Twilight and his cousins were once again within the town limits, Twilight was now under Umbra's 'Hidden in the Secret, Silent Shadows' spell. The travel since the cottage had been silent as a result of both the silencing spell on Shadow and Twilight's recent breakdown.

“Ugh, finally” The long silence was broken by Shadow's voice.

“It took you a very long time to dispel that” Twilight observed “If this was magic school, you would have failed.”

“Yes, but magic school teachers don't use triple tied soul-bound enchantments.”

“My mother did.”

“Yes but High Lady Twilight Velvet is a completely utterly bat-shit crazy novelist with concept of boundaries and a tendency to take everything to an absurd extreme.”

Umbra rolled her eyes sarcastically, “Uh oh.”

Twilight looked menacingly into Shadow's eyes with a glint of maniac insanity and lifted her half a metre into the air with his magic “My mother is not a novelist! That stuff she writes is not literature! It is degenerate fetish smut! It has no right to exist! And it should all be purged from this world by fire ...”

“Twilight there is a limit to how much the spell can shift attention away from us, and it has a pretty bad backlash when forcefully broken” Umbra grit her teeth as her horn 'lit up' with darkness, gesturing to several ponies looking around the square perplexedly.

“Oh, yeah” Twilight said with a embarrassed giggle before giving Shadow a glare that said 'I'm not done with you yet.'

“Come on.”

“Who are we visiting?”

“Pinkie; Rainbow is currently in Cloudsdale attending a meeting for all executive weather ponies and Sugarcube Corner is significantly closer than Sweet Apple Acres.”

“And 'Shy's cottage is significantly further than either” Shadow put in.

Twilight gave Shadow another ireful look “Yes, but I much rather wait 'til lunch before I need to deal with pink insanity.”

“On that point, it is now past noon and I haven't eaten since breakfast.”

“Oh no, you have gone six and a half hours without food, you are going to wither up and die” Umbra said in a mocking tone.

“Yes, well you didn't experience the major magical exertion required to dispel a soul-bound enchantment from yourself.”

“You wouldn't have needed to remove it if you hadn't been such an idiot earlier.”

“At least I am not afraid to speak my mind.”

“At least I don't blurt out every perverted thing ever to cross my mind.”

“Oh yeah, at least ...”

“Would the both of you shut up!” Twilight's entire face was red with fury and he looked like he was ready to burst into flames at any moment (a very real possibility as that Twilight had done so on many previous occasions).

“Says the pony who gets worked up ...”

Shadow's mouth was promptly plugged by her sister before she said something she would later regret.

Umbra slowly removed her hoof from Shadow's mouth “... over the definition of literature.”

Umbra could do nothing but facehoof (unfortunately she used the same hoof that had been in her sisters mouth and got Shadow's slobber all over her face).

Twilight's eyes narrowed and his horn lit up.

Shadow barely had the time to realize how much she screwed up before she disappeared in a burst of green flame.

Meanwhile, Spike was busy resorting the castle library after Twilight's frantic research session the previous night when he felt flames building up in his stomach. He quickly dropped the books he was carrying and turned so he was in no danger of burning anything.

*Burp*

*Smash*

A dark unicorn had smashed into a bookcase across the room knocking every book down (most of which landed on the newly arrived mare).

“Ugh, now I have to resort all those books, again” Spike walked up to Shadow “What did you do this time?”

The mare replied with only a moan of nausea and pain.

“You know what; I don't care” Spike walked out of the library leaving Shadow alone and in pain.

“That was unnecessary and excessive” Umbra commented with a raised eyebrow “It could be construed as Cruel and Unnecessary Punishment, Abuse of Power or even Assault and Battery.”

“Hmph, she asked for it.”

“Twilight, you are acting like a minotauress during 'that' time of the month.”

“Testosterone is known to cause aggression.”

“Yeah, in mares. and you are going from happy to bawling your face off to blazing rage and back again with no warning.”

“The change must have significantly altered my body chemistry, and my body is trying to fix it.”

Umbra rolled her eyes “I realize that this has been hard for you, but you can't just take it out on other ponies, not even Shadow.”

“What? I am fine.”

“You have shown every stage of grief except bargaining, sometimes simultaneously.”

“That's nonsense.”

“Denial.”

Twilight snorted and looked away “Hey, look we're here, although it's strangely quiet.”

Umbra turned and faced the bakery and Twilight was right. Where there would normally be a constant drone of ponies talking and laughing the building was completely dead silent. In addition the lights were all out. Umbra smiled to herself, she knew what was going on.

Twilight opened the front door and found every light in the place was out he modulated his spell to allow other ponies to hear his voice “Pinkie are you here.”

“That depends, who are you?” answered the ominous voice of the party pony.

“It's me Twilight.”

“Oh, I didn't recognize your voice, come in.”

Twilight walked into the building followed by Umbra.

“Surprise!” Thirty-some ponies jumped out as the lights came on abruptly.

Twilight watched as Pinkie attempted a tackle-hug on the patch of air several metres to his left.

“Applejack?” Pinkie asked looking back towards the group of ponies.

“He's raht there” The farm mare answered while pointing a hoof at Twilight.

“Thanks” Pinkie gave it another try. This time she was headed straight for the stallion.

Two things happened: first, Pinkie collided with enough force to knock Twilight onto his back leaving the two of them in a very awkward position in front of the piercing eyes of several dozen ponies, and second, Umbra's spell cut out (whether it was due to the impact or the proximity of Pinkie was anyone's guess) causing a thump as the mare briefly lost motor control due to backlash from the spell.

Twilight tried to levitate Pinkie off himself but the mare held on tight “Pinkie, would you please get off of me?”

“Why? You're so soft and cuddly and warm and hot and sexy.”

Twilight managed to ignore Pinkie's last statements “Hmph, fine then” There was a flash of light and both Twilight and Pinkie were both standing several metres from each other. “Why are you throwing this party anyways Pinkie.”

“It's your 'Congratulations on Becoming a Stallion Party' silly.”

“Wait, how did you even know?”

“My Pinkie Sense silly; yesterday afternoon I felt a combo that I haven't felt in a long time: eye flutter, twitchy tail, creaky knee and spontaneous combustion which means that one of my close friends, who also happens to be an alicorn, had turned into stallion; of course Mr. and Mrs. Cake were scared by the last part, so I told them 'don't worry, it's just my Pinkie Sense, sillies' and I haven't seen them since.”

“Pinkie, has anypony told you how crazy you are?”

“Yes, my parents told me every day. They took me to see all kinds of fun people. Therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, criminologists and even one pony who was an exorcist – although my father always called him an extortionist so I told him 'you're putting extra letters in, silly' – that pony was the most fun; he would say things like 'by the power of Princess Celestia – reagent of the sun and all it shines on – I command you to leave this body' and I was like 'cool, I didn't know Celly could do that'” Pinkie took a massive breath “Wait, did she teach you how to do that?”

Twilight shook her head. This was not technically a lie, because while Twilight did know how to remove a soul from a body (a rather advanced use of soul magic ) he did not learn it from Celestia (in fact Twilight had come to doubt whether Celestia knew any soul magic at all).

“Aw. Well unfortunately he refused to see me any more after my father asked him to try trepanning, he he he it's such a funny word, trepanning, trepanning, come on everypony say it with me tre-pan-ning.”

Twilight felt slightly nauseous understanding exactly what the mare was talking about (even if she didn't) Twilight looked around and noted his friends' reactions to the pink pony's most recent story. Rarity, Fluttershy and – interestingly enough – Rainbow Dash all had uneasy expressions that showed they also had also understood, while Applejack had adopted the 'smile and nod' facade that many ponies used when around Pinkie. Wait, Rainbow was supposed to be in Cloudsdale attending a very important meeting why was she here. That slacker.

“Rainbow isn't here, silly” Pinkie bounced up to the pegasus and pushed on her nose. Rainbow fell over making the sound of heavy cardboard hitting the ground.

Twilight was flabbergasted, that piece of cardboard had looked real, he was even sure that Rainbow had moved.

“I keep cardboard cutouts stashed around Ponyville, in case of cardboard cutout emergencies.”

Twilight shuddered at the thought of what kind of emergency would require that.

Pinkie bounced over to a table and pulled another large cutout out of seemingly nowhere.

Twilight was shocked to see a pair of familiar violet eyes that seemed to stare even though he knew they were merely painted. What shocked Twilight further was that the cutout was of him post-transformation. Pinkie hadn't even known what he looked like before several minutes ago.

“Look at me, I'm Prince Dusk Shine, and I am the hottest stallion this side of reality and every mare that's seen me wants me, but don't tell me that, I haven't noticed.” Pinkie said in a faux baritone voice from behind the image.

Twilight's horn lit up slightly and his doppelganger was immolated leaving a confused Pinkie Pie “Dusk Shine?” he said with a harsh edge.

The Twilights had a number of things that that they got very intense about; books being the first, and their names a close second. Twilights got especially angry when they thought their name was being mocked. It was for this very reason that, on no less than seven instances in the last five-hundred years, the Sunset house had been almost entirely annihilated.

“Yeah, it's your stallion name, like if I was a stallion my name would be Bubble Berry, but I'm not so I'm good old Pinkie Pie. It's a rule and the fandom would never forgive you if you didn't change your name” Pinkie put her hoof to her chin like she was thinking “Well they would probably forgive you if you went and made every mare in this town into your personal harem, but still.”

“What!?” He'd been a stallion for all of twenty-four hours now and Pinkie had already suggested, not only changing his name but a harem. It's absurd. Although it was well inside his legal rights as a member of the royal 'family'; after all Celestia's Solar Guard was technically a harem (even if the mare did not use it as such) and even Blueblood was rumoured to have his own group of 'special friends' and he wasn't even a true prince (Princess Platinum had downright refused to let go of her title when Equestria was formed so her descendents still have it as an honourary). “Pinkie, three things: first, there is no way in Tartarus that I am changing my name; second, I don't know what you mean by it but 'fandom' is not a real word; and third, I have no interest in dating any mares right now.”

Pinkie's eyes went wide and she gasped loudly “You're not a colt cuddler are you?'

“No!” Twilight said automatically.

“Oh, good, that would have been such a travesty for all marekind.”

“Pinkie, why are you like this all of the sudden? What's gotten into you?”

“It's what hasn't gotten into me that's important” Pinkie waggled her eyebrows “If you know what I mean.”

“No, Pinkie, just no. Why would you even say such a thing.”

Pinkie giggled “You're so funny Dusk, I was talking about cake, silly” the pink pony bounced away into the crowd of talking ponies.

Twilight grit his teeth “No, Twilight, strangling one of your best friends is not the way to solve this problem.”

Umbra got up off the ground, still feeling the backlash and walked up to Twilight with a chuckle “In hindsight, I would probably say it was a good thing that you sent Shadow back when you did. I'd hate to see what she'd be like after that.”

Twilight laughed a little “I guess you're right, it is not as bad as it could be.”

“Hey whorse, whatchyah doing here” a rather inebriated Applejack said glaring accusingly at Umbra.

“I am sorry ma'am, but I fear you may have me confused with somepony else.” Umbra replied politely.

“No, was yah who trahd tah saductuse mah brother” Applejack's drawl combined with the slurring from the drink made her words almost incomprehensible.

“No, that was my twin sister, we even have different cutie marks” Umbra turned to the side to show Applejack before smirking “and I think the word you are looking for is seduce.”

“Whah are yah showin meh yah flank? What kand of mare do yah thank ah ahm.”

“A very drunk mare who should probably never had ingested any ethanol in the first place.”

“Yah thank yer so hah and mighteh with all yer big werds, but ah know yah are nothing more thaan a dumb whorse.”

“Applejack, that's a terrible thing to say, apologize and conduct yourself like a proper lady” Rarity looked utterly scandalized, “I don't believe we have met. I am Lady Rarity Belle.”

“I am Dame Black Umbra vassal to House Twilight and captain of Prince Twilight's royal guard” The last part, while being not entirely true, was not a terrible stretch as that Umbra was the one that Twilight always left in charge (for obvious reasons).

“Oh, I didn’t even know that Twilight had any guards.”

“There is some law that says that every member of the royal 'family' must have their own personal guards so Twilight hired me and my twin sister several months ago and we have mostly stayed out of the public eye since then.”

“I don't really want anypony to view me as the kind of pony who hides behind a wall of guards” Twilight added in.

“Where is your sister right now?”

“She got mailed back to the castle via dragonfire after saying several particularly stupid things.”

A slight grimace quickly passed across Rarity's face “Well it was nice to meet you but I think I hear my name being called.” Rarity left with some haste while dragging Applejack away.

“Aw, why did she have to take her away, drunk ponies are so much fun.”

“Really Umbra, you're supposed to be the good sister.”

Umbra ignored Twilight's statement, “well we might as well join the party.”

Twilight partied over the next several hours having fun with his friends (no, not that kind of fun) and many of the other townsponies. However there were several things that were bugging him, first was that there didn't seen to be any other stallions at the party; in fact – with the notable exception of himself – everypony at the party was a mare between twenty and thirty years of age (which is highly unusual considering Pinkie's parties usually draw a broader interest). The second was that Fluttershy seemed to have lost her ability to even speak to Twilight (even though they had a long conversation just hours earlier) and the third and most distressing thing was the attention he was getting from ponies he had never met. It almost felt like he was a rabbit that had strayed into a den of wolves.

Eventually Twilight got tired and he left with his sole guard in tow. When he got home he went into a deep and dreamless sleep; sure that whatever the next day may bring, he would be ready for it.

Here's chapter 7, not the most changes of a chapter, but not the least. The future chapters will have far more story changes.

Also, I am giving a bit of an announcement, I'm thinking of upping the rating on this story to M for chapter 10. While I probably won't write outright sex scenes (don't hold me to this), it will be rather sexually explicit. And frankly I'm honestly surprised this story lasted so long with a teen rating anyways.