Chatting in Strange Locations
Takes place before the CMC get their cutie marks.
"Are you sure this is safe?" asked Sweetie Belle, looking over the expanse of trees they were standing above.
"Of course it's safe!" said Scootaloo, "We have parachutes!"
"Well, Ah don't think it's possible to parachute without parachutes, so of course we have 'em!" said Apple Bloom.
"So, how soon until we're covered in tree sap?" asked Sweetie.
"We won't be!" assured Scootaloo, "Is everyone ready?"
"Ah'm ready!" said Bloom.
"I guess I'm ready..." said Sweetie.
"Button, are you ready?" asked Scootaloo.
The three fillies turned towards Button Mash, a colt they had recently made friends with. He was currently staring off into space, oblivious to everything around them.
"Button!" cried Sweetie, lightly smacking him, "Are you paying attention?"
"What?" asked Button, snapping out of this daze, "Are we starting yet?"
"No, we're askin' if yer ready to jump!" said Bloom.
"Oh. How many lives do we have?"
"Say what?"
"And what's the objective of the game? Are we trying to go the farthest?"
"The objective is to get our cutie marks!" said Scootaloo, "Now, we're going to jump!"
Scootaloo jumped off the cliff, dragging along the others, as they were all tied together.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" yelled everypony except for Scootaloo.
"Woo hoo!" yelled Scootaloo, "This is so awesome!"
Scootaloo turned in the air, pulling all four of the parachute cords with her hoof. The parachutes all opened, slowing their fall minimally, before they crashed into a tree.
"Oops... Probably should have opened them sooner..." said Scootaloo sheepishly.
"Oh, you think?" said Sweetie sarcastically.
Scootaloo and Button had managed to land on a tree branch, but Sweetie and Bloom were dangling below them, only held up by the ropes tying the four of them together.
"We should try ta get down before somethin' bad happens." said Bloom.
"Could you and Button pull us up, first?" asked Sweetie.
"On it," said Scootaloo, turning towards Button, "Hear that? We've gotta pull 'em up!"
"Will this give us extra points?" asked Button.
"Sure, just pull!"
Scootaloo grabbed on to the rope that was also tied to Bloom, and Button grabbed on to the rope that was tied to Sweetie. The two of them started to pull on the ropes, when Scootaloo slipped and fell off the branch. She was also dangling below the branch, yet Button had managed to remain on the branch.
"Am I supposed to jump off for a secret?" asked Button.
"No!" yelled Bloom, "Just try to pull us up!"
"Do I get an achievement for pulling all of you up?"
"Yep, totally!" said Sweetie.
Button started pulling again, but he also slipped and fell of the branch. The four foals started falling again, but stopped abruptly when their parachute cords wrapped around a branch, stopping their fall. However, their ropes had become tangled in each other's, and had tied them all together.
"Did I win?" asked Button.
"Ah would normally say no," said Bloom, "But we didn't end up fallin' into those large thorn bushes below us, so yes. You technically won."
"Woo!" cheered Button happily.
"So..." said Sweetie, "Who knows where we are?"
"Ah told Applejack that we were goin' crusadin'," said Bloom, "But Ah didn't tell her what we were doin' or where we were goin'."
"I told Rarity that we were crusading," said Sweetie, "But I don't think she heard me."
"I told Rainbow that we were parachuting!" said Scootaloo.
"So she'll look for us after Rarity and Applejack start wondering where we are, and they ask her, and she remembers?" asked Sweetie.
"So we're gonna be here fer hours." said Bloom.
"I play games for hours!" said Button.
"But have you ever been stuck in a tree for hours?" asked Scootaloo.
"We're stuck?" asked Button.
"Of course we're stuck!" said Sweetie, "We're tied together and dangling in a tree by our parachute cords!"
"Oh," Button was quiet for a moment, "I thought it was part of the game."
"Button, we're not actually playin' a game," said Bloom, "We're tryin' ta get our cutie marks! Speakin' of, did we get our cutie marks?"
"I don't think we even have to look to know that we didn't." said Bloom.
The three fillies each let out a sigh, but Button didn't.
"I thought that ponies earned their cutie marks when they do what they're best at, or what they like." said Button.
"Yes, but we don't know what we're good at!" said Scootaloo.
"Really?" asked Button, "I thought you guys knew already!"
"What?" asked Sweetie.
"Yeah, almost everypony at school knows what you're good at! Sweetie Belle, you're good at singing; Apple Bloom, you're good at art and construction; and Scootaloo, you're good at doing tricks on your scooter! You guys really didn't know that?"
"Nope." said the three simultaneously.
"What about you, Button?" asked Bloom, "Do you know what yer good at or enjoy?"
"Well, I'm good at video games, and I really like them, but I think my cutie mark would be something related to technology. Or maybe programming. I don't really care that much. My cutie mark will appear eventually."
"You really don't care?" asked Sweetie, "Then why did you come crusading with us?"
"It seemed like a cool challenge! I only ever see you three crusading and wanted to know what you did!"
"Well, now you know that we get into huge messes and mess everything up!" said Scootaloo dejected.
"Are you kidding? This is super fun! It's like a video game, but in real life!"
"You think this is fun?" asked Bloom.
"We didn't get hurt or anything, so yeah!"
There was a quiet snapping noise, and the four looked up to see the cords holding them up beginning to break.
"Aaaand you jinxed it," said Sweetie, "Everypony ready to fall into a thorn bush?"
"That's not how it works!" said Button, "It's like in a game, you have to try to swing on to a branch to safety!"
"But if we miss, we'll fall!" said Scootaloo.
"And if we don't try?"
"Oh, Ah get it!" said Bloom, "Yer sayin' that we should try because if we don't we're going to to fall into the thorns, and if we do try, we might have a chance of not gettin' hurt!"
"Yeah! Now, everypony start swinging back and forth!"
The four foals began moving back and forth, causing them to swing side-to-side. Soon, they were swinging above a tree branch, just as the cords holding them snapped. They started falling, and nearly missed the branch, but Scootaloo managed to land on it, and pull the others up. They then untied the ropes holding them together, and then tied them to the branch, making a rope to climb down on.
"Yes!" cried Scootaloo, "We didn't get hurt!"
"We still need ta get down." pointed out Bloom.
"We just swing down!" said Sweetie, "Who wants to go first?"
"Not it!" said Bloom quickly.
"Not it!" said Sweetie.
"Not it!" said Scootaloo.
"Wait, what?" said Button.
"Okay, Button!" said Sweetie, "You get to go first!"
"But I don't wanna go first!" he objected.
"You didn't say 'not it', so ya have to!" said Bloom.
"But what if I get hurt?"
"You know how brave you were acting earlier?" asked Scootaloo, "Well, you get to be brave again!"
Button reluctantly held the rope in his hooves, and looked down anxiously.
"Do I have to?" he asked nervously.
"Yes!" said Sweetie, pushing him off with her hoof.
"SWEETIE BELLE!!!!" yelled Button as he fell, and then swung on the rope, letting go and landing where they couldn't see.
"Sweetie goes next!" said Bloom, shoving the rope into her hooves and pushing her off.
"APPLE BLOOM!!!!" yelled Sweetie as she also landed out of sight.
"And now you!" said Scootaloo, handing Bloom the rope and shoving her off.
"SCOOTALOO!!!!" yelled Bloom as she, too, landed out of sight.
"Hey guys, I'm coming down!" yelled Scootaloo, grabbing the rope and jumping off of the branch.
"NO, WAIT!" yelled Button, Sweetie, and Bloom as Scootaloo came swinging towards them.
Scootaloo crashed into the other three, sending them all tumbling into a large puddle.
"Could have warned me sooner!" said Scootaloo, struggling to her hooves, "Ugh, what is in this?"
"It's tree sap." said Sweetie in a flat voice.
The four of them all froze for a moment, before quickly getting up and out of the puddle.
"Please tell me we aren't stuck together!" said Bloom with her eyes closed.
"We kind of are..." said Button.
The four foals were stuck side by side to each other, with Sweetie and Button stuck to each other in between Scootaloo and Bloom.
"Great..." said Scootaloo.
"Told you so." said Sweetie.
"How do we get this off?" asked Button.
"We walk back to the farm and have Applejack spray us with the hose while laughin'." said Bloom, irritated.
"We could go to my house!" said Button, "My mom says that if I'm playing with friends, she doesn't really care if I come back with my coat dyed a different color."
"Hey, that's a great idea!" said Sweetie, "We could try and dye ponies coats to get our cutie marks!"
"Yeah, that could work!" said Scootaloo.
"We could dye Button's coat!" said Bloom.
"Wait, what?" asked Button.
"Rarity has coat dye in all different colors!" said Sweetie, "We could borrow some of it!"
"You guys are not dying my coat!" objected Button.
"Button, there's three of us, and one of you," said Scootaloo mischievously, "And we're all stuck together, so you're not getting away any time soon!"
"To the boutique!" said Bloom.
Three fillies, stuck together, all dashed off in the direction of Carousel Boutique with a resisting colt also stuck to them.
"I don't want my coat dyed!!!!!"