Sweetie Belle hates bugs, and gets no more satisfaction, out of life, than smashing the living Tartarus out of the little bastards; but, the other two fillies seem to have a slightly different perspective of the idea.
A bit different for a commission, but one I found interesting enough to do. Though, I don't tend to turn down the first commissions that come my way. Rating it T, though nothing is explicitly sexual. I tried to make it detailed, but I don't know how that goes. I just know you likely won't see "exoskeleton", and "carapace" used as often as I have; nor will you likely have called bugs "bastards" as much as the narration.
As her hoof came down frantically, a sickening, yet oddly satisfying crunch echoed throughout Sweetie Belle’s washroom. Following a shriek of terror, the filly had found herself face-to-face with an unbelievably large cockroach in the bathtub. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, she went front an ear-piercing shriek, to standing over the body of her visual assailant; its disgusting bug blood now covered her hoof, and it had the nerve to still be twitching when she brought the hoof up to check.
With her little heart still beating quite heavily, she smashed her hoof over the skull of the bug, receiving another series of crackling as the exoskeleton shattered under her weight. The filly absolutely loathed the sight of a bug, and would fly into a seemingly blind rage until the insect was at a point that could be considered pacified; the point of which was usually the death of the offending insect.
Whatever her thoughts managed to conjure, as far as her aversion to the insect world, the rational train she had been driving to the washroom brought her back on the tracks. She came in here to spruce up for school, and had been taken off guard by the ruffian of the animal kingdom; so, she made her way into the shower, using the water to rinse the corpse of the little bastard down the drain, once and for all.
While it may have seemed small, this little victory did wonders to Sweetie Belle’s confidence for the day; she absolutely found the barbarism of crushing an insect satisfying, beyond most terms used to describe it. And the act of cleaning off the grimy bits of that little cretin brought her such a relaxing feeling. Sweetie hated insects, but she loved the act of ridding herself of them, relentlessly.
An so, with her shower underway, Sweetie Belle used the back end of one of Rarity’s coat brushes to push the bug away with the help of the water; after a few more tries, she finally managed to coax the beast of a roach down the shower drain. After cleaning her sister’s brush thoroughly, she turned to herself. The little filly started with her shampoo, rubbing it thoroughly through her mane, getting it quite frazzled as she did. Her tail came next, as she sat back to wash it between her hind legs, finding it easier than having to bend her body in half, sideways, just to reach it.
After lathering herself, she then turned to her coat cleaner, and rubbed it into herself a bit roughly, but thoroughly. By the end of her shower, Sweetie Belle looked snow white, and could even give Rarity’s alabaster form a run for its money. Following her shower with a brushing, and a cleansing of her teeth, the little filly was finally ready for the day to begin. Now, she just had to work up the willingness for that energy to be put into her schoolwork.
Applebloom awoke from her eight hour slumber in the morning, much later than Sweetie Belle had. While she had played host to the filly with many sleepovers, she was still not used to how early the little unicorn would be up; and they woke up early on harvesting days! No, on many occasions, Applebloom could find herself nodding her head awake sometimes, to see Sweetie Belle looking out the windows, often before the sun came up.
Digression aside, Applebloom was out of bed, before she heard Applejack’s usual morning knocks.
“You awake in there, Applebloom?” she said, not bothering to open.
Applebloom rolled her eyes a bit, sighing softly.
“Of course, I am, sis!” she called back through the door. “Just a couple of seconds ago.”
“Atta girl, I’ll get breakfast going,” Applejack said, before walking away from the door.
Applebloom rolled her eyes; still no longer considering herself a baby, but not too terribly upset about it, nowadays. She went to her wardrobe, looking through her variety of red bows. Ever since she started wearing them, she began to amass an amusing amount of the red fabric. From clip on bows, to the manual “struggle” bows, the filly was not short on them. As she was looking through the assortment, she found something quite intriguing, that boosted her excitement for the morning quite swiftly.
On a low-hanging tassel of one of her struggle bows, stretching down nearly to the bottom shelf of her cabinet, sat a large long-legged spider.
“Oh, good morning,” she said softly, leaning in to look at the long-legged, pea-sized bodied spider.
She didn’t have to struggle to figure out why the things were called “Daddy Long-Legs”, and she was sure smart enough to know that this little guy was completely harmless. She stretched her hoof out slowly, carefully scooping the almost weightless creature onto it. As expected, it slowly began attempts to walk off her hoof, only finding itself walking onto another as Applebloom made an infinite loop with her hooves so it would keep moving.
She watched closely as it wandered, the long legs bending around the curves of her frog, tickling the underside of her hoof as it would walk. Then she started to smirk a little at the bug. After what seemed like over a minute, she clamped her hooves together over the little spider, crushing the critter’s underwhelming, small body between her hard hooves. Her smile vanished, almost immediately, however; the only think she could hear when the cretin’s body was crushed, was the sound of her own hooves clacking together.
There was no satisfying crunch, as would be heard with a beetle. Those were her favorite insects to smash. Often times, even if the bug was already dead, she would get down to a close level, and slowly press her hoof down over the hard carapace of the bug. As the pressure would increase, the only thing she could picture, or hear, would be the almost peanut shell-like crackling. Though not as pronounced as a peanut shell being cracked, the beetles she found would often let out a sickening crackling noise upon compression, with the aftermath usually containing her observing the body on the ground; or, in some cases, investigating the carcass and fluids covering her hoof after stomping a particularly large beetle.
“Applebloom,” Applejack called from downstairs, “breakfast is being put out!”
Applebloom snapped out of her daydreamer’s daze, and shook her head.
“Oh,” she said. “Coming, sis!”
She hurriedly grabbed a hold of one of her clip on bows, before rushing to the bathroom to brush her mane.
Scootaloo rushed out the front door of her aunts’ place, quite behind the morning schedule, and without milk for their cereal. She had asked for a few bits so she could instead rush over to the Sugarcube Corner for breakfast; she figured Pinkie would be able to magic up something good before the school day would start. She grabbed her scooter quickly, before mounting up, and soaring down through Ponyville’s streets; being so early in the morning, she didn’t have to be too careful about other ponies walking out in front of her, so she was free to fly down the dirt paths as fast as she wished.
The only thing she would come to regret, is when she found herself inadvertently ramming through a minor swarm of grasshoppers. It occurred just as she rounded the corner, on her final stretch towards the bakery; as she came, she spotted an unusually green section of the pathway, which quickly developed into a massive green cloud when she came near.
The first impact was a hoof-full of the massive green bastards right in her face; while the bug barely tore its leg off, Scootaloo’s small weight distribution was thrown off enough to cause her to fly to the ground, on top of a swathe of grasshopper. Eliciting a yelp as she was tossed off her scooter, what followed was an orchestra of insects buzzing to rush out of the way of the filly’s falling mass, and the sound of many being to late to move.
The shattering of exoskeletons didn’t quite echo in the outside air, but they were far more intense than that of what Sweetie Belle’s had caused. Being that she likely smashed five or six grounded grasshoppers, the crackling of their carapaces filled the immediate six foot vicinity with plenty of sound. Scootaloo was now on her back, grumbling as she lay over their little corpses, her back likely covered in green fluids, tiny legs, and broken wings. As she rolled over, she could feel a few more that had stayed put during her fall, slowly becoming flattened under her little body’s weight.
More crackling exoskeletons, bursts of bug blood, and groans of annoyance from Scootaloo filled the air. Now she would have to at least see if Pinkie would help her wash up before class started. But, before she did that, she turned her sights to a small patch of grasshoppers still sitting on the road. With a smirk forming on her muzzle, she rushed towards them eagerly. As with Applebloom, the little orange filly loves to hear the satisfying crunch of the carapace; but, in addition to that, Scootaloo had found something neat about the little grasshoppers that she found more fun.
If you were careful, and in a bit of a sadistic mood like Scootaloo, you could carefully pull the grasshoppers head, and some of its nervous system, out of the little guy’s body. If you did it right, the little bastard would keep moving, and sometimes even hop away aimlessly. This happened to the first of the small group of hoppers when she managed to get a hold of him. Thanks to a little passive Equestrian magic, grabbing the tiny head of a grasshopper with a hoof proved to be no issue. To her delight, it did manage to do a few hops before it finally began to settle into its final resting place.
She looked around for a moment, before spotting a clock on one of the houses nearby, and smirked.
“Hey,” she said to herself, “I still got thirty minutes.”
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.
The stage was finally set, as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom waited inside the clubhouse for Sweetie Belle. This weekend, they were going to finally fix the unicorns fixation on mashing all the known insects she sees, and hopefully reroute her strange trance-like inhibitions towards the more ugly side of nature. It would either be now, or never, and they would run out of ladybugs if they failed.
They thankfully, didn't have to wait, for long; the unaware filly made her way up the door, giving an eccentrically loud knock to announce her arrival, before stepping inside the clubhouse, and shutting the door.
"Hey, girls!" Sweetie Belle said, smiling when she saw her friends in their bean bag chairs.
"Sweetie Belle," the two said in unison, before looking at each other. "Jinx!"
Apple Bloom finished her statement first. "--you owe me a cider!"
"Buck," Scootaloo said. "Forgot there was a tail on that."
Sweetie rolled her eyes, flopping in a chair nearby Apple Bloom. "So, what are the plans this weekend? Any meetings? New projects?"
Scootaloo shook her head. "Nope, at least for tonight, we're going to be discussing the bugs you have been crushing."
"And specifically," Apple Bloom added, "we're going to try teaching you not to squish certain ones."
Sweetie Belle went from a wide smile, to a straight face. She just glanced between the two fillies, as if waiting for a signal to see if they were joking or not.
"All bugs must die," she said, in a monotonous tone. "And besides, you girls said we would forget about that for this weekend.
"I mean, we never expressly said that," Apple Bloom said, smiling.
Scootaloo looked to her, tilting her head.
"Are you using that word right?" Scootaloo said, eyebrow raised.
"No, she's using right," Sweetie Belle said. "Though, 'explicitly' fits better there. But, again, let's not focus on that. I wanna have fun."
Apple Bloom shook her head. "Well, if you like crushing critters, this has the chance to be quite fun. Because Scootaloo and I have gathered a whole swarm of bugs for us to try and learn the differences in. We're, again, gonna teach you which ones can be smashed, and which ones shouldn't."
The unicorn sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ugh, fine; but, no promises that I will try."
Apple Bloom nodded. "Fine with me. I'll start, since I've got the ones I consider pretty. Pretty much none in this basket are to be smashed. If you pass a segment, Scootaloo will get some of her nasties out for you to smash as you wish."
Sweetie Belle just nods, watching as Apple Bloom walks over, and grabbing what she had thought was just a basket of goodies. She didn't think that bugs were exactly a treat. She kept her eyes focused as she was starting to hear the little bastards crawling around inside, creating a sickening chorus of clicking sounds as they walked over the wicker basket. She could not wait to start hearing the cracking of their weak exoskeletons under her hoof.
Scootaloo took a step to prevent Sweetie Belle from flying off her metaphorical rails, and stepped on the filly's tail, making her squeak.
"Ow, Scootaloo!" She said, staring back at the Pegasus. "What the hay?"
"It's just to keep you still while Apple Bloom gets things ready," Scootaloo answered.
Sweetie grumbled slightly, as Apple Bloom carefully coaxed out a few ladybugs, struggling to get them out while also trying to keep the Orchid Mantis from running out; she found the little stain was actually quite a fast dasher. But, within about thirty seconds, she finally managed to nudge the mantis back down as a few ladybugs were on her hoof. Sweetie Belle's previously straight faced stare was now expressionless, her eyes blank; focused on nothing but the beetles as she tried squirming from Scootaloo's hold on her tail.
Apple Bloom stopped a good foot from Sweetie Belle, staring into her eyes curiously.
"Huh," she said. "It's like she has absolutely no control over herself when she sees these things."
"No kidding?" Scootaloo said, struggling to keep the filly's silky tail under her hoof. "She's having almost no trouble trying to get away from me, right now."
They simply watched for a few seconds as she tried to move towards the little beetles on Apple Bloom's hoof, as the two fillies were lost in their own thoughts. Apple Bloom's eyes widened, as Scootaloo seemed to be catching on to the same idea, looking at her.
"Zecora?" Apple Bloom asked. "Tell me we have the same idea, here!"
Scootaloo nodded, tightening her grip on the filly's tail. "Well, yeah. But, we'd have to make it tomorrow, I doubt she's gonna be too receptive of us this late in the evening."
Apple Bloom nodded. "True, that forest is stupidly scary at night."
"Then it's settled," Scootaloo said. "We'll let ourselves indulge in these little bastards today, then visit Zecora's tomorrow."
Apple Bloom nodded, setting the ladybugs on the floor, before stepping back; Scootaloo let go of Sweetie Belle's tail, at which point the filly swiftly hopped onto the ladybugs, and a firm thud could be heard as her hoof collided with the floor. The first lady bug stood absolutely no chance, as they were seemingly very poor at being too evasive. Drowned out by the sound of hoof-on-wood, the ladybug's exosketelon let out a much softer crackling noise.
Sweetie Belle didn't stop to check if it was dead, before she turned her eyes to the other hoof-full of ladybugs, starting to stomp at them as if it was a game of "Whack-a-Mole". The echoes of her hooves hitting the floor, with faint sounds of crackling exoskeletons, and the stains of the ladybugs' blood on the wood followed every single stomp. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo just watched from the side.
"I feel like she'd take them all if we just let all the bugs out," Apple Bloom said.
"I know, right?" Scootaloo said. "I wanna have some fun with this, too. I brought so many little pill bugs! And even worms."
"Right," Apple Bloom said, rubbing her chin as they watched as Sweetie Belle finally came down from her trance, now that there was nothing but ladybug carcasses around her. "Well, I'll grab her tail, and you can get some bugs out to smash, then we'll switch when she calms down again."
Scootaloo nodded, as Apple Bloom pounced, holding the squeaking filly's tail firmly against the clubhouse floor, as Scootaloo moved to her plastic bag, and dumped the contents onto the floor. Scoops of pill bugs, and a few large worms spilled out, covering a small area of the floor. All little beetles curled up into balls, causing some to roll a short distance from their temporary landfill, while the worms wriggled about, pushing a few in different directions.
Sweetie Belle once more changed into her trance-like state, staring at the massive assortment of critters, as Scootaloo started surveying the collection. She started off small, moving over to the pill bugs that were starting to unroll themselves. Instead of simply slamming her hoof down, and drowning out the sounds, she took it slow. She would put enough pressure on the bug that it would struggle to roll back up.
Scootaloo would then press down slowly, causing the smaller bug to crush under her weight; unfortunately, the tiny pill bug seemed to emit the most unsatisfying crunch of the assortment, as it was almost inaudible.
"Aw, come on," she said, stomping another one much more firmly. "I spent thirty minutes for those little bastards, and they weren't worth the dirt they came out of!"
Apple Bloom shrugged. "Oh well, I have a ton of beetles and stuff in my basket; let's try the worms, next."
Scootaloo nodded, moving over to a few of the long wrigglers. Worms were a different thing to smash; they didn't have some strong exoskeleton. Instead, the joy from them was feeling their texture from a slow mashing, and how much the fatter ones would compress. The first one she went for appeared to be the biggest of the group, and she rolled it away. She smirks, starting straight in the center of it, starting to slowly press her hoof on it.
As she had hoped, it started to wiggle at the first contact she made, and continued even as her hoof slowly flattened it. Despite the tip of her hoof nearly severing it in half, the worm was still quite alive. Though, from what Cheerilee said, it doesn't actually make two worms, but it has enough little hearts to survive for a longer amount of time... Or something like that; she didn't really pay attention.
She smirked, going to the thicker band on the worm, and starting to mash down, again; to her surprise, there was a silent crunching noise. Though, she reasoned it was likely something popping inside the worm, as it was still wiggling quite wildly. She rolled her eyes at it, then looked to Sweetie Belle.
"Ah, buck it," she said, grinning. "Let her go; otherwise we won't do anything else.~"
Apple Bloom nodded, seeming to have the same idea, as Sweetie Belle bolted to the pile as soon as her tail was released.