Dusk Shine the pony formerly known as Twilight Sparkle was assembling the spell, and thanks to his photographic memory there were fewer crystal balls exploding in his face.

Meanwhile, everypony was sitting around enjoying their own personal distractions.

“Hey, Rainbow?” Butterscotch asked.

“Yeah?” Blitz asked.

“Do you… really want to stay like this?” Butterscotch asked.

Blitz seemed to go into thought “Well… I mean there are advantages, I mean…” Blitz leaned in close “Don’t tell the others but, I have always been a bit more into mares than stallions,” Blitz whispered.

“Ok,” Butterscotch nodded.

Blitz sat back “Plus now that I’m a handsome stud, finding a mare friend shouldn’t be too hard, and not to mention no more trying to be overly tough to fit in among the Wonderbolt stallions, no more estrus, and best of all, no more periods,” Blitz said happily.

“I… see, I must admit those are advantages,” Butterscotch said looking down.

“You alright?” Blitz asked.

“I just… I want to return to normal, Rainbow, can I be honest with you too?” Butters asked quietly.

“Sure,” Blitz scooted closer.

“I’m scared of stallions… Not that they're bad or anything, it’s just… I’m too shy to converse with them sometimes,” Butterscotch said.

“I know that,” Blitz said.

“But lately… I think my fears have reversed…” Butterscotch said.

“Huh?” Rainbow Blitz said sounding surprised.

“I’m still nervous around stallions… but now… the mares are treating me differently, it’s scary… and the worst part… a part of me…” Butterscotch took a shaky breath and resumed “A part of me…. Liked it,” Butterscotch whispered near the end but Rainbow still heard it.

“Whoa… I… are you saying mares scare you now? And yet you were… aroused by their attention?” Blitz said, he honestly would have laughed if Butters wasn’t looking on the verge of crying from his confusion.

“Yes, no… maybe?...” Butterscotch said confusedly.

Understanding the situation Blitz put his hand on Butterscotch’s shoulder.

“Hmm?” Butterscotch looked at him.

“Look… I’m not good at these things but…if it makes you feel better I just figured out I may be a bit of a player in this reality,” Blitz said comfortingly.

“A player? You?” Butterscotch said confusedly.

“Yeah… I guess in this reality I… frequently go at it with other mares, Soarin came in earlier asking for a ‘morning quickie’ and I got flustered,” Blitz admitted.

“Ah yes, you did say Soarin is a girl now… but I really don’t see you as the type to play the field like that,” Butters said.

“Well I guess I am… or maybe there’s something else I’m not seeing, but regardless, I plan to fix my standing so I don’t turn out to be a cheater or something,” Blitz said.

“I agree, and I need to figure out these feelings, but maybe after I return to my old self.” Butters said.

“Yeah, if I turn back I won’t be too disappointed, but if not I could live with it,” Blitz said.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” Butters said.

“No prob,” Blitz said.

“Hey, Lucy! Why so sad?” Berry asked.

“Hey, Berry…” Elusive said dismissively.

“C’mon, talk to me,” Berry said.

Elusive sighed and looked up from the fashion catalog he was reading.

“I was reading Pinkie,” Elusive said.

“Berry,” Berry corrected.

“I meant Pinkie, we’ll be returning to normal soon anyways,” Elusive said.

“Yeah but till then, let’s live in the moment,” Berry said.

“Sorry I don’t share your enthusiasm,” Elusive said.

“Why do you hate being a stallion?” Berry asked sitting beside him.

“I don’t hate being a stallion, it’s just… when I look in the mirror, I see a familiar face staring back at me… it just reminds me of that cur Blueblood. And besides, I was born a proper mare, and I won’t be cut off from my true gender by some accident,” Elusive said.

“Hmm… but I mean, if you only have this body for a while, shouldn’t you make the most of it?” Berry asked.

“Pinkie dear, I just plan to turn back and forget this ever happened, please understand,” Elusive said putting the catalog back over his face.

“Ok,” Berry said looking sad he couldn’t help his friend.

As he was about to go and find something else to do they heard a door open and they all turned to see Barb reentering.

“Hey guys!” Barb said waving at them.

“Hi!” Berry zipped up to her “You look like you’ve been busy,” Berry pointed out.

“What? These?” Barb said gesturing to her painted nails and make-up.

“You really seem to be falling into this girl dragon role Spike,” Blitz said.

“Eh, not that hard when you’ve been around mostly mares your whole life and remember, this version of me is Barbra,” Barb reminded him.

“Ah, sorry,” Blitz said.

“Anywho, I got the message, so Dusk thinks that repeating the accident will fix everything?” Barb said sitting down.

“Yeah,” Butterscotch replied.

“He’s not going to make me fall down the stairs again on purpose this time is he?” Barb said with a raised brow.

“No, I won’t allow it,” Elusive said.

“Thanks,” Barb said, finding himself giving a slight blush when he said that… odd.

The group waited around for another hour and a half before Dusk came up from the basement.

“Eureka! Again,” Dusk said before walking into the room with the others.

“Finally,” Elusive said.

“Quicker than usual,” Blitz remarked.

“I still had my old notes to go off of,” Dusk said before carefully approaching the familiar pedestal in the center of the room and setting the ball on the pedestal.

“I gotta know egghead, how do you know this won’t just make things worse?” Blitz asked.

“I don’t, but this is the most logical course of action,” Dusk said before noticing Applejack was still sleeping.

“Wow, heavy sleeper, can somepony wake him up?” Dusk asked.

“On it!” Berry said before going up to AJ and pinching his nose.

Applejack couldn’t breathe through his nose now and he eventually woke up startled.

“AGH! What in tarnation?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Time to wake up sleepy head!” Berry said.

“Is it time?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah,” Butters added in.

“Then what are we waitin' for?” Applejack asked.

“Nothing, just gotta make sure parameters are set first,” Dusk said making sure that there are no distractions and things that’ll ruin the setup.

“Well, A part of me is going to miss this,” Blitz said.

“Don’t jinx us Blitz,” Applejack warned.

“I know I know,” Blitz said.

“Dusk are you sure you wanna do this? I mean, we could all still find happiness like this,” Barb asked her brother.

“Sorry Barb, but I want to go back and so do most of the ponies here,” Dusk said.

“What if I don’t want to?” Barb said.

“You're not planning on intentionally stranding us like this?” Dusk asked with his hands on his hips.

“I deserve an opinion too,” Barb said.

“Spike,” Elusive asked calling Barb by her original name “I do not want to stay like this, please,” Elusive begged.

“...Ok, fine, but you owe me,” Barb said.

“Ok, thank you, now I just need you to get to the top of the stairs and-” Dusk began but Barb interrupted.

“No, I’m not throwing myself down some stairs, I am going to go smash it with my own two claws,” Barb said pushing past Dusk.

“B-but what if the tumble was a factor?” Dusk tried to state his reasoning.

“And what if I break my neck? I highly doubt that my falling down the stairs was a factor, right guys?” Barb asked the others who nodded in agreement.

“Fine… just give us a moment to-”

“Yolo!” Barb threw the crystal ball down.

“SPIKE!” Dusk cried before another explosion enveloped the interior of the castle.

Dusk woke up with his back against a wall, he coughed a few times and got up.

“Am… Am I-” Dusk…Twilight? Heard a familiar tone to his/her voice and had a feeling it worked!

“YES!” The alicorn ran to the bathroom and looked into the mirror to see his old self… or more like his less old self…

“Huh?” Dusk said looking confused, seeing his male visage.

“But my voice-” Dusk suddenly coughed a few times and cleared his throat before continuing “was changed… oh… I just needed to clear my throat…” Dusk sighed before walking out to see his friends in similar positions as before and waking, when he saw them…

They still looked like stallions…

“Dang it! Maybe I got something wrong? Or maybe Spike really did need to fall down the stairs, or maybe-” Dusk said trying to rationalize it when he was tapped on the shoulder.

“Huh?” Dusk spun to see Discord.

“Aaah!” Dusk jumped a little at how close he was “Discord?! What are you doing here?” Dusk asked.

“I sensed a surge of the same magic you used to become like this and decided to pay a visit,” Discord said looking to the others who were getting up and looking at themselves.

“I-i’m still a stallion?” Butterscotch said looking distressed.

“What?! Why am I not fixed?” Elusive demanded.

“Had a feeling,” Blitz said

“Can’t be,” Applejack said.

“I knew it was too early in the story for resolution,” Berry said.

“Guys! Calm down,” Dusk said catching their attention.

“Discord?” Butterscotch said.

“Hello there my buttery friend,” Discord chuckled.

“Discord! You had something to do with this didn’t you?” Elusive said accusingly.

“Wrong, this is harmony magic remember, I had no hand in this,” Discord said.

“I- wait a minute, where’s Spike?” Dusk asked.

“Over here,” Discord said holding Barb up by her shirt.

“Hey! Put me down!” Barb wiggled out of his grip.

“Discord, what happened?” Applejack asked.

“Finally somepony asks nicely,” Discord snapped his fingers and everypony and dragon got set-up in chairs.

“Huh?” Elusive said.

“Sit tight my friends this’ll be hard for you all to hear…” Discord said pulling a screen out of nowhere and set it on a table.

“What’ll be hard ta hear?” Applejack asked.

“Let me explain, You see,” Discord pointed to a slideshow with a baton and it showed crayon drawings of the situations he describes.

“You see, here we got Twilight and the others having that accident that Spike caused that triggered the accident that swapped your genders and rewrote reality to suit it, and here we got you doing the same thing that happened before, only different-”

“Get to the point please,” Applejack said.

“Alright,” Discord sighed skipping like seventeen drawings and getting to the point. “I recently discovered what happened to you all,” Discord said.

“You did?!” Dusk said standing up.

“Sit sit, you’ll get your answers,” Discord said.

“Ok,” Dusk said sitting down.

“Alright, it seems when you made your spell you did everything right, and Spike tripping into the pedestal was the catalyst for this,”

“Your not saying-” Elusive said.

“The spell did what it was meant to do! Congrats Twilight! You performed a spell that few have managed,” Discord said.

“What? But the spells purpose was to help us find our potential lovers! Not genderswap us,” Dusk deflected.

“Ah, but it will, you all will gradually see it, you see, I knew I saw the spell somewhere but I didn’t want to get your hopes up, therefore I did some investigation, and found out it was once used frequently back in Starswirls time, it became forbidden and was labeled a theoretical spell to dissuade any potential users,” Discord said.

“Potential users?” Dusk muttered.

“Is this spell dangerous?” Butterscotch asked.

“No, but Luna worried it would cause spacial problems if used too much, so she is the one who outlawed it,” Discord said.

“How do you know this?” Barb asked.

“I chatted with her,” Discord said.

“So you knew she knew?” Dusk asked.

“Yep, I’m like a conversation ninja,” Discord said.

“So… the spell was meant to change one's gender?” Dusk said.

“Help them find their future lover,” Discord clarified.

“Wait a second, if she knew its true purpose then why not just tell us she knew?” Blitz asked.

“I asked that, she didn’t say…” Discord said going into thought for a second before shaking his head.

“Anyways, It seems like you and Luna made a grievous error,” Discord said grimly.

“What error?” Dusk said nervously.

“Ever heard about mutant spells?” Discord said.

“Yes, when a spell is layered with another spell too heavily it becomes a whole new kind of spell, why?” Dusk asked.

“...It seems your calculations were just a smidgen off, and so the imperfect merged with the perfect and made a whole mess of a spell,” Discord said.

“Whaa?” Blitz said.

“Discord that doesn’t make sense, Your saying the same spell made a mutant spell?” Dusk asked.

“Yes, that too was theoretical but you seemed to have proved that even being slightly off on a spell made a mutant spell, as a result, the formula to change back has irrevocably changed and become impossible to change,” Discord said.

“....Twilight?” Elusive scaredly asked “Surely he doesn't mean what I think he means… right?” Elusive asked.

“What?” Blitz and the others still not getting it.

“D-D-Discord, that’s not funny, you can’t seriously mean we’re-” Dusk started and Discord finished.

“You all may be stuck like this for possibly… eternity,” He finished before putting earplugs in.

Immediately afterwards chaos erupted…

Author's Note

I know it's a big cliffhanger, but I have been busy with work, but don't worry, I'll work to post the next chapter soon.

But it seems the Mane Six may be stuck like this longer than they thought and they heard more about the spell.

Let me know how you feel about what's been going on, and don't worry, I won't forget the romance, gotta story build first.