The ponies of Ponyville gathered where Pinkie Pie's mystery box had exploded, stunned silent by what they saw. After their disorientation cleared, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Spike, Apple Bloom, and Twilight stared in awe.
"No hoofing way," Rainbow Dash muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. "How did she do this?"
"Dad gum..." Applejack and Apple Bloom mumbled in unison.
"This is... impossible. Scientifically impossible!" Twilight glared at the aftermath, its very existence contrary to everything she knew about science.
"It's like the size of building..." Scootaloo whispered as she and Rarity slowly approached from behind the group.
"Either my eyes have committed a grand mistake," began Zecora as she arrived at the scene, "or standing before me is a most enormous cake."
"Giant cake!" shouted Snips and Snails, rushing over to it and chowing down on a wall of moist, white-iced goodness.
Many of the speechless onlookers watched the two colts gleefully gorge themselves, but Pinkie was already rushing toward the cake, shouting, "Not good! Not good! Where did she go?!" Pinkie nibbled at the tip of her hoof as she searched frantically for any sign of Diamond Tiara.
"Don't worry! I'm coming in after you!"
Like a Diamond Dog burrowing through dirt and rock, Pinkie began to excavate, digging a tunnel into the side of the colossal cake.
With many intrigued eyes (and a good number of hungry ones) among them, the ponies of Ponyville surrounded the cake, marveling at its sheer size. Not a single look of hostility was directed at Applejack or Rainbow Dash.
"Even in light of all the absurd things Pinkie Pie has done in the past," Rarity said, eyeing the mountainous cake with admiration, "this undoubtedly takes... well, the cake."
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo snickered at this. Twilight teleported over to the nearest wall (that hadn't been attacked by Snips and Snails) and scraped a dollop of icing away with her hoof.
She "analyzed" it with a lick and a smack of the lips, saying to herself, "The flavor is consistent with other cakes baked by Pinkie." She scrutinized the nick in the surface, asking, "But how did she manage to create such a huge cake?"
From the peak of the cake exploded Pinkie Pie, the sputtering Diamond Tiara held aloft in her hooves.
"She's alive!" declared Pinkie, spinning the filly around and hugging her tightly. "Oh, thank Celestia you're alive!"
Diamond Tiara hissed and thrashed when she was hugged by Pinkie Pie.
"Let me go!" she commanded, managing to wriggle out of Pinkie's grasp, dropping into the tunnel Pinkie had dug.
She quickly exited the tunnel, only to be swarmed by the crowds that had gathered, Silver Spoon at the forefront.
"Hold it right there," Silver Spoon commanded, glaring coldly at Diamond Tiara. "No escaping this time."
"Psha!" Diamond Tiara shouted, even though she looked reasonably frightened by all the attention directed at her. "You can't make me stay!"
"I'd say this cake is quite the phenomenon," began the unicorn who had headed the now disbanded mob. "Perhaps this is the sorcerous doing of Applejack and Rainbow Dash?"
"You again?" Diamond Tiara asked, scowling at the unicorn. "Weren't you supposed to capture those two and their runty apprentice?"
He shrugged, saying, "I did. Yet they escaped." He smirked at Diamond Tiara, saying, "It's rather odd, really."
"What are you babbling on about?" Diamond Tiara snapped.
"Those two colts," he nodded to Snips and Snails, "seem perfectly fine now. Yet those who supposedly afflicted them with terrible curses are here. I don't see them cowering in fear of the 'witches.' Do you?"
Diamond Tiara sneered at the colts in question, who were blissfully chomping away at their wall of cake, arguing, "They're obviously under a spell! Why else would they be acting like this?"
"Maybe because they're colts?" suggested Spike after weaving his way through the crowds.
"Precisely," agreed the stallion, studying the two of them with an amused smile. "Not to mention the fact that not a trace of their 'injuries' remain. It's almost as if they were never hurt in the first place."
"Ha!" Diamond Tiara shouted, tossing her head. "Whose to say Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn't just patch up the dolls? That would make it look like they never got hurt in the first place!"
"So very untrue," scolded Zecora, "are your claims of voodoo! The damage done to ponies cannot be reversed by repairing the sinister dolls that have been cursed."
Diamond Tiara laughed, pointing at Zecora as she looked at the stallion she was arguing with, hissing, "Are you gonna believe the zebra? How can you? She's crazy!"
Zecora tossed her head with a harrumph, Spike taking up the defensive as he shouted, "If you don't believe Zecora, then ask Snips and Snails themselves!" He pointed to them, asking, "Were you really cursed by Rainbow Dash and Applejack?"
Snips halted his eating, stepping away from the cake to answer, "Nope. Not at all."
Snails did the same, saying, "Diamond Tiawa paid us to fake it so she could get Scootawoo in twouble." The two of them continued feasting on the cake.
Diamond Tiara gasped, then growled at the two, "You traitors! How could you turn on me like this?"
"You bought their loyalty. I paid more for it," Spike said smugly, Diamond Tiara angrily hopping and landing by stomping all four hooves.
"Your incriminating proof isn't so incriminating anymore," observed the unicorn stallion, nodding to the colts. "Perhaps, just perhaps, you lied to the good citizens of Ponyville."
"No way!" Diamond Tiara retorted, looking taken aback. "They're witches! Witches I tell you!"
"No they're not," Silver Spoon responded, firm and glowering.
"Silver Spoon?" Diamond Tiara asked, now sounding genuinely despairing. "You're actually siding with them?!"
"Diamond Tiara made it all up to attack this pegasus here," she said, putting a hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder. "Applejack and Rainbow Dash are not, and have never been, affiliates of Discord or practitioners of evil sorcery. No matter what Diamond Tiara would have you believe." Diamond Tiara stared at Silver Spoon, a shocked expression frozen on her face.
"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Carrot Top, forcing her way to where Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood, shamefully hanging her head as she stood before them. "I-I had no idea! Mr. Justice was just so engaged in tracking you down, and—"
"Who?" asked the two in unison.
"Resolute Justice..." Carrot Top mumbled, scratching at her neck. "The unicorn who rallied the witch hunters. Heh... I guess we all got a bit carried away. He was so passionate about the whole pursuit, so I guess we all lost ourselves when we started going after you."
"He was so convincing!" Sleek added, popping up out of the crowd. "Now I feel so bad about the whole thing. Can you find it in your hearts to forgive us?"
Before Applejack had a chance to get a word in, Rainbow Dash demanded, "Let's see this 'Resolute Justice' chump! I want to strike the fear of Celestia into him before we let any of this go!"
"Rainbow Dash!" scolded Applejack, sneering at her. She quickly turned back to the members of the disbanded mob, adding with an embarrassed chuckle, "What she meant t' say was that we would care t' meet with this stallion face t' face."
"No, no," Resolute began, slowly making his way over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "I behaved monstrously in pursuit of you and the young Scootaloo. I so zealously sought you out on only the word of a vile youth." He glared at Diamond Tiara for a moment, the filly still staring disbelievingly at Silver Spoon, then continued, "For that, I am sorry. I was short-sighted, violent, and inequine; you need not forgive me for anything."
"Darn straight!" Rainbow Dash declared as she went airborne, smashing her hooves together and rubbing them against one another as she scowled at Resolute. "Let's see how you like it when somepony crushes your lungs!"
"Don't you dare!" Applejack plucked Rainbow Dash out of the air before she could lunge at him. "He was just doin' what he thought was right. It ain't 'is fault he didn't know we was innocent!"
"That doesn't change the fact that he strangled me!" Rainbow Dash argued, struggling against Applejack's hold. "I nearly suffocated because of him!"
"I swear, my intentions were never lethal!" Resolute pleaded, directing dire expression at Rainbow Dash. "I would never execute a prisoner. Ever."
Rainbow Dash huffed and glared at Resolute for a long moment, but she calmed herself, sighing as she said, "Fine."
"Fine?" Resolute asked, confused. "What's fine? Am I forgiven?"
"Just stay on my good side!" Rainbow Dash snapped, Resolute nodding appreciatively in response.
"So... none of it was true?" Sleek asked, puzzled. "Not a word from that filly was true?" Applejack and Rainbow Dash exchanged glances, then looked to Spike, who stared at them firmly. With a sigh, Applejack stepped forward.
"Now, ah know ya'll have been hearin' some pretty crazy things about us," she began, taking off her hat and holding it to her chest. "Ah don't what of it is true and what's false. But ah will tell ya that ah ain't 'shamed o' nothin'!" She scowled at the crowd, only a small few laughing at this. "Ah know what we been doin' might sound different. Heck, it might sound weird. But ah ain't lettin' yer gigglin', yer hootin' and hollerin', or yer name callin' get t' me anymore. Ah stand by mah choices." She nodded, her stern scowl retained as a few members of the crowd murmured quietly, many of them only nodding their approval.
"Just to be clear, you're not witches, right?" asked Twist from out of nowhere.
Rainbow Dash stepped up to answer, saying, "We did have dolls. That much is true. They weren't voodoo dolls, though."
"Oh, okay," Twist responded.
"What were you doing with them, anyway?" asked a random pony from within the crowd.
"Well, we were... what do you call it?" Rainbow Dash scratched at her cheek in thought.
"I believe it's formally known as role playing," Silver Spoon said, all eyes turning to her. "I would know. I'm interested in it, too."
"Yeah. 'Role playing.' That's it." Rainbow Dash said with a nod.
"Isn't that something little fillies would normally do?" asked a different pony. "Make believe with plastic figurines?"
"Technically, yes." Applejack said, replacing her hat with a smile. "Ah just don't see what's wrong with us doin' it now."
"I guess there really is nothing wrong with it." Carrot Top admitted apologetically. "We, the ponies of Ponyville, had no right to harass you like we did."
"Oh, ain't no harm done." Applejack said. Rainbow Dash stepped forward, about to argue against this, only for Applejack to a throw a hoof in front of her mouth and add, "No harm whatsoever."
"Hey everypony!" shouted Pinkie Pie, who had somehow escaped the cake and was now towing a long line of little red wagons tied together to form a train, each wagon filled with plates. "Who's up for a little breakfast cake?"
With great excitement, the crowds swarmed Pinkie and her train of plates as she made her way over to a corner of the cake, already busying herself with serving slice after slice to everypony in line.
Spike yawned deeply, grinning at the sight as he rubbed at an eye. Tiredly, he said, "Well, all's well that ends well. Always nice to have a happy ending."
Rarity giggled, ruffling his spines and saying, "Indeed it is. Care for some cake?"
"You bet! Cake for breakfast sounds awesome!"
Spike and Rarity began for the line, both laughing merrily.
Fluttershy smiled at the two of them, asking the two fillies at her side, "How about you two? Are you going to have any cake?"
"No thanks. Ah think ah'm good," Apple Bloom answered with a grin and a shake of the head.
"I would," said Scootaloo, scanning the area with an upraised eyebrow, "but I'm more interested in finding that Resolute Justice guy. He owes me a rematch."
Fluttershy shook her head, chuckling. "Don't get into any trouble now."
"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo said with a roll of the eyes. Fluttershy ruffled her mane, then began for the serving line as well. Scootaloo chuckled, asking Apple Bloom, "Did you see where he went?"
Apple Bloom shrugged, about to answer "no" when Silver Spoon asked, "Has anypony seen Diamond Tiara? I have no idea where she went."
The two of them shook their heads, Silver Spoon groaning with frustration, "Great. Where did she go?"
"Last I saw the dastardly filly," said Zecora, trotting past the group toward the cake line, "she was making haste toward the Everfree."
"Why would she be going there?" Scootaloo asked, giving Silver Spoon a perplexed look.
"She's probably mortified that her little scheme got destroyed," Silver Spoon answered, sounding perturbed as she folded her ears, scowling as she turned and began to trot away. "I better go find her before she gets eaten by anything with a craving for something bitter."
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watched her go, then a familiar voice said behind them, "Hello, friends."
Eyes wide, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo spun around to face Sweetie Belle, who didn't look nearly as happy to see them as they were to see her.
"Sweetie Belle!" shouted the two as they encircled her in a hug, which she almost seemed to resist. Pulling away, Apple Bloom said, "Ah thought ya was sick with The Trots."
"Uh..." Sweetie put a hoof to her mouth, forcing a cough. "I was, and now I'm better. Yes." With a blank expression, her eyes darted from Apple Bloom to Scootaloo and back several times as she added, "Yes indeed. Say, do you know where Diamond Tiara has gone?"
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both seemed off put by such a random question and Sweetie's lack of emotion, but Scootaloo answered all the same, "She was headed toward the Everfree Forest."
"Perfect," mused Sweetie with a dastardly grin, which she quickly wiped away, hastily adding, "I-I mean... I see. I need to have a word with her right away." Sweetie nodded to Scootaloo, then went around the two fillies, calmly proceeding in the direction of the Everfree.
Baffled, Scootaloo asked, "What's gotten into her?"
"Ah have no idea," Apple Bloom said with a slow shake of the head.
"Let's go see what she needs Diamond Tiara for. That might explain why she's acting so weird," Scootaloo reasoned, taking off after Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom was about to follow behind, but something out of the corner of her eye stopped her. She froze, then looked to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were silently conversing with one another. She watched them for a moment, then saw Rainbow Dash nuzzle Applejack. It was not a friendly nuzzle, but rather an affectionate one. Applejack sighed, laughing quietly, then gently pushed Rainbow Dash away, beginning for the cake line.
"Hey, Apple Bloom," Applejack said as she passed by her sister, Rainbow Dash not far behind.
Apple Bloom blinked, studying Applejack with disbelieving eyes as she breathed, "What in tarnation..."
"Apple Bloom!" called Scootaloo, beckoning Apple Bloom over to her. Apple Bloom looked to her in confusion, then shook her head, breaking into a gallop to catch up with her friend.