"Pinkie Pie!" Nick barged into the only business still running during all the chaos and papers flying around outside, Sugarcube Corner. The overly excitable party pony stood behind the counter like nothing was wrong, decorating some cookies with icing.
"Nicky! It's been too long since I've seen you! And we should totally have an 'I haven't seen you in 27 and a half days' party! We can invite everypony and have cake and ice cream and balloons and make everypony forget about those papers that arent real!"
Nick took a moment to process what the hyperactive cake maker was saying, but it clicked after a good twenty seconds. "Wait, you know those were fake? Nopony else has figured it out!"
Pinke hopped up on the counter and pointed to her tail, ears, and right hoof. "Duh, my Pinkie sense went off as soon as I got a paper to tell me it was smart to keep it, and that was two weeks ago and I still have my Earth pony magic! So it has to be fake. How did you know, Nicky?" She pulled a bright lamp out of nowhere and the lights dimmed like an interrogation scene. "Spill the beans, Nicky boy! Just not over there, I just cleaned up!"
Nick threw his hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright! I was showing Twilight how some humans were gullible enough to believe stuff like this, and somehow it got out to the public without either of us knowing! Now everyone is in a freakout because they are beginning to realize there won't be anypony left to give papers to soon, and..." Nick put a hand to his chin in thought.
"Ooo, oooh! Are we playing charades? I know that one, that's Nicky having an idea!"
"Yup, I most certainly have an idea, but I need to think for a moment on how to pull it off because there's no way I could rally that much support that fast." Pinkie let the human have a minute to think, even giving him one of the freshly baked cookies to munch on. She was about to go and leave him to think when he triumphantly snapped his fingers. "Eureka! I've got it!"
Pinkie excitedly bounced up to him. "You figured out how to fix the mess? That's fast, almost like a story that has too short chapters! What's your idea, and how do we make a friendship lesson out of it?"
Nick ruffled the mare's mane and grinned. "I think our lesson is going to be 'what was once a mistake can help you in the future'. As for how to stop it... How would you like to do somethin incredibly reckless and stupid, Pinkie?"
"Sounds like fun. Let me get Gummy and we can go!"
"Twilight, please tell me you made a mistake in the math for once in your life," Celestia pleaded to her former student.
Luna frowned and looked over the blackboards scattered around the room. "We are afraid it is true, sister. With only ten days before the curse takes effect, and assuming everypony who can pass it on to two more will do so, 'tis only a year's time before two-thirds of Equis has lost its magic to this curse."
"And it's not like we can get one or two ponies to volunteer to not pass it on," Twilight continued. "Early on, sure, but with how widespread it is right now it would take an army of volunteers to take them all. And there's no way we can convince over three thousand ponies to just take on a curse like that!"
Suddenly, a low rumbling shook the castle. Noises could be heard from outside, almost like a stampede, and it resonated in the meeting room to reach the ears of those present. "Do you hear that? We should go investigate, quickly! I don't like putting a critical meeting on hold, but this seems like a more immediate threat!" Celestia and her fellow princesses rushed outside into the castle courtyard, still holding their copies of the cursed paper, and heard something big approaching the gates. They could hear a chanting, first distant and incomprehensible, but at it approached it grew in volume, louder and louder, until it reached the castle gates.
"Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Fun! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papel! Papers! Papers! Papers! Papers!" The gates held for all of three seconds before a flood of Pinkie Pies collapsed the entrance and some of the castle walls under their collective weight, each chanting 'Papers' over and over. They each swarmed anypony they could find holding a cursed paper or two, tearing it away before moving on to the next like a swarm of locusts. Within a minute they swept the courtyard, princesses included, and within ten more the castle was curse-free. Onward they charged into Canterlot, ready to wipe the gullible ponies' self-inflicted panic right from their hooves. Nick and the real pinkie, identifiable by a new scarf and Gummy in her mane blinking absentmindedly, walked up to the royals.
"We fixed your problem Sparky. You deal with the mirror pool clones, I didn't have time to think of how to fix that side effect."
"Nicholas! Pinkie!" Luna nearly cheered their names in joy. "We are so pleased that thou hast solved the issue of collecting the cursed papers! Thou shall be awarded medals and be called heroes, and we shall commission a window in thine honor as well!"
"Luna is right. You two have handled this crisis quite well, once we get all the other Pinkies taken care of," Celestia chimed in. "Just be sure we do not lose track of the real Pinkie, although I assume that's what Gummy is doing, so as long as we make sure he knows who his owner is we should be fine."
"You two saved the day!" Twilight exclaimed.
Pinkie tried to interrupt. "But it wasn't a real cur-" a human nudged her in the ribs to stop her talking.
"Thanks Luna, we'll take it!"