Celestia and Twilight had gotten down to the nitty gritty. Twilight's earlier magical efforts had proven a test case. A tremendous magical output by the user seemed to push back the rift barriers and allowed the magic-user to experience the original Equestrian dimension more effectively. The success of rift-sealing appeared to be heralded by the smell of burning socks. The next test would be to see if the experiential effect could be transferred beyond the original magic user and onto another pony. A unicorn would likely be the most straightforward of test subjects since they could join in the spell-casting matrices and likely partake of the effect. Other ponies would probably be trickier.
Some ponies seemed to be less affected by the rifts than others, hence why Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pudding had noticed that things were wrong in the first place. Thus it made sense that the pegasus and earth pony trials would involve them; then they could move on to the others in the Regional Council.
Twilight thought hard. Now all they needed was a focus for the spell. There wasn't a handy castle that needed fixing again, and something small... like a teacake, wasn't going to be large enough an item to amplify the effect with being obliterated in the process due to the sheer amount of magical power they were going to have to pour into it.
Twilight stared at the teacake. She picked up the teacake. She thoughtfully chewed the teacake. Pinkie was a genius. These were much nicer than red-bean buns. Cha-ching! The lightning bolt finally struck.
---
Mr Goldstraw was finally getting a decent price for his milk. Things had been tough over the last few years what with the supermarkets battling low prices and now Brexit throwing some uncertainty into the markets. Things were really looking up though. It seemed that the Chinese were getting a real taste for western cooking and while that meant that sugar for his morning cup of tea was a little pricier than last year it also meant there was a big demand for imported milk powder over there. And everyone knew that the best milk came from Britain. Bob Goldstraw was very happy to jump on the bandwagon.
---
Twilight, Celestia and the rest of the gang stood in a semi-circle facing the Red-Bean Bun Bakery. Pinkie Pudding hadn't hesitated to volunteer the building as a test subject as soon as it had been suggested. This probably seemed a little unfair to the Buns, but since this was Official Party Governmental Security Business, there wasn't really much they could do about it.
The group had been joined by the Official Ruling Party Night-time Co-ordinator, Full Moon, who couldn't resist joining in once her sister, Celestia, had asked for her assistance (and explained the diarchy). Many of the male ponies were fans of Full Moon's voluptuous figure and the gathering had attracted quite the crowd.
The three alicorns and Scarcity started to pour in raw magical power. The high beams of intensive mage-work flowed like liquid metal across the intervening space and splattered across the front of the store. The viscous liquid magic stuck like magnets to the outline of the store which started to buckle and warp. Steamed buns started to steam, before erupting in flashes of light, popping out of existence like noisy firecrackers.
The windows shattered and the very fabric of the store itself started to unravel. The building grew in size as splashes of pink and chocolate swirled through the air. Streams of white sticky icing flowed across the front as giant wooden logs erupted out of the eaves at oblique angles. The smell of burnt socks and sugar was overpowering. There was a blinding flash of light and there in front of them was the most ridiculous looking confectionery-shaped building with a large cupcake-adorned sign swinging in the non-existent breeze. Pinkie squeed.
Meanwhile, the ponies performing the magic were also undergoing changes. Each pony was surrounded by an intense light. Colours were bleeding out of their coats and manes and puddling across the ground, leaving a blotchy pink stain. Their manes stuck out at 360 degrees like when touching a Van de Griiff generator. As the light-show faded, the four ponies, who had been floating in the air, touched down to the ground. Princess Luna was lithe and trim, Princess Celestia was a pristine white and full-figured mare, Twilight looked remarkably the same, but the biggest change was Rarity whose fair white figure and perfectly coiffed curls of purple mane shone out as the paragon of Fashion.
"Darlings!" she exclaimed. "Rarity is back!"
Pinkie pronked around the restored store, pulling cupcakes from her mane and handing them out to the gathered crowd.
"Woah", said Rainbow, staring at Celestia. "I knew there was something up about all this pink around." She moved over to Rarity. "Good to see you back, er... Rares"
Twilight looked around with a satisfied grin. The magic had taken a fair amount out of her, but having the other two alicorns to help handle the load had made a big difference. It was great to see Celestia and Luna back to their normal selves.
Next up was Rainbow Dash, but they again needed something to focus their magic at. Fortunately Rarity remembered walking past the furniture and stationery stores on the way over to Twilight's castle. Now that her personal dimension space was out of flux she could recall that both those stores hadn't previously existed.
"My little ponies", said Celestia, "I fear that there is much work to do; but a tremendous well done to our dear Twilight." Celestia inwardly felt rather ashamed of her previous attitudes. Her selfish and elitist motivations from earlier in the day had struck a chord of worry into her usually calm demeanour.
The majority of the watching ponies of course had no clue what was going on; why the bakery had changed and what was with the sudden coat colour changes. Fortunately free cakes made for a pleasant distraction, and a good number of the mares were looking forwards to the launch of the Full Moon Instant Diet Plan.