The Cutie Mark Crusaders in Avenellia: The Chicken and the Dodo

by pmcollectorboy

Doorways

Doorways

"Love unlocks the door to one's heart. A good song unlocks the jewelry box."---Old sparrow proverb.

Scootaloo grumbled and dragged her heels as she walked through Whitetail Woods with her friends, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. The bottoms of Scootaloo's hooves throbbed from plodding through the dirt for a solid hour, and two calf muscles felt like they were on the verge of spontaneously combusting. All told, Scootaloo would say she wasn't having a good day. The half-closed eyelids and sour frowns on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle told Scootaloo that her friends weren't faring much better physically.

Overhead, the sun climbed ever higher, signaling the arrival of noon. Scootaloo lazily kicked up a spray of leaves and started entertaining thoughts of finding ways to leave the outing when her meanderings were interrupted by a sharp growl from around the region of her stomach.

Scootaloo turned her head and caught Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle staring at her and flashing big, toothy smiles.

"Wow, Scootaloo!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle. "That was a good one! Did you even eat breakfast? That sounded like it was loud enough to wake the dead."

Scootaloo's ears slowly filtered in the chatter of their teacher, Cheerilee and the rest of the class, and Scootaloo realized the three of them had fallen a little bit behind. However, she couldn't be bothered to place extra energy into her legs to catch up to the group.

"Breakfast schmeakfast!" Scootaloo spat. "Mornings are when I try out new tricks on my scooter and try to go farther with my wings. Eating breakfast would just take up too much time."

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes while Apple Bloom darted off to join up with Cheerilee.

"Oh get real!" said Sweetie Belle. "Your wings are always going to be puny!"

Scootaloo screwed her face into an attempt at a sneer but decided she could never accomplish anything resembling menace. She then stuck out her tongue instead and added, "Nuh uh!"

"Yuh huh!"

"Nuh UH!" Scootaloo exclaimed with a stomp of a forehoof, a rise in her voice and notes of hurt edging into her words.

Sweetie Belle pursed her lips and cast a downward glance when she realized she was treading into dangerous territory. Feeling ill at ease, she tried to change the topic but continued walking towards the rest of the group. "Boy I can't wait for this walking to end so we can get to that picnic! I wonder what Miss Cheerilee brought us out here for."

Scootaloo shrugged. "Who knows? Probably another lame..." Scootaloo picked up a small, slender purple leaf and placed it across the bridge of her snout, pretending they were glasses, tossed her head high in the air and changed the pitch of her voice to imitate her teacher. "Educational session! Now today, class, we are going to be talking about the wonders of nature!"

Sweetie Belle had her muzzle buried fiercely into her front hooves, trying her best to stifle a fit of the snorts but not having much luck, for she was giggling like a hyena. "You know Miss Cheerilee doesn't WEAR glasses," she managed to titter out after her laughter had slowed down.

Scootaloo blushed and looked around, hoping nopony saw her making a spectacle. "I did that for... emphasis! Yes that's right!" Scootaloo couldn't help but notice Sweetie Belle flashing an incredulous stare and decided to move her attention back to her hunger. "Anyway... My stomach so totally can't wait for me to chow down on these cookies I brought," Scootaloo continued.

The orange pegasus filly looked to her flank where there rested a small saddlebag, one that was about the right size for a schoolfilly, and she stuck her snout into the flap, inhaling deeply and smiling as the scent of walnuts and chocolate chips produced a broad grin and a sliver of saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Sweetie Belle frowned, seemingly shocked far worse than Scootaloo was expecting. "You brought cookies?! But Miss Cheerilee expressly told us not to bring sugary things! Only granola bars! Miss Cheerilee has something special planned for our picnic, and she said sweets..."

"Aww you're worse than my dad!" Scootaloo exclaimed with another emergence of her tongue.

Scootaloo finally found the energy to bound away from Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo felt thoroughly irritated. She couldn't explain it, but lately it had seemed that she and Sweetie Belle did little but fight, often over the silliest things, such as the proper technique for increasing the launching force of a toaster, and Scootaloo only found herself getting more and more impatient with her friend. Yes, Scootaloo had to admit to herself that she had a short fuse and a daring, firebrand attitude. She couldn't help it. Maybe it was Rainbow Dash rubbing off on her, but every day brought an even fiercer desire to grab life by the throat and do more with more gumption and go farther.

Deep down, Scootaloo knew that underneath Sweetie Belle's occasionally vacant expressions lay a mind that had its sharp moments, although she would never admit that to Sweetie Belle's face. However, Scootaloo noticed that more and more of Sweetie Belle's sister rubbed off on her, and her need to correct Scootaloo, a behavior which seemed to be manifesting itself with more alarming frequency, and fascination with the prim and proper mushy lovey dovey girly stuff could only crawl deeper under Scootaloo's hide.

"Ugh. What's wrong with cookies? I mean I LIKE cookies. She probably likes cookies even more than me! Who does she think she is?" Scootaloo grumbled as she huffed and stomped her way to the group and finally caught up.

Scootaloo gave a slight pant as her wings drooped and she placed the last few shaky hoof steps, one in front of another, then promptly collapsed on the ground as she cursed the throbbing in her legs. She looked up and around, which was slightly uncomfortable given her low vantage point, but she couldn't be bothered to dig for the energy to move her legs anymore. She saw a couple of her classmates standing over her with expressions of mild concern, Snails standing behind Silver Spoon and cleaning his ears, and Diamond Tiara snickering and trying to hide a malicious smirk. Cheerilee parted the crowd of fillies and colts and waded her way through to help Scootaloo to her feet. She then turned around and headed back to the front of the class as Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom trotted up to Scootaloo's side.

"Scootaloo, stop being so dramatic," Cheerilee snapped.

The renowned trouble-making grin of Diamond Tiara's parted her lips, and she spoke with an icy tongue. "Yeah, Scootalump. SOME of us are here to learn. So stop holding the rest of us up!"

Scootaloo gritted her teeth so hard she feared she would chip a tooth, and she mumbled under her breath, struggling to keep her rising anger in check. "Why you..."

"Come on, Scootaloo!" Sweetie Belle piped up as she tried to distract the orange one. "Let's go see how many colors we can find in the leaves!"

"And that goes for you too, Diamond Tiara!" added Cheerilee, never losing her sing song tone.

Scootaloo burst into a fit of laughter that she instantly regretted when a cramp in her sides flared up. As she rolled over and grabbed her stomach, alternating between laughing and mumbling utterances of discomfort, Sweetie Belle waltzed over, grabbed Scootaloo by the tail with her mouth, and hauled the pegasus away.

"Come on, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom muttered as she walked along with Sweetie Belle.

Sweetie Belle dragged Scootaloo off to one side where a pile of leaves lay underneath a particularly scrawny looking elm tree. Scootaloo then righted herself and placed her bag on the ground. She then looked around. This particular part of Whitetail Woods had had a Running of the Leaves event the day before yesterday but would require another one to coerce the remaining leaves to part with their trees. Around Scootaloo and her friends, many parachutist maples were in free fall, tumbling end over end, whirling and pinwheeling in a vibrant waltz of shiny, waxy leaves, bedecking the air with a glimmering spectacle of crimson dancers. Many more remained in the crowns of the trees, tenaciously clinging to their branches like friends refusing to part, or newcomer dancers suddenly developing stage fright and refusing to take part in the dance. The applause of thundering hooves would soon change their tunes.

As Scootaloo turned her head and panned her view across the woods, she slowly started to admire the natural beauty of them, with their multitude of reds, yellows and purples of varying shades seemingly splashed haphazardly across the landscape in a vibrant palette. The soothing warbling of song birds, rhythmic hammering of woodpeckers, and soft melodies of woodcocks and mourning doves came to her ears. Scootaloo didn't want to admit it, but she was glad for the distraction.

Over her shoulder, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were muttering something to each other. There was little doubt in Scootaloo's mind that they were up to something. She tried her best to press them out of her thoughts, as she didn't want to get agitated any further. They seemed to have acquired another lackey, a rose-colored unicorn filly named Pearls Wine, making the snobby clique a trio, a sort of sick mock up of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Judging by Pearls Wine's overall height and girth of her legs, it would seem they had found the muscle of their group. Scootaloo didn't feel intimidated though. Then again, they hadn't had a confrontation yet, short of Diamond Tiara's occasional but typically obnoxious verbal attacks.

Cheerilee stopped underneath a couple trees and did her best to gather the attention of her class. Upon seeing the teacher calling everypony and gesturing the kids to gather around, Scootaloo exhaled a sigh and motioned with her head to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo leaned down to pick up her bag and Apple Bloom merely took one last look around before sighing heavily and trudging back towards the main group. Scootaloo couldn't blame her friend one bit. She suspected that any minute, their teacher would be talking about educational nonsense on how to identify a maple from an elm, how many different types of which tree were in the woods, and possibly even boring details about animals that would be better suited for Fluttershy than them. They just wanted to look at the scenery and eat.

As Scootaloo was about to slip her head through the strap to slide her bag onto her back, she caught a glimpse of the world upside down, and Sweetie Belle heading off in a different direction and gazing at a point rather persistently. Scootaloo righted her head, leaving her bag on the ground, and arching an eyebrow, glanced back over her shoulder to where Sweetie Belle was cantering off. Apple Bloom traced Scootaloo's gaze and saw the same thing, that of Sweetie Belle's blank flank getting farther away from them.

"What in tarn...?" Apple Bloom began.

Scootaloo darted off, bagless, as Sweetie Belle called the two of them over.

"Guys! Check this out!" the filly unicorn said.

Apple Bloom hung her head and slowly shook it. "We are so gettin' busted." She then lifted her head and galloped off herself, shouting, "Hey wait up!"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom caught up to Sweetie Belle and both instantly doubled over to catch their breaths.

"I am so... sick of running..." Scootaloo huffed. "I wish I had bigger wings."

"Well ya don't. Now don't ya?" Apple Bloom teased.

Scootaloo's eyes narrowed to slits as she gave Apple Bloom a venomous sidelong glare.

"Look at this! The poor thing," Sweetie Belle piped up, getting the attention of her two friends again.

The pegasus and earth pony glanced around, momentarily not seeing what Sweetie Belle was on about, but it wasn't long before they saw what she did as well. Flapping and hopping about, aimless and possibly terrified, a white swan battered itself about in a dance of sheer fright. Its feathers filled the air as many were ejected from its body and wings. Its neck had an ugly bruise and several spots where the feathers had been soiled dark by dirt, ruining its almost angelic pure white down. Twigs and leaves were threaded around some of its primaries. The reason for its manic state then suddenly made itself known to the fillies. A knot of string trapped one of the swan's feet. The other end lay tethered to a small stake shoved into the forest floor.

Scootaloo drew back one corner of her mouth in a note of disgust. "This is what you called us out here for? A stupid swan? If Miss Cheerilee hasn't found out we've wandered away from the group, she most likely WILL soon enough." Her pupils shrank as the realization hit her. "She's going to tell my folks. She's going to tell my DAD! Oh I'm going to get such a butt whoop..."

"How can you be so heartless?!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed with a stomp of her front hooves. "We have to help it. What if somepony did this to this poor thing on purpose?"

"What's this WE nonsense?" Scootaloo scoffed. "I don't know about you Apple Bloom, but I'm going to try to keep out of trouble. You have absolutely no idea what kind of spankings my dad gives." Scootaloo shuddered at the thought.

Apple Bloom shuffled her right front hoof and scraped grooves in the ground, uncertainty filling her mind. "Well it does seem rather distressed."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Right. Plus what if we get our cutie marks for this?"

Scootaloo gazed at Sweetie Belle, who only rewarded her with a large set of doe eyes. Scootaloo huffed and dragged her right front hoof down across her face in aggravation but eventually gave up. "All right fine. So what's this operation going to be called?"

"How about Cutie Mark Crusaders Trapped Swan Untanglers?" suggested Apple Bloom.

"Right," Scootaloo iterated in a monotone.

Sweetie Belle nodded, and the three of them uttered their mantra.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Trapped Swan Untanglers Go!"

* * *

Cheerilee smiled as she gestured to the different types of trees, going over her lecture on how to identify which leaf went with which tree, the different types of forest zones, what the mix of trees were in Whitetail Woods, and even what kind of animals could be found. She walked along slowly past several more trees, talking as she went along, and the class followed her.

"Whitetail Woods has many of the common songbirds, including the oriole and the cardinal, and other types of birds like the mourning dove and the woodcock, which is unusual in its ability to see completely around its body, and the rare mottled woodpecker," Cheerilee said as she walked, the leaves and twigs on the forest floor cracking underneath her hoofsteps.

She heard snickers from a couple colts and fillies from the mention of the woodcock and stopped to turn around and face her class, only to curiously find nothing but innocently smiling faces. As she started walking again, she heard Twist try to get her attention.

"Um exscuthe me Mith Cheerilee? But isn't that Thcootaloo's bag over there?" the awkward, bespectacled filly lisped.

"Hmm?"

The teacher turned around and followed Twist's pointing hoof to a spot on the ground some distance off. While it was difficult to see among the colorful leaves of red and orange, Scootaloo's book bag did indeed lie on the forest floor in a pile of leaves, absent its owner. Cheerilee faced the class again and did a head count. It was then that she realized her error, and her eyes widened in panic.

"Oh dear. Where are Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle?" she said, her pitch increasing several shades along with her talking speed. Harried, she glanced back over to the bag and beyond it and panned her head around this way and that, looking for some kind of sign of the missing fillies. "Okay here's what we're going to do," Cheerilee continued, turning her attention back towards the class. She then took a deep breath. "Everypony continue on to the picnic site. If we all started looking around for the three, it'll just be complete disorder. I will go to the ranger station and file a missing pony report and then come back for the class. Snails? You..." She turned to the brown, bug-loving colt, who was happily humming a nonsense tune with a vacant stare in his eyes. "Snips, then." She spotted the short stack pony hopping madly up and down from the back of the group. She shook her head and turned back to Twist. "Twist. You're in charge. Keep everypony at the picnic tables and behaving reasonably well until I get back. Is that clear?"

Twist smiled and made a salute. "Yeth ma'am!"

As Cheerilee headed off, Diamond Tiara could only scoff at Twist's assignment as leader.

"As the smartest, best looking, and most responsible one in the class, I should've been given the leader position, not HER," Diamond Tiara muttered, wrinkling her nose.

"Okay, everypony. You heard Mith Cheerilee. Leth all go to the picnic site!" exclaimed Twist to the rest of the class, her ever widening smile suggesting the pride that she felt.

The towering Pearls Wine took a menacing step towards Twist, who flinched and instantly backpedaled. "Hey I've got a better idea!"

Pearls Wine took a couple steps towards the orange bag and levitated it towards her. She then opened up the flap and gawked at the contents, a sinister smile parting her lips. Inside were several sandwich bags full of chocolate chip cookies. Judging by the size, shape, and glossy shine of them, the cookies seemed to be of the home baked variety. There was little doubt a lot of love and care went into their creation.

"Oh what's this? Scootaloo breaking the rules by bringing sweets? Tsk tsk," Pearls Wine said in a mock goody twoshoes attitude.

"Oh dear!" Diamond Tiara gasped as she placed a forehoof against her right cheek, trying to look shocked for a breach of responsibility. "What will Miss Cheerilee think? She told us that sugary things were bad for growing fillies and colts on such a long hike and that the sugar can attract bears and honey badgers." The purplish pink filly shook her head.

The sinister smile on Pearls Wine's face grew wider as she levitated a couple of the cookie bags out. "Wait wait. Let's have some fun!"

Twist and a couple of the other fillies could only watch in horror as the biggest bully in their group crumbled up a couple cookies and then carried the crumbs over to what looked like a small mound of dirt and soil. At the front of the mound was a gaping hole, and it was here that Pearls Wine dropped the cookie crumbs. She then gathered more cookies and crumbled them the same way as before, leaving a trail over to Scootaloo's bag.

"Hey, you can't...!" Twist piped up, stepping towards the bully.

Pearls jerked her head over to Twist and glared. "Who's gonna stop me? You?"

Twist fell silent.

When the deed had been done, Pearls nodded at Diamond and Silver Spoon. "Honey badger den. Hopefully it's occupied."

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon exchanged a slow glance before the eyes of both fillies widened in shock. They scrambled around and over each other as they made a mad dash to seek out trees to hide behind. Tittering like a hyena, Pearls casually trotted away and watched from a distance behind a rock. The other fillies and colts cowered behind Twist and slowly backed away as a honey badger emerged, sniffing the air before discovering the cookies.

* * *

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom limped along back to where they had last seen the class, mumbling and complaining with each aching step. Scootaloo was especially grouchy. Most of the muscles in her body were giving her grief and almost half of her pain receptors seemed to be firing full throttle. What had originally started as merely just a bad day had turned into the worst day of her life, at least according to Scootaloo's soured mood. She was sick of running, sick of hurting, and sick of being hungry.

"Worst day of my life," Scootaloo muttered, her breathy voice barely above an audible whisper. Her thoughts then turned back to her cookies and the reasons for their baking, which caused her to think of her family. She elicited a wry chuckle. "Scratch that." Then mentally, she thought, 'The worst day of my life hasn't happened yet.'

"I didn't think that was too bad. In fact I think that went rather well."

Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stopped in their tracks and turned to gaze at Sweetie Belle with looks of abject horror. The white unicorn filly was the only one of the group who had emerged from the swan rescue unscathed.

Scootaloo furrowed her eyebrows. "Went well? Went WELL?!" Scootaloo's rising volume sent Sweetie Belle stumbling backwards. "That dumb swan beaked me in my right eyeball and clamped down on my left ear!" Scootaloo pointed with a hoof at her left ear, which had dried flecks of blood matting her coat there. "On top of that, we didn't even get cutie marks for our troubles!" Scootaloo turned away from Sweetie Belle and made a quick slashing motion with her left front hoof. "I don't want to have anything to do with swans or dumb animals ever again! I just want to take my mind off everything by getting to that picnic site and enjoying my cookies."

As they started walking again, Apple Bloom shook her head. "Well at least we did a good thing. Ah still can't believe you managed to calm that swan down enough ta undo the trap. An' more to the point, ah still can't believe you managed ta untangle that string with magic."

Sweetie Belle blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well I'm still no good at magic, but I've been practicing. I AM pretty good at singing, though, and I couldn't believe a song actually calmed that swan down. But Fluttershy told me that you have to treat animals with kindness and that birds like songs."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, feeling suddenly put off by an increase in what she perceived as cheesiness. "Good grief. Can we please stop talking about swans, already? I just want to get to those coo..." Scootaloo stopped walking as her voice trailed away. Her pupils shrank away to almost nothing and her knees became weak and wobbly. "My cookies," she breathed out, her voice dry and raspy.

Scootaloo glanced this way and that, frantically trying to spot her bag filled with her cookies. Instead, she spotted what looked like a commotion and the rest of the class in the distance.

Sweetie Belle approached Scootaloo and raised an eyebrow, concerned over her friend's loss of composure. "Uh, Scootaloo. You oka..."

Scootaloo took off running before Sweetie Belle could finish, completely ignoring her still cramping muscles.

"Okay? What the filly?" Sweetie Belle finished.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged glances and then chased after Scootaloo.

As Scootaloo came galloping up at the fastest she had ever run, the honey badger made haste towards its den, dropping cookie crumbs from its toothy mouth along the way. Scootaloo ground her heels in and skidded to a halt, her breath rapid and heavy. She didn't breath this way from fatigue, however. This time she was angry. She was seeing red.

As the fillies and colts saw that the badger had retreated, one by one they slowed their cowering and came out of their hiding spots. Twist was the first to spot Scootaloo.

"Hey Thcootaloo. Mith Cheerilee was actually looking..."

"Shut up, Twist," Scootaloo snapped.

Scootaloo looked at the ground and saw what was left of her cookies. They were little more than ruins, tiny bits of crumbles and baked cookie dough. Chocolate smeared blades of grass here and there, the last remaining signs of the chips that surely would've given the cookies their sweet and savory wonder. Scootaloo bent down and picked up a couple crumbs with her right front hoof and let them tumble down again. She then stomped down on a larger left over chunk of cookie, crushing it into smaller pieces, and gritted her teeth. She then looked up and gave the whole class a flashing, steely look, and all her classrooms suddenly grew more afraid than they had been with the badger. As she glanced around and her anger grew, she suddenly spotted her orange bag hung up on a lower branch of an elm tree. She gasped, and her anger faded briefly to a mix of disgust and surprise, and seeing this reaction caused Pearls to start snickering.

Scootaloo galloped up to the tree and craned her head upwards, spotting the bag dangling just out of reach. Her heart felt like it was at the bursting point for her anguished emotions, and she grew frantic, turning to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle as they trotted up to her.

"Help me! Please!" Scootaloo cried, her voice cracking. "That bag was a gift!"

Sweetie Belle gave Apple Bloom a sorrowful, empathetic look and then gave it to Scootaloo and nodded. "Let's make a tower!"

Scootaloo cracked a half smile as a glimmer of hope entered her heart. "Good idea, Sweetie Belle."

Apple Bloom noted the persistent stares of her two friends and groaned as she leaned up against the tree trunk, forming the base of the trio's tower. Apple Bloom then grunted as Sweetie Belle hopped up on her shoulders. The earth pony weaved and wiggled and struggled to support the weight of her friend. Scootaloo took a couple steps backward, licked her lips, shifted her stance down low, dug her heels in and took a running leap to the top of the tower. Apple Bloom groaned and screwed her eyes tight as she tensed her shoulder muscles and locked her knees. The weight above her shifted and leaned this way and that, and she struggled to keep the tower of fillies propped up against the tree trunk.

"Whoa! Keep it steady down there!" Scootaloo exclaimed as she glanced down at her friends.

Apple Bloom finally found her balance and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well if only SOMEpony would lay off the junk food more often, Sweetie Belle!"

Sweetie Belle frowned. "Hey I haven't gained that much weight. YOU try living with a sister who practically lives to indulge! And don't lock up your knees. You're the base and I don't want you passing out."

"Quit being a know-it-all!"

Frustrated, Scootaloo shouted down at her two arguing friends. "Will you two hold still and keep it down?!"

Scootaloo glanced up at her bag, which still hung on the tree branch like a tangled puppet. It still seemed a little bit out of reach. She stretched her tiny wings, jumped up from Sweetie Belle's back, and fluttered with all her might. She pumped and strained until her face flushed red but never got any higher than several inches. She was nowhere near close to snagging her bag from the tree.

"Come on, Scootalump! Can't you fly?" Diamond Tiara teased, her voice icy. "Fly, Scootalump, fly! Fly, Scootalump, fly!"

Diamond Tiara's demeaning chant caused a couple other fillies and colts not particularly close to Scootaloo to join in, rewarding the broken-hearted pegasus with a veritable chorus of poisonous insults. Twist went around from pony to pony, shushing each one and gesturing towards him or her to stop the chants. She felt she had let down Cheerilee in her task of being the appointed leader and wanted to salvage as much of her responsibilities as possible. To Twist's chagrin, she wasn't having any luck. Pearls Wine didn't join in the chanting, however. She was flat on her back with her legs bicycling in the air as she laughed herself sick at the whole spectacle she had caused.

Scootaloo gave up trying to fly and covered her ears to drown out the noise of the chanting. She then looked down at Sweetie Belle, and with her frustrations growing over the loss of her cookies and book bag, and with the degrading chanting almost drowning her out, she unwittingly raised her voice and nearly frightened her unicorn friend.

"Don't just stand there! Use your magic and give me an assist!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle shrank away and looked away from Scootaloo's intense stare. "I don't know if I can."

"At least try, you useless good for nothing!" Then, realizing her error and seeing Sweetie Belle's hurt expression, she bit her lip and added, "Please help me."

Sweetie Belle sniffled, wiped her nose and looked down at Apple Bloom, whose expression had grown more intensely desperate.

"Just do it, Sweetie Belle. Ah want ta get the both of you offa me raht now!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Sweetie Belle glanced up at the snagged book bag that lay just out of reach beyond Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle then gritted her teeth, furrowed her brows, and concentrated. She searched deep within herself for the slightest bit of magic, the kind that she found when she had untangled the swan's foot. All she could muster, however, was a small ball of light that hovered two inches in front of her horn before promptly dissipating.

Pearls Wine was still rolling around and laughing fiercely. "This is the best thing I've seen all day!"

That tore it for Scootaloo. She leaped off Sweetie Belle's back, causing Apple Bloom to dump the poor unicorn filly on her back. Scootaloo raced towards Pearls and skidded to a halt just feet from where she continued to roll on the ground. Scootaloo's chest and shoulders heaved up and down vigorously with every single one of her heavy breaths, anger coursing through her body like a raging fire.

"You!" Scootaloo spat.

Pearls Wine's laughter slowly faded, and she got up, wiped a tear away and looked at the orange pegasus. "Yes, me," she said calmly.

"You took those cookies away from me!"

The rose-colored unicorn gave a grin so smug that it sent the skin on Scootaloo's nose crawling backwards. "Oh didn't you see? It was that honey badger that got into your cookies. But that's what you get for breaking the rules and leaving your bag unatten..."

"Don't lie to me!" Scootaloo exclaimed, her volume rising even further as she ground craters into the soil with her front hooves. "That honey badger did NOT toss my book bag into a tree! I know it was you who took my bag and fed my cookies to that THING!"

Pearls Wine took a few steps forward and stopped her nose a few inches away from Scootaloo's and glowered at her. Scootaloo, however, didn't flinch.

"So what if it was me?" Pearls Wine said.

Sweetie Belle approached the two bickering fillies and tried to step between the two. "Hey hey. There's no need to fight."

Scootaloo shot another intense stare at Sweetie Belle. "You're taking her side?"

A bead of nervous sweat formed on Sweetie Belle's forehead as she waved her right forehoof at Scootaloo dismissively. "I'm not trying to take anypony's side."

Scootaloo went back to glaring at Pearls. "Exactly."

It was Apple Bloom's turn to approach the fight, and she frowned fiercely. "Ouch, Scootaloo. That was a might harsh. What's gotten inta you lately? I mean what's the big deal with those...?"

Scootaloo wheeled to face Apple Bloom as the walls barely containing her rage came tumbling down. "My mom made those cookies for me!"

Pearls Wine laughed. "Well they couldn't have been that good, then."

Scootaloo's eyes burned with fire as she unleashed a furious yell and pounced on the obnoxious bigger unicorn. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gasped as the two combatants disappeared into a cloud of dust and flying hooves. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon could only smile and watch. They had seen this play out the same way before. There could only be one result.

The fight was over just as quickly as it began, and Scootaloo was ejected from the dust cloud. She tumbled end over end against abrasive rocks and leaves before sliding to a stop. Pearls snorted and dusted herself off, but her eyes briefly grew wide in amazement as Scootaloo quickly stood up after just the briefest pause, giving Pearls a defiant stare.

Sweetie Belle quickly headed over to Scootaloo, lines of worry growing on the unicorn's face. "Are you hurt, Scootaloo?"

"That didn't hurt me!" Scootaloo snapped, never taking her eyes off Pearls. Scootaloo hoped, however, that the bully couldn't see the tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"Then why are you cry...?"

"I said that didn't hurt me!"

In a spray of soil and leaves, Scootaloo took off running.

* * *

Scootaloo sat upon a fallen tree trunk, a ruined shell of what was once a sturdy maple, its crown of branches long since gone and decomposed. The heart of the main trunk had been hollowed out by the ravages of time and bugs. It was now little more than a short wooden tube lying horizontally on its open side. The lumps, knobs and cracks on the aged outer bark caused irritation to Scootaloo's backside, but she paid little attention to superficial pains. Instead, she thought about the anguish in her heart and how she couldn't stop her tears from coming down like rain. She heard her heart beat loudly in her ears, and her chest felt like a forty pound weight was pressing from the inside. She had her eyes closed and buried firmly into her front hooves, her tears staining the coat around her muzzle and around the pasterns of her forehooves. She shook her head back and forth as sorrow wracked her body, her anguished sobs piercing the relatively calm autumn air of the woods, drowning out the songs of the birds.

They didn't know. How could they know? Nopony knew that the treats meant more to Scootaloo than just something sweet to munch on, that her mother had made them just for her with so much love, care and affection, that they could possibly be the last simple gift of love that her mother would ever do for her. Now they were gone, ruined, reduced to mere crumbs in an act of sheer cruelty.

Scootaloo heard a rustling of leaves behind her, and in a state of panic, she bolted off of the tree trunk and whirled around, wiping her eyes to clear her vision. Through the blur of her tears, she saw that it was only Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, which put her mind at ease somewhat, but she had hoped nopony would've seen her sobbing. Still, it wasn't Diamond or Silver Spoon or Pearls. She would never reward them with tears.

Scootaloo's crying slowed, and as her eyes dried, she sat back down on the tree trunk and kicked at some dirt as she lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry guys. I'm sorry for everything."

Sweetie Belle silently trotted over to Scootaloo's right side, stopping just mere feet from her. A fiercely intense look burned in the white unicorn's green eyes, and it terrified Scootaloo. Thinking she was going to get slapped, Scootaloo flinched when she saw Sweetie Belle lift up a hoof, which she found ironic when she didn't even bat an eye when Pearls had gotten in her face. Instead of the assault to her face that Scootaloo was expecting, however, she felt the gentle caress of a hug as one hoof then the other slipped around her shoulders. As Scootaloo's mind froze from mild surprise, she felt several drops of water hit her on the back, and she realized Sweetie Belle was crying as well.

"What's going on with you?" Sweetie Belle asked, still never relinquishing her hug.

Scootaloo didn't reach up to return the hug. She honestly didn't know what to do as her mind was too jumbled by anxiety and nerves. "It's... It's family stuff. You wouldn't understand."

Sweetie Belle extended her hooves to allow herself to gaze at Scootaloo eye to eye. "I understand family stuff. And I also understand when a friend is in pain."

Scootaloo bit her lips, and looked away, remaining silent.

Sweetie Belle's eyes darted back and forth as she tried to gauge her friend's face for a hint of release from her inner defenses but found no sign. After several moments of silence, Sweetie nodded a reluctant acceptance. "Very well. I have something for you."

Scootaloo glanced back at her unicorn friend, who turned to nod towards Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom trotted up and produced a sandwich bag. Scootaloo squinted and stared inside the clear plastic. She couldn't believe her eyes, but inside was a single cookie. More importantly, the cookie was whole, unbroken and uncorrupted. Her heart filled with joy as she looked first to Apple Bloom and then to Sweetie Belle.

"Is that one of my mother's cookies?" Scootaloo asked.

Seeing Scootaloo happy again brought a smile to Sweetie Belle's face, and she nodded. "The last one. I found it on the ground. The badger must've missed it."

Scootaloo smiled as a tear came to her eye, and she took the sandwich bag, inhaling deeply of the aroma of chocolate chips. However, just as soon as she had it in her hooves, it was gone just as fast. She did a double take and gazed at the empty spot of air just above her upturned hooves. She then glanced around here and there and on the ground, hoping to find her goodies. She saw nothing, and blinking in confusion, turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

"What just happened?" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Ah don't know what happened ta your cookie, but there goes the fastest movin' chicken ah had ever seen."

Scootaloo turned her eyes to where Apple Bloom was pointing and saw some kind of red hen hauling feathers with the sandwich bag in its beak.

"That hen is dead," Scootaloo exclaimed.

* * *

Over at the picnic site, Twist was running around in a panic. A few minutes ago, she had led the rest of the class over to the picnic tables like Cheerilee had instructed and was currently waiting for their teacher to arrive. However, not only had Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle disappeared without permission yet again, but Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had taken their leave to chase after them, presumably to gloat, with Pearls Wine threatening to pound Twist if she snitched or tried to stop them. On top of everything, it seemed to be getting rather dark and very early.

Twist then saw Cheerilee approach from the distance, and she bounded over to the purple teacher, grateful for an adult presence. When Twist spoke, she spat out her words at such a rapid, panicked pace that Cheerilee seemed to have trouble keeping up. "Mith Cheerilee! Mith Cheerilee! Thcootaloo and Apple Bloom and Thweetie Belle actually came back but then they left again when..." Twist heard a cough behind her and looked over her shoulder, spotting Pearls giving her a rather grim look.

Cheerilee looked down at the red-haired filly and gestured for her to stop jumping around. "Whoa whoa, Twist. Let me address the class first." Cheerilee walked over to where most the children stood and did a mental tally. "Now where's Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?"

Twist pursed her lips and remained silent.

Cheerilee glanced at Pearls Wine, who was whistling a tune like she was innocent of any charges that might be leveled against her. "Pearls?"

"Outhouse," Pearls replied succinctly.

Cheerilee shook her head. "I hope they hurry up. I just talked to the ranger, and he'll go out to look for Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. They couldn't have gone far, but he said that a fast moving rain storm was approaching from The Everfree Forest." She gaze up at the darkening sky. "Looks like it's almost here." She returned her attention back to the class. "I'll go find Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon in the outhouse and escort all of you back to your homes. It looks like the picnic will have to wait until tomorrow. Then I'll come back here and help the ranger find them."

Pearls swallowed hard when she realized that her coverup plan was falling apart. As she watched Cheerilee turn and head towards the picnic site's outhouse, she reached out with a forehoof in a state of panic. "No wait!"

* * *

Serenade preened her feathers as she waited in a hollow bank of earth underneath a maple. She had just gotten the last of the twigs and dirt out of her primaries but was sore over her failed efforts to do anything about the dark bruise on her neck or the soiled feathers on her chest. Otherwise satisfied with her cleaning, she sat down in the meatloaf position and waited. A sigh escaped her throat when a low, barely audible growl of thunder rolled over the sky above. As the remnants of the approaching storm's first call died away, a ball of red feathers burst through the opening of the hollow, the cornfed face it belonged to looking rather distressed and harried.

"Berlioz," the swan said with a nod of her head.

The crimson hen called Berlioz dropped the sandwich bag with the cookie on the ground, waved, and gave a suppressed chuckle. "He-hey there, Serenade."

"You're late. What do you have there?"

Berlioz rubbed the back of her short neck. "I know. This is food. At least I think it's food. It smells like food. But I'm not going to eat this for myself. This is for Ne Ne."

"Your family?"

The hen gave a single perky nod of her head, the comb on top bouncing in unison. "Yupserini!" The hen then gave a quick glance over her shoulder back towards the entrance of the hollow.

Serenade stood up and stretched her wings. "Are you ready to do this thing?"

"Actually can we do this some other time? I uh... I uh... What are we even doing here in this pony world anyway?"

With the swan fully upright, she towered over the hen such that the top of the hen's comb only came up to the her chest. Serenade gave a stern frown. "We don't know when the next gate will be available. It could be next week. It could be next month. To force an early closure is... difficult. We're here because the Peacock Prince disappeared about five years ago. Remember?"

"Yeah I remember." The puffy red hen kept her eyes trained on the entrance. "How do we even know he's in this world?"

"We don't. I'm just... I'm just following a hunch, alright? And WHAT are you looking at?"

A sharp, angry voice rocketed through the air from outside. "Where IS that stupid chicken?"

"I seem to have upset one of the locals," Berlioz exclaimed as she backed away from the opening and pressed herself up against Serenade's chest.

Serenade shook her head. "You stole that... whatever it is from somefeather. Didn't you?"

A hard swallow was the only response.

"Once a thief, always a thief."

"You wound me, Serenade. Can you DO something about this now?"

Serenade glanced at her right leg. A single, silvery thread of magical ether floated ghostlike from her ankle, with the other end undulating up and down as it hovered in midair. Actually it didn't so much as hover as it seemed to "pinch" the air around the other end, like it was partially folding space around the tip. The ether thread glowed with a faint, fuzzy blue haze. Serenade then looked at Berlioz's right leg. It bore the same ether thread with the same color.

"But the thread is still blue. We should at least make the most of our visit, in case the Peacock Prince IS here."

Berlioz turned around to face Serenade with sorrowful eyes and started groveling, her wings pressed together in a pleading manner. "Please! That pony wants to kill me! I'm too young to die! I want to live long enough to at least have a couple children!"

Serenade brushed her chicken friend off of her chest and rolled her eyes. "Very well. But the spell to return requires a high level of concentra..."

"Yeah yeah. Just hurry up about it."

With a flick of her head, Serenade inhaled and crooned.

A, G sharp, B. A, G sharp, C. F...

* * *

The first drops of rain greeted the leafy ground at a slow beat when Scootaloo heard the strange singing coming from somewhere. She stopped in front of a large maple, its crown of velvet leaves reminiscent to her of sunrises and pancakes, which the buttery smooth syrup that ponies would tap from the tree would surely cover with its rich sweetness. Equally as sweet was the strange but somehow melancholy song that she heard. The other two Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted up next to her, equally as entranced, Sweetie Belle especially.

"How pretty," the unicorn filly said. "Sounds like it's coming from the tree."

Sweetie Belle took a step towards the maple, but before she could look inside the hollow, the three of them heard a couple familiar voices behind, nasally voices that were like nails on chalkboard.

"Well look who's here, Silver Spoon," one voice went.

"Well if isn't Scootalump, the flightless wonder," went the other.

Scootaloo turned around and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and immediately curled her lips. "Not now, you guys. I'm doing something important."

As Scootaloo turned back towards the tree, the rain picked up pace, and a sudden crack of thunder frightened all five fillies.

"Uh, how about we find some shelter before we all get struck by lightnin'?" Apple Bloom mused.

"For once, I agree with you," Diamond Tiara stated with a point of her right front hoof.

Sweetie Belle was the first to enter the hollow, and she smiled when she recognized Serenade as the swan that she had rescued. The smile didn't put Berlioz at ease, though, who was running around and squawking like a broken klaxon. The incessant noise of the hen followed by the sudden crowding of the hollow as five fillies suddenly appeared made it difficult for Serenade to maintain her concentration. The swan screwed her eyes shut and curled the fleshy corners of her mouth around her beak in a vain attempt to maintain her connection only to find herself rapidly slipping. A white ball of light grew before her as her spell neared completion, blinding the five fillies and possibly saving Berlioz from getting pounded by Scootaloo. The little red hen clutched the cookie tightly to her chest and cowered behind one of Serenade's wings. Just when the two of them thought they were in the clear, a sudden strike of lightning just outside the hollow's entrance startled Serenade enough to kill her concentration immediately. Berlioz's eyes widened in terror as the ball of magic absorbed the lightning's electricity, tossing around crackling waves of miniature arcs of power.

"Your spell!" the chicken exclaimed.

"Oh Set'Qua!" Serenade cursed.

The last thing Scootaloo remembered before passing out was a feeling of warmth enveloping her as the light from the magic overtook her.

Comments

[Candy Drop]

Wish nice story!

[Candy Drop]

Wow nice story!

Interesting, btw i found this pretty interesting song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=canNq-TM9w0&feature=related

[pmcollectorboy]

So whoever gave me a 3.5, could you let me know what I could do to improve it? I really put a lot of thought into this story.