Rainbow Dash took a deep breath, her pounding heart and twisting stomach fueling her pacing hooves, the motion doing nothing to curb her anxiety as she mentally went over her checklist once again.
‘House lowered and anchored to the ground? Check.
‘Schedule cleared for the next two days? Check.
‘Comfy pillow fort with blankets and books? Check.
‘Her favorite foods and snacks? Check.
‘Pain prescription? Double-check.’
The double door opened, her heart leaping as she saw a doctor walk out, but falling and hammering once again when she only went to the circulation desk. Huffing internally, she forced herself to breathe as she began her pacing once again, reassuring herself of all the right steps that had been taken over the past month.
A second consolation to help Scootaloo begin to mentally prepare for the surgery and give Rainbow time to prepare accommodations.
“Part of the surgery includes magic,” Doctor Physique had said. “This way, we’ll line up the electrode to the exact points of retrieval within her cochlea to make her hearing as close to exact as possible.”
More scheduling.
A preliminary appointment with the speech therapist.
Getting ahead in Scootaloo’s schooling.
A final big day of fun as guardian and charge prepared the Cloudominium to suit the filly’s needs for the next few days.
Two empty stomachs as Rainbow fasted with her filly. One last flight on the way to Canterlot as the two enjoyed the air and shouted out their nervously excited energy.
A filly whose smile—Rainbow had to admit—was far more confident than she was feeling as she was fitted with a band around her fetlock and given a kiss as she was carted away.
Scootaloo’s brave grin lingered in Rainbow’s mind, and she clung to it.
‘Before I know it, she’ll be right out, and we can rest for the rest of the day,’ she reassured herself for the thousandth time.
She didn’t hear the door open again.
“Rainbow Dash?” called out the familiar voice.
A prismatic head whipped around so fast her neck cracked, her adrenaline-fueled heart rate instantly put at ease by the pleased smile on Doctor Physique’s face.
The good doctor motioned her forward and grinned as he reported. “The surgery went wonderfully. No hiccups, no abnormalities. She’s currently in her room for recovery. Once she gains alertness, you can both go home.”
An unnoticed tension released from Rainbow’s chest, leaving her inhaling chest sore. “Thank you,” she wheezed. “Can I…can I go see her?”
Doctor Physique nodded, smiling in understanding and gesturing to a nurse behind him whom Rainbow had not noticed. “Nurse Blue Cross will take you back to her and make sure she’s fit for departure.”
Rainbow nodded, forcing her hooves to stay still, her heart screaming for her to get to Scootaloo as quickly as possible. Doctor Physique trotted past them to the main desk as the Spring pink mare began leading Rainbow Dash down the hall to the room she had left Scootaloo. Rainbow’s building anxiety finally dissipated only when she laid eyes on her precious filly sleeping away the final moments of anesthesia.
The nurse let Rainbow approach her filly and take in the bandage pads situated securely behind Scootaloo’s ears, giving her a moment to see the filly was alright before beginning her post-surgery spiel: “For the first couple days, let her rest as much as she wants. You remember the conditions the doctor put in place? No flying or high altitudes for two weeks while her cochlea heals?” At Rainbow’s affirmative nod, she continued, “Excellent! Don’t forget to change her bandages every two days for the first week, with about an hour or two of airing out in between; and try to keep the stitches covered when her mane is washed.You can sponge the site with a damp cloth, but don’t flood the stitches.”
At Rainbow’s confident nod, the nurse smiled. It was nice when the patient's family didn’t put up a fuss about the recovery requirements. “She’ll be pretty disoriented while she’s waking up. She may feel a little nauseous, but that’s normal. She didn’t eat this morning, so there’s nothing for her to get sick with, so just help her breathe through it. If you want, you can get in the bed with her, but just make sure we can get to her when we need to check on her.
Rainbow gave the nurse a smile. “Cool! Thanks for everything!”
The nurse returned the smile, nodded, and left Rainbow to her filly. Eyes almost refusing to blink as she watched for signs of Scootaloo’s return to the waking world, Rainbow finally decided to join her little sister in the bed, carefully climbing in and laying down beside her and worming her forelegs around her, tucking the little filly’s head under her chin and beginning a gentle pass up and down Scootaloo’s spine.
Thankfully, the reprieve came quickly for the mare, the little pegasus stirring after mere minutes. Rainbow drew her name-sign on Scootaloo’s back, her little sister responding by instantly pressing her face into the soft, comforting chest fur of the older mare.
Scootaloo squirmed a bit as she awoke, a little whine escaping her throat. Her little hoof rubbed Rainbow’s chest as if finding purchase, finally slowly tapping out. “Is it over already?”
An involuntary snort escaped Rainbow’s chest, her sapped adrenaline and shot nerves leaving her feeling numb relief at Scootaloo’s returning alertness. “Yep,” she tapped softly and gently. “It’s all over now. How do you feel?”
A pause from the orange filly, and she answered, “Kinda weird. I…I kinda feel sick.”
Rainbow smiled, pressing a kiss into Scootaloo’s mane. “That’s normal, squirt. Just take some deep breaths. The more you wake up, the more it’ll go away.”
Her filly nodded as she took the first of several deep breaths, relaxing in Rainbow’s hold. “Can we play Daring Do when we get home?”
The cyan mare couldn’t stop her grin at her filly’s simple request, giving the easy affirmative answer, what would be the first of many over the next couple weeks.
Rainbow checked over the stitches once again, the nicely-healing surgical sites showing not a sign of infection or agitation, much to her immense relief. She painstakingly sponged over the stitches, Scootaloo showing no signs of pain despite being off her meds for two days now.
With a careful pat dry, Rainbow let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, her tense shoulders relaxing as she landed, Scootaloo so engrossed in her book she was unaware of the uptightness of her guardian.
The mare glanced at the letter on the table. With her fitting just days away, she had received a letter from Doctor Physique asking about preferences for the outer parts of the implants.
Gently grabbing Scootaloo’s attention, she explained its contents:
“The doctor wants to know what color you want your processors and transmitters to be.”
Scootaloo perked up at this, not knowing she had a choice. A little thoughtful hum escaped her throat. “I don’t really care what they look like. I won’t be able to see them, anyway.”
The two pegasi shared a laugh at the joke, before Rainbow clarified, “I think he’s just asking if you want it to be the same color as your fur or your mane so it’ll blend in better. Or you can keep it at its standard color if you don’t want it to blend in.”
Another hum rose from the little pegasus as she thought over her options. “What do you think would look cool?”
Rainbow blinked, honestly not expecting the requested advice. She looked down at Scootaloo’s colors, the orange and purple that already contrasted pretty well together. She imagined the processors being orange on the filly, and her muzzle scrunched up, thinking the placement would be awkward with her coat color bleeding too far into her mane. She thought of the opposite, and ran into the same argument, finding the idea of plastic mane stuck to Scootaloo’s ears a bit strange.
But that’s just what would blend in. And neither, in Rainbow’s not-so-humble opinion, were cool.
It only took a moment of thought for Rainbow to decide.
“I think you should go with black,” Rainbow answered. “It’ll look cool with your fur and mane and pop from both of them. It’ll be more showy, but I think showy is cool. Especially in this case.”
Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Yeah! I don’t wanna hide them! They’re gonna be part of me now, I wanna show them off!”
Rainbow grinned, pulling her filly into a hug. “I was thinking the same thing, Scoots. You’re gonna be the coolest-looking filly since I was your age!” She kissed Scootaloo’s temple, the filly giggling madly before she clapped her hooves over Rainbow’s muzzle, babbling against her nose.
A loud, heavy heartbeat was all Rainbow could hear as the technician affixed the magnetic transmitters to Scootaloo’s head, the small black discs sticking into place where the receivers rested just underneath Scootaloo’s skin. The stallion gently looped the black processors over Scootaloo’s ears, the filly desperately trying to keep her hooves still as she itched to touch the new things on her ears.
“Alright, first things first,” the technician said in a quiet, pleasant voice, “we need to calibrate the processors. This is done by playing a few drones in different directions. It’ll be fairly quiet to us, but they will be played directly into the processors on one side or the other in various frequencies. If they are working correctly, we’ll see Scootaloo respond to the noises by looking in the direction it sounds like they’re coming from. She won’t actually be hearing anything, this is just to ensure the system is completely connected.”
Rainbow’s heart leapt to her throat, and she could only nod as she held her breath. Thankfully, the technician seemed to understand her shocked quiet, and simply returned the nod as he began working, Rainbow finally gaining the presence of mind to tell Scootaloo what was about to happen.
With mare and filly as ready as they could be, the calibration began. The prismatic guardian almost couldn’t breathe as she stared at Scootaloo. The filly’s ear flicked, and she blinked in surprise as she instinctively looked to her right, Rainbow not even aware a tone had played until Scootaloo responded to it quicker than herself.
It was only then her breath began to move again. The calibration was working.
Her tense muscles slowly began to relax as she watched Scootaloo respond to every droned note, the filly herself beginning to look more and more excited as she ‘looked’ at each stimulus.
The technician chuckled at the happy little noise the filly made after the eighth and final tone, grinning at the mare. “Alright, that’s all the calibration stimuli. Now we can turn them on for real.”
Rainbow gawked at the stallion. “F…For real?”
He nodded patiently, his own excitement building. He had decided a very long time ago that no matter how many times he saw this, it would never get old. “I’m going to turn them on at their lowest volume so she won’t get overwhelmed, then we’ll turn the volume up to a more comfortable level.”
The mare could only nod as she swallowed the anticipatory lump in her throat, only able to wait as the wires connecting Scootaloo to the computer swayed lazily, the technician tapping a few more buttons.
“Alright,” he said at last. “Just a few more seconds, and the microphones will be on,” he said.
A final click, and he smiled at Rainbow Dash. She waited for him to say they were on, but he stayed silent.
Instead, her confirmation came from a change in Scootaloo. The little filly suddenly sat up straight, her ears rotating as her jaw went slack. Rainbow’s heart leapt to her throat as she looked at Scootaloo’s face, the shock apparent even with seemingly no noise happening.
Throat nearly closing from her rising emotions, Rainbow ran a comforting hoof down Scootaloo’s back, Scootaloo’s breath catching and her ears twisting behind her.
‘She can…she can hear my hoof brushing through her fur…’ Rainbow realized, tears welling in her eyes.
Her own breath caught right past her lips, and she breathed:
“Scootaloo?”
At once, her little sister responded. A tiny gasp escaped the little filly as her face whipped up to Rainbow’s. In the next second, that same little face was buried in Rainbow’s chest, Scootaloo’s voice coming out in gasps and tiny sobs.
Rainbow didn’t even remember hugging her little sister, finding her lips pressing kiss after kiss into her filly’s mane, her world a blur of purple as her tears leaked from her eyes onto Scootaloo’s head.
Sounds she had never heard before rose from Scootaloo’s throat, the little pegasus’s untrained voice letting out sobbing giggles and surprised little gasps.
Scootaloo paused in Rainbow’s hold, a giggle bubbling past her lips before she fell silent again, then made a small calling noise.
Before Rainbow could think to ask about the noises, Scootaloo’s hoof once again found her chest.
“Is that my voice?”
The tears that had squeezed from mere cracks in Rainbow’s emotional dam were suddenly joined by the river of the sudden release of the building pressure, Scootaloo’s question obliterating the remaining foundations.
Scootaloo felt her big sister’s chest jump with a sound she couldn’t name. It was the same ring as what she was beginning to learn was Rainbow’s voice, but it…didn’t seem clear. It stopped, then came out suddenly, then quieted before beginning all over again.
She didn’t know what to think, what to do. Her question forgotten, she could only let her sister clutch her to her chest, the sound stirring Scootaloo’s own emotions within her. Something deep inside her soul wanted to make the sound stop, yet another part of her couldn’t help but smile because of it.
She wanted to learn it all. She wanted to name this sound coming from her sister. She wanted to…she wanted to…
Before she even realized her own building emotional pressure, a similar sound broke free from her throat, a sudden tap of sound that preceded her gushing tears. With a start, she realized exactly what that heart-tugging, beautiful sound was.
She could hear her big sister crying.
The technician sat back at his desk, giving the two pegasi a moment to let the life-changing moment sink in. He had all the time in the world to wait, the memory ingraining itself into his brain and earning a spot next to all the joyful, tearful moments that had preceded it.
He watched as the filly giggled, forever grateful that he got to witness the little thing discover her own laughter, as well as that of her sister’s, the orange filly shouting and bouncing happily in her guardian’s lap as she seemed to be begging her sister to make more and more sounds, judging by the chuckles and giggles from the both of them that were slowly turning into mix of uncontrollable laughter and tears.
The moment finally ended with the two holding each other close, the emotions of the moment finally tapped for the time being. He smiled at them, and began the process of turning up the volume, asking Scootaloo where she was most comfortable.
Many tears were shed that same day as Scootaloo was brought around to all of their friends, her grandparents even coming by to spend the day with their daughter and granddaughter.
Rainbow hugged the filly to her chest as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle spoke to her, Scootaloo getting so caught up in the new sounds and timbres she almost didn’t feel Rainbow’s hoof translating for her, the little pegasus unable to understand the words being spoken.
“Deyoo-oh-ool!” said one bright voice. “They look so cool!”
“Thanks!” replied Scootaloo, her voice ringing out, “Bah!”
“Duuya-ohwah-m-sain?” said the other, higher voice. “Do you know what I’m saying?”
Before Scootaloo could reply, Rainbow’s voice spoke from over her head. “Nahye. Spo-n-worzerlie-anoolaynwegefu-ur. Sheedoznohwayursain-ye.” Scootaloo felt her ears strain to try and make sense of what she was hearing, only for relief to finally come with Rainbow’s hoof. “Not yet. Spoken words are like a new language for her. She doesn’t know what you’re saying yet.”
Rainbow smiled as Scootaloo relaxed, not having a clue what her little filly was hearing; but knowing it couldn’t be discernible. A little smile found her face, more than ready to help her filly through this next big phase in her life, and almost too excited for her own good to get to experience it firsthoof.
“We’ll be going to a speech therapist in a couple days so she can learn,” she explained to their friends and family, translating for Scootaloo. “I don’t know how quick she’ll catch on, so please be patient with her, everypony.”
At their collective smiles and nods, Rainbow felt a weight lift off her shoulders, grinning as she was offered help from everypony in the room.
With so many voices coming by, Rainbow wasn’t too surprised when Scootaloo began squirming uncomfortably, pressing harder into Rainbow’s chest.
Rainbow gave a little hum, excusing the two of them and carrying Scootaloo outside, where it was much quieter than in the fairly noisy Sugarcube Corner. “You okay, squirt?”
Scootaloo nodded, beginning to calm down a bit. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong. It’s like…my brain started feeling fuzzy.”
The mare smiled sympathetically, having been warned about too much at one time for the little filly causing overstimulation. She nuzzled her sweetly to give her something to ground herself. “It’s okay, Scoots. That’s normal for now. It won’t happen as much as you start getting used to it. But for now, you can take as many breaks as you want. You wanna go ears-off for a little bit?”
After a moment of thought, Scootaloo gave a sheepish nod, reaching up and carefully tugging off the transmitters, plunging herself into sweet, comfortingly familiar silence.
Immediately, Rainbow could see a change, Scootaloo relaxing completely as she gave her brain a break. With a kiss between Scootaloo’s eyes, Rainbow gently took the processors off Scootaloo’s ears and placed them in a zippable case around her own neck. Stopping down and letting Scootaloo clamber onto her back, the two headed back inside to continue the party.
Two pegasi sat patiently on a cushy sofa, the speech therapist getting the final pieces of paperwork in order. All the while Scootaloo’s excited ears flicked at every shuffling paper, wordlessly calling back to a thoughtful hum that rose from the therapist.
The gray unicorn, Gentle Word, couldn’t help but laugh at that. “My, somepony’s excited.”
As Rainbow translated with a grin, she replied, “Yeah, Scoot’s been trying to talk back to all the sounds she hears. You have no idea how excited she was when she heard the wind for the first time.”
Gentle chuckled. “That’s a good sign! Some foals who gain their hearing have a bit of difficulty adjusting. How often does she take a break from hearing?”
“Most of the day, for now,” Rainbow answered. “I haven’t been forcing her to wear them all the time. Heck, at one point, she took a whole day off.”
The speech therapist nodded, giving Rainbow a gentle, approving smile. “That’s perfectly fine. Getting used to a new sense is very hard work. Most ponies don’t tend to think about the fact that they went their entire lives learning how to get used to sound, so we shouldn’t expect those who haven’t had it all their lives to get used to it immediately.”
With a smile from Rainbow Dash, Gentle explained, “Now, for today and the next few sessions, I would like you to make sure you’re here for them so you can see what we go over. She’ll learn here, but she’ll need to practice the basics we learn today as much as possible, which is where you come in. It won’t be too hard to practice at home, and I recommend speaking to her as much as possible so she can get used to the way words sound. That way, she can start piecing words together. When you do speak to her, of course, use EHS to translate your words so she can understand their meaning. It’ll be a lot of work, but simply bridging the gap between words and their meanings and how they sound will be a lot easier to learn with as much practical use as possible.”
Rainbow nodded in compliance, unable to hold back a chuckle as Scootaloo completely disregarded the conversation happening right in front of her in favor of making as many long and drawn out noises as she could, the filly seemingly in love with the sound of her own voice.
Gentle Word chuckled. “I suppose we should take that as our cue to begin.” She took the spot next to Rainbow, the mare turning so her noisy filly could be better reached. The therapist took Scootaloo’s hooves as she told Rainbow Dash she could keep holding Scootaloo, introducing herself once again.
At Scootaloo’s excited hoofshake, she giggled. “We’re going to begin learning how to repeat sounds today, okay? I’ll coach you on how to move your mouth and throat to match the basic sounds that make up words. Sound good?”
Scootaloo nodded excitedly, clearly holding back her voice–as much as she could, seeing as it came out in little squeaks. Gentle smiled, opening her mouth and letting out a clear, practiced, “Ahh…”
Immediately, Scootaloo tried her best to copy the sound. “Bwaaaaahh-buh-buh-buh…”
Patiently, Gentle chuckled, Rainbow’s heart soaring and melting at her filly’s efforts.
“Almost. There’s no need to use your lips with this sound. Just open your mouth, relax your throat, and let the sound come out gently.”
Scootaloo nodded in thought, taking a moment to let the instructions sink in as she suddenly became more aware of her mouth and throat than she ever had. Her head raised a little bit, and she opened her mouth, letting her jaw and throat muscles relax before she took a little breath.
“Ahhh!”
Gentle beamed. “Excellent job! Now this next sound will use your jaw and tongue a bit. Listen to me first, okay?” At Scootaloo’s nod, she quietly cleared her throat. “Eee…”
Rainbow watched as Gentle Word tapped out an explanation on Scootaloo’s foreleg, her own thoughts working through how the sound was made, with a raise of the jaw and the tongue pressing to the roof of the mouth just enough to make the sound possible.
It finally began to sink in just how much work was ahead for her little sister.
And it only made her even more proud.
“Eeee!”
Her mind was snatched from her thoughts as Scootaloo claimed victory over the second sound, the filly celebrating with a happy hop in Rainbow’s lap and clapping her hooves together.
The sight made Rainbow’s breath catch in her throat as it suddenly crashed down on her. The very thing she had thought to be impossible was happening right in front of her eyes.
Scootaloo was learning how to talk.
At once, all her daydreams of being able to playfully banter with her filly came rushing back. Talking over meals. Reading aloud to her. Singing her lullabies. Calling out to her friends.
Rainbow Dash calling out to Scootaloo.
Scootaloo calling out to her.
It was all possible now.
A gentle yellow aura caught her eye, finally just noticing the tears pouring down her face as Gentle Word offered a warm, sympathetic smile, her magic holding out a box of tissues to the guardian as she began to explain the next sound to Scootaloo.
Two weeks later, Rainbow Dash arrived at the speech therapist’s office, Scootaloo excitedly shifting on her back. Once there, she sat her sister on the familiar couch, entrusting her to the therapist for the next hour.
“I’ll see you in a little bit, Scoots,” she tapped. “I have something quick to do in Ponyville, then I’ll be right back before the hour’s up to get you, okay?”
Scootaloo grinned, nodding and reaching for a hug from her sister. “Otay! Bye-bye!”
Not for the last time, Rainbow’s eyes welled with tears, unable to describe her pride and joy she held in her sweet filly’s progress. Finally able to let go, Rainbow looked to Gentle Word. “Thanks again! Sorry I can’t stick around today.”
Just like she had a couple days ago at the last session, Gentle Word waved her off. “Not a problem! Sometimes it’s good for guardians to not be present during the appointments. I’ll let you know of any problems that come up, and give you a full report.”
Rainbow grinned thankfully. “Sweet! Thanks again!” She ruffled Scootaloo’s mane, nuzzling her nose against her own. “Bye-bye, Scoots.”
“Bye-bye!”
Scootaloo listened as her sister’s hooves stepped away, the familiar click of the closing door preceding the usual momentary silence. After a ‘shf’ of papers, the couch she sat under rose a bit as Gentle Word sat down on the other side, and she felt the familiar hoof take her own.
“The plan is to continue building our words from last time. Does that sound good?”
Scootaloo gnawed her lip, a desire that had been building ever since her first session crying to be let out, mental hooves and voices all demanding to be felt and heard as she once again toyed with the request.
After all, with Rainbow Dash gone…now couldn’t have been a better opportunity.
“Actually,” Scootaloo finally tapped, “can we do something else today?”
The speech therapist looked curiously at the filly. “That depends on what you want to do.”
Scootaloo gave a little hum, her hoof moving as she told the speech therapist what was on her mind.
The mare’s eyes widened, her face at once softening in a warm smile. “I think we can do that.”
Scootaloo beamed. “Yay!”
Rainbow Dash trotted into the office an hour later, right on time. “I’m here to pick up Scootaloo,” she told the attendant at the window.
Smiling, the lanky stallion nodded and stood, leading her to the back door and down the hall and to the cracked-open door.
Rainbow Dash grinned when she heard Scootaloo’s laughter, the attendant saying something she couldn’t make out. She nodded her thanks to the stallion, peeking into the room. The speech therapist smiled up at her, staying quiet as she motioned the mare in.
Gingerly, she stepped inside, careful to make her hooffalls as silent as possible as she approached Scootaloo, coming right in front of the filly and touching her nose to her filly’s.
Scootaloo blinked, before recognition surged through her, and she threw out her hooves, snatching Rainbow’s head before she could think of getting away and rubbing her nose against her big sister’s, much to the mare’s delight.
“Hey, Scoots,” Rainbow Dash chuckled.
Humming a laugh, Scootaloo returned the greeting with a nuzzle to Rainbow’s forehead and an echoed, “Hey!”
“She’s been working hard today,” the speech therapist informed happily.
“Oh, really?” Rainbow Dash questioned slyly, peeling Scootaloo off her face. “Show me whatcha got, squirt.”
The speech therapist tapped her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, and the little filly beamed. She held her head high, and her voice rang out:
“Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow’s heart nearly stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Scootaloo sat in front of her, giggling all the while as if she could see her guardian’s astounded face.
Smiling through welling tears, Rainbow Dash scooped up the filly and pulled her close. “That was perfect!” she praised, tapping out the sentence once she said it.
Scootaloo giggled, pressing her head into Rainbow’s chest. “Rainbow Dash!” she repeated happily.
Her joy bleeding through as uncontrollable laughter, Rainbow Dash could only squeeze her filly tight and breathe, “Scootaloo…”
“S…ss…” Scootaloo began trying to echo, “S-st…Stoo-a…Stooda-doo!”
Rainbow couldn’t stop the snort from escaping her nose, Scootaloo’s struggles with hard consonants showing through when trying to say her own name. Though it was hard for the filly, one couldn’t deny the adorableness produced by the effort.
“You’re getting a lot closer!” Rainbow praised. “We’ll work on it at home, okay?”
Scootaloo smiled up sheepishly at her guardian, silently agreeing. “Rainbow!”
Once again, Rainbow’s heart skipped a beat, the world seeming to fall away as her little filly said her name with perfect clarity. In that very moment, Rainbow decided she would forever be content so long as she could hear her precious little sister speak her name.
Her heart full, her mind hardly registering her surroundings, Rainbow thanked Gentle Word, and carried her sister away into the afternoon sky.