Seven sessions had passed since the fateful day Scootaloo learned her guardian’s name, the filly now proudly able to piece together spoken sentences. Following the therapist’s instructions, Rainbow Dash patiently helped the filly incorporate EHS into the new vocabulary, making the transition from tactile to spoken Equestrian just a bit easier for the little pegasus.
Scootaloo had quickly lost track of new favorite sounds. First was the wind, then birdsong, then Rainbow’s voice, then rain and softly rolling thunder. Just when she thought there were no more new noises to learn, it seemed twenty more decided to make themselves known with the sole purpose of proving her wrong.
Rainbow was always more than happy to explain what a new sound was to her charge. She fondly remembered the afternoon spent at Fluttershy’s house as birds one after the other sang for the filly they had grown to love almost as much as their caretaker, Fluttershy helping explain each bird’s voice and the rhythms of their songs.
That very same evening, she and Scootaloo had come across a small group of string players, Octavia leading the quintet as they advertised their next show. Rainbow Dash would not soon forget the look of pure, untapped wonder on her precious little sister’s face as she was given a proper introduction to music, her hooves and ears jumping and flicking as if the filly were trying to find the lines of noise in the air so to touch them and better examine them in a way she could understand.
Both mare and filly could not be more thankful to their friends for helping them during the transitionary period for the both of them. Rainbow was especially surprised at Pinkie’s self-control over the past several weeks, letting Scootaloo take things at her own pace instead of accidentally flooding the filly with new sounds that would inevitably overwhelm her.
To Rainbow’s pleasant surprise, her parents were actually very helpful in the matter of helping Scootaloo learn spoken Equestrian, letting Rainbow go over the notes from the therapist with them before they spent time foalsitting while Rainbow was away with work. By the time she came home, they had made an impromptu lesson out of baking cookies.
“Now for the sugar,” Bow Hothoof had said, Rainbow just hearing him as she stepped into the living room after a long day of weather work.
“S…suh…suh-gar!”
Her father’s chuckle pulled a smile to her face. “Almost, sweetie. Use your teeth. Sugar.”
“Teeth!” echoed Scootaloo, a moment passing before she tried again. “Ss…sh…sh-sugar!”
“Great job!” Her mother praised. “Now we add the chocolate chips.”
Scootaloo giggled as the ‘clink’ of the morsels hit the bowl. “Sho-late Ships!”
Rainbow couldn’t help her quiet snort, her mother’s kind giggle answering the filly. “So close! Just add your tongue.”
“Tongue!” Scootaloo repeated. Rainbow strained her ears for the improved words. “Sh–ch…sh–ch-choc-late…chips!”
Windy Whistles gave a little cheer, and Rainbow could see her mother swoop through the kitchen with Scootaloo in her hooves, nuzzling her nose. “Best pronouncer ever!”
Even the youngest of their friends tried their hardest to be as helpful as possible when it came to re-educating the little pegasus. Though they were asked multiple times to take things slow for the filly, one could not deny their enthusiasm in the matter.
Such thoughts only served to make Rainbow sigh as she dropped off her little sister at the regular clubhouse hangout. “Remember,” she reminded Scootaloo as the filly hopped to the ground with a little squeal, “it’s okay to ask to them to slow down,” she finished with her hoof on Scootaloo’s chest.
Scootaloo giggled, “Okay, Rainbow!” Her hoof tapped the ground, a habit the filly had gotten into when working out her next word or sentence. “Slow down, please,” she practiced.
Rainbow scooped her little filly into a hug, nuzzling her in praise. “That’s right! Good job, Scoots!” Her hoof found Scootaloo’s withers. “Now, I won’t be too long, okay? Just gotta finish up some plans for the coming season, okay?”
“Okay! Good luh-ck!” Scootaloo shouted, instantly regretting it as her ears folded, remembering for the umpteenth time that her voice was the closest thing to her microphones, and therefore the loudest.
With a sympathetic little smile, Rainbow ruffled Scootaloo’s mane, planted a kiss on her forehead, and placed Scootaloo’s hoof on the clubhouse ramp, calling out, “See ya later!” as she once again surrounded herself with atmosphere.
Scootaloo barely had to think about the steps up the ramp, the muscle memory so ingrained that her friends and sister no longer needed to guide her, and she was delighted to be met with her current favorite sound of laughter as she pushed open the door.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up in delight, pulling their friend inside. “We wanna show you something!” Sweetie Belle declared excitedly.
It took a moment for Scootaloo to process the sentence. “Hm?” she asked, wanting a repeat of the question.
Unfortunately, sich intentions were lost as two pairs of hooves guided her over, and Scootaloo heard the sound of flipping pages, followed by a beat of silence before the giggling began anew.
Finally, her patient silence was rewarded.
“What fruit do twins like best?” Apple Bloom asked slowly.
Scootaloo tilted her head at the strange question. Her eyes flicked back and forth as she thought, her hoof idly tapping the ground. “Say…again?”
Apple Bloom put her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder, spelling out the words as she asked them again. “What…fruit…do…twins…like…best?”
Scootaloo’s brow furrowed. “What?” Her tone, still a little flat, gave no indication of whether she was asking out of curiosity, or of confusion.
Apple Bloom snickered to herself. “Pears!”
At once, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle burst into giggles, leaving Scootaloo stumped. She frowned in confusion, questioning, “Why ah…are…y-you…laugh—laugh-ing?”
Doing their best to quench their giggles, Sweetie Belle joined Apple Bloom as the earth pony began to explain. “‘Pear’, the fruit, sounds like ‘pair’, which means ‘two’. Twins are a ‘pair’, but the fruit is ‘pear’.”
Sweetie Belle picked up, “It’s a pun, which is a type of joke that plays around with how words sound.”
Scootaloo’s eyes flicked about as she thought. Finally, she requested of Sweetie Belle: “Say ‘pair’.”
“Pair.”
The little pegasus’s head tilted. “Say ‘pear’.”
“Pear.”
Scootaloo’s eyebrows shot up as she heard no difference between the two words, even though there was a clear distinction between their vowels.
Slowly, she pieced together, “So…the joke is…you say one thing, which sounds like both…which is both a good answer, and a joke…because ‘twins’?”
“Uh…kinda,” Sweetie Belle smiled sheepishly, unsure of how to better explain. “Let’s try another one.” She nodded to Apple Bloom, who picked up:
“What kind of cake do ghosts like?”
Scootaloo hesitated, tapping the floor a moment before nodding as she caught the whole question. “What?” she asked curiously.
“I-Scream Cake!”
Sweetie Belle spelt out the answer on Scootaloo’s foreleg. “See?”
Scootaloo hesitated again, then sat as she thought. She spelt out the answer to herself on the floor, then said it to herself.
“Ice cream…I-Scream.” Her eyes jittered a bit, until finally something clicked.
Her face broke out in a grin. “I-Scream!”
“Yes!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exclaimed at the same time.
A bark of laughter flew from Scootaloo, morphing into a fit of giggles as Sweetie Belle chose another.
“Okay, okay,” the little unicorn said, Scootaloo stifling her giggles enough to hear, “I spent all night wondering where the sun went…then it dawned on me.”
Apple Bloom snorted, Sweetie Belle stifling a giggle. Scootaloo gasped, “Dawn!” before letting out a peel of laughter, tipping backwards from her mirth.
“Do! Uh…” Scootaloo frowned to herself, rolling onto her stomach. She tapped the floor, slowly spelling out a word. “Uh…nuh…ther. Do…uh-n…uh-nuh…th-er.” She hummed to herself, her mouth moving as she silently pieced the large word together.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle waited patiently, excitedly glancing at each other as Scootaloo figured out the word they could already tell she was trying to say. They scanned the book for the next puns, already giggling internally at the laughter they knew was coming.
“Another!” Scootaloo perked up. “Do another, please!”
Armed with a hoof-full of jokes, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle shared with Scootaloo what would become her new favorite part of the spoken word, their friend laughing so hard they would think their cutie marks had shown up to reveal special talents as comedians. The disappointment of denial would wear off quickly, however, as they whiled the day away sharing in the simple joy of a good joke book.
One week later…
Screams erupted through the halls of Canterlot, Rainbow grabbing her little sister and pulling her away from the fiery ring of green magic, her mind barely able to keep up with what was happening.
What had started as a beautiful morning for a wedding–made all the sweeter as she watched Scootaloo prance down the aisle with her best friends and fellow flower fillies, her direction guided by Rarity’s magic on her hoof–had very quickly turned into the very thing she had sworn she would never let happen.
Scootaloo being in the middle of an Element of Harmony problem.
The little filly’s ears rotated wildly as she tried to keep up with the fast words and strange sound around her, Rainbow almost too shocked to explain what was happening as Queen Chrysalis revealed herself to the throne room audience.
Her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder suddenly stopped as she looked up, hovering out of the way of Princess Celestia, who rose in the air and fired a bright beam of golden magic toward her adversary.
Scootaloo gasped as she heard what she had come to learn as the expulsion of magic be met with another, the two frequencies matching each other before the second overpowered the first, preceding the ‘clink’ of metal and the ‘fwump’ of a heavy body hitting the ground. Her heart lifted, thinking the threat had been defeated, before more screams made her cower down into Rainbow’s forelegs, and Twilight's desperate voice rang out with a name she had grown familiar with over the past two days.
“Princess Celestia!”
Rainbow’s forelegs tightened around her moving where she could only assume Princess Celestia was lying. Amidst the pandemonium, Scootaloo could hear her best friends’ quiet whimpers, and a tired, regal voice saying something she couldn’t make out. Her nerves stirred in her belly, too scared to ask for an explanation, lest Rainbow Dash miss something important that would keep her safe.
Another sentence from Twilight, and Scootaloo felt Rainbow put her down for just a moment before scooping her back up again, the filly now unable to feel the fabric of Rainbow’s bridesmaid dress.
Rainbow took off after her friends, Rarity and Applejack carrying their own sisters down the hall. As they passed the dressing room, Twilight looked back at them. “We need to hide the girls,” she said. “We can’t have them getting hurt.”
“They’ll be safest with us,” Applejack argued.
“You heard Queen Chrysalis,” Twilight returned. “Her Changeling army is almost through the barrier. We’ll have to fight our way to the Elements. They’ll be safer where the Changelings won’t be looking for them.” She pointed to the dressing room. “That room is big, with plenty of hiding places. Plus it’s not so close to the Queen, so the Changelings aren’t very likely to look there first for any threats.”
The three big sisters looked to each other, reluctant to part with their younger siblings for even a moment during this crisis. And yet…knowing they were out of harm’s way, and knowing what room they would be in…
Finally, Rainbow huffed a sigh. “Alright, but we come back as quick as possible, alright, Twi? And we grab them on the way back to the throne room.”
Twilight nodded. “Of course.” Her magic yanked open the door as the trio of sister pairs raced into the room, Applejack dragging a couple trunks to a corner and Rarity unfurling several sheets, Rainbow giving as quick an explanation to Scootaloo as she could before lowering the filly into the nest of piled fabrics alongside her friends, all three taking hold of each other at once.
“Now, listen here,” Applejack instructed. “You three stay here, and don’t come out until we get back, ya hear?”
Rarity nodded. “Stay together, and stay hidden. We’ll be back as soon as we can to get you.”
Rainbow passed a hoof through Scootaloo’s mane. “Stay quiet, okay, squirt? I won’t let anything happen to you, but you gotta stay here for right now. Don’t leave Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, okay?”
With obedient nods, the three satisfied mares reluctantly turned tail and ran back out to their friends, leaving the three fillies in quiet darkness, the only sound being the muffled cackling of the Changeling Queen back in the throne room.
After a moment, racing hearts finally began to slow at the absence of immediate danger, and the fillies began to squirm uncomfortably in their dresses.
“We should take these off,” Sweetie Belle suggested, “just in case we have to run.”
“Good idea,” Apple Bloom agreed, translating for Scootaloo before the three shed their garments.
Just as the flower crown was removed from Scootaloo’s head, a mighty shattering sound filled the very air surrounding them, and Scootaloo squeaked, a sudden tinny sound filling her microphones.
“What’s wrong?” questioned Apple Bloom, she and Sweetie Belle only able to hear the deafening silence within the room.
Her question would go unanswered as Scootaloo pawed at her ears, the filly whimpering at the odd sensation filling her head, as if something was brushing up against her processors, and by extension, her very brain.
With each passing second, the sensation only got worse and worse, Scootaloo whimpering and whining the whole time. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, powerless to help their friend, perked up in horror as they heard unfamiliar, tinny voices getting closer to their room, a fact that only seemed to agitate Scootaloo further.
“Shh,” a distraught Sweetie Belle practically pleaded, “Scootaloo, we have to be–”
She was unable to finish her sentence as Scootaloo, no longer able to take the buzzing in her brain, let out an uncontrolled scream, gripping at her processors and ripping them from her ears, transmitters popping out of place before both apparatuses clattered to the floor.
Apple Bloom’s and Sweetie Belle’s hackles raise, the fillies freezing as Scootaloo sinks to the floor, massaging her ears and head and completely unaware of what she caused.
Their frozen shock only gave them reprieve for a moment, two of the three fillies jumping when the door nearly flew off its hinges, slamming against the adjacent wall. The buzz of four pairs of wings carrying their owners entered the room, flying straight for the fillies.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle screamed, throwing themselves over Scootaloo, the pegasus still rubbing her ears and openly sobbing as all three were grabbed by chitinous forelegs, the fillies kicking and shouting at the intruders.
Voices both squealing pony and barking Changeling filled the room, before finally a new one rose above them all.
“SILENCE!”
At once, all seeing eyes fell upon the Changeling queen, Chrysalis stepping in with her head high as she glared down at the three neophytes that had been discovered by her drones. “And what is the meaning of this?”
The Changeling holding Apple Bloomcovered her muzzle, silencing her biting shout. “My Queen, we found these three nymphs hiding in this room. We were alerted by a scream from one of them.”
Queen Chrysalis looked down at the fillies with a smirk. “Ah, yes, the flower fillies.” Her head tilted in thought. “If I remember correctly, you’re the sisters of three of my bridesmaids, is that right?”
Sweetie Belle hesitated, her eyes shooting to Apple Bloom, the two locking eyes for only a second.
The single glance told Chrysalis everything, and she chuckled. “Well now…that will certainly help things.” Her eyes snapped to the three holding the fillies. “You three: take their forms and find the Bearers. There is already a squadron forming at the Vault of the Elements, I want you to make sure they get there.” She looked to the final Changeling, who had not left the door. “And you, Thorax, I want you to keep these three occupied. Stand guard, do not let them out of your sight.”
The Changeling called Thorax nodded, his neck seeming to hesitate before he forced it back into motion. He stepped aside as his Queen marched out of the room, watching his fellow Changelings set the pony nymphs back into their corner.
“Don’t move from here,” the Changeling holding Scootaloo instructed, unaware the filly he held could not hear his voice. Once back on the ground, Sweetie Belle met Apple Bloom met at Scootaloo’s side, their terrified friend trembling as she asked what was going on. Three flashes of putrid green, and the fillies were met with identical versions of themselves, their blood running cold as they faced their doppelgangers.
The drones smirked at each other, three pairs of eyes moving between them and the fillies, checking for any imperfections, one of which Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle made sure to remain tight-lipped about. The imposter Scootaloo’s clouded eyes rested on them for only a moment, before the estimated voice ordered in a sneer, “Let’s go.”
Thorax watched his fellow Changelings leave, before his gaze trailed back to the fillies. The two seeing foals couldn’t help but feel a spark of shock in their chests as the Changeling before them, one of the reasons their sisters were about to be in trouble, looked at them with pain on his face.
“I…I’m really sorry about this…” he finally said, turning his back on them to guard the door.
Gold and green eyes met, the two unable to think too long about the apparent remorseful Changeling before Scootaloo’s desperate need for information once again took precedence.
Six mares panted heavily, having just defeated the swarm of Changelings that had bombarded them in the middle of the castle grounds. The chitinous beings twitched on the ground where they lay, void of any other signs of life.
Sighs and stretched necks led to the friends exchanging a glance, collective nods of varying confidence permitting each other to begin pursuit again.
“Rarity!” “Applejack!” “Rainbow Dash!”
The three mares instantly froze, twisting around to find their little sisters galloping toward them.
“Girls!” Rarity shouted, meeting Sweetie Belle in a tight hug. “Are you alright? What happened?”
“We told ya tah stay put!” Applejack objected, worry coating her voice.
“It was so scary!” Sweetie Belle whined.
“They got inta our room, we had tah sneak out!” cried Apple Bloom.
Rainbow Dash caught Scootaloo, instantly drawing her namesign on her little shoulder and hugging her tight. Taking a few breaths to calm herself, the sisters’ chatter passing through her, she set her sister down and got down on her level, her hoof on her shoulder asking, “Are you okay? We told you three to stay put, what happened?”
To her confusion, Scootaloo only stared up at her blankly, seeming to hesitate, before she finally just shrugged, offering her big sister a smile. “I’m so happy to see you again!”
Crimson eyes widened, dread sinking deep into Rainbow’s stomach. Her gaze flicked to Scootaloo’s ears, confirming her suspicions.
Scootaloo wasn’t wearing her processors.
Her eyes met Scootaloo’s own, the cloudy lavender steady as they looked right back at her.
A sudden rush of anger flared in Rainbow’s chest, and a loving smile softened her features. Her hoof rose to cup the not-Scootaloo’s face, tracing down the imposter’s jaw and to their neck. Once she was where she wanted to be, her face hardened with the reveal of her intense hatred for the thing in front of her.
With a single motion, Rainbow Dash gripped the Changeling disguised as her little sister by the neck, twisting around and slamming the creature against the closest wall. “Where is she?!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity gasped, one hoof covering her mouth, the other gripping her own little sister to her chest.
“You're not Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash declared, ignoring the horrified looks her friends were giving her, having just witnessed their friend violently pin her favorite filly against the rough brick. “She’s just learning how to talk, and you’re terrible at acting blind!”
To the steadily-realizing shock of the others, Scootaloo’s innocent, terrified face morphed into one of hatred that rivaled Rainbow’s own, a flash of green revealing the Changeling underneath the illusion magic. “I see. My mistake, then.”
Two shouts of surprise preceded Rainbow’s grip on the Changeling loosening as two more hard bodies slammed against her, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle also replaced with the Changelings they really were.
Rainbow Dash sprang back to her hooves, shaking the gravel from between her feathers as she glared at the trio of Changelings. “Where are they?! I swear if you’ve hurt one hair–”
“Maybe you should try and catch us,” one interrupted in a taunt, “then you’ll find out.”
Now Rainbow saw red, her wings beating down to take after the Changelings that took to the air, unable to hear Twilight calling out for her to wait. Her vision tunneled on the buzzing wings of the three Changelings, her speed no match for their own as she–
Something grabbed her forelegs, yanking her to a stop in mid-air. Her momentum suddenly halted, her heart jumped to her throat as she was forced to see the wall of Changelings before her, completely blocking the way to the Elements of Harmony.
Her heart leapt to her throat, internally kicking herself for falling for such an elementary trick. And as she heard the approaching hoof-falls of her friends, she knew the jig was up.
“Ah, ponyfeathers…”
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle helped Scootaloo pull aside another sheet, the fillies hunting for Scootaloo’s processors and transmitters, having lost track of them when Scootaloo had thrown them.
After calming their friend down, immediate danger having passed, they finally figured out what went wrong.
“It felt like my whole brain was buzzing,” Scootaloo had explained. “And then it got way worse, like it was on fire.” After assuring her friends the sensation was now gone, the three began their hunt for the expensive equipment.
“Um…e-excuse me?” asked the Changeling from the doorway, not stepping toward them. “What are you looking for? There’s, uh…there’s no way to escape here. At least, I don’t think there is.”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, the timid Changeling having called out to fhem a couple times since the other Changelings had left. She and Apple Bloom had been ignoring him the whole time. And yet, annoyingly, he kept trying to talk to them.
Their attention was grabbed as Scootaloo backed up from the sheet pile, holding one of her transmitters, only to hum in annoyance when she felt the processor was disconnected from it. She set it down on a nearby box and dove back into the pile to search for its partner.
“Um…what is that thing?” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes this time, finally fed up with the questions of the Changeling that was supposed to be their captor.
“It’s a transmitter,” she finally snapped, throwing him a harsh look.
“Oh…what is that?”
This time, Sweetie Belle chimed in with an annoyed grunt. “It’s part of something that lets her hear. She needs the whole thing, that’s just part of it.”
“Oh…So…she can’t hear anything right now?”
“No!” Both fillies quipped simultaneously, glaring at him.
The Changeling finally seemed to get the message, his apparent ears flattening against his head. They watched his defeated expression as he turned back around to look out the door, huffing out their remaining unease as they put their attention back on helping their friend search.
Whatever help they could have hoped to give was halted once more as they heard a slew of familiar voices following the drag of a heavy door. A shared glance, and they sprinted for the door, only for their Changeling guard to notice and scoop them up in his magic with a shocked cry.
“Barbarian! Put them down this instant!”
“Rarity!”
Sweetie Belle called for her big sister, being led back into the castle along with her friends, the Changelings keeping the sisters apart.
“Thorax!” One of the Changelings snapped an order. “Do not let them out of your sight.”
Again, the timid Changeling tried to speak up. “But, um…I think they’re just scared. Shouldn’t we let them–” The pounce of another Changeling clocking him on the temple quieted him again, his aura unintentionally tossing the fillies back into the room.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle caught their sisters’ eyes, Rainbow’s own landing on Scootaloo deeper in the room before she allowed herself to relax, continuing to be carried by the hovering drones.
Once again in the absence of the older mares, the two fillies only sat with twisting stomachs, resigning to just watch their best friend dig for her accommodating equipment, neither having the heart to tell her what they’d seen.
Would it even matter soon, anyway?
Their sisters had been captured.
The Elements of Harmony were nowhere to be found.
…Had Canterlot really fallen?
A rumbling interrupted Scootaloo’s brief celebration at finding the missing processor, the filly yelping as a sudden, intense vibration coursed from the floor beneath her. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle popped up, fear striking their hearts as what was unmistakably the sound of powerful magic echoed down the hall, Scootaloo’s panicked voice crying out, “What happen?!”
Their eyes flew to the door as several tinny shouts and buzzing wings flew past, headed the way their sisters went. The Changeling at the door leapt a few paces down the hall, seemingly entranced by something. His eyes widened, his jaw dropping slack.
“That’s…so…that’s…”
He never got to finish.
The floor beneath the fillies shifted, and a bright pulse of pink rushed down the hall, the guarding Changeling scooped up in its wake, snatched up with the remaining drones.
Shouts and rapidly-vanishing screams echoed down the hall and out of the castle, leaving the two in ear-ringing silence.
Scootaloo’s little whine snapped them back to her, and Apple Bloom numbly took her hoof. “I…I think they’re gone now, Scoots. Keep looking for your stuff, we’ll let you know what’s up.”
A nod from the little pegasus, and she continued her search, pulling the sheet over her head to free space for her hooves.
The two remaining filles barely had time to catch their breath before hooves thundered down the hall toward them, six familiar mares suddenly filling the doorway with wide eyes and heaving chests.
Rarity—or what looked like Rarity—moved first, her eyes teary. “Oh, Sweetie Belle, darling, I was so—“
“Don’t!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her knees trembling as she moved closer to Apple Bloom.
“H…how do we know it’s really you?” Apple Bloom stammered.
“Y-yeah!” the little unicorn chimed, both standing their ground in front of Scootaloo, still looking for her processors and completely unaware of the reappearance of her apparent sister.
A moment of hesitation ended as Applejack stepped forward. “Our Ma ‘n Pa’s names’re Buttercup an’ Bright McIntosh.”
Little golden eyes widened, one heart of two put at ease. Sweetie Belle locked eyes with the pony who was supposed to be her sister, waiting patiently.
Rarity was instead silent, glancing at her friends before stepping toward her little sister. Fearful, Sweetie Belle took a couple steps back, not wanting a potential imposter to get anywhere near her. With wide eyes, Rarity stopped her advance, the trouble in her eyes only growing as she stared at Sweetie Belle, tumultuous heartbeats passing. Finally, Rarity breathed one single word:
“Serendipity.”
Sweetie Belle’s breath caught in her throat, rushing to her sister the next second, the two meeting in a tight hug.
Twilight racked her brain as Apple Bloom trotted over to her own big sister. “Serendipity? What’s that?”
Sweetie Belle’s forelegs tightened around Rarity’s neck, and the mare smiled at Twilight, scooping up her little sister and giving her a reassuring nuzzle. “Oh, just something only the two of us know, darling.”
Rainbow Dash patiently waited until Scootaloo had found her processors, dredging the second one up from the fabric pile and replacing them both on her ears and guiding the transmitters back to their rightful places, before sending a wingbeat of wind her way, stirring her sister’s mane.
Scootaloo’s sigh of relief at the absence of the whining buzzing sound turned to widened eyes before she looked to the direction the wind had come from, calling out, “Rainbow Dash?”
“Hey, kiddo,” Rainbow greeted softly, gently taking a hoof. “You three were really brave. I’m so proud of you!”
Scootaloo breathed a relieved sigh, Rainbow’s EHS proving her identity. She threw herself into her big sister’s chest, the two nuzzling each other, palpable relief passing between them.
Rainbow gave her heart a few minutes to slow before she finally asked, “What were you doing with your processors off?” “What happened?”
Her little filly hummed, squirming uncomfortably. “I don’t know what happened. My ears were fine, but then there was this weird screeching sound, and it made my brain hurt. Like it was on fire.”
The prismatic mare frowned in concern. “Does it feel like that now?”
“No,” Scootaloo answered simply, shaking her head as emphasis.
A sigh slipped through Rainbow’s lips, and she nuzzled her little sister. “Let me know if it happens again, okay?”
“Okay!”
Twilight watched with a little smile on her face as all finally began to calm around her, the sisters secure with each other once again, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie offering help where they could. She breathed a sigh, announcing, “I’m gonna go check on Cadance and Shining Armor. We’ve got a real wedding to plan now!”