Only You Can Cause Forest Fires
"Be careful Applebloom!" Applejack shouted as Applebloom ran down the path towards Ponyville, her saddlebags packed with all the supplies she'd need, and her sleeping bag was strapped across her back.
"I WILL!" Applebloom shouted back as loud as she could, a smile coming to her face as she thought about what she was about to go do with her friends. A few days ago while cleaning out the attic she had found one of Applejack's old photo albums, which had a picture of her and two of her friends around a campfire. When she asked Applejack about it she said that just a while before she had gone to Manehattan they made plans to go camping. While they were there they could do whatever they wanted, and one of them ended up getting her cutie mark in preventing forest fires, which Applejack said was because, "She kept yellin' at us every time we did something even remotely dangerous with the fire". The idea of having fun with her friends already had Applebloom excited, but knowing that somepony got a cutie mark from it made it even more exciting. The possibility them getting a camping related cutie mark was there, and it was all she needed to ask Applejack and Granny if she could go camping. It took a lot of convincing, but finally they caved in, and now here she was, heading out for her first camping trip without adult supervision.
"Hey Applebloom!" Scootaloo shouted as she came blazing up the path on her scooter, the speed of her stopping causing rocks to fly into the air, some of them landing in Applebloom's mane and on her face.
"Hey Scoots," Applebloom said after she spit out a tiny rock, hoping it wasn't a tooth instead, "What're you doin' here, I thought we were meeting at Fluttershy's?"
"We were, but..." Scootaloo trailed off, feeling embarrassed, "I just couldn't wait so I ran over to get Sweetie Belle, and now I'm here to get you" Looking behind Scootaloo she saw Sweetie Belle grasping the sides of the cart attachment for dear life, even though Scootaloo had stopped already. Once she saw Applebloom she seemed to snap out of it, but when Scootaloo moved forwards to let Applebloom in she starting holding on again. Once Applebloom was in the cart Scootaloo turned around.
"Do you have your ticket Miss Apple?" Scootaloo said, imitating a train conductor as she held out her hoof.
"Yes ma'am I do have my ticket..." Applebloom said, reaching into her bag and pulling out an apple fritter, "Right here!"
"Perfect, that's just what I was looking for!" Scootaloo said as she snatched the fritter from Applebloom, gobbling it up in one bite before she started to move the scooter, and the cart along with it. After a few small warm up flaps Scootaloo's wings were going at full speed, the two of them becoming orange blurs on her back as they took off, making Applebloom understand why Sweetie was holding on so tight. Within a minute they were outside of Fluttershy's cottage, Scootaloo's too passengers looking more like victims of a timberwolf attack.
"Did you really need to go that fast?!" Applebloom complained as she shook the twigs and leaves from her mane, one of the rocks from earlier flying out too and smashing Sweetie in the face. She managed to let out a quiet eep before Fluttershy came rushing outside, scared by Applebloom voice being so loud when she was giving Scootaloo crap for running them through the trees.
"Are you three okay, you're here awfully early," Fluttershy said as she came running over, "Oh, Sweetie you have leaves stuck on your horn" Fluttershy quickly fixed Sweetie up, carefully taking the leaves off her horn, also finding the rock just above her horn.
"Thanks Fluttershy..." Sweetie said quietly, not liking how Fluttershy just mothered her because she had some leaves on her horn.
"It's no problem, but you should be careful," Fluttershy said as she held the rock on her wing, "This was above your horn. If it had hit your horn hard enough you could have cracked it"
"Yes Fluttershy," Sweetie replied, feeling like she was a foal that had just tried to eat cleaning supplies or something dangerous.
"And Scootaloo, you shouldn't be going that fast, they could have fallen out and gotten hurt," Fluttershy said, continuing her crusade of mothering them, "You might have also hurt yourself by cramping your wings. You could crash and break them"
"Sorry Fluttershy..." Scootaloo said, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment because now she was being scolded. Applebloom giggled quietly until Fluttershy turned on her too.
"Applebloom, you need to be extra careful out in the woods, there are dangerous things out there, and you could all get hurt, "I don't want you three going very far either, only a couple of hoof steps"
"We're not babies Fluttershy," Applebloom protested, "We can go out further, it's not like we're going to get hurt, and if we do we can deal with it"
"But-" Fluttershy squeaked.
"No but's, we'll be fine, won't we?" Applebloom said, hoping that the others would back her up.
"Yeah, we'll be fine!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said in unison, making Fluttershy shy away a bit.
"Okay girls... have fun out there..." Fluttershy said quietly as she shuffled backwards until her flank hit her front door, making her jump. With a quick look between them the three fillies took their stuff out of the cart and made their way around Fluttershy's cottage, all of them humming happily. They were going camping, and in just a bit they would spend a night sleeping under the stars, just the three of them. Tonight they could do anything they wanted, and no pony would be able to yell at them, because they would never know!
"Okay girls, now it's time to get down and dirty!" Applebloom said as she threw her sleeping bag to the ground, which unraveled by complete coincidence. The other two shared an excited glance before they threw theirs down too, both of them unraveling on either side of Applebloom's.
"CUTIE MARK CAMPERS!" the three of them shouted before they looked around, a surprising amount of nothing around them.
"So what do we do now?" Sweetie asked, giving the area around them a confused look as if would tell her the answer.
"Let's, uh..." Applebloom said, trying to remember what Applejack and her friends did, "Make a fire!"
"CUTIE MARK CAMPFIRE EXPERTS!" they shouted before running off in three different directions.
"Did you manage to find anything?" Scootaloo asked as she came back to the campsite, seeing Sweetie Belle already laying down on her sleeping bag.
"Nope..." Sweetie said sadly, depressed that she wouldn't get a cutie mark in foraging tonight.
"Darn..." Scootaloo said as she moved to her sleeping bag, "Where's Applebloom?" Just before Sweetie was able to say that she had no idea they heard rustling in the bushes behind them, turning around afraid that it was some kind of animal coming to prey on them. Before they were able to get up and run to Fluttershy's Applebloom's ribbon poked out, allowing both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle to breath a sigh of relief.
"You guys get anything?" Applebloom asked as she pulled herself out of the bush with enough kindling on her back to last them a week. Their shocked expressions answered Applebloom's question, so she shrugged and dropped the wood on the ground, a few rocks that were in the pile scratched together, creating enough of a spark to light the firewood.
"Woah..." Scootaloo said, amazed that the wood had done that right after Applebloom dropped the pile of wood.
"I, uh... Meant to do that..." Applebloom said, confused by how it managed to light on fire without any of them doing anything. Looking at Sweetie Belle's expression let her know that she didn't do it with magic, so there was no easy explanation to what happened.
"Well, now that we have a fire we should get to bed!" Scootaloo said, immediately falling into her sleeping bag and passing out. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at each other in confusion before Scootaloo's snoring made them realize how tired they were as well. Applebloom slowly made her way to her sleeping bag before Sweetie decided to try to act responsibly.
"Shouldn't we put that out?" Sweetie Belle asked, making Applebloom stop so she could turn around and look.
"Naw, it should be fine," Applebloom said as she yawned, "Let's just get to sleep"
"Uh..." Sweetie Belle said worriedly, "Okay..." Laying her head down on the pillow made Sweetie fall fast asleep, with Applebloom following right after her once she managed to lay down. While they were asleep the wind started to pick up, a strong wind storm slowly drifting in from over the Unicorn Range...
"Wake up Applebloom!"
"WAKE UP!"
Applebloom snapped awake, her eyes starting to sting as the smoke hit them. Rolling over so she was just barely off the ground Applebloom was able to open her eyes, seeing the entire forest around them on fire. Looking around some more showed her Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo the two of them trying to find a way out of the clearing.
"Are you guys okay?!" Applebloom shouted, barely audible over the raging fire. The two of them turned around slowly, both of them coughing so much that it hurt. They motioned for Applebloom to hurry over, but as she got closer a branch from up above came crashing down right in front of her, burning her face with it's intense heat.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Applebloom cried as she felt her sight literally burn away right then and there. She startled to stumble forwards in pain, managing to make it over the burning branch and past the other two. For a while she stumbled blindly about, but eventually she fell into a pool, barely keeping her head above the water as she tried to stay safe in it.
"I think she's okay!" Scootaloo shouted, knowing that Applebloom was probably very injured, but right then, she was safe from the fire. Looking ahead of herself Scootaloo could tell that her and Scootaloo weren't in a safe position, which means they had to get moving, and fast. Nudging Sweetie lightly so she'd get moving Scootaloo stood up, getting ready to run full speed ahead until the got out of the forest. Within a few minutes of running the smoke became too much for Sweetie Belle, so she started to slow down, and eventually stopped right below a large burning branch.
"Sweetie, move!" Scootaloo shouted, hoping that her encouragement would make Sweetie start moving again. Sadly her voice didn't even reach Sweetie's ears at all, and just as she looked up to get moving again they both heard a loud creak from above...
*SNAP*
"Sweetie, run!" Scootaloo begged, hoping her friend would be able to dodge the large branch, which was more than heavy enough to kill her if she didn't move. Although Sweetie tried to move, she wasn't fast enough, only managing to get her body out of the way, but her head and horn were still crushed, causing her to scream in pain.
"MY HORN!" Sweetie cried, the pain being a million times worse than anything she could have imagined. Scootaloo's mind finally broke down, causing her to turn and run away without any second thoughts. She needed to be safe, she needed to find help, and she needed to save her friends! When Scootaloo saw the light from Fluttershy's cottage she felt something hit her wings, but she kept running. No matter what she had to get help, or both of her friends would die in that fire! Reaching Fluttershy's back door she started banging on it fiercely, her tiny hoof managing to strip away some of the paint with every hit, so that by the time Fluttershy opened it, there was a large portion with nothing covering it.
"Scootaloo, your wings!" Fluttershy cried, her eyes being drawn to Scootaloo's wings, finally making her turn to look. They were black, burned, and long past extra crispy. She knew her wings were going to be amputated now, there was no hope, and now she had no hopes of ever flying next to Rainbow Dash.
"My friends..." Scootaloo whimpered, the immense amount of pain from her burned wings finally hitting her, knocking her out before she could give Fluttershy the full message. As the world faded to black all Scootaloo could think was about the safety of her friends, and she hoped they were safe. Even if she would lose her wings, she still cared more about her friends. When her mind finally went out Scootaloo heard fireponies flying in overhead, the large group shouting directions between one another as they tried to contain the blaze.
