Bugging Sweetie Belle

by AppleCider120

The Main Drag - Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Decided to make Sweetie's "condition" a bit of a parody of itself; though, I dunno what that means for the endgame, but I found it a bit silly.

Instead of writing an entire chapter for Apple Bloom's bug collection, like I originally planned, I decided to just fit her in her with Scootaloo.

“Sweetie Belle, no!”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo called out after their friend, trying to halt the seemingly entranced filly from crushing a beautiful little caterpillar they had come across; it would be too late to stop her, however, as all that followed their futile cries was the sound of a hoof clapping against the dirt path. A little squeak came from Apple Bloom as the caterpillar almost comically burst, a bit of its green blood, and its body, sticking to Sweetie Belle's hoof as she lifted it up, checking to make sure it was dead.

“What, in the actual hay, Sweetie Belle!?” Apple Bloom squeaked out, staring at the filly. “Why did you just... why did you smash the caterpillar!?”

“Because it is a bug, Apple Bloom,” she said flatly. “Any bugs that get within my sphere do not deserve to live.”

Scootaloo looked at the filly, tilting her head. “Oh, come on, Sweetie Belle; the caterpillars are so pretty. The butterflies are pretty, too; you don't just stomp on the pretty things.”

Sweetie Belle turned to her friend, looking her in the eyes, before adding, “And I would gladly bite their heads off if I couldn't stomp them. Then I would likely brush my teeth like a mad-mare for daring to consume such a disgusting thing.”

Her two friends looked to each other, silently talking to one another, before turning back to their friend.

"Are you okay, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yeah, why?" she asked, seemingly snapping out of her insect-murder stupor.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, ready to move on from this ridiculous situation.

"Well, whatever the hay you think about it," she said, "Think you girls would be able to have a sleepover in the clubhouse this weekend?"

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah, I doubt my aunts have anything planned this weekend, so as soon as I ask, I will likely be on the way back."

Sweetie Belle shrugged at the question. "I'll see if I can get lucky. If I'm late, chores; if I make it at all, then it's probably a yes."

Apple Bloom nodded, and the three fillies shared brief stares, nods, and finally went their seperate ways as they began to anticipate an evening in the clubhouse.

--

Apple Bloom waited patiently outside of the clubhouse for her friends, carrying a mysterious container in her mouth; it appeared to be a picnic box, with latches ensuring that the case couldn't be opened without an outside source. Scootaloo arrived after a few minutes, riding in on her scooter, also carrying a package with her. Though, here's was just a plastic bag with something seemingly holding it down.

"Oh, you had the same idea, Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom said, looking at the bag.

"If you mean," Scootaloo started, "that I spent about an hour hunting down various pill bugs, or worms, that would at least curl up when they're scared, or would have to fight to crawl out of the bag, yes!"

"Oh. Well, I just had a spare picnic box sitting around, so I shoved as many critters as I could find in it. If that weird little filly wants to smash some bugs, then she needs to be taught the "Rights, and "Wrongs" when it comes to it."

Scootaloo nodded, as her and Apple Bloom made their way into the clubhouse, not waiting for their fillyfriend to make it beforehand.

"So, how should we do this?" Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo sat down, thinking for a moment. "Well, it may sound a bit narci... nar... Whatever that long word--"

"Narcissistic." Apple Bloom finished.

"Yeah, that. But, I think I'll go first with letting her smash them. Your bugs are contained, mine have to be moved every four or five seconds or the pill bugs might escape."

Apple Bloom nodded. "Makes sense to me. Yeah, mine can be left unsupervised. So, all you had were pill bugs, nothing else?"

Scootaloo shrugged. "Yeah, they're a lot easier to find than you think; but, when you actually want to find them, they don't wanna show they're pitiful, tiny, grey selves."

[1 Hour Earlier]

The orange filly was standing out in her Aunts' garden, with two things in mind. First, she had the chore of checking through the garden for some weeds; second, she had a strong desire to capture some crawlers for the sleepover. Although she would not have known of Apple Bloom's similar plans, she definitely had it in mind to forcefully teach their out-of-control unicorn what bugs were ripe for smashing, and which ones to the leave the buck alone.

But, first of all things, came the weeds. Their garden was not a massive beast, but it was at least the size of their living room; so, Scootaloo would have to keep low to find the right kinds of weeds. Though, her Aunts' garden was relatively weed-free, sometimes they still managed to sprout those troublesome white dandelions. It seemed like, no matter what remedy they would try, those little flowers always sailed into their yards-- pinwheels and taller fences be damned.

And so, Scootaloo-- with a garden trowel in muzzle, bag around a wing--, set about digging out the pesky little plants, trying not to scatter their seeds too much. Upon deflowering a third of the first patch, her shovel struck upon something quite golden; though, in more a metaphorical sense, as this thing was far from a gold color.

It was a moderately long worm, that stuck out of the mud on the trowel. With a squee, Scootaloo hurriedly tossed the plant down, trying to separate "dirt" from "worm". When she finally managed, without cutting the little bastard in half with the trowel, she scooped it into her bag, before she threw the little dandelion in a little firepit at the edge of the garden. Though Scootaloo would have preferred to use a little basket to gather the plants, her Aunts' insisted, for some reason, than doing it so inefficiently was better.

Her next section proved just as fruitful, and started the final fire that Scootaloo needed to hurry up with her chores. Her scoop unveiled a near Spike-Clawfull off little pill bugs, who all rolled into a ball upon their grounds being disturbed. With another excited squee, the filly threw the dandelion-- undoubtedly spreading the little bastard's seeds around the garden--, and used her trowel to carefully scoop up the bugs as she found them.

If Sweetie Belle wanted to smash bugs, these little guys would no doubt be a great bit more satisfying.

--

In contrast to her Pegasus counterpart, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom had actually very little intent to find the critters that they were going to use to rehabilitate the unicorn. The idea did not even come to her little head until she spotted a small group of lady bugs gathered on some of their apple baskets in the barn. It was upon spotting them, that the little earth filly decided to fetch a basket, and gather to crawlers for Sweetie Belle to learn from.

Even with such a plan in it's early stages, the smart filly knew what route she was going. She wanted to collect the pretty ones, starting with the horde of ladybugs in their barn. Nudging the little ladybugs into a basket without crushing them herself proved to be quite tricky, as attested to by the four or five casualties she faces along the way. By the end of her self-made ordeal, however, she managed to get all the little polka-dot beetles into the little picnic basket.

Aside from her ladybugs, Apple Bloom could not come up with a creature off the top of her head that she considered actually pretty, aside from the butterflies; but those weren't likely to sit in the box like the ladybugs. It was then that a little preying mantis made its way into her line of sight, sitting on a barn windowsill. While likely going to be difficult to catch, the mantis-- in particular, this pretty orchid mantis-- would probably be manageable is she found some sort of lid for her container. It was then that the little "shoulda-been-a " carpenter managed to find some small chunks of metal lying around, and fashions a hook-style fastener for the little picnic basket.

It was here that she found herself steadily, albeit relatively swiftly, found herself falling down the crawfish hole while catching insects. (Get it? Instead of rabbit hole? It's funny because of bugs.) Catterpillars, crickets, a few moths that managed to stay still as she scooped them up(which, upon second thought, may have just been dead). Within nearly half and hour, the young apple horse managed to gather a decent collection of crawlers and manageable flittering critters that could suit their needs just fine.

Comments

[BestinDworld]

Eh it’s ok wish they were human or anthro though

[AppleCider120]

10556392
I do the beckoning of the commissions; thus, this is not up to me, lol.

[Nodqfan]

Seems interesting thus far will be following to see where it goes.

[AppleCider120]

10556392
Funny thing is, you say you wish they were anthro/human, but another story has a guy saying "Wtf is it always anthro", lol. I have gotten both sides of the coin, even though I do both.