“What do you think is inside it?” the very excited Scootaloo asked her two friends as she buzzed her wings to pull their small wagon with her scooter.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle turned their heads back, staring at the weird blue egg that sat inside the wagon. The egg was as tall as them, and its shiny blue eggshell was shiny. It looked transparent, for they can see a red sphere-like thing inside of all the bluish liquid inside. And aside from the egg, there was also a big butterfly net in there. They were supposed to try and catch some butterflies by the pond. They ended up using it to try and get the egg.
Applebloom shook her head and returned her attention ahead. “I dunno. It looks like trouble, if you ask me...”
“But it's just an egg,” Sweetie Belle said. “It is just an egg, right? What harm could an egg do, anyway?”
“Who cares?!” Scootaloo said as she turned, their clubhouse now within sight despite the thick trees around them. “We found it, and now it's ours! Maybe we can even get our cutie marks from doing whatever with the egg!”
The sound of a possible cutie mark dispelled Applebloom's worries, if only slightly. “Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's get to the clubhouse and start planning!”
In their clubhouse...
“Is it hatching yet?”
Scootaloo blinked, and then looked down on the egg she was sitting on. “Eh, I don't see any cracks yet.”
“Me neither,” Sweetie Belle frowns after circling around the egg. “I didn't know this egg is tough enough for Scootaloo to sit on.”
“Hey!” the pegasus glared at her unicorn friend. “What do you mean by that?”
The unicorn filly smiled nervously.
The pegasus then turned to their other friend. “And why do I have to be the one sitting on top of it? It feels weird!”
Applebloom shrugged, immediately coming up with something to save Sweetie Belle's hide. “Well, pegasi can fly, so I thought they should be lightweights, and since you're a filly and a pegasus, we figured that you're lighter than the two of us.”
Scootaloo blinked. “Huh... I guess that makes sense.”
Sweetie Belle smiled her thanks at Applebloom. The earth pony shrugged in reply.
“So...how long do you think I'll be sitting here?”
Applebloom shrugged again. “No idea. But I heard from Granny Smith that eggs should be warmed so they could hatch faster...”
“But we found this by the pond,” Sweetie Belle says, looking at the egg. “Maybe it's an aquatic creature, so we shouldn't be warming it?”
“Then why the hay am I sitting on it then?” Scootaloo yelped and slid down from the egg, joining her friends in staring at the egg.
“Well, staring at it won't help either,” Applebloom said, sitting down and humming in thought. “There's gotta be a way for us to help whatever's inside to hatch faster.”
“Maybe we should tickle it?” Sweetie Belle offered, receiving deadpans from both of them. Her ears drooped. “Eheheh... Well,” she smiled, “maybe Twilight can help!”
“Huh, that's actually a great idea,” Applebloom nodded.
Scootaloo, on the other hoof, shook her head. “Nuh-uh. Bad idea.”
“Huh?”
“Why's that?”
Scootaloo closed her eyes, cleared her throat, and then looked at the blue egg. “Oh my goodness, girls! Is this an egg?! I've never seen an egg like this before! In real life nor from my books! Oh! Maybe this is an egg of a new specie! I should maybe go and ask Fluttershy for help!” she said with her best Twilight-like voice. Which wasn't the best. Anyway, she turned back to her friends with a frown. “And yada-yada-yada...”
Sweetie Belle blinked. “Well, what if it's a pony-eating creature?”
Applebloom shook her head. “I don't think pony-eating creatures lay eggs, Sweetie Belle...”
The unicorn turned to her. “And how do you know that?”
The earth pony glared back. “And what is that supposed to mean, huh?”
“Dragons are said to eat ponies if they wanted to! And they lay eggs!”
“Spike is a dragon!”
“But he's different!”
“And so will...whatever is gonna hatch from this egg!” Scootaloo butted in, earning her friends' attention. “Come on! Didn't Miss Cheerilee taught us that the first breathing thing a hatchling sees is going to be their mother?”
The pair blinked at her.
“Huh, well...” Applebloom said, eyeing the egg. “I guess that's true.”
“Mom, Dad and Rarity are sooooo gonna kill me when they found out I'm a mom all of a sudden...”
“You girls...” Scootaloo facehoofed. “Who says anything about telling anyone about this?”
Sweetie Belle blinked. “Wait, we're not?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Duh! Of course not! How can we try and get our cutie marks with this thing if they know?”
“How can we even try anything if we won't let anypony know about it?” Applebloom asked.
“We'll do it here, of course!”
“And if we need to try things outdoors?”
“We'll do it close to our clubhouse, of course!”
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle blinked.
Scootaloo sighed. “I just don't want anypony else to know about it yet. Besides, maybe this really is a new creature! We could be the very first ponies to ever study and document about it!”
“...we're documenting it?” Sweetie Belle asked, tilting her head to the side.
“Of course we are!” Scootaloo beamed. “Maybe we could get a documentary cutie mark!”
Applebloom blinked. “Haven't we tried that already?”
“A ‘new-specie-documentary’ cutie mark!” Scootaloo corrected herself.
Sweetie Belle chuckled. “I'm surprised that we even remember everything we ever tried just to get our cutie marks.”
“Or maybe a ‘taming-a-new-creature’ cutie mark!” Scootaloo continued. “Or ‘discovering-a-new-creature’ cutie mark!”
“Alright, alright... We get it.” Applebloom smiled, rolling her eyes. “Nopony else is to know about it until we get our cutie marks.”
Sweetie Belle frowned. “...just thinking ahead, and sorry if I sound like a downer, but what if we won't get a cutie mark from this?”
“We let it go, of course.” Scootaloo replied quickly. “And that's going to be our last attempt of getting our cutie marks. The ‘releasing-a-new-creature’ cutie mark.”
Applebloom rolled her eyes.
Scootaloo brought a hoof under her chin, squinting her eyes in thought. “Or maybe...before we do that, we could try breeding it? The ‘breeding-a-new-creature’ cutie mark?”
Sweetie Belle glared at her. “I'm not gonna let something...breed with me again, after last time!”
Applebloom nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We're still too young to be even doing that on ourselves, as a matter of fact...”
Sweetie Belle shivered again. “...Rarity would kill me if I have gotten pregnant...or if she ever finds out about it...”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Isn't that the reason why 'bloom and I promised not to tell anypony about it? Also, we did our research before we forced you to do that! We bought those safety-thingies from that store! And ponies aren't even compatible with—”
“Alright, alright!” Applebloom interrupted her. “Just...not with Sweetie if you're really set on it...”
Scootaloo smiled brightly at her. “Thanks, Applebloom. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”
“...wait, what?”
“Aaanyway,” Scootaloo turned back to the egg. “We should try and start doing something with this egg. Y'know, stuff that we can do with a filly-sized egg.”
“I thought breeding needs two compatible partners...” Sweetie Belle whispered to herself.
“...like what?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo as she stared at the egg.
“Maybe we can try and wash it first?” their unicorn friend suggested. “The pond where we took it from was kinda dirty...”
“I guess we can start from there,” Scootaloo shrugged, and turned to the door. “Maybe we can even get our cutie marks by cleaning it. I'll go get some water from the farm.”
“And bring some things to eat,” Applebloom said to the retreating pegasus. “I just remembered how hungry I am after a whole morning of crusading. Wait, you know what? I'm coming with you. Sweetie Belle, guard the egg, okay?”
“Sir, yes sir!” Sweetie Belle stood up straight and saluted. “A ‘guard-a-new-creature-that-is-still-inside-an-egg’ cutie mark, coming right up!” she chuckled.
Applebloom nodded and walked out of their clubhouse, closing the door behind her. Sweetie Belle then turned to the egg and sat on the floor, staring at the weird red sphere that looked as if it was slowly turning in its own axis. With a hum, she studied the egg more closely. She took notice of a few smaller and white orbs that were orbiting around the red sphere in a slow pace.
She blinked. “Yep. Weird egg is weird.” She looked around, searching for something. “Now where did we put those brushes and rags again?”
“You better not be stealing any eggs from our ducks and chickens for this crusading of yours, young filly,” Applejack joked, waving a hoof to shoo the two fillies away. “And it better not be an egg from inside the Everfree Forest!”
“Sis, I already told you!” Applebloom shouted as she and Scootaloo headed back to their clubhouse. “It's neither! We found the egg from the pond!”
Applejack smiled and shook her head. It was always fun to tease her little sister. “Pond, huh?” she shook her head and approached a tree. “Probably frog eggs. The next thing we know, we have frogs jumping around the farm... That sounds like a good idea though. Might help getting rid of these pesky mosquitoes. Meh...”
She turned her back on the tree, and gave it a powerful buck, making the apples fall on the barrels.
Applebloom and Scootaloo were heading back to their clubhouse, with a bucket of water and a tray of sandwiches in their wagon.
“I thought we agreed not to let anypony else know about it?” Scootaloo glared at her earth pony friend.
“How was I supposed to lie to my sister? She's like a living lie detector!” Applebloom whined. “And besides... You'd rather have her going inside our clubhouse if we tell her lies?”
“Er...” Scootaloo flinched at that. “N-no...”
“Exactly! Good thing that we found that egg outside the Everfree, and not inside!”
Scootaloo chuckled. “Yeah, I guess...”
After Sweetie Belle's sad revelation of not getting a ‘guard-a-new-creature-that-is-still-inside-an-egg’ cutie mark, and after eating a late lunch with sandwiches, they began to set up a pile of old rags and newspaper on the floor, where the three fillies carefully placed the egg over the pile.
With that done, the three fillies grabbed their cleaning weapons: a brush, a rug and a—
“Toothbrush?” Applebloom arched an eyebrow. “Really, Scoots? Eggs don't have any teeth yet!”
“Hey! I use an old toothbrush to clean my scooter's wheels back home!”
Applebloom rolled her eyes and dunked the rug into the bucket of water. She squeezed the excess water out and then she started wiping the egg. Sweetie Belle dunked the brush on the water as well, shook the excess water off, and levitated the bucket beside Scootaloo.
“I wonder what kind of creature is inside,” Sweetie Belle asked out loud as she began to brush the egg.
“I bet it's going to be awesome!” Scootaloo grinned as she brushed the shell of the egg with a toothbrush. “With massive wings and big claws and tough leathery skin!”
Applebloom rolled her eyes. “You know that it's going to be a baby when it hatches, right?”
“Uh... O-of course I know that!” Scootaloo blushed. “I-I just said what the guy would look like when he grows up!”
“He?”
“He. She. It. Whatever! You know what I mean.”
“Oh, I just hope it's gonna be cute and adorable!” Sweetie Belle squeed, gently brushing the egg. “With big, adorable eyes, and cute, little horns, hooves, claws, paws... I just hope everything about it is cute!”
“Eewww,” Scootaloo stuck her tongue out. “‘Cute’ isn't cool! It's girly and eewy.”
“Eewy?”
“It's a new word, 'bloom. Deal with it,” Scootaloo said.
“Whatever you say,” she replied with rolling eyes.
“What do you think, Applebloom?” Sweetie Belle asked with a smile. “What do you think is inside this egg?”
“I still think it's going to be trouble,” the earth pony filly replied flatly. “With a capital ‘trouble.’”
Scootaloo snorted.
Sweetie Belle chuckled. “Well, I think we're already used to deal with trouble. But I wanna know what you think is inside.”
“Fine,” Applebloom sighed in defeat. “I think...it will have four legs, like a pony. Small, cute, maybe with wings, and a horn, and probably gonna follow us around, thinking we're its momma.”
Sweetie Belle squeed. “Oh, that's sooo cute!”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Well, at least she thinks it'll have wings. I'll be the one teaching him how to fly when he gets old enough.”
“We're...we're keeping it?” Sweetie Belle blinked.
“If it's not trouble,” Applebloom shrugged, “then sure. Why not? The fella might be useful in the farm or something.”
“Wouldn't that mean that we're gonna tell everypony about it?”
“We can't hide the thing forever, ya know.”
“Well, that's true, but...”
“Let's just not worry about that stuff for now!” Scootaloo said. “Right now, I'm not seeing an ‘egg-cleaning’ cutie mark...”
Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stopped their cleaning to look down on their flanks. It was bare of any sign of a cutie mark.
“Well, at least the egg is clean now,” Sweetie Belle sighed. “So, what's next?”
Applebloom shrugged. “I dunno. I don't really have any cutie mark ideas around eggs, except for selling 'em in the market.”
“We can't try that,” Scootaloo pouted. “E-even if we might be able to get a ‘new-creature-egg merchants’ cutie mark.”
“Obviously,” Applebloom said. “Guess we should dry the egg up and then come up with something.”
Her two friends nodded in agreement. They set aside their tools while Applebloom wiped the egg dry with a clean cloth.
“Maybe we can try that egg-selling idea when we start breeding?” Scootaloo asks as she carried the bucket of water outside.
Sweetie Belle, following close behind, grunted in disapproval, levitating the wet rags and newspaper behind her.
“We already agreed that we're not using you this time, you know!”
“I think I'm going to the library and borrow a book about it and let you read it properly,” Sweetie Belle hissed.
“The library's destroyed, remember?”
“And it's already being repaired, remember?”
With the bucket of water now on the wagon, the wet newspapers now on a trash bin and the rags now hanging outside to dry, the two fillies went back inside, and found their earth pony filly friend staring at the blue egg that was now glowing in a beautiful blue color.
“I didn't do anything!” Applebloom shouted at them. “Honest!”
Scootaloo was immediately by the egg, looking excited. “Oh! Oh! Is it hatching? Is it?”
“I'm not sure...” Applebloom replied uncertainly as she turned to their approaching unicorn filly friend. “Is it hatching?”
“You live in a farm and you sell eggs, and you even watch a few hatch into little yellow chicks. So you tell me!”
Applebloom arched an eyebrow. “Since when do you talk like a smart-flank?”
Sweetie Belle's ears drooped. “S-sorry... I guess I'm just nervous, confused and excited at the moment...”
“Look! Look!” Scootaloo pointed a hoof at the egg. “Something white is glowing and circling around the red circle-thing!”
“Aaannnddd...that's exciting, why?”
Scootaloo turned to glare at Applebloom. “It just looks cool, okay?”
They could hear a quiet and constant hum from the glowing egg. Slowly, slowly, they leaned closer, their eyes growing into saucers as they held their breaths. Finally, three small and white-glowing orbs emerged from the dimming and quieting egg.
Blinking, Sweetie Belle stared at the orb in front of her, then at the egg, and then back at the orb. “Um...h-hello?”
The orb didn't do anything.
“Is...this it?” Scootaloo said, disappointment in her voice as she tried to touch the orb in front of her, but somehow, the said orb dodged her touch every time. “What is this thing?”
“Beats me,” Applebloom shrugged. “Maybe they're Breezies?”
“Breezies?” Sweetie Belle asked. “They don't look like Breezies to me...”
“Maybe they're Parasprites!”
Applebloom arched an eyebrow while staring at the orb. “Parasprites reproduce from their own...poop...or vomit, Scootaloo...”
“Oh, right...”
Applebloom, seeing that Scootaloo was still trying to touch the orb, thought that there doesn't seem to be any danger, at the moment. Swallowing a small lump of doubt, she jabbed a hoof to the orb floating in front of her, only for it to swiftly dodge her hoof by a hair. “What the hay?” She tried again, and again, and again.
Sweetie Belle giggled at her friends who were starting to get frustrated. She tried to touch her own orb, but it dodged her all the same. “Maybe we should try touching it at the same time?”
Her friends stopped their attempts, looking at each other.
“Eh, whatever.”
“No harm in trying, I guess.”
“Okay then,” Sweetie Belle nodded at them, and then turned to her orb. She lifted a hoof. “On three.”
Both her friends lifted a hoof, locking their aim on their orbs.
“One... Two... Three!”
Three hooves missed three orbs.
“Dagnabit,” Applebloom cursed, and then she stared with curious eyes as her orb suddenly shook in place. Looking around, she noticed her friends' orbs were shaking as well.
“I'm scared...” Sweetie Belle whispered.
Scootaloo blew a raspberry. “Pfft... What harm could these little things do?”
As if to answer her question, each orb shot themselves towards the yelping fillies, creating a bright flash of white light in the process.
Cracking open an eye, Applebloom could only see the blue egg sitting in front of her. “Um... W-what just ha—” she froze. “...w-what? My voice?”
“What's wrong, 'bloom?” Scootaloo asked.
Applebloom gasped after recognizing that voice: her voice! She turned and saw Scootaloo, her face frozen in shock, and slowly scratching her neck. “Um...”
“What in the hay just happened?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And why does my voice sound so squeaky like Sweetie Belle?”
“My voice isn't squeaky!” Scootaloo shouted, and then covered her mouth in surprise.
“I wasn't talking to you, Scoo—” Sweetie Belle cuts herself off after she saw Applebloom staring in shock at her. “...what...in tarnation?”
Applebloom suddenly started laughing, falling on her back. “Ahahahah! Oh! Sweetie Belle! You sound weird with that Apple accent!”
Sweetie Belle glared daggers at...her former self. Her glare softened a bit. “...I look weird if I laugh like that.”
“Weird?” Scootaloo asked shakily. “Weird? Applebloom laughing like Scootaloo is weird? W-we've switched bodies! Shouldn't that be even weirder?”
“I guess so,” Sweetie Belle snickered. “But a worrywart Scootaloo is even weirder.”
“I know, right?!” Applebloom laughed even more. “It's totally not me! Ponies can immediately tell the difference!”
Something clicked inside Sweetie Belle's and Scootaloo's minds about what Applebloom just said. Sweetie Belle's eyes shrunk. “Whoa, nelly...”
Scootaloo covered her muzzle with both hooves. “R-Rarity's gonna kill me!”
“Geez, you two,” Applebloom sat back with rolling eyes. “Chillax! We can—Sweetie, why are your eyes blue?”
“Huh?” Scootaloo blinked.
Applebloom turned to her. “Not you, me. I—hey! You have blue eyes, too!”
“And you, too.”
Applebloom blinked. “Wow. Really?”
“Lemme see that,” Sweetie Belle grabbed Applebloom's face and turned it to face her. “...huh. Blue eyes look lovely on me.”
Applebloom slapped her hooves away. “The way you grabbed my face, it was like you were going to kiss me, like those magazines Rainbow Dash has under her bed.”
Scootaloo blushed.
Sweetie Belle arched an eyebrow. “For your information, that body's mine, so I can do whatever I want with it. Also, what magazines are you talking about?”
Applebloom blinked. “You really don't know?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. Scootaloo blushed further.
Applebloom sighed. “You really need to explore the world more, Swe—er, Applebloom...”
“The way Scoot—I mean, Sweetie Belle blushed, I think I'm good to not knowing anything about it. Thank you very much.”
“Can we change the subject to a more important matter, please?” Scootaloo begged.
Sweetie Belle nodded. “Right. But before anything else,” she glared at the egg. “I was right that this thing is trouble. Anyway,” she turned back to her friends. “We're gonna be in a lot of trouble if we're going to be stuck like this forever.”
“Forever?!” Scootaloo shrieked, voice broken.
Applebloom winced, “ow, Sweetie... My voice can't squeal like you, so stop doing that.”
“S-sorry,” Scootaloo frowned, her ears drooping. “But, we're gonna be stuck like this forever?”
Sweetie Belle shook her head. “That was a figure of speech, Scoots. Anyway,” she turned to Applebloom. “...still feels kinda weird looking at myself not on a mirror, but, you were saying something?”
“Huh? I was? Oh! Right!” Applebloom nodded excitingly. “Anyway, instead of freaking out like what impostor me is doing, we should take advantage of this!”
“...what?”
“This is a perfect opportunity for us to try and get an impostor cutie mark!” Applebloom grinned wide.
“...that's your plan?”
“Well, no. But when opportunity opens itself up, we should grab it, right?”
Sweetie Belle thought over it, and then nodded, albeit a bit reluctantly. “Um...alright, I guess.” She turned and looked outside the window. “We still have plenty of daylight to burn, but,” she looked back at Applebloom. “After that, then what?”
Applebloom grinned. “And then we freak out. Ouch!”
Sweetie Belle glared as she pulled her hoof back after hitting Applebloom on the head.
Scootaloo sighed, ears drooping. “This won't end well...”