The next morning at Sweet Apple Acres, the members of the Loud family were waking up and getting ready to start the day. Lori and Leni had been sleeping in a spare guest room upstairs. The eldest Loud sister sat up in bed, yawned, stretched her back and arms, and opened her eyes to find a very grumpy-looking girl with bluish gray skin, opalish gray hair, and light green eyes standing at the foot of her bed glaring at her.
“Is your name Lori Loud?” the girl asked in a gruff and unpleasant tone.
“Yes,” Lori nervously answered. The gruff gray stranger walked around the bed closer to her and leaned forward till her face was inches away from Lori’s.
“Gaze into the eyes of Limestone Pie, eldest of the Pie sisters,” she introduced herself while holding her eyelid wide open. “Ma and Pa put me in charge of the rock farm back home and I keep it running. My sister, Pinkie, tells me you’re the eldest of your siblings, but you don’t take your responsibilities seriously.”
“Well I…” Lori tried to speak but was interrupted.
“Well lucky for you, Big Mac and I are here to teach you them,” Limestone said. “Now get out of bed and meet us in the barn. We got a lot to teach you and very little time.” With that, she left the room to allow Lori to get dressed.
“She seems nice,” Leni commented with a smile.
Meanwhile downstairs, Rainbow Dash had been making some calls to some of her fellow athletes to form teams for herself and Lynn Jr. for their big game. LJ was outside warming up for the upcoming game. The 13 year old was feeling pretty confident. While she didn’t have Lincoln around to wear the mascot suit to ‘boost her luck’, he wouldn’t be around to ‘jinx the game’. Back inside, Rainbow had just finished making all her calls while her friends, Granny Smith, Maud, the Loud parents, Lily, Lisa, Lana, Luan, and Luna were all having breakfast together in the dining room.
“You’ve been making a lot of calls, Rainbow Dash,” a concerned Fluttershy said. “Are you feeling a little tired?”
“Don’t worry, Flutters,” the rainbow-haired athlete assured her shy animal-loving friend. “I’m saving most of my energy for the big game today.”
“Good luck with that,” Lynn Sr. said proudly. “Our LJ has only ever lost one game.”
“She’s so good, the only way she could ever lose is by some miracle,” Rita boasted.
The Loud parents’ boastful comments were met with bitter and disapproving looks from everyone in the room, which made the folks and their children really uncomfortable. After a moment, the Equestria Girls and their family members left the room with without saying anything.
“Was it something we said?” Lynn Sr. asked concerned and confused.
In the barn, Limestone and Big Mac were now ready to begin Lori’s tutoring on how to be a proper big sibling.
“Your sisters have already told me some interesting stories about you, Lori,” Limestone began. “Tell me, do you consider yourself a good big sister?”
“Well, I may not be perfect, but I think I’m pretty close,” Lori answered confidently.
“We’ll see about that. Alright, it’s time to begin,” Limestone announced to her and Big Mac’s new pupil. “Since you and your family are in a bit of a hurry, we’ll try to make this go as quick as possible. Ready big guy?”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac answered.
“First, we’ll see what you currently know. Now take out your phone and pretend your talking to someone on it while in your room.” Lori did as she was instructed. Then Limestone walked closer to her. “Now I will pretend to be one of your siblings and I happen to walk into your room while you’re on your phone. What do you usually do when that happens?”
“Hey, you little twerp!” Lori said aggressively. “You know the rules, stay out of my room or I’ll turn you into a human pretzel!”
WHACK!
Lori suddenly received a hard smack upside her head from Limestone which almost caused her to drop her cellphone.
“Are you crazy?!” Lori angrily scolded. “I almost dropped my phone!”
“Oh no, that would’ve been a terrible tragedy,” Limestone retorted in a very sarcastic and uncaring tone. “Is that how you always get your siblings to listen to you? Threaten them with physical violence?”
“Well, I just want my siblings to respect my needs and boundaries,” Lori timidly explained. Limestone’s aggressive attitude was intimidating her.
“Respect, right,” Limestone replied in a sarcastic tone while giving the eldest Loud sister a very disapproving look which Big Mac also shared. “Alright, let’s try something else.” She led Lori and Big Mac over to a door in the barn. “Alright, for this next lesson, Big Mac will act like your younger sibling and he needs to use the bathroom, you want to use it too. How do you usually handle this situation?”
Big Mac stood in front of the door they were pretending was the bathroom. Then Lori suddenly cut in front of him.
“Beat it, I’m using the bathroom,” Lori said in a demanding tone.
“But I was here first,” Big Mac complained in a calm tone.
“Well, I was born first,” Lori disrespectfully replied.
WHACK!
Lori received another hard smack upside the head from Limestone.
“Is treating everyone like dirt the only thing you know?!” Limestone said angrily and making the eldest Loud sibling nervous. “I think I see what kind of person you are. You think that just because your ma and pa brought you into this world first that you’re better than the rest that followed you. Well, I got news for you, phoneaholic! There are A LOT more important things about being the eldest sister than getting your way all the time.”
“There is?” Lori asked confused and surprised.
“We got a lot of work to do,” the eldest Pie sister said to the eldest Apple sibling in a disappointed tone.
“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied just as disappointed.
Over at Sunset Shimmer’s home, the former student of CHS had just woken up to a very delicious smell coming from the kitchen. She followed the scent to find Lincoln was already awake and making breakfast.
“Lincoln?” Sunset said surprised.
“Good morning, Sunset,” the white-haired 11 year old greeted her. “How do you like your eggs?”
“Sunny side up,” the red and yellow-haired teen answered. “I didn’t expect you to be up cooking breakfast.”
“It’s no problem. I used to cook breakfast for my entire family when Dad didn’t feel like it.”
“Wow!” Sunset exclaimed amazed. “You’re pretty responsible.”
“Well, since Mom and Dad spend most of their time hiding in their bedroom and Lori spends almost all her time talking or texting on her phone, someone has to be,” Lincoln replied in a slightly bitter tone.
“Sorry,” Sunset apologized. “I didn’t mean to remind you-”
“It’s alright,” Lincoln reassured her.
“I can only imagine how stressful it must be having to deal with ten troublesome sisters.”
“Yeah, but I was lucky to have Clyde and Ronnie Anne to talk to and hangout with to get away from all that for a bit. It’s nice to have friends.”
“I stopped trusting and seeing my friends,” Sunset reminded him in an awkward tone.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Lincoln apologized for inadvertently reminding his new friend of her old friends.
“It’s fine, don’t worry,” Sunset warmly assured the boy. She was a little surprised to realize that he was just as bad at small talk as she was. “How about I help out with breakfast?”
“Sure, How about you make the pancake batter?”
“Sounds great,” Sunset said excitedly as she started gathering the ingredients needed to make pancake batter.
Both of them smiled as they cooked breakfast together knowing that they were going to have a great day ahead of them.
At the Canterlot baseball field, the Five, the Crusaders, their families, the Loud family, and some students from CHS had all gathered there to participate in and watch the game.
“You’re sure you got this, Dash?” Fluttershy asked her friend in the coach’s box. “You haven’t played baseball in a very long time.”
“Don’t worry, Flutters,” Rainbow Dash reassured her friend. “My skills might be a tad rusty, but I’m positive I’ll be able to handle this kid.” With that, the rainbow-haired athlete grabbed a bat and walked onto the field and took her position at home plate.
Lynn’s entire family cheered as she took her position on the pitcher’s mound and waved to them. Then she started doing some weird things like lift her leg, turn her cap, toss some dirt over her shoulder, pat her right cheek, and do a Cossack dance while chanting “Hutta-hut!”.
“I thought this was a baseball game, not a dance contest!” a confused and irritated Rainbow called to the young pitcher.
“What is she doing?” Applejack asked. She was sitting with the rest of her friends and next to the rest of the Louds in the bleachers.
“That’s Lynn’s good luck rituals,” Rita answered.
“She performs before every game,” Luna finished, then she and the rest of the family resumed cheering for their little athlete.
“Well if I might interject, those ‘rituals’ just make her look positively ridiculous,” Rarity commented to her friends who all nodded in agreement.
“Are you ready yet?” Rainbow asked impatiently.
“Oh yeah!” Lynn answered very confidently.
Rainbow raised her bat ready to hit, then Lynn swung her arm and hurled the ball.
Meanwhile, Sunset and Lincoln had finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen together. Now it was getting close to lunchtime.
“Well Lincoln, I have to say you’re a pretty good cook when it comes to breakfast,” Sunset complemented.
“Thanks, it’s one of the few good things I learned from my dad,” Lincoln warmly replied. Even though he didn’t have a good opinion of his father at the moment, he had to admit he was still a great cook.
“Now what to do for lunch,” Sunset wondered. “I was thinking I’d cook us up a couple burgers to eat. Does that sound good?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll handle this one, you just relax while I fix lunch for us.”
“Okay.”
While Sunset walked into the kitchen to cook the burgers, Lincoln decided to read a few comics he brought with him. So he pulled a couple out of his backpack, but he didn’t start reading. Lincoln had this habit of reading comics… in his underpants. He took his orange polo shirt off and then undid his belt and let his pants drop to the floor.
“Uhhhh...” he heard an awkward sounding voice behind him. He turned to see Sunset standing in the kitchen doorway staring at him with an extremely shocked and awkward look on her face. Immediately, Lincoln’s eyes widened and his face reddened. How could he forget?! His sisters may have slightly tolerated this habit of his at home, but now he was in a different house with someone he had just met.
“Oh sorry!” Lincoln anxiously apologized and immediately pulled his pants back up. “It’s… it’s a habit of mine! I like to read comics in just my underwear. If it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t do it.”
“It’s fine, Lincoln,” Sunset warmly assured the boy. “If you feel more comfortable reading comics in your underwear, then go ahead.”
“Wow! Thanks Sunset,” Lincoln expressed his gratitude with great delight and undid his pants again. “My sisters hate it when I do this.”
“Well, I’m not like them,” Sunset said with a friendly smile. “It took me awhile to get used to wearing clothes constantly in this world,” she thought to herself.
“So you don’t find it at all weird or gross?”
“No. Besides, I’m doing something that some people would probably find just as gross and weird.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m making you a hamburger, and making myself a hayburger.”
“A hayburger?!” Lincoln said bewildered.
“Yeah, I’m a bit of a vegetarian,” Sunset explained. “I only keep a few meat products incase of guests. I know it might sound like a weird thing to eat.”
“Nah, my favorite sandwich is peanut butter and sauerkraut,” the white-haired boy replied. “Even Lana refuses to eat something like that, and she eats all sorts of disgusting things.” Then the two of them burst into hysterical laughter.
“Well, I better get back to cooking lunch,” Sunset said calming herself down. “Just relax until it’s ready.”
“Okay,” Lincoln responded and took a seat on the living room couch with his comic in hand.
Both Sunset and Lincoln were enjoying each other’s company. While Sunset was cooking the burgers, she was trying to think of things they both could do together later on and the next day. In the living room, Lincoln was thinking the same thing while reading his comic. They had just met, but were getting along so well. Both had a lot they wanted to show and tell the other. For the first time in a long while, both felt happy.
Back at the baseball field, the game was over and Rainbow Dash’s team had emerged victorious. However, Lynn had not taken the outcome well at all. It was the second loss she had ever suffered in her entire sports career. After the final scores were declared, Lynn instantly started to believe Lincoln was hiding somewhere close by. And since they all knew he didn’t have his lucky squirrel suit with him, there was nothing to counteract his bad luck. Lynn desperately searched everywhere but her brother was nowhere to be found. Even with a few of her sisters assisting her they found nothing. Everyone else just watched this pathetic scene with pity and disappointment.
“Anyone found him yet?” an anxious Lynn asked the sisters who were helping her.
“Nope,” answered Lana.
“Not a thing,” Lola answered right after.
“I’ve literally looked everywhere,” Lori reported.
“Guys, I found him!” Leni excitedly announced and appeared holding a young boy by the wrist. The boy was wearing an orange polo shirt and blue jeans, but there was a VERY distinguishing feature that was out of place.
“Uh Leni, Lincoln has white hair,” Lori awkwardly pointing out the boy’s obvious brown hair.
“Oh, I thought there was something different about him,” Leni said realizing her mistake.
“Let go of me, you weirdo!” the kid said freeing himself from Leni’s grip and running off.
“I don’t see him anywhere either. Guess none of us are having a ball!” Luan joked and laughed at her own pun. “Get it?” But the others just let out pained sighs.
“Has anyone found any sign of Lincoln?!” Lynn asked, her voice growing more anxious and irritated.
“Not a thing,” Lucy reported appearing behind her older athlete sister scaring her.
“He’s gotta be here! How else could I have lost?!” For Lynn, the only possible reason that she could’ve lost this game was if Lincoln was hiding somewhere. There was no other explanation.
The Five had been watching this whole thing playout long enough. The delusional young athlete’s panicking and vain attempts to find something to blame for her loss was really starting to get on their nerves. But what was even more irritating, was that none of her family was doing anything about it and some were even going along with this childish behavior.
“Was I ever this deluded?” an embarrassed Rainbow asked herself.
“Well, Mr. and Mrs. Loud,” Rarity addressed the Loud parents. “What do you make of this?” She along with her friends were eager to see the folks put a stop to this immaturity.
“This is the second time our Lynn has lost a game,” Lynn Sr. said in disbelief.
“And if Lincoln isn’t here, then…” Rita added.
“We have no idea,” both parents said in unison.
The Five stared at the two parents as if octopus tentacles were coming out of their eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouths while the matriarch and patriarch stared back at them with confusion and cluelessness etched on their faces. Instantly, the Five realized what the problem with this family was and it filled them with great disappointment that these so-called parents hadn’t figured it out by now.
“Alright, that’s it!” Rainbow said unable to take it anymore and began walking towards Lynn Jr.
“Where are you, Lincoln?!” the delusional and panicing sports fanatic called out. “I know you’re here, so show yourself! Don’t you think you’ve angered the softball gods enough? All you had to do was wear that good luck squirrel suit! NOW COME OUT!!!”
“Lynn, your brother’s not here,” Rainbow told the younger athlete.
“No, he has to be!” Lynn anxiously insisted. “How else could I lose? Please, you gotta help me find him, then I can prove to everyone that I’m right!”
“This is your problem, Lynn!” Rainbow said. “When something doesn’t go your way, it’s always someone else’s fault.”
“Now hold on—” Lynn Sr. said as he and his wife were about to stop the rainbow-haired high schooler from arguing with their fifth born. But their path was blocked by the four other girls.
“You two are gonna stand right here and watch her do what y’all shoulda’ done a long time ago,” AJ said in a threatening tone.
“Now let’s take a moment to examine other factors here,” Rainbow continued. “We decided to have this game yesterday so you barely had enough time to practice, you were going up against people who’ve had more experience than you, you wasted most of your energy performing those silly good luck rituals, and you hardly gave any of your teammates a chance to play, not to mention the state they’re in.” Looking over at the team she had assembled for Lynn, she noticed that they all looked like they were in pain. Great internal pain. “What happened? You all looked fine when I assembled you here.”
“Our so-called team captain wouldn’t let any of us use the bathroom!” a girl named Cloudy Kicks complained.
“Don’t any of you know the old saying?” Lynn explained. “‘Never go number two until we are number one’.”
“That’s disgusting!” Dash said with great disgust.
“But it works every time.”
“Well it didn’t work today.”
“That’s because my little brother is hiding somewhere close by, not wearing his good luck suit, and jinxing the game!”
“Listen Lynn,” Rainbow was starting to lose patience. “You obviously think very highly of yourself, trust me I know. But you also think everyone else is beneath you, so you let your ego get the best of you. You’re just blaming other people for your own mistakes, hurting those close to you, and you don’t even care.”
This argument was beginning to remind Lynn of the one she had with Lincoln before he ran away. In her entire sports career, no one had ever tried to tell Lynn that something was her own fault. Why should they? She was Lynn Loud Jr., the best athlete in Royal Woods. These blows to Lynn’s ego caused anger to boil up inside her.
“Oh yeah?!” the younger athlete retorted accusingly. “Just like you let your ego get the best of you when you blamed and drove away one of your friends for a crime she didn’t commit?! I don’t think you’re in any position to—”
SMACK!
Before Lynn could finish what she was saying, she received a hard slap across the face by a furious Rainbow Dash. There are some buttons that shouldn’t be pressed. Lynn stood in shock as she held her aching left cheek which had a big red hand mark on it. After a moment, Dash finally calmed herself and resumed her argument with Lynn.
“Are you going to blame your brother for that too?” Rainbow angrily asked but the younger athlete remained silent. “Because if you are, then you’re even more pathetic than I thought. Lynn, I’m going to tell you something that your family should’ve told you a long time ago, so listen and listen well.” After making sure she had the sports fanatic’s undivided attention, Dash said what she needed to say. “GROW UP! You dream of being a great athlete who never loses a game, but that’s all it is. A dream and nothing more! A life without failure is a life without experience. I’ve lost a few games in my sports career, and I’m still considered the best athlete at CHS because I believe in my skills, used those losses to motivate me to improve those skills, and am not stupid enough to believe that someone else could have any sort of responsibility if I lose. And from what my friends and I have told you about what happened last holiday season, that stupidity threshold is pretty broad.” There hints of sadness and shame in her voice when she said that last sentence. “But you have some nerve having that big an ego when you believe more in superstitions than your own skills!” Every word Rainbow said was cutting Lynn like a sharp knife. “However, your own pride isn’t the only thing that contributed to the mess you and your family are in now.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Loud,” Fluttershy addressed the Loud parents. “We can tell that you’re both very proud of your daughters.”
“But you’re a little too proud,” Applejack added.
“Your pride of their accomplishments have blinded you to their flaws,” Rarity said. “Not only have you failed to acknowledge their behavioral issues, but now you’ve played along with them and caused your only son unnecessary misery.”
“Come to think of it, I don’t remember any of you mentioning anything about your son that makes you proud,” Pinkie suspiciously pointed out. “Guess that tells us a lot about how your people think of him.”
After hearing those words, Lynn Sr. and Rita both looked very visibly upset as great realization set in. Their parenting flaws had made their ten little angels not so angelic and made their only boy miserable.
“What have we done to our kids?!” the parents exclaimed in unison, both very visibly distraught.
“Lynn Loud Jr., you are the biggest sore loser I have ever met!” Rainbow Dash continued. “And unless you and your family start cleaning up your acts, you’ll never get Sunset Shimmer back!” Everyone suddenly turned their attention to Rainbow confused at the last thing she just said. Realizing what she just said, the older athlete corrected herself. “I mean… you’ll never get your brother back! It doesn’t matter how many victories or trophies you’ve won, you’ll never be a real winner with such poor sportsmanship. You weren’t even that much of a challenge today. So why don’t you grow up, figure out what’s more important in life, and stop making everybody’s lives harder than they already are! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home now. See you tomorrow, Lynn.” With that, Rainbow Dash was finished with her speech and started leaving the field leaving the defeated and broken Lynn to her family and thoughts.
“Do you think you might’ve been a little hard on her, Rainbow?” a concerned Fluttershy asked her friend.
“Had to be done, Flutters,” Dash replied. Her tone made it clear that she wasn’t proud of what she did, but she knew she had to do it. “Had to be done. Can't let them make the same mistake we did.”
Lynn fell to her knees and sat where she was in puddle of misery. Rainbow’s scolding really did a number on her. It seemed that the sporty Loud sister’s seemingly impenetrable wall of pride had finally crumbled allowing guilt and regret to fully takeover now. The once proud athlete began rapidly shedding tears of remorse over the way she’s behaved, the brother she hurt, and what she’s become. The rest of her family gathered around to try and comfort her, as they too were now having the same realization as she was. They had foolishly allowed themselves to become obsessed with superstitions and drive their only son and brother away for absolutely nothing.
“Lincoln!” Lynn wept. This time she didn’t want him to appear to prove her superstitions true, but to tell him just how sorry she was for everything she put him through. But he wasn’t there.