In the sparkling kitchen of a restaurant known to many-a Vanhoover resident as the Four D's, Fruity Punch was carefully stirring together a thick pot full of pasta sauce.
“Time to put this to the test…” the pink unicorn said before bringing the spoon to her lips and taking a quick sip. “Hmmm… I think I’ve got the hang of this recipe, Boss.”
“Well, let’s have a look see.” Drumstick stepped up to her side and also took a quick sip of the sauce. “Very good, Punch. You’re really getting the hang of making a tasty mushroom sauce.”
“Awesome!” the pink mare exclaimed before looking over to another mare working on a different sauce. “Hey, Dolly! Wanna give my sauce a try?”
“Sorry, can’t,” the brown earth pony with a rust colored mane replied. “Let’s just say that due to some stuff, I don’t really have a sense of taste or smell.”
“Then…” Punch gave her a look of utter bafflement. “Then why did you become a chef?”
“Don’t be rude, Punch,” Drumstick chided as she trotted over to Dolly. “Since your sauce is done, could you watch the door for a moment? Powder’s a little swamped from the dinner rush.”
“You got it, Boss!” Punch threw out a salute as she turned off the stove. Just as she arrived at the counter, a pair of ponies entered the restaurant. One was a pegasus stallion that bore the same colors of coat and mane as Clean Cut and his son. Rather surprisingly, the image on his flank was also the image of a winged bucket of fried chicken… something else that Crispy Wings was known for.
“Fruity Punch!” the small blue unicorn filly by the stallion’s side drew her attention downward. “Could you please get Mrs. Drumstick? We need to speak with her urgently.”
“Yeah,” the stallion nervously said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think Mom will be too happy about this.”
Punch was dumbstruck at the sight before her. She found she could only stare in slack jawed silence before she eventually found her voice again.
“Uhh… Boss? I think I might have put some bad mushrooms in the sauce…”
“What are you talking about, Punch?” the plump pegasus mare asked as she trotted out of the kitchen. “I think the sauce was… rather…” Drumstick’s pupils became the size of mites at the sight of the pair before her.
“Uh… Hi, Mom…” the brown pegasus said as he stepped up to her. “So, something weird happened at Wind Whistler’s party…”
After a few minutes, what had happened was explained to Punch and Crispy’s parents.
“I am rather sorry about all this,” Swiftsword said as she stepped in front of her employers. “None of us thought something like this could have happened.”
“It’s okay, Swift,” Clean Cut said before ducking back behind the counter. “This was just some crazy accident.”
“Thank you, sir.” Swift gave a quick bow, accidentally hitting the floor with her snout. “Also, I’m going to have to request some time off until I can get back to normal.”
“Not a problem, Swift.” Drumstick gave her a sympathetic nod and a smile. “You head on home now. Hope this gets cleared up, soon.”
“As do I, ma’am,” Swift replied before heading out the door. Drumstick made sure to keep an eye on the transformed mare until she was out of sight.
“Say, if Swift doesn’t have to work because of this, does this mean I don’t have to go to school tomorrow?” Crispy said with a nervous grin on his face, drawing a chuckle from Clean Cut.
“Oh, ho ho ho, son…” the brown unicorn slung a foreleg over his son’s shoulder. “No.”
“Oh, man…”
***
At the Pretty Petals store, things were getting ready to close up when the bells above the door rang, drawing the attention of the very tall green mare with a ponytail at the counter. What had entered the shop was a little colt that had struggled to push the door open before popping inside.
“D’aww! Aren’t you adorable looking!” the tall and slender earth pony stepped out from behind the counter, trotting over to the foal that she towered over. “I never knew Verdant had a little brother.”
The green foal gave an annoyed sigh as he looked up at her. “I’m not Verdant’s little brother. I’m WHOA!” He was interrupted as the giant of a mare picked him up in her forelegs and held him up to her face.
“Oh, you’re just the cutest little foal ever!” She gushed as the foal glowered at her.
“Beanstalk, I’m Verdant!” the colt with the rather filly-ish voice barked at her. “Now put me down and get Miss Spectacle out here. I need to speak with her right now.”
“What? Verdant?” the giant of a mare tilted her head in confusion. “It can’t be. I’m betting Verdant paid you to dye your coat and—”
“Beans!” the shamrock colored colt barked at her. “Get Miss Spectacle or I’ll tell her about the cactus I caught you ‘watering’.”
The green of her face exploded into crimson as she was taken aback by the foal’s words. “You… You really are Verdant…”
“Yes, I am,” he replied, the annoyance in his tone starting to die as she set him down.
“Alright, I’ll get her.” Beans stood up and started to walk towards the back. “And for the record, my teeth were starting to float and Maua was taking forever. If I hadn’t done that, I would’ve exploded.”
She walked into the back of the shop, where Verdant could vaguely make out a conversation being made.
A moment later, an orange unicorn came out. She was shocked by the sight of her now foal sized employee.
“Wow. Beanstalk wasn’t kidding,” she said to herself as she trotted closer to Verdant. “Did Trixie’s act somehow cause this?”
“No, it was unrelated to her act.” Verdant tried to look as serious as he could, in spite of his short size and high pitched voice. “She should be back soon, provided Barrier’s able to pay her bill.”
“Alright.” Sunflower gave a sigh of relief as she looked down at Verdant. “So, here to tell me you’ll be taking some sick days due to a magical mishap?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded. “Once I’m able to work again, I’ll try to work extra hard.”
“Oh, no need to sweat it, Verdant.” Miss Spectacle chuckled. “I just hope this sorts itself out soon. I'll see you once you’re better. Have a good night.”
“Good night, ma’am,” Verdant replied as he and Spectacle turned away from each other.
Just as she got behind the register, she heard something thud against the floor. Turning to face the entrance, she saw the source of the sound. Verdant was trying to jump up to reach the door’s handle and failing. Sunflower couldn’t help but find the scene to be both cute and funny.
“Oh, for the love of...” Verdant grumbled before moving away from the door. “May I have a little help?”
Spectacle wordlessly replied by lighting her horn and holding the door open for the stallion-turned-colt who then scampered out.
“Thank you!” he called out as he turned the corner and Spectacle released her hold on the door, letting it close with a quiet click.
“Oh, this is gonna be something the girls will love to hear about.” Beanstalk interrupted the quiet moment as she poked her head through the doorway to the back.
“Speaking of things ponies would like to hear about.” Sunflower Spectacle’s kind face became stern as steel as she slowly turned to face her taller employee. “What was that about you ‘watering’ a cactus?”
That night, Beanstalk’s face became all the colors of Hearth’s Warming. Verdant had seen her face go from green to red while Sunflower saw her become white as a ghost.
***
“Well, glad that all went smoothly,” Hat Trick said as he flew above Gem and Forge as they trotted back down the street towards the manor.
“How are you doing up there, Hatty?” Gem looked upwards at the purple pegasus, seeing that he seemed to be struggling to remain airborne.
“Could be better,” he replied before letting out a small huff. “I forgot how tricky it was trying to fly when I was this young.”
“How about you?” Gem looked towards the cobalt colt on her left. “How’s your magic doing?”
“Weaker, but still working,” Forge said as he lit up his horn. “I tried to lift some stuff over at the shop and some of it was too heavy. Still, I can pick up a lot of stuff and set it on fire.”
“Well I wouldn’t set some stuff on fire until you’re back to full strength,” Gem said before running a few steps ahead to push the front gate up.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Forge rolled his eyes as he trotted past Gem. He soon saw Verdant was at the manor’s door, futilely trying to jump up and reach the handle. “Still, seems we got the long end of the stick.”
“I just hope this crap will either wear off or we find a fix for this ASAP.” Hatty said before flying ahead and kicking down on the door handle.
“Thank you!” Verdant said as he pushed the door open and waited before kicking it closed once his housemates were inside.
A moment later, they arrived in the kitchen where Barrier, Windy, Fleet, Daring, Swift and Trixie were waiting around an open box of pizza.
“So Captain,” Hatty said as he flew up into a chair. “Any updates to give?”
“Well for one, Trixie will be staying with us for a while,” Barrier said as he pointed at the unicorn who was merrily munching on a slice. “Also, Verdant, why did you sign a contract that said she could stay here?”
“How was I supposed to know that this would happen?” Verdant replied as he tried to jump onto a chair. He only succeeded when Gem gave him a boost. “I didn’t think we’d be strapped enough to not be able to pay her… Do you think you’ll be able to make a withdrawal from the bank tomorrow?”
“Probably not, but I’ll try anyway.” Barrier picked up another slice with his magic.
“In the meantime, I’ll start going over the book in the morning.” Daring got up from the seat and headed to the fridge. “Hopefully, I should be able to find the counterspell without too much hassle.”
“Wind Whistler,” Fleetfeather said as her daughter tried to stuff an entire slice in her mouth. “I was thinking you don’t have to go to school if you don’t want to.”
After a large swallow, Windy wiped the sauce from her lips. “Thanks, but I think I should go anyway. I figure my friends will be going too and it would be kinda fun to show off how I look to the class.”
“Well, it’s your call, dear,” Fleet said as she gave Windy’s side a pat.
“At any rate, if we don’t find a solution in the book, I’ll send a letter to the princesses and see if they can help us out,” Barrier said before taking a swig of apple juice, desperately wishing it was hard cider that could help chase his headache away.
Trixie chuckled as she leaned back in her seat. “The princesses? Really? Why would the princesses go out of their way to assist a rag-tag group of ponies turned into foals half a country away?”
“I was a guard back when Nightmare Moon returned. I have a couple of favors because of it.” Barrier shot the smug unicorn a glare that was ignored as she bit into another slice of pizza. “I also assisted with the liberation of the Crystal Empire.”
“Outlandish as it is, it’s true,” Fleet interjected. “I lost my eye fighting Sombra and Verdant’s back was scarred.”
“I even shot him in the face with an exploding arrow.” Verdant tried to stand proudly but failed, his chin barely reaching over the edge of the table.
“Right…” Trixie rolled her eyes in response. “And Trixie once defeated an Ursa Major.”
Verdant grumbled in response to her dismission while Swift levitated a slice of pizza towards him.
“Uncle.” Windy looked down at the charcoal colt. “Since it’s still early in the night and my birthday, think you can help me set up the projector so I can watch the movie Swiftsword got me?”
“I don’t see any harm in that.” Barrier shrugged. Just before he could take another bite of his pizza, he felt somepony biting onto the scruff of his neck and picking him up like a kitten. “Whoa! Wind Whistler, cut that out!”
“Nope,” she chuckled before flying over the table and taking him into the living room. “I’m gonna enjoy being the biggest pony here for as long as I can.”
“Fleet, Yearling, do something!” Barrier shouted towards the kitchen.
“I’m on it!” Daring replied and ran out of the kitchen. To Barrier’s surprise, she didn’t head for the living room, but up the stairs.
Fleet soon entered the room as Wind Whistler pushed the projector into place. With that done, she quickly set up the screen and picked up her canister.
“Well?” Barrier gave the cyclopean mare a raised eyebrow as Windy trotted them back towards the machine. “You going to do something?”
Fleetfeather bit down on her lip before she burst into a fit of giggles at the sight of the pair. She collapsed to the floor just as Daring arrived, carrying her camera.
“Alright, smile and say cheese!” Daring said as she held the camera to her face.
“Cheese!” Windy smiled without letting go of Barrier, who was giving Daring the flattest look he could possibly muster.
Right. It’s official. This is her revenge.