“Well?” asks Rarity, as you and Twilight walk back into the room after only about ten minutes. Twilight’s carrying the reply from Celestia with her, holding it with her magic in front of her. Well, behind her. She still had her head on backwards, so was technically walking in reverse. Spike had offered to fix it, but it seems that Twilight had reached her threshold for decapitation for now, and was stubbornly insisting that she was fine the way she was. You let her get on with it-it was too weird a point for you to argue on, really.

“Well, the short version is: We can fix Fluttershy.”

“Oh, thank goodness” says Fluttershy, visibly relieved. “I was worried I would just be a head for the rest of my life. I mean, it’s not the worst thing in the world, but taking after my animals would have been a teensy bit difficult.”

“Well, worry no more!” says Twilight, cheerfully. “It turns out that situations involving the destruction of body matter have happened with the Princesses before. I’ll spare you the EXACT details that Princess Celestia sent me, but-“

“Awww, you can’t not tell us! I bet they’ve gotten up to all kinds of stuff!” says Pinkie. You and Twilight stare at the pink pony.

“Oh, hi Pinkie. You seem to have recovered quickly.” Says Twilight, which was exactly what you were thinking.

“Oh, we just shoved all those bones back inside and gave her a few shakes” says Rarity, who was sitting down in her chair again in a relaxed manner. “It seemed to work out well, didn’t it, Applejack?”

“Yup. In fact, she’s in better shape than you, Twi” drawls Applejack, who had finally had her brain put back in her head. The farmer pony is still missing the top of her head, leaving said brain on full display, but it’s still an improvement on her precious condition. “You turn around too fast or something?” she asks, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“No,” says Twilight, glaring at Rarity, “but we’re getting off topic. She gave me instructions for a spell she created when she…uh, had to. It’s pretty simple really, I just have to-“

“Hey, hold on a minute” you say, scanning the room. “Where did Rainbow go? She wasn’t exactly in a state to fly off”. Rarity shifts a little in her seat, and seems to bite her lip momentarily.

“Rainbow? I…I have no idea.”

“Oh, was Dash here too?” asks Applejack. “I don’t remember much of the past hour or so, truth be told.”

“Oh yeah, she was here alright. She looked like a jelly!” says Pinkie to her fellow earth pony, who looked back blankly. “It’s been one of those days for weird stuff happening. It’s great!”

“Spike’s right though, she can’t have just flown off…” says Twilight, who was now also looking around. “At least I hope she can’t, it’d scare the life out of some poor filly if she saw that coming at her. Wait, did you hear that?” she says, pausing. You all listen intently. At first there’s nothing. Then, very faintly, as though muffled by a layer of pillows…

“Mmmph!”

“Hey, I hear a voice!” you say.

“Yes, I heard it too” says Fluttershy.

“Really? How positively strange. I think it’s just the wind, darling” says Rarity, shifting in her seat again. You see a blue pillow underneath her, which you don’t remember from before. Then it clicks.

“Hey, is that…” you begin, as Rarity’s stoic manner dissolves into giggles.

“Oh, yes, you’ve rumbled me!” she says, as she stands up. Underneath her is what seems at first glance to simply be a cyan pillow like a flattened circle. There is, however, a very angry face on it, which takes a deep breath.

“Finally!” gasps Rainbow Dash. “Rarity, when I get back in shape, I’m gonna-“

Before she can finish, Rainbow pops back into her “original” flan-like shape, vibrating madly and causing her to go cross eyed with dizzies as it subsides. Pinkie nudges Applejack in the side with her elbow.

“See, told you!” she says, as Applejack snorts with laughter at the sight of her friend. Rarity, for her part, looks a little embarrassed, looking over at you and Twilight with a sort of “Aren’t I a rotter” sort of look. You can’t help but laugh at it. Twilight just rolls her eyes, her tail swatting from side to side in irritation in front of her.

“O-kay! If we’re done fooling around then, and Rarity you’re maybe having a bit too much fun with this…”

“Ahaha…ha. Guilty as charged.”

“...I’d like to just quickly try this out. I think I have a handle on it…”

You watch as Twi focuses, eyes narrowed as she mentally wrestles with this new spell. Her horn glows briefly before a soft magical aura flows out of it and towards Fluttershy. The pegasus’s head is surrounded in sparking magic for a few seconds before there is a flash. When you open your eyes again, Fluttershy is whole once more. She moves around unsteadily on her hooves, wings fluttering and tail waging, before she grins.

“Yay!”

“Phew!” says Twi. She goes to wipe her brow with her hoof before realising that she’s just wiping the back of her head and giving up. “Glad that worked. I knew I could count on the Princesses!”

“So…” says Pinkie, “Are we ever gonna hear what they did to invent this spell, ooooor…”

“Never mind that, fix me already!” insists Rainbow, rocking back and forth. Twilight nods and casts the same spell, engulfing the bucket-shaped pegasus in the same magic and producing a similar flash. You open your eyes.

“…It didn’t work! She’s still Rainbow Flan!” you say. It’s true-Dash looks exactly the same. Her eyes go wide in sudden panic.

“W-what?! Am I…stuck like this? Noooo!” she cries, tears forming.” The wonderbolts will never take a recruit shaped like a dessert!”

“Now, now, calm down dear” says Rarity, picking Rainbow up and hugging her against her cheek. “Twilight will fix it. And even if she doesn’t, at least you can take comfort in the fact that you look adorable.”

Twilight looks over the letter while Rainbow wails into Rarity’s comforting cheeks, then gasps.

“Of course!” she says, attempting to smack her forehead in amazement and again failing. “Dash, this spell recreates matter that’s been destroyed. All of your parts are technically still there!” That’s a good point actually, she’s not actually lost anything. You scratch your chin as you think.

“So…how do we fix her?” you ask Twilight.

“Well…I guess I just have to do it the hard way. I’ll need to sort all of her parts out and put her back together manually.”

“What? That sucks!” says Dash.

“Oh, quit your whining Dash” says Applejack, “At least you got all your parts. Mah brain’s sticking out like an eyesore. Don’t suppose that spell’ll work on me, Twi?”

“Well…Celestia says the spell only works on matter that no longer exists, like with Fluttershy’s body being eaten. Your skull was shattered, but the pieces are still around, right?”

“This spell of yours is awfully picky on what it fixes.” Says Applejack, eyebrow rising so high it’s in danger of going into her exposed brain.
“Hey, it’s better than nothing! If you go find them you can fix yourself up. Just, uh, maybe borrow a hat from Rarities first.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I was just going to suggest that I go with Applejack to talk to Sweetie and her friends about all of this.” Offers Rarity. “They ought to know that we’re all ok, after all. Well, maybe not Rainbow just yet” she adds. Rainbow doesn’t even muster the energy to reply, sagging sadly in her jelly-like form.

“Oh, well, if we’re allowed to go now, I think I’ll go back and check on my animals. The poor dears might be worried.”

“Or hungry.” You deadpan.

“Yeah, are you sure it’s wise to go alone, Fluttershy?” asks Twilight.

“I’ll go with her!” says Pinkie Pie. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll bring what’s left right back to you, Twi!...just kidding, Flutters” she says to a rather spooked-looking Fluttershy.

“Well, as long as she’s got somepony with her” says Twilight. She walks over to Rainbow and picks her up with her magic, before turning to you. “Well, number one assistant, ready to put those anatomy lessons to the test?”

=============================================================================================

You are now Sweetie Belle. You and your best friends and fellow Crusaders, Applebloom and Scootaloo, are currently in your home, looking half scared to death. The two of them had just shown up out of the blue, and while normally this would have been a good thing, they were both wild-eyed and jittery. Initial attempts at understanding what had happened had only resulted in the two of them rambling and spluttering what seemed to you like random non-sequiturs. So you had invited them in while Rarity was out-she would be due back soon, but you were sure she wouldn’t object if she saw how distressed they looked.

“So, start from the beginning. Bloom, you first.” You say. Scootaloo looked particularly on edge for some reason. Applebloom took a sip of the cocoa you had made them and then speaks.

“So Applejack was fixing up a new barn earlier today. Then she kinda fell of the side and hit her head. Hard.”

“Oh, no!” you say, genuinely concerned. “Is she ok?” Applebloom thinks a little before answering.

“I…think so. Which is the thing. Her brains were all splattered across the ground. I had to pick ‘em up and put ‘em in a jar. She was kinda spaced out but she weren’t dead or nothing. You gotta believe me, Sweetie, cause ah swear it’s true.”

“Oh, I believe you.” You say, deadpan. Both Bloom and Scootaloo look at you with surprise.

“You…do?” says Scootaloo.

“Oh yeah, sure.” You say.

“Oh. Well…ok.” Says Scootaloo. “Thought you mighta thought we were just being hysterical or something…” You simply shrug.

“Nah, I’ve known for a while that our sisters and kinda unkillable.”

“…What?!” your friends say, as you calmly sip your own mug of hot, steaming cocoa, before sighing.

“Yeah, one time while Rarity was sleeping, Opal was sleeping on her tummy. I came into the room and it must have spooked her, cause she stood up and raked her claws down Rarity and, uh, her insides kind of fell out?”

“Ewww” say your friends, in unison.

“Yeeeeah, I was pretty freaked out. But Rarity just slept through the whole thing like a baby. When I pushed them back in, it all just healed up like it didn’t even happen.”

“So how come you’ve not told anyone?” asked Scootaloo. I’d have told, like, everyone!”

“Well how do you tell somepony that their insides fell out while they were sleeping?” you say, shrugging once again. “She was fine when she woke up and I guess I just pretended it never happened. Made sure to get Opal’s claws trimmed though…” Your friends look around, as if the cat was lying in wait to do some sort of deadly harm. Luckily she was asleep in Rarities room, as far as you know. “So, has she found out, then?”

“Oh yeah. She got cut in half down the middle” said Applebloom, indicating the cut with her hoof. “So now there’s two of her, kinda.”

“Cool!”

“…Is it?”

“What about Rainbow, Scootaloo?” you ask, ignoring Applebloom’s unsure question. “Did something gross happen to her?” The pegasus looks around again, before grinning devilishly. She reached around and produced a small, blueish cube. You and Applebloom lean in and stare at it.

“…Hey, is that her-“

“Yup! Rainbow got diced up like an onion. I seen this on the pile and, well, couldn’t resist!” You frown a little.

“That’s not very nice.” You say. “Are you going to return it? I think she'd miss that part of her."

"I sure would!" chimes in Applebloom. Scootaloo nods slowly in agreement.

“Yeah, Rainbow’ll probably be mad at me. I was gonna return it at the castle, but I kinda choked and just kept it.” She turns the cube over in her hood, showing off the reddish flesh on the other side. “Still, it’s pretty cool. I wonder if she can feel it when I-“

“Sweetie Belle, darling? I’m home!”

The three of you gaps and spin around. Rarity and Applejack make their way into the room. Rarity is in one piece, which is at once both hugely relieving and slightly disappointing-you had been imagining in your head what it would be like having two Rarities around. Or, two half Rarities to be more accurate. Applejack is also in one piece…mostly.

“Howdy y’all. Uh, don’t mind this, it’s just a flesh wound” says Applejack, pointing at her head. “Looks worse than it is.” You stare at what is very obviously her brain, which seems to gently wobble as her head moves around. You glance at Scootaloo, who had quickly managed to stow her little “trophy” away-you’re not sure where she’s keeping it, but you hope for her sake it stays hidden. Your sister would consider it most unlady-like.

“Sweetie, dear, sorry if I’ve worried you” Rarity says, walking up to you and nuzzling you affectionately. “Have your friends…informed you of the situation?”

“Yeah, I know.” You say. You decide to keep your prior knowledge a secret for now. It would just complicate things further you feel, and you didn’t want to start explaining how you knew and why you didn’t tell her. “I’m glad your ok.”

“Yes, well, it was all a bit odd, and I can’t promise that similar events won’t happen in future. I will do my best to remain in as few pieces as possible” she says, smiling. You both hug, and you see out of the corner of your eye that Applejack is doing the same to her own sister, who is trying her best to ignore her sister’s brain being so close to her face.

“Is Rainbow ok?” asks Scootaloo, nervously.

“Well…she should be.” Says Rarity. “It’s all a bit complicated, but Twilight has every confidence that she can restore Rainbow to her former glory. Why, I’m sure that she’s just about back together as we speak!”

“Next!”

You are Spike again, and you’re very bored. It turned out that individually going through all of Rainbow’s compressed parts, fishing them out, then reassembling them is rather tedious. You had cut her in half like she was a blue meat pie, and had been pulling out whatever you could see one at a time so that Twilight could record it and place it in some sort of order. Rainbow’s insides in her current format were a confusing, formless mesh of bones and organs, and it seemed to you that she was somewhat bigger on the inside than the outside. The novelty had worn away after the first hour though. Now it was like a very gory jigsaw puzzle.

“How much longer?” whine Rainbow Dash, as you yank out what you assume are some ribs.

“Uh…I think we’re about two thirds done?”you guess. “Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Twilight?” You turn to the alicorn for help. She’s lying down with her legs neatly tucked in, head still facing entirely the wrong way but a big grin plastered on her face, clearly engrossed in her work.

“Oh, yeah, that sounds about right. It should get easier the emptier she gets.” Says Twilight, not looking up from her work. Beside her is a mostly skeletal form, lying on its side, with some muscles and organs placed here and there. There is a big beating heart right where the ribcage will shortly be when you’ve fished out all of the parts for it. Twilight finishes attaching some muscles to the legs, and looks over. “Oh, this is so educational! It’s one thing doing this to yourself, but it’s so interesting to put somepony else back together!” she says, cheerfully.

“Well, next time, ask Pinkie to do this.” Says Rainbow, clearly fed up. Her form had deflated somewhat as more parts where taken out of her, so she now looked like a very out of date dessert. “Speaking off, you think her and Fluttershy will be ok?”

“Oh, they’ll be fine” says Twilight. “Fluttershy has total control over her animals. They only ate her cause she let them.”

“Yeah, I know, I just think that Pppppfffff….”

Before Rainbow can finish her sentence, her shape deflates even more as you yank something round and hard out of her. You raise it to your face and see her skull staring at you, unblinkingly, her eyes nevertheless betraying her annoyance.

“Oh, woops. Well, might as well connect her up. Here ya go, Twilight!”

You lob the skull over to Twilight, who almost drops it in shock.

“Spike, be more careful with that!” she admonishes.

“What, in case she gets hurt?” you say, nodding at her partially assembled skeleton. Twilight looks at it and then back to you.
“Oh, right. Well…it’s not the point! Now quickly, let’s finish this before bedtime at least.”

“Yeah, sure. She wouldn’t want to spend the night like this….”

===========================================================================================

You are now Angel Bunny, and you feel bad. This doesn’t happen very often-you are a fairly self-confident young bunny, after all. So when you do feel bad about something, it tends to be over something big. You think that watching Fluttershy get devoured counts. You didn’t take part in the feast, of course, not being one for meat, but you still feel like you could have done more than “exactly nothing”. You did see Fluttershy talking normally to some mail pony even when she was reduced to merely a head, so you hope that she’s ok, and that she’s not too mad when she comes back.

You’re currently sitting on a very high shelf, safely out of reach of the various larger animals that have moved in since the events earlier on. They weren’t acting aggressively or anything, but you certainly weren’t going to be taking any chances after seeing them tear into your owners body just hours ago. You were just going to wait here until all of this blew over. Which you were sure would be any time now…
As you lie there, your ears suddenly perk up as two voices slowly start to make themselves heard.

“…so please don’t do anything before I do, ok?”

“Okey dokey! Do anything before you do it!”

“P-Pinkie, that’s not what I said…” says the first voice, which you recognize at once as Fluttershy’s. She’s coming back! She’ll save you! Er, you mean, sort out the mess. All of her body had been eaten at least, so she wouldn’t have that to worry about. You hear the clopping of their hoofs as the two ponies approach the door.

“Ok, I’m going to just open the door and say hi. Let me do the talking, they were rather grumpy this morning.”

“Sure thing!”

The door opens, and in jumped a pony who was absolutely not Fluttershy. You recognize her as one of her friends though. She stands on her two hindlegs in the middle of a room full of startled carnivores, as though she was at a kids party.

“Heya gang!” she cries. It’s all she manages before being enveloped in a furry swarm. You avert your tiny eyes and hold your paws to your ears, trying to blot out the sound. You slowly count to ten, take some deep breaths, and look back down. Fluttershy is in the centre of the room, and-oh, she’s using the Stare. Every animal there-from the wolves to the raccoons and everything else currently helping themselves to some fresh meat-stand like statues, helpless under her gaze.

“I’m not mad.” She states, her voice soft but the words heavier than stone, as she starts walking forwards towards the remains of her friend. “But I’m very disappointed in you all.” The words hit like a cannon. Some of the poor things visibly flinch, and they all immediately drop whatever body-part they had snagged and grovel at Fluttershy’s feet, mewling and whimpering. She keeps Staring, with a capital S.

“I expect you all to help tidy up the mess you’ve made.” She says. “After that we’ll all say sorry, ok?” All present enthusiastically nod before getting to work, picking up the litter lying around, dusting the floors and the walls, and so on. As they work, Fluttershy spots you and flies up to your shelf, picking you up and hugging you.

“Oh, I’m glad you’re safe Angel Bunny, I don’t know what I would have done if you got hurt.” She whispers. You shudder to think what a genuinely angry Fluttershy would have done, as you wordlessly hug her right back. She sets you down on a chair.

“Wow-ee, that felt…really weird.” Said Pinkie Pie. She was currently armless and legless, with her ribcage broken open to expose her heart and lungs.

“Why did you do that?” says Fluttershy, as she gathers up the various pieces of Pinkie lying around.

“I couldn’t just let you be the first to walk in to the lions den! Even if there were no lions…”

“Oh, it’s ok Pinkie” said Fluttershy, as she rolled a loose leg towards her friend. “They wouldn’t have hurt me. Well, not if I said not to.”

“Well it’s ok, they didn’t hurt me either. No harm done!” said the limbless pony. “They must really like pony meat!” she added. Then her face lit up like a lightbulb. “Oh. My. Gosh. I’ve just had the greatest idea ever!”

You look up at Fluttershy, who’s face has fallen.

“Oh, no…”