen a lot of terrifying things, but these fillies were definitely in the top five.
After ten minutes, the girls still hadn’t found any good camping ground. The only ones they found were covered in dirt. And that’s just plain disgusting. Though it seemed to be getting dark so the girls declared a small patch of grass their territory. To make it official, they tied ribbons around the trees that surrounded their grounds. It made it kind of look like a rainbow cage, but who cares about fire hazards.
The girls were content… for ten seconds until they realized they had left their bags with Zecora who had escaped from their tiny filly grasps. So they sent Sweetie Belle to retrieve the bags from where they were dropped. Meanwhile, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom played a mean game of hoof, hoof, double hoof.
“Ha ha!! Double hoof beats hoof.” Apple Bloom yelled pounding her two hooves onto Scootaloo’s outstretched front hoof.
“Yep. You’re excellent at this game.” Scootloo said trying to sound as sincere as possible, knowing that Apple Bloom could easily snap her like a twig if she didn’t let her win.
“Maybe you just need more practice. I’m sure if you play against Sweetie Belle, you’ll win every time.” Apple Bloom offered. She smirked. “Hi! I’m Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom squeaked exagurating the voice cracks. “All I can do is make a fire.” Scootaloo looked up to the sky. What was I thinking? I should have left her under the bus at that cuteceanera.
Right then the savior Sweetie Belle crawled in, three bags stacked on top of her sad weak little body. “I got them.” She huffed pushing the bags off herself. She dropped to the ground exhausted.
Apple Bloom quickly hopped to the bags and dragged hers from the middle. She stuck her face into. Scootaloo watched, her head cocked to the side. Finally it seemed Apple Bloom had caught something. Gloriously, she pulled out a P99. Apple Bloom cocked the metal contraption and pointed it to her friends.
“Who wants to play Russian R-.”
“I have an idea!” Sweetie interjected. Scootalo let out a shaky breath. She just happened to be quite tired of Russian roulette after what had happened to Babs. “What is we do some plant searching?” Sweetie Belle is quite an innocent filly. But Apple Bloom just happens to… not be. How they’re friends, the world may never ever know.
“Are you serious?” Apple Bloom pouted. She placed down the gun and walked to the nervous unicorn. “You want to search for… plants. This is supposed to be a fun camping trip.”
“Well… um. Plants can be fun! Yeah they uh… can be… poisonous?” Sweetie Belle didn’t even know if there were any dangerous plants in those forests. But seeing that this place was a killing machine. Sweetie Belle assumed. Apple Bloom paused and bit at her lip.
“Are they deadly?” Apple Bloom’s voice shook, but Sweetie Belle didn’t notice.
“Yeah. I think so.” Sweetie Belle squealed, hiding her possibly lying eyes. Apple Bloom bit her lip once again.
“Girls I don’t know if that’s the best idea. It sounds pretty dangerous.”
“This! This sounds dangerous! Plant watching are you serious!” Sweetie Belle screamed outraged at this thought. They had jumped out of planes without parachutes. They had shaved bears while they were sleeping. They had eaten gum off the side of the road! But plants? Was Apple Bloom joking? “Apple Bloom that is the most ridiculous-“
Scootaloo quickly cut her off with a small grunt. Sweetie Belle let out a deep breath. Calming herself down was sort of her thing.
“I just don’t want any of ya to get hurt.” Apple Bloom said sadly as if waiting for the fillies to fall concerned and worried for her. Unfortunately for Apple Bloom the fillies were as stone cold as rocks, confused at why she would be worried for all of them… now.
“Um… isn’t that kind of what we do? Dangerous stuff?” Scootaloo asked presenting her pancaked scooter and then pointing her hoof to Sweetie Belle who nodded in agreement.
Apple Bloom shifter herself away from the fillies so that she faced the mountain of saddlebags. “Yes, but we always come back from that. Sweetie Belle, we can literally bring you back to life.” Sweetie Belle looked down at her hooves. “And Scoot, if danger comes you can just fly away.”
“Actually I can’t really fly-“
“But me. I’m nothing special. I won’t survive out there with all those pony eating plants. If my parents couldn’t, neither can I.”
The fillies froze. Apple Bloom never talked about her parents. Ever. Even Scootaloo had commonly brought up her evil parents who abandoned her for literally no reason because they simply are evil and have no hearts and THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING! But Apple Bloom, her parents were a very touchy subject that no one wanted to bring up.
“They died because of a silly pony eating plant. They loved doing adventurous things all the time. Always telling me it was the way to make life fuller. Until that plant…” Apple Bloom trailed off still looking at their luggage.
“Why don’t… why don’t we do something else.” Sweetie cooed patting Apple Bloom’s back. She’d never seen a soft side of Apple Bloom. Maybe she did have a heart underneath all of that yellow fluff. Apple Bloom wiped away some water that had emanated from her eyes.
“Okay. We can uh… DANCE! I like dancing!” Apple Bloom darted up and started to do the chicken dance. Horrified Scootaloo backed away.
“Emotions have broken her.” Sweetie Belle simply watched smiling. She know that this was (probably) temporary and wanted to take advantage of it. Humming the most annoying pop tune on the radio, Sweetie Belle jumped in and started to whip her legs around randomly.
This terrifying sight had scarred little Scootaloo’s mind even more than it had already been. She quickly jumped inside of a basket and hid in there until the dancing apocalypse ended. But it never did… until ten minutes cause everypony gets bored of dancing in ten minutes.