"Here, chick-chick-chick-chick-chick! Brawck, bawk-bawk-bawk, brawck!"
Apple Bloom was immensely proud of her chicken call. It might not have been as excellent as her brother's turkey call, but it was near-flawless. Frankly, she was shocked that she hadn't gotten a chicken-calling cutie mark—though at the same time, she was kind of okay with that. She was nearly as proud of her plan to get herself and her friends out of Fluttershy's cottage. She felt a bit bad for escaping, and the thought of how worried Fluttershy would be did upset her slightly, but it would all be worth it when the three of them came home with her chicken and three brand-new cutie marks to show for it.
"What are you doing?" Scootaloo asked.
"Callin' for the chicken!" Bloom replied. Of course Scootaloo didn't understand that. She wasn't nearly as smart about farming stuff as Bloom was.
"That is not how you call a chicken," Scootaloo insisted.
"Oh, and you know how to call a chicken?" Bloom asked sarcastically. As far as she knew, Scootaloo had not grown up around chickens like she had.
"I know that's not the way," Scootaloo answered defiantly. As far as she knew, Bloom had not grown up around cool books with animal pictures that played the sounds they made like she had.
"Then show me," Bloom said, a smug grin on her face.
"I don't have to show you!" Scootaloo retorted.
"You're just chicken!" Bloom told her. There was that good old Apple wit, once again showing up when she needed it most.
"Am not!" Scootaloo replied. She was planning on joining the school debate team, and this was excellent practice.
"Oh, wait, now I know how to call a chicken!" Bloom said with a devilish grin. "Scootaloo! Scoot-scootalooooo!"
"That's so funny I forgot to laugh!" Scootaloo shot back, clearly unamused.
"You also forgot how to call a chicken," Bloom said through a cheshire grin.
"Why, you..." Scootaloo growled, glaring at her nemesis. Bloom stuck her tongue out at her and blew a raspberry, then looked to Sweetie Belle for approval. Sweetie, however, was not amused by their antics.
"Come on, guys," Sweetie said. "We're not gonna find the chicken or our cutie marks by arguing."
"There's a lot more you're not going to do if you don't go home," a voice said. All three fillies jumped in surprise, though Scootaloo tried to play it off as just a jump for the sake of jumping.
"Wh-who said that?" Bloom asked, backing up against her friends.
"I did," Sugarcoat said, stepping out from behind a tree.
"Oh..." Bloom responded, relieved. "It's just you, Sugarcoat. I thought it was some kinda monster."
"Now you're worried about monsters," Sugarcoat said dryly. "That didn't matter to you three when you decided to walk into the Everfree Forest all by yourself? You're not too bright."
"Hey!" Scootaloo responded. "We're not scared!"
"Tell that to your scaredy wings back there," Sugarcoat said, pointing at Scootaloo's outstretched wings. Scootaloo coughed and blushed lightly, folding them down.
"Look, we'd love to listen to you," Bloom said. "But we've got important cutie mark business to take care of in there."
"A-actually, I wouldn't mind going back..." Sweetie said, a bit shakily.
"Looks like she's the smartest of the bunch," Sugarcoat responded. "Because if I were one of the myriad monsters living in this forest, I'd look at three young fillies walking around all by themselves and see them as a good snack. You can't get a cutie mark in a monster's belly, and even if you could, you'd never even get to see it."
The three fillies looked at each other, gulping in unison. As much as they wanted to get their cutie marks, they didn't want to get them for being monster food. That kind of talent was the type that only came into play once.
"So you're going back to Fluttershy's, right?" Sugarcoat asked.
"Yes, Miss Sugarcoat!" the three answered hastily. The sounds of riffing capes accompanied the girls' speedy gallop out of the forest. Sugarcoat smirked a bit. She didn't usually care about doing good deeds, but they were just kids. She smiled a satisfied smile as she followed them out of the forest, confident that she'd stopped things before something terrible could happen.
~~~~~~~~~~
A ladybug crawled across Twilight Sparkle's eye.