The past is always greener on the other side...

Simply marvelous, Darling!

Deep in the tunnels under Celebration Castle, two mares stood in front of the great vault door, staring at it thoughtfully. The pair looked on in silence for several minutes, before one finally spoke up.

"Rainbow Dash, how do you think she' is doing in there?" Storybelle asked, turning her head to face her friend. "I really do hope she'll be all right."

"We just have to trust that she knows what she's doing, darling." Rainbow replied reluctantly, fighting off the urge to enter the vault, and bring her friend back herself. "We're just going to have to respect that this is what she wanted."

...

"Sweetie Bell, are you in there?" A knock came at the club house door, as a white unicorn with a purple mane tried to get the attention of the fillies inside. "Pinkie Pie told me you and your friends had the new mare who arrived in town here, and I wanted to-"

The door swung open, and the unicorn's mouth stood agape a the sight of the three cutie mark crusaders all dancing around a bubbling cauldron, holing spears and chanting strange words. Kimono, meanwhile, was tied by her hooves to the ceiling, hanging upside down over the boiling hot liquid.

"Help me, please!" The purple pony pleaded, struggling against her bonds. "I don't know who you are, but please, GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"SWEETIE BELL!" The mare declared angrily, using her magic to bring the mare to the ground. "Don't you know it's rude to tie up guests before you've been properly introduced?"

"Awww, but Rarity!" The little white unicorn filly pleaded, as she and her two friends got pouty looks on their faces. "WE were just trying to get our cutie marks in-"

"Not another word, you three!" Rarity lowered the terrified Kimono to the ground. "I must apologize for my sister and her friend's rude behavior, they are still very young, and can be very brash at times!"

"Oh, thank you so much!" The grateful purple mare replied, shaking her mane clean of confetti from one of the filly trio's cutie mark earning attempts. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along!"

"Oh, think nothing of it, darling! I" Rarity looked at the other mare, her eyes going wide. "My stars! Your poor coffiure! What did those fillies do to your mane?!" The mare stamped her hoof, a determined look in her eye. "Well, I simply CANNOT let this crime against good taste stand!"

And before she knew it, the hapless mare was being dragged off once again....

...

Most ponies in ponyville who passed the Carousel Boutique, tried to ignore the terrifying screams that came out of the dress shop. They knew very well how the eccentric dressmaker within worked, and none wished to be pulled inside, and made to try on a ridiculous outfit.

"Ouch! Miss Rarity, could you please not pull that corset- EEK!- so tight! Wait, don't pull on my mane like tha- YIPE! No, that saddle won't fit on my -URK!- never mind, you just made it fit..."

Normally used to Rainbow Dash and Daffeydazey gently preening and prodding over her, Kimono was totally unprepared for the jostling and pulling and yanking and prodding that the unicorn known as Rarity was giving her. The purple mare really wanted to talk to the excited equine who was giving her the once over, but the fashionesta kept droning on and on, not giving the still shook-up mare a chance to catch her breath.

"Oh my, such a lovely shade you have to your coat and mane! I'm sure I have a dress here that matches your color!" Rarity declared, quickly zipping back into her wardrobe, and tossing her dresses about. "So, where are you from? Ohhh, I know! -you must be a pony from the orient! How lovely for you to come and visit us here in Equestria, darling! Do you have any family here? Have you been to Canterlot yet? Ohhhh, it was such an incredible luck that I would meet you like this!"

"Well ctually, my parents are from -URK!- the pony orient, but I am a native of what you call -ACK!- Equestria. I- EEK!- learned a lot from them before I -YIPE!- came to ponyville." Kimono replied, her word punctuated by yelps of pain. "Say, do you think you could stop pulling so hard with... that.. saddle...urrrgghhh!"

And the unicorn used her magic to pull the saddle even tighter, and kept messing with her mane and coat. Finally, after a great deal of pulling, yanking, tugging, and tearing. Rarity finally ceased pulling on her this way and that, and finally levitated a mirror in front of her to see what the fashionesta had wrought.

There, in front of the horrified earth mare's eyes, she saw the horror her image had become. Kimono's mane done up in a orange tangled mess, and her coat died a hideous yellow. She was dressed in a plaid dress that looked like a paint bucket had thrown up all  over it, and her hooves had been done in a hideous beige polish. The mare's face looked like a crying clown with the runny green and purple makeup the unicorn had plastered all over it, and Kimono now looked like something out of a pony's worst nightmares.

"Aieeeeeeeeee!" The mare wailed, busting out of the carousel boutique's door, and going galloping down the street in tears. "It's horrible! It's so horrible!"

"Wait, come back!" Rarirty pleaded, calling out from the doorway. "We haven even tried the polka dot dye on your mane yet!"

...

"Is something wrong, darling?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking over at her friend. "For a mare who's happy for her friend, you look extremely worried!"

"Well, it's just..." Storybelle replied nervously. "... I had been reading in my library, about the kind of spells Princess Twilight had used on that vault... and I had come across something about the magical energies being wildly unpredictable, and reacting in bizarre ways, depending on the ponies who go inside."  The mare looked nervously back at the vault. "Y-you don't think something is going wrong in there, do you?"