The Great Switcheroo

by JimmyZD


Conclusion

"I really don't get it, Angel," the bewildered butter-colored pony said to her fluffy companion, as they wheeled the trolley and dress back into Rarity's studio.

"Why... or how did Rarity like the dress? I'm no fashionista, and even I can tell that nopony, least of all Twilight, would be seen dead in it!"

The rabbit was flummoxed too, but not as to why the awful dress he and Fluttershy were standing before had gone down without a hitch - in his tiny little bunny rabbit mind, he was rebelling. It defied all reason and logic how he had still not been fed since breakfast. It was by now well past his lunch-time, and the gourmet cookbook that Fluttershy kept had been singing sweet, sugary serenades to him from the other half of Ponyville. His stomach issued yet another verbal complaint.

Fluttershy turned back towards the abominable embroidery standing on the trolley. "Well, I suppose I'd better try and finish this thing. At least Rarity told me I was on the right lines. Oh, I just hope Twilight doesn't completely loathe it."

Angel grimaced at the prospect of being locked in this wretched studio with the overburdened pegasus any longer. Now motivated only by his hunger, his anger towards his oblivious caregiver reached a boil, and he leapt atop her head.

"Oh, Angel, I'm sorry but I really have to-"

Before she could explain herself, Fluttershy found herself shrieking in the pain she was gripped by as the rebellious rodent sank his incisors into her streaky pink mane, yanking hard at the collection of hairs in his jaws.

"ANGEL! I— OW! I'M NOT— EEK— COTTON CANDY! WE'VE— OWCH! BEEN THROUGH THIS!"

Angel was indifferent to this, however, and simply continued tugging ravenously at the pegasus's mane. She ran about the studio desperately trying to shake herself free of her passenger, who simply dug his claws into her coat in order to cement himself to his perch. By now Fluttershy was fighting back tears as the pain raised itself to new heights.

"ANGEL, PLEASE...!"

Her formerly silky smooth mane was becoming disheveled and ravaged with bite marks. She kicked and shrieked as the rabbit made his way down her back, pulling harder as he did so.

In the midst of her agony, something fierce flickered in Fluttershy's eye, and in a brief moment of twisted inspiration, she found herself now perfectly aware of how to contend with the pernicious pet rabbit that was now perched on her hindquarters.

Suddenly throwing her forelegs up in the air, she allowed gravity to take the reins as she fell backwards and very deliberately crashed onto the studio floor onto her rump.

By this point the yanking had completely stopped - so too had the painful claw-digging. Smirking, she got up from the floor and observed a dizzied and very flat-looking Angel on the floor. She ran a hoof proudly through her ruined mane and nursed the claw marks adorning the bridge of her back.

Then with the hot, fiery fury of a thousand exploding suns, she yelled: "YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE HUTCH-RAT!"

Angel, in his comically-flattened state, could only stare up at this outburst and thank Celestia that his vision was sufficiently blurred to spare him from the full horror that was Fluttershy's wrathful, unblinking face.

"NO-ONE TREATS ME LIKE THAT. NO-ONE. Now I understand that you're HUNGRY, but you don't get FOOD by being VIOLENT. I'm rather BUSY right now because I have a FRIEND IN NEED, and I DON'T have time to waste on BIG JERKS trying to PULL ME AWAY from that!"

The agitated pegasus peeled the stunned rabbit off of the floor, punted him out of the studio door with a quick kick of a foreleg, and relished in the clatter of his painful-sounding descent of the stairs.

Still frowning, Fluttershy exhaled deeply and shut her eyes for a few seconds. Despite her attempt to calm down, her anger with the audacious rabbit did not subside, for her body was still stinging with pain - in fact, a sense of relief washed over her, as she realized that she'd just done exactly what she'd needed to do for quite a while now. She reflected on how it wasn't normally within her nature to bring deliberate harm to an animal, but the little whelp had really been asking for it.

"You'll apologize to him later. Right now, focus on what's actually important," she said to herself through gritting teeth.

Closing and locking the studio door, Fluttershy brushed a few errant bangs of chewed-up mane out of her face, returned to the lockstitch, and very angrily recommenced sewing.


"Twilight! I found it!" cried the baby dragon triumphantly. "Fantastically Fast Failsafes for Undoing Unfortunate Upsets!" He'd no sooner finished speaking than he found himself enveloped in a cocoon of magenta magic. "Whoooa!"

Spike was catapulted by a certain telekinetic force from his perch on the stepladder onto the floor of the treehouse, landing facefirst. The tome he'd been holding onto skidded across the room and was swiftly picked up by Twilight.

"OH THANK THE STARS, FINALLY!" she shrieked.

The poor unicorn had run herself ragged in her frantic search for the spellbook in question, and Spike and Rarity had proven to be minimally helpful. With another burst of magic, she thrust the library door open, and strode into Ponyville heroically.

"Ponyville! Despair not!" she shouted grandly to the town. "I'll take care of this!"

She levitated the book in front of her and quickly turned to the page containing the weather-neutralizing spell she was familiar with. But she immediately realized something was off.

She sniffed the air, and the smell of chocolate was still lingering - unusual as that was, however, that wasn't what was wrong. She glanced at the ground and noted how she was treading in a puddle of liquid chocolate - again, strange but to be expected, given the recent environmental anomaly brought about by Pinkie Pie. What felt so wrong?

She brought her muzzle away from the book and noticed that she was receiving some odd looks and the rollings of eyes from the folk of Ponyville as they walked by. Twilight winced under their gazes, and noted the complete lack of panic in the atmosphere and the nonchalant gaits of the Ponyvillians as they trotted about their daily business... as well as the presence of Celestia's sun high in the completely cloudless sky.

She looked at the book, and noticed that she'd expected it to look at least a bit wet by now.

For a moment her brain couldn't process how everything was so normal.

"I... but... what happened?!" she squealed in frustration.

"The chocolate storm's gone, Twilight," replied Spike as he joined her outside on what was now a warm and perfectly regular summer's afternoon.

"Gone?!" cried Twilight. "But... where'd it go?"

"Well, the clouds ran out of chocolate rain, darling," called out Rarity from her place on the couch. "That's how clouds work."

Spike, with his incredibly acute reptilian sense of hearing, could swear he heard the shrill sound of a boiling kettle coming from within Twilight's head. The distressed mare's face began to turn from purple to a hot shade of crimson.

"Twilight? You okay?" the baby dragon dared to ask.

"UUUGGGHHH!!!" screamed Twilight in a fit of anxious frustration. This action caused her to lose her telekinetic grip on the spellbook, and her outward burst of rage had sent it flying through the air. Twilight's and Spike's eyes followed the tome, helplessly watching as it seemed to descend in super slow-motion towards the ground.

*SPLASH*

Right into a puddle of chocolate.

Spread-side down.

"SWEET CELESTIA'S TUSH!"

Twilight promptly covered her mouth in shock at her own outburst of profanity.

Spike, too, blushed, but merely mumbled, "...maybe you shoulda spread some butter on the covers."


In a certain top-secret clubhouse just on the outskirts of the village, the rain that had fallen had already thoroughly drenched the wooden planks it was built from, and had filled the interior with a smell that could only be described as "wet wood soaked in chocolate" - musty and unpleasant, but still oddly tantalising.

It was in this damp wooden house that three fillies now sat miserably on their haunches.

"So much fer our alchemy cutie marks," mumbled Apple Bloom.

"Ohhh, I don't even care that our stupid experiment didn't get us cutie marks," groaned Sweetie Belle. "It's ruined everypony's lives!"

Scootaloo merely stared down at the piece of paper that they had been drawing on for the last ten minutes, a crayon still in her downturned mouth. On the sheet was a simple circle diagram of Ponyville's main landmarks - Sweet Apple Acres had been drawn at the top, with an arrow labelled "Applejack" pointing to a drawing of Fluttershy's cottage, then one indicating Fluttershy's transition to the Carousel Boutique, then Rarity's to the library, Twilight's to Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie's to the weather factory above the village, and Rainbow Dash's back to Sweet Apple Acres, completing the absurd six-pointed cycle of tragedy.

"Ya got that right," the forlorn pegasus filly said, letting the crayon droop out of her mouth and fall against the wooden floor of the clubhouse.

"Okay, guys. I can't take it anymore," Sweetie Belle sighed. "We really need to own up to my sister. Tell her the whole story. Tell her we're sorry and that nothing like this will ever happen again, we Pinkie-Pie-swear."

"No, Sweetie! We can't! We're in it too deep!" yelped Apple Bloom, dreading what her sister would have to say once Rarity forwarded the cause of it all to Applejack, who, it just struck her, was presently getting mauled by a bear for all she knew. "D'ya know how much trouble we'd get in?"

"We can still play it safe. This might all blow over sooner or later!" added Scootaloo firmly, though with some degree of uncertainty.

"We've been waiting for it to blow over too long! It's just blown up! Like the pig!" yelled Sweetie Belle. "My sister has gone coo-coo, Applejack's been beaten up by a bear, Rainbow Dash has ruined Sweet Apple Orchard, Twilight's been terrorized by the twins, Pinkie Pie's been causing coco-flavored clouds, and Fluttershy's been forced to finish a frazzled dress! We can help set things right, instead of just letting them get even worse!"

"But what could we possibly gain fr'm this?" asked Apple Bloom with a frown.

"It's not about gain! It's not about cutie marks! It's about doing what's right!"

"Your sister raised you to be a real doormat, y'know, Sweetie?" chided Scootaloo.

"Oh yeah? Well you're... incorrigible!" huffed Sweetie Belle, promptly marching out of the clubhouse while Scootaloo just stared at her.

"...I stand corrected. She's definitely a dictionary, not a doormat," she said to Apple Bloom, shaking her head.

"I'm going to the library to set things right! You're welcome to join me if you want!" the unicorn filly called out indignantly before disappearing down the clubhouse stepladder.

Apple Bloom looked at her pegasus friend as they both weighed Sweetie's words. "Ah'm goin' too," she decided eventually. "Come on, Scoots! If we hurry, it'll jus' be Twahlight and Rarity on their own! ...Might not be so bad..." she added, smiling sheepishly as her own words failed to convince her.

Scootaloo let out a heavy breath of despair. "I've got a really bad feeling about this."


"Well, hay, maybe if ya hadn't tackled the poor li'l guy, we wouldn't be in this mess right now!"

"Maybe not! But I didn't see you doing much about the situation! You got chased up a tree? Really? You work with trees all day long, I thought you had them figured out!"

"Ah don't usually work with bears, let me remind ya!"

"But you work with cows! They're kinda like... milk bears."

"Rainbow, d'you realize exactly what yer sayin'?"

"Look, let's change the subject. Twilight wanted to see us all, and you and Pinkie Pie are the only ones she hasn't yet."

"All'a us? Somethin' to do with the chocolate rain?"

"In a roundabout sorta way, yeah."

Eventually coming to a stop just outside Twilight's library, the two friends came across Spike. He was vigorously waving a book in front of him. "...Do you two have any idea how hard it is to get chocolate milk out of a book? I've been trying to dry this thing out for ages!" he complained. "It's all soaked into the spine and..."

"Spike! How are you getting along with the book?" asked Twilight Sparkle, suddenly opening her front door and nearly stumbling into Rainbow Dash and Applejack. "Oh, sorry, girls. Pardon my nerves - it's just been a bit hectic over here. You know of the chocolate rain, I take it."

"Sure do. Ah've still got the taste in mah mouth," Applejack affirmed, smacking her lips together.

"Speaking of which, this thing isn't gonna get any drier, Twilight," Spike grouched, taking hold of the massive, chocolate-saturated volume of failsafe spells and taking it back into the library.

"Applejack, you and I have much to discuss. Most of it's about Rarity, as it happens."

"Oh, right, Rarity. Ah heard about the fire - how's she holdin' up?"

"Not too good. She's acting a little... well, weird is really the only way I can describe it. You can come in and see for yourself, but please, don't laugh at her, don't make any sudden moves around her, and above all else, do not mention pigs."

"Pigs? Why in tarna—"

"Just... don't. Take my word for it."

"Uhhh... okay, sugarcube. Lead the way."

Twilight turned around to lead her two friends inside, when suddenly Rainbow Dash's ear twitched. She looked towards the sky. "You guys hear that?"

The other two ponies stopped, and looked at each other absently. "Ah can't hear a darn thing, sugarcube. Ah figure you're the one who's most familiar with sounds that come from up there," replied Applejack.

"Yep," said Rainbow Dash, grimacing as the familiarity of the sound started to dawn on her.

"What's the matter, Rainbow? What do you hear?" inquired Twilight.

"It's the sound of things going from 'messed up' to 'super messed up'."

From above them, there suddenly came a shrill scream that got louder as whatever was making it approached at a ludicrous speed. The gathered ponies ducked out of the way just in time to avoid a certain pink pony's flying machine meeting the ground with an almighty crash. Pinkie Pie, thoroughly dizzied and bruised, fell off of the seat of the contraption with all the grace and elegance of a hungover wombat falling out of bed.

"Oh, hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie slurred as she clambered onto her hooves and attempted to steady herself, "and hey to you too, Twilight!"

The unicorn frowned. "There's only one of me, Pinkie."

The pink mare squinted at Twilight, and brought a hoof over one eye as the other continued to stare piercingly.

"Oh, so there is."

All of a sudden Pinkie found herself flung to the ground, straddled by an irate blue pegasus.

"PINKIE! WHAT THE HECK, GIRL?!" Rainbow Dash yelled, pushing her muzzle into Pinkie's face.

"Easy there, Dashie," said Applejack, moving forward in case she had to restrain Rainbow by chomping on her tail.

"Where exactly have you been? What did you do? What happened?" asked Twilight frantically.

"Oh, well it started when Dashie asked me to take care of the weather for her, and I thought 'well I'm an earth pony, so I can't walk on clouds', so I took my Pinkiecopter up for a ride because I haven't used that thing since Gilda trashed it, and I flew up into Cloudsdale and they said 'Are you the pony that will doom us all?' or something, and I said 'Yes!' and one of them made a frowny face but gave me a shiny uniform anyway, and they led me to this giant machine that spits out clouds and I thought, wow wouldn't it be totally awesome if they spat out chocolate, and luckily I had some superjumbo bars on me and it seemed a shame to not eat them, but I threw them in the big machine and *POOF* there were suddenly chocolate clouds, but this kind of got the weather ponies upset and these two meanie-meanpants chased me, and we had a superfuntacular dogfight in a big chocolate raincloud where I did a bunch of barrel rolls and then I made them kiss..."

Twilight had already heard enough. "...PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!"

"...TWILIGHT ELIZABETH SPARKLE!" the peppy pink pony parroted back.

This made Twilight shrink. Before she could retort, Rainbow Dash stepped forward again.

"Pinkie! You had one job! Don't screw up the weather. The admins are gonna have my hide for this! They'll never trust me again! And I'm pretty sure they'll pin up a big picture of you in the office under the caption 'Do Not Admit This Pony.'"

"I didn't screw up the weather!" protested Pinkie. "The weather ponies were shooting water into the sky! I just thought, why not chocolate?"

"Chocolate is not supposed to fall from the sky. That's rain's job. Or hail. Or snow. Or the occasional bird. Not chocolate."

"Chocolate rain is a slightly browner and more delicious rain, but it's still rain," argued Pinkie. "Hey, I didn't mess up the weather schedule. The pegasus ponies wanted rainclouds, so they got rainclouds. Just of a certain flavor."

"But... you..." Rainbow stuttered as she struggled to find flaws in Pinkie's peculiarly sensible logic.

"Pinkie, you did cause a bit of an upset down here," added Twilight. "The ponies thought that Discord had returned."

"Even though we turned him to stone? And he's just sitting in the Canterlot Sculpture Garden?"

"Not all ponies have Pinkie Sense, Pinkie. Please try and remember that."

"Ah figured you wanted to see Pinkie and Ah, Twilight?" inquired Applejack in an attempt to steer the conversation back to sensible ground. Twilight sighed.

"Yes, come on in, you guys. We really have to talk."

Twilight turned back to Pinkie Pie as Rainbow Dash and Applejack trotted into the library. "Rarity's not too good, Pinkie. She probably won't respond well to sudden noises, so you might wanna keep quiet for her."

"'Quiet' is my middle name, Twilight!"

"It's not, Pinkie. It's 'Diane'. Or 'Responsibility'. Or whatever it actually is."

"I'll roll with 'Quiet', if that's what Rarity wants."

Twilight sighed again. "Okay, enough about middle names. I don't know how you even know mine."

Pinkie shrugged smugly. "...I didn't, 'til just now."

Twilight stared open-mouthed at the pink menace, then emitted a painful groan into her hoof. "Pinkie, do not rustle my jimmies. I have had quite enough to deal with today. Now please, come inside."


"Isn't it wonderful, Applejack?" Rarity squealed, squeezing her face into a ridiculous grin.

"Sounds mighty fine," replied Applejack, somewhat sourly as she reflected on the hard time Freddie had given her.

"That we all agreed to do each others' jobs on such short notice!" the couchridden unicorn continued giddily. "It just goes to show how close we all are as friends!"

"I agree, it's such a super fun thing to have done! Even though we... didn't really mean to do it," agreed Pinkie Pie.

"Ah wouldn't exactly call watchin' over those animals 'super fun'," Applejack groused.

"Too bad, AJ. Applebucking the orchard was totally sweet!" squealed Rainbow Dash, kicking her hind hooves into the air enthusiastically as she hovered above the others.

"Yeah, you an' Ah are gonna hafta have a talk about that later," the farm pony snarled.

"And don't even get me started on the Cake twins..." Twilight mused.

"Awww, it's not their fault they're a hoofful and a half!" defended Pinkie, bouncing up and down. "They don't just trust anypony, see. But they trust their Auntie Pinkie, because she knows responsibility!" She said this while absent-mindedly bouncing upon Spike's tail. Twilight grabbed her in mid-bounce with her magic, allowing Spike his tail back, before setting her down again. Pinkie smiled nervously and blushed.

"I think Pinkie's point is that it doesn't really matter how badly it went for all of us," interjected Rarity.

"Not all of us," smirked Rainbow Dash, earning another dangerous frown from Applejack.

"...Not all of us," repeated Rarity. "I'm saying - Pinkie's saying - the thought is what counts."

"I'd really prefer that we weren't in this mess to begin with," sighed Twilight. "If it weren't for the fire, and the Gala, and... everything else! Ugh!"

Pinkie Pie put on a puzzled face. "...There was a fire?"

Twilight let out an exasperated groan and trotted closer to Pinkie, away from Rarity's earshot. "Yes, Pinkie. At Rarity's. A lot of her work was lost - thankfully not the Gala dress that Fluttershy's finishing for me, but her studio was otherwise burnt to a char. Which reminds me that I still haven't found that darn restoration spell!" She started pacing worriedly around the library. "I'm still looking for the spell to bring back that Astronomer's Almanac! Why'd it have to get burnt? Celestia's gonna tear me a new one!"

"Relax, Twi," assured Applejack. "Ah don't think Celestia'll be all that angry with you that one of her books accidentally got burned in a house fire."

"I don't want to take the chance!" replied Twilight, raising her voice again. "The books from the Royal Canterlot Library are precious relics. Burning a book, accident or not, is like... desecrating Celestia's property! It's tantamount to sacrilege! You might as well dragonmail her a big flaming bag of..."

"Okay, we get the picture," interrupted Rainbow Dash, before flying down and laying a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Cool your jets, Twi. If you need help finding this spell, we're all here."

"Well, I guess this shouldn't take an hour if you guys help me look for it, and then you can all return to your work."

"Our... old work, or our new work?" asked Applejack.

Twilight stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, it seems absurd to go back to our new duties, now that we all know what's going on, but I still have to take care of Rarity. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Rainbow, you search high. AJ and Pinkie, you search low. Spike, you're with me. Rarity... you..." she regarded the absurdly-dressed, supposedly-disabled unicorn lounging languidly on her couch, sipping tea, and gave a sigh. "...just do your thing."

Spike approached Twilight with the stepladder, and propped it up against the wall while Applejack and Pinkie began scanning the lower shelves of the library, and Rainbow Dash shot towards the uppermost bookshelves.

"So... what do you think, Twilight? About Rarity?" whispered Spike as he climbed the ladder to examine the higher shelves.

"Honestly, I think it's just a Rarity thing. She'll get over it," Twilight whispered back.

"See, I don't know. She's into some really after-dark stuff."

Twilight's brain did a three-sixty. "...After-dark?"

"Yeah, y'know. Weird. Experimental. Out there."

The lilac unicorn exhaled. "Spike, that's avant-garde. 'After-dark' is something entirely different."

"Wh—"

"When you're older," she said briskly, returning to the search for the book.

"Twilight, it's not up here," called Rainbow Dash from above, having just finished scanning the very top shelves of the library.

"Rainbow, I'm sorry, I wouldn't exactly call that a thorough search. We are looking for a particular spell. Did you actually look inside the books?"

"Well... no. But that'd take forever!"

"Not if we all do the same."

"Look, maybe you don't actually have the book anymore."

"Why wouldn't I have it anymore? Do you think I took it back? Oh wait, I'm the horsefeathering librarian!"

"Yeesh. Alright," Rainbow mumbled, shrinking from Twilight's choice of language. "I'll have another look, but I really think we're wasting our time here. You really need a better filing system."

"What are we looking for again?" asked Pinkie Pie innocently.

"For the dozenth time, we are looking for a restoration spell!" Twilight's patience was virtually down to its last iota.

"What about that book down there?" replied Pinkie, indicating a large, slightly moist and chocolatey-smelling tome lying on the floor of the library beside Rarity's couch.

"I just pulled that book down, for something else," said Twilight, recalling her earlier embarrassment. "It's a spellbook of weather-neutralizing spells and all that kinda stuff. I didn't need it in the end." She glared hotly at Pinkie Pie, as though the pink pony had psychically known how long it had taken her to find the book, and calculated the exact amount of chocolate to spread over Ponyville before she could find it.

"Huh. What's it called?" inquired Pinkie, leaning forward to read the print on the book's cover.

Twilight snorted. "Fantastically Fast Failsafes for—" The dischuffed unicorn stopped mid-sentence, as the little hamster-wheel in her head started spinning the other way.

"—Undoing Unfortunate Upsets," finished Rarity, turning to the frazzled Twilight and regarding her with a look of perfect calm that Twilight could've easily interpreted as unbearable smugness. Her other friends also ceased their searching and turned to her.

"Darling, I think there's a fairly safe bet that the spell you're looking for has been right under your muzzle this whole time."

Twilight snorted again, took hold of the book in a grasp of magic, flipped it open and started flicking through. After a few seconds, she stopped.

Basic Material Restoration
A rightful remedy for the repair, revival, rejuvenation, recovery or restoration of ruined relics

"Fine. Okay, so you were right, Rarity. You win. Happy?"

"Honestly, dear, it's not about winning. I just don't want you to stress yourself out needlessly," the ivory unicorn said, laying back down onto the couch and making no effort to disguise how perfectly at ease she was by comparison.

"Hey! I'm the one who's supposed to be watching over you!" Twilight shouted. "You're supposed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder!"

"Honestly, Twilight, I think I'm fine. You're the one who needs a good mud bath and a massage."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the unicorn sitting on her couch. "Flying pigs."

Rarity shrieked and brought a cushion over her face to hide her terror. Proud at having made her point, Twilight turned to her assistant. "Spike, bring me the Almanac." The baby dragon obeyed her command, and darted off into the kitchen, returning promptly with the ruined Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac.

"Why were you keeping it in the kitchen, Spike?" the unicorn inquired, bemused.

"I draped it over the toaster. It actually makes for a more stable step-stool when I want to reach the cupboard."

Twilight frowned. "Spike, in future, you don't get to use a fine piece of Canterlot literature as a step-stool," she chided, snatching the messy book from her assistant's grasp.

"Sorry, Twi, but... that's basically all it's good for right now. Aside from maybe a doorstop..." He shut up when he received a hoof to the back of the skull. "...Point taken."

Depositing it on the floor before her, Twilight looked at the charcoaly mess of parchment that was once one of the most precious books from the Royal Canterlot Library. It brought a tear to her eye to see such destruction befall a perfectly good piece of academic literature. It was a scholastic catastrophe. A scholastrophe.

"Oh, Celestia, if this doesn't work..." Twilight yelped to herself, charging her horn and reading the directions from the spellbook. It was a complicated process, for in the case of a destroyed book, it was more than just cleaning some ash away - it was essentially a spell for restoring an object to a previous moment in time. Starswirl the Bearded would've been proud of her for even trying this one.

Twilight shut her eyes tightly, not daring to even look upon the tome as she concentrated hard on the complete rfestoration of all 248 of its annihilated pages, mentally arranging the magichlorians building in her horn in such a way to—

In the ensuing five seconds or so, no one was quite sure what exactly happened. First, there was an abrupt slam from the front door, as something burst through with a shout that caused Twilight to jump and inadvertently release her spell, creating a purple stream of magic that bounced around the interior of the library faster than the eye could follow it before it impacted the couch, toppling it and the white unicorn lying on it with a high-pitched scream and a crash.

In the five seconds after that, everyone just looked around, completely and utterly clueless as what had just transpired.

Twilight, horrified at the prospect of her spell having just backfired, became fixated on the ceiling directly above her. "I dare not even think what just happened. Somepony please explain. I am not turning around until then."

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie regarded the scene with extreme puzzlement and concern for the fact that somehow, Twilight's couch was on its back and Rarity was nowhere to be seen. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was standing in the doorway of the library looking a horrible combination of distraught and thoroughly peeved.

"Ah think somepony's here to see you, Twahlight," offered Applejack.

"TWILIGHT, YOUR DRESS. IT'S FINISHED. AND YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE IT!!!"

The frantic pegasus was standing beside a mannequin from Rarity's boutique, which had a positively abysmally-composed dress upon it. Twilight, meanwhile, refused to look anywhere apart from the fascinating construct of cobwebs above her that she was forcing herself to examine.

"Oh... my head..." came a wail from behind the couch.

"Y'okay over there, Rarity?" asked Applejack cautiously.

"Please tell me she's okay," squeaked Twilight, her neck still frozen in place.

"Look, I'm fine, I don't know what you're all so worried about— EEK!!!" Everyone flinched from the scream she emitted. "Oh no! Oh no! My mane!"

"Oh, Celestia, what's happened to your mane now?" cried Rainbow Dash, almost dreading the answer.

"Still not looking," said Twilight in a petrified tone.

"It's... so tacky! It's awful! It's just suddenly turned the most ridiculous shade of indigo! And these curls! Oh my stars! They couldn't possibly be any more pretentious!"

Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie exchanged glances. Fluttershy was staring at the ensemble of confusion before her, wondering why she was being ignored.

"RARITY, THE DRESS IS HERE. AND IT'S PERFECT. NOT EYE-BURNINGLY TERRIBLE. NOT HAPHAZARDLY THROWN TOGETHER AND RUSHED. IT'S. PERFECT."

Applejack regarded the dress sitting on top of the trolley, and whispered to Rainbow Dash. "Ah think she was a bit out of her depth with this one."

"No kidding."

"Oh no, Fluttershy!" cried Rarity, bobbing her head up from behind the couch, revealing her mane and tail in all their previously purple and beautifully-coiffured glory.

Spike walked into the room at this point to see what all the noise was about. His heart almost leapt out of his chest when he saw his divine Rarity back to her usual self again. "Rarity! Your mane's back to normal! Oh, thank Celestia!" he jumped forward and gave his love a joyous hug around the neck.

"Oh please, Spike. I told you I hate it this way!" she replied, pushing the little dragon away. "Why, Fluttershy? Why did you bring it here? I told you to keep it a surprise from Twilight!"

"I haven't actually looked yet, as it happens," said Twilight, very nervously, not daring to look in the direction of the enraged pegasus standing in her doorway. She was half-tempted to check to see if Rarity's mane had indeed returned to normal, but Fluttershy's sudden entrance had left her shaken and she stayed firmly glued to the spot.

"You might wanna keep it that way, Twi," warned Rainbow Dash.

"BUT SHE'LL LOVE IT. IT'S FABULOUS. RARITY SAID SO HERSELF," Fluttershy hyperventilated.

Spike gazed upon the dress that his adoptive sister would apparently be wearing to the Grand Galloping Gala the following weekend. He was by no stretch of the imagination an authority on what was fashionable in a dress, but the... thing that was sitting on top of the trolley before him almost made him feel physically sick. He walked up to Twilight to stage-whisper in her ear.

"Twilight... I really don't think..." was as far as he got before he caught Fluttershy's eye and was met with the dreaded Stare. His mind crumbled beneath Fluttershy's powerful glare, and he froze up perfectly, collapsing to the ground without a sound at his sister's hooves.

"TWILIGHT. LOOK THIS WAY." Fluttershy was breathing heavily through her nose and making everypony present feel very uncomfortable. This was the side of Fluttershy they very rarely saw - a side of not just anger and frustration, but undeniable madness, something they'd not witnessed since last year's Grand Galloping Gala.

"Twilight, please don't! I assure you it's lovely! Take my word for it and don't look for yourself!" Rarity begged.

"TWILIGHT, SO HELP ME..."

"Twilight, don't spoil the surprise!"

"TWILIGHT, I WILL SNAP YOUR NECK."

The unicorn saw no middle path and no means of escape as both sides upped their respective arguments. She looked down at her immobile assistant lying on his side on the floor beside Rarity's couch. "Twilight..." Spike whispered, weakly but firmly, "...do yourself a favor and do exactly what Fluttershy wants."

Twilight turned around.

"Oh, bountiful Celestia..." groaned Rarity, dramatically throwing her face into her hooves.

"What do you think?" inquired Fluttershy, smiling and disturbingly placid all of a sudden.

Twilight looked. Twilight thought. Twilight tried to put those thoughts into words, but somehow couldn't. Her mouth opened and shut repeatedly for a few seconds, during which Fluttershy noticed she wasn't receiving an answer.

"Well?!" she cried, flaring her wings up and letting her frustration seep back into her tone.

"Just say something to Fluttershy, darling, so she can take it back," implored Rarity. "And then forget you ever saw it."

Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash looked expectantly towards Twilight and shot her looks meant to encourage her to do just that, so they could let Fluttershy leave and give herself some kind of aromatic bath to calm down.

Oh how Twilight wished she could erase from her mind the image that stood before her. Unfortunately it was to be a sight that she would need extensive therapy to overcome - an aggravated Fluttershy with murder in her eyes, standing beside a dress that hardly looked fit for one of Discord's bath mats, let alone for a dress to wear to a royal gala.

What had gone wrong here? Fluttershy was supposed to be an expert seamstress. She was certainly knowledgeable on the subject. Perhaps she couldn't properly put her knowledge into practice - after all, making dresses must be hard for a pony without magic, surely. She had seemed a little nervous - terrified, even, of what Rarity might think. Then why had Rarity said the dress was so wonderful when Fluttershy first... came around...?

"Rarity's into some really after-dark, uhh, avant-garde stuff. Weird. Experimental. Out there."

As Spike's voice echoed in her head, she finally connected the dots.

"...It's... nice," she said, smiling as sincerely as she could manage.

There was a brief silence. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash nervously nodded their heads in faux-agreement.

"...And?" pressed Fluttershy.

"It's really nice!" Twilight replied, feigning honesty to the best of her ability. "You've done a... fantastic job, Fluttershy! Oh boy, I can't wait to wear it, I'll look amazing! It's... it's..." She paused as she realized she'd run out adjectives she was genuinely comfortable using. "...Out there all right."

Fluttershy's right eye quaked.

"Pray tell, Twilight... what do you mean, 'out there'?"

At the other end of the room, Pinkie's tail started twitching violently. "Guys...?"

"Well, you know..." Twilight mumbled, breaking out in a sweat.

"No, I don't," interrupted the irate pegasus, marching towards Twilight and staring her down with the full force of Armageddon. "Rarity said it was marvellous, stupendous, magnifique. She did not say it was... 'out there'."

"It's... different!" Twilight stammered, her mouth running dry. "In a good way! The color scheme! The composition! It's..." Her mind was running out of steam. "Umm... avant-garde."

At this, Fluttershy made a very dangerous frown.

"Let's stay calm here, Fluttershy," said Rarity, cowering in relative safety behind the upturned couch. "Let's not do anything... rash..."

"Now, now, sugarcube..." added Applejack, as calmly as ever. "Keep it cool."

"...Yeah, take it easy there, Flutters," added Rainbow Dash nervously, and perhaps redundantly.

Fluttershy gazed ferociously into Twilight's eyes for a very uncomfortable six-and-a-half seconds, during which Pinkie attempted to grab their attention by shaking and stammering uncontrollably. "G-g-g-guys-s-s...?"

"I'm sensing a deeper meaning to your choice of words, Twilight Sparkle. What. Does. AVANT-GARDE. Mean?" she screeched.

All of a sudden Pinkie's hindquarters jiggled furiously, then she leapt up into the air, did a triple backflip, and landed on the library floor splayed out on her back, her hooves wiggling involuntarily in the air.

"Whoa! Never had that one before!"

"Pinkie Pie," growled Twilight. "Jimmies. Rustling. What the heck's gotten into you?"

"That was my Pinkie Sense! It was telling me there's a doozy round the corner!"

"And that doozy is that Twilight's gonna get her block knocked off if she doesn't give me an ANSWER!" screamed Fluttershy, pulling up a forehoof for such a job.

"No, it's even doozier than that! Somepony's about to reveal something a lot of other ponies aren't gonna like hearing!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" inquired Rainbow Dash.

"Umm... hello?"

From behind the gathering of ponies came a very small, very shy voice. All eyes turned to look, and standing in the front door was a trio of fillies.

Apple Bloom stepped forward. "We need to talk to you guys. Urgently." The seriousness in her tiny little voice was enough to draw the full attention of everypony in the room. Except one.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait!" growled Fluttershy. "Now, Twilight..."

"Whoa there, sugarcube," said Applejack, grabbing hold of Fluttershy's tail and pulling her away from—

"NNNYYYARGH!"

Unfortunately Fluttershy's brief spat with her bunny rabbit earlier had left her in a highly self-defensive state, and as soon as the sensation of her hair follicles being tugged at returned, she instinctively let out a primal scream and launched her back legs into the air in a fit of adrenaline, ready to kick Applejack's lights clean out. Luckily, Rainbow Dash saw what was about to happen, swooped down, and scooped up the enraged pegasus in her forelegs.

"Easy, Flutters! Easy!" she shouted as Fluttershy struggled against her grasp. "Calm down! Have some tea!" Twilight had levitated Rarity's tea-cup from the side table, earning a few complaints from the unicorn, and brought it over. Fluttershy reluctantly ceased kicking and screaming, allowing Dash to settle her down, and downed the tea in one hefty swig. Almost instanteously she de-tensed. In fact, the tension evaporated so quickly, she collapsed to the floor on her haunches and squeaked. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me..."

As Applejack and Rainbow Dash comforted the ashamed pegasus, Apple Bloom turned her head back to her two crusading cohorts and whispered to them.

"We seriously couldn't have come at a worse time."

"Come on, everypony, let's stop all this nonsense," said Applejack firmly. "Ah haven't seen mah sister lookin' so glum in a long time. Something's eatin' her, so let's all be supportive and talk it through with her and her lil' friends."

"We have a confession," the filly replied.

"A big one," Scootaloo affirmed, nodding her head forlornly.

"A super big one that we're... very ashamed of," added Sweetie Belle.

"Come on, ya little whippersnappers," said Applejack kindly. "How bad can it be? Ah'm sure we'll understand."

"You're not gunna like it," Apple Bloom said, dreading the conversation that was about to ensue.

"Whether we like it or not, it's good o' you to have the decency to tell us 'bout it. You were raised as an honest Apple," Applejack said proudly. "Now then, what's the gosh-darned trouble?"

Apple Bloom hesitated. "You're... really not gunna—"

"WE STARTED THE FIRE."

Everypony stared at the unicorn filly's sudden outburst. Applejack's eyes widened. Twilight's mouth drooped in shock. Rarity shot up and stood up on the couch like a meerkat. The others just stared.

"Oh, nice goin', Sweetie," moaned Apple Bloom, clocking her forehead with a hoof.

"It... it was an accident!" Scootaloo butted in, trying to save the situation. "We used Twilight's chemistry kit!"

"We borrowed it, made a concoction, and tried it out on one of mah sister's pigs - and turned it into a rocket," Apple Bloom mumbled, not daring to look up at her sister. "We saw it crash into Rarity's place, then we saw a horrible explosion... we dared not go anywhere near it."

"I slept in the clubhouse for the night," continued Sweetie Belle, "and then the next day my sister was here at the library, recovering from the shock of it!"

"We didn't tell anypony that it was all us!" added Scootaloo, her voice breaking up. "It was so terrible! And we couldn't admit it! We saw how bad everything was, but ignoring it and hoping we wouldn't have to own up made it all so much worse!"

"That's th' whole truth. Please forgive us, we're so sorry for what we did," sniffed Apple Bloom.

For a terribly long moment, utter silence fell over the room. The three fillies couldn't bear to look any one of the dumbstruck ponies in the eyes, all choosing to closely examine the oaken floor of the library. In the placid wind of the outside world, a single leaf brushed against the window on the floor above the audience gathered in Twilight's front room, creating a sound that, in the complete and total silence of the library, would have deafened them - if the sudden but fleeting scream that came from the couch at the very same moment hadn't.

The pearl unicorn covered her mouth, as if her impromptu vociferation had been an anti-Celestial slur.

"Geez, Rarity, you wanna give us all a heart attack?" gasped Rainbow Dash, clutching her chest.

Sensing that the Crusaders' confession had perhaps made a slightly more dramatic impact on the sensitive unicorn than on everypony else, Twilight ran to Rarity's side, and lay a hoof gently on her forehead, running it through her beautifully-styled indigo mane. "It's okay, Rarity, it's okay..."

Her efforts to curtail the unicorn's emotion turbulence proved fruitless. Twilight and the others could only watch as Rarity's eyes rolled around in her head, betraying a complete and total meltdown taking place inside her already fragile mind. She mumbled indiscernibly to herself, and made a series of faces that indicated the clash of feelings that was presently short-circuiting her brain. Tearful betrayal, vein-bulging anger, complete confusion, and even a smug pride at having been proven right about the pig.

With all the possible states of mental unrest exhausted, Rarity simply stiffened like a board and collapsed onto the couch.

Twilight gasped. "Rarity?!" She grabbed a firm hold of her friend's shoulders and attempted to shake her back to some form of lucidity. "Rarity, please, say something! Are you all right?"

"~Who's a sexy fish-horse?~" she eventually posed to no-one in particular.

"Huh? Rarity, what are you saying? Are you all right?" questioned Twilight anxiously.

"~I am! Sexy sexy fish-horse...~" Her voice was hazy and absent of any mental deliberation whatsoever. Eventually, there came a look on the debilitated unicorn's face that Twilight recognized as her "idea" face.

"~Oooh, sock suspenders!~"

Twilight was caught off-guard. What on earth were sock suspenders? Why would Rarity even think of them?

"~Suits with cardigans!~"

With this next proclamation, the image that filled Twilight's head, and indeed the other equally confused ponies present, was enough to make them all reel back in horror.

"~Paisley with stripes! Green anoraks with fuzzy collars!~"

Even Twilight, oblivious as she was to the state of modern clothing trends, was now aware of the sheer calamities of fashion that Rarity was now proclaiming. Spike covered his mouth to stifle a gasp. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Her fashion sense has gone critical!" yelled Pinkie Pie. "She's flipped!"

"~Rubber trousers, held down with bicycle clips!~" Rarity continued to slur blissfully.

"Spike! Get a bucket of ice water," cried Twilight, as her assistant obediently sped off to do just that.

"~White socks with plastic sandals!~"

Stepping aside from the scene Rarity was making, Applejack walked up to her little sister and her friends. "Apple Bloom, is what you're telling us the Celestia's-honest truth?"

The filly's ears drooped. "Yup..." she managed in a barely-audible squeak. The trio of guilty-looking youngsters sat forlornly on their haunches, awaiting their judgement. Five sets of eyes descended upon the Cutie Mark Crusaders, each filled with a different flavor of anger.

"I got defenestrated by a couple of toddlers!" snarled Twilight Sparkle, stomping a hoof.

"I got pursued by a pair of pegasususes!" cried Pinkie Pie.

"Ah almost got killed by a bear!" growled Applejack.

"I accidentally destroyed Applejack's orchard!" yelled Rainbow Dash.

"She destroyed mah orchard!"

"I worked my flank to the bone on a... stupid dress!" squeaked Fluttershy, doing her best not to crack again.

"~Platform shoes! Sideways-ironed flared trousers!~" burbled Rarity.

This was too much for Sweetie Belle. "We're SORRY!" she yelped, bravely fighting back an onslaught of tears.

"We really stepped outta line this time," added Scootaloo, moving forward to comfort her fellow crusader with a hug.

"We had no idea we'd do this much damage from one little mistake," Apple Bloom sighed, scratching at the floor ashamedly. "An' it was an accident! We jus' thought we'd try mixin' up a potion to get back at those bullies Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! It was jus'... jus' gonna be a harmless little practical joke!" she stammered, trying not to weep.

"And we did think about telling you guys sooner, but Rarity looked so... unwell because of it," Scootaloo continued. "We thought we'd only make her worse, but..."

"~Clip-on polyester ties!~"

"We don't wanna make it any worser."

While Spike applied a full bucket of water to the broken unicorn's face - serving no change apart from the increased dampness of the couch - the five other ponies saw the genuine look of remorse and self-disappointment in the young fillies. All eyes turned towards Sweetie Belle, who had just been sniffling quietly to herself, but clearly couldn't hold it in much longer.

"BIG SIS! I'M SO SORRYYYY!" she cried, the floodgates in her wide emerald eyes now fully open, allowing her shame and guilt to run freely down her cream-white face. She galloped over to her sister, caught her in a fierce embrace, and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I feel totally responsible for what happened! The fire! The pig! The hole in Applejack's barn! The great big switcheroo that you all went through! It's all my fault!"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other, then at the five standing ponies, all of whom were also exchanging glances, looking humbled by the little unicorn filly's open admission of guilt. Then all eyes turned to Rarity. The unicorn's eyes danced back and forth momentarily, then came to a stop on her distraught little sister.

"...I destroyed so much of your work," Sweetie sniffled. "I put you in this condition. Do whatever you want with me, I'm sure I completely deserve it." She rested her head on her supine sister's chest and sobbed quietly.

Rarity blinked a few times. "Sweetie Belle..." she mumbled emptily.

"Sweetie, your sister might not be entirely okay right now," said Twilight gently. "You might want to come back some time later..."

"I'm okay."

Twilight stepped back in surprise. Spike stopped in his tracks, having just emerged from the kitchen ready to deposit another half-gallon of icy water onto Rarity's face.

"I'm okay. Sweetie..." the unicorn spoke faintly, but her little sister could hear the words were coming from her heart. "I'm... disappointed that you let all this happen, and that you let it drag on by not telling us sooner. However... I'm proud of you for taking the responsibility and admitting to what you did." She nuzzled Sweetie Belle lovingly. "No hard feelings, my dear sister."

Seeing this, Applejack trotted over to her sister and pulled her in for a warm hug. "Apple Bloom... it's good that ya came clean. Ah'm mighty proud o' you, too." She paused momentarily. "But Ah think we're gonna hafta have a little talk about you an' yer little friends borrowin' things offa Twilight in future." The yellow filly simply nodded and returned her sister's cuddle.

At this heartwarming scene, Pinkie Pie promptly broke down into happy tears of her own. "I don't know why I'm feeling these things, but I a-a-am!" she wailed, draping herself over Rainbow Dash's shoulder and sobbing - who returned with a largely apathetic scowl.

Fluttershy's rage had now long since passed. Temperated by the tea and softened by the understanding she was now seeing between her friends and their sisters, she too collapsed into Dash, who simply sighed. "Crybabies..." said the blue pegasus to herself, sniffling a little.

Twilight, meanwhile, was caught in the middle of it all, unsure of what to think or say. Presently, Scootaloo hobbled over to her. "We really have to apologize to you too, Miss Sparkle," she said earnestly. "You're the one whose dress got burnt into flames. You lost something precious, thanks to us."

Twilight made an odd frown of surprise. "My dress got burnt? ...Fluttershy said it survived. That's it over there." She indicated the Frankenstein of fabric in the doorway.

"We saw it ourselves," said Scootaloo. 'She had to start a new one from scratch, but... I think she couldn't quite manage it."

Twilight stared at the filly.

"We're really sorry, Miss Sparkle. We set off a whole chain of events all because we used your chemistry kit. And... didn't properly check the recipe for the potion we wanted to make..."

Twilight Sparkle smiled and leant down to stroke the filly's silky silver mane affectionately. "It's alright, Scootaloo," she reassured. "These things happen. I had all sorts of accidents back in magic kindergarten. Some of them I'm still trying to live down..." Her face twisted oddly as she visibly wrestled with a few unpleasant memories resurfacing, before shaking her head and smiling back at the guilty-looking filly in front of her. "I learned first-hoof that it's vitally important to check you're doing things right before going ahead. Excitement can get the best of you, but being careful, deliberating and working hard will always reward you more than just rushing things... not to mention it'll greatly help avoid terrible accidents."

Scootaloo brought a hoof around Twilight's neck and gave her an apologetic hug. Twilight looked over the filly's shoulder at the dress still standing in the doorway of her house in all its wretched glory.

"I guess I'm going to have to wear that dress, then," she sighed.

"I just wish everything could go back to the way it was," moped Scootaloo. "Before we screwed everything up!"

"I'm afraid it can't. I still have to watch over Rarity," the unicorn muttered. "She's really not in good shape right now, not to mention her sense of fashion has..." Twilight paused as she looked back on the unicorn, noting how her mane and tail were no longer green. "Hey, did that...?" she looked back the filly. "I was just trying to cast a material restoration spell on that book I asked you to get from Rarity's boutique. Do you think... it worked on Rarity's mane?"

"Well, it's not the way it was before... all green and straight," Scootaloo observed.

Twilight thought for a short moment. Her horn illuminated.

"Stay here with the others. I won't be long!" With that, she disappeared in a flash of violet light.

Scootaloo looked to the floor. There was a familiar burnt book lying on it. "Hey, that's..." She looked toward Rarity and Sweetie Belle cuddling on the couch, and then trotted over to Apple Bloom, smiling knowingly.

"Apple Bloom, I think we came at the right time after all. Everything's going to be okay."

"Ya think?"

"I know."


Not even ten minutes later...

"Everypony, I give you..."

Scootaloo banged as fast and hard as she could on the set of the drums she'd placed specially in front of her, creating a noise somewhat similar to a drum roll - if it had been performed by two monkeys having a boxing match inside of the drum.

Everypony recovered from the noise, and smiled eagerly towards the door.

"My Gala dress!"

Twilight brought the trolley forward into the doorway, and the library was filled with the excited shrieks of five awestruck ponies and three flabbergasted little fillies as they beheld a beautifully-crafted dress - a dark but shiny silver ensemble with highlights of azure and violet, bedecked with brilliant purple gems. Twilight's cutie mark sat sewn perfectly in the center of it, in the most wonderfully vivid magenta.

"H...how did...?" Sweetie Belle spluttered.

"It was easy... sorta," said Twilight, smiling. She seemed a little out of breath. "I found the old dress back at the Boutique. I went to restore it to how it was yesterday, before the fire, but I was a little scared to at first, so I cast the restoration spell on bits of the mess that Fluttershy had left. Before I knew it, I'd cast it enough times to clean up the whole studio!" she laughed, mopping her brow.

"Oh, Twilight! It's so beautiful!" Fluttershy squeaked in adoration. "I'm so sorry I couldn't do something like this like I promised I would!" she added, somewhat regretfully. "And I'm sorry for lying to you..."

The unicorn gave a friendly shake of the head. "It's fine, Fluttershy. We all have our limits, and I think over the course of today we were all pushed well over them."

"I gotta admit, that is one swanky-lookin' dress," smirked Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight, you'll look amazing in it!" yelled Pinkie Pie bouncily.

"You an' Rarity are a force to be reckoned with, Twi," commented Applejack.

The three Crusaders gathered in a corner of the room and high-hoofed each other.

A certain unicorn was utterly speechless. Twilight noticed this. "What do you think, Rarity?"

After a beat, and the reality of the situation had had time to sink in, Rarity stated in a very small, incredulous voice, "Twilight, you are the best friend a pony could ask for. You're an absolute miracle-worker."

"This means everypony can go back to their regular chores," proclaimed Twilight proudly, to the cheers of everyone present. "Rarity, I'd still recommend taking it easy for the next few days - after all, you've been through a lot," she added.

Rarity nodded in agreement, and stretching her legs, climbed off the couch. "Honestly, I can't wait to get back to work, but yes, I do think my nerves need the rest."

"Oh, and for some reason this guy followed me back here." In the doorway behind Twilight appeared a stout little pig. It ran into the library and snorted affectionately at Applejack. "He just... appeared. Guess I... unexploded him," the unicorn laughed.

"Haha... well, glad he's okay," laughed Applejack.

Rarity gave a short little scream.


Dear Princess Celestia,

Today, my friends and I learned, in a roundabout way, that we're not cut out for each others' jobs. However, we were willing to help each other out in a time of need and urgency, and that is what friendship is all about. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if your friends disappoint you in the end - as long as they did the best they could, and still remain loyal to you.

Three of your younger subjects have also learned something about friendship, but of far greater value.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle

(PTO)


Dear Princess Celestia,

Today we learned that honesty really is the best policy. If you let your problems build up for too long, they can come back and bite you. Hard. Even if the truth is horrible, and is something you'd rather not anypony else know, sometimes it's best to get it out in the open, before hiding it does any more damage - especially when it comes to owning up to something you've done. Being open and honest, and accepting responsibility for the things you've done, will always reward you with other ponies' trust.

Your loyal crusaders,
Apple Bloom
Sweetie Belle
Scootaloo


...


"Heya, Twahlight!" came a young voice after a knock at the door.

Twilight opened the library door, the brilliant Sunday morning sunlight streaming onto her face. "Hello there, Apple Bloom. Are things okay down at the farm?"

"Yeah, me and mah sis are gonna be fixin' up the barn today. Rainbow Dash came around and helped gather most of the apples for the season yesterday evenin'. She figured it was the least she could do after she almost destroyed the orchard."

"That's Rainbow Dash for you, loyal as ever. What can I help you out with?"

The filly scraped at the ground a little sheepishly. "Well, see... Scootaloo's jus' wonderin' if we could... borrow that book of fixin' spells offa ya. She really can't stand still havin' a grey mane."

Twilight froze in horror.

"Yeah, we sucked the color right out of it to make that darn potion of ours. Heheh." The filly flashed her an innocent grin, and laughed a little nervously.

"Apple Bloom, I think I'm just gonna give you two words: Mane. Dye."

Twilight closed the door firmly.


THE END