It was such a good plan. Sweetie was sure that it would get them their cutie marks. Who would have known that filly ingenuity was a bad mix with parts supplied by Discord?
"Applejack's behind us!" cried Scootaloo, making the three rapidly make a few turns to shake her pursuit.
"To Sugarcube Corner! Pinkie would know where we can hide!" said Sweetie after a moment of thought.
Soon enough, the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst through the door.
"Ya think they saw us? If Pinkie isn't here, we gotta find somewhere to hide, quick!" exclaimed Apple Bloom.
"Definitely!" replied Scootaloo while catching her breath.
She came up to the counter and rang the service bell about two dozen times in a row. Within a moment, Pinkie slipped in from out of frame above them and hopped down to behind the counter.
"Ooh, ooh, is there some kind of cupcake emergency?" she asked the three slightly-confused fillies.
"How did yo-," said Sweetie before being cut off by both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.
"We made a big mistake on the farm with a paintin' machi-," the yellow filly said.
"We ran all the way here and we're out of options and and-," the orange filly got out before Sweetie Belle stuffed their mouths with her hooves.
"Hiding spot! We need a good hiding spot nopony would ever look! Hurry!" the white filly blurted out squeakily with desperation in her eyes and voice.
Pinkie made a "hmmm" noise for a bit as she stroked her chin with the tip of her tail. Suddenly, as she looked down at her tail in deep concentration, a lightbulb appeared above her head, then fell to the floor nearby.
"I've got a place! My tail! It's bigger on the inside; I call it a TARDIS: Tail And Related Diabetes-Inducing S'mores," she said with a wide smile and a s'more in her hoof of no apparent origin.
"Uh, wha?" Apple Bloom replied with one eye wide in confusion as Scootaloo scratched her head and Sweetie just stared speechlessly.
"Here, I can show you! Just pull my tail!" Pinkie exclaimed as she turned to face her plot at a nearby wall and slightly towards the fillies.
Scootaloo shrugged and gave the pink appendage a yank. When she let go, Pinkie began vibrating up and down with her tail raised and eyes wide. Finally, the pink pony stopped as, with a comical sputter and a bit of confetti, a small unicycle flew out her butt and lightly hit the wall.
Scootaloo recoiled in horror with her tongue out in an extreme expression of disgust.
"You...can fart out things that go into your tail? I'm done, I think I'll just take my spanking now," replied Sweetie, with almost as much disgust visible on her face.
Apple Bloom, however, was smiling wide, and grabbed Sweetie, mushing their cheeks together as the white filly went along with it out of fear.
"That's perfect! And it might be a good thing to show off at the next Apple Family Reunion, Big Mac's farts are funny, but they ain't exactly stage material if ya know what I mean," she said with a giggle.
Sweetie sighed, knowing that her resistance probably only made these earth ponies crazier.
Pinkie nodded a bit.
"Can do! Huh, that unicycle was one Limestone hated when we were foals. So that's where I put it..." Pinkie said as she picked it up.
Suddenly, from outside, voices could be heard.
"They went in here, y'all! Come on, ya slowpokes!" shouted Applejack at the top of her lungs just outside the door.
"Hey, who are you callin' slow?!" replied Rainbow Dash distantly.
Apple Bloom immediately leaped into Pinkie's tail, with Scootaloo a split-second behind, and Sweetie showing only a moment's hesitation before jumping. Pinkie's eyes went wide as she saw them being absorbed into the pink hairs.
"Wait, wait! You can't just...oh no," she said just as Applejack burst in, slopping wet with red paint and a bit of mud, practically no part of her coat visible except the left half of her face.
Meanwhile, the fillies found themselves floating in a dark, endless, gravityless void. They held onto each other tightly, head to butt, to keep together.
"Okay, not our best plan, but at least we're all together," said Apple Bloom, chuckling nervously.
"Um, girls, what if we have go to the bathroom?" asked Scootaloo, with audible worry.
"You're holdin' it in for as long as I'm behind you!" shouted Sweetie against the orange filly's butt.
Back outside, Pinkie put on a brave face as her inner Pinkie literally raced around a Mario Kart track between different excuses to make about the CMC. She hit a question mark block along the way, and it gave her "DISTRACT AND STALL".
"Hey Applejack, are you going to a beauty pageant as 'clumsy barn-painting farmer'? It's a good look!" she said while trying not to sweat.
"Pinkie, an apple a day can keep anypony away if I throw it hard 'nough into their face. Now ya'll are gonna cut the horseapples and tell me where those three little rascals went," she said with a glare that easily melted the ice cubes Pinkie's brain was using to prevent sweating.
Pinkie began to giggle nervously and somewhat crazily, with an eye twitching, and a few beads of sweat forming. Applejack stared, looking worried, but the odd scene was interrupted as Rainbow Dash and Rarity burst in together, with streaks of red paint all over the former, and mud completely covering the latter.
"Where are those little punks?! That squirt is getting this out of my mane, even if I have to chain her up!" shouted Dash.
"Now now, Dash, don't be so rash, I'm sure the three of them will apologize and PAY FOR ALL OUR MANE CARE OUT OF THEIR ALLOWANCE FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIIIIIVES!" Rarity shouted with an enraged scowl before hyperventilating.
Pinkie gulped as her tail twitched. This was gonna be a doozy.