"What?" gasped Applejack and Elusive.

"What?" exclaimed Blitz and Berry.

"Well, not the immediate end of the world," said Dusk. "In fact, probably just the end of Equestria."

"Dusk, you can't be serious," said Elusive. "How has this gone from eyebrows to the apocalypse?"

"Because it's the end of our species," said Dusk. "All of us, all stallions, are going to turn into mares, and, well, you can extrapolate from there. No stallions means no foals. No foals means no next generation of ponies. No next generation means extinction."

"Ah don't believe this," said Applejack, squeezing his hat agitatedly between his hooves. "Fix it!"

"I can't," said Dusk. "Even if I could change them back into stallions, I don't know if that will solve the problem. Elusive's spell, well-intentioned as it was, has caused an exponential distaff cascade."

"Dusk, I don't know what that is," said Elusive, dry-throated with fear. "I can attempt to reverse my spell, if it would help -"

"No!" Dusk snapped. "It's too dangerous. You might accelerate the cascade. Unstable mana is currently flooding the major leylines of Equestria. Ponyville will feel the effect strongest at first, but after that, it will begin to spread rapidly in any area with a large concentration of ponies. I suspect Canterlot will be next."

"Then we gotta warn the Prince!" said Applejack. "If you can't fix it, surely he can! He wouldn't let this happen to Equestria!"

"Well... I don't really want to disturb him," said Dusk leisurely. "Maybe as a last resort."

"A last... a last resort... what could be worse than the extinction of all ponies?" Applejack spluttered. "Ya gotta tell him about this!"

"Blitz, Berry, what do you reckon?" Dusk asked.

"Do I think you should tell Prince whatshisname about the end of the world?" said Blitz, standing up and stretching, her wings cracking as she flared them to their fullest extent. "I'unno. Maybe."

"I think a world of mares would be sooooooo much more fun," said Berry, springing on her poofy tail. "You guys are so... un-socially! You never want to dance at Berry's parties because you're embarrassed in front of other guys! All you do is drink and watch everypony else!"

"And drinking is bad!" Blitz added.

"Well, those are very good points, but I suppose Applejack is right," said Dusk. "Prince Solaris would want to know about this. Spines, could you take a letter please?" He cleared his throat as the dragoness hopped up onto a desk to fetch a quill and scroll.

"Dear Prince Solaris," he began. "I am writing to tell you of an impending... hmm. Disaster? I guess it's not really a disaster, but more of a long-term shift in the socioeconomic status of the nation."

"Should I put that?" asked Spines, peering over the curled top of the scroll.

"No, it doesn't read very well," said Dusk, tapping his chin. "Try calamity. It's less specific."

"I am writing to tell you of an impending calamity," read Spines.

"Perfect. It seems my friends Applejack and Elusive took it upon themselves to impose an unwanted spell upon Rainbow Blitz, the Element of Loyalty. This has had the unfortunate result of causing a mana cascade which is now spreading across Equestria."

"Do ya have to... name us?" said Applejack worriedly. "It kinda makes it sound like you're blaming us."

"Well you did cast the spell, didn't you?" Dusk asked.

"I did, but that doesn't mean I'm to blame!" said Elusive. "I had no idea what would happen!"

"I'm sure Prince Solaris will understand that," said Dusk. He cleared his throat again. "The effect of the cascade upon ponies appears to be a complete gender transformation from stallion to mare. Rainbow Blitz and Berry Bubble have already fallen victim to it. It's only a matter of time until..."

Spines waited for Dusk to continue. "Until...?" She looked up at Dusk, to find that the unicorn's eyes were shrunk in unexpected alarm. "Dusk?"

"Not good," murmured Dusk, swallowing heavily. "I think you should..." he wobbled and stumbled dizzily.

"Dusk!" Elusive squeaked. "What is it?"

"Stay back!" Dusk gasped, turning away from them. His mane and tail began to flutter and flap as if in a strong breeze, a faint glow surrounding his body. Moments later, there was a brief flash of light.

"Oh no," whispered Elusive. "Not you too? Say it isn't-"

"It is," said Dusk, his voice sounding rather matronly. He turned back to them, peering at them with newly feminine features. The unicorn tossed her head to settle her elongated mane. "I told you, Elusive. This is going to happen to everypony. There's nothing that can be done."

"Yeah, you might as well just accept it," said Blitz. "Hey, AJ, wanna make out before you turn into a mare? Come on, I know you want to," she grinned slyly. "I'm feeling much better now. Come and taste the -"

"You've all gone crazy!" Applejack yelled, backing away from her. "Y'all just stay away from me!"

"There is something off about all of you," said Elusive, looking at all the mares with suspicion. "Femininity notwithstanding. Dusk, I've never known you to just give up on a problem like this. That's not like you at all! And you, Blitz, you're not usually this lecherous." He rubbed his chin curiously. "How do I know I can trust any of you? This mana-whatever-thing might be affecting your minds."

"Oh, we can't be trusted?" said Blitz sardonically. "This from the stallions who attacked me and tied me up? You guys are such hippogriffs!"

"Hypocrites," Dusk corrected.

"Yeah!" said Berry, popping up behind Applejack and Elusive and hugging them together. "Come and join our big marey family. It'll be great! We'll go to the spa and have massages and mudbaths and makeovers!" Her eyes shone brightly in anticipation, a crazed grin on her face.

Applejack clung to Elusive, shivering. "Should we... Ah dunno... run?" the earth stallion asked.

"Where will you run to?" said Dusk placidly. "You were at the epicenter of the cascade. You're already affected. I'm surprised you're not mares already."

"Canterlot," said Elusive. "We'll go to Canterlot and get help from Prince Solaris. He'll listen to us."

"We can't let you do that," said Dusk, staring ominously. Her horn ignited, and various slams, clicks and clunks began to echo from all over the tree as all the doors and windows magically closed and locked. "I told you, I don't want Prince Solaris disturbed. You two should just stay here with us."

"Dusk, Ah will break down your door if ya don't let us out this second," said Applejack, his hoof clomping the wooden floor heavily. "Ah ain't playin' around no more!"

Dusk sighed and turned to look at Blitz. "Do you think that's enough?"

Blitz was holding a hoof to her mouth, trying to suppress a huge smile. "Yeah, they've suffered enough. Much as I'd love to see AJ try and get through your door, I don't think it's worth property damage."

Berry suddenly collapsed to the floor, bursting out with laughter. "Ahahahahahahaha! Oh, thank you, I couldn't hold it in any more! The looks on their faces!" she guffawed, stomping her hooves on the wooden floor. "Applejack was going to kill you, Dashie!"

"Bwahahaha!" the pegasus laughed. "I know! Look at that scowl!"

"You better start explainin'!" Applejack roared.

"This whole time?" Elusive demanded. "You were pretending to be Blitz this whole time?"

Rainbow Dash fell back, cackling and knocking her water glass over. "High-hoof to Dusk!" she said, offering a hoof to the unicorn mare. "I keep forgetting you're just as smart as Twilight! You had this figured out from the beginning didn't you?"

"Oh, no," said Dusk, hoofbumping back. "It was only when you mentioned reading that I got suspicious. Blitz isn't much of a reader, so that got alarm bells ringing, but it wasn't until you mentioned - Daring Do, was it? - that I realised who you were." She magically pulled a book from a nearby shelf and levitated it into Dash's hooves.

"Hoard Hunter and the Shrine of Thunder," read Dash. "Oh, awesome! Is he like a male Daring Do? Can I keep this?"

"You can borrow it," said Dusk. "In fact, I'd be interested to swap collections with Twilight Sparkle. How long have you been reading them?"

"A few months!" said Dash. "I kinda broke my wing, and I didn't have anything to do for days, so Twilight suggested I try this Daring Do book, and... well... it was the most awesome thing I've ever read."

"It was all horseapples," Applejack murmured in disbelief. "Ah can't believe y'all! Ah was worried outta mah wits! How could ya do that to us?"

"Well, you did start it," said Dash, poking her tongue out. "Actually we should get Blitz in here." She walked to the door, which magically unlocked and opened as Dusk reversed her lockdown spell. "Hey, Blitz! Show's over," she yelled.

There was a brief flutter of wings, and the male pegasus entered, hoofbumping his female counterpart. "Hi guys!" said Blitz, wandering in. "Hi AJ!" he grinned at the irate earth pony. "Hi Elusive. Hi... female Dusk?" he blinked.

"Oh, yes," Dusk said, blushing a little. "I decided to get in on this prank as well."

"You look hot," said Blitz curtly. "Oh, I wish I could have seen AJ blow up." he guffawed. "I've been watching the whole thing from a cloud. Look at him! He's still ready to strangle somepony!"

"This was a mean prank," said Applejack indignantly. "Tellin' me the world's gonna end! That ain't a fun thing to hear!"

"I'm sorry about that," said Dusk. "I think I might have oversold it."

"Dusk was amazing," Dash laughed. "He caught on so quick! Nearly had me believing it!"

"Yeah, well, let that be a lesson to you," Blitz said to Applejack. "Don't be... mean and stuff."

Applejack sighed. "Yeah, Ah guess. Ah'm sorry Ah tackled ya an' tied ya up, Blitz. It wasn't a nice thing to do an' Ah'm sorry."

"No problem," said Blitz. "And for the record? I love these new eyebrows. They're awesome!"

"Oh, good!" said Elusive. "But yes, Applejack is right, we should never have forced them on you."

"So... are you Pinkie Pie?" Applejack asked the pink mare behind him. "Was Berry in on this too?"

Pinkie began to speak, but stopped as her mane started rustling. A few seconds later, the upper body of Berry Bubble emerged. "Sure was!" said Berry Bubble, hopping out of the candy-cotton mane and landing daintily beside his twin. "In fact Pinkie's kinda to blame for this whole thing!"

"Uh huh!" Pinkie nodded. "It was my idea!"

"Yes, actually you two do have some explaining to do," said Dusk. "How did you cross into our universe again? Are your friends here as well? Is Twilight Sparkle here?"

"Nah, just me and Pinkie," said Dash. "I'll let Pinkie explain, because I haven't got a clue."

"Candy!" said Pinkie brightly.

"Candy?" Dusk blinked.

"Superultrahypersour candy! It's something I invented by accident one day! It's a candy that's so sour that it tears a hole in the universe!" Pinkie said proudly.

"That seems incredibly unlikely," said Dusk skeptically. "And that's how you got here?"

"Well, that's how Berry and I stay in contact," said Pinkie. "He came over and told me about how he and Blitz were trying to come up with a prank, and I said 'Oooh! I've got an idea!'. And then I told him my idea and then we told Dashie and she liked it and we came back here and that's how it all happened!"

"And hay, Blitzy bought me drinks all morning, how could I say no?" said Dash. "Kinda needed it too. That candy is just... ick."

"You threw up in my store!" Elusive said angrily.

"Oh... yeah," Dash grinned. "Sorry about that."

"Oh my gosh, you did?" Blitz guffawed. "That's incredible. You girls are awesome!"

"I had fun," said Dash. "Hey, Pinkie, are we on a time limit or anything?"

"Nope! I've got plenty more candy and so does Berry," said Pinkie, producing a small bag of greenish sweets. "We can leave whenever we like!"

"I want to examine that candy, if you don't mind," said Dusk. "Technically I should confiscate it from you. Possessing an unregistered artifact capable of spacetime manipulation is a violation of the Multiverse Integrity Act."

"Same old Twilight," Dash said, rolling her eyes. "Well, Dusk, while you're doing boring egghead stuff, mind if I spend some time taking in the sights? I got the day off. It's nice to be back here and see all you weirdos again."

"I can't stop you," said Dusk with a smile. "I'd like you to come back here before you leave, though, so you can take a message back to Twilight for me. Plus I can check out that book for you. I'll have to make a whole new section in my records for interdimensional loans!"

"Pffff, Dash ain't interested in borrowing books, Dusk," said Blitz. "We're way too cool for that."

"Hey! Books are cool," said Dash. "Well, some of them. Well, fifteen of them. Come back to my universe sometime and I'll show you the most awesome book in it."

"Ugh, you pranking me now, Dash?" Blitz said. "I know you're not an egghead. I'm not going to your dimension to read some stupid book!"

"Daring Do is not stupid!" Dash scowled. "Just read it, you idiot. You'll love it. Trust me."

"I'm not an idiot! I'm frigging smarter than you!" Blitz shot back.

"What, so you're an egghead now are you?"

"What? No! I just meant that I'm better than you because this is the cool universe where everypony's more awesome."

"I'll show you awesome!" Dash growled, butting her head against Blitz's. "I can go from zero to rainboom in 5.5 seconds! What's your acceleration, fly-boy?"

"5 seconds!"

"Liar!"

"I'll show you!" Blitz shouted back. "You just sit on the grass and have a nice tea party with your books while I show you how a real pegasus flies."

"Last one to rainboom has to do all my weather duties for the next week!" Dash shot back.

"I don't even work in the same universe! And you're gonna lose anyway so it doesn't matter!"

"I never lose -"

"Enough!" Dusk yelled, startling them both. She blinked sheepishly. "Wow, that's actually a lot more effective with a mare's voice. Will you two stop fighting already? There's no need to get angry at each other. Just go out and have fun."

Blitz looked ashamed. "She's right. We shouldn't fight. We're both awesome, right?"

"...yeah," said Dash, nodding. "Shame about your eyebrows though. I liked your old ones."

"Oh, well, you haven't seen these babies yet!" said Blitz. "Follow me and check this out!" He flapped his wings explosively, blowing over all of Dusk's loose scrolls as he zoomed out through the door, closely followed by his female twin.

"And try not to rainboom near the town!" Dusk yelled after them.

"Awwww," said Pinkie and Berry together. "They make such a cute couple."

"Cute is hardly the word I would use to describe it," said Elusive with a hmph. "Such vulgar behaviour. When Rarity and I were together, we conducted ourselves with much more -" his eyes widened suddenly, his head snapping toward Pinkie. "Rarity! If you're here, that means you can bring her here! Or I can go to her!" His horn flashed brightly as he levitated Pinkie's bag of candy toward himself, a greedy look on his face.

"Elusive! There's to be no dimension hopping until I've had a look at that!" Dusk insisted.

"Oh, Dusk, what does it matter?" exclaimed Elusive, the bag of candy hanging in mid-air between them. "It sounds like Berry and Pinkie have been hopping back and forth for months! And they've got to go back anyway, haven't they? I must go with them! Any chance to see my beloved Rarity once more! I don't care how bad it tastes! For my soulmate, any sacrifice I would make! The foulest of confections could not keep me from -"

"Okay, okay, fine," said Dusk. "Just hold off until Rainbow Dash comes back, okay?" She took the floating bag in her own telekinesis and shepherded it down to her basement laboratory.

Elusive frowned. "Well, I suppose I had better get back to work. Do let me know when you're returning, won't you, Pinkie? I should very much like to accompany you."

"We'll come and pick you up!" said Pinkie. "It'll be fun! You've never stayed in my universe before have you? Do you need a place to stay? You can borrow Gummy's bed if you like!"

"If it comes to that, I may take your offer, but I'm sure I can rely on the generous heart of a certain unicorn mare to accomodate me."

Pinkie and Berry looked at each other seriously for a moment, then began quietly speculating on who this mystery unicorn might be. Elusive chuckled to himself as he began to head out.

"Ah'm gonna head back to work too," said Applejack, following behind. "Darn pegasi wasted mah mornin'."

"Hold up, you two!" said Dusk, returning from the basement. "You can't go yet! Spines, take a letter please."

"A real one this time?" chided Spines.

"Yes, yes, a real one," said Dusk. "You two learned a valuable lesson about friendship today! I think you should take some time to report to Prince Solaris on what you gained from this experience."

"Ah learned not to stand in front of a drunken mare," said Applejack, but Dusk's glare made him wince. "Okay, okay. Dear Prince Solaris," he began. "Today, Elusive an' Ah learned an important lesson about respectin' your friends, even if you don't always care for what they look like, or how they act," he said.

"We learned that you shouldn't force someone to conform to your own ideals," said Elusive. "Even if you think it's a good idea, there's no excuse for violating another pony's autonomy. We upset our good friend Rainbow Blitz by forcing upon him an unwanted cosmetic change, and put our friendship at risk for no good reason."

"We shoulda stopped an' tried to put ourselves in his shoes first," continued Applejack. "They say ya don't know somepony until ya run a furlong in their shoes, an' we shoulda known our friend better than that."

"Luckily, we managed to make our amends and reaffirm our friendship with him, after realising the error of our deeds. Dusk, should we mention all the dimension hopping nonsense?" Elusive asked.

"I'll cover that in my own report," said Dusk. "That should be good enough."

"Your faithful subjects, Applejack Apple and Elusive Echobell." Elusive finished. "There, done."

"Oooh. Cool name," said Pinkie.

Spines finished the letter and rolled up the scroll, tying it with a purple ribbon before incinerating it in a gout of green flame. "All done."

"Thanks," said Dusk. "And I am sorry for tricking you both. It's not something I usually do. I wasn't too cruel, was I?"

"Ah, don't worry about it, Dusk. Ah gotta admit, ya got us good, an' we did kinda deserve it," said Applejack. "See yer later."

"Later!" said Dusk, as the pair trotted out into the sun. "And you two, Berry, Pinkie? What are your plans?"

"Do we have plans?" Pinkie asked Berry.

"I didn't plan any plans!" said Berry.

"Well," said Pinkie, reaching behind herself and producing a scroll, which she unrolled, "I've got a list of 37 Things To Do If You Find Yourself In A Parallel Universe! After the first time I wanted to be prepared!"

"Oooh, I've got that list too!" said Berry, producing his own. "Let's do it! Number 1 is 'Make out with your parallel self'. Want to give that a try?"

"Sure!" said Pinkie.

They got about halfway through their pre-kiss jaw-limbering warmup before Dusk realised what was about to happen. "Er... it's a lovely day!" she said hurriedly. "You two should go enjoy it. Like, now."

"Good idea!" the pair giggled, as Dusk ushered them out and closed the door. "Do we still need a safety net for number 14 in this dimension?" came Pinkie's voice dimly as the two headed off.

Dusk breathed a sigh of relief. "Spines, could you -"

"Are you going to tell them?" asked Spines.

Dusk hesitated. "Tell them...?"

"That you don't know the other half of the spell, to turn yourself male again?"

"Only if I can't figure it out in the next two hours," said Dusk worriedly.