"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.
...well that's super dark now.
I'm guessing that, with Sugarcoat apparently knowing all about what's going on, she has plans for that Twilight statue. Or not.
The only problem with the new cover art is the fact that she's not a unicorn. Was that because beggars can't be choosers, or did you edit the one scene where she uses her magic to levitate...I forgot who?
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Hah! I was hoping nobody would notice that. She's still a unicorn in the story. I just liked this cover art
6523743 She's lying on the path to Zecora's house, so somepony will find her eventually. Unless the cockatrice drags her back to his lair or something.
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at this one. What's gonna happen to Twilight?! I kid, I laughed. Nice chapter.
The best part to me was the fun insight into the CMC's thoughts at the beginning of this chapter. I guess Scootaloo's foster home had one of those animal sound-playing wheels.
Sugarcoat shows up later on with a sledgehammer. "You are now at my mercy Twilight Sparkle."
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s17.postimg.org/t8fk59yfx/Unicorn_sugarcoat_by_sunset_sunrize.png
Added a unicorn horn. Not that great of a Photoshop, but should look fine as thumbnail. Those horn spirals are harder to do than you would think.
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Sweet, thanks! I'll update it as soon as I get home later tonight. It's a pain to work with Fimfic on my phone and it's not cooperating with me when I try to change it and resize.
...what was Sugarcoat doing outside? *gasp* Does her Cutie Mark already have Bat Signal technology embedded in it, alerting her when there's a friendship emergency nearby?!
...I hope that they found Twilight...
6523739 Not much light gets into your eyes when they're made of stone.
I think Sugarcoat just wants to have Twilight relate to Discord a little better later. This idea that she isn't omnipotent is preposterous!
Well that turned dark...
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The black lines need to be made the same lavender as the rest of her, otherwise it looks really out of place.
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May I offer my solution as well?
orig05.deviantart.net/ad38/f/2015/286/5/d/sugarcoat_unicorn_edit_by_azureprane-d9d00gn.png
I felt that mapu's version was putting her horn a tad too high (though the angle was impeccable!).
Well, guess Twilight is screw until Fluttershy or Zecora come by.
And they all died! The end!
-M. A. Larson.
God I hope they find Twilight... Did Sugarcoat KNOW that Twi was there, or did she just think that things would handle themselves?
And Twilight joined Discord on the Castle lawn
. . . what?
i.imgur.com/Vn24fB7.gif
OH SHIT!
Awwww crap.
I've always thought the cockatrice element underplayed. I mean, that would make a fantastic grimdark concept, and yet I think I've only seen two stories where ponies were petrified long-term before being restored, and a couple more where it's done as a punishment.
Also, Sugarcoat really does care, awww!
Okay, now what's going to become of Twilight?
Oh god the implications...