Life's Lessons

by forthur

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life
Length: 6446

Work in progress

When Twilight became Princess of Friendship, it didn't automatically mean an end to the troubles in Ponyville. And that was before everything started to change…

Now Twilight and her friends face challenges that shake their very core.

Expect mysteries, slice of life, chaos, a few deaths, explosions, and stolen bananas.

[size=0.75em]Takes place after season 4. Each chapter is written as a separate "episode", with strong continuity between them.[/size]

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-09 21:24:06 UTC

Dear Brother

Slowly Twilight opened one of the huge doors to her new home. She walked in with tired steps, then closed the door again.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips. This day was finally over.

Walking down the long dark hallway she again thought back to her old tree-house library. This new palace was beautiful, sure, but all this walking had started to annoy her.

Not tonight, though. Tonight she was too tired to be annoyed. Even her wings hurt.

She left her saddlebags at the foot of the stairs. She briefly contemplated teleporting up there, then decided it would be better not to risk worsening her headache.

Come on, Twilight. Your legs are fine, just climb the first step. Now the second. Step three isn't that difficult either...

Slowly she climbed the stairs.

Sixty-five. Sixty-six. Sixty-seven. Sixty-eight. The top step. Yay.

She stopped briefly in the bathroom on her left to throw some cold water in her face, then grabbed a glass of water and walked into her bedroom.

That room was huge too, with an enormous bed, a second smaller bed, a walk-in closet, a large desk, several book cases, and still a lot of room to spare. Piles of books had already started accumulating here and there.

It was less dark here, with Luna's beautiful moon shining through the glass doors to her balcony.

Resisting the urge to just flop onto her bed she walked to her desk, sat down and lit a candle. It glowed brightly, lighting up several pieces of paper and parchment, quills and ink bottles.

This was her favorite spot. A place where she could both work and relax. A large window stretching from floor level all the way up to the ceiling gave her a fantastic view over most of Ponyville.

Twilight could see a few lights wink out; candles were snuffed out and shutters shut down there. Maybe the ponies would get a restful night; they too needed it after a day like today.

She took another sip from her glass, then took an empty leaf of paper. One of the quills rose, slightly wobbly in her pink magic aura.

Dear brother,

Thank you for your letter. It's always good to hear from you and Cadance. I laughed a lot when I read about the guards and the capybaras. I hope Bright Tail will recover soon; it sounded painful.

I definitely want to visit the Crystal Empire soon; it's quite frustrating that my role as princess keeps me so busy. Please tell Cadance I totally understand what she wrote in your previous letter.

Twilight looked briefly at the smaller bed and sighed.

And I miss Spike. I know he'll have a great time studying with Celestia, but without him this palace is so silent. It's also why I started writing these letters to you again - I need somepony to talk to.

Here in Ponyville things have been a chaos - again. We had just recovered from last week's were-rabbit attack that demolished four houses and quite a number of prize-winning vegetables. It was actually Winona who saved the day by stopping the monster - it's a long story.

This morning, Discord received a mission from princess Celestia. Apparently there is some sort of magical disturbance in the Southern Plains that only he could help with.

Before he left he gave all of us gifts since he didn't want us to get bored while he was gone for a week.

He gave me a book about cannibalism. I didn't really know what to think about that until I had returned from helping Rarity with her gift (a roll of plaid fabric that proved to be contagious) and discovered that my book had already eaten three others on its shelf.

An hour later, while I was helping Rainbow chase the multicolored clouds (dropping multicolored rain) I discovered it was not just my friends and me - he had given everypony in Ponyville a gift.

And so the rest of my day was filled with singing roses, endlessly sweeping brooms, cupcakes that made... impolite noises (Pinkie loved those, of course), doors that lead to rooms in different houses, welcome mats that launched ponies twenty feet into the air, a lamp post that eliminated all sounds within a radius of ten meters, and lots more.

Discord may be reformed, and he is definitely our friend now, but sometimes there's surprisingly little difference to how he was before that.

Also, I still don't like Tuesdays.

When I went home there were still a lot of unresolved things, but I've done what I could. At least everypony should be able to have a good night's sleep now.

Suddenly Twilight could hear an alarm clock go off somewhere in the village below.

She had just enough time to look up and think "wow, that's loud" before a second alarm clock in a different part of Ponyville joined it. Then a third, a fourth, and suddenly the noise grew to almost unbearable levels when clocks went off in every single house.

The alarm clock on the nightstand behind her started ringing as well, although by now it almost didn't manage to ring louder than the shrill noise coming from outside.

Twilight laid her head on her desk, wrapped her front legs around it and just screamed, screamed as loud as she could.

Nopony heard her.

This morning Twilight planned to do things differently. Yesterday had been too unorganized. Today she was going to make lists.

Quite a line of ponies had already formed in front of her makeshift stall, on the town hall's steps.

She had also decided to delegate more. Well, Rarity had told her to delegate more. She was a princess, after all.

And so wherever possible she sent one of her friends to deal with the issues Discord's gifts had caused.

A lawn with grass that would grow back each time it was mowed? Fluttershy had two goats she claimed were always hungry.

And that shop that had unknowingly sold diet soda that actually made ponies weightless? Rainbow Dash was already rounding up the floating ponies.

Meanwhile, Rarity was helping some hysterical ponies whose entire house had been turned orange.

Twilight added Lily's complaint about the scarecrow that even chased Lily herself out of her garden to her "mostly harmless" list and called the next pony.

It was Lyra Heartstrings who approached her. Her eyes were wide, and she was cowering as if she was either afraid or very embarrassed.

"Lyra? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Uhm... I'm - I'm not Lyra..." The already very soft voice trailed off further, making the rest inaudible.

Twilight looked her over. The color of her coat, her unique mane and her cutie mark all belonged definitely to the Lyra she knew. Even her voice matched, although she had never heard Lyra speak this way. It sounded so, so - wait a second...

"Fluttershy? Is that you?"

The pony that looked like Lyra just nodded.

"What happened? How long have you been like this?"

"I - I don't know. I had just delivered the goats and then, when I walked back, I saw my reflection in one of the shops' windows, and... Oh Twilight, you have to help me. Can you help me? Please?"

Twilight let her magic wander over the cyan pony. Hmmm... An illusion spell, but it was complicated. She couldn't just dispel it.

"That's going to be difficult without the real Lyra here as well. Have you seen her, either before or after this happened?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I last saw her yesterday afternoon. I thought she talked to you?"

"Yes, she said that Bonbon was behaving weirdly. Could have been a bit of amnesia or something; Lyra was very vague about it. But there were more pressing issues. I honestly expected to talk to her today about it."

Twilight heard a pegasus land next to her. "Ah, Rainbow, perfect timing. I need you search Ponyville for a pony looking like Fluttershy. A probably very confused pony. I suspect it might be Lyra."

Rainbow Dash looked at her, at Lyra, then back again at Twilight. "Huh? Can you run that by me again? I'm confused."

Fluttershy took her aside to explain things, while Twilight took up her quill again. "Next?"

Mayor Mare stepped forward. "It's my husband. He drank coffee this morning."

Twilight was still watching Fluttershy in Lyra's body explaining to Rainbow Dash that out there there was a pony who looked like her, well, like Fluttershy, but who was some other pony, probably Lyra. Rainbow Dash was still looking very confused.

The mayor stamped her hoof to get her attention.

Twilight smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, I was a bit distracted. Could you say that again?"

"My husband drank coffee."

"... And? What happened?"

"Nothing! But he never drinks coffee. He hates the stuff. He always drinks tea!"

"And this morning he drank coffee?"

"Yes!"

"And he liked it?"

"Yes!"

"So, what's the problem? Do you want me to make him hate coffee again?"

Mayor Mare frowned. "That's not the point!"

"Then, if you don't mind me asking, what is the point?"

The mayor opened her mouth, closed it again. She didn't know what to say.

Twilight sighed, motioned her aside. "Next?"

Dear brother,

Yes, it's another letter from me. I know that I send you one just yesterday morning, but I need someone to complain to.

Today was the third crazy day. Discord's gifts keep on giving. Headaches, that is.

Even though many major gifts had already been tackled on Tuesday, yesterday and today still saw us running around and fixing quite a few as well.

Yesterday we were rounding up ponies whose bodies had been swapped, including poor Fluttershy. At the end of the afternoon we finally had all twenty-six of them together, allowing me to reverse the spell.

The weird thing is, none of them knew how it had happened. There doesn't seem to be any connection between them. Most were mares, but there were also five stallions. As you can guess, many awkward moments were had. Some of them will probably be avoiding each other for weeks.

Today Oaken Desk and his wife, who had just moved to Ponyville last week, had to close their new antiques shop. Discord's gift to them had been a small space heater in the shape of a porcelain pony, which they placed on the sales floor.

However, when they turned it on this morning it quickly turned their shop into a sauna. And I mean the kind of sauna that's so humid you can hardly see your hoof in front of your face. They discovered it couldn't be turned off, so they opened the doors.

That only made it worse; now the hot fog started spreading through the streets of Ponyville.

When we arrived ten minutes later you couldn't even get close to the shop without sweating buckets. It was actually Rarity who managed to enter the shop and destroy the space heater - she's had more sauna experience than any of us. She even joked that adventures like these were good for her complexion.

I think I forgot to laugh.

The shop owners were also not happy. As far as I know, they're still busy wiping all the condensation off everything in their shop before the old furniture gets ruined.

Ah well, at least the major problems have been solved, as have most of the minor issues. I still have a list of more vague complaints, like somepony seeing a walking tree, an overeffective scarecrow, and ponies behaving weirdly. There's probably still a gift out there causing mild amnesia or something.

I've also sent a letter to Celestia. I know she likes Discord, but somepony has to make him take responsibility for the damage he causes. Ponyville has come to a standstill these three days, and many ponies have been hit quite hard, financially - including Rarity, who will have to replace all of her now plaid fabric.

Quite a few ponies have put their house up for sale. They hope to move to other towns like Hoofington, where they claim nothing interesting has happened for decades.

I can't blame them - I'm getting so tired of all these... interesting events.

I'm sorry I'm complaining so much. But isn't it weird how many small annoyances can make you long for some simple and clear adversary? I mean like when queen Chrysalis attacked Canterlot with her army of shape-shifting changelings, or when Tirek came back and took everypony's magic.

Yes, I know, those were terrible and dangerous times, but at least with the changelings I got to punch somepony. With Tirek I could aim my magic and let loose. Discord's gifts are just so... frustrating.

Note to self: See if Fast Track sells punching bags.

She suppressed a yawn, and looked up at the stars, glimmering in the dark night sky.

One of the reasons I'm writing this letter while I should be sleeping is that I'm - dare I write it? - I'm afraid to go to sleep. I don't want to wake up tomorrow to yet another day like these. Another day that drains my energy, my magic, my patience.

I'm afraid that one of these days I'm really going to crack. Going to punch somepony, or turn them into a frog.

There were a few times today the only reason I could keep going was Pinkie. She has been doing a fantastic job keeping our spirits up. Without her I would have locked myself in my tower this morning and eaten every bucket of ice cream in my freezer.

Or worse.

No, it wasn't just Pinkie. All of my friends have been so wonderful. They've worked just as hard as me, and they've kept me - more or less - sane. I really wouldn't know what to do without them.

Also, I really miss Spike.

I think I'll stop writing for now. It's getting late. I'm very tired.

Besides, Ponyville

With a *thunk* Twilight's head hit the desk. She started snoring gently.

Just a few minutes later a flash lit up the windows of one of the houses in the village below. Several more flashes followed, in different houses all over Ponyville. Then they were gone, and all was dark again.

Twilight woke up with a painful neck and bright sunlight shining on her face. She groaned. That had happened way too often lately.

She noticed the unfinished letter before her, read it again. She hardly remembered writing it.

"Besides, Ponyville"? What had she planned to write about Ponyville?

In the bathroom she held her head under the cold water faucet, then glanced at the bath. A long, warm, relaxed, soapy bath would be nice. Of course, having one without being interrupted would be better. She calculated the chance of not being interrupted for half an hour.

Maybe tonight, then.

She was in the middle of her breakfast when she heard a pony crashing into her front door. Rolling her eyes she got up and went to see what had happened.

She was surprised to find the local DJ limping down the hallway toward her.

"Vinyl Scratch? What happened? Are you okay?"

"Twilight! It's me, Rainbow. I - ow! - was just flying here when my wings were suddenly gone. I hit the door pretty hard."

She looked at Twilight with that shy aside glance and her hoof scratching her mane that Twilight instantly recognized. "I may have dented your door a little."

Yes, that was Rainbow Dash.

"But what happened? You look like Vinyl Scratch!"

"Yeah, I noticed. Looks like the body-swapping thing is still out there, huh?"

"Maybe this time we can pin it down, then. What did you do before you came here?"

Rainbow looked up in concentration. "Nothing, really. I just bought a few muffins at Sugarcube Corner. Wait! Vinyl was in the line, a few ponies behind me!"

"So, did something happen?"

"Nothing happened," she shrugged. "I paid, gave her a hoofbump, went outside, ate my muffins, and flew here. My wings disappeared only seconds before I could land on your doorstep."

Twilight's horn flashed briefly, and a detective's hat appeared on her head. She had a determined look in her eyes.

"Let's do this. Let's visit Sugarcube Corner."

Just before they reached Ponyville's famous bakery, they encountered quite a large group of ponies standing in the street, looking confused. Some of them were quite angry.

"What happened here, Golden Harvest?" Twilight asked the orange maned pony sitting near the group.

"I'm Caramel," she answered. "It happened again. Weird, huh? Did you find out what caused it two days ago?"

"I'm sorry, no. It looks like it hit a lot more ponies today. You sure look calm about it."

Caramel shrugged. "The first time was freaky. This time it's just annoying."

Twilight looked at the bakery, less than twenty meters down the street. "Did you visit Sugarcube Corner?"

"No. I wanted to but I never got there. I was just looking at my reflection when I felt a shiver and actually saw myself change. I admit, that was weird."

"But did you see Golden Harvest? Before or after that?"

"I think I saw her buy flowers from Roseluck, but I'm not sure. Didn't really pay attention. It's still early in the morning you know."

Yes, I know, Twilight thought. I haven't even finished my breakfast yet.

"Have you touched or used anything that could be a gift from Discord?"

"Not that I know. I received an upside down bucket. I keep it in my yard, tied to a rope. It looks funny but doesn't seem to be causing any problems so far."

They saw Pinkie Pie walking towards them. She was carrying a large plate, empty but for a few muffins. Apparently she had been distributing them in the group of confused ponies. At least they seemed calmer now, nibbling on the freshly baked goods.

"Hi Twilight! I brought muffins! Muffins are always good, especially -"

Suddenly something strange happened. Pinkie Pie had seen Caramel and had glanced around to see if there were other ponies she had missed. But there was a shimmer and suddenly the bright pink pony looked exactly like Caramel had always done, down to his cutie mark.

Pinkie Pie stood still, blinked a few times. "Ooooh, this is new. So this is what it's like to be a stallion, huh?" She started bouncing up and down a bit, until a warning glance from Twilight stopped her.

Caramel said nothing, just stared at her.

Twilight told them to stay there, then ran off. The whole thing didn't make sense, but she could do what she did best: organize things.

By mid-morning ropes and barriers had been placed to prevent anypony from entering or exiting the part of the street where everything seemed to happen. That included Sugarcube Corner, Roseluck's flower stand, and several shops.

Twilight set up a table and observation post on a balcony just outside this zone. If you do enough research, she thought while watching the ponies below, patterns will emerge. I can make sense of this, I just need more data.

The quarantine seemed to work - by noon there had been no reports of any ponies changing outside the quarantined zone, although there were still a few ponies complaining about gifts causing smaller problems in the rest of the village. Several ponies had visited Twilight to say that their relative or friend had amnesia, or behaved weirdly. Since none of the afflicted claimed to be a different pony, Twilight simply told them to return tomorrow, when she would have more time to find the gift that caused that problem.

A few hours later she let her front hooves hang over the balcony's railing while watching the ponies milling about below. The warm afternoon sun made her yawn. She had had too little sleep these past few nights.

Her eyes drifted over the papers on the table. Lists, graphs, more lists. It still made little sense.

Of course, the whole mess was Discord's doing, so there might even be no pattern.

Or she was tired enough to overlook something painfully obvious. She knew she'd done that before.

She took an empty piece of paper and dipped her quill in the ink again.

Dear brother,

Do you know that feeling of knowing a word but not knowing it? It's on the tip of your tongue but you can not for the life of you spit it out? Something is nagging at my brain like that. Something obvious I missed. I hate this feeling.

And here I am, writing another letter to you before I've even finished the previous one. I don't know how to finish that one.

Last night I started its last sentence with "Besides, Ponyville" and now I don't know how to end that sentence without using words that Rarity would be very disappointed about if she found me using them.

Which isn't fair, of course. It's not this village's fault that so many things happen here.

Twilight stared at what she had just written. With a slight frown, she continued.

Or is it? Statistically these ponies moving to Hoofington might actually be right. I'd have to research it. Not now, though.

She looked around; the mayor had come up the stairs behind her carrying a tray with some drinks. Ice cubes tinkled in the glasses.

"Thank you, mayor. I really needed that."

The grey maned pony didn't immediately respond. She was watching the ponies in the street below. Pinkie had set up a rope pulling contest between two teams of three ponies each. A laugh rang out - the contestants were having fun.

However, most of the other ponies looked bored or depressed. She also saw a few angry faces.

"These poor ponies are so distressed. I wish you would just change them back."

"I'm sorry, mayor, but I can't do that. I haven't found the cause yet. I've eliminated almost everything."

Twilight shoved a few papers covered in lists and graphs under the mayors nose. "There are always two ponies swapping their bodies at the same time. That explains why both two days ago and today there are an even number of ponies." She indicated a circled number at the bottom of one of the lists. "Forty-two ponies today. And everypony seems to be here - no missing bodies or minds."

The mayor looked at the paper. It had several lists, and many names had been crossed out, with arrows pointing to other names.

Twilight continued, "It's complicated, because it keeps happening. Ponies are still swapping, even when they have already done so several times. Again, there is no pattern. Some of the ponies swap every few minutes, others are still the same pony they changed into early this morning."

She lifted a different paper from the table. "There's also no pattern in with who they swap. It could be somepony they haven't seen in weeks, or it could be a family member. Like the Spa twins. That was very confusing."

Another graph appeared in front of the mayor. "It also doesn't appear to be contagious. Often ponies swap with a pony near by, but every so often they swap with someone at the other end of the street."

Wait. The thing on the tip of her brain's tongue suddenly felt so close, she could almost physically taste it. Where was -

Her thoughts were disrupted by somepony who was making quite some noise behind her. She looked around to see Lyra coming up the stairs, carrying a large burlap sack in her magical aura. Apparently it was a bit too heavy for her magic, because parts of it kept bumping into the steps. Each time that happened a muffled "oof" or "ouch" came from the sack.

Twilight took it over in her magic, gently placing it on the floor in front of her. Lyra scared her a little; she had that little crazy smile again. This was a pony who didn't care about rules, who had rejected normal pony reality and had substituted it with one of her own making.

Apparently today she had kidnapped a pony.

"Twilight, I brought her so you can see for yourself. She doesn't move like Bonbon. She doesn't talk like Bonbon. This isn't Bonbon. Like I told you." She frowned. "A few times."

Twilight opened the sack. Bonbon had been tied up and gagged, in that amateurish way that was both completely overkill on the amount of rope, and yet still relatively easy to escape from. Applejack would have done a better job with less than a fifth of this rope, Twilight thought with a bit of pride for her friend.

She removed the gag. "Hello there. Who are you?"

Bonbon looked around, swallowed. "I'm Bonbon."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Yes, I know you look like Bonbon. But you're not her. Who are you?"

Bonbon looked really scared now. She tried to make herself as small as possible, and answered in a small voice, "I'm Bonbon."

Lyra looked at Twilight triumphantly. "See? I told you! This isn't her."

Twilight looked at the papers on the table and sighed. So many of them were invalidated now, and would have to be redone. And she had lost the thought that had seemed so close. Probably invalidated as well.

Also, she might need a bigger quarantine zone.

Fifteen minutes later she was back in her bedroom, gathering new stacks of paper, and an extra ink bottle. She looked at her rapidly filling saddlebags. Maybe also an extra quill. Or two?

She had put Bonbon with the others inside the zone, but had left the ropes on. It was worrisome that the pony inside didn't want to reveal her - or his - identity. Applejack kept an eye on her from the barriers nearby.

Fluttershy, Rarity and several other hastily recruited ponies should be searching Ponyville by now for an unknown pony with Bonbon inside. Twilight had instructed them to start in and around her candy workshop. By the way the fake Bonbon had acted she wouldn't be surprised if the pony would be locked up or tied up somewhere.

Twilight had winced when she had realized Lyra had tried to tell her about Bonbon back on Tuesday, three days ago. She really hoped she was alright, wherever she was.

A neatly folded map of Ponyville floated over to her saddlebags.

She looked at the nearest book case. It was less than half full. So many books had been destroyed with her old library. She could really have used that tome on illusion spells right now.

Twilight's eyes suddenly found her unfinished "Dear brother" letter lying on her desk. She wondered again what she had wanted to write about Ponyville. She hoped it had been something positive, but she still couldn't think of anything.

Behind Twilight the door to the walk-in closet slowly and quietly started to open.

Rarity lifted a bowl of unpackaged candies off the counter. Ew. Humidity in the air had merged them into a sticky mess. Even lifting it with her magic it felt icky.

She placed the bowl down where it had come from - a small clean circle indicated where that had been.

The sun threw golden beams through the opened windows. The workshop had been ominously dark and locked when they arrived, but in this light it was easier to feel hopeful.

Breaking into the workshop had taken Silver Key, Ponyville's locksmith, almost twenty impatient minutes, and the sun hung visibly lower in the sky.

Rarity took care to avoid touching anything in here - everything seemed sticky. The air smelled very sweet, which was no wonder. Bags of sugar, blocks of taffy, pots of honey and sacks of finished candy were everywhere. Undoubtedly there was some order to this chaos; as far as Rarity knew Bonbon had always been keen on neatness.

Maybe all of this mess was simply a result of creating many different kinds of candy at the same time. Bonbon must have been swapped in the middle of her work.

She lifted a clean towel from a neatly folded pile in the small closet and wiped the countertop with it. It came away quite dirty.

While she looked at the rag she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Fluttershy had snuck up on her in that quiet way of hers.

"Rarity, we have only one locked door and a cellar left to open and search. Silver Key is already working on them. Maybe you should go back to Twilight, and help her. She looked so tired. I'm worried about her."

Fluttershy glanced at the rag, floating in Rarity's magical aura. "Besides, maybe cleaning Bonbon's workshop isn't our highest priority right now, wouldn't you agree?"

"Fluttershy, everything's covered with dust. She hasn't been here since Tuesday. Whoever took her over wasn't interested in Bonbon or her life, only keeping up some appearances towards Lyra - failing even at that."

Fluttershy nodded, then started gently pushing Rarity towards the door. "Don't worry, Rarity. We have eleven ponies looking for her, not counting Silver Key and me. Just go help Twilight. I think she needs you."

Back at the quarantined zone Rarity found Applejack leaning over the barrier, guarding over the fake Bonbon. She was lying several meters inside the zone, still in Lyra's ropes.

It's too bad I can't punch the pony without Bonbon ending up with bruises, Rarity thought. Or maybe that's a good thing.

"Hiya, Rares. Ah'm happy to see you. Can you take over guard duty for a bit? Nature's calling me."

Rarity looked up. The balcony was empty. "Of course, Applejack. Isn't Twilight back yet?"

"Nah, haven't seen her since she planted me here an hour ago. Not that much has happened here, mind ya. Not a lot of body swaps too, the last one was some twenty minutes ago."

Rarity indicated Bonbon with her hoof. "I'm surprised you haven't replaced her ropes. You'd do a much better job than Lyra."

"Yeah, Twilight kinda dumped her in there and ran off before ah had the chance. And ah'm not goin' in there - ah like my body just like it is, thanks."

Bonbon suddenly looked up; Rarity followed her gaze. Twilight was flying over at quite a speed. It looked like she was flying straight from her palace to somewhere at the edge of the village.

"There she goes. Maybe another gift needs disarming? Let's just hope she returns before the sun has set. Anyway, I shall take guard duty here so you can go."

With a "Thanks, sugarcube!" Applejack disappeared in the direction of the nearby sofa's and quills shop.

So much for helping Twilight then. And the body-swapped ponies didn't seem to need her help either. Most of the group had more or less settled in front of Sugarcube Corner, where a few ponies - probably Pinkie Pie and the Cakes - had set up tables with food and drinks.

A light blue pony was bouncing through the group, leaving smiles in her wake. Rarity smiled. No matter the shape and color of her body, Pinkie was always recognizable. She had been doing great, keeping the group busy and keeping them from freaking out or getting angry.

With nothing else to do, Rarity looked around. Applejack had said the body swapping had stopped - so what changed? The light, the time of day? That didn't make sense. Maybe it was a certain location in the street?

The few times she had seen a body swap happen today at least one of the ponies had been quite close to where she stood. That part of the street was empty now, except for the pony in ropes.

On the right side of the street she saw Roseluck's market stall looking positively trampled. All of the best flowers were long gone, probably eaten without Roseluck getting any bits. Maybe Rarity could get a list from Twilight and visit these ponies tomorrow. She could use her charm and, if necessary, a stern look to get these ponies to reimburse Roseluck.

The stall itself was just a collection of baskets and buckets onder a movable awning. There was a puddle where a few buckets had been kicked over; the striped awning had provided enough shadow for it not to completely evaporate.

On the other side of the street was the antique shop where Rarity had had to kill a space heater that had turned this street into a sauna. Hmmmm... Yesterday had also passed without any body swaps.

The shop's window display wasn't all that interesting. An old desk, some - ugly - chairs, some paintings, a mirror, some probably very expensive vases filled with very fake flowers. Nothing unexpected for an antiques shop.

Above the door a painted sign hung from two short chains. It simply said "Oaken's Antique Trading Post".

And sauna, Rarity mentally added.

No, she thought. The shop couldn't be it. Their gift had already been identified and made harmless. She remembered the crunch the porcelain pony had made when she crushed it under that heavy marble table. That had been so satisfying.

Besides, most of these ponies never visited that shop. Certainly not today. And the swapping had gone on long after they had closed the shop again this morning.

She turned to the flower stall again. Maybe it was one of the flowers? Did Discord sneak some poison joke in there? She stretched her neck, trying to spy the the typical blue color in or between the baskets.

But then her eyes wandered back to the shop. There was something she missed.

"Pinkie Pie! Could you be a dear and help me, please?"

A pony looking like the village's dentist bounced her way to Rarity. "Hi, Rarity! Isn't this great? I think we should have an annual I-wasn't-myself-today party!"

Very recognizable, Rarity thought to herself.

"I'm not sure the ponies would appreciate that, dear. However, I need Oaken Desk, the owner of the antique shop. Do you know what shape he's in? Can you get him for me?"

"Sure, Rarity. He looks like me! I'll be right back."

It took only a few seconds before she had returned, physically carrying a very familiar pink pony. She dropped her just inside the barrier.

Dropped him, Rarity mentally corrected herself. It's the inside that matters.

"Mister Desk?" she asked.

"Yes, that's me. Just call me Oaken. You wanted to ask me something?" he answered, in a boring monotone.

Okay, that was freaky, Rarity thought to herself. I never expected to see my bouncy friend look, or sound, so... dull.

"You arrived here in Ponyville last week, is that correct? I hope you haven't regretted that decision yet."

Oaken shrugged. "I'm not so easily scared. I've seen a few things in my days. I've traveled around a lot, you know. Nearly losing all my stock yesterday scared me more than this body swapping nonsense. Although I hope that the local princess will do something about it."

Rarity hardly heard him. She was staring at a small sign in the corner of the display window.

"Buying & Selling" it said.

"You also buy antiques?"

"And not just antiques. I buy anything that fits the shop and the kind of customers I'm trying to attract."

"So did you buy something on Tuesday, three days ago? The day all of this chaos started?"

"Yes. Several ponies tried to pawn away some gift they had received from Discord. I'm happy I didn't accept any of them. I only bought one thing."

He saw Rarity stare at the shop's display window, followed her stare. What was she looking at? Then his eyes went as wide as Rarity's were.

Rarity's voice came out in a whisper. "It was that mirror."

It was not a question. He still nodded silently.

A triumphant smile was forming on Rarity's lips. "So many ponies looking in that mirror to check their hair. Or to check whether their body had changed."

By now she was grinning. "I'm sorry; I'm so, so sorry for this. I promise I will fully reimburse you for the damage."

She lifted one of the cobblestones out of the street, weighed it in her magic for a second, then launched it.

Oaken's protesting words came out too late. They were drowned out by the sound of shattering glass.

All of the ponies in the street started to shimmer, including Pinkie Pie and Oaken. Then they all started to change, back into the shapes and colors they once had.

Temporarily forgotten by Rarity, Bonbon sat up, unchanged. She slipped out of her ropes and disappeared into the cheering crowd, grinning widely.

Twilight pushed over another pile of books with her left hoof. She laughed. They made an interesting sound when they hit the floor.

Around her the bedroom was a mess. Maybe she should do something about that. She shrugged. Not important.

She had won. She had won!

She walked over to the large window. Below her Ponyville had just disappeared in the shadows of the setting sun. The windows of most of the houses were lit up from the inside.

A movement in the corner of her eye attracted her attention. In one of the houses there had been a green flash. Another flash drew her eyes to the other side of the village. Several others followed - she counted nineteen.

Excellent.

Her eye fell on the unfinished letter. She lifted it in her green magic, read it, dropped it on the desk again. A painful memory resurfaced. That defeat had been complete. It had taken her more than a year to come back.

She looked at the walk-in closet, walked over to it, opened it. The cocoon was still there. The purple princess was still unconscious inside it. Good. She closed the door.

Back at the window she looked at Ponyville again. Discord's gifts had given her a wonderful opportunity. She had grabbed it with both hooves.

Her minions had helped so well, making the effects of the gifts worse wherever they could. Spreading chaos. Tiring out the young princess.

She had won!

But this was only the first step. There were still some very powerful ponies out there.

A green wave of magic washed over her, revealing her true form. Chitinous wings fluttered briefly. That felt better.

She lifted a quill, looked at the unfinished sentence.

Besides, Ponyville   is a nice town. I think I'll like it here.