• Published 20th Feb 2013
  • 3,885 Views, 45 Comments

Magical Mystery Drama - AstroStar



The Season 3 Finale gets derailed after Twilight suffers an unfortunate accident.

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Crisis Management

~~A few days ago...~~

The setting of the episode had shifted to Sweet Apple Acres, now under the guidance of Pinkie Pie. The pink earth pony took a look at her flank. Three red apples. Rarity had outdone herself with the makeup job that was required to switch everypony’s cutie marks. It was almost as if she had always had it. She had also allowed her mane to go flat to reflect that farmer Pinkie Pie was not having any fun at all. She was also wearing Applejack’s trademark hat to symbolize her place on the farm.

Pinkie looked to her friends behind the camera, all sporting their different cutie marks, except Twilight of course, and it was now Rainbow Dash’s turn to operate the camera.

“All set Pinkie?” she asked.

Pinkie closed her eyes and focused.

“I’m ready,” she responded after a few quick moments

Rainbow Dash took to the camera, its lens pointed at Pinkie.

“Aaaand… ACTION!”

With that, Pinkie Pie literally went to work. She took to the task of struggling with the farm work while at the same time singing her part of the song.

“I don’t care much for picking fruit,
And plowing fields ain’t such a hoot!
No matter what I try,
I cannot fix this busted wa…whoa WHOA WHAAA!!!!”

The hat fell over Pinkie’s eyes while on the water chute, causing her to lose her balance and fall over early. The other five ponies and one baby dragon quickly rushed over to the fallen pony in concern.

“Pinkie, are you all right?” Twilight shouted.

With a groan, Pinkie raised herself back up. She took off the Stetson off her head.

“On second thought, you keep the hat, AJ,” she said, handing the headwear to its rightful owner.

“If you say so.” Applejack took hold of her hat and placed it back on her head.

“Do you need to take a break?” Fluttershy asked in concern.

“I guess I’ll take a little breather before the next take,” Pinkie decided. “We can’t take too long though. We still need to film Applejack’s and Rarity’s parts after this.”

Rarity groaned. “Ugh, don’t remind me. I can’t believe my swapped destiny is something I could only do outdoors! I’m feeling miserable just thinking about it!”

“Well, that kinda is the point here,” Spike pointed out.

Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Guys, let’s face it. Our lives would completely stink if this really happened to us. I mean look at me! Butterflies!” She pointed to the three pink butterflies on her flank. “There’s no way I could ever make this look cool!”

“I think butterflies are nice…” Fluttershy squeaked out.

Rainbow Dash stammered, hoping that she hadn’t inadvertently hurt Fluttershy’s feelings.

“Uh, I didn’t mean that butterflies are bad at all. It isn’t! It’s just that, this cutie mark just isn’t me, you know? My destiny is to be up in the skies as chief captain of the Wonderbolts!”

“And my destiny is in my very own boutique in the middle of Canterlot.”

“Well, Ah tried leaving the farm once, and it ain’t ever gonna happen again as far as I can help it. Ah belong right here!”

“I just like to stay with my animals if that’s ok?”

“Putting a smile on ponies, and people too for that matter, is what I do, both in Ponyville and the show! That’s a 2-for-1 destiny! Beat that!”

Twilight chuckled as her friends sounded off on their true destinies. “Sound like we don’t even need the second act! We’ve ended the episode right there!”

Pinkie smiled in response. “Let’s keep going with this episode anyway. I’ve got a good feeling that this is going to be special!”

“In that case, let’s reset and try the scene again!” Spike announced.

“Right!” Everypony shouted in unison. They began to reset their positions when Fluttershy suddenly spoke up.

“Wait! We’ve been so busy talking about destinies. But… what about yours Twilight?”

The question caught Twilight off guard. It took her a few seconds before she offered up an answer.

“I… don’t know, to be honest. I’ve always seen myself as a student. I’ve never really thought about destinies that much.”

Applejack put a hoof on the purple unicorn’s shoulder. “Ah wouldn’t worry too much about it. Sometimes you go out and find your destiny, and sometimes your destiny finds you. You just never know. So it doesn’t make much sense worrying about it. You’ll know when it happens.”

“Besides, we still have a whole summer to talk about all that, for both real life and for the show,” Spike added.

Pinkie overheard the exchange before heading back to reshoot the scene. The conversation got Pinkie thinking to herself.

That has to be one of our main plot point for next year. But at the same time, I don’t know how to go with it right now.

Pinkie took a long look at Twilight, who was walking away to her mark for the scene.

Just what is your destiny, Twilight?

~~A few days later...~~

Minty had grabbed the unconscious Pinkie Pie and had put her back into her room. Also present in the room were Spike and Twilight, who had calmed down considerably from earlier, but was still a bit antsy over the situation.

The three didn't have to wait very long for Pinkie to regain consciousness. Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Pinkie! Pinkie, are you ok?” Minty asked.

Pinkie began to snort a laugh. “Oh Minty! I had the craziest dream. You were in it, and Spike, and Twilight, and get this, she turned herself into an alicorn! Isn’t that just silly.”

“You know, you’re dreams sound a lot like real life Pinkie,” Minty observed.

All laughing ceased. Pinkie slowly turned her head to Twilight who waved back at her nervously. Yup, a horn AND wings. It hadn’t been a dream.

“Twilight…. What happened?” Pinkie asked slowly, suppressing the urge to panic.

The purple alicorn quickly shook her head, still in disbelief over the whole situation. "I don’t know! I was in the library, we thought we found the Alicorn Amulet prop. But I think it was actually the real thing!”

Pinkie gasped. “I though we put the real amulet away! Do you still have it, Twilight?”

On cue, Spike produced the offending artifact. “Here it is!”

Minty was the first one to notice something was wrong with the amulet.

“Um, wasn’t that jewel supposed to be red in the show? It turned black.”

The news caught Spike by surprise.

“Black? It was still glowing purple in the library.”

The four all gather around to inspect the amulet. It’s jewel had indeed turned pitch black.

“Is it dead?” Pinkie asked.

“I sure hope not.”

“Why not, Twilight? Can’t you just try to change back without it?”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s way too risky. The amulet is very old and many of the scriptures about it have been lost through time. We need to study the intricate details of the amulet’s magical aura to try to see if it even possible to reverse this!”

Spike's expression fell. “In other words, you’re gonna be stuck like this for a while right?”

Twilight sighed. "I sure hope not! The sooner I turn back to a regular unicorn, the better. It just feels strange having wings like this."

“Hey look on the bright side!” Minty interrupted, “There are worst things to be turned into. I mean, you could have turned into a demon-dragon slave thing to be used as a chariot for an overlord of evil.”

Spike, Pinkie & Twilight all gave Minty a confused look.

“Well, it seemed like an epic idea for a show,” Minty shrugged.

Pinkie suddenly gasped. “THE SHOW!!!”

Minty perked up suddenly. “Oh you think so too! Or maybe we should make it into a movie, or maybe a comic book tie-in…”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, not that. Our show!!!”

She began to pace back and forth in panic.

“Oh, this is bad! This is really, really bad! We can’t finish the episode like this! How in Equestria can we even explain it? The fans are never gonna buy that Twilight became an alicorn just like that! Twilight’s supposed to be a unicorn!”

The other three occupants in the room looked on in concern. Twilight tried to reach out to the panicked pony. “Pinkie, maybe if we calm down we could try to…”

Pinkie didn’t listen. She was lost in a whirlpool of stress. “This is it. We’re ruined! It’s all over! Oh, why is this happening again? We barely got through the rerun fiasco in one piece last year. There’s no way the fans will forgive us for this.”

“Pinkie, you need to calm down!” Spike shouted.

“I can’t be calm! We’ve got a major crisis on our hooves! How are we gonna fix this?!?”

A light bulb went off in Minty's head. “I have an idea. I think it’s time for a Pinkie Squink!”

Twilight arched an eyebrow in confusion. “A Pinkie… what?”

“A Pinkie Squink,” Minty explained. “Pinkie did it all the time back in the day. Whenever you have something you need to figure out, all you have to do is squeeze your eyes real tight and think! Squeeze and Think! A Pinkie Squink!”

“What.” Spike stated flatly.

Minty continued. “Oh, and you have to shout out ‘I got it!’ as soon as you figured it out. It works every time!”

“Seriously?” Twilight deadpanned. She turned her head towards Pinkie Pie, who was blushing a deep crimson red.

“I’ll explain later,” Pinkie laughed nervously. “At any rate, I don’t think now is a good time for a squink, Minty.”

Minty donned her best puppy dog face. “Come on. Try it, please?”

Pinkie sighed in defeat. “All right.”

With that, the pink pony closed her eyes and begins to concentrate.

Spike scratched the back of his head. "Uh, are you sure this will..."

Minty quickly covered the dragon's mouth.

"Shhh!!! Not while she's squinking" she whispered.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was lost in her thoughts.

Wow, this really feels silly, Pinkie thought. Things really were a lot simpler back in the day, weren’t they? And now that I think about it, things were also a lot more pink back then too. Really, REALLY pink. Was that why I was the lead character in G3? Because I had the most pink out of anypony else? It doesn’t seem too well thought out in hindsight. Heh, I’m kinda happy I worked in that G3 gag in “Too Many Pinkie Pies”. I have to remember to thank the changelings for helping out with that. It wouldn’t have been possible without them. Wait a minute… The Changelings!!!

“I GOT IT!!!” Pinkie shouted triumphantly.

Twilight and Spike looked stunned that the ridiculous tactic apparently worked.

Minty smirked. “What did I tell you? Works. Every. Time.”

Pinkie began to hand out instructions. “First things first, we need to tell everypony what’s going on. Spike, write to the princess and tell them to come to Ponyville as soon as possible.”

“Right! And I’ll also write to HQ too. If we’re lucky, they might give us some more time to deal with this.”

“We also need to let our friends know what’s going on too,” Twilight pointed out.

Pinkie nodded in agreement. “And the sooner we tell everypony, the better! Minty, go fetch the others and tell them we have an emergency meeting and everypony needs to get here now!”

Minty gave a salute in response.

“It shall be done!”

“I’m going back to the library to get those letters out right now! I’ll be right back, Twilight!”

Minty and Spike quickly dashed out the front door, wasting no time to get their new tasks completed as soon as possible. The two remaining ponies could only wait now for their return. Pinkie turned to Twilight, still finding it weird to see her friend with wings.

“You sure you’re ok, Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight took a good look at her wings. “Well excluding the obvious, I don’t feel any different. I still feel like I’m me.”

“That’s good at least,” Pinkie sighed in relief

“I sure hope we can fix this.”

“Don’t worry Twilight, everything’s going to be just… fine…” Pinkie hesitated. Despite her emergency plans, there were no guarantees now that everything will end up ok, anymore. She just had to hope.

~~~~~

Princess Celestia had summoned her own personal mirror into her chambers. She had set it up horizontally rather than vertically, much like the way Lauren said the television sets were set up in the other world. But unlike those devices, which required electricity and cable, Celestia simply used her magic to summon different images onto the screen. On this night, she had been watching several previous episodes of their show they had done over three years. In particular, she was watching episodes that featured her own faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

“She’s my teacher! Do you know what teachers do to students who don’t pass?” the image of Twilight panicked.

The image of Spike simply looked on bewildered as Twilight answered her own question.

“They send them back a grade!!!” The answer prompted a quick facepalm from the baby dragon.

Princess Celestia chuckled. “Oh Twilight…”

Princess Celestia had a lot on her mind that particular night and found herself unable to sleep. It wasn’t unusual for her to be up this late as being the head ruler of Equestria usually meant that there would always be something to worry about. However, this night was unique because all of Celestia’s thoughts centered around one purple unicorn. Tomorrow, she would be in Canterlot for the episode’s grande finale, and Celestia would present her with a spot on the Canterlot University faculty. As prestigious and important that moment is, something about it all made Celestia feel uneasy.

While the episode continued to play, Celestia’s sister and well-loved Princess of the Night, Princess Luna entered her chambers.

“Sister? It’s getting late. You really should get your rest for tomorrow,” Luna observed.

Celestia sighed. “I know it’s late, Luna. I’m just reminiscing, that’s all.”

Luna turned to see what Celestia was watching. She chuckled at the sight of the bookworm comically losing her sanity.

“You certainly have a fondness for Twilight Sparkle,” she noted.

“I’m just so proud of her. She’s grown so much since she moved to Ponyville, both in real life, and in the show.”

“If I may ask, if you are so proud, then why do you seem so bothered lately?”

“I have… more than a few objections to the upcoming story line.”

Luna tilted her head in confusion. “Why? It is a great honor to be appointed as a head professor at Canterlot University and Twilight Sparkle is more than qualified for the position, is she not.”

“I know she is, but it just that after all she’s been through, becoming a teacher just doesn’t seem ... right. Besides, if I sent her to Ponyville to make friends in the first place, why would I turn around then take those friends away from her. It just seems cruel on every account.”

“Well… when you put it that way…” Luna’s expression sank a bit, understanding her sister’s position.

“I just feel like a pony like Twilight ultimately deserves more. She’s done more than enough to earn it.”

“But what else is there?”

Celestia closed her eyes. “I don’t know, Luna. I just don’t know.”

Seeing her sister in a sad state, Luna decided that she needed a laugh. And she knew just where to go to get one.

“Well if I may be the first to suggest a destiny Twilight shouldn’t get, that would be a Changeling babysitter,” she smirked.

Celestia chuckled. “I almost forgot, we were expecting Chrysalis and Derpy’s company tonight, weren't we?”

“They’ve arrived a few hours ago, and Discord is… entertaining them at the moment,” Luna said, stifling a laugh.

“Oh is he, now?” Celestia arched an eyebrow in amusement.

The relations between the Changelings and the rest of Equestria had been tense for a long time, culminating in the changeling’s attempted takeover during the Royal Wedding. Even though the changelings and their leader, Queen Chrysalis, were defeated and banished, many remained paranoid about a possible return of a vengeful Chrysalis army. As it turned out, the changelings were in the process of a retaliatory attack on Equestria last summer.

That was until Queen Chrysalis discovered Derpy Hooves’ muffins. The changeling queen was amazed to discover all the love that was contained in those muffins and she immedatley shared them with her children. With all the love contained in every batch of muffins the wall-eyed Pegasus produced, the changelings had been rendered effectively harmless.

Derpy now spent most of her time with the changelings, providing them all the muffins they ever needed. This sadly meant that her welcomed presence in the show had been cut dramatically. Derpy was disappointed that she wasn’t able to participate in the show as much as she used to. However, spreading muffin love to the changelings proved to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Earlier that day, Chrysalis and Derpy had arrived to the Canterlot palace in advance of the big Season 3 wrap-up party and the reformed spirit of chaos was tasked with entertaining the visitors.

“So how is Discord getting along with our guests?” Celestia wondered.

“Come downstairs and see for yourself,” Luna smirked.

Luna led Celestia down towards the part of the palace where Discord were entertaining the guests. They made their way to one of the throne rooms where an overly-happy Queen Chrysalis and Derpy Hooves were hopping around and singing silly muffin songs to a very annoyed Discord. Apparently, the two had taken him hostage earlier and went as far to dress him up as a giant muffin against his will. It was clear that Discord was not having a fun time.

"Let’s all sing the muffin song!
The muffin song!
The muffin song!
We all like the muffin song!
Muffin, muffin love!!!" the duo sang.

"I hate my life…" Discord grumbled.

The sight left the two royal sisters laughing on the floor uncontrollably.

"Oh this is one for the Royal Photo Album!" Luna snorted in between giggles.

Celestia wiped tears from her eyes. "The royal album isn’t enough. This deserves its own stain glass window!"

Discord pupils shrunk. "You wouldn’t dare!!!"

"How did all this start anyway?" Celestia asked, trying to compose herself from laughing so hard.

"Well, Chrysalis Discord and I were talking about muffins and Discord said that he didn’t really care for them," Derpy explained.

Chysalis nodded. "So we took drastic actions in order to make him love muffins!"

Discord rolled his eyes. "I can assure you, that it’s actually having the opposite effect."

Chrysalis gave off an evil smirk. "Well it looks like we’re gonna have to try harder next time!"

"I never thought I would actually miss being a statue," Discord muttered under his breath.

Derpy let out a yawn. "I think we'll handle that next time. I’m getting really sleepy right now."

"You are more than welcome to stay in the guest suite," Celestia smiled.

Derpy knelt in respect. "Thank you, your highness."

"I think I’ll stay up with Mr. Grumpy Pants a little while longer," Chrysalis announced. She rubbed Discords cheeks for added emphasis, which prompted a death glare from the draconequus. The scene gave Derpy a quick laugh.

"Goodnight everypony!" the pegasus waved as she made her way to the guest suite for the night. After a short while, the muffin-suited Discord began to try to get the outfit off of him.

"Can I get out of this outfit now?" He asked.

Luna playfully gave Discord's attire a second look.

"I don't know. I think the outfit really suits you!"

"You’re joking, right?" he deadpanned.

Luna ignored the reply and continued badgering him on. "Maybe we should make it your official royal attire. Or maybe we should…"

Luna was interrupted as a surge of magic fire materialized in front of the group. It swirled around the room before the magic settled in front of Celestia and materialized as a scroll.

"A message? At this hour?" The confused princess opened the scroll and begins to read it. Celestia's expression slowly turned more serious as she silently read the letter.

"Our presence is needed in Ponyville. Awaken the royal escort. We leave immediately!" The princess urgently announced.

Discord's eyes went wide. "We leave right now?" He asked.

"Should I bring a muffin?" Chrysalis pondered.

Luna slowly approached Celestia in concern.

"Sister? What has happened."

"It’s vague on the details, but it seems that there has been an accident."

~~~~~

In normal course of events, the streets of Ponyville were silent in the middle of the night. That was not the case on this particular night. In front of Sugarcube Corner a group of four ponies were gathered, all wondering why the mint-green earth pony had summoned them all here at this hour.

"Does anypony know exactly why we’re out here this early?" Rainbow Dash yawned.

Fluttershy shrugged. "I don’t know. Minty only said that it was an emergency and that everypony needs to meet here. I hope it’s nothing serious."

"It had better be something big at least. Honestly, I need my beauty sleep for the big number tomorrow," Rarity noted, trying to keep her mane as presentable as possible at this late hour.

"Well, maybe the fact that we’re all her like this must have meant something happened that has something to do with that," Applejack speculated.

"What do you think could have happened?"

"Ah don’t know, but the more Ah think about it, the more Ah’m getting a bad feeling about this."

Rainbow Dash tried to ease the tense atmosphere. "Well, maybe whatever happened isn’t that big of a deal and Minty just overreacted."

"Well if it isn’t a big deal, them why am I seeing Princess Celestia’s chariot heading this way?" Rarity pointed to the horizon where the royal chariot was approaching. The four surprised ponies watch the chariot arrive and its four occupants, Celestia, Luna, Discord and Chrysalis, come out.

Applejack was the first one to speak up.

"Princess Celestia? What’s going on?"

"We were about to ask you that same question," the sun princess responded. "We just heard that an accident happened in Ponyville."

The news caught the four present Ponyvillians off guard.

"Minty never said anything about an accident!" Rarity shouted.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" Fluttershy stammered in fear.

Rainbow Dash flew straight into Celestia's face. The worried pegasus needed answers. "Did something happen to Pinkie Pie? Did it happen to Twilight? Are they hurt? Do we need an ambulance?"

Applejack wasted no time. She pounded desperately at the Sugarcube Corner front entrance.

"PINKIE!!! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT!?! OPEN THE DOOR!!!"

The sudden pounding frightened the occupants inside a bit. Pinkie had made Twilight some tea to help calm her down, and sitting next to her were Spike and Minty, their emergency tasks long since accomplished. The four took a look at the front door, and the desperate ponies on the other side. Pinkie looked back towards Twilight.

"Stay here. I'll handle it."

Pinkie got up and made her way towards the front door. Outside, a frustrated Applejack began to rear back and buck the door open when she suddenly heard a series of clicking coming from the door. A few clicks later, and Pinkie Pie emerged. She was immedeatly mobbed by Rainbow Dash.

"Pinkie! What the hay is this about an accident? What’s going on? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I’m all right Dashie. I’m fine!" Pinkie reasured her panicked pegasus friend who backed off, relieved that the pink pony was all right

"Pinkie? Where’s Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, noticing her absence in the assembled group.

Pinkie took a deep breath and began explaining. "She’s inside right now. And that’s why I called this meeting. Something happened to Twilight tonight."

Concerned shouts immediately came from Pinkie's audience over Twilight's well-being. Pinkie had to hush them before she could continue.

"Hold on, everypony! Let me explain. The good news is that, she’s not hurt physically, and she’s also very sorry for what happened. What happened was earlier tonight, she was in the library and… well, we thought we had the replica but as it turns out it was… ugh, how do I even try to explain this?"

Overhearing the conversation, Twilight began to make her way towards the front door, Spike and Minty following behind her.

"Pinkie? Maybe I should just show them myself," the former unicorn decided.

Pinkie noded and steped aside, revealing Twilight Sparkle to the 8 newcomers. She had her head down as she slowly makes her way to the entryway, stopping once she reached the front porch. With a heavy sigh, she lifted her head and unfurled her wings in a swift motion.

The jaws of everypony present dropped, gasps and surprised shouts coming with them. Twilight noted the shocked and surprised expressions coming from her friends. She also noticed that her mentor, Princess Celestia, was particularly frozen in shock.

"Whoa, nelly..." Applejack put her hat onto her chest, stunned into silence.

"Well, this is... different." Discord noted with a sense of uneasiness, something that hasn't happened to him very often.

"It... I... You... Wow." Rainbow Dash failed to find any words to accurately describe what she was seeing.

"Ooh, pretty..." Chrysalis observed in awe.

"Wi… Wi… Wings?" Rarity had to rub her eyes several times, not believing what she was seeing.

Fluttershy slowly approached the center of attention, a little scared of the whole situation.

"Twilight? Is that really you?"

Twilight gave a small smile in response. "Yes, Fluttershy. It’s really me."

After her mind momentarily shut down over the sheer shock, Princess Luna was finally able to make whole sentences again.

"You’ve… become an alicorn. Is that even possible sister?"

Celestia didn't answer. Instead, she turned to address her most faithful student.

"Twilight? What happened?"

Twilight proceeded to recount the events that had transpired only a few hours ago. Her in the library, finding the spell, putting it on thinking it was the replica, and reciting the ancient inscription which triggered the reaction that had transformed her. As Twilight spoke, Celestia lost herself deeper and deeper into her own thoughts, as if she was contemplating something more than the situation at hoof.

"You mean say that was the real Alicorn Amulet?" Applejack shouted in alarm. "What happened to the replica?"

"Rarity, you had the real amulet at one point so you could create the duplicate, right?" Discord asked.

"Yes, I was even there to oversee that the real amulet was handled safely," Luna confirmed.

"I had both in the shop up until the 'Magic Duel' episode," Rarity explained. "I remember we were all busy getting ready for the episode, so Minty volunteered to get it."

Minty jumped into the conversation. "And I remember exactly what you told me!" Minty cleared her throat and began speaking in a posh accent. "Make sure you get the one on the top shelf, Minty darling. Picking up the wrong one would be THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" Minty shouted, doing her best Rarity impression. An impression that was eerily similar from the real thing.

Rarity was left stunned by the impromptu performance. "That was… actually a good imitation there," she noted.

"I try," Minty blushed.

Rarity brushed the odd impression aside. "Well we still have to figure out how the real amulet got into Twilight's hooves and…" The white unicorn froze as she had caught a crucial detail from Minty's explanation.

"Hold on. What did you say I said back then?" she asked the mint pony.

"To get the amulet on the top shelf?" Minty confirmed.

Rarity’s face fell in horror.

"Minty, I said do NOT get the one on the top shelf! The replica was on the bottom shelf!!!"

The revelation left everypony groaning in frustration.

"Well, to be fair, we really need to put labels on those things. It’s less confusing that way!" Minty began to rant. She stopped as she noticed all the frowns pointed in her direction, particularly the angry expression coming from one marshmallow-colored unicorn. Minty squeaked a nervous smile. "I mean, I’m sorry?"

Rarity's expression began to twist with rage.

"MIIIIIINNNTYYYYYYYY….."

Minty braced herself for the upcoming fury. But it never came. She saw Rarity's expression twist itself even more as she successfully suppressed the rage. As quickly as she got angry, Rarity had regained her typical ladylike poise.

"It was just an unfortunate accident and it wasn’t your fault," she calmly stated.

"Wow, um, thank you!" Minty replied, grateful of the sudden show of mercy.

"Excuse me everypony, I need to use the little fillies room." Rarity turned and gracefully troted inside Sugarcube Corner.

"She took that rather well," Chrysalis observed.

"Well, Rarity does try to maintain her composure as much as possible," Fluttershy explained.

Minty breathed a stress-relieving sigh. "That’s a relief. I was sure she was she was ready to throw me through a wall."

CRASH!

The pleasantries were interrupted by a bathtub crashing through the second floor wall of Sugarcube Corner and onto the ground outside. The scene made everyone turn their heads in surprise. Minty, in particular, seemed frozen in shock at the display. A few moments later, Rarity rejoined the group, not losing a trace of her dignified poise.

"Feel better?" Twilight asked the fashionista.

"A little," Rarity responded in her own ladylike manner.

Rainbow Dash decided to turn the groups attention back to the most pressing issue.

"Okay, now we got that out of the way… we have to try to find a way to change Twilight back to normal."

"And we better do it fast! We've got a show to do tomorrow!" Applejack added.

Pinkie Pie smiled. "I think we’ll be ok with the show."

"But Pinkie, Twilight can’t finish the episode with wings," Discord pointed out, taking a closer look at the bookworm's new appendages for himself.

"She won’t need to!" the pink party planner informed. "Here’s the plan, everyone. We'll wrap up the episode like we planned, except we’ll have Chrysalis stand in for Twilight instead. Do you think you can do that, Chrysalis?"

In a flash, Chrysalis transformed herself into the unicorn form of Twilight Sparkle.

"Consider it done!" The second Twilight Sparkle nodded.

"Great! That will get us through the episode and give us more time to try to fix this. We’ll have the whole summer to figure out the show and try to get Twilight back to normal."

"But what about the subplot about Twilight’s new job?" Luna asked.

Pinkie shrugged. "We’re gonna have to scrap that idea now, I guess."

"But, where would that leave us for season four?" Fluttershy wondered.

"We can worry about that after we finish this episode, Fluttershy. Right now, we’ve got more important problems than the show."

Twilight sighed contently. "At the very least, it sounds like we’re in complete control of the situation."

"Yeah, I’m glad it all worked out. This could have turned out a whole lot worse!" Pinkie laughed.

It was at that moment when Spike burped out a letter, written in green parchment.

"Spike? What was that?" Celestia asked, surprised at the sudden appearance of a letter she had no part in writing.

"I think that’s the response from HQ! I wrote them earlier to let them know what was going on here." Spike explained.

Twilight took the parchment and began to read it. "From Hasbro; We have heard about what happened to Twilight and we have delayed the season finale by a week."

Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief at the news. All was well.

Twilight continued reading the letter. "We at Hasbro have unanimously decided that… making Twilight Sparkle an alicorn is a fantastic idea?"

Everyone froze in shock at the news. All was not well.

Pinkie Pie grabbed the letter from Twilight and continued reading the letter out loud. Fear was beginning to grip everyone present. "We are starting production immediately on a whole new line of Alicorn Twilight toys and accessories. We will use the delay to market this as the Hasbro event of the year, to be capped by….. Alicorn Twilight’s debut in the season finale?!?"

Everyone gasped in horror at the news. Everything had now gone very, very wrong.

"Keep up the good work and congratulations on three marvelous seasons. Signed Hasbro HQ". Pinkie finished reading the letter in disbelief.

Spike droped to his knees and shouted to the sky in anguish.

"HASBROOOOO!!!!" He shouted, the accursed name echoed into the Equestrian night.

"What are we supposed to do now?!?" Rarity asked.

"Um… panic?" Fluttershy meekly offered.

"You know, I’m with Fluttershy on this one!" Rainbow Dash nodded.

Applejack raised a hoof. "Ah second that motion."

Minty spoke up. "All in favor?"

And so, they all panicked.

“What are we gonna do?!?”
“We’re doomed!!!”
“One week… Clock! Is! Ticking!”
“Press event? Are they serious?”
“Oh, the bronies are just gonna LOOVE hearing this.”
“Squeeze and think! Squeeze and think! Squeeze and think! IT'S NOT WORKING!!!”
“We’re gonna have to reshoot the whole dadgum episode!”
“The whole thing?”
“No way! We worked too hard on this one! We’re NOT scrapping it!”
“They’re spoiling an episode we haven’t even shot yet!”
“We can’t possibly make a whole episode from scratch in one week.”
“How can they expect us to just throw all this out at everyone? This is coming completely out of nowhere!!!”
"Walls closing in! Everything's getting dark! Can't.... breathe..."

Princess Celestia simply watched in silence as everyone around her lost their heads. After a while, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. She didn't like using this as much as her sister does, but circumstances as they are...



"QUIET!!!"



Celestia's use of the Royal Canterlot Voice instantly put a stop to the mass chaos scene. All eyes were now fixed on her. She simply cleared her throat and continued speaking with her normal tone of voice.

"I know things seem to be a bit out of hoof at the moment..."

Discord rolled his eyes. "There’s an understatement."

Celestia ignored the snide comment and continued. "However, we need to remain calm about this. The last thing we need in a situation like this is panic."

"With all due respect Princess, Ah think that panicking is our only option here!" Applejack offered as a rebuttal.

Pinkie nodded in agreement. "She’s right! We can't write in that Twilight became an alicorn in one week. What are we supposed to do?"

Celestia closed her eyes. "I don't know, Pinkie. But I do know what I must do."

"Sister?" Luna asked in surprise.

Celestia chuckled to herself. "I never expected this to happen so soon, but seeing how the circumstances are now…"

She walked over to the purple alicorn, looking her student straight in the eye. A warm smile graced her face.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. You have grown so much over these past three years. The friendships you have forged, the battles you have fought, the lessons you have learned. Everything you’ve experienced in your time in Ponyville has shaped you into a pony that Ponyville and all of Equestria can be proud of. You’ve become a leader, a mentor, a source of inspiration for your friends, for Equestrians everywhere, and… for myself."

"Princess Celestia..." Twilight said softly.

Celestia continued. "I believe that the Alicorn Amulet felt this too, which is why it reacted the way it did. It must have felt that you are now ready. Therefore, I believe that the time has come."

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "Time? Time for what?"

"Twilight? I would like for you to become an official Equestrian Princess."

The news was met with stunned silence from everyone. Twilight began to stammer as she began to comprehend what her mentor was telling her.

"P… p… pri… Princess? M… m… me? I… I… oh~~~"

Overwhelmed, Twilight Sparkle fainted to the ground.

"That’s our second faint tonight." Minty observed.

Rarity gasped at Minty's announcement. "What? We were having a fainting contest on top of all this too? Well, I won’t be outdone. Out of my way everypony!"

Everypony cleared out of the way as Rarity over-dramatically fainted to the ground. Spike gave the performance a huge round of applause.

Pinkie Pie did not join in on the distraction. She was too lost in her thought. Seemingly everything had gone horribly wrong in one night.

First Twilight becomes an Alicorn, then Hasbro decides to wreck the episode, now Celestia wants to make Twilight a princess?!? I think I’ve had enough surprises for one night. Pinkie thought to herself.

"Hey Pinkie?" a 'Great and Powerful' voice shouted from behind her.

"Now what?" Pinkie groaned. She turned around, expecting to see the blue unicorn appear down the empty Ponyville streets.

She and the others did not expect to see a blue-skinned creature running towards them on two legs, wearing a blue dress, oversized blue boots, and the distinctive matching purple hat and cape. This weird human-shaped creature had Trixie's mane cut, as well as Trixie's voice. Even Celestia herself looked absolutely shocked at what she was seeing.

"Pinkie? Don't ask how it happened, but Lyra's spell backfired on me while we were planning Equestrian Girls. Do you think you can get Twilight or Celestia to change me back?"

As Trixie reached the group, she Celestia was already here. She also noticed not one, but two Twilight Sparkles, and one of them was unconscious. And had wings.

"Did I miss something?" Trixie asked.

Everypony slowly turned towards Pinkie Pie, expecting an explanation for this strange event. They all had an expression that all read pure utter confusion.

Pinkie laughed nervously and shrugged. "It's a work in progress."

Author's Note:

I'm happy this follow up is being well-received so far. Thanks for all the likes and comments!