"Are you sure it will work?" Duskshine asked Celestia as he in his friends stood inside town hall.
"Yes." The princess responded. "It took me six months, but I do believe I found a way to revert you to your original form."
"Great!" Duskshine exclaimed. "Wow... I can't believe it's been six months... But let's not live in the past! Let's do this!"
"Alright." Celestia stood up. "Position yourselves around this circle that I have drawn along the ground." They looked down at the circle, which had a hexagon drawn inside as well as a few other shapes.
As they complied to what the princess said, Duskshine asked, "So, what kind of magic is this?"
Celestia replied, "It isn't." Duskshine looked confused, so the princess elaborated. "The way to change you back is far beyond that of my magic power. So, I found that I had to resort to something much more powerful: A science known as Alchemy. I had heard of this science previously, but it is far to dangerous to be used such as we use magic in our everyday lives, so I hid it like a secret."
"But, why is it so dangerous?" Duskshine asked.
Celestia answered. "In order to obtain something, something of equal value must be lost. That is the first law of Alchemy, the Law of Equivalent Exchange. As I'm sure you can well understand, if one were to use Alchemy to obtain too much, the result could be fatal... one could even lose his or her soul. But do not fear. What I have for you today should work fine. A gender for a gender. I believe that that is a fair enough exchange. There should be no danger there."
"If you say so..." Duskshine replied nervously. Without further interruptions, the princess touched her horn to the edge of the circle and it sent a bright beam of light to the sky. When the light faded, the Alchemy transmutation was successful, but only slightly. While Rainbow Blitz, Butterscotch and Applejack had returned to their mare bodies, Duskshine, Bubble Berry and Elusive had not.
Duskshine had examined his body and frowned. "But... I don't understand... we're still colts..."
Celestia smiled. "Don't fret my student. Even after I found the solution in Alchemy, I was still unsure as to whether it would work successfully. I was not willing to lose six lives if it had gone awry. And, actually, since I was studying a cure for your... condition, I didn't get to study how your bodies worked due to the sudden gender change. So, I would like to do just that, if that's okay with you three."
"Sure." Duskshine nodded.
"I don't see why not!" Berry smiled.
"Fine." Elusive poshly said.
The Alicorn princess smiled. "Thank you, my students. Now, I must ask that you take your leave. I have important matters to attend to. Oh, and one more thing. For you that had remain colts, I must ask that you use your colt names that were discovered by the Doctor." They all nodded and acquiesced as they headed out.
As they walked through Ponyville, Bubble Berry exclaimed, "Let's throw a party to celebrate you guys getting your bodies back! I say we should have it at Duskshine's library! Oh wait... I left my supply of balloons at town hall... Be right back!" Before any of the ponies could protest, Berry sped off to town hall.
As he reached the threshold of the building, he started opening the door, but he heard voices, so he cracked slightly so he could listen in.
"HAHAHA!" That was Celestia. Berry had never heard her cackle like that before. "Luna... This world will finally be ours..."
"But princess," Berry couldn't quite see who was speaking due to not opening the door wide enough, but he didn't dare open it further. "you already have Equestria! How much more could you possibly need? On top of that, Luna, the REAL Luna, wouldn't have wanted this!"
"Quiet! You are either with me, or you are my enemy. That goes for all. I knew keeping those three in their colt bodies was a good idea. They'll make much better soldiers that way."
"Celestia! You have become a tyrant... You have become a monster..." The voice said. "You did the Alchemy wrong, didn't you! That, coupled with the grief of losing Luna, it's driven you to this!"
"SILENCE!" Celestia yelled in a demonic voice. The holder of the voice was thrown across the room and across the crack in the door so that Berry could see who it was. It was a colt that he was unfamiliar with. The colt, now sitting helplessly in the Alchemy circle, had an orange body that resembled a sunset and a mane that was what seemed to be the night sky.
Celestia, now speaking normally, spoke. "I see now that you are against me."
She touched her horn to the circle. The light glowed as it did before, but the colt screamed in agony. When the light faded, he was nothing but dust. Bubble Berry gasped. When he did, Celestia looked to where he had been spying. As her eyes met his, he quickly fled to Duskshine's library.
When he arrived, he breathed, "Celestia... Alchemy... tyrant... dust... and-"
"Woah, woah, woah." Duskshine interrupted. "Take a deep breath." Berry complied. "Now, what happened exactly?"
Tears had started to fall down Berry's eyes as he spoke. "Celestia's a tyrant!"
Duskshine laughed. "Yes. And I'm a Timelord. Are you crazy?" Then, he frowned. "Your serious about this, aren't you? Berry... what did you see?"
Bubble Berry explained all that he saw. In an eccentric manner of course.
When he got to the part about the orange colt, Rainbow Dash interrupted, "Something sounds familiar about that guy... but I can't put my hoof on it."
Berry dismissed that comment and finished his explanation. "I don't want to live in a world ruled by a tyrant, Duskine..."
Duskshine paused. "...Are you absolutely sure?"
Berry replied. "I know what I saw. And I have this feeling. It's different from my Pinkie Sense. This is no mere tail-twitch-and-something-will-fall-from-the-sky. No. This is far worse... We have to stop the princess... Even if it means treating her like an enemy. Maybe I'm crazy...or maybe... it's the madness in me...
"Just one spark... is all it takes. I tried so hard... but all goes up in flames! This is not the way that I thought it would turn out to be. Tried to get but all that I got was more insanity. I broke everything that I touched, it's just gone against me...
"I can’t get away...
"From the fire that burns inside! It's consuming! I fight to stay alive, but I can’t breathe! The voices scream, the enemy takes over everything! This is the madness in me!
"Just one chance... is all it takes. I can’t change the past, but I can fight to change today! This is not the way that I thought it would turn out to be... Tried to get, but all that I got was more insanity. I broke everything that I touched... it's just gone against me...
"I've got to get away...
"From the fire that burns inside! It's consuming! I fight to stay alive, but I can’t breathe! The voices scream, the enemy takes over everything! This is the madness in me!
"Just one spark... It’s all it takes...
"From the fire that burns inside! It's consuming! I fight to stay alive, but I can’t breathe! The voices scream, the enemy takes over everything! This is the madness in me!
"The madness in me..."
As Berry finished, the room got dark and a bodiless voice spoke. "He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins..."
Duskshine shouted. "What? What rebellion? Who's 'sins'? Who are you? WHERE are you?"
The voice continued, paying no attention to Duskshine. "He was beaten so we could be whole... He was ripped, so we could be healed."
Duskshine shouted again, "Who was beaten? Who was ripped?"
Again, the voice ignored him and continued. "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own... Yet, the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all."
The room returned to it's normal lighting. Duskshine shouted again. "Who are you? Who is 'him'?" But the voice no longer spoke. Duskshine sighed.