The Game of Estrus

Twilight sighed in frustration. She was coming up blank. Since she'd got back to the library, she'd read every book on hypnotism magic and every book on fertility magic. She thought if she could find counter-spells to Discord's magic, she could cheat him out of his game.

She had found potential counter-spells, of course, but it had been naive of her to believe it would be so simple. Countering the hypnotism required the caster to precisely locate the spell within the subject's brain. She had attempted to scan her own brain several times, but kept getting disoriented and coming back to the same spots, as if her own mind had become a maze. Contraceptive magic was simpler, but when she tried to cast the spell, she felt it dissolve into nothing as soon as it left her horn.

Discord had clearly done more to them than he'd revealed. Twilight wondered if this was the case with everypony in the competition, or if he'd tailored these spells to her alone, in anticipation of her trying to ruin his game.

"Hoo?"

She glanced up. "Oh, Owlowiscious, you're awake. Is it that late already?" As had become routine, she opened the window for her nocturnal assistant, and he flew out into the night, off to hunt down some breakfast.

Twilight walked back to her desk, but she was at a loss as to how to proceed from here. "Maybe I should sleep on it," she mused. The thought was awfully tempting.

Ting

There was a strange noise from behind her. She looked around for a possible source, before noticing her saddlebag was emitting a slight glow.

She cautiously walked over to where she had hung it, and tentatively opened the flap to peer inside.

The glow had been coming from Discord's scroll, and it quickly faded away as soon as she laid eyes on it. Unrolling it, she saw that it had, as Discord had promised, updated itself.

Somepony had been eliminated already?! Ditzy Doo... what in Equestria could have happened to her?

Twilight shook her head. This was no time to be sleeping on the job! She'd pulled all-nighters plenty of times before, and usually for reasons far more inconsequential than what she was dealing with here. Sure, she was still feeling the effects of her disturbed sleep from the lead up to the Winter Wrap Up, but she'd just have to power through it.

She walked back over to her desk. "If conventional magic won't work, then I'll just have to look into herbal magic. Granted, that's more Zecora's field of expertise, but I can't push this on her in the middle of the night." She noticed Owlowiscious had returned, and looked eager to help as always. "Owlowiscious, I want you to fetch me every book on plant magic that we have."

Rainbow Dash was exhausted.

She hadn't been able to enjoy a single nap all day. The thought of leaving her body completely unprotected, of having somepony come along and claim her while her guard was down, had left her too terrified to sleep.

Even now, in her own home, she was too paranoid to rest. She'd never realised how defenceless her house was before: Ponyville was such a safe town, with such a low ratio of pegasi to other ponies, that she'd never even needed to think about it. But now she was painfully aware of how easily somepony could fly in through one of her large, glassless windows, and just take her as she slept.

She needed to get some air, maybe get some flight practice in. Staying here wasn't getting her anywhere. She took off into the night, and quickly found a suitable air current to ride, letting it carry her along so she didn't have to think too much about controlling her flight.

At a loss for anything else to do, she started looking down at the scenery, on the basis that doing something so utterly boring would surely put her to sleep. She was surprised, then, to find herself actually starting to enjoy it. The moon's light gave everything a significantly different feel to that of the sun. The shadows it cast were much darker, so where the light did hit, it made smaller details much more pronounced. She'd never stopped to admire it before, but the night was actually pretty beautiful, and not in a sappy way. She could see why Twilight liked it so much.

She slapped her forehead for not thinking of it sooner. Twilight! If any pony was going to be up worrying about this whole thing, it'd be her.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to go give her some company," Rainbow reasoned.

It didn't take her long to reach the library. She landed on the upper-story balcony, and was poised to knock on the window when she realised she didn't have a reason to give for her visit. She'd never live it down if she told Twilight she was too scared to sleep.

Before she had time to think, the window opened, and Twilight poked her head out. "Oh, Rainbow Dash! I thought I heard hoofsteps out here. What's up? We're not meant to meet for another few hours yet."

At a loss, Rainbow's mouth hung open for a moment, before she hung her head. "...I can't sleep."

Twilight smiled understandingly. "Coffee?"

"Please."

"Derpy got eliminated?!" Rainbow slammed her hoof against the table, spilling coffee on herself in the process. "Gahh!"

Twilight levitated a cloth over and quickly wiped the hot liquid off of her. "Derpy?"

"Ah..." Rainbow looked away in shame. "That's... kind of a nickname some of us have for Ditzy. She's a bit klutzy, so..."

Twilight lowered an eyebrow. "Don't you think that's a bit mean?"

"Yeah, maybe..." Rainbow's head sank lower. "She never seemed too bothered by it, but we never expected it to stick like it did... Anyway, that's not important right now! Did she really get knocked... out?"

Twilight nodded. "If the scroll updates at the moment of conception, then it happened early last night. Did yours not change? Make a 'ting' noise, give off a glow?"

So that's where that "ting" sound had come from. Rainbow had been jumping at every little noise the entire night, and that one in particular had kept her on guard for a full hour afterwards, convinced it had been some unicorn stallion teleporting himself into her house or something. "I uh, guess I didn't notice."

"Well anyway, if you know her, then that makes things easier. I was hoping I'd be able to pay her a visit, to see the effects of Discord's magic first hoof." Twilight gestured to the large pile of books by her desk. "It'd probably tell me more than any of these books have."

Rainbow looked out the window. The sun had just finished its journey over the horizon, and was now slowly beginning its ascension into the sky. "Hmmm... you've probably missed her by this point."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, cocking her head.

"Well, she works down at the post office. From what I hear, even though she can be clumsy sometimes, she makes up for it by being one of the hardest workers there. And she always starts work really early. Even if she hasn't left yet, she will have by the time we reach her place."

Twilight rubbed her chin. "On top of that, it's possible she won't live or work at the same places she used to, if she's been stuck with slavery. If she does go to work as normal, do you think we'd be able to catch her if we headed for the post office instead?"

Rainbow spread her wings, before lifting off and hovering a few feet off the ground. "Well, I know I can. If you could keep up with me, we could get there easy!"

Twilight considered her options. Her sleep-deprived mind probably couldn't handle the multiple teleportations it would take to reach the post office. She'd need to find a simpler spell to use...

"FALRLGALGHLAGLHALRRGLAG" was the sound Twilight made as her face was buffeted by the wind rushing towards her, or rather by the wind that she was rushing towards.

Rainbow looked back at her. "WHAT WAS THAT?" she yelled.

"GLAHRFLRLFALGRLALFGRL!" Twilight attempted once more to speak, before giving up and burying her face in the cloud she was riding. She octuple-checked the rope securing her to said cloud, the rope that was also connected to Rainbow Dash as she towed Twilight along.

"Use the walking on clouds spell, she said. We'll get there in no time, she said," Twilight grumbled to herself.

Fortunately, the journey was mercifully short, probably due in part to how fast they had been travelling. Twilight had to pry herself from the cloud, and when she stepped onto solid ground, she nearly fell over from how much her legs were shaking.

She inhaled deeply. "Rainbow... how... do you... cope... with that?"

Rainbow tried to answer, but was impeded by that fact that she was currently rolling on the floor, convulsing with laughter. Twilight pulled a mirror from her saddlebag, and gave herself a look over. She quickly found the source of the pegasus's amusement: her mane was in a worse condition than the time she'd tried the infamous RainBlow-Dry.

She sighed. "Rainbow, I swear I am never following one of your plans ever a- oh!" A certain grey mailmare had just walked out of the post office. "Well, she's here at least. Ditzy!"

Ditzy turned. "Oh, hi Twilight! I like your new manestyle."

Twilight was taken aback. There were often new books coming into the library which she had to sign for, so she had come to recognise most of the mailponies in Ponyville, but she hadn't expected Ditzy to remember her in return. She scrambled for something appropriate to say, given the circumstances. "Uh, thanks. So, how's... life?"

Ditzy beamed. "It's going great, thanks! Oh! I think I have a new book for you. Would you like it now, or should I take it along to the library instead?"

"Oh, it's probably the new Daring Do! I'll take that off your hooves for you. Wouldn't want you to be dragged down by something heavy like that if you didn't have to," Twilight answered quickly. She noticed Rainbow finally break out of her hysterics at the mention of her favourite intrepid adventurer.

Ditzy plucked the package from her satchel, along with a clipboard, both of which Twilight levitated over to herself. She signed the form, and tucked her delivery away into her own bag.

"By the way, Ditzy, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something," Twilight mentioned as she gave her back the clipboard. "I know you're busy now though, so do you think Rainbow and I could meet with you later?"

Ditzy smiled even wider than before. "You want to talk to me? Sure! Just come on by my place later. But yeah, I have to go now, or my boss'll shout at me." Then she took off into the sky, off to deliver the mail to the good citizens of Ponyville.

Twilight paused. "...wait. I don't know where she lives!" She noticed Rainbow rummaging into her saddlebag, and had to use her magic to pry her away from it. "Sorry Rainbow Dash, you can't read it until it's been catalogued at the library."

"Awww, c'mon! I'll tell you where Der- ...where she lives, so you gotta at least lemme read the first chapter!"

Twilight sighed. She looked up to the sky; there was still roughly an hour until the time they'd all arranged to meet at Rarity's. "Alright, Rainbow. We'll go register this at the library, and then you can check it out."

There was a tentative knock on the door of the Carousel Boutique.

Rarity opened it without turning away from her current project. It was only after a few moments of silence that she turned to look at her guest.

"Oh, Fluttershy! You're early."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I-I'll just come back later..." She turned to leave, before she felt Rarity gently tugging on her with her magic.

"Relax, Fluttershy, it's fine. Besides, I was wanting to see how a certain fabric looked against your coat."

Pinkie and Applejack arrived shortly afterwards, and Rainbow & Twilight some time after that.

"Sorry we're late!" Rainbow declared. "Twilight spent ages doing her mane!"

Rarity huffed. "Well, I'm glad to hear you're making the effort dear, but if I'm brutally honest, it doesn't look any different from your normal style."

Twilight took that as a compliment. Getting her hair back to "normal" had taken nearly a full hour, but she hadn't wanted to contemplate what Rarity would do to her if she'd seen what it had looked like before.

"Well, no matter. Now that we're all here, I can finally bring out what you all came to see."

Twilight looked up. "You mean you managed to make them?"

Rarity nodded. "That I certainly did, although I'm afraid not even I could make them look fashionable. Therefore, I have also designed us all some elegant yet casual daywear to wear over the top of them. Behold!" She swung back a curtain, revealing six mannequins, each bearing an outfit specifically tailored for the pony it corresponded to. Next to them was a table, upon which lay a collection of black belt-like objects.

Twilight gasped. "Oh Rarity, you didn't have to go to so much trouble just for us!"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Besides, it would've bothered me much more to think what somepony could've been wearing if I hadn't," Rarity said, glancing sidelong at Applejack. "I'd hate to think of anyone going out wearing nothing but one of these." She levitated one of the objects off the table to display her point.

Twilight giggled. "They look lovely. Do you think you could show us all how you use them?"

"Certainly." She wrapped the thinner part of the garment around her flank, and then the thicker part went over her posterior, with a hole at the dock to allow her tail to slip through it. There was a click as it was locked in place. "There we are. Now it won't come off without the codeword. 'Meraki!'" As she said this there was another click, and the belt slipped off.

Applejack lowered an eyebrow. "Me-what now?"

Twilight was smiling in approval. "'Meraki.' It means 'to do something with soul, creativity, or love.' Very you, Rarity. So how did you make it react to your voice?"

Rarity indicated a gem that was set into the buckle of the belt. "I've had these magical gems for ages, but never really found an appropriate use for them before now. I trust you can all remember the catchword? I made sure it was short, sweet, and unlikely to come up in conversation."

They all nodded, before each picking up one of the strips and practising putting them on and removing them.

"Uh, Rarity?" Twilight was looking at hers uncertainly. "Did you not leave any holes for, y'know, going to the bathroom?"

Rarity let out an audible gasp. "Twilight! That's revolting!" She put a hoof over her mouth, and looked like she was going to be sick.

"But all the chastity belts I read about were designed to be worn for great lengths of time!"

Rarity waved a hoof dismissively. "Yes, I am quite aware of those archaic contraptions. But we live in a much different time from the days when those horrid things were used, and these particular belts have a different purpose anyway. It most certainly isn't temptation that we're in danger from right now."

"Speaking of which, I noticed somepony got mighty unlucky already. Any of y'all know about this?" Applejack asked, pulling her scroll from her bag.

"Oh, you mean Ditzy?" Rainbow was careful to get her name right: Twilight had threatened not to take her along later, if she thought she'd call her Derpy to her face. "Yeah, me and Twilight saw her before we came here, and we're going to visit her later so that Twilight can examine her. She hopes it'll give her a clue to fight back against Discord!"

"So when y'all saw her, how was she actin'?" Applejack asked.

Twilight turned to Rainbow. "You know her better than I do; did she seem any different to you?"

Rainbow scratched her head. "No... now that I think about it, she was acting completely normal."

"Hmmm... this is really weird." Twilight furrowed her brow in thought. "Ponyville seems no different; you certainly wouldn't expect this calm from a town filled with hot-to-trot stallions with no morals. And now an apparent victim of hypnosis isn't showing any signs of changes to her personality..."

Rarity was the first to catch on. "You think Discord lied to us about the whole thing, just to throw us into a panic?"

"It's possible... I know he did something to us, because a couple of my spells have been failing when they shouldn't have. But aside from that, we don't have any evidence of Discord doing what he claims to have done."

There was a brief pause as the group considered this scenario, until the silence was broken by Pinkie's giggling. "It would be pretty funny for us all to be worrying about something that wasn't even there!"

Rainbow nodded. "Pinkie's right. We know Discord's a prankster, and pranks are more about the victim's reactions than actually doing anything to them."

"Well, it'd sure be a relief if that were true, but it sure don't seem likely. We already know he has these big flashy powers, this all sounds like somethin' he could do if he wanted to," Applejack pointed out.

"Um, also, I think..." Fluttershy started hesitantly, "I think it's safer to assume that we are in danger, and be pleasantly surprised if nothing happens, than to assume that we're safe and not be prepared for any danger that might come along."

Rarity clapped her hooves. "Fluttershy makes an excellent point. Whether we believe that that ruffian has indeed done that which he claims to have done, or that he hasn't, it won't change the precautions we'll need to take. So worrying ourselves over it won't gain us anything, except maybe an awful pimple or two." She pulled out a few screens to form makeshift dressing rooms. "Now, what better way to take our minds off of our concerns than by you all trying on your new outfits?"

Twilight was still mulling things over, and she guessed the others were too, but she didn't want to take away from the hard work Rarity had put into making their outfits, so she pushed the thoughts temporarily from her mind.

They all took their respective outfits off of their stands, and carried them into the changing rooms to slip into them. Even though they walked around naked the majority of the time, most ponies were still embarrassed when it came to others seeing them get dressed or undressed.

Twilight's outfit somewhat resembled the ensemble Rarity had made her for her previous birthday, a short-sleeved dress that hung down to her mid-cannon, with a pink ribbon draped over her back and tied up in a bow at her chest. The primary difference was that, where her birthday dress had been a pale yellow, this new one was a pastel blue.

By virtue of being able to simply teleport her clothes onto her, Twilight was the first one dressed. She stepped out from the partition, and admired everypony else's outfits as they each emerged.

A fern green sleeveless dress adorned Fluttershy, draping over her entire back legs, the hemline hovering just an inch above the floor, befitting of her modesty.

Pinkie Pie was wearing a short poofy skirt in a pink & black checkered pattern. Twilight noticed she also had black spandex shorts on underneath, presumably to prevent the chastity belt being on display if anypony saw up her skirt, which didn't seem that unlikely given Pinkie's bouncing tendencies.

Rainbow Dash had put on a streamlined set of dark grey tracksuit trousers, with a rainbow racing stripe along the side. Rarity had clearly realised that Rainbow wouldn't accept any clothes that sacrificed her athletic performance.

Applejack was clad in a loose-fitting pair of blue denim shorts, allowing her freedom of movement so as to not impede her in her applebucking duties.

Even Rarity had donned a new outfit, and while she would rather be seen dead than "casual", her attire was at least less extravagant than some of her fancier costumes. She bore a long, plain carnation-pink dress with a Stil de Grain yellow trim, accompanied by a set of matching boots that came up past her elbows.

"Wow Rarity," Twilight said, gazing in awe, "these outfits are perfect! They're all so us!" There was a consensus of nods amongst the other ponies.

"Yeah Rarity, these are awesome!" Rainbow cheered. "I didn't know you could make non-sappy clothes too!"

"Well, I was tempted to give them a little more pizazz, but I know you and Applejack still have yet to develop an appreciation for style," Rarity sighed.

"Well, I sure am glad ah don't have to walk around lookin' all frou-frouy, so I'll let that one slide," Applejack said.

Rainbow poked the white unicorn in the nose with her hoof-tip. "Hey, I do too have style, miss fancy-pants. Awesome is a style as well, y'know?"

Twilight giggled as she thought of the "awesome" outfit Rainbow had created, the time when Rarity had let her dictate how she made her dress. "C'mon Rainbow. It's about time we went to see Ditzy anyway."

"Huh? Oh yeah, it is about that time!" Her grievances quickly forgotten, Rainbow dashed out the door, then flew up into the sky to drag another cloud down to ground level. "C'mon Twilight, we don't wanna be late."

Twilight cringed. "Let's just walk this time, okay?"