Into the Forest
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EXPLORERS, YAY!” three little fillies exclaimed, but one was far less enthusiastic than the others.
“I don’t know, you guys,” Sweetie Belle said hesitantly. “Do you really think it’s safe to go into the Everfree Forest on our own?” ‘Again?’ she added silently.
“Of course it is! Zecora lives in there; how dangerous could it really be?” Scootaloo scoffed. Sweetie Belle thought pointedly of the many stories of the terrors their sisters/idol in Scootaloo’s case had faced in that very forest.
“Besides,” Apple Bloom reminded, “If we don’t do this, we may never get our cutie marks!” Well, that sealed the deal.
“I suppose you’re right.” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Let’s get this over with. I wanna get home before dark.” Minds made up, the three fillies made their way into the dark and foreboding forest.
“So…. what exactly are we looking for here?” Apple Bloom asked. Scootaloo, whose idea this excursion had been, shrugged.
“Who knows? Umm…. grand adventure, I guess?” Scootaloo mused. “It’s gotta be big if we want to get our cutie marks from it.”
“Sounds great, as long as this ‘adventure’ doesn’t get us killed,” Sweetie Belle muttered.
“Oh, lighten up, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, putting one hoof around her shoulder. “This is basically a normal forest. See, look at the pretty blue flowers!” Scootaloo walked over to emphasize her point. Sweetie Belle perked up.
“They are very nice,” Sweetie Belle said, walking over to Scootaloo to get a better look.
“No wait, guys!” Apple Bloom warned, but it was too late. Her friends were already knee-deep in Poison Joke. Within moments, Sweetie Belle had grown to nearly Rarity’s age. At first, Scootaloo seemed unaffected, but when she clucked in surprise over Sweetie’s transformation, Apple Bloom knew she had not escaped the flower’s effects.
“I tried to tell y’all,” Apple Bloom sighed. “That there’s Poison Joke. Didn’t Rarity ever tell you about it, Sweetie Belle? Our sisters had a run-in with it before.”
“I think I remember something like that,” Sweetie admitted. “Something about how it did something to her hair.”
“And Applejack turned tinier than me!” Applebloom said, smiling at the memory. “Oh, and in case you were wondering, Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash lost all coordination. Basically turned into Derpy without the eyes!”
Scootaloo clucked questioningly, then turned to glare at the blue plant that had put her in this awful state.
“Guess ya really are a chicken on the inside, aren’t ya, Scootaloo?” Apple Bloom snickered. Scootaloo squawked angrily.
“We don’t have time for this!” Sweetie Belle said, distressed. “This is exactly the sort of thing I was worried was going to happen! Now this dumb flower has made me older and I still don’t have my cutie mark!”
“Don’t worry,” Apple Bloom assured. “Zecora’s got an easy remedy for this kinda stuff. Let’s go get you two back to normal an’ head home. Somehow I doubt that explorin’ is our true callin’.”
Apple Bloom led the others to Zecora’s hut and knocked on the door. The zebra opened the door and blinked in confusion at her visitors. Scootaloo clucked to greet her before she could remember she couldn’t talk, and Sweetie Belle poked self-consciously at the ground with her hoof, not used to being eye-level with any adult ponies.
“Hey, Zecora…. we kinda need yer’ help.” Apple Bloom said with a nervous laugh.
“Hello young friends, with faces sour. You seem to have encountered a tricky blue flower?” the zebra said, looking at Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s right,” Apple Bloom agreed. “I tried to warn ‘em, but they stumbled right into it!”
“From now on, you’ll do well to stay on the path,” Zecora advised. “Wait here, and I’ll go draw you a bath.”
“Thanks, Zecora!” Apple Bloom said, relieved.
“How’s a bath supposed to help?” Sweetie Belle asked as Zecora started to gather ingredients.
“It’s an herbal bath,” Apple Bloom explained. “It’ll heal ya!” Scootaloo squawked excitedly.
Within 15 minutes, Zecora had the healing bath ready.
“Thank ya’ kindly, Zecora,” Apple Bloom said gratefully. “Don’t know what we’d do without ya.”
“There is no need to be so formal,” Zecora responded with a smile. “Let us now get your friends back to normal.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, stepping daintily into the bath and almost instantly turning back to her normal age and size with a relieved smile. Scootaloo, even more excited to return to normal than Sweetie Belle had been, took a running leap into the tub, creating a huge splash that doused the zebra and the unaffected crusader with the bath water.
“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded, shaking out her mane and tail. “Be more careful!”
“Sorry!” Scootaloo replied unrepentantly. “Wow, I never thought I would miss talking that much!”
“Well, I am very glad that you’re all right. Why don’t you head back to Ponyville before it gets dark?” Zecora suggested, also shaking a bit to rid herself of water.. The three fillies froze and stared at her in astonishment. “What?”
“You…. didn’t rhyme!” Sweetie Belle accused, shocked. “You always rhyme when you talk!”
“Ah, yes,” Zecora said self-consciously. “The rhyming is an effect of the Poison Joke. Without it, I talk like everypony else.”
“But…. if you have a cure for Poison Joke at hoof, why don’t you use it!?” Scootaloo exclaimed. Zecora shrugged.
“The rhyming thing makes me sound cooler,” Zecora admitted with a grin. “And it makes me sound like I know something about the future.”
“So this whole time, you’ve only rhymed because of Poison Joke!?” Sweetie Belle clarified disbelievingly.
“Basically, yes,” Zecora agreed. “But this information must never leave my hut, understand? It’ll ruin my image as the wise mystic. Now run along back home to your families. I have to go find a patch of Poison Joke to get my rhymes back before anypony else comes to me for help.” Zecora left the hut, leaving three stunned fillies behind her.
“I always wondered how she rhymed on the spot like that!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “I always thought she must read the dictionary and thesaurus for fun!”
“Yeah, me too,” Apple Bloom agreed. Momentary silence fell on the three fillies.
“So…” Scootaloo drawled, breaking the silence. “Wanna go try to get our cutie marks in cannonballing, because I swear my splash was like 10 feet tall!”
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CANNONBALLERS, YAY!” they chorused in reply. And so, the easily distracted fillies bolted off to go set up an inflatable pool.