"Well, well. Rainbow Dash! It's always nice to see you again."
The multicolored mare squinted her eyes, which nearly bulged out of her head when she saw who it was. "YOU?! But... but... buh..." Darkness overcame her, and she fell to the floor.
Apple Bloom facehooved. "She fainted, ah called it. Y'all owe me two bits."
Scootaloo was trying to hide her face in her wings. "Aw, man. I knew this was a bad idea."
Sweetie Belle was giggling. "Well, THAT could've gone better."
It was quite a few moments before Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. She was lying on her back, wings sprawled out at a painfully unpreferred angle. "I just had the most awesome dream... I... for a minute, I thought Scootaloo's mother was..."
"Me?" Spitfire asked, standing over the fallen pegasus.
Rainbow's eyes bulged. "But... but... you're a..."
"A Wonderbolt?" Spitfire finished. "What's that go to do with anything? As far as I'm concerned, I'm a mother first, and a Wonderbolt second."
"Aww!" Sweetie and Apple Bloom gushed. They'd clearly had more time to process this than Rainbow Dash.
"EWW." Scootaloo made a face. "Do you HAVE to embarrass me in front of my friends? It's bad enough I can't fly." She muttered, her wings vibrating like a hummingbird. The young filly's back legs achieved lift to a comical degree, but not enough to get her hooves off the ground.
"Come on, Dash. We have some catching up to do." Spitfire said encouragingly, and nudged Rainbow with her hoof. "That is, if you think you're up for it."
"What do you-" Rainbow began, but Spitfire had already burst out the window and taken to the sky. "Hey! No fair!" Dash shouted, and bolted after her.
"Expect the unexpected, Rainbow Dash! You of all ponies should know that by now!"
Scootaloo pushed the door closed, now left alone with her two friends and the Changeling. She crossed her hooves, clearly completely embarrassed.
"Aw, cheer up, Scoots." Sweetie Belle said brightly. "We all love you, whether or not you can get off the ground."
"That's not the point!" The pegasus said. "I don't want to be treated any different, why do you think I don't tell anyone about my mom? My grandmother and my mother are super fantastic fliers, and I can't even fly yet." Her wings locked against her sides. "I'm not special at all! It's not fair!"
"But y'all ARE special, Sugarcube." Apple Bloom said. "Y'all not bein' special fer not flyin' is like me not bein' special 'cause ah can't buck a tree in one kick like Big Macintosh."
"Or me not being special because I can't cross-stitch three dresses at once. I can barely even pick up a pencil with my magic." Sweetie sighed.
Scootaloo looked a bit more cheerful. "Oh, well I guess that's okay then. Come on, let's go get my scooter out of the back. We can get our cutie marks in daredevil-ing!" She said excitedly, and ran from the room towards the back of the house.
"Alright, but ah wanna use it tah jump off the roof into a pool of sharks!" Apple Bloom.
"Absolutely not." Scootaloo said firmly, as the two disappeared around the corner.
Sweetie Belle facehooved, and looked at the Changeling. "We'll be right back, so you stay here alright?" She hurried after her friends without waiting for a response. The other two were already arguing.
"I'm not going to let you kill yourself! You need to be a certified professional like me!" Scootaloo was saying.
"Th' only thing yer certified in is bein' a nincompoop." Bloom shot back.
"I told you to stop making up words!"
"Ah ain' makin' up words, s'what y'are." Bloom said simply.
Scootaloo was about to say something, but was interrupted by Sweetie Belle, who fell to her knees and tugged at her mane with her hooves.
"WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?!" The singer screamed.
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo burst into giggling. They didn't mean any of the rude things they said to each other, it was just a defensive mechanism that most girls had.
Scootaloo jumped onto her scooter, and wheeled back towards the house. "Come on, girls! The day is young!"
Sweetie looked at the sun, which had almost ready to set for the day. "Yeah, sure, the day is young. What timezone are YOU in?" She quipped, and the three entered together, blinking in confusion shortly after.
"Where's our Changeling?"
All three looked around for it, but couldn't find it anywhere.
"Huh, that's strange. You told it to stay here, but it's gone anyway." Scootaloo observed.
"Thanks a lot, Captain Obvious." Bloom quipped.
"Why does life have to be so ironic?!" Sweetie yelled.
Meanwhile, outside, the Changeling was running towards the woods. The Changeling stopped at a crossroads at the same time as one of its companions, and did a double take at the purple dress its kin was wearing. It started snickering with fits of laughter.
The second Changeling whapped the first upside the head, exchanging a series of angry clicks. The two looked left and right, until they were convinced that nopony was watching. The second Changeling ripped off the dress it was wearing, and left it laying in a puddle of mud created by an earlier rainshower. Together the two shape-shifting creatures entered the depths of the forest as the day drew to a close.