Sweetie Belle was late when she arrived at the clubhouse the next morning. There had been a little incident with the toaster back home. When she opened the front door, however, she was surprised to see that while Scootaloo was waiting for her with an annoyed look on her face, Apple Bloom was nowhere to be seen.
“That’s weird. Apple Bloom’s usually done with her morning chores by now. Did something come up?” asked Sweetie Belle as she trotted inside.
“You mean besides the obvious?” deadpanned Scootaloo.
“But Babs Seed doesn’t get here until tomorrow, right? So what’s keeping Apple Bloom?” pondered Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo let out a sigh.
“Well, it’s not chores or anything. Applejack stopped by just a minute ago. Apparently Apple Bloom was up all night worrying about Babs Seed. She just kept thinking of new and crazy ways things could go wrong. By the time Applejack and Big Mac woke up she was in a full blown panic,” explained Scootaloo.
“She still at it?” asked Applejack as she joined her brother.
“... And then they’re gonna drag mah head all the way back to Manehattan so they can flush it down a toilet so Ah can get eaten by them sewer gators and…”
“Yep,” replied Big Mac.
“So, yeah. Applejack reckons she’ll wait till Apple Bloom calms down, then they’re gonna help her come up with a way to help her ‘feel ready,’ which really means helping her hide the fact she’s sorta dead,” finished Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow.
“Uh… I can kind of see where she’s coming from, but that seems a bit extreme. When has Apple Bloom ever been one to panic, let alone this badly?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“I dunno. I mean, she’s been hiding it from us for months. It can’t be that hard to hide it from one pony for a week,” replied Scootaloo with a shrug.
Sweetie Belle put her hoof to her mouth in thought for a moment, and then had a idea.
“Well, Babs Seed is her cousin. You know how the Apples feel about family. Apple Bloom’s going to be spending as much time as possible with her cousin, and I bet she’s debating on whether she wants to keep the secret or just tell her the truth,” deducted Sweetie Belle.
“Hm… You might be right. Still, if she wants to tell her extended family she’s a ghoul, then that’s her choice. I mean, my extended family is kind of the thing I need to keep a secret, so I really can’t help her there,” admitted Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. She really didn’t know her extended family very well, so it really wasn’t much of a debate for her either.
“Either way, it looks like it’s just the two of us today. Anything in mind you want to do?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, Sweetie Belle? You know today is Monday, right?” asked Scootaloo.
“Oh. Yeah, sorry. I lost track of what day it is. You have piano lessons on Monday,” answered Sweetie Belle with a blush.
Scootaloo gave an awkward cough.
“I uh… might of forgot to mention this the other day, but I’m not taking piano lessons. On Mondays I have to practice my changeling magic. Can’t exactly do that in the middle of Ponyville, you know?” admitted Scootaloo.
“Oh… ok, that makes a lot more sense. I didn’t want to say anything, but after the talent show I was starting to think you were wasting your time with those lessons,” confessed Sweetie Belle.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. My older brother still doesn’t let me forget about that incident,” moaned Scootaloo as she rubbed her head with her hoof.
“Anyway, we still have a little while until your piano… I mean magic practice. Anything we can do in that time?” Sweetie Belle asked again.
“You know perfectly well what we need to do today. We need to find out more about Sweetie Bot,” said Scootaloo as she pointed a hoof towards Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle blinked in surprise.
“Wait, why do we have to do that now? Shouldn't we wait until Apple Bloom’s with us before we give robot me another go?” Sweetie Belle asked nervously.
“You said it yourself, Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom’s going to be spending as much time as possible with her cousin while she's here. And unless we want to avoid Apple Bloom for an entire week, we’re going to be spending time with her too. So, either we wait a whole week to try and learn anything, or we do it right now without Apple Bloom,” explained Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle tried to think of an excuse, but couldn't. She was still reluctant, but she didn’t want to wait a whole week. Instead, she let out a resigned sigh.
“I guess you’re right. Just… just give me a minute to get ready,” Sweetie Belle said nervously.
“Sure. I need to look over Apple Bloom’s notes from last time anyway,” said Scootaloo as she walked away.
Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. This was the fourth time she was going to become Sweetie Bot, and the thought of it still terrified her. The sensation of something in her thinking process just changing like that was so jarring and unsettling. Was she just ‘turning on’ some small part of her? Or was she letting who she really was come out of the Sweetie Belle mask?
“Found ‘em!” cried Scootaloo as she pulled out Apple Bloom’s notes.
Sweetie Belle shook her head. This was no time to be “so meta,” as Pinkie had put it. Besides, she might get her answer in just a moment anyway.
“Ready Sweetie Belle?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle nodded, then closed her eyes. She didn’t fully understand how she went full robot, but she knew a trick to make it happen. Ever since she’d discovered her artificial nature, she’d had what felt like a switch in the back of her mind.
Sweetie Belle flicked the switch with a mental nudge, and her world exploded into 1’s and 0’s.
It wasn’t just her vision. Her other senses, memories, and even her on-going thoughts were crunched down. Her entire being was nothing but an endless array of digits. But the weird part was that Sweetie Belle could comprehend the numbers. Through this mess of lines and circles Sweetie Belle could not only sense her surroundings, but details she could never had known otherwise.
One long stream told her she was sitting down. The next said that it was early in the morning. Yet another told her that she was looking at something. A different set of numbers much further down told Sweetie Belle that that something was Scootaloo. It also told her friend’s species, her current relationship status, what her expression suggested, and how full her bladder was.
Sweetie Belle understood all of it. Unfortunately, she hadn’t quite nailed down how to not acknowledge certain information, and the lines quickly relayed that her disgust level had increased upon realizing she knew when Scootaloo would have to go to the bathroom.
TMI aside, it seemed that her “number sense” was working perfectly. So, with everything in order, she mentally added a new line to the system to speak. And once the line had been entered and processed, she opened her mouth.
“ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE. SWEETIE BOT READY FOR INPUT,” declared Sweetie Belle.
Though she spoke, she neither heard it nor felt her mouth move. The only feedback she received was more numbers. Numbers that told her that she had spoken and her jaw had moved. While this way of thinking might seem confusing, it was just as effective as her normal senses. It was just a different and more complex way of interpreting the information.
A new line showed that a noise had been heard. Another showed that Scootaloo had made the noise. Sweetie Belle’s processor identified it as spoken language, and quickly computed the sound into a new line of readable numbers.
“Alright then, Sweetie Bot. Shall we take a look at what’s hiding in your head?” Scootaloo asked.
And so it continued: a conversation consisting of nothing but reading and entering 1’s and 0’s.
“AFFIRMATIVE,” announced Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo rubbed her hooves together in anticipation.
“Ok. First thing first. Last time we did this, you mentioned that ‘Sweetie Belle’ is registered as a…”
Scootaloo paused and glanced at her notes.
“...M.P.S.. Can you tell us what that is?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle acknowledged the question, and agreed that it was a good place to start. At that moment, her thought process ran away from her and entered a new line that she didn’t fully understand: Search database for: M.P.S.
“SEARCHING...” declared Sweetie Belle.
Much like when flicking her “on” switch, Sweetie Belle’s mind reached into the back of, well, her mind. Instead of said switch, she felt what seemed like an endless abyss. As her computer sense pushed onward into it, more number lines appeared.
These numbers, however, were a bit more confusing, mostly because Sweetie Belle had no idea what most of it was saying. Current active RAM? The definition of Aesthete? AQC mode? And what in Equestria was that?! It’s like Sweetie Belle’s brain was full to the brim with things she didn’t actually know.
Then again, that was the reason why she was doing this wasn’t it? To see what was inside her robo-brain. Sweetie Belle just wished it wasn’t so disorienting, as her computer sense didn’t seem to acknowledge any lines it passed that it wasn’t actively looking for. And without that focus, everything Sweetie Belle ‘saw’ just slipped away from her as soon as it appeared.
What Sweetie Belle did pick up however, started raising her frustration level. She quickly found a definition for M.P.S. And then she found another. And another. And another, until finally...
“SEARCH COMPLETE. FOUND 123 POSSIBLE DESIGNATIONS FOR: M.P.S.” announced Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow.
“OK… wasn’t expecting that. And we don’t have time to check all of them,” admitted Scootaloo.
“FRUSTRATION LEVELS AT 34%,” added Sweetie Belle.
“Um… can you tell which M.P.S. we’re looking for? Like, maybe try to find ‘M.P.S. Sweetie Belle,’ or something?” suggested Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle tried Scootaloo’s suggestion, but only got one rather useless answer:
“SWEETIE BELLE HAS BEEN ASSIGNED TO M.P.S. UNIT 23457. FRUSTRATION LEVELS AT 53%,” Sweetie Belle declared.
Scootaloo shook her head.
“Come on Sweetie Bot. You have to have more than that!” she demanded.
Sweetie Belle tried to dig up more, but her computer mind refused to.
“PLEASE SPECIFY INQUIRY,” she stated.
Scootaloo gave a frustrated huff.
“We want to know what this M.P.S. thing is!” she cried.
“123 POSSIBLE DESIGNATIONS FOR: M.P.S.” announced Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo facehooved.
“OK, this isn’t working. Maybe if… no, Sweetie Bot’ll probably just tell us that unit 234 is Sweetie Belle. Ugh, Sweetie Belle, why is robot you so hard to work with?” asked Scootaloo.
Surprisingly, Sweetie Belle actually came up with a result for that question.
“SOLUTION: UPDATE UNIT SWEETIE BOT FROM VERSION 8 TO VERSION 8.1,” answered Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo sighed in defeat.
“I have no clue what that means. Forget it Sweetie Belle, we’ll just try this again later when we have more…”
Scootaloo paused. She just had an idea.
“Wait… if Sweetie Belle is that M.P.S. thing, then what exactly is Sweetie Bot?” asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle agreed. That was a good question. And the search came up with something new:
“UNIT SWEETIE BOT: REGISTERED A.P.P. #23444.” announced Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo gave a loud “Yes!” and hoofpumped, but her enthusiasm quickly faded as she realized what this meant.
“Don’t tell me… Sweetie Bot, how many definitions are there for A.P.P.?” Scootaloo regretfully asked.
“FOUND 121 POSSIBLE DESIGNATIONS FOR: A.P.P.” informed Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo gave out another sigh.
“Yeah, that’s not much better. Still, at least we found…” Scootaloo’s voice cut off.
It wasn’t because she had stopped talking. It was because it was happening again. Sweetie Belle had no idea whether it was because of ongoing stress or some processor limit had been reached, but one thing was clear: reading the numbers started to hurt. And it hurt bad.
“WARNING: UNIT SWEETIE BOT’S M.P.S. SUFFERING COMPATIBILITY REJECTION. RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE DEACTIVATION OF COMPUTATION SYSTEMS,” she announced.
“This again? Well, we were just about done anyway. Shut it down, Sweetie Belle,” said Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle didn’t hesitate. She reached back once more for that switch in the back of her mind, and flicked it.
The numbers vanished, leaving utter darkness before Sweetie Belle’s senses slowly began to return. It took a short while, but eventually Sweetie Belle’s vision was only her eyes, and her thought process was back to her normal way of thinking.
“Ugh…” Sweetie Belle moaned as she held her head.
Her headache hadn’t faded yet.
“Why does that have to hurt so much?” she grumbled.
“Well, that’s one thing we can try asking next time,” suggested Scootaloo as she finished writing down what they’d learned.
“I guess,” said Sweetie Belle with a sigh. At the moment her anxiety and pain were a lot more compelling than her curiosity, and another go at Sweetie Bot was the last thing she was looking forward to. Perhaps this week long break would do her head some good.
Mondays are awful. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. If you don’t hate Mondays, it’s because you’ve found a way to make the awfulness easier to bear, not because you actually like the day. Sweetie Belle’s Mondays were no different, even during the summer.
On Monday, Scootaloo had lessons that kept her busy until late afternoon, so Crusading was out. Because of this, Apple Bloom usually spent her Mondays either spending time with her family, or getting a head start on her chores so that she’d more time to play with her friends the rest of the week.
Monday was also Rarity’s designated “full business day,” mostly because in addition to her usual workload there were customers coming to pick up their weekend orders. And while Rarity had long since learned to make time for her sister, Mondays were the exception. As such, Sweetie Belle couldn’t spend the day with her sibling either.
Fortunately, like most ponies who regularly have a day to themselves, Sweetie Belle had a hobby to make these days less boring: reading. Sweetie Belle had discovered the joys of the written word even before she met her friends. In fact, she used to think of herself as quite the book lover until Twilight moved into town. It’s hard to think of yourself as an avid reader after you meet that lavender bookworm.
Still, when everypony else was busy, Sweetie Belle loved nothing better than heading up a small hill on the edge of town, curling up under her favorite reading tree, and letting her mind delve into the pages in front of her. OK, so this was probably the reason why Scootaloo called her a dictionary so often, but what did she know about reading?
For today’s book selection, Sweetie Belle had decided to continue reading Pinkie’s suggestion: Space Unicorn and the Lady Marzipan. Once you got past how ridiculous the setting was (peanut butter powered robots and such), it really wasn't that bad a read.
“Neon!” cried Space as he rushed to his fallen friend.
“I… I’m fine Space. He... only skimmed me. I can… I can keep going,” said Neon as he struggled to stand up. His pained expression suggested it was more serious then he was letting on.
Space knew how badly Neon wanted to fight. How important this was to him, but Space would sooner quit the Rainbow Delivery Line than let his friend keep moving in this state.
“It’s ok, Neon. I can take it from here. After that glitter bomb, the robot octopus is just one blast away from being finished. Patch yourself up, and then we’ll go get that Marzipan Girl together,” said Space.
Neon looked like he wanted to protest, but when he tried to move his wings, he almost collapsed from the pain.
“Alright… just promise me you’ll be alright without me for a bit,” said Neon.
Space raised his marshmallow laser and smiled.
“Come on Neon. Have a little more faith in me,” he said with a smirk.
And with that, Space turned around and charged forward, firing his-
“Hey!”
An angry call pulled Sweetie Belle from her reading. Sweetie Belle looked up in surprise, and had to fight the urge to groan at the sight of the pegasus stallion who had yelled at her. It was Murphy Law.
There are three unwritten rules in Ponyville
1) Pinkie Pie will throw you a welcome party. There will also be other parties, but there’s no guarantee on what they will be celebrating.
2) Never speak of the Fillydelphia Fliers. Ponyville takes its hoofball very seriously, and is a proud supporter of the Plowsburgh Pillagers.
3) Nopony likes Murphy Law, Ponyville’s sole attorney. Not even Pinkie Pie.
“Beat it kid. I’m reading here,” demanded Murphy Law.
Normally Sweetie Belle would just take the usual approach to dealing with Murphy, but she was a little peeved that her reading session had been interrupted and her morning had been rather stressful. So, instead of doing the smart thing and just walking away, Sweetie Belle decided to call him out.
“I was here first. And you can just sit on the other side of the tree,” argued Sweetie Belle.
“And let you peek over my shoulder as I look over private legal papers? Not a chance,” replied Murphy Law.
Sweetie Belle glanced at the book under Murphy’s wing. If there was one thing Murphy Law was good at, it was being full of crap.
“You mean your copy of 'Canterlot Law for Dummies?'” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Excuse me? I’ll have you know this book is highly classified. Only a pony as clever as I can obtain permission to read it,” declared Murphy Law with sneer.
“You mean like going to the Library and checking out Twilight Sparkle’s copy? I know she has one,” deadpanned Sweetie Belle.
Murphy gave her an angry glare.
“You know what? Why don’t you just leave before I sue you for undue stress?” he less than politely suggested.
“Because then you’d have to actually do your job for once?” Sweetie Belle snarked with a sly grin.
Murphy Law looked ready to blow a fuse. Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, was feeling much better, and decided that she’d had enough.
“Whatever. I have other things to do anyway,” she said as she stood up and turned to leave.
Unfortunately, as it usually happens when Murphy Law’s nearby, several things went wrong.
First, Sweetie Belle tripped on a rock that was partially buried just right so that she didn’t notice it until it was too late.
Second, she tripped so hard it sent her flying forward into a wagon that just so happened to be stationed on the hill.
Third, the wagon’s brakes were rusty, and the force of Sweetie Belle’s impact was enough to snap them loose, sending the wagon rushing down the hill with Sweetie Belle in it.
Finally, the wagon hit a very small bump, sending it charging down not toward the road, but right toward somepony’s house.
Why did I have to argue with Murphy Law? Sweetie Belle chided herself and braced for impact.
BOOM!
Meanwhile, Murphy Law looked down from the hill and shrugged.
“I didn’t push her. Not my problem,” he said to himself before sitting down and pulling out his law book.
And that’s why nopony likes Murphy Law.
Well, I learned something about robots today: being made of metal doesn’t make smashing through a wall hurt less, thought Sweetie Belle as she laid on the floor of somepony’s house. Her whole body stung from the impact, her ears were ringing, and her vision was blurry.
“It’s fine! It didn’t hit anything impor- Oh snap! Are you ok?!” A voice called before a white and blue blob entered her vision.
Sweetie Belle let out a groan before answering.
“I… I think so…” she said as the pain started to fade. At the very least, it didn’t feel like anything was broken, and her vision cleared up to reveal that the white pony was in fact Vinyl Scratch.
Well, at least I smashed into the house of one of the most laid back ponies in Ponyville. I just hope her roommate’s in Canterlot. I really don’t need somepony screaming in my ear right now, though Sweetie Belle.
“Uh… are you sure about that? Your leg is…” Vinyl Scratch said nervously before trailing off.
My Leg? None of my legs hurt, so what is she... Sweetie Belle’s line of thought was stopped short when she glanced toward her left front leg.
Her leg had yet another door on it and it was open, allowing Vinyl to see her mechanical insides. Far more alarming, however, was that a large yellow wire inside her leg had been severed. Sweetie Belle tried to move her leg, but it refused to budge.
Needless to say, Sweetie Belle began to panic.
“I… I...” she frantically tried to speak; to try and explain away what was plain to see.
Vinyl Scratch, however, just waved a hoof.
“Don’t worry. I got this,” she said before she dashed off to another room.
What does she mean she’s got this?! Is she going to the hospital to get a doctor? Oh no! It’s bad enough she’s found me out, but now everypony at the hospital is going to know too! Sweetie Belle thought with ever rising hysteria.
The sound of a door opening and closing did little to calm her down. Neither did the following shriek.
“Vinyl Scratch! What is the meaning of this?!” Octavia cried at the sight of the mess her home had become.
“This one isn’t my fault, Tavi! And could you give me a minute before you start chewing me out again? I need to fix Sweetie Belle’s leg,” Vinyl said as she came back into the main room. She had a roll of duct tape levitating in her magic field.
Sweetie Belle’s jaw dropped.
She's going to fix me?! She thought in disbelief.
“Fix her… leg?” asked Octavia as she turned to the small unicorn still lying on the ground.
“Yeah. It’s just a cut wire. I could do this with my eyes shut,” said Vinyl as she leaned down over said wire.
“Since when did you know anything about advanced machinery?” asked Octavia in a surprised tone.
“Since my job requires me to use some really high-end tech. You want to be a successful DJ, you either make enough bits to buy new parts every time your set-up breaks down, or you learn how to patch your stuff yourself. And I don’t make nearly enough bits,” explained Vinyl as she wrapped the wire with the tape.
Sweetie Belle stayed quiet during this exchange. She was still frozen in surprise that these two ponies were not panicking at the sight of a robot on their floor. She did give a small jump, however, when Vinyl finished wrapping the wire as it caused a small shock to run through her body.
“OK, that should do it. Can you move it now?” asked Vinyl.
Sweetie Belle tried to move her hoof again, and to her delight it did. It also helped her calm down a bit.
“There we go. Told ya I could do it,” said Vinyl as she closed the door on Sweetie Belle’s leg.
Sweetie Belle wasn’t sure how to respond.
“I… uh… thank you, I guess,” she said nervously.
“Don’t mention it. Gotta say though, your sister must be even more loaded then she says. This has to be the most advanced looking prosthetic I’ve ever seen.” said Vinyl with a smirk.
Prosthetic? Oh! She must think only my leg is mechanical! Ok, so she doesn’t know I’m a robot. Guess whatever keeps ponies from noticing my secret takes more than just seeing my leg open up. That’s a relief, thought Sweetie Belle as the last of her panic died down.
“Oh, you poor thing! I never knew,” said Octavia in a concerned tone.
Sweetie Belle saw an opportunity, and took it.
“Um… Yeah. I’m… a little embarrassed about it, so I’ve been trying to keep it a secret. Can you promise not to tell anypony? I’d really appreciate it,” Sweetie Belle said, hoping her tone was believable.
Vinyl Scratch raised an eyebrow.
“I guess... Not sure why though. I mean, this is hardly the weirdest thing I’ve heard in this town. You wanna hear about Cloud Kicker’s love life?” offered Vinyl.
“Vinyl! Don’t go filling the poor filly's head with such things! Of course we’ll keep your secret, Sweetie Belle,” said Octavia.
Sweetie Belle let out a sigh of relief
“Now then, about the hole in the wall…” said Octavia with a scowl.
Sweetie Belle winced.
“I uh… kind of got into an argument with Murphy Law…” she admitted.
“Really? Sweet! Did you own him?” Vinyl eagerly asked.
Octavia facehooved.
An hour later Sweetie Belle clopped her way into Sugarcube Corner and flopped down at an empty table. She hadn’t gotten in trouble (their house had Murphy insurance ironically enough), but Octavia had given her a lecture about why it was a bad idea to argue with Murphy Law. A very long and painful lecture.
Right now, Sweetie Belle needed something sweet to drown the experience away.
Still, it hadn’t been all bad. Afterwards Vinyl had offered to help patch her up if something broke again. And considering the only other pony who knew her secret and knew anything about machines was Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle opted to trust her insides with the pony who didn’t keep changing her mind on what model Sweetie Belle was. Though hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Speaking of Pinkie Pie...
“One ‘I need a pick me up’ milkshake coming right up!” declared Pinkie Pie as she appeared out of nowhere, only to dash away again.
Sweetie Belle waited for a few seconds, but then Scootaloo walked in, made her way to Sweetie Belle’s table, and flopped down next to her.
“Ugh… I hate manestyles,” was all she offered.
Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to ask, but then closed it as she realized a public restaurant probably wasn't the best place to talk about being a changeling.
After a moment of the two just sitting there in silence, Pinkie Pie came back with three milkshakes.
“Uh, Pinkie? Who’s the third shake for?” asked Scootaloo.
“For Apple Bloom,” answered Pinkie.
As she said that, Apple Bloom walked into Sugarcube Corner as well. She didn’t seem too frantic, though her mane was a mess. She didn’t say anything right away. She just walked over to her friends and sat down.
“Feeling better Apple Bloom?” asked Sweetie Belle.
Apple Bloom took a sip from her milkshake before sighing.
“Yeah. Ah guess Ah was overreactin’ a bit. Babs Seed is mah cousin, ya know? Ah’m just… not entirely sure what to tell her. And it’s not like it’d be all that hard to hide mah secret from her anything. Ah mean, if Ah could…” Apple Bloom stopped and glanced at Pinkie Pie, who was still standing next to them.
“Oh! Right! I’m not supposed to know about your secrets yet! Sorry!” said Pinkie Pie as she backed away with an embarrassed look on her face.
The CMC looked toward Pinkie in shock, jaws low. Pinkie’s expression quickly changed to nervous.
“Heh heh… I uh… was just kidding? I mean, it’s not like I just so happened to have a Pinkie sense for when zombies are nearby and have a few changeling friends. Nope, not at all!” Pinkie said with a very forced smile.
The Crusaders raised their eyebrows.
“Oh look! Somepony’s at the counter. Better go and do my job. Bye girls!” said Pinkie before she dashed off.
The three friends looked at each other, but silently agreed that this wasn’t the best time to get some answers from Pinkie, if she even had any to give.
“Anyway, as Ah was sayin’, if Ah could hide mah secret from you girls from months, Ah can hide it from her for a week,” continued Apple Bloom.
“Yeah, we kind of figured as much. You panicked because you’re considering just telling her the truth, right?” asked Scootaloo.
Apple Bloom gave a nod.
“Ah’m an Apple. Apple’s have always been honest folk. And if Ah can’t tell mah own cousin the truth, how the hay am Ah going to tell anypony else? We did promise to tell mah sister’s friends, after all,” said Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle let out a sigh.
“She has a point there, though I don't think I’m ready for that step yet,” she mumbled as images of being strapped down in Twilight’s basement entered her mind.
“Well, whether you decided to tell her or not, we’ll be there for you to either help you hide it, or keep Babs quiet. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We’ll stand together no matter what.” declared Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement.
“Well, at least until we can come up with a better name. Still, thanks girls.” said Apple Bloom.
And with that, the three fillies raised their glasses in anticipation of the next day, and enjoyed their milkshakes.
At least until Scootaloo got brain freeze again.