"Hey girls!" Scootaloo cried from down the street.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were with their sisters in the market buying food. Rarity and Applejack were chatting. Actually, Applejack was giving Rarity a lecture on the foods that would help her "keep her form".
Their little sisters looked over to see Scootaloo zipping towards them on her scooter.
"Scootaloo!" Applebloom responded. "What's up?"
Sweetie belle turned away from the 'conversation' her sisters were having just in time to see Scootaloo skid to a stop in front of them, covering them in a cloud of dust.
"*cough!* Howdy, *cough!* ...little Scootaloo... *cough!*... Could you be a little more *cough!* careful? I think Rarity's about to have a fuss." Applejack pointed out as the dust settled to reveal a now light brown Rarity. Applejack let out a small chuckle.
Rarity's eyes were wide, and she was clearly straining to control herself in front of the girls. "Hello. Scootaloo." She said.
"Sorry, my fault", Scootaloo said all too quickly for Rarity's taste.
"We know", Rarity mumbled under her breath, to which Applejack responded with a simple glare.
"You'll never guess what idea I just had!" Scootaloo looked at Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.
Applebloom looked at Scootaloo suspiciously, "It's not like the last one is it?"
"Yeah, I didn't like that one." Sweetie belle said.
Scootaloo got defensive, "How was I supposed to know that the mud-hole was that deep?" She reached into a small bag that she had on her and pulled out a small object and held it up to Applebloom's face. "Do you know what this is?"
Applebloom looked at it, checking for anything strange. "It looks like it's just a rock."
"Not just any rock!" Scootaloo interjected.
"Then what kind of rock is it?" Sweetie Belle asked innocently?
Scootaloo looked them in the eye with her best adventurous face, and said, "I'll show you! C'mon!" With a flick, her scooter pointed in the opposite direction.
Out of habit, the three girls looked up to Applejack and Rarity, awaiting their verdict. Applejack and Rarity glanced at each other and their things, then turned back to the girls. "Y'all go right on ahead. Me an' Rarity here are gonna be a while."
"Sure... go ahead Sweetie... and I'm just going to go try to get this dirt out of my coat..." Rarity was almost hyperventilating by this point, having gotten a good look at herself during the conversation.
Applejack leaned down close to the three girls and whispered wink, "Y'all best get goin' quick, before she explodes."
The three girls chucked, and started on their way. "We'll be back soon!" Scootaloo called back, before revving up her wings and zipping back down the road.
Applejack turned to Rarity and gave another chuckle, "Calm yerself. Ain't nothin' bad happened. It's just a quick bath and you'll be spic 'n span again."
Rarity only responded with a glare, followed by a deep breath and a sigh. "Let's go before anypony else sees me like this."
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"Come on, Applebloom! You should be good at this. Don't you live on an apple buckin' farm?", Scootaloo teased.
"But mah sister doesn't let me buck the apples", Applebloom replied.
"You've gotta have some buckin' blood in ya!" Scootaloo placed a small rock on top of a tin can directly behind Applebloom. "You can do it! Try again!"
"Ah right then. Ah guess ah can try..."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" chirped Sweetie Belle from behind them.
"Absolutely!", Scootaloo replied.
Applebloom swiftly pulled her leg in and kicked as hard as she could. The rock soared through the air, barreling towards an abandoned building at the end of the street. The rock made a satisfying thump almost 2 inches from a broken window. It had carved a large revealing chunk in the painted wood.
"So close!" Scootaloo gritted her teeth playfully. "My turn." she set another rock on the tin can, and prepared to buck.
"Just aim a little to the left..." Applebloom started framing with her hooves, as if searching for the perfect trajectory. Sweetie Belle sat a short distance back with a worried look on her face.
"I got this! I'm gonna buck those windows into next winter!" And with the swift kick of her hooves, the rock went flying straight up into the air, floating high above the roofline. Just as she looked up to see where it was going, a colorful streak zipped across the sky, colliding with the rock. A loud- CRACK! -reached the young fillies ears.
Sweetie Belle squealed. Applebloom gasped. And Scootaloo just stared, horrified, as a colorful blue pegasus smacked into the side of a building far behind them, falling to the ground like a sack just a moment later. The three girls froze in place, their eyes fixed on the consequences of their little game.
Scootaloo began shaking. "No... no nonononono..."
They scampered over to where the pegasus was lying. On the way over, they noticed a green glow emanating from the body.
"Wha...?"
Before Scootaloo could get another word out, a green wave passed over the pegasus on the ground, revealing the black corpse of a changeling. There was a neat little hole between it's eyes.
"Woah! Hey! What happened?", a familiar voice sounded over head. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground next to them, and stared in amazement. "I've been chasin' this spy all day. And you three girls actually got him? I'm impressed!"
Scootaloo exhaled. "I uh... I mean we uh..." She was too phased by what had just happened to claim the honor for the occurrence.
Rainbow Dash interrupted. "No time to talk kiddo. We gotta get you girls outta here, pronto! There's been an invasion." She got down low enough for them to jump on her back. "Hop on!"
They didn't hesitate, and scrambled onto Rainbow's back. Not a moment later, they were soaring over Ponyville. From high over the town, they could see that, not too far in the distance, an army was gathering...