Fluttershy slept peacefully in the comfortable bed of Faith's bedroom, the warm spring sun trickling in gently in the early hours of the morning. It had been a full week since that interesting breakfast with Discord and Faith and things had been rather uncomfortable around the house since then.
Not only was there an uncomfortable silence whenever she was alone with Discord, but there was also an uncomfortable tension whenever Faith and Discord were in the same room together. Despite this, both of them seemed to be getting along, at least that is, they hadn't started a fight yet. Fluttershy rolled over and gently opened her eyes, the morning sunlight making her eyes sparkle at least until she screwed them shut again.
Living on the farm with Faith meant that she got up early every morning, whether to check on the crops outside or to cook breakfast for everyone. She didn't mind the work she had to do, but she really wished that she could sleep in a little bit more. She covered her head with the quilt and closed her eyes again, hoping to steal a few more minutes of sleep before Faith got up. However any and all attempts to get more sleep were ended when a piercing scream echoed through the house.
Fluttershy jumped to attention in an instant, her heart hammering madly as the scream still echoed in her head. It was then that she heard the sound of chuckling before a male voice to her right said,
"I believe our host has discovered the surprise I gave him."
Fluttershy, already on edge from the earlier scare, jumped sideways out of the bed, landing in an undignified way on the floor, Discord's face appearing over the edge of the bed to look down at her. She took a few deep breathes in an attempt to slow her heart rate before she asked,
"What in the name of Celestia are you talking about?"
Her answer was given to her when the door to the room flew open.
There in the doorway stood a slender mare with a jet black coat, flecked with white. She had long eyelashes, a well kept mane, and a figure that would make even Rarity jealous, however, her eyes were wide with horror and she was moving her mouth in an unsuccessful attempt at speech. Fluttershy looked the mare over once more before politely asking, "Who are you?"
Her politeness surprised her, given her fear from a moment ago, but for some reason this new pony seemed to instill a sense of calm in her. The pony opened and closed her mouth a few more times before turning to the left a little to reveal a bright red crystal heart cutie mark. Ice cold realization hit her with the force of a stampeding buffalo, all of the air seemed to vanish from her lungs as she choked, "Faith?!"
Faith nodded and finally managed to say, "I'm...I'm...I'm a mare!"
Fluttershy didn't bother asking how this happened, instead she rounded on Discord and angrily demanded, "Discord! What did you do to Faith?!" Discord was shaking slightly, but not out of fear of Fluttershy's anger, but rather from the laughter he was straining to control, the fur around his face a darker shade than normal as he kept a paw over his mouth in an attempt to not burst out in mirth. This eventually proved impossible as Discord suddenly erupted into raucous laughter, holding his side as he laughed. Fluttershy stomped her hoof angrily and demanded again,
"What did you do to Faith?!"
Discord eventually regained enough breath to wheeze, "I removed competition, though if I may say so, you do look fine Faith."
At this he wolf whistled and Faith eye twitched in anger, he made to charge at Discord and noticing this, Fluttershy grabbed him by the shoulders and attempted to hold him back. Faith was so strong that she did little to stop him, eventually going from holding his shoulders to his hind legs in an attempt at keeping Faith from attacking Discord. Noticing Faith's advance, Discord floated lazily to the ceiling and out of reach, still chuckling feebly to himself as he eyed the two ponies below him. Faith angrily demanded, "Get back down here so I can kill you!"
Discord chuckled and responded casually, "All the more reason for me to stay up here then."
Fluttershy let go of Faith's legs as he stopped moving and picked herself up off the floor, looking up at Discord in the ceiling. She had known him to do some pretty crazy things, but changing the gender of a friend of hers for fun was overstepping the boundaries of what she would allow, and what had he meant by removing competition? She shook her head and asked, "Discord, would you please change Faith back to normal, he can't stay this way."
Discord shrugged and suggested with a wicked grin, "Why not? He may grow to like his new body and all the attention it'll bring him, besides, I'm sure there are a number of singles in Ponyville who would love to take interest in such a cute mare."
Faith gritted his teeth. This insane creatures suggestions and demented thoughts were infuriating him, if he could fly, he'd knock a few of his teeth out and then make him change him back. Faith took a number of deep calming breaths while Fluttershy angrily argued with Discord about how even though Faith now looked female, that didn't change what he actually was. Discord didn't even seem to be paying any attention to Fluttershy's words as he backstroked lazily through the air and eventually he flipped around and said with a bored voice,
"Well, I think I'll be going, the spell doesn't have a time limit so you might as well enjoy it sweetie, I'll see you both later."
Before Fluttershy or Faith could do much more than open their mouths angrily Discord vanished with a poof. Faith swore loudly and Fluttershy covered her mouth in shock, angrily reprimanding him for his use of profanity before saying,
"Faith! Getting angry won't help this, swearing certainly won't! We need to keep calm and think about this."
Faith frowned and apologized to her while closing his eyes and taking a number of deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. After a few moments he opened his eyes and asked, "Well, what do we do? I certainly have no plans to be a mare for the rest of my life."
Fluttershy had already been thinking about that, even before she had asked Discord to reverse the spell, she had known he wouldn't. That being said, there were three other ponies who had the knowledge and power to undo magic like this, Celestia, Twilight, and Trixie. She definitely did not want to ask Trixie for help, Celestia was all the way in Canterlot, so the best choice available to them was Twilight. Smiling reassuringly at Faith, Fluttershy said,
"Don't worry, I know just the unicorn to help us, my best friend, Twilight Sparkle. She's Celestia's apprentice and the most powerful magician I know." Faith let out an audible sigh of relieve and said, "Well, what are we waiting for, lets go see if she can help us."
Several hours later...
Fluttershy and Faith entered into Ponyville around noon, a bit later than faith had wanted to get there, but they had needed to plan. Faith's new found beauty rivaled that of Rarity, which meant that it was highly likely the stallions of the town would attempt to woo him, without knowing the truth. The best policy was to avoid meeting as many pony's as possible and reach Twilight's house as quickly as possible.
Faith looked over to Fluttershy and they nodded in unison, moving as one into the town. It didn't take long for them to reach the town center, where a vast number of ponies were milling around, trading, conversing, or traveling from store to store. Faith looked around nervously, there were a larger number of Ponies in town than he would have expected, enough to make it easy to get separated.
Fluttershy motioned for Faith to follow her and he did so, darting into the crowd in an attempt to get through it quickly. They made it about ten feet when a stallion bumped into Faith. Initially, he paid it no mind as he attempted to keep up with Fluttershy, that is until the same stallion ran in between them and made to grab Faith's right fore hoof. The stallions eyes seemed to sparkle unnaturally as he gazed at Faith, he grinned broadly and said,
"Oh sweet lily of the fields, your fragrance has carried on the winds to me, the bee who will carry your pollen and fill the fields with your children."
Faith's jaw dropped at the stallions words, quickly snatching his hoof away and attempting to muscle past the deranged stallion. He made it all of two feet past him when another stallion flew in out of nowhere with a bouquet of a dozen roses, offering them to him with a broad grin and sparkling eyes, he said, "A rose for each heartbeat you stole from me when I laid my eyes upon you."
A shudder of ran down Faith's spine as he recoiled from the flowers and attempted to sprint after Fluttershy. He didn't get very far when three more stallions muscled their way through the crowd, carrying gifts wrapped in bows, cakes, and bits of jewelery. Faith had no intention of being propositioned by these stallions and turned to run in the opposite direction, freezing when he saw the previous two he'd encountered earlier blocking his path. With no other options available he yelled, "Fluttershy! Help Me!"
Fluttershy looked back over her shoulder at the sound of Faith's voice. She'd been so occupied with carefully navigating the crowd that she hadn't noticed that Faith had fallen back. She saw him being cornered by no fewer than seven stallions bearing gifts and she paled; the last thing they needed was for one of them to get his hooves on Faith without realizing that he wasn't actually a mare.
She tried to push her way towards him but three more stallions ran past her, knocking her over in their rush to get to this new and beautiful mare. As the number of would be suitors grew from seven to thirteen in under a minute, Fluttershy gave him the only bit of useable advise she could think of, "Faith, run!"
Faith needed no encouragement. As one of the suitors made a grab for him, he grabbed his foreleg and flipped him onto the ground, kicking another in the head before speeding off as fast as he could through the opening he had made. As he ran, he heard a chorus of love calls, requests, and poetry following behind him, as the number of stallions grew. Faith chanced a glance back and saw stallions coming out of houses he'd past, a few tossing off wedding bands and others getting into hoof fights with those that got in their way. The mass of stallions numbered in the dozens by the time he rounded a corner and saw the one creature that at that he wanted to see, Discord.
He ran right past him, having no time to slow down and wasn't surprised when he came floating up beside him, lazily gliding along on his side while examining his talons. Eventually Discord asked, "Soooo, are we having a problem?"
Faith nearly swore again as a cramp started in his sides and he snapped, "This is YOUR doing isn't it?!"
Discord smiled wickedly and said, "I may have had a claw in it. Aren't you just loving the attention?"
Faith turned another sharp corner and Discord sailed past, before he was too far away Faith screamed,
"I'm going to get you for this Discord! I swear it!"
He heard Discord laughing jovially in the distance as he continued to run. It wasn't much long before Faith felt like his legs were about to give out, his lungs burned, his legs burned, his heart hammered. Despite want no part in whatever those stallions had in mind, his mind could only will his body to go so far. Just when it seemed like fate had conspired against him, he let out a yelp as a lasso of magic flew out the front door of a nearby building and yanked him off his hooves into it.
He heard the sound of a door slamming shut and being locked, looking up from his vantage point on the floor he saw a brilliant white mare white a purple mane looking out through a crack in the window curtains as the mob of stallions ran past, unaware that their target was no longer on the streets.
The mare sighed in relieve and turned back to Faith who lay shaking on the floor. She stepped forward and nudge Faith gently on the cheek. She sighed and said, "You poor thing, you must be scared to death. Come on, lets get you some tea."
Faith shook his head, he didn't want tea, all he wanted was for whatever that insane creature had done to him undone. He attempted to stand but fell back onto his stomach, his legs having no more energy left in them. The mare looked at Faith quizzically and said, "I've never seen you around town before, who are you?"
Faith gave her his name still stubbornly trying to make his legs support his weight. When they again collapsed under him he resigned himself to resting here for awhile and hoping that Fluttershy would find him. The mare before him smiled and said, "My name is Rarity, its nice to meet you Faith. So tell me, why was that mob chasing you, judging by how you look, we'd be about equals in the beauty part, so what was it, perfume?"
Faith shook his head and weakly said, "No, Discord put a spell on me to make all stallions fall in love with me."
Rarity raised her eyebrows, she knew Discord was a prankster but this, it was just cruel. She sighed and helped Faith to his feet, guiding him towards the bathroom. As she opened the door with magic she said,
"What you need darling is a soak in a nice hot bath and the full salon treatment, mud facial, hoof polish and mane styling. I promise you'll feel like a new mare when we're done."
Faith let out a groan as he was dragged into the bathroom, the door closing with a click behind him.