"Yawn..." Scootaloo yawned as she rested on her bed,
"If you're going to take a nap," First warned, "you'd better not snore."
"Oy!" Scootaloo snapped, "I do NOT snore!"
"Yes you do, you snored last night. Good thing I was in the middle of getting to sleep. Otherwise, I would be staying awake."
"Do you want to go bro?" Scootaloo jumped out of bed, her body in a fighting stance. "I'm well energised to fight!"
"Tough talk sis!" First laughed back as he returned with a different fighting stance. "And it's been a long time since I've got a different type of exercise rather than running around the pitch!"
"Seriously you two?" Whisper looked at his master and mistress with an appalled gasp, "must this really end in hoof combat?"
"Hey! Even Kabu and Kuwa wants to fight too!" Jibanyan spotted the pet beetles casually exited their cages and faced each other in yet another horn lockdown.
"Bring it on sis!" First taunted, "come at me with whatever fighting stance you can make up!"
"Look who's talking!" Scootaloo rebutted, and charged towards her brother, until a Flash rushed into the bedroom with a loud bang on the door, and pushed the siblings apart.
"There will be no fighting from both of you!" Flash bellowed as his hooves and legs stood strong against his siblings' strikes, "only Kabu and Kuwa are allowed to do that!"
"He started it!" Scootaloo was the first to relent, pointing a hoof at First.
"But you know it's true!" First replied, also relenting.
"The matter of snoring is too trivial and irrational to defend your claims through a hoof fight!" Flash replied, "so First, apologise to your sister!"
"Hmph!" First sighed, "sorry Sis. For pestering you about something that you pester me with all night!"
"Cut the trash talk First." Flash warned, "you have certain behaviours that are much more liable to trash talk than snoring."
"Yeah!" Scootloo laughed, "like you taking unnecessary long showers and excessive gum chewing too!"
"That does not give you the right to trash talk your brother either." Flash reminded, "if you two keep on being at each other's throats, both of you are going to get stressed with each other. It will lead to unnecessary bond-breaking, as well as illnesses!"
"..." The siblings stayed silent, still glaring at each other.
"If you guys want to cover up for the most annoying things that you do everyday, then go bug hunting around Springdale and Mt Wildwood and see which one can catch the biggest insect."
"Done!" The siblings replied unanimously and simultaneously,
"Both of you are really competitve to a fault." Flash chuckled,
"Heh..." Scootaloo grinned determinately "It's time for my revenge!"
"I'm gonna make you eat those words!"
"Honestly, can you stop taunting each other?" Flash replied, "I rather you'd wish good luck instead. May the best bug catcher win."
"On second thought," Scootaloo turned to her big brother, "what does bug catching have to do with our pet peeves against each other? It doesn't make sense when you... ou... aah... ACHOO!" A loud sneeze erupted from her mouth, spacing the two stallions away.
"That was sudden." Flash broke the silence, "bless you."
"Thanks big bro, but it feels rather force--ACHOO!" Scootaloo sneezed again,
"... Scoots?" Flash asked, with concern,
"Eww sis!" First replied, "at least cover your mouth when you sneeze!"
"Should I be saying that to you???" Flash then turned to his younger brother with concern, as a very long line of snot was hanging from his nose.
"What's with the look?" First asked back,
"Hmm..." Flash replied, "both of you aren't looking so well..."
"Wha--CHOO!" Scootaloo sneezed "are you talking about? I feel fine as a f-- *cough*." All of a sudden, Scootaloo started coughing too.
"Wow Scoots, you've got a cold AND a cough! Karma must be playing a nasty effect on you. Ugh..." As First continued laughing at his sister's sudden symptoms, he started to feel something pounding in his head, causing him a lot of uncomfort.
"Scoots? First?" Flash started to look at both of them, "looks like I spoke to soon. You guys really are unwell!"
"ACHOO! *Cough* ACHOO! *Cough*" Scootaloo hacked,
"Argh... My head... My nose..." First held his head while trying to deal with his runny nose.
"Sneezing, coughing, a runny nose, and a headache. It seems both of you have come down with a case of flu." Flash observed, "you know what that means."
"B-But!"
"Both of you need to take a rest now. No games, no junk food and most of all, no fighting." Flash replied, "I won't repeat myself. Please put aside whatever qualms you have with each other and focus on resting. If I hear you fighting with each other on this condition..." His face turned emotionless and ferocious.
"W-We understand bro." The siblings nodded,
"Thank you both," Flash returned to his emotionless and calm self, "get well soon." And he closed the door behind him. The moment he was heard trotting down the stairs, the siblings pushed their heads towards each other.
"This is all your fault sis" First growled, "first snoring, now your contagious yet fake flu? You know nothing better than to annoy me huh?"
"I swear to Celestia, it was not me!" Scootaloo replied, "and I feel fine! It was my mind and brain that was feeling funny. And if I was feeling like that, then you are too!"
"Likely story!" First scoffed, "now stop making all those excuses!"
"Will you two stop this nonsense rabble at once!?" Whisper called out, pushing Scoots away from First.
"Nyone of you are at fault here!" Jibanyan pushed First away from Scoots, "what Scoots said is true! Your mind is playing tricks on you! Is that what they call Placebo effect?"
"Excuse me?" First asked,
"Rather, somepony is actually affecting you, four of them."
"You're kidding me... Yo-Kai?"
"Yep! And I know those guys personally! I don't need the Yo-Kai Pad to find out who they are! Unlike somepony..."
"No idea what you're talking about..." Whisper feigned ignorance,
"Anyway, if you could be so kind Scoots, see for yourself." Jibanyan gestured. With another sneeze, Scoots pulled up her Watch and began scanning the room. Near the balcony window, four Yo-Kai silhouettes covered with black and purple mist were uncovered.
"Wow..." First noted as the mist from all four Yo-Kai were brushed away, leaving two ducks with long drips of snot coming out of each nostril and two floating spike balls that has mouths and an eye in the mouth. "You guys don't look any different."
"Well well!" The Mallard Duck Yo-Kai spoke. His voice sounded like an old man that still had a bit of a young tone in him. "It looks like we have been found out!"
"Cough cough..." The brown floating Yo-Kai coughed,
"Hey Duchoo! Coughkoff! And you too Snotsolong and Hurchin!" Jibanyan greeted,
'Amazin'!" The red-crowned crane Yo-Kai replied, "who knew we would see you here Jibanyan! So this is where you live?"
"Ugh..." The dark blue floating Yo-Kai moaned in pain.
"Whoa whoa whoa... First off, how do you know Jibanyan?" Scootaloo asked, "and second, what are you doing in our house?"
"We met Jibanyan during a Yo-Kai party two days ago." Duchoo answered, "we had a lot of fun together! And all safe fun too! Nothing too rash and rude to disrupt the Ponies."
"You'd hardly disrupt them at all." First reminded, "unless you're doing graffiti in the middle of the night, it may freak ponies out due to a levitating spray can."
"As for your second question," Snotsolong continued, "Coughkoff and Hurchin here aren't in good terms with each other. Their methods of fighting against each other requires them inspiriting anypony in order to give them the mind-tricking coughs and headaches."
"Coughs?" Scootaloo pricked up,
"Headaches?" First did the same,
"As for us, we were dragged along. Coughkoff wanted me to support his coughing with my cold, while Hurchin asked the same thing of Snotsolong on combining a very runny nose with headaches." Duchoo spoke,
"We didn't want to fight, but we couldn't let our friends get hurt, can we?" Snotsolong finished, "so we helped them out regardless."
"How long have you been doing this?" Scootaloo continued the questions,
"For the past week," Duchoo replied, "we've been going through different residential houses inspiriting those just to start a fight between enemies, which probably mostly ends up in a draw."
"Th-This..." Scootaloo started to tremble,
"Scoots?" First asked,
"This is RIDICULOUS!" Scootaloo yelled,
"Shh!!!" Whisper and Jibanyan hurriedly shushed, "don't give your Older brother the wrong idea!"
"Why must your hatred with each other be expressed in great levels that innocent ponies had to get-ACHOO! Involved?" Scootaloo rasped as quiet as she everypony could hear her in the room.
"Cough Cough..." Coughkoff coughed as he hesitantly floated back,
"Urgh..." Hurchin groaned did the same,
"They said that Yo-Kai are not seen by the naked Pony eye. In that thinking, ponies wouldn't mind if they feel a bit sick! It's not even real anyway." Jibanyan translated,
"That's hard to say when a pony was fooled by your inspiriting. And he's a Guard!" First replied, a drop of snot beginning to extend from his nose
"Why are you-ACHOO! Fighting anyway?" Scootaloo questioned,
"Urgh, Urgh Urgh..." Hurchin groaned with different types of tones in order to express his emotion.
"Hurchin says that he's always been compared and mistaken for Coughkoff a lot, despite the different colours. And throughout his existence as a Yo-Kai, he is getting tired of it."
"Cough cough cough..." Coughkoff coughed his part,
"Apparently, Coughkoff doesn't return the feeling, and he didn't understand why he was getting so much hate from a Yo-Kai who was identical in shape and different in colour."
"And so, you just went with the flow, fighting back." First theorised,
"Cough!" Coughkoff nodded,
"Hmm..." Scootaloo thought real hard, then came to a decision.
"First, let's call a temporary truce for now. Okay?" Scootaloo offered a hoof, "I'm in no mood to fight if we-ACHOO! Are 'sick' and are dealing with the Yo-Kai responsible."
"Truce." First shook her hoof, "besides, once this is all over, we can fight properly with no holds barred."
"Wonderful!" Scootaloo and First turned to the crowd, "now let's show them how pointless fighting is due to similarity!"
"Look who's talking..." Jibanyan whispered to Whisper,
"I've seen plenty of Yo-Kai that have palette swaps of each other. There's Leadoni and Mynimo, Heheheel and his friends though I've never seen them. I'd even say the country brothers are too!"
"Huh, now that you mention it." Duchoo realised, "don't we look alike as well?" He turned to Snotsolong,
"You're quite right there!" Snotsolong nodded, "You look like me, and I look like you! Only different colours. We have the same body shape, same eyes and same length of our snot!"
"E-Exactly!" First continued, "Just because you look identical, it doesn't mean you have to become strong enemies! I'm not saying you have to like each other, but at least stop fighting or inspiriting others!"
"In fact, nearly most of the ponies also look identical with others despite different colour swaps. Before Princess Twilight became an Alicorn-ACHOO!, She was very identical to another pony named Lovestruck. In fact, she also looks identical to her mother Mrs Velvet!"
"COUGH!!!" Coughkoff coughed loudly,
"He says SILENCE!!!" Jibanyan translated, Coughkoff turned to Hurchin and began speaking,
"Cough Cough Cough Cough, Cough Cough Cough..."
"Urgh..."
"Cough Cough Cough Cough. Cough COUGH Cough!"
"Urgh?"
"Cough," He gestured towards the siblings "cough cough cough, cough cough."
"Urgh"
"Cough cough?"
"... Urgh" Hurchin nodded, "Urgh, Urgh Urgh!"
"Cough." Coughkoff nodded back,
"Umm..." Scootaloo spoke up, "I don't mean to sound rude, but can I understand what is happening throughout the pains and groans?"
"To put it simply, Coughkoff still has no idea what Hurchin's beef with him is all about. But then, he swears that this fighting should stop, and if that's impossible, to put inspiriting Ponies out of the question. Hurchin may still not like him and he still won't stop fighting with him, but he understands, as does he. Perhaps Coughkoff and Hurchin may clear misunderstandings as time goes by!"
"Cough!?"
"Urgh!?"
"Did you make that up?" First asked, the snot dripping down from his nose,
"... For a very long time, they may come to an understanding where they won't fight anymore."
"In that case," Duchoo put a wing on Coughkoff's body, "we'll do the best we can to help both of you."
"As friends!" Snotsolong finished the sentence as he put a wing on Hurchin's body.
"Cough" Coughkoff looked at Hurchin,
"Urgh" Hurchin returned the same stare,
"Thanks for your help today young foals." Duchoo thanked, "thanks to your explanation, we'll also try our best as friends to stop fights rather than support it."
"Here," Snotstolong stretched his wing out, a medal on it. "How bout all four of us be friends with you too?"
"Good idea!" Duchoo placed his medal on Snotsolong's wing,
"Cough!" Coughkoff coughed out his medal, landing neatly on Snotsolong's wing.
"Urgh!" Hurchin knocked himself against a wall then floated over Snotsolong's wing. Opening his mouth, he dropped his medal onto the wing, making a total of four.
"Thanks you guys!" Scootaloo accepted them, "It's great to become friends with you too! And if you still have any problems, feel free to call us!"
"Sure thing! See you!" Duchoo, Snotsolong, Hurchin and Coughkoff flew out of the window, waving goodbye.
"Hmm, how can Duchoo and Snotsolong fly freely? I fear those long snot of theirs would weigh them down!" First asked,
"Yo-Kai anatomy, let's not question their logic." Scootaloo replied, then realised something. "Hey! I'm not sneezing anymore!"
"Oh right!" First felt his nose, "No more runny nose too!"
"Great!" Scootaloo smiled, then glared at her brother, "Truce broken!"
"Gladly!!!" First glared back, pulling out another fighting stance.
"I'm going to prove to you that I don't snore! And I'll use my hooves if I have to!" Scootaloo put on another fighting stance,
"Stop it you two!" Whisper butted in as he and Jibanyan held them back once more. "What happened to your words when you were talking with them?"
"This is something different," First replied, "stay out of this!"
"No!" Jibanyan replied, "you guys are our friends! Not hypocrites!"
"I!" Scootaloo spoke, until she starts to feel dizzy. "I... I... I'm gonna..."
"Argh..." First also started feeling dizzy and heavy,
"I... Actually don't feel so well now." Scootaloo spoke,
"My nose... It's so cold..." First expressed his symptoms through words.
"Hmm..." Whisper looked at his masters, then placed a thermometer in each.
"Oh no..." Scootaloo moaned,
"Don't tell me..." First spoke,
"Yep!" Whisper pulled the thermometers out. "Both of you are sick. For real!"
"Oh come on! That's rubbish! I can fight..." Scootaloo expelled a very nasty and cough, where everypony could hear the phlegm and tightness inside her throat. "Actually... I really can't fight..."
"Me... Me neither..." First Base sniffed, his nose incredibly blocked and runny. "You know what? I'd rather go to bed now."
"Same..." Scootaloo sighed as she stumbled into her bed, "I surrender, you win..."
"Naw..." First did the same, "I did nothing either, you take the victory this time... Get well soon dear sister..."
"You too dear brother." Scootaloo moaned as she tucked herself into bed, where she fell to sleep immediately. First did the same and no sooner were the siblings sleeping peacefully in the hopes to get better.
"Oh the irony of today's situation!" Whisper laughed, "maybe fighting really is unhealthy for the body... Except for you Kabu and Kuwa." All of a sudden, a loud snoring can be heard, turning to the source of the sound, it was none other than Scootaloo herself.
"Nyo way!" Jibanyan covered his ears in agonising pain, "First was right! Scoots does snore after all!"
"Rgh! How am I supposed to sleep now!?" Whisper growled with anger, "that's it Scoots! When you wake up, it's going to be war!"