"The box hasn't moved for a while," Fluttershy said. "Do you think we're finally there?"

"I certainly hope so," Rarity grumbled. "It's been long enough! We did request the overnight service, didn't we?"

"There's only one way to find out..." Twilight said.

Applejack and Rainbow carefully unwrapped the safety razor Derpy had packed for them, and used it to cut through the packing tape sealing the lid. They gently shoved open the lid and looked out through the gap...

... and found themselves staring up at Canterlot Castle.

It was the castle playset, gleaming white under brilliant stage lighting. In front of it was a model Friendship Festival area, complete with a performance stage and some venders' carts. Behind the castle playset were more sets, plus toolboxes, equipment, and craft materials, all spread out across a broad expanse of worktable in a darkened cellar room.

"Woah..." Rainbow said. "Someone here is really into the show..."

"And how! Lordy!" Applejack agreed.

Seeing no one around, the toys cautiously climbed out. When Twilight turned around and looked behind the box, she flinched for a moment, seeing the baleful eye of a video camera. Then she saw its Record light was off, and relaxed somewhat.

"Oh my word!" Rarity said. "It's some kind of amateur movie set!" She discreetly fluffed her mane and looked like she wished she had a mirror available.

Applejack nodded. "They must be doin' a home-video version of My Little Pony: the Movie here."

"Or parts of it anyway," Fluttershy added.

"So what the hay would they need a Scootaloo for?" Rainbow demanded angrily. "She's not even in the Movie!"

"Oooh! Movie trivia! There's that quick cameo of the Crusaders in a cage!" Pinkie reminded her.

"It's like Twilight said." Rarity waved a hoof. "This... bid-bot, or whatever it was, just bought Scootaloo up to be resold. Maybe it's how whoever's making this movie funds the work."

"Well that sucks!" Rainbow stamped a hoof. "We gotta find her and fast!"

Looking around, Twilight noticed a stack of mailers and other packages near their box. "Maybe she's in one of those," she said, pointing. "Let's take a look."

The ponies quickly fanned out across the pile, checking return addresses for the one from Scootaloo's order page.

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow called, as she flipped through mailers sitting on a rack in back. "Hey, Squirt! You in one of these?"

"If ya are, hon," Applejack called, rapping hopefully on the sides of packages, "give us a holler, 'kay?"

There was no response. Worried but determined, the ponies kept looking.

As they did so, Twilight wandered off to the side where a number of large plastic tubs were arrayed, like a self-storage depot. Their walls were translucent; peering through the nearest one Twilight thought she could see toys inside.

Then she realized what toys she was looking at.

"Hey, girls!" she called. "There are pony toys over here!"

The other five hurried over, and looked in with her. "Hey!" Rainbow said, "Those ponies look like us!"

"Well, I'll be!" Applejack took off her hat and brushed her mane back nervously. "Always knew there were other copies of us out there. Didn't expect to run into any on this trip."

"Umm, would it be safe to talk to them?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah!" Rainbow cried. "Maybe they've seen Scootaloo!"

"It'd be hard to see anything through this plastic," Twilight said. "But it never hurts to ask. Help me get the lid open."

By piling up some nearby part boxes the ponies quickly threw together a workable staircase leading to the top of the tub. Working together, they managed to lever open the lid. Applejack found a roll of packing twine and quickly knotted together a makeshift rope ladder, with weights at either end to hold it in place. She hung it over the rim.

And then Twilight nervously climbed down the ladder into the tub, leaving the others watching from up above.

She trotted up to the row of ponies. When they didn't turn to look at her, she reached out to touch the closest one, which happened to be a Pinkie Pie.

There was no reaction. The toy just stood there, coldly unresponsive, fake smile plastered on its dead face. In any other pony that would have been unnerving. With the party pony it was downright frightening.

The other ponies were the same, all of them. Just lifeless collector's items... just hunks of colorful plastic.

Rarity gasped. "They're like... zombies!"

"Z-z-zombie... ponies?" Fluttershy hunched in fright.

"There's no such thang," Applejack snapped, though her eyes were wide as she said it. "They're just... E-Zonned toys! Like I said: never played with, so they're not alive. Afraid we're not gonna learn anything from them."

"Ohhh," Fluttershy moaned. "That's so sad!"

"Yeah..." Pinkie mumbled, her main and tail losing some of their curl. "I feel really bad for them."

"No kidding, Pinkie!" Rainbow shuddered. "Eeegh! That could'a been me." Then she pulled herself together. "All right! Enough with this freak-show! We're wasting time here. Let's get back to looking through those packages."

Reluctantly Twilight turned to leave. But then she noticed something that she'd missed before: the Twilight toy in the middle of the row of six Element Bearers wasn't a unicorn. It was an alicorn Twilight, complete with the wings, the armored shoes... and the crown.

Twilight trotted over to it, and then stared at it sadly. I'm so sorry, she thought. I wish you could have had a nice home, and other ponies to be with, like I've had. And a loving child to play with you. What's worse, I've had that twice, and you haven't had anything. That's just not fair. I wish... I wish you could have had some of my good fortune...

She stared at the toy's face, frozen in a look of hopeful curiosity...

...and, she added, I wish I could have been a Princess toy. Just like you.

She reached out and gently touched the toy, wanting to comfort it.

There was a sudden blurred moment, a confusing sense of briefly being two places at once... and suddenly she was looking at herself -- her unicorn self...

... out of the eyes of the Princess Twilight toy.

"Yikes!" She backed away hurriedly. Unused to the weight of the armored shoes on her hooves, she stumbled, falling heavily on her rear. "Halp!"

"Hey!" Rainbow flung herself over the edge of the tub, landing heavily on its floor. Jumping up, she raced over.

And grabbed Princess Twilight in her forehooves, shaking her angrily. "You let go of our friend right now! You... you... zombie pony!"

"Rainbow! It's me! I've... swapped toys somehow! I don't know what happened!"

"Yeah, yeah! Likely story!" Rainbow snapped. "I saw you waiting your moment, and then you... uh... uh, possessed our friend!"

"Rainbow!" Applejack said reasonably, coming over to join them. "How can she be possessing our Twi, if our Twi ain't movin'?"

"Well... I dunno! I'm not the expert on voodoo and stuff!"

"Put 'er down. There's a quick way to settle this." Rainbow did so, and Applejack cautiously put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Twi, before we got packed away? Tell us 'xactly what happened."

"Uh, right. I put Starlight in charge of looking after the room for us. And Trixie said she was going to help. And then Apple Bloom and Sweetie asked us to tell Scootaloo about them."

"And what'd Pinkie ask Starlight?"

"To hug her party cannon, so it wouldn't be lonely."

"Aw, come on!" Rainbow glared fiercely. "Anypony could know that!"

"Rainbow! Nopony but us could know all that!" Applejack shook her head. "I dunno how it is... but it's Twi, all right!"

The other ponies had climbed down into the tub, and came over to join them.

"Do you feel all right, dahling?" Rarity asked.

"You do look nice," Fluttershy offered hesitantly. "With the crown and everything."

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie stotted happily. "You're the best-looking possessed zombie Princess Twilight I've ever seen!"

"Uh..." Twilight considered it. "I don't feel any different. But I suppose I wouldn't. I mean, if I'm this Princess toy now, I'd feel normal -- normal for her, that is." She reached up and touched the crown embedded in her mane. "It's certainly strange though!"

"Huh, no kidding!" Rainbow still looked doubtful, but also hesitantly intrigued. "Hey, you suppose this might work for the rest of us too?" Without hesitation she reached out to touch one of the other motionless ponies.

Nothing happened.

"Uh, maybe it has to be your pony?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Well, what good does that do?" Rainbow asked, gesturing at her silent twin. "Then I'd just be me again! I mean sure, cool and all! But how d'ya improve on awesome, huh?"

"I wonder how it happened?" Twilight reached out and touched her unicorn form. And suddenly was looking out of her own eyes again.

"Ooookay," she said. "This is really spooky!"

"Oh my word!" Rarity whispered. "It's like watching a tennis match!"

Applejack's eyes were like saucers. "How're ya doin' that, Twi?"

"I haven't the foggiest, A.J!" Touching the Princess again, she became her once more. "And it's really bugging me. Because it's apparently so easy!"

"Oooh! I know! I know! Pick me!" Pinkie Pie bounded excitedly, waving a hoof. "It's like me and my party cannon!"

Rainbow stared at her. "Say what, now?"

"Ya lost us, Pinkie," Applejack agreed.

"Come on! It's obvious! I and my party cannon were in the same gift-set! That's why my cannon isn't just an accessory... it feels like part of me! I bet our Twilight and this Princess Twilight were originally part of the same gift set!"

"So..." Applejack hazarded, "this Princess is like your long-lost sister or somethin'?"

Rainbow apparently couldn't decide if she was horrified or fascinated. "And you're like, possessing the body of your undead long-lost sister? That's... kinda cool... in a seriously creepy way."

"Or maybe," Fluttershy suggested, "it's because a child wouldn't play with both unicorn Twilight and Princess Twilight at the same time. They'd switch off between the two. So Twilight can naturally switch between the two toys, because, well... they're both her, in a way!"

"Is that even possible?" Rarity asked.

"Wayall..." Applejack admitted, "granted none of us knows 'xactly how it is that us toys are alive and aware in the first place, I 'spose it must be!"

"Aww, ponyfeathers!" Rainbow gazed around at the other motionless ponies. "Of all the times for there not to be a Wonderbolts version of me sitting around here somewhere! I mean, I could actually, finally be a Wonderbolt!"

"Umm... are you going to stay an alicorn Princess, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well..." Twilight shrugged. "I did really want to give this toy a shot at having friends, and a child to play with her. And this... does seem like a way to do just that. That is, if all of you are okay with it?"

The rest of them nodded, with varying degrees of acceptance.

Twilight gestured at the silent, unmoving unicorn Twilight. "Just... help me remember where my old self is parked, huh? Because, well... that's me. And I'm kind of attached to me. I wouldn't want to lose me. It'd be, well... embarrassing!"

Rainbow was staring at her in consternation. Then she waved her hooves.

"Awright, look! Can we just stop following the GPS? Because we are getting seriously lost in Freakytown here!"

Next Chapter: Fifteen Minutes of Fame Estimated time remaining: 40 Minutes