Chapter 1
"Sweetie Belle, are you sure we should be doing this? Whispered Scootaloo.
They kept their voices down because the were currently crawling along the ground floor of Twilight Sparkle's house. They weren't quite as quiet as ninja ponies, but her pet owl seemed content to continue the convenient nap they had found it in.
Sweetie Belle checked if the owl had stirred at Scootaloo's question, then replied. "Affirmative. Twilight Sparkle is sure to have the neccesary equipment to aquire chemistry cutie marks."
Scootaloo sighed. "I know that," she said. "I meant should we be doing this without Apple Bloom? We should wait until she's back from visiting her family in Manehattan."
"Negative. Waiting is inefficient." Sweetie Belle resumed crawling towards the basement stairs.
Scootaloo shook her head. "Just feels wrong without her." She replied, albeit mostly to herself. After a moment she started crawling as well.
Reaching the door, they found that it was fairly rusty, as if Spike rarely cleaned it for fear of sabotaging some experiment or another. Therefor, it creaked quite loudly. They yanked it open quickly to make as little noise as possible.
It hardly seemed to matter. The owl was apparently the deepest sleeper of all owlkind, and as loud as the creaking was, there was no way the sound would travel all the way to where Twilight and Spike were sleeping.
In truth, they weren't afraid of the owl waking Twilight. They had never heard it hoot loud enough to wake anyone. Attempting absolute stealth was more of a formality. A challenge they set for themselves.
As they descended the stairs and reached the lab, Sweetie Belle's mechanical eyes scanned the flasks and beakers that were neatly arranged in rows on the various shelves and tables. Nearly all of them were filled with brightly colored fluids and it seemed that there were at least three active experiments simmering. As Scootaloo flicked on the light, they noticed a locked drawer in the far corner. The lights were not as bright above it.
"I think we should avoid that drawer." Sweetie Belle cautioned.
Scootaloo gulped. I totally agre with you there." She turned away from the ominous drawer and a bright, michevious look replaced the worry in her eyes. She waved toward the rest of the lab. "Let's get to work."
It was easier said than done. Even barring the lack of any chemical knowledge, there was still the problem of height. The lab was designed with a fully grown, telekinetic unicorn in mind, not two little fillies. Especially when one of them is an earth-bound pegasus and the other is a novice at moving things with her magic.
This dilema confounded them for a while, which made them nervous. Every second they were stumped by this problem was another second closer to Twilight waking up and discovering the pair of interlopers. That would be... unpleasant.
Finally, Scootaloo hit on an idea. "Spike helps Twilight out sometimes, right? There's got to be a stool or something around here."
"That seems logical." Sweetie Belle agreed.
With new purpose, they searched the lab. After looking in all of the nooks in the room, they eventually found a small stepladder stashed under one of the workbenches.
They decided that, even though it would be a bit uncomfortable, the ladder was just wide enough for the both of them to stand on.. Climbing up, they carefully set to work. As carefully as they could when every now and then one of them would elbow the other while trying to reach a flask.
On the matter of the strange liquids in these vials, they could not tell what was in them due to their inabillity to understand what Twilight had written on the labels. Also, they did not care. Anything in reach was poured into the largest container they could find.
The result was a strange shade of brown, like watered down butterscotch pudding mixed with mud. Satisfied with their work, they leaned away from the table and looked expectantly at their flanks. They stayed blank.
"Looks like we're not cut out to be chemists, Sweetie Belle." Scootaloo grumbled as she hung her head. "Maybe it would've worked for Apple Bloom."
Sweetie Belle's eyes narrowed. "The accusation levels are intolerable. Appologize!"
"I'm just saying. We're supposed to all be in this together, and that means not ditching one of us when they're inconvenient."
The ladder wobbled a bit as Sweetie Belle turned to face her detractor. "You are here. That makes you an accomplice in the ditching!"
The argument had gotten loud, and they both winced as hoofsteps sounded above them. The voice of Twilight Sparkle floated down to them, "... Because, Spike, I thought I heard something."
"Come on, Twilght, it was probably just the owl. Now can I please go back to sleep?"
As the voices trailed off, Scootaloo shook her head. "Whatever. I'm out of here." She hopped off the ladder.
The sudden lack of any counter-weight caused the ladder to tip over, dumping Sweetie Belle onto her head. As she fell, she flailed and pushed the ladder with a hoof. It banged into one of the table's legs. That nudge made the mixing bowl, already dangerously close to the edge of the table, slide forward just enough to dump its contents. Scootaloo was just turning around to see if Sweetie was okay when the bowl, and all of the sludge inside it, landed on her head.
There was a deafening bang and the room was filled with smoke. If the sound of the two arguing was enough to wake her, this was definitely enough to clue Twilight in on the intruders in her lab. The door at the stairs flew open.
"What is going on in-" The question was lost as she choked on the thick smoke.
Opening the door had given the smoke a place to go and the room was quickly cleared of it. Sweetie Belle could see again. What she saw was... Scootaloo?
The pegasus had changed. She still had her wings and her head was still the same. She even remained a bright orange! But the rest of her body was obviously that of a chicken.
Before Sweetie Belle could say anything, Scootaloo let out a be-gawk and ran up the stairs. Twilight watched her as she sped past, then turned to the remaining pony. "Was Scootaloo a chicken? What is going on here, I demand an explaination!"
Sweetie Belle stood, detirmination on her face. "Expaination is inefficient. I will retrieve the Scootachicken."
She ran out into the night after her friend.