Barb skipped her way through the town, she had woken up earlier than usual so she could continue to enjoy this new body, before Dusk decides to remove it and return him to normal, she really wished Dusk would live in the moment.

“Barb! Hey Barbara!” A voice called out and Barb turned to see Derpy approaching.

“Hey Derpy, what’s the word?” Barb asked.

“The word is that Dusk visited the spa yesterday! I should have been there,” Derpy said.

“The mares around town really want a piece of him huh?” Barb chuckled.

“Can you blame us? He’s so handsome! And you know what the best part is if I become his marefriend?” Derpy whispered conspiratorially.

…Barb didn’t expect this, Derpy’s usually so lovely, why would even she be after Dusk’s rep?

“Uhm, what?” Barb asked.

“Come on, you know!” Derpy said.

“Um, I don’t what reason do you want to be with my dorky brother?” Barb said understanding now what Dusk’s sadness from the other day was.

“So you and I can become sisters silly!” Derpy giggled.

“Huh?” Barb said.

“Yeah, you're one of my only friends, and if I became Mrs. Dusk Shine, we could be sisters! And when you one day have foals, Dinky could play with them,” Derpy said

“You… aren’t interested in the money or power it would give you to be a princess?” Barb asked.

Derpy cluelessly responded “Wha? Nah, I’m comfortable in my current lifestyle, being a royal sounds boring…” Derpy said before resuming her speech about another benefit is limitless muffins or something…

“Holy… Derpy!” Barb said cutting her off.

“Huh?” Derpy said

“Are there any other mares who feel this way?” Barb asked.

“I’m not sure, never thought of asking,” Derpy honestly said.

“Derps, we gotta talk,” Barb said forming a plan.

Rainbow walked through his cloud home wearing a teeshirt and shorts, as he went into the kitchen and fixed up some cereal he saw Tank nearby.

“Hey Tank!” Rainbow Blitz said as he approached the tortoise.

“So… you remember our talk last night right?” Rainbow asked.

Tank nodded

“That I was a girl before yesterday, and that things may return to normal soon,” Rainbow stated.

Tank nodded, Rainbow may not be as good as Fluttershy at translating animal language, but he’s got a grasp on at least Tank’s mannerisms.

“Ok, well, I believe I got weather duty today so I’ll-” Blitz suddenly heard a knocking at the door.

“One second!” Blitz said heading to the door.

As he went to the door and opened it he was surprised to be glomped by a blue mare with a dark blue mane.

“Ah!” Rainbow jumped a little.

“Got you!” the blue mare said backing off.

“Uh, hey!...” Blitz had no idea who this was…

“Hey… what?” She asked.

“N-nothing, so what brings you here?” Rainbow Blitz asked deciding he must know her.

“Well, I was wondering if I can do one of my morning quickies with you before I go off to see Spitfire,” she said with lowered eyelids.

This stunned Blitz, morning quickie? She couldn’t mean… on one hand, she’s hot but… it’s a little soon to be thinking on that… how does he even… what should he do?!

“Um, Blitz? You ok?” She asked worriedly.

“Uh, yeah, hey, before we do anything can I ask that we skip today, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today,” Rainbow asked nicely.

The mare seemed to pout at this “Are you sure Blitzy? You don’t usually turn me away,” She said.

“Uhm… it’s just, nothing against you, I need to get some things together, but another time, totally,” Blitz said.

“Alright,” She shrugged looking a little disappointed but understanding “I guess I’ll tell the others today’s not happening.

“Thanks- others?” Rainbow said looking surprised.

“Well yeah, your one of the few studs in Ponyville able to bed multiple mares, and heat season is coming up, but we can wait until tomorrow, no prob,” She said.

“....Uh…” Rainbow’s brain shortcircuited, he really didn’t know what to say… is she saying he has flocks of mares wanting to be in bed with him?... it’s like a dream come true and a nightmare at the same time…

“See ya, and make sure to call, your favorite gal Soarin will get lonely without her call,” She said playfully before flying off.

….S-S-SOARIN!?

Rainbow slowly shut the door and slid to the ground.

“Either here I am braver with the opposite sex… or I’m a player in this reality… like a real field player,” Rainbow said looking both afraid and excited at the same time… not to mention, now that he thought of it, that mare was the same color of coat and mane as the Soarin from his original reality… so he’s become a mare and doesn’t notice anything.

Dusk needs to know.

Elusive had managed to craft several suits in a day, way less than usual.

Back when he was Rarity he mainly focused on dresses and mare needs, but it seems in this reality the opposite was true, and now the Carousel Boutique now caters more to the stallion crowd instead.

To remedy this, Elusive has put his personal spin on several suits to make them more… complex.

“Alright, that should suffice,” Elusive said finishing his latest suit, it had several unique features, including a unique hemline, a spontaneous color, and a unique cufflink attachment.

“Yes… this is as fun as making dresses…” Elusive said sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than others.

Noticeably mares seemed to be avoiding the Boutique right now, is it because his options are less widespread to mares now?

Elusive was about to get started on suit order number five when he noticed he was out of black string.

“Oh dear… I suppose this means I must pay a visit to the fabric store” Elusive sighed getting up and walking to the door.

“Perhaps a long walk will help me clear my head,” Elusive figured and he left the Boutique and decided to take the long way to the fabric store.

“At least it is a nice day,” Elusive said looking around and walking down the dirt road.

As he moved along he noticed several mares were intentionally getting out of his way, and several stallions were eyeing him.

“Odd,” Elusive thought and as he walked along he saw more ponies seemingly giving him the avoidant treatment.

“This is strange… I need to inquire about this,” Elusive said to himself before turning and beelining for the fabric store, whereas upon entering he saw that the ponies in the store seemed to be doing the same thing.

“Why is everypony avoiding me?” Elusive thought as he went to the section with black string and collected his materials.

As he entered the next aisle looking for more needles he bumped into a figure.

“Oh, sorry sir, I-” Elusive paused when he saw that it was Filthy Rich.

“Oh, hello there Elusive, I didn’t think I’d see you so soon,” Filthy said.

“Oh, um, why is that?” Elusive said honestly just glad somepony is talking to him.

“Well considering what happened and what occurred recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if you stayed in hiding for a while longer.” Filthy said looking concerned.

“...Hiding? Why is that?” Elusive asked.

“Oh don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, it only occurred weeks ago, unless, are you feeling alright?” Filthy asked.

“I am telling you I do not know what you mean,” Elusive said starting to wonder if he did something terrible without actually doing it.

“Surely you're not saying you don’t remember what happened between you and Scarlet do you?” Filthy asked.

“...Scarlet?...” Elusive pondered, he remembers the names of many of his clients and ‘Scarlet’ doesn’t ring a bell… he’ll have to play along. “Of course, I do remember her, but it seems that my memory is fogged, care to recant?” Elusive asked

Filthy sighed “If I must, you were set to date and possibly one day spend your life with a lower class mare named Scarlet, she wasn’t high life like you wanted but you cared about her for her heart, like the element of Generosity should, although everypony could see your relationship was more sibling-like than lovers.” Filthy said.

“Oh, yes, do go on,” Elusive said, honestly surprised at the direction this is going, he was engaged? To a mare he didn’t even love as a lover?... Sounds like the plot of a cheap romance novel.

“In any case when the Grand Galloping Gala came around, you sought to pursue the mare of your dreams,” Filthy continued.

“Mare?” Elusive thought about this, he pursued a mare at the Gala? But the pony he was after as Rarity was Blueblood… could this mean-

“You flirted and charmed her, and according to you it seemed to be going off without a hitch… until her husband arrived and saw you courting her.” Filthy said.

“Husband?!” Elusive exclaimed before remembering he was in public and he quieted “Are you saying I attempted to court Blueblood’s wife? He had one?” Elusive was so lost, but even more so when Filthy looked confused.

“No… why do you sound as though your hearing this firsthand when you experienced it firsthand?” Filthy asked.

“Oh uhm…. Nevermind, continue,” Elusive said.

“Well… when Fancy Pants saw you courting Fluer… it wasn’t pretty, and you two got into a bicker over her, if I remember right you said you were quite tipsy at the time, so you cannot be fully be blamed, at least in my opinion, and that was the reason you were kicked out of the Gala,” Filthy said.

‘I-i don’t believe it… I attempted to court a married mare?! Fancy Pants’s wife?!’ Elusive shouted in his head. “A-and how does this tie into Scarlet?” Elusive asked.

“After the backlash you received you were in a bit of a dark place for a time, when Scarlet tried to help you pushed her away until she just gave up and left, I for one understand that a stallion makes mistakes and is put in a dark place because of it, so at least I don’t feel any negative feelings towards you, but time will heal all wounds,” Filthy finished.

Elusive was taken aback, not only did he attempt to have an affair but with a married mare?! Disgusting! He would never! There had to have been a dirty ploy at hand, there just had to have been.

It was no wonder everypony was giving him the cold shoulder.

“Filthy… tell me it is all a lie,” Elusive begged.

“You must have hit your head and lost your memory or something if you truly don’t remember, do you need me to get you to the hospital?” Filthy said concernedly.

“N-no… I just… need to go now,” Elusive said taking his leave.

“The shock must have been bad for the poor stallion,” Filthy muttered.

Elusive left the fabric store after paying for the fabrics, but he was lost in his thoughts.

“The past me only ever pursued Blue Blood, but since I am a stallion in this reality I must have had a different target in mind… Per-perhaps I simply didn’t know…” Elusive said wandering to Sugarcube Corner with his head down.

Elusive entered Sugarcube Corner, determined to drown his sorrows in ice cream like he usually does.

Upon entry, he saw Pinkie sitting in a chair with a tub of ice cream open and a spoon in it.

“You know me so well Pinkie,” Elusive said walking up to his seat and sitting beside his friend.

“Hey Lucy, you seem down in the dumps,” Berry said.

“Yes, I am Pin- Lucy?” Elusive glanced up at Berry.

“Yup, that’s your name here, like how back in the Ponyville we knew your name was Rarie to me, now here it’s Lucy, short for Elusive,” Berry said.

“I…See, and do you, pray tell know the names of our other friends by now?” Elusive asked.

“Yup! I’m Berry Bubble now and the others are Dusk Shine, Rainbow Blitz, Butterscotch, and Applejack is still Applejack,” Berry said.

“Ah… good for Applejack…” Elusive sighed before eating some ice cream.

“So tell me, what’s got you all pouty?” Berry asked.

“Oh it’s this dreadful reality we’re living in, It has thoroughly done me in,” Elusive complained.

“Already?” Berry asked eating a giant sundae that appeared out of nowhere.

“Yes, it seems I made a poor judgment call and things happened quite differently at the Gala… I’ll be lucky if I ever live it down…” Elusive said.

“Yeah, we all make those,” Berry said eating half of the sundae in one bite.

“Not of this magnitude. I preyed on the wife of another stallion Berry…” Elusive said quietly.

“You did? Wow… that is bad, but you gotta move on, what happened happened,” Berry shrugged.

“I wish I could, but how?” Elusive asked.

“Perhaps clear the air with the ones you wronged? After all the one who did wrong wasn’t you, it’s the past of this reality,” Berry told Elusive seriously.

“...Your right,” Elusive stood tall “I am not the stallion I was in this re-written history, I am Rarity Belle! And I will-” Elusive paused when he saw Berry gesturing for him to sit and he realized he was making a scene when he saw the ponies staring at him, he sat back down and cleared his throat.

“Ah, never mind, go about your business,” Elusive said before turning to Berry.

“First off we need to visit Twilight Sparkle, see if she can fix this,” Elusive said.

“Dusk Shine, he’s Dusk Shine right now,” Berry reminded him.

“Regardless,” Elusive pressed.

“Ok, we’ll wait for my break,” Berry said.

“Wait, you weren’t on break just now?” Elusive asked.

“Nope! But I have somepony covering for me,” Berry waved at a brown mare who was bussing a table and intentionally leaning over too far, she waved back.

“Um… who is that?” Elusive asked.

“Cheesie of course!” Berry giggled.

“....I have so many questions…” Elusive said rubbing his head, feeling a headache coming on.

Applejack went inside for his thirty-minute break, he saw Granny Smith and Apple Bloom sitting at the table.

“So that didn’t change,” Applejack said before approaching.

“AJ, ah need a word with ya,” Granny Smith said.

“Alright,” Applejack said, already having a feeling what this is about, he sat down.

“Red Gala came in this mornin looking upset at a rude little prank you and Blitz played on her,” Granny said.

“Ah… well,” Applejack said trying to think of how he can word it as an excuse.

“Ya’ll pretended not to know her and it made her upset that ya’ll would do that, you know how much she cares about her family, and pretending ya don’t know her made her feel for a little bit as though you didn’t,” Granny said.

“Ah’m sorry Granny, ah suppose it was a crude prank, ah’ll apologize,” Applejack said.

“No need, ah assured her ya didn’t mean anything harsh, just don’t do it again, and on another note, ah’d relay this ta Blitz, he’s already on thin ice with Gala, she doesn’t need any other reasons to resent him,” Granny said.

“Huh? Resent him?” Applejack questioned.

‘Fer breakin her heart, ah still don’t get why Scootaloo praises him after what he did,” Apple Bloom added in sounding bitter.

“Ah… see, wanna talk about it?” Applejack asked, trying to investigate this.

“No, we don’t want to risk her overhearing it an gettin more upset with you,” Granny said.

“Got it,” Applejack said deciding to drop it for now.

“Now that we got that cleared up, let’s get back to work,” Granny said.

“Ok,” Applejack said getting up “And ah’m gonna visit with my friends later after mah chores,” Applejack said.

“Alright, but don’t take too long,” Granny said as Applejack nodded and left.

Butterscotch woke up on the couch, he looked around and saw his animal friends looking at him concernedly, save for Angel who looked annoyed.

“Oh, sorry to worry you all, I… didn’t get much sleep last night,” Butterscotch said sitting up.

Harry made a low rumble noise from his mouth and pointed at Butterscotch’s pants.

“I see, so I passed out because I saw my… erection… and I was freaking out because of a few mares hitting on me,” Butterscotch said before looking upset and turning to his friends with a worried look.

“Really I am fine, I will be visiting my friends today, so why don’t you all go and have a trip down to the creek without me today,” Butterscotch said.

The other animals looked conflicted but nodded and left… except for Angel.

“I suppose you are suspicious of my recent behavior aren’t you? That I may not be Butterscotch?” Butterscotch said reading Angel quite quickly. Angel simply shook his head yes.

“I suppose I can’t keep things from you, I am Butterscotch, but… it’s complicated… I was different a couple days ago until an accident made me like this… please don’t tell the others, I will tell them soon,” Butterscotch pleaded.

Angel made hand gestures that warned him that he was watching him before hopping off.

“...I suppose I need to get moving,” Butterscotch said getting up and leaving through the door.

Dusk had finished resetting all the materials and getting everything set up, perhaps if everything happens like it did before everything will be reset.

“Now I just need to make sure the formula is the same as before,” Dusk said as he went down into his lab.

Dusk went over to the lab table with a crystal ball and tried to fix it up like he did that fateful day.

“Alright, I need to go based on memory and begin measurements of magical output,” Dusk said before lighting his horn and flowing some magic into it.

“Alright, first step, begin by making the ball a magical conduit via filling it with magical energy, then-”

A sudden slamming of a door upstairs made the magic-charged crystal ball fall off of the table.

“Twilight! We need to talk!” Elusive called his friend by his female name.

“Calm down Rarity, we could be intruding on something,” Butterscotch said.

“Ah, don’t got long so we better hurry up with this,” Applejack said.

Rainbow Blitz simply looked like he was in thought and Berry was bouncing as usual.

“DUUUUSKY!” Berry called trying to get ahold of his friend.

The group entered and Applejack gave the door a light kick to close it, and wound up slamming the door.

BOOM

Every stallion turned their gaze to the basement door which opened and a slightly burnt Dusk came out.

“Ever heard of knocking guys?” Dusk coughed some smoke.

“Are you alright?” Butterscotch asked.

“I was until someone slammed the door so hard it broke another crystal ball prematurely, seriously I am starting to run low on those,” Dusk said dusting himself off.

“That was me,” Applejack said feeling embarrassed “Guess ah still don’t know mah own strength,” Applejack said.

“It’s fine, so now that we have time we should talk,” Dusk said using his magic to pull some chairs over and everypony sat down.

“So… have there been any changes besides us?” Dusk asked.

Everystallion looked at each other and nodded, Applejack went first.

“Mah brother is now mah sister,” Applejack said.

“What?” Dusk said looking shocked.

“Me an Rainbow here went to go get some hard ciders to ease the stress of the day, and we were approached by a red mare callin herself Red Gala, sayin she was mah sister and that she doesn’t know a Big Mac,” Applejack explained.

“I can confirm it since I was there,” Rainbow said.

“Your kidding… so there was more ponies affected than just us,” Dusk said before looking to his friends again. “Were there any others?” Dusk asked.

“Cheesie is a mare now, she’s called Swiss Cheese, she’s in Sugarcube Corner covering my shift,” Berry stated.

“I met Soarin as a mare, I mean how am I supposed to react to that?” Blitz said shaking his head a little.

“Ah… is that it… I’m starting to question if I picked the wrong spell when I made it,” Dusk said.

“You bet you did,” Elusive said rather gruffly.

“Huh?” Dusk said.

“This new reality is terrible! Ponies giving me the cold shoulder, a sordid affair, relearning how to use the restroom!? I wish to return to being Rarity again, at least my old life wasn’t so crooked,” Elusive demanded.

“Affair?” Applejack asked.

“Not right now, right now, I demand an immediate cure to my existential crisis,” Elusive said.

“Ah agree, things are just uncomfortable here,” Applejack said.

“The mares love me here, and there are a lot of advantages for me here… but I mean, it’s a little awkward, but if we can’t go back to how we were I can live with it though,” Blitz shrugged.

“Well, I’m not,” Elusive said.

“Just saying,” Blitz said with a shrug.

“Twilight, please tell me you’ve thought of something,” Elusive begged.

“Well, it’s theoretical but Luna suggested we retry the experiment, perhaps that will fix this,” Dusk said.

“Wait… Luna?! You mean you told her?” Applejack exclaimed.

“Calm down Applejack, she already knew, she saw our dreams after the accident occurred.” Dusk explained.

“Oh, then that means it’s okay I told Mr Cake and the twins about it?” Berry asked.

“You did what?!” Dusk said turning to his pink friend.

“Don’t worry, he didn’t believe me, and the twins are too young to understand,” Berry dismissed.

“Still, you shouldn’t tell others,” Dusk said firmly, Butters and Rainbow tried to smile innocently but Dusk could tell.

“Who did you tell?...” Dusk asked with a sigh.

“Angel, he promised not to tell anypony,” Butterscotch explained.

“Tank, pretty sure nopony will be able to tell what he’s saying if they tried.” Blitz shrugged.

Dusk sighed “When Spike gets back we’ll have her aid in the ‘repeat the experiment’ plan,” Dusk said “With all due hope, we can put things back as they once were with this,”

“Agreed,” Elusive said.

“I’ll send her a message and get things moving,” Dusk said floating a quill and some ink to himself.

“Daring Do books for me,” Rainbow said getting up and walking over to the shelves.

“I’ll make snacks!” Berry bounced into the kitchen.

“I suppose I will help,” Butterscotch said following the hyperactive pink stallion.

“S’pose a nap wouldn’t hurt,” Applejack said laying down.

“...” Elusive just laid back in his chair, waiting for whatever may come.

Author's Note

Things may get more tense in the following chapter, but things will get better, and in the future more lovey-dovey.

But with who? You'll have to wait and see.