"Rarity! I'm here! Are you there?! Speak to me!" Spike wailed, pounding on the doors to the Carousel Boutique.
He heard the door unlatch from the other side. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours as Spike fretted over the condition of his precious Rarity. The door started to move. Spike gritted his teeth anxiously, impatiently. Finally, the bottom half of the front door swung-
Wait a minute, Spike thought. Rarity would have to open the door fully. That must mean...
"Spike! It's a good thing you came! Something's wrong with Rarity!" squeaked the mulberry-maned filly within.
"Sweetie Belle? What are you doing here?! Where's Rarity?!"
"Um, well, that's the thing. Mom and Dad dropped me off here to spend the day with Rarity, and I was cooking her favorite breakfast: French toast and syrup with juice. I only singed the juice lightly this time!" she squealed with a proud grin plastered on her face. "But when she came down to eat, she couldn't even fit the food in her mouth. Her tongue is really, really big now!"
Spike mentally praised the gods that Rarity had not choked down any more of Sweetie Belle's cooking; her juice had probably taken years off the mare's life already. "Actually, that was the reason I came over. Twilight and Applejack also have swollen tongues, and Applebloom said Cheerilee can't talk, either. Twilight seems to have figured out something's going on that's affecting only the mares in Ponyville. Hey, wait a minute," Spike said, scratching his chin suspiciously. "Shouldn't you have known about Cheerilee as well? Why'd you only mention Rarity?"
"H-hey! Are you implying I was going to skip school?!" Sweetie shot back indignantly, glaring at the cheeky dragon. "I was a little freaked out by my sister's condition! And if you knew about that to begin with, why were you pleading outside our door for her to say something?! That's a little insensitive, don'tcha think?"
Spike opened his mouth to say something, but his words failed him. Finally, he issued forth a resigned sigh. "Yeah, you're right. That was kinda dumb of me. Sorry, Sweetie Belle. Where is she, though? We need to get her together with Twilight and the others so we can figure this out."
"Uh, well, you know my sister," Sweetie said, chuckling nervously. "Rarity hasn't left her room in a couple of hours, and the floor outside her room's getting kind of slippery. I think it's a safe bet she won't be coming out for a while."
Spike's features hardened, and he marched forth with grim resolve. "Someone's gotta get Rarity to come out, and it looks like it's gotta be me."
"Wow, you were right, Twahlight! The whole town's gone crazy!"
Applebloom had elected to travel with Twilight and Applejack so that they'd have somepony around who could talk, with Big Mac staying behind to get some chores done. The extra helping hoof, however, did not amount to much. All around, there were mares panicking and drooling. The earth ponies that normally tended to Ponyville's lush gardens could not hold their gardening implements in their mouths. Even the mayor, who could normally be counted on to help restore order in times of chaos, was rendered mute and useless.
With the arrival of Princess Twilight, who had solved so many of their problems previously, all eyes were on the group as they trekked through the town square. Twilight tried to steel her resolve, but the burden of uncertainty weighed heavily on her. She didn't even know where to begin looking for answers.
After a few minutes of awkward silence punctuated by the occasional stallion trying unsuccessfully to verbally reassure his family, Twilight, Applejack, and Applebloom arrived at Sugarcube Corner. Before they could knock on the door, a pink blur charged out of the entrance, causing Twilight to fly up several feet in surprise. Without missing a beat, Pinkie Pie began spewing gibberish and spraying slobber everywhere in a frantic, disjointed spiel that nopony could make hide nor hair of. After a few seconds, Applejack simply doffed her hat and plugged the pink mare's mouth, stemming the tide.
Pinkie was absolutely distraught. Being unable to talk shackled her normally exuberant personality and served to feed all of her latent anxieties. How could she possibly tell everypony about all the cool parties she had planned? How would she tell all of those fun jokes she heard about the rubber chicken crossing the town square? Who would talk to Gummy?! Her eyes darted in their sockets as her mind zipped from scenario to scenario.
Applejack pointed to her tongue and then to Twilight's, indicating that they were having the same problem. She then motioned for the group to move inside. Twilight and Applebloom sidled in as Applejack grunted and shoved Pinkie through the opening.
Inside, Mr. Cake was busy consoling his anxious wife while balancing two trays of cinnamon rolls on his head and giving Pound and Pumpkin a ponyback ride. The sweet shop was otherwise absolutely deserted, an unusual situation in a town with so many sweet-toothed ponies. The group walked up to one of the empty tables, awkwardly acknowledging Mr. Cake, whose expression lay somewhere between distress and exhaustion.
Twilight dumped her saddlebag full of books onto the table and began reading through them. The others, unsure what contribution to make, merely observed. Applebloom, however, eager to help, started sifting through the books and found a familiar-looking tome labeled Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-Alls that are Simply Super. It was at this point that the little filly remembered the first time they'd met Zecora. "Hey! Ah think Ah have an idea of what to do!"
Applejack and Pinkie turned to listen, but Twilight was too absorbed in her study session. Applebloom shrugged and continued. "Remember when y'all walked through the Poison Joke and had all that funny stuff happen to ya?" The ponies nodded gingerly in response. "Well, wasn't it you that had that weird thing happen where your tongue got really big, Pinkie? Ah remember you couldn't say anything, and you were spittin' on everything every time ya tried! This seems a lot like that, except Ah don't see any o'those blue spots on yer tongues. Maybe Zecora knows somethin'. We should ask her!"
Suddenly intrigued, Twilight looked up. Applebloom was right that the situation did seem similar, but would Zecora really know any better than the rest of them? She sighed, figuring it was worth a shot. Nodding affirmatively to each of the others, she led them out of Sugarcube Corner towards Fluttershy's cottage, situated before the most accessible entrance to the Everfree Forest. If they were going to see Zecora, she reasoned, they'd do well to pick up Fluttershy on the way.
Rarity's tear ducts had long since dried up, yet she was still wailing profusely. Spike gingerly stepped around the puddles formed by the mare's hysterics and rubbed her shoulder. The distressed fashionista promptly grabbed him and squeezed him tight, eliciting conflicting thoughts from the young dragon. On the one claw, the mare of his dreams was clutching him close like some kind of comfort object. If he could provide that stability for her, he'd gladly do so. On the other claw, Spike was having trouble breathing. Despite doing mostly delicate dresswork, Rarity was a lot stronger than she looked, and the poor dragon felt like he was going to snap.
"R-Rarity! It's gonna be okay! I'm-I'm here!" Spike managed to get out between gasps for air.
Her grip softened at the sound of his voice, and she started sniffling and whimpering. "Boe, Bibey-Bibey! Byou're thuch a thweetie."
Spike's face was now covered in slobber yet again, a feeling with which he was becoming uncomfortably familiar.